Nearly the whole of the proverbs in the earlier part of this collection are antithetical; but after the middle of ch. xv. this characteristic gradually disappears, and is almost entirely lost in the con cluding chapters. A large number are synonymous (ex. gr., xi. 7, 25, 30 ; xii. 14, 28 ; xiv. 13, 19, etc.), some aphoristic (ex. gr., xi. 31 ; xiii. 14), especially with the comparative and pp (ex gr., xii. 9 ; xv. 16, 17 ; xvi. 8, 9, etc.), or 9N, much more' (ex. gr., xi. 31 ; xv. II; xvii. 7). Others are synthetic (x. 18; xi. 29 ; xiv. 17, etc.) ; only two are parabolic (x. 26 ; xi. 22).
The style is lower and more prosaic than in the former section. Ewald regards it as an example of the most ancient and simplest poetical style, full of primeval terseness, and bearing the visible stamp of antiquity in its language and imagery without any trace of later colouring. He remarks very justly that the proverbs in this collection are not to be looked on as a collection of popular say ings, embodying mere prudential wisdom, but that they belong to the higher life, and are as broad in their grasp of truth as in their range of thought.
The germ of many of them may have been found in popular sayings ; but the skill and delicacy with which they have been fashioned into their present shape, though of the simplest kind, displays the hand of a master.
Ewald remarks the following peculiar phrases as occurring in this section. ' Fountain of life,' x. I I ; xiii. 14 ; xiv. 27 ; xvi. 22 (Cf. Ps. xxxvi. 9 (so)) : 'tree of life,' iii. 18 ; xi. 30; xiii. 12; xv. 4 : 'snares of death,' xiii. 14; xiv. 27 (cf. Ps.
xviii. 5 (6)) : and the following favourite words Nvin, healing,' in various similes and applies tions, xii. 18 ; xiii. 17; xvi. 24 (but this also occurs in the former section, iv. 22 ; vi. 15) : nnrin, 'de struction,' x. 14, 15, 29 ; xiii. 3 ; xiv. 28 ; xviii. 7 ; xxi. 15; only in four other places in the whole Bible : part. from MD to blow,' xii. 17 ; xiv. 5, 25; xix. 5-9 (cf. vi. 119 ; Ps. xii. 6 ; xxvii. : the unfrequent roots, I*1?, 'perverse : ness,' xi. 3 ; xv. 4 ; and the verb ri5p, 'to pervert,' destroy,' xiii. 6 ; xix. 3 ; xxi. 12 ; xxii. 12 : the phrase rIpii l.5, ` shall not go unpunished,' xi. 2I ; xvi. 5 ; xvii. 5 (cf. xxviii. 20 ; vi. 29) : `he that pursueth,' xi. 19 ; xii. II ; xiii. 2I ; xv. 9 ; xix. 7 (cf. xxviii. 19), and nowhere else. Ewald instances also as archaic phrases not met with else where, mwalti but for a moment,' xii. 19: 'liana join in hand,' xi. 21; xvi. 5 - 3h3ral.
`meddled with,' xvii. 14; xviii. I ; xx. 3 ; : • whisperer," talebearer,' xvi. 28 ; xviii. 8 (cf. xxvi. 20-22). The word there is,' though frequent elsewhere, scarcely occurs in Proverbs, save in this section, xi. 24; xii. 18 ; xiii. 7, 23 ; xiv. 12, etc.
With xxii. 17, the words of the wise' (cf. i. 6), we are carried back to the style and language of the proem (i. -ix.), of which we are also reminded by
the continued address in the second person singular, and the use of my son.' There is, however, a difference in the phraseology and language ; and, as Maurer remarks, the diction is not unfrequently rugged and awkward, and somewhat laboured. Parallelism is neglected. The moral precepts are longer than those of but not so diffuse as those of the first section. We find examples of the distich, xxii. 28 ; xxiii. 9 ; xxiv. 7-10 : the tristich, xxii. 29 ; xxiv. 29 : but the tetrastich is the most frequent, the favourite form being that in which the second member gives the ground of the first, xxii. 22, 23 ; 24, 25 ; 26, 27, etc. We also find proverbs of five members, xxiii. 4, 5 ; xxiv. 3, 4: several of six, xxiii. 1-3, 12-14, 19-21 ; xxiv. I I, 12 : and one of seven, xxviii. 6-8. We have a longer strain, xxiii. 29-35, against drunkenness.
The short appendix, xxiv. 23.34> comprising more words of the wise,' can hardly be distin guished in style or form from the preceding. It closes with a proverb-lay' of five verses on the evils of sloth.
The second collection of 'the Proverbs of Solo mon' (ch. xxv.-xxix.), transcribed ihETC7PaPs Aq. ; ILETOE'yKaP Gr. Ven. ; efrypdOtvro, LXX. ; cf. Pusey, p. 322, note) by the scribes of Hezekiah, closely resembles the former one. They are, according to Pusey, 'identical in language.' It has, however, some very decided points of differ ence. The `parabolic' proverb is much more frequent than the antithetical,' the two members of the comparison being sometimes set side by side without any connecting link (ex. gr., xxv. 12, 13), which is in other cases given merely by 1 and' or 17 (xxvi. 1, 2, I8-19 ; xxvii. 8, etc.) The parallelism is sometimes strict, sometimes loose and free. There is a want of the sententious brevity of the former collection, and the construction is looser and weaker. The proverbs are not always completed in a single verse (xxv. 6, 7 ; 9, lo ; 21, 22 ; xxvi. IS, 19) ; and more frequently than in the former section we have series of proverbs with an internal connection of subject (xxvi. 23-25 ; xxvii. 15, t6, 23-27), and others in which the same key-word recurs (xxv. 8-to; xxvi. 3-12; 13-16). This is not found so often after xxvii. 5 ; but a close examination of the text suggests the idea that this may be due to a disturbance of the original order (cf. xxvii. 7, 9; xxviii. 4, 7, 9 ; • xxix. 8, to, etc,) Ewald discovers a want of the figurative expressions of the earlier collection, and a difference of language and phrase ology, while Rosenmiiller remarks that the mean ing of the proverbs is more obscure and enigmatical. The greater part of them are moral precepts. The earlier collection may be called a book for youth ;' this a book for the people" (Delitzsch) ; the wisdom of Solomon in the days of Hezekiah' (S tier).