Proverbs 4:1-9

1 Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.

2 For I give you a good gift; forsake ye not my law.

3 For I also was a son obedient to father, and loved in the sight of mother:

4 who spoke and instructed me, , Let our speech be fixed in thine heart, keep commandments, forget them not:

5 and do not neglect the speech of my mouth.

6 And forsake it not, and it shall cleave to thee: love it, and it shall keep thee.

7

8 Secure it, and it shall exalt thee: honour it, that it may embrace thee;

9 that it may give unto thy head a crown of graces, and may cover thee with a crown of delight.

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] See Appendix - Alexandrian codex has: “Get wisdom, get understanding, forget not, nor decline from the words of my mouth.”
• [b] Lit. dig a trench about her, see Heb.