Understanding Hebrew Poetry

For years, Hebrew poetry mystified me. When I was about to read the Book of Psalms for the first time at age 17, I was excited. So many people had told me that Psalms was their favorite book of the Bible, and I couldn’t wait to experience what they had experienced.

But I was disappointed.

Why? Because I thought they were repetitive, and none followed the standard flow of an essay: Introduction, three to five points, conclusion. Instead, the middles and ends often repeated the beginning. As a result, I could not make sense of many of them.

That is, until years later when I finally learned how to interpret Hebrew poetry. Then the structure—which relied on repetition—made sense.

\Not only could I now interpret the psalms, but I also could finally pray them the way they were meant to be prayed. Here’s what I needed to know.

Psalms Are Poems

One reason that psalms don’t follow an essay’s structure is that they aren’t essays. Indeed, they’re poems.

Hebrew poets penned the praises and prayers they worshiped God with as psalms. Psalms are poems meant to be sung, so the poets at times gave their psalms to the temple choirmasters. The choirmasters then gathered the psalms into collections. What we know today as the book of Psalms is a collection of those collections.

So how does Hebrew poetry work? Let’s take a look.

Hebrew Poetry Uses Parallelism in Poetic Lines

It’s much easier to understand psalms if we know a little about Hebrew poetry. A Hebrew poem’s basic unit is a poetic line. Most lines have two segments, although some have three or four and a few have only one. In some Bible translations, the first segment starts at the left margin and the rest of the segments are indented to show their relationships (see the pictures above and below of Psalm 1).

Unfortunately, verse numbers and text note references often obscure the indentions, and there isn’t room to show more than one level of indention (what looks like a third level is actually the prior segment wrapping to the next line because of lack of space). That’s why in these pictures of Psalm 1 in this post, I’ve omitted the verse numbers.

Most line segments in Hebrew poetry use parallelism. They say something similar in multiple ways, giving us different ways to grasp the poet’s meaning. The best part about parallelism is that it translates well, so we don’t have to know Hebrew to enjoy it. God was planning ahead when he helped the Hebrews develop their poetry!

Here are the parallel elements of Psalm 1:1 aligned in columns:

	Unit A	Unit B	Unit C	Unit D
Line Segment 1	Blessed is the man
Line Segment 2		who walks not	in the counsel	of the wicked
Line Segment 3		nor stands	in the way	of sinners
Line Segment 4		nor sits	in the seat	of scoffers

When you find parallelism, compare the parallel elements to see how they relate. In this case, they intensify.

Illustrating the Relationships Between Poetic Lines

We can symbolize parallelism by using capital letters to represent units and a prime mark (‘) to show how many times a unit repeats. Here’s a diagram of verse 1 with a slash(/) representing a new line segment:

            A / B  C  D / B’ C’ D’ / B” C” D”

This structure is called incomplete parallelism because unit A doesn’t repeat.

Psalm 1:5 has normal parallelism. Here, I’ve underlined the first unit of each segment and italicized the second:

            Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment
                        nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous

Here’s a diagram of verse 5:

            A B / A’ B’

Another common parallel structure is found in verse 2. I’ve underlined one pair of matching segments and italicized the other pair.

            But his delight is in the law of the LORD
                        and on his law he meditates day and night.

If you were to draw lines between the matching segments, they would form an X. Like verses 1 and 5, verse 2 uses parallelism, but this time the parallel elements are placed in a pattern called chiasm (KEY-asm; chi is the Greek name for the letter X). We illustrate verse 2’s chiastic parallelism like this:

            A B / B’ A’

By comparing the parallel elements, we see that delight in God’s instructions is shown through meditating on those instructions. In the Bible, the word meditate means thinking about and saying softly.

Hebrew Poetry Uses Parallelism in Stanzas

In poetry, a stanza is a group of related poetic lines. It’s similar to a paragraph, which in prose is a group of related sentences. Some modern Bible translations break the psalms into stanzas to make them easier to read. In fact, the Bible in which I first read Psalms grouped poetic lines in stanzas. But that only made me wonder why they didn’t flow like an essay’s paragraphs:

           Introduction, Point I, Point II, Point III, Conclusion

And that’s not what they did.

For example, look at Psalm 1. Psalm 1’s first stanza (verses 1-3) describes the righteous, the second (verses 4-5) describes the wicked, and the last (verse 6) draws a conclusion. So far, so good.

But here’s where Hebrew poetry differs. The psalmists often linked the first and last stanzas, the first and middle stanzas, and/or the middle and last stanzas. For instance, Psalm 1 links the first and last stanza with a description of the way of the wicked, inviting us to compare the two. Here is its diagram, using letters to represent stanzas:

            A B A’

This is another chiasm, this time using stanzas instead of line segments. In fact, psalmists often arranged stanzas in a chiasm.

Another Example: Psalm 71

Psalm 71 has seven stanzas. The psalm’s theme is in the middle stanza (verse 14). All the stanzas equal distance from the middle link. Here’s the structure, again using letters to represent stanzas:

            A B C D C B’ A’

This structure invites us to compare the linked stanzas. When we do, we see that the troubles identified in the first half of the psalm are resolved in the linked stanzas in the second half.

This is a beautifully structured poem! No, it doesn’t follow the rules of Western essays. Instead, it does something better, providing us multiple connections and layers of meaning.

But that’s not all.

Hebrew Poetry Uses Parallelism in Psalm Collections

The Psalter contains five major collections called books. Each of the books contains multiple collections. These collections have links too.

For instance, Psalms 1 and 2 are the Psalter’s introduction. Psalm 1 portrays the ideal man and Psalm 2 the ideal king. The first line of Psalm 1 links to the last line of Psalm 2:

Psalm 1:1

            Blessed is the man
                        who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
                        nor stands in the way of sinners,
                        nor sits in the seat of scoffers

Psalm 2:12d

            Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Him here is the King God has set on Zion, the Son of God.

Conclusion

Understanding Hebrew Poetry enables us to immerse ourselves in the psalms so they can enliven our prayers and transform us.

Adapted from Discovering Hope in the Psalms.

Join me in a new online Bible study on Discovering Hope in the Psalms.

Understanding Hebrew Poetry enables us to immerse ourselves in the psalms so they can enliven our prayers and transform us Share on X

Related Posts

• 7 Tips for Interpreting Psalm 2 (And Uncovering Its Hope)
• Who Are “the Righteous” in Psalms and Proverbs?

Books You Might Like

• Discovering Hope in the Psalms by myself, Pam Farrel, and Karla Dornacher
• Interpreting the Psalms: An Exegetical Handbook, by Mark D. Futato
• A Commentary on the Psalms: Volume 1 (1-41), by Allen P. Ross

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