Proverbs 2:1

These verses are the first half of one long sentence, and they open a poem that runs through the whole of Proverbs 2. Proverbs 1 warned the son against sinful companions and the way of folly. Chapter 2 turns to the pursuit of wisdom itself: what it is worth, what it takes to find it, and what it does for the one who finds it.

Four “if” clauses build on one another. The first two ask the son to receive and keep what he is taught. The last two ask him to go after it, first with his voice and then with all the effort of someone digging for treasure. Each step asks a little more than the one before, from receiving to hiding, from the ear to the heart, from crying out to searching. Proverbs puts the son’s own response first, and the blessings of the chapter come to the one who takes it up.

The “then” arrives in Proverbs 2:5–8: the seeker will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God, for “the LORD giveth wisdom,” and he keeps the paths of his saints. The promises go on in Proverbs 2:5–9: “Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path” (Proverbs 2:9). The rest of the chapter shows wisdom guarding the son from deceitful men and destructive choices, and it sets the path of wisdom against the path of the wicked.

The Hebrew bên means “son”, and “my son”, beni, is the address that runs all through Proverbs. A teacher speaks, usually a father, and in places Wisdom herself. In Israel the elders taught the young, and above all the father taught within his own family, passing on the moral and spiritual truths and the skills of life that he had received. Proverbs names both parents: “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother” (Proverbs 1:8). The law itself gave parents this charge, to keep God’s words in their hearts and to teach them diligently to their children at home and on the way (Deuteronomy 6:6–9).

The words “my son” set the tone of everything that follows. The teaching is personal and comes with a father’s authority and love, and what he hands on is an inheritance meant for his child’s whole life and good.

To “receive”, lâqach, is the ordinary verb for taking something, used of accepting, bringing, fetching and seizing. Here it means accepting the father’s words willingly and taking hold of them. “If thou wilt” puts the choice with the son, who has to want what he is being given.

To “hide”, tsâphan, means to hide by covering over, and it is used of hoarding, reserving and protecting. A person hides what he values most, so the word pictures the commandments as treasure stored up within and kept safe from loss. “With thee” places that store inside the son, where the commandments can shape his character, his decisions and his conduct. In a world where teaching was passed on by word of mouth and written copies were precious, receiving and keeping words meant memorizing them, turning them over, and letting them become part of a person. The “commandments” here are the father’s precepts and wise counsel, and they stand on God’s revealed law, because in Israel wisdom was bound up with obeying what God had said.

The psalmist does exactly this: “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:11), and the whole of Psalm 119 delights in God’s law. The word kept inside is meant to come out in life. James tells us, “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22), and Jesus likens the one who hears his sayings and does them to a wise man who built his house upon a rock (Matthew 7:24).

Verse 2 says how the son receives: “So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding.” To “incline”, qâshab, means to listen attentively and pay attention, literally to incline the ears, and one lexicon adds “to obey”. The ear, ʼôzen, is the organ that receives, and turning it toward wisdom is a deliberate choice to give the teacher full attention.

The second line takes the same thought deeper. “Apply” is nâṭâh, to turn or stretch toward, and the heart is lêb, a form of lêbâb. Both lines say nearly the same thing in different words, the way Hebrew poetry often does, and together the ear and the heart stand for the whole person, outward attention and inward commitment joined. The psalmist asks God to do this very work in him: “Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness” (Psalm 119:36).

“Yea” raises the intensity. The son who has listened is now to call out: “if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding.” The verb qârâʼ means to call out, cry, proclaim or summon, and here it is the cry of someone asking aloud for what he wants. “Lift up thy voice” is literally “give thy voice”, nâthan qôwl. Both lines speak of an earnest, spoken request, and the second line repeats the first and strengthens it. Wisdom herself has already lifted up her voice in the streets (Proverbs 1:20), and the son is to lift up his voice for her.

The word the KJV renders “knowledge” here is bîynâh, from the root bîn, to discern. It means understanding or intelligence, the grasp of truth that leads to right action. “Understanding” is tâbûwn, from the same root, a word for intelligence, discretion, reason and skill. The two stand side by side as near partners, and together they describe the discernment that lets a person see what is true and act on it.

In practice this crying out is prayer for discernment, steady time in God’s Word (“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path,” Psalm 119:105), and humbly asking godly people for counsel. Jesus gives the same pattern: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7), with the promise that everyone who asks receives (Matthew 7:7–8). James says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5).

“Her” in verse 4 is wisdom, whom Proverbs presents as a woman. She first appears crying aloud in the streets (Proverbs 1:20), she is praised as the one whose ways are pleasantness and who is a tree of life (Proverbs 3:13–18), and she speaks for a whole chapter in Proverbs 8. Speaking of wisdom as a person makes her someone to be sought, embraced and found.

Two verbs carry the search. To “seek”, bâqash, means to search out, seek or require, a word for an earnest and deliberate pursuit. To “search”, châphas, means to seek or search for, and here it takes the search further, to a careful hunt for something hidden.

Silver was the common medium of exchange in Israel and a measure of wealth. It came by trade, by mining and as tribute, and having it meant prosperity. “Hid treasures” is maṭmôwn (the plural matmonim), a secret store or a valuable hidden away, usually buried in the ground. People buried silver and jewels for safekeeping in times of war, invasion and unrest, so that raiders would pass them by. Finding such a hoard was rare and changed a person’s life at once, and hunting for one meant long, hard, hopeful labour. The two comparisons, “as silver” and “as for hid treasures”, tell us both how much wisdom is worth and how hard we should look for her. Wisdom is a treasure herself, and she yields to the one who keeps digging.

Proverbs says the same in other places. Wisdom “is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her” (Proverbs 3:13–15), and “Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold” (Proverbs 8:10–11). She promises, “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me” (Proverbs 8:17), and another proverb speaks of the man who through desire “seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom” (Proverbs 18:1). Jesus told of a man who found treasure hid in a field, and for joy sold all that he had and bought that field (Matthew 13:44). The silver is only the picture. What the seeker gains is the understanding that leads to life and to “every good path” (Proverbs 2:9).

All this effort could sound like wisdom is earned, and verse 6 answers that at once: “For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:6). God is the source, and seeking is how we receive what he gives. He provides the words and commandments, and we are called to take them in, keep them and live by them. This is a lasting posture of humility, obedience and teachability, and it fits the way God has always dealt with his people, promising blessing to those who walk faithfully in his ways. Our crying out is itself an act of trust and worship, because we ask God for wisdom believing that he is willing to give it (James 1:5). The one who seeks finds the knowledge of God himself (Proverbs 2:5), and the hidden depths of his truth reward a lifetime of searching.

The New Testament shows us where the treasure is found. Christ is “the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24), and he “of God is made unto us wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Paul uses the very language of this passage when he speaks of Christ, “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3), the treasure of the full assurance of understanding (Colossians 2:2–3). He is the Word made flesh (John 1:14), so in him God’s words and commandments are perfectly revealed.

The wisdom of the Old Testament showed the way of life, and it also showed how far we fall short of receiving and obeying God’s commands perfectly. So for us, receiving the father’s words and hiding his commandments means receiving Christ by faith. Inclining the ear means listening to Jesus, who taught as one having authority (Matthew 7:28–29), and building our lives on his sayings as on a rock (Matthew 7:24–27). Crying after knowledge means seeking to know him and having his mind formed in us: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). The Spirit of truth guides us into all truth (John 16:13), and Paul prays that God will give believers “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him” (Ephesians 1:17). As we behold the Lord we are changed into the same image (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Paul counted everything else as loss beside this treasure: “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8). The search for silver and hidden treasure in Proverbs finds its end in him (Philippians 3:7–8).

We live surrounded by information, and these verses ask something specific of us. Take God’s word in on purpose, and keep it within you as something precious. Listen to it with attention, and set your mind, will and affections on understanding it. Ask God for wisdom aloud, in every decision and circumstance, and ask godly people for counsel. Dig into Scripture with the effort people give to careers, money and personal gain.

It is worth asking honestly what we search hardest for. Treasure hunters endure hardship for a fortune that will pass. The treasure here is the knowledge of God, which shapes character, guides decisions and lasts. The search runs for a whole life, and its treasures keep opening up new depths of who God is and what he purposes. The God who gives wisdom liberally and upbraids no one is glad to give it to those who ask.