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The Hebrew Bible rightly deserves to be termed the Book of Books in the world of letters: it is distinguished from other literary productions by the richness of its sentences, its charm of style and diction, its pathos, and also by the flashes of genuine humour, which here and there illuminate its pages. Naturally its humour differs materially from the broad, rich humour of Sterne, Cervantes, Voltaire or Heine, but it has a stamp of its own, which is in some respects akin to that found in certain passages of the ancient classics. One or two examples will serve.

In the first book of the Iliad, Homer describes a scene on Mount Olympus, in which the Greek gods and goddesses are represented as seated at a banquet, and waited upon by the lame Hephaestus. Observing his halting gait, they burst into peals of laughter. Comparable, perhaps, with this is the description of the well-known scene on Mount Carmel, when Elijah, the true prophet of God, gathered round him the false prophets of Baal. After they had leapt on the altar from morning unto even, crying incessantly, “Oh, Baal, hear us,” Elijah stepped forth, and exclaimed mockingly, “Cry ye louder, for he is a god; perhaps he talketh or walketh, or is on a journey; or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked” (1 Kings xviii. 27). The Aristophanic punning on proper names is paralleled not infrequently in the Bible. Thus, for example, the Hebrew word Nabal (1 Sam. xxv. 3), which means “rogue,” is well applied as the proper name of a man, who was noted for the baseness of his character. Characteristic, too, is the name of one of Job's fair daughters, Keren-happuch (Job xlii. 14), which literally means “a horn (or box) of cosmetics,” suggesting the means by which the owner of that name may occasionally have embellished her charms. To the same class belongs the term Tsara (צרה), which has the double designation of “a rival wife,” living in a country where polygamy is in vogue, and also of “misery.” The humour hidden in these three words is certainly not brought into prominence in the authorized English version, where they are respectively translated by “folly,” “Keren-happuch,” and “adversary.” From these examples it will be seen that an acquaintance with the idiom of the Hebrew tongue is essential to the thorough understanding of the Bible, and as Biblical critics have hitherto paid but little attention to this particular subject, the remarks to be offered on it in the present essay may, perhaps, be of some interest.

A careful perusal, in the original Hebrew of certain orations in the Bible cannot fail to impress the reader with the force of the sarcasm which the authors, acting on the proverb, Castigare ridendo mores, have used in their attacks on the shortcomings and follies of their own, and sometimes also of other nations, with whom they happened to come into political contact. The greatest satirist among them was undoubtedly the prophet Isaiah, whose orations combine the pungency of satire with the charm of an exquisite poetical style. Somewhat in the manner of Demosthenes and Cicero, Isaiah often wages war against the vices which prevailed among the higher and lower classes of his people. He frequently derides princes and leaders for not preserving and upholding that true spirit of patriotism, which generally helps to make a country secure from external invasion. “Ye are,” he exclaims with bitter irony, “Ye are only mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to pour out strong drinks” (Isa. v. 22). Isaiah's orations frequently contain graphic and satirical descriptions of how things will be when that fatal day—the dies irae, dies illa—comes, on which the enemy will reign supreme within the capital of the Judaeans, bringing with them the suffering of famine, sickness, and pestilence. These poorly clad and careworn men will surround the lucky owner of a decent garment, saying: “Thou hast still clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thine hand.” But he will decline the proffered honour with the humiliating remark: “I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people” (ibid. iii. 6 and 7). The then prevailing need and distress will not be less felt by the Jewish women, most of whom the disastrous war will have deprived of their husbands and natural protectors. The consequence of this will be that “On that day seven women will take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, and thus take away our reproach” (ibid. iv. 1).

The extravagance, wantonness, and luxurious habits of the fair daughters of Zion, Isaiah denounces in the following drastic lines:—“Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton (or, deceiving^[3-1]) eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet ... it shall come to pass that instead of sweet smell there shall be bad odour, and instead of a girdle a rent, and burning instead of beauty” (ibid. iii. 16–24). And just as Isaiah reproves the Hebrew women for their pride and arrogance, so he censures the cowardice and effeminate habits of the men of Zion, whose motto, he says, was “Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die” (ibid. xxii. 13).

The burlesquing of idols and idolatry always afforded a ready mark for the sarcasm of the prophets. As Aristophanes in The Birds ridicules the Greek gods and goddesses, so Isaiah satirizes the sham gods of his country, which were held in great estimation by not a few of his own people. His description of the origin and manufacture of an idol is certainly full of humour. “He” (the pious idolater) “heweth down a tree (he says) and burneth part thereof in a fire; one part serves him as firewood, by means of which he roasteth meat and is satisfied; yea, he warmeth himself therewith, and saith: Aha, I am warm; I have seen the fire. And out of the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down before it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith: Deliver me, for thou art my god” (ibid. xliv. 14–17).

With equal humour Isaiah makes merry over the false prophets of Israel, whom he compares to blind watchmen and to dumb dogs. “His (Israel's) watchmen,” he says, “are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot even bark; they lie down as if dreaming, and are fond of slumber” (ibid. lvi. 10).

Sometimes the butt of Isaiah's sarcasm were persons of high standing, who belonged to nationalities other than his own, such as the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Moabites, and others. Highly diverting is the sarcastic address which he directed to one of the Babylonian kings who, after making an unsuccessful attempt to conquer Palestine, had been ignominiously defeated in his own country. It is to be found in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah, a short extract from which runs as follows:—“The whole earth is now (after thy fall) at rest and quiet; people break forth into singing. Yea, even the fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us. Hell from beneath is astir at thy coming; it rouseth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? ... how art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!”

In an equally amusing and drastic manner is Babylon's fall described by Isaiah. “And Babylon,” he says, “the glory of the kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah ... neither shall the Arabian pitch his tent there, nor shall the shepherds make their fold in that place. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant places” (ibid. xiii. 19–23).

Next to Isaiah, no other author of any part of the Bible is so prolific of satirical remarks as the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes. For the present purpose it matters very little whether the writer of the book in question was King Solomon, to whom the authorship of the Book of Proverbs is commonly ascribed, or some one unknown, who had assumed the pseudonym of “Koheleth.” But this is certain that he does not belong to that class of writers whose humour is but a mixture of bitterness and melancholy, and who, like the authors of Faust and Manfred, speak bitingly of humanity at large. His humour is mostly of the cheerful order; and far from weeping over the foibles and follies of the human race, he makes merry over them. The gist of his philosophy may be said to be embodied in that frequently quoted line from Amphis (Gynaecocratia, p. 481), which runs thus:—

Πῖνε, παῖζε· θνητὸς ὁ βίος.

ὀλίγος οὑπὶ γῇ χρόνος

(Drink and chaff, for life is fleeting; short is our time on earth). Or, to quote Koheleth's own words: “Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all the labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for this alone is his portion” (Eccles. v. 17).

The objects of Koheleth's satire are of a varied description. High functionaries of state, foolish kings, scribblers, tedious preachers, bookworms, idlers, sceptics, fools, drunkards, women—they all come under his scrutiny. His sympathies are always with the poor, helpless, and oppressed, rather than for the rich and affluent, whose “abundance of wealth does not suffer them to sleep^[6-1].” Koheleth once met a poor man, who had long and vainly tried to obtain, in the High Court of Justice, redress for wrongs done to him, and he put down in writing: “If thou seest oppression of the poor, and violence done to justice and righteousness in the provinces, do not feel astonished at that: for one that is high watches over the high, and over them are yet higher ones” (Eccles. v. 7). Elsewhere he condemns a land, “whose king is childish, and whose princes feast already in the morning,” but he praises such a one “whose princes eat at a proper time for strengthening sake, and not for the sake of gluttony” (ibid. x. 16, 17). In the same chapter (5, 7) he makes the following ironical remark: “There is an evil which I have seen under the sun: folly is set in high places, and the rich (in intellect) sit in lowness. I have seen servants on horses, and princes walking like servants on the ground.”

What Koheleth thought of scribblers and tedious preachers may be gathered from the following: “But more than all these, my son, take warning for thyself: avoid the writing of endless books, as well as much (dull) preaching, which is a weariness of the flesh” (ibid. xii. 12). The bookworm, too, was no great favourite of his, for he refers to him with, as it were, a pitiful smile: “Where there is much study, there is much vexation, and he that increases knowledge, increases pain” (ibid. i. 18). And again: “The wise have (as a rule) no bread, nor the man of understanding riches, nor the man of knowledge power” (ibid. ix. 11).

Women were to some poets of antiquity, just as they are to many a writer of modern times, a favourite subject for sarcasm, and Koheleth has also made a few remarks about them which, in point of satire, resemble somewhat those made by Hesiod, Simonides, and others. Though he does not compare woman to a hog, an ape, and an ass, as several ancient writers have done, yet the opinion he expresses about a certain class of women is by no means flattering to the fair sex generally. “I find,” he says, “more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are bonds: he that is deemed good before God will escape from her; but the sinner will be caught by her.” And again: “One (perfect) man among a thousand did I find; but one perfect woman among all these did I not find” (ibid. vii. 26 and 28). In the Book of Proverbs, which is commonly ascribed to the same author, there are several references to women, in one of which a quarrelsome woman is compared to “the continual downpour on a very rainy day.” The husband of such a woman, the author adds, would as little succeed in hiding his wife from the outer world, as if he were trying “to hide a wind, or the perfume of scented oil” (ibid, xxvii. 15, 16).

In the same book (xxiii. 29–35) there is a humorous description of a drunkard, which ought not to be omitted, when examples are quoted to prove the existence of light humour in the Bible. It runs as follows: “Who hath woe? who hath pain? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of the eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed drinks. . . . Thine eyes shall behold strange things, and thine heart shall utter nonsensical words. Yea, thou shalt be as one that lieth down in the midst of the sea, as one that reposeth on the top of a mast. Oh, how they have stricken me (thou shalt say), how they have beaten me, and I felt not; when shall I awake? I shall yet seek it (the drink) again.”

The greatest satirists among the minor prophets of the Bible were Hosea and Amos, and their short orations abound in flashes of rich humour and biting sarcasm. The former, for instance, when reproaching his people with their faithlessness to their God and their king, remarks sarcastically: “For now they say, We have no king; as we were not (even) afraid of God, what can a (mortal) king do to us?” (Hos. x. 3). Whatever they did under the pretension of honouring God was, in Hosea's opinion, nothing but hypocrisy, for “although Israel has forgotten his maker, yet he buildeth temples” (ibid. viii. 14). Those of his people, who fancied they would obtain atonement for their sins by merely offering sacrifices, he derided, saying: “They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices, and eat it (themselves)” (ibid. viii. 13).

On another occasion, Hosea ridicules certain persons who, like the inhabitants of Samaria, worshipped the calves of Beth-aven, though they were otherwise not very anxious to uphold and respect the common rights of man. And referring to them, he says with biting irony: “Concerning them, one may (aptly) say, They slaughter man, but kiss the calves” (ibid. xiii. 2)^[8-1]. Continuing to deride those credulous men, who expect pardon for their sins by the offer of sacrifices, Hosea remarks with crushing sarcasm: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifices; and the knowledge of God, more than burnt offerings” (ibid. vi. 6)^[8-2].

One would have expected that the priests at least would set a good example to the people; but they were as bad as the people themselves. “They were eating up the sin offerings of the people, and looked out even longingly for their (the people's) iniquity” (ibid. iv. 8), so that they might materially profit by it. Speaking of the king and the ruler of the people, Hosea considered him not a bit better than his profligate courtiers, who spent the greater part of the day in feasting and debauchery. There was especially no end to their orgies at the celebration of the king's birthday, and the same prophet described their behaviour on that day in the following sarcastic terms: “It is our king's day! The princes are already sick with the fever of wine; he himself (meaning the king) stretches out his hands with the scoffers” (ibid. vii. 5).

Amos, too, makes a good many droll remarks on the follies and misdoings of his people. Addressing the fat judges of the people of Samaria, who were noted for their pompous gravity and effeminate habits, he calls them, most appropriately, “kine of Bashan^[9-1].” These worthies were always thirsty; and their constant cry when dealing with the poor was: “Provide for us that we may have something to drink” (Amos iv. 1). The patricians of his people followed the bad example of the judges. They lived an easy and luxurious life, indifferent to the approaching common danger with which they were threatened—the loss of their freedom and independence. Speaking of them, Amos says bitterly: “Woe to them that put off the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near, that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches; ... that sing to the sound of the harp; they invent for themselves instruments of music like David; that drink wine out of bowls, and anoint themselves with the best ointments, but are not grieved for the ruin of Joseph (Israel). Therefore now shall they go at the head of the captives” (ibid. vi. 4–7).

The hypocrites among his people, who, notwithstanding their dishonest dealings with their neighbours, were exceedingly strict in their observances of the holy seasons appointed by the Jewish law, were rebuked by Amos in the following manner: “Hear ye,” he says, “that swallow up the needy, and destroy the poor of the land, saying, When will the new moon be over, that we may sell again corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances for deceit? That we may buy the poor for money, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell even the refuse of the wheat?” (ibid. viii. 4–6).

These quotations may have already sufficiently supported the argument stated in the introduction to this essay concerning the existence of genuine humour in the Bible. The following are intended to show that even some of the most austere Biblical personages, such, for instance, as the prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Moses himself, possessed a vein of light humour, which they sometimes used with considerable effect.

Jeremiah addresses the hypocrites among his people in the following caustic terms: “How, will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense, and walk after other gods whom you know not; and (then) come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are now delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?” (Jer. vii. 9).

He elsewhere recommends his people to try an experiment in the streets of Jerusalem, which, by a curious coincidence, was once put into practice by the Greek philosopher Diogenes, who went about the streets of Athens in the daytime carrying a lighted lantern in his hand in search of a perfect man, saying: “Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a (perfect) man ... if there be any that seeketh the truth, and I shall pardon it” (ibid. v. 1).

The idols, the great plague of Judaea, also received at this great prophet's hand their proper share of ridicule. He describes them with genuine humour, as follows: “They are upright as the palm-tree, but speak not; they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do any evil, neither can they effect any good” (ibid. x. 5).

Of Ezekiel's humour no specimens can be given here. It is, like Swift's, rather coarse, and not altogether palatable. The curious may be referred to the sixteenth and twenty-third chapters of the Book of Ezekiel.

Moses, though of stern and austere disposition, is also sometimes fond of indulging in ironical remarks with pleasing propriety. So, for instance, when he once admonished his people to give the soil of their possession a year of rest periodically, he gave them at the same time to understand that unless they did so willingly, they would have to do it later on by the force of circumstances. “When,” he says, “you shall be in your enemies' land, then shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbath” (Lev. xxvi. 34). And again: “Because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, while there was (around) an abundance of all things; therefore shalt thou serve thy enemies, whom the Lord shall send out against thee, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in want of everything” (Deut. xxviii. 47, 48). The messengers sent out by Moses to search the land of Canaan are reported by him (Num. xiii. 32) to have given the following description of it: “It is,” they said, “a land that eateth up its own inhabitants,” a sufficiently ironical definition.

In his last famous address to his people, which is commonly called his swan-song, Moses recalled to their mind the happy days, when God led them “as the eagle stirreth up his nest, fluttereth over his young, spreadeth abroad his wings, seizeth them, beareth them aloft on his pinions” (Deut. xxxii. 11–13). But at the same time he foresaw with the far-seeing eye of a prophet, that, as soon as they will have grown “fat, thick, and fleshy” they would forsake the God of their fathers, and worship idols. And, in consequence, he gives them God's divine message, which is couched in the following sarcastic terms: “They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God ... and I will provoke them to anger by a roguish nation” (ibid. xxxii. 21).

There are a good many more fragments of delightful humour to be found in the Bible, which, for lack of space, must be omitted here. Yet a brief reference should be made to some of the witty puns and plays on words (ludus verborum, or Wortspiele) that occur in the same sacred volume. In his well-known short poetical strain (comp. Book of Judges xv. 16), Samson, the noted wit of the Bible, purposely uses, as it would seem, the Hebrew term Chamor (חמור), because it has two meanings, namely, an ass and a heap. The humour of the Hebrew lines in question will at once be noticeable by the following rendering of them:—

With the jaw-bone of an ass

Have I plenteous asses slain:

Smitten thus it came to pass

Fell a thousand on the plain.

A good pun may also be detected in the word Ropheïm (physicians) and Rephaïm, which latter word signifies “corpses”; or in שׁפֵט “a judge,” and טִפֵּשׁ, meaning “the stupid one.” Such and similar puns abound in the Bible as well as in the Talmud, as, for instance, the phrase found in the latter work: אֱכוֹל בָּצֵל וְשֵׁב בְּצֵל “Be satisfied with a meal of onions, and enjoy living under the shadow of thy own trees” (comp. Talmud, Babyl. Pesachim, 114 a); but no further specimens can be given here.

These remarks will, it is hoped, help to show the wealth of hidden meaning contained in the Bible, which can only be detected by the study of the original Hebrew text, and which the translators, either through oversight or inability, have failed to reproduce.