250 FORMS OF HEBREW POETRY
[Yahweh taketh vengeance on his adversaries,
And retaineth anger for his enemies.
3 Yahweh is longsuffering and great in strength, 5
But^1 Yahweh will not wholly acquit.]
- b In whirlwind and storm is his way,
And clouds are the dust of his feet.
- g^4 He rebuketh the sea and drieth it up,
And parcheth all the rivers. 10
(4. d) Bashan and Carmel languish,^2
And the growth of Lebanon withers.
- h 5 Mountains quake because of him,
And all the hills melt.
- So the earth becomes desolate^3 before him, 15
The world and all that dwell therein.
(7. z)^6 Before his indignation who can stand?
And who can endure the heat of his anger?
- H His wrath pours out like fire,
And rocks are kindled^4 by him. 20
- F 7 Good is Yahweh to those who wait for him,^5
A stronghold in the day of distress.
rhythm). The exact form of the original may remain a matter of some
uncertainty; most probably it was:
A jealous God is Yahweh,
One that avengeth, and is full of wrath.
Powis Smith prefers, A jealous and avenging God is Yahweh, and filled
with wrath : and it is true that the period of six accents may divide
into 4 : 2 (see p. 182 f.) ; but in that case, too, the four-stress section is
generally divided by a secondary caesura into two equal parts (p. 182),
whereas the longer line in the verse as taken by Powis Smith does not
so divide.]
1 I follow the Syriac in connecting Yahweh with this line; cf. LXX
as punctuated in Swete's edition: MT., and consequently E.V., connect
it with the following line.
2 See below [where lld is suggested in place of llmx].
3 Point xwtv (the word used of desolate cities in Isa. vi. 11) instead of
xWtv. The R.V. rendering of the latter word is hazardous. In favour of
the emendation, cf. Targ. tbvrHv. Vulg. contremuit is at least no support
of MT.
4 MT. 11,12 means " are thrown down," not " are broken asunder "
(R.V.) ; by a transposition of the second and third letters we get
vtcn=are kindled.
5 LXX toi?j u[pome<nousin au]to<n =vyvql (cf. e.g. Isa. xlix. 23). It has
sometimes been supposed that vyvql is a simple misreading of Nvfml