There were different literary forms that came under the various cultural human influences. Literary criticism means the various applications that people have used to investigate any kind of literature. The study of the use of language and style to obtain meaning has helped to reestablish the unity, the beauty, the integrity, the quality, and the meaning and significance of biblical literature. Many subcategories of literary criticism also exist. An examination of the use of language and literary style shows how these human authors established their meanings. The formal scientific study of human language involves the application of some aspects of modern linguistics. Structuralism is an attempt to discover underlying deep patterns of universal meaning and significance.
the beauty
Beautiful Tyre (Ezek 27:3-27:4)
“Thus says Yahweh God.
‘O Tyre!
You have said.
‘I am perfect
In beauty.’
Your borders are
In the heart
Of the seas.
Your builders
Made perfect
Your beauty.’”
Yahweh, via Ezekiel, seemed to praise the beauty of Tyre. The people of Tyre thought that they were perfect in beauty. As a city island, her borders were the sea all around her. Somehow her builders made her perfectly beautiful. This seems odd coming after the complete condemnation of Tyre, at the end of the last chapter. This was a strange lamentation about Tyre.
Put on the robe of glory (Bar 5:1-5:4)
“Take off the garment
Of your sorrow!
Take off the garment
Of your affliction!
O Jerusalem!
Put on forever
The beauty
Of the glory
From God!
Put on the robe
Of the righteousness
From God!
Put on your head
The diadem
Of the glory
Of the Everlasting One!
God
Will show
Your splendor
Everywhere under heaven!
God
Will give you forever
The name
‘Righteousness peace!
Godly glory!’”
The author of this book told Jerusalem to take off its garments of sorrow and distress. Jerusalem was to put on the beauty of the glorious God, the robe of the righteousness of God. Jerusalem was to wear a diadem crown to show the glory of the Everlasting One. Once again, God is no longer called Yahweh. God was going to show the splendor of this great city to everyone in the world. Now Jerusalem had a new name, “righteous peace and Godly glory”. There would be a great turn around in Jerusalem.
The sun (Sir 43:1-43: 5)
“The pride of the higher realms
Is the clear vault of the sky.
As glorious to behold
As the sight of the heavens.
The sun,
When it appears,
Proclaims as it rises.
What a marvelous instrument!
It is the work of the Most High.
At noon,
It parches the land.
Who can withstand its burning heat?
A man tending a furnace
Works in burning heat.
But the sun scorches the mountains
Three times as hot.
It breathes out fiery vapors.
Its bright rays
Blind the eyes.
Great is the Lord
Who made it!
At his orders
It hurries on its course.”
Sirach points out the beauty and utility of the sun in the sky. The rising sun proclaims what a marvelous instrument it is of the Most High God. We have all seen the beauty of the rising morning sun as it proclaims the glory of God. At noon, the sun parches the land, scorching the mountains with its burning heat. Sirach says that the sun is 3 times as hot as a blast furnace. That may be true for somewhere along the line as sun rays head to earth, but here on earth, it is not quite as hot as a burning fire. However, it is true that its bright rays can blind you if you look right into the sun. Certainly the Lord, who made the sun, is to be glorified, as we see the sun move around the earth until sunset. Oh, oh, it is the earth moving around the sun, and not the other way around. However, it still is a lovely poetic thought of sunrise and sunset.
Live in the house of Yahweh (Ps 27:4-27:4)
“One thing
I asked of Yahweh.
That will I seek after.
I want to live in the house of Yahweh.
All the days of my life,
I want to behold the beauty of Yahweh.
I want to search in his temple.”
David had one request of Yahweh. He wanted to live in the house of Yahweh, in the Temple. He wanted to live his whole life in the Temple, searching around it. He wanted to admire the beauty of Yahweh all the days of his life. The one problem was that he was not a Levite.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 