Reading for January 29th

Read Proverbs 1-25. In verse 6: Righteousness and sin are personified as forces affecting those who commit themselves to them. Fundemental options determine one's course. In verse 24: The paradox is that one hates one's children by being temder with them and loves them by being strict, especially at an early age when children can redily change. What is criticized is indulging one's chidlren. The paradoxical langauge cannot be invoked to justify harsh treatment of children or corporal punishment. Proverbs often states the need of parental discipline: 19.18; 21.13-14; Sir 7.23; 30.1-13. Comments or questions..

Reading for January 28th

Read proverbs 12.1-28. In verse 1: Genuine wisdom is gained through conversation with the wise (discipline) and through being criticized (rebuked). To reject this educational process is to settle for an animal level of consciousness, the Hebrew word for stupid in the second line connotes brutish. In verse 14: Normally, one's mouth is sated from the fruit of the earth, but in this saying one is sated from the words of one's mouth. Words in proverbs are the prime instance of human activity. One will enjoy the benefits of one's conduct. Comments or Questions...

Reading for January 27th

Read Proverbs 11.16-31. In verse 22: A humorous statement that wisdom is more important than beauty in evaluating a woman. Ear and nose rings were common adornments of women. The comparison to a pig seems to have been made on the basis of sound as well as humorous incongruity, for the consonant "z" predominants in the first line: "nezem zahab be'ap hazir," literally, "a ring of god in the snout of a pig." In verse 27: The persistent quest for what is good is ultimately a quest that ends in gaining divine favor, perhaps human favor as well in other words, to seek happiness, seek excellance. To seek evil ("ra'a"), on the other hand, means only that trouble ("ra'a") will seek one out. The same Hebrew word can mean "evil" and "trouble." Comments or Questions...

Reading for January 26th

Read Proverbs 11.1-15. In verse 4: The day of wrath is any life-threatening disaster as in Job 21.30 and Ezek 7.19. In such mortal danger riches are of no use; value attaches on to that which assures ultimate protection-righteousness. In verse 9: The difference between impeity and righteousness is so great that what is expressed by the godless harms others, where as what is not expressed (knowledge here is what is stored in the heart) by the righteous benefits them. Comments or Questions..

Reading for January 25th

Read Proverbs 10.16-32. In verse 19: Ordinarily, abundance is good, as in vv. 4, 21, and 27, and scarcity is bad, as in vv. 15 and 21. But where words are concerned the situation is reversed. Words should be few and well chosen (see 17.27). In verse 26: A lazy person is a common type in proverbs (mentioned fourteen times in the book) and is often the object of scorn or humor. The lazy are as sure to pain an employer as vinegar and smoke as sure to pain taste buds and eyes, by an almost chemical necessity. Comments or Questions..

Reading for January 24th

THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON In 10.1-22.16: Nearly all of chs. 10-15 are authetic proverbs, that is the second line (B) restates the first line (A) in an opposite way. The section contrasts the wicked and the righteous person (treated as types) and emphasizes the consequences of human acts. Chapters 16-22, on the other hand, contain far fewer antitheses and many more exceptions to the rule. A key metaphor throughout all these chapters is founding or maintaining a house, which continues the same image as in chs. 1-9. The chapters contain over fifty references to father, mother, son, house, wife or servant. Read Proverbs 10.1-15 In verses 1-3: The first three sayings represent the three sides of wisdom, the sapiential (wisdom as right knowledge, v. 1, wise) the ethical (wisdom as right action, v. 2 righteousness), and religious (wisdom as right reverence or worship, v. 3, the Lord). In the opening saying, child, father, and mother refer to the instructions of chs. 1-9 (see 1.8) and show the continuity between the instructions and the sayings. In verse 6: Proverbs often plays on two senses of the verb "to cover"; "cover" in the sense of "conceal" and in the sense of "fill" ( see vv. 11 and 12). Line B can also translated in a sense opposite to NRSV, "violence covers the mouth of the wicked." In verse 9: Proverbs frequently uses the metaphors of walking and path forconduct (also current English). "To walk" is "to conduct oneself, to live": "way" is "conduct"; "straight" and "crooked" (perverted) are "good" and "evil." Integrity is literally "straight, whole." In verse 15: Though proverbs praises dilengence and ridicules laziness, it does not prdinarily praise the wealthy and criticize the poor, but rather makes nuetral observations on the situation of rich and poor, as here. Comments or Questions..

Reading for January 23rd

Read Proverbs 9.1-18. In 9.1-18: The banquets of the women, plus some aphorisms. Women Wisdom completes her palace and issues an invitation to the dedicatory banquet (1-6). In vv. 13-18, Woman Folly issues a counter-invitation. Verses 7-12 are individual sayings, which echo some verses in ch. 1 (compare 1.7, "The fear of the Lord is be beginning of knowledge." and 1.22, "how long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?) and also points ahead to chs. 10-22, where the same two types, the wise and the righteous, are vividly contrasted. In verse 6: Lay aside immaturity, and live: To partake of the banquet creates a bond between Wisdom and her guests, requiring guests to leave behind immaturity and ignorance and become wise. The imperative verb live here implies enjoyment of such gifts from Wisdom as a family, riches, and reputation. In verse 11: For by me your days will be multipled: Originally, this verse probably immediately followed v. 6, for by me has not antecedent in the immediately preceding verses. In verses 16-17: Folly's invitation begins with the same words as wisdom (see v. 16 and v. 4), but in v. 17 diverges radically. In verse 17: In the phrase stolen water, water has the erotic meaning it has in 5.15-16, "Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well," that is, sexual relations. Stolen implies clandestine and adulterous sex. In secret evokes the further meeting of ch. 7. In verse 18: The dead inhabit the underworld. As in 2.16-18; 5.3-5; 7.24-27, the woman promises life but kills instead. Comments or Questions..