Proverbs

Proverbs 2

22 verses · Wisdom · Old Testament

1My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you, 2so as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; 3yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding; 4if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures: 5then you will understand the fear of Yahweh, and find the knowledge of God. 6For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. 7He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, 8that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his saints. 9Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path. 10For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. 11Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you, 12to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things, 13who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness, 14who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil, 15who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths, 16to deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words, 17who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God; 18for her house leads down to death, her paths to the departed spirits. 19None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life. 20So you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous. 21For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it. 22But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.

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What others are saying

4 commentators · 50 notes on this chapter

Matthew HenryEnglish Puritan / Nonconformist · 1708–17142

Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.

Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.

v. 1–9

Job had asked, long before this, Where shall wisdom be found? Whence cometh wisdom? (Job 28:12, Job 28:20) and he had given this general answer (v. 23), God knoweth the place of it; but Solomon here goes further, and tells us both where we may find it and how…

v. 10–22

The scope of these verses is to show, 1. What great advantage true wisdom will be of to us; it will keep us from the paths of sin, which lead to ruin, and will therein do us a greater kindness than if it enriched us with all the wealth of the world. 2. What…

John GillParticular Baptist / High Calvinist · 1746–176322

The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.

Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.

v. 1

My son,.... These are either the continuation of the words of Solomon to his son Rehoboam; or to anyone that came to him for instruction, or was within the reach of being taught by him; whom he addresses in this tender and affectionate manner, in order to…

v. 2

So that thou incline thine ear unto Wisdom,.... Hearken to Wisdom, that is, Christ; or rather to the instruction of Wisdom, which is the Gospel; so called, because it is the produce of divine wisdom, what the wisdom of man could never have devised, and which…

v. 3

Yea, if thou criest after knowledge,.... Of God, Christ, and the Gospel; not only bow the ear and bend the mind to these things, but importunately and fervently pray for them; not only attend the ministry of the word by men, but cry to God to give the Spirit…

Keil & DelitzschGerman Lutheran, conservative-critical · 1861–18756

The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.

Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.

v. 3–8

Instead of כּי אם there is an old אל תקרי (Note: Regarding this formula, see Strack's Prolegomena, pp. 66-70.) (read not so, but thus), כי אם (if thou callest understanding mother), which supposes the phrase כי אם (lxx) as traditional. If אם were intended…

v. 9–11

With the אז repeated, the promises encouraging to the endeavour after wisdom take a new departure: 9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and justice, And uprightness; every way of good. 10 For wisdom will enter into thine heart, And knowledge will do…

v. 12–15

As in Pro 2:10, Pro 2:11, the אז תּבּין ("then shalt thou understand," Pro 2:5) is expanded, so now the watching, preserving, is separately placed in view: 12 To deliver thee from an evil way, From the man who speaks falsehood; 13 (From those) who forsake the…

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownScottish Presbyterian / Reformed · 187120

The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.

Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.

v. 2

Listen attentively and reflect seriously (Pro 1:24; Psa 130:2). understanding--right perception of truth.

v. 3

Yea, if--literally, "When if," that is, in such a case. knowledge--or, "discrimination." understanding--as in Pro 2:2.

v. 4

There must be earnest prayer and effort.

World English Bible — Public domain