Trust Reaches the Cupboard and the Neighbor

Verses 1 to 12 mostly move in pairs: a command, then the result it brings, six times over. “Law” is torah again, the father’s teaching, and “keep” is natsar, to guard. The heart is made the guard of what the ear received; forgetting is the first danger named, before any rebellion.

“Length of days” is the promise attached to the fifth commandment, “that thy days may be long” (Exodus 20:12), the commandment about father and mother, whose teaching the son is here receiving. “Peace” is shalom, welfare and wholeness, not merely the absence of trouble.

“Mercy and truth” is chesed ve’emet, loyal love and faithfulness, the pair of Exodus 34:6. Binding them on echoes the Shema, “bind them for a sign upon thine hand” (Deuteronomy 6:8). “Table” is luach, the word for the stone tablets of the Law; here the tablet is the heart.

“In the sight of God and man” returns in 1 Samuel 2:26, where the boy Samuel “was in favour both with the LORD, and also with men”, and in Luke 2:52 of the boy Jesus. “Good understanding” is sekhel tov, a good reputation for good sense.

“Trust” is batach, to rely on with confidence. “Lean” is sha’an, to rest your weight on something, the verb of Isaiah 10:20, where Israel will “no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD”. The question is where the weight goes.

“Acknowledge him” is literally “know him”, yada, the verb of intimate acquaintance, not a nod of recognition. “Direct” is yashar, to make straight or level, the verb of Isaiah 40:3, “make straight in the desert a highway”. The paths are cleared as well as pointed out.

Isaiah 5:21 pronounces a woe on those “wise in their own eyes”, and Paul’s “Be not wise in your own conceits” (Romans 12:16) takes it up. Fearing God and departing from evil is the pair used of Job at his introduction (Job 1:1), “one that feared God, and eschewed evil”.

“Navel” is shor, the navel or umbilical cord, the centre of the body; the Greek translation reads “body”, perhaps from a slightly different word. “Marrow” is shiqquy, drink or moistening. Bones in Proverbs dry out with a broken spirit (17:22); here they are watered.

“Firstfruits” is reshit, the same word as “beginning” in 1:7. The fear of the LORD is the reshit of knowledge, and the reshit of the harvest goes to him. The Law required it (Exodus 23:19, Deuteronomy 26:2). “Substance” is hon, the wealth the gang coveted in 1:13.

“Barns” is asamim, storehouses, a rare word shared with the covenant blessing of Deuteronomy 28:8, “the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses”. The presses are the vats below the treading floor where the juice ran; “burst out” is parats, to break through, as though the vats cannot hold it.

Eliphaz says almost the same words in Job 5:17, “despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty”. “Be weary” is quts, to loathe or feel sick of, the verb of Rebekah’s “I am weary of my life” (Genesis 27:46). One can scorn correction, or be worn out by it.

Deuteronomy 8:5 has the same comparison: “as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee”. The Greek translation read the last clause as “and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth”, and Hebrews 12:6 quotes that Greek form rather than the Hebrew.

“Happy” is ashrei again, and verse 18 closes the section with the same root, so the praise of wisdom is framed by two beatitudes. “Getteth” is yafiq, to draw out or obtain, as one draws out a supply from a store.

“Merchandise” is sachar, trade or the profit of trading, the merchant’s word. “Gain” is tevu’ah, yield, the word for a crop’s produce. Both kinds of return, the trader’s and the farmer’s, are outdone. “Fine gold” is charuts, a poetic word for gold, perhaps for gold dug from the ground.

“Rubies” is peninim, probably red coral, since Lamentations 4:7 describes princes “more ruddy in body than rubies”. The same valuation comes back in 8:11 for wisdom and in 31:10 for the capable wife, whose “price is far above rubies”, and Job 28:18 sets wisdom above them too.

Solomon was told he had asked neither long life nor riches, and would be given “both riches, and honour” besides (1 Kings 3:11–13). Some scholars compare Egyptian pictures of the goddess Ma’at holding life in one hand and a sceptre in the other. Life stands in the right hand, the place of first honour.

“Pleasantness” is no’am, the root of the name Naomi, “pleasant”, which she refused in her grief (Ruth 1:20), and of “the beauty of the LORD” in Psalm 27:4. The road is not only the way to peace; the Hebrew says the paths themselves are peace.

Genesis closes the way to the tree of life with cherubim and a flaming sword (3:24); Proverbs names the tree four times (3:18, 11:30, 13:12, 15:4), each time as something within reach. The synagogue sings this verse and verse 17 as the Torah scroll is returned to the ark.

“Founded” is yasad, to lay a foundation, and “established” is konen, to set firmly in place, the language of building. Jeremiah 10:12 repeats the thought: “he hath established the world by his wisdom”. Chapter 8 will give wisdom her own voice at that founding (8:22–31).

“Broken up” is baqa, to split, the verb of Genesis 7:11, when “all the fountains of the great deep” were broken up, and of the sea divided in Exodus 14:16. The same knowledge also lets fall the dew, which kept crops alive through the rainless summer (Genesis 27:28).

The Hebrew says “let them not depart” before it has said what “they” are; the objects are only named in the second half. “Depart” is luz, to slip aside, the root of the “froward” paths of 2:15. “Sound wisdom” is tushiyah again, practical effectiveness (2:7).

“Soul” is nefesh, which can also mean the throat, so throat and neck stand side by side. This is the third time a neck has been adorned (1:9, 3:3): teaching, then mercy and truth, now wisdom and discretion, each worn where others can see it.

“Safely” is lavetach, the secure dwelling promised in 1:33, now secure walking. “Stumble” is literally “strike”, nagaf, the verb of Psalm 91:12, “lest thou dash thy foot against a stone”, a line Satan quoted to Jesus (Matthew 4:6).

Jeremiah wakes from a vision and says, “my sleep was sweet unto me” (Jeremiah 31:26), the same two words. The line repeats “lie down” twice, first with fear denied, then with sleep enjoyed. Psalm 4:8 has the same thought: “I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep.”

“Sudden fear” is pachad pit’om, terror that strikes without warning. “Desolation of the wicked” uses sho’ah, the storm of 1:27. The phrase can mean the ruin that falls on the wicked or the ruin the wicked cause; either way, the son is told not to fear it.

“Confidence” is kesel, a word that also means the loins or flank (Leviticus 3:4) and, in a bad sense, folly: the kesil, the fool, is a man of misplaced confidence. Here the LORD himself is the kesel. “Taken” is leked, caught in a trap, the snare of 1:17.

“Them to whom it is due” is literally “its owners”, be’alav, the word of 1:19. The good being held back already belongs to someone else, like the wages of a hired man (Leviticus 19:13). “In the power of thine hand” is an old idiom, used by Laban in Genesis 31:29.

The Law set the limit exactly: “the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning” (Leviticus 19:13), and Deuteronomy 24:15 adds, “At his day thou shalt give him his hire”. “To morrow” here is the one word that turns giving into refusing.

“Devise” is charash, to plough or to engrave, the verb of Hosea 10:13, “Ye have plowed wickedness”. Evil is worked into a neighbour’s life the way a furrow is cut. “Securely” is lavetach again, the neighbour who trusts you and has no guard up.

“Strive” is riv, to quarrel or to bring a lawsuit, the prophets’ word for God’s case against Israel. “Without cause” is chinnam, the word the gang used in 1:11, now applied to picking a legal fight with someone who has done nothing.

“Oppressor” is ish chamas, a man of violence; chamas is what filled the earth before the flood (Genesis 6:11, 6:13). “Choose” is bachar, the verb of 1:29. The fools did not choose the fear of the LORD; the son is warned not to choose any road of the violent.

“Abomination” is to’evah, the word for what the LORD finds detestable, here making its first appearance in Proverbs. “Secret” is sod, the circle of intimate counsel, the word of Amos 3:7, God revealing “his secret unto his servants the prophets”, and Psalm 25:14.

The wicked have a “house”, bayit, and the just a “habitation”, naveh, a word for a shepherd’s pasture dwelling, the “sheepcote” David was taken from (2 Samuel 7:8). The larger building carries the curse; the modest fold receives the blessing.

“He scorneth the scorners” is literally “he mocks the mockers”, the letsim of 1:22, paid in their own coin. James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5 quote the Greek, which has “the proud” in place of the scorners: “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”

“Promotion” is from rum, to lift up, the same verb wisdom uses in 4:8, “she shall promote thee”. Fools are raised too, but what they are raised in is shame, held up as a public display. “Inherit” is nachal, to receive as a family portion, glory handed down.