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UNIVERSITY  OF    CALIFORNIA    PUBLICATIONS 
S  E  M I T I C  "P  hTlO  LO  G  Y 

Vol.  1,  Nos.  2  and  3,  pp.  57-444  August  6,  1918 


STUDIES   IN   BIBLICAL   PARALLELISM 


PART  I. 
PARALLELISM  IN  AMOS 

BY 

LOUIS   I.   NEWMAN 


PART   II. 
PARALLELISM   IN   ISAIAH,   CHAPTERS  1-10 

BY 
WILLIAM  POPPER 


UNIVERSITY   OF  CALIFORNIA  PRESS 
BERKELEY 


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addressed  to  THE  EXCHANGE  DEPARTMENT,  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY,  BERKELEY, 
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For  the  series  in  Semitic  Philology,  Vol.  2  and  following,  address  Late  E.  J.  BRILL, 
Ltd.,  Leiden. 

SEMITIC  PHILOLOGY.— William  Popper,  Editor. 

Cited  as  Univ.  Calif.  Publ.  Sem.  Phil. 
Vol.  1.     1907 — (In  progress.) 

1.  The   Supposed  Hebraisms  in  the  Grammar  of  Biblical  Aramaic,   by 

Herbert  Harry  PoweU.     Pp.  1-55.     February,  1907 $0.75 

2.  Studies  in  Biblical  Parallelism.     Part  I.     Parallelism   in   Amos,   by 

Louis  I.  Newman.     Pp.  57-265. 

3.  Studies    in    Biblical    Parallelism.      Part    II.      Parallelism    in    Isaiah, 

Chapters  1-10,  by  Williara  Popper.     Pp.  267-444. 

Nos.  2  and  3  in  one  cover,    August,  1918 4.00 

Vol.  2.     1909-1912. 

1.  Ibn   Taghri   Birdi:    An-Nujfim   az-Zahira   fi   Muluk   Misr   wal-Kahira 

(No.  1  of  Vol.  2,  part  2).    Edited  by  WilUam  Popper.     Pp.  1-128. 

September,  1909 - - 1.50 

2.  Idem  (No.  2  of  Vol.  2,  part  2).    Pp.  129-297.     October,  1910 1.50 

3.  Idem  (No.  3  of  Vol.  2,  part  2).    Pp.  298-391.    January,  1912 2.50 

Index,  pp.  392-534. 
Introduction  and  Glossary,  pp.  I-L. 
Volume  2,  parts  1-3,  including  index  and  glossary 4.50 

Vol.  3.     1913 — (In  progress.) 

1.  Ibn  Taghri  Birdi  (continued:  No.  1  of  Vol.  3).     Pp.  1-130.     Septem- 
ber,   1913    1-50 

Vol.  6.     1915— (In  progress.) 

1.  Ibn  Taghri  Birdi  (continued:  No.  1  of  Vol.  6) .     Pp.  1-164.    March,  1915  ..     1.50 

2.  Ibn  Taghri  Birdi  (continued:  No.  2  of  Vol.  6).     Pp.  165-321.     June,  1916     1.50 

3.  Ibn  Taghri  Birdi  (continued:  No.  3  of  Vol.  6).  (/"  />ms.*^ 


STUDIES  IN  BIBLICAL  PARALLELISM 


PART  I. 
PARALLELISM  IN  AMOS 

BY 

LOUIS  I.  NEWMAN 
PART  11. 

PARALLELISM  IN  ISAIAH,  CHAPTERS  1-10 

BY 

WILLIAM  POPPER 


FOREWORD 

The  studies  presented  in  these  pages  are  in  great  measure  the 
result  of  work  done  in  the  University  of  California  in  the  year 
1915-16.  They  were  prompted  in  the  first  instance  by  a  desire 
to  arrange  for  class-room  work  a  suitable  text-book  with  which 
to  introduce  students  of  Hebrew  to  the  prophetic  literature. 
Surely  students  of  no  other  language  must  work  with  texts  as 
full  of  difficulties  as  is  the  most  of  that  literature.  Courses  in 
the  Prophets  often  consist  mainly  of  lectures  by  the  instructor 
offering  explanations  of  linguistic  and  stylistic  abnormalities; 
so  loud  is  the  creaking  of  the  critical  apparatus  that  the  student 
is  constantly  distracted  from  any  literary  appreciation  of  the 
text  itself.  It  seemed  to  me  that  in  preparing  a  text  for  students 
the  editor  should  not  only  remove  those  evident  errors  which 
even  conservative  critics  admit  and  which  are  easily  rectified,  but 
he  should  also  wherever  there  is  a  great  difficulty  and  a  fairly 
strong  presumption  of  error  boldly  adopt  some  satisfactory 
emendation.  It  is  generally  possible  to  find  another  and  clearer 
passage  in  the  literature  treating  of  the  same  subject  as  does 
the  suspicious  passage,  expressing  what  is  evidently  its  intended 
thought,  and  offering  a  basis  for  emendation  in  a  spirit  which 
the  editor  can  feel  sure  does  no  violence  to  the  ancient  Hebrew. 

After  such  a  treatment  of  the  text  of  Isaiah  had  been  begun 
it  became  evident  that  whether  that  prophet  regularly  delivered 
his  oracles  in  parallelism  or  not,  the  clear  preponderance  of  par- 
allelistic  structure  therein  must  preclude  the  acceptance  of  any 
emendation  which  does  not  retain  or  reestablish  such  a  structure. 
It  became  clear  also  that  the  greatest  difficulties  in  the  present 
text  are  found  just  where  the  parallelism  is  defective.  It  seemed 
a  worthy  task,  therefore,  to  go  further  into  the  subject ;  reexam- 
ine some  considerable  portion  of  prophetic  literature  from  this 
standpoint;  consistently  apply  the  test  of  parallelism  to  every 
passage  therein,  and  along  the  lines  suggested  by  that  test  seek 

[iii] 


some  solution  for  every  problem,  however  difficult.  Accordingly 
while  I  was  myself  working  at  the  text  of  Isaiah,  Amos  was 
chosen  for  a  similar  study  by  the  Hebrew  seminar.  The  text 
was  analyzed,  certain  problems  were  formulated,  and  a  method 
of  possible  solution  was  suggested. 

Mr.  Newman's  article  in  its  first  form  contained  his  answers 
to  the  questions  raised;  later  it  was  expanded  into  a  thesis  pre- 
sented for  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  from  this  University, 
though  for  its  final  draft  Mr,  Newman  gathered  material  while 
he  was  a  student  at  Columbia  University.  After  his  study 
was  almost  completed  several  modifications  were  made  on  the 
basis  of  George  Buchanan  Gray's  Forms  of  Hebrew  Poetry; 
a  reading  of  this  book,  however,  did  not  affect  Mr.  Newman's 
results  materially,  except  where  indicated;  its  main  influence 
was  in  the  adoption  of  Gray's  system  of  symbols  for  the 
schematization  of  the  parallelism. 

While  in  Mr.  Newman's  Amos  studies  the  material  has  been 
classified  by  types,  in  my  paper  the  first  five  chapters  of  Isaiah 
have  been  studied  verse  by  verse,  the  Authorized  English  trans- 
lation given  at  the  head  of  each  paragraph  or  stanza  discussion, 
the  nature  of  the  parallelism  pointed  out,  and  one  or  several 
emendations  suggested  wherever  the  parallelism  either  is  itself 
defective  or  indicates  other  stylistic  defects.  In  chapters  6-10 
only  those  passages  have  been  treated  which  are  apparently 
defective  or  otherwise  call  for  special  comment ;  the  parallelism 
of  the  remaining  portions  will  be  recognized  upon  reference  to 
the  translation  of  the  reconstructed  text. 

In  not  a  few  eases  in  both  the  Amos  and  the  Isaiah  studies 
the  proposed  solution  involves  a  transposition  of  words  and 
phrases;  and  as  in  a  recent  article  in  the  Journal  of  Biblical 
Literature,  XXXVI  (1917),  p.  63,  dealing  with  the  Book  of 
Hosea,  objection  is  apparently  raised  to  such  transpositions  in 
general,  a  word  in  justification  of  this  principle  of  emendation 
should  be  said.  The  copyist  of  Oriental  manuscripts,  however 
careful  he  may  be,  sometimes  omits  not  only  letters  and  words, 
but  also  phrases  and  whole  sentences;  and  a  later  copyist  then 
inserts  such  marginal  or  interlinear  passages,  sometimes  in  the 

[iv] 


wrong  place.  Moreover,  authors  themselves  sometimes  make  such 
corrections  and  insertions  in  their  own  manuscripts,  as  well  as 
in  the  manuscripts  of  other  authors  (so  the  Arabic  chronicler 
Ibn  Taghri  Birdi  narrates)  ;  I  have  worked  with  an  Arabic 
autographic  manuscript  in  which  considerable  study  was  some- 
times necessary  to  determine  where  such  insertions  were  intended 
to  be  placed ;  and  different  manuscripts  of  the  same  Arabic  poem 
show  a  variation  in  the  order  of  lines  (for  example,  see  the 
University  of  California  Publications  in  Semitic  Philology,  II, 
20).  In  the  several  hundred  years  that  elapsed  between  the 
delivery  of  the  prophecies  of  Amos  and  Isaiah  and  the  date 
at  which  the  written  word  came  to  be  venerated  and  the  text 
fixed — centuries  which  saw  a  change  not  only  in  the  form  of 
the  alphabet  used  by  the  Hebrews  but  also  in  the  language  of 
their  daily  speech — it  is  hard  to  believe  that  the  manuscripts  of 
those  prophecies  did  not  suffer  the  same  vicissitudes  which  other 
manuscripts  suffered  at  a  much  later  epoch  and  in  a  much 
shorter  space  of  time.  The  reader's  attention  is  called  particu- 
larly to  Isaiah  7.8 ;  if  he  does  not  believe  that  this  verse  has  been 
edited  into  the  text,  and  at  the  wrong  place — that  even  if  it  be 
retained,  it  must  be  transposed — he  will  have  little  sympathy  for 
many  passages  in  these  studies;  but  if  he  accepts  the  trans- 
position, he  must  admit  the  probability  of  a  similar  solution  in 
places  where  form  and  sense  of  the  text  are  even  more  obscure 
and  can  be  improved  thereby.  As  for  the  transposition  of  whole 
sections  from  their  present  sequence,  this  much  is  certain: 
Isaiah  did  not  write  his  prophecies  in  the  order  in  which  they 
have  been  handed  down ;  for  if  he  had  done  so,  the  sixth  chapter 
would  stand  first  in  the  book.  Quite  probably  the  prophecies 
were  first  written  on  different  pieces  of  whatever  writing 
material  was  used  and  were  arranged  later,  as  was  the  case  with 
the  Koran ;  and  there  can  at  least  be  no  objection  to  transposing 
chapters  into  chronological  sequence,  or  any  other  sequence 
which  helps  in  an  appreciation  of  the  contents.  Furthermore, 
since  chapter  divisions  are  known  to  be  late,  we  may  disregard 
them  also  in  the  transposition  of  sections  where  internal  evidence 
warrants  the  change. 

[V] 


The  question  of  successive  editions  of  prophetic  literature 
has  been  raised  several  times  in  the  paper  on  Amos.  In  studying 
Isaiah  I  have  touched  upon  this  question  but  rarely,  since  in 
most  cases  it  does  not  affect  the  question  of  parallelism.  After 
an  even  larger  portion  of  Isaiah  has  been  examined,  it  will  be 
of  interest  to  determine  whether  supposed  differences  of  author- 
ship coincide  with  variations  in  the  nature  of  the  parallelism. 
Mr.  Newman's  conclusion  that  Amos  almost  invariably  uses  the 
couplet  structure  in  piarallelism,  and  my  own  conclusion  that 
it  is  possible  to  find  many  variations  from  this  simple  structure 
in  Isaiah,  suggest  that  there  may  have  been  individual  prefer- 
ences in  this  matter  on  the  part  of  the  Hebrew  writers. 

My  purpose  of  letting  the  laws  of  parallelism  suggest  emen- 
dations has  induced  me  to  neglect  as  far  as  possible  emendations 
suggested  by  others;  this  was  not  possible,  however,  in  the  case 
of  those  suggestions  recorded  in  the  frequently  consulted  Brown- 
Driver-Briggs  lexicon ;  no  doubt  others  of  my  emendations,  also, 
were  in  reality  due  to  my  previous  readings  on  the  subject,  and 
I  beg  to  be  pardoned  for  not  tracing  them  to  their  sources  and 
for  not  giving  credit  where  credit  may  possibly  be  due. 

Typographical  difficulties  have  led  to  the  use  of  transliter- 
ation^ in  place  of  Hebrew  characters  in  these  studies ;  as  this 
necessitates  the  insertion  of  vowels  into  a  text  written  originally 
with  consonants  only,  it  has  the  disadvantage  that  emendations 
sometimes  seem  to  involve  more  radical  changes  than  they  in 
reality  do.  Moreover,  for  typographical  reasons  the  printing 
of  extensive  portions  of  the  reconstructed  text  has  not  been 
attempted,  except  in  the  case  of  the  Amos  Doom  Song ;  in  general 
the  transliteration  has  been  confined  to  the  emended  words.  In 
the  case  of  Isaiah  I  have  offered  instead  a  translation  of  the 
whole  of  the  reconstructed  text.  In  this  translation  my  purpose 
was  again  to  emphasize  the  parallelism.     Accordingly  absolute 


1  It  was  not  found  possible  even  to  follow  the  system  of  transliteration 
generally  accepted  in  the  United  States  to-day;  but  the  student  of  Hebrew 
will  easily  recognize  that  q  represents  the  Hebrew  gadhe  (dotted  s)  ;  q  the 
Hebrew  qoph  (dotted  fc)  ;  %  the  Hebrew  x^th  (dotted  h)  ;  while  simple  s 
represents  the  Hebrew  samelch  and  sin,  and  in  a  few  cases  Arabic  sad  (i.e., 
gad).  Proper  names,  however,  have  in  general  been  left  without  diacritical 
marks  or  accents  of  any  kind;  e.g.,  Hariri  instead  of  Xariri. 

[vi] 


literalness  has  not  always  been  insisted  upon ;  active  and  passive 
constructions  have  sometimes  been  interchanged;  single  words 
expressing  the  spirit  of  the  original  have  been  used  where  lit- 
eralness would  have  demanded  some  longer  paraphrase ;  and 
unimportant  particles  have  sometimes  been  omitted  (e.g.,  the 
connective  "and")  where  the  meaning  was  not  thereby  altered. 
The  attempt  has  been  made  also  to  represent  something  of 
the  assonance,  rhythm,  and  other  stylistic  characteristics  of  the 
Hebrew,  all  of  which  devices  have  been  used  in  the  translation 
in  about  the  same  proportion,  though  not  always  at  the  same 
point  of  the  couplet,  as  in  the  original. 

Being  convinced,  however,  that  the  affinities  of  Hebrew  par- 
allelism are  with  the  prototype  of  the  Arabic  saf  and  not  with 
the  classical  system  of  meters,  I  have  not  attempted  to  show 
exact  regularity  in  the  rhythm.  Little  is  known  concerning  the 
prophet's  method  of  delivering  his  oracles.  It  has  been  pointed 
out  that  saj'  in  Arabic  means  "the  cooing  of  the  dove,"  and  that 
Isaiah  speaks  of  ' '  wizards  that  peep  and  mutter " ;  it  might  be 
added  that  n^'um  (applied  to  the  utterance  of  the  prophets  in 
the  ecstatic  state,  and  translated  "saith")  comes  from  a  root 
meaning  in  Arabic  "to  groan  or  sigh";  that  ndhhi'  ("prophet") 
itself  comes  from  a  root  meaning  ' ' to  utter  a  low  sound, "  or  "to 
bark  faintly ' ' :  hence  perhaps  a  very  striking  instance  of  para- 
nomasia  in  Is.  56.10,  referring  to  false  prophets,  who  are  "dumb 
dogs;  they  cannot  bark"  {linbd<^x  ^or  linbo',  just  as  hozim, 
"ravers,"  in  the  same  sentence  is  used  instead  of  x^^s^w, 
"seers").  But  whether  Isaiah's  ridicule  of  the  "chirping"  of 
wizards  implies  that  the  true  prophet  had  some  other  special 
vocal  method  of  delivering  his  oracles,  or  that  he  spoke  in  the 
method  of  ordinary  speech,  is  not  clear.  If  the  prophets  chanted, 
perhaps,  the  number  of  syllables  or  even  of  words  in  a  sentence 
would  not  be  of  much  importance,  for  a  single  syllable  might 
have  been  held  for  the  length  of  time  normally  given  to  two  or 
more  syllables,  or  two  or  more  syllables  or  words  be  spoken  in 
the  time,  and  even  with  the  number  of  "beats,"  normally  given 
to  one ;  or  a  pause  or  rest  might  compensate  for  the  absence  of 
a  word — this  particularly  in  the  case  of  lines  in  which  some  part 

[vii] 


of  a  sentence  must  be  supplied  in  thought  from  a  preceding  line ; 
while  the  words  in  a  particularly  short  line,  e.g.,  at  the  end  of 
certain  prophecies,  might  have  been  held  for  special  emphasis. 

Mr.  Newman  wishes  to  express  his  appreciation  for  several 
suggestions  (particularly  with  reference  to  the  relation  between 
primitive  parallelism  and  magical  incantations)  made  by  Rabbi 
Martin  A.  Meyer  of  San  Francisco,  Lecturer  in  Semitic  History 
in  the  University  of  California ;  for  active  aid  and  criticism  by 
Professor  Richard  Gottheil  of  the  Department  of  Semitic  Lan- 
guages, Columbia  University,  New  York ;  and  for  information 
furnished  by  Professor  Max  Margolis  of  Dropsie  College,  Phila- 
delphia, Professor  Israel  Frielander  of  the  Jewish  Theological 
Seminary,  New  York,  and  Dr.  Nahum  Slouschz  of  the  Rab- 
binical College  of  America. 

My  thanks  are  due  to  several  of  my  colleagues,  particularly 
Professor  F.  J,  Teggart  and  Professor  C.  I.  Lewis,  for  suggesting 
changes  in  the  wording  of  my  translation;  likewise  to  Professor 
M.  Jastrow,  Jr.,  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  who  was 
in  California  while  these  studies  were  in  progress  and  first 
suggested  to  me  that  they  might  be  worth  publishing. 

William  Popper. 
Berkeley,  California,  June  27,  1917. 


[These  papers  will  appear  also  as  a  volume  of  the  Semicentennial  Pub- 
lications of .  the  University  of  California,  f olioed  independently,  but  in 
addition  bearing  in  brackets  the  corresponding  folios  of  the  present  series.] 


[viii] 


CONTENTS 


PAKT  I.— PAEALLELISM  IN  AMOS 
Chapter  I. — Introduction.  page 

Origin   of   parallelism 57 

Evolution  of  parallelism 58 

Non-Semitic  parallelism : 

Finnish    61 

Chinese    68 

Near-Eastern  parallelism: 

Egyptian 76 

Sumerian  85 

Babylonian-Assyrian  87 

Arabic : 

Classical   (including  Turkish  and  Persian) 95 

Neo-Arabic  109 

Abyssinian    Ill 

Hebrew    113 

Conclusions  115 

Later  Development  of  Parallelism: 

In  the  Apocrypha  and  the  Apocalypses 120 

In  Greek  originals  by  Jevi^s 121 

In  the  New  Testament 121 

In  Syriae 124 

In   rabbinical   literature 125 

In  medieval  Jewish  literature 129 

In  modern  Hebrew  literature 132 

Chapter  II. — Paeallelism  in  Amos. 

Introduction 136 

Prose    137 

Parallelistic  poetry: 

Complete   parallelism   137 

Double  structure  140 

Incomplete  parallelism  141 

Without  compensation  142 

With  compensation: 

Double  structure  145 

Fresh  term  structure 147 

Four  term  variations 151 

Keduplication   155 

Alternate  parallelism: 

Clear  parallelism  158 

[ix] 


Near-prose :  page 

Synonymous  saj'  163 

Non-synonymous  saj'   165 

Qind  parallelism  165 

Synthetic  couplets  166 

Clear  synthetic  167 

Doubtful  synthetic  170 

"That  say,"  or  quotational  couplets 171 

"In  order  that,"  or  conjunctival  couplets 173 

Eelative  couplets  174 

Ka'csher,  or  simile  couplets 176 

Triplets  and  monostichs 178 

Conventional  historical  prophetic  phrases 185 

Prelude  and  postlude  prophetic  phrases 188 

Strophic  formations: 

Grief  song  189 

Series  of  Visions: 

First  pair  _ 193 

Second  pair 195 

Prose-poetic    narrative,    7.10-17 198 

Chapter  III. — The  Doom  Song,  Amos  1.3-2.8. 
Verse  and  stanza  parallelism 

Reconstruction   of  Doom   Song 202 

Variations  in  the  eight  stanzas 206 

Analysis  of  the  eight  stanzas 209 

Stanza  1.  Damascus 209 

Stanza  2.  Philistia   :..- 216 

Stanza  3.  Tyre    224 

Stanza  4.  Edom    228 

Stanza  5.  Ammonites  233 

Stanza  6.  Moab  242 

Stanza  7.  Judah    248 

Stanza  8.  Israel 253 

Date  of  the  Prophecy 254 

Conclusions  on  the  Doom  Song 256 

Classification  and  Tables — -  258 

Conclusions  - 262 

Index  of  verses _ 265 

PART  II.— PARALLELISM  IN  ISAIAH,  Chapters  1-10 

Index   of    Translations : 266 

Translation  of  the  reconstructed  text 268 

Notes  293 

Tables  and   Summary 435 

Synonymous  and  complementary  parallelism 436 

Synthetic  and  incomplete  parallelism _ 438 

Suspensive  parallelism  439 

Subordinate  clauses  in  parallelism 440 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA   PUBLICATIONS 
SEMITIC    PHILOLOGY 

Vol.  1,  No.  2,  pp.  57-265  August  6,  1918 


PARALLELISM  IN  AMOS 

BY 

LOUIS  I.  NEWMAN 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 

Origin  of  Parallelism 

Parallelism  in  poetry  is  the  expression  of  universal  psycho- 
logical principles.  It  is  a  law  of  biological  life  that  ' '  '  deep 
calleth  unto  deep, '  tree  to  tree,  bird  to  bird,  all  the  world  over, '  '^ 
So  in  the  field  of  literary  expression,  thought  answers  thought 
and  word  answers  word.  For  the  human  mind,  richly-stored, 
rarely  contents  itself  with  a  single  formulation  of  a  theme  close 
to  its  interests :  to  express  a  thought  in  brief  laconic  form  merely 
once,  does  not  satisfy  it.  In  prose,  the  author  usually  seeks  to 
reaffirm  and  elaborate  his  statements  either  by  repetition  of 
favorite  phrases,  or  by  the  use  of  new  words  and  expressions ; 
and  this  is  true  even  more  strongly  of  poetry,  the  language  of 
feeling.  "So  soon  as  the  heart  gives  way  to  its  emotions,  wave 
follows  upon  wave.  "^  The  poet  or  prophet  in  moments  of 
inspiration  pours  forth  metaphors  and  characterizations  of  his 
subject  in  rich  flood.  Yet  a  sense  of  inner  orderliness  prevails ; 
the  most  eloquent  prophets  are  usually  most  skilled  in  poetic 


1  Smith,  The  Early  Poetry  of  Israel   (London,  1912),  p.  16. 

2  Herder,  The  Spirit  of  'Hebrew  Poetry;  translation  by  James  Marsh 
(Burlington,  1833),  p.  43.  '  Herder  gives  one  of  the  best  analyses  of  the 
psychology  of  parallelism. 

[57] 


58  University  of  California  Publications.       [Skm.  Phil. 

forms.^  This  feeling  for  organization  and  regularity  guides  the 
repetition;  and  though  it  is  possible  for  the  poet  to  heap  up  a 
series  of  similar  statements,  as  is  seen  in  the  most  primitive 
poetry,  it  will  be  found  that  a  later  process  demands  ordinarily 
the  use  of  only  two,  in  couplet  structure.  Herein  a  principle 
of  balance  seems  to  enter  whereby  the  poet  consciously  or 
unconsciously  places  one  statement  opposite  to  another  either 
synonymous  or  unlike.  Two  psychological  rules  thus  appear 
to  interplay:  one  demanding  repetition,  in  the  same  or  different 
words,  of  a  special  thought;  the  other  demanding  orderliness 
and  restricting  this  repetition  to  a  couplet  formation.  These 
two  tendencies  are  apparent  in  the  rise  and  evolution  of  primi- 
tive poetr3^ 

Evolution  of  Parallelism 

The  origin  and  development  of  primitive  poetry  are  marked 
by  three  great  stages:  first,  indefinite  iteration,  unchanged,  and 
unvarying;  second,  incremental  repetition;  third,  artistic  par- 
allelism.* Iteration  may  be  designated  as  the  earliest  form  of 
poetry ;  it  was  communal,  the  spontaneous  expression  of  emotion, 
beginning  in  the  crowd,  and  carried  forward  and  backward 
without  cease,  almost  under  the  influence  of  mob  hypnotism. 
Usually  a  single  verse,  a  statement  of  fact,  or  in  the  first  in- 
stance, a  fact  stated  not  formally  but  by  repetition  of  words 
in  a  rhythmic  period,  was  the  subject  of  iteration.^ 

Incremental  repetition  arises  when  communal  mass  song  is 
supplemented  by  the  assertion  of  individual  poetic  genius.  A 
variation  suddenly  breaks  into  the  iteration  from  the  lips  of 
a  daring  singer,  moved  by  an  inner  impulse.  He  supplements 
the  stock  of  communal  refrains  with  those  of  his  own  invention. 
At  first,  this  must  have  occurred  at  the  end  of  a  long  series  of 
iterations,  to  interrupt  the  monotony;  gradually,  the  series  of 


3  Kaplan,  PsycJwlogy  of  Prophecy  (Philadelphia,  1908),  p.  60ff.  For 
a  clear  statement  of  the  psychology  of  parallelism  in  its  relation  to  the 
development  of  balance  and  rhythm,  see  Hup f eld,  Die  Psalmen  (Gotha, 
1888),  II,  p.  xxviife. 

4  See  Gummere,  Beginnings  of  Poetry   (New  York,  1901),  pp.  208-209. 

5  Ibid.,  p.  250 ;  Gummere  cites  as  examples  of  iteration  the  beginnings 
of  the  vocero,  the  repeated  cries  of  the  Africans,  the  Fuegians,  the  Boto- 
cudos,  and  other  savage  peoples. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  59 

repetitions  must  have  been  shortened  by  more  frequent  varia- 
tions, and  finally,  the  period  of  complete  freedom  of  variation 
must  have  appeared,  though  this  marks  a  late  stage  in  the 
development  of  poetry.*' 

Parallelism  marks  a  third  distinct  major  division  in  the 
evolution  of  ancient  poetry.  In  order  to  trace  the  steps  through 
which  bald  iteration  became  artistic  parallelism,  it  is  necessary 
to  turn  to  those  literatures  of  antiquity  wherein  parallelism  is 
most  apparent.  These  divide  themselves  into  two  classes :  first, 
the  literatures  of  several  non-Semitic  peoples,  including  the 
Finnish  and  the  Chinese ;  second,  the  literatures  of  several 
Semitic  and  Semitically  influenced  peoples,  including  the  Egyp- 
tian, the  Sumerian,  the  Babylonian-Assyrian,  the  Arabic  and  the 
Hebrew.  Since  the  pivot  of  this  study  is  Hebrew  parallelism, 
investigation  into  parallelism  outside  of  the  Bible  will  be  largely 
comparative. 

Parallelism  is  so  simple  a  poetic  motif  that  it  is  discoverable 
in  some  degree  in  almost  every  literature.  Isolated  couplets 
can  be  selected  from  the  Greek,^  the  Latin,  Indian,*  Germanic® 
and  Anglo-Saxon^*'  literatures.  But  it  is  of  little  value  to  gather 
these  illustrations  from  all  sides;  they  merely  indicate  an 
obvious  fact,  namely,  that  the  tendency  to  express  the  same 
thought  in  varying  language  is  confined  to  no  one  group  or 


6  Ibid.,  p.  200-201 ;  Gummere  gives  illustrations  from  English  ballads 
(p.  206ff.)  and  includes  therein  cases  in  which  the  same  line  or  stanza 
is  sung  indefinitely,  with  the  use  of  a  new  name,  number,  or  fact  in  each 
repetition.  In  songs  of  lament,  labor,  triumph,  processions,  festal  refrains, 
the  threefold  process  of  poetic  development  is  present,  in  almost  all  litera- 
tures. 

7  See  Schleusner,  Dissertatio  de  parallelismo  membrorum  egregio  inter- 
pretationis  subsidio  (Leipzig,  1817),  p.  11;  Norden,  Die  antike  Kunstprosa 
(Leipzig,  1898),  II,  813-824;  Schmidt,  Ueber  den  bau  der  pindarischen 
Strophen  (Leipzig,  1882),  passim. 

8  Fried  rich  v.  Schlegel  professed  to  have  found  in  the  Sanskrit  sloTca 
a  close  affinity  between  the  Indian  proverb  and  the  Hebrew,  though  the 
former  is  much  more  regular  in  its  use  of  four  equal  measure,  eight  syllable 
feet  than  the  free  and  loose  Hebrew  structure.  Saemmtliche  WerTce;  ed.  2 
(Vienna,  1846),  I,  121-124.  Eosenkranz,  Handbuch  d.  allg.  Geschichte 
d.  Poesie  (Halle,  1832),  I,  77,  finds  no  basis  for  this  comparison,  and 
therein  seems  justified;  for  parallelism  plays  no  role  in  the  Sanskrit. 

9  Wuttke,  Die  deutscJie  Volksaberglaube  der  Gegenwart  (Berlin,  1869), 
p.  157.  He  regards  parallelism  as  perhaps  the  most  important  formal 
ethnic  thought  ("formale  Voelkergedanke")  in  existence.  "In  forms 
such  as  'Mond  nimt  zu,  Warze  nimt  ab,'  'Glocken  gehen  Toten  nach, 
Warzen  gehn  mit '  there  lies  a  genuine  and  original  folk-poetry,  a  parallel- 


60  University  of  California  Publicatio7is.       [Sem.  Phil. 

assembly  of  peoples,  but  is  universal.  It  is  imperative,  however, 
to  turn  to  those  literatures  wherein  parallelism  is  u  if  not  the 
dominant  poetic  law;  herein  are  included  Chinese  and  Finnish 
poetry,  in  which  even  the  casual  reader  at  once  perceives  that 
parallelism  is  not  merely  prevalent,  but  highly  developed,  and 
especially  the  literatures  of  the  Semitic  and  Semitically  in- 
fluenced peoples  of  western  Asia,  who,  it  will  be  shown,  adopted 
the  motif  of  parallelism  virtually  as  their  own;  it  appears  to 
have  been  the  common  substratum  for  the  literatures  of  Egypt, 
Babylonia,  Arabia  and  Judea.  Egypt,  it  is  true,  failed  to  attain 
great  heights  in  its  use,  and  remained  on  the  low  levels  between 
iteration,  incremental  repetition,  and  parallelism.  Arabic  liter- 
ature after  maintaining  a  species  of  parallelism  for  centuries, 
broke  away  into  new  fields  of  poetic  forms.  Babylonia  and 
Assyria  accepted  the  prevalent  literary  forms  of  their  Sumerian 
predecessors,  and  gave  the  expansion  of  parallelism  great  im- 


ism  of  thought  as  in  Hebrew  literature,  particularly  the  Proverbs. ' '      Other 
examples  of  Germanic  parallelism  are  as  follows: 

"Wer  hat  gesehen  dass  des  Bockes  Horn  zum  Himmel  reicht? 
Wer  hat  gesehen  dass  des  Kameels  Schwanz  zur  Erde  reicht?" 


Or 
Or 


"Was  gedenkst  du  die  Voegel  des  Himmels  zu  fangen? 
Was  gedenkst  du  die  Fische  des  Meeres  zu  fangen?" 


' '  Des  Menschen  Dummheit  ist  inne, 

Des  Viehes  Buntheit  aussen. " 
(Radloff,    Proben    der    V olkslitteratur    der    tuerTcischen    Staemme    Sued- 
Siheriens,  St.  Petersburg,  1866,  I,  6-7).     Also  in  the  Germanic,  parallelism 
is  associated  with  magical  formulas: 

"In  des  Hunds  Zahn  moeg '  er  schwinden. 

In  des  Wolfs  Zahn  moeg'  er  wachsen, 

In  des  Nordes  Wind  entweichen, 

Aus  dem  Wind  hinaus  ins  Leere. ' ' 
(Mythisohe  u.  magische  Lieder  der  Ehsten,  St.  Petersburg,  1854,  p.  87.) 
10  Smith,  pp.  14-16.  These  selections  from  English  folk  songs,  nursery 
rhymes  and  ballads  often  show  rather  incremental,  repetition  than  par- 
allelism. (Gray,  Forms  of  Hebrew  Poetry,  London,  1915,  pp.  38,  128-131.) 
Longfellow's  Hiawatha  (see  below)  is  perhaps  one  of  the  best  examples 
of  parallelism  in  English,  but  it  is  an  imitation  of  Finnish  structure  and 
hence  not  native  and  original.  Many  English  proverbs  show  the  almost 
universal  antithetic  parallelism: 

"Laugh  and  the  world  laughs  with  you. 

Weep  and  you  weep  alone." 
Or 

"To  dare  to  fail  is  noble, 

To  fail  to  dare  ignoble." 
Parallelism  is  scattered  through  Anglo-Saxon  and  English  literature;  both, 
however,  are  ruled  by  a  completely  different  literary  psychology  from  the 
ancient  Semitic  literatures,  and  parallelism  is  never  dominant. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  61 

petus.  The  Hebrews,  however,  the  inheritors  of  a  long  literary 
tradition,  welcomed  parallelism  as  a  national  poetic  usage ;  and, 
in  their  hands  it  attained  its  most  notable  expression. 

NON-SEMITIC  PAEALLELISM 

Finnish  Parallelism 

Finnish  poetry  is  remarkable  for  its  singular  rigidity  of 
form;  it  is  terse  and  epigrammatic,  and  derives  its  style  and 
aroma  from  a  tradition  dating  back  perhaps  3000  years."  Its 
two  main  peculiarities  are  alliteration,  or  the  rhyme  of  letters, 
which  is  practiced  to  such  a  degree  that  often  not  only  do  the 
words  of  the  same  verse  begin  with  the  same  consonant,  as  is 
generally  the  case  in  old  northern  poetry,  but  also  with  the  same 
following  vowel ;  and  parallelism,  or  the  rhyme  of  sense.  Its 
similarity  in  this  latter  respect  to  Hebrew  poetry  has  been  noted 
by  several  investigators;^^  and  it  is  in  parallelism,  called  runon 
kerto,  that  the  Finnish  regularity  and  conciseness  demonstrate 
themselves  most  notably.  ''In  Finnish  the  second  line  of  a 
couplet  is  nearly  always  a  repetition  in  other  words  of  its 
predecessor  and  stands  in  apposition  to  it.  If  there  is  no  sub- 
ject or  no  verb  in  the  second  line,  this  must  be  understood  from 
the  line  above,  though  sometimes  it  is  vice-versa.  "^^  Com- 
paretti  states  the  following  formulation  of  the  principle :  ' '  Every 
line  must  contain  a  complete  idea,  or  a  part  complete  in  itself 
of  a  greater  idea,  and  this  must  be  repeated  in  different  words 
in  the  succeeding  line."^* 

The  law  of  parallelism  influences  the  outward  form  of  Fin- 
nish verse,  for  it  renders  almost  necessary  the  rhyme  of  sub- 
stantival or  verbal  endings.      Herein  is  the  germ  of  developed 


11  Billson,  Popular  Poetry  of  the  Finns  (London,  1900),  p.  3.  This 
contains  a  bibliographical  index  of  works  in  English,  French,  and  German 
on  Finnish  poetry. 

12  Brown,  People  of  Finland  in  Archaic  Times  (London,  1892),  p.  279- 
280;  and  others  mentioned  below,  particularly  Comparetti,  Traditional 
Poetry  of  the  Finns,  translated  by  Isabella  M.  Anderton  (New  York, 
1898),  p.  35;  Porthan,  Ve  Poesi  Fennica  (Abo,  1766-1778),  p.  20. 

13  Abercromby,  "Magic  Songs  of  the  Finns,"  Folklore  (London,  1890), 
I,  22 ;  Comparetti,  op.  cit.,  p.  33. 

14  Ihid.,  p.  36. 


62  University  of  California  Publications.       [Sem.  Phil. 

rhyme.  Comparetti  regards  parallelism  as  a  primitive  motif, 
prior  and  subordinated  to  regular  metre.  His  opinions  are 
valuable  for  a  consideration  of  parallelism  in  Arabic  literature, 
where  an  early  parallelism  seems  to  have  been  overlaid  by  intri- 
cate poetical  devices.  When  poetry  is  in  a  primitive  condition 
and  makes  abundant  use  of  parallelism  and  of  consonances  and 
assonances  of  every  kind,  then  the  metrical  verse,  if  it  exists, 
is  apt  to  be  roughly  indicated,  unequal,  or  variable  in  length 
and  in  the  number  of  its  syllables.  As  soon  as  metre  makes  good 
its  claims,  imposes  number  in  a  measurement  of  lines,  and  fixes 
rhythmical  rules  based  not  so  much  on  the  quality  as  on  the 
quantity  of  sounds,  the  verse  becomes  varied,  and  the  law  that 
governs  the  quality  and  recurrence  is  either  limited  or  lost. 
Alliteration  also  disappears.  Rhyme  remains,  but  no  longer  as 
free  as  in  primitive  poetry^^ ;  it  is  linked  with  the  complex  laws 
of  metre,  and  becomes  obedient  to  laws  regarding  distribution, 
position  and  combination  of  verses.  It  is  important  to  observe 
that  the  Finnic  rune  follows  the  eight-syllable  trochaic  un- 
rhymed  measure.  This  adherence  to  a  constant  law  may  be  a 
sign  of  the  maturity  of  the  poetry.  At  the  same  time,  Finnish 
rune  knows  only  this  one  kind  of  metre,  and  has  not  yet  arrived 
at  the  stage  of  producing  various  forms,  as  it  has  not  yet  learned 
to  group  the  lines  into  stanzas,  and  "has  not  advanced  beyond 
the  use  of  such  primitive,  even  archaic  means  as  alliteration, 
free  rhymes,  parallelism."^" 

Parallelism  also  affects  the  very  substance  and  ideas  of  the 
poem.  In  lyric  poetry,  the  repetition  or  the  variation  in  other 
words  of  an  image  or  thought  does  not  make  for  monotony,  but 
as  Xavier  Marmier  has  noted,  leaves  in  the  mind  an  impression 
of  indefinable  charm,  of  deep  melody,  of  rich  variations  of 
thought ;  parallelism  colors,  heightens,  multiplies  poetic  expres- 
sion, generates  emphasis  and  warmth.  In  the  epic,  however, 
in  the  narrative,  traditional  historical  poetry,  the  sameness  of 
verse  and  the  smallness  of  resource  afforded  by  parallelism 
prevent  the  attainment  of  this  lyric  warmth,  movement,  and 


15  In  Hebrew  poetry,  it  will  be  seen  that  rhyme  is  accidental  and  rare. 

16  Comparetti,  p.  36, 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  63 

impetus  ;'^''  instead  of  sharpening  the  outlines  of  the  idea,  paral- 
lelism oftentimes  renders  it  tremulous,  undetermined,  or  generic. 
Finding  no  exact  synonym  or  image  adapted  to  repeat  an  idea, 
the  laulaja,  or  popular  singer,  substitutes  another  which  he 
thinks  appropriate ;  hence  often  the  specific  idea  becomes  blurred 
and  is  forgotten.^^ 

This  leads  to  a  statement  of  the  probable  origin  of  Finnish 
parallelism.  It  may  lie  in  magical  incantations,  similar  per- 
haps to  the  Sumerian  and  Babylonian- Assyrian.  The  first  stage 
seems  to  have  been,  mere  repetition.  Among  the  Samoyedes,  the 
Shaman  or  magic-man  begins  by  beating  the  magic  drum,  and 
singing  a  few  words  to  gloomy  awesome  music;  then  another 
performer  of  less  importance  comes  in,  and  they  sing  the  same 
words  together,  after  which  the  first  remains  silent  while  the 
second  repeats  alone  what  he  sang.  The  song  of  these  Samoyede 
Shamans  consists  of  a  few  words,  and  is  almost  entirely  im- 
provised. Among  the  Lapps,  the  magical  incantations,  spoken 
in  a  sing-song  manner,  accompanied  by  the  roll  of  the  magic 
drum,  betray  a  rudimentary,  oscillating  and  variable  near-metre, 
a  kind  of  rhythmic  prose.  The  Finnish  magical  formula  in  a 
late  period  of  development,  though  it  was  pronounced  by  one 
person,  still  contains  much  repetition.  In  short,  while  the 
evidence  is  not  entirely  clear,  the  earliest  origins  of  Finnish 
parallelism  may  be  traced  back  to  magical  rites  wherein  repe- 
tition played  the  important  role.^^" 

In  Finnish  epic  poetry,  richer  evidence  as  to  origin  is  avail- 
able. It  is  the  ancient  custom  for  the  runes  to  be  sung  by  two 
men,  of  whom  one  is  the  chief,  the  precentor;  the  other  is  his 
assistant,  the  repeater,  kertoja.  Seated  side  by  side,  or  opposite 
to  each  other,  they  join  hands;  during  the  song,  their  bodies 


^T  Ibid.,  p.  33. 

18  Ibid.,  p.  67.  ' '  The  laulaja  will  say  that  Vainamoinen,  having  fallen 
into  the  waters,  'went  about  there  for  six  years,  there  for  seven  summers, 
tossed  for  nine  years,'  where  the  numbers  oscillate  by  reason  of  the  par- 
allelism, and  we  obtain  the  result  of  a  long,  indeterminate  period  of  time. 
Such  a  phenomenon  does  not  occur  in  Hebrew,  where  the  second  term  serves 
rather  to  heighten  than  to  obscure  the  clarity  of  the  terms.  Herein  is  one 
of  the  points  which  shows  the  difference  in  composition,  surely  m  origm, 
of  the  Hebrew  parallelism. 

18a /bid.     See  also  pp.  171ff.;  Beauvais,  "La  magie  chez  les  finnois," 
Bevue  de  I'histoire  des  Religions,  V,  1;  VI,  251  (1882). 


64  University  of  Calif ornid  PuhUcations.       [Sem.Phil. 

are  in  a  constant  swinging  movement.  One  of  the  singers 
begins  by  singing  a  rune  stiehos  alone,  in  the  last  bar  of  which 
the  other  joins,  simply  repeating  the  stiehos,  and  so  on  to  the 
end.  During  this  repetition  the  first  singer  finds  the  needful 
time  to  reflect  on  what  his  next  line  is  to  be.  The  second  singer 
when  he  repeats  the  line,  generally  introduces  some  word  of 
approbation,  but  seldom  does  he  correct  the  first  singer,  or  vary, 
or  add  to  his  first  stiehos.  The  Finnish  practice,  then,  is  mainly 
a  feat  of  memory,  dependent  upon  the  conservative  spirit  of 
tradition,  which  relies  upon  the  agreement  of  two  memories; 
though  it  is  also  to  some  extent  a  feat  of  literary  ingenuity, 
especially  when  the  line  is  improvised,^®  for  the  second  singer 
must  know,  or  guess  in  time,  the  end  of  the  line  that  he  is  to  sing 
with  the  first  singer.  If  it  were  that  the  second  singer  took  up 
the  general  thought  of  the  first  and  repeated  it  in  different  meta- 
phors and  images,  then  this  phenomenon  would  indubitably 
deserve  recognition  as  the  basis  of  Finnish  parallelism,  as  the 
practice  of  the  Hebrew  singing  women  at  the  Red  Sea,  and 
the  return  of  David,  seem  to  suggest  the  origin  of  Hebrew  par- 
allelism. But  even  as  the  matter  stands,  it  must  be  concluded 
that  wuthin  the  general  sphere  of  the  epic. song  the  method  of 
the  first  appearance  of  parallelism  is  probably  to  be  sought.^*' 

The  basic  form  of  Finnish  parallelism  is  obviously  the  coup- 
let, though  combinations  of  more  than  two  lines  are  frequent. 
There  are  many  varieties  of  parallelism;  repetitions  often  occur 
in  more  than  two  lines,  especially  in  magic  songs,  where  they 
are  continued  for  a  great  number  of  lines.  Sometimes  par- 
allelism is  absent,  and  there  are  even  lines-  whereof  the  sense  is 
completed  only  in  the  following  line;  repetition  also  occurs  not 
only  from  line  to  line,  but  also  in  the  same  line.  For  in  the 
use  of  the  various  motifs  of  Finnish  poetry,  the  laulaja,  though 
he  is  bound  absolutely  to  the  eight  syllable  trochaic  metre,  and 


19  Comparetti,  p.  69. 

20  Amongst  the  Karels,  the  old  manner  of  singing  is  kept  up,  and  one 
meets  with  many  of  the  old  songs  there  (Brown,  op.  cit.,  pp.  278-279).  It 
must  be  observed,  however,  that  in  some  eases,  though  this  is  doubtful, 
the  second  singer  repeats  the  thought  of  the  first  in  different  words.  See 
Paul,  The  Kalevala  (Helsingfors,  1885-1886),  I,  vii.  But  in  several  poems 
the  thought  does  not  become  apparent  until  the  addition  of  the  second 
stiehos. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. ^Parallelism  in  Amos.     .  65 

is  bound  in  a  measure  also  to  the  use  of  alliteration,  rhyme  and 

parallelism,  reserves  to  himself  full  liberty  as  to  the  mode  of 

employing  the  latter,  so  that  he  can  improvise  without  being 

unduly  hampered.-^ 

Synonymous  parallelism  is  very  frequent  in  Finnish  poetry. 

Countless  examples  are  to  be  found  in  the  Kalevala,  the  Finnish 

national  epic,  and  other  long  poems  :^^ 

Many  men  that  live  to  murmur, 
Many  women  live  to  censure. 

Many   speak  Avith  evil  motives, 
Many  they  with  wretched  voices 

Curse  me   for  my  wretched  singing, 
Blame  my  tongue  for  speaking  wisdom, 

Call  my  ancient  songs  unAvorthy, 
Blame  the  songs  and  curse  the  singer. 

Be  not  thus,  my  Avorthy  people. 
Blame  me  not  f Or  singing  badly ; 

Unpretending  as  a  minstrel, 

I  haA'C  never  had  the  teaching, 
Never  lived  with  ancient  heroes, 
Never  learned  the  tongues  of  strangers, 
Never  claimed   to  knoAV  much  wisdom. 

Others  have  had  language  masters. 

Nature  Avas  my  only  teacher. 
Woods  and  aa  aters  my  instructors. . , . 

Be  this  as  it  may,  my  people, 

This  may  point  the  Avay  to  others, 
To  the  singers   better  gifted. 

For  the  good  of  future  ages, 
For  the  coming  generations. 
For  the  rising  folk  of  Soumi.23 


21  Comparetti,  p.  34.  The  use  of  a  regular  metre  takes  the  Finnish  out 
of  the  territory  of  the  Hebrew,  for  in  the  latter,  as  will  be  seen,  the  rules 
of  metrical  formation  cannot  be  clearly  formulated. 

22  On  the  Kalevala,  see  Crawford,  The  Kalevala  (New  York,  1889), 
Porter,  Selections  from  the  Kalevala  (New  York,  1868).  See  also  Paul, 
Kanteletar,  die  Volkslyrik  der  Finnen  (Helsingfors,  1882) ;  Eetzius,  and 
others. 

23  Examples  of  synonymous  and  mixed  parallelism  are  numerous  in  the 
Kalevala;   this  one  is  taken  from  Abercromby,  p.  26: 

"A  maiden  walked  along  the  air's  edge — 
A  girl  along  the  'navel'  of  the  sky. 


66  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

This  quotation  shows  that  the  same  problems  which  confront 
the  investigator  in  Hebrew  are  present  in  Finnish  poetry.  The 
dominant  characteristic  is  parallelism,  and  the  couplet  is  most 
frequent.  There  are  several  loose  monostichs,  however;  there 
are  several  triplets ;  there  are  portions  which  show  no  parallelism, 
and  which  would  be  near-prose  were  it  not  for  their  stichic 
form.2*      So-called  synthetic  parallelism  is  a  frequent  accom- 


Along  the  outline  of  a  cloud — 
Along  the  heaven's  boundary. 

In  stockings  of  a  bluish  hue, 

In  shoes  with  ornamented  heels." 

24  Each  printed  line  has  at  least  a  comma  at  the  end  of  it,  due  to  the 
division  between  line  and  line  consequent  on  the  complete  idea,  or  complete 
part  of  an  idea  which  each  one  offers;  this  establishes  a  rhythmic  division 
in  the  ideas  themselves  in  their  order  and  succession,  and  this  division  is 
felt  in  direct  proportion  to  the  shortness  of  the  lines.  See  Comparetti, 
pp.  33-34.  An  example  of  this  stichic  completeness  may  be  found  in 
the  following  selection  from  the  Kalevala: 
"A  hundred  sayings  do  I  possess. 

Fastened  to  my  girdle,  to  my  ring,  to  my  side; 

Which  every  child  cannot  sing, 
Nor  every  lad  the  half  of  them 

My  songs  are  my  learning. 
My  verses  my  goods; 

From  the  roads  did  I  dig  them, 

From  green  boughs  did  I  pluck  them, 

I  Avrenched  them  from  the  heather  plants; 

When  I  a  little  one  was  herding, 
A  little  child  was  tending  lambs. 

Up  from  the  honeymounds. 
Across  the  golden  hillocks, 

Songs  did  the  wind  waft  me, 
The  air  cradled  them  by  hundreds, 

Verses  surged  around  me,  •     . 

Sayings  rained  down  like  water.  ... 

My  father  would  sing  them  as  he  fitted  a  new  handle  to  his  axe; 
From  my  mother  would  I  learn  them  as  her  spindle  twirled." 

Examples  of  monostichs  inserted  in  the  midst  of  good  parallelism  may  be 
found  in  the  next  quotation.     In  may  be  noted  that  the  number  of  incom- 
plete, part  stichoi  in  the  Finnish  which  depend  upon  the  verb  in  another 
couplet  is  larger  than  in  Hebrew, 
"And  the  wind  rocked  him 

To  the  unknown  gates, 
To  the  strange  abodes, 

To  lands  without  a  priest, 
To  countries  unbaptised. 
Behold  me,  poor  wight, 

Tossed  on  a  rolling  tree. 

Tossed  on  a  withering  trunk.  ..." 


Vol.  1.]  Neurman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  67 

paniment  of  good  parallelism;  since,  however,  it  must  be  con- 
ceded that  synthetic  parallelism  is  not  in  reality  parallelism 
at  all,  it  must  be  concluded  of  the  Finnish,  that  parallelism  is 
not  the  only,  though  it  is  perhaps  the  major,  motif  of  its  poetry ; 
there  is  a  twilight  zone  wherein  prose  and  poetry  meet.  This 
general  conclusion  drawn  from  the  Finnish  may  assist  in  a 
determination  of  the  character  of  the  Hebrew. 

Antithetic  parallellism  appears  in  Finnish  proverbs,  which 
have  "much  resemblance  in  their  form  to  those  of  Solomon, "^^ 
and  generally  display  the  same  varieties  of  complete  and  of 
incomplete  parallelism  with  and  without  compensation.  Fin- 
nish parallelism  is  also  an  aid  in  exegesis;  though  the  text  has 
not  been  injured  through  transmission,  several  instances  obtain 
where  the  presence  in  a  second  stichos  of  a  synonymous  word 
serves  to  clarify  the  meaning  of  a  dubious  phrase  corresponding 
to  it  in  the  first. 

Among  peoples  akin  to  the  Finns,  also,  parallelism  is  found. 
Among  the  Lapps,  for  example,  influenced  by  Finnish  literature 
though  themselves  of  another  race,  the  Finno-Mongolic  magical 
songs  bear  a  slight  resemblance  in  structure  to  the  Finnish ; 
while  in  the  epic  and  mythical  literature,  especially  that  relating 
to  the ' '  Child  of  the  Sun, ' '  the  form  of  the  Finnish  rune  is  clearly 
recognizable  with  its  metre,  alliteration,  and  parallelism.^*' 

Finnish  parallelism  has  been  responsible  for  similar  poetry 
in  a  channel  far  removed  from  it.  Longfellow's  Hiawatha 
is  built  upon  the  Finnish  scheme.  The  poet  is  known  to  have 
derived  the  suggestion  for  its  form  from  Schiefner's  translation 
of  the  Kalevala;  when  he  heard  the  trochaic  measure,  he  pro- 
nounced it  to  be  the  one  for  the  discovery  of  which  he  had  been 
waiting  and  longing,  since  it  was  peculiarly  adapted  to  give 
expression  to  the  thoughts  surging  in  his  mind.  The  use  of 
parallelism  in  the  poem  was  evidently  conscious  and  deliberate, 
and  by  contrast  indicates  that  its  appearance  elsewhere  in 
English  poems  is  generally  accidental,  and  irregular. ^'^ 


25  Brown,  p.  282;  Gottlund,  De  ProverMis  Fennicis  (Upsala,  1818). 

26  Comparetti,  p.  43. 

27  See  p.  60,  note  10. 


68  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Hiawatha  possesses  the  same  style  and  also  the  same  problems 

as   Finnish   parallelism,   namely,   the   relation   of  single   lines, 

couplets  and  triplets,  the  interplay  of  prose  and  poetry,  and 

the  stichic  division  of  lines.      The  couplet  form  is  frequent, 

though  not  constant  over  long  tracts  of  text ;  sometimes  two  lines 

are  necessary  to  complete  merely  one  thought,  while  each  stichos 

does  not  have  the  necessary  half -though  of  a  good  couplet: 

Suddenly  upon  the  greensward 
All  alone  stood  Hiawatha.28 

Moreover  exact  synonymity  is  rare  over  long  periods  in  the 

poem,  even  when  the  couplet  form  recurs;  the  second  stichos 

usually  adds  much  to  the  thought  of  the  first ;  most  of  the  lines 

and  distichs  fall  within  the  field  of  synthetic  parallelism.      But 

examples  of  regular  parallelistic  structure  can  be  found : 

All  your  strength  is  in  your  union 
All  your  danger  is  in  discord; 

Therefore  be  at  peace  henceforward, 
And  as  brothers  live  together.  ... 

Big  words  do  not  smite  like  war-clubs, 
Boastful  breath  is  not  a  bow-string, 
Taunts  are  not  so  sharp  as  arrows, 

Deeds  are  better  things  than  words  are, 
Actions  mightier  than  boastings.29 

Chinese  Parallelism 

Points  of  resemblance  between  Chinese  and  Hebrew  literature 

have   often  been  noted.      The   language   and  style   of  several 

Cantonese  love  songs  show  similarity  to  passages  in  the  Song  of 

Solomon  and  other  Hebrew  poems.^°      Far  more  striking,  how- 


28  Cf .  Lowth  's  and  Gray 's  discussion  on  Ps.  2.6 ;  see  also  below,  p.  173. 

29  Another  example  wherein  there  is  a  variation   of  the  couplet   form, 
and  where  a  fifth  stichos  sums  up  the  thought  of  the  preceding  four: 

"As  unto  the  bow  the  cord  is, 
So  unto  the  man  is  woman; 
Though  she  bends  him,  she  obeys  him. 
Though  she  draws  him,  yet  she  follows ; 

Useless  each  without  the  other." 
The  first  couplet  with  its  introductory  conjunctions  finds  numerous  counter- 
parts in  the  ka-'asher  couplets  in  Hebrew;  cf.  Amos.  3.12,  5.19,  etc. 
soClementi,  Cantonese  Love  Songs  in  English  (Oxford,  1904),  p.  6. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  69 

ever,  is  the  presence  of  parallelism  in  Chinese  literature.  Its 
usage  therein  was  noted  by  J.  F.  Davis,  whose  work,  Poeseos 
Sinensis  Commentarii,  "On  the  Poetry  of  the  Chinese, "^^  has 
become  standard.  Almost  every  investigator  of  Chinese  prosody 
since  1829  has  restated  and  reaffirmed  Davis'  conclusions,^^ 
Davis  remarks  that  the  dominant  construction  of  Chinese  poetry 
is  found  in  "lines  of  every  length  used  in  measured  couplets, 
or  sentences  in  pairs,  nicely  balanced  in  words  and  sense. ' '  He 
notes  the  "striking  coincidence"  with  Hebrew  poetry,  and 
adopts  the  terminology  of  Bishop  Lowth,  giving  the  motif 
the  name  "parallelism"  and  dividing  it  into  three  types — 
synonymous,  antithetic  and  synthetic. 

It  is  necessary  first,  however,  to  approach  Chinese  parallelism 
from  the  viewpoint  of  its  three  major  characteristic  divisions — 
parallelism  of  tone,  of  grammar,  and  of  thought.  The  first 
two  are  unique  in  Chinese  literature,  and  present  few  points  of 
comparison  with  Hebrew;  it  is  doubtful  whether  they  may  be 
included  under  the  name  of  parallelism. 

Parallelism  of  tone  demands  merely  that  the  syllables,  instead 
of  being  counted,  must  follow  each  other  in  tones  that  vary 
according  to  rule,  just  as  the  cadence  of  English  verse  is  deter- 
mined not  solely  by  rhyme  and  by  enumeration  of  the  syllables, 
but  also  by  the  relative  position  of  the  accented  syllables  and 
•those  on  which  no  stress  is  laid.^^  Distinction  is  made  between 
two  classes  of  tones,  the  even  or  similar  tones,  and  the  uneven 
or  dissimilar  tones.  The  two  even  or  equal  tones  are  spoken 
with  the  same  stress  and  strength  of  voice  and  are  differentiated 
only  by  a  variation  of  tone  levels.  The  three  unequal  tones 
are  the  rising,  the  falling  and  the  contracting,  "  eingehende, " 
that  is,  one  in  which  the  voice  rises  upward,  or  sinks  to  the  lower 
notes,  or  the  tone  breaks  off  abruptly.     These  tones  or  accents 


31  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  (London,  1829),  II,  410- 
419.  Eepublished  in  1834  and  1870.  For  this  work  the  1829  paging  is 
used. 

32  Scarborough,  Gabelantz,  Heilmann,  Grube,  Bethge,  Chamberlain,  Cran- 
mer-Byng,  and  others  whose  works  are  cited  below.  For  the  use  of  par- 
allelism in  the  interpretation  of  difficult  and  even  mutilated  passages  see 
particularly  Schlegel,  La  loi  du  parallelisme  en  style  chinois  (Leyden,  1896). 

33  Chamberlain,  Classical  Poetry  of  the  Japanese  (Boston,  1880),  pp. 
3-4;  remarks  on  Chinese  poetical  formations. 


70  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

must  be  divided  according  to  definite  rules,  so  that  they  stand 
in  parallels.3*  It  will  be  seen  that  one  of  the  most  difficult 
questions  in  a  classification  of  Hebrew  parallelisms  is  bound  up 
with  the  use  of  the  accents.  The  Chinese  system  differs  from 
the  Hebrew  in  several  respects,  not  the  least  important  of  which 
is  the  regularity  and  constancy  with  which  the  accentual  system 
is  maintained. 

A  parallelism  of  •  grammar  or  syntax  also  characterizes 
Chinese  poetry.  It  demands  that  the  single  words  in  two  suc- 
cessive verses  shall  correspond  exactly  not  only  according  to 
their  position  in  the  stichoi,  but  also  according  to  their  gram- 
matical and  syntactical  category.  For  each  noun,  pronoun,  and 
adjective  of  the  first  stichoi,  the  same  grammatical  value  must 
stand  in  the  identical  place  in  the  second : 

(On-the)  mountain   (the)   Sun    quickly  (towards)  the  West  sinks, 
(On-the)   sea  (the)  Moon  slowly  (towards)  the  East  rises.35 

Another  rule  assists  this  regularity.  The  fact  that  in 
Chinese  each  word  is  indicated  by  a  sign  or  character  helps  to 
bring  to  light  the  many-sided  and  changeful  correspondence  of 
the  terms  and  the  feet  of  the  stichoi ;  and  the  use  of  ideographic 
determinatives  oftentimes  of  itself  indicates  to  the  eye  the  sim- 
ilarity of  parallel  word-concepts  and  word-classes.  Moreover, 
the  characters  are  arranged  deliberately  by  the  poet  in  artistic 
harmony.  This  device  may  be  called  parallelism  of  word-signs. 
It  is  peculiar  to  the  Chinese,  finding  no  counterpart  in  Hebrew,^® 

Parallelism  of  thought  and  figure,  however,  brings  Chinese 


34  i  I  Therefore  in  the  8  line  strophe  with  7  foot  verses,  the  rule  is  that 
the  unequal  syllables,  namely,  the  1st,  3rd,  5th  and  7th,  may  have  an 
optional  tone,  while  in  the  equal,  namely  the  2nd,  4th,  and  6th,  the  tones 
must  exchange  with  each  other,  so  that  when  the  2nd  syllable  has  an  equal 
or  even  tone,  the  4th  must  have  an  unequal,  the  6th  an  equal,  or  vice  versa. 
Moreover,  in  2nd  and  3rd,  4th  and  5th,  6th  and  7th  verses,  the  corresponding 
equal  syllables  agree  exactly  in  tone,  and  the  first  verse  must  correspond 
exactly  to  the  8th.  In  five  foot  verses,  the  first  syllable  of  each  verse 
stands  at  the  option  of  the  poet;  for  all  the  others,  a  rigid  schematic  rule 
exists. ' '  Heilmann,  Chinesische  LyriTc  vom  ISten  Jahrhundert  v.  Chr.  bis 
zur  Gegenwart  (Leipzig,  1905),  pp.  xxviiff. ;  Grube,  Die  chinesische  Liter- 
atur,  in  Die  orientalischen  Literaturen  (Leipzig.  1906),  p.  341.  See  also 
below,  Scarborough's  remarks  on  antithetic  parallelism. 

35  Grube,  p.  342 ;  Heilmann,  p.  xxvii. 

36Gabelantz.  Z.  f.  VoelTcerpsych.  X  (1878),  230ff.  "It  is  worthy  of 
observation  that  out  of  this  parallelism  of  form,  the  custom  arises  often- 
times to  write  without  punctuation.  The  Greek  also  does  not  need  punctu- 
ation for  his  Gorgias. "    Norden,  Die  antiJce  Kunstprosa,  II,  8-24. 


Vol,  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  71 

poetry  within  the  same  domain  as  the  Hebrew:  two  successive 
verses,  rather  stichoi,  are  joined  together  by  a  parallelism  of 
ideas  or  of  figures,  which  rests  upon  the  condition  either  of 
similarity  or  of  opposition;  it  is  not  merely  formal  or  external, 
but  is  internal  parallelism.  Chinese  differs  from  the  Hebrew 
only  in  that  the  peculiar  structure  of  the  language  generally  and 
the  strict  observance  of  the  law  of  syntactic  parallelism  men- 
tioned above,  render  the  synonymity  much  closer  and  more 
obvious;  it  is  usually  word  for  word,  the  one  written  opposite 
the  other : 

The  white  stone,  unfractured,  ranks  as  most  precious; 
The  blue  lily,  unblemished,  emits  the  finest  fragrance. 

The  heart,  when  it  is  harassed,  finds  no  place  of  rest; 

The  mind,  in  the  midst  of  bitterness,  thinks  only  of  grief. 

Be  not  discontented,  though  your  land  be  narrow,  and  your  garden 
small ; 

Be  not  disturbed,  though  your  family  be  poor,  and  your  means  con- 
tracted. » 

Antithetic   parallelism   is   a   favorite    Chinese   motif.     It   is 

commonly  perfect  both  in  sentiment  and  terms,     ''The  Chinese 

is  a  stylistic  connoisseur  of  the  most  delicate  sensibilities,  and 

greatly    admires    sharp    antitheses."      The    symmetrical    form, 

wherein  term  answers  for  term,  is  even  more  regular  than  in 

Hebrew.     As  in  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon,  so  in  Chinese  maxims 

and  aphorisms  antithetic  parallelism  is  used  most  extensively:^^ 

With  few  cravings  of  the  heart,  the  health  is  flourishing. 
With  many  anxious  thoughts,  the  constitution  decays. 

Unsullied  poverty  is  always  happy; 
Impure  wealth  brings  many  sorrows. 

Consider  not  any  vice  as  trivial  and  therefore  practice  it. 
Eegard  not  any  virtue  as  unimportant  and  therefore  neglect  it. 

Prosecuting  virtue  is  like  ascending  a  steep; 
Pursuing  vice,  like  rushing  down  a  precipice. 

It  might  be  noted  here  that  there  are  several  varieties  of 
parallelism  in  Chinese  proverbs.  Antithetic  parallelism  is 
known  as  the  tui-tzU  and  is  formed  according  to  strictly  tech- 


3T  Davis,  Maxims    (London,   1823),   cited   on   p.   412   of   On   Poetry   of 
Chinese. 


72  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

nical  rules,^*     Another  form  of  proverbs  wherein  antithesis  plays 

a  part  is  lien-chii,  or  "connected  sentences";^''  while  a  third 

class  of  parallistic  couplet-proverbs  is  composed  of  those  that 

rhyme.  *° 

Antithetic  parallelism  appears  also  in  general  poetry,  where 

it  is  used  less  often  than  for  aphorisms  and  wise  sayings.     But 

it  is  found  to  exist  in  every  degree,  from  the  strong  mutual 

opposition   of  all  the   corresponding  words   in   a  couplet — the 

"complete  parallelism"  of  Gray*^ — to  that  of  some  of  them — 

"incomplete  parallelism." 

Look  on  life  as  an  uncertain  guest,  that  cannot  remain; 
Believe  that  death  is  fixed,  and  cannot  be  escaped. 

When  the  region  of  the  heart  is  at  rest,  the  body  too  enjoys  ease; 
But  the  passions  being  excited,  then  disorders  of  the  body  arise. 

Supinely  gazing,  now  I  vent  my  sighs. 

Now,  bending  down,  in  tears  my  sorrow  flows; 

The  wealthy  alien  claims  connubial  ties, 
The  needy  kinsman  no  relation  knows.42 


38  Scarborough,  Collection  of  Chinese  Proverbs  (Shanghai,  1875,  pp. 
x-xi).  "A  tui-tzu  may  contain  any  number  of  words,  but  the  most  fre- 
quent number  is  seven  in  each  line.  It  must  be  so  written  that  the  order 
of  the  tones  in  the  first  line  shall  be,  firslily  deflected,  secondly  even,  and 
thirdly  deflected;  in  the  second  line,  firstly  even,  secondly  deflected,  and 
thirdly  even,  or  vice-versa.  Should  the  first,  third  or  fifth  characters 
violate  this  rule,  it  is  of  no  consequence ;  the  second,  fourth,  and  the  sixth 
cannot  be  allowed  to  do  so.  It  is  essential  also  that  the  last  character 
in  the  first  line  should  be  in  a  deflected  tone,  and  the  last  in  the  second 
line,  in  an  even  tone.  The  same  characters  may  not  be  repeated  in  either 
line,  and  it  is  essential  that  there  should  be  an  antithesis,  as  well  in  the 
sense  as  in  the  tones,  of  the  words  composing  the  two  lines  of  the  couplet. 
It  is  also  a  rule  that  particles  must  be  placed  in  antithesis  to  particles; 
and  nouns,  verbs,  etc.,  to  nouns,  verbs,  etc. ' ' . 

39  The  proverbs  of  the  class  of  '  *  connected  sentences ' '  are  very  plenti- 
ful; they  are  of  various  lengths,  of  different  styles  of  composition,  and 
are  informal  in  all  else  but  the  corresponding  number  of  words  in  each 
line.  There  is  generally  a  sharp  antithesis  between  the  first  and  second 
lines : 

"The  poor  must  not  quarrel  with  the  rich; 
Nor  the  rich  with  magistrates. " 

"It  is  not  hard  to  talk  about  good  works. 
But  to  do  them." 
Compare  on  this  last  example,  Amos  9.12b. 

40  The  couplet-proverbs  which  rhyme  are  detected  only  by  the  native 
ear.  The  explanation  of  this  is  that  in  order  to  rhyme  to  a  native  ear, 
the  tones  must  correspond. 

41  See  below,  in  chapter  on  Parallelism  in  Amos,  p.  137. 

*2  It  is  imperative  to  bear  in  mind  that  these  are  translations ;  as  in 
Hebrew  the  parallelism  is  evident  through  the  translations;  but  the  savor 
of  the  original  cannot  be  retained. 


^oi^- !•]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Afnos.  73 

Synthetic  parallelism  is  the  most  common  species  in  Chinese 
poetry.  Here,  as  in  Hebrew,  each  word  and  line  does  not  exactly 
answer  to  its  fellow  as  either  equivalent  or  opposite  in  sense; 
but  there  is  a  marked  correspondence  and  equality  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  lines,  such  as  nouns  answering  to  nouns,  verb  to 
verb,  member  to  member,  negative  to  negative,  interrogative  to 
interrogative.  As  in  Hebrew,  synonymous  and  antithetic  par- 
allelisms are  generally  accompanied  by  synthetic,  and  are  rarely 
found  without  it;  correspondence  of  construction  even  stands 
alone  without  correspondence  in  equivalency  or  opposition. 
Synthetic  parallelism  pervades  Chinese  poetry  universally  and 
forms  its  foremost  characteristic  feature ;  it  is  the  source  of  much 
"artificial  beauty."  It  also  presents  difficult  problems  of 
prosody;  and  there  is  doubt  whether  it  deserves  classification 
as  a  branch  of  parallelism. 

Thus  alone  and  dauntless  he  walked — all  confident  in  his  courage; 
Thus  proud  and  reserved — he  must  needs  possess  high  talents, 
Courage — as  if  Tszeloong,  the  hero,  had  re-appeared  in  the  world; 
Talents — as  though  Lepih,  the  poet  had  again  been  born. 

A  hundred — a  thousand — ten  thousand  projects  are  hard  to  accom- 
plish. 
Five  times — six  times — ten  years  very  soon  arrive. 
When  you  have  found  a  day  to  be  idle — be  idle  for  a  day; 
When  you  have  met  Avith  three  cups  to  drink — then  drink  your  three 
cups.43 

The  point  at  which  synthetic  parallelism  shades  into  prose, 
and  deserves  the  appellation  "near-prose,"  is  as  uncertain  as 
in  Hebrew.  For  this  constructional  parallelism  of  sentences 
extends  to  prose  compositions  and  is  frequent  in  fine  writing, 
wun-chang,  which  is  a  measured  prose,  though  not  written  line 
beside  line  like  poetry;  it  savors  somewhat  of  Arabic  rhymed- 
prose,  though  it  emploj's  no  rhyme.  Indeed,  synonymous,  an- 
tithetic, and  constructive  parallelisms  are  met  with  occasionally 
in  every  description  of  writing  that  rises  above  the  style  of 
mere  conversation  or  narrative.  Davis  quotes  the  following 
prose  sentence  as  an  instance  wherein  coincidence  of  sentence 


43  This  suggests  the  alternate  parallelism  of  the  Hebrew.  These  ex- 
amples are  taken  from  the  poem  of  The  Fortunate  Union,  cited  by  Davis, 
and  from  Cranmer-Byng,  A  Feast  of  Lanterns  (London,  1916),  p.  31. 


74  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

and  a  hint  of  parallelism  occur;  it  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that 
three  and  not  two  parts,  or  stichoi,  are  present : 

The  highest  order  of  men  (called  Shing,  perfect  or  inspired)  are  vir- 
tuous, or  wise,  independently  of  instruction;  the  middle  class  of  men  (Heen, 
good  or  moral)  are  so  after  instruction;  the  lowest  order  (Yu,  stupid  or 
worthless)   are  vicious  in  spite  of  instruction. 

Another  question  arises  with  reference  to  the  unit  of  Chinese 
parallelism.  The  couplet,  as  in  Hebrew,  seems  to  be  the  funda- 
mental form.  "This  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that 
couplet  making  is  a  favorite  amusement  of  the  educated  classes 
and  that  couplets  when  well  turned,  are  objects  of  their  intense 
admiration."**  Dodd  holds  that  the  poem  of  four  lines  which 
had  its  vogue  from  699  a.d.  is  the  unit  of  Chinese  poetry.*^ 
But  in  the  majority  of  poems  the  authors  leave  sufficient  space 
between  pairs  of  lines  to  indicate  that  they  intended  couplet- 
groupings  ;  often,  however,  the  series  is  in  fours.*"  Though  this 
point  has  not  yet  apparently  been  emphasized  in  a  discussion 
of  Chinese  poetry,  it  may  be  stated  in  view  of  the  majority  of 
distich  formations  that  the  basic  unit  of  even  the  four-line 
poems,  and  of  Chinese  poems  in  general,  is  the  couplet.*^ 

The  use  of  parallelism  in  Chinese  offers  additional  evidence 
relative    to    the    origin    and    age    of    parallelism.      The    oldest 


44  ' '  The  Chinese  are  so  fond  of  their  parallelisms  that  the  most  com- 
mon decorations  of  rooms,  halls  and  temples,  are  ornamented  labels  hung 
opposite  to  each  other,  or  side  by  side,  and  called  Tuy-leen,  Avhich  has 
precisely  the  meaning  of  the  English  term.  These  are  sometimes  inscribed 
on  coloured  paper,  sometimes  carved  on  wood,  and  distinguished  by  paint- 
ing and  gilding,  but  always  in  pairs."    Davis,  p.  418. 

*^  Chinese  Poems  (London,  1912),  p.  21,  in  remarks  on  "Technique  of 
Chinese  Poetry. ' ' 

46  Bethge,  Die  chinesische  Floete  (Leipzig,  1910). 

47  A  suggestion  of  a  form  in  Chinese  poetry  similar  to  the  long  swiiig- 
ing  lines  of  Arabic  rhymed  prose  minus  the  rhyme,  and  similar  to  several 
lines  in  Amos  3.12,  etc.,  may  be  found  in  the  following  instances: 

' '  From  the  Pine  Forest  the  azure  dragon  ascends  to  the  Milky  Way ; 
From   the   Dryandra   cordata,    the    crimson    phoenix    aspires    to    the 
borders  of  the  variegated  clouds." 

"Experience   and   discernment   of   the   human   passions   may   both   be 
called  learning; 
Deep  and  clear  insight  into  the  ways  of  the  world   also   constitute 
subtle  genius. ' ' 

"Fame  and  ambition  themselves  must  have  their  intervals  of  repose; 

Eetirement    and    leisure    are,    after    all,    preferable    to    labor    and 

anxiety. ' ' 

There  is  the  same  correspondence  of  terms  found  in  Arabic  rhymed  prose, 

and  in  several  Hebrew  passages;    these  passages  seem  to   hover  near   the 

edge  of  prose. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  75 

authentic  documents  of  Chinese  poetry  in  which  parallelism 
appears  are  supposed  to  be  nearly  three  thousand  years  old, 
and  even  then  the  parallelism  was  so  intricately  developed  that 
it  can  hardly  be  called  a  primitive  system.  "In  no  other  lan- 
'guage  could  parallelism  be  carried  to  such  heights  as  in  Chinese ; 
the  exact  equality  in  the  number  of  words  which  form  each  line 
of  a  poetical  couplet,  and  the  almost  total  absence  of  recurring 
particles  that  encumber  European  languages,  admit  of  its  adop- 
tion with  peculiar  effect"  and  its  maintenance  despite  the  rise 
of  metre  and  rhyme.  The  question  needs  analysis  and  careful 
consideration  to  determine  whether  such  parallelism  represents 
relatively  a  lower  form  of  poetical  evolution  than  the  numerous 
forms  of  Islamic  poetry  and  of  modern  literature. 

Japanese  poetry,  closely  akin  to  Chinese,  betrays  a  rather 
frequent  parallelism,  but  follows  no  regular  method.*^  Its 
essential  rule  is  that  every  poem  must  consist  of  alternate  lines 
of  five  and  seven  syllables,  with  generally  an  extra  line  of  seven 
syllables  to  mark  its  close.  The  parallelism  used  in  Japanese 
poetry  as  an  occasional  ornament,  suggests  the  use  of  the  un- 
rhymed  trochaic  measure  of  Hiawatha,  which  seems  calculated 
to  give  such  parallel  verses  their  due  effect.*''  Examples  of 
Japanese  parallelism  are  found  scattered  through  many  poems: 

I  call  her  every  day,  till  daylight  fades  away, 

I  call  her  every  night,  till  dawn  restores  the  light.^o 

All  the  mighty  gods  assembled, 
All  the  mighty  gods  held  council, 
Thousand  myriads  held  high  council. ... 

O'er  the  middle  land  of  Eeed-plains, 
O'er  the  land  of  waving  Eice-fields.si 

Perhaps  it  was  through  the  influence  of  the  Chinese  that 
parallelism  crept  into  the  Japanese ;  it  may  be,  however,  that  the 
universal  tendency  towards  some  form  of  symmetrical  structure, 
despite  the  asymmetrical  nature  of  Japanese  poetry,  dictated 
its  appearance  therein. 


48  Chamberlain,  p.  3. 

*9  See  remarks  on  Finnish  poetry,  p.  62,  and  on  Hiawatha,  p.  67. 

50  Chamberlain,  p.  CO ;  He  and  She ;  Song. 

51  Zftid.,  Elegy  on  the  death  of  Prince  Hinami   (689  a.d.),  p.  71. 


76  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 


NEAE-EASTERN  PARALLELISM 

Egyptian  Parallelism 

The  similarity  of  Egyptian  to  Hebrew  poetry  has  been  noted 
by  several  investigators;  so  close  is  the  affinity  that  the  lay 
reader  who  meets  with  skilful  translations  of  Egj-ptian  poems 
will  immediately  associate  them  with  biblical  productions  ;^^  they 
are  wholh''  unlike  those  of  the  majority  of  the  western  nations.'^^ 
Though  the  history  of  the  ancient  Egyptians  was  written  in  a  dry 
and  uninteresting  style,  the  poetry  was  more  highly  advanced;^* 
it  will  be  seen,  however,  that  in  general  even  the  poetical  compo- 
sitions Avere  restricted  in  scope  and  variety,  and  that  they  failed 
to  attain  the  standards  not  only  of  Indo-Germanic  peoples,  but 
also  of  other  Semitic  peoples.  For  this  relative  sterility,  the 
antiquity  of  Egyptian  poetry  is  responsible.^^  Its  beginnings 
are  lost  in  the  mists  of  the  past;  though  the  oldest  monuments 
betray  the  existence  of  a  literature  fairly  rich  in  images  and 
language,  it  bears  the  stamp  of  primitive  origins.  Hence  is  it 
valuable  in  a  comparative  study  of  the  historical  background  of 
Hebrew  and  other  Semitic  poetry. 


52  Ebers,  ' '  Alliteration  u.  Reim  in  Altaegyptischen, ' '  Noi-d  und  Sued, 
I,  106.  "The  old  Egyptian  can  be  compared  with  the  Hebrew  text  minus 
punctuation";  also,  "Der  Klang  d.  Altaegyptischen  u.  d.  Reim,"  Z.  f. 
Aeg.  Sprache,  XV   (1877),  p.  43. 

53  Budge,  Literature  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians  (London,  1914),  p.  241. 

54  Stern,  Becords  of  Past,  VI,  127 ;  Rawlinson,  History  of  Ancient 
Egypt,  1,  132-133. 

55  Egyptian  poetry  soon  became  the  victim  of  fixed  laws,  which  com- 
pressed it  into  an  immovable  mould.  The  conservatism  of  the  Orient 
restrained  free  expansion.  See  Wiedemann,  "Die  Anfaenge  dramatischer 
Poesie  im  alten  Aegypten,"  Melanges  Nicole  (Geneva,  1905),  p.  562. 
In  Mahaffy,  Prolegomena  to  Ancient  History  (London,  1871),  p.  411,  the 
following  strictures  on  Egyptian  literary  style  occur:  "An  honest  critic 
must  therefore  confess  that  a  sense  of  form  in  literature,  such  as  the 
Greeks  possessed  so  perfectly,  is  almost  totally  absent  from  Egyptian 
writings.  Its  symmetry  consists  in  wearisome  repetitions  of  formulae, 
while  the  poetry  is  a  clumsy  parallelism  which  so  frequently  wearies  in 
Hebrew,  but  which  is  so  often  there,  though  seldom  in  Egyptian  WTitings, 
the  vehicle  for  striking  effects.  This  absence  of  form  is  not  a  shock  in 
the  everyday  letters  or  documents  of  judicial  character,  etc.,  but  when 
we  turn  to  the  properly  poetical  or  more  especially  those  which  treat  of 
noble  subjects  we  feel  a  very  great  inadequacy  of  the  expression  as  com- 
pared with  the  thought." 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  77 

Metre  exists  in  Egyptian  poems ;  the  short  verses  into  which 
the  poems  fall  seem  to  indicate  this;  since,  however,  only  the 
consonants  and  not  the  vowels  are  known,  it  is  impossible  to 
state  the  character  of  this  metre.^**  A  favorite  device  of  old 
Egyptian  is  alliteration,  a  trait  apparent  in  almost  all  early 
literatures.'^'  Rhyme  also  is  present;  this  is  not  a  regular  re- 
current rhyme  at  the  end  of  the  verses, '  but  an  ornament  of 
poetical  speech  introduced  because  of  the  pleasing  character  of 
similar  musical  sounds,  and  the  desire  to  bring  into  harmony  the 
sound  of  the  poetry  and  its  sense.  The  rhymes  occur  mostly  in 
the  magical,  never  in  the  narrative  texts.'^^ 

Perhaps  the  earliest  stage  of  Egyptian  poetry  was  repetition. 
It  abounds  in  identity  of  phrase  and  sound,  both  throughout 
complete  sentences  and  in  the  opening  and  closing  words  of  a 
line.  These  repetitions  must  have  comforted  the  Egyptian 
though  they  irritate  the  modem  ear.  The  custom  became  so 
popular  that  it  finally  was  fixed  as  a  law  of  poetry;  a  thought 
which  in  modern  poetry  is  expressed  merely  through  the  verb, 
received  in  Egyptian  its  linguistic  expression  through  the  repe- 
tition of  identical,  or  similar  roots,  first  as  a  verb,  then  as 
a  noun.'^^  This  repetition,  which  at  first  may  have  been 
maintained  in  exactly  the  same  words  and  forms  over  long 
periods  of  text,  both  in  magical  formulas,  songs,  incantations, 
and  in  prayers,  later  was  varied  and  became  incremental  repe- 
tition; this  incremental  repetition,  wherein  part  of  the  line  was 
repeated,  but  either  the  end  or  the  beginning  was  changed, 
contained  the  seed  of  parallelism  in  the  same  way  that  the 
repetition  of  the  introductory  or  closing  words  of  a  verse  was 


50  Erman,  Die  aegyptische  Literatur  in  Die  orientalischen  Uteraturen 
(Leipzig,  1906),  p.  29. 

57  See  Ebers,  Alliteration,  cited  above;  also  Ebers,  "Ein  Strophisch- 
angeordneter  Text  von  einer  Mumienbinde,"  Z.  f.  Aeg.  Spr.,  XVI  (1878), 
p.  50-51,  gives  numerous  examples  of  alliteration. 

58  See  Ebers,   "Der   Klang,"   p.   45. 

59  The  poet  does  not  say,  "I  smell,"  but  "I  smell  the  odor,"  or  still 
better,  "my  nose  smells  the  odor."  Eeiteration  is  found  on  every  side 
in  Egyptian  literature:  see  the  Sepulchral  Inscription  of  Panhesi,  wherein 
phrases  descriptive  of  the  Sun  God's,  triumphal  progress  through  heaven 
are  heaped  up  interminably;  Stern,  XII,  138;  Litany  of  Ea,  VIII,  103, 
119,  etc.;  Wiedemann,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians  (London,  1897), 
p.  44. 


78  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

the  foundation  for  rhyme/'"  Egyptian  and,  as  will  be  seen, 
Babylonian-Assyrian  and  Sumerian  poetry  afford  substantiation 
in  the  field  of  Semitic  literatures  for  the  theory  that  the  chron- 
ological evolution  of  poetry  is  first,  repetition,  or  reiteration; 
second,  incremental  repetition,  and  third,  parallelism. 

Egyptian  poetry  uses  all  three  devices,  particularly  the  last- 
named.  Its  parallelism  is  "uralt""^  and  dominates  Egyptian 
literature:  "Wherever  an  Egyptian  speaks  in  elevated  style,  the 
parallelism  shows  itself  infallibly."  The  poetry  delighted  in 
synonyms  and  antitheses;  it  even  transcended  Hebrew  in  its 
**  rhythmic  arrangements,  in  the  balance  of  lines,  the  close  cor- 
respondence of  clause  to  clause  and  the  strict  observance  of 
rhythmic  laws."*''^  Breasted  affirms,  indeed,  that  parallelism 
is  the  usual  form  of  Egyptian  poetr3^''^ 

A  special  mechanical  device  distinguishes  this  poetry:  red 
points  stand  at  the  end  of  each  verse  and  mark  the  stichoi  which 
are  combined  into  couplets,  triplets,  or  still  larger  groups.  In 
hymns  to  the  gods,  in  songs  of  praise  which  celebrate  the  deeds 
of  kings,  and  in  similar  compositions  in  hieroglyphic  script,  the 
stichoi  are  clearly  divided ;  while  in  papyri  in  hieratic  script  the 
verse  division  through  the  red  dots  serves  to  show  the  chain 
of  parallelism;  the  stichoi  themselves  are  as  patent  as  in  the 
book  of  Job.  These  red  dots  function  also  as  musical  marks 
for  the  support  of  the  reciter  or  the  singer."*  They  are  not 
always  employed,  however,  in  poetry:  the  Dirge  of  Menephtah 
is  not  divided  by  red  dots,  although  it  is  clearly  poetic  in  style.**^ 

While  nothing  seems  to  be  present- in  Egyptian  comparable 
to  the  horizontal  lines  which  in  Assyrian-Babylonian  parallelism 
mark  off  the   couplets,   rubric  writing  helps  to  mark   off  the 

60  Ebers,  Alliteration,  I,  110. 

61  Erman,  op.  cit.,  p.  29. 

62  Stern,  VI,  127. 

es  Biblical  World,   I,  55. 

64  The  red  points  are  referred  to  often  in  works  on  Egyptian  litera- 
ture: Spiegelberg,  "Der  Siegeshymnus  des  Merneptah, "  Z.  f.  Aeg.  Spr., 
XXXIV  (1896),  p.  Iff.,  illus.,  p.  10;  Erman,  "Gebete  eines  ungerecht  Ver- 
folgten  u.  andere  Ostiake,"  Z.  f.  Aeg.  Spr.,  XXXVIII  (1900),  p.  19ff.; 
Turajeff,  "Zwei  Hymnen  an  Thoth>"  Z.  f.  Aeg.  Spr.,  XXXIII  (1895), 
p.  120ff.  The  red  dots  in  this  poem  do  not  stand  above  the  line  as  else- 
where ;  Cook,  ' '  Hymn  to  the  Nile, ' '  Bee.  of  Past,  IV,  lOSff . 

65  Birch,  ' '  Dirge  of  Menephtah, ' '  Bee.  of  Past,  IV,  49ff . 


Vol.  1.]  Newman.- — Parallelism  in  Amos.  79 

stanzas;  and  the  regular  formation  of  numerous  poems  points 
to  the  use  of  regular  strophie  arrangements  in  ancient  Egyptian 
poems.  Between  the  various  stanzas,  there  is  rarely  much  inter- 
parallelism,  though  there  is  much  repetition  and  parallelism 
within  the  confines  of  each  strophe.*"'  Several  poems  character- 
ized by  stanzas  do  not  show  completely  regular  form ;  the  number 
of  lines  in  each  varies  widely.  The  Hymn  to  the  Nile  contains 
fourteen  stanzas,  of  ten  stichoi  each  on  the  average,  but  the 
number  of  lines  ranges  from  eight  to  fourteen.''^ 

Examples  of  the  various  types  of  parallelism  are  abundant. 
Synonymous  parallelism  occurs  oftentimes  over  long  stretches, 
though  it  appears  most  frequently  in  a  mixture  of  the  several 
tj^pes.  One  of  the  finest  and  longest  hymns  betraying  parallel- 
ism is  the  Hymn  to  Amon  Ra  which  has  come  down  from  the 
Twentieth  Dynasty;*'®  the  parallelism  here  suggests  the  Hebrew, 
but  is  not  thoroughly  maintained  and  is  subject  to  great  laxity. 

Lord  of  Power,  he  seizeth  the  sceptre, 

Lord  of  Protection  who  holdeth  the  scourge 

He  casteth  down  his  enemies  by  flames  of  fire, 
His  eye  it  is  which  overthroweth  the  wicked. 

The  one  is  he  who  forms  the  existent, 

The  sole  one  is  he  who  fashions  the  substance. 

Men  went  forth  from  his  eyes; 

Gods  arose  at  the  command  of  his  lips. 


66  The  Hymn  to  Amon-Ra  falls  into  five  unequal  parts,  and  the  strophes 
are  shown  by  the  rubrics.  See  Stern,  Z.  f.  Aeg.  Spr.  (1873),  p.  76.  Ebers, 
ibid.,  XV,  51,  says  that  the  text  falls  into  three  sections,  divided  by  an 
external  sign,  and  that  each  part  contains  five  sections.  Strophie  formation 
is  also  found  in  Ebers,  "Ein  strophisch-angeordneter  Text  von  einer 
Mumienbinde, "  Z.  f.  Aeg.  Spr.,  XVI  (1878),  pp.  50-55.  See  Wiedemann, 
in  Melanges  Nicole,  pp.  569-570,  on  strophe  and  dance. 

67  Cook,  loc.  cit.  In  this  poem,  the  first  word  of  each  strophe  is  writ- 
ten in  red  letters,  and  each  also  has  a  red  point  at  the  close.  The  number 
of  lines  in  each  of  the  fourteen  stanzas  runs  thus:  11,  8,  8,  10,  10,  8,  10, 
11,  12,  10,  9,  8,  14,  8.  Compare  number  of  lines  in  Amos  1.2-2.6,  below. 
The  resemblance  of  this  poem  to  several  of  the  earliest  Hebrew  poems  has 
been  pointed  out  by  Cook  in  his  Introduction  to  the  Book  of  Psalms,  and 
Notes  on  Exodus,  in  the  Speaker's  Commentary  on  the  Bible. 

68  See  Stern,  loe.  cit.;  Goodwin,  "Hymn  to  Amon-Ra,"  Bee.  of  Past, 
II,  127ff.;  it  is  supposed  to  date  from  the  fourteenth  century  B.C.  (Ebers, 
Z.  f.  Aeg.  Spr.,  XV,  45).  For  other  examples  see  "The  Stele  of  Beka," 
Bee.  of  Past,  X,  7;  "The  Foundation  of  the  Temple  of  the  Sun  of  Heli- 
opolis,"  ibid.,  XII,  51ff.;  Breasted,  Aiicient  Becords  of  Egypt  (Chicago, 
1906),  4  vols.,  passim. 


80  University  of  California  Publications.       [Sem.Phil. 

An  example  of  a  poem  from  the  Old  Kingdom   (third  millen- 
nium B.C.)  follows: 

No  beggar  was  there  in  my  days; 
No  hungry  in  my  time. 

The  Song  of  the  Harper,  composed  in  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty, 
is  "very  remarkable  for  the  form  of  old  Egyptian  poetry  which 
like  that  of  the  Hebrew  delights  in  a  sublimer  language,  in 
parallelisms  and  antitheses,  and  in  the  ornament  of  a  burden"; 
it  seems  to  be  rhythmic,  having  verses  of  equal  length  ;^''  exam- 
ples taken  from  it  at  random,  even  through  a  rhymed  translation, 
show  the  parallelism : 

As  Ka  rises  up  every  morn, 
And  Turn  every  evening  doth  set. 

So  women  conceive  and  bring  forth, 
And  men  without  ceasing  beget. 

Each  soul  in  its  turn  draweth  breath. 
Each  man  born  of  woman  sees  Death.^o 

Examples  of  antithetic  parallelism  are  frequent : 

His  hands  reward  those  Avhom  he  cherishes, 
But  his  enemy  he  plunges  into  the  flames.^i 

Ea  is  mighty,  weak  are  the  godless, 
Ra  is  exalted,  lowly  are  the  godless. 

Synthetic  parallelism  is  most  frequent  in  Egyptian  as  in  all 
other  literatures  in  which  the  parallelistic  motif  is  current, 
though  often  fairly  close  synonymity  is  present.  The  follow- 
ing example  gives  evidence  of  the  interplay  of  couplet  and  triplet 
formation,  while  monostichs  are  also  at  hand : 


69  stern,  VI,   127.      The  length  of  the  verses   can   be   seen   from  this 
transliteration : 

Ured  urui  pu  md 

Pa  shau  nefcr  Icheper 

Khetv.  her  sebt  ter  reh  Bd 

Jamdu  her  at  r  ast-sen. 
See  also  Stern,  Z.  f.  Aeg.  Spr.,  XI  (1873),  p.  58ff. ;  Duemichen,  Historische 
Inschrifien,  II,  40;   and  others,  among  them  Brugseh    (see  below). 

TORawlinson,  I,  143. 

71  Compare   Ps.   20.8,   9.       Several   poems   have   refrains   similar   to   the 
Psalms. 


Vol.1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  81 

Honor  his  majesty  in  your  hearts, 

He  is  "Sa"  of  the  hearts, 
His  eyes  search  each  body, 

He  is  the  suu  who  sees  with  his  rays,. 

He  illuminates  the  two  lands  with  the  sundisk. 

He  makes  verdant  more  than  the  great  Nile, 
He  fills  the  two  lands  with  strength. 

He  is  the  life  which  cools  the  nostrils, 

He  gives  food  to  those  who  are  in  his  train, 
He  nourishes  those  who  follow  his  way. 

He  it  is  who  causes  what  is, 
He  is  the  Chnum  of  each  body."2 
Again : 

How  gentle  is  this  in  the  hearts  of  the  people. 
How  beautiful  is  this  before  the  gods. 

Thou  makest  mountains  of  Osiris, 

Thou  adornest  him  who  is  before  the  dwellers  of  the  West. 

Excellent  for  his  deeds. 

Mighty  in  the  naming  of  his  name. ... 

I  gave  the  priests  to  know  what  concerned  them, 
I  put  right  the  ignorant  of  his  ignorance. 

I  strengthen  who  were  in  terror, 
I  thrust  back  the  evil  from  them.73 

Though  the  sjaionymity  and  correspondence  of  terms  is  close 
here,  other  passages  could  be  cited  wherein  the  same  species  of 
constructive  distich  formation  as  in  Hebrew  obtains. 

The  question  of  synthetic  parallelism  bears  upon  the  relation 
of  Egyptian  prose  to  poetr^'.  The  transition  from  one  to  the 
other  seems  to  have  been  easy  because  of  the  looseness  of  Egyp- 
tian poetic  structure.  In  a  discussion  of  the  hymns,  Lefebure 
has  remarked  :^*  "The  Egyptians  cared  little  for  the  composition 
of  their  poems ;  instead  of  grouping  the  details  to  produce  a 


72  Translated    by    Breasted,    Biblical    World,    I,    55.       Compare    Ps. 
146.6-10. 

73  Ibid.,  Hymn  found  in  the  Temple  of  Osiris  at  Abydos. 

'!*  Traduction  compares  des  hymnes  au  soleil  (Paris,  1868),  p.  15. 


82  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

desired  effect,  they  made  scarcely  any  effort  to  combine  them 
in  any  order ;  they  follow  the  whims  of  the  feeling  and  memory. ' ' 
Psychologically  such  stylistic  transition  may  perhaps  be  related 
to  another  unaccountable  peculiarity  in  Egyptian  style,  the 
practice  of  abrupt  changes  from  the  first  or  second  to  the  third 
person,  with  as  sudden  a  return  from  the  third  to  the  first  or 
second,  and  an  equally  abrupt  change  of  tense.^^  It  is  supposed 
that  these  startling  transitions  for  which  no  discernible  reason 
has  been  discovered,  were  viewed  as  elegances  of  style  according 
to  Egyptian  taste.  They  occur  largely  in  the  more  ambitious 
literary  flights,  and  may  have  been  a  trait  of  the  ' '  fine  writers. ' ' 
Mahaffy  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  loose  and  haphazard  character 
of  Egyptian  poetical  construction  may  be  a  key  to  similar  loose- 
ness in  the  Hebrew.  He  sees  in  Egyptian  as  in  Hebrew  com- 
positions, the  first  step  towards  a  loose  blank  verse  and  irregular 
caesuras.  "These  cadences  are  not  necessary,  but  only  occur 
when  the  author  warms  to  his  subject,  just  as  the  Hebrew 
authors  pass  from  prose  to  poetry,  a  feature  common  to  Indian 
and  Chinese  plays  also.  "^"^  Mahaffy  may  err  in  viewing  par- 
allelism as  a  stage  prior  to  blank  verse;  it  may  be  immediately 
prior  to  the  unrhymed  saf  of  the  Arabic,  or  also  preliminary 
to  rhymed  and  even  strictly  metrical  verses,  as  Arabic  poetry 
seems  to  demonstrate.^'^  The  erratic  character  of  Egyptian 
parallelism  raises  another  question :  Was  parallelism  an  in- 
stinctive or  a  cultivated  motif  among  Egyptian  poets?  Psycho- 
logically it  has  been  noted  that  a  high  state  of  lyric  exaltation 
tends  to  produce  balance  and  rhythmic  repetition  of  thought. 
In  Hebrew,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  prophetic  parallelism  is  at 
once  apparently  spontaneous  and  carefully  chiselled.  In  Egyp- 
tian, it  is  probable  that  the  poetry,  being  nearer  to  its  primitive 
origins,  embodies  more  of  the  unconscious  element ;  it  is  difficult, 
however,  to  believe  that  in  the  well  coordinated  hymns  and 
songs  of  praise,  no  deliberate  artifice  entered.  It  may  be  con- 
cluded then  that  Egyptian  parallelism  has  emerged  from  the 


75  Birch,  Bee.  of  Past,  II,  ii. 

76  Mahaffy,  p.  412. 

77  See  below,  on  the  relation   of  rhymed  prose  to  HebreAV  parallelism, 
and  to  later  Arabic  metres. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  83 

instinctive  stage,  and  has  progressed  along  the  scale  of  poetical 
evolution  towards  the  finished  and  intricate  Hebrew  parallel- 
ism.^^ 

At  any  rate,  in  the  late  Egyptian  poetry  of  the  Greek-Roman 
period  Junker  has  found  well  developed  devices  in  a  number  of 
texts  which  were  hitherto  regarded  as  stereotyped  and  formless. 
These  small  festal  songs  and  hymns  from  Dendera  show  metre, 
strophe,  and  parallelism  to  a  degree  reached  in  only  a  few 
Egyptian  compositions.  Refrains  are  present  and  responsion 
plays  an  important  role.  The  metre  seems  to  be  found  in  two, 
three,  and  four  stresses  or  accents,  though  it  is  difficult  to  dis- 
cover the  laws  which  govern  it." 

An  example  of  four  two-line  strophes,  with  a  two-line  refrain, 
wherein  parallelism  is  consistently  maintained,  the  verses  having 
two  stresses,  is  present  in  the  following : 

The  Pharaoh  comes  to  dance, 

He  comes  to  sing  (to  you). 

Oh,  his  Mistress,  see  how  he  dances, 

Oh,  Bride  or  the  Horus,  see  how  he  skips. 

The  Pharaoh  whose  hands  are  washed. 

Whose  fingers  are  clean. 

Oh,  his  Mistress,  see  how  he  dances, 

Oh,  Bride  of  the  Horus,  see  how  he  skips. 

When  he  sacrifices  it  to  you, 

This  mnw-vessel, 

Oh,  his  Mistress,  see  how  he  dances, 
Oh,  Bride  of  the  Horus,  see  how  he  skips. 

His  heart  is  true,  upright  his  body, 

No  darkness  is  in  his  breast, 

Oh,  his  Mistress,  see  how  he  dances, 

Oh,  Bride  of  the  Horus,  see  how  he  skips. 

An  example  of  Egyptian  repetition  with  incremental  changes 

is  found  in  this : 

His  abhorrence  is  the  sadness  of  your  Ka, 

His  abhorrence  is  your  hunger  and  thirst. 

His  abhorrence  is  the  pain  of  the  Sun-Goddess. 


78  Parallelism  assists  in  the  exegesis  of  Egyptian  poetry.  It  is  often 
employed  for  this  purpose:  Breasted,  Be  Hymnis  in  Solem  (Berlin,  1894), 
pp.  4-5;  Brugsch,  "Das  Gedicht  vom  Harf enspieler, "  Z.  f.  Aeg.  Spr., 
XXXII  (1894),  123-134;  Spiegelberg,  Z.  f.  Aeg.  Spr.,  XXXIV  (1896),  18. 

79  Junker,  "Poesie  aus  der  Spaetzeit,"  Z.  f.  Aeg.  Spr.,  XLIII  (1906), 
lOlff. 


84  TJniversity  of  California  Publications.       [Sem.  Phil. 

An  example  of  a  refrain  at  the  head  of  the  stanza,  so  that  in  a 
sense  it  becomes  a  formula,  may  be  found  herein : 

He  comes  to  dance, 
He  comes  to  sing. 

With  his  bread  in  his  hand, 

He  does  not  let  spoil  the  bread  on  his  hand, 

His  food  is  clean  in  his  arms, 

For  it  comes  from  the  eye  of  Horus, 

And  he  cleanses  his  sacrifice  to  you. 
He  comes  to  dance,  * 

He  comes  to  sing,  > 

His  dbh.t  is  of  twn, 

His  basket  is  of  rushes. 

His  sistrum  of  gold. 

His  mnl.t  of  southern  green  stone; 

His  feet  hurry  to  the  mistress  of  the  jubilation, 

He  dances  for  her,  and  she  likes  what  he  does.so 

The  following  is  a  Procession  Song  which  has  survived  in 
fragmentary  form ;  it  consisted  originally  of  stanzas  in  each  of 
which  an  antiphonal  couplet  preceded  a  quatrain,  and  couplets 
and  quatrains  respectively  began  with  the  same  word.  Of  the 
four  parallel  verses  of  the  strophes,  the  last  three  contain  the 
explanation  and  continuation  of  the  first.  The  verses  have 
three  stresses,  excepting  the  last  of  each  strophe,  which  has 
only  two.  Junker  makes  use  of  parallelism  and  interparallelism 
to  fill  up  some  of  the  great  gaps  in  the  poem;  though  the  parts 
which  have  survived  do  not  suffice  to  afford  a  basis  for  recon- 
struction, it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  structure  of  the  mutilated 
stanzas,  three  and  four,  agrees  with  stanzas  one  and  two.^^  This 
general  principle  is  helpful  in  a  reconstruction  of  the  Amos 
Doom  Song  on  the  basis  of  stanzas  of  equal  length  and  type. 

1.  Oh  how  fine  and  pleasant  when  the  Golden  One  thrives, 
When  the  Golden  One  blooms  and  thrives. 
To  you  jubilates  the  Heaven  with  its  Gods, 
Both  Sun  and  Moon  adore  you. 
The  Gods  pay  honor  to  you, 
The  Goddesses  sing  joyfully  to  you. 


80  Ibid.,  Fourth  section  of  a  song  series  in  honor  of  the  Goddess  of 
Wine,  p.  104. 

81  Ibid.,   p.    127.       As   the   song    stands,   the   third   and   fourth   stanzas 
have  three  instead  of  four  main  lines  as  in  the  first  and  second. 


Vol.  1.]                  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  85 

2.  Oh  how 


To  YOU  JUBILATES  the  whole  globe; 
In  joy  all  animals  dance; 
Egypt  and  the  lands  adore  you, 
Even  unto  Nenet  at  its  four  ends. 

3.  Oh  how 

To    YOU    JUBILATE 

To  you  shout  the  foreign  lands. 

4.  Oh  how 

To  YOU  JUBILATE  all  men, 

SuMERiAN  Parallelism 

In  the  Sumerian  literature  which  forms  much  of  the  liturgy 
of  the  Babylonian  religion,  parallelism  appears.^^  These  Sumer- 
ian texts,  some  of  which  date  back  nearly  to  2900  B.C.,  are  similar 
in  style  to  many  Egyptian  compositions.  The  interplay  of 
repetition,  incremental  repetition,  and  parallelism  tends  to  place 
Sumerian  poetry  low  in  the  scale  of  historical  evolution ;  in  the 
character  of  its  parallelism,  however,  it  stands  slightly  higher 
than  the  Egyptian,  for  the  couplet  formation  which  is  frequent 
in  the  later  Babylonian-Assyrian,  now  begins  to  make  itself 
clear  and  definite.^^ 

The  unending  repetitions  of  Sumerian  literature  are  perhaps 
its  most  noticeable  characteristic :  in  the  adorations,  where  terms 
of  praise  are  heaped  up,  while  the  refrains  occur  for  long  periods 
in  identically  the  same  words;  in  the  incantations  and  magical 
texts,  where  repetitions  are  most  numerous ;  in  the  hymns,  where 


82  For  examples  of  parallelism  in  Sumerian  literature,  see  Haupt,  * '  Die 
Sumerisch-Akkadische  Sprache,"  Intern.  Orient.  Cong.  (Berlin,  1881)  I, 
2,  273;  Vanderburgh,  Sumerian  Hymns  (New  York,  1908),  passim.  Reis- 
ner,  Sumerische-Bahylonisclie  Hymnen   (Berlin,   1896),  passim. 

83  Parallelism  in  the  Sumerian  is  striking  in  view  of  the  fact  that  it 
may  be  a  non-Semitic  language,  though  of  course  deeply  influenced  by 
Semitic  civilization.  Hymn  to  Adad,  Vanderburgh,  p.  42.  Langdon, 
Sumerian  and  Babylonian  Psalms  (Paris,  1909)  ;  also  Babylonian  Litur- 
gies  (Paris,  1913),  p.  59. 


86  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

incremental  repetition  with  variation  at  the  beginning  or  the 
end  of  the  lines  is  a  regular  trait. 

The  lofty  one — ^when  he  bellowed,  he  shattered  the  mountain, 
The  lofty  one — when  he  bellowed,  he  shattered  the  mountain, 
He  named  of  good  name — ^when  he  bellowed,  he  shattered  the  moun- 
tain. 
The  Eecorder  of  the  Universe — when  he  bellowed,  he  shattered  the 
mountain.^* 

Examples  of  incremental  repetition  are  plentiful.  The  fol- 
lowing is  taken  from  an  incantation  with  ethical  contents : 

Has  he  set  a  son  at  variance  with  a  father? 
Has  he  set  a  father  at  variance  with  a  son? 

Has  he  set  a  daughter  at  variance  with  a  mother? 
Has  he  set  a  mother  at   variance  with   a   daughter? 

Has  he  set  a  daughter-in-law  at  variance  with  a  mother-in-law? 
Has  he  set  a  mother-in-law   at   variance   with    a    daughter-in-law ?85 

Has  he  set  a  brother  at   variance  with  a  brother? 

Has  he  set  a  friend  at  variance  with  a  friend? 

Has  he  set  a  companion  at  variance  with  a  companion? 

Has  he  not  set  free  a  prisoner,  or  loosed  a  captive? 
Has  he  not  let  a  prisoner  see  the  light? 

Has  he  said  of  a  prisoner,  "Seize  him"  or  of  a  bondman,  "Bind 
him"? 

Identical  refrains  or  endings  are  frequent;  as  in  the  first 
quotation  cited,  and  as  in  the  Hj^mn  to  Tammuz  :^^ 

I  am  queen,  my  consort  abides  no  more, 

My  Damu  "    abides  no  more, 

Dagalushumgalanna  abides  no  more, 

The  lord  of  Aralu  abides  no  more, 

The  lord  of  Durgurgurru  abides  no  more, 

and  so  forth,  twelve  times  in  all. 

Though  the  couplet  structure  and  triplet  combinations  seem 
to  adhere  at  moments  to  some  regularity,  distichs  wherein  the 
second  stichos  repeats  in  different  words  and  varied  images  the 


84  Rogers,    Cuneiform    Parallels    to    the    Old    Testament     (New    York^ 
1912),  p.  171. 

85  Note  the  inversion  here  which  the  Arabic  *  aks  employs.      See  below. 

86  Rogers,  p.  183. 


Vol,  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Aynos.  87 

thought  of  the  first,  after  the  fashion  of  the  eloquent  Hebrew 

style,  are  relatively  rare.    Here  is  an  isolated  example : 

Since  the  canal  is  gone,  the  flood  overflows, 
Since  the  clay  is  gone,  the  shore  is  destroyed.87 

The  development  of  the  Sumerian  liturgy  appears  to  have 
traversed  many  centuries.  The  shir  originally  was  sung  to 
musical  instruments,  and  was  marked  by  insistently  repeated 
refrains,  and  a  certain  rhythmical  motif  which  served  to  dis- 
tinguish it  from  prose.  At  first  the  liturgies  consisted  of  a 
single  song,  but  these  later  gave  way  to  a  succession  of  shorter 
melodies.  In  early  worship,  it  appears  to  have  been  customary 
to  bow  and  sway  the  body;  perhaps  this  may  have  assisted  in 
the  development  of  a  rhythmical  distich  formation.  Double 
and  single  lines  served  to  mark  off  the  divisions  of  the  songs, 
but  these  have  no  relation  to  couplet  or  strophic  divisional  marks, 
such  as  the  horizontal  lines  found  later  in  Babylonian- Assyrian ; 
they  were  rather  musical  aids.  The  Sumerian  liturgy  seems  to 
reveal  an  effort  towards  metre ;  each  line  is  an  element  in  itself, 
perhaps  the  basis  for  the  later  usage  both  in  the  Babylonian- 
Assyrian,  and  Hebrew  poetry.  Lines  were  sometimes  divided 
into  hemistichs;  but  no  regular  system  of  prosody  appears  to 
have  existed.^®  Clearly  then  the  Sumerian  literature  deserves 
recognition  as  the  forerunner  of  Babylonian- Assyrian ;  but  the 
uncertainty  which  enshrouds  its  various  phenomena  permits  only 
an  indication  of  the  direction  in  which  its  evolution  tended. 

Babylonian-Assyrian  Parallelism 
The  wealth  of  material  at  hand  in  the  Babylonian-Assyrian 
literature,  however,  makes  it  possible  to  lay  down  certain  general 
laws  of  poetics  and  prosody.  In  it  both  rhyme  and  alliteration 
are  used.^**  Metre  and  strophe  are  present,  and  will  be  dis- 
cussed below.  Of  primary  importance  here,  however,  is  the 
abundant  use  of  parallelism.''^ 

87  Langdon,  Bahyl.  Liturgies,  p.  117. 

88  Ibid.,  Introduction,  p.  xlvff. 

89  Budge,  "Communication  upon  the  Fourth  Tablet  of  the  Creation 
Series,"  FSB  A,  VI  (1884),  5-9;  Casanowicz,  Paronomasia  in  the  Olden 
Times  (Boston,  1894),  p.  24. 

90  It  is  not  generally  known  that  one  of  the  first  to  note  parallelism 
in   Assyrian-Babylonian   was   Eberhard   Schrader   in   Bie  Hoellenfahrt   der 


88  University  of  California  Puhlications.       [Sem,  Phil. 

The  original  inscriptions  of  Babylonian-Assyrian  civilization 
clearly  show  the  form  of  "poetical  works,  whereas  it  has  been 
necessary  in  the  Hebrew  to  discover  it  by  direct  and  difficult 
means.  The  hymns,  prayers,  and  epic  poetry  are  so  written 
on  the  tablets  that  the  various  types  of  poetic  structure  at  once 
become  apparent  to  the  eye.  In  the  first  place,  each  verse  is 
written  as  one  complete  line;  these  individual  stichoi  are  shown 
to  be  in  relation  to  the  preceding  or  following  verse  by  symmetry' 
and  proximity."' 

The  second  important  fact  in  tablet-writing  is  that  oftentimes 
two  stichoi  of  poetry  are  marked  off  by  a  horizontal  line  from 
other  verse-pairs  or  couplets  which  are  similarly  combined. 
This  division  into  distichs  and  oftentimes  into  tristichs  was  a 
favorite  device  with  the  Babylonians."-  Many  monuments  show 
this  mechanical  designation  of  poetry,  and  several  illustrations 
in  works  on  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  hymns  have  reproduced 
the  phenomenon.""*  Several  questions  arise,  however,  in  connec- 
tion with  its  extensive  usage.      It  is  found  in  many  bilingual 


Istar  (Giessen,  1874);  also  in  "Semitismus  und  Babylonismus :  Zur  Frage 
nach  d.  Ursprung  des  Hebraismus, "  Jahrb.  f.  Protest.  Theol.,  1,  116ff. 
Heinrich  Gunkel's  work  on  Schoepfung  und  Chaos  (Goettingen,  1895), 
p.  401,  n.  1,  brought  the  question  of  parallelism  and  metre  to  the  attention 
of  Heinrich  Zimmern  whose  numerous  essays  and  books  have  presented 
the  results  of  careful  investigation  on  the  two  points.  See  "Ein  vor- 
lauefiges  Wort  ueber  Babyl.  Metrik,"  ZA,  VIII,  121;  X,  1,  292;  XI,  83, 
339;  XII,  382.  Zimmern 's  suggestion,  ZA,  VIII,  122,  that  editors  and 
translators  should  show  graphically  the  parallelism,  metre,  and  strophes 
of  poems  has  found  echo  in  the  work  of  several  writers:  Pinckert,  Hymnen 
und  Gebeten  an  Nebo  (Leipzig,  1907),  p.  13;  Jensen,  "  Assyr.-Babyl. 
Mythen  und  Epen, "  Keilinschrif.  Bibliothek,  VI,  Teil  1,  s.  xiii;  Mar- 
tin, Textes  religieux  assyriens  et  babyl.,  Biblioth.  de  I'Ecole  des  Hautes 
Etudes,  CXXX  (1900),  p.  xxii;  Hussey,  Some  Sumerian-Babylonian 
Hymns  of  the  Berlin  Collection  (Chicago,  1907),  p.  13;  Gray.  The  Somas 
Beligious  Texts  (Univ.  of  Chicago,  1908),  p.  11:  "Throughout  the  hymn 
is  found  a  parallelism  which  is  strikingly  similar  to  the  parallelism  of  the 
Hebrew   poetry,   and   which   corresponds   in    general   to    the    paragraphs." 

91  Zimmern,  ZA,  VIII,  123. 

82  Zimmern,  ZA,  XI,  87. 

93  Bruennow,  "Assyrian  Hymns,"  ZA,  IV,  Iff.;  V,  55ff. ;  these  two 
hymns  to  Shamash  and  Merodach,  and  a  hymn  to  Nebo,  and  various  smaller 
fragments  * '  belong  to  a  well-marked  class,  the  distinctive  feature  of  which 
is  the  horizontal  line,  occurring  after  every  second  or  occasionally  third 
line  of  the  text,  and  generally,  though  not  always  marking  divisions  in 
the  sense. ' '  Bruennow  's  translations,  however,  do  not  demonstrate  this 
practice.  See  also  Craig,  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Beligious  Texts  (Leip- 
zig. 1895),  I,  passim.  It  is  found  on  tablets,  K.  3474,  8232,  3312,  3182, 
2650,  8233,  3459,  8298,  8236,  etc. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  hi  Amos.  89 

hypms,  the  first  line  being  Sumerian,  and  hence  non-Semitic,  the 
second  line  Assyrian.  Did  then  this  practice  arise  through  the 
repetition  of  the  same  thought  in  different  languages ;  moreover, 
did  Babylonian-Assyrian  parallelism  originate  from  the  same 
custom?  This  hypothesis  is  weak,  for  in  reply  it  may  be  said 
that  the  horizontal  lines  occur  most  frequently  where  the  two 
stichoi  are  in  the  Assyrian  language,  and  where  the  thought 
though  the  same,  is  expressed  in  different  terms  in  each  stiehos. 
Again  it  must  be  noted  that  the  horizontal  lines  are  used  not 
merely  to  designate  couplet  and  triplet  divisions,  but  oftentimes 
they  mark  off  groups  of  two,  three,  four,  five  and  more  lines  ;^* 
though  in  several  tablets  they  occur  with  such  regularity  at 
the  end  of  every  two  lines  that  the  inscriptions  have  an  almost 
striped  appearance,  and  though  in  others  they  mark  off  equal 
strophes  at  regular  intervals,  at  times  they  are  employed  indis- 
criminately without  scheme  or  plan.  It  may  however  he  asked : 
Since  the  Babylonian-Assyrian  originals  used  dividing  lines  to 
mark  off  distichs  and  larger  combinations,  may  not  the  originals 
of  Hebrew  poetry,  even  including  prophetic  literature,  have  had 
a  similar  device  to  differentiate  poetry  from  prose,  and  above 
all  to  mark  off  the  couplets  and  strophes? 

The  question  of  the  unit  of  Babylonian  poetry  has  concerned 
several  investigators.  It  is  evident  that  strophes  exist  in  the 
compositions.^^  Oftentimes  these  are  indicated  by  the  open 
spaces  between  the  various  stanzas,  as  well  as  by  horizontal 
lines.'^*'  Mueller  busies  himself  with  strophes  of  six,  eight,  ten, 
and  twelve  lines,  and  neglects  entirely  the  couplet;  for  him,  the 
normal  strophe  consists  of  eight  lines.''^      Delitzsch  regards  the 


94  In  Craig's  editions,  II  (1897),  14,  lines  are  used  in  K.  255,  obv.  col..  I, 
in  the  arrangement  of4-f-2-|-4-{-2-f4,  etc.,  evidently  a  regular  strophic 
arrangement  built  upon  the  couplet  as  a  unit.  But  in  K.  255  rev.  col.,  I, 
the  combination  is  %-{-5-\-5-\-^-\-\. 

95  Zimmern,  Bahylonische  Busspsalmen  (Leipzig,  1885),  p.  66;  Lenor- 
mant,  Essai  de  commentaire  des  fragments  cosmogoniques  de  Berose 
(Paris,  1872),  p.  458;  Haupt,  "Die  Akkadische  Sprache, "  p.  xxxv  to 
p.  25.  Perhaps  the  most  significant  works  are  Mueller,  Die  Propheten 
in  Hirer  wspruenglichen  Form:  I.  Strophenhau  und  Eesponsion  in  der  Keil- 
schriftliteratur  (Vienna,  1896)  ;  Delitzsch,  Die  babyl.  Weltschoepfungsepos 
(Leipzig,  1896),  Abh.  d.  phil-hist.  Classe  d.  Tc.  saechs.  Ges.  d.  Wiss.,  XVII, 
Num.  11,  passim. 

96  Delitzsch,  p.   68. 

97  Mueller,  p.  8. 


90  University  of  California  Publications.       [Sem.  Phil. 

four-line  strophe  as  the  basic  form;  where  without  artificiality  a 
complete  strophe  is  not  possible,  half-strophes  of  one  plus  one 
stichoi  may  be  formed  but  these,  he  says,  are  soon  compensated 
by  a  second  half -strophe  if  they  stand  in  the  midst  of  a  longer 
strophic  arrangement.  He  groups  his  text  in  four  stichic  com- 
binations, and  pays  little  heed  to  the  couplet. 

Zimmern  takes  issue  with  both  Delitzsch  and  Mueller.  Not 
in  strophes,* which  afford  only  accidental  evidence,  but  in  the 
verse  and  the  distich  is  the  real  basis  of  Babylonian  poetical 
forms  to  be  found.  Mueller  overestimates  the  part  which  the 
eight-line  strophe  plays  in  the  Creation  Epic ;  Delitzsch  also 
ignores  the  obvious  couplet  structure  of  this  poem;  Zimmern 
asserts  that  the  distich  combination  is  vital  for  a  proper  under- 
standing of  the  text.  Herein  the  nwtif  of  parallelism  plays  an 
all-important  role.  The  tablets  show  the  horizontal  lines  which 
designate  the  couplets  only  when  the  two  stichoi  are  bound 
together  by  inner  reasons,  of  sense  and  thought-rhythm.**®  This 
makes  an  appreciation  of  parallelism  imperative  for  an  under- 
standing of  the  meaning  of  the  lines,  for  the  synonymous,  anti- 
thetic, or  synthetic  relation  of  the  first  to  the  second  stichos  is 
a  key  to  an  interpretation  of  the  text.  From  the  standpoint 
of  thought,  it  is  apparent  that  the  couplet  is  the  fundamental 
unit  of  Babylonian- Assyrian,  as  it  will  be  found  to  be  of  the 
Hebrew  poetry ;  it  must  be  remembered  however  that  couplets  do 
not  follow  each  other  in  unbroken  succession,  for  as  the  hori- 
zontal lines  and  internal  data  prove,  various  larger  combinations 
are  not  onlj^  possible  but  frequent. 

From  the  standpoint  of  metre,  however,  the  unit  of  the  poetry 
is  discoverable  in  the  hemistich.  Each  distich  is  made  up  of 
four  quarters;  each  of  these  four  parts  has  two  tonal  accents, 
or  stresses.  This  quartering  is  often  portrayed  by  the  mechan- 
ical device  of  perpendicular  lines  dividing  each  hemistich.^"  It 
seems  certain  that  the  Babylonians  employed  consciously  a 
regular  metrical  scheme,  and  that  they  counted  and  correctly 
apportioned  the  number  of  accents  in  each  hemistich.    The  tonic 


»8  Zimmern,  ZA,  XI,  86ff. 

99  Gunkel,  p.   401,   n.    1;    this   occurs   on   the   original   tablet    (London, 
Sp.  II,  265  a.).      See  Zimmern,  ZA,  VIII,  121ff. 


^OL.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  91 

accentuation  stands  in  close  agreement  with  the  Hebrew  and 

Aramaic  methods,  and  in  the  strongest  contrast  to  the  classical 

Arabic.^''"     The  progress  of  the  scheme  of  Assyrian-Babylonian 

poetry  seems  then  to  be  from  the  hemistich  to  the  stichos,  to  the 

couplet  or  distich,  to  the  strophe  or  multistich. 

Examples  of  the  various  types  of  parallelism  are  numerous.^"^ 

Synonymous  parallelism  is  found  thus: 

Where  is  thy  name  not  heard?      Where  not  thy  decrees? 
Where   are  thy  images  not   made?      Where   are   thy   temples   not 
founded  ? 

Where  art  thou  not  great?      Where  art  thou  not  exalted? 

Anu,  EUil,  and  Ea  have  exalted  thee, 

Among  the  gods  have  they  increased  thy  dominion.102 

Examples  of  antithetic  parallelism  can  be  found  frequently; 

the  following  is  taken  from  the  so-called  Babylonian  Job : 

In  a  moment  he  is  singing  and  playing, 

In  an  instant  he  is  howling  like  a  complainer. 

Now  they  are  hungry  and  are  like  a  corpse. 

Again  they  are  full  and  are  like  unto  Godjos 


100  Zimmern,  ZA,  XII,  384.  He  believes  also  that  the  similarity  of 
Assyrian-Babylonian  metre  to  the  Hebrew  may  assist  in  the  solution  of 
the  riddle  of  Hebrew  verse-construction.  See  Gray,  Forms  of  Hebrew 
Poetry,  p.  140ff.  Martin,  p.  xxii,  discusses  the  various  lengths  of  the 
hemistichs;  he  shows  that  the  two  hemistichs  are  sometimes  unequal  in 
length,  the  shorter  being  the  second,  the  longer  the  first.  See  Zimmern, 
"Ueber  Ehythmus  im  Babylonischen, "  ZA,  XII,  382ff;  also  "Babyl. 
Hymnen  und  Gebete, ' '  Der  alte  Orient,  VII,  5 ;  and  Beitraege  zur  Kenntnis 
d.  hahylonischen  Religion  (Leipzig,  1901).  Delitzsch,  p.  61ff.,  gives  four 
laws  for  metrical  arrangement  of  the  hemistichs: 

1.  Each  line  falls  into  two  half-lines. 

2.  The   second  hemistichs   are   subject   to   a   stricter   rhythmical   law 

than  the  first. 

3.  The   law   of   the   second   hemistichs   is   that   they   shall   have   not 

more  than  two  main  accents,  consisting  of  two  accented 
syllables,  whether  long  or  closed  (a  voAvel  followed  by  two 
consonants). 

4.  The  first  half -verses  are  subject  to  a  less  strict  rhythmical  law: 

(a)  for  some,  the  rule  of  the  second  hemistichs  is  also  oper- 
ative, namely,  the  demand  for  two  main  accents;  (b)  but 
the   first  hemistich  can  also   have   three  main   accents. 

101  Zimmern,  "Babyl.  Hymnen,"  Der  alte  Orient,  VII,  1905;  XIII, 
1911.  For  a  bibliography,  see  Bezold,  Bahyl.-Assyr.  Litteratur  (Leipzig, 
1886),  pp.  171-186;  Zimmern,  Der  alte  Orient,  XIII,  32;  Koenig,  StilistiJc, 
Bhetorik,  PoetiJc  (Leipzig,  1900)  ;  p.  311.  Eogers,  Cuneiform  Parallels, 
gives  excellent  translations  of  many  hymns,  incantations  and  epics. 

102  Eogers,  p.   154,  Hymn  to  Ishtar ;    see  also  p.   159. 

103  J&id.,  p.  164-165. 


92  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Examples  of  synthetic  parallelism  intermingle  with  regular 

synonymous  parallelism : 

The  sewers  of  the  city  shall  be  thy  drink, 

The  shadows  of  the  walls  shall  be  thy  dwelling, 

The  thresholds  shall  be  thy  habitation, 

The  drunken  and  the  thirsty  shall  smite  thy  cheek.i04 

Oftentimes  there  is  a  kind  of  alternate  parallelism: 

In  a  dispute  when  I  take  part 

The  woman  who  understands  piltum  am  I; 

In  a  law  suit  when  I  take  part 

The  woman  who  understands  the  law  am  I.ios 

This  is  a  sign  of  elementary  strophic  interparallelistic  structure, 
which  is  found  highly  developed  in  other  poems.  Several 
acrostic  hymns  are  at  hand,  comparable  to  the  Psalms. ^^"^  The 
practice  of  antiphonal  singing  was  apparently  common,  and  gave 
rise  to  hymns  wherein  refrains  were  maintained  in  identical 
words  for  long  periods.  These  repetitions  resemble  several  of 
the  incantation  refrains  common  in  Egyptian  poetry.  The  pro- 
cessional Hymn  to  Marduk  was  sung  antiphonally,  the  priest 
singing  the  first  half,  the  people  responding  with  the  recurrent 
refrain : 

The  city  cries  out  to  thee  "Eest, "  may  thy  house  rejoice  in  thee. 

Babylon  cries  out  to  thee  ' '  Eest, ' '  may  thy  house  rejoice  in  thee. 

The  great  Anu,  father  of  the  gods,  cries  out  to  thee  * '  Eest  at  last. ' ' 
May  the  mighty  mountain,  father  Bel,  cry  to  thee  '.'Rest  at  last. "i07 

Schrader  cites  several  examples  of  liturgical  songs  in  the 

Temple  which  he  affirms  were  sung  antiphonally;  the  following 

is  the  Song  of  the  Seven  Spirits : 

(Strophe) 
Seven  are  they,  seven  are  they, 
In  the  sea's  deep,  seven  are  they 
In  the  sky's  blue,  seven  are  they. 
In  the  sea,  far  down,  their  birth. 


^04  Ihid.,  p.  128,  Ishtar's  Descent  to  Hades.  See  Schrader,  Die 
Hocllenfahrt,  passim;  Jeremais,  Die  Babyl.assyr.  Vorstellung  v.  Leben 
nach  dem  Tode  (Leipzig,  1887),  p.  9. 

105  Hussey,  p.  13. 

106  Zimmern,  ZA,  X,  15;  see  Bezold,  Catalogue,  p.  905  with  reference 
to  K.  8204,  and  p.  1549;   Pinches,  Texts,  p.  15f. 

107  The  word  ' '  Rest ' '  here  and  elsewhere  in  the  hymn  is  an  abbrevia- 
tion of  the  words  of  the  old  formula  in  the  incantation  texts,  "May  thy 
heart  be  appeased."  The  hymn  was  sung  after  the  manner  of  the  Hallel 
Psalms. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  93 

(Alternate  Strophe) 
Not  male  are  they,  not  female  they, 
Wife  they  take  not,  son  they  have  not, 

Both  law  and  order  know  they  not,  ' 

To  prayers  and  wishes  hark  they  not. 

(End  Strophe) 
Seven  are  they,  seven  are  they, 
The  Seven  Adisina  they.ios 

Another  example  of  highly  developed  strophic  structure,  wherein 

the  parallelism  is  perfect,  is  the  hymn : 

(Strophe) 
Who  is  sublime  in  the  skies? 

Thou  alone,  thou  art  sublime; 
Who  is  sublime  upon  earth? 

Thou  alone,  thou  art  sublime. 

(Alternate  Strophe) 
Thy  mighty  command  is  proclaimed  in  the  skies, 

The  Gods  then  prostrate  themselves; 
Thy  mighty  command  is  proclaimed  upon  earth, 

The  Spirits  then  kiss  the  ground.io^ 

Two  major  questions  are  involved  in  a  discussion  of  Assyrian- 
Babylonian  parallelism.  The  first  concerns  the  regularity  of 
the  couplet  formation.  Despite  imperfections  and  corruptions 
of  the  texts,  it  is  certain  that  regular  couplets  are  maintained 
for  fairly  long  intervals.  The  number  of  unattached  or  floating 
monostichs,  also,  is  very  large ;  they  creep  into  the  poems  at  the 
most  unexpected  places,  and  interrupt  the  regularity  without 
any  law  or  scheme.  Though  in  several  instances  complementary 
or  corresponding  lines  have  disappeared  because  of  text  muti- 
lation, nevertheless  it  must  be  admitted  that  as  in  Hebrew, 
unaccountably  placed  lines  appear  in  otherwise  regular  struc- 
ture.^^"    Again,  as  in  Hebrew,  several  lines  contain  a  heaping-up 


108  Sehrader,  Hoellenfahrt,  p.  110-115.  The  first  strophes  may  have 
been  sung  by  half -choirs,  and  the  closing  strophes  by  the  general  choir. 

109  Sehrader,  pp.  111-115,  calls  attention  to  the  "specifically  Hebrew" 
strophic  system.  He  links  (pp.  85-86)  the  highly  developed  strophical 
scheme  with  the  advanced  Babylonian  civilization  as  Ewald  had  done  with 
the  Hebrew  strophe  in  relation  to  Hebrew  culture.  The  part  played  by 
magical  incantations  and  formulas  in  the  development  of  the  strophe  and 
parallelism  is  as  significant  in  Babylonian-Assyrian  as  in  Egyptian,  Fin- 
nish, and  other  literatures. 

110  See  the  isolated  stichoi  in  Amos,  below.  Martin,  p.  xxviii,  says: 
"These  combinations,  too  irregular  to   deserve   the   name   of   strophe,   do 


94  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

of  terms,  especially  of  nouns,  complementary  to  the  subject  in 

the  first  stichos  of  a  couplet : 

O  Shamash,  he  who  goes  his  way  in  fear  prays  to  thee, 
*  (....))  the  traveler,  the  tradesman,  he  who  carries  the  weights. 

I'  O  Shamash,  the  hunter  with  the  net  prays  to  thee, 

-  The  hunter  (?),  the  cattle-man,  the  tender  of  herbs. 

The  second  problem  concerns  the  relation  of  poetry  to  prose. 
As  in  the  Bible,"^  verses  are  found  not  merely  in  the  hymns,  the 
epics,  and  other  texts  of  obviously  poetical  character,  but  also 
in  the  historical  texts  of  ''elevated  style."  An  example  may 
be  found  in  the  Shamashshumukin  tablet  of  Assurbanapal."^ 
It  may  be  that  these  poetical  sections  were  quoted  from  other 
poems ;  yet  on  the  other  hand,  the  occasional  presence  of  what 
seems  to  be  rhythm  in  historical  narratives,  points  to  the  authen- 
ticity of  poetical  sections  as  native  to  an  apparently  prose 
work."^  Though  on  occasion,  Babylonian  parallelism  may  be 
the  result  of  no  conscious  artistic  process,  but  the  natural 
outcome  of  rhythmically  exalted  speech,"*  its  presence  in  com- 
positions of  patently  prosaic  character,  or  under  the  spell  of 
no  great  poetic  ©motion,  is  proof  that  it  was  a  deliberate  and 
recognized  poetical  device.  It  may  be  concluded  that  in  Baby- 
lonian-Assyrian as  in  Hebrew,  there  is  a  mixture  of  poetry  and 
prose,  wherein  the  limits  of  the  former  are  more  or  less  deter- 
mined by  mechanical  aids;  but  the  widespread  character  of 
synthetic  parallelism,  and  the  narrative  character  of  several 
poetical  epics,  permit  the  conclusion  that  the  interplay  of  poetry 
and  prose  is  almost  as  intricate  and  indefinable  as  in  Hebrew. 

A  word  may  be  said  on  the  value  of  parallelism  for  exegesis.^^^ 


not  seem  to  be  inspired  by  any  rule  of  prosody."  They  seem  to  have 
had  no  other  rule  than  the  development,  more  or  less  long,  given  by  the 
scribe  to  his  thought. 

111  See  II  K.  8.12,  etc. 

112  Zimmern,  ZA,  VIII,  123 ;   IX,  338-339. 

113  Jeremias,  p.  9. 

11*  Schrader,  p.  60,  compares  the  stichic  form  of  the  poem  on  Ishtar's 
Journey,  to  the  writing  of  the  Song  in  Deut.,  chap.  32.  See  also  West- 
phal,  Allgemeine  Theorie  der  musikalischen  Ehythmik  (Leipzig,  1880),  p.  37. 

115  Dhorme,  Textes  religieux  assyro-babyloniens  (Paris,  1907),  p.  4, 
and  passim;  Martin,  pp.  24,  48;  Zimmern,  Busspsalmen,  pp.  12-13,  24, 
42,  43,  99,  104,  and  passim;  an  emendation  on  p.  97  is  "confirmed  by  the 
parallelism."     See  also  ZA,  XI,  335,  339. 


Vol.1,]  Nevmian. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  95 

An  example  of  the  assistance  which  it  renders  in  the  decipher- 
ment of  mutilated  or  dubious  words  may  be  found  in  this 
selection : 

For  food,  I  will  eat  the  clay, 

For  drink,  I  will  drink   (the  water) 

That  I  may  weep  for  the  men  who  have  left  their  wives, 
That  I  may  weep  for  the  women  (torn)  from  their  husbands'  bosoms, 
That  I  may  weep  for  the  little  children  (snatched  away  before)  their 
day.116 

The  relation  of  Babylonian  to  the  origin  of  Hebrew  parallel- 
ism will  be  discussed  below.^^^ 

Arabic  Parallelism 

CLASSICAL    (including   PERSIAN    AND   TURKISH) 

The  close  relationship  between  Arabic  and  Hebrew  literature 
has  often  been  noted.^^^  Though  the  Hebrews  attained  a  high 
grade  of  civilization  over  1500  years  before  the  Arabs  became 
productive,  the  cultures  of  the  two  show  traces  of  primitive 
union:  the  poetry  of  the  ancient  desert  tribes  resembles  the 
measures  of  the  earliest  Hebrew  heroes  and  heroines.  In  both 
literatures,  the  original  type  of  poetic  utterance  seems  to  have 
been  the  ode,  the  song  of  joy,  sorrow,  thankfulness,  or  prayer; 
and  may  have  been  a  species  of  improvised  utterance  common  to 
both  these  branches  of  the  Semitic  race.^^^ 

The  forms  of  Hebrew  and  of  Arabic  poetry  show  signs  of  simi- 
larity. Arabic  poetry  in  itself  represents  a  long  historical 
process;  the  steps  by  which  it  advanced  from  primeval  begin- 
nings to  the  most  intricate  and  elaborate  forms  reflect  the 
evolution  of  poetry  as  a  whole.  Hebrew  poetry,  however,  ceased 
to  expand  according  to  its  own  native  genius  after  the  second 
or  third  century  of  the  common  era,  and  must  be  regarded  from 


iisEogers,  p.  123. 

117  See  p.  117. 

118  Jones,  Poeseos  Asiaticae  commentariorium  libri  sex  (London,  1774), 
pp.  25-65;  Wenrich,  De  poeseos  Hebraicae  atque  Ardbicae  origine  (Leip- 
zig, 1843),  passim.  Ewald,  De  Metris  Carminum  Arabicorum  (Brunswick, 
1825),  p.  96;  De  Eitis,  I  Metri  Arabi  (Naples,  1833),  I,  82;  Steiner, 
Ueber  hebraeische  Poesie   (Basel,  1873),  pp.  12,  25. 

119  Chenery,  Assemblies  of  Al  Hariri  (London,  1867),  I,  45. 


96'  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

the  viewpoint  of  form  as  a  relatively  primitive  class  of  literature. 
The  multitude  and  variety  of  later  Arabic  poetic  and  rhetorical 
forms  have  rendered  it  difficult  to  select  any  one  as  dominantly 
characteristic ;  while  the  scarcity  of  primitive  Arabic  poems,  con- 
temporaneous with  the  original  Hebrew  compositions,  has  made 
it  hard  to  discern  the  fundamental  rules  of  prosody  and  poetics 
which  govern  them.  Hence  the  presence  of  parallelism,  the  out- 
standing trait  of  Hebrew  poetry,^^"  has  been  in  the  Arabic 
alternatel}^  championed  and  disputed.^-^  It  is  therefore  neces- 
sary to  reexamine  the  Islamic  literatures  in  an  endeavor  to 
determine  whether  parallelism  is  to  be  found  therein.  For  this 
task  investigation  in  Arabic  poetry  is  not  sufficient ;  Moham- 
medan-Persian literature,  which  is  based  upon  Arabic  poetical 
canons,  and  also  Ottoman  poetry,  which  is  indebted  both  to  the 
Arabic  and  the  Persian,  offer  fruitful  evidence.  It  is  advisable 
to  group  these  three  under  one  classification,  though  minor  vari- 
ations between  them  exist. 

Repetition  in  Islamic  poetry  must  first  be  noted.  It  may 
be  categorically  affirmed  that  repetitions  after  the  manner  of 
the  Egyptian,  the  Sumerian  and  the  Babylonian-Assyrian  poetry 
are  absent  from  the  Arabic;  but  a  close  approach  to  repetition 
is  found  in  the  rhetorical  device  called  'aks  "inversion."  Here 
two  parts  of  a  distich  are  so  arranged  that  the  same  words  which 
begin  a  sentence  are  reversed  to  conclude  it ;  in  its  various  mani- 
festations, it  sometimes  takes  on  parallelistic  character.  In  the 
Arabic,  this  example  may  be  cited: 

And  their  black  hair  became  white, 
And  their  white  countenance  black.122 


120  Perhaps  the  first  investigator  to  note  parallelism  as  such  in  the 
Arabic  was  Schleusner,  Dissertatio,  p.  11 ;  but  Schrader,  due  to  the  de- 
ficiencies of  his  Arabic  scholarship,  affirmed  a  century  later  in  1875  that 
no  parallelism  existed  in  Islamic  poetry.  Though  he  expresses  wonder 
at  its  absence  among  those  tribes  most  protected  from  foreign  influence, 
still  this  agrees  with  his  preconceived  theory  of  the  non-Semitic  origin 
of  parallelism,  which  he  attributes  to  the  ancient  Akkadians.  Mueller 
however,  in  his  discussion  of  the  strophic  structure  of  the  Koran,  asserts 
that  the  main  characteristics  of  the  verses  and  also  the  multistichs  and 
strophes  are  parallelism  and  antithesis. 

121  Die  Proplieten,  p.  59. 

122  Mehren,  Die  Bhetorik  der  Araber   (Vienna,  1853),  p.  104. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  97 

From  the  Persian : 

In  your  countenance,  I  beheld  the  beauty  of  which  I  had  heard, 
That  beauty  of  which  I  had  heard,  in  your  countenance  I  beheld.123 

From  the  Ottoman: 

The  season  of  youth  is  the  time  to  acquire  knowledge; 
The  time  to  acquire  knowledge  is  the  season  of  youth.124 

Sometimes  the  words  are  read  both  backwards  and  forwards, 
in  the  manner  of  the  anagram,  excepting  that  there  letters,  and 
here  whole  words  are  transposed : 

You  possess  money  and  you  possess  liberality; 

Liberality  you  possess  and  money  you  possess.125 

It  can  be  seen  here  at  once,  however,  that  the  device  is  not 
built  upon  repetition,  but  upon  inversion.^^" 

Another  form  of  repetition  or  reiteration  is  found  in  the 
mukarrar,  a  form  of  paronomasia,  wherein  a  word  is  repeated 
in  the  same  distich  as  hemistich.  Though  parallelism  is  not 
necessarily  attendant  upon  the  mukarrar,  these  examples  are 
clearly  marked  by  it : 

Whosoever  seeks  something  and  exerts  himself,  will  find  it. 
Whosoever  knocks  on  a  door  and  perseveres,  will  enter.127 

From  the  Persian : 

Your  cheeks  resemble  two  leaves,  and  each  leaf  is  the  sun; 
Your  hair  hangs  in  ringlets,  and  each  ringlet  is  a  cord. 

From  envy  of  these  leaves,  the  leaves  of  the  rose  are  expanded; 
From  envy  of  those  ringlets,  the  spikenard  becomes  twisted.128 


123  Gladwin,  On  the  Rhetoric,  Prosody,  and  Rhyme  of  the  Persians 
(Calcutta,  1801),  passim;  Eueckert-Pertsch,  Grammatilc,  Poetik  und 
BhetoriJc  der  Perser  (Gotha,  1874),  passim. 

124  Gibbs,  History  of  Ottoman  Poetry   (London,  1900),  5  vols.,  passim. 

125  Gladwin,  p.  27.  An  example  of  the  manner  in  which  good  par- 
allelism may   occur   in  this   formation   can   be   seen   in   this   quotation: 

"In  liberality  you  are  Hatem,  in  dignity  you  are  Caesar; 
In  command  you  are  Asaf ;   in  argument  you  are  Jesus. ' ' 
Eeversed   it   becomes: 

"You  are  Jesus  in  argument;  you  are  Asaf  in  command; 
You  are  Caesar  in  dignity,  you  are  Hatem  in  liberality. ' ' 
12B  Gibbs,  I,  115.  He  mentions  also  the  tard  u'aks  or  epandos  which 
consists  in  forming  the  second  line  or  a  distich  from  the  reversed  halves 
of  the  first  line,  as  in  the  example  quoted.  Sometimes  the  conversion  is 
"perfect"  and  sometimes  "imperfect."  As  an  example  of  this  same 
usage  in  English  poetry,  Gibbs  quotes  Milton: 

"O  more  exceeding  love  or  law  more  just, 
Just  law  indeed,  but  more  exceeding  love. ' ' 

127  Mehren,  p.  160.  The  paronomasia  does  not  become  apparent  in  the 
translations. 

128  Gladwin,  p.  28. 


98  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

An  even  closer  approach  to  parallelism  is  found  in  some  of 

the  varieties  of  the  tajnls  motif,  also  a  form  of  paronomasia.^^^ 

It  occurs  when  the  author  employs  in  verse  or  prose,  two  or  more 

words  resembling  each  other  in  their  letters,  but  having  different 

meanings.       Oftentimes    the    general    effect    is    of    parallelism, 

especially  where  the  motif  occurs  in  a  distich.    The  tajnls  tdmm 

or  "perfect  similarity  and  homogeneity,"  occurring  when  two 

words  of  different  meaning  have  the  same   sound   and   form, 

without  £tny  variations  of  the  vowel  points,  creates  several  par- 

allelistic  couplets,  of  which  this  is  a  type : 

If  I  compare  your  cheek  to  the  rose,  I  committed  a  mistake; 
And   if   I   called  your  hair   musk  of   Tartary,   I   uttered   an   impro- 
priety.130 

Among   the   varieties   of   imperfect   similarity',    couplets    of 

parallelism   occur,   but  not  so  frequently.      The  jinds  al-qalh 

contains  an  inversion  and  antithesis,  apparent  in  this  couplet 

of  Ahnaf : 

In  your  sword  victory  for  your  friends  is  prepared; 
In  your  lance  death  for  your  enemies.i^i 

A  Turkish  example  of  the  jinds  muxO'fraf  or  "altered  similar- 
ity," wherein  the  letters  of  the  terms  are  all  alike  except  that 
the  vowel  points  differ,  is  present  here : 

The  fame  of  her  beauty  increaseth  in  the  city; 

The  praise  of  her  rose-cheek  is  the  theme  of  every  tongue.isz 

Another  rhetorical  device  which  approaches  but  does  not 
attain  parallelism  is  found  in  the  taqslni  or  "division,"  a  term 
applied  also  to  mathematical  division  in  the  works  of  Euclid. 
That  it  was  taken  to  mean  a  species  of  parallelism  can  be  under- 
stood from  a  comment  of  Tha' alibi  on  the  style  of  Mutannabi 
that  among  the  beautiful  and  original  features  of  his  works  he 
employed  the  taqsim,  thus  dividing  his  sentences  into  parallel 
parts: 

We  were  in  gladness,  the  Greeks  in  fear; 

The  land  in  bustle,  the  sea  in  confusion.i33 


129  Mehren,  p.  154fC. 

130  Gladwin,  p.  6ff. 

131  Mehren,  p.  158. 

132  Gibbs.  p.  116. 

133  Nicholson,    Literary    History    of    the    Arabs     (New    York,    1907), 
311;    Dieterici,    Mutanaibi    und    Seifuddaula    aus    der    Edelperle    des 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  99 

But  closer  examination  of  other  examples  betrays  the  fact  that 

taqslm  is  not  genuine  parallelism :  in  a  hemistich,  or  a  stichos, 

the  poet  recites  several  particulars,  and  afterwards  in  another 

hemistich  or  stichos,  introduces  some  others  in  connection  with 

them,  and  assigns  each  to  each  regularly : 

I  am  pleased  with  love  and  wine  because  they  are  not  friends; 
Neither  love  with  the  libidinous,  nor  wine  with  the  lips  of  the  pious 
man.134 

In  a  sense,  this  motif  produces  a  triplet  formation,  of  which  the 

first  stichos  is  long,  and  the  other  two  are  shorter;  parallelism 

lying  only  between  them,  and  not  involving  the  first : 

.  A  soul  and  a  heart  I  had  as  profit  from  the  means  of  existence; 
A  stealthy  glance  took  the  latter; 
Your  flattery  stole  the  former.ias 

Several  other  rhetorical  devices  of  the  poetry  of  the  Islamic 
literatures  might  be  cited  as  near-parallelism,  but  they  are  delib- 
erate and  conscious  poetic  devices ;  they  are  chiselled  out  by  a 
careful  method,  and  lack  the  spontaneity  and  freedom  of  Hebrew 
parallelism.  Moreover  they  are  historically  late,  and  none  suf- 
fice to  indicate  the  path  to  a  solution  of  the  question  whether  the 
Arabic  contains  genuine,  sustained  and  regular  parallelism, 
similar  to  the  Hebrew.      It  is  therefore  necessary  to  turn  back 


Tsaalibi  (Leipzig,  1847),  p.  72.  Tha' alibi  introduces  as  confirmation  of 
his  judgment  the  opinion  of  Abu  I'Kasim  of  Amid,  who  in  his  book  Weigh- 
ing of  the  Poems  relates  the  following  tale:  "Once  a  stylistic  connoisseur 
heard  the  verses  of  al-Abbas  ibn  al-Ahnaf : 

'  Your  union  is  separation ;  your  word  hate ; 

Your  assent  is  dissent;   your  peace  war. 

You  bear  within  you  through  God's  grace  harsh  thoughts, 

And  all  tenderness  is  obstinate. ' 
Then  he  said:  'By  Allah,  this  is  finer  than  the  divisions  of  Euclid.  But 
still  more  worthy  of  this  praise  is  the  verse  of  Abu  Tayyib'  (quoted  in  the 
text).  Tha' alibi  also  makes  mention  of  the  fact  that  Mutanabbi  arranged 
his  consecutive  similes  in  brief  symmetrical  clauses  (Nicholson,  p.  310; 
Dieterici,  p.  68). 

"She  shone  forth  like  a  moon 

And   swayed  like  a  morning  bough. 

And  shed  fragrance  like  ambergris. 
And  gazed  like  a  gazelle. ' ' 
Ahlwardt,  Poesie  und  PoetiJc  der  Araber  (Gotha,  1856),  p.  74,  also  notes 
the   parallelism   in   Mutanabbi;    on   taqsim,    see   Freytag,   Barstellung    der 
arabischen  Verslcunst    (Bonn,  1830),  p.  537. 

134  Gladwin,  p.  49. 

135  Eueckert-Pertsch,  p.  340. 


100  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

to  the  earliest  origins  of  Arabic  poetry  in  a  search  for  germane 

comparative  data. 

Among  the  oldest  extant  Arabic  poems  is  found  this  selection : 

Tell  me,  O  Eakash  and  deceive  me  not, 

Hast  thou  given  thyself  to  a  free  man,  or  to  a  base  born? 

Or  to  one  lower,  for  thou  art  fit  for  one  lower? 

Or  to  a  slave,  for  thou  art  fit  for  a  slave ?i36 

It  is  at  once  evident  that  parallelism  is  present  here.      The 

same  can  be  said  of  this  quotation : 

By  the  light  and  the  dark;  by  the  earth  and  the  heaven; 
Surely  the  trees  shall  perish;   and  the  waters  shall  return  as  in  the 
time  of  old. 

These  selections,  taken  from  a  bulk  of  similar  material,  are 
unmetrical,  though  in  each  of  the  lines  the  first  and  second  parts 
rhyme  in  their  last  word.  They  are  composed  in  the  saj'  form. 
Literally  this  word  signifies  the  sound  made  by  the  cooing  of 
a  dove ;  in  rhetorical  terminology,  it  designates  ' '  rhymed  prose ' ' ; 
but  for  a  comparison  with  the  Hebrew  poetry  this  translation 
of  the  term  is  unsatisfactory,  for  HebreAV  poetry  contains  no 
rhyme,  other  than  the  few  instances  where  it  occurs  accidentally. 
In  Arabic,  too,  the  rhyme  of  the  sa/  is,  at  least  in  its  earliest 
manifestation,  not  all  important ;  it  is  regarded  by  Goldzihor  as 
a  later  introduction,  employed  extensively  for  the  first  time  in 
the  formal  public  discourse  or  sermon,  the  khutha,  from  tin; 
third  century  of  the  Hiira  onward.^^^  It  is  therefore  better 
to  translate  saj'  as  "unmetrical  poetry. "^^^  To  this  species, 
the  Hebrew  poetry  shows  startling  similarities.  Among  the 
Arabs  and  the  Hebrews,  the  simplest  element  of  poetical  speech 
is  "the  versicle,  a  short  and  serried  sentence,  vigorously  express- 
ing a  single  idea,  and  detached  from  what  goes  before  and  comes 
after  it."^^^  The  poetry  of  both  is  made  up  by  the  agglutina- 
tion of  these  unmetrical  versicles  to  one  another:  Hebrew  con- 


136  Chenery,  p.  42,  gives  this  translation. 

13T  Goldziher,  Ahhandlungen  zur  arabischen  Philologie  (Leyden,  1896), 
contains  a  discussion  of  the  saj',  I,  57-76ff.  On  lack  of  rhyme  in  early 
khutbas,  see  p.  62.  On  the  saf ,  see  also  Preudergast,  The  Maqamat  of 
Badi  Al-Zaman  Al-Hamadhani  (1915),  p.  8ff. 

138  Gray,  p.  44 ;  Goldziher,  p.  59. 

139  Chenery,  p.  47-48. 


Vol.1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  '•,,'  i'^^ljOi, 

fines  itself  to  parallelism  mainly,  a  polarity  or  dualfsm:  beiweeii 
two  versicles;  Arabic  shows  this  dualism,  together  with  con- 
tinuity, the  former  appearing  in  the  parallelistic  speech  of  the 
desert  orators,  and  most  clearly  in  the  Maqdmdt  of  Hariri; 
while  the  latter  is  more  conspicuous  in  the  semimetrieal  verse, 
called  rajaz,  which  will  be  discussed  below ;  both  parallelism  and 
continuity  are  present  in  compositions  of  a  stricter  prosody 
which  the  Arabs  themselves  call  poetry."^ 

The  most  important  point  in  the  saj' ,  however,  is  not  the 
fact  that  it  is  unmetrical,  or  that  in  ancient  times  it  was  not 
rhymed,^*^  but  that  it  is  the  counterpart  of  genuine  Hebrew 
parallelism.  The  rhetorical  character  of  the  earliest  khutha  was 
concerned  more  with  the  symmetry  and  synonymity  of  the 
stichoi  than  with  any  other  poetical  element."^  The  psycho- 
logical basis  for  the  saj'  is  the  rhythmical  and  balanced  form 
which  seems  to  grow  from  exalted  speech:  whenever  the  lan- 
guage of  the  khutha  becomes  elevated  and  excited,  parallelism 
appears;  and  even  in  the  ordinary  prose  of  the  most  sober 
narratives,  the  saj'  appears  when  the  writer  describes  anything 
which  arouses  his  admiration  or  amazement. 

A  valuable  piece  of  evidence  for  the  thesis  that  parallelism 
in  its  origins  is  intimately  bound  up  with  magical  incantations 
and  formulas  is  discernible  in  the  fact  that  the  saj'  is  supposed 
to  have  been  the  characteristic  form  of  utterance  by  the  ancient 
Arabic  soothsayers.  Many  legends  have  been  handed  down 
regarding  its  use  for  exorcisms,  for  oracular  sayings,  for  prayers 
of  protection,  for  prescriptions  against  the  evil  eye,  for  beggar- 
proverbs,  and  similar  forms;  its  oldest  usage  for  magical  pur- 
poses may  be  found  in  the  judgments  and  wise  words  of  the 
old  /ca/im-speeches  of  heathen  Arabic  antiquity;  later  its  use 
became  a  religious  question,  and  though  it  is  said  that  Mohammed 
banned  it  as  a  reminder  of  the  days  before  his  coming,^*^  never- 

140  In  addition  to  the  Maqamut  of  Hariri,  parallelism  of  the  saj'  is  to 
be  found  in  the  Maqdmat  of  al-Hamadhani  (see  above),  in  the  Maqdmdt 
of  the  Jewish  poet  al-Harizi  (see  below)  ;  and  in  the  imitation  of  the 
Maqdmdt  of  Hariri  by  Nasif  al-Yazaji  of  Beirut   (Chenery,  p.  98). 

141  Chenery,  p.  48,  and  above. 

142  Goldziher,  p.  64. 

143  On  the  use  of  the  saj'  by  magicians  and  diviners,  see  Goldziher, 
p.   69ff.      A  comparison   can   be   instituted   between  the   use   of   the   saj' 


l02  University  of  California  Puhlications.       [Sem.  Phil. 

theless  'he '  himself  wrote  the  Koran  in  saj'  or  rhymed  prose 
motif.  Mohammed's  utterances,  it  is  true,  though  unmetrical, 
make  a  nearer  approach  to  versification  than  the  ordinary 
rhymed  prose,  because  their  rhyme  is  continuous ;  Mueller  is  cor- 
rect, however,  in  his  discovery  of  parallelism  and  antithesis  in 
the  Koran,  though  these  are  by  no  means  the  dominant  styles. 
After  Mohammed,  the  Islamic  preachers  adopted  the  saj'  for 
their  weekly  exhortations  in  the  mosques;  and  rhymed  prose, 
with  emphasis  laid  more  and  more  on  the  rhyme,  now  became  so 
widespread  that  it  was  used  in  the  introduction  to  most  books, 
throughout  others  (particularly  histories),  and  almost  in  com- 
mon conversation,"*  In  the  Thousand  Nights  and  a  Night  "it 
adds  a  sparkle  to  description  and  a  point  to  proverb,  epigram 
and  dialogue ; . . .  and,  generally,  it  defines  the  boundaries  be- 
tween the  classical  and  the  popular  styles. '  '"*" 

In  conjunction  with  the  parallelism  of  the  saj'  arose  a 
regular  metre,  the  rajaz.  This  was  employed  long  before  the 
end  of  the  Period  of  Ignorance,  and  was  the  favorite  vehicle 
for  the  sententious  utterances  of  chiefs  and  warriors,  wise  men 
and  diviners."^  Fundamentally  rajaz  is  nothing  but  rhyth- 
mically disciplined  saj'  .^*^  Parallelism  existed  before  the  intro- 
duction of  rhyme,  and  surely  before  the  introduction  of  the 
rajaz  metre.  When  out  of  rhyme  and  the  rajaz  there  is  devel- 
oped verse  or  poetry  proper  in  all  its  multiform  ramifications 
and  artifices,  parallelism  still  continues;  but  it  is  buried  under 
a  mass  of  poetical  devices.  It  is  crowded  by  metre,  bounded  and 
modified  by  rhyme ;  but  none  the  less  even  in  the  genuine  poetry 


by  the  soothsayers,  and  the  words  mentioned  with  reference  to  the  yidd^- 
'6mm  in  Isaiah  8.19.  There  mahgim  can  refer  to  the  cooing  of  the  turtle 
dove,  just  as  megaphg^pMm  refers  to  the  chirping  of  the  birds.  This  would 
seem  to  point  to  the  usage  of  the  saj'  by  the  soothsayers  of  the  Hebrews, 
and  hence  to  lend  evidence  to  the  hypothesis  that  the  saj'  may  also  have 
been  at  some  time  or  another  a  form  of  the  Hebrew  parallelism.  The 
Arabic  saj'  may  be  related  to  the  Hebrew  shugga'  "to  be  intoxicated  with 
prophecy. ' ' 

144  Chenery,  p.  52ff.  Arbuthnot,  Arabic  Authors  (London,  1890),  p.  27, 
asserts  that  the  irregular,  half  rhythmical,  half  rhyming  sentences  of  the 
Koran  were  the  first  attempts  in  the  direction  of  prose  in  Arabic  literature. 

144a  Burton  's  translation,  Introduction  to  Vol.  I. 

145  Chenery,  p.  49. 

146  Goldziher,  p.  76. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  103 

of  the  Arabs,  the  Persians  and  the  Turks,  it  continues  to  mani- 
fest itself  now  and  then.  For  the  character  of  the  Islamic  lan- 
guages lends  itself  with  such  readiness  and  responsiveness  to 
parallelism  that  the  latter  could  never  be  entirely  overwhelmed.^*^ 
And  it  was  probably  due  to  the  impress  of  its  parallelistic  origin 
that  the  Arabic  poetry  has  always  maintained  an  extreme  sim- 
plicity and  brevity  of  syntactic  structure,  demanding  that  the 
verse  (i.e.,  line)  stand  by  itself  as  a  syntactic  unit.  It  is  true 
that  the  line  may  contain  as  many  as  thirty  syllables,  and  that, 
though  each  line  must  in  general  consist  of  two  metrically  equal 
hemistichs,  the  caesura  dividing  the  hemistichs  may  fall  within 
a  word  and  the  line  as  a  whole  become  the  syntactic  unit  as  it 
is  normally  the  rhyme  unit;  but  in  the  rajaz  the  older  poets 
treat  the  single  stichos  (the  hemistich)  as  the  unit  and  rhyme 
all  the  hemistichs;  and  the  fact  that  in  all  classical  poetry  the 
first  line  must  be  so  treated — the  rhyme  must  appear  also  at  the 
first  caesura — shows  that  originally  the  hemistich  was  the  syn- 
tactic unit. 

The  long  usage  and  development  of  the  saj'  through  the 
mazes  of  Arabic  poetry  has  resulted  in  its  division  into  several 
branches,  not  all  of  which  are  valid  for  comparison  with  Hebrew 
parallelism.  The  individual  stichoi  are  usually  of  the  same 
length,  but  the  second  and  sometimes  the  third  stichos  can  be 
longer  than  the  preceding ;  the  finest  type  of  saj'  is  found  when 
the  individual  stichoi  contain  only  a  few  words,  from  two  to 
ten;  long  sentences  of  twenty  or  more  words  are  unwieldy  and 
weak.  This  agrees  substantially  with  the  Hebrew,  where  terse 
sentences  are  favored. 

Synonymous  parallelism  is  found  in  several  forms  in  the 
Arabic  and  kindred  literatures.  The  saj'  muwdzan  is  the  closest 
approach  thereto.     It  occurs  when  the  end  words  of  the  stichoi 


147  Steingass,  Assemblies  of  Hariri  (London,  1897),  p.  iv:  "Arabic  can 
do  very  -well  without  punctuation  because  in  elementary  compositions  the 
extreme  simplicity  of  its  construction  scarcely  requires  such  external  signs 
of  subdivision,  while  in  works  of  a  more  elaborate  style  the  saj'  offers  a 
sufficient  equivalent  for  them.  The  rhyme  in  its  repetition  or  in  its  still 
more  frequent  recurrence  not  only  distinctly  marks  out  the  members  of  a 
proposition,  but  is  also  in  combination  with  the  parallelism  of  elevated 
Oriental  diction,  a  great  help  to  the  reader  for  supplying  the  necessary 
vocalization. ' ' 


104  Vniversiiy  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

agree  in  form,  but  not  necessarily  in  rhyme;  the  result  is  close 

parallelism : 

He  is  the  sun  in  majesty,  while  the  kings  are  stars; 
He  is  the  sea  in  generosity,  while  the  nobles  are  brooks. 

If  all  or  at  least  a  majority  of  the  individual  words  of  one 

stichos  are  similar  in  form  to  the  corresponding  terms  of  the 

second  stichos,  this  figure  is  called  mumdthala^*^     This  verse 

of  Abu  Tammam  is  an  example : 

(Maidens)   beautiful  as  gazelles,  only  that  the  latter  are  tame; 
Slender  as  reeds,  only  that  these  are  without  sap. 

The  use  of  the  root  nmthal,  meaning  to  be  like,  to  resemble, 

proves  valuable  in  a  discussion  of  the  term  mdshdl  as  the  Hebrew 

name  for  synonymous  parallelism.^*'' 

In  the  Persian,  the  saj'   mwwdzan  shows  the  same  identity 

with  the  Hebrew  parallelism : 

The  Shah  art  thou,  the  might  of  whose  steeds  serves  as  a  guide; 
The  Moon  art  thou,  the  victorious  strength  of  whose  swords  serves 
as  a  whetstone. 


Or; 


The  envy  of  my  verses  devours  the  liver  of  Hussan  Sabit; 
The  arm  of  my  prose  smiteth  the  neck  of  Sehbane  Wayel.iso 


Rueckert  says  of  this  form:  "Both  the  tarsi'  and  the  saj' 
muwdzan  are  the  most  perfect,  yet  at  the  same  time  most  rigid 
form  of  the  Hebrew  parallelismus  memhrorum,  which  also  in 
many  cases  is  a  complete  parallelism  of  all  the  individual 
words.  "^^^  This  parallelism  occurs  with  the  most  highly  devel- 
oped metres,  which  heighten  rather  than  hinder  the  synonymity 
of  the  terms. 

Slightly  similar  to  this  figure,  yet  showing  a  parallelism 
neither  so  perfect  nor  so  constant  is  the  saj'  mutaivdzl.  Here 
at  the  end  of  two  periods  of  prose  or  at  the  close  of  two  stichoi 
of  verse,  there  are  two  words  agreeing  in  measure,  rhyme,  and 
in  the  final  letter,  the  number  of  words  in  the  stichoi  being  also 
equal.      Though  it  is  not  always  the  case,  the  remaining  words 

i48Mehren,  p.  166ff;  Eueckert-Pertsch,  p.  104flP.     See  below,  p.  115. 

149  Eueckert-Pertsch,  p.  105. 

150  Gladwin,  p.  10.  Gladwin's  transliteration  of  the  proper  names  is 
retained. 

151  Eueckert-Pertsch,  p.  106. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  105 

of  one  stichos  may  correspond  either  in  form  or  in  rhyme  with 

the  respective  words  of  the  other: 

Without  support  am  I  through  the  enticement  of  those  locks  full  of 

ringlets, 
Without  sleep  am  I  through  the  flattery  of  that  eye  full  of  ardour. . 

Synonymous  parallelism  may  also  be  found  in  the  figure  saf 

murassa' ,  though  it  will  be  seen  that  in  the  form  of  the  tarsi' 

it  occurs  more  often  as  antithetic  parallelism.    The  saj'  murassa' 

occurs  when  all  the  words  or  the  majority  of  those  in  one  section 

agree  in  form  and  in  rhyme  with  the  corresponding  words  of  the 

second : 

He  studied  the  parts  of  speech  with  the  jewels  of  his  words; 
He  influences  all  ears  with  the  warning-calls  of  his  preaching. 

This  formation  is  not  distinctive  of  rhymed  prose  alone,  but 
occurs  also  in  many  forms  of  verse ;  in  this  selection  from  Abu 
Tammam,  all  the  sections  have  the  same  rhyme : 

Through  him  is  my  reason  enlightened;  through  him  my  hand  well- 
filled; 

Through  him  my  brooklet  became  a  stream;  through  him  my  tinder 
a  torch. 

This  motif  differs  from  the  saj'  muwdzan  in  that  it  has  identity 
of  rhyme  and  sound,  as  well  as  of  form. 

Antithetic  parallelism  has  many  varieties  in  the  Arabic  and 
kindred  literatures.  "When  each  stichos  of  the  antithesis  con- 
tains several  ideas  arranged  in  order,  which  stand  exactly  oppo- 
site to  each  other,  the  figure  is  called  muqdhala;  the  number  of 
these  opposing  concepts  ranges  from  two  to  ten.^^^  For  three 
and  three,  the  number  most  common  in  Hebrew  antithetic  par- 
allelism, this  verse  serves  as  an  example : 

How  beautiful  are  faith  and  riches  when  they  are  united; 
How  ugly  are  unbelief  and  poverty  in  one  and  the  same  man. 

Five  and  five  are  illustrated  by  a  vqrse  similar  to  this  one  from 

Ibn  Mu'tazz,  where  the  individual  members  are  heaped  up  in 

rows  :^^^ 

Be  noble,  composed,  friendly,  well-esteemed  and  peaceful; 
Or  be  faithless,  arrogant,  surly,  despised  and  belligerent. 


152  On  antithesis,  see  Mehren,  p.  97ff. ;  on  muqdbala,  p. 

153  Ahlwardt,  p.  74-75 ;  Dieterici,  p.  32-35. 


106  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

This  type  is  also  called  tafwlf,  and  is  employed  on  occasion  by 

Mutanabbi, 

In  the  figure  of  tarsi' ,  which  springs  directly  from  the  saf 

murassa' ,  antithetic  parallelism  is  also  found.    The  tarsi'  is  the 

complement  of  the  saj'   muwdzan,  or  synonymous  parallelism, 

and  occurs  in  all  branches  of  Islamic  literature : 

Verily  the  righteous  are  in  heavenly  enjoyment; 
But  the  accursed  are  in  Gehenna. 

In  the  Persian  also,  the  tarsi'  sometimes  occurs  without 
antithesis : 

The  shower  of  God's  grace  without  calculation  is  open  to  all; 

And  the  table  of  his  kindness  is  prepared  in  all  places.i54 

At   times   the    tarsi'    is    joined   with    the    tajnls,   becoming 

tarsi'    ma'    tajnls,   wherein   antithesis    occurs   most   often,    but 

where  synonymity  is  also  possible : 

I  shall  not  be  distressed,  if  you  do  not  distress  me; 
I  shall  be  wishful,  if  you  are  sportive.iss 

Examples  of  antithetic  parallelism  occur  often  in  proverbs: 

Faith  is  the  medicine  of  every  grief; 
Doubt  only  raises  up  a  host  of  cares. 

Mere  falsehood  should  be  by  its  face  recognized, 
But  truth  by  parables  and  admonitions.ise 

Synthetic  parallelism  can  be  said  to  exist  as  such  in  Arabic 
even  less  than  in  Hebrew.  In  Hebrew,  where  the  dominant 
motif  is  parallelism,  synthetic  couplets  are  usually  encompassed 
by  numerous  genuine  synonymous  .or  antithetic  couplets ;  so  in 
the  Arabic  khutha  and  maqdma  which  alone  show  long  arrays 
of  parallelistic  couplets,  and  of  course  in  strict  poetry,  where 
parallelism  is  the  exception,  not  the  rule,  synthetic  couplets  are 
engulfed  in  the  labyrinth  of  couplets  which  are  characterized 
by  various  rhymes  and  metres.  The  multitudinous  types  of 
rhymed  and  metrical  couplets,  it  is  true,  may  have  evolved  out 
of  the  synthetic  couplets;  but  the  line  of  demarcation  between 


154  Eueckert-Pertsch,  pp.  88-89 ;   Fleischer,  Kleinere  Schriften,  II,  206. 

155  Gladwin,  p.  5. 

156  Nicholson,  p.  301.      Also : 

"Man's  life  is  his  fair  name  and  not  his  length  of  years; 
Man's  death  is  his  ill  name,  and  not  the  day  that  nears. " 


Vol.  1.]  •    Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  107 

so-called  synthetic  parallelism  and  non-parallelistic  couplets  is 
so  thin  that  it  is  futile  to  distinguish  any  other  types  than  the 
clear  synonj^mous  and  antithetic. 

Examples  of  the  long  continuity  of  parallelistic  couplets  in 
the  maqdma,  written  in  the  saj^ ,  or  rhymed  prose  structure 
may  be  seen  in  this  excerpt  from  Hariri's  maqdma  called  the 
"Reversed"  :i" 

Man  is  the  creature  of  kindness, 

And  the  perfecting  of  a  benefit  is  the  deed  of  the  liberal; 
And  the  disposition  of  the  generous  is  a  treasure  of  praise. 

And  the  gain  of  thanks  is  a  gathering  of  happiness; 
And  the  index  of  generosity  is  the  light  of  cheerfulness. 

And  the  practice  of  courtesy  leads  of  need  to  affection; 
And  the  bond  of  friendship  demands  sincere  counsel; 

And  truth   of  narrative  is  the  ornament   of  the  tongue; 
And  eloquence  in  speech  is  witchcraft  to  hearts; 

And  the  net  of  desire  is  the  bane  of  souls; 

And  impatience  of  disposition  is  a  dishonor  to  mortals. 

And  evil  desire  consists  not  with   self-restraint; 

And  the  clinging  to  prudence  is  the  leading-cord  of  safety;  ' 

And  to  seek  occasions  for  blamings  is  the  worst  of  faults; 
And  the  dwelling  upon  failings  overthrows  friendships. 

The  passage  continues  in  this  strain  for  many  paragraphs,  and 
the  same  sustained  parallelism  can  be  found  throughout  the 
entire  work.  The  synonymity  between  the  terms  at  times  is 
close  and  at  times  distant,  yet  the  parallelism  is  indubitable. 

The  following  example  from  Burton's  translation  of  Night 
204  of  the  Thousand  Nights  and  a  Night  shows  parallelism  ex- 
tending through  several  lines: 

This  is  the  writ  of  one  whom  passion  swayeth, 
And  whom  longing  waylayeth, 
And  wakeful  misery  slayeth; 

One  who  despaireth  of  living, 
And  looketh  for  naught  but  dying; 


157  Chenery,  p.  202.  The  peculiarity  of  this  particular  composition, 
The  Seventh  Assembly,  is  that  the  words  themselves  when  reversed  produce 
a  perfect  sense. 


108  University  of  California  Publications-.      [Sem.  Phil. 

With  whose  mourning  heart     r ../  \ ,,  ^ .. 

Nor  comforter  nor  helper  taketh  part, 
One  whose  sleepless  eyes 

None  suecoureth  from  anxieties; 

Whose  day  is  passed  in  fire 

And  his  night  in  torturing  desire. 

A  word  must  be  said  on  the  presence  in  Arabic  of  a  form 

identical  with  the  Hebrew  qmd,  or  elegy.^^*     The  rhythm  of  an 

old  Arabic  elegy  has  been  designated  as : ^-^  —  | ;  it 

is  supposed  to  have  developed  out  of  numerically  undisciplined 

saj^ ,  which   was   employed   in   ancient   times   not   only   in   the 

orations  and  epics,  but  also  in  songs  of  mourning.     It  is  closely 

associated  with  the  rise  and  development  of  the  rajaz  metre.^^'^ 

A  couplet  which  shows  the  similarity  to  the  Hebrew  style  is  the 

following  :^^° 

Why  hast  thou  trampled  him — the  man? 
Why  hast  thou  killed  him — oh  camel? 

The  following  conclusions  may  then  be  made  in  regard  to 
Arabic  parallelism : 

1.  Parallelism  exists  in  Arabic,  Persian,  and  Ottoman  poetry, 
together  with  varied  rhj^mes  and  metres;  the  figures  wherein 
parallelism  is  present  do  not,  however,  show  the  true  historic 
nature  of  parallelism. 

2.  Parallelism  exists  inherently  and  genuinely  in  the  saf , 
or  unmetrical  poetry  or  rhymed  prose.  Originally  the  saj'  must 
have  been  unrhymed  and  unmetrical,  distinguished  only  by  the 
parallelism.  In  this  primitive  stage  it  was  contemporaneous 
with  early  Hebrew  poetry.  Arabic  poetry,  however,  followed 
a  different  line  of  evolution,  and  in  time  added  to  the  saj^  rhyme, 
which  became  even  more  important  than  the  parallelism.  From 
this  rhyme  developed  the  numerous  species  of  rhyme  in  the  later 
parallelism.  In  addition,  the  rajaz  metre  developed  and  disci- 
plined the  saj' ;  from  it  grew  the  multitude  of  metres  which 
characterize  later  Arabic  poetry. 


158  Koenig,  Stylistik,  p.  316;   and  Hebraeische  BhythmiJc  (Halle,  1914), 
pp.  14-15;  Wetzstein,  Z.  f.  Ethnologie,  V  (1873),  297ff. 

159  Goldziher,  p.  77ff, 

160  See  also  below,  note  167. 


Vo^-  !•]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  109 

3.  Parallelism  in  Arabic  is  synonymous  in  the  figures  saj' 
muwdzana,  saj'  murassa'  and  saf  mutawdzi,  etc.  It  is  anti- 
thetic in  the  figures  muqdbal-a  and  tarsi' ,  and  others.  Synthetic 
parallelism  as  such  does  not  exist  in  Arabic  poetry.  Qlnd  is 
also  present  in  Arabic,  and  the  kindred  literatures. 

A  final  question  arises  with  reference  to  the  saj'.  Gray 
points  out  that  the  saj'  stands  intermediately  between  the  form 
nathr,  pro'se  and  nathm  or  shi'r,  metrical  poetry.^"^  The  rajaz 
metre  he  takes  as  the  transitional  style  between  unmetrical  and 
metrical  poetry.  Gray  then  asks :  Is  it  possible  that  in  Hebrew, 
not  two,  but  three  forms  of  composition  should  be  recognized — 
metrical  poetry,  and  plain  prose,  and  an  intermediate  type 
''difi'ering  from  poetry  by  the  absence  of  metre,  and  from  prose 
by  obedience  to  certain  laws  governing  the  mutual  relations 
between  its  clauses — a  type  for  which  we  might  as  makeshifts 
employ  the  terms  unmetrical  poetry  or  parallelistic  prose?" 
It  is  not  possible  here  to  answer  this  question ;  it  will  be  neces- 
sary to  postpone  even  an  attempt  at  a  reply  until  the  material 
in  several  portions  of  the  biblical  writings  shall  have  been 
reexamined.  ^^^ 

NEC-ARABIC 

The  Neo-Arabic  poetry  which  is  sung  by  the  common  people 
today  affords  many  parallels  to  the  ancient  Hebrew.  A  collec- 
tion of  Arabic  songs  entitled  Songs  of  an  Egyptian  Peasant 
portrays  the  three  major  stages  of  early  poetry,  iteration, 
incremental  repetition,  and  parallelism.^*'^  Iteration  is  not  so 
frequent  as  incremental  repetition,  of  which  the  following 
examples  among  many  suffice : 

Oh  Shamme,  what  has  become  of  me,  Shamme, 
Whom  thou  lettest  restlessly  wander  about,  Shamme, 
Whom  thou  lettest  hunger,  Shamme, 

161  Gray,  p.  44.  In  Persian,  the  prose  consists  of  three  types:  1,  poetical 
prose,  having  measure  without  rhyme;  2,  having  rhyme  without  any  meas- 
use;  3,  simple  prose,  devoid  of  rhyme  and  measure.  Neither  rhyme  without 
measure,  nor  measure  without  rhyme  is  poetry;  it  is  necessary  that  both 
should  be  combined  to  form  verse,  Gladwin,  p.  1;  Eueckert-Pertsch, 
pp.  54-55. 

1R2  See  below,  on  Amos,  p.  262. 

163  Schaefer,  Songs  of  an  Egyptian  Peasant,  collected  and  translated 
into  German;  English  edition  by  F.  H.  Breasted  (Leipzig,  1904). 


110  University  of  California  Publications.       [Sem.  Phil. 

Whom  thou  lettest  thirst,  Shamme, 

What  has  become  of  me,  Shamme, 

Verily  I  would  go  to  Syria  for  the  sake  of  Shamme. 

An  example  of  repetition  and  ascending  thought,  as  in  some  of 
the  Bible  poems,  is  found  in  this : 

The  baby  gazelle,  my  children, 
Goes  behind  its  mother  to  the  pasture. 
It  goes  to  the  pasture  without  any  shoes. 
With  little  feet  bare. 
And : 

Thou  Alexandrian  bath! 

O  bath,  how  A\Tetchedly  thou  art  made, 

O  bath,  and  it  was  made  by  me; 

O  bath,  and   nobody  but   myself. 

Antithetic  parallelism  is  evident  here : 

If  we  have  done  something  badly,  then  reprove  us. 
And  if  we  have  been  thy  sons,  then  content  us. 

Alternate  parallelism  in  a  quatrain  is  present  in  this : 

The  eye  is  black  from  Allah, 

Wherefore  then  the  eye-paint? 
And  the  cheek  is  red  from  Allah, 

Wherefore  then  Joseph 's-beauty  ? 

Other  illustrations  are  at  hand  in  the  collection ;  these  suffice, 
however,  to  demonstrate  similarities  to  Hebrew  parallelism. 

Littman's  Neo-AraMc  Folk-poetry  is  full  of  suggestions  for 
the  Old  Testament  student  to  which  attention  has  already  been 
called  by  Freiherr  von  Gall.^'^*  Littman  asserts  that  many  of 
these  genuine  folk  poems  from  Egypt,  Palestine  and  Syria  are 
written  in  a  kind  of  rhymed  prose ;  the  lack  of  a  definite  measure 
many  indicate  that  also  in  the  Old  Testament  verses  of  a  similar 
character  are  at  least  possible  without  a  fixed  metre. ^"^  Litt- 
man believes  it  possible  because  of  the  long-standing  stability 
of  oriental  forms  that  the  ancient  gwa-measure  is  still  used  in 
Palestine.^"** 


164  Littmann,  Neuarabische  Vollcspoesie  (Berlin,  1902);  Gall,  "Par- 
allellen  zum  Alten  Testament  aus  E.  Littmann 's  Neuarabische  Volkspoesie, ' ' 
ZATW,  1904,  p.  42ff. 

165  Littman,  p.  88. 

166  lUd.,  p.  90. 


Vol.  1;]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  Ill 

I  will  wound  my  cheek  for  thy  sake,  O  my  brother  . , .  and  let  the 

blood  flow, 
And  I  will  keep  thy  slave  by  my  side  three  months  .  . .  for  him  whom 

they  carried  away. 

I  will  repeat  it,  my  brother,  and  say  . . .  and  will  continue  to  dance 

for  you, 
And  if  people  ask  of  me,  I  will  tell  them .  . .  my  dear  brother  has 

gone  away.167 

It  should  be  noted  also  that  strophic  structure,  while  it  is 
never  found  in  the  strictly  classical  poetry,  is  fairly  frequent 
in  the  folk-poetry.  That  this  also  may  be  a  survival  from  ancient 
times  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  outside  of  the  classical  forms 
there  are  found  fairly  old  prototypes  of  the  so-called  Neo- 
Arabic  forms.  As  early  as  the  second  century  after  Muhammad 
there  are  references  to  poems  with  short  lines  grouped  by  vary- 
ing rhyme  into  strophes.  Of  a  later  date  examples  of  the 
muwashshax  are  found  in  greater  variety;  the  departure  from 
the  restrictions  of  the  canonical  laws  of  metre  and  rhyme  are 
considerable,  and  the  strophic  structure  is  clearly  marked  by 
refrains.  Poems  of  this  sort  make  use  not  only  of  popular 
speech  (grammatical  forms  without  case-endings),  but  some  of 
them  are  written  in  the  strictly  classical  language.  It  may  be 
that  the  muwashshax  is  not  in  reality  a  later  development  out 
of  the  classical  poetic  structure,  but  an  independent,  parallel 
development  out  of  the  more  primitive  Semitic  type,  always 
maintained  among  the  people  but  deemed  unworthy  of  imitation 
by  the  classicists  and  excluded  from  the  body  of  written  litera- 
ature.i^'" 

Abyssinian  Parallelism 

A  collection  of  Songs  of  the  Tigre  tribes  of  Abyssinia  also 
shows  points  of  similarity  to  the  ancient  Hebrew."^  Traces  of 
parallelism  may  be  found  in  these  selections : 


^'i'  Ibid.,  pp.  47,  14-17,  46,  129;  see  above,  on  Arabic  qina.  Other  col- 
lections of  Neo-Arabic  poetry  wherein  resemblances  to  the  ancient  Hebrew 
may  be  found  are:  Dalman,  Palaestinischer  Diwan  (Leipzig,  1901),  cited 
by  Gray,  p.  145;  Smith,  p.  13;  Sachau,  "Arab.  Volkslieder  aus  Meso- 
potamien, "  in  Abh.  d.  Bed.  Akad.,  1889. 

ic7«  Hartmann,  Das  arabische  Strophengedicht  (Weimar,  1897),  p.  113 
and  passim. 

lesLittmann,  "Lieder  der  Tigre-Staemme, "  Publications  of  Princeton 


112  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil, 

I  will  glorify  thee,  O  Lord, 

Thy  deeds  are  marvelous! 
This  night  he  created, 

And  he  created  this  morning; 
This  milk  he  created, 

And  he  created  this  corn; 
This  sun  he  created, 

And  he  created  this  shadow. 
Or 

Be  but  still  O  Hemmad, 

If  you  w^ould  appease  me! 
When  the  elephant  is  tamed. 

And  with  burdens  of  milk  returns  home; 
When  the  female  elephant  is  bound, 

And  with  the  cows  gives  milk, 
When  the  lion  becomes  a  shepherd. 

And  is  at  peace  with  cows  and  calves. 
When  the  panther  protects, 

And  from  a  bound  udder  drinks, 
When  the  mountain-goat  rolls  straight  up  the  mountain. 

And   remains  hanging   on  the   precipice, 
When  the  torrent  turns  round, 

And  pours  on  the  highlands. 
When  the  heaven  becomes  a  field. 

And  the  tribes  wander  over  it, 
When  the  field  becomes  heaven, 

And  spreads  wide  over  us. 

Noeldeke  affirms  that  the  metrical  form  of  these  poems  resembles 
in  some  respects  the  ancient  Hebrew.^^'' 

Though  the  comparison  with  this  folk  poetry  of  near- 
Palestinian  and  Palestinian  countries  extends  to  only  a  few 
isolated  phenomena,  yet  these  are  valuable  as  throwing  light 
upon  the  ancient  Hebrew;  it  is  true  that  they  bear  little  on  the 
subject  of  parallelism,  for  after  all,  no  such  regularity  as  in  the 
biblical  poetry  is  maintained,  repetitions  and  prose  being  con- 
tinuously interspersed,  the  former  particularly  in  large  degree ; 
but  the  character  of  the  ancient  Hebrew  rhythm  and  metre 
receive  some  elucidation  from  them,  because  they  appear  to  have 
guarded  the  primitive  forms  for  centuries,  untouched  by  any 
alien  influence. 


Expeditio7i  to  Abyssinia,  III,  IV  (Leyden,  1913-1915)  ;  selections  from  IV, 
856,  and  775-776  respectively. 
169  Z^,  XXXI  (1916),  13. 


"Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  113 

Hebrew  Parallelism 

The  earliest  appearance  of  parallelism  in  Hebrew  poeti-y  can 

scarcely  be  determined.     Unchanged  iteration  after  the  manner 

of  the  Egyptian  and  the  Sumerian  is  not  found  in  the  Bible 

except  in  artistically  introduced  refrains,  where,  however,  they 

are  surrounded  by  regular  parallelism  and  occur  at  regular 

intervals.      Incremental  repetition  is  present,  though  as  a  type 

of  highly  developed  parallelism.      The  identity  of  the  two  lines 

in  this  couplet  produces  a  strong  poetic  effect,  though  the  text 

itself  is  doubtful  (Is.  15.1)  : 

In-a-night    'tis-destroyed,  Ar-Moab  is-ruined; 
In-a-night  'tis-destroyed,  Kir-Moab  is-ruined. 

The  reason  for  the  difficulty  in  tracing  the  origin  and  expansion 
of  parallelism  in  Hebrew  lies  in  the  fact  that  even  the  most 
ancient  poems  already  possess  a  regular  and  intricate  parallel- 
istic  structure.  Though  the  archaic  songs  may  have  come  down 
in  the  language  and  the  form  of  the  prophetic  writers  of  the 
periods  of  great  literary  activity  among  the  Hebrews,  there  is 
nothing  to  argue  against  the  presence  of  parallelism  even  in 
their  original  form.  The  Song  of  Lamech  (Gen.  4.23  ff.)  and 
other  snatches  of  primitive  Hebrew  poetry  betray  a  fully  de- 
veloped parallelism,  together  with  almost  all  the  other  poetic 
devices  of  the  later  literature;  hence  it  is  virtually  impossible 
to  cut  through  to  the  pristine  beginnings  of  Hebrew  parallelism 
with  a  view  to  an  analysis  of  its  steps  of  historic  development. 
A  slight  fund  of  evidence  is  discoverable  in  the  passages 
which  refer  to  the  habit  of  the  women  of  the  early  Hebrews  in 
improvising  verses  on  occasions  of  exultation  and  triumph.  The 
origins  of  antiphonal  singing  may  be  found  here.  Tradition 
reports  that  Moses  with  the  Israelites  chanted  his  ode  at  the 
Red  Sea  in  responsive  fashion,  the  chorus  taking  up,  modify- 
ing and  supplementing  the  thoughts  expressed  by  the  leader. 
"Miriam,  the  prophetess,  took  a  timbrel  in  her  hand,  and  all 
the  women*  followed  her  with  timbrels,  and  with  dances,  and 
Miriam  .answered  them"   (Ex.  15.20).^"°     Another  reference  is 


170  For   similar   customs   among   other   primitive   peoples,   see   Gummere, 
p.  264ff. 


114  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

found  in  I  Sam.  18.7,  where  the  "women  who  played  answered 
one  another, ' '  singing,  first  one  group : 

Saul  hath  slain  his  thousands, 
the  other  answering: 

And  David  his  ten  thousands. 
This  custom  seems  to  have  represented  a  long  historic  process, 
and  rather  explains  the  methods  in  which  parallelism  was 
employed  than  the  rise  of  parallelism  itself;  such  antiphonal 
singing  and  responsion  is  a  practice  common  to  many  peoples, 
and  is  not  accompanied  of  necessity  by  parallelism.  After  long 
usage  in  the  Temple  liturgj-,  antiphonal  singing  passed  into  the 
Christian  Church,  when  two  divisions  of  the  choir  sang  the 
psalms  or  hymns  alternately  by  strophes:  sometimes  this  was 
done  by  single  verses  or  lines,  so  that  the  same  section  of  the 
choir  always  sang  the  latter  half  of  a  couplet,  similar  in  a  way 
to  the  practice  of  composition  employed  by  the  Finnish  bards.^^^ 
By  this  time,  however,  parallelism  had  attained  high  literary 
form;  though  originally  it  may  have  arisen  from  this  practice 
of  alternate  singing  between  a  leader  and  a  chorus,  it  is  more 
plausible  to  believe  that  the  couplet  structure  of  parallelism 
stands  entirely  apart  from  the  antiphonal  singing;  its  origins  in 
Hebrew  may  be  based  upon  the  long  tradition  which  had  come 
down  through  the  Sumerian  and  Babylonian-Assyrian  literature. 
Two  terms  apparently  were  used  to  designate  parallelism  in 
the  Hebrew.  The  word  'and,  "answer"  or  "respond,"  is  used 
with  reference  to  antiphonal  singing,  though  incidentally  its 
meaning  of  "answer"  may  signify  the  fact  that  one  stichos 


171  On  Jewish  Temple  music  in  the  early  Christian  church,  see  Eeider, 
Review  of  Gesaenge  d.  jemenisolien  Juden,  A.  Z.  Idelsohn,  JQR,  n.s.,  VII 
(1917),  635ff.  "It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  both  the  Ambrosian  and 
Gregorian  chants  which  lay  at  the  foundations  of  Christian  music,  in  spite 
of  being  based  on  Greek  modes,  are  Jewish  in  character,  and  must  have  had 
their  origin  in  Temple  music  (cf.  Fetis,  Histoire  generale  de  la  musiquc, 
I,  166).  Not  only  their  antiphonal  character  (theme  and  counter-theme), 
which  closely  resembles  the  principle  of  parallelism  in  Hebrew  poetry,  but 
also  their  affinity  and  predilection  for  minor  modes  like  the  Phrygian  and 
the  total  eclipse  of  the  Lydian  major,  point  as  support  to  this  assertion.  If 
therefore  as  we  have  reason  to  suppose,  there  is  a  continuity  betAveen  the 
Temple  melodies  and  those  of  the  Yemenite  synagogue,  a  comparison  be- 
tween the  latter  and  the  so-called  'cantus  planus'  of  the  Church  can  be 
instructive  in  establishing  once  for  all  the  degree  of  influence  of  the  Temple 
on  the  early  Church  in  the  field  of  music, ' '  p.  639. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.      ,  115 

* '  answers ' '  to  another  in  the  couplet ;  for  this  connotation,  how- 
ever, no  instances  are  at  hand/^^  It  is  equally  difficult  to  tell 
whether  the  word  mdshdl  refers  to  parallelism.  In  the  Arabic, 
it  has  been  seen  that  the  saf  mumdthil  denotes  synonymous 
parallelism.  The  corresponding  Hebrew  verb  mdshdl  originally 
means  "to  represent,  to  be  like";  and  for  the  ancient  Hebrews, 
the  noun  mdshdl  was  used,  usually  in  the  Wisdom  literature,  of 
sentences  constructed  in  parallelism,  but  occasionally  of  other 
types ;^"  it  means  also  a  "parable,"  or  "sentences  of  poetry." 
It  does  not,  however,  appear  to  designate  sharply  and  directly 
the  formation  of  parallelistic  couplets,  though  the  parable,  the 
proverb,  the  riddle,  or  the  prophetic  figurative  discourse  were 
almost  always  cast  in  couplet  or  triplet  formation.  In  this  con- 
nection, it  is  significant  to  note  that  a  study  of  literary  style 
does  not  receive  much  attention  until  the  Middle  Ages,  though 
Philo  and  Josephus  made  feeble  efforts  in  this  direction ;  David 
Kimhi  and  his  contemporaries  are  perhaps  the  first  to  give  to 
parallelism  a  distinctive  appellation.  The  fact  that  seemingly 
the  ancient  Hebrews  had  no  definite  term  to  apply  to  the  specific 
process  of  forming  couplets  of  parallelism,  but  referred  rather 
to  the  type  of  poetic  result  or  totality,  namely  the  poem  itself, 
might  indicate  that  the  use  of  parallelism  was  not  a  deliberate 
or  fixed  style ;  but  this  conclusion  is  by  no  means  a  necessary  one. 

CONCLUSIONS 
It  is  now  possible  to  present  conclusions  on  the  origin  of 
parallelism.  Parallelism  has  its  seat  in  a  psychological  tendency 
of  the  human  mind  to  repeat  a  favorite  thought  in  different 
words ;  this  impulse  operates  most  freely  and  vigorously  in 
moments  of  lyrical  excitement,  though  guided  and  chastened  by 
a  second  psychological  propensity  towards  orderliness  and  organ- 
ization. The  manifestation  of  these  poetic  principles  appears  in 
ancient  literatures,  where  they  take  first  the  form  of  reiteration, 
then  of  incremental  repetition,  and  finally  of  artistic  parallelism. 


1T2  BroAvn,  Driver  and  Briggs,  A  Hebrew  and  English  Lexicon  [cited  as 
BDB]    (Boston,  1906),  p.  777. 
173  iMd.,  p.  605. 


116  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

The  earliest  use  of  parallelism  seems  to  be  bound  up  with  the 
antiphonal  song  of  the  poet  and  the  crowd,  and  the  formulas  of 
soothsayers. 

Parallelism  being  the  result  of  a  universal  human  instinct 
may  have  arisen  independently  in  the  numerous  literatures 
where  it  is  found.  In  Chinese  literature,  its  rise  and  develop- 
ment are  indigenous  and  date  back  three  thousand  years;  in 
Finnish  literature  it  is  equally  old,  and  is  apparently  entirely 
native,  being  unaffected  by  foreign  influences.  Though  bound 
by  a  special  metre,  Finnish  is  much  looser  and  freer  than  the 
Chinese  parallelism,  which  is  assisted  by  several  external  mechan- 
ical devices  which  tend  to  make  its  forms  stereotyped  and  rigid. 
Both  stand  entirely  apart  from  the  parallelism  of  the  ancient 
peoples  of  the  near-East. 

These  include  the  Egyptian,  Sumerian,  Babylonian-Assyrian, 
Arabic,  and  Hebrew  literatures.  Each  of  these  may  have  cre- 
ated and  developed  parallelism  by  entirely  local  agencies ;  no 
alien  influences  may  have  been  at  work.  Yet  the  geographical 
proximity  of  these  peoples  and  the  fairly  complete  chain  of 
chronological  evolution  points  to  some  contact  and  interplay  of 
influence.  The  earliest  extant  parallelism  obtains  in  Egyptian 
literature.  Though  fairly  constant,  it  is  marred  by  frequent 
repetitions;  its  couplet  structure  is  vague  and  irregular.  By 
some  it  is  supposed  that  Hebrew  parallelism  took  its  origin  from 
the  Egyptian.  On  the  assumption  that  the  Egyptians  were  a 
non-Semitic  people,  though  this  of  course  has  been  disputed. 
Breasted  asks :  Did  the  Semites  obtain'  this  style  of  verse  from 
the  Egyptians,  or  vice-versa  T^*  Philo  asserts  in  De  Vita  Mosis 
(I,  5)  that  Moses  was  taught  by  the  Egyptians  ''the  whole  theory 
of  rhythm,  harmony  and  metre."  But  such  evidence  naturally 
counts  for  little;  though  Hebrew  undoubtedly  borrowed  much 
from  the  Egyptians,  the  period  and  extent  of"  this  influence  can- 
not be  shown.  The  high  state  of  Hebrew  parallelism  and  the 
low  stage  of  Egyptian,  indicate  a  broad  historical  gap  between 
the  two  which,  if  a  nexus  between  them  can  be  established,  must 
be  bridged. 


m  Biblical  World,  I,  56.  .oOl)  .q  ^.bk^li-Ti 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  117 

Sumerian  parallelism  seems  to  be  the  next  step  after  the 
Egyptian.  Without  entering  into  the  debatable  question  of 
the  racial  patrimony  of  the  Sumerians,  two  hypotheses  on  the 
appearance  of  parallelism  in  their  literature  are  possible.  Either 
the  Egyptian  literature  affected  the  Sumerian  and  thus  stimu- 
lated it  to  an  advance  in  the  regularity  of  its  parallelism,  for  de- 
spite its  repetitions,  it  shows  a  more  obvious  couplet  structure; 
or  Sumerian  parallelism  arose  locally  and  of  its  own  accord, 
without  any  interchange  between  Egyptian  and  Mesopotamian 
cultures.  Thus  if  it  be  accepted  that  both  Egyptians  and 
Sumerians  were  non-Semitic  peoples,  the  substratum  of  ancient 
parallelism  may  have  been  in  contradistinction  to  the  usual 
opinion,  non-Semitic. 

The  third  link  in  the  chain  of  near-Eastern  parallelism  may 
bind  the  Sumerian  with  the  Babylonian-Assyrian.  The  fact 
that  so  many  of  the  Assyrian  hymns  were  copies  from  the 
Sumerian,  as  the  bilingual  texts  prove,  may  indicate  that  the 
latter  underlies  the  -varied  Babylonian-Assyrian  parallelism. 
Schrader  champions  the  view  that  the  "Akkadians"  were  the 
progenitors  and  earliest  teachers  of  parallelism  to  the  Semites, 
first  to  the  Babylonians  and  then  to  the  Hebrews.  But  little 
evidence  is  at  hand  to  show  that  the  Hebrews  learned  parallelism 
from  the  Sumerians  "during  their  sojourn  in  Sinear,  in  Ur  of 
the  Chaldees  before  they  wandered  to  the  North  and  West,  in 
order  to  settle  permanently  in  Canaan. '  '^^^  Even  if  the  Hebrews 
had  been  introduced  into  parallelism  from  this  source,  its  further 
development  must  have  come  from  contact  with  Babylonian  par- 
allelism. 

For  the  transmission  of  Babylonian- Assyrian  forms  to  Hebrew 
literature  constitutes  the  next  link  in  the  chain  of  parallelism. 
The  similarity  of  Babylonian  to  Hebrew  strophic  and  verse 
forms — the  metrical,  accentual,  and  other  likenesses — points  to 
direct  interplay  between  the  two  civilizations  and  literatures.^^® 
Though  the  Babylonian  stands  clearly  ahead  of  the  Sumerian 


173  Schrader,  ''Semitismus,  "  I,  121ff. 

176  Baumann,  Die  Metrik  und  d.  A.  T.  (Tuebingen,  1905),  pp.  52-53; 
Berger,  ' '  Les  origines  babyloniens  cle  la  poesie  sacree  des  Hebreux, ' ' 
Annales  du  Musee  Guimet,  Biblioth.  de  vulgarisation,  XVI   (1904),  26-84. 


118  University  of  California  Puhlications.       [Sem.  Phil. 

and  the  Egyptian,  it  does  not  attain  in  regularity  of  couplet 
structure  and  the  absence  of  repetitions,  the  beauty  of  the 
Hebrew.  It  may  be  said  to  stand  intermediately  between 
Sumerian-Egyptian  and  Hebrew.  This  by  no  means  implies 
that  the  ancient  Israelites  took  over  bodily  Babylonian  par- 
allelism and  other  poetic  forms  of  expression.  Moreover,  the 
earliest  point  at  which  outside  parallelism  entered  the  Hebrew 
cannot  be  determined,  because  the  most  ancient  poems  extant 
betray  a  fully  developed  parallelistic  formation. 

A  similar  problem  is  bound  up  in  a  consideration  of  Arabic 
parallelism.  Hitherto  the  statements  made  as  to  the  rise  and 
gradual  expansion  of  parallelism  have  been  largely  conjectural ; 
an  even  wider  range  of  hypothetical  reconstruction  is  demanded 
with  reference  to  the  origins  of  the  Arabic.  The  earliest  avail- 
able literature  of  the  Arabs  dates  back  only  a  hundred  years  or 
more  before  Mohammed.  Parallelism  is  present  in  the  form  of 
the  saj' ,  already  marked  by  rhyme.  Though  Goldziher  postu- 
lates a  time  when  the  saj'  possessed  neither  metre  nor  rhyme, 
the  questioii  arises  as  to  how  far  back  this  period  extends. 
Despite  the  tenacity  with  which  the  desert  Bedouin  Arabs  main- 
tained their  customs,  exemplijfied  in  part  by  a  comparison  of  the 
Neo- Arabic  poetry  with  the  ancient  Hebrew,  it  is  too  wild  a  leap 
in  the  dark  to  say  that  contemporaneous  with  the  Babylonian- 
Assyrian  parallelism,  an  Arabic  prototype  existed.  "  The  desert 
tribes  may  have  possessed  at  that  time  no  literature  whatsoever; 
this  would  imply  that  Arabic  parallelism  arose  either  indig- 
enously or  from  contact  with  the  surrounding  peoples  where 
parallelism  was  employed,  the  Babylonians  or  the  Hebrews. 
There  are  signs  of  a  primitive  union  of  Arabic  with  Hebrew, 
and  in  the  poetry  of  the  Bible  itself  there  are  several  instances 
of  couplets  which  show  marked  resemblance  to  the  unrhymed 
saj'.  But  if  ever  a  primitive  junction  between  Hebrew  and 
Arabic  existed  in  unrecorded  eras,  Arabic  poetry  traced  an 
entirely  different  course  of  evolution ;  the  Hebrew  remained  true 
to  its  ancient  origins;  only  when  it  comes  into  clash  with  the 
Greek,  Latin,  and  early  Christian  poetic  forms,  does  the  long 
maintained  parallelism  surrender;  Arabic,  however,  adds  to  the 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  119 

unrhymed  and  unmetrical  saj'  first  a  varied  rhyme ;  then 
metre,  first  of  simple  then  of  multifarious  character;  finally 
the  parallelism  of  the  saj'  is  overwhelmed,  but  not  entirely 
lost,  through  the  adoption  and  perfection  of  countless  poetical 
mechanical  devices.  Thus  the  difiiculty  of  classifying  Arabic 
in  the  chronology  of  parallelistic  evolution  may  be  readily  per- 
ceived. It  is  best  to  ascribe  to  it  an  independent  origin,  and 
to  say  of  the  Hebrew,  that  it  drew  nourishment  from  the  totality 
of  parallelistic  growth  represented  by  the  apparently  steady 
ascent  from  Egyptian-Sumerian  through  Babylonian-Assyrian 
into  the  Hebrew.  Arabic  may  be  a  side-stream  in  the  current 
of  evolution ;  its  role  cannot  be  approximated.  In  the  Hebrew, 
however,  parallelism  received  the  strongest  impulse  for  high 
poetic  expression. 

A  summary  of  conclusions  on  the  origins  of  parallelism  may 
be  briefly  put  as  follows : 

1.  Both  Chinese  and  Finnish  parallelism -arise  independently 
of  any  outside  influences. 

2.  The  chronological  line  of  development  of  near-Eastern,  or 
Mediterranean-Mesopotamian  parallelism  seems  to  be  as  follows : 
Egyptian,  Sumerian,  Babylonian-Assyrian,  and  Hebrew.  Arabic 
may  have  been  contemporaneous  with  the  Babylonian-Assyrian 
or  with  the  Hebrew. 

3.  If  a  non-Semitic  substratum  for  parallelism  is  postulated, 
it  may  be  supposed  that  Egyptian  and  Sumerian,  regarded  as 
non-Semitic,  each  arose  independently  of  the  other,  or  through 
some  interchange ;  that  Babylonian- Assyrian  grew  out  of  Sumer- 
ian ;  that  Hebrew  grew  out  of  Egyptian,  Babylonian- Assyrian, 
and  possibly  the  independently-originated  Arabic. 

4.  If  a  Semitic  substratum  be  postulated,  it  may  be  supposed 
that  in  primitive  times,  the  Arabs  and  the  Hebrews  possessed  a 
literature  marked  by  common  traits;  the  saj'  may  underlie 
Hebrew  parallelism,  though  no  evidence  points  to  the  fact  that 
the  unrhymed  and  unmetrical  saj'  existed  so  early  as  the  ancient 
Hebrew;  this  implies  a  jump  over  nearly  two  thousand  years. 
The  Arabic  saj'  with  its  parallelism  may  be  an  entirely  inde- 
pendent growth. 


120  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Later  Development  of  Parallelism 

The  lifetime  of  parallelism  covers  many  centuries.  It  has 
been  seen  that  the  beginnings  of  parallelism  lie  far  back  in  the 
origins  of  poetry  among  the  Egyptians  and  the  Sumerians.  It 
entered  into  Hebrew  literature  through  the  medium  either  of 
the  Egyptian  or  of  the  Babylonian- Assyrian,  and  may  have  been 
reinforced  by  the  use  of  the  saf  by  primitive  Arabic  tribes. 
It  appears  in  the  earliest  poems  of  the  Israelites;  it  continues 
to  develop  until  it  reaches  its  apogee  in  the  days  of  the  Major 
Prophets,  the  Psalmists,  and  the  Moralists.  Thereafter  it  con- 
tinues to  flourish  in  Hebrew  literature,  though  little  by  little 
its  ancient  spirit  weakens.  It  enters  into  the  Greek  literature 
of  the  Jews  and  for  a  while  retains  its  native  vigor  there ;  but 
the  rise  of  Christian  civilization  and  the  supremacy  of  Greek 
poetic  forms  spell  its  gradual  retirement.  Within  indigenous 
Jewish  literature  the  decline  of  the  Jewish  poetic  genius  during 
the  talmudic  period  .is  responsible  for  a  concomitant  breakdown 
of  parallelism;  nor  does  the  revival  of  Hebrew  poetry  after  the 
tenth  century  avail  much  for  its  renewed  growth  as  against  the 
alien  influence  of  an  intricate  Arabic  system  of  poetics.  Only 
within  the  last  century  has  a  conscious  effort  been  made  to 
resurrect  parallelism;  and  this  attempt  also  has  been  abortive. 

In  the  Apocrypha  and  the  Apocalypses 

To  trace  the  history  of  parallelism  after  the  close  of  the 
biblical  Canon,  it  is  necessary  to  turn  to  those  works  which  lie 
outside  the  Old  Testament  proper.  Jebb  pointed  out  the  pres- 
ence of  parallelism  in  almost  all  of  the  apocryphal  books.^'^ 
Ecclesiasticus,  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  the  Books  of  Wisdom, 
Book  of  Tobit,  the  first  Book  of  the  Maccabees,  the  Book  of 
Judith  are  for  a  large  part  clearly  in  the  parallelistic  style  of 
the  classic  Hebrew  writings,  though  narrative  prose  at  times 
forms  a  background  for  the  parallelistic  insets,  while  the  couplet 
formation  is  less  certain,  and  synonymity  and  close  correspon- 
dence are  less  distinct.      The  Pseud-epigrapha,  several  of  the 


177  Jebb,  Sacred  Literature    (London,   1820),  pp.   75,   84ff. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  ,  121 

apocalypses  such  as  the  Twelve  Patriarchs,  the  Book  of  Jubilees, 
the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch  and  IV  Esdras,  also  contain  passages 
of  parallelism.  Gray  selects  from  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch, 
chapter  48.1-47  as  "among  the  most  regular  and  sustained 
examples  of  parallelism  in  the  whole  range  of  Hebrew  liter- 
ature. "^''®  It  seems  plausible,  then,  that  parallelism  was  used 
in  formal  literature  among  the  Jews  as  a  regular  motif  at  least 
until  100  A.D.,  the  approximate  date  of  the  Apocalypse  of  Esdras. 

In  Greek  Originals  by  Jews 

A  word  must  be  said  on  the  use  of  parallelism  in  Greek 
literature  contemporary  with  the  later  Hebrew.  Tobit's  Prayer, 
the  Prayer  of  Manasses,  the  Song  of  the  Three  Holy  Children, 
the  latter  part  of  Baruch  were,  according  to  the  viewpoint  of 
several  investigators,  written  originally  in  Greek;  yet  the  par- 
allelism remains  fairly  pure.  It  has  already  been  noted  that 
the  character  and  form  of  the  original  Hebrew  poetry  were  re- 
tained, with  the  exception  of  a  few  errors  and  misinterpretations, 
in  the  Septuagint.^^'' 

In  the  New  Testament 

Parallelism  is  evident  also  in  the  New  Testament.  Among 
those  first  to  recognize  it  therein  were  Home,  Wakefield,  Farrer, 
Ammon,  A.  Clarke  and  others.^^"      But  Bishop  Jebb  was  per- 


178  Forms  of  Hebrew  Poetry,  p.  27. 

179  Professor  Max  Margolis  has  pointed  out  that  no  translator  of  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures  could  fail  to  notice  the  parallelistic  structure  of  Hebrew 
poetry.  The  uncials  show  oftentimes  by  stichic  writing  the  nature  of  the 
periodic  and  couplet  character  of  the  parallelism.  The  omission  of  lines, 
in  Proverbs  and  Job,  for  example,  must  be  studied  carefully  and  each 
case  judged  on  its  own  merits.  The  translator  might  operate  freely  with 
his  text,  and  to  the  extent  that  he  sacrificed  the  parallelism  it  may  be 
said  that  it  did  not  matter  to  him,  so  long,  as  in  the  case  of  Job,  he  showed 
himself  an  adept  in  Greek  poetry  (poetarum  lector).  But  that  the  Alex- 
andrian Jews  were  fully  cognizant  of  parallelism  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
in  additions  presumably  not  based  on  a  Hebrew  original,  or  in  the  apoc- 
ryphal writings  already  mentioned,  parallelism  is  present.  The  extent  to 
which  parallelism  was  observed  in  the  other  versions  is  doubtful.  Neither 
Josephus,  Origen,  nor  Jerome  understood  the  fundamental  principles  of 
Hebrew  poetry,  but  they  labored  under  misconceptions  drawn  from  their 
knowledge  of  Greek.  An  interesting  chapter  on  the  recognition  of  par- 
allelism by  translators  of  the  Bible  throughout  the  centuries  could  be 
written,  but  lack  of  space  forbids  the  inclusion  in  this  study. 

180  Jebb,  Sacred  Literature,  pp.  94-95. 


122  University  of  California  PuMications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

haps  the  first  to  devote  himself  to  a  thorough  study  of  New 
Testament  parallelism;  he  was  followed  by  Thomas  Boys,  who 
in  his  Taciia  Sacra  and  Key  to  the  Book  of  Psalms  attempted 
to  show  a  correspondence,  not  merely  of  lines,  but  of  whole 
paragraphs.  John  Forbes  carried  these  investigations  still  fur- 
ther in  his  Symmetrical  Structure  of  the  Scripture  and  A^rn- 
lytical  Commentary  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans}^'^  Richard 
G.  Moulton  accepts  many  of  the  results  of  Forbes  and  selects 
illustrations  for  the  various  types  of  parallelism,  rather  than 
devote  himself  to  a  close  investigation  of  the  material.^^^  Recent 
translations  of  the  New  Testament  have  sought  to  make  use  of 
the  conclusions  of  these  scholars  of  the  last  century,  though  care 
must  be  exercised  in  a  selection  of  their  evidence.^^^ 

Among  the  poems  which  are  of  Hebrew  origin,  parallelism 
is  clear.  The  Magnificat  and  other  New  Testament  canticles 
show  excellent  couplet  structure,^^*  and  the  material  embodied 
in  quotations  from  the  original  Hebrew  still  retains  the  parallel- 
istic  form :  these  quotations  may  be  :  (1)  simple  and  direct  quota- 
tions of  single  passages  ;^*^  (2)  quotations  of  a  more  complex 
kind  when  fragments  are  combined  from  different  parts  of  the 
poetical  Scriptures  and  wrought  up  into  one  connected  whole  ;^^'' 
(3)  quotations  mingled  with  original  matter;  here  one  or  more 
passages  derived  from  the  Hebrew  are  so  connected  and  blended 
with  original  writings  that  the  compound  forms  one  homogeneous 
whole,  the  sententious  parallelism  equally  pervading  all  the 
component  members  whether  original,  or  derived.^'*^ 

Parallelism  is  present  also  in  original  portions  of  the  New 
Testament  apparently  untouched  by  any  direct  influence  of 
biblical  poetry.      Parallel  couplets  abound  ;^^^  triplets  are  fre-' 


181  Edinburgh,  1854,  1868. 

'^^^  Literary  Study  of  the  Bible  (Boston,  1896). 

183  See  Torrey,  "A  Possible  Metrical  Origin  of  the  Lord's  Prayer," 
ZA,  XXVIII,  312jff.  Moffat,  The  Historical  New  Testament  (Edinburgh, 
1901). 

184  Gray,  p.  26;  The  Magnificat,  Luke  1.46,  must  of  course  be  compared 
with  Hannah's  Ode  in  I  Sam.  2.1-10.  Burney,  Journal  of  Theological 
Studies,  XIV,  414-424,  regards  Matt.  25.31-46  as  a  Hebrew  poem. 

185  Matt.  2.6,  18,  4.15,  16;  Heb.  12.5,  6,  etc. 

186  Mark  11.17;  Rom.  11.33-35;  II  Cor.  9.9,  10,  etc. 

187  Eom.  10-13-18;  Matt.  21.42-44;  Acts,  4.24-30,  etc. 

188  Luke  1.46-47,  12.48;  Matt.  5.42,  7.2,  12.35,  15.11;  John  5.29;  James 
1.9-10,  4.8,  20.13,  etc. 

1 


Vol,  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  123 

quent/*'^  though  open  to  the  same  question  as  in  the  Hebrew; 
quatrains  of  varying  orders  also  are  numerous.^^^  Even  though 
in  Greek,  the  parallelism  here  loses  little  of  its  native  force. 

The  work  of  Forbes  on  the  larger  combinations  in  New  Testa- 
ment parallelism  must  be  accepted  with  caution.  He  arranges 
the  Decalogue  in  the  Old  Testament,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
and  other  portions  of  the  New  Testament,  in  symmetrical  forma- 
tion, saying  that  "the  exactness  of  arrangement  in  lines,  para- 
graphs, and  numbers  is  so  definite  that  no  line  or  scarcely  word 
could  be  altered  without  destroying  the  beautiful  symmetry  of 
the  whole."  He  urges  that  parallelism  is  characteristic  of 
prose  as  well  as  poetry,  and  proclaims  that  it  is  no  special 
criterion  of  Hebrew  poetry. ^^^  Moreover,  he  neglects  the  couplet 
foundation  of  parallelism,  and  proceeds  to  find  larger  strophic 
divisions,  even  in  the  New  Testament  epistles,  of  which  he  takes 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  as  an  example.  This  neglect  of  the 
couplet  character  of  both  Old  and  New  Testament  parallelism 
throws  doubt  upon  the  entire  method  of  Forbes.  His  over-exact 
and  arbitrary  schematization  of  the  Decalogue  is  as  questionable 
as  are  Mueller 's  discussions  on  the  strophe  in  general ;  by  this 
method,  from  almost  any  elevated  prose  a  sort  of  "parallelism" 
could  be  obtained.  The  uncertainty  of  Forbes  himself  that 
every  part  of  St.  Paul's  epistle  was  arranged  "designedly"  in 
parallelism  and  his  appreciation  of  the  "indistinctness  of  the 
parallelism"  are  borne  out  by  the  facts.  Parallelism  in  New 
Testament  writings  plays  an  important  rcle,  but  its  ancient 
vogue  and  regularity  have  passed.  Argumentative  and  narrative 
prose  prevail ;  at  times  the  symmetry  is  strong  and  constant  over 
long  periods,  but  the  dominant  note  throughout  is  prosaic.  The 
spirit  a:^d  native  character  of  the  poetry  of  the  Psalms,  the 
Prophets,  and  the  Moralists  have  been  replaced  by  a  combination 
of  assorted  devices  of  a  new  literarv  era. 


I'^oMatt.  8.20,  12.33;  John  3.36;  II  Thess.  2.8;  Jude  1.11,  etc. 

i'.'oMatt.  3.11,  12.  12.36,  37;  John  4.6;  Luke  12.22,  23;  I  Cor.  12.26,  etc. 

I'Ji  "Analytical  Commentary  on  Eomans,"  p.  63ff.;  "Symmetrical 
Structure,"  p.  3ff.  Forbes  bases  his  conclusion  on  the  fact  that  the  figure 
of  "epanodos, "  or  "introverted  parallelism,"  as  discovered  by  Bishop 
Jebb,  is  used  in  prose;  another  point  adduced  as  proof  is  the  employment 
of  special  numbers  to  impart  symmetry  to  tlie  compositions.  But  this 
principle  is  far  afield  from  the  real  nature  of  the  parallelism.     Ibid.,  p.  86. 


124  University  of  Calif orriia  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 


In  Syria  c 

Syriac  literature  affords  an  instance  of  the  conscious  inter- 
mixture of  the  Jewish  poetic  motif  of  parallelism  with  the  Latin 
and  Greek  rules  which  demanded  regularity  of  construction  and 
equality  in  the  number  of  metrical  feet.  While  parallelism 
seems  to  have  decayed  through  sheer  internal  decline  within 
Hebrew  poetry  during  the  talmudic  period,  its  contact  with 
outside  literatures  beyond  the  confines  of  the  Jewish  group 
brought  it  into  conflict  and  synthesis  with  prevailing  non-Jewish 
devices.  The  Greek  and  Latin  literature  cherished  by  the  new 
Christian  communities  of  the  beginning  of  the  Common  Era, 
gradually  mingled  with  the  stately  Hebrew  hymnology  of  tra- 
dition ;  the  Ij-rical  poetry  of  the  heathen  converts  soon  challenged 
the  supremacy  of  the  parallelism  which,  through  the  Psalms, 
had  imbedded  itself  in  the  early  Christian  liturgy.^®^  Little 
by  little,  the  Hebrew  stjde  surrendered,  and  metrical  rules,  after 
the  bent  of  original  poets,  gained  control.  New  Grecian  melo- 
dies and  measures  were  introduced — the  heptasyllabic,  anacreon- 
tic, tetrasy liable,  and  the  dodecasyllabic.  Through  Ephraem 
Sj^rus  and  other  minor  poets  and  hymnologists,  Syriac  literature 
received  a  permanent  Greek  stamp ;  despite  this,  however,  par- 
allelism especially  of  alternate,  antithetic  species,  is  combined 
with  the  intricate  metrical  structure : 

The  world  calls  thee; 

Go  forth  to  labour; 
The  grave  calls  thee, 

Come  rest  thou  weary  one. 
Glory  be  to  Him  who  gives  thee  repose. 1^)3 

Synonymous  parallelism  is  also  apparent : 

Like  lilies  taken  from  the  wilderness, 

Children  are  planted  in  paradise; 
And  like  pearls  in  diadems,       , 

Children  are  inserted  in  the  Kingdom, 
And  without  ceasing  shall  hymn  forth  praise.is* 


192  Burgess,  Metrical  Hymns  and  Homilies  (1853),  p.  xxiii  ff . 

193  lUd.,  p.  9,  "  The  death  of  youth. ' ' 

194 /bid.,  p.  4,  "The  death  of  children." 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  125 

Be  a  guard  to  mine  eye, 

That  it  look  not  stealthily, 
Be  a  guard  to  the  ear. 

That  it  hear  not  wickedly.i^s 

In  Eabbinical  Literature 
Parallelism  in  rabbinical  literature  was  perhaps  first  observed 
by  Jebb,  in  1820,"*'  who  devoted  much  attention  to  the  form 
of  the  aphorisms  and  proverbs  of  the  Rabbis ;  he  failed,  however, 
to  mention  the  liturgy.  The  form  of  even  the  most  ancient 
prayers  differed  from  that  of  the  Psalms  and  other  compositions 
admitted  into  the  Canon  and  supposed  to  have  their  origin  in 
the  times  of  the  Sopherim,  by  "entirely  discarding  parallelism, 
that  dwelling  upon  one  favored  sentiment  in  a  variety  of  ways, 
as  if  loath  to  part  with  it " ;  instead,  it  expressed  the  idea  ' '  in 
the  most  clear  and  concise  form,  and  by  its  language  indicates 
the  transformation  of  the  Biblical  into  the  more  popular  and 
dogmatical  Talmudical  Hebrew,  tinted  with  new  formed  words 
and  Aramaisms."  This  statement  by  Sekles"^  is  in  part  true, 
but  several  of  the  most  ancient  elements  of  the  Eighteen  Bene- 
dictions which  were  written  around  100  a.d.,  and  the  blessings 
accompanying  the  recitation  of  the  shenmf ,  show  traces  of  par- 
allelism; this  is  due  in  large  measure  to  the  fact  that  they 
preserved  many  of  the  sublime  phrases  of  the  Bible  and  a  sug- 
gestion of  its  spirit.  An  example  of  parallelism  in  the  liturgy 
may  be  found  in  the  'Alenu  prayer: 

It  is  our  duty  to  praise  the  Lord  of  all  things, 

To  ascribe  greatness  to  him  who  formed  the  world  in  the  beginning, 

Since  he  hath  not  made  us  like  the  nations  of  the  other  lands, 
And  hath  not  placed  us  like  the  other  families  of  the  earth, 

Since  he  hath  not  assigned  unto  us  a  portion  as  unto  them, 
Nor  a  lot  as  unto  all  their  multitude. ... 

Who  stretched  forth  the  heavens 
And  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth, 

The  seat  of  whose  glory  is  in  the  heavens  above. 

And  the  abode  of  whose  might  is  in  the  loftiest  heights. .  . . 


195  Ibid.,  p.  95,  "A  prayer  to  the  Trinity." 

196  Jebb,  pp.  76,  88-90. 

197  Poetry  of  the  Talmud  (New  York,  1880),  p.  22. 


126  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

On  the  whole  it  may  be  concluded  that  parallelism  is  a  frequent 
but  not  a  dominant  phenomenon  of  the  liturgy,  wherein  elevated 
prose  mingles  with  reminiscences  of  biblical  poetry.^^® 

The  rabbinical  proverb,  or  mdshdl,  expressing  sententiously 
a  moral  counsel,  appears  sometimes  with  and  sometimes  without 
parallelism.  The  Book  of  Ecclesiasticus  or  the  Proverbs  of 
Joshua  ben  Sirah  (c.  180  B.C.)  is  the  only  systematical  book  of 
proverbs  dating  from  the  times  of  the  Sopherim.  The  Mishna 
tractate  Pirqe  'Abhoth,  or  "Ethics  of  the  Fathers,"  contains 
examples  wherein  varied  forms  are  observed;  this  saying  attrib- 
uted to  Rabbi  Hillel  is  marked  by  a  string  of  subjects  with 
corresponding  predicates,  in  almost  arithmetical  progression; 
the  couplet  structure  has  disappeared: 

The  more  flesh,  the  more  Avorms, 

The  more  riches,  the  more  care; 

The  more  wives,  the  more  witchcraft; 

The  more  maid -servants,  the  more  lewdness; 

The  more  meu-servants,   the  more   theft; 

The  more  Torah,  the  more  life ; 

The  more  scholars,  the  more  wisdom; 

The  more  counsel,  the  more   understanding; 

The  more  righteousness,  the  more  peace.  ( 'Abhoth,  2,  8) 

Sometimes,  a  figure  comparable  to  the  Arabic  'aks  occurs,  e.g., 
this  saying  of  Rabbi  Eleazar  b.  Azariah : 

Where  there  is  no  Torah,  there  are  no  manners; 
Where  there  are  no   manners,   there   is  no   Torah. 


198  Examples  may  be  found  in  SekleS',  passim.  The  following  shows 
couplet  structure,  though  not  of  exact  synonymity;  the  parallelism  is  rather 
of  a  constructive  variety: 

"Oh,  Lord  our  God,  endow  us  with  knowledge  to  know  thy  ways, 
And  surround  our  heart  with  thy  fear; 

And  forgive  us  that  we  may  be  among  those  redeemed. 
And  remove  us  from  all  injury. 

Satisfy  us  with  the  blessings  of  thy  land, 

And  collect  our  exiles  from  the  four  corners  of  the  earth. 

Judge  the  erring  according  to  thy  holy  will. 
And  over  the  wicked  stretch  forth  thy  hand. 

Eejoice  the  just  by  rebuilding  thy  City, 
And  by  the  restoration  of  thy  Temple; 

By  the  sprouting  forth  of  the  horn  of  bliss  of  David  thy  servant. 
And  by  the  restitution  of  the  light  of  the  son  of  Jesse,  thy  annointed. 

(Berakhoth,  29.) 
This  prayer  was  composed  by  a  poet  named  Samuel  in  the  third  century. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  127 

Where  there  is  no  wisdom,  is  no  fear  of  God; 
Where  there  is  no  fear  of  God,  there  is  no  wisdom. 

Where  there  is  no   knowledge,   there  is   no   understanding; 
Where  there  is  no   understanding,  there   is   no   knowledge. 

Where  there  is  no  meal,  there  is  no   Torah; 

Where  there  is  no  Torah,  there  is  no  meal.  ( 'Abhoth,  3,  21) 

An  example  of  the  interplay  between  poetry  and  prose,  touched 

by  parallelism,  is  found  in  the  following : 

Warm  thyself  by  the  fires  of  the  wise. 

But  beAvare  of  their  glowing  coals,  lest  thou  be  burnt; 

For  their  bite  is  the  bite  of  the  fox, 
And  their  sting  is  the  scorpion's  sting; 

And  their  hiss  is  the  serpent's  hiss; 

And  all  their  words  are  like  coals  of  fire.  ( 'Abhoth,  2, 16) 

Several  examples  of  antithetic  proverbial  couplets  occur : 

If  thou  art  told,  thy  friend  has  died,  believe  it; 

Thy  friend  has  become  rich,  believe  it  not.  (Gittln,  30b) 

In  whom  this  is,  there  is  all; 

In  whom  this  is  not,  what  is  there? 

Has  one  gotten  this,  what  lacks  he? 

Has  he  not  gotten  this,  what  has  he  gotten?  (Nedhdnm,  41a) 

Where  the  book  is,  no  sword  is  wanted; 

Where  the  sword  is,  the  book  is  superfluous.     ('AbhodM  Zdra,  18) 

One  of  the  favorite  devices  of  the  rabbinical  aphorists  was  a 
quatrain  in  antithetic  alternate  parallelism: 

When  the  number  of  sins  on  earth  is  increased. 

The  holy  name  also  is  not  glorified  on  earth: 
But  when  the  number  of  sins  on  earth  is  not  increased. 

Then  the  holy  name  of  God  is  glorified  on  earth. 

(Zohar,  Beut.,  127,  503) 
Whosoever  maketh  himself  little  on  account  of  the  law  in  this  world. 

He  becometh  great  in  the  world  to  come: 
And  whosoever  maketh  himself  a  slave  on  account  of  the  study  of  the 
law  in  this  world. 

He  shall  be  free  in  the  world  to  come.  (BdbM  Megi'd,  84,  2) 

Numerous  examples  of  this  motif  are  discoverable  in  all  the 
tractates  of  the  Mishna  and  G^mdrd.^^^     One  feels,  however,  that 


T-a^'Embhin,    17b;     Shabbdth,    114;     Siphrd,    fol.    104,    4;     Midhrash 
Tehilllm,  to  Ps.,  chap.  9;    Ta'anlth,  fol.   7,  1.      See  Eosenthal,   Ueber  den 


128  University  of  California  Puhli cations.      [Sem.  Phil. 

the  pungency  of  the  biblical  proverbs  has  in  large  measure  been 
lost. 

The  talmudic  period  proper  is  succeeded  by  the  geonic,  the 
literature  of  which  still  shows  traces  of  parallelism  in  the  gnomic 
or  proverbial  writings;  e.g.,  the  "Alphabet  of  Ben  Sira,"  in 
the  Hebrew  proverbs,  but  not  in  the  Aramaic  f'^'^  and  the  'Ahhoth 
d^Rahhl  Nathan,  in  which,  however,  the  diverse  forms  which 
have  arisen  for  the  aphoristic  writings  almost  entirely  obscure 
it.^°^  In  the  didactic  works  of  the  medieval  poets,  also,  several 
of  the  proverbs  are  couched  in  the  traditional  antithetic  form, 
though  by  this  time  parallelism  no  longer  appears  as  a  constant 
motif.  It  is  not  surprising  that  it  was  preserved  longest  in 
the  proverbial  literature  of  Jewish  writers,  for,  as  has  been  noted, 
antithetic  couplets  or  quatrains  lend  themselves  most  readily  to 
the  expression  of  aphorisms  and  acute  sayings. 

The  scant  poetry  proper  of  the  Talmud  also  offers  some 
examples  of  parallelism.  It  appears,  for  example,  to  a  slight 
degree  in  the  elegy  on  the  death  of  Hanin,  in  Mo'edh  Qdton, 
25b,  though  marked  by  some  ambiguity  of  reference.^"^  A  poem 
from  the  pen  of  a  Palestinian  sage  of  the  fourth  century,  R. 
Isaac  bar  Napaha,  is  "composed  not  only  in  pure  Hebrew,  but 
is  also  written  according  to  the  parallelism  used  in  biblical 
poetry,  and  observes  an  equality  of  syllables  in  its  lines. '  '^°^ 


Zusammenhang  der  Mischna  (Strassburg,  1909),  p.  117.  Here  rhyme  of 
varied  orders,  parallelism,  and  other  formations  in  the  Mishna  are  dis- 
cussed. As  examples  of  a  kind  of  prose  parallelism,  Bdbhd  Bathrd  8,  1, 
Bekhoroth,  8,  1;  'XJq^^n,  3,  1;  K'^rlthoth,  1,  3,  and  other  instances  are 
cited. 

200  Delitzsch,   Geschichte  d.  jued.  Poesie    (Leipzig,   1836),  pp.   204-205. 

201  Baumgartner,  Poesie  gnomique  juive  depuis  le  cloture  du  canon 
he'breu,  jusqu'au  XVie  siecle  (Geneva,  1886),  p.  17. 

202  Form,^  of  Hebrew  Poetry,  p.  30,  cites  an  example  also  from  Highighd 
15b,  which,  however,  is  not  parallelism  even  of  the  synthetic  type. 

203  Sekles,  pp.  99,  146.  '  (It  may  be  objected  that  this  poem  shows 
rather  a  heaping  up  of  descriptive  phrases  than  a  genuine  parallelism 
of  clauses.)  Examples  of  poems  which  show  a  trace  of  parallelism  are 
scattered  through  Sekles.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  connection  with 
the  statement  of  the  Mishna,  Mo'edh  Qdton,  3,  8,  that  female  professional 
wallers  were  employed  at  funerals,  the  Talmud  states  that  these  exclaimed 
as  a  general  formula: 

"Woe  to  him  who  went  away, 

Woe  to  those  who  are  left  behind. ' ' 
The  parallelism  of  a  brief  and  abrupt  kind  is  evident  here. 


Vol.  1,]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  129 

Eejoice,  rejoice,  O  thou  Ark! 

Arise  in  all  of  thy  splendor; 

Engirt  with  bands  of  gold, 

Adorned  with  choicest  gems, 

Exhalted  in  the  sanctuary  of  the  Temple.     {' A^hhodhd  Zdrd,  24b) 

It  is  clear  then  that  parallelism  maintained  itself  in  a  minor 
but  none  the  less  palpable  degree  in  Hebrew  literature  after  the 
close  of  the  biblical  Canon  ;^"*  but  the  constancy  and  beauty  of 
biblical  parallelism  disappeared  with  the  decline  of  poetical  pro- 
ductivity during  the  talmudic  period.  The  number  of  examples 
of  clear  poetry  in  the  Talmud  is  insufficient  to  lay  down  rules 
of  metre  or  prosody,  nor  can  it  be  determined  under  what  for- 
eign influence,  if  any,  the  talmudic  poets  composed  their  works. 
It  is  possible  merely  to  note  the  occasional  presence  of  biblical 
forms  intermixed  with  new  elements. 

In  Medieval  Jewish  Literature 
Hebrew  poetry  enters  a  new  stage  about  the  tenth  century; 
the  end  of  the  Geonic  period  marks  the  beginning  of  the  Arabic 
period.  Even  at  the  time  of  Hai  Gaon,  the  influence  of  Arabic 
poetic  motifs  of  rhyme  and  metre  become  apparent.  In  the 
Musar  Haskcl  attributed  to  him  occurs  perhaps  "the  first  at- 
tempt at  rhyme,  containing  189  distichs  of  which  many  are 
merely  Biblical  passages  rhymed."^*"'  The  introduction  of 
rhyme  is  ascribed  also  to  Jannai,  and  it  was  employed  by  Kalir, 
both  of  whom  lived  in  or  before  the  ninth  century  a-d.^"**  There- 
after despite  vigorous  opposition  by  Menahem  ben  Saruk,  his 
disciples  and  a  whole  school  during  the  Middle  Ages,  Arabic 


204  Gray  speaks  of  the  Eabbis  ' '  examining  scripture  with  eyes  blind  to 
parallelism"  (p.  27),  and  brings  several  instances  to  show  that , commen- 
tators through  the  second  century  a.d.  failed  to  understand  the  principle 
of  parallelism.  Though  this  conclusion  may  have  applied  to  the  majority 
of  Eabbis,  it  by  no  means  characterized  all.  In  the  Mishna  on  'Abhodhd 
Zdrd,  II,  5,  Eabbi  Joshua  in  a  discussion  on  the  Song  of  Songs,  1.2,  uses 
the  expression  x"^^^(^^^>  with  reference  to  the  second  stichos  of  a  couplet 
which  explains  a  doubtful  reading  in  the  first.  If  the  word  is  translated 
merely  as  ' '  the  accompanying  verse ' '  then  no  reference  to  a  parallelism 
can  be  implied;  if,  however,  as  Emslie  {The  Mishtiah  on  Idolatry,  London, 
1911,  p.  37),  translates,  x^bhero  means  the  "parallel  verse,"  then  it  may 
well  be  that  Eabbi  Joshua  appreciated  the  value  of  the  parallelistic  prin- 
ciple in  the  interpretation  of  doubtful  passages. 

205  Baumgartner,  p.  20. 

206  Graetz,  Geschichte,  V,  158-159. 


130  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

poetic  usages  came  more  and  more  into  favor.  For  the  adoption 
of  the  whole  range  of  these  stylistic  devices,  Dunash  ben  Labrat 
is  most  responsible,  though  his  successors,  Hasdai,  Solomon  ibn 
Gabirol,  Jehuda  ha-Levi,  Ibn  Ezra,  the  Kimhis  and  a  score  of 
others,  brought  them  to  a  high  stage  of  development.^"^ 

Parallelism,  as  has  already  been  seen,  had  begun  to  disappear 
in  the  days  of  the  Geonim.  and  only  in  the  gnomic  literature 
had  survived  to  any  appreciable  degree.  With  the  advent  of 
Arabicised  Hebrew  poetry,  parallelism  is  neglected  even  more. 
The  influence  of  the  biblical  forms  is  broken  down ;  though  Bible 
quotations  are  frequently  made,  these  are  worked  into  the  rhyme 
and  metre  which  dominate  the  particular  poem;  sometimes  the 
parallelism  of  the  original  is  maintained,  but  only  when  it  fits 
the  poetical  purpose  of  the  author.^"^  It  will  be  later  observed 
that  modern  Hebrew  poets  are  guilty  of  the  same  practice. 

It  is  not  difficult,  it  is  true,  to  uncover  examples  of  parallel- 
istic  couplets  among  the  medieval  poets;  but  these  are  scattered 
and  exceptional ;  the  poets  do  not  hold  the  motif  for  any  length 
of  text.  The  following  may  be  cited  as  illustrations  of  occasional 
parallelism,  though  varied  metre  and  rhyme  are  also  present : 

1.  Samuel  ha-Nagid  in  ''On  the  Battle  Field" r^"^ 

If  I  pass  in  the  midst  of  water  draw  me  out  of  my.  peril ; 

If  I  walk  in  the  heart  of  fire  rescue  me  from  my  danger. 

2.  Hiyya  Da'udi  in  Qiddushd  :^^'^ 

The  heights  of  the  heavens  to  you  are  the  throne  of  glory, 

And  the  bounds  of  the  earth  thy  footstool  of  power  and  glory. 

These  announce  to  you  all  glory. 

And  these  proclaim :    "To  whom  the  glory ? ' ' 

The  Lord  God  of  Hosts.     He  is  the  King  of  Glory. 


207  Brody,  Studien  zu  den  DicMungen  Jehuda-Hal-Levi's  (Berlin,  1895), 
p.  9ff.  The  extent  to  which  Hebrew  imitated  Arabic  poetry  may  be 
understood  from  the  fact  that  the  poetic  terminology  of  the  medieval  Jew- 
ish investigators  was  almost  entirely  Hebrew  equivalents  for  the  Arabic 
phrases.  See  Hartmann,  Hcbraeische  Verslcunst  (Berlin,  1894),  p.  84; 
Kaempf,  Die  ersten  Makamen  aus  dem  Tahkemoni  oder  Diwan  des  Harizi 
(Berlin,  1845);  on  Hebrew  compared  to  Arabic  metre,  see  pp.  17-45; 
Halper,  "Scansion  of  Mediaeval  Hebrew  Poetry,"  JQB,  n.s.,  IV  (1913), 
p.  153ff. 

208  Albrecht  and  Brody,  The  Neo-Hebrew  School  of  Poets  of  the  Spanish 
Arabian  Epoch  (London,  1906),  pp.  17,  51ff. 

209  Ibid;  p.  34. 

210  Ibid.,  p.  131. 


Vol-  !•]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  131 

3.  Abraham  ibn  Ezra  in  G^^ 'ulld  :-^^ 
If  my  enemies  spoke  evil  to  me, 

Then  I  shall  speak,  stretching  out  my  foot, 

God  of  Abraham  has  He  been  to  me. 
And  the  Fear  of  Jacob  unto  me. 

4.  Solomon  ibn  Gebirol  in  G^'ulld:^^^ 
To  whomsover  I  sell  thee, 

The  husband  will  take  up  thy  contention; 
To  whom  is  the  writing  of  divorcement. 
Behold,  I  will  contend  thy  opponent. 

In  all  these  illustrations,  however,  the  parallelism  is  accidental, 
and  is  surrounded  by  non-parallelistic  verses.^^^ 

Important,  however,  among  the  devices  borrowed  from  Arabic 
literature  by  Jewish  Neo-Hebraic  poets  is  the  saj'  or  rhymed 
prose.  In  this  field  Judah  al-Harizi  is  the  leader ;  his  Taxk^mdrii 
is  written  in  imitation  of  the  style  of  Hariri's  '' Assemblies. "^^* 
It  consists  of  various  maqdmMt,  wherein  the  rhymed  prose  has 
become  hebraised,  and  the  Bible  language  takes  the  place  of 
koranic  allusions.  Though  Harizi  employs  the  device  skilfully, 
the  rhyme  is  more  important  with  him  than  parallelism,  which 
is  not  so  frequent  as  in  the  work  of  the  Arabic  poet.  Moreover 
the  true  difference  between  biblical  and  the  Neo-Hebraic  par- 
allelism herein  becomes  evident;  the  former  is  free,  natural, 
spontaneous ;  the  latter  is  a  second-hand,  artificially  adapted 
imitation.  An  indication  of  the  type  of  parallelism  that  occurs 
at  intervals  in  the  Taxk^moni  may  be  seen  from  this  selection  of 
lively  sa/  occurring  in  the  "Maqdma  of  the  Unhappy  Mar- 
riage " :  ' 

May  God  make  long  thy  days. 

And  keep  the  beauty  of  thy  cheeks. 

And  thy  fruit  forever  flourish. 

Thou  art  sweet  and  beauteous  to  my  gaze, 
And  pleasant  unto  my  sight. 

Thou  quickenest  all  hearts  by  thy  beauty. 

Thou  drawest  unto  thee  all  souls  by  the  freshness  of  thy  cheeks.sis 


2ii/&id.,  p.   155. 

212  Ibid.,  p.  50. 

213  Kaempf,  Niclitandalusisohe  Poesie  andalusischer  Dichter  aus  d.  11. 
12.  u.  13.  .J ahrhunderten  (Prague,  1588),  contains  translations  and  com- 
ments on  the  works  of  these  and  several  other  poets  of  the  time. 

214  See  Kaempf,  Die  ersten  Makamen  des  Harizi,  passim. 
2i5Albrecht  and  Brody,  p.  179. 


132  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

The  Piyyutim^^^  of  the  Middle  Ages  also  show  only  slight 
traces  of  parallelism ;  metre  and  rhyme  and  other  poetical  figures, 
refrains,  puns,  acrostics,  abound  and  obscure  even  the  genuine 
parallelism  of  the  numerous  biblical  quotations.^^^  It  may  be 
concluded  then  that  the  infrequent  parallelism  which  appears 
in  medieval  Hebrew  poetry  is  neither  indigenous  nor  significant. 
Though  the  synthesis  between  historic  Hebrew  phraseology  and 
the  many-sided  prosody  and  rhetoric  of  the  Arabs^^^  produced 
many  notable  poems,  it  brought  to  light  no  parallelism  which 
holds  an  important  rank  in  its  expansion  and  influence.^" 

In  Modern  Hebrew  Literature 

An  important  era  in  the  history  of  Hebrew  parallelism  begins 
with  the  modern  Haskdld,  or  "Enlightenment,"  movement  in 
Germany  and  Russia.^^"  Moses  Hayyim  Luzzatto  sought  to 
emancipate  Hebrew  poetry  from  the  tradition  of  the  Middle  Ages 
and  to  free  it  for  self-expression  under  biblical  influence.  His 
Mighdal  'Oz  and  La-Y*^shdr%m  T^^hilld  show  indications  of  a  re- 
turn to  biblical  style,  but  parallelism  is  not  constant  or  frequent. 
Mendes  and  Wessely  followed  in  Luzzatto 's  footsteps,  the  latter 's 
Shire  Tiph'creth  betraying  some  parallelism.^^^  The  Mishle 
'Asaph  of  Isaac  Satanow^^^  are  true  to  the  character  of  Hebrew 
gnomic  literature,  and  as  in  the  proverbs  of  all  peoples,  parallel- 
ism is  at  hand : 


216  Hymns  added  to  the  Hebrew  liturgy  after  the  seventh  century  a.d. 

217  See  Sulzbach,  Die  religioese  u.  weltliche  Poesie  der  Juden  (Trieste, 
1893).      Sachs,  Festgehete  der  Israeliten  (Berlin,  1860),  app.,  p.  Iff. 

218  On  Arabic  poetry  by  Jews,  see  Noeldeke,  Die  Gedichte  d.  Juden  in 
Arabien  (1864),  passim;  also  Bacher,  Die  hebraeische  u.  arabische  Poesie 
der  Juden  Jemens  (Budapest,  1910),  p.  73:  "Die  Form  der  Dichtungen. " 

219  Credit  for  priority  in  the  discovery  and  designation  of  parallelism 
belongs  to  the  medieval  Jewish  commentators  Levi  ben  Gershon,  Ibn  Ezra, 
and  David  Kimhi.  (Gray  has  brought  the  data  together  in  Forms,  pp. 
17-18).  Azariah  de  Eossi  devoted  a  chapter  of  his  M^'or  ' Enayim,  "Light 
of  the  Eyes"  (Mantua,  1574),  to  the  study  of  Hebrew  poetry,  wherein  he 
recognizes  parallelism  and  the  true  character  of  its  poetical  rules.  This 
work  underlay  Lowth's  famous  Praelectioncs  and  to  it  he  assigns  due  place. 

220  See  Slouschz,  Renaissance  of  Hebrew  Literature  (Philadelphia,  1909), 
passim;  La  poesie  lyrique  hebraiqtie  contemporaine  (Paris,  1911),  passim; 
Waldstein,  Modern  Hebrew  Literature  (New  York,  1916). 

221  The  selection  made  by  Casanowitz,  Jewish  Encyclopedia,  IX,  522,  is 
not  good,  for  synonymous  parallelism  is  absent. 

222  Berlin,  1789  and  1792. 


"Vol.  1,]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  133 

On  the  day  of  thy  birth  thou  didst  weep, 

And  those  about  thee  were  glad; 
On  the  day  of  thy  death  thou  wilt  laugh, 

And  those  about  thee  will  sigh. 

Many  are  the  beautiful  wives  that  are  hated  by  their  husbands; 
And  many  are  the  ill-featured  wives  that  are  beloved. 

This  return  to  biblical  style  might  have  presaged  a  readoption 
of  parallelism  as  a  dominant  poetic  principle,  but  its  primitive 
character  as  a  poetic  instrument  and  the  number  and  scope  of 
poetic  and  rhetorical  devices  at  the  author 's  command^^^  operated 
against  its  popularity.  Abraham  Baer  Gottlober's  poems  in  the 
periodical  Hash-Shaxdr,  ' '  The  Dawn, ' '  savor  of  biblical  influence 
and  make  use  of  many  biblical  quotations  which,  however,  as 
with  the  medieval  poets,  are  couched  in  rhyme  and  metre;  still 
his  works  show  frequent  parallelism,  to  which  he  devotes  much 
attention  in  an  article  on  modern  Hebrew  poetics.^^*  Judah 
Leon  Gordon,  one  of  the  foremost  figures  of  the  Hebrew  re- 
naissance, also  permits  parallelism  to  crop  out  at  intervals : 

They  but  sowed  the  wind  and  ploughed  the  rock, 
Drew  water  in  a  sieve  and  threshed  empty  straw; 

They  taught  thee  to  run  counter  to  life. 

To  isolate  thyself  between  walls  of  precepts  and  prescriptions, 

To  be  dead  on  earth  and  alive  in  heaven, 

To  walk  about  in  a  dream  and  speak  in  thy  sleep.225 

The  prose  of  Perez  Smolenskin  in  Hash-Shaxar  is  so  permeated 
with  the  Bible  spirit  that  parallelism  abounds;  he  seems  to  em- 
ploy it  entirely  unconsciously,  and  hence  it  has  a  spontaneous 
and  undisciplined  character.  But  the  works  of  the  more  recent 
poets,  including  Dolitzki,  Frischman,  Shapiro,  Berditchevsky, 
Schneour  and  others  have  broken  away  more  and  more  from 
biblical  motifs;  the  trend  of  the  poetry  of  the  last  decades  of 
the  nineteenth  and  the  early  years  of  the  twentieth  centuries 


223  Abraham  and  Micah  Lebensohn  introduced  Hebrew  poetry  to  nearly 
all  the  rules  of  modern  prosody  and  established  the  standards  for"  future 
poetics. 

22i  Hak-KokMbhlm  (Vilna,  1865),  pp.  11-50. 

225  Rhine,  Leon  Gordon   (Philadelphia,  1910). 


134  University  of  California  Puilications.       [Sem.  Phil. 

has  been  anti-biblical;  hence  modern  poetics  have  held  sway 
and  the  weak  parallelism  of  previous  years  has  been  further 
enfeebled.'^*' 

Perhaps  the  only  author  to  champion  in  writing  a  revival  of 
parallelism  as  the  characteristic  Hebrew  poetic  form  is  Zeeb 
Yawitz.  He  sought  to  disengage  Hebrew  verse  from  modern 
prosody  and  to  lead  it  back  to  the  form  of  the  Bible;  his 
N^ghlnoth  minni  Qedhem,  "Melodies  of  Antiquity, "^^^  are  a 
paraphrase  of  talmudic  tales  in  the  style  of  the  Prophets.  But 
Yawitz  understood  the  Hebrew  language  far  better  than  he  did 
the  true  nature  of  poetic  inspiration,  and  his  poems  do  not  take 
high  rank  in  recent  Hebrew  literature ;  his  was  a  voice  crying 
in  the  wilderness,  and  his  productions  met  with  no  imitators.^^* 

Bialik,  the  greatest  of  modern  Hebrew  singers,  has  at 
moments  attained  the  heights  of  biblical  inspiration;  his  Shire 
haz-Za'am,  "Poems  of  Wrath,"  suggest  the  strength  of  Jere- 
miah f^^  and  his  style  is  ' '  one  step  more  towards  the  return  to 
Biblical  classicism"  which  has  marked  the  protest  against  the 
anti-biblical  tendencies  of  recent  years;  but  even  his  poems  do 
not  exhibit  sustained  parallelism.  They  are  simple,  though  not 
so  simple  as  biblical  compositions,  for  many  poetical  figures 
and  forms  of  current  usage  are  employed.  Nor  on  Palestinian 
soil  has  parallelism  gained  a  foothold :  contributors  to  the  various 
Palestinian  magazines  have  resorted  to  it  only  occasionally;  it 
does  not  appear  in  the  folk  melodies,  which  show  metre  and 
rhyme ;  the  songs  of  the  children  fail-  to  use  it.^^° 

It  may  be  said  that  parallelism  has  outlived  its  day.  It 
had  its  zenith  when  poetic  forms  were  relatively  undeveloped; 
and  appears  unable  to  regain  its  sway  as  the  only  dominant 
motif  of  Hebrew  poetry.  It  seems  to  demand  a  sublime  state 
of  Ij^ric  emotion ;  Slouschz  believes  that  it  will  not  return  to 


226  Slouschz,  Renaissance,  p.  181. 

227  Jerusalem,  1892;  see  also  for  a  review  of  this  Avork,  Ham-Melig, 
XXXII   (1892),  289. 

228  Slouschz,  Poesie  lyrique,  pp.  133-134. 

229  The  qlna  measure  is  popular  with  many  modern  Hebrew  poets,  but 
parallelism  does  not  necessarily  accompany  it  in  their  compositions;  see  for 
example  the  Qindth  by  Perez   {Poesie  Lyrique,  p.  155). 

230  idelson,  Sepher  Msh-Shirim   (Berlin,  1912),  passim. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  135 

Hebrew  poetry  until  a  poet  of  majestic  powers  has  been  pro- 
duced ;^^^  but  it  is  not  plausible  to  believe  that  the  appearance 
even  of  a  notable  Hebrew  poet  will  necessarily  witness  its  resusci- 
tation. Inspiration  equal  to  biblical  grandeur  and  complexity 
of  poetic  forms  are  compatible.  The  greatest  poet  uses  the 
simplest  devices,  but  parallelism  is  not  the  only  available  form. 
The  secret  of  the  beauty  of  the  Psalms  and  the  prophetic  utter- 
ances lies  not  in  their  parallelism  but  in  their  inspiration.  A 
revival  of  biblical  majesty  in  modern  Hebrew  poetry  will  come 
not  from  a  restoration  of  parallelism,  but  through  the  rise  of 
a  unique  spirit  touched  with  the  fiame  of  ancient  prophetic 
lyricism  and  vision. 


231  Slouschz,  Poesie  lyrique,  p.  13,  n.  1. 


136  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 


PARALLELISM  IN  AMOS 

INTEODUCTION 

The  interplay  of  biblical  prose  and  poetry  is  one  of  the 
most  vexing  questions  to  Old  Testament  investigators.  The  two 
literary  forms  interweave  in  almost  all  parts  of  biblical  compo- 
sition, particularly  in  the  prophetical  books.  It  has  been  difficult 
to  set  the  limits  to  poetry,  while  recent  students  in  biblical  prose 
have  complicated  the  problem  still  more  by  designating  the 
apparently  prosaic  narrative  portions  as  poetry.  Several  in- 
vestigators have  escaped  the  issue  by  accepting  the  overlapping 
of  Hebrew  verse  and  prose  as  a  standard  biblical  practice.  Moul- 
ton  speaks  of  a  middle  region  wherein  poetry,  distinguished  by 
high  parallelism,  meets  and  interlocks  with  prose;  the  effect  is 
a  great  stylistic  gain  in  a  combination  of  "the  delight  of  freedom 
which  is  the  spirit  of  prose  with  a  sense  of  rhythm,  which  is  the 
foundation  of  verse."  George  Adam  Smith  advocates  the  same 
principle,  and  quotes  Professor  Saintsbury  to  prove  the  beauty 
of  ''the  double  appeal  of  poetry  and  rhetoric,  the  magical  order 
of  poetry,  and  the  magical  apparent  freedom  of  rhetoric." 

It  is  unsatisfactory,  however,  to  adopt  these  general  con- 
clusions without  a  knowledge  of  their  full  implications.  Is  there 
a  twilight  zone  wherein  poetry  and  prose  form  a  melange?  If 
so,  where  does  poetry  proper  end,  where  does  prose  proper  end, 
and  what  is  the  result  of  their  blending?  These  questions  can 
be  answered  in  some  measure  only  by  a  reexamination  of  the 
exact  data  present  in  the  books  of  the  Bible.  For  this  purpose, 
the  book  of  Amos  has  been  chosen.  It  might  perhaps  be  better 
to  look  into  the  didactic,  the  proverbial  poetry,  or  into  an 
epic,  the  Book  of  Job,  or  into  the  Psalms.  For  the  literary 
psychology  of  these  works  is  relatively  simple,  whereas  in  the 
prophets  tcountless  problems  of  vague  and  apparently  insoluble 
character  arise.  But  research  in  the  book  of  Amos  will  at  least 
have  the  merit  of  grappling  with  a  double  problem:  first,  the 
interrelation  between  prose  and  poetry  in  Hebrew  literature  as 


Vol.  1,]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  137 

a  whole,  and  second,  their  interplay  under  the  influence  of  the 
unique  forces  of  prophecy. 

The  method  of  study  into  the  prose,  the  poetry,  and  the 
melange  of  both  in  Amos  will  proceed  from  the  known  to  the 
unknown.  The  eases  of  indubitable  prose  in  Amos  will  first  be 
stated ;  the  instances  of  clear  poetry  next :  the  third  category 
will  comprise  the  delicate  shades  of  intermixture,  and  an  attempt 
will  be  made  to  extract  therefrom  general  conclusions  on  the 
process  of  interplay.  The  schematic  symbols  employed  are 
adopted  largely  from  Gray,  though  a  similar  system  with  some 
modifications  was  used  before  the  latter 's  work  was  seen. 

PEOSE 
Sheer  prose  is  found  in  the  superscription,  1.1,  an  insertion 
in  all  probability  from  the  post-Exilic  period,  of  a  narrative  his- 
torical character,  similar  to  other  prose  superscriptions  in  the 
prophetic  books.  A  second  piece  of  sheer  prose  is  6.9-10,  which 
breaks  with  the  encompassing  poetry  in  theme,  in  style,  and  in 
language;  the  verses  seem  to  be  a  later  inset,  and  none  of  the 
proposed  reconstructions  (Harper,  152)  succeed  in  securing  par- 
allelism or  poetic  rhythm  for  the  passage,  also  narrative,  but  not 
historical  in  character.  It  will  be  seen  then  that  relatively  little 
definite  prose  exists  in  Amos:  the  numerous  introductory  and 
closing  prophetical  phrases  and  refrains  and  the  verses  in  the 
narrative  portion  of  7.10-17  come  under  different  categories  and 
need  special  consideration. 

PARALLELISTIC  POETEY 
Complete  Parallelism 
Clear  poetry  in  Amos  involves  the  question  of  the  degree 
and  the  character  of  the  correspondence  between  the  parallel 
couplets  and  triplets.  It  is  insufficient  merely  to  label  these  in 
terms  of  the  broad,  undiscriminating  categories  of  synonymous 
and  antithetic  parallelism;  the  classifications  of  Gray  are  more 
helpful.  Complete  parallelism  occurs  when  every  single  term 
in  one  stichos  is  parallel  to  a  term  in  the  other,  or  when  at  least 
every  term  or  group  of  terms  in  one  stichos  is  paralleled  by  a 


138  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

corresponding  term  or  group  of  terms  in  the  other.  The  simplest 
form  of  complete  parallelism  is  represented  by: 

a        b  . 

a'       b' 

Examples  from  Amos  are  few ;  these  are  really  parts  of  larger ' 
periods  (in  these  translations  hyphens  connect  words  which  cor- 
respond in  the  Hebrew  either  to  a  single  word,  or  to  words  and 
particles    which    plainly   form   one    compound   expression    and 
receive  one  accent)  : 

Not-a-famine     for-bread 

Not-a-thirst    for-water.  8.11b 

It  may  be  necessary  to  designate  these  two  subperiods  also  as  one 

line  or  stichos: 

Not-a-prophet     ami 

Not-a-prophet 's-son    am-I.  7.14a 

Examples  of  the  one  variation  from  this  two-term  scheme : 

a        b 
b'       a' 

also  fall  under  the  criticism  of  being  subperiods  of  larger  units : 

And-do-not-seek     Bethel, 

And-Gilgal     do-not-enter.  5.5a 

Not  everything  about  this  period  is  clear,  for  it  is  part  of  a  ques- 
tionable triplet;  moreover  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  negative 
of  command,  'al,  should  receive  a  full  accent;  as  the  example 
is  cited,  it  does  not. 

And-I-will-wall-up     its-breaches, 

And-its-ruins     will-I-raise-up.  9.11b 

This  period  seems  to  be  part  of  an  ''envelope"  construction; 
though  complete  in  itself,  it  is  encompassed  by  a  preceding  and 
following  monostich,  parallel  each  to  each.  It  may  be  concluded 
then  that  two  term  periods  are  infrequent,  except  as  parts  of 
larger  units. 

Three  term  complete  parallelism  is  represented  by : 

a        b        c 
a'       b'       c' 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  139 

The  four  following  illustrations  are  each  part  of  larger  settings, 
the  first  three,  minus  a  major  verb,  the  fourth,  the  central  por- 
tion of  an  envelope  construction : 

With-shouting     in-the-day-of     battle, 

With-a-tempest    in-the-day-of    the-whirlwind.  1.14b 

Cleanness-of     teeth     in-all-your-cities, 

And-lack-of     bread     in-all-your-places.  4.6b 

For-the-sanctuary-of    the-king     is-it, 

And-the-residence-of    royalty    is-it.  7.13b 

As-liveth     thy-God,    Oh-Dan; 

And-as-liveth     the-way-of     Beersheba.  8.14b 

An  example  of  a  complete  and  independent  couplet  of  three 

terms  is : 

Not-shall-escape     of-them     a-fugitive, 
'    And-not-shall-be-delivered     of-them     a-refugee.  9.1d 

The  permutations  of  the  three-term  complete  parallelism  are 

found  in  some  measure  in  Amos ;  though  apparently  there  are  no 

examples  of  the  forms 

a        b        c 
a'        c'        b' 

Of  the  form 

a        b        c 

b'        a'        c' : 
And-I-will-eut-off     the-judge     from-the-midst-of-her, 
And-all-her-princes     I-will-slay     along-with  him.  2.3 

The  preposition  'immo  corresponds  here  to  miq-qirhdh,  but  the 
use  of  the  prepositions  here  is  doubtful. 

The  form 

a        b        c 

b'        e'        a' : 
Who-causeth-to-burst    violence    upon-the-  strong, 
And-devastation     upon-the-fortress     brings.  5.9 

The  change  from  yabho',  "comes,"  to  ydbhl',  ''brings,"  improves 
the  parallelism. 

Take-from-me     the-noise-of     thy-songs, 

And-the-mclody-of     thy-lyres     I-will-not-hear.  5.23 


140  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

The  preposition  me-alai,  ''from  me,"  is  counted  here  with  the 
verb  and  does  not  receive  a  word  accent  of  its  own. 

Who-drink     from-bowls-of     wine, 

And-with-the-first-of     oils     they-anoint-themselves.  6.6a 

The  synonymity  of  thought  is  less  exact  here  than  true  parallel- 
ism demands,  but  the  correspondence  of  terms  is  perfect. 

And-laid-desolate-shall-be      the-high-places-of      Isaac, 
And-the-sanctuaries-of     Israel     shall-be-laid-waste.  7.9a 

A  disturbing  element  enters  here  through  the  presence  of  a  fol- 
lowing single  stichos,  which  is  treated  on  page  181. 

a        b        c 

c'        a'       b' 
And-he-cherished     forever     his-anger, 
And-his-wrath     he-kept    perpetually.  1.11c 

A  change  from  way-yitroph,  " and-it-tore, "  to  way-yittor,  "and- 
he-cherished,"  is  sanctioned  by  the  parallelism.  It  will  be  seen 
also  in  a  discussion  of  the  Doom  Song  that  this  couplet  may  be 
a  post-Amosian  insertion. 

•  a        b        c 

c'        b'       a' 
And-who-turneth    to-morning    deep-gloom, 
And-day    into-night    he-darkeneth.  5.8b 

A  single  stichos  precedes  this  couplet  and  brings  forward  the 

question  of  a  triplet  which  will  be  discussed  b*elow. 

He-that-builds     in-the-heavens     Ms-chambers, 

And-his-vault     upon-the-earth     he-established-it.  9.6 

Double  Structure 
The  double  term  structure  exists  when  in  the  second  line 
two  or  more  terms  occur  which  taken  together  are  parallel  in 
sense  to  a  corresponding  number  of  terms  in  the  tirst  line,  though 
the  separate  terms  of  the  one  combination  are  not  parallel  to  the 
separate  terms  of  the  other  combination.  In  its  extreme  form 
parallelism  of  this  variety  consists  of  two  entire  lines  completely 
parallel  in  sense,  but  of  which  no  two  terms  taken  separately 
are  parallel  to  one  another  (Gray,  p.  69).     The  numerical  sym- 


Vol,  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  141 

bol.  a2,  b2,  etc.,  represents  either  a  double  member,  consisting 
of  two  synonyms,  or  a  compound  term  consisting  of  two  parts. 
In  Amos  there  is  no  example  of  the  form : 


The  form 


a2  b 

a'2  b' 

a  b2 

a'  b'2 


is  illustrated  by  this  couplet  taken  independently  out  of  its  back- 
ground : 

For-Gilgal     shall-surely     go-into-exilej 

And-Bethel    shall-become    naught.  5.5e 

a        b2 
b'2      a' 
I-laid-waste     your-gardens     and-your-vineyards, 
And-your-fig-trees     and-your-olive-trees     the-locust-devoured.         4.9b 

The  emendation  of  harhoth,  "the  multitude* of , "  to  hex^rahhtl, 

"I-laid-waste,"   on  the  basis   of  Wellhausen    (Harper,   p.   99) 

makes  excellent  parallelism  and  satisfies  every  demand  of  the 

context.     The  double  terms  here  signify  two  synonyms  rather 

than  a  compound  member;  moreover  it  must  be  noted  that  the 

verb  of  one  accent :  hex^rabkti,  is  paralleled  by  a  compound  term 

of  two  parts  whicl^,  however,   receives  here  only  one  accent: 

yokhal   hag-gdzdm,    "the-locust-devoured."      The    scheme    may 

thus  be : 

a       b2 
b'2      a'2 

The  lines  are  equal  in  the  number  of  their  syllables,  each  having 
twelve,  not  counting  the  sh^was;  the  first  scheme  therefore  seems 
more  plausible,  though  the  test  of  counting  the  syllables  is  a  dan- 
gerous one.  For  another  possible  example  of  this  form  see  below 
on  2.7a. 

Variations  of  this  double  structure  are  numerous  and  will 
be  introduced  under  the  major  subdivisions  of  complete  and 
incomplete  parallelism  that  follow. 

Incomplete  Parallelism 
Incomplete  parallelism  exists  "when  only  some  of  the  terms 
in  each  of  two  corresponding  stichoi  are  parallel  to  one  another, 


142  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

while  the  remaining  terms  express  something  which  is  stated  once 
only  in  the  two  lines,"  Sometimes  one  line  contains  a  given 
number  of  terms  and  another  line  a  smaller  number  of  terms; 
this  rasiy  be  styled  incomplete  parallelism  without  compensation ; 
but  if  the  two  lines  contain  the  same  number  of  terms,  though 
only  some  of  the  terms  in  the  two  lines  are  parallel,  the  lines  may 
be  said  to  constitute  incomplete  parallelism  with  compensation 
(Gray,  p.  74). 

WITHOUT  COMPENSATION 
a  b  C 

b'       c' 
But-I-destroyed     his-fruit     from-above, 
And-his-roots     from-b«neath.  2.9c 

And-I-raised-up     sorae-of-your-sons     for-prophets, 
And-some-o:f-your-youths     for-Nazirites.  2.11a 

Surely-I-knoAv     how-manifold     are-your-transgressions, 

And- mighty-are    your-sins.  5.12a 

And-I-will-turn     your-feasts     into-mourning, 

And-all-your-songs    into-lamentation.  8.10a 

And-I-will-bring     upon-all-loins     sackcloth, 

And-on-every-head    baldness.  8.10b 

And-they-shall-wander     from-sea    to-sea, 

And-from-the-north     even-to-the-rising-of-the-sun.  8.12a 

This  last  example  gives  Harper  trouble,  for  he  adds  to  the  second 
stichos  the  verb  y<'sh6tHu,  which  according  to  the  Massoretic 
division  goes  Avith  the  next  period.  The  equal  length  of  the  two 
stichoi  as  they  stand  and  the  prevalence  throughout  prophetic 
literature  of  the  figure  in  8.12b  argue  against  Harper's  arrange- 
ment. 

a        b         c 
a'       b' 

Who-lie     upon-beds-of     ivory, 

And-streteh-themselves     upon-their-eouches.  6.4a 

The  terms  "ivory"  may  be  paralleled  by  the  suffix  dm,  "their," 
but  this  is  doubtful. 

And-it-devoured     the-great     deep 

And-would-have-eaten    the-land.  7.4a 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  143 

The  word  rdbhd,  "great,"  in  the  Hebrew  is  the  third  term  in 
the  first  stichos;  it  is  difficult,  as  with  the  word  rahhlm,  "many," 
below,  to  show  this  in  the  translation. 

a       b ,      c 
b'       a' 
Because-they-have-rejeeted     the-law-of     Yahwe, 
And-his-statutes    have-they-not-kept.  2.4b 

I-abhor    the-pride-of    Jacob, 

And-his-palaees    do-I-hate.  6.8a 

And-there-shall-drop     the-mountains     sweet-wine, 
And-all-the-hills     shall-melt.  9.13b 

The  length  of  these  two  stichoi  in  the  Hebrew  is  almost  equal 
because  the  reduplicated  root  tithmoghaghnd,  "shall  melt,"  has 
two  beats. 

a        b        c 

a'  c' 

And-he-shall-bring-down      from-thee     thy-strength, 
And-plundered-shall-be    thy-palaces.  3.11b 

Shall-not-darkness-be     the-day-of- Yahwe,     and-not-light. 

Yea,     deep-darkness,     and-no-brightness-in-it  ?  5.20 

Another  arrangement  could  be  in  the  form  of  an  alternate  par- 
allelism as  follows : 

a         b         c         I  d 

a'  d' 

Do-there-run     upon-the-rock     horses, 
Boes-one-plough     (there)     with-oxen.  6.12a 

Doubt  attaches  to  this  verse.  Harper  (p.  153ff.)  reads  the  second 
stichos  "Does-one-plough  the-sea  with-oxen";  he  breaks  up 
the  unusual  plural  hab-h^qdrim  into  hah-hdqdr  yam.  Though 
the  reading  and  scheme  given  are  substantiated  by  the  Jewish 
Translation,  this  emendation  seems  plausible ;  the  scheme  then 
becomes : 


a 

b         c 

a' 

c'        b' 

a2 

b 

a' 

b' 

I-hate,    I-despise 

your-feasts, 

And-I-will-not-smell     in-your-festivals 

5.21 


144  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

This  couplet  has  two  verses  metrically  equal,  though  the  first 
stichos,  perhaps  for  emphasis,  has  two  verbs.  The  schematiza- 
tion  may  be : 

a        a'       b 

a"       b' 

Compare  4.9a,  and  below,  on  reduplication. 

a2       b 

b'  a' 
And-eat-there  bread, 
And-there     prophesy.  7.12b 

Though  this  couplet  is  part  of  a  larger  whole  and  may  constitute 
only  one  stichos  with  two  parallel  hemistichs,  it  may  be  treated 
independently.  In  this  arrangement  though  the  word  sham, 
"there,"  interposes,  "eat-bread"  is  taken  as  a  compound  double 
term.     If  they  be  separated  the  scheme  becomes : 

a        b  c 

b'  a' 
or 

a         b  c 

b'  d 

In  either  of  these  two  forms,  the  principle  of  fresh  terms  is  intro- 
duced, of  which  numerous  illustrations  are  found  in  Amos  (see 
below). 

a         b         c 
a'        d 
And-cut-off-shall-be    the-horns-of     the-altar, 
And-they-shall-fall     to-the-ground.  3.14b 

Perhaps  a  third  term  should  be  added  in  the  second  stichos, 
though  no  evidence  points  to  the  nature  of  the  term.  Another 
possible  arrangement  of  this  is : 

a        b        c 

a'2 
For-three     sins-of    Damascus, 
Yea-for-four,     I-will-not-revoke-it. 

This  occurs  as  the  introductory  formula  in  the  Doom  Song,  1.3a, 
6a,  9,  11a,  13a;  2.1a,  4a,  6a;  in  each  case,  the  name  is  changed. 
The  two  stichoi  are  metrically  equal;  though  the  first  itself  has 
no  verb  it  is  understood  from  the  second  stichos ;  the  use  of 
the  terms  "three"  and  "four"  is  the  link  which  binds  the  two 
stichoi  into  a  parallel  couplet. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  145 

WITH    COMPENSATION 

Double  Structure 
Incomplete    parallelism   with    compensation,    in   its   various 
types,  is  assisted  by  the  double  term  structure  and  by  the  fresh 
term  motif.    Examples  of  the  double  terms  compensation  are  as 
follows : 

a         b         c 
b'        c'2 
Yahwe     from-Zion    roars, 
And-from-Jerusalem     he-utters     his-voice.  1.2a 

Proclaim    over-the-palaces     iu-Ashdod, 

And-over-the-palaces     in-the-land-of     Egypt.  3.9a 

The  word  hashml'U,  ''proclaim,"  is  here  a  part  of  the  parallel- 
ism, and  is  different  from  the  phrases  of  postlude  and  prelude 
which  the  prophet  employs  before  and  after  his  main  speeches, 

And-he-shall-lift-up     you     with -hooks, 

And-the-last-of-you     with-fish     hooks.  4.2 

Doubt  attaches  to  this  verse  (Harper,  p.  85).  It  is  difficult  to 
render  in  the  translation  the  fact  that  dughd  is  the  third  term  in 
the  second  stichos ;  it  should  in  reality  be  read :  ' '  hooks  of  fish ' ' ; 
it  is  also  difficult  to  show  in  the  translation  the  double  character 
of  the  compound  phrase. 

Go-to     Betliel     and-transgress ; 

To-Gilgal    and-multiply    transgression.  4.4a 

Woe-to     those-that-are-at-ease     in-Zion, 
And-those-that-are-secure     in-the-mountain-of     Samaria.  6.1a 

And-those-who-eat     lambs     out-of-the-flock, 

And-calves     from-the-midst-of    the-stall.  6.4b 

The  preposition  mit-tokh  receives  here  a  full  word  accent. 

Hear-this,     ye-that-tread     the-needy, 
And-ye-who-would-make-cease     the-poor-of     the-earth.  8.4a 

Again  as  in  3.9a  a  prophetic  prelude  phrase  receives  a  word 
accent  and  is  accounted  as  part  of  the  parallelism.  Moreover 
in  the  first  stichos  the  word  'ehhyon,  which  has  but  one  accent, 
is  paralleled  in  the  second  stichos  by  ' anlye-'ereg,  which  has  two 
accents. 


146  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

a         b         e 
b'2     c' 
And-I-will-cut-off     the-inhabitant     from-Bikath-Awen, 
And-the-holder-of     the-sceptre     from-Beth-Eden.  1,5b,  8a 

Bring     every-morning     your-sacrifices, 

Every-three    days    your-tithes.  4.4b 

The  phrase  li-sh^ldsheth  ydmlm  translated  by  the  Jewish  Trans- 
lation "after  three  days"  gives  difficulty  (Harper,  p.  92) ;  the 
schematic  arrangement,  however,  is  unaffected. 

a       b       c 

c'       b'2 
Because-they-sell     for-silver     the-righteous, 
And-the-needy    for-the-value-of    a-pair-of-shoes.  2.6b 

To-buy     for-silver     the-poor, 

And-the-needy     for-the-value-of     a-pair-of-shoes.  8.6 

These  two  almost  identical  verses  both  have  in  the  second  stichos 
the  preposition  ha-'^hhUr,  which  means  "for  the  sake  of"  or 
"on  account  of."  Though  a  preposition,  it  receives  a  full  word 
accent,  as  did  mit-tokh  in  6.4b,  and  hence  is  translated  "for- 
the-value-of"  in  order  to  show  that  it  is  a  distinctive  element 
in  the  thought. 

And-they-shall-call     the-husbandman     to-mourning, 
And-to-wailing     those-skilled     in-lamentation.  5.16b 

This  couplet  occurs  in  a  larger  setting;  Harper  treats  it  as  cor- 
rupt and  omits  the  second  stichos  entirely,  thus  destroying  the 
parallelism.  The  error  may  perhaps  lie  in  the  first  stichos  of 
verse  17  (see  below).  Difficulty  also  attaches  to  the  grammatical 
construction.     (Harper,  p.  126ff.) 

But-let-well-up     like-waters     justice, 

And-righteousness    as-a-stream    ever-flowing.  5.24 

a         b         c 
c'2      a' 

They-hate     him-that-in-the-gate     reproveth, 

And-one-who-speaks    uprightly     they-abhor.  5.10 

a        b         c 

c'        a'2 
They-who-turn     to-wormwood     judgment, 
And-righteousness     to-the-ground     they-cast.  5.7 


Vol.  L]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  147 

A  slight  doubt  attaches  to  this  couplet;  the  scheme  may  be: 
a        b        c 
c'       d        a' 

a        b        c 

c'2      b' 
Who-like-the-height-of     the-cedars     was-he-high, 
And-strong     was-he     like-the-oaks.  -  2.9b 

This  couplet  permits  of  other  schematizations : 

a2      b 
.b'2     a' 

This  takes  in  the  first  stichos  k^-ghohhah-'^^rdzlm  as  one  word 

accent,  and  in  the  second  x^Qon-hU'  as  one  accent. 

a        b        e 
c'       b' 

This  regards  x^Qon-hU'  as  one  word  accent.    But  it  is  better  to 
give  hu'  in  itself  one  accent  and  retain  the  first  scheme. 

For     ye-have-turned     to-poison     justice, 

And-the-fruit-of    righteousness     to-wormwood.  6.12b 

Fresh  Term  Structure 
Incomplete  parallelism  with   compensation  by  means   of   a 
fresh  term  or  terms  appears  in  several  variations :  The  forms 


and 


have  no  instances  in  Amos. 

The  fresh  terms  may  be  either  one,  two,  or  three  in  number. 

a        b        c 
a'        b'        d 

The  couplets  in  3.15b,  8.8b,  and  9.5b  may  come  under  this  class- 
ification, but  they  will  be  discussed  under  others  below. 

And-there-shall-perish     the-houses-of     ivory, 
And-there-shall-cease    many    houses.  3.15b 

As  in  7.4,  the  translation  does  not  show  that  raihlm  stands  after 
its  noun,  and  is  the  third  member  in  the  stichos.     While  in  6.4 


a 

b 

b' 

c 

a 

b 

a' 

c 

148  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil, 

the  word  "ivory"  may  perhaps  have  the  suffix  "their"  as  a 
corresponding  term,  here  it  has  the  weak  "many."  The  form 
may  be  also : 


a 

B 

c 

a' 

b' 

c' 

a 

b 

c 

a' 

d 

c' 

l-I-will-turn 

my-hand     against-Ekron, 

L-there-shall-] 

aerish 

the-remnant-of     the-Philistines. 

1.8b 

And-I-will-cause-to-set     the-sun     at-noon, 

And-I-will-darken     the-earth     in-the-clear-day.  8.9 

If  it  be  argued  that  Id-' dreg  is  parallel  to  hash-shemesh,  then  the 
arrangement  becomes : 

a        b        c 
a'       b'       c' 
And-I-will-send     fire     into-Teman, 
And-it-will-devour    the-palaces-of    Bosra.  1.12 

And-I-will-send     fire     into-Judah, 

And-it-will-devour     the-palaces-of     Jerusalem.  2.5 

And-I-will-send     fire     into-Moab, 

And-it-will-devour     the-palaces-of     Kerioth.  2.2 

These  are  three  of  the  instances  of  the  punishment  formula  in 
the  Doom  Song.  The  other  instances  occur  under  the  four  term 
variations  (see  below;  see  also  a  discussion  on  5.6b). 

a        b        c 

d        b'-      c' 
And-I-will-make-it      as-the-mourning      for-an-only-son, 
And-the-end-thereof     as-a-day-of     bitterness.  8.10c 

a        b         c 

c'        b'        d 
By-the-sword     shall-die     Jeroboam, 
And-Israel     shall-surely-be-exiled     from-his-land.  7.11 

The  question  of  word  accents  here  is  troublesome.  The  phrase 
gdlo-yighU  receives  only  one  word  accent  to  correspond  with 
ydmuth;  the  same  is  true  of  me-' al-'adhmdtho. 

a        b2 

a'       b'       c 
And-it-rises-up     like-the-Nile     all-of-it, 
And-sinks    like-the-Nile-of    Egypt.  9.5b 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  149 

This  couplet  is  identical  with  8.8,  except  for  the  fact  that  the 

latter  contains  in  the  second  stichos  at  its  head  w<^-nighrcshd, 

' '  and-heave ' ' ;  this  is  clearly  a  gloss  which  for  several  reasons 

(Harper,  p.  180)  can  be  omitted.     It  has  already  been  suggested 

that  these  couplets  could  come  under  the  form : 

a       b       c 
a'        b'        d 

a         b2 

a'        c  b' 

Are-they-better     than-these     kingdoms, 
Is-greater     their-border     than-your-border.  6.2b 

The  suffixes  here  cause  difficulty,  and  the  meaning  is  not  entirely 
clear  in  the  light  of  the  preceding  and  following  stichoi ;  the 
parallelism  is,  however,  unaffected  (Harper,  p.  145). 

A  group  of  couplets  wherein  parallelism  with  compensation 
occurs,  though  the  text  itself  is  in  a  doubtful  state,  is  found  in 
2.14-16.  As  the  strophe  on  the  punishment  which  is  to  over- 
take the  strongest  and  swiftest  now  stands,  its  schematic  char- 
acter is : 

a         b         c  a2         b 

c'        a'        b'  a'2        b'2 

a         b         e  a2         b         c         d 

a'2      b' 

Three  couplets  and  a  single  stichos  make  up  the  series;  but  the 
fact  that  several  repetitions  mar  the  text  and  the  fact  that  the 
Massoretic  division  of  verses  14  and  15  makes  each  contain 
three  stichoi,  while  verse  16  has  an  extra  long  and  repetitious 
line,  throws  doubt  upon  the  state  of  the  passage.  It  seems 
plausible  that  the  author  intended  that  the  strophe  should  con- 
tain three  parallel  couplets,  and  that  the  text  should  contain  as 
few  repetitions  as  possible.  Various  reconstructions  have  been 
suggested,  but  none  have  kept  in  mind  the  need  for  parallelistic 
couplets.      The  following  restoration  is  therefore  suggested: 

W-'abhadh  mums  miq-qal 

W^-qal  hc-raghlaw  16'  yimmdlet  14a,  15b 

w^X^^fi'fl  ^o'  y^ammeg  qoxo 

w'^-ghibhor  16'  yaggil  naphsM  l4b,  14c 


150  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

w^-thophes  qesheth  Id'  ya'^modh 

iv^-rokhebh  Ims-sus  yanus  15a,  15c,  ]  6b 

And-there-shall-fail     refuge     from-the-swift, 
And-the-speedy-of-foot     shall-not-escape, 

And-the-strong,     not-shall-avail     his-strength, 
And-the-warrior     not-shall-he-deliver     himself, 

And-he-that-handles     a-bow     shall-not-stand, 
And-the-rider-of-a-horse     shall-flee. 

This  arrangement  is  by  no  means  free  from  criticism.  In  the 
first  couplet,  there  is  a  repetition  of  the  word  qal  which  on  the 
principle  that  identical  repetitions  mar  the  form,  is  not  satis- 
factory, despite  the  fact  that  the  phrase  in  reality  is  qal  b^-ragldw, 
"  speedy-of-f oot. "  In  the  second  couplet,  the  first  stichos  seems 
justifiable,  but  the  second  demands  the  change  of  the  words: 
y^mdllet  naphsho  to  ya^gll  naphsho  to  avoid  repetition  (cf.  Amos 
3.12;  Is.  44.20,  etc.)  ;  or  the  root  pdlat  might  be  substituted  for 
mdlat  in  one  case.  The  third  couplet  has  the  virtue  of  bringing 
together  the  stichoi  which  contain  a  subject  with  a  modifier, 
which  in  the  schematization  becomes  a2  and  a'2.  The  difficulty 
lies,  however,  with  the  word  'drum  in  verse  16.  There  the  words 
w^-'ammlg  libho  hag-gihhorlm  appear  to  be  a  dittography  or 
variant  of  y^'ammeQ  qdxd  w^-gibhor  in  verse  14,  hence  they  can 
be  omitted.  It  is  significant  to  note,  however,  that  verse  16  is 
the  only  stichos  which  declares  flight  not  in  the  negative,  but  in 
the  affirmative.  In  the  arrangement  given  above,  the  word  'drum 
is  omitted,  though  it  may  be  inserted  in  the  second  stichos  of  the 
third  couplet,  giving:  "and  the  rider  of  a  horse  naked  shall  he 
flee."  It  may  be  possible,  however,  to  place  the  word  'drum 
in  the  first  stichos  of  this  last  couplet,  and  to  interpret  the  word 
"naked"  as  meaning  "without  weapon."  The  form  then 
becomes : 

And-he-that-handles-a-bow     naked     shall-stand, 
And-he-that-rides-a-horse     shall -not-flee. 

In  addition  to  the  change  remarked  in  the  first  stichos,  it  is  seen 
that  the  Id'  is  transposed  to  the  second  stichos;  this  makes  the 
sense  that  even  the  one  best  equipped  to  flee  will  be  unable  to  do 
so.    The  schematic  arrangement  of  these  suggestions  becomes : 


Vol.  1.] 


Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos. 


151 


a        b 
c'2     a' 


b 
b'2 


a2      b 
a'2b   b' 

or  the  last  couplet  is : 

a2      b        e 
a'2      b'; 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  these  suggestions,  it  seems  indisput- 
able that  a  sextet  of  stichoi,  divided  into  three  pairs,  may  have 
been  in  the  original  text.  Hence  the  principle  of  couplet  par- 
allelism has  proved  here  a  valuable  aid.  The  long  line,  appar- 
ently prose,  in  verse  16  has  shown  itself  to  be  illegitimate,  once 
more  vindicating  the  principle  that  a  breakdown  of  the  par- 
allelism and  the  presence  of  an  unattached  single  line,  whether 
isolated,  or  supposedly  a  part  of  a  triplet,  in  Amos  are  in  reality 
due  to  textual  corruption  (see  below). 


Four  Term  Variations 

Four  term  variations  are  not  frequent  in  Amos,  and  there  is 
no  instance  of  the  form : 


d 
d' 


But  the  following  scheme  is  present  wherein  the  second  stichos  is 
shorter  than  the  first : 

abed 

'a'       c'        d' 
And-one-shall-smite     the-great     house     into-splinters, 
And-the-small     house     into-chips.  6.11 

Again  it  is  difficult  in  the  translation  to  show  that  the  terms 

"great"  and  ''small"  occur  after  and  not  before  their  nouns  in 

the  Hebrew. 

So-I-will-send     a-fire     into-the-house-of     Hazael, 
And-it-will-devour     the-palaces-of     Benhadad.  1.4 

This  instance  from  the  formula  of  destruction  in  the  Doom  Song 
presents  a  different  scheme  from  1.12 ;  2.2,  5.  The  formulas  in 
1.7,  10,  14,  depending  on  the  question  whether  one  regard  the 


152  University  of  California  Publications.       [Sem.  Phiu 

word  arm^nothehd,  "its  palaces,"  as  deserving  of  one  accent,  or 
of  two,  whereb}'  the  suffix  ehd,  "its,"  corresponds  to  the  name 
of  the  respective  city,  can  take  either  this  scheme : 

abed 
a'        c' 
or  this: 

abed 
a'        e'        d' 
So-I-will-send     a-fire     on-the-wall-of     Gaza,    (Tyre,  Eabba) 
And-it-will-devour     its-palaces  (or,  the  palaces  thereof). 

Forms  with  three  terms  in  the  first  stichos  and  four  in  the 

second  are  found  in  numerous  combinations : 

a        b        c 
d         a'        b'        c' 
Who-twitter    to-the-sound-of    the-harp, 
Like-David     tliey-devise-for-themselves     instruments-of     song.  6.5 

This  couplet  is  dubious :  the  word  k^-Ddwldh  is  probably  a  gloss 

(Harper,  p.  147)  ;  if  omitted  the  scheme  becomes: 

a        b        c 
a'        b'        c' 

Doubt  also  attaches  to  the  distribution  of  the  accents  in  this 
couplet ;  the  word  Idhem,  ' '  for  themselves, ' '  being  reckoned  in 
with  x^ishchhu,  "they  devise,"  the  total  receives  but  one  beat. 

a        b        c 

a'        b'        c'2 
In-all     the-broad-plaees     there-shall-be-lamentation, 
And-in-all    the-streets    they-shall-say:  Alas,- Alas.  5.16a 

This  couplet  occurs  in  a  setting  wherein  corruption  is  evident. 
This  schematization  of  the  text  regards,  contrary  to  the  cus- 
tomary usage,  the  word  h^-khol  in  both  stichoi  as  worthy  of  a  full 
word  accent.  Harper  (p.  126tf.)  suggests  that  the  word  '<^dhdndi 
at  the  end  of  the  prophetic  phrase  introducing  the  couplet  be 
read  'arnln,  * '  I  will  cause  shouting ' ' : 

I-will-cause       shouting     in-all-the-squares     for-mourning, 
And-in-all-the-streets     they-shall-say  :Woe,Woe. 

This  gives  to  h^-khol-r^x^hoth  and  h^-khol-xUQdth  only  one  word 
accent,  thus  conforming  with  the  Massoretic  maqqeph  (see  Gray, 
pp.  138-140).     The  arrangement  thus  becomes: 


a 

b 

c 

b' 

c'2 

a 

b 

e 

b' 

a' 

c' 

Vol.  1.]  Neivman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  153 


Or 


a        b        e 
b'2      c'2 
When     tliere-shall-overtake     the-ploughman     the-reaper, 
And-the-treader-of     grapes     him-who-soweth     seed.  9.13a 

Again  the  question  of  word  tone  enters  to  throw  doubt  on  this 

arrangement.     There  are  here  four  words  of  major  character  in 

the  second  stichos  to  express  two  compound  ideas  corresponding 

to  two  simple  nouns  in  the  first  stichos  with  only  one  accent 

each;  the  scheme  may  thus  be,  though  with  less  plausibility, 

a        b        e 
b'       c' 

The  following  couplet  contains  several  peculiarities ;  the  first 

is  the  phrase  isht^khd  hd-^tr,  "thy  wife  in  the  city,^"  the  second 

the   double  subject   in   the   second   stichos,    together   with   the 

unusual  idea  "thy  daughters  shall  fall  by  the  sword."     As  the 

couplet  stands  it  reads : 

Thy-wife    in-the-city     shall-be-a-harlot, 

And-thy-sons    and-thy-daughters    by-the-sword    shall-fall.      7.17a 

a         b         c 

a'2      d2     ■ 


Or 


a       .b        c 
a'2      d         c' 


A  reassortment    of    the    phrases    here    would    be    necessary    to 

give   a   good   parallelistic   couplet;   the   omission   of   the   word 

u-hh^nothekhd  would  make  the  scheme : 

a        b        c 
a'       d2 

Another  doubtful  couplet  occurs  in  8.13.      As  it  stands  it 

falls  into  this  scheme : 

a        b        c 
b'       d 
There-shall-faint     the-beautiful     virgins, 
And-the-youths     from-thirst. 


154  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

The  Jewish  Translation  glides  over  the  difficulty  by  translating 
without  regard  to  the  parallelism : 

In  that  day  shall  the  fair  virgins, 

And  the  young  men  faint  for  thirst. 

Harper  (p.  183  ff.),  recognizing  the  flaw  in  the  text,  transposes 
the  end  period  of  verse  14  and  makes  this  combination : 

There-shall-faint     the-beautiful     virgins, 

And-the-youths     shall-fall    and-not-rise-again. 

This  gives  the  schematization : 
a  b  c 
b'        a'        d2 

A  suggestion  may  be  made  that  the  emphasis  upon  the  word 
hay-ydphoth,  "the  beautiful,"  is  unnecessary,  and  that  instead 
a  form  of  the  root  yd'eph,  *'to  be  weary,"  or  "faint,"  should 
be  substituted.  This  is  borne  out  by  Is.  40.30,  where  the  root 
is  used  of  youths,  n^'drim,  as  a  parallel  to  the  word  used  by  Amos, 
huxurlm.  Moreover  in  Is.  44.12,  the  root  is  used  in  connection 
with  hunger  and  thirst,  both  of  which  are  mentioned  immediately 
before  this  verse  in  Amos  8.11-12.  In  Judges  8.15,  the  par- 
ticipial adjective  is  used  of  weakness  from  lack  of  bread,  and 
in  II  Sam.  16.2  from  lack  of  drink.  The  following  emendations 
may  be  suggested : 

1.  tith' allaphnd  hab-bethuloth  ha-y^' eplwth, 
w'^hab-baxHrim  yigmd'u. 

There-shall-faint     the-virgins    who-are-weary, 
And-the-youths     shall-be-in-thirst. 

2.  tith' allaphnd  hab-bethiiloth, 
w^-yd'ophu  hab-baxunm  bag-gdmd', 
There-shall-faint     the-virgins, 
And-there-shall-grow-weak     the-youths     from-thirst. 

The  schematization  of  this  couplet  thus  becomes, 
a         b 
a'        b'        c 

This  form  is  unusual,  but  it  will  be  noted  thai;  the  redupli- 
cated root  tith'  allaphnd  may  take  two  beats,  as  in  the  case  of 
tithmoghaghnd  in  9.13b, 

What  may  be  either  a  four  or  a  three  term  structure  depend- 
ing upon  the  distribution  of  word  accents  is  found  in  this 
couplet : 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  155 

Lest-it-kindle     like-fire     the-house-of     Joseph, 

And-it-devour     with-none-to-extinguish     for-Bethel.  5.6b 

The  Septuagint,  some  manuscripts,  and  the  demands  of  parallel- 
ism point  toward  the  reading  "for  Israel"  instead  of  "for 
Bethel."  Moreover  the  terms  are  not  entirely  clear  in  sense. 
The  schematic  arrangement  becomes : 

a        b        c2 
a'       d        c' 

There  are  four  terms  here  referring  to  fire :  in  the  second  stichos 
the  phrase  w^-'en  m<^khahhe,  "with-none-to-extinguish,"  receives 
one  accent;  it  is  doubtful  whether  it  should  be  taken  as  a  new 
term,  or  as  a  synonj'mous  term  to  kd-'esh  in  the  first  stichos; 
moreover  the  name  Beth-Yoseph  receives  here  two  word  accents ; 
it  may  be  better  to  give  it  only  one ;  another  schematic  arrange- 
ment thus  becomes: 

a        b        c 

a'       b'       c' 

Reduplication 
Reduplication  or  internal  synonymity  occurs  often  in  Amos. 
This  differs  from  the  mere  double  synonymous  term  or  double 
compound  term  species,  in  that  in  the  same  stichos  there  are  two 
shades  of  the  same  idea;  the  two  hemistichs  are  parallel  each  to 
each;  the  synonymity  and  parallelism  extend  also  to  the  second 
stichos,  so  that  there  are  cases  where  three  terms  for  the  same 
thought  are  employed.  It  will  be  seen  also  that  this  redupli- 
cation results  in  a  tj^pe  of  triplet  formation.  (See  Gray's 
remarks,  pp.  159-166.) 

a        b        c 

b'       b"2 
And-there-shall-perish     in-tumult     Moab, 
With-shouting     and-the-sound-of     the-trumpet.  2.2b 

a         b         c 
a'        c'        a" 

And-burn     of-leavened-bread     a-thankoffering 

And-proclaim     free-Avill-offerings,     make-them-known.  4.5a 

Doubt  attaches  to  the  word  hashml^U,  though  as  a  synonym  for 
qir'u  it  is  intelligible.  But  the  repetition  results  in  a  special 
emphasis  on  the  idea  of  proclamation  or  invitation,  rather  than 


156  University  of  California  Publications.       [Sem,  Phil. 

oil  that  of  the  offering  itself;  perhaps  then  the  text  is  corrupt, 
and  a  parallel  term  to  nie-xameg,  ' '  of  leavened  bread, ' '  should  be 
sought  to  replace  hashml'u,  ''make  them  known." 

a        a'       b 

a"       b' 
I-hate,    I-despise    your-feasts, 
And-I-will-not-smell     of-your-festivals.  5.21 

This  has  already  been  discussed  under  the  form  i^  M  ,  The 
arrangement  given  here  eliminates  the  confusion  attaching  to 
the  use  of  the  symbol  a2  for  a  double  synonymous  term  in 
the  same  stichos,  which  may  thus  be  viewed  as  reduplication. 
Compare  8.17a. 

a         b         a'        b' 

a"       b''2 
Diminishing-the-epliah,     and-enlarging    tlie-shekel, 
And-perverting     balances-of     deceit.  8.5b 

This  form  may  be  regarded  either  as  a  triplet,  wherein  the  first 
two  hemistichoi  become  stichoi  of  two  stresses  each,  and  the  third 
contains  three  stresses ;  or  the  first  stichos  may  continue  as  here 
to  hold  two  hemistichoi  of  two  stresses  each,  giving  a  couplet 
wherein  the  first  stichos  contains  four  and  the  second  three 
accents.  (See  Gray,  p.  164.)  It  is  virtually  impossible  to  fix 
a  rule  for  the  determination  of  all  instances  of  this  character; 
each  must  be  decided  on  its  own  merits,  though  a  guiding  prin- 
ciple may  be  the  strength  of  the  pause  or  caesura  between  the 
two  first  hemistichs. 

a         b         a'        b' 

a"  e  b" 
Hate  evil,  and-love  good, 
And-establish    in-the-gate    justice.  5.15a 

Here  there  is  an  internal  antithetic  parallelism  in  the  first  stichos, 
or  if  5.15b  be  regarded  as  a  triplet,  between  the  first  and  second 
stichos ;  the  term  hash-sha'  ar  is  the  only  alien  term  in  the  scheme, 
for  the  three  verbs  and  the  three  objects  are  respectively  either 
synonymous  or  antithetical. 

a         b         a'        b' 

a"       b"       a" '     2 


Vol.1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.-  157 

Not-a-prophet     ami,     and -not-a-prophet 's-son     am-I, 
But-a-shepherd     am-I,     and-a-dresser-of     sycamores.  7.14 

Here  the  question  whether  the  hemistichs  should  be  counted 
as  full  stichoi,  independent  and  composed  of  two  stresses,  though 
part  of  a  larger  setting,  receives  further  complication.  The  first 
stichos  has  already  been  treated  independently  as  a  two  stress 
distich  (see  above).  It  is  therefore  possible  to  treat  this  verse 
either  as  a  double  distich,  or  as  a  two  part  couplet.  It  is  almost 
impossible  to  determine  which  is  preferable.  The  usual  numbe"r 
of  stresses  is  three ;  four  are  infrequent,  two  still  more  infre- 
quent ;  hence  it  is  a  choice  between  considering  this  as  a  four  or 
two  stress  scheme.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  fourth  part  of  the 
quadruple  form  breaks  the  synonymity  of  language,  but  retains 
the  necessary  number  of  stresses.  Viewed  independently  the 
second  line  can  be  : 

a        b 

a'       c 
or 

a        b 

a'2 

a         b         c  • 

a'        a"2     d 
And-thy-land     by-the-line     shall-be-divided, 
And-thou    on-an-unclean-land    shalt-die.  7.17b 

This  presents  an  involved  type  of  parallelism;  a  third  stichos 
complicates  the  passage,  though  this  couplet  appears  to  be  inde- 
pendent (see  below).  Here  the  word  "land"  in  the  first  stichos 
finds  in  position  and  thought  a  complement  in  "thou"  at  the 
head  of  the  second  stichos.  The  parallelism  does  not  cease  here, 
for  there  is  a  parallelism  of  language  and  an  implied  antithesis 
of  thought  also  between  ' '  thy-land ' '  in  stichos  1  and ' '  an-unclean- 
land"  in  stichos  2,  the  former  being  "clean  and  holy."  The 
schematic  arrangement  here  given  serves  to  bring  out  in  a 
measure  the  double  parallelism,  though  it  neglects  partly  the 
grammatical  construction  of  ' al-'(^dhdmd  pme'd,  a  noun  with  a 
preposition,  looked  upon  as  a  double  compound  term,  as  parallel 
to  admdth<^khd,  which  is  the  subject  in  the  first  stichos  and 
receives  only  one  word  accent.     For  this  of  course  the  intricacy 


158  University  of  California  Publications.       [Sem.  Phil. 

of  the  parallelism  is  responsible.  Compare  9.15,  where  difficulty 
with  the  words  '  al  'adhmdth^khd  is  again  present. 

Alternate  Parallelism 
clear  parallelism 
Alternate  parallelism  occurs  when  the  two  stichoi  contain 
more  than  four  or  as  few  as  four  terms,  and  break  up  into  two 
independent  clauses,  so  that  the  third  part  is  parallel  to  the  first 
and  the  fourth  to  the  second.  In  many  examples  of  Arabic 
saf  or  rhymed  prose,  nearly  all  the  parallel  sections  fall  into 
two  independent  clauses,  subordinate  from  the  view  of  the  par- 
allelism which  knits  together  the  two  main  stichoi,  but  marked 
by  rhyme  which  connects  them  at  the  same  time  that  it  empha- 
sizes their  distinction;  sometimes  one  type  of  rhyme  is  present 
for  the  first  and  third,  and  another  for  the  second  and  fourth 
sections  of  the  quatrain.  In  the  Hebrew,  no  rhyme  occurs,  but 
the  caesura  between  the  individual  parts  is  strongly  marked 
(Gray,  pp.  62-63). 

a         b         c         II         d         e 
'  a'        b'        c'        II         d'        e' 

A  series  of  alternate  parallelisms  of  this  type  occurs  in  Amos 
(3.3ff.)  :  verses  3,  4,  5,  6,  conform  to  this  type;  verse  3,  how- 
ever,, contains  only  a  single  line  which  splits  into  two  parts ; 
verses  4,  5,  6  have  two  lines,  thus  giving  to  each  Massoretic  verse 
four  sections,  two  main  and  two  subordinate.  Verse  7  breaks 
the  stretch  of  alternate  parallelism,  but  verse  8  resumes  it, 
though  the  form  is  slightly  changed,  four  instead  of  five  terms 
being  present: 

a        b         II         c        d 

a'        b'        II         c'        d' 

The  lack  of  a  second  stichos  in  verse  3  lends  the  impression 
either  that  the  verse  is  in  the  nature  of  an  introduction,  setting 
the  keynote  for  the  series,  or  that  a  complementary  stichos  has 
dropped  out. 

The  arrangement  of  verse  7  is  difficult.  For  the  moment 
it  may  be  arranged : 

xa        b        c 

x'a'       c'        d2 


Vol.  1.]  Newma7i. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  159 

The  parallelism  in  the  Hebrew  is  not  so  close  as  the  scheme 
indicates ;  the  verse  has"  a  traditional  prophetic  character,  and 
must  be  considered  under  the  category  of  near-prose.  Sug- 
gestions have  been  made  either  to  place  it  after  verse  8,  or  to 
omit  it  entirely  as  a  gloss.  The  first  suggestion  would  give 
five  consecutive  verses  of  excellent  alternate  parallelism : 

(3) 
Do-there-walk     two     together, 
Except    they-be-agreed? 


(4) 
Does-there-roar     a-lion     in-the-forest, 

When-a-prey     he-hath-not  ? 
Does-there-give-forth-his-voice     a-young-lion     from-his-den, 

If -he-hath-not     taken-something  ? 

(5) 
Does-there-fall     a-bird     in-a-snare-on-the-ground, 

If  ca-hunter     there-be- not-for-it  ? 
Does-there-spring-up     a-trap     from-the-ground, 

Without-capturing     anything-at-all?   (i.e.,  unless  it  be  sprung). 

(6) 
Shall-there-sound     a-trumpet     in-the-city, 

And-the-people     not-be-afraid? 
Shall-there-be     evil     ih-the-city, 

And-the-Lord     not-have-done-it? 

(7) 
For     not-doth     the-Lord-God     anything, 
Except-he-reveal     his-purpose     to-his-servants,     the     prophets. 

(8) 
The-Lion     has-roared ; 

Who     will-not-fear? 
The-Lord-God     hath-spoken ; 

Who     can-but-prophesy? 

In   verse    6,    it   may   be    urged   that    the    parallelism    between 

''trumpet"  and  "evil"  is  not  sufficiently  close,  and  that  the 

second  half  of  the   quatrain  has  been   inserted   by  reason   of 

verse  7 ;  a  substitute  could  be  found  in  the  more  synonymous 

two  part  line : 

'im  tihyd  teru'd  bd-'lr  (or  baq-qiryd) 
we-' am  Id'  ydqumu  (or  yiyhx" dikU) 
Shall-there-be     a-clarion-blast     in-the-city, 
And-the-people     not-rise-in-terror? 


160  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

But  there  seems  little  ground  thus  to  omit  and  substitute ;  rather 
as  first  suggested,  verse  7  seems  more  indefensible  and  mis- 
placed, and  should  either  be  transposed  or  ruled  out.  Compare 
Hosea  10.10,  11. 

Another  series  of  alternate  parallelisms  of  a  similar  char- 
acter is  found  in  9.2-4.  Again,  however,  difficulties  arise,  for 
verses  2  and  3  each  have  two  stichoi  and  four  subordinate  parts, 
while  verse  4  diverges  from  this  plan.  The  schematic  arrange- 
ment is  as  follows : 

(2) 

c         II  d  e 

c'        II  d'  e' 
(3,4) 

c2       II  d  e         f 

gc'2      II  d  e2       f 

12        II  d"  e"2     f" 

Noting  the  lacunae,  the  text  at  present  reads : 

(2) 
Though     they-dig-through     to-Sheol, 

Thence     shall-my-hand-take-them ; 
And-though     they-climb     to-heaven, 

Thence     will-I-bring-them-down. 

(3) 
And-though      they-hide-themselves      at-the-top-of      Carmel, 

Thence     will-I-search-them-out     and-take-them, 
And-though     they-hide     from-before-my-eyes     at-the-bottom-of 
the-sea, 


a 

b 

a' 

b' 

a 

b 

a' 

b' 

a" 

h2 

Thence     will-I-command     the-serpent     and-it-will     bite-them,  ' 

(4) 
And-though     they-go     into-captivity     before-their-enemies. 
Thence     will-I-conimand     the-sword     and-it-will-slay-them. 

The  schematic  arrangement  shows  that  as  the  text  stands  it 
contains  a  couplet  and  a  triplet,  or  two  quatrains,  and  a  half 
quatrain.  Various  suggestions  have  been  made  to  explain  the  use 
of  "serpent"  in  verse  3,  one  of  which  is  to  make  it  refer  to  the 
Leviathan.  Amos,  however,  speaks  of  the  serpent  as  a  creature 
of  the  fields  and  of  the  house  (5.19),  not  of  the  sea.  The 
suggestion  that  a  scribe  may  have  omitted  the  fourth  part  of 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  161 

verse  3,  and  the  first  part  of  the  third  quatrain  in  order  to  make 
the  whole  conform  to  the  Leviathan  legend,  is  far  fetched,  for 
though  he  might  change  a  few  words,  it  is  doubtful  whether 
he  would  omit  a  whole  sentence.  Moreover  the  Massoretic 
verse  4  has  after  the  end  of  the  quatrain  arrangement,  the  sen- 
tence:  "And-I-shall-place  my-eyes  upon-them  for-evil  and- 
not-f or-good. "  The  missing  sections  may  find  some  hint  for 
restoration  here ;  verse  3,  part  3  mentions  the  fact  that  the 
sinners  would  escape  from  God 's  eyes ;  the  arrangement  becomes 
perhaps : 

.  And-though     they-hide     from-before-my-eyes     at-the-bottom-of     the- 
sea, 
I-will-place     my-eyes     upon-them     for-evil,     and-not-for-good. 

This  would  mean  that  only  the  first  part  of  the  third  quatrain 
is  absent.  However,  it  has  been  suggested  that  the  phrase 
min-neghedh,  ' en-ai,  ''from-before-my-eyes/'  be  omitted  in  verse 
3 ;  the  last  part  of  verse  4  may  have  been  inserted  on  the  basis 
of  this  expression,  which  itself  may  have  been  an  insertion. 
It  is  evident  that  the  verses  are  in  confusion,  and  that  they 
have  been  jostled  together  for  one  reason  or  another;  a  restora- 
tion is  difficult,  the  one  here  suggested  being  poor,  because  among 
other  things  it  neglects  the  use  of  the  phrase  mish-shdm  at  the 
beginning  of  each  second  part  and  fourth  part  of  the  quatrain. 
The  schematic  character  in  its  proper  form,  to  be  filled  in  with 
the  missing  po-rtions  should  be  : 

(2) 

a        b         e  II  d  e 

a'       b'       c'  II  d'  e' 

(3) 

a        b        c2  II  d  e        f 

a'       b'       c'2  II  

(4) 

II  d  e         g        h 

a'        b'2      c'2  II  d'  e         g'        h' 

A  series  of  a  different  character  is  found  in  5.11b  and  9.14b. 
a         b         c         II         d         8 
a        b         c         II         d         e 
Houses-of     hewn-stone     have-ye-built, 

But-ye-shall-not-dwell     in-them ; 
Vineyards-of     delight     have-ye-planted, 

But-ye-shall-not-drink     their-wine.  5.11b 


162  University  of  California  Publications.       [Sem.  Phil. 


And-they-shall-plant     vineyards, 

And-drink     their-wine, 
And-.they-shall-make     gardens, 

'And-eat     their-fruit.  9.14b 

Several  variations  of  these  forms  occur,  among  which  it  will 
be  seen  the  qind  measure  may  be  included  as  well  perhaps  as 
the  form 

a       b       c 

a'       b' 

and  its  several  variations  which  have  already  been  discussed. 


a        b        c         II 

d 

e 

c'        II 

d' 

e' 

When     will-pass     the-new-moon 

That-we-may-sell     grain, 

And-the-Sabbath 

That-we-may-o£fer     corn. 

8.5a  (Cf.  5.20) 

a         b         c         II         d         e 
a'        b'        c'        II         d'2 
And-because     garments     taken-in -pledge     they-spread-out, 

Beside     every-altar ; 
And-the-wine     of-those-that-have-been-fined     they-drink, 

In-the-house     of-their-God.  2.8 

The  Jewish  Translation  shifts  the  second  parts  of  the  sentences 
into  the  first  and  third,  thus : 

And  they  lay  themselves  down  beside  every  altar 

Upon  clothes  taken  in  pledge, 
And  in  the  house  of  their  God  they  drink 

The  wine  of  them  that  have  been  fined. 

This  violates  in  some  degree  the  Hebrew  arrangement,  wherein 
a  prepositional  phrase,  not  in  itself  a  complete  period,  makes 
up  the  subordinate  parts  of  the  sentences.  This,  usage  in  the 
Hebrew  seems  to  show  that  as  in  modern  poetry,  a  part  of  a 
quatrain  need  not  express  a  full  or  a  complete  independent  part 
of  a  full  idea,  but  may  be  a  mere  prepositional  phrase.  It  can 
be  noted  here  that  the  preposition  egel,  "beside,"  receives  a 
word  accent.  Here  an  approach  is  made  to  the  style  of  Arabic 
rhymed  prose,  or  parallelistic  prose. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  163 


NEAR-PROSE 

Synonymous  Saj' 

This  resemblance  to  parallel  prose  is  maintained  by  5.19, 

apparently  an  insert  between  the  poetic  verses  18  and  20,  which 

deals  with  a  description  of  events  on  the  day  of  the  Lord;  the 

language  is  prosaic,  and  the  conjunction  ha-'^sher,  "just  as," 

which  usually  interferes  with  the  normality  of  the  parallelism, 

is  present.     As  the  verse  stands  it  is  plotted : 

X  a         b         c         II         d         e 
a'2      f'2      g        II         d'        e' 

From  the  standpoint  of  rhythm,  the  verses  have  the  same  swing 

and  virtually  the   same  length.       Question  has   been   directed 

against  the  member  u-thd'  hah-hayith,  "and  he  comes  to  the 

house."     The  Greek  has  daTnjSrja-rj,  which  gives  the  picture  of 

a  man  leaping  over  the  threshold  into  a  house.      Though  it  is 

possible  that  the  verse  wishes  to  convey  the  idea  that  in  a  crevice 

of  a  house  where  a  man  least  expects  it,  he  will  be  attacked, 

nevertheless  the  picture  can  be  of  a  man  fleeing  across  a  field, 

placing  his  hand  on  a  wall  to  vault  it,  and  disturbing  the  natural 

habitation  of  a  serpent,  which  bites  him    (cf.  Eccl.  8.8).     On 

the  basis  of  strict  parallelism,  the  word  ydnus,  "flee,"  in  the 

first  part  needs  a  complement  in  the  third,  in  such  a  form  as 

Oettli  suggests,  namely  u-hhdrax,  ''he  runs  away."     It  may  be 

protested,  however,  that  if  the  first  terms  are  placed  in  exact 

parallelism,  the  others  should  be  also;  possibly,   then,  despite 

the   resulting   unusual   triplet    formation,   three    distichs   were 

originally  present: 

As-if     there-did-flee     a-man     from-a-lion, 

And-thcre-met-him     a-bear, 
And-he-entered     a-house 


Or-he-leaned     his-hand     on-the-wall, 
And-there-bit-him     a-serpent. 

It  seems  better,  however,  to  maintain  the  quatrain  formation, 

despite  the  length  of  the  third  part  (cf.  3.12  below)  : 

As-if     there-did-flee     a-man    from-a-lion, 

And-there-met-him      a-bear, 
Or-he-entered     a-house,     and     leaned     his-hand     on-the-wall, 

And-there-bit-him     a-serpent. 


164  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

In  3.12,  the  same  phenomenon  of  an  approximation  to  near- 
prose  is  present.  The  language  is  prosaic;  the  prepositional- 
conjunction  ka-'f^sher  heads  the  combination,  while  the  conjunc- 
tion ken, .' '  thus, "  or  "  so, "  heads  the  third  part,  unlike  5.19.  The 
thought  is  divided  clearly  into  two  halves,  the  first  dealing  with 
the  escape  from  the  lion,  the  second  dealing  with  the  application 
of  the  figure  to  the  escape  of  the  Israelites.  Though  the  lines 
are  excessively  long,  the  metrical  length  and  rhythm  are  vir- 
tually the  same.  Synonj^mity  is  maintained  throughout,  except 
that  in  the  third  part  of  the  quatrain,  the  phrase  mip-pi  ha-'(^rl, 
"from  the  mouth  of  a  lion,"  is  balanced  by  hay-yosh^hhlm 
h^-Shom^ron,  "those  who  dwell  in  Samaria."  Oort  and  Bau- 
j^  mann  regard  the  disturbing  phrase  as  a  later  insertion  and  omit 
it;  Loehr  also  omits  it  as  a  gloss.  Instead  of  it,  the  suggestion 
has  been  made  to  read:  mip-p^ne  hd-'oyehh,  "from-before  the 
enemy,"  to  parallel  "from  before  a  lion"  (Harper,  p.  81).  The 
present  scheme  is: 


b'       b"2 


It  can  be  seen  from  this  schematization  that  alternate  parallelism 
with  a  type  of  reduplication  exists  here.  The  emendation  sug- 
gested would  eliminate  the  disturbance  in  the  sense,  and  improve 
the  rhythmical  quality  of  the  text.      The  scheme  thus  becomes: 


d 

e 

d' 

e' 

d" 

e' 

d"' 

e' 

1         d 

e 

d' 

e' 

1         d" 

e" 

d"' 

e"  ' 

from-the-mouth-of 

x'a'        b'        c' 

As     there-rescues     the-shepherd     from-the-mouth-of     the-lion 

Two-legs     or     a-piece-of-ear, 
So    shall-escape    the-children     of     Israel    from-before-the     euemy, 

With-the-corner-of     a-couch,     and-with-the-leg-of     a-bed. 

In  view  of  the  character  of  the  passage,  it  may  be  asked :  Is  this 
comparable  to  the  parallelistic  prose  of  the  Arabic  rhymed 
prose?  The  short,  terse,  three  term  character  of  the  usual 
couplet  is  missing;  is  it  that  the  alternate  parallelism  is  a  door 
to  a  special  type  of  prose  parallelism?  It  is  to  be  noted  also 
that  the  subordinate  parts  are  not  complete  in  themselves,  after 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Arn.os.  165 

the  manner  of  5.19,  but  are  detached  portions  similar  to  2.8 
(of.  7.10b). 

N 011- Synonymous  Saf 

Near-prose    appears    to    be    present    again    in    7.10b.      This 

distich  is  part  of  a  narrative  which  seems  to  be  in  prose,  but 

which,  it  will  be  seen  on  closer  examination,  turns  out  to  be 

mostly  parallelistic  poetry  with  the  addition  of  several  prose 

phrases. 

Amos      has-conspired      against-thee         in-the-midst-of      the-hoiise-of- 

Israel, 
Not-able     is-the-land  to-bear     all-his-words. 

a         b         c         II         d         e2 

f         g         h         II         12 

Rhythmically  these  stichoi  though  extra  long  in  character  seem 
equal.  No  synonymity  exists  between  the  two  except  in  the 
general  concept  of  conspiracy;  no  terms  are  correspondential 
with  the  possible  exception  of  ' '  the-land ' '  and  ' '  house-of-Israel. ' ' 
It  seems  possible  that  alternate  parallelistic  schematization  may 
be  emploj^ed  for  the  distich,  similar  to  the  usage  in  2.8 ;  thus : 

Amos     has-consplred     agalnst-thee, 

In-the-mldst-of     the-house-of      Israel, 
Not-able     is-the-land 

To-bear     all-his-words. 

But  this  differs  radically  from  the  usual  alternate  and  qlnd 
measure,  and  cannot  be  advocated  with  any  degree  of  security. 
The  distich  has  been  regarded  by  Loehr  and  others  as  bald 
prose.  Certainly  neither  complementary  nor  appositional  par- 
allelism is  present  here;  i.e.,  where  a  single  member  of  one 
stichos  is  explained  by  a  whole  line  in  apposition  to  it,  as  in  the 
'«s/ier  and  hd-'dm<^rtm  clauses  (see  below)  ;  if  this  is  to  be  re- 
garded as  parallelism,  then  every  symmetrical  statement  of  act 
and  result  is  parallelism.  It  seems  feasible  therefore  to  desig- 
nate this  distich  as  rhythmical  non-parallelism,  near-prose,  and 
similar  in  many  respects  to  the  Arabic  unrhymed  mj' . 

QINA   PARALLELISM 

From  an  examination  of  these  forms  of  alternate  parallelism 
which  approach  closer  and  closer  to  near-prose,  it  is  well  to  turn 
to  the  qlnd-strophe,  which  adheres  to  the  form  of  alternate  par- 


166  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

allelism  though  with  a  different  spirit  and  purpose.      The  true 

qlnd  is  genuine  poetry,  and  does  not  fall  victim  to  the  danger 

of  becoming  near-prose,  or  even  prose,  as  its  prototype,  alternate 

parallelism,  becomes  at  times.      One  of  the  best  examples  of 

qlna  in  prophetic  literature  is  found  in  Amos  5.2  and  3  (Gray, 

p.  119)  : 

Fallen    to-rise-no-more  is-the-daughter-of     Israel, 

Stretched-out     upon-the-ground  with-none     to-raise-her. 

The-city     that-goeth-forth     a-thousand      shall-have-left    a-hundred, 
And-she-that-goeth-forth     a-hundred,  shall-have-left    ten 

to-the-house-of     Israel. 

The  phrase  l^-hheth  Yisrafel  gives  difficulty;  either  it  must  be 

introduced  at  the   end   of  the   introductory   phrase   beginning 

verse  3,  or  better,  it  may  be  regarded  as  a  repetition  from  the 

introductory  phrase  beginning  verse  4;  or  it  may  perhaps  be 

placed  in  verse  6  instead  of  l^-hheth-  'el,  which  is  clearly  an  error 

(see  Harper,  p.  112).    The  schematization  of  verses  2  and  3  is: 

a         b2  II         c2 

a'2  II         b'2 

a        b        c         II         d        e 
b        e'        II         d        e' 

Two  qlna,  couplets  thus  occur  here  which  in  number  of  terms 

have  each  apparently  this  form : 

3  :  2 
2  :  2 

It  is  possible,  however,  that  in  the  second  line  of  the  first  couplet 
'al-'adhniathdh,  "upon  the  ground,"  should  be  given  two  tones 
instead  of  one,  in  which  case  that  line,  also,  would  have  the 
form  3 : 2. 

SYNTHETIC  COUPLETS 

Up  to  this  point,  this  study  has  devoted  itself  to  a  consider 
ation  of  couplets  in  clear  parallelism;  in  all  except  three  cases, 
there  has  been  no  question  of  the  poetical  character  of  the 
couplets,  nor  has  the  synonymity  of  the  parallelism  been  sharply 
affected.  It  is  necessary  now  to  pass  to  a  discussion  of  so-called 
''synthetic  couplets"  wherein  neither  synonymity  nor  parallel- 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  167 

ism  is  so  close,  and  where  the  twilight  zone  between  prose  and 
poetry  is  most  evident.  It  has  been  observed  here  that  par- 
allelism is  not  an  infallible  test  of  poetry,  for  in  the  three 
examples  of  prosaic  alternate  parallelism,  the  synonymity  has 
been  close,  though  language  and  form  has  pointed  more  towards 
the  designation  of  prose  than  poetry  (Gray,  p.  40). 

CLEAR  SYNTHETIC 

The  Book  of  Amos  contains  several  couplets  wherein  the 

synonymity  between  the  terms  is  not  maintained,  but  where  the 

second  stichos  contains  a  continuation  of  the  thought  wherein 

perhaps  one  term  corresponds  to  another  in  the  first  stichos; 

the  second  stichos  usually'  contains  a  statement  of  a  phase  of 

the  same  idea  as  the  first,  but  it  adds  a  new  detail.     These  may 

be  called  "clear  synthetic"  couplets. 

For-lo,     he-forms     the-niountains,     and-creates     the-wind, 
And-declares     unto-niau     what-is-his-thought ; 

He-makes     dawn      darkness, 

And-treads     npon-the-heights-of     the-earth.  4.13 

X  a        b         a'        b' 
d         e         f 

g        h         i 
j         k2 

Or  the  second  couplet  may  be  represented  thus : 
a       b       c 
d         e2 

These  two  couplets  are  part  of  a  doxology,  and  are  knit  together 
by  the  participial  construction  at  the  head  of  each  stichos;  the 
central  idea  throughout  is  praise  of  God,  but  each  stichos  con- 
tains a  new  statement  of  his  deeds.  The  first  stichos  contains 
an  internal  reduplication,  aba'  b'.  But  correspondence 
of  a  character  similar  to  other  parallelism  is  missing. 

Because     ye-trample     on-the-weak, 

And-exactions-of-grain     ye-take     from-him.  5.11 

The  central  idea  of  this  couplet  is  oppression  of  the  poor, 
though  synonymity  is  missing;  the  schematization  is: 

X  a        b 

cd        b' 


168  University  of  Calif orniu  Puhlications.       [Sem.  Phil. 

It  must  be  observed  that  the  conjunction  ya' an,  "because," 
receives  a  full  word  accent.  The  prepositional  phrase  in  the 
second  stichos  mimmennu,  ''from  him,"  seems  to  correspond  to 
' '  on-the-weak. ' ' 

Therefore-now    they-shall-go-into-exile    at-the-head-of    the -captives, 
And-shall-pass-away     the-shout-of     the-banqueters.  6.7 

X  a        b2 

de         f 

The  introductory  conjunction  receives  a  word  accent  though  it 

gives  to  the  first  stichos  four  tones,  and  to  the  second  three. 

Again  as  in  5.11,  the  uniting  thought  of  the  two  stichoi  is  the 

same,  but  the  second  adds  a  new  picture  to  the  plan. 

He-that-calls     for-the-waters-of    the-sea, 

And-pours-them-out     upon-the-face-of     the-earth.  5.8c,  9.6b 

a         b         c 

dec' 

Synonymity  is  present  here  in  the  terms  "sea"  and  "earth," 
perhaps;  each  stichos  is  a  syntactically  complete  line  in  itself; 
the  number  of  terms  in  each  is  the  same;  and  a  rhythmical 
principle  seems  present;  the  couplet  diverges,  however,  from 
the  normal  type  of  synonymous  parallelism,  in  so  far  as  the 
second  stichos  in  thought  is  a  continuation,  not  a  repetition  of 
the  first,  almost  as  one  prose  line  is  a  continuation  of  another 
— unless,  indeed,  a  species  of  "complementary"  parallelism  be 
recognized,  in  that  each  line  expresses  merely  another  phase  of 
the  thought,  "God  controls  the  waters." 


8.8a 


Shall-not-for-this 

tremble 

the-land, 

And-shall-mourn     i 

all-the-inhabitants     therein. 

a 

b 

c 

d 

e 

c' 

Or 

a 

b 

c 

b' 

d 

c' 

He-that-touches 

the-earth,     and-it-melts, 

And-there  mourn     all-the-inhabitants     theri 

a 

b 

c 

d 

e 

b' 

Or 

a 

b 

c 

c' 

d 

b' 

9.5a 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  169 

In  each  of  these  couplets,  the  second  stichos  contains  the 
preposition  ** therein,"  which  is  synonymous  with  "the-earth. " 
There  is  more  synonymity  in  the  first  than  in  the  second 
couplet ;  although  the  latter  contains  in  its  first  stichos  two 
verbs  the  second  of  which,  ''melts,"  may  be  complementary 
to  the  verb  in  the  second  stichos,  the  first  verb,  "touches," 
has  no  complement.  The  spirit  and  language  and  environment 
of  these  two  couplets  show  that  they  are  clearly  poetry;  the 
exact  correspondential  character  of  normal  parallelism  is  how- 
ever absent. 

Alas-for     those-who-long-for     the-day-of-Yahwe, 

Wherefore-is-this     to-you     the-day-of-Yahwe.  5.18 

a        b         c 

dec' 

Each  stichos  has  an  identical  term  yom  '(^dhondi;  the  meaning  of 
the  couplet  is  doubtful  and  a  triplet  formation  complicates  the 
problem. 

And-mourn-shall      the-pastures-of      th&-shepherds, 

And-dry-up-shall     the-top-of     Carmel.  1.2b 

a        b         c 

a'        b'        c' 


Or 
Or 


a  b  c 

a'  b'2 

a  b  c 

a'  c  d 


The  metaphorical  expression  "the  mourning  of  the  pastures" 
seems  to  signify  their  failure  to  produce  crops,  a  synonym 
therefore  for  the  expression  "the  drying  up"  of  the  top  of 
Carmel.  There  is  here  exact  correspondence  of  terms,  each 
containing  three  members;  hence  the  first  schematization  is 
possible.  But  if  the  expression  "the  top  of  Carmel"  be  not 
regarded  as  synonymous  to  "the  pastures  of  the  shepherds," 
then  either  the  second  or  third  form  is  admissible. 

In  8.12a  and  9.4b  occurs  a  special  form  wherein  the  second 
stichos  is  a  short  negative,  thus : 


170  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil, 

They-shall-run-hither-and-thither     to-seek     the-word-of-Yahw5, 
But    they    shall    not    find     it. 

I-shall-place     my-eyes     upon-them     for-evil, 
And-not     for-good.  ^ 

This  is  a  frequent  formation  in  prophetic  writings ;  it  is  difficult 

to  suggest  its  schematization,  and  it  must  be  accepted  as  a  special 

structure  without  regard  to  its  symbols.     Cf.  the  usage  of  the 

term  w^-en  m^kahhc  in  5.6b.  _ 

DOUBTFUL   SYNTHETIC 

A   group   of   ''doubtful   synthetic"    couplets   is   present   in 

Amos  which  are  so  styled  because  no  synonymity  is  present,  yet 

a  rhythmical  principle  seems  to  operate,  while  the  text  itself  is 

unclear.     Among  these  couplets  may  be  reckoned  the  following : 

Because-they-delivered-up      a      complete-captivity      to-Edom, 
And-have-not-remembered     the-covenant-of     brothers.  1.9b 

And-not      have-they-known      how-to-do-good, 

Those-who-store-up     violence     and-oppression     in-their-palaces.    3.10 

And-through-the-breaches     shall-they-go     each-woman     before-her, 
And-they-shall-be-cast     into-Harmon.  4.3 

Strike -the-threshold     that-the-posts     may-shake, 

And-cut-them     on-the-head     all-of-them.  9.1b 

In  each  of  these  instances  the  text  is  corrupt ;  though  the  first 

two  are  somewhat  clear,  the  second  two  are  dubious  in  sense, 

in  grammar,  and  in  form.     Another  instance  where  synonymity 

may  be  present  but  where  the  sense  is  doubtful  is  the  following : 

Because     he-pursued     with-the-sword     his-brother, 

And-destroyed     his-compassion.  1.11b 

For  a  full  discussion  of  this  distich  see  below  on  the  Doom  Song. 

A  corrupt  text  is  possibly  to  be  seen  here : 

Who-crush     the-head-of    the-poor     on-the-dust-of     the-earth 
And-the-way-of     the-humble     they-turn-aside.  2.7a 

By  the  omission  of  "on  the  dust  of  the  earth ' '  the  form  becomes 
(Harper,  p.  50)  : 

a  b2 

b'2  a' 
or 

a  b        c 

b'  c'        a' 


Vol,  1.]  Neumian. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  171 

Other  instances  of  doubtful  synthetic  couplets  are  scat- 
tered throughout  this  study,  and  are  found  tabulated  below. 

"THAT-SAY,  "   OR   QUOTATIONAL   COUPLETS 

Amos  contains  several  couplets  wherein  one  stichos  is  length- 
ened by  the  use  of  the  apparent  equivalent  in  Hebrew  for 
quotation  marks,  namely,  a  form  of  the  word  "say,"  which  is 
found  standing  usually  at  the  head  of  the  stichos  as  a  participle, 
sometimes  in  the  middle  as  an  infinitive.  This  creates  a  special 
class  of  parallelism,  for  it  will  be  observed  that  the  synonymity 
between  the  stichoi  is  not  close,  since  the  quotation  usually  adds 
a  new  thought  to  the  complex. 

Hear-this-word,     ye-kine-of     Bashan, 
Who-are    (dwell)      in-the-mountain-of -Samaria, 
That-oppress     the-poor, 
That-crusli     the-needy, 

That-say    unto-their-lords :     Bring,     that     we-may-drink.  4.1 

xy  a         b 

c         d2 

e         f 

e'        f 

g         h         i         j 

There  are  indications  of  symmetry  here,  though  the  verse  ap- 
proaches closely  to  prose ;  a  relative  '<^sher  in  the  second  stichos 
complicates  the  verse ;  moreover  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  open- 
ing prophetic  phrase  "Hear  this  word"  deserves  to  be  included 
in  the  scheme  as  major  words,  receiving  tonal  accents.  Par- 
allelism exists  here  between  the  terms  e  f  and  e'  f '.  The 
participial  construction  which  Amos  employs  in  the  last  three 
stichoi  is  a  favorite  with  him  (first  stichos:  2.7;  5.7,  8,  9,  12,  18; 
6.1,  3,  4,  5,  6;  8.14;  second  stichos,  3.10,  12;  5.3)  ;  here  it  knits 
the  terms  together  throughout  the  entire  verse.  Another 
schematic  arrangement  for  this  verse  whereby  two  couplets  are 
produced  which  are  rhythmically  but  not  correspondentially 
symmetrical,  would  be : 

xy  a         b 

c         d         e 

f         g         f        g' 
h        i         j         k 


172  University  of  California  Publications.     '[Sem.  Phil. 

Who-re  j  oice     in-that-which-is-not, 

Who-say:     By-our-own    strength     have-we-not-taken     for-ourselves 
horns?  6.13 

In  addition  to  the  fact  that  hd'-om^rltn,  "that  say,"  serves  to 

lengthen  the  stichos, '  there  is  no   correspondence  between  the 

terms,  though  the  thought  is  in  general  the  same  in  both  stichoi. 

The  scheme  runs: 

a        b2 

c         d         e         f 

By-the-sword     shall-die     all-the-sinners-of     my-people, 

Who-say :  Not-shall-touch     or -befall     us     disaster.  9.10 

Doubt  on  the  validity  of  this  text  exists  because  of  the  length 
of  the  second  stichos  and  the  presence  of  two  verbs  therein 
denoting  the  same  thought.  No  correspondence  of  terms  exists, 
the  second  stichos  adding  to  the  first  a  characterization,  from 
their  own  lips,  of  those  who  will  die.  The  schematic  arrange- 
ment is: 

abed 

f         g2       h        i 

But-ye-made-drink    the-Nazirites     wine, 

And-the-prophets     ye-commanded      (saying)  :Do-not-prophesy.      .2.12 

a         b         c 

b'        d        e         f 

Or 

a        b        c 

b'        d       (x)  e 

In  the  light  of  verse  11,  which  deals  with  the  same  thought  in 
an  inversed  couplet,  it  is  clear  that  parallelism  is  intended  here. 
Doubt  attaches,  however,  to  the  text,  and  Harper  (p.  54)  sug- 
gests that  the  words  le'mor  'al-tinimhh^'u  could  be  omitted  as 
a  gloss,  thus  restoring  the  line  to  a  length  commensurate  with 
the  first  stichos.  In  the  face  of  other  examples  where  the  le'mor 
construction  is  used,  this  seems  plausible.  Harper's  arrange- 
ment becomes : 

a        b        c 
b'        a' 

But-ye-made-drink     the-Nazirites     wine, 

And  -on-the-prophets     ye-laid-prohibition. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  173 

It  may  be  concluded  with  reference  to  the  "  who-say  "  clauses : 
either  the  term  receives  a  full  word  accent  as  in  4.1,  where 
hd'-om^roth  is  used  with  a  modifying  noun  la-'f^dhonehem,  though 
this  latter  term  may  not  be  genuine;  or  the  phrase  "who-say" 
in  its  various  forms  should  not  be  reckoned  as  a  major  word 
in  the  schematization,  worthy  of  a  full  tone,  but  more  like  the 
quotation  marks  in  English.  The  majority  of  cases  seem  to 
favor  the  second  hypothesis,  though  each  case  must  be  judged 
on  its  own  merit. 

"in  ordek  that,"  or  conjunctival  couplets 

A  series  of  conjunctival  clauses  which  are  introduced  either 

by  the   conjunction  U-ma'an  or  the  relative    ''^sher  affect  the 

parallelism,  which  by  the  absence  of  correspondence  is  almost 

eliminated.      The  l^^-ma' an,  ''in  order  that,"  clauses  contain  in 

the  second  stichos,  at  the  head  of  which  the  conjunction  usually 

stands,  a  new  thought  which  is  the  result  or  the  purpose  of  the 

event  or  act  mentioned  in  the  first. 

Because     they-ripped-up     the-pregnant-women-of     Gilead, 
In-order-to    enlarge    their-border.  1.13b 

No  correspondence  of  the  terms  exists  here ;  the  text  is  dubious ; 

there  is  a  non-sequitur  in  the  ideas  of  the  couplet ;  in  a  plotting 

of  the  text,  the  conjunction  l^-mxi'an  receives  a  full  word  accent. 

And-a-man     and-his-father      go      unto-the-same-maid, 

In-order-to     profane    my-holy     name.  2.7b 

Again  the  text  is  dubious ;  the  lines  are  longer  than  usual ; 
Harper  emends  to  read:  ''And-a-man  and-his-judge  deal 
according-to-agreement. "  The  length  of  the  couplet  is  seen  in 
the  scheme : 

a2      b       c 
d         e         f2 
Seek-good     and-not-evil, 
In-order-that     ye-may-live.  5.14a 

The  sense  is  clear,  but  the  schematic  arrangement  is  dubious. 
This  line  is  followed  by  an  apparently  long  prose  line,  wherein 
the  word  ha-'csher  occurs.  Either  it  is  possible  to  regard  this 
verse  as  a  brief  distich,  a  text  for  the  discussion  that  follows; 
or  the  line  may  be  grouped  with  the  next  long  prophetic  line, 


174  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

making  thus  two  long  lines;  or  as  Harper  suggests,  they  may 
form  a  quatrain  similar  to  alternate  parallelism: 

Seek-good     and-not-evil, 

In-order-that     ye-may-live, 
That-so-may-be     Yahwe-God-of-Hosts     with-you, 

As-ye-have     said. 

But  this  is  doubtful,  and  must  be  accepted  with  reservation, 
although  it  must  be  noted  that  this  quatrain  is  followed  by 
another  (verse  15)  of  similar  formation.  * 

In-order-that     they-may-possess     the-remnant-of     Edom, 
And-all-the-nations     over-which     is-called     my-name.  9.12 

Here  l^-ma'  an  occurs  at  the  head  of  the  entire  couplet  in  the 
first  stichos;  moreover  the  presence  of  '"■sher  in  the  second 
stiehos  complicates  the  form.  The  lines  are  long,  and  approach 
close  to  near-prose ;  unless  it  occurred  in  the  midst  of  genuine 
parallelism,  it  would  be  classified  without  hesitation  as  prose. 
The  text  is  doubtful,  and  seems  to  be  part  of  a  post-Amosian 
insertion.  The  schematic  arrangement  is  difficult;  slight  corre- 
spondence may  be  present  between  the  words  "Edom"  and 
' '  nations ' ' : 

abed 

d'        e         f         g 

It  may  be  concluded  with  reference  to  the  l^-ma'an  clauses 
that  the  use  of  the  conjunction  is  accompanied  by  a  breakdown 
of  synonj'mous  parallelism;  correspondence  between  terms  is 
missing;  the  lines  are  usually  extra  long,  and  approximate 
closely  near-prose.      Moreover  the  text  is  usually  doubtful. 

RELATIVE  COUPLETS 

The  '«s/ier-relative  clauses  may  be  divided  into  several  cate- 
gories. The  first  usage  is  in  couplets  where  the  relative  does 
not  affect  the  regularity  of  the  parallelism,  as  in  2.9 ;  another 
usage  is  in  a  mixture  of  prose  and" parallelism,  as  in  4.1,  where 
the  relative  may  affect  the  parallelism,  and  yet,  depending  upon 
the  construction  of  the  passage,  may  fall  in  with  the  parallelistic 
arrangement.  It  may  be  used  merely  as  a  relative  in  sheer 
prose,  as  in  1.1,  the  superscription;  but  its  main  usage  is  in 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  175 

couplets  where  there  are  traces  of  parallelism  disturbed  how- 
ever by  the  use  of  the  relative. 

And-there-led-thera-astray     their-lies, 

After-which     there-walked     their-fathers.  2.4 

The  text  here  is  dubious ;  no  correspondence  of  terms  is  present ; 

grammar  and  sense  are  confused.      This  couplet  makes  possible 

however  a   differentiation   between   essential   and   non-essential 

relative  clauses.      The  presence  of  the  suffix  "their"  attached 

to  "lies"  shows  that  the  relative  clause  here  is  non-essential. 

An  essential  modifier,  i.e.  one  which  cannot  be  logically  omitted, 

cannot  be  a  parallel  logically ;  a  non-essential  is  somewhat  of  the 

nature  of  a  synonym,  and  hence  may  be  regarded  as  a  parallel. 

The  same  may  be  said  in  some  measure  of  the  hd-'om^rlm  clauses 

already  discussed;  in  the  same  way  that  the  second  stichos  was 

an  additional  characterization,  not  imperative  to  complete  the 

meaning  of  the  first  stichos,  but  employed  to  fill  out  the  couplet 

structure,  so  the  relative  is  used  here  and  on  occasion  elsewhere. 

One     piece     was-rained-upon, 

And-the-piece     whereon     it-rained-not     withered.  4.7 

The  relative  occurs  in  the  middle  of  the  second  stichos,  and 
though  it  lengthens  it,  is  not  responsible  for  the  uncertain 
character  of  the  couplet,  for  the  style  is  tame;  this  stanza  of 
the  Grief  Song  has  a  superabundance  of  stichoi;  this  distich  is 
surrounded  by  another  in  weak  parallelism,  verging  on  bald 
repetition;  and  by  a  long  and  dubious  prose  line. 

In  5.26,  the  relative  is  used  in  a  conventional  phrase,  "which" 
ye  made  for  yourselves " ;  it  may  be  part  of  a  triplet ;  the  text 
also  is  doubtful ;  a  similar  use  of  '(^sher  has  been  noted  in  9.12 ; 
again  in  9.15,  the  words  "which  I  have  given  to  them"  are  used 
as  a  conventional  phrase  with  reference  to  the  ' '  land ' ' ;  the 
words  seem  to  be  "tacked-on"  as  it  were.  On 'several  occasions 
it  is  found  that  at  the  end  of  a  chapter  or  of  a  prophetic  book 
similar  conventional  combinations  are  attached.  In  3.1,  the 
relative  is  used  in  a  conventional,  introductory  prophetic  phrase 
with  no  parallelism,  apparently  no  rhythmical  principle;  the 
lines  are  long  and  the  verse  savors  of  the  historical  traditional 
phrases  used  by  the  prophets  at  the  head  of  their  denunciations. 


176  University  of  California  Publications.       [Sem.  Phil. 

ka'asher  or  simile  couplets 

The  ka-'^sher  couplets  also  present  varieties  of  usage.  It 
has  been  seen  that  in  3.12  and  5.19,  two  couplets  of  similar  struc- 
ture, the  ku-'^sher  stands  at  the  head  of  the  couplets  and  does 
not  interfere  with  the  parallelism;  in  3.12  it  is  a  correlative 
of  ken,  "thus,"  in  the  second  stichos,  and  in  5.19  likewise  by 
implication.  In  5.14,  it  is  used  in  a  conventional  prophetic 
near-prose  line,  wherein  no  simile  and  hence  no  parallelism  are 
present;  the  word  ken  is  used  in  conjunction  with  ka-'''^sher  in 
this  line  also,  but  no  simile  is  involved  as  in  the  other  examples. 

In  2.13,  ka^'^sher  occurs  in  the  second  stichos  of  an  extremely 
doubtful  couplet.  The  text  is  apparently  corrupt;  various 
suggestions  for  its  emendation  have  been  made,  among  them  one 
by  Harper  (p.  60),  but  the  supposed  metrical  principle  which 
he  employs  is  unjustifiable  and  violates  even  the  elements  of 
parallelism  preserved  in  the  couplet.  As  it  stands  the  verse 
by  reasons  of  its  imperfections  approaches  near-prose.  The 
brevity  of  the  Jewish  Translation  does  not  bring  out  the  char- 
acter of  the  Hebrew  text  which  is  long  and  overbalanced : 

Behold,  I  win  make  it  creak  under  you, 
As  a  cart  creaketh  that  is  full  of  sheaves. 

The  first  stichos  of  the  couplet  appears  to  be  genuine;  a  com- 
pression of  the  second  is  necessary  to  give  a  genuine  couplet. 

In  9.9  an  almost  identical  structure  and  difficulty  are  pres- 
ent ;  in  fact,  were  the  two  passages  combined,  they  would  make 
a  mutually  supplementary  picture,  since  both  deal  with  images 
of  threshing.  As  in  the  previous  instance,  the  ka-'c-sher  stands 
at  the  head  of  the  second  stichos,  making  it  almost  seem  that 
the  presence  of  this  conjunction  in  the  second  half  of  a  couplet 
is  in  danger  of  obscuring  the  parallelism  and  the  text.  In  9.9, 
however,  unlike  -the  other  instance,  the  ka-'(^sker  section  may 
be  formed  into  two  stichoi : 

And-I-will-sift     among-all-the-nations     the-house-of     Israel, 

Just-as-one-shakes     with-a-sieve, 
But-not-shall-fall     one-kernel     to-the-ground. 

Again  a  disturbance  in  parallelism  is  accompanied  by  the  pres- 
ence of  the  conjunction,  and  by  a  dubious  sense. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  177 

A   type   of   construction   which   plays   a   role   in   disturbed 

parallelism  is  found  in  Amos  4.11;   it  appears  to  be  a  long 

continuous    prose    line;    the   Jewish    Translation    obscures    the 

inequality  in  the  length  of  the  two  parts  into  which  it  divides 

the  line,  by  translating: 

I-have-overthrown     some-of-you, 

As-God     overthrew     Sodom  and-Gomorrah, 

which  in  the  Hebrew  is : 

hdphakhti  hhdkhem 

Jc^-mahpckath  ''-'lolnm  eth-Sedhom  W-eth-' omord. 

Here  the  word  hd-khem  is  given  a  full  word  accent;  Harper 
and  others  believe  that  something  has  fallen  out  of  the  text, 
and  so  indicate  in  their  arrangements.  This  phrase  concerning 
the  destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  gives  difficulty  through- 
out the  prophetic  books ;  it  either  creates  a  species  of  continuous, 
rhythmical  parallelism,  near-prose  in  character,  or  it  breaks 
down  apparently  good  parallelism.  Only  rarely  does  it  form 
a  part  of  good  parallelism.  It  is  found  in  prose  in  Deut.  29.22 ; 
it  has  no  corresponding  stichos  but  is  attached  to  the  end  of  a 
couplet  in  Is.  13.19 ;  in  Jer.  49.18  it  stands  at  the  head  of  a 
verse  the  end  of  which  is  a  good  synonymous  couplet;  so  also 
in  Jer.  50.40.  On  several  occasions  the  words  "Sodom"  and 
"Gomorrah"  are  used  as  corresponding  terms  in  parallel 
couplets  (cf.  Zeph.  2.9;  Is.  1.9;  Jer.  23.14).  The  phrase  of 
comparison  in  Amos  is  not  used  in  the  customary  style  of  par- 
allelism, though  it  might  be  grouped  with  the  ka-'<^sher  type,  i.e., 
with  simile  parallelism ;  or,  if  the  text  were  simply  ' '  as  the 
overthrow  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,"  it  would  be  similar  to  the 
phrase  "in  the  manner  of  Egypt"  in  verse  10  (see  below,  on 
Grief  Song).  But  as  it  stands  it  has  the  sound  of  a  conventional 
phrase,  inserted  without  regard  to  the  awkwardness  of  the  re- 
sulting context:  "I  [God]  have  overthrown  some  of  you  as 
God  overthrew  Sodom  and  Gomorrah."  Indeed,  in  general  it 
may  be  concluded  that  the  Sodom-Gomorrah  phrase  is  conven- 
tional-traditional and  historical,  and  stands  outside  the  couplet 
parallelism,  though  exceptions  of  course  exist. 


178  University  of  California  Publications.       [Sem.  Phil. 


Triplets  and  Monostichs 

Important  in  a  determination  of  the  dubious  eases  of 
parallelism  in  Amos,  is  a  consideration  of  the  monostichs  and 
tristichs;  this  will  make  possible  a  decision  on  the  question 
whether  isolated  stichoi  and  triplet  formations  are  intentional 
or  accidental,  or  are  the  result  of  broken  and  marred  texts. 

The  various  single  stichoi  fall  within  several  categories. 
The  first  includes  those  which  betray  remnants  of  parallelism 
and  which  may  have  been  part  of  a  parallelistic  couplet,  e.g. 
1.3b,  6b,  both  of  which  are  treated  below  in  the  Doom  Song, 
2.1b,  and  1.5,  where  the  first  and  fourth  periods  show  that  a 
couplet  between  them  has  been  omitted  and  the  gap  filled  by 
the  substitution  of  a  good  couplet  taken  from  1.8  (see  below). 

The  stichos  5.27  falls  within  a  class  of  lines  which  occur 
at  the  end  of  a  chapter  and  have  no  complementary  stichos.  It 
may  be  suggested  that  this  near-prose  line  may  serve  as  a 
rhythmical  counterpart  to  the  conventional  prophetical  phrase 
and  epithet  at  the^  end  of  the  verse,  but  this  violates  the  usual 
principle  that  the  introductory  and  closing  phrases  stand  out- 
side the  parallelism. 

A  third  class  of  single  lines  may  be  found  in  the  so-called 

** texts"  to  the  various  sermons  of  Amos.      4.12c  appears  to 

belong  to  this  species,  though  it  occurs  with  two  conventional 

prophetic  phrases,  and  is  followed  by  a  doxology  which  appears 

to  be  an  inset  in  the  text.     In  5.4,  the  text  or  heading  may 

possibly  be  placed  in  parallelism  with  the  next  stichos: 

Seek-me    and-live, 
But-do -not-seek     Bethel. 

In  support  of  this,  the  next  verse,  6a,  appears  to  have  a  text : 
"Seek  the  Lord  and  live";  but  it  will  be  seen  in  a  discussion 
of  the  triplet  in  verse  5  that  this  arrangement  is  not  good. 

This  leads  to  the  fourth  class  of  single  lines,  those  which 
are  attached  to  couplets,  or  are  a  part  of  triplets,  and  hence 
must  be  treated  with  reference  to  triplets.  It  has  already  been 
observed  in  the  discussion  on  3.3,  that  whereas  verses  4,  5,  6, 
and  8  have  two  stichoi  in  alternate  parallelism,  verse  3  has  but 


Vol.  1,]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  179 

one;  hence  it  may  be  stated  that  either  another  stichos  has 
dropped  out,  or  the  present  stichos  must  be  taken  as  the  head 
of  the  series  and  the  keynote.  Compare  discussion  on  9.4-4,  14. 
An  example  of  a  text  that  is  clear  but  perhaps  misplaced 
(Harper,  p.  78,  places  it  after  verse  11)  is  found  in  3.15.  Here 
one  line  occurs  followed  by  two  short  and  parallel  lines.  The 
scheme  is : 

a        b        c        b'       d 
e        b"      f 
e'        b"'     g 
And-I-will-smite     the-house-of     winter     with-the-house-of     summer, 
And-shall-perish     the-houses-of     ivory, 
And-shall-be-destroyed    houses    many. 

This  is  a  distinct  type  of  strophe,  and  when  the  phenomenon  is 
repeated  in  stanzaic  form,  complete  symmetry  results.  It  may 
be  observed  that  the  parallelism  between  the  two  short  lines  is 
quite  exact,  and  the  parallelism  between  either  one  of  these 
and  the  longer  first  line  is  also  good;  the  doubt  arises  through 
the  presence  of  two  stichoi  parallel  to  the  first. 

In  3.11,  despite  the  need  for  a  slight  textual  change  in  the 
first  line,  an  apparently  good  triplet  is  present,  though  the 
synonymity  between  the  terms  of  the  first,  and  those  of  the 
second  and  third  lines  is  not  close.  In  5,8  the  first  stichos 
stands  somewhat  alone,  and  seems  to  need  a  complement,  though 
the  use  of  the  participle,  as  well  as  a  thought  similarity,  binds 
it  to  the  couplet.  In  Job  9.9  and  38.31,  the  same  terms  are 
used  and  couplets  are  present ;  this  stichos  may  be  a  later  inser- 
tion in  Amos  on  the  basis  of  the  Job  passages.  It  is  dangerous 
to  make  good  parallelism  dependent  only  on  the  presence  of 
a  couplet  and  to  be  overscrupulous  in  ascribing  it  to  a  triplet; 
however,  it  is  well  as  here  to  examine  every  triplet  on  its  own 
merits. 

Trouble  arises  with  reference  to  5.16,  17.  Verse  17  has  a 
stichos  in  virtually  the  same  form  and  language  as  the  first 
stichos  in  the  couplet  at  the  head  of  verse  16.  The  repetition 
of  the  word  mispedh,  and  the  fact  that  the  dominant  structure 
here  seems  to  be  the  couplet,  make  it  possible  either  that  some- 
thing has  dropped  out  in  verse  17  which  would  serve  as  a  com- 


180  University  of  California  Puhlioations.       [Sem.  Phil. 

plement  to  the  doubtful  stichos,  or  that  it  is  a  later  insertion. 
The  triplet  formation  thus  appears  to  be  doubtful.  The  same 
question  attaches  to  the  third  stichos  in  5.18.  Harper  wishes 
to  regard  the  striking  second  stichos  to  the  first  couplet  as  an 
interpolation,  and  make  the  first  and  third  stichoi  the  genuine 
couplet,  but  Loehr  and  others  would  omit  the  third  as  an  inser- 
tion, basing  their  action  on  the  ground  that  it  is  derived  from 
5.20a.  In  favor  of  the  present  triplet  arrangement  it  may  be 
said  that  Amos  uses  the  third  stichos  as  a  climax  to  the  imme- 
diately preceding  remarks;  or  the  stichos  may  be  divided  into 
two  parallel  parts: 

It-is     darkness 
And-not     light. 

This  is  doubtful  because  of  the  extreme  brevity  of  the  periods, 
and  the  frequent  use  of  a  line  in  the  scheme  a  b  b'.  "Whatever 
decision  be  championed  with  reference  to  the  text,  it  is  certain 
that  the  triplet  cannot  pass  by  entirely  unquestioned. 

Doubt  is  present  once  more  in  5.22.  Harper  wrongly  regards 
the  second  stichos  of  the  couplet  as  an  interpolation;  it  is  far 
more  plausible  to  regard  merely  u-min^x^thekhem,  "and  your 
meat-offerings,"  as  a  gloss  explaining  (see  Brown-Driver-Briggs, 
p.  585)  the  striking  phrase  in  5.21,  second  stichos:  w^-lo'  'drl^'x^ 
"and  I  will  not  smell  in  your  solemn  assemblies." 

Doubt  again  follows  the  triplet  in  6.6.  The  first  two  stichoi 
form  an  admirable  synonymous  couplet.  Other  investigators 
have  made  various  suggestions  as  to  the  replacement  of  the 
third  stichos,  which  seems  to  be  in  good  prophetic  language, 
contains  three  terms,  but  has  no  complement.  Whatever  may 
be  its  correct  position,  it  appears  certain  that  the  triplet  forma- 
tion here  is  not  original.  In  6.8,  the  first  two  stichoi  form  a 
good  parallelistic  couplet,  but  the  stichos  "and  I  will  shut  up 
the  city  and  its  inhabitants,"  seems  to  be  an  isolated  stichos, 
the  remnant  of  a  couplet,  or  inserted  by  a  later  commentator 
because  the  verb  is  in  the  same  person  as  the  verbs  of  the 
couplet,  and  the  noun  corresponds  to  "palaces"  in  the  second 
stichos  of  the  couplet.  Doubt  further  attaches  to  the  validity 
of  the  stichos  because  immediately  following  it  is  a  long  prose 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  181 

portion  clearly  out  of  place  in  the  text.     If  another  stichos  be 

demanded  to  form  a  couplet,  perhaps  5.27  might  serve.      (Cf. 

1.6,  10.) 

Neither  7.9  nor  7.17  is  free  from  question.      Each  has  an 

isolated  stichos  at  the  end  of  the  verse ;  moreover  in  7.11  Amos 

is  quoted  as  saying: 

By-the-sword     shall-die     Jeroboam, 

And-Israel     shall-surely     go-into-exile     from-its-land. 

If  the  two  isolated  stichoi  in  7.9  and  17  are  brought  together, 
this  couplet  ensues,  as  the  prophecy  which  Amos  is  said  here  to 
attribute  to  God: 

And-I-shall-rise      against-the-house-of      Jeroboam     with-tlie-sword, 
And-Israel     shall-surely      go-into-exile      from-its-land. 

As  the  text  now  stands  only  one-half  of  Amos'  prophecy  in 
verse  11  is  vindicated;  this  arrangement  provides  for  both 
parts,  and  disposes  of  the  isolated  stichoi.  This  is  another  of 
many  instances  where  supposed  triplets  in  reality  are  couplets 
plus  a  stichos  out  of  place. 

In  8.6  a  third  line  follows  a  good  synonymous  couplet  with 
which  it  appears  to  have  no  grammatical  or  logical  connection. 
Either  this  stichos  may  be  rejected,  or  it  may  be  taken  up  into 
the  second  stichos  of  the  first  couplet  in  verse  5.  This  latter 
possibility  is  negated,  however,  by  the  fact  that  nashblr  is 
already  used  there;  the  words  in  verse  6  may  therefore  be  a 
variant  reading. 

In  9.1  a  possible  triplet  is  obscured  by  the  apparent  corrup- 
tion of  the  text;  the  isolated  stichos  " and-their-residue  with- 
the-sword  will-I-slay"  is  in  Amos'  style  and  seems  to  deserve 
a  place  in  the  text  as  a  survival  of  a  good  couplet. 

In  5.5  a  couplet  with  a  reference  to  Bethel  and  to  Gilgal 
is  followed  by  a  stichos  containing  mention  of  Beersheba.  A 
couplet  succeeds  this  group  wherein  Gilgal  and  Bethel  are  men- 
tioned, though  a  play  upon  Beersheba  is  conspicuous  by  its 
absence.  The  suggestion  that  the  first  stichos  of  the  first  couplet 
as  stated  above  be  taken  with  the  ''text"  in  verse  4  is  inde- 
fensible because  of  the  combination  of  stichoi  in  the  second 
couplet   of  verse   5.       Either   Baumann's   suggestion   that   the 


182  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem,  Phil. 

Beersheba  stichos  be  omitted  must  be  accepted  on  the  ground 
that  in  4.4  only  Gilgal  and  Bethel  are  mentioned,  while  8.14 
refers  to  Dan  and  Beersheba  without  the  other  two;  or  it  is 
necessary"  to  add  a  stichos  to  5b,  punning  upon  the  name  of 
Beersheba.  It  is  easier  and  more  plausible  to  omit  the  trouble- 
some stichos  as  an  interpolation. 

In  6.1-2  similar  difficulties  are  encountered.  A  good  couplet 
heads  verse  1 ;  a  doubtful  distich  follows ;  in  verse  2,  three 
stichoi  apparently  in  triplet  formation  are  present ;  then  follows 
a  final  couplet  in  verse  2,  which  must  be  regarded  as  part  of  this 
strophe.  Various  ways  of  reading  these  verses  may  be  sug- 
gested. Harper  (p.  141  ff.)  regards  the  second  distich  of 
verse  1  as  a  good  couplet  and  the  three  stichoi  of  verse  2  as  a 
good  triplet,  but  he  omits  the  second  couplet  in  verse  2;  his 
rendering  of  the  second  couplet  in  verse  1  is : 

Who  specify  themselves  the  chief  of  the  nations, 

And  make  a  prey  for  themselves  of  the  house  of  Israel. 

The  Jewish  Translation  offers  for  this  couplet  the  following 
conventional  and  traditional  rendition  which  clings  to  the  pres- 
ent text  but  solves  none  of  its  difficulties : 

The  notable  men  of  the  first  of  the  nations, 
To  whom  the  house  of  Israel  come. 

The  schematization  of  the  couplet  together  with  the  following 

triplet  becomes  then : 

a        b        c 
d        e        f 

aba 
a'        b'2 
a"       b"2 

The  following  suggestions  may  now  be  offered.  Either  the 
whole  of  the  first  stichos,  n^quhhe  reshlth  hag-goyini,  should  be 
omitted;  this  would  place  the  next  stichos  at  the  head  of  a 
quatrain,  changing  u-hha'u  into  ho'u,  an  imperative;  or  the 
combination  of  consonants  from  n^quhhe  and  the  next  word 
resMth,  q-h-r,  suggests  the  possibility  of  the  word  qlr^hhU, 
''draw  near,"  to  be  parallel  to  hd'U.  For  the  theme  of  the 
couplet  and  of  the  text  down  to  verse  3  appears  to  be :  Let  Israel 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  183 

\ 
approach  the  neighbouring  countries  and  compare  their  lands, 
the  first  of  the  nations,  with  those  of  Israel.  God's  question 
then  at  the  end  of  verse  2  in  the  couplet  seems  entirely  justi- 
fiable; the  words  hag-goylm  in  verse  1  seem  to  anticipate  the 
nations  mentioned  in  verse  2.  The  schematization  first  suggested 
in  this  paragraph  then  becomes: 


The  second  suggestion  calls  for  the  schematization 


a 

b         c 

a' 

d        a' 

a"  ' 

d'2 

a""    d"2 

esti 

on  calls 

a 

b       c 

a' 

d        e 

a" 

f        a' 

a""    f'2 

a"  ' 

' '  f  "2 

the  couplet  being : 

Approach     the-first-of     the-nations, 
And-come-to-them,     oh-House-of     Israel. 

A  final  suggestion  is  that  in  the  second  couplet  of  verse  1  a 
stichos  has  fallen  out  parallel  to  the  first  stichos,  and  that  the 
second  stichos  should  go  with  the  triplet  in  verse  2,  to  form  a 
quatrain,  thus : 

the  first  of  the  nations, 


Come     to-them,     oh-House-of     Israel, 
Pass-over    to-Calneh    and-see, 
And-go     thence     to-Hamath-Eabbah, 
And-go-down     to-Gath-of-the-Philistines. 

The  schematization  thus  becomes : 


a  b        c 

a'  d         a' 

a" '  d'2 

a""  d"2 


There  are  a  few  special  triplet  formations  in  Amos  where 
the  usual  periodic  character  of  each  stichos  is  missing,  and  where 
each  unit  is  a  part  of  a  larger  whole. 


184  University  of  California  Puhlications.       [Sem.  Phil. 

Assemble  on-the-mountain-of  Samaria, 
And-behold  the-many  tumults  therein, 
And-the-oppressions     in-her-midst.  3.9b 

Harper  suggests  that  the  third  period  be  omitted  as  a  gloss 
not  only  because  it  affects  the  "measure  of  the  line"  but  is 
not  clear  grammatically  and  does  not  correspond  well  with 
"tumults."  But  this  suggestion  violates  an  almost  infallible 
law  that  where  a  couplet  or  triplet  shows  good  parallelism,  it 
should  not  be  broken  up.  It  may  be  that  either  '(^shUqim  or 
ni^hUnioth  needs  emendation.  There  is  a  curious  repetition  of 
"palaces"  in  9a,  however;  moreover,  the  preposition  'al  is  used 
in  two  different  senses;  in  the  first  couplet  hash-ml'u  ' al  means 
"to  summon  to"  or  "against"  (cf.  Jer.  51.27)  ;  in  the  triplet, 
he'ds^phU  'al  means  "to  assemble  on  top  of."  Thus  the  fault 
seems  to  lie  in  the  first  couplet  in  verse  9.  The  schematic 
arrangement  is  either: 


or 


Another  dubious  example  is  found  in  5.26 : 
But-now-ye-lift-up     the-shrine-of     your-king 
And-the-image-of     your-images, 
The-star-of     your-God     which-ye-have-made     for-yourselves. 

The   Jewish   Translation   substitutes   "Siccuth"    for   "shrine" 

and   "Chiun"    for    "image,"    taking    the    Hebrew    as    proper 

names.      The  conventional   '(^sher  'c^slthem  lakhem,  "which  ye 

made    for   yourselves,"    mars    the    text,    even    though    various 

phrases  here  be  omitted  in  order  to  make  two  lines  of  fairly 

equal  length ;  thus.  Harper  suggests : 

But-now-ye-lift-up     the-shrine-of     your-king, 

And-the-image-of     your-God     which-ye-have-made     for-yourselves. 

Whatever  be  the  determination  and  exact  rendition  of  this 
passage,  it  is  evident  once  more  that  the  supposed  triplet  cannot 
pass  unchallenged. 

In  9.7  an  apparently  near-prose  quatrastich  or  tristich  is 
present,  after  the  interfering  n^'um  '^dhondi  is  omitted: 


a 

b2 

a' 

c2 

d 

c' 

d' 

a 

b2 

a' 

c2 

d 

Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  185 

Are-not     like-the-Cushites     ye      tome,     oh-Sons-of-Israel, 
Did-not-Israel      I-bring-up      from-the-land-of      Egypt, 
And-the-Philistines     from-Caphtor, 
And-Edom     from-Kir. 

The  first  two  lines  are  allied  perhaps  by  the  affinity  of  thought, 
and  externally  by  the  use  of  the  same  introductory  interrogative 
h(^ld',  "not,"  and  the  use  of  the  term  Yisrd'el  in  both  stichoi. 
It  may  be  asked  whether  the  two  end  periods  should  not  be 
combined  into  one  stichos,  thus  giving  a  triplet  instead  of  one 
long  rhythmically  parallel  couplet  and  one  semi-independent 
couplet  in  close  parallelism.  One  notes  that  this  long  near-prose 
passage  deals  with  traditional  historic  material.  The  schematic 
arrangement  can  be  either 


a 

b 

c 

d 

a' 

e' 

f 

g2 

e" 

g' 

e" 

'g" 

a 

b 

c 

d 

a' 

e' 

fg2 

e"g' 

e" 

'       g" 

or 


It  may  be  concluded  with  reference  to  triplets,  therefore, 
that  the  bona  fide  triplet  combination  in  Amos  is  rare ;  fre- 
quently the  text  of  the  supposed  triplet  is  corrupt  or  dubious; 
unless  the  tristich  shows  perfection  of  form  and  sense,  it  is 
necessary  to  investigate  carefully  before  it  is  pronounced  gen- 
uine. Each  triplet  must  be  weighed  on  its  own  merits,  and 
none  should  be  accepted  without  analysis  merely  because  it  is 
known  that  triplets  do  exist  elsewhere  in  prophetical  literature. 

Conventional  Historical  Prophetic  Phrases 

The  prophets  employ  certain  typical  prophetic  phrases  which 
may  have  been  part  of  the  stock  in  trade  of  the  schools  and 
even  of  the  independent  prophets.  Most  of  these  lines  are 
single  stichoi ;  they  have  a  traditional  flavor  and  hark  back 
oftentimes  to  the  historical  events  deeply  rooted  in  the  past 
of  the  people.  Some  of  them  are  mere  ejaculations,  inserted 
apparently  without  rule  or  reason;  sometimes  however  they 
serve  as  a  climax,  sometimes  as  emphasis  for  a  special  point. 


186  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

2.11b  is  an  ejaculation,  apparently  out  of  place  in  its  present 
location  between  two  couplets  which  reflect  phases  of  the  same 
thought;  4.5b  is  also  an  ejaculation  which  may  serve  to  end  a 
series  of  couplets ;  it  stands  outside  the  parallelism  as  an  isolated 
stichos.  5.14b  and  15b  are  long  and  prosaic;  they  may  be 
regarded  either  as  isolated  stichoi,  may  be  combined  to  form  a 
distich,  or  may  be  part  of  a  stanzaic  arrangement.  5.17  falls 
somewhat  outside  this  category,  for  it  has  not  a  traditional 
flavor;  it  seems  to  be  an  isolated  stichos,  the  remnant  of  a  re- 
frain, or  the  end  to  a  series  of  couplets;  it  may  be  taken  with 
the  preceding  single  stichos  to  form  a  distich,  but  no  synonymity 
exists,  and  the  combination  is  doubtful. 

5.25  is  a  long  prosaic  verse  referring  to  the  sacrifice  of  offer- 
ings in  the  desert  period ;  it  is  clearly  not  parallelism,  and  seems 
to  have  little  place  in  the  text,  unless  it  have  some  bearing  on 
verse  26,  which  is  also  doubtful.  Why  the  prophet  should  sud- 
denly insert  this  line  is  unclear;  why  also  he  should  desert  the 
parallelistic  form  he  has  maintained  immediately  previous  over 
five  verses,  is  a  mystery.  It  serves  again  to  show  the  disjointed 
nature  of  the  Amos  text,  and  to  confirm  the  supposition  that 
only  a  few  scattered  sections  of  the  original  utterances  of  Amos 
have  been  preserved  and  pieced  together  in  their  extant  form. 

9.8b  affords  another  instance  of  the  manner  in  which  verses 
may  be  inserted.  It  is  almost  certain  that  the  line  "Save  that 
I  will  not  destroy  utterly  the  house  of  Jacob,  it  is  the  oracle  of 
Yah  we "  is  a  later  interpolation ;  it  is  in  entire  dissonance  with 
the  preceding  material,  and  has  the  tone  of  a  later  period.  The 
same  applies  to  9.14a,  ''And  I  will  bring  back  the  captivity  of 
my  people  Israel."  This  seems  to  be  part  of  the  patchwork 
text  interpolated  by  a  post-Exilic  editor. 

Several  of  these  conventional  prophetic  historical  phrases 
occur  not  only  as  single  isolated  stichoi,  but  also  as  couplets, 
or  triplets.  2.10  is  an  example  of  a  single  line  followed  in 
verse  11  by  a  couplet  in  good  parallelism,  while  verse  10  itself, 
historic  in  character,  appears  to  be  prosaic  in  style.  The  line 
divides  itself  into  two  parts;  the  words  ''to  possess  the  land  of 
the   Amorites"    attached   at   the   end   may   either   be    omitted, 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  187 

remain  as  they  are,  or  be  preceded  by  wd-'ahhlkhem  henna, 

''and  I  brought  you  hither,"  giving  the  verse  thereby  a  triplet 

formation  (Harper,  p.  54ff.). 

And-yet     it-was-I      who-brought-you    up-from-the-land-of-Egypt, 

And-led-you     in-the-wilderness     forty-years, 

(And-brought-you     hither)      to-possess     the-land-of     the-Amorite. 

This  verse  seems  quite  clearly  in  the  twilight  zone  between  prose 

and  poetry,  resembling  largely  the  rhymed  prose  of  the  Arabic. 

The  same  phenomenon  of  long  prosaic  lines,  yet  with  a  slight 

trace  of  parallelism  in  the  repetition  of  the  word  'al  in  each 

period,  is  noticeable  in  3.1 : 

Hear     this-Avord     which     the-Lord     hath-spoken     against-you,     oh- 

children-of -Israel, 
Against-the-whole-family     that     I-brought-out-of-the-land-of    Egypt. 

Here  again  is  a  reference  to  God's  withdrawal  of  the  Israelites 

from  the  land  of  Egypt. 

An  approximation  to  the  sa/   is  noted  again  in  3.2,  where 

the  periods  are  long  and  reference  is  made  to  historical  data : 

Only-you     have-I-known     from-all-the-families     of-the-land. 
Therefore     I-will-visit     upon-you     all-your-sins. 

Here  as  in  other  conjunctival  clauses,  the  second  stichos  con- 
tains the  result  of  the  fact  mentioned  in  the  first.  There  is  a 
clear  cut  division  between  the  two  periods,  though  the  terseness 
of  most  of  Amos'  poetry  is  missing.  3.7,  which  has  already 
been  discussed,  seems  to  contain  a  customary  prophetic  state- 
ment, used  perhaps  by  the  prophetic  guilds  and  schools  and 
not  containing  strict  parallelism. 

3.14a,  discussed  above,  contains  a  couplet  similar  to  3.2,  but 
the  correspondence  in  terms  is  slightly  closer.  9.8  contains  two 
long  stichoi  marked  by  slight  parallelism  and  yet  not  entirely 
correspondent.  This  distich  is  in  the  realm  of  near-prose  (as 
is  also  the  third  stichos  which  is  clearly  a  later  insertion;  see 
above) : 

Behold     the-eyes-of     the-Lord     are  upon-this-sinful-kingdom, 
And-I-will-destroy      it      from-off-the-face-of      the-earth. 

The  first  stichos  repeats  from  9.4  a  part  of  the  line :  "And  I  will 
place  mine  eyes  upon  them,  for  evil  and  not  for  good";  the 
schematic  character  of  the  distich  is  vague;  moreover  9.4  does 


188  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

not  appear  to  be  a  parallelistic  distich,  nor  is  its  periodic  char- 
acter apparent. 

4.12  contains  an  apparently  conventional  prophetic  phrase, 
complicated  by  the  presence  of  conjunctions  and  doubtful  in 
sense  and  position.  The  second  stichos  may  be  a  gloss  on  the 
first;  the  line  "Prepare  to  meet  thy  God,  Oh  Israel,"  may  be 
a  text  or  a  climactic  sentence,  and  may  serve  as  an  apodosis 
to  the  second  stichos.  5.1  is  a  long  prosaic  introductory  line, 
whereof  the  words  " qlnd,  Oh  House  of  Israel"  appear  to  make 
a  short  second  line  to  the  first  long  line,  giving  a  species  of  qlnd 
construction;  or  this  second  part  may  be  in  correspondence  to 
the  phrase  "this  word  which  I  take  up  against  you."  If  any 
parallelism  may  be  said  to  exist  here,  it  is  of  a  special  and 
uncertain  type.  In  8.7  the  first  line  is  a  conventional  phrase 
of  introduction,  the  second  either  a  prophetic  remark,  compli- 
cated also  by  the  presence  of  the  conjunction  'im,  "if,"  or  an 
isolated  stichos  taken  from  an  original  couplet.  No  synonymity 
exists  between  the  two  periods;  it  is  doubtful  whether  they 
should  be  reckoned  together  as  one  distich. 

It  may  therefore  be  concluded  with  reference  to  the  list 
of  conventional  or  customary  prophetic  phrases  in  Amos,  that 
they  stand  outside  the  regular,  normal  parallelism ;  if  they  show 
any  distich  character,  it  is  vague  and  dubious,  and  closely  allied 
to  near-prose ;  in  a  few  instances  a  rhythmical  principle  may 
operate,  but  these  are  too  few  to  afford  insight  into  any  general 
laws. 

Prelude  and  Postlude  Prophetic  Phrases 

The  numerous  introductory  and  closing  phrases,  formulas 
and  epithets  deserve  consideration  with  a  view  to  the  question 
whether  they  stand  outside  the  parallelism  or  require  word 
accents  in  the  schematization  of  the  couplets.  The  words  way- 
yomer,  lemor,  w<^-dmcru,  and  others  which  stand  at  the  head 
of  the  speeches  do  not  appear  to  receive  word  accents,  but  stand 
outside  the  confines  of  the  couplets  themselves ;  this  applies  also 
to  the  longer  phrases:  "Thus  saith  the  Lord"  used  at  the  head 
of  the  stanzas  in  the  Doom  Song,  and  with  variations  throughout 
the  book.     In  two  instances,  hashmi'u  in  3.9  and  shim^'U  zoth 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  189 

in  8.4,  introductory  words  receive  accents,  though  the  first 
through  the  use  of  the  preposition  'al  belongs  to  another  cate- 
gory. The  closing  words,  n^'um,  '"^dhondi,  and  longer  phrases 
and  epithets  applicable  to  God,  '^domii  sh^mo,  '<^ddnai  g^hhd'oth 
sh^mo,  and  others,  also  appear,  to  stand  outside  the  parallelism. 
The  phrases  in  the  prose-poetic  narrative  in  chapter  7  will 
receive  special  treatment  below.  On  occasion  as  in  8.9  and  11, 
though  even  these  two  cases  are  doubtful,  the  phrases  seem  to 
fall  into  two  parts,  rhythmically  equal. 

It  may  be  concluded  then  that  in  the  great  majority  of  cases, 
these  phrases  play  almost  the  same  part  as  quotation  marks  in 
English;  they  stand  beyond  the  territory  of  parallelistic  struc- 
ture, i.e.,  they  are  not  to  be  included  as  part  of  the  distichs,  and 
hence  stand  in  a  separate  rhetorical  category. 

STEOPHIC  FOEMATIONS 

Amos  contains  several  special  strophic  formations  which 
demand  separate  treatment.  These  embrace  the  Doom  Song  in 
chapters  1  and  2,  the  Grief  Song  in  4.6-11,  the  first  series  of 
Visions  in  7.1-6,  the  second  series  of  Visions  in  7.7-9  and  8.1-3, 
and  the  prose-poetic  narrative  in  7.10-17.  The  Doom  Song  will 
be  the  subject  of  special  study  below. 

Grief  Song 

The  Grief  Song  may  be  first  considered.  It  may  be  decided 
that  stanzas  are  present  in  the  poem.  There  are  five  parts,  each 
of  which  has  as  its  opening  verb  a  past  first  person  singular, 
followed  by  a  form  of  the  pronoun  "you"  with  a  preposition, 
Each  has  the  single  line  refrain:  "But-ye-did-not  return  unto- 
me;  it  is  the  oracle  of  Yahwe."  In  the  Doom  Song  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  refrains  and  formulas  are  in  couplet  form,  as  in 
the  prophetic  songs  in  Is.  9.11,  16,  20 ;  10.4,  5,  25 ;  Ezek.,  chapter 
25,  however,  has  the  single  line,  "That  ye  may  know  that  I  am 
the  Lord,"  without  a  parallelistic  complement. 

The  number  of  lines  in  the  five  stanzas  varies.  Stanza  1 
has  the  introductory  period  (not  a  full  line),  a  parallelistic 
couplet,  and  the  refrain :  four  lines ;  stanza  3  has  the  introduc- 
tory period  (a  full  line),  a  parallelistic  couplet,  and  the  refrain: 


190  University  of  California  Publications.       [Sem.  Phil. 

four  lines;  stanza  4  has  the  introductory  period  (a  full  line), 
then  three  periods  (two  of  which  are  full  lines,  the  middle  one 
being  a  dubious  phrase  of  three  words)  :  four  lines  plus ;  stanza 
5  has  a  long  introductory  period  which  is  an  over-full  line,  a 
single  complete  line,  and  the  refrain:  apparently  three  lines 
in  all.  Stanza  2  is  the  most  troublesome.  It  contains  an 
introductory  period  of  two  lines,  not  in  parallelism,  but  approx- 
imating prose ;  a  weak  couplet  wheretn  parallelism  is  evident ; 
another  couplet  wherein  the  second  stichos  has  a  disturbing 
relative  clause ;  a  long  prosaic  line  which  cannot  even  be  split 
up  into  halves ;  finally  the  refrain :  in  toto,  eight  periods.  It 
is  at  once  evident  that  stanza  2  differs  from  the  others  in  form 
and  character.  The  question  now  arises,  as  it  will  with  ref- 
erence to  the  Doom  Song  and  the  other  strophes :  Is  there  a 
model  stanza  for  the  entire  five  parts  of  the  Grief  Song,  con- 
sisting of  the  opening  period,  a  couplet  describing  in  detail 
the  effect  of  the  general  threat  of  punishment  in  the  introduc- 
tory line,  finally  the  refrain,  and  the  closing  prophetic  phrase : 
four  major  periods  plus  the  neutral  closing  phrase  ?  This  ques- 
tion can  be  answered  only  by  an  examination  of  the  information 
each  stanza  affords: 

Stanzas  1  and  3  conform  to  the  model  stanza,  though  as  has 
been  noted,  the  introductory  period  of  the  first  is  not  an  inde- 
pendent unit  as  in  verse  9,  but  is  completed  in  sense  only  by 
the  couplet  which  follows.  The  adverb  w^-gam  at  the  head  of 
stanzas  1  and  2  leads  to  the  supposition  that  this  may  have  been 
the  opening  word  in  each  stanza;  three,  however,  lack  it. 
Though  the  divergence  in  the  introductory  period  is  slight,  it 
is  sufficient  to  show  at  once  that  however  close  the  identity  in 
form  between  strophes,  it  is  not  absolute. 

Stanza  4  bears  this  statement  out  still  further.  The  intro- 
ductory period  is,  like  that  of  stanza  3,  a  single  line ;  the  second 
period  is  clear  in  sense;  but  the  third  period,  'im  sh^hhl 
sUsekhem,  usually  translated  "together  with  the  captivity  of 
your  horses, ' '  disturbs  the  parallelistic  arrangement  and  is 
evidently  an  afterthought.  It  is  regarded  by  many  as  an  inter- 
polation ;  if  omitted  the  stanza  has  in  its  second  section  two 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  191 

periods.  But  the  fourth  period  of  the  existing  stanza  is  appar- 
ently corrupt.  It  is  necessary  to  omit  the  copula  it  before 
bh^'appekhem  in  order  to  give  clarity.  Yet  even  with  this  emen- 
dation the  second  section,  though  composed  of  two  stichoi,  does 
not  show  the  close  synonymous  parallelism  of  similar  sections 
in  stanzas  1  and  3.  The  first  stichos  contains  three  members, 
the  second  four ;  the  omission  of  the  word  ' '  and-in-your-nostrils ' ' 
would  give  in  the  second  three  members,  and  would  have  the 
additional  merit  of  a  suffixal  rhyme  between  haxurekhem  and 
m-ax^^iekhem.  Whatever  be  the  decision  on  these  points,  merely 
to  omit  the  marring  third  period  in  the  present  form  would 
bring  the  stanza  into  structural  consonance  with  the  first  and 
third. 

Stanza  5  is  not  so  easily  disposed  of.  The  introductory 
period  has  already  been  discussed  (p.  177)  ;  it  is  sufficient  to  note 
here  again  that  the  long  prosaic  line  may  be  split  up  into  two 
parts,  as  Loehr,  Baumann  and  others  suggest ;  but  the  shortness 
of  the  resulting  stichos,  hdphakhtl  hdkhem,  ' '  I-overthrew  among- 
you,"  would  entail  the  insertion  of  another  phrase,  perhaps  the 
word  'drlm,  ''cities,'  in  the  form  'drekhem,  "your  cities."  This 
would  place  the  line  ke-mahpekhath  '<^ldMm,  etc.,  as  a  second 
stichos,  dependent  upon  the  introductory  period,  and  would 
not  result  in  conformity  to  the  structure  of  the  single  line  intro- 
ductory period  in  stanzas  1,  3,  and  4.  Moreover  the  second 
section,  which  in  the  other  stanzas  is  a  couplet,  is  here  a  mono- 
stich;  there  are  no  indications  in  Amos  or  other  prophetic 
passages  to  show  that  a  line  has  dropped  out  or  that  some 
portion  could  be  restored  as  in  the  Doom  Song  to  furnish  the 
missing  complementary  stichos.  Thus  even  if  the  first  long 
period  be  split  up  and  the  number  of  periods  thereby  become 
four  plus  the  closing  phrase,  as  the  model  stanza  seems  to  demand, 
yet  internally  the  stanza  departs  from  the  necessary  type.  And 
if  it  be  suggested  that  the  first  period  remain  as  one,  merely 
omitting  the  word  'HoMm  as  superfluous  because  God  himself 
is  supposed  to  speak  the  sentence,  the  number  of  periods  becomes 
three  plus  the  closing  phrase,  an  even  greater  divergence  from 
the  model  stanza.      It  is  probable  then  that  the  stanza  has  not 


192  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.Phil. 

been  handed  down  in  its  original  form,  and  that  responsible 
in  large  measure  for  its  doubtful  character,  is  the  presence  of 
the  conventional,  historical,  prophetic  reference  to  Sodom  and 
Gemorrah. 

Stanza  2  possesses  even  greater  difficulties,  since  it  throws 
into  still  greater  darkness  the  relation  of  prose  to  poetry  in 
Amos.  The  whole  stanza  is  tautological  and  defective.  Loehr 
and  others  omit  the  entire  passage,  verses  7  and  8,  as  a  later 
insertion.  Harper  is  not  so  drastic  and  correctly  makes  the 
following  observations :  The  words  in  the  first  section  which 
follow  the  introductory  period,  namely,  "while  yet  there  re- 
mained three  months  to  the  harvest"  may  be  a  gloss  based  on 
a  meteorological  calculation.  It  may  be  said  in  addition  that 
the  extreme  length  of  the  Massoretic  verse  7  is  suspicious;  for 
it  may  be  asked :  Does  not  a  Massoretic  verse  usually  contain 
four  periods  of  poetry,  or  two  couplets,  and  infrequently  six 
periods  or  three  couplets?  The  first  couplet  in  verse  7  appears 
to  be  genuine,  for  though  the  second  stichos  is  merely  an  inver- 
sion of  the  first,  yet  correspondence  of  terms  is  present.  But 
the  second  couplet  appears  to  be  redundant  because  of  the  repe- 
tition of  the  numerals  and  the  word  for  "rain,"  and  also 
because  of  the  looseness  and  tameness  of  the  style;  the  relative 
clause  in  the  second  stichos  of  this  distich  contributes  to  its 
weakness.  Hence  it  deserves  to  be  omitted  (Harper,  p.  96). 
Verse  8  is  a  long  prosaic  line,  resembling  8,11-12,  to  the  strophe 
of  which  it  may  belong ;  it  may  be  divided  into  two  portions,  but 
solely  on  a  rhythmical  and  not  on  a  parallelistic  basis;  there 
is  again  repetition  of  the  word  "city"  and  in  general  prosaic 
garrulity  entirely  unworthy  of  the  style  of  Amos.  It  seems 
justifiable  to  urge  its  omission ;  the  stanza  would  then  take  on 
a  form  entirely  in  keeping  with  the  model  stanza,  containing 
four  periods  plus  the  prophetic  phrase : 

I-also-it-was-who    withheld     from-you    the-rain, 

And-I-sent-rain     upon-one-city, 
While-upon-another-city    I-sent-not-rain. 

But-ye-did-not     return     unto-me. 

It-is-the-oracle-of    Yahwe.  4.7-8 


Vol.1.]  Newman: — Parallelism  in  Amos.  193 

This  stanza  is  secured  by  the  easy  task  of  omission,  but  for  this 
there  seems  justification  on  literary,  syntactical,  and  other 
grounds. 

The  conclusions  as  to  the  Grief  Song  cannot  be  positively 
affirmed,  but  they  seem  to  grow  out  of  clear  data.  It  appears 
evident  that  there  was  an  original  type  stanza,  consisting  of 
four  lines :  the  introductory  period,  the  parallelistic  couplet, 
describing  the  details  of  punishment;  the  refrain  of  grief;  and 
finally  outside  the  major  portion  of  the  stanza,  the  closing 
prophetic  phrase.  The  first  three  stanzas  show  a  parallelism 
of  close  synonymity ;  stanza  4  needs  emendation  before  it  gives 
a  rhythmically  parallelistic  distich ;  stanza  5  departs  widely 
from  the  model  form,  and  is  perhaps  the  most  difficult  of  the 
entire  set.  Stanza  2,  a  melnnge  of  prose  and  poetry,  is  soon 
narrowed  down  to  the  model  form  because  of  the  apparent 
illegitimacy  of  the  prose  portions.  One  decision  is  indisputable : 
though  a  type  stanza  may  obtain,  no  one  of  the  existing  stanzas 
conforms  to  it,  even  after  emendation,  in  entirety;  each  has  its 
own  slight  variations.  Standard  stanzas  for  individual  poems 
may  have  been  the  rule  with  the  prophets ;  but  none  the  less, 
great  leeway  was  permitted  in  the  degree  of  exact  conformance 
to  the  type.  An  examination  of  the  other  strophic  arrange- 
ments in  Amos  will  confirm  these  observations. 

Series  of  Visions 
Amos  7.1-6  and  7-9,  and  8.1-3  contain  four  visions  each 
beginning  with  the  words :  ' '  Thus  hath-shown-me ' ' ;  but  from 
the  internal  material,  it  is  clear  that  Amos  7.1-6  forms  one  pair 
of  visions,  and  the  other  passages  a  second  pair.  The  decision 
that  interparallelism  between  the  strophes  exists  was  reached 
before  reference  was  made  to  the  work  of  any  other  investi- 
gators ;  the  fact  that  virtually  the  same  conclusions  were  secured 
independently  is  additional  proof  of  their  validity. 

FIRST   PAIR 

In  the  first  pair  of  visions  as  in  the  Doom  and  Grief  Songs, 
a  type  stanza  is  expected.  The  likenesses  between  the  two 
strophes  are  found  in  the  opening  prophetic  phrase  and  in  the 


194  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

refrain;  the  former  is  identical  in  its  two  occurrences,  the  lat- 
ter almost  identical:  s^^lax-tid',  "repent-now,"  is  paralleled  by 
x'^dhal-na',  "cease-now";  in  verses  3  and  6,  the  second  stichoi 
of  the  last  line  of  the  refrain  differ  only  by  the  addition  of  gam, 
' '  also, ' '  in  the  latter  verse.  The  refrain  itself  shows  no  internal 
parallelism  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  it  should  be  written  as 
four  lines,  or  as  six  periods.  The  parallelism  is  extensive,  that 
is,  it  reaches  beyond  the  confines  of  the  strophe  and  becomes, 
through  similarity  to  the  same  portion  in  the  other  strophe, 
interparallelism. 

The  real  difficulty  in  this  first  pair  of  visions  lies  in  the 
substance  of  the  prophecies  between  the  identical  opening  phrase 
and  the  similar  refrains.  In  the  first  stanza,  7.1-2,  the  lines 
as  they  stand  read: 

And  behold  he  was  forming  locusts  in  the  beginning  of  the  coming 

up   of  the  aftergrowth, 
And  behold  there  were  full  groAvn  locusts  after  the  king's  mowings, 
And  it  came  to  pass  when  they  were  making  an  end  of  devouring 

the  herb  of  the  land. 

Except  for  the  repetition  of  the  word  "behold"  all  parallelism 
seems  to  have  disappeared;  three  long  prosaic  periods  are  here 
found,  whereas  in  the  same  section  in  the  second  strophe,  one 
good  couplet  at  least  is  present,  though  another  prose  line  begin- 
ning "and-behold"  precedes  it.  The  text  in  the  first  strophe  is 
unclear;  the  Septuagint  is  confused  and  formless.  The  several 
suggestions  for  its  reconstruction  do  not  restore  parallelism.  If 
the  text  remain  as  it  is,  then  it  must  be  accepted  that  the  prophet 
could  throw^  in  prose  at  will,  and  destroy  thereby  the  regular 
character  of  his  compositions;  but  if  it  be  felt  that  the  text 
in  its  present  form  is  irretrievably  corrupt,  then  the  conclusion 
seems  justifiable  that  absence  of  interparallelism  is  generally 
accompanied  by  a  badly  preserved  text  and  an  unclear  meaning. 
In  the  second  strophe,  the  only  flaw  lies  in  the  line :  ' '  And 
behold  was-calling  to-contend  by-fire  the  Lord  Yahwe, "  which 
precedes  the  good  couplet.  Should  this  line  remain  in  its  pres- 
ent form,  or  is  it  the  remnant  of  a  good  couplet?  In  Is.  66.16 
where  virtually  the  same  thought  is  expressed,  parallelism  of 
the  most  regular  and  beautiful  kind  is  present. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  195 

It  may  be  concluded  then  from  this  poem:  (1)  either  it  con- 
tains a  mixture  of  prose  in  long  lines  and  short,  together  with 
parallelism  and  interparallelism  through  the  presence  of  good 
couplets  and  almost  identical  refrains;  (2)  or  the  two  stanzas, 
barring  minor  changes,  were  identical  in  the  number  and  char- 
acter of  their  lines,  and  the  present  text  containing  lines  dubious 
in  sense  and  unclear  in  grammar  has  been  tampered  with,  so 
that  a  reconstruction  of  the  text  should  restore  parallelism  and 
interparallelism. 

SECOND  PAIR 

The  second  series  of  visions  in  7.7-9  and  8.1-3  contains  two 
stanzas  alike  in  form  and  substance.  Between  these  two  stanzas 
is  a  long  narrative  passage  of  seven  verses,  evidently  inserted 
because  it  deals  with  the  word  * 'Jeroboam,"  mentioned  in  verse 
9  (see  below).  Though  these  strophes  both  begin  with  the 
words:  "Thus  hath-shown-me, "  the  additional  words  Yahwe 
'Hohtm  are  missing  from  the  first;  the  second  has,  however,  as 
subject  Yahwe.  The  context  of  this  series  differs  from  that  of 
the  first  pair  of  visions;  perhaps  they  were  written  at  different 
times  and  were  compiled  into  their  present  position  because  of 
the  similarity  of  their  opening  words  as  well  as  the  similarity  in 
the  use  of  w'^-hinne,  ''and  behold." 

The  following  points  are  to  be  noted :  in  stanza  1  of  this  series 
the  period  beginning  w^-hinne  is  a  line  showing  some  parallelism, 
due  to  the  repetition  of  the  word  '^^ndkh  in  the  phrase  "and-in- 
his-hand  a-plummet, ' '  though  Harper  would  omit  this  as  a  gloss. 
Stanza  2  has  in  this  section  merely  the  phrase  "and-behold  a 
summer-basket."  The  next  variation  between  the  two  stanzas 
lies  in  the  fact  that  stanza  1  has  "and-said  Yahwe  unto-me," 
while  stanza  2  h^s  merely  "and-said."  But  in  the  next  pro- 
phetic phrase,  to  which  it  must  be  admitted  no  great  importance 
can  be  attached,  stanza  2  has  "and-said  Yahwe  unto-me," 
while  stanza  1  has  "And  '(^dhonai  said."  There  is  no  local 
or  internal  parallelism  in  the  stanzas  until  the  lines  descriptive 
of  the  punishment  are  reached,  but  barring  these  slight  varia- 
tions, interparallelism  between  the  stanzas  is  present  before  the 
regular  couplets. 


196  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

After  a  description  of  the  facts  of  the  vision,  follows  a  single 
line  playing  upon  the  name  of  the  object  seen  in  the  vision  (cf. 
Jer.  1.11  ff.,  where  there  are  two  similar  visions,  the  second  one 
being  extended  to  greater  length  than  the  first)  ;  this  single  line 
is  accompanied  by  a  second  which  contains  a  refrain:  "I-will- 
not-continue  again  to-pass  by-them"  (cf.  5.17).  There  is  no 
synonjonity  between  these  two  lines  looked  at  as  a  local  unit 
in  each  stanza,  though  together  they  may  be  taken  to  form  a 
rhythmical  distich. 

Stanza  1  contains  in  verse  9  a  couplet  in  perfect  synonymous 
parallelism ;  a  third  stichos  follows,  but  as  has  already  been 
pointed  out,  this  appears  to  belong  with  the  isolated  single 
stichos  in  verse  17.  Stanza  2  has  here,  in  8.3,  for  the  couplet 
which  should  correspond  to  7.9,  a  sadly  distorted  group  of  lines. 
Harper  has  wrongly  shifted  the  group,  and  has  in  fact  missed 
the  entire  strophic  character  of  the  two  visions ;  here  his  dis- 
cussion carries  little  weight.      As  the  verse  stands  it  reads : 

And-shall-be-howlings     the-songs-of     the-palace, 
On-that     clay,     said     Yahwe  Elohim; 
A-multitude-of  corpses; 
In-every     place     he-shall-cast-forth     silence. 

It  is  clear  that  the  text  is  in  confusion.  A  conventional  pro- 
phetic phrase  in  the  second  period  here  interrupts  the  major 
portion  of  the  text,  and  if  retained  should  be  shifted  to  the 
end  of  the  stanza ;  otherwise  it  is  necessary  in  view  of  its  present 
position  and  the  absence  of  a  similar  phrase  in  the  other  strophe 
to  regard  it  as  a  later  insertion. 

Various  suggestions  for  the  reconstruction  of  this  passage 
can  be  made.  On  the  supposition  that  this  last  section  in  stanza  1 
is  a  quatrain,  and  that  the  single  stichos  in  7.17  should  be 
transposed  to  7.9,  thus  giving  four  stichoi,  it  will  be  necessary 
to  restore  here  a  tetrastich.  This  would  imply  that  the  word 
helllu  in  8.3  would  form  the  remnant  of  one  stichos;  shlroth 
hekhdl,  the  fragment  of  the  third  stichos;  h^-khol  mdqom,  the 
remnant  of  the  fourth;  and  hishUkh  plus  rahh  hap-pegher,  the 
second  stichos  (this  supposition  finds  some  support  from  a  refer- 
ence to  6.10  and  5.16)  ;  thus: 


"Vol.1.]  Newman, — Parallelism  in  Amos.  197 

(In  all  the     ...     .)   they  howl, 

The  corpses  are  piled  in  the  streets, 
The  palace  songs  (are  hushed) 

In  every  place,  they  say  has! 

But  if  it  be  urged  that  a  couplet  here  is  necessary,  various 

more  plausible  suggestions  can  be  offered.     The  first  is  to  regard 

has  as  a  part  of  a  marginal  heslru,  "  they-shall-f ail, "  as  in  5,23, 

intended  as  a  correction  of  helUu,  but  inserted  as  has,  and  as 

hashllkh  by  another  copyist ;  the  reading  can  then  become : 

And-there-shall-fail     the-songs-of     the-palace, 
Many-shall-be     the-corpses     in-every-place. 

Again  it  may  be  urged  that  the  first  stichos  is  genuine; 
hishlikh  has  may  be  regarded  as  a  gloss;  while  rahh  hap-pegher 
h^-khol  maqom  may  be  taken  as  the  second  stichos ;  this  would 
give  a  couplet  only  slightly  different  from  the  one  just  sug- 
gested. Or  if  it  is  possible  to  take  has  as  a  noun  meaning 
''silence,"  then  an  emendation  of  hishlikh  to  hoshlakh,  with  an 
omission  of  rabh  hap-pegher  would  give :  ' '  In  every  place  is 
silence  cast."  But  to  this  emendation,  as  to  the  present  Masso- 
retic  text,  the  objection  might  be  raised  that  a  prediction  of 
howling  and  one  of  silence  are  mutually  contradictory.  It 
may  be  well  also  to  consider  Harper's  emendation  of  shlroth  to 
shdroth,  ' '  the  singing  women, ' '  making  the  couplet : 

And  the  singing  women  of  the  palace  shall  wail. 
In  every  place  shall  there  be  a  multitude  of  corpses. 

Or  if  it  be  thought  that  has  is  a  dittography  and  abbreviation  of 

hoshlakh,  the  couplet  becomes : 

And  the  singing  women  of  the  palace  shall  wail, 

A  multitude  of  corpses!      In  every  place  they  are  cast. 

It  is  of  course  impossible  to  decide  definitely  upon  any  one  of 
these  suggestions  and  conjectures.  It  is  sufficient  to  note  that 
where  a  break  in  the  interparallelistic  arrangement  of  the 
strophes  occurs,  there  also  the  text  is  corrupt. 

It  may  then  be  concluded  with  reference  to  this  series  that 
these  two  strophes  conform  to  a  type  stanza  wherein  deviations 
are  caused  by  slight  and  minor  changes  of  the  text,  and  major 
variations  by  corruptions  and  textual  errors.  Where  internal 
and   extensive   parallelism   is  weakened,   there   a   dubious   and 


198  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

vague  text  is  found.  It  may  perhaps  be  decided  that  if  the 
correct  text  of  this  poem  were  existent,  a  perfect  poem  of  exactly 
the  same  number  of  periods  in  each  stanza  would  be  present, 
and  this  would  lend  further  weight  to  the  idea  that  Amos  and 
the  prophets  employed  completely  regular  stanza  poems. 

PEOSE-POETIC  NAKKATIVE:   7.10-17 

It  is  believed  by  some  scholars  that  the  more  important  of 
the  early  stories  had  their  first  literary  expression  in  poetry 
and  that  their  prose  form  represents  a  subsequent  stage  of  de- 
velopment. This  principle  may  apply  to  the  later  narratives 
found  in  the  prophetic  books.  Amos  7.10-17  is  a  narrative 
account  of  the  encounter  between  the  Prophet  and  the  High 
Priest,  Amaziah.  It  seems  to  be  written  in  prose,  but  is  in 
reality  a  combination  of  prose  lines  and  extremely  regular 
parallelism.  The  conclusion  that  this  passage  represented  a 
combination  of  prose  and  poetry  was  arrived  at  independently 
of  any  commentaries ;  a  glance  at  the  work  of  other  investigators 
confirmed  the  results  reached.  Harper's  arrangement  neglects 
the  fundamental  differentiation  between  the  phrases  of  address 
in  Amos,  which  it  has  been  seen  almost  always  stand  outside 
the  major  portions  of  the  text,  and  the  real  narrative  and  par- 
allelistic  material  of  the  piece.  In  addition,  Harper  does  not 
observe  the  couplet  structure,  but  several  times  splits  one  stichos, 
complete  in  itself,  into  two  portions,  thus  violating  a  funda- 
mental rule  of  parallelism  that  onlj-  in  cases  of  alternate  and 
qln4  parallelism,  can  a  stichos  so  be  broken  up. 

The  primary  evidence  that  this  piece  contains  poetry  is  of 
course  found  in  the  many  parallelistic  couplets.  It  includes 
no  less  than  eight  clear  cut  couplets,  wherein  synonymity  is 
marked,  and  one  couplet  of  a  certain  rhythmical  balance  but 
without  the  synonymity  or  terseness  which  would  stamp  it  as 
parallelism.  This  verse,  10,  has  already  been  discussed  and 
has  been  designated  as  a  species  of  rhythmical  non-parallelism, 
approaching  the  Hebrew  prototype  of  unrhymed  saj' .  The 
phrases  of  address  in  verses  10-17  stand  apparently  outside  the 
parallelism,  and  need  not  be  taken  into  account  in  a  consider- 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  199 

ation  of  the   couplets.      Verses   12-13   form  something   of   an 

accidental  strophic  arrangement : 

Oh  Seer!     Go  flee  thee  unto  the  land  of  Judah, 

And  eat  bread  there, 

And  there  prophesy. 

y 

But  at  Bethel  thou  shalt  no  longer  prophesy, 

For  it  is  the  king's  sanctuary. 

And  it  is  the  royal  residence. 

In  this  three  line  strophic  arrangement,  the  two  introductory- 
lines  are  about  equal  in  length  and  are  rhythmically  similar 
though  there  is  no  synonymity  between  them.  But  the  shorter 
lines  viewed  locally  constitute  a  synonymous  couplet  in  each 
strophe.  If  it  is  felt  that  the  stichoi  of  these  couplets  are  too 
short,  then  they  can  each  be  combined  into  one  fairly  long  stichos 
composed  of  two  hemistichs.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  these 
words  are  placed  in  the  high  priest's  mouth;  surely  it  was  not 
customary  for  speakers  thus  in  ordinary  conversation  to  use 
parallelism ;  possibly  a  later  author  made  into  parallelistic  struc- 
ture whatever  he  supposed  the  priest  to  have  said.  In  verse  11, 
however,  he  quotes  Amos,  and  there  the  parallelism  is  so  definite 
as  to  be  indisputable.  It  may  w^ell  be  that  Amos  in  the  heat 
of  his  denunciation  spoke  in  parallelism;  this  phenomenon  is 
present,  as  has  been  observed,  in  the  Arabic  khutha.  If  the 
priest  usually  spoke  in  parallelism  in  his  oracles  (and  such 
seems  to  be  the  case  in  Finnish,  Arabic,  Babylonian  and  other 
literatures),  here  he  may  have  done  so  out  of  force  of  habit. 
Moreover,  Amos  is  supposed  to  attribute  to  the  high  priest  a 
parallelistic  couplet  in  verse  16.  The  king's  words,  quoted  by 
the  high  priest  in  warning  Amos,  are  not  couched  in  synonymous 
parallelism,  but  seem  to  constitute  a  rhythmical  distich.  All 
these  points  appear  to  suggest  that  even  though  the  words  here 
attributed  to  prophet,  priest,  and  king  were  not  originally 
spoken  in  parallelism,  a  later  compiler  and  narrator,  visibly 
under  the  effect  of  prophetic  style  and  method,  has  employed 
parallelism  better  to  make  the  passage  seem  the  genuine  work 
of  Amos. 

Another  seemingly  rhythmical  distich  appears  in  verse  15. 
If  the  phrase  of  address,  '*and-said  God  unto-me,"  is  regarded 


200  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

as  equivalent  to  neutral  quotation  marks  and  hence  outside  the 

parallelism,  then  the  combination  becomes: 

And  Yahwe  took  me  from  behind  the  sheep; 
' '  Go  prophesy  against  my  people,  Israel. ' ' 

This  distich  has  no  synonymity,  and  has  the  additional  dis- 
advantage of  combining  a  period  of  narrative  and  a  period  of 
discourse.  Hence  doubt  may  be  rightly  thrown  upon  this 
arrangement. 

It  has  already  been  noted  that  verse  9  may  be  transposed  to 
complete  with  verse  17  a  full  couplet,  so  that  it  may  correspond 
to  the  words  imputed  to  Amos  by  the  priest  in  verse  11.  It 
may  be  objected  here  that  this  would  make  verse  17  longer  than 
the  usual  Massoretic  verse,  since  it  would  contain  the  phrase 
of  address,  and  three  complete  couplets.  This,  however,  does 
not  outweigh  the  arguments  in  favor  of  the  transposition. 

Thus  it  will  be  observed  that  the  only  factors  which  play 
a  part  in  the  non-poetical  portions  of  the  narrative  are :  ( 1 )  the 
near-prose  rhythmical  distich  in  verse  10;  (2)  the  prosaic  narra- 
tive lines  in  verse  10,  and  possibly  in  verse  14,  though  the  latter 
may  belong  to  the  following  class;  (3)  the  customary  phrases  of 
address,  such  as  "saying,"  "and  Amaziah  said  to  Amos,"  "and 
God  said  unto  me, ' '  the  unusual ' '  and  now  barken  unto  the  word 
of  Yahwe,"  and  finally,  "therefore  thus  saith  Yahwe,"  together 
with  the  mocking  taunt  attributed  to  the  king,  "for  thus  saith 
Amos,"  in  verse  11.  These  apparently  stand  outside  of  the 
major  parallelism,  though  Harper's  arrangement  into  two 
strophes  of  exactly  fifteen  lines  each  includes  them  in  the 
distich  and  strophic  scheme.  The  conclusion  therefore  is  that 
it  is  imperative  to  examine  any  so-called  prose  portions  of  the 
prophecies  with  exceeding  care  to  determine  whether  parallelism 
can  be  discovered.  Moreover  the  presence  of  parallelism  in  a 
supposedly  prosaic  passage  appears  to  be  further  indication  that 
the  prophets  attributed  parallelism  not  merely  to  the  words 
of  God,  but  also  to  the  speeches  of  their  contemporaries  and 
opponents,  who  used  it  for  no  divine,  but  for  a  purely  human, 
utterance.  This  may  dovetail  with  the  fact  that  parallelistic 
rhymed  prose  was  so  common  with  the  Arabs  that  even  the 


Vol.  1..]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  201 

women  and  children  employed  it  in  ordinary  speech.  Any 
elaborate  conclusions,  however,  on  the  basis  of  such  slight  evi- 
dence, are  dangerous. 

The  question  whether  Amos  or  another  writer  composed  this 
still  remains  unanswered.  The  style  is  that  of  Amos ;  the  text 
is  clear  and  apparently  unimpaired.  On  this  point  it  may  be 
observed  that  an  uncorrupted  text  usually'  shows  uncorrupted 
parallelism — a  converse  to  the  conclusion  reached  above  that  a 
marred  text  is  usually  accompanied  by  broken  parallelism.  For 
these  various  reasons,  then,  this  passage  affords  fruitful  data  for 
a  determination  of  the  degree  and  scope  of  interplay  between 
prose  and  poetry  in  Amos. 


202 


University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  DOOM  SONG,  AMOS  1.3-2.8 
RECONSTEUCTION  OF  STANZAS  1,  2,  5  AND  6 


(Stanza  1) 
Tco   'dmar  '"dhondi 

'al  sMloskd  pish^'e  dammeseq 
w^-al  'arbd'd  Id'  'oshlbheiinii 

'al  lax'^QO.m  'eth-hag-gil'ddh 
w^-dhushdm  ba-x^rugoth  hab-barzel 


(Stanza  2) 
ko  'dmar  'odhondi 

'  al  shcloshd  pish<^'e  'azzd 
w^-' al   'arbd'd  Id'   '"shlbhennu 

'al  haghlothdm  gdluth  sh^lemd 
Ic-hasglr  'Ir  H-m'^lo'dh 


wc-shillaxtt  'esh  be-blieth  x"20,'el 
w^-dkhcld  'armcnoth  ben-h"dhddh 

wc-shdbhartt  bcrl^'x  dammeseq 


we-shillaxt^  'esh  be-xomath  ' azza 
we-  'akheld   'arm^nothehd 

w^-hikhrattt  yoshebh  me-  'ashdodh 


w<^-dhalH1wthbiq' ath-'dwen '"ghadde"'  we-thomekh  shebhet  me-'ashqelon 

w^-ndphelu  baxHrehd  be-bheth-'  edhen  wa-MsMbhothi  yddhl  'al-'eqron 

ive.gMlfi  'am- '"ram  qird  we-'dbhfdhu  shf^'erUh  x}elishUm 

'dmar   'adhondi  'dmar  'cdhondi  'cloMm 


(Stanza  5) 
Tco  'dmar  '"dhondi 

'  al  sli^ldslid  pishe'e  bh^ne  '  ammon 
w^-' al  'arbd'd  16'  '"sMbhennu 

'al  biqe'dm  ' dre  ghddh 
le-ma'an  harxibh  'eth-gebhnldm 


(Stanza  6) 
ko  'dmar  'adhondi 

' al  sli'^loshd  pisli^'e  mo'dbh 
w^-'al  'arbd'd  Id'   '^shlbhennu 

'  al  sorepho  'ogdmoth  lam-mdlekh 
way-yizbax  'ddhdm  lash-shedh 


w'^-higgatU  'esh  bc-xdmapi  rabbd 
w«-  'dkheld  'armeiioth^hd 

we-hiphqadhtltv  b^-yom  milxamd 
be-sa'ar  be-ydm  suphd 

w^-luilakh  malkdm  bag-gold 
hW  w^-sdrdw  yaxddw 


w^-shillaxti  'esh  b<^-m6'dbh 
w^-'dkheld  'armcnoth  haq-qerlyoth 

w^-hemattl  b<^-shd'6n  mo'dbh 
bi-theru'd  b<^-qdl  sJwphdr 

w^-hishmadhtl  shophet  miq-qirbdh 
w^-khol  sdrehd  'ehrugh  '  immo 


'dmar  '^dhdndi 


'dmar  'adhondi 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  203 

(Stanza  1:  Amos  1.3-5) 

Thus  saith  Yahwe: 

For  three  sins  of  Damascus, 

Yea  for  four,  I  will  not  revoke  it. 

Because  they  oppressed  Gilead, 

And  threshed  with  implements  of  iron. 

So  I  will  send  fire  into  the  house  of  Hazael, 
And  it  will  consume  the  palaces  of  Benhadad. 

And  I  will  break  the  bar  of  Damascus, 

And  the  gates  of  Bikeath-Awen  I  will  hew  down. 

And  her  youths  shall  fall  in  Beth-Eden; 
And  the  people  of  Aram  shall  go  into  exile. 

Saith  Yahwe. 

(Stanza  2:  Amos  1.6-8) 
Thus  saith  Yahwe: 

For  three  sins  of  Gaza, 

Yea  for  four,  I  will  not  revoke  it, 

Because  they  have  exiled  a  complete  captivity. 
To  deliver  up  the  city  and  its  contents. 

So  I  will  send  fire  into  the  wall  of  Gaza, 
And  it  will  consume  her  palaces. 

And  I  will  cut  off  the  inhabitant  from  Ashdod, 
And  the  sceptre-holder  from  Ashkelon. 

And  I  shall  turn  my  hand  against  Ekron, 

And  the  remnant  of  the  Philistines  shall  perish. 

Saith  Yahwe. 

(Stanza  5:  Amos  1.13) 

Thus  saith  Yahwl: 

For  three  sins  of  the  Ammonites, 
Yea  for  four,  I  will  not  revoke  it. 

Because  they  have  pierced  through  the  cities  of  Gad 
In  order  to  increase  their  borders. 


204  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

So  I  will  kindle  a  fire  on  the  wall  of  Eabba, 
And  it  will  consume  her  palaces. 

And  I  will  visit  him  with  a  day  of  war, 
With  a  whirlwind  in  the  day  of  tempest. 

And  their  king  shall  go  into  exile, 
He  and  his  princes  together, 

(Stanza  6:  Amos  2.1-3) 

Stanza  6. 
Thus  saith  Yahwe: 

For  three  sins  of  Moab, 

Yea  for  four,  I  will  not  revoke  it. 

Because  they  have  burned  bones  to  Molech, 
And  sacrificed  men  to  a  shedh. 

So  I  will  send  fire  upon  Moab, 

And  it  will  consume  the  palaces  of  Kerioth. 

And  I  will  slay  in  a  tumult  Moab, 

With  shouting,  with  the  sound  of  the  trumpet. 

And  I  will  destroy  the  judge  from  her  midst. 
And  all  her  princes  I  will  slay  with  him. 

Saith  Yahwe. 


VERSE  AND  STANZA  PARALLELISM 

It  is  evident  that  chapters  1.3-2.8  are  east  in  the  form  of  a 
poetical  unit.  There  are  patent  indications  of  symmetry  be- 
tween the  lines  and  between  the  various  oracles.  This  fact  has 
been  noted  bj^  every  recent  investigator  of  the  Book  of  Amos, 
and  is  at  once  observable  to  the  general  reader. 

The  poem  deals  with  judgment  to  be  inflicted  upon  the 
principal  nations  bordering  on  Israel  and  Judah — Damascus, 
Philistia,  Tyre,  Edom,  the  Ammonites  and  Moab — ^with  the  pur- 
pose of  showing  to  Israel  that  as  all  the  peoples  have  offended 
God  by  their  acts  against  common  morality  and  humanity,  so 
Israel  will  suffer  punishment  for  great  or  greater  sins.  The 
law  of  righteous  retribution  will  be  the  standard  for  meting 
out  merited  doom  to  the  nations.  This  Doom  Song  is  similar 
to  others  scattered  throughout  the  prophetical  books.      Zenner, 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  205 

Mueller,  Elhorst,  Loehr,  Sievers,  Condamin,  Baumann,  Marti, 
Nowack,  Harper  and  others  have  made  valuable  suggestions  with 
reference  to  the  proper  arrangement  of  the  poem,  but  nearly  all 
have  proceeded  upon  dangerous  assumptions  regarding  strophe 
and  metre ;  the  principle  of  parallelism  has  been  neglected  to  a 
large  degree.  This  study  is  an  attempt  to  apply  the  canons  of 
parallelism  in  a  reconstruction  of  the  Doom  Song. 

An  endeavor  will  be  made  on  the  basis  of  the  internal  and 
other  evidence  to  learn  whether  complete  symmetry  can  be 
expected  in  the  poetic  arrangement.  It  has  already  been 
observed  in  a  discussion  of  the  Grief  Song  and  of  the  two  pairs 
of  visions  in  Amos  that  apparently  the  one  factor  which  pre- 
vents close  adherence  to  a  model  form  is  textual  corruption. 
It  will  be  clear  from  an  examination  of  the  Doom  Song  in  Amos 
that  the  divergences  must  be  explained  on  similar  grounds. 

The  indications  of  verse  symmetry  or  parallelism  are  numer- 
ous, and  scarcely  need  further  comment.  The  formulas  of 
offense  and  punishment,  and  1.5,  8,  11,  14,  15 ;  2.2,  3,  4,  show 
the  clearest  parallelism,  the  types  of  which  have  been  analyzed 
above.  Though  the  degree  of  regularity  varies,  the  presence 
of  parallelism  is  indubitable. 

The  indications  of  stanza  symmetry  or  interparallelism  are 
more  obscure  and  intricate,  though  none  the  less  present.  Eight 
times,  at  the  head  of  each  group,  stands  the  couplet :  ' '  E^or  three 
sins, ' '  etc. ;  this  leads  to  its  designation  as  the  ' '  introductory 
couplet,"  marking  the  beginning  of  what  may  now  be  called 
stanzas.  Each  of  the  eight  stanzas  contains  the  couplet :  ' '  And 
I  will  send  fire,"  etc.  Intervening  between  these  two  constant 
formulas,  are  either  a  long  line  (1.3,  6;  2.1),  two  stichoi  (1.9, 
13),  or  four  stichoi  (1.11,  2.4).  These  stichoi  state  the  specific 
offense  of  each  nation.  After  the  formula  of  punishment  there 
occurs  in  some  of  the  stanzas  additional  material,  relating  in 
detail  the  manner  of  the  punishment,  four  lines  occurring -in 
1.5,  8,  14-15;  2.2-3;  three  of  the  stanzas  close  with  the  punish- 
ment formula.  It  must  be  stated  without  delay  that  stanza  8 
dealing  with  Israel,  shows  the  introductory  formula,  but  there- 
after such  marked  variations  from  the  other  stanzas  that  it  must 


206  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

be  observed  separately.  The  formula  of  punishment  is  missing, 
the  material  of  the  offense  has  been  extensively  expanded;  its 
departure  from  the  the  other  seven  stanzas  is  so  radical  that 
its  consideration  in  relation  to  them  would  complicate  and 
hinder  the  discussion. 

The  survey  of  the  song  shows  then,  that  there  are  eight 
portions  with  much  the  same  language  and  also  much  the  same 
sequence  of  thought.     This  sequence  of  thought  runs  as  follows : 
God  speaks  (''Thus  saith  Yahwe"),  stating 

( 1 )  his  refusal  to  forgive  under  any  circumstances, 

(2)  because  of  the  sins  of  the  offending  nation; 

(3)  therefore  he  will  reap  vengeance  by  fire, 

(4)  and  (in  four  stanzas)  by  varying  modes  of  punishment. 
Reiteration  that  God  has  spoken  (in  these  four  stanzas). 

The  designation  "section"  will  be  applied  to  each  of  the  four 
major  points  of  this  sequence ;  the  word  ' '  member  "  or  "  term ' ' 
will  denote  each  major  word  in  these  sections. 

VARIATIONS  IN  THE  EIGHT  STANZAS 

The  repetitions  within  the  small  compass  of  the  song  are 
quite  numerous.  These  include  not  the  constant  formulas,  but 
those  phrases  which  seem  out  of  place  or  which  have  the  under- 
current of  stylistic  unfitness  associated  with  repetitions  close 
to  one  another. 

1.  None  in  the  first  section. 

2.  Second  section. 

1.3,  13  hag-gile'adh 

1.6,  9  l^-hasglr  and  hasglrdm 

galuth  shelemd 

1.5,  6,  9,  15,  forms  of  gala 

1.9,  11  'ax 

1.11,  2.4  shdmar 

2.1,  1.15  melelch 

1.15,  2.4  halakh 

3.  Third  section,  none. 

4.  Fourth  section. 

1.5,  8,  the  couplet  w^-hikhratti,  etc. 

1.5,  8;  2.3  w^-hikhratti 

1.5,  6,  9,  15,  forms  of  gala 

1.14,  2.2  bi-theru'a 

1.15,  2.3  sdr 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  207 

The  variations  as  between  the  stanzas  are  important.  The 
number  of  lines  varies. 

Stanza  1,  11  lines  in  a  series  of  1,  2,  1,  2,  4,  1. 

Stanza  2,  11  lines  in  a  series  of  1,  2,  1,  2,  4,  1. 

Stanza  3,     7  lines  in  a  series  of  1,  2,  2,  2. 

Stanza  4,     9  lines  in  a  series  of  1,  2,  4,  2. 

Stanza  5,  12  lines  in  a  series  of  1,  2,  2,  2,  4,  1. 

Stanza  6,  11  lines  in  a  series  of  1,  2,  1,  2,  4,  1. 

Stanza  7,     9  lines  in  a  series  of  1,  2,  4,  2. 

It  is  to  be  noted  then:  (a)  the  introductory  prophetic  phrase 
remains  constant;  (b)  the  introductory  offense  couplet  remains 
constant;  (c)  the  specific  offense  section  undergoes  many  varia- 
tions; (d)  the  doom  couplet  in  a  number  of  lines  remains  con- 
stant, though  slight  linguistic  variations  occur;  (e)  the  expan- 
sion of  the  punishment  description  changes,  in  three  cases  being 
omitted,  in  four  having  four  lines  each;  (f)  the  closing  pro- 
phetic postlude  phrase  in  the  four  cases  where  the  extended 
description  of  punishment  occurs,  is  present;  in  the  other  three 
cases,  those  minus  expansion,  it  is  missing. 

The  varying  sections  are  the  pivot  of  the  whole  study. 
Section  2,  concerning  the  specific  offense,  suffers  the  greatest 
changes.  Stanzas  1,  2,  and  6  have  a  single  line ;  stanzas  2 
and  5  have  a  pair  of  lines;  stanzas  4  and  7  have  two  pairs  of 
lines.  The  single  line  in  each  case  is  extremely  long,  and  while 
translatable,  has  an  obscure  sense ;  the  text  seems  corrupt ;  at 
the  same  time  no  parallelism  is  present.  The  sections  with 
pairs  of  lines  are  also  doubtful.  Stanza  3  shows  in  its  first 
line  a  repetition  from  the  section  of  stanza  2 ;  the  same  vague- 
ness of  sense  as  in  the  other  sections  occurs;  parallelism  in  the 
strict  sense  of  synonymity  and  correspondence  is  absent  between 
the  two  stichoi.  The  sections  with  a  double  pair  of  lines  in 
stanzas  4  and  7  are  less  difficult  but  not  without  flaws:  the 
former  has  a  difficult  phrase  in  w^-shixeth  rax^mdiv  and  stanza  7 
has  the  almost  untranslatable  way-yath' um  kiz^hhehem.  The 
problems  of  the  length  of  the  lines,  the  lateness  of  language, 
and  other  points  will  be  considered  below. 

Section  3  of  the  stanzas  shows  only  slight  variations.  The 
most  interesting  occurs  in  stanza  5  where  the  Prophet  after 


208  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

using  w(^-shillaxti  six  times,  suddenly  employs  w^-higgattl.  Per- 
haps according  to  G.  A.  Smith's  interpretation,  this  is  due  to 
symmetrophobia ;  the  most  plausible  reason,  however,  will  be 
pointed  out  below.  In  three  cases  "wall,"  in  one  "house,"  in 
three  the  name  of  a  city  or  country  (stanza  1,  Damascus;  in 
stanza  6,  Moab,  and  in  stanza  7,  Judah)  are  used.  Throughout 
the  seven  stanzas,  "palaces"  occurs,  but  with  the  suffix  ehd  in 
stanzas  2,  3,  5,  and  in  the  construct  followed  by  the  name  of  a 
king  in  stanza  1,  of  a  city  in  stanzas  4  ,6,  7. 

Section  4  betrays  puzzling  variations.  Stanzas  3,  4,  7  omit 
entirely  the  section  with  the  postlude ;  stanzas  2  and  5  have 
apparently  perfect  parallelism ;  stanza  6,  except  for  the  repeti- 
tion of  w^-hikhrattl  and  the  suffixes,  has  apparently  good  parallel- 
ism; stanza  1  is  the  most  difficult  of  the  set.  It  has  four  lines, 
the  second  and  third  forming  a  couplet  which  is  in  excellent 
parallelism,  but  which  also  stands  at  the  head  of  section  4 
in  stanza  2.  The  first  line  of  the  fourth  section  in  stanza  1 
prophesies  the  destruction  of  the  gates  of  Damascus ;  the  fourth 
stichos  foretells  exile  for  the  population.  That  this  fourth 
section  has  undergone  corruption  is  undoubted. 

A  final  variation  between  the  stanzas  occurs  in  stanza  2, 
where  after  a  seemingly  intact  section  of  two  parallelistic  coup- 
lets, not  the  final  phrase,  "saith  Yah  we"  but  "saith  my  Lord, 
Yahwe"  occurs.     The  reason  for  this  will  be  attempted  below. 

These  discrepancies,  which  will  increase  in  number  as  the 
study  advances,  suffice  to  demonstrate  the  intricacy  of  the  prob- 
lems and  the  danger  of  any  effort  at  dogmatic  solutions.  Their 
greatest  value  is  to  raise  certain  fundamental  questions,  which 
though  they  busy  themselves  immediately  with  the  text  in  hand, 
yet  extend  themselves  in  import  to  the  whole  mass  of  biblical 
literature,  and  involve  the  most  far-reaching  points  of  disagree- 
ment in  modern  biblical  criticism.  These  questions,  which  have 
already  been  suggested  in  the  last  chapter,  are : 

1.  Why  do  the  variations  occur  between  the  various  lines  of 
the  poem  and  between  the  various  stichoi  in  seemingly  parallel- 
istic couplets? 

2.  Why  do  the  variations  occur  between  the  stanzas  ? 


Vol.1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in' Amos.  209 

3.  Does  a  type  couplet  exist  from  which  the  variations  occur 
without  law,  or  does  the  type  couplet  merely  serve  as  a  sub- 
stratum for  variations  guided  by  certain  and  regular  laws  of 
parallelism  ? 

4.  Does  a  type  stanza  exist  which,  despite  the  variations,  was 
originally  the  model  for  the  divisions  of  the  entire  Song? 

In  order  to  be  able  to  propose  answers  to  these  questions,  it 
is  necessary  that  the  text  under  discussion  be  minutely  examined. 

ANALYSIS  OF  THE  EIGHT  STANZAS 
Stanza  1. — Damascus 

The  oracle  on  Damascus  is  apparently  genuine  and  in  the 
main  originated  with  Amos.  The  first  evidence  for  this  con- 
clusion is  the  strophic  structure  of  the  stanza.  It  consists  of 
l-]-2-i-l-|-2-f-4-{-l  periods.  The  arrangements  of  Harper, 
Mueller  and  Loehr  neglect  the  sectional  character  of  the  piece, 
and  bring  lines  together  into  triplets  which  in  reality  should  be 
separated  into  independent  units.  The  second  section,  of  one 
stichos,  is  faulty,  but  an  emendation  gives  two  stichoi  in  good 
couplet  formation.  The  fourth  section,  though  composed  of  four 
stichoi  is  also  faulty ;  when  reconstructed,  however,  it  still  retains 
the  same  number  of  periods,  but  two  good  couplets  emerge. 
Hence  the  arrangement  in  the  light  of  corrections  becomes 
l-|-2-f-2-j-2-f-44-l;  this  total  of  12  periods  conforms  with 
the  expected  and  suggested  model  stanza. 

The  second  proof  of  the  authenticity  of  the  oracle  is  the 
specific  character  of  the  offense,  which  references  in  the  historical 
books  will  be  found  to  substantiate.  The  third  proof  is  the 
language  used.  Though  the  stichoi  b,  c,  and  d  are  apparently 
late  or  misplaced  in  section  4,  the  terms  of  the  other  sections 
apparently  are  genuinely  Amosian  in  style. 

In  the  opening  or  prelude  prophetic  phrase  and  in  the  offense 
formula  the  stanza  adheres  to  the  model.  The  second  section 
on  the  specific  offense  affords  difficulty: 

Because  they  have  threshed  with  threshing  implements  of  iron 
Gilead. 


210  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

This  is  a  single  stichos,  without  any  parallelism;  the  line  is 
unnaturally  long,  comparable  therein  to  the  second  section  in 
stanzas  2  and  6;  the  presence  of  the  object  'eth-hag-GiVddh  so 
far  from  the  verb  increases  the  doubt.  Two  stichoi  in  parallelism 
are  expected.  Loehr,  Harper  and  others  make  the  word  'eth- 
hag-Gil'ddh  into  a  second  stichos;  but  that  a  single  detached 
word  should  act  as  such  is  impossible. 

Several  reconstructions  may  be  suggested : 

1.  'al  lax"gO'm  'eth-hag-GW  adh 
w^-duslidm  ha-x^rugoth  hai-barzel. 
Because  they  pressed  by  force  Gilead, 
And  threshed  with  implements  of  iron. 

The  event  to  which  Amos  refers  is  quite  clearly  the  oppres- 
sion of  Israel  by  Hazael,  king  of  Syria  (II  K.  8.8ff. ;  9.14,  15; 
10.32;  12.18,  19;  13.3ff.).  This  oppression  covered  a  period 
from  c.  830-790  B.C.  The  specific  nature  of  the  offense  can  be 
perhaps  seen  by  a  comparison  with  II  K.  13.7.  Here,  after  the 
pure  prose,  "For  he  (Hazael)  left  to  Jehoahaz  of  the  people 
none  save  fifty  horsemen  and  ten  chariots  and  ten  thousand 
footmen, ' '  occurs  a  couplet  in  perfect  parallelism : 

For  the  king  of   Syria   destroyed  them, 
And  made  them  like  dust  for  the  threshing. 

The  use  of  the  phrase  ke-dphdr  Id-dhush  points  to  the  identity 
of  the  events  referred  to  by  Amos.  In  II  K.  13.4,  with  regard 
to  the  subjection  of  Israel  to  Hazael,  occurs  the  noun  laxag; 
the  verb,  meaning  "to  oppress,  to  squeeze"  makes  an  excellent 
synonym  to  diish  and  is  further  sanctioned  by  its  usage  in 
Amos  6.14. 

2.  'al  dushdm  'eth  hag-Gil' adh  le-' aphdr, 
wa-y^siinuhu  Tcam-mog  Id-dhuq. 

Because  they  have  threshed  Gilead  to  dust, 
And  made  him  as  chaff  for  the  pressing, 

3.  'al  dushdm  'eth  hag-Gil' ddh  ta-x'^i'ugoth, 
way-ydgar  ii-megheroth  hah-harzel. 

Because   they   threshed   Gilead  with   implements, 
And   sawed  him  with   iron   saws. 

One  group  of  reconstructions  still  remains.  The  Septuagint 
leads  the  way;  its  translation  for  the  second  section  of  stanza 
1    reads:    "Because   they    sawed    with    iron    saws    the    women 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  211 

with  child  of  the  Galaadites";  and  for  the  same  section  in 

stanza  5 :  "  Because  they  ripped  up  the  women  with  child  of 

the  Galaadites."      Either  the  translators  did  not  understand 

the  text  in  1.3,  or  they  confused  it  with  1.13,  or  what  is  more 

likely,  the  original  text  of  the  two  sections  stood  in  intimate 

relationship.     In  stanza  5,  there  is  something  of  a  non-sequitur 

in  ideas  between  the  first  and  second  stichoi  of  the  couplet  in 

the  second  section;  moreover  no  historical  evidence  is  at  hand 

to  show  that  the  AmmoViites  committed  the  barbarity  on  the 

people  of  Israel.    But  a  fruitful  passage  in  II  K.  8.12  attributes 

this  very  act  to  the  Syrians  under  Hazael.     This  passage,  which 

contains  two  poetical  couplets  in  the  midst  of  prose  narrative, 

is  a  prediction  by  Elisha  of  the  deeds  of  Hazael  as  king: 

Their  strongholds  wilt  thou  set  on  fire. 

And  their  young  men  wilt  thou  slay  with  the  sword. 

And  thou  wilt  dash  to  pieces  their  children. 

And  rip  up  their  women  with  child. 

The  following  suggestion  may  then  be  made : 

4.  'al  biq'dm  Jidroth  hag-Gil'-adh, 
w'^-dusham  ha-x^rugoth  hah-'barzel. 

Because  they  ripped  up  the  pregnant  women  of  Gilead, 
And  threshed  them  with  implements  of  iron. 

This  takes  over  bodily  from  stanza  5  the  first  stichos,  and  omits 
"Gilead"  in  the  second  stichos. 

Conclusions  on  the  second  section  of  stanza  1  are:  (1)  the 
text  does  not  appear  to  be  the  genuine  composition  of  Amos; 
(2)  a  second  stichos  is  needed  to  complete  the  couplet;  (3)  the 
probable  restorations  are  numerous.  Either  the  first  or  the 
fourth  of  the  above  may  be  preferred. 

The  fourth   (i.e.,  punishment)   section  of  stanza  1  reads  as 

follows : 

And  I  will  break  the  bar  of  Damascus  (a) 

And  I  will  cut  off  the  inhabitant  from  Bikath-Awen  (b) 

And  the  sceptre-holder  from  Beth-Eden  (e) 

And  the  people  of  Aram  shall  go  into  exile  to  Kir.  (d) 

This  section  does  not  appear  to  be  original  with  Amos,  but 
contains  insertions  and  later  additions:  (1)  The  ideas  are  more 
numerous  than  in  any  other  fourth  section  of  the  Doom  Song: 


212  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

destruction  of  buildings,  presumably  of  palaces;  slaughter  of 
inhabitants;  slaughter  of  ruler;  exile  for  the  nation.  (2)  The 
lack  of  close  parallelism  points  to  a  faulty  text;  stichos  a  has 
no  parallel  as  in  the  other  stanzas ;  d  has  no  complement ;  nor 
can  they  be  combined  to  form  a  couplet.  The  central  location 
of  the  parallelistic  couplet  b  plus  c  violates  the  form  of  the 
other  fourth  sections.  (3)  The  repetition  of  the  central  coup- 
let at  the  head  of  the  fourth  section  in  stanza  2  operates  against 
its  authenticity  in  stanza  1 ;  it  is  entirely  in  place  in  stanza  2, 
which  conforms  to  the  model  stanza  in  its  structure  in  the  fourth 
section,  whereas  in  stanza  1  it  is  out  of  place.  How  then  did 
this  section  come  to  have  its  present  form? 

In  II  K.  16.9  occurs  the  passage:  "And  the  king  of  Assyria 
went  up  to  Damascus  and  conquered  it  and  led  it  into  exile 
beyond  Kir  and  Rezin  he  killed."  The  phrase  way-yaglehd 
(i.e.,  gdlu  'am-'^rdm)  Qlrd  bears  so  striking  a  resemblance  to  the 
Amos  phrase  gdlu  ' am-'f^rdm  Qlrd  that  between  the  two  some 
interrelation  may  exist.  Two  hypotheses  are  possible :  first,  that 
the  Amos  passage  is  prior,  and  that  the  Kings  verse  is  a  later 
insertion,  or  second,  that  the  narrative  account  preceded,  a  later 
editor  having  brought  Amos  into  conformity  therewith. 

In  support  of  the  first  theory,  it  may  be  said  that  it  seems 
plausible  that  Amos  had  Assyria  in  mind  as  the  world  power 
which  would  wreak  vengeance  upon  Damascus,  for  it  was  the 
most  likely  to  engage  in  the  practice  of  deportation.  The  words 
in  II  K.  16.9  refer  to  the  actual  punishment  which  Amos  pre- 
sumably foretells.  The  result  of  the  combined  attack  of  Pekah, 
King  of  Israel,  and  Rezin,  King  of  Damascus,  upon  Judah 
(II  K.  16.5tf. ;  Is.  7.1),  was  that  Ahaz  applied  to  Tiglath  Pileser 
for  help ;  he  responded  to  the  appeal  and  slaughtered  the  King 
of  Damascus  and  exiled  the  nation.  Verse  9  is  apparently  not 
in  good  condition;  the  repetition  of  the  name  melekh  'Ashshur 
leads  to  the  supposition  that  something  may  have  been  omitted 
between  the  two  parts  of  the  sentence ;  the  real  interest  of  the 
narrator  is  in  a  portrayal  of  the  sin  of  idolatry  which  arose 
from  contact  of  Ahaz  and  Assyria.  Though  the  verse  may  be 
a  condensation,  the  second  portion  is  apparently  intact  in  its  own 
limits. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  213 

The  redactor  of  Kings  may  have  inserted  the  phrase  way- 
yaglehd  Qird  in  order  that  the  specific  reference  of  Amos  to  the 
impending  destruction  of  Damascus  might  be  borne  out  by 
the  narrative.  If  it  be  said  that  the  fourth  stichos  in  Amos  is 
an  addition,  then  the  closing  prophetic  phrase  "saith  Yahwe" 
is  left  hanging  in  the  air;  moreover  the  stichos  in  question  is 
itself  a  beautiful  and  euphonious  line,  worthy  of  the  best  pro- 
phetic style.  In  Amos  9.7  the  combination  '"-ram  me-Qlr  seems 
to  sanction  the  juxtaposition  of  the  two  names  in  stanza  1. 

In  support  of  the  hypothesis  that  the  fourth  stichos  in 
Amos  is  a  later  insertion  on  the  basis  of  Kings,  it  may  be 
adduced  that  the  phrase  referred  to  in  9.7  either  makes  the 
stichos  in  stanza  1  illegitimate,  or  is  itself  dubious.  ' '  Aram  from 
Kir"  indicates  that  Kir  was  the  ancient  home  of  the  Arameans 
out  of  which  God  brought  them,  as  He  did  Israel  out  of  Egypt 
and  Philistia  out  of  Crete.  Professor  Max  Mueller  objects  that 
"if  Kir  was  the  original  home  of  the  Arameans,  the  Assyrians 
would  never  have  deported  them  back  to  their  own  country 
where  they  would  have  found  remainders  of  the  original  stock 
of  the  nation  and  would  by  union  with  them  become  strong 
again. ' '     He  suggests  that  1.5d  was  inserted  on  the  basis  of  9.7. 

Against  the  notion  that  the  phrase  way-yaglehd  Qlrd  was 
interpolated  in  II  K.  16.9  it  seems  more  plausible  to  believe 
that  the  historian  would  remain  true  to  the  facts,  while  the 
Prophet  would  be  more  vague  and  poetically  indefinite,  and 
an  editor  would  adjust  the  prophecies  ex  post  facto  to  the  actual 
events.  That  the  phrase  in  question  is  inserted  so  abruptly  in 
the  middle  of  the  sentence  shows  that  it  was  written  in  the 
margin,  or  over  the  other  words,  and  that  a  later  copyist  em- 
bodied it  in  the  text  proper.  Additional  evidence  for  the 
genuineness  of  the  line  in  Kings  may  be  found  in  II  K.  15.29, 
where  the  writer  refers  to  the  punishment  of  Pekah  by  Tiglath- 
Pileser:  "And  he  exiled  them  to  Assyria"  {way-yaghUm 
'AshshUrd).  If  it  be  urged  that  the  line  in  Amos  is  authentic 
and  that  the  events,  as  he  prophesied  one  generation  earlier, 
actually  occurred,  it  may  be  said  with  justice  that  this  accuracy 
is  in  itself  suspicious. 


214  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Another  ground  for  conceiving  stichoi  b,  e,  d  as  later  inser- 
tions is  found  in  a  consideration  of  the  central  couplet,  b-c, 
which  evidently  seeks  to  express  the  idea  of  the  destruction  of 
Damascus  royalty.  In  II  K.  16.9  this  thought  is  expressed 
specifically  in  the  words :  ' '  and  Rezin  he  slew, ' '  an  event  which 
took  place  in  the  year  732  B.C.  in  the  generation  immediately 
following  Amos.  Isaiah  refers  in  17.1-3,  dedicated  to  the  ''bur- 
den of  Damascus,"  to  the  fact  that  "sovereignty  shall  cease 
from  Damascus."  This  prophecy  appears  to  have  been  written 
after  the  formation  of  the  Sj^ro-Ephraimitish  alliance  between 
736  and  732  b.c.  Upon  the  foundation  of  these  two  passages, 
a  later  redactor  may  have  thought  it  necessary  to  include  the 
death  of  Rezin  in  the  prophecy  of  Amos.  Finding  close  at 
hand  a  couplet  which  expressed  in  true  Amosian  language  this 
very  idea,  he  borrowed  it  bodily  from  the  fourth  section  of 
stanza  2,  its  proper  location,  and  inserted  it  in  stanza  1,  regard- 
less of  the  disruption  of  the  parallelism,  the  omission  of  the 
original  words  of  the  Prophet,  and  the  repetition.  This  change 
may  have  been  made  when  the  event  was  still  fresh  in  the  mind 
of  the  nation,  perhaps  after  the  fall  of  Samaria  in  721,  or  be- 
fore the  end  of  the  century.  It  may  be  definitely  stated  then, 
that  the  central  couplet  is  out  of  place,  and  except  perhaps  for 
the  proper  names,  was  not  genuine  with  Amos. 

The  section  as  it  now  stands  in  need  of  emendation  may  be 
portrayed  graphically  as  follows : 

1.  The  three  stichoi,  b,  c,  and  d,  are  later  insertions;  this 
gives  as  the  only  extant  words  of  the  prophet  here: 
And  I  shall  break  the  bar  of  Damascus 


This  makes  necessary  the  suggestion  of  three  new  lines  to  fill 
the  gap :  one  parallel  to  a ;  two,  e  and  d,  parallel  to  each  other ;  or 
2.  Merely  the  couplet  b-c  is  a  later  insertion : 
And  I  shall  break  the  bar  of  Damascus 


And  the  people  of  Aram  shall  go  into  exile. 


^01"  !•]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  215 

This  demands  the  substitution  of  two  new  lines,  b  parallel  to  a, 

and  c  parallel  to  d;  and  the  acceptance  of  the  hypothesis  that 

stichos  d  is  genuine  with  Amos,  and  the  words  in  II  K.  16.9  a 

later  insertion. 

The  first  couplet  may  be  reconstructed  as  follows : 

w^-shabhartl  h'^rlox  Dammeseq 
w^-dhaletJwth  Biq'  ath-'diuen  '« gJiaddeo' . 

And  I  will  break  the  bar  of  Damascus, 

And  the  doors  of  Bikath-Awen  I  will  hew  down. 

The  use  of  shdhhar,  ''break,"  with  deleth,  "door,"  is  found 
in  Gen.  19.9,  though  not  in  a  military  sense.  The  words  deleth 
and  h'^rlf^x  ^^^  found  together  in  Deut.  3.5;  Is.  23.7  ;  II  Chron.  7.5 ; 
Ps.  107.16;  Jer.  49.31;  Ez.  38.11;  Is.  45.2;  Job  38.10;  II  Chron. 
14.6.  They  occur  also  in  couplets  in  perfect  parallelism,  e.g. 
Jer.  45.2,  and  Ps.  107.16.  Other  suggestions  are  sJwf  ar,  "gate," 
in  conjunction  with  b^n^x?  "bar,"  as  in  the  parallel  couplets 
Lam.  2.9;  Ps.  147.13;  Na.  3.13;  x^iwia,  "wall,"  used  in  com- 
bination with  &fn«x,  Deut.  3.5 ;  II  Chron.  8.15,  14.6.  The  word 
mihhgdr,  "fortress,"  is  referred  to  in  II  K.  8.12,  wherein  Elisha 
and  Hazael  converse,  and  may  be  used  here  on  the  principle  of 
poetic  justice.  The  parallelism  between  shdhhar  and  gddha' , 
"hew  down,"  or  "into  pieces,"  is  established  by  numerous 
usages ;  they  are  used  as  synonyms  in  two  perfectly  parallel 
couplets,  Is.  45.2  and  Ps.  17.16;  they  are  also  used  in  other 
parallelistic  couplets  but  without  exact  correspondence.  Varia- 
tions of  the  couplet  suggested  above  are  possible,  some  of  them 
excluding  the  name  of  Biq' ath-'dwen,  others  affecting  the  form 
of  gddha' . 

For  the  second  couplet  the  following  reconstructions  are 
suggested : 

1.  A  restoration  of  two  lines  for  the  second  couplet  can  be 

made    on    the    basis    of    Jeremiah's    prophecy    on    Damascus, 

49.23-27. 

Her  youths  shall  fall  in  the  streets 
And  all  her  men  of  war  shall  be  silent. 

Since  Damascus  has  treated  Israel  barbarously,  it  will  be  pun- 
ished in  kind;  in  11.  K.  8.12  Hazael  is  destined  to  "slay  youths 


216  University  of  California  Publications.       [Sem.  Phil. 

with  the  sword,"  and  a  reference  in  Amos  to  the  same  punish- 
ment for  Damascus  on  the  principle  of  poetic  justice  would  be 
appropriate.  This  very  retribution,  indeed,  is  mentioned  in 
Jer.  49.26  in  the  oracle  on  Damascus,  which  shows  points  of 
striking  resemblance  to  AmOs;  verse  27  is  an  almost  exact  dupli- 
cation of  the  punishment  formula  in  Amos  1.4;  Jeremiah  uses 
the  couplet  again  in  17.17,  21.14,  50.32.  The  possibility  of  a 
nexus  between  these  two  oracles  permits  the  assumption  that 
words  taken  out  of  Amos  may  in  another  text  have  remained, 
and  that  Jeremiah,  with  slight  changes,  incorporated  them  into 
his  own  prophecy  on  Damascus. 

2.  A  restoration  of  one  line  and  the  retention  of  the  proper 
name  may  be  found  in  this  suggestion : 

Her  youths  shall  fall  in  Beth-Eden, 

And  the  people  of  Aram  shall  go  into  exile  to  Kir. 

A  similar  grouping  of  the  idea  of  death  and  exile  is  found  in 

Amos  7.11  and  17.      Though  the  parallelism  here  is  not  close, 

the  sj'nthetic  relationship  of  the  stichoi  is  found  often  in  Amos. 

Another  suggestion  based  on  the  idea  of  exile  is  found  in  one 

of  the  many  forms  of  which  this  is  an  example : 

And  Beth-Eden  shall  go  into  captivity, 

And  the  people  of  Aram  shall  go  into  exile  to  Kir. 

In  conclusion  it  may  be  urged  that  a  possible  reconstruction  of 

the  fourth  section  take  this  form : 

And  I  will  break  the  bar  of  Damascus, 

And  the  doors  of  Bikath-Awen  I  will  hew  down. 

Her  youths  shall  fall  in  Beth-Eden, 

And  the  people  of  Aram  shall  go  into  exile  to  Kir. 

Stanza  2. — Philistia 

The  oracle  on  Philistia  is  apparently  genuine  and  in  the 
main  original  with  Amos.  The  first  evidence  for  this  conclusion 
is  the  strophic  structure  of  the  stanza.  It  is  divided  into  1  -|- 
2-|-l-|-2-|-4-)-l  periods,  after  the  manner  of  the  first 
stanza.  The  two  formulas  are  correct ;  the  fourth  section 
consists  of  two  perfect  couplets  and  is  therefore  apparently  cor- 
rect and  genuine ;  the  closing  phrase  varies  in  this  stanza  from 


^0^-  !•]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  217 

all  others,  for  it  has  ''hath  my  Lord  Yahwe  said,"  instead  of 
"hath-said  Yahwe,"  as  in  six  other  cases.  The  most  important 
divergence  from  the  type  stanza  is  in  the  second  section : 

Because  they  have  exiled  a  complete  captivity  to  deliver  to  Edom. 
The  line  is  evidently  corrupt  because  it  is  a  long  prose  line, 
where  two  lines  in  a  couplet  are  needed;  its  meaning  is  doubt- 
ful; it  is  repeated  almost  identically  in  stanza  3,  section  2. 

Stanza  2.     '  al  haghlothdm  galuth  shHemd   leJmsgir  le-'edhom. 
Stanza  3.     ' al  hasglrdm  galuth  shelemd  le-'f'dhom. 

The  following  probabilities  exist:  (a)  The  stichos  may  belong 
in  stanza  2  and  must  be  emended  to  form  a  couplet ;  this  would 
entail  the  omission  of  the  similar  stichos  in  stanza  3.  (b)  The 
stichos  in  stanza  2  is  out  of  place,  necessitating  the  substitution 
of  a  couplet  on  an  appropriate  theme ;  this  omission  would 
sanction  the  retention  of  the  similar  stichos  in  stanza  3.  (c) 
The  stichos  in  stanza  2  is  a  later  substitution  based  on  events 
which  followed  the  time  of  Amos  and  which  a  later  redactor 
inserted,  even  as  he  tampered  with  the  text  of  stanza  1.  This 
decision  would  either  affect  stanza  3  in  the  same  way,  or  would 
leave  open  the  question  of  the  appropriateness  of  the  stichos 
there  on  its  own  merits. 

In  defense  of  the  present  text,  the  following  material  may 
be  brought  to  bear:  the  event  to  which  Amos  refers  may  be  the 
attack  mentioned  in  II  Chron.  21.16ff.  During  the  reign  of 
Jehoram  (851-843  B.C.)  the  Arabs  and  the  Philistines  raided 
Judah,  and  ''they  came  up  into  Judah  and  brake  into  it,  and 
carried  away  all  the  substance  that  was  found  in  the  king's 
house,  and  his  sons  also,  and  his  wives,  save  Jehoahaz,  the 
youngest  of  his  sons"  (the  Book  of  Kings  makes  no  mention 
of  this  raid  and  it  is  uncertain  whether  it  ever  took  place). 
The  description  of  the  thoroughness  with  which  the  marauders 
made  their  captures  leads  to  the  supposition  that  this  might  be 
the  "complete  captivity"  referred  to  in  Amos.  In  stanza  1, 
Amos  seems  to  have  taken  the  offense  from  the  days  of  Hazael, 
immediately  following  this  event.  It  may  perhaps  be  that  he 
turns  back  to  the  reign  of  Jehoahaz  for  the  historical  data  on 
which  to  found  the  offense  of  Philistia.      In  order  to  retain  the 


218  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

text  in  its  present  form,  the  following  arrangements  may  be 

suggested : 

Because  they  have  exiled  a  complete  captivity 
To  deliver  up  to  Edom. 

This  follows  the  analogj^  of  stanza  5,  where  "in  order  that"  is 
used  in  the  second  stichos  in  the  same  way  that  "to"  is  used 
here  in  the  sense  of  "in  order  that ' ' ;  but  this  is  not  parallelism. 

Another  arrangement  can  be  devised  by  taking  over  word 
for  word  the  couplet  forming  the  second  section  of  stanza  3. 
But  the  only  passages  in  support  of  the  idea  of  a  covenant  be- 
tween Philistia  and  Israel  occur  in  Gen,  21.27,  32  and  26.28 ; 
and  these  afford  little  substantiation  for  the  change  suggested. 

In  searching  further  for  an  explanation  of  the  stichos  under 
discussion,  it  may  be  noted  that  the  second  section  in  stanza  2 
is  apparently  late.  It  is  not  plausible  that  Amos  would  refer 
to  a  border  raid  participated  in  not  merely  by  Philistines,  but 
by  Arabs  as  well,  as  the  basis  for  his  fierce  denunciation.  More- 
over at  the  time  of  Amos,  II  Chron.  26.6-7  apparently  shows 
that  Philistia  was  under  the  domination  of  Judah.  King  Uzziah 
(782-737  B.C.),  during  whose  reign  Amos  was  active,  "went 
forth  and  warred  against  the  Philistines  and  brake  down  the 
wall  of  Gath,  and  the  wall  of  Jabneh,  and  the  wall  of  Ashdod, 
and  he  built  cities  in  the  country  of  Ashdod  and  among  the 
Philistines.  And  God  helped  him  against  the  Philistines,  and 
against  the  Arabians  that  dwelt  in  Gur-baal  and  the  Mehunim. " 
This  text  is  important.  It  would  seem  that  Amos  must  have 
directed  his  prophecy  against  Philistia  before  the  success  of 
Uzziah,  for  it  may  well  be  asked:  "Why  should  the  Prophet 
predict  doom  for  a  nation  already  doomed?"  Moreover  it  was 
the  king  of  Amos'  own  home  who  accomplished  their  subjuga- 
tion. To  this  might  be  answered  that  Amos  prophesied  against 
Philistia  in  the  light  of  the  attack  which  he  knew  Uzziah  con- 
templated, and  in  order  to  find  a  justification  for  Uzziah 's  war 
he  harked  back  to  the  attacks  by  the  Philistines  and  Arabs  more 
than  a  century  before.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  more  likely 
that  Amos,  or  perhaps  a  later  redactor,  would  denounce  Philis- 
tia at  a  time  when  it  tormented  Israel. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  219 

The  hostility  of  Philistia  becomes  apparent  immediately 
after  the  death  of  Amos.  During  the  reign  of  Ahaz  of  Judah 
(735-715  B.C.)  the  Philistines  become  inimical  and  successful. 
In  II  Chron.  28.16-19  occurs  a  picture  of  the  distress  of  Judah : 
"For  again  the  Edomites  had  come  and  smitten  Judah  and 
carried  away  captives.  The  Philistines  also  had  invaded  the 
cities  of  the  low  country,  and  of  the  south  of  Judah. ..." 
Though  this  passage  is  doubtful,  it  mentions  the  activities  of 
Edom  and  Philistia  apparently  in  union;  and  though  Edom  is 
here  referred  to  as  the  captive  maker,  Philistia,  too,  may  be 
regarded  as  an  invader  and  slave-trader.  Additional  evi- 
dence for  the  hypothesis  that  the  historical  background  for  the 
offense  of  Philistia  may  lie  in  the  generation  immediately  follow- 
ing Amos  (as  is  the  case  in  the  central  couplet  in  stanza  1, 
section  4),  is  found  in  Is.  9.11,  where  the  Prophet  mentions 
"Syria  on  the  East  and  Philistia  on  the  West";  11.14  showing 
Philistia 's  hostility;  14.28-32,  delivered  after  the  death  of  Ahaz, 
and  pointing  to  the  bitterness  between  the  two  nations.  This 
enmity  may  have  given  rise  to  a  revision  of  Amos'  prophecy 
in  order  to  make  it  more  specific  and  in  line  with  events  after 
its  delivery. 

A  second  suggestion  is  that  the  prophecy  on  Philistia  was 
revised  in  the  light  of  the  text  of  Jeremiah.  Jer.  13.19  and 
the  oracle  in  Jer.  47.1-7  show  several  affinities  with  the  text  of 
Amos  which  will  be  remarked  in  a  discussion  of  the  fourth 
section  below. 

A  third  suggestion  is  that  the  prophecy  was  remodelled  in 
post-exilic  days.  Ezek.  25.15-17  proclaims  the  offense  of  Philistia 
as  perpetual  hatred  (see  below,  on  Edom),  and  exultation  at  the 
downfall  of  Judah  in  586  B.C.  Though  the  sin  of  the  nation 
differs  from  that  mentioned  in  Amos,  yet  the  similarity  of  lan- 
guage in  the  fourth  section  appears  to  demonstrate  an  influence 
of  Amos  on  Ezekiel  or  vice  versa.  Zeph.  2.4—7  and  Zech.  9.5-8 
state  no  offense,  though  the  language  of  the  latter  again  points 
to  borrowings  from  Amos.  Joel  4.4-8  refers  to  the  activities 
of  the  Philistines  as  slave-traders  in  company  with  the  Tyrians; 
Edom  is  not  mentioned  (see  below,  on  Tyre).     But  unless  it  is 


220  University  of  California  Puhlicqtions.       [Sem.  Phil. 

admitted  that  the  prophecy  in  Amos  on  Philistia  is  in  part  at 
least  post-exilic,  it  is  dangerous  to  find  any  influence  of  the  Joel 
text  on  the  revision  of  Amos,  for  it  would  place  the  final  recast- 
ing of  Amos  around  the  year  350  B.C. 

Possible  emendations  of  this  text  are  not  so  numerous  as  in 
stanza  1. 

1.  Because  they  have  exiled  a  complete  captivity, 
And  delivered  them  into  the  hand  of  the  enemy. 

The  phrase  ''into  the  hand  of  the  enemy"  occurs  with  hisgir 
in  Lam.  2.7,  and  in  a  figurative  sense  in  Ps.  31.9. 

2.  Because  they  have  exiled  a  complete  captivity. 
And  delivered  the  people  to  the  sword. 

This  is  based  on  Ps.  78.62,  wherein  a  perfect  couplet  occurs  with 
this  idiom,  though  the  second  stichos  has  no  points  of  comparison 
with  the  Amos  text. 

A  second  group  of  emendations  is  based  upon  an  interpre- 
tation of  the  word  sdghar  as  meaning  "shut  up"  with  reference 
not  to  individuals  but  to  cities.  Josh.  6.1  refers  to  Jericho  as 
soghereth  u-m^suggereth,  "straitly  shut  up";  in  Jer.  13.19 
occurs  the  significant  couplet : 

The  cities  of  the  South  are  shut  up;  and  there  is  none  to  open; 
Judah  is  exiled,   all   of   it;    an   exile   of   peaceful   ones    (a  complete 
exile). 

This  couplet  is  in  perfect  qlnd  parallelism.  The  phrase  hoghlath 
shHonilm  is  emended  by  many  to  read  in  conformance  with  the 
Amos  text,  gdlvth  sh^lemd.  The  Septuagint  offers  the  weightiest 
evidence  for  this  change,  for  it  has  the  words  "complete  cap- 
tivity" in  the  Greek,  whereas  in  the  Amos  passage  it  reads  for 
both  stanzas  2  and  3  "the  captivity  of  Solomon."  .  This  shows 
that  the  Septuagint  translators  did  not  read  the  phrase  on  the 
basis  of  Amos,  which  they  understood  wrongly,  but  solely  be- 
cause they  possessed  a  clear  text  in  Jeremiah.  The  fact  that 
Jeremiah  does  not  use  this  couplet  in  a  prophecy  on  the  Philis- 
tines may  be  ground  for  the  belief  that  he  borrowed  the  phrase 
from  Amos,  rather  than  that  a  later  redactor  copied  it  from 
Jeremiah.  For  the  later  editor  would  in  all  probability  turn 
to  Jeremiah's  prophecy  on  Philistia  for  terminology  and  ideas 
on  which  to  rebuild  the  Amos  text;   whereas  the   couplet   in 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  221 

question  occurs  in  Jeremiah  in  an  entirely  different  connection. 
It  may  be,  however,  that  a  few  words  in  Amos  suggested  the 
Jeremianic  couplet;  therefore  regardless  of  its  position,  it  may 
have  served  as  the  basis  for  a  reading  of  Amos.  Data  in  favor 
of  a  reconstruction  of  the  Amos  line  on  the  groundwork  of  the 
Jeremiah  couplet  may  be  found  in  the  use  in  stichos  a  in  Jere- 
miah of  a  form  of  sdghar  and  in  stichos  b,  a  form  of  hoghlath 
shHomlm  or  gdlfdh  shHemd.  A  fact  against  this  manipulation 
is  that  Jeremiah,  as  the  Joshua  text  also,  quite  properly  speaks 
of  the  shutting  up  of  cities  first,  and  then  of  captivity,  or  deliv- 
ery; while  in  Amos  the  order  is  reversed;  hence  if  the  text 
is  made  to  apply  to  cities,  it  would  be  illogical.  For  purposes 
of  suggestion,  however,  these  formations  may  be  written  down: 

3.  Because  they  have  exiled  a  complete  captivity, 
To  deliver  them  up,  with  none  to  free. 

*al  haghlothdm  gdluth  shelemd 
le-hasgir  w^-lo '  yephaWx^*^- 

This  entails  merely  the  addition  of  the  phrase  "and  not  open," 

or  "free,"  which  in  Jeremiah  refers  to  cities,  but  may  here  be 

taken  to  refer  to  the  captivity.     The  form  Ic-hasgir  may  become 

vxiy-yasglru,  "and  they  delivered." 

Another  group  of  suggestions  may  rest  upon  the  idea  of 

"complete  captivity"  in  phrases  such  as  kol  hash-sh^hhl  (Amos 

4.10,  9.14;  Jer.  30.16),  kol  hag-gold  (Jer.  28.6,  29.4,  20,  31;  Ezek. 

6.20),  but  these  are  unsatisfactory  not  merely  on  the  ground  of 

sense,  but  also  because  of  the  lateness  of  the  phrases. 

4.  Because  they  exiled  a  complete  captivity, 
And  delivered  up  the  city  and  its  contents. 

'al  haghlotJidm  gdluth  sh^lcmd 
way-yasgirii  'Ir  u-mH6'dli. 

This  is  based  upon  Amos  6.8:  "And  I  will  deliver  up  the  city 
and  its  contents,"  w<^-hisgartl  'ir  u-m^^lo'dh.  Doubt  is  thrown 
on  the  verse  in  its  position  in  chapter  6  because  the  Septuagint 
has  the  Greek  equivalent  for  the  Hebrew  w^-hikhrattl,  "and  I 
will  cut  off";  moreover,  the  verse  is  out  of  place;  it  has  no  com- 
plementary stichos;  it  is  followed  by  verses  9-10,  a  prose  piece 
in  great  confusion  of  language  and  thought ;  transposed  to  chap- 


222  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

ter  1  it  makes  a  couplet  in  which  the  synonymity  is  quite  close, 

and  the  parallelism  is  good. 

All    these    suggestions,    however,    have    omitted    the    word 

le-'(^dh6m,  "to  Edom. "    It  has  been  affirmed  that  this  is  a  gloss 

inserted  by  reason  of  later  events,  perhaps  the  hostility  of  Edom 

at  the  time  of  the  destruction  of  the  Temple  (see  discussion  of 

stanza  4).     Mitchell  in  his  commentary  on  Zechariah  (p.  237), 

suggests  that  the  phrases  "to  deliver  them  to  Edom"  in  verse  6 

and  "to  Edom"  in  verse  9  are  explanatory  glosses  suggested 

by  Ezek.  35.5 ;  this  would  lend  weight  to  the  idea  that  the  line 

was  reworked  after  the  Exile.     But  it  may  be  that  le-'edhom 

is  a  corruption  for  a  word  which  would  place  the  line  in  good 

couplet  form,  and  give  a  kind  of  synonymity;  it  will  be  seen 

below  that  the  word  "Edom"  in  stanza  6  must  be  emended  to 

a   form    'ddhdm,   "man";    either   kol    'ddhdm,   "every   human 

being,"  or  kol  hd-'f^dhdmd,  "all  the  land,"  may  have  been  the 

original  here ;  thus  the  couplet  becomes : 

Because  they  have  exiled  a  complete  captivity, 

To  deliver  up  all  the  land   (or  every  human  being). 

'  al  haghlotham  galuth  sJiHemd, 

l^-hasgir  kol  ddhdm  (or  Icol  hd-'odhdmd). 

Whatever  be  the  decision  on  the  value  of  these  suggestions,  they 
suffice  to  show  that  the  line  in  its  present  form  is  untenable ;  the 
restoration  of  parallelistic  couplet  structure,  though  the  exact 
phrases  are  beyond  reach,  seems  entirely  justifiable. 

The  fourth  section  of  stanza  2  contains  two  couplets  in 
parallelism,  the  first  of  which  is  repeated  in  stanza  1,  as  a  later 
insertion.  The  slight  variation  in  the  closing  postlude  prophetic 
phrase  has  already  been  noted.  Comparisons  which  show  start- 
ling points  of  similarity  can  be  made  with  various  prophetic 
passages.    Amos  reads : 

And  I  will  cut  off  the  inhabitant  from  Ashdod, 
And  him  that  holdeth  the  sceptre  from  Ashkelon, 

And  I  will  turn  my  hand  against  Ekron: 

And  the  remnant  of  the  Philistines  shall  perish. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amvs.  223 

Jer.  47.4  contains  terms  and  phrases  similar  to  Amos: 

Because  of  the  day  that  cometh  to  spoil  all  the  Philistines, 
To  cut  off  from  Tyre  and  Zidon  every  helper  that  remaineth. 

For  the  Lord  will  spoil  the  Philistines, 
The  remnant  of  the  isle  of  Caphtor. 

The  comparisons  with  Ezek.  25.16,  a  part  of  a  chapter  which 
shows  resemblances  to  Amos  in  point  of  stanza  arrangement, 
repetition  of  prophetic  formulas  and  other  motifs,  are  equally 
striking;  moreover  in  verses  6,  8,  12,  14  of  this  series,  Ezekiel 
uses  the  phrase  "hath-said  Adhonai-Yahwe. " 
Therefore  thus  saith  the  Lord,  God: 

Behold  I  will  stretch  out  my  hand  upon  the  Philistines, 

And  I  will  cut  off  the  Cherethim, 

And  destroy  the  remnant  of  the  sea  coast. 

in  Zeph.  2.4r-7  the  most  important  likeness  is  the  stichos :  ' '  and 

I  shall  destroy  you  to  become  without  inhabitant";  Zech.  9.5-8, 

too,  shows  resemblances  which  have  often  been  noted  (Mitchell, 

ICC,  266-267),  particularly  at  the  end  of  verse  5  and  the  whole 

of  verse  6 : 

And  a  king  shall  cease  from  Gaza, 
And  Ashkelon  shall  not  be  inhabited. 

And  a  bastard  shall  rule  in  Ashdod, 

And  I  will  cut  off  the  pride  of  the  Philistines. 

Did  the  text  of  Amos  fall  under  the  influence  of  this  passage 
through  a  later  redactor,  or  did  Zechariah  imitate  Amos?  The 
sentence  on  the  "bastard,"  according  to  Mitchell,  refers  "to 
the  deterioration  of  the  population  of  Palestine  during  and  after 
the  captivity,  as  pictured  in  Neh.  13.23ff.,  or  the  mixed  char- 
acter of  the  people  with  whom  the  country  had  been  colonized 
by  its  conquerors."  It  is  fairly  certain  that  Zechariah  bor- 
rowed from  Amos,  not  in  slavish  imitation,  however,  but  with 
subtle  variations  which  differentiated  his  work  from  that  of  his 
predecessor. 

It  may  then  be  concluded  with  some  degree  of  surety  that 
while  (a)  the  first  couplet  is  genuinely  the  work  of  Amos,  (6) 
the  second  couplet  has  to  some  extent  been  influenced  by  the 


224  University  of  California  Publications.       [Sem.  Phil. 

material  of  Ezek.  25.  One  probability  is  that  the  second  couplet 
and  the  closing  phrase  are  late,  though  this  would  entail  the 
same  conclusion  with  reference  to  the  second  couplet  in  the 
fourth  sections  of  the  other  stanzas.  A  second  and  more  de- 
fensible decision  is  that  the  closing  words  'dniar  'c^dhondi  Yahwe 
were  inserted  because  of  the  similarity  of  the  Amos  couplet  to 
the  Ezekiel  passages.  This  would-  justify  the  entire  fourth 
section,  and  would  show  the  reason  for  the  deviation  of  the  clos- 
ing phrase  to  be  the  same  as  that  for  which  the  word  w^-higgattl 
in  stanza  5  deviates  from  w^-shillaxtl  of  the  other  sjtanzas;  i.e., 
not  "  symmetrophobia, "  but  the  whim  or  carelessness  of  a  later 
redactor,  who  probably  was  led  by  the  likenesses  between  two 
passages  to  make  changes  in  one  to  conform  to  the  other.  This 
interplay  of  influence  seems  general  in  the  edition  of  texts  by 
later  compilers,  to  whom  the  question  of  priority  of  texts  seems 
to  have  been  of  no  importance. 

Stanza  3. — Tybe 

The  oracle  on  Tyre  displays  characteristics  which  mark  it 
off  distinctly  from  the  other  stanzas.  As  it  now  stands,  the 
fourth  section  together  with  the  closing  prophetic  phrase  is 
missing ;  and  the  first  stichos  of  the  second  section  is  a  repetition 
of  the  second  section  in  stanza  2. 

The  oracle  might  be  regarded  as  genuine  on  the  ground  of 
the  following  data:  (a)  The  second  section  contains  a  couplet 
apparently  in  good  parallelism,  as  the  type  stanza  demands.  To 
retain  this  couplet  would,  of  course,  entail  the  omission  of  the 
section  in  stanza  2,  where  an  almost  bald  repetition  of  the 
phrases  and  thought  is  visible;  to  make  the  whole  stanza  con- 
form to  type  would  demand  the  acceptance  of  the  supposition 
that  the  fourth  section  has  for  some  unaccountable  reason 
dropped  out,  and  hence  must  be  supplied  from  data  contempo- 
rary with  or  before  Amos,  (b)  The  historical  situation  between 
Tyre  and  Judah  seems  to  point  to  the  authenticity  of  the  stanza. 
The  brotherly  covenant  to  which  Amos  refers  may  be  the  one 
mentioned  in  I  K.  5.26  between  Hiram  and  Solomon.  Hiram 
calls  Solomon  "brother"  also  in  I  K.  5.1ff.  9.13,  16.31;  II  S. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  225 

5.11  .(see  also  I  K.  7.13 ;  I  Chron.  14.1 ;  II  Chron.  2.3,  11) .  These 
friendly  relations  continued  especially  during  the  time  of  the 
royal  unions  with  Tyrian  nobility;  at  the  time  of  Elisha  and 
Elijah,  resulting  foreign  idolatries  became  the  subject  of  sharp 
denunciation.  A  gap  in  the  historical  records  is  responsible 
for  the  lack  of  information  as  to  the  time  when  political  hostility 
between  the  two  nations  began.  In  Is.  23.1-14  occurs  an  oracle 
on  Tyre,  delivered  apparently  around  722  b.c.  ;  this  indicates 
the  attention  which  the  Prophets  immediately  following  Amos 
paid  to  Tyre;  and  it  might  be  presumed  that  Amos  also  may 
have  included  them  in  the  round  of  his  utterances. 

But  the  evidence  against  the  authenticity  of  the  oracle  is 
more  plausible,  and  it  may  be  presumed  that  the  stanza  is  late, 
(a)  The  strophic  structure  is  2  -(-  2  -j-  2;  the  omission  of  the 
fourth  section  and  the  postlude  makes  the  stanza  the  shortest 
of  the  whole  series,  for  in  the  other  oracles  wherein  the  fourth 
section  is  missing — i.e.,  stanza  4  on  Edom,  and  stanza  7  on 
Judah — there  is  found  in  the  second  section  an  additional  par- 
allelistic  couplet,  (b)  As  Harper  points  out,  the  oracle  adds 
no  new  thought  to  the  series.  The  formulas  are  repeated;  only 
one  city  is  named,  namely.  Tyre,  neither  Sidon  nor  the  other 
large  cities  of  the  kingdom  receiving  attention.  The  same 
charge  as  against  the  Philistines  is  levelled  against  Tyre ;  the 
only  new  stichos  introduced  is  the  line  on  the  brotherly  covenant, 
(c)  "If  the  geographical  order  prevailed  as  elsewhere  from 
North  to  South,  verses  9-11  would  have  preceded  verses  6-8" 
(Harper,  p.  28).  (d)  The  historical  data  do  not  aiford  suf- 
ficient evidence  in  support  of  the  authenticity  of  the  oracle,  in 
view  of  the  events  which  followed  the  lifetime  of  Amos.  The 
Prophet  seems  here  to  think  that  the  violation  of  the  brotherly 
covenant  is  a  sin ;  but  if  the  alliance  between  Tyre  and  Israel 
was  abhorrent  to  the  Prophets,  it  is  not  likely  that  they  would 
be  angered  if  this  covenant,  provided  it  ever  existed,  were 
broken.  Hence  it  would  appear  that  stichos  b  of  the  second 
section  is  not  original  with  Amos. 

The  long  succession  of  prophecies  against  Tyre  which  issue 
from  the  successors  of  Amos  indicates  that  a  later  redactor  in- 


226  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

serted  this  oracle  in  Amos.  The  denunciation  by  Isaiah,  23.1-14, 
may  be  retroactive  in  its  witness  to  a  hostility  between  Tyre 
and  Judah  at  the  time  of  Amos;  but  it  is  more  probable  that 
the  Amos  stanza  was  introduced  at  the  time  of  Isaiah,  as  was 
the  case  with  several  words  and  stichoi  in  stanzas  1  and  2.  The 
Isaianic  prophecy  is  placed  by  Gray  {ICC,  p.  386)  after  the 
"long  siege  to  which  Tyre  was  subjected  by  Shalmaneser"  (727- 
722  B.C.)  ;  Isaiah  mentions  no  offense  by  Tyre  against  Judah. 
It  has  already  been  suggested  that  some  connection  may  exist 
between  the  oracles  of  Jeremiah  and  these  of  Amos ;  Jeremiah 
mentions  Tyre  in  25.22  and  27.3,  but  dedicates  to  it  no  special 
Song.  If  it  be  believed  that  Jeremiah  wrote  with  a  text  of 
Amos  before  him,  it  may  be  surmised,  then,  that  one  text  was 
revised  by  a  redactor  after  720  B.C.  around  the  time  of  Isaiah's 
activity;  but  that  Jeremiah  possessed  a  text  unrevised  and  gen- 
uine with  Amos.  A  third  edition  may  have  been  made  on  the 
basis  of  these  two  texts,  combining  them  into  one  (see  conclu- 
sions below). 

Or  since  Ezekiel,  chaps.  26-28,  contains  a  long  and  brilliant 
oracle  against  Tyre  which  originated  around  570  B.C.,  apparently 
during  an  era  when  Tyre  was  at  the  height  of  its  prosperity, 
the  Amos  oracle  may  have  been  added  at  this  date.  Joel  4.4-8, 
too,  offers  significant  evidence.  Joel  speaks  of  the  slavery 
activities  of  both  Phoenicia  and  Philistia;  but  in  the  place 
of  Edom,  as  in  Amos,  the  countries  of  Javan  (Greece)  and 
the  Sabaeans  figure ;  the  recipients  of  the  slaves  whom  the 
Phoenicians  sell  are  the  Greeks  (see  Ezek.  27.13).  Bewer  {ICC, 
p.  130ff.)  states  that  these  verses  in  Joel  were  written  with  ref- 
erence to  the  behavior  of  the  Persians  under  Artaxerxes  Ochus, 
around  352  b.c.  ;  the  writer  added  these  verses  on  the  behavior 
of  the  Phoenicians  and  the  Philistines  because  it  "called  for 
special  condemnation.  They  were  the  slave-traders  and  mer- 
chants to  whom  the  Persian  soldiers  had  sold  their  captives  and 
their  booty. " 

On  the  question,  then,  of  the  offense  in  Amos,  the  following 
probabilities  are  suggested:  (a)  The  redactor  may  have  inserted 
an  ancient  offense  to  give  the  prophecy  an  archaic  flavor  and 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  227 

to  lend  the  thought  that  it  originated  with  Amos,  (b)  The 
redactor  may  have  based  the  offense  on  Ezek.  27.13  (see  above)  ; 
Edom  is  not  mentioned  here,  however,  but  Javan  (as  in  Joel 
4.4-8),  and  it  would  therefore  be  necessary  to  regard  the  phrase 
le-''^dh6m  in  Amos  as  a  gloss,  (c)  The  offense  couplet  may 
have  been  changed  later  on  the  basis  of  Joel  4.4-8,  though  the 
outline  of  the  oracle  may  date  from  the  time  either  of  Isaiah, 
or  Ezekiel. 

A  word  must  be  said  on  the  disposition  of  the  second  stichos 
of  the  second  section :  ' '  And  they  remembered  not  the  covenant 
of  brothers."  In  defense  of  its  authenticity  it  may  be  urged: 
it  is  in  a  good  couplet,  though  the  synonymity  between  the  lines 
is  not  close ;  on  the  general  principle  that  except  on  rare 
occasions  it  is  unwise  to  disturb  a  parallelistic  couplet,  the 
temptation  to  throw  the  verse  out  must  be  checked  until  further 
examination ;  furthermore  the  literary  quality  of  the  stichos  is 
good;  it  consists  of  the  customary  three  members.  But  against 
the  legitimacy  of  the  stichos  many  arguments  may  be  advanced. 
It  is  improbable  that  Amos  referred  back  to  the  days  of  Solomon 
to  secure  an  historical  reference,  in  view  of  the  events  in  the 
intercourse  between  the  two  nations  which  had  occurred  since 
the  division  of  the  kingdom.  The  verse  also  has  the  word  dx^m, 
which  repeats  the  word  axiw  of  stanza  4.  The  stichos  is  not 
needed  in  Edom's  oracle,  because  already  two  superfluous  stichoi 
are  present  there,  and  moreover  it  will  be  seen  that  the  prophecy 
on  Edom  appears  to  be  late.  It  cannot  be  placed  in  the  second 
section  of  the  Judah  stanza  for  the  same  and  other  reasons. 
The  second  section  on  the  Ammonites  cannot  contain  it  because 
two  stichoi  are  already  present ;  tMere  is  no  reference  to  an 
alliance  either  with  Philistia,  Moab,  or  Israel ;  it  would  be  in- 
appropriate in  the  second  section  of  stanza  1,  for  the  passages 
on  the  alliance  between  Ahab  and  Benhadad,  I  K.  20.34,  and 
between  Syria  and  Israel,  I  K.  15.19  and  II  Chron.  16.3,  are 
insufficient  to  form  substantiation  for  the  transposition  in  the 
face  of  other  weaknesses  of  parallelism  and  sense. 

The  final  and  most  plausible  suggestion  for  the  presence  of 
the  verse  is  that  it  is  a  variant  reading  of  the  stichos  ^al  rodh^pho 


228  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

ha-xerehh  'ax^w, ' '  because  he  pursued  with  the  sword  his  brother, ' ' 
in  stanza  4  on  Edom ;  its  presence  in  the  margin  or  above  the 
line  may  have  furnished  the  later  redactor  with  a  stichos  out 
of  which  to  form  a  distich  in  the  second  section  of  the  prophecy 
which  he  constructed  in  order  to  secure  an  oracle  presumably 
from  Amos;  a  combination  with  a  stichos  from  stanza  2  made 
a  distich,  and  hence  gave  the  oracle  a  flavor  of  genuineness.  But 
whatever  may  have  been  the  process  by  which  it  attained  its 
present  status,  it  seems  quite  certain  that  it  did  not  proceed 
from  Amos. 

Hence  in  conclusion  it  may  be  affirmed  that  the  prophecy 
on  Tyre  is  late.  It  may  have  been  introduced  either  after 
720  B.C.  or  after  570  b.c.  ;  possibly  it  was  interpolated  at  the 
first  date  and  reworked  after  the  second;  moreover,  after 
350  B.C.  it  may  have  once  more  been  retouched.  This  would 
tend  to  show  that  three  editions. of  the  entire  Doom  Song  were 
made. 

Stanza  4. — Edom 

Edom  plays  an  important  role  in  the  Doom  Song,  for  it  is 
mentioned  four  times,  once  in  connection  with  the  slave  trade 
of  Philistia,  once  in  connection  with  the  slave  trade  of  Tyre, 
once  as  the  victim  of  Moab's  offense  in  stanza  6,  and  again  as 
the  theme  of  stanza  4.  It  is  generally  agreed  that  this  oracle 
is  late ;  it  is  supposed  to  date  from  exilic  or  post-exilic  times. 

The  first  point  to  show  the  lateness  of  this  stanza  is  its 
strophic  structure.  The  number  of  stichoi  is  1  -|-  2  -|-  4  -)-  2, 
as  in  stanza  7  on  Judah.  The  second  section  contains  two 
couplets  where  only  one  i%  needed  for  the  type  stanza.  The 
fourth  section  with  the  prophetic  postlude  is  missing,  as  in 
stanzas  3  and  7,  which  are  also  placed  late.  The  second  evi- 
dence for  the  lateness  of  the  stanza  is  the  nature  of  the  offense 
mentioned  in  the  second  section.  Tradition  early  described  Edom 
as  a  brother  to  Israel.  In  early  historic  times  Edom  was  sub- 
ject to  Israel  and  for  two  centuries  was  under  its  domination 
(I  K.  11.16;  II  K.  14.7).  Edom  is  hostile  at  the  time  of  the 
Exodus,  and  at  the  time  of  the  revolt  of  Hadad  during  the  reign 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  229 

of  Solomon,  an  event  too  remote  to  serve  as  the  basis  for  Amos' 
prophecy.  In  the  days  of  Joram  (c.  893  B.C.)  occurred  another 
revolt  of  Edom  (II  K.  7.20-22;  II  Chron.  21.8-10),  again  too 
distant  for  Amos'  purposes,  for  it  may  be  surmised  that  the 
Prophet  would  naturally  select  an  event  closer  to  his  own  day 
and  fresher  in  the  minds  of  his  readers  and  listeners. 

In  II  K.  14.7  and  II  Chron.  25.5-13  occur  the  stories  of  the 
defeat  of  the  Edomites  at  the  hand  of  King  Amaziah  of  Judah 
around  the  year  795  b.c,  a  little  more  than  a  generation  before 
Amos  began  his  prophetic  activity.  The  defeat  is  thorough,  for 
in  verse  12  it  is  stated:  "And  ten  thousand  left  alive  did  the 
children  of  Judah  carry  away  captive  and  brought  them  unto 
the  top  of  the  rock  and  cast  them  down  from  the  top  of  the  rock 
and  they  all  were  broken  to  pieces."  (On  stanzas  2  and  3,  it 
is  instructive  to  note  here  that  Edom  is  made  the  captive  and 
not  the  recipient  of  Judaean  captives.)  II  Chron.  26.2  also 
tells  of  the  continued  humiliation  of  the  Edomites,  for  Uzziali, 
the  king  contemporary  with  Amos,  took  the  city  of  Elath  from 
them  and  restored  it  to  Judah.  The  question  may  then  legiti- 
mately be  asked:  Since  Edom  was  so  soundly  defeated  both 
shortly  before  and  contemporaneously  with  Amos,  why  should 
the  Prophet  direct  against  them  an  oracle  foretelling  a  doom 
which  had  already  fallen  upon  them?  Notice  further  Amos' 
use  of  the  term  "the  remnant  of  Edom"  in  9.12;  the  Blessing 
of  Esau,  Gen.  27.39ff.,  supposed  to  have  originated  at  this  period, 
also  tells  of  the  subjection  of  Edom  to  the  sway  of  Israel.  It  is 
therefore  necessary  to  search  for  the  raison  d'etre  of  the  oracle 
in  Amos  in  events  which  transpired  after  his  death. 

Plenteous  evidence  is  found  in  generations  succeeding,  for 
the  insertion  of  a  prophecy  against  Edom.  In  II  Chron.  28.17, 
a  narration  of  the  incursions  of  the  Edomites  at  the  time  of 
Ahaz  is  given:  "again  the  Edomites  had  come  and  smitten 
Judah  and  carried  away  captives."  The  use  of  the  word 
"again"  may  lead  to  the  thought  that  contemporaneous  with 
Amos  the  event  first  occurred,  giving  rise  to  his  prophecy.  It 
seems  more  likely,  however,  that  the  event  referred  to  must  have 
occurred  directly  before  the  one  mentioned.     Ahaz  is  compelled 


230  University  of  California  Publications.       [Sem.  Phil. 

in  734  B.C.  to  apply  to  the  King  of  Assyria  for  assistance.  Edom 
is  mentioned  in  Isaiah,  chapter  34,  in  terms  of  vigorous  denun- 
ciation. Hence  the  first  suggestion  is  that  the  Edom  stanza 
was  inserted  into  Amos  around  the  year  720  B.C.,  together  with 
parts  of  stanza  1,  section  4,  and  stanza  2,  section  2,  and  possibly 
stanza  3. 

The  evidence  points  more  specifically  to  an  exilic  or  post- 
exilic  reconstruction  of  this  prophecy  in  Amos,  Jeremiah  after 
several  references  to  Edom  (9.25,  25.21,  27.3)  devotes  to  it  a 
whole  oracle  in  49.7-22.  The  passage  is  confused  and  bears 
resemblances  to  Obadiah's  anti-Edom  utterances;  the  offense  of 
Edom  is  haughtiness  and  pride  of  heart  (verse  16).  But  it  is 
in  the  Book  of  Ezekiel  that  the  most  weight}^  hints  on  the  origin 
of  the  oracle  occur.  The  data  point  clearly  to  the  fact  that  the 
passage  in  Amos  refers  to  the  attitude  of  Edom  towards  Judah 
at  the  destruction  of  the  Temple  in  586  b.c.  Ezek,  25.12-14 
proclaims  as  the  offense  of  Edom,  their  self-exacted  vengeance 
upon  Judah  for  which  they  will  be  punished  in  kind.  Ezek.  35 
gives  the  identical  offense,  apparently,  to  which  Amos  refers : 
"Because  thou  hast  had  a  perpetual  hatred  and  hast  shed  the 
blood  of  the  children  of  Israel  by  the  force  of  the  sword  in  the 
time  of  their  calamity,  in  the  time  that  their  iniquity  had  an 
end"  (verse  5;  see  also  verses  12,  13,  15).  The  words  'ehhath 
'  oldm  compared  with  Amos,  stanza  4,  second  couplet  of  the 
second  section,  give  a  clue  to  the  date  of  the  Edom  oracle  in 
Amos.  The  utterances  of  Obadiah  bear  out  the  same  indica- 
tions. For  in  verses  10-11  occur  references  to  the  "violence" 
of  the  Edomites  and  their  conspiracy  with  the  invaders  at  the 
destruction  of  the  Temple.  Joel  4.19  refers  to  the  slaughter  of 
Judah  by  Edom,  even  as  does  the  first  couplet  in  the  Amos 
offense  section;  Ps.  137.7  gives  additional  data  (cf.  also  Ps.  83.7). 
Malachi  1.2-5  apparently  at  a  later  date,  refers  to  the  historic 
enmity  between  Edom  and  Israel  despite  the  fact  that  they  were 
' '  brothers. " 

The  necessary  conclusion  seems  to  be  that  the  offense  men- 
tioned in  Amos  occurred  around  586  B.C.,  and  that  the  second 
section  was  written  in  the  light  of  the  prophecies  of  Ezekiel  and 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  231 

Obadiah,      Harper  correctly  says  (p.  31)  :  "The  cruelty  which 

furnished  the  basis  for  the  ill  feeling  on  the  part  of  Israel  came 

with  the  exile.      It  was  not  unnatural  therefore,  that  a  later 

writer,  devoid  of  historical  perspective  and  thinking  that  Edom 

deserved  denunciation,  should  frame  a  section  which  in  due  time 

secured  a  place  in  the  text  of  Amos." 

The  third  evidence  for  the  lateness  of  the  Edom  oracle  in 

Amos  is  the  character  of  the  language,  especially  in  the  second 

section.     As  has  been  noted,  the  real  foundation  for  the  section 

appears  to  be  Ezek.  35.5,  wherein  two  ideas,  hatred  and  pursuit 

by  sword,  are  grouped;  the  writer  of  the  Amos  material  has 

expanded  them  into  two  couplets,  whereas  on  the  basis  of  the 

Ezekiel  passage,  the  form  could  be  one  couplet,  omitting  the 

second  stichos  of  each  existing  couplet  in  the  section : 

Because  he  pursued  with  the  sword  his  brother, 
And  forever  his  anger  tore. 

This  agrees  with  Harper's  suggestion  that  stichoi  b  in  both 
couplets  are  glosses,  and  the  second  section  then  holds  the  num- 
ber of  stichoi  which  the  tj^pe  stanza  demands.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  arrangement  destroys  two  couplets  in  entirely  good 
parallelism,  whereas  it  is  a  cardinal  principle  that,  normally, 
couplets  in  good  form  should  not  be  disturbed;  to  escape  the 
task  of  reconstruction,  it  may  be  urged  that  if  the  entire  stanza 
is  late,  there  is  no  need  to  make  it  conform  to  the  model  stanza, 
for  it  is  clear  that  the  later  redactor  neglected  entirely  the 
adherence  to  a  model  structure.  Ezek.  35.6  on  the  motif  of  poetic 
justice  states:  "and  blood  shall  pursue  thee";  compare  also 
Obad.  10  and  Joel  4.19  for  references  to  the  bloody  pursuit 
suggested  by  Amos. 

The  use  of  the  term  '  *  brother ' '  with  reference  to  the  relation- 
ship between  Israel  and  Edom  occurs  in  Deut.  2.4;  Gen.  27.40, 
41;  Num.  20.14;  the  admonition  in  Deut.  23.8,  "Thou  shalt 
not  abhor  an  Edomite  for  he  is  thy  brother"  was  evidently  writ- 
ten before  the  Destruction  and  the  hostility  of  Edom.  Neither 
Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Joel,  nor  even  Ezekiel  refers  to  Edom  as 
Israel's  "brother";  in  Obad.  10.12  and  Mai.  1.2-5  the  term  is 
revived,    probably    to    emphasize    the    heinousness    of    Edom's 


232  University  of  California  Publications.      I^em.  Phil. 

offense.  Malaehi  speaks  of  Edom  as  "the  people  against  whom 
the  Lord  hath  indignation  forever,"  This  may  be  poetic  jus- 
tice for  the  attitude  of  perpetual  hatred  which  Edom  cherished 
towards  God's  people  Israel. 

The  second  stichos  of  the  first  couplet:  ''and  he  destroyed 
his  compassion ' '  is  unwisely  omitted  by  Harper ;  the  exact  sense 
of  the  period  is  dubious,  and  depends  on  the  interpretation  of 
rax^mdw  either  as  "his  compassions"  or  "his  wombs,"  his 
pregnant  women.  The  word  l^-nvashxith,  "for  destroying," 
is  used  in  Ez.  25.15  with  reference  to  the  phrase  'ehhath  '61dm 
applied  to  Philistia  there,  but  to  Edom  in  85.5 ;  Ezekiel  uses  the 
word  at  least  eight  times  more  in  different  forms.  It  is  difficult 
to  suggest  a  correct  reading;  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  entire 
oracle  is  placed  late,  no  reconstructions  will  be  advanced. 

The  second  couplet  of  the  section  is  in  perfect  parallelism, 
though  a  slight  change  is  advocated,  on  the  basis  of  Ps.  103.9 
and  Jer.  3.5,  where  two  perfectly  parallel  couplets  are  present ; 
this  change  makes  way-yitroph,  "and  it  tore,"  into  way-yittor, 
"and  he  cherished."  This  suggestion  was  first  made  by  01s- 
hausen  and  has  been  generally  accepted.  The  Jeremiah  couplet 
shows  striking  similarities  to  this  Amos  passage,  and  may  be 
based  upon  it,  or  vice  versa.  If  the  phrase  way-yitroph  is 
retained,  similarities  to  Job  16.9  and  18.4  must  be  noted.  The 
phrase  Id-' adh  'appo  occurs  in  Micah  7.18  in  a  parallel  couplet. 
The  second  stichos  of  the  Amos  couplet  is  omitted  by  Harper 
because  ' '  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  interpolation,  it  is  a  gloss, 
merely  repeating  the  thought  of  the  preceding  phrase  in  synony- 
mous words."  This  is  perhaps  the  very  reason  why  the  stichos 
should  be  retained,  because  it  makes  admirable  parallelism. 
Moreover,  the  example  of  Jer.  3.5  supports  the  usage  of  the 
couplet,  and  fixes  the  text  as  substantially  correct.  The  form 
7iegax  occurs  in  Ps.  13.2  and  Jer.  15.18,  though  several  commen- 
tators wish  to  amend  it  to  Id-negux  as  in  Amos  8.7.  It  may  be 
concluded  with  reference  to  the  couplet  that  its  language  sug- 
gests the  later  Psalms  and  Jeremiah,  rather  than  Amos  himself. 

A  fourth  reason  for  regarding  the  oracle  on  Edom  as  late 
is  that  "Petra,  the  most  important  city  of  Edom  is  not  men- 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  233 

tioned,  while  the  names  Teman  and  Bozrah  occur  elsewhere 
chiefly  in  the  late  writings"  (but  cf.  Gen.  36.33,  34)  :  Teman 
is  mentioned  in  Obad.  9  (parallel  to  har  ' esaw)  ;  in  Jer.  49.7,  20 
(parallel  to  "Edom,"  as  in  Ezek.  25.13,  and  Hab.  3.3)  ;  Bozrah 
occurs  in  Is.  34.6,  63.6  (parallel  to  ''Edom"),  Jer.  49.13,  22 
(Gen.  36.33  and  I  Chron.  1.44  have  it  in  an  identically  worded 
verse).  The  lateness  of  the  word  "Teman,"  together  with  the 
lateness  of  "Bozrah,"  therefore  adds  other  evidence  to  the 
hypothesis  that  the  stanza  on  Edom  is  exilic  or  post-exilic. 

Stanza  5. — The  Ammonites 

Stanza  5  on  the  Ammonites  is  perhaps  the  model  stanza.  Its 
strophic  structure  conforms  to  the  type  form,  since  it  is  1  + 
2-|-2-|-2-|-4-[-l-  The  second  section  contains  the  necessary 
two  stichoi,  though  it  will  be  seen  that  they  are  not  in  the  most 
exact  parallelism ;  the  fourth  section  contains  two  good  couplets. 
The  meaning  of  the  entire  oracle  is  on  the  whole  clear,  except 
for  the  possible  yion  sequitur  between  stichoi  a  and  b  of  section 
2;  a  solution  of  the  difficulty  here  involved  will  give  a  stanza 
clear  in  meaning  and  perfect  in  form. 

The  occasion  for  the  delivery  of  a  prophecy  against  the 
Ammonites  presents  difficulties.  During  the  reign  of  Jehosha- 
phat  (c.  850  B.C.)  the  Moabites  and  the  Ammonites  were  defeated 
(II  K.  3.4-27,  and  II  Chron.  20).  During  the  reign  of  Uzziah, 
contemporaneous  with  Amos,  the  Ammonites  paid  tribute  to 
Judah  (II  Chron.  26.8)  ;  during  the  reign  of  Jotham  of  Judah, 
the  successor  to  Uzziah,  and  immediately^  after  Amos  (c.  739 
B.C.),  war  was  waged  against  the  Ammonites  and  Jotham  "pre- 
vailed against  them  " ;  as  a  result  they  brought  him  heavy  tribute 
(II  Chron.  27.5).  The  question  may  be  now  propounded:  If 
the  Ammonites  brought  tribute  to  Uzziah  and  were  thus  subject 
to  him,  why  was  it  necessary  for  Amos  to  deliver  against  them 
an  oracle  of  doom?  It  appears,  however,  that  they  were  by 
no  means  completely  subjugated ;  apparently  they  proved  hostile 
during  the  entire  lifetime  of  Amos  and  were  not  fully  quieted 
until  the  reign  of  Jotham ;  which  fact  points  to  the  appropriate- 
ness of  an  oracle  against  them  in  this  series  original  with  Amos. 


234  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem.Phil. 

The  destruction  which  the  Prophet  foretells  may  have  been 
imminent  in  the  war  waged  by  the  contemporary  kings. 

If  it  be  not  agreed  that  the  prophecy  is  genuine  with  Amos, 
the  only  other  time  it  seems  plausible  is  during  the  post-exilic 
period.  Is.  11.14  contains  the  only  reference  to  them  in  his 
work ;  Jeremiah  delivers  a  telling  denunciation  of  them  in  chap- 
ter 49,  with  which  Amos  has  noteworthy  likenesses ;  Ezekiel 
21.33-37  and  25.1-7  contain  references  to  the  behavior  of  the 
Ammonites  at  the  time  of  the  Destruction,  while  Zeph.  2.8  has 
two  couplets  of  interest  for  the  origin  of  the  Amos  oracle.  A 
decision  on  the  date  of  the  appearance,  the  redaction  and  the 
reworking  of  the  Amos  portion  will  be  attempted  after  the  evi- 
dence has  been  reviewed. 

Section  2  of  this  stanza  reads  thus : 

Because  they  have  ripped  up  the  pregnant  women  of  Gilead, 
In  order  to  enlarge  their  border. 

For  the  literal  translation  and  retention  of  this  couplet,  espe- 
cially of  the  first  stichos,  many  references  offer  testimony.  On 
the  practice  of  barbarity  to  pregnant  women,  see  I  K.  8.12 ; 
Hos.  10.14,  16;  II  K.  15.16;  Is.  13.16;  Nah.  3.10;  Ps.  137.9. 
Harper  affirms :  ' '  The  reference  is  in  every  way  so  specific  as 
to  suggest  a  particular  event.  This  event  may  have  been  in  con- 
nection with  the  attack  of  Nahash,  the  Ammonite,  upon  Jabesh 
Gilead  (I  Sam.  11)  or  a  league  of  the  Ammonites  with  the 
Syrians  under  Hazael  (II  K.  8.12,  10.32)." 

But  several  facts  labor  against  the  retention  of  the  present 
text.  Harper's  suggestion  does  not  appeal,  because  in  none 
of  the  instances  mentioned  is  there  a  hint  of  an  alliance  between 
Ammon  and  other  nations  against  Israel.  Moreover  the  repe- 
tition of  the  word  ' '  Gilead ' '  from  stanza  1  throws  doubt  upon  the 
stichos;  it  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  the  event  referred 
to  here  should  more  properly  be  joined  to  the  oracle  on  Syria, 
and  a  reconstruction  of  the  second  section  of  stanza  1  has  pro- 
ceeded on  this  assumption.  The  discrepancy  in  thought  between 
the  first  and  second  stichoi  is  marked :  "What  is  the  relation 
between  the  ripping  up  of  pregnant  women  and  the  expansion 
of  national  borders,  except  perhaps  that  this  act  is  symbolic  of 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  235 

a  ruthlessness  which  has  national  domination  as  its  aim?  Sev- 
eral emendations  may  be  proposed  in  the  light  of  historical  and 
philological  evidence : 

1.  '  al  gdr"shdm  mtrushshdtho  'eth  Gddh 
l^-ma'an  harx^bh   'eth  gehhuldm. 

Because  they  have  dispossessed  from  his  inheritance  Gad, 
In  order  to  increase  their  borders. 

The  sin  of  the  Ammonites  as  mentioned  in  Amos  is  that 
they  have  usurped  the  territory  of  Israel.  Even  in  the  period 
of  the  Judges,  the  Ammonites  had  laid  claim  to  the  land  which 
the  Israelites  had  captured  from  Sihon  of  the  Amorites  during 
the  period  of  the  Exodus.  The  story  of  Jephtha's  battle  on 
the  seizure  of  Gilead  by  the  Ammonites  contains  a  long  diplo- 
jnatic  communication  on  the  justice  of  Israel's  legal  and  his- 
torical claim  to  the  land.  There  is  general  agreement  that 
verses  12-28  of  chapter  11  are  a  later  interpolation,  the  motive 
of  which  is  to  establish  the  title  of  Israel  to  its  possessions  be- 
tween the  Arnon  and  the  Jabbok.  The  Ammonites  never  ceased 
to  wage  war  for  additional  territory  ( Jud.  10.8 ;  I  Sam.  11.11, 
etc.). 

In  II  Chron.  11.11  a  reference  to  the  traditional  sin  of 
Amnion  occurs.  This  version  of  the  victory  of  Jehoshaphat 
over  Moab  and  Ammon  (see  II  K.  3.4-27,  wherein  the  Ammonites 
are  not  mentioned)  includes  a  reference  strikingly  similar  to  the 
phraseology  of  Judges,  chapter  11:  ''And  behold  they  requited 
us  by  coming  to  cast  us  out  of  thy  possession  which  thou  hast 
given  us  to  inherit."  This  verse  is  evidently  the  work  of  a 
later  poet  (cf.  Ezek.  21.35,  the  prophecy  against  Ammon,  which 
has  the  line :  "  I  will  judge  thee  in  the  place  where  thou  wast 
created,  in  the  land  of  thy  nativity,"  referring  thus  vaguely  to 
this  central  thought). 

Jer,  49.1-7  against  the  Ammonites  contains  the  most  impor- 
tant suggestions  for  the  Amos  passage : 

Concerning  the  Ammonites, 
Thus  saith  Yahwe, 

Hath  Israel  no  sons? 
Hath  he  no  heir? 


236  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Pnu,. 

Why  then  doth  their  king  inherit  Gad, 
And  his  people  dwell  in  his  cities? 

Therefore  behold  the   days  are   coming,  saith  Yahwd 

That  I  will  cause  to  be  heard  in  Eabbah  of  the  Ammonites  an 

alarm  of  war 
And  it  shall  be  a  desolate  heap. 

And  her  daughters  with  fire  shall  be  burned, 

And   Israel   shall   be   heir   unto   them   who  were   his   heirs,   saith 
Yahw5. 

Howl,  O  Heshbon,  for  Ai  is  spoiled; 

Cry  ye  daughters  of  Eabbah, 

Gird    yourselves    with    sackcloth; 

Lament  and  run  to  and  fro  by  the  hedges; 

For  their  king  shall  go  into  captivity, 

His  priests  and  his  princes  together.     .     .     . 

This  prophecy  appears  to  be  in  a  corrupt  state  of  preservation. 
It  is  made  up  of  two  separate  strands,  interlaced  and  combined, 
one  a  song  of  exultation  and  lament,  the  other  a  doom  song  or 
denunciation.  The  song  of  lament  was  written  either  by  Jere- 
miah, or  a  contemporaneous  author;  it  is  in  great  confusion. 
The  denunciation  affords  significant  data  for  comparison  with 
the  Amos  oracle.  The  major  discrepancies  between  the  two 
denunciations  are:  (a)  omission  in  Jeremiah  of  the  introductory 
couplet  formula  of  Amos;  (b)  four  lines  of  offense  in  Jeremiah 
to  two  in  Amos;  (c)  formula  of  punishment  in  Amos  shifted 
in  place  and  language  in  Jeremiah;  (d)  line  on  destruction  in 
war  shifted  in  place  and  with  a  different  complementary  stichos 
in  Jeremiah.  The  similarities  are:  1.  In  thought:  (a)  offense 
in  both  cases  is  dispossession ;  punishment  in  both  cases  is  war, 
cry,  fire,  and  exile.  2.  In  language:  (a)  ko  'dmar  '(^dhonai; 
(b)  the  word  mdlkdm  is  used  twice;  (c)  tiggathnd  to  match 
w^-higgattl  in  Amos;  (d)  the  words  t^ru' ath  milxdmd  to  match 
in  Amos  'bi-th^ru' a  b^-yom  milxdmd;  (e)  the  last  couplet  in 
the  denunciation  is  identical,  except  for  the  use  in  Jeremiah  of 
kdh^^ndw  in  place  of  Amos'  sdrdw.  The  question  arises:  Did 
Jeremiah  borrow  from  Amos,  or  did  a  later  redactor  reconstruct 
Amos  on  the  basis  of  Jeremiah?  If  the  former  supposition  is 
true,  then  it  is  evident  that  the  Prophet  injected  enough  of  his 


"Vol,  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  237 

own  thought  and  phraseology  into  the  terms  of  Amos  to  render 
them  his  own ;  for  there  are  slight  differentiations  which  mark 
the  prophecy  as  decidedly  the  work  of  Jeremiah.  But  if  Jere- 
miah based  his  own  utterance  on  Amos,  is  it  not  possible  to  gain 
from  this  fact  information  for  a  possible  reconstruction  of  errors 
in  Amos'  oracle?  The  correct  portions  in  the  denunciation  in 
Jeremiah  may  throw  light  upon  the  apparently  incorrect  por- 
tions in  Amos. 

The  influence  of  the  correct  Jeremiah  text  on  the  incorrect 
Amos  stichoi  is  seen  most  effectually  in  one  fact :  In  Amos, 
Gilead  is  the  victim  of  the  Ammonites;  in  Jeremiah,  it  is  Gad. 
In  both  cases  the  offense  is  dispossession.  The  repetition  of 
''Gilead"  in  stanza  1,  and  the  discrepancy  of  thought  between 
the  two  stichoi  in  the  second  section,  thus  lead  to  the  belief  that 
instead  of  Gilead,  the  name  Gad  originally  occurred  in  Amos 
as  the  victim. 

In  defense  of  the  correctness  of  the  term  Gilead,  in  Amos, 
it  must  be  mentioned  that  Gilead  in  the  time  of  Jephtha,  at  the 
time  of  Nahash's  attack,  and  on  numerous  other  occasions,  was 
the  sufferer  from  Ammonitish  raids.  It  is  known  that  the 
territory  of  the  Ammonites  east  of  the  Jordan  was  included 
in  the  portion  assigned  to  Gad,  itself  east  of  the  Jordan  (Josh. 
13.24-28),  while  "Gilead"  in  its  larger  meaning  designated  the 
whole  territory  east  of  the  Jordan  except  Bashan,  in  contrast 
with  Canaan,  west  of  the  Jordan ;  it  stands  specificallj'  for  the 
territory  of  the  two  and  one-half  tribes,  Gad,  Reuben  and  half- 
Manasseh.  However,  Gad  and  Gilead  always  stand  in  close 
relationship;  sometimes  Gad's  territory  is  placed  in  Gilead; 
sometimes  the  two  are  joined  (see  Harper,  p.  17)  ;  sometimes 
Gilead  is  used  alone  when  Gad  is  unmistakably  included;  in- 
deed, "Gad"  and  "Gilead"  are  so  closely  synonymous  that 
oftentimes  the  terms  are  exchanged;  and  so  in  Amos,  Gilead 
may  have  included  Gad;  "Gilead"  may  have  been  a  general 
term,  with  Gad  specifically  in  the  Prophet's  mind.  Moreover, 
in  defense  of  the  term  "Gilead,"  it  must  be  admitted  that 
though  it  is  a  repetition,  it  does  not  mar  the  form  of  the  poem 
in  any  great  degree. 


238  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  use  of  "Gad"  as  the  victim  of 
Ammonitish  cruelty  would  add  to  the  effective  reconstruction 
of  the  stanza.  Josh.  13.24  shows  that  the  boundaries  of  Gad 
were  all  the  cities  of  Gilead  and  half  of  the  land  of  the  Ammon- 
ites. In  Deut.  33.20  occurs  the  significant  sentence:  harukh 
Kam-nmrxihh  'eth  Gadh,  ''Blessed  is  he  that  enlargeth  Gad," 
using  marxlhh  as  in  the  second  stichos  of  the  Amos  distich:  he 
who  broadens  Gad  is  blessed;  per  contra,  he  who  broadens  him- 
self— i.e.,  as  in  Amos,  extends  his  boundaries  at  the  expense  of 
Gad — is  cursed.  Hence  the  anger  of  Amos  may  be  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  Ammonites  had  diminished  the  already  small  tribe 
of  Gad.  To  make  a  coherent  couplet,  it  may  therefore  be  neces- 
sary to  have  the  first  stichos  apply  to  Gad,  so  that  the  thought 
may  lead  up  naturally  to  the  second  stichos,  wherein  harxlbh 
is  used.  In  Jer.  49.1,  the  offense  of  the  Ammonites  is  against 
Gad;  this  part  of  the  oracle  is  genuine,  as  the  parallelism  and 
sense  are  good;  and  the  affinity  between  the  two  oracles  leads 
to  the  supposition  that  Jeremiah  secured  his  stimulus  for  the 
thought  from  Amos ;  hence  again  there  would  seem  to  have  been 
in  Amos  a  reference  to  Gad.  The  term  "Gilead"  may  have 
been  inserted  in  post-exilic  times,  for  the  evidence  points  to  the 
fact  that  after  the  fall  of  Samaria,  the  Ammonites  occupied  the 
territory  of  Gad  or  Gilead  (cf.  the  doubtful  verse  in  Obad.  20). 
Therefore  to  restore  the  Amos  text  to  the  form  from  which 
Jeremiah  took  suggestions,  it  is  necessary  to  supplant  "Gilead" 
with  "Gad."  In  the  couplet  which  has  been  suggested  as  the 
first  reconstruction,  the  term  "inheritance"  is  used  as  in 
II  Chron.  20.11  and  Jer.  49.1  with  reference  to  Gad.  The 
phrase  gdrash  mirushshd  is  incorporated  on  the  foundation  of 
the  passage  in  II  Chron.  20.11  which  refers  to  this  act  by  the 
Ammonites. 

2.  'al  hiq<^'dm  'are  hag-Gddh, 

le-ma'an  harxi>iJi   'eth  gebhuldm. 

Because  they  have  pierced  through  the  cities  of  Gad, 
In  order  to  widen  their  boundaries. 

This  substitutes  'are  "cities,"  for  hdroth,  "pregnant  women." 
In  Josh.  13.25  occurs  a  reference  to  "all  the  cities  of  Gilead." 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  239 

Jer.  49.1  reads,  "and  his  people  have  taken  their  residence  in  his 
cities,"  The  word  hdqa' ,  ''pierce  through,"  with  "cities"  is 
sanctioned  by  II  Chron.  32.1;  II  K.  25.4;  Jer.  39.2;  Ezek.  30.16, 
24.10;  Jer.  52.7;  and  by  other  passages  in  which  it  occurs  in 
warlike  operations:  "to  make  a  breach  in  the  city  walls"  (cf. 
II  Chron.  21.17  and  Is.  8.6  with  reference  to  Judah). 

In  place  of  hdroth  the  word  hare,  "mountains  of,"  has  been 
suggested  by  Jewish  commentators,  who  sought  to  mitigate  the 
barbarity  of  the  passage  (Harper,  p.  36)  ;  the  Ammonites  were 
thus  guilty  of  breaking  the  law  of  boundaries  (Deut.  27.17). 
Kittel  and  Valeton  suggest  the  reading  b^gUroth,  "fortified 
places. ' ' 

Another  group  of  restorations  grows  out  of  the  omission  of 
the  second  stichos  of  the  couplet  as  a  later  addition  on  the  basis 
of  the  Ammonitish  attacks  against  Gilead  and  Gad  immediately 
after  Amos  or  during  the  exilic  days;  this  would  leave  authentic 
here  the  first  line  and  invalidate  several  of  the  suggestions  made 
in  stanza  1  which  transposed  this  line  to  its  second  section. 
Though  there  is  no  mention  that  the  Ammonites  were  guilty 
of  the  cruelty  referred  to,  this  does  not  imply  that  it  did  not 
occur. 

3.  Because  they  have  ripped  up  the  pregnant  women  of  Gilead, 
And  the  young  children  they  dashed  into  pieces. 

This  is  based  upon  the  parallelistic  usages  in  Hos.  14.1;  II  K. 
8.12;  and  upon  the  presence  of  the  phrase  "their  children  shall 
be  dashed  to  pieces"  in  several  other  passages  that  prophecy 
destruction:  Nah.  3.10;  Hos.  10.14;  Ps.  137.9;  Is.  13.16ff. 
Another  suggestion  is  to  read  for  the  second  stichos,  "and  the 
fruit  of  the  womb  they  pitied  not"  (cf.  Is.  13.18), 

It  is  difficult  to  determine  upon  the  best  of  these  suggestions ; 
the  evidence  is  so  complicated  that  a  categorical  decision  is  out 
of  the  question ;  they  suffice,  however,  to  point  the  way  to  the 
difficulties  in  the  text,  and  the  probabilities  upon  which  recon- 
structions can  be  founded. 

The  third  section  of  stanza  5  has  instead  of  w^-shillaxti, 
"and  I  will  send,"  w^-higQattt,  "and  I  will  kindle,"  The 
thought  that  the  author  through  superstition  and  fear  of  exact 


240  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

symmetry  in  the  formulas  changed  the  word  here,  is  baseless, 
especially  since  other  words  are  changed  throughout  the  con- 
stant couplets.  The  word  w^-higQattl  is  very  popular  with 
Jeremiah ;  the  close  nexus  between  this  prophecy  on  the  Ammon- 
ites by  Amos  and  that  in  Jeremiah,  chapter  49,  points  to  the 
conclusion  that  in  Amos'  original  text  w^-shillaxtl  may  have 
been  used,  but  that  a  later  redactor  inserted  w^-higgatti  on  the 
basis  of  Jeremiah.  It  cannot  be  said  that  the  entire  Amos 
prophecy  was  written  on  the  pattern  of  Jeremiah;  it  is  more 
feasible  to  support  the  notion  of  an  interplay  of  influence ;  Amos 
affected  Jeremiah;  then  through  a  later  compiler  and  editor, 
Jeremiah's  text  affected  Amos.  This  would  indicate  that  sev- 
eral texts  existed  with  different  readings  in  the  minutiae  and 
that  the  final  redaction  was  made  through  a  synthesis  of  the 
variant  readings. 

The  fourth  section  of  stanza  5  has  two  couplets  in  apparently 
excellent  parallelism.  The  first  couplet  differs  from  its  equiv- 
alents in  the  other  three  type  stanzas  in  that  no  direct  verb 
stands  at  its  head.  It  is  not  imperative  that  this  verbal  motif 
be  employed,  for  the  arrangement  here  used  is  found  in  other 
prophetic  passages.  An  objection  may  be  made  to  the  use  of 
ii-thcru'd,  "with  shouting,"  however,  since  in  section  4  of 
stanza  6,  on  Moab,  the  same  word  occurs.  Though  the  Septua- 
gint  has  the  same  phrase  in  each  place,  it  seems  necessary  that 
one  of  the  two  usages  must  be  omitted  in  order  to  present  a  text 
free  from  careless  repetitions.  Moreover,  the  context  as  it  stands 
is  awkward  ("and  it  shall  devour  the  palaces  with  shouting"), 
when  compared  with  Amos  2.2  and  particularly  with  Jer.  49.2. 

The  second  stichos  of  this  first  couplet  in  the  fourth  section 
of  stanza  5,  though  in  excellent  parallelism  to  the  first  line, 
presents  some  difficulties.  Harper  in  order  to  maintain  his 
three  line  strophic  arrangement  states  (p.  35)  :  "The  clause 
...  is  but  a  weak  repetition  of  the  preceding  clause  and  there 
is  nothing  to  correspond  to  it  in  the  parallel  section  on  Moab 
(2.1-3),  although  in  every  other  respect  the  parallelism  is  per- 
fect."     This  omission  of  a  line  in  perfect  couplet  formation 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  241 

is  unwarranted,  for  the  disruption  of  a  parallelistic  couplet  can 
only  rarely  be  tolerated;  moreover  the  logical  scheme  of  the 
poem  in  conformance  to  the  model  stanza  would  be  broken.  For 
this  stichos,  the  Septuagint  reads :  ' '  and  she  shall  be  shaken 
in  the  days  of  her  destruction."  This  presents  the  following 
probabilities:  (a)  either  the  Septuagint  wrongly  read  the  text; 
in  defense  of  the  text  as  it  stands  may  be  cited  Ps.  83.16,  Is. 
29.6,  Nah.  1.3;  or  (b)  in  the  text  which  the  Septuagint  trans- 
lators possessed  there  actually  was  a  basis  for  the  variant 
reading.  If  the  latter  was  the  case,  perhaps  the  variant  was  a 
marginal  reading  intended  to  replace  the  hi-th'^ru' a  of  stichos  a 
(which  has,  indeed,  been  shown  to  be  suspicious)  ;  the  trans- 
lators, however,  read  it  instead  as  a  variant  of  h<^-sa'ar,  "with 
a  tempest,"  possibly  because  its  radicals  resembled  those  of 
sa'ar.  This  would  sanction  the  retention  of  b'^-sa'ar  in  the 
second  stichos  and  the  substitution  in  the  first  for  hi-th'^rii' a  of 
a  verb  in  the  Hebrew  based  on  the  Greek  aeLad'^aerai.  Finally, 
even  if  hi-th^^ru'd  be  retained  here,  and  the  Greek  verb  be  re- 
garded merely  as  a  translation  of  the  root  sd'ar  (cf.  Zech.  7.14), 
it  would  still  seem  necessary  to  insert  a  verb  at  the  head  of  the 
first  stichos.  Among  the  possible  suggestion  are :  w^-rd '  (^shd, 
"it  shall  shake"  (cf.  Amos  9.1)  ;  iv<^-hirashti,"l  shall  shake"  (cf. 
Ps.  60.4,  Hag.  2.7)  ;  w^-ni' aril,  "and  I  shall  shake";  best  of  all 
can  be  used  w^-hiphqadhtiw,  "and  I  will  visit  him."  Though 
the  exact  verb  cannot  of  course  be  suggested,  it  is  sufficient  to 
point  out  the  flaw  and  the  possibility  for  correction. 

The  second  couplet  of  the  section  is  in  perfect  parallelism. 
There  is  doubt  as  to  the  exact  meaning  of  malkdm;  it  may  be 
'  *  Milcom, ' '  the  name  of  the  Ammonitish  deity,  or  merely  ' '  their 
king,"  or  both.  There  is  also  the  question  whether  kohf^ndw, 
"his  priests,"  should  be  substituted  in  Amos  for  hu\  on  the 
basis  of  Jer.  48.7,  and  49.3,  an  almost  identical  repetition  of  the 
Amos  couplet.  But  it  is  not  necessary  or  even  advisable  to 
make  the  substitution ;  for  however  great  the  similarities  between 
prophetic  oracles,  identical  repetitions  are  few;  each  author 
touches  his  borrowings  with  his  own  individuality.  This  couplet 
shows  affinities  between  the  Amos  and  Jeremiah  texts,  but  to 


242  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

make  the  two  absolutely  identical  would  violate  even  the  little 
that  is  known  of  the  psychology  of  literary  borrowing. 

It  may  then  be  concluded  that  stanza  5  is  for  the  most  part 
original  with  Amos.  A  first  revision  of  his  utterance  may  have 
been  made  immediately  after  the  Prophet's  death,  perhaps  after 
the  invasion  of  the  Assyrians  and  the  fall  of  Samaria;  the  date 
may  be  placed  around  720  B.C.  A  later  redaction  may  also  haye 
been  made ;  for  though  the  historic  oiEfense  of  the  Ammonites  was 
dispossession  of  Israel,  another  sin  is  credited  by  the  Prophets 
to  their  neighbors  after  the  time  of  the  Destruction:  Ezek.  25.1-7 
and  Zeph.  2.8  tell  of  the  presumptuous  boasting  of  the  Ammon- 
ites at  the  occasion  of  Judah's  downfall.  In  the  latter  text,  the 
form  way-yaghdllu  '  al  g<^bhuldm,  though  it  seems  to  have  a  bear- 
ing on  the  Amos  portion,  is  given  a  different  meaning  by  reason 
of  its  context  and  the  parallelism.  Similarly  a  phrase  in  Joel 
4.6,  l^-nia'an  harx^qdm  me' at  g^hhuldm  shows  striking  linguistic 
similarities  to  the  second  stichos  of  the  distich  in  the  second  sec- 
tion of  stanza  5,  but  it  has  no  application  to  the  Amos  passage. 
It  may  well  be  that  another  revision  of  the  Amos  oracle  took 
place  in  post-exilic  times;  this  would  agree  with  conclusions  on 
the  redaction  of  the  other  oracles  in  the  Doom  Song. 

Stanza  6. — Moab 

The  sixth  stanza  on  Moab,  diverges  from  the  model  stanza 
only  in  its  second  section.  At  present  its  strophic  structure  is 
l  +  2-fl-f24-4+l.  Harper's  arrangement  of  5  +  3  +  3 
is  not  justifiable  because  it  breaks  up  two  couplet  structures  in 
the  fourth  section,  even  though  it  gives  a  couplet  in  the  second 
section. 

The  occasion  for  the  oracle  is  found  in  the  historic  enmity 
between  Moab  and  Israel.  This  hostility  existed  in  the  earliest 
period  of  the  Exodus  and  continued  through  the  reign  of  the 
Judges  and  the  victories  of  the  kings  Saul  and  David.  After 
the  division  of  the  kingdom,  Moab  became  the  subject  of  Israel, 
but  revolted  under  Ahab  and  thereafter  proved  troublesome. 
In  II  K.,  chap.  3,  and  II  Chron.  20.1-30  occurs  the  story  of  the 
conflict  of  the  Moabites  on  the  one  hand,  with  the  king  of  Israel, 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  243 

Jehoram,  the  king  of  Judah,  Jehoshaphat,  and  the  king  of  Edom 
on  the  other  (c.  850  B.C.).  In  II  K-  13.20  is  a  mention  of  a  raid 
by  the  Moabites.  Thereafter  no  reference  to  them  occurs  until 
the  prophecies  of  Isaiah.  But  it  may  be  well  to  take  for  granted 
that  at  the  time  of  Amos,  the  Moabites  were  unconquered,  and 
that  Amos  would  find  ample  reason  for  a  prophecy  of  denunci- 
ation against  them;  there  is,  indeed,  a  slight  possibility  that 
Jeroboam  conquered  Moab  (II  K.  14.25)  ;  if  so,  this  campaign 
may  have  occurred  before  or  contemporaneously  with  Amos' 
oracle. 

The  second  section  as  in  the  case  of  the  other  stanzas  gives 
difficulties : 

Because  they  burned  the  bones  of  the  king  of  Edom  to  lime. 
Here  a  long  prose  line  occurs  as  in  stanzas  1  and  2.  The  offender 
is  Moab,  the  victim  is  the  king  of  Edom,  the  offense  apparently 
desecration  of  royal  bones  by  burning.  In  defense  of  the 
authenticity  of  the  text,  Is.  33.12  may  be  brought  to  bear:  ''and 
the  peoples  shall  be  cut  up  as  the  burnings  of  lime."  It  may 
be  borne  in  mind  that  at  the  time  of  Amos  Edom  apparently 
was  friendly  with  the  Judaeans,  and  any  offense  against  them 
might  have  roused  the  prophet's  ire. 

But  more  evidence  against  the  authenticity  than  in  favor  can 
be  brought:  (a)  The  only  mention  of  Edom  and  Moab  co-jointly 
occurs  in  II  K.  3.4—27,  where  the  conflict  between  the  allied 
Jewish  forces  and  Moab  is  recounted;  in  verse  26  is  the  line: 
''And  when  the  king  of  Moab  saw  that  the  battle  was  too  sore 
for  him,  he  took  with  him  seven  hundred  men  that  drew  swords, 
to  break  through  even  unto  the  king  of  Edom,  but  they  could 
not."  The  next  verse  continues:  "Then  he  [the  king  of  Moab] 
took  his  eldest  son,  that  should  have  reigned  in  his  stead,  and 
offered  him  for  a  burnt  offering  upon  the  wall."  Here  it  is 
to  be  observed  that  though  the  king  of  Edom  figures,  it  is  not 
he  who  is  burned,  but  the  son  of  the  king  of  Moab.  If  the  Amos 
stichos  is  to  refer  to  this  event,  it  cannot  remain  as  it  stands. 
It  may  be  that  the  verse  was  doubtful  and  was  reconstructed  by 
a  later  redactor  in  order  to  make  it  conform  with  this  episode; 
for  that  the  event  made  a  profound  impression  upon  the  mind 


244  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil, 

of  Israel  is  seen  from  the  words:  "And  there  was  great  indig- 
nation upoji  Israel,  and  they  departed  from  him  and  returned 
to  their  own  land."  Still,  it  may  be  asked  if  this  event,  occur- 
ring in  850  B.C.,  did  not  occur  too  early  to  become  the  foundation 
for  Amos'  prophecy,  (b)  In  II  Chron  20.1-30  is  a  glorified 
record  of  this  same  campaign.  Herein  no  specific  act  of  bar- 
barity is  related ;  moreover  the  enmity  of  Moab  and  Edom  is  due 
to  the  will  of  Yahwe ;  whereas  Amos  mentions  an  act  committed 
wantonly  against  the  dictates  of  common  humanity.  There  is 
sufficient  evidence,  however,  to  afford  the  following  reconstruc- 
tion : 

a.  '  al  sor^pho  'ogamoth  lam-molelch 

way-yiziax   'adham  lash-shedh. 

Because  they  burned  bones  to  Molech, 

And  sacrificed  a  human  to  a  demon. 

Here  a  parallel  couplet  is  secured  in  conformance  to  the 
demands  of  the  type  stanza.  The  various  phrases  in  this 
restoration  are  justified  by  biblical  passages ;  sdraph  '(^cdmoth 
occurs  in  I  K.  13.2 ;  II  K.  23.16,  20,  and  II  Chron.  34.5,  though 
in  the  sense  of  bones  burned  upon  the  altar  in  order  to  render 
it  unfit  for  use ;  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  phrase  in  connec- 
tion  with  human  sacrifice  to  Molech  does  not  appear. 

The  words  melekh  '^dhom  are  changed  in  this  restoration. 
The  reading  'edhom,  indeed,  is  clearly  out  of  place.  It  may 
have  arisen  out  of  a  misunderstanding  of  the  word  melekh  in 
conjunction  with  'c-qdmoth,  and  the  frequent  occurrence  of 
melekh  '^dhom  may  have  led  to  its  insertion — at  a  time  when 
''Edom-phobia"  afflicted  the  Prophets — i.e.,  a  desire  because  of 
Edom's  treatment  of  Judah  at  the  time  of  the  Destruction  to 
show  its  suffering  upon  any  and  every  possible  occasion.  The 
fact  that  Edom  is  the  cause  of  Moab's  punishment  and  hence 
appears  in  the  light  of  Judah 's  ally  may  have  escaped  the 
redactor.  The  reading  'oQCmoth  'ddhdm  (cf. 'I  K.  13.2,  II  K. 
23.14,  20)  is  proposed  by  several  other  investigators;  Zenner  in 
Die  Chorgesaenger  im  Buche  d.  Psalmen  (1896),  proposed  it 
first,  while  Hirscht  reads:  'ag^moth  'ddhdm  lam-molekh  lash- 
shedh.  This  suggestion,  however,  gives  merely  a  prose  line,  and 
not  a  parallel  couplet. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  245 

Lam-molekh  is  justified  by  numerous  passages.  Moleeh  was 
the  God  to  whom  the  Israelites  and  the  other  nations  sacrificed 
b}^  fire  in  the  valley  of  Hinnom.  It  might  be  rightly  protested, 
however,  that  the  God  of  the  Moabites  was  not  Moleeh,  but 
Chemosh;  but  no  references  of  child  sacrifice  to  the  latter  are 
extant,  and  it  is  necessary  to  postulate  sacrifice  before  Moleeh 
by  Moab  in  conjunction  with  the  other  peoples.  References  to 
this  sin  on  the  part  of  Judah  appear  in  II  K.  23.10 ;  Jer.  32.35, 
with  the  words  he'(^hhir  hd-'esh,  "to  pass  through  fire"  (cf. 
BDD,  p.  718).  A  passage  which  may  perhaps  lie  at  the  bottom 
of  the  Amos  phraseology  occurs  in  Lev.  20.2,  3,  4 ;  here  occurs  a 
prohibition  for  the  Israelites  or  any  stranger  to  sacrifice  children 
to  Moleeh ;  verses  3,  5,  contain  the  phrases  hdmlth,  w^-hikhratti, 
and  miq-qerehh  '  ammdm,  which  show  likenesses  to  expressions 
used  in  Amos  with  regard  to  Moab.  The  Leviticus  passage  refers 
to  the  sin  of  the  individual,  whereas  the  Prophet  seems  to  expand 
the  punishment  of  death  and  complete  extermination  to  the 
nation. 

The  phrase  zdhhax  'ddhdm  seems  to  receive  support  from 
Hos.  13.2,  though  the  phrase  therein  used,  zohhcxe  'ddhdm,  is 
doubtful  (cf.  BDB,  p.  256)  ;  it  has  been  translated  as  "men  that 
sacrifice"  and  as  "sacrificers  of  mankind."  Harper  (p.  396) 
wishes  to  substitute  for  the  original  Hosea  lines  the  couplet : 
'adlidm  'oghdltm  yishshdqiin 
'dm  zdbh'^x^'^  lash-shedhim. 

Here  Hosea  refers  to  the  sin,  not  of  any  other  nation,  but  of 
Judah,  and  human  sacrifice  is  supposed  not  to  have  existed  in 
Israel  until  a  time  much  later  than  Hosea,  namely  around  the 
reign  of  Ahaz.  But  if  the  Hosea  text  is  correct  and  can  be 
read  "sacrificers  of  mankind,"  then  it  affords  a  basis  for  the 
restoration  of  the  Amos  stichos;  Moab  may  have  been  one  of 
the  surrounding  nations  from  which  Judah  learned  the  practice 
of  human  sacrifice  (cf.  Deut.  18.10,  33.17;  II  K.  16.3). 

The  combination  zdhhax  lash-shedh  is  found  in  Ps.  106.37, 
"and  they  sacrificed  their  sons  and  daughters  to  the  shedhlm 
not-God."  Hirscht  suggests  reading  lash-sh^dh;  though  the  two 
passages  quoted  use  it  in  the  plural,  as  a  synonym  for  Moleeh, 


246  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

it  is  permissible  to  use  it  here  in  the  singular  (cf.  BDB,  p.  993). 
It  is  uncertain  whether  zdhhax  in  these  two  passages  means  sac- 
rifice by  fire  or  by  slaughter  (cf.  Ps.  106.38  and  Lev.  17.7;  on 
Deut.  32.17  see  Driver  on  Dejiteronomy,  ICC,  pp.  362-363). 

The  sense,  then,  of  the  passage  as  emended  is  that  Moab  is 
to  be  punished  for  having  indulged  in  sacrifice  of  human  life 
by  fire.  If  a  general  practice  is  alluded  to,  it  must  be  confessed 
that  the  reconstruction  loses  some  point;  it  would  seem  strange 
for  Amos  to  predict  doom  for  Moab  because  of  one  of  its  re- 
ligious rites,  unless  it  bore  direct  relation  to  Israel  and  unless 
Israel  was  tainted  by  it.  If  the  passage  have  a  specific  applica- 
tion, it  may  refer,  despite  the  duration  of  time  between  the  event 
and  the  prophecy,  to  Moab's  act  of  desecration  in  II  K.  3.27. 

The  fourth  section  of  stanza  6  contains  two  good  parallelistic 
couplets  in  agreement  with  the  type  stanza.  The  first  couplet 
is  almost  perfect  as  it  stands.  It  deals  with  the  idea  of  complete 
national  death  in  battle,  a  concept  found  in  relation  to  Israel 
in  Hos.  13.1,  Ez.  18.31,  33.11,  and  in  relation  to  Moab  in  various 
prophecies  of  its  doom:  Num.  21.29,  Is,  16.7,* Jer.  48.42  (cf. 
also  verses  2,  3,  8,  31,  46),  and  Zeph.  2.9.  A  slight  emendation 
of  the  word  ii-meth,  "[Moab]  shall  die,"  to  w^-heniatti,  "and 
I  shall  kill  [Moab]  "  (cf.  Is.  14.30,  though  not  used  of  a  nation), 
brings  the  section  into  even  closer  conformance  to  the  type 
stanza ;  for  in  each  there  stands  at  the  head  of  the  fourth  section 
a  form  which  makes  it  appear  as  if  God  himself  were  speaking 
of  his  own  act.  A  second  suggestion  is  to  take  w^-hikhrattl 
from  the  head  of  the  second  couplet  of  the  section  to  the  first 
stichos  of  the  first,  and  to  transpose  to  its  place  u-meth;  a  third 
suggestion  is  to  place  w<^-hishnwdhti,  "and  I  will  destroy,"  at  the 
head  of  the  section,  to  eliminate  w^-hikhratti  and  to  substitute 
ii-meth  (see  below).  The  word  h^-shd'on  is  justifiable  despite 
suggestions  made  by  several  to  change  it;  for  even  if  the  mean- 
ing were  doubtful,  the  parallelism  would  supply  the  sense  (cf. 
Hos.  10.14,  Ps.  74.23;  BDB,  p.  981).  The  phrase  hi-th^ru'd 
h'^-qol  shophdr  is  entirely  in  place  here,  for  hi-th'^ru' d  in  stanza  5 
was  omitted  because  of  its  correct  usage  here  (cf.  Jer.  4.19). 


"Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  QAl 

The  second  couplet  also  is  in  almost  perfect  form,  despite 
several  minor  irregularities.  The  word  w^-hikhrattl  is  a  repe- 
tition from  stanza  2,  sec.  4;  the  use  of  the  feminine  suffix  in 
miq-qirbdh  needs  explanation;  here  sdrehd,  "her  princes,"  is 
used,  whereas  in  stanza  5  sdrdw,  ''his  princes,"  occurred;  more- 
over 'immo  with  the  masculine  suffix  is  present  in  the  second 
stichos.  It  has  already  been  suggested  to  read  for  w^-hikhraUl 
the  word  w^-hishm-adhti.  In  defense  of  the  present  phrase,  the 
use  of  w^^-nakhrltkennd,  "and  let  us  cut  her  off,"  may  be  cited 
from  Jer.  48.2.  But  w^-hishm^adhtl  gives  a  slight  variation 
which  adds  to  the  literary  quality  of  the  stichos.  The  root  is 
used  in  conjunction  with  kdrath  and  parallel  to  it  in  Ps.  37.38 
and  Is.  48.19 ;  mostly  of  persons,  however,  as  in  Amos  9.8,  2.9 ; 
Deut.  1.27,  2.22  (cf.  BDB,  1029)  ;  of  Moab  as  a  whole  in  Jer. 
48.8,  42  (mshmddh)  ;  with  miq-qirh^^khem,  "from  your  midst," 
in  Josh.  7.12  (cf.  also  Ezek.  14.9;  Lev.  17.10,  20.3,  5,  6).  The 
words  shophet  and  sdr  are  parallel  in  Ex.  2.14;  Zeph.  3.3  (where 
a  couplet  showing  several  likenesses  to  Amos  appears)  ;  Prov. 
8.16;  Hos.  7.7,  13.10.  In  place  of  miq-qirhdh  it  is  suggested  to 
read  miq-qirho  with  the  masculine  suffix  (cf.  Is.  25.11)  ;  the 
feminine  pronoun  has  been  taken  to  refer  to  the  land,  although 
Wellhausen  would  change  it  to  the  masculine  and  refer  it  to 
"judge,"  to  which  also  the  word  'immo  refers. 

The  second  stichos  of  the  couplet  is  genuinely  Amosian  in 
character.  The  form  'ehrogh  occurs  in  Amos  9.1  (cf.  4.10,  9.4), 
these  being  the  only  two  biblical  passages  where  it  occurs.  The 
word  sdrehd  follows  perhaps  the  repeated  mention  of  "the 
princes  of  Moab"  (Num.  21.28,  22.8,  etc.).  Isaiah  24.12  ex- 
presses with  reference  to  Edom  a  thought  almost  identical  with 
the  one  mentioned  here  of  Moab :  ' '  and  all  her  princes  shall  be 
nothingness";  perhaps  some  relation  between  the  two  stichoi 
exists.  The  form  immo  occurs  in  Jer.  39.12,  the  only  other 
instance  of  its  use  in  prophetical  literature.  With  reference  to 
the  doom  of  Moab,  Jer.  48.7  has  a  couplet  almost  identical  with 
Amos  1.15  on  the  Ammonites;  Jeremiah  may  have  been  influ- 
enced by  this  couplet  not  only  in  his  own  prophecy  on  the 
Ammonites,  but  also  in  his  oracle  on  Moab ;  or  the  couplet  in 


248  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Jeremiah  may  have  prompted  a  later  scribe  to  insert  a  couplet 
in  Amos  suggesting  it;  it  seems  entirely  in  keeping  with  the 
evidence,  however,  to  affirm  the  validity  of  the  entire  fourth 
section  of  the  Amos  oracle,  and  hence,  for  the  most  part,  of  the 
entire  stanza,  for  it  contains  words  and  phrases  used  by  him 
alone;  its  parallelism  is  goo'd;  its  strophic  structure,  after  slight 
emendations,  conforms  in  detail  to  the  type  stanza. 

Stanza  7. — Judah 

The  stanza  on  Judah  must  be  considered  as  late,  for  several 
reasons  which  Harper  (p.  44)  states:  (a)  the  fact  that  the  intro- 
duction of  the  oracle  removes  entirely  the  force  of  surprise  which 
the  Israelites  were  to  feel  when  an  attack  was  launched  against 
them;  (b)  it  is  impossible  to  suppose  that  Amos  would  have 
treated  Judah  so  cursorily;  (c)  the  weakness  of  the  style;  (d) 
the  term  "Israel"  in  2.10  includes  Judah;  ("e)  the  sin  described, 
transgressions  against  the  statutes  of  Yahwe,  was  too  indefinite 
to  call  for  a  special  oracle ;  the  offense  is  out  of  harmony  with  Ihe 
formula  "for  their  transgressions,"  etc.,  since  it  cannot  be  men- 
tioned as  one  of  three  or  four. 

An  argument  of  still  greater  force  than  these  which  Harper 
mentions,  is  the  strophic  structure  of  the  stanza.  It  is  identical 
with  the  stanza  on  Edom,  i.e.,  1  -|-  2  -|-  4  -|-  2.  It  is  also  similar 
to  stanza  3  on  Tyre,  though  the  second  section  here  contains 
not  two  but  four  stichoi.  The  doubt  thrown  on  these  two 
stanzas  attaches  also  to  the  oracle  on  Judah.  The  second  section 
contains  four  lines,  the  first  two  of  which  form  an  apparently 
good  parallelistic  couplet  while  the  second  contains  a  relative 
clause  (see  above),  the  sense  and  grammar  of  the  passage  being 
doubtful.  If  the  stanza  is  genuine,  then  it  is  necessary  to  omit 
two  lines  in  order  to  make  it  agree  with  the  model  stanza,  and  to 
restore  an  entire  fourth  section  of  four  lines,  or  to  affirm  that 
for  some  unaccountable  reason  the  latter  has  disappeared;  if 
on  the  other  hand,  the  stanza  is  not  genuine,  as  seems  to  be  the 
case,  then  it  is  merely  necessary  to  discuss  its  various  phenom- 
ena, and  to  devote  little  attention  to  a  reconstruction.  It  may 
be  that  stanza  4  and  stanza  7  are  by  the  same  author. 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  249 

The  event  referred  to  in  the  second  section  is  doubtful.  The 
sin  of  Judah  is  apostasy,  as  the  first  couplet  portrays;  the  sec- 
ond couplet  may  refer  either  to  the  activity  of  the  false  prophets, 
or  to  idolatry  and  apostasy  also.  Though  there  were  several 
kings  before  Amos  who  had  been  guilty  of  apostasy,  during  the 
time  of  the  Prophet  the  kings  Amaziah  and  Uzziah  were  on  the 
whole  righteous  rulers,  following  in  the  path  of  Yahwism;  it 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  such  a  period  of  national  apostasy 
as  would  occasion  a  denunciation  by  Amos,  though  it  may  be 
admitted  that  at  no  time  was  the  religious  life  of  the  nation  so 
pure  that  an  attack  by  a  prophet  was  impossible.  But  since 
no  occasion  of  real  note  offers  itself  during  the  time  of  Amos, 
it  is  necessary  to  look  elsewhere  for  material  underhang  the 
oracle.  The  reign  of  Ahaz,  immediately  following  the  death 
of  Amos,  may  have  furnished  the  occasion  for  the  first  couplet, 
and  the  reign  of  Manasseh  for  the  second. 

The  first  couplet  of  the  second  section  appears  to  refer  to 
the  reign  of  Ahaz  and  Hoshea  (c.  721  b.c).  In  II  K.  18.7ff. 
appears  a  long  statement  of  the  sins  of  the  king  of  Israel  which 
finally  brought  on  the  destruction  of  the  Northern  Kingdom. 
The  reference  to  Judah  occurs  only  in  verses  19-22,  but  the 
language  and  the  thought,  though  applying  specifically  to 
Israel,  may  have  referred  also  to  Judah.  Linguistic  similarities 
in  this  passage  to  Amos  are  numerous,  especially  in  verses  7,  8, 
12,  13,  14,  15,  18.  The  use  of  the  sentence,  "and  they  walked 
after  vanity  and  did  vainly"  (verse  15),  which  appears  also  in 
Jer.  2.5,  suggests  a  late  origin  for  the  passage.  The  linguistic 
identities  point  to  the  possibility  that  the  redactor  wrote  the 
second  section  of  the  oracle  in  Amos  with  a  view  to  linking  the 
prophecy  with  the  events  of  the  two  great  periods  of  national 
backsliding,  namely,  during  the  days  of  Ahaz,  and  of  Manasseh 
(686-641  B.c).  It  has  been  urged,  too,  that  the  language  of 
the  Amos  passage  is  Deuteronomic  in  character.  During 
Josiah's  reign  (II  Chron.,  chap.  34)  the  phrases  present  in  Amos 
were  frequently  employed  and  may  then  have  received  currency ; 
and  this  may  lead  to  the  impression  that  the  passage  on  Judah 
was  remodelled  after  the  reign  of  Josiah    (639-608  B.C.).     In 


250  University  of  California  Publications.       [Sem.  Phil. 

view  of  this  fact,  it  may  be  said  that  the  redactor  of  the 
Judah  prophecy  may  not  have  intended  any  specific  era  in 
Judah's  history,  but  merely  compiled  a  list  of  sins  from  the 
Deuteronomic  code,  sujffieient  to  give  the  prophecy  a  semblance 
of  originality  and  authority.  To  find  affinity  between  the  lan- 
guage of  the  passages  referring  to  the  reign  of  Ahaz  and 
Manasseh  and  the  Amos  phrases,  then,  would  be  far-fetched  and 
dangerous  (cf.  Is.  5.24,  where  almost  the  exact  phraseology  of 
Amos  occurs ;  this  might  point  to  the  origin  of  the  Amos  couplet 
around  the  time  of  Ahaz),  The  following  conclusions  on  the 
first  couplet  may,  however,  be  offered:  (a)  either  it  refers  to 
the  period  of  apostasy  during  the  reign  of  Ahaz;  this  would 
bring  this  redaction  into  harmony  with  the  redaction  of  the  other 
doubtful  stanzas;  or  (b)  the  prophecy  was  edited  after  the  reign 
of  Josiah,  and  is  of  a  general  Deuteronomic  character. 

The  second  couplet  is  indubitably  late.  Harper  regards  it 
as  a  gloss.  The  Septuagint's  rendition  gives  this  type  of 
appositional  parallelism : 

And  their  lies  led  them  astray  which  they  did, 
After  which  their  fathers  walked. 

The  event  referred  to  in  the  passage  is  doubtful.  In  II  K. 
21.1-9  and  II  Chron.  33.8  ff.  there  are  accounts  of  the  apostasy 
of  Manasseh  of  Judah,  which  show  striking  linguistic  identities 
with  the  Amos  couplet.  In  verse  9  of  each  passage  occurs  the 
phrase  " and-led-astray  Manasseh,"  way-yath' em  M^nashshe  and 
way-yetha'  M^nashshe  'eth-Y^hadhd;  in  II  K.  21.10ff.  is  a  record 
of  the  activities  of  the  prophets  during  the  period  of  Manasseh ; 
they  did  not  ' '  go  astray, ' '  but  acted  as  the  mouthpiece  of  Yah  we 
(cf.  Is.  34.11  and  28.17). 

A  closer  examination  of  the  language  used  offers  further 
evidence  for  the  probable  date  of  the  passage.  The  w^ord  td'd, 
''to  err,"  appears  in  Hos.  4.12  with  reference  to  idolatry; 
Isaiah  uses  it,  but  merely  in  the  sense  of  aimlessly  wandering, 
or  walking.  It  refers  best  to  the  activities  of  false  propliets 
and  may  perhaps  have  been  inserted  in  Amos  by  a  later  redactor 
because  of  his  own  attitude  towards  the  professional  foretellers 
(cf.  7.17).      It  is  used  of  these  false  prophets  in  Micah  3.5; 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  251 

Jeremiah,  who  is  very  bitter  against  them,  uses  it  in  his  denun- 
ciation in  23.9-40;  verse  13  has:  "they  prophesied  in  Baal  and 
caused  to  err  my  people  Israel"  (way-yaWu);  verse  32  has: 
"and  they  caused  to  err  ray  people  by  their  falsehoods  and  by 
their  lightness. ' '  This  passage  in  the  light  of  other  similarities 
may  be  the  foundation  of  the  couplet  in  Amos ;  Bzek.,  chap.  13, 
also  furnishes  data  for  the  interpretation  of  the  passage  as 
applicable  to  the  false  prophets. 

Upon  the  interpretation  of  the  word  kiz^hhehem  will  depend 
in  large  degree  the  construction  of  the  couplet.  To  understand 
the  word  as  "idols"  is  entirely  unsatisfactory;  in  no  other 
instance  does  the  idea  of  idols  "leading  astray"  occur;  it  is 
usually  a  person,  not  an  inanimate  thing,  that  is  responsible 
for  the  error.  If  it  is  desired  to  make  the  stichos  refer  to  idols 
in  order  to  create  a  sort  of  conformity  with  the  second  sticlios, 
it  is  necessary  either  to  insert  an  entire  new  line  or  to  add  (ier- 
tain  words  which  will  make  the  stichos  specify  definitely  idols; 
for  two  probabilities  exist :  (a)  either  stichos  1  of  this  couplet 
must  be  brought  into  correct  relationship  to  stichos  2 ;  this  would 
necessitate  the  omission  of  the  present  first  stichos,  or  an  emen- 
dation to  include  definitely  the  word  or  idea  of  "idols";  (b) 
or  the  first  stichos  must  be  taken  to  refer  to  false  prophets,  as 
almost  all  the  passages  demand  that  it  should  be  interpreted ; 
this  will  necessitate  the  emendation  of  the  second  stichos  to 
bring  it  into  relation  with  the  first  and  in  order  to  produce  a 
couplet  in  good  parallelism. 

Emendations  on  the  basis  of  the  idea  of  "idolatry"  are 
numerous : 

1.  And  the  seers  of  lies  led  them  astray  to  Baals, 
After  which  their  fathers  walked. 
way-yath'um  qoscme  Miazdbh  lab-h^' alim 
'"slier  halclclm   '"bhothdm   'ax^fehem. 

For  the  phrase  qds<^me  khdzdhh  or  xoze  khdzdhh,  "dreamers  of 
lies,"  see  Ezek.  13.8.  Except  for  the  ambiguity  concerning  the 
subject  of  the  verb  in  the  first  stichos,  the  following  suggestions 
might  be  acceptable : 

2.  And  they  led  astray  by  their  lies  the  people, 
And  after  other  gods  they  walked. 


252  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

The  form  b^-khiz^bhehem,  "by  their  lies,"  is  sanctioned  b}-  a 
similar  usage  though  with  different  synonyms  in  Jer.  23.32. 
For  the  phrase  "to  lead  astray  the  people,"  see  Is.  9.14-15; 
Mie.  3.5 ;  Ezek.  13.19 ;  Jer.  23.13,  32 ;  Is.  3.12.  A  comparison  of 
this  prophecj^  in  Amos  with  Ezek.,  chap.  20,  passim,  and  with 
Jer.  16.11  ff.,  and  Jer.  9.12-16  shows  the  most  striking  similari- 
ties between  them  all,  and  gives  further  substantiation  for  the 
thought  that  the  Amos  passage  is  not  genuine.  The  form  of 
Jer.  9.12-16  is  almost  identical  with  the  Amos  strophic  struc- 
ture; the  identity  of  the  language  also  points  to  an  interplay 
of  influence.  Any  of  these  passages  may  serve  as  a  basis 
for  the  reconstruction  of  the  doubtful  Amos  verses. 

Emendations  based  especially  upon  the  idea  of  false  prophets 
can  find  their  foundation  in  the  various  denunciations :  Jer. 
14.14ff.,  29.8-10,  23.9-40 ;  Ezek.  13.1ff.,  .14.9-11 ;  Mic.  3.5ff.,  and 
elsewhere.  This  of  course  implies  that  the  Amos  passage  is  late ; 
the  emendations  are  suggested  merely  to  clarify  the  idea  set 
down  by  the  later  redactor : 

3.  And  the  prophets  by  their  lying  led  them  astray. 
Those  who  walk  after  their  own  spirit. 
way-yatWUm  h^-Tcliazz^'bliam  lian-n^hhl'lm 
'"shcr  hdl'^khu  'axar  ruxam. 

The  idea  of  false  prophets  as  those  who  walk  after  their  own 
spirit  and  devices  is  found  in  Mic.  2.11,  in  Jer.  23.17,  18,  26, 
etc. ;  the  exact  phrase  here  used  in  the  second  stichos  is  present 
in  Ezek.  13.2.  Variations  on  this  emendation  are  numerous, 
depending  on  the  substitution  of  various  possible  formations  in 
the  first  stichos. 

The  following  conclusions  on  the  Judah  oracle  may  then  be 
made:  (1)  The  prophecy  may  have  been  inserted  in  part  during 
the  reign  of  Ahaz  or  slightly  after;  this  would  link  it  with  the 
redaction  of  the  other  stanzas.  (2)  A  second  and  later  redaction 
may  have  been  made  after  the  reign  of  Manasseh,  with  a  view 
of  reference  to  the  apostasies  of  his  time ;  this  edition  may  have 
appeared  during  the  reign  of  Josiah,  after  the  activities  of  Jere- 
miah. (3)  Or  the  prophecy  may  have  been  inserted  for  the 
first  time  after  the  Exile  in  586  B.C.  to  explain  the  cause  of 
Judah 's  overthrow;  this  might  imply  a  redaction  on  the  basis 


Vol,  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  253 

of  the  preceding  prophets  and  particularly  of  Ezekiel.  (4) 
Or  it  may  be  that  though  the  oracle  was  composed  in  some  form 
at  an  earlier  time,  it  obtained  admission  into  the  text  after  the 
Exile ;  it  seems  almost  certain  that  an  edition  was  made  in  post- 
exilic  times. 

Stanza  8. — Israel 

The  stanza  on  Israel,  apparently  the  climax  to  which  Amos 
has  been  leading,  begins  in  conformance  with  the  other  stanzas ; 
the  prophetic  prelude  and  the  introductory  formula  occur  as 
elsewhere  in  the  Song;  the  opening  word  of  what  should  be  the 
second  section  is  '  al  with  an  infinitive  plus  the  plural  suf&x;  a 
couplet  in  good  parallelism  seems  to  indicate  that  the  stanza 
will  conform  to  the  type.  But  then  the  break  comes ;  parallel- 
ism is  maintained,  but  the  prophecy  continues  in  the  strain  of 
denunciation  for  several  couplets;  the  offense  of  social  injustice 
is  elaborated;  the  punishment  formula  couplet  is  entirely  miss- 
ing, as  well  as  the  fourth  section  and  postlude.  Thus  its  strophic 
structure  is  seen  to  depart  entirely  from  the  type  stanza. 

Several  questions  arise.  Did  Amos  deliver  the  prophecies 
on  the  nations  at  one  and  the  same  time,  beginning  with  the 
foreign  nations  of  Syria,  Philistia,  the  Ammonites,  and  Moab, 
and  finally  proclaim  the  sins  of  Israel?  If  so,  was  the  stanza 
on  Israel  originally  composed  in  agreement  with  the  model 
stanza?  Or  did  the  Prophet  merely  use  the  introductory  pre- 
lude and  formula  to  link  this  prophecy  on  Israel  with  the  others, 
and  then  launch  into  a  spirited  attack  wherein  his  prophetic 
mood  would  have  free  play,  unbound  by  the  demands  of  exact 
regularity  ? 

On  the  other  hand  it  may  be  asked:  Did  Amos  deliver  the 
prophecies  separately,  each  at  a  different  time  and  on  a  different 
occasion  ?  This  would  imply  that  at  some  future  date  he  edited 
the  entire  series,  having  used  the  stanza  structure  in  each,  but 
remodelling  them  in  the  form  of  one  continuous  piece.  Or  did 
Amos  deliver  merely  the  prophecies  on  the  surrounding  nations 
at  one  time,  while  the  oracle  on  Israel  came  at  a  later  date? 
This  supposition  seems  plausible.     The  stanzas. on  the  neighbor- 


254  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

ing  peoples  may  constitute  one  poetic  unit,  while  the  oracle  on 
Israel  is  either  in  itself  intact,  or  the  compilation  of  several 
pronouncements.  Amos  himself  in  his  own  edition  may  have 
inserted  the  introductory  phrase  and  formula  in  order  to  add 
psychological  weight  to  the  denunciation,  and  to  make  it  appear 
one  of  a  series  of  which  it  is  the  climax.  Or,  as  seems  more 
credible,  a  later  editor,  reviewing  the  entire  text,  and  making 
the  additions  on  Tyre,  Edom  and  Judah,  may  have  sought  to 
join  Israel  to  the  Doom  Song,  and  hence  placed  at  the  head  of 
a  group  of  prophetic  utterances  the  identifying  prelude  and 
formula.  This  tendency  to  include  all  the  nations  in  the  list 
of  doomed  peoples  may  have  been  stimulated  and  encouraged  by 
the  practice  of  the  later  Prophets,  who  denounced  the  surround- 
ing nations  and  at  the  same  time  their  own;  a  later  redactor 
seeing  the  texts  of  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  and  Isaiah  in  the  form 
of  one  continuous  work,  may  have  turned  back  to  Amos  and 
noting  the  presence  of  a  list  of  doom  songs,  brought  them  by 
modifications  and  additions  into  line  with  the  plan  of  these  later 
prophets.  This  would  further  support  the  hypothesis  that  the 
most  important  redaction  of  the  Amos  text,  or  at  least,  of  a  part 
of  it,  occurred  after  the  edition  of  the  works  of  Ezekiel,  or  prob- 
ably even  later. 

Hence  the  apparent  discrepancy  of  the  oracle  on  Israel  need 
not  disturb  the  belief  in  a  type  stanza.  For  the  utterance  falls 
entirely  outside  the  discussion  concerning  a  model  formation 
because  of  its  own  intrinsic  peculiariaties.  The  existence  of  a 
type  stanza  still  remains  a  strong  hypothesis. 

DATE  OF  THE  PEOPHECY 

The  internal  evidences  of  the  date  of  the  Doom  Song  are  of 
course  not  entirely  trustworthy;  as  they  stand,  however,  the 
following  data  have  been  gathered : 

Stanza  1.  Stichoi  b,  c,  and  possibly  d  of  section  4  appear  to 
be  later  insertions  after  721  b.c. 

Stanza  2.  The  second  section  of  this  stanza  points  to  the 
fact  that  the  text  was  retouched  either  (1)  after  721  b.c.  ;  (2) 
after  the  appearance  of  the  prophecies  of  Jeremiah  (c.  600  b.c.)  ; 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  255 

(3)  after  the  appearance  of  the  prophecies  of  Ezekiel  in  post- 
exilic  days;  there  is  a  slight  possibility  of  another  redaction 
around  350  b.c.  The  fourth  section  shows  evidence  of  redaction 
in  the  light  of  the  Ezekiel  passages  in  post-exilic  days,  with  a 
possibility  of  another  redaction  around  350  b.c. 

Stanza  3.  This  stanza  may  have  been  introduced  and  re- 
edited  (1)  after  721  B.C.;  (2)  after  570  B.C.,  on  the  basis  of 
material  in  Ezekiel.  Another  redaction  took  place  perhaps 
around  350  b.c. 

Stanza  4.  This  prophecy  may  have  been  introduced  by 
Amos  and  reedited  (1)  after  721  b.c;  (2)  after  the  prophecies 
of  Jeremiah  (c.  600  b.c.)  ;  (3)  most  probably  in  post-exilic  times 
after  586  B.C.  There  is  a  probability  of  another  redaction 
around  350  b.c.  (time  of  Nehemiah). 

Stanza  5.  The  stanza  may  have  been  retouched  (1)  after 
721  B.C.  (second  section)  ;  (2)  after  the  prophecies  of  Jeremiah 
(c.  600  2.3.).     Another  redaction  is  probable  after  the  Exile. 

Stanza  6.  This  prophecy  is  genuine  and  may  have  been 
retouched  after  600  b.c. 

Stanza  7.  This  oracle  may  have  been  inserted  into  Amos 
and  reedited  (1)  after  721  B.C.;  (2)  after  the  time  of  Manasseh 
and  the  prophecies  of  Jeremiah  (c.  600  B.C.)  ;  (3)  after  the  writ- 
ings of  Ezekiel,  in  post-exilic  days  (i.e.,  after  570  B.C.). 

A  summary  of  this  evidence  gained  in  each  instance  from 
independent  investigation  of  each  unit  is  as  follows : 

1.  Parts  of  stanzas  1,  2,  5,  6  are  genuine;  these  include  the 
formulas  and  other  material  mentioned  above.  This  was  in  all 
probability  the  work  of  Amos,  perhaps  around  755  B.C. 

2.  The  first  redaction  of  the  prophecy  was  made  after  the 
fall  of  Samaria,  around  the  period  between  721  and  700  B.C. ; 
revisions  and  insertions  were  made. 

3.  Another  redaction  took  place,  perhaps  during  the  days  of 
Manasseh,  or  later  after  the  prophecies  of  Jeremiah  (c.  600  B.C.). 

4.  Another  redaction  appears  to  have  been  made  after  the 
Destruction,  under  the  influence  of  Ezekiel's  works  (c.  570  B.C.). 

5.  There  is  a  slight  probability  of  another  minor  revision 
around  350  b.c. 


256  University  of  California  PuMications,      [Sem.  Phil, 

It  is  thus  evident  that  many  hands  went  into  the  formation 
of  the  text  which  has  come  down  to  the  present  day.  Houtsma 
is  surely  mistaken  in  ascribing  the  entire  prophecy  to  post- 
exilic  times;  the  degree  to  which  his  surmise  seems  to  be  correct 
can  be  seen  from  the  tables  here  given. 

CONCLUSIONS  ON  THE  DOOM  SONG 

In  the  light  of  the  evidence  deduced  from  an  examination 
of  the  Amos  Doom  Song,  the  following  tentative  conclusions  may 
be  proposed: 

1.  There  is  a  type  stanza  consisting  ofl-(-2-f-2-f24-4  +  l 
periods.  There  are  four  main  sections,  the  first  on  the  general 
offense  which  remains  constant ;  the  second  on  the  specific  offense 
which  varies  with  each  nation;  the  third  on  the  general  punish- 
ment which  remains  constant ;  the  fourth,  consisting  of  two 
couplets,  on  the  specific  punishment  which  varies  with  each 
nation.  There  are  a  short  prophetic  prelude  and  postlude  which 
remain  constant. 

2.  Four  stanzas  of  the  Song  conform  to  this  type,  namely: 
stanza  1  on  Syria;  stanza  2  on  Philistia;  stanza  5  on  the  Am- 
monites; stanza  6  on  Moab,  The  variations  within  these  four 
type  stanzas  are  of  a  minor  character  and  are  due  either  to  cor- 
ruptions of  the  text  through  the  passage  of  time  and  frequent 
redactions  or  to  the  insertion  and  addition  of  stichoi  and  phrases 
by  later  editors  M'ho  sought  to  bring  the  text  of  the  prophecies 
up  to  date ;  there  are  several  slight  variations  of  phrase  due  to 
the  interplay  and  infiuence  of  other  texts  in  the  prophetical  and 
historical  books;  there  are  minor  variations  due  either  to  the 
whim  or  carelessness  of  the  original  or  later  author  and  redactor, 

3.  Three  stanzas  do  not  conform  to  the  type,  namely:  stanza 
3  on  Tyre;  stanza  4  on  Edom;  stanza  7  on  Judah,  These  are 
the  major  variations  of  the  Song  and  may  be  explained  as  later 
insertions  and  additions,  either  to  bring  the  prophecy  of  Amos 
up  to  date^  to  complete  the  series  of  oracles  in  the  light  of  the 
works  of  the  later  Prophets,  or  to  give  vent  to  the  hostility 
against  nations  which  during  the  time  of  the  redaction  or  slightly 


"Vol.  1.]  Newman. ^Parallelism  in  Amos.  257 

before  had  mistreated  Israel  and  Judah.  Since  these  portions 
are  not  original  with  Amos,  they  do  not  affect  the  conclusion 
that  the  genuine  oracles  of  Amos  were  in  the  form  of  the  model 
stanza. 

4.  The  couplet  structure  prevails  throughout  the  entire  re- 
constructed poem  in  complete  regularity.  It  has  been  found 
that  where  the  couplet  formation  is  broken,  vagueness  of  idea, 
corruption  of  text,  and  general  confusion  are  present.  The 
reformation  of  the  stichoi  on  the  basis  of  parallelism  elim- 
inates the  difficulties ;  though  the  couplet  formation  is  demanded, 
synonymity  of  exact  order  between  the  stichoi  has  not  always 
been  possible ;  however,  an  arrangement  merely  on  the  basis  of 
rhythmical  symmetry  or  of  a  distant  synthetic  character  has 
been  avoided.  The  reconstructed  couplets  show  regular  and 
fairly  close  parallelism  of  terms,  as  well  as  of  ideas. 

It  may  now  be  asked  in  the  light  of  the  results  attained  from 
a  discussion  of  the  Grief  Song,  the  two  pairs  of  Visions,  and  the 
Doom  Song :  If  a  regular  type  stanza,  comparable  in  many  re- 
spects to  the  normality  of  stanza  present  in  modern  poems,  is 
present,  to  what  degree  is  the  same  motif  used  in  the  other 
prophetical  books?  The  methods  applied  to  Amos  fit  also  the 
study  of  the  portions  of  seemingly  strophic  regularity  in  Isaiah 
5.26-29,  9.7-10.4  (see  Gray,  ICC,  p.  177ff.)  ;  Ezekiel  25.1-17 
and  parts  of  Jeremiah.  There  it  will  be  found  that  the  same 
phenomena  are  to  large  extent  present,  though  the  poem  in 
Amos,  chaps.  1-2,  is  unique  for  its  persistent  interparallelism. 


258  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem.  Phil. 


■   Classification  and  Tables 

Two  major  problems  will  find  attempted  answers  in  the  fol- 
lowing tables  based  on  an  investigation  of  the  book  of  Amos. 
These  are:  (1)  the  boundaries  of  prose  and  poetry  and  their 
interplay;  (2)  the  character,  value  and  place  of  monostichs  in 
prophetic  literature.  The  classifications  here  given  are  by  no 
means  entirely  accurate,  for  several  instances  seem  to  demand 
listing  under  more  than  one  category;  it  has  been  necessary, 
however,  to  select  the  dominant  trait  of  the  stichoi  and  to  classify 
these  accordingly. 

The  unit  for  these  tables  has  been  the  "period,"  which  sig- 
nifies a  clearly  marked  division  in  the  thought,  regardless  of 
rhythmical,  metrical  or  any  similar  considerations.  Although 
the  period  thus  is  the  basis  of  this  classification,  yet  in  the 
second  part  of  the  table,  the  grouping  of  the  stichoi  into  couplets 
has  been  kept  in  mind.  Excluding  the  introductory  and  clos- 
ing prophetic  phrases,  such  as  "thus  saith  the  Lord,"  "it  is 
the  oracle  of  Yahwe, "  etc.,  which  appear  to  stand  outside  the 
major  portion  of  the  text,^^^  the  following  is  the  number  of 
periods  in  each  chapter: 

Chapter  1  „ 47 

Chapter  2 49 

Chapter  3 43 

Chapter  4 41 

■  .  Chapter  5  71 

Chapter  ,6  37 

Chapter  7  48 

Chapter  8  42 

Chapter  9  58 

Total    436 

232  The  prelude  and  postlude  prophetic  phrases :  ' '  Thus  saith  the  Lord, ' ' 
"and  Yahwe  spoke,"  and  numerous  others  occur  in  the  form  of  single  lines 
mainly,  and  occasionally  in  the  form  of  a  distich.  There  are  about  fifty- 
five  periods  of  prelude  phrases,  and  twenty-four  periods  of  postlude.  Of 
the  former  about  eighteen  are  in  the  form  of  distichs  between  which  no 
synonymity  of  course  is  present,  but  which  may  be  guided  by  some  rhyth- 
mical principle.  This  is  very  doubtful,  however,  and  it  is  best  to  conclude 
of  both  single  stichoi  and  distichs  that  they  have  little  or  no  value  in  the 
schematic  arrangement  of  the  text;  they  are  neutral  in  point  of  content 
and  tone-accent. 


Vol.  1.] 


Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos. 


259 


The  terms  which  are  employed  in  the  tables  need  explana- 
tion. ''Genuine"  parallelism  includes  those  stichoi  in  parallel 
couplets  which  are  parallel  as  they  stand,  though  sometimes  a 
slight  textual  change  is  necessary.  Usually  the  style  of  these 
stichoi  is  synonymous  or  antithetic  parallelism;  the  number  of 
terms  is  dominantly  three,  though  in  the  examples  of  alternate 
parallelism  (in  the  table  each  stichos  of  alternate  parallelism 
counts  as  two  periods),  more  than  three  terms  are  present.  The 
term  "synthetic"  parallelism  is  used  to  designate  the  parallel 
stichoi  which  are  not  in  close  synonymous  parallelism,  but  which 
are  rhythmically  symmetrical  and  in  a  complementary  or  appo- 
sitional  relationship.  Such  synthetic  couplets  are  called  here 
"clear"  when  close  thought  approximation  is  present  and  the 
text  is  unmarred  though  correspondence  of  terms  may  be  lack- 
ing; "doubtful"  designates  those  stichoi  wherein  parallelism 
seems  to  be  concealed  while  merely  rhythmical  equality  appears 
and  the  existing  text  is  obscure  in  sense  and  grammar.     Under 


Table  1. — Parallelistic  Poetry 


Chapter  1 36 

Chapter  2 34 

Chapter  3 29 

Chapter  4 16 

Chapter  5 42 

Chapter  6 24 

Chapter  7 20 

Chapter  8 24 

Chapter  9. 30 


Clear 


SYNTHETIC 


Doubtful 
4 
2 
4 
6 
4 
2 
4 
10 
6 


'Asher 


L''-ma'an 
2 
2 


Ha-'6m''rim 


255  14  42  2  6  4 

Grand  total  323 

Normal   parallelism    (genuine   and   clear   syn- 
thetic          269 

Irregular  parallelism   54 


Table  2. — Sheer  Prose 

Superscription  1.1 

Narrative  6.9-10 


260  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

the  heading  "synthetic"  are  included  also  the  "in  order  that," 
the  "that-say"  and  the  relative  clauses  discussed  above.  It 
must  be  noted,  then,  that  the  term  "synthetic"  includes  stichoi 
vs^hich  only  by  the  slightest  degree  may  be  included  under 
parallelism;  which,  in  fact,  were  they  not  surrounded  by  par- 
allelistic  couplets,  would  not  be  considered  parallel  any  more 
than  similar  distichs  are  in  modern  poetry.  Though  these 
couplets  are  clearly  poetry  by  reason  of  their  elevation  of  lan- 
guage, their  imagery  and  when  measured  by  other  canons,  yet 
they  stand  in  the  twilight  zone  between  parallelistic  and  non- 
parallelistic  poetry,  and  incline  more  to  the  latter  than  to  the 
former  division. 


Table  3. — Twilight  Zone  Between  Prose  and  Poetry 

This  table  includes  those  stichoi  which  are  in  the  middle 
ground  between  prose  and  poetry.  The  category  "mixture" 
designates  the  verse  wherein  prose  and  parallelistic  formations 
are  combined ;  there  are  two  cases  where  ka-  'fisher  is  used,  and 
the  style  becomes  doubtful;  there  are  several  "traditional" 
expressions  which  may  have  been  conventional  with  the  prophetic 
schools ;  finally  there  is  the  Hebrew  prototype  for  the  saf  of  the 
Arabic ;  here  there  are  two  classes,  the  first,  which  is  non-synony- 
mous, and  the  second,  which  is  startlingly  synonymous;  rhyme, 
of  course,  is  missing.  All  these  lines  are  extra  long  and  have 
not  the  terseness  and  three-term  structure  of  the  usual  poetic 
parallelism. 

&a,i' 


Non- 
Traditional  Ka-'"sher         Mixture        synonymous  Synonymous 


Chapter   2 2  2 

Chapter   6 6 

Chapter   4 

Chapter   5 2 

Chapter   7 

Chapter   9 4  3 


14  5  4  2  10 


^"oL.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  261 


Table  4. — Monostichs 

Another  table  is  necessary  in  a  consideration  of  the  twilight 
zone  between  prose  and  poetry  in  order  to  show  the  character 
and  value  of  the  various  isolated  stichoi  which  are  present  in 
Amos.  A  group  comes  more  properly  within  the  domain  of 
poetry  proper,  i.e.,  the  stichoi  which  appear  to  be  ''survivals" 
of  original  couplets;  the  stichoi  which  are  remnants  of  couplets 
but  which  are  now  in  "triplets"  differ  slightly  from  the  former 
category  in  that  the  cases  there  included  will  be  found  to  be 
separate  sections  of  the  Doom  Song.  Single  stichoi  make  up 
"refrains"  in  poems  where  interparallelism  is  present,  and  cer- 
tain "introductory"  stichoi  in  interparallelistic  stanzas  likewise 
are  minus  complementary  stichoi.  Near-prose  material  includes 
the  "prophetic,"  and  the  "traditional"  and  "narrative"  stichoi. 


Survivals  Triplets  Refrains            Introductory 

Chapter  1 4 

Chapter  2 1  1 

Chapter  3 2 

Chapter  4 ....                            5                            3 

Chapter  5 6 

Chapter  6 2 

Chapter  7 2                            8 

Chapter  8 3 

Chapter  9 4 

5  20  13  3 

NEAR-PROSE 

Prophetic               Traditional  Narrative 

Chapter   1 

Chapter   2 1  2 

Chapter   3 

Chapter   4 2  ....  1 

Chapter   5 5  11 

Chapter   6 1  ....  2 

Chapter   7 ....  12 

Chapter  8 3  ....  2 

Chapter  9 2  ....  1 

14  3  19 


262  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 


CONCLUSIONS 

The  following  conclusions  with  respect  to  the  two  problems 
referred  to  above  can  thus  be  drawn: 

Sheer  prose  in  Amos  is  very  rare,  the  only  two  pieces  which 
maintain  it  over  any  stretch  being  the  superscription  and  a 
doubtful  narrative  portion. 

Genuine  parallelistic  stichoi  predominate,  being  found  to 
the  extent  of  nearly  five-sixths  of  the  instances.  Between  these 
two  poles  there  are  many  grades  of  poetry  verging  into  prose 
by  ascending  degrees.  The  so-called  synthetic  couplets  con- 
tain clear  stichoi  in  a  rhythmical,  symmetrical,  but  non-corre- 
spondent relationship.  Doubtful  synthetic  couplets  embrace 
those  in  a  rhythmical  arrangement  wherein  the  text  is  doubtful, 
and  at  times  the  degree  of  unity  of  thought  between  the  two 
stichoi  is  weak.  Several  special  forms,  relative,  conjunctival, 
and  quotational,  fall  within  this  category ;  they  are  undoubtedly 
poetical  but  have  lost  their  parallelism. 

The  twilight  zone  between  prose  and  poetry  contains  various 
shades  of  parallelism  and  non-parallelism.  Traditional  conven- 
tional phrases  are  grouped  in  rhythmical  couplets  wherein 
synonymity  is  lacking;  simile  couplets  are  employed,  headed  in 
one  stichos  by  the  conjunction  "just  as,"  wherein  a  prosaic 
style  is  noticeable;  a  mixture  of  prose  and  parallelistic  poetry 
is  found  in  rare  instances.     Finally  close  to  prose,  is  a  saf  form 

which    pitViPr    f\ooMra    witTinnt,    synnTiy|^^itv    but    with    a    Certain 

rhytEfflrgal  balance:  or,  as  in  the  Arabic,  is  mat-ked  by  synonym- 


ity and  fairly  close  correspondence  of  terms.  All  these  lines 
are  long;  some  are  a  form  and  an  outgrowth  of  alternate  par- 
allelism. These  are  fruitful  examples  for  an  investigation  into 
the  rhythmical  principles  back  of  Hebrew  poetry  and  prose. 
It  would  seem  also  from  the  synonymous  and  correspondent 
charactermf  the  saj^  iIIustrationi~iIi4t  parallelism  marks  not 
merely  the  terse  bona  fide  poetry,  but  also  the  near-pj^ose  of 
HBb¥e35Lu_„In_addition  it  may  be  that  herein  is  to  be  found  the 
thir3~t^e  of  Hebrew  prosody  which  Gray  seeks,  but  does  not 
find,  in  his  analysis  (see  Forms,  p.  46 ;  also  above,  p.  109). 


Vol.  1.]  Newman. — Parallelism  in  Amos.  263 

On  the  problem  of  the  relation  of  couplets  to  triplets  and 
monostiehs,  the  following  conclusions  seem  justifiable : 

The  couplet  is  the  dominant  structure  of  Hebrew  poetry. 
Amos  has  at  least  127  couplets  of  genuine  parallelism,  seven  of 
clear  synthetic,  twenty-one  doubtful,  and  six  irregular;  there 
are,  however,  only  about  twenty  possible  triplets,  nearly  every 
one  of  which  is  marred  and  caused  by  a  dubious  text.  If  the 
triplet  is  admissible,  then  its  frequency  and  originality  must 
be  hesitatingly  accepted;  careful  investigation  is  necessary  for 
each  case. 

The  disposition  of  isolated  monostiehs  supports  this  conclu- 
sion. Twenty-five  stichoi  in  Amos  appear  to  be  either  survivals 
of  corrupted  couplets,  or  interpolations  attached  to  good  coup- 
lets. In  the  field  of  poetry,  introductory^  stichojja^ftd  stanzas 
of  a  strophi^jgoSfii  and  lack  a  complementary  stichos.  because, 
perhapsT^of  their  interparallelism  with  the  corresponding  stichoi 
of  the  other  stanzas.  The  same  is  true  of  refrains  which  though 
a  single  line  are  interparallelistic  with  reference  to  the  same 
stichos  in  the  other  stanzas.  These  fall  therefore  in  a  sense 
within  the  realm  of  parallelistic  poetry. 

A  group  of  single  stichoi,  however,  seems  to  fall  outside  of 
the  poetry  proper;  these  are  the  narrative  stichoi  which  some- 
times are  interparallelistic  with  corresponding  stichoi  of  other 
stanzas,  but  usually  are  purely  prosaic  or  near-prosaic  in  char- 
acter; sometimes  it  is  possible  to  combine  two  such  stichoi  into 
a  rhythmical  distich,  though  this  is  unusual.  Several  traditional 
stichoi  accompany  the  traditional  distichs  referred  to  above; 
these  are  not  entirely  prosaic,  but  lie  within  the  intermediate 
territory  between  prose  and  poetry.  The  same  applies  to  a 
series  of  prophetic  ejaculations  and  phrases  which  occur  at 
intervals,  irregular  and  unconstant,  throughout  the  text. 

The  reasons  for  the  departure  from  regular  couplet  struc- 
ture are  difficult  to  understand.  That  the  Prophet  was  not 
content  merely  to  maintain  strict  poetic  symmetry  throughout 
his  work  is  evident,  if  the  present  text  is  to  be  trusted.  It  has 
been  frequently  observed  in  the  discussion  that  a  break  in  the 
parallelism  is  usually  accompanied  by  a  break  in  the  text  and 


264  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

vice  versa.  Yet  this  does  not  account  for  the  several  cases 
where  the  Prophet  deliberately  departs  from  the  balanced 
couplet  formations.  Traditional  prophetic  formulas,  historical 
conventional  references,  ejaculations  and  other  devices  sometimes 
account  for  a  breakdown  of  the  parallelism,  though  all  the 
cases  cannot  thus  be  explained.  The  method  and  the  psychology 
of  prophetical  utterance  is  as  yet  little  understood.  Perhaps 
if  the  original  text  were  in  existence,  exact  parallelism  would 
be  discovered ;  it  is  safer,  however,  to  assume  on  the  basis  of  the 
data  available  that  the  Prophet  folloAved  generally  the  poetical 
canons  of  parallelism,  but  that  he  permitted  himself  sometimes 
under  the  influence  of  other  poetical  or  rhetorical  laws,  but 
sometimes  apparently  unbound  and  unguided  except  by  his 
inner  impulses,  to  roam  into  the  realm  of  near-prose,  of  prose, 
and  of  unparallelistic  poetry  and  parallelistic  prose.  It  is 
imperative  that  we  should  examine  prophetical  literature  on 
the  basis  of  the  hypothesis  that  behind  every  divergence  from 
regularity  of  style  a  rhetorical  law  has  operated;  thus  it  will 
be  possible  to  combine  and  classify  the  data;  in  the  end,  how- 
ever, a  residue  of  examples  will  probably  remain  which  cannot 
be  fully  understood;  therein  in  Hebrew,  as  in  all  other  lit- 
eratures, the  mystery  will  rest;  for  one  of  the  secrets  of  the 
strength  of  Hebrew  prophecy  may  be  in  the  fact  that  not  all  its 
phenomena  can  be  pigeonholed. 


INDEX  OF  VEESES  IN  AMOS 

Chapter  1  Chapter  3  Chapter  5  Chapter  8 

VERSE     PAGE  VERSE     PAGE  (Continued)  verse     page 

1  137    1  187  verse     page  1-3  ...195-198 

2a  145     2  187     b  176,186  4  145 

b  169    3  159,178    15a  156  5a 162 

3-15  202ff.     4-6  159     b  186  b  156 

3a  144     7  159,187    16  152,179  6a  146 

b  178,209     8  159    17a  179  b  181 

4  151     9a  145     b  186  7  188 

5a  178,211     b  184    18a  169,171  8a  168 

b  146,211    10  170,171     b  180  b  149 

c  211    11a  179    19  163,176  9  148,189 

6a  144     b  143,179    20  143  10a  142 

b  178,217  12  164,171,176    21  143,156  b  142 

7  151    13*  : 188    22  180  c  148 

8a  146,222    14a  187    23  139  11a  189 

b  148,222     b  144    24  146  b  138 

9a  144    15a  179    25  186  12a  142 

b  170     b  147,179  26  175,184,186  b  169 

10  151                   27  181  13  153 

11a  144  Chapter  4                     14a  171, 182 

b  170,231     1  171  Chapter  6       b  139,154 

c  140,232     2a*  188  la  145,171,182 

12  148     b  145     b  182 

13a  144    3  170    2a  182 

b  173,234     4a  145     b  149 

14a  151,239     b  146     3  171  Chapter  9 

b  139,240    5a  155    4a  142  la*      i88 

15  241     b  186     b  145  b  170 

6-11  ..189-193     5  152,171  c  181 

6b  139     6a  140,171  ^  139 

Chapter  2       7c  175     b  180  2-4 160 

1-8  201ff.     9b  141     7  168  4a  187 

la  144    11a  177     8a  143  b       169 

b  178,  243    12  178, 188     b  180  '    5a  168 

2a  148    13  167     9-10  137  b  148 

b  155,246                   11  151  6a  140 

3  139.247  Chapter  5      12a  143  b      .  168 

4a 144    1  188     b  147  7   "     134 

b  143     2  166    13  172  ga  187 

c  175, 250     3  166  b  -186 

5  148     4a  178  Chapter  7  9  175 

6a  144     5a  138  1-6  ....193-195  10  172 

b  146     b  181     4a  142  11  138 

7a  170,171     c  141  7-9  ....195-198  12  174 

b  173     6a  178     9a  140  13a  153 

8  162     b  155,170     b  181  b  143 

9a*  186     7  146,171    10-17 137,  14a  188 

b  147     8a  171,179  198-200  b  162 

c  142     b  140    10b  165  15  175 

10  186     c  168    11  148,181 

11a  142     9  139,171    12b  144 

b  186    10  146    13b  139 

12  172    11a  167    14a  138 

13  176     b  161     b  157 

14-16  149         12a  142         17a  153 

13*   186  b  157 

14a  173  c   181 

*  Verses  marked  with  an  asterisk  belong  by  classification  on  the  pages 

cited,  though  not  specifically  mentioned  there. 

[265] 


PART   II. 

PARALLELISM  IN  ISAIAH, 
Chapters  l-lO 


UNIVERSITY   OF    CALIFORNIA    PUBLICATIONS 
SEMITIC    PHILOLOGY 

Vol.  1,  No.  3,  pp.  267-444  August  6,  1918 


PARALLELISM  IN  ISAIAH,  CHAPS.  1-10 

BY 

WILLIAM  POPPEE 


CHAPTER  AND 

VERSE  INDEX  OF  TEANSLATIONS  page 

1.2-21    Israel  Rebellious  268 

1.21-26  The  City  of  Faithfulness 270 

1.27-31  The  Groves  of  Idolatry 271 

2.2-6a  The  Arbiter  of  the  Nations 271 

2.6b-21    The  Lord  Alone  Exalted 272 

3.1-15  The  Rulers  of  Israel 274 

3.16-4.1   The  Vanity  of  the  Daughters  of  Zion 275 

4.2-6  The  Cleansing  Storm 276 

5.1-7  The    Vineyard    _ 277 

5.8-10 Wo  to  the  Godless!  278 

5.11,  12a,  14 278 

5.18,  19 278 

5.21,  12ed,  13 279 

5.20ab,    23,    24a-d  279 

5.24e-25  Still  is  His  Hand  Outstretched 286 

5.28-30  The  Coming  of  the  Assyrian 288 

6.1-13  The  Call  of  Isaiah 279 

7.1-9  The  Plot  of  Israel  and  Aram 281 

7.10-16  Immanuel   - 282 

7.17-19  The  Egyptian  Fly  and  the  Assyrian  Bee 285 

7.20  The  Assyrian  Sword 285 

7.21,  22 The  Land  of  Milk  and  Curds 285 

7.23,  24 The  Land  of  Thistles  and  Thorns 285 

8.1-4  The  Law  and  the  Testimony 282 

8.5-8  The   Assyrian   Flood 283 

8.9-10 Immanuel    282 

8.11-20  The  Law  and  the  Testimony 282 

8.21-22  _  The   Assyrian   Flood 283 

8.23 _ 410 

9.1-6  The  Birth  of  the  Prince 292 

9.7-20*  Still  is  His  Hand  Outstretched 286 

10.1-4  Still  is  His  Hand  Outstretched 287 

10.5-15  The  Assyrian  Rod 290 

10.16-19t  Destruction  is  Decreed 284 

10.20,  21 The  Assyrian  Rod 290 

10.22,  23 Destruction  is  Decreed 284 

10.24-27 The  Assyrian  Rod 291 

10.28-32  The  Coming  of  the  Assyrian 289 

10.33-34 Destruction   284 


*  The  verses  are  translated  in  the  following  order:  12,  15,  16cd,  13,  16ab, 
16ef,  7,  8,  9,  10,  11,  18ab,  17,  18c,  19c,  19ab,  20. 

t  The  verses  are  translated  in  the  following  order:  16,  18bc,  17,  18a,  19. 


268  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil, 

TRANSLATION  OF  THE  RECONSTRUCTED  TEXT 
ISEAEL  EEBELLIOUS 


Hear,  Oh  ye  Heavens,  Chapter  1 

Give  ear,  Oh  thou  earth, 

For  it  is  the  Lord  that  speaks:  (2abc) 

Sons  have  I  reared, 

Daughters  have  I  brought  up — 

But  against  me  they  rebel.  (2de) 

An  ox  knoweth  its  owner, 
An  ass  its  master's  crib — 

Israel  doth  not  know, 

My  people  doth  not  take  heed.  (3abcd) 

Ah  !  nation  of  sin ! 

Race  laden  with  wrong! 

Seed  that  breedeth  evil! 

Children  bent  on  crime !  (4abcd) 

They  have  forsaken  the  Lord, 

They  have  contemned  the  Holy  of  Israel, 

They  are  estranged  from  Him, 

They  have  turned  back.  (4abxe) 

Why  would  ye  be  smitten  more, 

And  to  your  anguish  add  ?  (5a) 

All  the  flesh  is  sore. 
All  the  heart  is  faint. 
From  head  to  sole  of  foot  no  spot  is  sound —  (5bc,  6a) 

Bruise, 
And  stripe. 
And  bleeding  wound,  (6b) 

Unclosed, 
Unbound, 
Unsoftened  with  ointment:  (6c) 

Your  country  lies  waste, 
Your  cities  are  burnt  with  fire. 
Your  land  is  eaten  by  strangers  before  your  eyes;    (7abci) 

And  Zion's  daughter  is  left  like  a  booth  in  a  vineyard. 
Like  a  hut  in  a  cucumber-field. 
Like  the  tower  of  a  watchman.  (8abc2) 


1  For  verse  7d  see  p.  298.    2  For  verse  9  see  299. 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10. 


269 


Chapter  1 


II 


Hear  ye  the  word  of  the  Lord,  ye  Princes — of  Sodom ! 
Give  ear  to  the  law  of  our  God,  ye  people — of  Gomorrah! 

(lOab) 
What  is  it  to  me  that  ye  come  to  see  my  face  ? 
"Who  asked  this  of  you,  that  ye  tread  my  courts  ? 

(11a,  12a,  12b) 
I  delight  not  in  your  many  sacrifices, 
I  am  sated  with  your  offerings  of  rams. 
With  the  fat  of  fatlings. 
With  the  blood  of  bulls, 
With  lambs  and  with  goats;  (llbc) 


Bring  no  more  oblations, 
Incense  to  me  is  abomination; 


(13ab) 


I  cannot  suffer  Sabbath  and  New  Moon, 
The  calling  of  convocation  and  assembly; 
Your  festivals  and  sacred  seasons  my  soul  doth  loathe, 

They  are  to  me  a  burden, 

I  am  weary  of  bearing  them;  (13c-14) 

Yea,  when  ye  spread  your  palms, 

I  will  hide  mine  eyes  from  you 
And  though  ye  multiply  prayer, 

I  will  not  hear — 


Your  hands  are  full  of  blood ! 
Your  lips  are  defiled  with  lies ! 

Wash  you ! 
Cleanse  you ! 

Cease  to  do  wrong ! 
Learn  to  do  right ! 

Seek  after  justice ! 
Put  away  violence ! 

Champion  the  orphan ! 
Plead  for  the  widow ! 


(15ab) 
(15cx) 
(16ab3) 
(16d,  17a) 
(17bc) 
(17de) 


Come  now,  let  us  reason  together,  saith  the  Lord; 
If  your  sins  are  now  like  scarlet. 

Like  snow  shall  they  be  white. 
If  they  are  red  as  crimson. 

They  shall  be  like  wool : 
If  ye  are  willing  and  will  hearken. 


3  For  verse  16c  see  p.  304. 


270 


University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 


The  earth 's  good  shall  ye  eat ; 
If  ye  refuse  and  are  rebellious, 

Of  the  sword  shall  ye  be  eaten : 
For  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spoken. 


Chapter  1 


(18-20) 


THE  CITY  OF  FAITHFULNESS 

How  hath  become  like  a  harlot  the  City  of  Faithfulness, 
She  full  of  justice, 
In  whom  lodged  righteousness!  (2labc) 

Thy  silver  is  turned  to  dross, 

Thy  wine  with  water  is  mixed:  (22ab) 

Thy  rulers  are  ruleless, 

A  band  of  robbers, 

A  murderers'  crew:  (23ab,  2ld) 

Each  one  loveth  bribes. 

And  seeketh  after  boons :  (23cd) 

The  orphan  they  right  not, 
And  widow's  cause  comes  not>  before  them.  (23ef) 

Therefore  saith  the  Lord, 

The  Lord  of  Hosts, 

The  Mighty  of  Israel :  ('24a) 

Ah !  I  shall  avenge  me  of  mine  enemies. 

And  take  vengeance  of  mine  adversaries;  (24be) 

And  I  shall  turn  my  hand  upon  thee, 

In  the  furnace  smelt  the  dross  of  thee, 

And  take  away  all  the  alloy  of  thee ;  (25) 

And  I  shall  establish  thy  judges  as  of  old. 

And  thy  counsellors  as  of  ancient  time :  (26ab) 

Then  shalt  thou  once  more  be  called  Fortress  of  Righteousness, 
City  of  Faithfulness.  (26cd) 


Vol,  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         271 


Chapter  1 


THE  GEOVES  OF  IDOLATRY 


Through  justice  shall  Zion  be  saved, 

Through  righteousness,  her  people ;  (27ab) 

And  sinners  shall  cease. 
And  transgressors  abstain. 
And  deserters  of  the  Lord  be  no  more.  (28ab) 

For  ashamed  shall  ye  be  of  the  oaks  ye  have  loved. 

Ye  shall  blush  for  the  gardens  ye  chose,  (29ab) 

When  they  shall  be  like  oaks  with  withering  leaves, 
Like  gardens  whose  waters  have  failed,  (30ab) 

And  the  sturdy  oak  shall  be  turned  into  flax, 

And  its  branches  into  flames, 

At  once  together  shall  they  burn, 

And  none  shall  quench.  (3lab) 

Chapter  2 
THE  ARBITER  OF  THE  NATIONS 

And  it  shall  he  at  the  end  of  time  that 
The  mount  of  the  Lord  shall  be  fixed  as  the  first  of  the  mountains. 
And  be  exalted  above  the  hills;  (2ab) 

Thereto  all  the  nations  shall  stream, 

And  many  peoples  shall  flow,  saying:  (2ab) 

' '  Come  let  us  climb  to  the  mount  of  the  Lord, 
To  the  house  of  Jacob's  God,  (3bc) 

"That  he  may  teach  us  of  his  ways. 
That  we  may  follow  in  his  paths;  (3de) 

"For  from  Zion  instruction  goeth  forth, 
From  Jerusalem  the  word  of  the  Lord;  i^^S) 

"Between  the  nations  shall  he  judge, 
Among  many  peoples  arbitrate;  (4ab> 

"And  they  shall  beat  their  swords  to  plough-shares. 
And  their  spears  to  pruning-hooks ;  (4cd) 

"Nation  shall  not  raise  the  sword  to  nation, 
Neither  shall  they  learn  again  to  war" —         (4ef) 

Come,  then,  0  house  of  Jacob,  let  us  walk  in  the  light  of  the  Lord, 
For  thou,  0  house  of  Jacob,  hast  forsaken  thy  God.  (5,  6a) 


272  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  2 
THE  LOED  ALONE  IS  EXALTED 

I 

Crawl  'mid  the  cliffs ! 
Burrow  in  the  dust ! 

From  before  the  fear  of  the  Lord, 

And  the  awe  of  his  majesty. 

As  He  rises  the  earth  to  affright.  (lOabcdx) 

Let  mortals  crouch, 
Let  man  bend  low — 
Be  the  Lord  alone  exalted,  on  that  day.  (9abx) 

For  man  has  filled  the  land  with  the  luxury  of  Philistia, 
He  is  glutted  with  the  ornaments  of  strangers ;  (6bc) 

And  his  land  is  filled  with  silver  and  gold. 

To  the  count  of  his  treasures  there  is  no  end;         (7ab) 

And  his  land  is  filled  with  horses, 

To  the  count  of  his  chariots  there  is  no  end;  (7cd) 

And  his  land  is  filled  with  images. 

To  the  count  of  his  idols  there  is  no  end;  (8ax) 

He  worships  his  own  handiwork, 

The  work  that  his  fingers  have  wrought.  (8bc) 

II 

Hide  in  the  caves  of  the  cliffs 
And  in  the  caverns  of  the  ground! 

From  before  the  fear  of  the  Lord, 

And  the  awe  of  his  majesty. 

As  he  rises  the  earth  to  affright.  (19abcde) 

And  man's  pride  shall  be  humbled. 
And  mortal  haughtiness  brought  low, 
And  the  Lord  alone  exalted,  on  that  day.  (H) 

For  the  Lord  of  Hosts  hath  a  day  for  all  exalted  and  high, 
And  all  that  is  lofty  and  proud;  (I2ab) 

And  all  Lebanon's  cedars, 

And  all  Bashan's  oaks;  (13ab) 


Vol.  1.]    Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         273 

Chapter  2 

And  all  the  mountains  high, 

And  all  the  lofty  hills ;  (I4ab) 

And  all  the  towers  tall, 

And  all  the  towering  walls ;_  (15ab) 

And  all  the  Tarshish  ships, 

And  all  the  majestic  barks.  (16ax) 

III 

Crawl  in  the  rifts  of  the  rocks. 
And  in  the  clefts  of  the  cliffs. 

From  before  the  fear  of  the  Lord, 

And  the  awe  of  his  majesty. 

As  he  rises  the  earth  to  affright.  (21) 

And  man's  pride  shall  be  humbled, 
And  mortals'  haughtiness  brought  low, 
And  the  Lord  alone  exalted,  on  that  day.  (I7abc) 

And  ON  THAT  DAY  shall  man  fling  forth  his  idols  of  silver 

(20ab) 

(20c) 

(16b,  18?) 

(20de4) 


And  his  idols  of  gold, 

The  work  of  his  hands, 
What  he  wrought  to  adore. 

The  talismans  treasured, 
The  amulets  dear. 

The  scarabs  of  beetles, 
The  carvings  of  bats. 


4  For  verse  22  _ see  p.  328. 


274  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 


Chapte?w  3 
THE  EULERS  OF  ISRAEL 

For  lo !  the  Lord,  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  will  remove 
[from  Jerusalem  the  staff 
And  from  Judah,  ^the  stave,  (l) 

Strong  man  and  warrior, 

Prophet  and  judge. 

Counselor  and  elder, 

Notable  and  prince. 

Necromancer  and  diviner, 

Man  wise  in  magic  and  expert  in  charms;        (2,  3) 

And  youths  will  he  set  as  their  rulers, 

By  childishness  shall  they  be  swayed;  (*) 

And  the  people  shall  press  man  upon  man, 

And  each  upon  his  neighbor. 
And  they  shall  rush,  the  young  upon  the  old. 

The   humble  upon   the  honored ; 
Yea,  they  shall  seize  each  man  his  brother, 

Even  the  son  his  sire :  (5-6a) 

"Come  be  thou  ruler  over  us — 
This  ruin  be  under  thy  hand. "  (6bc) 

And  on  that  day  he  shall  answer,  saying: 

' '  I  cannot  be  restorer : 

In  m}^  house  no  bread. 
Nor  any  clothes — 
Make  me  not  the  nation's  ruler."  (7) 

Yea,  Jerusalem  is  ruined, 

And  Judah  is  fallen:  ^  (8ab) 

For  their  tongues  have  been  perverse  toward  the  Lord, 
And  their  eyes  against  his  glory  have  rebelled; 
The  insolence  of  their  faces  is  witness  against  them, 
Their  sin  like  Sodom  have  they  told. 
Like  Gomorrah,  they  have  not  hid —  (8e-9b) 

Wo  to  their  souls !  for  to  themselves  haye  they  dealt  ill, 
And  the  fruit  of  their  deeds  they  shall  eat.        (9c,  lObs) 

My  people — its  leaders  are  childish. 
And  women  over  them  rule — 


5  For  verses  10a,  11,  see  p.  337. 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         275 

Chapter  3 

My  people!  thy  guides  are  misguiding, 

The  course  of  thy  paths  they  confound.  (12) 

For  trial  the  Lord  doth  stand, 

He  rises  to' judge  his  people: 
__  The  Lord  enters  into  judgment. 

With  his  people's  elders  and  princes:  (I3a-l4b) 

"And  ye — ye  have  stripped  the  vineyard. 
In  your  homes  is  the  plunder  of  grapes — 
What  mean  ye  by  crushing  my  people, 
By  grinding  the  face  of  the  poor?"  (14c-15) 

Oracle  of  my  Lord,  the  Lord  of  Hosts. 


THE  VANITY  OF  THE  DAUGHTEKS  OF  ZION 

And  the  Lord  hath  said:  (16a) 

Because  that  the  daughters  of  Zion  are  vain. 
Bending  of  neck, 
And  ogling  of  eye, 
While  they  walk  with  ti-ipping  gait. 

And  they  sway  upon  their  feet,  (I6cdef) 

The  Lord  will  strip  the  heads  of  Zion's  daughters. 
The  Lord  their  buttocks  will  lay  bare ;  (l^) 

And  on  that  day  the  Lord  will  remove  the  glory  of  their 
[sunlets  and  their  moonlets 
Their  pendants  and  their  chains. 
Their  veils  and  their  turbans. 
Their  armlets  and  their  bands, 
Their  finger-rings  and  their  nose-rings. 
Their  amulets  and  their  charms, 
Their  purses  and  their  mirrors. 
Their  tunics  and  their  robes, 
Their  mantles  and  their  cloaks. 
Their  hoods  and  their  veils ;  (18-23) 

And  there  shall  be  in  place  of  balsam,  dust, 

In  place  of  girdle,  a  rope. 

In  place  of  braids,  baldness. 
In  place  of  garments  of  joy,  a  girding  of  sack — 

Tears,  in  place  of  beauty.  (2'*) 


276  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  3 

Thy  men  shall  fall  by  the  sword, 

And  thy  strength,  in  war —  (25) 

Yea,  her  gates  shall  mourn. 
And  her  doorways  lament, 
*  And  desolate  shall  she  sit  on  the  ground.  (26) 

Chapter  4 

A7id  seven  women  shall  seize  on  that  d-ay  one  ma/n  and  say, 

"Our  bread  will  we  eat, 
Our  own  clothes  will  we  wear — 
But  let  us  be  called  by  thy  name, 
Put  an  end  to  our  shame. "  (4.1) 

THE  CLEANSING  STORM 

And  on  that  day 
The  flowers  of  the  field  shall  be  splendid  in  beauty. 
And  the  trees  of  the  land  be  glorious  in  majesty 

For  the  saved  in  Israel, 

For  those  destined  to  life  in  Judah ;  (2abc,  3d) 

And  the  remnant  in  Zion 

And  they  that  are  left  in  Jerusalem 

Shall  ''Holy"  be  called, 

"God's  People"  be  named.  (3abcx) 

"When  the  Lord  shall  have  washed  away  the  filth  of  Zion, 
And  from  Jerusalem  shall  have  rinsed  away  the  blood. 

With  a  storm  flood  of  rain. 

And  a  burning  wind :  (4) 

The  Lord  will  create  over  all  of  Zion's  mountain 
And  over  all  her  sacred  site, 

A  cloud  of  smoke  by  day, 

And  the  light  of  a  flaming  fire  by  night ;  (5a-d) 

Yea,  his  glory  shall  cover  all  of  her. 
And  a  canopy  o'er  her  shall  there  be. 

As  a  shadow  from  the  heat. 

And  as  a  covert  from  the  storm.  (5e-6) 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         277 

Chapter  3 
THE  VINEYAED 

Let  me  sing  now  of  my  beloved, 

Of  my  vineyard,  a  song  of  love :  (la,  b) 

A  vineyard  had  I  as  beloved, 

Fertile,  on  a  hill.  (led) 

And  I  dug  it, 

And  I  cleared  it. 

In  it  planted  choicest  vines; 

In  its  midst  I  built  a  tower. 

And  in  it  hewed  a  vat:  (2a-e) 

Then  I  hoped  it  would  yield  me  grapes, 

But  it  yielded— galls.  (2fg) 

And  now,  Jerusalem's  dwellers. 

And  Judah's  men, 
Judge,  I  pray,  between  me 

And  between  my  vineyard:  (3) 

What  for  my  vineyard  could  I  have  done 

That  I  left  undone? 
Why  did  I  hope  it  would  yield  me  grapes 

And  it  yielded  galls?  *  (4) 

Well,  tlien,  lot  me  answer  to  you — 

What  to  my  vineyard  I'll  do:  (5ab) 

Destroy  its  hedge 

That  it  be  ruined, 
Break  its  wall 

That  it  be  crushed ;  (5cd) 

And  I  shall  make  it  a  thicket — 

It  shall  be  unpruned. 
And  thistles  and  thorns  shall  spring  up — 

It  shall  be  unhoed ; 
And  the  clouds  shall  I  charge, 

Lest  they  rain  there  any  rain.  (6) 

But  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord 

Is  Israel's  house 
And  the  people  of  Judah 

Are  his  cherished  vine,  (7ab) 

And  he  hoped  for  equity. 

But  behold,  iniquity ! 
And  for  righteousness. 

But  behold,  frightf ulness !  (7cd) 


278  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem.  Phii,. 


Chapter  5 
WO  TO  THE  GODLESS 

I 

Wo !  those  who  add  house  unto  house, 
Who  field  unto  field  do  join, 

That  there  be  no  place  for  neighbors, 

And  they  dwell  alone  in  the  land:  (8) 

Verily,  their  many  houses  shall  lie  ruined, 
Without  dwellers,  the  goodly  and  great ; 

For  an  acre  of  vineyard  shall  yield  but  one  gallon, 
And  a  peck  of  grain,  but  a  quart.  (9>  1^) 

II 

Wo !  those  who  rise  early,  pursuing  strong  drink,** 
Who  tarry  in  twilight,  spurred  on  by  wine; 

Whose  revels  are  noisy  with  viol  and  harp. 

Who  feast  to  the  din  of  the  timbrel  and  flute :    C^h  ISa^) 

Therefore,  doth  Hell  with  greediness  gape. 
And  unending  wide  her  mouth  doth  ope, 

And  down  shall  go  their  splendor  and  noise, 

And  there  their  din  be  swallowed  up.  (148) 

III 

Wo!  those  who  drag  sin  with  ropes  of  wrong. 
And  guilt,  with  cords  of  evil; 

Who  say :  ' '  Let  hasten,  let  hurry,  His  work,  let  us  see ! 
Bring  on.  Bring  in,  the  plan  of  Israel's  Holy,  let  us 
know!"  (18,19) 

Therefore, 


6  Verse  22  is  a  variant : 

Wo  to  the  valiant — in  bouts  of  bibbing. 
To  the  valorous — in  mixing  drink. 

7  For  12bc,  13,  see  after  21. 

8  For  15,  16,  17,  see  the  notes. 


Vol.  1,]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         279 


Chapter  5 

IV 

Wo !  those  in  their  own  sight  wise, 

In  their  own  eyes,  understanding,  (21) 

While  the  work  of  the  Lord  they  do  not  regard, 

And  the  deeds  of  his  hand  they  do  not  see;  (I2cd) 

Therefore,  my  people  shall  perish  in  want  of  knowledge, 
In  lack  of  understanding  shall  they  be  undone:     (13ax) 

Her  nobles  shall  famish  with  hunger. 

Her  throngs  shall  be  parched  with  thirst.  (I3bc) 

V 

Wo!  those  who  call  bad  good  and  good  call  bad. 
Who  turn  light  into  darkness  and  darkness  into  light, 

Who  for  a  bribe  justify  sinners, 

And  of  justice  defraud  the  just:  (20ab,  23) 

Therefore,  as  when  stubble  feeds  tongues  of  fire. 
As  when  chaff  falls  before  flames. 

Their  roots  shall  rust  into  mold. 

Their  flowers  unfold  as  dust.  (24a-d9) 


Chapter  6 


THE  CALL  OF  ISAIAH 


In  the  year  that  king  Uzziah  died,  I  saw  the  Lord  sitting 
upon  a  throne,  high  and  lifted  up,  and  his  train  filled  the  temple. 
Above  it  stood  the  seraphim :  each  one  had  six  wings ;  with  twain 
he  covered  his  face,  and  with  twain  he  covered  his  feet,  and  with 
twain  he  did  fly.     And  one  cried  unto  another,  and  said : 

''Hold,  holy,  holy  is  the  Lord  of  Hosts; 
The  whole  earth  is  full  of  his  glory."  (1-4) 

And  the  posts  of  the  door  moved  at  the  voice  of  him  that  cried, 
and  the  house  was  filled  with  smoke.    Then  said  I : 

''Woe  is  me,  for  that  I  am  undone; 

For  that  I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips 
And  amid  a  people  of  unclean  lips  do  I  dwell ; 
For  mine  eyes  have  seen  the  King,  the  Lord  of  Hosts." 

(4,  5) 


9  For  verses  24e-25,  see  p.  285;  for  verses  26-29,  see  p.  288. 


280  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  6 

Then  flew  one  of  the  seraphim  unto  me,  having  a  live  coal  in  his 
hand,  which  he  had  taken  with  the  tongs  from  off  the  altar. 
And  he  laid  it  upon  my  mouth,  and  said, 

"Lo,  this  hath  touched  thy  lips, 
And  thine  iniquity  is  taken  away. 
And  thy  sin  is  purged. "  (6, 7) 

Then  I  heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord,  saying : 

"Whom  shall  I  send, 
And  who  will  go  for  us  ? " 

Then  said  I :  "  Here  am  I :  send  me. ' '  And  he  said :  "  Go  and  tell 
this  people : 

'Hear  ye,  but  understand  not, 
See  3'e,  but  perceive  not. 

Fatten  this  people's  heart, 
Deafen  its  ears, 
Blind  its  eyes. 

Lest  it  see  with  its  eyes. 
And  hear  with  its  ears. 
And  understand  with  its  heart. 

And  turn. 

And  be  healed.' "  (8-10) 

Then  said  I,  "How  long,  my  Lord?"  and  he  answered: 

"Till  cities  be  left  without  dwellers, 
And  houses  without  man; 

Till  the  Lord  make  wide  the  waste  in  the  land. 
Make  broad  the  desolation  in  the  midst  of  the  earth ; 

And  there  be  therein  but  a  tithe. 
And  there  be  still  but  a  remnant, 

Like  an  oak  left  in  a  clearing. 

Like  a  terebinth  standing  in  seed-land."        (11-13) 


Vol.1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         281 

Chapter  7 
THE  PLOT  OF  ISEAEL  AND  AEAM 

And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  days  of  Ahaz,  the  son  of  Jotham, 
the  son  of  Uzziah,  king  of  Judah,  that  Rezin  the  king  of  Syria, 
and  Pekah  the  son  of  Remaliah,  king  of  Israel,  went  up  to  Jeru- 
salem to  war  against  it,  but  could  not  prevail  against  it.  And  it 
was  told  the  house  of  David,  saying :  ' '  Syria  is  confederate  with 
Ephraim";  and  his  heart  was  moved,  and  the  heart  of  his 
people,  as  the  trees  of  the  wood  are  moved  with  the  wind.  Then 
said  the  Lord  unto  Isaiah,  "Go  forth  now  to  meet  Ahaz,  thou 
and  Shear- jashub  thy  son,  at  the  end  of  the  conduit  of  the  upper 
pool,  in  the  highway  of  the  fuller 's  field ;  and  say  unto  him : 

(1-3) 

"Be  at  ease, 
And  be  at  rest ; 

Fear  not. 

Nor  be  thy  heart  weak. 

Because  of  these  stumps  of  fire-brands. 

That  smoke  by  the  wrath  of  Ephraim  and  Aram; 

(4b-f) 

Because  Aram  has  plotted  against  thee. 

And  Ephraim  evil  has  devised,  and  said:  (5) 

'Let  us  go  up  in  Judah, 
And  let  us  her  terrify: 
Let  us  rend  her  to  ourselves. 
And  let  us  place  a  king  in  her  midst':  (6) 

Thus  saith  my  Lord,  the  Lord: 
'It  shall  not  come. 
It  shall  not  be;  (7) 

For    the  head  of  Aram  is  Damascus, 
And  the  head  of  Damascus  is  Rezin ; 
And  the  head  of  Ephraim  is  Samaria, 
And  the  head  of  Samaria  is  Ramaliah  's  son : 

(8abio-9ab) 

If  your  faith  be  not  sure. 

Then  shall  ye  not  endure.'  "  (9ccl) 


10  For  8c  see  p.  399. 


282  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  7 
IMMANUEL 

Moreover,  the  Lord  spoke  again  unto  Ahaz,  saying :  ' '  Ask 
thee  a  sign  of  the  Lord  thy  God;  ask  it  either  in  the  depth,  or 
in  the  height  above. ' '  But  Ahaz  said  :  "  I  will  not  ask,  neither 
will  I  tempt  the  Lord. ' '  And  he  said :  ' '  Hear  ye  now,  0  house 
of  David :  Is  it  a  small  thing  for  you  to  weary  men,  but  will  ye 
weary  my  God  also?  Therefore  my  Master  himself  shall  give 
you  a  sign :  Behold,  the  young  woman  is  with  child  and  will  bear 
a  son,  and  will  call  his  name  '  God-with-us. '  For  before  the 
child  shall  know  to  refuse  the  evil  and  choose  the  good,  the  land 
shall  be  deserted  whose  two  kings  thou  abhorrest. " 

(7.10-14,11   1612) 

Chapter  8 
God  is  with  us  ! 

Hear  O  ye  peoples  altogether, 
Hearken  all  ye  lands  afar ! 

Gird  yourselves — for  retreat ! 
Arm  yourselves — for  defeat ! 

Plan  ye  a  plan — it  will  be  thwarted! 
Plot  ye  a  plot — it  shall  be  unfulfilled ! — 

For  God  is  with  us!  (8.9-10) 


THE  LAW  AND  THE  TESTIMONY 

And  the  Lord  said  to  me.  Take  thee  a  great  roll,  and  write 
in  it  with  a  man's  pen:  ''To  Speedy-Spoil-Hasten-Booty. "  And 
I  took  unto  me  faithful  witnesses  to  testify,  Uriah  the  priest, 
and  Zechariah  the  son  of  Jeberechiah.  And  I  went  into  the 
prophetess;  and  she  conceived  and  bare  a  son.  Then  the  Lord 
said  to  me:  Call  his  name  "Speedy-Spoil-Hasten-Booty":  for 
before  the  child  shall  be  able  to  say  ' '  father ' '  and  ' '  mother, ' '  the 

spoil  of  Samaria  shall  be  taken  away  before  the  king  of  Assyria. 

(8.1-413) 

For  the  Lord  spake  thus  to  me,  with  a  strong  hand  deterring 
me  from  walking  in  the  way  of  this  people,  saying : 

Say  ye  not  ''Holy"  of  all  that  this  people  say  "Holy," 
Fear  not  their  fear. 
And  dread  not  their  dread: 

The  Lord  of  Hosts,  of  Him  say  ye  ' '  Holy, ' ' 
He  be  your  fear. 
And  he  be  your  dread — 


11,  12  For  7.15  see  p.  400;  for  7.17  see  p.  285. 
"For  8.5-8  see  p.  283;  for  8.9-10  see  above. 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         283 

Chapter  8 
But  they  shall  be  as  a  stumbling-block, 
And  as  a  stumbling-stone, 
And  as  a  rock  of  offence 

To  the  House  of  Israel, 
And  as  a  gin, 
And  as  a  snare. 

To  the  dwellers  in  Jerusalem, 

And  through  them  many  shall  stumble, 
And  shall  fall. 
And  shall  be  broken. 
And  shall  be  snared. 
And  shall  be  caught.  (11-15) 


Bind  up  the  testimony  for  my  followers, 
Seal  up  the  law  among  my  disciples ; 


(16) 


And  when  men  say  to  you :  "  Go  to  the  necromancers  and  wizards, 
Those  that  mutter  and  chirp — 
To  the  dead  in  behalf  of  the  living — " 

"Should  not  a  people  go  to  its  god — 
To  the  testimony  and  the  law" — is  not  this  what  ye  should 
answer?  (19-20) 

Behold  I  and  the  children  whom  the  Lord  hath  given  me  are 
for  signs  and  for  wonders  in  Israel  from  the  Lord  of  Hosts, 
which  dwelleth  in  Mount  Zion;  and  I  will  wait  upon  the  Lord, 
that  hideth  his  face  from  the  house  of  Jacob,  and  I  will  look  for 
him.  (18,17) 


THE  ASSYEIAN  FLOOD 
And  the  Lord  spoke  still  again  to  me  and  said :  (5) 

Because  that  this  people  rejected  the  waters  of  Shiloh, 

That  flow  softly  and  faint,  [River, 

Therefore  my  Lord  shall  bring  upon  them  the  waters  of  The 

That  are  mighty  and  great ;  .  (6, 7a) 

And  it  shall  overflow  all  its  bed, 
And  overflood  all  its  banks. 

And  it  shall  rush  upon  Judah  with  flushing  sweep, 
And  throat-hiffh  reach. 
And  spread  to  his  farthest  ends. 
And  fill  the  breadth  of  his  land.  (7bc,  8) 


284  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.Phil, 

Chapter  8 

And  he  shall  wander  on, 

By  hunger  bestead, 

Wearied  with  anguish, 

Into  darkness  thrust ;  (21ab,  22cd) 

And  he  shall  turn  on  high,  where  there  is  no  dawn. 
And  he  shall  look  to  the  earth,  and  lo  !  gloom  and  distress ; 

(21f,  20c,  22ab) 

And  then,  in  pain,  shall  he  wax  wroth, 
And  shall  curse  his  king  and,  yea — his  God ! 

(21cd)13a 

Chapter  10 
DESTRUCTION  IS  DECREED 

Therefore  the  Lord,  the  Lord  of  Boosts,  will  send  into  his  fatness 

[leanness. 
And  in  place  of  his  glory,  shame,  (l^) 

Body  and  soul,  he  shall  pine, 
And  as  a  sick  man,  sink  away,  (l8bc) 

Lo !  the  Lord,  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  will  lop  the  boughs  with  a  hook. 
And  the  high  of  stature  shall  be  felled, 
And  the  lofty  be  brought  low; 

And  he  will  hack  the  thickets  of  the  forest  with  an  axe, 
And  the  mighty  Lebanon  shall  fall. 
And  the  sturdy  Bashan  be  cut  down;        (33, 34abx) 

And  the  Light  of  Israel  shall  become  a  fire, 

And  his  Holy  One  a  flame,  (l7ab) 

And  it  shall  consume  the  trees  of  his  forests  and  fields. 
And  devour  his  thistles  and  thorns  in  a  single  day,    (I7c,  18a) 

And  the  rest  shall  be  but  few, 

And  be  counted  by  a  child ;  (I9i4) 

For  though  thy  people,  0  Israel,  be  as  the  sand  of  the  sea. 
But  a  remnant  thereof  shall  remain : 

Destruction  is  decreed, 

A  scouring  scourge.  (22) 

Yea,  destruction  and  what  has  heen  decreed,  my  Lord,  the 
Lord  of  Hosts,  will  work  in  the  midst  of  all  the  earth.  (23) 


130  For  8.23  see  p.  410.     i*  For  10.21,  22  see  p.  291. 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         285 

Chaptee  7 
THE  EGYPTIAN  FLY  AND   THE   ASSYEIAN  BEE 

The  Lord  shall  bring  upon  thee  and  upon  thy  people,  and 
upon  thy  father's  house  days  that  have  not  come  since  the  day 
that  Ephraim  separated  from  Judah.  (7.17) 

And  it  shall  come  to  pass  on  that  day: 
The  Lord  will  hiss  to  the  tiy  at  the  end  of  the  rivers  of  Egypt, 
And  to  the  bee  in  Assyria 's  land, 

And  they  shall  all  come  and  light  in  the  canons  of  the  steeps 
And  the  crannies  of  the  cliffs, 

In  each  thorny-copse. 

And  in  each  grassy  cove.  (18,19) 


THE  ASSYEIAN  SWOED 

On  that  day 
My  Lord  will  shave  with  a  razor  of  hire 
And  with  a  blade  that  is  strange 

The  hair  of  the  head  and  the  feet — 

Yea,  the  beard  will  it  sweep  off.  (20i5) 


THE  LAND  OF  THISTLES  AND  THOENS 

And  it  shall  come  to  pass  on  that  day: 
Each  place  where  grow  a  thousand  vines  for  ten  thousand  dimes^" 

Shall  be  thick  with  thistles  and  thorns ; 
All  the  fields  and  the  hills  that  are  hoed  with  the  hoe, 

Shall  be  thick  with  thistles  and  thorns; 

There  the  ox  will  tramp  and  the  flocks  will  tread, 
There  will  men  go  with  arrow  and  bow. 

For  all  shall  be  thistles  and  thorns.  (23-24) 


15  Verse  21 : 

The  Land  of  Milk  and  Curds 
And  it  shall  come  to  pass  on  that  day: 
Each  man  shall  nourish  a  calf  of  the  herds, 
And  a  sheep  of  the  flocks, 
And  from  the  rich  yield  of  milk, 
All  left  in  the  land  shall  eat  curds. 

1"  Hebrew:    'eleph  gephen  be-'eleph  Jceseph. 


286  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapters  5,  9 
STILL  IS  HIS  HAND  OUTSTRETCHED 

I 


For  they  rejected  the  law  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts, 

And  the  word  of  the  Holy  of  Israel  spurned,  (5.24ef) 

Therefore,  the  Lord's  wrath  against  his  people  was  hot, 
He  stretched  forth  his  hand  against  them  and  smote. 

And  the  mountains  flowed  with  the  blood  of  the  slain, 
And  their  corpses  like  rubbish  lay  in  the  streets — 

With  all  this  his  wrath  turned  not. 

Still  was  his  hand  outstretched.  (25) 

II 

But  the  people  turned  not  to  their  smiter. 

The  Lord  of  Hosts  they  did  not  seek ;  (9-12) 

Their  leaders  were  ever  misleading 

And  they  that  they  guided,  misled,  (15) 

For  all  of  them  were  wicked,  profane, 

Each  mouth  did  godlessly  speak —  (l6ccl) 

Therefore,  the  Lord  from  Israel  cut  head  and  tail. 

Branch  and  rush  in  a  single  day,  (13) 

In  their  youths  he  took  no  delight. 

To  their  orphans  he  showed  no  love. 

And  their  widows  he  did  not  spare —  (16ab) 

With  all  this  his  wrath  turned  not. 

Still  was  his  hand  outstretched.  (I6ef) 

III 

A  crash  sent  the  Lord  throughout  Jacob, 

And  ruin  upon  Israel;  (7) 

But  the  people,  all  of  them,  mocked, 

And  said  in  pride,  with  insolent  hearts :  (8). 

"Bricks  have  fallen,  we  will  build  with  stone. 
Sycamores  are  cut  down — cedars  we'll  replace":  (9) 

» 
So  the  Lord  exalted  against  them  their  foes. 

Their  enemies  did  he  spur  on :  (10) 


Vol.  1.]    Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         287 


Aram  in  front, 
Philistia  from  behind, 
And  Israel  by  mouthfuls  they  ate — 

With  all  this  his  wrath  turned  not, 
Still  was  his  hand  outstretched. 


IV 


Chapters  9,  10 
(llabc) 

(llde) 


By  the  rage  of  the  Lord  was  the  world  inflamed. 

And  the  people  were  as  the  food  of  wrath,  (l8ab) 

For  wickedness  burnt  as  a  fire, 

That  consumes  the  thistles  and  thorns,  (I7ab) 

While  the  forest  thickets  blaze. 

And  the  valleys  roll  up  in  smoke;  (l7cd) 

(Therefore)  no  man  pitied  his  brother, 

Each  ate  the  flesh  of  his  friend,  (I8c,  I9e) 

Cut  on  the  right,  and  was  hungry. 

Devoured  on  the  left,  nor  was  full :  (19ab) 

Menasseh,  Ephraim, 
Ephraim,  Menasseh, 
Together  they  two  against  Judah —  (20abe) 

With  all  this  his  wrath  turned  not. 

Still  was  his  hand  outstretched.  (20de) 


Wo  to  decreers  of  wicked  decrees 
And  to  scribes  who  in  evil  inscribe, 

To  wrest  from  justice  the  poor, 

To  rob  of  judgment  my  people's  oppressed, 

To  make  of  widows  a  prey. 
While  the  orphan  they  despoil — 

And  what  will  ye  do  on  the  day  of  charge, 
When  disaster  comes  from  afar? 

Where  will  ye  flee  for  aid, 

To  whom  entrust  the  weight  of  your  wealth, 

Lest  amid  the  captives  ye  bow, 
And  amid  the  slain  ye  fall? 

With  all  this  his  wrath  turns  not. 
Still  is  his  hand  outstretched. 


(10.1-41T) 


17  For  10.5-11  see  p.  290;  for  10.12-15  see  p.  291. 


288  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  5 

THE  COMING  OF  THE  ASSYEIAN 

I 

And  he  will  raise  a  flag  to  a  far-off  folk, 
And  hiss  them  here  from  the  end  of  the  earth, 

And  see !  with  haste, 
With  speed  they  come: 

None  of  them  tires, 
None  of  them  trips. 

Nor  does  he  slumber, 
Nor  does  he  sleep; 

Nor  does  he  loose  the  cloth  of  his  loins. 
Nor  does  he  snap  the  lace  of  his  shoe; 

And  his  arrows  are  sharp, 
All  his  bows  are  bent. 

The  hoofs  of  his  horses  seem  like  flint, 
\  His  chariot-wheels  like  the  whirling  wind. 

He  roars  like  a  lion. 

He  growls  like  its  whelp, 

He  seizes,  he  carries  away  his  prey — 

And  none  can  save.  (5,26-29i8) 


18  5.30  is  a  variant  of  8.21 : 

And  on  that  day  will  he  growl  o'er  him  like  the  growling  sea, 
Then  will  he  look  to  the  earth, 

But  lo!  distress, 
And  for  the  light — 

In  the  clouds  is  night. 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         289 

Chapter  10 


II 

(From  the  North)  he  comes, 
He  has  ascended  to  Ai: 

He  has  crossed  by  Migron, 

In  Michmas  his  baggage  he  stores: 

He  has  passed  over  The  Pass, 
At  Geba  Lodge  he  has  lodged. 

Ha-rama  is  horrified, 
Gibeath  Saul  has  fled: 

Madmena  is  moved. 

The  people  of  Gebim  refuge  seek: 

Shrill  thy  call,  0  Bath  Gallim! 
Raise  thy  voice,  0  Beth-Azmaveth ! 

Listen,  Layisha! 
Answer,  Anathoth ! — 

Still  today  on  Nob  he  will  stand 
And  his  hand  will  wave^ 

0  Mount  of  Zion's  daughter, 

0  Jerusalem 's  HILL !  (l0.28-32i9) 


19  For  10.33,  34  see  p.  284. 


290  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  10 
THE  ASSYEIAN  EOD 

I 

Wo  Assyria,  rod  of  my  wrath 

And  staff  in  the  hand  of  mine  ire,  (5) 

Against  an  impious  people  did  I  send  him, 
Against  the  folk  of  my  anger,  give  him  command: 

To  bear  away  prey, 

To  seize  upon  spoil;  (6a-d20) 

But  he  not  thus  was  minded. 
His  heart  not  thus  devised — 

Destruction  was  in  his  heart. 

The  annihilation  of  nations  not  a  few ;  (7) 

For  he  said: 
"Are  not  my  captives  together  all  kings? 
Is  not  like  Carcemish  Calno? 

"Is  not  like  Arpad  Hamath? 
Is  not  like  Damascus  Samaria?  (8-9) 

"As  my  hand  to  these  kings  and  their  idols  hath  reached, 

Shall  it  from  Jerusalem  and  her  icons  fall  short?  (lOax) 

' '  Nay,  as  even  to  Samaria  and  her  images  have  I  done. 

So  also  to  Jerusalem  and  her  gods  shall  I  do."  (H) 


II 

But  when  my  Lord  shall  have  ended  his  work  on  Zion's  mount, 
And  his  task  on  Jerusalem, 

He  will  punish  the  haughty  pride  of  the  heart  of  Assyria's  king, 
And  the  boastful  arrogance  of  his  eyes;  (12) 

Because  he  said: 
' '  By  the  strength  of  mine  own  hand  have  I  acted, 
And  by  mine  own  wisdom  have  I  wrought;  (13ab) 

"The  boundaries  of  the  peoples  have  I  moved, 
And  I  have  despoiled  their  stores;  (l3cd) 

"I  have  brought  down  the  glory  of  their  habitants, 
To  be  trampled  like  the  mire  of  the  streets,  (I3e,  6e) 


20  6e  after  verse  13, 


Vol.  1.]    Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         291 

Chapter  10 

"My  hand  hath  reached  for  the  nations'  strength  as  for  a  nest — 
As  men  gather  eggs  have  I  gathered  the  power  of  the  earth — 

"And  none  flapped  his  wing 

Or  parted  his  beak  to  peep" —  (1*) 

Shall  the  axe  boast  against  him  that  with  it  hews? 
Shall  the  saw  vaunt  against  him  that  it  doth  wield? — 

As  though  a  staff  should  wield  him  that  raised  it ! 

As  though  the  rod  should  lift  him — that  is  not  wood!  (152i) 


III 

Therefore  thus  saith  my  Lord,  the  Lord  of  Hosts: 

O  my  people,  do  not  fear, 

0  dwellers  in  Zion,  be  not  dismayed 

Of  Assyria  who  smites  thee  with  a  rod. 
And  who  raises  against  thee  his  staff; 

For  yet  a  little  and  my  wrath  shall  pass, 

And  my  anger  against  thee  shall  all  be  spent : 

Then  against  him  shall  the  Lord  of  Hosts  rouse  his  staff, 

As  at  the  smiting  of  Midian, 

At  Oreb's  Rock, 
And  against  him  shall  he  raise  his  rod. 

In  the  way  of  Egypt, 

At  the  Sea ;  (24-26) 

And  it  shall  come  to  pa^s  on  that  day: 

His  burden  shall  be  removed  from  off  thy  shoulder. 
And  his  yoke  from  off  thy  neck.    •  (2722) 

Arid  it  shall  come  to  pass  on  that  day: 
No  longer  shall  Israel's  Remnant 
And  the  House  of  Jacob's  Saved 
Lean  upon  their  smiter ; 

But  they  shall  lean  upon  their  Holy  One,  the  Lord. 

(20,  21) 


21  For  verses  16-20  see  p.  284. 

22  For  verses  28-32  see  p.  289. 


292  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  9 
THE  BIETH  OF  THE  PEINCE 

The  people  that  walked  in  darkness  have  seen  a  great  light, 
Upon  those  who  dwelt  in  a  land  of  gloom  a  radiance  has  shown : 

,    Thou  hast  multiplied  their  gladness, 
And  magnified  their  joy — 

They  rejoice  before  thee  as  with  joy  of  the  harvest. 

As  men  are  glad  when  they  share  the  spoil.  (Ij  2) 

For  the  yoke  of  their  necks 

And  their  shoulders'  load, 

The  smiter's  staff 

And  the  oppressor's  rod 

Hast  thou  broken  as  on  Midian's  day, 

Hast  thou  shattered  as  on  Egypt's  road.     (3abxcx) 

Yea,  every  boot  that  in  ruthlessness  tramped, 
And  every  garment  that  in  blood  was  rolled. 

Hath  been  given  for  burning. 

For  the  food  of  flames.  (4) 

For  a  boy  hath  been  born  to  us, 
A  son  hath  been  given  to  us. 

And  his  name  is  Wonder-Counsellor, 
Mighty-Hero, 
Father  of  Knowledge, 
Prince  of  Peace,  (5) 

For  the  increase  of  right. 
And  peace  without  end. 

On  David's  throne, 
And  over  his  domain. 

To  establish  it,       ' 
And  to  sustain, 

In  justice, 
And  in  right. 

From  now 
And  for  ay — 

The  zeal  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts  will  accomplish  this.         (6) 


Vol,  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         293 


NOTES  ON  THE  PARALLELISM  OF  ISAIAH, 

CHAPS.  1-10 

Chapter  1 

2.   (a)  Hear,  O  heavens;    (b)  and  give  ear,  O  earth;    (c)   for  the 
Lord  hath  spoken. 

This  introductory  strophe  consists  of  three  parallel  lines,  in 
which,  however,  the  parallelism  between  the  first  and  second 
lines  is  closer  than  that  between  the  third  and  the  other  two ; 
for  the  parallelism  between  the  first  two  lines  is  produced  by 
synonyms,  ' '  hear ' '  and  *  *  give  ear, ' '  and  complements,  ' '  heaven ' ' 
and  ' '  earth ' ' ;  whereas  the  third  line  contains  no  synonym  for 
any  of  these  terms,  but  only  complements,  namely,  "the  Lord," 
complementary  to  "heaven"  and  "earth,"  and  "hath  spoken," 
complementary  to  "hear"  and  "give  ear."  This  is  a  fairly 
common  type  of  strophe  in  Isaiah  (cf.  2.10,  11)  ;  sometimes  the 
variation  in  the  third  line  is  further  emphasized  by  a  difference 
in  length,  in  the  number  of  rhythmic  beats.  Such  a  difference 
in  the  degree  of  closeness  of  parallelism  produces  a  slight  sense 
of  asymmetry,  which  is  frequently  satisfied  by  a  following 
strophe  of  similar  formation,  the  two  strophes  together  forming 
a  symmetrical  whole   (strophic  parallelism). 

The  emphatic  position  of  the  word  "Lord"  in  the  Hebrew 
of  this  strophe  should  be  noted:  "when  it  is  the  Lord  who 
speaks,  even  the  heavens  listen ' ' ;  the  theme  of  obedience  is  thus 
subtly  implied. 

2.   (d)   I  have  nourished  and  brought  up  children   (or  "sons"), 
(e)  and  they  have  rebelled  against  me. 

Parallelism  is  produced  by  the  opposites  "nourish"  ("cher- 
ish ' ' )  and  ' '  rebel "  ( "  forsake  " ) ,  and  by  the  relatives  ' '  children ' ' 
and  "God  [me]."  The  first  of  these  two  parallel  lines,  however, 
contains  two  exact  synonyms,  "nourished"  and  "brought  up," 
which  suggests  that  it  may  originally  have  formed  two  lines.  A 
comparison  with  Is.  23.4,  where  the  same  pair  of  synonyms, 
"nourish"  and  "bring  up,"  occurs,  followed  by  a  masculine 


294  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  1 

and  feminine  object  respectively,  makes  plausible  the  insertion 
of  the  word  "daughters,"  hdnoth,  here  as  the  object  of  the  sec- 
ond verb,  romamtl.  Isaiah's  frequent  inclusion  of  women  in 
his  denunciations  makes  it  certain  that  he  included  them  here 
also,  at  least  in  his  thoughts.  Moreover,  there  would  thus  be 
removed  one  of  the  always  suspicious  cases  of  the  so-called  ' '  weak 
waw,"  w^-rdniamtl  (contrast  w^^'dnu  w^-'dhhHu  3.26)  ;  and  the 
strophe  would  now  be  identical  in  form  with  the  preceding 
strophe  (containing  two  lines  closely  synonymous,  followed  by 
a  third  in  comparatively  more  distant  parallelism),  to  which, 
indeed,  it  stands  in  antithetic  thought  parallelism  as  an  anti- 
strophe  :  the  heavens  listen  to  God,  though  Israel  refuses  to  listen. 
The  emphatic  position  of  "sons"  in  the  Hebrew  of  this 
verse  should  again  be  noted;  the  emphasized  idea  of  Israel 
as  children  and  God  as  father,  forces  the  mind  to  select,  or  at 
least  emphasize,  in  giddaltl  and  romamtl  the  meaning  "bring 
up,"  "nourish,"  rather  than  "magnify,"  "exalt";  and  simi- 
larly to  emphasize  in  pasha'  the  meaning  "disobey,"  "rebel," 
rather  than  the  more  general  "transgress";  though,  of  course, 
the  other  ideas  may  still  be  present  as  undertones. 

3.  (a)  The  ox  knoweth  his  owner,  (b)  and  the  ass  his  master's 
crib,  (c)  (but)  Israel  doth  not  know,  (d)  my  people  doth  not  con- 
sider. 

The  change  from  the  three  line  to  the  four  line  strophe  marks 

a  slight  change  in  the  figure,  though  the  transition  is  a  subtle 

one.     The  t6rm  ' '  owner, ' '  qone,  is  very  close,  in  figurative  usage, 

to  "father";  in  Deut.  32.6  the  two  terms  "father"  and  "owner" 

(A.  V.  "that  has  bought  thee")   occur  together.      But  in  the 

second  member  of  the  parallelism  here  the  word  "crib"    (or 

"manger")  adds  to  the  idea  of  disobedience  the  suggestion  of 

ingratitude  and  also  of  stupidity,  in  Israel's  failure  to  recognize 

the  source  of  material  blessings.      The  last  two  stichoi  of  the 

strophe,  while  closely  parallel  to  the  two  immediately  preceding, 

are  also  parallel  in  thought  to  all  that  has  gone  before.    "Doth 

not   know"   and   "doth   not   consider"   are   without   expressed 

object ;  the  immediate  parallelism  supplies  the  object  in  thought : 


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Chapter  1 
"Israel  does  not  know  and  recognize  me";  but  also,  without 
object:  ''Israel  is  without  knowledge  and  understanding,"  in 
all  the  implications  of  those  terms.  The  whole  prophecy  to  this 
point,  then,  is  in  a  way  summed  up  in  these  two  lines.  The 
section  consists  of  ten  lines;  and  it  will  be  seen  that  about  ten 
lines  are  frequently  given  in  Isaiah  to  the  development  of  a 
theme — a  statement  which  does  not  imply,  of  course,  that  the 
prophet  counted  the  lines. 

4.  (a)  Ah,  sinful  nation,  (b)  a  people  laden  with  iniquity,  (c) 
a  seed  of  evil-doers,  (d)  children  that  are  corrupters. 

A  strophe  of  four  perfectly  synonymous  lines ;  the  compound 
phrase  "laden  with  iniquity"  takes  the  place  of  a  simple  adjec- 
tive or  participle,  possibly  merely  because  the  root  of  the  noun 
'dwon  (Arabic  ghawd)  was  not  used  in  other  formation  at  this 
early  period;  if  this  be  true,  it  would  seem  to  show  that  Isaiah 
kept  this  root  clearly  distinct  from  the  'dwd  (Arabic  'awd) 
used  in  21.3,  24.1,  19.14;  note  that  the  roots  ghawd  and  x^fO'' 
are  exact  synonyms  :  lit.  ' '  miss  the  way ' '  Isaiah  seems, .  even 
more  than  other  writers,  conscious  of  Semitic  root  distinctions. 

4.  (e)  They  have  forsaken  the  Lord,  (f)  they  have  provoked 
the  Holy  One  of  Israel  unto  anger,  (g)  they  are  gone  (lit.  become 
estranged)   backward. 

As  the  text  stands  there  is  here  a  reversion  to  the  three  stichoi 

type   of  strophe:   three  parallel  lines    (in   Hebrew  "provoked 

unto  anger"  is  one  word),  the  third,  however,  showing  a  slight 

difference  in  grammatical  structure.      There   is  close  thought 

parallelism  between  this  strophe   and  the  preceding;  the  one 

declares  the  sin,  the  other  defines  it  in  specific  terms.      In  such 

cases  one  expects  a  parallelism  in  form  between  the  strophe  and 

the  antistrophe,  and  this  expectation    is  worthy  of  consideration 

in  the  present  instance  because  of  the  abnormal  phrase  "become 

estranged  backward.'     In  Ezek.  14.5  occurs  simply:  "they  are 

all  estranged  from  me"  {ndzoru  me-'dlai)  ;  and  in  Is.  42.17,  50.5; 

Jer.  38.22,  the  phrase  "turned   [away]   back,'^  wasof/Ziw   'dxdr; 

it  is  quite  possible,  then,  that  the  words  "from  Him"  "they  have 

turned,"    me-'dlaw,   ndsoghu,    have    fallen    out,    and   that   the 


296  ^      University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  1 

strophe  should  be  restored  to  one  of  four  lines  like  that  pre- 
ceding, and  without  anj^  linguistic  gaucherie. 

5.   (a)  Why  should  ye  be  stricken  any  more?      (b)  Ye  will  revolt 
more  and  more   (lit.  "add  revolt"). 

Even  if  these  two  lines  are  read  as  parallels  in  form,  with 
"why"  (or  "where")  repeated  in  thought  before  the  second, 
they  are  not  logically  parallel;  and  if  "why"  is  not  supplied, 
the  second  clause  would  seem  to  be  subordinate  to  the  first,  a 
circumstantial  clause  in  form.  Psychologically  there  seems  to 
be  no  reason  here  for  the  avoidance  of  parallelism.  There  is 
no  climax  and  no  sudden  injection  of  a  new  idea  in  the  word 
"revolt" — indeed,  that  idea  has  been  repeatedly  expressed  in 
the  four  lines  just  preceding ;  in  the  first  line  of  this  new  stanza, 
the  address  turns  from  the  heavens  and  earth  to  the  people 
themselves,  and  the  thought  turns  to  punishment ;  and,  with  the 
exception  of  the  line  in  question,  which  blurs  the  artistic  unity 
of  the  structure,  the  theme  of  punishment  is  developed  in  par- 
allelism through  verse  9.  Moreover,  the  natural  expectation 
of  parallelism  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  "any  more," 
'odh,  and  "more  and  more,"  toslfu,  are,  indeed,  parallel  terms. 
It  is  barely  possible,  of  course,  that  like  other  words  denoting 
an  attitude  toward  God,  sard,  "revolt,"  by  a  species  of 
metonymy,  denotes  at  the  same  time  the  reciprocal  attitude  of 
God  toward  the  revolter,  i.e.,  desertion  of  man  by  God,  hence 
punishment  and  disaster  (cf.  'dwon:  both  "iniquity"  and 
' '  punishment " ;  so  also  x^'t'  /  Q^dhdqd,  ' '  righteousness ' '  and  ' '  sal- 
vation"; hdrekh,  "kneel  to"  (lit.  "adore")  and  "cause  to 
prosper";  kdhhod,  God's  "glory,"  and  man's  "reverence";  see 
also  the  note  on  hddhdr,  2.11).  But  it  is  far  more  likely  that 
in  the  course  of  either  written  or  oral  tradition,  when  the  orig- 
inal stylistic  beauty  of  the  prophecy  came  to  be  neglected,  sdrd 
replaced  some  word  denoting  specifically  "pain,"  "anguish," 
e.g.,  the  approximate  homonym  gdrd  (cf.  Jer.  49.24,  where  gdrd 
denotes  physical  anguish;  and  with  the  restored  phrase  "add 
anguish,"  i.e.,  "increase  your  anguish,"  cf.  Is.  29.19:  "the 
meek  shall  add  joy":  "increase  their  joy"). 


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Chapter  1 
5-6.   (5c)  The  whole  head  is  sick,  (d)  and  the  whole  heart  faint. 
(6a)   From  the  sole  of  the  foot  even  unto  the  head    (there  is)    no 
soundness  in  it. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  whether  this  is  to  be  considered  a  three 
or  a  four  stichoi  strophe.  "From  sole  of  foot  to  head"  means 
"the  whole  body,"  and  stands  in  thought  parallel  to  "the 
whole"  of  the  preceding  lines;  also  parallel  might  be  "no  sound- 
ness in  it " ;  but  it  is  also  possible  to  read  all  of  the  words  in  6a 
together  as  a  single  long  stichos ;  there  would  result  a  strophe 
of  two  short  and  one  long  stichoi,  the  last  not  in  as  close  verbal 
parallelism  to  the  first  and  second  as  they  are  to  each  other 
(cf.  verse  2  of  this  chapter).  The  repetition  of  the  word 
"head,"  rosh,  in  two  lines  of  close  propinquity,  calls  for  criti- 
cism ;  such  a  repetition,  unless  the  word  is  used  in  exactly  the 
same  syntactic  construction,  hence  for  the  purpose  of  special 
emphasis,  is  stylistically  as  inelegant  in  Hebrew  as  in  any  other 
language.  "All  the  head  is  sick,  from  the  head  to  the  foot  no 
soundness,  mHhom,  in  it,"  is  awkward;  evidently,  moreover,  the 
antecedent  of  "  it "  is  meant  to  be  "  body. "  It  is  quite  probable, 
then,  that  the  first  rosh  has  displaced  an  original  hdsdr,  "flesh" 
or  ' '  body ' ' :  the  whole  bodj^  inside  and  out,  is  diseased.  In 
support  of  this  emendation  Ps.  38.4  may  be  cited:  "there  is  no 
soundness  [A.  V.  'sound  spot']  in  my  body."  The  word 
m^thom  occurs  only  in  these  two  passages ;  its  formation  is  some- 
what irregular,  and  it  was  quite  possibly  coined  by  Isaiah  him- 
self, in  which  case  the  phrase  in  the  Psalms  would  seem  to  be 
a  quotation  from  Isaiah,  and  to  preserve  the  original  form  of 
the  expression. 

6.  (b)  Wounds,  and  bruises,  and  putrifying  sores;  (c)  they 
have  not  been  closed,  neither  bound  up,  neither  mollified  with  oint- 
ment. 

If  the  preceding  is  a  three  line  strophe,  then  this  section  also 
might  be  divided  to  make  two  three  line  strophes,  each  consist- 
ing of  two  single  synonyms  parallel  in  form  (masculine),  plus 
a  third  synonym  (feminine)  modified  by  an  additional  word. 
In  thought,  also,  these  two  strophes  are  parallel  to  the  preced- 
ing :  the  body  is  sick ;  it  is  all  one  wound ;  it  is  not  treated. 


298  University  of  California  Publications.      L^em.  Phil. 

Chapter  1 

7.  (a)  Your  country  (is)  desolate,  (b)  your  cities  (are)  burned 
with  fire:  (c)  your  land,  strangers  devour  it  in  your  presence,  (d) 
and  (it  is)   desolate,  as  overthrown  by  strangers. 

This  strophe  is  identical  in  meaning  with  the  last,  with  the 
substitution  of  literal  for  figurative  terms;  it  is  an  antistrophe 
in  thought.  Stylistically,  the  last  phrase  ("and  it  is  desolate," 
etc.,  lit.  "and  desolation")  is  offensive:  it  contains  a  repetition 
of  two  words  already  used  in  the  strophe,  "desolate"  and 
' '  strangers  " ;  or  of  one  term,  if  for  ' '  strangers ' '  be  substituted 
the  reading  ' '  Sodom, ' '  as  suggested  by  some  critics  :  ' '  and  deso- 
late like  the  overthrowing  of  Siodom" — which,  in  its  turn,  is 
objectionable  from  another  standpoint  (see  below).  Prob- 
abl3^  the  words  "desolate"  and  "strangers"  have  come  from 
some  marginal  note  on  these  words,  while  "overthrown,"  k^- 
mahpekhath,  similarly  is  due  to  the  reference  to  Sodom  below; 
these  words  were  then  taken  up  by  a  copyist  and  combined  into 
the  awkward  appendage  to  the  strophe.  Without  it  the  verse 
consists  of  two  normal  lines  plus  a  third  longer  line,  the  third, 
perhaps,  excessively  long;  possiblj^  P-neghd<^khem,  "in  your 
presence,"  also  has  come  from  the  margin,  in  reality  a  gloss 
d^ghan^khem,  "your  corn,"  explaining  "your  land." 

8.  (a)  And  the  daughter  of  Zion  is  left  as  a  cottage  in  a  vine- 
yard, (b)  as  a  lodge  in  a  garden  of  cucumbers,  (c)  as  a  besieged 
(lit.  "guarded")   city. 

Again,  apparently,  a  three  stichoi  strophe,  this  time  with  the 
longer  line  first ;  in  form  it  is  inversely  parallel  to  the  preceding 
strophe.  The  thought  parallelism,  however,  is  obscured  in  8c ;  for 
the  phrase  ' '  like  a  guarded  city, ' '  k^-'  ir  n^gurd,  is  not  parallel  to 
"cottage"  (lit.  "booth"),  and  "lodge."  "Guarded  city,"  if 
it  occurred  elsewhere,  would  certainly  be  interpreted  "city  pre- 
served from  danger"  or  possibly  "garrisoned,"  like  the  Arabic 
madlna  maxrUsa  or  maxfutha;  or  "city  formerly  guarded" 
(cf.  1.21,  "the  [once]  faithful  city";  27.10,  "the  [once]  forti- 
fied city  is  desolate").  To  read  (or  understand),  instead, 
"blockaded  city"  still  leaves  the  picture  blurred;  the  assump- 
tion must  be  that  Isaiah  left  the  picture  of  absolute  loneliness 
expressed  in  the  first  two  lines  as  clear  as  it  is  left  in  30.17: 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         299 

Chapter  1 
''till  ye  be  left  as  a  mast  {tor en;  A.  V,  'beacon')  upon  the  top 
of  a  mountain,  and  as  an  ensign  on  a  hill."  Perhaps  the 
simplest  correction  would  be  to  omit  the  last  "as,"  k^,  and 
read:  "as  a  lodge  in  a  garden  of  cucumbers  (is)  the  once 
guarded  city";  the  strophe  would  then  consist  of  two  lines  of 
equal  length.  But  it  seems  more  probable  that  the  form  of  the 
strophe  as  handed  down  is  correct,  even  if  some  more  violent 
change  in  the  text  is  necessary  to  restore  its  consistency.  The 
word  n^Qurd  suggests  the  Arabic  ndthilra  (cf.  Aramaic  ndtord), 
applied  to  the  light  scaffold  on  which  the  watchman  stands  in 
the  orchards  around  Damascus;  perhaps  in  'ir,  "city,"  there  is 
a  corruption  of  some  such  word  as  'ore^i  (with  the  n  repeated 
from  the  next  word)  ;  in  the  Jerusalem  Talmud  to  Bdbd  Bathrd 
ix.l6d  occurs  'irdnyd  (root  ' aran  or  'urf)  :  "  Holzgeriiste  worauf 
die  Wachter  der  Felder  zur  Umschau  standen"  (Levy,  Neuheh. 
Worterhuch).  Finally,  there  is  the  possibility  that  'ir  n^qurd 
is  a  corruption  for  'ir  h<^Qurd,  and  this  an  associative  lapsus 
linguae  for  mighdal  nog^rim,  ' '  tower  of  the  watchers, ' '  from 
the  apparently  common  phrase  "from  the  tower  of  the  watch- 
man to  the  fortified  city"  (II  Kings  17;9,  18.8)  ;  the  probability 
of  such  a  substitution  of  terms  of  exactly  opposite  connotation 
will  be  discussed  in  other  places  also;  e.g.,  2.12  ("low"  for 
"high"). 

9.  (a)  Except  the  Lord  had  left  unto  us  a  very  small  remnant 
(lit.  a  remnant  like  a  little),  we  should  have  been  as  Sodom,  (b) 
(and)  we  should  have  been  like  unto  Gomorrah. 

Though  there  is  parallelism  between  the  two  apodoses  of  this 
sentence,  the  protasis  has  no  parallel ;  and  while  there  are  many 
examples  in  Isaiah  of  a  long  line  with  parallels  only  for  the 
latter  portion,  this  phenomenon  is  exceedingly  rare  where  such 
a  distinct  entity  as  a  protasis  is  concerned  (for  a  somewhat  sim- 
ilar case  see  4.2)  ;  moreover,  the  long  line  here  is  excessively 
long.  The  verse  is  suspicious  because  the  Prophet  here  appar- 
ently includes  hilnself  among  the  people  ("had  left  unto  us, 
we  should  have  been"),  whereas  elsewhere  throughout  this 
prophecy,  and,  indeed,  practically  always  he  identifies  himself 


300  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  1 

entirely  with  the  divine  voice  (such  an  exception  as  the  term 
"our  God,"  in  verse  10,  is  without  significance,  while  that  in 
2.5  will  be  explained  later).  The  words  sound  like  an  "aside," 
injected  at  a  later  time ;  for  they  blur  the  evident  intent  to  pic- 
ture a  process  of  destruction  still  threatening  absolute  extinction 
unless  reformation  is  immediate;  cf.  2.22.  Leaving  aside  the 
objection  to  the  first  person,  the  verse  might  be  restored  to 
parallelism  and  consistency  of  theme  by  omitting  the  protasis, 
and  reading  simply:  "almost  are  we  become  as  Sodom,  do  we 
resemble  Gomorrah."  But  there  is  still  the  strong  objection 
to  person,  and  to  the  further  fact  that  it  weakens  the  force  of 
the  following  lines ;  the  whole  strophe  is  probably  a  gloss. 

10.   (a)   Hear  the  words  of  the  Lord  ye  rulers   of  Sodom;    (b) 
give  ear  unto  the  law  of  our  God,  ye  people  of  Gomorrah. 

These  two  lines  are  an  example  of  perfect  parallelism;  and 
yet,  while  submissive  to  the  self-imposed  restraint  of  form,  the 
Prophet-poet  in  a  characteristic  manner,  which  gains  in  dramatic 
force  just  because  of  that  formal  restraint,  by  the  twist  of  a 
single  phrase  turns  his  prophecy  into  a  direct  and  scathing 
denunciation  of  his  audience.  The  address  "Hear  the  word  of 
the  Lord,  ye  princes"  contains  no  suggestion  of  the  bitter  sar- 
casm 'to  come  at  the  end  of  the  line ;  indeed,  if  verses  lOff.  belong 
with  verses  2  to  9  as  one  prophecy,  the  first  words  of  verse  10 
intentionally  recall  the  parallel  address  ("Hear,  0  heaven!") 
in  verse  2,  and  allow  the  listening  princes  the  expectation  that 
they,  too,  are  to  be  called  upon  to  hear  of  Israel's  troubles  and 
faults;  a  recital  to  which  they  are  ready  to  listen  sympathet- 
ically, since  according  to  the  fashion  of  human  nature,  they  have 
not  realized  their  own  share  in  guilt.  With  the  end  of  the 
line  ("Sodom")  the  appeal  becomes  suddenly  a  condemnation. 
Again,  in  the  next  line,  the  ordinary  course  of  parallelism  would 
probably  have  led  the  hearer  to  expect  parallel  to  "princes  of 
Sodom"  such  a  phrase  as  "leaders  of  Gomorrah"  (see  e.g.. 
Judges  5.3:  "Hear,  0  ye  kings;  give  ear,  0  ye  princes")  ;  but, 
instead,  the  people  themselves  are  swept  into  the  denunciation. 
Such  a  sudden  sarcastic  turn  to  a  phrase  is  found  also  in  5.22 


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Chaptee  1 
("Ah!  those  who  are  mighty — in  drinking  wine!"  See  further- 
more the  note  to  3.6). 

11-15.  (lla)  To  what  purpose  is  the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices 
unto  me?  saith  the  Lord;  (b)  I  am  full  of  the  burnt  offerings  of 
rams,  (c)  and  the  fat  of  fed  beasts;  (d)  and  I  delight  not  in  the 
blood  of  bullocks,  (e)  or  of  lambs,  or  of  he  goats.  (12)  When  ye 
come  to  appear  before  me,  who  hath  required  this  at  your  hand  to 
tread  my  courts?  (13a)  Bring  no  more  vain  oblations:  (b)  incense 
is  an  abomination  unto  me,  (c)  the  .new  moons  and  sabbaths,  the 
calling  of  assemblies,  I  cannot  away  with;  (d)  (it  is)  iniquity,  even 
the  solemn  meeting.  (14a)  Your  new  moons  and  your  appointed 
feasts  my  soul  hateth;  (b)  they  are  a  trouble  unto  me;  (c)  I  am 
weary  to  bear  (them).  (15a)  And  when  ye  spread  forth  your 
hands,  I  will  hide  mine  eyes  from  you;  (b)  yea,  when  ye  make  many 
prayers,  I  will  not  hear:   (c)  your  hands  are  full  of  blood. 

In  this  series  of  verses  the  general  intent  of  parallelism  seems 
evident;  each  phase  has  at  least  one  parallel  (except  "saith  the 
Lord,"  which,  not  forming  part  of  the  prophecy,  may  always 
be  regarded  as  parenthetical).  As  the  text  stands  at  present, 
however,  the  parallelistic  order  does  not  always  stand  out  as 
clearly  as  it  has  in  previous  strophes ;  nor  is  the  theme  developed 
in  quite  the  logical  manner  one  is  led  to  expect  in  Isaiah.  Surely 
the  clear  visualization  of  a  scene  of  formal  service  such  as  is  here 
described  would  result  in  placing  at  the  beginning  of  the  pic- 
ture those  elements  which  stand  logically  first :  the  parallel 
phrases  "appear  before  me"  and  "tread  my  courts."  It  is 
not  difficult  to  suppc^e  that  by  accident  verse  12  was  omitted 
from  its  proper  place  after  the  words  "To  what  purpose  is  it 
unto  me"  (translate  then:  "that"  [kl,  instead  of  "when"]  ye 
come"  etc.),  was  written  in  the  margin,  and  was  then  inserted 
by  a  copyist  in  the  wrong  place.  The  transposition  produces 
at  the  same  time  structural  parallelism  at  the  opening,  in  the 
form  of  a  double  question  (incidentally,  "at  your  hand"  [miy- 
yedh^khem]  in  verse  12  is  probably  a  slip  for  "from  you," 
mik-kem).  Furthermore,  by  placing,  "I  delight  not  in"  (lid) 
as  the  predicate  of  "the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices"  another 
parallelism  is  restored:  "I  am  full  of"  and  "I  delight  not  in" 
(or  "desire  not"),  with  parallel  generic  objects  "sacrifices," 


302  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  1 

z^hhdxim,  and  "burnt-offerings,"  'oloth;  in  apposition  with 
which  follows  a  series  of  specific  terms.  It  should  further  be 
noticed  that  with  these  slight  transpositions  there  results  also  a 
natural  progression  in  the  description  of  the  divine  attitude 
toward  service :  from  a  rhetorical  questioning  of  its  utility 
through  an  expression  of  satiety,  displeasure,  weariness,  and 
loathing,  to  the  climax  in  verse  15,  absolute  rejection. 

In  verse  13,  the  words  "vain,"  shdw,  and  "iniquity,"  dwen, 
are  striking;  they  soften  the  idea,  expressed  up  to  this  point, 
that  God  rejects  formal  hand  and  lip  service — they  have  the 
appearance  of  an  afterthought ;  for  surely  the  logical  place  for 
such  modifying  terms  would  have  been  at  the  beginning  or  at 
the  end;  it  could  not  have  been  Isaiah's  intention  to  condemn 
all  other  service,  whether  ' '  vain ' '  or  not,  and  condemn  only  such 
oblation  as  is  "vain,"  Moreover,  the  word  "iniquity,"  dwen, 
is  awkwardly  inserted  into  the  middle  of  what  would  otherwise 
be  a  perfectly  natural  phrase,  "the  calling  of  assemblies  and 
[R.  V.  "even"]  the  solemn  meeting,"  q^ro'  niiqrd'  wa-^'Qdrd. 
Evidently  the  interrupting  words  have  come  from  the  margin; 
16'  ukhal  was  written  there  because  accidentally  omitted  from 
its  proper  place;  while  dwen  (like  the  corresponding  s/iaw  above), 
was  the  addition  of  a  reader  who  wished  to  soften  the  absolute 
condemnation  of  service.  If,  nevertheless,  'dwen  and  shdw  are 
to  be  retained,  they  must  at  least  be  placed  in  parallelism. 

Surely,  too,  in  verse  14  "your  new  moons,"  xodhshekhem,  is 
a  careless  slip :  the  new  moon  has  just  been  mentioned  in  verse 
13 ;  intended  was  evidently  '  *  your  festivals, ' '  x^QQ^^^^'^f  the 
absence  of  any  reference  to  which  would  be  noticeable  (cf.  Amos 
5.22)  in  a  list  as  detailed  as  is  this  one.  The  abundance  of  detail 
in  verses  1-14  is  worthy  of  note,  as  it  offers  evidence  in  support 
of  the  authenticity  of  detailed  lists  elsewhere  in  Isaiah;  extreme 
detail  has  a  stylistic  and  dramatic  value  at  times,  no  less  than 
extreme  terseness ;  here  it  is  admirably  adapted  to  the  theme. 

In  verse  15,  while  the  first  two  lines  are  in  synonymous  par- 
allelism, there  is  no  similar  parallel  to  the  third  sentence:  "your 
hands  are  full  of  blood."      On  purely  rhetorical  grounds  the 


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Chapter  1 
climax  here  might  indeed  justify  a  casting  off  of  formal  re- 
straint, and  gain  in  force  hj  abruptness;  but  at  the  same  time 
the  line  does  stand  in  a  more  distant  parallelism,  that  of  effect 
and  cause,  with  the  first  line  of  the  strophe  ("when  ye  spread 
forth  your  palms  [A.  V.  "hands"]  I  will  hide  mine  eyes"), 
the  intent  at  parallelism  being  made  clear  by  the  synonymous 
terms  "palms"  and  'hands";  contrasted  with  this  specific  rela- 
tionship the  absence  of  a  fourth  line  complementary  to  the 
second  ("Yea,  when  ye  make  many  prayers,  I  will  not  hear") 
becomes  illogical.  In  previous  cases  of  three  line  parallelism, 
with  the  third  line  differing  from  the  first  two,  the  third  stood  ' 
in  no  closer  parallelism  to  one  than  to  the  other  of  them;  but 
here,  as  the  text  stands,  proximity  alone  would,  to  the  careful 
reader,  make  "uncleanness  of  hands"  seem  the  specific  reason 
for  the  rejection  of  service  of  the  lips.  In  Is.  59.1-3,  where  this 
theme  is  echoed  (such  apparent  references  to  the  earlier  Isaiah 
are  fairly  frequent  in  the  later),  occurs  the  passage:  "Neither 
is  His  ear  heavy,  that  it  cannot  hear;  your  sins  have  hid  his 
face  from  you  that  He  will  not  hear;  for  your  hands  are  defiled 
with  blood  and  your  fingers  with  iniquity ;  j^our  lips  have  spoken 
lies,  your  tongue  hath  uttered  perverseness ' ' ;  which  suggests 
that  probably  a  line  has  fallen  out  in  Is.  1.5:  "your  lips  are 
defiled  with  lies"  (cf.  in  6.5  "man  of  unclean  lips . . .  in  the 
midst  of  a  people  of  unclean  lips")  ;  here  specifically  with  ref- 
erence to  false  testimony  and  unjust  judgment  (cf.  Is.  32.7), 
the  theme  developed  in  verse  17,  (For  another  parallel  to 
"blood"  cf.  4.4.) 

This  section,  verses  10-15  as  now  arranged,  contains  just 
twenty  lines  (see  the  translation). 

16-17.  (16a)  Wash  you,  (b)  make  you  clean;  (e)  put  away 
the  evil  of  your  doings  from  before  mine  eyes;  (d)  cease  to  do 
evil;  (17a)  learn  to  do  well;  (b)  seek  judgment,  (c)  release  the, 
oppressed;    (d)  judge  the  fatherless;    (e)   plead  for  the  widow. 

The  syntactic  parallelism  is  evident  because  of  the  nine  im- 
peratives; but  closer  logical  parallelism  groups  the  following 
pairs:  "wash"  and  "cleanse";  "cease  to  do  evil,"  "learn  to 


304  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  1 

do  well "  ;  "  judge  the  fatherless, "  "  plead  for  the  widow. ' '  The 
first  couplet  ("wash  you,"  "make  you  clean")  is  a  figurative 
general  introduction  to  the  whole  series  of  specific,  literal  terms 
that  follows,  and  at  the  same  time  forms  a  parallelistic  connec- 
tion with  the  end  (verse  15)  of  the  last  strophe  as  restored  (your 
hands  are  bloody,  your  lips  defiled :  wash  you,  i.e.  your  hands : 
cleanse  you,  i.e.  your  lips).  Noticeable  is  the  excessive  length 
of  the  line  "Put  awaj^  the  evil  of  your  doings  from  before  mine 
eyes ' ' ;  the  line  is  suspicious  also  because  of  the  repetition  of 
the  root  (though  not  the  exact  form)  "evil";  "put  away  the  evil 
of  your  deeds"  and  "cease  to  do  evil"  are  too  nearly  identical 
to  justify  the  repetition  even  in  a  passage  as  detailed  as  this; 
for  surely  the  addition  of  the  words  "from  before  mine  eyes" 
to  the  first  of  these  phrases  cannot  be  meant  to  be  emphatic 
(i.e.,  do  your  evil  deeds  elsewhere)  ;  "put  away,"  kdslru,  by 
itself  means  "make  an  end  of"  (cf.  verses  25  and  3.18;  Jer. 
4.4).  The  similar  phrase  "before  you"  has  been  noticed  in 
verse  7 ;  see  again  in  13.16 ;  also  Amos  9.3 ;  it  is  a  phrase  which 
might  readily  slip  off  the  tongue  (or  the  pen)  of  a  reader  or  an 
editor.  Symmetry  is  secured  by  omitting  this  line  of  glosses ; 
read  hdslru  for  'ashsh^rit  (lit.  (a)  "lead"  or  (&)  "call  happy")  ; 
and  correct  the  aira^  Xeyo/xevov  x^'^^^Q  to  x^^ios  ("violence," 
"injustice")  in  17c. 

18-20.  (18a)  Come  now,  and  let  us  reason  together,  saith  the 
Lord:  (b)  Though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  as  white  as 
snow;  (c)  though  they  be  red  like  crimson,  they  shall  be  as  wool. 
(19)  If  ye  be  willing  and  obedient,  ye  shall  eat  of  the  good  of  the 
land;  (20a)  But  if  ye  refuse  and  rebel,  ye  shall  be  devoured  with 
the  sword;    (b)   for  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spoken  it. 

A  double  pair  of  parallels,  each  of  the  four  stichoi  in  the 
form  of  a  hypothetical  sentence,  stand  between  two  single  lines 
(18a,  20b),  which  to  a  certain  extent,  also  form  a  parallel;  i.e., 
an  example  of  the  ' '  envelope ' '  construction ;  at  the  same  time 
the  last  stichos,  "For  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spoken,"  is 
parallel  to  a  phrase  in  the  first  strophe  of  the  whole  prophecy 
(verse  2). 


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Chapter  1 
Of  the  four  intervening  sentences,  the  second  pair  (''if  ye 
be  willing,  etc.")  contain  a  clear  statement  of  the  logical,  just 
results  of  Israel's  conduct;  and  the  first  pair,  cast  in  exactly 
the  same  form,  must  be  interpreted  also  as  expressing  a  logical 
and  just  conclusion :  if  a  man  sins,  he  must  repent  and  make 
reparation,  and  the  deeper  the  sin,  the  greater  the  need  of  re- 
pentance ;  ' '  if  your  sins  are  as  scarlet,  then  shall  they  become 
(shall  you  make  them)  white  as  snow;  then  if  they  are  white  as 
snow  (if  you  are  wholly  obedient),  you  shall  prosper;  but  if 
you  are  rebellious  (if  your  sins  do  not  become  white  as  wool 
and  snow),  your  punishment  shall  continue  even  unto  absolute 
destruction."  Such  must  be  the  emphasis  in  these  verses  if 
there  is  any  significance  to  the  parallelism  in  formal  and  syn- 
tactic construction. 

21.  (a)  How  is  the  faithful  city  become  an  harlot!  (b)  (it  was) 
full  of  judgment,  (c)  righteousness  lodged  in  it;  (d)  but  now 
murderers. 

The  prophecy  extending  from  verse  21  through  verse  26 
shows  almost  perfect  parallelism.  Though  the  rhyme  also  is 
noticeable,  it  is  possibly  accidental  (see  also  2.6)  ;  indeed,  it 
is  sometimes  impossible  in  parallelism  to  avoid  that  degree 
of  rhyme  which  extends  only  to  verbal  and  nominal  sj-llabic 
suffixes;  and  this  fact  may  explain  the  origin  of  rhyme  in  the 
Arabic  saj' . 

In  verse  21  the  terms  "faithful  city,"  ''the  one  full  of  judg- 
ment" (or  "justice"),  "in  which  abode  righteousness^'  are  not 
only  thought  parallels,  but  also,  to  a  greater  extent  than  the 
English  reveals,  'syntactic  parallels.  The  construction  of  noun 
governing  a  following  abstract  genitive  so  frequently  takes  the 
place  of  noun  and  (in  Semitics  following)  adjective  that  the 
two  constructions  become  almost  identical  to  the  linguistic  con- 
sciousness ;  and  bpth  in  later  Hebrew  and  in  later  Arabic  the 
tendencj^  is  to  give  to  the  adjective  the  construction  proper  to 
the  abstract  noun.  The  relative  clause,  also,  is  so  closely  iden- 
tical with  the  adjective  (or  participle)  appositive  that  in  strict 


306  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  1 

Semitic  syntax  it  must  submit  to  thq  same  law  of  definiteness 
as  the  adjective;  and  on  the  other  hand,  as  the  adjective  itself 
may  always  be  used  as  an  independent  substantive  (e.g.,  in  verse 
24  "the  mighty  of  Israel"),  so  the  relative  clause  may  take  the 
place  of  a  substantive  (see  e.g.,  2.8,  20,  and  the  note  to  2.22)  ; 
here  the  clause  "righteousness  lodged  in  it"  may  be  a  relative 
clause,  with  relative  pronoun  omitted  (cf.  10.24)  •  it  is  prac- 
tically the  equivalent  of  "in  which  righteousness  used  to  lodge," 
"the  former  righteous  one";  and  its  appositional  parallelistic 
nature  is  made  certain  by  26c,  the  refrain,  where  "city  of 
righteousness"  is  substituted  for  it.  Moreover,  inasmuch  as 
ydlln,  "lodge,"  is  frequently  used  of  abstract  qualities  which 
"continue,"  th'e  clause  is  not  entirely  inconsistent  with  the  per- 
sonification of  the  city  introduced  at  the  beginning  of  the 
strophe ;  although  at  the  same  time  it  is  ' '  righteousness ' '  which 
in  this  stichos  is  personified  as  the  inhabitant  of  Zion.  In 
any  case,  all  three  lines  are  figurative ;  the  next  strophe  is  also 
figurative  (though  the  figure  changes)  ;  and  figurative  terms 
continue  to  verse  22.  Thus  the  one  line  (21d),  "and  now 
murderers,"  stands  alone  in  its  literalness,  at  the  same  time 
that  it  is  grammatically  awkward.  In  defence  of  the  line  in 
its  present  position  it  might  be  urged  that  its  very  awkwardness 
and  concreteness  give  it  a  special  climactic  emphasis ;  but,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  that  would  be  emphasis  misplaced;  for,  as  the 
poem  develops,  greed,  not  murder,  is  seen  to  be  its  real  sub- 
ject, and  the  following  strophe,  since  it  contains  no  similarly 
emphatic  term,  would  then  be  a  decided  anticlimax.  The  phrase 
is  probably  misplaced. 

Whether  a  three  or  four  line  strophe,  it  contains  a  long  first 
line,  with  parallels  only  for  the  latter  half,  a  not  uncommon  type 
(see  verse  8,  and  2.12,  2.20,  3.1,  3.18,  7.19;  cf.  also  10.12)  ;  the 
slight  feeling  of  asymmetry  holds  the  entire  poem  here  in  sus- 
pense until  the  concluding  strophe,  which  is  of  similar  forma- 
tion (though  consisting  of  only  two  lines)  and  also  of  almost 
identical  phraseology,  a  variety  of  the  envelope  figure  applied 
to  a  whole  poem  instead  of  merely  to  a  strophe  or  stanza. 


Vol.  1.]    Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         307 

Chapter  1 
22-23.  (22a)  Thy  silver  is  become  dross;  (b)  thy  wine  mixed 
with  water:  (23a)  thy  princes  (are)  rebellious,  (b)  and  companions 
of  thieves:  (c)  every  one  loveth  gifts,  (d)  and  foUoweth  after  re- 
wards; (e)  they  judge  not  the  fatherless,  (f)  neither  doth  the 
cause  of  the  widow  come  unto  them. 

Verse  23  explains  concretely  the  previous  figures;  and  from 
this  standpoint  the  reference  to  ''murderers"  in  verse  21 
belongs  here.  "And  now  murderers,"  w^- attd  m^raQQ^x^m,  is 
perhaps  a  corruption  of  an  original  phrase  "assembly  of  mur- 
derers," wa-O'dhath  m^ragg^x^m,  parallel  to  "companions  of 
thieves,"  or  better  "company  of  thieves"  {xebher  for  xc^&^^'e; 
cf .  Hosea  6.9 :  "  the  company  of  priests  murder  in  the  way ' ' ; 
for  '<^dhath,  cf.  Ps.  22.17,  "assembly  of  the  wicked";  also, 
"pack,"  "swarm").  The  term  "murderer"  here  is  perhaps 
hj^perbole ;  though  the  injustice  as  described  might  indeed  result 
in  the  death  of  those  defrauded.  The  transferrence  to  verse  23 
makes  another  three  line  (anti)  strophe,  each  line  of  which  cor- 
responds to  one  in  the  first  strophe :  faithfulness  and  rebellion ; 
justice  and  robbery ;  righteousness  and  murder ;  between  the  two, 
however,  stands  a  couplet,  verse  22. 

24.  (a)  Therefore  saith  the  Lord,  (b)  the  Lord  of  hosts,  (c) 
the  mighty  (One)  of  Israel,  (d)  Ah,  I  will  ease  me  of  mine  adver- 
saries, (e)  and  avenge  me  of  mine  enemies. 

If  the  introductory  words  (24a-c)  stand  within  the  strophic 
arrangement,  it  is  easy  to  divide  them  so  as  to  make  either 
another  two  line  strophe  (one  long  line  and  a  shorter  line  par- 
allel to  its  latter  half),  or  a  three  line  symmetrical  strophe. 

25-26.  (25a)  And  I  will  turn  my  hand  upon  thee,  (b)  and 
purely  purge  away  thy  dross,  (c)  and  take  away  all  thy  tin:  (26a) 
And  I  will  restore  thy  judges  as  at  the  first,  (b)  and  thy  counsellors 
as  at  the  beginning:  (c)  afterward  thou  shalt  again  be  called  The 
city  of  righteousness,   (d)   The  faithful  city. 

The  parallelism  is  again  evident  in  these  three  strophes; 
though  the  second  and  third  members  of  verse  25  are  more 
closely  parallel  to  each  other  than  they  are  to  the  first.  In 
matters  of  detail:  the  doubtful  word  "purely"    {kah-hor;  lit. 


308  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  1 

either  "like  purity"  or  "as  with  lye")  is  parallel  to  "all"; 
possibly  the  Septuagint  «?  Kadapov  represents  an  original  lah- 
hor:  "into  purity"  (cf.  "burn  into  lime"  in  Amos  2.1),  i.e., 
"entirely."  If,  however,  the  emendation  hak-kUr,  "in  a  fur- 
nace, ' '  is  accepted,  then  neither  this  word  nor  "  all "  is  emphatic ; 
both  are  inserted  for  the  sake  of  length :  for  ' '  smelt  in  the  fur- 
nace ' '  means  no  more  than  ' '  smelt ' '  alone.  The  repetition  of 
'dshlhhd  (verse  25,  "I  will  turn";  verse  26,  "I  will  restore"), 
in  two  different  senses  so  closelj'-  together,  is  inelegant;  the 
Septuagint,  which  does  not  intentionally  avoid  using  the  same 
word  twice  in  the  translation  of  Isaiah — indeed,  sometimes  uses 
repetition  where  the  Hebrew  uses  synonyms — has  eTrd^o)  in 
verse  25  {^  dshlbhd,  Amos  1.8),  and  eTncrr'qcrw  in  verse  26,  i.e., 
'dqlmd:  "I  will  establish."  The  latter  is  exactly  the  term  used 
in  Judges  2.16  {way-ydqcni  ''^dhonai  shoph^tim),  of  the  insti- 
tution of  the  Judges.  Perhaps,  however,  the  first  'dsMbhd  was 
originally  'dnlphd,  as  in  Is.  11.15  :  at  any  rate,  it  is  easy  to  believe 
that  in  one  case  or  the  other  the  text  was  illegible,  and  Hebrew 
and  Septuagint  each  supplied  a  word  from  the  context.  It  is 
also  possible,  since  verse  25  seems  to  be  an  antistrophe  to  verse 
22,  a  couplet,  that  verse  25a  ("And  I  will  turn  my  hand  upon 
thee")  is  out  of  place;  indeed,  since  it  is  a  proper  introduction 
to  a  new  act,  if  the  "enemies"  are  not  outside  enemies  who  are 
first  to  be  punished,  but  are  the  "robbers"  and  "murderers," 
the  ' '  dross ' '  and  ' '  alloy ' '  within,  this  transition  verse  is  logically 
superfluous. 

Concerning  the  closing  strophe,  see  under  verse  21. 

27.   (a)  Zion  shall  be  redeemed  with  judgment   (b)   and  her  con- 
verts with  righteousness. 

"Converts,"  shdbhehd,  is  parallel  to  "Zion":  perhaps  the 

closer  parallel  yosMbhehd  ("her  inhabitants";  cf.  "inhabitants 

of  Zion"   in   12.6,   "inhabitant   of   Jerusalem,"    5.3)    was   the 

original  reading;   it  is  Zion  and  her  at  present  unrepentant, 

inhabitants  that  need  redemption. 


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Chapter  1 

28.  (a)  And  the  destruction  (lit.  "breaking")  of  the  trans- 
gressors and  of  the  sinners  (shall  be)  together,  (b)  and  they  that 
forsake  the  Lord  will  be  consumed. 

Corruption  of  the  text  is  as  evident  here  as  is  the  intention 
of  parallelism;  but  whether  the  strophe  was  originally  one  of 
two  or  of  three  lines  is  doubtful.  The  last  member  of  the  strophe 
(''and  they  that'  forsake,"  etc.)  is  apparently  in  good  order; 
but  the  verb  yikhlu  might  better  be  translated  "shall  be  no 
more"  (cf.  "cease,"  as  in  16.4,  "the  spoiler  ceaseth,"  and  "be 
cut  off"  in  11.13)  ;  i.e.,  Zion  shall  be  redeemed  because  her  peo- 
ple shall  cease  to  be  forsakers  of  God.  This  interpretation  is 
demanded  if  verse  29  belongs  after  verse  28 ;  they  surely  cannot 
"be  ashamed"  when  "they  have  been  destroyed,"  nor  should 
they  be  destroyed  because  they  have  become  ashamed,  i.e.,  have 
repented.  The  parallel  verb  demanded  at  the  beginning  of 
verse  28,  then,  is  not  shdhh^ru,  "break,"  but  rather  shdhh^- 
thu,  "cease"  (cf.  Is.  14.4:  "the  oppressor  has  ceased");  and 
yaxdaw  ("together,"  due  perhaps  to  the  yaxddw  in  verse  31) 
was  perhaps  originally  yaxd^lu  ("cease  to  be,"  parallel  to 
shdhhath  in  24.8,  e.g. ;  cf.  Judges  5.6,  7).  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
a  two  line  verse  was  intended,  it  is  difficult  to  see  why  the 
superfluous  yaxdaw  was  added  to  a  line  sufficiently  long  without 
it.  The  three  line  strophe,  if  restored,  is  again  one  in  which 
the  third  synonym,  "deserters  of  God,"  differs  slightly  in  form 
and  in  degree  of  synonymity  from  the  first  and  second. 

29.  (a)  For  they  shall  be  ashamed  of  the  oaks  which  ye  have 
desired,  (b)  and  ye  shall  be  confounded  for  the  gardens  that  ye  have 
chosen. 

The  correction  "j-e"  for  "they"  (shall  be  ashamed)  in 
stichos  a  is  demanded  by  the  parallelism  in  b ;  Septuagint,  how- 
ever, reads  third  person  throughout.  If  the  second  person  is 
correct,  the  validity  of  the  interpretation  advanced  for  the 
previous  verse  is  strengthened :  those  who  are  to  be  redeemed 
are  the  very  sinners  to  whom  the  Prophet  is  addressing  himself 
here.  "To  be  ashamed  of,"  of  course,  is  "to  be  disappointed 
in,"  and  "come  to  a  realization  of  the  uselessness  of." 


310  University  of  California  Publicaiions.      [Sem.Phil. 

Chapter  1 

30.  (a)  For  ye  shall  be  as  an  oak  whose  leaf  fadeth,  (b)  and 
as  a  garden  that  hath  no  water. 

Two  facts  of  style  are  noticeable  here :  the  repetition  of  kl, 
' '  for, ' '  at  the  beginning  of  verses  29  and  30 ;  and  the  repetition 
of  ''oaks"  and  "gardens."  If  verse  30  belongs  here  and  is  in 
the  proper  form,  the  second  M,  which  is  then  parallel  to  the  first, 
might  be  translated  "yea":  "for  ye  shall  be  ashamed;  yea, 
ye  shall  be  as  oaks."  But  the  repetition  of  "oaks"  here,  in  a 
figurative  usage  and  in  no  way  parallel  to  the  same  term  used 
literally  in  the  previous  strophe — as  though  it  were  an  after- 
thought due  to  the  first  reference — seems  too  casual  to  be  due 
to  Isaiah.  It  were  better  to  think  its  position  here  due  to  a 
reader,  or,  if  the  verse  is  really  Isaiah 's,  to  the  compiler  of  these 
prophecies.  If,  however,  the  verse  was  placed  here  by  Isaiah 
himself,  then,  despite  the  M  (which  as  in  3.8  then  would  become 
subordinate  to  the  previous  kl),  it  would  be  better  to  suppose 
an  error  in  the  person  of  the  verb,  and  again  read,  with  the 
Septuagint,  "for  they  (shall  be  as  an  oak,"  etc.),  the  subject 
being  "oaks"  and  the  preposition  "as"  (/c^)  being,  perhaps, 
the  so-called  ' '  kaf  veritatis  "  or  "  kaf  of  the  predicate ' ' ;  though 
the  comparison  might  in  reality  be  due  to  the  fact  that  implied 
in  the  terms  "oaks"  and  "gardens"  in  verse  29  is  the  idea  of 
idolatrous  worship :  the  intent  of  the  comparison  would  then  be 
to  liken  these  sacred  trees  and  groves  to  ordinary  trees  and 
groves,  and  still  further  to  those  trees  and  groves  which  wither 
and  like  which  they,  too,  will  prove  useless  and  will  be  deserted. 

31.  (a)  And  the  strong  shall  be  as  tow,  (b)  and  the  maker  of 
it  as  a  spark,  (c)  and  they  shall  both  burn  together,  (d)  and  none 
shall  quench. 

The  main  difficulty  in  this  verse  as  it  stands,  lies  in  the 

absence  of  any  clear  reason  for  the  comparison  between  "maker 

of  it"  and  "spark."     In  what  sense  can  a  man  be  likened  to  a 

spark  ?     At  the  bases  of  Isaiah 's  figures  of  speech  there  is  always 

some  easily  recognizable  natural  phenomenon.      The  objection 

is  not  satisfied   even   if   "strong"   be   interpreted   as   "strong 

(man)"  and  if  instead  of  "maker  of  it,"  poo-lo,  there  be  read 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         311 

Chapter  1 
''his  work,"  po'Ho — ^unless,  indeed,  the  "strong  man"  is  the 
smith,  and  ''his  work"  is  the  object  he  is  forging  at  the  anvil. 
Strophic  parallelism,  and  the  logical  development  of  the  thought, 
would  lead  the  reader  to  expect  here  a  further  reference  to  the 
sacred  trees,  and  the  manner  of  their  destruction;  and,  indeed, 
the  word  "strong,"  x^Q^'*h  in  its  only  other  occurrence  (Amos 
2.9)  is  used  in  the  figure  "strong  as  the  oaks";  it  means  really 
"sturdy,"  or  rather  "rugged,"  and  quite  possibly  means  here 
not  "the  strong  man"  but  "the  strong  tree"  (cf.  10.33,  where 
"the  high"  and  "the  lofty"  mean  "the  high  and  lofty  trees"). 
Perhaps,  then,  for  po'o^lo  should  be  sought  a  term  parallel  to 
' '  tree  " ;  ' ('ndpho  (with  I  for  n,  and  transposition) ,  "  its  branches, ' ' 
is  possible.  The  word  for  "spark"  used  here  (mgug)  is  a  aira^ 
Xejofievov,  from  a  root  meaning  apparently  "to  shine";  the 
specific  meaning  is  derived  from  the  context,  and  might  as 
well  be  ".flash,"  "conflagration,"  "flames,"  as  "spark"  (the 
language  possesses  other  words  for  "spark"  as  well  as  for 
"flame").  "With  the  resultant  picture  of  the  tree  with  burn- 
ing branches  (here,  of  course,  the  single  tree  is  the  representative 
of  all  the  trees,  and  the  branches  are  the  entire  foliage  of  the 
garden)  compare  that  of  the  burning  bush,  which,  however, 
being  a  really  sacred  tree,  was  not  consumed ;  cf .  also  Jer.  11.16 : 
' '  The  Lord  called  thy  name  a  green  olive  tree, ...  he  hath  kindled 
fire  upon  it,  and  the  branches  of  it  are  broken  (but  read,  per- 
haps, "consumed"  hd'^^rU  for  rd'a)  ;  and  in  Arabic  shajara 
mutaqddixa :  "trees  with  soft,  weak  branches,  which,  when  the 
wind  blows,  blaze  forth  with  fire"  (Lane,  s.  v.  Qadaxa)  ;  and 
the  proverb :  ' '  Bend  me  the  branches  and  I  shall  kindle  fire  for 
thee."  If  there  is  needed  a  more  specific  reference  to  the 
garden,  'cndphdh,  "her  (i.e.,  the  garden's  [fem.])  branches, 
foliage"  might  be  read.  To  read,  as  has  been  suggested  by 
some,  "his  work  shall  be  as  thorns"  {na' quq,  instead  of  ni^Qug) 
without  changing  po'Ho  or  po'Ho,  still  leaves  the  latter  without 
any  apparent  natural  place  in  the  picture  of  the  forest  or  grass 
fire,  a  picture  which  seems  to  have  appealed  strongly  to  Isaiah. 

At  the  end  of  this  poem  occurs  the  short  line  "and  none  shall 
quench"    {w^-en  m^khahhe),  parallel  to  "they  shall  burn  to- 


312  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil, 

Chapter  1 

gether";  such  a  short  line  is  a  very  effective  rhetorical  device 
in  its  proper  place  (e.g.,  as  here,  at  the  end  of  a  poem),  either 
because  of  its  comparative  brevity,  or  because  each  word  is  to 
be  emphasized  and  held,  so  as  to  make  the  time  value  of  the  line 
equal  to  that  of  the  other  lines  (cf,  ''and  none  shall  save"  in 
5.29  and  elsewhere). 

Chapter  2 

2.  (a)  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days,  (b)  (that)  the 
mountain  of  the  Lord's  house  shall  be  established  in  the  top  of  the 
mountains,  (c)  and  shall  be  exalted  above  the  hills. 

The  phrase  "and  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days," 
w^-hdyd  h^-'ax^rith  hay-ydmlm,  stands  clearly  without  parallel, 
just  as  does  usually  the  similar  phrase  "and  it  shall  be  on  that 
day"  (4.2;  7.18,  20,  21;  10.20;  11.11)  ;  it  might  be  compared  to 
a  prelude,  an  opening  strain  at  the  beginning  of  a  musical  com- 
position, and  independent  of  it ;  or  it  is  a  sort  of  title  :  ' '  Prophecy 
concerning  the  Last  Day."  Similarily  such  a  phrase  as  "Thus 
saith  the  Lord"  may  be  the  equivalent  of  a  title. 

The  first  strophe  of  the  prophecy  consists  of  a  long  (2b)  and 
a  shorter  line  (2c),  as  is  frequently  the  case;  here,  however,  the 
first  line  is  unusually  long,  and  the  word  "house"  is  super- 
fluous ;  despite  the  fact  that  it  occurs  in  the  other  version  of  this 
poem  (Micah  4.5),  it  probably  is  a  variant  of  "mountain"  and 
has  wrongly  been  incorporated  in  the  text.  The  Septuagint, 
indeed,  makes  it  a  parallel  to  "mountain";  "the  mountain  of 
the  Lord  shall  be  manifest  (ifKJ^avk),  and  the  house  of  God  (be) 
on  the  top  of  the  mountains";  while  in  Micah  the  Septuagint 
reads:  "The  mountain  of  the  Lord"  (i.e.,  without  "house"), 
though  it  has  a  second  predicate,  again  yielding  a  parallel:  "the 
mountain  of  the  Lord  shall  be  manifest,  established  on  the  tops 
of  the  mountains."  In  verse  3,  where  the  two  words  occur 
again,  the  parallelism  is  clear.  The  evidence  would  seem  to 
show,  then,  that  there  was  a  variant  (marginal?)  version  of 
2ab,  namely:  "the  house  of  the  Lord  shall  be  established  on  the 
top  of  the  mountains,  and  his  mountain  be  exalted  above  the 
hills ' ' ;  the  present  text  represents  a  conflation. 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10,         313 

Chapter  2 
Worthy  of  note  is  it  that  the  Micah  version  of  the  Hebrew 
places  the  predicate  adjective  ndkhon,  ''established,"  in  the 
more  natural  position,  after  the  verb,  instead  of  in  the  emphatic 
position  which  it  has  in  Isaiah.  Whichever  position  is  original, 
there  is  here  incontrovertible  evidence  that  'in  the  course  of  the 
Hebrew  oral  or  written  tradition  of  these  verses,  transposition 
has  taken  place.  The  shorter  of  the  two  lines  in  Isaiah  is  ex- 
ceedingly short  by  comparison ;  it  is  probable  that  the  extra  pro- 
noun hu'  of  Micah  is  original. 

2c-3a.      (2c)  And  all  nations  shall  flow  into  it.     (3a)  And  many 
people  shall  go  and  say. 

Since  ^^^o,'"w^-hd¥khu,  in  Hebrew  is  applied  to  the  move- 
ment of  waters  (e.g..  Is.  8.6:  ''the  waters  of  Shiloh  that  go 
softly"),  the  parallelism  between  the  two  stichoi  need  not  be 
doubted.  The  word  iv'^-dm^ril,  "they  shall  say,"  is  perhaps  to 
be  omitted ;  notice  Is.  3.6,  where  there  is  no  word  to  introduce 
the  direct  discourse ;  at  any  rate  it  is  parenthetical,  of  so  little 
emphasis  that  it  does  not  affect  the  question  of  parallelism. 

"Many,"  rahhlm,  in  the  second  stichos  is  an  ineffective  par- 
allel to  "all"  in  the  first.  The  word  occurs  again  in  4b,  but 
without  a  parallel  in  4a.  In  the  corresponding  Micah  passage 
another  transposition  has  taken  place :  ' '  many ' '  occurs  in  the 
first  stichos  of  the  strophe,  but  has  in  the  second  stichos  two 
parallels:  "mighty,"  '(^gUmlm  (which  is  a  parallel  to  rahhlm 
also  in  Is.  53.12),  and  "afar  off,"  'adh  rdxdq;  one  of  the  three 
terms  there  is  redundant ;  and  the  redundancy  in  Micah  and 
deficiency  in  Isaiah  are  again  ample  evidence  of  variation  in 
tradition,  of  marginal  notations,  of  conflations  and  of  omissions. 
The  variants  in  Micah  show,  perhaps,  that  the  meaning  attached 
to  rahhlm  here  was  "mighty,"  not  "many":  so  also  in  Is.  5.9  and 
Amos  3.15  probably,  the  translation  "many  houses"  for  hdttlm 
rahhlm  is  not  exact;  either  "mighty  houses"  (like  the  Arabic 
ddr  rahha)  or  "multiple  houses" — in  either  case  denoting 
palaces — avoids  the  anticlimax  of  the  adjective.  So  here,  either 
"mighty  nations"  or  "mighty  mass  of  nations"  is  the  intention, 
if  rahhlm  is  the  correct  reading  and  in  its  proper  place. 


314  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  2 

3-4.  (3b)  Come  ye  and  let  us  go  up  to  the  mountain  of  the  Lord, 
(c)  to  the  house  of  the  God  of  Jacob:  (d)  and  he  will  teach  us  of 
his  ways,  (e)  and  we  will  walk  in  his  paths:  (f)  for  out  of  Zion 
shall  go  forth  the  law,  (g)  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  from  Jerusalem. 
(4a)  And  he  shall  judge  among  the  nations,  (b)  and  shall  re- 
buke many  peoplg;  (c)  and  they  shall  beat  their  swords  into  plow- 
shares, (d)  and  their  spears  into  pruning-hooks :  (e)  nation  shall 
not  lift  up  sword  against  nation,  (f)  neither  shall  they  learn  war 
any  more. 

On  "many"  in  4b,  see  above. 

The  perfect  regularity  in  the  parallelism  of  these  six  coup- 
lets, as  well  as  of  the  preceding  (barring  the  introductory  line) 
is  noticeable ;  likewise  the  absence  of  any  three  line  strophe.  It 
should  be  noticed  that  Micah  has  an  additional  verse :  ' '  But  they 
shall  sit  every  man  under  his  vine  and  under  his  fig  tree;  and 
none  shall  make  them  afraid,  for  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts 
hath  spoken  it."  This  verse  is  possibly  an  addition  to  the 
poem  from  another  source ;  unlike  the  rest  of  the  poem  it  refers 
specifically  to  the  lot  of  the  individuals  (suffixes  therefore  are 
in  singular  instead  of  plural)  ;  and  the  nature  of  the  parallelism 
is  different  also ;  to  give  the  sentence  ' '  and  none  shall  make 
(them)  afraid"  its  natural  position  as  the  emphatic  final  short 
sentence  of  the  poem,  it  becomes  necessary  to  include  ''and 
under  his  fig  tree"  in  the  preceding  line,  yielding  one  which  is 
then  excessively  long  by  comparison  with  the  rest  of  the  poem, 
and  which  contains  within  itself  two  parallel  words.  It  should 
be  noted,  however,  that  such  a  couplet,  matching  the  irregularly 
balanced  first  couplet  of  the  prophecy,  might  not  be  unexpected 
in  Isaiah ;  nor  would  the  concluding  phrase  ' '  for  the  mouth  of 
the  Lord  of  Hosts  hath  spoken  it,"  balancing  the  introductory 
' '  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days, ' '  be  unusual. 

5-6a.  (5)  O  house  of  Jacob,  come  ye  and  let  us  walk  in  the  light 
of  the  Lord.  (6a)  Therefore  thou  hast  forsaken  thy  people,  the 
house  of  Jacob. 

That  these  lines  stand  outside  the  previous  poem  is  no  less 

evident  than  that  they  nevertheless  refer  to  it.     Verbally,  they 

are  linked  to  it  by  the  terms  ''come  and  let  us  walk"  and 

"House  of  Jacob,"  echoing  verse  3b  (hence  also  the  first  person 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         315 

Chapter  2 
plural ;  there  is  no  significance,  then,  in  the  fact  that  the  Prophet 
[Isaiah?]  here  identifies  himself  with  the  people).  Verses  5 
and  6a  both  contain  the  phrase  ' '  House  of  Jacob " ;  it  is  evi- 
dently emphatic,  then,  marking  the  contrast  between  "the 
nations"  of  the  preceding  lines  and  Israel.  Turning  to  Micah, 
we  find  there  also  an  appendage  to  the  poem :  '  *  For  all  the 
nations  walk  each  in  the  name  of  its  god,  and  we  will  walk  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord  our  God  forever";  i.e.,  with  a  curiously 
illogical  twist :  ' '  Since  all  other  nations  are  loyal  to  their  god 
(not,  as  we  should  expect:  Since  even  all  the  nations  that  now 
follow  other  gods  will  eventually  turn  to  our  God),  we  must 
be  loyal  to  ours."  This  appendage  is  similar  to  that  in  Isaiah 
in  its  general  intent :  a  comparison  between  ' '  the  nations ' '  and 
Israel,  and  for  Israel  (by  implication  disloyal)  a  lesson  drawn 
from  the  contrast.  Both  contain  the  phrase  "we  shall  walk"; 
Micah 's  "in  the  name  of  our  God"  is  Isaiah's  "in  the  light  of 
the  Lord."  The  vocative  "House  of  Jacob"  is  absent  from 
Micah;  but  the  emphasis  prodviced  by  the  repetition  of  that 
phrase  in  Isaiah  has  its  virtual  parallel  in  Micah 's  emphatic 
pronoun  "we,"  '<^naxnu. 

In  Isaiah  the  line  "for  (not,  as  in  A.  V.  "therefore")  thou 
hast  forsaken  thy  people,  the  House  of  Jacob,"  while  more 
emphatic  than  Micah,  contains,  like  Micah,  a  7ion  sequitur.  Its 
intention  must  have  been  to  express  the  present  disloyalty  of 
Israel ;  it  is  therefore  quite  probable  that  ' '  thy  people ' '  is  again 
an  associative  lapsus  for  "thy  God"  (less  likely  a  defective 
reading  of  "the  God  of  thy  people").  This  hardly  seems  more 
improbable  than  that  the  Prophet,  who  has  just  addressed  the 
House  of  Jacob  in  the  second  person,  is  now  addressing  God  in 
the  second  person,  without  indicating  the  change  by  the  intro- 
duction of  a  new  vocative;  or  is  guilty  of  such  an  illogical 
sentence  as :  "  Come,  House  of  Jacob,  let  us  be  faithful  to  God, 
because  he  has  (text:  thou  hast)  forsaken  the  House  of  Jacob." 
On  the  use  of  natashtd  compare  Jer.  15.6:  "thou  hast  forsaken 
(natashtd)  me,  saith  the  Lord;  thou  art  gone  backward"  (cf. 
Is.  1.4).  The  copyist's  or  editor's  change  may  have  been  due 
here  to  the  attempt  to  establish  a  connection  between  6a  and  6b, 


316  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  2 

6b-c.  (b)  Because  they  be  replenished  from  the  East,  and  (are) 
soothsayers  like  the  Philistines,  (c)  and  they  please  themselves  in 
the  children  of  strangers. 

The  structure  and  the  tone  of  the  following  poem  (6b-21) 
when  compared  with  the  preceding  make  almost  certain  a  sep- 
aration between  the  two.  The  general  subject,  however,  the 
idolatry  of  Israel,  is  sufficient  explanation  for  the  editorial  jux- 
taposition. If  6a  and  6b  belonged  together  they  would  furnish 
another  example  of  two  immediately  adjoining  verses  beginning 
with  hi,  "for" — parallel,  if  6a  is  changed  as  suggested  above: 
"for  thou  hast  deserted  thy  God;  yea  (M)  they  (ye)  be  replen- 
ished from  the  East" — but  the  second  subordinate  to  the  first, 
if  the  Massoretic  text  is  retained  unchanged:  "for  thou  hast 
deserted  Israel,  for  they,"  etc.;  the  English  again  conceals  the 
repetition  of  kl  by  varying  the  translation. 

The  wording  of  6b  is  almost  unintelligible ;  the  English 
glosses  over  some  of  the  difficulties,  which  are  due,  quite  possibly, 
to  the  fact  that  the  beginning  (and  end)  of  the  document  from 
which  it  was  edited  (skin,  parchment,  or  potsherd?)  was  in  bad 
physical  condition,  with  some  of  the  defective  portions  restored 
on  the  margins.  On  this  assumption  a  proper  introduction  to 
the  prophecy  would  be  found  by  transposing  so  as  to  precede 
6b  the  superfluous  lines  now  incorporated  in  verses  9-11  (q.  v.)  ; 
for  the  poem  seems  originally  to  have  contained  three  stanzas, 
with  introductory  (or  introductory  and  closing)  refrains  of 
almost  identical  phraseology;  the  phrases  of  these  refrains  are 
actually  found  scattered  through  the  poem. 

The  first  couplet  (6bc)  of  the  poem  proper  consists  of  a  long 
followed  by  a  shorter  line ;  as  does  also  the  opening  of  each  of 
the  other  stanzas  (verses  12  and  20).  The  reading  mdl^'U,  "they 
be  replenished,"  literally  "full,"  in  the  difficult  first  line  seems 
supported,  as  far  as  the  root  is  concerned,  by  the  parallelism : 
each  of  the  three  succeeding  strophes  of  the  stanza  begins  with 
the  same  root,  but  the  plural  number  of  its  subject,  though 
apparently  supported  by  yasplqu,  "they  please  themselves,"  is 
made  suspicious  by  the  singular  suffix  throughout  almost  the 
whole  of  the  remainder  of  the  poem;  the  plural  u  in  yasplqu 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         317 

Chapter  2 
is  so  easily  explicable  as  dittography  from  the  u  with  which  the 
next  word  begins,  as  a  divisional  mark  between  the  verses,  or  as 
an  editorial  correction  (for  still  another  suggestion  see  below), 
as  to  be  negligible  for  evidence.  Indeed,  the  subject  of  the  poem 
throughout  is  'ddhdm,  "man,"  treated  as  a  singular  collective 
(see  clearly  the  parallel  long  line  in  verse  20,  and  the  refrain 
"man  boweth  down";  the  English  translates  as  plural  through- 
out) ;  and  this  same  subject  logically  ought  to  appear  in  the 
text  as  the  subject  of  "fill"  in  the  first  stanza  also;  while  the 
object  ought  to  be  hd-'dreg  or  'argo,  "the  land,"  or  "his  land," 
the  word  repeated  in  the  following  parallel  lines.  The  Septua- 
gint  has  either  inserted  or  preserved  this  object  in  its  transla- 
tion; and  'ddhdm  is  probably  to  be  seen  in  the  Hebrew  miq- 
qedhem,  "from  the  East"  (on  the  possibility  of  confusion  be- 
tween q  and  '  see  Is.  5.8,  where  the  Septuagint  apparently  read 
m^  'Umd,  *  *  anything, ' '  for  mdqom,  ' '  place ' ' ;  Ez.  22.25,  'c-sher, 
"whose,"  for  qesher,  "conspiracy").  In  the  word  "and  sooth- 
sayers" the  a,  "and,"  may  represent  the  suffixed  pronoun  of 
'argo,  "his  land"  (the  Septuagint  has  "their  land")  ;  with  a 
repetition  of  '  from  mdl'^'ti  and  of  u  (for  r),  and  with  the  m 
from  miq-qedem  corrected  to  f  (a  not  impossible  confusion  in 
the  older  alphabet),  we  might  find  the  rest  of  that  word,  on  the 
supposition  that  'ddhdm  was  omitted  and  then  written  over  'argo, 
while  a  later  copy  resulted  in  the  present  confused  text.  But 
the  word  ' on^nlm,  "soothsayers,"  also  is  suspicious.  The  rest 
of  the  first  stanza  develops  two  charges  against  Israel :  proud 
luxury  and  attendant  idolatry;  the  second  stanza  deals  with 
pride,  as  exemplified  in  things  ' '  tall ' ' ;  while  the  third  returns 
specifically  to  the  subject  "idols  of  gold  and  silver";  but 
' '  soothsaying ' '  is  not  mentioned  again  either  in  the  parallel  lines 
of  stanza  1  or  in  stanzas  2  or  3.  The  comparison  "like  the 
Philistines,"  moreover,  is  not  especially  appropriate  in  a  charge 
of  soothsaying;  it  is  appropriate,  however,  in  the  condemnation 
of  luxury  developed  in  the  rest  of  the  poem.  For  both  Phoenicia 
and  Philistia,  as  coastal  countries,  had  their  trade  connections 
westward,  Philistia  particularly  with   Egj^pt ;   Philistine  cities 


318  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  2  • 

were  centers  for  the  importation  of  Egyptian  jewelry  and  lux- 
uries. Perhaps,  then,  for  ' on^nlm  we  might  read  '(^dhdmm, 
usually  "dainties,"  but  occurring  with  the  desired  more  general 
meaning  in  II  Sam.  1.24  ("clothed  you  in  scarlet  and  other 
delights";  though  this  passage  is  suspected).  If  '('■dhdnlm  is 
to  be  read  here,  parallelism  would  suggest  also  for  the  difficult 
U-hhcyaldhe,  "in  the  children,"  of  the  next  line  u-bha^^dhi, 
"in  the  ornaments,"  which  occurs  with  '^dhdnlm  in  the  Samuel 
passage  just  cited.  Inasmuch  as  yasplqii,  "they  please  them- 
selves," is  parallel  to  "fill,"  of  the  two  possible  meanings  for 
its  root,  "be  sufficient"  (or  "plenty"),  and  "slap"  (or  "clap") 
(here,  on  the  basis  of  the  Arabic,  in  bargaining,  trading),  the 
former  ought  logically  to  suggest  itself  to  the  mind.  The  mere 
fact  that  sdphaq  in  this  sense  is  found  only  in  two  other,  probably 
later,  passages  of  the  Old  Testament  (hence  supposedly  due  to 
Aramaism),  is  not  sufficient  reason  for  denying  to  Isaiah,  with 
his  rich  vocabularj^  acquaintance  with  the  word.  If  an  abso- 
lutely unknown  word  stood  there,  or,  in  fact,  only  a  blank  space, 
parallelism  would  supply,  as  has  the  Septuagint,  the  idea  of 
"fill."  Moreover,  saphaq  in  Arabic  (with  the  heavier  s,  though 
as  in  Hebrew,  the  two  sibilants  are  confused  in  this  word),  also 
means  "to  fill"  (the  wine-cup:  probably  the  development  of 
the  idea  is :  "  clap, "  "  clap  closed, ' '  then  "  fill " )  ;  it  should  be 
noted,  moreover,  that  in  the  sense  * '  clap, ' '  sdphaq  in  Hebrew  has 
a  disagreeable  connotation :  that  of  remorse,  sorrow,  mockery ;  in 
neither  sense  is  the  causative  conjugation  used,  as  here.  Read 
possibly  yispoq,  ' '  he  has  a  sufficiency  of, ' '  or  siphqo,  ' '  is  his  suf- 
ficiency," or,  retaining  the  causative,  yasplqehd,  "he  fills  it" 
(i.e.,  his  land)  ;  the  couplet  would  then  read: 

Jcl  mille'  'ddhdm  'argo  'odhdmm  Icap-P'^lishtim 
uiha-'odM  noJchrim  yaspiqehd. 

7-8.  (7a)  Their  land  also  is  full  of  silver  and  gold,  (b)  neither 
(is  there  any)  end  of  their  treasures;  (c)  their  land  is  also  full  of 
horses,  (d)  neither  (is  there  any)  end  of  their  chariots;  (8a)  Their 
land  also  is  full  of  idols;  (b)  they  worship  the  work  of  their  own 
hands,  (e)  that  which  their  own  fingers  have  made. 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — -Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         319 

Chapter  2 
The  perfect  regularity  of  the  four  clauses  constituting  verse  7, 
with  the  first  closely  parallel  to  the  third,  and  the  second  par- 
allel to  the  fourth — all  the  clauses  being  also  in  (less  intimate) 
parallelism — and  the  presence  of  a  clause  in  verse  8  (a)  closely 
parallel  to  the  first  and  third  of  verse  7,  most  certainly  lead 
the  mind  to  expect  also  a  member  bet-v^Teen  8a  and  8b,  parallel 
to  the  second  and  fourth  in  verse  7 ;  and  the  disappointment 
due  to  its  absence  is  heightened  by  the  fact  that  perfect  par- 
allelism is  found  again  between  the  last  two  stichoi  of  the 
stanza,  8b  and  8c.  That  a  stichos  "neither  (is  there  any)  end 
to  their  images"  (or  "their  altars")  has  fallen  out  seems  far 
easier  of*  belief  than  that  Isaiah,  without  any  conceivable  reason, 
deliberately  built  up  a  structure  perfect  in  its  symmetry  except- 
ing for  this  one  point.  The  intent  at  parallelism  is  made  all 
the  more  evident  by  the  last  clause,  "that  which  their  own  fingers 
have  made,"  which  is  absolutely  superfluous  except  as  furnish- 
ing a  desired  parallel — and,  perhaps,  rhyme,  since  the  rhyme 
othdw  is  noticeable  (cf.  1.21).  If  in  the  missing  line  there 
stood  the  form  ' acgfibhothdw  (lit.  "his  injuries,"  "pains,"  used 
because  of  the  rhj'^ming  feminine  ending  instead  of,  and  as  a  play 
in  true  Isaianic  fashion  on  '(^Qabhdw:  "his  idols"),  there  might 
be  found  here  the  source  of  Ps.  16.4:  yirhU  ' acg^hhothdm,  "their 
sorrows  shall  be  multiplied  [that]  hasten  [after]  another 
[god],"  in  which  the  intention  is  evidently :  "their  idols  multiply 
or  "they  multiply  their  idols,"  "they  hasten,"  etc.  The  word 
rtiagg^hhothdw ,  "his  pillars,"  if  preferred,  would  contain  the 
same  rhyme.  It  is  true  that  if  the  last  clause  (8c)  be  omitted, 
as  a  gloss  on  8b,  the  latter  might  be  regarded  as  the  parallel  to 
8a ;  but  8b  contains  nothing  that  would  be  made  more  intelligible 
by  such  a  gloss  as  8c ;  as  stated  above,  the  latter  is  clearly  a  par- 
allel. In  31.7  there  seems  to  be  an  echo  of  this  passage,  and 
there  a  similar  relative  sentence  appears  in  parallelism,  and  so 
in  verse  20  of  this  chapter  (see  the  note  on  Is.  1.21).  Finally, 
the  fact  that  the  second  stanza,  the  one  which  seems  the  best 
preserved,  contains  just  ten  lines  as  will  the  first  stanza  if  the 
proposed  line  be  added,  is  an  important  consideration  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  present  studies. 


320  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  2 

9-11.  (9a)  And  the  mean  man  boAveth  down,  (b)  and  the  great 
man  humbleth  himself:  (c)  therefore  forgive  them  not.  (10a)  Enter 
into  the  rock,  (b)  and  hide  thee  in  the  dust,  (c)  for  fear  of  the 
Lord,  (d)  and  for  the  glory  of  his  majesty.  (Ha)  The  lofty  looks 
of  man  shall  be  humbled,  (b)  and  the  haughtiness  of  men  shall  be 
bowed  down;   (c)  and  the  Lord  alone  be  exalted  in  that  day. 

Verse  9ab  is  a  variation  of  llab,  the  thought  and  the  im- 
portant verbs  being  identical ;  the  same  theme  and  words  occur 
again  in  verse  17  ;  while  the  phrase  ' '  therefore  forgive  them  not ' ' 
is  replaced  in  lie  by  ''and  the  Lord  alone  be  exalted  in  that 
day,"  which  appears  also  in  verse  17.  Verse  10,  with  slight 
verbal  variations  also  occurs  twice  again  (verses  19,  21).  That 
either  verse  9  or  verse  11,  in  such  close  proximity,  is  out  of 
place  here,  is  evident  to  any  believer  in  the  possibility  of  text 
corruption.  There  is  some  doubt,  however,  whether  one  is  mis- 
placed, or  whether  it  is  superfluous ;  on  the  supposition  that  the 
poem  contains  three  stanzas,  the  former  hypothesis  seems  most 
likely. 

There  is  difficulty  still  in  verse  9  in  the  phrase  "therefore 
forgive  them  not."  Literally  it  means  "and  do  not  raise  for 
them,"  and  might  form  the  third  (negatively  expressed)  par- 
allel to  the  couplet  "The  mean  man  boweth  down  and  the  great 
man  humbleth  himself,"  and  correspond  to  the  similar  third 
parallel  ("And  the  Lord  alone  be  exalted  in  that  day")  in  the 
other  recurrences  of  this  refrain.  But  then  at  least  we  should 
expect  the  wording  ' '  and  there  shall  be  no  raising  up  for  them, ' ' 
w^-'en  s^'eth  Idhem;  for  this  sudden  change  in  the  attitude  of 
Isaiah,  in  addressing  God  and  praying  against  pardon,  is  almost 
incomprehensible.  The  phrase  is  probably,  in  origin,  the  mar- 
ginal comment  of  some  reader  (see  verse  22),  or  the  reconstruc- 
tion by  a  copyist  of  an  illegible  reading  such  as  suggested  above ; 
however,  there  is  no  danger  of  doing  violence  to  the  spirit  of 
Isaiah  if  the  stichos  "and  the  Lord  alone  be  exalted  in  that 
day"  be  substituted  for  it. 

In  verse  10  ho',  "enter  into,"  but  lit.  "go  in,"  is  rhetorically 
weak,  when  viewed  either  alone' ("go  in  [to]  the  rocks")  or, 
more  particularly,  with  the  parallel  hittamen,  "hide";  in  7.19, 


Vol.  1.]    Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         321 

Chapter  2 
where  bo'  is  used  in  a  somewhat  similar  phrase,  it  is  given  more 
definiteness  by  its  immediate  connection  with  another  verb,  to 
which  it  is  little  more  than  an  auxiliary.  Even  in  prose  the  more 
emphatic  word  hcxdhhe',  "hide,"  would  be  used  in  such  a  con- 
nection, and  especially  in  the  variations  of  the  refrain  (verses 
19  and  21:  "go  into  the  caves")  where  the  parallel  line  has  no 
verb  at  all  to  give  greater  force  to  "  go. "  For  a  prose  example, 
compare  Shabbath  60a:  hdyR  nexbd'm  ham-m^' drd,  "they  hid 
themselves  in  the  cave";  more  significant  is  Rev.  6.15,  which, 
quoting  Isaiah  approximately,  chooses  "hide,"  not  "enter"; 
but  if  bo'  does  represent  a  mutilated  Mxdhhe',  in  verse  10,  it 
is  necessary  to  suppose  editorial  revision  in  the  two  other  occur- 
rences of  the  root,  in  the  repetition  of  the  refrain.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  ho'  is  original,  it  may  have  been  chosen  because  of  its 
extreme  brevity  (and  of  its  assonance  with  hag-gur),  and  the 
force  of  the  phrase  would  be  best  reproduced  by  omitting  the 
verb,  and  translating  simply  as  an  exclamation :  ' '  Into  the 
rocks ! ' ' 

The  parallelism  between  paxadh,  "fear,"  and  hddhdr, 
"glory,"  in  verses  11,  19,  21  is  worthy  of  notice  also;  the  latter 
word  possibly  replaced  in  the  course  of  tradition  or  of  edition 
a  better  parallel,  x^^'^'^^^j  "terror";  otherwise  hddhdr  means 
here  not  glory,  but  rather  the  result  of  God 's  glory :  man 's  rev- 
erence and  awe  (see  the  note  on  sard,  1.5).  The  parallelism 
between  the  simple  preposition  in  me-h^^dhar  and  the  compound 
mip-p<^ne  would  give  to  the  latter  its  ordinary  meaning  after 
verbs  of  fleeing  ("from  [before],"  with  the  added  idea  of 
cause),  and  prevent  the  more  literal  translation  "from  the  face 
of"  (i.e.,  "from  the  terrible  countenance  of,"  as  the  passage  is 
sometimes  translated).  The  phrase  "lofty  looks"  (lit.  "eyes  of 
loftiness")  in  verse  11  apparently  represents  a  conflation  of 
varying  forms  in  which  this  refrain  was  handed  down ;  the  word 
"eyes"  here  makes  the  line  long,  has  no  parallel  in  the  other 
half  of  the  couplet,  is  not  found  in  verse  9  or  in  verse  17,  and 
is  followed  by  a  singular  instead  of  the  necessary  plural  predi- 
cate.    Another  version  of  the  refrain  is  found  (possibly  out  of 


322  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil, 

Chapter  2 

place),  in  5.15;  there  "eyes"  occurs  in  correct  grammatical  con- 
struction, but  'ddhdm,  "man,"  is  omitted,  so  that  the  line  is 
of  proper  length :  w^-ene  g^bhohlm  tishpdlnd. 

Two  strophes  of  the  three  which  compose  the  refrain  are  in 
characteristic  form  again:  each  with  two  stichoi  in  close  par- 
allelism, and  a  third  stichos  in  more  distant  parallelism  to  either 
and  to  both  (cf.  1.2)  ;  the  double  occurrence  of  the  form  makes 
for  perfect  symmetry,  which  is  further  reenforced  by  the  recur- 
rence of  the  refrain  as  a  whole. 

12-16.  (12a)  For  the  day  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts  (shall  be)  upon 
every  (one  that  is)  proud  and  lofty,  (b)  and  upon  every  (one  that 
is)  lifted  up,  and  he  shall  be  brought  low;  (13a)  And  upon  all  the 
cedars  of  Lebanon,  (that  are)  high  and  lifted  up,  (b)  and  upon 
all  the  oaks  of  Bashan,  (14a)  And  upon  all  the  high  mountains,  (b) 
and  upon  all  the  hills  (that  are)  lifted  up,  (15a)  And  upon  every 
high  tower,  (b)  and  upon  every  fenced  wall,  (16a)  And  upon  all 
the  ships  of  Tarshish,   (b)   and  upon  all  pleasant  pictures. 

On  the  structure  of  the  stanza,  ten  lines,  the  first  one  long, 
see  6b  above.  The  absolute  regularity  in  the  recurrence  of 
the  phrase  "upon  all"  (ten  times),  is  conclusive  evidence  that 
Isaiah  did  not  avoid  symmetry;  the  literal  repetition  is  effective 
just  because  the  words  are  used  in  perfect  parallelism,  each  time 
with  identically  the  same  meaning  and  in  the  same  syntactic 
construction ;  it  must  be  distinguished  from  that  sort  of  repe- 
tition that  was  discussed  above  in  connection  with  1.6  and  7. 

The  parallelism  of  the  stanza  as  a  whole,  however,  is  broken 
in  12b  by  the  antonymistic  phrase  (word)  "and  he  shall  be 
brought  low,"  we-skdfel,  or,  disregarding  Massoretic  vowels, 
"and  (upon  every  one  that  is)  low,"  we-shdfdl;  the  Septua- 
gint  read  (or  corrected)  the  whole  stichos  thus:  "and  upon 
everyone  that  is  proud  and  haughty,"  nisgdhh  w^-nissd'.  The 
slip  in  the  Massoretic  text,  another  example  of  substituting  for 
a  word  the  antonym  (cf.  above),  was  probably  due  to  the  pres- 
ence of  the  offending  word  in  verse  11.  Another  probable  error 
is  the  insertion  in  verse  13  of  the  phrase  "high  and  lifted  up," 
hd-rdniim  w'^han-nissd' Im,  which  repeats  the  adjectives  distributed 
betw^een  the  two  halves  of  verse  14,  but  places  them  together,  so 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         323 

Chapter  2 
as  to  modify  one  word  "cedars"  by  two  adjectives,  leaving  the 
parallel  ''oaks"  without  any.  The  adjectives  are  redundant 
from  the  stand-point  of  line  length ;  and  also  from  that  of 
thought ;  because  in  this  verse  modifying  adjectives  have  already 
been  replaced  by  modifying  proper  nouns:  "cedars  of  Lebanon" 
and  "oaks  of  Bashan. "  Evidently  a  varying  tradition  of  this 
verse  read  "cedars  high  and  oaks  lifted  up";  the  variant  was 
indicated  simply  by  writing  the  words  "high  and  lifted  up"  in 
the  margin ;  and  was  then  inserted  int6  the  middle  of  the  phrase 
by  a  later  copyist  (see  on  1.14),  who,  perhaps,  placed  the  two 
adjectives  together  because  cedars  are  usually  characterized  as 
"high"  while  oaks  are  rather  "broad"  and  "sturdy."  But 
the  oak  might  also  well  be  a  symbol  of  height.  In  verse  15,  it 
is  true,  "wall"  also  is  characterized  as  strong  ("fenced,"  i.e., 
"fortified")  ;  but  again  the  fact  that  Isaiah  in  his  introduction 
to  his  list  specifically  speaks  of  all  things  ' '  high  and  tall ' ' ;  that 
down  to  this  point  all  objects  come  within  that  category,  as  do 
"ships  of  Tarshish"  in  the  next  verse;  but  more  particularly 
that  in  this  verse  the  immediate  parallel  is  ' '  high  towers, ' '  makes 
it  far  more  likely  that  the  familiar  phrase  "fortified  wall"  (cf. 
Deut.  28.52;  Jer.  15.20)  has  by  error  replaced  an  original  "high 
wall,"  x^yn^  nisgahhd,  a  phrase  found  in  Is.  30.13  and  contain- 
ing a  synonym  for  "high"  that  has  not  yet  appeared  among  the 
many  used  in  this  passage. 

More  troublesome  is  the  concluding  line  of  the  stanza,  "and 
all  pleasant  pictures,"  kol-  s^klyoth  ha-  xewi<^,  parallel  to  "all 
the  ships  of  Tarshish,"  and  in  which  s^klyoth,  "pictures,"  is  a 
aira^  Xe'^ofxevop.  If  the  phrase  were  in  itself  one  which  justi- 
fied the  breaking  of  the  series  of  "high"  (at  least  "big"  and 
"sturdj^")  parallels — e.g.,  if  it  were  particularly  emphatic,  or 
expressed  clearly  a  summary  ("objects"  instead  of  "pictures") 
— there  might  be  reason  for  believing  it  correct  here ;  but  the 
summary  has  been  indicated  at  the  beginning;  and  "pleasant" 
("desirable")  is  by  no  means  a  term  which  might  in  a  summary 
be  applied  to  the  objects  here  enumerated.  The  Septuagint 
reads :  * '  every  aspect  (  Oeav )  of  ships  of  beauty ' ' ;  the  insertion 


324  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  2 

of  "ships"  may  have  been  due  to  a  very  unusual  attempt  to 
establish  the  missing  parallelism,  or  to  the  fact  that  a  word  for 
"ships"  really  stood  in  the  margin.  The  Targum  Jonathan 
paraphrases  the  whole  couplet  thus:  "upon  those  who  live  in 
the  islands  of  the  sea  and  who  dwell  in  beautiful  palaces," 
hlrdnydthd  shapplrdn;  Jewish  commentators  translate :  ' '  palaces 
paved  with  precious  stones"  (because  of  Lev.  26.1,  where  occurs 
the  phrase  "image  of  stone,"  lit.  "stone  of  picture"  [masklth, 
from  the  same  root  as  s^Myoth] ) — all  of  which  indicates  only 
the  difficulty  in  accepting  the  illogical  line  as  it  stands.  Failing 
better  explanation,  recourse  might  again  be  had  to  the  theory 
of  misplaced  lines.  With  the  meaning  "precious  images" 
accepted  on  the  basis  of  those  passages  in  which  masklth  occurs 
(e.g.,  Prov.  25.11,  "silver  carved  images";  more  particularly, 
referring  to  idolatrous  worship,  Num.  33.52 ;  Lev.  26.1 ;  Ezek. 
8.12)  and  those  in  which  x^nidd  and  other  words  from  the  same 
root  are  found  (e.g.,  Hos.  13.15:  kHi  x^mda)  the  line  belongs 
naturally  in  the  defective  and  mutilated  third  stanza.  At  the 
same  time  it  is  necessary  to  assume  another  line  in  its  place 
here,  one  referring  also  to  ships,  parallel  to  "ships  of  Tarshish." 
"Tarshish, "  like  "Lebanon"  and  "Bashan"  above,  takes  the 
place  of  a  common  adjective,  as  it  does  in  all  the  cases  in  which 
the  phrase  "ships  of  Tarshish"  is  used:  "able  to  go  to  Tarshish, 
to  foreign  shores,"  a  "large  foreigner."  Unfortunately,  no 
exactly  parallel  phrase  is  to  be  found  in  Isaiah ;  but  in  33.21 
occurs  gi  'addir,  ' '  majestic  ship, ' '  as  the  opposite  of  ' '  row-boat. ' ' 
^i  itself  is  apparently  a  foreign  (Egyptian)  word,  hence  its 
connotation  might  again  be  ' '  foreign  ship  * ' ;  and  if  this  phrase 
be  an  acceptable  emendation  here,  compare  in  verse  6  of  this 
chapter  the  parallelism  between  the  proper  name  "Philistines" 
and  the  common  noun  ' '  strangers. ' ' 

17.  (a)  And  the  loftiness  of  man  shall  be  bowed  down,  (b)  and 
the  haughtiness  of  man  be  made  low  (c)  and  the  Lord  alone  be 
exalted  on  that  day. 

See  the  note  on  verses  9-11  above.     Possibly  the  rest  of  the 

refrain  should  be  repeated  at  the  end  of  stanza  2,  from  the  end 

of  stanza  1  (verse  10). 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         325 

Chapter  2 
18-19.   (18)   And  the  idols  he  shall  utterly  abolish.      (19a)   And 
they  shall  go  into  the  caves  of  the  rocks   (b)   and  into  the  caves  of 
the  earth. 

On  verse  18  see  below,  the  note  to  verse  20 ;  on  19,  see  verses 
9-11  above. 

20.  (a)  On  that  day  a  man  shall  cast  his  idols  of  silver,  (b)  and 
his  idols  of  gold,  (c)  vsrhich  they  made  each  one  for  himself  to  wor- 
ship, (d)  to  the  moles  and  to  the  bats. 

The  long  first  line  here,  with  a  paj"allel  (20b)  only  to  the 
object,  has  the  appearance  of  being  the  first  line  of  a  stanza 
parallel  to  the  other  two  stanzas.  The  phrases  "his  idols  of 
silver"  and  "his  idols  of  gold,"  and  "which  they  made  (each 
one)  for  himself  to  worship"  echo  the  phrases  of  the  first  stanza 
(verses  6-8)  ;  the  parallelism  (as  against  subordination)  of  the 
relative  clause  here  is  fixed  by  2.8,  where  grammatically  it  can- 
not be  subordinate;  possibly  for  'dsu,  "they  made,"  the  singular 
should  be  read,  or  the  subject  "hands ""be  inserted  as  in  verse  8. 
Such  an  echoing  of  words,  recalling  here,  along  with  the  picture 
of  man's  contempt  for  his  treasures,  the  previous  picture  of  his 
worship  of  them,  would  be  an  effective  piece  of  Isaianic  sarcasm 
— particularly  if  the  picture  here  were  as  complete  in  its  detailed 
enumeration  as  is  stanza  1  (cf.  also  3.18ff.).  What  the  missing 
phrases  might  have  been  can  only  be  conjectured;  verse  16b, 
it  was  suggested  above,  was  probably  one  of  them :  s^klyoth 
ha-xcmda,  "precious  images."  Still  another,  in  a  corrupt  form, 
perhaps,  appears  now  as  verse  18 :  "  his  idols  he  shall  utterly 
abolish. ' '  The  word  translated ' '  abolish, ' '  yax^loph,  is  suspicious ; 
it  occurs  frequently  in  this  conjugation,  but  as  an  intransitive, 
and  only  with  such  subjects  as  wind,  fiood,  days,  rain,  heavens 
(and  once,  God) — always,  then,  in  reference  to  what  does  not 
have  definite  form  and  where  the  root  meaning  "change"  or 
"pass  on"  can  still  be  felt;  the  causative  (active)  conjugation 
of  the  verb  preserves  this  root  idea  even  more  clearly  ("to 
change  the  form  of  condition,"  or  "renew  a  former  state"). 
On  the  supposition  that  the  stichos,  written  in  the  margin,  was 
very  illegible  and  was  "edited"  to  make  a  complete  proposition 
because  of  the  mistake  in  the  place  of  insertion,  we  might  read 


326  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  2 

for  yax^loph  a  parallel  to  Jia-xenidd,  e.g.,  ha-xepheg  ("desire," 
supposing  a  change  of  g  to  /,  and  its  transposition ;  and  the  sign 
of  the  imperfect  instead  of  the  article).  In  kdlil,  "entirely" 
(here  the  only  occurrence  of  the  word  as  an  adverb)  there  might 
be  found  kf^le:  the  phrase  k'^ll  xemdd  is  found  in  Nah.  2.10;  Hos. 
13.15 :  "vessels  of  desire"  (A.  V.  "pleasant  vessels")  ;  Jer.  22.28  : 
kHl  en  xepheg  ho,  "vessels  wherein  is  no  pleasure ";  particularly 
I  Sam.  6.8  and  15,  kHe  haz-zahahh,  "jewels  of  gold,"  referring 
to  the  "images"  of  mice  in  verse  4.  With  hd-'Hellm  kHe  ha- 
xepheg  in  apposition  to  verse  20,  the  thought  would  run :  ' '  they 
shall  cast  away  their  idols  of  silver,  and  their  idols  of  gold — the 
gods  they  have  made  with  their  fingers — their  precious  thing- 
gods."  Hd-'Hellm,  however,  might  be  a  mere  gloss,  or  might 
represent  another  synonym  hap-  pesillm,  "idols,"  or  "images." 

The  phrase  "to  the  moles  and  the  bats"  in  the  Massoretic 
text  and  the  English  is  made  the  indirect  object  of  ' '  cast, ' '  from 
which  it  is  removed  by  quite  a  lengthy  clause,  however.  The 
scene  pictured  by  this  connection  is  hardly  a  logical  one.  It 
seems  most  likely  that  the  Prophet  pictured  the  idolators  casting 
away  their  idols  when  the  terror  comes  upon  them,  and  fleeing 
from  them — not  carrying  them  along  with  them  to  the  caves  and 
the  "holes  in  the  ground,"  as  would  seem  to  be  necessary  if 
they  cast  them  to  the  moles  and  the  bats;  for  surely  he  did  not 
mean  to  imply  that  moles  and  bats  were  found  about  the  homes 
of  the  wealthy.  At  best,  if  the  connection  is  correct,  the  trans- 
lation should  be  "cast  them  away  for  the  moles  and  the  bats," 
which,  supposedly,  are  to  take  possession  of  the  palaces  and 
estates  after  these  have  fallen  into  ruins.  Targum,  Peshitta 
and  Septuagint  connect  differently :  ' '  the  idols  which  they  make, 
in  order  to  bow  down  to  vanities  (A.  V.  'moles')  and  bats"; 
i.e.,  the  idols  themselves  are  the  "vanities  and  bats."  Still 
another  interpretation  would  be  possible :  ' '  they  shall  cast  aside 
their  golden  idols,  in  order  to  bow  down  to  moles  and  bats": 
i.e.,  to  bend  before  them  as  they  crawl  into  the  caves — which 
would  be  another  example  of  Isaiah's  grim  humor. 

None  of  these  interpretations,  however,  fulfils  the  require- 


Vol.1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         327 

Chapter  2 
merits  of  the  type  of  parallelism  used  in  the  other  stanzas.  The 
verb  ''cast  away"  does  not  necessarily  have  an  indirect  object; 
cf.  Ezek.  20.7  :  "Then  said  I  unto  them,  Cast  ye  away  {haskllkhU) 
every  man  the  abominations  of  his  eyes,  and  defile  not  yourself 
with  the  idols  of  Egypt";  and  it  is  perhaps  significant  that 
Is.  31.7,  which  seems  to  quote  our  present  verse,  paraphrases 
simply:  "On  that  day  every  man  shall  despise  {yini'as:  A.  V. 
' '  cast  away " )  his  idols  of  silver  and  gold  which  your  own  hands 
have  made  unto  you  (for)  a  sin."  Perhaps,  then,  the  prepo- 
sition "to,"  l^,  in  laxpor  peroth  w^la- Halle flm  is  at  fault: 
notice  the  five  prepositions  in  succession  "to  (for)  himself  to 
worship,  to  the  moles  and  to  the  bats,  to  go"  of  which  only  two 
are  parallel.  If  for  the  preposition  in  the  case  of  the  two  nouns 
there  stood  originally  the  article  ha,  these  words  might  be  addi- 
tional parallels,  and  refer  to  carved  amulets  in  animal  form. 
So  at  a  later  epoch  Ezekiel  in  his  vision  (Ezek.  8.10)  pictures  the 
elders  of  Israel  offering  incense  to  "creeping  things  and  beasts, 
abominations  [sheqeg]"  (among  which  is  included  the  bat  in 
Lev.  7.21),  and  all  the  idols  of  the  house  of  Israel,  "every  man 
in  the  chambers  of  his  imagery"  {nvasMtho,  the  word  to  which 
reference  was  made  above  in  connection  with  s^kiyoth)  ;  in 
Isaiah,  the  reference  would  be  to  the  ornament  talismans  brought 
from  Egypt  by  way  of  Philistia.  It  may  even  be  possible  that 
X^parpdroth,  which  the  Massorites  did  not  recognize,  since  they 
divided  it  into  two  words,  and  which  is  a  ajra^  Xeyofievov  found 
nowhere  in  the  Semitic  languages  (though  its  root,  "to  dig," 
supports  the  Vulgate  "mole")  is  the  Egyptian  khepra  or  kheper- 
per,  ' '  beetle ' '  and  ' '  scarab ' ' ;  and  some  of  the  scarabs  with  out- 
stretched wings  might  easily  have  been  mistaken  for  figures  of 
bats.  The  detailed  enumeration  still  lacks  two  lines  even  if  this 
hypothesis  is  correct,  or  one,  if  the  quadriliteral  'HallepMm  and 
the  reduplicated  form  x^PCi'fP^'''oth  might  be  considered  as  sep- 
arate stichoi  (so  also,  possibly  romamtl  in  2.2  if  hdnoth  be  not 
inserted,  and  'f^qalqalloth  in  Judges  5.6).  It  is  hardly  possible 
to  find  traces  of  the  remaining  missing  lines  below,  in  the  super- 
fluous verse  22. 


328  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  2 

21.  (a)  To  go  into  the  clefts  of  the  rocks,  (b)  and  into  the 
tops  of  the  ragged  rocks,  (c)  for  fear  of  the  Lord,  (d)  and  for  the 
glory  of  his  majesty,  (e)  when  he  arises  to  shake  terribly  the  earth. 

See  above  on  verse  10.  In  "to  go,"  Id-hho,  the  preposition 
might  be  temporal  (cf.  Is.  7.15,  l^-dha'to,  "when  he  knoweth")  : 
"when  he  enters,"  "as  he  enters."  It  is  more  probable,  how- 
ever, that  the  whole  verse  belongs  at  the  beginning  of  the  stanza, 
in  the  imperative  or  infinitive  absolute,  as  in  verse  9. 

22.  (a)  Cease  ye  from  man,  whose  breath  is  in  his  nostrils,  for 
wherein  is  he  to  be  accounted  of? 

This  verse  is  quite  distinct  in  tone  from  the  rest  of  the 
chapter,  though  verbal  connection  is  established  by  hd-'ddhdm, 
' '  man ' ' ;  but  ' '  man ' '  who  is  rebuked  throughout  the  three 
stanzas  is  presumably  Israel  as  a  whole,  including  those  to  whom 
the  prophecy  is  delivered  or  addressed,  while  here  the  audience 
is  addressed  as  though  standing  apart  from  "man"  who  is  re- 
buked ;  'the  absence  of  any  vocative  also  is  noticeable. 

The  term  ' '  cease  from ' '  is  obscure.  It  would  normally  mean 
"cease  paying  attention  to,"  "do  not  trouble"  or,  less  fre- 
quently, "desert"  (Ezek.  2.7:  "refuse  to  hear").  With  the  first 
meaning  the  verse  would  sound  rather  like  the  remark  of  a 
reader,  wearied  with  the  contemplation  of  man's  perversity; 
and  in  such  an  interpretation  might  be  compared  with  the 
interjected  remark  in  verse  9,  "do  not  forgive  them."  If  the 
meaning  is  ' '  desert, ' '  the  implication  would  supposedly  be :  do 
not  trust  (any  longer)  in  man  (but  turn  to  God).  In  either 
case  there  is  felt  the  absence  of  a  parallel  verb  defining  "cease 
from"  more  clearly. 

The  second  member  of  the  verse :  ' '  whose  breath  is  in  his 
nostrils,"  is  in  the  English  given  an  emphasis  which  it  has  not 
in  the  Hebrew,  which  is :  "in  whose  nostril  is  breath "  or  "a 
breath, ' '  This  relative  clause  is  again  of  interest  from  the  stand- 
point of  parallelism :  if  it  is  of  the  same  nature  as  the  relative 
clause  in  verse  20,  i.e.,  parallel,  the  sense  is:  "Cease  from  man, 
the  creature  who  is  characterized  by  having  a  breath  in  his 
nostrils";  but  if  it  is  subordinate,  the  sense  is:  "Cease  from 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         329 

Chapter  2 
that  man  in  whose  nostrils  is  breath,"  i.e.,  from  man  who  is 
alive,  or  while  he  has  life  (cf.  Job  27.3,  "as  long  as  my  breath 
is  in  me,  and  the  spirit  of  God  is  in  my  nostrils:  i.e.,  "as  long 
as  I  live").  It  is  the  former  that  is  intended  here,  of  course, 
but  in  either  case  the  emphasis  is  upon  man  as  a*  living  being ; 
cf.  Gen.  7.22:  "all  in  whose  nostrils  was  the  breath  of  life" — 
every  living  thing.  To  give  the  words  any  point  at  all  here,  it 
is  necessary  to  place  upon  them  an  emphasis  and  implication 
which  they  do  not  clearly  express;  either:  "whose  breath  is  in 
his  nostril"  (and  easily  passes  away),  or  "who  has  in  his  nostrils 
o^ily  a  breath";  or,  "whose  breath  was  placed  in  his  nostril  hy 
God,  who  can  therefore  take  it  away."  Perhaps  if  the  last  line 
also  were  considered  a  parallel:  "who  is  of  little  account,"  the 
idea  of  the  transitoriness  of  man's  life  might  be  emphasized. 
But  if  it  was  Isaiah  who  was  trjnng  to  express  this  thought, 
surely  he  would  have  chosen  words  as  clear  as  those  in  Job  34.14 : 
"if  he  (God)  gather  unto  himself  his  spirit  and  his  breath,  all 
flesh  dies";  or  in  Ps.  104.29:  "Thou  takest  away  their  breath, 
they  die."  Furthermore,  even  granting  the  implication  of  the 
words,  man's  mortalit}^,  the  whole  verse  is  still  illogical  here. 
Instead  of  "Trust  not  in  man,  who  is  mortal,"  the  context  de- 
mands: "Cease  from  man,  who  is  idolatrous  and  vain."  If 
Isaianic  (against  which  the  style  argues)  the  verse  was  placed 
here  by  the  compiler  possibly  because  he  thought  it  formed  a 
transition  to  the  next  chapter,  where,  however,  the  subject  again 
is  not  man's  mortal  nature,  but  his  transgression  and  punish- 
ment.   The  Septuagint  omits  the  verse. 

Chapter  3 

1-3.  (la)  For  behold,  the  Lord,  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  doth  take 
away  from  Jerusalem  and  from  Judah  the  stay  and  the  staff,  (b) 
the  whole  stay  of  bread,  (c)  and  the  whole  stay  of  water.  (2a) 
The  mighty  man  and  the  man  of  war,  (b)  the  judge  and  the  prophet 
(c)  and  the  prudent  and  the  ancient.  (3a)  The  captain  of  fifty  and 
the  honorable  man,  (b)  and  the  counsellor  and  the  cunning  artificer, 
(c)  and  the  eloquent  orator. 

In  form  and  development  of  theme  this  stanza  is,  on  the 

whole,  like  the  middle  stanza  of  the  last  prophecy:  a  long  first 


330  University  of  Calif ornia  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  3 

stichos  (la),  with  the  following  short  stichoi  parallel  to  its  last 
syntactic  member ;  a  first  couplet  or  strophe  stating  the  theme 
in  general  terms,  while  the  remainder  elaborates  it  is  in  a  specific, 
exhaustive  enumeration.  But  in  some  respects  as  the  text 
stands,  the  general  form  is  obscured.  In  the  first  place,  the 
opening  line  is  over-long;  though  "Jerusalem"  and  "Judah," 
* '  stay ' '  and  ' '  staff ' '  are  clearly  two  pairs  of  parallel  terms 
(cf.  verse  8)  they  are  not  distributed  in  parallel  stichoi;  but 
with  proper  distribution  ten  stichoi  result.  Secondly,  the  coup- 
let "whole  stay  of  bread  and  whole  stay  of  water,"  repeating 
one  of  the  words  used  in  the  preceding  line,  adds  qualifying 
genitives  ("bread  and  water")  clearly  contradicting  the  quali- 
fying appositives  in  the  following  stichoi,  whose  implication  is 
that  "staff  and  stay"  are  the  supports  of  the  government,  not 
the  supports  of  human  life.  At  the  same  time  it  must  be  noticed 
that  in  the  second  portion  of  this  chapter  there  is  a  combination 
of  the  two  themes  of  want  and  anarchy  (cf.  also  4.1).  It  is  quite 
possible,  then,  that  these  two  lines  have  replaced  another  couplet 
which  was  more  appropriate  to  the  theme  of  "government," 
while  they  themselves  belong  to  another  stanza  which,  in  a  series 
of  phrases  repeating  the  framework  of  ' '  every  stay  of  bread  and 
every  stay  of  water"  (cf.  the  framework  of  2.12ff.),  developed 
the  prediction  of  famine,  thirst,  dearth  of  clothing,  and  similar 
misfortunes. 

Thirdly,  the  detailed  enumeration  of  the  members  of  the 
official  class  is  not  in  all  respects  logically  arranged  at  present; 
the  English,  in  translating  qosem  (lit.  "diviner")  as  "prudent," 
conceals  the  disorder.  By  transposing  the  terms  yo' eg,  "coun- 
sellor," now  in  3b,  and  qosem,  "diviner,"  now  in  2c,  logical 
order  is  reestablished  in  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  enumera- 
tion ;  for  the  Jast  pair  of  terms  also  apparently  refers  to  species 
of  diviners,  instead  of  to  "the  cunning  artificer  and  the  eloquent 
orator ' '  as  the  versions  translate.  Another  difficulty  in  the  text 
lies  in  the  fact  that  ' '  captain  of  fifty, ' '  sar  x"^in^ishsMm,  as  a  mili- 
tary term  stands  between  two  terms  referring  to  civil  life: 
zdqen  u-n^sW  phdnlm,  "the  ancient,"  and  "the  honorable"  (cf. 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         331 

Chapter  3 
Is.  9.14,  a  possible  gloss,  but  nevertheless  showing  the  natural 
order  of  these  terms).  "Captain  of  fifty"  is,  of  course,  a  com- 
mon term;  but  the  suspicion  aroused  by  its  unusual  position 
here  justifies  the  question  why  a  military  title  denoting  this 
subordinate  rank  was  singled  out,  rather  than  one  of  more  gen- 
eral application  or  at  least  referring  to  higher  rank  {sar  gdhd', 
sar  x(^yih  sar  'elef,  sar  me' a,  etc.)  ;  it  is  as  though  one  should 
group  together  in  a  general  denunciation  ' '  soldiers,  judges,  sena- 
tors, magnates  and  subcaptains. "  Possibly,  then,  x^^^^^^him 
was  a  misreading  of  some  form  of  the  root  ndxash,  e.g.,  m^naxesh, 
or  yodhefi'  ndxdsh  or  n^^x^shlm,  "skilled  in  divination,"  in- 
tended to  be  inserted  together  with  qosem  alongside*  of  x^^^aw 
X^rdshlm  (read  singular?)  and  n^hhon  laxosh.  This  assumption 
would  leave  sar,  ' '  noble, "  "  ruler, "  or  "  chief, ' '  in  its  usual  gen- 
eral signification,  and  in  a  natural  position  (cf.  verse  14:  "the 
elders  and  princes  of  his  people").  Moreover,  there  would 
then  be  ten  stichoi  again  (including  Ibc  or  two  others  in  place 
thereof). 

4.   (a)    And  I  will  give  children    [to  be]    their  princes    (b)    and 
babes  shall  rule  over  them. 

For  the  English  "babes,"  and  the  Septuagint  "mockers" 
(possibly  reading  the  root  Idfagh;  so  also  in  66.4),  the  Masso- 
retic  text  has  ta'<^lullm,  which  might  come  from  any  one  of  four 
different  roots  with  identical  consonants  and  denoting  respec- 
tively "act  severely,"  "insert,"  "glean,"  and  (a  denominative 
verb)  "play  the  child."  To  the  hearer,  then,  the  word  did  not 
necessarily  by  itself  convey  clearly  and  singly  any  one  of  these 
ideas;. it  is  absolutely  certain,  however,  that  here  because  of  the 
parallelism  it  must  at  least  have  included  the  last  named  (by 
paronomasia,  if  "wantonness"  is  the  primary  intention);  and 
this  is  further  evidenced  by  3.12,  where  m^'olel  is  clearly  a 
denominative  from  "child";  evidently  the  intention  in  the  two 
passages  is  identical.  Ta'Hullm  is  in  form  an  infinitve  or 
abstract;  it  is  here  parallel  to  a  concrete;  it  occurs  again  only 
in  66.4,  as  an  antithesis  to  another  abstract  shikkUglm;  but  both 
are  there  used  in  place  of  concretes:  "their  soul  delighteth  in 


332  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  3 

their  abominations  [used  regularly  for  ''idols"]  ;  I  also  will 
choose  their  wantonness"  (A.  V.  "delusions";  i.e.,  that  which 
or  those  who  will  delude  them,  or  deal  cruelly  with  them)  ;  it  is 
not  impossible,  indeed,  that  despite  its  form  the  word  may  have 
had  a  concrete  signification :  compare  the  development  of 
talmldh,  ''teaching,"  then  "disciple." 

5-6.  (5a)  And  the  people  shall  be  oppressed,  every  one  by  another, 
(b)  and  every  one  by  his  neighbor;  (c)  the  child  shall  behave  him- 
self proudly  against  the  ancient,  (d)  and  the  base  against  the  honor- 
able; (6a)  when  a  man  shall  take  hold  of  his  brother  (b)  (of)  the 
house  of  his  father. 

Intended  in  this  set  of  parallels  is  a  detailed  explanation  of 

the  anarchy  predicted  in  verse  4;  the  parallelism  is  clear  as 

between  the  various  parts  of  verse  5  (a  to  b,  c  to  d,  and  ab  to 

cd;  but  in  form,  a  more  closely  to  c,  and  b  to  d)  ;  stichos  6a, 

despite  the  fact  that  it  begins  with  kl,  "for"  (A.  V.  "when"), 

is  also  parallel  to  5a  and  5c;  the  ki,  then,  should  be  translated 

as  a  climactic  "yea."    The  stichos  beth  'abhlm  (6b)  is  difficult, 

even  if  translated  ' '  in  the  house  of  his  father ' ' ;  for  in  breaking 

the  parallelism  it  becomes  especially  emphatic,  but  emphasizes 

an  unimportant  detail,  with  an  emphasis  which  is  all  the  greater 

because  of  the  contrasting  phrase  "in  my  house"  in  7c.      The 

suggestion  offered  by  parallelism  is  that  6b  should  represent  a 

climax:  indeed  "father"  is  the  climax  of  one  set  of  terms:  man, 

neighbor,  ancient,  honorable,  brother;  beth,  "house,"  then,  is 

probably  an  error  for  ben,  "son,"  the  climax  of  the  contrasting 

series:  "yea,  a  son  (shall  seize)  his  own  father." 

6-7.  (6c)  Thou  hast  clothing,  (d)  be  thou  our  ruler,  (e)  and 
(let)  this  ruin  (be)  under  thy  hand.  (7a)  In  that  day  he  shall 
swear,  saying  (b)  I  will  not  be  an  healer;  (c)  for  in  my  house  (is) 
neither  bread  nor  clothing:    (d)  make  me  not  a  ruler  of  this  people. 

The  absence  of  any  word  introducing  the  direct  discourse 

in  6c,  contrasted  with  the  long  introductory  line    (7a)    to  the 

discourse  beginning  in  7b  is  noticeable;  particularly  the  phrase 

"in  that  day,"  which  elsewhere  is  always  properly  emphatic, 

is  here  emphasis  misplaced,  in  the  middle  of  a  scene  instead  of 

at  the  beginning  or  end ;  it  adds  nothing  to  the  picture-prophecy 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         333 

Chapter  3 
that  "on  the  very  day"  of  being  asked  the  man  shall  answer. 
If  retained,  the  line,  as  in  other  eases,  is  an  "aside." 

The  phrase  ' '  thou  hast  clothing ' '  also  is  without  any  parallel. 
But  the  reference  to  clothing  here  anticipates  and  so  spoils  the 
suddenness  of  the  climax  in  7c;  and,  on  the  whole,  the  picture 
of  two  brothers  unaware  of  the  condition  of  each  other's  affairs 
— one  affirming,  the  other  denying,  that  he  has  clothing — is 
rather  absurd.  Moreover,  the  reply  in  7a  is  one  to  a  remark 
concerning  rather  food  than  clothing  as  the  more  important  fac- 
tor. By  the  omission  of  6c  ("thou  hast  clothing")  and  by  the 
reference  of  the  conversation  to  each  of  the  pairs  mentioned  in 
the  previous  verses,  not  alone  to  the  two  brothers,  the  picture 
becomes  clear  and  the  emphasis  properly  placed;  the  stanza  is 
then  seen  to  contain  two  characteristically  Isaianic  turns.  Up 
to  this  point  he  has  pictured  a  condition  of  anarchy  as  it  would 
normally  be ;  and  the  mind  of  the  hearer  naturally  assumes  that 
the  attempt  of  every  man  is  to  wrest  the  power  to  himself.  But 
then  comes  the  turn  to  the  thought :  each  man  seeks  not  to  gain 
power,  but  to  thrust  it  upon  another.  The  second  unexpected 
factor  lies  in  the  reason  for  the  refusal  of  the  kingship :  the  lack 
of  a  piece  of  bread  (the  garment  is  comparatively  an  unim- 
portant matter,  and  reference  to  it  might  be  omitted  without 
weakening  the  sense :  it  is  included  only  for  the  sake  of  par- 
allelism. ) 

The  irony  in  the  situation  thus  revealed  is  made  clearer  by 
the  grim  humor  of  the  pun  in  the  word  "ruin,"  makhsheld  (lit. 
"stumbling  block")  for  "rule,"  memshald;  the  meaning  is  fixed 
by  the  parallel  "be  thou  our  ruler."  The  play  is  carried  fur- 
ther bj^  the  use  of  the  word  xo&/ies^:  from  the  root  "to  bind," 
it  means  both  to  dress  wounds  (here  those  of  the  injured  state) 
and  to  rule  (cf.  Job  34.17:  "shall  even  he  that  hateth  right 
govern?"  yax^hhosh;  this  meaning  is  derived  probably  from  that 
of  "harnessing,"  "restraining")  ;  aga-in  the  primary  thought  is 
made  clear  by  the  parallelism  between  x^i>^^sh  and  q^gin 
("ruler").  The  offending  clause  sinild  l^khd,  "thou  hast  [lit. 
"to  thee  is"]  clothing,"  possibly  had  its  origin  in  a  marginal 


334  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil, 

Chapter  3 

mamlakhd,  "rule,"  a  true  gloss  on  nmkhsheld,  or  in  a  conflation 
of  that  marginal  word  with  an  original  l^'khd  ("come":  i.e., 
"come,  ruler  shalt  thou  be  over  us")  ;  notice  that  l^^khd  is  written 
with  the  final  h. 

8-9.  (8a)  For  Jerusalem  is  ruined  (b)  and  Judah  is  fallen,  (8c) 
because  their  tongue  and  their  doings  are  against  the  Lord  (d)  to 
provoke  the  eyes  of  his  glory.  (9a)  The  show  of  their  countenance 
doth  witness  against  them,  (b)  and  they  declare  their  sin  as  Sodom, 
(c)  they  hide  (it)  not. 

Possibly  the  first  kl,  "for,"  should  be  omitted;  notice  the 
same  word  introducing  the  next  sentence  (8c  :  A,  V.  "because")  ; 
8a,  b  does  not  express  the  cause  of  the  fact  of  ruin,  but  of  the 
author's  use  of  the  term  makhsheld  in  the  previous  stanza;  i.e., 
it  is  explanatory;  if  retained,  the  first  kl  might  be  translated 
"yea,"  or  "indeed." 

From  the  standpoint  of  parallelism  the  strophe  8c-9  is  not 
always  clear.  On  the  whole,  it  emphasizes  not  the  sin  which 
has  led  to  ruin  but  the  brazenness,  the  lack  of  shame,  with  which 
the  sin  was  committed.  This  is  the  note  struck  by  the  opening 
word  ' '  their  tongue ' ' ;  and  it  is  repeated  in  the  third  line  by 
"their  faces";  in  the  fourth,  by  "they  proclaim,  they  do  not 
conceal."  The  second  stichos,  "to  provoke  the  eyes  of  his 
glory,"  though  it  is  not  clear,  is  not  out  of  harmony  with  the 
main  theme,  ' '  impudence  of  the  tongue ' ' ;  the  only  word,  then, 
that  clearl}'-  adds  a  variant  idea  is  "their  deeds"  in  the  first 
stichos  ( 8c ) .  Criticism,  then,  should  be  directed  toward  this 
word. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  a  double  subject  in  one  sentence,  when 
not  paralleled  by  a  similar  construction,  is  always  suspicious; 
this  is  true  even  if  the  double  subject  consists  of  synonyms ;  but 
when  one  of  them  expresses  an  added  idea  it  becomes  by  contrast 
lame.  Moreover,  the  construction  is  extremely  awkward;  liter- 
ally: "their  tongue  and -their  deeds  (are)  toward  the  Lord." 
It  is  perhaps  more  than  a  coincidence  that  the  Septuagint 
evidently  did  not  read  the  word  ma^aMehem  "their  deeds," 
though  it  is  in  itself  a  common  word ;  nor  is  its  substitution, 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         335 

Chapter  3 
/uera  avo/jLia<;,  clear  enough  to  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  it 
changed  purposely  to  make  better  sense.  Perhaps,  then,  its 
text  really  contained  a  form  of  the  root  'dwal,  and  ni<^' awwHd, 
' '  act  wrongfully, ' '  should  be  read ;  this  denominative  participle 
occurs  in  Is.  26.10 ;  and  the  root  is  fairly  frequent  in  connection 
with  "tongue"  and  "speech"  (Job  5.16,  6.30,  13.7,  27.4;  Mai. 
2.6;  Ps.  107.42;  Is.  59.3:  I'^shon'^khem  ' awla  thehghe:  "your 
tongue  hath  muttered  perverseness " ;  and  for  the  use  of  the 
preposition  'el,  compare  Is.  32.6:  ¥-dhabher  'el  '(^dhonai  to' a, 
"to  utter  error  against  the  Lord").  Ma' alHehem  was  possibly 
due  to  the  same  word  in  verse  10,  or  to  marginal  notes  referring 
to  both  passages;  for  another  suggestion  regarding  the  suffix 
hem,  see  below. 

In  8c  the  phrase  "to  provoke  the  eyes  of  his  glory"  is  more 
difficult  than  the  English  reveals ;  literallj^  it  is :  "to  rebel  against 
the  eyes  of  his  glory."  The  expression  is  unique;  the  nearest 
approach  to  it  is  found  in  Ps.  106.33 :  ' '  they  rebelled  against 
(defied)  his  spirit"  (cf.  Is.  63.10)  ;  but  the  spirit  (ril«x)  »f  God, 
like  the  ' '  glory  of  God, "  in  a  way  stands  for  God  himself,  which 
the  "eyes"  do  not.  Parallelism  suggests  that  "eyes"  belongs 
in  a  series  of  subjects:  "tongues,"  "eyes,"  "faces";  i.e.,  it  is 
men's  eyes  that  rebel  against  his  (God's)  glory;  compare  Is. 
5.15:  "the  eyes  of  the  lofty  [i.e.,  proud]  shall  be  humbled." 
The  change  requires  merely  the  addition  of  the  suffix  hem, 
"their,"  to  "eyes";  it  is  this  very  suffix  which  is  superfluous 
ima' aPUhem)  in  the  line  above,  if  our  surmise  there  is  correct; 
the  word  "eyes"  is  written  defectively  in  the  Massoretic  text 
(without  its  medial  y),  and  the  Septuagint  also  points  to  illegi- 
bility, reading  "their  glory  has  been  brought  low,"  possibly 
'and  or  na'nd  (with  final  h)  kh^^hhodhdm  instead  of  ' ene 
kh'^hhodho;  this  again  contains  the  letters  h  and  m.  The  slight 
additional  change  of  lamroth  to  mamroth  (i.e.,  participle  instead 
of  infinitive:  so  the  Septuagint  reads  cnreiOovvTe'^,  "disobedient") 
restores  a  perfectly  normal,  intelligible,  parallel  line  :  w^-mamroth 
' enehem  k^^hhodho  (or,  if  the  error  arose  from  the  fact  that 
' enehem  was  misplaced  and  then  written  in:  w^^-' enehem  mam- 
roth k^hhodho). 


336  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem,  Phil. 

Chapter  3 

In  stichoi  8c  and  8d  the  parallelism  is  clearly  established  by 
the  verbs  ''witness"  (but  literally  "answer,"  "speak":  'anHha) 
and  "declare";  and  though  the  subject  of  "witness,"  namely 
' '  show, ' '  hakkarath,  is  not  entirelj^  clear,  the  underlying  thought 
in  both  stichoi  is  undoubtedly  "their  guilt  is  plain  to  all." 
Since  then  the  verb  hikker  has  sometimes  the  meaning  "recog- 
nize," "acknowledge,"  the  phrase  may  well  mean:  "the 
acknowledgment  (i.e.,  acknowledging  look)  on  their  faces," 
which,  in  turn,  is  equivalent  to  "the  impudent  look  on  their 
faces."  It  is  a  linguistic  coincidence  that  hakkarath  might,  on 
the  other  hand,  be  derived  from  hdkar,  which  in  Arabic  denotes 
both  "to  be  sleepy"  and  "to  be  astounded" — hence  possibly  in 
origin  "to  have  a  fixed  look,"  and  here  "an  impudent  look"; 
in  Job  19.3,  where  the  same  root  appears,  a  translation  "ye  are 
shameless,"  or  "shamelessly,  brazenly,  persistent,  toward  me" 
would  be  possible. 

The  extreme  brevity  of  9c,  "they  hide  not,"  a  stichos  par- 
allel to  9b,  may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  the  last  line  of  the 
stanza.  However,  it  is  possible  that,  parallel  to  "like  Sodom," 
"like  Gomorrah"  should  be  inserted;  indeed,  the  absence  of 
reference  to  Gomorrah  would  be  striking  and  apparently  sig- 
nificant ;  compare  Is.  1.9,  10,  13.19 ;  Amos  4.11,  Jer.  23.14,  49.18, 
50.40;  Deut.  29.22,  32.32,  as  against  only  Lam.  4.6,  and  Ezek. 
chapter  16,  in  the  last  of  which  the  particular  nature  of  the 
reference  precludes  the  addition  of  Gomorrah. 

9-llc.  (9d)  Woe  unto  their  soul!  (e)  for  they  have  reAvarded 
evil  unto  themselves.  (10a)  Say  ye  (to)  the  righteous  that  (it  shall 
be)  well  (with  him)  ;  (b)  for  they  shall  eat  the  fruit  of  their  doings. 
(11a)  Woe  unto  the  wicked!  (b)  (it  shall  be)  ill  (with  him):  (c) 
for  the  reward  of  his  hands  shall  be  given  him. 

While  in  some  details  the  text  here  is  obscure,  the  parallelism 

is  fairly  evident.     It  is  clearest  in  the  following  stichoi :  9e,  "for 

they  have  rewarded  evil  unto  themselves ' ' ;  10b,  ' '  for  they  shall 

eat  the  fruit  of  their  doings";  and  lie,  "for  the  reward  of  his 

hands   shall   be   given   him."      Of   the   remaining   three   main 

clauses  two,  9d,  "Woe  unto  their  soul"  and  11a,  "Woe  unto 

the  wicked,"  are  also  clearly  parallel,  while  the  middle  one  in 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         337 

Chapter  3 
the  series,  10a,  "say  ye  (to)  the  righteous  that  (it  shall  be  well) 
with  him,"  though  in  thought  antithetically  parallel,  is  in  form 
not  clearly  parallel ;  on  the  other  hand,  one  member  of  this  clause 
"that  (or  'for')  well"  seems  to  be  parallel  to  the  one  word  in 
the  stanza  not  yet  accounted  for,  "ill,"  in  lib;  which  would 
then  require,  however,  the  insertion  of  the  word  "that"  (or 
"for")  before  it. 

But  the  clause  10a:  "Say  ye  the  righteous  that  [or  'for'] 
well"  is  a  stylistic,  if  not  grammatical,  impossibility;  and  it  is 
just  here,  also,  that  the  text  underlying  the  Septuagint  varies 
again :  ' '  saying,  let  us  bind  the  just  for  he  is  burdensome  to  us. ' ' 
This,  perhaps,  represents  a  conflation  of  marginal  glosses,  in 
which  le'mor,  "saying"  (lit.  "to  say"  or  "in  sajdng"),  is  a 
variant  of  ne'^^sar,  "let  us  bind"  (written  with  the  sibilant  sin 
instead  of  samekh),  and  both  arising  out  of  an  original  'ashrc, 
"happy!"  This  would  then  restore  the  middle  clause  in  the 
series  to  form  parallelism :  ' '  happy  the  righteous,  for, ' '  etc. 

However,  there  is  also  a  minor  grammatical  variation  in 
parts  of  these  verses,  in  that  9d,  9e,  and  10b  are  in  the  third 
plural,  while  the  remaining  clauses  are  in  the  singular ;  the 
clauses  in  the  plural  are  consistent  with  the  preceding  stanza 
in  this  respect,  and,  moreover,  refer  directly  to  the  particular 
sinners  treated  there ;  the  clauses  in  the  singular  are  in  the 
nature  of  general  reflections,  contrasting  the  lot  of  the  wicked 
and  the  righteous :  they  are  probably  marginal  additions  sug- 
gested by  such  texts  as  Ps,  128.2:  "Happy  shalt  thou  be  and 
(it  shall  be)  well  with  thee";  or  if  by  Isaiah,  they  have  been 
wrongfully  placed  here.  "Woe  to  their  souls,  for  they  have 
laid  up  evil  for  themselves,  yea,  the  fruit  of  their  deeds  shall 
they  eat"  is  a  complete  and  consistent  two  line  strophe,  a  fitting 
close  to  the  section  verses  1-9. 

12.  (a)  (As  for)  my  people,  children  (are)  their  oppressors,  (b) 
and  women  shall  rule  over  them,  (c)  O  my  people  they  which  lead 
thee  cause  thee  to  err,  (d)  and  destroy  the  way  of  thy  paths. 

The  first  couplet   (12a,  b)   repeats,  in  general,  verse  4,  but 

the  wording  in  12a  is  not  entirely  clear;  literally:  "my  people, 


338  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  3 

its  oppressors  [plural]  plays  the  child  [singular]."  Aside  from 
the  grammar,  there  are  here  expressed  two  thoughts :  the 
rulers  are  oppressors,  and  they  are  childish  (or  perhaps  "are 
wanton")  ;  it  is  possible,  however,  that  nogh^sdw,  "oppressors," 
has  the  more  general  meaning  here  "rulers,"  as  it  has  in  Zech. 
10.4,  and  as  the  parallelism  with  "rule,"  mdshHu,  in  verse  12 
might  suggest.  The  natural  force  of  parallelism  to  nogh^shdw 
in  the  meaning  "oppressors"  has  led  Targum,  and  possibly  the 
Septuagint,  to  read  in  place  of  ndshlm, ' '  women, ' '  in-  12b,  noshlm, 
' '  creditors ' ' ;  both  versions,  also,  understand  m^'  oMlm  to  mean 
"gleaners"  (see,  on  the  root,  verse  4b),  fitting  in  admirably 
with  their  understanding  of  noshlm:  "thy  creditors,  or  those 
that  collect  the  taxes  from  thee,  glean  thee,  strip  thee  clean"; 
and  notice  that  in  verse  14  the  figure  of  the  vineyard  reappears. 
Another  suggestion  is  offered  hj  Amos  2.8,  where  one  of  the 
sins  of  Israel  is  again  described  as  "drinking  the  wine  of  the 
condemned  [lit.  "mulcted":  ' ('■7iushlm]  in  the  house  of  their 
God."  The  Septuagint  in  this  Amos  passage  translates  'C'tiUshim 
by  (TUKO(f)avTL(av,  usually  representing  the  Hebrew  'dsKaq  ("ex- 
tort" or  "oppress") — a  word  occurring  frequently  in  refer- 
ence to  the  despoilers  of  the  poor  although  it  is  not  found  at  all 
in  the  earlier  Isaiah.  Now,  in  the  present  Isaiah  passage  the 
Septuagint  has  irpaKrope^, ' '  exactors, "  "  tax-collectors, "  or  "  pun- 
ishers ' '  in  the  first  stichos  and  aTrairovvre^  in  the  second ;  but  the 
latter  is  the  usual  translation  (see  9.3,  14.4;  also  in  other  books) 
of  nogh^slm,  and  there  may  be  represented  here  a  transposition 
of  the  two  words,  so  that  7rpdKTop€<i  is  rather  the  translation  of 
its  reading  for  ndshlm:  possibly  of  ndshlm  (so  Aquila  and  Theo- 
dotion  to  Ps.  109.11;  against  this  they  have  in  Is.  60.17  irpaKTcop 
for  Hebrew  noghes  and  Septuagint  eVio-zcoTro?),  or,  since  in  24.2 
noshe  is  more  exactly  6(f)ei\(ov,  probably  of  another  word, '  dri^shlm 
("mulcters,"  "  punishers " ) ,  the  root  found  in  Amos.  At  all 
events  attention  should  be  paid  to  the  parallelism  between 
m^'dlHlm  and  ndshlm;  since  here  "children"  (if  this  be  the  cor- 
rect interpretation  of  the  root  of  the  former  word)  is  avoided  and 
a  denominative  substituted,  "play  the  child,"  it  is  probable  that 


Vol.  1.]    Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         339 

Chapter  3 
ndshlm,  "women,"  if  correct,  is  to  be  taken  figuratively  instead 
of  literally;  i.e.,  "effeminates,"  "weaklings,"  as  in  Jer.  50.37, 
51.30:  "the  mighty  men  of  Babylon  have  become  women";  a 
formal  denominative  from  ndshlm,  parallel  to  m^'  olHlm,  was 
almost  impossible  because  of  the  peculiar  nature  of  the  word. 

The  change  from  third  person  in  12a,  b  to  second  in  12c,  d 
indicates  one  of  two  facts :  either  that  the  two  couplets  do  not 
belong  together  here,  one  being  then  a  stray  couplet  inserted  on 
the  margin  because  of  its  similarity  to  the  other ;  or  that  the 
second  is  a  more  impassioned  form  of  the  first,  and  parallel  to 
it  in  theme ;  this  would  confirm  the  figurative,  not  literal,  signifi- 
cation of  ndshlm  in  verse  12b.  The  root  of  m^'ashsh^rekhd, 
"they  that  lead  thee,"  if  not  a  variant  of  ydshar,  "be  straight," 
at  least  suggests  it ;  cf.  Prov.  9.15 :  ham-m^yashsh^rlm  'orxdthdm, 
' '  those  making  straight  their  paths " ;  so  that  the  contrast  be- 
tween m^ashsh'^rekhd  and  math'lm  ("cause  thee  to  err";  root 
"deviate")  is  exceedingly  nice.  At  the  same  time  the  word 
'ashur,  "footsteps,"  is  suggested  in  m^ashsh^rekhd,  establishing 
a  closer  parallelism  wath  "way,"  "path"  in  the  following 
stichos  (12b). 

The  use  of  hilW u,  "destroy"  (lit.  "swallow"),  parallel  to 
math'lm,  "pervert,"  is  striking;  one  expects  'iqq^shu  (Is.  59.8; 
Mic.  3.9),  him  (Ps.  125.5;  Prov.  17.23),  or  'iwwu  (Is.  24.1;  cf. 
he^wU,  Jer.  3.21).  The  same  parallelism,  however,  occurs  in 
9.15;  and  with  other  forms  of  the  root  hdla' ,  in  28.7,  where  in 
addition  to  nihhWu  and  td'u  occur  shdghu,  "swerve,"  "reel," 
and  pdqu,  "reel,"  "totter"  (cf.  Ps.  107.27:  "they  reel  to  and 
fro,  and  stagger  like  a  drunken  man,  and  their  wisdom  is  swal- 
lowed up,"  tithhalla')  ;  and  in  19.3  '(^halle<^'  is  parallel  to  w^- 
nahh^qd,  translated  "fail,"  but  in  its  turn  parallel  both  to 
'iwwd,  "twist,"  or  "distort,"  and  hdlaq,  "lay  waste,"  in  24.1. 
In  some  of  these  passages  it  is  almost  impossible  to  find  anything 
of  the  idea  "to  swallow"  in  bdla' .  It  is  true  the  metaphor 
"swallow  up  the  road"  occurs  in  Arabic,  of  a  horse  that  runs 
swiftly;  but  in  the  present  passage  such  a  striking  figure  would 
seem  to  be  possible  only  if  the  other  half  of  the  parallelism 


340  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  3 

offered  another  aspect  of  the  same  figure  or  else  an  equally  strik- 
ing one.  The  passages  cited  referring  to  drunkenness  might 
suggest  here  the  figure:  They  that  should  lead  thee  straight 
cause  thee  to  reel  (like  drunken  men)  and  they  swallow  your 
paths  (like  wine)  ;  in  28.7,  with  a  characteristically  Isianic  twist: 
''they  stagger  with  strong  drink,  they  are  gulped  by  [instead  of 
'they  gulp']  wine."  But  in  19.3  the  phrase  "I  shall  swallow 
up  their  counsel"  is  put  in  the  mouth  of  God;  and  in  Ps.  55.10 
occurs:  "Swallow,  Lord,  their  tongue" — a  violent  anthropo- 
orphism  which  in  neither  case  is  confirmed  by  parallelism.  It 
might  be  possible  to  urge  that  the  word  bdla' ,  in  the  figurative 
sense  "destroy,"  was  so  common  that  it  might  have  been  used 
without  suggesting  the  literal  meaning  at  all;  but  this  is  not  a 
satisfactory  explanation  in  the  case  of  Isaiah,  especially  in  view 
of  its  frequent  parallelism  to  ' '  pervert, "  "  twist. ' '  It  would  be 
tempting,  then,  to  find  a  second  root  hdla'  in  Hebrew,  corre- 
sponding to  the  Arabic  balagha,  but  with  the  opposite  meaning, 
"miss  the  goal,"  instead  of  "reach  the  goal";  there  are,  of 
course,  manj^  such  Semitic  words  of  two  contrary  meanings. 
Failing  this,  we  are  forced  to  accept  bala'  as  a  sort  of  parono- 
masia on  bal-al, ' '  confound, "  "  confuse, "  or  of  popular  etymology 
based  on  a  false  extension  and  application  of  the  primitive 
biliteralism  of  Semitic  roots. 

13-14b.  (13a)  The  Lord  standeth  up  to  plead,  (b)  and  standeth 
to  judge  his  people;  (14a)  The  Lord  will  enter  into  judgment  (b) 
with  the  ancients  of  his  people  and  the  princes  thereof. 

The  parallelistic  repetition  of  "my  [his]  people"  in  12a,  12c, 
and  14b  shows  that  the  Hebrew  "peoples,"  'ammlm,  in  13b  is 
an  error  for  'ammo,  "his  people,"  read  by  the  Septuagint  and 
English. 

There  is  a  peculiar  order  of  words  in  13a,  b :  while  the  predi- 
cate participles  nissabh  and  ' omedh,  "stand,"  and  the  infinitives 
la-ribh,  "to  plead,"  and  Id-dhln,  "to  judge"  are  in  parallel 
positions  respectively,  in  13a  the  subject,  "the  Lord,"  is  in 
parallel  position  to  the  object,  'a/mmlm,  "people,"  in  13b.  Quite 
possibly  the  unnatural  order  in  13a  should  be  changed :  in  either 


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Chapter  3 
case  the  omission  of  the  object  in  this  verse  is  noticeable ;  it  is 
supplied  first  in  13b — an  example  of  restrictive  climactic  par- 
allelism, which  is  rare  in  Isaiah;  another  step  in  the  climax  is 
seen  in  14a,  where  the  object  is  further  restricted  by  modifiers  f 
the  Lord  will  judge ;  he  will  judge  his  people ;  the  Lord  will 
judge  the  people's  rulers  and  princes. 

This  third  line  of  the  stanza  is  comparatively  very  long, 
though  perhaps  not  longer  than  1.6a,  for  example;  nevertheless, 
the  absence  of  other  tristichs  in  this  prophecy  might  lead  to 
suspicion  as  to  this  one.      Distich  formation  is  barely  possible: 

The  Lord  rises  to  plead  and  stands  to  judge  his  people; 

The  Lord  enters  into  judgment  with  his  people's  elders  and  princes. 

Here  the  double  predicate  in  one  stichos  might  find  its  balance 

in  the  double  object  ("elders  and  princes")  of  the  second.    As  a 

quatrastich  the  passage  would  offer  three  parallel  lines  and  then 

a  fourth  line  consisting  apparently  merely  of  a  prepositional 

phrase ;  this  would  be  the  first  example  in  Isaiah  of  such   a 

stichos,  containing  a  proposition  neither  complete  in  itself,  nor 

yet  parallel  to  another  incomplete  proposition  like  itself  as  it 

would  be  if  the  text  read  (cf.  4.4)  : 

The  Lord  stands  to  plead 
And  rises  for  judgment, 

With  the  ancients  of  his  people, 

With  the  princes  of  Judah. 

This  may,  indeed,  have  been  the  original  form  of  the  prophecy. 
As  the  text  stands,  finally,  since  the  fourth  line  does  contain  a 
term  parallel  to  (identical  with)  one  in  the  second  ("people"), 
it  is  possible  that  owing  to  the  climactic  structure,  the  mind  sup- 
plies before  its  fourth  stichos  a  repetition  of  the  verb,  thus : 

The  Lord  standeth  up  to  plead 

And  standeth  to  judge  his  people, 
The  Lord  will  enter  into  judgment 

[And  plead]  with  the  ancients  and  princes  of  his  people. 

14-15.  (14c)  For  ye  [lit.  "and  ye — ye"]  have  eaten  up  the 
vineyard;  (d)  the  spoil  of  the  poor  (is)  in  your  houses.  (15a)  What 
mean  ye  (that)  ye  beat  my  people  to  pieces,  (b)  and  grind  the  fac^s 
of  the  poor?  (c)  saith  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts. 


342  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  3 

The  abrupt  passage  to  the  direct  discourse  is  again  noticeable, 
but  not  unusual  (cf.  3.6).  The  emphatic  we-'attem,  "and  as 
for  you,"  is,  however,  almost  unique  at  the  introduction  of  a 
discourse,  for  it  usually  marks  a  contrast  or  an  especial  emphasis 
upon  the  subject ;  so  even  in  Ps.  2.6  where  it  again  occurs  at  the 
beginning  of  a  speech  the  contrast  and  emphasis  are  clear  as 
between  the  first  person  plural  in  the  speech  of  the  kings  of 
earth  and  the  first  singular  in  the  speech  of  God.  Moreover 
the  reference  to  the  vineyard  in  Is.  14c  is  abrupt;  one  expects 
at  least  "my  vineyard"  (contrast  chapter  5  with  its  careful 
elaboration  of  the  figure  of  the  vineyard)  ;  the  definite  article 
is  very  noticeable;  indeed,  it  is  this  probably  that  led  the  ver- 
sions to  find  a  previous  reference  to  a  vineyard  (see  above,  the 
note  to  verse  12).  On  the  other  hand  15a  begins  with  a  phrase 
which  is  characteristically  the  introduction  to  an  indignant 
direct  discourse:  "What  mean  ye,"  etc.  (lit.,  "what  to  you"; 
cf.  1.11,  also  22.1,  16).  Possibly,  then,  the  two  couplets  should 
be  transposed;  the  pronoun  w^-'attem  would  then  be  either 
merely  parallel  to  the  suffix  in  Idkhem,  or  would  be  explicative : 
"in  that  ye  have  eaten"  (lit.  "ye  having  eaten  the  vineyard")  ; 
or  the  contrast  becomes :  ' '  my  people  are  in  poverty,  while  you, 
the  leaders,  have  their  spoil  in  your  houses."  Following  (and 
parallel  to)  "my  people"  and  "the  poor,"  the  figurative  mean- 
ing of  "vineyard,"  and  its  definiteness,  would  become  clear. 

But  in  14c  g^zel-ath  he-'dnl,  "spoil  of  the  poor,"  is  suspicious 
because  of  the  repetition  of  "the  poor"  in  15b ;  read  hd-  c-nahhlm, 
"grapes,"  parallel  to  "vinej-ard"  (cf.  Mic.  2.2,  where  g^zeld  is 
used  in  reference  to  fields).  And  as  a  parallel  to  "plunder," 
Mer,  "eaten  up,"  probably  for  Isaiah  had  still  what  seems  to 
have  been  its  primitive  meaning,  "glean,"  with  the  connotation 
"strip" ;  so,  too,  in  the  parable  of  the  vineyard  in  5.5,  this  trans- 
lation is  more  fitting  than  "destroy"  or  "burn"  (cf.  hdgar  in 
this  sense.  Judges  9.27).  In  15a  t^dhakk<^'u,  lit.  "pulverize," 
is  an  excellent  parallel  to  titxdnU,  "grind  in  the  mill";  compare 
Knm.  11.8,  where  dukh,  another  derivative  from  the  biliteral 
dakh,  is  parallel  to  tdxan.    Notice,  then,  the  complementary  par- 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         348 

Chapter  3 
allelism  of  metaphors  between  14c,  d  and  15a,  b  (grapes  and 
corn). 

16.  (a)  Moreover,  the  Lord  saith,  because  the  daughters  of  Zion 
are  haughty,  (b)  and  walk  with  stretched  forth  necks  (c)  and  wan- 
ton eyes,  (d)  walking  and  mincing  as  they  go,  (f)  and  making  a 
tinkling  with  their  feet. 

There  is  some  difficulty  in  identifying  the  form  of  this  stanza. 
16b,  literally  "stretching  [or  turning]  their  necks  and  ogling 
their  eyes, ' '  in  itself  contains  two  parallel  terms ;  but  separating 
into  two  stichoi  would  make  lines  of  irregular  length  because  of 
' '  and  they  walk, ' '  wat-Ulahhnd.  Curiously,  wat-telakhnd  occurs 
again  in  the  very  next  stichos  (translated  "as  they  go"),  not 
parallel,  but  in  a  subordinate  clause ;  in  addition  to  this  stylistic 
fault,  it  is  syntactically  suspicious,  for  in  the  idiomatic  construc- 
tion represented  by  hdlokh  ivHdphoph  telakhM  (lit.  "a  going  and 
tripping  they  go")  the  position  of  the  finite  verb  is  normally 
before  the  infinitives  (except  in  Jer.  50.4,  where,  however,  there 
is  at  least  no  repetition  of  the  verb).  In  the  Isaiah  passage  the 
Septuagint  again  differs  just  where  parallelism  points  out  a 
weakness  ;  it  reads  in  stichos  d  T17  iropela  tmv  ttoSmv:  ' '  with  motion 
of  the  feet";  and  that  this  is  not  an  intentional  variation  to 
avoid  repetition  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  Septuagint  has 
again  roi?  irovcrlv,  "with  their  feet,"  in  stichos  f  (cf.  the  repe- 
tition of  fiaxalpa  in  3.25).  Possibly,  then,  the  text  was  not 
clearly  in  order;  if  the  second  telakhnd  (stichos  d)  be  omitted, 
hdlokh  w^-tdphoph  would  be  a  circumstantial  accusative  infinitive 
phrase  dependent  upon  the  first  telakhnd,  and  parallel  to  the 
circumstantial  participles  in  b  and  c  and  to  the  circumstantial 
imperfect  in  16b  (cf.  the  probably  similar  parallelism  in  8.8)  ; 
or  if  the  first  telakhim  be  omitted,  the"  participial  phrases 
n'^tuwdth  ' gdron  and  m^saqq^roth  'eM«i/im,' "stretched  forth  of 
neck  and  wanton  of  eyes, ' '  modify  the  main  clause  in  stichos  a 
just  exactly  as  m'^'uph  guqd  and  '(Upheld  m'^nuddax  modify  the 
main  clause  in  8.22. 

The  Septuagint  further  inserts  a  stichos:  afxa  avpovcrai  tov<; 
XiT0iva<i:  "together  with  a  dragging  of  their  garments  in  trains" 


344  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  3 

— a  line  so  strikingl}'  apt  that  it  seems  necessary  to  regard  it  as 
based  on  an  original  reading ;  perhaps  U-mitp^x^thehem  tisxdbhnd 
(a-vpov/xev  is  sdxobh  in  II  Sam.  17.13). 

In  16f  occurs  t^akkasna;  the  translation  "making  a  tink- 
ling" depends  upon  the  noun  '^khdslm  (sing.  ' ekhes)  in  verse 
18,  translated  ' '  anklets. ' '  The  root  occurs  again  in  Hebrew  only 
in  Prov.  7.22,  where  'ekhes,  however,  if  correct,  certainly  does 
not  mean  "anklet";  indeed,  this  translation  is  very  dubious  (see 
below)  ;  it  rests  upon  secondary  Arabic  connotations  of  a  root 
meaning  ' ' to  reverse "  :  "to  put  a  halter  on  a  camel ' ' — but  in 
such  a  manner  that  the  idea  of  turning  or  twisting  (either  the 
rope  or  the  camel's  head)  is  included ;  hence  'ikds  is  the  rope  with 
which  such  tying  is  done,  and  perhaps  sometimes  simply  "a 
hobble."  But  the  jump  from  this  meaning  in  Arabic  to  that 
of  a  "  metal  anklet  worn  by  a  woman ' '  in  Hebrew,  and  still  fur- 
ther to  a  denominative  verb  denoting  "to  make  a  ringing  sound 
with  such  anklets,"  especially  since  the  word  occurs  nowhere 
else,  is  a  far  one.  The  Targum  margh^zdn,  "provoking  to 
anger,"  read  perhaps  a  root  kd'as  for  'dkas;  the  Septuagint 
Trai^ovaai^  "  sporting, "  also  challenges  the  translation,  and  is  evi- 
dently nearer  to  the  intention  of  Isaiah.  In  Job  21.11  irpoairai- 
^ovaiv  is  the  translation  of  rdqadh, ' '  run  with  leaps  and  bounds ' ' ; 
but  it  might  also  represent  the  Arabic  rakada,  "move  the  feet," 
which  would  be  in  Hebrew  rdkag,  if  found,  or  possibly  rdkas  (the 
matter  of  sibilant  shift  especially  in  rare  words  is  not  clear  yet)  ; 
and  the  fact  that  'akasa  and  rakasa  in  Arabic  are  synonyms,  if 
not  variants  of  one  and  the  same  Semitic  root,  suggests  further 
possibilities  in  the  present  Hebreiv  of  Isaiah.  At  any  rate,  the 
Arabic  rakada  means  not  only  "to  dance,"  but  also  "to  kick  the 
skirts  of  the  garment' and  the  anklets  with  the  feet,"  hi-rijlaiha ; 
and  it  is  the  motion  made  in  a  peculiar  manner  of  walking  that 
Mohammad  evidently  p'rohibited  when  he  said  (Sura  24.31)  : 
"let  them  not  strike  with  their  feet,  so  that  these  ornaments  of 
theirs  that  be  hidden  be  made  known."  It  is  true  that  here 
again,  in  this  Sura,  commentators  generally  introduce  the  word 
"anklets"  after  "strike"  and  then  cite  it  as  a  support  of  the 


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Chapter  3 
translation  '' anklets"  in  Isaiah;  but  while  in  both  places  such 
a  reference  may  be  included,  it  does  not  lie  in  the  words  used : 
the  Arabic  daraba,  "strike,"  here  means  ''strike  out,"  "wave," 
and  can  be  said  of  the  arms  as  well  as  the  feet  or  legs;  and  the 
"ornaments"  (again  supposed  to  be  "anklets")  are  properly 
interpreted  by  Savary  when  he  translates:  "Let  them  not  move 
about  their  feet  so  as  to  allow  those  charms  to  be  seen  which 
ought  to  be  veiled"  (i.e.,  their  physical  charms;  compare  Ezek. 
16.7  [though  the  Massoretic  text  has  been  questioned]  :  "thou 
art  come  to  excellent  ornaments  ['o^dhl  'c^dhdyim]  :  (thy)  breasts 
are  fashioned,  and  thine  hair  is  grown."  Further  parallels  to 
the  present  stanza  are  furnished  by  the  Arabic ;  thus,  Burton 
(translation  of  the  Thoitsand  Nights  and  a  Night,  IV,  16)  writes 
that  the  Bedui  "compares  the  gait  of  a  Avoman  who  walks  well 
with  the  slightly  swinging  walk  of  a  thoroughbred  mare,  bending 
her  graceful  neck  and  looking  from  side  to  side  at  objects  as  she 
passes. ' '  In  Night  243,  a  man  impersonating  a  woman  is  directed 
to  walk  so  as  to  advance  one  shoulder  before  the  other,  and  sway 
the  hips  (qaddim  as-samdl  wa-'akhkhir  al-yamln  wa-hazz  al- 
'arddif)  ;  in  Night  134:  bend  the  body  from  side  to  side  in  step- 
ping {tamdyul  fl  l-khatawdt)  ;  Night  198  (Breslau  edition)  : 
"trail  the  skirts  and  sway  to  and  fro."  Especially  significant 
is  the  phrase  (see  Lane  s.v.  'akasa)  :  ta'akkasa  fi'l-mishyati, 
"move  like  a  viper  [lit.  twist  oneself]  in  his  gait,"  with  exactly 
the  root  found  in  the  Isaiah  passage,  where  perhaps  "twist  with 
the  feet ' '  may  stand  for  ' '  with  the  hips ' ' ;  compare  the  more 
general  (euphemistic)  use  of  "feet,"  as  in  Is.  7.20  (see  further 
on  'O'kdslm  below). 

17.  (a)  Therefore  the  Lord  will  smite  with  a  scab  the  crown 
(of  the  head)  of  the  daughters  of  Zion  (b)  and  the  Lord  will  dis- 
cover their  secret  parts. 

Sippax,  "smite  with  a  scab,"  is  supposedly  a  denominative 

from  sappaxath    (with  the  heavier  sibilant),  "scab";  as  such 

it  is  not  found  again  in  the  Old  Testament.      The  Septuagint 

varies  :  its  TaTrcLvcoaei,  "humble,"  might  represent  either  shdfel  or 

shax;  and  its  ap^ovaa^  might  represent  a  marginal  variant  rdshe, 


346  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  3 

' '  heads, ' '  for  qodhqodh,  ' '  crown. ' '  Sippax  is,  indeed,  suspicious 
because  of  the  parallel  stichos,  in  which,  however,  there  is  the 
difficult  pothhen,  translated  ''their  secret  parts,"  but  not  found 
elsewhere;  the  Septuagint  has  (rxniia,  "form"  or  ''appearance," 
which,  while  it  might  be  merely  an  avoidance  of  the  difficulty, 
might  readily  represent  a  reading  shlth  (in  Prov.  7.10  this  word 
is  translated  €lho<; ,  ' '  appearance, "  "  form  " )  ;  hence  possibly  the 
original  reading  was  shcthhen,  which  occurs  in  Is.  20.4:  "so 
shall  the  king  of  Assyria  lead  away  the  Egyptian  prisoners  and 
the  Ethiopians  captives,  young  and  old,  naked  and  barefoot,  even 
with  their  buttocks  uncovered,"  x^^uphe  sheth,  an  expression 
of  grief  and  shame  at  the  same  time  (see  Wellhausen,  Reste 
arabischen  Heidenthums,  p.  177,  note  3,  for  a  reference  to  the 
uncovered  buttocks  in  mourning).  At  any  rate  y<^'dre,  "dis- 
cover," in  this  stichos  suggests  a  parallel  in  the  preceding:  the 
very  word  found  in  Is.  20.4,  x^isaph,  with  a  mere  transposition  of 
the  consonants  of  sippax;  ^^  I^-  ^7.2  again  occurs  "uncover  thy 
locks  (veil),  make  bare  the  leg,  uncover  the  thigh"  (lit.  "train"  : 
xaspi  shohhel)  ;  here  then  w^-xasaph  qodhqodh,  "will  lay  bare, 
uncover,  the  crown."  The  verb  sdphax  of  the  Hebrew,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  used  by  Isaiah  in  5.7  in  quite  a  different  sense: 
"shed,  pour  out";  and  in  14.1  (with  the  heavier  sibilant  and 
hence  apparently  even  closer  to  "scab")  in  the  meaning  "join," 
"attach,"  where  the  parallel  (Idwd)  leaves  no  doubt  as  to  which 
particular  sdphax  is  meant ;  while  in  5.7  the  word  is  chosen  for 
its  paronomasia.  It  is  fairly  clear,  then,  that  Isaiah  would  not 
have  used  the  ambiguous  sdphax  here  without  a  parallel  to  make 
it  clear.  And  if  the  line  from  the  Septuagint  regarding  the 
trailing  cloak  be  restored,  the  revised  reading  "lay  bare  the  but- 
tocks" offers  just  that  prophecy  of  poetic  justice  which  the 
Semitic  feeling  demands:  instead  of  the  cloaks  trailing  behind 
there  shall  be  nakedness  of  buttocks;  on  the  thought  compare, 
besides  Is.  47.2,  Jer,  13.22:  "thy  skirts  (train)  are  discovered." 
It  is  possible  that  this  couplet  is  only  the  fragment  of  a  larger 
stanza  introduced  by  Idkhen,  "therefore,"  the  omission  of  which 
word  (it  is  supplied  in  the  English)  is  unusual;  for  the  formula 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism^  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         347 

Chapter  3 
ya'an  kl,  "because  that,"  occurs  again  in  Is.  3.16,  7.5,  8.6,  always 
with  some  correlative  in  the  apodosis.  An  easy  change,  however, 
of  we-sippax  into  the  imperfect  y^sappe^^x  would  yield  a  normal 
construction;  and  possibly  the  couplet  is  to  be  joined  directly 
to  verse  24. 

18-23.  (18)  In  that  day  the  Lord  will  take  away  the  bravery  of 
(their)  tinkling  ornaments  (about  their  feet),  (their)  cauls,  and 
their  round  tires  like  the  moons,  (19)  and  the  chains,  and  the  brace- 
lets, and  the  muflSers,  (20)  The  bonnets,  and  the  ornaments  of  the 
legs,  and  the  head-bands  and  the  tablets  and  the  ear-rings,  (21)  The 
rings  and  nose-jewels,  (22)  The  changeable  suits  of  apparel,  and  the 
mantles,  and  the  wimples,  and  the  crisping  pins,  (23)  The  glasses, 
and  the  fine  linen,  and  the  hoods,  and  the  veils. 

There  is  no  reason  for  regarding  this  list  of  terms  as  non- 
Isaianic ;  the  very  wealth  of  detail  makes  its  own  appeal  and 
effect  (cf.  2.12,  for  instance),  although  it  is  possible  that  this 
stanza  is  misplaced  (see  the  note  at  the  end  of  the  last  stanza) 
and  formed  part  of  chapter  2,  or  a  similar  poem,  referring  to 
the  proud  luxury  of  women  as  that  does  to  the  pride  of  men ;  the 
introductory  words  "and  on  that  day  the  Lord  will  take  away" 
would  then  be  a  similar  line  to  2.12  or  2.20  ("and  on  that  day 
man  shall  cast  away,"  etc.).  Whether  this  be  so  or  not,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  there  is  some  disorder  in  the  list  of  objects 
enumerated.  As  the  text  stands  there  are  twenty-one  objects 
instead  of  twenty,  making  if  coupled  in  pairs  the  frequent  ten 
line  or  five  couplet  stanza.  Some  of  the  apparent  confusion 
may  be  due  merely  to  misunderstanding  of  certain  terms  in  the 
list ;  among  them  are  several  not  found  elsewhere ;  and  the 
specific  meaning  of  terms  for  clothing  is  subject  to  change  in 
the  course  of  time.  The  objects  enumerated  in  the  list  have 
been  divided  into  two  (or  three)  groups:  articles  worn  on  the 
head  and  those  worn  on  the  rest  of  the  body  (or  ornaments  for 
the  head;  those  for  the  rest  of  the  body;  garments)  ;  this  is  a 
natural  order;  in  16,  and  again  17,  first  head  and  then  feet  are 
mentioned.  But  in  any  case  'ckdslm,  as  usually  translated,  Eng- 
lish, "tinkling  ornaments  about  the  feet,"  disturbs  the  order, 
and  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  just  the  anklets  should  be 
thus  emphasized  as  a  sign  of  pride  or  of  immodesty. 


348  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem.  Phil, 

Chapter  3 

It  has  been  supposed  that  'ckdslm  was  placed  at  the  head  of 
the  list  just  because  t^'akkasnd,  "tinkle,"  was  the  last  mentioned 
act  in  verse  16 ;  but  see  on  that  word  the  note  above.  The  Tar- 
gum  translates  "sandals,"  m^sdnayd;  but  whether  this  was 
merely  a  guess ;  or  represents  a  different  reading  again :  7i^'  dllm 
(cf.  Is.  5.27,  11.15)  ;  or  is  based  on  ' ahas  and  'aqas,  "twist,"  or 
"plait"  (sandals  were  sometimes  made  of  woven-work;  and 
m(^sd'iid  means  also  "basket"),  it  is  difficult  to  say.  Later  Jew- 
ish commentators  attempt  an  etymological  justification  by  de- 
scribing them  as  sandals  made  of  the  skin  of  the  viper,  'ekes,  a 
word  which  Rashi  cites  also  in  connection  with  t<^' akkasiid :  "they 
stamp  with  their  feet  and  give  signals  to  young  men  in  the  mar- 
ket place,  to  arouse  in  them  evil  desire  like  the  poison  of  the  asp, 
'ekes,"  which  later  Hebrew  word,  however,  seems  to  be  only  the 
Greek  €%t<?.  At  any  rate  neither  etymology  nor  tradition  justi- 
fies "anklets."  The  Septuagint  evidence  is  not  certain;  its  fourth 
term,  /xt^j/jV/coi;?,  is  the  Hebrew  third,  mh(^rdnlm  (cf.  Judges  8.21, 
26)  ;  its  third,  Koaufx^ovi,  is  the  Hebrew  second,  sh^hhmm  (cf. 
Ex.  28.14,  25,  39,  with  g  for  s  in  the  root)  ;  therefore  the  Greek 
second,  ifjLTrXoKiov,  might  be  the  Hebrew  first,  '(^kdshn:  the  Greek 
means  ' '  braid,  fashion  of  wearing  a  woman 's  hair, ' '  which  is  the 
exact  meaning  of  the  Arabic  'iqdg  (here  again  there  is  a  not 
unparalleled  confusion  of  'okas,  akag,  'aqag,  'aqash,  etc.,  cf. 
Hebrew  f«xa^,  saxaq,  and  Arabic  daxika,  "laugh,"  where  gut- 
turals and  emphatics  again  are  the  cause).  The  Greek  first  term 
l/jLjaria/xov  would  then  be  an  insertion,  or  else  might  represent  a 
doublet  of  '<ikdslm  in  the  form  m^kasslm  ("garments"  in  Is. 
23.18).  In  other  words,  the  text  was  not  certain;  and  it  seems 
quite  probable  that  the  troublesome  '(^kdslm  was  itself  originally 
merely  a  dittography  or  variant  of  the  following  sh^^hMsim 
(notice  that  the  older  commentators  associated  it  with  shahag, 
' '  weave  "  or  "  plait " ) ,  or  had  its  origin  in  a  marginal  reference 
to  the  t^'  akkasiid  above.  Without  it  there  are  just  twenty  terms, 
the  first  pair  of  which  becomes  hash-  sh^hMslm  w^has-sah^^rdnim, 
"ornaments  in  the  form  of  suns  and  moons"  (so  several  modern 
commentators)  ;  if  '(^kdslm  be  retained,  it  should  be  translated, 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         349 

Chapter  3 
with  Jewish  commentators,  ''braids/'  or  ''plaited  ornaments  of 
the  hair,"  forming  a  pair  with  sh^hhislm,  in  the  sense  'hair-net 
or  hair  ornament. ' ' 

The  fourth  term  in  the  Hebrew,  n<^Ufd,  corresponds  to  the  fifth 
in  the  Greek,  KaOeyLa  (the  root  ndtaf  means  "drop,"  "pour"  in 
Arabic;  and  so  Kadirjfii  "let  fall,"  also  "pour");  but  for  the 
fifth  and  sixth  of  the  Hebrew  {sheroth  w^hd-r<^' dloth :  "chains" 
and  possibly  "veils,"  though  the  latter,  from  rd'al  to  "quiver," 
shake, "might  mean  "bangles";  according  to  Maimonides,  " little 
bells"),  the  Septuagint  apparently  has  the  one  phrase  Koajxov  rov 
7rpo(Tco7rov  avrSiv.  "ornaments  of  their  face";  possibly,  however, 
this  represents  only  r^'dloth,  while  sheroth  is  either  dittography 
in  the  Hebrew  and  to  be  omitted  (if  'ckdswi  above  is  retained) 
or  is  the  extra  term  which  the  Septuagint  has  between  the  pres- 
ent twelfth  and  thirteenth  of  the  Hebrew.  The  Hebrew  and 
Greek  seventh  thus  correspond :  p^  'erhn,  which  later  means  ' '  tur- 
bans," but  which  apparently  was  taken  by  the  Septuagint  in  a 
more  general  significance,  "ornament,"  closer  to  the  root,  and 
translated  rrjv  avvOeaiv  rov  Koa-fiov  tt)?  86^rj<i,  "a  combination  of 
glorious  ornaments"  (so  in  61.3  p^'er  is  Bo^av)  ;  and  the  eighth 
ge'ddhoth  is  ^XiSwrn?  (cf.  Num.  31.50;  II  Sam.  1.10),  "armlets"; 
the  ninth  qishshiirim,  from  the  root  "to  bind"  may  well  be  the 
corresponding  yjreXkia,  which  in  Gen.  24.22  and  Ezek.  16.11  trans- 
lates Q^mtdhim,  "bracelets,"  also  from  a  root  "to  bind"  (though 
in  Jer.  2.32  qishshiirim  is  arrjOoSeafiiSa,  "bound"  specifically  on 
the  breast).  The  correspondence  between  Hebrew  and  Greek  is 
again  certain  in  the  thirteenth:  nizme  hd-'dph  and  ivoiTta^  "ear- 
rings"; but  the  twelfth  Greek,  TrepiSe^ia,  seems  to  be  either  an 
insertion  or  a  transposition,  since  the  Hebrew  twelfth  tahhd'oth 
is  clearly  the  Greek  eleventh  8aKTv\iov<;,  "finger  rings"  or  "seal 
rings."  The  Hebrew  tenth,  hdtte  han-nephesh,  and  eleventh, 
l^X^shim.,  then,  represent  either  the  Greek  tenth  alone,  i/jLirXoKiov 
or  the  tenth  and  twelfth,  irepLBe^ia.  Unfortunately  both  Hebrew 
terms  are  not  found  elsewhere ;  hdtte  han-nephesh  literally  is 
"houses"  or  "receptacles"  of  the  soul,  and  l^x^shim  is  "whis- 
perings"; hence  translated  by  Jewish  commentators  sometimes 


350  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem,  Phiu 

Chapter  3 

''ornaments  worn  over  the  heart  [soul]  and  the  ears"  re- 
speetivelj";  by  modern  commentators  "smelling  bottles"  and 
"charms."  It  is  curious  that  neither  Septuagint  nor  Targum 
shows  any  exact  equivalent  for  the  element  bdtte,  "houses," 
or  "receptacles";  and  that  the  Targum  here  has  qodhdshlm, 
"rings,"  its  translation  of  '(^ghilim  in  Num.  31.50,  where  the 
Septuagint  has  irepiSe^ia,  the  inserted  or  misplaced  term  men- 
tioned above.  This  certainly  points  to  a  variant  text.  So,  too, 
the  Targum  x^^^^^^  for  l^x^shim  would  seem  to  point  to  an 
interpretation  based  upon  a  transposition  of  x  and  I  and  a  variant 
t  for  sh;  while  the  Greek  i/jLirXoKiov  (used  also  above  to  translate 
'c^kdsim  and  in  Ex.  39.15  for  '(^hhoth,  "interwoven  ropes  or 
chains")  might  also  represent  a  root  x^^t>  *'mix" ;  for  in  verse  3 
where  laxosh  occurs  again  the  Septuagint,  like  Jewish  commen- 
tators on  verse  20,  connects  it  properly  with  the  ear,  aKpoarrjv. 
The  omission  of  hdtte  from  the  Septuagint  is  all  the  more  strik- 
ing because  just  below  in  verse  26  it  translates  pHhdxehd  by  6i]Kai 
Tov  Koa-fiov  vfiMv,  in  which  drjKai  might  be  bdtte,  as  in  Ex.  25.27. 
If,  nevertheless,  bdtte  nephesh  and  l^x^shlm  are  correct,  and  the 
latter  refers  to  '  *  whispering ' '  charms,  possibly  nephesh  represents 
the  Arabic  nafatha,  "blow"  (or  is  a  corruption  of  the  Hebrew 
ndphax  in  that  sense),  since  blowing  is  also  a  medium  of  magic. 

Beginning  with  verse  22  there  is  a  series  of  names  of  gar- 
ments, with  the  exception  of  x^rifm  and  gilyonlm:  "purses'* 
II  Kings  5.23  and  the  Arabic)  and  "tablets"  (Is.  8.1)  or  "mir- 
rors"; possibly  the  Targum  maxkcyd,  however,  may  be  based 
on  a  reading  ;i^«ra.^m,  which  occurs  in  the  singular  in  Is.  8.1 
together  with  the  singular  of  gilyonlm:  "stylus  and  tablet";  but 
the  Septuagint  either  had  a  variant  text  or  wilfully  insisted  on 
logical  order,  for  its  series  of  terms  for  garments  is  uninter- 
rupted; and  so  it  would  be  possible  to  translate  gilyonlm,  as 
some  modern  translators  do,  by  "transparent  garments"  (the 
root  means  "to  reveal";  Sept.  ^la^avrj)  or  "fine  garments," 
Arabic  jalwa;  while  x^'^^t^  might  be  the  x"'^^^  which  occurs  in 
the  Targumic  Aramaic  in  the  meaning  "precious  garment." 

It  is  not  impossible  that  the  Hebrew  g^nlphoth,  "turbans," 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         351 

Chapter  3 
(A.  V.  "hoods"),  is  an  error  for  Q^^'lfoth,  "wrappers,"  from  the 
root  "to  fold"  or  "double";  in  Job.  29.14  the  Septuagint  trans- 
lates gdnlph  by  SnrXoiSi,  showing  the  same  error ;  and  in  the  Jer. 
Targum  r^dhidhd  (which  occurs  here  in  Isaiah  with  g^nlfoth), 
is  a  synonym  of  ga'lph;  also  g^ndphd  is  in  the  Targum  "skirt." 
The  Septuagint  has  at  least  one  extra  term  in  this  group  of  gar- 
ments ;  none  of  its  words,  however,  seems  to  be  c^mphd,  although 
this  occurs  again  in  Is.  62.3  and  is  translated  SiaS'^fxa. 

On  the  whole,  then,  the  evidence  points  to  uncertainty  in 
tradition;  and  the  probabilities  of  error  in  a  list  like  this  are  so 
great  that  variations  from  symmetrical  grouping  should  far  more 
likely  be  ascribed  to  copyists  or  editors  than  to  the  author. 

24.  (a)  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  instead  of  sweet  smell 
there  shall  be  a  stink;  (b)  and  instead  of  a  girdle  a  rent;  (c)  instead 
of  well-set  hair,  baldness;  (d)  instead  of  a  stomacher,  a  girding  of 
sack-cloth;    (e)    (and)   burning  instead  of  beauty. 

In  this  five  line  strophe  the  parallelism  is  maintained 
throughout,  though  in  form  the  last  line  varies  slightly,  as  is 
often  the  case  with  odd  line  strophes:  the  order  of  words  is 
changed,  and  the  line  is  short.  The  versions  read  the  fifth 
line  differently  and  join  it  to  the  next  verse. 

The  condition  prophesied  in  the  strophe  is  apparently  one 
of  mourning:  this  is  clear  from  the  reference  to  baldness  and 
sack-cloth;  to  "rent"  also,  but  the  translation  is  faulty;  while 
* '  stink ' '  in  the  first  stichos  and  ' '  burning ' '  in  the  last  are  doubt- 
ful. But  the  word  translated  "stink"  is  maq;  the  root  means 
"to  decay":  used  of  flesh,  then,  "to  fester,"  but  of  plants,  "to 
mould"  or  "turn  to  dust."  The  latter  is  doubtlessly  its  mean- 
ing in  5.24:  "their  root  shall  be  as  rottenness,"  mdq,  made 
plainer  by  the  parallel  "their  blossom  shall  be  as  dust,"  'dhhdq; 
so  in  Is.  34.4  the  underlying  figure  in  naniaqqu  is  not  the  "fes- 
tering" of  the  hosts  of  Heaven  but  their  "decay"  into  mould 
or  dust,  and  the  figure  is  continued:  "the  host  shall  fall  down 
as  the  leaf  falleth  from  the  vine";  notice  that  in  the  preceding 
verse  (34.3)  "stench"  is  the  proper  figure  because  human  bodies 
are  spoken  of.    "Dust"  is  the  meaning  required  in  the  present 


352  University  of  California  Publications.      [Skm.  Phil. 

Chapter  3 

stichos,  since  hosem,  "sweet  smell,"  literally  "balsam,"  "spice," 

is   a  vegetable   product;   the    Septuagint    translates   KopvLopr6<i 

(which,  it  uses  for  'abhdq  in  29.5)  ;  and  so  Is.  61.3,  apparently 

based  on  this  prophecy  and  reversing  it,  reads  "beauty  instead 

of  dust,"  p^'er  taxath  'epher;  and  from  an  allied  root  comes  mUq^ 

"dust"  in  Arabic.     The  thought,  then,  is:  instead  of  using  the 

normal  product  of  the  tree,  its  spice,  they  shall  have  only  its 

mould  or  dust;  this  figure  is  all  the  more  natural  in  that  the 

"balsam"  product  was  used  in  the  form  not  only  of  ointment 

but  also  of  spice,  as  incense. 

Niqpd,  "a  rent,"  found  in  no  other  passage,  comes  from  one 

of  two  roots  meaning  respectively  "to  strike  off"  and  "to  go 

round."     The   Targum   and   Jewish   comm^entators   choose   the 

former  and  interpret  '  *  wounds, "  "  bruises ' ' ;  the  Septuagint  the 

latter,  and  translates  "a  rope";  the  former  is  more  apt  with 

"scab"  and  "fester";  the  latter  with  the  figure  of  grief  and 

captivity,  and,  of  course,  with  its  own  immediate  complement 

"girdle." 

In  24c,  ma'^se  misqshe,  "well-set  hair,"  literally  "work  of 
.♦  .  .        . 

miqshe,"  is  again   difficult;   miqshe,   as   a  masculine   noun,   is 

ana^  Xeyo/xevov ;  as  a  feminine  it  occurs  apparently  with  the  mean- 
ing ' '  hammered  metal  work, ' '  hence  the  Septuagint  here  ' '  golden 
ornament";  but  the  Targum  "curling,"  "crimping  of  the 
locks,"  'aqqdphtith  pdthd,  is  more  apt.  Ma'<^se  seems  super- 
fluous, then,  since  it  always  denotes  "an  object";  quite  possibly 
it  came  from  the  margin ;  if  it  was  intended  to  refer  to  this  line 
at  all  (but  see  below)  it  probably  indicated  a  reading  ma'<^qdshd 
or  ma<^qdsd  {'dqash  or  'dqas,  "to  twist":  hence  "braid")  in- 
stead of  ma^^se  miqshe.  Even  today  in  the  Arabic  world  to  leave 
the  hair  unbraided  is  a  particular  sign  of  mourning. 

The  word  translated  "stomacher,"  pHhlgMl,  is  an  aira^ 
Xeyofievov  of  such  unusual  form  that  if  correct  it  may  be  a  foreign 
word.  However,  since  it  is  coupled  with  the  compound  phrase 
nvax^ghoreth  saq,  "girding  of  sack-cloth,"  pHhlgMl  may  be  the 
remnant  of  a  similar  phrase;  in  Is.  61.3,  again,  occurs  ma'^te 
th^hilld  taxath  ru^^x  kehd :  ' '  garment  of  praise  for  the  spirit  of 


Vol.  1,]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         353 

Chapteb  3 
heaviness";  here  possibly  we  should  read  then  md ^tepheth  gll: 
"cloak  of  joy"  (with  ma<^  again  from  the  superfluous  ma<^se 
just  above). 

Finally  the  word  M,  "burning,"  in  the  last  stiehos  is  also 
unique,  although  it  is  explicable  as  from  the  root  kdivd,  "to 
burn,"  and  it  might  be  possible  to  understand  "branding"  in 
a  figurative  sense,  as  referring  to  the  lacerations  which  were  also 
signs  of  mourning  (cf.  Jer.  16.6;  forbidden  Lev.  21.5)  ;  but  this 
is  inapt  and  unlikely,  as  is  shown  by  the  failure  of  the  versions 
to  perceive  it ;  Targum  takes  kl  as  the  ordinary  conjunction 
"for,"  despite  the  unusual  resultant  construction;  the  Septua- 
gint  had  possibly  a  disordered  text ;  Targum,  perhaps,  also,  since 
apparently  it  read  yopM  twice.  Yophi,  "beauty,"  is  a  generic 
term ;  it  means  perhaps  as  much  ' '  prinking, "  "  beautifying, ' '  as 
natural  beauty,  in  the  sense  of  Jer.  4.30,  tithyappl;  in  kl,  there- 
fore, there  should  be  some  general  term.  In  Is.  61.3  "spirit  of 
weakness"  (kchd:  see  above)  may  represent  another  reading  of 
ki,  while  the  Septuagint  o  uto?  aov  is  perhaps  hdtiayikh,  which 
may  have  been  a  conflation  of  two  variants  h^^khl  and  n'^khl, 
"weeping"  and  "smiting,"  of  which  the  former  would  be  most 
appropriate  here ;  weeping  is  mentioned  with  baldness  and  sack- 
cloth in  Is.  22.12,  15.3;  and  Job  16.16  (also  with  "dust"  here), 
where  the  Septuagint  and  Targum  in  translating  instead  of  "my 
face  is  reddened  with  weeping,"  "my  face  is  foul  with  weeping" 
show  that  disfigurement  due  to  tears  is  a  natural  thought;  and 
in  the  Thousand  Nights  and  a  Night  (788)  the  effects  of  much 
grief  and  weeping  are  described  in  the  phrase  taghayyarat 
mahdsinuhii:  "his  beauties  (the  beauties  of  the  various  parts  of 
his  body)  were  changed."  B^^khi  should  be  considered  here  even 
without  the  support  of  the  Septuagint  6  uto?,  which  is  quite 
possibly  only  a  free  translation  of  mfithayikh  in  the  next  verse. 

25.   (a)    Thy  men  shall  fall  by  the  sword,    (b)    and  thy  mighty 

(lit.  might)  in  the  war. 

The  parallelism  between  the  concrete  noun  "men"  and  the 

abstract  "might"  is  to  be  noticed;  especially  since  the  singular 

feminine  is  left  without  a  verb  expressed,  and  must  be  made  in 


354  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.Phil. 

Chapter  3 

thought  subject  of  the  third  plural  "shall  fall";  otherwise  the 
couplet  is  normal.  But  that  it  does  not  form  part  of  the  previous 
poem  is  evident.  Not  only  is  the  enallage  striking,  but  it  implies 
a  previous  personification  of  Zion  as  a  woman  (see  particularly 
the  next  strophe),  instead  of  a  literal  reference  to  the  women  of 
Zion.  Again  there  is  the  significant  coincidence  that  just  where 
internal  evidence  arouses  suspicion  the  versions  also  seem  to  have 
had  an  obscure  text,  the  obscurity  coming  at  the  point  of  the 
editorial  or  copyist  junction  of  two  prophecies,  or  addition  of  a 
fragment  of  one  to  the  end  of  another  complete  in  itself.  In 
addition  to  the  differences  already  noted,  the  Septuagint  repeats 
the  whole  phrase  "shall  fall  by  the  sword"  in  place  of  the 
Hebrew  "in  war";  but  it  also  attaches  to  this  verse  the  first 
word  of  verse  26,  w^-'dnu,  "shall  mourn,"  but  in  the  form 
w^^-'dnu  { Ta7r€iv(o6i](Tovrai :  "shall  be  humbled";  cf.  Is,  58.10)  ;  if 
this  actuall}'  was  based  on  an  original  td'o-ne,  "thy  power  shall 
be  humbled,"  cf.  Ps.  102.23 :  "he  weakeneth  my  strength,"  'innd 
qoxl.  The  Septuagint  also  adds  in  the  first  stichos  bv  ajairafi ;  and 
it  has  been  noted  that  the  Targum  also  has  an  additional  word 
(a  repetition  of  some  form  of  yophl)  :  aside  from  this  the 
Targum  offers  a  better  parallelism  than  the  Hebrew:  possibly 
gibhorayikh  and  m^the  x^^^fe/i,  or  m^the  gh^bhurdthekh  and 
'anshe  xe^eA;/i,  were  the  original  terms;  if  the  missing  x^^^kh, 
"thy  strength,"  stood  in  the  margin,  it  is  just  possible  that  the 
Septuagint  rov  Koafiov  vfxcov  of  the  next  verse  represents  it  in  the 
form  x^lyekh,  "thy  ornaments.^' 

At  all  events,  the  annexing  of  verse  25  to  24  shows  that  the 
prophecy  of  the  latter  was  understood  to  refer  to  mourning  for 
the  dead,  and  not  to  disease  or  other  bodily  suffering  (e.g.,  not 
to  "scab"  and  "branding"), 

26.  (a)  And  her  gates  shall  lament  and  monrn;  (b)  and  (she, 
being)  desolate  (lit.  "purged,"  or  perhaps  "emptied"),  shall  sit 
upon  the  ground. 

The  test  of  parallelism  shows  in  this  strophe  the  following 

facts:  another  enallage  (third  person,  instead  of  the  second  as 

in  verse  25,  which  itself  contains  a  change  from  verse  24)  ;  the 


Vol.  1.]    Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         355 

Chapter  3 
introduction  of  the  word  "gates,"  not  only  without  a  parallel 
in  stichos  b,  but  obscuring  the  personification  (Zion  as  a  woman) 
apparently  intended  in  verse  24  and  certainly  present  again  in 
stichos  26b ;  the  presence  of  two  synonyms  for  ' '  mourn ' '  in  26a, 
paralleled  perhaps  by  a  participle  and  a  finite  verb  in  b,  but  the 
parallelism  as  well  as  the  metaphor  obscured.  That  these  are 
real  difficulties  is  shown  by  the  versions :  the  Septuagint  changes 
the  third  person  to  the  second,  has  a  different  (though  even  less 
appropriate)  term  in  place  of  "gates,"  and  translates,  for 
"purged"  or  "emptied,"  "left  alone"  (the  English  has  "deso- 
late") ;  the  Targum  attempts  to  adjust  the  personification  by 
translating  "the  gates  of  her  city";  the  English,  by  setting  off 
the  pronoun  "she"  in  an  emphatic  and  contrasting  position  to 
' '  gates, ' '  allows  a  double  metaphor  which  to  some  degree  glosses 
over  the  Hebrew  difficulty.  That  the  English  here  expresses 
what  should  be  expected  in  Hebrew  becomes  clear  from  a  com- 
parison with  Jer.  14.2:  "Judah  mourneth,  and  the  gates  thereof 
languisli ;  they  are  black  unto  the  ground ;  and  the  cry  of  Jeru- 
salem is  gone  up " :  i.e.,  change  in  the  syntactic  form  of  the  last 
predicate  requires  a  new  and  expressed  subject.  Here  then 
we  should  expect :  ' '  Zion  shall  lament,  and  her  gates  shall  mourn, 
and  Jerusalem  shall  sit  disconsolate  upon  the  ground " :  cf .  Is. 
19.8,  where  the  same  verbs  as  in  26a  occur  (distributed)  in  a 
three  line  strophe :  ' '  the  fishers  also  shall  mourn,  and  they  that 
angle  shall  lament,  and  \\\Qy  that  spread  the  net  shall  languish. ' ' 
But  there  is  here  another  possibility:  aside  from  syntax, 
"gates"  in  the  first  stichos  is  a  thought  parallel  to  "ground" 
in  the  second;  so  Targum  makes  "ground"  the  subject  of  the 
sentence;  moreover,  pethax  i^  rather  "doorway,"  "door"  of  a 
house  than  "gates"  of  a  city  (Is.  13.2  is  too  obscure  to  be  offered 
in  support  of  Isaiah's  usage  of  pethax)  5  t)ut  whether  door  or  gate, 
the  couplet  may  have  been:  "and  she  (Zion)  shall  mourn  and 
lament  at  her  doorwaj^  and  sit  disconsolate  upon  the  ground" 
(or  the  second  person  is  to  be  read  throughout).  Of  course, 
"the  gates  shall  lament"  means  the  same  thing;  the  objection  is 
to  the  involved  metaphor  and  slipshod  syntax. 


356  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.Phil. 

Chaapteb  3 
Niqqdthd,  English  "desolate,"  is  a  fairly  common  word  from 
a  very  common  root;  it  means  ''purged,"  ''freed  from  punish- 
ment," "exempted  from  obligation,"  "restored  to  innocency." 
Perhaps  primitively  the  root  meant  "be  empty";  and  Isaiah 
may  well  be  credited  with  a  consciousness  of  this  primitive  mean- 
ing, but  it  is  impossible  that  he  used  it  with  entire  disregard  of 
what  its  connotation  must  have  been  to  his  audience,  especially 
since  there  is  no  parallel  term  to  make  clear  the  unusual  inten- 
tion. There  might,  perhaps,  be  found  here  another  grim  double 
or  triple  meaning:  Zion  "purified"  through  punishment  and 
grief;  "emptied"  of  her  men;  "divested"  of  her  ornaments. 
But  the  reference  to  innocence  is  as  out  of  place  as  it  is  inevitable 
in  the  present  reading.  Some  word  is  required  parallel  to 
' '  mourn ' '  and  applicable  to  Zion  both  as  a  city  and  as  a  woman ; 
perhaps  nixdttd,  literally  "shattered"  and  figuratively  "con- 
founded," "dismayed,"  "abashed";  said  of  nations  under 
divine  judgment,  of  the  ground,  of  people;  cf.  Is.  20.5,  where 
this  verb  is  used  with  boshu,  "be  ashamed,"  which  in  turn  in 
19.9  is  in  the  series:  "moi 
confounded,"  "be  broken." 


Chapter  4 

1.  (a)  And  in  that  day  seven  women  shall  take  hold  of  one  man, 
saying,  (b)  We  will  eat  our  own  bread,  (c)  and  wear  our  own 
apparel;  (d)  only  let  us  be  called  by  thy  name,  (e)  take  away  our 
reproach. 

This  verse  belongs  in  thought  with  chapter  3  rather  than  with 
what  follows  here;  its  theme  is  still  the  dearth  of  men.  But  in 
method  of  presentation  it  differs  from  the  last  verse  of  the  pre- 
ceding, in  which  Jerusalem  is  personified,  and  attaches  to  the 
still  earlier  picture  of  the  fate  of  the  individual  women  (3.16). 
From  another  viewpoint,  however,  it  resembles  more  clearly 
3.6 ;  there  the  rulership  goes  begging ;  here  wifehood  goes  beg- 
ging; and  even  the  phraseology  ("seizing  hold,"  "garments," 
"food")  is  echoed.  But  the  full  development  of  the  picture 
there,  with  its  introduction  leading  to  the  climax,  and  its  answer 


Vol.  L]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         357 

Chapter  4 
on  the  part  of  the  man  to  whom  the  rule  is  offered,  has  no  coun- 
terpart here;  and  the  conclusion  is  accordingly  suggested  that 
4.1  is  a  mere  fragment,  owing  its  inclusion  here  to  its  reference  to 
women.  The  insertion  of  the  words  "on  that  day"  (here  not 
as  in  the  English  and  as  is  usual,  at  the  head  of  the  sentence, 
but  at  the  end)  also  points  to  a  separation  from  what  immedi- 
ately^ precedes ;  though  it  may  be  editorial,  since  it  is  not  found 
in  the  Septuagint. 

More  significant  is  the  fact  that  stichos  a,  introducing  the 
following  quatrain,  is  not  in  parallelistic  formation.  There  is 
no  indication,  it  is  true,  of  what  form  a  possible  original  par- 
allelism may  have  had;  the  sentence  is  complete  in  itself.  It 
may  well  be  that  the  parallelism  was  strophic  rather  than  stichic ; 
that  another  strophe,  with  a  similar  single  stichos  as  introduc- 
tion, balanced  this  one.  But  the  mere  fact  that  the  sense  is 
complete,  is  in  itself  no  proof  that  there  was  not  originally 
stichos  parallelism.  Notice  in  chapter  3.6  that  the  sentence 
"For  each  one  shall  take  hold  of  his  brother"  makes  complete 
sense ;  and  that  if  the  parallels  in  verses  4-5,  as  well  as  6b,  had 
by  accident  been  lost,  there  would  have  resulted  a  stanza  as 
complete  as  is  our  present  one ;  only  the  inferences  of  the  dom- 
inating parallelism  elsewhere  would  have  suggested  their  loss. 

In  stichoi  d  and  e  the  parallelism  between  "name"  and 
"reproach"  is  close  because  of  the  connotations  of  these  terms; 
the  former  sometimes  means  "honor,"  "fame,"  especially  that 
due  to  having  sons  (e.g.,  II  Sam.  18.8),  and  is  therefore  the 
opposite  of  the  latter,  "disgrace,"  "shame,"  "dishonor";  prac- 
tically then  here:  "Give  us  honor,  remove  our  honorlessness " 
(that  of  widowhood  and  childlessness;  cf.,  e.g.,  Is.  54.5:  "thou 
shalt  not  remember  the  reproach  of  thy  widowhood;  for  thy 
Maker  is  thine  husband";  Gen.  30.23:  "And  she  [Rachel]  con- 
ceived, and  bare  a  son;  and  said,  God  hath  taken  away  my 
reproach"). 


358  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  4 

2.  (a)  In  that  day  shall  the  branch  (lit.  "sprout,"  "growth") 
of  the  Lord  be  beautiful  and  glorious,  (b)  and  the  fruit  of  the  earth 
(shall  be)  excellent  and  comely,  (c)  for  them  (that  are)  escaped  of 
Israel. 

The  strophic  formation  in  the  prophecy  contained  in  verses 
2-6  is  unusual.  In  this  first  stanza  (verse  2)  the  stichoi  a  and  b 
are  in  normal  parallelism;  but  the  third  stichos,  li-phHetath 
Yisrd'el:  "for  the  escaped  of  Israel,"  is  a  dependent  phrase, 
standing  outside  the  parallelism,  and  modifying  either  or  both 
of  the  stichoi  a  and  b.  Moreover,  it  would  seem  that  it  is  a 
necessary  part  of  those  sentences,  that  a  and  b  are  not  logically 
complete  without  it ;  this  fact  is  obscured  by  the  English,  which 
in  translating  U-g^hhi  fiV-hJidhhodh  (lit.  "for  a  beauty  and  a 
glory")  "beautiful  and  glorious"  interprets  the  preposition  as 
in  1.5:  "to"  or  "for  sickness,"  i.e.,  "sick."  Such  a  translation 
here,  "beautiful,"  is  very  seductive;  but  the  idiomatic  phrase 
"be  for  a  glorj^, "  or  "beauty,"  in  Hebrew  seems  always  to  be 
followed  by  another  dative  (indirect  object)  in  the  sense:  "be 
a  distinguishing  mark  for  someone  or  something,"  "that  which 
distinguishes  him  in  beauty  or  honor  from  all  others"  (cf.  Ex. 
28.2,  40;  Ezek.  20.6,  15;  Jer.  13.11).  The  underlying  verse  form 
in  this  first  stanza  would  then  be  the  so-called  qind  strophe :  a 
sentence  divided  into  two  unequal  parts  by  the  caesura,  which 
parts  are  not  of  necessity  parallel  or  syntactically  independent; 
i.e.,  omitting  for  the  moment  2b :  "  In  that  day  shall  the  branch 
of  the  Lord  be  for  beauty  and  glory — for  the  escaped  of  Israel. ' ' 
But  the  first  portion  of  the  line  in  the  present  instance  is  doubled 
by  means  of  parallelism ;  such  parallelism,  within  the  syntactic 
structure,  might  be  called  "suspensive  parallelism";  cf.  5.24. 
To  a  certain  extent  the  same  scheme  predominates  through  this 
whole  prophecy;  with  this  difference,  that  the  modifying  phrase 
also  is  doubled  by  parallelism.  The  middle  stanza  (verse  4) 
shows  this  formation  best :  the  washing  of  the  filth  and  blood  of 
Zion  is  expressed  in  a  couplet ;  then  the  instrument  or  means  of 
washing  is  described  in  another  shorter,  dependent  couplet ;  the 
parallelism  in  this  stanza  is  then  perfect,  and  the  question  is 
accordingly  raised  whether  there  is  not  missing  from  verse  2 


Vol.  1.]    Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         359 

Chapter  4 
a  parallel  to  "the  escaped  of  Israel" — a  question  which  perhaps 
receives  its  answer  in  the  superfluous  stichos  of  the  next  strophe 
(verse  3). 

The  parallelism  in  2a  and  b  between  ''branch  of  the  Lord" 
and  ' '  fruit  of  the  earth ' '  is  striking ;  one  would  expect,  perhaps, 
for  "the  Lord"  either  "the  field,"  has-sddhe  or  "the  ground," 
ha-'o-dhdmd  (Gen.  19.25;  Ezek.  16.7).  But  evidently  the  parallel 
hd-'dreg  means  here  not  "the  earth,  "but  "the  land,"  i.e.,  Pales- 
tine (as  is  clearly  shown  by  the  words  Zion  and  Jerusalem), 
God's  own  land.  There  may  still  inhere  in  the  phrase  something 
of  the  Semitic  phrase  "field,  etc.,  of  Baal,"  with  Yahwe  substi- 
tuted for  Baal;  even  though  there  be  no  necessity  of  insisting 
on  the  implication  "naturally  watered"  fields  and  plants  as  con- 
trasted with  those  watered  by  irrigation.  At  any  rate  Ps.  104.16 
provides  a  similar  interesting  parallelism :  ' '  the  trees  of  the  Lord 
are  full  (of  sap),  the  cedars  of  Lebanon  which  he  hath  planted." 
On  the  thought  of  the  fertility  of  the  Messianic  period  compare 
Is.  55.12,  13:  "all  the  trees  of  the  field  shall  clap  their  hands; 
instead  of  the  thorn  shall  come  up  the  fir  tree;  and  instead  of 
the  brier  shall  come  up  the  myrtle  tree;  and  it  shall  be  to  the 
Lord  for  a  name,"  etc.  (cf.  "to  the  remnant  of  Israel  for  a 
glory").  The  parallelism  would  seem  to  preclude  here  any 
reference  in  geniax,  "sprout,"  to  a  personal  Messiah;  contrast 
Jer.  23.5,  where  such  a  reference  does  exist,  but  both  parallelism 
and  elaboration  are  properly  felt  necessary  to  make  it  clear; 
of  course,  in  a  still  later  period  such  phrases  might  have  in  them- 
selves had  a  fixed,  conventional  Messianic  implication. 

3.  (a)  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  (that  he)  that  is  left  in  Zion 
(b)  and  (he  that)  romaineth  in  Jerusalem  (c)  shall  be  called  holy, 
(d)    (even)  every  one  that  is  written  among  the  living  in  Jerusalem. 

It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the  strophic  structure  de- 
scribed above  is  intended  in  this  verse;  "shall  be  called  holy" 
is  the  predicate  to  the  double  subject  contained  in  stichoi  a 
and  b.  But  stichos  d,  "every  one  that  is  written  among  the 
living  in  Jerusalem,"  placed  after  the  predicate,  is  parallel  in 
thought  to  stichoi  a  and  b,  though  not  even  the  English  insertion 


360  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phii,. 

Chapter  4 

of  '^even"  before  it  saves  it  from  awkwardness  in  its  present 
position;  it  is  not  good  prose,  still  less  good  poetry;  it  has  the 
sound  of  a  carelessly  appended  afterthought,  and  its  repetition 
of  ' '  Jerusalem ' '  seems  to  place  a  special  emphasis  on  that  word, 
in  contrast  to  the  other  parallel  "Zion"  in  stichos  a — an  em- 
phasis that  is  evidently  not  intended.  The  style  is  so  awkward, 
indeed,  that  Septuagint  and  Targum  both  failed  to  see  the  true 
syntactic  relationship;  T&,rgum  (also  Jewish  commentators) 
reads  each  stichos  as  a  separate  proposition :.  i.e.,  those  that 
are  left  (shall  dwell  in  Zion)  ;  those  that  remain  shall  inhabit 
Jerusalem ;  they  shall  be  called  holy ;  and  those  that  are  written 
for  life  shall  dwell  in  Jerusalem. 

One  of  two  opinions  may  be  held  in  regard  to  stichos  d: 
either  that  tests  of  style  must  not  be  applied  in  textual  criticism 
of  Hebrew,  or  that  stichos  d  is  misplaced.  If  the  latter  alterna- 
tive be  adopted,  it  should  be  noted  that  the  phrase  is  a  parallel 
equally  good,  to  stichos  c  in  the  previous  stanza,  "them  that 
are  escaped  of  Israel ' ' ;  perhaps  ' '  Jerusalem, ' '  moreover,  is  a 
slip  for  "Judah,"  parallel  to  "Israel"  (see  above).  It  becomes 
just  as  evident,  then,  that  stichos  d  in  verse  3  has  taken  the 
place  of  a  real  parallel  to  stichos  c:  "shall  be  called  holy,"  e.g., 
sheni  '(^dhonai  yiqqare  'dldw:  "shall  be  called  by  the  name  of 
the  Lord,"  as  in  Deut.  28.10,  a  passage  in  close  connection,  as 
in  this  one,  with  a  description  of  the  fertility  of  Israel's  prom- 
ised land ;  on  the  proposed  parallelism  compare  Is.  61.6 :  ' '  But 
ye  shall  be  named  the  priests  of  the  Lord ;  ministers  of  the  Lord 
shall  be  called  to  you";  62.12:  "and  they  shall  call  them  people 
of  holiness,  the  redeemed  of  the  Lord." 

4.  (a)  When  the  Lord  shall  have  washed  away  the  filth  of  the 
daughters  of  Zion,  (b)  and  shall  have  purged  (lit.  "rinsed")  the 
blood  of  Jerusalem  from  the  midst  thereof,  (c)  by  the  spirit  of 
judgment,  (d)  and  by  the  spirit  of  burning. 

On  the  form  of  the  stanza,  see  the  comment  on  verse  2,  above. 

The  personification  of  Jerusalem  is  stichos  b  indicates  an  error 

in  the  text  of  a,  where  "daughters  of,"  h^^noth,  should  either  be 

omitted  or  be  read  hath,  "daughter  of"  Zion;  i.e.,  Zion  herself ; 


Vol.  1.]  .  Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         361 

Chapter  4 
this  alone  fits  the  sequel,  moreover;  the  error  is  one  due  to  asso- 
ciation with  3.7. 

An  interesting  question  of  style  and  parallelism  is  involved  in 
the  metaphor  used  here.  The  phrase  for  "wash  away  the  filth" 
used  here  is  not  a  trite,  conventional  one ;  and  the  figure  is  enliv- 
ened in  its  freshness  and  vividness  by  the  parallel  in  b,  "rinse," 
yddhi<^X^  which  occurs  again  only  in  Ezek.  40.38;  II  Chron. 
4.6  (both  literally),  and  Jer.  51.34  (figuratively,  but  possibly  an 
error  there;  so  A.  V.  "cast  out").  Somewhat  curious,  then, 
is  the  means  of  washing  :  "the  spirit  of  judgment  [rw«x  nvishpdt], 
and  the  spirit  of  destruction."  BU'^x  niishpdt  occurs  in  28.6: 
"The  Lord  of  hosts  shall  be . .  .  for  a  spirit  of  judgment  [i.e., 
justice]  to  him  that  sitteth  in  judgment" — an  idea  neither 
appropriate  to  the  general  context  here  nor  supported  by  the 
immediate  parallelism  with  "spirit  of  destruction."  In  verse  5 
the  cloud  and  lightning  are  definitely  mentioned,  and  then  the 
divine  presence  is  represented  as  a  refuge  (for  those  who  escape) 
from  the  flooding  storm-rains ;  perhaps,  too,  it  is  the  storm  itself 
which  is  to  result  in  the  richness  of  growth  predicted  in  verse  2. 
Evidently  rU<^Xj  then,  in  verse  4  is  an  element  in  the  theophanic 
storm.  Rashi  interprets :  "he  rides  upon  the  wind  to  judge 
them";  but  30.28  offers  a  better  explanation  of  the  imagery, 
if  our  text  is  correct:  "his  breath,  rM«x>  is  like  an  overflowing 
stream."  It  seems  quite  probable,  however,  that  the  first  rw«x 
(stichos  c)  is  an  error  due  to  the  second  (stichos  d)  ;  and  that  a 
noun  fitting  better  with  the  verb  "rinse"  stood  here  originally 
and  formed  a  transition  to  the  parallel  "wind  of  destruction," 
or  better,  "of  burning,"  whose  heat  is  perhaps  referred  to  in 
verse  6  (cf.  also  possibly  11.15,  ha' yam,  ruxd:  "with  the  heat 
[?  the  versions  have  "might"]  of  his  spirit"  or  "wind"). 
Parallel  to  ruf^x  ^^  this  sense  occurs  in  another  picture  of  the 
storm,  zercm,  ' '  tempest, ' '  32.2 ;  and  the  qualifying  word  in  place 
of  mishpdt,  parallel  to  hd'er,  might  be  shoteph.  On  the  whole 
picture  compare  Is.  28.2 :  ' '  Behold  the  Lord  hath  a  mighty  and 
strong  one,  as  a  tempest  of  hail  and  a  destroying  storm,  as  a 
flood  of  mighty  water  overflowing";  28.17,  18:  "hail  shall  sweep 


362  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chaptek  4 

away  the  refuge  of  lies,  shall  overflow  the  hiding  place ; . . .  when 
the  overflowing  scourge  shall  pass  through."  Compare  also  the 
parallelism  in  Ezek.  13.13,  for  instance:  "I  will  rend  it  with  a 
stormy  wind  [rM«x  s^^'droth]  and  there  shall  be  an  overflowing 
shower  [geshem  shotef]  in  mine  anger."  If  the  present  prophecy 
is  Isaianic,  it  would  be  peculiar,  then,  if  just  at  the  point  where 
the  words  "wash"  and  "rinse"  would  lead  one  to  find  a  refer- 
ence to  the  destroying  flood,  such  a  reference  should  be  lacking ! 

5.  (a)  And  the  Lord  will  create  upon  every  dwelling  place  of 
Mount  Zion,  (b)  and  upon  her  assemblies,  (c)  a  cloud  and  smoke 
by  day,  (d)  and  the  shining  of  a  flaming  fire  by  night. 

Again  there  can  be  no  mistaking  the  nature  of  the  stanza 
formation:  a  couplet  of  parallel  stichoi,  followed  by  another 
couplet,  not  syntactically  complete  in  itself.  In  the  first  couplet, 
however,  the  first  stichos  is  overlong,  the  second  very  short ;  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  in  the  phrase  kol  m^khon  har  Qlyon,  "the  whole 
site  [A.  V.  "every  dwelling  place"]  of  Mount  Zion,"  m^khdn 
is  redundant:  "upon  the  whole  of  Mount  Zion"  is  perfectly 
normal,  while  in  stichos  b  niiqrd'ehd,  "her  assemblies,"  as  can 
be  seen  from  1.14,  Ex.  12.16 ;  Lev.  23.4,  etc. ;  Num.  28.18,  is  a  noun 
of  action,  or  a  time  noun,  before  which  one  might  naturally 
expect  such  a  word  as  m^khon,  "site  of,"  or  "place  of."  That 
the  Septuagint  felt  the  need  of  greater  length  is  shown  by  the 
insertion  of  "all"  again;  but  for  miqrd'ehd  it  read  TrepLKVKXco; 
if  this  is  mighrdshehd,  *  *  all  her  surrounding  territories, ' '  it  per- 
haps points  to  an  original  mdqdushehd  or  miqddshdh,  "her  sanc- 
tuary"; the  latter  appears  in  the  Targum  translation  of  the  first 
stichos,  while  for  niiqrd'ehd  it  reads:  'Hhar  heth  sh^kinto,  pos- 
sibly "place  of  his  sanctuary"  (Heb.  m^^qom  miqddshd).  This 
may  or  may  not  represent  an  uncertainty  in  the  text ;  at  the  least 
it  indicates  an  unconscious  attempt  at  glossing  over  the  stylistic 
defects  pointed  out.  For  a  phrase  m^khon  niiqrd'ehd,  "site  of 
her  assemblings,"  compare  m^khon  shihhtd,  "place  of  his  dwell- 
ing" in  Ps.  33.14. 

Another  possibility  is  that  in  the  almost  unintelligible  clause 
appended  to  this  stanza,  kl  'al  kol  kddhod  xuppd:  "for  upon  all 


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Chapter  4 
the  glory  shall  be  a  defence"  (lit.  a  "canopy,"  or  "chamber"), 
the  phrase  'al  kol  kdbhod  represents  part  of  a  variant  to  stichos 
b,  which  is  to  be  read:  "and  upon  all  her  assemblies  (or 
sanctuary)  is  his  glory";  the  word  "glory"  in  a  theophanic 
connection  is  most  apt  to  refer  to  Yahwe — is,  in  fact,  a  syn(fnym ; 
and  it  is  quite  likely  that  in  the  present  prophecy,  as  in  other 
theophanies,  it  is  God  himself  who  appears  as,  or  in,  the  cloud ; 
compare  Is.  60.2 :  ' '  The  Lord  shall  arise  upon  thee,  and  his 
glory  be  seen  upon  thee,"  U-kh^bhodho  'dlayikh  yerd'e;  this 
would  necessitate  reading  in  stichos  a  for  U-hhdrd'  some  word  like 
w^-nir'd  ("and  shall  appear,"  instead  of  "and  shall  create"; 
the  Septuagint  read  ii-hhd',  "and  shall  come";  hdrd',  indeed,  is 
striking ;  though  used  in  the  latter  part  of  Isaiah,  its  objects  are 
such  that  it  may  well  be  translated  "shape"  or  ".fashion,"  or 
' '  to  fashion,  create  anew,  transform " ) ,  and  to  treat  stichoi  c  and 
d  as  vague  appositions:  God  will  appear  (as)  a  cloud;  or  read 
"in  a  cloud." 

In  stichos  c  the  order  of  words  in  the  Hebrew  is  "  a  cloud  by 
day  and  smoke";  so  that  "and  smoke"  is  joined  by  the  versions 
to  the  next  clause  (d),  which  would  make  c  very  short;  but 
both  Septuagint  and  Targum  insert  the  equivalent  of  the  Hebrew 
word  meqdl,  "shadowing,"  with  "cloud."  This  denotes,  per- 
haps, merely  that  a  feeling  for  balance  led  to  its  insertion  in 
the  versions,  as  parallel  to  "flaming,"  which  modifies  "fire,"  in 
the  next  stichos.  Quite  possibly,  however,  it  was  due  to  a  mar- 
ginal variant  of  w'^-'dshdn,  '.'and  smoke,"  e.g.,  ye'shan  or  'dshen 
("smoking"),  belonging  after  "cloud":  "a  smoking  cloud  by 
day,  and  a  flaming  fire  by  night. ' ' 

5-6.  (5e)  For  upon  all  the  glory  (shall  be:  Heb.  no  verb,  i.e., 
"is")  a  defence.  (6a)  And  there  shall  be  a  tabernacle  (b)  for  a 
shadow  in  the  day-time  from  the  heat  (c)  and  for  a  (place  of) 
refuge  and  for  a  covert  from  storm  and  from  rain. 

Though   the   beginning   of   this   stanza   is  most   awkwardly 

worded,  the  end  seems  to  show  the  same  construction  as  the 

previous  part  of  the  prophecy:  a  couplet  (or  here  a  triplet)  in 

parallelism,  but  the  stichoi  not  syntactically  independent. 


364  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  4 

For  the  beginning  of  the  stanza  parallelism  seems  indicated 
in  the  words  ''canopy"  (5e)  and  "tabernacle"  (6a).  The 
former  word  occurs  again  only  in  Ps.  19.6 ;  Josh.  2.16,  appar- 
ently meaning  "chamber";  the  root  occurs,  however,  in  a 
signiflfcant  passage,  Deut.  33.12:  x^pheph  'dldw:  "(the  Lord) 
shall  cover  him ' ' ;  such  a  verb  is  indeed  read  by  the  Septuagint 
[cTKeiraa-driaeTai)  ;  i.e.,  ydxoph  or  (from  the  cognate  root)  yexpe. 
But  while  the  meaning  of  this  couplet  is  clear,  in  its  present 
form  it  is  much  mutilated.  If  the  phrase  "for  upon  all  glory" 
is  not  to  be  disposed  of  as  above  suggested,  we  might  read:  M 
'al  kullah  k^hhodho  ydxdph,  w^-sukka  tihye    (add  gh^'utho'i)  : 

Yea,  all  of  her  his  glory  shall  cover, 

And  a  tabernacle  shall  (there,  it;  or  insert  "his  majesty"  or  "over 
her")  be. 

For  this  thought,  compare  Is.  60.2,  cited  above;  Ps.  57.6:  "thy 
glory  is  over  all  the  earth";  Ex.  24.16:  "and  the  glory 
(kh^hhodh)  of  the  Lord  abode  upon  Mount  Sinai,  and  the  cloud 
covered  it";  for  "tabernacle,"  sukka,  as  the  equivalent  of  the 
cloud  in  which  God  appears:  II  Sam.  22.12,  "He  was  seen  upon 
the  wings  of  the  wind;  he  made  darkness  pavilions  (sukkoth) 
round  about  him,  dark  waters  and  thick  clouds."  And  for  the 
thought  of  God's  glory,  i.e.,  God  himself,  as  the  refuge  from  the 
storm,  compare  Is.  25.4:  "For  thou  hast  been  a  strength  to  the 
poor,  a  strength  to  the  needy  in  his  distress;  a  refuge  from  the 
storm,  a  shadow  from  the  heat. ' ' 

The  simple  parallelism  at  the  end  of  this  last  passage  {maxse 
miz-zerem  gel  me-xdrehh)  suggests  that  our  closing  couplet  6b,  c 
probably  also  was  originally  as  simple ;  i.e.,  exactly  like  the  cor- 
responding member  of  the  other  stanzas.  The  word  yomdm, 
"in  the  day-time,"  is  omitted  by  the  Septuagint;  it  may  be 
either  simple  dittography  from  verse  5 ;  or  it  may  with  u¥-mistor, 
' '  and  for  a  covert, ' '  represent  the  distorted  missing  portions  of 
the  first  couplet  of  this  stanza.  Mist  or  in  itself,  though  super- 
fluous, is  not  objectionable;  but  mdtdr,  "rain,"  after  zerem, 
"flood,"  is  remarkably  weak  and  anticlimactic ;  mdtdr  occurs 
often  in  the  Old  Testament,  but  always  as  a  symbol  of  blessing 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         865 

Chapter  4 
and  refreshment,  never  of  destruction;  Prov.  28.3,  which  might 
be  the  apparent  exception,  in  reality  shows  the  normal  use  of 
the  word ;  the  king,  who  is  expected  to  be  the  champion  of  the 
poor  (cf.  72.1),  but  who  instead  oppresses  them,  is  likened  to  a 
rain  (because  the  rain  is  expected  to  bring  blessings)  which  pros- 
trates, soxeph,  the  grain  and  brings  no  food ;  i.e.,  mdtdr  receives 
its  special  meaning  there  entirely  from  its  essential  modifier 
soxeph.     Read  then  here  : 

For  a  shadow  from  the  heat, 
And  for  a  refuge  from  the  storm. 

Finallj",  there  is  the  possibility  that  the  prophecy  ended  orig- 
inally with  the  word  lay'^ld,  ''night,"  in  verse  5;  and  that  the 
remainder  represents  annotations  based  on  the  passages  quoted 
in  the  course  of  this  discussion. 


Chapter  5 

1.  (a)  Now  will  I  sing  to  my  beloved  (b)  a  song  of  my  beloved 
touching  his  vineyard,  (c)  My  beloved  hath  a  vineyard  (d)  in  a 
very  fruitful  hill. 

The  prevailing  type  of  line  found  in  verses  1-7  is  one  char- 
acterized bj'  a  distinct  caesura;  in  some  cases  one  portion  of  the 
line  is  longer  than  the  other;  in  most  cases  the  second  portion 
of  the  line  is  also  in  some  degree  of  parallelism  with  the  first 
portion,  and  in  a  few,  in.  complete  parallelism. 

Even  in  the  first  line  the  first  portion,  "Now  will  I  sing  to 
my  beloved,"  may  be  considered  as  syntactically  complete  in 
itself;  compare  Ps.  13.6:  "I  will  sing  unto  the  Lord,  because  he 
hath  dealt  bountifully  with  me  " ;  or  96.2 :  ' '  Sing  unto  the  Lord, 
bless  his  name";  and  so  the  verb  "sing"  is  often  used  without 
any  object.  Accordingly,  the  portion  of  the  line  aft^r  the 
caesura,  "a  song  of  my  beloved  touching  his  vineyard,"  might 
be  considered  as  a  parallel  to  the  first  part,  a  cognate  accusa- 
tive, "song,"  being  used  instead  of  an  appositional  finite  verb 
"I  will  sing";  and  the  whole  line  might  thus  be  considered  a 
parallelistic  couplet  of  the  incremental  type   (cf.  the  Song  of 


366  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  5 

Deborah,  Judges  5.3 :  "I  to  the  Lord,  I  will  sing ;  I  will  chant 

to  the  Lord  God  of  Israel"). 

In  the  second  line  (c,  d)  "my  beloved  hath  a  vineyard" 
might  again  be  a  syntactically  complete  proposition;  but  the 
portion  d,  as  the  text  stands,  can  in  no  way  be  considered  par- 
allel to  any  word  in  c;  nor  has  the  line  as  a  whole  any  parallel. 

This  verse,  however,  is  not  without  its  difficulties  for  trans- 
lators and  commentators.  In  stichos  b,  "a  song  of  my  beloved 
touching  his  vineyard"  means  "the  song  sung  by  my  beloved 
touching  [or  perhaps  'to']  his  vineyard";  for  if  "my  beloved" 
were  an  objective  genitive  the  text  would  of  necessity  be  shlrath 
dodhl  we-kharnio:  "the  song  of  my  beloved  and  his  .vineyard"; 
or  the  same  thought  might  possibly  be  expressed  thus :  shlra. 
l^-dhodhl  w^-kharmo:  "a  song  concerning  my  friend  and  his 
vineyard."  A  subjective  genitive  does  not  suit  the  context; 
stichos  a  means  either  "I  will  sing  to  my  beloved"  or  "I  will 
sing  concerning  my  beloved"  (or  it  means  both  at  the  same  time, 
as  it  seems  to  mean  generally  in  the  frequent  phrase  "sing  l^- 
Yahwe:  "sing  to  and  of  the  Lord")  ;  and  one  does  not  sing  to 
a  beloved  the  beloved's  own  song;  nor,  indeed,  is  the  song  that 
follows  the  beloved's  song,  but  a  song  concerning  the  beloved's 
vineyard. 

A  very  simple  change  {dodhaw  for  dodhl)  yields  this  sen- 
tence: "I  will  sing  now  to  (and  'of')  my  beloved,  the  song  of 
his  love  for  his  vineyard";  this,  however,  introduces  a  distinc- 
tion between  the  references  in  "love"  and  "beloved,"  making 
one  refer  to  the  singer's  beloved,  the  other  to  the  beloved's  love 
for  his  vineyard.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  the  word  ' '  beloved ' ' 
that  is  most  difficult  to  explain  in  this  passage ;  its  casual  use  by 
the  Prophet  in  the  sense  of  "my  friend"  would  be  strange,  and 
the  strangeness  would  be  much  increased  by  the  fact  that  it 
seems  to  occur  here  in  an  allegory  and  to  refer  to  Yahwe.  Such 
a  use  of  the  term,  if  possible  at  all,  would  certainly  require  that 
in  the  identification  (verse  7)  of  the  characters  in  the  parable 
it  also  should  be  explained.  But  the  concealment  of  the  fact 
that  Yahwe  is  the  owner  of  the  vineyard  is  not  at  all  an  im- 


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Chapter  5 
portant  element  in  the  parable;  it  is  dropped  without  comment 
in  verse  3,  despite  the  fact  that  "beloved"  is  used  three  times 
in  the  introduction — a  repetition  that  must  be  taken  as  indica- 
tive of  added  emphasis  upon  the  word. 

And,  indeed,  the  idea  of  love  is  the  important  one  in  the  par- 
able ;  but  it  is  not  that  of  the  singer 's  love  for  the  Lord,  or  vice 
versa;  it  is  the  Lord's  love  for  his  vineyard.  The  word  "be- 
loved," y^dhldhl,  expresses  just  that  idea  wherever  it  occurs 
in  the  Psalms  and  elsewhere  in  passages  referring  to  the  Lord; 
thus  Deut.  33.2,  "Benjamin  is  God's  beloved;  the  Lord  shall 
cover  him  all  the  day";  in  Jer.  12.7ff.  Israel  is  the  "dearly 
beloved  of  my  [God's]  soul,  my  heritage,  my  vineyard."  If  in 
the  present  passage  stichos  la  stood  by  itself  the  natural  inter- 
pretation would  then  be :  "I  will  sing  now  of  my  beloved ' '  and 
the  sequel  would  show  clearly  that,  as  is  usual,  the  Prophet  is 
identifying  himself  with  the  voice  of  God,  and  that  "the  be- 
loved" is  his,  i.e.,  God's,  vineyard,  on  which  he  has  lavished  his 
loving  care  (the  enallage  to  the  third  person  in  verse  2,  "he 
fenced  it, ' '  is  then  the  usual  enallage :  the  Prophet  alternates 
between  the  two  without  marking  the  change ;  the  Septuagint, 
however,  keeps  the  first  person  consistently  throughout).  If 
y'^dhldhl  has  its  usual  meaning  the  failure  to  explain  it  in  verse  7 
would  not  be  remarkable ;  nevertheless,  it  really  is  indirectly 
explained  there  as  referring  to  vineyard,  though  for  yddhldh  is 
substituted  a  synonymous  term,  sha'  shu'dw,  which,  since  the 
identity  of  the  ' '  beloved ' '  as  the  ' '  vineyard ' '  has  already  become 
evident,  is  chosen  because  it  can  better  be  applied  both  to  a  vine- 
yard and  to  a  person;  so  sha' shU'lm,  "pleasant,"  is  used  in 
Jer.  31.20  in  combination  with  yeledh:  "Benjamin  was  to  me  a 
pleasant  child,"  where  the  parallelism  hen  ydqir  shows  its  mean- 
ing to  be  "precious,"  "dear,"  "beloved,"  "fondled"  (cf. 
ydqartd  in  Is.  43.4)  ;  cf.  Is.  66.12:  "ye  shall  be  born  upon  her 
sides,  and  be  dandled  {t^sha' shaf  u)  upon  her  knees." 

To  make  the  first  line  consistent,  then,  it  is  necessary  only  to 
read  the  consonantal  text  as  preserved  (or  changed)  by  the 
Septuagint ;  reading,  however,  a  different  vowel  from  that  which 


368  University  of  Calif ornin  Publications.       [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  5 

it  supplied:  dodhai  for  its  dodhl:  "Now  will  I  sing  of  my 
beloved,  a  song  of  my  love  for  my  vineyard. ' '  This  at  the  same 
time  is  what  parallelism  demands. 

The  second  stichos  (lit.  **a  vineyard  was  to  my  beloved," 
kercm  hdyd  Udhldhi)  would  then  have  to  be  read:  "a  vineyard 
was  to  me  (as)  beloved,"  kerem  hdyd  ll  ¥-yddhldh;  cf.  Gen. 
28.21,  w^-hdyd  Yahwe  ll  lelohim,  "and  Yahwe  will  be  to  me  for 
God."  The  construction  is  used  particularly  of  personal  rela- 
tionships (father  and  sons,  husband  and  wife,  etc.),  a  fact  which 
is  in  keeping  with  the  personification  suggested  by  the  use  of 
"beloved"  in  this  first  verse.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  Sep- 
tuagint  omits  the  pronoun  of  "beloved,"  reading  perhaps  as 
proposed,  l^yddhldh  for  Udhldhi. 

B^-kherem  hen  shdmen,  "in  a  very  fruitful  hill,"  is  literally 
"in  a  horn,  son  of  fat"  (or  "oil").  The  use  of  "son"  in  such 
phrases  is  fairly  frequent;  normally,  however,  it  is  applied  to 
that  which  is  the  result  of,  is  produced  by,  that  comes  forth 
from,  or  goes  into,  something  else ;  i.e.,  where  the  original  mean- 
ing of  the  term  is  preserved  in  a  sort  of  personification.  Thus 
' '  sparks ' '  are  the  ' '  sons  of  the  flame  "  ;  "  arrows ' '  are  ' '  sons  of 
the  quiver";  particularly  in  Is.  21.10:  Babylon  is  likened  to 
corn  that  is  threshed,  and  this  is  called  "son  of  my  threshing- 
floor";  on  the  other  hand,  the  hill  itself  would  be  "father"  of 
fertility  (see  the  note  on  6,13).  It  is  curious  that  in  the  present 
verse,  where  Israel  is  likened  to  a  vineyard,  and  the  vineyard  is 
personified,  the  metaphorical  use  of  son  should  appear  applied 
not  to  Israel  or  the  vineyard,  but  to  the  "hill,"  which  has  no 
figurative  meaning  here. 

The  word  qeren  itself  occurs  some  seventy-five  times  in  the 
Old  Testament;  only  here  does  it  denote  anything  but  "horn." 
The  translation  "hill"  is  based  on  the  Arabic,  where  qarn  de- 
notes sometimes  the  spur  of  a  hill;  also  the  higher  part  of  a 
desert,  or  a  corner;  wddls  also  have  proper  names  compounded 
with  Qarn.  Indeed,  the  choice  of  qeren  here,  instead  of  any 
usual  word  for  hill,  and  as  emphasizing  the  "horn"  or  "spur" 
of  a  hill,  is  curious ;  vineyards  are  planted  on  hills,  it  is  true ; 


Vol,  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         369 

Chapter  5 
but  on  the  slopes  preferably  of  rolling  hills,  not  on  isolated 
peaks.  The  entire  phrase  is  evidently  very  poetical,  and  not 
literal;  it  would  be  so  even  without  the  word  hen,  "son";  qeren 
shemen  means  ''horn,  flask  of  oil"  (I  Sam.  16.1)  and  its  appli- 
cation to  a  hill  would  suggest  a  metaphor;  but  particularly 
would  it  be  apt  in  personification:  qeren  hap-pukh,  "horn  of 
antimony,"  is  a  proper  name.  Perhaps,  then,  the  preposition 
&^,  "in,"  should  be  omitted,  and  the  phrase,  qeren  hen  shemen, 
should  refer  directly  to,  and  be  in  apposition  with,  "the  vine- 
yard."     The  change  restores  parallelism  at  the  same  time, 

2.  (a)  And  he  fenced  it,  (b)  and  gathered  out  the  stones  thereof, 
(c)  and  planted  it  with  choicest  vines;  (d)  and  built  a  tower  in 
the  midst  thereof,  (e)  and  also  made  a  wine  press  therein;  (f)  and 
he  looked  that  it  should  bring  forth  grapes,  (g)  and  it  brought 
forth  wild  grapes. 

The  Septuagint,  as  noted  above,  reads  the  first  person 
throughout  this  verse.  Of  the  sentences  that  compose  this 
strophe,  f  and  g  together  possibly  form  a  line  of  the  same  type 
as  that  noted  before  as  the  dominant  type  of  this  prophecy 
{qlnd)  ;  they  might  also  be  read  as  an  ordinary  parallelistic 
distich,  like  d  and  e.  In  regard  to  a,  b  (each  in  Hebrew  a  single 
word)  and  c  (two  words),  there  is  some  doubt;  they  might  be 
read  as  three  stichoi  (cf.  1.6),  as  two  (ab,  c)  or  as  one  with 
caesura  (ab  c)  ;  only  d  and  e,  then,  cannot  be  made  to  conform 
to  the  qlnd  type. 

The  word  hoshlm  (root  "to  stink")  occurs  in  Job  31.40;  it 
may  be  merely  a  general  term  "worthless  (ones),"  and  perhaps 
denotes  the  same  as  'inn^hhe  rosh,  literally,  "poison  grapes," 
translated  "grapes  of  gall"  (cf.  Deut.  29.17:  "a  root  bearing 
gall")  ;  as  a  matter  of  fact,  galls  are  found  on  grapevines;  and 
even  if  they  were  not,  the  oak  gall  is  common  enough  in  Syria 
to  have  given  rise  to  the  figure. 

The  suddenness  and  brevity  of  the  climax  "they  produced 
galls,"  after  the  long  description  of  the  care  lavished  on  the 
vineyard,  is  worthy  of  note  in  a  discussion  of  the  style  of  Isaiah. 


370  University  of  Calif  or  nia  Publications.      [Sem,  Phil. 

Chapter  5 

3-4.  (3a)  And  now,  O  inhabitant  of  Jerusalem,  and  men  of 
Judah,  (b)  judge,  I  pray  you,  betwixt  me  and  (betwixt)  my  vine- 
yard. (4a)  What  could  have  been  done  more  to  my  vineyard  that 
I  have  not  done  it  (lit.  and  I  have  not  done  it) ;  (b)  wherefore  when 
I  looked  (lit.  did  I  look)  that  it  should  bring  forth  grapes,  brought 
it  forth   (lit.  and  it  brought  forth)  wild  grapes? 

Here  the  dominant  type  of  strophe  becomes  clear  again :  the 
caesura  is  marked;  there  is  a  degree  of  subordinate  parallelism 
between  the  two  portions  of  each  line,  caused,  except  in  the  first, 
by  the  repetition  of  some  word:  "betwixt"  in  3b,  "done,"  'dsa, 
in  4a,  "bring  forth,"  Hebrew  'dsa  again,  in  4b.  There  is  par- 
allelism, also,  in  form  and  thought  between  4a  and  4b  as  entities : 
"Why  did  I  do  everything  good  for  it,  while  it  did  (produced) 
only  ill  (galls)  for  me?" 

5.  (a)  And  now,  go  to;  I  will  tell  you  (lit.  and  now,  let  me  tell 
you)  Avhat  I  will  do  to  my  vineyard. 

Read  by  itself,  this  line  might  be  simple  prose.  But  read 
with  attention  to  the  rest  of  the  poem  in  which  it  stands,  it  makes 
a  somewhat  different  impression.  Indeed,  one  must  not  disre- 
gard the  immediately  preceding  line,  to  which  it  is  an  answer. 
And  while  the  question  in  4b  has  a  distinct  rhetorical  purpose, 
it  is  not  merely  a  rhetorical  question.  It  cannot  be  supposed 
that  the  curiosity  of  the  Prophet 's  audience  at  this  point  was  not 
aroused  by  the  question  why  a  carefully  nurtured  vineyard  pro- 
duced galls;  nor  can  it  be  supposed,  when  he  utters  the  words 
"now  I  will  tell  you,"  that  the  audience  is  not  expecting  the 
answer  to  that  particular  question;  and  the  form  of  the  rest  of 
this  prophecy  shows  conclusively  that  there  was  a  caesura,  a 
pause,  after  these  words.  Indeed,  "let  me  tell  you"  (without 
expressed  object)  is  a  complete  proposition  in  itself;  cf.  Jer. 
11,18,  "and  the  Lord  hath  told  me,"  hodM'anl;  but  particularly 
Jer.  16.21,  where  the  same  rhetorical  effect  as  in  the  present 
passage  is  produced  in  the  same  way,  excepting  that  the  effect 
becomes  clearer  by  the  repetition  of  the  predicate  after  the 
caesura:  "Therefore,  behold,  I  will  this  once  cause  them  to 
know — I  will  cause  them  to  know  mine  hand  and  my  might." 
And  in  Isaiah  the  caesura  is  used  with  added  effect;  for  he 


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Chapter  5 
wrenches  the  conclusion  of  the  sentence  away  from  the  expected, 
and  with  dramatic  suddenness  again  rushes  from  calm  reasoning 
to  a  prophecy  of  punishment.  To  a  certain  extent  there  is  in- 
volved here  a  species  of  paronomasia.  "I  will  inform  you" 
becomes  because  of  the  additional  clause,  "I'll  show  you!"  in 
the  colloquial  use  of  that  phrase  as  a  threat ;  cf .  the  passage  from 
Jeremiah  quoted  above;  and  so  in  Arabic  'arrifuhu,  "I  will  let 
him  know,"  "I  will  show  him"  (scil.,  "something  he  will  re- 
member"), "I  will  teach  him  a  lesson."  If,  however,  the  verse 
is  regarded  as  one  long  line,  parallelism  is,  perhaps,  established 
by  means  of  the  infinitives  in  5b-6  (q.v.),  which  are  in  appo- 
sition with  the  clause  ' '  what  I  shall  do  to  my  vineyard " ;  or  if 
parallelism  was  not  intended  at  all,  the  line  is  a  simple  prose  line, 
a  mere  "formula  of  announcement." 

5-6.  (5b)  I  "vvill  take  away  the  hedge  thereof,  (e)  and  it  shall 
be  eaten  up;  (d)  and  break  down  the  Avail  thereof,  (e)  and  it  shall 
be  trodden  down,  (6a)  And  I  will  lay  it  waste:  (b)  it  shall  not  be 
pruned,  (c)  nor  (shall  it  be)  digged:  (d)  but  there  shall  come  up 
briers  and  thorns:  (e)  I  will  also  command  the  clouds  (f)  that  they 
rain  no  rain  upon  it. 

The  extreme,  almost  savage,  terseness  of  the  Hebrew  infini- 
tives in  5b  and  d  ("take  away,"  hdser;  "break  down,"  pdrog) 
is  not  revealed  by  the  English  finite  verbs. 

The  ten  clauses  of  this  passage  can  again  be  read  as  a  series 
of  (five)  lines,  each  with  a  distinct  caesura;  the  unevenness  in 
length  of  the  two  parts,  however,  is  absent;  on  the  other  hand, 
with  the  exception  of  one  line  (6ef )  each  might  clearly  be  read 
as  two,  all  to  a  certain  extent  parallel,  but  with  closer  parallelism 
between  the  alternate  lines. 

The  arrangement  is  not  entirely  clear  as  the  text  stands.  6a 
and  6b  evidently  belong  closely  together;  16'  yizzdmer  probably 
is  a  circumstantial  clause  modifying  iva-'^sMthehu  hhdthd:  "and 
I  will  lay  it  waste,  it  not  being  pruned."  This  would  suggest 
then  that  the  corresponding  16'  ye'ddher,  "it  shall  not  be  hoed," 
belongs  after,  not  before,  6d,  thus :  ' '  there  shall  come  up  briers 
and  thorns,  it  not  being  hoed. ' '  Otherwise,  6a-d  might  form  an 
"envelope"  paiallelistic  quatrastich : 


372  University  of  California,  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  5 

And  I  shall  make  it  a  waste, 

It  shall  not  be  pruned, 

And  it  shall  not  be  hoed, 
And  thorn  and  thistles  shall  come  up. 

At  any  rate  there  is  a  clear  relationship  of  cause  and  effect 
between  the  growth  of  thorns  and  thistles  and  the  absence  of 
hoeing ;  as  there  is  between  removal  of  the  hedge  and  being  eaten 
(but  see  the  note  on  6.13),  between  breaking  of  the  walls  and 
being  trodden.  This  leads  to  a  closer  examination  of  the  word 
hatha,  "waste,"  in  its  relation  to  absence  of  pruning.  Bdthd 
is  a  a7ra|  Xeyofievov,  assigned  to  the  root  hdthath,  "cut  off"  or 
"sever,"  although  as  vocalized  by  the  Massora,  this  derivation 
is  not  certain;  the  form  should  be  hattd,  used  by  Isaiah  in  7.19 
with  the  meaning  "precipice."  Septuagint  and  Targum  trans- 
late with  words  containing  the  idea  "to  desert" — evidencing 
perhaps  nothing  more  than  a  desire  to  establish  a  closer  connec- 
tion of  ideas,  as  suggested  above  ("neglected"  as  a  synonym  of 
"unpruned").  The  conclusion  seems  inevitable,  since  the  lan- 
guage has  many  words  for  "waste,"  "destruction,"  etc.,  that 
Isaiah  used  this  special  work  here  because  of  some  special  appro- 
priateness. If  the  root  is  "cut  off,"  the  purpose  may  have  been 
the  play  on  the  ideas :  "it  shall  be  cut — but  not  with  (the  cutting 
of)  pruning."  But  it  is  far  more  likely  that  there  is  an  error 
in  the  text  or  in  our  interpretation ;  with  a  prefixed  ^ayin 
{'hhdthdf)  the  word  might  mean  "thicket,"  "entanglement"; 
or  if  possibly  the  Arabic  root  katha'a,  kathatha  (which  would 
ordinarily  be  in  Hebrew  kasha,  kdshash,  but  is  not  found) 
might  be  read,  a  still  more  appropriate  word  would  result;  it 
denotes  "become  thick  and  tangled";  it  is  applied  not  only  to 
plants,  but  also  to  the  beards  of  men;  and  it  is  at  least  curious 
to  note  that  in  Lev.  25.5  vines  that  are  left  unpruned  in  the 
Sabbatical  year  are  called  ndzlr,  "Nazirite,"  i.e.,  "with  unshorn 
hair." 

In  6e,  f  "I  will  also  command  the  clouds,  that  they  rain  no 
rain  upon  it,"  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  for  questioning  the 
caesura  after  "clouds."  The  verb  "command"  with  the  prepo- 
sition 'al,  "upon,"  "against,"  almost  invariablj^^  means  "pro- 


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Chapter  5 
hibit":  the  phrase  means  then  "I  will  enjoin,  restrain  the 
clouds " ;  so  that  the  rest  of  the  sentence  is  merely  a  nearer 
definition;  the  usual  construction,  indeed,  would  be:  "I  will  lay 
command  upon  the  clouds,  saying,  'rain  not  upon  it.'  "  In  the 
difficult  passage.  Job  36.32,  wa-y^gaw  'dlehd  h^^nvafgl'^' ,  Saadia 
interprets  the  first  two  words,  "and  he  commanded  upon  it,"  as 
a  complete  proposition,  and  so  the  English  translates,  "com- 
mandeth  it  not  to  shine, ' '  inserting  the  last  three  words.  But  if 
the  sentence  in  Isaiah  is  regarded  as  one  long  stichos,  it  is  still 
parallel  to  the  rest  of  verse  6. 

7.  (a)  For  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts  is  the  house  of 
Israel,  (b)  and  the  men  of  Judah  his  pleasant  plant;  (c)  and  he 
looked  for  judgment  but  behold  oppression;  (d)  for  righteousness, 
and  behold  a  cry. 

Stichoi  a  and  b  are  a  distich  in  ordinary  complementary 
parallelism ;  nevertheless,  there  is  a  species  of  caesura  within 
each  stichos,  and  there  was  quite  probably  in  delivery  of  the 
prophecy  an  actual,  dramatic  pause :  ' '  for  the  vineyard  of  the 
Lord  of  Hosts  is — the  house  of  Israel ! ' '  Indeed,  whenever  in  a 
proposition  subject  and  predicate  are  exactly  synonymous  and 
coextensive,  there  results  a  form  of  inner  parallelism. 

In  stichoi  c  and  d  the  caesura  is  logical,  and  again  these  two 
lines  might  be  divided  into  four.  In  either  case  li-qfidhdqd,  ' '  for 
righteousness, ' '  is  interesting ;  though  it  is  a  single  word,  it  forms 
an  independent  syntactic  member;  and  in  time,  in  the  number 
of  rhythmic  "thought  beats,"  it  is  the  equivalent  of  the  phrase 
' '  he  looked  for  justice. ' ' 

The  paronomasia  is  striking,  and  especially  in  the  case  of 
Q^dhdqd  and  q^^'dqd,  "righteousness"  and  "cry,"  the  meaning 
is  perfectly  evident ;  ' '  the  cry ' '  is  the  cry  of  fright  and  suffering, 
and  by  metonymy  the  word  becomes  almost  a  synonym  of  "sin" ; 
so  in  Gen.  18.21  in  reference  to  Sodom,  it  is  parallel  to  "sin," 
xattd'd,  and  contrasted  with  the  gaddlq,  "righteous,"  of  18.24; 
in  Ps.  9.13,  "seeker  of  blood"  (i.e.,  "murderer")  occurs  as  a. 
complement  of  ' '  the  cry  of  the  oppressed. ' '  But  the  word 
mispdx,  A.  V.  "oppression,"  in  contrast  to  mishpdt,  "judgment" 


374  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  5 

or  ''justice,"  is  not  entirely  clear.  If  the  thought  intended  was 
"shedding"  (i.e.,  of  blood)  it  is  curious  that  Isaiah  should  have 
had  recourse  to  a  rare  root  sdpJmx  (moreover,  with  sin  not 
samekh),  instead  of  the  root  shdphakh  common  in  Hebrew  with 
just  the  connotation  "  shedding-blood "  and,  moreover,  affording 
an  even  closer  homonym  to  mishpdt:  i.e.,  mishpdkh.  If  Proverbs 
13.23  were  clearer,  it  might  be  cited  as  suggesting  a  possible 
emendation  mispd, ' '  snatching ' ' :  there  is  that  which  is  destroyed, 
literally  "snatched,"  "swept  away,"  for  want  of  justice,  h^-lo' 
mishpdt;  and  in  the  passage  just  cited,  Gen.  18.23,  occurs  again : 
"wilt  thou  snatch  away  {tespe)  the  righteous  with  the  wicked," 
in  which  Abraham  apparently  asks  the  Lord  if  He  himself  in- 
tends to  commit  toward  the  righteous  just  that  specific  act  for 
committing  which  the  wicked  are  about  to  be  punished. 

8-10.  (8a)  Woe  unto  them  that  join  house  to  house,  (b)  (that) 
lay  field  to  field,  (c)  till  (there  be)  no  place,  (d)  that  they  (Heb. 
ye)  may  be  placed  alone  in  the  earth, 

(9a)  In  mine  ears  (said)  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  (b)  of  a  truth 
many  houses  shall  be  desolate,  (9c)  even  great  and  fair  without 
inhabitant.  (10a)  Yea,  ten  acres  of  vineyard  shall  yield  one  bath, 
(b)  and  the  seed  of  an  homer  shall  yield  an  ephah. 

Beginning  with  verse  8  there  is  a  return  to  ordinary  par- 
allelism; with  a  few  transpositions  the  prophecy  through  verse 
23  consists  of  a  series  of  double  quatrains,  of  the  tj^pe  preserved 
in  the  first  series,  8-10 :  the  first  quatrain  denounces  a  certain 
class  of  sinners,  the  second  predicts  their  punishment  (i.e.,  is 
antistrophic).  In  each  quatrain  normally,  while  the  four  lines 
are  parallel,  there  is  a  closer  degree  of  parallelism  within  each 
couplet  composing  it. 

In  the  first  quatrain,  the  third  line,  'adh  'ephes  mdqom,  "till 
there  is  no  place, ' '  seems  possibly  too  short,  especially  when  con- 
trasted with  the  fourth.  Is  it  again  a  mere  coincidence  that 
just  where  this  disparity  is  felt,  the  Septuagint  shows  an  equal- 
izing transposition?  It  translates:  "in  order  that  they  may 
'remove  something  of  their  neighbor's";  i.e.,  'adh  '^soph  m^'um 
q^rdhhdm.  Here  '^soph,  "removal,"  is  the  Massoretic  'ephes, 
"there  is  no";  m^'umd,  "something,"  is  the  Massoretic  mdqom 


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Chapter  5 
(''place";  on  the  misreading  of  '  for  q,  see  the  note  on  miq- 
qedhem,  2.6)  ;  but  q^rdhhdm  is  the  Massoretic  qerehh,  ''midst 
of, ' '  from  the  next  line ;  quite  possibly,  then,  this  word  was  at 
first  omitted  by  mistake,  was  written  on  the  margin,  and  then 
edited  by  a  copyist  into  the  wrong  place.  For  the  use  of 
mdqdm,  "place,"  i.e.,  "vineyard,"  "field,"  "estate,"  compare 
Is.  7.23:  "in  every  place  {mdqdm;  i.e.,  "estate"  or  "vineyard") 
where  there  were  a  thousand  vines ' ' ;  and  on  the  general  idea 
expressed  here  compare  the  words  of  Ahab  to  Naboth  in  I  Kings 
21.2:  "Give  me  thy  vineyard,  because  it  is  near  (qdrohh),  along- 
side of  mine  house."  Line  8d  seems  to  bear  in  itself  other  evi- 
dences of  corruption.  The  use  of  the  second  person  (the  Eng- 
lish translates  as  third)  in  this  one  line,  while  the  rest  of  the 
stanza  and  of  the  whole  prophecy  is  cast  in  the  third,  which  is 
the  usual  construction  after  hoi,  "  ah  ! "  or  "  alas ! ' '  may  not  be 
disregarded.  Moreover  the  use  of  the  hoph'al  form  hushabhtem, 
"ye  be  caused  to  dwell,"  is  most  illogical;  there  is  certainly  no 
idea  of  causation  intended.  The  Septuagint  translator  felt  this, 
and  read  (or  interpreted)  the  initial  h  as  the  particle  of  inter- 
rogation :  ' '  will  ye  dwell. ' '  Parallelism  with  the  preceding  line 
suggests  the  infinitive  w^-shihhtdm,  "and  (until)  their  dwell- 
ing," and  Ic-hhadddm,  which  was  changed  to  ic-hhadd^khem  to 
agree  with  the  misread  verb. 

In  9a  the  phrase  "In  mine  ears  (said)  the  Lord  of  Hosts" 
stands  outside  the  parallelism,  as  has  been  noticed  in  the  case  of 
similar  phrases  introducing  the  direct  discourse.  The  sentence 
itself,  without  a  verb,  is  suspicious;  the  consonantal  text  might 
as  well  be  translated:  "In  the  ears  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts"  (cf. 
Num.  11.18,  14.28;  I  Sam.  8.21)  ;  or  even  as  an  oath,  "by  the 
ears  of  the  Lord ! ' '  Possibly  its  mutilated  form  is  due  to  the 
fact  again  that  it  was  an  editorial  marginal  insertion  to  explain 
the  following  construction  'im  Id',  literally  "if  many  houses 
shall  not  be  desolate ! "  Or  the  whole  construction,  including 
'ini  Id',  is  the  editorial  reconstruction  of  a  defective  passage; 
Septuagint  has  for  'im  Id'  iav  yap  yevoovrai.  That  even  with  the 
Massoretic  'im  Id'  retained  the  introductory  phrase  is  still  syn- 


376  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  5 

tactically  unnecessary  is  shown  for  instance  by  Job  1.11.  But 
that  'im  Id'  was  itself  probably  inserted  into  a  defective  text, 
and  that  some  simple  word  Idkhen,  ''therefore/'  was  original, 
is  shown  by  verses  13,  14,  24;  the  more  solemn  and  emphatic 
'im  Id'  and  'im  occur,  it  is  true,  in  14.24  and  22.14;  but  both  of 
these  passages  contain  an  especially  solemn  prophecy  ("as  I 
have  sworn,  so  shall  it  be ! " ;  "  not  shall  your  sin  be  atoned  for 
you  until  ye  die!"),  which  is  not  the  case  here. 

On  the  probable  meaning  of  hdttlm  rahhlm,  "many  houses," 
see  2.3,  ' '  many  nations. ' ' 

In  the  line  "ten  acres  (lit.  "spans,"  gimde;  perhaps  "what 
a  span  of  oxen  can  plough  in  a  day")  of  vineyard  shall  produce 
one  bath"  (forty  litres  or  eight  gallons),  it  would  be  inter- 
esting to  know  why  the  Septuagint  omitted  (or  misread)  the 
common  word  kerem,  "vineyard."  Perhaps  merely  because  it 
was  felt  that  a  term  of  measurement  referring  literally  to 
ploughing  was  not  a  logical  one  to  apply  to  vineyards.  Isaiah 
is,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  very  careful  in  his  use  of  terms;  and  in 
7.23  where  again  there  is  a  quantitative  reference  to  vineyards, 
be  uses  just  the  terms  which  would  be  expected  and  which  are 
used  today  in  the  East :  the  number  of  vines  of  a  certain  value 
e^ch.  In  Arabic  there  is  a  term  which  exactly  corresponds  to 
Qinide,  i.e.,  fadddn;  but  I  doubt  whether  even  the  colloquial 
Arabic  applies  it  in  measurement  of  anything  but  seed-land. 
The  Septuagint,  translating  ipySivTai,  perhaps  substituted,  if  it 
did  not  actually  find  in  the  Hebrew,  for  kerem  some  form  of  the 
root  from  which  comes  'ikkdrlm,  ' '  ploughman " ;  in  Jer.  51.23 
the  two  terms  occur  together :  'ikkdr  w^-qimdo, ' '  the  husbandman 
and  his  yoke  of  oxen. ' '  The  line  under  discussion  is  as  a  matter 
of  fact  overloaded ;  and  it  is  possible  that  either ' '  ten "  or  "  vine- 
yard" is  superfluous.  If  '(^gereth  gfimadhlm,  "ten  acres,"  is 
original,  the  consonants  k,  r  from  kerem  may  represent  the 
marginal  variant  kor,  for  a  kor  is  a  term  of  measurement  exactly 
identical  with  a  x^mer  (mentioned  in  the  next  line)  as  the  bath 
is  identical  with  the  'ephd.  On  the  other  hand  "ten"  may  be 
marginal,  as  an  attempt  to  explain  the  proportion  between  kor 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         377 

Chapter  5 
and  hath,  xomer  and  'ephd,  the  latter  of  each  pair  of  terms  being 
just  ten  times  the  former.  At  all  events  the  passage  is  interest- 
ing, if  it  may  be  assumed  that  the  normal  proportionate  yield 
of  the  vineyard  and  the  field  were  about  the  same  as  today. 
Ten  acres  of  vineyard  on  the  average  yield  five  thousand  gallons, 
Professor  Bioletti  informs  me,  instead  of  which  Isaiah  predicts 
eight  gallons,  i.e.,  one  instead  of  six  hundred  and  twenty-five.  If 
''ten"  be  omitted  the  prediction  becomes  one  instead  of  sixty, 
which  would  still  denote  absolute  ruin.  Supposing  a  ten-fold 
yield  of  wheat  (German  colonists  in  Sharon  enjoy  an  eight-fold 
yield),  the  proportion  of  prophesied  to  normal  yield  would  be 
one  to  one  hundred.  In  Gen.  26.12,  it  is  true,  Isaac  is  said  to 
have  enjoyed  a  hundred-fold  yield  apparently  (so  in  Matthew 
13.8,  hundred-fold,  sixty-fold,  and  thirty-fold  yields  are  men- 
tioned) ;  if  such  yields  were  usual,  the  proportion  of  prophesied 
to  normal  yield  of  grain  might  be  one  to  one  thousand,  but  pos- 
sibly "one  hundred  fold"  represents  not  the  returns  of  a  single 
harvest,  but  of  a  year — or  else  is  oriental  hyperbole. 

11-14.  (lla)  Woe  unto  them  that  rise  up  early  in  the  morning 
that  they  may  follow  strong  drink;  (b)  that  continue  until  night 
(till)  wine  inflame  them.  (12a)  And  the  harp  and  the  viol,  the 
tabret  and  pipe,  (b)  and  wine   (are  in)  their  feasts; 

(12c)  but  they  regard  not  the  wDrk  of  the  Lord,  (d)  neither  con- 
sider the  operation  of  his  hands.  (13a)  Therefore  my  people  are 
gone  into  captivity  (b)  because  they  have  no  knowledge;  (c)  and 
their  honorable  men  (are)  famished  (c)  and  their  multitude  dried 
up  with  thirst. 

(14a)  Therefore  hell  hath  enlarged  herself,  (b)  and  opened  her 
mouth  without  measure;  (c)  and  their  glory  and  their  multitude  (d) 
and  their  pomp,  and  he  that  rejoiceth,  shall  descend  into  it  (Heb. : 
and  shall  descend  their  glory  and  their  multitude  and  their  pomp, 
and  one  rejoicing,  in  her). 

In  this  exceedingly  long  passage  it  is  noticeable  that  verses 
13  and  14  each  begin  with  "therefore,"  introducing  two  difi'er- 
ent  threats  of  punishment :  hell  and  captivity,  for  the  one  crime 
of  intoxication.  Either  of  these  "therefore"  passages  is  as  good 
a  conclusion  for  one  of  the  several  "woe"  passages  which,  as  at 
present  arranged,  occur  later  in  this  chapter  without  any  ' '  there- 


378  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  5 

fore"  passage.  Another  fact  is  noticeable:  verse  22  is  in 
thought  a  doublet  of  verse  11,  referring  again  to  drunkards. 
The  illogical  arrangement  is  self  evident;  and  the  transposition 
of  the  passage  12c-13  leaves  a  stanza,  clear  and  logical,  of  the 
same  formation  exactly  as  that  found  in  verses  8-10:  strophe 
and  antistrophe. 

As  the  passage  stands,  moreover,  the  feeling  for  style  is  out- 
raged by  the  fact  that  the  word  hdmon  occurs  twice  (verses  13 
and  14)  in  two  quite  distinct  meanings:  once  denoting  ''the 
multitude"  or  "people"  (contrasted  with  kdhhod,  "honorable 
men";  cf.  Is.  16.14),  and  once  denoting  "noise,"  A.  V.  again 
* '  multitude. ' '  It  was  perhaps  just  this  word  which  led  the  com- 
piler to  put  these  passages  together  (see  on  yinhom,  below). 

Parallelism  in  11a  and  b  between  yirdophU,  "follow,"  and 
yadhliqem,  "till  wine  inflame  them,"  involves  at  the  same  time 
a  play  on  the  latter  word,  which,  at  least  in  the  simple  (qal) 
conjugation,  means  also  "follow,"  "pursue"  (Ps.  10.2;  Lam. 
4.19;  Gen.  31.36;  I  Sam.  17.53):  in  the  morning  they  pursue 
wine ;  in  the  evening  wine  pursues  them.  Moreover  there  is  here 
again  the  characteristic  twist  of  thought :  ' '  Ah !  those  who  are 
industrious  in  pursuit  of — wine!" 

In  12a  and  b,  as  the  text  stands,  there  is  displayed  an  ex- 
tremely awkward  style :  four  names  of  musical  instruments  are 
joined  with  the  word  wine  to  form  the  subject  of  "their  ban- 
quet," though  "wine"  has  just  occurred  in  the  preceding  line, 
in  parallelism  to  its  synonym  "strong  drink,"  Certainly  the 
second  "wine"  is  out  of  place;  and  it  is  probable,  in  view  of 
verse  14,  that  this  series  of  words  should  be  read  and  emended 
in  some  such  way  as  follows : 

w<^-1iaya  Iciniwr  wa-nehhel  himomim 
toph  w^-xcilil  she 'on  mishtdm, 

"the  harp  and  the  viol  are  their  tumult;  the  tabret  and  pipe 
are  the  noise  of  their  banquet."  For  the  inserted  word  sh^'on, 
see  below,  on  'dlez  hah. 

In  14c  the  reading  hf^dhardh,  etc.,  with  feminine  singular 
suffix  instead  of  masculine  plural  (which  the  English  assumes, 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         379 

Chapter  5 
reading  "their  glory"  for  ''her  glory")  is  due  to  the  influence 
of  the  feminine  suffix  in  the  preceding  line  ("her  mouth")  — 
another  clear  evidence  of  copyist's  carelessness.  W^-dlez  hah, 
literally  "and  one  who  rejoices,  in  her,"  a  participle  added  to 
a  series  of  abstracts  each  with  its  suffix,  is  stylistically  impossible, 
and  the  separation  of  the  final  prepositional  phrase,  "in  her," 
from  its  verb  "go  down"  in  this  manner  is  also  not  likely 
Isaianic.  Nor  is  the  proper  usage  "go  down  in"  Sh^'ol,  but  "go 
down  to"  (ace.)  or  "into"  {'el)  Sh^^'ol;  nor  is  'dlez  the  usual 
form  of  the  participial  adjective  of  the  root  '  dUz;  it  occurs  only 
once,  as  against  '  alUz  seven  times,  five  of  them  in  Isaiah.  Pos- 
sibly then  ^dlez  hah  together  represent  an  original  abstract  with 
suffix  like  the  preceding  nouns,  e.g.,  'Hlzuthdh  (cf.  ' Higuthdm, 
Hab.  3.14),  or  ' alzdthdh.  Or  probably  'dlez  is  a  misreading  for 
a  verb  parallel  to  ydr'^dhu,  "go  down";  the  Septuagint  has 
01  \otfiol  avT'^'i,  i.e.,  'anshe  hHiya'al  (cf.  I  Sam.  25.25,  e.g.),  in 
which  'anshe  represents  a  double  reading  of  shd'dn  in  this  verse, 
or  a  marginal  reading  of  it  intended  for  insertion  in  verse  12 
(see  above)  ;  while  hHlya'al  may  represent  an  original  yihhdl^'u, 
"shall  be  swallowed  up"  (with  hdh,  "in  her")  ;  cf.  the  par- 
allelism in  Prov.  1.13,  "Let  us  swallow  them  up  {nihhld'em) 
alive,  as  the  grave;  and  whole,  as  those  that  go  down  into  the 
pit"  (yor^dhe  hhor)  ;  and  cf.  possibly  Is.  28.7,  where  the  nipWal 
of  this  verb  is  used  (but  in  a  different  figure)  of  drunkards. 

The  passage  12b-13c  extracted  from  the  middle  of  this  double 
quatrain  may  well  belong  after  verse  21;  if  a  line  parallel  to 
"my  people  shall  perish  for  lack  of  knowledge"  be  supplied, 
e.g.,  "and  are  undone  for  lack  of  understanding,"  the  restored 
series  of  verses  21,  12b-13c  needs  nothing  further  to  furnish 
another  perfectly  consistent  and  complete  double  quatrain. 
Notice  that  verse  12c, ' '  the  work  of  the  Lord  they  do  not  regard, ' ' 
and  13b,  "because  they  have  no  knowledge,"  present  an  excel- 
lent contrast  to  "those  who  are  wise  in  their  own  eyes"  in 
verse  21,  For  the  proposed  additional  line  cf.  Hosea  4.6 :  nidhmu 
'amml  mih-h^ll  had-da' ath,  "my  people  are  undone  for  want  of 
knowledge ' ' ;  while  in  Is.  27.11  occurs  the  phrase  ki  Id  'am  hlndth 


380  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  5  ' 

ha',  " for  it  is  a  people  of  no  understanding ' ' ;  and  the  sanie 
parallelism,  hln  and  yddha' ,  is  found  in  Is.  1.3,  6.10.  The  sug- 
gestion is  also  in  order  that  gala,  "go  into  captivity,"  is  an 
error  for  Mid,  "perish,"  i.e.,  of  the  hunger  and  thirst  described 
in  13bc.  The  particular  aptness  in  associating  hunger  with  lack 
of  knowledge  is  ^ue  to  the  figurative  expression  "hunger  for 
knowledge";-  so  Amos  says  (8.11,  13)  :  "I  will  send  famine  in 
the  land — not  a  famine  for  bread,  nor  a  thirst  for  water;  but  of 
hearing  the  words  of  the  Lord ;  in  that  daj'  shall  the  fair  virgins 
and  young  men  faint  for  thirst."  Still,  that  hunger  and  thirst 
would  be  a  fitting  punishment  for  feasting  and  drunkenness,  is 
evident ;  and  it  is  possible  that  one  of  these  ' '  therefore ' '  sections 
is  the  missing  sequel,  not  of  verse  21,  but  of  verse  22,  another 
passage  referring  to  drunkenness ;  i.e.,  that  there  were  originally 
two  quite  separate  prophecies,  or  versions  of  one  prophecy,  on 
this  subject. 

15-16.  (15a)  And  the  (mean)  man  shall  be  brought  down,  (b) 
and  the  (mighty)  man  shall  be  humbled,  (c)  and  the  eyes  of  the 
lofty  shall  be  humbled;  (16a)  But  the  Lord  of  Hosts  shall  be  ex- 
alted in  judgment,  (b)  and  God,  that  is  holy,  shall  be  sanctified  by 
righteousness. 

That  verses  15  and  16  are  out  of  place  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  they  are  a  variant  of  the  refrain  found  three  times  in  chap- 
ter 2  (q.v.),  and  that  they  confuse  the  strophic  structure  sug- 
gested by  verse  8-10;  this  confirms  the  theory  that  this  chapter 
is  in  some  disorder.  As  far  as  style  is  concerned,  the  loose 
repetition  of  "shall  be  humbled"  in  15b  and  c  suggests  that 
these  two  lines  are  in  themselves  variants  of  one. 

17.  (a)  Then  shall  the  lambs  feed  after  their  manner  (b)  and 
the  waste  places  of  the  fat  ones  shall  strangers  eat. 

While  in  form  these  two  stichoi  are  parallel,  and  "feed"  and 
"eat"  are  parallel  verbs,  the  precise  meaning  of  the  other  words 
is  not  entirely  clear;  nor,  even  if  this  couplet  belongs  with  the 
preceding,  is  there  sufficient  logical  connection  to  serve  as  a 
guide.     Syntactically,  as  the  text  stands,  ' '  strangers, ' '  gdrlm,  is 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         381 

Chapter  5 
parallel  to  "lambs,"  k'^'bhdshlm ;  linguistically,  however,  "fat 
ones, ' '  me-xlm  is  the  parallel  to  ' '  lambs " ;  it  is  only  the  exigency 
of  the  passage  that  has  led  translators  to  refer  it  to  human 
beings  with  the  meaning  ' '  those  who  were  once  rich ' ' ;  the  word 
occurs,  with  inserted  yodh,  in  Ps.  66.15  ("burnt  offerings  of  fat- 
lings,"  ' oloth  meylm)  ;  it  is  a  synonym  of  m^re'im,  used  by 
Isaiah  in  1.11  ("the  fat  of  fatlings")  and  again  in  11.6,  a 
passage  of  similar  import  to  5.17  perhaps,  but  in  which  m'^rl'  is 
not  above  suspicion.  The  defect  in  parallelism  and  clarity  of 
thought  is  again  coincident  with  variations  in  the  Septuagint, 
whose  underlying  Hebrew  text,  however,  cannot  be  exactly 
determined. 

The  word  translated  "according  to  their  manner,"  i.e.,  M- 
dh^^hhdrdm  is  vocalized  in  the  Massoretic  text  k<^-dhohhrdm,  "as 
(in)  their  pasture"  (cf.  Micah  2.12:  "as  a  flock  in  the  midst 
of '  its  pasture ' ' — only  other  occurrence  of  the  word  dohher, 
"pasture/'  but  made  clear  in  Micah  by  the  parallel,  whether 
that  parallel  be  retained  as  it  stands,  hocrd,  or  be  read  as  from 
a  root  rdbhag,  "sheep-fold").  Either  vocalization  demands  that 
there  be  supplied  in  thought  a  phrase  parallel  to  ' '  waste  places, ' ' 
such  as  ' ' in  the  wilderness, "  "in  the  desert "  :  " they  shall  feed 
in  the  wilderness  after  their  manner,"  or  "as  though  in  their 
folds, ' '  a  reference  to  the  Messianic  age ;  but  more  probably 
k''-dhohhrdm  itself  is  to  be  read  simply  ham-midhhdr,  "in  the 
wilderness";  in  the  second  stichos  gdrlm,  "strangers,"  must  be 
read  then,  after  the  Septuagint,  either  kdrlm,  "lambs,"  or 
g<^dMyun,  "kids";  and  mexim,  "fatlings,"  is  simply  a  gloss,  or 
variant  reading,  of  kdrlm.  It  is  also  possible  that  a  transpo- 
sition of  words  has  taken  place,  inasmuch  as  kdrlm  means  also 
' '  meadows " ;  so  that  me-^m  kdrim  yokhelu  could  mean  ' '  and 
fatlings  shall  feed  in  meadows" — in  which  case  dohher  may  be 
retained  in  stichos  a.  One  other  slight  change  in  stichos  b  sug- 
gests itself :  for  xorhhdth, ' '  ruins, ' '  read  rax^-bhoth  or  merx^hhoth, 
"broad  places";  cf.  Is.  30.23:  "in  that  day  shall  thy  cattle  feed 
in  large  pastures,  kar  nirxdhh;  and  Hos.  4.16:  "The  Lord  will 
feed  them  as  a  lamb  in  a  large  place,"  k^-khebesh  bam-merxdbh. 


382  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  5  . 

The  couplet  then  reads :  ' '  and  lambs  shall  feed  as  in  their  own 
meadows  [or  simply:  "in  meadows":  hi-dh^hhdrlm] ,  and  the 
fatlings  graze  in  broad  (places  of)  the  pastures,"  and  has  no 
connection  with  the  rest  of  the  chapter  in  thought  or  structure. 

18-19.  (18a)  Woe  unto  them  that  draw  iniquity  with  cords  of 
vanity,  (b)  and  sin  as  it  were  with  a  cart-rope.  (19a)  That  say, 
Let  him  make  speed  (and)  hasten  his  work,  that  we  may  see  (it)  : 
(b)  and  let  the  counsel  of  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  draw  nigh  and 
come,  that  we  may  know  (it).  . 

There  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  verse  19  is  an  explanation 
of  verse  18,  just  as  the  second  couplet  of  verse  8  was  an  expan- 
sion of  the  first,  and  as  verse  12  of  verse  11.  Verse  19  refers  to 
those  who  impiously  and  defiantly  challenge  the  Lord  to  hasten 
the  threatened  "day";  cf.  Amos  5.18 :  "woe  unto  you  that  desire 
the  day  of  the  Lord."  Verse  18,  then,  means  probably:  woe  to 
those  who  do  not  seek  by  repentance  to  avert  punishment,  but  who 
actually  draw  it  to  themselves  by  their  'vanity,"  i.e.,  "impiety." 
The  words  chosen  by  the  Prophet  permit  this  interpretation; 
'dwon,  "iniquity,"  in  18a,  and  x'^ttO''d,  "sin,"  in  18b,  both  de- 
note also  the  "result  of  iniquity  and  sin,"  i.e.,  "punishment." 
It  is  a  question,  then,  whether  for  '<^ghdld,  "cart,"  there  should 
not  be  read  simply  the  exact  parallel  to  shdw,  "vanity";  i.e., 
'awld,  "with  ropes  of  unrighteousness,"  instead  of  "ropes  of  a 
cart."  "Cart-ropes,"  as  heavy  ropes,  or  as  unbreakable  ropes, 
would  not  emphasize  the  idea  of  speed,  or  of  drawing  to  oneself ; 
the  picture  would  be  that  of  men  dragging  their  sins  behind 
them,  perhaps  then  of  making  their  own  lives  burdensome. 

In  19a  "his  work,"  ma'^^sehU,  stands  in  parallelism  to  "the 
counsel,"  or  rather  here  "the  plan"  (cf.  8.10),  of  the  "Holy  of 
Israel,"  whereas,  of  course,  normality  would  place  a  noun  in 
the  first  line  and  the  pronoun  referring  back  to  it  in  the  second. 
But  ma'^^seJiU  is  evidently  merely  a  scribal  error  for  ma'^^se 
Yahwe;  cf.  1.4:  "thej^  have  deserted  Yahwe,  they  have  spurned 
the  Holy  of  Israel ' ' ;  and  see  again  verse  24  of  this  chapter. 

The  "therefore"  stanza,  describing  the  specific  punishment 
for  this  class  of  sinners,  has  been  lost. 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         383 

Chapter  5 

20.  (a)  Woe  unto  them  that  call  evil  good  and  good  evil,  (b)  that 
put  darkness  for  light,  and  light  for  darkness;  (c)  that  put  bitter 
for  sweet,  and  sweet  for  bitter! 

This  stanza  is  again  evidently  defective ;  there  is  missing  not 

only  the  "therefore"  quatrain,  but  also  the  fourth  line  of  the 

first  quatrain.     Possibly  the  third  line   (e),  however,  is  merely 

a  variant  of  the  second  (b),  so  that  a  couplet  and  not  merely 

one  stichos  is  missing;  in  that  case  verse  23  should  probably  be 

read  here,  for  it  is  a  poor  complement  to  verse  22,  dealing  with 

drunkenness,  but  an  excellent  one  to  verse  20 :  "  woe  to  those 

who  call  bad  good  and  good  bad;  who  justify  (i.e.,  call  righteous) 

the  wicked,  but  deny  the  righteous  a  just  decision"  (see  below). 

21.  (a)  Woe  unto  (them  that  are)  wise  in  their  own  eyes,  (b) 
and  prudent  in  their  own  sight. 

What  would  be  the  natural  complement  of  this  couplet  is 

found  at  present  in  12c  (q.v.). 

22.  (a)  Woe  unto  them  that  are  mighty  to  drink  wine,  (b)  and 
men  of  strength  to  mingle  strong  drink. 

This  couplet  is  in  thought  a  variant  of  verse  11  (q.v.),  though 

the  figure  is  slightly  different.      The  same  sarcasm,  however,  is 

evident;  here  it  is:  "woe  to  the  valiant  in  drinking";  there  it 

was:  "woe  to  the  industrious  in  drinking." 

23-24.  (a)  Which  justify  the  wicked  for  a  reward,  (b)  and  take 
away  the  righteousness  of  the  righteous  from  him.  (24a)  Therefore 
as  the  fire  devoureth  the  stubble  (b)  and  the  flame  consumeth  the 
chaff,  (c)  (so)  their  root  shall  be  as  rottenness,  (d)  and  their 
blossom  shall  go  up  as  dust. 

Verse  23,  it  has  been  explained,  is  the  natural  sequel  to  verse 
20  (q.v.).  In  verse  24  the  Hebrew  is  extremely  awkward;  the 
Massoretic  text  wa-x^shash  lehabhd  yirpe  is  literally :  ' '  and  chaff 
of  flame  sinks  down,"  interpreted  "chaff  destined  for,  or  be- 
longing to,  flame,"  hence  "flaming  chaff."  Parallelism  sug- 
gests the  simple  change  of  one  consonant  in  yirpe  so  as  to  read 
sor^phd,  "burning"  :  "therefore  as  the  consuming  of  stubble  (by) 
tongue  of  fire,  and  of  chaff  (by)  burning  flame."  This,  besides, 
is  a  more  accurate  figure ;  chaff  that  burns  does  not  sink  down— 


384  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  5 

it  is  consumed  to  the  roots,  as  is  suggested  by  the  next  line. 
The  Septuagint  seems  to  have  had  the  same  radical  text  as  the 
Massoretic;  but,  making  yirpe  a  modifier  of  "flame"  (reading 
feminine,  tirpe),  it  translates  ^\o709  ai^et/ieV?^? ;  since  the  latter 
word  means  not  only  literally  "relaxed,"  but  also  "unre- 
strained," the  thought  "violent  flame"  becomes  possible  in  the 
Greek.  The  Septuagint,  moreover,  offers  some  evidence  that  the 
trouble  is  due  to  a  text  confused  by  crowded  or  marginal  writ- 
ing; it  had  placed  the  x"5^«^^>  "chaff,"  of  stichos  b  in  place 
of  kam-nmq,  "like  rottenness,"  in  stichos  c,  and  apparently 
placed  kam-mdq  in  stichos  b  as  a  verb  (avyKavdrjaerai:  possibly 
yidhloq;  cf.  verse  11).  Notice  that  the  first  couplet  does  not 
contain  a  syntactically  complete  proposition ;  this  is  an  example 
of  suspensive  parallelism. 

Akin  to  the  series  of  stanzas  in  chapter  5  is  10.1  (q.v.)  :  "woe 
to  those  who  decree  unrighteous  decrees ' ' ;  instead  of  a  four  line 
strophe,  however,  it  offers  one  of  six  lines. 

24.  (e)  Because  they  have  cast  away  the  law  of  the  Lord  of 
Hosts,  (f)   and  despised  the  word  of  the  Holy  One  of  Israel. 

This  apparently  does  not  belong  immediately  with  the  pre- 
ceding, because  effect  and  cause  have  already  been  specified 
there.  "Because,"  then,  if  this  section  is  complete,  anticipates 
the  next  'al-Mn,  "therefore"  (in  verse  25 ;  q.v.)  ;  but  more  prob- 
ably some  introductory  verses  are  missing  here  (see  the  note 
to  verse  25). 

25.  (a)  Therefore  is  the  anger  of  the  Lord  kindled  against  his 
people  (b)  and  he  hath  stretched  forth  his  hand  against  them  and 
smitten  them:  (c)  and  the  hills  did  tremble,  (d)  and  their  carcasses 
(were)  torn  in  the  midst  of  the  streets,  (e)  For  all  this  his  anger 
is  not  turned  away,  (f)   but  his  hand   (is)   stretched  out  still. 

The  fact  that  "therefore"  here  is  ' al-ken,  not  Idkhen  as 
throughout  the  chapter,  though  it  must  not  be  pressed,  is  per- 
haps supporting  evidence  for  considering  this  part  of  a  different 
prophecy.  More  important  is  it  that  verse  25  forms  an  admir- 
able introduction  to  the  series  of  verses  in  chapter  9,  beginning 
with  verse  12  (or  13),  where  the  refrain  "and  still  is  his  hand 


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Chaptee  5 
outstretched,"  the  same  clause  that  occurs  here  in  stichos  f, 
requires  before  it  just  such  a  passage  as  verse  25 :  **  therefore  he 
hath  stretched  forth  his  hand. ' '  On  the  other  hand  it  has  been 
noted  that  the  passage  beginning  10.1-2,  "woe  unto  those  who 
decree  unrighteous  decrees,"  seems  really  to  belong  with  the 
series  of  "woe"  stanzas  in  chapter  5. 

The  one  weakness  in  verse  25  lies  in  stichoi  c  and  d.  These 
can  hardly  be  called  parallels;  and  moreover  in  d  "and  their  car- 
casses" absolutelj'  disregards  stichos  c  ("the  hills  did  tremble") 
and  refers  back  to  "people"  in  a  and  b.  Stichos  c,  moreover, 
is  very  short ;  either  a  pair  of  stichoi,  then,  have  fallen  out,  one 
after  and  parallel  to  c,  the  other  before  and  parallel  to  d;  or 
else  from  c  there  has  fallen  out  a  phrase  which  would  make  it 
properly  parallel  to  d  and  contain  an  antecedent  for  "their"  in 
the  latter.  In  the  first  alternative.  Is.  24.20  would  supply  a  basis 
for  a  parallel  to  "and  the  hills  did  tremble,"  namelj^  "and  the 
earth  removed  out  of  her  place";  while  34.3  and  15.3  would 
offer  a  parallel  to  "their  carcasses  were  torn  in  the  midst  of  the 
streets ' ' ;  namely,  ' '  and  the  slain  were  cast  in  all  the  squares, ' ' 
wa-x'^ldlim  hushl<^khu  h<^khol  r^^x^^^^^^-  ^^^^  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  reference  to  the  trembling  of  the  hills  seems  out  of  place,  re- 
garded as  reference  to  an  earthquake,  and  the  second  alternative 
seems  to  recommend  itself.  Read  "and  the  hills  did  shake  with 
the  weight  of  the  slain,"  or,  better  still,  with  yinndz^lu  for 
yirg^zu,  "the  hills  did  flow  with  the  blood  of  the  slain,"  the 
figure  found  in  Is.  34.3 :  ' '  and  the  mountains  shall  be  melted 
with  their  blood";  cf.  also  Ezek.  35.8,  "and  I  shall  fill  his  moun- 
tains with  his  slain  men."  Other  suggestions  are:  way-yirhu 
ha-x^ldllm  h^-khol  ' drlm,  "and  the  slain  were  many  in  all  the 
cities"  (66.16),  or  "in  their  midst,"  l)<^-qirhdm.  Possibly  the 
missing  word  is  to  be  found  in  the  superfluous  qerebh,  "the 
midst,"  in  the  next  stichos;  b^-hUgoth,  "in  the  streets,"  is  even 
better  than  "in  the  midst  of  the  streets,"  though  "in  all  the 
streets"  might  be  just  as  good;  qerebh  occurs  227  times  in  the 
Old  Testament;  it  invariably  (except  here)  refers  to  the  interior 
of  a  single  object,  or  that  which  is  surrounded  by  a  number  of 


386  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  5 

objects  grouped  around  it.  The  accidental  omission  of  the  word 
X^lallm,  "slain,"  might  have  been  due  to  its  external  similarity 
to  he-hdrlm,  "mountains." 

26-29.  (26a)  And  he  will  lift  up  an  ensign  to  the  nations  afar, 
(b)  and  will  hiss  unto  them  from  the  end  of  the  earth:  (c)  and, 
behold,  they  [lit.  he]  shall  come  with  speed  swiftly.  (27a)  None 
shall  be  weary  nor  stumble  among  them  [lit,  there  is  none  wearying, 
and  there  is  none  stumbling  in  him] ;  (b)  none  shall  slumber  nor 
sleep  [lit.  he  does  not  slumber  and  he  does  not  sleep]  ;  (c)  neither 
shall  the  girdle  of  their  [his]  loins  be  loosed,  (d)  nor  the  latchet  of 
their  [his]  shoes  be  broken:  (28a)  whose  arrows  (are)  sharp,  (b) 
and  all  their  [his]  bows  bent,  (c)  their  [his]  horses'  hoofs  shall  be 
counted  like  flint,  (d)  and  their  [his]  wheels  like  a  whirlwind:  (29a) 
Their  roaring  (shall  be)  like  a  lion  [lit.,  a  roaring  to  him  like  the 
lion],  (b)  they  shall  roar  [lit.  either  "and  he  shall  roar"  or  sim- 
ply, "he  shall  roar"]  like  young  lions,  (c)  yea  they  shall  roar  [and 
he  shall  growl]  and  lay  hold  of  the  prey,  (d)  and  shall  carry  (it) 
away  safe,  (e)  and  none  shall  deliver. 

Whether  this  highly  dramatic  and  formally  almost  perfect 
prophetic  poem  belongs  with  what  immediately  precedes  or  not, 
is  uncertain.  If  it  does,  it  emphasizes  still  more  strongly  that 
the  two  words  in  verse  25  referring  to  earthquake  are  to  be 
emended. 

As  divided  above  the  prophecy  contains  sixteen  lines ;  but  27a 
and  b  might  each  be  divided  into  two  stichoi  (four  in  all),  giving 
eighteen.  Except  possibly  at  two  points,  the  parallelism  is 
absolutely  patent ;  the  distichs  group  themselves ;  a  closer  affinity 
between  some  of  the  distichs  makes  possible  also  a  stanza  divi- 
sion. The  first  possible  exception  is  26c :  ' '  and,  behold,  he  shall 
come  with  speed  swiftly,"  which  has  no  exact  synonymous  par- 
allel. Nevertheless,  it  does  form  a  complementary  parallel  to 
either  or  both  of  the  first  two  stichoi :  God  signals  to  them  [him], 
he  calls  to  them,  they  answer  him ;  i.e.,  there  may  be  here  a  three 
line  introductory  stanza  exactly  like  the  opening  of  chapter  1. 
On  the  other  hand  the  line  also  is  parallel  to  the  following  stichos, 
27a :  Swiftly  they  come :  none  wearies  or  stumbles.  This  would 
make  of  the  second  stanza  (beginning,  then,  with  26c)  one  of  an 
odd  number  of  stichoi.  And  finally  there  is  the  possibility  of 
regarding  26c  as  a  distich  in  itself,  for  it  contains  two  synonyms : 


Vol.  1.]    Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10,         387 

Chapter  5 
' '  speedily ' '  and  ' '  swiftly ' ' ;  and  despite  Joel  4.4,  where  the  same 
two  adverbs  are  joined  closely  together  to  modify  one  verb 
again,  Isaiah  may  have  intended  a  strong  caesura :  ' '  and  behold ! 
speedily — swiftly  they  come " ;  or  else  the  double  adverb  with 
single  verb  here  may  be  a  scribal  error  due  just  to  the  fact 
that  such  was  the  common  prose  usage ;  Isaiah 's  mdher  shdldl 
xdsh  haz  in  8.1,  3 :  "Swift  [is]  booty,  speedy  [is]  prey,"  showing 
parallelism  even  in  a  proper  name,  may  indicate  .that  origin- 
ally there  stood  here  hinne  m^hera  ya'He  or  ydqum,  qal  ydhho: 
"  lo !  swiftly  he  rises ;  quickly  he  comes " ;  or  simply  w^-hinne 
y^tnaher,  qdl  ydhho':  "lo,  he  hastens;  swiftly  he  comes."  That, 
despite  the  simplicity  of  the  text,  the  copyist  has  managed  to  err 
is  shown  by  goylm,  "nations,"  in  verse  26a,  a  plural  for  the 
intended  singular.  It  should  be  noted  that  goy,  "nation,"  with- 
out the  plural  ending,  might  be  a  collective,  and  hence  be  treated 
as  a  grammatical  plural  in  syntax;  and  still  the  author  has  de- 
liberately treated  it  as  a  singular  in  the  same  sentence  ("he  will 
hiss  to  him,"  Id)  and  fifteen  times  in  the  whole  passage.  It 
would  be  charitable  to  the  copyist  to  suppose  that  he  found  the 
letters  ym  on  the  margin,  intended  as  a  correction  of  a  maher, 
found  in  the  text,  to  y^maher,  as  proposed  above;  and  that  he 
mistook  those  letters  as  a  correction  of  goy,  found  in  the  text,  to 
goylm.  At  all  events,  it  must  be  repeated  that  the  line  26c 
as  it  stands  cannot  be  definitely  claimed  as  a  non-parallelistic 
stichos. 

The  other  possibly  doubtful  point  occurs  in  the  final  stanza, 
29a-e,  which  yields  a  pentastich  as  I  have  divided  it.  There  is 
no  reason  why  Isaiah  should  not  have  used  a  closing  pentastich 
— particularly  if  the  opening  stanza  be  regarded  as  having  an 
uneven  number  of  stichoi.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the 
wording  offers  internal  evidence  of  disorder.  The  repetition  in 
29a  and  b  of  the  root  shd'agh,  "roar,"  with  parallel  phrases 
"like  the  lion,"  kal-ldhhV  and  "like  the  young  lions"  (or  "like 
[its]  whelps"),  kak-k<^phlrlm,  is  offensive;  even  the  Massoretic 
tradition  in  regard  to  the  exact  form  of  the  root  {w^-shd'agh  or 
yish'agh)  shows  possibly  some  disorder  here,  though  this  point 


388  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  5 

cannot  be  pressed  by  itself;  but  again  just  here  the  Septuagint, 
which  up  to  this  point  represents  exactly  the  Hebrew  text,  shows 
a  variant  reading.  Notice,  now,  that  in  the  Hebrew  there  stands 
by  itself  a  synonymous  verb,  yinhom,  inserted  after  "he  shall 
roar  like  young  lions";  the  English  addition  of  "yea"  before  it 
is  an  attempt  to  gloss  over  the  inelegance  of  the  Hebrew.  At- 
tempts to  show  that  there  is  intended  a  real  progress  of  ideas 
in  passing  from  yish'agh,  "he  roars,"  to  ^'yinhom,  "he  growls" 
or  "moans"  (see  BDB,  s.v.  nuham,  referring  to  W.  R.  Smith, 
Prophets  of  Israel,  p.  243)  are  not  entirely  satisfactory;  that 
the  roar  "marks  the  moment  of  his  spring,  the  sudden  moan- 
ing that  follows  shows  that  the  prey  is  secured"  is  contradicted 
by  the  Hebrew  text  itself,  which  has  this  order  of  words :  roar, 
growl,  then  seize.  Curiously  enough,  the  Septuagint  has  made 
the  transposition  demanded  by  W.  R.  Smith 's  interpretation  :  /cat 
e7rt\7;-»/reTot  Kal  ^o^crei  ft)?  Orjpiov:  "he  seizes  and  growls  like  the 
wild  beast,"  in  which  the  last  word  may  represent  hat-toreph, 
literally,  "like  the  seizing  one,"  instead  of  the  Hebrew  tereph 
("prey,"  without  the  preposition  "like").  But  the  Septuagint 
also  avoids  the  double  occurrence  of  shd'agh,  "roar";  and  that 
this  is  not  due  to  the  translator's  feeling  for  style  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  he  does  repeat  the  other  word  yinhom  ("moan": 
fiorjaet.  in  verses  29  and  30) .  For  the  second  occurrence  of  sha'agh 
it  reads  irapearriKav ,  i.e.,  either  w^-ndgash  (or  yiggash),  "he 
draws  near";  or  w^-hisslgh  (or  yassigh),  he  will  "reach," 
"overtake"  (with  sin  for  samekh),  which  would  indeed  be  an 
appropriate  word  in  the  context;  cf.  Mic.  6.14:  w^-thassegh 
w^-lo'  taphllt,  "take  hold  (or  reach)  but  not  deliver"  (the  last 
is  the  same  word  translated  "carry  away  safe"  in  the  present 
Isaiah  passage:  yaphllt).  Either  the  Septuagint  has  the  better 
text,  or  else  its  variations  show  at  least  some  disorder  in  the 
tradition.  The  combined  evidence  points  to  the  following: 
yish'agh  was  written  bj^  mistake;  yinhom  was  written  over  it  or 
in  the  margin,  and  meant  to  replace  it ;  the  copyist  instead  added 
it  after  kak-k^phlrlm,  while  the  Septuagint  added  it  after  yoxez, 
supposing  that  the  mark  or  line  indicating  erasure  of  yish'agh 
referred  only  to  one  of  its  consonants,  the  middle  'alef. 


Vol.  1.]    Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         389 

Chapter  5 
The  last  and  concluding  line  of  the  poem  iv^-  'en  moQQll,  ' '  and 
none  can  save,"  is  intentionally  and  dramatically  short;  cf.  the 
note  on  1.31.    With  5.20-29  read,  perhaps,  10.28-32. 

30.  (a)  And  in  that  day  they  [he]  shall  roar  against  them  [him] 
like  the  roaring  of  the  sea;  (b)  and  if  one  look  into  the  land,  behold 
darkness  (and)  sorrow,  (c)  and  the  light  is  darkened  in  the  heavens 
thereof. 

Verse  30a,  if  original  here,  is  a  parallel  to  29a ;  but  probably 
it  was  placed  by  the  compiler  after  the  picture  completed  in 
verse  29  because  it  contains  again  the  verb  yinhom,  ' '  roar. ' '  The 
latter  part  of  the  verse  is  very  similar  to  8.22 ;  indeed,  following 
5.30  and  extending  into  or  through  8.20  is  a  series  of  interrelated 
prophecies  which  probably  at  one  time  formed  a  separate  collec- 
tion ;  if  this  collection  be  set  aside  for  the  moment,  5.30  and  8.22 
come  into  close  phj^sical  proximity ;  and  one  may  well  be  a  mere 
variant  of  the  other.  Though  both  are  defective,  the  combined 
result  gives  a  picture  quite  other  than  that  completed  in  5.29 : 
it  is  not  that  of  a  victim  in  the  jaws  of  a  lion,  but  of  a  wanderer 
looking  in  vain  for  light  and  guidance.  That  the  difference  in 
picture  begins  even  in  stichos  a  is  evidenced  by  the  change  in 
rhythm,  and  especially  by  the  phrase  "on  that  day."  But 
whether  stichos  a  belongs  with  b  and  c,  or  is  merely  a  fugitive 
line,  is  not  certain.  Yinhom,  "he  shall  roar,"  can  be  used  figur- 
atively of  men,  who  "groan"  in  distress,  or  "roar"  in  wrath 
(Prov.  5.11;  Ezek.  24.23;  cf.  Prov.  19.12,  20.2;  Ps.  38.9);  and 
though  yinhom  is  not  of  frequent  occurrence,  the  synonym 
shd'agh  is  used  also  of  Yahwe  (so  in  Amos  1.2;  Joel  3.16;  Jer. 
25.30),  perhaps  as  a  more  forcible  alternative  for  ga'ar  ("re- 
buke"; in  modern  Arabic  ja'ara,  for  the  classical  ja'ara,  means 
"bellow,"  "groan"),  which  occurs  in  17.13,  a  passage  which 
again  is  similar  in  thought  to  the  present  one  and  like  it  contains 
the  simile  of  the  roaring  sea.  Here  then  yinhoyn  might  refer 
either  to  the  rebuke  of  God  administered  to  the  wandering  sin- 
ner, or  to  the  groan  of  the  wanderer  himself. 

The  syntax  in  stichoi  b,  c  is  most  obscure ;  literally  ' '  he  will 
look  for  the  land  and  behold  darkness  (of?)  distress  and  light  is 


390  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.Phil. 

Chapter  5 

darkened  in  her  clouds"  (ha-'f^rlphehd:  a  awa^  Xeyofievov;  Eng. 
'*in  the  heavens  thereof").  The  suspicious  repetition  of  the  root 
xdshakh  is  avoided  by  the  Septuagint,  which  omits  it  in  stichos  c, 
together  with  'or,  "light";  8.22,  however,  shows  that  its  occur- 
rence in  stichos  b  here  is  superfluous.  Possibly  for  ha-' c^rlphehd 
simply  '<^rdphel  should  be  read  (cf.  Deut.  4.11)  :  "deep  dark- 
ness, ' '  without  preposition  or  suffix :  so  the  Septuagint :  o-/coto9 
(TK\r]pov ;  though  it  attaches  the  preposition  to  gdrd  apparently : 
iv  Ty  arropia  (cf.  8.22,  where  airopCa  is  gdrd)  ;  at  any  rate  the 
Septuagint  shows  clearly  the  crowding  and  confusion  of  the 
words  as  evidenced  by  the  Massoretic  text  itself.  The  original 
form  of  the  verse  may  then  have  been : 

He  looks  for  [or  to]  the  land,  and  lo!  distress! 
For  light — and    (behold)    darkness  and  cloud   [or  'and  darkened 
are  the  clouds']. 

The  style  and  parallelism  resemble,  then,  those  of  5.7 :  "  He 
hoped  for  justice  and  lo  I  bloodshed ;  for  righteousness,  and  lo ! 
a  cry ' ' ;  even  the  paronomasia,  striking  there,  has  its  counter- 
part here,  though  the  play  is  more  subtle:  on  hd-'dreg,  "the 
land,"  and,  with  the  same  consonants  in  reverse  order,  gdrd, 
"distress";  Id-' or,  "for  the  light,"  and  with  quasi-assonance, 
'^rdphel,  "clouds." 


Chapter  6 

Chapter  6  describes  the  Prophet's  call,  and  down  to  verse  8 
it  is  mostly  pure  prose  narration.  "Where,  however,  direct  dis- 
course is  introduced,  parallelism  may  possibly  have  been  in- 
tended; also,  even  in  verse  7,  where  Isaiah  merely  repeats  his 
own  thoughts. 

Woe  is  me,  for  I  am  undone; 

For  I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips, 

And  amid  a  people  of  unclean  lips  I  dwell; 

For  mine  eyes  have  seen  the  king.  Lord  of  Hosts — 

a  form  of  "envelope"  parallelism  may  be  discerned.     But  the 
formal  parallelism  here  may  be  due  merely  to  force  of  habit ;  the 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         391 

Chapter  6 

thought  parallelism  is  not  perfect.     Again  in  verse  7,  the  words 

of  the  Seraph,  put  in  the  form  of  direct  discourse, 

Thine  iniquity  is  taken  away, 
And  thy  sin  purged 

form  a  parallelistic  distich ;  the  preceding  stichos,  however,  ' '  Lo, 
this  hath  touched  thy  lips, ' '  stands  alone ;  and  although  it  might 
be  omitted  as  an  absolutely  superfluous  line,  since  it  follows  the 
words,  ''he  laid  it  upon  my  mouth,"  the  parallelism  itself  may 
be  again  mere  force  of  habit.  Similarly,  in  verse  8,  where  in  the 
words  of  God, 

Whom  shall  I  send, 
And  who  will  go  for  us? 

stichos  b  is  a  parallelistic  repetition  of  stichos  a. 

However  that  may  be,  the  moment  that  the  words  of  God  in 
the  form  of  a  prophecy  proper — an  oracle  for  the  people — begin, 
parallelism  becomes  perfect  and  the  diction  poetic:  verse  9  is  a 
perfect  distich;  verse  10  consists  of  two  perfect  parallelistic  tri-. 
stichs  with  additional  inverted  intra-parallelism,  line  answering 
to  line  in  a  manner  more  exact  even  than  the  English  reveals, 
since  ''shut  their  eyes"  is  in  Hebrew  hdsha' ,  "cause  to  be 
smeared,"  of  the  same  linguistic  formation  as  the  parallel 
hashmen  and  hakhhedh,  "cause  to  be  fat"  and  "cause  to  be 
heavy." 

The   first   possible   difficulty   occurs   in   the   last   phrase    of 

verse  10:  "and  convert  and  be  healed,"  wd-shabh  w<^rdphd'  lo; 

but  there  is  absolutely  no  reason  why  these  words  here  should 

not  be  read  as  a  distich : 

And  [lest]  it  return. 
And  be  healed; 

for  each  verb  is  a  complete  proposition,  and  the  parallelism  is 

complementary  as  is  shown  clearly  in  19.22 : 

They  shall  return  [w'^-shdbhu]  to  the  Lord, 

And  he  shall  be  entreated  and  heal  them  [rephd'am]; 

with  which  compare  Hosea  6.1 : 

Come  let  us  return  to  the  Lord; 
For  he  hath  smitten  and  will  heal  us. 

No  prejudgment  as  to  the  necessary  length  of  a  line — that  a  sin- 


392  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  6 

gle  word,  even  if  it  is  a  complete  proposition,  may  not  form  a 
thought  and  line  entity — should  outweigh  the  patent  evidence 
of  parallelism.  And  if  nevertheless  these  words  be  considered 
one  stichos,  they  still  could  not  be  considered  as  clearly  not  in 
parallelism  to  the  rest  of  the  strophe  since  ' '  lest  they  be  healed ' ' 
is  clearly  synonymous  with  ''lest  they  (the  blinded  of  eyes)  see." 

Verse  11  begins  with  the  words  of  the  Prophet  to  God,  in  the 
query,  ''How  long?"  No  parallelism  is  to  be  expected  there. 
But  the  answering  prophecy  of  God  begins  in  verse  11  with  a 
tristich,  of  which  the  first  two  stichoi  are  in  perfect  parallelism, 
while  the  third,  less  exact,  is  suspicious ;  it  continues  in  a  distich 
(verse  12)  of  almost  perfect  parallelism;  but  ends,  in  verse  13, 
in  a  series  of  phrases  in  which,  while  some  of  the  elements  of 
parallelism  can  still  be  seen,  the  form  is  blurred,  while  at  the 
same  time:  (a)  the  thought  not  only  lacks  clarity  but  is  seem- 
ingly illogical;  (b)  the  syntax  is  correspondingly  involved;  (c) 
the  choice  of  words  is  remarkable,  involving  not  only  the  weak 
repetition  of  one  word  but  the  use  of  it  in  an  almost  unintelli- 
gibly perverted  meaning;  (d)  the  Septuagint  shows  important 
variants,  while  in  the  rest  of  the  chapter  it  shows  none.  The 
following  suggestions  are  offered. 

Verse  11.  Shd'u,  "be  wasted"  in  stichos  a,  and  tishd'e,  "be 
wasted"  (Eng.  "be  desolate")  in  stichos  c,  show  inelegant  repe- 
tition, while  'adh  'c^sher  'im,  literally  "until  that  when,"  in 
stichos  a  is  a  rare  and  overloaded  phrase  in  place  of  the  simple 
'adh  (with  the  imperfect  in  Is.  22.14,  26.20,  32.15,  etc.;  with  'im 
in  Is.  30.17)  ;  the  redundant  '(^sher,  then,  points  to  a  real  variant 
reading:  'adh  yishshd'f^ru  or  'adh  'im  nish'^^ru  in  stichos  a,  or 
to  tishd'cr  in  c;  the  whole  of  stichos  c,  however,  w<^hd-'<^dhdmd 
tishd'e  sh^mumd,  "and  the  land  be  wasted  a  desolation,"  is  more 
probably  due  to  marginal  variants,  as  will  be  explained  below. 

Verse  12.  For  w^-rixaq  'eth  hd-'ddhdm,  "and  the  Lord  have 
removed  men  far  a,wa.y,"  read  w<^-rixaq  sho'ath  ha-'<^dhdmd, 
"and  the  Lord  extend  far  the  desolation  of  the  land."  This 
gives  to  rixaq  its  natural  meaning  when  not  followed  by  the 
preposition  min   ("from";  cf.  26.15,  "thou  hast  far  extended 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         393 

Chapter  6 
[rixaqtd]  the  boundaries  of  the  land"),  and  makes  it  parallel 
to  the  verb  in  the  parallel  stichos.  It  was  probably  a  correct 
but  misunderstood  gloss  sho'ath  ("desolation,"  intended  to  cor- 
rect 'eth,  sign  of  accusative)  which  was  responsible  for  the 
incorrect  shd'u  in  11a,  and  for  the  tishd'e  in  lie;  while  sh^mdmd 
in  lie  was  another  gloss  on  the  same  word  'eth;  sho'ath,  found 
also  in  10.3,  47.11,  would  be  strictly  parallel  to  ha-'<^zuhhd  in 
12b.  Hd-'<^dhdmd,  "the  ground,"  the  remaining  word  in  lie, 
is  again  a  true  gloss  to  hd-'ddhdm  in  12a;  by  restoring  it,  par- 
allelism with  ha-' dreg,  "the  earth"  is  made  perfect,  and  the 
repetition  of  'ddhdm,  used  just  previously  (verse  11),  avoided. 
It  is  possible,  though  not  necessary,  to  read  for  rahhd  "be 
great,"  rdx^ihd  or  hirxibh,  "be"  or  "make  broad";  hd-c^zubhd 
would  then  be  not  "the  forsaking"  but  the  "forsaken  portion 
of"  as  in  17.9.    Reconstruction: 

w^'-rixttQ.   Tahwe  sho'ath  hd-'cdhdma 
we-rixahh  hd-'ozubhd  b^^qerebh  hd-'dreg. 

Verse  13.  It  is  not  clear,  as  the  verse  stands,  whether  the 
Prophet  is  predicting  absolute  destruction  or  the  saving  of  a 
remnant ;  the  words  ' '  But  3^et  in  it  be  a  tenth,  and  it  shall  re- 
turn, and  shall  be  eaten"  point  to  absolute  destruction,  as  do 
perhaps  the  words  in  verse  10,  "lest  it  return  and  be  healed"; 
and  while  the  concluding  phrase  in  verse  13,  "so  the  holy  seed 
(shall  be)  the  substance  thereof,"  literally,  "seed  of  holiness 
(is)  its  pillar,"  seems  to  point  to  the  contrary,  just  the  words 
"holiness  its  pillar"  are  missing  from  the  Septuagint,  and  abso- 
lutely offend  all  sense  of  rhythm,  style,  and  syntax.  Maggeheth, 
A.  V.  "substance,"  which  occurs  inelegantly  twice  in  the  sen- 
tence, to  give  it  a  semblance  of  fitness  is  by  critics  translated 
generally  in  this  passage  "stump,"  "stock,"  "shoot,"  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  it  occurs  over  forty  times  in  the  Old 
Testament,  invariably  with  the  meaning  "stone  pillar,"  while 
the  language  has  various  common  words  to  denote  "stump,"  or 
"stock,"  "shoot"  of  a  tree. 

On  the  other  hand  the  evidence  is  strong  that  Isaiah  did 
intend  to  predict  the  saving  of  a  remnant — that  the  absolute 


394  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  6 

destruction  refers  to  the  destruction  of  the  existing  Israelitish 
state  ("this  people"),  not  of  the  race.  This  is  borne  out  by 
the  Prophet's  question  "how  long,  my  Lord?" — a  strange 
question  if  the  Prophet  meant  the  preceding  words  to  refer  to 
absolute  annihilation;  and  by  the  answer  in  13a;  "until  there 
be  a  great  forsaking"  (or  as  emended,  "until  the  destruction  be 
far  and  wide")  "and  until  there  still  be  (but)  a  tenth  in  the 
land":  we-' odh  hah  '^shirlyd.  In  13b  the  phrase  "and  it  shall 
return,"  w^-shdbhd,  might  still  point  toward  the  saving  of  a 
remnant;  but  with  the  phrase  "and  it  shall  be  eaten,"  w^-hdyd 
l^-hhd' er,  there  is  a  sudden  change.  If  the  prophecy  ended 
here,  that  change,  by  its  very  abruptness  and  unexpectedness 
would  be  highly  effective,  and  in  keeping  with  Isaiah's  manner. 
But  despite  the  confusion  in  the  appended  simile  ("like  an 
oak, ' '  etc. ) ,  it  does  not  seem  possible  to  treat  all  of  it  as  a  gloss ; 
and  the  words  that  are  a  gloss,  "holy"  and  "substance,"  have 
caught  apparently  the  real  intention.  The  difficulty,  then,  lies 
in  the  word  l^-bhd'er,  "for  destruction" — for  to  predict  the 
saving  of  a  tenth  and  then  the  destruction  of  the  tenth  could 
mean  nothing  but  absolute  destruction. 

The  word  "for  destruction,"  then,  is,  I  believe,  one  of  those 
careless  copyist's  slips,  or  misreadings,  that  have  been  noticed 
before;  it  is  in  part  due  to  5.5,  where  it  occurs  in  its  proper 
place,  supported  by  parallelism;  here  it  is  not  in  parallelism, 
and  not  in  place.  For  V^-bhd' er  read  li-sK^'dr,  "for  a  remnant" ; 
both  fitness  and  parallelism  are  restored:  "until  there  be  (but) 
a  tenth,  and  it  be  again  (or  still)  for  a  remnant."  Moreover, 
this  supplies  just  the  line  that  is  missing  from  the  cycle  of 
prophecies — the  origin  here  at  the  outset  of  the  Prophet's  career, 
of  his  several  references  to  the  phrase  sh^'dr  ydshubh,  applied 
even  as  a  proper  name  to  his  son.  Sh^^'dr  for  the  Prophet  means 
not  only  "a  small  remnant,"  but  implies  also  the  development 
of  that  remnant  into  a  new  growth;  in  14.22  it  accordingly 
appears  in  a  series  of  terms,  "name,  remnant,  son,  posterity" 
(Eng.  "nephew").  And  that  ydshubh  does  not  mean  literally 
"return,"  but  connotes  "be  in  turn,"  "still  be"  (cf.  'odh,  both 


Vol.1.]    Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         395 

Chapter  6 
"again"  and  ''still")  becomes  clear  from  10.22,  which  can  mean 
onl}' :  ' '  though  thy  people,  0  Israel,  are  like  the  sand  of  the  sea, 
a  remnant  (and  only  a  remnant)  shall  still  be  therein  [notice 
the  preposition]  :  destruction  is  decreed" — not  "a  remnant  shall 
return:  captivity  is  decreed."  There  is  perhaps  in  this  use  of 
ydshubh  some  reference  to  yeshehh,  "remain"  (as  in  its  use  with 
sh^huth,  "captivity,"  there  is  a  play  on  the  root  of  that  word)  ; 
ydshuhh  being  used  because  it  means  also  "repent";  the  full 
thought  then  is:  "a  remnant  shall  repent  and  (therefore)  be- 
come again  a  nation." 

If  this  change  be  possible  the  way  is  clear  for  a  reconstruction 
of  the  remainder  of  verse  13.  The  picture  back  of  the  simile  of 
the  oak  and  terebinth  as  a  symbol  of  the  remnant  is  suggested  by 
a  characteristic  feature  in  some  parts  of  the  land.  Thus  on  the 
road  from  Damascus  to  Brak  and  the  Leja  (Hauran),  on  a  hill- 
side in  the  midst  of  an  otherwise  treeless  but  only  partly  culti- 
vated plain,  grows  a  single  oak  that  because  of  its  isolation  is  a 
landmark  and  gives  to  the  hill  the  name  Tell  Abu  Shajara: 
"Hill,  Father  of  the  Tree."  If  now  for  the  impossible 
maggehheth  the  participle  muggehheth,  "caused  to  be  standing." 
i.e.,  "left  standing,"  be  read,  the  verj'  significant  passage 
Judges  9.6  is  recalled:  'elon  muggahh,  "the  oak  left  standing 
(Eng.  "plain  of  the  pillar")  by  Shechem";  this,  if  the  text  is 
correct,  also  refers  to  a  single  oak  left  when  the  valley  was 
cleared  to  make  way  for  the  orchards  of  olives  and  fields  of 
grain.  B<^-shallekheth  (Eng.,  "when  they  cast"),  would  mean 
then  either  "at  the  time  of  felling"  or  "in  the  place  of  felling," 
"in  a  clearing."  For  '<^sher,  "which,"  read,  with  dittography 
of  the  n  from  the  preceding  'dllon,  nish'dr,  "remaining,"  par- 
allel to  muggehheth  and  referring  indirectly  to  sh'^'dr,  restored 
above.  Bam  zera'  ("in  them,"  "seed":  such  is  the  Hebrew 
order  of  the  words)  should  be  read  together  ham-mizra' ,  "seed- 
land,"  occurring  again  in  Is.  19.7,  and  common  in  Arabic, 
m^azra'a,  in  that  sense;  here  parallel  to  "clearing."  The  final 
two  words  should  be  omitted.  Lifting  the  stichos  w'^kha-'alldn 
'"'sher  (i.e.,  nish'ar)  h^'-shallekheth  from  its  disturbing  position. 


396  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil, 

Chapter  <j 

and  placing  it  parallel  to  instead  of  in  the  heart  of  the  other 

stichos,  there  results : 

Kd-'eld  muggebheth  bam-miera' 
wekhd-'allon  nish'dr  b^-shallelcheth. 
Like  a  terebinth  left  standing  in  a  sown-land, 
Like  an  oak  remaining  in  a  clearing. 

Compare  then  also  10.19,  where  Isaiah  again  uses  sh^'dr: 
"and  the  remainder  of  the  trees  of  the  forest  shall  be  few  in 
number. ' '  Notice  that  the  restoration  of  the  couplet  above,  aside 
from  the  omission  of  the  last  two  words,  involves  nothing  but 
transposition,  and  a  disregard  in  places  of  the  (late)  Massoretic 
vowels. 

Chapter  7 

2.  See  on  verse  4. 

3.  The  reference  to  the  scene  of  the  prophecy  as  at  "the 
Upper  Pool"  (probably  the  Pool  of  Siloam)  possibly  was  in- 
tended for  chapter  8 ;  these  two  prophecies  are  absolutely  par- 
allel, and  refer  probably  to  the  course  of  the  same  event ;  the 
reference  to  "the  waters  of  Shiloh"  in  8.5  receives  a  peculiar 
appropriateness  if  brought  into  connection  with  this  reference 
to  the  pool  in  chapter  7;  and  the  reference  to  the  Prophet's  son 
Shear-Jashub  here  in  7.3  has  some  point  if  connected  with  8.2, 
where  Isaiah's  wife  and  unborn  son  are  mentioned. 

4.  '  *  From  these  two  tails  "  :  "  two ' '  is  possibly  an  error ;  read 
"from  these  tails,"  referring  not  to  the  two  kings  themselves, 
but  their  agents  in  a  plot  to  overthrow  the  dynasty.  The  his- 
torical introduction  in  verse  1,  if  it  implies  that  the  two  kings 
themselves  were  at  the  time  of  the  prophecy  actually  besieging 
Jerusalem,  must  be  disregarded  (see  also  on  verse  14)  ;  it  is  at 
variance  with  verse  2,  according  to  which  it  was  told  merely 
"that  Syria  is  confederate  with  Ephraim,"  literally,  "has 
alighted  upon  Ephraim" — a  remarkable  verse  if  the  Syrian  and 
Israelitish  kings  were  actually  near  the  gates,  as  would  be  also 
verse  15,  promising  relief  from  the  supposed  siege  only  after 
several  years.     In  verses  5  and  6,  too,  the  prophecy  is  directed 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         397 

Chapter  7 
against  Syria  and  Ephraim  "because  they  said  'let  us  go  up' — 
not  because  ' '  they  have  come  up  " ;  see  also  on  verse  8.  ' '  Tails, ' ' 
then,  has  here  a  double  meaning :  the  conspirators,  or  threaten- 
ing emissaries  (see  8.12)  are  only  "tails"  (the  "heads"  are  men- 
tioned in  verse  8)  ;  only,  smoking  stumps,  smoking  because  of 
the  heat  of  the  real  fire — the  anger  of  the  two  kings  or  the  two 
countries:  "of  Rezin  with  (lit.  "and")  Syria  and  the  son  of 
Remaliah";  but  either  insert  "and  Ephraim"  {'Eph  as  a  re- 
duplication from  'aph  ["anger],  rayim  from  Rcgin),  or  omit 
"with  Syria."  Restoring  the  parallelism  by  transposition  of 
hd-('shenlm: 

Miz-zanhlioth  lid-'udMm   ha-'elle 

ha-'oshenin   hn-x^n    'aph  B^gin  u-bhen-B'^malyahu  : 
From  these  ends  of  fire  brands, 
Smoking  through  the  wrath  of  Eezin  and  the  son  of  Eemaliah. 

5.  Insert  x^s^aft/i,  "devised,"  before  rd^d,  "evil,"  and  par- 
allel to  yd'aq,  "taken  counsel";  the  latter  with  ' al,  "against," 
requires  no  cognate  accusative  to  give  it  the  desired  meaning; 
cf.  19.17:  "because  of  the  counsel  of  the  Lord  which  he  hath 
counselled  {yd'aq)  against  it."  For  x^s/iafe/i  rd' a  'al  cf.  Jer. 
48.2:  "they  have  devised  evil  against  it  [xdsh^^'bhu  rd' d  'dlehd]  : 
come  let  us  cut  it  off  from  being  a  nation. ' '    Restore  : 

Ya'an  M  yd' ag  'aUJchd  'Aram 
way-yaxshohli   rd' d    'Eplirayim. 

6.  Ncqlgennd,  "let  us  vex  her,"  is  literally  "fill  her  with 
loathing,"  and  might  be  then  "fill  with  disaffection"  (the  Sep- 
tuagint  av\XaX't]<xavTe^  avroi^  ' '  talk  with  them, ' '  may  again  have 
intended  a  reference  to  plotting)  ;  it  is  true  that  the  same  root 
below  seems  to  mean  "fear"  (hence,  here,  "let  us  fill  her  with 
fear")  ;  but  this  is  hardly  appropriate  in  the  context  of  verse  6. 
Easy  changes  give  the  roots  qdQag:  "cut  up"  (parallel  then 
to  the  next  verb,  "make  a  breach  therein")  ;  qig  or  ydqag, 
"awaken,"  "stir  up";  guq,  "bring  into  straits";  or  finally, 
ncqlgentid  may  be  merelj^  a  variant  of  the  next  word  nahhqi'emia; 
if  omitted,  the  same  collocation  of  words  remains  as  in  II  Chron. 
21.17:  way-ya'f^lu  hhlhudhd  way-yihhqd' Uhd,  "they  came  up 
into  Judah  and  broke  into  it." 


398  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  7 

''And  set  a  king  in  the  midst  of  it,  (even)  the  son  of 
Tabeal":  the  casual  nature  of  the  final  phrase  is  hardly  con- 
cealed by  the  English  insertion  of  "even."  The  indefinite 
cognate  accusative  (lit.  "let  us  make  king  a  king")  should 
properly  denote  that  the  name  of  the  ting  is  unknown  or  to  be 
concealed,  the  emphasis  being  placed  on  the  appointing  power; 
here  practically  then  ' '  let  us  exercise  the  king-of -kingship ' ' ;  this 
interpretation,  too,  would  explain  the  unique  use  of  the  phrase 
"in  the  very  midst  of  her,"  The  proper  name  may  have  been 
appended:  (a)  as  a  later  gloss  (like  other  proper  names  in  this 
series  of  prophecies)  ;  or  (b)  to  produce  appositional  parallel- 
ism: "we  will  place  a  king  in  her  midst,  [will  place]  the  son  of 
Tabeal";  or  (c)  to  call  particular  attention,  b^^  the  very  un- 
usualness  of  construction,  to  the  personality  of  the  chosen  king ; 
in  the  last  case,  the  effect  in  the  present  instance  is  that  of  sar- 
casm :  the  son  of  Tabeal  is,  indeed,  otherwise  unknown  to  history, 
and  the  name  as  here  vocalized  seems  to  mean  "  Son-of -good-for- 
nothing,"  instead  of  "Son  of  God-is-good, "  as  the  consonants 
would  normally  be  vocalized  to  indicate.  But  the  words  are  put 
in  the  mouth  of  the  Syrian  and  Israelitish  kings,  and  the  sarcasm, 
as  well  as  the  emphasis,  would  be  misplaced;  in  any  case,  they 
are  probably  a  later  addition. 

8.  "For  the  head  of  Syria  is  Damascus,  and  the  head  of 
Damascus  is  Rezin."  This  cryptic  utterance  is  generally  in- 
terpreted as  though  it  read:  "For  Damascus  is  the  head  of 
Sj^ria,"  i.e.,  of  Syria  alone,  and  will  not  be  head  of  Judah;  but 
this  is  not  the  natural  implication  of  the  words.  The  sentence 
recalls  in  form  a  very  well-known  type  of  proverb :  * '  Everything 
has  a  head,  and  the  head  of  a;  is  i/";  e.g.,  in  Arabic,  "the  head 
(principal  part,  essence)  of  religion  is  the  fear  of  God";  "the 
head  of  kindness  is  promptness";  in  Hebrew  (Ps.  119.160),  "the 
head  (essence)  of  God's  word  is  truth."  Such  an  interpretation 
is  possible  here  also  if  the  interpretation  suggested  above  for 
verse  4,  with  its  emphasis  on  the  word  ' '  tails, ' '  be  accepted :  the 
"heads"  of  the  conspiracy  against  Judah  are  at  Damascus  and 
Samaria;  the  "heads"  of  the  capitals  are  the  kings:  scil.,  when 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         3^9 

Chapter  7 
God  brings  about  their  defeat  (at  the  hands  of  Assyria?)  the 
conspiracy  and  plot  fall  to  the  ground.  See  also  on  8.9-16,  with 
the  emphasis  on  plans  and,  possibly,  conspiracy. 

"And  within  threescore  and  five  years  shall  Ephraim  be 
broken,  that  it  be  not  a  people. ' '  Placed  so  as  to  explain  the  ref- 
erence to  Aram — not  to  Ephraim — and  interrupting  a  perfect 
parallelism,  but  itself  without  a  parallel,  this  line  offers  perhaps 
the  most  convincing  evidence  of  two  facts :  the  presence  of  mar- 
ginal notes,  and  their  subsequent  insertion  and  misplacement  by 
copyists. 

10.  Parallelism  in  the  section  10-17  is  not  clear ;  nor,  indeed, 
is  there  here  the  ordinary  kind  of  oracle,  the  simple  word  of 
God;  but  it  is  prophecy  by  means  of  "signs"  and  symbolic 
names;  and  despite  the  fact  that  verse  10  begins  "and  God 
spoke  again  to  Ahaz, "  it  is  evident  that  it  is  the  Prophet  who 
is  speaking,  and  speaking  not  in  the  usual  entire  identification 
of  himself  with  the  voice  of  God.  In  diction,  also,  the  prevailing 
tone  is  that  of  prose  and  not  ecstatic  poetry;  the  contrast  is 
vivid  between  this  section  and  verse  18,  for  instance;  and 
probably,  then,  in  this  sort  of  omen  and  symbol  prophecy  no 
parallelism  was  intended;  though  the  habit  of  speaking  in  par- 
allelism may  have  unconsciously  led  to  such  a  phrase  as  is  found 
in  verse  11 :  "Make  it  deep  as  Sheol,  or  make  it  high  as  Heaven" ; 
so  also  verse  12 :  "I  will  not  ask,  and  I  will  not  try  the  Lord, ' ' 
with  which  compare  8.16:  "Bind  the  testimony,  seal  the  law 
among  my  disciples";  in  both,  the  second  line  contains  a  word 
or  phrase  ("the  Lord,"  "among  my  disciples")  which  belongs 
in  thought  also  in  the  first  line.     See  also  8.1-5. 

14.  "Behold  a  virgin  shall  conceive";  literally  "behold,  the 
j^oung  woman."  The  inadequacy  of  the  introductory  setting  in 
verse  3  becomes  unmistakable  when  viewed  in  the  light  of  this 
passage.  Evidently  in  place  of  the  Prophet's  son  Shear-jashub, 
who  plays  no  part  in  this  scene,  there  should  have  been  intro- 
duced in  anticipation  of  this  particular  prophecy  "the  young 
woman"  whose  presence  is  presupposed  in  verse  14.  As  the  text 
stands  the  conclusion  is  inevitable  that  the  "young  woman" 


400  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem,  Phil. 

Chapter  7 

stood  in  some  relationship  to  Isaiah ;  possibly  she  was  the  wife 
of  the  Prophet's  son,  Shear-jashub ;  in  that  case  there  would 
be  some  point  to  verse  3 ;  possibly  she.  was  the  Prophet 's  wife, 
called  ' '  the  prophetess ' '  in  8.3 ;  this  would  mean  either  that  the 
two  prophecies  refer  to  one  and  the  same  event,  the  two  names 
being  variant  traditions  of  one  and  the  same;  or  that  they  refer 
to  two  events  distant  from  one  another  by  a  considerable  lapse  of 
time,  reference  being  then  to  the  birth  of  two  sons  of  the  Prophet. 

There  is  a  curious  lack  of  appropriateness  in  what  is  appar- 
ently intended  to  be  the  explanation  of  the  name  ' '  Immanuel ' ' : 
' '  The  land  shall  be  deserted  whose  kings  thou  f earest " ;  it  con- 
tains no  direct  reference  to  that  name.  Contrast  with  this  8.3 : 
' '  Call  his  name  '  Swif t-is-booty,  Quick-is-spoil, '  because  the  riches 
of  Damascus  and  the  spoil  of  Samaria  shall  be  taken  away " ;  or 
9.6,  where  at  lea^  the  word  shdlom,  "peace,"  appears  in  the 
explanation  of  the  name  contained  in  verse  5.  If  the  name 
"Immanuel"  is  indeed  correct  in  7.14,  it  is  at  least  necessary 
to  read  after  7.16  the  poem  on  Immanuel  now  standing  in  8.9ff., 
and  ending  "ki  'immdnu-'el,"  "for  God  is  with  us,"  which  is 
exactly  such  a  phrase  as  should  be  expected  somewhere  after 
verses  14-16 ;  the  poem  is  out  of  place  where  it  stands,  moreover ; 
and  on  the  other  hand  7.17,  which  does  follow  here,  is  also  de- 
cidedly out  of  place ;  notice,  too,  that  the  theme  of  the  poem 
in  8.9  is  the  frustration  of  a  "plan,"  ' egd,  the  same  root  that 
occurs  in  7.5  ("because  Aram  and  Ephraim  planned  against 
thee").  The  prophecy  8.11ff.  also  seems  to  belong  in  this  chap- 
ter; i.e.,  either  both  chapters  refer  to  the  same  event,  or  there 
is  considerable  misplacement  of  verses. 

15.  "Butter  and  honey  shall  he  eat,  that  he  may  know  to 
refuse  the  evil  and  choose  the  good"  is  nothing  but  a  conflation 
of  two  marginal  passages,  both  of  which  are  found  also  elsewhere 
in  the  text :  one  is  in  verse  16,  immediately  following ;  the  other 
in  verse  22  ("butter  and  honey  shall  every  one  eat").  Omitting 
this  intrusion,  with  the  resultant  (verse  14)  "She  will  call  his 
name  'Immanuel,'  (verse  16)  for  before  the  boy  knows,"  etc., 
compare  8.3,  "call  his  name  ' Quick-is-Booty, '  (verse  4)  for  before 
the  boys  knows,"  etc. 


Vol.1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         401 

Chapter  7 

16.  See  above,  on  verse  15. 

17.  The  verse  is  misplaced ;  it  belongs  with  8.4.  'Eth  melekh 
'Ashshur,  "the  king  of  Assyria"  is  again  a  gloss;  here  it  ab- 
surdly stands  in  apposition  with  the  word  "days." 

18-24.  A  series  of  parallelistie  strophes,  probably  detached, 
and  which  if  they  belong  in  this  series  at  all,  should  be  read 
with  chapter  8.  Notice  the  parallelistie  alliteration  in  verse  19 : 
nax"'le,  n'^qtqe,  na'^cuqtm,  n-ah<^ldlim,  the  last  a  ava^  Xeyofievov 
chosen  for  its  further  morphometrical  correspondence  with  the 
third. 

20.  B^-'ehhre  nahdr,  literally  "by  the  regions  beyond  the 
river,"  is  an  awkwardly  worded  parallel  to  "by  a  razor  of  hire" ; 
and  of  it  the  following  phrase,  "by  the  king  of  Assyria,"  is  a 
redundant  variant ;  probably  the  latter  is  a  gloss,  while  the 
former  should  be  read  h^-xerehh  nekhdr,  "with  a  foreign  knife" ; 
cf.  Ezek.  5.1:  "take  a  sharp  knife  [xerehh],  take  thee  a  barber's 
razor  [ta'ar]  ";  for  xerehh  cf.  also  Josh.  5.2,  3.  The  type  of  sus- 
pensive parallelism  used  here  is  very  similar  to  that  found  in 
chapter  4  (q.v.),  but  is  peculiar  in  that  the  fourth  stichos,  in- 
stead of  being  an  incomplete  member  like  the  third,  is  a  complete 
proposition,  and  while  parallel  to  the  third  is  also  parallel  to 
the  first  three  stichoi  as  a  whole ;  exactly  the  same  structure  is 
found  in  10.20.     Read : 

Bay -y cm  hd-hu' 
y^ghallax  '"dJwnai  b^tha' ar  has-scJchtrd 
w-b/i^X^''^^'*  ncTclidr 

'eth-hd-rosh  w<^-sa'ar  hd-ragJilayim 

w<^-gham   'eth  Jiaz-zdqan  tispe  (or  yispe). 

21.  "Two  sheep":  shHe  con  (the  latter  word  means  "flock," 
as  hdqdr  means  "herd")  ;  the  analogy  of  "a  heifer  of  the  herd," 
English  "a  young  cow,"  suggests  that  for  sh^te  there  be  read 
se,  "a' sheep  (or  goat)  from  the  flock"  (cf.  Ezek.  45.15,  Deut. 
14.4). 

22.  "For  butter  and  honey  shall  (he)  eat"  (M  x^^i'a 
il-dh(^hhash  yokhel)  :  this  clause  was  edited  into  verse  15  also;  it 
would  seem,  then,  that  it  must  have  stood  in  the  margin  between 
two  columns  in  which  verses  15  and  21  stood  approximately 


402  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

'Chapter  7 

opposite  each  other,  so  that  the  copyist,  doubtful  where  it  be- 
longed, inserted  it  in  both  places;  it  really  belongs  in  neither; 
it  disturbs  the  parallelism  as  well  as  obscures  the  thought;  its 
reference  to  "honey"  is  out  of  place  in  immediate  connection 
with  the  series  ''cows,"  "goats,"  "milk"  and  "butter."  The 
theme  in  general  is  the  same  as  that  of  4.2;  there  the  extra- 
ordinary fertility  of  the  soil,  here  the  extraordinary  yield  of 
animal  products  in  the  Messianic  age,  is  the  immediate  subject. 
Compare  Deut.  32.14:  "butter  of  kine  and  milk  of  sheep," 
X^lehh  gon,  in  a  picture  of  extraordinary  plenty ;  there  ' '  honey ' ' 
and  "  oil "  are  the  theme  of  a  separate  distich ;  and  it  may  well 
be  that  the  reference  to  honey  is  merely  misplaced  in  verse  22, 
and  is  the  remainder  of  another  (marginal)  distich  the  rest  of 
which  is  lost.    Restoration: 

And  on  that  day : 
Each  one  shall  nourish  a  heifer  from  the  herd  and  a  goat  from  the 

flock, 
And  because  of  the  richness  of  the  yield  of  milk,  all  left  in  the  land 

shall  eat  cream. 

The  insertion  of  this  irrelevant  distich  here  may  be  due  to  the 
mention  of  sheep  and  oxen  in  the  next  section. 

23,  24.  The  inelegant  repetition  of  the  phrase  "thistles  and 
thorns,"  in  various  constructions  and  positions,  is  sufficient  evi- 
dence of  the  disorder  of  the  passage ;  evidently,  if  one  or  two 
repetitions  of  the  phrase  were  not  due  merely  to  carelessness,  the 
words  should  be  in  the  nature  of  a  refrain.  Transpose  the  sec- 
tion beginning  ha-xiggim  ("with  arrows,"  in  verse  24)  and 
ending  w^ith  tihye  ("shall  be,"  in  same  verse)  to  the  end  of  the 
poem;  omit  Id'  thdhho'  shdmmd  yir'ath  as  a  doublet  in  part  of 
ydhhd'  shdmmd  (now  in  24;  the  section  stood  in  the  margin; 
hence  the  doublet  as  well  as  the  misplacement)  ;  and  a  slight 
change  of  w^-hdyd  to  yihye  in  verse  25  will  yield  the  following: 

We-hdya  hay-yom  ha-hu,  yihye 
Icol  mdqdm   '"sher  yihye  slidm   'eleph  gephen  b^-'eleph  Tcaseph 
lash-shdmir  w^lash-shayith  tihye; 

w^-Tchol  hd-'dreg  w^-Tchol  he-hdnm  'osher  ham-ma'  dher  ye'  ddherun 
shdmlr  wa-shayith  yihyu; 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         403 

Chapter  7 
we-hdyd  le-mishlax  shor  ul<^-inirmas  se, 
ha-xiSQiin  ilbliaq-qesheth  yabho'  shammd, 
Tel  shdmir  wa-sJiayith  yihye. 

Notice  the  unusual  style  of  this  section;  it  contains  a  number  of 
double  phrases,  not  distributed  in  parallelism,  both  in  the  re- 
frain, ' '  thorns  and  thistles, ' '  and  also  in  each  line  :  "  a  thousand 
vines  at  a  thousand  shekels " ;  "all  the  land  and  all  the  moun- 
tains " ;  "  sending  of  oxen  and  treading  of  sheep  " ;  "  with  arrows 
and  with  bows."  The  doubling  recurs  consistently  and  is  itself 
therefore  parallelistic. 

Chapter  8 

1-4.  The  "great  tablet,"  the  witnesses,  and  the  birth  of 
Isaiah's  son.  No  parallelism  need  be  sought  here  (see  on  6.1)  ; 
though  verse  1  contains  words  of  God,  they  are  not  an  oracle  for 
the  people,  but  merely  a  direction  for  the  Prophet.  The  verses 
are,  moreover,  but  loosely  connected,  and  refer  probably  to  three 
separate  symbolic  acts:  (1)  the  writing  of  a  scroll  or  tablet  to 
be  publicly  displayed  so  that,  as  in  a  similar  case  Habakkuk 
(2.2)  expresses  it,  "he  may  run  that  readeth  it";  (2)  the  writ- 
ing of  a  sealed  document,  for  which  the  taking  of  the  witnesses 
mentioned  in  verse  2  would  have  some  point;  (3)  the  birth  of 
the  Prophet's  son.  The  inference  as  to  the  sealed  document  is 
supported  by  verse  16,  in  which  the  terms  t^^'udhd,  "attestation," 
or  "testimony,"  and  x^i^om,  "seal  up,"  recall  the  symbolic  legal 
act  performed  by  Jeremiah  (32.10,  11),  where  the  terms  "seal" 
and  ' '  take  witnesses ' '  occur  again,  and  where  the  sentence  ' '  and 
I  took  the  evidence  of  the  purchase,  both  that  which  was  sealed 
{hc-xathum)  . . .  and  that  which  was  open  (hag-gdlUi) ,"  seems  to 
show,  as  suggested  in  Isaiah,  two  separate  documents  {gilldyon, 
tc^udhd),  one  open,  the  other  sealed  and  to  be  opened  at  the 
fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  for  which  the  Prophet  waits  (8.17)  : 
w(^-hiqqlthl  l^'-Yahwe,  recalling  in  the  Habakkuk  passage  men- 
tioned above  haqqe  Id,  "though  it  tarry,  wait  for  it." 

6.  "And  rejoice  in  Rezin  and  Ramaliah's  son,"  u-m<^sds  'eth 
R^cin  il-hhen  R^malydhu.  Syntax  and  style  show  that  this  phrase 


404  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  8 

can  not  be  original;  'eth  R^'gin  U-hhen  R^malyuhu,  like  'eth 
melekh  'Ashskur  tv^-'eih  kol  k'^bhodho,  "even  the  king  of  Assyria 
and  all  his  glory,"  are  appositional  glosses,  and  to  be  rejected; 
this  leaves  u-mesos,  literally  ' '  and  rejoicing, "  to  be  coupled  with 
l^-'at,  "softly,"  and  formal  parallelism  with  verse  7  is  thus 
established.  Mdsos  is  perhaps  governed  by  the  preposition  in 
l^-'at  (cf.  P-phetha' ,  "suddenly"  in  29.5;  le-sMlom,  "peace- 
fully," Gen.  44.17)  ;  or  it  is  an  adverbial  accusative  (Gesenius  I. 
118,  5c).  There  is  probably  a  reference  in  the  term  so  used  to 
an  underlying  root-meaning  other  than  "joy";  words  denoting 
"agile,"  "light"  are  derived  from  the  Arabic  shush  and  shus; 
and  it  is  a  striking  coincidence  that  nnishdimsh  (var.  mu^hdwis) 
denotes  water  "not  to  be  seen,  or  hardly  to  be  seen,  by  reason 
of  its  remoteness  from  the  surface  of  the  ground"  (Lane;  this 
signification,  however,  is  derived  by  Arabic  lexicographers  from 
the  root-meaning  "look  with  the  corner  of  the  eye") — an  ex- 
cellent description  of  the  waters  of  Shiloh.  The  root  mdsas 
(with  samekh)  also  would  yield  an  appropriate  term,  "faintly," 
though  this  root,  literally  ' '  to  melt, ' '  is  normally  used  only  of  the 
heart ;  if  m^sos  is  an  infinitive  from  this  root,  as  it  is  in  10.18, 
cf.  for  the  construction  Is.  60.14:  hdUkhu  sh'^x^^X'  "come  bend- 
ing. " 

8,  "And  the  stretching  out  of  his  wings  shall  fill  the  breadth 
of  thy  land,  0  Immanuel":  the  absurdity  of  directing  this  re- 
mark to  the  unborn  or  infant  Immanuel  is  self-evident;  little 
better  is  the  interpretation  which  leaves  "thy"  indefinite,  and 
translates  'immdnu-'el  in  its  present  position  as  an  exclamation, 
' '  God  is  with  us "  :  with  or  without  a  preceding  k%,  ' '  for, ' '  re- 
placing the  suffix  kd,  ' '  thy, ' '  it  belongs  with  what  follows,  verses 
9  and  10,  which  in  turn  belong  after  7.14  (q.v.). 

The  metaphor  in  k<^ndphdw,  ' '  wings  of  the  flood, ' '  need  not  in 
itself  be  questioned ;  cf .  "  wings ' '  of  the  wind,  ' '  wings "  of  a 
garment  (i.e.,  skirts),  "wings"  of  the  land  or  earth  (its  regions 
or  extremities)  ;  there  is  by  implication  perhaps  a  reference  to 
the  "wings"  of  the  invading  army  which  is  "the  flood."  But 
the    line    is    over-long,    and    the    syntax    not    above    suspicion. 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         405 

Chapter  8 
W^-hdyd  niHo'  roxahh  'arco  alone  would  mean  "and  it  (the 
flood)  shall  fill  the  breadth  of  his  land,"  and  would  leave 
' '  stretching  out  of  his  wings, ' '  mutt 6th  k^ndphdw,  as  the  remnant 
of  another  line,  or  perhaps  as  a  complete  line  in  itself;  for 
muttdth  can  be  either  a  verbal  noun  parallel  to  mHo  (thus :  "and 
[the  flood  shall  be]  a  spreading  out  to  its  [Judah's]  ends,"  i.e., 
"shall  spread  to  its  farthest  ends"),  or  a  passive  participle, 
predicate  to  k^ndphdw,  though  here  standing  before  it  (thus : 
"its  [the  flood's]  wings  are  outstretched")  ;  for  the  type  of 
resulting  strophe,  with  circumstantial  clauses,  see  below,  verse 
22  (where  the  reconstructed  text  will  be  found)  ;  also  3.16;  and 
for  the  syntactic  variations  in  parallel  clauses,  1.21, 

Probably  there  should  follow  here  verse  21  (q.v.). 

9.  Rd^u,  "associate  yourselves"  (but  also  "be  broken";  or 
"be  evil,"  or,  reading  rii'u,  "shout")  and  wd-xdttu,  "and  ye 
shall  be  broken  in  pieces,"  in  stichos  a  are  evidently  due  to  a 
marginal  reading,  ^^ wd-xdttu:  rd'ii,"  intended  for  the  wd-xdttu 
of  stichos  b  or  c,  and  indicating  that  in  one  of  those  places  rd'ii 
was  to  be  read  instead  of  it.  But  a  copyist  mistook  the  reference 
and  referred  it  to  stichos  a,  writing  rd'  u  in  place  of  an  original 
shim' u,  "hear,"  and  wd-xdttu  in  place  of  an  original  yaxdaw 
("altogether";  cf.  10.8),  readings  which  are  demanded  by  the 
parallelism.  For  the  second  hith'dzz^ru,  "gird  you,"  read  pos- 
sibly the  synonj-m :  hithxaggcrd;  the  root  xot'^o!^»  "gird,"  is  used 
both  of  the  sword  and  of  sackcloth ;  notice,  then,  the  Isaianic 
play  on  words,  as  well  as  the  sudden  turn  again :  ' '  arm  your- 
selves— but  for  defeat,  not  for  victory. ' '  Read  then  : 
'  Immanu-'cl 

Shim' u   '  ammim   yaxdaw 
w^-ha'ozinu  Tcol  merx^qe    'dreg 

hith'azz<'ru  wd-x(ittu 
liitxagg'^ru  wd-ro'  il 

'iigii  '  egd  w^-tJiuphar 
dabb'^ru  dhdbhdr  w^lo'  ydqum 

kl  'immdnu   'el. 


406  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil, 

Chapter  8 

11.  "For  the  Lord  spoke  thus  to  me  with  a  strong  hand  and 
instructed  me  that  I  should  not  walk  in  the  way  of  this  people, 
saying."  The  sentence  is  evidently  corrupt,  because:  (a)  "the 
Lord  spoke  thus,"  ho  'dnvar  Yahwe  is  invariably  followed  imme- 
diately by  the  direct  discourse;  (b)  "to  speak  with  a  strong 
hand"  is  linguistically  too  unusual  and  illogical  to  have  been 
used  by  Isaiah ;  even  Ezekiel  must  say :  ' '  the  hand  of  the  Lord 
was  strong  upon  me";  (c)  the  verb  "instruct"  (ydsar;  lit. 
"discipline,"  "chasten,"  "admonish")  is  nowhere  else  used  to 
characterize  the  prophetic  inspiration :  God  does  not  ' '  admon- 
ish" his  prophets;  (d)  the  following  direct  discourse  (verse  12) 
is  in  the  second  person  plural;  it  is  evidently  addressed  to  some 
group  who  stand  apart  from  "this  people" — to  "the  House  of 
David"  perhaps — and  to  whom  probably  a  direct  reference  was 
made  in  the  original  of  the  corrupt  passage;  the  form  was: 
"thus  said  the  Lord  to  me,  'admonish  the  house  of  David  from 
going  in  the  way  of  this  people,  saying. '  "  Or  barely  possible : 
"The  Lord  spoke  thus  to  me,  with  a  strong  hand  deterring  me 
[y^slrenl]  from  going  on  the  way  of  this  people."  As  the  sen- 
tence is  prose,  parallelism  is  not  present  to  point  the  way  to 
restoration. 

12.  Qesher  ("conspiracy";  but  possibly  "alliance"),  if  cor- 
rect, refers  probably  to  the  attitude  of  that  party  in  Judah 
which  was  influenced  by  the  activity  of  the  Syrian  emissaries 
and  by  fear  of  the  threatened  invasion  if  it  refused  to  yield 
(see  above,  on  7.4).  Read  possibly  qddhosh,  "holy,"  however, 
in  view  of  the  contrasting  taqdishU,  "make,"  "call  holy,"  or 
' '  sanctify, ' '  in  verse  13 ;  or  for  the  latter  some  denominative 
from  qesher:  "with  him  [God]  shall  ye  make  an  alliance."  If 
neither,  the  rhetorical  effect  is  still  present,  in  the  physical  re- 
semblance of  the  roots  qdsher  and  qddhash,  and  is  further 
heightened  by  moqcsh,  "snare,"  in  verse  14;  the  same  parono- 
masia and  the  same  thought  are  seen  in  Prov.  20.25:  mdqesh 
'ddhdm  ydla'  qodhesh,  "a  snare  is  it  for  a  man  to  carelessly  say 
'  holiness. '  "  If  qddhosh  or  qodhesh  be  substituted  in  the  present 
passage,  its  exact  signification  is  to  be  determined  by  reference 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         407 

Chapter  8 
to  such  an  idiom  as  ''sanctifying"  or  "consecrating"  war  (Joel 
4.9;  Mic.  3.5;  Jer.  6.4,  22.7,  51.27,  28;  in  Is.  13.3  mequdddshai 
is  "my  consecrated  warriors"). 

W^-lo'  tha'rigo,  "nor  be  afraid":  insert  as  object  w^^-eth 
ma'^^r^o,  "that  which,  or  those  who,  cause  them  to  be  afraid," 
parallel  to  mora' 6,  "their  fear." 

14.  W<^-hdyd  l^^-miqdmh,  Ul^-'ehhen  negheph,  etc.:  "and  he 
shall  be  for  a  sanctuary  and  [Eng.  "but"]  for  a  stone  of 
stumbling  and  for  a  rock  of  offence " :  the  subject  of  the  verb  is 
evidently  not  "  He  "  ( God ) ,  but  "  it "  ( "  the  saying  '  conspiracy, ' 
'holy'  "),  or  "they"  (read  we-hdyu  or  w^^hemmd)  ;  and  miqddsh 
is  evidently  an  error  for  some  word  denoting  "stumbling-block" ; 
not  only  logic  demands  this,  but  also  parallelism;  the  three 
verbs  "stumble,"  "fall,"  and  "be  broken"  point  to  three  cor- 
responding nouns,  as  the  two  verbs  "be  snared"  and  "be  taken", 
are  parallel  to  the  two  nouns  "gin"  and  "snare."  Lagarde's 
proposed  miqqdsh  (from  ndqash,  "strike,"  hence  "stumbling- 
block";  cf.  BDB,  s.v.  miqddsh)  is  then,  very  likely  correct;  it 
is  logical,  restores  the  parallelism,  and  preserves  paronomasia 
just  at  the  point  it  is  required ;  cf .  Prov.  20.25  cited  above ;  cf . 
also  Ex.  34.12;  Josh.  23.13  (covenant  with  the  Canaanites  is  a 
"snare");  and  for  the  type  of  sentence,  Is.  30.2,  3:  "(Woe 
those)  that . .  .  strengthen  themselves  in  the  strength  of  Pharaoh ; 
for  the  strength  of  Pharaoh  shall  be  to  you  a  shame." 

"For  the  two  houses  of  Israel":  "two,"  sh^^ne,  is  probably 
an  error  due  to  a  conflation  of  heth,  "house  of,"  and  h^ne, 
"children  of,"  or  shokhcne,  "inhabitants  of";  the  latter  would 
be  the  natural  parallel  to  ydsh<^hhe  in  the  next  stichos.  The 
Septuagint  reads  "for  the  houses  of." 

15.  Rabllm,  "many":  perhaps  dittography  from  preceding 
letters;  cf.  28.13. 

16.  From  here  through  verse  20,  simple  prose  may  have  been 
intended ;  the  words  are  the  Prophet 's  own  words,  not  Yahwe  's. 
In  verse  16,  "Bind  up  the  testimony,  seal  the  law,  among  my 
disciples,"  the  last  phrase  has  no  parallel  (cf.  7.12)  ;  but  the 
Septuagint  at  the  end  of  verse  15  has  an  added  phrase  {avOpcoiroi) 


408  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  8 

er)  aa-(f)aXeia:  possibly  la-lhetax  (cf.  Gen.  34.25,  Lev.  26.5)  and 
originally  P-l}}i6t<^x(^i:  "for  those  who  trust  in  me";  if  this 
phrase  really  belongs  after  "bind  up  the  testimony,"  read  also 
le-limmiidliai,  "for  my  disciples." 

17.  Parallelism  in  this  verse  would  be  restored  hy  transpos- 
ing from  the  end  of  18,  where  it  is  decidedly  inconsequential,  the 
phrase  "that  dwelleth  in  Mount  Zion,"  parallel  and  in  contrast 
to  ' '  that  hideth  his  face  from  the  house  of  Jacob. ' '  Perhaps  the 
misplacement  is  farther  reaching,  and  verse  18  should  stand  be- 
fore verse  17 ;  at  present  verse  17  follows  verse  16  without  any 
introductory  word  to  mark  the  transition ;  while  verse  18  has  the 
introductory  word  hinne,  "behold,"  where  it  is  not  needed. 

19,  20.  "In  behalf  of  the  living  to  the  dead":  by  reading 
this  phrase  after  the  words  "that  peep  and  that  mutter,"  as 
parallelism  suggests,  fairly  good  order  is  restored  to  the  passage ; 
"shall  not  a  people  turn  to  its  god"  belongs  in  the  answer  to  be 
made  by  the  true  believers,  parallel  to  "to  the  oracle  and  .the 
testimony";  it  is  probably  a  proverb,  or  based  on  one,  like  that 
quoted  also  by  Micah  (4.5)  :  "every  people  walks  in  the  name 
of  its  god."  The  two  interrogatives  halo',  'im  Id'  are  parallels 
(cf.  10.8),  with  the  force  of  particles  of  "requiring  with 
urgency":  "surely  you  [toni^rU  for  yom^ru;  or  'surely  they,' 
i.e.,  my  disciples]  shall  say";  the  whole  passage  thus  becomes 
clear :  ' '  Behold  I  and  my  children  are  prophetic  signs ;  and  I 
shall  now  wait  for  the  fufilment  of  those  signs;  the  'testimony' 
is  sealed  among  my  disciples ;  then  when  any  appeal  to  their 
oracles  to  win  you  to  their  views,  your  answer  shall  be :  'a  people 
turns  unto  its  God ' — '  to  the  law !  to  the  testimony ! '  "  There  is 
a  sarcastic  contrast  implied,  then :  they  say  ' '  turn  to  the  dead 
in  behalf  of  the  living";  but  you  answer:  "turn  to  (the  living) 
God"   (cf.  Is.  37.17). 

"Because  (there  is)  no  light  in  them,"  literally,  "to  which 
there  is  no  dawn,"  'en  Id  shaxar:  if  this  is  a  prose  passage,  not 
balanced,  and  this  phrase  belongs  here,  shaxar  is  possibly  rather 
"enchantment,"  "magic":  they  shall  answer  with  the  simple 
phrase  "go  to  the  testimony, ' '  which  needs  no  accompaniment  of 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         409 

Chapter  8 
incantation,  as  does  the  summoning  of  the  dead.  Or  shaxar  is 
from  the  root  "to  seek"  (parallel  to  ddra-sh  here,  as  in  Ps. 
78.34),  and  the  clause  is  a  defective  remnant.  But  if  the  refer- 
ence to  the  dawn  is  correct,  the  phrase  belongs  at  the  end  of 
verse  21. 

21.  This  fits  admirably  on  to  verse  8  (q.v.)  ;  portion  of 
another  version  or  line  is  found  in  5.30  (q.v.)  ;  viewed  together, 
the  picture  presented  is  one  of  the  most  striking  in  Isaiah :  the 
Assyrian  rivers  rushing  neck-deep  and  roaring  like  the  ocean 
itself  against  the  struggling,  fleeing  Judah,  who  looks  in  vain 
for  solid  earth  and  for  light,  and  is  weakened  by  hunger  and 
anguish  until  he  curses  his  god — and  is  engulfed;  for  death  can 
be  the  onl}^  outcome  of  such  a  curse.  But  the  picture  as  it  stands 
is  obscured. 

"When  they  [lit.  'he']  shall  be  hungry":  for  this  weak  repe- 
tition of  "hunger,"  yir'ahh,  read  a  psychologically  more  fitting 
word,  such  as  yikh'ahh,  "be  in  anguish,"  as  expressing  a  state 
that  would  lead  to  the  curse;  cf.  Job  2.5:  "yea,  all  that  a  man 
hath  will  he  give  for  his  life ;  but .  . .  touch  his  bone  and  flesh, 
and  he  will  curse  thee  to  thy  face";  or  2.13,  3.1:  "for  they  saw 
that  his  grief  {k^'ebh,  "anguish";  cf.  Is.  17.11)  was  very  great. 
After  this  opened  Job  his  mouth,  and  cursed  his  day. ' '  Or  read 
perhaps  yiz'aph  or  yikh'as:  "when  he  will  be  angry  and  vexed." 

"Curse  their  [lit.  his]  king  and  their  [his]  God"  (cf.  I  Kings 
21.10;  Lev.  24.15)  ;  the  Hebrew  "by  his  king  and  god"  is  prob- 
ably an  attempt  to  soften  the  original  wording;  notice  that  the 
Septuagint  for  the  same  purpose  reads  "the  ordinances  of  your 
fathers"  in  place  of  "their  God."  But  this  must  be  the  climax 
and  the  end  of  the  picture ;  transfer  it  to  the  end  of  verse  22. 

"And  look  upward":  the  doublet  in  5.30  (q.v.)  adds  "there 
is  darkness  (cf.  Is.  59.9,  "we  hope  for  the  light,  and  lo,  there 
is  darkness")  ;  the  missing  line,  however,  is  perhaps  found  at 
the  end  of  verse  20  ("where  there  is  no  dawn")  ;  or,  as  a  rem- 
nant, in  "darkness"  in  the  next  verse  (further  evidence  of 
confusion  in  the  text). 

22.  "Dimness  of   anguish    [m^'uph   Quqd]    and  driven   into 


410  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  8 

darkness  [iva- Upheld  m^nudddx]^^ :  The  second  phase,  literally 
"darkness  driven,"  though  syntactically  unusual,  is  still  prob- 
ably correct ;  cf .  in  16.2  the  even  more  remarkable  qen  m^shullux, 
"nest-driven"  for  "driven  from  the  nest."  But  read  for 
m^'uph  the  form  found  in  23,  mu'aph,  and  derive  from  yd'aph, 
"be  weary";  cf.  Dan.  9.21,  mu'dph  hl'dph,  "wearied  with  weari- 
ness." "Wearied  with  anguish,"  "in  darkness  driven"  are 
parallels  to  "hardly  bestead  and  hungry"  in  verse  21,  and 
probably  belong  immediately  after.  The  text  to  this  point  might 
be  then : 

8.8       we-xdlaph  Mhudhd  shdtoph  we-' dbJwr 
adh  gawwdr  yaggi"' 
u-lchendphdw  muttoth 
W^-hdyd  melo'  roxabh  'argo 
[5.30     we-yinhom  '  dldw  k''nah<^math  ydm.] 

8.21a  W-' dbhar  bah  niqslie  w^-rd'ebh 
8.22c  mu'aph  guqd 

wa-'opheld  mcnudddx 
8.21c  u-phana  le-md'ld  we-hinne  x°slieTc}id 
we-' el  'ereg  yabblt  we-hinne  gdrd 

8.21b  we-hdyd  Tci  yikh'abh  we-hithqaggaph 
we-qillel  malko  welohdw. 

23.  (Eng.  9.1)  :  "Nevertheless  the  dimness  shall  not  be  such 
as  was  in  her  vexation,"  kl  Id  mU'dph  la-'<^sher  mugdq  Idh.  This 
(and  the  remainder  of  the  verse)  forms  a  gloss  to  9.2  (Eng.  3), 
which  in  the  consonantal  text  reads:  "Thou  hast  made  great  a 
nation,  not  hast  thou  increased  joy,"  and  was  evidently  under- 
stood by  the  glossator:  "thou  hast  made  great  a  nation  whose 
joy  thou  hadst  not  increased";  to  it  then  are  added  two  glosses, 
or  a  gloss  in  two  parts;  one  uses  the  phraseology  of  the  lines 
immediately  preceding:  "Not  is  (now)  darkness  [or  weariness] 
to  her  [i.e.,  the  land]  that  was  [formerly]  oppressed";  the  other 
interprets  9.2  with  greater  geographical  precision:  "At  the  first 
he  dishonored  [Eng.  "lightly  afflicted,"  heqal]  the  land  of 
Zebulon  and  the  land  of  Naphtali,  and  afterward  he  honored 
[Eng.  did  more  grievously  afflict,  hikhhidh]  the  way  of  the 
sea,  beyond  Jordan,  Galilee  of  the  nations";  here  16'  highdaltd, 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         411 

Chapter  8 
literally  'Hhou  didst  not  increase,"  is  glossed  by  heqal,  while 
hirhlthd,  "thou  hast  multiplied,"  is  glossed  by  hikhMdh.  The 
geographical  setting  is  due,  perhaps,  to  a  gloss  on  the  words 
hag-goy,  Id',  "the  nation,  not,"  namely,  gil,  or  gild,  "rejoicing"; 
the  words  gll.  Id',  and  hag-goy  being  misread  gHU  hag-goylm, 
"Galilee  of  the  nations." 

Chapter  9 

2.*  'Or  ndghah  'Hehem,  "upon  them  hath  the  light  shined": 
since  'or  is  the  subject  of  the  previous  stichos,  read  'or  here  as 
the  verb  and  ndghah,  ' '  radiance, ' '  as  the  subject ;  cf .  Amos  5.20 ; 
Is.  60.3 ;  this  not  only  prevents  a  weak  repetition,  but  restores 
the  natural  order  of  predicate  and  subject. 

3.  Lo'  highdaltd,  "not  increased  the  joy":  see  8.23  (9.1). 

4.  The  unusual  phrases  'ol  suddHo,  "yoke  of  his  burden," 
and  matte  shikhmo,  "staff  of  his  shoulder,"  are  possibly  due  to 
confusion;  'ol  and  sohhel  are  natural  parallels;  read,  then,  '61 
shikhmo,  "yoke  of  his  shoulder"  (see  note  on  verse  6),  and 
sohhel  qawwdro,  "burden  of  his  neck"  (cf.  10.27:  "his  burden 
from  thy  shoulder,  his  yoke  from  thy  neck")  ;  and  then  matte 
ham-makkehu,  "staff  of  his  smiter"  (cf.  Is.  14.29,  shehhet 
makkeha),  parallel  to  shehhet  han-noghes  ho,  "the  rod  of  his 
oppressor."  On  the  type  of  strophe  in  this  verse  and  the  next, 
with  parallelism  introduced  before  the  syntactic  structure  is 
complete  (in  the  Hebrew  the  predicate  "thou  hast  broken" 
stands  after  the  three  subjects,  not  before),  see  4.3.  Add  par- 
allel to  "the  day  of  Midian,"  k^-yom  or  h^-dherekh  miqrayim, 
"after  the  manner  of  Egypt,"  as  in  10.26. 

5.  For  h^-ra'ash,  "with  confused  noise,"  read  hi-r^mos,  hi- 
rephds,  or  h<^-mirmds,  "with  trampling"  (cf.  Is.  16.4,  "the 
trampler  has  ceased  from  the  earth"),  or  some  other  synonym 
of  xamds,  "violence,"  as  a  fitting  parallel  to  "bloodshed";  the 
Septuagint  apparently  read  h<^-mirmd  "with  deceit."     For  the 


*  Figures  refer  to  verses  as  numbered  in  the  English  Bible ;  verses  in 
the  Hebrew  text  are  numbered  one  less;  e.g.,  English  2  =  Hebrew  1.  In 
the  translation  on  pp.  28S,  287,  292,  however,  the  Hebrew  numbering  is 
given. 


412  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  9 

probable  correction  m^gho'dld,  ''stained"  (cf.  Is.  63.3),  instead 
of  mcgholdld,  "rolled,"  cf.  the  very  curious  Septuagint  rendering 
of  one  of  the  phrases  in  14.19 :  lixdriov  ev  aifiuTL  Trecfivpfievov; 
while  in  the  present  passage  it  read  the  root  gdnml,  "requite," 
for  gdlal,  "roll."  For  w^^-haij^thd,  "but  this  shall  be,"  read 
simply  kdycthd,  "has  been,"  a  past  as  in  the  preceding  and 
following  strophes;  a  misunderstanding  of  the  type  of  strophe 
has  led  to  the  insertion  of  w^,  "and"  or  "but."  The  reference 
to  the  end  of  bloodshed  may  be  to  domestic  as  well  as  foreign 
oppression. 

This  birth-ode  might  easily  have  been  composed  originally 
with  reference  to  the  birth  of  Solomon,  or  have  been  a  poetic 
reconstruction  of  such  a  passage  as  I  Chron.  22.9,  whose  phrase- 
ology it  recalls :  ' '  But  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  to  me  saying : 
Thou  hast  shed  blood  abundantly  and  hast  made  great  wars ; 
thou  shalt  not  build  an  house  unto  my  name,  because  thou  hast 
shed  much  blood  upon  the  earth  in  my  sight.  Behold,  a  son 
shall  be  born  to  thee,  who  shall  be  a  man  of  rest ; .  . .  and  I  will 
give  peace  and  quietness  unto  Israel  in  his  days;  he  shall  build 
an  house  for  my  name ;  he  shall  be  my  son  and  I  will  be  his 
father ;  and  I  will  establish  the  throne  of  his  kingdom  over  Israel 
for  ever." 

6.  "Unto  us  a  son  is  given":  this  stichos,  following  "for 
unto  us  a  child  [yeledh,  "boy"]  is  given,"  serves  no  other  pur- 
pose than  that  of  parallelism. 

Wat-t^hi  ham-misrd  'al  shikhmo,  "and  the  government  lias 
been  [Eng.  shall  be]  upon  his  shoulder."  The  absence  of  par 
allelism,  the  repetition  of  the  strange  word  ham-misrd,  found 
only  here  and  in  verse  7,  and  the  interruption  of  the  natural 
order  of  ideas,  i.e.,  the  announcement  of  the  birth  and  then 
the  name,  are  sufficient  indications  of  corruption.  Probably  the 
whole  sentence  is  made  up  of  a  gloss  on  ham-misrd  in  verse  7, 
and  one  on  verse  4  (q.v.),  '61  shikhmo,  "the  yoke  of  his  shoul- 
der," the  whole  being  combined  on  the  basis  of  22.22:  "and  T 
shall  place  the  kej^  of  the  house  of  David  upon  his  shoulder." 
It  is  absolutely  beyond  the  limits  of  probability  that  the  aira^ 


Vol.  1.]     Popper.— Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         413 

Chaptkr  9 
Xeyofxevov  ham-misrd  is  merely  a  synonym  for  the  word  ' '  rule, ' ' 
for  which  the  language  possesses  several  instantly  recognizable 
words.  If  the  clause  is  kept,  some  other  meaning  must  be  sought 
for  ham-misrd,  denoting  a  concrete  symbol  of  office,  as  in  22.22 ; 
and  a  parallel  verse  [cf.  again  22.21,  "and  the  rule  will  I  give 
in  his  hand"],  making  the  strange  word  clear,  must  be  assumed 
to  have  been  lost;  but  if  the  passage  is  simple  prose,  ham- 
m,emshdld  should  be  substituted  for  ham-misrd. 

'El  gihhor,  "the  mighty  god"  :  in  the  explanation  of  the  name 
in  verse  7  this  appellation  is  left  unnoticed ;  this  is  sufficient 
evidence  that  the  startlingly  unique  application  of  the  name 
"god"  to  the  child  was  not  intended;  the  Septuagint  omits  the 
word  'el  entirely.  Parallelism  with  the  term  "wonder  of  a 
counsellor"  requires  that  'el  gihhor  be  interpreted  in  accordance 
with  'ele  gihhorim  in  Ezek.  32.21 ;  i.e.,  "mighty  one  of  a  hero,"  or 
even  ' '  strength  of  a  hero " ;  'el  is  almost  a  synonym  of  x^V^^  ^^ 
the  latter  case;  and  as  pele'  yd' eg  stands  for  maphW  ' egd  (cf. 
28.29)  so  'el  gihhor  would  recall  gihhor  x^^yil-  Moreover,  had  the 
term  "god"  been  intended,  the  order  of  terms  would  certainly 
have  been  "counsellor,  father,  prince,  god,"  and  not  "coun- 
sellor, god,  father,  prince. 

'^hhi  'adh,  "the  everlasting  father":  read  either  '«&M  dhe'd, 
"father  of  knowledge,"  or  'dha  y6dhe<^' ,  knowing  father";  cf. 
the  attributes  of  the  king  in  11.2 :  wisdom,  understanding,  coun- 
sel, strength,  knowledge;  cf.  also  the  proper  name  Ahidah.  On 
the  heaping  up  of  parallelistic  terms,  cf.  the  note  to  1.21. 

L<^-marhe  ham-misrd,  "for  the  increase  of  government":  see 
above,  on  6;  read  probably  mlshor,  "equity";  cf.  Is.  11.4:  "he 
shall  judge  with  righteousness,  and  reprove  with  equity"; 
coupled  with  "peace,"  as  here,  in  Mai.  2.6. 

Qin'ath,  etc.  ("the  zeal  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts  will  perform 
this")  :  a  monostich,  standing  outside  the  oracle  proper;  cf. 
1.20,  10.23. 

8.  "With  this  verse  begins  a  series  of  sections  each  ending  with 
the  refrain  "For  all  this  his  anger  is  not  turned  away,  and  his 
hand  is  outstretched  still"   (verses  12,  17,  21,  and  chapter  10, 


414  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  9 

verse  4).  The  same  refrain  occurs  also  in  5.25,  at  the  end  of 
a  number  of  stichoi  whose  subject  matter,  moreover,  would  form 
an  admirable  introduction  to  the  series  of  passages  in  chapter  9 ; 
there  is  then  some  justification  for  using  the  term  "stanza"  for 
each  of  these  sections,  and  for  assuming  a  dislocation  of  the 
one  in  chapter  5;  indeed,  quite  possibly  some  of  the  stanzas  in 
chapter  9  also  are  transposed;  the  words  "but  [A.  V.  for]  the 
people  turned  [A.  V.  turneth]  not  unto  him  that  smiteth  them" 
in  9.13  would  follow  most  naturally  after  stanza  1  (5.25)  ;  and 
the  transposition  of  the  stanza  9.13-17  would  at  the  same  time 
leave  in  juxtaposition  the  two  stanzas  which  have  most  in  com- 
mon, 9.8-12  and  18-21;  for  immediately  before  the  refrain  in 
9.12  occurs  what  might  be  considered  a  three  line  strophe,  with 
characteristic  variation  in  the  third  stichos : 

The  Syrians  before. 

And  the  Philistines  behind; 

And  they  devoured  [A.  V.  will  devour]  Israel  with  open  mouth ; 

and  similarly  in  21 : 

Manasseh,  Ephraim; 

And  Ephraim,  Manasseh; 

And  they  together  against  Judah. 

These  two  stichoi,  notice,  are  also  the  only  two  which  con- 
tain proper  names,  and  which  can  clearly  be  read  as  tristichs; 
although  9.17  contains  the  three  parallels  "their  young  men," 
the  "fatherless,"  and  "widows,"  which  might  possibly  indicate 
an  original  tristich  in  this  stanza  also : 

The  Lord  shall  not  take  joy  in  their  young  men. 
Nor  shall  he  have  mercy  on  the  fatherless, 
Nor  shall  he  pity  their  widows. 

This  tristich  would  again  stand  before  the  refrain  if  the  natural 
transposition  of  the  following  distich,  "for  every  one  is  an 
hypocrite,"  etc.,  to  an  earlier  position  in  its  stanza  (see  below) 
be  accepted.  But  the  other  stanzas  show  no  trace  of  this  tristich 
variation ;  possibly  the  tristichs,  then,  are  to  be  read  as  distichs ; 
on  the  other  hand,  the  variation  may  be  due  to  a  difference  in 
time  of  the  composition  or  in  the  authorship  of  the  respective 
stanzas. 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         415 

Chapter  9 
Some  of  the  stanzas  in  chapter  9  contain  in  addition  to  the 
refrain  five  strophes,  others  six,  all  of  which,  excepting  those 
mentioned  above,  are  distichs  and,  with  one  or  two  defects,  in 
normal  parallelism.  In  each  stanza  there  are  contained  refer- 
ences to  the  people's  sin  and  to  God's  punishment  therefor, 
though  in  one  instance  particularly  the  two  themes  are  not  kept 
distinct.    Details  are  as  follows : 

Stanza  1.   (5.24e-25)  :  3  strophes,  of  which  1  in  the  "sin" 
section,   introduced  by  kl,  " because,"  and  2  in  the 
punishment  section,   introduced  by  'at  ken,   "there- 
fore." 
Stanza  2.   (9.13-17)  :  6  strophes,  of  which  3,  at  present 
not  grouped  together,  refer  to  sin   (1,  4,  6),  the  last 
introduced  by  M;  and  3  to  punishment   (2,  3,  5),  of 
which  the  last  is  introduced  by  'al  ken. 
Stanza  3.   (9.8-12)  :  5  strophes,  of  which  the  second  ("and 
the  people  all  of  them  shall  know,"  etc.)  is  uncertain 
in  its  parallelism,  but  by  a  slight  omission,  becomes  a 
normal  distich ;  of  the  five,  3  refer  to  sin,  2  to  punish- 
ment (the  last  possibly  a  tristich;  see  above). 
Stanza   4.   (9.18-21)  :    6   strophes,   the   division   between 
sin  and  punishment  being  doubtful.    The  first  strophe 
refers  to  sin,  and  is  introduced  by  kl;  the  second  con- 
tinues the  simile  of  the  first ;  the  third,  though  likewise 
containing  a  picture  of  the  fire  presented  by  the  first 
two,  begins  with  a  prepositional  phrase  ("by  the  word 
of  the  Lord"),  which  would  normally  introduce  a  new 
thought ;  this  might,  then,  be  considered  the  beginning 
of  the  "punishment"  section,  but  in  that  case  this 
section,  as  the  stanza  stands,  contains  4  strophes,  leav- 
ing only  2  for  the  sin  section  (see  below). 
Stanza  5.     (10.1-4)  :  6  strophes,  3  referring  to  sin,  3  to 
punishment. 
There  is  some  doubt  whether  the  stanzas  are  to  be  interpreted 
as  narrative,  or  as  prophetic;  the  last  (10.1-4)  certainly  refers 
to  the  future ;  the  remainder  seem  to  refer  to  the  past ;  for  while 


416  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  9 

it  is  true  that  some  of  the  verbs  are  imperfects,  and  would 
normally,  if  in  independent  clauses,  refer  to  the  future,  most  of 
them  can  be  explained  as  circumstantial  imperfects,  deriving 
their  time  limitation  from  the  main  verbs.  Possibly  the  refer- 
ences to  the  attacks  of  the  Philistines  and  Arameans  (read 
''Edomites"?  Cf.  11.14,  also  II  Chron.  28.17, 18)  upon  Israel,  and 
of  Manasseh  upon  Ephraim  and  of  both  upon  Judah  are  to 
be  considered  as  general  and  t^^pical  rather  than  definite  and 
particular:  Philistines  and  Arameans  typifying  foreign  foes; 
Manasseh,  Ephraim,  and  Judah  intertribal  combatants;  other- 
wise the  conflict  between  Manasseh  and  Ephraim  may  be  the 
division  between  the  sons  of  Joseph  as  reflected  in  Gen.  17.14, 
while  that  between  Manasseh  and  Ephraim  together  as  against 
Judah  is  the  division  between  North  and  South  mentioned  spe- 
cifically in  7.17  f'days  such  as  have  not  come  since  Ephraim 
separated  from  Judah");  and  with  this  should  be  compared 
the  hope  expressed  for  the  future  in  11.13,  14:  "the  envy  of 
Ephraim  shall  depart  and  the  adversaries  of  Judah  be  cut  off; 
Ephraim  shall  not  envy  Judah  and  Judah  shall  not  vex 
Ephraim ;  but  they  shall  fly  upon  the  shoulder  of  the  Philistines 
on  the  West,  and  shall  spoil  them  of  the  East,  together  they  shall 
lay  their  hand  upon  Edom  (notice,  not  Aram!)  and  Moab,"  etc. 

In  the  following  suggestions  it  is  assumed  that  there  was 
originally  a  series  of  stanzas  with  some  measure  of  uniformity: 

(5.24e-25.)  See  5.24d;  probably  two  distichs  have  fallen  out 
before  the  one  beginning  "for  they  have  rejected."  Possibly 
the  poem  began  with  some  phrase  such  as  hoi  'am  sorer  U-niore: 
"Ah!  nation  rebellious  and  stubborn,"  etc.  (cf.  1.4  for  the 
sequence  of  ideas)  ;  this  would  account  for  the  inclusion  in 
chapter  5,  a  series  of  stanzas  beginning  with  "hoi" ;  see  also 
stanza  5  (10.1),  below. 

9.8.  "The  Lord  sent  a  word  into  Jacob,  and  it  hath  lighted 
[Heb.  shall  light]  upon  Israel"  is  a  very  illogical  introduction 
to  what  follows.  The  Septuagint  reads  for  "word,"  dabhdr, 
ddvuTov,  "death,"  which  might  be  simply  dehher,  "pest";  but 
read  probably  shehher,  "a  crash,"  "destruction";  cf.,  e.g.,  Jer. 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         417 

Chapter  9 
4.6 :  "  for  I  will  bring  evil  from  the  North,  and  a  great  destruc- 
tion," shehher  gddhdl;  also  Amos  6.6:  shehher  Yoseph;  for  the 
word  in  Isaiah,  cf.  30.13;  for  the  construction,  10.16,  "the  Lord 
shall  send  [y^^shallax]  leanness."  Parallel  to  it  read  for  ndphal, 
ncphol, ' '  a  falling, ' '  or  mappdld, ' '  ruin, ' '  or  nefeg, ' '  shattering ' ' ; 
cf.  30.30. 

9.  W^-yddh^'u,  "and  shall  know,"  also,  is  illogical  in  view 
of  what  follows;  moreover  lemor,  "saying"  (Eng.  "that  say"), 
presupposes  an  antecedent  verb  implying  use  of  the  voice;  read 
way-ydlo'U  (cf.  Job  6.3;  Prov.  20.25),  "they  talked  wildly,"  or 
way-ydliqu  (cf.  Is.  28.14),  "scoffed,"  or  wmj-yil' '^ghU,  "mocked." 
"Ephraim  and  the  dweller  in  Samaria,"  is  probably  merely  a 
gloss  on  "the  people  all  of  them,"  preceding;  it  is  superfluous, 
since  the  previous  verse  indicates  clearly  who  ' '  the  people ' '  are ; 
and  "people"  is  used  throughout  the  prophecy  without  any 
similar  modifier.  Its  omission  restores  a  normal  distich  here. 
However,  if  on  the  basis  of  Ps.  17.10,  a  phrase  like  wu-y^dhabher 
plw  be  introduced  before  h^-gha'"wd,  the  following  results: 

And  the  people  all  of  them  mocked, 
Ephraim  and  the  dwellers  in  Samaria ; 
Their  mouths  spoke  proudly. 
In  stoutness  of  heart  they  said. 

But  this,  while  it  would  make  a  six  strophe  stanza,  would  place 
four  of  the  strophes  instead  of  three  in  the  "sin"  section. 

11.  Wa-y^saggehh:  Here  the  sin  section  begins  without  the 
conjunction  'al  ken,  "therefore"  (though  the  English  so  trans- 
lates) :  possibly  a  distich  beginning  thus,  and  containing  the 
superfluous  line  from  above,  as  well  as  the  name  "Rezin"  found 
at  present  misplaced  in  verse  10,  really  has  fallen  out ;  this  would 
again  make  six  instead  of  five  strophes.  Notice  that  the  word 
iva-ycsaggehh,  literally  "made  high  (the  adversaries,"  etc.), 
offers  just  the  appropriate  hint  of  poetic  justice  to  be  expected ; 
Israel  sought  to  set  high  what  God  threw  down;  therefore  God 
set  on  high  those  who  will  humble  Israel.  Y^^sakhsekh  ("urge 
on":  Eng.  "join  together")  is  either  a  circumstantial  imperfect 
or  should  be  read  as  a  perfect  sikhsekh,  as  parallelism  with  ' '  he 
exalted"  demands. 


418  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  9 

13.  See  above  on  the  transposition  of  this  whole  stanza ;  more- 
over, the  strophes  within  this  stanza  should  also  probably  be 
transposed  (notice  that  the  Massoretic  text  makes  a  break  be- 
tween 13  and  14),  with  the  following  order:  verses  13,  16,  17cd 
{ki  kullo  x^'f^^P^f  "for  all  of  them,  etc."),  14,  17ef ;  probably 
also  'al  ken,  "therefore,"  from  verse  17  to  the  beginning  of 
verse  14,  since  in  its  present  place  it  forces  the  imperfects  in 
verse  17  to  be  understood  as  futures  ("shall  have  no  joy,"  etc.), 
while  without  'al  ken  they  may  be  circumstantials  (cf.  the  im- 
perfects in  verses  19  and  20,  depending  upon  the  perfect  in 
verse  14).  The  resultant  logical  order  of  ideas  is  then  :  The  people 
turned  not  to  God,  but  their  leaders  were  false  and  the  people 
were  misled — all  of  them  were  iniquitous ;  therefore  God  cut  off 
leaders  and  followers,  pitying  neither  young  nor  old,  orphan 
nor  widow. 

15.  "  The  ancient  and  honorable, ' '  etc. :  this  was  possibly  a 
gloss  on  the  preceding,  though  it  is  also  possible  that  in  the  form 
"the  ancient  and  honourable,  the  prophet  and  teacher  of  lies" 
is  represents  in  whole  or  part  an  original  couplet ;  the  decision 
will  depend  upon  the  conclusion  as  to  the  number  of  strophes 
originally  in  the  typical  stanza.  If  a  gloss,  written  in  the  mar- 
gin, it  might  account  for  the  displacement  of  the  verse  it  glosses. 

16.  "For  the  leaders  of  this  people":  a  comparison  with 
verses  9,  13,  19,  where  "the  people,"  not  "this  people,"  is 
used,  gives  evidence  again  of  the  editorial  hand;  but  read 
(if  the  transposition  suggested  above  is  acceptable)  simply 
ni^'ashsh^rdw,  "their  leaders." 

17.  On  "therefore"  see  the  note  on  verse  14.  Supply  pos- 
sibly a  separate  verb  Id'  ydxon  for  the  object  "his  orphans," 
making  this  strophe  a  tristich  (see  above,  8). 

18.  Possibly  this  stanza  contains  verses  which,  while  Isaianic, 
were  not  originally  a  part  of  this  prophecj^  but  were  edited  into 
it  to  replace  a  portion  that  was  missing.  The  use  of  the  abstract 
noun  risk' a,  "wickedness,"  is  itself  strange  in  Isaiah;  if  cor- 
rect, the  sequel  shows  that  it  must  here  be  a  synonym  of  qin'di 
' '  envy, "  "  hatred. ' '  But  while  one  expects  in  the  next  lines  de-j 
tails  concerning  the  nature  of  the  sin,  as  a  matter  of  fact  therd 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         419 

Chapter  9 
is  no  point  in  the  description  of  sin  "consuming  thistles  and 
thorns."  This  metaphor  is  intelligible  and  usual  in  reference 
to  God's  wrath;  cf.  10.16,  17,  of  which  this  passage  is  almost  a 
duplicate;  and  it  is  sin  itself  which  is  consumed  by  the  fire. 
Bish'd,  then,  possibly  either  is  a  misreading,  or  is  editorial,  due 
tt)  the  necessity  of  giving  the  passage  a  semblance  of  appropriate- 
ness, and  was  changed  from  some  original  word  modifying 
"fire"  (so  its  position  indicates),  e.g.,  ho'f^rd,  "a  consuming 
fire";  while  the  real  subject  was  ' ehhrd,  in  verse  19;  this  sup- 
ports the  probability  that  verse  19  belongs  before  verse  18,  as  is 
indicated  also  by  the  fact  that  verse  19  by  its  wording  seems  to 
be  the  beginning  of  a  new  thought. 

Way-yith'ahh^^khil,  "and  they  mounted  up,"  not  found  else- 
where in  Hebrew  or  other  Semitic  languages,  is  possibly  due  to 
the  preceding  sihh^^khe;'  the  Septuagint  read  the  two  roots 
'dkhal  and  sdhhahh.  Oe'uth  ("lifting  up";  usually  "majesty," 
"pride")  is  also  very  suspicious;  the  Septuagint  read  g^hhd' oth, 
"hills";  read  perhaps  "the  valleys  [g^^'dydth]  are  surrounded," 
or  "roll  up"  (yithsdhhchhu) ,  or  "are  clouded"  {yith'abh^qu, 
lit.  "dusted";  cf.  Na.  1.3),  "  (with)  smoke";  cf.  I  Kings  18.45: 
"and  the  heavens  are  blackened  (with)  clouds." 

19.  Ne'tam,  "darkened":  this  aira^  Xeyo/xevov,  doubly  sus- 
picious because  masculine  whereas  feminine  is  expected,  is  per- 
haps to  be  compared  with  'o-yam  in  11.15;  it  is  the  meaning 
attaching  to  the  latter  root  in  Arabic  that  would  justify  in  the 
present  passage  an  unusual  word  for  ' '  burned, "  "  scorched ' ' ; 
since  ghaim  in  Arabic  denotes  "internal  heat,"  "rage,"  the 
thought  might  be  here :  "  by  the  wrath  of  the  Lord  the  world  is 
enkindled  into  blazing  hatred"  (cf.  7.4:  "that  smoke  by  the 
wrath  of  Resin")  ;  this  would  be  the  qin'ath  'Ephrayim,  "jeal- 
ous anger  [Eng.  envy]  of  Ephraim,"  of  11.13.  Read,  perhaps, 
then,  for  ne'tam,  na'omath  (i.e.,  nd'omd)  'dreg.  Ma'khdleth 
'esh, ' '  fuel  of  the  fire, ' '  occurring  again  in  verse  5,  is  in  good  par- 
allelism as  far  as  the  distich  is  concerned,  but  difficult  in  view  of 
what  follows.  If  the  stanza  as  a  whole  is  to  be  regarded  as 
original,  read  perhaps  k^-'esh  'dkheleth,  "as  a  consuming  fire"; 
or  k^-ma'akholeth  'dph,  "as  the  fuel  of  wrath,"  "consumed  with 


420  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  9 

wrath, ' '  which  would  permit  the  transition  to  the  idea  of  mutual 

destruction. 

Ish  'el  'axlw  Id  yaxmolU:  possibly  the  distich,  verses  19c  and 
20c,  ' '  no  man  shall  spare  his  brother,  they  shall  eat  every  man 
the  flesh  of  his  neighbor"  (read  so  with  BDB ;  the  Massoretic 
text  has  "of  his  own  arm,"  ish  h^sar  z^ro' o  yokhelU)  is  a  gloss 
or  variant,  placed  here  to  effect  some  semblance  of  transition 
from  the  picture  of  fire  in  verse  19  to  that  of  the  ravenous 
beast,  bird,  or  perhaps  sword,  in  verse  20.  That  the  couplet 
was  written  in  the  margin  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  the  two 
stichoi  are  at  present  unnaturally  separated;  the  repetition  of 
the  verb  "ate"  (20b  and  c)  also  is  suspicious;  notice  too  the 
plural  verbs  (yaxtnolU  and  yokhelU)  in  the  Hebrew;  if  the  coup- 
let is  original,  the  imperfects  are  circumstantial,  and  the  singular 
should  be  read ;  the  metaphor  ' '  eating  flesh ' '  is  used  to  denote 
bitter  enmity  in  Ps.  27.2 ;  Job  19.22 ;  hence  it  is  a  close  parallel 
to  "spare  not." 

20.  Way-yighzor,  "and  he  shall  snatch";  Heb.  "and  he  cut" 
(but  read  possibly  way-yighzol)  :  if  the  figure  intended  is  not  that 
of  the  beast  or  bird  of  prey  (cf.  11.14:  "and  they  shall  fly  upon 
the  shoulders  of  the  Philistines"),  but  merely  that  of  extreme 
human  anger,  it  may  have  a  literal  basis;  notice,  e.g.,  II  Sam. 
12.31:  "and  brought  forth  the  people  and  put  them  under  axes" 
(lit.  cutting  instruments,  niaghzeroth).  For  20c,  see  preceding 
note. 

21.  "Together  they  against  Judah":  the  parallel  passage 
9.12,  as  well  as  the  change  of  construction  (accusative  to  prepo- 
sition) suggests  the  loss  of  a  verb;  the  Septuagint  iroX.LopK'qaovcn 
represents" x^wii,  "encamped  against,"  for  hemmd,  "they,"  but 
it  might  also  be  gdrii,  "besieged,"  with  which  cf.  again  11.13: 
"Judah  shall  not  vex  [ydgor]  Ephraim." 

Possibly  all  that  is  in  place  in  this  stanza,  besides  the  refrain, 

is  the  following: 

And  they  tore  on  the  right,  still  hungry, 
And  they  ate  on  the  left,  unsated, 

Manasseh,  Ephraim, 

And  Ephraim,  Manasseh, 
And  together   [they  pounced]  upon  Judah. 


Vol,  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         421 


Chapter  10 

1.  The  preceding  stanzas  were  directed  against  ''the  people" ; 
this  one  against  a  particular  class  that  oppresses  the  people,  who 
hence  are  called  commiseratingly  in  verse  2  "my  people"  (cf. 
the  tone  of  3.15)  ;  this  passage  has  a  closer  affinity  with  chapter 
5  than  with  chapter  9.  Note  in  verse  2  the  pity  expressed  for 
widows  and  orphans,  who  in  9.16  [17]  are  not  to  be  pitied.  It 
is  perhaps  the  very  words  "orphans  and  widows"  which  led  to 
the  juxtaposition  of  these  stanzas ;  while  sh^ldlam,  ' '  their  booty ' ' 
and  yahhozzu,  "that  they  may  rob,"  together  with  hoi,  "woe!" 
"  ah ! "  account  for  the  juxtaposition  of  the  following  section, 
lO.Sff.,  beginning  "Ah  Assyria"  and  containing  in  verse  6  shdldl 
and  Id-hhoz  haz.  The  refrain  "still  is  his  hand  outstretched" 
is  not  a  natural  conclusion  for  the  section  10.1^. 

3.  ^Al  ml  tdnusu  l^-' ezrd,  'dnu  tha' az^^hhu  k<^hh6dh^khem,  "to 
whom  [Heb.  upon  whom]  will  ye  flee  for  help,  where  [Heb. 
whither]  will  ye  leave  your  glory":  transpose  the  two  inter- 
rogatives ;  cf .  the  construction  in  20.6,  where  ' '  whither  ye  shall 
flee  for  help"  occurs  even  after  a  noun  antecedent;  while  ' dzabh 
takes  properly  the  preposition  '  al  in  the  meaning  ' '  entrust  to " ; 
cf.  Ps.  10.14.  Rchhodh^khem  is  "the  glory  of  your  wealth," 
i.e.,  the  spoil  and  booty  mentioned  in  verse  2;  there  is  also  a 
reference  to  the  root-meaning  "heavy" — hence  the  next  couplet: 

4.  Biltl  khdra'  taxath  'asslr,  w^-thaxath  h<^riigMm  yippolu, 
"without  me  [Heb.  without]  they  shall  bow  down  [Heb.  he 
bowed  down]  under  the  prisoners,  and  they  shall  fall  under  the 
slain":  read  le-hhiltl  kh^ro"'' ,  "so  as  not  to  bow."  Taxath  is  here 
"among,"  or  must  be  corrected  to  h^-thokh  (cf.  Ezek.  32.20), 
taxO'th  being  then  a  slip  of  the  copyist  who  had  expected  the 
phrase  "bow  down  under  the  weight  of  the  burden"  (see  verse 
3),  or  "under  the  feet  of  the  enemy"  (cf.  II  Sam.  22.40).  The 
Septuagint  reads  correctly  ' '  ye  shall  fall ' '  instead  of  ' '  they  shall 
fall,"  another  careless  copyist's  mistake.  The  imperfect,  as  fre- 
quently, continues  the  infinitive  construction. 

5.  U -matte  hit'  hh^yddhdm  za'ml:  literally  "and  a  staff  he  in 
their  hand  my  anger";  for  this  copyist's  awkward  jumble  of 


422  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  10 

words  parallelism  suggests  simply  u-niatte  za'ml,  ''and  staff  of 
my  anger";  other  simple  emendations  yield:  "a  staff  is  he 
in  the  day"  {h'^-yom  for  h^'-yddhdm)  or,  "against  the  people" 
{h^-am;  but  see  the  next  verse),  "of  my  wrath,"  or  "a  staff  is 
he  in  the  hand  of  my  wrath ' ' ;  less  likely  is  u-nvattehu  ydrlm 
l)('-za'm%,  "who  raises  his  staff  by  my  anger,"  although  in  verse 
24  {u-mattehu  yissd'  'dlekhd)  it  is  Assyria  that  raises  the  staff, 

6.  "  I  will  send  him  against  a  hypocritical  nation ' ' :  the  im- 
perfect here  is  rather:  "I  was  sending  him,"  "I  would  send 
him,"  i.e.,  "I  thought  to  send  him." 

"To  tread  him  down  like  the  mire  of  the  streets" :  if  this  line 
is  in  place  it  makes  with  6cd  a  tristich  of  the  type  described  in 
1.2;  the  Septuagint  "to  trample  cities  and  to  make  them  into 
dust"  yields  another  normal  distich.  But  the  figure  of  speech 
here  indicates  destruction,  and  weakens  the  apparent  intention 
of  the  author,  and  the  contrast  with  what  follows;  it  is  just  de- 
struction that  the  Assyrian  was  not  sent  to  effect ;  he  was  merely 
to  take  spoil  (there  is  an  evident  reference  here  to  8.3,  4).  The 
line  was  probably  misplaced  and  edited  here ;  it  may  belong  at 
the  end  of  verse  7,  or  better  still,  at  the  end  of  verse  13  (q.v.). 

8.  "For  he  saith,  are  not  my  princes  altogether  kings?" 
This  is  vague,  and  is  not  a  logical  introduction  to  what  follows; 
' '  altogether ' '  in  the  sense  of  "  all "  is  not  correct  in  this  phrase ; 
and  the  Septuagint  shows  a  disordered  text.  Read  for  sdrwi, 
' '  my  princes, ' '  either  'asslr, ' '  captives, ' '  'assirai,  ' '  my  captives, ' ' 
or  'uss<^rn,  "captured,"  "bound,"  i.e.,  with  repetition  of  the 
'dleph  from  h"ld\  and  confusion  of  the  sibilants;  cf.  Is.  22.3: 
'uss^^ru  yaxddw:  "all  thy  rulers  are  fled  together,  they  are  bound 
by  the  archers ;  all  that  are  found  in  thee  are  bound  together. ' ' 

10.  "As  my  hand  hath  found  the  kingdoms  of  the  idols  [Heb. 
idol]  and  whose  graven  images  (did  excel  them)  of  Jerusalem 
and  of  Samaria"  (text  simply:  "and  their  images  from  Jerusa- 
lem and  Samaria").  The  text  is  evidently  in  disorder;  read  for 
M-'elU,  "the  idol,"  hd-elle,  "these"  (cf.  36.20);  insert  before 
"from  Jerusalem"  a  predicate:  "so  it  shallnot  fall  short  of," 
lo'  tiqqar  (cf.  Is.  50.2:  "is  my  hand  shortened  that  it  cannot 


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Chapter  10 
redeem";  also  37.27,  and  particularly  59.1)  ;  or  16'  thirpe,  ''it 
shall  not  be  too  feeble  for"  (II  Sam.  4.1).  And  for  ''from 
Samaria,"  which  has  come  from  the  next  verse,  read  "and  from 
her  images"  {Umim-niass^khothehd ;  cf.  30.22,  48.5)  or  umi^- 
gal^mehd. 

11.  "Shall  I  not":  h^^-lo'  is  as  usual  emphatic,  "surely  I 
shall,"  and  here  climactic:  '*as  I  did  to  all  these  kingdoms,  I 
shall  not  be  unable  to  do  to  Jerusalem — yea,  as  I  was  able  to  do 
even  to  Samaria,  so  also  shall  I  do  to  Jerusalem." 

12.  Insert  a  phrase  parallel  to  "his  whole  work,"  e.g.,  po'lo 
as  in  5.12,  so  as  to  throw  the  two  exact  synonyms  "Mount  Zion" 
and  ' '  Jerusalem ' '  into  parallelism ;  cf .  the  form  of  the  next 
verse.  "Fruit  [p^rf]  of  the  stout  heart"  might  mean  thoughts, 
as  ' '  fruit  of  the  lips ' '  is  words ;  but  p^rl  is  here  parallel  to 
tiph'ereth,  "glory";  the  Septuagint  omits,  so  that  the  word  was 
possibly  indistinct:  g''1)M  would  be  a  fitting  parallel  (see  13.19)  ; 
if  the  text  is  correct  the  parallelism  is  mere  root-paronomasia, 
pd'ar  and  para. 

13.  "And  by  my  wisdom  for  I  am  prudent,"  kl  n^hhUnothi: 
the  Septuagint,  "in  the  wisdom  of  my  understanding"  shows  a 
text  without  M;  read  perhaps  "in  my  wisdom  and  understand- 
ing " ;  or  more  probably  kl  represents  part  of  a  variant  reading 
of  the  root  n^hhundihl;  parallelism  with  'dsithl,  "I  have  done 
it, ' '  suggests  hckhmotM,  ' '  I  have  accomplished ' ' ;  this  same  par- 
allelism occurs  in  Jer.  33.2. 

"And  I  have  [read  wd  for  Heb.  iv^]  put  down  like  a  valiant 
man  [kahbh  or  ka'abhir]  the  inhabitants":  the  Septuagint  "I 
will  shake  the  inhabited  cities"  shows  perhaps  that  the  text 
was  not  certain.  Read  for  kahhlr,  k^^hhodh:  "the  glory  of  their 
inhabitants,"  i.e.,  the  nobles;  on  the  phrase  "bring  down  the 
strength"  or  "the  glory,"  and  "come  down  from  glory,"  cf. 
Amos  3.11  (parallel  to  "spoil  the  palaces";  cf.  the  present  con- 
text; Jer.  48.18:  r^^dhl  mik-kdhhodh  yosh^^hhi  hhag-gdme').  For 
yosh^bhim  read  yosh^hhehem;  cf .  37.27.  This  whole  prophecy 
is  in  distichs;  perhaps,  then,  the  Septuagint  reading  is  not  a 
variant  of  this  verse,  but  represents  another  stichos;  its  refer- 


424  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  10 

ence  to  ''cities"  is  peculiar,  for  it  reads  "cities"  also  in  the 
superfluous  stichos  now  found  in  verse  6  ("to  tread  down  like 
the  mire  of  the  streets"),  which,  in  the  form  wa-'^slmem  mirmas, 
etc.,  "and  I  trod  them  down  like  the  mire  of  the  streets"  would 
be  in  place  here ;  for  the  sequence  of  ideas  cf .  Is.  63.6 :  "  I  will 
tread  down  the  people  in  mine  anger, . . .  and  I  will  bring  down 
their  strength  to  the  earth."  • 

14.  "Eggs  that  are  left,"  heglm  '(^zUhhoth:  read  probably  for 
'"-zubhoth,  't'zuz,  "the  strength  of  the  world,"  or  'izzuze,  "the 
strong,"  parallel  to  x^^  ("strength,"  i.e.,  "riches  of  the 
nations":  cf.  this  parallelism  in  43.17),  or  some  other  collective, 
plural,  or  abstract  object  of  "gather." 

15.  "Or  as  if  the  staff  should  lift  up  (itself  as  if  it  were)  no 
wood":  the  A.  V.  has  apparently  felt  that  the  language  used 
here  has  unusual  implications;  the  Septuagint  also  has  a  dif- 
ficulty either  in  reading  or  in  understanding  the  text.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  the  normal  implication  of  the  statement  "a  staff 
cannot  raise  up  not- wood"  would  be  that  a  staff  is  an  instru- 
ment for  raising  up  that  which  is  wood.  But  the  intended  impli- 
cation in  this  passage  is  determined  not  so  much  by  the  words 
themselves  as  by  the  parallelism.  "Him  that  heweth,"  "him 
that  shaketh, "  "him  that  lifteth"  are  all  metaphors  here  for 
' '  God ' ' ;  hence  ' '  not- wood ' '  here  has  the  implied  meaning  ' '  God ' ' 
(cf.  Is.  31.8,  where  "not-man"  is  again  "God"),  who  is  speci- 
fically described  as  "not-wood,"  in  contrast  not  only  to  a  staff, 
but  also,  by  implication,  to  the  Assyrian's  idols;  in  Is.  37.19,  a 
passage  which  undoubtedly  is  based  on  the  present  one,  this 
thought  is  explicitly  developed,  and  the  contrast  made  directly 
between  the  Assyrian  gods  and  Yah  we;  "for  they  were  not- 
gods,  but  the  work  of  men's  hands,  wood  and  stones."  The 
present  passage  offers  another  example  of  Isaiah's  fondness  for 
leading  the  mind  by  parallelism  to  expect  a  certain  phrase  and 
then  substituting  the  unexpected,  which  the  implications  of  par- 
allelism then  make  clear;  this  is  especially  effective  in  a  climax. 

16.  The  section  16-23  is  misplaced;  reference  is  never  made 
to  forests  in  Assyria,  even  in  a  metaphor ;  this  passage  refers  to 


Vol.1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         425 

Chapter  10 
the  destruction  of  Israel  or  Judah  (cf.  37.24)  ;  it  belongs  prob- 
ably with  chapters  7  and  8;  certainly  the  emphasis  on  sh^'dr  in 
verses  19,  20,  21,  22  would  give  point  to  the  mention  of  Shear- 
jashub  in  7.3.  The  rest  of  this  chapter,  too,  is  in  considerable 
disorder. 

"Therefore  shall  the  Lord,  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  send  among 
his  fat  ones  leanness,  and  under  his  glory  he  shall  kindle  a  burn- 
ing like  the  burning  of  a  fire ' ' :  for  ' '  fat  ones ' '  read  ' '  fatness, ' ' 
mishnmnno,  the  proper  parallel  to  habhod,  "glory,"  literally, 
"heaviness";  cf.  17.4b,  "the  fatness  of  his  flesh  shall  wax  lean." 
The  latter  part  of  the  verse,  yeqadh  y^qodh  klqodh  'esh,  "shall 
be  kindled  a  kindling  like  the  kindling  of  fire"  contains  a  simile 
without  any  real  term  of  comparison ;  the  phrase  is  probably 
misplaced;  the  Septuagint  has  the  phrase  "burning  flame"  still 
a  third  time:  after  verse  18  (q.v.),  and  was  evidently  in  doubt 
as  to  where  the  variant  really  belonged  (see  below) .  Parallelism 
demands  after  taxath  k^hhodho  ("under,"  but  also  "instead 
of , "  "  his  glory ' ' )  the  word  qdlon,  ' '  shame ' ' ;  literally,  ' '  instead 
of  his  heaviness,  lightness";  for  qdlon  opposed  to  kdbhodh  see 
22.18;  also  niqle  and  nikhhddh  in  3.5;  and  cf.  17.4:  "on  that 
day  the  glory  of  Jacob  shall  be  made  thin"  (yiddal,  but  read 
perhaps  yeqal).     Transpose  here  also  18bc  (see  ad  loc.)  : 

Lakhen  y^shallax  hd-'ddhon  h^-mishmannd  rdzon 
w^-thaxath  hehhddJw  qdlon 
w^-hdyd  M-m^sos  noses 
min-nefesh  w^-'adh  bdsdr  y^Tchalle  (or  yikhle). 

17,  18.  In  the  phrase  kiqodh  'esh  (see  above)  there  is  per- 
haps a  play  on  q^dhosho  in  this  verse,  which  probably  the  gloss 
indicated  should  be  read : 

we-hdyd   'or  Yisrd'el  If-lehdbhd 
u-qf'dJioshd  yeqadh  Jciqodh  'esh: 

' '  And  the  Light  of  Israel  shall  be  for  a  flame,  and  his  Holy  One 
burn  as  when  a  fire  is  kindled."  Further  confusion  in  the  text 
is  seen  in  the  collocation  of  U-hhacrd  w^-dkh^^ld,  instead  of  their 
distribution  in  parallel  positions.  Probably,  too,  for  k^hhodh 
ya'ro,  "glory  of  his  forest,"  read  eg  ya'ro,  "the  trees  of  his 
forest":  k^hhodh  is  due  to  dittography  from  verse  16;  the  cor- 


426  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  10 

rect  reading  'eg  ya'ro  stands  now  in  verse  19,  into  which  it  was 

written  from  the  margin ;  read : 

u-bha'ora  eg  ya'ro  w^-kharmillo 
w'^-dhheld  shltho  u-shemiro  h^-yom   'exddh: 

"and  it  shall  burn  the  trees  of  his  forests  and  garden-land,  and 
devour  his  thorns  and  thistles  in  a  single  day." 

Min-nefesh  w^-' adh  hdsdr  y^khalle,  literally,  "from  soul  unto 
body  it  shall  consume,"  certainly  belongs  in  the  figure  of  the 
consumptive  man,  and  not  in  that  of  a  burning  forest  (see  above, 
to  verse  16)  ;  for  the  phrase  cf.  Job  33.21;  Prov.  5.11;  Ps.  73.26; 
read  for  y^khalle,  yikhle :  "he  shall  waste  away ' ' ;  note  that  as 
the  text  stands  the  subject  of  y<^khalle,  "consume,"  is  "it," 
i.e.,  the  "flame"  of  verse  17,  which  is  a  feminine  noun,  while 
y^khalle  is  masculine. 

W^-hdyd  ki-m^sos  noses  ("and  they  shall  be  as  when  a 
standard  bearer  fainteth";  Septuagint,  "and  he  that  flees  shall 
be  as  one  fleeing  from  burning  flame ' ' ;  for  the  last  phrase,  see 
on  verse  16,  above)  :  for  m^sos  in  the  literal  sense  "wasting  away 
of  the  body,"  cf.  temes  in  Ps.  58.9  ("as  a  snail  which  melteth")  ; 
names  in  I  Sam.  15.9  (if  the  text  is  correct,  "consumptive"  for 
the  A.  V.  "refuse")  ;  masmdsd  in  the  Talmud  (the  "rotting 
away"  of  any  organ  of  the  body).  If  noses  is  correct,  it  must 
mean  something  more  forcible  than  merely  "a  sick  man"  (see 
BDB),  which  would  be  x^le  or  nax^le;  perhaps  "a  dying  man" 
(in  Arabic  naslsa  is  "the  last  breath  of  life"). 

19.  For  the  transposition  of  'eg  ya'ro,  "trees  of  his  forest," 
see  verse  18;  this  leaves  here  U-sh^'dr  niispdr  yihyu;  which,  with 
repetition  of  the  m  from  mispdr  (i.e.,  u-sh^'drdm)  is  exactly  the 
reading  of  the  Septuagint :  ' '  and  the  remainder  of  them  shall 
be  a  number"  (i.e.,  "numerable").  There  follows  here  natu- 
rally verse  22  (q.v.). 

20.  The  peculiar  form  of  suspensive  parallelism  used  here  is 
very  similar  to  that  found  in  7.18  (q.v.).  But  he-'^meth  at  the 
end  of  the  fourth  line  is  shown  both  by  parallelism  and  linguistic 
usage  to  be  superfluous.  Hishshd'en,  'lean  upon,"  "recline 
upon,"  is  used  invariably  with  a  consciousness  of  its  literal 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         427 

Chapter  10 
meaning,  and  does  not  take  an  abstract  complement,  as  may  its 
(abstract)  parallel  hdtax,  "trust";  the  natural  ending  for  this 
stichos  would  be  simply  Yahwe  q^dhosho  (cf.  10.16),  contrasting 
with  mdkkehu.  Curiously,  the  parallel  to  '<^nieth,  g'^dhdqd  (cf. 
Is.  48.1),  is  found  similarly  misplaced  at  the  end  of  verse  22 
(q.v.)  ;  possibly  both  are  marginal,  and  belong  to  a  missing  verse 
— further  evidence  of  confusion  in  this  section.  Verse  20,  it 
should  be  noticed,  refers  to  a  time  after  the  destruction  by 
Assyria  shall  have  been  effected;  the  emphasis  in  its  reference 
to  the  remnant  is  upon  Israel's  salvation  (i.e.,  "still  a  rem- 
nant") ;  and  since  Israel's  "Holy  One"  stands  in  contrast  with 
Israel's  "smiter,"  the  emphasis  is  upon  God  as  Israel's  savior. 
21.  This  verse  seems  to  have  several  mutually  contradictory 
implications.  Its  brevity  would  seem  to  stamp  it  as  a  single 
stichos ;  in  thought  it  is  a  parallel  to  the  last  stichos  of  verse  20 ; 
the  absence  of  connecting  conjunction  would  show  it  to  be  the 
beginning  of  a  new  thought,  to  be  connected  with  what  follows 
(verse  22),  whose  implication,  however,  it  contradicts,  for  there 
the  emphasis  is  upon  the  prophecy  of  a  remnant  as  a  threat  of 
punishment  {"only  a  remnant"),  as  in  verse  19.  But  in  addition 
to  this  confusion  in  emphasis  a  greater  suspicion  attaches  to 
verse  21  in  its  present  form  because  of  the  phrase  'el  gihhor, 
"Mighty  God."  El  is  used  as  a  proper  name  of  God  in  the 
earlier  parts  of  Isaiah  only  in  the  psalm-chapter  12  Cm  5.16  it 
has  the  article;  in  14.13  it  means  simply  "heaven";  in  8.8  and 
10  it  is  due  to  the  personal  name  Immanu-el)  ;  and  gibhor,  while 
it  occurs  elsewhere  of  God,  is  used  always  as  a  descriptive  adjec- 
tive in  a  series  of  others  or  in  parallelism,  never  as  here  making 
a  compound  proper  name  of  God ;  whereas  it  does  occur  in  the 
near-by  passage  9.5  as  the  symbolic  name  of  the  (Messianic?) 
prince.  Notice  too  that  sh^'dr  ydshuhh  is  the  symbolic  name  of 
one  of  Isaiah's  sons,  that  it  occurs  again  in  the  next  verse,  and 
that  the  remaining  phrase  in  this  sentence,  sh^'dr  yd'^qohh  is 
omitted  by  the  Septuagint  (possibly  it  was  a  variant  of  pHetath 
heth  Ya'cqohh  in  verse  20).  The  conclusion  drawn  from  the 
style  and  parallelism  is  that  this  verse  is  made  up  of  marginal 


428  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  10 

annotations;  it  is  barely  possible  that  in  some  other  form  it  was 
part  of  the  supposed  missing  distich  to  which  '^meth  and  Q^dhdqd 
also  belong  (see  verse  20). 

22.  For  the  transposition  of  22,  23,  see  on  verse  19 ;  for  sh<^dr 
ydshuhh  see  6.13,  and  above,  verse  16.  That  "righteousness" 
at  the  end  of  22  is  misplaced  is  shown  by  verse  23 :  "  for  the  Lord 
God  of  Hosts  shall  make  a  consumption  [kdld]  even  determined 
[w^-nex^rdgd] ,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  earth,"  which  is  evidently 
merely  a  fuller  prose  repetition  of  the  preceding  "the  consump- 
tion [killdyon]  decreed  [x^^wf]  shall  overflow"  but  which  leaves 
the  disturbing  term  "with  righteousness"  unexplained.  At  the 
same  time,  some  word  has  evidently  fallen  out  parallel  to 
killdyon  and  as  the  subject  of  shoteph  (which  is  really  a  par- 
allel to  x^"""^^)  '■>  fortunatelj'  verse  26,  below,  and  28.15-18  supply 
it ;  read  probably : 

Tcilldyon  x^^Wf 
shot  shoteph. 

Shot  is  literally  "a  whip";  but  in  28.15,  where  the  figurative 
use  of  the  term  is  elaborated  it  would  seem  to  mean  "scourging 
flood,"  since  shoteph,  used  with  it,  is  frequent  in  Isaiah  in  the 
figure  of  the  overflowing  flood  of  God's  punishment;  'dhhar, 
used  with  shdtaph  in  8.8,  is  used  of  shot  in  28.15 ;  and  in  28.19 
"treading,"  mirmds,  and  "taking,"  yiqqax,  show  further  that 
shot  has  not  its  original  meaning  "whip."  It  is  hardly  prob- 
able that  mere  paronomasia  led  to  Isaiah's  choice  of  the  word; 
possibly  there  is  a  reference  to  some  other  meaning  of  the  root 
(curiously  Muhammad  also  uses  the  figure  "pour  out  [sahl)]  a 
saut  of  punishment ' ' ;  saut  is  also  a  pool  of  water  left  by  a  tor- 
rent). At  any  rate,  in  28.18  the  rulers  are  rebuked  for  scorn- 
ing the  Prophet's  admonition,  and  the  words  shot  shoteph  are 
put  mockingly  in  their  mouths  apparently  as  a  quotation  of  his 
own  previously  spoken  words :  as  though  they  said  ' '  your  shot 
shoteph  when  it  comes  will  not  touch  us " ;  whereupon  the 
Prophet  (28.17)  repeats  the  phrase  in  answer,  elaborates  it  in 
detail,  and  then  at  the  end  of  that  prophecy  (28.22)  repeats  also 
the  identical  words  he  had  used  at  the  end  of  the  previous 
prophecy  (10.23;  with  this  concluding  prose  line,  cf.  9.6). 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  m  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         429 

Chapter  10 

24.  The  following  verses  (through  26)  naturally  follow  im- 
mediately upon  verse  16.  Verse  24  is  apparently  a  long  prose 
sentence ;  only  ' '  my  people  "  is  in  parallelism  possibly  with  ' '  the 
inhabitant  of  Zion."  There  is  evidence  of  disorder,  however; 
the  phrase  at  the  end  of  24,  "after  the  manner  of  Egypt,"  is 
out  of  place;  it  is  a  repetition  from  the  end  of  26,  where  it 
occurs  also,  and  properly.  Before  it  (in  verse  24)  the  Septua- 
gint  inserts  tov  Ihdv,  i.e.,  llroth,  possibly  a  mere  repetition  of 
the  consonants  in  'al  tlrd',  "fear  not,"  or  possibly,  together 
with  "the  way  of  Egypt,"  a  marginal  reading;  if  the  original 
text  read  'al  texath  (Josh.  8.1)  or  'al  tiphxadh,  with  'al  tlrd'  in 
the  margin  intended  as  a  proper  insertion,  the  Massoretic  text 
may  have  substituted  it  instead  of,  properly,  adding  it : 

'al  ttrCi'  ' amml  ' 

w<^-'al  tf'xath  yoshebh  Qiyyon 

me-  'Ashshur  hash-shebhet  yakJcekkd 

u-mattehu  yissd'  '  dlelchd. 

On  the  stanza  construction  cf.  7.4:  "fear  not,  neither  be  faint- 
hearted, from  these  two,"  etc.  Here  hash-shehhet  yakkekkd  is 
probably  a  relative  clause  (cf.  the  note  to  1.21). 

25.  Read  za'ml,  "my  indignation,"  for  za'am;  and  for  ' al 
tahhllthdm,  "upon  their  destruction,"  'al  tehhel  yittom:  "  (and 
my  anger)  against  the  world  [cf.  13.11]  will  be  finished"  (cf. 
the  parallelism  in  16.4)  ;  or  ' dUkhd  (kullo)  yittom:  "against 
thee  will  all  be  finished. ' ' 

26.  For  shot,  "scourge,"  read  shibhto,  "his  staff,"  parallel 
to  mattehu,  "his  rod";  the  exact  repetition  of  the  terms  shehhet 
and  matte  from  verse  24  is  stylistically  satisfactory  and  em- 
phatic, but  the  repetition  of  one  and  variation  of  the  other 
obscures  the  emphasis :  ' '  Fear  not  from  Assyria,  who  smites  thee 
with  rod  and  staff;  for  soon  the  rod  and  staff  will  be  turned 
against  him. ' '  The  Septuagint  omits  shot  here ;  probably,  then, 
it  stood  in  the  margin,  and  was. intended  for  an  insertion  in  verse 
22  (q.v.),  where  it  is  in  place. 

The  second  half  of  this  verse  is  literally:  "and  his  staff 
upon  the  sea  and  he  will  raise  it  in  the  manner  of  Egypt"; 
Septuagint:   "and   his   wrath   by  the  way   of  the   sea,   to   the 


430  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  10 

way  toward  Egypt."  The  confusion  is  self-evident;  parallel- 
ism suggests  simply:  u-nmttehu  'dldw  yinndse'  (or  yissd')  h^- 
dherekh  migrdyim,  ''and  his  staff  against  him  shall  be  raised 
(or  shall  he  raise)  in  the  manner  of  Egypt";  'at  hay-yom  may 
be  from  '  Hehem, ' '  upon  them, ' '  an  error  for  '  dldw,  ' '  upon  him ' ' ; 
but  if  the  phrase  "at  the  Rock  of  Orebh"  in  the  preceding 
stichos  is  correct,  then  "at  the  sea,"  balancing  it,  belongs  at  the 
end  of  this  second  stichos. 

27c.  W^-xubhal  '61  mip-p^ne  shdmen  ("and  the  yoke  shall  be 
destroyed  because  of  the  anointing  [lit.  the  oil  J")  :  w^^-xubhal 
means  "be  corrupted,"  "waste  away"  (cf.  Job  17.1,  where  it  is 
parallel  to  "be  extinguished";  Micah  2.10,  to  "be  sick"),  and 
is  inappropriate  with  "yoke,"  'ol;  the  repetition  of  '61  from 
the  preceding  stichos  is  intolerable;  "because  of  the  anointing" 
is  absurd;  and  the  whole  clause  is  probably  made  up  of  mar- 
ginal variants  to  the  preceding  couplet,  or,  in  part  belongs  with 
the  next  section,  which  has  no  connection  with  verse  27  and 
itself  is  probably  defective  in  its  beginning;  evidently  the  orig- 
inal document  was  in  bad  condition  here.  Xubhal,  vocalized 
xebhel,  "rope,"  might  be  a  variant  of  '61  in  stichos  b,  or  of 
sdhhel,  "burden,"  in  a;  shdmen,  "oil,"  a  corruption  of 
shikhmekhd,  "thy  shoulder,"  which,  indeed,  the  Septuagint 
reads,  while  it  offers  further  evidence  of  corruption  in  reading 
in  stichos  b  "fear  from  thee"  instead  of  "his  yoke  from  thy 
neck."  The  omission  of  this  corrupt  stichos  leaves  a  couplet 
similar  to  14.25,  "his  yoke  shall  depart  from  off  them,  and  his 
burden  depart  from  off  their  shoulders." 

28-31.  This  picture  of  the  approach  of  the  Assyrian  belongs 
in  spirit  with  5.26-20 ;  and  the  reconstruction  of  an  introductorj^ 
stichos,  together  with  the  division  of  verse  30a  into  two  stichoi 
(as  suggested  below),  would  yield  18  stichoi,  the  same  number 
as  in  5.26-30.  The  general  parallelism  is  evident ;  down  to  verse 
31  each  stichos  contains  a  proper  name  and  a  verb ;  a  third  term, 
object  of  the  verb,  is  found  possibly  in  three  stichoi.  In  sub- 
ject matter  the  first  five  stichoi  give  the  route  traveled  by  the 
Assyrian  to  his  night  encampment;  the  following  seven  (begin- 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         431 

Chapter  10 
ning  "Ramali  is  afraid")  picture  the  alarm  of  places  either 
along,  or  near,  the  route  of  march  on  the  coming  day ;  the  climax 
(in  verse  32)  is  not  clear  in  form  or  purpose.  There  is  a  strong 
presumption  that  originally  the  couplet  formation,  which  at 
present  is  indicated  by  a  closer  affinity  between  some  of  the  verbs 
used,  was  consistent  throughout ;  the  text  is  not  without  internal 
evidence  of  corruptions. 

Another  factor  to  be  taken  into  account  is  assonance;  within 
the  following  stichoi  there  is  a  repetition  of  at  least  one  letter 
in  each  case :  ' dhhar  h^-mighron;  'abh^ru  ma'hhdrd;  mdlon  Idnii; 
xar<^dhd  hd-rdmd;  gah^ll  qolekh  hath-gallim;  haqshihhl  layishd ; 
'(^myyd  'cnuthoth;  nddh^dhd  madhmend;  h^nohh  . .  .  y^nopheph. 
Possibly  the  selection  of  the  place  names  for  mention  was  gov- 
erned in  part  by  this  principle. 

28.  hd'  'dl  ' Ayyath,  ''he  is  come  to  Aiath,"  means  rather 
"he  has  gone  against  Aiath";  assonance  is  missing:  this  first 
stichos  is  possibly,  then,  defective;  perhaps  ' al,  "against,"  rep- 
resents another  verb,  'did,  while  hd'  belongs  in  a  missing  preced- 
ing stichos. 

'Ahhar  h<^-mighron,  "he  is  passed  to  Migron":  'dhhar  here 
and  immediately  afterwards  in  verse  29  is  crude ;  possibly  orig- 
inally another  verb,  with  a  moYe  exact  alliteration,  stood  here. 

L^-mikhmas  yaphqldh  keldw,  literally  "to  Michmas  he  will 
entrust  his  baggage":  the  preposition  should  be  &^  ("in";  the 
verb,  then,  "store  up")  ;  the  imperfect  verb,  while  all  others 
down  to  verse  32  are  perfects,  is  unjustified;  alliteration  is 
absent;  the  line  is  long;  it  does  not  stand  in  clear  parallelism; 
and  the  question  may  be  asked,  why  the  author  makes  the  army 
spend  the  night  just  one  hour's  march  beyond  its  impedimenta, 
instead  of  in  the  same  place  with  them — especially  since  the  gain 
of  one  hour  in  the  next  day's  start  could  not  be  of  much  impor- 
tance ;  for  the  entire  distance  from  Michmas  to  Jerusalem  is  only 
three  or  four  hours'  march.  Possibly  the  answer  is  that  there  is 
a  play  on  the  name  Michmas,  if  the  root  kdmas,  actually  (cf. 
Deut.  32.34),  or  by  approximation  to  kdnas,  denotes  "gather," 
"store  up."    From  the  standpoint  of  parallelism,  this  stichos  in 


432  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  10 

form  and  thought  might  be  joined  with  "they  have  taken  up 

their  lodgings  in  Geba";  but  another  stichos  intervenes. 

29.  ' '  They  are  gone  over  the  passage ' ' ;  the  omission  of  the 
proper  name  of  the  Pass  is  striking;  perhaps  the  next  word, 
Geba,  is  to  be  joined  to  this  stichos;  the  pass  between  Michmas 
and  Geba  might  as  well  be  called  Geba  Pass  as  Michmas  Pass 
(I  Sam.  18.23). 

Gebha'  mdlon  Idnii  is  literally  either  "Geba  (is)  a  lodging 
for  us"  or  "Geba  (is)  a  lodging  (which ;  cognate  ace.)  they  have 
lodged";  either  is  suspicious.  If  Geba,  as  suggested,  belongs 
with  "Pass,"  mdlon  represents  a  corrupt  proper  name;  e.g. 
(with  dittography  from  Gehha'),  hf-^dlmon  Idnu  (cf.  Josh. 
21.18)  ;  the  Septuagint  substitutes  here  a  repetition  of  the  first 
stichos  of  verse  28. 

30.  QahHl  qolekh  is  literally  ' '  neigh  thy  voice ' ' ;  doubly 
curious  because  the  absolutely  superfluous  qolekh  makes  the  line 
too  long,  and  because  gahHl  is  elsewhere  used  only  of  joy,  praise, 
desire,  not  fear.  The  Septuagint  omits  both  words.  Since, 
moreover,  there  is  an  odd  number  of  stichoi  in  this  section,  it  is 
probable  that,  together  with  n'^sl',  "raise,"  the  proper  verb  to 
govern  qolekh,  some  place  name  has  fallen  out  after  cah^^ll,  per- 
haps Azmaweth  (north  of  Auath'oth),  not  mentioned  until  later 
times,  it  is  true;  but  Gebim  (verse  31)  also  is  an  otherwise 
unknown  place.  Corresponding  to  a  couplet  containing  these 
two  verbs  "shriek,"  "raise  thy  voice,"  is  the  couplet  formed  by 
the  remainder  of  this  verse:  "Listen,  Laisha;  answer  [read  '"ni 
for'«?w?/t/a]  Anatoth." 

31.  Possibly  the  couplet  "Madmenah  is  removed  [i.e.,  fled], 
the  inhabitants  of  Gebim  have  sought  safety  [A.  V.  gather  them 
selves  together  to  flee]  "  belongs  at  the  end  of  29 ;  gehhini  means 
pits  or  cisterns;  and  there  may  be  a  play  on  the  thought  of  the 
pit  as  a  place  of  hiding  (cf.  I  Sam.  13.6,  where  the  Philistines 
are  described  as  hiding  in  pits  when  Saul  advanced  to  Michmas). 

32.  "As  yet  shall  Che)  remain  at  Nob  that  day,"  'odh  hay- 
yom  h^-ndhh  la-'(hn6dh:  odh  is  perhaps  an  error;  the  peri- 
phrastic infinitive  la-'^mddh,  if  correct,  denotes  either  necessity, 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         433 

Chapter  10 
"he  must  stay,"  or  imminence,  "is  about  to  stay";  only  the 
latter  is  logical  here;  and  ' odh,  denoting  continuance,  is  then 
confusing:  if  correct,  it  must  have  the  unusual  meaning  "still 
to-day,"  i.e.,  even  today  {h^- egem  hay-yom  haz-ze;  or  w^- odh 
hay-yom  gddhol)  ;  but  it  may  be  only  dittography  from  the 
preceding  word,  which  the  Septuagint  repeats  instead  of  it ; 
hay-yom,  "today,"  is  sufficient.  It  should  be  noted,  however, 
that  the  sentence  contains  no  subject,  which  is  all  the  more 
remarkable  in  that  the  implied  subject  is  not  that  of  the  imme- 
diately preceding  stichoi,  but  one  last  referred  to  in  29b ;  '  odh 
stands  just  where  a  subject  might  be  expected.  La-  (^modh,  if 
correct,  is  not  here  "tarry,"  but  simply  "take  his  stand";  Nohh 
was  evidently  a  hill  overlooking  Jerusalem  (possibly  because  of 
y^nophcph,  nohh  suggests  noph,  "height";  cf.  Ps.  48.3),  on 
which  he  "is  to  take  his  stand"  to  give  his  signal  to  his  armies 
for  the  attack.  Y^nopheph  (read  possibly  w^-nopheph)  occurs 
only  here,  and  replaces  the  usual  form  yaniph  (cf.  11.15,  13.2, 
19.16,  etc.)  simpl}'  for  the  sake  of  the  assonance. 

"The  mountain  of  the  daughter  of  Zion,  the  hill  of  Jeru- 
salem " :  as  accusatives  of  place  after  the  verb  ' '  wave ' '  the 
construction  is  remarkable ;  the  verb  is  followed  always  by  a 
preposition,  or  else  is  used  absolutely  (cf.  13.2)  ;  har  hath  Qlyon 
and  gihh'ath  Y^rushdlayim  are  evidently  parallels:  possibly, 
then,  they  are  mere  vocatives. 

33-34  constitute  a  stanza,  at  present  of  five  stichoi,  all  par- 
allel, but  with  a  closer  affinity  between  the  first  ("the  Lord  shall 
lop  the  bough  with  terror")  and  fourth  ("and  he  shall  cut  down 
the  thickets  of  the  forests  with  iron")  ;  between  the  second  ("and 
the  high  ones  of  stature  shall  be  hewn  down")  and  third  ("and 
the  haughty  shall  be  humbled")  ;  and  perhaps  between  these 
and  the  fifth  ("and  Lebanon  shall  fall  by  a  mighty  one")  ;  pos- 
sibly then  a  sixth  stichos  should  be  supplied  to  balance  the  fifth : 
e.g.,  wchah-h^rosh  han-nisd'  yikkdreth:  "and  the  lofty  fir  shall 
be  cut  down"  (cf.  14.8,  37.24).  This  parallelism  points  also 
to  the  emendation  oi  h^^-ma'^rdgd,  "with  terror,"  which  is  very 
inapt,   to   h<'-nm  O'Qddh   or   ma'^gadhd,   a  synonym  of   h^-harzel 


434  University  of  California  Ptihlications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Chapter  10 

("with  iron,"  i.e.,  "axe");  cf,  Jer.  10.3,  "one  cutteth  a  tree 
out  of  the  f orest . . .  with  the  axe  (ham-nm' ^gddh ;  Is.  44.12: 
barzel  ma'f^Qddh) ;  in  Arabic  the  equivalent  mi' dad  is  exactly 
"an  instrument  with  which  trees  are  lopped"  (Lane,  s.v.).  For 
ha-'addir,  "by  a  mighty  one,"  read  ha-'addir  ("the  mighty"; 
cf.  Ezek.  17.23,  'erez  'addlr,  "a  goodly  cedar")  ;  or  simply 
'addlr,  transposed  before  "Lebanon";  in  Is.  60.13  k^bhodh 
L^hhdnon,  literally,  * '  the  glory  of  Lebanon, ' '  means  * '  cedar. ' ' 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         435 


SUMMAEY 


Amount  of  Parallelism  in  the  Oracles  of  Isaiah  1-10 


Total 
number  of 
"periods" 

Clear 

parallelism 

With 

traces  of 

parallelisn 

Non-parallelistic 

Formu- 
la   las 

At 
end  of 
stanzas 

■» 

Chapter 

No. 

Percentage 
of  whole 

Others 

1. 

95 

83 

87% 

8 

2(3) 

!(?■) 

1 

2. 

71 

63 

88% 

5 





3 

3. 

•  81 

67 

83% 

10 

3 



1 

4. 

U4 

18 

75% 

4 



2 

5. 

101 

87 

86% 

12 

1 



2 

6.9b-10 

,  llc-131 

17 

11 

64% 

6 



7.4b-9, 

I8-251 

40 

22 

55% 

16 

1 

1 

8.6-10, 

12-15, 

21-23^ 

45 

30 

66% 

15 

.... 

9. 

74 

71 

98% 

2 

1 

I 

10. 

99 

78 

78% 

17 

1 

3 

Totals 

647 

530 

82%    - 

95' 

7 

3 

14 

^  6.1— 9a,  11a,  are  narrative  and  autobiographical;  7.1-3,  10—17;  and  8.1—5.  11, 
16-20  are  partly  narrative,  partly  personal,  and  partly  deal  with  names  and  "signs." 
Though  containing  a  considerable  amount  of  parallelism,  they  have  not  been  included 
in  this  table. 

-  A  list  of  the  verses  in  which  parallelism  is  not  clear,  as  well  as  those  in  which  it 
does  not  exist,  follows. 
=>  =  14%. 


List  of  Passages  in  Isaiah  1-10^  not  in  Clear  Parallelism 


End 
Chapter       With  traces  of  parallelism  Formulas      of  stanza 

1.  [2c?];    5b;    9a;    12a,    b,    e;        [2c?];  24       20b 

13c,  d;  15c;   [24?] 

2.  5;   6a;   9c;   18;    [20d?] 


3.  la,  b;    3c;    6a;    8c,  d;    9c;     7a;  15c;  16a 

10a;  11a;  14b;  18a 

4.  2c;  3d;  5e;  6a 

5.  la,  b,  c,  d;  12;  14e;  25c,  d;  9a 

26c;  30a,  b,  c,  d 

6.  9h;  13a,  b,  c,  d,  e 

7.  4c;  5a,  b;  21;  22;   23-25  7a 


8.  6c;  7c;   [8d?];   [10c?];  21- 

23 

9.  3d;  8c 


[10c] 
6k 


24a 


10.      8;    10;    18a;    21;    22a,    b; 
22c,  d;  24b,  c;  25;  27c 
^  See  note  to  previous  table  for  passages  not  included. 


23 


Others 
18a  (introd.  words 

of  exhortation) 
[20d];    22a,    b,    c 

(not    in    Septua- 

gint) 
6c  (contains  words 

repeated  in  7c) 
la;  3e 
5a:  6fi 


8c  (interrupts  per- 
fect parallelism) 


4d ;  5c  (repeats 
words  from  6a 
and  3b) 

24f  (repeated  in 
verse  27) 


436  Univefsity  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

In  the  preceding  tables  under  "clear  parallelism"  are  in- 
cluded those  stichoi  which  are  generally  called  "synonymous." 
But  it  must  be  noted  that  in  parallelism  this  term  is  applied  to 
series  of  words  other  than  those  cited  in  the  dictionaries  as 
synonyms  or  antonyms;  there  are  not  many  stichoi,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  in  which  the  corresponding  words  are  exact  synonyms, 
as  they  are,  for  instance,  in  2,17,  where  gahhuth  and  rum  each 
means  literally  "height,"  'ddhdm  and  'o-ndshlm  mean  respec- 
tively ' '  mankind ' '  and  ' '  men, ' '  and  shax  and  shdphel, ' '  prostrate 
oneself"  and  "be  low"  or  "prostrate."  More  often  the  terms 
are  synonyms  only  by  synecdoche  or  some  other  variety  of 
metonomy,  as  in  1.29,  where  "oaks"  is  used  as  a  synonym  of 
"gardens"  or  "groves."  Perhaps,  then,  a  broader  term  than 
"synonyms"  should  be  used,  such  as  "complements,"  denoting 
terms  which  as  they  are  used  by  the  author  are  seen  to  belong  to 
some  one  logical  category.  Such  complements  Isaiah  is  fond  of 
heaping  up ;  e.g.,  in  1.11-14,  terms  referring  to  ritual  service 
(offerings  and  sacrifices  of  various  kinds,  oblations,  incense,  fes- 
tivals and  feasts)  ;  2.7-8,  to  riches  (silver,  gold,  horses,  chariots)  ; 
3.18-23,  to  dress  (21  items)  ;  2.13,  to  height  as  a  symbol  of  pride 
(mountains,  hills,  cedars,  oaks,  towers,  walls,  ships)  ;  3.2,  to  pub- 
lic life  (mighty  men,  warriors,  judges,  prophets,  necromancers)  ; 
3.5,  6,  to  mutual  human  relationship  (man,  neighbor,  youth,  aged, 
lowly,  honorable,  brother,  father)  ;  l.W,  to  landscape  (valleys, 
caves,  bushes,  meadows)  ;  1.6,  to  treatment  of  wounds  (pressed, 
bound,  softened)  ;  1.7,  to  destruction  (wasted,  burnt,  eaten)  ;  1.11 
to  aversion  (satiated,  displeased,  abominate,  not  tolerate,  hate,  find 
burdensome,  wearied)  ;  5.2,  to  viticulture  (clear  and  fence  land, 
plant,  build  watch-towers,  hew  vats)  ;  and  to  many  other  vague 
synthetic  ideas  implied  in  the  use  of  such  regularly  associated 
complements  as  heaven  and  earth ;  sea  and  land ;  light  and  dark- 
ness ;  hear  and  speak ;  command  and  obey.  Sometimes,  however, 
the  complementary  nature  of  the  terms  is  not  due  to  regular 
association  but  rather  to  the  special,  often  metaphorical,  use  in 
the  stichoi  in  question:  e.g.,  "flint"  and  "whirlwind"  to  connote 
hardness  and  swiftness  as  the  attributes  respectively  of  horses' 
hoofs  and  chariot  wheels  advancing  for  an  invasion.     In  all  these 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         437 

cases  it  is  quite  evident  that  the  lists  of  terms  used  by  the 
Prophet  might  be  either  enlarged  or  diminished  without  effecting 
his  main  purpose ;  compare  1,26  with  3.2,  two  passages  referring 
to  officials ;  the  fact  that  the  former  mentions  only  judges  and 
counsellors  whereas  the  latter  mentions  many  other  classes  does 
not  imply  that  the  Prophet  is  predicting  the  existence  of  a  state 
in  which  there  shall  be  only  those  two  classes  of  officials;  but  as 
in  all  such  cases,  each  stichos  mentioning  one  species  of  the  genus 
implies  the  whole  genus.  And  so  the  term  ' '  complementary ' '  can 
be  applied  to  thought  units  or  periods  as  a  whole,  to  two  or  more 
lines  each  of  which  expresses  an  equal  part  of  some  one  complex 
idea.  It  will  be  seen,  then,  that  lyric,  prophetic,  or  didactic 
poetry  must  not  be  viewed  as  would  be  an  historical  or  geological 
treatise;  in  the  light  of  parallelism  a  list  such  as  that  in  3.18  is 
poetical  and  effective ;  as  archaeology  it  might  be  interesting,  but 
it  is  tedious  and  defective. 

And  here  the  rule  should  be  enunciated  that  in  a  parallelistic 
setting,  i.e.,  when  surrounded  by  other  couplets  or  strophes  in 
evident  parallelism,  any  two  lines  must  also  be  read  as  parallel- 
ism if  this  is  in  any  way  possible;  just  as  in  the  scansion  of 
poetry  a  doubtful  line  must  be  scanned  if  possible  in  the  light 
of  the  dominant  metre.    For  example  5.25 : 

Therefore  is  the  anger  of  the  Lord  kindled  against  his  people. 

And  he  hath  stretched  forth  his  hand  against  them  and  smitten  them. 

If  this  were  simple  narrative,  it  might  be  said  that  the  fact 
detailed  in  the  second  line  was  subsequent  to  that  described  in 
the  first.  But  Isaiah  is  not  here  concerned  mainly  with  writing 
history  or  making  a  psychological  analysis ;  the  second  line  is  not 
only  a  logical  complement  of  the  first,  but  by  implication  one 
is  a  repetition  of  the  other:  from  the  standpoint  of  prophetic 
philosophj^  God 's  anger  implies  of  necessity  punishment ;  or  at 
least  punishment  implies  his  anger.  So  the  couplet  in  Amos  5.8, 
discussed  by  Mr.  Newman  under  synthetic  parallelism,  I  should 
unhesitatingly  classify  as  clear  parallelism : 

He  that  calls  for  the  waters  of  the  sea, 

And  pours  them  out  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 


438  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

This,  again,  is  not  intended  primarily  as  a  scientific  description 
of  the  formation  of  rain ;  each  line  means  simply :  God  controls 
by  his  word  the  phenomena  of  nature. 

At  the  same  time  objection  must  be  taken  to  the  indiscrim- 
inate use  of  the  term  "synthetic  parallelism"  in  reference  to 
any  two  lines  in  couplet  formation.  Following  the  Isaiah  passage 
last  quoted  is  this  couplet  (5.25c,  d)  : 

And  the  hills  did  tremble 

And  their  carcases  were  torn  in  the  midst  of  the  streets. 

In  a  general  way,  it  is  true,  each  of  these  lines  means  that  when 
God  is  angry,  the  whole  world  (nature  and  man)  feels  the  effects, 
but  the  two  stichoi  first  quoted  speak  specifically  of  God's  anger 
against  men ;  the  last  stichos  still  is  limited  to  the  same  narrower 
objective.  Moreover,  it  is  difficult  to  group  the  subjects  ''hills" 
and  "carcasses,"  and  the  predicates  "tremble"  and  "torn,"  re- 
spectively under  any  one  category.  On  the  other  hand,  "hills" 
and  "streets"  are  or  may  be  parallels;  and,  in  the  light  of  the 
evident  awkwardness  of  style  (with  the  pronoun  in  the  fourth 
line  referring  back  to  the  second  in  absolute  disregard  of  the 
third),  and  of  the  comparative  shortness  of  the  third  line,  I  have 
classified  the  couplet  as  one  with  "traces  of  parallelism." 

Another  possible  area  of  doubt  is  presented  by  incomplete 
propositions  or  clauses  as  elements  in  parallelism.  Cases  in 
which  the  incompleteness  is  merely  rhetorical  need  not  be  con- 
sidered here ;  i.e.,  those  in  which  an  incomplete  phrase  or  clause 
is  in  apposition  with  some  part  of  a  complete  sentence,  and 
hence  assumes  from  it  the  missing  syntactic  elements,  as  1.8, 
where  "as  a  lodge  in  the  cucumber-garden"  is  parallel  to  "the 
daughter  of  Zion  is  left  as  a  cottage  in  the  vineyard";  or  1.6, 
where  the  series  of  detached  nouns  "wounds,  and  bruises,  and 
purifying  sores"  is  in  apposition  with  "all  the  head  is  sick" 
and  with  the  following  series  of  verbs,  "not  pressed,  not  bound, 
not  softened  with  ointment,"  or  msiy  be  considered  in  itself 
as  a  series  of  three  parallel  terms;  or  again  9.20,  21,  where 
"Manasseh,  Ephraim,  and  Ephraim,  Manasseh,  and  together 
they  against  ['al]  Judah"  are  parallel  clauses  deriving  their 
syntactic  construction  from  the  previous  sentences,  "each  shall 


Vol.  1.]    Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         439 

eat  the  flesh  of  his  own  arm,"  or  "of  his  neighbor,"  and  "he 
shall  eat  on  [' at]  the  right  hand." 

A  second  variety  of  incomplete  parallelism  is  seen  when  to  a 
couplet  syntactically  complete  is  added  another  parallelistic 
couplet  expressing  a  non-essential  qualifier,  e.g.,  2.10:  "Enter 
into  the  rock,  and  hide  thee  in  the  dust, ' '  to  which  is  added,  ' '  for 
fear  of  the  Lord,  and  for  the  glory  of  his  majesty";  here  again 
the  parallelism  is  clear;  but  in  verses  20  and  21  a'  third  prepo- 
sitional phrase  is  added:  "when  he  rises  to  shake  terribly  the 
earth ' '  ( Heb.  "  at  his  rising  to  terrify  the  earth  " ) .  Here  ' '  fear ' ' 
and  ' '  terrify ' '  are  associated  terms,  though  used  in  varying  syn- 
tactic construction;  and  it  is  quite  evident  that  "for  fear  of  the 
Lord ' '  might  be  omitted,  without  altering  the  sense  in  any  way : 
' '  Hide  thee  in  the  dust  when  the  Lord  rises  to  terrify  the  earth ' ' 
implies  the  fear.  However,  I  have  reckoned  the  additional 
phrase  as  one  showing  merely  traces  of  parallelism,  in  order  that 
I  might  not  be  charged  with  exaggerating  the  number  of  cases 
of  clear  parallelism.  It  should  be  remarked,  moreover,  that  even 
if  there  were  no  stichic  parallelism  here,  there  would  still  be 
strophic  parallelism,  since  the  whole  refrain  is  repeated  in  the 
same  form. 

A  greater  variation  from  the  simple  type  of  parallelism  arises 
in  what  I  have  called  ' '  suspensive ' '  parallelism,  seen  in  quatrains 
in  which  neither  set  of  parallel  stichoi  is  syntactically  complete 
without  the  other:  e.g.,  4.5;  9.5  (Eng.).  Still,  these  seem  to  me 
undoubtedly  parallelistic  in  principle.  But  it  is  possible  that 
in  the  use  of  this  form  there  lies  the  beginning  of  non-parallel- 
istic  formations  in  Hebrew  poetry,  for  it  accustoms  the  mind  to 
the  use  of  incomplete  stichoi  as  units  of  poetic  structure.  An 
intermediate  step  between  the  suspensive  parallelism  and  non- 
parallelism  is  perhaps  to  be  seen  in  a  couple  of  examples  in 
which,  while  the  first  part  of  a  proposition  is  repeated  in  a  par- 
allelistic couplet,  only  a  single  stichos  is  added  to  complete  the 
meaning ;  e.g.,  4.3  : 

He  who  is  left  in  Zion 
And  he  that  remaineth  in  Jerusalem 
Shall  holy  be  called. 


440  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

Or  9.4  (53ng.),  with  tristich  instead  of  couplet: 

The  yoke  of  his  burden, 
And  the  staff  of  his  shoulder, 
The  rod  of  his  oppressor. 

Hast  thou  broken  in  the  day  of  Midian. 

It  would  be  possible  to  regard  these  two  instances  as  being  the 

reverse  of  the  species  of  appositional  parallelism  exemplified  in 

1.26cd  and  1.8    (quoted  above)    respectively,   i.e.,  with  a  long 

second  line,  the  first  being  in  anticipatory  apposition  with  part 

thereof : 

He  who  is  left  in  Zion 

And  he  that  remaineth  in  Jerusalem  shall  holy  be  called; 

The  staff  of  his  shoulder. 

The  rod  of  his  oppressor  hast  thou  broken  as  in  the  day  of  Midian. 

But  in  these  two  instances  I  beliisve  that  the  text  is  faulty;  at 
any  rate  I  have  classified  the  odd  stichoi  as  doubtful. 

In  all  of  the  cases  of  the  use  of  incomplete  clauses  or  phrases 
discussed  thus  far  (excepting  the  last  phrase  in  2.19),  syntactic 
parallelism  was  present.  But  there  are  also  cases  in  which 
apparently  clauses  of  different  syntactic  construction  may  be 
parallel : 

Relative  clauses. — In  these  the  relative  is  the  double  relative 
("he  who,"  or  "that  which"),  and  the  clause  is  not  restrictive 
or  essential,  but  is  an  appositional  modifier.  In  5.28,  "whose 
arrows  are  sharp  and  all  whose  bows  are  bent,"  are  two  such 
clauses  in  parallelism  with  each  other;  nevertheless  they  estab- 
lish the  use  of  the  relative  in  parallelism.  But  in  2.8,  2.20,  are 
relative  clauses  in  apposition  to  nouns  (see  there,  and  the  dis- 
cussion on  '1.21)  ;  and  in  9.2  ka-''^sher  (lit.  "like  what,"  i.e., 
"as")  before  a  finite  verb,  "they  rejoice,"  is  parallel  to  the 
simple  preposition  k^,  ' '  like, ' '  before  a  noun,  ' '  the  joy. ' '  Other 
relatives  appear  in  2.22,  5.5,  8.20,  8.23  [9.1],  all  in  doubtful 
passages. 

Circumstantial  clauses. — These  contain  verbs  in  the  imper- 
fect, the  English  generally  translating  as  independent  sentences. 
Examples  are:  8.8,  "Reaching  (imperf.)  even  to  the  neck,"  par- 
allel to  "it  shall  overflow  and  go  over";  9.18,  "devouring  the 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         441 

briers  and  thorns,"  parallel  to  "burnetii  as  a  fire";  9.19,  "each 
eating  the  flesh  of  his  own  arm,"  parallel  to  "he  ate  upon  the 
left";  5.6,  "not  being  pruned"  parallel  to  "I  shall  make  it  a 
waste"  (see  also  the  note  on  1.5).  In  3.16  the  circumstantial 
imperfect,  "walking  and  mincing  as  they  go"  is  in  parallelism 
with  the  participle,  "ogling  with  their  eyes,"  and  both  are  in 
parallelism  to  "they  are  haughty."  Sometimes  the  circumstan- 
tial imperfect  is  difficult  to  distinguish  from  the  relative  clause 
with  relative  omitted  (see  again  on  1.21)  ;  thus  10.24:  "smiting 
thee  with  the  rod "  or  "  who  smites  thee  with  the  rod, ' '  referring 
to  ' '  the  Assyrian ' ' ;  here,  however,  there  are  two  such  imperfect 
clauses,  so  that  parallelism  does  not  depend  upon  this  interpre- 
tation. 

The  use  of  all  of  these  clauses  in  parallelism  still  rests  upon 
the  principle  of  apposition ;  but  there  is  another  series  of  de- 
pendent clauses  of  various  kinds,  introduced  by  subordinating 
conjunctions,  and  which  nevertheless  may  be  in  parallelism  to 
their  own  main  clauses ;  though  this  involves  apparently  consid- 
erable departure  from  the  simple  type  of  synonymous  parallelism 
and  may  be  a  subject  for  divergence  of  opinion.  It  is  again  to 
be  insisted  upon,  that  where  such  clauses  occur  in  the  midst  of 
parallelism,  the  investigator  must  seek  for  reasons  to  include 
them  as  such,  and  not  allow  his  own  definitions  and  prejudg- 
ments to  deny  their  parallelism. 

Conditimial  clauses. — It  is  evident  of  course,  that  not  every 
protasis  and  apodosis  can  be  regarded  as  parallelistic ;  but  the 
moment  that  ihey  contain  synonj'ms  or  complements,  the  possi- 
bility that  the  author  intended  them  as  such  is  present ;  e.g.,  1.18 : 

If  your  sins  are  red  as  scarlet, 
They  shall  be  white  as  snow. 

It  must  be  remembered,  moreover,  that  in  Hebrew  syntax 
dependent  and  independent  constructions  interchange  freely, 
that  protasis  and  apodosis  even  in  prose  may  be  expressed  as 
parallel  clauses;  e.g..  Num.  14.15,  "if  thou  shalt  kill  all  this 
people,  the  nations  will  say"  is  literally:  "And  thou  shalt  kill 
all  this  people  and  the  nations  will  say."  Compare  also  with 
this  the  parallelistic  construction  in  Is.  5.7:  "What  was  there 


442  University  of  California  Publications.      [Sem.  Phil,- 

still  to  do  to  my  vineyard,  and  did  I  not  do, ' '  which  is  the  equiva- 
lent of  "if  [or  when]  there  was  anything  to  do  to  my  vineyard, 
did  I  not  do  it?"  or,  as  the  English  actually  translates,  "what 
was  there  that  I  did  not  do?"  A  closer  examination  of  Is.  1.18 
shows  as  a  matter  of  fact  that  the  condition  is  merely  a  rhetorical 
one;  the  thought  is:  "Your  sins  are  now  as  scarlet;  they  shall 
[or  must]  be  white  as  snow."  Another  example  is  contained 
in  7.9 : 

If  ye  are  not  firm  (he'^imnu) 

Ye  shall  not  be  confirmed  (te'dmcnu). 

Here,  perhaps,  a  real  condition  is  involved;  nevertheless  the 

intention  of  parallelism  seems  certain  because  of  the  repetition 

of  the  root   'dman;  and  the  same  intention  would  seem  to  be 

evidenced  by  the  unusual  insertion  of  kl  before  the  apodosis, 

as  a  formal  parallel  to  'im  in  the  protasis.    Again  in  10.22  the 

conditional  sentence  is  merely  rhetorical;  the  thought  really  is 

this:  Thy  people  are  now  as  the  sand  of  the  sea;  they  shall  be 

but  a  remnant.     In  the  table  this  sentence  has  been  counted  as 

showing  traces  of  parallelism. 

Temporal  clauses.— An  example  is  found  in  10.12,  "When 

the  Lord,"  etc.,  which  meaiis: 

The  Lord  will  perform  his  work  on  Mount  Zion  (i.e.,  punish  it), 
And  (then)  he  will  punish  the  pride  of  Assyria. 

How  small  the  difference  is  between  the  two  types  of  construc- 
tion is  exemplified  by  5.4,  where  the  Hebrew  is  literally: 

Why  did  I  hope  it  would  bribg  forth  grapes. 
And  did  it  bring  forth  wild  grapes? 

while  the  English  translates :  ' '  Why,  when  I  looked  that  it  should 
bring  forth  grapes,  brought  it  forth  wild  grapes  ? ' '  With  this 
compare  in  verse  7 :  "  He  looked  for  judgment,  but  behold,  op- 
pression,"  which  is  the  equivalent  of  "when  he  looked  for 
judgment,  he  beheld  oppression." 

Fitial  clauses. — Final  clauses  introduced  by  l^-ma'an  occur 
in  5.19 ;  but  there  are  two  of  them,  parallel  to  each  other.  Final 
infinitives  introduced  by  l^^  occur  similarly  as  a  pair  in  9.6  [7]  : 
"to  order  it,  and  to  establish  it" ;  a  single  such  infinitive  is  found 
in  2.20  {l^-hishtax^woth) ,  but  the  passage  is  not  clear;  imperfects 


Vol.  1.]     Popper. — Parallelism  in  Isaiah,  Chapters  1-10.         443 

with  w<^  are  found  in  2.3d,  but  again  in  parallelism  to  each  other. 

Perhaps  7.13  also  contains  a  final  clause : 

Is  it  too  little  for  you  to  weary  men, 
That  ye  Avould  weary  also  my  God? 

with  which  compare  the  coordinate  clauses  in  Num.  9.10: 

Is  it  too  little  a  thing  to  eat  up  the  good  pasture. 

And  will  ye  tread  down  the  rest  of  the  pasture  with  your  feet? 

Causal  clauses. — Introduced  by  kl,  causal  clauses  occur  fre- 
quently, but  generally  in  pairs,  so  that  the  parallelism  can  not 
be  doubted ;  in  8.6  and  7,  however,  occurs  a  parallelism  of  cause 
and  effect: 

Because  this  people  refuseth  the  waters  of  Shiloh, 

Therefore  the  Lord  will  bring  upon  them  the  waters  of  The  Eiver; 

here  the  parallelism  suggested  by  the  repetition  of  the  word 
"waters"  is  strengthened  by  the  correlatives  "because"  and 
"therefore." 

Comparative  clauses. — The  parallelism  between  the  two  mem- 
bers of  a  comparison  is  self-evident ;  every  simile  is  in  its  essence 
a  form  of  parallelism,  particularly  where  the  correspondence 
between  the  objects  is  complete  in  all  respects.  The  Hebrew 
shows  this  by  its  use  of  correlative  prepositions,  e.g.,  "like  the 
priest  (is)  like  the  people";  or  of  correlative  conjunctions, 
e.g.,  10.11 : 

As  I  have  done  to  Samaria  and  her  idols 
So  shall  I  do  to  Jerusalem  and  her  idols. 

Finally,  there  is  the  possibility  that  certain  clauses  of  nearer 
definition,  added  to  verbs  which  are  complete  in  sense  when  used 
without  such  clauses,  are  intended  as  parallels  to  those  verbs; 
the  examples  are  confined  to  chapter  5,  verses  1,  5,  6  (q.v.)  ;  these 
have  not  been  reckoned  as  parallels,  however,  in  the  tables. 

On  the  whole  it  may  be  said  that  the  presumption  is  very 
strong  of  an  original  intention  of  regularity  in  structure  through- 
out the  oracular  portion  of  these  ten  chapters.  More  than  eighty 
per  cent  of  the  subject  matter  is  in  parallelism  as  it  stands.  An 
additional  fourteen  per  cent  shows  clear  traces  of  parallelism; 
in  most  of  these  cases  there  is  evidence  of  textual  corruption 
irrespective  of  the  question  of  parallelism,  and  the  defects  are 


444  University  of  California  Puhlications.      [Sem.  Phil. 

removed  when  parallelism  is  restored;  in  the  remainder  of  this 
fourteen  per  cent  there  is  the  possibility  of  regarding  the  text  as 
parallelistic  in  its  present  form,  dependent  upon  the  acceptance 
of  the  parallelism  of  subordinate  clauses  as  explained  above.  Of 
the  residual  six  per  cent  some  sentences  are  introductory  and 
final  clauses  of  announcement,  and  phrases  of  a  conventional 
type  standing  at  the  end  of  oracles,  in  which  the  absence  of  par- 
allelism does  not  effect  the  question  of  the  contents  of  the  oracle 
itself;  in  the  case  of  other  isolated  stichoi,  within  the  oracle, 
their  glossatory  nature  is  shown  by  the  presence  of  words  re- 
peated weakly  from  near-by  couplets,  or  by  the  evidently  intru- 
sive nature  of  the  subject  matter.  The  number  of  cases  in  which 
regularity  of  structure  does  not  exist  but  in  which  the  sense  is 
nevertheless  clear  is  very  small,  indeed;  the  possibility  of  a 
stichos  having  fallen  out  in  the  course  of  centuries  of  tradition 
is  so  great  that  this  may  well  be  assumed  to  have  taken  place. 

It  should  again  be  noted  that  the  above  tables  and  remarks 
do  not  apply  to  those  passages  which  are  narrative  or  auto- 
biographical ;  nor  should  their  implications  be  extended  to  any 
section  of  prophetic  literature  in  which  non-parallelism  and 
parallelism  are  intermingled  in  considerably  larger  proportions 
than  in  Isaiah  1-10.  But  the  analogy  of  other  literatures  that 
mingle  prose  and  verse  is  not  in  point  here;  to  find  a  proper 
analogy  to  account  for  the  psychology  of  our  text  in  its  present 
form  one  should  have  to  offer  examples  of  poetry  marred  by  a 
few  isolated  and  unaccountable  splashes  of  prose ;  or  of  poems 
of  perhaps  one  hundred  lines,  eighty-five  of  which  are  in  perfect 
metre,  while  the  remainder  are  hopelessly  unmetrical,  with  no 
assignable  reason  for  their  lack  of  symmetry.  No  explanation  of 
difficult  passages  in  the  oracular  portions  of  Isaiah  1-10  should 
be  accepted  unless  it  is  based  upon  parallelism ;  or,  at  least,  no 
emendation  of  the  text  should  be  accepted  which  does  not  restore 
parallelism. 


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