168 STYLE OF SCRIPTURE
STYLE OF SCRIPTURE
any case, it may be added, the supposed interpolator of vv.*3 knew nothing of the metrical system which Duhm attributes to Jeremiah, else he would have accommodated the form of these verses to their surroundings. Hence the present writer is unable to accept Duhm’s view as to ‘the metre of Jeremiah,’ quite apart from the fact that, according to our foregoing contention (see above, (2)), Jeremiah was not a poet.
4, Some interesting features of style occur sporadically in various parts of the OT.—(a) There are alphabetical acrostics. The present writer cannot, indeed, admit that Nah 17° belongs to this category [but see art. NAnum in vol. iii. p. 475], which, however, probably includes Ps 9f., and certainly Ps 25. 34. 37. 111 f. 119. 145, Pr 3120-1, La 1-4, and Sir 51!*-**, as is shown by the recently discovered Heb. text (cf., further, Stiistik, pp. 357-359). There is another species of acrostic which we do not believe to. be found in the OT. The letters, for instance, with which the lines of Ps 110'»-* commence are not intended to point to iyow, as the name of Simon the Maccabee, who reigned B.C. 142-135. That such is the case is represented, indeed, by Duhm (Kwurzer Hdcom. 1899, ad loc.) as unquestionable. But, in the first place, it is surely awkward that the alleged acrostic should include only part of the poem. Secondly, as has been shown by Gaster (Academy, 19th May 1892), the name Shimon is written upon the coins (where the vowel letters are relatively rare) 40 times with and only once without the 1. Yet the latter is the way in which, upon Duhm’s theory, it would be written in Ps 110. Once more, the clause ‘until I make thine enemies thy footstool’ (v.!») would be in glaring opposition to the statement of 1 Mac 14" that Simon was to hold office ‘until a trustworthy prophet should arise.’ The former (Ps 110!) promises the highest degree of triumph for the king who is there addressed, the latter (1 Mac 14*7) reminds Simon that his choice to be prince was subject to recall.— (6) Other poetical compositions in the OT are marked by frequent use of the figure Anadiplosis described above (iii. (5)). Such is the case with the fifteen psalms (120-134). For instance, the ‘dwell’ of ‘that I dwell in the tents of Kedar’ (Ps 120°) is taken up again in the ‘dwell’ of ‘my soul hath long dwelt with him’ (y.®). Again, the two lines ‘that hateth peace’ (v.%) and ‘I am for peace’ (v.™) have a connecting link in the word ‘peace.’ The same characteristic is still more marked in Ps 121, as may be seen from the clauses ‘From whence shall my help come?’ (v.1¥) and ‘My help cometh from the Lorp’ (v.%). The familiar title of these fifteen psalms ‘Songs of Degrees’ (AV ; RV ‘Songs of Ascents’) has refer- ence, in the opinion of the present writer, to their rhythmical peculiarity as well as to their destina- tion to be sung by the caravans of pilgrims journeying to Jerusalem (cf. Stilistik, pp. 302-304). —(c) Rhyme is found in the poetry of the OT only in the same sporadic fashion as in the plays of Shakespeare (where, ¢.9., ‘rise’ rhymes with ‘eyes’ at the close of Hamlet, Act 1., Scene ii., or ‘me? with ‘see’ in Act I., at the end of Ophelia’s speech). Rhyme of this kind may be observed in the very earliest poetical passage of the OT, namely Gn 4", where kdli ‘my voice’ rhymes with “imrathi ‘my speech.’ But such rhymes, which could not readily be avoided in Hebrew, are not found at the end of every line of an OT poem. H. Grimme claims, indeed (in an article entitled ‘ Durchgereimte Gedichte im AT’ in Bar- denhewer’s Biblische Studien, Bd. vi. 1901), to have discovered poems of this kind in Ps 45. 54 and Sir 4474. But our suspicions are awakened at the very outset by the circumstance that the
poet does not exercise his rhyming skill at the opening of his composition (Ps 45°). Grimme offers, it is true, a scansion of the verse, mark- ing it as he does with the sign of arsis, but he cannot point to the presence of rhyme in it. Further, with reference to the following lines, are we to hold that the poet considered an identity of final consonants (as in ’oznékh and ’abikh of v.11») to amount to rhyme, although the standing and correct conception of the latter demands an asson- ance of the preceding vowel, such as is heard even in the rime suffisante (e.g. in ‘ soupir’ and ‘ désir’) of the French? Again, Grimme, in order to establish a rhyme between the end of v.*” and v.*?, drops in v.*» the closing word (/é*ldam) of the MT, and alters the preceding words. In like manner he transposes the words in v.*, and again drops two words in v.!, Lastly, all the rhymes which Grimme discovers in Ps 45 consist simply of the assonance of the pronominal suffix -h, and he increases the number by making the masculine form for ‘thy,’ namely -kAd, the same as the feminine form, namely -kA. Thus instead of the MT hddarékha (v.*»), ‘thy majesty,’ he would pronounce hddaraekh, a course of procedure which is shown to be wrong by R. Kittel in his treatise Ueber die Notwendigkeit und Moglichkeit einer neuen Ausgabe der hebrdischen Bibel (1901), §§ 62-68. The weakest point in Grimme’s contention is found in the circumstance that the rhymes he discovers depend upon an assonance of a series of pronouns, which could not be avoided in Hebrew. Why should not the composer of Ps 45 have placed at the end of v.*2 a word to rhyme with the final lé‘dlam of v.28? At all events, the tradition which allowed lé‘élam to stand at the end of v.°, knew nothing of any intention on the part of the author of Ps 45 to provide all the lines of his poem with rhymes. Grimme’s attempt to demonstrate the presence of rhyme in Ps 54 and Sir 44¢4 must equally be pronounced a failure (see the present writer’s brochure, Neweste Prinzipien der alttest. Kritik geprift, 1902, p. 24).