Ecclesiastes 12:9

And moreover, because the Preacher was wise The opening words, closely linked on, as they are, to the preceding, confirm the conclusion just stated that Ecclesiastes 12:8 belongs to this postscript of attestation. The unknown writer of the attestation (probably the President of the Sanhedrin, or some other Master of the Wise, such as were Hillel and Gamaliel) begins by repeating the key-note of the opening of the book. So taken, the words are every way significant. They do not name Solomon as the author, but content themselves with recognising the enigmatic name with which the unknown writer had veiled himself. He, they say, belonged to the company of the sages. He "gave good heed" (literally, he hearkened or gave ear), he "sought out" (we note how exactly the word describes the tentative, investigating character of the book, as in Judges 18:2; 2 Samuel 10:3; Proverbs 28:11; Job 5:27; Job 28:27), he "set in order" (i.e. composed) "many proverbs." The word for "proverbs" is that which stands as the title of the Book of Proverbs, but it expresses, more than the English term does, the parabolic, half-enigmatic character which is characteristic of most sayings of this nature in the East, and as such is translated by "parables" in the LXX. here, and in the A.V. in Ezekiel 20:49; Psalms 49:4; Numbers 23:7; Numbers 23:18; Numbers 23:24 and elsewhere. The words have been pressed by some interpreters as a testimony to the Salomonic authorship, but it is obvious that though they fit in with that hypothesis, they are equally applicable to any one who followed in the same track and adopted the same method of teaching.