Now begins the discourse. The exordium summons general attention to it with the emphasis of its absolute truth:

4 "To you, ye men, is my discourse addressed,

   And my call is to the children of men!

5 Apprehend, O ye simple ones, what wisdom is;

   And, ye fools what understanding is.

6 Hear, for I will speak princely things,

   And the opening of my lips is upright.

7 For my mouth uttereth truth,

   And a wicked thing is an abomination to my lips.

8 The utterances of my mouth are in rectitude,

   There is nothing crooked or perverse in them.

9 To the men of understanding they are all to the point,

   And plain to those who have attained knowledge."

Hitzig rejects this section, Proverbs 8:4-12, as he does several others in chap. 8 and 9, as spurious. But if this preamble, which reminds us of Elihu, is not according to every one's taste, yet in respect of the circle of conception and thought, as well as of the varying development of certain fundamental thoughts, it is altogether after the manner of the poet. The terminology is one that is strange to us; the translation of it is therefore difficult; that which is given above strives at least not to be so bad as to bring discredit on the poet. The tautology and flatness of Proverbs 8:4 disappears when one understands אישׁים and בּני אדם like the Attic ἄνδρες and ἄνθρωποι; vid., under Isaiah 2:9; Isaiah 53:3 (where אישׁים, as here and Psalm 141:4, is equivalent to בּני אישׁ, Psalm 49:3; Psalm 4:3). Wisdom turns herself with her discourses to high and low, to persons of standing and to the proletariat. The verbal clause 4a interchanges with a noun clause 4b, as frequently a preposition with its noun (e.g., Proverbs 8:8) completes the whole predicate of a semistich (Fl.).

Proverbs 8:10 Parallel Commentaries

Proverbs 2:4,5 If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures...

Proverbs 3:13,14 Happy is the man that finds wisdom, and the man that gets understanding...

Proverbs 10:20 The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth.

Proverbs 16:16 How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!

Proverbs 23:23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

Psalm 119:72,127,162 The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver...

Ecclesiastes 7:11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun.

Acts 3:6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

2 Corinthians 6:10 As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.