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The Israelite gate at Tel Dan

Books of Scripture

Proverbs

Wisdom in the streets, at the table and before God

31 chapters

Proverbs is a collection of collections. It opens with nine chapters of long instructions from a parent to a child and the speeches of Woman Wisdom, who calls in the streets and claims to have been with God at creation. Then come hundreds of short sayings, two lines each, credited to Solomon, to unnamed "wise", to Solomon's proverbs copied by "the men of Hezekiah", to Agur and to the mother of King Lemuel; it ends with an alphabetic poem in praise of a woman of strength. One section closely resembles the Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope. The Greek translation adds lines and arranges the later collections in a different order. Proverbs teaches judgment rather than formulas: its motto is "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge," and its sayings are meant to be weighed against each other, against Job and Ecclesiastes, and against life.

Lessons

  1. 1Proverbs 1: The Beginning of KnowledgeProverbs 1 · Proverbs opens with a title ("The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel"), a statement of purpose (vv. 2–6), and its motto: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge" (v. 7). A father then warns his son against a gang that promises easy wealth through violence (vv. 8–19). Finally Wisdom herself, pictured as a woman, shouts at the city gates and warns those who ignore her (vv. 20–33). Three voices in one chapter: the editor, the parent, and Wisdom.
  2. 2Proverbs 2: Searching for Hidden TreasureProverbs 2 · Proverbs 2 is one long, carefully built argument. If the son receives the father's words and searches for wisdom like silver (vv. 1–4), then he will understand the fear of the LORD, because the LORD gives wisdom (vv. 5–8), and he will understand justice (vv. 9–11). Wisdom will rescue him from the man of twisted speech (vv. 12–15) and from the "strange woman" who has abandoned her covenant (vv. 16–19), so that he walks in the way of the good and remains in the land (vv. 20–22).
  3. 3Proverbs 3: Trust in the LORD with All Thine HeartProverbs 3 · Proverbs 3 joins devotion and daily life. The son is to keep teaching and kindness close (vv. 1–4), trust the LORD rather than his own cleverness (vv. 5–8), honour God with firstfruits (vv. 9–10) and accept God's discipline as a father's love (vv. 11–12). Wisdom is worth more than silver and gold; she is "a tree of life" (vv. 13–18), and by wisdom God founded the earth (vv. 19–20). The chapter ends with practical neighbourliness: do not withhold good, do not say "come back tomorrow," do not plot against a neighbour or envy the violent (vv. 21–35).
  4. 4Proverbs 4: The Path of the JustProverbs 4 · In Proverbs 4 the father passes on what his own father taught him: "Get wisdom, get understanding" (vv. 1–9). He sets two paths before the son: the path of the just, "as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," and the way of the wicked, dark and stumbling (vv. 10–19). Finally he asks for attention with every part of the body: ears, eyes, heart, mouth, feet: "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (vv. 20–27).
  5. 5Proverbs 5: Drink Water from Thine Own CisternProverbs 5 · Proverbs 5 warns a young man against adultery. The "strange woman's" lips drip honey, but her end is bitter (vv. 1–6). Going to her costs honour, years, wealth and health, and ends in regret (vv. 7–14). Instead: "Drink waters out of thine own cistern… rejoice with the wife of thy youth" (vv. 15–20). God sees every path, and the wicked are caught in their own sins (vv. 21–23).
  6. 6Proverbs 6: Go to the Ant, Thou SluggardProverbs 6 · Proverbs 6 gathers four short teachings and one long one. Do not guarantee another person's debt; if you have, get free at once (vv. 1–5). Learn from the ant, which works without a supervisor (vv. 6–11). The troublemaker winks, gestures and sows discord, and will be broken suddenly (vv. 12–15). Six things the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination (vv. 16–19). And adultery is fire in one's lap: the husband's jealousy accepts no payment (vv. 20–35).
  7. 7Proverbs 7: At the Window of My HouseProverbs 7 · Proverbs 7 is a short story. After urging the son to treat wisdom as a sister (vv. 1–5), the father describes what he saw from his window at dusk: a young man "void of understanding" walking toward a certain woman's house; she meets him, kisses him and invites him in, saying she has just paid her vows and her husband is away (vv. 6–20). He follows "as an ox goeth to the slaughter" (vv. 21–23). The lesson: "Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death" (vv. 24–27).
  8. 8Proverbs 8: Wisdom Before CreationProverbs 8 · In Proverbs 8 Woman Wisdom speaks at length. At the gates she calls to all people: her words are true, better than silver and gold (vv. 1–11). Through her kings reign and rulers judge justly; she gives riches with righteousness (vv. 12–21). Then she tells her origin: the LORD "possessed" or "created" her at the beginning of his way, before the earth, the deeps, the mountains; she was beside him as he made the heavens and set the sea its limit, rejoicing in his world and "my delights were with the sons of men" (vv. 22–31). Whoever finds her finds life (vv. 32–36).
  9. 9Proverbs 9: Two Houses, Two InvitationsProverbs 9 · Proverbs 1–9 ends with two hostesses. Wisdom has built her house with seven pillars, prepared meat and wine, and sends her servant girls to call the simple: "Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled… Forsake the foolish, and live" (vv. 1–6). Between the two invitations stand sayings about correcting scorners and the wise, and the motto again: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" (vv. 7–12). Then Woman Folly, loud and ignorant, sits at her door and calls the same passers-by: "Stolen waters are sweet"; but "the dead are there" (vv. 13–18).
  10. 10Proverbs 10: A Wise Son Maketh a Glad FatherProverbs 10 · With a new heading, "The proverbs of Solomon" (10:1), the long instructions of chapters 1–9 give way to short, self-contained sayings of two lines each. Chapter 10 is dominated by antithetic sayings that set the righteous against the wicked and the wise against the fool. Its themes are family (v. 1), honest and dishonest wealth (vv. 2–5, 15–16, 22), speech (vv. 6–21, 31–32: the mouth, lips and tongue appear again and again), and the security of the righteous (vv. 24–30).
  11. 11Proverbs 11: A Just Weight Is His DelightProverbs 11 · Proverbs 11 opens with the marketplace: "A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight" (v. 1). It turns to the fate of the righteous and wicked (vv. 2–8), to the city that rejoices when the righteous prosper and is ruined by the mouth of the wicked (vv. 9–14), to suretyship, honour and kindness (vv. 15–23), and to a group of sayings on generosity: the one who scatters and still gains, the liberal soul made fat, and the curse on the man who hoards grain (vv. 24–31).
  12. 12Proverbs 12: Words Reveal CharacterProverbs 12 · Chapter 12 continues the antithetic sayings. It opens with the love of correction (v. 1), the stability of the righteous (vv. 2–7) and the worth of a good wife (v. 4). Work and the land appear (vv. 9–12, 24, 27), with the striking line "A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast" (v. 10). But speech dominates: lying and truthful lips, the false witness, the sword-like tongue and the healing tongue (vv. 13–23). "Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad" (v. 25).
  13. 13Proverbs 13: Hope Deferred Maketh the Heart SickProverbs 13 · Chapter 13 joins sayings on accepting teaching (vv. 1, 13–14, 18, 20) with sayings on wealth that look beneath appearances: some pretend to be rich, others pretend to be poor (v. 7); dishonest wealth dwindles (v. 11); "Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment" (v. 23), a saying that blames injustice, not laziness, for hunger. "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick" (v. 12). And it contains one of the most debated lines in Proverbs: "He that spareth his rod hateth his son" (v. 24).
  14. 14Proverbs 14: The Wise Woman Buildeth Her HouseProverbs 14 · Chapter 14 ranges from the household ("Every wise woman buildeth her house," v. 1) and the farm ("Where no oxen are, the crib is clean," v. 4) to the inner life ("The heart knoweth his own bitterness," v. 10; "Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful," v. 13), to the danger of self-deception ("There is a way which seemeth right unto a man," v. 12, repeated in 16:25), to the courts (vv. 5, 25), the poor (vv. 20–21, 31) and the nation and king (vv. 28, 34–35). "He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker" (v. 31).
  15. 15Proverbs 15: A Soft Answer Turneth Away WrathProverbs 15 · Chapter 15 opens with the most famous saying on speech: "A soft answer turneth away wrath" (v. 1). It speaks often of God: his eyes are everywhere (v. 3), the sacrifice of the wicked is abomination but the prayer of the upright his delight (v. 8), Sheol is open before him (v. 11), he protects the widow's boundary (v. 25) and hears the righteous (v. 29). It includes the first "better than" sayings: "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith" (v. 17). It ends where the book began: "The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility" (v. 33).
  16. 16Proverbs 16: A Man's Heart Deviseth His WayProverbs 16 · Chapter 16 stands near the centre of the book and is full of God. Its opening sayings (vv. 1–9) set human planning beside divine direction: "A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps" (v. 9). A royal cluster (vv. 10–15) describes the ideal king, just weights and the danger of royal anger. Then come some of the best-known lines in Proverbs: "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall" (v. 18); "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty" (v. 32); "The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD" (v. 33).
  17. 17Proverbs 17: A Friend Loveth at All TimesProverbs 17 · Chapter 17 opens with a "better than" saying about peace at home (v. 1) and gathers sayings about family (vv. 2, 6, 21, 25), justice and bribery (vv. 8, 15, 23, 26), quarrels (vv. 9, 14, 19), friendship ("A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity," v. 17), the danger of fools ("Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly," v. 12) and the value of restraint ("Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise," v. 28).
  18. 18Proverbs 18: Death and Life Are in the Power of the TongueProverbs 18 · Chapter 18 is above all about speech: words are "deep waters" (v. 4); a fool's mouth is his ruin (vv. 6–7); the words of a talebearer are like tasty morsels swallowed whole (v. 8); answering before listening is folly (v. 13); the first to speak in court seems right until cross-examined (v. 17); "Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (v. 21). Around these are sayings on isolation, wealth as a false wall, the name of the LORD as a strong tower (v. 10), a wounded spirit (v. 14), the lot (v. 18), a wife as a good thing from the LORD (v. 22), and the friend who sticks closer than a brother (v. 24).
  19. 19Proverbs 19: He That Hath Pity upon the Poor Lendeth unto the LORDProverbs 19 · Chapter 19 opens with integrity in poverty (v. 1) and returns again and again to the poor: wealth brings friends while the poor are abandoned (vv. 4, 6–7), and "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD" (v. 17). It warns twice against false witness (vv. 5, 9, 28), praises patience (v. 11), compares the king's anger to a lion's roar (v. 12), and observes family life: a foolish son, a quarrelsome wife like a dripping roof, a prudent wife from the LORD (vv. 13–14). It includes humour (the sluggard too lazy to lift his hand from the dish, v. 24) and the sober line "There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand" (v. 21).
  20. 20Proverbs 20: Wine Is a MockerProverbs 20 · Chapter 20 opens with a warning about intoxication: "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging" (v. 1). It moves through the king (vv. 2, 8, 26, 28), honest dealing ("Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD," vv. 10, 23; the haggling buyer, v. 14; pledges, v. 16), the limits of self-knowledge ("Who can say, I have made my heart clean?" v. 9; "Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?" v. 24), revenge left to God (v. 22), and "The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD" (v. 27).
  21. 21Proverbs 21: The King's Heart Is in the Hand of the LORDProverbs 21 · Chapter 21 is framed by God's sovereignty: the king's heart is like channels of water in the LORD's hand (v. 1), and "The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD" (v. 31). Between them: "To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice" (v. 3); dishonest gain (vv. 6–7); two sayings on a quarrelsome wife (vv. 9, 19); the poor man's cry (v. 13); the secret bribe (v. 14); the wise man who takes a city (v. 22); and the lazy man's desire that kills him (v. 25).
  22. 22Proverbs 22: Train Up a ChildProverbs 22 · Proverbs 22 ends the first Solomonic collection (vv. 1–16) and begins a new one (vv. 17–29). The first part has famous sayings: "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches" (v. 1), "The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all" (v. 2), "Train up a child in the way he should go" (v. 6), "the borrower is servant to the lender" (v. 7). At 22:17 a teacher says "Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise" and promises "excellent things" (or "thirty sayings," v. 20). The sayings that follow (22:17–23:11) closely resemble the Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope: do not rob the poor (v. 22), do not befriend an angry man (v. 24), do not remove the ancient landmark (v. 28), the skilled worker will stand before kings (v. 29).
  23. 23Proverbs 23: Who Hath Woe?Proverbs 23 · Proverbs 23 continues "the words of the wise." Its first part (vv. 1–11) is still close to the Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope: table manners before a ruler, riches that "make themselves wings," the stingy host, and the boundary of the fatherless defended by their mighty Redeemer. Then a father's appeals (vv. 12–28) on correction, envy, gluttony and drink, honouring parents, and the predatory woman. It ends with one of the most vivid poems in the Bible on drunkenness (vv. 29–35): "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow?… They that tarry long at the wine."
  24. 24Proverbs 24: Rescue Them That Are Drawn unto DeathProverbs 24 · Proverbs 24 completes "the words of the wise" (vv. 1–22) and adds a short appendix: "These things also belong to the wise" (vv. 23–34). The first part warns against envy of evildoers (vv. 1–2, 19–20), praises wisdom that builds a house (vv. 3–4) and counsel in war (vv. 5–6), and commands: "If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death… doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it?" (vv. 11–12). "A just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again" (v. 16). Do not gloat when an enemy falls (vv. 17–18). The appendix condemns partiality in court (vv. 23–25) and ends with a scene: a vineyard overgrown with thorns, the stone wall broken down, and the lesson of the sluggard (vv. 30–34).
  25. 25Proverbs 25: Copied Out by the Men of HezekiahProverbs 25 · Proverbs 25 opens with the only date-like note in the book: "These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out" (v. 1). The collection (25–29) starts with sayings about God, kings and courtiers (vv. 2–7), disputes (vv. 8–10) and speech (vv. 11–15: "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver"). Many sayings are comparisons from nature and daily life: snow at harvest, clouds without rain, a broken tooth, vinegar on soda. It includes the command to feed a hungry enemy, "for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head" (vv. 21–22), quoted by Paul in Romans 12:20.
  26. 26Proverbs 26: Answer a Fool, and Answer NotProverbs 26 · Proverbs 26 is built of three portraits. The fool (vv. 1–12): honour fits him like snow in summer; and two sayings stand side by side that seem to contradict each other: "Answer not a fool according to his folly" (v. 4) and "Answer a fool according to his folly" (v. 5). A proverb in a fool's mouth is like a lame man's legs or a thorn in a drunkard's hand (vv. 7, 9). The sluggard (vv. 13–16): "As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed." The troublemaker and the liar (vv. 17–28): meddling is like grabbing a dog by the ears; "where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth."
  27. 27Proverbs 27: Iron Sharpeneth IronProverbs 27 · Proverbs 27 opens with humility about the future: "Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth" (v. 1). It is rich in sayings on friendship: "Faithful are the wounds of a friend" (v. 6); "better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off" (v. 10); "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend" (v. 17); "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man" (v. 19). It ends with a small farming poem (vv. 23–27): know the condition of your flocks, for riches do not last, but the grass, the lambs and the goats' milk will sustain your household.
  28. 28Proverbs 28: The Righteous Are Bold as a LionProverbs 28 · Proverbs 28 is a chapter about justice and power. It opens "The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion" (v. 1). It speaks often of torah, "the law" (vv. 4, 7, 9), of the poor and of those who exploit them (vv. 3, 6, 8, 11, 15–16, 27), of rulers good and bad (vv. 2, 12, 15–16, 28), of interest-taking (v. 8), and of confession: "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy" (v. 13). Several sayings warn against haste to get rich (vv. 20, 22).
  29. 29Proverbs 29: Where There Is No Vision, the People PerishProverbs 29 · Proverbs 29 closes the Hezekiah collection with sayings on government ("When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice," v. 2; "The king by judgment establisheth the land," v. 4; "The king that faithfully judgeth the poor, his throne shall be established for ever," v. 14), on correction of children and servants (vv. 15, 17, 19, 21), on anger and pride (vv. 8, 11, 22–23), and two famous lines: "Where there is no vision, the people perish" (v. 18) and "The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe" (v. 25). It ends with mutual abhorrence of the just and the unjust (v. 27).
  30. 30Proverbs 30: The Words of AgurProverbs 30 · Proverbs 30 belongs to "Agur the son of Jakeh," otherwise unknown. He begins in humility ("Surely I am more brutish than any man," v. 2) and asks God's questions: "Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended?… what is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?" (v. 4). He affirms "Every word of God is pure" (v. 5) and prays for two things: freedom from falsehood, and "neither poverty nor riches" (vv. 7–9). Then come numbered sayings: the leech's daughters, four things never satisfied, four things too wonderful (the way of an eagle, a serpent, a ship, a man with a young woman), four things the earth cannot bear, four small but wise creatures (ants, rock badgers, locusts, lizards), and four stately walkers (vv. 15–31).
  31. 31Proverbs 31: A Woman of StrengthProverbs 31 · Proverbs ends with two pieces taught by or about women. In 31:1–9 King Lemuel repeats "the prophecy that his mother taught him": do not spend your strength on women or on wine, which make kings forget the law and pervert justice; "Open thy mouth for the dumb… plead the cause of the poor and needy." In 31:10–31 an alphabetic poem, every verse beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, praises the eshet chayil, "a woman of strength": she trades, buys a field, plants a vineyard, weaves and sells cloth, provides for her household before dawn, opens her hand to the poor, speaks wisdom and kindness, and "feareth the LORD." The book that opened with "the fear of the LORD" (1:7) ends with it (31:30).
  32. 32Investigation: Who Actually Wrote Proverbs?Proverbs 1:1; 10:1; 22:17; 24:23; 25:1; 30:1; 31:1; 31:10; 1 Kings 4:29–34 · Proverbs names its own sources more openly than any other biblical book. Solomon heads the book (1:1) and two collections (10:1; 25:1); "the wise" are credited with two (22:17; 24:23); Hezekiah's scribes copied one (25:1); Agur son of Jakeh (30:1) and the mother of King Lemuel (31:1) contributed others; the final poem (31:10–31) is anonymous. This investigation sets out what each heading claims, what the historical evidence allows, and where traditional and critical views agree and differ.
  33. 33Investigation: The Egyptian Scroll Behind the Hebrew Sayings?Proverbs 22:17–23:11; 15:16–17; 16:8–9; 20:22 · In 1923 the British Museum published an Egyptian wisdom text in thirty chapters, the Instruction of Amenemope, from a papyrus acquired in 1888 (EA 10474). The next year the Egyptologist Adolf Erman showed that Proverbs 22:17–23:11 follows it closely: the call to listen, the warning not to rob the poor or befriend the hot-tempered, not to move boundary stones, riches that fly away like birds, the skilled scribe who stands before kings, and perhaps "thirty sayings." Most scholars conclude that an Israelite teacher adapted Amenemope. This investigation sets out the evidence and its limits.
  34. 34Investigation: Two Proverbs, Greek and HebrewProverbs 1–31 (Hebrew and Greek order) · The Greek translation of Proverbs (probably 2nd century BC) is not a word-for-word copy of the Hebrew. It arranges the later collections in a different order, adds dozens of lines (the bee after the ant, a longer motto in 1:7, lines on the king's tongue after 24:22), lacks some verses (4:7; 11:4; 22:6; 23:23), and often interprets freely. This investigation lays out the two orders side by side, explains what kinds of differences there are, and describes what the site found in its own digital Greek.
  35. 35Investigation: Was Wisdom "Created"?Proverbs 8:22–31; Sirach 24; Wisdom of Solomon 7–9; John 1:1–3; Colossians 1:15–17 · "The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way" (Proverbs 8:22, KJV), or "created me" (Greek). Woman Wisdom's speech about her origin before the world became one of the most argued-over passages in Christian history. This investigation keeps three levels apart: what the Hebrew poem says about personified Wisdom, how Second Temple Jewish writers developed the figure, and how 4th-century Christians argued over the Greek word "created" in the controversy settled at Nicaea.
  36. 36Investigation: Wisdom Is Not a Guarantee of WealthProverbs 3:9–10; 10:3–4, 22; 13:23; 14:31; 22:2, 4; 30:7–9; Job 21; Ecclesiastes 9:11; Psalm 73 · Many proverbs link wisdom, diligence and piety with plenty, and folly with poverty: "the hand of the diligent maketh rich" (10:4); "Honour the LORD with thy substance… so shall thy barns be filled" (3:9–10). Read alone, they can sound like a formula: be good and you will be rich; if you are poor, it is your fault. Proverbs itself does not read that way, and neither does the rest of the Bible. This investigation gathers the evidence.
  37. 37Investigation: What Did Ancient Education Look Like?Proverbs 1:8; 4:1–9; 22:17–21; 31:1; Deuteronomy 6:6–9; Isaiah 28:9–10 · Proverbs speaks as a parent to a child ("My son…") and as a teacher to students ("the words of the wise"). Where was it taught? In the household, at the royal court, in a scribal school? Egypt and Mesopotamia had schools for scribes whose texts survive; Israel's evidence is thinner: abecedaries scratched on pottery and stone, letters and receipts, a few biblical hints. This investigation weighs what can be known.
  38. 38Investigation: Who Are Woman Wisdom and Woman Folly?Proverbs 1:20–33; 2:16–19; 5; 7; 8; 9; 31:10–31 · Proverbs 1–9 is a drama of women: Wisdom calls in the streets, builds her house and claims to have been with God at creation; Folly sits at her door offering stolen water; the "strange woman" lures the young man to death. And the book ends with the woman of strength. Who are these figures? Literary personifications, echoes of goddesses, a portrait of real women, symbols of Torah, or of Christ? This investigation separates the text from its interpreters.
  39. 39Investigation: Contradictory Advice, Contextual WisdomProverbs 26:4–5, 7, 9; 10:3 and 13:23; 14:12 and 16:25; 17:8 and 17:23; 13:24; 22:6; 15:1 · Proverbs contains sayings that seem to contradict each other, sometimes side by side: answer a fool, do not answer a fool (26:4–5); the righteous never hunger, the poor man's field is swept away (10:3; 13:23); a gift opens doors, a bribe perverts justice (17:8, 23). It also contains sayings that, applied rigidly, can harm: about the rod (13:24), about training a child (22:6), about a soft answer (15:1). This investigation explains how Proverbs expects its sayings to be used, and how the site handles the hardest ones.
  40. 40Investigation: Money, Credit, Justice and Vulnerable PeopleProverbs 6:1–5; 11:1, 15, 26; 20:10, 16; 22:7, 22–28; 23:10–11; 28:8; 29:4, 14; 31:8–9 · Proverbs has more to say about money than almost any biblical book: guaranteeing others' debts, honest weights, hoarding grain in famine, interest, boundary stones, bribes, the borrower's servitude, kings who tax and kings who judge the poor. This investigation gathers these sayings, sets them beside Israel's law and ancient Near Eastern practice, and distinguishes ancient economic advice from modern financial systems.
  41. 41Investigation: The Woman of Strength and the Bookends of ProverbsProverbs 1:7, 20–33; 9:1–6; 31:1–31; Ruth 3:11 · Proverbs begins with a father's voice and Woman Wisdom calling in the gates; it ends with a mother's teaching and a woman praised in the gates. It opens with "the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge" (1:7) and closes with "a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised" (31:30). This investigation looks at the framing of the book, the alphabetic poem's art and world, its link to Ruth, and how it has been read.

How Proverbs came to us

Who wrote it, how it was copied, and how it reached the Bible you hold. These lessons follow the book through history.

  1. ★How Proverbs Came to UsProverbs grew from sayings spoken in households, markets and courts into written collections under the names of Solomon, the wise, Hezekiah's scribes, Agur and Lemuel's mother, and was arranged into one book by the Persian or early Hellenistic period. It was translated into Greek in a different order with many additions; Hebrew fragments survive from Qumran; complete Hebrew copies from the 10th–11th centuries AD; Latin, Syriac, Aramaic and other versions followed. Its place in the canon was once debated. This lesson traces that history and marks what is known, debated and unknown.
  2. 6The SeptuagintJews in Egypt translated their Scriptures into Greek, creating the Bible of the early church and of the New Testament writers.
  3. 7The Dead Sea ScrollsA shepherd's discovery in 1947 gave us Bible manuscripts a thousand years older than any known before, and showed how faithfully the text was kept.
  4. 13Scribes, Jerome, and the MasoretesJerome gave the West its Latin Bible; Jewish scholars called the Masoretes guarded the Hebrew text letter by letter.

Journey of a Passage