Discourse 14: Wisdom’s Autobiography (8:1–36)

On the heights (8:2). See comment on 9:1.

Beside the gate (8:3). In an ancient Near Eastern city, the gate was the place where people went in and out. There the elders met and commerce took place. In other words, it was a public location, where most of the inhabitants of the city passed regularly. Thus, someone, like Woman Wisdom, speaking near the gate, would attract a substantial audience.

Gate chamber at Arad showing bench where people would sit to conduct business

Kim Walton

“I, wisdom” (8:12). Verses 12–36 contain the autobiography of Woman Wisdom. We learn about her character and her actions. At the end, she gives advice to the “sons” who listen to her (vv. 32–36). In form, this self-description followed by advice uses the structure of other fictionalized autobiographies known in Hebrew (the Teacher’s speech in Eccl. 1:12–12:7), Akkadian (Cuthaean Legend of Naram-Sin, the Adad-guppi autobiography, and the Sin of Sargon text), and Aramaic (Ahiqar), all of which end with advice.45

By me kings reign (8:15). The idea that good kings are guided by wisdom is found in the historical books of the Bible (see, e.g., 1 Kings 1–4) as well as in the ancient Near East. In terms of the latter, a few of the Instructions are the advice of a royal father to his son and successor (Merikare).

When there were no oceans (8:24). This verse must be understood against the background of ancient Near Eastern creation accounts that presume a primordial watery mass from which the dry land is separated. In Egypt, creation was thought to emanate from the Nun, or watery abyss. In Mesopotamia and Canaan, the creator god (Marduk and Baal respectively) had to defeat the god of the sea (Tiamat and Yam), and bounding their waters, they created the dry land.

In Genesis 1, while it is unclear whether the text explicitly or implicitly affirms creation from nothing, we do not doubt that the original mass, described as “formless and empty” (1:2), is a watery mass from which the dry ground is separated on the second day. Poetic conceptions of creation sometimes mimic the broader ancient Near Eastern idea of conflict with the sea (in my opinion, for polemical purposes, see Ps. 74). In any case, here Wisdom claims temporal precedence even over the deeps.

When he gave the sea its boundary (8:29). This language is reminiscent of the Babylonian creation account, the Enuma Elish. After defeating Tiamat, the sea, Marduk creates borders for her water, pushing it back in order to provide space for land:

He split her [Tiamat] like a shellfish into two parts:

Half of her he set up and ceiled it as sky,

Pulled down the bar and posted guards.

He bade them to allow not her waters to escape. (Tablet 4: ll. 137–140)46