PROVERBS 1-9

Proverbs Chapters 1-9

Chapter 1 v10-19: In a modern context, I picture a father talking to his son as Solomon talked to his son. Today, the father might say, "Son, if you start running with the wrong crowd and they get you to participate in purse snatchings and other stuff like that, don't do it." Of course, no gangster is going to come up to you in the halls of your high school out of the blue and be like, "Hey, wanna do a purse snatching or a b and e or whatever with us tonight." When you start running with the wrong crowd, or a friend of yours does, it is a gradual progression from just hanging out to participating in their criminal activities.

True, Jesus was the sinners' friend and we are to be imitators of Christ, so therefore it comes down to a matter of who is influencing whom more.

v20-33, Chapter 8, Chapter 9 v 1-6, v13-18: It's interesting wisdom and folly are both pictured as women. Wisdom is a sweet, kind, gentle, loving woman who calls out across the city for people to come in, eat with her, listen to her, and live. Folly also calls out loudly, but she is a brash woman telling people it's good to steal.

Chapter 6 v16-19: The other sins mentioned in this passage all come out of the first sin, pride.

Chapter 7 v5-27: I don't know whether or not they had brothels in ancient Israel at this time, but I picture the simple young man in this passage as a teenager who's too scared to visit an actual brothel for his first time, so one of his friends at school (to put it in kind of a modern frame) tells him about this woman in such and such street who has men in when her husband goes away on business. All you have to do is walk by her house at a certain time of day and she'll feed you a good meal and show you a good time.