The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-02-28
IV.-THE GOLDEN AGE OF HE
BREW POETRY.
BY THE REV. E. E. HALE, D. d.


BY THE REV. z. E. HALE, D. d.
The most careless reader of the Bible
knows that the Psalms were the hymns
Of the Hebrews. Even our English
name implies that. But. as our Bibles
are generally printed, the reader does
not know outside the book of Psalms,
whether what he reads in the English
version were written as poetry is writ
ten, with the enthusiasm and purposes
CT poetry or whether he is TO read IL as
he reads the hard facts of history.
The most important contribution,
perhaps, made by the revised version
to the popular reading Of the Bible is
the arrangement in the printed page
of the poetry in each Testament 50
that to every readers eye it looks like
poetry. Every reader sees that it is
pOetry-that II was written by some
poet whose work was so good that il
has SUI Eved the millenniums of time.
Every one knows that he is to read It
as he reads poetry. Near the end OF
the book OF Deuteronomy for instance,
the blessing Of Moses, before he died
printed as a pOeH-Teads;
The Lord came from Sinai
And rose from SER unto them:
He shined forth from Mount Paran
: And he came with ten thousands Of holy
And his right hand was fiery law unto
them.
And so the ode OF song of triumph
goes on with a reference to each OF
the twelve tribes. The mere form Of
the lines suggests poetry, where the
Old pTOsaiC text used by the early In
glish translators suggests the patient
narrative Of an annalist:
And he said. the Lord came from
! Sinai, and rose I'D from SER unto
( them; he shined forth from Mount Pa
/ ran, and he came with 10000 Of saints;
from his right hand went a fiery law
unto them"
The commission which prepared our
new or revised version says or the
prophets that they have not extended
TO the prophcdcal books this arrange
menC in lines, because the language OF
these books is rather of the nature
of lofty and impassiOned prose, except
in purely lyrical passages. Lofty and
| impassioned prose comes very near TO
! poetry. And in general the prophet
icaI books of the old testament could
be ranked as poetical. This means
! everything from the Prophet Isaiah 10
the end Of the Old testament.
/ Speaking roughly, we may say that
the first half of the old testament, the
books which go as far as Esther in the
usual arrangement, are narrative or
/ historical: that after that point. begin
ming with the book Of Job, then are Po-
eticaI. The book Of Job is often called
a dramatic poem. The Psalms are a
collection of several Ode5 and hymns,
from many authors IN many centuries
| Then follow the Proverbs. which are
/ cast in poetical form; the book Of &c
! cIesiastes. which, while printed as
I v.ar-iend version Is ire
quently marked with the Characters
tics of Hebrew poetry: THE Song OF
! Songs" which has all the characters
tics of lyric poetry, and then the
prophets.
In the first or historical part are
MANY songs or odes Such Is that
(which has been cited Of Moses; such
is the song of Deborah. In the pro
phetic books, on the other hand, We
( have sometimes a fragment OF history
4 P11t speaking rather roughly, as SAID,
the first half may be called hlstoIlcai
and the second half poeticaL
Rhythm, Meter and Form.
/ tt is impossible in a single paper like
this to go into any detail as to the dis
/ tipctions between the external form OF
Hebrew poetry and that to which we
/ are accustomed. 1t must be enough 10
TnaT IL uOeS AlOL seem ~ AA-e'
any rvhnae, and that the rhymth OF the
| verses is not 10 be strictly marked by
the counting of syllables. We know
/ too little of the original pronunciation
of the words TO say whether what We
/ cell quantity or what we call &C
/ cent" was considered in the COMPOSE
ton.
one regularity is observed in which
the Hebrew poets INDUCED thenlselV es
. = 3 a.
much more frequently than Cnose OF 1he
western nations II IS geaerally spoken
of as "paralleliSm. rms WOIu HfeaiL-
fire method of composition by which
one line Of verse takes up the language
i or perfhaps the idea Of a previous verse
and repeats It. with more or less var
;ation. in other words. The writers o.
Hebrew odes OF. songs frequently USED
thiJ method in arranging verses which
should be sung alternately by olffer-
emit choirs There is a resemblance &c
the srrophe and antistrOphe OF the
Greek chorUses, but that aiIerIidtS
verses in the Hebrew poems are much
shorter than those of the Greek.
Imagine enc choir on one side Of q
temple singing: 60
The heavens declare the glory OF God
And another on the other side respon-
ding. go. Ii ,,,,7i
"Sborus-Day unto day. uttereth speech
Anti-chorus-And night unto hsh
s'5 SSornsETRsre Is no speech nor Ian
spAl agtSi-ehorus-Their voice cannot b
iie c4hlorus-There line is gone out through
4 all the earth 10 % III,
/ Anti-ch0rus-And JIieiI Noiu9 ~ &
| end of the world Co.,. =.
In America the late DR.. Hastings in
, troduced in many chureheS a TeIieWd
of such alternate singing Ihose Wn'
stItdv the subject may We'll read Ills
little treatises upon II
Another feature which occasIolisii y J
appears in Hebrew poetry Is ths reL-
i erence, literally, 10 the letIe[ Wtei
which the poems are written. Fer IN
stance. the 18th psalm consists o.
. tW-entv-tv-o stanZas, each OF eight INES
: In the original the first verse consists
i, Of lines beginning with the letter A
! the second verse Of lines beginning
v.itl, the letter 3, and in most blble'
the Hebrew letter is printed al th'
z beginning Of these separate suodlVls
ions. -..-.
This sort Of ingenuity sometimes
r showing Itself in acrosues, ana some some
: times in other ways, appears III many
Of the poems.
The Spirit.
But it is the spirit Of Hebrew poetr!
which has given it its value, an lnilnIt'
: value to the world.
And David's Tyre is mighuer thal
his throne"
There we're very likely many poem
or baTlalz written in the Hebrew Ian
+ guaee which have not come down Z
Us which were not 50 bathed in the di
vine spirit as those which have sur
, vived. There is no reason why lover
should not have written love songs
why soldiers should not have writer
ballads, why meditative individuals