Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes are usually referred to as the ‘wisdom’ books of the Hebrew Bible. They differ considerably in literary genres, but together account for most of the occurrences of the various forms of the Hebrew root ḥkm, meaning ‘wisdom’, ‘wise’, ‘to be wise’ in the OT. Other words are characteristic of these books but not common outside of them. They also share a common approach to reality, which is ‘humanistic’ and ‘experiential’. Many of the things normally seen as