I have been a little busy for the past week or so. As a result updates have been fairly rare. However, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to quote Michael Fox quoting Ben Sira on the strange woman.
In my view, the Strange Woman is another man’s wife, whose transgression is thus adultery. She is not a prostitute but a wanton amateur of the sort who “opens her quiver for every arrow,” as Ben Sira puts it.
I am currently in the middle of preparing for a study of Proverbs 1-9 with some folks from my church. I use such studies as an excuse to further my own knowledge of a particular topic. As I was working on Proverbs 1.1-7, which we’ll cover in the first week, I ran across verse six:
להבין משל ומליצה דברי הכמים וחידתם
The final word presents its own interesting issues in the present context, but they are–perhaps–more easily dealt with than those associated with מליצה. The issue with מליצה is that it is only used twice in Biblical Hebrew (three times if one includes its occurrence in Ben Sira), and therefore pinning down an exact meaning is difficult. BDB glosses the word as “satire, mocking poem” which works fine in Habakkuk 2.6, but doesn’t exactly fit the context in the present passage; at least, that tends to be the argument that scholars make. Michael Fox lists six possible options for the word’s meaning in his commentary on Proverbs 1-9:
1. An easily understood saying
2. A dark saying (based on LXX)
3. A satirical statement
4. An allusion
5. A smooth saying
6. Parable, possibly “trope”
Of these, it seems that #1 may be dismissed as an over simplification. Fox dismisses #2 by saying that the reading of LXX is a “surmise based on the collocation with [חידה].” It would appear that #4 and #5 are based primarily on seeing the word as derived from מלץ rather than ליץ. This meaning does not, however, work out quite as well as some others in the Habakkuk passage. In addition, it seems to me that attempting to derive the word from מלץ is a little bit of a reach. Specifically, it allows a scholar to make sense of this word in Proverbs, but in such a way that may be just a little too perfect.
That leaves #3 and #6 as realistic options in my mind. Fox favors #6, writing “judging from its few occurrences, however, [מליצה] refers to artistic epigrams, never folk sayings, whereas [משל] is both.” To be completely honest, I think that Fox rests his conclusions on tenuous evidence. Three occurrences is slim evidence to begin using words such as “never” without heavy qualifications. The occurrence in Ben Sira is further complicated by its apparent reliance on Proverbs 1.6. I’m not prepared to say that he is incorrect. Rather, I’m nervous because he seems to be saying a great deal based on comparatively little evidence. Let me be clear, I don’t have a problem saying that a מליצה is somehow related to a משל or even that it is a type thereof. My problem is in saying that it “refers to artistic epigrams, never folk sayings.” I simply don’t believe there is enough evidence to make such a distinction.
Bruce Waltke, in a disappointing turn, simply cites Torczyner and says that מליצה is synonymous with משל. He is able to do this, partly, because he takes the vav which connects the two words as the vav explicativum. Fox, on the other hand sees מליצה not as an explanation of משל but as a specific type thereof. Other scholars fall into either these two camps, or one of the others mentioned above.
My question is, what is a מליצה? Personally, I’m leaning towards option #3 above, that מליצה refers to some kind of satirical statement or saying. This much seems clear if the word is derived from ליץ. I would even be willing to say that it is, perhaps, a type of משל, because of its occurrence in parallel to that word in any extant text. However, I am not entirely convinced by this, and Fox’s view has certain merits.
So, I’d like to open this up for some discussion. I know that several of you who frequent this blog share my interest in the Wisdom Literature; perhaps you have something to offer?