Proverbs 8:10

Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. RECEIVE MY INSTRUCTION, AND NOT SILVER. Thou canst not make as thy chief aim the acquisition of silver and that of true wisdom at one and the same time; for those aims mutually conflict, and each claims the whole man (). To accept the one involves the rejection of the other as the chief portion. He who lives for money is void of wisdom (; ), and is called in Scripture a "fool." The phrase "and not" does not imply an utter disregard to money, because we cannot rightly avoid some attention to the business of this world; but it is used to imply the comparative worthlessness of money when brought in competition with heavenly wisdom. Compare t...

1-11 The will of God is made known by the works of creation, and by the consciences of men, but more clearly by Moses and the prophets. The chief difficulty is to get men to attend to instruction. Yet attention to the words of Christ, will guide the most ignorant into saving knowledge of the truth. Where there is an understanding heart, and willingness to receive the truth in love, wisdom is valued above silver and gold....

Verse Proverbs 8:10. _RECEIVE MY INSTRUCTION, AND NOT SILVER_] A Hebrew idiom; _receive my instruction_ in preference to silver....

EXPOSITION PROVERBS 8:1 14. _Fourteenth admonitory discourse _concerning Wisdom—her excellence, her origin, her gifts. She is contrasted with the strange woman of Proverbs 7:1; and the exceeding greatness of the blessings which she offers exhibits in the most marked manner the nothingness of the deceiver's gifts. One is reminded of the celebrated episode of the choice of Hercules, delineated by Xenophon, 'Memorab.,' 2.1. 21, etc. The chapter divides itself into four sections. (1) Introductory (Proverbs 7:1); Wisdom calls on all to listen, and gives reasons for trusting to her ...

RECEIVE MY INSTRUCTION, AND NOT SILVER,.... Not but that silver may be desired, sought after and received, consistent with the instructions of wisdom; though an anxious, immoderate, sinful pursuit after it, hinders the reception of them; and when they are in competition, the one is to be preferred to the other: the doctrines of the Gospel are of more worth, and more to be desired, than thousands of gold and silver; and therefore the meaning is, that the instruction of wisdom should be received rather than silver; it should have the preference; so Gersom interprets it, and with which agrees the following clause: AND KNOWLEDGE RATHER THAN CHOICE GOLD; that is, the knowledge of Christ, and the knowledge of God in Christ; the knowledge of the Gospel, and the truths of it; a spiritual and experimental knowledge of these things is of more value than the finest gold, than the gold of Ophir; se...

CHAPTER 8 _ 1. The call and appeal of wisdom (Proverbs 8:1)_ 2. What wisdom is and what wisdom gives (Proverbs 8:12) 3. Wisdom; the Person, who He is (Proverbs 8:22) 4. The renewed appeal (Proverbs 8:32) Proverbs 8:1. This is one of the most interesting Chapter s in the entire book. It begins with a call and appeal of wisdom, much like the call and appeal of the first chapter. If wisdom calls, has a voice, then wisdom must also be a person. Who personified wisdom is we learn most blessedly in this chapt

PROVERBS 8. WISDOM SPEAKS IN HER OWN PERSON. This chapter forms at once the nucleus and the climax of this section of the book. The series of addresses on practical wisdom is fitly closed by a profounder presentation of wisdom as the moving principle in the ways of God. It reinforces the practical maxims of Proverbs 8:1 with the fundamental principle that the wise man is in harmony with God. Its date probably fixes the date of the whole section (see Introduction, and for a fuller discussion especially Cheyne, _Job and Solomon,_ pp. 156f.). The relation of the conception of Wisdom personified to the Stoic Logos and to Greek philosophy in general cannot be discussed here. (See _Wisdom Literature_ in HDB, and especially the excellent introduction by Holmes to the Book of Wisdom in Charles-' _Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha._) The two main lines of development of this conception in H

RECEIVE MY INSTRUCTION, AND NOT SILVER— _Rather than silver;_ that is to say_, preferably to silver;_ or it may be, "Give not your heart to money, if you would possess wisdom." It is impossible to join these two things, the love of this world, and the love of wisdom....

CHAPTER 8 TEXT Proverbs 8:1-11 1. Doth not wisdom cry, And understanding put forth her voice? 2. On the top of high places by the way, Where the paths meet, she standeth; 3. Beside the gates, at the entry of the city, At the coming in at the doors, she crieth aloud: 4. Unto you, O men, I call: And my voice is to the sons of men. 5. O ye simple, understand prudence; And, ye fools, be of an understanding heart. 6. Hear, for I will speak excellent things; And the opening of my lips shall be right things. 7. For my mouth shall utter truth; And wickedness is an abomination to my lips. 8. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; There is nothing crooked or perverse in them. 9. They are all plain to him that understandeth,...

WISDOM'S CRY Wisdom now reappears as a preacher, holding forth in all the places where men most do congregate. After expounding in varied ways the excellence of the gifts which she can bestow, she asserts that she was the first of all God's creatures, who stood at His side when He formed our world, and took part in His work as a master workman, whose delight has always been in the lives and affairs of men. In Proverbs 8:1 we find only the ordinary kind of personification, in which a quality is spoken of as though it were a living individual. In Proverbs 8:22, however, it is almost as though Wisdom were an actual person, distinct from God. No one can wonder that in the 4th cent, of our era theologians of diverse schools made considerable use of this chapter in the controversies respecting the Seco