1. Bible Study Skills: Four Figures of Speech What’s a president? –The President is the chief executive branch of the United States government. –The President is like the captain of a football team who decides what the team should do to get ahead. Comparison – Figures of Speech AIM: Learn to deal with figures of speech that make comparisons.

2. POINT 1: Similes, metaphors, personifications, and anthropomorphisms make comparisons. Known to unknown – Strengthening understanding Bible Study Skills: Four Figures of Speech

3. Simile: A comparison using “like” or “as” –Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion” (Proverbs 11:22). –For surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield. (Psalm 5:12). Bible Study Skills: Four Figures of Speech

4. Metaphor: A comparison without “like” or “as”, either stated directly using a form of the verb “to be,” or implied. –You are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13). Direct Metaphor –Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19). Implied Metaphor Bible Study Skills: Four Figures of Speech

5. Personification: The attribution of human nature or character to non- human objects. –All the trees of the field will clap their hands (Isaiah 55:12). –I will make my arrows drunk with blood (Deuteronomy 32:42). Implied Metaphor Personification Bible Study Skills: Four Figures of Speech

6. Anthropomorphism: Comparing God with human beings, as if he had the body or emotions of a human being. –[The Lord’s] own arm worked salvation for him (Isaiah 59:16). –The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth (Genesis 6:6). Bible Study Skills: Four Figures of Speech

7. POINT 2: To interpret comparisons properly, stick to the point of the comparison. –When Sarah saw the grizzly bear, she took off like a shot. Was it a gunpowder explosion? She ran like a bullet – fast, quick –Consider possible comparisons. –What meaning best fits context? Bible Study Skills: Four Figures of Speech

8. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6) –How are we like sheep? –Stick to point of comparison. By sinning we wander from God. Bible Study Skills: Four Figures of Speech

9. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. (Isaiah 53:7) –What is the point of comparing Jesus to a lamb? Jesus did not complain when he was put to death Bible Study Skills: Four Figures of Speech

10. The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death. (Proverbs 13:14) –What figure of speech? Metaphor –What is the point of comparing the teaching of the wise to a fountain of life? Like the fountain, the teaching gives life in abundance.

11. POINT 1: Similes, metaphors, personifications, and anthropomorphisms make comparisons. POINT 2: To interpret comparisons properly, stick to the point of the comparison. Bible Study Skills: Four Figures of Speech