Investigation: Alphabetic Poems

Alphabetic poetry is a discipline and a delight: a poet works through the whole alphabet, as if to say everything "from alef to tav." Lamentations 1–4 and Proverbs 31:10–31 are also acrostics; Nahum 1 may contain a partial one. Babylonian poets made acrostics too, spelling out names or sentences rather than the alphabet (the Babylonian Theodicy spells "I, Saggil-kinam-ubbib, the incantation priest, am adorant of the god and the king").

The Hebrew alphabet itself is old: the Gezer Calendar (10th century BC, the image above) is written in early Hebrew-Phoenician letters, and alphabet practice lists (abecedaries) from Israelite sites, such as the 'Izbet Sartah ostracon and inscriptions at Kuntillet 'Ajrud, show students copying the letters in order. A poem built on the alphabet is a poem built on how people learned to write.

In the site's reader, open Psalm 119 in the Hebrew (WLC) or any English edition: each of the 22 stanzas is marked with its letter, and in the Hebrew the first letter of every verse is highlighted, so the structure can be seen as well as described.

Psalm 119, letter by letter

Alef (1–8), bet (9–16), gimel (17–24), dalet (25–32), he (33–40), vav (41–48), zayin (49–56), het (57–64), tet (65–72), yod (73–80), kaf (81–88), lamed (89–96), mem (97–104), nun (105–112: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet"), samekh (113–120), ayin (121–128), pe (129–136), tsade (137–144), qof (145–152), resh (153–160), shin (161–168), tav (169–176). Almost every verse also names God's word with one of eight terms (torah, edut, piqqudim, chuqqim, mitsvah, mishpat, davar, imrah). The King James Bible prints the letter names (ALEPH, BETH…) above the stanzas, a reminder of the Hebrew structure.

Never faking a letter

The site reads acrostics only from Hebrew. An English translation cannot show them, and nobody should "find" a letter by translating an English line back into Hebrew. Where the Masoretic Text has a gap, the site says so and shows what other witnesses read; it does not silently fill it.

What gaps can mean

A missing or misplaced letter may be (1) damage in transmission (a line lost by a copyist's eye skipping, as many suggest for 145's nun), (2) a looser poetic form in which the alphabet guides but does not bind (often suggested for 9–10), or (3) a deliberate effect: the extra pe lines of 25 and 34, both about redemption (padah), may mark the ending, and some find a spelled word (alef + lamed + pe, the first, middle and last letters) at work. Each explanation must be argued case by case. Restoring a missing line requires actual textual evidence, as at 145:13; no Qumran fragment has yet supplied the missing letters of 9–10 (C check).

Why acrostics?

Suggested purposes: as an aid to memory; as a sign of completeness (praise or lament "from A to Z"); as a teaching form for young scribes; as artful constraint. Many acrostics are wisdom or praise psalms, often thought to be late (post-exilic) compositions, but the form itself is old.

In Jewish and Christian practice

Psalm 145 (Ashrei) is recited three times daily in Jewish prayer. Psalm 119 is recited in sections in some traditions for the sick or the dying, by the letters of a person's name. In Christian monastic offices Psalm 119 (Greek and Latin 118) was divided across the day hours. The Greek and Latin Psalters, with no Hebrew letters, lost the visible acrostic, though some Latin manuscripts and the King James Bible print the Hebrew letter names.