Bible Lexicons

Bullinger's Figures of Speech Used in the BibleBullinger's Figures of Speech

Mesarchia; or Beginning and Middle Repetition

The Repetition of the same Word or Words at the beginning and middle of successive Sentences

Mes-ar´-chi-a´, from the Greek μέσος (mesos), middle, and ἀρχή (archee), beginning, because the same word or words are repeated at the beginning and middle of successive sentences.

It differs little from Anaphora, where the sentences are independent.

It resembles also Epizeuxis, when the repetition comes very close together.

Numbers 9:20.-"According to the commandment of the Lord they abode in their tents, and according to the commandment of the Lord they journeyed."

Here, the repetition is at the beginning and the middle of the passage.

Ecclesiastes 1:2.-"Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity."

This may be regarded also as combined with Epanadiplosis (q.v. [Note: Which see.] ).

Jeremiah 22:10.-"Weep ye not for the dead, … but weep sore for him that goeth away." (See also Polyptoton).

Ezekiel 37:25.-"And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt, and they Shall dwell therein, even they and their children and their children’s children for ever."

Zephaniah 1:15-16.-"That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm," etc.

Matthew 10:40-41.-Here the verb "receive" is repeated several times at the beginning and middle of several sentences.