Proverbs 2 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Proverbs 2

The Value of Wisdom

2:1   My son, if you receive my words
    and treasure up my commandments with you,
2   making your ear attentive to wisdom
    and inclining your heart to understanding;
3   yes, if you call out for insight
    and raise your voice for understanding,
4   if you seek it like silver
    and search for it 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;
    from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7   he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
    he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
8   guarding the paths of justice
    and watching over the way of his saints.
9   Then you will understand righteousness and justice
    and equity, every good path;
10   for wisdom will come into your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11   discretion will watch over you,
    understanding will guard you,
12   delivering you from the way of evil,
    from men of perverted speech,
13   who forsake the paths of uprightness
    to walk in the ways of darkness,
14   who rejoice in doing evil
    and delight in the perverseness of evil,
15   men whose paths are crooked,
    and who are devious in their ways.
16   So you will be delivered from the forbidden¹ woman,
    from the adulteress² with her smooth words,
17   who forsakes the companion of her youth
    and forgets the covenant of her God;
18   for her house sinks down to death,
    and her paths to the departed;³
19   none who go to her come back,
    nor do they regain the paths of life.
20   So you will walk in the way of the good
    and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21   For the upright will inhabit the land,
    and those with integrity will remain in it,
22   but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
    and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

Footnotes

[1] 2:16 Hebrew strange
[2] 2:16 Hebrew foreign woman
[3] 2:18 Hebrew to the Rephaim

Commentary

v1-2: Proper attitude to God's word;

accept my words;
store up my commands within you;
turn your ear to wisdom;
apply your heart to understanding.

The choice is clear, "if" we choose to do these things. There is a personal responsibility; "my son...my words...my commands." God the Father is concerned for me, and it is folly to choose to reject His ways. We see too that obedience promotes wisdom and understanding (John 7.17).

v3-5: Desire to know more, depending on God for understanding; and praying to grow in spiritual wisdom, and valuing God's words above other things. Here is growth in grace and knowledge of the Lord.

v6-9: God's reward is essentially a knowledge of Him. He is not ignorant of our desires, and we will receive what we really seek after, see Matt 7.7-8.

v10-11: The value of wisdom, preserving and keeping. If our lives are filled with good, then there is no room for the bad; evil finds no foothold. We also find a protection from the evil influence of wicked people (v12-19).

v12-15: Unwise friendships are dangerous; knowing God keeps us from evil. The ungodly man is described as an;

evil speaker (v12);
evil walker (v13);
evil doer (v14);
one who walks in an evil way of life (v15).

v16-19: The immoral woman; another angle of danger and attack. She is unfaithful to her husband, and brings men down to death. Adultery has a long and serious impact upon our lives.

v20-21: The way of the righteous; the way set out for those who love and know God.

v22: The wicked and faithless are distinguished from the righteous. Proverbs consistently sets before us two paths, and only two.