Latest / YINR 929: Tanach Yomi
II Shmuel 16: Isn't it Ironic
Everyone loves to misuse the word irony. Alanis Morissette’s 1990s hit was famously criticized for not containing much actual irony at all. In Tanach, however, the text frequently employs a literary device known as dramatic irony. Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something that the characters in the story do not. One classic example is the story of Yosef and his brothers. The reader knows that the viceroy of Egypt is really Yosef, but the brothers themselves do not.
Chapter 16 employs a different type of irony: situational irony. Situational irony occurs when events turn out very…
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