Mishlei and Government: Part Two

Divine right of kings and other ways to understand social authority

Photo by Willian B. on Unsplash

Historically, many monarchies claimed to rule by divine right of kings. That is, a king exercised power by grace of God and was answerable and accountable to no law but God’s. Thus, the stability and the very identity of a nation are inseparable from its king. In the famous words of the French King Louis XIV, “I am the state.”

Rabbi S.R. Hirsch, of course, lived and worked in a time of growing individualism and limited government. He might well have been influenced by the events of the previous 150 years which led to the execution of King Charles I of England in 1649 and to the late 17th Century writings of thinkers like Milton and Locke. This influence can perhaps be seen in the way Hirsch criticized Nimrod’s innovation of a state-focused monarchy (see his commentary to Gen 10:9).

Nevertheless, the health of a government’s authority will, to at least some extent, depend on being identified with God’s will. In that context, associating our fear of both God and kings in Mishle (24:21-22) can be at least partially understood:

כא יְרָא אֶת ד’ בְּנִי וָמֶלֶךְ עִם שׁוֹנִים אַל תִּתְעָרָב
כב כִּי פִתְאֹם יָקוּם אֵידָם וּפִיד שְׁנֵיהֶם מִי יוֹדֵעַ

My son, fear God and the king; do not mix with dissenters

For their end may come suddenly and who can know their destruction?

Hirsch, in his notes to those verses, is careful to point out that our respect for human authority is rooted in the self-interested common need for social order, while God’s rule is boundless.

Further, as Hirsch understands the meaning of our verses, one’s fear of the government is fundamentally different from that for God. Mishle’s primary argument hangs on a very practical risk assessment: since we’re incapable of knowing when and how violently dissenters will be brought down, our best bet is to avoid such dangerous people altogether.

However people living in previous centuries might have understood the role of kings, Hirsch obviously saw in Mishle thinking closer to ours.