Biblical Hebrew poetry

Allen Ross’s third volume of his Psalms commentary brings to completion this major contribution to the study of the Psalms. Considering all three volumes, Ross has written nearly 3000 pages on the Psalms. But as Ross himself says in his preface, no commentary on the Psalms is every quite complete. Since this commentary is written to assist pastors and teachers study the Psalms for sermons and Bible studies, there is much left to the side. Rarely does he comment on form critical issues nor does he devote space to historical interpretations of the Psalms like Waltke’s recent work on the Psalms. Ross does not attempt to write an overall theology of the Psalms nor is there much awareness of canonical interpretation of the Psalms. He is true to his goal to write a solid exegetical commentary on the Hebrew text to meet the needs of pastors and teachers.

Ibn Ezra and Nachmanides each maintained an esoteric teaching of his own.  Ibn Ezra’s philosophical-astrological teaching derived from Greco-Arabic culture, while Nachmanides was imbued with the Kabbalistic traditions of his teachers, the Kabbalists of Gerona.  Both commentators shared the conviction that Biblical texts and Rabbinic homiletics embody their esoteric systems and hint at them.  In their commentaries on the Pentateuch, these exegetes allowed themselves to divulge something of their mysteries and thus, to a certain extent, to reveal that which they believed the Pentateuch sought to conceal.  At the same time they both emphasized that these hints are intended only for that select circle of readers who can understand their mysteries.

In this article are presented five cardinal mysteries of Nachmanides’ commentary, with emphasis on their relationship to those of ibn Ezra with regard to terminology, contents and the exegetical contexts (in Scripture and in Midrash) into which these mysteries are woven.  In all the instances presented, the mystery of ibn Ezra  forms the exegetical basis of Nachmanides’ mystery.  Sometimes Nachmanides adds a Kabbalistic tier to ibn Ezra’s astrological mystery and sometimes Nachmanides regards his Kabbalistic mystery to be identical with the mystery of ibn Ezra.

The broad influence of ibn Ezra on Nachmanides’ commentary in the domain of mystic interpretation lies concealed.  Sometimes ibn Ezra’s name is completely absent from the discussion while on occasion the latter’s words are found cited in his name only in Nachmanides’ “Sermons of the Ramban” but not in his commentary on the Pentateuch.  Even there where Nachmanides chose to name his source, his words still fail to reveal the full influence of ibn Ezra’s mystery on his own.  Thus, this article presents an additional aspect of the “hidden love” for ibn Ezra which is harbored in Nachmanides’ commentaries.

“This is a remarkable addition to the bookshelves of lovers of the book of Psalms—for prayer, for study, for pure literary enjoyment. The layout of these select loveliest psalms is perfect for readers of all levels and backgrounds, from those with just a basic knowledge of Hebrew to scholars delving into the complex syntax, cantillation system, and poetic devices of Biblical Hebrew. The ingenious page display based on the traditional accents is the cleverest and most useful design I have seen for capturing the text’s grammatical and semantic structure, simplifying a very complex system so that anybody can follow. Pure pleasure!”
—Shmuel Bolozky, Professor Emeritus of Hebrew, University of Massachusetts Amherst

“This work is an excellent introduction to the Hebrew text of the Psalms. It is particularly innovative in its focus on the Masoretic accents of the Psalms. These are usually ignored by students of Biblical Hebrew, but are of great importance for understanding how the Psalms were understood in the Masoretic tradition. The text of the Psalms is transcribed directly from the Aleppo Codex, the most important Masoretic manuscript, with details of the manuscript that do not appear in the standard printed editions. This Reader will bring students closer to the primary manuscript sources of the Psalms.”
—Geoffrey Khan, Regius Professor of Hebrew, University of Cambridge

“I’ve long been a fan of Jonathan Kline’s line of books on the biblical languages, recommending them to students and using them myself—all with great profit. My favorite thus far has been his A Proverb a Day in Biblical Hebrew, but this latest volume, A Hebrew Reader for the Psalms: 40 Beloved Texts, co-edited with Pete Myers, will no doubt jump to the head of the class. Here one finds a treasure trove of information about forty selected psalms that does exactly what Myers and Kline hope—facilitate an up-close, even intimate experience with the Hebrew text of these remarkable poems. But make no mistake about it: this is not a primer useful only for novices. An amazing amount of thought and research has gone into this volume (the appendix on accents alone is worth the price of the book), ensuring that it will be of great use even to seasoned readers and researchers of the Psalms. I am already praying that Myers and Kline will do the rest of the Psalter . . . soon!”
—Brent A. Strawn, Professor of Old Testament and Professor of Law, Duke University

“In the meticulous care Myers and Kline have put into presenting the Hebrew of these forty ‘beloved’ psalms in an accurate and accessible manner, they have performed an evident labor of love that promises to stoke the reader’s passion for the beauties of these texts and the Hebrew language. The volume’s carefully designed format invites readers across the range of facility in this language into a deeper encounter with and greater love for the Psalms.”
—Will Kynes, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies, Samford University

Available here:
https://www.christianbook.com/hebrew-reader-the-psalms-beloved-texts/pete-myers/9781683072720/pd/153047

The article offers a dynamic reading of word pairs and parallelism in
selected poems throughout the Hebrew Bible. Psalmists are concerned
with world order and with the dangers facing that order. This tension is
regularly represented by pairs of opposites or complementary natural
entities. The poets construct their parallel cola and strophes with an
eye towards these binary opposites, using deliberate ambiguous or
contrastive structure in order to draw the reader’s attention to the
constant interchange of opposites. In biblical poems, this interchange
may lead to equilibrium while it may equally lead to chaos and loss of
control. The border between these situations is fragile. This notion is
demonstrated with regard to the drama of world order in Psalm 85. A
close reading of the Amos Doxologies follows. The article concludes
with a discussion of the hymns on nature in Job chapters 5, 10, and
especially chapter 26.

The COVID-19 situation has raised the profile of Psalm 91. This short article that was originally written as a resource for local churches in Singapore, but it is now clear that it may be helpful for the wider community. Feel free to pass this on. Other articles written in response to COVID-19  by the faculty of Singapore Bible College can be found here:
https://www.sbc.edu.sg/resources-for-responding-to-the-covid-19-situation/3/

This book contributes to the theory and practice of Biblical interpretation by engaging in an interpretation of Psalm 24 inspired by a particular understanding of Brevard Childs' "canonical approach": an understanding centred on the concept of "theological substance."

Sumpter shows how the literary, historical, and theological dimensions of Psalm 24 cohere into a single vision by reading the text according to the a dialectic between "witness" and "reality." An initial "synchronic" analysis of the psalm's poetic structure is then related to a "diachronic" reconstruction of the tradition history that lead to the final form. The question is then posed concerning the primary forces at work in this history of composition, a question which leads to reflection on the Trinity, first in se and then pro nobis. This latter dimension takes us back to the text, as its "Davidic" nature is further analysed in relation to the books of Samuel, the Psalter, and Isaiah. Finally, a contemporary actualization of the Psalm by Eberhard Jüngel is compared to its interpretation in Patristic exegesisin order to probe deeper into the mysterious subject matter of the text.

The essay deals with the underground world in the Bible, taking into account especially poetic texts. Etymological analysis of the main underground words (šĕ’ôl, šaḥat, tĕhôm e mĕṣûlâ) intends to show the profound relationships between biblical texts and Near Ancient East literatures. The meaning of each term is sketched out from the biblical
contexts in which it occurs. The second part elaborates on Jon 2 and Prov, showing that cosmological language is metaphorically transposed into an anthropological and ethical sense. Cosmological depths thus become an abyss of distress, or a chasm of evil and sin.
The metaphorical dynamic, however, is not developed indiscriminately; rather, whereas some words remain mostly anchored to their  cosmological sense, for others, the semantic shift happens more easily.

The Babylonian king of Isaiah 14 and the proud one of Habakkuk 2 exhibit multiple similarities. In light of the historical record and related visions, this study contends that Isaiah 14 and Habakkuk 2 depict the same end-time monarch. In both oracles, recently liberated saints sing a taunt song about their recently fallen foe, as they reflect upon the tribulation period which they have just survived.

(Problems publishing to PDF will resubmit as different format) Psalm 67 is a brief, yet powerful song found in book II of the Psalter. Often referred to as “the Lord’s Prayer of the Old Testament,”  this powerful poem reformulates the "Aaronic Blessing" and recalls the embryonic promise of blessing to Abraham for the nations.  On the surface this Psalm may appear as a Psalm of Thanksgiving, but a more thorough look may reveal one of the more profound treatments of the role of Israel and the blessing given to Abraham in found in the Hebrew Scriptures.

This project examines representations of conversion in the twelfth and thirteenth century romances, the Old French Floire et Blancheflor, Aucassin et Nicolette, and Flamenca.  In these works, the figure of the convert is used to articulate and elaborate internal social concerns. The twelfth century was less a time of the ‘rise of the individual’ than a time of the individual thought in relation to others. In this way, understanding the self depends both on the 'other' to whom the self relates and the framing of that relation. These works position the native self in relation to the Saracen other, probing their relation through the structures of religious conversion. The framework of religious conversion provides a vocabulary to express and examine cultural difference, cultural absorption and assimilation of new knowledge and technologies of Arabic culture. Temporal history in turn consists of both nativist, monoculturally formulated histories and more relational models formulated with a view toward articulating a more cosmopolitan, interrelated view of culture and as such, the self. The literary treatments of conversion were used to probe the problematics of these discourses.

The book of Lamentations has been noted in biblical scholarship for its peculiar acrostic structure, a feature which makes the book unique in the OT in terms of style and literary unity. Taking inspiration from the possible meaning(s) of this structure, coupled with a detailed analysis of the central verses (vv. 22-24) of the middle poem (Lam 3), this author seeks to juxtapose the beacon of hope in the midst of lament for the destruction of Jerusalem with the experience of the Nigerian nation in the wake of religio-political terrorism and chronic system failure. God’s proofs of mercy (ḥeseḏ) and respect for law and (acrostic) order are put forward in the final analysis as divine and human panacea, just like faith and reason, in rekindling the light of hope for the nation.

The thesis of this project is that the clause functions as the constitutive linguistic unit in the Song of Songs in lieu of parallelism or other rhetorical devices. First, clause boundaries are compared with cola boundaries to demonstrate that clause syntax should receive priority over parallelism or other rhetorical devices. These stylistic elements exist as the author’s selective use of the language system, but they do not precede or supersede that system. Second, the study analyzes clause occurrence and distribution to show how the clause provides meaning as the text’s basic unit. Rather than treating the book with a different technique from prose, the investigation analyzes clause use as a normal function of the language system. The method ascribed to by this work is textlinguistic and computer-assisted. The textlinguistic approach facilitates building a model of clause functions from the raw data. The computer-assisted approach allows the data to be produced efficiently and consistently. The data provided by the Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer serves as the basis for the analysis.

In this paper then I will summarize (often in the author’s own words) and briefly comment on this informative Introduction (2007:xiii-xl). I will proceed from there to a selective critique of Alter’s translation of Psalm One,  which together with Psalm Two, functions structurally and thematically to introduce the psalmic collection as a whole. My purpose is to indicate how Alter’s theory of Hebrew poetry and principles of translation are reflected in practice as a case study that illustrates a few of the diverse assortment of challenges posed by this complex communicative enterprise as well as some of the different options that translators have for dealing with these difficulties.

The designation Archaic Biblical Hebrew (ABH) is used by biblical Hebrew scholars to classify anomalous forms in biblical poetry thought to be the vestiges of early Hebrew. Though, in recent years these forms have been reevaluated and attributed to dialect variation, language convergence with Aramaic, and linguistic register and style.

Systematic theologians have constructed a Christology that is highly based on NT texts, which, interestingly, supports the anachronistic reading Psalms scholarship has sustained in the last two centuries. In contrast, this paper argues for a forward reading that supports the Psalms as intrinsically messianic. Methodologically, I study the Davidic psalms in five collections giving emphasis to the superscriptions, structural form and content. My observations show that the Davidic psalms first trace the establishment of the Davidic kingship followed by his downfall. Then, remarkably, the Davidic characterization shifts to a royal figure, who is blameless, victorious, and juridically condemned. The final Davidic collection reveals a community of people supplicating patiently before the arrival of a blissful and just society. The paper shows that the NT's understanding of Jesus fulfilling the messianic hopes in the Psalter is a formidable and reasonable interpretation, and need not be anachronistic.

*erratum in note 9. The article, “An Integrated Reading of Psalms 1 and 2,” JSOT 98 (2002): 75–88, should be by Robert L. Cole instead of Robert A. Cole.

Psalm 24 is often seen to be a ‘baffling’ psalm due to the juxtaposition of what seems to be thematically and structurally disparate material (creation, vv. 1-2; torah and sanctuary vv. 3-6; divine warrior and sanctuary, vv. 7-10). Most unusual, however, is the juxtaposition of the final two stanzas, for they seem to cancel each other out. In vv. 3-6, human beings desire access to God within the sanctuary, whereas in vv. 7-10 God himself is about to access the same location. Various poetic clues indicate that these two entrance scenes have been intentionally brought into parallelism with each other, yet no satisfactory answer has been presented as to the meaning of this manoeuvre. In this article, a poetic analysis is proposed that goes beyond those proffered thus far by looking at the way in which the ‘poetic function’ creates a degree of ‘narrative’ self-referentiality within the psalm, in particular through its representation of time and space. The conclusion is that the Psalm is a recalibration of liturgical material in terms of a grasp of the structure of the divine economy.

Key words: Psalm 24; Hebrew poetics; tradition history; theological interpretation; divine economy; synchronic/diachronic; creation; torah; eschatology

This paper provides a poetical analysis of the first 18 verses of Psalm 118. It was prepared as a part of a Hebrew poetry class (Bible Baptist Seminary). The detailed poetic analysis was helpful in preparing my final thesis on the Canonical exegesis of Psalm 118.

This paper presents an entrance into the poetry of the Psalms that seeks to highlight their “heard” and “spoken” essence, as a complement to their textualization in being “written” and “read.” The author analyses biblical poetic rhythm and portrays the experiential qualities of their lyrics. The recent forays of F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp into the free rhythms of biblical poetry, who draws from the work Benjamin Harshav and Robert Alter, are utilized to explore the free semantic-syntactic-accentual parallelisms that build poetic rhythm together with free sound orchestration. The categories of semantic parallelism and metrical analysis, which have dominated the field of Hebrew poetry in modern times, are quite useful but are exceeded and well complemented by the free rhythm expounded by Harshav and Dobbs-Allsopp. Within this paper, the benefits of describing biblical verse as lyrical, syntactically rounded, and rhythmically free are laid out. A “rhythmic case study” follows in the third chapter, in which Psalm 123 is mined for its rhythms and sound patterning. The syntactic-semantic rhythm of Psalm 114 is also surveyed to provide a fuller picture of the rhythm within the Psalms. The fourth chapter functions as a reading companion to Psalm 123, facilitating the auditory experience of the psalm’s lyricism. The significance of lyricism in a communally preserved liturgical corpus such as the Psalter is also briefly discussed.

"In this paper the recent use of the Masoretic accentuation as a means to establish the colometry in Hebrew verse is evaluated. A comparison of different studies referring to these accents demonstrates that such a reference is made in a rather ad hoc fashion, whereas the accents are not always interpreted in a consistent manner. For that reason in this paper an attempt is made to give a systematic description of the Masoretic accentuation with regard to its use for the colometry of Hebrew verse. In the present part (Part I) the poetic accents were studied and it has been shown that (1) the accents function according to a system which might also provide a guideline for the colometry of the text; (2) the colometry of texts from the "poetic books" in studies referring to the Masoretic accentuation agrees to a large extent with these findings; whereas it was demonstrated that the colometry of diverging passages (e.g. Pss 68 and 110) also could be read according to the Masoretic accentuation; (3) reference to "a major disjunctive accent" is not sufficient, the value of an accent depends on its position within the complete syntax of Masoretic accents. Part II will
deal with the use of the system of accentuation in the so-called "prose books" (or Twenty-one Books)."