CRITICISM AND INTERPRETATION 235
into four kinah lines or distichs, Duhm goes to
the opposite extreme and endeavours to squeeze
eight kinah lines (or distichs) out of the present
text amplified by a few additions which are
really far too slight for the purpose. It is a
question whether here the textual changes, or
the rhythmical results, due to the necessity of
making everything attributed to Jeremiah kinah
rhythm, are the more improbable; of the kinah (!)
lines that result this is one:^1
vlqlqth | tvfbgh lk tx
and the additions to the text, besides that already
mentioned (hmdxh in v. 25), are these: four
times over, in order to convert two stresses into
three, Duhm inserts tx! and that in a poetical
passage!^2 and in another place (v. 25) he resorts
to the favourite device of inserting an infinitive
absolute--dvdb. These five changes represent a
hypothetical loss of eleven letters: how often
1 To judge how far Duhm's lines resemble' real 3 : 2, or Ifinah, lines,
it is best, however, to read them entire. Duhm's lines are as follows :
vht hnhv Crxh tx ytyxr
Mrvx Nyxv Mymwh lx hnpv
Mywfr hnhv Myrhh tx ytyxr
vlqlqth tvfbgh lk txv
Mrxh Nyx hnhv hmdxh tx ytyxr
vddn dvdn Mymwh Jvf lkv
rbdm hnhv lmrkh tx ytyxr
hvhy ynpm vctn Myrhh lkv
2 In the present text tx occurs but once (in v. 23), and may there
be an error for lx (so Rothstein in Kittel's Biblia Hebraica): note St
in the clause, also dependent on ytyxr, at the end of the verse, and the
girl of the Greek version (= lf).