Proverbs is part of the poetical section of the 0ld Testament, comprising Job, Psalms, Prov­erbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. There are many shorter sections which are poetical in form, the first being Lamech’s song in Genesis 4:23‑24. Hebrew poetry dif­fers from English and other poetry in that it generally does not involve rhyming. The form of Hebrew poetry with which we are concerned in proverbs is parallelism which is parallel lines which may express truth in one of the six following forms: “1. Synonymous, a parallelism in which the members are alike in meaning. Example: Proverbs 11:25. 2. Antithetic, a parallelism in which the members are contrasted. Example: Proverbs 10:16. 3. Synthetic, a parallelism in which the members contain dif­ferent truth, but have a common connecting link. Example: Proverbs 10:24. 4. Integ­ral, or progressive (climactic), a parallelism in which the last member completes the thought or another gradation expressed by the first. Example: Proverbs 13:14. 5. Introverted, a parallelism in which the first line corresponds with the fourth, and the second with the third. Example: Proverbs 23:15-16. 6. Parabolic (emblematic), a parallelism in which a lesson is drawn from natural objects. Example: Proverbs 10:26,” [B. H. Carroll]. By far the majority of the Proverbs are of the Synonymous form, and the latter four forms are somewhat rare.

Author:

Humanly speaking, the author of this book is clearly declared in Proverbs 1:1. “It is the first book of the Bible prefaced by the name of the author,” [Faussett]. See also 10:1; 25:1. That all the proverbs were not Solomon’s is clear from Proverbs 30:1 and 31:1, though some think that Agur and King Lemuel may have been other names by which Solomon was known, but this is far‑fetched and has nothing to substantiate it. These are called the Proverbs of Solomon because he was the author of most of them, just as the Psalms are called David’s though several other authors wrote some of them. “The Proverbs of Solomon are not merely a collection of the wise sayings that had been formerly de­livered, as some have imagined, but were the dictates of the Spirit of God in Solo­mon,” [M. Henry]. That Solomon wrote many other things also is clear from 1 Kings 4:32, but only a portion of them were Divinely inspire. That Solomon was well fitted to write of such wisdom is manifested in such texts as, 1 Kings 4:29‑349 10:1, 24; Matthew 12:42, etc. When God has a task to be done, He is able to fit a man for it.

Time and Place Written:

Solomon being the author of this book naturally pinpoints the time and place of origin of Proverbs. Solomon reigned over Israel for forty years ­about 1015‑975 B.C. according to the common chronology. “Some think he wrote Cant­icles (Song of Solomon—DWH), when he was very young, Proverbs in the midst of his days, and Ecclesiastes when he was old,” [M. Henry]. Almost certainly the Divine Wis­dom of Proverbs was not the production of his last days when he had so fearfully backslidden, (1 Kings 11:1‑6). As we now have it, the book of Proverbs was the result of the copyists of King Hezekiah, (Prov. 25:1). Possibly these may have been the prophets under Hezekiah’s reign, Isaiah, Hosea and Micah. It is uncertain when the appendic­es of Proverbs 30:1‑31:31 were added, possibly at the same time as 25:1‑29:27. “Solomon liv­ed 500 years before the ‘seven wise men’ of Greece, and 700 before the age of Socrat­es, Plato, and Aristotle. It is thus very evident, whatever theory of his sources of knowledge be adopted, that he did not draw upon any heathen repositories with which we are acquainted,” [Faussett].

Character of the Book:

“This book derives its Hebrew name, as usual with the Jewish writers, from its first word (Mashal—DWH)...The original meaning of Mashal or Proverb would seem to be ‘a comparison of two things which resemble one another,’ or a speech in which such things are compared,” [Fairbairne]. This same Hebrew word is also rendered “parable” in several places, Job 27:1; Psalm 19:4; Ezekiel 17:2, etc. “The proverb is a concentrated parable, and the parable an extension of the proverb by a full illustration.’ The proverb is thus the moral or, theme of a parable,” [Faussett]. There are several distinct divisions of Proverbs: (1) Introductory section, chapters 1‑9. (2) A collection of antithetic and synthetic proverbs, chapters 10:1‑22:16. (3) A series of admonitions—“The words of the wise,” chapters 22:17‑24:34. (4) The proverbs copied by Hezekiah’s men, chapters 25:1‑29:27. (5) The appendices, chapters 30‑31. Spurgeon says that three things go in to the making of a proverb: shortness, sense and salt. In the English version “wis­dom” appears over fifty times, so that Proverbs is preeminently a book of Divine wis­dom, and in some places “Wisdom” is personified and can be no other than a reference to Christ, God’s wisdom; (1 Cor. 1 :30).