Bible Commentaries

Third Address. Chap. 2. Proverbs 2:1-22

The diligent pursuit of Wisdom is inculcated (Proverbs 2:1-4), as of that which in its essence is the knowledge and fear of God (Proverbs 2:5-9), and in its fruits preservation from the evil man (Proverbs 2:10-15) and from the evil woman (Proverbs 2:16-19), and guidance into the way of life (Proverbs 2:20-22).

1. hide] or, lay up, R.V.; as a treasure stored carefully.

2. thine heart] For the wide meaning of this word in Holy Scripture see Delitzsch, Biblical Psychology, Section xii:—“According to thorough investigation and evidence of Scripture in all its parts, the heart is the internal centre of the natural condition of man, in which the threefold life of man blends together.” “It is the centre of the bodily life,” “of the spiritual psychical life” (including “will and desire,” “thought and conception”), and of “the moral life.”

3. knowledge] Rather, discernment, R.V. See Proverbs 1:2, note.

4. as silver … hid treasures] It has been supposed that there is reference here to the eagerness and effort connected with the discovery and working of a silver mine, and to the search for treasure hidden in the earth. See, for example, Dean Plumptre’s interesting note on this verse in the Speaker’s Commentary. It may well be doubted, however, whether by silver be not rather meant, money, or wealth, generally. LXX. ἀργύριον, Vulg. pecuniam. Comp. φιλαργυρία, 1 Timothy 6:10; ἀφιλάργυρος, Hebrews 13:5. (See Smith’s Bible Dict., Art. Silver: “its chief use was as a medium of exchange, and throughout the O.T. we find ceseph, silver, used for money, like the Fr. argent.”) We are told that silver, as a metal, was “nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon,” 1 Kings 10:21. So again it is doubtful whether any great stress is to be laid upon “hid treasures” (Matthew 13:44). The word here is lit. “hidden things,” and so, treasures, because we hide them for safety (Genesis 43:23, A.V. and R.V. Comp. Isaiah 45:3). The LXX. render ἐὰν … ὡς θησαυροὺς ἐξερευνήσῃς, Vulg. si … sicut thesauros effoderis. It is rather the value set upon Wisdom, than the difficulty of search for her that is here in view. She is a gift, after all (Proverbs 2:6), though a gift to those only who seek her diligently (Luke 11:5-13).

6. For] Maurer rightly insists that this and two following verses are not a parenthesis, but an integral part of the main argument; q.d. I said that by diligent search after wisdom thou shouldest attain to the fear of Jehovah and the knowledge of God; and I said so because that knowledge involves the true conception of God, as the Fountain of all wisdom, and the right attitude towards Him of reverent expectation, which like the prophet’s “golden pipes” (Zechariah 4:2) brings your earnest desire to receive into contact with His readiness to give. Comp. James 1:5.

7. layeth up] Lit. hideth, as a treasure too precious to be left exposed, therefore it must be searched for (Proverbs 2:4). But he layeth it up for, not from, the upright; therefore the search shall be successful (Proverbs 2:5).

He is a buckler] So R.V. except, instead of buckler, more accurately, shield, the smaller weapon.

The rendering, And a shield, R.V. marg.; or better, which (sc. wisdom) is a shield, is admissible, and is supported by such passages as Ecclesiastes 7:12; Ephesians 6:16, where wisdom and faith are compared to a shield. But the frequent comparison of God Himself to a shield or buckler in the O.T. (e.g. Genesis 15:1; Deuteronomy 33:29; Psalm 59:11; Psalm 84:11, in all which places the Heb. word for shield is the same as here) is in favour of regarding Jehovah (Proverbs 2:6) as the subject of this, as of the former, clause of the verse.

8. He keepeth] Lit. to keep, which may mean, for them (those that walk in integrity) to keep, that they may keep, R.V. marg. But it is better to retain God as the subject still, and at the same time to preserve the parallelism with the 2nd clause of the verse. The two verses (7, 8) will then read, with R.V. text,

He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright,

He is a shield to them that walk in integrity;

That he may guard the paths of judgement,

And preserve the way of His saints.