PROVERBS 13: ORGANIZATION

                                                         Proverbs 13 (collage, 1994)

 Let me start out with some appropriate comments from Duane Garrett:

“Perhaps the most arresting feature of Proverbs 10:1-24:23 is what seems a complete lack of structure of arrangement in the collection of proverbs. They appear to have been assembled altogether at random. This feature seems odd in light of the Hebrew passion for parallel, chiasmus, merismus, and other such modes of structure the written word.”

As a contributing factor to this observation, he further states that “each proverb is an independent unit that can stand alone and still have meaning. Textual context is no essential for interpretation. Also the very disorder of a collection of proverbs can serve a didactic purpose; it demonstrates that while reality and truth are no irrational, neither are they fully subject to human attempts at systemization. The proverbs are presented in the seemingly haphazard way we encounter the issues with which they deal.”

Those are both good points. However, to one such as myself who always tries to find order even where it may not have been intended, they just serve as a challenge. Thus, as an example, I decided to see if Proverbs 13 perhaps did have an underlying organization after all.

The first unifying factor is a rather obvious one and no means confined to this chapter: all the proverbs in this collection are of the antithetic type. Hildebrandt calculates that approximately 90% of the proverbs in chapters 10-15 are presented in the form of antithetic parallelism. In other words, the first line describes one type of behavior which is then systematically contrasted with that described in the second line. Thus, the first verse of this chapter reads:

        “A wise son     hears                   his father's instruction,

        but a scoffer    does not listen to                   rebuke.”

But beyond that one unifying commonality, my first-time reading through the chapter revealed nothing deeper bringing all these proverbs together into a cohesive whole. So I went through it a little slower to see if anything approaching an overall structure would come to light. Here is what that second reading revealed:

    The only specific mentions of a father disciplining/instructing his son appear in verses 1 and 24. Thus, they appear to serve to encapsulate the whole chapter.

    Verses 13-18 begin and end with an admonition to heed godly instruction. All but v. 16 in the middle provide the consequences, whether favorable or unfavorable, of one's actions. And there is a special affinity between the opening and closing verses of this small unit: both involve a person's reaction to instruction, with destruction as the result to those who do not heed.

    The importance of the mouth is stressed in verses 2-4 and 25.

    Proverbs involving the subject of money include verses 7-8, 11, 18, 21-23.

    Verses 10 and 20 concern taking wise advice from others.

    The 'righteous' and 'wicked” are specifically compared in verses 5-6 and 9.

    Hope and desire are found in verses 12 and 19.

Notice how proverbs on similar subjects are often found in adjacent verses. This indicates at least some attempt at organizing the material in the chapter. But the next step is to plot all the above similarities, similarly indenting those that show some sort of parallelism. The result is shown below:

                                             Figure 1: Proto-Structure for Proverbs 13

    Disciplining sons (1)

        The mouth (2-4)

            Righteous versus wicked (5-6)

                Riches (7-8)

            Righteous versus wicked (9)

                    Wise advice (10)

                Riches (11)

                        Hope and desire (12)

                            Consequences contrasted (13-15)

                                Definitions (16)

                            Consequences contrasted (17-18)

                        Hope and desire (19)

                    Wise advice (20)

                Riches (21-23)

    Disciplining sons (24)

        The mouth (25)

The next step was to consult scholarly sources to see what they may have had to say regarding the organization of Proverbs 13.

    McKane classifies the proverbs in this chapter into three categories. One of them is characterized by the presence of “God language.” These include verses 6, 9, 21, and 22.

    Hildebrandt states that the motivation given in verses 13a and 18b as “honor vs. disgrace.”

    Whybray notes the similar sentiments in verses 12 and 19 above (i.e. “Hope and Desire”). Scott and others remark on the strange fact that Proverbs 13:19a “is a variant of vs. 12b, and its connection with the second line is puzzling... Elsewhere he expresses the opinion that the two disconnected lines of v. 19 may have actually come from different proverbs. This is the first hint that perhaps some of the lines in this chapter may have suffered from accidental errors in copying over the years.

    Other places where the Hebrew text may be corrupt include verse 15 (Whybray, RSV) and verse 23a, (Jerusalem Bible, Whybray).

    There have been few attempts to divide this chapter into individual paragraphs. However, Waltke does group together verses 7-11 and labels them “Wealth and Ethics.” The problem with this grouping is that verse 10 clearly does not have anything to do with the subject of wealth. This is a possible indication that it has been accidentally displaced from elsewhere in the chapter. He similarly feels that verses 12-19 constitutes a discrete passage, which he calls “Fulfillment through Wisdom vs. Frustration through Folly.” Note that the proto-structure above pictures these same verses as a symmetrical grouping.

In light of the more than occasional propensity of the compiler of these proverbs to group together those with a similar subject (i.e. 2-4, 5-6, 7-8, 13-15, 17-18, 21-23), I turned to the problem noted above that the second line of verse 19 appears to have come from separate proverbs. Just look at how that dubious second line fits in with the following verse through the underline catch-word:

“to turn away from evil is an abomination to fools” (19b)

“he who walks with wise men becomes wise,

but the companion of fools will suffer harm.” (20)

These adjacent verses now have the commonality of referring to "fools", a word only appearing elsewhere in this chapter in v. 16.

With the above examples of probable mis-transmission together with the habit of the editors(s) to place sayings with similar ideas or language together, we can now turn to a more speculative example, namely the possible transposing of verses 10-11. As mentioned above, one hint that verse 10 does not belong where it now appears is that its subject matter has no relation to the surrounding proverbs. I realize that there is no manuscript justification for such a move, but the same applies to the other conjectured changes found in the scholarly literature.

At this point we can now group the material in Figure 1 around symmetrical arrangements that indicate the intended paragraph divisions:

                                            Figure 2: Proposed Organization of Proverbs 13

I. Opening (1-4)

        A. Disciplining sons (1)

                B. The mouth (2-4)

                        II. Wealth and Ethics (5-9, 11)

                                A. Righteous versus wicked (5-6)

                                        B. Riches (7-8)

                                A'. Righteous versus wicked (9)

                                        B'. Riches (11)

                                                III. Wisdom and Folly (10, 12-19)

                                                        A. Wise advice (10)

                                                                B. Hope and desire (12)

                                                                        C. Consequences contrasted (13-15)

                                                                                D. Observation (16)

                                                                        C'. Consequences contrasted (17-18)

                                                                B'. Hope and desire (19)

                                                        A'. Wise advice (20)

                        II'. Wealth and Ethics (21-23)

I'. Conclusion (24-25)

        A. Disciplining sons (24)

                B. The mouth (25)

In this manner, one can see a perfectly constructed symmetrical organization to what at first appeared to be a haphazard collection. If Figure 2 is correct, then the center point of Proverbs 13 is found in verse 16. This proverb reads as follows and has noted similarities with Proverbs 12:23 and 15:2.

“In everything a prudent man acts with knowledge,

but a fool flaunts his folly.”