THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS 101
that the clearest apparent examples of sectional
parallelism occur between the last section begin-
ning with one letter of the alphabet and the first
section beginning with the next letter;^1 thus,
there are throughout the poem no sections more
parallel to one another than, and few as much so
as, the following (vv. 12, 13 ; 48, 49 ; 60, 61),
He hath bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow;
He hath caused to enter into my kidneys the shafts of his
quiver.
In streams of water my eye runs down for the destruction
of my people;
My eye hath poured down unceasingly, because there are no
respites.
Thou hast seen all the vengeance they took, all their devices
against me;
Thou hast heard all their reproaches (of me), 0 Yahweh, all
their devices against me.
The first of these couplets consists of the last line
beginning with d and the first with h, the second
of the last line with p and the first with f, the
third of the last with r and the first with w.
There are not more than about a dozen^2
couplets of contiguous sections that are as
1 The significance of this does not seem to me to be affected by the
fact that in Ps. cxi., cxii. the alphabetic scheme distinguishes each
stichos, not each distich, by successive letters of the alphabet, and
therefore regularly and necessarily gives to parallel stichoi different
initial letters.
2 The sections that may most reasonably be regarded as more parallel
(though whether always by the intention of the writer is doubtful) to
one another than is almost any section of the poem to any other are :
12, 13; 19 (pointing -10, 20 ; 28, 29, 30 (?) ; 34, 35, 36 (?) ; 40, 41 ;
48, 49 ; 60, 61 ; 64, 65. The italicised numbers are cited above.