fact that “the former washed their faces like men without more ado, while the latter, with characteristic prudery, would scarcely touch the water with the tips of their fingers.”
As to the authorities for these different sources, they are fully discussed by Delitzsch (l. c., 154-165), where the reader will find also many interesting points about the migration of this legend in the Wisdom literature, and the use which artists and poets have made of it.[1] With regard to the solution of the 4th Riddle, it is based on the Jewish belief that those who were not brought into the covenant of Abraham are so overpowered by any strong manifestation of the divine presence that they lose the use of their limbs and fall down. This is supposed to be proved by Balaam, the non-Jewish prophet, of whom it is said in the Scripture: “Which saw the vision of the Almighty falling into a trance” (Numbers, xxiv). For Riddle 7 we have partial parallels in Nedarim 32b, Niddah 32b, and elsewhere. The completest parallel is to be found in the Appendix to Adra- Virafnamet, ed. E. W. West. (See Perles, lib. cit., pp. 98 and 99, and notes.) In Riddle 13 the MSS. vary, but the difference is not material, as may be seen by the translation which was made in this place after Or. 2351. The word Daniel, though it is to be found in all MSS., must be ascribed to a slip of the copyist, being accustomed, from his frequent reading of the Bible, to mention these four names together. With regard to Riddle 14, it is to be noticed that other Jewish sources speak of nine or thirteen persons who have not died. See Epstein’s Beiträge, p. 111, where all the parallels are put together. The solution of Riddle 15 is based on the legend according to which the magicians Yannes and Yambros (see 2 Tim. iii, 8, and commentaries, and Levy, Chald. Wörterb., 337), who belonged to the mixed multitude which went up with the Israelites from Egypt, managed by their charms to make the gold calf speak. According to other versions, it was Satan him-
- ↑ There is also much of interest and value in A. Wuensche, Die Räthselweisheit der alien Hebräer.
