a omiss. de kol no parall. heb
TRANSCRIPT
-
8/6/2019 A Omiss. de Kol No Parall. Heb.
1/6
Vtus Testamentum XXXII, 1 (1982)
T H E O M I T T I N G O F KOL I NH E B R E W P A R A L L E L I S M
BY
HELMER RINGGREN
Uppsala
A study of the use of kol in the Old Testament reveals that kol is
not necessary to express the idea of totality. It turns out that "the
inhabitants of the earth" can be used as the equivalent of "all the
inhabitants of the earth", and so on. In other cases, and especially
in poetic texts using the device of parallelism, it can be observed that
kol is used only in one of the parallel members, while the idea of to-
tality is inherent in both.
We shall first give some examples from the Psalms.
Ps. xviii 23 For all his ordinances were before me,
and his statutes I did not put away from me.
The omitting ofkol in the second member may be due to the negative
form of the verb, but it is obvious that the idea of totality is involved
here too.
Ps. xx 4 May he remember all your offerings
and regard with favour your burnt sacrifices.
Though kol is omitted in the second member, it is obvious that "all
his burnt sacrifices" are meant.
Ps. li 11 Hide thy face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquities.
The forgiveness of sins is meant to be total in both cases. In the first
-
8/6/2019 A Omiss. de Kol No Parall. Heb.
2/6
100 HELMER RINGGREN
Ps. lxvii 4, 6 Let the peoples {cammm) praise thee, O God,
let all the peoples (cam ml m kullni) praise thee!
In this case it is possible that the use of kol in the second member
involves an intensification, since both the verb and the subject are
otherwise identical.
Ps. lxx 5 May all who seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee!
May those who live thy salvation sav evermore,
"God is great"!
kl-mebaqscek and yohabe yehctak are entirely comparable.
Ps. lxxvii 13 I will meditate on all thy work
and muse over thy mighty deeds (Calilfk)
Similarly
Ps. cxliii 5 I meditate on all thy work.
I muse on the works of thy hands (magaseli ydaka).
Ps. xc 9 For all our days pass away under thy wrath,
our years come to an end like a sigh.
Whether we retain the MT killn or read with Syr. kal as above, our
observation regarding the use ofkol stands.
Ps. cii 16 The nations will fear the name of Yah weh,
and all the kings of the earth thy glory.
A similar parallelism is found in Is. lxii 2:
The nations shall see your vindication
and all the kings your glory.
Ps. Ixxii 11 has kol in both members.
-
8/6/2019 A Omiss. de Kol No Parall. Heb.
3/6
THE OMITTING OF KOL IN HEBREW PARALLELISM ' 101
The removal of useless material, i.e. sin, is equally total in both cases.
Is. xviii 3 All you inhabitants of the earth,you who dwell on the earth...
The kol-yseb febei and the sk
en
yrs are the same, but kol is used
only with the first expression.
Is . xl 4 Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low,
The uneven ground shall become level
and the rough places a plain.
Here two expressions with kol are balanced by two expressions with-
out kol, but there is no reason for assuming that the statements con-
cerning thecqb and the r
eksim are less total than those concerning
the valleys and the mountains.
Is. xlvi 10b My councel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose.Is. xlix 9 They shall feed along the ways,
on all bare heights shall be their pasture.
11 And I will make all my mountains a way,
and my highways shall be raised up.
Is. lxiii 7 .. .according to all that Yahweh has granted us
and the great goodness to the house of Israel.. . .
J er. xxii 22 The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds
and your lovers shall go into captivity.
Jer. xxxi 25 For I will satisfy the weary soul,
and every languishing soul I will replenish.
Is. xl 29 says the same without kol.
Ez. xxxii 4 And I will cause all the birds of the air to settle on
you,
and I will gorge the beasts of the whole earth with you.
This example is somewhat different, since the second line only changes
-
8/6/2019 A Omiss. de Kol No Parall. Heb.
4/6
102 HELMER RINGGREN
The first line seems to be an expanded form of xlv 24b, while the
second line expresses the same idea without kol. Interestingly enough,
there is another parallel passage in one of the Psalms, which expresses
a similar idea with yahdw instead of kol:
Ps. xxxv 26 Let them be put to shame and confusion altogether
who rejoice at my calamity,
let them be clothed with shame and dishonour who
magnify themselves against me.
We notice that yahdw occurs only in one of the parallel lines. An-
other example with yahdw is
Is i 28 But rebels and sinners shall be destroyed together,
and those who forsake Yahweh shall be consumed.
Obviously the same stylistic law is effective here. Possibly, Ps. xl 15
should also be mentioned here:
Let them be put to shame and confusion altogether
[yahad) who seek to snatch away my life,
let them be turned back and brought to dishonour
who desire my hurt.
The word indicating totality is here yahad and it is used in onlv one
of the parallel members.
These observations might seem to be of little importance, were it
not for the fact that they tie in with two other phenomena which I
have pointed out in another connectionx). In the Book of Proverbs a
great number of proverbs are characterized by an antithetical paral-
lelism. Now, in 35 out of 116 such proverbs the subject is singular
in one half of the verse but plural in the other. For instance:
Prov. 3 Yahweh does not let the righteous (sing.) go hungry,
but he thwarts the craving of the wicked (pi.)
14 Wise men (pi ) lay up knowledge
-
8/6/2019 A Omiss. de Kol No Parall. Heb.
5/6
THE OMITTING OF KOL IN HEBREW PARALLELISM 10 3
There is no difference in meaning between the two lines : in both the
reference is to the righteous and the wicked, or the wise and the fool-
ish in general. The difference in number seems to be due to the samestriving for variation that is visible in the avoidance of using identical
words for the subject and the predicate of parallel clauses.
Another manifestation of this rule may be seen in the use of tenses
in many Psalms. Very frequently the perfect and the imperfect are
used in parallel clauses in the same verse with reference to events
that are obviously contemporaneous. One instance is in the begin-
ning of Ps. ii:Why do the nations conspire (pf.)>
and the peoples plot (impf.) in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves (impf.),
and the rulers take counsel (pf.) together.
It is obvious that the four verbs refer to the same events and the same
time and must be rendered by the same tense in English. The alter-
nation of "tenses" is a matter of style, and it follows that Hebrewtenses express other aspects of the verbal action than the temporal one.
It would seem that the use or omission of kol in parallel clauses is
another example of the same general rule of variation within paral-
lelism, or, as I called it in my previous article, the same law of stylistic
balance.
-
8/6/2019 A Omiss. de Kol No Parall. Heb.
6/6
^ s
Copyright and Use:
As an ATLAS user, you may print, download, or send articles for individual use
according to fair use as defined by U.S. and international copyright law and as
otherwise authorized under your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement.
No content may be copied or emailed to multiple sites or publicly posted without the
copyright holder(s)' express written permission. Any use, decompiling,
reproduction, or distribution of this journal in excess of fair use provisions may be a
violation of copyright law.
This journal is made available to you through the ATLAS collection with permissionfrom the copyright holder(s). The copyright holder for an entire issue of a journal
typically is the journal owner, who also may own the copyright in each article. However,
for certain articles, the author of the article may maintain the copyright in the article.
Please contact the copyright holder(s) to request permission to use an article or specificwork for any use not covered by the fair use provisions of the copyright laws or covered
by your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement. For information regarding the
copyright holder(s), please refer to the copyright information in the journal, if available,or contact ATLA to request contact information for the copyright holder(s).
About ATLAS:
The ATLA Serials (ATLAS) collection contains electronic versions of previously
published religion and theology journals reproduced with permission. The ATLAS
collection is owned and managed by the American Theological Library Association(ATLA) and received initial funding from Lilly Endowment Inc.
The design and final form of this electronic document is the property of the AmericanTheological Library Association.