What
constitutes poetry among the examples of ancient Hebrew literature that have
come down to us remains a controversial issue. The corpus of ancient Hebrew poetry I have made the basis of my
research is the following - a PDF version is available here):
Gen 4:23-24
(Song of Lamech); 49:1-27 (Blessing of Jacob); Exod 15:1-18 (Song of the Sea);
Num 21:17-18 (Song of the Well); 21:27-29 (Song of Heshbon); 23:6-10,18-24;
24:3-9,15-19,20,21-22,23-24 (seven meshalim of Balaam); Deut 32:1-43
(Song of Moses); 33:2-29 (Blessing of Moses); Judg 5:2-31 (Song of Deborah); 1
Sam 2:1-10 (Song of Hannah); 2 Sam 1:19-27 (Lament of David); 22:2-51 (Song of
David); 23:1-7 (Last Words of David); 2 Kgs 19:21-34 (Oracles of Isaiah).
Isa 1-5;
7:13-25; 8:6-10,11-23aβ,23aγ-9:6; 9:7-20; 10-12; 13-19; 21-27; 28-35; 37:22-35;
38:10-20; 40-66; Hos 2:4-25; 4-14; Joel; Amos 1-6, 9; Obad; Jonah 2:3-10; Mic;
Nah; Hab; Zeph; and Zech 9-14. Jeremiah and Ezekiel are problematic. Many units
have first person narrative frames that might be scanned as part of the poetry
they introduce, or might, in whole or in part, be understood to be extraneous prose.
Some oracular units make use of semantic and syntactic parallelisms at the line
level. Others do not. Should the units that do not nevertheless prove to make
use of stress parallelisms and otherwise conform to the general rule and the
length rule, we would logically classify them as prose in verse, a category
distinct from poetry in the strict sense.
Pss; Prov; Job
3:2-42:6; Cant; Lam; Qoh 1:2-9; 11:7-12:8; I Chr 16:8-35. Sir (insofar as it is
extant in Hebrew). For the latter, see Pancratius C. Beentjes, The Book of
Ben Sira in Hebrew (VTSup 68; Leiden: Brill, 1997).
Among the Dead
Sea Scrolls: Plea for Deliverance, Apostrophe to Zion, Ps 155, Hymn to the Creator, Hodayot,
and the Barki Nafshi and Songs of the Sabbath texts. See Poetic and
Liturgical Texts (ed. Donald W. Parry and Emanuel Tov; DSSR 5; Leiden Brill, 2005).
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