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Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job: Wisdom

  1. Lesson One
    Proverbs: Sayings of Sages (Proverbs 5–9, 22–30)
    25 Activities
  2. Lesson Two
    Proverbs: Wisdom, Our World and YHWH (Proverbs 10–21, 31)
    29 Activities
    |
    2 Assessments
  3. Lesson Three
    Ecclesiastes
    23 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  4. Lesson Four
    The Lament of Job (Job 1–3, 32–42)
    30 Activities
  5. Lesson Five
    The Wisdom of Job (Job 4–31)
    20 Activities
  6. Course Wrap-Up
    Course Completion
    1 Activity
    |
    1 Assessment

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Both texts prohibit stealing land by moving boundary markers, but the Egyptian warning about a generic “dread thing” is replaced in Proverbs by an explicit reference to a personal deity. Again, the place of YHWH in Proverbs, and His endorsement and “backing” of Israelite Wisdom, is ultimately what sets it apart. The people who abuse others and steal from widows or orphans don’t reckon with impersonal laws of human relations, but with a personal God who is active in the world and will avenge the disadvantaged. 

Source: John Ruffle, “The Teaching of Amenemope and Its Connection with the Book of Proverbs,” Learning from the Sages: Selected Studies on the Book of Proverbs, edited by Roy Zuck, 1995, pp. 321, 325, 326.