The appendixes chs. 30. 31 consist of three inde- pendent pieces, which undoubtedly belong to a somewhat late period, and are in fact probably the latest in the whole book. We are led to this con- clusion by the very form of the proverbs they contain : in 30-31" there is a manifest ellbrt to express ideas in single short sententious poems marked by the extreme of art, and often enigmati- cally expressed. The contents, too, point to a late date : in 30"''- we find a deeper consciousness of the inadequacy of man's knowledge of God and of divine things than meets us anywhere else except in Qoheletii and partially in Job ; moreover, the notion that appears in ;!0°'- of a fixed written revelation, from which nothing is to be taken and to which nothing is to be added, equally points us to a late period, subsequent at all events to Deuteronomy.
The alphabetical poem (31'°"") shows by this very device, which is peculiar to it, that we have to do with a relatively late literary product. To determine more specifically its date from its contents is unfortunately not possible.
The determination of the period to which 10'- 22" and chs. 25-29 belong, is peculiarly difficult owing to the circumstance that historical allusions are practically wanting in them. Ewald (Gesch. d. V(jlk. Isr. lii. 598 11.) has, indeed, discovered in 28-'- 29-- ■■•"•'" '" allusions pointing us to the last years of the Northern kingdom, but there is no necessity to suppose these proverbs to have origin- ated then ; at the most it may be conceded sim|)ly that they would be intelligible if emanating from this period (cf. the Books of Amos and Ilosea). The date of the rise of these collections is not, however, to be determined on the ground of par- ticular sayings which, like the above, held good at various periods of time, but from the whole char- acter of the collections. This has escaped the notice of those who, like Bauilissin, have adduced in particular the saj'ings about the king in order to prove that these chapters originatcil during the times of Israel's independence. It has to be nil mitted that analogous savings are found also in Siracb ; but these are dibtinguislied, we aie tolil.
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PROVERBS, BOOK OF
PROVERBS, BOOK OF
from those we are dealing with, in so far as they contain warnings of the danger of intercourse with the great rathor tlian point to the benefit arising from such (cf. I'r IG'-'*''). In confirmation of tliis date for the main stock of our book, we are pointed, furtlier, to the mention in pre-exilic time (cf. Is 3s, Jer IS's, Dt 16"") of 'the wise' along with priests and prophets (so Ewald, Oehler, Hooykaas, Delitzsch, and others). These ' wise,' it is held, were evidently divided into two classes — the one with a more secular tone, inditi'erent or even hostile to religion ; the other with a religious character, concerned more with individual than with national principles and aims. From the sphere of the latter, chs. 10'"- and 25'*' are supposed to have emanated, whereas it is to the first class that the unfavourable judgment passed by the prophets upon ' the wise ' applies (cf. Is 5" 29", Jer 4-- 8' 9^- and oft.). But neither have we any evidence that these ' wise ' exercised a literary activity, nor is it probable that the above distinction existed. Kuenen {I.e. § 97, note 14) has pointed out that the projihets, by way of opposition to the anti- theocratic ' wise,' never mention this other class of religiously disposed ' wise ' who are supposed to have been so nearly akin to themselves in their aims, nor characterize them as allies in their conflict with godJessness and immorality. But even if this pre- supposition, which is intended to show the possi- bility of a pre-exilic composition, were correct, as we have shown it is not, yet this possibility would not be converted into a reality simply by pointing to these sayings about the king or to any particular sayings, because it is by no means inconceivable that sayings belonging to the pre - exilic period should have been taken over into collections origin- ating at a much later date. Consequently the question about the date of 10'^- and 25"- can be determined only by taking into account the whole character of these collections. It is a character- istic circumstance that these proverbs a^ee in their religious and ethical requirements with those of the prophets, and yet on the other hand difl'er from the latter in some not unessential points : we find the same estimate of sacrifice in Pr 15* 21'- " as in Am S""''-, Hos 6", Ezk 1""- ; the same praise of humility and warning against pride in Pr IP 14^ 151. i. 18. 25. 83 i6»- 18'- 1719 1812 igu 214 22< as compared with Is 2", Am 6^ Hos 7", Mic 6* and oft. ; the same denunciation of those who oppress the poor, and the same commending of care for the latter in Pr 14^1 17° IS^^ 19'- ' 22^- ' 28«- «• " 29>' as compared with Am 4i»-, Hos C^"*-, Mic 2* etc. Like the prophets, these proverbs see in the fear of God the foundation of all piety and morality, and in numerous passages they exhort men to this fear. But whereas the prophets deal essentially with the national life and apply to it their demands for righteousness, etc., tlie proverbs treat of matters belonging to the sphere of individual and domestic life. A serious displacement has even taken place in so far as the unique relation between Jahweh and Israel, which the prophets never lost sight of, has here disappeared, and the individual conception of religion has taken the place of the national : not Israel and the peoples, out the upright and the ungodly, the proud and the humble, the under- standing and the foolish, are the contrasted categories \vith which the proverbs have to do. Whereas the prophets are Jahweh's advocates in His conflict with the gods of the heathen, and have to plead His cause to Israel when it turns from Him to the service of these, in the proverbs monotheism holds undisputed sway, and the con- sequences that result from it are not defended, but assumed as self-evident, and only the practical points of view insisted upon : He is the Creator of poor and rich (14" 22» 29") ; the Omniscient (15»- "