The Pulpit Commentary on Proverbs 1:2

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

To know wisdom and instruction. In this verse we have a statement of the first general aim or object of the Proverbs. "To know" ( לָדַעַת, ladaath) is somewhat indefinite in the Authorized Version, and might be more accurately rendered.

"from which men may know" (De Wette, Noyes); cf. unde scias (Munsterus). The לwhich is here prefixed to the infinitive, as in verses 2, 8, and 6, gives the clause a final character, and thus points out the object which the teaching of the Proverbs has in view.

The teaching is viewed from the standpoint of the learner, and hence what is indicated here is not the imparting of knowledge, but the reception or aprrspriation thereof on the part of the laemer. Schultens states that the radical meaning of דָּעַת (daath) is the reception of knowledge into one's self.

Wisdom. It will be necessary to go rather fully into this word here on its first appearance in the text. The Hebrew is חָכְמָה (khokhmah). Wisdom is mentioned first, because it is the end to which all knowledge and instruction tend.

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