4:1–4 Those who seek to motivate children toward certain behavior—or to motivate anyone, for that matter—will wisely appeal to a whole range of methods. Chapter 3 used empathy to appeal to the son. Now in these first four verses of chapter 4 the writer appeals to tradition.

Tradition is far less an acknowledged source of truth in our own day, in which meaning and significance are usually located deep within voices or consciences of the individual. But in the ancient world tradition carried significant weight. And so the allusions to the language of Moses along with the mention of parents (the son’s grandparents) reinforce the time-tested character of these sayings. (Cf. Response section for further discussion.)

While the passage does not mention names, Solomon’s hand nevertheless stands behind these first nine chapters. So, when “my father” is mentioned, there is good reason to recall David. Here we should remember that the Bible remembers characters in all sorts of ways. The Pentateuch, for example, remembers Moses for his heroic deeds as well as for his own sins and failures. David is remembered in 1–2 Samuel in much the same way. Thus here in Proverbs 4 David should be seen as a source of authority not because he was perfect but rather because the Lord chose him to lead Israel and because he maintained his commitment to the Lord throughout his life, despite his obvious shortcomings.

Proverbs 4:4 again exhorts the son to get wisdom with his “heart,” a word used almost a hundred times in Proverbs to signal the upmost commitment. “Words” and teachings that promise “life” are common in Proverbs (2:19; 3:2, 18, 22; 4:10, 13; etc.) and are taken up at the end of Moses’ final sermon before his death (Deut. 32:47).

4:5–9 Proverbs 4:5 forms a bridge between the first and second part of this speech. The appeal to the tradition of the father’s “words” and “commandments” (vv. 1–4) ends with a call to “get wisdom” (v. 5). The verses that follow contain a list of commands and prohibitions and also provide a fuller description of wisdom’s benefits. The three prohibitions are familiar phrases from Proverbs 1–9 and Deuteronomy: “Do not forget,” “Do not turn away,” and “Do not forsake.”

Beginning in Proverbs 4:4 the text includes ten imperatives: “hold,” “keep,” “get” (4x), “love,” “prize,” “exalt,” and “embrace.” Together these commands make wisdom the object of the fullest range of human needs and desires: knowledge, romance, beauty, economic possessions, and physical safety. Wisdom is for all of life.

The oft-repeated “get,” from the Hebrew qanah, has a range of meanings and could also be rendered “acquire” when referring to getting a wife. The obvious point, especially in the context of the other commands, is that the son ought to make it his overwhelming priority to get and hold wisdom. Collections of wisdom sayings in the ancient Near East were usually from a father to a son and often provided advice for getting a wife, much as we find in Proverbs 31:10–31. The poetry here plays upon this style of advice, making getting wisdom a greater priority than getting a spouse. Wisdom is needed for the latter anyway.

As seen in chapter 31, ancient spouses were not only a source of companionship. In fact, romance was actually secondary to finding a spouse who worked hard, upheld his or her spouse’s reputation, and cared for the family and home—the family business of the ancient world. In this way, getting wisdom is not a momentary act of buying something at the store or getting engaged. What the father commends here is acquiring and getting wisdom as a way of living every day of life. To love and hold wisdom is to live by these commands.

4:10–13 Wisdom now moves from an object to be desired to the one who acts on the son’s behalf. The section begins with the command to “hear,” again echoing the great commandment of Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel.” The outer sayings offer the promise of long life (Prov. 4:10, 13). Verses 11–13 return to the imagery of the “way,” “path,” and “walk.” This is liminal language, which calls to mind not simply the metaphor of the journey through life but also the bipolar tension between the two paths laid out in Proverbs: wisdom and folly, righteousness and wickedness, life and death.

Verse 12 paints the vivid picture of someone running without stumbling. The word for “run” here appears only four times in Proverbs, with little in common between the contexts, and so the meaning is left to our imagination. This is probably intended: whether the running is in fun, in battle, out of fear, or on a hunt, what is certain is that in moments of the greatest urgency wisdom will be one’s aid.

Verse 13 closes with the imperative “keep hold” to match the opening imperative “accept” in verse 10. Both sayings also promise wisdom’s ability to provide long “life.”

4:14–17 The focus now turns from the son’s paths and ways to relying on wisdom’s help to avoid the ways and paths of violent and wicked people. The comments on 1:10–19 discussed the extreme language in these warnings, as it is unlikely that the father’s basic assumption is that his son will turn to extreme violence and theft on a grand scale. The sayings in chapters 10–29 deal more often with the “smaller” sins and habits of folly that tempt us. Like the tension laid up in the two paths in chapters 1–9, the violent imagery serves to get the attention of the reader—wisdom is serious business, even when it is dealing only with smaller affairs of life.

In 4:16 the wicked are robbed of sleep unless they are able to engage in their evil deeds. Verse 17 then pictures their actions with the metaphors of eating and drinking. Like food and sleep, which make constant demands on our bodies, so do wicked acts embed themselves in our visceral sense of loves and needs. They become deep-seated desires, meaning wisdom must become the same if it is to counter them. Wisdom must be an object of love and desire—even as we love and desire food and erotic pleasure (v. 6).48

4:18–19 These verses repeat a common pattern in Psalms and Proverbs of summing up the fates of the two ways (cf. Pss. 1:6; 2:12; Prov. 1:32–33; 2:21–22; 8:35–36). The shining of light in 4:18 is unusual in Proverbs and probably signals a comparison with the sun at its highest and hottest point. Fox interprets the image as such: “This dynamism suggests the education and moral growth of a youngster.”49

In obvious contrast to the light, the “way of the wicked is like deep darkness,” which leads them to “stumble” (v. 19). The word for stumbling (Hb. kashal) appears for its third and final time in this central section of the chapter (cf. vv. 12, 16). In the first two uses of the word the son was the one at risk of stumbling. Now it turns out that the wicked will fall into their own trap and stumble—these reciprocating consequences are another common pattern in wisdom (cf. comment on 1:15–19 [at v. 18]).

4:20–22 Appealing to common educational metaphors of eyes and ears, the father encourages the son to learn the father’s wisdom. The learning imagined here is less a matter of new information or data and more one of habits of obedience and respect to the father, as evident in the emphases of “my son,” “my words,” and “my sayings.” Tradition again plays a role of authority.

As noted in the Section Overview, the sayings utilize a variety of words from the human anatomy associated with learning and devotion: “ear,” “sight,” “heart,” and “flesh.” The series of anatomical terms continues into verse 23 and through the end of the chapter.

4:23–27 The exhortations transition from the content of the father’s teachings to an interest in the human body as an instrument of wisdom. The oft-cited and memorized saying in verse 23 is the heading for the several sayings that follow and offers a helpful insight to Proverbs’ ancient anthropology. That is, wisdom’s view of human nature sees the heart as the physical/intellectual/spiritual/emotional center. We feel with our heart, think with our hearts, and, of course, love and worship with our hearts. Contrary to the modern dualism between the head and the heart, the Bible places the mind as subject to the heart: where the heart goes, the thinking and actions will follow. And so the heart must be guarded above all else. Or, as the verse could be translated, “Above all of your guarding activities, watch over your heart.”

The metaphor of the “springs of life” (v. 23) could be translated in a number of ways. “Outgoings” and “things at the borders” are less poetic renderings but nevertheless demonstrate the point behind the metaphors. Everything flows out from the heart, the center. To watch or “keep” the heart implies activities of tending, regulating, and directing beyond simply protecting. Life must be lived, and so the heart must be put to work wisely and purposefully.

Verses 24–27 are examples of a heart guarded into a wise life, moving through actions illustrated by parts of the body. As we will see throughout the sayings, “speech” (lit. “mouth”) and “talk” (lit. “lips”) are not just what we say but include what we do not say, whom we speak with, whom we do not, and how we speak or refrain from speaking. The “eyes” (v. 25) capture both a vision for life (cf. 29:18) and also the desires and distractions that lead away from that vision. “Feet” are by now a familiar symbol in the book. Like the eyes, they are symbols of the ways of life and the many paths that lead away from wise conduct. The sayings end with a call to “turn your foot away from evil,” recalling the utter seriousness of wisdom already communicated by the promises that wisdom offers “life” (4:13, 22, 23).