The first appendix to the original Book (appended possibly before the composition of the Introduction) is a small collection of proverbial sayings called 'words of the wise' (xxii. 17-xxiv. 22). Virtually the same phrase occurs again in xxiv. 23 at the head of a still shorter work, compiled or composed evidently about the same time by another 'wise man' (perhaps the whole work has not come down to us). In the introductory verses the compiler's object in writing down these proverbs is said to have been that his disciple might learn virtue and religion, and might become qualified to teach others. There is one very difficult passage in it, but this has been corrected in a masterly way by Bickell:—[1]
That thy confidence may be in Jehovah,
to make known unto thee thy ways.
Now, yea before now, have I written unto thee,
long before, with counsels and knowledge,
That thou mayest know the rightness of true words,
that thou mayest answer in true words to those that ask thee
(xxii. 19-21).
The construction of ver. 20b and ver. 21 in the Hebrew thus becomes more idiomatic (comp. [Greek: chthes te kai prôên], though not free from ambiguity. The words may mean either that the compiler took long over his work, or that this was not the first occasion of his writing. On the latter explanation the passage may imply that the compiler of this anthology also wrote chaps. i.-ix. (comp. i. 6b). His hortatory style and predilection for grouping verses may seem to plead for this view. There are however no important points of contact in phraseology between the work before us and Prov. i.-ix.,[2] and certainly the appendix falls far below the standard of the Introduction.(A.C.S. [Greek: autou]. But as this takes the place of hayyōm, it would seem that Bickell ought to begin ver. 20 with af ethmōl. This however would not suit his metrical theory.]
- ↑ At the end of ver. 19 Bickell nearly follows Sept. Cod. Vat., [Greek: tên ôdon sou
- ↑ The phraseological resemblance of xxiii. 19b to iv. 14b is incomplete. As for khokmōth in xxiv. 7, it means simply 'wisdom' (as in xiv. 1, where khakmōth is wrong); the parallelism with i. 20, ix. 1 is not of critical importance. Any real points of contact (such as xxiii. 23a; comp. iv. 5, 7) can be accounted for by imitation, and one could easily bring together points of difference.
