Monday, March 21, 2011

Doth Not Wisdom Cry?

Sometimes the KJV is just better than anything else in English ("Doth not wisdom cry?" (Prov 8.1 KJV), and this is one of those times. Compare the ESV: "Does not wisdom call?" The ESV is bland and boring; the KJV is majestic.

Just saying.

The question in Prov 8.1 is a rhetorical one. Solomon means for us to answer it yes, and for the rest of the chapter explains why wisdom cries and to whom. I think that there is no better place in the Scriptures where the truth and implications of wisdom are worked out. One would be wise (no pun intended) to spend a lot of time thinking through the implications of what Solomon says here.

Perhaps the most shocking thing that Solomon writes is at the very end of the chapter. "All they that hate me (wisdom) love death" (Prov 8.36, KJV).

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