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Proverbs 1

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The Purpose of the Proverbs and the Fear of the LORD 1–7

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;
4
To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. ​
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; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
7
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. ​

Warning Against Sinful Enticement 8–19

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 chains 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. ​

The Call of Wisdom 20–33

20
Wisdom 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. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Proverbs 1

Verse 1

The proverbs of Solomon — Mashal is a saying or comparison, rendered 'parable' in Num 23:7 and 'proverb' in 1 Kings 4:32, where Solomon 'spake three thousand proverbs', after God gave him 'wisdom and understanding exceeding much' (4:29). The title is repeated at 10:1 and 25:1, where 'the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out' more.

Verse 2

instruction — Musar, discipline or correction, is the word of 'the chastening of the LORD' in 3:11 and returns in vv.7 and 8. 'Wisdom' (chokmah) is skill in living; 'understanding' (binah) is formed from the verb 'to perceive' (bin) used in this verse. Deut 4:6 joins 'your wisdom and your understanding' to keeping the LORD's statutes.

Verse 4

subtilty to the simple — 'Subtilty' (ormah) is prudence, and the 'simple' (pethi) are the seducible, open to being led either way; Ps 119:130 says the LORD's words give 'understanding unto the simple'. 'Discretion' (mezimmah) is a plan, evil or good; Proverbs uses it in the good sense (2:11; 3:21; 5:2). 'The young man' is the one of Ps 119:9, who asks how he may 'cleanse his way'.

Verse 7

the fear of the LORD — 'Beginning' is reshit, the first and chief part, the word of Gen 1:1. The same motto stands at 9:10, 'the beginning of wisdom', and in Ps 111:10, and Job 28:28 defines it: 'the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom'. 'Fools' here are ewil, who 'despise' (buz) wisdom and instruction, the two things named in v.2.

Verse 8

the law of thy mother — The word for 'law' is torah, the word of the law of Moses; it is used here of what a mother teaches, and 6:20 repeats the pairing, 'keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother'. Paul recalls Timothy's faith that 'dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice' (2 Tim 1:5), and 31:1 gives words 'that his mother taught him'.

Verse 9

an ornament of grace — Livyah, a wreath or garland, occurs only here and at 4:9, where wisdom 'shall give to thine head an ornament of grace'. The 'chains' (anaq) are necklaces of honour, like the gold chain put on Joseph by Pharaoh (Gen 41:42) and on Daniel by Belshazzar (Dan 5:29): the parents' teaching is worn as an honour.

Verse 10

if sinners entice thee — Patah is to entice or persuade; abah, 'consent', is the response of Deut 13:8, 'Thou shalt not consent unto him', to an enticer (13:6, another verb) who says, 'Let us go and serve other gods'. Psalm 1:1 gives the same warning in other terms: 'nor standeth in the way of sinners'. The words of the sinners follow in vv.11–14.

Verse 16

their feet run to evil — The line is also in Isa 59:7, and Paul takes up the same charge in Rom 3:15, 'Their feet are swift to shed blood'. 'Make haste' is mahar. The 'evil' here is the word of v.33, 'fear of evil'; and 'blood' (dam) is the word of vv.11 and 18, where the plan to shed it is set out and then turned back on the schemers.

Verse 17

in vain the net is spread — 'Any bird' is literally 'every owner of a wing' (ba'al kanaph), and the word for 'owner' returns in v.19 for the owners whose life the greedy take. 'In vain' (chinnam) is the word of v.11, 'without cause'. The image is a net spread where a bird can see it; yet in 7:23 the simple man goes 'as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life'.

Verse 18

they lay wait for their own blood — The verbs arab, to lie in wait, and tsaphan, to lurk, are the ones in v.11, 'let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily', now turned back on the speakers. The same reversal is in Ps 9:16, 'the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands', and in Prov 5:22, 'His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself'.

Verse 19

greedy of gain — Batsa, to break off, to plunder, to be covetous, with betsa, gain; the pair is in 15:27, 'He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house'. The word for 'owners' (ba'al) is the one in v.17 for the bird. Paul says the same of the love of money: they 'pierced themselves through with many sorrows' (1 Tim 6:10).

Verse 20

Wisdom crieth without — 'Wisdom' is a plural form, chokmoth, found also in 9:1, 14:1 and 24:7. She cries 'in the streets' (rechob, the broad place), as in 8:1–3, 'She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city', and 9:3. The New Testament calls Christ 'the wisdom of God' (1 Cor 1:24), 'in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' (Col 2:3).

Verse 22

ye simple ones — Three classes are named: the 'simple' (pethi, as in v.4), the 'scorners' (luts), and the 'fools' (kesil). The scorner has his own seat in Ps 1:1, 'the seat of the scornful'. 'Hate knowledge' is repeated in v.29, 'they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD', so that the refusal is explained by the choice.

Verse 24

I have called, and ye refused — Qara, to call, is the verb for wisdom's cry in this verse and for the fools' cry in v.28, 'Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer'. The outstretched hand is the LORD's gesture to a people who would not come: 'All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people' (Rom 10:21, from Isa 65:2).

Verse 26

I also will laugh — Sachaq, to laugh, is the verb of Ps 2:4, 'He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh', and Ps 37:13, 'The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming'. 'Fear' (pachad) comes in v.27 'as desolation', and the fear of v.33 is its opposite: the listener is 'quiet from fear of evil'.

Verse 28

they shall seek me early — Shachar, to seek early, and matsa, to find, are the verbs of 8:17, 'those that seek me early shall find me'. Here the search is too late. Other prophets say the same: 'Seek ye the LORD while he may be found' (Isa 55:6), and 'as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear' (Zech 7:13).

Verse 31

the fruit of their own way — The 'fruit' is the harvest of their own conduct, as in Isa 3:10, 'they shall eat the fruit of their doings', and Gal 6:7, 'whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap'. 'Devices' is moetsah, counsel, the word of Ps 81:12, 'they walked in their own counsels'. Prov 14:14 has 'filled with his own ways'.

Verse 33

whoso hearkeneth unto me — Shama, to hear, is the verb of v.8, 'hear the instruction of thy father', which opens the chapter's address; here it closes it. 'Safely' (betach) is the dwelling in Ps 4:8, 'thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety'. The 'fear' (pachad) the hearer is quiet from is the one that falls on the scorners in vv.26–27.