6. A proverb: see on verse 1; ‘and a satire’:1 this meaning is indicated by Habakkuk 2:6, the only other Old Testament occurrence of the word, and by the parent verb ‘to scorn’, e.g. 1:22. Dark sayings is the word used of Samson’s riddle (Judg. 14:12) and of the Queen of Sheba’s tests (1 Kgs 10:1), indeed of anything enigmatic, which needs interpreting: Numbers 12:8 (cf. 1 Cor. 13:12); Ezekiel 17:2; Habakkuk 2:6. So the secondary purpose of Proverbs is to introduce the reader to a style of teaching
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