Prosopopoeia; or, Personification
Prosopopoeia; or, Personification
Things represented as Persons
Pros–po-poe-i-a (i.e., pros-o-po-pe-ya). Greek, , from (prosopon), face or person, and (poiein), to make.
A figure by which things are represented or spoken of as persons; or, by which we attribute intelligence, by words or actions, to inanimate objects or abstract ideas.
The figure is employed when the absent are spoken of (or to) as present; when the dead are spoken of as alive; or when anything (e.g., a country) is addressed as a person.
Personification is the English name for the figure.
The Latins called it PERSONIFICATIO, or PERSONAE FICTIO, the making or feigning of a person. Also CONFORMATIO, a conforming or fashioning, delineation, conception.
The figure of Personification may be divided into the following six classes or groups:-
I.The members of the Human body.
II.Animals.
III.The products of the earth.
IV.Inanimate things.
V.Kingdoms, countries, and states.
VI.Human actions, etc., attributed to things, etc.
i. The members of the human body
Gen 31:35.-Heb., Let not the eyes of my lord kindle with anger.
So Gen 45:5 margin: and compare Isa 3:8.
Gen 48:14.-He made his hands to understand (, sikkeyl), skilful.
Deu 13:8.-Neither shall thine eye pity him.
1Ki 20:6.-Whatscever is pleasant (or desirable, marg. [Note: arg. Margin.] ) in thine eyes: i.e., pleases thine eyes. So Eze 24:16 (see under Periphrasis and Metonymy), 21 (see Paronomasia). 1Jn 2:16.
Job 29:11.-When the ear heard me, then it blessed me and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me. How beautiful is this ProsopopAEia. It is more than putting the eye, by Metonomy, for any one who used the eye and saw. It is the actual personification of the eye; and, therefore, much more expressive.
Job 31:7.-If mine heart walked after mine eyes, i,e., if I covet that which I have seen. Compare 1Jn 2:16.
Psa 35:10.-All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, etc.
When it is written All my bones, it is the figure Synecdoche, by which a part or some of the members are put for the whole being or person. When it is written shall say, that is ProsopopAEia, because they are represented as speaking.
This is a Psalm of David: and it is therefore true of Davids Son, and Davids Lord, as well as of David himself.
David could say that he, with all his members and powers, used these words and said, Jehovah! Who is like unto thee, etc.
The Lord Jesus could use them in like manner of Himself. But there is a further application to Christ mystical: a truth not then revealed. All the members of Christs body now say exactly the same thing. In Psa 139:16 we see the formation of those members (1Co 12:1-31). We see how they are placed in the Body.
They are vexed. Psa 6:2 (3).
They are sundered (Psa 22:14 (15), margin), but never broken (Psa 34:20 (21). Exo 12:46): therefore Christs literal bones were not to he broken (Joh 19:33; Joh 19:37).
Their hearts are broken, as His was (Psa 69:20). See Psa 34:18 (19), (and cf. [Note: f. Compare (for Latin, confer).] verse 20), but they themselves, never!
They all are poor and needy, and they all say one thing. They all own Jesus as the Lord; and all confess that there is none like Him. Sometimes they ask the question (Psa 89:6 (7); 71:19. Exo 15:11), and sometimes they answer it (Deu 33:26-27. 1Sa 2:2).
They thus confess Him as beyond compare, because He delivers the poor and needy from the strong spoiler.
From the Law which was too strong (Gal 3:10; Gal 3:13).
From Sin which is too strong (Rom 7:23-24; Rom 5:21).
From the World which is too strong (Joh 16:33), and
From Death (2Co 1:10. 2Ti 1:10. Hos 13:14).
Psa 68:31 (32).-Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. Here, Ethiopia is first put, by Metonymy (of subject), for the inhabitants who lift up their hands. Otherwise, it is a Prosopopia, for Ethiopia has no hands! This will be fulfilled in the day of Psa 72:15.
Psa 73:9.-Their tongue walketh through the earth. It is the wicked who walk through the earth, using their tongues against God.
Psa 103:1.-All that is within me, bless his holy name. See also Synecdoche and Idiom.
Psa 119:82.-Mine eyes fail for thy word: i.e., mine eyes are consumed in looking for the fulfilment of Thy Word: i.e. (by Synecdoche) I am consumed. So verse 123.
Psa 137:5 (6).-If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget. The A.V. [Note: The Authorized Version, or current Text of our English Bible, 1611.] and R.V. [Note: The Revised Version, 1881.] supply her cunning in italics. This is usually treated as an Ellipsis, but by some as a Prosopopia. But it is neither. When the correct reading of the Hebrew is understood, we have here a beautiful Paronomasia (q.v. [Note: Which see.] ), and the reading is let me forget my right hand.
Psa 145:15.-The eyes of all wait (marg. [Note: arg. Margin.] , look unto) thee.
Pro 10:32.-The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom.
Isa 13:18.-Their eye shall not spare children.
Eze 20:7.-Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes. See under Enallage.
Mat 6:3.-Let not thy left hand know, etc. See Parmia.
2Pe 2:14.-Having eyes full of an adulteress. (See A.V. [Note: The Authorized Version, or current Text of our English Bible, 1611.] margin.)
1Co 12:15-16.-If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; Is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; Is it therefore not of the body?
ii. Animals
Gen 9:5.-At the hand of every beast will I require it. Beasts are thus spoken of as intelligent and responsible. How much more man!
Job 12:7.-Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee: and the fowls of the air, they shall tell thee. Compare verses 8, 11, etc.
Job 41:29 (21).-He (leviathan) laugheth at the shaking of a spear.
Joe 1:6.-A nation is come up upon my land whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. So verse 4.
Animals are represented as doing what the hostile nation had done.
See further illustrations under Allegory.
iii. The products of the earth
Lev 19:23.-Ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised. For three years the fruit of a young tree was not to be eaten, but in the fourth year it shall be holiness of praises to Jehovah: i.e., it shall be counted holy to the great praise and glory of Jehovah. See Heterosis. In the fifth year it might be eaten.
Joe 1:10.-The land mourneth-the oil languisheth. So Isa 16:8. Nah 1:4.
Hab 3:17 (margin).-The labour of the olive shall lie. So Hos 9:2.
iv. Inanimate things
Gen 4:10.-The voice of thy brothers blood crieth unto me from the ground. See under Heterosis.
So in verse 11. The earth is represented as opening her mouth to receive the blood of Abel.
Gen 42:9; Gen 42:12.-The nakedness of the land.
Gen 47:19.-Desolation is spoken of as the death of the land.
Exo 19:18.-Mount Sinai quaked as though with fear.
Lev 18:25; Lev 18:28.-The land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. It spued out the nations.
Deu 32:42.-Arrows are said to be made drunk; and the sword is said to devour. Compare Isa 34:5-6. Jer 46:10.
The four lines are as follows:-
aI will make mine arrows drunk with blood,
bAnd my sword shall devour flesh;
adrunk with the blood of the slain and of the captives,
bfrom the hairy head of the enemy (R.V. [Note: The Revised Version, 1881.] marg [Note: arg Margin.] ).
Here a refers to the arrows mentioned in a: while b refers to the work of the sword mentioned in b. See under Parallelism.
Jos 24:27.-This stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us.
Jdg 5:20.-The stars in their courses fought against Sisera. See under Homopropheron.
2Ki 3:19.-Here, the figure is translated:-And shall mar every good piece of land with stones The Heb. is grieve. (See A.V. [Note: The Authorized Version, or current Text of our English Bible, 1611.] marg. [Note: arg. Margin.] )
Job 3:9.-Let the night look for light, but have [or see] none; neither let it see the dawning of the day. Heb., the eyelids of the morning. (See A.V. [Note: The Authorized Version, or current Text of our English Bible, 1611.] marg. [Note: arg. Margin.] and R.V. [Note: The Revised Version, 1881.] text). So Job 41:18 (10).
Job 28:22.-Destruction and death say, We have heard of the fame thereof with our ears.
Job 31:38.-If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof weep. (A.V. [Note: The Authorized Version, or current Text of our English Bible, 1611.] , complain. Marg. [Note: arg. Margin.] , weep).
Job 38:7.-When the morning stays sang together, and all the sons of God (i.e., the angels) shouted for joy. The stars are also called on to praise God in Psa 148:3.
Psa 19:1 (2).-The heavens declare the glory of God.* [Note: See on the whole of this wondrous Psalm, The Witness of the Stars, by the same author and publisher. Pages 1-6.]
Psa 77:16 (17).-The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled. (See under Epizeuxis). Thus is the history of Exo 14:1-31, powerfully and beautifully expressed.
Psa 96:11-12; Psa 98:7-8 are beautiful examples of Prosopopia. It is a figure, of speech: but it emphasises the rejoicing of the whole creation of God, when Christ shall return to remove its curse, and cause its groanings to cease.
Psa 103:16.-The place thereof shall know it no more. Compare Job 7:10; Job 8:18, etc.
Psa 104:19.-The sun knoweth his going down. So
Son 1:6.-The sun hath looked upon me.
Isa 3:26.-Her gates shall lament and mourn: i.e., after the eastern custom. See Job 1:20; Job 2:13.
Isa 5:14.-Sheol hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and this, to show the great mortality of that day.
Isa 14:8.-The fir-trees rejoice at thee.
Isa 14:9-11.-Dead people in the grave are represented as speaking. And Sheol or the grave (margin) is represented as being moved and stirred. That it is the grave is clear from the reference to the worms.
Isa 24:4.-The earth mourneth. (See under Paronomasia). Similar examples are seen in verse 7; 33:9. Jer 4:28; Jer 12:4. Lam 2:8. Hos 4:3. Joe 1:10. Amo 1:2, etc.
Isa 24:23.-Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, etc. And this, in order to emphasise the glory of the presence of the Lord.
Jer 51:48.-Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: i.e., the joy over her fall shall be great and universal.
Isa 55:12.-The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. And thus is emphasised the universal joy of Israel in the coming day of her glory, when Jehovah shall comfort her. So Isa 49:13.
Jer 31:15.-Rachel, long since dead, is represented as weeping. So Mat 2:18.
Lam 1:4.-The ways of Zion do mourn, etc.This most elegant Prosopopia graphically describes the desolation.
Eze 32:21-22.-Dead people are represented as speaking out of Sheol: i.e., the grave, as is clear from the whole context.
Verses 22-32 are about those who have been slain with the sword, and are fallen and lying in their graves.
Hos 2:22 (24).-See also this verse under Anaphora, Climax, and Polysyndeton; and compare Deu 28:23. Jer 14:22, where the heavens and the earth are said to give their substance, or withhold it, by the hand of God. So Jon 1:4.
Rom 8:19.-For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. See under Metonymy (of Adjunct), Ellipsis, and Epitrechon.
Rom 9:20.-Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 10:6-8.-The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, etc.
Rev 6:9-10.-The dead are represented as speaking, notwithstanding it says that they had been slain.
For, after the Church shall have been taken away, the Remnant of Israel will be dealt with and go through a great tribulation and suffer great persecution. Many will be martyred and beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands (Rev 20:4).
In Rev 6:9, this time of persecution is not yet over, and those who have been slain are represented, by Prosopopia, as speaking and asking, How long it would be before the earth should be judged, and their blood avenged. That this is not the language of the Church is clear; for they address the Lord as (Despotees): i.e., Despot, Master, esp., a master of slaves. Despot (see Luk 2:29. Act 4:24. 2Pe 2:1. Jud 1:4). And not as (Kurios), Lord, as the Church always does.
They have white robes given to them, thus keeping up the Prosopopia.
The word souls is put for persons by Synecdoche (q.v. [Note: Which see.] ).
Moreover the dead do not speak.
See Psa 115:17; Psa 146:4, etc.
v. Kingdoms, Countries, and States
1. A whole people as an individual man
Isa 1:5-6.-Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores. (See under Hypotyposis). Thus the whole Jewish nation is elegantly addressed as one man. See verses 7-9.
Careful students of the Old Testament, especially in the original, will find abundant instances of this Figure. See Isa 7:20; Isa 30:28, etc.
2. A whole Nation is spoken of as a Man
Lam 3:1 (2).-I am the man that hath seen affliction He hath led me, etc.
This is generally but wrongly taken of Christ. It is the figure by which a People is personified.
Dan 2:31.-This great image stood before thee.
3. A whole People or State as a Woman
Isa 32:9-11.-Rise up, ye women that are at ease; etc.
Here the whole People is addressed as a class of women. So chap. 3:18-26. Mic 7:8-10, etc.
Idolatrous Israel is spoken of, and to, as an adulterous woman: Jer 3:1; Jer 3:3-4; Jer 4:30. Eze 16:1-63 and xxiii. Hos 2:1-23 etc. This is based on such passages as Exo 34:15-16. Deu 31:16. Jdg 2:17. Isa 1:21; Isa 57:3. Nah 3:4. Isa 23:15-17.
4. A City spoken of as a Mother (i.e., a metropolitan city)
2Sa 20:19. See under Hendiadys.
See also for a city or People spoken of as a mother, Isa 50:1. Hos 2:2. Eze 23:2. Gal 4:26.
5. Cities and Villages are spoken of as Daughters
Jos 17:16. Num 21:25. Jdg 11:26, etc. See esp. Jos 15:45; Jos 15:47; Jos 17:11; Jos 17:16-17. 1Ch 7:28-29; 1Ch 18:1-2; 2Ch 13:19; 2Ch 28:18, etc.
Psa 45:12 (13).-The daughter of Tyre: i.e., as explained by Epexegesis (q.v. [Note: Which see.] ), the rich among the peoples.
Psa 137:8.-The daughter of Babylon. It is possible that the little ones of verse 9 may be small offshoots of Great Babylon, and not literal infants.
Lam 1:6; Lam 2:1, etc.-The daughter of Zion.
Lam 2:2.-The daughter of Judah.
Zec 9:9.-Daughter of Zion, Daughter of Jerusalem.
And elsewhere often. See Isa 1:8; Isa 10:32; Isa 16:1; Isa 37:22. Jer 4:31; Jer 6:2. Mic 4:10; Mic 4:13. Zep 3:10; Zep 3:14.
Jer 31:4; Jer 31:21.-Virgin of Israel.
So chap. 18:13, and Amo 5:2.
Sometimes virgin and daughter are combined. Isa 23:12; Isa 37:22; Isa 47:1. Jer 46:11. Lam 2:13.
vi. Human Actions attributed to Things, etc.
Called SOMATOPIA (S-mat-o-p-ia). Greek , from (sma), a body, and (poiein), to make. Hence, to make like a body or person, as we speak of embodying.
Gen 4:7.-Sin lieth at the door.
See Metonymy, by which sin is put for sin-offering, and this sin-offering is a live animal represented as a person waiting at the door. The Hebrew (rahvatz) is specially used of animals.
Gen 18:20.-The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great.
This is Prosopopia, whereas in Jam 5:4 we have it literally.
Gen 30:33.-So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come.
See under Antimereia (of Adv.).
Exo 18:8.-All the travail that had found them.
So Gen 44:34. Num 20:14. Deu 31:17; Deu 31:21; Deu 31:29. Job 31:29. Psa 116:3; Psa 119:143.
Job 16:8.-My leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.
Psa 85:10 (11).-Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Isa 59:12.-Our sins testify against us.
Isa 59:14.-Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off.
Jer 14:7.-Our iniquities testify against us.
1Co 13:4-7.-Human actions are attributed to charity.
Jam 1:15.-When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. See under Climax.
Rev 18:5.-Her sins have reached unto heaven.