"Mirror, Mirror . . . "

 

“Mirror, Mirror . . .”

            If “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder” it is sad that many students of the Bible see so little! This situation exists because few today know, read and study the original texts of the Bible—Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek. Perhaps they spend too much time reading and discussing what others say or write about the Bible and too little time reading, meditating, and discussing the Bible itself.

Proverbs 9 exemplifies some “hidden beauty.” The author crafted this chapter from the standpoint of a “mirror reading” regarding two kinds of women. Verses 1-12 focus on a woman called “wisdom;” verses 13-18 on a “foolish woman” [כְּסִילוּת, Holladay, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, 161; Armstrong, Busby, Carr, A Reader's Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament, 539, “stupidity”].

Repetitive verses in each section justify the “mirror” concept: verse 4 is repeated in verse 16; verse 3 replicates verse 14. Beyond simple repetition lie conceptual parallels as well. Wisdom invites the naïve to a meal (verse 5); the foolish woman likewise suggests the naïve eat her meal of stolen water and secretly eat bread (verse 17). Wisdom celebrates a long and happy life (verse 11); the foolish woman entertains death (verse 18). Sid S. Buzzell (The Bible Knowledge Commentary, 923-25) outlines these parallels nicely. Though not as clear, consider also Duane A. Garrett in The New American Commentary: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 113-16.

The “transition point” between verses 1-12 and verses 13-18 signals most clearly and beautifully the “mirror reading” but can only be seen by those looking at the Hebrew text. The author has a clear expectation that the reader will compare and contrast the two women. The last word of verse 12 and the first word of verse 13 “leap off the page:” תשׂא/אשׁת. Fold the former word over the top of the latter to see the “mirror reading.” Artistic beauty in poetic composition reveals itself here! What a shame that so few ever see it!

The Bible is a work of art. Artistic achievement and beauty displays itself magnificently, but often only to the few who read and study the Bible in the original languages. May Proverbs 9, and תשׂא/אשׁת  in particular, be an incentive to search for other elements of beauty scattered throughout the Old and New Testaments. Numerous other “incentives” will be displayed in subsequent posts.