Proverbs 2:4
in Proverbs 2if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
If thou seek her as silver, And search for her as for hid treasures:
KJV
If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
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This verse in Proverbs 2
Commentary
9 notes on this verseIf 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.
This site's exposition
My son, if you accept my words
on Proverbs 2:1-4
In the Hebrew the whole chapter is one long conditional sentence, a single sweep from if to then. The line “if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure” borrows from mining, the digging that fills Job 28's picture.
This site's exposition
search it out like hidden treasure
Hidden treasure was often buried in a field, as in the parable Jesus told at Matthew 13:44. Adam Clarke urges the reader to seek the salvation of the soul as hard as the covetous seek silver. The search costs labor.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
Another passage of Scripture exhorting us to love of wisdom says it should be sought after like money. Must we therefore think holy Scripture praises avarice? It is well known to what great efforts and pains lovers of money will patiently subject themselves, from what great pleasures they abstain, in their desire to increase their wealth or in their fear of diminishing it. With what great shrewdness they pursue gain, and how prudently they avoid losses; how they are usually afraid to take the property of others, and sometimes despise loss to themselves lest they lose more in its quest and litigation. Because these traits are well known, it is right for us to be exhorted so to love wisdom that we most eagerly seek it as our treasure, acquire more and more of it, suffer many trials, restrain desires, ponder the future, so that we may preserve innocence and beneficence. Whenever we act in this way we are in possession of true virtues, because our objective is true, that is, is in harmony with our nature in reference to salvation and true happiness.
It's unfitting, it's insulting, that wisdom should be compared with money, but love is being compared to love. What I see here, after all, is that you all love money in such a way that when love of money gives the order, you undertake hard labor, you put up with starving, you cross the sea, you commit yourselves to wind and wave. I have something to pick on in the matter of what you love, but I have nothing to add to the love with which you love. "Love like that, and I don't want to be loved any more than that," says God. "I'm talking to the riffraff, I'm speaking to the greedy: You love money; love me just as much. Of course, I'm comparably better; but I don't want more ample love from you; love me just as much as you love money."
The Medieval Church1 voice
If you seek it like silver, etc. If with so much care you seek wisdom as the covetous seek silver, or certainly if you seek that same wisdom as anxiously as if you were to acquire through it infinite and ineffable riches, you will receive …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
If thou seekest her as silver,....
Thus diligent must we be in the use of the means of knowledge, following on to know the Lord. What success we may hope for in the use of these means. Our labour shall not be in vain; for, 1.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Note the illustrations. (1) Contact with Phoenician commerce, and joint expeditions in ships of Tarshish (see Psa 72:10 note), had made the Israelites familiar with the risks and the enterprise of the miller’s life. Compare Job 28: (2) The treasure hidden in a field, is the second point of comparison. Such treasure-seeking has always been characteristic of the East. Compare Mat 13:44.
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אִם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| תְּבַקְשֶׁ֥נָּה | tevakshenah | you will seek it | H1245 → | 225 times |
| כַכָּ֑סֶף | khakasef | like <the> silver | H3701 → | 403 times |
| וְֽכַמַּטְמוֹנִ֥ים | vekhamatmonim | and like <the> treasures | H4301 → | |
| תַּחְפְּשֶֽׂנָּה׃ | tachpesenah | you will search for it | H2664 → | 23 times |
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
תְּבַקְשֶׁ֥נָּהyou will seek it
tevakshenahH1245 →225 times
כַכָּ֑סֶףlike <the> silver
khakasefH3701 →403 times
וְֽכַמַּטְמוֹנִ֥יםand like <the> treasures
vekhamatmonimH4301 →
תַּחְפְּשֶֽׂנָּה׃you will search for it
tachpesenahH2664 →23 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Matthew 19:29And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for the sake of My name will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal…
it leads to
- Luke 18:29–30
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God
- Mark 10:29–30
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for My sake and for the gospel
- Philippians 3:8
More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may…
- Luke 14:26
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple.
- Matthew 16:25
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
- Luke 18:29–30
Through
Matthew 13:44The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that…
it leads to
- Proverbs 2:2–5
if you incline your ear to wisdom and direct your heart to understanding,
- Colossians 2:3
in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
- Philippians 3:7–9
But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ.
- Proverbs 2:2–5
About Proverbs
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, AGAINST JULIAN 4:3.18; Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 399:11; Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.