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 Dr. Leo NeymErk 
 
 

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 EARLY RELIGIOUS POETRY OF 
 THE HEBREWS 
 
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INTEODUCTION /» ^ 'I 
 
 The title ''Early Religious Poetry of the 
 Hebrews " needs a further definition. It is intended 
 to embrace the Poetry of Old Testament times as 
 distinguished from the Poetry of the Synagogue. 
 This will fix our period. But what are we to under- 
 stand by Religious Poetry ? 
 
 The Poet is the man whose whole being is in 
 touch with those voices of God that we call "Nature." 
 He may, or he may not, be a religious man. In other 
 words, he may, or he may not, recognise the Source 
 of those voices. The Prophet, on the other hand, 
 is the man whose whole being is in touch with the 
 voices of God in Humanity. He must be, more or 
 less, a poet, in the sense in which we have defined 
 the word, but his chief sphere will be the poetry of 
 life. His message will necessarily be conditioned by 
 the age in which he lives. He has his treasure in an 
 " earthen vessel " and " he prophesies in part." 
 
 This that is true of individuals is also true of 
 nations. Each nation has its peculiar gift, and Israel 
 is the Prophet of Humanity. When, therefore, we 
 speak of the Religious Poetry of Israel we include the 
 
 Ivi262l45 
 
vi INTRODUCTION 
 
 whole outcome of that probation whereby the Suffer- 
 ing Nation was fitted to prepare the world for God. 
 Thus, for example, there is little that is ^^ religious" 
 in the Song of Deborah or even in David's lamentation 
 for Saul and Jonathan, but, from our point of view, 
 all such poems must be included, marking, as they 
 do, a stage in Israel's life. 
 
 We now turn to the outward form whereby Hebrew 
 poetry is distinguished. I have no desire to repeat 
 at length what has been so often written on parallelism 
 as a feature of Hebrew poetry. And yet a word 
 must be said. Parallelism may take the unsatisfying 
 form of identity when it becomes a mere echo ; though 
 this too may be effective, e.g. Is. xv. 1 : 
 
 In a night 'tis destroyed, Ar-Mdab is ruined. 
 In a night 'tis destroyed, Kir-Moab is ruined. 
 
 More frequently the words are varied while the 
 thought remains the same, e.g. Prov. iii. 9 : 
 
 Honour the Lord with thy wealth, 
 And with chiefest of all thine increase. 
 
 At other times the parallelism adds to the thought 
 either by way of development or antithesis. 
 
 Or again, the parallelism may be alternate when 
 it suggests the strophe, e.g. Ps. Ixx. 5 : 
 
 {a) As for me — the p6or-one, the needy ! — 
 (6) Speed t6 me, O Gdd. 
 
 («i) My H%er, Deliverer, Th6u! 
 ipi) J^hve del^y not. 
 
INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 The "riddle" of Samson (Judg. xiv. 14, 18) : 
 
 (a) Out of the feeder came f6od 
 
 (b) And out of the fierce there came sweetness 
 
 is answered by completing the parallelism thus : 
 
 (&i) Wh^t is there sweeter than h6ney? 
 (a^) And wh^t can be fiercer than lion? 
 
 It is just this symmetry of thought that satisfies 
 not the ear alone but also the mind, and gives such 
 dignity and grace to Hebrew poetry. Kautzsch (Die 
 Poesie und die poetischen Bucher des A. T. p. 6 f.) 
 well points out the analogy between rhyme and 
 parallelism by quoting from Faust, Part II, the 
 words of Helena which, in Latham's translation, run 
 thus : 
 
 "Manifold marvels do I see and hear. 
 Amazement smites me, much I fain would ask. 
 Yet would I be enlightened why the speech 
 Of this man rang so strange, so strange yet pleasing. 
 It seemed as did one tone unto another 
 Fit itself, fell one word upon the ear, 
 And straight another came to dally with it." 
 
 [See the whole passage.] 
 
 If, in the last line but one, we substitute sentence 
 for word we have, as Kautzsch says, the secret of 
 parallelism. 
 
 " That which the Prince of Poets here reveals as 
 to the nature of Rhyme, that it is the outcome of 
 
viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 a certain inner compulsion, applies also to the 
 Parallelism of Members in Hebrew Poetry. Thus, 
 of it too we may say : 
 
 Scarce has a sentence fallen on the ear 
 When straight another comes to fondle it." 
 
 He also quotes Herder as saying : "Does not all 
 rhythm, dance and harmony, yes every charm both of 
 shape and sound, depend upon symmetry ? The two 
 members strengthen, raise, confirm one another in 
 their teaching or joy. In didactic poetry one saying 
 confirms the other. It is as though the father spoke 
 to his sons and the mother repeated it." 
 
 With this rhyme of thought the Hebrew poet did 
 not need the rhyme of words, though the Hebrew 
 language with its pronominal affixes would have 
 easily lent itself to rhyme. Indeed, at times it comes 
 unsought (e.g. Ps. vi., liv. 3f.; Job x. 9 — 18, &c.). It 
 could not be otherwise. But it is an entire mistake 
 to suppose that rhyme was ever consciously sought 
 by any Hebrew poet of Old Testament times. 
 
 The same may be said of metre if, by that term, 
 we denote the measured beat of long and short 
 syllables. The metre that is most common in Hebrew 
 poetry is that of three accented syllables in parallelism. 
 This we indicate by (3 + 3). Some writers on Hebrew 
 poetry have called these verses hexameterSy but such 
 a term leads us to count syllables instead of accents. 
 I shall therefore avoid it. No doubt there are 
 
INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 instances in which the (3 + 3) metre might, with a 
 little careful reading, be scanned as hexameter, but 
 this is not due to the measure of the syllables but to 
 the stress of the accent. 
 
 Thus, if we take the line Prov. xxiv. 30 and read 
 it strictly by the accents, passing as lightly as possible 
 over all other syllables, it would run as follows : 
 al-s'd§h ish-'atz^l *av6,rti | v'al-k6rem ad^m |i'sar-lev. 
 I should translate this : 
 
 I passed by the field of a sluggard | by a vine that 
 bel6nged to a fool. 
 
 The passage continues as follows : 
 
 And 16 ! 'twas grown 6ver with rubbish | and the fence 
 of its stones was thrown down. 
 
 The difficult word for " rubbish " gave rise to a gloss 
 " nettles had covered its face!' 
 
 From this point the metre becomes irregular 
 and we see that the text has been influenced by a 
 quotation from Prov. vi. 10 : 
 
 As for m6 I laid it to he^rt ; | I 8§,w and received instruction. 
 A little sleep, a little slumber, 
 A little folding of hands for repose ; 
 Then c6mes along striding thy poverty | and thy nied as a 
 man with a shield. 
 
 It would be easy to find verses that would scan, 
 e.g. Ps. liv. 3 : 
 
 Elohim b'shim'k^ hoshieyni 
 Ubigvurath'k^ t'dineyni. 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 Nor would it be difficult to find hexameters and 
 pentameters, e.g. in the Balaam poems : but, for my 
 part, I agree with Mr Cobb, who, after carefully 
 examining the regular and irregular forms, writes 
 as follows : 
 
 "What shall we say to these things? Surely we 
 cannot continue to say that English verse is parallel 
 with Hebrew. Nothing like this was ever written 
 in English in the name of poetry unless by Walt 
 Whitman.... If all the poetry of the Hebrew Bible 
 were stored in our memories, we could point to 
 nothing more metrically regular than are some of the 
 Psalms which have been before us, and to nothing 
 less regular than are others of those Psalms. But 
 it would be a mistake to suppose that the two 
 classes are equal in extent ; the irregular poems 
 greatly predominate" {Systems of Hebrew Metre^ 
 p. 30). 
 
 It is highly probable that Hebrew " metre " con- 
 sisted, not in long and short syllables but in the 
 rhythmical beat of the accent. It is in this sense 
 that I shall use the word metre as applied to Hebrew 
 in the following pages. In dealing with the ir- 
 regularities of Hebrew metre the question naturally 
 arises as to the correctness of the text. But the 
 knowledge of Hebrew verse is not yet sufficiently 
 advanced to justify us in correcting the text in 
 favour of any metrical theory unless we can support 
 
INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 the change on independent grounds. In the chapters 
 which follow we shall have occasion, from time to 
 time, to offer a few suggestions on this subject. 
 
 The following facts greatly increase the diflBculty 
 of determining the laws of Hebrew verse. 
 
 (1) We cannot be sure that the Masoretic vowels 
 and accents represent the ancient pronunciation of 
 the language. 
 
 Strictly speaking, each word has one accent which 
 is either ultimate or penultimate ; but, in poetry, 
 some of the longer words may have a subsidiary 
 accent which falls on an earlier syllable, e.g. legdr- 
 gerotMJca, Prov. i. 9. 
 
 Where two words are joined together by a hyphen 
 called Maqqef the former loses its accent : but the 
 Masoretic use of Maqqef cannot be trusted in 
 Hebrew poetry ; it is often omitted when it ought 
 to be used and used when it ought to be omitted. 
 
 (2) The duplicate texts that have come down to 
 us (e.g. Ps. xiv. with Ps. liii. ; Ps. xl. 13 — 17 with 
 Ps. Ixx. ; Ps. Ix. 5—12 with Ps. cviii. ; Ps. Ixxi. 1—3 
 with Ps. xxxi. 1 ff. ; Ps. cviii. 1 — 5 with Ps. Ivii. 
 7 — 11 ; 2 Sam. xxii. with Ps. xviii.) shew that the 
 Divine Names constantly changed and that, in many 
 other respects, the text was not accurately pre- 
 served. 
 
 Those who are familiar with the changes that 
 have taken place in popular Hymns will easily 
 
xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 understand that the Hebrew Psalter would be 
 specially liable to change. 
 
 Though rhyme is only an accident in Hebrew 
 poetry, assonance and paronomasia play an important 
 part, and since it is impossible to reproduce the effect 
 in a translation, it will be necessary here to give 
 some examples in the original. The pitiful cry of 
 the final i (pronounced like a long e as in me) is 
 frequent in lamentation. Thus the lament of David 
 over Absalom is far more pathetic in the original, 
 which we may transliterate as follows : 
 
 B'ni AbshalOra, b'ni b'ni Abshalom ! 
 Mi yitten muthi, S,ni tachteka, 
 Abshalom b'ni b'ni ! 
 
 The same effect is very frequent in the Book of 
 Job. We have also an instance in the Song of 
 Lamech (Gen. iv. 23), clearly shewing that the Song, 
 at all events in its original form, was no triumph- 
 song but an elegy. Thus : 
 
 Ada v'Tzilla shema'an qoli 
 N6sh^-Lemek ha'azena imrathi 
 Ki Isch haragti I6phit?i 
 V'yeled I'chaburathi. 
 
 We may also (with Kautzsch) note the mocking 
 sound enu in Judg. xvi. 24, where the Philistines, 
 rejoicing over the fall of Samson, say "Our God hath 
 given into our hand our enemy, that laid waste our 
 
INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 land, and that multiplied our slain." In the original 
 thus : 
 
 Nathan elohenu beyadenw eth-oy6v«nt« 
 V'eth machariv Bxtzenu 
 Va'asher hirba eth-ch'lalewM. 
 
 We can scarcely suppose that these words were 
 actually used by the Philistines. The recurring enu 
 suggests the peevish cry of children ; and, indeed, 
 the words must have been intended to mock the 
 speakers. 
 
 The language of Jeremiah expresses at times the 
 very depths of sorrow. Thus Jer. viii. 18 : 
 
 Mabli'githi 'ai4y ykgdn \ 'alai libi daviu. 
 
 Read slowly and note the spondee effect of the last 
 three words. 
 
 We may translate thus : 
 
 Would I comfort myself against sorrow | my hekrt — in 
 me — is f^int. 
 
 The heart and courage that should support him is 
 itself a source of weakness ; for, as he goes on to say : 
 
 Harvest is p^st— Sdmmer is 6nded— And we are unsaved! 
 
 Assonance and paronomasia often render trans- 
 lation quite inadequate, e.g. Gen. ix. 27 : 
 
 Yaft Elohim 1' Yefeth \ Vyishk6n b'a'hS-K-Shem. 
 
 " God shall enlarge Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents of 
 
 Shem"(E.V.). 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 Here we have not merely the play upon the name 
 Japheth but also, I think, a double meaning given 
 to the name Shem, which may signify "renown" 
 (Num. xvi. 2). 
 
 Sometimes in addition to assonance we have the 
 root-meaning of a verb brought out, as when Isaiah 
 (vii. 9) says : 
 
 Im lo tha'aminu ki lo theamenu. 
 
 "If ye will uot believe, surely ye shall not be established" (E.V.). 
 
 Here the verb aman " to believe " is used in two 
 voices with a deep inner meaning which we might 
 paraphrase 
 
 " If ye will not stay yourselves (on God), ye shall not be stayed 
 up." 
 
 In my translations I have done my best to imitate 
 the rhythm of the Hebrew, but I must ask the reader 
 kindly to bear in mind the fact that the terseness 
 of Hebrew renders translation difficult, especially in 
 the short lines of verse. In a little book, like the 
 present, notes on the translation would, for the most 
 part, be out of place ; I fear, therefore, that I may, 
 at times, appear to be unduly dogmatic. This must 
 be pardoned from the necessity of the case. 
 
 I have translated the Tetragrammaton by Jdhve 
 simply because Jehovah is an impossible form and 
 Jdhve has passed into common use. I have also 
 assumed the popular pronunciation with penultimate 
 
INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 accent, although, if such a name existed, its accent 
 ought to be ultimate. In the same way I have 
 adopted the English pronunciation of many proper 
 names, e.g. D4borah instead of the Hebrew Dehor ah. 
 Since Hebrew poetry does not depend upon long 
 and short syllables but upon the beat of the accent, 
 I must ask the reader strictly to observe the accents 
 which I have marked in my translations. 
 
 E. G. K 
 18 January^ 1911. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 Introduction v 
 
 I. The Earliest Poetry ...... 1 
 
 II. The Poetry of the Early Kingdom ... 17 
 
 III. The I^inah .39 
 
 IV. Acrostic, or Alphabetical, Poetry .... 54 
 
 v. The Problem of Suffering 74 
 
 VI. On the Strophe 103 
 
 VII. On Dramatic Lyrics 121 
 
 VIII. The Poetry of the Seasons . . . . . 132 
 
 Bibliography 154 
 
 Index ......... 155 
 
CHAPTEE I 
 
 THE EARLIEST POETRY 
 
 The English reader who knows how the language 
 of Chaucer differs from that of Shakespeare will 
 naturally expect the earliest poetry of the Hebrews 
 to be clearly marked by archaisms. It is well there- 
 fore to state at once that this is not the case. Of 
 course there are archaic forms, but fragments of 
 Songs and popular poetry which have been preserved 
 in the Hexateuch have come down to us in the 
 language of the Prophetic Writers of the 8th century 
 B.O. Thus, the Song of Lamech (Gen. iv. 23 f.), reads 
 as follows : 
 
 "Ada and Tzfllah, | Hear my voice; 
 Wives of Lamech 1 he&rken to my speech : 
 For a m4n I have sl&,m to my wound ; 
 A yotith to my htirt. 
 If sevenfold vengeance be Coin's 
 Then L&mech's be seventy-s6ven." 
 
 If these words had been the actual words of 
 Lamech they would have beei#not merely archaic 
 but probably not even Semitic. In point of fact they 
 
2 OLD TEXTS MODIFIED [cH. 
 
 are pure Hebrew written in the ^tnah or elegiac 
 measure of which we shall have occasion hereafter to 
 speak. It is quite probable that the Song was 
 founded upon some Kenite (Cain) tradition connected 
 with the discovery of metal weapons (c£ v. 22) ; for 
 the Kenites were the smiths of the ancient world. 
 But the Song in its present form is due to the 
 Jehovist, i.e. to a prophetic writer of the 8th century 
 B.C. whose object is to trace the downward course 
 of the race of Cain to this Lamech, the seventh from 
 Adam shewing the fruits of murder augmented from 
 "seven-fold" to "seventy times seven." 
 
 It is interesting to note that in Gen. v. 29 (which 
 is also assigned to a Jehovistic writer) we read of the 
 other Lamech, of the race of Seth, "...and he called 
 his name Noah, saying, This one shall comfort 
 (^/N^M) us for our works and for the toil of our 
 hands from the ground which Jahve hath cursed." 
 
 The Hebrew words for ^^ vengeance" (NKM) and 
 ^^ comfort" (N5M) are practically identical in sound. 
 The good Lamech of the line of Seth inherits 
 ^^ comfort" the bad Lamech of the line of Cain inherits 
 "vemygeanxie" 
 
 If we omit the two last lines Lamech's song is a 
 complete elegy (JS^inah). 1 suggest that a Prophetic 
 Writer (the J^ of the critics) found this poem in 
 some collection of Kenite folk-songs, and, caring 
 little for poetry, but much for edification, added the 
 
I] THE EARLIEST POETRY 3 
 
 two last prosaic lines to make out his allusion to 
 Gen. iv. 15. 
 
 Another instance of ancient poetry which appears 
 to have degenerated into prose is the quotation from 
 the Book of Jashar in Josh. x. 12 f. : 
 
 "Sun stand thou still upon Gibeon; 
 And thou moon in the valley of Ajalon." 
 
 It is difficult to believe that a poet would have 
 written, SMmesh VGihydn ddm, with two accented 
 syllables in painful juxtaposition, when, by changing 
 the order of the words, he might have written the 
 musical line, SMmesh ddm VGihydn. As to the 
 words which follow, "^o the sun stood still and the 
 moon stayed,'' &c., they appear to be simply prose. 
 
 The amount of secular poetry in Israel must, at 
 one time, have been very great : thus of Solomon 
 alone it is said, "And he spake three thousand 
 proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five. 
 And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is 
 in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out 
 of the wall,..." [1 Kings v. 12 f. (iv. 32 f.)] 
 
 Poetry is older than prose ; and, in ancient Israel, 
 every impassioned thought expressed itself in song. 
 "It was indispensable to the sports of peace, it was 
 a necessity for the rest from the battle, it cheered 
 the feast and the marriage (Is. v. 12 ; Amos vi. 5 ; 
 Judg. xiv.), it lamented in the hopeless dirge for the 
 dead (2 Sam. iii. 33), it united the masses, it blessed 
 
 1—2 
 
4 COLLECTIONS OF POETRY [ch. 
 
 the individual, and was everywhere the lever of 
 culture. Young men and maidens vied with one 
 another in learning beautiful songs, and cheered with 
 them the festival gatherings of the villages, and the 
 still higher assemblies at the sanctuary of the tribes. 
 The maidens at Shilo went yearly with songs and 
 dances into the vineyards (Judg. xxi. 19), and those 
 of Gilead repeated the sad story of Jephtha's daughter 
 (Judg. xi. 40) ; the boys learned David's lament over 
 Jonathan (2 Sam. i. 18) ; shepherds and hunters at 
 their evening rests by the springs of the wilderness 
 sang songs to the accompaniment of the flute (Judg. v. 
 11). The discovery of a fountain was the occasion of 
 joy and song (Num. xxi. 17). The smith boasted 
 defiantly of the products of his labour (Gen. iv. 23). 
 Riddles and witty sayings enlivened the social meal 
 (Judg. xiv. 12 ; 1 Kings x.). Even into the lowest 
 spheres the spirit of poetry wandered and ministered 
 to the most ignoble pursuits (Is. xxiii. 15 ff.) V 
 
 But, however much we may regret the fact, the 
 secular poetry of Israel has not survived, except only 
 in those cases where it was taken over into the service 
 of Religion. 
 
 At a very early date the poetry of Israel, which 
 had lived from mouth to mouth, was collected in 
 a written form. One of these collections was called 
 
 1 Reuss, Art. "Heb. Poesie," Herzog. Encyhl. quoted by Briggs. 
 
I] THE EARLIEST POETRY 6 
 
 The Booh of the wars of Jahve^ which is quoted in 
 Num. xxi. 14 — a very obscure passage. Two other 
 Songs are given in the same context (Num. xxi. 17f. 
 and xxi. 27 ff.), one being the Smig of the Well and 
 the other a taunt-song recounting a defeat of the 
 Moabites. This latter song is introduced by the 
 words "They that make taunt-songs say....'' 
 
 Kautzsch suggests that both these songs, and 
 possibly the groundwork of the Songs of Moses and 
 of Miriam (Ex. xv.), may have been preserved in 
 this Book of the wars of Jahve. Some also have 
 supposed that the words of Moses (Num. xi. 35 f.) on 
 the journeying and resting of the Ark were found in 
 the same source. 
 
 Another collection of similar date was The Book 
 Jashar, literally The Book of the Upright^ i.e. of 
 Israel (?). This Book is quoted twice. First, as the 
 origin of Joshua's prayer (Josh. x. 12) : 
 
 "Sun; stand thou still upon Gibeon, 
 And thou Moon in the valley of Ajalon " ; 
 
 and secondly, for David's lament over Saul and 
 Jonathan, which must be considered later at length. 
 These are the only passages in which the Book of 
 Jashar is mentioned in our present Hebrew text, 
 but some have supposed, from the Septuagint text 
 (1 Kings viii. 12 f., Greek 3 Kings viii. 53 f.), that the 
 words of Solomon at the Dedication of the Temple 
 
6 SONG OF DEBORAH {oh. 
 
 were also preserved in the Book of Jashar. These 
 words might be rendered : 
 
 Jahve tho6ght to dw611 in thick-darkness ! 
 I have built Thee a House of Exalt§,tion, 
 A H6me for Thy endless Dwelling. 
 
 Solomon feels that the Temple is to mark a new 
 stage in the ever-growing nearness of God. He, 
 Who, in earlier times, dwelt in the "thich-darJcness" 
 (Ex. XX. 21 ; Deut. iv. 11, v. 22), would now dwell in 
 the midst of His people. 
 
 The word I have translated "Exaltation" signifies 
 "high-dwelling." Similar names are given to many 
 Babylonian temples, e.g. E-Sagila, "the lofty House," 
 E-Anna "the House of Heaven," E-Zida, "the fixed 
 House," &c. 
 
 The Song of Deborah. 
 
 The history, date and text. 
 
 It was probably about the year 1200 b.c. when 
 the Northern Tribes were reduced to servitude by 
 a powerful king named Sisera, possibly a Hittite, who 
 headed a federation of "the Kings of Canaan." The 
 plain of Esdraelon gave great advantage to his 
 numerous horsemen and "chariots of iron"; so "for 
 twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of 
 Israel" (Judg. iv. 3). The deliverance came through 
 
I] THE EARLIEST POETRY 7 
 
 Deborah, Israel's Joan of Arc, a woman of the Tribe 
 of Issachar (Judg. v. 15), who first stirred up her 
 fellow-tribesman, Barak, and through him the Tribes 
 of Issachar, Ephraim, Benjamin, West Manasseh, 
 Zebulun and Naphtali. Judah is not mentioned, and 
 seems at this time to have been of little importance ; 
 Reuben, Gad, Dan and Asher refused the call. The 
 six loyal Tribes met Sisera in the plain. The first 
 of the many battles of Esdraelon, in the valley of 
 Megiddo, resulted in a decisive victory which estab- 
 lished not merely the security of Israel in the North 
 but which also tended greatly to its religious unity. 
 
 The Song of Deborah which commemorates this 
 victory, whether actually composed by her or not, 
 is recognised by almost every critic as belonging to 
 the age of the events which it records. It is un- 
 doubtedly far older than the prose version which 
 is contained in Judg. iv. from which, indeed, it dififers 
 in some important points which need not now be 
 discussed. The Song contains archaic forms, one of 
 the most important being the verb in v. 7, which 
 has given rise to the mistaken translation "Until 
 that /, Deborah, arose.'' The text is, in parts, 
 corrupt ; indeed Kautzsch goes so far as to say 
 that vv. 8 — 14 "are nothing but a heap of puzzling 
 
 1 In a work like the present critical notes would be out of place. 
 The Biblical students may be referred to the following books. Moore, 
 
8 SONG OF DEBORAH [OH. 
 
 Analysis of the Song. 
 
 Though we cannot strictly divide the Song into 
 strophe and antistrophe, yet there is a relation between 
 the Parts which should be carefully studied. 
 
 Part I {vv. 2, 3). Prelude, addressed to "kings" 
 and "princes" of a united Israel, bidding them to 
 "Bless Jahve" for the "devotedness" of the loyal 
 Tribes. 
 
 Part II {vv. 4, 5). A meditation on the victories 
 of Jahve at the Exodus. 
 
 Part III {vv. 6 — 8). The low estate to which 
 Israel had sunk in the times of the writer — A con- 
 trast ! 
 
 Part IV {vv. 9, 10). A second Prelude, addressed 
 to the Rulers and Judges, bidding them to "Bless 
 Jahve" for the "noble-devotion" of the People — 
 Compare Part I. 
 
 Part V {v. 11). The "victory of Jahve" which 
 has just been won has freed Israel like a second 
 Exodus — Compare Part II. 
 
 Part VI {vv. 12—15* and 18). The high estate 
 to which Israel has now attained — Contrast Part III. 
 
 If the Song had ended with Part VI it would have 
 
 on Judges, Critical Edition of the Hebrew Text ; G. A. Cooke, The 
 History and Song of Deborah; Kautzsch, Literature of the Old 
 Testament; Zapletal, Das Deboralied and various articles in Hastings' 
 Dictionary of the Bible. 
 
I] THE EARLIEST POETRY 9 
 
 had a certain completeness in itself. But the thought 
 of the faithful Tribes who are praised in Part VI 
 suggests, by way of contrast, 
 
 Part VII (vv. 15° — 17). The taunt-song on the 
 unfaithful Tribes. 
 
 Part VIII (vv. 19 — 22). A magnificent description 
 of the Battle. The star-gods of Canaan fight in their 
 orbits for Jahve. The Kishon river of Sisera's home 
 rises in torrent to sweep him away ; and the scene ends 
 (v. 22) in a marvellous piece of word-painting in which 
 the Hebrew pictures the once terrible horses hammer- 
 ing their hoofs in headlong flight — "dadrdth da'drOth 
 dbhtrdvJ^ Zapletal well translates this verse 
 
 " Da stampfen die Hiife der Rosse ; 
 Der Galopp, der Galopp der Renner!" 
 
 Part IX {vv. 23 — 27) records the events in the 
 pursuit. The curse on Meroz for refusing aid and 
 a blessing on the Kenite friend of Israel. 
 
 Part X {vv. 28 — 30). A taunt-song picturing the 
 scene in Sisera's home. This, from its own point of 
 view, is a masterpiece of irony. The text has suflered 
 from a double reading in v, 30. 
 
 Metre. 
 
 The Ode is dithyrambic, and the metre irregular. 
 For the most part it is 3 + 3 metre but at times it 
 breaks into the more lively metre (2 -h 2) -f (2 -H 2). In 
 
10 SONG OF DEBORAH [CH. 
 
 the two Preludes the metre again varies. I have 
 endeavoured to represent this in my translation. 
 
 Part I. Prelude, 
 
 2 For Israel's wh61e self-abandonment — 
 For the People's dev6tedness 
 
 Bless ye Jahve ! 
 
 3 Hear ye kings ; | hearken ye prfnces ; 
 I of Jahve | I would sing. 
 
 Would h^mn of J^hve | Israel's G6d. 
 
 Part II. The Victories of Jahve at the Exodus. 
 
 4 Jahve when Thou wentest forth from Seir, 
 When Thou marchedst from the field of Edom, 
 The earth did shake | the heavens dr6pped, 
 The very clouds | dr6pped water. 
 
 5 Mountains melted | at the presence of Jahve, 
 At the presence of Jahve | Israel's God. 
 
 Part III. The low estate to which Israel is reduced! 
 
 6 In the d4ys of Shamg^r ben-A'n&th 
 In {Israel T) r6ads were deserted. 
 
 They stole along by byways, | twisting lanes. 
 
 7 Village-life (?) ceased, | In Israel they ceased, 
 Till Deborah r6se | as a M6ther in Israel. 
 
 8 {The first two lines are corrupt and the whole verse seems 
 
 out of place.) 
 
 Was there shield or dart to be s6en 
 'Mid the f6rty thousand of Israel ? 
 
I] THE EARLIEST POETRY 11 
 
 Part IV. A second Prelude. 
 
 9 My he^rt is to israel's leaders 
 The People's n6bly-dev6ted-ones, 
 Bless ye Jahve! 
 
 10 Ye that ride on white asses — 
 Ye that sit on the divan 
 
 Or that walk by the way 
 
 {Muse upon your deliverance {1)). 
 
 Paet V. The victorious work of Jahve in the present. 
 
 11 From the tw^ng of the Archers | at the places for wliter, 
 There let them celebrate | the victories of Jahve, 
 
 His victories for village-life (?) in Israel. 
 
 N6w there can go to the g^tes | a People of G6d. 
 
 Part VI. In contract with Part III. 
 
 12 Aw&,ke, awake, Deb6rah ; 
 Aw&,ke, awake, utter song; 
 
 Rise up B^rak, [ lead captive thy captors | thou s6n of 
 Abin6am. 
 
 The two verses which follow are hopelessly corrupt. 
 They seem to contain obscure allusions to the Tribes 
 of Ephraim, Machir (i.e. Manasseh), Issachar and 
 Zebulun who were loyal to Deborah. We pass there- 
 fore to the taunt-song directed against the stay-at- 
 home Tribes. 
 
 It opens with a play upon the word "divisions" 
 which might be translated '^rivers" (as in Job xx. 17). 
 The dividing rivers of Reuben were a fit emblem of 
 
12 SONG OF DEBORAH [CH. 
 
 the divided hearts of this " unstable " tribe (of. 
 Gen. xlix. 4). The word translated " sheep/olds" 
 (E.V.) is only found here and in Gen. xlix. 14 where 
 one of the Tribes is pictured as an ass crouching 
 down between the panniers (not sheep/olds as E.V.) 
 contented to be a burden-bearer, caring only for rest. 
 I believe that the word carries the same taunt in the 
 Song of Deborah. 
 
 Part VII. The taunt-song. 
 
 15° Am6ng the divisions of Reuben 
 
 Great were the s6archings of he^rt. 
 
 16 Why didst thou sit 'twixt the panniers 
 Harking to the pipings for the flocks? 
 Am6ng the divisions of Reuben 
 Great were the searchings of heart. 
 
 17 Gllead abode s^fe beyond J6rdan ; 
 And Dan — why stayed he by ships? 
 Asher sat still by his coast-line, 
 And abode by his creeks. 
 
 A verse which would seem more in place in Part VI. 
 
 18 Zebulun was a people that held life cheap, 
 And Naphtali was in the f6remost field. 
 
 Part YIIL The Battle. 
 
 19 Then came kings and fotight; 
 There fought the kings of Canaan. 
 
 In T4S,nach by the waters of Megiddo 
 They took no gain of m6ney. 
 
I] THE EARLIEST POETRY 13 
 
 20 From heaven foiight the st4.rs — 
 Fotight in their courses 'gainst Sfsera. 
 
 21 The river Kishon o'erwhelmed them, 
 The t6rrent-rlver of Kishon. 
 
 [My soul march 6n with strength !] 
 
 22 Then were the h6r8e-hoof8 hammered 
 By his galloping galloping racers ^. 
 
 Part IX. Events in the pursuit. 
 
 23 Ctirse ye M6roz, saith J&hve ; 
 Curse ye her dwellers with ciirsing ; 
 That they c6,rae not to Jahve's help, 
 To Jahve's help 'gainst the mighty. 
 
 24 Blessed by women be J§,el 
 The wife of Heber the K6nite ; 
 
 By women in the tent is she blessed. 
 
 25 Water he &sked, | milk she g^ve ; 
 She oflfered butter | in a lordly dish. 
 
 26 She laid her hand to the t^nt-pin, 
 Her right to the workman's hammer. 
 She strdck him wounding his head, 
 Piercing and striking through his temples. 
 
 27 He s4nk, he fell, he l^y ; 
 
 At her feet he sank, he fell ; 
 Where he s4nk he shattered fell! 
 
 Paet X. The scene shifts to Sisera's home. 
 
 28 The m6ther of Sisera | out through the lattice 
 Peers through the window | and gleefully clills, 
 
 " Why does his ch4riot | c6me so slow ? 
 Why t&rries the tread of his t6am ? " 
 
 1 Jer. viii. 16, xlvii. 3. 
 
14 JOTHAM'S FABLE [OH. 
 
 29 Her 16,di©s, her wisest, repl^, 
 Yea she herself | &,nswers herself ; 
 
 30 "Are they not finding, | dividing the spoil, 
 
 Double embroidery | for the head of the h6ro, 
 A spoil of dyed garments for Sisera, 
 A spoil of dyed garments and 'broidery, 
 Of double embroidery for the neck of...." 
 
 The contrast between the Sisera lying dead with 
 stricken temples and the Sisera that his mother 
 expected, triumphant "m dyed garments" is grim 
 indeed. 
 
 An early copyist evidently wrote rhm r^imthym, 
 i.e. "a womb two wombs," instead of rkm rkmthym, 
 i.e. ^^ embroidery double embroidery" which occurs 
 later in the same verse. This has given rise to the 
 unfortunate translation " a damsel or two " (E. V. and 
 R.V.). The last two lines of v. 30 are little more 
 than duplicates of the two preceding lines and may 
 have originated in this way. 
 
 One other example of the most ancient poetry, 
 dating from about 1120 B.C., is Jotham's Fable 
 of the trees (Judg. ix. 8 — 15) with its splendid 
 irony. 
 
 This Fable of Jotham is undoubtedly in verse, the 
 metre being in three beats as follows : 
 
 The tr^es went f6rth on a time 
 To anoint for themselves a king, 
 And they said to the Olive, Rule o'er us. 
 
I] THE EARLIEST POETRY 16 
 
 But to them the 6live replied, 
 "Shotild I then leave my rich-oil, 
 Whereby gods and men get honour, 
 And go to wave o'er the trees?" 
 
 Then said the trees to the Fig-tree 
 Come thou and be our queen. 
 But the fig-tree said unto them, 
 "Should I then le^ve my sweetness 
 And that pr6duce of mine so g6odly 
 And g6 to w^ve o'er the trees?" 
 
 Then said the trees to the Vine, 
 Come thoti and be our qu6en. 
 But the vine made answer to th6m ; 
 "Should I then 16ave my vintage, 
 That gladdens both g6ds and m6n, 
 And g6 to w^ve o'er the trees ? " 
 
 Then said the trees to the Bramble, 
 Come thoti and be king over us. 
 So the bramble replied to the trees; 
 "if ye are trdly anointing 
 Me as a king over you 
 Then c6me ye, rep6se in my sh^-dow; 
 If n6t, let come fire from the bramble 
 And devour the cedars of Lebanon." 
 
 The reader will notice that the olive, fig, and vine 
 reply in the same metre (3 + 3 + 3), whereas the 
 pompous answer of the bramble is lengthened out 
 into five lines (3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3). 
 
 We now pass over a period of about one hundred 
 years of silence till we come to the hero-age of David 
 
16 DAVID'S ELEGY [oh. i 
 
 (c, 1000 B.C.) "the darling of Israel's Songs" (2 Sam. 
 xxiii. 1) ; David alike pre-eminent in music and in 
 war. The very greatness of David's work creates a 
 diflSculty ; for, as all Law centres round the name 
 of Moses, its originator, so well-nigh the whole of 
 Psalmody has been ascribed to David. According to 
 Amos (vi. 5), David's name was associated with secular 
 poetry and with the invention of musical instruments. 
 Fortunately for us, David's lament over Saul and 
 Jonathan has been preserved. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE POETRY OP THE EARLY KINGDOM 
 
 The Poetry, of which specimens will be given in 
 the present chapter may be said roughly to belong 
 to the age of David and Solomon, though we shall 
 have occasion to illustrate it from poems of a much 
 later date. 
 
 The reader will kindly remember that we are only 
 professing to give specimens and not to include or 
 even to mention all the poems that might reasonably 
 be assigned to the prolific age of David and Solomon. 
 
 David's Elegy on Saul and Jonathan, 
 
 This lovely poem was taken, by the Editor of the 
 Books of Samuel, from the lost Booh of Jashar. It 
 is undoubtedly genuine. It breathes the spirit of 
 the highlander grieving for brave comrades slain 
 on their own mountains by the despised and hated 
 Philistine of the lowlands. 
 
 We shall first ofier a translation and then it will 
 be necessary to give a few brief notes. 
 
 K. 2 
 
18 DAVID'S ELEGY [ch. 
 
 (2Sam. i. 19ff.) 
 
 19 Thou roebuck of Israel ! | pierced on thine 6wn mountain- 
 
 heights ! 
 
 How ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN ! 
 
 Strophe I. 
 
 20 T611 it n6t in G^th ; 
 
 Announce it not in streets of Askelon ; 
 L6st the daughters of the Philistines rejoice ; 
 L^st the daughters of the unclrcumcised triumph ! 
 
 Strophe II. 
 
 21 Ye hills of Gilb6a be dewless ! 
 Ye fields of oblations be rainless ! 
 
 For there was the shield of heroes polluted; 
 The shield of Saul, without the anointing. 
 
 Strophe III. 
 
 22 From the bl6od of the slain— 
 From the fat of the mighty — 
 
 The bow of Jonathan turned not bS,ck — 
 The sw6rd of Saul rettirned not 6mpty. 
 
 Strophe IV. 
 
 23 Saul and J6nathan !— 
 
 So dear so delightful in life ; — 
 
 And in death undivided! 
 They were swifter than eagles, | str6nger than lions. 
 
 Strophe V. 
 
 24 Ye daughters of Israel — 
 Weep over Salil 
 
 Who clad you in scarlet | with Idxur^, 
 Who decked your apparel ] with jewelry. 
 
II] POETRY OF THE EARLY KINGDOM 19 
 
 25 How ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN 
 
 In the midst of the battle ! 
 Ah, J6nathan ! | pierced on thine 6wii mountain-hefghts ! 
 
 Strophe VI. 
 
 26 Woe is me for thee, my brother! 
 J6nathan to me so dear! 
 
 Thy 16ve to me more marvellous 
 
 Than woman's love. 
 
 How ARE the mighty FALLEN ! 
 
 the w6,r-weapons perished! 
 
 The word t'^vt (v. 19) must often be translated 
 "pride," " glori/y" "beauty," or "delight," but it also 
 signifies the "roebitck," probably so named for its 
 "beauty." It is applied to Asahel (2 Sam. ii. 18) 
 who was "light of foot as the roebuck" In early 
 warfare, as we know from Homer, this was no small 
 praise. In our poem it is evident from v. 25^ that the 
 epithet applies to Jonathan, not to Saul. Jonathan 
 is, indeed, " the pride," the " dulce decus " of Israel ; 
 but such a translation would hide from the English 
 reader the picture of the roebuck "pierced on its 
 own mountain heights." 
 
 The form, ha tz'vi, does not mark the def. article, 
 as E.V. " The beauty &c.," but the vocative ; like 
 ha bath Jerushalaim "0 daughter of Jerusalem" 
 (Lam. ii. 23). 
 
 It is evident that Jonathan is chiefly in David's 
 thoughts. It is Jonathan that is styled the "roebuck 
 
 2—2 
 
20 DAVID'S ELEGY [ch. 
 
 of Israel/' the beautiful stag pierced and dying in its 
 own mountain haunts. To this thought he returns 
 in V. 25^ In v. 22 Jonathan is placed before Saul 
 and, in the last strophe, v. 26, Jonathan stands 
 alone. 
 
 If we omit the refrain, which is thrice repeated 
 {vv. 19, 25, 26), the poem falls naturally into six 
 strophes of four lines each. The two central strophes 
 (III and IV) contain the central thought, the praise 
 of the dead^ their valour and their virtues — "Jonathan 
 and Saul" {v. 22), "Saul and Jonathan" {v. 23). The 
 strophes on either side of this central thought corre- 
 spond with one another, strophe V with strophe I 
 and strophe VI with strophe II. Thus strophe 1 
 pictures the "daughters of the Philistines" in their 
 joy, strophe V, the "daughters of Israel" in their 
 sorrow. 
 
 Strophes II and VI contain, I think, the most 
 beautiful thoughts of the Elegy ; strophe II referring 
 to Saul, strophe VI to Jonathan. Of Saul (v. 21) he 
 thinks as of the Lord's Anointed and feels that, 
 where such a one has fallen, the very hills should lose 
 the anointing rain of their fertility. But of Jonathan 
 (v. 26) he thinks with the deepest devotion of friend- 
 ship. In the former case it was a "shield cast away" 
 {v. 21), but now it seems, in his grief, as though all 
 "weapons of war had perished" (v. 26). "The 
 religious element (says Kautzsch, Lit. of the O.T.) is 
 
II] POETRY OF THE EARLY KINGDOM 21 
 
 quite absent from the Song. But what a monument 
 has David here raised to the king from whom he 
 sufiered so much, to the heroic youth at his side, and 
 not less, to himself." 
 
 Briggs {Study of Holy Scripture, p. 381) com- 
 ments on the fact that this "the earliest Hebrew 
 dirge " is not written in the Kinah or dirge measure 
 of which we shall speak in a later chapter. But, in 
 this, I think he is wrong. It is quite true that it is 
 not composed in the finished and artistic form of the 
 later J^tnah ; but in the short sob-like lines of two 
 beats which break the longer lines it seems to me 
 that we have the J^inah measure in its earliest form. 
 See especially vv, 23'', 26*^. 
 
 The Blessing of Jacob. 
 
 We must now consider that collection of ancient 
 poetry which goes by the name of the Blessing of 
 Jacob (Gen. xlix. 2 fil), and, for this purpose, it will 
 suffice to select the two leading Tribes of Ephraim 
 (Joseph) and Judah. It is impossible to give the 
 actual date of these tribe-poems which were in- 
 corporated by the Jehovist, c. 850 B.c. Probably 
 they are at least as old as the time of Solomon. 
 
 The Blessings cannot be understood without some 
 brief reference to the position of the 12 Tribes in 
 relation to the 12 heavenly Signs or to their position 
 
22 THE BLESSING OF JACOB [ch. 
 
 in the "Camp" (Num. ii.). Here we read that the 
 Camp of Judah with its standard (the Lion?) was 
 to pitch "on the east side, toward the sunrising" 
 (Num. ii. 3), and the Camp of Ephraim, with its 
 standard (the Ox ?) was to pitch on the west side 
 (Num. ii. 18). Properly Reuben, as the first-born, 
 ought to have occupied the higher place as is ex- 
 plained in 1 Chron. v. If.: "Now the sons of Reuben 
 the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn) ; but 
 forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed, the birth- 
 right was given to the sons of Joseph the son of 
 Israel : and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after 
 the birthright. For Judah prevailed over his brethren, 
 so that the Ruler should be from him ; while the 
 birthright should belong to Joseph." 
 
 These words are very important as giving the 
 oldest comment on the Blessing of Jacob, 
 
 The position of Joseph on the west (Num. ii.) 
 brings him into connexion with the seventh month 
 (Autumnal Equinox). In Gen. xxx. 23, the Elohist 
 derives the name Joseph from the root asaph, "to 
 gather in." This word asaph is constantly used of 
 the ingathering of the fruits of the earth, Asaph 
 being the oldest name for the Feast of Ingathering 
 (Ex. xxiii. 16, xxxiv. 22), which was held in the 
 seventh month. Further we note that the Elohist 
 (Gen. xxx. 20, 23'') regards Joseph as the seventh son, 
 so that if the 12 Tribes were written in the order of 
 
II] POETRY OF THE EARLY KINGDOM 23 
 
 the 12 Months Joseph would come in the 7th Month 
 with the great Ingathering {Asaph) of the fruits of 
 the earth. 
 
 These brief remarks are necessary in order that 
 we may understand the Blessing which follows. 
 Though Joseph is mentioned as receiving the Blessing 
 it is evident that Ephraim is in the writer's mind 
 (cf. Gen. xlviii. 20). I think it probable that the 
 original poem began, 
 
 A fruitful bough is Ephraim, 
 the name Ephraim being derived in Gen. xli. 52 from 
 the Hebrew word mgmiymg fruitfulness. 
 
 We now give the words of the Blessing so far as 
 they relate to this idea oi fruitfulness^ reserving the 
 other portion of the Blessing for later consideration. 
 
 (Gen. xlix. 22ff.) 
 
 22 A fruitful botigh is Joseph, 
 
 A friiitfal bough by a spring; 
 With 6flf8hoots o'ermounting the w^U 
 
 25® Blessings of heaven ab6ve, 
 
 Blessings of the deep that croticheth under, 
 Blessings of briasts and w6mb, 
 
 Blessings of the everlasting mountains, 
 
 The desire of the eternal hills, 
 
 May they be upon J68eph's head, 
 
 On the head of him crowned among brothers. 
 
24 JOSEPH [OH. 
 
 We must compare this with the Joseph-blessing 
 in the Song of Moses (Deut. xxxiii.), a Poem which 
 was probably written in the Northern Kingdom in 
 the reign of Jeroboam II (c. 780 B.C.). Thus : 
 
 (Deut. xxxiii. ISflf.) 
 
 B16ssed by J^hve (be) his l^nd 
 
 From prime of heaven's dew, 
 
 From the deep that croucheth tinder, 
 
 From the prime of the outcome of suns. 
 
 From the prime of the outbreak of m6on8, 
 
 From the chiefest of Ancient mountains, 
 
 From the prime of eternal hills. 
 
 From the prime of earth with her fulness. 
 
 Let them come upon J6seph's head, 
 
 On the head of him crowned among br6ther8. 
 
 The word which we have translated ^' prime" 
 signifies the " choicest fruiV' \ thus we see that the 
 Divine thought for Joseph was exactly that which 
 was expressed in ih^ Asaph or Feast of Ingathering y 
 viz. the summing up of all fruitfulness for the use of 
 man and for the honour of God. 
 
 We now return to the words which we omitted when 
 we considered the Blessing on Joseph in Gen. xlix. 
 
 23 And they bitterly vexed him and sh6t, 
 And the ^-rchers pm-sued him with h4te: 
 
 24 But his bow ab6de in strength 
 
 And his 4rms and hands were made strong 
 
 By the hands of the Mighty of Jacob. 
 
 [From thence is the Shepherd the stone of Israel.] 
 
II] POETRY OF THE EARLY KINGDOM 25 
 
 In the first five lines we have a picture of "Joseph" 
 suffering persecution but strengthened by the hand 
 of God. This is the germ of that thought which, in 
 later times, found expression among the Jews as 
 Messiah ben Joseph, the suffering Messiah. 
 
 The fifth line, "From thence is the Shepherd" &c., 
 has, I believe, never been explained. I suggest the 
 following : The root asaph is used not only of the 
 *^ gathering in" of fruits but also of the "gathering 
 in" i.e. the "folding" of sheep (Gen. xxix. 7, 8) and is 
 applied to God as the Shepherd gathering in His 
 people like a flock (Mic. ii. 12, iv. 6). 
 
 The Second Isaiah pictures God as the Shepherd 
 of the stars, folding them all like sheep, and draws 
 the lesson that, much more will God be the Shepherd 
 of Israel. Thus : 
 
 (Is. xl. 26 ff.) 
 
 Lift up your eyes on high, 
 
 And see who created (all) th6se; 
 
 That marshals their host by number, 
 
 And nameth them kW by their n^mes; 
 
 Through abundance of might 
 
 And p6wer of strength 
 
 Not one of them faileth. 
 
 We have a similar poetical image in Browning's 
 
 Satd: 
 
 "...the tune all our sheep know, as one after one, 
 So docile they come to the pen-door till folding be done. 
 
 And now one after one seeks its lodging, as star follows star 
 Into eve and the blue far above us, — so blue and so far!" 
 
26 SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL [CH. 
 
 There was undoubtedly a relation between the 
 gems which represented Israel (Ex. xxviii. 17 flf., 
 xxix. 8ff.) and the "stones of fire" (Ezek. xxviii. 13f.), 
 i.e. the stars in the sky. As in Ezek. xxviii. the 
 "Cherub" that "walked up and down 'midst the stones 
 of fire " represented the Patron of Tyre, so in Gen. 
 xlix. the heavenly Patron of Israel is none other 
 than God Himself, who shepherds the stones of 
 Israel. 
 
 The thought of God as the Shepherd of Israel was 
 one peculiarly dear to the Prophets of the Captivity, 
 e.g. Jer. xxxi. 10: "He who (now) scattereth Israel 
 will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd doth 
 his flock" (cf. Ezek. xxxi v.). 
 
 We have traced a connexion between Joseph and 
 Asaph with the double thought of the Ingathering 
 of the fruits of the earth and the Ingathering by the 
 Good Shepherd. We have also found a hint of Joseph 
 as a Sufiferer strengthened by God. The present 
 writer has shewn that a connexion exists between 
 the Asaph Psalms, the Asaph Feast, the House of 
 Joseph and the "Shepherd of Israel" {Psalms in 
 Three Collections, Part II. Introd. v.fl: Cf. Part III. 
 Introd. viii., x.). 
 
 One of these Asaph Psalms is of special interest 
 from a poetical point of view, not only for its beauty 
 of thought but also for the regularity of its rhythm 
 and its clear division into strophes indicated by the 
 thrice repeated refrain. At the risk of a slight 
 
II] POETRY OF THE EARLY KINGDOM 27 
 
 digression it may be well to consider it in this 
 place. 
 
 The Hebrew text has been carefully analysed by 
 Mr Cobb in his Systems of Hebrew Metre, p. 30 f. 
 In the translation which follows, I have, for the most 
 part, accepted his emended text. 
 
 (Ps. Ixxx.) 
 Strophe I. 
 
 2 Thou Shepherd of Israel, hearken ! 
 That leadest Joseph like sheep; 
 Shme forth Thou cherub-throned! 
 
 3 ['Fore Ephraim, Benjamin and Manlisseh*] 
 Rotise Thy mighty strength 
 
 And c6me our great-8alv&,tion. 
 
 4 God of Hosts, rest6re its! 
 
 Let shine Thy Face, that we be saved! 
 
 Strophe II. 
 
 5 G6d of H6st8, how long ? 
 
 Shouldst Thou fume 'gainst the prayer of Thy People ? 
 
 6 Thou hast fed them with bread of t6ars ; 
 With tears in full measure for drink. 
 
 7 Thou m^kest us strife to our neighbours ; 
 And our enemies latigh us to 8c6rn. 
 
 8 God of Hosts, restore us ! 
 
 Let sflfNE Thy Face, that we be saved! 
 
 Strophe III. 
 
 9 A vine Thou didst m6ve out of Egypt ; 
 Driving out nations and planting it. 
 
 1 ? Gloss. 
 
28 SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL [oh. 
 
 10 Thou mSdest r6om ; | it struck its roots ; | and filled the 
 
 L6.nd. 
 
 11 The mountains were cl^d with its shide; 
 And its br&,nches were G6d-like cedars. 
 
 12 It ptit forth its botighs to the Sea; 
 And its tendrils reached to the River. 
 
 Strophe IV. 
 
 13 Why didst Thou break its hedges, 
 
 So that ^11 that pass b^ may pluck it? 
 
 14 The b6ar from the wood lays it w&,ste 
 And field-creatures p^ture up6n it. 
 
 15 God of Hosts, return now ! 
 L6ok from heaven and s6e. 
 
 16 T^ke thought for this vine, 
 
 And the stem that Thy right-hand hath pl6,nted, 
 
 17 It is burned with fire as mere fdel ! 
 
 Strophe V. 
 
 At the rebuke of Thy F4ce let them p6rish. 
 
 18 Be Thy h^nd on Thy right-hand m^n; 
 
 On the Man^ thou madest strong for Thyself. 
 
 19 For we will not go b4ck from Thee: 
 Give us life, and we c411 on Thy N^me. 
 
 20 G6d op H6sts, restore us! 
 
 Let shIne Thy Face, that we be saved ! 
 
 It will be seen that the Psalm falls into five 
 strophes, three of which are closed by the refrain. 
 Very possibly the refrain originally closed all five 
 strophes. 
 
 1 "Sou of Man." 
 
II] POETRY OF THE EARLY KINGDOM 29 
 
 The best commentary on this Psalm is the 
 Blessing on Joseph (Gen. xlix.). 
 
 The contents of the Psalm might be summed up 
 briefly as follows : 
 
 Strophe I. An Appeal to God as the Shepherd of Joseph 
 
 (cf. Blessing^ Gen. xlix. 24^). 
 Strophe XL Joseph cruelly persecuted (cf. Blessing^ Gen. xlix. 
 23). 
 / Strophe III. Joseph as the Vine of fruitfulness (cf. Blessing^ 
 \ Gen. xlix. 22, 25, 26). 
 
 V Strophe IV. Why, then, has God forsaken His Vine ? 
 Strophe V. Surely Joseph implies a "Son of Man" whose 
 arms were made strong by God ? (cf. Blessing^ 
 Gen. xlix. 24). 
 
 It will be seen that strophe IV answers to 
 strophe III, strophe V to strophe II, while strophe I 
 is a general summary of the whole Psalm. 
 
 It will, I think, be evident that we are justified 
 in regarding the Joseph-Blessing as Messianic. The 
 Camp of Joseph ("Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh," 
 Ps. Ixxx. 2, Num. ii. 18 flP.) on the west with its 
 emblem of the Ox, and the Divine Name Elohim, 
 with the thoughts of the Ingathering (Asaph), the 
 Asaph Psalms and the Shepherd of Israel, form a part 
 of that conception which, at a much later time, took 
 shape in the Jewish expectation of a "Messiah ben 
 Joseph," who was to be a Sufferer. 
 
 We now turn to the Blessing on Judah (Gen. 
 xlix. 9 ff.). If the order of the Tribes in the Blessing 
 
30 JUDAH [CH. 
 
 of Jacob be compared with the order in the four 
 Camps (Num. ii.), it will be seen that they practically 
 agree, except for the fact that the Camp of JudaJi 
 (i.e. Judah, Issachar, Zebulun) has changed places 
 with the Camp of Reuben. The order in the Poem 
 is the more ancient, in other words the Camp of 
 Judah originally belonged to the South, Judah coming 
 with Leo at the Summer Solstice. This will explain 
 the fact that the emblem of Judah was the Lion. 
 
 This point of the Cycle is also associated with the 
 Divine Name Yah, the name Judah ( Yehudah) lending 
 itself to the Hebrew word which signifies ^^praised," 
 and also to the Divine Name. 
 
 The reader is asked to note the play upon the 
 name Judah, the reference to the Lion, and, possibly, 
 to the geographical position of the Tribe, in the 
 Blessing which follows : 
 
 (Gen. xlix. 8ff.) 
 
 8 Judah art thoti | that thy brethren prdise ; 
 Thou layest thine hand | on the neck of thy foes ; 
 To thee shall bow down | the s6n8 of thy father. 
 
 Another fragment in difierent metre refers to the 
 position of Judah in the Camps and possibly in the 
 geography of the Land. 
 
 9 A Lion's whelp is Jtidah ; 
 
 From the prey, my 86n, thou art gone. 
 
 He coticheth reposed as a Hon, 
 
 As an old-lion, who shall arotise him? 
 
II] POETRY OF THE EARLY KINGDOM 31 
 
 10 The sceptre departs not from JMah, 
 Nor the st^fF of sw4y from before him, 
 Until the c6ming of Shlloh 
 
 And the drawing of Peoples to him. 
 
 In this last line I follow the reading of the 
 Samaritan text (see also Chaldee) which suggests the 
 "flowing together" of the Peoples, like water. This 
 idea is found in Is. ii. 2 (Mic. iv. 1) ; Jer. li. 44 ; Is. Ix. 5. 
 See also my note on Ps. xxxiv. 5 (6). 
 
 The words which follow have no apparent con- 
 nexion with V. 10, though personally I believe the 
 reference to be to the mystical "Vine of Eridu," 
 rather than to the suitability of Judea for the growth 
 of the vine. (See my notes on Pss. Ixxx. 8 ff., Ixxii. 
 16.) If this be so, i;. 11 is also Messianic, containing, 
 as it does, a reference to "The Vine of David \" 
 
 11 Binding his c61t to the Vine, 
 The f6al of his 4ss to the S6rek; 
 He st6eps his garment in wine. 
 His cl6thing in bl6od of the gr4pe. 
 
 12 A darkness of 6yes through wine, 
 A whiteness of teeth through milk. 
 
 In V. 11 the "colt" and "the foal of the ass" 
 suggest Zech. ix. 9, where the Messiah is pictured 
 "riding upon an ass and on a colt the foal of an 
 ass," while the latter part of the verse suggests the 
 Conqueror from Edom (Is. Ixiii. 1 — 3) with garments 
 
 1 On the " Vine of David," see also p. 129. 
 
32 SONG OF MOSES [oh. 
 
 stained as with the blood of the grape. Thus we 
 have one continuous Messianic thought in vv. 10, 
 11. 
 
 We cannot compare the Judah-blessing in Gen. 
 xlix. with the later blessing in Deut. xxxiii., as we 
 did in the case of the Joseph-blessing, because, in the 
 opinion of some scholars, the words (Deut. xxxiii. 7) 
 "Hear, Jahve, the voice of Judah, and bring him 
 in unto his people," should read "Hear, Jahve, the 
 voice of Simeon" with a play on the name Simeon 
 which signifies "God hath heard" (Gen. xxix. 33). 
 
 Song of Moses (Ex. xv. 1 fl!). 
 
 The rhythm of this Song is very perfect. It 
 consists of four beats in each line, divided in the 
 middle by the caesura. The first line of u 14 has, 
 it is true, only three beats ; but this, I think, is 
 intentional and gives the efiect of a rest in music. 
 A good reader would pause on the word "tremble." 
 
 The line which constitutes the 5th verse has, in 
 the Hebrew, exactly the ring of a pentameter ; this 
 I have endeavoured to reproduce in my translation. 
 
 As to strophes there is no clear indication, but 
 the natural divisions seem to me to be after vv. 8, 12, 
 18. This gives three strophes of 12, 11, and 13 lines 
 each. The refrain would probably be repeated at 
 the end of each strophe (cp. Ex. xv. 21). 
 
II] POETRY OF THE EARLY KINGDOM 33 
 
 (Ex. XV. Iff.) 
 Refrain. 
 
 1 To Jin IT IS I SING I FOR Hb hath proudly triumphed: 
 The Horse as well as rider | He hath thrown into 
 
 THE SEA. 
 
 Strophe I, recounting the victory of Jahve. 
 
 2 My strength my song is Jah | and He is my salvation : 
 Such is my God, I praise ; | ray father's God, I ext61. 
 
 3 Jahve is a man of war, | J4hve is His N4me. 
 
 4 Pharaoh's chariots and host | He hath cast into the sea : 
 The choicest of his captains ] are stink in the Red Sea. 
 
 6 The deeps have covered them sinking | down to the depths 
 like a stone. 
 
 6 Thy right hand, Jahve, | is gl6rious in p6wer ; 
 Thy right hand, Jahve, | breaketh the enemy, 
 
 7 In Thy excellent gre§.tne8s ] Thou destroyest Thy foes. 
 Thou sendest Thy wr&th | that consumeth as stubble. 
 
 8 With the blast of Thy nostrils ] the w6,ters were piled ; 
 Upright as a heap stood the flo6ds ; | the deeps in the sea's 
 
 heart grew turbid. 
 
 Strophe II. The hodst of the enemy coyitrasted with the 
 triumph of Jahve. Compare the Song qf Deborah. 
 
 9 The enemy s^id, | I purstie, I o'ert4ke ; 
 
 I p6rtion the spoil, | I sate myself 6n them ; 
 
 I draw but my sword, | my h^nd di8poss6sseth them ! 
 
 10 Thou didst blow with Thy wind | the sea overc6vered them 
 They sank as lead | in the mighty waters. 
 
 11 Wh6 like Thee | among the gods, O Jahve? 
 Who like Thee | glorious in holiness ? 
 Celebrate in praise-songs | working wonders ? 
 
 K. 3 
 
34 SONG OF MOSES [CH. 
 
 12 Thou didst stretch Thy right h&,nd | earth swallowed them 
 
 tip: 
 
 13 Thou didst shepherd with Thy m6rcy, | this People Thou 
 
 redeemest : 
 Thou didst lead them on with power [ unto Thy holy 
 Dwelling. 
 
 Strophe III. The effect of this victory upon the Nations as 
 a stage in the establishment of God's kingdom upon earth. 
 
 14 The Peoples have heard and tremble— 
 
 Terror hath laid hold | on Philistia's inhabitants : 
 
 15 N6w are confounded | (all) the dukes of Edom : 
 
 The mighty men of Moab | trembling hath seized them : 
 Melted are ^11 | the habitants of Canaan : 
 
 16 Fallen up6n them | is terror great and dr^ad. 
 
 By the greatness of Thine 4rm | they are still as a st6ne. 
 
 To the end that there p4ss | Thy People, Jahve; 
 
 To the end that there p4ss | this People Thou purchased, 
 
 17 That Thou bringest and pl^ntest | in the Mount of Thine 
 
 heritage, 
 The Place for Thee to dwell | that Th6u didst make, J^hve, 
 The Sanctuary, Lord, | that Thine hands established. 
 
 18 J&^hve shall be King | for ever and 6ver. 
 
 The deliverance at the Red Sea would, undoubt- 
 edly, have been celebrated in song, and the words 
 which we have here as the refrain may have been 
 the actual words used by Moses and Miriam. But 
 the Song, in its present form, belongs to a later age, 
 when the Sanctuary was established in Zion (see v. 17). 
 The leading thought in the Song is the Kingship of 
 God upon earth, established by a Theophany. This 
 
II] POETRY OF THE EARLY KINGDOM 35 
 
 will be seen more clearly if we read it in connexion 
 with such passages as the following with which it is 
 closely related. 
 
 An unknown Prophet (Is. xi. 15 f.) pictures the 
 return of Israel from Assyria as a drying up of the 
 Euphrates and a second passage of the Red Sea ; and 
 then, with the Song of Moses in his mind, he goes on 
 to say (xii. 1 ff.) In that day thou shalt say, 
 
 I th4nk Thee, Jahve : | tho' Thou wast kngry with me, 
 Thine ire is turned | and Thou dost comfort me. 
 Lo, God of my salvation ! | I trust and will not fear : 
 For My Strength my Sorig is Jdh \ and He is my Salvation. 
 
 In that day ye shall say : 
 
 Thdnk ye Jdhve \ Celebrate His Ndme\ 
 
 Declare among the Peoples His deeds; 
 
 Recount that His N4me is exalted. 
 
 Hymn ye Jahve | for proudly hath He ddne : 
 
 Let this be newsed | in all the earth. 
 
 Cry aloud and sing | thou inhabitress of Zion ; 
 
 For Israel's Holy-One | is gre^t within thee. 
 
 In these last words the Theophany is pictured as 
 a Divine Indwelling. This thought is developed in 
 Ps. cxiv. which is one of the Songs of the Hallel, and 
 belongs to the general cycle of Passover Hymns. 
 This Psalm, of course, belongs to a later date, but it 
 will be well to consider it now as illustrating the 
 Song of Moses. 
 
 3—2 
 
36 A THEOPHANY [ch. 
 
 (Ps. cxiv.) 
 
 Strophe I. 
 
 When Israel came out of Egypt, 
 Jacob from barbarous people, 
 Then Judah became His sanctuary, 
 Israel His seat of dominion. 
 
 Strophe II. 
 
 The Sea beheld and fled ; 
 Jordan was turned away back ; 
 The mountains skipped like rams ; 
 The hills like the young of the flock. 
 
 Strophe III. 
 
 What ailed thee, Sea, that thou fleddest? 
 Thou Jordan that thou shouldst turn back? 
 Ye mountains, why skipped ye like rams? 
 Ye hills like the yoting of the flock ? 
 
 Strophe IV. 
 
 Travail thou l^arth at the Master's Presence, 
 At the Presence of Jacob's God ! 
 Who turned the R6ck into water-p6ols, 
 The flint into sprfnging-w^ters. 
 
 In the four strophes of this Psalm the connexion 
 of thought is plain. Strophe I states the fact of the 
 Indwelling of God in His Chosen People in times 
 past. Strophes II and III picture the effect of this 
 Indwelling upon Nature ; the Red Sea, the mountains, 
 and the Jordan recognising their God. Strophe IV 
 
II] POETRY OF THE EARLY KINGDOM 37 
 
 returns to the thought of strophe I. The Divine 
 Indwelling is still a fact which Earth must yet 
 recognise in the birth-pangs of a new creation. 
 
 One further illustration may be taken from the 
 Theophany in Ps. xviii. 8ff. 
 
 8 Then ^arth itself quivered and quaked, 
 The mountains' foundations were troubled, 
 Yea, they quivered because He was wroth. 
 
 9 There went up a smoke from His nostrils, 
 And a fire consumed from His mouth, 
 Yea flames were kindled therefrom. 
 
 10 So He bowed the Heavens and came, 
 With the Darkness tinder His feet. 
 
 11 He r6de on the Cherub and flew, 
 Came sw6oping on wings of the wind ; 
 
 12 He made of the darkness His covert, 
 His pavilion all round Him — 
 
 Darkness of waters — | dense clouds of the skies. 
 
 13 Through His splendour opposing | His dinse clouds rem6ved, 
 Hail with flames of fire ! 
 
 14 And Jahve thundered in heaven. 
 The Most High gave forth His voice. 
 
 15 He sent forth His arrows and scattered them, 
 
 He 8h6t ^vith His lightnings and " troubled ^" them. 
 
 16 Then the bed of the waters was s6en. 
 The foundations of earth were laid bare, 
 At thy chiding Jahve— 
 
 At the blast of the "breath of Thy ndstrilsl" 
 
 17 He sent from on high, He t6ok me, 
 Dr6w me from m^ny waters, 
 
 1 Ex. xiv. 24. 2 Ex. xv. 8. 
 
38 A THEOPHANY [ch. ii 
 
 18 Freed me from enemies mighty, 
 From f6es that were str6nger than 1 
 
 19 In that d^y of my weakness they m^t me, 
 But J4hve became my stky: 
 
 20 He brought me f6rth into liberty. 
 He fr^ed me becatise He I6ves me. 
 
 The rhythm in this fine passage is regular except 
 in vv. 12, 13, where there is reason to think that the 
 present text is not altogether correct. The Psalm is, 
 of course, a national Psalm and recounts the de- 
 liverance of Israel at the Red Sea by that free choice 
 of God which indicates a fuller deliverance in the 
 future (v. 20). 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE ?:iNAH 
 
 The origin of the Ktnah is the lament for the 
 dead. We have already seen that, even in the oldest 
 Lament that has come down to us from the times 
 of David, the intensity of grief found a natural 
 expression in the occurrence of short sob-like lines. 
 
 Thus : 
 
 Thy love to me more marvellous 
 Than w6man'8 love! 
 
 In later times professional mourners were engaged 
 at funerals and the Ktnah became a distinct measure 
 or rhythm. Thus we read (2 Chron. xxxv. 25) : "And 
 Jeremiah lamented for Josiah and all the singing men 
 and singing women spake of Josiah in their Kinahs 
 (i.e. lamentations) unto this day." 
 
 But since nations die as well as individuals the 
 Prophets often use the Ktnah to lament their death. 
 Even in the earlier Prophets like Amos (c. 750 B.C.), 
 we find perfect specimens of the Ktnah, e.g. Amos 
 
 V. 2: 
 
 She is fallen, to rise no more, 
 
 The Virgin of Israel ! 
 Spread out up6n her 14nd, 
 
 None to upraise her ! 
 
40 JEREMIAH AND EZEKIEL [oh. 
 
 Compare also Amos viii. 10. The Kinah is fre- 
 quent in the writings of Jeremiah and in those of 
 Ezekiel. 
 
 Thus Jeremiah (ix. 10 ff.) says : 
 
 On the motintains I t4ke up a w&iling ; 
 
 On the wflderness pastures a Kinah. 
 
 They are burned that n6ne can pass through them! 
 
 Nor can sound of cattle be h6ard ! 
 
 From bird of heaven to beast 
 
 They are fled and gone ! 
 And I make of Jerusalem heaps, 
 
 A dwelling of dragons ! 
 And the cities of Judah I make desolation 
 
 That n6ne can inhabit ! 
 
 And again, in vv,\7^.'. 
 
 Consider ye, and call for the Kinah-women that they may 
 
 come... 
 Let them t^ke up a wailing for us. 
 That our eyes may run over with weeping, 
 Our eyelids gush water. 
 
 Teach ye your daughters the dirge ; 
 Each 6ne her neighbour the Kinah. 
 For Death is come up to our windows, 
 Entered within our palaces ! 
 Cutting off child from the street, 
 
 Yotiths from the market! 
 
 Jeremiah (xxxviii. 22) pictures the women of the 
 royal house of Judah taunting Zedekiah when fallen 
 
Ill] THE KtNAH 41 
 
 into the hands of his quondam allies, the Chaldeans, 
 and saying : 
 
 They deceived and outm^stered thee quite, 
 
 These men of thy peace! 
 Thy feet are stink in the mire, 
 
 They are turned away b&ck ! 
 
 I believe that Budde (Hast. Diet. Poetry Hebrew) 
 is right in maintaining that the Ktnah was, par 
 excellence, the verse of the women. It was used by 
 them chiefly as mourners for the dead, but also, as 
 we have seen, in taunt-songs. The Prophets naturally 
 express themselves in the language of their day and 
 frequently use this popular metre, not only as the 
 genuine expression of sorrow, but also, as the taunt- 
 song directed against the nations of the world whose 
 downfall they foresee. Ezekiel constantly mentions 
 the Ktnah (ii. 10; xix. 1, 14; xxvi. 17; xxvii. 2, 32; 
 xxviii. 12; xxxii. 2, 16), and uses the metre in his 
 lament over the deportation of the two princes. 
 
 In translating this we must retain the Hebrew 
 word h'phir, which the E.V. generally translates 
 ^^young lion,'' since the Hebrew has many words for 
 Hion," the English only one. Kphir denotes a lion 
 that has attained to maturity. 
 
 (Ezek. xix. 2fi:) 
 
 What of thy mother the lioness ? 
 
 Am6ng Idphirtm, she nourished her whelps. 
 
42 EZEKIEL [CH. 
 
 And she brought up 6ne of her whelps; 
 
 A Kphir he became. 
 And he learned to tear prey, | he ^te m6n. 
 So the n§,tions heard rumour about him ; 
 
 In their pit he was taken: 
 To the L^nd of ^gypt they brought him in chains. 
 When she s4w she had waited, | her hope disappointed, 
 She ch6se out 6ne of her whelps 
 
 She m^de him Kphtv. 
 So he walked about among lions; — 
 
 A KpMr he became. 
 And he learned to tear prey, | he 4te m6n. 
 And he knew... [text doubtful] 
 
 And their cities he wasted 
 Till the L§.nd with its fulness lay desolate 
 
 At the sound of his roaring. 
 So the Nations set on him | from provinces round ; 
 And they spread out their n6t around him: 
 
 In their pit he was t§,ken : 
 So they plit him in cage in chains. 
 And brought him to Babylon's king, 
 
 And brought him to strongholds 
 That his voice should never be heard ag^in 
 
 On the mountains of Israel. 
 
 This passage has all the appearance of having 
 been written in the regular ^inah measure. I have 
 endeavoured to reproduce the irregularities so that 
 the English reader may judge for himself how far the 
 text may have suffered. 
 
 Ezekiel uses the Ktnah in his "Laments" over 
 Tyre (xxvi. I7ff.; xxvii. ; xxviii. 12 ff.) and over 
 
Ill] THE p:iNAH 43 
 
 Pharaoh (xxxii. 2ff.). In all these cases we might 
 have expected mashal, "parable" or " taunt-song ,' 
 rather than Kinah. Ezekiel seems to have been 
 specially fond of the mashal. See his parable of the 
 Great Eagle (xvii. 1 — 10) ; of the seething pot (xxiv. 
 3 — 5) and also of the mother and daughter (xvi. 44 f.). 
 This style of teaching must have been popular with 
 some (Ezek. xxxiii. 30 — 32), while others said, with 
 contempt, "Is he not a speaker ofmashals?" (xx. 49; 
 in the Hebrew, xxi. 5). 
 
 The style of Ezekiel is somewhat diffuse, but I am 
 not sure that his real gift as a poet has been appre- 
 ciated. He was a young man when the mighty 
 Empire of Assyria fell (606 B.c.) never to rise again. 
 The battle of Carchemish in the following year 
 shattered the power of Egypt ; and Ezekiel held 
 up before Pharaoh the warning of Assyria's fall in 
 a fine poem written in a somewhat irregular Kinah 
 measure as follows : 
 
 (Ezek. xxxi. 3ff.) 
 
 3 Behold Asshur | a cedar in Lebanon | beauteous in branches, 
 
 shadowy with leafage | and lofty in height ; 
 And amid the thick boughs | his top-shoot ar6se. 
 
 4 Waters enlarged him | the deep made him grow. 
 
 It ran with its rivers all round | the place of his planting, 
 And sent forth its little canals j to all trees of the field : 
 
 5 Therefore his stature was higher | than all trees of the field, 
 And his boughs became many | his branches grew long | as 
 
 he shot forth from m4ny waters. 
 
44 ASSYRIA AND BABYLON [CH. 
 
 6 In his bodghs there did nest | all birds of the heaven ; 
 And under his branches there gendered | all blasts of the 
 
 field; 
 And there dwelt in his shadow | the wh61e of the nations. 
 
 7 So he grew fair in greatness, | in length of his branches | be- 
 
 cause that his root reached | to waters so m6,ny. 
 
 8 There eclipsed him no cedars | in Garden of God. 
 
 The fir-trees were not like his boughs, | nor were chesnut 
 
 trees like to his branches. 
 No tree in the Garden of G6d | could compare unto him in 
 
 its beauty. 
 
 The latter part of this poem which depicts the 
 fall of Assyria to Hades is singularly like the Kinah 
 poem on the fall of Babylon which we must consider 
 at greater length. 
 
 A fine example of the Kinah is this taunt-song 
 (Is. xiv. 4 ff".) written by an unknown poet, c. 549 B.C., 
 not long before the fall of Babylon. 
 
 The text of this poem is well-nigh perfect. The 
 only change I have suggested is to transpose verses 
 18, 19. 
 
 The natural divisions of the poem occur after 
 verses 6, 8, 11, 15, 17. There is a progress and 
 development of thought which might justify us in 
 speaking of these divisions as strophes. Thus : 
 
 Strophe I, vv. 4 — 6. The fall of Babylon ascribed 
 
 to Jahve. 
 Strophe II, vv. 7, 8. The world of nature rejoices. 
 Strophe III, vv. 9 — 11. Grim joy in Hades. 
 
Ill] THE KINAH 46 
 
 Strophe IV, vv, 12 — 15. The Nations take up the 
 
 taunt-song. 
 Strophe Y, vv. 16, 17. Hades takes up the taunt. 
 Strophe VI, vv. 19 — 20. The Nations conclude 
 
 with the moral. 
 
 Thus strophe VI answers to strophe IV, strophe V 
 to strophe III, while strophes I and II form a general 
 introduction. The portion of the poem referring to 
 Hades is worthy of Dante. We see the King of 
 Terrors rousing up the shades from their shadowy 
 thrones to greet the latest failure of earth's ambitions. 
 We note also the "narrow" look with which the newly 
 awakened shades regard him, as though unable to 
 trust their eyesight (v. 16). 
 
 (Is. xiv. 4ff.) 
 
 4 Thou shalt take up this proverb (i.e. taunt-song) against the 
 King of Babylon and thou shalt say : 
 
 Strophe I. 
 
 Ah ! the T^sk-master n6w is at r6st ! 
 The G61d-city (?) resteth ! 
 6 Jkhxe hath broken the staff of the wicked ; 
 
 The sceptre of rulers ; 
 6 That smote the Peoples in wrath; 
 With ceaseless smiting. 
 That ruled the Nations in anger; 
 With unsparing pursuit. 
 
46 THE FALL OF BABYLON [oh. 
 
 Strophe IL 
 
 7 All 6arth is at r^st and is quiet; 
 
 They burst into s6ng ! 
 
 8 The fir-trees themselves rejoice over thee; 
 
 The cedars of Lebanon ; 
 No hewer hath come up against us, 
 Since thou art laid d6wn. 
 
 Strophe III. 
 
 9 H&des bel6w is in tumult for thee; 
 
 To welcome thy coming ; 
 For th^e it arouseth the shades; 
 
 All the he-goats of earth. 
 It m^keth to rise from their thrones, 
 
 All the kings of the Nations. 
 
 10 [,They dll of them answer and say unto thee] 
 So thou too art weakened as we. 
 
 Made like unto us? 
 
 11 Thy pride is brought down unto H4des ; 
 
 The thrum of thy viols. 
 Beneath thee corruption is strewn: 
 
 And the worm is thy c6ver. 
 
 Strophe IV. 
 
 12 H6w art thou fallen from Heaven, 
 
 Thou Star of the Dawn ! 
 (H6w art thou) hewn to the ground. 
 
 That didst weaken the Nations! 
 
 13 Thou, that didst say in thine heart, 
 
 I will mount unto Heaven. 
 Ab6ve the stars of God 
 
 I will s6t up my thr6ne ; 
 
Ill] THE KfNAH 47 
 
 And will sit in the Mount of Assembly ^ ; 
 The Recess of the North. 
 
 14 I will mount on the heights of the clouds ; 
 
 Will be like the Most High. 
 
 15 Yet to H^des it is thou art brought 
 
 The Recess of the Pit. 
 
 Strophe V. 
 
 16 They that see thee look narrowly 6n thee; 
 
 Upon thee they ponder. 
 Is this the man that troubled earth, 
 That shook the kingdoms? 
 
 17 That made the world a wilderness, 
 
 Its cities wasted? 
 That never freed prisoner h6meward! 
 
 Strophe VI. 
 
 19 And tho6 art cast forth from thy gr4ve, 
 
 As a sh6ot that's rejected ! 
 Clothed with the mangled slain, that go d6wn to the st6nes 
 of the Pit, 
 
 As a carcass that's trampled. 
 
 18 One and k\\, the kings of the Nations, 
 Lie down in honour, each in hds house. 
 
 20 Not with them art thou joined in thy burial ; 
 Since thy land thou destr6yedst, 
 
 Thy people didst sl4y. 
 Unh6noured for ever remaineth 
 The s6ed of ill-d6ers. 
 
 The dirge of the captives (Ps. cxxxvii.) is, as we 
 might expect, written for the most part in the Kinah 
 measure. The text is a little uncertain in v, Z^ where, 
 
 ^ i.e. of the gods. 
 
48 THE CAPTIVES' DIRGE [ch. 
 
 also, the metre fails us. We are glad to feel that 
 vv. 7 — 9 were not written by the author of this lovely 
 Psalm which is complete in itself (vv. 1 — 6). The 
 reader should notice how the word "joy" in v. 6^ 
 responds to "joy" in v. 3^ Any personal joy was 
 impossible when Jerusalem was in ruins. Verse 6* 
 responds to v. 3\ The voice of song would, if at- 
 tempted, mean that "the tongue would cleave to 
 the palate." Verse 5 responds to v. 2. Should the 
 harp be taken down the right hand itself would 
 refuse its office. 
 
 Thus the parallelism of thought completes itself 
 in two strophes. 
 
 (Ps. cxxxvii.) 
 
 1 By Babylon's waters we sat, and we wept, 
 
 As we thought upon Zlon. 
 
 2 There on the willows within her 
 
 We hanged our h^rps. 
 
 3 For th6re our captors demanded 
 
 The language of s6ng ! 
 Our wasters (?)... (asked) j6y ! 
 "Sing us 6ne of Zion's Songs." 
 
 4 H6w should we sing the S6ng of J4hve 
 
 On Land of strangers ? 
 
 5 Could t forget thee Jerusalem 
 
 My right hand should forget! 
 
 6 My tongue should cleave to my p6,late 
 
 If unmindful of thee ! 
 If I set not Jerusalem higher 
 
 Than best of my joy. 
 
Ill] THE KtNAH 49 
 
 Before leaving the Kinah we will give an illus- 
 tration of the way in which it is occasionally modified. 
 The reader will note the grief expressed by the short 
 lines. 
 
 (Is. i. 21 AT.) 
 
 H6w is she turned to a harlot ! 
 
 The faithful City ! 
 Fiill (she was) of justice, | righteousness dwelt in her — 
 
 But n6w — assassins ! 
 Thy sflver is c6me to be dross ; | Thy wine is murdered with 
 
 water ; 
 Thy nobles are rebels ; | Companions of thieves : 
 Each 6ne of them loveth the bribe, | And pursueth the gift. 
 The 6rphan they judge not ; | the cause of the widow | comes 
 not unto them! 
 
 These examples may sufiice, especially as we shall 
 have occasion to consider at some length the Kinah 
 measure in the Book of Lamentations in our chapter 
 which treats of Alphabetical Poetry. 
 
 It may be well, however, to give one example 
 of the way in which the study of Hebrew metre may 
 eventually help us to determine the original text. 
 For this purpose I take Ps. xlii., xliii., which is in the 
 Kinah measure with a refrain in the measure 3 + 3. 
 This Psalm has been carefully analysed by Prof. 
 Rothstein {Grundzuge des hebrdischen Rhythmus), 
 and I shall to some extent follow his analysis, 
 though my conclusions differ from his. 
 
 K. 4 
 
50 METRE AND TEXT [oh. 
 
 The first line (v. 2) is in diiferent measure (viz. 
 2 + 2 + 2 + 2). The question therefore arises : Is it 
 intended as a heading for the Psalm? I have re- 
 tained the word "bleateth" because the Hebrew word 
 is onomatopoetic, denoting the voice of the thirsty 
 stag. We have no word in English for this. But 
 the English reader has a right to know that the Poet 
 applies this strong word to the cry of his soul. 
 
 As bleateth the stag | for the channels of waters, | so bleateth 
 my s6ul | for Thee, O God. 
 
 It is obvious that, in this line of four parts, the 
 third answers exactly to the first, and the fourth 
 to the second. I therefore suggest that, if it be the 
 heading of the whole Psalm, it should imply four 
 sti'ophes answering to one another in this order. 
 
 Our next step must be to omit vv. 5, 9 and w?. 1, 2* 
 of Ps. xliii. which read as prose ; also xliii. 2^ which 
 is a repetition of xlii. 10^ 
 
 With these omissions the Psalm falls into four 
 equal strophes which answer to one another in the 
 order suggested by the heading. Thus : 
 
 (Ps. xlii. — xliii.) 
 
 2 As bleateth the stag | for the channels of waters, | so 
 
 bleateth my soul | for Thee, G6d | 
 
 Strophe I {''As Ueateth the stag''). Scheme 3+2: Refrain 3+3. 
 
 3 My soul is athirst for Jahve — 
 
 For the God of my life ! 
 
Ill] THE kINAH 61 
 
 When shall I c6me and beh61d 
 
 The Presence of Jahve ? 
 4 Tears have been mine for f6od, 
 
 By d^y and by night, 
 While they s^y to me all day 16ng, 
 
 Wh^re is thy God ? 
 
 Refrain. 
 
 6 Why so depressed, O my s6ul ? 
 
 And why shouldst thou m6an within me? 
 Wait for Jahve till I th^nk Him, 
 As the help of my face, and my G6d. 
 
 Strophe II (^^F(yr the channels of waters"). 
 
 7 Within me my s6ul is cast down, 
 
 Since I celebrate Thee 
 From a L^nd of J6rdan and Hermons — 
 A mountain of Mitzor! 
 
 8 Where d6ep is crying to deep. 
 
 For the sound of Thy torrents ! 
 The wh61e of Thy breakers and billows 
 Have g6ne over me. 
 {Repeat Refrain.) 
 Strophe III ("iSb bleateth my souV). 
 
 10 I would s^y to the G6d of my R6ck, 
 
 Why shouldst Thou forget me? 
 Why should I mournfully w^lk 
 
 Through oppression of foes ? 
 
 11 'Tis as murder within my b6nes 
 
 When mine enemies revfle me; 
 When they s^y to me §,11 day long 
 Where is thy G6d ? 
 
 12 {Repeat Refrain.) 
 
 4—2 
 
62 THIRST FOR GOD [OH. 
 
 Strophe IV {''For Thee, God''). 
 (Ps. xliii.) 
 
 3 Send forth Thy Light and Thy Truth ; 
 
 Let them lead me 6n : 
 To Thy h61y Mount let them bring me — 
 Unto Thy Tabernacles. 
 
 4 Till I c6me to the Altar of Jahve — 
 
 To the G6d of my joy ; 
 And I gleefully thank Thee with h^rp, 
 J^hve my G6d ! 
 
 5 {Repeat Refrain.) 
 
 The Psalm cannot be understood without reference 
 to Joel i. 20 and Job vi. 15 — 20, for it is not the 
 thirst of the stag but the disappointed thirst when 
 it finds the channel dry. So, also it is not the thirst 
 of the soul but the disappointed thirst when the 
 channels of grace yield no joy (strophes II and III). 
 But the refrain insists upon the truth that these 
 channels of grace will again flow with joy, and the 
 fourth strophe sees the realization of this hope. 
 
 The passage in Joel to which we refer may be 
 translated as follows : 
 
 (Joeli. 19 f) 
 J4hve to Thee I cry — 
 
 For fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness ; 
 And fl^me hath enkindled all the trees of the field. 
 The beasts of the field are each bleating unto Thee. 
 For dried are the ch^^nnels of w4ter ; 
 And fire hath devoiired the pastures of the wilderness. 
 
Ill] THE KINAH 63 
 
 Though the regular form of the Ktnah is 3 + 2 we 
 have already seen that it admits of modifications. 
 One further instance may be given from the beautiful 
 elegy on Moab (Is. xvi. 9flf.) which Isaiah seems to 
 have quoted from an ancient source (see v. 13). 
 
 To understand this elegy the reader must remember 
 that the word hedad which properly signifies the 
 joyous "vintage-shout" may also signify the "battle- 
 shout" so that Jeremiah (xlviii. 33) speaks of a "hedad 
 that is no hedad." In our elegy the word is used in 
 both senses. 
 
 The metre is 2 + 2 + 2 with two lines of 
 2 + 2 + 2 + 2. 
 
 Therefore I weep | with the weeping of J4zer | for Sfbmah's 
 
 vine. 
 I bedew thee with tears | He8hb6n EPaleh | for on harvest and 
 
 frditage | the hedad is fallen ! 
 G6ne is all gladness | and joy from the tillage | the vineyards 
 
 are s6ngless, | not ringing with shout. 
 The wine in the presses | no treader now treads ; | the hedad 
 
 is silenced ! 
 So my b6wels for M6ab | are sounding as h^rps, | and my 
 
 s6ul for Kir-heres. 
 
 There is a play upon the name "Kir-heres," as 
 in Is. xix. 18 ; the "City of the Sun" is become the 
 "City of destruction." The whole passage also 
 contains instances of alliteration of which Isaiah was 
 peculiarly fond and which it is impossible to reproduce 
 in a translation. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 ACROSTIC, OR ALPHABETICAL, POETRY 
 
 The poems in the Bible which are directly 
 alphabetical are the following : Pss. ix. and x. (im- 
 perfect), XXV., xxxiv., xxxviL, cxi., cxii., cxix., cxlv. ; 
 Prov. xxxi. 10 — 31 ; Lam. i., ii., iii., iv. At first sight 
 the arrangement of lines or verses under the order 
 of successive letters of the alphabet might seem 
 beneath the dignity of the Sacred Writings. Nor 
 is it sufficient to regard such arrangement as an aid 
 to memory. I hope to shew that it had a deeper 
 significance, and that it indicates a division in strophes 
 which has not yet been recognised. 
 
 The Book of Lamentations consists of five chapters. 
 These chapters are of dififerent date and of difierent 
 structure. The first chapter is generally recognised 
 to be the oldest ; each verse consists of three lines, 
 the first line of each verse commencing with the 
 corresponding letter of the alphabet. The metre is 
 elegiac, i.e. Kinah measure, the poem being a lament 
 over the death of Israel as a Nation. 
 
CH. IV] ALPHABETICAL POETRY 65 
 
 We give a translation of the first two verses as 
 a specimen : 
 
 (Lam. i. If.) 
 
 X H6w doth she sit all alone | 
 
 the (once) populous City ! 
 H6w hath she c6me to be widowed | 
 
 once great among nations ! 
 Sh^ that was queen among kingdoms | 
 
 now come under tribute ! 
 ^ She bitterly weeps in the night | 
 
 with her tears on her cheek ! 
 She hath not a one to bring comfort | 
 
 out of ^11 of her lovers ! 
 Her friends are turned traitors towards her | 
 
 they have c6me to be Enemies! 
 
 The second chapter is similar to the first except 
 for the fact that the order of two of the letters 
 (fi and J^) is transposed. The third chapter is sup- 
 posed to be the latest. It has three lines to each 
 letter of the alphabet ; a verse has been assigned 
 to each letter, thus giving 66 verses though, properly, 
 there should have been only 22. Here again we 
 note that the letter 3 (vv. 46 — 48) comes be/ore the 
 letter y (vv. 49 — 51), and this is the case also in the 
 fourth chapter. We begin to suspect that this repre- 
 sents the original order of the Hebrew alphabet ; we 
 therefore turn back to chapter I and we find that 
 vv. 16 and 17 which represent y and 3 respectively 
 would give better sense if transposed. We are thus 
 
66 LAMENTATIONS III [ch. 
 
 confirmed in our belief that, at the time when these 
 chapters of Lamentations were composed, the order 
 of the letters was ^, y, not J^, fi as at present. We 
 shall see the importance of this when we come to the 
 earlier group of Alphabetical Psalms. Chapters IV 
 and V have two lines to a verse but chapter V differs 
 in that it is not alphabetical, and the lines are 
 shorter. 
 
 Thus the Book of Lamentations consists of five 
 Elegies, the oldest of which may date almost from 
 the age of Jeremiah. These elegies were appointed 
 for use on the 9th of Ab when the Jewish Church 
 bewailed the destruction of the first Temple. I sug- 
 gest that they were composed, at different dates, for 
 use on that Fast-day. 
 
 We will now translate Lam. iii. retaining as far as 
 possible the rhythm of the Hebrew. 
 
 (Lam. iii.) 
 
 1 ^ I am the m&n that hath 16oked on affliction — 
 
 by the rod of His wrath. 
 
 2 {^ He 16d me and made me to walk 
 
 in darkness, not light. 
 
 3 {< Against me He c6nstantly turneth His h^nd — 
 
 ^11 the day. 
 
 4 )3 He hath worn out my flesh and my skfn — 
 
 broken my bones. 
 
 5 ]3 He hath builded and compassed me round — 
 
 with gall and with travail. 
 
IV] ALPHABETICAL POETRY 57 
 
 6 ]3 He hath m4de me to dwell in dark places — 
 
 as the 4ge-long dead. 
 
 7 y He hath hedged me aroiind, that I cannot go f6rth* — 
 
 He hath weighted my ch^in. 
 
 8 y Yea, though I cry out and shout — 
 
 He shuts out my prayer. 
 
 9 ^ He hath hedged my ways (as with) hewn-stone — 
 
 He hath twisted my p^ths. 
 
 10 "7 He is to me as a be^r in w^it — 
 
 as a lion 2 in coverts. 
 
 11 *7 My w4y8 He hath turned, He hath pulled me in pieces — 
 
 hath rendered me desolate. 
 
 12 T He b^nt His b6w, and He set me 
 
 as the mark for the ^rrow^ 
 
 13 n He hath caused to 6nter my reins 
 
 the shafts of His quiver. 
 
 14 ^ I became a derision to k\l the Peoples — 
 
 their song all the day. 
 
 15 n He hath filled me with bitterness, m4de me 
 
 drunken with w6rmwood. 
 
 16 *\ And He br^ke my teeth with gravel — 
 
 fed(?) me with ^.shes. 
 
 17 ) Thou hast cast out my s6ul from peace — 
 
 I forgat (all) prosperity. 
 
 18 *\ And I s4id, my glory hath perished— 
 
 and my h6pe all from Jahve. 
 
 19 I I remember my aflBlction and my 86rrow — 
 
 wormwood and gall. 
 1 Cf. Job xix. 8, XXX. 20. 2 JqI, j, iq^ 
 
 3 Cf. Job vii. 20, xvi. 12 f. 
 
68 LAMENTATIONS III [CH. 
 
 20 t My s6ul hath them still in rem6mbrance— 
 
 is humbled within me ! 
 
 21 I This one thing I l^y to my heart — 
 
 therefore I h6pe. 
 
 Israel trusts in the Covenant of Creation (Jer. 
 xxxi. 35—37 ; Is. Ixvi. 22). 
 
 22 n J^hve's mercies are not ^nded^ — 
 
 His compassions f4il not. 
 
 23 n They are new as the mornings come round — 
 
 Great is Thy faithfulness. 
 
 24 n My portion is Jahve, saith my s6ul— 
 
 I therefore aw4it Him. 
 
 25 t3 Good to His patient ones is J^hve — 
 
 to the soul that doth seek Him. 
 
 26 to G6od, one should h6pe and be still — 
 
 for salvation of Jahve. 
 
 27 tD Good, for man that he should bear — 
 
 the y6ke in his youth. 
 
 28 *> Let him sit alone and be silent— 
 
 since He laid it up6n him. 
 
 29 ^ Let him put his mouth in the dust— 
 
 if perchance there be h6pe. 
 
 30 ^ Let him giwe his cheek to the smiter^— 
 
 be filled with reproach. 
 
 31 3 For He will not cast off for ever— 
 
 the Lord (will be gracious). 
 
 32 3 ^^^ though He cause grief He will pity- 
 
 as His mercy abounds. 
 
 1 See Versions. '^ Is. 1. 6. 
 
IV] ALPHABETICAL POETRY 69 
 
 33 ^ For 'tis not from His heart He afflicteth 
 . or grieveth mankind. 
 
 34 7 That h6 (the enemy) should crush under f6ot 
 
 I all the bound ones of earth — 
 
 35 7 That he should pervert human justice 
 
 J in the face of the Highest — 
 
 36 7 That he wrong a man in his c6venant — 
 
 The Lord cannot see ! 
 
 37 t2 Who is there that spake and it was— 
 
 if the Lord did not 6rder ? 
 
 38 f2 Should there not come from the mouth of the Hfghest- 
 
 Evil and good ? 
 
 39 1^ What is man that liveth, to murmur?— 
 
 a m^n for his sins? 
 
 40 i Let us search and try our ways — 
 
 and return unto Jahve. 
 Let us lift our hearts, palms uplifted,— 
 
 to God in the Heavens. 
 It is we that transgressed and rebelled 
 
 and Thou hast not pardoned! 
 
 Thou hast hedged Thee with 4nger and followed us hard— 
 Thou hast slain without pity. 
 
 Thou hast hedged Thee around with thick cloud — 
 that prayer cannot pass. 
 
 Thou hast m4de us as dr6ss and as refuse — 
 in the midst of the Peoples. 
 
 46 t) They g4pe on us open mouthed — 
 
 even all our enemies. 
 
 47 S Fear and snare are ours — 
 
 desolation, destruction. 
 
 41 
 
 :i 
 
 42 
 
 i 
 
 43 
 
 D 
 
 44 
 
 D 
 
 45 
 
 D 
 
60 LAMENTATIONS III [ch. 
 
 48 t) Mine eye runs fountains of w^-ters — 
 
 for the hurt of my People. 
 
 49 W Mine eye runs d6wn and ceaseth not — 
 
 with no intermission. 
 
 50 y Till He look f6rth and behold- 
 
 Even Jahve from Heaven. . 
 
 51 y Mine 6ye affecteth my soul— 
 
 for the daughters of my City. 
 
 62 )^ They hunted me s6re like a bird — 
 
 my causeless Enemies. 
 
 53 ^^ They ctit oflf my life in the dungeon— 
 
 and placed a stone on me. 
 
 64 ^f Waters flowed 6ver mine head — 
 
 I said, I am ended. 
 
 65 p I called Thy N^me, O Jahve— 
 
 ' from the depths of the ddngeon. 
 
 56 p My voice Thou hast heard, Oh close not Thine 6ar — 
 ' from my breathing, my cry. 
 
 57 p Thou wast near in the d^y that I called Thee— 
 ' Thou saidest, Fear n6t. 
 
 68 *^ Lord, Thou hast pleaded the cause of my soul — 
 hast ransomed my life. 
 
 59 "^ Thou, Jkhwe, hast witnessed my wronging — 
 
 give me now justice ! 
 
 60 '^ Thou hast seen all their vengeance — 
 
 their devlsings against me. 
 
 61 ^ Thou hast h^ard their reproach, J^hve — 
 
 their device all against me. 
 
 62 {Jf The t41k and the thought of mine Adversaries — 
 
 against me all d^y. 
 
IV] ALPHABETICAL POETRY 61 
 
 63 ^ Behold ! when they sit, when they rise — 
 
 f am their s6ng. 
 
 64 n Render them their recompense, O Jahve — 
 
 like the work of their hands. 
 
 65 n ^^ve to them blindness of heart — 
 
 Thy curse upon them. 
 
 66 p Pursue them in wrath and destroy them — 
 
 from beneath Jahve's heavens. 
 
 At first sight this poem seems to consist of 
 alternations of sorrow and hope without order or 
 arrangement : but if we look closer we find that the 
 natural breaks occur after the letters 1, 7> ^) H. This 
 gives three long strophes of 6 letters each closed 
 by a short strophe of 4 letters. In other words, the 
 arrangement of the strophes corresponds with the 
 law of the Kinah measure (3 + 2), in which the poem 
 is written. This, of course, may be accidental. We 
 shall test it further. Meanwhile it is suggestive. 
 The subjects of the four strophes may be given as 
 follows : 
 
 Strophe I (6 letters ^^ to 1). Complaint against 
 
 God. 
 
 Strophe II (6 letters T to 7). Resignation and 
 
 hope. 
 
 Strophe III (6 letters 12 to V). Complaint against 
 
 God modified hy 
 resignation. 
 
62 LETTERS AND STRUCTURE [ch. 
 
 Strophe IV (4 letters p to H). God has heard, 
 
 and will repay 
 the enemy. 
 
 If we name these strophes A, B, C, D, respectively, 
 then, if the poem be studied, it will be seen that 
 C answers to A and D to B. Besides this larger 
 division into strophes the reader will notice that the 
 letter h has become the middle letter of the alphabet. 
 He should therefore compare the three 5< lines with 
 the three D lines and so throughout the alphabet. 
 This will throw great light on the poem. Note 
 especially the relation between i«C and 12 (vv. 1 — 3 
 with 37—39). 
 
 ^ and D (vv. 7—9 with 43—45). 
 
 1 and ^ (vv. 10—12 with 46—48). 
 
 1 and )i (vv. 16—18 with 52—54). 
 
 The six letters T to 7 (vv. 19 — 36) have to cor- 
 respond with the four letters p to D (vv. 55 — 66). 
 It should be noted especially how vv. 34 — 36 are 
 answered by the curse in vv. 64 — 66. 
 
 We will now test our conclusions by seeing how 
 far they apply to the Alphabetical Psalms. For this 
 purpose we choose Ps. xxxvii. as being one of the 
 most perfect specimens of the Alphabetical Psalms of 
 the First Collection. 
 
IV] ALPHABETICAL POETRY 63 
 
 (Ps. xxxvii. Scheme 3 + 3.) 
 Strophe I. 
 
 1 X Fret not thyself at ill-doers, | Grudge not at w6rkers of 
 
 wrong. 
 
 2 For as gr^ss they are speedily mown, | And like the 
 
 green herbage they wither. 
 
 3 "2 Trdst in J4hve and do good ; | Dwell in the Land, feed 
 
 on His Faith. 
 
 4 And delight thee in J^hve, | that H6 may grant th6e | 
 
 the desire of thy he^^rt. 
 
 5 y Dev61ve upon J^hve thy way ; | Trust Him, and He will 
 
 d6 it. 
 
 6 He will bring out thy right as the light, | And thy 
 
 cause as the noonday. 
 
 7 T Be still for Jahve ; wait for Him ! — 
 
 Fret not at him that prospers, | At the m^n that effects 
 his designs. 
 
 8 n Cease from 6,nger; leave wrath; | Fret not; 'tis merely 
 
 for harm. 
 
 9 For ill-doers sh^U be cut 6ff, | While the waiters on 
 
 Jahve are they | that inherit the L4nd. 
 
 10 r*) Yet but a little and the wicked is n6t ! | Thou may'st 
 p6nder his place, but he is not! 
 While the humble inherit the Land | And delight in 
 abundance of peace. 
 
 Strophe II. 
 
 12 I The wicked laid plans for the righteous, | And gnashed 
 
 at him with his teeth. 
 
 13 The Lord will laugh at him, | For He sees that his d4y is 
 
 c6ming. 
 
64 LETTERS AND STRUCTURE [ch. 
 
 14 n The wicked have drawn their 8w6rd, | Have b6nt their 
 
 bdw — 
 To c4st down the poor and n6edy, | To slaughter those 
 upright of w^y. 
 
 15 Their sw6rd shall pierce thine own heart ] And their 
 
 b6ws shall be broken. 
 
 16 \^ A righteous man's little is better, j Than abundance of 
 
 many wicked. 
 
 17 For the ^rms of the wicked shall be br6ken, I While 
 
 J4hve uph61deth the righteous. 
 
 18 > J^hve noteth the days of the upright, | So their heritage 
 
 lasts for ever. 
 
 19 They ^re not shamed in evil times, | And in d&,ys of 
 
 dearth they are filled. 
 
 20 ^ But wicked-ones perish — 
 
 And J^hve's enemies, | like the beauty of the meadows, | 
 Are past in sm6ke and gone. 
 
 21 17 The wicked b6rroweth and payeth not; 1 While the 
 righteous is gracious and giving. 
 
 For His blessed inherit the Land; | His cursed ones 
 ^re cut oflF. 
 
 Strophe III. 
 
 23 f2 'Tis from J^hve the steps of a man are established, ] 
 
 When his way gives Him pleasure. 
 
 24 Though he fall he will not be cast 6flf, | For Jahve up- 
 
 h61deth his h4nd. 
 
 25 ^ Young I wks and now am old | Yet never saw the 
 
 righteous left | [Or his seed begging bread. . .] 1 gloss. 
 
 26 He is ever gracious and lendeth ; | And his seed is for 
 
 blessing. 
 
IV] ALPHABETICAL POETRY 65 
 
 27 D Turn from 6vil and d6 the g6od, | And dwell thou for 
 
 6ver. 
 
 28 For J4hve Idveth justice, | And will never desert His 
 
 saints. 
 
 30 ^ The mouth of the righteous meditates wisdom, | And 
 
 his tongue will be talking of judgement. 
 
 31 In his he4rt is the Lkw of his God, | So his st6ps do not 
 
 falter. 
 
 28^ y Sinners are destroyed [? text]... | The s6ed of the wicked 
 is cut off. 
 The righteous inherit the L4nd, | And dwell therein 
 for ever. 
 
 The structure of the poem requires that S should 
 come before J^ just as it does in Lamentations. I have 
 therefore transposed these lines. 
 
 Strophe IV. 
 
 32 >f The wicked sets watch for the righteous, | And seeketh 
 
 to sl^y him — 
 
 33 J^hve will not leave him in his hand, | Nor condemn 
 
 him when judged — 
 
 34 p W^it thou for Jahve and keep His W^y, | To inherit the 
 
 L^nd will He raise thee. 
 Thou shalt j6y in the wicked's extinction. 
 
 35 ^ I have seen the wicked tyrannically strong, ( Outspreading 
 
 as Lebanon cedars. 
 
 36 I passed — and 16, he was gone ; | I sought him — he 
 
 could not be found! 
 
 37 ty N6te the perfect (man), regard the upright, | For the 
 
 m4n of peace has a future : 
 K. 5 
 
66 LETTERS AND STRUCTURE [CH. 
 
 38 While transgressors are wh611y destr6yed ; | The future of 
 
 the wicked is extinct. 
 
 39 n The salvation of the righteous is from J^hve, | Their 
 
 str6nghold in time of distress. 
 
 40 For 'tis Jahve that helps and delivers them ; i Delivers 
 
 from sinners and saves them, | Because they confided 
 in Him. 
 
 The structure of this Alphabetical Psalm is in 
 short lines of 3 beats, but it is better to arrange it in 
 longer lines of 6 beats with caesura, for the most part, 
 in the middle. The reason for this will be seen in 
 w. 4, 7*, 20, 34^, 40, where the arrangement is varied. 
 
 The letters of the alphabet are divided into four 
 groups, with the letter f2 as the middle letter, exactly 
 as in Lam. iii., so that the Psalm falls into four corre- 
 sponding strophes. But whereas in Lam. iii., where 
 the JS^tnah measure was 3 + 2, we had three long 
 strophes and one short one, here, where the measure 
 is 3 + 3 the strophes are of equal length of 5 letters 
 each. But, since there are 22 letters in the Hebrew 
 alphabet, and the letter )t} must always be the central 
 letter, the author of our Psalm had two superfluous 
 letters in the first half, i.e. the letters *) and 7 at the 
 end of strophes I and IL He might have omitted 
 these letters altogether, as did the original author 
 of Pss. XXV. and xxxiv. (see my notes), in which case 
 they would probably have been supplied by a later 
 editor; or he might himself have written these 
 
IV] ALPHABETICAL POETRY ^1 
 
 verses (10 and 21) with the intention of adding no 
 new thought. 
 
 In my opinion the concluding lines of vv. 9, 20, 
 which remind us of alexandrines, formed the original 
 close of strophes I and II respectively ; I have 
 therefore placed vv, 10, 21 in square brackets. The 
 reader should now carefully compare the four 
 strophes, not regarding the verses (which have no 
 ancient authority), but the Hebrew letters. He will 
 see that the closest relationship is between the five 
 letters of strophe I and those of strophe III, and 
 also between the five letters of strophe II and those 
 of strophe IV. Thus the relationship of the strophes 
 is identical with that of Lam. iii. 
 
 The main subject of the Psalm is the religious 
 difficulty caused by the prosperity of the wicked. 
 The subject of strophe I (see esp. vv. 5, 6) is the 
 command to cast the burden of this difficulty upon 
 God. Strophe III answers, letter by letter, to 
 strophe I but adds the thought of active work (cf. 
 esp. vv. 27, 28 with vv. 5, 6). 
 
 Strophe II, in its central thought {v. 16), asserts 
 that in spite of the poverty and low estate of the 
 righteous, their condition is better than that of their 
 triumphant enemies. Strophe IV takes up this 
 thought of strophe II, letter by letter, and comes to 
 the conclusion, which, as we shall see, did not satisfy 
 Job, that a sudden destruction which will overtake 
 
 5—2 
 
68 PSALMS CXI, CXII [CH. 
 
 the wicked (vv. 35, 36) will justify the ways of God 
 with men. 
 
 Before leaving the subject of Alphabetical poetry, 
 we must take one example from the Psalms of the 
 Third Collection, which we naturally expect to be of 
 later date than the poems we have already considered. 
 We select the pair of Psalms cxi. and cxii. which, 
 indeed, form one Psalm in two strophes. 
 
 (Ps. cxi.) 
 
 Scheme 3 + 3. Subject, The Good God. 
 
 ^ Jahve I praise with whole he^rt, | ^ In communion of 
 
 siints and assembly. 
 y GreSit are the works of J^hve ; | ^ Exquisite to ^1 that 
 
 choose them. 
 n Splendour and majesty is His w6rk ; | 1 His righteousness 
 
 abideth for 6ver. 
 I A Name hath He made by His w6nders ; | H " Gracious 
 
 and Merciful" is J§,hve. 
 ^ He giveth food to his fearers; | *i He remembereth His 
 
 Covenant for ever. . 
 
 ^ His power He shewed for His People ; | 7 Giving them the 
 
 heritage of Gentiles. 
 
 f2 The w6rk8 of His h^nds are v6rity; | ^ All of his precepts 
 
 are sure. 
 J3 They are stayed for ever and ever ; | y Being wrought in 
 
 truth and right. 
 ^ Redemption He sent to His People; | ^f He enjoined His 
 
 Covenant for ever. 
 
 P H61y and feared is His Name. 
 
IV] ALPHABETICAL POETRY * 69 
 
 *1 The beginning of wisdom is [ J^hve's] fear ; | ^ Discretion is 
 theirs that practise it. 
 
 n His praise abldeth for ever. 
 
 (Ps. cxii.) 
 Scheme 3 + 3. Subject, The Good Man. 
 
 X happy the fearer of J^hve, | ^ That greatly delights in 
 
 His Laws. 
 ^ Mighty on earth is his seed; | *7 The generation of saints 
 
 shall be blessed, 
 n Riches and wealth in his hotise ; | ^ His righteousness 
 
 abideth for ever. 
 ] His light is risen in darkness ; | H " Gracious and merciful " 
 
 is the righteous. 
 ^ He is good gracious and giving; | *> He maintaineth his 
 
 pr6mises rightly. . 
 
 '2 He remaineth unmoved for ever; | 7 He shall be for an 
 
 endless N4me. 
 
 J2 At 6vil tidings he feareth n6t ; | ^ Fixed is his helirt upon 
 
 J4hve. 
 5 Stayed is his he^rt, unfearing ; | y Till he see his desire on 
 
 his foes. 
 ^ He scattered, he g4ve to the needy; | *^ His righteousness 
 
 abideth for ever. 
 
 p His h6m is exalted with h6nour. 
 
 *^ The wicked sees and is grieved ; | ^ He gn^sheth his teeth 
 and pineth. 
 n The desire of wicked (men) perishes. 
 
 Each of these Psalms is complete in itself. Each 
 is divided into two Parts or strophes at the letter ft 
 
70 STRUCTURE OF [ch. 
 
 as in the case of other alphabetical arrangements. 
 Thus, if we analyse Ps. cxi. we see that in Part I 
 the central thought is the Covenant Name of God 
 as ^^ Gracious and Merciful" in letters T> H. If we 
 refer to the corresponding line in Part II we see 
 that it reads, under letter p, ^^Holy and feared is 
 His Name." Indeed the six lines (12 letters) of 
 Part I correspond with the six lines (10 letters) of 
 Part 11. The same is true of Ps. cxii. which speaks 
 of the good man. The central thought of Part I is 
 given by the letters T, H viz. that, out of his darkness, 
 a light springs up for him because he is gracious 
 and merciful. The corresponding line in Part II is 
 given by the letter p "ffis horn is exalted with 
 honour." The connexion in Hebrew between the horn 
 and rising light may be seen from Ps. cxxxii. I7f. ; 
 Ex. xxxiv. 29 f., 35 ; Hab. iii. 4. 
 
 If, in each of these Psalms, the reader will carefully 
 compare Part I with Part II, line by line, he will see 
 that these Parts are really strophes ; so that they 
 ought to be sung antiphonally. But though each 
 Psalm is complete in itself the full meaning is only 
 brought out when we read the two Psalms together, 
 line by line. The good man (Ps. cxii.) is a reflex of 
 the Good God (Ps. cxi.), so much so that the same 
 words may be applied to each (see letters \ H, ^). 
 The liberality of God (Ps. cxi. letters 3, ^) is shewn 
 in that gift of Redemption which makes His Covenant 
 
IV] ALPHABETICAL POETRY 71 
 
 eternal. The liberality of the good man (Ps. cxii., 
 letters fi, V) is shewn in gifts of mercy which make 
 his righteousness eternal (cf. 2 Cor. ix. 9 ff.). Thus, 
 while each Psalm has two strophes, the two Psalms 
 are strophical the one to the other, and should always 
 be sung together. 
 
 We may now sum up the results at which we 
 have arrived in our study of the alphabetical poems. 
 In every case the alphabet has been divided at the 
 letter ^, thus giving a grouping of ten letters, ten 
 being the sacred number of the Priest Code and of 
 the Covenant, The allusions to the Covenant in 
 these poems is very frequent. They all belong to 
 the "Wisdom" literature and are didactic in their 
 tone. In the earlier alphabetical poems (Lam. and 
 Pss. of First Collection) the letter 3 came before J^. 
 In the later poems (Pss. of Third Collection) the order 
 of the alphabet was as at present. 
 
 Since the Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters it is 
 evident that the letter ^, which is the 13th letter 
 cannot be the "middle letter," and yet we find that it 
 was so reckoned by Talmudic writers who thus make 
 the first (X), middle (^), and last letter (H) of the 
 alphabet (which in Hebrew spell the word "tridh") 
 to stand for "the Seal of God" (Jerus. Tal. Sank. i. 
 Quoted by Buxtorf, s.v. r\f2^)' This I believe has 
 never been explained. I suggest that the solution 
 is to be found in the arrangement of the Alphabetical 
 
72 THE GOOD WIFE [cH. 
 
 (Covenant) Psalms which we have ah-eady con- 
 sidered. 
 
 The latest of the alphabetical poems in the Bible 
 is the poem on the "good wife" (Prov. xxxi. 10 — 31) 
 which probably belongs to the Greek period. It 
 consists of 22 lines, each commencing with the cor- 
 responding letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, but it is 
 not divided at the letter t^. It is not easy to see 
 any law on which it is constructed, except that the 
 two last lines sum up the moral, in the nature of 
 a Chorus, thus making the poem itself consist of 
 20 lines, or two tens, closing with the lines p, 1 
 which certainly seem to correspond with the opening 
 lines of the poem. 
 
 (Prov. xxxi. 10—31.) 
 
 X Who can attain a brave wife ? | Priceless she is beyond 
 
 rubies. 
 ^ Her husband's heai-t may trust her | and l^ck no manner 
 
 of gain. 
 ^ She requites him 6nly with good, | k\\ the d^ys of her life. 
 *^ She seeks out wool and flax | and works with willing hands. 
 ^ She is like the ships of the trader, | she bringeth her food 
 
 from af^r. 
 •^ She rises while yet it is night | and supplieth the needs 
 
 of her honied 
 ] She considers a field and buys it: | with the frdit of her 
 
 hands it is planted 2. 
 
 1 A probable gloss adds " and a laio for her maidens.'^ 
 
 2 The text has ''she plantetha vineyard." This destroys the metre. 
 
IV] ALPHABETICAL POETRY 73 
 
 n She gfrdeth her lofns with might, | and m^keth strong her 
 
 arms, 
 to She perceiveth her traffic succeed ; | her lamp is unquenched 
 
 by night. 
 > She layeth her hands to the spindle | and her p^lms hold 
 
 the distaff. 
 3 She openeth her palms to the poor | and stretcheth out 
 . hands to the needy. 
 
 7 No fear of the snow for her household | for her household 
 
 is double-clad. 
 f^ She maketh her tapestry - coverings ; | her clothing fine- 
 linen and ptirple. 
 ^ Her husband is known in the gates ; | where he sltteth 
 
 with the elders of the land. 
 ^ She worketh garments and selleth ; | and girdles she gives 
 
 to the merchant, 
 y So strong so fine her clothing | she laughs at coming time. 
 £j She openeth her mouth with wisdom, | with kindly 16re on 
 
 her tongue. 
 >f She looks well to the ways of her house | and 6ats no 
 
 bread of Idleness. 
 p Her sons rise up and bless her, | and her husband praises 
 ' her (s4ying) 
 
 •^ "Many daughters are brave | but thou hast excelled them 
 
 all." 
 
 Chorus speaks. 
 
 {y Gr^ce and beauty are fleeting and vain, ] a God-fearing 
 
 wife is the 6ne to be praised. 
 f\ Give her the fruit of her hands, | while her deeds tell her 
 
 praise in the gates. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING' 
 
 The religion of the Jew was an historical religion. 
 It was wrought out, little by little (Heb. i. 1), in the 
 experiences of the Nation. And certainly there never 
 has been a Nation upon earth that might more fitly 
 be termed "the Suffering Nation." But it is equally 
 true to say that there never has been a Nation that 
 has had throughout its history the same consciousness 
 of a Divine call, of a Divine sonship. The problem 
 that Israel had — I do not say to solve, but — to set 
 forth before the world, was how to reconcile the 
 truth of Israel's sonship with the fact of Israel's 
 sufierings. 
 
 From the time when Amos (c. 760 B.C.) uttered 
 his noble paradox (Amos iii. 2), down to the time 
 of Christ, the poets and prophets of Israel have 
 striven in divers ways to face the problem, Why 
 should the righteous suffer ? In the present Chapter 
 we shall consider some of the attempts that have been 
 made to solve this problem. 
 
 But it is impossible to do this until the English 
 reader shall come to realise that modern individuality 
 
CH. V] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING 75 
 
 must not be read into the Psalter, where the speaker 
 is Israel and where "I" and "we" may constantly 
 interchange as in Num. xx. 19 f. "And the children 
 of Israel said unto him (Edom), We will go up by the 
 high way : and if we drink of thy water, I and my 
 cattle, then will I give the price thereof : let me only, 
 without (doing) anything (else), pass through on my 
 feet. And he said. Thou shalt not pass through. And 
 Edom came out against him...." This characteristic 
 of Hebrew thought has, under God's Providence, 
 served a great end, and it is most unfortunate that 
 it should be so constantly disregarded, even by 
 theologians. 
 
 We must now briefly review, as far as possible 
 in historical order, the various answers which have 
 been given to the question, Why should the righteous 
 Nation sufier ? 
 
 Deuteronomy (622 B.C.) appears to promise to 
 Israel every kind of temporal prosperity. "In the 
 event of obedience, Israel will be 'set on high' above 
 all nations (xxvi. 19, xxviii. 1), and enjoy material 
 superiority over them" (xv. 6^ xxviii. 12^, 13). 
 [Driver, Deuteronomy, p. 33.] 
 
 The School of Deuteronomy expresses itself in 
 such language as that of the Alphabetical Psalms, 
 e.g. Ps. xxxvii. 25 : 
 
 I have been young and now am old, 
 Yet never saw the righteous left, 
 Or his seed begging bread. 
 
76 JEREMIAH'S EXPERIENCE [ch. 
 
 This teaching of course involves an eternal truth, 
 but it might easily become misleading, and was soon 
 found to need supplementing. 
 
 The death of good king Josiah in the battle of 
 Megiddo (609 B.c.) and the times that followed gave 
 true men cause to think. Then it was {c. ^00 B.C.) 
 that Habakkuk pleaded his difficulty with God (Hab. 
 i. 13) : "Thou that art of purer eyes than to behold 
 evil, and that canst not look upon wrong, how is it 
 Thou canst look upon the treacherous-ones and bold- 
 est Thy peace when the wicked-one (i.e. the Chaldean) 
 swalloweth up the man that is more righteous than 
 he (i.e. Israel)?" Habakkuk found no answer to his 
 difficulty except to trust and wait (Hab. ii. 1 — 4). 
 
 The life-task of Jeremiah (626 — 586 B.C.), the man 
 of sorrows, was to prove from his own experience, 
 that suffering was a way of service, and did not imply 
 the anger of God. His own deep consciousness of sin 
 and infirmity never hid from him the certainty that 
 God had called him (i. 5ff.) to be His "Servant." He 
 shrank from the hard task of this service, e.g. viii. 23 ff. 
 (E.V. ix. 1 ff ). 
 
 6h that my head were waters, 
 
 And mine eye a fountain of tears, 
 
 That by d&,y and by night I might weep, 
 
 For the sl^in of the Datighter of my People ! 
 
 6h that I h^d in the Wilderness 
 
 A w%farer's lodge! 
 
V] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING 11 
 
 That f might forsake ray People, 
 
 And g6t me gone from them. 
 For they are adulterers all, 
 
 An assembly of traitors ! 
 
 (xi. 19.) 
 
 W6e is me for my hurt ! grievous my wound ! 
 
 And I said, This is sickness, indeed; I must bear it. 
 
 (xii. 1.) 
 
 Righteous art Thou J4hve, 
 
 Yet would I plead with Thie ; 
 
 And would talk with Thee of judgements : 
 
 Why prospers the way of the wicked ? 
 
 Why are traitors all of them h^ppy ? 
 
 There were times when Jeremiah rebelled against 
 his task (xv. 10, 17 f.; xx. 7ff.)- But the thought 
 that he was God's Servant helped him through, till 
 God's word became not a "fire" (xx. 9) but the "joy 
 and rejoicing of his heart" (xv. 16). Like Dante 
 {Purg. XXVII.) he passed through the fire and found 
 Paradise beyond. 
 
 This personal experience Jeremiah transferred to 
 the People that he loved. 
 
 As God had called him from all eternity (i. 5 ff.) 
 in spite of unworthiness, so God has called Israel — 
 (xxxi. 2, see context). 
 
 With eternal love have I loved thee 
 
 And therefore with mercy have drawn thee. 
 
78 JEREMIAH'S EXPERIENCE [CH. 
 
 The Prophet well knew the difficulty of this : 
 
 (xiii. 23.) 
 
 Can Ethiop change his skin, 
 
 Or leopard his sp6ts ? 
 Then ye shall be fitted for good 
 
 that are wonted to 6vil. 
 
 Compare also xvii. 9, xxx. 12. But the very 
 difficulty made him the more certain that God must 
 act. Thus the Prophet who knew most of sin and 
 of sorrow reached the highest point of Old Testament 
 Revelation in the certainty of the New Covenant. 
 
 (xxxi. 33.) 
 
 I do s6t My L4w within them, 
 And on their hearts I will write it; 
 And I will be theirs as God, 
 While they shall be Mine as People. 
 
 But as, in Jeremiah's case, sufferings were the 
 mode of service through which he found God, so also 
 it must be in the case of the Nation : and I would 
 call special attention to the fact that Jeremiah is the 
 first to apply the title " Thy Servant'' to Israel (see 
 Driver, L.O.T. p. 246), and that he does so in these 
 Chapters which speak of the New Covenant. Thus : 
 
 (xxx. 10 f.) 
 "And thou, My Servant Jacob, fear not, saith Jahve ; 
 dread not, O Israel, for it is I that am saving thee 
 
V] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING 79 
 
 from afar.... Though I make a full end of all the 
 Nations whither I have scattered thee, yet with thee 
 I will not make a full end." 
 
 So, then, while Jeremiah gives no formal answer 
 to the question, Why do the People of God suffer? 
 his own experience suggests a very practical answer : 
 Suffering is Service — Israel is (like the Prophet) God's 
 Servant 
 
 Of a life beyond the grave the Prophets had no 
 certain knowledge. The Captivity was the death of 
 Israel and it was a mighty venture of faith to believe 
 that the " dead bones " could once more live (Ezek. 
 xxxvii. 1 — 14). 
 
 Before considering the problem of suffering in the 
 Book of Job we will give a translation of Ps. xxxix. 
 which, more than any other Psalm, is full of the 
 language and thought of Job. [See Psalms in Three 
 Collections, pp. 155 — 160.] 
 
 I have followed Wellhausen in omitting v. 10 which 
 seems to have been a gloss on v. 3. I have also 
 placed the Refrain at the end of v. 7 instead of v. 6, 
 where it interrupts the sense. 
 
 The division of the Psalm into three strophes is 
 suggested by v. 13 "Jfi/ prayer^' "My cry" "My 
 tears," in inverted order. 
 
80 PSALMS AND JOB [CH. 
 
 (Ps. xxxix.) 
 
 (My tears^ v. 13.) 
 
 2 I said, I must h6ed my w4ys, | not to sin with my tongue. 
 I must keep my mouth with a bridle, | While the wicked is 
 
 still in my presence. 
 
 3 I was utterly dumb, | not speaking a w6rd ; I arid my gri6f 
 
 grew intense. 
 
 4 With heart hot within me, | fire kindled with thought; | so 
 
 I spake with my tongue. 
 
 (My cry, v. 13.) 
 6 Sh6w me, J^hve, mine end, | and my p6rtion of dlys what 
 it is : I I would know how fleeting I am. 
 
 6 Beh61d as a span | Thou hast made my d^ys ; | and my lifetime 
 
 is nothing before Thee ! 
 
 7 Man walks in mere show; | They are vainly in tdrmoil; | He 
 
 piles and he knows not who gathers ! 
 
 A MERE BREATH IS MAN'S LOT. 
 
 (My prayer, v. 13.) 
 
 8 And now. Lord, why do I w4it ? | —My h6pe is in Th^e! 
 
 9 Free me from all my transgressions ; | Make me not a repr6ach 
 
 for the f6ol. 
 
 11 Rem6ve from 6ff me Thy stroke; | 'Neath the weight (?) of 
 
 Thine hand I consCime. 
 
 12 With requital of sin | Thou punishest m4n, | Dost w^te his 
 
 delights like the moth. 
 
 A MERE BREATH IS MAN's LOT. 
 
 13 Hear my prayer, Jahve ; 
 Give 6ar to my cry; 
 
 Be not silent to my tears; 
 
V] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING 81 
 
 For f am a guest with Th6e, 
 Like k\l my fathers a s6joiiriier. 
 14 Leave me space to take c6mfort; | Before I depart and I ^m 
 
 not! 
 
 We now turn to the Book of Job. The problem 
 that the writer had to solve was exactly that of the 
 Prophet Habakkuk — Why should Israel, righteous 
 by comparison, be of all Nations the Suffering 
 Nation ? 
 
 To solve the problem he introduces a man "perfect 
 and upright" (i. 1) amongst men. In Heaven God 
 bears witness to him (i. 8) and the Accuser is allowed 
 to put him to the utmost test (i. 12, ii. 6). Then, 
 when every conceivable trouble and affliction has 
 fallen upon Job, his three friends who represent the 
 "wisdom" literature of the day come to comfort him. 
 This "wisdom" had, as we have seen, its origin in 
 the eudaemonism of Deuteronomy, of the Alphabetical 
 Psalms, of the Book of Proverbs, and other similar 
 works. The writer intends to allow this "Wisdom" 
 to speak for itself, and to find what it is worth by 
 applying it to the suiferings of a righteous man. 
 Job's three friends no doubt represent different 
 phases of this "wisdom," but for our present purpose 
 it will suffice to consider them as one. 
 
 The Poem begins at chapter III. 
 
 The friends at first insinuate, and afterwards 
 openly declare, that Job's sufferings must be due to 
 some great and flagrant sin. 
 
 K. 6 
 
82 JOB [CH. 
 
 Remember ; who ever hath perished being innocent ? 
 Or wh6n were righteous men cut 6ffi? 
 
 Compare also v. 2 with Ps. xxxvii. 1, 2, 7. 
 
 Temporal prosperity must be the portion of the 
 good (v. 19 — 27), otherwise where is God's justice ? 
 
 It is true that a wicked man (like Job) may seem 
 to prosper for a time, but this only means a sudden 
 and terrible fate that is coming upon him and on his 
 children (v. 3 if.). Add to this the terrors of an evil 
 conscience (xv. 20 ff., xviii. 5 — 21). 
 
 All this is worked out with great power and 
 doubtless it represented the orthodox teaching of the 
 day. But Job will have none of it. Such arguments 
 are mere words (vi. 26, xvi. 3). He had hoped for 
 comfort from his friends but they have proved utterly 
 false ; vi. 15—20. 
 
 My br6ther8 are deceitful as a torrent; 
 Like the channel of the brooks they ch&,nge : 
 Which run d^rk because of the ice, 
 And the sn6w that hides itself in them. 
 They no sooner are w^rm than they v4nish; 
 When hot they are dried from their pl4ce. 
 The paths of their way are diverted ; 
 They ascend and perish in void. 
 The caravans of Teman looked for them ; 
 The c6mpanies of Sheba expected them — 
 They were shamed because of their trust ; 
 They c^me there and blushed for sh4me. 
 
 ^ Job iv. 7 : cf. Ps. xxxvii. 25. 
 
V] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING 83 
 
 While freely admitting the general fact of sinful- 
 ness (ix. 2, xiii. 26), Job absolutely refused to admit 
 the contention of his friends that his sufferings were 
 the result of some grievous hidden sin. He calls God 
 to witness that it is not so. 
 
 (ix. 32f.) 
 
 Were He 6ne like myself I would Answer Him, 
 We would c6me together in judgement. 
 But there fs betwfxt us no umpire, 
 That can \ky his hand on us b6th. 
 
 (xiii. 15.) 
 
 Lo, He may sl4y me, I cannot h6pe; 
 Yet my w4ys I maintain to His Face. 
 He Himself should be mine for salvation ; 
 For no hypocrite c6mes in His Presence. 
 
 Rather than admit what he knows to be untrue he 
 would charge God with injustice. 
 
 (xix. 6.) 
 Kn6w then that G6d has wr6nged me. 
 
 (xxvii. 3 ff) 
 
 As 16ng as my spirit is in me, 
 
 And the breath of God in my n6strils, 
 
 My lips shall n6t speak untruth, 
 
 And my t6ngue shall not utter falsehood, 
 
 Far be it from me to pronounce you right; 
 
 Till I die I will never reject mine integrity. 
 
 6—2 
 
84 JOB [CH. 
 
 Job's apparent claim to sinlessness is exactly that 
 of Israel in Pss. xvii. 1 — 5, xviii. 20 ff., xxvi., xliv. 17 ff., 
 Ixix. 7ff., ci. In other words it is that of the "Servant" 
 of God. 
 
 As to the assertion of the "friends" that prosperity 
 is the lot of the righteous, Job positively asserts the 
 very opposite. Thus : 
 
 (xxi. 7.) 
 
 7 Why do the wicked have life? 
 
 They grow 61d, wax mighty in strength. 
 
 8 Their seed is established before them; 
 And their 6ffspring while they yet live. 
 
 9 Their houses are s^fe from f6ar ; 
 And n6 rod of God is on them. 
 
 12 They take up the tabret and harp ; 
 And rejoice at the sound of the lute. 
 
 17 How 6ft is the lamp of the wicked extinguished ? 
 (Is it true) that their fkte comes up6n them ? 
 The pangs He distributes in ^nger ? 
 
 To Job the world is full of sadness : the bitter 
 cry of the workers (chapter XXIV) reminds us of 
 the Song of the Shirt. 
 
 12 From out of the city men grokn, 
 
 And the soul of the slain crieth odt ; 
 Yet G6d imptiteth no wr6ng! 
 
 The pathos of it all was intensified by the fact 
 that to Job the grave was utterly dark. 
 
v] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING 85 
 
 (xiv. 7ff.) 
 
 7 For the tree there may be hope; 
 Though Med it ag^in may sprout; 
 And its tender branch not fail. 
 
 8 Though its root grow old in the earth, 
 And its stock may die in the ground. 
 
 9 Yet through scent of the water it buds, 
 And puts forth its boughs as when young. 
 
 10 But a hero must die and bb wasted! 
 Man gives up the ghost, and where fs he? 
 
 11 Waters will have vanished from the sea; 
 The Rfver will have wlisted and be dried; 
 
 12 But man lies th^re and riseth not ; 
 "While h6aven exists they w^ke not^ 
 
 Nor can they be roused from their sleep. 
 
 See also vv, 16 — 21. 
 
 Yet, in spite of the sufferings of the present, the 
 falseness of his friends, and the darkness of the future, 
 Job was sure of God ; and because of this, his words 
 gain meanings far beyond his thought. 
 
 (xvi. 19 ff.) 
 
 In the Heaven, even now, is my Witness, 
 In high-heaven my Testimony. 
 With mockers for friends! 
 Unto God doth mine eye drop t6ars. 
 For a Pleader for m^n with G6d, 
 A m4n for his fallow ! 
 
 Thus, in spite of some hasty words, Job, like 
 Jeremiah, is faithful to the end ; and poetic justice 
 
86 LIGHT BREAKS FOR JOB [oh. 
 
 requires that light should break. The light comes 
 through a Divine Voice (chapter XXXVIII f.) which 
 appeals, not as arguments to the mind, but as light 
 to the whole being. (Compare the conclusion of 
 Tennyson's Two Voices.) Driver (L.O.T.) well says 
 of these chapters : " The first speech of Jehovah 
 transcends all other descriptions of the wonders of 
 creation or the greatness of the Creator, which are 
 to be found either in the Bible or elsewhere. Parts 
 of 2 Isaiah (e.g. c. 40) approach it ; but they are 
 conceived in a different strain, and, noble as they 
 are, are less grand and impressive. The picturesque 
 illustrations, the choice diction, the splendid imagery, 
 the light and rapid movement of the verse, combine 
 to produce a whole of incomparable brilliancy and 
 force." 
 
 Before offering a translation of portions of this 
 speech I must ask the reader to remember that the 
 object of the Divine Voice is not to impress Job with 
 the omnipotence of God : for he well knew this, and 
 nothing could go beyond the power and beauty with 
 which he has already pictured the Divine omnipotence 
 in chapter XXXVI ending with the words 
 
 Lo these are but parts of His w^ys ; 
 
 The mere whisper about Him that's heard: 
 
 But the thunder of His might, who can know? 
 
 If the Divine Voice had taught nothing more than 
 omnipotence it would have been no revelation. But 
 
V] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING 87 
 
 it suggests throughout, a Divine purpose and care 
 lying behind the power. And this is just what the 
 sufferer needs to rebuke his faithless fears. 
 
 (Job xxxviii. 2 ff.) 
 
 GodPs Voice out of the Storm. 
 
 2 Who IS it that darkeneth counsel 
 
 With words without knowledge ? 
 
 3 Gird now thy loins like a m&n: 
 
 I will ^sk : do thou answer. 
 
 Earth implies a purpose. 
 
 4 Where wert thou when earth was founded? 
 Declare if thou skillest to kn6w. 
 
 5 Who appointed the measures she owns? 
 Or who stretched the Hne up6n her? 
 
 6 Her foundations, on wh&,t were they settled? 
 Or who laid her comer st6ne ? 
 
 7 While the morning-stars sang in ch6ru8 
 And the s6ns-of-God shouted for joy ! 
 
 The Sea proclaims the Creatot^s purpose in curbing it. 
 
 8 When He shtit up with d6ors the Sea 
 That burst, as it were, from a w6mb ? 
 
 9 When I m^de the cloud its vesture; 
 And darkness its swaddling-b4nd ? 
 
 10 When I clenched on it My decree. 
 And appointed it b^rs and doors ? 
 [and said] 
 
 11 Thus f^r shalt thou c6me and no further; 
 And here shall thy proud waves be stayed ? 
 
88 LIGHT BREAKS FOR JOB [ch. 
 
 The creation of light implies the victory of all good. 
 
 12 Couldst thou ever give charge to the Morning; 
 Or teach the Dawn its place ? 
 
 13 How to gr^sp the c6niers of earth 
 Till the wicked be shaken thereout? 
 
 14 It is changed like the clay of a seal ; 
 
 Things stand out as though clothed with a garment! 
 
 15 While their light is withheld from the wicked, 
 And the kno. that is lofty is broken. 
 
 The Under-world, a storehouse for good ends. 
 
 16 Hast thou entered the m^zes of Sea ? 
 Or walked the recesses of the Deep ? 
 
 17 Have the gates of Death been revealed to thee? 
 Canst thou see the gates of Death-shadow ? 
 
 18 Canst thoti comprehend to earth's bounds? 
 Tell then if thou knowest her wholly. 
 
 19 Where is the w^y where light dwelleth ? 
 And darkness, where is its place? 
 
 20 That thou shouldst conduct it to bounds 
 And shouldst know the paths to its dwelling ! 
 
 21 Dost thou know it as being then b6rn ? 
 Is the number of thy days so many ? 
 
 22 Hast thou entered the storehouse of 8n6w ? 
 And the st6rehouse of hail, hast thou seen it ? 
 
 23 Which for time of stress I am keeping, 
 For the day of b&ttle and war. 
 
 24 Which is the way light is parted, 
 
 When it scatters the st6rmblast on earth? 
 
 25 Who 6pened the channel of cloudburst. 
 And the way for the flash of the thunder ? 
 
 26 Causing rain on 14nd without man. 
 On uninhabited wilderness ! 
 
V] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING 89 
 
 27 S6aking the desolate w4ste 
 
 Till it spring with germs of grkss ! 
 
 28 Hath the rain a father ? 
 
 Or who hath begotten the dew-drops ? 
 
 29 The fee ? from whose w6mb came it forth ? 
 The hoar-frost of heaven ? who gendered it ? 
 
 30 The waters are hidden like stone 
 And the fkce of the d6ep is congealed. 
 
 27i^ Upper-world also declares the purpose of its Maker. 
 
 31 Canst thou fasten the bands of the Pleiades ? 
 Or 16osen the fetters of Orion ? 
 
 32 Canst bring each constellation in season? 
 Canst guide Arcttirus with his sons ? 
 
 33 Dost thou know the statutes of heaven ? 
 Canst thou fix each Influence over earth ? 
 
 34 Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, 
 That abundance of w4ter may cover thee ? 
 
 35 The lightnings? canst send that they go? 
 That they Answer thee, Here we ^re? 
 
 36 Who gave them their inward wisdom? 
 Or imparted a mind-like intelligence? 
 
 The poem passes on to depict God's care mani- 
 fested in the instinct He has implanted in the lion, 
 the raven, the hinds, and other creatures of the 
 wilderness, and closes with a magnificent passage 
 which we must translate: 
 
 (xxxix. 19 if.) 
 
 19 Couldst thou give to the horse his strength ? 
 Couldst thou clothe his neck as with thunder? 
 
90 THE SERVANT [cH. 
 
 Couldst thou give him the rustle of 16cust8 ? 
 
 That gl6ry and terror of nostril ! 
 
 He p^weth in the valley and exulteth in his strength, 
 
 He rusheth to face the weapons. 
 
 He m6cketh at fear and is not dism&,yed, 
 
 Nor turneth he back from the sword. 
 
 Against him the quiver may ring, 
 
 The flame of the spear and the javelin : 
 
 With furious 6nset he devours the gr6und, 
 
 For he cannot be still when the trumpet sounds. 
 
 In the thick of the trumpets he saith, Aha ! 
 
 For he scenteth the b§,ttle from afar, 
 
 The thunder of captains and shout of war. 
 
 Thus, as far as the Book of Job is concerned, the 
 answer to the problem of suffering is given not to the 
 intellect but to the eye of faith. Job might have said 
 with Browning's Rahhi hen Ezra : 
 
 "I, who saw power, see now love perfect too: 
 Perfect I call Thy plan: 
 Thanks that I was a man ! 
 Maker, remake, complete, — I trust what Thou shalt do!" 
 
 Next in order of thought, and probably in order 
 of time, comes the Evangelical Prophet, generally 
 known as the Second Isaiah who prophesied during 
 the closing years of the Captivity (c. 538 B.c.) and 
 completed the mission of Jeremiah. 
 
 We have already seen (p. 78) that Jeremiah was 
 the first to speak of Israel as God's "Servant" who 
 should suffer but should not be destroyed. But 
 
V] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING 91 
 
 Jeremiah attributes no atoning value to those 
 sufferings. He pictures more fully than any other 
 the "glories that shall follow," but he leaves the 
 mind unsatisfied as to the justice of the suffering. 
 Not so the Evangelical Prophet whose position in the 
 Old Testament is unique. 
 
 The key-note of the Evangelical Prophet is struck 
 in the opening words of his Prophecy in which, 
 measuring Jerusalem's guilt with the guilt of the 
 Nations, he boldly declares that her sufferings have 
 more than atoned for it, and that those sufferings are 
 being used by God for the furtherance of His Glory 
 in the world (cf. Col. i. 24). 
 
 (Is. xl. 1.) 
 
 C6mfort ye, c6mfort ye My People, 
 
 Saith your God. 
 Sp4ak to the he^rt of Jerusalem, 
 
 And proclaim unto h^r 
 That her service is accomplished | That her guilt is at6ned, 
 That she took at Jahve's hand, 
 
 The double of her sins. 
 
 He sees Israel as the "Servant" with a mission 
 to the Gentiles ; a Servant blind to the Master's 
 purpose, yet privileged to bring through his own 
 sufferings, the knowledge of God to all the Nations 
 of the earth. The following passages may suffice to 
 make this clear. 
 
92 THE SERVANT [CH. 
 
 (Is. xli. 8f.) 
 
 And Israel, thou art My Servant; 
 The J&,cob whom I have chosen; 
 The seed of Abraham My friend ; 
 Thou that I fetched from far lands, 
 And called from the confines there6f, 
 And said to thee, Thou art My Servant, 
 I chose thee and h^ve not rejected thee. 
 
 In Abraham "all the families of the earth" are 
 to be blessed. Abraham's " seed " is " elect " to carry 
 out this purpose. 
 
 (Is. xlii. 1 ff.) 
 
 1 Lo ! My Servant whom t uphold, 
 The Elect My S6ul is well pleased in ; 
 I have put My Spirit upon him. 
 
 He will bring forth right to the Gentiles. 
 
 2 He shall not cry nor clamour, 
 
 Nor make heard his voice in the street; 
 
 3 He does not break a crushed reed. 
 Nor quench a glimmering wick ; 
 But in truth he brings forth right. 
 
 4 He will not be dim or crushed 
 
 Till he st^blish the right upon earth. 
 And the countries await his teaching. 
 
 6 I Jahve have called thee in righteousness, 
 Have holden thy h4nd and will keep thee, 
 And will m^ke thee a c6venant-people, 
 
 a light for the Gentiles; 
 
 7 To 6pen eyes that are blind. 
 
 To bring forth the captive from prison. 
 And from dungeon those sitting in darkness. 
 
V] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING 93 
 
 In xliii. 10 the singular and plural are applied to 
 Israel, "Ye are My witnesses, saith Jahve, and (ye 
 are) My Servant whom I have chosen." 
 
 The success of the Servant's missionary work is 
 pictured as follows : 
 
 (Is. xliv. 1 ff.) 
 
 1 But hear now, Jacob My Servant; 
 And israel whom I have chosen. 
 
 2 Thds saith Jahve thy M4ker, 
 
 He that formed thee from birth and will help thee; 
 Fear not, thou Jacob My Servant, 
 Jeshdrun whdm I have chosen; 
 
 3 For water I p6ur on the thirsty. 
 And streams on the dry-land; 
 
 I will pour on thy seed My Spirit, 
 And, on thy offspring, My blessing: 
 
 4 They shall shoot up as watered gr^ss; 
 As poplars by water-c6urses. 
 
 5 This one shall say, I am Jahve's; 
 An6ther shall celebrate J4cob ; 
 An6ther inscribes himself Jahve's, 
 And takes Israel's name as a surname. 
 
 The missionary work of the Servant results in the 
 conversion of Egypt, Ethiopia and the Sabeans (xlv. 
 14) and indeed of all the Nations (xlii. 4, 10, 12). 
 
 (Is. xlix. 1 ff.) 
 
 1 He§-rken ye lands unto me ! 
 Give ear ye peoples from afar! 
 Jkhxe called me from the womb; 
 From my birth He mentioned my n^me: 
 
94 THE SERVANT [ch. 
 
 2 And He made my moiith a sharp sword; 
 In the shade of His hand He hid me, 
 And He made me a polished 4rrow, 
 
 In His quiver concealed me, and said, 
 
 3 Israel thoti art My servant 
 Through whom I make Myself gl6rioiis. 
 
 4 [Whereas I thought] 
 
 I have laboured in vain in v6id, 
 Have spent my strength for nothing; 
 And yet my right was with Jahve, 
 My reward was with my G6d. 
 
 5 And now thus saith Jahve — 
 
 That f6rmed me from bfrth as His Servant 
 To bring back Jacob to Him, 
 And the Israel not yet gathered: 
 And s6 I am honoured in Jahve's eyes, 
 And my God is become my strength. 
 
 6 And He said, 
 
 'Tis easy, for thee to be Servant, 
 
 To rliise up the tribes of Jacob, 
 
 And to restore the remnant of Israel, 
 
 But I make thee a light of the Gentiles, 
 
 To become My salvation to the ends of the ^arth. 
 
 These last verses involve a certain difficulty ; for 
 if the Servant be the ideal Israel, how can he be said 
 to bring back Israel ? To this I would reply that the 
 Ten Tribes had been practically lost in the Captivity 
 and that the Prophets naturally expected a reunion 
 so that "all Israel should be saved." This was to be 
 brought about by the Servant. But the hard portion 
 of his task was to be the conversion of the Gentiles. 
 
v] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING 95 
 
 This would involve him in suffering. So the passage 
 continues : 
 
 7 Thus saith Jahve : — 
 
 fsrael's Goel and H61y One — 
 
 Of one despised and abhorred of people, 
 
 of a servant of despots — 
 Kings shall see and rise tip, 
 
 and pi-lnces pay reverence. 
 
 In other words the Servant who had been oppressed 
 and despised by the kings of the earth will be seen 
 by them at last, and confessed with wonder as the 
 world's redeemer. 
 
 The Servant had been "blind" to this good purpose 
 of God. 
 
 (Is. xlii. 19.) 
 Whd is so blind as My Servant? 
 
 But when led to see, he will accept his mission as 
 a Sufferer, and the sacrifice will become joy. 
 
 (Is. 1.5 f.) 
 
 Jahve hath 6pened mine ear — 
 
 I did not rebel, nor turn away back : 
 
 I gave my back to the smlters, | My cheeks to the peeling; 
 
 I hid not my face from spitting and shame. 
 
 We are now in a position to consider the famous 
 passage Is. lii. 13 — liii. 
 
 This poem is complete in itself. It may be re- 
 moved from its context without disturbing the sense 
 
96 THE SUFFERING SERVANT [ch. 
 
 Indeed some scholars have regarded it as a quotation. 
 But this is, I think, a mistake ; for as I have tried 
 to shew, the whole argument has been leading up 
 to it. 
 
 (Is.lii. 13 ff.) 
 
 Strophe I. God is pictured as speaking. 
 
 13 Behold My Servant shall prosper ; 
 
 Shall be high and uplifted, exceedingly lofty. 
 
 14 As dumbfounded at thee were the many — 
 So marred more than human his visage, 
 And his form more than s6ns of men — 
 
 15 So (now) he astounds many nations ; 
 At him kings wonder in silence : 
 [lit. "shut their mouth at him"] 
 For a thing untold do they see; 
 
 An unheard of thing do they p6nder. 
 
 Strophe II. The many Nations of the world as represented 
 by their kings now speak. 
 
 Ch. liii. 
 
 1 Who could have believed this good-news of ours ? 
 And Jahve's arm, on whom hath it been revealed? 
 
 2 He (i.e. Israel) came tip before Him as a plant; 
 As a root from ground that is dry. 
 
 No f6rm or splendour was his | that we 
 
 should regard him 1 
 Nor Aspect, that w6 should desire him! 
 
 3 Despised and deserted by men ! 
 
 A man of s6rrows, and wonted to sickness ! 
 As 6ne from whom (G6d's) Face was hidden ! 
 Despised, and we counted him not ! 
 
V] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING 97 
 
 Strophe III. The Nations now see that Israel, whom they 
 despised, has been, all along, the scape-goat for the world. 
 
 4 But our sickness^ ni hath borne ! 
 And our s6rrowsi he hath carried ! 
 While WB regarded him as leprous; 
 Stricken of God and afflfcted ! 
 
 5 While HE was pierced by our sins; 
 Bruised by our iniquities ! 
 
 The chastisement of our peace was on him ; 
 And his stripes were healing for us. 
 
 6 All we had wandered like sheep ; 
 Each his own way we had turned; 
 
 And Jahve caused to meet on him the sin 
 
 of all of tis. 
 
 Strophe IV. The Nations ponder with wonder over the 
 meekness and gentleness of the Sufferer. {Verses Sab^ 
 9 ab are difficult and possibly corrupt. I leave them un- 
 accented.) 
 
 7 When oppressed he 6nly humbled himself, 
 And would not 6pen his mouth. 
 
 As a sheep that is brought to the slaughter, 
 As a 6we that is dumb to her shearers, 
 So he would not 6pen his motith. 
 
 8 Without rule without right was he taken 
 And his generation who could declare? 
 For he was cut from the land of the living, 
 
 For the sin of the peoples, the plague that was theirs. 
 
 9 So the wicked were given for his grave (?) 
 And the rich for his (many) deaths ^ 
 
 Becalise that no violence ^ he did, nor was fradd in his 
 
 moiith. 
 1 See V. 3. » gzek. xxviii. 10. ' job xvi. 17. 
 
 K. 7 
 
98 THE SUFFERING SERVANT [CH. 
 
 Strophe V. Here^ as in strophe I the point of view is not 
 that of the Nations of the world but of God Himself who 
 becomes the actual speaker in w. 11, 12. 
 
 10 And Jahve willed to bruise^ him; 
 
 He caused the sickness ^r 
 f f his soul would make itself an offering 
 A seed he should beh61d should have long- life 
 And the will of Jahve by his means should prosper : 
 
 11 Of the travail of his s6ul he should see and be content, 
 By his (?its) knowledge should My Servant make the 
 
 MANY 3 righteous ; 
 And their iniquities he himself shall c4rry*. 
 
 12 Therefore I allot him his portion with the many*, 
 And with the mighty he divides the spoil ; 
 
 Because that he hath emptied his s6ul unto the death, 
 And was numbered with transgressors. 
 So he himself the sin of ma'ny^ bare 
 And s6 at6nes transgressors. 
 
 The reader will notice that the word "Many" 
 occurs five times in this Poem, twice in strophe I 
 and three times in strophe V. In strophe I "the 
 many" were the Nations of the World whose look 
 of pitying contempt shall be changed to a look of 
 adoring wonder. In strophe V we learn how this 
 has come about. The "Servant" has cast in his 
 portion with "the many." He has borne the sin of 
 "the many," and so has made "the many" acceptable 
 
 * V. 6. 2 ^. 3 f. 3 yy, 14^ 15. 
 
 * V. 4. 5 V. 11. 
 
V] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING 99 
 
 to God. Thus by the obedience of the One the Many 
 are made righteous (of. Rom. v. 15). 
 
 There is nothing in the history of prophecy more 
 remarkable than the small effect produced by these 
 wonderful Chapters of the Suffering Servant. No 
 doubt we may in part account for this by the fact 
 that Persia the deliverer soon became Persia the 
 persecutor, and the sense of Israel's mission to the 
 Gentiles was lost in bitterness. But for the true 
 cause we must look deeper and regard it as a 
 "mystery" hidden in God to await the fulness of 
 Christian times. Meanwhile the prophecy is there. 
 It is 
 
 "...music sent up to God by the lover and the bard; 
 Enough that He heard it once ; we shall hear it by and by." 
 
 The suffering of the good, and the prosperity of 
 evil-doers, tended at a later time to direct the thoughts 
 of men to the life beyond the grave. We will give 
 one illustration of this from the Asaph Psalms which 
 I would assign to c. 450 B.c. The Psalm (Ixxiii.) is 
 interesting not only for its subject-matter but also 
 for its metre. 
 
 (Ps. Ixxiii.) 
 
 1 Mere g6odness is G6d unto Israel, 
 
 To the Pure in heart! 
 
 2 As for me — ^my f6et had nigh gone ; 
 My steps had all but slipped. 
 
 7—2 
 
100 A PSALMIST'S DIFFICULTY [CH. 
 
 3 For I Envied the 16t of the protid ; 
 The peace of the wicked I saw. 
 
 4 For p^ngs are not for th^m ; 
 Sound and robust is their health. 
 
 6 No share have they in man's toil, 
 Nor are they stricken like 6thers. 
 
 6 Therefore doth pride bedeck them ; 
 Violence enr6bes them as a garment. 
 
 7 Their iniquity proudly goes forth : 
 They exceed all heart can picture. 
 
 8 They m6ck while they wickedly speak; 
 They 16ftily speak their oppression, 
 
 9 They have set their mouth against heaven; 
 And their tongue goes the circuit of earth. 
 
 10 Therefore... [text doubtful] 
 
 11 And they say, "How then can God kn6w? 
 
 Has Ely6n perception ? " 
 
 12 Beh61d the wicked are thds! 
 Ever at peace they grow strong ! 
 
 13 Then vainly I cleanse my heart, 
 And wash my hands in innocency ; 
 
 14 While I am stricken all day. 
 My chastisement m6rn by m6rn! 
 
 15 Trtily were 1 to speak thus 
 
 I were false to the generation of Thy children. 
 
 16 Yet, when I bethought me to kn6w this, 
 Grievous it was in mine eyes ; 
 
 17 Till I came to the Sanctuary of G6d — 
 
 I thought on their 6nd ! 
 
 18 Merely 'mid delusions Thou dost place them — 
 
 Dost cast them to ruin ! 
 
V] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFEPJ'M •' loi 
 
 19 How sudden they c6me to destrtiction — 
 
 Are ended with terror ! 
 
 20 When rotised Thou spiirnest their image 
 
 Like a dr6am on awaking ! 
 
 21 Indeed, when my heart was embittered, 
 
 And my reins were perturbed, 
 
 22 Then t — I was brutish and knew not— 
 
 I became as the beasts! 
 
 23 Yet i— am ever with Thee ; 
 
 Thou uph61dest my hand; 
 
 24 With Thy counsel dost guide me; and ^fter 
 
 Wilt t4ke me in gl6ry. 
 
 25 Who is mine in the heavens? 
 
 And, with Thee, I desire naught on earth. 
 
 26 My flesh and my heart may consume. 
 Yet the Rock of my heart and my p6rtion 
 
 ElShlm is for ever! 
 
 27 For beh61d ! Thy divorced-ones must parish ; 
 Thou destroyest each whoring from Thee. 
 
 28 But for me — the nearness of G6d is my g6od ; 
 In Jahve, the L6rd, do I set my refuge. 
 
 The metre of this Psalm is irregular. It opens 
 with the Kinah measure, after which we have several 
 verses in triplets. Then vv. 17 — 24, a fine passage 
 of Kinah, after which we have further irregularity. 
 Whether this be due to corruption of the text or to 
 the intention of the writer we cannot now determine. 
 Our present object is to consider the Psalm merely in 
 regard to the problem of the sufferings of the righteous, 
 i.e. Israel. 
 
''ihi''' A SOLUTION [CH. V 
 
 Verse 1 states the eternal truth; vv. 2 — 11 the 
 apparent exception which creates the difficulty. In 
 vv. 12 — 14 the Psalmist speaking for Israel, confesses 
 the temptation to doubt the eternal truth of v. 1. 
 If he were to yield to that temptation he feels that 
 he would be a traitor to the cause of God {v. 15), 
 and yet he, like Job, feels the difficulty most keenly 
 {v. 16). The solution comes (vv. I7ff.) when he enters 
 into "the Sanctuary of God." By this we must not 
 understand the Temple but rather the Sanctuary- 
 purpose of God's creative thought. The Psalmist, 
 like Dante, must "see the children of perdition" 
 {Purg. XXX. end). The solution reached by the 
 Psalmist differs from that of Job and indicates a later 
 date. It is nothing less than this — The wicked have 
 no reality of existence, they are but a dream of God 
 {v. 20), which when He wakes He puts away^ whereas 
 Israel, the righteous, is an Enoch who "walks with 
 God" {v. 24), and being "joined unto the Lord" is 
 "one Spirit" with Him {v. 28, cf. 1 Cor. vi. 17). Thus 
 the Psalm returns {v. 28) to the thought with which 
 it commenced; God is "good to Israel" and Israel's 
 "good" is the "nearness of God." If the Psalmist 
 did not reach to the Christian conception oi personal 
 immortality, he had at least the root of the matter in 
 Israel's union with God. 
 
 1 Compare Shakespeare, Second Part of King Hem-y IV, Scene V, 
 lines 50—54. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 ON THE STROPHE 
 
 It may be well, at once, to define the sense in 
 which we apply the word strophe to Hebrew poetry 
 since it difiers somewhat from the clearly defined 
 strophe and antistrophe of the classical writers. 
 
 The Hebrew strophe is a development of parallel- 
 ism. That which parallelism is to the ear in the 
 structure of the verse, that the strophe is to the mind 
 in the arrangement of the whole poem. This balance 
 of thought is sometimes marked by a refrain and is 
 found not only in the lyric poetry of the Psalms but 
 also in the rhetorical poetry of the Prophets \ Thus : 
 
 (Amos vii. 1 — 9, viii. 1 — 3.) 
 
 Strophe I. 
 
 1 Thus hath the Lord God shewed me: 
 
 And behold He was framing the locust at the early 
 
 shooting of the latter-growth ; 
 And behold it was the latter-growth after the king's 
 
 mowings. 
 
 2 So it was when it finished to eat all the grass of the land, 
 Then I said, O Lord God, forgive now; 
 
 HouD shall Jacob stand? for he is small I 
 
 3 (Then) Jahve repented of this: 
 It shall not he, saith Jahve. 
 
 1 See Dr D. H. Miiller, Komposition und Strophenbau. 
 
104 RHETORICAL REFRAIN [CH. 
 
 Strophe II. 
 
 4 Thus hath the Lord God shewed me : 
 
 And behold He was calling to contend by fire, 
 And it devoured the great deep 
 And was eating the land. 
 
 5 Then I said^ O Lord God^ cease now; 
 How shall Jacob stand? for he is small! 
 
 6 (Then) Jahve repented of this : 
 This too shall not he, saith Jahve. 
 
 Here we have two strophes of eight lines each, 
 closing with the same refrain. In the same way 
 vv. 7 — 9 form another strophe of eight lines corre- 
 sponding with viii. 1 — 3, as follows: 
 
 Strophe III. 
 
 7 Thus He (the Lord God) shewed me ; 
 
 And behold He stood on a plumbline wall, with a plumbline 
 in hand. 
 
 8 And Jahve said to me, What seest thou, Amos? 
 And I answered, A plumbline. 
 
 And the Lord said, Lo I am setting a plumbline in the 
 
 midst of My people Israel ; 
 / will not again pass hy them. 
 
 9 And Isaac's shrines shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of 
 
 Israel waste ; 
 And I rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. 
 
 Strophe IV (Chap. viii. 1—3). 
 1 Thus the Lord God shewed me; 
 And behold a basket of endings\ 
 
 1 "Endings,'" lit. summer-fruit, so called because it comes at the 
 end of the year. I have coined the word endings in order to preserve 
 the play upon the word end which occurs in the Hebrew. 
 
VI] ON THE STROPHE 105 
 
 2 And He said, What seest thou, Amos ? 
 And I answered, A basket of endings. 
 
 And Jahve said to me, The end is coming for My people 
 
 Israel ; 
 / will not again pass by them. 
 
 3 And the Temple songs shall be bowlings in that day, saith 
 
 the Lord God. 
 Many the corpses, in every place, one casts them forth with 
 silence. 
 
 A fine example of the prophetical use of the 
 refrain is found in Is. ix. 7 — 20. I have based my 
 translation upon the critical edition of the Hebrew 
 text in " The Sacred Books of the Old Testament." 
 The rhetoric of the Prophet becomes lyric through 
 intensity of feeling. 
 
 7 The Lord sent a w6rd into J^cob, 
 
 And it lighted on Israel. 
 
 8 And the whole of the People shall kn6w. 
 Even Ephraim and the dwellers in Sam4ria 
 That [stiffen their necks] with pride 
 Saying thus, in stoutness of heart ; — 
 
 9 Bricks have failed | hewn-st6ne we build; 
 
 Felled are the sycomores ; | we replace them with cedara. 
 
 10 So Jahve sets tip his [enemies] ag§.inst him, 
 
 And his foes He incites. 
 
 11 Edom in front | and the Philistine behind. 
 And they eat up Israel, open-mouthed. 
 For all this His dnger turns not, 
 
 But His hand is stretched out still. 
 
 12 Yet the People turns n6t to its Smiter, 
 
 And seeks not to J4hve. 
 
106 ISAIAH AND PROVERBS [ch. 
 
 13 So He c6ts from Israel h6ad and t4il 
 P41m-branch and rush, in one d^y! 
 
 16 For 'tis wh611y vile and evil ; 
 And every mouth speaketh f611y. 
 For all this His anger turns n6t, 
 But His hdnd is stretched out still. 
 
 17 For wickedness burneth like fire 
 That devoureth brier and thorn 
 
 When it kindles the thickets of the forest 
 Till they mount in pillars of smoke. 
 18* Through Jahve's wrath shall the Land be kindled, 
 And the people be as fuel for the fire, 
 
 19 When it snatches on the right, but hungers, 
 And devoureth on the left, unsatisfied. 
 
 18° So n6 man hath pity on brother ; 
 Each devours the flesh of his [fellow] ; 
 
 20 Manasseh, Ephraim ; and Ephraim, Manasseh ; 
 And b6th against Jtidah together! 
 
 For all this His anger turns nU^ 
 But His hdnd is stretched out still. 
 
 (Chap. X.) 
 
 1 Ho ! you decreers of unrighteous decrees ! 
 Indlters of edicts oppressive ! 
 
 2 Thrusting the feeble from justice, 
 And steahng the right of My p6or ! 
 So that widows become their spoil. 
 And the fatherless they may r6b ! 
 
 3 What will ye do in the day of visitation. 
 The desol§,tion that comes from afar ? 
 To wh6m will ye flee as a refuge? 
 
 And where will ye leave your wealth? 
 
VI] ON THE STROPHE 107 
 
 4 
 
 For all this His dnger turns n6t^ 
 But His hdnd is stretched out still. 
 
 Even in the Book of Proverbs we find instances 
 of strophical arrangement. The Wisdom literature, 
 regarded as poetry, is somewhat stiff and pedantic, as 
 we have already seen in the Alphabetical Psalms, but 
 it represents a phase of Judaism, influenced prob- 
 ably in its later form by Greek thought, which is well 
 worthy of study. I select as an example the famous 
 Wisdom-passage in Prov. viii. The word which we 
 translate ^^ workman'' (E.V. "o^ie hrought up"\ in 
 V. 30, is not altogether certain, but, in other passages, 
 we find the thought of Wisdom as a builder and as 
 cooperating with God in Creation. Thus : 
 (Prov. xxiv. 3.) 
 Through "Wisdom is bullded the ho<ise, 
 And stablished it Is by discretion. 
 
 Compare Jer. x. 12, li. 15 where almost the same 
 words are applied to God as the Creator of the World. 
 
 Also (Prov. iii. 19.) 
 
 Jahve through Wisdom built 6arth; 
 Through discretion He stablished the h^arens. 
 
 And (Prov. ix. 1.) 
 
 Wisdom hath bullded her house; 
 Hath hewn out her seven pillars. 
 
 We now offer a translation of Prov. viii. 1 ff. 
 
108 PROVERBS VIII [oh. 
 
 (Prov. viii. Metre 3 + 3.) 
 
 Strophe I. In praise of Wisdom. 
 
 1 D6th not Wisdom cry, | and Prudence titter her voice? 
 
 2 In the chi^f of the piiblic high-places, | she standeth amid 
 
 the paths; 
 
 3 By the City entrance g^tes, ] at the 6pening of the doors she 
 
 cries ; — 
 
 4 Unto yoii, men, I call ; | and my voice is to sons of men. 
 
 5 ye simple, give heed unto prudence, | and, ye f6ols, prepare 
 
 your hearts. 
 
 6 H6ar, for I speak a verity (?) | and the 6pening of my lips is 
 
 equity. 
 
 7 For 'tis truth that my mouth shall litter, | while wickedness 
 
 is abh6rred by my lips. 
 
 8 All the words of my mouth are in rlghtness, | naught in 
 
 them crooked or froward. 
 
 9 They are all of them plain to the wise, | and right to them 
 
 that find knowledge. 
 10 Accept ye my teaching — not sliver — | and kn6wledge pre- 
 ferred to choice-g61di. 
 
 Strophe II. Wisdom in relation to man. 
 
 12 f [Wisdom] do neighbour with Prudence, | kn6wledge and 
 
 discretion I attain. 
 
 13 Arr6gance, pride, and wrong-doing, | and the fr6ward molith, 
 
 do I hate. 
 
 14 Counsel is mine, and sound-kn6wledge, | mine (is) under- 
 
 standing and might. 
 
 15 Through m6 kings do reign, [ and princes rightly bear sw^y. 
 
 16 Through m6 rulers do rlile, | and n6bles g6vern justly. 
 
 1 I agree with Miiller in rejecting v. 11 as a gloss introduced from 
 chapter iii. 14 f. 
 
VI] ON THE STROPHE 109 
 
 17 f love them that love me, | and my diligent-seekers shall 
 
 find me. 
 
 18 Wealth and honour are mine, | durable riches and righteous- 
 
 ness. 
 
 19 My fruit is better than finest-gold, | my pr6duce than choicest 
 
 silver. 
 
 20 In the w^y that is right I go, | in the midst of the paths of 
 
 judgement : 
 
 21 To give the true-wealth to my friends, | and to fill their 
 
 treasuries full. 
 
 Strophe III. Wisdom in relation to God. 
 
 22 Jahve gat Me at the first, | bef6re His w6rks of yore. 
 
 23 From of 61d was I moulded — | from the first beginnings of 
 
 earth : 
 
 24 While as yet were no deeps was I f6rmed, | when no fotintains 
 
 abounded (?) with water : 
 
 25 E'er the mountains' foundations were 14id, | before the hills 
 
 was I framed : 
 
 26 Before He made earth and J5elds, | and the topmost dust of 
 
 the world. 
 
 27 There was t when He framed the heavens, | when He circled 
 
 the face of the d4ep : 
 
 28 When He set the sky firm up ab6ve, | when He strengthened 
 
 the w611s of the d^epi : 
 
 29 When He m^de for the Sea His \kw, \ that its waters should 
 
 not exceed : | when he lawed the foundations of earth. 
 
 30 Then was t, His w6rkman, by Him, | rejoicing bef6re Him at 
 
 411 times : 
 
 31 Rejoicing in the w6rld of His earth, | my delights being the 
 
 sons of m6n. 
 
 1 V. 28^. This reads like a gloss to explain v. 27^. The super- 
 fluous member of v. 29, i.e. v. 29" would read better here. 
 
110 PSALM XLVI [CH. 
 
 Here we have three clearly marked strophes of 
 ten lines each. The first strophe may be regarded 
 as introductory in praise of wisdom. The second 
 strophe treats of wisdom on earth, in relation to 
 man, while the third strophe treats of wisdom in 
 Heaven, in relation to God. Compare the Alpha- 
 betical Psalms cxi. and cxii. I have shewn in my 
 Introduction to the Alphabetical Psalms that the 
 number ten^ the number of the Covenant, plays a 
 most important part in their arrangement (see Psalms 
 in Three CollectionSy pp. 26 — 49). The writer of 
 Prov. viii. belonged to the same school and would be 
 influenced by similar motives. 
 
 The next illustration we shall take will be Psalm 
 xlvi. in which the original metre is clearly 
 
 (2 + 2) + (2 + 2) 
 with a ring that reminds us of the Anapaest. 
 
 This Psalm, however, contains some lines in the 
 more common metre of 3 + 3 which seem to interrupt 
 the sense, and which may possibly be due to a later 
 writer. Since our present object is to illustrate the 
 metre I shall, in my translation, avail myself of Roth- 
 stein's Hebrew Text and shall omit the portions which 
 he marks in smaller type as not belonging to the 
 original Poem, while I refer the Hebrew scholar to 
 his critical notes. Rothstein regards the refrain as 
 3 + 3 metre. Thus: 
 
 Jahve of H6sts is with us I our Tower is Jacob's G6d. 
 
VI] ON THE STROPHE 111 
 
 I would, however, call attention to the fact that 
 the Divine Names, which may have been written with 
 abbreviations, are peculiarly uncertain. 
 
 (Ps. xlvi.) 
 
 Metre (2 + 2) +(2 +2). Refrain 3 + 3. 
 
 2 Jahve is ours, | a refuge and a strength, | 
 
 a help in distresses | most ready to be found. 
 
 Therefore we fear not, | though earth suffer change, | 
 though mountains rem6ve | to the heart of the seas. 
 
 [Jahve of Hosts is wIth us, | our tower is Jacob's God.] 
 
 4 Waters may rage, | mountains may qntke \ 
 
 at the swelling of the River, | the raging of its w^ves. 
 
 7 Nations may rage, | kingdoms be moved | — 
 
 He utters His voice | earth is diss61ved ! 
 
 8 Jahve of Hosts is with us | our tower is Jacob's God. 
 
 9 C6me ye and see | the d6ings of Jahve, | 
 
 who quieteth war \ to remotest earth. 
 
 11 Be still and kn6w | that t am G6d; | 
 
 exalted 'mid the Nations, | exalted in the earth. 
 
 12 Jahve of H6sts is with us, | our tower is Jacob's God. 
 
 I do not pledge myself to accept all Rothstein's 
 emendations but they are certainly of interest as 
 shewing the value of metrical study in textual 
 criticism. 
 
 If we admit that the Psalm has been revised I 
 would suggest that the object of the revision was to 
 connect it with such passages as Is. xxxiii. 20 ff. where 
 
112 USE OF REFRAIN [CH. 
 
 God Himself is the " River " that lends such security 
 to Jerusalem. Thus : 
 
 20 Thine 6yes shall see Jerfisalem 
 
 A quiet ab6de, a tent that rem6veth not, 
 
 Whose pegs are never drawn out, 
 
 And none of whose cords become rent. < 
 
 21 For there (as) a River Jahve is ours, 
 A place of canals, >vlde-reaching ; 
 Wherein no trireme can come 
 
 Nor can w^r-ship pass through it. 
 
 22 For Jahve our judge— 
 J4hve our leader — 
 J^hve our King — 
 
 He (it is) will s4ve us. 
 
 This passage is not without difficulty (see Hebrew 
 text in Sacred Books of 0. T.) but the general sense 
 is clear. Other cities, like Babylon, Thebes, or Tyre, 
 were protected by mighty waters ; Jerusalem had no 
 River, but, better far, had the protection of God. 
 
 Other instances of the use of a refrain will be 
 found in Pss. xxxix. 6, 12 (5, 11); xlii. 6, 12 (5, 11), 
 with xliii. 5; xlix. 13, 21 (12, 20); Ivi. 5, 11 (4, 11); 
 Ivii. 6, 12 (5, 11); lix. 7, 15 (6, 14); 10, 18 (9, 17); 
 Ixii. 3, 7 (2, 6); Ixvii. 4, 6 (3, 5); Ixxx. 4, 8, 20 (3, 7, 
 19); Ixxxvii. 4^ 6°; xcix. 3^ 5°, 9°; cvii. 6, 13, 19, 28 
 and 8, 15, 21, 31 ; cxvi. 13^ f., 17^ f. Also the response 
 throughout Ps. cxxxvi. 
 
 Some of these passages are treated at length in 
 other chapters (see pp. 50 ff. ; 80 ; 114 f.) and, indeed, 
 
VI] ON THE STROPHE 113 
 
 the whole of our chapter on Alphabetical Poetry is 
 an illustration of the Hebrew strophe. 
 
 Ps. xcix. is specially interesting as an example of 
 the strophe marked by a refrain. In the present text 
 the refrain occurs three times and in an augmented 
 form. Thus the Psalm is divided into three strophes, 
 the first two being nearly equal, while the third is a 
 double strophe. Many commentators (Wellhausen, 
 Duhm, &c.) assume that what I have called a double 
 strophe was originally divided by a refrain, which has 
 been lost, after v. 7. But this, I think, is a mistake. 
 The thrice-repeated " Holy " (vv. 3, 5, 9) is, as in Is. 
 vi., the cry of the Cherubim who are mentioned in 
 V, 1. As, in Is. vi., the Angels acclaim the Advent of 
 God's "Glory" on earth, so, in the present Psalm, the 
 trisagion acclaims His coming Kingdom. 
 
 In strophe I the thought centres upon the power 
 of the Divine King ; in strophe II upon His justice ; 
 in strophe III upon His mercy. Thus the trisagion 
 of the refrain acclaims three aspects of the Divine 
 Nature. 
 
 The opening words of v. 1 denote, in the original, 
 not the mere fact of Jahve's Kingship, but rather, 
 that His reign on earth has begun. The Psalm 
 belongs to a group of Psalms which we might call the 
 Psalms of the Kingdom of God. 
 
 A question arises as to the metre of the Psalm. 
 Undoubtedly the greater part is in beats of two 
 
114 AUGMENTED REFRAIN [CH. 
 
 accents, but, in vv. 5, 6 and 9, we have lines of three 
 accents. Is this due to a revision of the Psalm or 
 was it the intention of the original writer ? 
 Verse 6 might be literally translated 
 
 "Moses and Aaron among His priests 
 And Samuel among the Callers on His Name," 
 
 but the Hebrew idiom rather signifies that Moses and 
 Aaron were chiefest of His priests and that Samuel 
 was chiefest of those that intercede. Thus they 
 represent types of intercession. 
 
 (Ps. xcix. Metre (2 + 2) + (2 + 2) with occasional 
 passages of 3 + 3.) 
 
 Steophe I. The holiness of God in His power. 
 
 1 Jahve is King, | though the Peoples may rage ; | He is thr6ned 
 
 on the Cherub, | though earth may be moved. 
 
 2 Jahve in Zlon | is gre4t and exalted ; | exalted is He | above 
 
 all the Peoples. 
 
 3 They praise Thy Name, | the great and the terrible : | Holy 
 
 IS He. 
 
 Strophe II. The holiness of God in His justice. 
 
 4 [Thoti art] the King | that 16vest right.— 
 
 Thoti hast established | equity (and) justice ; | righteousness 
 in J4cob I Thod hast wrought. 
 
 5 Exalt ye Jahve our God 
 
 And how at the stool of His feet 
 Holy is He. 
 
VI] ON THE STROPHE 115 
 
 Strophe III. The holiness of God in His mercy. 
 
 6 Moses and A§,ron His priests; 
 And Samuel am6ng intercessors; 
 
 To Jahve they cry | and He gives them answer ; 
 
 7 In the pillar of cloud | He speaks with them : 
 
 They kept His testimonies | and a statute He gave them. 
 
 8 Jahve, our God, | Thou answeredst them ; 
 A God forgiving | Thou wast to them ; 
 While punishing their deeds. 
 
 9 Exdlt ye Jahve our G6d 
 
 And hbw at the Mount of His h61iness 
 For Holy is Jahve our God. 
 
 We must now consider instances in which the 
 strophe is not marked either by alphabetical arrange- 
 ment or by a refrain but determined only by a careftil 
 study of the contents, e.g. Ps. xiii. Here the metre 
 is in four beats except for the third line where a 
 marginal gloss seems to have crept into the text 
 making the line too long. 
 
 It may be well first to offer a translation and 
 then to consider how far we are justified in dividing 
 the Psalm into strophes. 
 
 (Ps. xiii. Metre 4 + 4.) 
 
 /a How long wilt Thou utterly forget me, Jahve ? 
 h How 16ng wilt Thou hide Thy countenance fr6m 
 me? 
 Sorrow I c How 16ng must I l^y distress to mfnd ? 
 
 [Gloss, grief in my heart all day.] 
 How 16ng shall mine enemy exalt himself against 
 
 8—2 
 
116 WITHOUT REFRAIN [oh. 
 
 'ai Regard Thou and answer me, J^hve my God. 
 
 hi Lighten mine eyes lest I sleep in death. 
 
 Ci Let not mine enemy say, I have mastered him. 
 
 di [Let not] my foes exult at my fall. 
 
 10,2 -^s for me in Thy kindness I trust — 
 
 Joy \b2 My heart extilts in Thy salvation— • 
 
 \c2 I sing unto Jahve for His bounty towards me — 
 
 (5?2 {Missing^ but see Septuagint.) 
 
 It is evident that the Psalm falls naturally into 
 three parts. The first four lines are all sorrow, the 
 second four lines are all prayer, and the last three 
 lines are all joy. But, if our theory be right, we 
 should have expected four lines also in the last 
 strophe. And here the Septuagint comes to our aid 
 and supplies exactly the line that we require to 
 conclude the third strophe and to complete the 
 parallelism. Thus : 
 
 "/ give prdise to the Name of Jdhve most High." 
 
 Undoubtedly this represents the original text. Thus 
 we have three strophes of four lines each, conveying 
 by their arrangement the spiritual lesson that sorrow 
 is turned into joy through prayer. 
 
 But further. I think we may trace a relation 
 between the lines which I have marked ahcd, aibyCidi, 
 a^h^c^d^. Thus : The Sorrow in a and h is on account of 
 the hiding of Gods countenance, i.e. it is sorrow from 
 God. The sorrow in c and d is on account of the 
 oppression of enemies, i.e. it is sorrow from man. 
 
VI] ON THE STROPHE 117 
 
 So the Prayer in a^ and hi is for the restoration of 
 God's countenance ; while, in Ci and di it is deliver- 
 ance from enemies. So, too, the Joy in a^ and h^ is 
 a thanksgiving for the restoration of God's favour y 
 while in c^ and d^ it refers to the benefit received 
 through deliverance from foes. 
 
 As to the word in line 3 which (following the 
 Syriac) I translate ''distress" the Hebrew has a 
 similar word which signifies " counsel." I suggest 
 that this difficult line gave rise to an early gloss 
 " grief in my heart &c.," and that this gloss became 
 incorporated in the text. 
 
 The beautiful Shepherd-Psalm (xxiii.) which is, 
 perhaps, more familiar than any other Psalm in the 
 Psalter, will reveal new beauties to us if we carefully 
 study its structure. The main division of the Psalm 
 at the close of verse 3 is obvious even to a careless 
 reader. But the relation between the two strophes 
 thus obtained is not generally understood and our 
 present division into verses tends to obscure it. The 
 metre of the Hebrew is elegiac, or Ktnah measure, 
 with an additional stichos in v. 4* which may, or 
 may not, be due to a gloss. 
 
 In strophe I {vv. 1 — 3) we see the Good Shepherd 
 caring for the sheep in three ways, {a) by His Presence, 
 (b) by feeding it, (c) by guiding it. Thus it will be 
 seen that the three lines of strophe I may be summed 
 up under the heads Presence, Refreshment, Guidance. 
 
118 
 
 STROPHE AND SENSE 
 
 [CH. 
 
 In strophe II {vv. 4 — 6) each line of strophe I is 
 expanded into two lines with the same thoughts of 
 PresencBy Refreshment and Guidance. For the 
 spiritual lessons which follow from this arrangement 
 I may perhaps be allowed to refer to Psalms in Three 
 Collections^ Part I, pp. 104 ff. 
 
 (Ps. xxiii. Metre 3 + 2.) 
 Strophe I. 
 
 Presence 1 Jahve's my Shepherd— I want not. | 'Mid ver- 
 
 dure He tends me; 
 
 Refreshment 2^ By restful streams He leads me; | Herest6reth 
 my soul; 
 
 Guidance 3 He guldeth in p&ths that are right ; | for His 
 6wn Name's sake. 
 
 Strophe II. 
 
 r4 Though I g6 through the Valley of G16om | no 
 
 1 evil I fear; | for Thod art beside me ; 
 
 I Thy rod and Thy st^ying-stalS*; | they are my 
 
 [ comfort. 
 
 rs Thou spreadest a table for me, | in the sfght 
 
 I of my foes ; 
 
 I Thou enrfchest my head with oil, | my cup 
 
 [ overflows ! 
 
 ^6 Naught but g6odness and mercy pursue me | 
 
 I all the days of my life ; 
 
 I am homed in the House of Jahve, | for ever 
 
 L and ever ! 
 
 Presence 
 
 Refreshment 
 
 Quidance 
 
 One further illustration of the way in which the 
 meaning of a passage is brought out by the study of 
 
VI] ON THE STROPHE 119 
 
 its strophical arrangement may be given from the 
 beautiful song in Is. xi. 1 — 8. I translate from the 
 critical text omitting v, 3* as an obvious gloss (with 
 Bickell, Cheyne, Duhm, &c.). 
 
 1 There cometh a Shoot from Jesse-stem, 
 And a Branch buds forth from his roots: 
 
 2 And there resteth on him Jahve's Spirit: — 
 (a) The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding, 
 (6) The Spirit of Counsel and Stre'ngth, 
 
 (c) The Spirit of Knowledge and Piety ; 
 
 That he judge not by sight of his eyes ; 
 Nor convict by the s6nse of his 6ars, 
 
 («i) 
 
 And he smlteth the tyrant with rod of mo<ith ; 
 And slayeth the ^vlcked with breath of his Kps. 
 
 ,, V (4 And he judges the feeble with right ; 
 
 ^ ^' 1 And justly convicts for the poor. 
 
 (^i) { 
 
 ih) f 
 
 (^2) { 
 
 (^3) \ 
 
 And right is the girdle of his loins ; 
 
 And faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 
 
 And the wolf shall lodge with the lamb; 
 
 And the leopard lie down with the kid. 
 
 And the calf and the Hon shall pasture (together); 
 
 And a little child may lead them. 
 
 And the c6w and the bear shall gr^ze; 
 Their young-ones lie down together. 
 And the lion like the 6x eats hay; 
 And the b4by sp6rts by the asp-hole. 
 And over the den of the basilisk 
 The weaned-child lays his hand. 
 
 If this passage be carefully studied it will be seen 
 that it is ruled by the numbers three and six. Each 
 
120 STROPHE AND SENSE [CH. vi 
 
 of the three lines which I have marked (a), (b), (c) 
 contains two gifts of the Spirit. These three lines 
 are developed in three strophes of six lines each 
 which run in pairs corresponding more or less closely 
 with the gifts of the Spirit in the lines (a), (b\ (c). I 
 have indicated these relations by the letters di,hi, Ci; 
 
 Clij t>2> Cz', Ct^f Uzy C3. 
 
 The arrangement in verses is quite wrong and 
 tends to obscure the meaning. Thus the omission of 
 the gloss 3*, which we omitted on purely critical 
 grounds, is also defended by the structure of the 
 poem. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 ON DRAMATIC LYRICS 
 
 Though drama, in the sense of the acted play, 
 is alien to the spirit of Hebrew poetry, yet it is not 
 so with the dramatic lyric which vividly pictures a 
 scene and introduces change of thought and speaker, 
 indicated, at times, by a change of metre. We may 
 illustrate this from the Song of Songs, generally 
 called the Song of Solomon. Probably no two 
 commentators would agree as to the interpretation 
 of the poem in every detail, but all would admit that 
 it consists of a series of dramatic lyrics which may be 
 divided into Acts and that it thus approximates more 
 nearly to the drama than any other poem in the 
 literature of the Bible. 
 
 The outline is briefly as follows. A beautiful 
 Shulammite (cf. Shunammite, 1 K. i. 3) maiden is 
 taken into the royal harem, where, in spite of all 
 temptation, she remains true to the shepherd-lover 
 of her northern home, and is at last permitted to 
 return to him as his spotless bride, thus to vindicate 
 the worth of love (viii. 6 &.). 
 
 In the translations which I give as specimens of 
 this poem I have availed myself of Rothstein's Hebrew 
 
122 THE SONG OF SONGS [oh. 
 
 text in his GrundzUge des hebrdischen Ehythrmts, 
 though I have not always accepted his emendations. 
 In chap. i. 9 — 14 we have to distinguish the 
 speakers by the context and the structure of the 
 strophe. Thus : 
 
 Solomon is fiattering the maiden. 
 9 To a steed in a Pharaoh's chariot, | I compare thee my love. 
 
 10 F4ir were thy cheeks with the p6arl-rings, | thy n6ck with 
 
 the jewels: 
 
 11 We will make for thee strings of g61d | with points of silver. 
 
 Throughout this strophe the king keeps up his 
 somewhat coarse simile of the steed with its trappings. 
 All he has to give is gold and silver. 
 
 In the next strophe the maiden replies with 
 modesty. She wonders that she should have found 
 favour with the king, but assures him that she has 
 given her love elsewhere. If her perfume has reached 
 to the king, she herself knows one who, to her, is 
 sweeter than all myrrh. Thus : 
 
 12 Can it b6 to the king on his divan | my perfume hath reached ? 
 
 13 My true-love's the btindle of myrrh | that lies in my b6som. 
 
 14 My true-love's the cluster of henna | on the sl6pes of En-g6di. 
 
 (Chap. ii. 3. Metre 3 + 2.) 
 TTie Shulammite^ thinking of her absent lover. 
 
 As the ^pple 'mid tr6es of the forest | 
 
 so my 16ve amid youths. 
 In his shadow I j6yed as I sat | 
 
 and his fruit was mv sweet. 
 
VII] ON DRAMATIC LYRICS 123 
 
 (Chap. ii. 8 ff.) 
 
 Another reminiscence of the maiden^ picturing her lover's 
 invitation to come forth and enjoy the spring (Metre 3 + 2+2). 
 
 My 16 ve ! lo here he comes ! | leaping on the mountains | skipping 
 
 on the hills. 
 He is here, behind our w^U; | peering through the windows | 
 
 glancing through the lattice. 
 My love he si)eaks and calls me ; | Rise my darling, | Come my 
 
 fair-one. 
 For 16, the winter's 6ver; | rain is p6,st; | the c61d is g6ne. 
 F16wers are seen in the earth ; | s6ng-time is c6me, | the ring-dove 
 
 is heard. 
 The fig-tree is riping her b^lls, | the vines are in bloom, | giving 
 
 forth scent. 
 Arise then, my darling, my d6ve, | to the clefts of the r6ck, | to 
 
 the c6vert of steeps. 
 Shew me thy face, let me h6ar thee ; | for 8w6et is thy voice, | thy 
 
 countenance c6mely. 
 
 Someone sings a vineyard song (Metre 2 + 2). 
 
 C^tch us the f6xes, | the f6xes so small. 
 
 That are spoiling the vineyards, j our vineyards in bl6om. 
 
 Another brief passage in the rare metre (3 + 2 + 2) 
 is found in chap. iv. 8 — 13. It seems to continue the 
 invitation to the walk in spring (ii. 8ff.) which we 
 have already translated, and, like that passage, it 
 breaks into the (2 + 2) metre of popular song. 
 
 In my translation I follow Rothstein's Hebrew 
 text. 
 
124 THE SONG OF SONGS [OH. 
 
 (Chap. iv. 8 flf. Metre 3 + 2 + 2.) 
 From Lebanon came my bride ; | with me from Lebanon ; | from 
 
 the dens of the Ifons. 
 From the t6p of Amana look forth, | from the top of Shenfr, | 
 
 from the mountains of leopards. 
 bride thou hast ravished my heart 1 with a glance of thine 
 
 eyes, | with a turn of thy neck. 
 How sweet thy caresses, my bride ; | how better than wine ! | and 
 
 thy perfume than spices! 
 Thy lips as the h6neycomb drip; | h6ney and milk | are tinder 
 
 thy tongue. 
 Thy cheeks a p6megranate 6rchard j with choicest of fruit ; | 
 
 camphire with spikenard. 
 
 {He sings.) 
 Wake thou North- wind; | come thou Sotith. 
 Breathe on my garden, | that its spices may fl6w. 
 
 The next specimen we shall give is a beautiful 
 dream in which the maiden seems to herself to have 
 been unkind to her true lover. 
 
 (Chap. V. 2 if. Metre 3 + 2.) 
 
 I slept, but my heart was awake | — my bel6ved is kn6cking ! 
 "Open, my sister, my love, | my d6ve, my perfection: 
 
 For my head is filled with dew, | my 16cks with the drip." 
 " As for me I have put off my dress ; | h6w can I clothe me ? 
 
 As for me I have washen my feet; | h6w can I soil them?" 
 
 He put forth his hand from the door; | my compassions were 
 m6ved. 
 
 I r6se, even 1, to 6pen ; | and my h^nds dripped with myrrh. 
 
 Then I, for my love, did open; | but my love he was gone! 
 
 My s6ul went forth at his passing; | I called, but no Answer! 
 
VII] ON DRAMATIC LYRICS 125 
 
 The maiden finally rejects her royal admirer and 
 declares her loyalty to her true lover (vii. 11) : 
 My love he is mine, and I his; | his desire is to me. 
 
 After which the metre changes back to the metre 
 of chap. ii. 8 if. (i.e. 3 + 2 + 2) and the maiden accepts 
 that invitation of her shepherd-lover almost in the 
 words in which it had been proposed : 
 
 C6me thou, my 16 ve, let us forth; | let us dwell in the h6nna; | let 
 
 us visit the vineyards ; 
 Let us see if the vine hath budded; | if its bl688om be 6pen ; | if 
 
 the pomegranates bloom. 
 
 These three examples which we have given are, 
 I believe, the only instances of this metre occurring 
 in the Song. 
 
 We must conclude with the scene, chap. viii. 5 — 7, 
 which is so admirably described in Dr Harper's Com- 
 mentary on the Song of Solomon that I must borrow 
 his words : 
 
 " The scene depicted in these verses is the return 
 of the Shulammite with her lover to the village. As 
 they draw near she leans upon him in weariness, and 
 they are observed by some of the villagers, who ask 
 the question in v. 5\ The lovers meantime come 
 slowly on, and as they come he points out an apple 
 tree under which he had once found her sleeping and 
 awaked her, and then as they come in sight of it, he 
 points to her birthplace, her mother's home. In 
 
126 THE SONG OF SONGS [oH. 
 
 vv, 6 and 7 the Shulammite utters that great panegy- 
 ric of love which is the climax and glory of the book. 
 Because of this power of love which she feels in her 
 heart she beseeches her lover to bind her closely to 
 himself." 
 
 (viii. 5 ff.) 
 
 Scene near the village home. Villagers speak. 
 
 5 Who is this that comes tip from the wilderness, | that leans 
 on her 16ver? 
 
 The hridegroom speaks to the bride. 
 
 'Twas tinder (yon) apple I waked thee — 
 'Twas th^re thy mother bare thee — 
 'Twas th6re she b^re thee with travail. 
 
 The bride speaks, clinging closer to her lover. 
 
 6 Set me as a seal on thine heart; 
 (Set me) as a seal on thine ^rm; 
 For love is str6ng as death; 
 Jealousy is crtiel as the grave; 
 It flames with a God-like flame. 
 
 The villagers draw the moral of the brides constancy — 
 speaking in prose. 
 
 7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can rivers drown 
 it. If a man would give the whole substance of his house for love 
 he would be utterly despised. 
 
 On V. 6 Dr Harper well quotes Browning's Any 
 Wife to any Hitsband: 
 
VII] ON DRAMATIC LYRICS 127 
 
 "It would not be because my eye grew dim 
 Thou couldst not find the love there, thanks to Him 
 
 Who never is dishonoured in the spark 
 He gave us from His fire of fires, and bade 
 Remember whence it sprang, nor be afraid 
 
 While that burns on, though all the rest grow dark." 
 
 Another example of the dramatic lyric may be 
 given from the Songs of Isaiah. 
 
 Isaiah is specially fond of paronomasia and 
 assonance (e.g. v. 7, x. 30, &c.) which he uses with 
 great effect. He is not afraid also to use the language 
 of mythology. Thus we cannot understand his song 
 on Ariel without being reminded that the sound of 
 the word would, to the Hebrew ear, suggest two 
 thoughts, (a) " the Lion of God" (b) " altar-hearth " 
 for sacrifice, and also that the word I)6d might be 
 taken either as the name David, or in its original 
 significance as the divine name, as on the Moabite 
 Stone. See Bennett's note on the Moabite Stone in 
 Hast. Dicty p. 407, where he calls attention to the 
 fact that in the three or four places in which AriU 
 occurs " it is connected with the City of David in Is. 
 xxix. 1 and with DWDH here." The sense of AriM 
 as an "altar-hearth" will be found in Ezek. xliii. 15 f. 
 
 The Song on Ari^l (Is. xxix. 1 ff.) opens, I believe, 
 with the boastful words of the enemy (? Sennacherib) 
 as follows : 
 1 Al§.s! Ari^l, Aridl; | City where D6d encamps! 
 
 Add (but) year unto y^ar; | let the seasons go round: 
 
128 DOD AND DAVID [oh. 
 
 2 Th6n do I straiten Ari^l, [i.e. GocPs Lion] 
 And m6aning and gr6aning shall be: 
 
 And to me she becomes Ariel. [i.e. an altar-hearth] 
 
 3 And I camp like Dod against thee, 
 
 And lay siege with a modnd against thee, 
 And raise up against thee towers. 
 
 4 Till thou speak, being abased, from the ground, ' 
 Thy speech coming thin from the dust; 
 
 And thy voice be as ghost from the groiind, 
 Thy whispering words from the dust. 
 
 Here the scene changes and God speaks and 
 assures His City of His protection. The metre here 
 also changes. Thus : 
 
 5 Then the h6st of thy foes | becometh small-ddst, 
 And as drifting chaflF | the h68t of thy tyrants: 
 
 And this shall be sudden and instant. 
 
 Here again the scene changes. No longer do we 
 hear the words of God but the Prophet himself 
 describes the deliverance that he sees in the vision of 
 prophecy. Thus : 
 
 6 By J&hve of Hosts she is visited. 
 
 With thunder, and earthquake, and mlghty-volce ; 
 With whirlwind, tempest, and devouring flame. 
 
 It is evident from the words which follow that the 
 "visitation " of God is for the redemption of His City 
 and for the destruction of the "multitude of the 
 nations that fight against Ari^l" (v. 7). 
 
 The names Dod, Dodu, David are the same, and 
 signify Love or the Beloved. The Jebusite stronghold 
 
VII] ON DRAMATIC LYRICS 129 
 
 may very possibly have been regarded as " the City of 
 DOdu " before it was taken by David and called after 
 his own name (2 S. v. 7). 
 
 There is another Song of Isaiah's in which he 
 appears to me to use Dddu as a name of God. It is 
 the Song of the Vineyard (v. 1 ff.)* 
 
 L6t me now sing for Dodu | Dddu's song of his vineyard. 
 D6du had a vineyard | on a hill very fertile. 
 And he fenced it, and cleared it and planted it choicely. 
 And he built therein a tower, 
 And also hewed him a wine-vat. 
 So he 16oked it should yield him grapes — 
 And it yielded but wild-grapes ! 
 
 Thus we have the " City of David " and the Vine- 
 yard (or Vine) of David. The Vine was the emblem 
 of Judah (Ezek. xv. ; Gen. xlix. 11 ; Ps. Ixxx. 8 — 14) 
 and I suggest that the difficult passage in The Teaching 
 of the Twelve Apostles, Ch. ix., respecting the " Fme 
 of David" had its origin in Isaiah's Song of the Vine 
 or Song of the Vineyard, for the word may be trans- 
 lated either way. 
 
 The passage in the " Teaching " runs thus : 
 "Now, concerning the Eucharist, thus shall ye 
 give thanks. First with regard to the Cup : — We 
 give thanks to Thee, our Father, for the holy Vine 
 (of) David Thy Servant which Thou madest known 
 unto us through Jesus Thy Servant." The Suffering 
 Servant is the " very vine " of God (Jn. xv. 1 — 5). 
 
 K. 9 
 
130 PSALM II [CH. 
 
 The second Psalm may be given as a good illus- 
 tration of Dramatic Lyrics, though we might have 
 been equally justified in regarding it as an example 
 of the strophe. The change of speaker is vividly 
 distinguished by the context. Thus, in v. 3 we have 
 the rebel words of the earth-powers ; in v. 6 the 
 words of God with respect to His Anointed ; while, 
 in vv. 7 — 9, the Anointed himself speaks of his God- 
 given authority. Thus there is a relation between 
 strophes II and III, while strophe IV exactly corre- 
 sponds with strophe I. I have left the diflSicult line 
 V. 12* untranslated because this is not the place for a 
 critical investigation of the text. The corresponding 
 reference to the " Christ " in v. 2, and to the " Son " in 
 V. 7, would lead us to expect some such line as, " Obey 
 the Son lest he be angry and ye perish." It is only 
 fair to say that the text as it stands is uncertain on 
 critical grounds and does not quite suit the metre. 
 
 (Psalm ii.) 
 
 Steophe 1. The Voice of the Psalmist 
 
 1 Why do the heathen rage | and the peoples vainly design? 
 
 2 The kings of the earth stand up | and princes are banded 
 
 together 
 
 'Gainst Jahve and 'gainst His Christ! 
 
 3 "Let us break asunder their bonds i and cast from 6fF us their 
 
 fitters." 
 
VII] ON DRAMATIC LYRICS 131 
 
 Strophe II. The scene in heaven. 
 
 4 The throned-One in h6aven laughs ; | the L6rd but derides 
 
 them! 
 
 5 He speaketh to them in His 6,nger | and troubleth them in 
 
 His wrath. 
 
 6 "'Twas i that anointed My King | on Zlon My h61y Modnt." 
 
 Strophe III. 77ie Voice of the Anointed. 
 
 7 Let me tell of Jahve's decree — 
 
 He said to me, Thou art My S6n, | it is I, this day, have 
 beg6tten thee. 
 
 8 Ask of Me that I ^^q thee | nations thine heritage, | the 
 
 ends of the earth thy possession. 
 
 9 Thou shalt break them with sceptre of Iron, | as a p6tter's 
 
 vessel shalt shatter them. 
 
 Strophe IV. The Voice of the Psalmist. 
 
 10 And now, ye kings, be wise; | be warned ye judges of 6arth. 
 
 11 S6rve ye Jahve with fear; | and... unto Him with trembling. 
 12 
 
 For his §,nger may Easily bfim. | Happy they that take refuge 
 in Him. 
 
 9—2 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE POETRY OF THE SEASONS 
 
 To every poet the spring of the year is a prophecy 
 of new creation. Shelley felt this when he wrote : 
 
 " The airs and streams renew their joyous tone ; 
 The ants, the bees, the swallows, reappear ; 
 Fresh leaves and flowers deck the dead season's bier. 
 The loving birds now pair in every brake, 
 And build their mossy homes in field and brere; 
 And the green lizard and the golden snake, 
 Like unimprison'd flames, ont of their trance awake, 
 Through wood and stream, and field and hill and ocean, 
 A quickening life from the earth's heart has burst, 
 As it has ever done, with change and motion, 
 From the great morning of the world ! when first 
 God dawn'd on chaos: ...." 
 
 No wonder then, if to the Hebrew poet, who was, 
 before all things, a prophet, the cycle of the seasons 
 shall speak of God's eternal purpose for His worlds. 
 
 It would not be difficult to shew that the " Days " 
 of Creation (Gen. i.) are based upon the months of 
 the year, commencing from the spring, which, as 
 Shelley reminds us, is the type of " the great morning 
 of the world." In a little book like this I cannot do 
 
CH. VIII] THE POETRY OF THE SEASONS 133 
 
 more than suggest a few thoughts on this wide and 
 important subject. For this purpose I commence 
 with Ps. civ. and must repeat, in part, what I have 
 written in my Introduction to that Psalm (Psalms in 
 Three Collections, p. 430). 
 
 The Psalm is based upon the "Six Days" of 
 Creation as given in the Priest-code (Gen. i.). There 
 is, however, this important difference that, whereas 
 Gen. i. purposes to relate in prose the order of life's 
 first beginnings, our Psalmist, with a poet's instinct, 
 recognises Creation as an eternal work which is still 
 going on and which all points to a "far off Divine 
 Event," viz. the completion of God's joy in His works. 
 This being so he sees no inconsistency in regarding 
 animals, birds and men as being already in existence 
 on the Third Day. We might analyse the Psalm as 
 follows : 
 
 vv. 1, 2. The First Day, like the first month in 
 spring, is filled with the promise of the birth of 
 light. 
 
 vv. 3, 4. The Second Day reminds us how God 
 builds His firmament, making, as Shelley says, 
 
 "...the winds and sunbeams, with their convex gleams 
 Build up the blue dome of air," 
 
 thus causing the very elements of destruction to 
 contribute to the conservation of the earth. 
 
 w, 5 — 18. The Third Day, like the third month, 
 is "the gift of seed." It reminds us how (a) God 
 
134 "DAYS" OF CREATION [CH. 
 
 has taken the waters, which were once the winding- 
 sheet of a dead earth, and made them countless rills 
 of blessing to birds and beasts and men. It also 
 reminds us (b) how God made the dry land thus to 
 become the bountiful seed-plot of corn and wine and 
 oil. 
 
 m 19—23. The Fourth Day, like the fourth 
 month (the month of the summer stolstice) tells 
 God's good purpose in darkness as well as in light, 
 while it points to the final triumph of light (v, 22 f.). 
 
 vv. 24—30. The Fifth Day, like the fifth month 
 (which even in the nature-religion of Babylonia was 
 dedicated to Istar as the bona dea of fertility), tells 
 of the infinite variety of God's "creatures" and of 
 His care for all their needs. 
 
 vv. 31 — 35. The Sixth Day, like the autumn 
 month, sums up the growing purpose of the whole 
 Creation, viz. that this bountiful God may rejoice at 
 last in a world from which all evil has been expelled. 
 
 The metre of the Psalm is 3 -}- 3 with occasional 
 triplets. 
 
 (Ps. civ.) 
 
 The First "Day " of Creation (Gen. i. 3—5). Voices of Spring. 
 
 1 Thou art greki, O my G6d, exceedingly : | Thou hast deck'd 
 
 Thee with splendour and majesty. 
 
 2 Putting on light as a garment; | spreading out the heavens 
 
 as a ctirtain. 
 
VIII] THE POETRY OF THE SEASONS 135 
 
 The Second '^Day" of Creation (Gen. i. 6—8). Qod'g Building 
 seen in the Firmament (cf. Ps. xix. 2). 
 
 3 THe flooreth His upper-chambers in the waters; 
 -[He maketh thick clouds His chariot; 
 
 (He moveth on wings of the wind. 
 
 4 Making the winds His angels | the flaming fire His ministers. 
 
 The Third ''Day" of Creation (Gen. i. 9f.). Dry land 
 and seed. 
 
 5 He founded the earth on her bases ; | that she should not be 
 
 moved for ever. 
 
 6 With the Deep, as a garment, Thou hast c6vered her ; | so 
 
 the waters stood 6ver the moiintains. 
 
 7 At Thy rebuke they flee ;— 
 
 At the voice of Thy thunder they h^ten :— 
 8^ To the place Thou hadst founded for th6m : 
 9 Nor transgress the limit assigned them, | nor return to 
 c6ver the 6arth. 
 
 10 He s6ndeth the springs down the channels ; | am6ng the 
 
 mountains they nin. 
 
 11 They give drink to all b6ast8 of the field; | wild-asses may 
 
 quench their thirst. 
 
 13 He gives mountains to drink from His chambers ; | Earth is 
 
 filled from the fruit of Thy w6rks. 
 
 14 Making grass to spi-lng for the cattle | and herbage for 
 
 tillage of man. 
 
 15 To bring forth f6od from the earth | and wine that may 
 
 gladden man's heart. 
 Cheering the f^ce with oil | and f6od that should strengthen 
 man's heart. 
 
 16 The trees of G6d have their fill ; | the cedars of Lebanon 
 
 that He planted. 
 
136 "DAYS" OF CREATION [CH. 
 
 12 On th^m dwell fowls of heaven: | 'mid their branches they 
 utter their song. 
 
 17 'Tis there the little-birds n6st; | the st6rk (too) whose h6me 
 
 is the firs. 
 
 18 The 16fty hills for the goats; | the cr^gs are a r6fuge for the 
 
 c6nies. 
 
 The Fourth ''Day" of Creation (Gen. i. 14—19). The lesser 
 and greater lights. The cycle of the festivals. 
 
 19 He m^keth the moon for the seasons; | and the sun knows 
 
 the pl§-ce of his setting. 
 
 20 Thou m^kest darkness — it is night — | all beasts of the 
 
 forest creep forth. 
 
 21 The lions r6aring for prey | and seeking their meat from God. 
 
 22 The stin but rises — they are g6ne, | and lay them down in 
 
 their dens. 
 
 23 Man goeth forth to his w6rk, | to his labour until the 
 
 evening. 
 
 The Fifth ''Day'' of Creation (Gen. i. 20—23). The voices 
 of summer. The teeming life of earth and sea. 
 
 24 Jahve, how great are Thy works! 
 
 The whole Thou hast wr6ught in wisdom ! 
 The 6arth is filled with Thy wealth ! 
 
 25 This sea, so great and wide-spreading, 
 Wherein are things creeping innumerable; 
 Cre§,tures both small and great. 
 
 26 There the ships \^the nautili] go along | and Leviathan 
 
 f6rmed for Thy plaything. 
 
 27 They k\\ look expectant to Thee | to ^\q them their food in 
 
 its season. 
 
 28 Thou glvest to th6m — they gather it : | Thou 6penest Thy 
 
 h^nd — they are s^ted. 
 
VIII] THE POETRY OF THE SEASONS 137 
 
 29 Thou hldest Thy Face— they are troubled : 
 Thou withdrawest their breath — they expire, 
 And return again to their dust. 
 
 30 Thou sendest Thy breath — they are made — | Thou renewest 
 
 the face of the grotind. 
 
 The poet now draws his conclusion as a prophet 
 from the cycle of God's work which he has traced in 
 creation. He would not have said with the Writer 
 of Ecclesiastes that "what has been shall be and that 
 there is nothing new under the sun." On the contrary 
 he sees that God is making all things new. He sees 
 that God's purpose is good and that life not death is 
 the end (v. 30). 
 
 That nothing walks with aimless feet; 
 
 That not one life shall be destroyed, 
 
 Or cast as rubbish to the void, 
 When God hath made the pile complete. 
 
 So the conclusion to which our Psalmist arrives is 
 based upon that j&rst Sixth Day (Gen. i. 24 — 31), when 
 God looked upon all things that He had made and 
 declared them to be "very good." 
 
 As God then rejoiced in His works, so God will 
 rejoice in the End which must mean the extinction of 
 all evil. 
 
 The Sixth "Z>a^" of Creation and its meaning for the future — 
 Autumn voices. Every common hush a-flame with God. 
 
 31 Be the G16ry of J^hve for 6ver ! | Let Jahve rejoice in Hie 
 
 w6rks! 
 
138 COVENANT OF CREATION [ch. 
 
 32 Who but 16oketh on earth and it trembleth ; | He but tolicheth 
 
 the hills and they sm6ke. 
 
 33 I will sing while I live unto Jahve ; | While being lasts I will 
 
 hymn to my God. 
 
 34 My mtising on Him shall be sweet: j As for me I rejoice in 
 
 Jahve. 
 
 35 May sinners be ended from 6arth, | and the wicked .exist no 
 
 m6re! 
 My s6ul do thoti bless J4hve. 
 
 Even in the early days of the Jehovist the promise 
 that " seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer 
 and winter, day and night, should not cease," was 
 given as the pledge of God's acceptance (Gen. viii. 22). 
 
 The order of the seasons was, to the prophet 
 Jeremiah, a token of God's everlasting covenant with 
 Israel. Thus, Jer. xxxiii. 20 f. : " Thus saith Jahve, 
 If ye can break My covenant, the day, and My cove- 
 nant, the night, so that day and night should not be 
 in their season; then may also My covenant with 
 David, My servant, be broken...." 
 
 And again, v. 25 f.: "If I did not appoint My 
 covenant the day and the night as laws of heaven 
 and earth; then, too, I might cast off the seed of 
 Jacob and David My servant." The reader will 
 notice that the Covenant of Creation becomes the 
 pledge of the Covenant with David. 
 
 Jeremiah's famous chapter (xxxi.) on the New 
 Covenant closes with the same thought, vv. 35 — 37 
 (Heb. 34—36): "Thus saith Jahve that giveth the 
 
viii] THE POETRY OF THE SEASONS 139 
 
 sun for light by day, the laws of the moon and stars 
 for light by night... If these laws can depart from 
 before Me, saith Jahve, then might the seed of 
 Israel cease from being a nation before Me for 
 ever...." The poet of the next generation, known 
 to us as the Second Isaiah, connects this Covenant of 
 Creation with the Covenant of Noah, Is. liv. 9, " For 
 this is unto Me the waters of Noah, even as I have 
 sworn that the waters of Noah should not again pass 
 over the earth so have I sworn not to be angry with 
 thee (Israel) and not to rebuke thee." 
 
 About a hundred years later the author of the 
 Priest Code interprets for us the " waters of Noah " 
 by the rainbow sign of God's Covenant with the earth 
 (Gen. ix. 8—17). 
 
 In the Asaph Psalm Ixxiv. the Psalmist appeals to 
 God by the Covenant of Creation, to fulfil His promise 
 which seems to be delayed. The whole passage should 
 be studied; we can but quote vv. 13 — 17 which refer 
 to the Covenant of Creation. The emphatic use of the 
 pronoun Thou should be noticed and also the refer- 
 ence to the first four " Days of Creation." Thus : 
 
 Day I. Light, or the smiting of the dragon of darkness; 
 as in the Babylonian story. 
 
 Thou with Thy p6wer | didst bre^k the sea, 
 
 Bidst shiver the heads | of the dragons on the waters. 
 
140 CREATION AND DAVID COVENANT [ch. 
 
 Day II. The Firmament. The chaos of waters divided; 
 as in the Babylonian story. 
 Thou didst rend | the heads of Leviathan, 
 Didst ^ye him as food | to the desert folk. 
 
 Day III. Waters in one place; dry land appears. 
 Thou didst cleave | fountain and brook; 
 Thou didst dry | perennial i-ivers. 
 
 Day IV. The greater and lesser lights. 
 Thine is the day, | Thine, too, the night; 
 Thou didst establish | the lights and the sun. 
 
 The Covenant of Creation with reference to Gen. viii. 22. 
 Thou didst appoint | all boundaries of earth ; 
 Summer and winter, | Thou it was didst form them. 
 
 It will be seen that in this Psalm the metre is 
 2 + 2 and, if we compare the closely parallel Psalm 
 Ixxxix., the study of metre opens up a most interesting 
 question. For, in Ps. Ixxxix. the metre, for the most 
 part, is the common one of 3+3, but it contains 
 passages of 2 + 2 metre ; and it appears to me that 
 these latter passages all refer to the Covenant of 
 Creation, while the passages in 3 + 3 metre refer to 
 the Covenant of David. 
 
 I shall endeavour to represent the change of metre 
 in my translation and must leave the reader to judge 
 whether two independent Psalms have been combined 
 or whether the writer wished to place side by side 
 the Covenant of David and the Covenant of Creation 
 and varied his metre to suit his subject. 
 
VIII] THE POETRY OF THE SEASONS 141 
 
 (Ps. Ixxxix.) 
 Metre 2 + 2. Covenant of Creation. 
 
 (a) 2 I sing the eternal | mercies of Jahve. 
 
 (6) I make known with my mouth | Thy faithfuhiess for ^ges. 
 
 (ai) 3 I said, as eternal, | mercy shall be built. 
 
 (bi) As the heavens Thou establishest | (so) Thy faithfulness 
 
 therein. 
 
 Metre 3 + 3. The David Covenant. 
 
 4 A c6venant I made with My chosen ; 
 I sware unto David My servant, 
 
 5 Thy seed I establish for ever; 
 
 And build up thy thr6ne for all ages. 
 
 It will be seen that though the metre is different 
 the language and thought is identical with that in 
 vv. 2, 3. It would seem that the writer wished, like 
 Jeremiah, to place the " sure mercies of David " side 
 by side with the sure mercies of Creation. The metre 
 now changes back to that of vv. 2, 3. 
 
 Metre 2+2. Covenant of Creation. 
 
 6 For the heavens shall praise | Thy w6nder-work, Jahve ; 
 Thy faithfulness too | in concourse of H61y-ones. 
 
 7 For wh6, in high-heaven, | compareth with Jahve? 
 Who matcheth Jahve | 'mid sons of the g6ds ? 
 
 8 A G6d revered | in assembly of H61y-ones ; 
 
 Gre^t and to be feared | by all that are arotind Him. 
 
 10 Thou dost 16rd it | o'er the pride of the s6a ; 
 When his waves are uplifted, | Thou layest to rest. 
 
 11 'Twas Thou that didst crush | proud-Rahab as slain, 
 With the krm of Thy might | didst scatter Thine enemies. 
 
142 CREATION AND DAVID COVENANT [CH. 
 
 12 Thine are the heavens ; | Thine too the 6arth. 
 
 The w6rld and its fulness; [ Thou (it was) didst found them. 
 
 13 The n6rth and the south; | Thou (it was) created them. 
 Tabor and Hermon | ring with Thy n^me. 
 
 14 Thine is the arm ; | Thine is the p6wer. 
 Strong is Thy hand ; | High is Thy right-hand. 
 
 15 Righteousness and judgement | the foundation of Thy thr6ne, 
 Mercy and truth | that g6 before Thy f^ce. 
 
 The reader will note how exactly vv. 10 ff. corre- 
 spond with the verses we have already translated 
 from Ps. Ixxiv. : the same metre, the same mythology, 
 the same reference to the "Days" of Creation, the 
 same remarkable use of the emphatic " Thou." 
 
 We now pass to verse 20 which is pure prose as 
 follows : 
 
 " Thou spakest of old in a vision with Thy saints 
 [or, possibly, ' with respect to Thy Saint '] and didst 
 say;—" 
 
 These words form an introduction to the Promise 
 which continues as follows : 
 
 Metre 3+3. David Covenant. 
 
 20 I have s6t a crown (?) on a hero; 
 Have exalted one chosen of the people. 
 
 21 I fotind Me David My servant; 
 With Thy h61y oil I anointed him. 
 
 22 That My hand, should b6 his st§,y ; 
 And mine ^rm should ^\q him strength. 
 
 23 That the enemy should not exact; 
 
 Nor the wicked one cause him affliction. 
 
VIII] THE POETRY OF THE SEASONS 143 
 
 24 I will beat down his f6es before him, 
 
 Will smite them that hate him. 
 
 25 While with him is My truth and My mercy, 
 In My name shall his h6rn be exalted. 
 
 26 And I set his hand on the sea. 
 
 His right-hand on the rivers. 
 
 27 He names Me, Thou art my Father, 
 My G6d and my Rock-Salvation. 
 
 28 While I too appoint him My firstborn, 
 A Most High to the kings of the earth. 
 
 29 My mercy I keep his for 6ver, 
 
 And for him is My covenant stablished. 
 
 30 And I make his seed eternal, 
 His thr6ne as the days of heaven, 
 
 31 Should his s6ns forsake My law, 
 
 So as not to walk in My judgements, 
 
 32 Should they profane My statutes 
 
 So as n6t to observe My commandments, 
 
 33 Then I visit their transgression with a r6d, 
 
 And with scourges their sin. 
 
 34 Yet from him I remove not My mercy; 
 Nor will I prove false to My faithfulness. 
 
 35 My C6venant will I not break; 
 
 Nor change what My lips have announced. 
 
 36 Once for k]\ have I 8w6m by My h61ine8s 
 That I never prove false to D6.vid. 
 
 37 His seed shall be for ever, 
 
 And his thr6ne as the siin bef6re Me. 
 
 38 It shall st4y as the m6on for ever, 
 
 And the witness that is faithful in the sk^. 
 
 The Psalm continues in the same metre to plead 
 with God (as Ps. Ixxiv.) the non-performance of His 
 
144 THE OUTSPRING [CH. 
 
 promises, until we come to the last two verses (61, 62) 
 where it would seem to break once more into the 
 (2 + 2) metre which we have already found in vv. 2, 3, 
 6—15. Thus: 
 
 51 Remember Lord | the reproach of Thy servant ; 
 How I bear in my bosom | the shame of the Peoples : 
 
 52 Wherewith they reproach — | Thine enemies, Jahve ! — 
 Wherewith they reproach | the footsteps of Thy Christ. 
 
 The text, however, in these two verses is by no 
 means certain. 
 
 I propose, in the present chapter, to examine one 
 aspect of the spring, which is summed up under the 
 Hebrew word Tzemach^ a word signifying that " out- 
 spring " from the earth, which results from the spring 
 of the year. It is most unfortunate that, in the E. V., 
 this word should have been translated ^^ Branch,'' 
 thus hiding from the English reader a very beautiful 
 and suggestive thought. 
 
 In the passages which follow I shall indicate the 
 root Tzemach, whether as a verb or as a svhstantivBf 
 by giving the translation in italics. 
 
 (Is. iv. 2.) 
 
 In that day there shall be 
 The outspring of Jahve as a beauty and pride, 
 And the fruit of the land as a glory and boast 
 For the remnant of Israel. 
 
 Here the " outspring of Jahve " answers to the 
 "fruit of the Land'' in the parallel line. It is called 
 
vni] THE POETRY OF THE SEASONS 145 
 
 the "outspring of Jahve" because He makes it to 
 spring forth as it is said of Paradise, Gen. ii. 9, " And 
 out of the ground Jahve Elohim made to spring 
 every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good 
 for food." 
 
 Such was the intention of God in Creation. This 
 intention was hindered by the Fall in which Earth 
 is represented as sympathising. "Thorns also and 
 thistles shall it (i.e. the Earth) make to spring for 
 thee " (Gen. iii. 18). But, though hindered, the pur- 
 pose of God still remains and is manifested in the 
 parable of every spring. It is He who " maketh the 
 grass to spring for the cattle" (Ps. civ. 14); "causing 
 the mountains to spring with grass " (Ps. cxlvii. 8). 
 
 But, in another sense, the earth may be said to 
 "bring forth fruit of itself"; consequently Tzemach 
 may be applied to the earth ; and, as such, it is fre- 
 quently used collectively, e.g. Ezek. xvi. 7 " the out- 
 spring (E.V. the bud) of the field " ; Hos. viii. 7 " t/ie 
 outspring (E.V. bud) shall yield no meal." 
 
 These two closely related thoughts must be borne 
 in mind, forming, as they do, a parable of the Christ. 
 The " outspring " is God's, inasmuch as He, the " Sun 
 of Righteousness," makes it to grow. But the " out- 
 spring " is the earth's since the earth " bringeth forth 
 fruit of itself." 
 
 The Second Isaiah expresses a similar thought 
 only that, in hii case, the picture is not that of a Sun 
 
 K. 10 
 
146 THE OUTSPRING [ch. 
 
 of righteousness but rather of a rain of righteous- 
 ness from heaven which the thirsty earth should 
 drink in and thereby become fruitful (cf. Hos. x. 12). 
 Thus: 
 
 (Is. xlv. 8.) 
 
 Ye heavens shower down from ab6ve, 
 Ye skies pour down with Righteousness, 
 Let them fruit with Salvation — earth open, 
 Let Righteousness spring forth at once, 
 I, Jahve, f have created it. 
 
 Again, 
 
 (Is. Ixi. 11.) 
 
 For as earth brings forth her outspring^ 
 And as garden makes s6eds to spring out, 
 So J^hve makes Righteousness spring. 
 Even praise before all the nations. 
 
 Jeremiah associates this thought of the "out- 
 spring" with a personal Deliverer of the family of 
 David. 
 
 (Jer. xxiii. 5 f.) 
 
 Beh61d the d^ys are c6ming, saith J^hve, 
 That I i-^ise up for D^vid a righteous oUtspring, 
 And a King shall reign and pr6sper, 
 And shall Execute judgement and righteousness on 6arth. 
 In his days shall Judah be saved. 
 And Israel dwell in sectirity: 
 And this is his name they shall cA-ll (him) 
 J§,hve our Righteousness. 
 
VIII] THE POETRY OF THE SEASONS 147 
 
 (Jer. xxxiii. 15.) 
 I raise up for D4vid an outspring of n'ghteousness 
 And he shall execute judgement and rfghteousness on earth. 
 In those days shall Judah be saved, 
 And Jerusalem dwell in security : 
 And this is what they shall call (it) 
 Jlihve our Righteousness. 
 
 If we may trust the text in these closely 
 related passages, we see that while one speaks of a 
 '^righteous outspring^" who is himself to be called 
 ^^Jahve our righteousness" the other speaks of an 
 " out-spring of righteousness " in the earth, which is 
 to bear the Name of Him who produces it, and is to be 
 called " Jahve our righteousness.'' Both thoughts are 
 needed. In Palestine, where the winter rains were 
 followed by an almost tropical growth, the outburst, 
 the spring, was well fitted to be a parable of the 
 New Creation. 
 
 Thus Joel (ii. 21 ff.) says: 
 
 21 Fear not earth ; | be joyful and glad, 
 For Jahve is d6ing great things. 
 
 22 Fear not, ye beasts of the field ; 
 
 For the pastures of the wilderness are sproliting; 
 
 For the trees are giving their fi'tiit. 
 
 Both fig-tree and vine are yielding their strength. 
 
 23 So ye children of Zion be joyful and glad 
 In Jahve your G6d: 
 
 For to you He hath given the rain for righteousness. 
 
 There is a play upon the word moreh, " rain " in 
 the last line. It denotes the " former rain'' i.e. the 
 
148 THE OUTSPRING [CH. 
 
 heavy rain at the beginning of the winter, but it also 
 signifies "a teacher.'' According to the Prophet's 
 thought the earth and the beasts have cause to rejoice ; 
 but the "Children of Zion" should see something 
 deeper in this parable of God's gift of rain which 
 should speak to them of the growth of righteousness. 
 So, too, the words which follow speak of " the latter 
 rain in the first {month),'' E. V. or " the latter rain 
 first of all." Here again a double meaning is in- 
 tended: the ^^ latter rain" is in the first (spring) 
 month, but truly it is ^^ first of all " in reference to 
 the ^'afterwards" (v. 28, Heb. iii. l)when God would 
 " pour out His Spirit upon all flesh." The first out- 
 pouring is a parable of the second. Again, 
 
 (Is. Ixvii. 10 f.) 
 
 For like as the rkin cometh d6wn 
 
 And the sn6w out of h6aven, 
 
 Nor rettrneth again, 
 
 Until it have watered the earth, 
 
 And mkde it to bring forth and gprlng; 
 
 Giving both seed to the s6wer, 
 
 And br6ad to the 6ater: 
 
 86 shall it U with My Word 
 
 That Cometh f6rth from My Modth; 
 
 It shall n6t return to Me 6mpty, 
 
 Until it have done what I will, 
 
 And have prospered in that which I s6nd it 
 
 In the times of the Prophet Zeehariah Tzemach 
 had become personified. Thus, iii. 8 : " Hear now 
 
VIII] THE POETRY OF THE SEASONS 149 
 
 Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit 
 before thee; for men of typical-import they are: — 
 For behold I am going to bring My servant Tzemach 
 — And he it is that shall build the temple of Jahve, 
 and he it is that shall bear the dignity ; and shall sit 
 and rule upon his throne, and the counsel of peace 
 shall be between them both." 
 
 And again, vi. 12: "Behold the man whose name 
 is Tzemach {the outsprirvg) ; from his own place he 
 shall spring wp and build the temple of Jahve." 
 
 Thus Zechariah regarded Joshua and Zerubbabel, 
 the Temple-builders of his own day, merely as types 
 of the true Temple-builder who was to come. This 
 true Temple-builder he calls by the name Tzemach 
 thereby associating him with the thoughts which we 
 have already considered. 
 
 We must, however, briefly allude to a remark- 
 able development of the word Tzeimwh whereby it 
 came to denote not merely the outspring fi'om the 
 ground but the outspring of light, i.e. the dayspring. 
 This arose, in part, from the use of dvaroKr} for 
 Tzemach in the Greek versions. For dvarokr) has 
 both meanings ; it signifies that which springs from 
 the ground (see Ezek. xvi. 7, xvii. 9 f. and compare 
 Gen. xix. 25 ; Ps. Ixiv. (Ixv.) 11) and also the out- 
 spring of light, the dayspring (Jer. xxiii. 5 ; xxxiii. 
 15, Theod. and Sym. ; Zech. iii. 8, vi. 12). In the 
 later Hebrew and Syriac the root Tzemach tended 
 
 10—3 
 
160 THE OUTSPRING [CH. 
 
 more towards the secondary meaning of the day- 
 spring. Thus the '^ Day spring from on high'' (Lk. i. 
 78) is to be traced to the group of Tzemach prophecies. 
 
 There is a fine poetical passage in Ps. Ixv. 10 — 14 
 where the course of God's bounty through the year is 
 compared to the laden wagon of a " harvest-home," 
 dropping its richness as its goes. 
 
 I confess I can make nothing of the metre of vv, 
 10, 11, but vv. 12 — 14 are in three beats. 
 
 10 Thou hast visited the earth and saturated her, 
 Enriching her with the water-full stream of God : 
 
 11 Watering her furrows, levelling her ridges, 
 
 Thou mellowest her with rain-drops, Thou blessest her 
 outspring. 
 
 12 Thou hast cr6wned the year of Thy goodness; 
 And Thy wh^el-tracks drop with plenty. 
 
 13 They dr6p on the wilderness-pastures, 
 And the hills are girdled with j6y. 
 
 14 The meadows are clothed with fl6cks; 
 And the valleys are c6vered with c6m ; 
 They shout for joy — yea sing. 
 
 The reader will notice the reference to T^ema^h 
 in V. 11. 
 
 Again, in the Psalm of the three-fold priestly 
 Blessing (Ps. Ixvii.) the pledge of the Blessing for the 
 world is found in the fruitful season, though in this 
 case the word Tzemach is not used: 
 
 Earth hath yielded her Increase; 
 G6d our God will bl^ss us. 
 
viii] THE POETRY OF THE SEASONS 161 
 
 Compare also Ezek. xxxiv. 27, Zech. viii. 12. 
 
 These thoughts of the earth's fertility are coupled 
 with the advent of a Prince of Peace in Ps. Ixxii., 
 just as in the Prophets. 
 
 1 Give Thy judgements, God, to the Kfng, 
 Thy righteousness unto the Prince. 
 
 2 May he right Thy People with m6rcy, 
 And Thy P6or-one8 with justice. 
 
 3 May the motintains uplift their peace, 
 And the hills with righteousness.... 
 
 4 May he j6dge the p6or of the P^ple, 
 May he save the s6ns of the n^edy : — 
 
 And crush the oppressor. 
 6 May he lengthen out (d&ys) with the s6u, 
 With the m6on for endless ^es. 
 
 6 Coming down like rain upon gr4ss, 
 As the dr6ps that drip on the earth. 
 
 7 Righteousness will bloom in his days, 
 Great peace till moons be no m6re. 
 
 8 So he rules from s^a to s^a, 
 
 From the River to bounds of earth. 
 
 9 Before him f6e8 bow d6wn 
 And his enemies lick the d6st. 
 
 10 The Kings of the fsles and of T^rshish ] bring their gifts, 
 The Kings of Sh^ba and Seba | 6ffer their presents. 
 
 11 All Kings bow down unto him; [ all nations do service. 
 
 12 For he frees the poor that crieth; | the afflicted and 
 
 helpless. 
 
 13 He pities the poor and the n^edy; 
 Yea the s6ul8 of the n^edy he saves. 
 
 14 From violence and wr6ng he redelms them; 
 And their blood, in his sight, is precious. 
 
152 THE OUTSPRING [ch. 
 
 15 
 
 So the prayer for him is continuous ; | all day do they bl6s» 
 him. 
 
 16 Let the outspread of c6rn be on 6arth j to the t6p of the hfllg. 
 Let its fruitage rustle like Lebanon: 
 
 So they bl6ssom [from the city*] as the herbage of the earth. 
 
 17 May his nkme endure for ever; 
 May his n^me increase with the sun. 
 
 The growing light and strength of the sun through 
 the year is regarded as a type of the great year of 
 Eternity, in which the Sun of Righteousness with 
 increasing light will bring forth more and more fruit 
 from humanity. 
 
 We pass now to vv. 10 — 14 of Ps. Ixxxv. where 
 the metre is very clearly marked in three beats. The 
 Psalm anticipates the return of the Divine Glory to 
 earth. 
 
 19 His salvation is nigh to His fearers, 
 That gl6ry may dw611 in our earth. 
 
 11 Mercy and truth are met, 
 Righteousness and peace have embraced. 
 
 12 Truth from earth outsprings, 
 
 And righteousness beams from Heaven. 
 
 13 So J^hve gives the g6od, 
 
 Our earth, too, gives her increase. 
 
 14 Righteousness marches before Him, 
 And keeps the way of His st^ps. 
 
 1 I would suggest that the words "from the city," which break the 
 metre, were introduced, as a gloss, to bring out the thought of tha 
 passage; the crop being not one of corn and flowers but of human 
 righteousness. 
 
VIII] THE POETRY OF THE SEASONS 153 
 
 There is no passage in the Psalter that brings 
 home the meaning of Tzemach more perfectly than 
 this. As heaven and earth combine to produce the 
 outcome of the seasons in the natural year, so, in 
 God's great year, Heaven and earth will combine to 
 produce the " man whose name is Tzemach ' and the 
 fruits of the Spirit. To this thought I would apply 
 the words of Browning: 
 
 "And the emulous heaven yearned down, 
 made effort to reach the earth, 
 As the earth had done her best, in my passioB 
 to reach the sky." 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Briggs, C. A. Study of Holy Scripture. 
 
 Budde, K. Poetry {Hebrew). In Hastings' Diet, of Bible. A 
 
 ver}' useful Article. 
 Cobb, W. H. A criticism of Systems of Heb. Metre (Oxford, 
 
 1905). Contains a full bibliography up to 1904. 
 Cooke, G. A. Hist, and Song of Deborah. 
 Harper, A. The Song of Solomon. 
 Kautzsch, E. Die Poesie und die poet. BilcJier des Alt. Test. 
 
 (1902). 
 
 Outline of hist, of Literature of O. T. (English Translation). 
 
 Edition of Proverbs tcith critical Heb. text. 
 
 King, E. G. The Psalms in three Collections (Deighton, 
 
 Bell & Co.). 
 Koiiig, E. Die Poesie des alten Testaments. Recently published. 
 
 I have not yet seen this book. 
 Moulton, R. G. The literary study of the Bible. 
 Rothstein, J. W. Song of Songs. In Hastings,' Diet, of Bible. 
 
 Grundzilge des heb. Rhythmus (Leipzig, 1909). 
 
 Zapletal, 0. P. De Poesi Hebraeorum (1909). A hand-book of 
 
 46 pages, written in Latin for School use. 
 
 Das Deboralied. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Accent, viii, ix, x 
 
 Alexandrines, lines like, 67 
 
 Alliteration, 9, 53 
 
 Alphabet, order of, 54-56 ; poetry 
 of, 54 ff. ; how divided for 
 alphabetical poems, 62, 66, 
 70, 71 f. 
 
 Amos, uses the Kinah metre, 
 39; paradox of,* 74; uses re- 
 frain, 103 f. 
 
 Archaisms, 7 ; why not more 
 frequent, 1 
 
 Asaph, and Joseph, 22-24, 26, 
 29; Asaph Psalms, 99 
 
 Assonance, 127 
 
 Assonance, and paronomasia, 
 xii-xiv 
 
 Assyria, Ezekiel's poem on its 
 fall, 43 f. 
 
 Babylon, a dirge on its fall, 
 
 44-47 
 Bleat, used of the stag, and of 
 
 the soul, 50 
 Blessing of Jacob, 21 ff. ; Ps. 
 
 Ixxx. compared with, 27-29 
 Book op Jashar, 3, 5, 17 
 Book op the wars op Jahve, 5 
 Browning, 25, 99, 153 
 
 Cain (Kenite), 2 
 
 Cobb, Systems of Hebrew Metre^ 
 
 27 
 Collections op Poetry, 4f. 
 Covenant, and number ten, 71 
 Covenant, of Creation, and of 
 
 David, 138 £E. 
 
 David, 16 ; Elegy on Jonathan, 
 
 17-21 
 Days of Creation, 132 fif. 
 
 Deborah, Song of, 6-14 
 
 Deuteronomy, its promise of 
 temporal prosperity needed 
 supplementing, 75 f., 81 
 
 Didactic poetry, 71 
 
 Difficulty op determining laws 
 op Heb. verse, xi 
 
 Dragon of darkness, 139 
 
 Dramatic lyrics, 121 flf. 
 
 Duplicate texts, xi 
 
 Ephraim, and " fruitfulness," 23 
 EzEKiEL, as a poet, 42 ff. 
 
 Fable of Jotham, 14 f. 
 
 Good God and good man, Pss. 
 cxi., cxii., 68-71 
 
 Habakkuk's difficulty, 76 
 Harper, Dr, quoted, 125 f. 
 Hedad, 53 
 
 Ingathering, Feast of, 22 f. ; of 
 sheep, 25 f. 
 
 Isaiah, his lament for his people, 
 49; Elegy on Moab, 53; his 
 use of the refrain, 105 f.; his 
 Song on Ari^l, 127 f . ; Song 
 of God's Vineyard, 129 ; on 
 the outspring (Tzemach), 144 
 
 Isaiah (the Second), on the 
 Suffering Servant, 91-98 ; on 
 the outspring (Tzemach), 
 145 f., 148 
 
 Jeremiah, use of Kinah metre, 
 40; his life-task, 76 ff.; on 
 the New Covenant, Covenant 
 of Creation, and of David, 138 
 
 Joel, 52 
 
156 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Jonathan, the roebuck of Israel, 
 
 18 f. 
 Joseph, Messiah ben, 29 
 JuDAH, blessing on, 29-32 
 
 Eautzbch, 20 
 
 Kenites, the smiths of the 
 ancient world ; see also Cain 
 
 KfNAH, the lament for the dead, 
 applied to death of nations 
 by the Prophets, 39 ff . ; wider 
 use of this metre, 48 £f. 
 
 Lamentations, Book of, 54 ff. 
 
 Megiddo, effect of the battle, 76 
 Metbe, defined, x 
 
 Noah, covenant of, 139 
 
 Orthodoxy of Job's feibnds, 81 f. 
 
 OuTSPRiNG (Tzemach, E.V., 
 badly, " Branch "), from the 
 earth, of righteousness, of 
 Hght from heaven, personi- 
 fied, 144-153 
 
 Parallelism, vi-viii 
 Poetry, religious, defined, t 
 Problem, Why do the righteous 
 suft'er ? Amos, Habakkuk, 
 Deuteronomy, Jeremiah, 
 Psalms, Job, Second Isaiah, 
 74-102 
 
 EiPBAiN, in rhetoric, 103 f. ; in 
 poetry, 50 fi., 80, lllf., 114 f. 
 
 Eeuss, quoted, 4 
 KOTHSTEIN, 49, 110 f. 
 
 Seasons, poetry of, 132 ff. 
 Servant (of God), applied to 
 
 Israel, 78 ff., 90 ff. 
 Shelley, 132, 133 
 Shepherd, of the stars, 25 ; of 
 
 Israel, 26 ff. ; Psalm of the 
 
 Good, 117 f. 
 Solomon, 3, 5 f. ; Song of {Song 
 
 of Songs), 121 ff. 
 Song, of Lamech, 1 ; of De- 
 borah, 6 ff. ; of Moses, 32 ff. ; 
 
 on AriM, 127 f. ; on God's 
 
 Vineyard, 129 
 Speaker, change of, sometimes 
 
 indicated by change of metre, 
 
 121, 123, 128; in Second 
 
 Psalm, 138 
 Strophe, 103 flf. 
 
 Taunt-songs, 5, 9, 11 ff. 
 
 Teaching op the Twelve 
 Apostles, on Vine of David, 
 129 
 
 Theophany, God's kingdom on 
 earth estabhshed by, 34 ff. 
 
 Truth, the Serl of God, 71 
 
 Tzemach, " outspring " from 
 the earth, 144 ff. ; " out- 
 spring " of light, 149 f. 
 
 Vine op David, 31, 129 
 
 Zaflstal, 9 
 
 Cambridge: printed by john clay, m.a. at the university press 
 
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