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Old Testament · Poetry and Wisdom · Book 20 of 66

Proverbs

Solomon’s proverbs and the words of other wise men, gathered in named collections, teaching a son the way of wisdom, which begins in the fear of the LORD.

  • 31 chapters
  • 915 verses
  • About 68 minutes to read
Read Proverbs 1 Listen from chapter 1 Ask about Proverbs

Proverbs gives its purpose in its first lines, “To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding” (Proverbs 1:2), and then its foundation: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (1:7). Chapters 1–9 are a father’s instruction to his son, with Wisdom herself calling in the streets. From chapter 10 the book turns to short sayings, most of them in two lines and often set against each other, on speech, work, money, anger, friendship, marriage and the king’s court. The LORD is named among them again and again. A man plans his way, “but the LORD directeth his steps” (16:9); a man is clean in his own eyes, “but the LORD weigheth the spirits” (16:2).

The book is a collection of collections, and it names them: Solomon’s, the words of the wise, the proverbs Hezekiah’s men copied out, and the words of Agur and of Lemuel. It opens on the fear of the LORD and closes on a woman who has it: “Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised” (31:30).

Key verse
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 1:7 KJV

The apples of gold Proverbs 25:11
The lamp Proverbs 6:23
The honeycomb Proverbs 16:24

Before you read

Who wrote it
Solomon, “the son of David, king of Israel” (1:1; 10:1; 25:1). The book also gives “the words of the wise” (22:17), Agur the son of Jakeh (30:1), and king Lemuel, taught by his mother (31:1). Matthew Henry notes that most interpreters took Lemuel to be Solomon.
When it was written
Solomon “spake three thousand proverbs” (1 Kings 4:32), and his collections come from his reign. Chapters 25–29 were copied out by “the men of Hezekiah king of Judah” (25:1), so the book took its present form in Hezekiah’s day or later.
To whom
A son, addressed as “My son” from 1:8 onward, and through him “the simple” and “the young man” (1:4). The wise are not left out: “A wise man will hear, and will increase learning” (1:5).

How Proverbs is laid out

8 movements · 159 passages · 915 verses

1:74:238:3014:1218:2122:625:2131:30
11–9210:1–22:16322:17–24:22424:23–34525–29630:1–33731:1–9831:10–31

A father’s instruction

Chapters 1–9 · 256 verses

The title names Solomon and the book’s purpose, then its foundation: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” A father warns his son against the enticing of sinners and the strange woman. Wisdom cries in the streets, and in chapter 8 tells how she was with the LORD before the earth was. In chapter 9 Wisdom and the foolish woman each call the simple into her house.

9 chapters

  1. 1 The Purpose of the Proverbs and the Fear of the LORD
  2. 2 The Call to Diligently Seek Wisdom
  3. 3 Keep the Law, Find Favor
  4. 4 Listen to the Father's Instruction
  5. 5 Listen to Wisdom's Instruction
  6. 6 Warning Against Suretyship
  7. 7 Hold Fast to Wisdom
  8. 8 Wisdom's Public Call
  9. 9 Lady Wisdom Prepares a Feast

The proverbs of Solomon

10:1–22:16 · 375 verses

A second heading opens 375 verses, nearly all of them single sayings in two lines. They set the wise son against the foolish, the righteous against the wicked and the diligent against the slothful, in speech, work, wealth, friendship, the home and the king’s court. The LORD tries the heart and orders the outcome: “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.”

13 chapters

  1. 10 The Way of the Wise and Foolish Son
  2. 11 Integrity and Divine Justice
  3. 12 The Path to Stability and Divine Favor
  4. 13 The Value of Wise Instruction
  5. 14 The Wise and Foolish Woman
  6. 15 The Power of Gentle and Grievous Words
  7. 16 The Lord Directs Our Steps
  8. 17 Domestic Peace and Integrity
  9. 18 The Pursuit of Wisdom and Justice
  10. 19 Integrity vs. Foolishness
  11. 20 Warnings Against Vice and Strife
  12. 21 God's Sovereignty and True Righteousness
  13. 22 Value of Reputation and Character

The words of the wise

22:17–24:22 · 70 verses

The son is told to “hear the words of the wise.” The sayings grow longer, often two or more verses: rob not the poor, remove not the ancient landmark, beware the ruler’s table, labour not to be rich, for riches fly away as an eagle. Wine at the last “biteth like a serpent.” The son is not to envy evil men, but to fear the LORD and the king.

19 passages

  1. 22:17–21 Introduction to the Words of the Wise
  2. 22:22–29 Specific Instructions on Justice and Relationships
  3. 23:1–3 Prudence When Dining with Rulers
  4. 23:4–5 The Folly of Chasing Riches
  5. 23:6–9 The Stingy Host and the Fool's Ear
  6. 23:10–11 Respect Boundaries and the Poor
  7. 23:12–16 Commitment to Instruction
  8. 23:17–18 Do Not Envy Sinners
  9. 23:19–25 Avoid Drunkenness and Gluttony
  10. 23:26–28 The Danger of Sexual Immorality
  11. 23:29–35 The Catalogue of Drunken Misery
  12. 24:1–2 Do Not Envy Wicked Men
  13. 24:3–6 Wisdom Builds and Establishes
  14. 24:7–10 The Folly of Evil and Sloth
  15. 24:11–12 Deliver Those Drawn to Death
  16. 24:13–14 The Sweetness and Reward of Wisdom
  17. 24:15–16 The Resilience of the Righteous
  18. 24:17–20 Do Not Rejoice at an Enemy's Fall
  19. 24:21–22 Fear God and Honor the King

More sayings of the wise

24:23–34 · 12 verses

A short appendix opens, “These things also belong to the wise.” Respect of persons in judgment is not good; “Every man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer”; no one is to say, “I will do so to him as he hath done to me.” It ends at the field of the slothful, grown over with thorns, its stone wall broken down.

2 passages

  1. 24:23–29 Further Sayings of the Wise
  2. 24:30–34 Observation of the Slothful Man’s Field

Copied by Hezekiah’s men

Chapters 25–29 · 138 verses

Further proverbs of Solomon, copied out by the men of Hezekiah king of Judah. Many are likenesses: “As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” Chapter 26 gathers sayings on the fool, the sluggard and the talebearer. Chapters 28 and 29 return to the righteous and the wicked, to rulers, and to the law: “he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”

5 chapters

  1. 25 Proverbs Copied by Hezekiah's Men: God's Glory and the King's Duty
  2. 26 Proverbs on the Fool and Folly
  3. 27 Humility and Self-Control
  4. 28 Righteousness, Wickedness, and Governance
  5. 29 Consequences of Stubbornness and Wicked Rule

The words of Agur

Chapter 30 · 33 verses

Agur the son of Jakeh says he has “not the understanding of a man,” and asks who has gathered the wind in his fists: “what is his name, and what is his son’s name?” He holds that “Every word of God is pure,” prays for neither poverty nor riches, then counts by threes and fours: things never satisfied, too wonderful, unbearable, little but wise, and comely in going.

9 passages

  1. 30:1–6 The Words of Agur: Superscription
  2. 30:7–9 Agur's Prayer for Balance
  3. 30:10–14 The Four Wicked Generations
  4. 30:15–17 Numerical Sayings: Insatiable Things
  5. 30:18–20 Numerical Sayings: Mysteries of Movement
  6. 30:21–23 Numerical Sayings: Unbearable Upheaval
  7. 30:24–28 Numerical Sayings: Small but Wise Creatures
  8. 30:29–31 Numerical Sayings: Majestic Bearing
  9. 30:32–33 Final Warnings Against Strife

What his mother taught him

31:1–9 · 9 verses

King Lemuel gives “the prophecy that his mother taught him.” She warns him against giving his strength to women, and tells him wine is not for kings, lest they “forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.” Strong drink is for him that is ready to perish. He must open his mouth for the dumb and plead the cause of the poor and needy.

1 passages

  1. 31:1–9 Advice from King Lemuel's Mother

A virtuous woman

31:10–31 · 22 verses

A poem of twenty-two verses, each beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, praises the virtuous woman whose price “is far above rubies.” Her husband trusts her. She rises while it is yet night, buys a field and plants a vineyard, stretches out her hand to the poor, and opens her mouth with wisdom. Her children and her husband praise her, for she fears the LORD.

1 passages

  1. 31:10–31 The Woman of Valor (Eshet Hayil)

The words Proverbs turns on

Wisdom and the fool, the righteous and the wicked fill the sayings; each walks a way, and wisdom begins in the fear of the LORD.

See these words across the whole Bible

What Proverbs teaches

yirʼâh · fear

The beginning of wisdom

The book states its first principle near the beginning of chapters 1–9 and again near their end: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (1:7), and “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding” (9:10). Wisdom begins, then, not in cleverness but in reverence toward God, and it comes from him: “For the LORD giveth wisdom” (2:6). It is moral, for it “is to hate evil” (8:13), and it gives life, for it “is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death” (14:27). The book’s last portrait is of “a woman that feareth the LORD” (31:30).

derek · way

Two ways

The book sees every life as a road. “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day,” while “The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble” (4:18–19). The danger is a way that looks right, and the saying stands twice: “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (14:12; 16:25). Chapter 9 sets the choice as two invitations. Wisdom and the foolish woman both call from the high places of the city, in the same words: “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither” (9:4; 9:16). Whoever finds Wisdom “findeth life” (8:35); the foolish woman’s guests “are in the depths of hell” (9:18).

chokmâh · wisdom

Wisdom beside the Maker

In chapter 8 Wisdom speaks of the creation: “When he prepared the heavens, I was there” (8:27); “Then I was by him, as one brought up with him” (8:30). The Fathers read this Wisdom as the Son, the Word by whom all things were made (John 1:1–3). Tertullian asked what can be better entitled to the name of wisdom than the reason or the Word of God? Ambrose wrote that the Father was with him, and he with the Father, when all things were being made. Others read Wisdom as God’s own attribute, for “The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth” (3:19), given a woman’s voice in the streets (8:1) and set against the foolish woman. On that reading the chapter is fulfilled in Christ, who “of God is made unto us wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:30), without naming him.

lâshôwn · tongue

Death and life in the tongue

Speech runs through the sayings. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (18:21). Words wound or heal: “There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health” (12:18). Restraint is wisdom, for “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise” (10:19), and a gentle reply ends a quarrel: “A soft answer turneth away wrath” (15:1). Two sayings set side by side show that a proverb is applied by wisdom, not by rote: “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him,” and “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit” (26:4–5). Each is true in its hour, and “a word spoken in due season, how good is it!” (15:23).

Christ in Proverbs

Jesus named himself greater than this book’s author. The queen of the south “came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:42). Paul names Christ crucified “the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24). The wisdom Proverbs bids the son seek “as for hid treasures” (Proverbs 2:4) is found in him, “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).

The Fathers carried this into chapter 9, where Wisdom builds her house and spreads her table: “Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled” (9:5). Bede read the house as the incarnation, because the Son of God himself created the man whom he would assume in the unity of his own person.

People

By how many verses name them

1 more are named.

The passages it leans on, and the ones that lean on it

Books Proverbs links to most

  1. Psalms1345
  2. Isaiah523
  3. Matthew493
  4. Job476
  5. Luke383
  6. Jeremiah320

Cross-references from Proverbs into each book · 65 books in all

See every thread

The Church Fathers on Proverbs

1,356 quotations from 63 writers before AD 800 · the ten most quoted, in date order

  1. Origen253
  2. Basil379
  3. Ambrose397
  4. Chrysostom407
  5. Jerome420
  6. Augustine430
  7. John Cassian435
  8. Caesarius542
  9. Gregory604
  10. Bede735

Didymus the Blind, in his commentary on Proverbs, on piety toward God as where knowledge begins.

To know goodness is not sufficient to reach blessedness, if one does not put goodness into practice with works. Piety toward God is actually the beginning of knowledge.
Didymus the Blind 398 · Commentary On The Proverbs Of Solomon, Fragment 1:7 · on Proverbs 1:7

Gregory of Nyssa read Wisdom’s house in chapter 9 as the flesh the Lord took from the Virgin.

true wisdom did not live in someone else’s building but built a home for itself from the Virgin’s body.
Gregory of Nyssa 395 · Against Eunomius 3:1.44 · on Proverbs 9:1

Augustine on the just man who falls seven times and rises again.

The text, “For a just man shall fall seven times and shall rise again,” means that he will not perish, however often he falls. There is here no question of falling into sins but of afflictions leading to a lower life.
Augustine of Hippo 430 · City of God 11.31 · on Proverbs 24:16

Arsenius, of the Desert Fathers, on words spoken and words held back, the counsel of 10:19.

Arsenius always used to say this, ‘Why, words, did I let you get out? I have often been sorry that I have spoken, never that I have been silent.’
Desert Fathers 500 · The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks · on Proverbs 10:19
Matthew Henry · 519 sections on Proverbs“We have here an introduction to this book, which some think was prefixed by the collector and publisher, as Ezra”

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Articles

Book introductionAn Introduction to Proverbs: The Wisdom of GodDevotional · Proverbs 29:13Light for the Crusher and the CrushedMeaning mapWhere Proverbs’s verses sit among the whole Bible’sAsk AIAsk a question about Proverbs