The fact that similar 'numerical proverbs' were popular in the early Rabbinical period,[1] gives a certain support to the view that this collection is of late origin. The groups referred to are—
The four marks of an evil generation vv. 11-14
The four insatiable things — 15, 16
The fate of the disobedient son — 17
The four incomprehensible things — 18-20
— — intolerable things — 21-23
— — wise animals — 24-28
— — comely in going (see p. 175) — 29-31
A warning against strife — 32, 33.
One of these (vv. 15, 16) has probably suffered a slight mutilation, which has been thus remedied by Bickell,—
The leech has two [three [2]] daughters,
they say continually, 'Give, give:'
there are three things which are never satisfied,
four which never say, 'Abundance.'
Sheól is never satisfied with dead,
and the closing of the womb is never satisfied with men,
the earth is never satisfied with water,
and fire never says, 'Abundance.'[3]
'Daughters of the leech' is a quasi-mythical expression, which no one could misunderstand (comp. 'upon a hill the son of oil,' Isa. v. 1). We find a similar group of four insatiables in the Sanskrit Hitopadesa.[4]
Fire is never satisfied with fuel; nor the ocean with rivers; nor
death with all creatures; nor bright-eyed women with men.
The verses are of course older than the trumpery story of the
cowherd's wife which they serve to illustrate. The coincidence
with the Hebrew, being obviously accidental, is worth remembering
in other connections. The two parallels, present in
- ↑ See above, p. 128, and comp. Wünsche, Midrasch Kohelet, p. xiii.
- ↑ Sept., followed by Pesh., reads 'three' for 'two.' Accepting this reading,
the second half of the verse becomes an explanation of the first. - ↑ Bickell's reconstruction of the text makes the proverbs symmetrical with the
rest. In lines 5, 6 he makes an ingenious parallelism with mēthīm 'dead' and
m'thīm 'men' (i.e. children). - ↑ F. Johnson's translation (1848), chap. ii., fable 7; comp. Fritze's metrical version (Leipz. 1884).
