Malachi 4:1

The Old Testament reading on Worship Anew a couple weeks ago was Malachi 4.  I was following along in the Latin Vulgate and noticed that the word for "stubble" (stipula) in the first verse is a diminutive in Latin.

Ecce enim dies veniet succensa quasi caminus et erunt omnes superbi et omnes facientes impietatem stipula et inflammabit eos dies venies dicit Dominus exercituum quae non relinquet eis radicem et germen 

For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble.  The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

As far as I can tell, the Hebrew word (קַשׁ) isn't a diminutive, but if I understand correctly, the Latin stipula is a diminutive of stipes, the word for stalk.  The word describes what "all the arrogant and all evildoers" will become, and I think the use of the diminutive may even have something of a dismissive and belittling sense.

It also occurred to me that since "all" (omnes, כָל) is repeated, there's a sense of totality.

Isaiah 13:22

Last week, as I was flipping through my Bible, I happened to notice some alliteration in Isaiah 13:22:  "Hyenas will cry in its towers, and jackals in the pleasant palaces; its time is close at hand and its days will not be prolonged."

Like I noticed with Psalm 16:6 about a year ago, the euphony of "pleasant palaces" matches the meaning of the words.

I lookt up the Hebrew and discovered that this feature is not present there.

John 17:1

When the Daily Dose of Greek went over John 17:1 last week, I noticed a chiasm.

Ταῦτα ἐλάλησεν Ἰησοῦς, καὶ ἐπάρας τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν εἶπεν· πάτερ, ἐλήλυθεν ἡ ὥρα· δόξασόν σου τὸν υἱόν, ἵνα ὁ υἱὸς δοξάσῃ σε

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you."

This particular word order ("[You] glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you") illustrates this reciprocity.