Basics of Bible Interpretation - RayStedman.org

Apostrophe
This is a strange but graphic figure which sounds as if the speaker were talking to himself in
a sort of externalized soliloquy. For instance, David says to his dead son, “O my son Absalom,
my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2
Samuel 18:33). What a moving expression of David’s grief this is; no other mode of expression
could be quite so expressive in this instance.
Then there is the use of this figure in which the kings of earth address a fallen city, “Alas!
alas! thou great city, thou mighty city, Babylon! In one hour has thy judgment come!”
(Revelation 18:10).
This figure of speech seems best adapted to the expression of deep emotion. As such, it
readily grabs our attention and draws out our interest.
Synechdoche
Here’s one that most of us have never heard of, but which we frequently use in everyday
speech. We say, “This is his hour” when we don’t really mean an hour just sixty minutes long.
We mean this is his time of glory, or suffering, or whatever we associate with his current
experience. We have substituted a part for the whole. In scripture it occurs in such passages as
this: in Judges 12:7 we are told Jephthah was buried “in the cities of Gilead” (Hebrew) though
actually only one of those cities is meant; in Luke 2:1 “all the world” is used to mean the world
of the Roman Empire, in Deuteronomy 32:41 “if I whet the lightning of my sword” the word
lightning is used for the flashing edge of the gleaming blade.
Perhaps now we have seen enough of the prevalence and expressive value of figures of
speech to help us appreciate the color and realism they lend to the language of the Bible. Also,
interpretively, our review should take some of the mystery out of our encounters with these
forms, in studying the Bible.
Basics Of Bible Interpretation – page 73