Proverbs – An Introduction to Wisdom

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding, to receive instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice and equity; to give prudence to the naive, to the youth...

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding, to receive instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice and equity; to give prudence to the naive, to the youth...

Wisdom shouts in the street, she lifts her voice in the square … (Prov. 1:20) The first wise thing Solomon writes sets the tone for the book. This is a book about knowing wisdom. Of course, as the book unfolds, we will learn that knowing wisdom is not a...

To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding … (Prov. 1:2) The foundational teaching of the wise father or teacher is found in the summary statement of Proverbs: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise...

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding, to receive instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice and equity; to give prudence to the naive, to the youth...

Watch an infant begin to make sense out of the new stimuli that floods into him from the surrounding world outside of the womb. At first, he reacts automatically to cuddling and to discomfort, but he slowly moves on to following objects with his eyes,...

Hear, my son, your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching; indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head and ornaments about your neck. (Proverbs 1:8–9) Teaching and training begin in the home, where mother and father themselves are...

My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. (Prov. 1:10) The first specific teaching in proverbs in how to begin living a life of wisdom is in the negative (Prov. 1:10-19). It has been aptly said that we don’t have to teach children how to do wrong, but...

20Wisdom shouts in the street, she lifts her voice in the square; 21at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings … God is generous with wisdom. As James writes: “[I]f any of you lacks wisdom,...

22“How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? and scoffers delight themselves in scoffing and fools hate knowledge? 23Turn to my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you 24Because I called and you...

25And you neglected all my counsel and did not want my reproof; 26I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes, 27When your dread comes like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you....

1My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, 2make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; 3for if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; 4if you seek her as silver and search...

6For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. 7He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, 8guarding the paths of justice, and He preserves the way of His godly ones. Wisdom comes...

9Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity and every good course. 10For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul … Wisdom, knowledge, discernment, and understanding are not static, self-centered traits for our...

1My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; 2For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. 3Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart....

5Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. 6In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Trusting the Lord for wisdom is not just a mental activity. We must trust Him “with all” our heart. The...

7Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. No greater foolishness plagues the fallen human mind than assuming to be wise apart from any external, objective source of wisdom. We are incapable of being wise in and of ourselves;...

7bFear the Lord and turn away from evil. 8It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones. 9Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce; 10So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new...

13How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. 14For her profit is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fine gold. 15She is more precious than jewels; and nothing you desire compares with her. 16Long life...

19The Lord by wisdom founded the earth, by understanding He established the heavens. 20By His knowledge the deeps were broken up and the skies drip with dew. We usually don’t think of wisdom when contemplating creation. But with increasing scientific...

21My son, let them not vanish from your sight; keep sound wisdom and discretion, 22so they will be life to your soul and adornment to your neck. 23Then you will walk in your way securely and your foot will not stumble. 24When you lie down, you will not be...

27Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. 28Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give it,” when you have it with you. 29Do not devise harm against your neighbor, while he lives...

31Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways. 32For the devious are an abomination to the Lord; but He is intimate with the upright. 33The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the dwelling of the righteous....

1Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father, and give attention that you may gain understanding, 2For I give you sound teaching; do not abandon my instruction. 3When I was a son to my father, tender and the only son in the sight of my mother, 4Then he taught...

5Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding! Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. 6Do not forsake her, and she will guard you; love her, and she will watch over you. 7The beginning of wisdom is: acquire wisdom; and with all your acquiring, get...

10Hear, my son, and accept my sayings and the years of your life will be many. 11I have directed you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in upright paths. 12When you walk, your steps will not be impeded; and if you run, you will not stumble. 13Take hold of...

14Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not proceed in the way of evil men. 15Avoid it, do not pass by it; turn away from it and pass on. 16For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; and they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble. 17For...

18But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. 19The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know over what they stumble. On the surface, the teaching of wisdom in Proverbs can seem...

20My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21Do not let them depart from your sight; keep them in the midst of your heart. 22For they are life to those who find them and health to all their body. 23Watch over your heart with all...

 1My son, give attention to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding; 2that you may observe discretion and your lips may reserve knowledge. 3For the lips of an adulteress drip honey and smoother than oil is her speech; 4but in the end she is bitter as...

7Now then, my sons, listen to me and do not depart from the words of my mouth. 8Keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house, 9Or you will give your vigor to others and your years to the cruel one; 10And strangers will be filled with...

15Drink water from your own cistern and fresh water from your own well. 16Should your springs be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets? 17Let them be yours alone and not for strangers with you. 18Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the...

20For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner? 21For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He watches all his paths. 22His own iniquities will capture the wicked, and he will be held...

1My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, have given a pledge for a stranger … 6Go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise … 12A worthless person, a wicked man, is the one who walks with a perverse mouth …16There are six things which...

 1My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, have given a pledge for a stranger, 2if you have been snared with the words of your mouth, have been caught with the words of your mouth, 3do this then, my son, and deliver yourself; since you have come...

4Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids; 5deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand and like a bird from the hand of the fowler. 6Go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise, 7which, having no chief, officer or...

12A worthless person, a wicked man, is the one who walks with a perverse mouth, 13who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who points with his fingers; 14who with perversity in his heart continually devises evil, who spreads strife. 15Therefore...

16There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: 17haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, 19a false witness who utters...

20My son, observe the commandment of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother; 21bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck. 22When you walk about, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; and when...

23For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; and reproofs for discipline are the way of life 24to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. 25Do not desire her beauty in your heart, nor let her capture you with her...

25Do not desire her beauty in your heart, nor let her capture you with her eyelids. 26For on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread, and an adulteress hunts for the precious life … 32The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense;...

1My son, keep my words and treasure my commandments within you. 2Keep my commandments and live, and my teaching as the apple of your eye. 3Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. 4Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call...

21With her many persuasions she entices him; with her flattering lips she seduces him. 22Suddenly he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool, 23until an arrow pierces through his liver; as a bird hastens...

3a…So he does not know that it will cost him his life. 24Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, and pay attention to the words of my mouth. 25Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways, do not stray into her paths. 26For many are the victims she has cast...

1Does not wisdom call, and understanding lift up her voice? 2On top of the heights beside the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand; 3beside the gates, at the opening to the city, at the entrance of the doors, she cries out: 4 “To you, O men, I...

6 “Listen, for I will speak noble things; and the opening of my lips will reveal right things. 7 For my mouth will utter truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. 8 All the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing crooked or...

12“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.13The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth, I hate. 14Counsel is mine and sound wisdom; I am understanding, power is mine. 15By...

22“The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old. 23 From everlasting I was established, from the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth. 24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs...

32“Now therefore, O sons, listen to me, for blessed are they who keep my ways. 33Heed instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. 34Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts. 35For he who finds me finds...

1Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn out her seven pillars; 2she has prepared her food, she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table; 3she has sent out her maidens, she calls from the tops of the heights of the city: 4“Whoever is naive, let him...

1The proverbs of Solomon … Now comes the proverbial statements for which Solomon is famous. He has already introduced the entire book with his identifying signature and pedigree, “The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.” While chapters 1-9...

The Book of Proverbs contains literature, and we must acknowledge the form or genre of the literature to get the most out of the book. The predominant form of the book is poetry. This is not like the rhyming poetry of popular culture today. The rhythm and...

The compendium of proverbs in chapters 10-31 does not lend itself to a consecutive verse-by-verse study since there is no apparent general ordering of them. But it is immensely suitable for topical studies. For example, the book has much to say about our...

The book of Proverbs characterizes five kinds of people and their relationship to wisdom. The primary topic or thrust, of course, is to help us not just know about wisdom but to become wise. Teaching about what a wise person looks like is often presented in...

The last chapter of Proverbs describes and extols the “woman of excellence.” While many women pour over photographs, magazines and websites for tips to become more beautiful, godly women have poured over, studied and sought to emulate the woman of Proverbs...