Tag Archives: Proverbs 8:30

The Poetics of Verbal Repetition in Proverbs 8:30

וָֽאֶהְיֶ֥ה אֶצְלֹ֗ו אָ֫מֹ֥ון וָֽאֶהְיֶ֣ה שַׁ֭עֲשֻׁעִים יֹ֤ום יֹ֑ום מְשַׂחֶ֖קֶת לְפָנָ֣יו בְּכָל־עֵֽת׃ (Proverbs 8:30) Then I was beside Him, like a master-worker, and I was His delight day by day, playing before Him at all times. This verse is a masterpiece of Hebrew poetic artistry, where the speaker—personified Wisdom—uses verbal repetition and parallelism to create rhythm, emphasis, and intimacy with the divine Creator. Two repeated verbal structures stand out: וָאֶהְיֶה (“and I was”) and the iterative יֹום יֹום (“day by day”). These elements reveal how Hebrew grammar leverages repetition not as redundancy, but as a stylistic and rhetorical device.… Learn Hebrew
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