Proverbschapter 2
22 verses · KJVProverbs book hub →
A.Search for Her as for Hid Treasurevv. 1-9
Proverbs 2:1-4
My son, if thou wilt receive my words: The whole chapter is one long conditional sentence in the Hebrew, a single sweep from if to then that the King James breaks into English clauses without losing the grammar's shape. If thou wilt receive my words piles up four more conditions before the sentence ever resolves, apply thine heart, cry after knowledge, lift up thy voice, until the search itself becomes urgent rather than passive. If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures borrows the vocabulary of mining, the same digging and searching that fills Job 28's picture of a shaft sunk far from where men dwell.
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 2:1, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:1
Wisdom is open to all and loves humankind. Anyway, Solomon says, "My son, if you accept my words of instruction and keep them deep within you, your ear will listen to wisdom." This means that the word is sown and kept deep in the soul of the learner as if in the ground. This is spiritual growth.So he adds, "You shall direct your heart to understanding and direct it towards instruction for your son."
Clement of Alexandria· third century· The Stromata Book 1patristic
Proverbs 2:1
Now in the divine order comes the promise Pro 2:5. The conditions of its fulfillment are stated in Pro 2:1-4 in four sets of parallel clauses, each with some shade of distinct meaning. Thus, not “receiving” only, but “hiding” or treasuring up - not the “ear” only, but the “heart” - not the mere “cry,” but the eager “lifting up the voice.”
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 2:3, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:3
God's wisdom … [works] "in many forms and many ways" through technical skill, scientific knowledge, faith, prophecy; it shows us its power to our benefit, because "all wisdom comes from the Lord and is with him to all eternity," as the wisdom of Jesus puts it. "For if you call for practical wisdom and perception at the top of your voice, if you seek it as you would a treasure of silver, and if you track it down ardently, then you will realize the meaning of reverence for God and you will grasp the perception of God."
Clement of Alexandria· third century· The Stromata Book 1patristic
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 2:4, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:4
“If thou seekest her as silver - How do men seek money? What will they not do to get rich? Reader, seek the salvation of thy soul as earnestly as the covetous man seeks wealth; and be ashamed of thyself, if thou be less in earnest after the true riches than he is after perishing wealth. Hid treasures - The original word signifies property of any kind concealed in the earth, in caves or such like; and may also mean treasures, such as the precious metals or precious stones, which are presumptively known to exist in such and such mines.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 2:5-6
Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord: finally answers the conditions of the first four verses, and the placement matters, the fear of the Lord is not the starting requirement here but the reward of a diligent search, understood only after the seeking the earlier verses describe. Find the knowledge of God stands beside it as the search's true object, wisdom is never presented in this book as information detached from its source. For the Lord giveth wisdom grounds the whole search in a giver rather than in human achievement, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding, so the seeking of verses 1 to 4 is answered from outside the seeker.
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 2:5, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:5
“Solomon says, "You will find a divine sense." For he knew that there were in us two kinds of senses, the one being mortal, corruptible and human, and the other immortal and intellectual, which here he calls "divine." By this divine sense, therefore, not of the eyes but of a pure heart, that is, the mind, God can be seen by those who are worthy.”
Origen of Alexandria· third century· ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:1.9patristic
Proverbs 2:5
“The promise. The highest blessedness is to know God Joh 17:3. If any distinction between “the Lord” יהוה yehovâh and “God” אלהים 'elohı̂ym can be pressed here, it is that in the former the personality, in the latter the glory, of the divine nature is prominent.”
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 2:6, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:6
“And from his mouth comes wisdom and understanding. In this verse, that ineffable and coeternal wisdom born of God the Father may be understood, of which it is elsewhere said: I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, the firstborn (Eccli. XXIV). The …”
Bede· eighth century· Commentary on Proverbspatristic
Proverbs 2:7-9
He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: pictures wisdom as treasure stored rather than scattered, kept for those it is kept for, and a buckler to them that walk uprightly names it a shield rather than a weapon, wisdom's first office is protection. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints ties the guarding directly to God's own action rather than to the wise man's vigilance alone. Righteousness, and judgment, and equity, yea, every good path, closes the section by naming the whole moral field the earlier search was searching for, not one virtue but the entire road.
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 2:7, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:7
“Sound wisdom - “Soundness,” an idea which passes on into that of health and safety. Compare “sound doctrine” in 1Ti 1:10; 2Ti 4:3.”
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 2:8, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:8
“Path of judgment - Righteous paths, judgment being here put for righteousness.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 2:9, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:9
“Then--emphatic, in such a case. righteousness . . . path--all parts of duty to God and man. Idea of Pr 2:9, amplified; on terms, compare Pr 2:2 and Pr 2:4.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
B.Wisdom Delivers From the Evil Man and the Strange Womanvv. 10-22
Proverbs 2:10-11
When wisdom entereth into thine heart: , and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul marks the turn from external instruction to internal possession, wisdom no longer merely heard but felt as pleasant, the difference between duty and desire. Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee names the two guards by their working titles just before the chapter shows exactly what they guard against, the evil man in the verses that follow and the strange woman after him. The verbs preserve and keep anticipate a chapter built entirely around deliverance, two dangers named and two rescues promised.
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 2:10, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:10
“Another picture of the results of living in the fear of the Lord. Not that to which it leads a man, but that from which it saves him, is brought into view. Notice also that it is one thing for wisdom to find entrance into the soul, another to be welcomed as a “pleasant” guest.”
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 2:11, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:11
“We read in sacred Scripture, dearly beloved, that holy counsel should keep those who are solicitous for their soul's salvation, as the divine Word puts it: "Holy counsel shall keep you." If holy counsel keeps a soul, that which is unholy not only fails to …”
Caesarius of Arles· sixth century· SERMON 45:1patristic
Proverbs 2:11
“Discretion shall preserve thee - מזמה mezimmah. See on Pro 1:4 (note). Here the word is taken in a good sense, a good device. The man invents purposes of good; and all his schemes, plans, and devices, have for their object God’s glory and the good of man: he deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand. Coverdale translates, “Then shall Counsel preserve thee.” A very good translation, much better than the present.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 2:12-15
To deliver thee from the way of the evil man: names the first of the chapter's two deliverances, a man defined first by his speech, froward things, before anything else is said of him. Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness pictures a deliberate departure rather than an accident of upbringing, men who once knew the right paths and left them, rejoicing to do evil and delighting in frowardness rather than merely tolerating it. Whose ways are crooked closes the portrait with the book's standing image of the road, the evil man's whole manner of life bent rather than straight.
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 2:12, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:12
“The man that speaketh froward things - תהפכות tahpuchoth, things of subverston; from תפך taphach, to turn or change the course of a thing. Men who wish to subvert the state of things, whether civil or religious; who are seditious themselves, and wish to make others so. These speak much of liberty and oppression, deal greatly in broad assertions, and endeavor especially to corrupt the minds of youth.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 2:13, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:13
“Who leave the straight path, etc. Beautifully he has opposed dark ways to the straight path, because indeed the journey of right action is performed in light and leads to the joys of the supreme light. As the Lord says: Everyone who does evil hates …”
Bede· eighth century· Commentary on Proverbspatristic
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 2:14, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:14
“For seeing the city, he wept over it, saying: If you had known, even you. This he did once, when he announced that the city would perish. This our Redeemer never ceases to do daily through his elect, when he considers that certain people have passed from a good life to wicked ways. For he mourns those who do not know why they are mourned, because, according to the words of Solomon: They rejoice when they have done evil and exult in the worst things.”
Gregory the Dialogist· seventh century· 40 Homilies on the Gospels, Homily 39patristic
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 2:15, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:15
What is the meaning of "Prepare the way of the Lord"? Make ready for the reception of whatever Christ may wish to enact; withdraw your hearts from the shadow of the law; cease from the types; think no more perversely.… "Make the paths of our God straight." For every path that leads unto good is straight and smooth and easy; but the other is crooked that leads down to wickedness those who walk therein. For of such it is written, "Whose paths are crooked, and the tracks of their wheels awry."
Cyril of Alexandria· fifth century· COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 6patristic
Proverbs 2:16-19
To deliver thee from the strange woman: opens the second deliverance and the chapter's first mention of a figure the book returns to at length in chapters 5 and 7, here named simply as the stranger which flattereth with her words. Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God locates her danger in broken covenant rather than only broken marriage, the language deliberately covenantal. For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead states the ending in the starkest terms the chapter offers, none that go unto her return again, a warning the bench reads as absolute rather than merely likely.
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 2:16, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:16
“To deliver thee from the strange woman,.... As the Gospel of Christ and its doctrines, or the instructions of wisdom, are a means of delivering persons from the evil man, his company, ways, and works; so from a naughty woman, an adulteress, called a "strange" woman; not because of another nation, or unknown, but because she belongs to another person, and not to him whom she entices into her embraces.”
Proverbs 2:16
“The stranger which flattereth with her words - החליקה hechelikah, she that smooths with her words. The original intimates the glib, oily speeches of a prostitute. The English lick is supposed to be derived from the original word.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 2:17, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:17
“The guide of her youth - Better, the familiar friend (compare Pro 16:28; Pro 17:9). The “friend” is, of course, the husband, or the man to whom the strange woman first belonged as a recognized concubine. Compare Jer 3:4 The covenant of her God - The sin of the adulteress is not against man only but against the Law of God, against His covenant. The words point to some religious formula of espousals. Compare Mal 2:14.”
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 2:18, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:18
“For her house inclineth unto death - It is generally in by and secret places that such women establish themselves. They go out of the high road to get a residence; and every step that is taken towards their house is a step towards death. The path of sin is the path of ruin: the path of duty is the way of safety. For her paths incline unto the dead, רפאים repheim, the inhabitants of the invisible world.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 2:19, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:19
“All who go to her do not return, etc. To her, to death he says, not to the woman. For it is possible for him who is mixed with an adulteress, with the help of the Lord, to return and earn life again by repenting; …”
Bede· eighth century· Commentary on Proverbspatristic
Proverbs 2:20-22
That thou mayest walk in the way of good men: gives the long conditional sentence its final purpose, all the receiving and searching and delivering aimed at one plain outcome, a life spent on the paths of the righteous. For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it echoes the land promise in language close to the covenant blessings of the law, wisdom's reward pictured as continuance rather than only inward peace. The chapter's last line sets the alternative beside it without softening, the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it, the same finality that closed the deliverance from the strange woman just before it.
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 2:20, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:20
Scripture itself plainly testifies to this very thing, saying: "For if they would walk in right paths, they would certainly have found the paths of righteousness smooth."
John Cassian· fifth century· Conference of Abbot Abraham, Chapter 24patristic
Proverbs 2:20
“It will be our wisdom to walk in that way, to ask for the good old way and walk therein, Jer. vi. And we must not only walk in that way awhile, but we must keep it, keep in it, and never turn aside out of it: The paths of the righteous are the paths of life, which all that are wise, having taken hold of, will keep their hold of.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 2:21, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:21
“Noticeable here is the Hebrew love of home and love of country. To “dwell in the land” is (compare Exo 20:12; Lev 25:18, etc.) the highest blessing for the whole people and for individual men. contrast with it is the life of the sinner cut off from the land (not “earth”) of his fathers.”
Proverbs 2:21
“They shall dwell and remain for ever in the heavenly Canaan, of which the earthly one was but a type. (2.) Because men's iniquity will be their destruction,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 2:22, in their own words.
Proverbs 2:22
“Transgressors - בוגדים bogedim. The garment men, the hypocrites; those who act borrowed characters, who go under a eloak; dissemblers. All such shall be rooted out of the land; they shall not be blessed with posterity. In general it is so: and were it not so, one evil offspring succeeding another, adding their own to their predecessors’ vices, the earth would become so exceedingly corrupt that a second flood, or a fire, would be necessary to purge it.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 2:22
“They think to take root in it, but they and their families shall be rooted out of it, in judgment to them, but in mercy to the earth. There is a day coming which shall leave them neither root nor branch, Mal. iv.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Where the chapter sits
Proverbs 2 falls in Sayings of Solomon: long discourses (chapters 1–9). The opening nine chapters frame wisdom and folly as two paths. Wisdom personified (ch 8): the book's poetic high point and a future Christ-as-Wisdom anchor.
After it: Solomon's proverbs proper, chapters 10–24.
The whole shape of Proverbs→Key words
The Hebrew words this chapter turns on, by how often it uses them. Each one opens its word study.
| Word | What it means | Verses |
|---|---|---|
| אֹרַחʼôrach5 times, as אָרְח֣וֹת, אָרְחֹתֵיהֶ֣ם, אָרְח֥וֹת | way | 8, 13, 15, 19 and 1 more |
| תָּבוּןtâbûwn4 times, as לַתְּבוּנָֽה׃, לַ֝תְּבוּנָ֗ה, וּתְבוּנָֽה׃ | understanding | 2, 3, 6, 11 |
| דֶּרֶךְderek4 times, as וְדֶ֖רֶךְ, מִדֶּ֣רֶךְ, בְּדַרְכֵי־ | way | 8, 12, 13, 20 |
| חׇכְמָהchokmâh3 times, as לַֽחָכְמָ֣ה, חָכְמָ֑ה, חָכְמָ֣ה | wisdom | 2, 6, 10 |
| דַּעַתdaʻath3 times, as וְדַ֖עַת, דַּ֣עַת, וְ֝דַ֗עַת | knowledge | 5, 6, 10 |
| הָלַךְhâlak3 times, as לְהֹ֣לְכֵי, לָ֝לֶ֗כֶת, תֵּ֭לֵךְ | to go | 7, 13, 20 |
Cross references
The 8 chapters this one speaks with, most first. Open a row for the verses it shares.
Proverbs 43 verses
Proverbs 2:1
Proverbs 4:1Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.Proverbs 2:11
Proverbs 4:6Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.Proverbs 2:13
Proverbs 4:19The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.- Read Proverbs 4 →
Proverbs 32 verses
Proverbs 2:1
Proverbs 3:1My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:Proverbs 2:3
Proverbs 3:6In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.- Read Proverbs 3 →
Proverbs 12 verses
Proverbs 2:1
Proverbs 1:3To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;Proverbs 2:5
Proverbs 1:7The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.- Read Proverbs 1 →
Proverbs 232 verses
Proverbs 2:2
Proverbs 23:12Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.Proverbs 2:16
Proverbs 23:27For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.- Read Proverbs 23 →
The rest of the chapters this one speaks with, 4 of them, for a reader following a thread past the four above
- Matthew 132 verses
- Ezekiel 162 verses
- Psalms 372 verses
- James 11 verse
Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.
The world behind itThe place, the time and the people around this chapter, for a reader who wants the setting.
The world behind this chapter
Proverbs 2The history
"Search for her as for hid treasures" is a mining picture. Ancient silver and copper were dug out of shafts and galleries, the copper works in the Arabah south of the Dead Sea still show the tunnels and slag heaps, and the labour was brutal: crawling, hauling baskets, breathing dust for a seam that might run out. The point is the cost, not the romance.
The travel language is just as physical. There were almost no paved roads. A journey meant choosing among worn tracks over ridges and through wadis, and a wrong turn at dusk could put a man among thieves or in a dry ravine at nightfall. "Path," "way," and "track" in this chapter are the vocabulary of a man who has actually been lost.
The "strange woman" here means a woman outside the covenant of her own marriage, the wife of another man. The chapter says she "forgetteth the covenant of her God," which points at the marriage contract sworn before God, not at foreign birth. In a village where everyone knew everyone, adultery was a matter of clan honour and blood, and the Law made it a capital offence for both parties.
What it meant to them
For the first hearers, wisdom was not a mood that arrived. It was mined. You cried after it, you dug, you gave up sleep for it, and then, the chapter says, God gave it, which is the surprise at the centre.
The promised payoff is protection on a road with real bandits and real seductions. Young Israelites listening were being told that the discipline of learning was not schoolroom decoration; it was the thing that would keep them alive and out of court.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Proverbs 2. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on 15 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Caesarius of Arles, SERMON 45:1; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata Book 1; Cyril of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 6; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; Gregory the Dialogist, 40 Homilies on the Gospels, Homily 39; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Cassian, Conference of Abbot Abraham, Chapter 24; John Gill; John Wesley; Matthew Henry and Origen of Alexandria, ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:1.9.