📖 Biblical Definition
The biblical book of practical wisdom attributed largely to Solomon (with sections from Agur and Lemuel). Proverbs 1-9 contains extended discourses on the value of wisdom, the dangers of folly, and the warnings against the strange woman. Chapters 10-29 are predominantly two-line couplets contrasting wisdom and folly, righteousness and wickedness. Chapter 31 closes with the acrostic poem of the virtuous woman. The book's thesis: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
PROVERBS, n.
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A scriptural proper name; the book of biblical wisdom.
📖 Key Scripture
Proverbs 1:7 — "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction."
Proverbs 3:5 — "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding."
Proverbs 22:6 — "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
Proverbs 31:10 — "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern Christianity reads Proverbs as quotable wisdom; the book is a sustained discipleship curriculum.
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Proverbs is structured as a father's discipleship curriculum to a son. Chapters 1-9 are extended discourses; the father urges, warns, instructs, and pleads with the son to choose Wisdom over Folly. The same pattern is implicit through the rest of the book. The Proverbs are not random aphorisms; they are a sustained education in the fear of the Lord.
Modern Christianity reads Proverbs as quotable wisdom — pulling out a verse for a sermon, a tweet, or a meme. The book repays sustained reading. Read all thirty-one chapters in a month, one chapter a day. Read Proverbs aloud at the kitchen table to your children. Father, do for your sons what Solomon did for Rehoboam (and which Rehoboam tragically forgot). The Proverbs are the constitution of a discipled life.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew/Greek roots below.
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H4912 — mashal — proverb
G3942 — paroimia — proverb, byword
Usage
"Modern Christianity reads Proverbs as quotable wisdom; it is a sustained discipleship curriculum."
"Read all 31 chapters in a month, one a day; read aloud to your children."
"The Proverbs are the constitution of a discipled life."