There may also be one between Prov, i. 24, 26, 27 and Isa. lxv. 12, lxvi. 4. More striking are the affinities already pointed out between Prov. i.-ix. and the Book of Job, which may be taken to prove that these works proceeded from the same circle of 'wise men,' but not necessarily that they are of the same period (see above, p. 85).
II. As to the religious ideas of these chapters. (a) The Theism expressed is both pure and broad. Polytheism is not even worthy to be the subject of controversy; the tone is throughout positive. Jehovah's vast creative activity fills the writer's mind, and begins to stimulate speculative curiosity; from this point of view comp. Prov viii. 22-31 with Job xv. 7, 8,[1] xxxviii. 4-11, and Gen. l. (The affinities with the cosmogony are only general,[2] but perhaps gain in importance when taken together with the possible allusion to Gen. ii. in Prov. iii. 18, 'She is a tree of life' &c.) (b) It is no objection to the Exile or post-Exile date that the doctrine of invariable retribution is presupposed in this treatise. We find this doctrine both in the speeches of Elihu (Job. xxxii.-xxxvii., a separate work in its origin) and in the Wisdom of Sirach. There is some weight in these arguments. But it can, I think, be shown that the age of Jeremiah contained the germs of various mental products which only matured in the later periods, and Reuss seems to me singularly wilful in assuming that the personification of Wisdom of itself proves the late date of Prov. i.-ix.
III. The luxurious living implied in Prov i.-ix. would suit the Exile and post-Exile period. As soon as the Jews had the chance of participating in the world's good things, they eagerly availed themselves of it. The prominence of the retribution doctrine in these nine chapters might possibly be accounted for by the prosperity of many of the dispersed Jews. To me however the expression 'peace-offerings' (vii. 14) points away; so Merx and Bickell.]
- ↑ We should perhaps read here v'thigga' for v'thigra', following Sept.'s [Greek: eis de se aphiketo sophia
- ↑ Were the affinities with Gen. i. more definite, critics of Wellhausen's school would naturally derive from them an argument for the post-Exile origin of Prov. i.-ix. I do not myself attach much weight to these slight parallelisms.
