[228]. Ecclus. xxiv. 23. (Comp. a sublime passage of E. Irving, identifying the contents of the ‘sacred volume’ with ‘the primeval divinity of revealed Wisdom,’ Miscellanies, p. 380 &c.) According to late Jewish theology, the Law is one of the seven things produced before the creation of the world. The alphabet-fables in Talmud and Midrash, in which letters of the alphabet converse with God, presuppose the same view (comp. the Mohammedan view of the Koran).
[229]. So Milton (a Hebraist), Paradise Lost, vii. 10 (‘didst play’), and again in Tetrachordon (‘God himself conceals not his own recreations,’ &c.)
[230]. The proof of this cannot be given here.
[231]. See ii. 4, iii. 13-15, iv. 7, vii. 16, 17, 19, 20 (especially), viii. 10, 18-21.
[232]. Comp. i. 32, 33, ii. 21, 22, iii. 1-10, ix. 11, 12, 18.
[233]. Keil qualifies this however by admitting that Solomon may have incorporated many sayings of other wise men.
[234]. Die Sprüche Salomo’s, v. xvii.
[235]. Die biblische Theologie, i. 563.
[236]. The Religion of Israel, ii. 242.
[237]. The passages in II. Isaiah referred to in this paragraph belong to sections most probably of post-Exile origin. (See art. ‘Isaiah’ in Encyclopædia Britannica, new ed.)