“In Genesis 37–50, there are seven scenes where Joseph weeps. As we read about Joseph’s emotions, they also stir our own….In the Bible, the use of seven is part of an author’s literary strategy. We can look more closely to see whether these seven scenes have an even more strategic design.” - TGC
One great resource that uncovers an inverse parallelism in the Old (First) Testament is Dave A. Dorsey’s book, The Literary Structure of the Old Testament (Baker, 1999). This is a must have for anyone serious about interpreting and teaching the Old Testament.
Chiasm or chiasmus is a writing structure, defined by Wikipedia:
Chiastic structure, or chiastic pattern, is a literary technique in narrative motifs and other textual passages. An example of chiastic structure would be two ideas, A and B, together with variants A’ and B’, being presented as A,B,B’,A’.
