Figures of speech in the Bible!

A figure of speech is a word or phrase that possesses a separate meaning from its literal definition. To know that the Bible contains figures of speech can help understand its content.

Here are some examples:

Simile

Definition: The likening of one thing to another (usually translated using the English words "like" or "as").

Revelation 1:14 (WEB): "His head and his hair were white as white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire."

Metaphor

An implied comparison between two objects without the use of "like" or "as".

Matthew 5:13 (WEB): "“You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its flavor, with what will it be salted? It is then good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men."

Hyperbole

An exaggeration to make or reinforce a point.

Matthew 7:4 (WEB): "Or how will you tell your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye;’ and behold, the beam is in your own eye?""

Irony

Stating one thing while meaning the exact opposite.

1 Corinthians 4:8 (WEB): "You are already filled. You have already become rich. You have come to reign without us. Yes, and I wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you."

Sarcasm

Sharp form of irony delivering a rebuke through scorn, mockery, or taunt.

Matthew 27:29 (WEB): "They braided a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand; and they kneeled down before him, and mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”"

Paronomasia

A pun, a play on words.

Galatians 5:11-12 (WEB): "But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed. I wish that those who disturb you would cut themselves off."

(during a circumcision, some skin is cut)

Ellipsis

A grammatically incomplete expression that requires the reader to add concepts in order to finish the thought.

1 Corinthians 9:4 (WEB): "Have we no right to eat and to drink?"

Personification

Things represented as persons.

1 Corinthians 12:15 (WEB): "If the foot would say, “Because I’m not the hand, I’m not part of the body,” it is not therefore not part of the body."

Metonym

The use of one name or object for another.

2 Corinthians 3:15 (WEB): "But to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart."

("Moses" = the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)

Idiom

A group of words established by usage and having a meaning not deducible from the individual words used.

Acts 7:51 (WEB): "“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do."

("stiff-necked" = idiom for "stubborn")

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