Literary Devices – Shemot 14/0

Literary Devices – Shemot 14

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Key Words

מצרים

• As seen in the Tanakh Lab,¹ the word מצרים appears 26 times in this chapter, more than any other. The repetition highlights the might of Egypt and terror they instill, even as they are about to be defeated. In the panicked words of the Israelites to Moshe in verses 12-13 the word appears a full five times, illustrating the psychological hold that Egypt continues to exert over Israel and the fear that they feel as a result.

חזק וכבד

• Tanakh Lab – The two related roots of “כבד” and “חזק”, which have appeared many times throughout the exodus narrative in the context of hardening Paroh's heart, appear three times each in Shemot 14 as the story culminates.  Here, though, the root "כבד"  describe how Hashem will be honored through the miracle.  The repetition and wordplay highlight how Paroh’s obduracy led to the crowning miracle of the splitting of the sea.
• Articles – See Prof. Yonatan Grossman's Leitwort who discusses the phenomenon of keywords as a whole,² bringing "כבד" as one example, and R. Nathaniel Helfgot שתי מילים מנחות בסיפור יציאת מצרים, who explores the usages of the two roots כבד and חזק. Both authors note how the repetition of the roots demonstrates Hashem's measure for measure actions during the Exodus.³ 

Wordplay

Examples

Amos Hakham⁴ points out a play on words between the Egyptians’ exclamation of “What is this that we have done that we have sent Israel out from serving us?" and the Israelites’ cry of “What is this that you have done to us, to bring us out from Egypt?!” Both express regret at the exodus. Moreover, both exclamations contrast with the question that the Torah states will be asked by Jewish children about the Passover service in the future: “What is this?” (13:14). The despairing “What is this?” of the Egyptians and the Israelites at the time of the exodus will be replaced by the curious “What is this?” of generations of Jews as they commemorate the event.

Articles

The following articles contain general discussion of wordplay in Tanakh:

• See Wordplay in Biblical Hebrew: An Eclectic Collection, by Gary A. Rendsburg, for exploration of various forms of Biblical wordplays.
• See Wordplay in Ancient Near Eastern Texts, by Scott B. Noegel, for a book-length treatment of the range of permutations of wordplays in Tanakh and in other Ancient Near Eastern texts⁵

Parallelism

Examples

• The words attributed to Paroh in verse 3 are stated as a parallelism:  נְבֻכִ֥ים הֵ֖ם בָּאָ֑רֶץ / סָגַ֥ר עֲלֵיהֶ֖ם הַמִּדְבָּֽר.  In his commentary on the Torah, Robert Alter suggests that this highlights Paroh’s “regal confidence” in his ability to capture the escaped Israelites.
• Verse 9, which describes Mitzrayim’s apparently successful pursuit of the Israelites, is also formulated with parallel structure, also conveying a sense of confidence and majesty, which will shortly be upended:
• וַיִּרְדְּפ֨וּ מִצְרַ֜יִם אַחֲרֵיהֶ֗ם / וַיַּשִּׂ֤יגוּ אוֹתָם֙ חֹנִ֣ים עַל־הַיָּ֔ם
• כׇּל־סוּס֙ רֶ֣כֶב פַּרְעֹ֔ה / וּפָרָשָׁ֖יו וְחֵיל֑וֹ
• עַל־פִּי֙ הַֽחִירֹ֔ת / לִפְנֵ֖י בַּ֥עַל צְפֹֽן

Articles

For more information about the nature of Biblical parallelism, see Dr. Mayer I. Gruber’s article The Meaning of Biblical Parallelism: A Biblical Perspective and Dr. Adele Berlin’s Grammatical Aspects of Biblical Parallelism.⁶

Envelope Structure

• Water – Water frames both the larger story of the Exodus and the inner story of the plagues, acting as a vehicle of both destruction and deliverance:
• The larger story begins with the decree to drown the Jewish baby boys and the saving of Moshe from the Nile.  It concludes with the splitting of the sea, which provides salvation for the Israelites, but drowns the Egyptians. The structure both demarcates the unit and highlights the measure for measure aspects of the story.
• The inner narrative of the plagues is similarly framed.  When the waters are transformed into blood, Hashem states: “קח מטך ונטה-ידך על-מימי מצרים” and in the context of the splitting of the sea, He commands: “ואתה הרם את-מטך ונטה את-ידך על הים ובקעהו.”
• Articles –
• See Structural Devices for other examples of envelope structures in Tanakh and the role they play.
• See How Many Plagues Were There and Patterns in the Plagues for Sforno's opinion that the plagues began with the plague of blood and culminated with the splitting of the sea.

¹ In the lab, click on the word מצרים in verse 4 to find all its appearances in the chapter.

² For other articles discussing the use of key words in the Biblical text, see Martin Buber’s דרכו של מקרא: עיונים בדפוסי-סגנון בתנ”ך, and The Multi-Purpose ‘Leading Word’ and the Problems of Its Usage, by Yairah Amit and Jeffrey M. Green.

³ See also J. Jacobs, "Midda Keneged Midda Be-Sippur Ha-Mikra'i," (Alon Shevut 5766), pp. 138-140.

⁴ See Da'at Mikra Shemot (Jerusalem, 1991).

⁵ See How Translation Obscured the Music and Wordplay of the Bible, by Robert Alter, for an interesting account of Dr. Alter’s efforts to capture the wordplays of the Bible in translation.

⁶ See also Dr. Robert Alter’s The Art of Biblical Poetry pp. 3-61, Dr. Adele Berlin’s The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism, and Dr. James Kugel’s The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and Its History.