(32) And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five. (33) And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.
Whether the book of Proverbs which bears his name, or any part of it, is in the number of those 3000; or whether the song of songs, which also he wrote, is among the 1005 of his songs; is not easy to say. It should seem that, as we have reason to hope all Solomon's writings were to the divine glory, the sacred historian had these in view which are divinely inspired. And especially, as Solomon is said to have been wiser than Ethan and Heman, some of whose writings also were inspired, and are handed down to us in the collection of the book of psalms, as maschil or matter of instruction. See Psalms 88:1 and Psalms 89:1. whose names in the title those psalms bear. But certainly both in human and divine learning, the general tendency of this account is to point out Solomon's pre-eminency.