Hear, O sons, a father’s instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight,
for I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching.
When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom; get insight;
do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.
Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her.
She will place on your head a graceful garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”
Comment: Both father and mother are used at the beginning of this passage from the beginning of Proverb 4. I guess that there may have been rabbinical schools for children by the time of Solomon but here he places extraordinary stress on the place that parents play in how their children turn out. In addition he stresses the importance of a child’s attitude to what is important in life. He underlines that the child’s attitude is to be of great concern to the parent!
The pronoun ‘she’ in the latter part of the Proverb is there because the word ‘wisdom’ is feminine in Hebrew. What Solomon stresses is for the child, above all else, to seek wisdom and insight. Knowledge is important but it can lead to evil – nuclear energy can lead to atomic bombs; the pill can control a family size or it can lead to uncontrolled promiscuity. Wisdom, however, even with a relatively low IQ and limited education can lead to a very blessed and useful life. One teacher told me ‘that the wisest man he knew, believed that it rained because two clouds bumped into each other and cried!’ Wisdom and knowledge are not the same!
Prayer: I turn to You, O Father, and plead that You give me wisdom from above. Please.
As I read it! 