—Psalm 82:6f.
The dead do not praise Yahwe, nor any who go down into silence,
But we will bless Yahwe from henceforth and forever.
—Psalm 115:171f.
Shamash honors the head of the just man;
Shamash rends the evil man like a thong.
—Hymn to Shamash No. 1.
Beyond the couplet, strophes of three, four, five, six, and more lines are common in the Assyrian hymns, even as in the Hebrew Psalter. Perhaps the fact that interests the Old Testament student most in the strophic arrangement is that the number of lines in the strophes in the same hymn is by no means always uniform. Accordingly if one may draw a conclusion from Assyrian usage for the Old Testament, the effort often so zealously made to restore by elimination of lines a uniform strophic arrangement, is a grievous error. Variety rather than uniformity was often the end sought.
Another characteristic feature of both Assyrian and Hebrew hymns is the occasional appearance of the refrain. This refrain does not however appear artistically at the end of the strophe, as in Psalm 99 where the refrain, “Holy is He,” is to be found at the end of verses 2, 5, 9, and probably ought to be inserted at the end of verse 7. Rather the refrain usually forms the second half of the individual lines for a succession of three, five, seven, ten, or more lines. The same hymn may employ a variety of refrains. The hymn to Ramman No. 3 has for the last two thirds of the first six lines:
—Mighty Bull and glorious is thy name exalted God—