Isaiah 24:19

While flipping through Isaiah last summer*, I happened upon Isaiah 24:19:  "The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken" [ESV].  The repetition of the subject in each clause provides a greater sense of this fragmentation than a single subject with a compound predicate would ("The earth is utterly broken, split apart, and violently shaken").

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*I was referencing chapter 22.  The Gospel reading on Worship Anew (Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, 3 August) was Luke 12:13-21, and I noticed "relax, eat, drink, be merry" in verse 19, which seems to have been combined with "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" in Isaiah 22:13 in the saying "Let us eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die."

Isaiah 53:6

I'd previously noticed that in the change from the plural "we" to the singular "one" and "his own," the language in a section of Isaiah 53:6 matches this sort of fragmentation:  "we have turned - every one - to his own way."  At the time, however, I didn't consider this significant enough to write about here.

When the Daily Dose of Septuagint went over the verse, I noticed that this division is given a bit more emphasis in the Septuagint.

πάντες ὡς πρόβατα ἐπλανήθημεν, ἄνθρωπος τῇ ὁδῷ αὐτοῦ ἐπλανήθη· καὶ κύριος παρέδωκεν αὐτὸν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ἡμῶν.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. [ESV]

Because the same verb is repeated, first in the plural (ἐπλανήθημεν) and then in the singular (ἐπλανήθη), the transition from a group to individuals is more evident.

Psalm 113:3, Malachi 1:11

Years ago, I wrote about the merism in Psalm 113:3 - that "from the rising of the sun to its setting" can be understood temporally (from morning to evening) or spatially (from east to west).  While flipping through the Psalms last summer, I happened to see the note I wrote in the margin and realized that - in a small way - the dual application of this merism matches the scope it describes:  there's a breadth in the expression's meaning (temporal or spatial), and there's a breadth in what the expression is outlining (one point to an-other).

Months later, I ran across the same phrase in Malachi 1:11:  "For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations...."  I'd previously noted the resemblance to Psalm 113:3, but my more recent notions applied here, too.

Luke 11:8

Luke 11:1-13 was the Gospel reading on the Worship Anew program for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (27 July).  I was following along in the Latin Vulgate and noticed a chiasm in verse 8:

dico vobis et si non dabit illi surgens eo

quod amicus eius sit

propter inprobitatem tamen eius

surget et dabit illi quotquot habet necessarios

In the ESV, this is:

"I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything

because he is his friend,

yet because of his impudence

he will rise and give him whatever he needs."

This structure is also in the Greek:

λέγω ὑμῖν· εἰ καὶ οὐ δώσει αὐτῷ ἀναστὰς

διὰ τὸ εἶναι φίλον αὐτοῦ,

διά γε τὴν ἀναίδειαν αὐτοῦ

ἐγερθεὶς δώσει αὐτῷ ὅσων χρῄζει.

and my German New Testament:

Ich sage euch:  Und wenn er schon nicht aufsteht und ihm etwas gibt,

weil er sein Freund ist,

dann wird er doch wegen seines unverschämten Drängens

aufstehen und ihm geben, soviel er bedarf.

The inverted order of these elements emphasizes the contrast between getting up and not getting up and the different motivations.

Psalm 138:6

On the Worship Anew program for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (27 July), the Psalm was Psalm 138.  I noticed a chiasm in the second half of verse 6:

he [the LORD]

regards the lowly,

but the haughty

he knows from afar.

This structure highlights the contrast between "the lowly" and "the haughty."

Of the versions I referenced, this chiasm is unique to English translations.