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AnonymousBible: Old Testament: English Standard Version
Nonfiction | Scripture | Adult | Published in 1611A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Wisdom Literature (Job-Song of Solomon)Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Job Summary
Job gives the account of someone whose story does not fall within the narrative of Israelite history as provided in the other books. It is the story of a follower of God who lived in or around the time of the patriarchs, although the dating of both Job’s writing and its historical setting is disputed. The book opens with a heavenly scene in which God and Satan debate Job’s righteousness. In response to God’s boasting about Job’s faithfulness, Satan asks permission to send sufferings and temptations to see if Job will remain faithful even when everything is taken from him. Job then suffers a series of personal catastrophes in which he loses his wealth, his 10 children, and his health. Even Job’s wife encourages him to despair and curse God for their ill fortune, but Job refuses and instead maintains both his faith in God and a sense of his own innocence.
Job’s perspective is countered by three friends who come to mourn with him. They suggest that what happened to him must be on account of some great sin because God would not send sufferings of this kind on a righteous man. Job persists in his belief that he has been as righteous as he could be, and that he can find no reason for the turn in his circumstances. The book proceeds through several rounds of dialogues between Job and his friends, including a more moderate viewpoint of a younger friend who enters the dialogue later on. Job’s position remains unchanged: He believes in God; he believes he has been a faithful servant of God; and while he does not believe that God is unjust, he questions why God would allow these sufferings to arise. The book ends with God himself answering Job’s questions, beginning in Chapter 38. God responds by challenging mortal man’s prerogative to know the mind of God, asserting his own divine sovereignty in ordering things according to his wisdom. This is presented as a rebuke to Job, but the final scene shows that God ultimately vindicates Job for his faithfulness. Instead, the final rebuke falls on the three friends who challenged Job’s faith. With Job’s faithfulness having been proved, God restores his fortunes, including his wealth, his family, and his health.
Psalms Summary
The book of Psalms, composed entirely of poetry, is among the longest books of the Old Testament. Although its chapters (which designate individual songs) vary in length, they number 150 chapters in total, the most of any book in the Christian Bible. These psalms constitute the ancient hymnbook of the Israelite people. Many of the songs are ascribed to the authorship of King David, although there are a significant minority which are said to have been composed by other authors, like Asaph or the sons of Korah, usually identified as Levites who led worship in the temple. The psalms vary both in theme and length, from two verses (Psalm 117) to 176 verses (Psalm 119).
Most common are songs of praise to God, celebrating his sovereignty and his gracious care for his people. Other psalms, particularly those written by King David, reflect much of the pathos of David’s life. Many appear to have been written during the years when he was on the run, being hunted by King Saul, while others come from the time when he had fallen under God’s judgment for his affair with Bathsheba. Still others may come from the period when he suffered the coup d’état raised by his son Absalom, since many of his psalms relate a sense of personal turmoil and suffering. One of the most well-known passages of the Bible is the 23rd Psalm, in which the speaker affirms their total trust in God, comparing God to a shepherd who protects and provides for his flock.
Proverbs Summary
The book of Proverbs, like Psalms, is largely written with a poetic structure. The book’s title refers to a particular form of poetry, with a “proverb” in the Hebrew tradition representing an aphoristic couplet. The majority of the proverbs are attributed to King Solomon (Proverbs 1:1; 10:1; 25:1), but some later sections are ascribed to other figures whose identities remain uncertain: Agur son of Jakeh (30:1) and King Lemuel (31:1). The proverbs begin by an address from a father (Solomon) to his son, telling him to pay heed to wisdom. Wisdom is a personified character in these passages, an attribute of God presented in a feminine aspect, guiding people into good and noble decisions. The father focuses special attention on leaving aside the temptations of greed, violence, and sexual immorality.
The aphoristic couplets in Proverbs are not intended as blanket statements that apply in all situations, but rather as rules of thumb to be used under the guidance of God’s own wisdom. This can be seen in the fact that some of the proverbs are mutually contradictory—as, for instance, Proverbs 26:4-5: “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.” They are thus intended to be received as wise guidance, but not as a replacement for one’s own practice of discernment as one follows God’s wisdom in the varying circumstances of life. Proverbs proposes that wisdom is not a list of “black-and-white” rules, but a living and active dimension of one’s relationship with God. The underlying premise of the book of Proverbs is that if one walks according to these ways, inclining one’s heart to the wisdom of God, such a person will find favor with God and stability in life. The book closes with an ode of respect and appreciation for a woman of noble character, whose many virtues are extolled (Proverbs 31:10-31).
Ecclesiastes Summary
Ecclesiastes is another book attributed to Solomon, as indicated by the first verse: “The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem” (Ecclesiastes 1:1). Throughout the remainder of the book, the author refers to himself only as “the Preacher” (in Hebrew, Qoheleth). After years of seeking such insight, the Preacher relates his conclusion that life is meaningless: “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). The Hebrew word which the ESV translates as “vanity” relates to the fleeting and elusive nature of life. Everything is meaningless because nothing lasts, neither the pursuit of pleasure, nor wealth, nor fame. Despite this apparent pessimism, it does not lead the Preacher to assert a nihilistic stance. Rather, the Preacher advises his readers to enjoy life and to take what one can from the experience. In the end, the Preacher comes back to a note of concord with the rest of the Old Testament, advising his readers to ground themselves in the fear of the Lord: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Although this advice seems like a disjunction from much of the rest of the text, this counsel to pursue the fear of the Lord makes sense within the context of the Preacher’s exploration. Having found that everything is temporal and thus cannot provide meaning for life, only those things which are not temporal—i.e., God himself—can provide a sense of meaningfulness.
Song of Solomon Summary
Song of Solomon is another poetic work, but unlike Psalms and Proverbs, it does not concern itself with themes of faith or of philosophy. Rather, it focuses on human love, a romance between a man and a woman. It is a verse drama, a series of poetic dialogues between two lovers, along with a chorus of others who occasionally interject short sequences of lines. The male character is taken to be King Solomon, while the female character is unnamed. The text indicates the possibility that she was of a lower social class because she bemoans the darkness of her skin, which she attributes to having been made to work in her family’s vineyard while she grew up: “I am very dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem […]” (Song of Solomon 1:5).
The poems of Song of Solomon are beautiful and full of longing. In many of the sequences, the man and woman are together, speaking tender endearments to each other, while in others they are apart and are pining for each other’s presence.
Wisdom Literature (Job-Song of Solomon) Analysis
The five books of Hebrew wisdom literature are widely varied in substance and style. They include a philosophical dialogue (Job), a hymnbook (Psalms), a collection of aphorisms (Proverbs), a poetic treatise (Ecclesiastes), and a romantic verse drama (Song of Solomon). The authorial identification of these texts, like that of many books in the Old Testament, is a subject of debate among scholars, with positions that range from traditional attributions to theories that suggest pseudonymous composition. The book of Job is anonymous, and due to its content being set outside of the Old Testament’s narrative arc of Israelite history, theories as to the timing of its composition span perhaps the widest range of any book, from the patriarchal period to the end of the monarchy.
Psalms is a collection of texts that were later compiled into a single work, and each psalm thus arises from its own historical and authorial context. Many psalms are attributed to David, but it is important to note that the ascriptions in the headers of each psalm are usually considered later additions to the text, so while the ESV lists authorial information for those psalms where it is available, that information likely derives from a later period of Jewish history. Nonetheless, the majority position within Old Testament studies accepts the plausibility of Davidic authorship for a large number of psalms, especially since many psalms appear to reflect specific experiences in his life. The final three books of wisdom literature are all attributed to Solomon by ascriptions within the texts. These traditional authorship claims are accepted by some scholars and disputed by others, with many accepting a possible Solomonic origin for some parts of Proverbs, but suggesting that Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon are pseudonymous works from a later period.
Of the five texts, the book of Psalms has had an indisputably larger impact on the Christian tradition than any of the others. Because it is both the longest book (in terms of chapters) in the Old Testament and the book most adapted to daily devotional usage, the book of Psalms tends to attract the attention of Christian readers, for whom passages like Psalm 23 are among the most familiar in the entire Bible. Some of the books of the prophets are also poetical in nature, but the book of Psalms appears to be the only significant set of Old Testament poetry intended to be set to music. Its songs not only relate the theology of the Israelites’ faith, but the deeply personal and intimate nature of their relationship with God. Theirs was not a distant faith; it was a faith in a God who made himself present, to be personally known through his compassion, love, and care for his people. This is expressed in the psalms’ evocative imagery and poetic structures, including a frequent use of parallelism in the construction of its doubled lines. Proverbs has also held a commonplace in Christian usage, partly because its genre and style render its content accessible and applicable to daily life. Unlike Psalms, however, Proverbs has had less of an impact on worship and doctrine, because its counsel tends to be more practical than theological.
Most of the content of the wisdom books is written in poetic form, and the Hebrew poetry contained therein is among the most evocative and expressive of any ancient poetry. Hebrew poetry did not use a rhyme-scheme like much English poetry does, but it had many other recognizable poetic devices. The most common is parallelism, in which a second line of poetry repeats the major idea of the first line, but with a somewhat different wording. A good example of this is the opening section of Psalm 5, in which three such doubled expressions appear:
Give ear to my words, O LORD; / consider my groaning. / Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, / for to you I pray. / O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; / in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch (Psalm 5:1-3).
Many verses in Proverbs are also structured as unrhymed couplets in parallel form.
Another common poetic structure in Hebrew poetry (as well as some prose) is called chiasm, which is an extended form of parallelism. In a chiastic structure, the beginning and ending sections parallel each other, and the middle sections parallel each other as well, leading to a high point of the chiasm in the center. In literary analysis, these sections are usually noted with capital letters and prime symbols (see the example below). While some chiasms are very long, encompassing entire psalms, others are observable in the span of just a few verses. Consider this example from the end of Psalm 2, where the parallel phrases center on the admonition to “Kiss the Son,” and the wisdom mentioned in the first line is defined in the last line as the act of taking refuge in the Son of God:
Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. [A]
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. [B]
Kiss the Son, [C]
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. [B’]
Blessed are all who take refuge in him [A’]
(Psalm 2:10-12, chiastic notations added).
The common themes which have appeared throughout the Old Testament are prominent in wisdom literature as well. Faithfulness to God’s Law takes on a somewhat smaller role in these texts, which do not offer extended reflections on the Mosaic code, but the theme is still present in many references in which the psalmist declares his love and gratitude for God’s law: “I long for your salvation, O LORD, and your law is my delight” (Psalm 119:174). The Problem of Sin constitutes a major focus of the wisdom literature, particularly in Job, Psalms, and Proverbs. The book of Job is essentially a philosophical exploration of the connections between suffering and sin (or the lack thereof). Rather than indicating God’s capriciousness or indifference to human suffering, the book of Job suggests that although God’s wisdom is incomprehensible to humanity, God’s fidelity to his people is unchanging. Though Job does not understand why God allows calamity to occur, his commitment to his faith throughout his difficulties is ultimately rewarded.
Many of the psalms, and particularly those attributed to David, also wrestle with issues of sin, including frequent expressions of the need for purity from sin in order to draw close to God. Proverbs takes direct aim at particular sins like greed and sexual immorality, offering counsel on how to avoid them. The fact that Song of Solomon holds a place within the canon of Old Testament scripture—even with its dearth of religious content and its erotic overtones—stands as an affirmation of the sacredness of human love within the plan of God. The text has also sometimes been read allegorically within both the Jewish and Christian traditions. An allegorical reading interprets Song of Solomon as a portrayal of the depth of God’s love for his people, as is also portrayed in some passages of the prophetic books. The theme of The Steadfast Love of God is also prominent in Psalms, where it reaches its highest point of expression in the entire Old Testament. An argument can be made that God’s steadfast love, his hesed, is the dominant theme of that book, articulated and celebrated over and over again: “Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalm 106:1).
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