Genesis 7:17-19

After running across a reference to Genesis 1 in Les Misérables recently, I've been reading chapters of Genesis.  I noticed that in the ESV, successive verses in Genesis 7:17-19 have more adverbs:

17 The flood continued forty days on the earth.  The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.  18 The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters.  19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered.

First, there's just a subject and a verb ("the waters increased"); then there's one adverb ("the waters prevailed and increased greatly"); then there are two adverbs ("the waters prevailed so mightily").  The increasing number of adverbs reflects the rising level of the waters.

I lookt up this passage in the STEP Bible and found that this feature is also present in the Hebrew.  מְאֹד is used once in verse 18 and twice in succession (for a greater degree) in verse 19.

Luke 6:20-26

On Worship Anew last week, the Gospel reading was Luke 6:17-26.  In verses 20-26, Jesus presents some contrasts:  "Blessed are you who are poor" (verse 20) but "woe to you who are rich" (verse 24), "blessed are you who are hungry now" (21) but "woe to you who are full now" (25), "blessed are you who weep now" (21) but "woe to you who laugh now" (25), and "blessed are you when people hate you" (22) but "woe to you when all people speak well of you" (26).

I was following along in my French New Testament, and I noticed that in that particular translation, these opposites have a sharper contrast because the French words for "blessed" ("heureux") and "woe" ("malheur") come from the same root.