Proverbs 1–9

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Proverbs 1–9
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Leningrad-codex-17-proverbs.pdf
The whole Book of Proverbs in the Leningrad Codex (1008 C.E.) from an old fascimile edition.
Book Book of Proverbs
Category Ketuvim
Christian Bible part Old Testament
Order in the Christian part21

The first nine chapters of the Book of Proverbs represent for many scholars the first (but not the oldest) section of the Book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. The opening verse refers to the proverbs of Solomon, but many scholars argue that it was composed later than Solomon's time, usually in the early Persian period. [1]

Contents

Anglican commentator T. T. Perowne, in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, calls this section "The Appeal of Wisdom", [2] a title also reserved in particular for Proverbs 8. [3]

The Jerusalem Bible describes chapters 1–9 as a prologue, and chapters 10–22:16, "the [actual] proverbs of Solomon", as "the body of the book". [4] Aberdeen theologian Kenneth Aitken treats chapters 1–9 as a set of "didactic discourses". [5] Chapter 10 also commences with the words "The proverbs of Solomon". [6] and Methodist writer Joseph Benson suggests that this is where the proverbs "properly so called" commence; "for the foregoing chapters, although they had this title in the beginning of them, yet, in truth, were only a preparation to them, intended to stir up men’s minds to the greater attention to all the precepts of wisdom". [7]

Chapter headings

The New King James Version entitles the chapters and sections as follows:

Chapter 1

Verses 1:1–7 constitute an introduction to the whole of this part of the book, stating the purpose and value of the book and the basis upon which its teaching rests. [5] The "Proverbs of Solomon" are "given" or taught" so that people may know "wisdom and good advice, and understand sayings with deep meaning". [8] In the single word "wisdom", "the whole subject of the book is gathered up". [2] Good advice, or "instruction" in the King James Version, [9] "carries with it the sense of correction, or discipline". [2]

Verse 8

My son, hear the instruction of your father,
And do not forsake the law of your mother. [10]

This form of appeal, My son, "is continually repeated throughout these opening chapters". [2] The medieval French rabbi Rashi suggested that the "father" refers to God, the father of mankind, and the "instruction" or "discipline" meant the law which God "gave Moses in writing and orally". Likewise, he suggested that "mother" refers to "your nation, the nation of Israel". [11] Theologian John Gill challenges this:

This is not to be understood of God the Father of mankind, and of that law which he has given them, as Jarchi (Rashi) and Gersom [lower-alpha 1] interpret it, but of Solomon and his son in a literal sense; and of anyone that came to him for instruction, any pupil, hearer, or reader of his; and it is a direction to all children to hearken to the instruction of their parents, and obey their commands. [12]

Chapter 4

This chapter contains a short section on the value of wisdom and the call "to acquire it at all costs", and the metaphor in verses 10 to 27 of life as a road with two paths, the path of the wicked and the path of the just. [13] The Jerusalem Bible entitles this chapter, "On choosing wisdom". [14]

Chapter 5

Sub-titled "The Peril of Adultery" in the New King James Version, this is the first of three poems on the "forbidden woman", the “stranger” outside the social boundaries of Israel; the other two are Proverbs 6:20–35 and Proverbs 7. [15] Verse 5 suggests that the woman is "as bitter as wormwood", a comparison used several times in the Hebrew Bible, by the prophets Jeremiah and Amos, also in Deuteronomy.

Verse 7

Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. [16]

Aitken stresses the need to acquire wisdom "at all costs", [13] and the Jerusalem Bible advises that "one must first realise that it is essential to have it and that it demands self-sacrifice". [17] Similarly the modern World English Bible's translation advises, Yes, though it costs all your possessions, get understanding. [18]

Chapter 6

Verse 1

My son, if you become surety for your friend, If you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger, [19]

There are several references to suretyship in Proverbs, the first coming here (verses 1–6). According to Perowne,

the strong terms of warning and reprobation in which it is invariably spoken of ... accord well with what we should suppose to be the condition of society in the reign of Solomon. In earlier and simpler times it was enough for the Law to forbid usury or interest for a loan of money to be exacted by one Israelite of another; and raiment given as a pledge or security for a debt was to be returned before night-fall to be the owner’s covering in his sleep (Exodus 22:25–27; Leviticus 25:35–38). With the development, however, of commerce and the growth of luxury under Solomon, money-lending transactions, whether for speculation in trade, or for personal gratification, had come to be among the grave dangers that beset the path of youth.

Accordingly, the writer of Proverbs "has no quarter for it, but condemns it unsparingly on every mention of it". [20] Subsequent references to surety are at Proverbs 11:15, 17:18, 20:16, 22:26 and 27:13. [21]

Chapter 7

Verse 2

Keep my commands and live,
And my law as the apple of your eye. [22]

The phrase "apple of my eye" (or similar) occurs in several other places in the Bible, including in reference to Moses, in Deuteronomy 32:10:

He found him in a desert land
And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness;
He encircled him, He instructed him,
He kept him as the apple of His eye. [23]

Verses 6-23

These verses retell "an example story on the wiles of the adulteress ... cast in the form of [a] personal reminiscence". [24] The narrator observes a wayward youth through the lattice of his window; in the Septuagint, it is the woman who looks out of the window seeking her prey, and this reading has been preferred by some scholars. [24]

Chapter 8

This chapter covers "Wisdom's Second Speech". Wisdom "cries out" (verse 1). Some translations and paraphrases treat personify "Wisdom" and "Understanding" as characters speaking out, for example in the New American Bible, Revised Edition:

Does not Wisdom call,
and Understanding raise her voice? [25]

and in The Voice translation:

Isn’t Lady Wisdom calling? [26]

Aitken divides this chapter into sections as follows:

Verse 2

On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand. [28]

American theologian Albert Barnes notes the contrast between Wisdom's openness and transparency, and the "stealth and secrecy and darkness" which had shrouded the harlot's enticements in chapter 7. [29]

Chapter 9

Two "ways" are contrasted in this chapter:

Verse 3

She has sent out her maidens,
She cries out from the highest places of the city. [33]

Benson says personified Wisdom may be compared to "a great princess": therefore "it was fit she should be attended on by maidens". [34]

Verse 13

Folly is an unruly woman; she is simple and knows nothing. [35]

Like Wisdom in the previous chapter, Folly is also personified as a character, called Dame Folly in the Jerusalem Bible, "the woman called Folly" in the New English Translation. [36]

Notes

  1. ↑ Probably Gershom ben Judah, c. 960 -1040

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Proverbs 23

Proverbs 23 is the 23th chapter of the Book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is a compilation of several wisdom literature collections, with the heading in 1:1 may be intended to regard Solomon as the traditional author of the whole book, but the dates of the individual collections are difficult to determine, and the book probably obtained its final shape in the post-exilic period. This chapter specifically records "the sayings of wise".

Proverbs 22

Proverbs 22 is the 22th chapter of the Book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is a compilation of several wisdom literature collections, with the heading in 1:1 may be intended to regard Solomon as the traditional author of the whole book, but the dates of the individual collections are difficult to determine, and the book probably obtained its final shape in the post-exilic period. This chapter records parts of the second and third collection of the book.

Proverbs 24

Proverbs 24 is the 24th chapter of the Book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This chapter specifically records "the sayings of wise".

References

  1. ↑ Steinmann, Andrew E., Proverbs 1-9 as a Solomonic Composition, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 43.4 (December 2000): p. 660, accessed 9 April 2021
  2. 1 2 3 4 Perowne, T. T., "Proverbs", Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, Bible hub, 1, retrieved 29 March 2021.
  3. ↑ Proverbs 8:1–36: New English Translation (NET)
  4. ↑ Jerusalem Bible (1966), Introduction to The Proverbs, p. 931
  5. 1 2 Aitken, K. T., 19. Proverbs in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001), The Oxford Bible Commentary, p. 406.
  6. ↑ Proverbs 10:1: New King James Version
  7. ↑ Benson, J. (1857), Benson Commentary: Proverbs 10, Bible hub, accessed 9 April 2021.
  8. ↑ Proverbs 1:2: Good News Translation
  9. ↑ Proverbs 1:3: King James Version
  10. ↑ Proverbs 1:8
  11. ↑ Rashi, Rashi on Proverbs 1.8, accessed 1 April 2021
  12. ↑ Gill, J., Gill's Exposition: Proverbs 1, accessed 1 April 2021
  13. 1 2 Aitken, K. T., 19. Proverbs in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001), The Oxford Bible Commentary, p. 409
  14. ↑ Jerusalem Bible (1966), sub-title at Proverbs 4
  15. ↑ Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Footnote a, New American Bible, Revised Edition at Proverbs 5
  16. ↑ Proverbs 4:7: NKJV
  17. ↑ Footnote a at Proverbs 4:7
  18. ↑ Proverbs 4:7: WEB
  19. ↑ Proverbs 6:1
  20. ↑ Perowne, T. T., Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges: Proverbs 6, accessed 4 April 2021
  21. ↑ BibleGateway.com, Keyword Search: "surety" in Proverbs
  22. ↑ Proverbs 7:2
  23. ↑ Deuteronomy 32:10
  24. 1 2 Aitken, K. T., 19. Proverbs in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001), The Oxford Bible Commentary, p. 410
  25. ↑ Proverbs 8:1: New American Bible, Revised Edition
  26. ↑ Proverbs 8:1: The Voice
  27. ↑ Aitken, K. T., 19. Proverbs in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001), The Oxford Bible Commentary, p. 411
  28. ↑ Proverbs 8:2: New Revised Standard Version
  29. ↑ Barnes, A. (1884), Barnes' Notes: Proverbs 8, accessed 7 April 2021
  30. ↑ Sub-title, Proverbs 9:13-18 in the New King James Version
  31. ↑ Proverbs 9:16: New King James Version
  32. ↑ Jerusalem Bible (1966), footnote c at Proverbs 9:13
  33. ↑ Proverbs 9:3: NKJV
  34. ↑ Benson, J., 1857, Benson Commentary: Chapter 9, accessed 9 April 2021
  35. ↑ Proverbs 9:13: New International Version
  36. ↑ Proverbs 9:13: New English Translation
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