Proverbs 2 is the second chapter of the Book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.[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. This chapter is a part of the first collection of the book.
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 | My son, if thou wilt receive my words, And lay up my commandments with thee; | ||
| 2 | So that thou make thine ear attend unto wisdom, And thy heart incline to discernment; | ||
| 3 | Yea, if thou call for understanding, And lift up thy voice for discernment; | ||
| 4 | If thou seek her as silver, And search for her as for hid treasures; | ||
| 5 | Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, And find the knowledge of God. | ||
| 6 | For the LORD giveth wisdom, Out of His mouth cometh knowledge and discernment; | ||
| 7 | He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright, He is a shield to them that walk in integrity; | ||
| 8 | That He may guard the paths of justice, And preserve the way of His godly ones. . | ||
| 9 | Then shalt thou understand righteousness and justice, And equity, yea, every good path. | ||
| 10 | For wisdom shall enter into thy heart, And knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy soul; | ||
| 11 | Discretion shall watch over thee, Discernment shall guard thee; | ||
| 12 | To deliver thee from the way of evil, From the men that speak froward things; | ||
| 13 | Who leave the paths of uprightness, To walk in the ways of darkness; | ||
| 14 | Who rejoice to do evil, And delight in the frowardness of evil; | ||
| 15 | Who are crooked in their ways, And perverse in their paths; | ||
| 16 | To deliver thee from the strange woman, Even from the alien woman that maketh smooth her words; | ||
| 17 | That forsaketh the lord of her youth, And forgetteth the covenant of her God. | ||
| 18 | For her house sinketh down unto death, And her paths unto the shades; | ||
| 19 | None that go unto her return, Neither do they attain unto the paths of life; | ||
| 20 | That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, And keep the paths of the righteous. | ||
| 21 | For the upright shall dwell in the land, And the whole-hearted shall remain in it. | ||
| 22 | But the wicked shall be cut off from the land, And the faithless shall be plucked up out of it. |
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). Fragments containing parts of this chapter in Hebrew were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls including 4Q102 (4QProv; 30 BCE – 30 CE) with extant verse 1.[4] [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;
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This chapter belongs to a section regarded as the first collection in the book of Proverbs (comprising Proverbs 1–9), known as "Didactic discourses". 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),
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).
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). 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).
My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,[8] This verse opens one long conditional sentence comprising:
The verb "treasure" qualifies the term “receive” (Hebrew: לָקַח, 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]
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), so it leads to the way of good persons (verses 20–22).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.
to deliver you from the adulterous woman,
from the loose woman who has flattered you with her words[12]
The seductive speech is compared to "olive oil" (Proverbs 5:3) and is recounted (Proverbs 7:14-20).[16] [17]
. Michael D. Coogan . The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version, Issue 48 . Coogan . Michael David . Marc Zvi . Brettler . Carol Ann . Newsom . Pheme . Perkins . Augmented 3rd . Oxford University Press . 2007 . 9780195288810 .
. Joseph Fitzmyer . A Guide to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2008. 9780802862419. Grand Rapids, MI .
. Michael V. Fox . Proverbs 10-31: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary . Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries . Yale University Press . 2009 . 978-0300155563.
. Henry Hampton Halley. Halley's Bible Handbook: an abbreviated Bible commentary . 24th (revised). Zondervan Publishing House . 1965 . 0-310-25720-4.