Proverbs 1:1-33 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Proverbs 1-9. First Section. The Praise of Wisdom.

Proverbs 1:1. Title, either of the whole book, or of this particular collection.

The word for proverb, mâ shâ l, has a wide significance in Heb. (see BDB). Probably it originally expressed a comparison or allusion, drawn from history or nature, and employed to convey a taunt or satire, hence the rendering taunt-song. For different meanings cf. Numbers 21:27; Deuteronomy 28:37; Job 13:12; Isaiah 14:4; Ezekiel 12:23. Ezekiel's use should be specially noted.

Proverbs 1:2-6. Introduction specifying the purpose of the book. There need be no grammatical connexion between the title and the infinitives in Proverbs 1:2-6.

Proverbs 1:3. Construction obscure. Possibly render the discipline that causes one to understand (what is) righteousness, judgment, and equity.

Proverbs 1:4. simple: from root meaning to be open, spacious. Those who are lacking in reticence and self-restraint. subtilty: shrewdness, used of the serpent in Genesis 3:1.

Proverbs 1:5. sound counsels: lit. rope-pulling, hence direction, a nautical term, steersmanship (cf. Proverbs 24:6; Job 37:12).

Proverbs 1:6. figure: lit. satire (cf. Habakkuk 2:6 f.*), from root to scorn. dark sayings: read riddles (cf. Judges 14:12; 1 Kings 10:1; Ezekiel 17:2).

Proverbs 1:7-20. First Discourse warning the young man against the allurements of those who are in haste to get gain by oppression and spoliation. Apparently there was a persecuted party, the innocent and the perfect (Proverbs 1:11 f.), and a party of godless oppressors who entice the young man by the promise of gain. It is less likely that the speakers were a band of highway robbers (cf. Psalms 10:8 f., Psalms 11:2).

Proverbs 1:7. The introductory motto of the whole collection (cf. Proverbs 9:10; Job 28:28; Psalms 111:10, Sir_1:14). foolish: the precise shades of meaning in the various synonyms for fool in Heb. are not easy to define (p. 344). Pethî (Proverbs 1:4 *) means open, simple, not necessarily with an evil significance; -' evî l (Proverbs 1:7) is one who is crass, stupid (lit. be fat, thick); k- sil is the braggart fool (Proverbs 1:22), (cf. the mythological significance of Orion); nâ bâ l, less frequent in Pr. (only Proverbs 17:7-21; Proverbs 30:22), the man lacking in moral sensibility (cf. Psalms 14:1; 1 Samuel 25:25); sakal, not in Pr. (cf. Ecclesiastes 2:19).

Proverbs 1:17. Obscure. May mean (a) the net of the allurements of the wicked is spread in vain when the victim is forewarned, or (b) the net of retribution is spread in vain in the sight of the wicked, they will not be warned. spread: a forced rendering; Heb. means to winnow, scatter.

Proverbs 1:19. ways: read fate (LXX).

Proverbs 1:20-33. Second Discourse. Wisdom personified warns the simple of the law of retribution, that they cannot escape the consequences of their own actions. The future judgment has little place in the ordinary Hebrew conception of the Day of Yahweh. The tendency to personify the Divine attributes is a late development due to the increasing sense of God's transcendence. Cf. the growth of the conception of Metatron, and the Memra (pp. 401, 746) of the Targums.

Related Commentaries of Proverbs 1:1

Proverbs 1:1-33

1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;

2 To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;

3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;a

4 To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.b

5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

6 To understand a proverb, and the interpretation;c the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

7 The fear of the LORD is the beginningd of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

9 For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chainse about thy neck.

10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

11 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

12 Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

13 We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:

14 Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:

15 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:

16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

17 Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

18 And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.

19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

20 Wisdomf crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

21 She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,

22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;

27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.