Albert Barnes Commentary Proverbs 2

Now in the divine order comes the promise (Proverbs 2:5). The conditions of its fulfillment are stated in (Proverbs 2:1–4) in four sets of parallel clauses, each with some shade of distinct meaning. Thus, not receiving only, but hiding or treasuring up—not the ear only, but the heart—not the mere cry, but the eager lifting up the voice.

Note the illustrations.

1. Contact with Phoenician commerce, and joint expeditions in ships of Tarshish (see Psalms 72:10 note), had made the Israelites familiar with the risks and the enterprise of the miller’s life. Compare Job 28.
2. The treasure hidden in a field, is the second point of comparison. Such treasure-seeking has always been characteristic of the East. Compare Matthew 13:44.

The promise. The highest blessedness is to know God (John 17:3). If any distinction between “the Lord” יהוה y'hovâh and “God” אלהים 'elohîm can be pressed here, it is that in the former the personality, in the latter the glory, of the divine nature is prominent.

People do not gain wisdom by any efforts of their own, but God gives it according to the laws of His own goodness.

Sound wisdom - “ Soundness,” an idea that also implies health and safety. Compare sound doctrine in (1 Timothy 1:10); (2 Timothy 4:3).