HEBREW POETRY. — Among the protocanonical books of the Old Testament, the following are entirely composed in poetic form: Job (except 1–2 and 42:7–16), Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Lamentations; among the deuterocanonical books: Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus. Many passages of the Prophets are also poetic; poetic compositions are likewise inserted in the historical books. A few rare fragments (Gen. 4:23 ff.; Num. 21:27 ff.; I Sam. 1:18–27) testify that profane poetry was not unknown to the Hebrews.
The fundamental characteristic of Hebrew poetry (and of Semitic poetry in general) is the repetition of an idea in two or three clauses or stichs, which form a verse (although some hold that each stich already constitutes a verse in itself). The phenomenon, brought to light by A. S. Mazzocchi, was shortly afterward called “parallelism” by R. Lowth.
There are three kinds: a) synonymous: the same idea is repeated with equivalent terms, thereby generally acquiring greater clarity or breadth (“Blessed is the man who does not follow the counsel of the wicked / nor stand in the way of sinners / nor sit in the assembly of scoffers” [Ps. 1:1]; a notable example is found in Ps. 113 [114]:1–8); b) antithetical: the second member sets the contrary idea against the first, thus giving it greater prominence; it is effective in the didactic genre (“A wise son gladdens his father / but a foolish son is the sorrow of his mother. The treasures of wickedness will avail nothing / but righteousness will deliver from death” [Prov. 10:1–2]); c) synthetic: the second member completes and develops the first (“Whoever honors his father will be gladdened by his children / and on the day of his prayer he will be heard. Whoever honors his father will live a longer life / whoever obeys his father will bring consolation to his mother” [Eccl. 3:6–7]). Naturally, the three forms are often found united and fused, lending greater variety to the diction.
St. Jerome speaks of Hebrew meter in terms proper to classical meter: he mentions hexameters, pentameters, trimeters, iambs, spondees, and Sapphic and Alcaic meters; and he cites Philo, Flavius Josephus, Origen, and Eusebius of Caesarea in his support (Introd. in Iob). Some, following G. Bickell, compared Hebrew meter with Syriac meter (trochaic or iambic syllabic verses). Others reconstructed in various ways a meter based on accents. Perhaps St. Jerome’s opinion too should be interpreted not in a strict sense, but by counting only the arses (or accents), without taking into account the varying length of the theses (one or more syllables). Thus, for example, in the Psalms, rhythms of 3+3, 3+4, 4+3, and 4+4 arses seem to predominate. In the qināh (elegiac) genre, the rhythm of 3+2 arses predominates. These rhythms are very consistent, so that, when extraordinary rhythmic anomalies are encountered, it is legitimate to question the integrity of the text.
Those who regard the stichs as verses also regard couplets and triplets as stanzas. Apart from this, one often observes in Hebrew poetry a strophic structure, founded principally on meaning but often indicated by certain signs: a refrain, as in Ps. 42–43 (Vulg. 41–42) and in Is. 9:7–10:4; selāh (a word of uncertain interpretation, intercalated between one stanza and another); ideas or terms repeated in different ways, which D. H. Müller called responsio (when the repetition occurs in the same place in several stanzas, as in Ez. 14:13–20), concatenatio (when the ending of one stanza is taken up at the beginning of the following one), inclusio (when the repetition concerns the beginning and the end of the same stanza). On the basis of strophic structure, there are certain choral compositions, such as Ps. 117 (118).
Besides assonances, which are very frequent, an artifice dear to Hebrew poets is the alphabetical acrostic, which at times, as in Ps. 9–10 and 119, can help determine the strophic structure. In Mesopotamian poetry, this corresponds to the acrostic verse, in which the initial syllable of each verse combines to form a title or a phrase with complete meaning.
The Hebrews knew only two genres of poetry: the lyrical and the didactic (to which the prophetic genre, added by some, is reduced). The former includes various species, and an indication of them has been sought in the various names prefixed to the Psalms (šir, mizmār, mašklī, miḥštām, šiggājōn), whose interpretation is uncertain. Outside the Psalms, the name qināh is found to indicate “lamentation” or elegy. The general name given to didactic compositions is māšāl, similitude, proverb. At times doctrine is presented in an obscure and enigmatic form (ḥidhāh, “riddle,” or mēlīšāh, “problem”).
The language of the Hebrew poets is naturally more elevated and elaborate than that of prose writers. Unusual forms and rare words are frequent; synonyms, assonances, and, above all, figurative expressions and locutions abound. The figures are drawn from nature: animals, plants, stones, metals, etc.; from daily life: agriculture, commerce, pastoralism, navigation, military life, and especially from the political and religious history of Israel. This last characteristic is what most clearly distinguishes Hebrew poetry from that of neighboring peoples. If, in the use of parallelism and of certain common forms and patterns, it is legitimate to see the influence of other literatures (especially Babylonian, Phoenician from Rāa Śamrah, Egyptian, etc.), its lofty religious and moral content, the beauty and variety of its expression and sentiments, and its truly exquisite craftsmanship confer upon Hebrew poetry undeniable primacy and originality.