Proverbs 2:4
New International Version
and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,

New Living Translation
Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures.

English Standard Version
if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,

Berean Standard Bible
if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure,

King James Bible
If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;

New King James Version
If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures;

New American Standard Bible
If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures;

NASB 1995
If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures;

NASB 1977
If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures;

Legacy Standard Bible
If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures;

Amplified Bible
If you seek skillful and godly wisdom as you would silver And search for her as you would hidden treasures;

Christian Standard Bible
if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure,

Holman Christian Standard Bible
if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure,

American Standard Version
If thou seek her as silver, And search for her as for hid treasures:

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And you will seek it as silver and you will search it out as treasure

Brenton Septuagint Translation
and if thou shalt seek it as silver, and search diligently for it as for treasures;

Contemporary English Version
Search for wisdom as you would search for silver or hidden treasure.

Douay-Rheims Bible
If thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure:

English Revised Version
If thou seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures;

GOD'S WORD® Translation
if you search for wisdom as if it were money and hunt for it as if it were hidden treasure,

Good News Translation
Look for it as hard as you would for silver or some hidden treasure.

International Standard Version
if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure,

JPS Tanakh 1917
If thou seek her as silver, And search for her as for hid treasures;

Literal Standard Version
If you seek her as silver, | And search for her as hid treasures,

Majority Standard Bible
if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure,

New American Bible
If you seek her like silver, and like hidden treasures search her out,

NET Bible
if you seek it like silver, and search for it like hidden treasure,

New Revised Standard Version
if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures—

New Heart English Bible
If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures:

Webster's Bible Translation
If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;

World English Bible
if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures;

Young's Literal Translation
If thou dost seek her as silver, And as hid treasures searchest for her,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Benefits of Wisdom
3if you truly call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding, 4if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure, 5then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God.…

Cross References
Matthew 13:44
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that field.

Job 3:21
who long for death that does not come, and search for it like hidden treasure,

Proverbs 2:3
if you truly call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding,

Proverbs 3:14
for she is more profitable than silver, and her gain is better than fine gold.

Proverbs 8:17
I love those who love me, and those who seek me early shall find me.


Treasury of Scripture

If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures;

thou

Proverbs 3:14,15
For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold…

Proverbs 8:18,19
Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness…

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

searchest

Job 28:12-20
But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? …

Ecclesiastes 4:8
There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.

Luke 16:8
And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

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Hid Hidden Search Searchest Searching Seek Seekest Silver Stored-Up Treasure Treasures Wealth
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Hid Hidden Search Searchest Searching Seek Seekest Silver Stored-Up Treasure Treasures Wealth
Proverbs 2
1. wisdom promises godliness to her children
10. and safety from evil company
20. and direction in good ways














(4) If thou seekest her as silver.--That the process of mining was understood long before the time of Solomon, is proved by the remains of copper mines discovered in the peninsula of Sinai, and the gold mines in the Bisharee desert of Egypt. Rock inscriptions have been found near the former, dating from a great age, in the opinion of Lepsius from 4000 B.C. (See the article "Mines," in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible; comp. also the description in Job 28:1-11.) Silver was brought to Solomon from Arabia (2Chronicles 9:14) and Tarshish (2Chronicles 9:21), probably Tartessus, in Spain.

Searchest for her as for hid treasures.--From the great insecurity of life and property in Eastern countries, the hiding of treasures in the earth has always been of frequent occurrence. It would often, no doubt, happen that the owner would die without disclosing the place of concealment to any one else, and the treasure thus be lost. Hunting after such hoards has in consequence been always of the keenest interest to Orientals, and as such furnishes the groundwork for one of our Lord's parables (Matthew 13:44).

Verse 4. - If thou seekest, etc. The climax in the series of conditions is reached in this verse; and the imagery employed in both clauses indicates that the search after Wisdom is to be persevering, unrelaxing, and diligent, like the unremitting toil and labour with which men carry on mining operations. "To seek" (בָּקַשׁ, bakash) in the original is properly "to seek diligently" (piel), and is kindred to "to search" (קָפַשׂ, khaphas), which again is equivalent to "to dig" (חָפַר, khaphar), the Vulgate effodere, "to dig out." Compare the expression in Job 3:21, "And dig for it more than for hid treasures." We trace in these verbs the idea in the mind of the teacher indicated above, which finds expression also in the object of the search, the silver, in its crude state, and the hidden treasures (מַטְמֹנִים mat'monim), i.e. the treasures of gold, silver, and precious metal concealed in the earth. The comparison here made between the search for Wisdom and the search for the hidden treasures of the earth was not unfamiliar to the Hebrew mind, as it is found worked out with great beauty of detail in the twenty-eighth chapter of Job. Again, the comparison of Wisdom with things most precious in the estimation of man is natural and common, and occurs in Psalm 119:72; Job 28:15-19. The same ideas and comparisons here used are presented to us in the New Testament teaching, in our Lord's parable of the man who finds the hid treasure in the field, and, in the phraseology of St. Paul, who speaks of "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," and of "the unsearchable riches of Christ." "Divine knowledge is an inexhaustible mine of precious ore" (Wardlaw). The language of the Proverbs would receive additional three from the circumstances of the reign of Solomon, the most splendid and prosperous era in the annals of the Jewish national history, in the means taken to secure the treasures of other and distant countries; the wealth and the riches of that reign (see 2 Chronicles 9:20-22) would help to bring out the idea of the superlative value of Wisdom. In no era of the Jewish national history was there such abundance of riches, such splendid prosperity, as in the reign of Solomon, whose ships of Tarshish brought "gold and silver" (see 2 Chronicles 9:20-22), and this state of things would give point to the comparisons which the teacher uses in our text.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
if
אִם־ (’im-)
Conjunction
Strong's 518: Lo!, whether?, if, although, Oh that!, when, not

you seek
תְּבַקְשֶׁ֥נָּה (tə·ḇaq·šen·nāh)
Verb - Piel - Imperfect - second person masculine singular | third person feminine singular
Strong's 1245: To search out, to strive after

it like silver
כַכָּ֑סֶף (ḵak·kā·sep̄)
Preposition-k, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3701: Silver, money

and search it out
תַּחְפְּשֶֽׂנָּה׃ (taḥ·pə·śen·nāh)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person masculine singular | third person feminine singular
Strong's 2664: To seek, to conceal oneself, mask

like hidden treasure,
וְֽכַמַּטְמוֹנִ֥ים (wə·ḵam·maṭ·mō·w·nîm)
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-k, Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 4301: A secret storehouse, a secreted valuable, money


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OT Poetry: Proverbs 2:4 If you seek her as silver (Prov. Pro Pr)
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