• Cf. Budde, ' Das Hohelied' in Kuner Bdmmnu
t This is the name applied to the church 8on'.;s of the close of the Middle Ages, which were composed in iniit.ilion of the measure, melody, and words of familiar secular songs.
J Cf. the description, for modern Syria, by Wetzstein (Zttchr. /. Ethnol., 1873, p. 287 ff.).
§ For evidence that this is not a properly historical poem, but a song such as it was customary %o sing at the discovery of new springs in the desert, as well as for an attempt tfl restore its original form, see Budde in The Hew World, 1895 p. 130 ff.
POETRY (HEBREW)
POETRY (HE13RE^V)
11
audience to songs of a more or less wanton or frivolous character. At the royal court ' sinjiing men and singing,' women' are taken for granted as part of the regular personnel ('J S 19"). To the category under consideration belongs also the single certain ancient trace of gnomic poetry which lias come down to us, namelj' Samson's riddle (Jg 14'^), along with its solution, and Samson's reply in v.'". Such displays of wit may liave heen much in vogue as ' social games ' at merrymakings. That, along with these, proverbs and wise saws also had wide currency among the people we may take for granted. iJo doubt the collection of these in tlie Book of Proverbs dates from later times, but all the same this may em- body very ancient material, altered or not, as the ca.se may be. The oracle, wliich under the title of ' the last words of David ' interrupts the conte.xt in 2 S 23'"", must have a late date assigned to it ; the saying of Jahweh about Moses in Nu 12°'* appears to have been before the mind's eye of the writer. Another example of the same species is found in the words of Samuel in 1 S IS*"- It must be addeil that all three of the last cited passages tend to pass over into the following divisions — the religious, the national, and the projihetiual.
('■) In the religious life. — In the lirst place it is extremely probable tliat the &Tu:\e.Dt priestly oraelc, where it did not simply, by the casting of the lot, give the answer 'yes' or 'no' to tlie question put, was couched in verse. A classical example is furnished by Gn 25^, an oracle, indeed, whicli beliings at the same time to our next division. Likewise for the cultus proper we have examples that are both ancient and certain. These are, in tlie first i)lace, the Aaronic blcssin^j (Nu G^''"), then t/ic formula; pronounced at the taking up and the selling down of the ark of J" (Nu ](>"'•),* and finally Solomon's words in dedicating the temple ( 1 K 8'^'-), which must be supplemented and restored after the LXX (8"). How far the religious service, i.e. in particular the sacriticial actions, was even in ancient times embellished by special songs, cannot now be determined. All that have come down to us emanate exclusively from the temple at Jerusjilem in post-exilic times, as far at least as the form in wliicli they now lie before us is con- cerned. But as surely as the religious gatherings were joyous feasts (Dt 12"- "• '*), with equal cer- tainty may we conclude that even in early times music and poetry must have assumed their rttle at these, whenever any sanctuary obtained a name and a brilliant equipment, find considerable bodies of worshippers came together.
((/) In tlie national life. — Here we may distin- guish the state of rest on the one side, and of activity, i.e. war, on the other. To the lirst category belong the extremely numerous etdogislic and denunciatory sayings in which a people cele- brates its own qualities and its superiority to other peoples ; or sci)arate divisions or groups of a |)eople may express their own distinctive character- istics. This species of poetry is extraordinarily widespread and everywhere highly developeu, but most of all amongst Israel's relations, the ancient Arabs. It may exhibit all degrees, from empty unmeaning braggadocio up to the hnest and loftiest poetical utterance'. 1m the < )T it begins with the boastful song of Lamech^dn ■!-"•), which occnre in tlie primitive genealogical table inherited from the Kenites (pp), and is a genuine type of the original form of this species as found in the mouth of a small tribe. Then come the sagings of Noah (Gn !)"■■"), in which Israel (zv) m.iiiitains its prestige over against the wealthy I'lmnician (nr) and the slave Canjian (I";3). Here for the first
* Cr. further, Acte» du dixiitns CongrU de OrUntalista^ ill. lUydco, IWU), p. 180.
time this species clothes itself in the form of the ' ble.ssing,' in which, suitably to the quality of our sources, which look at everything from the ip- ligious view-point, it meets us in by far the majority of instances. The characteristic of his half-brother Ishinael is defined by Israel in tlie words put into the mouth of Jahweh in Gn 10'"-, which can hardly have retained their original form. So Israel states his relation to his twin brother Edom in the oracle of Gn 25^, aiul separ- ately for each in the double blessing of 27^''^ and v.»"'-, very much, of course, to the prejudice of the brother. The more extensive oracles of Balaam (Nu 23'-"<'- '8-S4 243.a. is-ajj^ which show indications that they have undergone several expansions, make glorious promises to I.srael, in contrast to Moab, and even, further, to other nations. But this species shows its finest development in the two poems in which each of the tribes of Israel has its dignity and its sjiecial quality assigned to it in relation to the other tribes, namely the Blessing of Jacob (Gn 49) and the Blessing oj Hloses (Mt'i'i). It is by no accident that these two oracles have been put into the mouth of these two jiarticular men, for .Jacob is the fleshly and Moses the spiritual father of Israel, and they alone can pass judgment upon all their sons. The Blessing of Moses presupposes the Blessing of .Jacob, and on the basis of the altered relations brought about by time (perhaps in the first half of the 8th cent.) gives it a new form. Thus, then, from the two sources, J and E, the older and the younger compositions are taken over. The older, the Blessing of Jacob, may have been compiled from sejiarate sayings that were current aljout the different tribes. The self-consciousness of the tribe in which the finished poem took its rise, namely Judah, at last gave the general tone to the whole. Numerous sayings of the same kind, characterizing towns and hamlets, meadows, and clans, must have been current. A relic of tliese has survived in the now sorely muti- lated saying about the city of Abel-beth-maacah, 2 S 20'8';.