The Maskilim of Daniel (= "ones with insight" in that translation) was a social group of people, likely scribes belonging to the same apocalyptic movement that Daniel was a product of, who held fast to the Torah and continued to observe it during the horrific persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes. They had some relationship with the Hasidim mentioned in 1, 2 Maccabees, but are passive resisters ... not the militant warriors of the Maccabees...tho they do accept their help. They perish in great numbers but for their faith they are rewarded with resurrection in Daniel 12:2-3. There is also some concept in ch. 11-12 that their deaths vicariously atone of the sins of the nation (cf. Daniel 3:35, 40 LXX, 2 Maccabees 7:37, 4 Maccabees 6:28-29, 17:21-22), as it alludes to the "Suffering Servant" passages in Deutero-Isaiah (cf. Daniel 12:3 = Isaiah 52:13, 53:11). The Hasidim and the Masikilim of Daniel are thought to represent in some way the Torah-based movement that the Pharisees and Essenes are heir to.
Of course, the aphorism in Proverbs is a saying from an entirely different context. The Maskilim were teachers and scholars of the Torah who were trying to preserve the traditions and the very Torah itself at a time when everything traditionally Jewish was being proscribed.
