in Nu 23:7-10 Nu 24:3-9,15-24, are prophecies conveyed in figrmes but mashal also denotes the "parable" proper, as in Eze 17:2 Eze 20:49 (21:5) 24:3. Many instances of this kind occur in the first section of the book of Proverbs others are found in Job 27 Job 29, in both which chapters Job takes up his mashal, or "parable," as it is rendered in the A.V. Next we find it used of those larger pieces in which a single idea is no longer exhausted in a sentence, but forms the germ of the whole, and is worked out into a didactic poem. Such comparisons are either expressed, or the things compared are placed side by side, and the comparison left for the hearer or reader to supply. From this stage of its application it passed to that of sententious maxims generally, as in Pr 1:1 Pr 10:1 Pr 25:1 Pr 26:7,9 Ec 12:9 Job 13:12, many of which, however, still involve a comparison (Pr 25:3,11-14, etc. It was applied to denote such short, pointed sayings as do not involve a comparison directly, but still convey their meaning by the help of a figure, as in 1Sa 10:12 Eze 12:22-23 Eze 17:2-3 (comp. Probably all proverbial savings were at first of the nature of similes, but the term mashal soon acquired a more extended significance. This form of comparison would very naturally be taken by the short, pithy' sentences which passed into use as popular sayings and proverbs, especially when employed in mockery and sarcasm, as in Mic 2:4 Hab 2:6, and even in the more developed taunting song of triumph for the fall of Babylon in Isa 14:4. mathala, to "resemble"), and the primary idea involved in it is that of' likeness, comparison. It is derived from a root מָשִׁל, mashdl, "to be like" (Arab. "byword," "parable," "proverb" (παραβολή, παροιμία), expresses all and even more than is conveyed by these its English representatives.
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