Page 106 - The Poetic Books - Student Text

The rest of the book is divided up into smaller sections. Authors are named for all but one unit. Solomon
seems to have purposely adapted at least one form used by wise men outside of Israel for God’s people.
Individual proverbs can also be found in the writings of other countries. The implication grants a certain
amount of wisdom to other cultures yet reserving the best and most accurate
wisdom for people who know Yahweh, fear him, and have received his
revelation.

Thirty Sayings of the Wise (22:17-24:22) is one form used by other cultures.
Around 1300 B.C. an Egyptian named Amenemope wrote Thirty Sayings for the
people of his time and place. His special message collected in this way told
people that “morality matters, and the source of true morality is religion. To the
obedient reader of his book he promises both success in life and moral well-
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being. His ideal is tranquility.” Figure 51: Egyptian
king Amenemope
Some of his sayings are remarkably like Solomon’s proverbs. The “sixth
chapter” gives this advice similar to Proverbs 23:10. “Remove not the landmark at the boundaries of the
arable land,/ Nor disturb the position of the measuring-cord;// Covet not a cubit of land,/ Nor throw
down the boundaries of a widow…” Likewise the “Ninth chapter” sounds like Proverbs 22:24.
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“Associate not with the hot-head,/ Nor become intimate with him in conversation….// Leap not to cleave
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to such a one,/ lest a terror carry thee off.”

We cannot say who was the borrower or if the sayings were even more widespread. The Bible section
identifies trust in Yahweh as the purpose of the writer (22:19). Yahweh oversees the morality given
(22:23) and fear of him is the motive behind the wisdom (23:17). At times Yahweh is not named but
implied. “Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay everyone according to what they
have done (24:12cd)?” Yet the beginning and the end of the Thirty Sayings in Proverbs clearly
recommends trust in Yahweh (22:19; 24:21). Amenemope also recommends confidence in God, although
a very different one. “He is crying out, his voice to heaven./ O Moon, arraign his crime!/ Steer that we
may ferry the wicked man across,/ for we shall not act like him --/Lift him up, give him thy hand;/ Leave
him (in) the hands of the god;/ Fill his belly with bread that thou hast,/ So that he may be sated and may
cast down his eye.”
176

The next small section in Proverbs is identified simply by “these also are sayings of the wise (24:23)” and
runs for twelve verses, presenting five bits of wisdom. Two topics are examined, words and works.
Testimony in courts (24:23b-25, 28-29) and an honest answer (24:26) are interwoven with the proper
order of outdoor work (24:27) and the lazy person (24:30-34). The alternating of topics seems to imply
the appropriateness of work advice to speech (Don’t be lazy in testifying to the truth.) and of speech
advice to work (Honest work affects all one’s neighbors.). The paragraph also recommends learning “on
the job” of life. “I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw (24:32).”

173 J. M. Plumley, “The Teaching of Amenemope” in Documents from Old Testament Times, D. Winton Thomas, ed.
(New York: harper & Row, 1958), 174.
174 Ibid., 179.
175 Ibid., 180.
176 Ibid., 177.
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