Albert Barnes Commentary Proverbs 1

The long exhortation in Proverbs 1–9, characterized by the frequent recurrence of the words “my son,” is of the nature of a preface to the collection of the Proverbs of Solomon (Proverbs 10:1). On Proverbs 1:1-7, see the introduction to Proverbs.

The writer’s purpose is to educate. He is writing what might be called an ethical handbook for the young, though not for the young only. Of all books in the Old Testament, this is the one that we may think of as most distinctively educational. A comparison of it with a similar manual, the “sayings of the fathers,” in the Mishna, would help the student to measure the difference between Scriptural and rabbinical teaching.

Wisdom - The power by which human personality reaches its highest spiritual perfection, by which all lower elements are brought into harmony with the highest, is here personified as life-giving and creative. Compare the notes on Job 28:23 and related passages.

Instruction - That is, discipline or training, the practical complement of the more speculative wisdom.

Understanding - The power of distinguishing right from wrong, truth from its counterfeit. The three words σοφία sophia — παιδεία paideia — φρόνησις phronēsis (Septuagint), express very aptly the relation of the words in the Hebrew.

Wisdom - Not the same word as in (Proverbs 1:2); better, perhaps, thoughtfulness.

Justice - Rather, righteousness. The word in the Hebrew includes the ideas of truth and beneficence as well as “justice.”

Judgment - The teaching of the Proverbs is to lead us to pass a right sentence upon human actions, whether our own or another’s.

Equity - In the Hebrew (see the margin) the plural is used, and expresses the many varying forms and phases of the one pervading principle.

This verse points out the two classes for which the book will be useful:

1. the “simple,” literally the “open,” the open-hearted, the minds ready to receive impressions for good or evil (Proverbs 1:22); and
2. the “young,” who need both knowledge and discipline.

To these the teacher offers the “subtilty,” which may turn to evil (Exodus 21:14) and become as the wisdom of the serpent (Genesis 3:1), but which also takes its place, as that wisdom does, among the highest moral gifts (Matthew 10:16); the “knowledge” of good and evil; and the “discretion,” or discernment, which sets a person on guard and keeps them from being duped by false advisers.

The Septuagint renderings, πανουργία (panourgia) for “subtilty,” αἴσθησις (aisthēsis) for “knowledge,” and ἔννοια (ennoia) for “discretion,” are interesting as they show the endeavor to find exact parallels for the Hebrew in the terminology of Greek ethics.

But it is not for the young only that he writes. The “man of understanding” may gain “wise counsels,” literally, the power to “steer” his course rightly on the dangerous seas of life. This “steersmanship,” it may be noted, is a word almost unique to Proverbs (compare “counsel” in Proverbs 11:14; Proverbs 12:5; Proverbs 24:6).