Then there are found ḥayeto = "beast",[6] osri = "tying",[7] and yeshu'atah = "salvation"[8]—three forms that probably retain remnants of the old endings of the nominative, genitive, and accusative: u(n), i(n), a(n).
[15] Such forms have been called dialectus poetica since the publication of Robert Lowth's Prælectiones de Sacra Poesi Hebræorum iii.
(1753); but this designation is ambiguous and can be accepted only in agreement with the rule a parte potiori fit denominatio for some of these unusual forms and words are found elsewhere than in the "songs" of the Old Testament.
This "parallelism" occurs in the portions of the Hebrew Bible that are at the same time marked frequently by the so-called dialectus poetica; it consists in a remarkable correspondence in the ideas expressed in two successive units (hemistiches, verses, strophes, or larger units); for example, the above-cited words of Lamech, "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, harken unto my speech",[16] in which are found he'ezin and imrah, show a remarkable repetition of the same thought.
But this ideal corythmy is not always present in the songs of the Old Testament or in the Psalms, as the following passages will show: Julius Ley[21] says therefore correctly that Though this restriction must be made to James Robertson's view, it remains the case that:[22] "The distinguishing feature of the Hebrew poetry ... is the rhythmical balancing of parts, or parallelism of thought."
The rhythm of Hebrew poetry may be similar to that of the German Nibelungenlied — a view that is strongly supported by the nature of the songs sung by the populace of Palestine in the early 20th century.
These songs have been described by L. Schneller[27] in the following words: Also in Palestine, Gustaf Hermann Dalman observed: Such free rhythms are, in Davidson's opinion, found also in the poetry of the Old Testament.
Under the stress of their thoughts and feelings the poets of Israel sought to achieve merely the material, not the formal symmetry of corresponding lines.
This may be observed, for example, in the following lines of Psalm 2: "Serve the LORD with fear" ('Ibdu et-Yhwh be-yir'ah, 2:11), "rejoice with trembling" (we-gilu bi-re'adah).
A whole book of these elegies is contained in the Hebrew Bible, the first of them beginning thus: "How does the city sit solitary—that was full of people—how is she become as a widow—she that was great among the nations—and princess among the provinces—how is she become tributary!"
As in the elegiac couplet of Greco-Roman poetry, this change was intended to symbolize the idea that a strenuous advance in life is followed by fatigue or reaction.
[37] Many similar passages occur in Psalms 120-134, which also contain an unusual number of epanalepsis, or catch-words, for which Israel Davidson proposed the name Leittöne.
The letters of the alphabet, generally in their ordinary sequence, stand at the beginning of smaller or larger sections of Psalms 9-10 (probably), 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, 145;[40] Proverbs 31:10-31; Lamentations 1-4; and also of Sirach 51:13-29, as the newly discovered (but poorly preserved) Hebrew text of this book has shown.
A series of them impresses the fact that God's law teaches one to abhor sin,[67] and inculcates a true love for the Temple and the feasts of Yahweh.
These may be divided into two sections: It was natural that in the drama, which is intended to portray a whole series of external and internal events, several of the foregoing kinds of poems should be combined.