Proverbs Proverbs

Proverbs

Introduction

At a Glance

Author: Mostly Solomon, king of Israel, but other contributors too

Audience: Originally Israel, but these words of wisdom are for everyone—they are written to you

Date: Preexile (chs. 10–29) and Postexile (chs. 1–9; 30–31), the tenth to fifth centuries BC

Type of Literature: Poetry and wisdom literature

Major Themes: The fear of the Lord; God’s transcendence and immanence; godly wisdom and human foolishness; the righteous and wicked wealth and poverty; men and women; husbands and wives; Jesus and wisdom

Outline:

Collection I: Introduction to Wisdom — 1:1–9:18

Collection II: Sayings of Solomon, Part 1 — 10:1–22:16

Collection III: Sayings of the Wise — 22:17–24:22

Collection IV: More Sayings of the Wise — 24:23–34

Collection V: Sayings of Solomon, Part 2 — 25:1–29:27

Collection VI: Sayings of Agur and Lemuel — 30:1–31:31

About Proverbs

The Bible is a book of poetry, not simply starched, stiff doctrines devoid of passion. The Bible, including Proverbs, is full of poetic beauty and subtle nuances ripe with meaning. The ancient wisdom of God fills its pages!

Proverbs is a book of wisdom from above tucked inside metaphors, symbols, and poetic imagery. God could properly be described as the divine poet and master artisan who crafted the cosmos to portray his glory and has given us his written Word to reveal his wisdom. Inspired from eternity, the sixty-six books of our Bible convey the full counsel and wisdom of God. Do you need wisdom? God has a verse for that!

Five books of divine poetry show us the reality of knowing God through experience, not just through history or doctrines. Job points us to the end of our self-life to discover the greatest revelation of the Lord, which is his tender love and wisdom. Psalms reveals the new life we enter into with God, expressed through praise and prayer. Next is Proverbs, where we enroll in the divine seminary of wisdom and revelation to learn the ways of God. Ecclesiastes teaches us to set our hearts not on the things of this life but on those values that endure eternally. And finally, in Song of Songs, the sweetest lyrics ever composed lead us into divine romance where we are immersed in Jesus’ love for his bride.

The nature of Hebrew poetry is quite different from that of English poetry. There is a pleasure found in Hebrew poetry that transcends rhyme and meter. The Hebrew verses come in a poetic package, a form of meaning that imparts an understanding that is deeper than mere logic. True revelation unfolds an encounter—an experience of knowing God as he is revealed through the mysterious vocabulary of riddle, proverb, and parable.

For example, the Hebrew word for “proverb,” mashal, has two meanings. The first is “parable, byword, metaphor, a pithy saying that expresses wisdom.” But the second meaning is overlooked by many. The homonym mashal can also mean “to rule, to take dominion” or “to reign with power.”

What you have before you now is a dynamic translation of the ancient book of Proverbs. These powerful words will bring you revelation from the throne room—the wisdom you need to guide your steps and direct your life. What you learn from these verses will change your life and launch you into your destiny.

Purpose

Within this divinely anointed compilation of proverbs there is a deep well of wisdom to reign in our lives and to succeed in our destiny. The wisdom that God has designed for us to receive will cause us to excel—to rise up as rulers-to-be on earth for his glory. The kingdom of God is brought into the earth as we implement the godly wisdom of Proverbs.

Although the book of Proverbs can be interpreted in its most literal and practical sense, the wisdom contained herein is not unlocked by a casual surface reading. The Spirit of revelation has breathed upon every verse to embed a deeper meaning of practical insight to guide our steps into the lives God meant for us to live.

Author and Audience

You’re about to read the greatest book of wisdom ever written, mostly penned by the wisest man to ever live. God gave Solomon this wisdom to pass along to us, God’s servants, who continue the ministry of Jesus, the embodiment of wisdom, until he returns in full glory. While Solomon penned most of these words of wisdom, it is believed others had a hand too, including advisers to King Hezekiah and the unknown men Agur and Lemuel—which could be pseudonyms for Solomon. Regardless, the one who edited the final version of Proverbs brought together the wisest teachings from the wisest person to ever live to write a book containing some of the deepest revelation in the Bible. When Solomon pens a proverb, there is more than meets the eye!

To whom are these proverbs written? This compilation of wisdom’s words is written to you! Throughout the book we find words like “Listen, my sons. Listen, my daughters.” The book of Proverbs is written to us as sons and daughters of the living God. The teaching we receive is not from a distant god who tells us we’d better live right or else. These are personal words of love and tenderness from our wise Father, the Father of eternity, who speaks right into our hearts with healing, radiant words. Receive deeply the words of the kind Father of heaven as though he were speaking directly to you.

Major Themes

The wisdom found in Proverbs is about the art of successful living. The appeal of these insights is that they touch on universal problems and issues that affect human behavior in us all. Several major themes are present in these godly sayings of God’s servant Solomon:

Lady Wisdom, Revelation-Knowledge, Living-Understanding. Throughout Proverbs wisdom is personified with the metaphor of Lady Wisdom, who dispenses revelation-knowledge and living-understanding. Lady Wisdom is a figure of speech for God, whose divine wisdom invites us to receive the best way to live, the excellent and noble way of life. Wisdom is personified as a guide (6:22), a beloved sister or bride (7:4), and a hostess who generously invites people to “come and dine at my table and drink of my wine” (9:1–6). In Proverbs, wisdom is inseparable from knowledge and understanding, which is not received independent of God’s revelation. We are invited to “come to the one who has living-understanding” (9:10) in order to receive what Lady Wisdom has to offer. God promises that revelation-knowledge will flow to the one who hungers for the gift of understanding (14:6).

The Fear of the Lord. From the beginning, in 1:7, Proverbs makes it clear that we “gain the essence of wisdom” and “cross the threshold of true knowledge” only when we fear the Lord—or, as The Passion Translation reads, we live “in obedient devotion to God.” Living in a way that our entire being worships and adores God is a constant theme throughout Proverbs.

God’s Transcendence and Immanence. Proverbs teaches that God is both the author of (transcendent) and actor within (immanent) our human story. First, God is above and outside the world: as Creator “he broke open the hidden fountains of the deep, bringing secret springs to the surface” (3:20); “God sees everything you do and his eyes are wide open as he observes every single habit you have” (5:21); he is sovereign and steers “a king’s heart for his purposes” as easily as he directs “the course of a stream” (21:1).

Second, God is a part of and involved with the world: “The rich and the poor have one thing in common: the Lord God created each one” (22:2); “the Lord champions the widow’s cause” (15:25); he “will rise to plead [the poor’s] case” (22:23).

Proverbs teaches that God is all-powerful and transcendent while also taking part in our human story as our defender and protector.

Wise and Fool, Righteous and Wicked. Solomon believed there are basically two kinds of people in the world: the wise righteous and the wicked fools. The wise person possesses God’s revelation-knowledge and living-understanding. Therefore, he is prudent, shrewd, insightful, and does what is right because he is righteous, a God-lover. This lover of God is just, peaceful, upright, blameless, good, trustworthy, and kind.

The wicked fool is different. He is greedy, violent, deceitful, cruel, and he speaks perversely. It’s no wonder “the Lord detests the lifestyle of the wicked” (15:9)! As a foolish person, he is described as being gullible, an idiot, self-sufficient, a mocker, lazy, senseless, and one who rejects revelation-knowledge and living-understanding.

Many of Solomon’s wise sayings relate to these two kinds of people, teaching us how to avoid being a wicked fool and instead live as God intends us to live, as his wise, righteous lovers.

Wealth and Poverty. As with many of Solomon’s wise sayings, we cannot take one thought on wealth and poverty and apply it to every situation. Instead, Solomon teaches us seven major things about having wealth and being poor, and how wisdom and foolishness affect them both: the righteous are blessed with wealth by God himself; foolishness leads to poverty; fools who have wealth will soon lose it; poverty results from injustice and oppression; the wealthy are called to be generous with their wealth; gaining wisdom is far better than gaining wealth; and the value of wealth is limited.

Jesus and the Church. As with the rest of the Old Testament, we are called to read Proverbs in light of Jesus and his ministry. Throughout the gospels Jesus associates himself with wisdom. For instance, in Matt. 11:18–19 Jesus claims his actions represent Lady Wisdom herself. Where he is identified with Lady Wisdom in the New Testament, it is a powerful way of saying that Jesus is the full, entire embodiment of wisdom. In many ways Col. 1:15–17 mirrors Prov. 8. Likewise, the preface to John’s Gospel resonates with this same chapter when Jesus is associated with the Word, another personification of wisdom.

Jesus stands at the center of Scripture; he can be found throughout Scripture, not just in the New Testament. So as you read these important words of wisdom, consider how they point to the One who perfectly embodied and is our Wisdom.

Proverbs

Wisdom from Above

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