292 FORMS OF HEBREW POETRY
throughout alphabetic, and was deliberately
written to be interpolated between ix. 21 and x.
16 by a later editor, who for some reason found
the verses thus replaced unsuitable. This would
account for the admitted sequence w, r, q, for the
further traces of alphabetic structure, for the
exact dovetailing of the inserted section, and for,
the points of connexion in thought and style
between x. 1-15 and ix. + x. 16-18. But in this
form the theory cannot of course derive any'
argument from the present alphabetic phenomena.
It must depend on the difference, apparent
certainly if not original, of subject. But why
should an editor, who thought it necessary to
interpolate a long section, have failed to make
the further slight changes necessary to assimilate
the subject throughout?
Several of those who attribute the present
incompleteness of the alphabetic structure to
textual corruption have sought to restore the
original text by transpositions. Some of these
transpositions are certainly questionable. For
the remnants of the alphabetic structure testify
not only to the fact of textual corruption, but
also to certain limitations within which that corrup-
tion has occurred; they must therefore be treated
as regulating factors in any reconstruction of
the text. Thus treated, they go far to invalidate
not only theories of large interpolation of foreign
matter, but also theories of extensive transposi-