The Book of Proverbs

The Book of Proverbs

Toward a Way of Life

A proverb is a short, carefully phrased saying that enunciates a truth of experience and wins acceptance because of the perfection of its form and the acuteness of its observation. The Book of Proverbs is rich in such sayings: “He who spares the rod hates his son, but one who loves his son will take care to discipline him” (Prov 13:24) recalls our proverb: “The one who loves well disciplines well.” This justifies the title of the Book.

We also find therein fables: the ant (Prov 6:6-11); portraits: the femme fatale (Prov 7:10-27), the inveterate drinker (Prov 23:29-35), and the idler (Prov 26:13-16); riddles (Prov 30:15-33); sermons meant to advise, encourage, or praise: advice for fools (Prov 1:20-33), praise of the valiant woman (Prov 31:10-31), etc. Yet all these compositions, in quite different literary forms, have but one purpose: to instruct and edify. They are teachings drawn from reality and from life.

The proverbs were not all composed by a single author, nor do they all belong to the same period. Nine collections can easily be distinguished and given subtitles. If the entire work is attributed to King Solomon, who reigned from 970–931 B.C., it is because this king was regarded as Israel’s supreme sage (see 1 Ki 3:2—5:14). The second and fifth of our collections can, in fact, claim his collaboration; they are the oldest sections and preserve popular sayings dating from remote times. The other parts of the Book are recent, especially the first and the last, which may go back to only the fifth century B.C. Therefore, we can spread out the composition of Proverbs, in its essentials, between 950–450 B.C. We have before us not a Book, but different collections, some of which are taken from secular sayings. As the Pentateuch is a “summa” of Israelite legislation and Isaiah a “summa” of prophetism, so Proverbs can be regarded as a “summa” of Israelite wisdom.

At first sight, indeed, the wisdom contained in Proverbs does not seem much different from that of other, non-Jewish peoples. It does not, of course, have the detached and ritual character seen in the eternal wisdom of China; but then, human passions are less restrained in the Near East, and these must always be grasped in concrete particulars. Some of our texts can, however, call to mind Egyptian models (see Prov 22:17f). In any case, the evils denounced here are common to every time and place: perverse women, wine, laziness, corruption, lack of discipline, etc. The values that are highlighted belong to the order of earthly goods: prosperity, consideration, health, long life, and the like. Morality seems to stay on an earthly level: avoid excess, obey the king, respect customs and contracts, be honest. Readers are taught to order their own lives and to control the raging stream of ephemeral passions that debase a person’s life. There is a reserve, an interiority, a mastery of self, an honorable uprightness, the sense of impartiality, fidelity, and even generosity, without which life would be nothing but foolishness. But where can we find the supernatural in all of this?

In fact, however, the wisdom of Proverbs is not geared to purely human virtue that is won by reason. In the Book as a whole, the wisdom takes on a rather profound religious and moral meaning, since the way of life it urges is understood as a requirement of fidelity to God, as “fear of God.” Furthermore, the human behavior preached here is intended to be, as it were, a reflection of the thought and ways of God or, in other words, of divine wisdom, which is eternal and presides over the creation and the order of the world (Prov 3:19-20; 8:22-36; 16:9; 20:24).

We are thus initiated into a way of seeing and doing with regard to an order of things that surpasses the impatient desire of human beings and their useless vanity. We can compare wisdom to the law (Prov 1:29; 6:23; 15:8-9; 28:7; 29:18). Similar to the latter, it is above all justice before being profitable. At times that recompense must be expected; and one learns to prefer a certain poverty in place of injustice, to esteem the righteous poor more than the unrighteous rich (see Prov 14:20-21, 31; 16:8, 16, 19; 17:5; 19:22; 28:6).

Wisdom thus experiences nights in the faith; let us not forget that at the time of the Proverbs people did not yet envisage retribution after life. This art of living, which often seems so banal to us, demands renunciation and disinterestedness; and without a solid “fear of the Lord” one cannot become an expert at it (Prov 1:7; 9:10; 15:33).

Certainly there are imperfections in this work, but it contains authentic and precious riches. For those who learn to frequent it, this Book keeps alive the question of the true meaning of human existence.

The Book of Proverbs may be divided as follows:

I: Preface of the Redactor (1:1-9)

II: Prologue: Invitation to Wisdom (1:10—9:18)

III: The Proverbs of Solomon (10:1—22:16)

IV: The Sayings of the Wise (22:17—24:22)

V: Other Sayings of the Wise (24:23-34)

VI: Proverbs of Solomon from the Collection of the Men of Hezekiah (25:1—29:27)

VII: The Sayings of Agur (30:1-14)

VIII: Numerical Proverbs (30:15-33)

IX: The Sayings of Lemuel (31:1-9)

X: In Praise of the Valiant Woman or the Perfect Homemaker (31:10-31)