Book of Proverbs

Two issues in Prov 1:1–7 have not been adequately accounted for in the interpretation of the passage as a whole: (1) the grammatical agent(s) of the infinitives in Prov 1:2–4, 6; and (2) the intended audience of Prov 1:1–7. By attributing a distinct agent to 1:4, most interpreters include the “simpletons” and “youth” of 1:4 in the audience of Proverbs, sometimes adding an ideal audience indicated rhetorically in 1:5—the “wise one” who hears. I argue that Prov 1:1–7 casts the “wise” as the ideal, intended audience rather than the “simpletons” and “youth” of 1:4. By addressing pertinent grammatical and rhetorical factors in Prov 1:1–7 in a consistent fashion, I offer a coherent reading of Prov 1:1–7 that views this passage as a tightly knit structure and addresses a single, intended audience.

In this chapter the question of the role and function of foreign women in the book of Proverbs is asked. It identifies distinct stereotypes in the depiction of women and shows how foreign women have been stereotyped and stigmatized.
It raises and answers the question how the vocabulary already stigmatized people by generalisation and subversive allusions. It looks into the function of how composite figures serve as contrasting views of social groups and stigmatize foreign women as evil and deceiving. Looking into the history of Israel, it is analysed how in a socioeconomic reading the influence of Phoenician trade changed the view of foreigners. Due to Phoenician economic success the Phoenician woman-trader served as a role model for Israelite marriageable women. Therefore, the different religious backgrounds, leading to discrimination in other parts of the books, are led aside for the reason of economic success and the role-model becomes a faithful Israelite.
This study makes a unique contributes to academic research by showing the ambivalence and prejudice towards foreignness. It points out the discrimination of women by overstating and misrepresenting their status and analyses the reasons. Finally, the relevance for today’s society is suggested by reflection on society, observing that already in biblical times a society when it feels threatened for reasons of cultural identity, develops xenophobia.

If wisdom is the skill of living well, it seems prudent to ask what the end results of a life lived well looks like. If one heeds the advice of the sages, when can one expect their life to look like in the end? This paper attempts to answer these questions by examining the Wisdom Literature of ancient Israel and Egypt and comparing the conclusions each culture's wise ones reach.

Author: Glenn Pemberton
Publisher: CBE International

Over the past forty years, the remarkable presence of women in Prov 1–9 has drawn an equally remarkable number of studies, a gift from the rise of feminism and women in the academy. The combination of these two forces brings attention to the once invisible women in the text, figures generally overlooked or ignored as males have read and interpreted the text for other males. Now, however, the text again gives birth to these marginalized figures, providing them with bodies, eyes, ears, hands, feet, and especially, mouths for speech. Of 256 verses in Prov 1–9, 132 specifically mention or speak about women and another seventeen verses either introduce these texts or draw conclusions from them; hence fifty-eight percent of Prov 1–9. Yet, ironically, all this attention to women comes because of the writer’s interest and concern for young men (1:4), with a secondary appeal to older, wise men (1:5). For the sages, it would seem that the way to a man’s heart is not through food, but through women. After all, the author seems to assume, what better way to engage the attention of a young man than by speaking about or describing women?

Proverbs is a poetic book full of images and metaphors, many of which are often obscure and enigmatic. In this volume, Rotasperti offers a contribution to the understanding of figurative language in Proverbs by looking at the grammatical and social contexts in which many of the book’s metaphors appear. The brief introduction explains the process and methodological assumptions used for identifying metaphors. The study then continues with a lexical review of four semantic categories: the body, urban fabric, nature and animals. The result of this survey is a deep analysis of several key metaphors that looks at their composition, structure, and interpretation.

Noting the debates around whether ‘wisdom’ constitutes a genre, this chapter instead studies the multiple smaller genres of which wisdom literature consists. Texts use (and sometimes intentionally misuse) genres to communicate with readers, providing them with conventions for interpretation and expectations about content. Surveying Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, Ben Sira, and Wisdom of Solomon, the paper discerns four clusters of genres, grouped according to their communicative purpose. Some genres intend to instruct their users (sayings, instructions, diatribe, protreptic, and didactic narratives); others engage in reasoning (reflections and wisdom dialogues). These genres are not unexpected in wisdom literature, but the next are more familiar from other biblical corpora: some genres offer praise (either to wisdom, people of God), and others enunciate complaints (laments and legal complaints). These multiple genres combine and interact in complex ways within the wisdom book.

Author: Deirdre Brouer
Publisher: CBE International

“Tamar lived desolate in the house of her brother Absalom” (2 Sam 13:20). These words have given me both heartache and comfort. Heartache because I don’t want Tamar’s story to end this way. Comfort because Tamar’s desolation validates my own desolation. “Desolation” describes the barren woman, a desert wilderness, and the destruction of Jerusalem. Jerusalem’s desolation is described contrary to the creation account: formless and empty, dark, and isolated. To live desolate means to live lifeless, a common reality for those who suffer the impact of sexual abuse. Millions worldwide live in this reality: men and women, young and old, rich and poor. Even the daughter of King David.

Considering works from the 19th century to the present, this article, for the first time, outlines and evaluates the use of the Book of Proverbs in systematic theology. Descriptively, it presents the most frequently cited texts of Proverbs and their significance for theologians. Prescriptively, it compares the consensus and debate among theologians with the conclusions of biblical exegetes. I conclude that exegetes and systematic theologians at times agree in their interpretation of passages (e.g., "the fear of the Lord"; Prov 6:23; 15:3; 20:9). However, more significantly, some systematic theologians present evidence from Proverbs based on interpretations largely unsupported by biblical exegetes, offering or assuming interpretations that contradict the conclusions of commentators (e.g., Prov 1:20-33; 8:22-31; 16:4; 30:4). I explore these disparate interpretations in detail and identify the core interpretive issues, offering suggestions for theologians and the relation of systematic theology and biblical scholarship.

This study has suggested a few translations of death-related terms found in Proverbs that are faithful to their mythological background. For example, she’ol needs to reflect the life :: death polarity rather than heaven :: hell dichotomy so as to avoid both over-translation ("지옥"/hell) and under- or non-translation ("스올"/Sheol). I suggest to translate it as "저승" when the spatial or realmic idea is dominant and "쉐올" when it takes on anthropomorphic or divine personality. Mwt is translatable as "죽음/death" when it is clearly demythologized to the first readers, "모트/Mot(u)" when it is described as a mythic being. Both rephaim and abaddon lack clear contextual information to retain their mythological background, so are better left untranslated and transliterated as "르파임" and "아바돈" respectively.

이 글에서 필자는 추후 한글성서번역에서 고려할 한 가지 사안으로 신화적 배경을 가진 죽음 관련 구절과 단어들의 적절한 번역 방안을 잠언을 중심으로 고찰한 결과 일정 수준의 일관성을 확보한 번역 방침에 도달하였다. 망자의 영역을 가리키는 she’ol 의 경우 "지옥"은 기독교신학의 선이해로 인한 과잉번역의 위험이 있고 "스올/쉐올"로의 음역은 개념전달을 포기하는 무책임성으로 비난의 소지가 있다 판단해, 일관성 있게 "저승"으로 번역하거나 공간적 개념이 주도적인 곳에서는 "저승"으로, 의인화된 신화적 존재로서 행동의 주체인 경우는 "쉐올"로 구분할 것을 제안했다. 죽음 혹은 사신을 가리키는 mwt 는 문맥상 원독자들이 신화적 배경을 느낄 수 없는 경우는 "죽음"으로, 신화적 배경이 작동하고 있는 경우는 "모트"로 번역할 것을 제안했다. rephaim과 abaddon은 그 신화적 배경을 제거하고 모호성을 줄일만한 문맥상의 정보가 없으므로 르파임과 아바돈으로 소릿값을 따라 표기하는 것이 바람직해 보인다.

I argue that many concepts in Proverbs accord with the criteria of Aristotle's moral virtues and Aquinas' theological virtues. This book conducts a historically-contextualized comparison of Proverbs and ancient/medieval philosophy, resulting in a catalogue of Proverbial virtues and reasons for their distribution while modeling an innovative method for bridging biblical ethics and moral philosophy.

OnScript podcast w/ Dru Johnson

https://onscript.study/podcast/arthur-keefer-ecclesiastes-proverbs-and-the-meaning-of-life/

"The discussion is attractively undogmatic and nuanced, and should be of interest to both biblical specialists and philosophers looking for the roots of Jewish and Christian ethics." — John Barton, JSOT

"Keefer undertakes an ambitious, interdisciplinary study . . . and makes a compelling case." — Michael DeBoer, JLR

The interest in wonder has been a welcome trend in theological education. Curiously, though, it has happened without much reference to the Bible's own witness on schooling. This essay seeks to address the gap, therefore, by looking at a key text in the study of Israelite education: the book of Proverbs. It does so is by locating wonder within Proverbs' vision of education. Since metaphors are central to this vision, the study especially considers the ones that are foundational. What it finds, though, is that the usual suspects—the 'way' and the father/son relationship—do not provide a truly governing metaphor for education. Instead, such a metaphor may be found in the idea of the 'house' and 'house-building'. Viewed through this lens, wonder takes on new significance. It becomes the animating spark that connects the two 'houses' of education: the 'house' of the father and the 'house' of God. If humans are to 'build' their homes like God built the cosmos, they must imitate Woman Wisdom; and the ideal portrait of Woman Wisdom, in Proverbs 8, characterises her chief attribute as wonder (vv 29-31). The governing ethos of wisdom education, therefore, is divine hospitality: God has made the world as our 'playhouse' and he invites us to learn through wonderment.

The author of this paper is fortunate enough not to undertake the task of integrating the theology of Proverbs into the biblical theology of the rest of the canonical books. Instead, the purpose of this paper is to propose a biblical theology of the Book of Proverbs drawn primarily from the biblical test itself. This means that the material will be analyzed as the biblical author presented it, the theological categories will be derived from biblical terminology, and a theology of Proverbs will be distinguished from the argument of the book.

The title  suggests an approach that covers historical and exegetic segments, with preponderance in the sapiential books of the Old Testament. To talk about the concept of „wisdom” in „sapiential books” signifies approaching the subject that gave the name to this sort of literature.

Thiruvalluvar’s Thirukkural is a collection of sacred couplets. It is considered to be a masterpiece written on the subject of human thoughts. It has also been in par with the Holy Bible and with John Milton’s Paradise Lost, it has also been compared with other great books of many other religions. Thiruvalluvar’s views in Thirukkural is considered to be in a reasonable tone, and it also has hints of revolutionary ideas, such as terminating the system of caste. Thirukkural, the most celebrated work, has been an immense influence over the Tamil life and culture since ithas great views over the insights of our day to day life, making it to be universal. This paper aims to discuss the couplets translated by G. U. Pope’s on the chapters namely Learning and Friendship from the Thirukkural to be compared with the Book of Proverbs from the Holy Bible and with the essay Of Friendship by Francis Bacon.

Why are there such diverse collections and do they hold together in a unified way? From the perspective of the metaphorical system, it is possible to provide an answer based on three criteria: the permanent relationship between orality and textualization, the subdivision in Proverbs as a collection of collections, and the specific art of metaphors in Proverbs.

Resumo O estudo da Bíblia como produção literária tem sido bastante prolífico, tendo como uma de suas vertentes a intertextualidade e recepção dos textos. Nesse artigo será analisada a intertextualidade entre o Livro de Provérbios e os escritos do Novo Testamento, procurando perceber de que forma os autores utilizaram o livro sapiencial. Esse estudo faz parte de um processo maior, que analisa a relação do Novo Testamento com o Antigo. Como abordagem metodológica, adotaremos o método comparativo, para perceber tais usos, por meio de quadros sinóticos que ajudem a observar o fenômeno da intertextualidade. O Livro de Provérbios é um marco na literatura sapiencial pela sua diversidade de fontes e possibilidades de aplicação, e se tornou parte da rica tradição judaica para a humanidade. Como resultado, esperamos demonstrar que as comunidades cristãs primitivas tinham viva em sua memória os ensinamentos apreendidos pela tradição judaica, seja pela pessoa de Jesus e seu estilo sapiencial, seja pelos apóstolos, considerando uma espiritualidade sapiencial. Palavras-chave: Intertextualidade. Livro de Provérbios. Recepção. Literatura

Il volume contiene due saggi introduttivi: uno dedicato all'inquadramento storico letterario (P. Nanni); e l'altro all'esame tecnico scientifico per una valutazione dei proverbi alla lue delle moderne conoscenze. Seguono due "Appendici": la prima dedicata all'elenco completo dei proverbi attinenti all'agricoltura pubblicati in Toscana tra Sette e Ottocento; la seconda raccoglie 54 proverbi pubblicati e commentati sulle pagine del "Giornale Agrario Toscano" alla metà del XIX secolo

Rentenir adalah pekerjaan yang dilakukan orang yang mencari nafkah dengan membungakan uang; tukang riba; pelepas uang; lintah darat .  Artinya adalah rentenir meminjamkan uang dengan harapan bahwa orang yang meminjam akan mengembalikan uang yang dipinjamnya beserta uang hasil pokok hutang yang telah disepakati (bunga pinjaman). Namun beberapa rentenir memberikan bunga pinjaman yang tinggi sehingga orang yang berhutang tidak dapat membayar hutangnya akan terkena konsekuensi tertentu, seperti penyitaan barang sampai kepada pembunuhan. Rentenir telah menjadi pekerjaan yang negatif di mata masyarakat sehingga ada julukan lintah darat bagi para rentenir, yang artinya adalah rentenir menghisap kehidupan orang yang berhutang.
Rentenir ini bukanlah pekerjaan yang baru, melainkan sudah lama sekali. Bahkan dalam Perjanjian Lama pekerjaan ini telah disoroti dalam Keluaran 22:25, “Jika engkau meminjamkan uang kepada salah seorang dari umat-Ku, orang yang miskin di antaramu, maka janganlah engkau berlaku sebagai seorang penagih hutang terhadap dia: janganlah kamu bebankan bunga uang kepadanya.” Bunga dalam bahasa Ibrani memiliki akar kata yang sama dengan menggigit.  Sehingga seorang ahli tafsir Yahudi, Rashi, mengatakan bahwa bunga ini seperti gigitan ular yang menyebabkan luka kecil dan tidak berasa, tetapi sekejab menjadi bengkak dan memengaruhi seluruh tubuh. Sejak awal terbentuknya Israel pekerjaan ini telah ada dan terus berlanjut bahkan sampai masa Israel menjadi kerajaan, sampai juga pada masa pemerintahan Raja Salomo. Buktinya adalah pekerjaan ini disinggung dalam amsal Salomo di Kitab Amsal 1:19, “Demikianlah pengalaman setiap orang yang loba akan keuntungan gelap, yang mengambil nyawa orang yang mempunyainya.” Penulis beranggapan bahwa ayat ini berbicara tentang rentenir karena adanya ciri-ciri rentenir, yaitu loba akan keuntungan gelap dan mengambil nyawa orang yang mempunyainya. Tetapi nanti di paper ini akan diungkapkan kepada siapa amsal ini berbicara.

This essay attempts to give the reader an up to date review of the corpus referred to by scholars as Mesopotamian wisdom. The following types of wisdom are presented and discussed: proverbs and instructions; vanity literature; pious-sufferer compositions; perceptive hymns; riddles; fables; disputation poems; and folktales. For each type, a full list of currently known texts is presented, along with a review of its main characteristics and its relation to the concept of wisdom.

The 'as is' version of my master's thesis submitted for the Master of Theological Studies course at Malyon Theological College.

This paper challenges the validity of Zoroastrian Influence Theory, which claims that Zoroastrianism influenced Old Testament Monotheism and Eschatology. This is true both in the sense that the Old Testament does not absorb Zoroastrian ideas, nor does it define itself against Zoroastrian ideas via polemics.

An expanded version is currently in the works

The prohibition אַל־תִּשְׁכַּח (“do not forget”) in the Hebrew text of Proverbs 4:5c does not have a direct object, and so some scholars consider this a syntactic problem requiring  resolution. This paper examines and critiques a proposed solution by Mitchell J. Dahood, who argues that this occurrence of the Hebrew verb draws from a verbal root (ṯkḥ) found in a Ugaritic text and who translates Proverbs 4:5c as “do not become weary.”

We present five arguments in support of the traditional translation “forget not,” demonstrating that the prohibition in Proverbs 4:5c without an explicit direct object poses no exegetical problem. The translator-exegete need not resolve a supposed dilemma in the Hebrew text by proposing an analogy with Ugaritic texts. Even were the translator compelled to search the Ugaritic corpus for parallels to this verb, the Ugaritic text proposed by Dahood does not manifest a reliable interpretative base from which to confidently posit any direct linguistic connection to the Proverbs passage. Additionally, Dahood’s proposed definition of the Ugaritic verb ṯkḥ as “to wilt” does not seem justified in the Ugaritic texts themselves nor in Proverbs 4:5c. Perhaps most convincingly, the verb תִּשְׁכַּח in Proverbs 4:5 makes adequate, contextual sense with the normal meaning “to forget.” Using Ockham’s razor, then, we consider it wise to retain this meaning rather than emend it based on a speculative Ugaritic connection.

It has been argued that Ben Sira, as a Hellenistic wisdom text, is an important document that combines Israelite wisdom tradition with Torah including Deuteronomistic languages, so that wisdom in Ben Sira is recognised as Torah (15:1; 24:23). Scholars until now have proposed diverse ways of understanding such a close relation between Wisdom and Torah. Some think that Ben Sira is “sapientializing” Torah or Deuteronomi(sti)c heritage, others still maintain that Ben Sira is “torahizing” wisdom tradition. Otherwise, both literary profiles are not subjugated to each other, but are correlated as retaining independent identities (e.g., Goering). A closer look at these scholarly claims indicates that Ben Sira does not equate the concept of wisdom with Torah, but it uses no more than the widespread Jewish laws that are integrated with instruction or advice literature just as indicated in Proverbs 1-9. In Ben Sira, wisdom is the consequence of Torah (1:26; 15:1-8; 24:23-26) and Torah is the consequence of pursuing all wisdom (19:20) and wisdom is a product of internalizing and working with Torah and instructions (1:26; 6:37; 15:1; 24:23-7). In this paper, I examine scholarly arguments which make assumptions about the confluence of Wisdom and Torah in Ben Sira, and I put forward the claim that Ben Sira has little influence of the canonical form of Torah and that the context of Ben Sira, though there are similar expressions with Pentateuch, is quite different from what Torah says.

I propose that we should no longer view the Wisdom psalms as a ‘late’ convergence of two independent understandings of the phrase ‘the fear of the LORD’, represented by the books of Proverbs and Deuteronomy.  Instead, I believe Proverbs implicitly presupposes a familiarity with the Deuteronomic revelation of the LORD in the Exodus and at Mount Horeb.  This is argued here on the basis of three different lines of reasoning, all centred on the use of the key phrase: (1) the book’s structural composition, (2) the interpretation of the literary figures of Wisdom and Folly, representing two conflicting approaches to the ‘wisdom’ enterprise, and (3) the significance of foundational stories as interpretative frameworks for the term ‘fear’.

Ben Sira places more substantial weight on the leadership of pan-Aaronid/anti-Zadokite (Olyan) or Zadokite priests (Boccaccini, Kaiser) such as Aaron, his grandson Phinehas son of Eleazar (Sir 45:6-26)—missing non-Aaronid Levites—than the governance of Moses (45:1-5). The honour of the two great forefathers culminates in the praise of the high priest, Simon II son of Onias (50:1-24) and his priestly Temple service. From such a supportive reaction on the Jerusalem priesthood and Temple, scholars have maintained that Ben Sira belongs to a priestly group or a circle of the scribe-sage subjugated to priests and that Sirach hints at the merging point between the created and the priestly order. Consequently, this indication of the harmonization between Sapiential and Zadokite Judaism might justify Jerusalemite priestly groups much power. There is nothing problematic in talking about Sirach’s engagement (Sir 24; 50) with P writings and the divine election of the Jerusalem priesthood in the framework of Sir 44-50, but it is misleading to put Sirach in Priestly writings and to conclude that Sirach merges the two separate traditions (sapiential and priestly). Here, I argue that wisdom discourses in Sir 24 and 44-50 (esp. 50) are the structuralized adaptation of Prov 8 and 31:10-31 and that Ben Sira as a Jewish scribe grants its authority and power to Zadokites derived from the model of the divine wisdom in Proverbs.

Keywords: Priestly Pentateuch, Wisdom Literature, Sirach/Ben Sira, The Book of Proverbs, Torah

Some rare lexemes and word forms in Prov 1-9 may have been chosen because of the way they sound. These words contribute to discernable phonic schemes of consonants and vowels in the Masoretic Text. I identified roots, lexemes, and word forms within Prov 1-9 that occur five times or less throughout the Hebrew Bible. Some of these represent unusual forms of common words, such as ḥokmôt rather than ḥokmâ (1:20; 9:1), while most stand as rare words, regardless of form. I present eleven of the strongest examples from Prov 1-9 of how the rare term contributes to the phonic and conceptual contexts of the passage.

This article explores the burgeoning interest in biblical studies in the use of the Bible in music, as a
medium and as an ever fresh way of expounding and expressing the stories and sentiments of the
Bible. It looks at some recent scholarship on the Bible and music and then goes on to look closely
at a sample book, that of Ecclesiastes, to see which texts have been used as inspiration for musical
expression and in what ways that has evolved in ever fresh historical and cultural contexts. It is seen
that particular themes such as time (Eccl 3:1-8), the fate of humans and animals (Eccl 3:9-14) and
that of ‘vanity’ (the repeated refrain of the book) have been of particular interest to librettists and
composers.

This study investigated the poetic pedagogy of Proverbs 31:1-9 by considering the readerly interpretive process of an imagined cooperative early canonical audience. While some assess 31:1-9 as if readers’ interpretive process does not contribute meaningfully to its teaching, this study found that the readerly process—navigating hermeneutic difficulties and participating in its poetry—contributes significantly to the text’s pedagogy. Adapting methodology from Suzanna Millar, who uses cognitive linguistics' blend theory to investigate readers' mental construction of meaning during the interpretive process, the study found readerly process in Proverbs 31:1-9 to be undulating and complex, and its pedagogy to be richly multi-faceted. The inferred pedagogic desired change for canonical readers certainly includes what mainstream scholarship discerns: leaders must reject indulgent living and advocate for the poor. Yet considering the interpretive process uncovered more: a poetic pedagogy designed to engage the whole person and shape toward right living within God’s covenant even in post-exilic circumstances. The readerly effort demanded by the text’s interpretive challenges propels readers deep into the text, Proverbs, and the canon; the search for interpretive context leads to key framing texts, e.g., Proverbs 9, Psalm 2, and 1 Samuel 1-4. Persistent
ambiguity and seeming false leads (vv. 2, 9) suggest second-order communication ('showing' versus 'telling') is at work. Such 'showing' seems designed to engage the senses and imagination of God’s suffering people, calling them to return to Him, trust in His coming deliverance, develop discernment, and reflect His character in consecrated living. Participating in the poetry of 31:1-9 thus uncovers a call of hope and warning unto covenant remembrance. Such showing informs the difficult משא in 31:1 as perhaps inviting a readerly hermeneutic in line with canonical prophetic ‘oracle’.

Possiamo imparare molto dai saggi proverbi della Bibbia e da alcune delle preziose gemme che contengono:
1) “Il meglio” secondo i proverbi della Bibbia.
2) I paragoni nei proverbi della Bibbia.
3) I proverbi della Bibbia: Il valore del parlare poco e del saper astenersene.
4) I proverbi della Bibbia: La descrizione poetica della vecchiaia e una lezione per i giovani.

The Book of Ruth presents the reader with a tale of one woman’s extraordinary faithfulness to her mother-in-law, which ultimately leads to her participation in King David’s ancestral line. Juxtaposing this tale, in certain manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, is the final chapter of Proverbs, more specifically Prov 31:10-31, which describes a woman of noble character. The present study investigates a variety of lexical and thematic associations, both conspicuous and subtle, between the aforementioned texts. After consideration of modern scholarship's assessment of the date of each composition, the study crystallizes the probability of inner-biblical allusion between the literary units and further suggests, albeit tentatively, the direction of borrowing.

By Thomas P. McCreesh, OP
This represents a limited revision of a doctoral dissertation that was
submitted to the Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages of
The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC in 1981. Its
purpose is to show that the study of sound patterns is an integral part
of the investigation of OT Hebrew poetry. Such study, although a
normal part of poetic criticism in general, has not received enough
attention with respect to OT poetry, because either its sound patterns
were thought to be too few and insignificant or its analysis to be too
complex. Besides answering these criticisms by an extensive analysis
of some ninety sayings from Proverbs, the examples gathered here
also demonstrate techniques for analysis, drawn from modern literary
criticism, which could be utilized in related studies.
(This text was made available at the following website: https://www.pdfdrive.com/biblical-sound-and-sense-poetic-sound-patterns-in-proverbs-10-29-jsot-supplement-e184347360.html)

Looking at the Book of Esther through the lens of intertextuality, this collection considers its connections with each division of the Hebrew Bible, along with texts throughout history. Through its exploration, it provides and invites further study into the relationship between Esther and its intertexts, many which are under explored. Topics covered in the book include considerations of Esther alongside the Torah and the prophetic books, as well as in dialogue with the Qumran community.

As an edited collection, the book draws together scholars with expertise in the wide variety of texts that are intertextually connected with Esther, offering the reader a more nuanced and informed discussion. By including some reflection on the nature of intertextuality as a 'method', it also enables the reader to appreciate the varying intertextual approaches currently employed in biblical studies. In applying these to a focused analysis of Esther, this collection will facilitate greater insight on both the book of Esther and current methodological research.