Proverbs 8:20

The speaker is Wisdom, chokmâh, the wisdom of God himself, given a voice and pictured as a noble woman. The word covers skill, good sense and deep insight, and in Proverbs it is the knowledge of how to live rightly and well in God’s world. Giving wisdom a voice lets us meet her as someone to listen to, to love and to follow, and it shows that wisdom comes from God and belongs to him.

By this point in the chapter she has already called out at the city gates and the crossroads, the places where Israel taught, judged and traded, and has said that her words are true and that her instruction is to be chosen before silver, gold and rubies (Proverbs 8:1–11). In our ten verses she describes herself and her gifts. She then tells how she was with the LORD before the world was made (Proverbs 8:22–31), and the chapter closes with her promise that whoever finds her finds life and obtains favour of the LORD (Proverbs 8:35). Standing against her in the chapters around this one is the strange woman, Folly, whose house is the way down to death (Proverbs 7:27).

Proverbs is largely attributed to King Solomon, who asked God for an understanding heart to judge his people (1 Kings 3:9). With Job and Ecclesiastes it belongs to Israel’s wisdom books, which passed practical and moral teaching from one generation to the next. Israel’s wisdom is marked by where it begins: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7). That is why a passage about good sense, government and wealth has the fear of the LORD near its head.

“I wisdom dwell with prudence.” The verb shâkan means to settle down, stay or dwell, so Wisdom and prudence share one home, and where you find the one you find the other. Prudence, ʻormâh, is a word that can be used in a bad sense for trickery and in a good sense for discretion and shrewdness. With Wisdom it is the good sense: the foresight that sees where a course of action leads and chooses carefully. Proverbs describes the prudent man as the one who looks well to where he is going (Proverbs 14:15).

She also says, “and find out knowledge of witty inventions.” To find out is mâtsâʼ, to find or attain. Knowledge is daʻath, which includes skill and discernment. “Witty inventions” translates mᵉzimmâh, a plan or device. Elsewhere that word can mean an evil scheme, and here, with Wisdom as the one who finds it, it means a well-laid plan or a sound design. So the two halves of the verse give two sides of wise living. Prudence is care in how we act, and “witty inventions” is skill in what we devise.

This tells us where good planning comes from. The ability to think a problem through and arrive at a sound and helpful answer is a gift of God’s wisdom, and human cleverness at its best is drawing on it. Since wisdom is his to give, James tells anyone who lacks it to ask God, who gives generously (James 1:5).

Proverbs calls the fear of the LORD the beginning of knowledge and the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10), and Job says that the fear of the Lord is wisdom itself (Job 28:28). Here Wisdom says what that fear does in a person: “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil.” The word for fear, yirʼâh, means fear and, in its moral sense, reverence. It is the awe of someone who knows how holy and great God is and wants to please him, and it is far from a cowering terror.

Reverence of that kind takes God’s side. The verb for hate, sânêʼ, is the word for hating personally, the way one regards an enemy. To fear the LORD is to share his mind about sin, to love what he loves and to turn away from what he hates. A person may keep clear of sin because it is costly, but the one who fears the LORD loathes it because it offends a holy God and spoils his good creation. Scripture puts the two together in other places as well. The psalmist tells those who love the LORD to hate evil (Psalm 97:10), Amos tells Israel to hate the evil and love the good (Amos 5:15), and Paul tells the church to abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good (Romans 12:9).

In verse 14 Wisdom makes four claims, and she makes them flatly: “is mine”, “I am”, “I have”.

Counsel is ʻêtsâh, advice or a plan, the kind of guidance that can be trusted because it rests on perfect knowledge. Sound wisdom is tûwshîyâh, a word for support, ability and an undertaking as well as understanding. It is wisdom that holds up under use and brings a work through to a good end. Understanding is bîynâh, the power to discern, to tell good from evil and truth from falsehood. Of the two, understanding is the faculty that sees clearly, and sound wisdom is that insight put to effective use. She says of understanding, “I am understanding”, claiming to be the thing itself.

Strength is gᵉbûwrâh, which means force, valour and might. Scripture uses it of people and nations as well as of God. Wisdom’s claim to it tells us that real power belongs with sound judgment. The one who has her counsel also has from her the might to carry it out, to stand firm and to come through hardship. These were the qualities Israel looked for in its kings, judges and heads of households, and the next verse turns to rulers.

All four are God’s own attributes. Her counsel is sure because it agrees with his purposes, and her strength is his. We receive them by trusting him and distrusting our own unaided understanding, as Proverbs says: trust in the LORD with all your heart, acknowledge him in all your ways, and he will direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5–6).

Verses 15 and 16 carry Wisdom into government. “By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.” The opening “By me” of both verses makes her the means by which right rule happens.

To reign is mâlak, to reign or to ascend the throne, so she is speaking of the actual work of ruling. To decree is châqaq, which at root means to hack or engrave and so to enact, a picture of laws cut into stone or metal. What the princes enact is tsedeq, rightness and justice, the word Scripture uses for what is right in conduct, in judgment, in speech and in honest weights. Making decrees is one thing, and Wisdom’s concern is that they be just.

Verse 16 widens the circle. The princes there are sar, a word for a chief, captain, official or ruler, anyone who holds a rank of authority. The nobles are nâdîyb, a word that properly means willing or generous and so comes to name a man of high standing, with the hint that open-handed leadership is what a noble ought to show. The judges are those who shâphaṭ, who judge, pronounce sentence and govern. “All the judges of the earth” takes in every court in every land. From the throne down to the local magistrate, every office is included.

The nations around Israel treated their kings as agents of the gods, or as gods themselves, and as answerable to nobody. Scripture places every ruler under God. Paul says there is no power but of God (Romans 13:1), Daniel says that God removes kings and sets up kings (Daniel 2:21) and that the most High rules in the kingdom of men (Daniel 4:17), and the psalmist says that God is the judge who puts down one and sets up another (Psalm 75:7). Authority is therefore a trust. Israel’s judges were told to judge the people with just judgment, taking no bribe and showing no partiality (Deuteronomy 16:18–20), and Israel prayed that God would give the king his own judgments, so that he would judge the poor with justice and save the children of the needy (Psalm 72:1–4).

Verse 17 is the warmest line in the passage: “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.” The verb is ʼâhab, to love, to have affection for. Wisdom answers love with love. She is far from a cold set of rules handed down, and those who cherish her find that she cherishes them. Seeking her is therefore a matter of the heart as well as the mind, in keeping with the command to love the LORD with all the heart, soul and might (Deuteronomy 6:5).

“Seek me early” translates shâchar, which properly means to dawn. From that it comes to mean being up early at a task and so searching for something in earnest. In a farming society the person who rose at dawn was the one who took his work seriously and gave the day’s first strength to what mattered most. To seek Wisdom early is to seek her eagerly and put her first. David speaks the same way of seeking God, thirsting for him in a dry and thirsty land (Psalm 63:1).

“Shall find me” is a promise, and the verb is the mâtsâʼ of verse 12, to find or attain. Wisdom is found by those who look for her, and the search will succeed. God speaks this way throughout Scripture. He tells the exiles that they will seek him and find him when they search with all their heart (Jeremiah 29:13). Jesus says, “seek, and ye shall find” (Matthew 7:7), and tells us to seek first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33). Hebrews says that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6).

People ask whether this is a promise about knowledge only. The wisdom on offer is the skill of living rightly before God, shaping character and conduct as well as thought, and Proverbs calls her a tree of life to those who lay hold of her (Proverbs 3:13–18). People also ask whether she is found all at once. The finding is certain, and it also deepens over a lifetime. Moments of clear insight come, and yet the one who has found Wisdom goes on seeking and growing, as Paul presses on toward the mark though he has already been laid hold of by Christ (Philippians 3:12–14).

Three verses speak of what Wisdom gives, and they are best read together.

Verse 18. “Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness.” Honour is kâbôwd, the word for glory, honour and splendour. In Israel riches and honour were prized as signs of God’s favour and of a person’s standing, and Wisdom says both are with her. Then she says what kind she means. Durable is ʻâthêq, a word with the sense of something old and valued, and so lasting. Her riches endure. They also come with righteousness, tsᵉdâqâh, which means rightness, moral uprightness and justice. The same book says of her, “Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour” (Proverbs 3:16).

That pairing separates her gifts from wealth gained in other ways. Proverbs says that treasures of wickedness profit nothing (Proverbs 10:2), that greed for gain takes away the life of its owners (Proverbs 1:19), that treasure got by a lying tongue is a vapour (Proverbs 21:6), and that riches do not profit in the day of wrath, while righteousness delivers from death (Proverbs 11:4). Jesus says the same about treasure on earth, where moth and rust corrupt and thieves break through and steal, and he tells us to lay up treasure in heaven, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19–21). Paul sums it up: godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Timothy 6:6).

Verse 19. “My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver.” Fruit is pᵉrîy, the produce of a tree or a field, and so the outcome of a way of living. Revenue is tᵉbûwʼâh, produce or yield, and by extension income or gain. Both are farming words for what comes of living by her counsel: integrity, discernment, peace and a life in step with its Maker. Jesus uses the same picture when he says that a good tree brings forth good fruit (Matthew 7:17–18).

Better is ṭôwb, good in the widest sense, used here for something of higher worth. She measures herself against the best her hearers knew. Gold is chărûwts, fine gold is pâz, gold that has been purified, and choice silver is keçeph, silver, with bâchar, to try or select, so silver picked out for its quality. Gold and silver were how wealth was stored, traded and displayed, and the comparison rises from gold to fine gold so that no grade of treasure is left to rival her. Proverbs says it again elsewhere: “How much better is it to get wisdom than gold!” (Proverbs 16:16). Paul made that exchange himself and counted all his gains as loss for the excellency of knowing Christ (Philippians 3:7–8).

Verse 21. “That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.” The ones who receive are those who love her, the ʼâhab of verse 17 again, so love for Wisdom is the relationship in which these gifts are given. Inheritance was a weighty word in Israel. It meant first the land God had promised his people, the rest and security he was bringing them into (Deuteronomy 12:9–10). Substance is yêsh, the common Hebrew word for “there is”, which asserts that a thing exists or is possessed. What Wisdom hands down is something that is really there to be had. Treasures is ʼôwtsâr, a treasure or the storehouse that holds it. She promises to fill the storehouses of those who love her, which is a picture of a full measure.

Between her promises of riches Wisdom says where she is to be found: “I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment.” The verb is hâlak, the ordinary word for walking. Wisdom walks this road herself, and those who keep company with her are led along it. Her guidance is that of someone going ahead on the path.

The road has two names. Righteousness is tsᵉdâqâh, the same word as in verse 18, a life that conforms to God’s standard. Judgment is mishpâṭ, properly a verdict, and so justice and what is right in a given case. The first speaks of uprightness of life and the second of fair and discerning decisions in dealings with others. The two are paired all through the Old Testament because both belong to the character of God. “In the midst of” places her in the middle of the path, well away from the edges, and the plural “paths” covers the many situations of life in which justice has to be worked out.

Roads were how people in Solomon’s day thought about a life, since every road ends somewhere. Proverbs says that the path of the just is like the shining light that grows brighter until the full day, while the way of the wicked is darkness (Proverbs 4:18–19). The LORD himself is the one who leads. David says that he leads him in the paths of righteousness (Psalm 23:3), God tells Israel that he teaches them to profit and leads them by the way they should go (Isaiah 48:17), and Micah gives the road in one line, to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8).

The placing of this verse matters for the promises around it. Verse 21 begins with “That”, joining the inheritance to the walk. Wisdom’s gifts are received on her road, and the wealth she gives is never to be had by leaving the way of righteousness.

Everything Wisdom says of herself here is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Paul calls him “the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24) and says that in him “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). As Wisdom was with God before the world was made, so the Word was in the beginning with God, and all things were made by him (John 1:1–3) and hold together in him (Colossians 1:16–17). To love Wisdom and seek her early is, for us, to love and seek Christ, who has been made to us “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

He is the one who feared the LORD perfectly and hated evil. He exposed pride and hypocrisy at their root in his woes on the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23:1–36). He is himself the way (John 14:6), and the people wondered at the gracious words that came from his mouth (Luke 4:22). By his death he bore the penalty of our evil and broke its power, so that those who belong to him are dead to sin and alive to God (Romans 6:1–14) and walk in the Spirit, who bears his fruit in them (Galatians 5:16–25). He taught the way of righteousness in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) and walked it himself, and by his one act of righteousness the free gift came to all for justification of life (Romans 5:18).

He is also the King by whom kings reign. All power in heaven and in earth has been given to him (Matthew 28:18). He is King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16), and he judges in righteousness (Revelation 19:11). Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, and his throne is established with judgment and with justice (Isaiah 9:6–7). Earthly rulers govern inside his rule whether they know it or not, and we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13).

And he is the one who is found by those who seek. “He that cometh to me shall never hunger” (John 6:35). The durable riches are his: the unsearchable riches of Christ (Ephesians 3:8), the righteousness that is through faith in him (Philippians 3:9), and life more abundant (John 10:10), which is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent (John 17:3). The inheritance is his as well. In him we have obtained an inheritance (Ephesians 1:11), incorruptible, undefiled and reserved in heaven (1 Peter 1:4). Hebrews calls faith “the substance of things hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1), and what we hope for is held safe by the one who says of his sheep that none shall pluck them out of his hand (John 10:28).

These verses show us a God who wants to be found. His wisdom stands in the open and speaks first, and she answers love with love. The promise of verse 17 is plain enough to rest on: those who seek her early shall find her. Since Christ is that Wisdom, the promise is his, and nobody who comes to him looking for the way to live is turned away.

The passage also tells us what to expect of him. He gives good sense for ordinary decisions and skill for hard problems, since prudence and sound plans live in his house. He gives a new set of loves and hatreds, so that pride, crooked dealing and twisted speech become things we want to be rid of. He gives strength along with counsel, which matters on the days when knowing what is right is easier than doing it.

For anyone who carries authority, in a nation, a business, a church or a home, verses 15 and 16 say that it is held on trust and can only be used well by his wisdom. For those who live under authority, the same verses give a reason to pray for rulers and a standard by which to weigh them.

And the passage settles the question of what is worth having. Gold and silver were the best that Wisdom’s first hearers knew, and she set herself above them without hesitation. The riches she offers come with righteousness, are received on the road of righteousness, and last. A life spent on them is safe from every loss that can touch a storehouse on earth.