1. Folk-Poetry.— this is everywhere the oldest form of poetry. Poetry as an art never makes its appearance till later epochs. The saying of J. G. Hamann (1730-1788), ' Poetry is the mother-tongue of the human race,' which was more fully expl.iined and established by his pupil J. G. Herder (1744- 1803), and has in recent times been emphatically asserted especially by Ed. Reuss (cf. Herzog's ME^ V. [1879] p. 671 f.), finds everywhere its complete justification. Poetry is in point of fact older than prose ; all tbe most ancient utterances of dill'erent nations are couched in poetry. One may lay down the rule: in the case of a primitive j'Cople all dis- course tluit is intended for publicity or for tnemorial purposes will be found clothed in a poetical form. To tliese two categories belongs everything of a re- ligious character, and it must be borne in mind that in the life of ancient peoples much that appears to ns secular bears the stamp of religion. In this way poetry has its home in Israel as else- where : —
(a) In family life. — \\Tiat specially come into view here are the wedding-song and the lament for the dead. Of the former of these we possess a whole collection of fine specimens, which, tiianks to
SrNni ' and there came out Are and devoured.' By the way, Grimme (ZDMO, 18n7, p. 612), too, represents Jothani's fnble as written in verae, although he (fives a somewhat different arranjfenient of it.
• It appears to us that Bripgs is in (general inclined to draw too liplitly the boundaries of poetical form, confusint,', as he does, rhetorical and metrical forms. This remark applies also very specially to many NT passages to which he gives a metrical arrangemeab.
a mistaken exegesis, found their way into the Canon of the Sacred Writings, in the book wliich is called in Hebrew d'Tbh iV and, in English, Canticles or tlie Song of Solomon. Though these songs are of late origin, yet they will have preserved, as genuine folk-songs, the quality of early times with e.ssential fidelity. A contrafactumf of the wedding-song of oldiT days is exhibited by the prophet Isaiah at the beginning of his Parable of the Vineyard (S'"-}- — Of tlie lament for the dead we possess only contrafacta, applied to historical persons and per- sonifications, first in the mouth of the prophets and then in the Book of Lamentations (chs. 1-4). See fuller details on this point above, i. B 2 d, p. 5. In the case of lamentations for the dead, women alone were the composers and the performers (nusipp, ntorn, Jer9'^),who sought to increase their collection of dirges and handed down their art by instruction (v.i*). At weddings, on the other hand, j'oung men and young women seem to have contended for the pre-eminence.J From the official lament w-e ought certainly to distinguish exceptional cases when an accomplished friend might dedicate a eulogy to the dead, such as has come down to us in David's fine lament for Saul and Jonathan (2 S I"*-)> in<i in a lament for Abner of which at least a few lines have survived (2 S 3*"-). Whether it was the custom to use songs to celebrate other important events and festivals in the family life, such, for instance, as weaning (cf. Gn 21") and circumcision, we have no means of determining.
(6) In the life of the community. — That even the industrial life of the Israelitish farmer and nomad was interpenetrated with song we may assume without further question. Examples are thinly scattered. From the earliest times we have the Song of the Well (Nu 21"'-).§ From the life of the agriculturist Is 65* has preserved some words of a vintage blessing. Harvest songs, too, may be taken for granted, in view of the harvest feasts and the proverbial joy of harvest (Is 9*), and per- haps the feast of sheep-shearing (1 S 25''"'', 2 S 13^*') had also its special songs. If our interpreta- tion of the difficult text Jg 5" is correct, the rehearsal of songs is presupposed even there as part of the shepherd's life. People did not like to be made 'the subject of verse' (W^, cf. Is H*, Mic 2", Hab 2") or ' of music ' (.irjJ, cf. La 3", Job 30», Ps 69'-). Hence the ' taunt-song ' must have been much in vogue. Even for early times its use is not to be denied, while for a later period a short specimen of quite a unique kind has been preserved in the song upon the forgotten courtezan. Is 23'°, which sounds as if it belonged to the category of drinlcing-songs mentioned in Ps 69'^hut presupposed also in Am 6° and 2 S 19^. At least no banquet proper (Wf'?. avixirbaiov) can well have been with- out music, including songs. It is not necessary to suppose, indeed, that on such occasions only pro- nounced drinking-songs were sung ; rather will the want have frequently been met in early times by national songs. A special class of composers and singers, whose services were called into requisi- tion on such occasions, is named in Nu21" (G''?Y~n). By this Hebrew name we are to understand a guild of ' travellinj; singers,' rhapsodists such as flourished in ancient Greece and on German soil, who not only had a rich repository of national saga and heroic poems, but also treated their