Lyrical poetry embraced a great variety of topics, from the shortest and most fleeting effusion, as found in specimens already given, and in Ps. xv., cxxxi., cxxxiii., to the loftiest subjects treated in a full and detailed manner ; for instance, Deborah's song ( Judg. v.), and Ps. xviii; and lxviii. It ran equally through all the moods of the human soul, nothing being too lowly, too deep, or too high for the Hebrew lyre. It told how the horse and his Egyptian rider were sunk in the depths of the sea ; it softly and sweetly sang of the benign effects of brotherly love. It uttered its wail over the corpse of a friend, and threw its graceful imagery around the royal nuptial couch. Song was its essence. Whatever its subject, it forewent neither the lyre the voice. Indeed, its most general name, (shir), signifies `song;' song and poetry were the same. Another name for lyrical poetry is -mom (mizmor), which the LXX. render ,paXtu5s,' psalm,' and which from its etymology seems to have a refer ence not so much to song as to the numbers into which the poet by his art wrought his thoughts and emotions. The latter word describes the making of an ode, the former its performance on the lyre. Another general name for lyrical poetry is 9+zern (maskil), which is applied to poems of a certain kind (Ps. xxxii., xlii., xlv., lii., lv., lxxiv., lxxviii., lxxxviii., cxlii.), and appears to denote an ode lofty in its sentiments and exquisite in its exe cution. Under these general heads there were several species, whose specific differences it is not easy to determine.
t. 15rin (t'hillah), 'a hymn,' or psalm of praise.' The word is used as a title only to one psalm (cxlv.), but really describes the character of many, as may naturally be expected when we consider the origin of the ode as springing from victory, deliverance, the reception of bounties, and generally those events and occasions which excited joy and glad ness in the soul, and were celebrated with music, often accompanied by dancing in the public assem blies of the people, or after a more sacred manner, in the solemn courts of the temple. To this class of joyous compositions belong the lofty hymns which commemorated great national events, such as the deliverance from Pharaoh (Exod. xv. ; Judg. v. ; Ps. xviii., lxviii.), which were appointed for set holyday seasons, and became a part at once of the national worship and of the best national pm perty. Other songs of this kind were used on less distinguished occasions, and by individuals on pre senting their thank-offerings, and were pitched at a lower key, being expressive rather of personal than general emotions (Ps. xxx., xxxii., xli., cxxxviii. ; Is. xxxviii.) There are occasionally briefer songs of victory, sung by the general con gregation in the temple, as Ps. xlvi. and xlviii.
2. ru+p (qinah), Opijpos, a dirge,' or song of sorrow,' accompanied by exclamations of grief, as 18, or very often by 0 how ! and distin guished from songs of joy by mournful strains of music. The Hebrew heart was as much open to sorrow as to joy, tender and full as were its emotions, and simple as was the ordinary mode of life. Ad versity and bereavement were therefore keenly felt, and as warmly and strikingly expressed. Indeed so great was the regard held due to the dead, that mourners did not consider their own sorrow suffi cient, but used to engage others to mourn for their lost friends, so that in process of time there arose a profession whose business it was to bewail the de parted. In Amos v. 16, these persons are named as those who are skilful in wailing (Jer. ix. 17). Distinguished heroes, and persons who were tenderly beloved, found in the sorrowful accents of the Hebrew muse the finest and most lasting memorial (2 Sam. i. t7-27 ; iii. 33, 34). From I Sam. i. 18, it appears that these dirges (nenix) were taught to the children of Israel ad fierpetuam rei memoriam ; and so heroic deeds lived through successive generations on the lips of the people, whose hearts were thus warmed with emulation, while they were softened with gentleness and love. In this class of lamentations may be ranked the songs of sorrow over the misfortunes of Israel, such as Ps. xliv., lx., lxxiii., which seem to have borne the general name of a weeping and wailing' ( Jer. vii. 29 ; ix. 19). In the same class stand lamentations poured forth on the desecration or destruction of the holy city (Jer. ix. xix. ; Ezek. xxvii. xxxii. ; Is. i. xxi.) Jeremiah has put to gether and united in one book, executed with great skill and presenting an altogether unique speci men of writing, which indeed could have had its birth nowhere but in a Hebrew soul, all possible lamentations and wailings on the ruin and fall of Jerusalem.
3. rNei (shiggion) is found only as the title of a poem (Ps. vii.), and once in the plural (Hab. iii. I), as a description of this species of poetry in general. The word is not easy to understand. The Sep tuagint render it by Ifrev.t6r, a general term which seems to betray their own ignorance. It had doubtless a specific meaning. The root nary de notes bewilderment, so that the term may indicate a sort of dithyrambic poetry—poetry in which the emotions are put forth in wild confusion, betoken ing an agitated, confused, and worried state of mind. This description corresponds with the char acter of the two compositions to which the epithet is applied in Ps. vii. and Hab. iii. That the melody employed in singing these pieces answered, in wild hurrying confusion, to the train of the thought, may be conjectured naturally, and inferred with good reason, from the heading of Hab.