Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bob MacDonald <bobmacdonald AT shaw.ca>]

For a good review of irony in the Scripture, see Mark Nanos, The Irony of
Galatians pp 34-39, Defining Irony in Antiquity.  Other than the generic -
things are not as they seem or I mean the opposite of what I am saying
(Micaiah 1 Kings 22), in Galatians the word translated 'I am surprised' is
sometimes a phrase that introduces an ironic rebuke in Greek - I was
wondering if there were known Hebrew equivalents.  Irony was well known in
ancient times - not a new invention; written of in rhetoric classes; and not
lost on the Hebrews - e.g. the irony of David's condemning himself through
Nathan's parable. 

In the Psalms, laughter is not absent, and there's a certain irony in the
opening of Psalm 73 - how fat the bodies of the wicked are - it seems it may
rather less polite than the translations I am looking at - but maybe we take
the irony of prior generations and make it our piety - that would be ironic
also :)

Bob

Bob MacDonald
Victoria BC
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