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Sixteenth Address. Ch. Proverbs 8:1-36. The Appeal of Wisdom

The personification of Wisdom in this chapter is highly suggestive. Already in the opening verses of the Book (Proverbs 1:20-33) Wisdom has been personified, has “uttered her voice,” as here she utters it, “in the street” and “in the chief places of concourse,” and has pleaded, as here she pleads, with the sons of men. But here the fair impersonation, following closely upon the vivid picture of the immediately foregoing section, presents itself to us in striking and designed contrast to the dark form that passed before us there. Not lurking furtively at the corners of the streets in the deepening twilight; not leading astray with swift and stealthy footsteps and beguiling with whispered subtleties, but with free and open grace, “in the top of high places by the way,” in the sight of men, and with voice clear and melodious as a clarion-call does she utter forth her appeal (Proverbs 8:1-3). She speaks (Proverbs 8:4-36). While she addresses herself to every child of man, the “simple” and “fools” are specially invited to profit by her instruction (Proverbs 8:4-5). All her speech is plain and open, and needs only an intelligent ear to understand it (Proverbs 8:6-9). The treasures she offers are above all price, and such as even kings may covet (Proverbs 8:10-11). Telling us who she is and what she has to offer us (Proverbs 8:12-21), she goes on to affirm that her claim to attention is no less than that she is the eternal Possession and Fellow of Jehovah Himself, His joy and Counsellor in the creation and ordering of the universe, and that from the beginning her “delights were with the sons of men” (Proverbs 8:22-31). Therefore, on premisses such as these, she pleads with us yet again, as her children, that we refuse not the blessedness which she offers (Proverbs 8:32-36).

We are fain to confess that, in the contrast thus exhibited in these companion pictures of Night and Day, of Vice and Virtue, we have the work of a master hand. But besides its moral force and beauty, which lie as it were on the surface, this contrast has a deeper significance, “plain,” as are the words of wisdom, “to him that understandeth.” Why, we ask ourselves, does not the wise Teacher, having in hand to draw away his sons from the seductions of vice by subjecting them to the mightier attractions of virtue, set over against the abandoned woman of his first picture the pure and faithful wife, with her charm of holy love, as the subject of his second picture? Why does he not counsel his scholars, as indeed he does elsewhere (Proverbs 8:15-19), to find in God’s holy ordinance the true remedy for the pleasures of sin which the temptress offers them? Because, in the first place, he would lead them higher, and commend to them a yet worthier object of supreme affection, an object which at once includes and surpasses all pure and lawful objects of human devotion. Because he would have them learn to say of her who is the antidote, not for one vice only but for all the errors into which the unwise heart of man is wont to lead him:

Her I loved and sought out from my youth

And I sought to take her for my bride,

And I became enamoured of her beauty.

Wisd. of Solomon Proverbs 8:2, R.V.

And then also because through “the Spirit of God which was in him,” the ideal of comprehensive Wisdom which his mind formed took personal shape, and stood before him as the embodiment of all human virtue and perfection, a prophecy and a promise, such as had been vouchsafed to the bodily senses of others, a “preluding of the Incarnation.” See Introd., p. 31.

Proverbs 8:1-3. The call of Wisdom. Comp. Proverbs 1:20-21.

2. in the places of the paths] Lit. in the house or home of the paths, i.e. where many roads or streets run up into one common meeting-place, and so give vantage-ground for her call.

The R.V. arranges the verse in the order of the Heb.:

In the top of high places by the way,

Where the paths meet, she standeth.

3. she crieth] The R.V. again preserves the order of the Heb., and puts the words she crieth aloud at the end of the verse.

the gates] See Proverbs 1:21, note.

Proverbs 8:4-5. The persons whom she addresses.

5. wisdom] R.V. subtilty. See Proverbs 1:4, note.

Proverbs 8:6-9. The plainness of her speech.

6. excellent things] The word is always used elsewhere of persons, princes, or leaders. Here, poetically, my words shall march forth, instinct with the nobility of truth and rectitude.

8. in righteousness] or, “righteousness,” R.V.

marg. froward] Rather, crooked, R.V.; σκολιόν, LXX.

9. Comp. Matthew 13:11; Matthew 13:16.

Proverbs 8:10-11. The treasures she offers.

In place of gold and silver and precious stones and whatever else men covet, wisdom offers “durable riches,” intellectual, moral, spiritual treasures, and offers them in and with herself in responsive love to all who love and seek her.