POETRY, POETS, AND POETICS by Stephen Hague 2020

OT Poets, Poetry, and Poetics, S.T.Hague, 01/04/2021, p.
1 of 86
old testament
poets, poetry,
and poetics
Stephen T. Hague
Updated, 2020
OT Poets, Poetry, and Poetics, S.T.Hague, 01/04/2021, p. 2 of 86
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
I. OLD TESTAMENT POETS, POETRY, AND POETICS ........................................................................................................... 3
A. POETRY: THE AESTHETICS OF IMAGINATION .......................................................................................................................................... 3
1. “What? Poetry? You’ve got to be kidding!” ................................................................................................................. 3
2. The practicality of poetic sensibilities in a prosaic age ................................................................................................. 5
3. Metaphors we live for . . . and die by ............................................................................................................................ 5
4. The power of poetry: “a gentle tongue can break a bone . . .” ..................................................................................... 6
5. Common wisdom sayings from around the world ........................................................................................................ 7
6. Aesthetic beauty in an anti-aesthetic world ............................................................................................................... 13
7. Symbolic language & God ........................................................................................................................................... 14
a) Metaphors, motifs, and meaning ...............................................................................................................................................15
b) The incomprehensibility of God: ................................................................................................................................................18
B. SOME NOT SO MODERN POEMS ........................................................................................................................................................ 19
C. SOME MODERN POEMS................................................................................................................................................................... 22
D. SOME NOTABLE QUOTABLES ON POETRY ............................................................................................................................................ 37
E. CONTEXTUAL-LITERARY ANALYSIS: THE BIBLE IS A UNIFIED LITERARY WHOLE AS REDEMPTIVE-LITERATURE ........................................................ 44
1. Old Testament poetry ................................................................................................................................................. 47
2. Old Testament examples ............................................................................................................................................ 48
3. Literary expression, genre, plot .................................................................................................................................. 59
4. Grammar and literary context .................................................................................................................................... 61
F. EXPLICATING-EXEGETING POEMS: UNPACKING/DECOMPRESSING METAPHORS............................................................................................ 62
G. TELLING IT LIKE IT ISN’T: LITERARY GENRE AND RHETORICAL DEVICES (FIGURES OF SPEECH) ........................................................................... 67
1. Old Testament poetic genre: distinctive forms ........................................................................................................... 68
2. Common poetic textures: literary terms for poetry .................................................................................................... 68
a) Acrostics .....................................................................................................................................................................................68
b) Alliteration .................................................................................................................................................................................69
c) Apostrophe ................................................................................................................................................................................69
d) Assonance ..................................................................................................................................................................................69
e) Chiasm (stanza symmetry) .........................................................................................................................................................70
f) Drama.........................................................................................................................................................................................70
g) Euphemism ................................................................................................................................................................................70
h) Hyperbole ...................................................................................................................................................................................71
i) Inclusio .......................................................................................................................................................................................71
j) Imagery ......................................................................................................................................................................................71
k) Internal rhyme (paranomasia) ...................................................................................................................................................72
l) Irony ...........................................................................................................................................................................................72
m) Metaphor ...................................................................................................................................................................................72
n) Meter (rhythm) and versification ...............................................................................................................................................73
o) Metonymy ..................................................................................................................................................................................74
p) Onomatopoeia ...........................................................................................................................................................................74
q) Oxymoron ..................................................................................................................................................................................75
r) Parallelism ..................................................................................................................................................................................75
s) Paronomasia (word plays) ..........................................................................................................................................................76
t) Personification ...........................................................................................................................................................................76
u) Puns............................................................................................................................................................................................77
v) Repetition...................................................................................................................................................................................77
w) Rhyme ........................................................................................................................................................................................78
x) Synecdoche ................................................................................................................................................................................78
y) Simile ..........................................................................................................................................................................................79
z) Symmetry (lines and stanzas) .....................................................................................................................................................80
aa) Poetic unity ...........................................................................................................................................................................80
H. TEXTUAL TEXTURES: GRAMMATICAL AND LINGUISTIC MATTERS ............................................................................................................... 81
II. BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................................................ 81
I. Old Testament poets, poetry, and poetics

This material is the introduction to the OT Poetic/Wisdom books syllabus.
A. Poetry: the aesthetics of imagination

1. “What? Poetry? You’ve got to be kidding!”
➢ See Dana Gioia ‘Can Poetry Matter: Essays on Poetry and Culture?
The loss of poetry in Western culture today:

• Poetry is often written for poets and critics and the common perception is that it has little bearing on, and
little relation to, ordinary people and their lives.
• Poetry is often very philosophical, and obtuse be design. See pp. 3-18.
• Poetry is often perceived as the domain of romantics and the effeminate.
• Poetry takes effort, and attention, two things lacking today.
• Poetry often requires some cultural literacy, often lacking today.
• Poetry challenges us to think poetically, in symbols and other devices in a culture that often thinks that is
upper-story mumbo-jumbo, and not relevant to the real world of facts and science.
• More . . . .??
In a time when poetry is in considerable disfavor and disarray many ask, “What is good poetry,” and even, “What
is poetry?” There are no simple answers to such questions. Considering that the Hebrew poets of the Old
Testament have long been considered the greatest poets of all time, perhaps their work can give us hints or even
answers to these questions. The suggestion, however, that the Bible has answers to questions of art and
aesthetics is often met with disbelief or denial, or, more often, indifference. It is particularly common to hear the
question, “What does the Bible say about aesthetic standards?” with the implicit assumption that it says nothing.
Nevertheless, God, who created a lavish and extravagant universe of exquisite detail and precision that is dynamic
(not mechanical), has revealed himself to humankind with profound exuberance in the poetry and prose of the
Bible. This is sure evidence that God himself is not indifferent to art and aesthetics. For example, the idea that
God has nothing to say about aesthetics is undoubtedly at the root of much contemporary “Christian” music that
is too often contentless, subjective, poorly structured, and poorly performed. In contrast, Old Testament
psalmody established by King David mandated an intensive musical program of over four thousand musicians
(including proficients and trainees divided into 24 choirs) who sang complex poetry to the musical
accompaniment of psaltery, harps, trumpets, and other instruments. Nothing was left to chance or the unskilled
in the worship of the Lord who had delivered and established them as a people.
The Christian church has often followed Israel’s pattern, setting the tempo for the world’s music and art, but too
often in our time we follow the noisy drumbeat of the world. One example is the “canned” (prerecorded) music
used for accompaniment to entertain and swoon us into an emotional high. Such music can inadvertently become
a subtle form of manipulation, often betraying rationality and objectivity. If the emotional purpose is achieved, it
is seen as proof of aesthetic success. Without any objective framework-consensus for aesthetic standards in art
and music, we assume that God will accept anything. With such an attitude, it is also easy to forget that true
innovation and creativity depend upon universal standards. Evangelicals have not always done very well in
accepting their own great traditions and standards, for much of our greatest music (e.g., Bach) is on the shelf in
our churches while it is often performed in liberal or secular settings.
The poets of the Old Testament were the prophets of God’s word: the medium for the revelation of his truth.
There is thus a significant distinction to be made between God’s prophets and our own artistry; we are not, and
will not be, “inspired” for new revelation. We can, however, be inspired in the artistic sense when we glimpse the
glory of God in nature, in scripture, and in the marvelous aesthetic deducible from the biblical poets of God. The
poets of God did not take lightly the beauty of this created world. Beauty was integral to their world and their art.
This does not mean beauty in the limited “romantic” sense, but beauty in the sense of truth-telling,
communicating truth and love. The universe was not created for its own sake, for it “declares,” “proclaims,” and
“pours forth speech” (a message) to all the ends of the earth (Ps 19). Even the multitudes of creature that appear
to have “purpose” show forth the glorious mind of their maker. They are beautiful with purpose because in their
being they show forth design, order, color, and infinite intricacies. The poets of God were inspired to verbalize and
proclaim this speech to the ends of the earth. They were also given the task of personalizing the aesthetic relation
between God and his people, for the personal depths and heights of thought and feeling in the psalms are
unsurpassed. The individual communicating with God in beauty (truth and love) is allowed freedom of expression
to communicate his deepest concerns.
There is a beauty in the forms of all created things, human relations, language and communication, personality,
science, and human technology. That beauty is communicated in forms – forms that allow the communication of
meaning. A formless universe would be a contradiction in terms, if created by an infinitely rational Creator. It
would be the epitome of irresponsibility, because without form nothing is communicated, known, or shared.
Meaning depends on language and our ability to reason coherently. It was out of God’s love for us that he has
thus spoken so clearly in his creation and his word. Likewise, our aesthetic (and all knowledge-forms) must always
pursue a coherent language (structure). The more carefully creative it has been designed and employed the more
it bears the mark of its creator. Made in God’s image, we thus live out that image partly through our aesthetic. All
art and aesthetics communicate something. Even if the message is one of meaninglessness, it is still a message
(though unbiblical). Meaning, therefore, depends in part on the form of its content: i.e., its structure and unity,
coherence and cohesion, truthfully related to the universe as we know it, and reflecting the wisdom of God’s
revelation. Understanding the forms of biblical content helps us understand the written word of God, though I
would argue we do not have to be literary scholars to read correctly. Nor would I suggest that meaning is utterly
bound to its genre. Genre enhances the meaning
dramatically, but we are never given revelation that is
Ps 104:3a-4
impossible to understand, and to appropriate, because
of its difficult forms.
He makes the clouds his chariot
The poets of God were the vehicles of the truth of God,
and those who say that psalms do not convey a and rides on the wings of the wind.
theology that can be systematized may be wrongly
dismissing the intent of scripture to communicate the He makes winds his messengers,
content of God’s truth. Certainly the Bible is not a doctrinal treatise; it is far superior as God’s revelation of all his
counsel, given in poetry, prose, parable, and many other forms. God’s flaming revelation shimmers out from every
page in the brilliant colors of diverse human language. That revelation is “living and active” like a sword that
“penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart
(Heb 4:12). Though this revelation is manifold and dynamic it has a exceedingly beautiful “system” of continuity,
unity, structure, themes, motifs, and metaphors of truth. Most importantly, it always exemplifies the nature of
the redemptive covenant of God with Israel consummated in Christ and his church. It is a tightly woven tapestry, a
masterpiece of integrity. That integrity is found in the aesthetic standards which serve us as creatures and glorify
the Creator as God, for the standards are revealed in the very character of God. These standards manifest the
most beautiful mind of dynamic rationality – because they reveal the very mind of God.
[right] This thumb-sized pomegranate is believed to be the only known relic from Solomon's
Temple in Jerusalem. It probably served as the decorative head of a ceremonial scepter used by
the Temple priests during one of the ceremonies. Around the shoulder of the pomegranate is a
carefully incised inscription in early Hebrew characters, part of which is broken off, which reads:
"qodes kohanim I-beyt [yahwe]h". "Sacred donation for the priests of (in) the House of [Yahwe]h."
"House of Yahweh" most probably refers to the Temple in Jerusalem.
2. The practicality of poetic sensibilities in a prosaic age

➢ See Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in an age of Show Business, NY: Penguin Books, 1986.
➢ J. Mander, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television.
➢ David F. Wells, No Place for Truth.
A poetic perspective is a theological imperative.

esthetics and symbolic language are of paramount importance in studying the Bible, so I will include
some remarks on developing a poetic sensibility. (Much more is said on this in the Poets/Wisdom
lecture on poetics.) There can be no final, exhaustive comprehension of God’s essential being, thus it
necessitates a poetic sensibility in which God’s attributes and character are often portrayed and
understood best in poetic language.
The age we live in, however, seems particularly hostile to the aesthetic imagination. There is little poetic
imagination in much of the gratuitously violent and sexual films on offer these days. Producers, in fact, seem bent
on the notion that we too have virtually no imagination ourselves, for they must depict every violent act with the
cinematographic precision of Tiger’s golf swing.
If we lack anything in modern America, and in Evangelicalism, it is poetry, the love of poetry, and the
ability to see things poetically. Our antiseptic strip-mall-tv universe has been de-poeticized. To be partly blamed is
a widespread, and very false, consensus about poetry. Poetry is not, however, contrary to popular opinion, for the
fainthearted or those sighing with the pseudo tremors of love-infatuations written in the flowery language of late
18th century Romanticism (cf. the Song of Songs). It is, on the contrary, the territory of uncharted worlds, dragon
slayers, cosmic battles played out in human drama, the great passions of love lost or gained, or the terrors of the
poet who glimpses God in his creation and yet has nowhere to hide.
Poetry has a capacity for brutal honesty which is a novelty in our day of tele-“vision,” which reflects a
culture of image and surface impressions and employs every imaginable attempt to avoid facing reality as it is. It is
a commonly asked question, “which came first, American culture or Hollywood’s electronic version of reality?,”
for they so often seem to reflect one another like mirror to mirror. Now the internet has come to compete with
TV for first place in cultural transience. The irony of the word for TV, as in tele-vision, is most ironic in that it so
often reflects a generation most pathetically devoid of any vision.
Good poetry is sharp like steel, it cuts and creates, it frightens and consoles. It leaves no rock unturned. It
speaks its own universal language. It opens us to know God’s world and ourselves with more honesty. It can carry
us to the ends of the universe, as well as to the depths of our humanity, and consequently to our knees in
adoration of the One who fills all without limit, and whose mercy, thankfully, is from everlasting to everlasting.
Needless to say, the Bible is full of such poetry, and it is of the most exquisite quality ever written.
➢ See Ryken, “the Bible is a mirror in which we see ourselves and our own experiences” (“Poetics,” p. 356). See Ryken on
realism.
3. Metaphors we live for . . . and die by

This heading is from a book title. An excellent one at that, since we live by what we think, and we inescapably
think in metaphors about countless things. And, if our metaphors are biblically inspired, then we will live biblically.
If they are not . . .
Metaphor functions primarily to compare the similar or the dissimilar, providing concreteness and
precision to the reader’s imagination. Metaphors often suggest an implied analogy in the similarity of the
dissimilar. They generally express a comparative relationship of A is B: “Your word is a lamp unto my feet” (Ps
199:105). In contrast to a simile which expresses the comparison of A is like B.
“Our culture is dominated by powerful images that shape the thinking and behavior of the people of the world, but many of
these images are the antithesis of God’s wisdom. The images in the wisdom literature have the power to counter those
cultural images and replace them with God’s truth.”1
1 Edward M. Curtis, Interpreting the Wisdom Books: An Exegetical Handbook (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2017, p. 40.
Three cheers for the poetry of the God’s wisdom versus the wisdom of the world:
Poetry not only informs us, it transforms us and conforms us
The wisdom of God in biblical poetry provides counter-metaphors and images to the ones that dominate the
miscalibrated hearts and minds of the world-culture; this wisdom restores the heart-bridges to God through the
evocative power of word-pictures that emotively challenge our status-quo constructs of pride. Since there is no
actual duality of head and heart in the Bible, or in us, we can understand the concept of bringing every thought
captive to Christ as an activity of the heart that is enabled to flourish anew as the ungodly metaphors and images
we imbibe from the “wisdom of the world” are supplanted by biblical ones based on the character and truth of
God. Worldly, misaligning, cultural images and motifs and metaphors are replaced by godly ones such that our
orientation in life becomes aligned with the order of God’s design for the world.
Skillfully living in congruence with the reality of the world as God designed it not only pre-empts many
heartbreaks and tragedies, it also generates real momentum towards development of a mature and righteous
character. Such wisdom also enables one to reckon with the incongruities and tensions of life in a world where
rampant evils and oppression strain the faith of the righteous who suffer injustice, and where the diligent are
defrauded and the wise are slandered and mocked as fools.
In both cases, living wisely in congruence with the way God made the world, and learning skill in dealing with
the fallenness of the world, one especially learns to trust in the providence of God and his purposes for his
creation. Conversely, it is the fool who has no proper fear of God and who tries to live in contradiction to the
order of God’s world as well as in denial of its brokenness. Such folly ends in hebel (vanity), since it is like trying to
catch the wind. The grip on us of the powerful images that govern the cultures of our world can most forcefully be
shaken through the radical reorientation that biblical poetry uniquely provides for us with motifs and metaphors
that resound with God’s truth, giving us realigned perspectives, and so often with the simple earthy imagery of
sloths, hinges, swine, gold-earrings, vines, doves, feasts, fences, whirlwinds, yokes, and rocks.
“Images resonate with us in a different way than even the most carefully articulated propositions. They are easier
to remember, and they keep us thinking and reflecting on a point long after a proposition has left our conscious
awareness.”2
“Harold Fisch argues that Old Testament poetry always creates its point of view in distinct opposition to the
cultures and religions of Israel’s ancient neighbors.”3
4. The power of poetry: “a gentle tongue can break a bone . . .”

➢ See “Only Words” by Janie B. Cheaney, World Magazine, October 30, 1999, p. 33.
➢ See sections on language in Wisdom notes
➢ See Kehl, “Verbacide”
Poetry has a power of language that pictures do not always have. As Proverbs note: “a gentle tongue can break a
bone . . .” (25:15). Language is what makes or breaks civilizations, communities, and individuals. Language goes to
and comes from the heart, the deepest aspect of what we are as created beings. Language also con-forms what
we are, think, do. Perhaps more harm is done daily through language than anything else (e.g., perjorative,
harmful, insulting). Nevertheless, when used in the service of God, language is the vehicle of redemption,
providing the Word of God, teaching, preaching, comforting, encouraging, and exhorting.
➢ See C.S. Lewis on the emotional power of language (“Studies in Words”): “as words become exclusively emotional they
cease to be words” (ibid., p. 324)
2Curtis, Interpreting the Wisdom Books, p. 36.

3Harold Fisch, Poetry with a Purpose: Biblical Poetics and Interpretation (Bloomington: Indiana Press, 1988), quoted in Craig
G. Bartholomew & Ryan P. O’Dowd, Old Testament Wisdom Literature: a Theological Introduction, p. 57.
Language con-forms what we are, think, and do in that it comes from the heart. The language of wisdom-poetry
can tranform our hearts and minds, and thus conform what comes from our hearts to the mind and heart of God.
The OT wisdom poetry is a counter-narrative to the many mythologies of the Ancient Near Eastern world, as it is
to the many modern philosophies of hopelessness. As in all Scripture, there is in OT poetry, in superlative form, a
polemic against unbelief, false & futile beliefs, idols and false gods, and godless and unethical character and living.
Even though it provides a painful cultural critique, it does not rest there, since its objective is by far a redemptive
one, and its transformative power cannot be overstated. The Spirit of God seeks and works to conform our hearts
and minds to the very truth of God and his character, and this is not insignificant in the purpoes of God.
“Wolterstorff says that art’s power confronts us and prepares us for action; it exists not for escape from the world
into contemplation – as is the gorwing trend with modern art – but to move us to act in the world.”4
“Poetry, we suggest, is uniquely able to evoke wonder. We marvel at the power and diversity of
God’s creation. We also stand in awe that God has charged this world with his presence and
that he has made us in his image as participants in his work to bring about the full potential of
his designs. Poetry thus restores the connections between the mind, the nature of being human
and our place in nature, connections we badly need restored.”5
Everything depends on coherent language. “So much depends upon a red wheel barrow . . .” (W.C. Williams). But
much more depends on the righteous language of wisdom.
“With the eclipse of mystery goes the atrophy of the sense of wonder.”6
5. Common wisdom sayings from around the world

Uganda:
1. ‘My mother is indeed the best baby carrier,' says the baby.
2. A dog with a bone in his mouth cannot bite you.
3. A roaring lion kills no game.
4. A sheep does not lament the death of a goat's kid.
5. A strawberry blossom will not moisten dry bread.
6. An elephant can never fail to carry its tusks.
7. An infertile woman gets a lot of visitors.
8. An ugly girl does not become old at home.
9. Ask help from the spirits after having used all your strength.
10. Caution is not cowardice; even the ants march armed.
11. Death is a scar that never heals.
12. Do not belittle what you did not cultivate.
13. Empty hands only please their owner.
14. Even the mightiest eagle comes down to the treetops to rest.
15. Familiarity is like the sea that kills the fisherman.
16. He who hunts two rats, catches none.
17. He who is bitten by a snake fears a lizard.
18. He who loves, loves you with your dirt.
19. He who tells no lies will not grow up.
20. If a woman sees a stick for beating her rival, she will throw it away in the woods
4 Wolterstorff, Art in Action, pp. 4-5. Quoted in Bartholomew and O’Dowd, OT Wisdom, p. 55.
5 Bartholomew & O’Dowd, Old Testament Wisdom Literature, p. 68.
6
Sam Keen, Gabriel Marcel (Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1967) p. 10 , quoted in Bartholomew & O’Dowd, OT Wisdom, p.
273.
21. If he has thrown the only spear he had at you, it means that he doesn't fear you.
22. If you climb up a tree, you must climb down the same tree.
23. If you have decided to eat a dog, eat a fat one.
24. In the entire world, things are two and two.
25. In the home of the coward they laugh while in the home of the brave they cry.
26. It is better that trials come to you in the beginning and you find peace afterwards than that they come to you
at the end.
27. It is better to be married to an old lady than to remain unmarried.
28. Men will love each other as long as one is richer than the other.
29. Old men sit in the shade because they planted a tree many years before.
30. One who keeps saying 'I will listen and obey' will be cooked with the corn cob.
31. One who sees something good must narrate it.
32. Only a fool tries to jump in the fire.
33. Only take away the wife of a strong man when he is out.
34. Polygamy makes a husband a double-tongued man.
35. She who keeps losing children doesn't invent names anymore.
36. Sickness accompanies a waning moon; a new moon cures disease.
37. The best part of happiness lies is in the secret heart of a lover.
38. The bird that pecks at a rock trusts in the strength of its beak.
39. The hunter in pursuit of an elephant does not stop to throw stones at birds.
40. The husband is always the last to know.
41. The lucky eagle kills a mouse that has eaten salt.
42. The man with one wife is the boss of all bachelors.
43. The path to your heart's desire is never overgrown.
44. The peacemaker dies, while the fighters survive.
45. The person who has not traveled widely thinks his or her mother is the best cook.
46. The tongue of co-wives is bitter.
47. Water that has been begged for does not quench the thirst.
48. What is inside a package is known only to its owner.
49. When the master is away, the frogs hop in.
50. When the moon is not full, the stars shine more brightly.
51. When throne into the sea the stone said, 'after all, this is also a home.'
52. When two elephants fight the grass gets trampled.
53. Where flies are eaten, eat them.
54. With wealth one wins a woman.
55. Women have no chiefs.
56. You can burn down a house, but can you hide the smoke?
57. You must judge a woman by the taste of her soup
58. Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers. – Uganda proverb
Msc Africa
1. A large chair does not make a king. - Sudanese Proverb
2. The way a chief acts affects the entire village. - Ugandan Proverb
3. A king cannot reign without the support of the elders. - Burundian Proverb
4. Words of a good King do not lock all the doors; they leave the right door open. – Zambian proverb
5. When there is peace in the country, the chief does not carry a shield. - Ugandan Proverb
6. The wise chief does not eat from two sides. - Malawian Proverb
7. He who fears the sun will not become chief. - Ugandan Proverb
8. When a king has good counselors, his reign is peaceful. - Ghana Proverb
9. When you befriend a chief remember that he sits on a rope. – Ugandan proverb
10. It is not always the one who speaks the loudest who wins the dispute.
11. A diamond does not lose its value due to lack of admiration.
12. A broom is sturdy because its strands are tightly bound.
13. The path leads towards love, not thorns.

14. If we stand tall, it is because we stand on the backs of those who came before us.
15. You will then learn your measure, when you spend a night with yourself.
16. Look at a person’s deeds, not whether they are tall or short.
17. Who dies inside has lost.
18. Although there are many roads, there is only one that is the straightest.
19. A person’s values are not crushed by passing storms.
20. Who today is humiliated easily, tomorrow will be lost.
21. Until one dies, others will not be satisfied.
22. Never give up - The tree does not fall at the first stroke.
23. Diligence - For the last-comer the bones.
24. Fearlessness - Not every dog that barks bites.
25. Friendship - The mouth is responsible for discord among people.
26. Ask for help - A good swimmer is not safe from drowning.
27. Inner beauty - A fine cage will not feed the bird.
China
1. The one step in the wrong direction will cause you a thousand years of regret.
2. A diamond with a flaw is preferable to a common stone with none.
3. A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches.
4. Those who know when they have enough are rich.
5. Even a hare will bite when it is cornered.
6. When the moon is shining the cripple becomes hungry for a walk.
7. If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, there will be
harmony in the house.
8. Those whose palm-kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble.
9. If heaven made him, earth can find some use for him.
10. When a finger points at the moon, the imbecile looks at the finger.
11. If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.
12. Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations, can never effect a reform.
13. Keep your broken arm inside your sleeve.
14. Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.
15. With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown.
16. A watched flower never blooms, while a carelessly planted willow grows into shade.
17. Rotten wood cannot be carved.
18. If you don't stand for something, you will fall for something.
19. Even for a tree of 10000 feet, it's leaves return to the root when they fall.
20. Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped.
21. An iron rod can be ground down to become a needle.
22. The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.
23. The palest ink is better than the best memory.
24. Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
25. He who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount.
26. The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water, but to walk on the earth.
27. Words are sounds of the heart.
28. To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.
29. Fall seven times, stand up eight.
30. There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.
31. Sour, sweet, bitter, pungent, all must be tasted.
32. When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other
33. Sometimes you lose a forest through the trees.
34. It is the beautiful bird that gets caged.
35. To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root.
36. The sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.
37. The faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory.
38. If heaven made him, earth can find some use for him.
39. When a finger points at the moon, the imbecile looks at the finger.
40. A watched flower never blooms, while a carelessly planted willow grows into shade.
41. Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.
42. Keep your broken arm inside your sleeve.
43. Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations, can never effect a reform.
44. If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of he game, the stakes, and the quitting time.
45. Those whose palm-kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble.
46. Even a hare will bite when it is cornered.
47. If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, there will be
harmony in the house. If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in
the nation, there will be peace in the world.
48. When the moon is shining the cripple becomes hungry for a walk.
49. Those who know when they have enough are rich.
50. A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches.
51. One step in the wrong direction will cause you a thousand years of regret.
52. A diamond with a flaw is preferable to a common stone with none.
USA
1. “Sow a thought, reap a deed.
Sow a deed, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character.
Sow a character reap a destiny”
2. There is no fool like an old fool.
3. A stitch in time saves nine. [a timely effort that will prevent more work later]
4. Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy.
5. Good weight and measure, are heaven's treasure.
6. If you desire many things, many things will seem but a few.
7. Pride is said to be the last vice the good man gets clear of.
8. Wishes won't wash dishes.
9. A dose of adversity is often as needful as a dose of medicine.
10. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face.
11. Necessity never made a good bargain.
12. Here today, gone tomorrow.
13. Variety is the spice of life.
14. From little acorns mighty oaks do grow.
15. Hope is a good breakfast, but a poor supper.
16. The forest is the poor man's overcoat.
17. Don't cry over spilt milk.
18. Ignorance is a form of environmental pollution.
19. Don't use a lot where a little will do.
20. He that lives on hope will die fasting.
21. You have to kiss a lot of toads before you find a handsome prince.
22. A dog is a man's best friend.
23. Close, but no cigar.
24. Feed a cold, starve a fever.

25. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
26. Make love, not war.
27. Time heals all wounds.
28. Each day provides its own gifts.
29. He that marries for money will earn it.
30. Opportunities, like eggs, come one at a time.
31. You cannot unscramble eggs.
32. Don't judge a book by its cover.
33. Never be content with your lot. Try for a lot more.
34. Practice what you preach.
35. The cemeteries are filled with people who thought the world couldn't get along without them.
36. Calm weather in June, sets the corn in tune.
37. Once bitten, twice shy.
38. Take the bitter with the sweet.
39. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.
40. Close is nice, but it isn't enough.
41. It's nice to be at the end of a journey but it's the journey that matters in the end
42. You cant make a pickle back into a cucumber
43. Time flies when you're having fun.
Meaning - Time passes quickly when you're enjoying yourself.
44. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
Meaning - You look in the mouth of a horse to see if it's healthy; it means you shouldn't be concerned about
how nice the gift is, but rather that they are being given you a gift
45. To each his own.
Meaning - Different people have different preferences.
Note : Variant: Different strokes for different folks.
46. Character is what you are in the dark.
Meaning - Public image is not as important as true character.
47. A good friend is someone who will bail you out of jail, but your best friend is the one sitting next to you saying
"Man, that was fun!
48. It is better to say nothing and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Note : Abraham Lincoln
49. When you buy quality, you only cry once.
50. Do as I say, not as I do.
51. [He] makes the bed soft, yet [it's] hard to sleep [on].
Meaning - Iron fist in a velvet glove; Things built without effort are hard to use.
Note : English version: Iron fist in a velvet glove; Velvet paws hide sharp claws
52. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Meaning - It's better to keep what little you have, than to risk it for something more
53. Your brain is the greatest weapon you have; use it well and in turn, it will do you well.
54. A handful of gold is a heart of iron.
Meaning - Material wealth and prosperity in no way denotes honest labor or ethical practices.
55. When you aren't ready you're scared, when you are ready you're nervous.
56. One man's trash is another man's treasure.
57. As California goes, so goes the nation.
Meaning - If one person does something interesting, people will soon follow.
58. Better late than never.
59. Chase two rabbits and they'll both get away.
Meaning - Don't overextend yourself.
60. In God we trust, all others pay cash.
61. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
62. Under a shadow you will never see the sun.
63. Be yourself in every situation.

64. Curiosity killed the cat.
Note : Variant: Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
65. Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
66. Don't take any wooden nickels.
Meaning - Don't get cheated
67. Don't take life seriously; no one gets out alive.
68. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me thrice, shame on both of us.
69. If you wait till the last minute, it'll only take a minute.
Meaning - Procrastinators' credo; also credo of subordinate workers who are given a task by their boss with a
deadline completely inadequate to allow for a well-researched response or product.
70. Clothes make the man, naked people have little or no influence in society.
Note : Mark Twain
71. Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
Note : Eleanor Roosevelt
72. Listen and silent are spelled using the same letters.
73. Close enough for government work.
74. If you want it bad, you'll get it bad.
Meaning - Credo of subordinate workers who are given a task by their boss with a deadline and/or
budget/manpower resources completely inadequate to allow for a well-researched response or product.
75. What you see, what you hear, when you leave, leave it here.
76. The fastest way to make money is to stop losing it.
77. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
Meaning - You can tell people your beliefs, but you can't make them listen.
78. A watched pot never boils.
Meaning - Watched never cooks.
79. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Meaning - Don't meddle with things just for the sake of change, if they're working fine already.
80. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the Kitchen.
81. The man in the black hat always rides the fastest horse.
82. If it seems too good to be true then it probably is.
83. Be useful better than beautiful.
84. Back to square one.
85. A wise man admits his ignorance; an ignorant man admits he's wise.
86. A bad guy is another man's good guy
Meaning - Everyone has his or her own opinion
87. People who don't talk are thought to be stupid; people who do prove it.
English
1. A danger foreseen is half avoided.
2. Strike while the iron is hot.
3. He that is master of himself will soon be master of others.
4. Knowledge is a treasure, but practice is the key to it.
5. With all your knowledge, know thyself.
6. One does harm, and another bears the blame.
7. When everyone takes care of himself, care is taken of all
8. A place for everything, and everything in its place.
9. Better to be safe than sorry.
10. Praise the sea but keep on land.
11. My mind to me is a kingdom.
12. Nature is the true law.
13. One eyewitness is better than ten earwitnesses.
14. A good example is the best sermon.
15. Some are very busy and yet do nothing.

16. First come, first served.
17. Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away.
18. Half the world does not know how the other half lives.
19. He that is warm thinks all are so.
20. There is no time like the present.
21. There is a time to speak and a time to be silent.
22. Success makes a fool seem wise.
23. Everything has its time.
24. Skill and confidence form an unconquered army.
25. Self-preservation is the first law of nature.
26. Do not be in a hurry to tie what you cannot untie.
27. You may find your best friend or your worst enemy in yourself.
28. Two wrongs do not make a right.
29. A change is as good as a rest.
30. If he deceives me once, shame on him; if he deceives me twice, shame on me.
31. An artist lives everywhere.
32. Better to say nothing, than to say something not to the purpose.
33. What “they say” is half lies.
34. In a calm sea, every man is a pilot.
35. Don’t dig your grave with your own knife and fork.
36. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
37. Creditors have better memories than debtors.
38. A full cup must be carried steadily.
39. He helps little that helps not himself.
40. Do not triumph before the victory.
41. Advice is least heeded when most needed.
42. Discretion in speech is more important than eloquence.
43. Poverty is no vice, but an inconvenience.
44. Actions speak louder than words.
45. Haste makes waste.
46. You never miss the water till the well runs dry.
47. A stitch in time saves nine.
48. Buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest.
49. A chain is no stronger than its weakest link.
50. Cursing the weather is never good farming.
51. A fool and his money are soon parted
6. Aesthetic beauty in an anti-aesthetic world

➢ See discussion of aesthetics in wisdom notes (Psalms) and essay by ST Hague, “The Beauty of the Lord.”
➢ See Bruno Bettelheim statement in Surviving and Other Essays, New York: Random House, Vintage Books, pp. 416-417.
“An artist is never poor.” Babette in Babette’s Feast

Poetry, music, literature, paintings, and sculpture feed the mind, heart, and soul. When we fail to read regularly
the poetry of the Bible we miss a crucial aspect of God’s character, I believe. The purpose of beauty/artistry:
enjoyment, delight. Artistry also “heightens the impact of an utterance” (Ryken, Words, p. 187).
“A major function of poetry is to raise the reader’s consciousness about the issues of life.”7
7 Ryken, Words, p. 220.

When discussing aesthetics, it is my opinion that we greatly need to develop a coherent theology of the beauty of
the Lord our God. A theology of beauty must naturally begin with the beauty of God. The beauty of God is beyond
our measuring and depicting in words, but his glory manifested gives us glimpses of his infinite and gloriously
beautiful person. God’s glory revealed in his creatures and creation also speaks of his magnificence. This is a
subject not often addressed, because we rightly shy away from any pictorial presentations of God in his essence.
Indeed, the latter would be impossible. We can, nevertheless, find considerable scriptural warrant for seeking to
know the glory of the Lord which is the magnificence of his essence manifested.
Perhaps beauty is not the best word here, for it has had feminine connotations in English. This is not a matter of
appearance, as in petty surface aspects (especially not something like “pretty”). Rather, the idea is of infinite
grandeur, incomparable magnificence, intrinsic nobility, everlasting splendor, resplendent beyond measure, and a
boundless munificence of perfections.
Ps 27:4 One thing I ask of the LORD,

this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD (conotes
delightfulness, pleasantness)
and to seek him in his temple.
Psa 50:2 From Zion, perfect in beauty (),

God shines forth. (cf.  - 3636, note that God himself is not connected
with this root in the OT)
Ps 84:1 How lovely () is your dwelling place,

O LORD Almighty! ( - lovely, beloved)
Cf. Is 5:1 I will sing for the one I love

a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
()
The beauty of the Lord also correlates with the holiness of the Lord, his excellencies and loveliness:
His goodness renders him beautiful, and his beauty renders him lovely; both are linked together (Zech (9:17):
‘How great is his goodness! And how great is his beauty!’” (Stephen Charnock, Existence and Attributes, p. 330)
In discussing J. Edwards, Lints writes: “It seemed natural to Edwards that this aesthetic sense also held the clue to
the systematization of doctrine. Theology was not supposed to be merely a rational framework placed over the
scriptural revelation in order to make the Scriptures intelligible to modern man, he believed. Rather, he saw the
aesthetic harmony of the Scriptures as the underlying fabric for the theological framework. Beauty was a
structural concept for Edwards, held primarily not in the eye of the beholder but in the very mind of God.”8
7. Symbolic language & God

➢ See T. Oden references in The Living God, vol. 1, “The Limits of Human Language about God,” Peabody, MA: Prince
Press, 1985, p. 321.
➢ See J. Wesley, “Imperfections of Human Knowledge”, WJW, VI, pp. 338ff.
➢ See Luther, Bondage of the Will, XII
8 Lints, The Fabric, pp. 175-176.

a) Metaphors, motifs, and meaning

Considering the widespread cultural resistance to poetics and poetry, and a literary way of looking at life, a
general anti-aesthetic is at work, I thought it expedient to include a short essay on the symbolic nature of
language. A pastor friend recently told me he is enjoying working on Job for a future sermon series, but that his
biggest problem was the fact that it was poetry. He said he wanted to write a systematic theology of Job, and was
frustrated! Indeed he should be, but he should not despair because some of our most theological texts in the
Bible are poetic (1/3 of the Bible is poetry and that says something important about the mind of God). Someone
recently said to my wife that she was too elegant in her tastes, and my wife retorted, “Perhaps, but God himself is
elegant.” God created this elegant universe in poetry and sustains it with poetry. As Supreme Creator he loves
creativity!
Metaphors are locomotives of meaning; they bear the freight of insight from place to place. . . .
The arrival of a powerful metaphor alters the geography of our thoughts and forces us to redraw our conceptual maps.
Terrence W. Tilley9
Your path led through the sea,

your way through the mighty waters,
though your footprints were not seen.
Ps 77:19
For who even of slight intelligence does not understand that, as nurses commonly do with infants, God is wont in a measure to
“lisp” in speaking to us? Thus such forms of speaking do not so much express clearly what God is like as accommodate the
knowledge of him to our slight capacity. To do this he must descend far beneath his loftiness (Calvin, Institutes, I. xiii, 1, p.
121).

note on the significance of symbolic language is in order at this point, while recognizing that the
enormity of this hermeneutical subject makes serious interaction impossible here.10 It is widely
affirmed that metaphor and symbolic language play a major role in theological formulation, and must
therefore be taken seriously in order to do justice to the image-oriented theology of the OT. It is crucial
to identify symbols correctly, while also acknowledging the limits of language to comprehensively and
9T.W. Tilley, Story Theology, Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1985, p. 1.

10 This discussion crosses the liberal/conservative divide, for it is widely acknowleded with very diverse conclusions: see T.E. Fretheim, The
Suffering, passim; Paul K. Jewett, “Speaking of God,” God, Creation, and Revelation: A Neo-Evangelical Theology (Grand Rapids: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company), 1991, pp. 25-43; Edwyn Bevan, Symbolism and Belief (Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, Inc.), 1968;
A.C. Thiselton, New Horizons, esp. see bibliography; John Goldingay, Models For Scripture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company;
Carlisle: Paternoster Press), 1994, pp. 314-322; Janet Soskice, Metaphor ad Religious Language (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 1987;
Sallie McFague, Metaphorical Theology: Models of God in Religious Language (Philadelphia: Fortress Press), 1983; id., Speaking in Parables:
A Study in Metaphor and Theology (Philadelphia: Fortress Press), 1975; John Macquarrie, God-Talk: An Examination of the Language and
Logic of Theology (New York and Evanston: Harper and Row Publishers), 1967; Dan R. Stiver, Philosophy and Religious Language: Sign,
Symbol, and Story (Oxford, Cambridge MA: Basil Blackwell Publishers), 1996; Paul Ricoeur, Figuring the Sacred: Religion, Narrative, and
Imagination, transl. David Pellauer, ed. Mark I. Wallace (Minneapolis: Fortress Press), 1995; Gerhard Ebeling, Introduction to a Theological
Theory of Language, transl. R.A. Wilson (Philadelphia: Fortress Press), 1973; Donald Bloesch, “Theological Language,” A Theology of Word
and Spirit: Authority and Method in Theology (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press), 1992, pp. 67-106; C.S. Lewis, “At the Fringe of
Language,” Studies in Words (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1967, pp. 313-33; Max Black, Models and Metaphors: Studies in
Language and Philosophy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press), 1962; Gordon D. Kaufman, The Theological Imagination: Constructing the
Concept of God (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press), 1981. On metaphor in the OT, see W. Brueggemann, Theology of the OT, pp. 230-
266.
exhaustively describe their antecedents. This is to say, we must take figures figuratively, identifying the referents
and analogies, while not pushing the symbolism too far, beyond its limits. Such a literary reading attempts to
account for the literal versus metaphoric, connotative versus denotative, suggestive versus didactic/explanatory,
allusions versus descriptions, etc. T.E. Fretheim gives a well-needed warning against taking metaphors of God too
lightly, stressing that “metaphors matter,” “having the power of wreaking havoc in people’s faith and life.”11 In
defining metaphor, he says, that it “always has a duality of association: the surface associations drawn from life as
experienced, and the analogical association.”12 That is, “Crucial to a proper understanding of a metaphor is the
recognition of both similarity and difference.”13
Nevertheless, along the lines I am proposing about the limits of language to convey a comprehensive
portrait of the spiritual realities surrounding God, he says, “There is always that in the metaphor which is
discontinuous with the reality which is God; God outdistances all our images; God cannot finally be captured by
any of them.”14 That is, “The metaphor does in fact describe God, though it is not fully descriptive. The metaphor
does contain information about God. The metaphor does not stand over against the literal. Though the use of the
metaphor is not literal, there is a literalness intended in the relationship to which the metaphor has reference.
God is actually good or loving: God is the supreme exemplification of goodness and love.”15 Speaking more
generally of metaphor, he makes an interesting statement about the nature of biblical language, which he notes is
anchored in human experience: “As a result, talk about God is strikingly ‘secular,’ inextricably interrelated to an
amazing array of those things which characterize the world, yet without collapsing God and the world into one
another. The metaphor is continuous with both God’s presence in the world and God’s self-revelation.”16 This
quite evident in the very tactile and sensory aspects of sanctuary imagery and theophany throughout the OT.
In relation to symbolic language, there is also human imagination which pervasively informs the process
of reading and interpretation: symbolism, imagery, etc., depend upon the ability of human imagination to picture,
to evoke a reality, or concept, adequately analogous to human experience. Appealing to the imagination,
language allows the “hidden” to be known, what is past to be present. J. Goldingay summarizes Garrett Green’s
helpful definition of imagination:
Imagination makes accessible what would otherwise be unavailable – temporally, because it is past or future,
spatially, because it is far away or too small or too big (the microcosmic or macrocosmic), or logically, as with
metaphysical realities such as God. It enables us to recognize in something accessible a figure that can truly
represent something inaccessible and incapable of direct representation. And what it is representing is something
that objectively exists: The language is referential.17
It requires imagination to employ a dynamic appreciation of such reality, opening the interpreter to theological
complexities otherwise unattainable. In sum, symbols are powerful vehicles of meaning that cannot always be
reduced to univocal explanations. Symbolic language is not reducible to prosaic equivalents, although it remains
referential. Metaphors can, indeed, be used in both traditional and new ways. They need not always connote the
same thing, yet their use in any situation cannot be completely severed from known, existing connotations.
Naturally related to imagination, and as a function of symbolic language, images serve as vehicles,
pointers to meaning, not “meaning” in the abstract. In this way, symbolic language, such as metaphor, conveys
meaning that is distinctly dependent on the imagery employed. We should not, moreover, separate the beauty of
images from their referents, in seeking to “get to the theological bottom” of the referents. That is, it is important
not to push imagery too far. The use of images is the primary means of figurative language to push beyond the
literal or surface reading to insights or beliefs that strictly denotative expressions can convey, but only in a tawdry
fashion. Images are subtle and oftentimes powerful, employing imagination in the respondent through the visual
components and their connotations, pre-empting overly abstract rationalizations and appealing to the “heart.”
Images can compare and contrast, as well as substitute for, meanings and relationships in a far more evocative
11 T.E. Fretheim, The Suffering, pp. 2, 5-12, fn. 4, p. 167.

12 T.E. Fretheim, The Suffering, p. 5.
17 J. Goldingay, Models for Scripture, p. 315. See his comparison of symbols and metaphors, (ibid., p. 317). On God’s presence and the limits
of human imagination, see Dale Patrick, The Rendering of God in the Old Testament, Overtures to Biblical Theology (Philadelphia: Fortress
Press), 1981, pp. 119-120, 130.
and effective manner than straight denotative prose. Images, in this sense, denote in so far as they connote by
appealing to allusion, suggestion, analogy, comparison, and contrast.
The language of metaphor as analogy is discussed well by Dan R. Stivers who traverses the complex terrain
between analogy, metaphor, and symbol. In surveying the long history of perceptions on metaphor, he notes the
cognitive value of metaphor (I.A. Richards and Max Black). That is, metaphor is not a substitute for meaning, it is
an irreplaceable aspect of meaning, for “it says what has not been said before and cannot be said in any other
way.”18 Thus metaphoric language allows for different frameworks of meaning within a larger context, in which
diverse expressions become crucially interrelated, guiding us towards “semantic innovation” (P. Ricoeur). This
proposal holds promise in treating the problems of polarity and polarization outlined already, in that “the
relationship of disparate fields of meaning presents a creative challenge, and the effect is to reframe both
sides.”19 On the other hand, he points out that “the two regions do not collapse into one another,” in that diverse
frameworks of meaning can continue to be distinct while analogously linked. For example, he expresses this in
saying, “Theologically, then, metaphor allows us to speak of God while doing justice both to God’s transcendence
and immanence, without losing the tension between the two.”20 That is, to avoid reducing metaphor and symbolic
language to “flat univocal meaning” is indeed a warranted procedure, although it need not lead us to affirm
arbitrary semantic chaos. Consequently, Stiver affirms that “Both univocal and symbolic language are indirect and
inexact pointers to truth, but both may point to truth.”21 Summarily, we can imagine that the “semantic shock” (in
the ANE context) of Israel’s presentation of YHWH led to semantic innovation that could comfortably live with
univocal expressions clothed in the imprecise, though understandable, symbolic language of metaphor.
Theophany provides a good example of the complexities of symbolic language.22 Employing a dynamic of
picturesque imagery alongside literal language of narrative and experiential report, a theophany can be deduced
as a temporarily visible manifestation, in diverse forms, of God’s invisible omnipresence, a sign of his spiritual
presence in the natural world, his immanence conjoined with his transcendence. That is, the universal God is
understood to dwell in universal space. Theophany generally occurs at/as momentous events in the history of
redemption, often involving the changing of personal names and the course of history. Theophany always
reaffirms the holiness (graded) of YHWH, for no-one can approach a theophany flippantly or uninvited
(unsanctified), by showing the glory of God to the recipient. Theophany also reaffirms the relational aspect of
God’s presence by invoking communication visibly and audibly in space and time, hinting at purposeful covenantal
significance. God’s word and deed/acts are most intrinsically linked in theophany. Theophany thus reveals the
trans-temporal, trans-spatial, immanent-transcendent qualities of God’s presence, for they are both in and
above/outside space-time continuums. Theophany further suggests that God’s coming presence is concurrent
with his abiding-presence. Thus, theophany can be said to be an intensification of God’s presence, though not
denying the essential-presence.23 That is, time and space are commensurate, yet the incommensurate fills
commensurate time/space in mutuality repletively. Theophany is always at God’s initiative alone, ever “raising up”
the terrified recipient to glimpse his glory, while never diminishing or “lowering” that glory. Yet, having said all
this, theophany still only hints at the grandeur of God’s glory, for it relies on symbolism and metaphor (fire,
clouds, thunder, and awesome displays) necessary to describe spiritual realities in the language of faith. Symbolic
language always brings us to a recognition of its limits, for we infer from it that God is also finally
incomprehensible, uncontainable, and immeasurable.
18 D.R. Stiver, Religious Language, p. 115.

22 See R.A. Simkins, Creator and Creation, pp. 128-131, 145-152; cf. T.E. Fretheim, The Suffering, pp. 60-67, 79-106; J.J. Nieuhaus, God at
Sinai, pp. 17ff.; id., “Theophany: Theology of,” New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, ed. Willem A.
VanGemeren, vol. 4, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997, pp. 1247-1250; W. Brueggemann, Theology of the OT, pp. 568-572;
J. Kenneth Kuntz, The Self-Revelation of God (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1967); F. Polak, “Theophany and Mediator,” passim. There is
much debate about the form of theophany, whether human or what. Suffice it to say, some form is generally recognizable (i.e., not
amorphous), although it is sometimes hidden by cloud, etc.
23 T.E. Fretheim compares theophany to a laser beam: “sharply focused, highly intense moments of divine presence” (The Suffering, p. 79)
b) The incomprehensibility of God:

“For how can the human mind measure off the measureless essence of God according to its own little measure, a
mind as yet unable to establish for certain the nature of the sun’s body, though men’s eyes daily gaze upon it?
Indeed, how can the mind by its own leading come to search out God’s essence when it cannot even get to its
own? (Calvin, Institutes, I. xiii. 21, p. 146).
“Indeed his essence is incomprehensible; hence, his divineness far escapes all human perception”(Calvin,
Institutes,I.v.1., p. 52).
“God’s nature is incomprehensible; and remotely hidden from human understanding” (The Catechism of 1538,
Corpus Reformatorum, V. 324).
“Our understanding is not capable of comprehending his essence” (The Catechism of 1542, Corpus Reformatorum,
16).
Considering what has been said about the symbolic nature of language, we can reaffirm that the nature of God
necessitates a poetic sensibility. In “describing” God and his attributes, creative language and perception must be
exercised, even though it can only be partial, for what is infinite cannot be comprehended by what is finite. There
is no final comprehensive (exhaustive) of God’s essential being, however, we can get a limited glimpse and
sufficient understanding. To say this does not mean that nothing can be known about God, for in fact that is the
opposite of what is intended: the fundamental truth is that God has spoken and revealed himself. Yet, because of
his infinite nature and the limits of human comprehension, our understanding of that revelation must often be
painted in the colors of symbolic and poetic language. Having said this, it is important to reaffirm that something
can be known, understood, and communicated about God, even though our language is woefully limited, and God
is infinite and beyond fathoming.
“For God, although nothing worthy may be spoken of Him, has accepted the tribute of
the human voice and wished us to take joy in praising Him with our words.”
St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine ( I.6-13, NPNF 1. II., pp. 524-526)

God himself is beyond our full comprehension.
God’s understanding itself is unfathomable.

13
Is 40:12-14, 28 Who has understood the mind of
the LORD, or instructed him as his counselor?
14
Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him,
and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge
or showed him the path of understanding?

15
Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are regarded as dust on the scales;
he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
28
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
Ps 147:5 Great is our Lord and mighty in power;

his understanding has no limit.
Job 5:9 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,

miracles that cannot be counted.
Ps 145:3
3
Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom.
Eccl 11:5
As you do not know the path of the wind,
or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb,
so you cannot understand the work of God,
the Maker of all things.
Rom 11:33-36 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
34
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
35
“Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?”
36
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen
What is infinite and eternal cannot be comprehended by finite and temporary

creatures; if it could, it would not be infinite and eternal,
for to know anything is to know the extent and cause of it”
Stephen Charnock, Existence and Attributes, p. ?).
B. Some not so modern poems

To set the tenor of this course, and to get us in a poetic mood, the best way to begin is with some readings of
English poems
Old English: (428-1100) (Anglo Saxon). Old English verse consists of four principle stresses divided into two parts
by a caesura (pause), the two half-lines being joined through alliteration.
A poem on wisdom and folly from the Exeter Gnomes (Maxims I)24 (copied apx. 940A.D. ?):
24“Gnomic” means aphoristic moralisms. Quoted from Stanley Greenfield, “Lore and Wisdom,” A Critical History of Old English Literature.
New York: New York University Press, 1965, p. 197. He asks, “Are these loosely collocated maxims, or is there some sense of structure in
the whole?” “we may see how the theme of the wise man runs through several verses and then leads, through the association of a good
man with good men, to the concept of another grouping of two, wife and husband, and this in turn to their children, and in turn to death.
Wise man with wise man; Meeting shall hold

They ever settle strife; their minds are similar;
Which evil men they teach peace,
Counsel shall accompany wisdom; have previously taken away.
A good man with good men. righteousness with the wise;
Woman and man shall Two are mates:
Children through birth. bear in the world
Suffer in its leaves, A tree shall on earth
The ready man shall depart, mourn its branches.
And every day struggle the doomed one perish
From the world. about his parting
Whence death comes The Creator alone knows
He multiplies children Which departs part hence from the land.
Foolish is he who knows not his Lord, whom sickness takes soon . . .
Wise men save their souls, since death often comes unexpected.
hold their truth righteously.
A little quiz in the form of Anglo-Saxon Old English riddles[O.E.: middle of 7th cent. to the end of the 19th). From An
Anthology of Old English Verse, transl. by Charles W. Kennedy (New York: Oxford University Press), 1960, pp. 41-
42.25
A moth ate a word. To me it seemed
A marvelous thing when I learned the wonder
That a worm had swallowed, in darkness stolen,
The song of a man, his glorious sayings,
A great man’s strength; and the thieving guest
Was no whit the wiser for the words it ate.
My house is not quiet, I am not loud;

But for us God fashioned our fate together.
I am swifter, at times the stronger,
My house more enduring, longer to last.
At times I rest; my dwelling still runs;
Within it I lodge as long as I live.
Should we two be severed, my death is sure.
In a sense the Bible is full of riddles, for they come from God’s exhaustlessly creative mind and humor. That is not
to say that they are riddles posed for our amusement, but that divine revelation communicated in forms we can
grasp with our own limited reason involves both mystery and wonder. The truths of the Bible are never simplistic.
If they ever come to seem so, let me suggest that we have become “dull with hearing and blind with seeing.”
God’s revelation is marvelously complex, yet he does not keep its truth hidden from us. His whole objective is to
REVEAL, UNVEIL his wonderous being and redemption. Yet, the point is, it requires WORK to understand and
appropriate its message.
The tree gnome is perhaps a vivid image here for parents mourning the death of children, a theme followed up in succeeding verses. At the
end of the passage, there is a gnomic generalization about wisdom and foolishness in the face of unexpected death . . .” (ibid., p. 197).
25 Answers: “The Book-moth,” “The Fish in the River”
Middle English: (1350-1500) the period between the replacement of French by English in the court and arts. Black
Death, Morality Plays, Wycliffe’s sermons and translation of the Bible, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Vision
of Piers Plowman. Alliterative verse became very popular. Chaucer created the English rhyming decasyllabic
couplet, writing the Tales largely in iambic pentameter.
The General Prologue (ca. 1387) from The Canterbury Tales, G. Chaucer (1350-1400)
Whan that April with his showres* soote*(shower/sweet) a
The droughte of March hath perced* to the roote, (pierce) a
And bathed every veine in swich* licour*, (such/liquor) b
Of which vertu* engendred is the flour*; (virtue/flower) b
Whan Zephyrus eek* with his sweete breeth (also) c
Inspired hath in every holt* and heeth* (grove/field) c
The tendre croppes*, and the yonge sonne* (shoots/sun) d
Hath in the Ram his halve cours* yronne*, (course/run) d
And smale* fowles* maken melodye (small/fowls) e
That sleepen al the night with open ye* -- (eye) e
So priketh hem* Nature in hir corages -- (them) f
Thanne* longen folk to goon* on pilgrimages, (then/go) f
And palmeres for to seeken straunge* strondes*(strange/strands)g
To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes; (far/away/known) g
And specially from every shires ende h
Of Engelond to Canterbury they wende, h
The holy blisful martir* for to seeke* (martyr) i
That hem hath holpen* whan that they were seke*. (help/sick) i
T.S. Eliot, from THE WASTE LAND (influenced by the Cantebury Tales)
"Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis

vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent:
Sibylla ti theleis; respondebat illa: apothanein thelo."
I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEADApril is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
10
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow

Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
20
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only

There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
C. Some modern poems
THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB

Lord Byron
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his 'cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!
And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.
And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail;
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
God’’s Grandeur
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed.26 Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
G.M. Hopkins (1844-1889), 1877
Pied Beauty
Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded27 cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple28 upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced — fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter,29 original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
G.M. Hopkins (1844-1889
A contemporary poem with similar themes, different treatment:
The Unanswering Correspondences

Intensification of compassion;
extraordinary; incalculable;
Grandeur hurls us down:
Tears blind us.
Sparrows! lions! crags! meadows! seas!
Inexhaustible; wounding;
unimaginable; illimitable;
This imperishable grandeur!

The heart breaks – tears blind us –
Immensurable; unfathomable;
26 from olives
27 streaked
28 spots
29 contrary
implacable; unsayable;
We cry our animal grief –
Compassion blinds our eyes –
Each blade
Of grass, leaf of tree,
Each
Feather floating to earth,
Is a signature of love
And sorrow.
O sparrows, lions and
Seas! tears blind us.

Kenneth Patchen (1911-72)
The Tiger
Tiger! Tiger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, and what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand forged thy dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tiger! Tiger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
William Blake (1757-1827)
Love
Thou art too hard for me in Love;
There is no dealing with Thee in that Art,
That is Thy Masterpeece, I see.
When I contrive and plott to prove
Something that may be conquest on my part,
Thou still, O Lord, outstrippest mee.
Sometimes, when as I wash, I say,

And shrodely as I think, 'Lord, wash my soule,
More spotted then my Flesh can bee.'
But then there comes into my way
Thy ancient baptism, which when I was foule
And knew it not, yet cleansèd mee.
I took a time when Thou didst sleep,

Great waves of trouble combating my brest:
I thought it braue to praise Thee then;
Yet then I found that Thou didst creep
Into my hart wth ioye, giving more rest
Than flesh did Lend Thee back agen.
Let mee but once the conquest have

Upon ye matter, 'twill Thy conquest prove:
If Thou subdue mortalitie,
Thou do’st no more than doth the grave;
Whereas if I orecome Thee and Thy love,
Hell, Death, and Divel come short of mee.
G. Herbert (1593-1633)
Readings
You asked me what is the good of reading the Gospels in Greek.
I answer that it is proper that we move our finger
Along letters more enduring than those carved in stone,
And that, slowly pronouncing each syllable,
We discover the true dignity of speech.
Compelled to be attentive we shall think of that epoch
No more distant than yesterday, though the heads of Caesars
On coins are different today. Yet it is the same eon.
Fear and desire are the same, oil and wine
And bread mean the same. So does the fickleness of the throng
Avid for miracles of the past. Even mores,
Wedding festivities, drugs, laments for the dead
Only seem to differ. Then, too, for example,
There were plenty of persons whom the text calls
Daimonizomenoi, that is, the demonized
Or, if you prefer, the bedeviled (as for the “possessed”
It’s no more than the whim of a dictionary).
Convulsions, foam at the mouth, the gnashing of teeth
Were not considered signs of talent.
The demonized had no access to print and screens,
Rarely engaging in arts and literature.
But the Gospel parable remains in force:
That the spirit mastering them may enter swine,
Which, exasperated by a sudden clash
Between two natures, theirs and the Luciferic,
Jump into water and drown (which occurs repeatedly).
And thus on every page a persistent reader
Sees twenty centuries as twenty days
In a world which one day will come to its end.
Bells in Winter, Czeslaw Milosz
Gn 1:1
Jn 1.1
A Poem for the End of the Century

Czeslaw Milosz, Berkeley
When everything was fine --So goes an Arab tale--

And the notion of sin had vanished God said somewhat maliciously:
And the earth was ready "Had I revealed to people
In universal peace How great a sinner you are,
To consume and rejoice They could not praise you."
Without creeds and utopias, "And I," answered the pious one,
I, for unknown reasons, "Had I unveiled to them
Surrounded by the books How merciful you are,
Of prophets and theologians, They would not care for you."
Of philosophers, poets, To whom should I turn
Searched for an answer, With that affair so dark
Scowling, grimacing, Of pain and also guilt
Waking up at night, muttering at In the structure of the world,
dawn. If either here below
What oppressed me so much Or over there on high
Was a bit shameful. No power can abolish
Talking of it aloud The cause and the effect?
Would show neither tact nor Don't think, don't remember
prudence. The death on the cross,
It might even seem an outrage Though everyday He dies,
Against the health of mankind. The only one, all-loving,
Alas, my memory Who without any need
Does not want to leave me Consented and allowed
And in it, live beings To exist all that is,
Each with its own pain, Including nails of torture.
Each with its own dying, Totally enigmatic.
Its own trepidation. Impossibly intricate.
Why then innocence Better to stop speech here.
On paradisal beaches, This language is not for people.
An impeccable sky Blessed be jubilation.
Over the church of hygiene? Vintages and harvests.
Is it because that Even if not everyone
Was long ago? Is granted serenity.
To a saintly man
Seven Stanzas At Easter

By John Updike
Make no mistake: if He rose at all

it was as His body;
if the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the
molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.
It was not as the flowers,

each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His flesh: ours.
The same hinged thumbs and toes,

the same valved heart
that--pierced--died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.
Let us not mock God with metaphor,

analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.
The stone is rolled back, not papier-maché,

not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.
And if we will have an angel at the tomb,

make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck's quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.
Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,

for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.
- From Telephone Poles and Other Poems

Confessions of an Atheist
We were born Godless into this world.
We learned to bend horseshoes, defy obstacles.
You, veterans, shouted “There is no God, no!”
(We believed in nothing. There was no need.)
We learned to look each instant in the face

as our dead heroes looked, and we vowed to do so
when we heard in our school rooms the composers
Dunaevsky and Pokrass and sang
“We must all march together—somewhere—

we must destroy, destroy, to build a new world.”
The years smothered traditions and blotted out good.

We, the young princes, became self-satisfied kings.
Our own tender, trusting souls we neglected, betrayed.
We folded them into our pockets with our membership cards.
Now, in a new world, we compete for each crumb

of better, fatter, sweeter.
(Guilty consciences are hidden

like guns in the temple.)
We are not worth shooting.

Done for. Hopeless.
Afraid to utter aloud
the word “guilty”
although we whisper furtively
under our breath
“God forgive us.”

And go on singing louder and louder
“We must destroy, destroy, to build a new world.”
A. Fradis
[Compare with Canticles (Song of Solomon)]
For Miriam
As beautiful as the hands
Of a winter tree
And as holy
Base are they beside thee
As dross beside thee
O green birds
That sing the earth to wakefulness
As tides the sea
Drab are they beside thee
As tinsel beside thee
O pure
And fair as the clouds
Wandering
Over a summer field
They are crass beside thee
The hands
Move through the starhair
As tawdry beside thee

Kenneth Patchen (1911-72)
A Puritan poem by Anne Bradstreet: cf. Song of Songs
I
f ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were lov’d by wife, then thee.
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold,
Or of all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompence.
Thy love is such I can no way repay;
The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.
Then while we live, in love lets so persever,
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
~
She Walks in Beauty
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)
FAREWELL, FAREWELL 30
Abruzzese Work Song
1. Mist in the valley

Mist in the mountains
About the countryside
Nobody goes.
Fare thee well, my love,

They fall, leaves
From the trees, fall
2. Olives are falling

Falling is the broom
Olives are falling
And the foliage and the broom.
Fare thee well, my love. . .
Happiness (Carl Sandburg)

I asked professors who teach the meaning of life to tell me
what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though I
was trying to fool with them.
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along the Des-Plaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with their
women and children and a keg of beer and an accordion.
Primer Lesson (Carl Sandburg)

Look out how you use proud words.
When you let proud words go, it is
not easy to call them back.
They wear long boots, hard boots; they
30 Arrangement for Choir by Giorgio Vacchi.

Walk off proud; they can’t hear you

calling—
Look out how you use proud words.
Some frequently posted English palindromes

A man, a plan, a canal, Panama! (and variants)
Able was I ere I saw Elba.
Doc note, I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on
cod.
Straw, no too stupid a fad, I put soot on warts.
Rats live on no evil star.
Madam, I’m Adam.
Name no one man.
Ma is as selfless as I am.
Madam, in Eden, I’m Adam.
A few meager morsels from S.Hague

The hour of cats and crows
I say good-morning unexpectedly
to young couples walking
a golden retriever.
They chuckle.
It is dark.
Moon and planet in conjunction.
The air is smooth to the touch.
I plan to speak to friends
in the Victorian house on the hill,
but they sleep the dream of sleep,
hoping.
I pass an overweight, tired, but alive,
old couple
out for a walk and breakfast,
silent.
Cats withdraw calmly from the battle,
thinking their time has come
to step down from their tarmac thrones.
A former prisoner of what little he has
of things
accumulated
prepares to move on.
Crows contend with morning-noise
that comes
with light.
And my son awakens
to lead me
hand-in-hand
to his rose-filled galaxies.
The hope of Job

(found-verse)
1.
Let the day of my birth hope for light,
but have none.
Is the integrity of your ways your hope?
The poor have hope.
The travelers of Sheba look in hope,
though once confident, they are distressed.
My day’s are swifter than the weaver’s shuttle,
and come to their end without hope.
The hope of the godless man, who forgets God, shall perish.
You will have confidence, because there is hope,
but the hope of the wicked will become a dying grasp.
Though he slay me, yet I will hope in him.
At least there is is hope for a tree.
Yet, as water wears away stones
so you destroy the hope of man.
Where then is my hope?
Who can see any hope for me?
He uproots my hope like a tree.
What hope has the godless when God cuts him off.
Any hope of subduing leviathan is disappointed.
2.
Stepping out
onto a sea
of uncertainties
is risky
so some say
so say let them
say their say
their words will unwind
someday
in a pile
of shriveled thread
upon their ocean’s floor
as a man called Job
runs to greet them
at the ninth parallel.
Despair Hope
don’t hope don’t despair
don’t wait don’t let
for hope despair arrive
to arrive to bind you
with its hand and foot
hands tied don’t run
behind to hide behind
its back its back
don’t wait wait
for waiting for hoping
is conceding consigns death
hope to despair
that is already before it’s
too late. too late.
➢ See Steve Turner readings (Up To Date).
D. Some notable quotables on poetry

“Prose, -- words in their best order;
Poetry, -- the best words in the best order.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Poetry may be defined as an order of words that as movement and tone (rhythm and pitch)
approaches in varying degrees the wordless art of music as a kind of mathematical limit. Louis
Zukovsky, “A Statement for Poetry,” Propositions
The purpose of poetry is to remind us how difficult it is to remain just one person, for our house is
open, there are no keys in the doors, and invisible guests come in and out at will. Czeslaw
Milosz
NINE TENTATIVE (FIRST MODEL) DEFINITIONS OF POETRY

Carl Sandburg, Harvest Poems
1 Poetry is a projection across silence of cadences arranged to break that silence with definite
intentions of echoes, syllables, ware lengths.
2 Poetry is the harnessing of the paradox of earth cradling life and then entombing it.
3 Poetry is a series of explanations of life, fading off into horizons too swift for explanations.
4 Poetry is a sky dark with a wild-duck migration.
5 Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable.
6 Poetry is a packsack of invisible keepsakes.
7 Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.
8 Poetry is the achievement of the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.
9 Poetry is the capture of a picture, a song, or a flair, in a deliberate prism of words.
“Poetry is about things that matter” D.S. Martin
“The naked poem: the world as it is.” Wallace Stevens
“Poetry – like prose, and like music—is an art of SOUNDS moving in TIME.”
Shaprio and Beum (Prosody Handbook)
“Poetry is that impassioned arrangement of words, whether in verse or prose, which embodies
the exaltation, the beauty, the rhythm, and the truth of life.” R. Le Gallienne
“Poetry, therefore, is a more philosophical and a higher thing than history: for poetry tends to
express the universal, history the particular . . .” Aristotle, Poetics IX
“To understand the Psalms properly we must understand the nature of poetry. Poetry is the
language of emotion, imagination, and the transcendent. Poetry is a way of transcending the
limitations of referential language to speak of the mysteries of human experience and of
God.”31
“While in discourse words embrace meaning, in poetry they explode meaning (as in
metaphor).” 32
“In narrative, time is normally sequential; in poetry it is often puntiliar [sic]. Poetry seeks to express
all that is experienced intuitively at a moment of time. While a poem takes time to read, all of its
parts are to be felt simultaneously.”33
Czeslaw Milosz, The Witness of Poetry, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983.
“If something cannot be verified on a deeper level, that of poetry, it is not, we may suspect, authentic.” p.
16
“The adversaries of the theory of evolution, invoking its conflict with the Bible, appraised the danger
correctly, for the imagination, once visited by the dangers of the evolutionary chain, is lost to certain
varieties of religious belief.” p. 43.
“. . . there is a possibility that the erosion of all values that have no place in the scientific Weltanschauung
will touch the very notion of truth, in other words, that its criteria will be recognized as valid only within an
arbitrarily selected system of references.” p. 47.
“The very act of naming things presupposes a faith in their existence and thus in a true world, whatever
Nietzsche might say.” p. 57
31 Craig C. Boyles, The Conflict of Faith and Experience: A Form-Critical and Theological Study, JSOT 52, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press,
1989, p. 29.
32 Boyles, The Conflict, p. 30.
33 Boyles, The Conflict, p. 30.
“One may also ask whether the melancholy tone of today’s poetry will not be recognized at some point
as the veneer of a certain mandatory style.” p. 70
“The poet therefore appears as a man in love with the world, but he is condemned to eternal insatiability
because he wants his words to penetrate the very core of reality.” p. 74
[not so of the biblical poets!!]
“There is, I understand, a species of modern poetry which is so written that it cannot be fully received unless all
the possible senses of words are operative in the reader’s mind. Whether there was any such poetry before the
present century—whether all old poetry thus read is misread—are questions we need not discuss here. What
seems to me certain is that in ordinary language the sense of a word is governed by the context and this sense
normally excludes all others from the mind. When we see the notice ‘Wines and Spirits’ we do not think about
angels, devils, ghosts and fairies—nor about the ‘spirits’ of the older medical theory. When someone speaks about
the Stations of the Cross we do not think about railway stations nor about our station in life.
. . . of all the arts, ours is perhaps that which co-ordinates the greatest number of independent parts or factors:
sound, sense, the real and the imaginary, logic, syntax, and the double invention of content and form . . . and all
this by means of a medium essentially practical, perpetually changing, soiled, a maid of all work, everyday
language, from which we draw a pure, ideal Voice, capable of communicating without weakness, without
apparent effort, without offense to the ear, and without breaking the ephemeral sphere of the poetic universe, an
idea of some self miraculously superior to Myself.” 34
“Poetry is the flowering of ordinary possibilities. It is the fruit of ordinary and natural choice. This is
its innocence and dignity.” Thomas Merton
“Poetry . . . is the secret life of each and all of the arts; another name for what Plato called
mousikè.” Jacque Maritain (Creative Intuition, p. 3.)
“Poetry obliges us to consider the intellect both in its secret wellsprings inside the human soul
and as functioning in a nonrational (I do not say antirational) or non-logical way.” Jacque
Maritain (Creative Intuition, p. 4)
“The poet’s labor is not to wait until the cry gathers of itself in his own throat. The poet’s labor is
to struggle with the meaninglessness and silence of the world until he can force it to mean: until
he can make the silence answer and the non-Being BE. It is a labor which undertakes to ‘know’
the world not by exegesis or by demonstration or proofs but directly, as a man knows apple in
mouth.” (Macleish, Archibald. Poetry and Experience. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1964, p.
18. Influenced by Lu Chi.)
To write we must speak. To speak we must breathe.

To breathe we must have rhythm.
There can be no speech or poetry without breath and rhythm.
34 C.S. Lewis, Studies in Words, Cambridge: University Press, 1967, p. 11.

“If a feeling of crisis goes on long enough, I suppose, one of two things happens—either a person or society
becomes numbed or they get interested in poetry.” W.S. Merwin, in David Howard, Alone with America, p. 415.
“Poetry is the art of using words charged with their utmost meaning. A society whose
intellectual leaders lose the skill to shape, appreciate, and understand the power of
language will become slaves of those who retain it – be they politicians, preachers,
copywriters, or newscasters.” Dan Gioia, Can Poetry Matter?, p. 17
Poetry is not the entire solution to keeping the nation’s language clear and honest, but
one is hard pressed to imagine a country’s citizens improving the health of its
language while abandoning poetry. Dan Gioia, Can Poetry Matter?, p. 18
From Orthodoxy, The Project Gutenberg eBook, Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton,

originally published by Garden City, NY: Image Books, Doubleday,1959, pp. 16-18.
Let us begin, then, with the mad-house; from this evil and fantastic inn let us set
forth on our intellectual journey. Now, if we are to glance at the philosophy of
sanity, the first thing to do in the matter is to blot out one big and common
mistake. There is a notion adrift everywhere that imagination, especially mystical
imagination, is dangerous to man's mental balance. Poets are commonly spoken of as
psychologically unreliable; and generally there is a vague association between
wreathing laurels in your hair and sticking straws in it. Facts and history utterly
contradict this view. Most of the very great poets have been not only sane, but
extremely business-like; and if Shakespeare ever really held horses, it was because
he was much the safest man to hold them. Imagination does not breed insanity.
Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess-players
do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. I am not,
as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie
in logic, not in imagination. Artistic paternity is as wholesome as physical
paternity. Moreover, it is worthy of remark that when a poet really was morbid it
was commonly because he had some weak spot of rationality on his brain. Poe, for
instance, really was morbid; not because he was poetical, but because he was
especially analytical. Even chess was too poetical for him; he disliked chess
because it was full of knights and castles, like a poem. He avowedly preferred the
black discs of draughts, because they were more like the mere black dots on a
diagram.
Perhaps the strongest case of all is this: that only one great English poet
went mad, Cowper. And he was definitely driven mad by logic,
by the ugly and alien logic of predestination. Poetry was not
the disease, but the medicine; poetry partly kept him in
health. He could sometimes forget the red and thirsty hell to
which his hideous necessitarianism dragged him among the wide
waters and the white flat lilies of the Ouse. He was damned
by John Calvin; he was almost saved by John Gilpin.
Everywhere we see that men do not go mad by dreaming. Critics
are much madder than poets. Homer is complete and calm enough;
it is his critics who tear him into extravagant tatters.
Shakespeare is quite himself; it is only some of his critics
who have discovered that he was somebody else. And though St.
John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision,
he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators. The
general fact is simple. Poetry is sane because it floats
easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so make it
finite. The result is mental exhaustion, like the physical exhaustion of Mr.
Holbein. To accept everything is an exercise, to understand everything a strain.
The poet only desires exaltation and expansion, a world to stretch himself in. The
poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get
the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits. It is a small matter, but
not irrelevant, that this striking mistake is commonly supported by a striking
misquotation. We have all heard people cite the celebrated line of Dryden as "Great
genius is to madness near allied." But Dryden did not say that great genius was to
madness near allied. Dryden was a great genius himself, and knew better. It would
have been hard to find a man more romantic than he, or more sensible. What Dryden
said was this, "Great wits are oft to madness near allied"; and that is true. It is
the pure promptitude of the intellect that is in peril of a breakdown. Also people
might remember of what sort of man Dryden was talking. He was not talking of any
unworldly visionary like Vaughan or George Herbert. He was talking of a cynical man
of the world, a skeptic, a diplomatist, a great practical politician. Such men are
indeed to madness near allied. Their incessant calculation of their own brains and
other people's brains is a dangerous trade. It is always perilous to the mind to
reckon up the mind. A flippant person has asked why we say, "As mad as a hatter." A
more flippant person might answer that a hatter is mad because he has to measure the
human head.
“Poetry and the Beauty of God” in The Beauty of God, ed. Daniel J. Treier, Mark
Husbands, and Roger Lundin.
On poetry, Jill Pelἀez Baumgaertner says, On poetry, Jill Pelἀez Baumgaertner says, “. . .
we cannot experience creation fully and in fact we cannot respond as moral beings if
we do not have the language that names creation and our experiences in it. To take
this several steps further—the big questions Who am I? Why am I here? Where is God
and what does he have to do with me? Are essentials questions that without language,
without the act of naming, we would not be able to think, much less even ask.” p. 146
"We cannot respond to creation as moral beings if we do not have a language that
names creation and our experiences, even our terrible experiences in it.” p. 160
“Poetry cracks open our everyday lives, the mundane worlds in which we spend so
much unconscious time, and it releases the extraordinary, bringing us to a different level
of attentiveness.” p. 147
“Language, especially familiar language, seems almost insufficient to capture the

transcendent, to reflect truth in all its complexity. But language is what the poet has to
work with and so the poet is forced to take sometimes exaggerated, sometimes
extreme steps to pierce the mundane, breaking up lines, using words in odd new
contexts, relying on sound effects and packing the stanzas with sensuous images and
fragments from Scripture, and the common language of our faith which suddenly takes
on new meaning through these odd juxtapositions.” p. 155
“There is a world of difference between the knowledge resulting from experience and
that which results from processing textbook facts and definitions. Poetry captures
realities about human experience and communicates them ways that connect with the
reader’s emotions and causes him or her to feel (and even participate in) the poet’s
experience rather than just providing information about it.“35
Taxonomy (For Dan Gioia)

Poetry is to name [things]
to know
and to remember
them.
Stephen Hague
Insomnia
Now you hear what the house has to say.
Pipes clanking, water running in the dark,
the mortgaged walls shifting in discomfort,
and voices mounting in an endless drone
of small complaints like the sounds of a family
that year by year you've learned how to ignore.
But now you must listen to the things you own,
all that you've worked for these past years,
the murmur of property, of things in disrepair,
the moving parts about to come undone,
and twisting in the sheets remember all
the faces you could not bring yourself to love.
How many voices have escaped you until now,
the venting furnace, the floorboards underfoot,
the steady accusations of the clock
numbering the minutes no one will mark.
The terrible clarity this moment brings,
the useless insight, the unbroken dark.
from Daily Horoscope, 1986 by Dana Gioia
35 Curtis, Interpreting the Wisdom Books, p. 35

[BEAUTIFUL AS THE SEA]

beautiful as the sea
and the island’s clear light
of the shipwreck the pebbles

shifting
on the beach that even sorrow
or most terrible
wound prove us part

of the world not fallen
from the cadence the image

the poem is
conviction
forceful
as light.
George
Contemporary poems Oppen
on poems:
Poetry (short version)

I, too, dislike it.
Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one dis-
covers in
it, after all, a place for the genuine.
(Marianne Moore, Selected Poems (1935) in The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore)
Excerpt from “Asphodel” by William Carlos Williams
My heart rouses
thinking to bring you news
of something
that concerns you

and concerns many men. Look at
what passes for the new.
You will not find it there but in
despised poems.
It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.
“To be trusted is an ennobling experience; and poetry is a peerless proficiency of the imagination. I prize it, but am
myself an observer; I can see no reason for calling my work poetry except that there is no other category in which
to put it.” Marianne Moore
More positively stated, not a poem
Poetry transforms the world (imagination): God’s true words created this beautiful world
Painting recreates the world (portrayal): God’s true world is beautiful beyond measure
Preaching sustains the world (interpretation): God’s true word is beautifully redemptive
Preach in poetry painterly

Paint in poetry preacherly.
E. Contextual-literary analysis: the Bible is a unified literary whole as

redemptive-literature
➢ See A. Thiselton, New Horizons, ch 13.
To place this subject under a distinct subheading does not imply that it can be divorced from theological matters,
as some may be inclined to do by looking at the Bible as just a literary text (New Criticism, Discourse Linguists).
We must first understand texts as in their redemptive-history, and also consider literary analysis as an important
aspect of interpreting that redemption-history.
This is not to say that meaning is completely bound to form, but that meaning is communicated through forms.
Therefore, it is imperative for us to achieve some understanding of those forms, whether it is conscious or not. In
fact, for most readers, we do not stop to say, “Oh, that is a metaphor written in iambic pentameter with allusions
to social events in the late 19th century.”
Forms and literary devices are often invisible to the reader for the reader naturally adjusts to them in the process
of reading. This does not mean they are not significant. I want to be cautious of overstating the case as is
sometimes done by those who propose that we cannot understand a text unless we know and understand its
genre (same is true of parallelism). Acknowledging the element of truth to this, we proceed to consider the
literary qualities of biblical texts.
The Bible is not a “theological outline with proof-texts attached.”36
It is not controversial to say that the Bible is literature and literary, but it makes some people uncomfortable
because of the modern reduction of the Bible to nothing but literature.
Through divine inspiration the Bible is a coherent literary work of interwoven history and theology. In fact, it is all
literature in the true sense of the word, though its forms vary dramatically with differing affects. Some genres
appeal to the imagination, while others to the need for information or guidance.
There is an appeal to the aesthetic sense in us, as made in the image of the Creator of the universe. This aesthetic
impact varies in degrees, depending in part on the form of a text, the reader’s receptivity, and the reader’s ability
to understand what is read.
There is also the aspect of the enjoyment of God’s creativity and the human author’s creativity in the marvelous
literary beauty of the Bible. We do not have a dull revelation from God, and it is certainly written for humans
(contrary to much writing humans create in our modern world: e.g., engineering manuals). It is proof that God
takes us seriously as made in his image, we are treated with dignity – for he did not leave us without a word, and
that word speaks to us with perfection and power in our humanity. Thus, it is unlike any other literary text in the
world.
Related to enjoyment is the process of imagination: the essential ingredient in reading the literature of the Bible
(incomparable in literary unity, cohesiveness, and coherence), for we must be able to “leave our own world” and
enter the world of the Bible. Although we are spectators in the story we can enter to some degree as participants,
losing ourselves in the story in “self-forgetful absorption.”37 Both aspects involve our imagination. See Dick Keyes’
book on Imagination.
Ryken writes, however, that “The stories are based on the premise that something is wrong with us if we do not
distance ourselves from much of what is portrayed.”38
L. Ryken seems to separate the historical and theological from the literary analysis of the Bible, but I do not think
it a necessary procedure. It might be in order, however, to begin interpretation with literary analysis, for then at
least we would know what the text is and what it is about.
See Ryken on levels of truth in the Bible (I suggest these are interlinking facets, not levels):
1. propositional
2. historical
3. human/literary (“Poetics,” 354)
Poetics of biblical writers is based on the principle of realism. There is “equally characteristic” a prevailing
idealism: everywhere the effect of reading the Bible is that we feel called to something higher and better”
(“Poetics,” p. 358).
Analysis of biblical language:
36 L. Ryken, Words, p. 11.

Kevin Van Hoozer says we should consider four aspects39:

1. the propositional – what it is about
2. the purpose – its function
3. the presence – the form used for its purpose
4. the power – the combined effect of 1-3 to accomplish its task
We should note at the outset the obvious fact that the Bible is an anthology of individual works by individual
authors. Following this, it is an anthology containing many forms of literature which use many kinds of literary
devices. The books of the Bible, as an anthology, are interdependent and form a unified whole. There is unity at
all levels, theological, philosophical, and literary.
L. Ryken outlines the literary (genre) and historical unity of the Bible:
1. The beginning of human history (creation, fall, covenant): Genesis, or the story of origins
2. Exodus: law
3. Israelite monarchy: wisdom literature
4. Exile and return: prophecy
5. The life of Christ and salvation: Gospel
6. The Church begins: Acts and Epistles
7. Consummation of history: apocalypse
The terms, literary analysis and literary criticism –

➢ See Ryken, Leland. “Literary Criticism of the Bible: Some Fallacies.” Literary Interpretations of Biblical Narratives. Edited by
Kenneth R.R. Gros Louis, James S. Ackerman, and Thayer S. Warshaw. Nashville and New York: Abingdon Press, 1974, pp. 24-
40.
Literary criticism in the earlier days of biblical studies referred to the historical-critical source-criticism (the study
of literary sources), whereas in recent years it refers to a renewed approach among historical-critics, and non-
historical-critical evangelicals to return to the Bible as literature.
I propose that the terms should be distinguished: literary analysis referring to the “lower criticism,” if you will, of
the literature of the Bible and the term literary criticism referring to the “higher” or broader questions of
literature as literature, and the place of individual works themselves within that category. That is, the latter treats
the abstract discussion of literary qualities and historical-cultural analysis of authorship and text: for example,
discussion of the philosophical frameworks of literary analysis: New Criticism, Deconstruction, Structuralism, etc.
It would be better to stay with the terms literary analysis and literary criticism, respectively.
The earliest representation of a lute is provided by a cylinder seal from the Uruk period, before 3000BC (the British Museum)
39 K. Van Hoozer, “The Semantics,” Hermeneutics, Authority, and Canon, pp. 53-104.
1. Old Testament poetry

➢ See Ryken, Words, pp. 159ff.; Berlin 1985, 16.
A modern poem on OT poetry:
The past is the present

If external action is effete
and rhyme is outmoded,
I shall revert to you,
Habakkuk, as when in Bible class
the teacher was speaking of unrhymed verse.
He said—and I think I repeat his exact words,
“Hebrew poetry is prose
with a sort of heightened consciousness.” Ecstasy affords
the occasion and expediency determines the form.
Marianne Moor, Selected Poems (1935) in The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore
Over 1/3 of the OT is poetry. (see conclusions/applications about poetry below)

Masoretes designated this with poetic accentuation in Job, Proverbs, and Psalms,
Ecclesiastes, Canticles, and Lamentations, some of Isaiah, and Jeremiah.
Historical books: Gen 4:32f.; 49; Ex 15; Nu 21:14f., 27-30; 23-24 (Balaam); Deut 32-33; Josh 10:12-14; Jdgs 5:9-18;
1 Sam 2:1-10; 2 Sam 1:19-27; 3:33f.; 22; 23:1-7.
Although there are not hard and fast delineations for the genre poetry in Hebrew, there are “quantifiable
differences” (Putnam) in form (syntax) and expression.
T. Longman says: “Poetry is characterized by a higher level of literary artifice than prose.”
The poetry of Job and Ecclesiastes plummets the depths of the human spirit in search of the big
answers from God. 
The poetry of the Proverbs plummets the depths of our earthly life in this world in order to help
us know (internalize) God’s truth and live rightly for God. 
The poetry of the Psalms plummets the heights of heaven in praise of God, while they also
plummet the depths of the human soul seeking comfort and the love of God. 
The poetry of the Song plummets the heights and depths of human romantic love in a fallen
world. 
I rate the value of the operation of poetry and literature upon men's minds extremely
The
high; poetryno
and from of the Prophets
poetry andplummets the heights
literature, not and
evendepths
fromof our
God’sown
deepest anger and and
Shakespeare
compassion,
Milton, great the
as very
theyheart
areand mind
and ourof God
own revealed
as theyin the most
are, profound
have I, forbeauty and simplicity.
my own 
part, received
so much delight and stimulus as from Homer and Isaiah. To know, in addition to one's
native literature, a great poetry and literature not of home growth, is an influence
of the highest value; it very greatly widens one's range. The Bible has thus been an
influence of the highest value for the nations of Christendom. And the effect of
Hebrew poetry can be preserved and transferred in a foreign language, as the effect
of other great poetry cannot. The effect of Homer, the effect of Dante, is and must
be in great measure lost in a translation, because their poetry is a poetry of metre,
or of rime, or both; and the effect of these is not really transferable. A man may
make a good English poem with the matter and thoughts of Homer or Dante, may even try
to reproduce their metre, or to reproduce their rime; but the metre and rime will be
in truth his own, and the effect will be his, not the effect of Homer or Dante.
Isaiah's, on the other hand, is a poetry, as is well known, of parallelism; it
depends not on metre and rime, but on a balance of thought, conveyed by a
corresponding balance of sentence; and the effect of this can be transferred to
another language. Hebrew poetry has in addition the effect of assonance and other
effects which cannot perhaps be transferred; but its main effect, its effect of
parallelism of thought and sentence, can.-Matthew Arnold, Isaiah of Jerusalem40
2. Old Testament examples

Adam: the first poet? Madam I am Adam.
Madam
I am
Adam
Gen 2:23 (with a pseudo-transliteration for clarity)

zote hapaam etzem meyatzamai
This is now bone of my bones


oovasar mi-besary
and flesh of my flesh;


lezote yiq-qara isha
she shall be called ‘woman,’


ki mey-ish looqakaqah zote.
for she was taken out of man.
The Curse in verse (Gen 3:14-16; 17b-19) is rendered in NIV as verse.

Genesis 3:14-16,17-19
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
40 Quoted in Solomon Goldman, The Book of Books: An Introduction. Philadelphia (The Jewish Publication Society of America), 1948, p. 311,
and between your offspring and hers;

he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded
you, ‘You must not eat of it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
Lamech’s boast (Gen 4:23-24)

Genesis 4:23-24
23 Lamech said to his wives,
“Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.
24 If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.”
Post-deluvian promise (Gen 8:22)

Genesis 8:22
“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”
Covenant-promise (Gen 12:2-3)

Genesis 12:2-3
2 “I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
Blessing of Israel (Gen 49:1-27)

Genesis 49:1-27
1 Then Jacob called for his sons and said: “Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to
come.
2 “Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob;
listen to your father Israel.
3 “Reuben, you are my firstborn,
my might, the first sign of my strength,
excelling in honor, excelling in power.
4 Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel,
for you went up onto your father’s bed,
onto my couch and defiled it.
5 “Simeon and Levi are brothers—
their swords are weapons of violence.
6 Let me not enter their council,
let me not join their assembly,
for they have killed men in their anger
and hamstrung oxen as they pleased.
7 Cursed be their anger, so fierce,
and their fury, so cruel!
I will scatter them in Jacob
and disperse them in Israel.
8 “Judah, your brothers will praise you;
your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons will bow down to you.
9 You are a lion’s cub, O Judah;
you return from the prey, my son.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down,
like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?
10 The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he comes to whom it belongs
and the obedience of the nations is his.
11 He will tether his donkey to a vine,
his colt to the choicest branch;
he will wash his garments in wine,
his robes in the blood of grapes.
12 His eyes will be darker than wine,
his teeth whiter than milk.
13 “Zebulun will live by the seashore
and become a haven for ships;
his border will extend toward Sidon.
14 “Issachar is a rawboned donkey
lying down between two saddlebags.
15 When he sees how good is his resting place
and how pleasant is his land,
he will bend his shoulder to the burden
and submit to forced labor.
16 “Dan will
provide justice for his people
as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan will be a serpent by the roadside,

a viper along the path,
that bites the horse’s heels
so that its rider tumbles backward.
18 “I look for your deliverance, O LORD.
19 “Gad will
be attacked by a band of raiders,
but he will attack them at their heels.
20 “Asher’s food will be rich;
he will provide delicacies fit for a king.
21 “Naphtali is a doe set free
that bears beautiful fawns.
22 “Joseph is a fruitful vine,
a fruitful vine near a spring,
whose branches climb over a wall.
23 With bitterness archers attacked him;
they shot at him with hostility.
24 But his bow remained steady,
his strong arms stayed limber,
because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob,
because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,
25 because of your father’s God, who helps you,
because of the Almighty, who blesses you
with blessings of the heavens above,
blessings of the deep that lies below,
blessings of the breast and womb.
26 Your father’s blessings are greater
than the blessings of the ancient mountains,
than the bounty of
the age-old hills.
Let all these rest on the head of Joseph,
on the brow of the prince among his brothers.
27 “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;
in the morning he devours the prey,
in the evening he divides the plunder.”
Deliverance Song of the Sea (Ex 15:1-18)

Exodus 15:1-18
1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to
the LORD:
“I will sing to the LORD,
for he is highly exalted.
The horse and its rider
he has hurled into the sea.
2 The LORD is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
3 The LORD is a warrior;
the LORD is his name.
4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his army
he has hurled into the sea.
The best of Pharaoh’s officers

are drowned in the Red Sea.
5 The deep waters have covered them;
they sank to the depths like a stone.
6 “Your right hand, O LORD,
was majestic in power.
Your right hand, O LORD,
shattered the enemy.
7 In the greatness of your majesty
you threw down those who opposed you.
You unleashed your burning anger;
it consumed them like stubble.
8 By the blast of your nostrils
the waters piled up.
The surging waters stood firm like a wall;
the deep waters congealed in the heart of the
sea.
9 “The enemy boasted,
‘I will pursue, I will overtake them.
I will divide the spoils;
I will gorge myself on them.
I will draw my sword
and my hand will destroy them.’
10 But you blew with your breath,
and the sea covered them.
They sank like lead
in the mighty waters.
11 “Who among the gods is like you, O LORD?
Who is like you—
majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory,
working wonders?
12 You stretched out your right hand
and the earth swallowed them.
13 “In your unfailing love you will lead
the people you have redeemed.
In your strength you will guide them

to your holy dwelling.
14 The nations will hear and tremble;
anguish will grip the people of Philistia.
15 The chiefs of Edom will be terrified,
the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling,
the people of Canaan will melt away;
16 terror and dread will fall upon them.
By the power of your arm
they will be as still as a stone—
until your people pass by, O LORD,
until the people you bought pass by.
17 You will bring them in and plant them
on the mountain of your inheritance—
the place, O LORD, you made for your dwelling,
the sanctuary, O Lord, your hands established.
18 The LORD will reign
for ever and ever.”
Moses’ blessing (Deut 33:1-29)

Deuteronomy 33:1-29
1 This is the blessing that Moses the man of God pronounced on the Israelites before his death. 2 He said:
“The LORD came from Sinai
and dawned over them from Seir;
he shone forth from Mount Paran.
He came with myriads of holy ones
from the south, from his mountain slopes.
3 Surely it is you who love the people;
all the holy ones are in your hand.
At your feet they all bow down,
and from you receive instruction,
4 the law that Moses gave us,
the possession of the assembly of Jacob.
5 He was king over Jeshurun
when the leaders of the people assembled,
along with the tribes of Israel.
6 “Let Reuben live and not die,
nor his men be few.”
7 And this he said about Judah:
“Hear, O LORD, the cry of Judah;
bring him to his people.
With his own hands he defends his cause.
Oh, be his help against his foes!”
8 About Levi he said:
“Your Thummim and Urim belong
to the man you favored.

You tested him at Massah;
you contended with him at the waters of
Meribah.
9 He said of his father and mother,
‘I have no regard for them.’
He did not recognize his brothers
or acknowledge his own children,
but he watched over your word
and guarded your covenant.
10 He teaches your precepts to Jacob
and your law to Israel.
He offers incense before you
and whole burnt offerings on your altar.
11 Bless all his skills, O LORD,
and be pleased with the work of his hands.
Smite the loins of those who rise up against
him;
strike his foes till they rise no more.”
12 About Benjamin he said:
“Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him,
for he shields him all day long,
and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders.”
13 About Joseph he said:
“May the LORD bless his land
with the precious dew from heaven above
and with the deep waters that lie below;
14 with the best the sun brings forth
and the finest the moon can yield;
15 with the choicest gifts of the ancient mountains
and the fruitfulness of the everlasting hills;
16 with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness
and the favor of him who dwelt in the burning bush.
Let all these rest on the head of Joseph,
on the brow of the prince among his brothers.
17 In majesty he is like a firstborn bull;
his horns are the horns of a wild ox.
With them he will gore the nations,
even those at the ends of the earth.
Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim;
such are the thousands of Manasseh.”
18 About Zebulun he said:
“Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out,
and you, Issachar, in your tents.
19 They will summon peoples to the
mountain
and there offer sacrifices of righteousness;
they will feast on the abundance of the
seas,
on the treasures hidden in the sand.”
20 About Gad he said:
“Blessed is he who enlarges Gad’s domain!
Gad lives there like a lion,
tearing at arm or head.

21 He chose the best land for himself;
the leader’s portion was kept for him.
When the heads of the people assembled,
he carried out the LORD’s righteous will,
and his judgments concerning Israel.”
22 About Dan he said:
“Dan is a lion’s cub,
springing out of Bashan.”
23 About Naphtali he said:
“Naphtali is abounding with the favor of the
LORD
and is full of his blessing;
he will inherit southward to the lake.”
24 About Asher he said:
“Most blessed of sons is Asher;
let him be favored by his brothers,
and let him bathe his feet in oil.
25 The bolts of your gates will be iron and
bronze,
and your strength will equal your days.
26 “There is no one like the God of Jeshurun,
who rides on the heavens to help you
and on the clouds in his majesty.
27 The eternal God is your refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms.
He will drive out your enemy before you,
saying, ‘Destroy him!’
28 So Israel will live in safety alone;
Jacob’s spring is secure
in a land of grain and new wine,
where the heavens drop dew.
29 Blessed are you, O Israel!
Who is like you,
a people saved by the LORD?
He is your shield and helper
and your glorious sword.
Your enemies will cower before you,
and you will trample down their high places.”
Judges period (1400-1000 B.C.) (Song of Deborah - Jdgs 5:2-31; and 14:14, 18)
Davidic period (1010-970) Most poetry recorded in the Bible begins here
David’s lament (2 Sam 1:19-27)

2 Samuel 1:19-27
19 “Your glory, O Israel, lies slain on your heights.
How the mighty have fallen!
20 “Tell it not in Gath,
proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon,
lest the daughters of the Philistines be glad,
lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice.
21 “O mountains of Gilboa,
may you have neither dew nor rain,
nor fields that yield offerings of grain.
For there the shield of the mighty was defiled,
the shield of Saul—no longer rubbed with oil.
22 From the blood of the slain,
from the flesh of the mighty,
the bow of Jonathan did not turn back,
the sword of Saul did not return unsatisfied.
23 “Saul and Jonathan—
in life they were loved and gracious,
and in death they were not parted.
They were swifter than eagles,
they were stronger than lions.
24 “O daughters of Israel,
weep for Saul,
who clothed you in scarlet and finery,
who adorned your garments with ornaments of gold.
25 “How the mighty have fallen in battle!
Jonathan lies slain on your heights.
26 I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother;
you were very dear to me.
Your love for me was wonderful,
more wonderful than that of women.
27 “How the mighty have fallen!
The weapons of war have perished!”
David’s song (2 Sam 22:2-51; Ps 18)
David’s oracle (2 Sam 23:1-7)

2 Samuel 23:1-7
1 These are the last words of David:
“The oracle of David son of Jesse,
the oracle of the man exalted by the Most High,
the man anointed by the God of Jacob,
Israel’s singer of songs:

2 “The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me;
his word was on my tongue.
3 The God of Israel spoke,
the Rock of Israel said to me:
‘When one rules over men in righteousness,
when he rules in the fear of God,
4 he is like the light of morning at sunrise
on a cloudless morning,
like the brightness after rain
that brings the grass from the earth.’
5 “Is not my house right with God?
Has he not made with me an everlasting covenant,
arranged and secured in every part?
Will he not bring to fruition my salvation
and grant me my every desire?
6 But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns,
which are not gathered with the hand.
7 Whoever touches thorns
uses a tool of iron or the shaft of a spear;
they are burned up where they lie.”
Hezekiah’s Prayer (2 Kgs 19:21-28; Is 37:22-29)

Ps 46:1-11
1 For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth. A song.
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
8 Come and see the works of the LORD,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
Psalm 46:1-10
1 For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth. A song.
God is our refuge and strength,

an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
8 Come and see the works of the LORD,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
Block’s comparative analysis chart of Hebrew narrative and poetry, Judges, p. 176
Metaphor and Simile in literary genre: from Henry A. Verkler, Hermeneutics: Principles and Processes of Biblical
Interpretation, p. 161.
3. Literary expression, genre, plot

Events, motives, character) unity/order. What are chief incidents/episodes? Are they causal or chronological or
both? Is there foreshadowing? Reversals? What is the conflict? Resolution? How is it unified? Subplots?
Literary structures and the storyline of history

Literary expression: from Longman who diagrams the poles on a continuum (modified):41
less use literary devices greater use
Metaphor and Simile in literary genre:42

extended
SIMILE PARABLE
compressed
PROVERB
compressed
METAPHOR ALLEGORY
extended
Literary expression:43
words creating imaginary persons/events
story (narration) play/drama (interaction)

words in direct address words overheard
essay (persuasion) poem (meditation)
words used to express ideas and feelings
41 Longman, “Literary Approaches,” in Foundations, p. 169.

42 Virkler, Hermeneutics, p. 161.
43 Klaus, Silverman, Elements of Literature by Scholes, pp. xxvii-xxviii. Film can emphasize all four of these possibilities, but
mostly emphasizes those patterns of life that are like stories (and drama).
Drama:44
ROMANCE
beauty/order/ideal
(essential quality in the world)
COMEDY TRAGEDY
integrative/harmony disintegrative/disharmony
(dominant pattern of (dominant pattern of human
human experience) experience)
SATIRE
ugliness/chaos/unideal
(essential quality in the world)
Classical model for plot (of life and drama) (Freytag’s Pyramid): to tie and untie a knot
Climax (moral choice)
turning point
Epitasis (complication) Catastasis (opposing forces)
rising action/conflict(s)
tragic force (character flaw/virtue) falling action
Exposition Conclusion (Denouement)
Introduction Catastrophe or renewed order
Creation Fall OT/NT Redemption-history/Christ Redemption complete
The story-line of creation-fall(exile)-recreation/redemption(return/remnant) can encompass all of the proposed

“central themes” of BT The new creational kingdom is progressively realized through the fulfillment of God’s
covenant-promise to Adam and Eve and the patriarchs, witnessed in the entire history of redemption as the
restoration of the people of God and his creation to his mediated glorious presence.
The final completion of redemption/salvation is a kind of new exodus(return/remnant) that is assured in the
propitiatory justification/reconciliation accomplished by the incarnate Son of God through his death and
resurrection. He entered the Most Holy Place to provide a perfect propitiation, and reopened paradisal access to
the unmediated glorious presence of God, provisionally in the church and then eternally in the temple of his new-
creational Jerusalem.
➢ For an OT application of this, see R. Pratt’s diagram of dramatic flow of Gen 3:8-21 (He Gave us Stories, p. 196); see
also his discussion of OT narrative in ch. 6-12.
Klaus, Silverman, Elements of Literature by Scholes, pp. 743-744. “By selecting and intensifying things . . . the dramatist can
44
emphasize the dominant patterns and essential qualities of human experience.”

Figures of speech by Fowler.45

Trained poets?
Hebrew psalmody is refined poetry. Ancient Sumer provided training for poets. Sumerian poetry (before 2000
B.C.) is characterized by a precisely worked out rhetoric (N.H. Ridderbos, H.M. Wolf, p. 897). There is no reason to
doubt that training for writing was extensive in Israel. Biblical poetry resembles some Ugaritic (1700-1500 B.C.),
Babylonian, and Egyptian poetry (Bible Almanac, p. 371)
4. Grammar and literary context

➢ See L. Berkhof, Principles, ch v.
Some would consider the grammatical as comprising of all the literary qualities of a text, but I have separated
them for convenience, though the distinction is somewhat artificial, especially when considering genre. The
grammatical is principally one aspect of literary analysis that overlaps with the other aspects and concerns of
literary analysis.
45 P. Fowler, NGTS, 2003 syllabus for biblical hermeneutics. See parables below, p.
THE THREE ESSENTIALS: CONTEXT CONTEXT CONTEXT. THE CONTEXT IS THE MEANING.
Grammar is essential to understanding the literary context. Hand in hand they form the initial groundwork for all
reading.
F. Explicating-exegeting poems: unpacking/decompressing metaphors

➢ See Dorothy Sayers on simile and metaphor, A Matter of Eternity, p. 91.
Explicating poetry: A case study of Psalm 1 (Ryken, ch. 9)

1. identify genre (instruction, hymn, lyric, lament, praise) and implied situation.
2. summarize the intellectual core: topic (what it is about); theme (what poet says about the
topic).
3. lay out the unity and structure of the poem:
a) descriptive (character/scene)
b) expository (idea/emotions)
c) narrative (events)
d) repetition (single principle in different guises)
e) logical (ideas in process of logic)
f) catalogue principle (lists of aspects)
g) psychological (consciousness of speaker)
h) contrasts (often the organizing principle)
i) unifying image (underlies poem)
4. consider poetic texture: words, images, metaphors, similes, apostrophes, personifications,
hyperboles, and all other figures of speech). Why is this device here? What is the logic of this
device in its context?
5. consider the artistry: the sheer beauty of the poem.
Psalm 1 (NASB) Psalm 1 (Ryken p. 211)

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in his law he meditates day and night.
And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season,
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,

But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish
Psalm 1 (NASB) Psalm 1 (Ryken p. 211) (See Appendix D, p. 5, Walter Kaiser)

How blessed
is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight

is in the law of the Lord,
And in his law
he meditates day and night.
And he will
be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither,
And in whatever
he does,
he prospers.
The wicked
are not so,
But they
are like chaff
which the wind drives away.
Therefore
the wicked
will not stand in the judgment,
For the Lord knows
the way of the righteous,

But the way of the wicked will perish.
(above)Kaiser’s syntactical outline of Psalm 1.46
Some exegetical guidelines: (based in part on L. Berkhof, Principles of Interpretation, ch 5)
1. Etymology: can be very technical, stick with established etymologies.

2. Contemporary (biblical context) meaning of words: lexicons are not always reliable, so
thorough inductive study is a pre-requisite though not a guarantee of certain conclusions.
3. Antonymity and synonymy: this essential aspect of words must be considered thoroughly, yet
with caution.
4. Figurative aspect of words: metaphor, metonymy (founded on mental relation not
resemblance, “They have Moses and the Prophets” = their writings), synecdoche (part is put for
the whole).
5. Immediate contextual meaning: how the word(s) is actually used.
6. Broader contextual meaning: how the word(s) is used elsewhere
More exegetical guidelines: (adapted from Ryken, Words, ch. 9, pp. 207ff.)
1. identify genre (instruction, hymn, lyric, lament, praise) and implied situation.
46 Kaiser, Toward an Exegetical Theology, pp. 170-171. On syntactical analysis, see p. Error! Bookmark not defined..
2. summarize the intellectual core: topic (what it is about); theme (what poet says about the topic) and variations
on the theme(s).
3. lay out the unity and structure of the poem:
a) descriptive (character/scene)
b) expository (idea/emotions)
c) narrative (events)
d) repetition (single principle in different guises)
e) logical (ideas in process of logic)
f) catalogue principle (lists of aspects)
g) psychological (consciousness of speaker)
h) contrasts (often the organizing principle)
i) unifying image (underlies poem)
4. consider poetic texture: words, images, metaphors, similes, apostrophes, personifications, hyperbole, and all
other figures of speech). Why is this device here? What is the logic of this device in its context?
5. consider the artistry: the sheer beauty of the poem.
Further exegetical reminders:

1. Figurative language must be handled correctly: images connote not denote.
2. Images function as vehicles, pointers to the meaning, not the meaning itself.
3. Images must be taken in their literary and cultural context, while being aware that they may often connote more than
meets the eye.
4. Theological truth is the goal, but don’t lose the beauty getting there. The difficulty of literary analysis forces us to careful
reading, and thus ideally better reading. Yet, it is always possible to miss the forest . . . .
Some major, universal difficulties in poetic analysis and criticism (drawn largely from I.A. Richards, Practical
Criticism, pp. 12-1647):
1. The making out the plain sense of poetry. “a large proportion of average-to-good (and in some cases, devoted) readers
of poetry frequently and repeatedly fail to understand it, both as a statement and as an expression. They fail to make out
its prose sense, its plain, overt meaning, as a set of ordinary, intelligible, English sentences, taken quite apart from any
further poetic significance. And equally, they misapprehend its feeling, its tone, and its intention” (p. 12).
2. The difficulties of sensuous apprehension (related to #1): “Words in sequence have a form to the mind’s ear and the
mind’s tongue and larynx, even when silently read. They have a movement and may have a rhythm. The gulf is wide
between a reader who naturally and immediately perceives this form and movement (by a conjunction of sensory,
intellectual and emotional sagacity) and another reader, who either ignores it or has to build it up laboriously with finger-
counting, table-tapping and the rest. . .” (p. 13).
3. Imagery comprehension is another major difficulty: Considering the significance of imagery in all poetry, it is problematic
that readers vary greatly in ability to apprehend them, as well in their stock of imagery associations. ”Images are erratic
things; lively images aroused in one mind need have no similarity to the equally lively images stirred by the same line of
poetry in another, and neither set need have anything to do with any images which may have existed in the poet’s mind”
(p. 13).
4. The influence of mnemonic irrelevances can create terribly powerful effects: “These are misleading effects of the reader’s
being reminded of some personal scene or adventure, erratic associations, the interference of emotional reverberations
from a past which may have nothing to do with the poem” (p. 13).
5. The critical trap of stock responses: “These have their opportunity whenever a poem seems to, or does, involve views
and emotions already fully prepared in the reader’s mind, so that what happens appears to be more of the reader’s
47These were deductions he made after a lengthy experiment of literary criticism in which he gave many people samples of a dozen or so
poems without titles or author identification and had them analyze them.
doing than the poet’s. The button is pressed, and then the author’s work is done, for immediately the record starts
playing in quasi- (or total) independence of the poem which is supposed to be its origin or instrument” (p. 14).
6. Sentimentality is a peril regarding the due measure of response. See Lewis, “Words.”
7. Inhibition, the flip-side of sentimentality, is often masked under the title of hardness of heart (p. 14).
8. Doctrinal adhesions produces problems in two directions: whether the views expressed in the poem are true or false and
their impact upon the value of the poem itself. That is, what should be the bearing of the reader’s convictions upon one’s
estimate of the poem?
9. The effects of technical presuppositions: “We have to try to avoid judging pianists by their hair.” “When something has
once been well done in a certain fashion we tend to expect similar things to be done in the future in the same fashion,
and are disappointed or do not recognize them is they are done differently. Conversely, a technique which has shown its
ineptitude for one purpose tends to become discredited for all. Both are cases of mistaking means for ends” (p. 15)
10. General critical preconceptions place unwarranted prior theoretical demands upon the nature and value of the poetry.
“Like an unlucky dietetic formula they may cut him off from what he is starving for, even when it is at his very lips” (p.
15).
Figurative language is “manipulated” language

literal versus metaphoric
connotative versus denotative
suggestive versus didactic/explanatory
allusions versus descriptions
word pictures (OE “whale-path” = sea)
The denotation of words and images in words (such as metaphors and similes) is the dictionary meaning. We must
in poetry always seek the connotations of meaning in its poetic imagery and figurative language. Connotations are
the “overtones” of meaning that images convey. One must know what these overtones might be in order to grasp
what the poet may be saying.
“The average modern man is not trained either to understand the grammatical structure of language, or to
express his meaning with precision, or to detect fallacies in argument. Children are indeed encouraged to
express themselves—but that is a very different matter, and ‘themselves’ is about all that they express” (Dorothy
Sayers, Further Papers on Dante, p. 86).
“Literal” does not necessarily relate to the truthfulness of an assertion any more than does “figurative.” Both
these terms can, however, imply truthfulness when thus used. They can, of course, also suggest falsehood when
thus used. Further, the term “literal” has had short shrift in our day as a pejorative term for the “factual
truthfulness” of the Bible (when used of those who are wrong-headed “literalists”). Yet, literal is more correctly
understand as the so-called natural meaning of any given expression. That is, it is not a figure; it means what it
says. Whereas, a figure means what it says by pointing us indirectly to its object. For example, the “breath of
God’s mouth” points us to the Almighty power of the Creator; it does not lead us to considering whether Hebrews
believed God has a mouth and breath.
“In particular situations the ‘verbification’ of the inarticulate may occur ad hoc” (Lewis, “Words,” p. 321).
Images function as vehicles, pointers to the meaning, not the meaning itself. We should not separate the beauty
of images from their referents, in seeking to “get to the theological bottom” of the referents. The use of images is
the primary means of figurative language to push beyond the literal or surface reading to insights or beliefs that
strictly denotative expressions can convey, but only in a tawdry fashion. Images are subtle and oftentimes
powerful, employing imagination in the respondent through visual components and connotations, pre-empting
overly abstract rationalizations while appealing to the “heart.”
Images can compare and contrast, as well as substitute for,
meanings and relationships in a far more evocative and effective
manner than straight denotative prose.
For example,
Ps 97:3-5
Fire goes before him
and consumes his foes on every side.
4 His lightning lights up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
before the Lord of all the earth.
This could be rendered simply as “God will destroy his enemies,”

but it would lose all of its poetic punch!
“The poet’s route to our emotions lies through our imaginations”

(Lewis, “Words,” p. 319).
➢ See C.S. Lewis’ advice to all new poets: “Avoid all epithets which are
merely emotional. It is no use telling us that something . . .” (“Words,” p.
317, and see p. 324).
G. Telling it like it isn’t: literary genre and

rhetorical devices (figures of speech)
 Allegory: extended metaphor in which figures are equated with externals
 Allusions: reference to past history, literature, characters, etc.
 Analogy: comparison of two similar things
 Antithesis: strong contrasts, often parallel
 Apostrophe: writer addresses someone absent or something nonhuman
 Archetypes: recurring master images (supernatural world, natural world, human relations, character)
 Apocalypse: extensive use of symbolism, visions
 Epistle: letter
 Gospel: historical “good news”
 Historical narrative: Realism, Literary romance
 Direct narrative: report events
 Dramatic narrative: scene dramatized
 Description: details described
 Euphemism: substituting pleasant for harsh words
 Commentary: explanations
 Hyperbole: exaggeration
 Image: concrete picture from sensory experience
 Irony: incongruity in expectation and reality

 Litotes: understatement, often ironic
 Metaphor: implied analogy, similarity of dissimilar
 Metonymy: substitution of term with word related to it
 Parallelism: thought couplet of Hebrew poetry
 Parable (appendix C): extended simile
 Personification: human attributes given to nonhuman object
 Poetry: epic, drama, lyric (ode, idyll, Fable, Elegy)
 Prophecy: discourse, prediction (see Appendix B, p.1-3/Prophecy)
 Proverb: concise memorable statement of truth
 Rhetorical question: answer is obvious, for effect
 Satire: exposure of human folly/sin through ridicule
 Simile: comparison of two things with like, as
 Symbolism: literal and figurative meaning
 Synecdoche: metaphor that signifies whole or part
 Type: recurring image of character or situation
1. Old Testament poetic genre: distinctive forms

➢ See Bullinger, Figures of Speech
➢ See Preminger, PEPP
➢ See Shapiro and Beum, Prosody
Lyric poetry: the psalms are all lyric with various subcategories (Ryken, Words, pp. 227ff). Lyric means a brief,
personal, reflective poem containing the thoughts and feelings of the author. It usually implied musical
accompaniment (a lyre, hence the name lyric).
Prayers/petitions for individuals, prayers of the community, praise for God’s saving help, praise from community
for God’s saving help, confessions of confidence in the Lord, hymns celebrating God’s universal reign, songs of
Zion (Pss 46; 48; 76; 84; 87; 121-122, royal songs, pilgrimage songs, liturgical songs (50; 81), didactic songs
(wisdom psalms, 37; 49; 73; 112; 127-128), messianic prophetic songs, laments/complaints (6; 31; 38; 39; 88; 102;
7; 17; 26; 27), narrative psalms (78; 105; 106; 135-136), imprecatory psalms, etc.
These diverse genres overlap considerably and are not hard and fast forms. Many psalms contain several of these
genres listed.
2. Common poetic textures: literary terms for poetry

➢ See VanGemeren, Psalms, pp. 21-31
a) Acrostics
A very definite form, in which the first letter of each line/stanza begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet
(though not always complete): Pss 9, 19, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, 145
Ps 119 (Psalm 119:1-8)








An acrostic curiosity
Esther 7:5: 
 Who is he, and where is he?
The final letters  spell the name EHYHE, backwards and forwards.48
Ex 3:14 I am who I am
An entirely coincidental English NT acrostic:

John 3:16
God so loved the world that he gave his one and
only Son, that whoever believes in him
shall not
perish but have
eternal
life.
b) Alliteration
Repetition of similar/same consonant sounds, especially those in initial proximity. Pervasive in Hebrew and Greek.
“It will flame out, like shining from shook foil.” Hopkins
“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”
Song of Deborah (Judg 5)
c) Apostrophe
Writer addresses someone (or something) absent as though present.
Ps 24:7
Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Ps 148:7-12
Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
8 lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding,
9 you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars,
10 wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds,
11 kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth,
12 young men and maidens, old men and children.
d) Assonance
Repetition of similar/same vowel sounds. Often referred to as vocalic rhyme. Pervasive in Hebrew and Greek.
E.g., grave/fate; glory/holy can be used to echo each other in the same lines or throughout the poem.
48
This interesting example is noted by Bullinger, Figures, p. 188. See pp. 186-187 for the other three examples in Esther of
acrostics of the name of YHWH.
“Along the heath and near his favorite tree.” T. Gray

“A stich in time saves nine.”
e) Chiasm (stanza symmetry)

➢ See Dorsey, The Literary Structure, pp. 15-44.
➢ See example of chiasm in section on “parallelism,” p. 75.
➢ See rhetorical devices, p. 81.
The reversal of elements in parallel sequences. The pattern generally resembles an X: the order of repetition going
(in varying lengths) in 1-2-3-4-3-2-1 or A – B – C – B – A.
Psalm 23:1-6 (NASB)

1 A psalm of David.
person
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. I and he A
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, I and he
he leads me beside quiet waters, I and he
3 he restores my soul. I and he
He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. I and he
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I and you B
I will fear no evil, for you are with me; I and you
your rod and your staff, they comfort me I and you
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. I and you
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. I and you
6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, I and he A
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
f) Drama
Drama is a quality of narrative or poetic that is sometimes difficult to quantify. It can especially be identified in the
historical psalms, yet nearly all of the psalms that contain personal “dramas” can be said to have dramatic elements
without being a “drama” in our strictly western understanding. Certainly, the Song of Songs is a love-drama, and
perhaps of all biblical “literature” it approaches most closely our understanding of a play with characters, plot,
crisis, and dénouement, etc. The historical narratives of the Old and New Testaments are intensely dramatic, yet
this is because they record, and thus reflect, real history in a fallen world. Although Job is a powerful drama, it is
not just poetry, it is a historical record of great human suffering and triumph in God.
g) Euphemism
A less direct way of speaking of something that might be offensive or in bad taste to speak of directly.
Gen 15:15 You, however, will go to your fathers [to die] in peace and be buried at a good old age.
Job 10:21-22 before I go to the place of no return [before death], to the land of gloom and deep shadow
[grave],
22 to the land of deepest night [grave], of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
[grave=sheol]
Ps 94:17 If the LORD had not been my help, my soul would soon have dwelt in the abode of silence. [I would
have been dead and buried]
h) Hyperbole
Exaggeration for effect. The truth of hyperbole rests not in “literal” quantification, but rather in its emotive impact.
This is not exaggeration (e.g. boasting) that communicates something untrue, as in a typical “fish story,” but it
compares or describes something in imagistic language that puts flesh on the bones of deep feelings and thoughts.
Ex 8:17 All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats.
Deut 1:28 Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart. They say, ‘The people are stronger and
taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky.’”
Ps 42:3 My tears have been my food day and night,

while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
Ps 56:1-2 Be merciful to me, O God, for men hotly pursue me; all day long they press their attack. 2 My
slanderers pursue me all day long;
many are attacking me in their pride.
i) Inclusio
Inclusio means a doubling upon again (Bullinger, p. 264), or a bracketing/envelope structure, as when a
word/phrase is repeated both at the beginning and at the end of a sentence or section. The sandwich effect binds
the content in between the repeated material.
Jer 4:22 (NIV)
“My people are fools;
they do not know me.
They are senseless children;
they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing evil;
they know not how to do good.”
j) Imagery
IN A STATION OF THE METRO (EZRA POUND, 1916)
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.
Imagery is the heartbeat of all poetry, for it involves the vantage point of the eye (external visual perspective),
imagination (internal-creative perspective), emotion (internal-emotive perspective), or auditory (internal auditory).
These are all appealed to in unique, diverse, complex combinations of images designed by the poet to compel
certain impressions and to communicate to our innate poetic sense that typical narrative does not always address.
Imagery is related inherently to parallelism, simile, metaphor, synecdoche, metonymy, etc. Metaphors and similes
are themselves images.
Stephen Spender in “The Making of a Poem” asked “Can I think out the logic of images?”
We must be able to think in pictures/images, seeking to understand why the poet used the particular images in their
poem/song. Yet, recognizing the inherent difficulty of understanding the meaning of image-collocations (Richards,
Practical Criticism p. 29).
k) Internal rhyme (paranomasia)

The placing of one word or more nearby other words that sound like or seem to repeat it in some fashion. These
words/sounds are similar, not identical. They may have related meaning, but not necessarily. The purpose of
emphasis is often in view, to catch our attention to some detail of importance to the author. It is so pervasive in all
languages, and may often indeed be an “unconscious” employment of the device, for it is really the natural
inclination of language, lost entirely in translation.
Gen 1:2

Now the earth was formless (T)H>) and empty (w*b)H%), darkness was over the surface of the deep,
Job 11:12

But a witless (/*b>b) man can no more become wise (yiL*b@b) than a wild donkey’s colt can be born a man.
Ps 18:7a

And the earth shook (roared) (w~TTiG#U~v) and quaked (w~TTir#U~v) . . .
Prov 6:23 (NASB)


For the commandment is a lamp (/@r), and the teaching (w#Tor*H) is light (Aor);
And reproofs (To:#jot) for discipline (<%c*r) are the way of life,
Eccl 7:6 (NASB)


For as the crackling (:#qol) of thorn bushes (H~C'r'<) under a pot (H~C'r),
So is the laughter (c#j)q) of the fool,
l) Irony
That which is incogruous or unexpected in its context, often adding a humorous or surprising “twist” because the
opposite meaning is communicated than that expected (or intended). The use of irony can vary from divine or
human irony to deceptive and hypocritical irony.
Job 12:2 Truly then you are the people, and with you wisdom will die! (human irony: Job’s counselors were
no more wise or righteous than he was)
Job 38:4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.” (divine irony)
m) Metaphor
“Metaphor and simile possess arresting strangeness that both captures a reader’s initial attention and makes a
statement memorable.”49
Metaphors are bifocal utterances that require looking at two levels of meaning. They are a form of logic in the sense
that the comparison between A and B can be validated by ordinary means of logic or obervation.”50
Metaphor functions primarily to compare the similar or the dissimilar, providing concreteness and precision to the
reader’s imagination. Metaphors often suggest an implied analogy in the similarity of the dissimilar. They generally
49
Ryken., Words, p. 168.
50
L. Ryken, “’I Have Used Similitudes’: The Poetry of the Bible, Bsac 147 (1990): 263.
express a comparative relationship of A is B: “Your word is a lamp unto my feet” (Ps 199:105). In contrast to a
simile which expresses the comparison of A is like B.
Job 25:6 how much less man, who is but a maggot— a son of man, who is only a worm!”
Ps 7:10 My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart.
Ps 7:11 God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day.
Ps 9:9 The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.
Ps 18:2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He
is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
Ps 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
Ps 28:7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for
joy and I will give thanks to him in song.
Ps 39:6 Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth,
not knowing who will get it.
Ps 60:8 Moab is my washbasin, upon Edom I toss my sandal; over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
Ps 62:2 He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
Pr 3:18 She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed.
Pr 7:27 Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death.
Pr 8:19 My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver.
Pr 11:30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.
Pr 14:24 The wealth of the wise is their crown, but the folly of fools yields folly.
Pr 14:27 The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.
Pr 16:22 Understanding is a fountain of life to those who have it, but folly brings punishment to fools.
Pr 16:31 Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life.
Pr 18:10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.
Ecc 7:12 Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: that wisdom
preserves the life of its possessor.
So 1:14 My lover is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi.
So 5:11 His head is purest gold; his hair is wavy and black as a raven.
n) Meter (rhythm) and versification

“rhythm is form cut into space” Ezra Pound
➢ For Job, see Edward Kissane, “The Metrical Structure of Job”

➢ See O’Conner, Hebrew Verse Structure
➢ See W.G.E. Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry: A Guide to Its Techniques JSOT Supplement 26, Sheffield, 1984.
➢ See Schökel, A Manual of Hebrew Poetics, Rome, 1988.
Prosody: the study of rhythm in language. The recurrence of accented and unaccented syllables in regular or
patterned order. The measured beat of the line. It is rarely a precise system.
Meter in English verse:

A foot can be:
iamb(us): the world (da dum)
anapest: on the moon (da da dum)
trochee: Where the . . .(dum da)
dactyl: Sanctify (dum da da)
monometer: one foot line

dimeter: two foot line
trimeter: three foot line
tetrameter: four foot line
pentameter: five foot line

hexameter: six foot line
A verse can be composed of51:

Monocolon: a short, single sentence.
Stich or cola: two or three parts (or limbs) of lines.
Couplet, distich, or bicolon: two-line verse. A distich is a two-part verse that has an interrelationship. All Hebrew
parallelism involves at least two or more stiches.
Triplet, a tristich, or tricolon: three-line verse. A tristich is when the thought of the first line is repeated in the
second (Prov 27:2), or when the second is contrasted in the third (22:29; 28:10).
Tetrastich quatrain: four lines in which the last two lines relate to the first two lines (23:15; 24:3f., 28f.; 30:5f., 17f.;
22:22f., 24f.; 25:16).
Pentastich pentad occurs when the last three lines unfold the first two (23:4f.; 25:6f.; 30:32f.)
Septastich hexad: six lines which present the same thought from different angles with proofs interspersed (22;12-
14, 19-21, 26-28; 30:15f., 29-31; 23:1-3; 24:11f.).
Heptastich: seven interrelated lines (28:6-8).
Octastich: eight line stanza which consist of interrelated lines (28:22-28).
Caesura: a gap (in Hebrew) between parallel parts of a line.
Diverse viewpoints on meter:

1. T. Witton Davies: no metrics but strong emotion expressed rhythmically.
2. Calmet, Lowth, Carpzov: poetry must have metrical rules, but through corruption of the text we do not
know what the rues were.
3. Modern scholars: poetry had metrical rules; only accented syllables were counted. We can know what the
rules were and it affects translation. If the text does not fit the theory, change the text. This often violates
the text.
4. PEPP suggests that Egyptians, Canaanites and Hebrews “developed in their poetry a symmetry of units” in
contrast to our “symmetry of feet” (emph. added, p. 337).
5. R.K. Harrison calls it “periodic accentuation and the balance of component clauses” (Introduction, p. 965)
6. O’Connor rejects traditional parallelistic/metrical assumptions.
o) Metonymy
The use of one name or noun instead of another based on relation not resemblance. Cf. synecdoche, p. 78.
Gen 42:38 you will bring my gray head (old age) down to the grave in sorrow.
Prov 25:15 Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue (speech and persuasion) can
break a bone (power of speech and language).
Ps 24:6 Such is the generation (all people who do) of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of
Jacob. Selah
Ps 5:9b Their throat (speech/language) is an open grave; with their tongue they speak deceit.
p) Onomatopoeia
Words that sound like what they describe: e.g., buzz, bam, boom, clickity, clackety
(Ho') – Woe!
(r~U~<) -- thunder
Galloping of horses in Jdgs 5:22


51
Consulted Delitzsch, Proverbs, pp. 6-14.
<i-D~H~rot D~H~rot
q) Oxymoron
Any expression that appears rather foolish on the surface due to the literal rendering of incongruous words, but may
convey a principle point of wisdom: “cruel kindness,” “blessed misfortunes.” “hot ice”
Isa 58:10 then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
2 Cor 6:4,8-10
4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships
and distresses;
8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors;
9 known, yet regarded as unknown;
dying, and yet we live on;
beaten, and yet not killed; 10
sorrowful, yet always rejoicing;
poor, yet making many rich;
having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
A good modern example: “Vacation Bible School”!
r) Parallelism
Hebrew poetry rhymes thoughts more than words.
➢ See discussion in Proverbs lecture.
➢ See Kitchen, K.A. “The Basic Literary Forms and Formulations of Ancient Instructional Writings in Egypt and
Western Asia.” Studien zu altagyptischen Lebenslehren. Edited by E. Hornung and O. Keel. Orbis et Orientalis 28
(Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1979), pp. 270-280.
“Hebrew poetry may open a window into the Hebrew mind. Whereas westerners build logical arguments with many
different points, hoping to use supplemental statements to convince, the Hebrews attempted to say the same thing in
complimentary or contrasting ways.”52
Synonymous: idea expressed in the second line repeats the idea expressed in the first line, in different words. May
be more than two lines. Alias: complete parallelism. See also emblematic.
Is 1:3; Ps 24:2; Job 6:5
Ps 24:22 (NASB)
For He has founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the rivers.
Antithetic: idea in second line contrasts with the idea in the first line. Also called complete parallelism, although
they are not always symmetrical.53 14:20, 34; Prov 15:20; Ps 30:6
Pro 15:20 (NASB)
A wise son makes a father glad,
But a foolish man despises his mother.
52
Lasor, Hubbard, and Bush, OT Survey, p. 308, fn. 5.
53
Garrett objects to this term, which implies some kind of contradiction, preferring merismus, which is when two or more
antonyms combine to form a single, unified whole (old and young = all people; heaven and earth = the universe; day and
night = at all times). The function of the bicolon thus being “to state a single concept as approached from two perspectives”
(Proverbs, p. 35). E.g., Prov 15:9.
Emblematic: repeats the idea of the previous line in figurative/symbolic terms; i.e., the second line interprets the
previous, extending the image/picture through interpretation. Considered synonymous. Prov 10:26; 25:13; Ps
42:2(1); See esp. Pr 25-27.
Ps 42:2
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;
When shall I come and appear before God?
Introverted/Chiastic: reversal of the idea a line (may use antithetic parallelism) Prov 23:15, 16; 10:4, 5
Chiasm (see p. 70): (from Dr. F.C. Putnam notes)
E.g., Ps 121:5(6)
 A By day
 B the sun
  C will not strike you
 D1 nor the moon
  A 1
by night
Synthetic: idea expressed in the second line repeats (symmetrically) the idea expressed in the first line, in different
words.54 May be more than two lines. The second colon varies and thus expands or emphasizes the first.
(correspondent: Ps 27:1; 35:26,27; cumulative: Ps 1:1,2; Isa 55:6,7; Heb 3:17)
Ps 27:1 THE LORD is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the defense of my life;
Whom shall I dread?
Incomplete: where the entire idea is not repeated in the second line
Ps 1:5 (NASB)
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Several conclusions on parallelism:

1. It is a normal, not necessary, aspect of Hebrew poetry.
2. It exists on three levels: syntactic (structural), grammatical (morphological), and semantic (lexical).
3. The relationship of parallel lines can be best described as one of mutual interlinking of meaning, the
meaning of each deriving from their relationship.
4. The goal is not to simply label them properly, but to be able to understand their interlinking meaning.
5. It is not essential in order to designate a text as poetry.
s) Paronomasia (word plays)

The use of homophonic words in the same context that have different meanings. Sound versus sense.
Job 11:12 And an idiot (, yiL*b@b) will become intelligent (, /*b>b) when the foal of a wild
donkey is born a man. (NASB)
Eccl 7:11 

A good name (v@<) is better than a good ointment (<iC#<#/)
t) Personification
Human attributes given to nonhuman object (body, animals, earth, countries, actions, etc.):
54
Garrett objects to this term, saying it is redundant, but also inaccurate because two lines rarely are fully synonymous
(Proverbs, p. 33, fn. 50)..
Job 29:11 (NASB)

For when the ear heard, it called me blessed;
And when the eye saw, it gave witness of me,
Ps 35:10 (NASB)
All my bones will say, “LORD, who is like Thee,
Ps 43:3 (NASB)
Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me;
let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.
Ps 73:9 (NASB)
They have set their mouth against the heavens,
And their tongue parades through the earth.
Prov 10:32 (NASB)

The lips of the righteous bring forth what is acceptable,
But the mouth of the wicked, what is perverted.
u) Puns
Similar to Paronomasia (word plays), in that they depend on similar sounds with disparate meanings:
To England will I steal, and there I’ll steal. (Henry V, 5.1.92)
Judg 10:4 His thirty sons rode around on thirty burros [´ayirim] and lived in thirty boroughs [´ayarim] in
Gilead.
Isa 5:7 He hoped for justice [mishpat] but there is injustice [mispah] –
for equity [sedaqah] but there is outcry [se'aqah].
Isa 24:17 Terror [pahad], pit [wa-pahath], and trap [wa-pah]; Upon you who dwell on earth.
Isa 65:11-12a Because you have forsaken the Lord and His Temple –– and now worship the gods of “Fate”
and "Destiny” –– I will “destine” you to die by the sword, and your "fate" will be an evil one. For I called, but
you did not answer.
v) Repetition
➢ See rhetorical devices, p. 81
Similar to parallelism, but distinct in many instances.

Correspondence of beginning and end (Ps 8:1, 9) internally or externally:
Ps 8:1,9
refrain
O LORD, our Lord,
How majestic is Thy name in all the earth,
Who hast displayed Thy splendor above the heavens!
inclusio
9 O LORD, our Lord,
How majestic is Thy name in all the earth!
Ps 122:7,8
refrain
7 “May peace be within your walls,
And prosperity within your palaces.”

inclusion
8 For the sake of my brothers and my friends,

I will now say, “May peace be within you.”
w) Rhyme
Rare in Hebrew poetry in the way we traditionally end the line very methodically. Although, the Hebrew text is
virtually full of internal rhyme, cacophony, and assonance. There is so much that it is easy to go overboard in
noting it.
Eccl 3.4

(U@T lib#:oT)
A time to weep

w#U@T lic#joq
and a time to laugh

U@T c#[od
A time to mourn

w#U@T r#qod
and a time to dance
x) Synecdoche
Whenever a figure is used to stand for the whole of which it is a part: “The heart is deceitful above all . . .” (the
heart stands for the entire person).
“. . . in Metonymy, the exchange is made between two related nouns; while in Synecdoche, the exchange is made
between two related ideas.”55
Job 5:23 For you will be in league with the stones of the field [whatever is hurtful to the soil]; And the beasts
of the field will be at peace with you. (NASB)
Prov 5:5 Her feet go down to death, Her steps lay hold of Sheol.
Prov 6:4 Do not give sleep to your eyes, Nor slumber to your eyelids;
Prov 6:16-18 16 There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: 17
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, 18 A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that run rapidly to evil, (NASB)
Ps 35:13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul [myself] with
fasting; And my prayer kept returning to my bosom. (NASB)
55
Bullinger, Figures, p. 613.
y) Simile
Along with metaphor, simile is the fundamental element of poetic thought. Metaphor and simile are not just literary
devices, they serve as a means to communicate meaning and understand reality. Simile and metaphor appear in all
forms of literature, not just poetry. A Logos search produced some 380 passages with “like.”
Job 5:25 You will know that your children will be many, and your descendants like the grass of the earth.
Job 8:16 16 He is like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden;
Job 9:26 They skim past like boats of papyrus, like eagles swooping down on their prey.
Job 10:9 Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again?
Job 14:2 He springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
Job 24:5 Like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go about their labor of foraging food; the wasteland
provides food for their children.
Job 27:18 The house he builds is like a moth’s cocoon, like a hut made by a watchman.
Job 32:19 inside I am like bottled-up wine, like new wineskins ready to burst.
Ps 1:3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not
wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Ps 11:1 1 In the LORD I take refuge. How then can you say to me: “Flee like a bird to your mountain.
Ps 18:33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.
Ps 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me.
Ps 32:9 Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding
but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.
Ps 37:6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Ps 44:11 You gave us up to be devoured like sheep and have scattered us among the nations.
Ps 52:8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever
and ever.
Ps 58:8 Like a slug melting away as it moves along, like a stillborn child, may they not see the sun.
Ps 78:27 He rained meat down on them like dust, flying birds like sand on the seashore.
Ps 83:13 Make them like tumbleweed, O my God, like chaff before the wind.
Ps 97:5 The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.
Ps 102:3 For my days vanish like smoke; my bones burn like glowing embers.
Ps 114:4 the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
Ps 144:4 Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow.
Ps 147:16 He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes.
Pr 6:11 and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.
Pr 11:22 Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.
Pr 12:4 A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones.
Pr 12:18 Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Pr 25:11 A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
Pr 26:6 Like cutting off one’s feet or drinking violence is the sending of a message by the hand of a fool.
Pr 26:9 Like a thornbush in a drunkard’s hand is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
Pr 26:22 The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man’s inmost parts.
Ecc 7:6 Like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools. This too is meaningless.
Ecc 12:11 The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by
one Shepherd.
So 2:2 Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens.
So 2:9 My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the
windows, peering through the lattice.
So 4:4 Your neck is like the tower of David, built with elegance; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them
shields of warriors.
So 8:14 Beloved 14 Come away, my lover, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the spice-laden
mountains.
z) Symmetry (lines and stanzas)

Nearly all the figures thus noted add to the symmetry of biblical language. This is a feature of great craft and
beauty. The Bible, and especially its poetry has remarkable symmetry and form, yet it is not rigid as is mush later
European poetry. Ironically, rigidity is not necessarily an improvement over the lively and dynamic poetic of the
OT poets which is sometimes quite unruly.
The extensive poetic symmetry of the OT also gives strength to its
overall unity, both in particular poems and in the broader tenor of
Hebrew poetry.
aa) Poetic unity

Theme and variation, diversity and complexity, create unity through
skillful composition: poetic units depict diverse themes and unfold in
progression and repetition, etc., using the vast array of literary devices
to achieve thematic harmony (coherence) and textual cohesion. The
appeal is to the rational and the aesthetic (not “irrational”) senses.
Form/design: also lend to the unity and coherence of poetic texts: e.g.,
see outline of Ps 19 (See Ryken’s analysis, pp. 192-196).
Psalm 19
“I take this to be the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.”56
Note the literary devices in this psalm: personification, parallelism, metaphor, symmetry, repetition, word-plays,
similes, genre (prayer, praise, teaching). This will be considered in the section on Psalms.
The work of his hands: Psalm 19

I. In nature and man (general revelation)
1. the heavens declare (continuous telling)
2. the skies proclaim (continuous showing)
pour forth speech (understood)
declare knowledge (objective truth) Romans 1
3. throughout all the world (universal message) Romans 10:18
4. in the sun (the supreme picture of the glory of God)
II. In his law and Word (special revelation)

1. perfect (inerrant)
2. trustworthy (corresponds to reality)
3. right (joy)
4. radiant (light)
5. pure (eternal/holy)
6. practical (guidance)
III. In our life (justification/sanctification)

1. acknowledge sin (repentance)
2. pray for forgiveness
3. accept free gift (justification by faith)
1) Knowledge (understanding of mind)
2) Assent (commitment of will)
3) Trust (fully persuaded and resting in God's
promise)
4. live in holiness (words/heart/way/) sanctification
56
C.S. Lewis, Reflections, p. 63.
H. Textual textures: grammatical and linguistic matters

A subset of literary analysis. Crucial in extensive exegesis of texts (especially textual criticism).
Involves linguistic analysis, discourse analysis, etc. (especially in identification of particular language use,
structure, and patterns)
II. Bibliography
➢ See Waltke, B., NIDOTTE, vol. 4, pp. 1103-1109.
➢ Mickelsen, A.B. Interpreting the Bible, 323-332.
➢ Harrison, R.K., OT Introduction, pp. 965-973.
Alter, Robert . Book Of Psalms. Scranton, Pennsylvania: W. W. Norton, 2007.

-----. The Art of Biblical Narrative. New York: Basic Books, 1981.
-----. The World of Bible as Literature. MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.
----- and Frank Kermode (Eds.). The Literary Guide to the Bible. MA: Harvard University Press, 1986.
Bartholomew, Craig G. & Ryan P. O’Dowd, Old Testament Wisdom Literature: a Theological Introduction, ch 3, “The
Poetry of Wisdom and the Wisdom of Poetry,” pp. 47-72.
Bloom, Harold. Ruin the Sacred Truths: poetry and belief from the Bible to the present. MA: Harvard University Press,
1987.
Brichto, Herbert Chanan. Toward a Grammar of Biblical Poetics: Tales of the Prophets. New York/Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1992. See esp. p. 3-44 on poetics as the “isolation of the elements, features, and techniques employed by a
creative author to bring a story to life.”
Bullinger, E.W. Figures of Speech Used in the Bible: Explained and Illustrated. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1968.
Caird, G.B.. The Language and Imagery of the Bible. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1980.
Corbett, Edward P.J. Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student. New York: Oxford Press, 1971.
Gardiner, J.H. The Bible as English Literature. London, 1906.
Goldman, Solomon. The Book of Books: An Introduction. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1948.
Henn, T.R. The Bible as Literature. Oxford: University Press, 1970; reprint edition, 1971.
Kehl, D.G. “Have You Committed Verbacide Today?” Using Language. pp. 367-374.
Kennedy, X.L. An Introduction to Poetry. Fourth Edition. Boston, Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1966.
Kitchen, K.A. “The Basic Literary Forms and Formulations of Ancient Instructional Writings in Egypt and Western Asia.” Studien
zu altagyptischen Lebenslehren. Edited by E. Hornung and O. Keel. Orbis et Orientalis 28 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck
und Ruprecht, 1979), pp. 270-280.
Lewis, C.S. “At the Fringe of Language.” Studies in Words. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967, pp. 313-33.
-----. Reflections on the Psalms. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1958.
Longman, Tremper III. Literary Approaches to Biblical Interpretation. In Foundations of Contemporary Interpretation. Six
Volumes in One. Moses Silva, General Editor, pp. 91-191, esp. 168-189.
Longman, Tremper III. “Literary Approaches to Biblical Interpretation.” Foundations of Contemporary Interpretation: Six
Volumes in One. Edited by V. Philips Long, Tremper Longman III, Richard A. Muller, Vern S. Poythress, and Moisés
Silva. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996, pp. 91-191.
Maritain, Jacques. Creative Intuition in Art and Poetry. Cleveland and New York: The World Publishing Company, 1961.
Macleish, Archibald. Poetry and Experience. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1964.
O’Connor, Michael Patrick. Hebrew Verse Structure. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 199 .
Peterson, David L. and Kent Harold Richards. Interpreting Hebrew Poetry (Guides to Biblical Scholarship Old Testament Series).
Minneapolis: Fortress Press: 1992.
Preminger, Alex. Editor. Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974.
Kehl, D.G. “Have You Committed Verbacide Today?” Using Language. [?] pp. 367-374.
Richards, I.A. Practical Criticism: A Study of Literary Judgment. New York: Harcoour, Brace and Company, 1920.
Ryken, Leland. Words of Delight: A Literary Introduction to the Bible. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1987. (esp. ch 7 “The
Language of Biblical Poetry”)
-----. “Epilogue: The Poetics of Biblical Literature,” Words of Delight: A Literary Introduction to the Bible. Grand Rapids: Baker
Book House, 1987, pp. 353-358.
-----. “Metaphor in the Psalms.” Christianity and Literature 31. No. 3 (Spring 1982): 9-29.
-----. “The Bible as Literature.” The Christian Imagination: Essays on Literature and the Arts. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House,
1981, pp. 173-185.
-----. “The Art of Poetry.” The Christian Imagination: Essays on Literature and the Arts. Edited by Leland Ryken. Grand Rapids:
Baker Book House, 1981, pp. 263-276.
-----. “Literary Criticism of the Bible: Some Fallacies.” Literary Interpretations of Biblical Narratives. Edited by Kenneth R.R.
Gros Louis, James S. Ackerman, and Thayer S. Warshaw. Nashville and New York: Abingdon Press, 1974, pp. 24-40.
-----. How to Read the Bible as Literature. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984.
-----, J.C. Wilhoit and T. Longman, eds. Dictionary of Biblical Imagery: An Encyclopedic Exploration of the Images, Symbols,
Motifs, Metaphors, Figures of Speech and Literary Patterns of the Bible. 1998. Inter-Varsity.
Shapiro, Karl and Robert Beum. A Prosody Handbook. New York, Evanston, London: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1965.
Silberschlag, Eisig. “Hebrew Poetry.” The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, 1974, pp. 336-343.
Watson, G.E. Wilfred. Classical Hebrew Poetry: A Guide to its Techniques. Sheffield: Sheffield University Press, 1984.
Wellek, René and Austin Warren. Theory of Literature. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1949.
Wirt, Sherwood Eliot. “The Poet as Theologian.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. Volume 12. No. 1 (Winter
1976): 39-43.
“Our language is also so dyverse in yi selfe, that the commen maner of spekyng in
Englysshe of some contre can skante byunderstonded in some other contre of the same
londe.” (From The Myroure of Oure Ladye, first half of the fifteenth century)
Ezra copying Chronicles
Psalm scroll: Parchment, Copied ca. 30 - 50 C.E. Height 18.5 cm (7 1/4 in.), length 86 cm (33 3/4 in.)
Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority. This impressive scroll is a collection of psalms and hymns, comprising parts of
forty-one biblical psalms (chiefly form chapters 101-50), in non-canonical sequence and with variations in detail. It also
presents previously unknown hymns, as well as a prose passage about the psalms composed by King David. (WWW).
Harp of Shabad (gold and ivory), 3500-300 B.C., Phila., Univ. Mus.
#15345
Index
G
A
Gardiner, J.H. ........................................................... 81
abiding-presence...................................................... 17
Goldingay, J. ....................................................... 15, 16
B
Green, G. .................................................................. 16
Balaam ..................................................................... 47
H
Black, M. .................................................................. 15
Harrison, R.K..................................................... 74, 81
Bloesch, D.G. ............................................................ 15
Henn, T.R. ................................................................ 81
Brichto, H.B. ............................................................. 81
holy place ................................................................. 57
Brueggemann, W. .............................................. 15, 17
I
C
imagination ........................................................ 15, 16
Canaanites ................................................................ 74
inclusio............................................................... 77, 78
chariots ...................................................................... 4
intensification of presence ...................................... 17
Cross, F.M. ............................................................... 39
J
D
Jewett, P.K. .............................................................. 15
Deconstruction ........................................................ 46
Delitzsch, F. .............................................................. 74 K
discourse analysis .................................................... 81 Keel, O. .............................................................. 75, 81

Dorsey, D.A. ............................................................ 70 Kitchen, K.A. ..................................................... 75, 81
E Kuntz, J.K. ................................................................. 17
Ebeling, G. ................................................................ 15 L
essential-presence ................................................... 17 language .................................................................. 16

evolution ................................................................. 38 Lewis, C.S. ................................................................ 15
F linguistic analysis ..................................................... 81
literary criticism ...................................................... 46

Fretheim, T.E. ............................................... 15, 16, 17
Longman III, T. ............................................. 47, 59, 81
M S
Macquarrie, J. .......................................................... 15 Simkins, R.A. ............................................................ 17
McFague, S. .............................................................. 15 Sinai ......................................................................... 17
metaphor ............................................................... 15, 16 Soskice, J. ................................................................. 15
metaphysics ............................................................. 16 Stiver, D.............................................................. 15, 17
Stivers, D.R. .............................................................. 17

N
Structuralism ........................................................... 46
New Criticism ..................................................... 44, 46
symbolic language ................................................... 17
P
T
Patrick, D. ................................................................. 16
theophany ............................................................... 17
Polak, F. .................................................................... 17
Thiselton, A.C. .......................................................... 15
polarity ..................................................................... 17
Turner, H.W. ............................................................ 37
Poythress, V.S. ......................................................... 81
V
R
VanGemeren, V.................................................. 17, 68
redemption .............................................................. 17
W
Ricoeur, P. .......................................................... 15, 17
Ryken, L. ............. 13, 45, 46, 47, 64, 68, 72, 80, 81, 82 Waltke, B.K. ............................................................. 81
Wilson, I. .................................................................. 15
wisdom literature .................................................... 46
I will be your God, and you will be my people.


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OT Poets, Poetry, and Poetics, S.T.Hague, 01/04/2021, p.

I. Old Testament poets, poetry, and poetics

A. Poetry: the aesthetics of imagination

The loss of poetry in Western culture today:

2. The practicality of poetic sensibilities in a prosaic age

A poetic perspective is a theological imperative.

3. Metaphors we live for . . . and die by

4. The power of poetry: “a gentle tongue can break a bone . . .”

2Curtis, Interpreting the Wisdom Books, p. 36.

5. Common wisdom sayings from around the world

13. The path leads towards love, not thorns.

24. Feed a cold, starve a fever.

63. Be yourself in every situation.

15. Some are very busy and yet do nothing.

6. Aesthetic beauty in an anti-aesthetic world

“An artist is never poor.” Babette in Babette’s Feast

7 Ryken, Words, p. 220.

Ps 27:4 One thing I ask of the LORD,

Psa 50:2 From Zion, perfect in beauty (),

Ps 84:1 How lovely () is your dwelling place,

Cf. Is 5:1 I will sing for the one I love

7. Symbolic language & God

8 Lints, The Fabric, pp. 175-176.

a) Metaphors, motifs, and meaning

Your path led through the sea,

9T.W. Tilley, Story Theology, Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1985, p. 1.

11 T.E. Fretheim, The Suffering, pp. 2, 5-12, fn. 4, p. 167.

18 D.R. Stiver, Religious Language, p. 115.

b) The incomprehensibility of God:

or showed him the path of understanding?

Ps 147:5 Great is our Lord and mighty in power;

Job 5:9 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,

What is infinite and eternal cannot be comprehended by finite and temporary

B. Some not so modern poems

Wise man with wise man; Meeting shall hold

My house is not quiet, I am not loud;

"Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis

I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEADApril is the cruellest month, breeding

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow

And the dry stone no sound of water. Only

C. Some modern poems

THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB

It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

And for all this, nature is never spent;

All things counter,29 original, spare, strange;

A contemporary poem with similar themes, different treatment:

The Unanswering Correspondences

This imperishable grandeur!

Compassion blinds our eyes –

Seas! tears blind us.

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright

In what distant deeps or skies

And what shoulder, and what art,

What the hammer? what the chain?

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

Sometimes, when as I wash, I say,

I took a time when Thou didst sleep,

Let mee but once the conquest have

A Poem for the End of the Century

When everything was fine --So goes an Arab tale--

Seven Stanzas At Easter

Make no mistake: if He rose at all

It was not as the flowers,