(I Kings iv. 30, 31; comp. Jer. xlix. 7, Obad. 8). It is to be observed next, that the range of enquiry of this 'wisdom' is equally wide, according to the Biblical use of the term.[1] 'Wisdom,' as Sirach tells us, 'rains forth skill' of every kind; 'the first man knew her not perfectly: no more shall the last trace her out' (Ecclus. i. 19, xxiv. 28). Nothing is too high, nothing too low for Wisdom 'fitly' to 'order' (Wisd. viii. I). Law and government (Prov. viii. 15, 16), and even the precepts of husbandry (Isa. xxviii. 23-29) are equally her productions with those moral observations which constitute in the main the three books of the Hebrew Khokma. The fact that the subject of practical ethics ultimately appropriated the technical name of 'wisdom' ought not to blind us to the larger connotation of the same word, which throws so much light on the deeply religious view of life prevalent among the Israelites. For religious this view of wisdom is, though it may seem to be so thoroughly secular. The versatility of the mind of man is but an image of the versatility of its archetype. 'The spirit of man is a lamp of Jehovah,' says one of the 'wise men' (Prov. xx. 27), by an anticipation of John i. 9. 'Surely it is the spirit in man,' says another (Job xxxii. 8), 'and the breath of Shaddai which gives them understanding.' Isaiah, too, says that the 'spirit of wisdom' is one of the three chief manifestations of the 'Spirit of Jehovah' (Isa. xi. 2), and the introductory treatise, which gives the editor's view of the original Book of Proverbs, expressly declares that the 'wise men' are but the messengers of divine Wisdom (ix. 3).
The sages, whose collected wisdom we are about to study, are very different from those antique sages who like Balaam could be hired to curse a hostile people. A new kind of wisdom grew up both in Israel and in the neighbouring countries, as unlike its spurious counterpart as the spiritual lyric poetry both of Israel and of Babylonia is unlike the incantations which in Babylonia coexisted with it. Israel, never slow to adopt, received the higher wisdom, and assimilated it.
- ↑ Observe that 'wisdom' is called khokmōth (plural form) in Prov. i. 20, ix. 11, all the forms of wisdom being viewed as one in their origin. So too Wisdom adorns her house with seven pillars (Prov. ix. 1).
