Proverbs

When Solomon was chosen by God to be the heir to David's throne, God promised to give Solomon anything he asked for. Solomon's request was that he be given wisdom. That was a wise choice. :)

Solomon became known far and wide for his wealth, his construction projects, but mostly for his wisdom. The Book of Proverbs is mostly a collection of his words of wisdom, although it is speculated that he was not the only contributing writer.

After reading a few chapters, one gets the feel for what constitutes a proverb. It is experiential distilled wisdom, compressed experience, and truths stated in few words so as to hold ones attention. They are often unexplained and one wonders just how much of the knowledge that is imparted is culturally based. They certainly provoke thought, and often with pithy word pictures and sometimes annoying brevity.

Impressions: In preparing for a speech one day, I spent a lot of time browsing through a joke book. At first, every joke contained humour and it was a fun experience. After a while, I became very discriminating and actually found humour in very few of the anecdotes. Although The Book of Proverbs is not a joke book (it does have some great humour) the principle is the same. Taking it at one sitting results in some desensitization. This held true for the Psalms as well. Having said that, I found myself sitting up straight quite often as I read something that 'hit home'. Perhaps pondering a chapter a day for a month would be most helpful.

Readability: 5 stars (in small doses)