Proverbs- Everyman's Bible Commentary by Irving Jensen

Author:Irving Jensen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Moody Publishers

II. OUTLINE OF10:1—-22:16

It is difficult to detect groups of maxims in this section. The present chapter divisions in our Bible may have been made mainly on the basis of length (averaging around thirty verses per chapter). Some expositors maintain that all of the proverbs of this section are detached from each other, in one long miscellaneous list.3 Franz Delitzsch takes the position that the editor (arranger) of the proverbs “did not throw them together by good chance, but in placing them together was guided by certain reasons.”4 J. A. Bengel’s experience was this: “I have often been in such an attitude of soul, that those chapters in the Book of Proverbs in which I had before looked for no connection whatever, presented themselves to me as if the proverbs belonged in the most beautiful order one with another.”5

R. Laird Harris recognizes that exposition of this section of Proverbs is made difficult by the isolated nature of the proverbs, with no immediate context to guide the reader.6 But he observes “a kind of unity” in the section, which “comes rather from the language and subject than from the arrangement.”7 This is how he describes the organization:

A proverb is annunciated, then repeated elsewhere with variations which add to the meaning. The first instance may contrast parts a and b; the second, a and c. Even a third may occur, comparing a with d. Putting all three instances together, we get a fuller definition of the thought expressed in a. We would feel it easier if these thoughts were grouped together. The ancients evidently found it more interesting to have these thoughts separated and somewhat concealed.8

Even though groups of proverbs in these chapters are usually not obvious as far as common subject is involved, the Bible student will deepen and broaden his analysis if he approaches the text with the purpose of finding connections between individual proverbs that Solomon or an arranger may have had in mind. Help in finding such connections comes by observing the four principles described below.

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