Wisdom calls out again
8
📚Does not wisdom call out,and understanding raise her voice?
2 📚She stands on top of the heights 📖,
beside the way where the paths meet 📖.
3 📚She cries out at the gates 📖,
at the entrance of the city,
at the entry of the doors:
8:1-3 Job 28:12; Prov 1:20-21. Solomon here emphasizes the availability of wisdom to all who will seek for it. It is not remote and unattainable.⚜
4 📚“To you, O men, I call,
and my voice is to the sons of men.
5 📚O you simple ones,
obtain wisdom! And you fools,
obtain an understanding heart!
6 📚Listen, for I will speak of excellent things,
and right things will come from
the opening of my lips.
7 📚For my mouth will speak 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 the one
who understands,
and right to those who find knowledge.
10 📚“Receive my instruction, and not silver;
and knowledge rather than choice gold.
11 📚For wisdom is better than rubies,
and all the things that may be desired are not
to be compared with it.
8:4-11 Several important things are said about wisdom here. It can be gained by anyone, even by the simple and foolish (vs 4,5). Wisdom is related to the right, the true, the holy, the just (vs 6-9), and everything contrary to these is foolishness. Wisdom is more precious than any material possession a man may gain (vs 10,11). In the Bible the way to gain wisdom is to turn from evil to God, meditate on His Word, obey His instructions, and seek Him for it (Jam 1:5-8). The believer in Christ is at the source of all true wisdom, and no one else in the world is. For Christ is the wisdom of God, and He is in believers, and He is made to them wisdom, and they are complete in Him (1 Cor 1:24, 30; Col 2:3, 8-10). They who believe Christ and know Christ have the true enlightenment, the true wisdom of God. What they need to do is to look to Christ, yield to Christ, and learn from Christ. They who are now unbelievers can also obtain true wisdom if they will humble themselves, repent, turn to God and believe in the Lord Jesus.⚜
12 📚I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,
and am the discoverer of knowledge
and discretion.
13 📚“The fear of the LORD is
to hate evil.
I hate pride and arrogance and the evil way
and the perverse mouth.
8:13 See notes at Gen 20:11; Job 28:28; Ps 34:11-14; 111:10. Wisdom hates evil, pride, and crookedness because God hates them, and because they ruin and destroy men.⚜
14 📚Counsel is mine, and sound judgment.
I am understanding. I have strength.
15 📚By me kings reign, and princes decree justice.
16 By me rulers govern, and nobles,
all who judge righteously.
8:15-16 If kings, leaders, and others in authority do not have God-given wisdom they will be bad rulers. So King Solomon prayed for wisdom above everything else (1 Kings 3:7-9; 2 Chron 1:8-10).⚜
17 📚I love those who love me,
and those who search for me will find 📖 me.
18 📚Riches and honour are with me,
yes, lasting riches and righteousness.
19 📚My fruit is better than gold,
yes, than fine gold;
and my revenue is better than choice silver.
20 📚I lead in the way of righteousness,
in the midst of the paths of justice,
Wisdom is eternal
21 📚That I may bestow riches on those
who love me; and I will fill their treasuries.
8:12-21 Further facts about the nature and fruits of wisdom: Wisdom is not some philosophical speculation or impractical thing dealing with matters which do not concern our daily lives. Wisdom is closely related to an understanding of how to behave in this real world (vs 12-16). Wisdom (as all lovers do) will rush to the one who loves it (v 17). Wisdom sometimes may lead to material wealth (vs 18,21), but gives something far better than such wealth (vs 19,20). They who have true wisdom will lay up treasures in heaven, not on this earth (Matt 6:19-21).⚜
22 📚“The LORD possessed me 📖 in the beginning
of his way, before his works of old.
23 📚I was established from everlasting,
from the beginning, before the earth was.
24 📚When there were no depths,
I was brought forth, when there were
no springs abounding with water.
25 📚Before the mountains were settled,
before the hills, I was brought forth,
26 📚While he still had not made the earth,
or the fields, or the first dust of the world.
27 📚When he prepared the heavens,
I was there.
When he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28 When he established the clouds above,
when he firmly set the springs of the deep,
29 📚When he appointed to the sea its boundary,
that the waters would not pass
over his command,
when he marked out the foundations
of the earth,
30 📚Then I was beside him,
as one brought up with him, and
I was daily his delight,
rejoicing always in his presence,
31 📚Rejoicing in the inhabited world, his earth,
and my delight was in the sons of men.
8:22-31 Wisdom speaks as if it were a person, as it does also in Prov 1:20-33; 3:15-18; 9:1-12. Some scholars think Christ is meant here, other scholars think that Solomon is speaking in poetic language of an attribute of God. It is not right to be dogmatic about doubtful things, but it certainly seems possible that Christ is meant. In 1 Cor 1:24 Christ is called the wisdom of God, and we are told that all creation was made through Him (John 1:3, 10; 1 Cor 8:6; Col 1:16; Heb 1:10).⚜
8:27-31 All of God’s works were created with the utmost skill and wisdom (Gen 1:9, 12, 18, 25, 31; Ps 104:24; 136:5), and they were all a reason for great rejoicing. In Job 38:4-38 we see God describing His works with joy. All was good – until man fell into sin and brought grief to God’s heart (Gen 6:5-7).⚜
Life and death
32 📚Now, therefore, listen to me,
you children! For blessed 📖 are those who
keep my ways.
33 📚Listen to instruction, and be wise,
and do not refuse it.
34 📚Blessed is the man
who hears me,
watching daily at my gates,
waiting at the posts of my doors.
8:34 Gaining wisdom is not a once and for all event but a continuing process.⚜
35 📚For whoever finds me finds life,
and will obtain favour from the LORD.
36 📚But he who sins against me harms
his own soul 📖.
All those who hate me love death”.
8:32-36 Wisdom is still speaking and saying that men may, and should, partake of God’s wisdom. Man was made in the image of God, and men are capable of great things if they will gain wisdom.⚜