# Poetry vs prose in Hebrew?



## Leslie (Aug 22, 2020)

In my NIV Jeremiah 5:18-19 is formatted as prose whereas the rest of the chapter is formatted as poetry. Is this difference the decision of the translators, or does it reflect some element of the original Hebrew or Septuagint, either formatting or some other element of the copies? Is it inspired or interpretive?


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## RamistThomist (Aug 22, 2020)

Leslie said:


> In my NIV Jeremiah 5:18-19 is formatted as prose whereas the rest of the chapter is formatted as poetry. Is this difference the decision of the translators, or does it reflect some element of the original Hebrew or Septuagint, either formatting or some other element of the copies? Is it inspired or interpretive?



Hebrew poetry can be tricky. I've translated a few psalms and about five chapters in Proverbs. A distinguishing mark in Proverbs 10 onward is the use of the participle. I'm not an expert on the Hebrew of Jeremiah. I know a fair bit about Hebrew prose, but Dr Iain Duguid is the guy to go to


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## R. Andrew Compton (Aug 22, 2020)

This is a great question. My answer is from the hip and without checking some of my books, but it seems to me that in this particular case, vv.18-19 are a constellation of prophetic speech formulae which interrupt the poetry. 

It begins with a time formulae, "and also, in those days," then a prophetic utterance formula, "declares YHWH," and then some typical question-and-answer discourse that prepares for the poetic style to resume in earnest in 5:20. So it seems to me that the English translation is recognizing that these verses serve a different purpose in the discourse structure and are highlighting that via prose formatting.

Of course, if we can get Dr. Duguid to weigh in, I will defer to his explanation!


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## Timotheos (Aug 24, 2020)

The 2 most distinguishing features of Biblical Hebrew Poetry, parallelism and terseness, are absent in these verses. 

(BHP is partly my dissertation subject)


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## Leslie (Aug 25, 2020)

Timotheos said:


> The 2 most distinguishing features of Biblical Hebrew Poetry, parallelism and terseness, are absent in these verses.
> 
> (BHP is partly my dissertation subject)


If I understand you rightly, the translators then had to make a judgment call; there was no special formatting in the Hebrew. Is this correct?


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## Timotheos (Aug 25, 2020)

Leslie said:


> If I understand you rightly, the translators then had to make a judgment call; there was no special formatting in the Hebrew. Is this correct?


Well, _BHS _also agreed that those 2 verses are not indented in such a way to indicate they are poetry. But I'm simply saying that those 2 verses, if compared with their surrounding context, are distinctly different in style based on their lack of parallelism and terseness.


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