Lexical-Syntactical Analysis
You must remember before proceeding on lexical-syntactical analysis that there are so many words in the wisdom literature that cannot be taken literally. As a result of this, you need to analyse the pertinent words in the passage according to its usage in the context of wisdom literature. Let us examine Proverbs 14:7 as an example:
Leave the presence of a fool
Or you will not discern words of knowledge
It you take the meaning of fool here as one who lacks common sense perception of the reality of things, that is, the mentally retarded or the uneducated, you are bound to misinterpret the verse. You need to know that in the context of Hebrew wisdom, the word ‘fool’ actually means an
‘infidel’, that is an unbeliever who lives life according to selfish, indulgent whims (Fee and Stuart, 1993). So, what this passage of Proverbs is saying in effect is that you do not need to seek knowledge from an unbeliever. He is not even saying that we need to neglect them because in doing so we would not be able to lead them to salvation.
one is strong and full of vigour and not to wait for the period when life would become dull and one can no longer serve God.
From here, verses 2 through 7 becomes a description of what makes the old age to be evil days. According to Peterson (1971), verses 2 through 7
“contain a poignant description of senility, partly metaphorical and partly literal. They give a reason for the teaching to remember God and enjoy life, namely, that the opportunity will all too soon be irrevocably passed.”
12:2 before the sun, and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain;
The description above is that of old age borrowed from the Jewish belief that old age takes on the characteristics of the dark cold winter. The whole verse can be divided into two parts: the first part which says that all the luminaries are darkened and the second part which gives the reason - clouds return after the rain. On this verse, Rankin (1970) writes: “old age is depicted as a time of fading light and is compared with winter, when storms darken the horizon. Even after the rain has ceased, clouds again gather and obscure the luminaries in the sky.” Thus old age is set in contradistinction to the time of youth which has been described as the time of light and pleasantness (11:17).
12:3 in the days when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look through the window are dimmed.
This verse contains four phrases which forms the metaphoric description of old age. The metaphor now changes to the human body. In this description and subsequent ones, the body of human beings as had been afflicted by old age is now likened to a household which has entered upon hard times and has the service of only very insufficient domestic help. In this metaphor, the keepers of the house are the hands and the arms which begin to tremble as old age takes its toll. The bent strong men are the legs that begin to totter, the grinders (which in Hebrew would literally read “the grinding women”) are the few teeth that have been rendered useless because of the little number and those that look through the window are the eyes that are now dimmed as a result of hyper myopia.
12:4 and the doors on the street are shut; when the sound of the grinding is low and one rises up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of songs are brought low;
Except for the third phrase, all other phrases here are concerned with the hearing faculty which at old age becomes hard of hearing. The first phrase depicts the deafness that cuts old people away from the rest of the society.
The next phrase literally reads “the sound of the grinding” and will probably refer to the ordinary stir of the household. In other words, all the noisy activities that go on in the whole household would become low and subdued. “All the daughters of music” is a Hebrew idiom for musical notes.
So, here the author is saying that the musical notes in the hearing of old people become indistinct because to them they are softer than they really are. In other words, soprano can no longer be distinguished from tenor or bass in the hearing of the aged. The third phrase “one rises up at the voice of a bird” could mean that sleeping becomes light because at the slightest noise, old people would wake up. Another alternative is that the old people would wake up as soon as it is dawn and the birds began to sing.
12:5 they are afraid also of what is high, and the terrors are in the way;
the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails; because man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets;
The first two phrases are literal. Aged people are afraid of high places and the dangers that encompass a journey. After these two phrases, Qoheleth goes metaphorical again. “The almond tree blossoms” is the first metaphorical phrase. This is usually taken as a symbol of the grey hair of old age because as the almond tree blossoms, it is pinkish-white.
“The grasshopper drags itself” is usually taken to be a metaphor for the old people who become burdens to themselves and as they walk have to drag themselves along. “Desire fails” refer to the extinction of sexual desire. The term “eternal home” occurs only here in the entire Bible but its usage corresponds with the Egyptian expression meaning ‘tomb’. Finally as the person dies and is about to be buried, the paid mourners are already waiting to do their job.
12:6 before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
In this verse, two symbolic figures are presented: the light and the water.
The silver cord holds the golden bowl. Hence when the cord breaks, the lamp would fall thereby putting out the light. When the wheel and the pitcher at the well are broken, water cannot be drawn again. Since light and
water are common Jewish and biblical symbols for life, the picture here is that of death–cessation of life.
12:7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
This verse just tells us the obvious: the body of human beings which was moulded from the dust would moulder into dust and the spirit would return to God, that is, the source from where it came.
12:8 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.
This refrain comes up again at the end of the description of the life of human beings from the youth to death and it confirms again that there is nothing of permanent value in this life, not even the life of human beings is permanent.
The hermeneutical application seems to be that it is good for human beings to remember their God when they are young and full of vigour to serve God for this is the only antidote to the dark, cold days of old age. This is a graphic description of the impermanence of the physical bodies of human beings as well as the helplessness of human beings in the face of these changes. It is also a reminder that every human being will die one day.
4.0 CONCLUSION
In this unit you have learnt about wisdom literature which is an important genre among the Jews in which instructions for successful living are given or the perplexities of human existence are contemplated. There are also two levels of wisdom: the practical and the philosophical wisdom. you have also learnt that wisdom literature is categorized into family, courtly, scribal, nature, judicial and theological wisdoms. Devices used for wisdom literature includes parallelism which can be sub-divided into synonymous, synthetic, emblematic, antithetical and chiastic parallelism. You also learnt about other devices that include acrostics, alliteration, assonance, paronomasia and numerical sequences among others. You have also learnt about the traditional ascription of the wisdom literature to Solomon and the steps to take in interpreting passages of wisdom literature.