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COMMENTARY
^^^ ON THE
HOLY SCRIPTURES:
CRITICAL, DOCTRINAL, AND HOMILETICAL.
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MINISTERS AND STUDENTS
JOHN I'ETER LANGE,
D.D., Iff coNNscrioN wire a number of eminent KURopsA^ divines.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN, AND EDITED, WITH ADDITIONS,
PHILIP SCHAFF,
D.D.,
A39:9TEI> BT AMSaK'AN SCHOLARS OF VARIOUS EVANGELICAL DEN0MIXAT10N3,
VOL. X. OF THE OLD TESTAMENT: CONTAINING PROVERBS, ECCLESIASTES, AND
THE SONG OP SOLOMON.
NEW YORK:
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
THE
PROVERBS OF SOLOMOK
THEOLOGICALLY AND IIOMILETICALLY EXrOUNDED
DR. OTTO^ZOCKLER,
P:«OFES30R of THEOLOOT at GREIFSWALD.
TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY
Rev. CHARLES
A. AIKEN,
D.D.,
PI4FSrDKNT OP UXION COLLEGF. SCHESECTADT, K. Y.
NEW YORK:
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S
SONS,
EsTEREi), according to Act of Congress, in tbe jear 1870, by
CHARLES SCKIBNER, A
CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New Yorls.
Trow's Printing and Hookrinding Co., Printers anu IJookbindbrs,
NKW VOKK.
PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDITOR.
The present volume corresponds to Parts Xll. and XIII. of the Old Testament Division of Dr. Lanqe's Biblework, and contains the Solomonic writings, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.
They form an important part of the Old Testament, and give us the poetry and practical philosophy of the wisest of men, with none of his follies and sins, which were overluled in his writings for the advancement of wisdom and virtue.
The English translation, with additions and improvements, was intrusted to three eminent
Oriental and Biblical Scholars, too well known in America to need an introduction.
They have done their work well, and have added very materially to the value as well as the size of the original.
In this volume the text of the Authorized Version is superseded by a new metrical version in accordance with the laws of Hebrew poetry.
The same will be the case in the other poetical books of the O. T.
To retain the prose version of King James' revisers, and to insert the corrections in brackets, would conceal to the reader the beauties of the original as a work of art.
In Ecclesiastes, Prof Tayler Lewis has thought best to retain the common version for the Commentary, and to give his metrical version as a separate appendix.
Some remarks will introduce the author of this part of the Biblework, and explain the relation which the several parts of the American edition sustain to the German.
Dr. ZOCKLER.
The author of this Commentary on the Solomonic writings belongs to the younger generation of German divines, and appears now for the first time in an English dress
; none of his previous writings having been translated.
Dr. Otto Zockler was born at Griinberg, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, May 27, 1833.
After a thorough training in classical and oriental philology, philosophy and theology, he entered the career of an academic teacher of theology, A. D., 1856, as prwatim docens, in the University of Giessen ; he advanced to the position of professor extraordinarius m 1863, and in the autumn of 1866 he was called by the Prussian Government as professor ordinarius to the Universitv of Greifswald, in Pomerania, where he still labors with fidelity and success.
He is a very able and learned divine, a fertile author, a modest, retiring and amiable gentleman, of unblemished character, a little hard of hearing, and hence the more devoted to the cultivation of the inner life by study and contemplation, yet wideawake to all the living questions of the age. His learning covn's a large ground, especially Exegesis of the 0. and N. Testaments, Church History, Apologetics, Natural Sciences.
His biography of St. Jerome, with which I am quite familiar, is one of the best historical monographs.
He is now engaged on Daniel for Lange's Biblnvork.
The following is a chronological list of Dr. Zockt.er's writings to the present date
Be vi ac nolione vocabuU fATr/f in N.
To. diss. inaiLgurolis.
Giss., 1857.
Theologia naturalis.
Entwurf einer sysLemalischen Naturtheologie voni off-nbarungsglmbi.(/en Standpuncle aus.
Bd.
Frankft. a M., 1860.
Kritische Geschichte der Askese ( Critical Histori/ of Asceticism) ; ein Beitrag zur Getchichte christlicher Side urid Cultur.
Frankft. 1862.
HiERONYMUS
; sei7i Leben u. Wirken aus seinen Schriflen. dargesldll.
Gotha, 1864. i
PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDITOR.
Die Evangelie-nkrilik und das Lebensbild Chrisli nach der Schrifl.
Vwlrage.
Darmatadt, 1864.
Commenlar zu den Speuechen Salomonis.
1866.
-i Commentar zum Hohenlied u. Prediger.
1868. v in Lange's Biblework.
Commenlar zum Propheten Daniel (in course of preparation). ) Die Urgeschichte der Erde u. des Menschen ( The Frimitive History of Earth and Man).
6 Vortrdge gehalten in Hamburg.
Gutersloh, 1868.
Prof. ZbcKLER is jilao the principal editor of a valuable apologetic monthly entitled: Der Beweii il.es Olaubens ( The Evidence of Faith), Gutersloh (Westphalia), since 1865, and of the AUgememe
LUerarische Anzeigerfur das evang. Deutschland ( General Literary Intelligencer for Evangelical Germany), published at Gvitersloh, since 1869.
PROVERBS.
Prof. ZoCKLER introduces his commentary on this storehouse of practical philosophy and heavenly wisdom with the following preface
"A theological and homdetic exposition of the Book of Proverbs has difficulties to contend with which exist in an equal degree in but few books of the Old Testament, and in none in quite the same form.
Even the most searching investigation is able to gain only partially and approximately fixed points for the determination of the time when the book originated, and of the ' editorship of its several main divisions as it is now constructed.
In almost every new group of Proverbs the linguistic and theological exposition of the individual Proverbs encounters new difficulties—and these difficulties are, in many cases, of such a sort that we must utterly despair nf fully assured exegetical results.
And finally, to treat the book homiletically and practically, in so far as it regards only brief passages, is rendered more difficult by the obscurity of many single sentences: and in so far as it attempts to embrace large sections, by the unquestionable lack of fixed order and methodical structure, which appears at least in the central main division of the collection (chap. x. 1—xxii.
16), as well as in the supplement added by Hezekiah's men (chaps. XXV.—xxix.)."
" To this is to be added the imperfection of previous expository works, both the scientific and the practical."
[The author then reviews the recent commentaries of Hitzig, Umbreit, EwALD, Bertheau, Vaihinger, and Elster, as well as the older works of Michaelis, Geier, Staeke, Stockee, Melanchthon, and concludes:]
" In view of this condition of exegetical literature, heretofore so unsatisfactory in many ways, the author has at least attempted, with the most conscientious application of his powers, and with the use of the most important works that have hitherto appeared, to effect what might ba done tJ relieve these difficulties, which exist in all directions in considerable numbers.
Over many of the obscurities that exist, he hopes that he has thrown substantially the right light ; with regard to others, that he has turned attention to the most promising avenues to an appropriate exposition and a useful application
: and that for the whole he has proposed a meaning essentially sound, scientifically defensible, and, for that very reason, edifying."
The work on Proverbs was first committed to the hands of the late Robinson P. Dunn, D. D,,
Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in Brown University.
He was one of the most accomplished scholars of New England, and " one of those rare men who, by a happy combination of the gifts of nature and of grace, seemed adapted to usefulness in every department of life."
But he had scarcely collected a complete apparatus and finished the rough draft of hia translation as far a-s the opening sentences of | 9 of the Introduction, when he was suddenly called to his rest, Aug. 28, 1867, in Newport, R.
I., the place of his birth, at the age of fortythree.
His last words were similar to those of Dr. Neandee: "Good-by, I am going home."
His pen was found in the Commentary on the Proverbs, at the page he had reached., as a siga of his last studv on earth.
His initials are attached to the notes he added.* • An elegant memorial volume, published by his widow, pp. 237. contains a biographical sketch hy Dr. Samitel L. Cald.
WELL, the Commf'morative Discourse delivered, at the retjuest of the Faculty of Brown University, by the Rev. J. L. D[MATr,
Professor of Hiatory in the University, and selections from the writings of Dr. Doss, which give eviienco of his accurate loholar^hip, elegant taste, lovely character and elevated piety.
PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDITOR.
After the lamented death of Professor Dunn, I secured the valuable services of Dr. Aiken, then Professor of Latin Literature in Princeton College, and since called to the Presidency of Union College, in the State of New York.
A hasty glance at the translation and the grammatical and critical notes is sufficient to convince the reader how much of original research and learning, in addition to the labor of a faithful translation, has been bestowed upon this part of lh« American edition of Lange.
In compliance with my suggestion, the purely grammatical pans of the Commentary have been transferred as far as practicable to the textual department, in small type, which the lay reader may pass by.
The same rule has been followed in Ecclesiastes, and the Song, as it had already been done in Genesis.
An unusual number of grammatical references has been made to Bottchee's encyclopaedic Orammar, which, ia the exhaustive fullness of its citations, amounts almost to a commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures.
The same scholarly hand is seen in the large number of supplementary and illustrative notes which are scattered through the exegetical parts.
The elder English commentators, like Tr.-ipp, Mdffet, are cited not for their scientific, but for their sterling practical value.
Of recent commentators, Stdart and MuENscHER, of our own country, both unknown to Dr. Zocklee, have justly been laid under contribution.
Considerable additions have also been made to the homiletical department from our rich and varied literature.
ECCLESIASTES.
After the translating and editing of Zocklee's Koheleth had been undertaken by Prof TatLEE Lewis, who had so admirably edited the greater part of Genesis, it was found that the state of his health, and the heavy additions which he felt it necessary to make, rendered assistance indispensable.
By my advice, therefore, there was procured the valuable aid of his colleague.
Prof. Wells, of Union College.
To him that important part, the translation, is due.
For the added introductions, dissertations, annotations, the Metrical Version, and the editing generally, Prof. Lewis is responsible.
It is trusted that these will afford no little aid to a better comprehension of this strange and wonderfully impressive portion of Holy Scripture.
We have here the ripe fruits of long continued biblical studies from one of our most venerable scholars, who is a man of genius as well as learning.
The Metrical Version in Iambic measure, with an introduction thereto, is a new feature, to which we direct the special attention of the lovers of Hebrew poetry.
As a help to the reader, it is thought best to give, as was done in the volume containing Genesis, an index to the principal additions of Prof. Lewis.
Some of these are of considerable extent and unusual interest, and they may all be divided into two classes, according as they are contained in the body of the pages, or in marginal notes.
I. extended dissertations on leading ideas.
1. Appendix to Zocklee's Introduction, defending the Solomonic origin of Ihe book against the objections drawn from the style, and the alleged later Hebrew pp.
28-S.'j 2. Excursus on the Olamic or .Ionian Words in Scripture—Eternities, or World-times in the plural.
Ch. i. 3
44-01 3. The Inquisition of the Ages.
Ch. iii. 11-15.
Cyclical Ideas in Koheleth 72-7C, 4.
Alleged Historical Allusions in Koheleth.
Ch. iv.
14, 15 84-87 6.
Koheleth's Idea of the Dead.
Ch. ix. 15
129-131 6. The Alleged Epicureanism of Koheleth.
His Mournful Irony.
Ch. ix. 7-10; xi. 9, 10. 131-13(i 7. The Unknown Way of the Spirit.
Life.
The Divine Secret in Nature.
Ch xi.
5... 147-151 8.
Koheleth's Description of Old Age intended for the Sensualist 152-15) 9.
Beth Olara, or "the Eternal House." xii. 5
1.58-100 10.
Introduction to Metrical Version, maintaining the Poetical Character of the Book.... 171-18!
11.
Metrical Version, divided into 40 Meditations 183-19fl II. THE principal MAEGINAL NOTES.
1. The metaphor of the Horses of the Sun. i. 5
2. The Reining of Ihe Flesh ; the Word "jt^^n.
Ch. ii. 3
S4-55 3. rtntyi mty, ii. 8, falsely rendered " musical imtruments"
5G-57
PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDITOR.
4. The word chance
5. Exclamatory style of Koheleth
" There is nothing better for a man," etc. (controverted), ii. 24
Stj 7. "The world in their heart." iii.
67-68 8.
Here, there—Diesseits, Jenaeits, or the coming retribution, iii. 17
69-70 9.
" Whoknoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward?" iii. 21
71-72 10. The Melancholy of Epicureanism, as contrasted with the style of the Sacred Poetry
80-81 11.
Vain Predictings, Superstitions, etc
12. The King, and the Field
13.
Spirituality of the Hebrew Accents, "The Good i\iaLt is Fair"
94-95 14. The Naming—Adam. vi. 10
15. The "Light of thy countenance"
16. The oppression of the wise man
17.
" Wisdom giveth life." vii. 12
18.
Over-righteousness, Over-wisdom
19.
Soliloquizing style of Koheleth 113-114 20. "The wicked buried"—the "going to and from the Holy Place." viii. 10
21.
" The days of thy vain life."
Pathetic Repetition, ix. 9
22.
False logical and ethical divisions of many commentators
23. "Dead flies." x
24. "Knows not how to go to the city;" interpretation of x. 14, 15 141-142 25. Speech of the prattling fool.
False view of Hitzig
26.
" The sight of the eyes," and "the way of the heart." xi. 9
27.
" Keepers of the house"—" the Grinders "—"the Light darkened "—"Clouds after rain." 154
28.
" Those who look out of the windows."
"The doors shut in the streets."
29. The Mill, and the constant grinding of an ancient household ; with illustration from the Odyssey 155-156 30 The Almond Tree
31. Images of the Silver cord, the Golden bowl, the Fountain, etc
32.
Creationism. xii. 27
33. The " making many books "
To these may be added many miuor marginal notes, together with the notes on particular words, the ancient versions, and various readings, as they are attached to each division of the text.
Special attention is here paid to words alleged to belong to the later Hebrew.
THE SONG OF SOLOMON.
The Commentary on the Song of songs [D'Ttyn TE', Sept.:
'A<r/ia aay-aTuv^ Vulg.
Canlicum caniicomm], as this most beautiful of poems of pure and holy love is called, was prepared by the Rev. Dr. Green, Professor in the Theological Seminary at Princeton.
The difficulty of the book is such as to allow considerable latitude of individual opinion, but it is all important to have a proper view of its spirit and aim.
The German author justly rejects both the profane rationalistic exposition which can see no more in the Song than a sensual erotic poem, and the opposite allegorical interpretation which regards the persons and objects described as mere figures or names for spiritual persons and objects, leaving a large margin for randoiu guess-work and unbridled extravagance.* Most nearly agreeing with his friend, Prof Delitzsch,
* The allegorical interpretation, it must be admitted, has the authority of many of the greatest divines, both Jewish and Christian, Catholic and Evangelical, and is also sanctioned by the headings of our
English Bible.
It will probably alwayi retain the ascondancy in the pulpit, and in books for popular devotion.
Many of the most eloquent seimons (as St. Bernard's Sermnnfs in cant, cant., and Kuummacher's Satnmo und Sal<tmtt/i), and of the sweetest hymns (by Gerh.\rdt, DessI.KB, Drese, Zinzendorf, Wesley, and Gustav H.vh.n's, D<is ffohn Lied in Liedern, Halle. 18.53) are based upon this view.
If we distinguish carefully between expositimt and application, we may allow a considerable latitude for homiletic and ascetic purposes.
One of the very best legitimate practical ai>plications of the passage li.
1.5, I have seen, is in a little book of Mrs. H. Beechor Stowe, where the " little foies that spoil the vinos "
(ii. 15), are applied, in a series of entertaining homilies, to little faults that disturb domestic happiness.
But in an exegetical point of view most of the allegorical interpretations turn out to l)e arbitrary jwtpositions rather than e;rpositions.
.lust as I write, a new attempt in this line comes to my eyes in thrt Ilritiali and Foreign Evangeticat Quarterly Rrview lor Oct. 1H09, pp. 773-796.
The writer of this article (Jiscovers in the Song
PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDITOR.
he adopts the typical or typicoMessimiic view, which is not so oUl and generally received among orthodox divines as the allegorical, but which has the sanction of such eminent names as Lightfoot, BossuET, LowTH, and is more natural and in harmony with the typical and prophetical character of the whole ancient theocracy, as foreshadowing the substance of Christianity, and preparing the way for its introduction.
The Canticles are probably a nuptial song or lyric drama (melo-drama) from Solomon's best period, and present the ideal Hebrew view of marriage as established by God Himself in Paradise on the basis of the strongest and tenderest passion He has implanted in man ; and this ideal is realized m the highest and holiest sense in the relation of Christ to His Church (Comp. Eph.
T.32).
The American editor, while recording his approval of Zockler's method and standpoint iu general, especially his typical view (see pp. 19-25), has expressed his dissent from certain parts of his scheme.
He inclines to regard the Canticles as a series of unconnected scenes rather than a well-arranged, continuous drama, with a regularly unfolded plot, as is done by Zocklee and Delitzsch, also, with various modifications, by Lowth, Ewald, Umbreit, Bottcher, HiTzia,
Renan.
He is moreover of the opinion that the Song should be more favorably interpreted by itself than from the history and later character of Solomon as given in the first book of Kings.
In this last point I entirely agree.
Any reference to Solomon's polygamy, unless it be in the way of rebuke, would mar the beauty and purity of the poem, and make it unworthy of its place in the canon.
The next most considerable addition is to the bibliography at the close of the Introduction (pp. Vi-Al), where a pretty full account is given of English and American Commentators on the Song.
The critical and gramsiatical notes have been very materially enriched both from the editor's own researches and from the early English translations, and from English commentators.
I must add that Dr. Green had inserted a considerable number of Arabic and Persian words, but erased nearly all of them in the proof sheets, because, after the type had been procured at considerable trouble, it was found almost impossible to obtain accuracy in characters unknown to the compositors, and because they rather disfigured the pages.
I now commit this new volume to the churches of the English tongue, with the wish that it may be as cordially welcomed, and prove as useful, as the other parts of this Commentary.
Philip Schaff.
5, Bible Bouse, NeW York, Nov.
19, 1869. a progreasive drama beginning at the gates of Eden and running through the light and shade of the history of Judaism and Christianity till the glory of the millennium.
He distinguishes in it the following parts t. The Church before the advent, waiting and longing for the coming of Christ.
2d. The theocracy under Solomon, whicb in the temple and its worship, afiford the fullest and clearest typical revelation of Christ which that dispensation admitted of.
3d. The gradual decadence that followed, in both type and prophecy, which went on till at la.st it deepened into tli" darkness of the captivity.
4th. The sudden opening of the gospel day m the advent of the Saviour, and the preaching of the apostles—the voice of the turtle, and the flowers that now begin to cover the earth.
5th. A second night, during which Christ is again absent; this lasts longer than the first, and during it a deeper sleep oppresses the church.
On awakening. itU" in seen seeking her beloved, wounded and bleeding, from the sword of persecution.
6th. The bursting out of the day of tK>* R ftformat ion—the morning of the millennium—and then the church is beheld "terrible as an army with banners." clothed with truth, and shining with a light which makes her the admiration of the nations,—" fair as the moon, clear as the sun."
A few specimens of interpretation on this scheme, will suffice.
The kisses of the Bridegroom are the promises of Christ'* coming; the ''Virgins" who love the spouse (ch. i. 3\ like the Virgins in the Apocalypse, represent those who had not d«tiled themselves with the idolatrous rites of pagan
*>r papal worship; the "wilderness" from which the bridegroom comi*i on the day of liis espousals (iii. 6), is Jewish formalism, Gentile scc-pticism, and pagan idolatry ; and the clouds of amokc^ which attended the royal progreiSf are the symbols of mysterious provideaces.
THE
PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
INTRODUCTION.
I 1. THE ETHICAL AND BELIQIOUS RANK AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROVERBS OP SOLOMON.
The collection of Proverbs which bears the name of Solomon is the chief storehouse of moral instruction and of practical wisdom for the chosen people of God under the old dispensation.
It forms, therefore, the principal documentary source of the Ethics of the Old Testament, just as in the successive steps of a gradual revelation, it is the peculiar office of the Pentateuch to exhibit the fundamental truths of its Theology, the Psalter those of its Anthropology, and the Prophetical Books those of its Christology and Soteriology.
Some of the more general principles and postulates of Ethics, especially much of what belongs to the province of the so-called doctrine of the Highest Good, and, as might be expected, the whole doctrine of the Moral Law, are indeed tbund in the Books of Moses.
Single topics connected with the doctrine of virtue and obligation are occasionally more fully discussed in the Psalms and the Prophets.
But the special doctrine of virtue and duty, which must ever hold tne chief place m the system of Ethics, finds nowhere else in the Old Testament so thorough, so individualizing, and so lively a presentation as in the Proverbs; and even the more general principles of Ethics, as well as the fundamental maxims of rectitude and law are, if not directly referred to in them, at least incidentally assumed.*
Resting on the basis of the widest and most diverse experience, and adopting the form of the most thoughtful, pithy and suggestive apothegms, they apply to the life of man in all positions, relations and conditions, the moral precepts contained in the law.
In other words, what the law reveals as a universal rule for the national life of the covenant people in a religious and a political aspect, the Proverbs apply to the relations and obligations of tlie private life of each individual of that people.
The principle of consecration through fellowship with Jehovah, the God of the Covenant, which was revealed through Moses, and established in general in his legislation, is individualized and developed in detail by Solomon with reference to the special domestic and social relations of his countrymen.
Note.—It has been often observed that the Proverbs of Solomon are tlie chief source of the Old Testament Ethics.
Origen, in the Preface to his exposition of the Song of Solomon, expressed the opinion that in the Proverbs Solomon had aimed to discuss the '}i'«;}, in Ecdesiastes the p""""?, and in the Canticles the '^ym'i or iisupmli (the science of the contemplation of Divine things), and Jerome adopted from him this view (Preface to the Comm. on Eccles., Ep. 30 to Paula).t * [This threefold division of Ethics, origiaatiog with Schleiermacher, niid closely adhered to by Rothe, is generally adopted in Germany.
" GuterMirtt " is the doctrine of the Good us an object uf desire or a thing to be attained.
" Tugendlehre." is the doctrine of the bentiments and inclination towards virtue.
^^ PftLcfiUnUhre" is the doctrine of the right as the foundation of law.
The first and the last are objective; the second is subjective.—R. P. D.] t In his 107 Ep. to Lceta in reference to the education of h-T d.vii:j;hter Paul.i, .Jeho.m?: siys; •^Discat prima Psalttrium, fiisse caTiticis ganctamvocet, etin Proverbiis Salomonis erudiattir ad vUam."
Compare the title iracSaywyijci) aot^ta whii.U GRE90IIY of Nazianz'iB was wont to give to the Book of Pioverbd.
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
Luther, in his Preface to the Books of Solomon, written in 1024 (Erlangen ed.. Vol. LXIIL, p. 35), says of the Proverbs :
" It may be rightly called a book of good works ; for he (Solomon) there teaches the nature of a godly and useful life,—so that every man aiming at godliness should make it his daily Handbook or Book of Devotion, and often read in it and compare with it his life."
Starke (Introd. to the Proverbs, oyaops., Pt. IV., p. 1591) thus describes its contents
" It is for the most part a school of Christian Morals ; upon the basis of faith it founds the wisest counsels in reference to the believer's duties towards God, towards his neighbor, and towards himself ....
By means of a great variety of sententious maxims this book teaches man how to escape from sin, to please God, and to secure true blessedness."
The elder Mi» CHAELis (Christian Benedict) gives a like estimate of the ethical value of the Proverbs.
He passes from an exposition of the Psalms to one of the Proverbs with these words :
" From the oratory of David we now proceed to the school of Solomon, to find in the son of the greatest of theologians the first of philosophers."
On account of the ethical wisdom of the Proverbs of Golomon, the Wiirtemberg Theosophists, Bengel and Oetingee, preferred them to most of the other books of the Old Testament.
They made them the theme of their devout meditations, and (S-nrnestly sought to penetrate their deeper meaning.
(See for Bengel : Osk. Waechter's "Joh.
Alb. Bengel:
Life, Character, &c., p. 166).
Oetingeb, when, as a youthful master of arts, he resided at Halle, thought of lecturing on "Philosophiam sacram el appUcatam, drawn from the Scriptures, especially the Proverbs of Solomon."
This plan he did not, however, carry out.
At a later period, when he was a pastor first at Hirsau and then at Walddorf, be diligently studied the Proverbs as the chief repository and source of what he called "Sensus communis."
He used them for purposes of religious instruction ; he wrote them on separate slips of paper, put them in a box, and made his scholars draw them out as lots.
He also published a little book of a catechetical nature, with the title " How shall the head of a family exemplify at home the Proverbs of Solomon?" and a larger work called "Common Sense in the Proverbs and Eoclesiastes,"'
Stnttgard, 1753.
" The Proverbs," he once observed, " exhibit Jesus with unusual clearness, and he who cannot perceive this knows not Paul's meaning when he says, 1 Cor. xiv. 20,
' In understanding be men ' " (see Ehmann's ^'Life and Letters of Oetinger ;" also the essay in Vilmaiv's
Pasl.-lheol.
Bit., 1865, I., pp. 265 sq , on "Theosophy:
Oetinger and the Lutheran Church."^ Still earlier the Rostock theologian, Samuel Bohl, had attempted in bis Ethica Sacra (1640)
.i systematic exhibition of the ethics of Solomon, in the form of a continuous commentary on tfi.; first nine and the last two chapters of Proverbs.
Most of the modern interpreters have in Iiki) manner justly appreciated the superior ethical value of this book.
According to Kahnis [Luth.
Dogmatik, I., 282) its peculiar excellence lies in the skill with which its author "has presented the maxims of a practical wisdom which aims in all the human relations of the Kingdom of Gi>l to govern the lives. of men in harmony with the intentions of its founder."
Elster (Deutsche Zeitschr.fiir Christl.
Wissenschaft, 1859, and in his Commentary on the Proverbs) ascribes the importance of this book of Solomon to the fact that " it consists of a didactic religious discu-ssion of practical experience," in the form of proverbial wisdom, which is not mere human prudence, but "a new emanation from the Divine essence itself, a new communication of eternal wisdom, which alone is true wisdom,"
It is a proverbial wisdom which, "like the Law and the Prophets, has its own peculiar and most important province," and has upon the varied and symmetrical development of the individual man an influence which should be deeply felt and fully recognized.
Bruch ( Weisheitslehre der Hebrder, pp. 102 sq.), Oehler (Die Grundziige der alltestamentl.
Weishjit, pp. 5 sq.), Delitzsch (Article Spruche Salomo's in Herzos's Real-Encyclopddie), express themselves in similar terms with reference to the high ethical and religious rank of this book.
Even Hitzig, while denying its inspiration, and perceiving in it nothing but human wisdom, recognizes in it " areligious consecration and an irresistible attraction of the heart towards morality," which distinguish this monument of Hebrew proverbial wisdom above all similar productions, whether of Arabian literature or of the Semitic mind in general ("Die Spruche Salomo's ubersetzt und ausgelegt," p. xii.).
[Coleridge says :
" The Book of Proverbs is the best statesman's manual which was ever written.
An adherent to the political economy and spirit of that collection of apothegms and essays would do more to eradicate from a people the causes of extravagance, debasement and
1. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
ruin, than all the contributions t.o political economy of Say, Smith, Malthos and Chalmers together."—Prof. M. Sidart says (Preface to his Comm. on Proverbs, p. 9) :
"All the heathen moralists and proverbialists joined together cannot furnish us with one such book as that of the Proverbs."
In his Introd., p. 64, he says :
"After all the light which Christianity has 6hed upon us, we could not part with this book without a severe loss."
" The book contains a etriking exhibition of practical wisdom, so striking that it can never be antiquated."—J. Muen6CHER, in his Introd. to his Comm. on Proverbs, says, p. xliv.:
" The moral precepts of Solomon rest on the foundation of religion and true piety, and in this respect diflfer heaven-wide from the systems of the ancient heathen moralists."—R. P. D.J
[Dr. Grat observes, The Proverbs of the inspired son of David " are so justly founded on principles of human nature, and so adapted to the permanent interests of man, that they agree with the manners of every age, and may be assumed as rules for the direction of our conduct in every condition and rank of life, however varied in its complexion or diversified by circumstances
; they embrace not only the concerns of private morality, but the great objects of political importance."
— Dr. JoRTiN says :
" They have not that air of smartness and vivacity and wit which modern writers have usually affected in their maxims and sentences
; but they iave what is better, truth and solid good sense."
" Though the composition be of the disjointed kind, yet there is a general design running through the whole, which the author keeps always in view ; that is, to instruct the people, and particularly young people, at their entrance into public and active life, to give them an early love and an earnest desire of real wisdom, and to lay down such clear rules for their behaviour as shall carry them through the world with peace and credit."
(See D'Oyly and Mant, Introd. to Proverbs).
Bridges (Exposition of the Proverbs, Am. Ed., Pref., pp. iii., vii., ix., elc.) says: "This wonderful book is indeed a mine of Divine wisdom.
The views of God are holy and reverential.
The observation of human nature is minute and accurate."
" Doubtless its pervading character is not either explicit statement of doctrinal truth or lively exercises of Christian experience.
Hence the superficial reader passes over to some (in his view) richer portion of the Scriptural field."
" While other parts of Scripture show us the glory of our high calling, this may instruct
' walk worthy of it.'
Elsewhere we learn our completeness in in all minuteness of detail how to Christ (Col. ii. 10) ; and most justly we glory in our high exaltation as "joint heirs with Christ," etc. (Rom. viii. 17
; Eph. ii. 6).
We look into this book, and, as by the aid of the microscope, we see the minuteness of our Christian obligations ; that there is not a temper, a look, a word, a movement, the most important action of the day, the smallest relative duty, in which we do not either deface or adorn the image of our Lord, and the profession of His name."
Wordsworth (Introd. to Proverbs, pp. ix., x.) says: "The Book of Proverbs is an inspired book adapted to the circumstances of the times of Solomon."
" The Holy Spirit, m inspiring Solomon to write the Book of Proverbs, supplied an antidote to the poison of those influences (temptations attending the splendor and prosperity of the times), and has given to the world a moral and spiritual manual, which has its special uses for those who dwell in populous towns and cities, and who are busily engaged in worldly traffic, and are exposed to such temptations as are rife in an age and country like our own, distinguished by commercial enterprise and mechanical skill, and by the production of great works of human industry, in Art, Literature and Science, and also by religious activity, especially of that kind which alms to give to Religion external dignity and beauty, such as reached its highest pitch in the Temple of Solomon."
Again, " The Proverbs of Solomon come from above, and they also look upward.
They teach that all True Wisdom is the gift of God, and is grounded on the fear of the Lord.
They dwell with the strongest emphasis on the necessity of careful vigilance over the heart which is manifest only to God ; and on the right government of the tongue, whose sins are rarely punished by human laws
; and on the duty of acting, in all the daily business and social intercourse of life, with an eye steadily fixed on the throne of God, and with habitual reference to the only unerring standard of human practice. His Will and Word.
In this respect the Book of Proverbs prepared the way for the preaching of the Gospel ; and we recognize in it an anticipation of the Apostolic precept concerning all domestic and social relations,
' Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord.' "
Dean Stanley [Hislory of the Jewish Church, II., 269, Am. Ed.), looking at the other side of
INTKODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OP SOLOMON.
the shield, says, This book " has even something of a worldly, prudential look, unlike the rest of the Bible.
But this is the very reason why its recognition as a Sacred Book is so useful.
It ii the philosophy of practical life.
It is the sign to us that the Bible does not despise common sense and discretion.
It impresses upon us in the most forcible manner the value of intelligence and prudence, and of a good education.
The whole strength of the Hebrew language, and of the sacreJ authority of the book, is thrown upon these homely truths.
It deals too in that refined, discriminating, careful view of the finer shades of human character, so often overlooked by theologians, but 80 necessary to any true estimate of human life."
Dr. Guthrie [Sunday Magazine, Oct., 1868, p. 15) calls attention in bis forcible way to other qualities of the book, and bears a valuable testimony to its experimental worth in a wide sphere.
" It fulfils in a unique and pre-eminent degree the requirements of effective oratory, not only every chapter, but every verse, and almost every clause of every verse expressing something which both
' strikes and sticks.' "
" The day was in Scotland when all her children were initiated into the art of reading through the Book of Proverbs.
I have no doubt whatever—neither had the late Principal Lee, as appears by the evidence he gave before a committee of parliament—that the higli character which Scotsmen earned in bygone years was mainly due to their early acquaintance with the Proverbs, the practical sagacity and wisdom of Solomon
The book has unfortunately disappeared from our schools ; and with its disappearance my countrymen are more and more losing their national virtues—in self-denial and self-reliance, in foresight and economy. in reverence of parents and abhorrence of public charity, some of the best characteristics of old manners and old times."—A.]
A.—GENERAL
INTRODUCTION
TO THE
PHILOSOPHICAL
LITERATURE
ASCRIBED
TO SOLOMON.
J 2.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT IN GENERAL, IN
ITS BELATION TO THE PHI-
LOSOPHY OF OTHER NATIONS.
The peculiar form in which the ethical doctrines and precepts of the Proverbs are presented is that of the Uhokmah, or Proverbial Philosophy of the Hebrews.
It is a species of moral and philosophical instruction in practical wisdom, which though distinguished by its thoroughly religious character from the secular philosophy of all other races, stands in the same relation to the spiritual development of the covenant people as that occupied by this philosophy in reference to the general culture of men who are without the Scriptures.
For, whatever answer be given to the somewhat perplexing question, whether the Hebrews can be properly said to have had a philosophy, it is certainly true, that the essential feature of philosophy, the striving after objective wisdom, or after a true conception of the absolute fitness of the world to accomplish its ends, in both a theoretical and a practical aspect, is most completely presented in the Hhokmah of the old dispensation ; and that in fact it is only the peculiar form in which this striving develops itself in the Old Testament literature, which distinguishes this Hbokmah from the philosophy of Greek and Roman antiquity.
The wisdom of the people of God under the Old Testament is the art of so shaping life in harmony with the divine will, and in obedience to its peculiar laws learned by experience and reflection, as to make one an upright subject of the kingdom of God, in other words, so as to secure at once the divine favor and earthly blessedness.
[When NoYES (A new Translation of the Proverbs, etc., Introd, to Proverbs, p. xiv.) says:
" It is true that the religion and morality of the Book of Proverbs will not bear a favorable comparison with those of Jesus Christ.
Its morality is much less disinterested, being for the most part founded in prudence rather than in love.
Its motives generally are of a much less elevated kind than those which Christianity presents .... Prudential motives, founded on a etrict earthly retribution, are the principal encouragements to a Ufe of virtue which he presents," etc., we recognize the truth which he exhibits, but notwithstanding his supplementary and balancing statements prefer Isaac Taylor's mode of exhibiting the truth.
Speaking immediately of the 23d Psalm he says [Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, Am. 12mo. ed., p. 38): "The bright
2. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
idea of earthly well-being jjervades the Old Testament Scriptures ; and this woridly sunshine is their distinction as compared witli the New Testament; but then there are many cognate ideas which properly come into their places around the terrestrial idea .... A feeling is here indicated which was of that age, and which was approvable then, although it has been superseded since by sentiments of a higher order, and which draw their reason from the substitution of future for present good."—A] In so far as God is alike the beginning and the end of this pursuit of wisdom, or in so far as it both necessarily springs from the fear of God,—Prov. i. 7; ix, 10; comp. Job xxviii. 28
; Ps. cxi. 10
; Ecclesiast. i. 16,—and leads to a purifying fellowship with Him, Prov. viii. 35; iii. 16, e(^., it has an essentially religious and practical character.
Its sphere of reflection and of action must therefore be also more limited than that of the old classical or of the modern philosophy, both of which delight in profound theoretical inquiries in reference to created existence, and investigations of not only the end but also the origin of both nature and man.
Those questions concerning the origin of the world and the origin of evil which play so conspicuous a part in the philosophy of ancient and of modern times, are only incidentally discussed in the Hebrew literature of wisdom, whether in the works ascribed to 6olomon. the book of Job, or the kindred Psalms; and tlien only in their relation to tlie motives and tendencies to practical morality.
The divine wisdom which establishes the relation of God to the world, and is at once the chief source and fundamental law of both the subjective and the objective wisdom of men, (Prov. viii. 21
; ix. 12
; Job xxviii. 24 sq.
; Ecclesiast. xxiv.) is always represented rather as the medium of the foreknowledge and the providence of God, than as a creative power, or even as the ideal pattern of the world (the niaiKx; v<j7it6i: of Pl.\to).
In fine, the e.'isential character of the Hebrew philosophy is far more practical than speculative
: it is as little inclined to pursue or to prompt genuine speculation as it is to identify itself with secular philosophy in general, and with unaided human reason to investigate the final causes of tilings.
It is essentially a divine philosophy planting its feet upon the basis of the divine revelalion, and staying itself upon the eternal principles of the divine law; and it is this determinate and positive character of its method of conceiving and teaching, that chiefly distinguishes it from the philosophy of other nations and of other times.
Moreover, the habitual, and not as was the case with many ancient philosophers, the occasional, adoption of the poetical form of the Gnome or didactic apothegm for conveying its instructions, must be regarded as a marked and important feature of this whole body of Old Testament literature, and as a decided indication of its method and of its tendencies.
Note 1.—The Strastiurg theologian, J. P. Bruch, in his " Weisheitslehre der Hebrder : ein Beitrag zur Geschchle der Philosophie." Strasburg.
1851, thoroughly discusses the question whether or not the doctrine of the Hhokmah in the Old Testament is to be considered philosophy in the strict sense, and decides it in the affirmative.
Tiiis was the prevailing opinion in former times among the theologians of all the churches.
Jesuits, e. g. Menochids in his learned work, " De Republica Hebrceorum," Book VII., Chap. 1
; many of the Reformers of the 17th and 18th centuries, especially the followers of Descartes and Cocceius
; and Lutherans like the aforementioned Bohlids in his "Elhica Sacra," or the eminent Bddd.eus in his "Inlrodudio nd Historiam philosophies Hebrceorum," 2d ed., Leipsic. 1720, all spoke without hesitation of the Hebrew philosophy, of the philosophy of Solomon, David, Moses, Joseph, and Abraham.
Indeed they often ventured to trace the philosophy of the patriarchs as far back as to Adam.
Even at the beginning of the present century Blessig, in his Introduction to J. G. Dahler s " Devkund Sitlenspruchen (Sa/ojno's" (Strasburg, 1810), unqualifiedly characterized the proverbial poetry of the Hebrews as philosophical
; De Wette, in his Hebrew Archaeology, spoke of " the speculative and practical philosophy of the Hebrews ;" and Staeudlin wrote a dissertation on " The Philosophy, the Origin and Design of the Book of Job."
CSsBQ his, " Beilrdge zur Philosojjhie und Oeschichle der Religion und Sillenlehre,"
II., 133 sq.
; compare the same author's " Oeist der SUtenlehre Jesii,"
I., 74 sq.).
Theologians of the most diverse schools agreed in a-ssuming in general the existence among the early Hebrews of a style of wisdom which might claim the undisputed title of a philosophy.
The opposite view is represented not only by many later philosophers especially those of the critical schoo; of Kant, but also by such theologians as limit the notion " philosophy" to the
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OP SOLOMON.
scholarly scientific speculative inquiries peculiar to modern times, and must therefore consider not only the Hebrews, but all the Semitic races, and indeed the Orientals in general, as totally destitute of a philosophical habit of mind.
Such was the opinion of Bbucker before the time of Kant, when he asserted in his Critical History of Philosophy (Leipsic, 1767, I., 64), " non confundejidam esse Hcbrceorum sapientiam cum philosophia proprii nominis alque significationis."
Krug [Philosophisch-Encyclopadisches Lexicon, II., 323) thinks that anything like philosophy fir philosophical wisdom is not to be looked for among the ancient Hebrews."
Reinhold (Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Philos^phie, p. 15) denies in general the existence of any proper old Oriental philosophy side by side with the Greek.
Hitter [Geschichte der Philosophic, I., 48) bluntly says, " Of the only Asiatic nations whose literature is knawn to us, "we may venture to assert, without fear of much contradiction, that in the early times they had no philosophy.
Among these are the Hebrews," etc.
Of the more recent theologians R. F. Geau (" Semilen und Indogermanen in ihrer Beziehunrj zu Religion und Wissenschaft," p. 28 sq.) has warmly and zealously supported the proposition that " the Setnitic mind in general has no capacity for either philosophy or science," and LnTHABDT (in the " Leipziger
Vortrage uber die Kirche, nach Ursprung, Geschichte und Gegenwarl, pp. 18 sq. [pp. 19 sq. of the translation published by Messrs.
T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1857]) adopts his opinion at least in reference to the Hebrews.
All these scholars manifestly have too limited and partial a conception of philosophy.
They with one consent understand by it an exercise of the human intellect controlled by the rigid laws of logic and carried on in a scientific method such as was never seen among the early Hebrews, or indeed among any of the older Eastern nations.
But philosophy means far more than this.
It is in itself, as its etymology, (^i^/xrofia, i. e. sludaim sapienlice [love of wisdom], indicates, and as the whole practice and method of the oldest Greek philosophers down to the time of Aristotle demonstrates, nothing but a love for wisdom
; an earnest endeavor to find a theoretical and a practical solution of the problems of our earthly life ; that intellectual effort which strives to re-establish the proper relation between the absolute omniscience of God, and the relative knowledge possessed by the reason of man.
A philosophy and philosophical science in this wider sense must be claimed for the people of God under the Old Testament.
We cannot, however, quite agree with Bruch {ut supra, p. 20 sq.) when, having defined philosophy in its objective aspect as " the science of the Absolute, or the science of the supreme necessary causes of all that is or that must be," and in its subjective aspect, " as the unaided inquiry after the absolute, or rational thinking in so far as renouncing all external authority it investigates the supreme necessary causes of all that is or that must be," he a.soribes both to the Hebrews.
For, in the first place, that which among them corresponds to the philosophy of other nations is not properly science, but rather a knowledge and comprehension, an intellectual effort and reflective process in general ; and in the next place, it is not so much the " supreme necessary causes " as the chief practical ends of our earthly life and being which occupied the mind of the Hebrew thinker.
It is then only philosophy in its subjective character, as above defined, which can in the main be ascribed to the Hebrews, and even this in a form quite unlike that in which it presents itself to Bruch, one which secures the full recognition of its predominant practical and theological character.
A philosophy consisting in such an essentially practical or ethical tendency of the mind, which by an examination of the highest moral and religious ends of all human and superhuman existence, seeks to determine the normal relation between God and the world, and thus to point out the way to truth and blessedness, may without hesitation be ascribed to the people of the Old Covenant.
It is indeed a philosophy, which though its shape and dress are religious and poetical rather than didactic and scientific, contains within itself all the elements which are essential to strictly scientific development, or to an entrance into the sphere of dogmatic and moral and theological speculation.
In this properly limited sense has Ewald, among others, [Geschichte des Volkes Israel, III , 82) recognized the existence of an old Hebrew Philosophy.
" Philosophy," says he, '' may exist even where the rigid laws of thought (logic) are not observed, or where no attempt is made to reduce all truths and conceptions to a symmetrical whole (a system).
This, it may be admitted, is its final aim,—though this aim like every other human aspiration is so often tho-
g 2 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
roughly erroneous and misleading ;—it is not, however, its beginning nor its constant living impulse.
Its beginning and very life is rather the intense and unquenchable desire for investigation, and for the investigation of all objects, both higher and lower, remote and near, human and divine.
Where the problems of existence allow thoughtful men no rest, where they provoke among the mightiest intellects of any people, or of several nations at once, an unwearied rivalry in the attempt to solve them. Philosophy is in the bloom and vigor of youth.
In that earlier time the noblest of the Semitic races had plninly reached that stage when the Greeks were far from having approached it; and Israel, whose higher religion furnished besides a special impulse to reflection on the relations of things, now entered with them upon this nobler field of hongr in the most generous rivalry."
Similar views are expressed by Umbeeit in his ingenious and instructive, though somewhat prolix observations "on the wisdom of the East"
[Commentar iiber die Spruche Salomons, EinIciiung, pp. iii. sq.); by Delitzsch (Article " Spruche Sahma's," in Herzoq's Real-EncycL, XIV., pp. 712 sq.), as well as by the editor of this Biblework in his General Introduction to the Old Testament (Genesis p. 19, [Am. Ed.]).
Oehler in his wori " Die Grundziigeder altteslam.
Weisheii, pp. 5 sq., as well as his follower Kahsis [Luiherische Dogmalik, 1., 3W), essentially agrees with the above statements.
The latter says excellently, among other things, " To find in the life of nature and of man, in the revelations of the kingdom of God, in the whole world, the divine 'wherefore,' the divine fitness to accomplish the proposed end, was the great aim of the wisdom of Solomon.
Here unquestionably existed a tendency to science, to philosophy.
But the national life of Israel rested on too divine a foundation to permit great freedom of inquiry, and the kingdom of God had too many practical aims to favor a purely theoretical exploration of the objects of existence.
Springing from the practical this wisdom sought to further the practical," etc.
Note 2.—In harmony with his above-quoted definition of the philosophy of the Hebrews, as an inquiry into the highest necessary causes of all that is or that shall be, Bp.uch (pp. 69 sq.) introduces the cosmogony of the first two chapters of Genesis into his representation of the philosophy of the Old Testament.
He thus regards the substance of these chapters as a portion of a philosophical system, and indeed in its essential features as the earliest instance of philosophical reflection among the Hebrew race.
(Herder, as is well known, held similar views.
In his " Ideen 7ur Philosophie der Gcschichte der Menschheit " he termed the Mosaic cosmogony
" an ancient philosophy of the history of man ").
This view of Bruch's is connected with his assumption of the purely human and moreover half-mythical character of the Mosaic narrative.
It is therefore to be decidedly rejected, together with his opinion that the Old Testament " wisdom " is the product of unaided human speculation, and that no divine or specifically supernatural factor is to be recognized in the Old Testament revelation in general.
Note 3.—The word n^pn primarily denotes (in accordance with the fundamental meaning of the root Qjn, ,^5>w>- ''^ Arabic, where it means to fasten, to hold fast, and then to separate, to decide) the fixing of an object for cognition, and secondarily, simply knowledge, insight.
It is therefore in Prov. i. 2 used as precisely synonymous with HJ^I, and elsewhere, as in Isa. xi. 2 sq., as at least parallel with nj'a.
The D3n is then in the first instance the wise, the learned man in general (comp. Jer. viii. 9), whether he be a judge (1 Kings iii. 28
: comp. the corresponding Arabic word which always signifies a judge), or an artificer (Ex. xxviii. 3; xxxi.
; Jer. x. 9), or finally a cunning, subtle man who can use his craft for his own or for others' advantage (Job v. 13, comp. 2 Sam. xiii.
3; xx.
16).
In the religious realm i^^^n naturally denotes insight into that upright dealing which pleases God and conforms to the divine law, a knowledge of the right way which is to be followed before God, and of the wrong one which is to be shunned.
In short it is that practical uprightness, founded on religious enlightenment, in which the true happiness of man consists, and which is therefore frequently represented by n'E'in (i. e. well being and wisdom in one), e. g. Prov. ii. 7
; iii.
; viii.
14; xviii.
; Job zi. 6 ; xii. 16
; xxvi.
Compare in general HiTZia, Die Sjjriiche Salomo's, Emleitung, p.
Iii.
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
sq.
The latter, however, gives a somewhat different and less correct etymology of the word.
He defines D3n as one who possesses the spiritual power of control and determination, and noan as the power of moral self-subjugation.
He thus gives to the notion of government a prominence which is by no means justified by the Arabic ^5C>Note 4,—The ^^^ or Hebrew gnome, as the distinctive artistic form adopted by the Old Testament philosophy and proverbial poetry, will be particularly discussed in a later section.
We may, however, here observe that of all the titles borrowed from kindred secular literature, and applied to the Proverbs of Solomon on account of their peculiar form, none appears more just and appropriate than that adopted by Bruch, who terms them (p. 104) an Anthology of Hebrew Gnomes.
In the explanation and justification of this title he, however, as he does elsewhere, disparages the theopneustic character of this Book of Scripture.
I .3.
THE AGE OF SOLOMON, OE THE GOLDEN AGE OP THE HEBREW LITERATURE OF WISDOM.
As among other nations philosophy is not wont to assume its proper form till a long time after the religious and civil foundations of national culture are securely laid, so in Israel no season of undisturbed reflection and of philosophical inquiry and instruction could be enjoyed, before the protracted storms and conflicts of the period of the Judges had fixed the religion of the law in the depths of the popular consciousness, or before the reigns of Saul and David, the earUest kings, had firmly established the tlieocratic national life.
The power of external enemies must first in some way be broken and overthrown, and the prosperity of the citizen and the political and social influence of the nation upon the life of the surrounding mtions must be to a certain degree secured; but this could not be effected before the brilliant and glorious though warlike reign of David.
Furthermore, as an element of the internal culture of the nation, the spirit of the law must have begun to receive a new invigoration and a fresh inculcation, which it derived from the schools of the prophets which sprung up after the time of Samuel.
Hand in hand with the directly religious activity of this prophetic company the national poetry must make its earliest start, and create for that philosophy a proper literary and aesthetic form.
These conditions were not all of them fully realized until the time of Solomon, when the people were blessed with a long period of peace, rich in earthly possessions and enjoyments of all sorts ; they then began a lively and widely extended intercourse with foreign nations, and with an extending view reaching even to Tarshish and Ophir, their thought and their activity receiveil the most various impulses in a direction which was no longer narrow and strictly national, but more or less universal and as broad as humanity itself.*
There was therefore associated with the priests, the prophets, the warriors, the jtidges, a new class of notables, that of the Hhakamim (D'Mn,
Kings iv. 30, 31 ; Jer. xviii. 18
; Prov. i. 6
; xiii. 20
; xxii. 17), the wise, or the teachers of wisdom, who began to bear their part in the whole work of training the nation.
A pretty large number of such wise men, of considerable importance, must have appeared under Solomon, and have been associated with him as the most famous of all.
For the books of the Kings mention besides him some of his contemporaries, OTz..- " Eth.nn, the Ezrahite, and Heman,
Chalcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol," as representatives of the wisdom of that time (1 Kings iv. 31
; comp.
1 Chron.ii. 6), and compare the wisdom of these Hebrew Hhakamim with chat of all the children of the East conntry, and all the wisdom of Egypt " (1 Kings iv. 30).
Whether they did or did not form a well de- • L*'Th:it stately ami melanchuly figure fSolomnn'e)—in some respects tlie grandest ami the s:id<lest in tlie sacred volume— is, in lietail, little more titan a mighty shadow.
Hut. on the other hand, of his tige. of hi.* rottrt, of his works w<j know ittfjie than of any other." (Stanley. Jewish Church,
II., 184).
And the accomplished iinthor goes on to iodicate 'ho multiplying points of contact with the outer and the later world, and with secular history; and adds' p. 18*1)
: "To have had many fuch characters in the Biblicn] History would have liroiight it down too nearly to the ordinary U'Vcl.
Rut to h:ive one Kiteh is necessary, to show that the interest which we inevitably feel in sttch events and sui'h men h;is a place in toe designs of Providence, and in the lessons of Revelation." See also pp. 252 sq.—Prof B. B. Epw.vrdr
( Writings, cl':., II.. 402), speaking of the fitness of the a'.;e to develop this species of poetry, says:
'" It was the period of pe:ice. extended commerce, art, reflection, when the poet could gather up the e.\[)erience8 of tlie past, and embody them in pith.v sayings, etittrp apothegms, ins :r active allegorie-', or spread them out in a kind of pbilosophical disquisition." - A.J
i a. THE AGE OF SOLOMON.
fined, exclusive class of popular teachers gathered about some leader or master, whether there were thus special schools for the wise, or the schools of the prophets were also chief places of culture for the disciples of the Hhokmah, these Hhakamim of the age of Solomon and of subsequent ages mu=t be considered a very important factor in the limited mental development of the people, and as a factor possessing, like the prophetic and the priestly order, an independent importance (comp. Jer. xviii. 18
; Ez. vii. 26).
They had doubtless offered a vigorous resistance to those frivolous impulses of the n'Vv, the freethinkers and insolent scoffers, that had manifested themselves since the times of Saul and of David.
Their positive agency was exerted in the propagation and dissemination of that deeper religious knowledge and practical wisdom of life, beside which all worldly prudence, fine culture and enlightenment must appear as foolishness (comp.
^2i. Pn^i, ni733, etc.; Prov. xiii. 20
; xvii. 21
; Ps. xiv. 1
; Is. xxxii. 6).
The first decided manifeslation of this new intellectual tendency, together with the literature produced by it under Solomon's peaceful reign, marks this bright summit of the entire theocratic development in the Old Testament aa the golden age and the really classic epoch of this especially important branch of the intellectual culture in (he life of the covenant people.
Note 1 The independent significance of the HDOn as a special tendency of the mind, exerting with the nxOJ, or the gift of prophecy, an important influence has been recently estimated with special correctness by Ewald.
In his dissertation " on the popular and intellectual freedom of Israel in the time of the great prophets down to the destruction of Jerusalem " {Bibl. Jahrbiicher,
1, 96 sq.), he says, among other things, " It is not easy to conceive correctly how high a development was reached in the pursuit of wisdom (Philosophy) in the first centuries after David—and it is not usual to consider how mighty was the influence which it exerted on the entire development of the national life of Israel.
The more closely those centuries are reviewed, the greater must be the astonishment at the vast power so early exerted on all sides by wisdom as the peculiar concern of many men among the people.
It first openly manifested itself in especial circles of the nation, whilst in the peculiarly propitious age after Solomon eager and inquisitive pupils gathered about individual teachers until ever-improving schools were thus formed.
But its influence gradually pervaded all the other pursuits of the people, and acted upon the most diverse branches of authorship."
The existence of especial scliools of the wise, like those of the Prophets, thus asserted, cannot be satisfactorily proved.
Delit7..sch's remark in favor of this assumption [ut supra, p. 717), that the usual form of address in the Proverbs, 'J3, my son, which is not that of a father to a son, but of a teacher to a scholar, implies that there were then nojn
'33, i. e., pupils of the wise, just as there were " sons of the prophets," and that there must also have been "schools of wisdom." is and must remam a mere hypothesis.
It is moreover an hypothesis, which from the acknowledged wide application of the conception J3, son, in Hebrew, and its almost absolute lack of all support in the Proverbs as well as m the other books of the Old Testament, must always be regarded as a rather unsafe one.
Comp. Bruch, pp. 57 sq., who is at all events so far correct that he observes :
'' The Hebrew wise men were not philosophers by profession; they constituted no class distinct from others, but might belong to diflferent classes."
For there is the less reason for supposing from the above cited passage (Jer. xviii. 18) that there was a special alass of Hhakamim, beside that of the priests and the prophets, from the fact that in the parallel passage, Ez. vii. 26, the notion of " the wise" is represented by that of "the ancient," D'JPJNote 2.—The antithesis between |*7 and Djn which runs through the entire body of Old TesMment literature pertaining to wisdom has been discussed in an eminently instructive manner by Delitzsch, ul supra, pp. 713 sq.
He shows very strikingly how "in the age of .Solomon, which was peculiarly exposed to the danger of sensuality and worldliness, to religious indifference and freethinking latitudinarianism," the number of D'S7 necessarily increased, and their skepticism and mockery must have assumed a more decided and aggravated form.
" For those men who despised what IS holy, and in doing so laid claim to wisdom (Prov. xiv. 6), who, when permitted to speak, indulged in contention and bilterness (xxii. 10), who sarefully shunned the compfiny of the Hhakamim, because they fancied themselves superior to their reproofs (xv.
12), the age of Solo-
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
mon," he says, " first invented the title f/, [scorner]. For in the Psalms of the time of David theii common designation is 73J (which occurs in Prov. xvii. 21 only in the general sense of low fellow,
Qerm. Bube [Eng.
' Booby,'
It occurs also in Prov. xvii. 7, and xxx. 22, and the corresponding verb in xxx. 32—R. P. D.], while the word f7 is found in no other than the 1st Psalm, which has a later origin.
One of the proverbs of Solomon (xxi. 21, comp. xxiv. 8) gives a definition of the new term : "Proud and haughty scorner (]'7) is his name who dealeth in proud wrath." The conscious self-sufiiciency of his ungodly thoughts and deeds distinguishes him from the 'ri^, the simple, who has been only misled, and may therefore be reclaimed (Prov. xix. 25
; xxi. 11).
His disowning the Holy, in opposition to a better knowledge and better opportunities, distinguishes him from the S'pS [" foolish," i e., gross or stupid], the r){ji [" foolish," i. e., lax or remiss], and the ^7"''?0 [the man "void of understanding," lit., lacking heart, i.e., sense], all of whom despise truth and instruction through want of understanding, narrowness and forgetfulness of God, rather than from essential perverseness,"
Note 3.—Of the four wise contemporaries of Solomon mentioned in 1 Kings v. 11 (iv. 31 according to the older division of chapters [the one followed in our
English Bible]) Heman and Ethan appear in Ps. Ixxxviii. 1 and Ixxxix. 1 as " Ezraliites," i. e., descendants of Ezrah or Zerah, the son of Judah (Num. xxvi, 13,20), Chalcol and Darda (in the parallel passage, 1 Chron. ii. 6, Dara) are designated as Vino 'J3, i. e., either " sons of Machal," a man otherwise unknown, or if lino be taken as an appellative, "sons of verse," i. e., singers, leaders of the chorus (corap. Eccl. xii. 4).
Luther's translation, "poets," and his reference of the title to all the four, are unsupported by the original.
Comp. Keil, Commentar zu den Biicliern der Kbnige, pp. 42 sq.
I 4. SOLOMON AND THE POETRY OF WISDOM WHICH MAY BE CALLED SOLOMON'S IN THE STRICTEST
SENSE.
As the chief representative and promoter of the Jewish literature of wisdom, we have Solomon himself [" hot only the AuousTns of his age, but its Aristotle " (Stanley)],
The Old Testament exalts the wisdom of this monarch, as a direct gift of Divine grace * (1 Kings iii, 5-12 iv. 29), high above that of all other wise men, whether of his own or of other nations,—especially
; above that of the teachers of wisdom already named, Heman, Ethan, Chalcol and Darda (1 Kings iv, 30, 31).
This is described as consisting, in the first place, in the highest virtues of the ruler and the judge, or, as it is expressed in 1 Kings iii. 9, in "an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad;" and in the second place, in an unusually wide and varied knowledge as the basis of his teaching, which related to all the possible relations of created existence, [Comp, Stanley's Jewish Church, II,, pp, 254 sq.]
It is this vast erudition which is referred to in the expression "largeness of heart f (31
3n'l) even as the sand that is on the sea shore," which, with the words " wisdom and understanding exceeding much," is used in 1 Kings iv. 29 to describe his extraordinary endowments.
With the same intent it is said of him, ver. 33, that " he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hy,so0p that springeth out of the wall
; he spake also of beasts, and of fowl and of creeping things and of fishes." Among these discourses of his upon all possible manifestations of life in nature are doubtless meant wise sayings in reference to their deeper sense, and the Divine majesty and wisdom reflected in them, physioo-theological observations and descriptions, therefore, such, for example, as still present themselves to us in the concluding chapters of the Book of Job (chaps, xxxviii.—xli.), and in several of the sublimest Psalms (viii.; ix.; civ., etc.); or shorter aphorisms, parabolic reflec- * [" Hi; showed his wisrlom by asking for wisdom.
He becnme wise because he had set his heart upon it, Tliis w.is to hirii the special aspect tliroiiRh which the Divine Spirit was to be npproachid, and grasped, and made to bear on the wants of men ; not the Iiighest, not the clioice of David, net the choice of Isaiali ; bnt still the choice of Solomon, ' He awoke, and behold, it was a dream,'
But the fulflhnent of it belonged to actual life."
Dein Stanlet, History of the. JimiA Omrch,
II,, 190— A.]
t LOTHER'e translation, "getrontcs Herz" [a comforted, then a courageous or confident heart], must be rejected as coti» tnir.v to the sense of the original.
Comp. Keii, in loc, who correctl.v explains 'Margeneas of heart" as "compreheuaiT* undorstandiiig," " intellectual capacity to grasp the widest realms of liuowledge."
2 4. SOLOMON AND THE POETRY OF WISDOM.
tions and pointed sentences, such as are quite numerous in the Proverbs and in Ecclesiastes (e. g.,
Prov. vi 6-8; xx. Isq.; xxvi. 1 sq.; xxvii. 3sq.: xsx. 15 sq.; comp. Eccles. i. 5sq.; vii. Isq.; x. 1 sq.; xii. 1 sq.).
It is the manifold materials and themes of both the lyrical and the didactic poetry of Solomon (or, according to 1 Kings iv. 32, his " Proverbs " and " Songs "), which in that noteworthy passage are mentioned as proofs of the unusual extent of his knowledge, this theoretical foundation of his wisdom, or are pointed out by the prominence given to a few noted examples from the vegetable and the animal world.
Josephus indeed rightly understood the passage as a whole, when he found that it ascribed to Solomon a comprehensive knowledge and a profound philosophical view of natural objects (.4wii., VIII., 2, 5 ; ovdefiiav tovt(jv (pvt^ti' vyvoTja^v ovdi •Kp.ftfpMev dve^sraarov d/l/\' fv -aaat( e(jiiXoa6(p7)<yev [he was not ignorant of the nature of any of these things, nor did he pass them by unexamined, but he philosophized concerning them all].
A similar correct estimate of the nature and extent of the philosophical knowledge of this great monarch is found in Ieen^us {Adv. haer., IV., 27, 1), who, on the authority of the same passage says of Solomon, "earn quw est in condilione {i. e., Kriaci) sapientiam Dei exponebat physiologice."
He thus in like manner ascribes to him not perhaps a purely descriptive or historical knowledge of natural objects, but a knowledge of nature serving as a basis for fine religious and philosophical observations and ethical instructions in wisdom.
Many of the fruits of this learned pursuit of wisdom must have had a literary character.
According to 1 Kings iv. 32
" he spake three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five."
Not only then had he inherited from his father David, in undiminished fertility, the power of composing songs, the gift of both sacred and secular lyrical verse, but he also originated and established a new species of Hebrew poetic art, that of gnomic didactic poetry, of which before his time there had existed but mere germs, imperfect attempts completely eclipsed by his achievements.
Proportionably few specimens of either class of his poetical productions have come down to us.
Instead of one thousand and five songs we have in the Canon but two Psalms, which bear his name, the 72d and the 127th.
The exclusion of so large a number of his lyrics from the collection of the religious verse of his nation may have been occasioned either by their lack of a directly religious character, or by their too individual bearing.
In reference to another monument of the lyrical poetry associated with the name of Solomon, the Canticles, it is still an undecided and controverted question whether Solomon was the proper and immediate author of it, or rather some contemporary poet who chose him as its subject (see ^5).
The remains of his gnomic didactic poetry, as they are presented in the Proverbs, are much more numerous.
Even this collection, however, contains not more, perhaps, than one quarter of those 3,000 sayings which Solomon uttered
; inasmuch as several parts of the book are by their titles expressly ascribed to other authors, and of the remaining 746 verses hardly the whole can be directly ascribed to him (see i 12).
It will always be uncertain whether those 3,000 proverbs of which it is expressly said that he "spake" them, were all actually recorded by him or one of his contemporaries, or whether many of them, as matters of merely oral tradition, were not gradually lost.
That in general he spoke more than he wrote, so that the greater part of the utterances of \\\n wisdom consisted in pithy maxims and acute sayings, like the riddles of the modern Orientals, may be pretty safely inferred from the statement, that "there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom " (1 Kings iv. 34).
The same inference may be drawn partly from the Scripture narrative, and partly from the old Jewish tradition preserved by Josephus in reference to the Queen of Sheba's visit to his court (1 Kings x 1 sq.). as well as from the account of his contest with King Hiram, and with the Tyrian Abdemon, in the propc^ing of ingenious riddles.
(Josephus, Anlt. VIII., 5, 3).
Note 1.—Besides songs (D'")'D'), gnomes or maxims (D'Sro), and riddles (ni'Tn), Hitzig, ut supra, p. xvi., ascribes fables to Solomon.
" The discourse concerning beasts, trees, fowl, etc., ascribed to him (in 1 Kings iv. 33)," he thinks, "cannot be properly referred to the substance of his maxims, but is most naturally understood of his invention of fables."
This is a rather arbitraiy conceit of Hitzig's, which he unsuccessfully tries to sustain by the hypothesis which he
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVEEBS OF SOLOMON.
throws in, that " perhaps in the 3itN, 1 Kings iv. 33 (hyssop), the name of ^sop lies concealed "
(Aio[jiroc=i'("«JTO£- ? ?).
Notwithstanding the contrary assertion of Herder, in his well-known work "The Spirit of Hebrew Poetry"
(II., p. 13), the Old Testament offers no example of a proper fable.
The story of the bramble invited by the trees to be their king (Judg. ix. 8-15) is in its whole plan and tendency much more of a parable than a fable. jjoTE 2.
According to Oriental traditions in reference to Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, her name was Balkis or Belkis ; she became Solomon's concubine, or his actual wife (the first is asserted by the Hiniyaritic Arabs, the latler by the ^Ethiopians)
; she bore him a son, Menilehek with the eurnaine Ibn-el-haglm, son of the wise ; she first brought to Palestine the root of the genuine balsam, afterwards cultivated at Jericho and near
Engedi (comp.
1 Kings X. 10 and in addition Josephtis, Antt. VIII. 6, 6), etc.
Legends of this sort, invented especially bv the Rabbis to heighten the kingly glory and wisdom of Solomon, and found some of them in JosEPHUS (id supra), others in the Talmud (e. g. Jalkub Melachim, p. 195), others in the Koran
(Sura 27), others in later Arabic, jEthiopic and Persian documents, abound in the comprelier n ve
Turkish work Suleiman name, i. e. the Book of Solomon, which, according to VoN Hammer, consists of 70 folio volumes.
Comp. Von Hammer '^ Rosenol, or Oriental Legends and Traditions from Arabic, Persian and Turkish sources," Vol.
I., pp. 147-257.
See also H. Ludolf, Hist. jEthiop., II , c.
3, 4 : Pococke, Specimen lust. Arab., p. 60
; Cadssin de Perceval, Essai sur I'hisloire des Arabcs, I., pp. 76 sq.
; and P. Cassel, Elagabal, in the Elberfeld " Vortnige f. d. gebildete Publikum," 1864, p. 182. jTqxe 3.—[The question of Solomon's moral qualification to be the author of some of tlie books contained in the canon of the Scriptures has sometimes perplexed honest disciples, and been made a specious argument in the mouths of cavillers.
The point is well put and the answer well given by Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, pp. 11-13.
" The choice of Solomon as one of the writers of the Bible at first sight startles, but on deeper study instructs.
We would have expected a man of more exemplary life—a man of uniform holiness.
It is ' Holy men certain that, in the main, the vessels which the Spirit used were sanctified vessels : of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.' .... But the diversity in all its extent is like all the other ways of God ; and He knows how to make either extreme fall into its place in the concert of His praise.
He who made Saul an apostle did not disdain to use Solomon as a prophet If all the writers of the Bible had been perfect in holiness,—if no stain of sin could be traced on their character, no error noted in their life, it is certain that the Bible would not have served all the purposes which it now serves among men.
It would have been Godiike indeed in matter and mould, but it would not have reached down to the low estate of man— it would not have penetrated to the sores of a human heart
Practical lessons on some subjects come better through the heart and lips of the weary, repentant king than through a man who had tasted fewer pleasures, and led a more even life
Here is a marvel ; not a line of Solomon'' s writings lends to palliate Solomon's sins
The glaring imperfections of the man's life have been used as a dark ground to set off the lustre of that pure righteousness which the Spirit has spoken by his lips."—A.]
g 5. THE SONG OF SOLOMOS IN ITS RELATION TO THE LITERATURE OF WISDOM ASSOOIATED WITH
SOLOMON.*
The opinion that the Song of Solomon is not only a production of the age of Solomon, bui most probably the work of Solomon himself, is favored both by its numerous allusions to the personal and historical relations of this king
(c. jr. iii. 2; iv. 4; vi. 8
; vii. 5; viii. 11), and by Its general festbetic character, its lively conception of nature.
Thus it manifests a decided preference for comparisons with natural objects of all sorts, especially with such as are distinguished
•[While there mast be conceded to be weight in the objections urged by ISAic T»yi.or (chap. iii. of his " Spirit u/ lic^irew Pb<'Xry") to the recoi^nition of a proper drama in the Scriptures, we cannot agree with him that it is only with "a T517 forced meaning " tliat such books as Job and Solomon's Song can be called dramatic.
There is, on the other hand, need to guard at^ainat the fondness of some for aasimilatin-; the Scriptures in their descriptive terms to secular literar tnie; is thennot in the other direction such an error as hyper-fastidiuusDees ?—A.J
{ 5. RELATION TO TUE LITERATURE OF WISDOM.
either by their beauty or their variety ; it refers not only to numerous important places of both
Northern and Southern Palestine, but also to regions, cities and persons beyond the limits of Palestine (e. g. Kedar, Damascus, Pharaoh, etc.).
Had it been composed merely with reference to Solomon, it would not have been ascribed to this monarch either in the title of the Masoretic text, or by the unanimous tradition of Jewish antiquity.
It is manifestly a product of that extremely rich and fruitful poetical activity of Solomou, described in 1 Kings iv. 32, 33.
In virtue of its erotic contents it belongs essentially to that division of his poetry which is there (indicated by the mention of the songs which were a thousand and five, and thus to the lyrical class, whose characteristic features must be recognized in it, though with Umbeeit, Ewald, Delitzsch and others, we regard it as a dramatic composition.
For even though this pre-eminently probable view of its artistic form be adopted,—a view which alone oflfers a thorough and generally satisfactory refutation of the recently somewhat popular theory, which divides the entire composition into a simple cycle of " love songs,"—the essentially lyrical and erotic character of its separate parts is ever unmistakable
; so that the name of a drama in the narrower and stricter sense of the word is not on the whole applicable to it, but rather only that of a "lyrical drama" (Bottcher), a garland of erotic songs joined in dramatic unity (Delitzsch).
But notwithstanding this its lyric and dramatic, or perhaps even melo-dramatio form, and notwithstanding its somewhat wide deviation from the Maschal form of the Proverbs, there exists between its fundamental idea and that of the strictly didactic or aphoristic poetry of Solomon a significant inner connection.
The Song of Solomon must undoubtedly be classed with the Hhokmah poetry in its wider sense, because its fundamental idea when rightly viewed, must be admitted to belong to the circle of those ethical ideas which form the chief and the favorite subjects of Solomon's doctrine of wisdom.
This fundamental idea consists in the exaltation of conjugal love and faithfulness as the most excellent and sure foundation of earthly prosperity, as a moral force in life triumphing over all the misery and mischief of this earth and even death itself.
This fundamental idea is prominent in passages like chap. vii.
7, 8, and viii.
6-8, which are closely related to expressions like those found in Prov. v. 18, 19 ; xviii. 22
; xix. 14
; xxxi. 10 sq.
This must be admitted to be th« chief topic in the poem and the central point in its descriptions, whether we assume, with Ewald and others, that the design is to celebrate the changeless constancy and innocence of the Shulamite, that was proof against all the flatteries and artful temptations of the luxurious Solomon, or with Delitzsch, that the work belongs to an earlier period in the life of that king, before he had sunk into the foul depths of polygamy and idolatry, and that consequently it refers to his chaste relations to a single wife.
It is evident that the latter view is more harmonious with the opinion which, on both internal and external grounds, asserts the authorship of Solomon, than is that of Ewald, or than the interpretation most nearly related to it adopted by Huo, Bottchee and the author of this general commentary it also favors equally, if not still better, the recognition of a secondary or a mystical reference of the poem to the Messiah.
For as a representation of the rapturous joy and bliss arising from the conjugal relation between Solomon, the prince of peace, and his beloved Shulamite, the poem admits of innumerable typical and prophetic applications to Christ and His Church.
And these applications render superfluous all other expositions of its Christological contents, such as have resorted to various allegorizing expedients, from the earliest periods of the Church down to the time of H. A. Hahn and Henostenberq [with whom must be reckoned as in general sympathy a considerable number of British and American expositors, among the most conspicuous and emphatic of whom is Bishop Wordswoeth].
The mystery of the Song of Solomon is that of the marriage relation, and therefore the poem not only admits of that somewhat general Messianic sense which belon;^3 to every poetical celebration of bridal love and conjugal faithfulness within the range of the Scriptures (cornp.
Eph. v. 32), but also appears as a Messianic prophecy of a specific typical significance, as a prediction in which the marriage of a theocratic king of Israel is described as an especially suggestive analogue and typ« of the relation of Christ to (he Church of the New Testament.
In this aspect it closely resembles the 45th Psalm, which likewise celebrates an Old Testament royal marriage as a type of the New Testament covenant relation between Christ and His Church; this Psalm, however, pro-