EXAMPLE\u00a0 (Genesis 6:11-13):<\/strong><\/p>\n This technique is usually limited to a short passage and is used to express one specific idea. In the Flood story, for instance, it illustrates an important biblical concept: just punishment. In the passage below, the word \u201cruin\u201d sounds first three times, to stress the damage that human beings have done to the world; the fourth time, it appears in a causative form, showing God\u2019s retaliation in the same terms:<\/p>\n Now the earth had gone to ruin <\/em>before God; the earth was filled with wrongdoing. God said to Noah: The Bible uses this same measure-for-measure approach in other stories, such as the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11), where the repeated word is \u201cCome-now\u201d), and the early part of the Yaakov (Jacob) cycle, through the repetition of \u201cfirstborn\u201d and \u201cblessing.\u201d Small-scale repetition is another example of how the form <\/em>of the text embodies its message<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\nGod saw the earth, and here, it had gone to ruin<\/em>,
\nfor all fleshed had ruined <\/em>its way upon the earth.<\/p>\n
\nAn end of all flesh has come before me,
\nfor the earth is filled with wrongdoing through them;
\nhere, I will bring ruin <\/em>upon them, along with the earth.\u00a0\u00a0 [italics mine]<\/p>\n