One of the most interesting parts of the Old Testament is its "wisdom literature"—a group of books comprising Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and perhaps also the Song of Solomon. The authors of these books were the wise men or sages of Israel, whom Jeremiah mentions in conjunction with the priests and the prophets, who likewise contributed to the great library of the Old Testament: "The law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet" (Jer. 18:18).
The word "wisdom," as used or implied by these sages—most of whom wrote in the later stages of Israel's literary development — had a wide range of meaning, including common sense, statesmanship, tact, and sagacity, as well as knowledge and understanding as applied to any type of endeavor; yet, secular as it often appears to be, it is rooted in reverence and religion, for stress is laid upon the fact that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (e.g. Prov. 9:10). Because of the breadth of this concept of wisdom, the work of the wise men is far-reaching in its scope and application, dealing with universal problems and ideas, and so going beyond the limits of the land and of the religion of the Hebrews to present what may be called a philosophy of life. The approach of the prophetic and priestly writers was primarily nationalistic; but the "wisdom literature" is more international or cosmopolitan.
One of the most outstanding examples of this type of writing is the book of Job, which most scholars now rank among the later books of the Old Testament, though the story on which it is based doubtless originated in the patriarchal age. It is typical of the wide thought of the writer that the hero of the book and his three friends are not Jews, but probably either Edomites or Arabians. They discuss the age-old question concerning the reason for the trials of righteous men such as Job himself. In the end, following the speeches attributed to the Deity, we find Job praying for those who had doubted his integrity, and attaining in consequence even greater prosperity than he had previously enjoyed (42:10).
