Commentary: On Proverbs 6:6 and 30:4

Yefet ben Eli’s commentary on Proverbs is one of the few medieval Judeo-Arabic commentaries on this book. Yefet first translates the biblical text into Judeo-Arabic for readers who may not understand the original Hebrew, and also to help guide his interpretations. His readings sometimes differed from the other popular rendering of the Bible into Judeo-Arabic by Se‘adya Ga’on, although there is significant overlap between the two. In the first excerpt here, on Proverbs 6:6 (“Go to the ant, O lazy one; consider its ways, and be wise”), Yefet endeavors to explain why one might do so. In the second, a series of rhetorical questions (Proverbs 30:4), Yefet underscores that only God fully comprehends the created world. According to Yefet, these questions are meant to mock astronomers who claim knowledge of the shape and dimensions of the heavens.