Ogling Obadiah

I've been really getting into Obadiah this last week. I noticed a few points about the structure which have really helped me understand how it is shaped.

For background, Obadiah has always resonated with me because of the way it tells its story. It seems undeniable to me that it's reflecting on Edom's scavenging through the ruins of Jerusalem after the Babylonian destruction, and promising destruction for this scandalous behaviour. I say "seems undeniable" because I came across a TGC article arguing it's predictive prophecy from the 9th century rather than reflecting on the events of the 6th, but I don't buy that.

Things to notice to help with the structure:

1. The speech formulas: v1, 4, 8, 18. 
   This gives us an introduction and three big blocks: 1, 2-7, 8-16, 17-21
2. The day: of the Lord in v8 and 15; of disaster/distress 10x between v11-14.
   This provides some kind of chiastic structure in the centre, with the day of the Lord in 8-10 and 15-16 bracketing the day of Judah's disaster from 11-14.
   I think you can probably find the centre of this in v13a, "you shall not enter into the gates of my people on the day of their distress."
3. "Height" language at the beginning and end, both metaphoric, in terms of arrogance, in 2-4, and literal, in terms of Edom's location, in 19-21.
   
4. The imagery of no remnants in 5-7 maps on to the complete purging through fire in 17-18.
5. The language of the emissary and the nations and the decree from "Lord Yhwh" in v1 also maps nicely on to the final line, 21b: "And the kingdom will be Yhwh's." 

Putting all this together we have an ABCDCBA structure, with some lower-case letters in the middle:

A. Yhwh's message by his envoy (1)

B. The high brought down (2-4)

C. Nothing left (5-7)

D. Your day vs Yhwh's day (8-16)

C'. Everything eaten up (17-18)

B'. Your heights occupied from Mt. Zion (19-21a)

A'. Yhwh's kingdom (21b)

and in the centre: 

D. The day of Yhwh (8-10)

a. 11

b. 12a

c. 12b

d. 12c

e. 13a

d'. 13b

c'. 13c.

b'. 14a

a'. 14b

D'. The day of Yhwh (15-16)

This central structure highlights the greatest crime of all, which is, as with the foreign kings in the following centuries who transgressed the sanctuary, entering into his holy place; in this case it's the gates of his people.

The big structure has well-matched pairs, with the royal language in A, the heights in B, the total end of Edom in C, and the Day of the Lord in D. 

I haven't really seen a structure like this around, probably because most commentators are concerned with the questions around the composition of the book and discerning the redactional layers. But I think this works really well, is very clean, has an appropriate central focus, and a wonderful resolution.

Psalm 33 as a continuation of Psalm 32

 I’ve been looking at the joins between psalms in Book 4 of the Psalter these last few weeks: where they are and aren’t, when they are consistent and when they aren’t. But I was looking at Psalm 33 for a different reason and noticed a couple of things.

 

1/ Psalm 33 is what Peter C. Ho would probably call some sort of acrostic. Not having a go at him but he calls things acrostics which most people in a million years wouldn't consider acrostics. In Psalm 33's case, it's certainly not an acrostic, but it does have22 verses, and it immediately precedes Ps34 which is an acrostic, so it sort of is even though it isn’t.

2/ Psalm 33 is one of the few untitled psalms in the first three books. Apart from Pss 1-2, this is the first since Ps 10 not to have a title. And that’s significant, because Ps 9-10 are often joined together, especially in the versions. The next one without a title is 43, which, again, is often joined to 42 beforehand.

3/ As you finish Ps 32 and move on to 33 you notice that pretty much all the vocab of the final verse of the former is present in the first verse of the latter. And with one exception, it’s in a chiastic order. The prefix for Yhwh is the same in both, and while the forms for רנן and ישר are different, we’ve got an ABCDCBAD layout on our hands:

שִׂמְחוּ בַיהוָה

וְגִילוּ צַדִּיקִים

וְהַרְנִינוּ

כָּל־יִשְׁרֵי־לֵב׃

רַנְּנוּ

צַדִּיקִים

בַּיהוָה

לַיְשָׁרִים נָאוָה תְהִלָּה׃

All of this together makes me wonder if this wasn’t some attempt to have us read 32 and 33 together. Although I have William Yarchin's amazing list of hundreds of manuscripts with variant segmentation, I am not aware of any manuscripts in which these two were read as one psalm, but it’s certainly tempting to do so.

33:1 feels just like a restatement of 32:11, perhaps a (poorly-done) exercise of rewriting in one’s own words. If (and here I’m getting into scary German approaches here) Psalm 32 finished at v7, Ps33 would be a fitting response. That is, 32:8-10 seems a bit out of place. Perhaps the compiler/editor thought 33 should be read rather as the better response to the psalm, where the faithful (חסיד) of 32:6 meet the faithfulness (חסד) of Yhwh in 33:22.

Where I’ve taken this in the preceding paragraph is all pretty wild and speculative, but where I started, the close and deliberate connection between Psalms 32 and 33 cannot be denied, by (1) the lack of title and (2) the reuse, in a chiastic order, of the same lexemes in neighbouring verses of the two. 

Amos 5 Chiasm

I'm working through Amos a few verses a day and came across this nice structure at the end of chapter 5. At the centre of 21-27 is the famous line of v24, "Let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness flow like a never-failing stream." This verse is a very tight chiasm on its own, ABCCBA, but it also acts as a centre-piece for some really perspicuous structures either side of it, which I want to look at briefly.

5:21-23 A four-fold rejection of false piety

These three verses contain four rejections by Yhwh, where something which would normally be praised is rejected. 

21. Hold a festival, a solemn assembly? I won't smell them וְלֹא אָרִיחַ

22a. Offer a burnt offering or a gift? I won't accept it לֹא אֶרְצֶה

22b. Offer a peace offering? I won't look on it לֹא אַבִּיט

23. Sing me a song or play me a tune? I won't listen לֹא אֶשְׁמָע

The structure here is very formulaic, except for the first one, where an additional object follows the negated verb. But otherwise, these verses present four examples of piety, but they are all rejected. Why is this the case? That will become clear after 5:24; acts of piety absent of justice and righteousness are no piety at all.

5:24 Instead, justice and righteousness

As mentioned, this verse has two clauses, which are mirror-images in form.

וְיִגַּל כַּמַּיִם מִשְׁפָּט

וּצְדָקָה כְּנַחַל אֵיתָן׃

24a is verb-comparative-subject (let roll-like waters-justice), and 24b reverses that (and righteousness-like a river-let it flow). The terseness and the precise attention to form highlight this verse as the centre and focal point and their abject absence from all their cultic activities in the previous verses.

25-27 A three-fold carrying

The response and second half of this section uses three near-synonyms for "carrying" to highlight the past, the present and the future. 

25. Did you offer up (נגש) sacrifices those forty years in the wilderness? 

26. Yet you carry around (נשא) the statues of your home-made gods.

27. Therefore I will carry you off (גלה) to Damascus, says Yhwh, God of Armies.

Of course these are not exact synonyms, but they're certainly a variation on a theme. Sacrifices go up, statues go around, and exiles go off. The NIV also points out three variations on idol in v26:

the shrine of your king,

the pedestal of your idols,

the star of your god

I think makes 25-27 another concentric structure, with the added layer in the middle of v26 and also the verbs either side: you carry them, you made them. 

In all, I think these verses are very tightly crafted, with three clear principles behind each group of verses: 21-23 have a negated verb, 24 has the terse justice/righteousness chiasm, and 25-27 plays both with the idea of carrying and the past, present and future.