Proverbs 4:5

Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) Get wisdom, get understanding.—Like the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:46).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:1-13 We must look upon our teachers as our fathers: though instruction carry in it reproof and correction, bid it welcome. Solomon's parents loved him, therefore taught him. Wise and godly men, in every age of the world, and rank in society, agree that true wisdom consists in obedience, and is united to happiness. Get wisdom, take pains for it. Get the rule over thy corruptions; take more pains to get this than the wealth of this world. An interest in Christ's salvation is necessary. This wisdom is the one thing needful. A soul without true wisdom and grace is a dead soul. How poor, contemptible, and wretched are those, who, with all their wealth and power, die without getting understanding, without Christ, without hope, and without God! Let us give heed to the sayings of Him who has the words of eternal life. Thus our path will be plain before us: by taking, and keeping fast hold of instruction, we shall avoid being straitened or stumbling.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The counsel which has come to him, in substance, from his father. Compare it with 2 Samuel 23:2 etc.; 1 Chronicles 28:9; 1 Chronicles 29:17; Psalm 15:1-5; Psalm 24:1-10; Psalm 37.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. Get—as a possession not to be given up.

neither decline—that is, from obeying my word.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

From the belief and practice of my word.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Get wisdom, get understanding,.... Not only moral and political wisdom and understanding, but that which is spiritual and evangelical; Christ, and the knowledge of him; he being the only happy man that has an interest in him, and is possessed of him by faith, which is the meaning of getting him; See Gill on Proverbs 3:13; by which it appears, that what Solomon had before delivered, and afterwards repeats and urges, was the same his father David, that wise, great, and good man, taught him; and which he mentions, the more to recommend the getting of wisdom and understanding to others;

forget it not; when gotten, keep it in remembrance; be continually meditating on Wisdom, or Christ, his glories and excellencies; the fulness of grace and truth in him; the blessings of goodness which come by him; the great use and profit of having and enjoying him;

neither decline from the words of my mouth; the above instructions, and all others he gave unto him.

Geneva Study Bible

Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - After the general exhortation given above, the father's instruction becomes more specific, and deals with the acquirement of wisdom. This subject seems to be continued in ver. 13, where the second and concluding branch of the instruction begins, which consists mainly of warning, as the first part does with exhortation. We are thus furnished with an example how to teach. In our teaching it is not sufficient simply to point out what is to be done, but we must show what is to be avoided. Get wisdom, get understanding. The father urges the acquirement of wisdom in the same way and with the same importunity as the trader or merchant presses his goods upon buyers. Wisdom and understanding are put forward as objects of merchandise; for the verb kanah, from which the imperative k'neh, signifies not only "to acquire for one's self," or "to possess," but especially "to buy." The verb occurs again in the same sense in ver. 7, "Get [k'neh, i.e. buy] wisdom;" and in Proverbs 23:23, "Buy (k'neh) the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding" (cf. also Proverbs 15:22: 16:16; 19:9, where we also meet with the same verb). The reiteration of the word "get," as Umbreit remarks, is "an imitation of the exclamation of a merchant who is offering his wares." The importunity of the father measures the value he sets upon wisdom as an inestimable treasure, a pearl of great price (see Proverbs 3:14). Forget it not, etc.; rather, forget not, neither turn from the words of my mouth, - so Zockler, Delitzsch, Hodg., and others; Vulgate, ne obliviscaris, neque declines a verbis oris mei. There is no need to supply "it" after the verb al-tish'-kakh, "forget not," as Holden states, and as appears in the Authorized Version, since shakakh is found with min (מִן), "of" or "from," in Psalm 12:4 (5), "I forgot to eat (shakakh'ti meakol)," and the same construction may obtain here. The two verbs, "forget" and "decline from," are not so very wide in meaning, since the former, shakakh, is to "leave" something from forgetfulness, and the latter, natah, rendered here "decline from," is "to turn away" from something. The words of my mouth represent as it were the means by which wisdom may be purchased. Proverbs 4:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The exhortation of the father now specializes itself:

5 Get wisdom, get understanding;

   Forget not and turn not from the words of my mouth.

6 Forsake her not, so shall she preserve thee;

   Love her, so shall she keep thee.

Wisdom and understanding are (5a) thought of as objects of merchandise (cf. Proverbs 23:23; Proverbs 3:14), like the one pearl of great price, Matthew 13:46, and the words of fatherly instruction (5b), accordingly, as offering this precious possession, or helping to the acquisition of it. One cannot indeed say correctly אל־תשׁכח מאמרי־פי, but אל־תשׁכח משּׁמר אמרי־פי (Psalm 102:5); and in this sense אל־תּשׁכּח goes before, or also the accus. object, which in אל־תשכח the author has in his mind, may, since he continues with אל־תּט, now not any longer find expression as such. That the אמרי־פי are the means of acquiring wisdom is shown in Proverbs 4:6, where this continues to be the primary idea. The verse, consisting of only four words, ought to be divided by Mugrash;

(Note: According to correct readings in codd. and older editions, ותשמרךּ has also indeed Rebia Mugrash, and אהבה, Mercha (with Zinnorith); vid., Torath Emeth, p. 47, 6; Accentuationssystem, xviii. 1, 2; and regarding the Zinnorith, see Liber Psalmorum Hebraicus by S. Baer, p. xii.)

the Vav (ו) in both halves of the verse introduces the apodosis imperativi (cf. e.g., Proverbs 3:9., and the apodosis prohibitivi, Proverbs 3:21.). The actual representation of wisdom, Proverbs 4:5, becomes in Proverbs 4:6 personal.