myBibleHistory

Journey of a Passage

Proverbs 25:1

"Copied out by the men of Hezekiah"

"These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out (he'tiqu)." The only editorial note in Proverbs that names a later king. The Greek reads: "These are the miscellaneous (unclassified) instructions of Solomon, which the friends of Hezekiah king of Judea transcribed." The Vulgate: "which the men of Hezekiah translated (transtulerunt)."

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The proverb as first composedCollections from the monarchy to the Persian period (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The proverb as first composed
Greek
  1. Greek Proverbs (library: Giguet's French)Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Proverbs
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew
New Testament quotation

    Every witness, in order

    1. Collections from the monarchy to the Persian period (debated)

      The proverb as first composed

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. The oldest Hebrew copies of Proverbs are two small Qumran fragments (4Q102, 4Q103, 1st century BC – 1st century AD, reported).

    2. Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592

      Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

      Hæ quoque parabolæ Salomonis, quas transtulerunt viri Ezechiæ regis Juda.

      Latin position: Proverbs 25:1. Jerome translated Proverbs from Hebrew (c. AD 398).

    3. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The proverb as first composed

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      גַּם־אֵ֭לֶּה מִשְׁלֵ֣י שְׁלֹמֹ֑ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר הֶ֝עְתִּ֗יקוּ אַנְשֵׁ֤י ׀ חִזְקִיָּ֬ה מֶֽלֶךְ־יְהוּדָֽה׃

      These too are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah transferred (copied out)

      Hebrew position: Proverbs 25:1.

    4. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.

    5. Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

      Greek Proverbs (library: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Proverbs

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      Voici maintenant les sentences du roi Salomon qui n’ont point été classées et qu’ont transcrites les amis d’Ézéchias, roi de la Judée.

      Greek (digital file) position: Proverbs 25:1. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check). In chapters 24–31 the Greek follows a different order of collections, which the digital file squeezes into Hebrew slots; the matching line was found by content. No Göttingen critical edition of Greek Proverbs is published; a C check needs Rahlfs–Hanhart and specialist studies.

    What changed, and why

    He'tiqu comes from a root meaning "move, transfer": to copy from one document to another, or to gather from oral tradition into writing. Hezekiah (c. 715–686 BC) is well attested outside the Bible (his seal impressions from Jerusalem; Sennacherib's annals). The note claims that his court scribes compiled the collection in chapters 25–29.

    What it establishes: the book itself says it was compiled in stages, and places one stage about 250 years after Solomon. What it does not establish: who the "men" were (no inscription names them), whether every saying in 25–29 goes back to Solomon, or when the whole book was finished. The Greek word adiakritoi ("undiscriminated, miscellaneous") shows that early Jewish translators understood these as sayings not included in the earlier collection.

    Some scholars connect the note with a wider literary activity at Hezekiah's court (Isaiah, early forms of Kings and Deuteronomy are also discussed); this remains an inference.

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documentedProverbs 25:1 attributes the copying of these proverbs to Hezekiah's men.
    • Independently documentedThe library's Greek calls the collection 'unclassified' and the copyists 'friends' of Hezekiah.
    • Independently documentedHezekiah is attested outside the Bible.
    • Not independently verifiedThe named scribes are attested outside the Bible.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Proverbs 25: Copied Out by the Men of Hezekiah →Proverbs 25 opens with the only date-like note in the book: "These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out" (v. 1). The collection (25–29) starts with sayings about God, kings and courtiers (vv. 2–7), disputes (vv. 8–10) and speech (vv. 11–15: "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver"). Many sayings are comparisons from nature and daily life: snow at harvest, clouds without rain, a broken tooth, vinegar on soda. It includes the command to feed a hungry enemy, "for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head" (vv. 21–22), quoted by Paul in Romans 12:20.