274 Charles C. Torrey, 



4 : 31, 32. This is one of the numerous places where Kittel's Biblia 

 Hebraica prints the text in metrical form, in this book. Even if it were 

 a desirable thing to do, the attempt is more than precarious. It would 

 be easy to find similar successions of rhythmically regular clauses even 

 in the classical orators, for example, or in the writings of certain modem 

 essayists ; but to print such passages in the form of verse would not be 

 a happy thought. As for the Old I'estament, wherever a Hebrew writer 

 rises to rhetorical heights he inevitably falls into the three-beat rhythm. 

 To search out the cases of this sort, however, in such a book as this, 

 and make them into verses, in sharp contrast with their prose context, 

 is sure to do more harm than good. And who is to determine what is 

 "poetry" and what is not? Vs. 14'' in this chapter, for example, has 

 the same right to be included in the metrical scheme as have the verses 

 immediately preceding it. Leaving out the supeifluous ri^lHl 1V^? 

 all the rest, to the end of the verse, is as regular — four lines of three 

 beats each — as anything in the Psalms or the Prophets. To mention 

 a few more instances, in the latter part of this same chapter : The words 

 of Nebuchadnezzar in vs. 27 have as truly metrical a form as those in 

 vs. 32. The whole of the oracular utterance in vss. 28 f. ought certainly 

 to be printed in stichoi, if anything in Daniel is thiis printed. And 

 why miss the obvious op])ortunity in vs. 34 r 



rh^^rh Sr nun fo'^nfa ^m 



It is true that all the instances of the kind — both those which are 

 designated in Kittel's text and those which are not — ought to be recog- 

 nized and appreciated by the reader. In a properly edited text, the 

 marks of punctuation would be amply sufficient for this purpose ; this^ 

 is, in fact, one of the chief reasons why a punctuated text of the 01c 

 Testament is sorely needed. But it is following a false principle to"' 

 print these passages /;/ the form of verse (and in an edition loaded with 

 the massoretic accentuation, into the bargain !), especially since there 

 is not even the smallest likelihood that any of them were ever written 

 thus in the ancient time. 



4 : 32 rn'^tSTl tH'^- '^I'he best parallel from the Old Testament is 

 the phrase D^3"I? TKD, " like (those who have) no eyes," Is. 59 : 10. 



of speaking and writing the first vowel is merely a matter of local and 

 temporary custom. 



' Why not? Superfluous (i. e. metrically superfluous) clauses are fre- 

 quently emended away in this edition ; for example, in this very passage, 

 vs. 32. 



