While discussing the evidence of chs. 22-23 of the book of Proverbs being, in part, dependent upon the earlier Egyptian text, Instruction of Amenemope (ca. 1300-1000 BC), Michael Heiser provided the following parallels:
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Proverbs
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Content/Theme
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Amenemope
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Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge,
for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips. (22:17-18) |
Appeal to be heard
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Give your ears the sayings
Give your heart to understand them; it profits to put them in your heart (III, 9-11) |
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Have I not written for you thirty sayings
of counsel and knowledge (22:20) |
Follow these 30 wise sayings
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Look to these thirty chapters;
They inform, they educate; They are all the foremost of all books (XXVII, 7-8) |
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Do not rob the poor, because he is poor,
or crush the afflicted at the gate (22:22) |
Don’t rob the poor and afflicted
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Beware of robbing a wretch,
Of attacking a cripple (IV, 4-5) |
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Make no friendship with a man given to anger,
nor go with a wrathful man, (22:24) |
Don’t make friends of hot-headed, violent people
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Do not befriend the heated man,
Nor approach him for conversation. (XI, 13-14) |
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Do not move the ancient landmark that your fathers have set.
(22:28) Do not move an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless, for their Redeemer is strong; he will plead their cause against you. (23:10-11) |
Don’t move property markers
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Do not move the markers on the borders of fields,
Nor shift the position of the measuring-cord. Nor encroach on the boundaries of a widow. (VII, 12-14) |
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When you sit down to eat with a ruler,
Observe carefully what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food. (23:1-3) |
Dine with political rulers with caution.
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Do not eat in the presence of an official
And then set your mouth before him. If you are sated pretend to chew; content yourself with your saliva. Look at the bowl that is before you, And let it sere your needs. (XXIII, 13-18) |
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Do not toil to acquire wealth;
be discerning enough to desist. When you’re yes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven. (23:4-5) |
Wealth is fleeting
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Do not strain to seek increase;
What you have, let it suffice you. If riches come to you by theft, They will not stay the night with you. Comes day they are not in your house, Their place is seen but they’re not there; Earth opened its mouth, leveled them, swallowed them. . . . They made themselves wings like geese, and flew away to the sky. (IX, 14-x, 5) |
Source: Michael S. Heiser, The Bible Unfiltered: Approaching Scripture on Its own Terms (Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Pre, 2017), 125-27
