(Part 1)

JBTM Daniel I. Block
74
8:13 The fear of YHWH is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and
perverted speech I hate.
10:27 The fear of YHWH prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short.
14:2 Whoever walks in uprightness fears YHWH, but he who is devious in his ways
despises him.
14:27 The fear of YHWH is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares
of death.
28:14 Blessed is the one who fears YHWH always, but whoever hardens his heart will
fall into calamity. 4
Contrary to the common view, Hebrew wisdom was far from secular. Although Israel’s
traditions of rescue from Egypt, the covenant ratified at Sinai and confirmed on the Plains
of Moab, the desert wanderings, and the gift of the Promised Land are never mentioned,
the theology of Moses as expounded in Deuteronomy underlies everything, even the book
of Qoheleth, which otherwise sounds so cynical of the established order assumed by the
sages (Qoh 12:13). 5 Furthermore, while sages paid close attention to the world out there
and drew many lessons from their own experiences, they would have been appalled at the
suggestion that faith hinders the pursuit of knowledge. On the contrary, faith liberates it.
Faith enables our investigations to arrive at the intended point and indicates its proper
place in life. A faith commitment to the God of Israel who has revealed himself through
particular saving acts is a given in the wisdom writings. It is a prerequisite to seeing reality
as it truly is and to order one’s life accordingly. Wisdom stands or falls according to the
right attitude of person to God. One who is wise recognizes that tradition, experience and
observation can lead to erroneous conclusions if we make a mistake at the beginning.
However, this does not mean that apart from the fear of YHWH no one may arrive at any
correct conclusions. Humans are rational, and the universe is ordered. By common grace,
God enables even people who lack faith to recognize some of that order. Nevertheless, it is
the recognition of God in life that lends authority to the sage. All the lessons of experience
and nature are passed through the filter of Yahwistic faith. In short, the wise person
proceeds on the basis of a sanctified common sense: Prov 16:2, 9; 19:21; 20:24; 21:2.
⁴ Cf. also 1:7, 29; 2:5; 9:10; 14:26; 15:16; 24:21; 31:30; 1:7.
⁵This interpretation is reinforced when we observe the pervasive presence of other theologically
loaded Deuteronomic expressions in the wisdom literature, which include words like “abomination”
(tôʿēbā), “righteousness” (ṣĕdāqa̦/ṣedeq), and concepts like “trust/believe” (bāṭaḥ/heʾĕmîn). See
concordances. For a list of expressions common to Deuteronomy and the wisdom literature, see
Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1992),
362–63. Weinfeld mistakenly argues that the wisdom movement influenced Deuteronomy, rather
than the reverse.