An Introduction

"The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, King of Israel:

To know wisdom and instruction,
To perceive the words of understanding,
To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgement, and equity.
For giving to the simple ones; Prudence.
For giving to the young ones; Knowledge and Discretion.

A wise man will hear and learn more.
A man of understanding will attain wise counsel.

To understand a proverb and an enigma,
The words of the wise and their riddles."
- Proverbs 1:1-7

This is the purpose of this blog.

The book of Proverbs is a book of wisdom, compiled for all who have the ability to learn.

It delineates many kinds of people;
The Wise,
The Foolish,
The Simple,
The Proud,
The Young,
The Old,
and many, many more.

More and more as I live this thing called life, I've found that while Wisdom is a slippery thing, often hard to truly grasp, it does become caught as we are willing to live out things like Love, Discipline, Self-Control, Goodness, and other virtues.

It can be brought out be these virtues, just as it causes these virtues to grow.

But there's more.

These words of wisdom in Proverbs are compiled very specifically to act as a catalyst... an enhancer, a stabilizer, an aide to find wisdom and capture it.

They exist so that all who read it know and recognize wisdom and good teaching, to be able to have and see understanding instead of confusion, even when its hidden so well that almost everyone passes by. They are made so that all who take them to heart and mind receive instruction in the concept, application, and consequences of wisdom, justice and righteousness, judgement, and equity and discretion.

To those who are simple, these will bring out prudence. Although in today's culture, prudence has taken on negative connotations of hesitancy, it was not always so. The word translated "Prudence" here is formed from a root that means "To uncover" and "to act subtly or craftily." The word "Prudence" itself comes from the latin word "Providentia" or foresight, which honestly ties in well with the hebrew meaning.

From Proverbs, the simple will gain the ability to uncover truths that lay unseen to others, and to act with subtlety and cunningly, when the situation requires it. Tying the two word meanings together, it seems that from proverbs, the simple will gain insight and understandings of the subtleties of things and people around them so deep that these abilities can even double as foresight.

Insight and understanding by instinctively seeing truths that may be hidden; seeing through lies, being trained to understand things, and subtle enough to not seem like an idiot know-it-all.

To those who are young, these will bring out Knowledge and Discretion. The word used for "young" in this verse has a dual meaning. It means, "those from birth to around 20," and "those who are servants, or who serve another." In other words, "those who have not become fully independent".

To these ones, these proverbs will bring knowledge and discretion. In this case, the word translated as "Knowledge" means, knowledge, perception, skill, discernment, understanding, and wisdom. In other words, these proverbs provide, a broad base of knowledge needed for survival, the skill of perception, or to be able to see what others miss, basic skills for life, the ability to discern what really lies behind what is spoken or shown, understanding that reaches beyond just the brain, and wisdom to know which choices are truly right and good.

The word "Discretion" here comes from a word meaning, "to have a thought, to devise, to plan, to consider, to purpose or decide." This seems to tie in to the quality in front of this one, providing with the aforementioned qualities of Knowledge, the ability to devise plans, to think, to consider things deeply and well, and to purpose and decide. To have a purpose and decide one's direction.

But these writings quickly point out that they are not only for the simple and young.

For if those who are wise study these proverbs, they will add to what they already know.
And for those who are already intelligent, they will receive wise direction, guidance, and counsel.

These words are for all to gain the ability to understand wise sayings, and to be able to discover, explore, unravel, and understand things that are unique and mysterious... These are for all to gain the ability to understand what wise men say... even their perplexing statements and questions.

In other words, these proverbs give the ability to speak with wise men on their level. To understand what they mean when they try to condense their experiences and wisdom into a saying. To be able to find the things and thoughts and reality that their riddles and questions lead to, and to be able to unravel the deep truths hidden therin.

And these writings give the ability to become wise ourselves. To begin to be able to understand wise sayings on our own. To be able to find something unique... never seen before... an enigma... and to explore and understand it.

This is the purpose of Proverbs.

To know Wisdom and Instruction. To perceive words of understanding. To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgement, and equity. To give prudence, knowledge, discretion, greater understanding, and wise counsel. To give the ability to understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles.

And this is the purpose of this blog. To chronicle my journey as I explore Proverbs. To provide a record, and maybe an aide, or at least an encouragement, both to me and to others. As I begin to grow in these things, I hope to be able to come back and find more and more wisdoms and instructions and find more truth.

This is my exploring the great cavern of Proverbs... and making every effort to find wisdom.
-I
-Me
-David
-Suave'