He elsewhere recommends his people to try an experiment in the streets of Jerusalem, which, by a curious coincidence, was once put into practice by the Greek philosopher Diogenes, who went about the streets of Athens in the daytime carrying a lighted lantern in his hand in search of a perfect man, saying: “Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a (perfect) man . . . if there be any that seeketh the truth, and I shall pardon it” (ibid. v. 1).
The idols, the great plague of Judaea, also received at this great prophet's hand their proper share of ridicule. He describes them with genuine humour, as follows: “They are upright as the palm-tree, but speak not; they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do any evil, neither can they effect any good” (ibid. x. 5).
Of Ezekiel's humour no specimens can be given here. It is, like Swift's, rather coarse, and not altogether palatable. The curious may be referred to the sixteenth and twenty-third chapters of the Book of Ezekiel.
Moses, though of stern and austere disposition, is also sometimes fond of indulging in ironical remarks with pleasing propriety. So, for instance, when he once admonished his people to give the soil of their possession a year of rest periodically, he gave them at the same time to understand that unless they did so willingly, they would have to do it later on by the force of circumstances. “When,” he says, “you shall be in your enemies' land, then shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbath” (Lev. xxvi. 34). And again: “Because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, while there was (around) an abundance of all things; therefore shalt thou serve thy enemies, whom the Lord shall send out against thee, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in want of everything” (Deut. xxviii. 47, 48). The messengers sent out by Moses to search the land of Canaan are reported by him (Num. xiii. 32) to have given the following description of it: “It is,” they said, “a land that eateth up its own inhabitants,” a sufficiently ironical definition.
In his last famous address to his people, which is commonly called his swan-song, Moses recalled to their mind the happy days, when God led them “as the eagle stirreth up his nest, fluttereth over his young, spreadeth abroad his wings, seizeth them, beareth them aloft on his pinions” (Deut. xxxii 11–13). But at the same time he foresaw with the far-seeing eye of a prophet, that, as soon as they will have grown “fat, thick, and fleshy” they would forsake the God of their fathers, and worship idols. And, in consequence, he gives them God's divine message, which is couched in the following sarcastic terms: “They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God . . . and I will provoke them to anger by a roguish nation” (ibid. xxxii. 21).
There are a good many more fragments of delightful humour to be found in the Bible, which, for lack of space, must be omitted here. Yet a brief reference should be made to some of the witty puns and plays on words (ludus verborum, or Wortspiele) that occur in the same sacred volume. In his well-known short poetical strain (comp. Book of Judges xv. 16), Samson, the noted wit of the Bible, purposely uses, as it would seem, the Hebrew term Chamor (חמור), because it has two meanings, namely, an ass and a heap. The humour of the Hebrew lines in question will at once be noticeable by the following rendering of them:—
With the jaw-bone of an ass
Have I plenteous asses slain:
Smitten thus it came to pass
Fell a thousand on the plain.