FIGURES OF SPEECH

Note: This is, in essence, a handout from Dr. Allen P. Ross' Hebrew class at Dallas Theological Seminary. I think this is a good exposure to the many forms of figurative language. Some fall more properly in literary form rather than figurative terms, and as such we will consider some items on this list as we examine literary forms. Also, in a few of the examples given, it seems that the term is not so much an example of a figure so much as an example of semantic range. Nonetheless, it is a good list and it aids in exposing us to the types of figures.

1. FIGURES INVOLVING COMPARISON
2. FIGURES INVOLVING SUBSTITUTIONS
3. FIGURES INVOLVING ADDITION OR AMPLIFICATION
4. FIGURES INVOLVING OMISSION OR SUPPRESSION

1. FIGURES INVOLVING COMPARISON
1. Simile, or Resemblance: a declaration that one thing explicitly (by the presence of "like" or "as") resembles another.
   Psalm 1:3 "He shall be like a tree planted by channels of water."
2. Metaphor, or Representation: a declaration that one thing is or represents another.
   Psalm 23:1 "Yahweh is my shepherd."
3. Hypocatastasis, or Implication: a declaration that implies the comparison.
   Psalm 22:17 (16) "Dogs have compassed me about" (=evil men)
4. Parabola, or Parable: a comparison by continued resemblance. It is used about 30 times in the Old Testament to translate Hebrew masal, and of no other word. In the New Testament it is used of a story with a hidden meaning. The details must not be pressed into / the comparison.
5. Allegory, or Continued Metaphor and Hypocatastasis: a continued comparison by representation or implication.
   Judges 9:7-15 This is not a parable because there is no similitude by which one thing is likened to another. It is a continued hypocatastasis, only one of the compared things plainly mentioned.
6. Proverb: a wayside saying in common use, a specific illustration to signify a truth of life.
   Proverbs 27:6 "Faithful are the wounds of a friend."
7. Personification: the giving of human characteristics to inanimate objects, ideas, or animals.
   Genesis 4:10 "The voice of your brother’s blood cried to Me from the ground."
8. Anthropomorphism: the representation of God in the form of, or with the attributes of man.
   Job 4:9 "By the breath of His nostrils are they consumed."
   Psalm 130:2 "Yahweh, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications."
9. Zoomorphism: the representation of God (or man) in the form of, or with the attributes of, the lower animals.
   Psalm 63:1 "In the shadow of Your wings I would rejoice."
10. Idiom: the regular usage of frozen or dead metaphors as standard or common expressions. Bullinger offers many examples of idiomatic expressions such as "my soul", "lift up your eyes", "the sons of God", "breaking bread", "the Son of Man", "turn to ashes
2. FIGURES INVOLVING SUBSTITUTIONS
1. Metonymy, or Change of Noun the change of a word naming an object for another word closely associated with it
1. When the cause is stated but the effect is intended (instrument of product)
   Psalm 5:10 (9) "Their throat (=speech) is an open sepulcher"
2. When the effect is stated but the cause is intended (reverse of the above)
   Psalm 51:10 (8) "Cause me to hear joy and gladness" (due to forgiveness)
3. When the subject is put for an attribute or adjunct of it (metonymy of subject):
   Psalm 23:5 "You prepare a table before me." (meaning a feast on a table)
4. When the attribute or adjunct that pertains to the subject is put for the subject (metonymy of adjunct: opposite of the previous):
   Genesis 49:10 "The scepter shall not depart from Judah."
2. Synechdoche, or Transfer: the exchange of one idea for another associated idea (the metonymy deals with nouns, the synechdoche with closely related ideas).
1. The genus is put for the species (general for specific):
   Genesis 6 12 "All flesh (meaning man) had corrupted his way on the earth"
2. The species is put for the genus (specific for general):
   Psalm 44:7 (6) "I will not trust in my bow and neither shall my sword save me." (meaning weapons m general)
3. The whole is put for the part (this may be a lexical consideration):
   John 12:19 "The world has gone after him." (meaning people of all sorts)
4. The part is put for the whole:
   Proverbs 1:16 "Their feet run to evil " (meaning the evil men)
3. Merism: a form of synechdoche in which the totality is expressed by two contrasting parts (two opposite ideas)
   Psalm 139:2 "You know my down sitting and my uprising" (meaning every move I make)
4. Hendiadys, or Two for One: two formally coordinate terms express a single concept in which one of the components defines the other (see also verbal hendiadys in Lambdin)
   Genesis 3:16 "I will greatly multiply your pain and your conception" (meaning your pain in childbearing as the next clause makes clear).
5. Euphemism: the substitution of an inoffensive or mild expression for an offensive one.
   Judges 3:24 "Surely he is covering his feet" (meaning evacuating his bowels).
   Job 2:9 "Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold your integrity? Bless meaning curse) God and die!"
6. Apostrophe: a turning aside from the direct subject matter to address others (who or which may not actually be present).
   Psalm 6:9 (8) "Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity" (David turns from his prayer to address those who caused the trouble)
7. Hyperbaton, or Transposition: the placing of a word out of its usual order in the sentence.
   Isaiah 34:4 "And they shall be rolled together as a scroll - the heavens
8. Antimereia: the use of one part of speech for another.
   Genesis 1:9-10 "Let the dry (meanmg dry land) appear"
9. Type: a divinely prefigured illustration of a corresponding reality (called the antitype).
   Psalm 22:1 "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me’?"
10. Symbol: a material object substituted for a moral or spiritual truth.
    Isaiah 42:6 "I will appoint you. . .as a light to the nations"
    Zechariah 4:2ff "And he said to me, ‘What do you see?’ And I said, ‘I looked, and behold a candlestick and two olive trees
11. Irony: the expression of thought in a form that conveys its opposite.
    1 Kings 18:27 "Cry louder, for he is a god!"
    Amos 4:4 "Come to Bethel and transgress, at Gilgal multiply transgression"
12. Chleuasmos, or Mocking: an expression of feeling by the use of mockery and jeering.
    Psalm 2:4 "He that sits in the heavens will laugh, Yahweh will hold them in derision."
13. Maledictio, or Imprecation: the expression of feeling by way of malediction or execration.
    Psalm 109:7 "When he shall be judged, let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin."
3. FIGURES INVOLVING ADDITION OR AMPLIFICATION
1. Parallelism, or Parallel Lines: the correspondence of one phrase or verse with another.
1. Synonymous: close similarity between lines with para synonyms:
   Psalm 2:4
   "He that sits in the heavens will laugh,
   Yahweh will have them in derision."
2. Synthetic: the second phrase or line develops further the idea of the first:
   Psalm 95:3
   "For Yahweh is a great God,
   and a great king above the gods"
3. Emblematic: one line conveys the truth and the other an emblem or illustration:
   Psalm 23:1, 2
   "Yahweh is my shepherd, I lack nothing:
   He makes me lie down in grassy meadows;
   He leads me beside still waters;
   He restores my soul."
4. Antithetical: The second line contrasts the first:
   Psalm 1:6
   "For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous,
   But the way of the wicked will perish."
5. Climactic: a second (or later) line repeats the first with slight variation:
   Psalm 29:1
   "Ascribe to Yahweh, O sons of the Mighty,
   Ascribe to Yahweh, glory and strength,
   Ascribe to Yahweh, glory due His name,
   Worship Him in the beauty of holiness!"
6. Formal: two lines or phrases are joined solely by metric considerations:
   Psalm 2:6
   "I have set my king
   On Zion, my holy hill."
2. Repetition: the repetition of the same word or words in a passage (this has many variations to it).
   Genesis 3:11 "Did you, from the tree which I commanded you not to eat from it, eat?"
3. Paronomasia, or Rhyming Words: the repetition of words similar in sound, and frequently in sense or origin as well (if taken in the strict sense).
   Genesis 11:9 "That is why the name of it is called Babel, for there Yahweh confused (balal) the language" (meaning: made a babble).
4. Acrostichion, or Acrostic: repetition of the same or successive letters at the beginnings of words or clauses. .
   Psalm 34 Each verse is begun with a letter of the alphabet in sequence, Omitting the entry for and ending with verse 21. Verse 22 begins with Pe (and is therefore outside the sequence) and emphasizes redemption.
5. Anaphora, or Like Sentence-Beginnings: the repetition of key words or lines at the beginning of successive predications.
   Psalm 3:2,3 (1, 2)
   "Many are they that rise up against me,
   Many there are who say of my soul…"
6. Inclusio: the rhetorical figure in which a literary unit begins and ends with the same (or similar) word, phrase, or clause. This serves as a framing device, iterating the theme of the section.
   Psalm 22:2 (1) and 11 (10)
   "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me...
   You are my God"
7. Chiasmos, or Introversion: the correspondence of the first of one series with the last of the second, the second of the first with the first of the second (named after the Greek chi (X) which describes the arrangement).
   Isaiah 11:13b
   "Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,
   And Judah will not harass Ephraim"
8. Polysyndaton, or Many "Ands": the repetition of the conjunction.
   Genesis 22:9, 11 "And they came to the place which God had told him, and Abraham built an altar there, and laid in order the wood, and bound Isaac his son, and laid…"
9. Anabasis, or Gradual Ascent: an increase of sense in successive lines.
   Psalm 1:1
   "O heavenly bliss of the man
   Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly
   Nor stands in the way of sinners,
   Nor sits in the seat of the scornful."
10. Catabasis, or Gradual Ascent: the opposite of Anabasis.
    Isaiah 40:3 1
    "They that wait upon Yahweh will renew their strength;
    They shall mount up with eagle’s wings
    They shall run and not be weary,
    They shall walk and not faint."
11. Hyperbole: exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect (more is said than is literally meant).
    Deuteronomy 1:28 "The cities are great—walled up to heaven!"
4. FIGURES INVOLVING OMISSION OR SUPPRESSION
1. Ellipsis: the omission of a word or words in a sentence.
   Psalm 21:13 (12) "When you shall make ready (your arrows) upon your strings."
2. Aposiopesis, or Sudden Silence: the breaking off from what is being said (in anger, grief, deprecation, promise, etc.) with sudden silence.
   Psalm 6:3 "My soul is sore vexed; but You, O Yahweh, how long--?"
3. Erotesis, or Rhetorical Questions: the asking of questions without expecting an answer (to express affirmation, demonstration, wonder, exultation, wishes, denials, doubts, admonitions, expostulations, prohibitions, pity, disparagements, reproaches, lamentation, indignation or absurdities).
   Psalm 2:1 "Why do the heathen rage?"
4. Meiosis, or Belittling: a belittling of one thing to magnify another (also called litotes or understatement).
   Numbers 13:33 "And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight."
5. Tapeinosis, or Demeaning: a lessening of a thing in order to increase it.
   Psalm 51:17 "A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise" (meaning He will gladly receive).
6. Anacolution, or Non-sequence: a breaking off of the sequence of thought, a change from a construction which has been begun already to one of a different kind (especially after a long parenthesis).
   Genesis 20:12,13 "and yet indeed, she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and he became my wife; and when God caused me to wander from my father’s house..." (see the context)
7. Asyndeton, or No Ands: an enumeration of things without conjunction.
   Judges 5:27
   "At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down;
   At her feet he bowed down, he fell;
   Where he fell, there he fell down dead."