To understand words of insight (Prov 1:2)
Before we examine this statement further, a brief explanation of Hebrew poetry is in order. The Old Testament poets chiefly relied on a literary device called parallelism, which means that each unit of thought (usually one verse) contains two or more short lines that generally say either a similar thing or a different thing.[1] The poet’s intention is for the lines to be compared with each other in order to arrive at their meaning. As Waltke states, “Proverbs cannot be interpreted correctly without asking the question: ‘How are the versets [the two lines] related to one another?’”[2] Thus the reader should be careful not to force the lines apart and interpret them each in isolation (we’ll especially see the impact of this method when we reach verse 7).
So in Proverbs 1:2, we have two parallel lines that say similar things:
To know wisdom and instruction,
To understand words of insight.
The first half of the verse focuses on the abstract concept of wisdom; Solomon wants us to recognize certain facts as containing “wisdom.” The second half of the verse focuses on the concrete communication of wisdom; Solomon wants us to recognize, in any given interaction with other people, whether they are speaking words of wisdom or not.
For example, when you see an advertisement on television, is it commending some wise behavior to you, or is it simply playing on your anxiety or passions in order to make a buck? When you speak with a friend, should you take her advice on a matter or respectfully decline it? As you sit in your class, can you tell whether the instructor is speaking truth in line with God’s perspective, or merely soliciting your servile obeisance to folly through bombastically sesquipedalian obfuscation? (In other words, is the prof leading you astray by impressing you with big words?)
In short, Solomon aims to equip us first to know what is wise and what is foolish so we can then identify whether a particular person in a particular situation is communicating wisdom or foolishness to us. In other words, he wants to train people to know wisdom.
Wisdom is: Knowing whether any particular counsel is the right thing to do in any particular situation.
[1]I intend this as a gross oversimplification to keep things simple. For a far more nuanced discussion of Hebrew parallelism, see this article by Jeff Benner.
[2]Waltke, Proverbs 1-15, p.45.
This post was first published in 2012.
When you say the abstract sense of wisdom. I think the abstract is much more important because it will show exactly how the concrete is supposed to go. The abstract is hard to grasp. The concrete is deceptively easy. I think that in bible study we should focus on the abstract to be able to apply it to the concrete.