Proverbs 8:1-36
1 Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?
2 She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths.
3 She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors.
4 Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.
5 O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.
6 Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things.
7 For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickednessa is an abomination to my lips.
8 All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing frowardb or perverse in them.
9 They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.
10 Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.
11 For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.
12 I wisdom dwell with prudence,c and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
14 Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.
15 By me kings reign, and princes decree justice.
16 By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.
17 I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.
18 Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness.
19 My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver.
20 I leadd in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment:
21 That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.
22 The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.
23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
24 When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:
26 While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields,e nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
27 When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compassf upon the face of the depth:
28 When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:
29 When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:
30 Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;
31 Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.
32 Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.
33 Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.
34 Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
35 For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtaing favour of the LORD.
36 But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
Proverbs 8. Wisdom Speaks in her own Person. This chapter forms at once the nucleus and the climax of this section of the book. The series of addresses on practical wisdom is fitly closed by a profounder presentation of wisdom as the moving principle in the ways of God. It reinforces the practical maxims of Proverbs 8:1 with the fundamental principle that the wise man is in harmony with God. Its date probably fixes the date of the whole section (see Introduction, and for a fuller discussion especially Cheyne, Job and Solomon, pp. 156f.). The relation of the conception of Wisdom personified to the Stoic Logos and to Greek philosophy in general cannot be discussed here. (See Wisdom Literature in HDB, and especially the excellent introduction by Holmes to the Book of Wisdom in Charles-' Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha.) The two main lines of development of this conception in Heb. thought are: (a) the growth of the conception of the Angel of Yahweh, developing into the later Jewish theologoumenon of Metatron, the mediator; (b) the tendency to personify the Word of Yahweh active in creation and in the moral government of the world, developing into the quasi-personal Memra of the Targums, and the Philonian Logos.
Proverbs 8:1. The Place of Wisdom in the Government of the World.
Proverbs 8:1. Proem. Wisdom is not secluded in the chamber of the sage, but cries aloud in the crowded concourse of the mart and highway.
Proverbs 8:4 f. The class of persons addressed those who are in need of wisdom, the simple and the fools.
Proverbs 8:6. The nature of the instruction offered. Its essential characteristic is truth and righteousness, God's own character as seen in His ways (cf. Deuteronomy 32:4). There is nothing twisted or crooked in it.
Proverbs 8:6. excellent things: i.e. princely things. The word is unusual, and found only here in this sense.
Proverbs 8:10 f. Preciousness of the instruction. In Proverbs 8:11 the personification breaks down for a moment, and the author speaks of wisdom in the third person, quoting Proverbs 3:15.
Proverbs 8:12. The right government of the world is due to Wisdom.
Proverbs 8:12. have. dwelling: the Heb. is strange; we should perhaps read create or possess (Targ., Syr.).
Proverbs 8:17. The rewards of those who receive the instruction of Wisdom. Those who seek Wisdom not only find her, but gain with her material prosperity and honour, although she is to be prized for her own sake and not for her rewards.
Proverbs 8:18. durable riches: lit. ancient riches (mg.). The same idea with the same Heb. word occurs in Isaiah 23:18 (RVm stately). The LXX has a curious and interesting addition to Proverbs 8:21: If I have declared to you the things of the present, I will bear in mind to recount the things of the past. It marks the separation of the two sections of the chapter, and is apparently an exegetical gloss, intended to contrast the present government of the world by Wisdom with its creation in the past.
Proverbs 8:22. The Place of Wisdom in the Creation and Ordering of the Universe. Wisdom is not conceived as eternally coexistent with God, but as formed before Creation to be the instrument of creation. Cf. the Rabbinical doctrine that the Law was created before the world, and the Philonian conception of the Logos as first immanent, and then for creation and in the act of creation emanating from God in a quasi-personal form of existence. In Ecclus. the conception of Wisdom found here is identified with the Torah. The whole passage should be compared with Job 28, For the Christian application to Christ see Colossians 1:15 *.
Proverbs 8:22 f. Wisdom the first of God's works.
Proverbs 8:22 a. Render the Lord formed me as the first (or chief) of His ways.
Proverbs 8:24. Wisdom formed before the world. As in all the OT cosmologies the primeval state of the world is conceived of as a watery chaos. See Cosmogony in HDB.
Proverbs 8:25. settled: lit. sunk, according to the Semitic idea that the mountains had their bases in the subterranean ocean (cf. Job 26:11 *, Psalms 18:7; Jonah 2:6.)
Proverbs 8:26. The Heb. is almost unintelligible and probably corrupt. No satisfactory emendation has been offered.
Proverbs 8:27. Wisdom present at the Creation. The Bab. conception of the heavenly ocean above separated from the ocean below by a solid vault is reflected here. In the Bab. mythology the vault is represented by the divided body of the Chaos dragon Tiamat, slain by Marduk (Genesis 1:6 f.*).
Proverbs 8:27. circle: rather vault (cf. Job 22:14).
Proverbs 8:29. For the idea of a boundary fixed for the ocean by God cf. Genesis 1:9 f.; Job 26:10; Job 38:8; Psalms 104:6; Jeremiah 5:22.
Proverbs 8:30 f. Wisdom the companion of God.
Proverbs 8:30. a master workman: requires a slight alteration of MT; so also AV, one brought up. AV seems to suit the context better, although the LXX and the Vulg. seem to support RV. For the corresponding term in the active sense cf. Numbers 11:12. In Wis_7:22 we find Wisdom described as the artificer of all things (see Holmes-' note). RVm had delight continually suits the context better, and is a justifiable rendering. rejoicing: better sporting (mg.).
Proverbs 8:32. Closing exhortation of Wisdom to the sons of men.
Proverbs 8:36. Render he that misseth me (mg.) doth violence to himself. To sin in Heb. as in Gr. has the force of to miss the mark. Life's aim is awry. To miss intentionally that which is the spring of life is moral suicide.