Proverbs 2

¹ My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you,

² so as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;

³ yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding;

⁴ if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures;

⁵ then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

⁶ For the LORD gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

⁷ He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,

⁸ that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his saints.

⁹ Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.

¹⁰ For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

¹¹ Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,

¹² to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things,

¹³ who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness,

¹⁴ who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil,

¹⁵ who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths,

¹⁶ to deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words,

¹⁷ who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God;

¹⁸ for her house leads down to death, her paths to the departed spirits.

¹⁹ None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life.

²⁰ Therefore walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

²¹ For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.

²² But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.

Around Proverbs 2

Context

Context for this book is being written. A note appears here only once it names its sources.

AI explanation

About Proverbs as a whole · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader

This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.

What this book is about

Two voices call from the high places of a city, and both want the same passers-by. “Wisdom has built her house”, the ninth chapter says. She has set her table and sent out her maidens, and she calls the simple to leave their simple ways. Across the street, a loud and undisciplined woman, Folly, sits at her door and calls the very same crowd.

That picture captures the whole book. Proverbs gathers short sayings and longer poems about living wisely. Its starting point is that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” It contrasts the wise and the foolish in speech, work, money, friendship, marriage and the raising of children.

In the opening chapters wisdom is pictured as a woman calling out in the streets. The book ends with a poem in praise of a capable wife.

Background

Most of the sayings are linked with Solomon. Others are credited to Agur, to King Lemuel and to unnamed wise teachers, and one section was copied by officials of King Hezekiah about two centuries after Solomon (25:1). Similar collections of wisdom are known from Egypt and Mesopotamia.

How Christians read it

A proverb states what is generally true, not a guarantee for every case. Reading the sayings as promises leads to disappointment, and the books of Job and Ecclesiastes show the exceptions. The New Testament speaks of Christ as the wisdom of God, and many Christians read the figure of wisdom in chapter 8 in that light.

About this explanation

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, on 19 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.

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