The Book of
PROVERBS
Author: Solomon, with Portions by Agur and King Lemuel
Date: About 950 B.C., with PortionsAbout 720 B.C.
Theme: Universal Principles for Living
Key Words: Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding,Instruction, the Fear of the Lord
Author. Solomon, king of Israel, was the son of David and Bathsheba. He reigned for forty years, from 970 to 930 B.C., taking the throne at about twenty years of age.
No doubt influenced by the psalm-writing of his father, Solomon has left us more books than any other Old Testament writer except Moses. It seems probable that his Song of Solomon was written when he was a young romantic, his Proverbs when he was mature and at the height of his powers, and his Ecclesiastes when he had become more aged, more inclined to philosophical conclusions, and perhaps more cynical. His strengths were not on the battlefield, but in the realm of the mind: meditation, planning, negotiation, and organization.
Solomon’s reputation for wisdom springs not only from its practical results, as in the case of the dispute over a baby (1 Kin. 3:16–27), but also from the direct statements of Scripture. In 1 Kings 3:12 God says, “There has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you.” In 1 Kings 4:31 he is called “wiser than all men,” with names of other wise men cited in specific comparison.
Of Agur and King Lemuel (30:1; 31:1) we know nothing except that, by their names, they were not Israelites. Wisdom is universal, not national.
Date. Since the Book of Proverbs is a compilation, its writing was spread over a period of years, with the main work probably centered about 950 B.C. Chapters 25 through 29 are identified as copied by “Hezekiah’s men,” which places the copying at about 720 B.C., though the material itself was by Solomon, perhaps in a separate document found in Hezekiah’s time.
Background. Under Solomon’s leadership Israel reached its greatest geographical extent and enjoyed the least violence of the entire kingdom period. “Peaceful,” the meaning of his name, describes Solomon’s reign. And peace, with wisdom, brought unprecedented prosperity to the nation, which became a cause of wonder and admiration to the queen of Sheba (1 Kin. 10:6–9) and to the other rulers of the time. Wise sayings, like music or other art forms, tend to blossom in such a time, then endure through succeeding generations.
Content. The Book of Proverbs is not just a collection of sayings, but a collection of collections. Its unifying thought or theme is, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (9:10), appearing in another form as, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning (or principal part) of knowledge” (1:7). Coming through the diversity of examples time and again are such truths as these:
1. Wisdom (the ability to judge and act according to God’s directives) is the most valuable of assets.
2. Wisdom is available to anyone, but the price is high.
3. Wisdom originates in God, not self, and comes by attention to instruction.
4. Wisdom and righteousness go together. It is good to be wise, and it is wise to be good.
5. Evil men suffer the consequences of their evil deeds.
6. The simple, the fool, the lazy, the ignorant, the proud, the profligate, the sinful are never to be admired.
Many powerful contrasts are found again and again. Antithesis helps to clarify the meaning of key words. Among the ideas set in vivid contrast with each other are:
Wisdom versus Folly
Righteousness versus Wickedness
Good versus Evil
Life versus Death
Prosperity versus Poverty
Honor versus Dishonor
Permanence versus Transience
Truth versus Falsehood
Industry versus Indolence
Friend versus Enemy
Prudence versus Rashness
Fidelity versus Adultery
Peace versus Violence
Goodwill versus Anger
God versus Man
Personal Application. The wisdom contained in the Book of Proverbs is as meaningful today as when it was written. Yet it is neither a prosperity pamphlet nor a “how to succeed” handbook in the worldly sense. It tells rather how to order one’s values, which leads to character, which leads to wholeness, which leads to satisfaction. It warns of the pitfalls along the way, and declares the folly of not developing the fear of the Lord. Because the thirty-one-chapter book contains so much that is worth daily meditation and is relevant for every era, many Bible readers have found it desirable to read a chapter a day, thus covering the entire book every month.
Christ Revealed. No direct references to Christ, prophetic or typological, are especially conspicuous in the Book of Proverbs. In fact, the personification of Wisdom is normally feminine throughout. Nevertheless some passages (such as 8:23–31) seem an unmistakable description of Jesus Christ, who was “in the beginning with God” (John 1:2), is “the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24), and “became for us wisdom” (1 Cor. 1:30).
Certainly the book performs a powerful service in whetting the human appetite for wisdom and understanding, a hunger that can only be fully satisfied in Christ.
Proverbs, much like the Mosaic Law, describes an ideal, an aspiration, a longing for perfection. Yet even Solomon himself was not perfectly wise, or he would not have so flagrantly disobeyed and thus displeased God (1 Kin. 11:9–11). Only later, in Jesus Christ, came the full example of all that Proverbs extols, the One “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom” (Col. 2:3).
Point by point, the qualities of wisdom are the qualities of the Christ. Obedience to God, right behavior, patience, reliability, humility, diligence, the perception of things as they really are—all these, plus love, are perfectly illustrated in the Savior.
The Holy Spirit at Work. The Holy Spirit is not mentioned directly in the Book of Proverbs. But Wisdom refers to her spirit (1:23), which of course is the Spirit of God. In fact, a main point of the book is that wisdom apart from God is impossible, so in that sense His Spirit is prominent throughout. However the dominant word translated “spirit” in the book is almost always with the meaning of “attitude,” or “demeanor,” never implying a personality.
In our era, a time of the special work of the Holy Spirit, it is the Spirit who helps us mine the riches of the Proverbs, rather than Proverbs helping us understand the Spirit. It has been said of the Old and New Testaments, “The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is in the New revealed.”
In the case of the Book of Proverbs, the Holy Spirit in the New Testament demonstrates how the wisdom of this book (which comes only through righteousness) is made achievable.
Unique Features. The book is different from all others in the Bible in these respects:
1. It gives clear internal evidence of multiple authorship. This is deduced or implied in some other Bible books, but never revealed so plainly as in Proverbs.
2. It also shows clear internal evidence of having been put together over the amazing span of about 250 years, since Hezekiah, mentioned in 25:1, lived about that long after King Solomon. Other books (Genesis, for example) may cover long historical spans of time, but none of them so clearly indicate the span of their composition.
Jack W. Hayford, Spirit Filled Life Study Bible
PROVERBS
Author: Solomon, with Portions by Agur and King Lemuel
Date: About 950 B.C., with PortionsAbout 720 B.C.
Theme: Universal Principles for Living
Key Words: Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding,Instruction, the Fear of the Lord
Author. Solomon, king of Israel, was the son of David and Bathsheba. He reigned for forty years, from 970 to 930 B.C., taking the throne at about twenty years of age.
No doubt influenced by the psalm-writing of his father, Solomon has left us more books than any other Old Testament writer except Moses. It seems probable that his Song of Solomon was written when he was a young romantic, his Proverbs when he was mature and at the height of his powers, and his Ecclesiastes when he had become more aged, more inclined to philosophical conclusions, and perhaps more cynical. His strengths were not on the battlefield, but in the realm of the mind: meditation, planning, negotiation, and organization.
Solomon’s reputation for wisdom springs not only from its practical results, as in the case of the dispute over a baby (1 Kin. 3:16–27), but also from the direct statements of Scripture. In 1 Kings 3:12 God says, “There has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you.” In 1 Kings 4:31 he is called “wiser than all men,” with names of other wise men cited in specific comparison.
Of Agur and King Lemuel (30:1; 31:1) we know nothing except that, by their names, they were not Israelites. Wisdom is universal, not national.
Date. Since the Book of Proverbs is a compilation, its writing was spread over a period of years, with the main work probably centered about 950 B.C. Chapters 25 through 29 are identified as copied by “Hezekiah’s men,” which places the copying at about 720 B.C., though the material itself was by Solomon, perhaps in a separate document found in Hezekiah’s time.
Background. Under Solomon’s leadership Israel reached its greatest geographical extent and enjoyed the least violence of the entire kingdom period. “Peaceful,” the meaning of his name, describes Solomon’s reign. And peace, with wisdom, brought unprecedented prosperity to the nation, which became a cause of wonder and admiration to the queen of Sheba (1 Kin. 10:6–9) and to the other rulers of the time. Wise sayings, like music or other art forms, tend to blossom in such a time, then endure through succeeding generations.
Content. The Book of Proverbs is not just a collection of sayings, but a collection of collections. Its unifying thought or theme is, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (9:10), appearing in another form as, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning (or principal part) of knowledge” (1:7). Coming through the diversity of examples time and again are such truths as these:
1. Wisdom (the ability to judge and act according to God’s directives) is the most valuable of assets.
2. Wisdom is available to anyone, but the price is high.
3. Wisdom originates in God, not self, and comes by attention to instruction.
4. Wisdom and righteousness go together. It is good to be wise, and it is wise to be good.
5. Evil men suffer the consequences of their evil deeds.
6. The simple, the fool, the lazy, the ignorant, the proud, the profligate, the sinful are never to be admired.
Many powerful contrasts are found again and again. Antithesis helps to clarify the meaning of key words. Among the ideas set in vivid contrast with each other are:
Wisdom versus Folly
Righteousness versus Wickedness
Good versus Evil
Life versus Death
Prosperity versus Poverty
Honor versus Dishonor
Permanence versus Transience
Truth versus Falsehood
Industry versus Indolence
Friend versus Enemy
Prudence versus Rashness
Fidelity versus Adultery
Peace versus Violence
Goodwill versus Anger
God versus Man
Personal Application. The wisdom contained in the Book of Proverbs is as meaningful today as when it was written. Yet it is neither a prosperity pamphlet nor a “how to succeed” handbook in the worldly sense. It tells rather how to order one’s values, which leads to character, which leads to wholeness, which leads to satisfaction. It warns of the pitfalls along the way, and declares the folly of not developing the fear of the Lord. Because the thirty-one-chapter book contains so much that is worth daily meditation and is relevant for every era, many Bible readers have found it desirable to read a chapter a day, thus covering the entire book every month.
Christ Revealed. No direct references to Christ, prophetic or typological, are especially conspicuous in the Book of Proverbs. In fact, the personification of Wisdom is normally feminine throughout. Nevertheless some passages (such as 8:23–31) seem an unmistakable description of Jesus Christ, who was “in the beginning with God” (John 1:2), is “the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24), and “became for us wisdom” (1 Cor. 1:30).
Certainly the book performs a powerful service in whetting the human appetite for wisdom and understanding, a hunger that can only be fully satisfied in Christ.
Proverbs, much like the Mosaic Law, describes an ideal, an aspiration, a longing for perfection. Yet even Solomon himself was not perfectly wise, or he would not have so flagrantly disobeyed and thus displeased God (1 Kin. 11:9–11). Only later, in Jesus Christ, came the full example of all that Proverbs extols, the One “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom” (Col. 2:3).
Point by point, the qualities of wisdom are the qualities of the Christ. Obedience to God, right behavior, patience, reliability, humility, diligence, the perception of things as they really are—all these, plus love, are perfectly illustrated in the Savior.
The Holy Spirit at Work. The Holy Spirit is not mentioned directly in the Book of Proverbs. But Wisdom refers to her spirit (1:23), which of course is the Spirit of God. In fact, a main point of the book is that wisdom apart from God is impossible, so in that sense His Spirit is prominent throughout. However the dominant word translated “spirit” in the book is almost always with the meaning of “attitude,” or “demeanor,” never implying a personality.
In our era, a time of the special work of the Holy Spirit, it is the Spirit who helps us mine the riches of the Proverbs, rather than Proverbs helping us understand the Spirit. It has been said of the Old and New Testaments, “The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is in the New revealed.”
In the case of the Book of Proverbs, the Holy Spirit in the New Testament demonstrates how the wisdom of this book (which comes only through righteousness) is made achievable.
Unique Features. The book is different from all others in the Bible in these respects:
1. It gives clear internal evidence of multiple authorship. This is deduced or implied in some other Bible books, but never revealed so plainly as in Proverbs.
2. It also shows clear internal evidence of having been put together over the amazing span of about 250 years, since Hezekiah, mentioned in 25:1, lived about that long after King Solomon. Other books (Genesis, for example) may cover long historical spans of time, but none of them so clearly indicate the span of their composition.
Jack W. Hayford, Spirit Filled Life Study Bible
