Q/A Friday: How Should We Be Interpreting Proverbs?

When you read a proverb, you have to ask yourself a simple question, “What does this mean?” For example, Proverbs 19:4 is a good example – “Wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend.”  Does money make friendships? Does being a poor always mean you will be lonely?

Is every word absolute or are they expressions of general truth? Here are some hermeneutics for interpreting proverbial statements.

1. Interpret each individual passage or verse considering the overall structure and purpose. What is the overall context of the book of Proverbs? What is the point? The overall point and context of the book is finding wisdom (1:1; 10:1; 22:17; 24:23; 25:1; 30:1; 31:1). And keep in mind Solomon wrote this book for who? His son(s).

2. Use common sense. Because proverbial statements tend to be general principles, it also means we must be careful, as we just illustrated, to interpret every words as a guaranteed result or truth. One example could be Proverbs 16:24 – “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” For one Christian speaking to another Christian, that is usually the case. But what if you were trying to speak gracious to someone whose intent for you was only evil. They may take your kind words as an insult.

3. Each verse will be taken as an entity. This means we are going to have to understand that sometimes a statement describes the way things work and other times it doesn’t. The thing to keep in mind is Proverbs tells us the usual pattern to expect in life in regard to certain issues and not necessarily absolutes all the time.

4. Remember the historical context. When it comes to language issues, we will try to understand them as Solomon understood them in his day. For example, in Proverbs 26:17 we are told those who quarrel are like dogs. If we interpret that verse regarding our culture today, that doesn’t seem to be such a bad thing; quarreling would seem to be okay. Most people like dogs; but in Solomon’s day the word “dog” more often referred to scavengers or jackals.

5. Be careful about allegorizing or spiritualizing. Allegorizing means to you look at everything as figurative or symbolic of something else. Why is that dangerous?  If we allegorize everything, we can miss the point Solomon may be trying to make. We need to start with literal interpretation, because that is the primary intent of biblical writes. What does it mean to spiritualize something? It means to go “over board” about making everything spiritually symbolic. For example, when we spend time studying laziness, we should consider Solomon’s words “Go to the ant you sluggard.” To spiritualize that verse would mean we study everything there is to know about ants and then make all these spiritual points based upon scientific evidence of ants. We are never to drive spiritual principles from anything else besides the objective, Word of God.

6. Each proverb is not an unconditional promise. Proverbs 10:1 is a good example. It says, “…A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is sorrow to his mother.” Does that mean foolish children are only grieving to the mother and not the father? It does not mean every time this will be true, but often it will – it is a pattern of how things are what they are. We are to read these in proverbs as general statements of truth. On the other hand, there are some proverbs that are unconditionally true. “A false balance is an abomination to the LORD…” (11:1). “Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, but those who act faithfully are His delight” (12:22). “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good” (15:3). “…The Lord weighs the spirit” (16:2). “…Every decision is from the Lord” (16:33). “The rich and the poor meet together, but the LORD is the maker of them all” (22:2).

If you have a question you would like to submit to our blog to be answered in the future, please email it to charlesheck@cox.net or post your question in the comments section.