Page:Job and Solomon (1887).djvu/150

 CHAPTER III.

THE FIRST COLLECTION AND ITS APPENDICES.

Upon entering what Dante in the De Monarchiâ so well calls 'the forest' of the canonical proverbs, we are soon struck by differences of age and growth. The central portion of the book, and in some respects the most interesting, is comprised in x. 1-xxii. 16[*not sure if this should be '1-xxii'*]. To this, which is indeed the original Book of Proverbs, the first nine chapters were intended to serve as the introduction. It is the oldest Hebrew proverbial anthology extant. Probably from its compiler it received the name 'Proverbs of Solomon,' and from this title has sprung the tradition accepted by so many subsequent ages and indeed by the editor of the whole book (Prov. i. 1) of Solomon's authorship of the Proverbs. The title however cannot be historically correct. Those maxims in this anthology which refer to the true God under the name Jehovah (Yahvè) are too monotheistic and inculcate too pure a morality to be the work of the Solomon of the Book of Kings. That great despot's 'wisdom,' so far as we can judge both from his character and from the traditional notices, cannot have had a distinctively religious character. Listen to these proverbs,—

Better a little with the fear of Jehovah than great treasure and turmoil therewith (xv. 16). The horse is prepared against the day of battle, but victory is Jehovah's (xxi. 31). The mouth of strange women is a deep pit; he with whom Jehovah is wroth falleth therein (xxii. 14). A wise son (loveth) his father's correction, but a scorner heareth not rebuke (xiii. 1),—

and for a commentary read 1 Kings iv. 26, xi. 1, 4, 14-40, xii. 14, 15. Nor is the moral tone of the 'Solomonic' proverbs