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DAY 8 – PROVERBS PART II

The first collection of Solomon’s proverbs follows. While the preceding exhortations contain many longer poetic passages, these proverbs are pithy, one-line sayings. They aren’t exhortations to do one thing or avoid another but rather observations of the way things are. Listeners must draw for themselves the implied lesson about how to live. Each of these one-line sayings has two halves. In the first part of this collection, these two half lines typically draw a contrast. In the second part of the collection, the second half of the proverb just as frequently restates the meaning of the first or extends it in some way. Nevertheless, the message is consistent throughout the whole collection: as one cultivates qualities such as diligence, self-control, thrift, generosity, fairness, and gracious speech, positive consequences will follow and negative ones will be avoided. There are 375 proverbs in this collection, corresponding to the numerical value of Solomon’s name in Hebrew. 

The book of Proverbs next presents a collection of thirty “sayings of the wise.” While most of these sayings are longer than the one-line proverbs of Solomon, they present the same basic teaching, although typically in the form of exhortations. A brief supplementary collection of “sayings of the wise” follows this one. 

A second collection of Solomon’s proverbs comes next, introduced with an explanation that they were “compiled by the men of Hezekiah king of Judah.” There are 130 proverbs in this collection, matching the numerical value of Hezekiah’s name in Hebrew. Like those in the first collection of Solomon’s proverbs, these are mostly short observations with implied lessons, although some of the sayings in the first part of this collection are longer and are written as exhortations. The second part of the collection consists of single-line sayings that describe and contrast the behavior of the righteous and the wicked. The distinction between these two kinds of people is drawn directly in proverbs at the beginning, middle, and end of this part of the collection. For example, this one comes at the beginning: “ The wicked flee though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.” 

The book ends with brief collections of sayings from two other wise figures, Agur and Lemuel. Lemuel’s words finish with a poem whose 22 lines begin with the consecutive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In this poem the character qualities that have been praised throughout the book are given a final practical illustration in a description of the ideal wife. This poem concludes that “a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” Thus this complex book, built from diverse collections of sayings, presents a consistent message throughout: “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”

PRAYER: Teach me to follow Your commands, O Lord.