[248]. In the version known as the Græcus Venetus (14th or 15th cent.) xxx. 1a runs thus, Λόγοι ἀγούρου υἱέως ἰακώως τοῦ μασάου (Jakeh the Massaite). Delitzsch’s view, given above, is taken from his art. on ‘Proverbs’ in Herzog-Plitt’s Encyclopædia; he refers to Friedrich Delitzsch’s Paradies, p. 303; comp. 243.
[249]. On Isa. xxi. 11, 12, see The Prophecies of Isaiah, i. 129, ii. 152. Hitzig’s theory, originally stated in Zeller’s Theol. Jahrbücher, 1844, pp. 269-305, will be found in the well-known short commentary (Kurzgefasstes exeg. Handbuch, 1847) by Bertheau, who substantially accepts it.
[250]. This is a little too strong. We should certainly have expected melek Lemuel (or Lemoel) rather than Lemuel melek, on the analogy of melek Yārēb, Hos. v. 13, x. 6. As it stands in the text, melek (after Lemuel, and without the article) can only be a definition of class. The Lemuel spoken of was quite unknown to the reader, and therefore the editor appends the descriptive title ‘king.’ Comp. Ex. xxxii. 11, where Joshua, son of Nun, being introduced for the first time, is described as na’ar ‘a squire.’
[251]. Referring to Neue Uebersetzung der Denksprüche Salomo’s, 1791, p. 29.
[252]. The addition here is very poetical, and may, as Ewald says, have been extracted from an ancient anthology. But it disturbs the connection.
[253]. So we may venture to paraphrase ‘Wisdom’ in this connection.
[254]. Revelation, p. 365; Die Lehre der Bibel von Gott, i. 378.
[255]. Note the phrase in i. 1, ‘who in his life repaired the house,’ implying ‘now indeed he is dead.’ Grätz in fact is the only scholar who doubts the author’s contemporaneousness with Simon (Monatsschrift, 1872, p. 114).
[256]. See, besides the well-known passage in Pirke Aboth (i. 2), the legendary extracts from (Bab.) Yoma, 39b, translated by Wünsche, Der bab. Talmud, i. 1, pp. 368-9; and comp. Derenbourg, Hist. de la Palestine, i. 44 &c.
[257]. So we must paraphrase ἐν τῷ ὀγδόῳ καὶ τριακοστῷ ἔτει ἐπὶ τοῦ Εὐεργέτου Βασίλεως. See Stanley’s note in Jewish Church, iii. 235, and Abbot’s note in the American edition of Smith’s Bible Dict. (I am indebted to Bissell for the latter reference). Comp. Wright, The Book of Koheleth, p. 34 n.