Page:The Emphasised Bible - Vol 1.djvu/11

Another strain is touched when we read—

For a child hath been born to us,
A son hath been given to us,—^[1]

in which it may be noted that this and not the current rhythm is undoubtedly the true one; since this it is which, closely following the Hebrew, throws the emphasis in the right place—on "child" and "son." There lies our hope—in Him! These samples will suffice to point to the thousands of instances of Parallelism which, in this translation, lie before the reader. The present is not the place for discussing the many varieties of Parallelism to be found in the Bible. The subject is necessarily familiar in all treatises on Hebrew poetry. Better, however, than the perusal of any printed treatise will be the collating and classifying of instances by each student for himself. He can label his samples at pleasure, as "synonymous," "antithetic," "recurrent," "progressive," and so forth, provided he correctly describe them. It is uncertain whether due attention has generally been given to what may be described as semi-parallelism, not infrequently to be found in Isaiah. Its presence is intimated in this Bible, either by a couple of responding extra capitals, as in the following:—

I am sated With ascending-offerings of rams,
And the fat of fed beasts.^[2]

So have I sworn—Not to be vexed with thee,
Nor to rebuke thee;^[3]

or, when space has required it, by an extra line bestowed upon it, sooner than do it an injustice. Thus—

And they shall call thee—
The city of Yahweh,
The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.^[4]

There is one especial form of Parallelism to which much interest attaches, if not by reason of any novelty in the attention given to it, yet at least by virtue of its inherently striking character and the help it occasionally renders to right reading and interpretation. Dr. R. Moulton^[5] terms it the Envelope arrangement of lines. Its simplest form is where the first line is responded to by the fourth, and the second is answered by the third. A single example will show what is meant:—

Let me see thy form,
Let me hear thy voice,—
For thy voice is sweet,
And thy form comely.^[6]

Its bearing upon the correct reading of the original is seen in Isa. ix. 3; the much-needed emendation of which is reached by Dr. Ginsburg through a wholly independent process, dealing with questions of abbreviation and letter grouping. The result of his critical revision of the Hebrew text is strongly confirmed by the fact that thereby is produced this very special and beautiful form of parallelism:—

Thou hast increased the exultation.
Thou hast made great the joy,—
They joy before thee according to the joy of harvest,
As men exult when they distribute spoil.^[7]

1. Isa ix. 6.
2. Isa. i. 11.
3. Isa. liv. 9.
4. Isa. lx. 14.
5. In "The Bible as Literature."
6. S.S. ii. 14.
7. Isa. ix. 3.