Proverbs 1:1

The proverbs of Solomon,.... Who is said to make three thousand proverbs, 1 Kings 4:32; but whether any of them are contained in this book cannot be said: however, it is certain that they are not all

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; Proverbs 1:1-3.-The Inscription; and the Preface, stating the design of the book-to give instruction in wisdom (Proverbs 1:1-6).

CHAPTER 1 The use of the proverbs, Proverbs 1:1-6. An exhortation to fear God, and believe his word, Proverbs 1:7. The glory of those children that obey the instruction of their parents, Proverbs 1:8,9. A caution against yielding to enticing sinners, Proverbs 1:10. The contrivance, Proverbs 1:11,12, arguments, and invitation of these sinners, Proverbs 1:13,14. Reasons against complying with them, Proverbs 1:15-19. Wisdom's call to repentance, Proverbs 1:20-22. Her promise, Proverbs 1:23. Her complaints and threatenings, Proverbs 1:24-30. The fruit of sin, Proverbs 1:31,32. Peace to the penitent, Proverbs 1:33. Proverbs are ancient, and wise, and short sayings in common use; whereof some are plain and easy, others are intricate and obscure. Of Solomon; proceeding from Solomon, and most of them digested by him into this book. See the preface.

Proverbs 1:1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;Ver. 1. The Proverbs.] Or, Master sentences; maxims, axioms, speeches of special precellence and predominance; received rules that must overrule matters, and mightily prevail in the minds of men. The principal, no doubt, they are of those three thousand mentioned in 1 Kings 4:32, and far beyond those golden sayings of Phocylides (profanely preferred before those holy parables by that apostate Julian, ausu nefario), as having in them more sentences than words, and being so far above all human praise for weight and worth, that, as Salust writes of Carthage, I had better speak nothing of them than too little, since too much is too little. Of Solomon.] Who better, a deal, deserves to be styled "Master of the sentences" than Peter Lombard; and to be esteemed πανσοφοςκαιπανταανθρωπειαεπισταμενος, as one saith of Homer; or as another saith of Jerome, that he was a man, quem nullum scibile latuit, that knew all that was knowable by a man. King of Israel.] King in Jerusalem, which was now the Israel of Israel, as Athens was, in its flourish, said to be the Greece of Greece; yea, the soul, and sun, and eye of Greece; yea, the common school of all mankind. For King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth both in riches and in wisdom. "And all the world sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his heart." For "the more wise the preacher was, the more he taught the people knowledge, and caused them to hear, and searched forth many parables"; even "words of delight." ξשׁμξשׁμι, Dominari, quae vitae dominae et moderatrices esse debent. Eπηχρυσεα. De Euripide Cicero pronunciavit plures esse in eo sententias quam verba. Xenophon. Eλλαςελλαδος. - Euripid. φυχηκαιηλιος, καιοφθαλμος Eλλαδος. - Demost. Kοινονπαιδευτηριονπαντωνανθρωπων. - Thucyd. and Diodor.

1.— THE PURPOSE OF THE BOOK (Proverbs 1:1-6). (1) Proverbs.—For the various senses of the Hebrew mâshâl thus translated, see Introduction. Solomon.—The absolute quiet and prosperity of the reign of Solomon (the man of peace), as described in 1 Kings 4:20, sqq., would naturally be conducive to the growth of a sententious philosophy; whereas the constant wars and dangerous life of David had called forth the impassioned eloquence of the Psalms.

THE PROVERBS -Year from the Creation, 3004. -Year before the birth of Christ, 996. -Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 1000. -Year since the Deluge, according to Archbishop Usher and the English Bible, 1348. -Year from the destruction of Troy, 185. -Year before the first Olympiad, 224. -Year before the building of Rome, 247. CHAPTER I The design of the proverbs, 1-6. An exhortation to fear God, and believe his word, because of the benefit to be derived from it, 7-9; to avoid the company of wicked men, who involve themselves in wretchedness and ruin, 10-19. Wisdom, personified, cries in the streets, and complains of the contempt with which she is treated, 20-23. The dreadful punishment that awaits all those who refuse her counsels, 24-33. NOTES ON CHAP. I Verse 1. The proverbs of Solomon] For the meaning of the word proverb, see the introduction; and the dissertation upon parabolical writing at the end of the notes on Matthew 13:58. Solomon is the first of the sacred writers whose name stands at the head of his works.

The Title. Chap. Proverbs 1:11. proverbs] Properly resemblances. Here used of (1) short, pithy sentences, either couched in the form of a similitude, or comparison, or gathering up under their common principle or issue classes of events or actions, which resemble one another in the identity of that principle or issue; such proverbs forming the bulk of the Book from the 10th chapter to the end: (2) longer and more elaborate didactic addresses, such as are contained in the first nine chapters of the Book, and occasionally interspersed in its later portions. See Introd. ch. ii. p. 18. of Solomon] This does not mean that Solomon was the author of the whole Book, for parts of it are distinctly ascribed to other authors (Proverbs 24:23, Proverbs 30:1, Proverbs 31:1), but that in the main it proceeds from him, and that he is the acknowledged father of this kind of Hebrew literature. See Introd. ch. iii. p. 25.

The long exhortation 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.

TITLE, OBJECT, AND MOTTO, Proverbs 1:1-7.1. The Proverbs — The first sentence is the title or superscription of the book, though not, as in modern usage, set apart as such, but run in to the body of the text.