Difference between revisions of "Literary Devices – Shemot 15/0"
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
This topic has not yet undergone editorial review
m |
m |
||
(3 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
Line 11: | Line 11: | ||
<li>Verses 12-end:  Wish for Future Salvation<fn>One weakness of this division is that verse 12 appears to still be speaking of the miracle at the sea, and one would have expected it to be part of the second stanza. See Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (New York, 2019), who suggests that this verse acts as a segue, mentioning the "earth" (rather than sea) as swallowing the Egyptians to draw the reader into the theme of this last stanza, that of the promised land.</fn></li> | <li>Verses 12-end:  Wish for Future Salvation<fn>One weakness of this division is that verse 12 appears to still be speaking of the miracle at the sea, and one would have expected it to be part of the second stanza. See Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (New York, 2019), who suggests that this verse acts as a segue, mentioning the "earth" (rather than sea) as swallowing the Egyptians to draw the reader into the theme of this last stanza, that of the promised land.</fn></li> | ||
</ul> | </ul> | ||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
</category> | </category> | ||
<category>Wordplay and Alliteration | <category>Wordplay and Alliteration | ||
Line 39: | Line 22: | ||
</subcategory> | </subcategory> | ||
<subcategory>Articles | <subcategory>Articles | ||
− | <p>The following articles contain general discussion of wordplay in Tanakh:</p> | + | <p>The following articles contain general discussion of wordplay in Tanakh:</p><ul> |
− | <ul> | ||
<li>See<a href="https://jewishstudies.rutgers.edu/docman/rendsburg/791-word-play-an-eclectic-collection/file"> Wordplay in Biblical Hebrew: An Eclectic Collection</a>, by Gary A. Rendsburg, for exploration of various forms of Biblical wordplays.</li> | <li>See<a href="https://jewishstudies.rutgers.edu/docman/rendsburg/791-word-play-an-eclectic-collection/file"> Wordplay in Biblical Hebrew: An Eclectic Collection</a>, by Gary A. Rendsburg, for exploration of various forms of Biblical wordplays.</li> | ||
<li>See <a href="https://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/pubs/9780884144762_OA.pdf">Wordplay in Ancient Near Eastern Texts</a>, by Scott B. Noegel, for a book-length treatment of the range of permutations of wordplays in Tanakh and in other Ancient Near Eastern texts.</li> | <li>See <a href="https://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/pubs/9780884144762_OA.pdf">Wordplay in Ancient Near Eastern Texts</a>, by Scott B. Noegel, for a book-length treatment of the range of permutations of wordplays in Tanakh and in other Ancient Near Eastern texts.</li> | ||
Line 49: | Line 31: | ||
<ul> | <ul> | ||
<li>The Song at the Sea includes various, sometimes contradictory, images of the Egyptians’ fate: Hashem hurls the Egyptians into the sea, smashes them, burns them, and causes them to be swallowed by the earth. Most of these have no counterpart in the prose depiction of the event.</li> | <li>The Song at the Sea includes various, sometimes contradictory, images of the Egyptians’ fate: Hashem hurls the Egyptians into the sea, smashes them, burns them, and causes them to be swallowed by the earth. Most of these have no counterpart in the prose depiction of the event.</li> | ||
− | <li>See <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26304264?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Through the Kaleidoscope of Literary Imagery in Exodus 15: Poetics and Historiography in Service to Religious Exuberance</a>, by | + | <li>See <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26304264?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Through the Kaleidoscope of Literary Imagery in Exodus 15: Poetics and Historiography in Service to Religious Exuberance</a>, by Prof. Pamela Barmash, which argues that these diverse images of destruction are meant to depict the awesomeness of Hashem’s power rather than the historical reality of what happened at the sea. These various motifs of divine punishment re-emerge throughout Tanakh and are borrowed and fused together here because the "superimposed images express what a single image cannot", intensifying Hashem's triumph .</li> |
</ul> | </ul> | ||
</category> | </category> | ||
<category>Parallelism | <category>Parallelism | ||
<subcategory>Examples | <subcategory>Examples | ||
− | <p>As is typical of Biblical verse, much of the Song at the Sea is structured with poetic parallelism. For example, see:</p> | + | <p>As is typical of Biblical verse, much of the Song at the Sea is structured with poetic parallelism. For example, see:</p><ul> |
− | <ul> | ||
<li><span style="color: #ff0000;">מַרְכְּבֹת פַּרְעֹה</span> <span style="color: #ff0000;">וְחֵילוֹ</span> <span style="color: #0000ff;">יָרָה בַיָּם</span>  / <span style="color: #ff0000;">וּמִבְחַר שָׁלִשָׁיו</span> <span style="color: #0000ff;">טֻבְּעוּ בְיַם סוּף</span> (v. 4)<span style="color: #0000ff;"><br/></span></li> | <li><span style="color: #ff0000;">מַרְכְּבֹת פַּרְעֹה</span> <span style="color: #ff0000;">וְחֵילוֹ</span> <span style="color: #0000ff;">יָרָה בַיָּם</span>  / <span style="color: #ff0000;">וּמִבְחַר שָׁלִשָׁיו</span> <span style="color: #0000ff;">טֻבְּעוּ בְיַם סוּף</span> (v. 4)<span style="color: #0000ff;"><br/></span></li> | ||
− | <li><span style="color: #0000ff;"><span style="color: #993366;">אָז נִבְהֲלוּ <span style="color: #339966;">אַלּוּפֵי אֱדוֹם</span> /</span> <span style="color: #339966;">אֵילֵי מוֹאָב</span> <span style="color: #993366;">יֹאחֲזֵמוֹ רָעַד</span> /<span style="color: #993366;"> נָמֹגוּ</span> <span style="color: #339966;">כֹּל יֹשְׁבֵי כְנָעַן </span></span>(v. 15) | + | <li><span style="color: #0000ff;"><span style="color: #993366;">אָז נִבְהֲלוּ <span style="color: #339966;">אַלּוּפֵי אֱדוֹם</span> /</span> <span style="color: #339966;">אֵילֵי מוֹאָב</span> <span style="color: #993366;">יֹאחֲזֵמוֹ רָעַד</span> /<span style="color: #993366;"> נָמֹגוּ</span> <span style="color: #339966;">כֹּל יֹשְׁבֵי כְנָעַן </span></span>(v. 15)</li> |
</ul> | </ul> | ||
− | |||
</subcategory> | </subcategory> | ||
<subcategory>Articles | <subcategory>Articles | ||
<ul> | <ul> | ||
− | <li>For more information about the nature of Biblical parallelism, see | + | <li>For more information about the nature of Biblical parallelism, see Prof. Mayer I. Gruber’s article <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20689374?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">The Meaning of Biblical Parallelism: A Biblical Perspective</a> and Prof. Adele Berlin’s <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23503350?searchText=&searchUri=&ab_segments=&searchKey=&refreqid=fastly-default%3A597a674cac61fd731f453302a133d0b9">Grammatical Aspects of Biblical Parallelism</a>.<fn>See also Prof. Robert Alter’s <i>The Art of Biblical Poetry</i> pp. 3-61, Prof. Adele Berlin’s <i>The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism</i>, and Prof. James Kugel’s <i>The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and Its History</i>.</fn></li> |
</ul> | </ul> | ||
</subcategory> | </subcategory> |
Latest revision as of 13:51, 11 April 2024
Literary Devices – Shemot 15
Structure
Prof. Cassuto suggests that the song of the sea can be divided into three strophes, each ending with a celebration of Hashem's supremacy, formulated with a poetic doubling.1 The division is further marked by the fact that the penultimate verse2 of each stanza contains a comparison of the drowning Egyptians to either stone or lead. The poem would be divided as follows:3
- Verses 1-6: Introduction
- Verses 7-11: Details of the Miracle
- Verses 12-end: Wish for Future Salvation4
Wordplay and Alliteration
There are several examples of wordplay in the song:
Examples
- גאה – The word “גאה” in verse 1 has the double meaning of “has triumphed” and “has surged”.5 This forms a play on words, as Hashem triumphs by engulfing His enemies in surging waters.6
- Rising and falling – The Song at the Sea contains language that describes heights and depths, illustrating the reversal of the Egyptians’ fortunes and the sovereignty of Hashem. Hashem is described as exalted (verses 1, 2, 7) and the water is described as piled up and as standing like a wall (verse 8), whereas the Egyptians are described as plunging to the depths of the sea (verses 1, 4, 5, 10). Even words that refer to the doomed enemy sometimes have an ironic association with rising up, like רמה (hurled) in verse 1 which sounds like "רום" (to raise or exalt)7 and קמיך (enemies) in verse 7, which relates to the root "קום" (to get up).
- Alliteration of "א" – Almost every word of the first half of verse 9 begins with the letter "א", meaning:"I will", (אָמַר אוֹיֵב אֶרְדֹּף אַשִּׂיג אֲחַלֵּק שָׁלָל ). The alliteration reflects the content of the verse, highlighting Paroh's arrogance and self confidence in his victory.
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 texts.
Symbolism and Imagery
- The Song at the Sea includes various, sometimes contradictory, images of the Egyptians’ fate: Hashem hurls the Egyptians into the sea, smashes them, burns them, and causes them to be swallowed by the earth. Most of these have no counterpart in the prose depiction of the event.
- See Through the Kaleidoscope of Literary Imagery in Exodus 15: Poetics and Historiography in Service to Religious Exuberance, by Prof. Pamela Barmash, which argues that these diverse images of destruction are meant to depict the awesomeness of Hashem’s power rather than the historical reality of what happened at the sea. These various motifs of divine punishment re-emerge throughout Tanakh and are borrowed and fused together here because the "superimposed images express what a single image cannot", intensifying Hashem's triumph .
Parallelism
Examples
As is typical of Biblical verse, much of the Song at the Sea is structured with poetic parallelism. For example, see:
- מַרְכְּבֹת פַּרְעֹה וְחֵילוֹ יָרָה בַיָּם / וּמִבְחַר שָׁלִשָׁיו טֻבְּעוּ בְיַם סוּף (v. 4)
- אָז נִבְהֲלוּ אַלּוּפֵי אֱדוֹם / אֵילֵי מוֹאָב יֹאחֲזֵמוֹ רָעַד / נָמֹגוּ כֹּל יֹשְׁבֵי כְנָעַן (v. 15)
Articles
- For more information about the nature of Biblical parallelism, see Prof. Mayer I. Gruber’s article The Meaning of Biblical Parallelism: A Biblical Perspective and Prof. Adele Berlin’s Grammatical Aspects of Biblical Parallelism.8