The Legacy Of Egypt

Egypt and Israel 243
Sha'alu shelorn Yerushaiaim
Yishlayu 'ohabaik.
Oh, pray for the peace of Jerusalem
May they prosper that love thee (Ps. csdi. 6; the rhythmic beats
are 3 :2).
For the way in which a word in one line is taken up and
repeated in the next line we are unable to give an Egyptian
illustration; but in Hebrew we have an instance in ?s. csxi: in
v. I it is said that from the mountains conies 'help'; this word
is taken up in the next verse, where it is said that 'help' comes
from Yahweh; in v. 3 ehe that keepeth5 is repeated in the nest
verse; in v. J 4he shall keep' is again repeated in the next verse;
Ps. cxx is another good example. As an instance of metaphor
we may give the following; it is said of the god Chnum:
He (it is) that constructeth on the potter's wheel,
And formeth the body;
with this we may compare Isa. Ixiv. 8 (7 in Hebrew), where it
is said of Yahweh:
We are the day and thou the potter.
And we are all the work of thy hand (the rhythmic beats are 4:3).
So far, we have been concerned mainly with structural form.
We come now to what is of much greater importance, namely,
the indebtedness of Hebrew writers to Egypt for thought and
content in their writings. This must be considered under three
heads: religious poems, wisdom writings, and non-religious
poetry.
Many religious poems are to be found in the Old Testament,
but the Psalms are, of course, the religious poems par excellence.
And here attention must be directed, first, to some striking
parallels which exist between the Egyptian poem in praise of
the sun-god, Amon-Re, and various passages in the Psalms \ and
also between the celebrated hymn of Amenhotep IV (Akhena-
ton), in praise of the sun, and Ps. civ. The former belongs to