PROVERBS, MISHLEY, מִשְׁלֵי,
reading guide with samples
Rabbi David L Kline
(Roman numerals indicate six divisions,
following Michael V Fox in Jewish Study
Bible.)
I PARENTAL
ADVICE
1:1-7 Learn! Wisdom, understanding, justice,
cunning, riddles
8-19 Fatherly
advice, watch out for bad guys
20-33 Lady
Wisdom: Wise up, take my advice
2:1-22 Wisdom
will save you from double talking men and smooth talking women
3:1-12 Good
faith counts. Trust God. Don’t be
a wise guy.
13-20 Happiness,
wealth, peace. God created with
wisdom.
21-26 Prudence,
security
27-30 Be
a good neighbor
31-35 Don’t
admire the violent
4:1-9 Parental
advice is Torah, Ki lekach tov. . .
10-19 Avoid
the path of the wicked
20-27 Direct
your body parts
5:1-14 Keep
away from the “strange” woman, ishah
zarah
15-20 Enjoy
life with your own wife
21-23 Wickedness
is self defeating
6:1-19 Do
not a borrower be
6-11 Work
like an ant, wake up lazybones
12-15 Crooked
behavior
16-19 Six
plus one bad things, family strife the ultimate
20-23 “Mitsvah
is a lamp, Torah a light” Ki ner mitzvah
v’torah or
24-35 Adultery
destroys, worse than paying a prostitute, stealing
7:1-27 Lady
Wisdom versus the seductress (graphic)
8:1-36 The
wonders of Wisdom, creation of the world, happiness
9:1-6 Lady
Wisdom’s house of 7 pillars, her
hospitality
7-12 Only
the wise accept correction
13-18 Stolen
water is sweet
II SOLOMONIC PROVERBS (10-16, thesis and
antithesis, 17-22 parallelism)
10:2 A
bad guy’s treasure is of no use but tsedakah
saves from death.
11:24 One
scatters but adds, another saves righteously but lacks.
12:18 There
is speech like a sword thrust, but wise language heals.
13:12 Hope
deferred sickens the heart but desire realized is a tree of life.
14:15 A
simpleton believes anything, but a clever one watches his step.
15:17 Better
a meal of greens with love than marbled steak with hate.
16:24 Pleasant
words are like honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing the bone.
17:28 A
fool who keeps quiet may be thought wise, who seals his lips–discerning.
18:17 The
first is right in his argument, till the other comes to examine him.
19:4 Wealth
adds many friends, a poor man is separated from his friend.
20:1 Wine
is a scoffer, beer is noisy, anyone who reels from it won’t be wise
21:19 Better
to live in a desert than with an argumentative and angry woman
22:6 Train
a lad in his way and he’ll not turn from it even when he’s old.
III Admonitions,
adapted from Egyptian “Instruction of Amenope” 22:17-23:11, 24:1-2,11-12 (see provided listing)
23:4 Do not exhaust yourself seeking riches; Have
the sense to show some restraint. You cast your eyes at it, and it is gone; For
it will sprout wings like an eagle, And fly to the skies.
23:12-28 Parental
advice on behavior, women.
23:29-35 Wine
bites like a snake. Alcoholism.
24:21 Fear
Yah and a king, my son, and don’t mix with nonconformists.
IV From
unnamed Chachamim (Sages) 24:23-34
:30-4 I
passed by the field of a lazy man. . . overgrown with thorns. . . > quote
Prv 6:10f
A bit of sleep, a bit
of slumber, a bit of hugging in bed,
And
along comes your poverty and your want, like a man with a shield.
V 25-29
Back to Proverbs of Solomon,
comparisons
25:11 Like
golden apples in silver settings is a word spoken at the right time.
26:4f Don’t
answer a fool with silliness: you will be comparable to him.
Answer
a fool with silliness, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
27:20 Sheol
and Avadon are never sated, nor are human eyes.
28:1 The
bad man flees when there is no pursuer, the righteous are secure as a lion.
29:12 A
ruler who listens to lies, all his ministers are wicked.
VI Appendices:
Agur, Lemuel, and Eshet Chayil
30:19 Wondrous.
. . unknown. . . the way of a lad and a lass.
31:6-9 Give
wine for the embittered. . . champion the poor and the needy.
12-31
Eshet Chayil, What a woman!
29 There
are many fine women, but you are the best.
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