are many examples, whether uttered ovi r an individual or as an outburst of grief for tbe calamities of the land. The mosl touchingly pathetic of all i- perhaps the la- David for the death of Saul and Jonathan (2 Sam. i. 19 27), in which passionate emotion is blend- ed with touches of tenderness of which oulj nature i- capable. Compare with this the lament for Abner (2 Sam. iii. 83, :>l i and for Absalom (xviii, the -aim- character also, doubtless, were the songs which the singing men and singing women spake over Josiafa al I ' ■ and the
■ mourning for the disasters which befell the ind of Judah, of \\ bich Psalms xlix, lx, lxxiii.
exxxvii are examples (corap. Jer. vii, 29; ix, 1" | '•' ! I, and the Lamentations of Jeremiah the mosl memorable Lamentation. - --- -•; '6th, a love-song (Psa.
xlv. li. in its external form al least See Caxtk li s.
_rrr ) hilldh, prayer, is the title of Psa. xvii.
lxxxvi. xc, cii, cxlii, and Hal., iii. All these an' strictly
impositions, and the title may have been as-
oth ii In r as denoting the objeel with which
written, or the use to which they were ap- plied. A- Ewald justly observes, all lyric poetry of an elevated kin. 1. in -.. far a- ii reveals the soul (.1' the a pure Bwifi outpouring of itself, is of the nat- ure ol a prayer; and hence the term "prayer" was ap- plied t.. a collection • I [ -. of w hich Psa. Ixxii formed the conclusion. Sec Pkayek. Other kinds of poetry there are which occupy the round between the lyric and gnomic, being lyric in form and -pirit. but gnomic in subject These may lx classed
"i": proper! a similitude, and then a
or sententious saying, couched in poetic Ian- Such are the songs of Balaam (Numb, xxiii. 7. I--, xxiv, 3, 15, 20, 21, 23), whii h are eminently lvr- i.-al in character; the mocking ballad in Numb, xxi, we can allow that the I
inga. Keeping these latter out of view, we may say that the Hebrew poetical books are six in number; an.l may be divided into two groups of three ac- cording to the class of poetical composition to which each belongs, viz.: (I) Psalms, Song of Solomon, and Lamentations, which are predominantly lyrical in their character; and (2) Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, which are predominantly didactic In the former the leading aim of the poet is nol to instruct, bul to ive free utterance to the feelings of his own heart: in the latter the instruction of others is the object that is prin- cipally aimed at: though neither is the lyrical element ! excluded from the latter. n..r the didactic from the former. < If the more sustained and elaborate epic and dramatic poetry— which was alike alien to the of the Hebrew mind, and also in a certain measure inconsistent with the purpose of the Hebrew writings as a divine revelation we have no examples, some have applied the term "dramatic" in a to the book of Job, and in a more strict sense to the Song of Solomon.
.".. Modem Ten r ejnepoetry the constit-
uent .Icin. ut- do nol appear to have existed during the classic p.ri..d of the Hebrew muse, since epic poetrj re- quires a heroic age — an age. that is, of fabulous won- ders, and falsely so-called divine interpositions. But among the Israelites the patriarchal, which might have been the heroic age, was an age of truth and reality; and it much raises the religious and historical value of the Biblical Literature thai neither the singular events of the age oi the patriarchs, nor the wonderful events of the age of Moses, nor the confused and somewhat legendary events of the age of the Judges, ev. r di gen- erated into mythology, nor passed from the reality, which was their essence, int.. the noble fictions int.. which the imagination, if unchastened and unchecked by religion, might have wrought them: hut they re- tained through all periods their own essential character of earnest, lofty, and impressive realities. Al a later period, when the religion of .\I..>.<s had. during the Bab- ylonian captivity. I. ecu lowered by the corruptions of the religion of Zoroaster, and an entirely new world of thought introduced, based not on reality hut fancy, em- anating not from the pure light of heaven, bul from the miii-led lights and shadows of primitive tradition and human speculation — then there came int.. existence among t he Jews the elements necessary for epic poetry : hut the days were gone in which the mind of the na- tion had th' requisite strength and culture to fashion
them into a great, uniform, and noble structure : and if - possi --1 .1 i he rudimen-
them no : and w I
n the
le \\e
27 30, which has been conjectured to be a frag nt of tal outlines of the epic, w
an old Amoritish war-song; and the apologue of Jotham canonical, hut in the ap
(Judg.ix,7 20), both wh.d, last are stronglv satirical deny with emphasis thai the tern, Epos can be applied
in tone, Bul the b'nesl of all is the maeninceut pro- M some German critics have applied it. to the Penta-