Book of Proverbs

The Book of Proverbs (Hebrew: מִשְלֵי, Mišlê; Greek: Παροιμίαι; Latin: Liber Proverbiorum, "Proverbs (of Solomon)") is a book in the third section (called Ketuvim) of the Torah Old Testament traditionally ascribed to King Solomon and his students.

"[4] Wisdom is personified and praised for her role in creation; God created her before all else and gave order to chaos through her.

These include "instructions" formulated as advice from a teacher or parent addressed to a student or child, dramatic personifications of both Wisdom and Folly, and the "words of the wise" sayings, which are longer than the Solomonic "sayings" but shorter and more diverse than the "instructions.

[19] Chapters 25–29, attributed to the editorial activity of "the men of Hezekiah", contrast the just and the wicked and broach the topic of rich and poor.

[21] Chapter 31, "the sayings of King Lemuel — an inspired utterance his mother taught him", describes a virtuous woman, a wife of noble character.

A large part of this section is a recasting of a second-millennium BCE Egyptian work, the Instruction of Amenemope, and may have reached the Hebrew author(s) through an Aramaic translation.

[27] Along with the other examples of the biblical wisdom tradition – Job and Ecclesiastes and some other writings – Proverbs raises questions of values, moral behavior, the meaning of human life, and righteous conduct.

[28] The three retain an ongoing relevance for both religious and secular readers, Job and Ecclesiastes through the boldness of their dissent from received tradition, Proverbs in its worldliness and satiric shrewdness.

In contrast, Job and Ecclesiastes appear to be direct contradictions of the simplicities of Proverbs, each in its own way all but dismissing the assumptions of the "wise".

[32] Pre-Exilic (i.e., pre-586 BCE) Israelite religion worshipped YHWH as the supreme deity despite the continued existence of subordinate servant-deities.

[37] In the 4th century, when Christianity was caught up in heresies and still developing the creeds that would define its beliefs, Proverbs 8:22[38] was used both to support and refute the claims of the Arians.

Their opponents, who argued that the relevant Hebrew word should be translated as "begot", won the debate, and the Nicene Creed declared that the Son was "begotten, not made"—meaning that God and Jesus were consubstantial.