Bible Lexicons

Bullinger's Figures of Speech Used in the BibleBullinger's Figures of Speech

Prosopopoeia; or Personification

Things represented as Persons

Pros´-ô-po-poe´-i-a (i.e., pros´-o-po-peé-ya). Greek, προσωποποιΐα, from πρόσωπον (prosopon), face or person, and ποιεῖν (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

Genesis 31:35.-Heb., Let not the eyes of my lord kindle with anger.

Genesis 48:14.-"He made his hands to understand" (שִׂכֵּל, sikkeyl), skilful.

Deuteronomy 13:8.-"Neither shall thine eye pity him."

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.

Psalms 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 David’s Son, and David’s 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 Christ’s body now say exactly the same thing. In Psalms 139:16 we see the formation of those members (1 Corinthians 12:1-31). We see how they are placed in the Body.

They are "vexed." Psalms 6:2 (3).

They are "sundered" (Psalms 22:14 (15), margin), but never "broken" (Psalms 34:20 (21). Exodus 12:46): therefore Christ’s literal bones were not to he broken (John 19:33; John 19:37).

Their "hearts" are broken, as His was (Psalms 69:20). See Psalms 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 (Psalms 89:6 (7); 71:19. Exodus 15:11), and sometimes they answer it (Deuteronomy 33:26-27. 1 Samuel 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 (Galatians 3:10; Galatians 3:13).

From Sin which is too strong (Romans 7:23-24; Romans 5:21).

From the World which is too strong (John 16:33), and

From Death (2 Corinthians 1:10. 2 Timothy 1:10. Hosea 13:14).

Psalms 73:9.-"Their tongue walketh through the earth." It is the wicked who walk through the earth, using their tongues against God.

Psalms 103:1.-"All that is within me, bless his holy name." See also Synecdoche and Idiom.

Psalms 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.

Psalms 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 Prosopopœia. 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."

Psalms 145:15.-"The eyes of all wait (marg. [Note: arg. Margin.] , look unto) thee."

Proverbs 10:32.-"The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom."

Isaiah 13:18.-"Their eye shall not spare children."

Ezekiel 20:7.-"Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes." See under Enallage.

Matthew 6:3.-"Let not thy left hand know," etc. See Parœmia.

2 Peter 2:14.-"Having eyes full of an adulteress." (See A.V. [Note: The Authorized Version, or current Text of our English Bible, 1611.] margin.)

1 Corinthians 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

Genesis 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.

Joel 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

Leviticus 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.

iv. Inanimate things

Genesis 4:10.-"The voice of thy brother’s 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.

Genesis 42:9; Genesis 42:12.-"The nakedness of the land."

Genesis 47:19.-Desolation is spoken of as the death of the land.

Exodus 19:18.-"Mount Sinai quaked as though with fear."

Leviticus 18:25; Leviticus 18:28.-"The land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants." "It spued out the nations."

The four lines are as follows:-

a I will make mine arrows drunk with blood,

b And my sword shall devour flesh;

a drunk with the blood of the slain and of the captives,

b from 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.

Joshua 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."

Judges 5:20.-"The stars in their courses fought against Sisera." See under Homœopropheron.

2 Kings 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).

Psalms 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.]

Psalms 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 Exodus 14:1-31, powerfully and beautifully expressed.

Psalms 96:11-12; Psalms 98:7-8 are beautiful examples of Prosopopœia. 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.

Psalms 103:16.-"The place thereof shall know it no more." Compare Job 7:10; Job 8:18, etc.

Psalms 104:19.-"The sun knoweth his going down." So

Song of Solomon 1:6.-"The sun hath looked upon me."

Isaiah 5:14.-"Sheol hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure": and this, to show the great mortality of that day.

Isaiah 14:8.-"The fir-trees rejoice at thee."

Isaiah 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."

Isaiah 24:4.-"The earth mourneth." (See under Paronomasia). Similar examples are seen in verse 7; 33:9. Jeremiah 4:28; Jeremiah 12:4. Lamentations 2:8. Hosea 4:3. Joel 1:10. Amos 1:2, etc.

Isaiah 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.

Jeremiah 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.

Lamentations 1:4.-"The ways of Zion do mourn," etc.This most elegant Prosopopœia graphically describes the desolation.

Ezekiel 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.

Romans 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.

Romans 9:20.-"Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?"

Romans 10:6-8.-"The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise," etc.

Revelation 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" (Revelation 20:4).

In Revelation 6:9, this time of persecution is not yet over, and those who have been slain are represented, by Prosopopœia, 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 Δεσπότης (Despotees): i.e., Despot, Master, esp., a master of slaves. Despot (see Luke 2:29. Acts 4:24. 2 Peter 2:1. Judges 1:4). And not as Κύριος (Kurios), Lord, as the Church always does.

They have "white robes" given to them, thus keeping up the Prosopopœia.

The word "souls" is put for persons by Synecdoche (q.v. [Note: Which see.] ).

Moreover the dead do not speak.

See Psalms 115:17; Psalms 146:4, etc.

v. Kingdoms, Countries, and States

1. A whole people as an individual man

Isaiah 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 Isaiah 7:20; Isaiah 30:28, etc.

2. A whole Nation is spoken of as a Man

Lamentations 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.

Daniel 2:31.-"This great image … stood before thee."

3. A whole People or State as a Woman

Isaiah 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. Micah 7:8-10, etc.

4. A City spoken of as a Mother (i.e., a metropolitan city)

2 Samuel 20:19. See under Hendiadys.

5. Cities and Villages are spoken of as Daughters

Joshua 17:16. Numbers 21:25. Judges 11:26, etc. See esp. Joshua 15:45; Joshua 15:47; Joshua 17:11; Joshua 17:16-17. 1 Chronicles 7:28-29; 1 Chronicles 18:1-2; 2 Chronicles 13:19; 2 Chronicles 28:18, etc.

Psalms 45:12 (13).-"The daughter of Tyre": i.e., as explained by Epexegesis (q.v. [Note: Which see.] ), the rich among the peoples.

Psalms 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.

Lamentations 1:6; Lamentations 2:1, etc.-The "daughter of Zion."

Lamentations 2:2.-The "daughter of Judah."

Zechariah 9:9.-"Daughter of Zion," "Daughter of Jerusalem."

Jeremiah 31:4; Jeremiah 31:21.-"Virgin of Israel."

vi. Human Actions attributed to Things, etc.

Called SOMATOPŒIA (Sô´-mat-o-pœ´-ia). Greek σωματοποιΐα, from σωμα (sôma), a body, and ποιεῖν (poiein), to make. Hence, to make like a body or person, as we speak of embodying.

Genesis 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 רָבַץ (rahvatz) is specially used of animals.

Genesis 18:20.-"The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great."

This is Prosopopœia, whereas in James 5:4 we have it literally.

Genesis 30:33.-"So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come."

See under Antimereia (of Adv.).

Exodus 18:8.-"All the travail that had found them."

Job 16:8.-"My leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face."

Psalms 85:10 (11).-"Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other."

Isaiah 59:12.-"Our sins testify against us."

Isaiah 59:14.-"Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off."

Jeremiah 14:7.-"Our iniquities testify against us."

1 Corinthians 13:4-7.-Human actions are attributed to charity.

James 1:15.-"When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin." See under Climax.

Revelation 18:5.-"Her sins have reached unto heaven."