1 Kings 1:25-26

In reading 1 Kings in the NIV a couple months ago, I found an-other chiasm that highlights opposites.  In verses 25-26, Nathan says to David, "25 Today he [Adonijah] has gone down and sacrificed great numbers of cattle, fattened calves, and sheep.  He has invited all the king's sons, the commanders of the army and Abiathar the priest.  Right now they are eating and drinking with him and saying, 'Long live King Adonijah!'  26 But me your servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon he did not invite."

The sentence structure is inverted between "He has invited all the king's sons, the commanders of the army and Abiathar the priest" and "But me your servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon he did not invite," highlighting this contrast.

This feature is also present in the Hebrew:

וַיִּקְרָא לְכָל־בְּנֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ וּלְשָׂרֵי הַצָּבָא וּלְאֶבְיָתָר הַכֹּהֵן

וְלִי אֲנִֽי־עַבְדֶּךָ וּלְצָדֹק הַכֹּהֵן וְלִבְנָיָהוּ בֶן־יְהוֹיָדָע וְלִשְׁלֹמֹה עַבְדְּךָ לֹא קָרָֽא

And in the Latin Vulgate:

vocavit universos filios regis et principes exercitus Abiathar quoque sacerdotum

me servum tuum et Sadoc sacerdotem et Banaiam filium Ioiadae et Salomonem famulum tuum non vocavit

Psalm 132:18

A couple months ago, I read Psalm 132 in the ESV and noticed an interesting feature in verse 18:  "'His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine.'"  The phrases "clothe with shame" and "crown will shine" resemble each other visually, and to some degree, this superficial resemblance draws attention to their opposite nature.

Mark 12:44

On Worship Anew a couple months ago, the Gospel reading was Mark 12:38-44.  In all of the English translations I referenced (ESV, NIV, and NKJV), there's a chiastic structure in verse 44.  Here's the ESV:

"For they all contributed

out of their abundance,

but she out of her poverty

has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."

Such a structure highlights the opposite natures of "abundance" (the NIV has "wealth") and "poverty" and perhaps even the different manners in which the rich people and poor widow gave their offerings.

This structure isn't in the Greek, though, where this verse is:  πάντες γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ περισσεύοντος αὐτοῖς ἔβαλον, αὕτη δὲ ἐκ τῆς ὑστερήσεως αὐτῆς πάντα ὅσα εἶχεν ἔβαλεν, ὅλον τὸν βίον αὐτῆς.  The two clauses have roughly the same structure here, something like "All out of their abundance contributed, but she out of her poverty put in...."

1 Kings 17:8-16

On Worship Anew a couple months ago (10 November, Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost), the Old Testament reading was 1 Kings 17:8-16, and I noticed a way in which the vocabulary sort of mirrors the meaning of the text.

Initially, the widow at Zarephath has "only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug.  And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die."  Elijah asks her for some food and tells her "thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain upon the earth.'"  By the providence of God, "she and he and her household ate for many days."

"Her household" (בֵיתָהּ) here is really just her son, but the multitude of people that this term could imply matches the abundance of the provisions that don't run out.