in these larger Solomonic collections give practical advice regarding the bearing of a subject in the presence of the king, and few of them fit in the mouth of the splendor-loving monarch, who by his foreign marriages and grinding taxation exerted a baleful influence upon the political and religious life of Israel.  The great majority of the proverbs reflect the noble ethical teachings of the prophets.  Clearly the term Proverbs of Solomon is simply a late designation of early proverbs the authorship of which, like that of most popular maxims, had long since been forgotten.

II.  Date of the Different Collections.  The preface and general introduction to the book of Proverbs reflect the immorality and evils that characterized both the Persian and Greek periods.  Their background is the corrupt life of the city.  The tendency to personify wisdom is also one of the marks of later Jewish thought.  It is probable, therefore, that this part of the book of Proverbs was added by a late editor who lived during the Greek period.  The oldest collection in the book is clearly to be found in 10:1-22:10.  The evils which it describes, the oppression of the poor and dependent by the rich and powerful, existed throughout most of Israel’s history, but were especially prominent in the days of the divided kingdom immediately before the destruction of Jerusalem.  The references to the king imply that the proverb writers had in mind Hebrew rulers.  In general their rule is just and they enjoy the respect of their subjects.  The prevailing occupation of the people is agriculture.  Commerce is just beginning to develop.  The exile has not yet cast its shadow over Hebrew life and thought.  The majority of these proverbs clearly represent the fruitage of the teachings of the pre-exilic prophets, and many of them come from the days immediately before the final destruction of Jerusalem.  From the occasional references to the scoffers, the absence of allusions to idolatry, and the fact that monogamy is here assumed, we may infer that some of them at least come from the Persian or even the Greek periods.  It is probable that this large collection was not made until the latter part of the Persian or the early part of the Greek period.

The appendices in 22:17-24:34 contain many repetitions of proverbs found in the larger collection.  The prevalence of intemperance, the existence of a merchant class, and the allusions to exiled Jews (e.g., 24:11) point rather clearly to the dissolute Greek period as the age when these small collections were made.  The word meaning “transcribe,” that is found in the superscription to the second large collection (25-29), is peculiar to the late Hebrew, and implies that this superscription, like those of the Psalms, was added by a late Jewish scribe.  The literary form of these proverbs is more complex than those of the other large collection.  The kings are feared by their subjects, but figure now as oppressors rather than champions of the people.  While this