A merism is a figure of speech found very often in the Old Testament in which two opposites are placed together to denote everything encompassed by the two opposites. Thus "day and night" means "all the time." "Young and old" denotes "everybody." "Near and far" means "everywhere." "The heavens and the earth," e.g., does not, therefore, refer to two things but to "everything," that is, the entire cosmos.
©ALBERITH