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A man’s sandal prints and a boy’s smaller prints side by side in the dust of a hill path, running up toward soft olive trees.

Solomon’s sayings

Proverbs 22

You are teaching someone something right now, whether you mean to or not.

29 verses≈ 4 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1–7The father's talksWhy the book exists, then a father to his son
  2. 8–9Wisdom callsHer house and Folly's
  3. 10–22:16Solomon's sayingsTwo lines at a timeChapter 22
  4. 22:17–24The sayings of the wiseThirty sayings, and a few more
  5. 25–29Hezekiah's collectionMore of Solomon, copied out later
  6. 30AgurNumbered sayings from a weary man
  7. 31LemuelA mother's words, and the noble wife

A Good Name

A good name is more desirable than great riches; favor is better than silver and gold.

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Sayings

Rich and poor

  1. Justice

    One Maker of them all

    The rich and the poor have this in common:

    The LORD is Maker of them all.

  2. Wisdom

    The prudent take cover

    The prudent see danger and take cover,

    but the simple keep going and suffer the consequences.

  3. Pride

    Humility and the fear of the LORD

    The rewards of humility and the fear of the LORD

    are wealth and honor and life.

  4. Temptation

    Thorns on the path

    Thorns and snares lie on the path of the perverse;

    he who guards his soul stays far from them.

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Reflect

Take it home

Who taught you the way you go? Who is watching you now?

Sayings

The slacker’s excuse

  1. Anger

    Drive out the mocker

    Drive out the mocker, and conflict will depart;

    even quarreling and insults will cease.

  2. Kings

    A friend of the king

    He who loves a pure heart and gracious lips

    will have the king for a friend.

  3. The LORD

    The LORD’s eyes

    The LORD’s eyes keep watch over knowledge,

    but He frustrates the words of the faithless.

  4. Work

    A lion outside!

    The slacker says, “There is a lion outside!

    I will be slain in the streets!”

A heavy wooden door open a hand’s width on a bright empty lane, one small kid goat crossing it, a man’s eye and fingers just showing at the door’s edge.

The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit;

he who is under the wrath of the LORD will fall into it.

Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child,

but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

Oppressing the poor to enrich oneself or giving gifts to the rich

will surely lead to poverty.

Question

Quick question

Back to verse 13 and the man at the door.

What does the slacker say to stay indoors?

Saying 1

A tied, closed scroll, a clay ink pot and a reed pen on a low bench in a plain room, a young man’s sandaled feet waiting in the doorway.

Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise—

apply your mind to my knowledge—

for it is pleasing when you keep them within you

and they are constantly on your lips.

So that your trust may be in the LORD,

I instruct you today—yes, you.

Have I not written for you thirty sayings

about counsel and knowledge,

to show you true and reliable words,

that you may soundly answer those who sent you?

0:25

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Saying 2

Benches inside a stone gateway: an old man in a patched cloak stands alone before seated men in good wool who are looking elsewhere.

Do not rob a poor man because he is poor,

and do not crush the afflicted at the gate,

for the LORD will take up their case

and will plunder those who rob them.

Saying 3

Do not make friends with an angry man,

and do not associate with a hot-tempered man,

or you may learn his ways

and entangle yourself in a snare.

Saying 4

Do not be one who gives pledges,

who puts up security for debts.

If you have nothing with which to pay,

why should your bed be taken from under you?

Saying 5

Early morning where two terraced fields meet: a rough, lichen-patched upright stone stands at the corner, plowed earth on one side and young barley on the other, a dry-stone wall running away from it.

Do not move an ancient boundary stone

which your fathers have placed.

Saying 6

Do you see a man skilled in his work?

He will be stationed in the presence of kings;

he will not stand before obscure men.

Pray

Say it to Him

LORD, make me easy to teach, and let what I teach be worth learning. Let those who watch me see the way they should go. Keep my hands from what belongs to the weak, and make my work good work.

You’ve experienced

Proverbs 22

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A verse to carry with you

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

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