'THE BEGINNING OF KNOWLEDGE

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himself under the shadow of a great hero of the past. There was no deception intended, and for some generations probably nobody misunderstood the fashion of the time.

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:
That men may know wisdom and instruction,
And comprehend the words of understanding;
That they may obtain the discipline of wisdom,
Justice, and right, and equity;

That insight may be given to the simple,

To the young man knowledge and discretion:
That the wise may hear, and increase his learning,
And the man of understanding acquire guidance:
That they may understand a proverb, and a parable;
The words of the wise, and their riddles.

Then comes a distich which some people regard as the intended motto for the whole book.

THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF KNOW

LEDGE;

WISDOM AND DISCIPLINE FOOLS DESPISE.

A warning against bloodshed and the company of murderers and robbers opens the discourse. A teacher of wisdom would not nowadays warn his disciples against the temptations of a highwayman's life. But in the unsettled days of the fourth century B.C. the warning was doubtless necessary.

My son, hear the discipline of thy father,

And forsake not the teaching of thy mother:

For they shall be a wreath of grace unto thy head,
And chains about thy neck.

My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

If they say, 'Come with us, let us lay wait for the upright, Let us lurk privily for the innocent:

Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol;

And the guiltless, as those that go down into the pit: We shall find all kinds of precious substance,

We shall fill our houses with spoil:

Cast in thy lot among us;

Let us all have one purse':

Walk not thou in the way with them;
Refrain thy foot from their path.

For in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
But they lay wait for their own blood;

They lurk privily for their own lives.

Such is the lot of them that are greedy of unjust gain;
Through their own wickedness they are taken away.

The next passage, another cry of warning, is put as a monologue in the mouth of personified Wisdom. (We must remember, for even the genders of words have their importance in theology, that the Hebrew 'Chochmah' or Wisdom is a feminine noun, like the Greek 'Sophia.' The Hebrew Dabar or Word is a masculine noun, like the Greek Logos.)

Wisdom crieth in the street;

She uttereth her voice in the open spaces:

She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates:

In the city she uttereth her words:

'How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity, And the scorners delight in their scorning,

And fools hate knowledge?

Turn you at my reproof:

Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you,
I will make known my words unto you.

'Because I have called, and ye refused;

I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel,

And would none of my reproof:

I also will laugh at your calamity;

I will mock when your fear cometh;

When your fear cometh as desolation,

And your calamity cometh as a whirlwind;

When distress and anguish cometh upon you:

Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer;

They shall seek me earnestly, but they shall not find me:

For that they hated knowledge,

And did not choose the fear of the Lord;

They would none of my counsel;

They despised all my reproof.

THE CRY OF WISDOM

Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way,
And be filled with their own devices.

For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them,
And the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely,
And shall rest free from fear of evil.'

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It is scarcely necessary to say that 'simplicity' in this passage is a mere synonym for folly.

Is this speech of wisdom vindictive? So far as wisdom is the representative of God, it is wholly unfit to imagine her as 'laughing' even at the inevitable and self-wrought ruin of those who stubbornly shut their ears against her teaching and influence. But wisdom seems endowed dramatically with some of the grosser traits of a humanized goddess. She laughs' at the ruin of her opponents as Athene might laugh in Homer.

Next comes a consecutive passage on the fruits of wisdom, both negative and positive. It is marked by the customary conviction of the sages that all wrongdoing must, even on earth, find at last its evil issue, and all rightdoing its just reward. In this conviction they were both wrong and right. Wrongdoing must cause calamity, but the calamity does not always fall upon the wrong-doer. It must add to the amount of evil in the world; but the misery it causes, as distinct from the evil, may fall upon the innocent, and not only, or even also, upon the wrong-doer. Rightdoing and pure purposing must add to the well-being and happiness of the world; but sometimes the well-being and happiness caused and created by them are not shared by the right-doer himself. In the cause of goodness the good must often suffer and be sacrificed. But a sacrifice made for goodness, for love, or for God, is in itself a kind of beatitude which may transfigure calamity. And so too the consciousness of impurity and of evil, or the stings of remorse and of shame, may be a powerful 'punishment' in the midst of apparent sunshine and prosperity. Rightly does the great philosopher Plato urge again and again that the most miserable and pitiable of all men is the sinner who suffers no 'punishment,' whether by outward calamity or by the stings of remorse. He sinks deeper and deeper into the mire of evil. For the only true evil is sin, and the only true good is righteousness.

My son, if thou wilt receive my words,

And hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, And apply thine heart to understanding;

Yea, if thou criest after knowledge,

And liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver,

And searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, And find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord giveth wisdom:

Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up true welfare for the righteous :

He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly,

And keep the paths of judgement:

He preserveth the way of his pious ones.

Then shalt thou understand righteousness and judgement, And equity; yea, every good path.

For wisdom shall enter into thine heart,

And knowledge will be pleasant. unto thy soul;
Discretion shall preserve thee,

Understanding shall keep thee:
To deliver thee from the way of evil,
From them that speak perversity;
Who leave the paths of uprightness,
To walk in the ways of darkness;
Who rejoice to do evil,

And delight in wicked perversity;
Who make their ways crooked,

And bend aside in their paths:

That thou mayest walk in the way of good men,
And keep the paths of the righteous.

For the upright shall dwell in the land,
And the flawless shall remain in it.

But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth,

And the faithless shall be rooted out of it.

Now follow further exhortations to wisdom and to the fear of God.

My son, forget not my law;

But let thine heart keep my commandments:

For length of days, and long life,

And peace, shall they add to thee.

Let not mercy and truth forsake thee:

Bind them about thy neck;

THE LORD'S CHASTENING

Write them upon the table of thine heart:
So shalt thou find favour and good repute
In the sight of God and man.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;
And lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him,

And he shall make plain thy paths.

Be not wise in thine own eyes:

Fear the Lord, and depart from evil.
It shall be health to thy flesh,
And refreshment to thy bones.

Honour the Lord with thy substance,

And with the firstfruits of all thine increase:

So shall thy barns be filled with plenty,

And thy presses shall overflow with new wine.

My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord;
Neither be weary of his correction :

For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth;

And he giveth pain to the son in whom he delighteth.

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The last exhortation is deservedly famous. It is one of the deepest sayings in the Bible. The second half of it in the present Hebrew text runs thus: 'For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.' But as the present text is not good Hebrew, and the Greek translation gives what I have put above, it is probable that the original Hebrew ran according to the Greek. The change involved is very small.

Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,

And the man that getteth understanding.

For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver,

And the gain thereof than fine gold.

She is more precious than rubies:

And all the things thou canst desire are not to be com

pared unto her.

Length of days is in her right hand;

And in her left hand riches and honour.

Her ways are ways of pleasantness,

And all her paths are peace.