Page images
PDF
EPUB

XI

THE POETS

I

OME of the poetry which appears in the pages of

SOM

the historians and of the prophets is so vaguely related to the circumstances in the midst of which it stands as to suggest that it was originally composed for some other occasion. Thus the Song of Hannah (I Sam. 2), the Old Testament Magnificat, reads like the celebration of a victory in battle.

My heart rejoiceth in the Lord,
Mine horn is exalted in the Lord:

My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies;
Because I rejoice in thy salvation.

There is none holy as the Lord;
For there is none beside thee:

Neither is there any rock like our God.
Talk no more so exceeding proudly;

Let not arrogancy come out of your mouth:
For the Lord is a God of knowledge,

And by him actions are weighed.

The bows of the mighty men are broken,

And they that stumbled are girded with strength.
They that were full have hired out themselves for

bread;

And they that were hungry ceased:

Yea, the barren hath born seven;

And she that hath many children is waxed feeble.

The Lord killeth, and maketh alive:

He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.
The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich:
He bringeth low, and lifteth up.

He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,
He lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill,
To make them sit with princes,

And inherit the throne of glory:

For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's,
And he hath set the world upon them.
He will keep the feet of his saints,

But the wicked shall be silent in darkness;
For by strength shall no man prevail.

The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to

pieces;

Out of the heaven shall he thunder upon them:
The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth;
And he shall give strength unto his king,

And exalt the horn of his anointed.

The Prayer of Jonah, with its references to the holy temple (Jonah 2:2-9), seems to belong rather to the thought of the southern kingdom than the northern, where Jonah lived.

I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord,
And he heard me;

Out of the belly of hell cried I,

And thou heardest my voice.

For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst

of the seas;

And the floods compassed me about:

All thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight;

Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.

The waters compassed me about, even to the soul:
The depth closed me round about,

The weeds were wrapped about my head.

I went down to the bottoms of the mountains;

The earth with her bars was about me for ever:
Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption,
O Lord my God.

When my soul fainted within me I remembered
the Lord:

And my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

They that observe lying vanities

Forsake their own mercy.

But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving;

I will pay that that I have vowed.

Salvation is of the Lord.

The Ode of Habakkuk is appended to the book of that prophet rather than vitally connected with it.

O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid:
O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years,
In the midst of the years make it known;
In wrath remember mercy.

God came from Teman,

And the Holy One from mount Paran.
His glory covered the heavens,
And the earth was full of his praise.
And his brightness was as the light;
He had horns coming out of his hand:
And there was the hiding of his power.
Before him went the pestilence,

And burning coals went forth at his feet.
He stood and measured the earth:

He beheld, and drove asunder the nations;
And the everlasting mountains were scattered,
The perpetual hills did bow:

His ways are everlasting.

I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction:

The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.

Was the Lord displeased against the rivers?
Was thine anger against the rivers?

Was thy wrath against the sea,

That thou didst ride upon thine horses,
Upon thy chariots of salvation?

Thy bow was made quite naked,

The oaths to the tribes were a sure word.

Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.
The mountains saw thee, and they trembled:
The overflowing of the water passed by:
The deep uttered its voice,

And lifted up its hands on high.

The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: At the light of thine arrows they went,

And at the shining of thy glittering spear.

Thou didst march through the land in indignation, Thou didst thresh the heathen in anger.

Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, For the salvation of thine anointed;

Thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked,

By discovering the foundation unto the neck.

Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his warriors;

They came out as a whirlwind to scatter me:
Their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly.
Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses,
Through the heap of great waters.

When I heard, my belly trembled;
My lips quivered at the voice:

Rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself;

That I might rest in the day of trouble,

When he that shall invade them in troops cometh up against the people.

Although the fig tree shall not blossom,
Neither shall fruit be in the vines;
The labour of the olive shall fail,
And the fields shall yield no meat;
The flock shall be cut off from the fold,
And there shall be no herd in the stalls:

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will joy in the God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my strength,

And he will make my feet like hinds' feet,
And he will make me to walk upon mine high
places.

The absence of rhyme and meter from Hebrew poetry, and the occasional indistinctness of the parallelism which is its characteristic form, blur the distinction between verse and eloquent and imaginative prose. This appears often in the prophets, especially in II Isaiah, part of which is plainly poetry in form as well as in thought, and most of which is poetical in thought even when the form looks like prose.

Of the five Old Testament books which are written in poetry, two-Proverbs and Job-belong also to the literature of Wisdom. The other three,—Lamentations, the Song of Solomon and the Psalms,-are collections of lyrics.

II

The statement of the Chronicler (II Chron. 35:25) that "Jeremiah lamented for Josiah; and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations; and behold they are written in the Lamentations," led Jewish critics to ascribe to Jeremiah the book which bears that name, and to apply these poems to the tragedy of the defeat and death of Josiah at the battle of Megiddo. But the poems are anonymous, and they seem to have been occasioned by the supreme tragedy of the destruction of Jerusalem. Four

« PreviousContinue »