Chiastic Structures
The Old Testament
Chiastic Parallels
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A

1 I was available to those who did not inquire of me;
I was accessible to those who did not seek me. I said, Here am I; I am here,
to a nation that did not invoke my name.

B

2 I held out my hands all the day to a defiant people,
who walk in ways that are not good, following their own imagination—

C

3 a people who constantly provoke me to my face,
sacrificing in parks, making smoke upon bricks,

D

4 who sit in sepulchres, spend nights in hideouts,
who eat swine’s flesh, their bowls full of polluted broth,

D'

5 who think, Keep your distance,
don’t come near me; I am holier than you!

C'

Such are a smoke to my nostrils,
a fire smoldering all day long.

B'

6 See, it is written before me that I will not be still
till I have paid back into their bosom 7 their own iniquities and their fathers’ alike,
says Jehovah.

A'

To those who kindle sacrifice in the mountains,
who affront me on the hills, I will measure out in their laps the payment that has accrued.