Proverbs 1
Wisdom calls in the streets
Chapter 1 is the prologue and the first discourse. The superscription names Solomon and gives the book's stated purpose: to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding. Then the programmatic statement: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. The father's voice begins immediately, warning the son against the enticement of sinners — the gang that lies in wait for blood, the easy money of violence — with the observation that greed destroys the greedy. The chapter closes with Wisdom's first speech: she is in the streets, in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates. She calls to the simple, the scorner, the fool. She has stretched out her hand and no one has answered; she will now laugh at their calamity. Whoso hearkeneth unto her shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil. The genre switches — from father's discourse to Wisdom's direct address — and the reader is meant to notice that both voices make the same argument.
Proverbs 2
The conditional promise
Chapter 2 is the conditional discourse: a long, single grammatical sentence structured as if-then. If the son receives the father's words, inclines his ear to wisdom, cries after knowledge, lifts his voice for understanding, seeks her as silver and searches as hidden treasure — then the Lord will give wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. The then runs through the chapter: the son will understand righteousness and judgment, be delivered from the way of the evil man, be delivered from the strange woman whose house inclines to death. The chapter is the book's clearest statement that wisdom is not passively received but actively sought, and that the seeking is its own kind of proof of orientation. The chapter ends with the territorial image of the upright dwelling in the land while the wicked are cut off — a summary of the two-ways framework that the book has announced and will repeat.
Proverbs 3
Trust the Lord, not your own understanding
Chapter 3 contains two of the book's most famous passages and is the third of the opening discourses. The first half works through a series of paired commands and motivations: do not forget the law, bind lovingkindness and truth around your neck, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, acknowledge him in all your ways, fear the Lord and depart from evil — and the motivations follow: long life, favour and good understanding, he will direct your paths, health to your navel. The epistemological core is the hardest of these commands and the most counter-intuitive. The second half introduces Wisdom as God's companion at creation — by wisdom the Lord founded the earth, by understanding he established the heavens — and closes with a series of social ethics proverbs: do not withhold good from whom it is due, do not say go and come again tomorrow when you can act today, do not devise evil against your neighbour, do not contend with a man without cause.
Proverbs 4
Guard your heart above all else
Chapter 4 contains three short discourses, the third and most urgent addressed directly to the heart. The father remembers being taught by his own father: let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom, get understanding. The imperative is economic: acquire wisdom, whatever it costs, because she will protect and honour you. Then the path imagery that gives the chapter its tone: the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day; the way of the wicked is as darkness, they know not at what they stumble. The chapter's climax is the anatomy of the heart as the source of all life: keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. The four commands that follow — crooked mouth, devious lips, looking eyes, straight feet — anatomise the person from heart outward, turning the wisdom ethic into a practice of attention to what enters and what exits.
Proverbs 5
Drink water from your own cistern
Chapter 5 is the book's first long treatment of the strange woman, and it works by contrast: the appeal of the adulteress versus the satisfaction of one's own wife. The adulteress's lips drip honey and her mouth is smoother than oil — but the end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword, going down to death. The father's argument is practical and graphic: follow her and you will give your honour to others, your years to the cruel, your labour to the house of a stranger, and you will groan at the end when your flesh and body are consumed. The counter-image is one of the tenderest passages in the book: drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Let your spring be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love. The chapter closes with an observation on the wicked: his own iniquities will capture the wicked man, and he will be held fast in the cords of his sin.
Proverbs 6
Go to the ant, thou sluggard
Chapter 6 is the most varied of the opening discourses, containing three distinct warnings before returning to the adulteress. First, suretyship: if you have given your hand in pledge for your neighbour, go, humble yourself, plead urgently, and extricate yourself as a gazelle from the hand of the hunter. Second, sloth: the famous go to the ant, thou sluggard — the ant without commander or overseer stores her food in summer and gathers in harvest. How long will you sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands — and poverty comes upon you like a vagabond and want like an armed man. Third, the seven things the Lord hates: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run to evil, a false witness, one who sows discord among brothers. Then the adulteress again: a man who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself. The chapter links several of the book's main practical concerns into a single passage.
Proverbs 7
The seduction: twilight, the corner, the net
Chapter 7 is the book's most extended narrative set-piece: the father watches, from his window, as a young man without sense passes through the street near the corner where the adulteress lives, in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night. She comes out to meet him with the attire of a harlot and subtle of heart; she seizes him and kisses him. She has made her peace offerings, she says, and her bed is spread — come, let us drink our fill of love until morning. He goes after her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a bird rushes into a snare. The chapter's power is in the specificity of the scene: the time of day, the route through the city, the narrative pace. The father draws the moral explicitly at the end: let not your heart turn aside to her ways; many strong men have been slain by her; her house is the way to Sheol.
Proverbs 8
Wisdom at creation: I was beside him
Chapter 8 is the theological centre of the book and one of the most consequential passages in the Hebrew Bible for later Jewish and Christian thought. Wisdom raises her voice at the heights, at the crossroads, at the gates of the city — to you, O men, I call. Her speech moves from the ethical (hear, for I will speak noble things) to the economic (my fruit is better than gold, even fine gold) to the royal (by me kings reign and rulers decree what is just) to the cosmic. The cosmic claim is the chapter's climax: the Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. She was there at the founding — when he established the heavens, when he drew the circle on the face of the deep, when he marked out the foundations of the earth. I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.
Proverbs 9
Two banquets: Wisdom's house, Folly's door
Chapter 9 is the structural climax of the opening discourses and the hinge of the whole book. Wisdom has built her house — seven pillars — slaughtered her beasts, mixed her wine, and set her table. She sends out her maidens to call from the high places: whoever is simple, let him turn in here. Her invitation is life and understanding. The chapter then inserts a group of sayings on the scorner and the wise man: do not reprove a scorner, for he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give a wise man instruction and he will be still wiser. Then Folly appears, the deliberate structural mirror of Wisdom: she also sits at the door of her house, in a seat at the high places of the town, calling to those who pass by. Her menu is exactly stolen waters and bread eaten in secret. The reader who has been trained across eight chapters to recognise Wisdom's voice must now recognise that Folly's voice sounds the same. The two invitations are structurally identical; only the outcome differs. Her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
Proverbs 10
Solomon's proverbs begin: tongue and wealth
Chapter 10 opens the first major collection of two-line proverbs attributed to Solomon — the collection that runs through 22:16 and constitutes the heart of the book. The chapter is primarily antithetical in structure: the second line gives the opposite of the first. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother. Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death. The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot. The dominant topics are the tongue, wealth, and the contrast between the righteous and the wicked. The proverbs accumulate rather than argue; the effect of reading a full chapter is an immersive contact with the texture of observations that the book calls wisdom.
Proverbs 11
Dishonest scales and the righteous city
Chapter 11 continues the antithetical proverbs with a strong economic focus. The chapter opens with one of the book's most emphatic statements: a false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. The social ethics of commerce — accurate weights and measures — are a matter of divine concern. The chapter ranges across wealth, pride, integrity in public life, and the welfare of the city. When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy. The famous saying on generosity: one gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered. The chapter includes two memorable proverbs on women: a beautiful woman without discretion is like a gold ring in a pig's snout, and a gracious woman gets honour. The chapter ends with the contrast between the righteous whose hope is a harvest and the wicked who gain only trouble.
Proverbs 12
Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge
Chapter 12 is dense with observations on speech, diligence, and the acceptance of correction. The opening is typically provocative: whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. The receptivity to correction is, throughout the book, the defining mark of the wise person as against the fool; here the contrast is made at maximum bluntness. The chapter ranges across household economics, animal husbandry (whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his animal), the tongue, and domestic life (an excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones). The chapter contains one of the book's most famous single observations on anxiety: anxiety in a man's heart weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad.
Proverbs 13
Hope deferred makes the heart sick
Chapter 13 ranges across the same terrain as the surrounding chapters — speech, discipline, wealth, hope — with several particularly sharp individual sayings. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life is one of the book's finest psychological observations, two lines that have no theological claim and no moral directive but simply name an experience. The chapter's wealth observations are among the most sophisticated: wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. One pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth. The observations on discipline are characteristic: whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. The chapter includes a notable compound image: the teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death.
Proverbs 14
The wise woman builds her house
Chapter 14 opens with a compressed domestic image — the wise woman builds her house, the foolish tears it down with her own hands — that anticipates the woman of valour in chapter 31. The chapter contains several of the collection's most quoted individual proverbs. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death is the book's most direct statement of the problem of self-deception: the path that feels like wisdom may not be. The heart's bitterness is a private knowledge: even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief. The chapter also contains a notable social ethics proverb on poverty: whoever despises his neighbour is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor. The observations on the foolish and the wise accumulate across the chapter; the fool rages and is confident; a man of understanding walks straight.
Proverbs 15
A soft answer turns away wrath
Chapter 15 is the chapter of speech and divine omniscience. The opening proverb — a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger — is among the book's most practically applied, and it is followed by a concentrated block of speech proverbs that constitute the fullest treatment of the tongue in the Solomonic collection. The chapter introduces a distinctive theological note: the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. God is not merely the origin of the moral order but an active observer of conduct at every point. This makes prayer relevant: the Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous. The chapter also contains observations on correction and the wise heart: a wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. The ear that listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. The chapter closes on a cluster of proverbs on the fear of the Lord as the anchor of the wise life.
Proverbs 16
Pride before destruction
Chapter 16 is the most theologically concentrated chapter in the Solomonic collection and contains several of the most quoted proverbs in the book. It opens with a cluster of proverbs on divine sovereignty: the plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. The chapter's most famous verse — pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall — is at its centre. The chapter also gives extensive attention to the king as the human bearer of justice: a king's rage is a messenger of death, and a wise man will appease it. Righteous lips are the delight of a king, and he loves him who speaks what is right. The chapter closes with two compressed images of the uncertainty of human plans against divine providence: the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
Proverbs 17
A merry heart does good like a medicine
Chapter 17 continues the antithetical collection with several of the most remembered individual proverbs in the book. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones is a psychosomatic observation — the correlation between inward state and physical health — expressed in two lines of spare parallelism. A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity is the book's most direct statement on friendship and loyalty. The chapter also contains a cluster on family relations: children's children are the crown of old men, and the glory of children is their fathers. On the value of silence: even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent. The chapter's speech proverbs are among the most compact in the collection, and several of them address the manipulation of speech for dishonest ends.
Proverbs 18
The name of the Lord is a strong tower
Chapter 18 gives the most extended treatment of the tongue in the collection and contains several proverbs with an unusually theological register. The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe — the image of the divine name as fortress is rare in Proverbs, which more often treats the Lord as the ground of the moral order than as a refuge in distress. The tongue observations are comprehensive: death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. A fool's lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating. The words of a man's mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook. The chapter also contains several of the collection's most practically applicable observations on judgment: the one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him. A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city, and quarreling is like the bars of a castle.
Proverbs 19
What is desired is steadfast love
Chapter 19 continues the Solomonic collection with a varied set of observations on wealth and poverty, family, the king, and divine sovereignty. Several of the chapter's proverbs address the distortion of social relations by wealth: wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend. The book is realistic about the social effects of poverty without endorsing them — the observation is diagnostic. The chapter contains two notable observations on divine sovereignty: many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. The fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm. The family observations include the most direct statement on the folly of disciplining out of order: discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death. The chapter also addresses the king's anger and the value of the king's favour.
Proverbs 20
Wine is a mocker; the king's heart is unsearchable
Chapter 20 opens with one of the book's most direct temperance observations — wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise — and ranges across royal authority, the limits of self-knowledge, and commercial ethics. The king proverbs here are among the strongest: the terror of a king is like the growling of a lion; whoever provokes him to anger forfeits his life. A king who sits on the throne of judgment winnows all evil with his eyes. The self-knowledge proverb is one of the most philosophically interesting in the collection: who can say, I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin? The implied answer — no one — introduces a note of moral realism about the limits of self-knowledge and self-purification that complicates the book's general confidence in the observable two ways. The commercial ethics return: unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the Lord.
Proverbs 21
The Lord weighs the heart
Chapter 21 opens with the divine-sovereignty cluster that runs through this part of the collection: the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will. Then the diagnostic observation on self-perception: every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart. The Lord's act of weighing — assessing what cannot be observed from outside — is the corrective to the book's general confidence in the visibility of the two ways. The chapter includes the most famous of the quarrelsome-wife proverbs: it is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife. The chapter also contains one of the book's most compressed social-ethics observations: whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered. The chapter ends with the tension between human planning and divine sovereignty: no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the Lord. The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.
Proverbs 22
A good name is more desirable than riches
Chapter 22 contains the final proverbs of the first Solomonic collection (verses 1-16) and then opens the Words of the Wise (verses 17-29), a new section closely related to the Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope. The chapter's opening verse is one of the book's clearest value statements: a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favour is better than silver or gold. The observation on the universality of divine creation — the rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them all — is among the book's most socially levelling claims. The child-rearing proverb at verse 6 — train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it — is among the most quoted in the book. The Words of the Wise that begin at verse 17 shift the register: incline your ear and hear the words of the wise. The section is more discursive than the two-line proverbs and closer to the extended discourses of chapters 1-9.
Proverbs 23
Do not wear yourself out to get rich
Chapter 23 continues the Words of the Wise with extended observations on several of the book's main topics. The chapter's most sustained passage is on wine: who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who tarry long over wine; those who go to try mixed wine. The description of intoxication — the way wine bites like a serpent and stings like an adder, the strange things and perverse words, the sensation of lying on the high seas — is the most extended set-piece on drunkenness in the Hebrew Bible. The chapter also contains a passage on the limits of wealth: do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven. The child-rearing cluster returns: do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. The chapter includes a brief passage addressed by a father to a son to give the father joy by walking in wisdom.
Proverbs 24
Do not rejoice when your enemy falls
Chapter 24 closes the Words of the Wise (verses 1-22) and then gives a short appendix (verses 23-34). The chapter includes several proverbs on warfare and strategy: by wise counsel you will wage war, and in the abundance of counsellors there is victory. The most distinctive observation in the chapter is on the ethics of enemy-joy: do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him. The prohibition on rejoicing over an enemy's downfall is given a theological grounding: the Lord himself may redirect his anger if the observer gloats. The chapter ends with the most extended portrait of the lazy man's field in the book: I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction. The lesson: a little sleep, and poverty comes like an armed man.
Proverbs 25
Hezekiah's scribes: the second Solomon collection
Chapter 25 opens the second Solomonic collection, with the distinctive superscription: these also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied. The collection runs through chapter 29 and was assembled, the heading suggests, in the late eighth century BCE. The chapter opens with a cluster on the king: it is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out. As the heavens for height and the earth for depth, so the heart of kings is unsearchable. The chapter introduces extended similes that are less common in the earlier collection: like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. Like a city broken into and left without walls is a man who has no rule over his spirit. The chapter also contains one of the book's most famous social observations: if your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head.
Proverbs 26
The fool and the sluggard: catalogue
Chapter 26 is the most focused chapter in the book: the first twelve verses are a concentrated catalogue of fool proverbs, followed by seven proverbs on the sluggard, followed by proverbs on the contentious person and the flatterer. The fool proverbs move through a series of images: like snow in summer or rain in harvest, so honour is not fitting for a fool. Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, a curse that is causeless does not alight. Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. The sluggard proverbs are among the book's most satirical: the sluggard says, there is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets! As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. The chapter's final cluster on contention and flattery uses the same concentrated imagery: whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling.
Proverbs 27
Do not boast of tomorrow; iron sharpens iron
Chapter 27 is among the richest chapters of the Hezekiah collection. The opening is one of the book's most-quoted: do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. The proverb on friendship is the most memorable of the chapter: iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. The observation on praise: let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips. The chapter includes the extended portrait of the quarrelsome woman — a quarrelsome wife is like a continuous dripping on a rainy day — and the shepherding proverbs that close the chapter, which are unusual in the collection: know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds, for riches do not last forever, and does a crown endure to all generations? The agricultural and pastoral close of the chapter is a reminder that behind the urban social world of most of Proverbs lies a rural economy of fields, herds, and harvests.
Proverbs 28
The wicked flee when no one pursues
Chapter 28 opens with one of the book's most psychologically acute observations: the wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion. The image captures the inward experience of guilt as a constant, objectless fear — the wicked person is in flight even when no one is chasing. The chapter continues with a sustained attention to economic justice and the poor. A ruler who lacks understanding is a cruel oppressor, but he who hates unjust gain will prolong his days. Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse. The confession proverb at verse 13 is one of the most important in the book for the theology of sin and restoration: whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. The chapter includes the observation on the hard-hearted: whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.
Proverbs 29
Where there is no vision, the people perish
Chapter 29 closes the Hezekiah collection and contains several of the most quoted verses in the book. Where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law — typically rendered in the King James Version as where there is no vision, the people perish — is among the book's most used and most contested verses. The chapter returns to the ruler cluster: by justice a king builds up the land, but he who exacts gifts tears it down. If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked. The discipline cluster returns: the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. The chapter includes observations on anger — a man of wrath stirs up strife, and one given to anger causes much transgression. It closes with the programmatic observation: the fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.
Proverbs 30
Agur's oracle: four things, four more
Chapter 30 is the most distinctive chapter in the book. Agur son of Jakeh is otherwise unknown; his oracle opens with a declaration of radical intellectual humility: I am the most ignorant of men, and I have not the understanding of a man. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One. This is followed by a series of rhetorical questions — who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name? Surely you know — which are simultaneously humble and ironic. The chapter then gives the famous numerical sayings: there are three things that are never satisfied; four never say Enough — Sheol, the barren womb, the earth that drinks water, the fire. There are three things that are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand — the way of the eagle in the sky, the way of the serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the seas, the way of a man with a woman. The numerical form is a pedagogical device: the first number signals that more is coming; the second gives the unexpected item that is the point.
Proverbs 31
Eshet chayil: the woman of valour
Chapter 31 closes the book in two distinct sections. The first nine verses are the Sayings of King Lemuel, taught him by his mother — the only explicit attribution to a female author in the Hebrew Bible. Her instruction is practical and royal: do not give your strength to women or your ways to those who destroy kings; do not drink wine or strong drink; open your mouth for the mute, judge righteously, defend the poor and needy. Then the book's closing poem: an acrostic of twenty-two verses, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, on the eshet chayil — the woman of valour. She is not a figure of leisure. She works with wool and flax, brings food from far away, rises while it is still night, considers a field and buys it, makes linen and sells it, delivers girdles to the merchant. Strength and dignity are her clothing; she opens her mouth with wisdom. Her children rise and call her blessed; her husband praises her. Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all. The closing verse: a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. The fear of the Lord, the book's programmatic first word, is its last word too.