. -, except the LoRD of Hosts had left unto us avery small remnant’ (Is 18). It might also happen that a collective personality like the Ser- vant of the Lord (Is 418 etc.) found its herald in a prophet. In this way is explained the employ- ment of ‘I’ in the expressions ‘In the LorpD have I righteousness,’ ete. (Is 454 4816> 491 504 531 611), —Less frequent is the transition from the first person to the third, as in ‘Lamech said, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech’ (Gn 4%). It is obvious that this form of transition is a very natural one. The ‘I’ or ‘my’ is replaced by the name of the person concerned. ‘The same phenomenon appears in ‘Balaam lifted up his eyes and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said,’ etc. (Nu 242). ‘David’ is used instead of ‘I’ in 2S 7%. In the words ‘I shall not be greatly moved’ and ‘How long will ye imagine mischief against a man?’ (Ps 622»: %) the poet passes over from himself to the general category to which he belongs. With special fre- quency does the ‘1’ of a Divine message pass over into the third person. In some passages the place of the Divine ‘I’ is taken by a Divine name, as in the words ‘ Will J eat flesh of bulls? . . . Offer unto God thanksgiving,’ etc. (Ps 50!*), or in ‘ The LorpD said unto my lord, Sit thou at ae right hand... the Lorp shall send the rod,’ ete. (110%), In other passages where the first person alternates with the third, we observe the language of God passing into that of His interpreter. An indisputable example of this transition is found in the words ‘I will command the clouds that they
rain no rain upon it, for the vineyard of the LORD
162 STYLE OF SCRIPTURE
eS ee
STYLE OF SCRIPTURE
is,’ ete. (Is 5%), So also in ‘Mine anger in their destruction . . . the LORD of Hosts shall stir up,’ ete. (10° etc., ef. Stilistik, pp. 249-256).
(8) Another phenomenon very frequently met with in the OT is the transition from plural to singular, and vice versd. For instance, we read ‘And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever’ (Ex 1274), There ‘all the congregation of Israel’ (v.*), which in vv.°4 is addressed by the plural ‘your,’ is treated in v.*4» as a singular, and this singular has probably at the same time an individualizing force, and a warm parenetic tone. But the reader of the OT is not misled thereby, for this transi- tion meets him very frequently : é.g. Wx 13°48 /20%4 ete., Dt 6% ete., Jg 12°, Ps 17* (‘a-lion’), Is 56°> (where ‘them’ instead of ‘him’ has a levelling effect), Mal 2 (‘yet ye say ... the LorpD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy
outh’) ©» ete. ; ef. Stiistik, pp. 232-238.
(y) Still less surprising is the sudden transition from one subject to another. The first instance of this is met with in the words ‘When the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them’ (Gn 64). This example is more difficult in the Hebrew text, where there is no equivalent for ‘they,’ and the verb yalédi might also mean ‘beget’ and be connected with the ‘sons of God.’ The next example is ‘God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem’ (977). Here ‘God’ cannot be the subject of ‘shall dwell,’ for He has been already extolled in v." as the ally of Shem. The same phenomenon appears in ‘And he believed in the Lorp, and he counted it to him for righteous- ness’ (15°). There are not a few instances of this rapid change of subjects (cf. Stilistik, p. 257f.), seeing that it is favoured by the so-called Chias- mus, of which an excellent specimen is presented by the words ‘And the LorD had respect to Abel and his offering, but unto Cain and his offering he had no respect’ (Gn 4%. 5). Here the words that come first in v.*> correspond to those that form the conclusion of v.>. On the other hand, the words with which v.*° closes and the words that commence v.** are closely akin. It is readily explicable psychologically that similar ideas should be treated at the end of one sentence and directly afterwards at the beginning of a second. Hence Chiasmus is an extremely frequent occur- rence in the OT. Here are a few further instances : ‘The LORD knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish’ (Ps 1%») ; ‘Why do the nations rage, and the peoples imagine a vain thing?’ (Ps 2!»); ‘It was full of judgment, righteousness lodged in it’ (Is 1?!); ‘The vineyard of the LorpD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant’ (57). An exceedingly instructive example is furnished by the words: ‘Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes ; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart’ (Is 6”). Here a threefold correspondence may be observed. A number of other examples will be found in S¢id- istik, pp. 145-148.