This Book is so called, because it treats of the excellence of WISDOM, the means to obtain it, and the happy fruits it produces. It is written in the person of Solomon, and contains his sentiments. But it is uncertain who was the writer. It abounds with instructions and exhortations to kings and all magistrates to minister justice in the commonwealth, teaching all kinds of virtues under the general names of justice and wisdom. It contains also many prophecies of Christ's coming, passion, resurrection, and other Christian mysteries. The whole may be divided into three parts. In the first six chapters, the author admonishes all superiors to love and exercise justice and wisdom. In the next three, he teacheth that wisdom proceedeth only from God, and is procured by prayer and a good life. In the other ten chapters, he sheweth the excellent effects and utility of wisdom and justice.
An exhortation to seek God sincerely, who cannot be deceived, and desireth not our death.
1:1. Love justice, you that are the judges of the earth. Think of the Lord in goodness, and seek him in simplicity of heart:
1:2. For he is found by them that tempt him not: and he sheweth himself to them that have faith in him.
1:3. For perverse thoughts separate from God: and his power, when it is tried, reproveth the unwise:
1:4. For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins.
1:5. For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful, and will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding, and he shall not abide when iniquity cometh in.
1:6. For the spirit of wisdom is benevolent, and will not acquit the evil speaker from his lips: for God is witness of his reins, and he is a true searcher of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue.
1:7. For the Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world: and that which containeth all things, hath knowledge of the voice.
1:8. Therefore he that speaketh unjust things, cannot be hid, neither shall the chastising judgment pass him by.
1:9. For inquisition shall be made into the thoughts of the ungodly, and the hearing of his words shall come to God, to the chastising of his iniquities.
1:10. For the ear of jealousy heareth all things, and the tumult of murmuring shall not be hid.