Proverbs 7 in MT and LXX: Form and Content

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142 Tova Forti and Zipora Talshir The Argument—A witness monologue remodeled (Verses 6–20) The main body of Prov 7 is constructed as a witness monologue, in which the wisdom-teacher shares with his listeners an experience whose lesson is the goal of his communication. This literary device renders the lesson more credible, and evokes the audience’s involvement and readiness to listen and accept. 29 Witness monologues appear occasionally in wisdom-oriented compositions. Thus, the author of Ps 37 adds his own experience in order to emphasize his teaching: “I have been young and am now old, but I have never seen a righteous man abandoned, or his children seeking bread” (v. 25); “I saw a wicked man, powerful, well-rooted like a robust native tree. Suddenly he vanished and was gone; I sought him, but he was not to be found” (vv. 35–36). The entire teaching of Qoheleth is anchored in his personal deductions from his own experience, expressed in different ways, for example, by the repeatedly used introduction: “I said to myself...” (e.g., Qoh 2:1). In Prov 4:3–4 the wisdom-teacher evokes empathy in his ‘son’ by anchoring his teaching in the way he himself was coached: “Once I was a son to my father, the tender darling of my mother. He instructed me and said to me...”. 30 Witness monologues are not common in Proverbs. In fact, there are only two examples in which the wisdom-teacher makes ingenious use of this literary device, elaborating at length on an incident he experienced: 31 the elaborate speech under discussion (7:6–20), and the short but intense communication on the sluggard in 24:30–34. Interestingly, both of 29 See McKane, Proverbs, 572; R.E. Murphy, Proverbs (WBC; Nashville, 1998) 186; C.A. Briggs and E.G. Briggs, The Book of Psalms (2 vols.; ICC; Edinburgh, 1906) 1:329. 30 See Ben Sira’s nostalgic monologue on his own learning in his youth (Sir 51:13–22). 31 Saadia Gaon defines these cases as allegories: ‘The wisdom-teacher forwards allegories and articulates them as events that really took place’; Saadia Gaon, Proverbs (ed. Y. Kafih; Jerusalem, 1976) 69–70 (Heb., translated from Arabic). In the introduction, 15–16, he mentions Prov 7 and 24:30–32 together with Qoh 9:14–15 as examples for such allegories. See Fox, Proverbs, 241.
Proverbs 7 MT and LXX 143 these monologues fade away in the LXX. Let us first briefly look at the latter. MT and LXX Prov 24:30–32 show considerable differences. The MT offers a vivid scene in which the wisdom-teacher deduces a lesson from a situation he observes: 2+3( + 9 ; #
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Proverbs 7 in MT and LXX: Form and Content

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