Proverbs 2

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Template:Bible chapter

Proverbs 2 is the second chapter of the Book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.Template:Sfn[1] The book is a compilation of several wisdom literature collections, with the heading in 1:1 may be intended to regard Solomon as the traditional author of the whole book, but the dates of the individual collections are difficult to determine, and the book probably obtained its final shape in the post-exilic period.Template:Sfn This chapter is a part of the first collection of the book.Template:Sfn

Text

Hebrew

The following table shows the Hebrew text[2][3] of Proverbs 2 with vowels alongside an English translation based upon the JPS 1917 translation (now in the public domain).

Verse Hebrew English translation (JPS 1917)
1 Template:Script/Hebrew My son, if thou wilt receive my words, And lay up my commandments with thee;
2 Template:Script/Hebrew So that thou make thine ear attend unto wisdom, And thy heart incline to discernment;
3 Template:Script/Hebrew Yea, if thou call for understanding, And lift up thy voice for discernment;
4 Template:Script/Hebrew If thou seek her as silver, And search for her as for hid treasures;
5 Template:Script/Hebrew Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, And find the knowledge of God.
6 Template:Script/Hebrew For the LORD giveth wisdom, Out of His mouth cometh knowledge and discernment;
7 Template:Script/Hebrew He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright, He is a shield to them that walk in integrity;
8 Template:Script/Hebrew That He may guard the paths of justice, And preserve the way of His godly ones. .
9 Template:Script/Hebrew Then shalt thou understand righteousness and justice, And equity, yea, every good path.
10 Template:Script/Hebrew For wisdom shall enter into thy heart, And knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy soul;
11 Template:Script/Hebrew Discretion shall watch over thee, Discernment shall guard thee;
12 Template:Script/Hebrew To deliver thee from the way of evil, From the men that speak froward things;
13 Template:Script/Hebrew Who leave the paths of uprightness, To walk in the ways of darkness;
14 Template:Script/Hebrew Who rejoice to do evil, And delight in the frowardness of evil;
15 Template:Script/Hebrew Who are crooked in their ways, And perverse in their paths;
16 Template:Script/Hebrew To deliver thee from the strange woman, Even from the alien woman that maketh smooth her words;
17 Template:Script/Hebrew That forsaketh the lord of her youth, And forgetteth the covenant of her God.
18 Template:Script/Hebrew For her house sinketh down unto death, And her paths unto the shades;
19 Template:Script/Hebrew None that go unto her return, Neither do they attain unto the paths of life;
20 Template:Script/Hebrew That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, And keep the paths of the righteous.
21 Template:Script/Hebrew For the upright shall dwell in the land, And the whole-hearted shall remain in it.
22 Template:Script/Hebrew But the wicked shall be cut off from the land, And the faithless shall be plucked up out of it.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes the Aleppo Codex (10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008).Template:Sfn Fragments containing parts of this chapter in Hebrew were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls including 4Q102 (4QProvTemplate:Sup; 30 BCE – 30 CE) with extant verse 1.Template:Sfn[4]Template:Sfn[5]

There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BC. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; 𝔊B; 4th century), Codex Sinaiticus (S; BHK: 𝔊S; 4th century), and Codex Alexandrinus (A; 𝔊A; 5th century).Template:Sfn

Analysis

This chapter belongs to a section regarded as the first collection in the book of Proverbs (comprising Proverbs 1–9), known as "Didactic discourses".Template:Sfn The Jerusalem Bible describes chapters 1–9 as a prologue of the chapters 10–22:16, the so-called "[actual] proverbs of Solomon", as "the body of the book".[6] The chapter starts with an admonition to receive wisdom (verses 1–4) followed by the benefits of it: *the knowledge of God and his protection (5–8),

  • moral discernment for living (9–11),
  • protection from evil men (12–15) and immoral women (16–19), and
  • enablement for righteous living (20–22).[7]

The instruction in this chapter presents "wisdom" as a human quest (verses 1–5) and a divine gift (verses 6–8), which guards its recipients from the way of evil men and loose women (verses 9–19), and guides them in the way of good men (verses 20–22).Template:Sfn

Template:AnchorValue of Wisdom (2:1–8)

Wisdom is to be pursued with the attentiveness to the father's words and the inclination of the heart (or 'mind') as well as the fervent desire and perseverance (verses 1–4).Template:Sfn The prize for getting the wisdom is worth the toil (verse 5) given by God himself (verse 6), effectively maintaining God's moral order ('paths of justice') by 'shielding' that person from the pitfalls and snares of evil (verses 7–8).Template:Sfn

Verse 1

My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,[8]

This verse opens one long conditional sentence comprising:

  • (1) the protasis (“if…”) that runs through verse 4 and
  • (2) the apodosis (“then…”) consisting of two parallel panels in verses 5-8 and verses 9-11, both of which are introduced by the particle Template:Lang, ʾaz, “then”.[9]
  • "Treasure": from Hebrew Template:Lang, tsafan, “to store up”, which takes on "the technical meaning of memorizing the commandments of God”, so one can draw on them in need or in preparation for any situations.[10]
The verb "treasure" qualifies the term “receive” (, Template:Lang, laqakh, in the first clause, just as “commandments” intensifies “words”.[11] The pattern of 'intensification through parallelism' is found in verses 1 to 4.[11]

Template:Anchor Benefits of Wisdom (2:9–22)

The description of Wisdom as a guide and a guard (verses 9–11) echoes the introduction in Proverbs 1:2–7, is applied in following verses, in particular against 'evil men' (verses 12–15) and 'loose women' (or 'sexual impurities'; verses 16–19),Template:Sfn so it leads to the way of good persons (verses 20–22).Template:Sfn The theme of the 'loose woman' (verses. 16-19) is developed in more details in Proverbs 5:1–14, 6:20–35, and 7:1–27.Template:Sfn

Verse 16

to deliver you from the adulterous woman,
from the loose woman who has flattered you with her words[12]
  • "To deliver you": from the Hebrew word Template:Lang, lTemplate:SuphatsilTemplate:Supkha; the same term used in both verses 12 and 16 for deliverance from the evil man (verses 12–15) and the evil woman (verses 16–19), each with four poetic lines.[13]
  • "Adulterous woman": in Hebrew literally "strange woman" (KJV), from the root Template:Lang, zur, "to be a stranger", which refers to people 'who are ethnically foreign to Israel' (Isaiah 1:7; Hosea 7:9; 8:7) or 'who are morally estranged from God or his covenant people' (Psalm 58:4; 78:30), in particular for a woman, it means "adulteress" or "prostitute" (Proverbs 2:16; 5:3, 20; 7:5; 22:14; 23:33), who may not be a foreigner but that nonetheless is estranged from or outside of the covenant community with its social and religious values.[14]
  • "Loose woman": in Hebrew literally "alien woman", from the adjective Template:Lang, nokhri, “foreign; alien”, which generally refer to "non-Israelite", "ethnically foreign", or "someone who is unknown or unfamiliar" though an Israelite.[15] Here could be used as a technical term for a "harlot" or "promiscuous woman" who is 'morally alienated from God and moral society' (Proverbs 2:16; 5:20; 6:24; 7:5; 23:27) to emphasize the 'danger of being naively taken in by an unknown person.[15]
  • "Has flattered": in Hebrew literally "has made smooth", using the Hiphil II of Template:Lang, khalaq, "to be smooth; to be slippery", with the meaning
    • (1) “to make smooth” (metal with hammer) and
    • (2) “to use smooth words,” that is, to flatter (Psalm 5:10; 36:3; Proverbs 2:16; 7:5; 28:23; 29:5).[16]

The seductive speech is compared to "olive oil" (Proverbs 5:3) and is recounted (Proverbs 7:14-20).[16][17]

See also

Template:Columns-list

References

Template:Reflist

Sources

Template:Book of Proverbs

  1. ↑ Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 2012.
  2. ↑ Template:Cite web
  3. ↑ Template:Cite web
  4. ↑ Dead sea scrolls - Proverbs
  5. ↑ 4Q102 at the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library
  6. ↑ Jerusalem Bible (1966), Introduction to The Proverbs, p. 931
  7. ↑ Note [a] on Proverbs 2:1 in NET Bible
  8. ↑ Template:Bibleref2 ESV
  9. ↑ Note [c] on Proverbs 2:1 in NET Bible
  10. ↑ Note [e] on Proverbs 2:1 in NET Bible
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Note [d] on Proverbs 2:1 in NET Bible
  12. ↑ Template:Bibleref2 NET Bible
  13. ↑ Notes [a] on Proverbs 2:16 in NET Bible.
  14. ↑ Notes [b] on Proverbs 2:16 in NET Bible.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Notes [c] on Proverbs 2:16 in NET Bible.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Notes [d] on Proverbs 2:16 in NET Bible.
  17. ↑ Notes [e] on Proverbs 2:16 in NET Bible.
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