An Introduction to Hebrew Poetry

Much of the Old Testament, including Job, Psalms and Proverbs, is written in poetic form. In many translations, poetic sections are printed as poetry with indentation of lines and separate stanzas.

Why should we study the structure of Hebrew poetry? Understanding the structure of Hebrew poetry will help us to interpret poetic sections of the Old Testament, and to enjoy these sections.

"Unlike much Western poetry, Hebrew poetry is not based on rhyme or meter, but on rhythm and parallelism. The rhythm is not achieved by balanced numbers of accented and unaccented syllables, but by tonal stress or accent on important words." (Ryrie Study Bible, INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS, p723)

Obviously, when reading an English translation, we will not notice the rhythm of Hebrew poetry. However, we can see parallelism in our English translations. There are a number of types of parallelism. Here, they are listed by their proper names. You don't need to memorize the proper names, but you should try to remember the concept of parallelism when reading poetic sections of the Old Testament.

Synonymous Parallelism

• the most common type of parallelism
• this is the parallelism of comparison
• the second line essentially repeats the idea of the first line
• e.g. Psalm 3:1 - "O LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me!"

Antithetic Parallelism

• this is the parallelism of contrast
• the second line contains an idea which is opposite to the first line
• e.g. Psalm 1:6 - "For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish."

Synthetic Parallelism

• the second and succeeding lines add to or develop the idea expressed in the first line
• e.g. Psalm 1:1 - "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers

Emblematic Parallelism

• the second line elevates the thought expressed in the first line
• e.g. Psalm 42:1 - "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God."

Exercise:

Read the first 2 Psalms, and try to figure out what types of parallelism are being used.