Proverbs 1: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The book opens by naming Solomon as its author and stating what these sayings are for: to give wisdom, discipline, insight, and careful judgment to anyone who will take them, including the young and the easily fooled. A father then warns his son not to join a gang that plans to ambush and rob people, because such men end up destroying themselves. The chapter closes with Wisdom pictured as a woman shouting in the streets, calling out those who have ignored her, and saying that when disaster comes she will not answer them; whoever does listen to her will live in safety.

Claim by Claim

1. 1:1
   • These are the proverbs of Solomon.
   • Solomon is the son of David.
   • Solomon is king of Israel.
2. 1:2
   • The proverbs are for knowing wisdom and discipline.
   • The proverbs are for understanding words of insight.
3. 1:3
   • The proverbs are for receiving discipline that produces skillful conduct.
   • The proverbs are for receiving righteousness, justice, and equity.
4. 1:4
   • The proverbs are for giving shrewdness to the naive.
   • The proverbs are for giving knowledge and discretion to the young man.
5. 1:5
   • A wise man will hear and increase in learning.
   • A discerning man will acquire guidance.
6. 1:6
   • The proverbs are for understanding a proverb and a figure of speech.
   • The proverbs are for understanding the words of the wise and their riddles.
7. 1:7
   • The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.
   • Fools despise wisdom and discipline.
8. 1:8
   • The speaker tells his son to hear his father's discipline.
   • The speaker tells his son not to forsake his mother's teaching.
9. 1:9
   • The father's discipline and mother's teaching are a graceful garland for the son's head.
   • They are pendants for the son's neck.
10. 1:10
    • The speaker addresses his son.
    • If sinners entice the son, he is not to consent.
11. 1:11
    • The sinners may say, Come with us.
    • The sinners may say, Let us lie in wait for blood.
    • The sinners may say, Let us ambush the innocent without cause.
12. 1:12
    • The sinners say, Let us swallow them alive, as Sheol does.
    • The sinners say, Let us swallow them whole, like those who go down to the pit.
13. 1:13
    • The sinners say they will find all kinds of precious wealth.
    • The sinners say they will fill their houses with plunder.
14. 1:14
    • The sinners say, Throw in your lot among us.
    • The sinners say, We will all have one purse.
15. 1:15
    • The speaker tells his son not to walk in the way with them.
    • The speaker tells his son to keep his foot from their path.
16. 1:16
    • Their feet run to evil.
    • They hurry to shed blood.
17. 1:17
    • The net is spread in vain in the sight of any winged bird.
18. 1:18
    • They lie in wait for their own blood.
    • They ambush their own lives.
19. 1:19
    • Such are the paths of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain.
    • That gain takes away the life of its owners.
20. 1:20
    • Wisdom cries aloud outside in the street.
    • Wisdom raises her voice in the public squares.
21. 1:21
    • Wisdom calls out at the head of the noisy streets.
    • Wisdom speaks her words at the entrances of the city gates.
22. 1:22
    • Wisdom asks how long the naive will love being naive.
    • Wisdom asks how long scoffers will delight in scoffing.
    • Wisdom asks how long fools will hate knowledge.
23. 1:23
    • Wisdom calls them to turn at her reproof.
    • Wisdom says she will pour out her spirit on them.
    • Wisdom says she will make her words known to them.
24. 1:24
    • Wisdom says she called and they refused.
    • Wisdom says she stretched out her hand and no one paid attention.
25. 1:25
    • Wisdom says they ignored all her counsel.
    • Wisdom says they would have none of her reproof.
26. 1:26
    • Wisdom says she will laugh at their calamity.
    • Wisdom says she will mock when their terror comes.
27. 1:27
    • Their terror will come like a storm.
    • Their destruction will come like a whirlwind.
    • Distress and anguish will come upon them.
28. 1:28
    • Then they will call on Wisdom and she will not answer.
    • They will seek her early and will not find her.
29. 1:29
    • The reason is that they hated knowledge.
    • They did not choose the fear of the LORD.
30. 1:30
    • They wanted none of Wisdom's counsel.
    • They despised all her reproof.
31. 1:31
    • They will eat the fruit of their own way.
    • They will be filled with their own devices.
32. 1:32
    • The turning away of the naive will kill them.
    • The complacency of fools will destroy them.
33. 1:33
    • Whoever listens to Wisdom will dwell securely.
    • That person will be at ease, without dread of evil.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

1:1

"Proverb" translates the Hebrew *mashal*, a much wider word than the English one: it covers a short saying, an extended comparison, a taunt, or a puzzle. Solomon was remembered as Israel's wisest king (tenth century BC); the book collects sayings attributed to him along with material credited to others later on (see chapters 30 and 31).

1:2

"Instruction" (Hebrew *musar*) means training that includes correction, being disciplined, not just being informed. "Wisdom" (*hokmah*) is practical skill at living, the same word used of a craftsman's skill with his hands; it is not abstract cleverness.

1:3

"Justice" and "judgment" are courtroom words, and "equity" translates a word meaning straightness, dealing fairly and without crookedness in ordinary business, not only in a legal setting.

1:4

"The simple" (Hebrew *pethi*) means someone open and untaught, easily talked into anything either way, not someone unintelligent. KJV "subtilty" carried no bad sense in 1611; it meant shrewdness. The Hebrew word behind it can mean either prudence or craftiness depending on what it is used for.

1:6

"Dark sayings" translates *hidah*, a riddle or deliberately puzzling saying, the same word used of the riddle Samson set at his wedding.

1:7

Where the KJV prints LORD in capitals it stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants that Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud. "Fear" here covers a range from dread to reverence. "Beginning" is also two-sided in Hebrew: it can mean the first step in learning, or the chief part of it.

1:8

"Law" translates *torah*, which simply means teaching or direction, household instruction here, not legislation. Mother and father are named as equal teachers.

1:9

A wreath worn on the head and a chain around the neck were marks of honor, worn at feasts and by people of rank, the point of comparison is visible distinction, not decoration.

1:11

"Lay wait for blood" is a Hebrew idiom in which "blood" stands for a life violently taken; the phrase means to lie in ambush to kill.

1:12

"The grave" translates *Sheol*, the underworld where in Hebrew thought all the dead go, often pictured as a mouth that swallows. "The pit" is a parallel name for the same place. To swallow someone "alive" and "whole" pictures a death so sudden that the victim goes down intact.

1:13

"Spoil" means plunder, goods taken by force from those they attack.

1:14

Lots (marked stones or sticks) were the standard way of dividing plunder or property into fair shares. "One purse" means a single common fund: everything taken is pooled and split, which is what makes each member equally implicated.

1:16

This verse is missing from some ancient copies of Proverbs and matches Isaiah 59:7 word for word, so it may have been copied in here from there.

1:17

The saying is compact and has been read two ways: either that spreading a net in a bird's sight is pointless because the bird will simply avoid it, or that a creature greedy enough will fly into a trap it can plainly see. The Hebrew does not settle which.

1:19

"Gain" translates *betsa*, profit got by cutting corners or cutting throats, the word carries dishonesty in itself. The last clause is ambiguous in Hebrew: the gain takes the life either of those who grab it, or of those it is grabbed from.

1:20

Wisdom is presented as a woman speaking in public, the Hebrew noun is feminine, and the figure that follows behaves like a street preacher or a prophet, addressing passers-by where they gather rather than in a temple or school.

1:21

The gateway of a walled city was its civic center: law cases were heard there, business was transacted, and news was exchanged. It was the place to speak if you wanted to be heard by everyone.

1:22

Proverbs uses a fixed vocabulary of types. The "simple" are the untaught and persuadable; "scorners" are those who mock correction and make a habit of it; the "fool" (*kesil*) is stubborn and unteachable by choice rather than stupid.

1:23

The Hebrew opening can be read as a command ("turn back") or as a statement about what did not happen ("if you had turned back, I would have..."), which is why translations differ so widely here. "Spirit" translates *ruach*, meaning breath or wind; pouring out one's *ruach* means speaking one's mind freely.

1:24

Stretching out the hand was the ordinary gesture for beckoning someone over or claiming a hearing, as a speaker does to quiet a crowd.

1:25

"Set at nought" means treated as worth nothing at all.

1:26

"Your fear" uses the word for the emotion to mean the thing that causes it, the disaster itself, not the feeling. The same shift runs through the next verse.

1:27

A "whirlwind" is wind that spins fast and knocks things over. "Desolation" means everything is wrecked and empty.

1:28

"Seek me early" renders a Hebrew verb built on the word for dawn; it means to search urgently and hard, not to search in good time.

1:31

Eating the fruit of one's own way is a standard Hebrew image for reaping the consequences of one's own conduct. "Devices" in 1611 English means plans or schemes, with no sense of gadgets.

1:32

"Turning away" translates a word for straying off a road or defecting. KJV "prosperity" is misleading now: the Hebrew word means untroubled ease or complacency, being comfortable enough not to bother.

1:33

"Evil" here translates a word meaning harm or disaster rather than wickedness; the promise is freedom from dread of catastrophe.