A whip for the horse,
  A bridle for the ass,
  And a rod for the fool’s back.  Prov. 26:3.

The combinations of the above forms in Hebrew poetry are exceedingly varied and graceful.  Here are examples of two synonymous couplets that are antithetic to each other: 

  The ox knoweth his owner,
  And the ass his master’s crib: 
  Israel doth not know,
  My people doth not consider.  Isa. 1:3.

  The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to naught;
  He maketh the devices of the people of none effect. 
  The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever;
  The thoughts of his heart to all generations.  Psa. 33:10, 11.

In the following example, two synonymous couplets constitute together a synthetic parallelism: 

  Because they regard not the works of the Lord,
  Nor the operation of his hands,
  He shall destroy them,
  And not build them up.  Psa. 28:5.

In the following, three synthetic parallelisms make a synonymous triplet: 

  For as the heaven is high above the earth,
  So great is his mercy toward them that fear him: 
  As far as the east is from the west,
  So far hath he removed our transgressions from us: 
  Like as a father pitieth his children,
  So the Lord pitieth them that fear him.  Psa. 103:11-13.

But our limits will not allow us to pursue this subject farther.  The freedom of the Hebrew poet is one of his high prerogatives.  He is not a slave to form, but uses form as it suits his purposes.  He blends together the different kinds of parallelism as he pleases.  Often he breaks through all parallelism to the freedom of prose.  But he soon returns again, because this measured rhythm of clauses is to him the natural costume of poetic thought, which always seeks to embody itself in some form of rhythm.

To the form of Hebrew poetry belongs also its peculiar diction.  To one who reads the Hebrew poets in the original, this is a striking characteristic.  He meets with words, and sometimes with grammatical forms, that do not occur in the prose writers.  Many of these peculiar words are Aramean; that is, they are words current in the Aramean branch of the Shemitic languages.  Chap. 14, No. 1.  They are to be regarded as archaisms—­old words that were once common alike to the Hebrew and the kindred Aramean, but which have been dropped out of prose usage in Hebrew.  They must not be confounded, as has too often been done, with true Aramaisms, that is, Aramean words and forms borrowed by later Hebrew writers from their intercourse with those who spoke Aramean.