embellishments which the Hebrew poets who knew Aramaic adopted into their language.[1]
The prophets, at least the earlier, in language and rhythm are to be regarded almost entirely as poets, except that with them the sentences are often more extended, and the parallelism is less regular and balanced than is the case with the poets properly so called. The language of the later prophets, on the contrary, approaches nearer to prose.
[r] On the rhythm of Hebrew poetry, see besides the Commentaries on the poetical books and Introductions to the O.T., J. Ley, Grundzüge des Rhythmus, &c., Halle, 1875; Leitfaden der Metrik der hebr. Poesie, Halle, 1887; ‘Die metr. Beschaffenheit des B. Hiob,’ in Theol. Stud. u. Krit., 1895, iv, 1897, i; Grimme, ‘Abriss der bibl.-hebr. Metrik,’ ZDMG. 1896, p. 529 ff., 1897, p. 683 ff.; Psalmenprobleme &c., Freiburg (Switzerland), 1902 (on which see Beer in ThLZ. 1903, no. 11); ‘Gedanken über hebr. Metrik,’ in Altschüler’s Vierteljahrschrift, i (1903), 1 ff.; Döller, Rhythmus, Metrik u. Strophik in d. bibl.-hebr. Poesie, Paderborn, 1899; Schloegl, De re metrics veterum Hebraeorum disputatio, Vindobonae, 1899 (on the same lines as Grimme); but especially Ed. Sievers, Metrische Studien : i Studien zur hebr. Metrik, pt. 1 Untersuchungen, pt. 2 Textproben, Lpz. 1901: ii Die hebr. Genesis, 1 Texte, 2 Zur Quellenscheidung u. Textkritik, Lpz. 1904 f.: iii Samuel, Lpz. 1907; Amos metrisch bearbeitet (with H. Guthe), Lpz. 1907; and his Alttest. Miszellen (1 Is 24–27, 2 Jena, 3 Deutero-Zechariah, 4 Malachi, 5 Hosea, 6 Joel, 7 Obadiah, 8 Zephaniah, 9 Haggai, 10 Micah), Lpz. 1904–7.—As a guide to Sievers’ system (with some criticism of his principles) see Baumann, ‘Die Metrik u. das A.T.;,’ in the Theol. Rundschau, viii (1905), 41 ff.; W. H. Cobb, A criticism of systems of Hebrew Metre, Oxford, 1905; Cornill, Einleitung ins A.T.5, Tübingen, 1905, p. 11 ff.; Rothstein, Zeitschr. für d. ev. Rel.-Unterricht, 1907, p. 188 ff. and his Grundzüge des hebr. Rhythmus, Lpz. 1909 (also separately Psalmentexte u. der Text des Hohen Liedes, Lpz. 1909); W. R. Arnold, ‘The rhythms of the ancient Heb.,’ in O.T. and Semitic Studies in memory of W. R. Harper, i. 165 ff., Chicago, 1907, according to whom the number of syllables between the beats is only limited by the physiological possibilities of phonetics; C.v. Orelli, ‘Zur Metrik der alttest. Prophetenschriften,’ in his Kommentar zu den kl. Propheten3, p. 236 ff., Munich, 1908.—In full agreement with Sievers is Baethgen, Psalmen3, p. xxvi ff., Göttingen, 1904. [Cf. Budde in DB. iv. 3 ff.; Duhm in EB. iii. 3793 ff.]
Of all views of this matter, the only one generally accepted as sound was at first Ley’s and Budde’s discovery of the Qina- or Lamentation-Verse (ZAW. 1882, 5 ff.; 1891, 234 ff.; 1892, 31 ff.). On their predecessors, Lowth, de Wette, Ewald, see Löhr, Klagelied2, p. 9. This verse, called by Duhm ‘long verse’, by Sievers simply ‘five-syllabled’ (Fünfer), consists of two members, the second at least one beat shorter than the other. That a regular repetition of an equal number of syllables in arsis and thesis was observed by other poets, had been established by Ley, Duhm, Gunkel, Grimme, and others, especially Zimmern, who cites a Babylonian hymn in which the members are actually marked (ZA. x. 1 ff., xii. 382 ff.; cf. also Delitzsch, Das babyl. Weltschöpfungsepos, Lpz. 1896, pp. 60 ff.). Recently, however, E. Sievers, the recognized authority on metre in other branches of literature, has indicated, in the works mentioned above, a number of fresh facts and views, which have frequently been confirmed by the conclusions of Ley and others. The most important are as follows:—
Hebrew poetry, as distinguished from the quantitative Classical and Arabic
