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JBTM_13-2_Fall_2016
JBTM_13-2_Fall_2016
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JBTM Jeffrey G. Audirsch<br />
36<br />
Israel his dominion.<br />
3<br />
The sea looked and fled;<br />
Jordan turned back.<br />
4<br />
The mountains skipped like rams,<br />
the hills like lambs.<br />
5<br />
What ails you, O sea, that you flee?<br />
O Jordan, that you turn back?<br />
6<br />
O mountains, that you skip like rams?<br />
O hills, like lambs?<br />
7<br />
Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,<br />
at the presence of the God of Jacob,<br />
8<br />
who turns the rock into a pool of water,<br />
the flint into a spring of water.<br />
In the verses above, the underlined portions represent the words that are stated in the first<br />
line of poetry and, yet, repeated in different terms in the second line. 21<br />
The second form, antithetic parallelism, is somewhat self-explanatory—the second<br />
line of poetry is contrasted/opposed to the first. This form of parallelism does not follow<br />
any particular form or style. The contrasts and opposites between lines can be broad as<br />
thematic points (i.e., sentence level) or as acute as words (e.g., Prov 15:18). 22 One of the<br />
most famous examples of antithetical parallelism is Ps 1.<br />
1<br />
Blessed is the man<br />
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,<br />
nor stands in the way of sinners,<br />
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;<br />
2<br />
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,<br />
and on his law he meditates day and night.<br />
3<br />
He is like a tree<br />
planted by streams of water<br />
that yields its fruit in its season,<br />
and its leaf does not wither.<br />
21<br />
Due to its prevalence, synonymous parallelism contains various forms: the second line might<br />
reiterate the former line (e.g., Nahum 1:2); the second line can repeat a key element from the first line<br />
(e.g., Ps 105:20); the second line answers part or all of the first line (e.g., Isa 60:1); and sometimes the<br />
literary movement is from general to specific or vice-versa (e.g., Ps 51:9). This list is not exhaustive,<br />
but it does include some of the more prominent forms of synonymous parallelism. For the complete<br />
list, see Lowth, Lectures on the Sacred Poetry, 154–61.<br />
22<br />
Lowth, Lectures on the Sacred Poetry, 161–62. More recently, Bullock defines antithetic parallelism<br />
as a “method of saying contrasting things in different lines and in different ways.” See C. Hassell<br />
Bullock, Encountering the Book of Psalms (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001), 38.