Page:Job and Solomon (1887).djvu/143

 Sept.); in xxiii. 18, 'there is a future,' the reference is perfectly vague—it is natural to explain by comparing Job xlii. 12, xii. 28, no doubt, on Ewald's view of the passage, seems conclusive,

In the way of righteousness is life, and the way of its path is immortality.

But this great word 'immortality' is unparalleled before the Book of Wisdom, and cannot fairly be extracted from the Hebrew. The Septuagint has a different view of the pronunciation of the text, and renders [Greek: hodoi de mnêsikakôn eis thanaton]. The easiest plan is to correct n'thībhāh into nith'ābh, with Levy, and render,

but an abominable way (comp. xv. 9) leads unto death.

I do not deny that the idea of eternal life may have been conceived at the time of these proverbs. This may plausibly be inferred from the occurrence of the phrase 'a tree of life' in iii. 18, xi. 30, xiii. 12, xv. 4, and 'a fountain of life' in x. 11, xiii. 14, xiv. 27, xvi. 22,—phrases certainly borrowed from some traditional story of Paradise analogous to that in Gen. ii. It is a singular fact however that in all these passages (even, I think, in iii. 18) these expressions are simply figurative synonyms for 'refreshment,' which suggests that the proverb-writers shrank from using them in their literal sense of the individual righteous man.

The importance of the 'wise men' as a class is too seldom recognised. To the hasty reader they are overshadowed by the prophets, between whom and the rude masses they seem to have occupied a middle position. Their popular style and genial manners attracted probably a large number of disciples; at any rate, in the time of Jeremiah the 'counsel' of the 'wise men' was valued as highly as the 'direction' (tōra) of the priests and the 'word' of the prophets (Jer. xviii. 18). By constantly working on suitable individuals, they produced a moral sympathy with the prophets, without which those