Proverbial poetry: its settings and syntax

⁴Alan Dundes, "On the Structure of the Proverb," in

Analytic Essays in Folklore, ed. Alan Dundes (The Hague:

Mouton, 1975), p. 111; cf. Fontaine, The Use of the

Traditional Saying, pp. 69, 297.

⁵James G. Williams, "The Power of Form: A Study of

Such comparative forms are also acceptable in English

traditional sayings, as seen in the following similes: "As

gentle as a lamb;" or "As quiet as a mouse".¹ Fontaine

describes the function of metaphorical expressions in

Proverbs as follows:

The metaphorical proverb allows its users to move

easily from message to application, and provides its

user with protection from those who might disagree by

means of the 'indirection' of its language.²

The actual form of the "comparative" or "like"

proverb usually is indicated by the presence of a

comparative preposition (vid. Prov 12:4; 15:4; 16:27;

20:1), although the explicit comparative preposition may be

absent (vid. Prov 25:11, 12).³
Yhwh Sayings
When a man's ways are pleasing to the LORD,

he makes even his enemies live at peace with him

(Prov 16:7).
The "Yhwh sayings" are those which explicitly

____________________

Biblical Proverbs," Semeia 17-19 (1980):52-55; and Susan

Wittig, "A Theory of Multiple Meanings," Semeia 9

(1977):75-103. Williams' excellent article also well

describes five basic features of aphoristic expression:

(1) assertive, self-explanatory; (2) insight; (3) paradox;

(4) brevity and conciseness; and (5) the attempt to bring

sound and sense together and the juxtaposing of images and

ideas (pp. 38-39).

¹Cf. also Thompson, The Form and Function, pp.

22-23.

²Fontaine, The Use of the Traditional Saying, p.

80.

³Thompson, The Form and Function, pp. 62-63,

94;

mention the divine name (e.g., Prov 16:1-7). Due to the

acceptance of the theory that wisdom evolved from a secular

to a sacred Weltanschauung, numerous scholars would suggest

that the presence of Yhwh sayings in the older collections

are Yahwistic reinterpretations of the older, more secular

aphorisms. Thus, some have said that proverbs which

suggest the limit of wisdom because they invoke God's

actions and planning (Prov 16:9; 19:21; 20:24; 21:30-31)

are religious accretions to a predominantly empirically

oriented wisdom which originally focused on governmental

functions.¹ In his magnum opus, McKane clearly splits off

the Yhwh sayings into his Class C which is identified by

the presence of God-language. Interestingly enough, McKane

clearly recognizes the religious character of wisdom both

in Egypt and in Mesopotamia, yet rejects its presence in

the origins of Israelite wisdom. His procedure is to

atomize the sayings by grouping them into his preconceived

three-fold categorization. This not only destroys the

larger structures--which this paper will demonstrate are

present--but also reflects a scissors and paste

evolutionary model which unfairly biases the text by a

forced twentieth-century framework.² This approach

____________________

Williams, "The Power of Form," p. 42.

¹McKane, Prophets and Wise Men, pp. 50, 53.

²This criticism is purposefully harsh because this

writer views this fission/fusion sequence in McKane's

emasculates the fundamental pou sto of wisdom, that is, "the

fear of Yahweh." The connection of wisdom to the divine is

found in the historical sections which narrate early wisdom

motifs (1 Kgs 3:9, 12; 2 Sam 14:17, 20; et al.), and is

also seen regularly in the oldest collections of Proverbs

(10:3, 22, 27, 29; 11:1, 20; 12:2; 14:2; et al.). This

bond is found centuries before the biblical proverbs both

in the titles of the gods (in Egypt, Toth is regarded as a

fountain of wisdom, and in Mesopotamia, Ea, the father of

Marduk, is the "Lord of Wisdom") and in the texts which

relate the source and limit of wisdom to the gods.¹ In

Egypt, Pharaoh and the gods were the ones who sustained

ma'at.² Khanjian frequently comments on the presence

____________________

categories as not only making his work difficult to use,

but also as destructive of the meaning of the sayings

themselves by neglecting the interrelationships between

juxtaposed aphorisms. McKane, Proverbs, pp. 11, 17, 415;

cf. also his earlier work, Prophets and Wise Men, pp.

48-50; Jensen, The Use of tora by Isaiah, p. 42. Michael

V. Fox, "Aspects of the Religion of the Book of Proverbs,"

p. 57; H. D. Preuss, "Das Gottesbild der alteren Weisheit

Israels," VTSup 23 (1972):117-45. Another divide and

conquer approach may be seen in Moneuve D. Conway, Solomon

and Solomonic Literature (New York: Haskell House

Publishers, Ltd., 1973), pp. 77-79, where Conway takes

10:20, 21 as "Solomonic," 10:22 as a Yahwistic accretion,

10:25 as "Solomonic," and 10:27 as another accretion.

¹Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 230; Gladson,

"Retributive Paradoxes in Proverbs 10-29," pp. 93-94;

Roland K. Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament

(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Co., 1969), pp. 1005-6;

Thompson, The Form and Function, p. 44; and Gemser, "The

Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy and Biblical Wisdom

Literature," p. 117.

²Humphrey, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier in the

of the gods in wisdom at Ugarit.¹

The appearance of the name Yahweh in about one

hundred proverbs suggests that von Rad may be correct when

he proffers that all the sayings of the book of Proverbs

must be understood in light of the Yahwistic proverb:

There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan

that can succeed against the Lord

(Prov 21:30).
von Rad has been one of the leaders in returning the

Yhwh-sayings to their proper prominence in the wisdom

corpus (cf. Prov 16:7-12 where there is a clear

concatenation of empirical and Yhwh sayings).²

Abomination Sayings
The LORD detests the sacrifice of the wicked,

but he loves those who pursue righteousness

(Prov 15:9).
Another semantic category of proverbs is the

"abomination saying." These are sayings which employ the

term hbAfaOt, usually in the form "X is an abomination (to

the Lord)" (Prov 11:1, 20; 12:22; 15:8, 9; 17:15; 20:10,

____________________

Book of Proverbs," p. 187.

¹Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," pp. 1, 62, 169, 187,

241, 247, 271.

²von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, pp. 62, 91, 95, 310.

Bulloch, An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books,

p. 52; F. Derek Kidner, "The Relationship between God and

Man in Proverbs," Tyndale Bulletin 7-8 (1961):5 and Murphy,

"Wisdom and Yahwism," p. 123. Gaspar gives an analysis of

Sirach's religious character in Social Ideas in the Wisdom

Literature of the Old Testament, pp. 130-31.

23; 21:27; 28:9).¹ It is of interest that the Sumerian

proverbs repeatedly employ the formula "is an abomination

to Utu," where Utu is the god of justice.²

The counterpart of the "abomination saying" is the

"delight saying," which employs the term NOcrA. These two

are quite frequently antithetically paralleled (Prov 11:1;

12:2, 15:8).

Macarisms ('asre Sayings)
The righteous man leads a blameless life;

blessed are his children after him

(Prov 20:7).
The beatitude or macarism uses the term 'asre

(blessed). It has been suggested that this form provides a

nexus between the cult and wisdom (Prov 3:13; 8:32, 34;

14:21; 16:20; 20:7; 28:14; 29:18; Eccl 10:17; Sir 14:1-2;

Ps 1:1).³ Although somewhat different, the beatitude type

proverb appears in Egyptian wisdom as well.⁴

____________________

¹von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 115; Kovacs,

"Sociological-Structural Constraints," p. 236; and Murphy,

Wisdom Literature, p. 69.

²Bendt Alster, "Paradoxical Proverbs and Satire in

Sumerian Literature," JCS 27 (l975):205.

³Nel, "The Genres of Biblical Wisdom Literature,"

pp. 137-38; Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p. 229. Murphy, Wisdom

Literature, p. 61; and Jensen, The Use of tora by Isaiah,

pp. 40-41.

⁴Gemser, "The Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy and

Biblical Wisdom Literature," p. 142.

"There is . . . but . . ." Sayings
One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing,

another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth

(Prov 13:7).
The form "there is . . . but . . ." or -saying

has been observed by Gladson in Proverbs (11:24; 12:18;

13:7; 14:12; 16:25; Eccl 6:1-2).¹ In this form there is

an interesting combination of cue word and structure,

which often highlights the paradoxical nature of

appearance and reality.

Paradoxical Sayings
Do not answer a fool according to his folly,

or you will be like him yourself.

Answer a fool according to his folly,

or he will be wise in his own eyes

(Prov 26:4-5).
The paradox has been observed by several writers.²

A paradox may take the form of two juxtaposed proverbs

(Prov 26:4, 5), two parallel lines within a single saying

(Prov 20:17), or may be semantically triggered within a

single line (Prov 11:24; 25:15; 29:23).

Paradoxical sayings are also humorously observed in

the following Sumerian proverbs:
From 3600 oxen there is no dung.
Like a cow that has not given birth you are looking for

____________________

¹Gladson, "Retributive Paradoxes in Proverbs 10-29," p. 188.

²von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 127; and Thompson,

The Form and Function, p. 70.

a calf of yours which does not exist!¹
So, too, modern proverbs may be joined to create a

paradox: "Haste makes waste," and "He who hesitates is

lost."² Such proverbs are important in understanding the

character and authority of proverbial statements which are

partial descriptions of reality, and which should not be

extrapolated outside the sphere of their individual

relevance. Overlapping proverbs must be taken into

account, for reality is often more complex than the single

component which the proverb is developing.
The Acrostic, Rhetorical Question and Quotation
Of what use is money in the hand of a fool,

since he has no desire to get wisdom?

(Prov 17:16)
Three forms of a more structural nature are the

acrostic, rhetorical question, and quotation. The acrostic

may be observed in the description of the ideal wife in

Proverbs 31. Skehan has also noted acrostic features in

Proverbs 2 in which several stanzas begin with 'aleph and

____________________

¹Alster, "Paradoxical Proverbs and Satire in

Sumerian Literature," p. 208. This paradoxical form is

also developed in Sumerian "Wellerisms," often put

fablishly into the mouth of animals ("The ass was swimming

in the river, and the dog clung to him: 'When will he

climb out and be eaten' [he said]" (p. 212).

²Thompson notes the following Japanese proverb

pair: "A wife and a floor mat are good when fresh and new"

and "A wife and a kettle get better as they grow older"

(The Form and Function, p. 70; cf. Mario Pei, "Parallel

Proverbs," Saturday Review [May 2, 1964]:17).

the last three stanzas begin with lamed.¹ This form is

employed in the Babylonian Theodicy,² was well known in

Hellenistic and Roman times,³ and has been used to order

modern proverbial collections in German (A. D. 1480) and

English.⁴ There has been a long standing scribal

fascination with the alphabet.⁵

One suggested use of acrostics, which highlights

the scribal delight with this form, has been the Akkadian

and Latin use of this form to indicate the name of the

____________________

¹Skehan, "The Seven Columns of Wisdom's House in

Proverbs 1-9," CBQ 9 (1947):190. (This article is also

found in his book Studies in Israelite Poetry and Wisdom,

p. 9; cf. Murphy, Wisdom Literature, p. 52). This writer

finds this approach somewhat incredulous.

²Lambert, BWL, pp. 63, 67; Perdue, Wisdom and Cult,

p. 105; and Bulloch, An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic

Books, p. 35. For discussion of the acrostic itself, vid. Norman K.

Gottwald, "Acrostic," in The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible,

ed. George A. Buttrick, et al. (Nashville: Abingdon Press,

1962), 1:28. Encyclopaedia Judaica, s.v. "Acrostics (and

Alphabetizing Compositions)," 2:229-30; and George Zemek,

"Old Testament Acrostics" (Postgraduate Seminar Paper in

Old Testament History and Backgrounds, Grace Theological

Seminary, 1977), pp. 1-41.

³Ralph Marcus, "Alphabetic Acrostics in the

Hellenistic and Roman Periods," JNES 6.2 (1947):109-15.

⁴Taylor, The Proverb, pp. 6-8.

⁵William J. Horowitz, "Some Possible Results of

Rudimentary Scribal Training," UF 6 (1974):75-76; D. R.

Hillers, "An Alphabetic Cuneiform Tablet from Taanach,"

BASOR 173 (February 1964):45; and S. A. Strong, "On Some

Babylonian and Assyrian Alliterative Texts--1,"

Proceedings Of The Society Of Biblical Archaeology 17

(1895):138-39.

author.¹ Such forms clearly demonstrate that the wise men

sought to compose in larger literary units. Several

purposes for the acrostic have been suggested:

(1) magical; (2) pedagogical; (3) artistic; (4) mnemonic;

and (5) to give the impression of "exhaustive

completeness.² In Proverbs 31 all but number one seem

possible.³ Since this form appears in diversified types of

genres it should not be limited to wisdom literature, but

should be viewed as a literary device which is interactive

in many artistic forms of expression and for various

reasons (Pss 9; 10; 25; 34; 37; 111; 112; 119; 145; Lam,

and possibly Nah).

The rhetorical question is another form found both

in Proverbs (17:16; 20:9; 23:29; 30:4) and in disputational

speeches (cf. Job 6:5-6; 8:11; 12:11-12; Jer 18:14). The

disputation is drawn out by the question "Do you not know?"

(Isa 40:21; cf. Job 12:9).⁴ The rhetorical question is

____________________

¹Gordis, Poets, Prophets, and Sages, p. 83.

²George Zemek, "Old Testament Acrostics," pp. 18-19.

³Vid. Ethelbert W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech

Used in the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1968),

p. 185, for a thematic structuring of Proverbs 31.

⁴Norman C. Habel, "Appeal to Ancient Tradition as a

Literary Form," SBLASP (1973):34-54.

also found in Egyptian¹ and Mesopotamian wisdom.² Its

occurrence in Proverbs suggests that a didactic setting is

not totally foreign to this device.³ The rhetorical

question may be understood as a statement in the dress of a

question.⁴ Proverbs 6:27-28 reveals this when it "asks":

Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes

being burned?

Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being

scorched?
Crenshaw, demonstrating his usual perceptiveness,

develops the impossible question form both in wisdom texts

(Eccl 7:13, 24; Sir 1:2-3) and in other types of literature

(Amos 6:12; Jer 2:32; 13:23; 2 Esdr 4:7). He observes the

connection between these questions and the riddle, and

concludes: "I have suggested that 'wonder' best describes

____________________

¹Pritchard, ANET, p. 419. In "The Instruction of

King Amen-em-het" are found the questions: "Had women ever

marshalled the battle array?" and "Had contentious people

been bred within the house?" Cf. David A. Hasey, "Wisdom

and Folly in the Book of Proverbs" (M.A. thesis, Trinity

Evangelical Divinity School, 1973), pp. 3-4.

²Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, pp. 247-48,

where the proverb asks rhetorically: "Has she become fat

without eating?" and "Would you place a lump of clay in the

hand of him who throws?" Cf. Langdon, Babylonian Wisdom,

p. 83.

³von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 18; and Crenshaw,

"Wisdom," p. 232.

⁴The entertainment aspect of this form may be

reflected even in modern times with the questions: "Do

chickens have lips?" and "Do bears sleep in the woods?"

Note O'Connor's comment on the deep structure being an

assertion rather than a question (Hebrew Verse Structure,

p. 12).

the feeling involved by this literary form."¹

The quotation is not a dominant form in Proverbs;

however, Ecclesiastes and Job use it with great

effectiveness. Proverbial statements are often included in

the material quoted (Eccl 7:2; 5:9-10).² Fox notes that

the writer may agree or disagree with that which he

quotes.³
Final Comments Concerning Form
After surveying, in brief fashion, a few of the

forms and devices employed by the wise men, it is apparent

that they were concerned not merely with a terse issuing

of truth but also with the manner in which that truth was

formulated. Great care, whether consciously or

unconsciously, was taken to match form and content in an

effort to provide a wholistic message, with all levels

being activated to display divine wisdom accurately and

beautifully. In order to recapture the moment of writing,

one must not only appreciate the truth portrayed by the

____________________

¹James L. Crenshaw, "Impossible Questions, Sayings,

and Tasks," Semeia 17-19 (1980):21, 31. Cf. also his

Old Testament Wisdom, pp. 205-6.

²Two excellent articles on this subject are R.

Gordis, "Quotations in Wisdom Literature," JQR 30

(1939-40):123-47 (also found in Crenshaw's SAIW pp. 220-44)

and Michael V. Fox, "The Identification of Quotations in

Biblical Literature," ZAW 92.3 (1980):416-31 (this

scrutinizes Gordis' position).

³Fox, "the Identification of Quotations in Biblical

Literature," p. 417.

words of the sayings, but one must also realize that as

words are bearers of meaning so, too, the other semiotic

systems and structures carry meaning. The acrostic,

onomasticon, riddle, hymn, imagined speech, and numerical

saying all reveal that the wise men were apt at utilizing

larger literary structures.

The focus of this paper is on Proverbs 10-15, where

the proverbial saying predominates. Many have viewed this

section as a haphazard collection of proverbs--thrown

together with no connection, order or literary finesse.

One of the purposes of this paper is to show some of the

larger structures, not just to analyze syntactically the

antithetical sayings which compose Proverbs 10-15. One

objective of this chapter was to heighten a sensitivity to

the forms employed by the wise men. Such studies have

helped immensely in understanding the wisdom portions of

the Old Testament. Has not the study of the covenant form

(by Kline, Eichrodt, Hillers, and McCarthy) shed light on

historical sections? Who would deny the insights gained

from the form categorization of the Psalms by Gunkel,

Westermann, and Mowinckel? Similarly, the importance of

form for wisdom, the orphan of the Old Testament, is

fundamental for a full appreciation of the uniqueness of

this mode of expression. Unfortunately, studies in this

area which have appeared in the last ten years, have been

somewhat dilatory and unapplauded when they have

appeared.¹

____________________

¹I have in mind particularly the works of Crenshaw

(1978), Murphy (1981), Nel (1982), Thompson (1974), and a

most interesting article (which has been largely ignored)

by K. A. Kitchen, "Proverbs and Wisdom Books of the Ancient

Near East: The Factual History of a Literary Form,"

Tyndale Bulletin 28 (1977):69-114.

CHAPTER VI

APPROACHES TO HEBREW POETRY

Introduction to Poetry
While it may appear banally prosaic to observe

that the proverbial form is consistently poetic, yet to

appreciate fully this mode of expression or to describe

its intricacies formally is nigh impossible. One of the

goals of this study will be--after surveying recent

developments in the analysis of Hebrew poetry--to generate

and apply a deictic method which exposes the structure of

poetic form, thereby allowing it to be read more carefully

and appreciated more fully. The question may be raised as

to the fundamental features which constitute this

linguistic art form.

It is interesting to see how poets conceive of

their work. Poets, such as Samuel Johnson, emotively

describe their craft as "the art of uniting pleasure with

truth, by calling imagination to the help of reason." Poe

defines poetry as "the rhythmical creation of beauty" and

Watts-Dunton calls it "the concrete and artistic

expression of the human mind in emotional and rhythmical

language." Lascelles Abercrombie remarks, "Poetry is the
expression of imaginative experience, valued simply as

such, in the communicable state given by language which

employs every available and appropriate device."¹ The

master Shakespeare similarly quips that "The truest poetry

is the most feigning."² From a reader's perspective,