CHAPTER I.

Vers. 1-6.-Part I. THE TITLE AND SUPERSCRIPTION. The superscription of the Proverbs, which extends from ver. 1 to ver. 6, furnishes us with an epitome in short and concise language of the general scope and bearing of the book, and points out its specific utility, both to the inexperienced and to those already wise. Thus (1) in ver. 1 it gives the name of the author to whom the proverbs are attributed; (2) in vers. 2 and 3 it declares the aim, object, or design of the collection, which is to lead to the acquirement of wisdom generally; and (3) in vers. 4-6 it proceeds to indicate the special utility the collection will be to two main classes-to the simple and immature, on the one hand, in opening and enlarging their understanding, and so providing them with prudent rules of conduct by which they may regulate the course of life; and, on the other, to the wise and intelligent, in further increasing their knowledge or learning, and thus rendering them competent to comprehend, and also to explain to others less favourably situated than themselves, other proverbs, or enigmas, or sayings, of a like recondite nature to those now to be brought before them.

The title of the book embodied in the text is, The Proverbs of Solomon the son of David, King of Israel,' but the shorter designation by which it was and is known among the Jews is Mishle (p), taken from the word with which the book begins. Analogously, in the Authorized Version it is styled The Proverbs,' and the heading in the LXX. is Παροιμίαι Σολομῶντος. The PROVERBS.

outside title in the Vulgate is more elaborately given as, 'Liber Proverbiorum, quen Hebræi Misle appellant' (The Book of the Proverbs, which the Hebrews call Misle'). In the Talmud it is called the Book of Wisdom' (ppppp, Sepher Khokhmah); and Origen (Eusebius, 'Hist. Eccl.,' vi. 25) designates it Miowe, the Greek form of the Hebrew M'shaloth (ip). Among the ancient Greek Fathers, e.g. Clement, Hegesippus, Irenæus, the book was known by a variety of titles, all more or less descriptive of its contents as a repository of wisdom.

In

Ver. 1. The proverbs of Solomon. The word which is here translated "proverbs is the original mishle (p), the construct case of mashal (p), which, again, is derived from the verb mashal (p), signifying (1) "to make like," "to assimilate," and (2) "to have dominion" (Gesenius). The radical signification of mashal is "comparison" or "similitude," and in this sense it is applied generally to the utterances of the wise. Numb. xxiii. 7, 8 it is used of the prophetic predictions of Balaam; certain didactic psalms, e.g. Ps. xlix. 5 and lxxviii. 2, are so designated, and in Job (xxvii. 1 and xxix. 1) it describes the sententious discourses of wise men. While all these come under the generic term of m'shalim, though few or no comparisons are found in them, we find the term mashal sometimes used of what are proverbs in the sense of popular sayings. Compare "Therefore it became a proverb (p), Is Saul also among the prophets?" (1 Sam. x. 12); and see also other instances in Ezek. xvi. 4 and xviii. 2. In this sense it is also found in the collection before us. The predominant idea of the term, however, is that of comparison or similitude, and as such it is better represented by the Greek παραβολή (from παρα

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Bánλw, "to set or place side by side"), literally, a placing beside, or comparison, than by Tapoiuía, "a byword," or "a trite wayside saying," though in the Greek of the synoptic Gospels Tapouía is equivalent to rapaßon. The English word "proverbi insufficiently renders the wider scope of meaning conveyed in the Hebrew mashal, and is not quite accurately rendered here, since of proverbs in our ordinary signification of that word there are comparatively few in this collection. The Hebrew word here means "maxims," "aphorisms," "wise counsels." Of Solomon. Most modern commentators (Delitzsch, Zöckler, Fuerst, Stuart, Plumptre, etc.), while attributing, in a greater or less degree, the authorship of the book to Solomon, regard the insertion of his name in the title as indicating rather that he is the dominant spirit among those wise men of his age, some of whose sayings are here incorporated with his own. King of Israel, as forming the second hemistich of the verse, goes with "Solomon," and not "David." This is indicated in the Authorized Version by the position of the comma. The Arabic Version omits allusion to David, and reads, "Proverbia, nempe documenta Salomonis sapientis, qui regnavit super filios Israel." The proverbial or parabolic form of teaching was a recognized mode of instruction among the Hebrews, and in the Christian Church is recommended by St. Clement of Alexandria (Strom.,' lib. 11, init.).

"To

Ver. 2.--To know wisdom and instruction. In this verse we have a statement of the first general aim or object of the Proverbs. know" (ny, ladaath) is somewhat indefinite in the Authorized Version, and might be more accurately rendered, "from which men may know" (De Wette, Noyes); cf. unde scias (Munsterus). The which is here prefixed to the infinitive, as in vers. 2, 3, and 6, gives the clause a final character, and thus points out the object which the teaching of the Proverbs has in view. The teaching is viewed from the standpoint of the learner, and hence what is indicated here is not the imparting of knowledge, but the reception or appropriation thereof on the part of the learner. Schultens states that the radical meaning of ny (daath) is the reception of knowledge into one's self. Wisdom. It will be necessary to go rather fully into this word here on its first appearance in the text.

חָכְמָה The Hebrew is

(khokhmah). Wisdom is mentioned first, because it is the end to which all knowledge and instruction tend. The fundamental conception of the word is variously represented as either (1) the "power of judging," derived from D, "to be wise," from

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the Arabic, "to judge" (Gesenius); or (2) "the fixing of a thing for cognition," derived from the Arabic equivalent of the Hebrew DO, as before, which signifies "to fasten" (Zöckler), or "compactness," from the same root as before, "to be firm, or closed." It is also variously defined (1) as insight into that upright dealing which pleases God—a knowledge of the right way which is to be followed before God, and of the wrong one which is to be shunned" (Zöckler); (2) as "piety towards God," as in Job xxviii. 28 (Gesenius); (3) as "the knowledge of things in their being and in the reality of their existence" (Delitzsch). The word is translated in the LXX. by oopía, and in the Vulgate by sapientia. The Hebrew khokhmah and the Greek copía so far agree as philosophical terms in that the end of each is the same, viz. the striving after objective wisdom, the moral fitness of things; but the character of the former differs from that of the latter in being distinctly religious. The beginning and the end of the khokhmah, wisdom, is God (cf. ver. 7). Wisdom, then, is not the merely scientific knowledge, or moral philosophy, but knowledge κατ' ἐξοχήν, i.e. religious knowledge or piety towards God; i.e. an appreciation of what God requires of us and what we conversely owe to God. 'Sapientia est de divinis" (Lyra). Wisdom will, of course, carry with it the notions of knowledge and insight. Instruction. As the preceding word represents wisdom in its intellectual conception, and has rather a theoretical character, so "instruction," Hebrew, (musar), represents it on its practical side, and as such is its practical complement. The Hebrew musar signifies properly "chastisement," from the root yasar (7), "to correct," or "chastise," and hence education, moral training; and hence in the LXX. it is rendered by maideîa, which means both the process of education (cf. Plato, 'Repub.,' 376, E.; Arist., 'Pol.,' 8. 3) and its result as learning (Plato, Prob.,' 327, D.). The Vulgate has disciplina. In relation to wisdom, it is antecedent to it; i.e. to know wisdom truly we must first become acquainted with instruction, and hence it is a preparatory step to the knowledge of wisdom, though here it is stated rather objectively. The words, "wisdom and instruction," are found in exactly the same collocation in ch. iv. 13 and xxiii. 23. In its strictly disciplinary sense, "instruction" occurs in ch. iii. 11, with which comp. Heb. xii. 5. Holden takes this word as "moral discipline" in the highest sense. To perceive the words of understanding; literally, to discern the words of discernment; i.e. "to comprehend the utterances which proceed from intelligence, and give expression to