12. Proverbs (figures of speech)

Question 1

What is an aphorism?

Answer 1

A terse formulation of a truth

Question 2

What is an epigram?

Answer 2

a terse, sage, witty, and often paradoxical saying

Question 3

Simile

Answer 3

an explicit, evocative, comparison between two things of unlike nature that yet have something in common

Question 4

Metaphor:

Answer 4

an implicit, evocative comparison between two things of unlike nature that yet have something in common

Question 5

Allegory:

Answer 5

an extended metaphor

Question 6

Anthropopathism:

Answer 6

ascribing human feelings, motives, or behavior to God

Question 7

Anthropomorphism:

Answer 7

ascribing human physical features to the spiritual God

Question 8

Synecdoche:

Answer 8

stating a part to represent the whole

Question 9

Metonymy:

Answer 9

referring to something by using an associated item (27:24, 6:17). Crown refers to kingship and tongue and hands refer to a person’s speech and deeds.

Question 10

Personification:

Answer 10

attributing human qualities to what is not human

Question 11

Hyperbole:

Answer 11

overstatement (30:3). Agur claims he is too stupid to be considered a human being.

Question 12

Litotes:

Answer 12

understatement. A lessening of something to increase it (10:19).

Question 13

Irony:

Answer 13

saying one thing but intending the opposite, usually with sarcasm (31:6). Give free beer to the poor in 31:6 is an irony to devalue liquor. In 19:27, Solomon says: Cease, my son, listening to instruction to stray from words of knowledge. Of course he means the opposite. Most English translations render the proverb in such a way as to interpret the irony so it is missed by the reader.

Question 14

“Proverb.”

Answer 14

a short pithy saying, usually containing two lines of poetry.