Proverbs 4:1-27

Ancestral Wisdom. The Two Paths

In Proverbs 4:1 the teacher lays stress on the fact that his instruction is a repetition of his father's. No teaching was thought valuable save that which was handed down from one generation to another. The best pupil was the one who was 'a cemented cistern which loses not a drop.' Proverbs 4:10 might be called the doctrine of the two paths, the two ways of life. 20-27 enjoin strict attention to instruction and to conduct.