Japanese proverb

Japanese
#1

Hello everyone!

I have a favourite Japanese proverb whose grammar I would like to ask about.
The meaning and structure are perfectly clear to me, but I do not quite understand the grammar at the base of it. Which may be, of course, due to the proverb being old and/or poetic and thus using grammar structures that are a bit archaic:

捨てる神あれば
拾う神あり。
When one god gets rid of you,
another one picks you up.

I am wondering about the verb form あり at the very end. From my intermediate N3 knowledge, I would assume it to be formal conjunctive, but would that make sense at the end of the sentence with nothing to follow? Or is it something else I do not (yet) know about?

And second, why is ある being used here, not いる? The kami are clearly not considiered passive or inanimate, especially in this particular sentence.

Who might be able to explain this to me?
It’s nothing of great importance, obviously, but I’d be curious to learn!

So long, all the best

m.

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#2

あり is the terminal form in classical Japanese.

I believe that using it when talking objectively or in abstract terms about the existence of an animate object was more common in the past.

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#3

@moorittsu @nekoyama
I’ve had this same question for a while. I just found this article which you might find interesting.
(Look at the section “Beyond the Basics – ある for Animate Objects in Classical Japanese”)

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