A King Shares His Mother’s Advice Immediately after the proverbs of Agur, we have the proverbs of Lemuel. The Bible refers to him as King Lemuel. Yet his name doesn’t appear elsewhere in Scripture, so we don’t know what he’s the king of. Nor do we know anything else about him, aside from his wise […]
Wise Advice from an Obscure Source We commonly think of King Solomon as the author of the book of Proverbs. While this is mostly true, it’s not completely correct. Proverbs also contains wisdom from Agur (as well as Lemuel, whom we’ll cover later). Agur is the son of Jakeh. Neither man, however, appears anywhere else […]
A Constant Dripping The word “quarrelsome” is almost exclusive to the book of Proverbs, occurring six times there and only two other times in the rest of the Bible, most to a quarrelsome wife. Quarrelsome means “given to quarreling, contentious, belligerent”; some of its synonyms are argumentative, fractious, and petulant. Five of the six occurrences […]
God Made Us to Be in Community Does the phrase “two by two” conjure up images of God sending the animals to Noah to enter the ark two by two (Genesis 7:8-9)? This need for pairs of animals is so they can repopulate their species after the flood. A single animal accomplishes nothing. Be Fruitful […]
May Our Life Honor God and Be an Example to Others Integrity is largely missing in our world today. It looms as an out-of-date concept. Many even mock it as restrictive, limiting our desire to act however we want. Integrity is an unwavering adherence to moral principles and ethical behavior. It’s being honest. It’s sound […]
Discover More about the Remarkable Woman of Proverbs 31 The book of Proverbs ends with a poem about a woman of noble character. People often call her the Proverbs 31 Woman. Though she may be a real person, this passage reads more like an idealized ode to a wife of mythical proportions. One Busy Lady […]
Don’t Be Too Quick to Say No The word sluggard occurs 14 times in Proverbs, but is nowhere to be found in the other 65 books of the Bible. This is curious. First, what is a sluggard? It’s a slothful person; an idler; a person who is habitually lazy. Consider then, Proverbs’ 14 mentions of […]
What the Bible Teaches About Wisdom May Shock Us The book of Proverbs talks a lot about wisdom. The word pops up in fifty-five versus in this thirty-one-chapter book. That’s a lot of wisdom. This may be the reason why many think of Proverbs as a book of wisdom. As Solomon and his co-writers compile […]
The book of Proverbs contains the majority of the Bible’s mentions of the word “adulteress” (seven times in Proverbs compared to five times in the rest of the Bible). It refers to a woman who commits adultery, that is, she has sex with someone other than her husband. In today’s language, that is referred to […]
We Can Learn From the Many Wise Sayings in the Bible We consider the book of Proverbs as being a collection of wise sayings from King Solomon. This is mostly correct. However, it also includes proverbs from other people. The book opens with Solomon giving instructions to his son. Then the king adds some more […]