Commentary
on the
OLD TESTAMENT
by
C. F. KEIL and F. DELITZSCH
Translated from the German by James Martin
Proverbs
by F. DELITZSCH
Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1872
Volume 1 of 2
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
THE volume which is here presented to English readers
is the first of three which will contain the Solomonic
writings. They form the last section of the "Keil and
Delitzsch" series of Commentaries on the Books of the
Old Testament Scriptures. The remaining volume on the Pro-
verbs, as well as that on Ecclesiastes and the Canticles, which
has also been prepared by Delitzsch, and is now in course of
publication in Germany, will be issued with as little delay as
possible.
In this translation I have endeavoured accurately to reproduce
the original, so as to bring the student as much as possible into
direct contact with the learned commentator himself. Any ex-
planatory notes or words I have thought it right to add are enclosed
in square brackets [ ], so as to be easily distinguishable. The
Arabic and Syriac words occurring in the original have been, with
very few exceptions, printed in English characters. In their
vocalization I have followed the system of Forbes in his Arabic
Grammar, so that the student will be readily able to restore the
original. When nothing depends on the inflection of these words,
the consonants only are printed.
It might appear superfluous in me to speak in commendation of
the great work which is now drawing to a close; but a translator,
since he has necessarily been in close fellowship with the author,
may be expected to be in a position to offer an opinion on the
character of the work on which he has been engaged; and I am
sure that all my collaborateurs will concur with me in speaking of
the volumes which form this commentary as monuments of deep
vii
viii TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
and careful research into the meaning of the sacred Scriptures.
Whether or not we can in all cases accept the conclusions reached
by the respected authors, no one can fail to see how elaborate and
minute the investigation has been. These volumes are the ripest
fruits of life-long study of the Old Testament. Their authors are
exegetes who have won for themselves an honoured place in the
foremost rank for their profound acquaintance with the Hebrew
and its cognate languages. With a scholarship of rare compass
and accuracy, they combine a reverent sympathy with the sacred
Scriptures, and a believing appreciation of its saving truths.
The satisfaction I have had in the study of this work, and in
spending so many of my leisure hours in rendering it into English,
is greatly heightened by the reflection, that I have been enabled in
this way to contribute to the number of exegetical works within
reach of the English student. The exegetical study of God's word,
which appears to be increasingly drawing the attention of theo-
logians, and which has been so greatly stimulated by the Transla-
tions issued by the publishers of this work, cannot fail to have the
most beneficial results. The minister of the gospel will find such
study his best and truest preparation for his weighty duties as an
expounder of Scripture, if prosecuted in the spirit of a devout
recognition of the truth, that "bene orasse est bene studuisse."
Thus is he led step by step into a thorough and full understanding
of the words and varying forms of expression used by those "holy
men of old, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
THE preparation of this Commentary on the Mishle,
which was begun in 1869 (not without previous pre-
paration), and twice interrupted by providential events,
extended into the winter of 1872. There is now want-
ing to the completion of the Commentary on the Old Testament,
undertaken by Dr. Keil and myself, only the Commentary on the
Canticles and Ecclesiastes, which will form the concluding volume.
In the preparation of this Commentary on the Proverbs, I am
indebted in varied ways to my friends Fleischer and Wetzstein.
In the year 1836, Fleischer entered on his duties as Professor at
Leipzig by delivering a course of lectures on the Book of the
Proverbs of Solomon. I was one of his hearers, and am now so
fortunate as to be able from his own MS. (begun 13th May, com-
pleted 9th September 1836) to introduce this beloved teacher into
the number of interpreters of the Book of Proverbs. The assist-
ance contributed by Wetzstein begins at chapter xxx., and consists
in remarks on Mühlau's work on the Proverbs of Agur and Lemuel
(1869), which my Dorpat friend placed at my disposal.
The exegetical apparatus has in the course of this work extended
far beyond the list given at pp. 50, 51. I obtained the Commentary
of the Caraite Ahron b. Joseph (1294), which was printed at
Koslow (Eupatoria) in 1835, and had lent to me from the library
of Dr. Hermann Lotze the Commentary by the Roman poet
Immanuel [born at Rome about 1265], who was intimately asso-
ciated with Dante, printed at Naples in 1487, and equal in value
to a MS. Among the interpreters comprehended in the Biblia
Rabbinica, I made use also of the Commentary of the Spanish
ix
x AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
Menachem b. Salomo Meîri (1447), which first appeared in the
Amsterdam Bibelwerk, and came under my notice in a more handy
edition (Furth, 1844) from the library of my dear friend and
companion in study, Baer. To him I owe, among many other
things, the comparison of several MSS., particularly of one brought
from Arabia by Jacob Sappir, which has come into his possession.
In making use of the Graecus Venetus, I was not confined
to Villoison's edition (1784). The only existing MS. (found in
Venice) of this translation one of my young friends, von Gebhardt,
has compared with the greatest care with Villoison's printed edition,
in which he has found many false readings and many omissions.
We have to expect from him a critical, complete edition of this
singular translation, which, both as regards the knowledge its
author displays of the Hebrew language and his skill in the Greek
language, remains as yet an unsolved mystery.
The Indexl (to the words etymologically explained in this Com-
mentary) has been prepared by Dr. Hermann Strack, who, by his
recently-published Prolegomena ad Vetus Testament Hebraicum,
has shown himself to be a Hebraist of rare attainments.
Bacon, in his work De Augmentis Scientiarum (viii. 2), rightly
speaks2 of Solomon's proverbs as an unparalleled collection. May
it be granted me, by the help of God, to promote in some degree
the understanding of this incomparable Book, as to its history, its
language, and its practical lessons!
LEIPZIG, 30th October 1872.
1 Will be given with vol. ii.
2 [In hoc genere autem nihil invenitur, quod ullo modo comparandum sit
cum aphorismis illis, quos edidit rex Salomon; de quo testatur Scriptura cor
illi fuisse instar arenae maris: sicut enim arenae maris universas orbis oras cir-
cumdant, ita et sapientia ejus omnia humana, non minus quam divina, complexa
est. In aphorismis vero illis, praeter alia majis theologica, reperies liquido
hand pauca praecepta et monita civilia praestantissima, ex profundis quldem
sapientiae penetralibus scaturientia, atque in amplissimum varietatis campum
excurrentia.]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.
PAGE
1. PLAN OF THE BOOK, AND ITS ORIGIN, 2
2. THE SEVERAL PARTS OF THE BOOK, AND MANIFOLD
FORMS OF THE PROVERBS, 6
Distichs, 7
Tetrastichs, Hexatichs, Octostichs, 10
Pentastichs, Heptastichs, 11
The Fifteen Mashal-strains of the First Part of the Book, 12
The Midda, Priamel, 13
The Second Part of the Collection, 15
The "Words of the Wise," 16
The "Hezekiah-Collection," 17
Appendices to the Second Collection, 18
Ewald's View regarding the Parts of the Book, 20
3. THE REPETITIONS IN THE BOOK OF PROVERBS, 24
The Time at which the First Collection was made, 27
4. THE MANIFOLDNESS OF THE STYLE AND FORM OF
INSTRUCTION IN THE BOOK, 31
Relation of the Introduction to the First Collection, 33
Style of the Supplements, xxii 17-xxiv. 22 and xxiv. 23 ff., 35
The Supplements to the Hezekiah-Collection, 36
Names given to the whole Book, 36
Jewish Literature in the Age of Solomon, 38
The Chokma, 41
5. THE ALEXANDRIAN TRANSLATION OF THE BOOK, 46
Literature of the Interpretation of the Book, 50
xi
xii CONTENTS.
THE OLDER BOOK OF PROVERBS, I.—XXIV.
PAGE
The External Title of the Book, i. 1-6, 52
Motto of the Book, i. 7, 58
FIRST INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE, i. 8-19, 59
SECOND “ “ i. 20:ff., 67
THIRD “ “ ii., 75
FOURTH “ “ iii. 1-18, 85
FIFTH “ “ iii. 19-26, 91
SIXTH “ “ iii. 27-35, 98
SEVENTH “ “ iv.-v. 6, 105
EIGHTH “ “ v. 7-23, 122
NINTH “ “ vi. 1-5, 134
TENTH “ “ vi. 6-11, 139
ELEVENTH “ “ vi. 12-19, 142
TWELFTH “ “ vi. 20 ff., 149
THIRTEENTH “ “ vii., 156
FOURTEENTH “ “ viii., 172
FIFTEENTH “ “ ix., 195
FIRST COLLECTION OF SOLOMONIC PROVERBS, x.-xxii. 16, 207
CHAPTER xi., 229
CHAPTER xii., 250
CHAPTER xiii., 270
CHAPTER xiv., 288
CHAPTER xv., 315
CHAPTER xvi., 334
CHAPTER xvii., 352
THE BOOK OF PROVERBS
INTRODUCTION.
THE Book of Proverbs bears the external title ylew;mi rp,se,
which it derives from the words with which it com-
mences. It is one of the three books which are dis-
tinguished from the other twenty-one by a peculiar
system of accentuation, the best exposition of which that has yet
been given is that by S. Baer,1 as set forth in my larger Psalmen-
commentar.2 The memorial word for these three books, viz. Job,
Mishle (Proverbs), and Tehillim (Psalms), is tmX, formed from
the first letter of the first word of each book, or, following the
Talmudic and Masoretic arrangement of the books, Mxt.
Having in view the superscription hmolow; ylew;mi, with which the
book commences, the ancients regarded it as wholly the composi-
tion of Solomon. The circumstance that it contains only 800
verses, while according to 1 Kings v. 12 (iv. 32) Solomon spake
3000 proverbs, R. Samuel bar-Nachmani explains by remarking
that each separate verse may be divided into two or three allegories
or apothegms (e.g. xxv. 12), not to mention other more arbi-
trary modes of reconciling the discrepancy.3 The opinion also of
R. Jonathan, that Solomon first composed the Canticles, then the
Proverbs, and last of all Ecclesiastes, inasmuch as the first cor-
responds4 with the spring-time of youth, the second with the wis-
1 Cf. Outlines of Hebrew Accentuation, Prose and Poetical, by Rev. A. B.
Davidson, D.D., Professor of Hebrew, Free Church College, Edinburgh, 1861,
based on Baer's Torath Emeth, Rödelheim 1872.
2 VOL ii., ed. of 1860, pp. 477-511.
3 Pesikta, ed. Buber (1868), 34b, 35a. Instead of 800, the Masora reckons
915 verses in the Book of Proverbs.
4 Schir-ha-Schirim Rabba, c. i. f. 4a.
2 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
dom of manhood, and the third with the disappointment of old
age, is founded on the supposition of the unity of the book and
of its Solomonic authorship.
At the present day also there are some, such as Stier, who
regard the Book of Proverbs from first to last as the work of
Solomon, just as Klauss (1832) and Randegger (1841) have ven-
tured to affirm that all the Psalms without exception were com-
posed by David. But since historical criticism has been applied
to Biblical subjects, that blind submission to mistaken tradition
appears as scarcely worthy of being mentioned. The Book of
Proverbs presents itself as composed of various parts, different
from each other in character and in the period to which they
belong. Under the hands of the critical analysis it resolves itself
into a mixed market of the most manifold intellectual productions
of proverbial poetry, belonging to at least three different epochs.
1. The external plan of the Book of Proverbs, and its own testi-
mony as to its origin.—The internal superscription of the book, which
recommends it, after the manner of later Oriental books, on account
of its importance and the general utility of its contents, extends
from ver. 1 to ver. 6. Among the moderns this has been acknow-
ledged by Löwenstein and Maurer; for ver. 7, which Ewald,
Bertheau, and Keil have added to it, forms a new commencement
to the beginning of the book itself. The book is described as
"The Proverbs of Solomon," and then there is annexed the state-
ment of its object. That object, as summarily set forth in ver. 2,
is practical, and that in a twofold way: partly moral, and partly
intellectual. The former is described in vers. 3-5. It presents
moral edification, moral sentiments for acceptance, not merely to
help the unwise to attain to wisdom, but also to assist the wise.
The latter object is set forth in ver. 6. It seeks by its contents
to strengthen and discipline the mind to the understanding of
thoughtful discourses generally. In other words, it seeks to gain
the moral ends which proverbial poetry aims at, and at the same
time to make familiar with it, so that the reader, in these
proverbs of Solomon or by means of them as of a key, learns to
understand such like apothegms in general. Thus interpreted, the
title of the book does not say that the book contains proverbs of
other wise men besides those of Solomon; if it did so, it would
contradict itself. It is possible that the book contains proverbs
INTRODUCTION. 3
other than those of Solomon, possible that the author of the title
of the book added such to it himself, but the title presents to
view only the Proverbs of Solomon. If i. 7 begins the book, then
after reading the title we cannot think otherwise than that here
begin the Solomonic proverbs. If we read farther, the contents
and the form of the discourses which follow do not contradict this
opinion; for both are worthy of Solomon. So much the more
astonished are we, therefore, when at x. 1 we meet with a new
superscription, hmolow; ylew;mi, from which point on to xxii. 16 there is
a long succession of proverbs of quite a different tone and form—
short maxims, Mashals proper—while in the preceding section of
the book we find fewer proverbs than monitory discourses. What
now must be our opinion when we look back from this second
superscription to the part i. 7-ix., which immediately follows the
title of the book? Are i. 7-ix., in the sense of the book, not the
"Proverbs of Solomon"? From the title of the book, which
declares them to be so, we must judge that they are. Or are they
"Proverbs of Solomon"? In this case the new superscription (x.1),
"The Proverbs of Solomon," appears altogether incomprehensible.
And yet only one of these two things is possible: on the one side,
therefore, there must be a false appearance of contradiction, which
on a closer investigation disappears. But on which side is it? If
it is supposed that the tenor of the title, i. 1-6, does not accord
with that of the section x. 1-xxii. 6; but that it accords well with
that of i. 7-ix. (with the breadth of expression in i. 7-ix., it has also
several favourite words not elsewhere occurring in the Book of
Proverbs; among these, hmAr;fA, subtilty, and hm.Azim;, discretion, i. 4),
then Ewald's view is probable, that i.-ix. is an original whole written
at once, and that the author had no other intention than to give it
as an introduction to the larger Solomonic Book of Proverbs be-
ginning at x. 1. But it is also possible that the author of the title
has adopted the style of the section i. 7-ix. Bertheau, who has
propounded this view, and at the same time has rejected, in oppo-
sition to Ewald, the idea of the unity of the section, adopts this
conclusion, that in i. 8-ix. there lies before us a collection of the
admonitions of different authors of proverbial poetry, partly original
introductions to larger collections of proverbs, which the author
of the title gathers together in order that he may give a compre-
hensive introduction to the larger collection contained in x. 1-xxii.
16. But such an origin of the section as Bertheau thus imagines
4 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
is by no means natural; it is more probable that the author, whose
object is, according to the title of the book, to give the proverbs of
Solomon, introduces these by a long introduction of his own, than
that, instead of beginning with Solomon's proverbs, he first pre-
sents long extracts of a different kind from collections of proverbs.
If the author, as Bertheau thinks, expresses indeed, in the words
of the title, the intention of presenting, along, with the "Proverbs
of Solomon," also the "words of the wise," then he could not have
set about his work more incorrectly and self-contradictorily than if
he had begun the whole, which bears the superscription "Proverbs
of Solomon" (which must be regarded as presenting the proverbs
of Solomon as a key to the words of the wise generally), with
the "words of the wise." But besides the opinion of Ewald, which
in itself, apart from internal grounds, is more natural and probable
than that of Bertheau, there is yet the possibility of another. Keil,
following H. A. Hahn, is of opinion, that in the sense of the author
of the title, the section i.—ix. is Solomonic as well as x.-xxii., but that
he has repeated the superscription "Proverbs of Solomon" before
the latter section, because from that point onward proverbs follow
which bear in a special measure the characters of the Mashal
(Hävernick's Einl. iii. 428). The same phenomenon appears in
the book of Isaiah, where, after the general title, there follows an
introductory address, and then in ii. 1 the general title is repeated
in a shorter form. That this analogy, however, is here inappli-
cable, the further discussion of the subject will show.
The introductory section i. 7-ix., and the larger section x.-xxii.
16, which contains uniform brief Solomonic apothegms, are fol-
lowed by a third section, xxii. 17-xxiv. 22. Hitzig, indeed, reckons
x-xxiv. 22 as the second section, but with xxii. 17 there com-
mences an altogether different style, and a much freer manner in
the form of the proverb; and the introduction to this new collec-
tion of proverbs, which reminds us of the general title, places it
beyond a doubt that the collector does not at all intend to set forth
these proverbs as Solomonic. It may indeed be possible that, as
Keil (iii. 410) maintains, the collector, inasmuch as he begins with
the words, "Incline thine ear and hear words of the wise," names
his own proverbs generally as "words of the wise," especially since
he adds, "and apply thine heart to my knowledge;" but this sup-
position is contradicted by the superscription of a fourth section,
xxiv. 23 ff.) which follows. This short section, an appendix to the
INTRODUCTION. 5
third, bears the superscription, "These things also are MymikAHEla."
If Keil thinks here also to set aside the idea that the following
proverbs, in the sense of this superscription, have as their authors
"the wise," he does unnecessary violence to himself. The l is
here that of authorship; and if the following proverbs are com-
posed by the MymikAHE, "the wise," then they are not the production
of the one MkAHA, "wise man," Solomon, but they are "the words
of the wise" in contradistinction to "the Proverbs of Solomon."
The Proverbs of Solomon begin again at xxv. 1; and this
second large section (corresponding to the first, x. 1-xxii. 16)
extends to xxix. This fifth portion of the book has a superscrip-
tion, which, like that of the preceding appendix, commences
thus: "Also (MGa) these are proverbs of Solomon which the men of
Hezekiah king of Judah collected." The meaning of the word
UqyTif;h, is not doubtful. It signifies, like the Arameo-Arabic hsn,
to remove from their place, and denotes that the men of Hezekiah
removed from the place where they found them the following
proverbs, and placed them together in a separate collection. The
words have thus been understood by the Greek translator. From
the supplementary words ai[ a]dia<kritoi (such as exclude all dia<krisij)
it is seen that the translator had a feeling of the important literary
historical significance of that superscription, which reminds us of the
labours of the poetical grammarians appointed by Pisistratus to edit
older works, such as those of Hesiod. The Jewish interpreters, simply
following the Talmud, suppose that the "also" (MGa) belongs to the
whole superscription, inclusive of the relative sentence, and that it
thus bears witness to the editing of the foregoing proverbs also by
Hezekiah and his companions;1 which is altogether improbable, for
then, if such were the meaning of the words, "which the men of
Hezekiah," etc., they ought to have stood after i. 1. The super-
scription xxv. 1 thus much rather distinguishes the following collec-
tion from that going before, as having been made under Hezekiah.
As two appendices followed the "Proverbs of Solomon," x. 1—xxii.
16, so also two appendices the Hezekiah-gleanings of Solomonic
proverbs. The former two appendices, however, originate in gene-
ral from the "wise," the latter more definitely name the authors:
the first, xxx., is by "Agur the son of Jakeh;" the second, xxxi.
1 Vid. B. Bathra, 15a. From the fact that Isaiah outlived Hezekiah it is there
concluded that the Hezekiah-collegium also continued after Hezekiah's death.
Cf. Fürst on the Canon of the 0. T. 1868, p. 78 f.
6 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
1-9, by a "King Lemuel." In so far the superscriptions are clear.
The names of the authors, elsewhere unknown, point to a foreign
country; and to this corresponds the peculiar complexion of these
two series of proverbs. As a third appendix to the Hezekiah-col-
lection, xxxi. 10 ff. follows, a complete alphabetical proverbial poem
which describes the praiseworthy qualities of a virtuous woman.
We are thus led to the conclusion that the Book of Proverbs
divides itself into the following parts:—(1) The title of the book,
i. 1-6, by which the question is raised, how far the book extends
to which it originally belongs ; (2) the hortatory discourses, i. 7-ix.,
in which it is a question whether the Solomonic proverbs must be
regarded as beginning with these, or, whether they are only the
introduction thereto, composed by a different author, perhaps the
author of the title of the book; (3) the first great collection of
Solomonic proverbs, x.-xxii. 16; (4) the first appendix to this
first collection, "The words of the wise," xxii. 17-xxiv. 22; (5)
the second appendix, supplement of the words of some wise men,
xxiv. 23 ff.; (6) the second great collection of Solomonic proverbs,
which the "men of Hezekiah" collected, xxv.-xxix.; (7) the first
appendix to this second collection, the words of Agur the son
of Jakeh, xxx.; (8) the second appendix, the words of King
Lemuel, xxxi. 1-9; (9) third appendix, the acrostic ode, xxxi.
10 ff. These nine parts are comprehended under three groups:
the introductory hortatory discourses with the general title at their
head, and the two great collections of Solomonic proverbs with
their two appendices. In prosecuting our further investigations,
we shall consider the several parts of the book first from the point
of view of the manifold forms of their proverbs, then of their
style, and thirdly of their type of doctrine. From each of these
three subjects of investigation we may expect elucidations regarding
the origin of these proverbs and of their collections.
2. The several parts of the Book of Proverbs with respect to the
manifold forms of the proverbs.—If the Book of Proverbs were a
collection of popular sayings, we should find in it a multitude of
proverbs of one line each, as e.g., "Wickedness proceedeth from
the wicked" (1 Sam. xxiv. 13); but we seek for such in vain. At
the first glance, xxiv. 23b appears to be a proverb of one line; but
the line “To have respect of persons in judgment is not good,”
is only the introductory line of a proverb which consists of several
INTRODUCTION. 7
lines ver. 24 f. Ewald is right in regarding as inadmissible a
comparison of the collections of Arabic proverbs by Abu-Obeida,
Meidani, and others, who gathered together and expounded the
current popular proverbs, with the Book of Proverbs. Ali's Hun-
dred Proverbs are, however, more worthy of being compared with
it. Like these, Solomon's proverbs are, as a whole, the production
of his own spirit, and only mediately of the popular spirit. To
make the largeness of the number of these proverbs a matter of
doubt were inconsiderate. Eichhorn maintained that even a god-
like genius scarcely attains to so great a number of pointed
proverbs and ingenious thoughts. But if we distribute Solomon's
proverbs over his forty years' reign, then we have scarcely twenty
for each year; and one must agree with the conclusion, that the
composition of so many proverbs even of the highest ingenuity is
no impossible problem for a "godlike genius." When, accordingly,
it is related that Solomon wrote 3000 proverbs, Ewald, in his
History of Israel, does not find the number too great, and Bertheau
does not regard it as impossible that the collection of the "Proverbs
of Solomon" has the one man Solomon as their author. The
number of the proverbs thus cannot determine us to regard them
as having for the most part originated among the people, and the
form in which they appear leads to an opposite conclusion. It is,
indeed, probable that popular proverbs are partly wrought into
these proverbs,1 and many of their forms of expression are moulded
after the popular proverbs; but as they thus lie before us, they are,
as a whole, the production of the technical Mashal poetry.
The simplest form is, according to the fundamental peculiarity
of the Hebrew verse, the distich. The relation of the two lines to
each other is very manifold. The second line may repeat the
thought of the first, only in a somewhat altered form, in order to
express this thought as clearly and exhaustively as possible. We
call such proverbs synonymous distichs; as e.g. xi. 25:
A soul of blessing is made fat,
And he that watereth others is himself watered.
Or the second line contains the other side of the contrast to the
statement of the first; the truth spoken in the first is explained in
the second by means of the presentation of its contrary. We call
such proverbs antithetic distichs; as e.g. x. 1:
1Isaac Euchel († 1804), in his Commentary on the Proverbs, regards xiv. 4a
and xvii. 19b as such popular proverbs.
8 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS
A wise son maketh his father glad,
And a foolish son is his mother's grief.
Similar forms, x. 16, xii. 5. Elsewhere, as xviii. 14, xx. 24, the
antithesis clothes itself in the form of a question. Sometimes it is
two different truths that are expressed in the two lines; and the
authorization of their union lies only in a certain relationship, and
the ground of this union in the circumstance that two lines are the
minimum of the technical proverb—synthetic distichs; e.g. x. 18:
A cloak of hatred are lying lips,
And he that spreadeth slander is a fool.
Not at all infrequently one line does not suffice to bring out the
thought intended, the begun expression of which is only com-
pleted in the second. These we call integral (eingedankige) distichs;
as e.g. xi. 31 (cf. 1 Pet. iv. 18):
The righteous shall be recompensed on the earth—
How much more the ungodly and the sinner!
To these distichs also belong all those in which the thought
stated in the first receives in the second, by a sentence presenting a
reason, or proof, or purpose, or consequence, a definition completing
or perfecting it; e.g. xiii. 14, xvi. 10, xix. 20, xxii. 28.1 But there is
also a fifth form, which corresponds most to the original character
of the Mashal: the proverb explaining its ethical object by a re-
semblance from the region of the natural and every-day life, the
parabolh< proper. The form of this parabolic proverb is very
manifold, according as the poet himself expressly compares the
two subjects, or only places them near each other in order that the
hearer or reader may complete the comparison. The proverb is
1 Such integral distichs are also xv. 3, xvi. 7, 10, xvii. 13, 15, xviii. 9, 13,
xix. 26, 27, xx. 7, 8, 10, 11, 20, 21, xxi. 4, 13, 16, 21, 23, 24, 30, xxii. 4, 11,
xxiv. 8, 26, xxvi. 16, xxvii. 14, xxviii. 8, 9, 17, 24, xxix. 1, 5, 12, 14. In xiv.
27, xv. 24, xvii. 23, xix. 27, the second line consists of one sentence with l and
the infin.; in xvi. 12, 26, xxi. 25, xxii. 9, xxvii. 1, xxix. 19, of one sentence
with yKi; with Mxi YKi, xviii. 2, xxiii. 17. The two lines, as xi. 31, xv. 11, xvii.
7, xix. lab, 10, xx. 27, form a conclusion a minori ad majus, or the reverse.
The former or the latter clauses stand in grammatical relation in xxiii. 1, 2,
15 f., xxvii. 22, xxix. 21 (cf. xxii. 29, xxiv. 10, xxvi. 12, xxix. 20, with hypoth.
perf., and xxvi. 26 with hypoth. fut.); in the logical relation of reason and
consequence, xvii. 14, xx. 2, 4; in comparative relation, xii. 9, etc. These
examples show that the two lines, not merely in the more recent, but also
in the old Solomonic Mashal, do not always consist of two parallel members.
INTRODUCTION. 9
least poetic when the likeness between the two subjects is expressed
by a verb; as xxvii. 15 (to which, however, ver. 16 belongs):
A continual dropping in a rainy day
And a contentious woman are alike.
The usual form of expression, neither unpoetic nor properly poetic,
is the introduction of the comparison by K; [as], and of the simili-
tude in the second clause by NKe [so]; as x. 26:
As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes,
So is the sluggard to them who give him a commission.
This complete verbal statement of the relation of likeness may
also be abbreviated by the omission of the NKe; as xxv. 13, xxvi. 11:
As a dog returning to his vomit—
A fool returning to his folly.
We call the parabolic proverbs of these three forms comparisons.
The last, the abbreviated form of the comparative proverb, forms
the transition to another kind of parabolic proverb, which we will
call, in contradistinction to the comparative, the emblematic, in
which the contrast and its emblem are loosely placed together
without any nearer expression of the similitude; as e.g. xxvi. 20,
xxvii. 17, 18, 20. This takes place either by means of the copu-
lative Vav, v;, as xxv. 25—
Cold water to a thirsty soul,
And good news from a far country.1
Or without the Vav; in which case the second line is as the sub-
scription under the figure or double figure painted in the first; e.g.
xxv. 11 f., xi. 22:
A gold ring in a swine's snout—
A fair woman and without understanding.
These ground-forms of two lines can, however, expand into forms
of several lines. Since the distich is the peculiar and most appro-
priate form of the technical proverb, so, when two lines are not
sufficient for expressing the thought intended, the multiplication to
1 This so-called Vav adaequationis, which appears here for the first time in the
Proverbs as the connection between the figure and the thing itself without a
verbal predicate (cf., on the other hand, Job v. 7, xii. 11, xiv. 11 f.), is, like the
Vav, v;, of comparison, only a species of that Vav of association which is called
in Arab. Waw alajam'a, or Waw alam'ayat, or Waw al'asatsahab (vid. at Isa.
xlii. 5); and since usage attributes to it the verbal power of secum habere, it is
construed with the accus. Vid. examples in Freytag's Arabum Proverbia,
among the recent proverbs beginning with the letter (k).
10 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
four, six, or eight lines is most natural. In the tetrastich the
relation of the last two to the first two is as manifold as is the
relation of the second line to the first in the distich. There is,
however, no suitable example of four-lined stanzas in antithetic
relation. But we meet with synonymous tetrastichs, e.g. xxiii. 15 f.,
xxiv. 3 f., 28 f.; synthetic, xxx. 5 f.; integral, xxx. 17 f., especially
of the form in which the last two lines constitute a proof passage
beginning with yKi, xxii. 22 f., or NPe, xxii. 24 f., or without exponents,
xxii. 26 f.; comparative without expressing the comparison, xxv.
16 f. (cf., on the other hand, xxvi. 18 f., where the number of lines
is questionable), and also the emblematical, xxv. 4 f.:
Take away the dross from the silver,
And there shall come forth a vessel for the goldsmith;
Take away the wicked from before the king,
And his throne shall be established in righteousness.
Proportionally the most frequently occurring are tetrastichs, the
second half of which forms a proof clause commencing with YKi
or NPe. Among the less frequent are the six-lined, presenting (xxiii.
1-3, xxiv. 11 f.) one and the same thought in manifold aspects,
with proofs interspersed. Among all the rest which are found in
the collection, xxiii. 12-14,19-21, 26-28, xxx. 15 f., xxx. 29-31,
the first two lines form a prologue introductory to the substance
of the proverb; as e.g. xxiii. 12-14:
O let instruction enter into thine heart,
And apply thine ears to the words of knowledge.
Withhold not correction from the child;
For if thou beatest him with the rod—he dies not.
Thou shalt beat him with the rod,
And deliver his soul from hell.
Similarly formed, yet more expanded, is the eight-lined stanza,
xxiii. 22-28:
Hearken unto thy father that begat thee,
And despise not thy mother when she is old.
Buy the truth and sell it not:
Wisdom, and virtue, and understanding.
The father of a righteous man greatly rejoices,
And he that begetteth a wise child hath joy of him.
Thy father and thy mother shall be glad,
And she that bare thee shall rejoice.
The Mashal proverb here inclines to the Mashal ode; for this
octastich may be regarded as a short Mashal song,—like the alpha-
INTRODUCTION. 11
betical Mashal psalm xxxvii., which consists of almost pure tetra-
stichs.
We have now seen how the distich form multiplies itself into
forms consisting of four, six, and eight lines; but it also unfolds
itself, as if in one-sided multiplication, into forms of three, five,
and seven lines. Tristichs arise when the thought of the first line
is repeated (xxvii. 22) in the second according to the synonymous
scheme, or when the thought of the second line is expressed by
contrast in the third (xxii. 29, xxviii. 10) according to the anti-
thetic scheme, or when to the thought expressed in one or two
lines (xxv. 8, xxvii. 10) there is added its proof. The parabolic
scheme is here represented when the object described is unfolded
in two lines, as in the comparison xxv. 13, or when its nature is
portrayed by two figures in two lines, as in the emblematic pro-
verb xxv. 20:
To take off clothing in cold weather,
Vinegar upon nitre,
And he that singeth songs to a heavy heart.
In the few instances of pentastichs which are found, the last
three lines usually unfold the reason of the thought of the first
two: xxiii. 4 f., xxv. 6 f., xxx. 32 f.; to this xxiv. 13 forms an
exception, where the NKe before the last three lines introduces the
expansion of the figure in the first two. As an instance we quote
xxv. 6 f.:
Seek not to display thyself in the presence of the king,
And stand not in the place of the great.
For better that it be said unto thee, "Come up hither,"
Than that they humble thee in the presence of the prince,
While thine eyes have raised themselves.
Of heptastichs I know of only one example in the collection,
viz. xxiii. 6-8 :
Eat not the bread of the jealous,
And lust not after his dainties;
For he is like one who calculates with himself:¾
"Eat and drink," saith he to thee,
And his heart is not with thee.
Thy morsel which thou hast eaten must thou vomit up,
And thou hast wasted thy pleasant words.
From this heptastich, which one will scarcely take for a brief
Mashal ode according to the compound strophe-scheme, we see
that the proverb of two lines can expand itself to the dimensions
12 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
of seven and eight lines. Beyond these limits the whole proverb
ceases to be lwAmA in the proper sense; and after the manner of Ps.
xxv., xxxiv., and especially xxxvii., it becomes a Mashal ode. Of
this class of Mashal odes are, besides the prologue, xxii. 17-21,
that of the drunkard, xxiii. 29-35; that of the slothful man, xxiv.
30-34; the exhortation to industry, xxvii. 23-27; the prayer for
a moderate portion between poverty and riches, xxx. 7-9; the
mirror for princes, xxxi. 2-9; and the praise of the excellent
wife, xxxi. 10 ff. It is singular that this ode furnishes the only
example of the alphabetical acrostic in the whole collection. Even
a single trace of original alphabetical sequence afterwards broken
up cannot be found. There cannot also be discovered, in the
Mashal songs referred to, anything like a completed strophe-
scheme; even in xxxi. 10 ff. the distichs are broken by tristichs
intermingled with them.
In the whole of the first part, i. 7-ix., the prevailing form is that
of the extended flow of the Mashal song; but one in vain seeks
for strophes. There is not here so firm a grouping of the lines;
on the supposition of its belonging to the Solomonic era, this is
indeed to be expected. The rhetorical form here outweighs the
purely poetical. This first part of the Proverbs consists of the
following fifteen Mashal strains: (1) i. 7-19, (2) 20 ff., (3) ii.,
(4) iii. 1-18, (5) 19-26, (6) 27 ff., (7) iv. 1-v. 6, (8) 7 ff., (9) vi.
1-5, (10) 6-11, (11) 12-19, (12) 20 ff., (13) vii., (14) viii., (15)
ix. In iii. and ix. there are found a few Mashal odes of two lines
and of four lines which may be regarded as independent Mashals,
and may adapt themselves to the schemes employed; other brief
complete parts are only waves in the flow of the larger discourses,
or are altogether formless, or more than octastichs. The octastich vi.
16-19 makes the proportionally greatest impression of an indepen-
dent inwoven Mashal. It is the only proverb in which symbolical
numbers are used which occurs in the collection from i. to xxix.:
There are six things which Jahve hateth,
And seven are an abhorrence to His soul:
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
And hands that shed innocent blood;
An heart that deviseth the thoughts of evil,
Feet that hastily run to wickedness,
One that uttereth lies as a false witness,
And he who soweth strife between brethren.
Such numerical proverbs to which the name hDAmi has been given
INTRODUCTION. 13
by later Jewish writers (see my Gesech. der jüd. Poesie; pp.
199, 202) are found in xxx. With the exception of xxx. 7-9,
24-28 (cf. Sir. xxv. 1, 2), the numerical proverb has this pecu-
liarity, found also in most of the numerical proverbs of Sirach
(Sir. xxiii. 16, xxv. 7, xxvi. 5, 28), that the number named in the
first parallel line is in the second (cf. Job v. 9) increased by one.
On the other hand, the form of the Priamel1 is used neither in the
Book of Proverbs nor in that of Sirach. Proverbs such as xx. 10
("Diverse weights, diverse measures—an abomination to Jahve are
they both") and xx. 12 ("The hearing ear, the seeing eye—Jahve
hath created them both"), to be distinguished from xvii. 3, xxvii.
21, and the like, where the necessary unity, and from xxvii. 3,
where the necessary resemblance, of the predicate is wanting, are
only a weak approach to the Priamel,—a stronger, xxv. 3, where the
three subjects form the preamble ("The heaven for height, and the
earth for depth, and the heart of kings—are unsearchable"). Per-
haps xxx. 11-14 is a greater mutilated Priamel. Here four subjects
form the preamble, but there is wanting the conclusion containing
the common predicate. This, we believe, exhausts the forms of the
Mashal in the collection. It now only remains to make mention
of the Mashal chain, i.e. the ranging together in a series of
proverbs of a similar character, such as the chain of proverbs
regarding the fool, xxvi. 1-12, the sluggard, xxvi. 13-16, the tale-
bearer, xxvi. 20-22, the malicious, xxvi. 23-28—but this form
belongs more to the technics of the Mashal collection than to that
of the Mashal poetry.
We now turn to the separate parts of the book, to examine more
closely the forms of their proverbs, and gather materials for a critical
judgment regarding the origin of the proverbs which they contain.
Not to anticipate, we take up in order the separate parts of the
arrangement of the collection. Since, then, it cannot be denied that
in the introductory paedagogic part, i. 7-ix., notwithstanding its rich
and deep contents, there is exceedingly little of the technical form
of the Mashal, as well as generally of technical form at all. This
part, as already shown, consists not of proper Mashals, but of fifteen
Mashal odes, or rather, perhaps, Mashal discourses, didactic poems of
the Mashal kind. In the flow of these discourses separate Mashals
intermingle, which may either be regarded as independent, or, as
1 [From praeambulum, designating a peculiar kind of epigram found in the
German poetry of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.]
14 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
i. 32, iv. 18 f., can easily be so understood. In the Mashal chains
of chap. iv. and ix. we meet with proverbs that are synonymous
(ix. 7, 10), antithetic (iii. 35, ix. 8), integral, or of one thought
(iii. 29, 30), and synthetic (i. 7, iii. 5, 7), of two lines and of four
lines variously disposed (iii. 9 f., 11 f., 31 f., 33 f.) ; but the para-
bolic scheme is not at all met with, separate proverbs such as iii.
27 f. are altogether without form, and keeping out of view the
octastich numerical proverb, vi. 16-19, the thoughts which form
the unity of separate groups are so widely expanded that the
measure of the Mashal proper is far exceeded. The character of
this whole part is not concentrating, but unfolding. Even the inter-
mingling proverbs of two lines possess the same character. They
are for the most part more like dissolved drops than gold coins with
sharp outline and firm impress; as e.g. ix. 7:
He that correcteth the mocker getteth to himself shame;
And he that rebuketh the sinner his dishonour.
The few that consist of four lines are closer, more compact, more
finished, because they allow greater space for the expression; e.g.
iii. 9 f.:
Honour Jahve with thy wealth,
And with the first-fruits of all thine income:
And thy barns shall be filled with plenty,
And thy vats shall overflow with must.
But beyond the four lines the author knows no limits of artistic
harmony; the discourse flows on till it has wholly or provisionally
exhausted the subject; it pauses not till it reaches the end of its
course, and then, taking breath, it starts anew. We cannot, more-
over, deny that there is beauty in this new springing forth of the
stream of the discourse with its fresh transparent waves; but it is
a peculiar beauty of the rhetorically decomposed, dissolved Mashal,
going forth, as it were, from its confinement, and breathing its
fagrance far and wide.
The fifteen discourses, in which the Teacher appears twelve times
and Wisdom three times, are neither of a symmetrically chiselled
form nor of internally fashioned coherence, but yet are a garland
of songs having internal unity, with a well-arranged manifoldness
of contents. It is true that Bertheau recognises here neither unity
of the contents nor unity of the formal character; but there is no
Old Testament portion of like extent, and at the same time of more
systematic internal unity, and which bears throughout a like formal
INTRODUCTION. 15
impress, than this. Bertheau thinks that he has discovered in
certain passages a greater art in the form; and certainly there are
several sections which consist of just ten verses. But this is a mere
accident; for the first Mashal ode consists of groups of 1, 2, and
10 verses, the second of 8 and 6 verses, the third of 10 and 12, the
fourth of 10 and 8, the fifth of 2 and 6, etc.—each group forming
a complete sense. The 10 verses are met with six times, and if iv.
1-9 from the Peshito, and iv. 20-27 from the LXX., are included,
eight times, without our regarding these decades as strophes, and
without our being able to draw any conclusion regarding a parti-
cular author of these decade portions. In i. 20-33, Bertheau finds
indeed, along with the regular structure of verses, an exact artistic
formation of strophes (3 times 4 verses with an echo of 2). But
he counts instead of the sticks the Masoretic verses, and these are
not the true formal parts of the strophe.
We now come to the second part of the collection, whose super-
scription hmolow; ylew;mi can in no respect be strange to us, since the
collection of proverbs here commencing, compared with i. 7-ix.,
may with special right bear the name Mishle. The 375 proverbs
which are classed together in this part, x.-xxii. 16, without any
comprehensive plan, but only according to their more or fewer
conspicuous common characteristics (Bertheau, p. xii), consist all
and every one of distichs; for each Masoretic verse falls naturally
into two stichs, and nowhere (not even xix. 19) does such a distich
proverb stand in necessary connection with one that precedes or
that follows; each is in itself a small perfected and finished whole.
The tristich xix. 7 is only an apparent exception. In reality it is a
distich with the disfigured remains of a distich that has been lost.
The LXX. has here two distichs which are wanting in our text.
The second is that which is found in our text, but only in a muti-
lated form:
o[ polla> kakopoiw?n telesiourgei? kaki<an,
[He that does much harm perfects mischief,]
o!j de> e]reqi<zei lo<gouj ou] swqh<setai.
[And he that uses provoking words shall not escape.]
Perhaps the false rendering of
fr-Mlwy Mybr frm
:Flmy xl Myrmx Jdrm
The friend of every one is rewarded with evil,
He who pursues after rumours does not escape.
16 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
But not only are all these proverbs distichs, they have also, not
indeed without exception, but in by far the greatest number, a
common character in that they are antithetic. Distichs of predo-
minating antithetic character stand here together. Along with
these all other schemes are, it is true, represented: the synonymous,
xi. 7, 25, 30, xii. 14, 28, xiv. 19, etc.; the integral, or of one thought,
xiv. 7, xv. 3, etc., particularly in proverbs with the comparative Nmi,
xii. 9, xv. 16, 17, xvi. 8, 19, xvii. 10, xxi. 19, xxii. 1, and with the
ascending –yKi Jxa [much more], xi. 31, xv. 11, xvii. 7, xix. 7, 10,
xxi. 27; the synthetic, x. 18, xi. 29, xiv. 17, xix. 13; the parabolic,
the most feebly represented, for the only specimens of it are x. 26,
xi. 22; besides which I know not what other Bertheau could quote.
We shall further see that in another portion of the book the para-
bolic proverbs are just as closely placed together as are the anti-
thetic. Here almost universally the two members of the proverbs
stand together in technical parallelism as thesis and antithesis;
also in the synonymous proverbs the two members are the parallel
rays of one thought; in the synthetic two monostichs occur in
loose external connection to suffice for the parallelism as a funda-
mental law of the technical proverb. But also in these proverbs in
which a proper parallelism is not found, both members being needed
to form a complete sentence, verse and members are so built up,
according to Bertheau's self-confirmatory opinion, that in regard
to extent and the number of words they are like verses with
parallel members.
To this long course of distichs which profess to be the Mishle of
Solomon, there follows a course, xxii. 17-xxiv. 22, of "words of
the wise," prefaced by the introduction xxii. 17-21 which un-
deniably is of the same nature as the greater introduction, i. 7-ix.,
and of which we are reminded by the from of address preserved
throughout in these "words of the wise." These "words of the
wise" comprehend all the forms of the Mashal, from those of two
lines in xxii. 28, xxiii. 9, xxiv. 7, 8, 9, 10, to the Mashal song xxiii.
29-35. Between these limits are the tetrastichs, which are the
most popular form, xxii. 22 f., 24 f., 26 f., xxiii. 10 f., 15 f., 17 f.,
xxiv. 1 f., 3 f., 5 f., 15 f., 17 f., 19 f., 21 f.,¾pentastichs, xxiii. 4 f.,
1 xxiv. 13 f., and hexastichs, xxiii. 1-3, 12-14, 19-21, 26-28, xxiv.
11 f.;¾of tristichs, heptastichs, and octastichs are at least found
one specimen of each, xxii. 29, xxiii. 6-8, xxiii. 22-25. Bertheau
maintains that there is a difference between the structure of these
INTRODUCTION. 17
proverbs and that of the preceding, for he counts the number of
the words which constitute a verse in the case of the latter and of
the former; but such a proceeding is unwarrantable, for the re-
markably long Masoretic verse xxiv. 12 contains eighteen words;
and the poet is not to be made accountable for such an arrangement,
for in his mind xxiv. 11 f. forms a hexastich, and indeed a very
elegant one. Not the words of the Masoretic verse, but the stichs
are to be counted. Reckoning according to the stichs, I can dis-
cover no difference between these proverbs and the preceding. In
the preceding ones also the number of the words in the stichs
extends from two to five, the number two being here, however,
proportionally more frequently found (e.g. xxiv. 4b, xxiv. 8a, 10b);
a circumstance which has its reason in this, that the symmetry of
the members is often very much disturbed, there being frequently
no trace whatever of parallelism. To the first appendix to the
"Proverbs of Solomon" there follows a second, xxiv. 23 ff., with
the superscription, "These things also to the wise," which contains
a hexastich, xxiv. 236-25, a distich, ver. 26, a tristich, ver. 27, a
tetrastich, ver. 28 f., and a Mashal ode, ver. 30 ff., on the sluggard
—the last in the form of an experience of the poet like Ps. xxxvii.
35 f. The moral which he has drawn from this recorded observa-
tion is expressed in two verses such as we have already found at
vi. 10 f. These two appendices are, as is evident from their com-
mencement as well as from their conclusion, in closest relation to
the introduction, i. 7–ix.
There now follows in xxv.–xxix. the second great collection of
"Proverbs of Solomon," "copied out," as the superscription men-
tions, by the direction of King Hezekiah. It falls, apparently, into
two parts; for as xxiv. 30 ff., a Mashal hymn, stands at the end
of the two appendices, so the Mashal hymn xxvii. 23 ff. must be
regarded as forming the division between the two halves of this
collection. It is very sharply distinguished from the collection
beginning with chap. x. The extent of the stichs and the greater
or less observance of the parallelism furnish no distinguishing
mark, but there are others worthy of notice. In the first collection
the proverbs are exclusively in the form of distichs; here we have
also some tristichs xxv. 8, 13, 20, xxvii. 10, 22, xxviii. 10, tetra-
stichs xxv 4 f., 9 f., 21 f., xxvi. 18 f., 24 f., xxvii. 15 f., and
pentastichs xxv. 6 f., besides the Mashal hymn already referred to.
The kind of arrangement is not essentially different from that in
18 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
the first collection; it is equally devoid of plan, yet there are here
some chains or strings of related proverbs, xxvi. 1-12, 13-16,
20-22. A second essential distinction between the two collections
is this, that while in the first the antithetic proverb forms the
prevailing element, here it is the parabolic, and especially the
emblematic; in xxv.-xxvii. are sentences almost wholly of this
character. We say almost, for to place together proverbs of this
kind exclusively is not the plan of the collector. There are also
proverbs of the other schemes, fewer synonymous, etc., than anti-
thetic, and the collection begins in very varied quodlibet: xxv. 2,
an antithetic proverb; xxv. 3, a priamel with three subjects; xxv. 4f.,
an emblematic tetrastich; xxv. 6 f., a pentastich; xxv. 8, a tristich;
xxv. 9 f., a tetrastich, with the negative Np; xxv. 11, an emblematic
distich ("Golden apples in silver caskets—a word spoken in a fitting
way"). The antithetic proverbs are found especially in xxviii. and
xxix.: the first and the last proverb of the whole collection, xxv. 2,
xxix. 27, are antithetic; but between these two the comparative
and the figurative proverbs are so prevalent, that this collection
appears like a variegated picture-book with explanatory notes written
underneath. In extent it is much smaller than the foregoing. I
reckon 126 proverbs in 137 Masoretic verses.
The second collection of Solomon's proverbs has also several
appendices, the first of which, xxx., according to the inscription, is
by an otherwise unknown author, Agur the son of Jakeh. The first
poem of this appendix presents in a thoughtful way the unsearch-
ableness of God. This is followed by certain peculiar pieces, such
as a tetrastich regarding the purity of God's word, xxx. 5 f.; a prayer
for a moderate position between riches and poverty, vers. 7-9; a
distich against slander, ver. 10; a priamel without the conclusion,
vers. 11-14; the insatiable four (a Midda), ver. 15 f.; a tetrastich
regarding the disobedient son, ver. 17; the incomprehensible four,
vers. 18-20; the intolerable four, vers. 21-23; the diminutive but
prudent four, vers. 24-28; the excellent four, vers. 29-31; a penta-
stich recommending prudent silence, ver. 32 f. Two other supple-
ments form the conclusion of the whole book: the counsel of
Lemuel's mother to her royal son, xxxi. 2-9, and the praise of the
virtuous woman in the form of an alphabetical acrostic, xxxi. 10 ff.
After we have acquainted ourselves with the manifold forms of
the technical proverbs and their distribution in the several parts of
the collection, the question arises, What conclusions regarding the
INTRODUCTION. 19
origin of these several parts may be drawn from these forms found
in them? We connect with this the conception of Ewald, who sees
represented in the several parts of the collection the chief points of
the history of proverbial poetry. The "Proverbs of Solomon,"
x. 1—xxii. 16, appear to him to be the oldest collection, which
represents the simplest and the most ancient kind of proverbial
poetry. Their distinguishing characteristics are the symmetrical
two-membered verse, complete in itself, containing in itself a fully
intelligible meaning, and the quick contrast of thesis and antithesis.
The oldest form of the technical proverb, according to Ewald, is,
according to our terminology, the antithetic distich, such as pre-
dominates in x. 1—xxii. 16. Along with these antithetic distichs
we find here also others of a different kind. Ewald so considers
the contrast of the two members to be the original fundamental
law of the technical proverb, that to him these other kinds of
distichs represent the diminution of the inner force of the two-
membered verse, the already begun decay of the art in its oldest
limits and laws, and the transition to a new method. In the
"Proverbs of Solomon," xxv.—xxix., of the later collection, that
rigorous formation of the verse appears already in full relaxation
and dissolution: the contrast of the sense of the members appears
here only exceptionally; the art turns from the crowded fulness and
strength of the representation more to the adorning of the thought
by means of strong and striking figures and forms of expression, to
elegant painting of certain moral conditions and forms of life; and
the more the technical proverb is deprived of the breath of a vigor-
ous poetic spirit, so much the nearer does it approach to the vulgar
proverb; the full and complete symmetry of the two members
disappears, less by the abridgment of one of them, than by the too
great extension and amplification of the two-membered proverb
into longer admonitions to a moral life, and descriptions relating
thereto. So the proverbial poetry passes essentially into a different
form and manner. "While it loses in regard to internal vigorous
brevity and strength, it seeks to gain again by means of connected
instructive exposition, by copious description and detailed repre-
sentation; breaking up its boldly delineated, strong, and yet simply
beautiful form, it rises to oratorical display, to attractive eloquence,
in which, indeed, though the properly poetical and the artistic
gradually disappears) yet the warmth and easy comprehension are
increased." In chap. i.—ix., the introduction of the older collection;
20 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
and xxii. 17-xxiv., of the first half of the supplement to the older col-
lection (xxv.-xxix. is the second half), supplied by a later writer, the
great change is completed, the growth of which the later collection
of the "Proverbs of Solomon," particularly in xxv.-xxix., reveals.
The symmetry of the two members of the verse is here completely
destroyed; the separate proverb appears almost only as an exception;
the proverbial poetry has passed into admonition and discourse, and
has become in many respects lighter, and more flexible, and flowing,
and comprehensible. "It is true that on the side of this later form
of proverbial poetry there is not mere loss. While it always loses
the excellent pointed brevity, the inner fulness and strength of the
old proverbs, it gains in warmth, impressiveness, intelligibility; the
wisdom which at first strives only to make its existence and its
contents in endless manifoldness known, reaches this point at last,
that having become clear and certain, it now also turns itself
earnestly and urgently to men." In the later additions, chap.
xxx. xxxi., appended altogether externally, the proverbial poetry
has already disappeared, and given place to elegant descriptions of
separate moral truths. While the creative passes into the back-
ground, the whole aim is now toward surprising expansion and new
artistic representation.
This view of the progressive development of the course of pro-
verbial poetry is one of the chief grounds for the determination of
Ewald's judgment regarding the parts that are Solomonic and those
that are not Solomonic in the collection. In x. 1-xxii. 16 he does
not regard the whole as Solomon's, as immediately and in their
present form composed by Solomon; but the breath of the Solo-
monic spirit enlivens and pervades all that has been added by other
and later poets. But most of the proverbs of the later collection
(xxv.-xxix.) are not much older than the time of Hezekiah; yet
there are in it some that are Solomonic, and of the period next to
Solomon. The collection stretches backward with its arms, in part
indeed, as the superscription, the "Proverbs of Solomon," shows,
to the time of Solomon. On the other hand, in the introduction,
i.-ix., and in the first half of the appendix (xxii. 17-xxiv.), there
is not found a single proverb of the time of Solomon; both
portions belong to two poets of the seventh century B.C., a new
era, in which the didactic poets added to the older Solomonic col-
lection longer pieces of their own composition. The four small
pieces, xxx. 1-14,15-33, xxxi. 1-9,10 ff., are of a still later date;
INTRODUCTION. 21
they cannot belong to an earlier period than the end of the seventh
or the beginning of the sixth century B.C.
We recognise the penetration, the sensibility, the depth of
thought indicated by this opinion of Ewald's regarding the origin
of the book; yet for the most part it is not supported by satisfac-
tory proof. If we grant that he has on the whole rightly con-
strued the history of proverbial poetry, nevertheless the conclusion
that proverbs which bear in themselves the marks of the oldest
proverbial poetry belong to the Solomonic era, and that the others
belong to a period more nearly or more remotely subsequent to it,
is very fallacious. In this case much that is found in Sirach's
Book of Proverbs must be Solomonic; and the Jsx ylwm of Isaac
Satanow,1 the contemporary of Moses Mendelssohn, as well as
many other proverbs in the collection Nnbrd Nylm, and in the poetical
works of other Jewish poets belonging to the middle ages or to
later times, might be dated back perhaps a thousand years. Along
with the general course of development the individuality of the
poet is also to be taken into account; an ancient poet can, along
with the formally completed, produce the imperfect, which appears
to belong to a period of art that has degenerated, and a modern
poet can emulate antiquity with the greatest accuracy. But Ewald's
construction of the progress of the development of proverbial
poetry is also in part arbitrary. That the two-membered verse is the
oldest form of the technical proverb we shall not dispute, but that
it is the two-membered antithetic verse is a supposition that cannot
be proved; and that Solomon wrote only antithetic distichs is an
absurd assertion, to which Keil justly replies, that the adhering to
only one form and structure is a sign of poverty, of mental narrow-
ness and one-sidedness. There are also other kinds of parallelism,
which are not less beautiful and vigorous than the antithetic, and
also other forms of proverbs besides the distich in which the thought,
which can in no way be restrained within two lines, must neces-
sarily divide itself into the branches of a greater number of lines.
Thus I must agree with Keil in the opinion, that Ewald's assertion
that in the Hezekiah-collection the strong form of the technical
proverb is in full dissolution, contains an exaggeration. If the
1 [Isaac Ha-Levi was born at Satanow (whence his name), in Russian Poland,
1732, died at Berlin 1802. Besides other works, he was the author of several
collections of gnomes and apothegms in imitation of the Proverbs. Vid.
Delitzsch Zur Gesch, der Jüd. Poesie, p.115.]
22 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
first collection, x. 1-xxii. 16, contains only two (x. 26, xi. 22)
figurative proverbs, while it would be altogether foolish to deny
that these two, because they were figurative proverbs, were Solo-
monic, or to affirm that he was the author of only these two, so it
is self-evident that the Hezekiah-collection, which is principally a
collection of figurative proverbs, must contain many proverbs in
which a different kind of parallelism prevails, which has the ap-
pearance of a looser connection. Is it not probable that Solomon,
who had an open penetrating eye for the greatest and the smallest
objects of nature, composed many such proverbs? And is e.g.
the proverb xxvi. 23,
Dross of silver spread over a potsherd—
Burning lips and a wicked heart,
less beautiful, and vigorous, and worthy of Solomon than any anti-
thetic distich? If Ewald imagines that the 3000 proverbs which
Solomon wrote were all constructed according to this one model, we
are much rather convinced that Solomon's proverbial poetry, which
found the distich and the tetrastich as forms of proverbs already in
use, would not only unfold within the limits of the distich the most
varied manifoldness of thought and form, but would also within the
limits of the Mashal generally, run through the whole scale from
the distich up to octastichs and more extensive forms. But while
we cannot accept Ewald's criteria which he applies to the two
collections, x. 1-xxii. 16 and xxv.-xxix., yet his delineation of the
form and kind of proverbial poetry occurring in i.-ix., xxii. 17 ff.,
is excellent, as is also his conclusion, that these portions belong to
a new and more recent period of proverbial poetry. Since in xxii.
17-21 manifestly a new course of "Words of the Wise" by a poet
later than Solomon is introduced, it is possible, yea, not improbable,
that he, or, as Ewald thinks, another somewhat older poet, intro-
duces in i. 7-ix. the "Proverbs of Solomon" following, from x. 1
onward.
But if Solomon composed not only distichs, but also tristichs,
etc., it is strange that in the first collection, x.-xxii. 16, there are
exclusively distichs; and if he constructed not only contrasted
proverbs, but equally figurative proverbs, it is as strange that in
the first collection the figurative proverbs are almost entirely
wanting, while in the second collection, xxv.-xxix., on the contrary,
they prevail. This remarkable phenomenon may be partly ex-
plained if we could suppose that not merely the second collection,
INTRODUCTION. 23
but both of them, were arranged by the "men of Hezekiah," and
that the whole collection of the Solomonic proverbs was divided
by them into two collections according to their form. But leaving
out of view other objections, one would in that case have expected in
the first collection the proportionally great number of the antithetic
distichs which stand in the second. If we regard both collections
as originally one whole, then there can be no rational ground for its
being divided in this particular way either by the original collector
or by a later enlarger of the collection. We have therefore to
regard the two portions as the work of two different authors. The
second is by the "men of Hezekiah;" the first cannot be by
Solomon himself, since the number of proverbs composed, and
probably also written out by Solomon, amounted to 3000; besides,
if Solomon was the author of the collection, there would be visible
on it the stamp of his wisdom in its plan and order: it is thus the
work of another author, who is certainly different from the author
of the introductory Mashal poems, i. 7—ix. For if the author of
the title of the book were not at the same time the author of the
introduction, he must have taken it from some other place; thus it
is inconceivable how he could give the title "Proverbs of Solomon,"
etc., i. 1-6, to poems which were not composed by Solomon. If
i. 7—ix. is not by Solomon, then these Mashal poems are explicable
only as the work of the author of the title of the book, and as an
introduction to the "Proverbs of Solomon," beginning x. 1. It
must be one and the same author who edited the "Proverbs of
Solomon" x. 16, prefixed i. 7—ix. as an introduction to
them, and appended to them the “Words of the Wise,” xxii.
xxiv. 22; the second collector then appended to this book a sup-
plement of the “Words of the Wise;” xxiv. 23 ff., and then the
Hezekiah-collection of Solomonic proverbs, xxv.—xxix.; perhaps
also, in order that the book might be brought to a close in the same
form in which it was commenced, he added 1 the non-Solomonic
proverbial poem xxx. f. We do not, however, maintain that the
book has this origin, but only this, that on the supposition of the
non-Solomonic origin of i. 7—ix. it cannot well have any other
origin. But the question arises again, and more emphatically,
How was it possible that the first collector left as gleanings to
1 Zöckler takes xxiv. 23 ff. as a second appendix to the first principal collec-
tion. This is justifiable, but the second superscription rather suggests two
collectors.
24 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
the second so great a number of distichs, almost all parabolical,
and besides, all more than two-lined proverbs of Solomon? One
can scarcely find the reason of this singular phenomenon in any-
thing else than in the judgment of the author of the first collection
as the determining motive of his selection. For when we think also
on the sources and origin of the two collections, the second always
presupposes the first, and that which is singular in the author's
thus restricting himself can only have its ground in the freedom
which he allowed to his subjectivity.
Before we more closely examine the style and the teaching of
the book, and the conclusions thence arising, another phenomenon
claims our attention, which perhaps throws light on the way in
which the several collections originated; but, at all events, it may
not now any longer remain out of view, when we are in the act of
forming a judgment on this point.
3. The repetitions in the Book of Proverbs.—We find not only
in the different parts of the collection, but also within the limits
of one and the same part, proverbs which wholly or in part are
repeated in the same or in similar words. Before we can come to
a judgment, we must take cognizance as closely as possible of this
fact. We begin with "The Proverbs of Solomon," x.–xxii. 16;
for this collection is in relation to xxv.–xxix. certainly the earlier,
and it is especially with respect to the Solomonic proverbs that
this fact demands an explanation. In this earlier collection we
find, (1) whole proverbs repeated in exactly the same words:
xiv. 12 = xvi. 25;—(2) proverbs slightly changed in their form
of expression: x. 1=xv. 20, xiv. 20 = xix. 4, xvi. 2= xxi. 2,
xix. 5 = xix. 9, xx. 10 = xx. 23, xxi. 9 = xxi. 19;—(3) proverbs
almost identical in form, but somewhat different in sense: x. 2 =
xi. 4, xiii. 14= xiv. 27;—(4) proverbs the first lines of which are
the same: x. 15 = xviii. 11;—(5) proverbs with their second lines
the same: x. 6 = x. 11, x. 8 =x. 10, xv. 33 = xviii. 12;—(6)
proverbs with one line almost the same: xi. 13=xx. 19, xi. 21=xvi.
5, xii. 14 = xiii. 2, xiv. 31 = xvii. 5, xvi 18 = xviii. 12, xix. 12 =
xx. 2; comp. also xvi. 28 with xvii. 9, xix. 25 with xxi. 11. In com-
paring these proverbs, one will perceive that for the most part the
external or internal resemblance of the surrounding has prompted
the collector to place the one proverb in this place and the other in
that place (not always indeed; for what reason e.g. could determine
INTRODUCTION. 25
the position of xvi. 25 and xix. 5, 9, I cannot say); then that the pro-
verb standing earlier is generally to all appearance, also the earlier
formed, for the second of the pair is mostly a synonymous distich,
which generally further extends antithetically one line of the first:
cf. xviii. 11. with x. 15, xx. 10, 23 with xi. 1, xx. 19 with xi. 13,
xvi. 5 with xi. 21, xx. 2 with xix. 12, also xvii. 5 with xiv. 31,
where from an antithetic proverb a synthetic one is formed; but
here also there are exceptions, as xiii. 2 compared with xii. 14, and
xv. 33 with xviii. 12, where the same line is in the first case con-
nected with a synonymous, and in the second with an antithetic
proverb; but here also the contrast is so loose, that the earlier-
occurring proverb has the appearance of priority.
We now direct our attention to the second collection, xxv.-xxix.
When we compare the proverbs found here with one another, we
see among them a disproportionately smaller number of repetitions
than in the other collection; only a single entire proverb is repeated
in almost similar terms, but in an altered sense, xxix. 20 = xxvi. 12;
but proverbs such as xxviii.12, 28, xxix. 2, notwithstanding the partial
resemblance, are equally original. On the other hand, in this second
collection we find numerous repetitions of proverbs and portions of
proverbs from the first:¾(1) Whole proverbs perfectly identical
(leaving out of view insignificant variations): xxv. 24 = xxi. 9,
xxvi. 22 = xviii. 8, xxvii. 12 = xxii. 3, xxvii. 13 = xx. 16;¾(2)
proverbs identical in meaning, with somewhat changed expression:
xxvi. 13 = xxii. 13, xxvi. 15 = xix. 24, xxviii. 6= xix. 1, xxviii. 19 =
xii. 11, xxix. 13 = xxii. 2;¾(3) proverbs with one line the same
and one line different: xxvii. 21 = xvii. 3, xxix. 22 = xv. 18; cf.
also xxvii. 15 with xix. 13. When we compare these proverbs with
one another, we are uncertain as to many of them which has the
priority, as e.g. xxvii. 21 = xvii. 3, xxix. 22 = xv. 18; but in the case
of others there is no doubt that the Hezekiah-collection contains the
original form of the proverb which is found in the other collec-
tion, as xxvi. 13, xxviii. 6, 19, xxix. 13, xxvii. 15, in relation to
their parallels. In the other portions of this book also we find such
repetitions as are met with in these two collections of Solomonic
proverbs. In i. 7-ix. we have ii. 16, a little changed, repeated in
vii. 5, and iii. 15 in viii. 11; ix. 10a = i. 7a is a case not worthy
of being mentioned, and it were inappropriate here to refer to ix.
4, 16. In the first appendix of "the Words of the Wise," xxii.
17-xxiv. 22, single lines often repeat themselves in another con-
26 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
nection; cf. xxiii. 3 and 6, xxiii. 10 and xxii.. 28, xxiii. 17 f. and
xxiv. 13 f., xxii. 23 and xxiii. 11, xxiii. 17 and xxiv. 1. That in
such cases the one proverb is often the pattern of the other, is placed
beyond a doubt by the relation of xxiv. 19 to Ps. xxxvii. 1; cf.
also xxiv. 20 with Ps. xxxvii. 38. If here there are proverbs like
those of Solomon in their expression, the presumption is that the
priority belongs to the latter, as xxiii. 27 cf. xxii. 14, xxiv. 5 f.
cf xi. 14, xxiv. 19 f. cf. xiii. 9, in which latter case the justice
of the presumption is palpable. Within the second appendix of
"the Words of the Wise," xxiv. 23 ff., no repetitions are to be
expected on account of its shortness; yet is xxiv. 23 repeated
from the Solomonic Mashal xxviii. 21, and as xxiv. 33 f. are
literally the same as vi. 10 f., the priority is presumably on the
side of the author of i. 7—ix., at least of the Mashal in the form
in which he communicates it. The supplements xxx. and xxxi.
afford nothing that is worth mention as bearing on our present
inquiry,1 and we may therefore now turn to the question, What
insight into the origin of these proverbs and their collection do the
observations made afford?
From the numerous repetitions of proverbs and portions of
proverbs of the first collection of the "Proverbs of Solomon" in
the Hezekiah-collection, as well as from another reason stated at
the end of the foregoing section of our inquiry, we conclude that
the two collections were by different authors; in other words, that
they had not both "the men of Hezekiah" for their authors. It
is true that the repetitions in themselves do not prove anything
against the oneness of their authorship; for there are within the
several collections, and even within i.—ix. (cf. vi. 20 with i. 8, viii.
1 Quite the same phenomenon, Fleischer remarks, presents itself in the dif-
ferent collections of proverbs ascribed to the Caliph Ali, where frequently one
and the same thought in one collection is repeated in manifold forms in a second,
here in a shorter, there in a longer form. As a general principle this is to be
borne in mind, that the East transmits unchanged, with scrupulous exactness,
only religious writings regarded as holy and divine, and therefore these
Proverbs have been transmitted unchanged only since they became a distinct
part of the canon; before that time it happened to them, as to all in the East
that is exposed to the arbitrariness of the changing spirit and the intercourse of
life, that one and the same original text has been modified by one speaker
and writer after another. Thus of the famous poetical works of the East, such
e.g. as Firdusi's Schah-Nameh [Book of the Kings] and Sadi's Garden of
Roses, not one MS. copy agrees with another.
INTRODUCTION. 27
10 f. with iii. 14 f.), repetitions, notwithstanding the oneness of
their authorship. But if two collections of proverbs are in so
many various ways different in their character, as x. 1-xxii. 16 and
xxv.-xxix., then the previous probability rises almost to a certainty
by such repetitions. From the form, for the most part anomalous, in
which the Hezekiah-collection presents the proverbs and portions of
proverbs which are found also in the first collection, and from their
being otherwise independent, we further conclude that "the men of
Hezekiah" did not borrow from the first collection, but formed it
from other sources. But since one does not understand why "the
men of Hezekiah" should have omitted so great a number of
genuine Solomonic proverbs which remain, after deducting the
proportionally few that have been repeated (for this omission is
not to be explained by saying that they selected those that were
appropriate and wholesome for their time), we are further justified
in the conclusion that the other collection was known to them as one
current in their time. Their object was, indeed, not to supplement
this older collection; they rather regarded their undertaking as
a similar people's book, which they wished to place side by side
with that collection without making it superfluous. The difference
of the selection in the two collections has its whole directing occa-
sion in the difference of the intention. The first collection begins
(x. 1) with the proverb—
A wise son maketh glad his father,
And a foolish son is the grief of his mother;
the second (xxv. 2) with the proverb—
It is the glory of God to conceal a thing,
And the glory of kings to search out a matter.
The one collection is a book for youth, to whom it is dedicated in
the extended introduction, i. 7-ix.; the second is a people's book
suited to the time of Hezekiah ("Solomon's Wisdom in Hezekiah's
days," as Stier has named it), and therefore it takes its start
not, like the first, from the duties of the child, but from those of
the king. If in the two collections everything does not stand in
conscious relation to these different objects, yet the collectors at
least have, from the commencement to the close (cf. xxii. 15 with
xxix. 26), these objects before their eyes.
As to the time at which the first collection was made, the above
considerations also afford us some materials for forming a judg-
ment. Several pairs of proverbs which it contains present to us
28 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
essentially the same sayings in older and more recent forms. Keil
regards the proverbs also that appear less original as old-Solomonic,
and remarks that one and the same poet does not always give
expression to the same thoughts with the same pregnant brevity
and excellence, and affirms that changes and reproductions of
separate proverbs may proceed even from Solomon himself. This
is possible; but if we consider that even Davidic psalms have been
imitated, and that in the "Words of the Wise" Solomonic proverbs
are imitated,—moreover, that proverbs especially are subject to
changes, and invite to imitation and transformation,—we shall find
it to be improbable. Rather we would suppose, that between the
publication of the 3000 proverbs of Solomon and the preparation
of the collection x.—xxii. 16 a considerable time elapsed, during
which the old-Solomonic Mashal had in the mouths of the people
and of poets acquired a multitude of accretions, and that the col-
lector had without hesitation gathered together such indirect
Solomonic proverbs with those that were directly Solomonic. But
did not then the 3000 Solomonic proverbs afford to him scope
enough? We must answer this question in the negative; for if
that vast number of Solomonic proverbs was equal in moral-reli-
gious worth to those that have been preserved to us, then neither
the many repetitions within the first collection nor the proportional
poverty of the second can be explained. The "men of Hezekiah"
made their collection of Solomonic proverbs nearly 300 years after
Solomon's time; but there is no reason to suppose that the old book
of the Proverbs of Solomon had disappeared at that time. Much
rather we may with probability conclude, from the subjects to
which several proverbs of these collections extend (husbandry, war,
court life, etc.), and from Solomon's love for the manifold forms
of natural and of social life, that his 3000 proverbs would not have
afforded much greater treasures than these before us. But if the
first collection was made at a time in which the old-Solomonic
proverbs had been already considerably multiplied by new combi-
nations, accretions, and imitations, then probably a more suitable
time for their origination could not be than that of Jehoshaphat,
which was more related to the time of Solomon than to that
of David. The personality of Jehoshaphat, inclined toward the
promotion of the public worship of God, the edification of the
people, the administration of justice; the dominion of the house of
David recognised and venerated far and wide among neighbouring
INTRODUCTION. 29
peoples; the tendencies of that time towards intercourse with dis-
tant regions; the deep peace which followed the subjugation of
the confederated nations,—all these are features which stamped
the time of Jehoshaphat as a copy of that of Solomon. Hence we
are to expect in it the fostering care of the Chokma. If the author
of the introduction and editor of the older book of Proverbs lived
after Solomon and before Hezekiah, then the circumstances of
the case most suitably determine his time as at the beginning of
the reign of Jehoshaphat, some seventy years after Solomon's death.
If in i.-ix. it is frequently said that wisdom was seen openly in the
streets and ways, this agrees with 2 Chron. xvii. 7-9, where it is said
that princes, priests, and Levites, sent out by Jehoshaphat (compare
the Carolingian missi), went forth into the towns of Judah with the
book of the law in their hands as teachers of the people, and with
2 Chron. xix. 4, where it is stated that Jehoshaphat himself "went
out through the people from Beer-sheba to Mount Ephraim, and
brought them back unto the Lord God of their fathers." We
have an evidence of the fondness for allegorical forms of address
at that time in 2 Kings xiv. 8-11 (2 Chron. xxv. 17-21), which is
so far favourable to the idea that the allegorizing author of i.-ix.
belonged to that epoch of history.
This also agrees with the time of Jehoshaphat, that in the first col-
lection the kingdom appears in its bright side, adorned with righteous-
ness (xiv. 35, xvi. 10, 12, 13, xx. 8), wisdom ( xx. 26), grace and truth
(xx. 28), love to the good (xxii.11), divine guidance (xxi. 1), and in
the height of power (xvi. 14, 15, xix. 12); while in the second collec-
tion, which immediately begins with a series of the king's sayings,
the kingdom is seen almost only (with exception of xxix. 14) on
its dark side, and is represented under the destructive dominion of
tyranny (xxviii. 15, 16, xxix. 2), of oppressive taxation (xxix. 4),
of the Camarilla (xxv. 5, xxix. 12), and of multiplied authorities
(xxviii. 2). Elster is right when he remarks, that in x.-xxii. 16 the
kingdom in its actual state corresponds to its ideal, and the warning
against the abuse of royal power lies remote. If these proverbs
more distinguishably than those in xxv.-xxix. bear the physiog-
nomy of the time of David and Solomon, so, on the other hand,
the time of Jehoshaphat, the son and successor of Asa, is favour-
able to their collection; while in the time of Hezekiah, the son
and successor of Ahaz, and father and predecessor of Manasseh,
in which, through the sin of Ahaz, negotiations with the world-
30 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
kingdom began, that cloudy aspect of the kingdom which is borne
by the second supplement, xxiv. 23-25, was brought near.
Thus between Solomon and Hezekiah, and probably under
Jehoshaphat, the older Book of Proverbs contained in i.-xxiv. 22
first appeared. The "Proverbs of Solomon," x. 1-xxii. 16, which
formed the principal part, the very kernel of it, were enclosed on the
one side, at their commencement, by the lengthened introduction
i. 7-ix., in which the collector announces himself as a highly gifted
teacher and as the instrument of the Spirit of revelation, and on the
other side are shut in at their close by "the Words of the Wise,"
xxii. 17-xxiv. 34. The author, indeed, does not announce i. 6 such
a supplement of "the Words of the Wise;" but after these words
in the title of the book, he leads us to expect it. The introduc-
tion to the supplement xxii. 17-21 sounds like an echo of the
larger introduction, and corresponds to the smaller compass of the
supplement. The work bears on the whole the stamp of a unity;
for even in the last proverb with which it closes (xxiv. 21 f.,
"My son, fear thou Jahve and the king," etc.), there still sounds
the same key-note which the author had struck at the commence-
ment. A later collector, belonging to the time subsequent to
Hezekiah, enlarged the work by the addition of the Hezekiah-
portion, and by a short supplement of "the Words of the Wise,"
which he introduces, according to the law of analogy, after xxii.
17-xxiv. 22. The harmony of the superscriptions xxiv. 23, xxv.
1, favours at least the supposition that these supplements are the
work of one hand. The circumstance that "the Words of the
Wise," xxii. 17-xxiv. 22, in two of their maxims refer to the older
collection of Solomonic proverbs, but, on the contrary, that "the
Words of the Wise," xxiv. 23 ff., refer in xxiv. 23 to the Heze-
kiah-collection, and in xxiv. 33 f. to the introduction i. 7-ix.,
strengthens the supposition that with xxiv. 23 a second half of the
book, added by another hand, begins. There is no reason for not
attributing the appendix xxx.-xxxi. to this second collector; perhaps
he seeks, as already remarked above, to render by means of it the
conclusion of the extended Book of Proverbs uniform with that of
the older book. Like the older collection of "Proverbs of Solo-
mon," so also now the Hezekiah-collection has "Proverbs of the
Wise" on the right and on the left, and the king of proverbial
poetry stands in the midst of a worthy retinue. The second col-
lector distinguishes himself from the first by this, that he never
INTRODUCTION. 31
professes himself to be a proverbial poet. It is possible that the
proverbial poem of the "virtuous woman," xxxi. 10 ff., may be
his work, but there is nothing to substantiate this opinion.
After this digression, into which we have been led by the repe-
titions found in the book, we now return, conformably to our plan,
to examine it from the point of view of the forms of its language
and of its doctrinal contents, and to inquire whether the results
hitherto attained are confirmed, and perhaps more fully determined,
by this further investigation.
4. The Book of the Proverbs on the side of its manifoldness of
style and form of instruction.—We commence our inquiry with the
relation in which x.–xxii. 16 and xxv.–xxix. stand to each other with
reference to their forms of language. If the primary stock of both
of these sections belongs indeed to the old time of Solomon, then they
must bear essentially the same verbal stamp upon them. Here
we of course keep out of view the proverbs that are wholly or
partially identical. If the expression NF,Ba-yred;Ha (the chambers of the
body) is in the first collection a favourite figure (xviii. 8, xx. 27, 30),
coined perhaps by Solomon himself, the fact that this figure is also
found in xxvi. 22 is not to be taken into account, since in xxvi. 22
the proverb xviii. 8 is repeated. Now it cannot at all be denied,
that in the first collection certain expressions are met with which
one might expect to meet again in the Hezekiah-collection, and
which, notwithstanding, are not to be found in it. Ewald gives
a list of such expressions, in order to show that the old-Solo-
monic dialect occurs, with few exceptions, only in the first collec-
tion. But his catalogue, when closely inspected, is unsatisfactory.
That many of these expressions occur also in the introduction
i. 1–ix. proves, it is true, nothing against him. But xPer;ma,
(health), xii. 18, xiii. 17, xiv. 30, xv. 4, xvi. 24, occurs also in
xxix. 1; JDeri (he pursued), xi. 19, xii. 11, xv. 9, xix. 7, also in
xxviii. 19; NGAr;ni (a tattler), xvi. 28, xviii. 8, also in xxvi. 20, 22;
hq,nA.yi xlo (not go unpunished), xi. 21, xvi. 5, xvii. 5, also in xxviii.
20. These expressions thus supply an argument for, not against,
the linguistic oneness of the two collections. The list of ex-
pressions common to the two collections might be considerably
increased, e.g. frap;ni (are unruly), xxix. 18, Kal xiii. 18, xv. 32;
CxA (he that hastens), xix. 2, xxi. 5, xxviii. 20, xxix. 19; MynivAd;mi
(of contentions), xxi. 9 (xxv. 24), xxi. 19, xviii. 29, xxvi. 21, xxvii.
32 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
25. If it may be regarded as a striking fact that the figures
of speech Myy.iHa rOqm; (a fountain of life), x. 11, xiii. 14, xiv. 27,
xvi. 22, and Myy.iHa Cfe (a tree of life), xi. 30, xiii. 12, xv. 4, as
also the expressions hTAHim; (destruction), x. 14, 15, xiii. 3, xiv. 28,
xviii. 7, x. 29, xxi. 15, HaypiyA (he uttereth), xii. 17, xiv. 5, 25, xix.
5, 9; Jl.esi (perverteth), xiii. 6; xix. 3, xxi. 12, xxii. 12, and Jl,s,
(perverseness), xi. 3, xv. 4, are only to be found in the first col-
lection, and not in that by the “men of Hezekiah,” it is not a
decisive evidence against the oneness of the origin of the proverbs
in both collections. The fact also, properly brought forward by
Ewald, that proverbs which begin with wye (there is),¾e.g. xi. 24,
"There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth still,"¾are exclusively
found in the first collection, need not perplex us; it is one peculiar
kind of proverbs which the author of this collection has by pre-
ference gathered together, as he has also omitted all parabolic
proverbs except these two, x. 26, xi. 22. If proverbs beginning
with wy are found only in the first, so on the other hand the para-
bolic Vav and the proverbial perfect, reporting as it were an ex-
perience (cf. in the second collection, besides xxvi. 13, xxvii. 12,
xxix. 13, also xxviii. 1, xxix. 9), for which Döderlein 1 has invented
the expression aoristus gnomicus,2 are common to both sentences.
Another remark of Ewald's (Jahrb. xi. 28), that extended proverbs
with wyxi are exclusively found in the Hezekiah-collection (xxix.
9, 3, xxv. 18, 28), is not fully established; in xvi. 27-29 three
proverbs with wyxi are found together, and in xx. 6 as well as in
xxix. 9 wyxi occurs twice in one proverb. Rather it strikes us that
the article, not merely the punctatorially syncopated, but that ex-
pressed by all occurs only twice in the first collection, in xx. 1, xxi.
31; oftener in the second, xxvi. 14, 18, xxvii. 19, 20, 22. Since,
however, the first does not wholly omit the article, this also cannot
determine us to reject the linguistic unity of the second collec-
tion with the first, at least according to their primary stock.
But also what of the linguistic unity of i. 1-ix. with both of these,
maintained by Keil? It is true, and merits all consideration, that
a unity of language and of conception between i. 1-ix. and x.-
xxii. 16 which far exceeds the degree of unity between x.-xxii. 16
and xxv.-xxix. may be proved. The introduction is bound with the
1 Reden u. Aufrätze, ii. 316.
2 A similar thing is found among German proverbs, e g.: Wer nicht mitsass,
auch nicht mitass (Whoso sat not, ate not).
INTRODUCTION. 33
first collection in the closest manner by the same use of such ex-
pressions as rgaxA (gathereth), vi. 8, x. 5; NOwyxi (the middle, i.e. of
the night, deep darkness), vii. 9, xx. 20; tyriHExa (the end), v. 4,
xxiii. 18, xxiv. 14; yrizAk;xa (fierce), v. 9, xvii. 11; hnAyBi (under-
standing), i. 2, xvi. 16; hnaUbT; (understanding), ii. 6, iii. 19, xxi.
30; hrAzA (an adulteress), v. 3, xxii. 14, xxiii. 33; ble rsaHE (lacking
understanding), vi. 32, vii. 7, xii. 11; Hqal, Js,Oy (will increase
learning), i. 5, ix. 9, xvi. 21, 23; HaypiyA (uttereth), vi. 19, xiv. 5,
xix. 5, 9; zOlnA (perverted), iii. 32, xiv. 2; MynidAm; (contention), vi.
14, 19, x. 12; xPer;ma (health), iv. 22, xii. 18, xiii. 17, xvi. 24
(deliverance, xxix. 1); Hs.ani (are plucked up), ii. 22, xv. 25;
hq,nA.yi xlo (shall not be unpunished), vi. 29, xi. 21, xvi. 5; Zzfehe
(strengthened, i.e. the face), vii. 13, xxi. 29; Myyi.Ha Cfe (tree of life),
iii. 18, xi. 30, xiii. 12, xv. 4; 27.3) (becometh surety) and fqaTA
(striketh hands) occurring together, vi. 1, xvii. 18, xxii. 26; MyitAP;
and MyxitAP; (simplicity, folly), i. 22, 32, viii. 5, ix. 6, xxiii. 3; CraqA
(to wink with the eyes), vi. 13, x. 10; tr,q, (a city), viii. 3, ix. 3,
14, xi. 11; tywixre (the beginning), i. 7, xvii. 11; bOF lk,We (good
understanding), iii. 4, xiii. 15; Cr,xA-UnK;w;yi (shall dwell in the land),
ii. 21, x. 30; NOdmA Hla.wi (sendeth forth strife), vi. 14, xvi. 28; tOkPuh;Ta
(evil words), ii. 12, vi. 14, x. 31, xvi. 28; hrAOT (instruction), i. 8,
iii. 1, iv. 2, vii. 2, xiii. 14; hy.AwiUT (counsel), iii. 21, viii. 14, xviii.
1; tOlUBH;Ta (prudent measures), i. 5, xx. 18, xxiv. 6;¾and these
are not the only points of contact between the two portions which
an attentive reader will meet with. This relation of i. 1-ix. 18 to
x.-xxii. 16 is a strong proof of the internal unity of that portion,
which Bertheau has called in question. But are we therefore to
conclude, with Keil, that the introduction is not less of the old
time of Solomon than x.-xxii. 16? Such a conclusion lies near,
but we do not yet reach it. For with these points of contact there
are not a few expressions exclusively peculiar to the introduction;¾
the expressions hmAzim; sing. (counsel), i. 4, iii. 21; hmAr;fA (prudence),
i. 4, viii. 5, 12; hcAylim; (an enigma, obscure maxim), i. 6; lGAf;ma (a
path of life), ii. 9, iv. 11, 26; hlAGAf;ma, ii. 15, 18, v. 6, 21; NOwyxi (the
apple of the eye), vii. 2, 9; tOrg;r;Ga (the throat), i. 9, iii. 3, 22;
the verbs htAxA (cometh), i. 27, sle.Pi (make level or plain), iv. 26,
v. 6, 21, and hFAWA (deviate), iv. 15, vii. 25. Peculiar to this section
is the heaping together of synonyms in close connection, as "con-
gregation" and "assembly," v. 14, "lovely hind" and "pleasant
roe," v. 19 ; cf. v. 11, vi. 7, vii. 9, viii. 13, 31. This usage is,
34 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
however, only a feature in the characteristic style of this section
altogether different from that of x. 1—xxii. 16, as well as from
that of xxv.—xxix., of its disjointed diffuse form, delighting in
repetitions, abounding in synonymous parallelism, even to a repeti-
tion of the same words (cf. e.g. vi. 2), which, since the linguistic
and the poetic forms are here inseparable, we have already spoken
of in the second part of our introductory dissertation. This fun-
damental diversity in the whole condition of the section, notwith-
standing those numerous points of resemblance, demands for
i. 1-ix. an altogether different author from Solomon, and one who
is more recent. If we hold by this view, then these points of
resemblance between the sections find the most satisfactory expla-
nation. The gifted author of the introduction (i. 1-ix.) has formed
his style, without being an altogether slavish imitator, on the Solo-
monic proverbs. And why, then, are his parallels confined almost
exclusively to the section x. 1—xxii. 16, and do not extend to xxv.-
xxix.? Because he edited the former and not the latter, and took
pleasure particularly in the proverbs which he placed together,
x. 1-xxii. 16. Not only are expressions of this section, formed by
himself, echoed in his poetry, but the latter are for the most part
formed out of germs supplied by the former. One may regard, xix.
27, cf. xxvii. 11, as the germ of the admonitory addresses to the son
and xiv. 1 as the occasion of the allegory of the wise and the
foolish woman, ix. Generally, the poetry of this writer has its
hidden roots in the older writings. Who does not hear, to mention
only one thing, in i. 7-ix. an echo of the old fmw (hear), Deut.
vi. 4-9, cf. xi. 18-21? The whole poetry of this writer savours
of the Book of Deuteronomy. The admonitory addresses i. 7-ix.
are to the Book of Proverbs what Deuteronomy is to the Pentateuch.
As Deuteronomy seeks to bring home and seal upon the heart of
the people the hrAOT of the Mosaic law, so do they the hrAOT of the
Solomonic proverbs.
We now further inquire whether, in the style of the two supple-
ments, xxii. 17-xxiv. 22 and xxiv. 23 ff., it is proved that the former
concludes the Book of Proverbs edited by the author of the general
introduction, and that the latter was added by a different author at
the same time with the Hezekiah-collection. Bertheau places both
supplements together, and attributes the introduction to them, xxii.
17-21, to the author of the general introduction, i. 7-ix. From
the fact that in ver. 19 of this lesser introduction ("I have taught
INTRODUCTION. 35
thee, hTAxA-Jxa, even thee") the pronoun is as emphatically repeated
as in xxiii. 15 (ynixA-Mga yBili: cf. xxiii. 14, 19), and that MyfinA (sweet),
xxii. 18, also occurs in the following proverbs, xxiii. 8, xxiv. 4, I see
no ground for denying it to the author of the larger general intro-
duction, since, according to Bertheau's own just observation, the
linguistic form of the whole collection of proverbs has an influence
on the introduction of the collector; with more justice from MywiyliwA,
xxii. 20 [only in Keri], as the title of honour given to the col-
lection of proverbs, compared with MydiyGin;, viii. 6, may we argue
for the identity of the authorship of both introductions. As little
can the contemporaneousness of the two supplements be shown
from the use of the pronoun, xxiv. 32, the ble tywi; (animum ad-
vertere, xxiv. 32), and MfAn;yi (shall be delight) xxiv. 25, for these
verbal points of contact, if they proved anything, would prove
too much: not only the contemporaneousness of the two sup-
plements, but also the identity of their authorship; but in this
case one does not see what the superscription MymikAHEl; hl,.xe-MGa (these
also of the wise men), separating them, means. Moreover, xxiv.
33 f. are from vi. 10 f., and nearer than the comparison of the
first supplement lies the comparison of Mfny with ii. 10, ix. 17,
ble rsaHE MdAxA (a man lacking understanding) with xvii. 18, UhUmfAz;yi
with xxii. 14,—points of contact which, if an explanatory reason
is needed, may be accounted for from the circumstance that to
the author or authors of the proverbs xxiv. 23 ff. the Book of
Proverbs i. 1-xxiv. 22 may have been perfectly familiar. From
imitation also the points of contact of xxii. 17-xxiv. 22 may
easily be explained; for not merely the lesser introduction, the
proverbs themselves also in part strikingly agree with the prevailing
language of i. 1-ix.: cf. j`r,D,Ba rw.exa (go straight forward in the way),
xxiii. 19, with iv. 14; tOmk;HA (wisdom), xxiv. 7, with i. 20, ix. 1; and
several others. But if, according to i. 7, we conceive of the older
Book of Proverbs as accompanied with, rather than as without
MymikAHE yreb;Di (words of wise men), then from the similarity of the
two superscriptions xxiv. 23, xxv. 1, it is probable that the more
recent half of the canonical book begins with xxiv. 23, and we
cannot therefore determine to regard xxiv. 23 ff. also as a com-
ponent part of the older Book of Proverbs; particularly since
xxiv. 23b is like xxviii. 21a, and the author of the introduction can
scarcely have twice taken into his book the two verses xxiv. 33 f.,
Which moreover seem to stand in their original connection at vi. 10f.
36 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
The supplements to the Hezekiah-collection, xxx. f., are of so
peculiar a form, that it will occur to no one (leaving out of view
such expressions as Mywidq; tfaDa, knowledge of the Holy, xxx. 3, cf.
ix. 10) to ascribe them to one of the authors of the preceding
proverbs. We content ourselves here with a reference to Mühlau's
work, De Proverbiorum quae dicuntur Aguri et Lemuelis origine
atque indole, 1869, where the Aramaic-Arabic colouring of this
in all probability foreign section is closely investigated.
Having thus abundantly proved that the two groups of pro-
verbs bearing the inscription hmolow; ylew;mi are, as to their primary
stock, truly old-Solomonic, though not without an admixture of
imitations; that, on the contrary, the introduction, i. 7-ix., as well
as the MymkH yrbd, xxii. 17-xxiv. and xxx, are not at all old-
Solomonic, but belong to the editor of the older Book of Proverbs,
which reaches down to xxiv. 22, so that thus the present book of
the poetry of Solomon contains united with it the poems of the
older editor, and besides of other poets, partly unknown Israelites,
and partly two foreigners particularly named, Agur and Lemuel; we
now turn our attention to the DOCTRINAL CONTENTS of the work,
and ask whether a manifoldness in the type of instruction is notice-
able in it, and whether there is perceptible in this manifoldness
a progressive development. It may be possible that the Proverbs
of Solomon, the Words of the Wise, and the Proverbial poetry
of the editor, as they represent three eras, so also represent three
different stages in the development of proverbial poetry. However,
the Words of the Wise xxii. 17-xxiv. are so internally related to
the Proverbs of Solomon, that even the sharpest eye will discover
in them not more than the evening twilight of the vanishing Solo-
monic Mashal. There thus remain on the one side only the Pro-
verbs of Solomon with their echo in the Words of the Wise, on
the other the Proverbial Poems of the editor; and these present
themselves as monuments of two sharply defined epochs in the
progressive development of the Mashal.
The common fundamental character of the book in all its parts
is rightly defined when we call it a Book of Wisdom. Indeed, with
the Church Fathers not only the Book of Sirach and the Solomonic
Apocrypha, but also this Book of Proverbs bears this title, which
seems also to have been in use among the Jews, since Melito of
Sardes adds to the title "Proverbs of Solomon," h[ kai> Sofi<a;
since, moreover, Eusebius (H. E. iv. 22) affirms, that not only Hege-
INTRODUCTION. 37
sippus and Irenaeus, but the whole of the ancients, called the
Proverbs of Solomon Pana<retoj Sofi<a.1 It is also worthy of
observation that it is called by Dionysius of Alexandria h[ sofh>
bi<bloj, and by Gregory of Nazianzum h[ paidagwgikh> sofi<a.
These names not only express praise of the book, but they also
denote at the same time the circle of human intellectual activity
from which it emanated. As the books of prophecy are a product
of the hxAUbn;, so the Book of the Proverbs is a product of the hmAk;HA,
sofi<a, the human effort to apprehend the objective sofi<a, and
thus of filosofi<a, or the studium sapientiae. It has emanated
from the love of wisdom, to incite to the love of wisdom, and to
put into the possession of that which is the object of love—for this
end it was written. We need not hesitate, in view of Col. ii. 8,
to call the Book of Proverbs a "philosophical" treatise, since the
origin of the name filosofi<a is altogether noble: it expresses the
relativity of human knowledge as over against the absoluteness of
the divine knowledge, and the possibility of an endlessly progressive
advancement of the human toward the divine. The characteristic
ideas of a dialectic development of thought and of the formation of
a scientific system did not primarily appertain to it—the occasion
for this was not present to the Israelitish people: it required
fructification through the Japhetic spirit to produce philosophers
such as Philo, Maimonides, and Spinoza. But philosophy is every-
where present when the natural, moral, positive, is made the object
of a meditation which seeks to apprehend its last ground, its legi-
timate coherence, its true essence and aim. In this view C. B.
Michaelis, in his Adnotationes uberiores in Hagiographa, passes
from the exposition of the Psalms to that of the Proverbs with the
words, "From David's closet, consecrated to prayer, we now pass
into Solomon's school of wisdom, to admire the greatest of philo-
sophers in the son of the greatest of theologians."2
1 This name [meaning "wisdom, including all virtue"], there are many
things to show, was common in Palestine. The Jerusalem Talmud, in a passage
quoted by Krochmal, Kerem Chemed, v. 79, divides the canon into hrvt, hxvbn,
and hmkH. Bashi, in Baba bathra, 14b, calls Mishle (Proverbs) and Koheleth
(Ecclesiastes) hmkH yrps. The Book of Koheleth is called (b. Megilla, 7a),
according to its contents, hmlw lw vtmkH. The Song bears in the Syriac
version (the Peshito) the inscription chekmetho dechekmotho.
2 "In hoc genere," says Lord Bacon, De Augmentis Scientiarum, viii. 2,
"nihil invenitur, quod ullo modo comparandum sit cum aphorismis illis, quos
edidit rex Salomon, de quo testatur Scriptura, cor illi fuisse instar arenae; maris.
38 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
When we give the name filosofi<a to the tendency of mind to
which the Book of Proverbs belongs, we do not merely use a current
scientific word, but there is an actual internal relation of the Book
of Proverbs to that which is the essence of philosophy, which
Scripture recognises (Acts xvii. 27, cf. Rom. i. 19 f.) as existing
within the domain of heathendom, and which stamps it as a natural
product of the human spirit, which never can be wanting where a
human being or a people rises to higher self-consciousness, and
begins to reflect on the immediate self-consciousness and its opera-
tions in their changing relation to the phenomena of the external
world. The mysteries of the world without him and of the world
within him give man no rest, he must seek to solve them ; and
whenever he does that, he philosophizes, i.e. he strives after a know-
ledge of the nature of things, and of the laws which govern them
in the world of phenomena and of events; on which account also
Josephus, referring to Solomon's knowledge of nature, says (Ant.
viii. 2. 5), ou]demi<an tou<twn fu<sin h]gno<hsen ou]de> parh?lqen a]nece<-
taston a]ll ] e]n ta<saij e]filoso<fhsen. Cf. Irenaeus, Cont, Her. iv.
27. 1: eam quae est in conditione (kti<sei) sapientiarn Dei exponebat
physiologice.
The historical books show us how much the age of Solomon
favoured philosophical inquiries by its prosperity and peace, its
active and manifold commercial intercourse with foreign nations,
its circle of vision extending to Tarshish and Ophir, and also how
Solomon himself attained to an unequalled elevation in the extent
(of his human and secular knowledge. We also read of some of the
wise men in 1 Kings v. 11, cf. Ps. lxxxviii. lxxxix., who adorned
the court of the wisest of kings; and the lwAmA, which became,
through his influence, a special branch of Jewish literature, is
the peculiar poetic form of the hmAk;HA. Therefore in the Book of
Proverbs we find the name MymikAHE yreb;Di (words of the wise) used
for MyliwAm; (proverbs); and by a careful consideration of all the
proverbs in which mention is made of the MymikAHE one will convince
Sicut enim arenae maris universas orbis oras circumdant, ita et sapientia ejus
omnia humana non minus quam divina complexa est. In aphorismis vero illis
praeter alia magis theologica reperies liquido haud pauca praecepta et monita
civilia praestantissima, ex profundis quidem sapientiae penetralibus scaturientia
atque in amplissimum varietatis campum excurrentia." Accordingly, in the
same work Bacon calls the Proverbs of Solomon "insignes parabolas s. apho-
rismos de divina atque morali philosophia."
INTRODUCTION. 39
himself that this name has not merely a common ethical sense, but
begins to be the name of those who made wisdom, i.e. the know-
ledge of things in the depths of their essence, their special lifework,
and who connected themselves together in oneness of sentiment and
fellowship into a particular circle within the community. To this
conclusion we are conducted by such proverbs as xiii. 20—
He that walketh with wise men becomes wise,
And whoever has intercourse with fools is destroyed;
xv. 12¾
The scorner loveth not that one reprove him:
To wise men he goeth not;¾
and by the contrast, which prevails in the Book of Proverbs,
between Cle (mocker) the MkAHA (wise), in which we see that, at
the same time with the striving after wisdom, scepticism also,
which we call free thought, obtained a great ascendency in Israel.
Mockery of religion, rejection of God in principle and practice,
a casting away of all fear of Jahve, and in general of all deisidai-
moni<a, were in Israel phenomena which had already marked the
times of David. One may see from the Psalms that the com-
munity of the Davidic era is to be by no means regarded as furnish-
ing a pattern of religious life: that there were in it MyiOG (Gentile
nations) which were in no way externally inferior to them, and that
it did not want for rejecters of God. But it is natural to expect
that in the Solomonic era, which was more than any other exposed
to the dangers of sensuality and worldliness, and of religious indif-
ference and free-thinking latitudinarianism, the number of the
Mycile increased, and that scepticism and mockery became more in-
tensified. The Solomonic era appears to have first coined the
name of Cle for those men who despised that which was holy,
and in doing so laid claim to wisdom (xiv. 6), who caused conten-
tion and bitterness when they spake, and carefully avoided the
society of the nan, because they thought themselves above their
admonitions (xv. 12). For in the psalms of the Davidic time the
word lbAnA is commonly used for them (it occurs in the Proverbs
only in xvii. 21, with the general meaning of low fellow, Germ.
Bube), and the name Cle, is never met with except once, in Ps. i. 1,
which belongs to the post-Davidic era. One of the Solomonic pro-
verbs (xxi. 24) furnishes a definite idea of this newly formed word:
An inflated arrogant man they call a scorner (Cle),
One who acts in the superfluity of haughtiness.
40 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
By the self-sufficiency of his ungodly thoughts and actions he
is distinguished from the ytiP, (simple), who is only misled, and
may therefore be reclaimed, xix. 25, xxi. 11; by his non-recog-
nition of the Holy in opposition to a better knowledge and better
means and opportunities, he is distinguished from the lysiK; (fool-
ish, stupid) xvii. 16, the lyvix< (foolish, wicked), i. 7, vii. 22, and
the ble rsaHE (the void of understanding), vi. 32, who despise truth
and instruction from want of understanding, narrowness, and
forgetfulness of God, but not from perverse principle. This
name specially coined, the definition of it given (cf. also the
similarly defining proverb xxiv. 8), and in general the rich and
fine technical proverbs in relation to the manifold kinds of wisdom
(hnAyBi, xvi. 16; rsaUm, i. 8; tOnUbT;, xxi. 30; tOm.zim;, v. 2; tOlUBH;Ta, i. 5,
xii. 5; the hy.AwiUT first coined by the Chokma, etc.), of instruction
in wisdom (Hqal,, i. 5; hrAOT, iv. 2, vi. 23; hfArA, to tend a flock, to
instruct, x. 21; j`noHE, xxii. 6; HakeOh, xv. 12; tOwpAn; HqalA, to win souls,
vi. 25, xi. 30), of the wise men themselves (MkAHA, xii. 15; NObnA, x. 13;
HaykIOm, a reprover, preacher of repentance, xxv. 12, etc.), and of the
different classes of men (among whom also yraHExa MdAxA, one who steps
backwards [retrogrades], xxviii. 23)—all this shows that hmAk;HA was
at that time not merely the designation of an ethical quality, but
also the designation of a science rooted in the fear of God to which
many noble men in Israel then addicted themselves. Jeremiah
places (xviii. 18) the MkAHA along with the NheKo (priest) and xybinA
(prophet); and if Ezek. (vii. 26) uses NqezA (old man) instead of
MkAHA, yet by reference to Job xii. 12 this may be understood. In
his "Dissertation on the popular and intellectual freedom of Israel
from the time of the great prophets to the first destruction of
Jerusalem" (Jahrbücher, i. 96 f.), Ewald says, "One can scarcely
sufficiently conceive how high the attainment was which was reached
in the pursuit after wisdom (philosophy) in the first centuries after
David, and one too much overlooks the mighty influence it exerted
on the entire development of the national life of Israel. The more
closely those centuries are inquired into, the more are we astonished
at the vast power which wisdom so early exerted on all sides as the
common object of pursuit of many men among the people. It first
openly manifested itself in special circles of the people, while in the
age after Solomon, which was peculiarly favourable to it, eagerly
inquisitive scholars gathered around individual masters, until ever
increasing schools were formed. But its influence gradually pene-
INTRODUCTION. 41
trated all the other pursuits of the people, and operated on the most
diverse departments of authorship." We are in entire sympathy
with this historical view first advanced by Ewald, although we must
frequently oppose the carrying of it out in details. The literature
and the national history of Israel are certainly not understood if one
does not take into consideration, along with the hxAUbn; (prophecy), the
influential development of the hmAk;HA as a special aim and subject of
intellectual activity in Israel.
And how was this Chokma conditioned—to what was it directed?
To denote its condition and aim in one word, it was universalistic,
or humanistic. Emanating from the fear or the religion of Jahve
('h j`r,D,, the way of the Lord, x. 29), but seeking to comprehend
the spirit in the letter, the essence in the forms of the national life,
its effort was directed towards the general truth affecting mankind
as such. While prophecy, which is recognised by the Chokma as a
spiritual power indispensable to a healthful development of a people
(MfA fraPAyi NOzHA NyxeB;, xxix. 18), is of service to the historical process into
which divine truth enters to work out its results in Israel, and from
thence outward among mankind, the Chokma seeks to look into the
very essence of this truth through the robe of its historical and
national manifestation, and then to comprehend those general ideas
in which could already be discovered the fitness of the religion of
Jahve for becoming the world-religion. From this aim towards the
ideal in the historical, towards the everlasting same amid changes,
the human (I intentionally use this word) in the Israelitish, the
universal religion in the Jahve-religion (Jahvetum), and the uni-
versal morality in the Law, all the peculiarities of the Book of
Proverbs are explained, as well as of the long, broad stream of the
literature of the Chokma, beginning with Solomon, which, when the
Palestinian Judaism assumed the rugged, exclusive, proud national
character of Pharisaism, developed itself in Alexandrinism. Ber-
theau is amazed that in the Proverbs there are no warnings given
against the worship of idols, which from the time of the kings
gained more and more prevalence among the Israelitish people.
"How is it to be explained," he asks (Spr. p. xlii.), "if the
proverbs, in part at least, originated during the centuries of conflict
between idolatry and the religion of Jahve, and if they were col-
lected at a time in which this conflict reached its climax and stirred
all ranks of the people—this conflict against the immorality of the
Phoenician-Babylonian religion of nature which must often have
42 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
led into the same region of the moral contemplation of the world
over which this book moves?!" The explanation lies in this, that
the Chokma took its stand-point in a height and depth in which it
had the mingling waves of international life and culture under it
and above it, without being internally moved thereby. It naturally
did not approve of heathenism, it rather looked upon the fear of
Jahve as the beginning of wisdom, and the seeking after Jahve as
implying the possession of all knowledge (xxviii. 5, cf. 1 John ii. 20);
but it passed over the struggle of prophecy against heathendom, it
confined itself to its own function, viz. to raise the treasures of gene-
ral religious-moral truth in the Jahve-religion, and to use them for
the ennobling of the Israelites as men. In vain do we look for the
name lxerAW;yi in the Proverbs, even the name hrAOT has a much more
flexible idea attached to it than that of the law written at Sinai
(cf. xxviii. 4, xxix. 18 with xxviii. 7, xiii. 14, and similar passages);
prayer and good works are placed above sacrifice, xv. 8, xxi. 3, 27,
—practical obedience to the teaching of wisdom above all, xxviii. 9.
The Proverbs refer with special interest to Gen. i. and ii., the
beginnings of the world and of the human race before nations took
their origin. On this primitive record in the book of Genesis, to
speak only of the hmolow; ylew;mi, the figure of the tree of life (perhaps
also of the fountain of life), found nowhere else in the Old Testa-
ment, leans; on it leans also the contrast, deeply pervading the
Proverbs, between life (immortality, xii. 28) and death, or between
that which is above and that which is beneath (xv. 24); on it also
many other expressions, such, e.g., as what is said in xx. 27 of the
"spirit of man." This also, as Stier (Der Weise ein König, 1849,
p. 240) has observed, accounts for the fact that MdAxA occurs by far
most frequently in the Book of Job and in the Solomonic writings.
All these phenomena are explained from the general human
universal aim of the Chokma.
When James (iii. 17) says that the "wisdom that is from above
is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of
mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy,"
his words most excellently designate the nature and the contents of
the discourse of wisdom in the Solomonic proverbs, and one is
almost inclined to think that the apostolic brother of the Lord,
when he delineates wisdom, has before his eyes the Book of the
Proverbs, which raises to purity by the most impressive admoni-
tions. Next to its admonitions to purity are those especially to
INTRODUCTION. 43
peacefulness, to gentle resignation (xiv. 30), quietness of mind
(xiv. 33) and humility (xi. 2, xv. 33, xvi. 5, 18), to mercy (even
toward beasts, xii. 10), to firmness and sincerity of conviction, to
the furtherance of one's neighbour by means of wise discourse and
kind help. What is done in the Book of Deuteronomy with refer-
ence to the law is continued here. As in Deuteronomy, so here,
love is at the bottom of its admonitions, the love of God to men,
and the love of men to one another in their diverse relations (xii. 2,
xv. 9); the conception of hqAdAc; gives way to that of charity, of alms-
giving (dikaiosu<nh = e]lehmosu<nh). Forgiving, suffering love (x. 12),
love which does good even to enemies (xxv. 21 f.), rejoices not over
the misfortune that befalls an enemy (xxiv. 17 f.), retaliates not
(xxiv. 28 f.), but commits all to God (xx. 22),—love in its manifold
forms, as that of husband and wife, of children, of friends,—is here
recommended with New Testament distinctness and with deepest
feeling. Living in the fear of God (xxviii. 14), the Omniscient
(xv. 3, 11, xvi. 2, xxi. 2, xxiv. 11 f.), to whom as the final Cause
all is referred (xx. 12, 24, xiv. 31, xxii. 2), and whose universal
plan all must subserve (xvi. 4, xix. 21, xxi. 30), and on the other
side active pure love to man—these are the hinges on which all the
teachings of wisdom in the Proverbs turn. Frederick Schlegel, in
the fourteenth of his Lectures on the History of Literature, distin-
guishes, not without deep truth, between the historico-prophetic
books of the Old Testament, or books of the history of redemption,
and the Book of Job, the Psalms, and the Solomonic writings, as
books of aspiration, corresponding to the triple chord of faith, hope,
charity as the three stages of the inner spiritual life. The Book
of Job is designed to support faith amid trials; the Psalms breathe
forth and exhibit hope amid the conflicts of earth's longings; the
Solomonic writings reveal to us the mystery of the divine love, and
the Proverbs that wisdom which grows out of and is itself eternal
love. When Schlegel in the same lecture says that the books of the
Old Covenant, for the most part, stand under the signature of the
lion as the element of the power of will and spirited conflict glow-
ing in divine fire, but that in the inmost hidden kernel and heart
of the sacred book the Christian figure of the lamb rises up out
of the veil of this lion strength, this may specially be said of the
Book of Proverbs, for here that same heavenly wisdom preaches,
which, when manifested in person, spake in the Sermon on the
Mount, New Testament love in the midst of the Old Testament.
44 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
It is said that in the times before Christ there was a tendency to
apocryphize not only the Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes, but
also the Book of Proverbs, and that for the first time the men of
the Great Synagogue established their canonicity on the ground of
their spiritual import; they became perplexed about the Proverbs,
according to b. Sabbath, 30b, on account of such self-contradictory
proverbs as xxvi. 4, 5, and according to Aboth de-Rabbi Nathan,
c. 1, on account of such secular portions as that of the wanton
woman, vii. But there is no need to allegorize this woman, and
that self-contradiction is easily explained. The theopneustic cha-
racter of the book and its claim to canonicity show themselves
from its integral relation to the Old Testament preparation for
redemption; but keeping out of view the book as a whole, it is
self-evident that the conception of a practical proverb such as
xiv. 4 and of a prophecy such as Isa. vii. 14 are very different
phenomena of the spiritual life, and that in general the operation of
the Divine Spirit in a proverb is different from that in a prophecy.
We have hitherto noted the character of the instruction set
forth in the Proverbs according to the marks common to them in
all their parts, but in such a way that we have taken our proofs
only from the "Proverbs of Solomon" and the "Words of the
Wise," with the exclusion of the introductory proverbial poems of
the older editor. If we compare the two together, it cannot be
denied that in the type of the instruction contained in the latter,
the Chokma, of which the book is an emanation and which it has as
its aim (hmAk;HA tfadalA, i. 2), stands before us in proportionally much
more distinctly defined comprehension and form; we have the
same relation before us whose adumbration is the relation of the
instruction of wisdom in the Avesta and in the later Minochired
(Spiegel, Parsi-Grammatik, p. 182 ff.). The Chokma appears also
in the "Proverbs of Solomon" as a being existing in and for itself,
which is opposed to ambiguous subjective thought (xxviii. 26);
but here there is attributed to it an objectivity even to an apparent
personality: it goes forth preaching, and places before all men life
and death for an eternally decisive choice, it distributes the spirit
to those who do not resist (i. 23), it receives and answers prayer
(i. 28). The speculation regarding the Chokma is here with
reference to Job xxviii. (cf. Prov. ii. 4, iii. 14 f., viii. 11, 19), and
particularly to xxviii. 27, where a demiurgic function is assigned
to wisdom, carried back to its source in eternity: it is the
INTRODUCTION. 45
medium by which the world was created, iii. 19; it was before
the creation of the world with God as from everlasting, His son of
royal dignity, viii. 22-26; it was with Him in His work of creation,
viii. 27-30; after the creation it remained as His delight, rejoicing
always before Him, and particularly on the earth among the sons
of men, viii. 30 f. Staudenmaier (Lehre von der Idee, p. 37) is
certainly not on the wrong course, when under this rejoicing of
wisdom before God he understands the development of the ideas
or life-thoughts intimately bound up in it—the world-idea. This
development is the delight of God, because it represents to the
divine contemplation the contents of wisdom, or of the world-idea
founded in the divine understanding, in all its activities and inner
harmonies; it is a calm delight, because the divine idea unites
with the fresh and ever young impulse of life, the purity, good-
ness, innocence, and holiness of life, because its spirit is light,
clear, simple, childlike, in itself peaceful, harmonious, and happy;
and this delight is experienced especially on the earth among the
sons of men, among whom wisdom has its delight; for, as the
divide idea, it is in all in so far as it is the inmost life-thought, the
soul of each being, but it is on the earth of men in whom it comes
to its self-conception, and self-conscious comes forth into the light
of the clear day. Staudenmaier has done the great service of
having worthily estimated the rich and deep fulness of this biblical
theologumenon of wisdom, and of having pointed out in it the
foundation-stone of a sacred metaphysics and a means of protection
against pantheism in all its forms. We see that in the time of the
editor of the older Book of Proverbs the wisdom of the schools in its
devotion to the chosen object of its pursuit, the divine wisdom living
and moving in all nature, and forming the background of all things,
rises to a height of speculation on which it has planted a banner
showing the right way to latest times. Ewald rightly points to the
statements in the introduction to the Proverbs regarding wisdom
as a distinct mark of the once great power of wisdom in Israel;
for they show us how this power learned to apprehend itself in
its own purest height, after it had become as perfect, and at the
same time also as self-conscious, as it could at all become in ancient
Israel.
Many other appearances also mark the advanced type of in-
struction contained in the introduction. Hitzig's view (Sprüche,
p. xvii. f.), that i. 6–ix. 18 are the part of the whole collection
46 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
which was earliest written, confutes itself on all sides; on the con-
trary, the views of Bleek in his Introduction to the Old Testament,
thrown out in a sketchy manner and as if by a diviner, surprisingly
agree with our own results, which have been laboriously reached
and are here amply established. The advanced type of instruc-
tion in the introduction, i.—ix., appears among other things in this,
that we there find the allegory, which up to this place occurs in
Old Testament literature only in scattered little pictures built up
into independent poetic forms, particularly in ix., where without
any contradiction tUlysiK; tw,xe [a simple woman, v. 13] is an alle-
gorical person. The technical language of the Chokma has ex-
tended itself on many sides and been refined (we mention these
synonyms: hmAk;HA, tfaDa, hnAyBi, hmAr;fA, hm.Azim;, rsAUm, hy.AwiUT); and the seven
pillars in the house of wisdom, even though it be inadmissible to
think of them as the seven liberal arts, yet point to a division into
seven parts of which the poet was conscious to himself. The
common address, yniB; [my son], which is not the address of the
father to the son, but of the teacher to the scholar, countenances
the supposition that there were at that time MymikAHE yneB; i.e. scholars of
the wise men, just as there were "sons of the prophets" (Myxibin;),
and probably also schools of wisdom. "And when it is described
how wisdom spake aloud to the people in all the streets of Jeru-
salem, in the high places of the city and in every favourable place,
does not one feel that such sublime descriptions could not be
possible unless at that time wisdom were regarded by the people as
one of the first powers, and the wise men truly displayed a great
public activity?" We must answer this question of Ewald's in
the affirmative.
Bruch, in his Weisheitslehre der Hebraer, 1851, was the first to
call special attention to the Chokma or humanism as a peculiar
intellectual tendency in Israel; but he is mistaken in placing
it in an indifferent and even hostile relation to the national law
and the national cultus, which he compares to the relation of
Christian philosophy to orthodox theology. Oehler, in his Grund-
züge der alttestamentl. Weisheit, which treats more especially of
the doctrinal teachings of the Book of Job, judges more correctly;
cf. also his comprehensive article, Pädagogik des A. T. in Schmid's
Pädagogischer Encyclopädie, pp. 653-695 (partic. 677-683).
5. The Alexandrian Translation of the Book of Proverbs.—Of
INTRODUCTION. 47
highest interest for the history of the Book of Proverbs is the
relation of the LXX. to the Hebrew text. One half of the
proverbs of Agur (xxx. of the Hebrew text) are placed in it
after xxiv. 22, and the other half after xxiv. 34; and the proverbs
of King Lemuel (xxxi. 1-9 of the Hebrew text) are placed after
the proverbs of Agur, while the acrostic proverbial poem of the
virtuous woman is in its place at the end of the book. That
transposition reminds us of the transpositions in Jeremiah, and
rests in the one place as well as in the other on a misunderstand-
ing of the true contents. The translator has set aside the new
superscription, x. 1, as unsuitable, and has not marked the new
beginning, xxii. 17; he has expunged the new superscription,
xxiv. 23, and has done the same to the superscription, "The words
of Agur" (xxx. 1), in two awkward explanations (lo<gon fulas-
so<menoj and tou>j e]mou>j lo<gouj fobh<qhti), and the superscription,
"The words of Lemuel" (xxxi. 1), in one similar (oi[ e]moi> lo<gi
ei@rhntai u[po> Qeou?), so that the proverbs of Agur and of Lemuel
are without hesitation joined with those of Solomon, whereby it
yet remains a mystery why the proverbs beginning with "The
words of Agur" have been divided into two parts. Hitzig ex-
plains it from a confounding of the columns in which, two being
on each page, the Hebrew MS. which lay before the translator
was written, and in which the proverbs of Agur and of Lemuel
(names which tradition understood symbolically of Solomon) were
already ranked in order before ch. xxv. But besides these, there
are also many other singular things connected with this Greek
translation interesting in themselves and of great critical worth.
That it omits i. 16 may arise from this, that this verse was not
found in the original MS.) and was introduced from Isa. lix. 7; but
there are wanting also proverbs such as xxi. 5, for which no reason
can be assigned. But the additions are disproportionately more
numerous. Frequently we find a line added to the distich, such
as in i. 18, or an entire distich added, as iii. 15; or of two lines of the
Hebrew verse, each is formed into a separate distich, as i. 7, xi. 16;
or we meet with longer interpolations, extending far beyond
this measure, as that added to iv. 27. Many of these proverbs
are easily re-translated into the Hebrew, as that added to iv. 27,
consisting of four lines:
hvhy fdy Mynymym ykrd yk
MylyxmWm ykrd Mywqfv
48 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
jytvlgfm slpy xvh
:Hylcy Mvlwb jytvHrx
But many of them also sound as if they had been originally
Greek; e.g. the lines appended to ix. 10, xiii. 15; the distich, vi.
11; the imperfect tristich, xxii. 14; and the formless trian, xxv.
10. The value of these enlargements is very diverse; not a few
of these proverbs are truly thoughtful, such as the addition to
xii. 13—
He who is of mild countenance findeth mercy;
He who is litigious crushes souls—
and singularly bold in imagery, as the addition to ix. 12¾
He who supports himself by lies hunts after (hfr) the wind,
He catches at fluttering birds;
For he forsakes the ways of his own vineyard,
And wanders away from the paths of his own field,
And roams through arid steppes and a thirsty land,
And gathers with his hand withered heath.
The Hebrew text lying before the Alexandrian translators had
certainly not all these additions, yet in many passages, such as
xi. 16, it is indeed a question whether it is not to be improved from
the LXX.; and in other passages, where, if one reads the Greek,
the Hebrew words naturally take their place, whether these are not
at least old Hebrew marginal notes and interpolations which the
translation preserves. But this version itself has had its gradual
historical development. The text, the koinh< (communis), proceeds
from the Hexaplar text edited by Origen, which received from him
many and diverse revisions; and in the times before Christ, perhaps
(as Hitz. supposes), down to the second century after Christ, the
translation itself, not being regarded as complete, was in the pro-
gress of growth, for not unfrequently two different translations of
one and the same proverb stand together, as xiv. 22, xxix. 25
(where also the Peshito follows the LXX. after which it translates),
or also interpenetrate one another, as xxii. 8, 9. These doubled
translations are of historical importance both in relation to the
text and to the interpretation of it. Along with the Books of
Samuel and Jeremiah, there is no book in regard to which the
LXX. can be of higher significance than the Book of Proverbs;
we shall seek in the course of our exposition duly to estimate the
text1 as adopted by Bertheau (1847) and Hitzig (1858) in their
1 Cf. also J. Gottlob Jäger's Observationes in Proverbiorum Salomonis Ver-
sionem Alexandrinam, 1788; de Lagarde's Anmerkungen zur griech. Uebersetzung
INTRODUCTION. 49
commentaries, and by Ewald in his Jahrb. xi. (1861) and his
commentary (2d ed. 1867). The historical importance of the
Egyptian text-recension is heightened by this circumstance, that
the old Syrian translator of the Solomonic writings had before
him not only the original text, but also the LXX.; for the current
opinion, that the Peshito, as distinguished from the Syro-Hexaplar
version, sprang solely from the original text with the assistance of
the Targum, is more and more shown to be erroneous. In the Book
of Proverbs the relation of the Peshito and Targum is even the
reverse; the Targum of the Proverbs, making use of the Peshito,
restores the Masoretic text,—the points of contact with the LXX.
showing themselves here and there, are brought about 1 by the
Peshito. But that Jerome, in his translation of the Vulgate accord-
ing to the Hebraea veritas, sometimes follows the LXX. in opposi-
tion to the original text, is to be explained with Hitzig from the fact
that he based his work on an existing Latin translation made from
the LXX. Hence it comes that the two distichs added in the
LXX. to iv. 27 remain in his work, and that instead of the one
distich, xv. 6, we have two:—In abundanti (after the phrase broB;
instead of tyBe of the Masoretic text) justitia virtus maxima est,
cogitationes autem impiorum eradicabuntur. Domus (tyBe) justi
plurima fortitudo, et in fructibus impii conturbatio; for Jerome has
adopted the two translations of the LXX., correcting the second
according to the original text.2
der Proverbien, 1863 ; M. Heidenheim's Zur Textkritik der Proverbien, in his
Quarterly Journal for German and English Theological Criticism and Investi-
gation, No. VIII. (1865), and IX., XI. (1866). The text of the LXX. (cf.
Angelo Mai's Classici Auctores, t. ix.) used by Procopius in his [Ermhnei<a ei]j ta>j
paroimi<aj is peculiar, and here and there comes near to the Hebrew original.
The scholion of Evagrius in the Sxo<lia ei]j ta>j paroimi<aj of Origen, edited by
Tischendorf in his Notitia, 1860, from a MSS. of Patmos, shows how soon even
the Hexaplar text became ambiguous.
1 Cf. Dathe, De ratione consensus Versionis Syriac el Chaldaicae Proverbiorum
Salomonis (1764), edited by Rosenmüller in his Opuscula. Maybaum, in the
Treatise on the Language of the Targum to the Proverbs and its relation to the
Syriac, in Merx's Archiv, ii. 66-93, labours in vain to give the priority to that of
the Targum: the Targum is written from the Peshito, and here and there ap-
proaches the Hebrew text; the language is, with few differences, the Syriac of
the original.
2 The Ethiopic translation, also, is in particular points, as well as on the
whole, dependent on the LXX., for it divides the Book of Proverbs into pro-
verbs (paroimi<aj), xxiv., and instructions (paidei?ai) of Solomon, xxv.—
xxxi. Vid. Dillmann in Ewald's Jahrb. v. 147, 150.
50 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
The fragments of the translations of Aquila, Symmachus, Theo-
dotion, etc., contained in Greek and Syrian sources, have been
recently collected, more perfectly than could have been done by
Montfaucon, by Fried. Field, in his work Origenis Hexaplorum quae
supersunt, etc. (Oxonii, 1867, 4). Of special interest is the more
recent translation of the original text, existing only in a MS. laid up
in the Library of St. Mark [at Venice], executed in bold language,
rich in rare and newly invented words, by an unknown author, and
belonging to an age which has not yet been determined (Graecus
Venetus): cf. d'Ansse de Villoison's nova versio Graeca Proverbio-
rum, Ecclesiastis, Cantici Canticorum, etc., Argentorati, 1784 ; and
also the Animadversiones thereto of Jo. Ge. Dallier, 1786.
The literature of the interpretation of the Book of Proverbs is
found in Keil's Einleitung in das A. T. (1859), p. 346 f. [Manual
of Historico-Critical Introduction to the Old Testament, translated
by Professor Douglas, D.D., Free Church College, Glasgow.
Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. Vol. i. p. 468 f.]. The most important
of the older linguistic works on this book is the commentary of
Albert Schultens (Lugduni Batavorum, 1748, 4), whose service to
the cause of Semitic philology and O. T. exegesis Mühlau has
brought to remembrance in the Lutheran Zeitschrift, 1870, 1;
Vogel's abstract (Halae, 1769), prefaced by Semler, does not alto-
gether compensate for the original work. From the school of
Schultens, and also from that of Schröder, originate the Anmer-
kungen by Alb. Jac. Arnoldi, maternal grandson of Schultens, a
Latin edition of which was published (Lugduni Bat. 1783) by
Henr. Alb. Schultens, the grandson of Schultens by his son.
Among the commentaries of English interpreters, that in Latin
by Thomas Cartwright (Arnstelredami, 1663, 4), along with the
Exposition of the Book of Proverbs by Charles Bridges (4th ed.,
London, 1859), hold an honourable place. The Critical Remarks
on the Books of Job, Proverbs, etc., by D. Durell (Oxford, 1772, 4),
also merit attention. Of more recent commentaries, since Keil gave
his list of the literature of the subject, have been published those of
Elster (1858) and of Zöckler (1867), forming a part of the theo-
logico-homiletical Bibelwerk edited by J. P. Lange. Chaps. xxv.-
xxix. Rud. Stier has specially interpreted in two works entitled Der
INTRODUCTION. 51
Weise ein König [“The Wise Man a King”], and Salomonis Weisheit
in Hiskiastagen ["Solomon's Wisdom in the Days of Hezekiah"],
1849; and chapters xxx. xxxi. in a work entitled Die Politik der
Weisheit ["The Politics of Wisdom"], 1850. Part iii. (1865)
of the new exegetico-critical Aehrenlese ["Gleanings"] of Fried.
Böttcher, edited by Mühlau, furnishes 39 pages of remarks on
the Proverbs. Leop. Dukes, author of the Rabbinical Blumenlese
["Anthology "], 1844, and the Schrift zur rabbinischen Spruchkunde,
1851, has published (1841) a commentary to the Proverbs in
Cahen's French Bibelwerk. There also is furnished a list of Jewish
interpreters down to the appearance of L. H. Loewenstein's Com-
mentary (1838), which contains valuable contributions to the
critical confirmation of the Masoretic text, in which Heidenheim's
MS. remains, and also the Codex of 1294 mentioned in my preface
to Baer's edition of the Psalter, and in the Specimen Lectionum
of Baer's edition of Genesis, are made use of. Among Malbim's
best works are, after his Commentary on Isaiah, that on the
Mishle (Warsaw, 1867). [Vide Preface.)
I.
THE OLDER BOOK OF PROVERBS
I.-XXIV.
SUPERSCRIPTION AND MOTTO, I. 1-7.
THE external title, i.e. the Synagogue name, of the whole
collection of Proverbs is ylew;mi (Mishle), the word with
which it commences. Origen (Euseb. H. E. vi. 25)
uses the name Mislw<q, i.e. tOlwAm;, which occurs in the
Talmud and Midrash as the designation of the book, from its con-
tents. In a similar way, the names given to the Psalter, Myl.ihiT; and
tOl.hiT;, are interchanged.
This external title is followed by one which the Book of Proverbs,
viewed as to its gradual formation, and first the older portion, gives
to itself. It reaches from i. 1 to ver. 6, and names not only the con-
tents and the author of the book, but also commends it in regard to the
service which it is capable of rendering. It contains "Proverbs of
Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel." The books of the M123
and hmkH, including the Canticles, thus give their own titles ; among
the historical books, that of the memoirs of Nehemiah is the only
one that does so. ylew;mi has the accent Dechî, to separate1 it from
the following complex genitive which it governs, and lxerW;yi j`l,m, is
made the second hemistich, because it belongs to hmolow;, not to
dviD.2 As to the fundamental idea of the word lwAmA we refer to the
derivation given in the Gesch. der jud. Poesie, p. 196, from lwamA,
Aram. ltam;, root lt, Sanskr. tul (whence tulâ, balance, similarity),
Lat. tollere; the comparison of the Arab. mathal leads to the same
1 Norzi has erroneously accented ylwm with the accent Munach. The m is
besides the Masoretic majusculum, like the b, w, and x at the commencement
of the Law, the Canticles, and Chronicles.
2 If it had belonged to dvd, then the sentence would have been accented
thus: lxrWy jlm dvd-Nb hmlw ylwm.
52
CHAP. I. 2. 53
conclusion. "lwAmA signifies, not, as Schultens and others after him
affirm, effigies ad similitudinem alius rei expressa, from lwamA in the
primary signification premere, premente manu tractare; for the cor-
responding Arab. verb mathal does not at all bear that meaning,
but signifies to stand, to present oneself, hence to be like, properly
to put oneself forth as something, to represent it; and in the Hebr.
also to rule, properly with lfa to stand on or over something, with
to hold it erect, like Arab. kam with b, rem administravit [vid.
Jesaia, p. 691]. Thus e.g., Gen. xxiv. 2, it is said of Eliezer:
Ol-rw,xE-lkAB; lwem.ha who ruled over all that he (Abraham) had (Luther:
was a prince over all his goods). Thus lwAmA, figurative discourse
which represents that which is real, similitude; hence then parable
or shorter apothegm, proverb, in so far as they express primarily
something special, but which as a general symbol is then applied to
everything else of a like kind, and in so far stands figuratively. An
example is found in 1 Sam. x. 11 f. It is incorrect to conclude
from this meaning of the word that such memorial sayings or pro-
verbs usually contained comparisons, or were clothed in figurative
language; for that is the case in by far the fewest number of in-
stances: the oldest have by far the simplest and most special
interpretations" (Fleischer). Hence Mashal, according to its
fundamental idea, is that which stands with something = makes
something stand forth = representing. This something that repre-
sents may be a thing or a person; as e.g. one may say Job is a
Mashal, i.e. a representant, similitude, type of Israel (vide the work
entitled MyyHh Cf, by Ahron b. Elia, c. 90, p. 143); and, like Arab.
mathal (more commonly mithl =lw,me, cf. lw,m;, Job xli. 25), is used
quite as generally as is its etymological cogn. instar (instare). But
in Hebr. Mashal always denotes representing discourse with the
additional marks of the figurative and concise, e.g. the section which
presents (Hab. ii. 6) him to whom it refers as a warning example,
but particularly, as there defined, the gnome, the apothegm or maxim,
in so far as this represents general truths in sharply outlined little
pictures.
Ver. 2. Now follows the statement of the object which these
proverbs subserve; and first, in general,
To become acquainted with wisdom and instruction,
To understand intelligent discourses.
They seek on the one side to initiate the reader in wisdom and
instruction, and on the other to guide him to the understanding
54 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
of intelligent discourses, for they themselves contain such discourses
in which there is a deep penetrating judgment, and they sharpen
the understanding of him who engages his attention with them.1
As Schultens has already rightly determined the fundamental
meaning of fdayA, frequently compared with the Sanskr. vid, to know
(whence by gunating,2 vêda, knowledge), after the Arab. wad'a, as
deponere, penes se condere, so he also rightly explains hmAk;HA by
soliditas; it means properly (from MkaHA, Arab. hiakm, R. hik, vide
under Ps. x. 8, to be firm, closed) compactness, and then, like
pukno<thj, ability, worldly wisdom, prudence, and in the higher
general sense, the knowledge of things in the essence of their
being and in the reality of their existence. Along with wisdom
stands the moral rsAUm, properly discipline, i.e. moral instruction, and
in conformity with this, self-government, self-guidance, from rsayA=
rsavA, cogn. rsaxA, properly adstrictio or constrictio; for the m of the
noun signifies both id quod or aliquid quod (o!, ti) and quod in the
conjunctional sense (o!ti), and thus forms both a concrete (like
rseOm=rsaxA, fetter, chain) and an abstract idea. The first general
object of the Proverbs is tfaDa, the reception into oneself of wisdom
and moral edification by means of education and training; the
second is to comprehend utterances of intelligence, i.e. such as
proceed from intelligence and give expression to it (cf. tm,x< yrem;xi,
xxii. 21). NyBi, Kal, to be distinguished (whence NyBe, between, constr.
of NyiBa, space between, interval), signifies in Hiph,. to distinguish,
to understand; hnAyBi; is, according to the sense, the n. actionis
of this Hiph., and signifies the understanding as the capability
effective in the possession of the right criteria of distinguishing
between the true and the false, the good and the bad (1 Kings
iii. 9), the wholesome and the pernicious.
Vers. 3-5. In the following, 2a is expanded in vers. 3-5, then
2b in ver. 6. First the immediate object:
3 To attain intelligent instruction,
Righteousness, and justice, and integrity;
4 To impart to the inexperienced prudence,
To the young man knowledge and discretion
5 Let the wise man hear and gain learning,
And the man of understanding take to himself rules of conduct.
1 tfadalA is rightly pointed by Löwenstein with Dechî after Cod. 1294; vide the
rule by which the verse is divided, Torath Emeth, p. 51, § 12.
2 [Guna = a rule in Sanskrit grammar regulating the modification of vowels.]
CHAP. I. 3-5. 55
With tfaDa, denoting the reception into oneself, acquiring, is inter-
changed (cf. ii. 1) tHaqa, its synonym, used of intellectual reception
and appropriation, which, contemplated from the point of view of
the relation between the teacher and the learner, is the correla-
tive of tTe, paradido<nai, tradere (ix. 9). But lKeW;ha rsaUm is that
which proceeds from chokma and musar when they are blended
together: discipline of wisdom, discipline training to wisdom; i.e.
such morality and good conduct as rest not on external inheritance,
training, imitation, and custom, but is bound up with the intelli-
gent knowledge of the Why and the Wherefore. lKeW;ha, as xxi. 16,
is inf. absol. used substantively (cf. Fqew;ha, keeping quiet, Isa. xxxii.
17) of lkaWA (whence lk,We intellectus), to entwine, involve; for the
thinking through a subject is represented as an interweaving,
complicating, configuring of the thoughts (the syllogism is in like
manner represented as lKow;x,, Aram. lOgs;, a bunch of grapes), (with
which also lkAsA, a fool, and lyKis;Hi, to act foolishly, are connected, from
the confusion of the thoughts, the entangling of the conceptions;
cf. Arab. 'akl, to understand, and lq.Afum;). The series of synonyms
(cf. xxiii. 23) following in 3b, which are not well fitted to be the
immediate object to tHaqalA, present themselves as the unfolding of
the contents of the lKeW;ha rsaUm, as meaning that namely which is
dutiful and right and honest. With the frequently occurring
two conceptions, FPAw;miU qd,c, (ii. 9), (or with the order reversed as
in Ps. cxix. 121) is interchanged hqAdAc;U FPAw;mi (or with the order
also reversed, xxi. 3). The remark of Heidenheim, that in qd,c, the
conception of the justum, and in hqAdAc; that of the aequum prevails,
is suggested by the circumstance that not qd,c, but hqAdAc; signifies
dikaiosu<nh (cf. x. 2) in the sense of liberality, and then of alms-
giving (e]lehmosu<nh); but qd,c, also frequently signifies a way of
thought and action which is regulated not by the letter of the law
and by talio, but by love (cf. Isa. xli. 2, xlii. 6). Tsedek and ts'dakah
have almost the relation to one another of integrity and justice
which practically brings the former into exercise. FPAw;mi (from
FpawA, to make straight, to adjust, cf. Fbw, Arab. sabitia, to be smooth)
is the right and the righteousness in which it realizes itself, here
subjectively considered, the right mind.1 MyriwAme (defect. for Myrwym,
from rwayA, to be straight, even) is plur. tantum; for its sing. rwAyme
1 According to Malbim, Fpwm is the fixed objective right, qdc the righteous-
ness which does not at once decide according to the letter of the law, but always
according to the matter and the person.
56 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
(after the form bFAyme) the form rOwymi (in the same ethical sense, e.g.
Mal. ii. 6) is used: it means thus a way of thought and of con-
duct that is straight, i.e. according to what is right, true, i.e.
without concealment, honest, i.e. true to duty and faithful to one's
word.
Ver. 4. This verse presents another aspect of the object to be
served by this book: it seeks to impart prudence to the simple.
The form MyixtAP;1 (in which, as in MyiOG, the y plur. remains unwritten)
is, in this mongrel form in which it is written (cf. vii. 7, viii. 5,
ix. 6, xiv. 18, xxvii. 12); made up of MyitAP; (i. 22, 32, once written
plene, MyyitAP;, xxii. 3) and MyxitAP; (vii. 7). These two forms with y
and the transition of y into x are interchanged in the plur. of
such nouns as ytiP;, segolate form, "from htAPA) (cogn. HtaPA), to be
open, properly the open-hearted, i.e. one whose heart stands open
to every influence from another, the harmless, good-natured,¾a
vox media among the Hebrews commonly (though not always, cf.
e.g. Ps. cxvi. 6) in malam partem: the foolish, silly, one who
allows himself to be easily persuaded or led astray, like similar
words in other languages — Lat. simplex, Gr. eu]h<qhj, Fr. naïv);
Arab. fatyn, always, however, in a good sense: a high and noble-
minded man, not made as yet mistrustful and depressed by sad
experiences, therefore juvenis ingenuus, vir animi generosi" (Fl.).
The MyxitAP;, not of firm and constant mind, have need of hmAr;fA;
therefore the saying xiv. 15, cf. viii. 5, xis. 25. The noun hmAr;fA
(a fem. segolate form like hmAk;HA) means here calliditas in a good
sense, while the corresponding Arab. 'aram (to be distinguished
from the verb 'aram, Mrf, to peel, to make bare, nudare) is used only
in a bad sense, of malevolent, deceptive conduct. In the parallel
member the word rfana) is used, generally (collectively) understood,
of the immaturity which must first obtain intellectual and moral
clearness and firmness; such an one is in need of peritia et sollertia,
as Fleischer well renders it; for tfaDa is experimental knowledge,
and hmA.zim; (from MmazA, according to its primary signification, to press
together, comprimere; then, referred to mental concentration: to
think) signifies in the sing., sensu bono, the capability of compre-
hending the right purposes, of seizing the right measures, of pro-
jecting the right plans.
Ver. 5. In this verse the infinitives of the object pass into inde-
1 Like MyixpAfI, Ps. civ. 12, MyixbAc;kiv;, 1 Cbron. xii. 8, cf. Michlol, 196a. In
vers. 22, 32, the mute x is wanting.
CHAP. I. 6. 57
pendent sentences for the sake of variety. That fmaw;yi cannot
mean audiet, but audiat, is shown by ix. 9; but Js,yov; is jussive,
(with the tone thrown back before Hqal,; cf. x. 9, and xvi. 21, 23
where the tone is not thrown back, as also 2 Sam. xxiv. 3) with
the consecutive Vav (v) (= Arab. , f): let him hear, thus will
he . . . or, in order that he. Whoever is wise is invited to
hear these proverbs in order to add learning (doctrinam) to that
which he already possesses, according to the principle derived from
experience, ix. 9, Matt. xiii. 12. The segolate Hqal,, which in pausa
retains its ¾, (as also HFaB,, fway,, Hmac,, j`l,m,, qd,c,, Md,q,, and others),
means reception, and concretely what one takes into himself with
his ear and mind; therefore learning (didaxh> with the object of
the a]podoxh<), as Deut. xxxii. 2 (parallel hrAm;xi, as iv. 2 hrAOT), and
then learning that has passed into the possession of the receivers
knowledge, science (Isa. xxix. 24, parall. hnAyBi). Schultens com-
pares the Arab. lakiah, used of the fructification of the female
palm by the flower-dust of the male. The part. NObnA (the fin. of
which is found only once, Isa. x. 13) is the passive or the re-
flexive of the Hiph. Nybihe, to explain, to make to understand: one
who is caused to understand or who lets himself be informed, and
thus an intelligent person—that is one who may gain tOlBuH;Ta by
means of these proverbs. This word, found only in the plur.
(probably connected with lbeHo, shipmaster, properly one who has
to do with the ship's ropes, particularly handles the sails,
LXX. kube<rnhsin, signifies guidance, management, skill to direct
anything (Job xxxii. 7, of God's skill which directs the clouds),
and in the plur. conception, the taking measures, designs, in a good
sense, or also (as in xii. 5) in a bad sense; here it means guiding
thoughts, regulating principles, judicious rules and maxims, as xi.
14, prudent rules of government, xx. 18, xxiv. 6 of stratagems. Fl.
compares the Arab. tedbîr (guidance, from rbaDA, to lead cattle), with
its plur. tedâbîr, and the Syr. dubôro, direction, management, etc.
Ver. 6. The mediate object of these proverbs, as stated in ver. 2b,
is now expanded, for again it is introduced in the infinitive con-
struction:—The reader shall learn in these proverbs, or by means
of them as of a key, to understand such like apothegms generally
(as xxii. 17 ff.)
To understand proverb and symbol,
The words of wise men and their enigmas.
58 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
In the Gesch. der jüd. Poesie, p. 200 f., the derivation of the noun
hcAylim; is traced from CUl primarily to shine, Sanskr. las, frequently
with the meanings ludere and lucere; but the Arab. brings near
another primary meaning. “Cylm from Arab. root las, flexit, torsit,
thus properly oratio detorta, obliqua, non aperta; hence Cle, mocker,
properly qui verbis obliquis utitur: as Hiph. Cylihe, to scoff, but also
verba detorta retorquere, i.e. to interpret, to explain" (Fl.). Of the
root ideas found in hdAyHi, to be sharp, pointed (rha, perhaps related
to the Sanskr. katu, sharp of taste, but not to acutus), and to
be twisted (cf. dHaxA, dgaxA, dqafA, harmonizing with the at present
mysterious catena), the preference is given to the latter already,
Ps. lxxviii. 2. "The Arab. hâd, to revolve, to turn (whence hid,
bend, turn aside!), thence hdAyHi, strofh<, cunning, intrigue, as also
enigma, dark saying, perplexe dictum" (Fl.) The comparison made
by Schultens with the Arab. hidt as the name of the knot on the
horn of the wild-goat shows the sensible fundamental conception.
In post-biblical literature hdyH is the enigma proper, and hcAylim;
poetry (with hcAlAhE of poetical prose). The Graec. Venet. translates
it r[htorei<an.
Ver. 7. The title of the book is followed by its motto, symbol,
device:
The fear of Jahve is the beginning of knowledge;
Wisdom and discipline is despised by fools.
The first hemistich expresses the highest principle of the Israelitish
Chokma, as it is found also in ix. 10 (cf. xv. 33), Job xxviii. 28, and
in Ps. cxi. 10 (whence the LXX. has interpolated here two lines).
tywixre combines in itself, as a]rxh<, the ideas of initium (accordingly
J. H. Michaelis: initium cognitionis, a quo quisquis recte philoso-
phari cupit auspicium facere debet) and principium, i.e. the basis,
thus the root (cf. Mic. i. 13 with Job xix. 28).1 Wisdom comes
from God, and whoever fears Him receives it (cf. Jas. i. 5 f.).
hOAhy; txar;yi is reverential subordination to the All-directing and
since designedly hvhy is used, and not Myhilox<(hA), to the One God,
the Creator and Governor of the world, who gave His law unto
Israel, and also beyond Israel left not His holy will unattested;
the reverse side of the fear of Jahve as the Most Holy One is
frA txnoW;, viii. 13 (post-biblical xF;He txar;yi). The inverted placing
1 In Sirach i. 14, 16, the Syr. has both times xtmkH wyr; but in the
second instance, where the Greek translation has plhsmonh> sofi<aj, hmAk;HA fbaW
(after Ps. xvi. 11) may have existed in the original text.
CHAP. I. 8, 9. 59
of the words 7b imports that the wisdom and discipline which
one obtains in the way of the fear of God is only despised by the
Myliyvix<, i.e. the hard, thick, stupid; see regarding the root-word
lvx, coalescere, cohaerere, incrassari, der Prophet Jesaia, p. 424, and
at Ps. lxxiii. 4. Schultens rightly compares paxei?j, crassi pro
stupidis.1 UzBA has the tone on the penult., and thus comes from
zUB; the 3d pr., of hzABA would be UzBA or UyzABA. The perf. (cf. ver. 29)
is to be interpreted after the Lat. oderunt (Ges. § 126).
FIRST INTRODUCTORY MASHAL DISCOURSE, I. 8-19.
WARNING AGAINST FELLOWSHIP WITH THOSE WHO SIN AGAINST
THEIR NEIGHBOUR'S LIFE AND PROPERTY.
Vers. 8, 9. After the author has indicated the object which his
Book of Proverbs is designed to subserve, and the fundamental
principle on which it is based, he shows for whom he has intended
it; he has particularly the rising generation in his eye:
8 Hear, my son, thy father's instruction,
And refuse not the teaching of thy mother;
9 For these are a fair crown to thy head,
And jewels to thy neck.
"My son," says the teacher of wisdom to the scholar whom he has,
or imagines that he has, before him, addressing him as a fatherly
friend. The N. T. representation of birth into a new spiritual life,
1 Cor. iv. 15, Philem. 10, Gal. iv. 19, lies outside the circle of
the O. T. representation; the teacher feels himself as a father
by virtue of his benevolent, guardian, tender love. Father and
mother are the beloved parents of those who are addressed. When
the Talmud understands j~ybixA of God, j~m,.xi of the people (hmA.xu),
that is not the grammatico-historic meaning, but the practical
interpretation and exposition, after the manner of the Midrash.
The same admonition (with rcon;, keep, instead of fmaw;, hear, and
tvac;mi, command, instead of rsaUm, instruction) is repeated in vi.
20, and what is said of the parents in one passage is in x. 1
divided into two synonymous parallel passages. The stricter
1 Malbim's explanation is singular: the sceptics, from ylaUx, perhaps! This
also is Heidenheim's view.
60 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
musar, which expresses the idea of sensible means of instruction
(discipline), 24, xxii. 15, xxiii. 13 f.), is suitably attributed to
the father, and the torah to the mother, only administered by the
word; Wisdom also always says ytirAOT (my torah), and only once,
viii. 10, yrisAUm (my musar).
Ver. 9. Mhe, which is also used in the neut. illa, e.g. Job xxii.
24, refers here to the paternal discipline and the maternal teaching.
These, obediently received and followed, are the fairest ornament
of the child. hyAv;li from hvAlA, to wind, to roll, Arab. lawy (from
whence also lUl = vlav;la, as dUD, to boil up,= vDav;Da), means winding,
twisted ornament, and especially wreath; a crown of gracefulness
is equivalent to a graceful crown, a corolla gratiosa, as Schultens
translates it; cf. iv. 9, according to which, Wisdom bestows such a
crown.1 MyqinAfE (or tOqnAfE, Judg. viii. 26) are necklaces, jewels for
the neck; denom. of the Arab. 'unek, and Aram. qnAUf, the neck
(perhaps from qnafA= qUf, to oppress, of heavy burdens; cf. au]xh<n,
the neck). tOrg;r;ga is, like fauces, the throat by which one swallows
(Arab. g' arg' ara, tag' arg' ara), a plur. extensive (Böttcher, § 695),
and is better fitted than NOrGA to indicate the external throat;
Ezekiel, however, uses (xvi. 11) garon, as our poet (iii. 3, 22,
vi. 21) uses garg'roth, to represent the front neck.2
Ver. 10. The general counsel of ver. 9 is here followed by a
more special warning:
My son, if sinners entice thee
Consent thou not.
The yniB;3 (my son) is emphatically repeated. The intensive form
MyxiF.AHa signifies men to whom sin has become a habit, thus vicious,
wicked. hTAPi (Pi. of htAPA, to open) is not denom., to make or wish
to make a ytiP;; the meaning, to entice (harmonizing with pei<qein),
hTAPi obtains from the root-meaning of the Kal, for it is related to
it as pandere (januam) to patere: to open, to make accessible,
susceptible, namely to persuasion. The warning 10b is as brief
as possible a call of alarm back from the abyss. In the form xbeTo
(from hbAXA, to agree to, to be willing, see Wetstein on Job, p. 349)
1 In NHe tyvl, the NH has the conjunctive accent shalsheleth, on account of
which the Pesiq accent (‘) is omitted. This small shalsheleth occurs only eight
times. See Torath Emeth, p. 36.
2 The writing varies greatly. Here and at vi. 21 we have j~t,roG;r;Gal;; at iii. 3,
j~t,OrG;r;Ga-lfa; iii. 22, j~yt,roG;r;gal;. Thus according to the Masora and correct texts.
3 The accent Pazer over the yniB; has has the force of Athnach.
CHAP. I. 11-14. 61
the preformative x is wanting, as in Urm;To, 2 Sam. xix. 14, cf. Ps.
cxxxix. 20, Ges. § 68, 2, and instead of hb,To (=hb,xTo, 1 Kings xx. 8) is
vocalized not xb,To (cf. xi. 25), but after the Aram. xbeTo (cf. yleg;yi); see
Gen. xxvi. 29, and Comment. on Isaiah, p. 648; Gesen. § 75, 17.
Vers. 11-14. Of the number of wicked men who gain associ-
ates to their palliation and strengthening, they are adduced as an
example whom covetousness leads to murder.
11 If they say, "Go with us, we will lurk for blood,
Lie in wait for the innocent without cause ;
12 Like the pit we will swallow them alive