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A constant, serious search for wisdom, as a path to the fear of God and virtue. More privately. 1–9. After a brief exhortation to attention (1–2), the fruits of wisdom, internal and external, are depicted. 10–19. Of the latter, the protection provided by wisdom from dangers from criminal people, in particular from an adulterous wife, stands out. 20–22. Only the destiny of virtue is lasting happiness. Proverbs 2:1. My son! if you accept my words and keep my commandments to you, Proverbs 2:2. so that you will make your ear attentive to wisdom and incline your heart to meditation; Proverbs 2:3. if you call on knowledge and appeal to reason; Proverbs 2:4. if you search for it like silver and search for it like treasure, Proverbs 2:5. then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:6. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth - knowledge and understanding; Proverbs 2:7. He reserves salvation for the righteous; He is a shield for those who walk uprightly; Proverbs 2:8. He guards the paths of righteousness and preserves the path of His saints. Proverbs 2:9. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and uprightness, every good path. Art. 1–4 represent the increase (protasis) of having in art. 1–9 places of the conditional period, art. 5 and gave. – decrease (apodosis) of it. The high value of wisdom, as the highest good serving as the subject of human quest, is expressed by the Wise One by comparing it, v. 4 (cf. Proverbs 8.11), with silver (Vulg.: peсunia, money in general) and treasure in general (Heb. mammon; according to Gesenius, from this word comes the Greek μαμμωνᾶς, mammon, wealth), and the persistent search for wisdom with the tireless work of miners - this image in relation to Wisdom and man’s search lies in book of Job (Job 28). If seekers of earthly treasures do not spare any effort or sacrifice to enrich themselves, although the possession of these treasures is fragile, then the acquisition of wisdom is worthy of all the greater effort and sacrifice, especially since it is closely connected with wisdom, partly as the source of wisdom (Proverbs 1.7, 9.10) and partly as the crown and completion of it - the even higher good is the fear of God and the knowledge of God (v. 5). Imbued with the fear of God and having faith in God and the knowledge of Him, but all this is still only in the beginnings - a zealot of wisdom, as he succeeds in it, succeeds in the fear of God, or piety, and in the knowledge of God. The source of this essentially religious wisdom is revelation. The Lord Himself gives wisdom to everyone who seeks it, v. 6 (cf. 1 Kings 3.9,12; Job 32.8; Dan 2.21; Wis.7:15) wisdom, knowledge and understanding come from the mouth of God (cf. Job 22.22; Wis.7:25), i.e., they are contained in the Revealed word of God; in exceptional cases, wisdom is imparted to a person through the mysterious touch of the enlightening grace of the Holy Spirit on his mind and heart (LXX, Glorified in the second half of Article 6, instead of “from the mouth” they have: “from the face”, (ἀπὸ προσώπου - due to the confusion of the Hebrew milliv, “from the mouth”, with the words: millanav, “from the person”; both words in Hebrew writing differ only in one letter nun in the second word: Job 22.22; Wisdom 7:25 give reason to prefer reading the Hebrew text. The divine origin of wisdom and the closeness to God that the possession of wisdom brings to a person should make it all the more the subject of a person’s constant striving, since blessing in earthly life and preservation in the midst of dangers are inseparably connected with it: the Lord is a shield and guardian for pious seekers of wisdom. He guards them for their integrity in all the paths of life (vv. 7–8, fn. Ps 83.12, 90.11–12). The fruit of following the paths of Divine wisdom will be for a person prosperity in all types of truth and righteousness (fn. Proverbs 1.3). Proverbs 2:10. When wisdom enters your heart and knowledge pleases your soul, Proverbs 2:11. then prudence will protect you, reason will protect you, Proverbs 2:12. to save you from the evil way, from the man who tells lies, Proverbs 2:13. from those who leave the straight paths to walk in the paths of darkness; Proverbs 2:14. from those who rejoice in doing evil, who admire evil depravity, Proverbs 2:15. whose ways are crooked, and who wander in their paths; Proverbs 2:16. to save you from another's wife, from a stranger who softens her speech, Proverbs 2:17. who forsook the leader of her youth and forgot the covenant of her God. Proverbs 2:18. Her house leads to death, and her paths to the dead; Proverbs 2:19. none of those who enter it returns and enters the path of life. Wisdom and knowledge for the one who seeks and loves them become like friends and advisers who, confirming a person in the good direction of thought and life, at the same time protect him from the evil ways of a corrupt person (10-12), for whom doing evil is a habit and pleasure (14, sn. Proverbs 6.14, 10.31-32, 16.30, 23.33). The ways of the last kind of people are the ways of darkness (v. 13 f., Eph 5.11), since darkness is the native element of vice (John 3.19); At the same time, these paths are crooked paths (v. 15), full of intrigues and tricks at the expense of inexperienced people. A particular danger for young men is the seductive but harmful influence of depraved women (16–19, fn. Proverbs 5.3, 6.24, 7.17 et al.). An adulterous wife, leaving the leader (Vulg. ducem) or friend (Heb. alluf) of her youth, thereby violates the covenant of her God (v. 17): this view is very characteristic of the biblical concept, first of all, of marriage, and then of the covenant with God (beritelogim). With regard to marriage, the Old Testament holds the ideal view that marriage is the closest union, a union of friendship and love, concluded between husband and wife (Joel 1.8; Mal. 2.14) - concluded, moreover, before God, that is, with the observance of certain religious rites (as Ewald rightly asserts in v. 17). But then this union, due to its moral height, due to the sanctifying power of God resting on it, serves, according to the biblical view, as an image of the union or covenant of God with Israel (cf. Jer 3.1; Hos 1.1 - Hos 3.1). Legal marriage, therefore, is a union concluded not only before God, but, in a mysterious sense, with God. The adulterous wife neglects all this (17), and therefore the lot of her and all those seduced by her is premature death (due to exhaustion of strength, from immoderate carnal pleasures, etc.) Proverbs 2:20. Therefore walk in the way of the good and keep the paths of the righteous, Proverbs 2:21. for the righteous will dwell on the earth, and the blameless will remain in it Proverbs 2:22. and the wicked will be cut off from the earth, and the treacherous will be uprooted from it. The more persistently and convincingly the Wise One appeals to common sense (cf. Proverbs 2:11) and to the conscience of the listener - to follow the path of truth and goodness in life (v. 20). From following this path for the righteous comes the true and highest good, designated by the Wise One (v. 21), as in the psalms (Ps 36.9), - according to the general Old Testament biblical Jewry love for the Promised Land or Canaan - Palestine - by staying or dwelling on earth (this image of expression is from the Old Testament and in the Gospel - Matt 5.5). On the contrary, the destruction awaiting the wicked is represented in the concrete image of destruction from the earth (cf. Ps 36.9; Job 18.17). You might be interested in: