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8instances. 15 Similar analyses underlie the formatting of Hebrew poetry ofmost modern translations of the Bible – for example, the NRSV, theTraduction Œcuménique de la Bible, La Biblia del Peregrino, La SacraBibbia della Conferenza Episcopale Italiana, and the Einheitsübersetzungder Heiligen Schrift. 16 There seems to be more agreement about basic formalaspects of ancient Hebrew poetry than we sometimes realize.Adele Berlin’s recent overview in the Jewish Study Bible emphasizesprecisely those formal aspects of ancient Hebrew poetry about which thereshould be general agreement. Again we hear that parallelisms are the chiefhallmark of ancient Hebrew poetry, with pride of place given to syntacticand semantic parallelisms. Again we are told that the basic structural unit ofa poem is not a single “line” – what Harshav and Alter refer to as a “verset”– but a set of parallel “lines” two or three in number. Again we have arecognition of “balance” between parallel “lines,” though Berlin notes thatno system of numerical demarcation – be it counting of syllables, stresses,syntactic units, or “thoughts” – has met with anything like generalacceptance. 17In an overview of his own, Alter reiterates the importance of parallelismsof meaning, syntax, and rhythmic stresses in biblical verse, by no meansalways in coordination with each other. He emphasizes that the parallelismbetween contiguous versets of a poetic line is sometimes limited to one ofstresses. 18 Innumerable scholars have emphasized the importance of stressparallelism. Harshav references Joachim Begrich, whose review of researchin his day is still helpful and whose study of syntactic frames in the context15 Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (ed. Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph; 5th ed.;Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1997 [originally 1967-77]); JPS Hebrew-EnglishTanakh: The Traditional Hebrew Text and the New JPS Translation (2d ed.; Philadelphia:Jewish Publication Society, 1999).16 The HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version (gen. ed. Wayne A.Meeks; New York: HarperCollins, 1993); Traduction Œcuménique de la Bible. EditionIntegrale. Ancien Testament (Paris: Cerf, 1980); Biblia del Peregrino. Edición de Estudio 1-3: Antiguo Testamento, prosa; Antiguo Testamento, poesía; Nuevo Testamento (3d ed.; ed.Luis Alonso Schökel; Bilbao: Mensajero, 2005 [1997]; Port. trans. Biblia do peregino (SãoPaulo: Paulus, 2002); La Bibbia di Gerusalemme: Testo biblico di La Sacra Bibbia dellaCEI (“editio princeps” 1971; Bologna: Edizioni Dehoniane, 1986); Einheitsübersetzung derHeiligen Schrift (Stuttgart: Katholische Bibelanstalt, 1980).17 Adele Berlin, “Reading Biblical Poetry,” in The Jewish Study Bible (ed. Adele Berlinand Mark Zvi Brettler; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) 2097-2104; 2098-99.18 Robert Alter, “The Characteristics of Ancient Hebrew Poetry,” in The Literary Guide tothe Bible (ed. Robert Alter and Frank Kermode; Cambridge: Harvard University Press,1987) 611-24; 612-15.
9of a theory of stress parallelisms anticipates the interest in syntax thatcharacterizes the more recent work of Collins and O’Connor. Alterreferences John Bright, whose exposition of the Ley-Sievers system asemployed in his generation remains the most lucid available in the Englishlanguage. The work of George Buchanan Gray, Hans Wildberger, LuisAlonso Schökel, and Leslie Allen might also be singled out. All applied thestress-counting method to a large corpus of texts in a consistent manner. 19Harshav, Alter, and Berlin refine and rework the classical descriptiongoing back to Lowth. Harshav and Alter reclaim the method of primarystress analysis associated with the names of Julius Ley and Eduard Sievers. 20If they are right to do so, we may still pose the question: What about thework of those who reject the description of parallelism as the hallmark ofancient Hebrew poetry and forgo the search for prosodic regularities therein?Is the work of those who set the classical description aside nonethelesscompatible with it?Collins, Kugel, and O’ConnorTerence Collins’ description of line-forms in Hebrew poetry, as heremarks, “can be looked on as a system of measurement, determining what isa well formed verse-line and thus performing the same function as the more19 Joachim Begrich, “Zur hebräische Metrik,” TRu NF 4 (1932) 67-89; “Der Satzstil imFünfer,” ZS 9 (1933-34) 169-209; repr. idem, Gesammelte Studien zum Alten Testament (ed.Walther Zimmerli; TB 21; Munich: Chr. Kaiser, 1964) 132-67; John Bright, Jeremiah (AB21; New York: Doubleday, 1965) cxxvi-cxxxviii; George Buchanan Gray (The Forms ofHebrew Poetry [London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1915; repr. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2002)];idem, Isaiah I-XXXIX [chs. 1-27 alone are covered] [ICC; Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1912];Samuel R. Driver and George B. Gray, Job [Gray is responsible for the discussion ofrhythms in the introduction and notes] [ICC; Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1912]); Luis AlonsoSchökel, Estudios de poética hebrea (Barcelona: Juan Flors, 1963) 165-88 [Isa 1-21]; 188-89 [Isa 43-44]; 451-87 [Isa 24-27]; 489-523 [Isa 28-30]; Hans Wildberger, Jesaja: 1.Teilband: Jesaja 1-12 (2d ed., BKAT 10/1; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1980[ET Isaiah 1-12 (CC; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990)]; idem, Jesaja: 2. Teilband: Jesaja 13-27(BKAT 10/2, Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1978 [ET Isaiah 13-27 (CC;Minneapolis: Fortress, 1997)]; idem, Jesaja: 3. Teilband: Jesaja 28-39 (BKAT 10/3;Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1982 [ET Isaiah 28-39 (CC; Minneapolis:Fortress, 2002)]; Leslie C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (2d ed.; WBC 21; Nashville: ThomasNelson, 2002).20 Where Ley and Sievers differ, Ley’s approach seems of more enduring value. See thewriter’s “Meter in Ancient Hebrew Poetry: A History of Modern Research,”ancienthebrewpoetry.typepad.com.
Page 1 and 2: Retaining and TranscendingThe Class
Page 3 and 4: 3noted that poetic texts in the Heb
Page 5: 5Restatements of the Classical Desc
Page 10 and 11: 10familiar systems of meter.” 21
Page 12 and 13: 12he chucks the description overboa
Page 14 and 15: 14A New DescriptionIf there is a pa
Page 16: 16The levels of the prosodic hierar
Page 19 and 20: 19and keep to the paths of the righ
Page 21 and 22: 21boundaries of a section are never
Page 23 and 24: 23Obad 12Zeph 1:2-3Ps 119:62-64Woul
Page 25 and 26: 25line in which the line’s second
Page 27 and 28: 27length may have been intuitive ra
Page 29 and 30: 29with the general rule, the length
Page 31 and 32: 31novel subdivision of a poem, or d

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