- peared to be in the enjoyment of national prosperity. Now
the author of Prov. i.-ix. depicts a state of outward prosperity and is evidently familiar with the exhortations of Deuteronomy. Who, as Delitzsch remarks, can fail to hear in Prov. i. 7-ix. an echo of the Shemà ('hear'), Deut. vi. 4-9 (comp. xi. 18-21)? This is quite consistent with the opinion that Prov. i.-ix. is later than the proverbs in the two principal collections of our book, an opinion which commends itself to most[1] especially on account of the higher moral standard of Prov. i.-ix., and its advance in the treatment of literary form.
I have said 'the composition or at least promulgation' of Deuteronomy. If Deuteronomy was written (which is at least possible) as early as the reign of Hezekiah,[2] we may perhaps follow Ewald, who places the 'Praise of Wisdom' in the period of relative prosperity which, he thinks, closed the reign of Manasseh.[3] It is noteworthy that Mic. vi., which Ewald plausibly assigns to the period of Manasseh's persecution, also presents some points of contact with Deuteronomy.[4] And yet it seems to me safer to date the book in the reign of Josiah, when, as we know from history and prophecy, the discourses of Deuteronomy first became generally known.
Next, as to the body of the work. That the collection in x. 1-xxii. 16 is the earliest part of the book is admitted by most critics. The fact that chaps. i.-ix. present linguistic points of contact with it, does not prove the two parts to be of the same date, for the opening chapters also display peculiarities quite unlike those of the 'Solomonic' anthology.[5] I have already set forth my own view on this and on other critical points, and will now only register the results of Ewald
- ↑ Hitzig, however, almost alone among recent critics, regards the opening chapters as the oldest part of the book.
- ↑ This seems to me the earliest probable date, but does not exclude the possibility that early traditional material has been worked into the book.
- ↑ History of Israel, iv. 219. It should be mentioned however that Ewald places Job (except the Elihu-portion), Prov. i.-ix., and, last in order, Deuteronomy all in the reign of Manasseh. He fails to recognise the influence of Deuteronom on the 'Praise of Wisdom.'
- ↑ See Micah in the Cambridge School and College Bible.
- ↑ Delitzsch, Proverbs, i. 33; Kuenen, Onderzock, iii. 75.
