BONE AND WOOD KING - BUILDER OF PEACE AND CONFLICT IN THE BOOK OF PROVERBS

The Book of Proverbs is authored by two despots, two kings. The first is the magnificent Solomon, the second is his imitator Hezekiah. Both are great kings of Israel, however with disproportionately distributed possessions. King Solomon inherited the wealth and a large territory from his father David. Thus, King Solomon fed healthy meat on the living bone of the progressive Kingdom, giving it a recognizable and dis- tinct external form. Unlike him, King Hezekiah inherited the poor material, social and spiritual conditions of his kingdom. That once royal living bone had dried up like burnt wood, and as a result, all Hezekiah's reforms, which he zealously implemented, were only an attempt to revitalize the numb cells of his Kingdom. Reflecting the two kings, the Book of Proverbs is divided into Solomon's flourishing cycle or the first block 1-24 and Hezekiah's turbulent cycle or the second block 25-30. The last chapter 31 is a generic conclusion of both cycles. While in Solomon's cycle the Kingdom is being built, in Hezekiah's it is being ruined, while in the first the king listens to and accepts the wise teachings and wisdom of his advisers, in the second he succumbs to the corrupt advice of flatterers. Hence, in the first block the king is extremely positive, while in the second he is extremely negative. Ultimately, the correct advice is the movens for the king because as long as he is guided by it the kingdom advances. The moment the king stops rejecting useful advice or categorically replaces it with false advice, the kingdom falls. A stable and peaceful state is the ideal proplasm of an advanced kingdom which is clearly reflected in the first block of the Book of Proverbs 1-24, while in the second block 25-30, the ungodly king, is not only associated with deteriorated interpersonal relationships, but also with open hostilities far worse than war.