Books of Poetry

The poetry books are fascinating. It's a very interesting genre especially because it is in an ancient form. Poetry today has vastly different criteria than poetry from this era and culture. Common poetry today usually has rhyme, rhythm, meter, ect., however Hebrew poetry in ancient days had basically none of that. One of the most common features was repetition and this can appear childish and redundant to modern readers.

Another thing to keep in mind when reading the books of poetry is that a wide selection of literary features is used. There is an abundance of personificatio, hyperbole, and imagery. The Bible is to be interpreted literally unless it is obvious that a literary form is being used or when the literal interpretation is outrageous. For example one passage describe God as a bird gathering chicks under his wing but we know God does not have a body so he does not have arms let alone, so we know that this is a word picture used to describe how God cares for us his children.

The books of poetry are highlighted by emotion and feelings. There is a lot of venting and it is important to remember that the things that are I said and that happened are not necessarily for us to emulate but for us to relate to. Not every word of the poetry books is a literary form and some literary form is found in other genres as well.