B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

I noticed that many verse in Proverbs end with a sof pasuq (basically, a colon), but not all (11:15 doesn't).

Chapter 1 verse 7 ends with the letter Fey that follows the sof pasuq. What does the letter Fey mean at the end of Proverbs 1:7?

I was looking at the Hebrew text because I want to understand when verses should be grouped together as one passage, and I want to understand when verses are part of separate passages. I know the book of Proverbs was not written in it's entirety all at once, and I would like to identify which portions of the book were written together so as to convey a coherent message.

In other words - if the book of Proverbs is a completed puzzle, I would like to identify the boundaries of the individual puzzle pieces.


Thank you,
Justin Toner

Justin wrote:Chapter 1 verse 7 ends with the letter Fey that follows the sof pasuq. What does the letter Fey mean at the end of Proverbs 1:7?

That is a paragraph marker added by the Masoretes. It is not a part of the original text. You can safely ignore it. (I personally found myself asking “What in the world do you mean, the “letter Fey”? There’s no such thing as a letter Fey. The last letter in the verse is a Waw.” I then looked up in the WLC and found the letter Peh. “Ah, the paragraph marker.”)

I personally disagree with that paragraph marker, I think the end of the paragraph is two verses later.

Justin wrote:I was looking at the Hebrew text because I want to understand when verses should be grouped together as one passage, and I want to understand when verses are part of separate passages.

Context. What gives a unified picture.

After chapter nine, most of the proverbs are one liners, like the English “A stitch in time, saves nine.” There are exceptions, especially towards the end of the book, the longest being Proverbs 31:10–31.

Justin wrote:I know the book of Proverbs was not written in it's entirety all at once, and I would like to identify which portions of the book were written together so as to convey a coherent message.

In other words - if the book of Proverbs is a completed puzzle, I would like to identify the boundaries of the individual puzzle pieces.


Thank you,
Justin Toner

Mostly, the book tells which parts were written when.

Karl W. Randolph.