[Loan]
Pleiades
The Hebrew word (cimah) so rendered occurs in (Job 9:9; 38:31; Amos 6:8) In the last passage
our Authorized Version has “the seven stars,” although the Geneva version translates the word
“Pleiades” as in the other cases. The Pleiades are a group of stars situated on the shoulder of the
constellation Taurus. The rendering “sweet influences” of the Authorized Version, (Job 38:31) is
a relic of the lingering belief in the power which the stars exerted over human destiny. But Schaff
thinks the phrase arose from the fact that the Pleiades appear about the middle of April, and hence
are associated with the return of spring, the season of sweet influences.
Plough
The ploughs of ancient Egypt consisted of a share-often pointed with iron or bronze—two
handles and a pole which was inserted into the base of the two handles. Ploughs in Palestine have
usually but one handle with a pole joined to it near the ground and drawn by oxen, cows or camels.
Pochereth
The children of Pochereth of Zebaim were among the children of Solomon’s servants who
returned with Zerubbabel. (Ezra 2:57; Nehemiah 7:59)
Poetry, Hebrew
Lyrical poetry .—Of the three kinds of poetry which are illustrated by the Hebrew literature, the
lyric occupies the foremost place. That literature abounds with illustrations of all forms of Lyrical
•
poetry, in its most manifold and wide-embracing compass, from such short ejaculations as the
songs of the two Lamechs and Psal 15, 117 and others, to the longer chants of victors and
thanksgiving, like the songs of Deborah and David. Judg 5; Psal 18. The Shemitic nations have
nothing approaching to an epic poem, and in proportion to this defect the lyric element prevailed
more greatly, commencing in the pre-Mosaic times, flourishing in rude vigor during the earlier
periods of the judges, the heroic age of the Hebrews, growing with the nation’s growth and
strengthening with its strength, till it reached its highest excellence in David, the warrior poet, and
from thenceforth began slowly to decline.
•Gnomic poetry .—The second grand division of Hebrew poetry is occupied by a class of poems
which are peculiarly Shemitic, and which represent the nearest approaches made by the people of
that race to anything like philosophic thought. Reasoning there is none: we have only results, and
those rather the product of observation and reflection than of induction or argumentation. As lyric
poetry is the expression of the poet’s own feelings and impulses, so gnomic poetry is the form in
which the desire of communicating knowledge to others finds vent. Its germs are the floating
proverbs which pass current in the mouths of the people, and embody the experiences of many
with the wit of one. The utterer of sententious sayings was to the Hebrews the wise man, the
philosopher. Of the earlier isolated proverbs but few examples remain.
•Dramatic poetry .—It is impossible to assert that no form of the drama existed among the Hebrew
people. It is unquestionably true, as Ewald observes, that the Arab reciters of romances will many
times in their own persons act out a complete drama in recitation, changing their voice and gestures
with the change of person and subject. Something of this kind may possibly have existed among
the Hebrews; still there is no evidence that it did exist, nor any grounds for making even a probable
conjecture with regard to it. But the mere fact of the existence of these rude exhibitions’ among
the Arabs and Egyptians of the present day is of no weight when the question to be decided is
whether the Song of Songs was designed to be so represented, as a simple pastoral drama, or