List of Tables -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Chapter I. Formula Criticism: An Historical Survey -- A. Introduction -- B. The Discovery of Formula from Classical Studies -- 1. Milman Parry -- 2. A. B. Lord -- 3. Robert C. Culley -- 4. Summary -- C. The Discovery of Word Pairs from Northwest Semitic Studies -- 1. H. L. Ginsberg -- 2. Umberto Cassuto and Moshe Held -- 3. Stanley Gevirtz -- 4. Samuel Loewenstamm and Y. Avishur -- 5. Summary -- D. The Discovery of Repeated Word Pairs and Phrases from Comparative Studies -- 1. Culley and Gevirtz -- 2. William Whallon -- 3. Summary -- E. Conclusion and Anticipation -- Chapter II. The Nature and Occurrence of Word Pairs -- A. Introduction -- B. The Word Pairs as the Dominating Element of Formulaic Hebrew Poetry -- C. The Nature of the Word Pair -- D. The Presence of Word Pairs in Both Oral and Written Poetry -- E. Conclusion and Anticipation -- Chapter III. Word Pairs in the Transmission and Composition of the Poetry -- A. The Origin of Word Pairs in the Oral and Written Composition of Poems -- B. The Unlikely Transmissional Activity of Word Pairs -- C. Traditional Diction Versus Common Association and Limited Vocabulary -- Chapter IV. Word Pairs and the Creativity of the Hebrew Poet -- A. The Creativity of the Poet as Author -- B. Creativity and the Association of Words in Pair -- C. Different Genre, Formulas, and Subject Matter -- D. Conclusion and Anticipation -- Chapter V. Word Pairs as a Significant Index to the Poetic Line -- A. Bishop Lowth's Contribution -- B. The Peculiarities of Poetic Construction as Revealed by Word Pairs -- 1. Long Tours -- 2. Standardized Patterns -- C. Violating the Economies of Composition and Translation -- D. The Homeric Epithet as Distinctive from the Hebrew Word Pairs -- E. Conclusion and Anticipation -- Chapter VI. Usefulness of Word Pairs in Evaluating Poetry.

A. Introduction: The Usefulness of Formula Criticism -- B. What is Prose? What is Poetry? -- C. Was Ruth Originally a Poetic Book? -- D. Formula Criticism and the Problem of Dating Texts -- E. Formula Criticism and the Problem of Authenticating Texts -- 1. Isaiah -- 2. Job -- 3. Lamentations -- F. Formula Criticism and the Problem of Relating Texts -- 1. Lamentations and Jeremiah -- 2. Lamentations and the Lament Psalms -- G. Formula Criticism and the Problem of Repairing Texts -- H. Conclusion -- Chapter VII. Conclusions and Suggestions for Further Study -- A. Conclusions -- B. Further Study -- Appendix. Lists -- A. Introduction -- B. The Lists -- 1. Numerical Summary -- 2. Isaiah -- 3. Job -- 4. Lamentations -- 5. Ruth -- Bibliography.