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Non-Acrostic Alphabetic Psalms

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Non-Acrostic Alphabetic Psalms NON-ACROSTIC ALPHABETIC PSALMS DAVID NOEL FREEDMAN AND DAVID MIANO STRUCTURE OF THE ALPHABETIC PSALMS One of the sad consequences of the long transmission of the He­ brew text is the loss of the original stichometry of its songs and po­ ems. That much of the Bible's poetry was copied as if it were prose has resulted in the obscuration of the original arrangement of poetic lines. This has given analysts much over which to ruminate. Of all the types of poems in the Hebrew Bible, the alphabetic acrostic has a structure that is easiest to determine.1 Because the lines of these po­ ems are organized and arranged by means of the normal sequence of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, students can determine line and stanza length with a considerable degree of objectivity and accuracy. Although various methods of measuring quantity in line length are employed by scholars today, we find that no matter what system is used, there is variation in line and stanza length among the poems of this type. The basic pattern is a poem of 22 lines or bicolons with an average syllable count of 8 in each colon (8 + 8 = 16 syllables per hi­ colon) and 3 or 4 stresses per colon (3 + 3 = 6 stresses, or 4 + 4 = 8 stresses, per bicolon), if we use the usual (Ley-Budde-Sievers) method of counting stresses.2 However, the majority of the alphabetic acrostics in the Hebrew Bible deviates from this norm, exhibiting variations, adaptations, and elaborations of the basic structure. Some poems follow a 9-syllable/3- or 4-stress design, while others follow a 10-sy Hable I 4-stress design. While some researchers prefer to emend the text so as to make these poems conform to the "ideal" paradigm, careful study has shown that such deviations are intentional and that the poets were not content to follow the simplest pattern so strictly.3 Alphabetic poems may be divided into the following classes: 1 For an introduction to acrostics, see W. G. E. Watson, Classical Hebrew Po­ etry: A Guide to Its Techniques (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1984) 190--200. 2 D. N. Freedman, "Acrostics and Metrics in Hebrew Poetry," HTR 65 (1972) 367-92. 3 See D. N. Freedman and J. C. Geoghegan, "Alphabetic Acrostic Psalms" in Psalm 119: The Exaltation of Torah (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1999) 1-23. 88 D. FREEDMAN AND D. MIANO 1. Standard Alphabetic: 22 lines (bicolons) of approximately 16 syllables each (8 per colon); no examples from the Bible are perfect, but the following fit into this class while exhibiting some acceptable deviations: Proverbs 31 (contains one tricolon), Psalms 25 and 34 (omit the waw line and add ape line at the end; the former also con­ tains two tricolons) and Psalm 145 (contains one tricolon and averages 18 syllables per bicolon instead of 16). 2. Half-line Alphabetic: 22 lines (colons) of approximately 8 sylla­ bles each (1 colon per letter of the alphabet); for example, Psalms 111 and 112. 3. Double-line Alphabetic: 22 stanzas (tetracolons) of approxi­ mately 32 syllables each (8 per colon); no examples from the Bible correspond perfectly, but Psalm 37 fits into this class while exhibiting some acceptable deviations (it contains one bicolon and one hexa­ colon, which end up evening each other out). 4. Qina Alphabetic: 22 lines (bicolons) of approximately 13 sylla­ bles each (8 in the first colon, 5 in the second). Conceptually speak­ ing, this derives from the standard form, except that the final stress in the second colon and its corresponding unstressed syllables are pur­ posely omitted. The result is an unbalanced rhythm, for example, Lamentations 1-4. Psalm 119, the greatest of all alphabetic acrostics, stands by itself, as it is made up of 22 stanzas, each consisting of eight standard bico­ lons.4 In the past, attention has been drawn to the fact that other poems of a non-acrostic nature conform to the structure of the alphabetic acros­ tic.5 Some poems from this group include Lamentations 5, Psalms 33 and 94, and several examples from the Book of Proverbs (especially from chaps. 1-9, such as 2, 5, 8:1-11, 12-21, 22-31, 32-36 and 9:1-18). All of them build on the basic 22-line foundation, but the 4 For an analysis of this poem, see D. N. Freedman, Psalm 119: The Exaltation of Torah (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1999) 25-86. 5 P. W. Skehan, "The Structure of the Song of Moses in Dt 32,1-43," CBQ 13 (1951) 153-63; "Strophic Patterns in the Book of Job," CBQ 23 (1961) 125-42; P. W. Skehan and A. A. Di Lelia, The Wisdom of Ben-Sira (AB 39; New York: Doubleday, 1987) 74; Watson, 199; D. N. Freedman, "Acrostic Poems in the He­ brew Bible: Alphabetic and Otherwise," CBQ 48 (1986) 408-31; "Proverbs 2 and 31: A Study in Structural Complementarity," in M. Cogan et al. (eds.), Tehillah le-Moshe: Biblical and Judaic Studies in Honor of Moshe Greenberg (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1997) 47-55. .
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