9. Proverbs - promoting rather than recording true wisdom

After slogging through the book of Numbers I wanted a bit of light relief, so I turned next to the book of Proverbs. After establishing the person behind the book (Solomon), Proverbs launches straight in with some beautiful imagery and language. It is imagined as a father-son conversation, but is also rich in female characters; a mother's teaching is like a beautiful adornment to be worn (1:8-9), and wisdom is personified as a woman who shouts above the crowds and taunts the folks who ignore her (1:20-32). The writer seems to be somewhat obsessed with marital fidelity; wisdom is compared to a beautiful woman, a mother and a good wife, whereas following the crowd is often likened to a casual fling or an adulterous affair with a seductive woman.

1. Young people tend to follow their own desires instead of listening to the call of wisdom, and end up in trouble as a result

2. Wisdom and knowledge from elders will guide you to the right path, beware of novelty

3. God's wisdom leads to goodness, if you don't listen for God's guidance things will go badly

4. Listen to your father; seek wisdom and don't follow wicked people, or you'll end up in a bad place

5. Following wisdom is comparable to remaining faithful to your wife rather than chasing after other women, which is a path to ruin

6. Try not to get yourself into a mess, but if you do then don't rest until you've got yourself back out of it again

7. Don't listen to unfaithful people

8. The paths of wisdom and of foolishness are easy to tell apart and to follow; wisdom's path comes from God and leads to life

9. Both wisdom and folly invite us to join them; those who respond to wisdom's call are humble listeners, those who follow folly, listen only to themselves

10. Wisdom and the fear of God are the way to goodness, while wicked selfishness leads to ruin (a list of popular proverbs)

11. Generosity and honesty benefit all and are appreciated, but greed and untrustworthy behaviour create bad feeling and will leave you lonely and despised

12. The wise can be guided, but fools only ever follow their own path and it leads to their destruction

13. Discipline and diligence are ways of wisdom, while selfishness and laziness are the choices of fools

14. Wise people make good life choices - seeking and obeying God is always a wise choice

15. Be careful of the words you listen to and the words you speak, both wisdom and folly can be heard clearly if you listen

16. God guides those who are righteous, patient, humble and wise, but proud people who plot always for their own gain, will not find God's saving love in hard times

17. Quarrels, gossip, unfair criticism and lies can spread far and cause great harm, the wise keep quiet

18. Faith and good relationships can sustain and protect a person, but selfish and foolish people who do not value these things have no refuge in times of trouble

19. Kindness and good relationships are worth more than wealth of all the rich idiots, who rage against God and the world

20. Drive out dishonesty, gossip, laziness and disrespect because God hates these things, and destroys those who practice them

21. Kindness, generosity and righteousness will have longer lasting effects than treachery, greed and laziness because God is in the former, but destroys the latter

22. Wisdom, trust in God and mercy all go together - you should build your life with these rather than wealth

23. Try your hardest to avoid addictive behaviours and substances, let yourself be led and disciplined by trustworthy people

24. If you seek goodness, don't worry about what wicked and lazy people are getting up to, their doom will find them in time

25. Try to make sensible choices

26. Don't listen to idiots or look for trouble

27. Seek good relationships with your family, neighbours and colleagues and you will be well rewarded

28. Those who are righteous and will listen to instruction live fruitful lives that bless others and themselves

29. Uncontrolled clamour is the mark of the wicked and of fools, the wise are meekly disciplined and seek instruction from God

30. A man (named as Agur) declares that no humans are truly wise and only God's word can be trusted, his declaration is followed by lists of various wise observations attributed to him

31. Some final wisdom from King Lemuel's Mum who teaches him to value a good woman, but warns him not to give his heart to an untrustworthy woman or to impair his judgement with strong drink

Some of the chapters don't have a discernable theme but just seem to be a collection of random sayings grouped together, so I had to choose a theme from among them to try and reflect the main 'headlines' of the chapter, rather than something that encompassed the whole thing - of course this means that my bible condensing project is entirely at odds with the book of Proverbs which is intended as a gathering of wise sayings from various sources rather than a single coherent work! However, as the sayings quickly seem to become rather repetitive and predictable trying to get an overall sense of them didn't feel like time entirely wasted. By chapter 22 it really feels that the author is scraping the bottom of the barrel for more 'wise sayings' and descends into trite truisms, rather than anything that seems actually wise. Also there is a constant suggestion that good things will come to you if you're a good person - which doesn't fit the stories of faith you find in the bible but sounds more like they way most people wish that life worked out. I would suggest that a saying which seems wise cannot be isolated from it's context or the person speaking it - that would just be cleverness which is something else entirely. So while I don't think many of the sayings stand up on their own, I did feel that there was a thread of wisdom running through the book of Proverbs in that it promotes good relationships (with God and people), and in the observation that a persons choices will both decide and reveal the kind of person they become