David Reimer’s “Introduction to the Poetic and Wisdom Literature” in the ESV Study Bible reminds us that there is always more to see in what we see. Here is a section on some aspects of poetry illustrated with just Psalm 19:
Poetry is commonly recognized by lines exhibiting rhythm and rhyme, readily exemplified by nursery rhymes: even the simple “One, two, buckle my shoe” demonstrates both aspects. This brief snippet exhibits rhythm (óne, twó, [pause] búckle my shóe), terseness, assonance (the resemblance of the vowel sounds in “one” and “buckle”, and “two” and “shoe”), and rhyme—and this sort of wordcraft can also be seen in the work of the ancient Hebrew poets. Apart from rhyme, conventions such as terse expression, freedom in word order, and an absence of typical prose particles also distinguish biblical Hebrew poetry from prose.
One prominent feature of biblical poetry not found in English poems is that of the “seconding sequence”; that is, a line of Hebrew poetry generally has two parts. The poet’s art allows the relationship between those parts to be crafted in manifold ways. Here is Psalm 19:1:
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Hashamayim mesapperim kebod ‘El
Uma’aseh yadaw maggid haraqia’
In the opening of Psalm 19, the heavens in the first part finds an echo in the sky above in the second part; likewise, declare parallels proclaims, and the glory of God partners his handiwork. With nearly one-to-one correspondence, it is obvious why such poetic parallelism has often been called “synonymous”—one of three such categories, the others being “antithetical,” where the second part provides the opposite to the first part (e.g., “A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother,” Prov. 10:1), and “synthetic,” where the two parts of the line do not display either of these kinds of semantic relationship.
Assigning a line of poetry to one of these simple categories represents only a first small step in discerning the poet’s art. This “parallel” structure offers the poet a surprisingly rich framework for artistic development: the poet is not simply saying the same thing twice in slightly different terms. The parallel line structure provided Hebrew poets with a means of exploiting similarity and difference on the levels of sound, syntax, and semantics to achieve an artistically compelling expression of their vision. Unfortunately, of these three elements, the first two (sound and syntax) usually do not survive translation. In the Hebrew of Psalm 19:1, both parts of the line are roughly 11/12 syllables, with three stresses in the first part, and four in the second. Syntactically, they form a very neat “envelope” structure, of the a-b-c/c–b–a- pattern: subject-verb-object/object-verb-subject. Such symmetry already begins to express the totality of the poet’s vision.
However, semantics—the meanings of words—are observable in translation. Of course, complete overlap of the meanings of words cannot be sustained across languages, so there is still an advantage to those who can enjoy the poetry in its original setting. While the simple matches across the parts of this first line of Psalm 19 were noted above, there is yet more to be observed.
The a:a- pair (“heavens” and “sky above”) are not precise synonyms. “Heavens” is the more generic term, and occurs well over 400 times in the OT; by contrast, “sky above” (Hb. raqia’) occurs only 17 times, and nine of those are in the creation account of Genesis 1. Even in this apparently simple development, which exploits the seconding pattern of the parallel line structure, the poet moves from the more generic assertion in the first part to the more specific in the second to display God’s glory in his creative acts (“handiwork”). (Confirmation of this allusion to creation comes in Ps. 19:4, which partners “earth” and “world” so that Ps. 19:1 and Ps. 19:4 together allude to the “heavens and earth” of Gen. 1:1.)
Something similar could be noted of the verbs: “declare” (Hb. mesapperim) refers to the simple act of rehearsal or recounting; “proclaim” (Hb. maggid) on the other hand brings the nuance of announcement, of revelation, of news. This invitation to savor the wonder of creation’s wordless confession of the glories of God (Ps. 19:1-4a), then, forms a profound counterpart to the famous reflection on the verbal expressions of the will of the Lord found in the law (Ps. 19:7-11).
Many lines of Hebrew verse do not offer this kind of parallel correspondence, however. Sometimes simple grammatical dependency binds the parts together (e.g., Ps. 19:3), or the first part asks a question that the second part answers (Ps. 19:12). Sometimes there is a narrative development (Ps. 19:5, 13), sometimes an escalation or intensification of terms (Ps. 19:1, 10).
These few examples are drawn from a single psalm with fairly regular features; surveying the entire poetic corpus would add a myriad of possibilities. Consistently, however, the art and craft of the Bible’s poems offers an invitation to read slowly, to have one’s vision broadened, one’s perception deepened—or, as it was put above, to see literary reflection in the service of worship and godly living.
