DAVID'S LAMENT OVER SAUL AND JONATHAN.
The Gazelle, 0 Israel, has been cut down on thy heights ! Chorus. How are the mighty fallen I Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ascalon, Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exult.
Hills of Gilboa, no dew nor rain come upon you, devoted fields ! For there is stained the heroes' bow, Saul's bow, never anointed with oil.
From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, The bow of Jonathan turned not back, And the sword of Saul came not idly home.
Saul and Jonathan ! lovely and pleasant in life ! And in death ye were not divided ; Swifter than eagles, stronger than lions ! Ye daughters of Israel ! Weep for Saul ; He clothed you delicately in purple, He put ornaments of gold on your apparel. Chorus. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! 0 Jonathan, slain in thy high places ! I am distressed for thee, brother Jonathan, Very pleasant west thou to me, Wonderful was thy love, more than the love of woman.
Chorus. How are the mighty fallen, And the weapons of war perished ! We have chosen this ode not only for its sin gular beauty, but also because it presents another quality of Hebrew poetry—the strophe. In this poem there are three strophes marked by the re currence three times of the dirge sung by the chorus. The chorus appears to have consisted of three parts, corresponding with the parties more immediately addressed in the three several por tions of the poem. The first choral song is sung by the entire body of singers, representing Israel ; the second is sung by a chorus of maidens ; the third, by first a chorus of youths in a soft and mournful strain, and then by all the choir in full and swelling chorus. But in order to the reader's fully understanding with what noble effect these songs of Zion' came on the souls of their hearers, an accurate idea must be formed of the music of the Hebrews (Music]. Referring to the articles which bear on the subject, we merely remark that both music and dancing were connected with sacred song in its earliest manifestations, though it was only at a comparatively late period, when David and Solomon had given their master-powers to the grand performances of the temple-service, that poetry came forth in all its excellence, and music lent its full aid to its solemn and sublime sentiments.
Lyrical poetry so abounds in the Bible, that we almost forget that it contains any other spe cies. Doubtless lyrical poetry is the earliest, no
less than the most varied and most abundant. Yet the lyrical poetry of the Israelites contains tokens of proceeding from an earlier kind. It is eminently sententious—brief, pithy, and strik ing in the forms of language, and invariably moral or religious in its tone. 'Whence we infer that it had its rise in a species of poetry analogous to that which we find in the book of Proverbs. Read the few lines addressed by Lamech to his wives : do they not bear a cone spondence with the general tone of the Proverbs ? We do not by this intend to intimate that the book so called was the earliest poetic production of the Hebrew muse. In its actual form it is of a much later origin than many of the odes. Yet the elements out of which it was formed may have existed at a very early day. Indeed, the Oriental genius turns naturally to proverbs and sententious speeches. In its earliest, its most purely native state, the poetry of the Easterns is a string of pearls. Every word has life ; every proposition is condensed wisdom ; every thought is striking and epigrammatic. The book of Proverbs argues the influence of philosophy. Early poetry is too spon taneous to speak in this long retinue of glittering thoughts. But Eastern imaginations may at first have poured forth their creations, not in a con tinued strain, but in showers of broken light, on which the lyrist would seize to be worked as sparkling gems into his odes. It is, however, cer tain, that a general name for poetic language, SLIn (mashal), signifies also a saying, a proverb, a com parison, a similitude. The last is indeed the prim ary signification, showing that Hebrew poetry in its origin was a painting to the eye ; in other words, a parable, a teaching by likenesses, discovered by the popular mind, expressed by the popular tongue, and adopted and polished by the national poet. And as a sententious form of speech may even by its very condensation become dark, so that the wisdom which it contains may have to be patiently and carefully sought for, what was 9,57.3 may become hidden knowledge, and pass into Mill (chidah), a secret or a riddle ; which, as being intended to baffle and so to deride, may in its turn be appropriately termed ;11.+D (mVitsah), derision, satire, or irony.