10 Introduction To The Proverbs Of Solomon
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
bably refers to a later prince than Solomon, and both by this its origin, in a period after Solomon, gind by the unmistakable decrease, in its delineations, of the favorite ideas and charaoteristio imagery of Solomon's poetry, it shows that it must have sprung from another sphere of spiritual culture and production than that of the classic Hhokmah literature of the earlier age.
[All comment on this view of Solomon's Song, together with all comparative and supplementary presentation of views that have been held in Great Britain and America, is deferred to the Introduction and Exegetical notes connected with our author's companion Commentary on the Book, which is contained in the presejit series and will be found translated in the present volume].
Note.— In these hints with reference to the relation in which the Song of Solomon stands to the literature of wisdom which bears his name, we have mainly followed Delitzsch.
In his " Untersuchung und Au-slegung des Hohenliedes," 1851, p. 171, he does not hesitate to designate it as " a production of the Hhokmah,"—a species of literature cultivated and employed by Solomon with conspicuous skill.
This he does in virtue of the broadly human and ethical character of the idea of conjugal love and union which forms its chief theme.
" For," he adds, arguing pertinently in support of hia view, " the Hhokmah of the age of Solomon is devoted to the exposition of those creative ordinances of the Cosmos, which have a broader range than the national limits of Israel, and of the universal axioms of religion and morality.
The poetry of the Hhokmah is therefore didactic; and both proverbial poetry and drama were developed by it."
Delitzsch's view of the Song of Solomon and of its ethical and theological value, is in general more interesting and in all respects more satisfactory than any other modern one
; it is also preferable to that of the' respected founder of this general Commentary, who, on p.
[Am. Ed.] of the General Introduction to the Old Testament, expresses the view " that the poem doubtless sprung from the theoretic indignation provoked by the anticipated allowance, of religious freedom by Solomon, his polygamy implicating him with heathenism."
The fundamental idea is therefore held to be that " the Virgin of Israel, or the theocracy, refuses to be numbered with the heathen wives, or religions, as the favorite of Solomon, but turns to her true betrothed, the still remote Messiah."
We cannot adopt this view, chiefly because the arguments for the genuineness of the poem or the authorship of Solomon, seem to us to outweigh all that lie ag^iinst it.
As little, and indeed still less, can we approve the two conceptions most nearly related to this of Lange.
That of Hug ("Das Hoheliedin einer noch unversuchten DeiUung," 1813) refers the poem to the time of Hezekiah, and considers it as a symbolical expression of the desire of the ten tribes of Israel for reunion with the kingdom of Judah represented by the king of peace, Hezekiah Solomon.
That advocated by Bottcheb (Die dl/.esien Buhnendichlangen, 1850) regards it as a lyrical drama, produced and represented in the kingdom of Israel about the year
B. C, some time after Solomon's death, and aimed at the royal house and the manners of the harem, so hostile to the life of the family.
A more extended critical discussion of these views would here be out of place.
An examination of the various modifications of the Messianic allegorical interpretation, as well as of the purely historical or profane erotic view (Theodore of Mopsnesta, Castellio, J. D. Michaelis, Heedeb,
Eichhoen, Hiizig, elc), must be left for the Introduction to this book of Scripture.
I 6. THE BOOlS OF JOB, CONSIDEEED AS A PRODUCT OP THE POETRY OF WISDOM, KNOWN IN THE
BKOADEB sense as SOLOMON'S.
The Book ot Job must also be without doubt classed with the productions of the poetica\ Hhokmah literature, and indeed, as a whole, with even more justice than the Song of Solomon.
For although its compo.sition cannot be confidently referred to the time of Solomon, since verbal and other considerations seem to indicate a later period for its origin, its inner relationship to the chief characteristic productions of that literature, to the Proverbs on the one hand and to Ecclesiastes on the other, is so much the less doubtful.
Its ethical and religious tendency, developed in the representation of the conflict and the victory of a godly man in sore trial, and in the justification of the divine dealing in the face of the apparent injustice of such sufferings as his,
I 6. THE BOOK OF JOB AS A KINDRED PRODUCTION.
and the peculiar method in which it develops this fundamental thought, by means of conversations and discourses which are made up now of gnomes or moral maxims strung together like pearls, and again of lively and symbolical pictures from nature and from human life,—both ahke prove the close connection of this didactic poem with the proverbial poetry of Solomon, as we have above (^J 3, 4) characterized it.
Moreover, the manner in which the poet in chap, xxviii. rises to the idea of the absolute wisdom of God, and represents a participation in it as dependent on a godly and upright course, is very closely related to that which appears in passages like Prov. viii. 22; ix. 12; Eccl. xii. 13
; Prov. i. 7
; iii. 16, etc.
The fundamental principle and the didactic tendency of the book seem in all essential features to have sprung from the same style of seeking after wisdom and of religious and philosophical inquiry as the Proverbs and Eoclesiastes ; and if, in consequence of a certain tinge of skepticism peculiar to its theological views and reflections, m which the decidedly skeptical attitude of I he Preacher to a certain extent betrays itself, it forms a sort of connecting link between these two books, so on the other hand it is by virtue of its poetical form most nearly related to the Song of Solomon.
For like this it appears in the poetical garb of a drama, of a drama, however, which, in so far as it bears an impress of an epico-dramatic rather than of a ft/rico-dramatic (melodramatic) kind, deviates from the pure central and typical form of this species of poetry in a diflerent direction from that taken by the Song of Solomon.
It is on this account, therefore, to be likened to such intellectual creations as Dante's Divine Oomedy (or even as the philosophical dialogues of Plato, so far as these may be considered as artistic poetical productions in the wider sense), rather than to the erotic lyrical dramas or idylls of other nations.*
At all events the interlocutory dramatic style of the poem prompts one to fix the time of its composition as near as possible to that of the Song of Solomon, and to regard it as having originated, if not under Solomon, at least in the age immediately following him.
This period is indicated on the one hand by the sublime character of its descriptions of nature, reminding one strongly of the universally extended horizon of the epoch of Solomon (compare especially chaps, xxxviii.-xli. with 1 Kings iv. 3S), and on the other by the traces appearing in passages like ix. 24
; xii. 17 sq.
; xv. 18 sq., of a decline already begun in the glory of the kingdom, and of heavy national calamities.
That the whole book must in any case have appeared long before the Babylonish captivity, is evident from such a familiarity with its contents as a whole, and with individual descriptions in it, as is exhibited by the prophets Ezekiel (xx. 14, 20) and Jeremiah (xx. 14 sq., comp. Job iii. 3 sq.).
This origin before the exile is to be claimed also for the discourses of Elihu in chaps, xxxii.-xxxvii. the more confidently, in proportion as they unmistakably form an essential and indispensable link of connection between the conversation of Job with his three friends, and the manifestation of Jehovah which brings the final solution of the whole problem.
[Among English authors who agree in this classification of the Book of Job few are more emphatic in their assertions or more felicitous in their illustration than Dean Stanley {Jewiafi
Church, II., 270-1) :
" Nothing but the wide contact of that age with the Gentile world could, humanly speaking, have admitted either a subject or a scene so remote from Jewish thought and customs, as that of Job."
" The allusions to the horse, the peacock, the crocodile and the hippopotamus, are such as in Palestine could hardly have been made till after the formation of Solomon's collections.
The knowledge of Egypt and Arabia is what could only have been acquired after the diffusion of Solomon's commerce.
The questions discussed are the same as those which agitate the mind of Solomon, but descending deeper and deeper into the difficulties of the world," etc.—On the other side, apart from formal commentaries, one will hardly find a clearer and more vigorous presentation of the reasons, both in the style and substance of the Book of Job, for assigning it an earlier date, "an age as early at least as that of the Israelitish settlement in Palestine," than is given in chap.
of Isaac Taylor's Spinl of Hebrew Poetry.—A.] Note.—If the Book of Job belongs to the epoch of Solomon, there is the more reason for re- * Compare the excellent essay of G. Baur, " Das Buck Hiob und DanWs guttUche Komodie, eine ParaUele,'' in the Studien und Kritiken, 1S56, HI.
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
garding this period as one of unequalled richness in the manifold variety of its poetical ideas, its species and forms of poetic art.
For besides the religious lyric and the proverbial poetry, both of the chief forms of the Old Testament drama, the religious-erotic and the religious-didactic or philosophical, must have attained their maturity during this period
; and there is the more truth in what Ewald—who, moreover, refers the Book of Job to the period just before the exile—remarks in characterizing this epoch :
" Thus at this time poetry expands, seeking new paths in every possible direction, though she could only enter them.
This is the period of the full formation and broadest development of Hebrew poetry, when it reveals all its latent capacities, and gathers up all its scattered forces; and it is just this that is here new and peculiar" [Die poelischen
Biicher des alten Bundes, I., p. 19).
Compare Haeveenick, EMeit. in das A.
T., herausg. von Keil, Bd. III., p. 12
" Thus Solomon excels his father in fruitfulness of poetic inspiration, and this fruitfulness testifies to the great wealth of this period in poetical productions.
As the splendor and richness of Solomon's peaceful reign is a fruit of David's strifes and victories, so the poetry of his time is but the rich unfolding of the fruit planted and nourished by David.
It proves itself to be such by its peculiar character of peaceful objectiveness, while the poetry of David is the thorough expression of deeply stirred subjective emotion.
The blessedness of the peace, which, after long and bitter conflicts, the theocracy enjoyed under Solomon, reflects itself as clearly in the 72d and 127th Psalms as in the Song of Solomon, and gives to the latter, notwithstanding its thoroughly emotional contents, a repose and objectiveness of attitude which has long since overcome all struggle and conflict.
With this is also connected the broader horizon which poetry gains under Solomon, as well as the complete development and rounding out of its form which likewise marks this period." etc.
Many of the characteristics here mentioned belong as well to the book of Job ; this is not, however, the case with all of them.
The passages above quoted [on the preceding page], for example, refer rather to a disturbed and troublous period, than to the peaceful repose and glory of Solomon's reign.
On this account we do not venture to adopt without hesitation the view that the book originated in this period, as held by Luther, Doederlein, Staeudlin, Haevernick, Keil, Schlottmann, Hahn, Vaihinger, and others.
We regard as more probable the assumption of a somewhat later composition (adopted by the general Editor; see Introd., etc., p. 35).
We do not, however, for that reason, with Ewald, HiRZEL, Heiligstedt, Bleek, and others, assign its origin to the seventh century before Christ ; or, with Clericus, Gesenids, Umbreit, Vaike, Bunsen, and others, refer it to the exile or the period that immediately followed it.
I 7. the literature of wisdom after SOLOMON ; a) Ecclesiastes.
To the productions of the Hhokmah that undoubtedly belong after Solomon is to be referred
Koheleth or the Preacher [T^T}t>, ''Enjikiiataa-lji;).
This is a didactic poem, which not only by its extended monologue in the Maschal form, but also by its express designation of the speaker as " the son of David," and " King in Jerusalem," seems to betray an origin direct from Solomon.
The entire weight of all those considerations, whether of an internal or a verbal character, which claim attention, compel the assumption of an origin not only after Solomon, but even after the exile.
For the numerous Chaldaisms in its dicticm, the references to the oppressive rule of unworthy kings of a non-Israelitish race, e.g., iv. 13-16; v. 8
; viii. 1 sq.; x. 4 sq., as well as many allusions to circumstances and events after the exile, such as vi.
2, 3; viii. 10; ix. 13 sq.; xii.
12—all together compel us to recognize the book as a literary monument of the later Persian period.
Complaints of the vanity of all earthly things, in the form of disconnected monologues, not, however, exactly separate aphoristic sentences like those of the Proverbs, but rather as somewhat extended reflections, are here put into the mouth of the wise King Solomon.
The rhetorical dress by means of which this is accomplished appears the more suitable, since a king who had not only acquired an unusually extended knowledge of earthly things, but also had surrendered himself to the inordinate enjoyment of them, should be regarded as a pre-eminently appropriate preacher concerning their nothingness and transitoriness.
The complaints which the book contains on this topic sometimes rise to doubts in reference to the moral government of the world e. g., iii. 10 sq.; iv. 1 sq.; vi. 8 sq.; vii. 15 sq.; ix. 2 sq., or where this is not the case, at least
7. THE LITERATURE OF WISDOM AFTER SOLOMON.
leave apparently unreconciled the contradiction between the Divine perfection and the vanity of the world.
Its philosophy of life has therefore with a certain degree of justice been explained as a sceptical one.
It Las indeed even received the name of a "Bong of Songs of Scepticism."* The entire absence of the Divine covenant name, Jehovah, and the occurrence of frequent exhortations to the cheerful enjoyment of life, instead of possible admonitions to obedient subjection to the law (ii. 24-26; iii. 12 sq ; iii. 22; v.
17-19; viii.
15; ix.
7-iO , xi. 7 sq.; xii. 7 sq.), might besides seem to justify the suspicion of an attitude religiously indifferent and morally lax, which is not seldom charged upon the author.
He was, however, far removed from proper Epicureanism, or indeed from atheistic impulses.
He in fact never contents himself with uniting the traditional faith and his sceptical view of the world in a merely external
" Concordat between the fear of God and the cheerful enjoyment of the present" (Kahnis, %U supra, p. 309).
But in a time inclined to the abandonment of faith in God's holy and just government of the world, he clings to such a f<iith with a touching constancy, and defends the fact of the wise rule of the Eternal and Omnipotent God against all the frivolous scoffs of fools
(ii. 26
; iii. 20 aq.; v. 1
; v.
17-19; viii. 14; ix. 1-3; compare ii. 13; iv. 5; x. 2sq.; x.
13, 14).
And in an age when his people had little or nothing to hope for in the way of external national prosperity and increase, when moral dullness, apathy and despondency might thus easily master the individual members of this people, he is never weary of pointing out the righteous retributions of the future as a motive to the fear of God, the chief and all-comprehending virtue of the wise
(iii. 14-17 ; v. 6
; vi.
G, 10; viii. 12 sq.; xi. 9; xii. 13, 14), and of commending unwavering constancy m individual callings as the best prudence and the surest defence against the sufl'eriugs and the temptations of our earthly life (compare ii. 10
; iii. 22
; v. 17, 18 ; viii. 15, etc.).
It is especially the high estimate which he puts upon this faithful endeavor to fulfil one's earthly duty, this " cheerfulness in labor," which reveals the close relationship between his practical view of life and that of the Proverbs of Solomon, and reveals his place within the circle of those Hhakamim whose spiritual thought and action in the earlier age has left its worthiest monument in that collection of Proverbs, and in the Book of Job.
Note 1.—The assumntion that Solomon was the immediate author of the Book of Ecclesiastes, which once exclusively prevailed, and is still at this time defended by L. Van Essen {Der Predigrr Salovio's, Scuaff h., 1856),
If. A. Hahn, Commenlar, etc., 1860), and E. Bohl [Disserlatio de Arainaismis libri Koheleth, Erlangen, ISGO), is refuted not only by the arguments above given, which favor its origin m the period of the Persian sway, but still more especially by many passages in which the use of the name of King Solomon is manifestly but a free and poetical one
; e. rj., i.
12; i.
16; ii.
6; and particularly xii. 9-14, in which the author speaks of his own person in aistinction from the Preacher.
Compare Bleek, Einleitung, p. 643
; Keil, Ehdeitung ,». 435.
.Li GTE 2.^The charges which have of late been often brought against the Book of Ecclesiastes, viz., that it teaches merely a "religion of the present," that its moral and religious tendency is simply negative, that it inclines to fatalistic scepticism and to the lax morality of Epicureanism (LowxH, Dokdeelein, De Wette, Knobel, in part also Hitzig and Brdch, according to whom
" the scepticism of this book rises even to bilter anguish and utter despair of finding any aim or order in human life" [ut supra, pp. 68, 238 sq., 383 sq.]), are met by the passages above cited, in which patient devotion to one's personal earthly calling, together with a cheerful mind and thankful enjoyment of God's temporal gifts, is recommended.
These passages are of special importance, since they significantly exhibit the peculiar practical tendency of the book.
It is the New Testament virtues, vironovij, x'^^P^'"
''5 i'^.viSi, epyaC.sa9ai /lerd ^avxiac (Rom. xii. 12; 2 Thes. iii. 12, etc.), in their peculiar Old Testament form, and in accordance with that view of the world inculcated in the more advanced Hhokmah doctrine, which are here substantially exhibited and commended to the tempted saints of the theocracy after the exile.
Compare Ldthee's Preface to the writings of Solomon— " The other book is named Koheleth, which we call the Preacher ; and it is a book of consolation.
When a man would live obediently * So HsirfRicH Heine desigoatea it in his '^Vermisckte Schri/ien,** ISbi^l^ In lilie manner Dslitzsch, Ckmimentar rum Much Hiob (in Keil und Deutzsch'8 Bibl. Comm. turn A. T), p. 5.
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
according to the teaching of the first book (i, e., the Proverbs), and perform the duties of his calling or of his office, the devil, the world, and his own flesh oppose, so that he is wearied of his condition Now as Solomon in the first book teaches obedience, as against foolish desire and curiosity, so in this book he teaches patience and constancy in opposition to discontent and temptation, and a peaceful and joyful waiting for the final hour."
Comp. the Preface to the Latin Commentary [0pp. exeget. ed. Schmid et Irmischer, T. XXI., p. 5): Hunt lihrum JEcclesiasten rectius nos vocaremus Polilica vel CEconomica Salomonis, qui viro in polilia versanti consulat in casibus tristibus el animuvi erudial ac roboret ad patienliam, etc.
["This book, Ecclesiastes, we should more correctly call the Politics or Economics of Solomon
; for he is giving counsel in adversity to a man engaged in public life, and is training and strengthening his spirit to patience," etc.] For similar passages see Elster, Commenlar uber den Prediger Sal., 1855, Introd., pp.
14 sq.
Besides this expositor (see especially pp. 27 sq.), Ewald {Einl. zu Koheleth, pp. 177 sq.)
Haevernick [Einl. III., 449 sq.), Vaihinger (Ueber den Plan Koheleth's, Stud, und Kril.,
1848, pp. 442 sq.), and Heng.stenbeeg {Der Prediger Salom. ausgelegt, 1859), have, among recent writers, with cogent arguments, defended the ethical character and contents of the book against such attacks.
Compare also the profound essay of Vilmae, " Ueber Koheleth^'' in the PasloraUheol. Bll, 1863, 1, 241 sq.
CONTINUATION,
b) THE PSALMS OP WISDOM.
Proverbial poetry most clearly combined with lyrical appears not only in the writings of Solomon, but also in those of many poets of the later age.
Certain intermediate forms of composition therefore occur which may be classed with one as well as with the other species of poetry.
Such are those Psalms, which, though they do not directly teach wisdom, yet sing the praise of the fear of God as the source of all wisdom, and exhibit a didactic tendency, both by the Maschal form which they adopt, and by proclaiming the praise of the law of the Lord and their exhortations to its faithful observance.
They may be briefly designated as Hhokmah-Psalms, and may be regarded as gnomes expanded into lyrics, or as the combination of several wise adages into a lyrical didactic whole.
The shortest of the two Psalms ascribed to Solomon, the 127th, appears to be in a measure a gnome thus expanded into a lyrical form.
Of the later Psalms those belong to the same category, which consist of praises of a life led in the fear of God and the faithful observance of the law,— Ps. i., cxi , cxii., cxxv. and cxxviii.
Of these the second is especially worthy of notice, in that it closes with the same commendation of the fear of God as the beginning of wisdom (ver. 10), which is found at the beginning of Solomon's Book of Proverbs (Prov. i. 7, comp. ix. 10, etc.), and at the end of Ecclesiastes and of the 28th chapter of the Book of Job.
The 119th Psalm is also a Psalm of wisdom on a magnificent scale, an alphabetical arrangement [lost of course in our versions] of inspired praises of the Divine word, and of the blessings which result from obeying it,—which Luther has well styled " the Christian A. B C. of praise, love, power, and use of the word of God."
Here belongs also the 49th Psalm, which describes the transitoriness of the happiness of the ungodly, and contrasts with it the hope of the righteous resting on God.
For this purpose it adopts a form which is expressly termed "speaking of wisdom" (ver. 3 [B. V.]), a "parable," a "dark saying" (ver. 4 [E. V.]).
The 78th P.^^alm, which belongs to Asaph, asserts its didactic character by the use of simiLir expressions.
Yet its contents, which are descriptive of the history of redemption rather than gnomically instructive or contemplative, show that it ought not to be classed with the proper psalms of wisdom, even though its tendency, like that of several other of the Psalms of Asaph, mitrht in gnne-a be calli-d didactic.
Those Psalms of David also, which contain didactic matter, differ almost throughout both in their contents and their form from the Hhokmah poetry of the age of Solomon and of that immediately succeeding, and only incidentally coincide with a few of the above named psalms of wisdom ; e. g., Ps. xv. 2 sq., with Pss. i., cxi., cxii.; Ps. xiv. 8 sq., with Ps. cxix.
The title ''3toD borne by some of David's psalms, e. g., Pss xxxii., lii , as well as by Asaph's, the 78th, affords no ground for regarding these songs as productions of the Hhokraah poetrj', or in general as merely didactic poems; for r^iVT^ is to be rendered neither as " Instruction " nor
g9. CONCLUSION.
as " Didactic poem," but most probably with Delitzsch as "Meditation," or even with Hitzig and others, as " Form, Image, Invention."
The Psalter then contains in general no Hhokmah poems of the period before Solomon, since the above named psalms of this class, all belong more probably to a later age, and indeed for the most part to the period after the exile
; they are consequently contemporary with Ecclesiastes rather, perhaps, than with the Book of Job, or with the original materials of the Book of Proverbs.
i 3, CONCLUSION.
C) THE APOCEYPHAL LITERATUEE OF WISDOM (SIEACH, BAEUCH, THE BOOK OF
WISDOM, etc.).
In the Apocryphal writings of Jesus, son of Sirach (So^i'a mii Icipdx, Ecclesiasticus), and of the anonymous author of the book of Barucb, and of the "Wisdom of Solomon," the Hebrew literature of wisdom celebrates its second spring-time upon Alexandrian Hellenistic soil.
No one ot tb^se works can have originated earlier than the second century before the Christian
Era, at least in the linguistic form and structure in which they now exist.
For the Ptolemy under whom the younger son of Sirach* clothed in its present Greek garb the Hebrew work of his grandfather of the same name (a Jew of Palestine), can be no other than Ptolemy Physcon, or Ptolemy Euergetes II. (B. C. 170-117).
The Book of Wisdom, according to internal evidence, belongs rather to the more advanced than to the earlier period of Alexandrianism
; it must probably have been produced, therefore, not until near the age of Philo, rather than have been composed by a contemporary of Aristobulus, or, as some claim, by Ai-istobulus himself The book Baruch, finally, which has as little to do with the old Baruch of the school of the prophets, as the " Letters of Jeremiah " which it contains have to do with the old prophetic teacher, is very certainly quite a late post-canonical production.
No one of these works—land this is quite as true of the book Tobias, and the " Prayer of Manasseh," which exhibit at least some points of contact with the later Jewish literature of wisdom—reaches back even as far as the time of Ecclesiastes, the latest production of the canonical or classical Hhokmah poetry.
In their literary artistic character, and their religious didactic substance, the three works named above are distinguished one from another ia this, that the collection of gnomes by Jesus, son of Sirach, in regard to contents as weU as form, appears to be mainly an imitation of the Proverbs, without, however, attaining the classical excellence of its model ; that, furthermore, the " Wisdom of Solomon," less rich in genuine theological and ethical substance, in its didactic form (as a monologue) and its free poetical appropriation of the person of Solomon, approaches Ecclesiastes quite as much as it differs from it in the, not sceptical but, Platonic speculative stamp of its argument; and that finally Baruch, which attempts to array the fundamental ideas of the doctrine of wisdom in the form of the old prophetic admonitions, commands, and letters, reaches nothing better than a dull, spiritless reproductioa of these prophetic forms, of as little theological as philosophical value.
Note.—The collection of proverbs by the son of Sirach, in spite of the occasional originality and beauty of its contents, still falls far below the poetic perfection and the theological ripeness of the model furnished by Solomon.
It therefore cannot be regarded as a composition bearing the stamp of inspiration and worthy of a place in the Canon.
These points are conceded even by several of the most recent defenders of the Apocrypha against the criticisms of the English Reformed School; e.g., Henostenbeeo (Evang.
Kirchen-Zeitung, 1853, Nos. 54 sq.; 1854, Nos. 29 sq.) and Bleek (Sludien unci Kritiken, 1853, II.).
Beuch also, in particular, has commented very justly on the literary value of Ecclesiasticus as compared with the Proverbs.
He says in his " Weuheilslehre der Hebrder" p. 273
" The true Hebrew gnome did indeed stand before this sage as a lofty ideal.
This was the goal toward which he pressed, but which he was not able to reach.
Only now and then (Joes he attain in his proverbs the condensed brevity, the suggestive fullness of meaning, and the telling rhythm of proposition and antithesis, which * [A genealogy based on the asBumed correctnesi of the flrsl prologue to the Book of Ecclesiasticus has been constructed as follows:
1. Sirach.
2. Jesus, son (father) of Sirach (au»ior of tlie book).
Sirach.
4. Jesus, son of Sirach ((ransfator of tlie book).
See B. F. Westcott's articles, "Jesus, the soa of Sirach," aud "Ecclesiasticus," in Smith's Dixtionary of tin
BibU.—A.]
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
diatinguiah the Proverbs of Solomon.
In many cases it is only with difficulty that he succeeds in comprehending a thought, in its rounded fullness of meaning, witliin the narrow limits of a single proposition.
Still less frequently does he bring corresponding members into a true antithetic relation.
He usually carries out his thoughts through a series of complementary proverbs, which not seldom run out at last into dull prose.
The true poetic spirit is altogether wanting to the son of Sirach.
He fi'equently expresses himself, it is true, in imagery, but theu he heaps figure upon figure improperly, and in his similes falls into the inflated and fantastic.
The quiet attitude of reflection would better befit the whole individuality of this Jewish sage," etc.
Furthermore, that Sirach, notwithstanding his comparative lack of originality and independent creative power, was still no mere imitator of Solomon's Proverbs, but that besides this he made use of other collections of ancient and esteemed maxims, appears from some hints in his own book (e. g., xxiv. 28
; xxxiii. 16).
It appears also from the fragments of ancient Hebrew proverbs which still occur here and there in the Talmudic literature of the Jews, which fragments point to the existence of similar collections of gnomes by the side of and before that of the son of Sirach.
Comp. Bruch, p. 274; Delitzsch, "Zur Geschichle der Hebrdischen Poesie," pp.
204 aq.; Bertheau, "Exeget. Handbuch zu dtn Spr. Sal," Introd., pp. xlii. sq.
In regard to the literary and theological character of the Book of Wisdom, in its relations to the canonical literature of wisdom in the Old Testament, comp. Bkuch (the work above cited), pp. 322 sq., and Grimm, in the "Kurzgef. exeget. Handbuch zu den Apocryphen,"
Vol. 6, Introduction ; and likewise Kuebel (Pastor in Wiirtemberg), "Die ethischen Grundanschauungcn der Weisheit Salomos : ein Beitrag zur Apocryphenfrage,"
Sludien und Kritiken, 1865, IV., pp. 690 sq.
In regard to the book Baruch, see 0. F. Fp.itzsche, in the ''Kurzgef. exeg. Handh. zu den Apocr." I., 167 sq., and Bruch, in the work already cited, pp. 319 sq.
[Dean Stanley (Jewish Church, II., 272) says of the Book of Wisdom :
"It is one link more in the chain by which the mfluence of Solomon communicated itself to succeeding ages.
As the undoubted ' Wi.sdom,' or Proverbs of Solomon, formed the first expression of the contact of Jewish religion with the ' Wisdom of Solomon ' is the first expression philosophy of Egypt and Arabia, so the apocryphal of the contact of Jewish religion with the Gentile philosophy of Greece.
Still the apologue and ' makes her voice to be the warning to kings keeps up the old strain ; still the old ' wisdom heard ; and out of the worldly prudence of Solomon springs, for the first time, in distinct terms,
' the hope full of immortality ' "
( Wisdom i. 1
; vi.
1, 9 ; iii. 1-4 ; v. 1-5, etc.)—A.]
{ 10. SYSTEM OF THE LITERATDRE OF WISDOM
IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, AND THE RELATIVE
PLACE OF THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
So far as the entire literature of wisdom in the Old Testament can be treated as an organic whole, and this whole be viewed as the didactic part of the religious literature of the Old Testament, as distinguished from its other main divisions, we recognize first a classical and a postclassical period [post-heroic, compared by the author to the age of the Epigoni in Greek legend.
—A.] as the most strongly marked phases in the course of its development.
And within each of these two periods there grows up side by side with gnomic poetry, or the Hhokmah literature in the narrower sense, a similar literature of broader range.
In the classical period, or within the bounds of the canonical literature of the Old Testament, the Hhokmah poetry in the strictest sense is represented by the Proverbs of Solomon, with their maxims of wisdom aiming to secure a conception and treatment of nature and of the life of man that shall be conformed to the will of God.
Side by side with its profound, concise, vigorous, marrowy sentences we find the glowing delineations and soaring lyrical effusions of Solomon's Song, this glorification of the mystery of love, as it is contemplated from wisdom's point of view.
The traditional triple chord in the harmony,—the trilogy in the drama,—of the writings ascribed to Solomon, is completed by the broader reflections to which the Preacher (Ecolesiastes) gives utterance concerning the nothingness of all that is earthly, and the duty of a cheerful but also grateful and devout enjoyment of life Outside this trilogy, which contains at least one work not im-
; :
? 10. SYSTEM OF THE LITERATURE OF WISDOM.
Jl mediately from Solomon, we find some other products of the Hhokmah literature in the wider sense.
There are the didactic Psalms of later date than Solomon, which most resemble the Maschal poetry of the Book of Proverbs, since they are mainly nothing more than gnomes, developed in poetic form.
And there is the Book of Job, the dramatic form of whose dialogue is analogous to that of Solomon's Song, while it reveals a certam internal likeness to Eoclesiastes in its devotion to the problems of the day, although at the same time it gives expression to many sceptical thoughts.
Of the productions of the post-classical age, or the literature of wisdom contai'ned in the Jewish Apocrypha, the collection of proverbs by the son of Sirach [Ecolesiastious], represents the Hhokmah poetry in the narrower sense; for it is a direct imitation of the Proverbs, and in part a later gleaning from the same field.
Of the writings which are to be classed here only in the broader sense, the Book of Wisdom stands parallel to Eoclesiastes. and Baruch to the Song of Solomon: still further, if one will, in Tobit a counterpart may be found for Job, and in the Prayer of Manasseh for many of the didactic Psalms.
The Proverbs of Solomon appear therefore, as the central spring and storehouse of the gnomic wisdom of the Old Testament ; or, as the true and main trunk of the tree of Hhokmah poetry, widely branching and laden with fruit.
And it is mainly on account of this radical impulse, and because of this main trunk, consisting so largely of elements really furnished by Solomon, that the whole development deserves to be called in a general and comprehensive way an intellectual production of the wisest of all kings in Israel.
Note 1.—Exhibited in a tabular form the above representation of the literature of wisdom in the Old Testament would stand somewhat as follows,—according to its genetic development and its organic relations I.
Classical or Hebrew canonical period of the Hhokmah.
1. Hhokmah poetry in the strictest sense, or in the primitive form of the Maschal (the true gnomic poetry of Solomon) The Proverbs.
2. Hhokmah poetry in the broader sense ; or in various transformations and modifications of the primitive type :
A. The Matchal form transformed to dramatic dialogue : a) Solomon's Song,—a didactic drama, with strongly marked lyrical and erotic character. b) Job,—a didactic drama, with a preponderance of the epic character.
B. The Maschal form expanded in monologue a) Eoclesiastes,—a collection of reflective philosophical monologues, constructed from the point of view of the Hhokmah. b) The didactic Psalms,—specimens of the lyrical development of some fundamental ideas and principles of the Hhokmah.
II.
Post-classical period, or Hhokmah literature of the Jewish Apocrypha.
1. True Hhokmah poetry, with a direct imitation of the old Maschal form :
Ecclesiasticus.
2. Hhokmah compositions in the broader sense :
A. With evident leaning toward the elder literature of the prophetic, or epic and dramatic style : a) Baruch. b) Tobit.
B. With leanings toward elder didactic and lyrical compositions, reflective and philosophical : a) The 'Wisdom of Solomon. b) The Prayer of Manasseh.
Note 2.—The grouping of Proverbs, Solomon's Song and Eoclesiastes as a trilogy of compositions by Solomon cannot be critically and chronologically justified.
Nevertheless it finds
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
its partial truth and justification in the fact that precisely these three works constitute the normal types of the entire literature of wisdom, in respect both to substance and form
(see the Table in note 1).
If they be contemplated ideally from this point of view, we cannot refuse to recognize a degree of truth in the old parallel drawn by Origen and Jerome between this trilogy, and the philosophical triad,— Ethics, Logic, Physics.
Attention has been already called to this in the note to 1 1.
Compare also page 67 of the General Introduction to the Old Testament section of this Commentary, where the author has given a classification of the writings of Solomon, or, as he puts it,
" of the general didactic system of Solomon," which likewise includes the above trilogy.
An analysis of the literature of wisdom in the Old Testament which differs in several points from our own, while it also brings out clearly many correct points of view, is proposed by Bruch, pp.
67 sq.
Period before the Exile : a) Monuments of the practical philosophy of this period
: Proverbs; 6) Theoretical philosophy: Job; c) compositions of partly practical, partly theoretical nature: the older didactic Psalms.
II.
Period after the exile : a) Practical philosophy ; Ecclesiaaticus ; b) Theoretical :
Solomon's Song ; c) partly practical, partly theoretical ; the later didactic Psalms, and also the Book of Wisdom, which at the same time forms the transition to the Alexandrian philosophy.
By others the apocryphal literature is ordinarily excluded from the classification, and, on the other hand, all the lyrical poetry of the Psalter brought in, so that the result is a classification of all the poetical literature of the Old Testament Canon.
Frederic Schlegel (Lectures on the History of Literature, 4th Lecture), and following him,
Delitzsch (in Herzog's " Real-Encyclopddie," XIV., 716), propose two main classes of Old Testament writings
1, historico-prophetic, or books of the history of redemption,—and 2, poetical, or books of aspiration.
The latter class, according to them, includes Job, the Psalter, and the writings of Solomon, and these correspond to the triple chord of faith, hope and love.
For Job is designed to maintain faith under trials : the Psalms breathe forth and exhibit hope in the conflict of earth's longings
; the writings of Solomon reveal to us the mystery of Divine love, and Proverbs in particular makes us acquainted with that wisdom which grows out of and is eternal love.
With reference to the position to be assigned to Proverbs within the circle of the poetical literature of the Old Testament, these classifications are very instructive.
And this is especially true of that last mentioned, which is as evidently correct in its exhibition of the relation of Proverbs to Job and the Psalms, as it is defective with respect to the third of Solomon's writings, Ecclesiastes
(which surely has very little to do with " the mystery of Divine love").
In one passage, J. A. Bengel (in his "Beitrdge zur Schriflerkldrung," edited by Osc. WaechTER, Leipsic, 1866, p. 27) expresses himself singularly in regard to the significance of the grouping, that has been so long traditional, of Proverbs, Job and Solomon's Song in a trilogy.
" The reason why Proverbs, Job and the Canticles stand together in the best Hebrew codices is this, man standing under paternal discipline needs the Proverbs ; when he has passed out from this into the fellowship of suffering he needs Job
: after he has been perfected he enters into the u7iio mystica {mystical union) and comprehends Canticles."
B.—SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON
§ 11. NAMES OF THE COLLECTION.
The superscription of the book which has been handed down in the Masoretic text, and which cests upon several passages of the book itself (see especially i. 17
; x. 1
; xxv. 1) is TioTO "jV^ w more correctly rendered, not " Proverbs " (Spruchworter), but Sayings of Solomon [Spruche).*
* (To .ipeak of the Proverbs of Solomon, or any other onu man, ia, in tho strict use of terms, a self-nontradictlou.
A proverhium, a Spriic!iwort, a proverb, is strictly an oM and popular saying.
Archbishop Trench (see Lectnre I. in hi^ valuabk' little work *' On the lessons in Proverbs ") speaks of ' popularity—acceptance and adoption on the part of the people," as " the most essential of all " the qualities of a proverb.
A little later he adds, " Herein, in great part, the foroo
? 11. NAMES OF THE COLLECTION.
This corresponds with the Rapoiutai of the LXX, and the Parabolm, not Proverbia, of the Vulfate.
For the word '^t^D does indeed sometimes describe proverbs in the true sense, or general, practical maxims, growing out of the spirit of a people and expressed in popular form (e. g., 1 Sam.
X. 12
; Ezek. xvi. 44
; xviii. 2).
But in itself it signifies only resemblance, likeness {simile, comparalio, napafin'A!/, napoifiia) ; it is therefore used, according to the peculiarity of Oriental poetry, to designate symbolical or parabolic apothegms, or poetic and philosophical maxims in the widest sense.
[The verb '^tsp is found with two quite distinct significations—to command, and to compare.
Gesenids ( Thesaurus, s. v.), after proposing two different ways of deriving these from one primary radical meaning, suggests that possibly there are two independent radicals.
Fuerst regards them as wholly distinct, the primary meaning of the one being " to be strong," of the other
'' to combine, connect, entwine."
Some old commentators erroneously derive the noun from the first of these two verbal roots; e. g., Teapp (Comm. on Prov., i. 1) :
" Master sentences; maxims, axioms, speeches of special precellency and predominancy."—A.]
Accordingly prophetical predictions (e. g., those of Balaam, Num. xxiii. 7, 18 ; xxiv. 3
; comp. Is. xiv. 4
; Mich. ii. 4
; Hab. ii. 6), as well as didactic Psalms {e. a., Ps. xlix. 5
; Ixxviii. 2) or sententious discourses of wise men (e. g., Job xxvii. 1
; xxix. 1) are designated as Q' <Cf?In the special and predominant sense hm is however the designation of a maxim or gnome from within the sphere of the Hhokmah
; it is therefore the sentiment or the moral axiom of a Hhakam (see above, J§ 2, 3).
For it was just these men, the Hhakamim of the Old Testament economy, that exhibited their main strength in giving utterance to pertinent comparisons, and significant truths of general practical value, and who were accustomed to impart their instructions chiefly in the form of maxims (Prov. i. 7
; xxv.
1).
An old synonym of the title " Book of Proverbs" or " Proverbs of Solomon" is therefore •' Book of Wisdom " naon 130.
[Comp. Fdeest's Kanon des alien Tesiavienls, etc., 1868, pp. 73 sq.— A.].
The book probably received this title now and then in the old Hebrew times.
At any rate it is so called several times in the Talmud {e. g., Tosephoth to Baba Bathra, f 14, h), and among the earliest Fathers of the Greek Church, like Clement, Hegesippus, iREN^ns, «te., it received the name v -Kavapcror mipia [wisdom including all virtues].
Comp. Eusebius, C?ih. HisL, IV., 22, 20, according to whom Melito of Sardis also gave the book a similar title,
'S.olnpuvmq Trapoi/iiai ij nai Zotfiia [similitudes of Solomon, which is also wisdom]. Compare further the titles co<i>i/ (3if3?,o^ and -aidayuyiKf/ ao(pia [" the wise book " and " instructive wisdom "] which Dionysil's of Alexandria and Gregory of Nazianzum employ.
We may therefore even now give to our collection of Proverbs the title of " Book of Wisdom," as well as the more common designation of " Proverbs."
And this is all the more allowable, because this collection is far better entitled to be called a " Book of Wisdom " than the Alexandrian apocryphal work which has assumed the name; it is also far more worthy than Eoclesiastes and Ecclesiasticus, to which old Jewish and Christian works not unfrequently apply the title in question (n03n, loipia).
Note 1. Habveenick (III. 386) and Keil (Inirod., § 117, p. 396) are in error when they dispute the opinion put forth by Beetheau, that the designation of the Proverbs as '^^^^
"*?•? originated among che early Jews.
The words of Melito quoted by Eusebius (passage above cited) are a conclusive proof of the correctness of this view, as they belong to a passage whose express object is to give the designations of the books of the Bible that were current among the Jews.
Comp. Delitzsch (work above quoted, p.
712).
Note 2. As synonymous with 't^n there occur in the Proverbs of Solomon and elsewhere in the Old Testament the words HTH (Prov. i. 6
; Ps. xlix. 5
; Ixxviii. 2
; Hab. ii. 6) and ^'"79 (Prov. of a proverb lies, namely, that it has already received the stamp of popnlar allowance."
He calls attention to the Spanish name of the proverb, "re/ra7i, which is a re/firendo, from the oftenuess of its repetition."
The prob.ible etymology of jrapot/iia, as " a trite, wayside saying," points the same way.—Dean Stanley (Jewish
Church, II., 2&I), illustrating the same view, says of the Proverbs of Solomon; "They are individual, not national.
It is because they represent not many men's wisdom, but one man's supereminent wit, that they produced so deep an impression.
They were gifts to the people, not the pioiuce of the people,'' eU.
The adage, adagium, is of doubtful etymoIo;2y; probably from "ad agendum apta.'* The ffapa^oA^, from jrapa-jSdAAu), to cast or put beside, is in form a cojijtari^on, in purpose an illustration.
An instructive and entertaining discussion of this subject, enriched with the amplest illustration, may be found in tho JUmdon Quarttrlg
Ktview, July, 1863.— A.J
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
i. 6
; Hab. ii. 6).
The first expression, which properly signifies " enigma "
(comp. Judg. xiv.
14; 1 Kings x. 1, etc.), [Etym., knotted, involved, intricate, Gesen., Fueest, etc.], stands for any dark, involved, profound utterance whatsoever; as in Matth. xiii. 35 the Dip "jD ni'Tn is rendered by Ksapv^fiiva ojro aarajiolii^
(instead of the jvpopXri/iaTa hir' apxvc oi the LXX).
Compare Augustine, who uniformly explains (enigma by obscura allegoria: comp. also Luther's " in einem dunklen Worte " [through an obscure word] for the phrase h alviy/iaTi ["darkly,"
Eng. vers.,—" by means of a mirror in riddles," De Wette,—" still darkly as in riddles," Van Ess, Allioli].
If therefore an ethical axiom, a gnome or parable be designated as this HTn this is always done with reference to the deeper meaning hidden in it under a figurative veil (comp. in addition to the passages above cited Ezek. xvii. 2).
Examples of these enigmatical proverbs [" dark sayings "] in our collection are to be found especially in the " words of Agur," in chap. xxx.
Comp. the remarks on xxx. 15, 16.
The meaning of nS'lD is disputed.
According to Gesenius, Bertheau, and Hitzig it is equivalent to " interpretation," " discourse requiring interpretation,"
(comp. the c/corfivof Uyoc of the LXX, Prov. i. 6).
According to Delitzsch, Haevernick and Keil it is "brilliant or pleasing discourse," oralio splendida, luminibus ornata."
[Fueest adheres to the derivation first preferred by Gesenius (following Schultens) according to which j''''
(obs. in Kal), Arab.
^^ signifies " to be involved, entangled," and used of discourse, " to be obscure, and ambiguous,"—and nX'TO " figurative, involved discourse."
Gesenius afterward developed the meaning of the noun from the radical idea of " stammering."—A.].
A sure decision can hardly be reached ; the analogy of 1" /O, however. Job xxxiii. 23, Gen. xlii. 23, Isa. xliii. 27, etc., seems to speak for the first interpretation, to which the second may be appended, as appropriate at least for Hab. ii. 6.
The radical word is then |'n, torquere, to twist,—and nX'Sip is properly watio contorta sine d^fficilis [involved or difl&cult discourse], just as HTn (from I'n defleclere [to turn aside]) is properly oralio ohliqua sive per ambages [oblique or ambiguous discourse].
Note 3. With reference to the true conception of the " Proverbs " of Solomon as compared with the proverbs (properly so called) of the Hebrews, and of various other nations, see especially Bruch, p. 103.
" The maxims which are here collected (in the Proverbs) are a product not of the popular spirit of the Hebrews, but ot Hebrew wisdom.
They have not sprung up unsought, but rather betray deliberate reflection. * * * * They do not lie separate and isolated, like the proverbs of a people, but rest upon certain fundamental conceptions, and together make up a whole.
They bear the impress of the Hebrew spirit, but only so far forth as the wise men from whom they come themselves rendered homage to this spirit ; in many other respects they rise, as their authors did, essentially above the spirit of the Hebrew nation.
They contain rules for conduct in the most diverse conditions of life ; but having a bond of connection in general truths, they reach far beyond the sphere of mere experience.
Now and then they take a speculative flight, and give utterance to profound conceptions and doctrines of philosophy.
* * * * All are clothed in the garb of poetry ; every where the law of parallelism prevails in them.
That elevation of language which is characteristic of Hebrew poetry is apparent in most of them, while the true proverbs of the people are for the most part expressed in prosaic forms, and often in very common language.
It is therefore altogether erroneous to compare this Book of Proverbs with the collections ot Arabic proverbs ; it might be more fitly compared with the gnomic poetry of the Greeks.
It is strictly an Anthology of Hebrew gnomes." Comp. J 2, note 4.
The comparison of the Hebrew Maschal -poetry with the sententious and proverbial poetry of the Arabs, although so peremptorily denied by Beuch, is not without its justification.
See Umbreit's Commentary, Introduction, p. Iv., where the two Arabic collections of proverbs, by the grammarian Al Meidani (t 1141). are named asafl'ording at least some parallels to the Proverbs of Solomon.
Reference is made beside to H. A. Schultens' Antholoqia sententiarinn Arabicarum {heyden, 1772), and to the collections of Erpenius, Golids, Kallius, etc.
(in
a J
12. ORIGIN AND COMPOSITION OF THE COLLECTION.
Schndrreb's Bibliolheca Arabica, pp. 210-221) as furnishing such parallels in rich abundance.
The latest and best edition of these collections ot Arabic proverbs is that of Freytag, Arahum proverbia sententiosque proverbiales, Bonn, 1838-43, which not only contains entire the collection of Meidani numbering above 9,000 proverbs, but also gives information concerning the 29 collections of gnomes existing in Arabic literature before Meidani. Comp. also Haeveenick and Keil, III., 381 sq., and Bleek's Introduction, p. 632, where among other things an interesting observation of Al Meid.-^ni is given, with reference to the great value of the proverbial wisdom
; " acquaintance with proverbs does not merely adorn with their beauties all circles of society, and grace the inhabitants whether of cities or of the desert; it imparts brilliancy to the contents of books, and by the allusions which are hidden in them sweetens the words of the preacher and teacher.
And why should it not ? since even the word of God, the Koran, is interwoven with them,—the discourses of the Prophet contain them,—the most eminent scholars, who have trodden the path of a mysterious wisdom have won this knowledge as their friend ?"
" Proverbs are to the soul what a mirror is to the eyes."
Manifestly it is not common popular proverbs to which this enthusiastic praise refers, but maxims from the schools of the sages, and of a poetic, philosophic character, similar to those of the Old Testament, though mainly ot far inferior worth.
(This is pertinent also as a reply to Delitzsch, p. 691, who following Ewald, declares the comparison of the Hebrew with the Arabic collections of proverbs altogether inadmissible). i 12. ORIGIN and composition OF THE COLLECTION.
The collection of the Proverbs of Solomon in its present form opens with a long superscription, which, in the style of oriental titles, praises the whole book for its important and practically useful contents.
This is followed by three main divisions of the book, of unequal length and distinguished by separate titles, to which are appended two supplements.
The first main division (chap. i.— ix.) subdivided into three sections (chaps, i.—iii., iv.— vii., viii.—ix.) contains an exhibition of wisdom as the highest good to be attained.
To the attainment and preservation of this in the face of the dangers that threaten the possession of it,—sensuality, impurity, adultery, etc.,—youth in particular are admonished
: and this is done in the form of instructions or admonitions, somewhat prolonged, and having an inward connection of parts, addressed by a father to his son,—and not in brief, aphoristically separated maxims.
The second main division (chap. x.—xxiv.) again comprises three sections, not symmetrical but of quite unequal length ; a) chaps, x. 1—xxii. 16, with the superscription na'?ty vt^O, a collection of separate, loosely connected, and for the most part very short maxims, which m part depict wisdom and the fear of God, and in part folly and sin, according to their chief manifestations and results
; and tins they do without rigid adherence to a fixed train of ideas, with so loose a coherence of the individual sentences that either no connection of thought appears, or one merely external, brought about by certain characteristic words or terms of expression. b) chap. xxii. 17—xxiv. 22
; a Maschal introduced by a special injunction to hearken to the words of the wise (chap. xxii. 17— 19), quite well connected in its parts, and evidently forming one whole ; this contains various prescriptions of equity and worldly prudence. e) chap. xxiv. 23—34; a short appendix, which by its superscription D"3^n^ n^X CJ [" these also are the words of the wise "], is described as the work of various wise men, no longer definitely known ; it consists of some maxims which, although nearly all having the form of commands or prohibitions, have no internal mutual connection.
Then follows the third main division (chap. xxv.—xxix.) having the superscription, "These also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, the King of Judah, collected:"— collection of single, loosely grouped proverbs, among which are found an unusually large number of pointed comparisons and antitheses.
The two supplements of the collection are, 1) chap. xxx. " The words of Agur theson of Jakeh." a compilation of maxims distinguished by their peculiarly artificial garb, and the partial obscurity of their meaning; 2) chap. xxxi. bearing the superscription "Words of Lemuel the king ot Massa, which his mother taught him.'** Under this title (in regard to which we shall soon have
* [Fur the variuus explanations of the verse seu Cotuni. ou xxxi. I].
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
more to say) the chapter contains a) a series of maxims for kings, and b) th« praise of a virtuou* matron, which is clothed in the form of an alphabetic song {vers. 10-31).
That the collection as a whole is not the immediate work of Solomon, or in other words, that the introductory words of the first superscription (chap. i. 1) " Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel," so far as they relate to the whole, design to claim the authorship for Solomon only in the most general sense, appears from the most hasty glance at oar abstract of the contents.
For apart from the fact that at the opening of the second main division there is a repetition of the title " Proverbs of Solomon,"—the last divisions, from xsii. 17 onward, are introduced by quite different superscriptions, two of which refer vaguely to " wise men " as the authors of the respective sections, and two to definite persons (although these are other ivise unknown), while the one which contains again the expression " Proverbs of Solomon" designates as the " collectors " of these " Proverbs of Solomon " the " men " of a king of Judah who did not live until 300 years after Solomon.
[Fuerst's inference from these diverse superscriptions and appellations is thus stated
( Canon des alien Testaments, p. 74) ; " that it is not the originating of all the proverbs with Solomon that was emphasized, though he be regaided as their main source, but only the aim and effect of the proverbs to promote wisdom."—Deiin Stanley, [uhi supra, p.
268) says " as in the case of the word ' wisdom,' the connection of ' Proverbs ' with Solomon can be traced by the immense multiplication of the word after his time."—A.].
And not only these diverse superscriptions, but various peculiarities of language, style, etc., such as present themselves to the attentive observer in each section in a characteristic way, bear witness to the gradual growth of the collection under the hands of several authors of a later day than Solomon's, each complementing the rest.
We might put the whole work of compilation to the account of the " men of Hezekiah," (chap. xxv.
1), and so assume that the maxims of Solomon, before scattered, and transmitted in part orally, in part by less complete written records, were collected, and, with the addition of sundry supplements brought into their present form by certain wise men from the court of the devout king Hezekiah (B.
C. 727—697).
The verb 'p''7'J''r! which in the passage cited above is used to describe the agency of these men, would well accord with this assumption
; for it signifies, not " appended " (Luther), but " brought together, arranged in order," in as much as p'j'i'i'n properly means " to remove from its place, to set or place somewhere ;" and in the passage before us it is rendered correctly by the e^eypdfavro of the LXX , and the transtulerunt of the Vulgate.
But the relations of the matter are not quite so simple that the whole compilation and revision can be referred to these wise men of Hezekiah.
For from the quite numerous repetitions of whole proverbs, or at least parts of proverbs from earlier sections, such as occur in the division chaps, xxv.—xxix.
(compare e.g., xxv. 24 with xxi.
9,— xxvi. 22 with xviii.
8,—xxvii. 12 with xxii. 3,—xxvii. 21 with xvii.
3,—xxix. 22 with xv. 18, etc.) it seems altogether probable that the preceding sections existed as an independent whole, before the attachment of chaps, xxv. sq.
This is confirmed by the fact that certain characteristics noticeable in the structure of clause and verse, and many peculiarities of phraseology and idiom likewise indicate that between the sections preceding chap. xxv. and the last seven chapters a wide difference exists, and one that points to the greater antiquity of the first and largest division.
Hezekiah's wise men appear therefore substantially as supplementing, or more exactly as continuing and imitating a larger collection of Solomon's proverbs already in existence before their day : and the existence of this they must not only have known but studiously regarded, for the great majority of the maxims and axioms there found they did not take into their new collection, but sought to present that which was mainly new and independent; in consequence however of the similarity of the sources from which they drew to those of the earlier collection, they could not but reproduce much in a similar form, and some things in a form exactly corresponding with the earlier.
[The Jewish tradition as given by Fderst (uhi mipra, p. 75) ascribes the collection of the proverbs of the first three sections, chaps, i.—ix., x.—xxii. 16, and xxii. 17—xxiv. to the men of Hezekiah.
And it finds this view confirmed by the very fact that the next section begins (xxv. 1) with the words "These also, are proverbs," etc.
But the subsequent collection (chap. xxv. sq. is " continued" by them, the proverbs being searched out elsewhere and transferred to this place; " proverbs not hitherto publicly employed for the education of the peo-
? 12. ORIGIN AND COMPOSITION OF THE COLLECTION.
pie they brought into a collection, to be in like manner used as a collection of Solomon's proverbs."
The " men of Hezekiah " he regards moreover as not all contemporaries and agents of the good king, but as organized into a "college," continued for literary, religious, and judicial purposes 280 years, seven full generations.
This is Jewish tradition.—A.].
That the older collection is not however to be itself regarded as all of one casting, but likewise as a product of the activity of one or several editors collecting and combining from still earlier sources, appears from several facts.
Within this section, as well as the later, instances occur of the repetition of single proverbs in an identical or analogous form {comp. e. g. xiv. 12 with xvi.
2.5,—xvi. 2 with xxi.
2,—x. 2 with xi. 4,— xiii. 14 with xvi. 27,—xix. 12 with xx. 2, etc.).
We have, besides, this fact, which is still more significant, that here again a diversity appears, marked by decided peculiarities of form as well as substance, between the two large subdivisions, chaps, i.— ix., and chaps, x.
1—xxii.
16.
In the second of these sections we find mainly verses symmetrically constructed,—so-called "antithetic couplets,"—and each verse presents an idea quite complete and intelligible.
It is the simplest and, as it were, the ideal type of the Maschal that here predominates; and since the simplest is wont to be as a general rule the most primitive, this fact suggests the conjecture that we are dealing here simply with genuine, original proverbs of Solomon.
In other words. Chapters x.—xjAi. 16 comprise the proper germ of the gnomic poetry of the Old Testament, which is in the strictest sense to be referred to Solomon and his age.
In the two supplements to this central main division, chap. xxii. 17—xxiv. 22, and chap. xxiv.
23—34 we observe in respect to form quite another character in the individual proverbs, although in their ethical tenor and substance they correspond with the preceding.
They lose something of the telling, pointed brevity, the inward richness of meaning, the condensed power, that characterize the earlier proverbs; and instead of " the rapid alternation of clause and counter-clause " before every where perceptible, there is apparent here less uniformity of structure, and an effort to expand the brief axiom to the longer discourse, admonitory, didactic, or illustrative of some monii truth.
Still more entirely is the simple and beautiful form of the Maschal, compact, pithy and symmetrical, disregarded and cast aside m chaps, i.—ix.
These present nothing but longer admonitory discourses, moral pictures full ot warning, and ethico-religious contemplations of broader compass, in all of which the simple, short proverb is only exceptional, and " proverbial poetry evidently took the form of admonition and preaching, but for this very reason became much more flexible, flowing and comprehensible."
The technical language of the Hhokniah appears here in various ways expanded and refined,—especially in the application of such full allegorical delineations as are contained in chap. ix.
(in the description of Wisdom's house with its seven pillars, and her feast,—and also in that of the conduct of the rH7'L)3 Diyx the personification of Folly).
The nearly equal length, moreover, of the three sections into which this entire admonitory address to youth is divided, (see the earlier part of the J), the quite regular and frequent recurrence of the ''33, " my son," which shows this to be its chief application, (i. 8
; ii. 1
; iii.
1, 11, 21 ; iv. 10, 20 ; v.
1, etc.), the adherence to certain leading thoughts through all the change and variety in expression and delineation,—all this points us to a single author, who different as he was from the author of the collection following
(x. 1—xxii. 16), designed to furnish an appropriate introduction to this collection of older proverbs, and to commend it to the Israel of his own time, especially to its younger generation.
That the mutual relations of the various parts of the Book of Proverbs are to be judged substantially in this way, most of the recent commentators are agreed.
[This general view both of the structure and authorship of our book is taken by most of our English and American scholars, with some divergencies of course, in the details.
Thus, Stuaet, Notes, MnENSCHEB, W. Aldis Wright, etc.
Sthabt sums up his view of the authorship thus (Comm. p. 63); " Solomon selected many, composed others, and put together those which he judged to be true, most striking, and most worthy to be preserved It matters not how much of the book of Proverbs Solomon actually composed; we only need his sanction to what it now contains."
Portions of the book moreover do not even purport to be Solomon's.—-A.].
We may make an exception, perhaps, of H. A. Hahn, Haevep.nick, and Keil, who, in spite of all internal and external differences between the several sections, which they are forced to acknowledge,—in spite of the \d-
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
rious introductory superscriptions,—still feel constrained to maintain Solomon's immediate authorship of the whole, with the sole exception of the two supplements in chaps, xxx., xxxi. (see especially Haevernick and Keil's Introduction, III., 392 sq.).
[This is Wordswokth's position.
It is moreover characteristic of him to look on the proverbs as having " also a typical character and inner spiritual significance, concerning heavenly doctrines of supernatural truth."
He finds support for this view in the fact that the collection is in its introduction said expressly to comprise enigmas and dark sayings.—A.]. Inasmuch as this conclusion is made necessary neither by reasons, internal or external, [in the book itselfJ, nor by any general theological interest in maintaining the inspired character of Scriptures, we must, unquestionably, adopt one of those views which represent the present collection as growing up gradually in the time between Solomon and Hezekiah, or even within a period ending somewhat later, and which discriminate between an original nucleus that is from Solomon, and the accretions of various ages, which are due to later collectors and editors.
The more important of these theories are (1) that of Ewald {Poet. Biicher des AlLen Test., IV.
2 sq.).
According to this, chap. x. 1—xxii. 16 forms the earliest collection, originating perhaps two hundred years after Solomon, yet inspired throughout by Solomon's spirit; to this were appended, first, in Hezekiah's time chap. xxv.—xxix., which also contain much that is the genuine work of Solomon,—then, in the following century, the Introduction, chap. i.— ix.,— then the supplements to the central main division, chap. xxii. 17—xxiv. 34,—and lastly the supplements chaps. XXX., xxxi ; and all these last are to be regarded as the independent composition of unknown sagesof the later period before the exile, without any elements whatever that are Solomon's.
We have (2) the viev/ of Berthead ( Commentary, Introd., pp. xxiii. sq.).
According to this it is as impossible to demonstrate with certainty an origin earlier than the days of Hezekiah for the second collection (chap. x.
1—xxii. 16) as for the first (chap. i.—ix.), the third (chap. xxii.
17—xxiv. 34), or the fourth (chap. xxv.—xxix.) ; we must therefore in general maintain the merely negative conclusion, that the book of Proverbs in its present form originated after the time of Solomon, and that it flowed from sources oral and written that are perhaps very numerous.
We have (3) the view of Hitzio {"Das Kbnigreick Mas-a" in Zeller's Theol. Jahrb.
1844, pp. 269 sq., and Commentary, Introd. pp. xvii. sq.).
This represents the present order of the parts as substantially that of their composition.
It accordingly conceives of the first collection (chaps, i. —IX.) as originating pretty soon after Solomon, in the 9th century
B. C.
; it then appends to this, shortly before the times of Hezekiah, or in the first half of the 8th century, the second (chap. x. 1—xxii. 16) together with the latter part of the fourth (chap, xxviii. 17—xxix.
27) ; to this it attaches " in the last quarter of the 8th century " the anthology in chaps, xxv. sxvii., and about a hundred years later (at the beginning of the period following the exile) the intruded section, chap. xxii. 17—xxiv. 34, and the fragment, chap, xxviii. 1—16 ; finally, at a still later day it adds the supplements in chaps, xxx , xxxi.
We have (4) the view of Delitzsch (in Herzog's Encycl., as above quoted, especially pp.
707 sq.), with which that developed by Bleek (Introd., pp. 634 sq.) agrees in the main point, i. e., apart from some subordinate details in which it approaches more nearly the theory of Ewald.
According to this the first and largest section of the Book of Proverbs (chap. i. 1—xxiv.
22) comes from an age earlier than Hezekiah, the second and smaller commencing with xxiv. 2.3, from Hezekiah's times.
The compiler of the first half lived possibly under Jehoshaphat, within a century of Solomon.
As material for the middle and main division of this work,—the germ, the main trunk, consisting of the genuin« proverbial wisdom of Solomon as contained in chap. x.
1—xxii 16,—he availed himself above all of the rich treasures of the 3,000 proverbs of Solomon, which were undoubtedly all fully preserved to his day, and from which he may be assumed to have taken at least all that were of religious and ethical value.
Still he appears to have gathered up much that is not from Solomon, and therefore to have united in one collection the noblest and richest fruits of the proverbial poetry of the wise king, with the most valuable of the " side shoots which the Maschal poetry put forth, whether from the mouth of the people or the poets of that day."
To this collection he prefixed the long Introduction in chaps, i.—ix.; a monument of his high poetic inspiration, not in the strict form of the Maschal, but that of long poetic admonitions,—in which he dedicated the whole work to the instruction of youth.
At the same
I 12. ORIGIN AND COMPOSITION OF THE COLLECTION.
time he added an appendix, chap. xxii. 17—xxiv. 22, consisting of proverbs from various wise men, and coramencing with an apostrophe to youth (chap. xxii. 17—21) the tone of which reminds one of the longer Introduction.
While according to this view the first and larger section purports to be essentially a book for youth, the second and shorter division, whose nucleus is formed by the proverbs of Solomon compiled by the men of Hezekiah, is evidently a book for the people, a treasury of proverbial wisdon? for kings and subjects,—as is indicated by the first, introductory proverb :
" It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, and the honor of kings to search out a matter."
After the analogy of the first collection, to these proverbs gathered by Hezekiah (or this treasury of " Solomon's wisdom in Hezekiah's days," in Stier's apt phrase), a sort of introduction was prefixed, chap. xxiv. 23-34, and a supplement was added, consisting of the proverbial discourses of Agur and Lemuel, and the poem in praise of a virtuous matron, in chap, xxx., xxxi.
Thus, like the older collection of the proverbs of Solomon, this made by Hezekiah has
' proverbs of wise men on the right and on the left ;"
" the king of proverbial poetry stands here also in the midst of a worthy retinue."
As to the time of the origin of the second collection, we are indeed not to assume the reign of Hezekiah itself, but the next subsequent period.
The personality of the collector of this second main division stands far more in the background than that of the author of the first, larger collection, who in its introductory chapters has given rich proofs of his oijrn poetical endowments and his wisdom.
From which of the two the general superscription of the whole, chap. i. 1-6, has come, must remain a question
; yet it is from internal evidence more probable that it was the last collector who prefixed this to the book.
We have presented with especial fullness this hypothesis of Delitzsch in regard to the origin of the Book of Proverbs, because it is in itself the most attractive of all, and offers the most satisfactory explanation of the various phenomena that arrest the attention of the observant reader, as he considers the superscriptions and the internal peculiarities of the several parts.
It is less forced and artificial than the theory of Hitzig, which shows itself arbitrary and hypercritical, especially in breaking up the section, chap. xxv.—xxix.; and it does not rest content with the mere negative results of criticism, like the analysis of Bertheau, which is also chargeable with excess of critical sharpness.
In comparison with Ewald's hypothesis it has the advantage, that it rests upon a more correct conception of the order of the development of gnomic poetry among the ancient Hebrews.
For it rejects as a one-sided and arbitrary dictum, Ewald's axiom, that the antithetic verse of two members which predominates in chap. x. 1—xxii.
16, is the oldest form of the Maschal, and that all proverbs and gnomic discourses otherwise constructed, by their departure from the typical form betray their origin as decidedly later than the days of Solomon.
It accordingly allows that sections in which there is a preponderance of gnomic distourses and gnomic songs,—such as chap. i.—ix. and xxii. 17—xxiv. 22, may come, if not from Solomon himself, at least from the age immediately after Solomon.
It likewise recognizes in the collection that dates from Hezekiah's day proverbial poetry which is mainly the genuine work of Solomon, or at least stands very near his day, and whose artistic character by no means (as EwALD thinks) contains traces of a decay in purity and beauty of form that is already quite far advanced.
Only in this particular are we unable altogether to agree with Delitzsch, that he would find in chap. x.—xxii. together with a selection from the 3,000 proverbs of Solomon, much that is his only in a secondary sense.
We believe rather that it is just this main division which contains nothing but fruits of Solomon's gnomic wisdom in the narrowest and strictest sense, and that repetitions of individual proverbs within the section, which are partly identical and partly approximative, in which especially Delitzsch thinks he finds support for the view that we are now
Combating, are to be otherwise explained.
They are, like the repetitions of discourses of Christ in the Gospels, to be partly charged to diversity in the sources or channels of the later oral or written tradition, and in part recognized as real tautologies or repetitions which the wise king now and then allowed himself.
We should, on the other hand, be disposed rather to conjecture, that in the supplements, chap. xxii. 17—xxiv. 34, which are expressly described as " words of wise men," and perhaps also in Hezekiah's collection, chap. xxv.—xxix., there is no inconsiderable number of utterances of wise men of Solomon's time, such as Heman, Ethan, Chalkol, etc.; and
ISTROBCCTION TO THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
this simply for the reason, that the superscriptions D'DDn '•"laT (xxii. 17) [words of wise men], and O'DOnS n^N DJ (xxiv. 23) [these also are from wise men], together with the peculiarity of diction which points to a high antiquity, make such a conjecture reasonable.
The short section bec'inning with the superscription last cited, chap. xxiv. 23-34, we should be most inclined, ir concurrence with the majority of expositors, to regard as a second appendix to the first main collection, because the assumption of Delitzsch that it is a sort of Introit to the second main division, of the same age as the section, chap. xxv.—xxix., strikes us in no other way than as too bold and destitute of all adequate foundation.
It remains only to speak briefly of the superscriptions to the two supplements in chapters xxx., xxxi.
The "Agur, son of Jakeh "
(?) to whom the contents of chapter XXX. are accredited, is a wise man otherwise altogether unknown, whose era we are as unable to determine with certainty as his residence, whose very name is almost as difficult and uncertain in its interpretation as are the words next succeeding in chapter xxx.
S3N1
^X'H''*'?
'^^'^'^^.
"^r^.^n ^^'.
^f^L^Perhaps instead of the common translation of these words: "the prophetic address of the man to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal"
["even the prophecy ; the man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal," E. V.], the interpretation of HiTZio, adopted also by BEETHEAn, Hahn and Delitzsch, should be followed.
According to this, the words
T^^''_^ ]3
[" son of Jakeh "] by a change of punctuation are to be connected closely with the word tKi/'^T^ ; thus for the beginning of the whole superscription we reach this meaning
"Words of Agur, the son of her whose dominion is Massa"
(KiffD nnp'
]3), t. e., son of the queen of Massa.
This queen of Massa we should then have to regard as the same person who in the superscription to the next supplement (chap, xxxi.) is designated as the " mother of King Lemuel."
For in this passage also X"^0 must be regarded as the name of a country, and the N2?0 "^O [King of Massa] as perhaps an Israelitish Arab, or, as Delitzsch suggests, an Ishmaelitish prince, whose kingdom, to judge from the mention of it in Gen. xxv. 14; 1 Chron. i.
SO, must have lain in Northern Arabia, and whose brother would have been the Agur in question.
[Fueest {ubi supra, pp. 76-7) regards Ntyo as a common noun, singular in form, but collective in import, having the meaning common in the prophets, " a prophetic or inspired utterance."
The symbolical meaning found here by Jewish tradition may be reserved for the exegetical notes on this chapter.— A.]
Further arguments in support of this interpretation (first presented by HiTZiQ in the Articles in Zellee's Theol. Jahrb., 1844, cited above, and adopted, although with various modifications, by the other interpreters whom we have named), and in reply to all conflicting interpretations, will be brought forward in the special exegesis of the passages involved. We shall there have occasion to discuss the further question, whether the whole substance of chap. xxx. is to be referred to Agur, and all in chap. xxxi. to Lemuel, or whether at least the Alphabetic poem in praise of a virtyous matron must not be regarded (as is done by nearly all the recent commentators) as the work of another author.
I 13.
THE KELATION OP THE MASORETIC
TEXT OP THE
COLLECTION TO THE ALEXANDEIAN.
In the LXX there occur many, and in some instances very remarkable deviations from the common Hebrew text of the Proverbs.
These consist in glosses to many obscure passages (i. e., either in readings that are actually correct and primitive, as, e. g., xi. 24
; xii. 6
; xv. 28
; xviii.
; xix. 28
; xxi. 6, 28, etc., or in wild emendations, as in xii. 12
; xviii. 19; six. 25
; xxiv. 10, etc.), in completing imperfect sentences (as, e. g., xi. 16
; xvi. 17
; xix. 7), in independent additions or interpolations (e. g., after i. 18
; iii. 15
; iv. 27; -vi. 8, 11 ; viii. 21
; ix. 6, 10, 12 ; xii.
13; xiii. 13, 15, etc.), in double versions of one and the same proverb [e.g., xii. 12; xiv. 22; XV. 6
; xvi. 26
; xvii. 20
; xviii. 8
; xxii. 8, 9 ; xxix.
7, 25 ; xxxi. 27, in the omission of whole verses [e.g., i. 16; xvi.
1, 3 ; xxi. 5
; xxiii. 23, etc.), and finally in the transposition of entire passages of greater length.
Accordingly, of the proverbs of Agur, the first half (chap. xxx. 114) is inserted after chap. xxiv. 22, and the second, chap. xxx. 15-33, together with the words of King Lemuel, after xxiv. 34
; the two supplements, therefore with the exception of the praise of the excellent matron (chap. xxxi. 10 sq.) appear associated with the "words of wise men" which stand between the elder and the later collection of proverbs.
g 14. THE POETICAL FORM OF PROVERBS.
These deviations are so considerable that they compel the assumption that there were ([uite early two different recensions of the Book of Proverbs, one belonging to Palestine, the other to Egypt, the former of which lies at the basis of the Masoretic text, the latter, of the Alexandrian version.
The Egyptian text appears in general to abound more in corruptions and arbitrary alterations of the original ; sometimes, however, it preserves the original most correctly, and seems to have drawn from primitive sources containing the genuine proverbial wisdom of Solomon.
Especially is it true that not a few of the additions which it exhibits on a comparison with the Hebrew text, breathe a spirit, bold and lofty, as well as thoughtful and poetic (see, e. g., iv. 27
; ix. 12; xii. 13
; xix.
7, etc.) ; these appear, therefore, as fruits grown on the stock of the noble poetry of wisdom among the ancient Hebrews,—in part even as pearls from the rich treasures of Solomon's 3,000 proverbs (1 Kings iv. 32).
Note 1.—The critical gain for the emendation of the text and for the interpretation of the Book of Proverbs that is yielded by the parallels of the LXX may be found most carefully tested and noted—though not without many instances of hypercritical exaggeration and arbitrary dealing—in Fr. Bottcher's "iVeiie exegelischkriiischeAehrenleie zura A.
T.,"
III., pp.
1-39; in P. DE Lagakde's "Anmerkungen zur griechischenUebersetzung der Proverhien" (Leipz., 1SG3); in M. Heidenheim's Article, "Zur Texlkrilik der Proverbien"
[Deutsche Vierteljahrsschr. filr englisch-theol. Porschung, u. s. w., VIII., Gotha, 1865, pp. 395 sq.)
; as well as in the Commentaries of Berths ATI (see especially Introd., pp. xlv. sq.) and Hitzig (Introd., pp. xix. sq.; xxiii. sq.).
The last mentioned writer has also thoroughly discussed tlie variations of the Syriac version (Peschito), the Vulgate and the Targum (pp. xxvii. sq.); of these, however, in general, only the first named are of any considerable critical value, and that usually only in the cases where they agree with those of the LXX.
Compare furthermore the earlier works of J. G. Jaeger, Observaiiones in Prow. Salom. veriionein Alexandriiiam,
Lips., 1786; Schledssner, Opuscida critica ad versiones Grcccas V. T. perlinenli'a, Lips., 1812, pp. 260 sq.; and also Dathb, Be ratione consensus versionis Chaldaicx el Sgriacce proverb iorum Salomonis (in Dalhii Opuscc. ed. RosENMnELLER, pp. 108 sq.).
Note 2.
Umbreit in his Commentary has taken special notice of several other ancient Greek versions beside the LXX, especially the Versio Veneta, which i.s for the most part strictly literal.
Another text which is likewise quite literal, which Procopiits used in his 'Ep/ii/veia tlr tiic T7apiM/iia^, and which Anqelo Mai has edited in Tom. IX. of his Glass. Auctor., may be found noticed in Heibenheim (as above).
? 14. THE POETICAL FORM OF PROVERBS.
The simplest form of the Maschal, or the technical form of poetry among the Hebrews, is a verse consisting of two short symmetrically constructed clauses,—the so-called distich (Zweizeiler,)a3 Delitzsch calls it, following Ewald's peculiarly thorough investigations on the subject before us.
The mutual relation of the two members or lines of this kind of verse shapes itself very variously, in accordance with the general laws for the structure of Hebrew poetry.
There are synonymous distichs, in which the second line repeats the meaning of the first in a form but slightly changed, for the sake of giving as clear and exhaustive a presentation as possible of the thought involved (e. g., xi.
7, 25 ; xii. 28
; xiv.
; xv.
3, 10, 12, etc.).
There are antithetic distichs, in wbich the second illustrates by its opposite the truth presented in the first [e.g., x.
1 sq.; xi. 1 sq ; xii. 1 sq.; xv. 1 sq.).
There are synthetic distichs, the two halves of which express truths of different yet kindred import [e. g., x. 18, 24, etc.).
There are integral (eingedankige) distichs, in which the proposition commenced in the first half is brought to completion only by the second, the thought which is to be presented extending through the two lines (as in xi. 31
; xiv. 7, 10; xvi. 4, 10 ; xxii. 28).
There are finaWy parabolic distichs, i. e., maxims which in some form or other exhibit comparisons between a moral idea and an object in nature or common life
: and this is effected sometimes by 3 [as] in the first clause and \3 [so] in the second, that is, in the form natural to comparisons,—sometimes, and more usually, in such a way that the proposed object and its counternart are set loosely side by side, with a suggestive, emblematic brevity, with or without the copulative 1 (xi. 22; xvii. 3
; xxv. 25
; xxvi. 23; xxvii. 21, etc.).
In the central main division of the collection, chap. x.—xxii. IP, all the proverbs are these short distichs, and, as has been already
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
said, the larger part of them (especially in the first six chapters of the section) milithetic distichs, distinguished by the " but '" (Hebr, 1) at the beginning of the second line (compare J 12, p. 27, and below, ? 15).
In the supplements to the oldest collection (xxii. 17—xxiv. 34) as well as in the aleanings of Hezekiah's men, there are found however not a few instances uf the extension of the simple typical distich to a verse of several lines, or of the multiplication of the couplet to four-, sixer eight-lined verses.*
In the case of these longer proverbs, which comprise several verses, we find repeated, if not every one, yet the greater part of the diverse relations of the first to the second half of the proverb, which we had observed in the distichs.
There are, it is true, no antithetic stanzas of four lines,—but there are synonymous verses [e.g., xxiii. 15 sq.; xxiv. 3 sq,; xxiv. 28 sq), synthetic (xxx. 5 sq.),—stanzas with a single idea (xxii. 22 sq., 26 sq.; xxx. 17 sq.),—and parabolic verses (xxvi. 18 sq.: xxv. 4sq.).
Specimens of the six-lined stanzas (which are constructed mainly with a single thought, or in the synthetic form) are to be found, e.g
, in xxiii. 1-3, 12- ; xxx. 29-31.
Verses 22-25 of cuapter xxiii. compose a stanza 1-t, 19-21, 26-28 ; xxiv. 11-12 of eight lines, synthetic in its structure.
Side by side with this normal multiplication of the couplet to form stanzas of four, six or eight lines, there are abnormal or one-sided growths, resulting in triplets, with the first division of two lines and the second of one
[e.g., xxii. 29: xxiv.
; xxvii. 22
; xxviii. 10, etc ),—or in stanzas of five lines (xxiii. 4sq.; xxv. 6 sq.; xxx. 32 sq.), or in stanzas of seven lines, of which at least one example appears in chap, xxiii. 6-8.
If the proverb extends itself beyond the compass of seven or eight lines, it becomes the Maschal (or gnomic) poem, without a fixed internal order for the strophes.
Such a poem (or song) is, for example, the introductory paragraph [of one main division], chap. xxii. 17-21
; and again, the meditation on the drunkard, xxiii. 29-35 ; that on the lazy husbandman, xxiv. 30-34 ; the admonition to diligence in husbandry, xxvii. 23-27
; the prayer for the happy medium between poverty and riches, xxx. 7-9 ; the prince's mirror, xxxi. 2-9, and the alphabetically constructed song in praise of the matron, xxxi. 10-31.
The introductory main division, chap. i. 7—ix. 18, consists wholly of these proverbial poems, and of 15 of them (see in ^ 16 the more exact enumeration of these 15 subdivisions, which may again be classed in three larger groups).
Inasmuch as the rhetorical presentation throws the poetical in these cases usually quite into the background, these Maschal poems may almost be called with greater propriety Maschal discourses.
Yet within these there is no lack of poetical episodes, lofty and artistic in their structure, among which we would name especially the allegory of the banquet of Wisdom and Folly (chap. ix.
1 sq.), and also the numerical proverb in eight lines concerning " the six things which the Lord hates and the seven that are an abomination to Him " (in chap. vi.
16-19).
Of these numerical proverbs, or nnD, as they are called in the poetry of the later Judaism, chap, XXX., as is well known, contains several (vers. 7 sq., 15 sq., 18 sq., 21 sq., 24sq,).
In the Son of Sirach's collection of proverbs likewise we find several examples of the same kind [e.g., Ecclesiasticus xxiii. 16
; xxv. 7; xxvi. 5, 28).
Further observations on the origin and import of this peculiar poetic form may be found in notes on chap. vi. 16.
Now and then the Book of Proverbs contains forms analogous to the Priamel [prceambulum, a peculiar type of epigram, found in German poetry of the 14th and 15th centuries—A.] ; see, e.g., xx. 10; xxv. 3; xxvi.
; xxx. 11-14 ; yet this form is hardly found except in the most imperfect state.
The last of the technical forms of the poetry of the Book of Proverbs is that of the Maschalseries, i. e., a sequence of several proverbs relating to the same objects, e. g., the series of proverbs concerning the fool, chap. xxvi. 1-12,—the sluggard, xxvi. 13-16,—the brawler, xxvi. 20-22,—the * [In English Biblical literature. Bishop Lowth's discussfon and classification has been the basis generally assumed.
We know no clearer and more concise exhihition of this system and the various modifications that have been proposed than that given by W. Aldis Wrioht in Smith's THclinnary of the Ttibte (Article roHry, Hebrew).
I.OWTH who is closely followed by StOart, Edwards and others, rr-gards a triple classification aa sufficient : synonymmis. antiUtftic and synthetic parallelisms.
An infelicity in the term synonymous, in view of the extent and variety of its applications, was recognized by LowTH himself, but more strongly urged by Bishop Jebb, who proposed the term co<j7tfite.
This appears to be a real improvement in terms.
Mdenscber (Introd., pp. xlv. sq.) proposes two additional classes, the gradational and the introvrtf.d. the first of which Is well covered by the term rofjnat', while the second, which had been proposed by JF.BB. seems open to Wright's exception, that it is "an unnecessary refinement."
This objection does not seem to lie against tho new terms proposed in ZifCKLER's nomenclature.—A,]
? 15. THE DOGMATIC AND ETHICAL SUBSTANCE OF PROVERBS.
3S spiteful, xxvi. 23-27.
This form belongs, however, as Delitzsch correctly observes, " ratlier to the technical form of the collection than to the technical form of the poetry of proverbs."
That the former [the arrangement] is far more imperfect and bears witness to far greater indiflference than the latter,—in other words, that the logical construction, the systematic arrangement of individual proverbs according to subjects, especially within the central main division, is far from satisfactory, and baffles almost completely all endeavors to discover a definite scheme,—this must be admitted as an indisputable fact, just in proportion as we give fit expression on the othei hand to our admiration at the wealth of forms, expressive, beautiful and vigorous, which the collection exhibits in its details.
Note.—With reference to the connection of the several proverbs one with another, and also with respect to the progress of thought apparent in the collection as a whole, we can by no means concur in the opinion of J. A. Benoel,—at least in regard to the main divisions, x. 1 sq.; xxii. 17 sq.; XXV.
1 sq.
The collection of proverbial discourses, i. 7—ix. 18, being intentionally arranged according to a plan, is of course excluded from such a judgment.
Bengel says :
" I have often been in such an attitude of soul, that those chapters in the Book of Proverbs in which I had before looked for no connection whatever, presented themselves to me as if the proverbs belonged in the most beautiful order one with another" (OsK. Waechteb, Joh. Albrecht
Bengel, p. 166).
We must pass the same judgment upon many other expositors of the elder days, who wearied them, selves much to find a deeper connection between the several proverbs
(see, e.g., S. BoHLins, Elhica Sacra, I., 297 sq., "de diqiosilione el cohoerentia lextus;" and Stocker in the Introduction to his "Sermons on the Proverbs of Solomon ").
In regard to this matter as old a commentator as Mart. Geier judged quite correctly :* " Ordo-frustra quwritur ubi nuUusfuit observatus.
Quamqii.am enim sub initiumforte libri certa serie Hex noster sua projtosuerit,—allamen ubi ad ipsas proprie dicias parabolas aul gnomas deveniiur, promiscue, proul quidque se offerebat, consignata videmus pleraque, ita ut modo de avaritia, modo de inendaciis, modo de simplieitale, modo de timore
Dei vel alia materia sermonem institui videamtis," etc.
As in the case of the great majority of the songs of the Psalter, in which the arrangement is merely and altogether external, determined often by single expressions, or by circumstances wholly accidental, there is found among the germinal elements of the Book of Proverbs little or no systematic order.
The whole is simply a combination of numerous small elements in a collection, which was to produce its effect more by the total impression than by the mutual relation of its various groups or divisions.
To use Herder's language {Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, II., 1-3), it is " a beautiful piece of tapestry of lofty didactic poetry, which spreads out with great brilliancy its richly embroidered flowers," which, however, is constructed according to no other rules of art than those perfectly simple and elementary ones to which the pearl jewelry and bright tapestries of Oriental proverbial wisdom in general owe their origin.
Comp. furthermore the general preliminary remarks prefixed to the exegetical comments on chap. x. i
1-5. THE DOGMATIC AND ETHICAL SUBSTANCE OF THE PROVERBS, EXHIBITED IN A CAREPTTL
SURVEY OF THE CONTENTS OF THE BOOK.
Inasmuch as our book, considered as an integral part of the entire system of the Scriptures of the Old Testament, stands before us as the central and main source of Solomon's doctrine of wisdom (in the wider sense),—and so bears as it were written on its brow its Divine designation to be the chief storehouse of ethical wisdom and knowledge within the sphere of Old Testament revelation
(see above, g 1, and § 10, latter part) we must anticipate finding in it great treasures of ethical teachings, prescriptions, rules and maxims for the practical life of men in their moral relations.
In fact, the ethical contents of the collection far outweigh the doctrinal.
And deeply significant as may be its contributions to the development of individual subjects in dogmatic theology, such as are found in various passages (e. g., iii. 19 and viii. 22 sq. in their bearing upon the doctrine of It 19 in vain to seek for order where none has been observed.
For while perhaps near the beginning of the book oar King arranged his material with a definite plan,—yet when we come to the parables or gnomes properly so called we find the greater part recorded at random, as one after another suggested itself, so that we see the discourse turning now upon rtvarice, then upon falsehoods, again upon simplicity, and onco more upon the fear of God. or some other subject," rtc—TB.
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
;— viii. 22—ix. 12 as related to the doctrine of the eternal Word of God, and the docthe creation
;—xv. 11
; xvi. 9
; xix. 21
; xx. 27, etc., as contrine of the Hypostasis or of the Trinity in general nected with Biblical Anthropology; or xi. 7
; xiv. 32
; xv. 24 in connection with the Old Testament doctrine of Immortality and the hope of a Resurrection, etc.); still, as a general rule, practical and ethical subjects are treated not only more thoroughly but with a far more direct interest.
The book deserves much more the name of a school of morals, or of a Codex of Ethical Precepts for old and young, for princes and people, than that ofArchives of Dogmatic Theology, or a prolific Repository of dogmatic propositions and proof-texts.
The dogmatic propositions do not, however, by any means stand in the midst of the greater wealth of ethical teachings and precepts, isolated and interspersed without system.
They form rather every where the organic basis.
They give expression to the absolute and primary premises for all the moral instruction, knowledge and conduct of men.
They appear therefore inseparably combined with those propositions that are properly of an ethical or admonitory nature.
It is preeminently the central idea of the Divine Wisdom as the mediator in all the activity of God in the world and in humanity, that shines out bright as the sun upon this background of religious truth which is every where perceptible in the book, and that more or less directly illuminates every moral utterance.
As this eternal Divine wisdom is the original source in all God's revelation of Himself in natural and human life,—as it is especially the mediating and executive agency in the Divine revelation of the way of life in the law of the Old Covenant, and must therefore be the highest source of knowledge and the standard for all the religious and moral life of man,—so likewise does it appear as the highest good, and as the prescribed goal toward which men are to press.
And the subjective wisdom of man is nothing but the finite likeness of the wisdom of God, which is not only objective, but absolute and infinite ; nothing but the full unfolding and normal development of the noblest theoretical and practical powers of the moral nature of man.
It can be attained only by the devotion of man to its Divine original ; it is therefore essentially dependent upon the fear of God and willing subjection to the salutary discipline CDID, i.
2, 8 ; iv.
1, etc.) of the Divine word.
He who docs not seek it in this way does not attain it, but remains a fool, an opposer of God and of Divine truth, who in the same ratio as he fails to raise his own moral nature by normal development to a living likeness to God, fails also to share in any true prosperity in the present life, to say nothing of the blessed rewards of the future.
He who because of the fear of God strives after true wisdom, on the contrary unfolds his whole inner and outer life to such a symmetry of all his powers and activities as not only secures him the praise of a wise man in the esteem of God and men, but also establishes his true and complete happiness for time and eternity.
A presentation of these fundamental ideas in (he ethics of Solomon, well connected, systematically arranged and exhibited, cannot possibly be expected consistently with the note appended to the preceding section in reference to the composition of the Book of Proverbs.
If we therefore now endeavor to give a table of contents as complete as possible, following the arrangement of the Masoretio text and the ordinary division of chapters, we shall be quite as unable to avoid a frequent transition to heterogeneous subjects, as on the other hand a return in many instances to something already presented ; we must in many cases dispense with even aiming at a strict logical order of ideas.
We follow in the main the "Summary of the Contents of the Proverbs of Solomon," given by Starke at the end of his preface, pp. 1593 sq.
Only with respect to the first nine chapters do we adopt the somewhat different summaiy and division which Delitzsch has given (pp. 697 sq.) of the "fifteen proverbial discourses" of the first maia division.
; ;
§ 15. THE DOGMATIC AND ETHICAL SUBSTANCE OF PROVERBS.
GENERAL SUPERSCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION.
Chap.
I. 1—6.
Announcement of the author of the collection (ver.
1) of its object (vers. 2, 3), and of its great value (vers. 4-6).
I. Introductory Division.
Chap. I. 7—IX. 18.
True wisdom as the basis and end of all moral effort, impressed by admonition and commendation upon the hearts of youth.
Motto:
" The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all knowledge;" i.
1. Group of admonitory discourses; i. 8—iii. 35.
1. Admonition of the teacher of wisdom to his son to avoid the way of vice ; I. 8-19.
2. Warning delineation of the perverse and ruinous conduct of the fool, put into the mouth of Wisdom (personified);
I. 20-33.
Exhibition of the blessed consequences of obedience and of striving after wisdom;
II. 1-22.
4. Continuation of the exhibition of the salutary results of this devout and pious life
III. 1-18.
Description of the powerful protection which God, the wise Creator of the world, grants to those that fear Him ;
III. 19-26.
6. Admonition to charity and justice;
III. 27-35.
2. Group of admonitory discourses ;
IV. 1—VII.
27.
7. Report of the teacher of wisdom concerning the good counsels in favor of piety, and the warnings against vice, which were addressed to him in his youth by his father
IV. 1-27.
8. Warning against intercourse with lewd women, and against the ruinous consequences of licentiousness; V. 1-23.
9. Warning against inconsiderate suretyship
; VI. 1-5.
10. Rebukeof the sluggard; VI. 6-11.
11. Warning against malice and wanton violence
; VI. 12-19.
12. Admonition to chastity, with a warning delineation of the fearful consequences of adultery ;
VI. 20-35.
13. New admonition to chastity, with a reference to the repulsive example of a youth led astray by a harlot
; VII. 1-27.
3. Group of admonitory discourses
; VIII. 1—IX. 18.
14. A second public discourse of Wisdom (personified) chap. VIII. , having reference a) to the richness of her gifts (vers. 1-21); h) to the origin of her nature in God (vers. 21-31)
; and c) to the blessing that flows from the possession of her (vers. 32-36).
15.
Allegorical exhibition of the call of men to the possession and enjoyment of true wisdom, under the figure of an invitation to two biinquets (chap. IX.), a) that of Wisdom ; vers. Irl2. b) that of Folly ; vers. 18-18.
II.
Original nucleus of the collection,—genuine proverbs of Solomon
; X. 1—XXII. 16.
Ethical maxims, precepts, and admonitions, with respect to the most diverse relations of human life.
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
1. Exhibition of the difference between the pious and the ungodly, and their respective lota in life ; chap. X.—XV.* a) Comparison between the pioua and the ungodly with reference to their life and conduct in general
; X. 1-32.
b) Comparison between the good results of piety, and the disadvantages and penalties of ungodliness (chap. XI.—XV.), and particularly a) with reference to just and unjust, benevolent and malevolent conduct toward one's neighbor
; chap. XI.
; /3) with reference to domestic, civil and public avocations; chap. XII; /) with reference to the use of temporal good, and of the word of God as the highest good : chap. XIII.
; (5) with reference to the relation between the wise and the foolish, the rich and the poor, masters and servants: chap. XIV.
; e) with reference to various other relations and callings in life, especially within the sphere of religion
: chap. XV.
; (chap. XVI.
1—XXII. 16); and ".
Exhortations to a life in the fear of God, and in obedience in particular a) to confidence in God as the wise regulator and ruler of the world ; chap. XVI.
/3) to contentment and a peaceable disposition ; chap. XVII. y) to affability, fidelity, and the other virtues of social life
; ch. XVIII.
6) to humility, meekness and gentleness ; chap. XIX. e) to the avoidance of drunkenness, indolence, quarrelsomeness, etc. chap. XX.
C) to justice, patience, and dutiful submission to God's gracious control chap. XXI.
; '/) to the obtaining and preserving of a good name ; chap. XXII. 1-16.
III. Additions made before Hezekiah's day to the genuine proverbs of Solomon which form the nucleus of the collection; chap. XXII. 17—XXIV. 34.
Ist Addition : Various injunctions of justice and prudence in life
; XXII. 17—XXIV. 22.
a) Introductory admonition to lay to heart the words of the wise; XXII.
17-21 ; b) Admonition to justice toward others, especially the poor; XXII. 22-29; c) Warning against avarice, intemperance, licentiousness and other such vices : chap. XXIII. d) Warning against companionship with the wicked and foolish ; chap.
XXIV. 1-22,
2d Addition : chap. XXIV. 23-34. a) Various admonitions to right conduct toward one's neighbor; vers. 23-29. b) Warning against indolence and its evil consequences
: vers. 30-34.
IV. G-leanings by the men of Hezekiah ; chap. XXV.—XXIX.
True wisdom proclaimed as the highest good to Kings and their subjects.
Superscription ; XXV.
1. Admonition to the fear of God and to righteousness, addressed to Kings and subjects chap. XXV.
* Tlie jiistiflcrttion for conipr^^hendins the contents of thesn cliajiters under the above heading is to l)e found in thia, that tlie BO csillcd antithL-tic Maschal form ia d<.-cidodly predominant in them.
Comp. above § 14, p. 32, and also the gentr r«I prrfatory romarkfS wliich introduce the exegetical comment-^ on chap. x.
I 16. LITERATURE ON THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
2. Various warnings : viz. a) Against disgraceful conduct (especially folly, indolence, and malice) chap. XXVI. b) Against vain self-praise and arrogance; chap. XXVII. (with an exhortation to prudence and frugality in husbandry; vers. 23-27). c) Against unscrupulous, unlawful dealing, especially of the rich with the poor; chap. XXVIII. d) Against stubbornness and insubordination
; chap. XXIX. v. The Sapplements: chaps. XXX., XXXI.
1st Supplement : the words of Agur ; chap. XXX. a) Introduction : Of the word of God as the source of all wisdom
; vers. 1-6. b) Various pithy numerical apothegms, having reference to the golden mean between rich and poor, to profligacy, insatiable greed, pride, arrogance, etc.; vers. 7-33.
2d Supplement : The words of Lemuel, together with the poem in praise of the matron : chap. XXXI. a) Lemuel's philosophy for kings ; vers.
1-9. b) Alphabetic poem in praise of the virtuous, wise, and industrious woman ; vers. 10-31.
Note. The more thorough presentation of the didactic substance of the proverbs is reserved for the exposition that is to follow, and especially for the rubric " Doctrinal and Practical."
As the best connected discussion of this subject (biblical and theological) we should be able without hesitation to commend that of Bruch ( Weisheitslehre der Hehraer, pp. 110 sq.), if it were not characterized by the fault which pervades Bruch's treatise, so meritorious in other respects, that in the interest of critical and humanitarian views it misrepresents the stand-point and the tendency of the Hhokmah-doctrine.
That is to say, it insists that there is in this attitude of mind a relation of indifference or even of hostility toward the theocratic cultus and the ceremonial law, like the relation of the philosophers and free-thinkers of Christendom to the orthodox creed.
No less clearly does he insist upon the general limitation to the present hie of every assumption of a moral retribution ; and in his view there is an entire absence of the hope of immortality from the view of the world taken in our book.
For the refutation of these misconceptions of Bruch (which are undeniably in conflict with such passages as, on the one side, xiv. 9; xxviii. 4sq.; xxix.
18, 24; xxx. 17
; and on the other xii. 28
; xiv. 32; XV.
24; xxiii.
18, etc.), Oehler's able treatise may be referred to:
" Grundzuge der altlistamentl.
Weisheii " (Tub. 1854, 4) ; although this deals more especially with the doctrinal teachings of the Book of Job, than with Proverbs.
See likewise Ewald (as above quoted, pp. 8 sq.
; Elster, J 1, pp. 1-6; Delxtzsch, pp. 714-716, and even Hitzig, pp. xii. sq.) § 16.
THEOLOGICAL AND HOMILETICAL LITERATURE ON THE BOOK OP PROVERBS.
Beside the general commentaries (of which we shall have especial occasion to make use of Starke's Synopsis, the Berleburg Bible, J. Lanqe's Licht und Recht. Wohlpaeth and Fischer's Prediger-Bibel, the Calwer Handbuch, and VoN Gerlach's Commentary) we must mention the following as the most important exegetical helps to the study of the Proverbs.
Melanchthon : EiplieaUo Broverbiorum, lb25 (Op/i., T. XIV.) ; Sebast. Munstee, Brov. Sulom.juxla hebr. verit. translala et annolationibus illuslrata (without date)
; J. Mercerus, Comm. in Sa!onio)iis Broverbia, Eccl. el Cantic., 1573 ; Malbonatus, Comm. in prwcipuos libros V. Ten tamenli, 1643 ; F. Q. Salazar, hi Brov. 8al. Commentarius, 1636-7
; Mart. Geier, Brov. Salomords cum cura enudeata, 1653,1725; Thom. Cartwright, Comvientarii siiccincli el diluci(L in Brov. Sal, 1663 ; Chr. Ben. Michaelis, Annotaliones in Brov.
(in J. H. Michaelis, " Uberiores annolationes in Hagiogr.V.
Test, libros,"
1720, Vol. 1); A. Schultens, Brov.
Salom. vers, integram ad Hebr. fonlem expressil at<iue comm. adjeeil, 17^8 ; {In comptnd. redegitii
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
obss. erilt. auxit G.
J. L. Voqel, Hal., 1768-9) ; J. D. Michaelis, Die Spruche Sal. und der Prediger ubs. mit Anmerkungen, fur Ungelehrte, 1778;
J. Chr. Dodeelein, Die Spruche Salomonis mit Anmerkungen, 1778, 3d edn. 1786
; W. C. Ziegleb, Neue Uebers. der Denkspriiche Salomonis, 1791 ; H. Muntinohe, Uebers. der Spr., a. d. Holland, von Scholl, 1800-2 ; Chr.
G. Henslee, Erlduterungen des 1 Buches Samuels und der Salom. Denkspriiche, 1796
; J. Fr.
ScHELLiNG, Salomonis quce supersunt omnia lot. vertit notasque adjeeit, 1806 ; J. G. Dahler, Denk-und Sittenspriiche Salomos, nebst den Abweichungen der Alex.
Vers, ins Deutsche iibers. mit Vorrede von Blessig, 1810; C. P. W. Grambebg, Das Buch der Spruche Sal., neu iibersetzt, sysle^nat. geordnet, mit erkl. Anm. u. ParalL, 1828
; F. W. C. Umbeeit, Philol.-Krit. und Philos. Comm. uber die Spriiche Sal., nebst einer neuen
Uebers.
Einl. in die morgerd.
Weisheit uberhaupt u. in d.
Salomonisehe insbes.,
; H. Ewald, die poetischen Biicher des A.
Bundes, Th. IV., 1837 ; F. Mattrer, Oomm. gram. erit. in Prov., in usum academiarum adornatus, 1841
; C. Bridges, An exposition of the Book of Proverbs, 2 Vols., Lond., 1847 [1 Vol., New York, 1847] ; E. Bertheau, Die Spriiche Sal. in the " Kurzgef. exeg. Handb. z. A. T."
; Vaihinger, Die Spr. Sal., 1857; F. Hitzig, Die Spr. Sal. iibers. u. ausgelegt, 1858 ; E.
Elster, Comm. iiber d.
Salomonischen Spriiche, 1858.
[Adolf Kamphausen, in Bunsen's Bibelwerk, 1865].
[Besides the standard general Commentaries of Heney, Patrick, Adam Claeke, Gill, OeTON, Scott, Teapp and others, a considerable number of special commentaries on Proverbs have been written bv English and American scholars.
Among these are Bede, Exposilio allegorica in Salom.
Proverbial M.
Cope, Exposition upon Proverbs, translated by M. Outeed, London,
P. A. MuFFET,
a Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon, 2d ed, London,
; republished in Nichol's Series of Commentaries, Edinburgh, 1868 ; T. Wilcocks a short yet sound Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon (in his works) ; John Dod, a plain and familiar exposition of Proverbs (chap. ix. to xvii.), 1608-9; Jeemin, Paraphrastical Meditations by way of Commentary on the whole Book of Proverbs, London,
; F. Taylor (Exposition with practical reflections on chaps, i.— ix.), London, 1655-7; Sir Edward Leigh, in his "Annotations on the Five Poetical Books of the Old Testament,"
London, 1657 ; H.
Hammond, Paraphrase and Annotations, etc.; Richard Grey, The Book of Proverbs divided according to metre, etc., London, 1738
; D. Ddeell, in his " Critical Remarks on Job, Proverbs, etc., Oxford, 1772; T. Hunt, Observations on several passages, etc., Oxford, 1775; B.Hodgson, The Proverbs of Solomon translated from the Hebrew, Oxford, 1788
; G. Holden, An Attempt towards an Improved Translation, etc., Liverpool, 1819 ; G. Lawson, Exposition of the Book of Proverbs, Edinb., 1821 ; R J. Case, Comm. on the Proverbs of Solomon, London, 1822
; French and Skinner, a new translation, etc., Camb., 1831 ; W. Newman, The Proverbs of Solomon, an improved version, London, 1839; B. E. Nicholls, The Proverbs of Solomon explained and illustrated, London, 1842
; G. R. Noyes, in his " New Translation of the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Canticles." etc., Boston, 1846 ; M. Stuart, Commentary on the Book of Proverbs, Andover,
; J. Muensgher, The Book of Proverbs in an amended Version, etc.. Gambler, 1866 ; Chr.
Wordsworth, Vol. IV., Part III. of his Commentary on the Bible, London, 1868.] Jevrish Rabbinic Expositions ; Ant. Giggejus, In Proverbia Salomonis eoinmeniariitrium
Rabbinorum; Sal. Isacidis, Abr. Aben Ezra, Levi hen Ghersom, quos A. Gigg. interpret, est, eastig., illustr., Mediolan, 1620.
Of the more recent Rabbinical commentaries, that in Hebrew by Lowenstein, Frkft. a. M., 1838, is of special importance, and also that by L. Dukes, in Cohen's
Commentary (Paris, 1847; Proverbes), where the earlier expositions of learned Je%vs upon our book, 38 in all, from Saadia to Lowenstein, are enumerated and estimated.
Literature in Monographs.
Critical and ex'^getical :
F. Hoffmann and J. Th.
Sprenger, Observationes ad qucedam loca Proverbb. Sal., Tubing,
; * J. J. Reiske, Conjectural in Jobum et Prow. Salom., Lips. 1779
; A, S. Arnoldi, Zur Exegetik und Krilik des A.
Tests , 1.
Beitrag ; Anmerkungen iiber einzelne Stellen d. Spr. Sal., 1781 ; J.
J. Bellermann, ./Enigmata hebraica, Prov. xxx.
sq.,
sq., explicata, spec.
1-3, Erford. 1798-9; H. F.
* In Umbreit (p. Ixvi.) and in Kkil (p. 395) Che. Fr. Schxcbrer is incorrectly named as theanthor of this little tie* tise.
It w;i9 rather a dissertation defended by the scholars above named under Scbnurrer's rectorate.
§ 16. LITERATURE ON THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.
MuEHLAU, De proverbiorum qua dicuntur Aguri el Lemuelis (Prov. xxx. 1— xixi. 9) origine alque indole, Leips., 1869.—Compare moreover the works already named in I 13, note 1, among which especial prominence should be given to Fe.
Bottcher's " Neiie exegetkch-krilisclu Aehrenlese z. A.
Test. (Abth. III., herausg. von. F. Mdehlau, Lips. 1865), as likewise to the treatises which are there mentioned by P. be jjji.gaede and M. Heidenheim
(the former judging somewhat too unfavorably of the LXX, the latter in some cases contesting the exaggerations of the former, and in other instances reducing them to their proper measure) ; for these are important aids to the criticism and exegesis of single passages.
Practical and Homiletical :
Sam. Bohlitjs, Elhica sacra, Ptost. 1640 (compare note to J 1) J. Stocker (Pastor at Eisleben, died in 1649) Sermons on the Proverbs of Solomon
; Oetikger, IHe Wahrheit des sensus communis in den Spritchen und dem Prediger Salomonis,
Stuttg., 1753; Staudenmaiee, Die Lehrevon der Idee (1840), pp.37 sq.
(valuable observations on Prov. viii. 22 sq.) ; C. I. NiTZSCH.on the essential Trinity of God, Theod.
Stud. u. Krit., 1841, II., 295 (on the same passage; see especially pp. 310 sq.); R. Stier, Der Weise ein Kdnig, Solomon's Proverbs according to the compilation of the men of Hezekiah
(chap. xxv.—xxix.), expounded for the School and the Life of all times, Barmen, 1849 (the same work also elaborated for the laity, under the title " Solomon's wisdom in Hezekiah's days ")
; same author :
" The Politics of Wisdom in the words of Agar and Lemuel," Prov. xxx. and xxxi.
Timely scriptural exposition for every man, with an appendix for scholars, Barmen, 1850.
[In English no other recent work of this sort can be compared with Arnot's " Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth," 2d edn.
Lond., 1866.
Bishop Hall's " Characters of Virtues and Vices," London, 1609, is designed to be an epitome of the Ethics of Solomon.
R. WARDL.iw : Lectures on the Book of Proverb* (a posthumous publication), 3 Vols., London, 1861].
; !
THE PROVERBS
OF SOLOMON.
General Superscription to the Collection.
Announcement of the Author of the Collection, of its Object, and of itt great value.
Chap.
I. 1-6.
Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, the King of Israel
to become acquainted with wisdom and knowledge, to comprehend intelligent discourse,
to attain discipline of understanding, righteousness, justice and integrity,
to impart to the simple prudence, to the young man knowledge and discretion ;
let the wise man hear and add to his learning, and the man of understanding gain in control,
6 that he may understand proverb and enigma, words of wise men and their dark sayings.
Introductory Section.
IVue wisdom as the basis and end of all moral effort, impressed by admonition and eommendaiion upon the hearts of youth.
Chap.
I. 7—IX. 18.
The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge; wisdom and discipline fools despise.
First group of Admonitory or Gnomic Discourses.
Chap.
I. 8—III. 35.
1. The teacher of wisdom admonishes his son to avoid the way of viee.
Chap.
I. 8-19.
Hearken, my son, to thy father's instruction, and refuse not the teaching of thy mother
for they are a graceful crown to thy head, and jewels about thy neck.
10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not