Classical Hebrew Poetry a Guide
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JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SUPPLEMENT SERIES Editors David J A Clines Philip R Davies Department of Biblical Studies The University of Sheffield Sheffield S10 2TN England CLASSICAL HEBREW POETRY A Guide to its Techniques WILFRED G.E, WATSON Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 26 Copyright © 1984, 1986 JSOT Press Published by JSOT Press Departmenl of Biblical Studies The University of Sheffield Sheffield S10 2TN England Printed in Great Britain by Redwood Burn Ltd., Trowbridge, Wiltshire. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Watson, Wilfred G.E Classical Hebrew poetry · a guide to its techniques.—2nd ed.—(Journal for the study of the Old Testament supplement series, ISSN 0309-0787, 26) 1. Hebrew poetry—History and criticism I. Title II. Series 892.4' 11'09 PJ5022 ISBN 0-905774-57-4 ISBN 1-85075-048-3 Pbk CONTENTS Foreword ix Short Titles of Frequently Mentioned Works xvi Festschriften xviii Abbreviations xi 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Scope and aims 1 2 Stylistics and Hebrew poetry 3 2 POETIC TEXTS IN OTHER SEMITIC LANGUAGES 2.1 Introduction 4 2 Ugaritic poetry 5 3 Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian) poetic material 7 3 ANALYSING HEBREW POETRY: NOTES ON METHOD 3.1 Terminology 11 2 Method 15 3 Function in poetry 30 4 Archaisms 35 5 Dating 39 6 Textual criticism 41 7 Prose or poetry? 44 8 Closure: notes on theory 62 4 THE HEBREW POET IN ACTION 4.1 Oral poetry 66 2 Oral poetry: theory 67 3 Techniques and characteristics of oral poetry 74 4 Ancient Hebrew oral poetry 76 5 Techniques and characteristics of oral poetry in Hebrew 80 6 Epic poetry in Hebrew? 83 5 METRE 5.1 What is metre? 87 2 Metre in ancient Semitic languages 91 3 The stress (accentual) theory of Hebrew metre 97 4 Other theories: survey and critique 103 5 Anacrusis 110 6 Functions of metre 111 v 6 PARALLELISM 6.1 Introductory 114 2 Gender-matched parallelism 123 3 Parallel word-pairs 128 4 Number parallelism 144 5 Staircase parallelism 150 6 Other types of parallelism 156 7 STANZA AND STROPHE 7.1 The stanza 160 2 Strophic patterns: introduction 168 3 The monocolon 168 4 The abc//b'c' couplet 174 5 The tricolon 177 6 Strophic patterns: the quatrain 185 7 Strophic patterns: the pentacolon 187 8 Higher strophic units 188 9 Acrostics and related patterns 190 8 VERSE-PATTERNS 8.1 Introduction 201 2 Chiasmus and chiastic patterns 201 3 The terrace pattern (anadiplosis) and sorites 208 4 The pivot pattern 214 9 SOUND IN HEBREW POETRY 9.1 General 222 2 Assonance 222 3 Alliteration 225 4 Rhyme 229 5 Onomatopoeia 234 6 Wordplay 237 10 IMAGERY 10.1 Imagery 251 2 Simile 254 3 Metaphor 263 11 POETIC DEVICES 11.01 The interplay of poetic devices 273 02 Repetition 274 03 Envelope figure 282 vi 04 Keywords 287 05 Refrain 295 06 Allusion 299 07 Ellipsis 303 08 Irony 306 09 Oxymoron 312 10 Abstract for concrete 314 11 Hyperbole 316 12 Merismus 321 13 Hendiadys 324 14 The 'break-up' of a composite phrase 328 15 Enjambment 332 16 Delayed identification 336 17 Rhetorical questions 338 18 Ballast variant 343 12 SECONDARY TECHNIQUES 12.1 Expansion 349 2 Lists 351 3 Inversion 356 13 APPENDIX: WORKED EXAMPLES 13.1 Introduction 360 2 A Ugaritic poem 360 3 Babylonian poetry 362 4 Hebrew examples 362 CLOSING COMMENTS 384 INDEXES 1 Index of subjects 386 2 Index of numerical references 408 3 Index of Biblical references 409 4 Index of Hebrew words 431 5 Index of Hebrew word-pairs 435 6 Index of Ugaritic texts 437 7 Index of Ugaritic words 441 8 Index of Ugaritic word-pairs 443 9 Index of Akkadian texts 443 10 Index of Akkadian words 445 11 Index of other texts 446 12 Index of authors cited 447 vii FOREWORD The origins of the present work lie in my unpublished doctoral dissertation (1973, on Isa 1-66) of which a considerable section dealt with poetic devices and, in part, with poetic technique. My interest in poetry since led to extensive reading in literary criticism, particularly studies with a linguistic approach. The impetus for actually writing a book came from Dr John Gibson while I was at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Edinburgh. Whether consciously or not the model I have followed in my presentation has been Geoffrey Leech's A linguistic guide to English poetry, an invaluable beginner's textbook. This is apparent from the term 'Guide' common to both works and is even more evident from my basic layout. Like Leech I use worked examples throughout, aim at providing clear explanations of technical points, list passages for private study and give individual bibliographies for each topic. Of course I do not agree with Leech on every point, notably on hyperbole, but in the main his Guide has been mine, too. This book is intended principally for readers with a good working knowledge of classical Hebrew. Some acquaintance at least with either Ugaritic or Akkadian (or both, of course) is preferable but not expected. To a certain extent, also, the book can be used by someone conversant with none of these languages since translations are always provided. My main aim has been to provide a working tool for lecturers and students who need a reference book in a rapidly expanding field. Since I began serious groundwork for this book several lengthy books on Hebrew poetry have appeared (by O'Connor, Kugel, Collins, Stuart, van der Lugt) not to mention dissertations (Cooper, Sappan) and even an anthology (Carmi). Far from obviating the need for yet another book on the same subject, it is clear, instead, that there is a great deal of confusion over aspects of terminology, analysis and, particularly, theory. While not claiming to solve all the problems involved—and here metre stands out as more intractable than any—I ix have tried to clarify and explain what scholars are in the main agreed on. I hope, at least, to have set out the difficulties of classical Hebrew poetry in as clear a way as present knowledge permits. My inclusion of Ugaritic and Akkadian verse in a study of Hebrew poetry is not without reason. It has precedents, and here I am thinking chiefly of T. Donald's unpublished thesis Parallelism in Akkadian, Hebrew and Ugaritic which I read several years ago. More to the point, it is important to present ancient Hebrew verse, so removed from us in time, place and language, in as near its own setting as possible. Apart from the books of the Hebrew bible practically no classical Hebrew literature has survived. In the absence of such literature, second best is comparison with the verse- making traditions of Ugaritic and Akkadian poetry as attempted here. Financial assistance for the making of this book came from a Visiting Research Fellowship to the Institute of Advanced Studies, Edinburgh and a seventeen-month research grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, Bonn—Bad Godesberg. I am grateful to Professor Oswald Loretz for providing research facilities at Ugarit- Forschung, Miinster (Westphalia). Through all the preparatory stages Dr John Gibson of New College, Edinburgh, gave me encour agement spiced with the right amount of critical comment. The editors of JfSOT courageously accepted the typescript in as yet incomplete form and patiently experimented with advanced methods of typesetting it. And now my wife and daughter, to whom I dedicate the present work, can take brief respite until the next book is begun. x ABBREVIATIONS AAASH Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiae Hungaricae (Magyar Tudomanyos Akadémia), Budapest. AANLR Atti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Rendiconti (della) Classe di Scienze morali, storiche a filologiche, Rome. AB Anchor Bible, Garden City. AbrN Abr-Nahrain, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria. AcOr Acta orientalia. Copenhagen. AfO Archiv fur Orientforschung, Graz. AHw Soden, W. von, Akkadisches Handwörterbuch. AION Annali dell'Istituto orientale di Napoli (sezione linguistica), Naples. AJBA Australian Journal of Biblical Archaeology, Sydney. AJBI Annual of the Japanese Biblical Institute, Tokyo. AJP American Journal of Philology, Baltimore. AJSL American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Chicago. AL Archivum Linguisticum, London. ALLCB Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing: Bulletin, London. AMOLAD Margalit, B., A Matter of Life and Death. AnBib Analecta Biblica, Rome. ANET Pritchard, J.B. (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts. Anglia Anglia. Zeitschrift fur englische Philologie, Tübingen. AnOr Analecta Orientalia, Rome. AnSt Anatolian Studies, London. A OA T(S) Alter Orient und Altes Testament (Sonderreihe), Kevelaer- Neu kirchen/Vluyn. AOS American Oriental Series, New Haven. ARM Archives Royales de Mari. ArOr Archiv orientami, Prague. ASTI Annual of the Swedish Theological Institute, Leiden. Atr Lambert, W.G.—Millard, A.R., Atrahasis. BA Biblical Archaeologist, New Haven. BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, New Haven. BASP Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists, New Haven. xi BDB Brown, F., Driver, S.R. and Briggs, CA., Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. BH Kittel, R. (ed.), Biblia Hebraica (3rd edition). BHS Elliger, K., Rudolph, W. et al. (edd.), Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Bib Biblica, Rome. BJRL Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, Manchester. BN Biblische Notizen, Bamberg. BO Bibliotheca Orientalis, Leiden. BS Biblische Studien, Neukirchen. BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. BWL Lambert, W.G., Babylonian Wisdom Literature. (Oxford 1960) BZ Biblische Zeitschrift, Paderborn. BZAW Beiheft zur ZAW. CAD The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of Chicago (vols. A, B, D, E, G, H, I/J, K, L, M, N, S, Z). CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Washington, D.C.