Proverbs, Book of, the 20th book of the Old Test., according to the arrangement of the English Bible, where it is placed between the Psalms and Ec- clesiastes, doubtless from its presumed relation to the other works of Solomon ; and in the Hebrew Bible it likewise follows the Psalms as part of the Kethubim, or Hagiographa. In the German MSS. of the Hebrew Old Test, the Proverbs are placed between the Psalms and Job, while in the Spanish MSS., which follow the Masorah, the order is Psalms, Job, Proverbs. This lat- ter is the order observed in the Alexandrian MS. of the Sept.- Melito, following another Greek MS., arranges the Hagiographa thus: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Job, as in the list made out by the < loun- cil of Laodicea ; and the same order is given by Origen, except that the book of Job is separated from the others by the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezckiel. But our present arrangement existed in the time of Jer- ome (see Prcef.in Libi\Regum,\\\ : "Tertius ordo ayu'i- ypa<})a possidet. Et primus liber incipit ab Job. Se- cundus a David. . . . Tertius est Solomon, tres libros habens: Proverbia, quaj ill i parabolas, id est Masaloth appellant: Ecclesiastes, id est, Coeleth: Canticum Can- ticorum, quem titulo Sir Asirim prrenotant"). In the Peshito Syriac, Job is placed before Joshua, while Prov- erbs and Ecclesiastes follow the Psalms, and are sepa- rated from the Song of Songs by the book of Ruth. Gregory of Nazianzum, apparently from the exigencies of his verse, arranges the writings of Solomon in this order : Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Proverbs. Pseudo- Epiphanius places Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs between the 1st and 2d books of Kings and the minor prophets. (The following article is based upon
that in Kitto's Cyclopaedia, with additions from other sources.) See Bible.
I. Title. — As in the Pentateuch, the book of Proverbs takes its Hebrew title from its opening words — h^C72 n^'P'J, or "OIZJ'Q, mishley, simply. From this are di- rectly derived the titles it bears in the Sept. (jKapoi^iai 'EtakofiStvTOQ) and Vulgate {Liber Proverbiorwm qutm Hebrcei" Mislt " appellant), and the name by which it is universally known in English. Another title, perhaps more appropriate to the book as a whole, is derived from its chief subject, '• Wisdom." In the Tosaphoth to Baba Bathra (fol. 14 6), we find Proverbs and Ecclesiastes combined under the name ClESri IBS), " the book of wisdom," and this title appears- to have passed thence
| into the early Church. Clemens Roman. (Ep. ad Cor. i, 57) when quoting i, 23-31 says, ovtwq X«ya ?'/ irarapf- toq ootyia, a name which, according to Eusebius | //. K. iv, 22), was adopted by Hegesippus, Ireineus, and "the whole band of the ancients," following the unwritten Jewish tradition, and by Clem. Alex. (Strom, ii. 5; 22). It is styled by Gregory Naz. (Orat, xi) iraiSaywyiierj <ro(pia, and by Dion. Alex. aop) fiijlXoc. In the cata- logue of canonical books compiled by Melito of Sardia preserved by Eusebius (//. E. iv, 20), we find nap. 1a- Xou. t) Kai 2o<pia, a name which, as well as Sapientia, is of frequent occurrence in the early fathers (see Cote- lerius in Clem. Rom. /. c. ; Vales, ad Euseb. I. c), though by no means restricted to the book of Proverbs, being equally used, as Cotelerius proves, of "Ecclesiasticus" and "The Wisdom of Solomon," a circumstance from which some confusion has arisen.
The word V^"£, mashdl, by which the so-called "Proverbs" of Solomon arc designated (Prov. i. 1. 6; x, 1 ; xxv, 1 ; and 1 Kings iv, 32 [v, 12]), is more appro- priately translated in the Vulgate "parabola." It is akin to the verb P1I573, corresponding with the Arabic maihala and the Syriac methal, " to be like," and pri- marily signifies "a comparison," "similitude," "para- ble" (Ezek. xvii, 2; xxiv, 3) ; whence it easily passed to those pithy, sententious maxims so often in the East appearing' in the form of a terse comparison, of which many are to be found in the book before us — e.g. xxvi, 1, 2, 3, G, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 17 — and then to " proverbs" in general, whether containing a similitude or not (1 Sam. x, 12; xxiv, 13 [14]; Eeeles. xii, 9). Its scope was still further enlarged by its application to longer com- positions of a poetical and figurative character e.g. that of Balaam ( Numb, xxiii. 7, 18, etc., and Job xxvii,
\ 1 ; comp. Psa. xlix, 5; Ixxviii, 2), and particularly to taunting songs of triumph over fallen enemies— e. g. against the king of Babylon (Isa. xiv, 4), the Chaldeans
' (Hab. ii, 0; comp. also Mic. ii, 4; Dcut. xxviii, 37; 1 Kings ix, 7). See Proverb.
But the book of Proverbs, according to the introduc- tory verses which describe its character, contains, be-
I sides several varieties of the mashdl, sententious sayings of other kinds, mentioned in i, 0. The first of these is the tTTTI. chidah, rendered in the A. V." dark saying," "dark speech," "hard question," "riddle,'* and once (Hab. ii, G) "proverb." It is applied to Samson's rid- dle (Judg. xiv), to the hard questions with which the queen of Sheba plied Solomon (1 Kings x. 1 ; 2 Chron. ix, 1), and is used almost synonymously with mashdl in Ezek. xvii, 2, and in Psa. xlix, 4 (5); Ixxviii, 2, in which last passages the poetical character of both is in- dicated. The word appears to denote a knotty, intri- cate saying, the solution of which demanded experience and skill : that it was obscure is evident from Numb, xii, 8. In addition to the chidah was the fiX"1?"©, me- litsdh (Prov. i, G. A. V. "the interpretation," marg. "an eloquent speech"), which occurs in Hab. ii, G in con- nection both with chidah and mashdl. It has been variously explained as a mocking, taunting speech (Ewald) ; or a speech dark and involved, such as needed a inelits, or interpreter (comp. Gen. xlii, 23; 2 Chron.