Roses are Red Violets are blue
Sugar is sweet, and so are you
Why use poetry to remember? Because it is easier for the human brain to recall. For generations the Biblical oral tradition preserved the words of the Lord by placing them in a poetic format. In the Western world we rhyme words. In the Eastern Jewish mind they rhymed “ideas.”
For example in the 24th Psalm 3 we read,
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
The first line “idea” rhymes with the second line “idea.” In the same Psalm we read:
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;
For he founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters. Psalms 24:1-2.
The first line is the key for understanding Prophetic Writing. Why? Because there are other endings for the second line other than rhyming with the first line. Contrasting the second line with the first is another way to remember.
For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish. Psalms 1:6
The third form of Hebrew Parallelism is where the second and third line enhances or magnifies the first line. It advances, completes or sheds greater understanding on the thought of the first line.
Like as a father pitieth his children,
So the Lord pitieth them who fear [reverence] him. Psalms 103:13
Repetition is a forth way to make things easier to remember
Give unto the Lord, O ye Mighty
Give unto the Lord glory and strength
Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Psalms 29:1-2
To show gradation or crescendoing we say in English holy, holier, holiest. The Hebrew expresses magnification by repetition; “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts!” Isaiah 6:3
Armed with this understanding of how the prophets wrote and remembered the sacred words of the Lord and their own prophetic writings you can more fully appreciate the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. If you want to impress someone refer to 1. Rhyming the second line with the first as “Synonymous Parallelism.” 2. Contrasting the second line with the first line as “Antithetic Parallelism.” 3. Where the second line adds to or enhances the first line it is “Emblematic or Synthetic Parallelism.” 4. Where the second line repeats in the same words or phrases as the first line, it is referred to as “Climactic Parallelism.”
How would you define the following parallels? “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O Earth: for the Lord has spoken, I have brought up children and they have rebelled against me.” (Isaiah 1:2). [The fate of rebellious children was to be stoned to death. (Deuteronomy 21:18-21).]
“None shall be weary nor stumble among; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:” (Isaiah 5:27) Are there 2 Parallelisms here?
Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death. (Proverbs 10:2).