Page:A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi and Jonah.djvu/70

38 proof that the former is not, as Andre contends, an interpolation. See pp. 28 ff. It seems to be characteristic of Haggai, too, where there is an opportunity, to introduce extended lists of particulars. Such series occur in 1$6, 11$ and 2$12, 19$.

In the first three cases, however, it is possible that the text has been interpolated. In 1$6$ (freely rendered) the arrangement that suggests itself is as follows:

In 1$11$ a similar arrangement is possible:

In 2$12$ bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil sounds like another list of specifications, but it precedes instead of following the general term any food. This fact seems unfavourable to the theory of interpolation. Even more so is the case of 2$19$, for here the series appears to be necessary to the expression of the prophet's thought. It is probable, therefore, that he actually wrote:

If he did, perhaps it is not too much to say that he was apt to express himself in this fashion. Not that he did not sometimes put his thoughts into a more regular form. Take, for example, 1$10$ (omitting the evidently superfluous ץליכם), which might be freely rendered:

This is a fairly good specimen of Hebrew parallelism. It is interesting as showing that he had caught the measure, as well as adopted some of the ideas, of the Second Isaiah. It is also important, since it furnishes a warrant for correcting some of the irregularities in his prophecies, when other considerations point in the same direction. Applied to 2$6–9$ the metrical principle confirms the following analysis. The words in plain type are accretions:

6. For thus saith Yahweh of Hosts:

Yet once a little while,

And I will shake heaven and earth,

and the sea, and the dry land;

7.yea, I will shake all nations;

And the treasures of all nations shall come,

and I will fill this house with wealth,

saith Yahweh of Hosts:

8. For mine is the silver, and mine the gold,

saith Yahweh of Hosts.