Proverbs 8:1-4

1). Wisdom Calls On Men To Hear Her (Proverbs 8:1).

Wisdom had been defined for us earlier in the Prologue. She is based on ‘the fear of YHWH' (Proverbs 1:29; Proverbs 2:5; Proverbs 9:10). She is given by God (Proverbs 2:6). She brings men to the knowledge of God (Proverbs 2:5). She is closely connected with the chastening of YHWH (Proverbs 3:11). And in what she says she reveals herself as the mouthpiece of YHWH (Proverbs 1:23). Indeed YHWH, by wisdom, knowledge and understanding, created the world (Proverbs 3:19). This last reference, referring to ‘wisdom, knowledge and understanding' warns us against taking the personification too literally, and reminds us that wisdom is an attribute of God, along with knowledge and understanding. Thus she is equated with knowledge and understanding. Bible wisdom teaching is therefore about God and His ways. And yet this wisdom is communicable to men and can be possessed by them. It can be ‘known' along with understanding (Proverbs 1:2), we can incline our ear and apply our hearts in order to obtain it along with understanding (Proverbs 2:1), we must obtain it along with understanding (Proverbs 4:5), along with understanding we are to see her as our sister and our kinswoman (Proverbs 7:4). The constant parallel with understanding warns against seeing her literally as an individual. She can be paralleled with the Scriptures, the word of God (Proverbs 2:6). She cannot be paralleled with our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God.

The subsection forms a chiasmus:

A Does not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth her voice? (Proverbs 8:1).

B On the top of high places by the way, where the paths meet, she stands (Proverbs 8:2).

B Beside the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors, she cries aloud (Proverbs 8:3).

A “To you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men” (Proverbs 8:4).

Note how in A wisdom and understanding call, and in the parallel her call is to the sons of men. And in B and parallel ‘she' reaches out in every place where men are to be found.

Proverbs 8:1

‘Does not wisdom cry,

And understanding put forth her voice?

On the top of high places by the way,

Where the paths meet, she stands,

Beside the gates, at the entry of the city,

At the coming in at the doors, she cries aloud.'

“To you, O men, I call,

And my voice is to the sons of men.”

Note again the combination of wisdom and understanding. Wisdom cries out to men, understanding puts forth her voice. And she does so openly and forcefully wherever men are found. There is nothing secretive about her, in contrast with the strange woman who represents the world and its desires. She speaks from the top of high places by the way, she is found at road junctions, she is found beside the gates where men meet to converse, and justice is meted out (compare Proverbs 1:20 where it was ‘in the streets -- to the public squares -- at the entering of the gates, the chief places of concourse'). And her words are for all men, she calls to men, her voice is to the sons of men.

In the days when the only way to disseminate news and information was by the voice (as with the ancient town crier) those who sought to do so would stand on a high spot and proclaim what they had to say. It enabled them to project their voices. Indeed there was a well known stone in Jerusalem from which lost and found things were called out. Thus those who would proclaim wisdom would stand in such places. ‘By the way'. As men proceeded on their way they needed guidance on the way of life. ‘Where the paths meet'. At junctions and crossroads, to which men came from all directions, they needed to know which way to take, not only literally but spiritually.

‘The gates', through which all entering or leaving the city had to pass, and where men used to gather to share information, hear news, pass judgment, and come to important decisions, was above all the place of concourse. Here too proclaimers of wisdom were to be found.

“To you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men.” It is to man that ‘wisdom and understanding' speaks. It is the voice of Heaven speaking to mankind (Proverbs 8:22). While she may be heavenly she delights in ‘the habitable earth -- the sons of men' (Proverbs 8:31). In Proverbs wisdom and understanding are not earthly, humanistic wisdom and understanding, but the wisdom and understanding imparted by God (Proverbs 2:5).