Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Book Overview - Proverbs

by William Nicoll

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

IN attempting to make the book of Proverbs a subject of Expository Lectures and practical sermons, it has been necessary to treat the book as a uniform composition, following, chapter by chapter, the order which the compiler has adopted, and bringing the scattered sentences together under subjects which are suggested by certain more striking points in the successive chapters. By this method the great bulk of the matter contained in the book is brought under review, either in the way of exposition or in the way of quotation and allusion, though even in this method many smaller sayings slip through the expositor’s meshes. But the grave defect of the method which is thus employed is that it completely obliterates those interesting marks, discernible on the very surface of the book, of the origin and the compilation of the separate parts. This defect the reader can best supply by turning to Professor Cheyne’s scholarly work "Job and Solomon; or, The Wisdom of the Old Testament" but for those who have not time or opportunity to refer to any book besides the one which is in their hands, a brief introduction to the following lectures may not be unwelcome.

The Jewish tradition ascribed the Proverbs, or Sayings of the Wise, to Solomon, just as it ascribed the Psalms, or inspired lyrics of the poets, to King David, and we may add, just as it ascribed all the gradual accretions and developments of the Law to Moses. But even a "very uncritical reader will observe that the book of Proverbs as we have it is not the work of a single hand; and a critical inquiry into the language and style of the several parts, and also into the social and political conditions which are implied by them, has led scholars to the conclusion that, at the most, a certain number of Solomon’s wise sayings are included in the collection, but that he did not in any sense compose the book. In fact, the statement in 1 Kings 4:32, "He spake three thousand proverbs," implies that his utterances were recorded by others, and not written down by himself, and the heading to chapter 25 of our book suggests that the "men of Hezekiah" collected the reputed sayings of Solomon from several sources, one of those sources being the collection contained in the previous chapters.

The opening words, then, of the book-"The Proverbs of Solomon the son of David, King of Israel"-are not to be taken as an assertion that all which follows flowed from Solomon’s pen, but rather as a general description and keynote of the subject of the treatise. It is as if the compiler wished to say, "This is a compendium of those wise sayings current among us, the model and type of which may be found in the proverbs attributed to the wisest of men, King Solomon." That this is the way in which we must understand the title becomes plain when we find contained in the book a passage described as "the sayings of the wise," [Proverbs 24:23-34] a chapter distinctly entitled "The Words of Agur," and another paragraph headed "The Words of King Lemuel."

Leaving aside the traditional view of the authorship, which the book itself shows to be misleading, the contents may be briefly delineated and characterized.

The main body of Proverbs is the collection which begins at chapter 10, "The Proverbs of Solomon," and ends at Proverbs 22:16. This collection has certain distinct features which mark it off from all that precedes and from all that follows. It is, strictly speaking, a collection of proverbs, that is of brief, pointed sayings, -sometimes containing a similitude, but more generally consisting of a single antithetical moral sentiment, -such as spring into existence and pass current in every society of men. All these proverbs are identical in form: each is expressed in a distich; the apparent exception in Proverbs 19:7 is to be explained by the obvious fact that the third clause is the mutilated fragment of another proverb, which in the LXX appears complete: As the form is the same in all, so the general drift of their teaching is quite uniform; the morality inculcated is of no very lofty type; the motives for right conduct are mainly prudential; there is no sense of mystery or wonder, no tendency to speculation or doubt; "Be good, and you will prosper; be wicked, and you will suffer," is the sum of the whole. A few scattered precepts occur which seem to touch a higher level and to breathe a more spiritual air; and it is possible, as has been suggested, that these were added by the author of chapters 1-9, when he revised and published the compilation. Such a sentiment as Proverbs 14:34 well accords with the utterance of Wisdom in Proverbs 8:15-16. And the series of proverbs which are grouped on the principle of their all containing the name of Jahveh, Proverbs 15:33; Proverbs 16:1-7 (cf. Proverbs 16:20, Proverbs 16:33) seems to be closely linked with the opening chapters of the book. Assuming the proverbs of this collection to spring from the same period, and to reflect the social conditions which then prevailed, we should say that it points to a time of comparative simplicity and purity, when the main industry was that of tilling the soil, when the sayings of wise people were valued by an unsophisticated community, when the family life was pure, the wife honored, [Proverbs 12:4, Proverbs 18:22, Proverbs 19:14] and parental authority maintained, and when the king was still worthy of respect, the immediate and obedient instrument of the Divine government. [Proverbs 21:1] The whole collection seems to date from the earlier and happier times of the monarchy.