Proverbs 4:1-9

A Father’s Instruction

1 Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.

2 For I give you sound teaching; do not abandon my directive.

3 When I was a son to my father, tender and the only child of my mother,

4 he taught me and said, “Let your heart lay hold of my words; keep my commands and you will live.

5 Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn from them.

6 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will guard you.

7 Wisdom is supreme; so acquire wisdom. And whatever you may acquire, ^[a] gain understanding.

8 Prize her, and she will exalt you; if you embrace her, she will honor you.

9 She will set a garland of grace on your head; she will present you with a crown of beauty.”

Proverbs 4:1-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PROVERBS 4

In this chapter Solomon advises to seek after wisdom, to avoid bad company, and to continue in the right paths of goodness and truth: he excites attention to what he had to say, from the relation he stood in to the persons addressed; from the nature of his instructions, which were good and profitable; and from his own example, in attending to those his parents gave him, Pr 4:1-4; He exhorts above all things to get wisdom, from the superior excellency of it, and from the preservation, promotion, and honour, to be had by it, Pr 4:5-9; and he further enforces big exhortations, from their being the means of a comfortable life, and of the prolongation of it, and of leading in a right way without straitness or stumbling, Pr 4:10-13. And then proceeds to caution against bad company, and going into a bad way of life; which is enforced from the mischief done by those that walk in it, and from the darkness of it, to which the path of the just is opposed, Pr 4:14-19. And the exhortation to attend to and observe his instructions, and keep them, is repeated, from the consideration of their being life and health to them, Pr 4:20-22; and that they might be preserved, and not departed from, direction's are given about ordering the heart, mouth, lips, eyes, and feet, Pr 4:23-27.

Footnotes

• [a] Or And whatever else you acquire