{"id":55178,"date":"2019-05-10T08:44:13","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T05:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=55178"},"modified":"2019-05-10T12:39:18","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T09:39:18","slug":"a-lesson-in-biblical-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-lesson-in-biblical-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"A Lesson In Biblical Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"55178","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":54356,"related_cahpter":"216","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The melodic magic of incremental repetition","content":"

5:7 \u201cUnwalled cities <\/span>ceased<\/span><\/i>,\/ <\/span>in Israel <\/span><\/i>they <\/span>ceased<\/span><\/i>,\/ <\/span>till you arose<\/span><\/i>, Deborah,\/ <\/span>till you arose<\/span><\/i>, O mother <\/span>in Israel<\/span><\/i>.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>This pattern of incremental repetition <\/b>strongly marks this poem and is a hallmark of its archaic character. Incremental repetition is the most explicit form of development or intensification from the first half of the line to the second, a pattern in which something is literally added in the second verset.<\/span><\/p>\n

5:12 \u201cAwake, awake, O Deborah, awake awake, O speak (<\/span>dabri<\/span><\/i>) the song\u2026\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>Yairah Amit proposes that the choice of the verb \u201cspeak,\u201d <\/span>dabri<\/span><\/i>, is motivated by the pun on the name Deborah. The phrase here is the increment in still another incremental repetition.<\/span><\/p>\n

5:19 \u201cKings came, did battle, then Canaan\u2019s kings did battle\u2026\u201d <\/span>
\n<\/span>This is another fine flourish of incremental repetition. \u201cThen\u201d is repeated through the poem, marking its narrative momentum\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

5:23 \u201c…they did not come to the aid of the Lord, To the aid of the Lord midst the warriors.\u201d <\/span>
\n<\/span>In this incremental repetition, it is evident that YHWH needs His human warriors in order to be victorious. The poem wavers in this fashion between understanding victory as a miraculous event and as the accomplishment of heroic deeds by brave warriors.<\/span><\/p>\n

5:24 \u201cBlessed above women Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, above women in tents be she blessed.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>This incremental repetition, by introducing an ostensibly automatic epithet for women with their domestic sphere, \u201cin tents,\u201d sets the scene for the killing with the tent peg.<\/span><\/p>\n

5:27 \u201cBetween her legs he kneeled, fell, lay, between her legs he kneeled, he fell, where he kneeled he fell, destroyed.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>His death agony is a kind of grotesque parody and reversal of sexual assault, a common practice in warfare, as we are reminded at the beginning of verse 30. This triadic line is one of the most brilliant deployments of incremental repetition in the poem, culminating in the the climactic increment \u201cdestroyed\u201d at the end.<\/span><\/p>\n

From: Robert Alter, <\/span>The Hebrew Bible, <\/span><\/i>vol. 2: Prophets, W. W. Norton & Co., 2019, ad loc.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":54890,"id":54890,"title":"Alter-Cover","filename":"Alter-Cover.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/welcome-to-the-book-of-judges-unbridled-lust-implacable-hostility-mutual-mayhem\/alter-cover\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"alter-cover","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":54889,"date":"2019-05-05 07:18:18","modified":"2022-01-31 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