(Part 1)

JBTM Jeffrey G. Audirsch
41
2
As a lily among brambles,
so is my love among the young women. (Song 2:2)
According to many, metaphor is virtually the same as a simile but with the absence of “like”
and/or “as.” This is not the case however. Whereas simile creates an explicit comparison,
a metaphor is implicit. 38 Additionally, a metaphor can be analytical and/or an overlap of
word-meanings. Thus, metaphors are analytical, which can be understood in terms of “X is
like Y in respect of Z” or tenor (X), vehicle (Y), and ground (Z). Within this in mind, I will
examine Job 29:15. 39
15
I was eyes to the blind
and feet to the lame.
Using the formula above, Job is the tenor (X) and his eyes are the vehicle (Y) and the ability
to see is ground (Z). Several other literary features are worth briefly noting: hyperbole,
irony, and personification. 40 Typically, hyperbole is an exaggerated statement not intended
to be interpreted literally. Yet, in the Bible hyperbole is frequently used as “a tendency to
think in extremes without qualification, in black and white without intervening shades of
grey.” 41 7
Saul has struck down his thousands,
and David his ten thousands. (1 Sam 18:7)
3
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?” (Ps 42:3)
Irony is a statement made with the intended meaning to be the opposite—typically
containing a sarcastic ring. 42 For example, Job makes an ironic quip to his antagonists in
Job 12:2–3.
145.
38
Ibid, 145.
39
See Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry, 263.
40
A variety of other types of figurative language exists that can also assist in exegetical work.
Due to the scope of the essay, the others have been omitted. Kaiser provides a helpful list of these
additional figures of speech: pleonasm, paronomasia, hendiadys, hendiatris, metonymy, synecdoche,
irony, litotes, euphemisms, zeugma, and ellipsis. See Walter Kaiser Jr. “My Heart is Stirred by a Noble
Theme,” in Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics, eds., Walter Kaiser Jr. and Moisés Silva (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 1994), 146–50.
41
Caird, Language and Imagery, 110.
42
Ibid, 134.