or again the very long line, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed--because His compassions fail not."[88] [87] i. 6. [88] iii. 22. Now although this is only a structural feature it points to inferences of deeper significance. It shews that the Hebrew poets paid special attention to the elegy as a species of verse to be treated apart, and therefore that they attached a peculiar significance to the ideas and feelings it expresses. The ease with which the transition to the elegiac form of verse is made whenever an occasion for using it occurs is a hint that this must have been familiar to the Jews. Possibly it was in common use at funerals in the dirge. We meet with an early specimen of this verse in Amos, when, just after announcing that he is about to utter a _lamentation_ over the house of Israel, the herdsman of Tekoa breaks into elegiacs with the words, "The virgin daughter of Israel is fallen--she shall no more rise: She is cast down upon her land--there is none to raise her up."[89] [89] Amos v. 2. Similarly constructed elegiac pieces are scattered over the Old Testament scriptures from the eighth century B.C. onwards. Several illustrations of this peculiar kind of metre are to be found in the Psalms. It is employed ironically with terrible effect in the Book of Isaiah, where the mock lament over the death of the king of Babylon is constructed in the form of a true elegy. When the prophet made a sudden transition from his normal style to sombre funereal measures his purpose would be at once recognised, for his words would sound like the tolling bell and the muffled drums that announce the march of death; and yet it would be known that this solemn pomp was not really a demonstration of mourning or a symbol of respect, but only the pageantry of scorn and hatred and vengeance. The sarcasm would strike home with the more force since it fell on men's ears in the heavy, lingering lines of the elegy, as the exultant patriot exclaimed, "How hath the oppressor ceased--the golden city ceased! The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked--the sceptre of the rulers," etc.[90] [90] Isa. xiv. 4 _ff._