A Key to Open Scripture Metaphors, Book 1 · Chapter 19
CHAP. XIX. Of an Hyperbole.
HYperbole is that Affection of a Trope, foreign superlatio A lifting, or carrying aboveby which with greater excess and enlargement for to amplifie or extenuate things, a word is carryed, or used, very far from its proper and native signification. Here we are not to take away an Hyperbole from the Holy Scripture by that pretext, that it is a kind of Lye, extolling or depressing a thing, more than is true: For we are to observe, that this kind of speech, (as Tropes are) is accommodated more to make expressions efficacious and powerful, than with any purpose to deceive, for that is inconsistent with the Goodness and Truth of this most true and blessed Author, the Lord God; and that there is no disagreement between the mind, and the words spoken, which is the thing that constitutes a lye.
There is a Twofold Speices of an Hyperbole
(1.) Amplification, which the Greeks call foreign, Auxesis, and Extenuation, which they call foreign, Meiosis.
Examples of this Auxesis or Amplification are partly Rhetorical, partly Logical. Auxesis.Such as relate to Rhetorick are either in single words, or in a conjunct phrase. To single words these belong.
[War] is put for any private strife, Jam. 4.1. which answers the Hebrew word foreign which is taken in this sence,Single words. Jer. 1.19. and 15.20. Heaven] is put for very great height, and on the contrary, an Abyss or Hell, for great depth or dejection, Gen. 11.4. Let us build us a City and a Tower whose top (or head) may reach heaven, that is, higher than any thing on Earth. See Deut. 1.28. and 9.1. &c. Psal. 107.26. They mount up to Heaven, they go down to the Depths, which denotes the vehement and dreadful tossing of waves in a storm, Esa. 57.9. Thou didst debase thy self to Hell— that is, to be the most abject of all; he speaks of the Kingdom of Juda, who submitted themselves very basely by their King Ahaz, to the Assyrians because they would be assisted by them, 2 Kings 16.7. &c. See more examples Matth. 11.23. Lam. 2.1. Luke 10.21. 1 Sam. 5.12. 2 Chron. 28.9. Jer. 51.9. Rev. 18.5. Esa. 14.13. Jer. 51.53. &c.
[To Vomit up] is put for recompence or payment of what a man has eaten, Prov. 23.8. Matth. 19.12.
[To make ones self an Eunuch,] is put for, to suppress irregular lusts, yea, there are some, who by the gift of God, have the gift of continency, this is a metaphorical Hyperbole used by Christ, foreign, by way of Antanaclasis, Jam. 3.6. The Tongue is a fire, a world of Iniquity, that is, a thing full of wickedness, as the world is full of many things. See Jer. 4.29. Ruth. 4.6.
[To Rob foreign.] is put for to Receive 2 Cor. 11.8. This is a great Auxesis, for he names the acceptation of due and moderate sallary, depredation or Robbery.
[Rivers of Oyl] are put for abundance of all good things, Job 29.6. See Job 20.19. Micah 6.7. where there is a more illustrious exaggeration, ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl.
Thunder is put for the strong neighing of a Horse, Job 39.19.
A Tower is put for a very High place, Neh. 8.4. &c.
In a conjunct phrase] we have these Hyperboles, Gen. 41.47. And in the seven plenteous years, In a conjunct phrase.the Earth brought forth by handfuls; as if he had said that from one grain they had gathered a handful. This Hyperbolical speech denotes great increase. See ver. 49. &c.
More examples you may read, Gen. 42.8. Exod. 8.17. Judg. 5.4. (with Num. 20) ver. 5. Judg. 20.16. 1 Sam. 7.6. Psal. 6.6. and 119.136. Jer. 9.1. Lam. 3.48, 49. &c. 1 Sam. 25.37. 1 Kings 1.40. 1 Kings 10.5. Esa. 5.25. with Deut. 32.22. Lam. 2.11. Ezek. 27.28. 2 Sam. 17.13. 2 Kings 19.24. Job 29.6. and 40.18. Esa. 13.13. and 14.14. and 34.3, 4, 7. Ezek. 26.4. and 32.5, 6, 7, 8. and 39.9, 10. Amos 9.13. Nahum. 2.3, 4. Gal. 4.15.
A Logical Hyperbole which is used in proper words shall be considered.
A Logical Hyperbole.(1.) With respect,
1. To Hyperbolical comparisons, when one thing is compared with another, which can bear no tolerable proportion with it, as Gen. 13.16. And I will make thy Seed as the Dust of the Earth: So that if a man can number the Dust of the Earth, then shall thy Seed also be numbred. The sence is, that the Seed of Abraham should be a very great multitude, because innumerable, or not to be numbred. But inasmuch as it is compared to the Dust of the Earth, it is Hyperbolical because as Augustine Lib. 16. de Civ. Dei, c. 21.says, it is obvious to every ones sense, that the number of the Sands (or dust) is incomparably beyond the number of humane kind from Adam to the end of the world, much more beyond the number of Abrahams Seed, whether natural Jews, or Believers, who are called his Seed, because they believe as he did. The same Comparison of the Sand of the Sea, and the Dust of the Earth is to be read, Gen. 22.17. and 28.14. Judg. 7.12. 1 Sam. 13.5. 1 Kings 4.20, 29. 2 Chron. 1.9. Job 29.18. Psal. 78.26, 27. Esa. 29.5. Jer. 15.8. Heb. 11.12. &c. So other Comparisons, swifter then Eagles, 2 Sam. 1.23. that is, Saul and Jonathan, Jer. 4.13. Lam. 4.19. See 1 Kings 10.27. See ver. 21.2 Chron. 1.15. and 9.20. &c. Job 6.3. and 41.9. Habakkuk 2.5. Lam. 4.7, 8. &c.
2. In certain Hypotheses, where for Emphasis sake the things are amplifi'd more than really it is, or can be, Psal. 139.8, 9, 10. If I ascend up into Heaven, thou art there; if I make my Bed in Hell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the Morning, and dwell in the uttermost part of the Sea: Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy Right hand shall hold me. Now no man living can ascend unto Heaven, nor descend into Hell, nor take wings, and fly as fast as the morning. But these things are mentioned by way of Hyperbolical fiction, to illustrate the Infiniteness and Omnipresence of God which no man can avoid or fly from. There is an hyperbolical expression or hypothesis, Prov. 27.22. which denotes that no endeavours will reclaim or bring men obdurate in folly to the Right way. That Hyperbole Obad. ver. 4. denotes the certainty of Divine Judgment against the Edomites. See Jer. 49.16. &c.
Matth. …6.26. But what is a man profited, if he shall gain the while world and shall lose his own Soul? By the word World, all the Power, Riches, Pleasure, and precious things there, are to be understood in one word. And by this hypothetical hyperbole, the most grievous state of the wicked, that (by these toys which are but transient) forfeit Eternal Life, is denoted. See Mark 8.36. Luke 9.25. &c. 1 Cor. 4.15. and 13.1, 2. Gal. 1.8. &c.
3. In some others, 1 Kings 20.10. as that Thrasonical or boasting speech of Benhadad King of Syria, In some others.is recorded to the King of Jerusalem, that the Dust of Samaria should not suffice for handfuls, for all the people that follow me. This is a high peice of hyperbolical boasting, as if he had said, all your Land can be brought by handfails, by my Army, yea, shall not be enough for the number of bearers, (so great is my Host); how easily therfore shall I overcome you? Hos. 2.17. There is an Hyperbole which denotes the contempt of Idolatry, that will be, and that their names shall not be used with any reverence, which must be the meaning, for Paul names Baal, Rom. 11.4. See Acts 7.4…. &c.
Matth. 5.29. If thy Right Eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it out from thee, Matth. 5.29.ver. 30. If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee; &c. Christ would not have a man Maim his body, but by this hyperbolical precept, intimates, the great heinousness, and extreme danger of scandal or offence, and that we are by any means to avoid it, and part from all occasions of giving it. That Hyperbolical expression, Matth. 24.2. denotes extreme destruction and razing of the Foundation. See Hag. 2.16. Matth. 1.6. and Luke 10.4. Of which before, in the Metonymie of a sign.Matth. 24.2.
John 21.25. And there are also many other things, which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose, John 21.25.that even the whole world it self could not contain the Books, that should be written. Some expound this of the capacity of the understanding, (hence Theophilact expounds foreign, by foreign to understand, as the same word rendred here contained, is taken, Matth. 19.11.12.) that the sence may be, that there would never be such an one in the World, that could comprehend all in his mind, because of the variety and multitude of things done, and spoken by Christ, the world being metonymically put for the Men, and Books for their Contents.
Others understand it of local capacity, properly so called, that the whole world was not big enough to contain all the Books, if in every Circumstance all the sayings and actions of Christ were written, which explication is favoured by the pronoun (foreign, it self) added to the world: Take it which way you will, it is an hyperbolical expression, especially in the latter sence. Some compare Amos 7.10. with it, The Land is not able to bear all his words, &c.
By that Hyperbolical wish of the Apostle, Rom. 9.3. his great and exceeding love to the Israelites is noted. See Gal. 3.13, 14. Jude ver. 23. &c.
Examples of a Meiosis, or Extenuation.
1. TO a Rhetorical Meiosis belong such things as are by any Trope extenuated, or lessened, as Gen. 18.27.Rhetorical Meiosis. Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes, that is, a most low and most abject Creature. 'tis a metaphor or a metonymie, and alludes to the first Creation of man out of the Earth.
So to be exalted out of the dust, denotes to raise one of the meanest sort of men, to honour, 1 Kings 16.2. Psal. 113 7, &c. 1 Sam. 24.15. Whom dost thou pursue? After a dead Dog, after a Flea, as if he had said, that it was beneath (or unworthy) so great a King to pursue me, that am but weak and mean with so great a Troop.
Psal. 22.6. But I am a Worm, and no Man, that is, a most afflicted man, trampled on by the Enemy, like a Worm, &c. So Job 25.6. Esa. 41.14.
2. A logical Meiosis is when for extenuation sake, a comparison is made with a very little thing, as Numb. 13.34. We saw men, Logical Meiosis.and we were as Grashoppers before them: that is, of small stature in comparison of those Gyants. See Esa. 40.15, 17. Psal. 144.4.
3. Examples of a Grammatical Meiosis, are 2 Kings 18.4. And he called it, (foreign Nehustan) little brass, by a diminutive word, by way of contempt of the brazen Serpent that was made an Idol, of these diminutives there are many in the Hebrew text, but we leave them for Criticks.
Some is put for a great many, Rom. 3.3. 1 Tim. 4.1.
Some Body, is put for an eminent man, Acts 5.36. Boasting himself to be some body, as Acts 8.9. So Pindarus says, foreign, that is, Quid est aliquis? Quid est nullus? umbrae somnium homo est.what is some Body? What is no Body? Man is the dream of a shadow.
Sick is put for one Dead in sin, or desperately bad in his spiritual state, for these that are said to be ungodly, and verse 8. sinners, and Enemies ver. 10. These few instances of many we note for the illustration of this Trope.