V. Fourth Collection of Proverbs. Chaps. 25–29

1. The Title. See Introd., ch. iii. p. 24.

This Title is interesting as affording a proof that a revival of literary activity accompanied the revival of religion and of national prosperity which marked the reign of Hezekiah. Hezekiah himself was a poet of no mean order (Isaiah 38:9 ff.); and “the men of Hezekiah” were doubtless a body of scribes engaged under the direction of the king in literary labours. But beside this, this brief title is one of those “fragments of history,” which, as Professor Sayce has shown, “have been illuminated by the progress of oriental research,” and “the importance and true significance of which can now be realised for the first time.” This Title points, he thinks, to the existence of a royal library in Jerusalem, into which these proverbs, never before edited, were now gathered and “copied out,” and similar to the libraries which are now known to have existed in the cities of Babylonia and Assyria. “The vassalage of Judah to the king of Assyria in the reign of Ahaz had necessarily led to the introduction of Assyrian culture into Jerusalem. Ahaz himself had led the way. In the court of the palace he had erected a sundial, a copy of the gnomons which had been used for centuries in the civilised kingdoms of the Euphrates and the Tigris. But the erection of the sundial was not the only sign of Assyrian influence. The most striking feature of Assyrian and Babylonian culture was the libraries, where scribes were kept constantly employed, not only in writing and compiling new books, but in copying and re-editing older ones. The ‘men of Hezekiah’ who ‘copied out’ the proverbs of Solomon performed duties exactly similar to the royal scribes in Nineveh.” (The Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the Monuments, pp. 475, 476, 4th edition.)

copied out] ἐξεγράψαντο, LXX.; transtulerunt, Vulg.Verse 1-ch. 29. - Part VI. SECOND GREAT COLLECTION OF SOLOMONIC PROVERBS, gathered by "the men of Hezekiah," in which wisdom is set forth as the greatest blessing to the king and his subjects. Verse 1. - The superscription: These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah King of Judah copied out. The word "also" implies that a previous collection was known to the compiler of the present book - probably the one which we have in Proverbs 10-22:16, of which nine proverbs are inserted here. But there was still a large number of proverbial sayings attributed to Solomon, and preserved partly by oral tradition and partly in writing, which it was advisable to collect and secure before they were lost. The zeal of Hezekiah took this in hand. He was not, as far as we know, an author himself, but he evidently felt a warm interest in literature, and "the men of Hezekiah," not mentioned elsewhere, must have been his counsellors and scholars, to whom was entrusted the duty of gathering together into a volume the scattered sayings of the wise king. Among those contemporaries, doubtless, Isaiah was eminent, and it is not improbable that Shebna the scribe and Josh the chronicler were members of the learned fraternity (2 Kings 18:18). The verb rightly translated "copied out" (athak) means, properly, "to remove," "to transfer" from one place to another (transtulerunt, Vulgate); hence it signifies here to copy into a book words taken from other writings or people's mouths. The sayings thus collected, whether truly Solomon's or not, were extant under his name, and were regarded as worthy of his reputation for wisdom. The title is given in the Septuagint, thus: Αῦται αἱ παιδεῖαι Σαλωμῶντος αἱ ἀδιάκριτοι α}ς ἐξεγραψαντο οἱ φίλοι Ἐζεκίου τοῦ βασιλέως τῆς Ἰουδαίας. What is meant by ἀδιάκριτοι is uncertain. It has been translated "impossible to distinguish," equivalent to "miscellaneous;" "beyond doubt," equivalent to "genuine," "hard to interpret," as in Polyb., 15:12, 9. St. James (James 3:17) applies the term to wisdom, but the interpreters there are not agreed as to the meaning, it being rendered "without partiality," "without variance," "without doubtfulness," etc. It seems best to take the word as used by the LXX. to signify "mixed," or "miscellaneous." The following proverb is connected as to its subject with the foregoing: one ought not to do evil to his neighbour without necessity; even evil which has been done to one must not be requited with evil:

Say not, "As he hath done to me, so I do to him:

I requite the man according to his conduct."

On the ground of public justice, the talio is certainly the nearest form of punishment, Leviticus 24:19.; but even here the Sinaitic law does not remain in the retortion of the injury according to its external form (it is in a certain manner practicable only with regard to injury done to the person and to property), but places in its stead an atonement measured and limited after a higher point of view. On pure moral grounds, the jus talionis ("as thou to me, so I to thee") has certainly no validity. Here he to whom injustice is done ought to commit his case to God, Proverbs 20:22, and to oppose to evil, not evil but good; he ought not to set himself up as a judge, nor to act as one standing on a war-footing with his neighbour (Judges 15:11); but to take God as his example, who treats the sinner, if only he seeks it, not in the way of justice, but of grace (Exodus 34:6.). The expression 29b reminds of Proverbs 24:12. Instead of לאדם, there is used here, where the speaker points to a definite person, the phrase לאישׁ. Jerome, the Venet., and Luther translate: to each one, as if the word were vocalized thus, לאישׁ (Psalm 62:13).

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