Proverbs

Ryan O'Dowd, Tremper Longman III, Scot McKnight

• Publisher: Zondervan Academic
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780310491149
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Estudios bíblicos

A new commentary for today's world, The Story of God Bible Commentary explains and illuminates each passage of Scripture in light of the Bible's grand story.

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—Proverbs—

It's true that God never speaks in Proverbs, but the text is represented as the wisdom of Solomon, which he receives from God in response to his request. We have to come to the book in light of the theology that anchors all its teachings: that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

Edited by Scot McKnight and Tremper Longman III, and written by a number of top-notch theologians, The Story of God Bible Commentary series will bring relevant, balanced, and clear-minded theological insight to any biblical education or ministry.

CHAPTER 1

Proverbs 1:1–7

¹ The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:

² for gaining wisdom and instruction;
for understanding words of insight;

³ for receiving instruction in prudent behavior,
doing what is right and just and fair;

⁴ for giving prudence to those who are simple,
knowledge and discretion to the young—

⁵ let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance—

⁶ for understanding proverbs and parables,
the sayings and riddles of the wise.

⁷ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Listening to the Text in the Story: Genesis 2–4; Deuteronomy 10:12–22; 1 Kings 3–10; Psalm 119; Ecclesiastes; Daniel 1; Amenemope 1:1–12

As discussed in Wisdom and Law in the Introduction, Franz Delitzsch argued 150 years ago that the language and theology of Deuteronomy were reflected in the book of Proverbs. Delitzsch’s ideas were largely rejected at first. In recent decades, however, many scholars have begun to return to the idea that Proverbs is interested in, indeed sympathetic to, the theology in other books in the Old Testament. Surely the debate of Proverbs’ relationship to the Old Testament will continue, but Christian readers should be confident that Proverbs makes sophisticated use of the Hebrew canon—Law, Prophets, and Writings.

The superscription in verse 1 resembles other superscriptions in the Law (Deut 1:1), Prophets (Jer 1:1), and later Writings (Eccl 1:1), which shed light on Solomon’s role in the formation of Proverbs. For instance, the openings to Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are almost identical, although Solomon’s name is not mentioned in Ecclesiastes. This absence of Solomon’s name in Ecclesiastes is not incidental: it plays a significant role in the type of wisdom embraced by “the Preacher” (see Authorship and Date in the Introduction). Just as the type of wisdom portrayed in Ecclesiastes is selective, the sayings collected in Proverbs are not an exhaustive listing of Solomon’s sayings. The writer of 1 Kings remembered Solomon for his great wisdom (ch. 3–10) and records him as having written over 3,000 proverbs (4:32). But there are less than 1,000 sayings in Proverbs, so Proverbs can only be a selection of Solomon’s work. Additionally, other authors’ collections of proverbs were included in the book (Prov 22:17; 24:23; 30:1; 31:1). Thus, Solomon’s name in the title functions less as a statement of verse-by-verse authorship and more as a way of ascribing the book of Proverbs to Solomon’s reputation as known from elsewhere in the Old Testament. In this view, Solomon stands as Israel’s king of wisdom and wisdom literature, just as Moses serves as the honorific giver of Israel’s lawgiver and David for the whole book of Psalms. David’s example especially stands out, as many songs were written by musicians other than David.

In the next chapter we will study the father’s introductory address to the son (Prov 1:8), which is similar to ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian wisdom sayings that also frequently begin with a superscription, often by a king, and frequently directed to children or a son. Proverbs’ closest noted parallel is in the prologue to Amenemope:

Beginning of the teaching for life,

The instructions for well-being,

Every rule for relations with elders,

For conduct towards magistrates;

Knowing how to answer one who speaks . . .

Steering clear of Evil;

To save him from the mouth of strangers,

To let (him) be praised in the mouth of people . . .

Amenemope, the son of Kanakht,

The justified in Ta-wer.

<For> his son, the youngest of his children,

The smallest of his family. (Amenemope 1.1–5, 10–12, 2.11–15)¹

Proverbs 1:2–6 offers a similar list of the contents and purposes of the book: to teach “wisdom,” “instruction,” “words of insight,” “instruction in prudent behavior,” “just,” “right,” “fair,” “knowledge,” and insight into the words and riddles of the wise. As noted under “Genre” in the Introduction, wisdom literature is a modern concept and we have little indication that the biblical authors thought in this way. That does not make the distinction false or unhelpful. Aside from the ethical vocabulary in 1:3, which we will address shortly, these wisdom terms appear far more often in Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes than anywhere else in the Old Testament. The Song of Songs, which is sometimes grouped with wisdom books, does not share the vocabulary or focus in wisdom literature on growing in knowledge and ethical understanding. Singling out wisdom literature as a distinct genre helps us appreciate the ancient Israelite way of thinking about practical living and learning as intended by the God of the law, Psalms, and the prophets.

Translated literally, the second half of verse 3 promises instruction in “righteousness, justice, and equity” (cf. Prov 2:9). These three terms are found throughout the Old Testament, though they fit more naturally among the books of law, psalms, and prophecy than among wisdom literature (cf. Gen 18:19; Pss 9:9; 58:2; 90:9; Isa 11:4; 33:15; 45:19). So why does this prophetic and legal triad appear in these two places in Proverbs and nowhere else in the wisdom literature?

An answer may be found in Moshe Weinfeld’s study of this judicial vocabulary in the Bible and the surrounding Near Eastern culture of Israel’s ancient world.² While we often think of justice and righteousness in merely political or judicial terms, Weinfeld argues that when these terms appear in pairs and triadic chains, as they do in Proverbs 1:3 and 2:9, they point to a common vision of judicial, political, social, and interpersonal harmony—a vision that not only exists in Mesopotamian and Egyptian literature but lies behind Jesus’ kingship in the New Testament as well. Justice and righteousness imply order in the human world that is grounded in God’s own cosmic wholeness and order.³

In this light, the appearance of these terms in Proverbs is not surprising. As Weinfeld points out, the prophets themselves considered wisdom essential for a king’s ability to establish the wholeness of justice and righteousness.⁴ The Psalms and Isaiah recognized that God’s ordering of the creation provides the foundation for kings to bring order to their kingdoms (Pss 33:5–6; 93:5; 99:4–7; Isa 45:18–25; 48:13–16).⁵

The link between wisdom and justice is probably most explicit in the story of the Queen of Sheba who came to see Solomon after hearing of the wisdom in his extraordinary sense of natural beauty and craftsmanship, but particularly in his administration of justice. As the queen departed, she offered Solomon a tribute and these words of praise: “Praise be to the LORD your God . . . Because of the LORD’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness” (1 Kgs 10:9, emphasis added). As we will see below, this holistic way of viewing creation, wisdom, and righteousness pervades wisdom literature, even if the legal terms are not always present.

The commentary in Proverbs 3:18–20 and 8:1–36 shows that wisdom literature relies heavily on the account of the creation and the fall in Genesis 3. In this light, we pause to recognize the distinct parallels between the vocabulary in Proverbs 1:3–4 and Genesis 2–4, specifically the way that the terms daat “knowledge,” ormah “crafty/prudence/wisdom,” and sakal “wise dealing” appear in Genesis only in these first four chapters.⁶

Genesis		Proverbs
2:9, 17; 4:1	“knowledge” (daat)	1:4, 7
3:1	“crafty/prudence/wisdom” (ormah)	1:4
2:25; 3:1, 7, 10, 11	“nakedness” (arom)
3:6	“wise dealing” (sakal)	1:3

The source of eventual rebellion in Genesis, and thus the primary object of our intrigue, is in the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen 2:9, emphasis added)—a feature of the garden that offers both physical pleasure and a means to bypass the divinely established limits of human knowledge. Furthermore, physical pleasure, sexual desire, and the acquisition of wisdom and knowledge are interwoven throughout Genesis and Proverbs. The word for “knowledge” in the tree in Genesis doubles as a euphemism for sexual relations in Genesis 4:1 and elsewhere throughout the Old Testament. The forbidden fruit, which is itself a symbol of sexual pleasure, when it is eaten by Adam and Eve reveals the shame of nakedness, i.e., exposes their sexual identity. There are strong acoustic parallels in Adam and Eve’s “nakedness,” arom and erom (Gen 2:25; 3:7, 10, 11, 21), and the “craftiness,” arum (3:1) that the serpent used to draw Eve’s attention to the tree.⁷

Proverbs gathers all of these terms and images from the account of the fall and reframes them in a redeemed light. Whereas the savory appeal of the fruit for Eve was tied to her desire for sakal, or a wisdom of rebellion (Gen 3:6), Proverbs offers sakal, “wisdom,” of righteousness, justice, and equity (Prov 1: 3).⁸

Proverbs 1:5 and 7 depart from the meter and chain of infinitive verbs in verses 2–4 and 6. The effect in verse 7 brings the prologue to its climactic conclusion: “the fear of the LORD [Yahweh] is the beginning of knowledge” (7a). We will discuss the translation and meaning of this phrase in the interpretation section below. For now, note that wisdom in Proverbs is tied to submission to Yahweh, the God of Israel’s covenant history (2:5; 9:10, etc.; cf. Deut 6:4–9; Jer 31:31–34; Isa 11:2).

Proverbs emphasizes this theological presupposition by its preference for the name Yahweh, using it eighty-seven times to only five uses of Elohim, a more generic title for God in the Old Testament.⁹ Further still, while religious “fear” and “fearing God [Elohim]” are not uncommon in the Old Testament, the phrase “the fear of the LORD,” is quite specific and only occurs about twenty times in the Old Testament, fourteen of those in Proverbs. In its other locations the fear of Yahweh is used to capture the appropriate response to God’s self-revelation and giving of the laws and commandments at Sinai (Exod 20:20; Deut 10:12–22; cf. Deut 5:29; 6:2; Josh 24:14; Ps 111:10).

1:1 Resembling the modern hardcover book jacket, verse 1 introduces the author, his credentials, and the contents and purpose of his book. As we discussed in “Authorship and Date” in the Introduction, there are at least four authors for this book, but the final editors of Proverbs likely added this verse because they wanted all of the material to stand under Solomon’s name and his reputation as Israel’s king of wisdom.

“Proverb,” mashal, is used throughout the Old Testament to refer to several different forms of speech, such as ballads, oracles, maxims, and bywords (Num 23:7; 1 Kgs 4:32; Job 13:12; 29:1; Pss 44:15; 49:4; Eccl 9:17). Although most of Proverbs consists of comparison sayings, the book’s superscription is less concerned with a specific form of speech than with the fact that these sayings have a cultured history, or a time-tested currency, among the folk. The first verse authenticates these ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• The Story of God Bible Commentary Series
• Abbreviations
• Introduction to Proverbs
• Resources for Teaching and Preaching
• 1. Proverbs 1:1–7
• 2. Proverbs 1:8–19
• 3. Proverbs 1:20–33
• 4. Proverbs 2:1–22
• 5. Proverbs 3:1–12
• 6. Proverbs 3:13–20
• 7. Proverbs 3:21–35
• 8. Proverbs 4:1–27
• 9. Proverbs 5:1–23
• 10. Proverbs 6:1–19
• 11. Proverbs 6:20–35; 7:1–27
• 12. Proverbs 8:1–36
• 13. Proverbs 9:1–18
• 14. Introduction to Proverbs 10:1–29:27
• 15. Proverbs 10:1–32
• 16. Proverbs 11:1–31
• 17. Proverbs 12:1–28
• 18. Proverbs 13:1–25
• 19. Proverbs 14:1–35
• 20. Proverbs 15:1–33
• 21. Proverbs 16:1–33
• 22. Proverbs 17:1–28
• 23. Proverbs 18:1–24
• 24. Proverbs 19:1–29
• 25. Proverbs 20:1–30
• 26. Proverbs 21:1–31
• 27. Proverbs 22:1–29
• 28. Proverbs 23:1–35
• 29. Proverbs 24:1–34
• 30. Proverbs 25:1–28
• 31. Proverbs 26:1–28
• 32. Proverbs 27:1–27
• 33. Proverbs 28:1–28
• 34. Proverbs 29:1–27
• 35. Proverbs 30:1–33
• 36. Proverbs 31:1–31
• Scripture Index
• Subject Index
• Author Index