ABSTRACT
One of the most fascinating developments in the recent study of Prov. 10.1-22.16, 25-29 has been the attempt to discover the processes by which this mass of short proverbs came to be compiled and arranged in the order in which they now appear in the Hebrew text. Some proverbs, or even groups of proverbs, may have acquired a pivotal role, fulfilling a double function by rounding off one group and introducing another, within a new and larger collection. The main formal or stylistic devices to be found in the collections of proverbs which attest an intention to arrange them in some kind of order are paronomasia, alliteration and assonance, and key-words. The earlier proverbs are concerned only with concrete situations, while the later material is more abstract, concerned with the universal rather than the particular: it is, in fact, more 'philosophical'.
