That walketh in darkness, and hath no light?
Let him trust in the name of Jehovah,

And rest himself upon the support of his God."

Isaiah 1, 10.

Frequently there is a parallelism in each several proposition and member:

"Reproach hath broken my heart; and I have been made sad: And I looked for some to lament; but there was none:

And for comforters; but I found them not."

Psalm lxix, 20.

II. The second kind of parallels is the antithetic, when two lines relate or correspond to each other by an opposition or contrast of the sentiment, or of the terms, or of both. The degrees of antithesis are various. Sometimes the words or ideas are placed in exact contraposition throughout the whole sentence; at other times, only a general disparity or contrariety is observable in the two propositions. It should be premised, however, that this form of parallelism is peculiarly adapted to adages, aphorisms, and detached sentences, and is mostly found in the book of Proverbs. The antithetic parts of the verse set off the sentiment in more prominent and bold outlines, like the lights and shadows of a picture, and secure their greatest effect in brief, abrupt, pertinent sentences. We are not, therefore, to expect the frequent occurrence of this form in the more connected and elevated poems of the Hebrews, but principally in their didactic and sententious writings. The following are some specimens:

"A wise son rejoiceth his father;

But a foolish son is the grief of his mother."

Proverbs x, 1.

Here the terms and sentiments are made exactly to contrast. The wise son is opposed to the foolish son, rejoicing to grief, the father to the mother.

"The memory of the just is a blessing;
But the name of the wicked shall rot."

Proverbs x, vii.

There is no one rule for the interpretation of the Proverbs of Solomon of more universal importance than the law of parallelism; and, in numerous instances, this particular law of anti

thetic parallelism is the chief and indeed the only reliance of the expositor. The Psalms also contain many specimens of this peculiar form:

"Some in chariots and some in horses [do trust;]

But we make mention of the name of the Lord our God.
They are brought down and fallen;

But we are risen and stand upright."

Psalm xx, 7, 8.

In the members of the first verse (that is, the first two lines) just quoted, the ground of confidence of the wicked and the pious is contrasted; in the last verse, the consequences, or final results of their confidence, are placed the one over against the other. Again:

"For his wrath is but for a moment;

His favour for life:

Sorrow may lodge for the evening;

But in the morning, gladness."

Psalm xxx, 5.

"For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be;

Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be found:
But the meek shall inherit the land;

And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."

Psalm xxxvii, 10, 11.

In the last example, the parallel lies between the first two and the last two lines, making a stanza of four lines.

III. The third species of parallels is called by Bishop Lowth, "Parallels synthetic, or constructive; where the parallelism consists only in the similar form of construction; in which word does not answer to word, and sentence to sentence, either as equivalent or as opposite; but there is a correspondence and equality between different propositions, in respect to the shape and turn of the whole sentence, and of the constructive parts; such as noun answering to noun, verb to verb, member to member, negative to negative, interrogative to interrogative. The degrees of the correspondence of the lines of this sort of parallels must, from the nature of it, be various. Sometimes the parallelism is more, sometimes less exact; sometimes hardly apparent."* The following are examples of this form:

*Prelim. Dissert. to Isaiah.

"Praise ye Jehovah, ye of the earth;
Ye sea-monsters, and all deeps:
Fire and hail, snow and vapour;
Stormy wind executing his command:
Mountains, and all hills;

Fruit trees, and all cedars:
Wild beasts, and all cattle;
Reptiles, and birds of wing:

Kings of the earth, and all peoples;
Princes, and all judges of the earth:
Youths, and all virgins;

Old men, together with the children:
Let them praise the name of Jehovah;

For his name alone is exalted;

His majesty, above earth and heaven."--Psalm cxlviii, 7–13.

The book of Job consists chiefly of the form of constructive parallelisms. The following is a specimen:

"With him is wisdom and might;

To him belong counsel and understanding.

Lo! he pulleth down, and it shall not be built;

He encloseth a man, and he shall not be set loose.

Lo! he withholdeth the waters, and they are dried up;
And he sendeth them forth, and they overturn the earth.
With him is strength and perfect existence;

The deceived, and the deceiver, are his."-Job xii, 13-16.

The following are beautiful specimens of what Bishop Lowth calls the longer kind of constructive parallelism:

"The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul;

The testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple:
The precepts of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of Jehovah is clear, enlightening the eyes:
The fear of Jehovah is pure, enduring forever;

The judgments of Jehovah are truth, they are just altogether:
More desirable than gold, and than much fine gold:
And sweeter than honey, and the dropping of honey-combs."
Psalm xix, 7-10.

"O! how great is thy goodness, which thou hast treasured up for

them that fear thee;

Which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee, before the sons of men!

Thou wilt hide them in the secret place of thy presence, from the

vexations of man;

Thou wilt keep them safe in the tabernacle, from the strife of
Psalm xxxi, 19, 20.

tongues."

IV. Besides the kinds of parallelism already mentioned, there has been reckoned another, which is called rhythmical. "We should entertain too narrow a view of the parallelism of members," says De Wette,* "if we supposed it to consist exclusively in the proportion of the thoughts; for how could we dispose of the numerous passages where this is entirely wanting-where the thoughts are found to correspond to each other, neither by their resemblance, nor by antithesis, nor by synthesis? The parallelism of members assumed, further, a simply external rhythmical form, such as rhyme is. Originally, and according to rule, the parallelism was expressed in the matter [of the verse ;] but next, it left its impression as a distinct form, even where the matter did not correspond to it. The proportion [between the principal members of the verse] grew habitual, and hence greater freedom and licence in the thoughts was sometimes tolerated; besides, the constant recurrence of resemblance and antithesis would have been tedious, both to poet and hearer. This species of parallelism we call the rhythmical, because it consists simply in the form of the period. Examples of it occur in all the kinds :

"First, with the number of the words nearly equal:

'Moreover, by them is thy servant warned;

In keeping of them there is great reward.'-Psalm xix, 12.

"Secondly, with striking inequality in the number of the words:

'Jehovah, my God!

I cried unto thee, and thou didst heal me.'-Psalm xxx, 2.

"Thirdly, with a double and a simple member:

'O that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
If Jehovah bring back the captives of his people,
Jacob rejoiceth, Israel is glad.'—Psalm xiv, 7.

"It is deserving of remark how the rhythmical parallelism makes good its place where three parallel thoughts occur, and

* Introduction to the Psalms.

there is no internal ground for dividing them into exactly two members:

'Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly; That treadeth not in the way of sinners;

And sitteth not in the circles of scorners.-Psalm i, 1.'

"Fourthly, rhythmical parallelism occurs with two double members:

'I thought in my confusion,

I am cut off before thine eyes;

But thou hearedst the voice of my supplication,
When I cried unto thee.-Psalm xxxi, 22.'

"When the members of this rhythmical parallelism are more than double, which is sometimes the case, it approaches very near to prose; it is too loose a form to retain an exuberant matter without passing over into the prosaic style. The simply rhythmical parallelism holds the most prominent place in the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Here parallelism of thought is to be reckoned almost among the exceptions; the rhythm alone predominates, and that, too, with a regularity which is rare among Hebrew poets, producing here a suitable effect, namely, monotony of complaint."

V. Another peculiarity of the Hebrew poetry, which it may be advantagous to the reader to notice, consists in a repetition of certain words by which the sense of a preceding line is brought forward and presented anew, with a view to give increased emphasis to the thought. This rising or advance in the sentiment is a simple invention of the rhythmical art of the Hebrews, and is characteristic of a considerable part of the poetry of the Old Testament. Gesenius supposes that this is the meaning of the title of the fifteen Psalms called "songs of degrees," or songs of ascent, because the sense, as it were, ascends by degrees or steps, the first or last words of a preceding clause being often repeated at the beginning of a succeeding one. De Wette calls this kind of poetry the rhythm of gradation. (See songs of degrees under the section on titles and inscriptions of Psalms.) Besides the specimen of this kind of poetry given in the section just referred to, the following may assist the reader still further to comprehend its nature and force: