What Are Poetic Insets and How Do They Apply to Bible Study?

When something is set to music or poetry, the result typically heightens the message of the surrounding content. The same phenomenon occurs in Scripture when embedded poetic insets (“Poetic Diamonds”) are placed within narrative accounts to accentuate the text’s thematic context.

Many readers are aware of whole books of the Bible (such as Psalms) that are comprised entirely of lyrical content. We should also be alert to the presence of these poetic diamonds in the narrative books of Scripture. Instead of a transcript, view narrative texts more along the lines of a musical. It is more than just a narrative storyline. It is infused with other styles of literature such as poetry or lyrical language. Understanding these nuances pays dividends for readers by allowing us to experience the text not only in a cognitive way but also with the emotional heartbeat that the biblical authors sought to weave into their inspired work.

Look for when biblical authors switch from narrative mode to lyrical mode within the body of the text. This often foregrounds a theme present in the surrounding narrative text.

Prevalence

Although there are whole books of the Bible in poetic form (e.g., Psalms), this phenomenon only occurs within narrative books, mainly in the Old Testament. It also occurs in the gospel of Luke and the book of Revelation, and some long speeches (such as the Sermon on the Mount) are in lyrical form.

Instruction

Look for embedded poetic insets with narrative text and ponder how the main point of the lyrical material accentuates a theme that is present in the surrounding narrative text. In printed Bibles, this can be done rather easily if they use either indented lines or italics to distinguish poetry from narrative text type.

Value

These poetic diamonds add “punch” to what is stated in the surrounding narrative text and allow readers a high degree of certainty that they are grasping a thematic or theological point that the biblical author desires to stress. This aids in determining a passage’s big idea.

Challenges

For the most part this method is easy to detect due to how printed Bibles display lyrical lines (e.g., indented text and/or italics). There is some degree of subjectivity in trying to determine the relationship of the poetic inset within the surrounding narrative in which it is contained. There are also some poetic diamonds that are not readily discernible as to how they thematically connect to the surrounding narrative (e.g., Num. 10:35–36; 21:17–18; 21:27–30), but perhaps deeper reflection will reveal the relationship.

Example of a Poetic Diamond: Hannah’s Song/Prayer in 1 Samuel 2:1–11

This passage functions as a poetic diamond that contains key thematic and theological truths to which the rest of the narrative portions of the book attest. For instance, Hannah exclaims that “the Lord . . . brings low and he exalts” (2:7). This perfectly summarizes within the books of Samuel the raising up of faithful Saul and David and also how the Lord humbles both of them when they exhibit pride (2:3). This poetic diamond further serves as an example of a “Launching Pad” (see chapter 4), but also as a bookend (see chapter 5) to David’s song found in 2 Samuel 22. The many verbatim parallels between Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2:1–11 and David’s song in 2 Samuel 22 (e.g., references to horns, rocks, thunder, and the anointed) are clearly intentional and show the function of poetic diamonds that illuminate themes of the surrounding narrative and add an emotional punch to what the author is stressing.