Hebrew poetry and parallelism

Why psalms are printed in lines

Open a Bible to the Psalms and you will see short lines instead of full-width paragraphs. That is because Hebrew poetry is built on lines. It does not rhyme the way English verse often does. Instead, lines answer one another in meaning, a feature called parallelism. Usually two lines (sometimes three) form a unit, and the second line echoes the first, contrasts with it, or takes a step beyond it.

Poetry also sounds different from story. It is terse, and it tends to use fewer articles and far fewer consecutive imperfects ("and he said, and he saw") than narrative does. That is a tendency, not a law. So when you read a psalm, ask of each line: how does this one relate to the line before it? Most of the time that question opens the verse.

An echo: Psalm 19:1

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.

Psalm 19:1

Set the two lines side by side and match the words. "The heavens" הַשָּׁמַיִם pairs with "the firmament" הָרָקִיעַ; "the glory of God" pairs with "the work of his hands"; "declare" pairs with "proclaim". Both verbs are participles: מְסַפְּרִים, "recounting", is a Piel participle, and מַגִּיד, "telling", is a Hiphil participle. Saying the same thing in new words gives the idea depth, and we will call this an echo. Notice also that "glory of" כְּבוֹד־ and "work of" וּמַעֲשֵׂה are both in the construct, so the two lines even share a skeleton.

A progression: Psalm 1:1

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.

Psalm 1:1

Here there are three lines, and in each one both the verb and the kind of person change. The verbs are הָלַךְ "walk", עָמָד "stand" and יָשָׁב "sit", each a Qal perfect, third person masculine singular. The people change too, and readers often see them growing worse: רְשָׁעִים "the wicked", חַטָּאִים "sinners", לֵצִים "mockers". Someone who walks past, then stands, ends up sitting down at home in the wrong company. This is an echo that also moves forward, a progression. The perfect here is probably best heard as describing a habit ("such a person does not do these things") rather than a single completed act, though translations vary a little.

The word for "wicked" is רָשָׁע, about 260 times in the Old Testament. It is the regular partner of "righteous" in the Psalms.

A contrast: Psalm 1:6

For the LORD guards the path of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Psalm 1:6

Now the two lines are set against each other. דֶּרֶךְ צַדִּיקִים, "the way of the righteous", faces וְדֶרֶךְ רְשָׁעִים, "and the way of the wicked". צַדִּיק "righteous" occurs more than 200 times. The verbs contrast too. The first line has יוֹדֵעַ, literally "is knowing" (a Qal participle), which the BSB renders "guards"; the second has תֹּאבֵד, "will perish", a Qal imperfect from אָבַד, about 180 occurrences. A way the LORD knows stands against a way that vanishes. If verse 1 is a progression, verse 6 is a contrast, and the psalm uses the two to open and close its picture of two paths.

A refrain and a hard word: Psalm 136:1

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good. His loving devotion endures forever.

Psalm 136:1

Every one of this psalm's 26 verses ends with the same refrain: כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ. Its first word, כִּי, is the "for, because" you met among the little words. The word עוֹלָם means "long time, forever" (about 390 times), and the prefix לְ here means "to", so "to forever". The ending וֹ is a suffix, "his", added to the construct חַסְדּ.

The key word is חֶסֶד, about 245 times in the Old Testament, and it resists a single English word. The 개역한글 has 인자 and the BSB has "loving devotion". Others have "steadfast love" or "kindness". It points to love that keeps faith with a promise. When translations differ on it, it is usually because one word has several sides, and each translator has picked one to show.

Summary

Hebrew poetry pairs short lines. The second line can echo the first (19:1), carry it a step further (1:1) or contrast with it (1:6), and that is why psalms are printed in lines. There are no new grammar labels today. What you gain is the habit of asking how one line relates to the next, which you will use when we read Psalm 23.

Words in this lesson

• רָשָׁעrasahwicked263 times in the OT
• צַדִּיקtsaddiqrighteous206 times in the OT
• אָבַדavadto perish184 times in the OT
• חֶ֫סֶדchesedkindness245 times in the OT
• עוֹלָםolamforever: enduring388 times in the OT

Practice