i8 7 7] POETRY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 445 



The original germ of the Chokma is the individual 

 proverb so familiar to us in the rich collections which make 

 up the greater part of the Book of Proverbs. 



In this kind of composition the poetic character of the 

 thought is asserted by strict rhythmic arrangement. The 

 proverb is almost invariably a single distich, but a distich 

 in which the sharp antithesis of opposing members or the 

 brilliant parallelism of moral truth and natural image gives 

 the complete effect of symmetrical artistic finish. How 

 perfectly, for example, is the right relation of the three 

 generations of which a happy Hebrew family is always 

 supposed to consist laid down in the simple distich 



The crown of the aged are children s children. 

 And the glory of children are their fathers. 1 



The antithetic rhythm of the proverbs is so sharp cut 

 that it loses little by translation, and our English Version 

 supplies every reader with abundant material for estimat 

 ing this side of the Hebrew Chokma. Not quite so 

 successful is the treatment of the proverbs which rest on a 

 similitude between the spheres of nature and of human 

 life. The most pointed of these similes simply give the 

 natural image in the first member of the distich, and add 

 the moral parallel without any such syntactical connection 

 as the &quot;As . . . so is &quot; of the English Version. This 

 form is peculiarly appropriate as a vehicle for the caustic 

 humour in which the Hebrews delight : 



A ring of gold in a swine s snout - 

 A fair woman without sense. 3 



From the simple isolated proverb the didactic poetry 

 of the Hebrews rises in several directions to more elaborate 

 efforts, but without showing any considerable disposition 

 to pass from the aphoristic form to theoretical and 

 systematic philosophy. 



The brief simile is expanded into a parable like those 



1 Prov. xvii. 6. 



2 The nose-ring of the East corresponds to our earrings. 

 3 Prov. xi. 22. 



