A Word Study of Proverbs 2:1-5
“My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding, yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.”
Solomon really has a way with words. Throughout Proverbs, he chooses perfectly expressive verbs to explain the personal, active relationship people must have with God’s wisdom – words like hear, receive, understand, treasure, make, incline, pursue. I wanted to better understand these actions Solomon encourages, so I did a Hebrew word study of Proverbs 2:1-5 which is rich in these types of actions. The original language, and the other places these words are used in the Old Testament, adds much insight to how God’s people should pursue His wisdom and what the result of this pursuit will be.
My son, if you laqach my words (v1)
”Laqach” (law-kakh) – To take; to receive; to fetch; to carry away; to marry
God offers His Word and wisdom to be our possession and we have an active role to play in keeping it close. This common Hebrew word evokes taking, snatching, grabbing, carrying along, or stealing. Sometimes, it’s even used to describe being married to. Like a person holds onto something of value, a thief grips something he’s stolen, or a husband receives his wife with joy, we are to “laqach” God’s Word.
“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she laqach’d of the fruit thereof, and did eat” (Genesis 3:6).
“‘I will laqach you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians’” (Exodus 6:7).
And tsaphan my commandments with you (v1)
”Tsaphan” (tsaw-fan) – To hide; to store away
God’s wisdom is of enough value to be stored up as a treasure; it is precious enough to be kept close and hidden away within our hearts and minds. Think about a person’s relationship with something she values: she checks up on it, she delights in it, she protects it. The word Solomon uses evokes this same posture towards godly wisdom.
Moses’ mother tsaphan’d him after he was born so the Egyptians wouldn’t take and kill him (Exodus 2:2).
“I have tsaphan’d your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11).
Qashab-ing your ear to wisdom (v2)
”Qashab” (kaw-shab) – To attend to; to heed; to hear; to regard
As a follower of God, we are implored to give our attention to Him and His wisdom. Many prophets used this word repeatedly to call Israel’s attention to God’s messages for it. It’s not only hearing what God says, but heeding it. The way Hebrew writers use this word reminds me of the ear of an animal perking up to listen to something, like a deer listening intently to its surroundings.
“Qashab to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray” (Psalm 5:2)
“Qashab to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation…” (Isaiah 51:4)
And natah your heart to understanding (v2)
”Natah" (naw-taw) – To incline; to stretch out; to turn toward; to pitch a tent
The goal of our hearts should be to understand God and His mind. The act of inclining, in Hebrew, means to move toward or to dwell near something (sometimes literally to stretch out a tent). In the same way, our hearts should continually reach toward and dwell near God to better understand Him.
“So [Isaac] built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and natah’d his tent there” (Genesis 26:25).
“I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; natah your ear to me: hear my words.” (Psalm 17:11)
Yes, if you qara for insight (v3)
”Qara” (kaw-raw) – To call; to cry out
Part of our relationship with wisdom is to converse with it. Solomon portrays this as calling out, a Hebrew word used often to describe the act of requesting one’s attention, typically with loud speech. We are to call out for discernment and understanding knowing that there is One who hears it and who can answer it.
When Abram settled outside of Canaan and built his first altar to God, he qara'd upon the name of the Lord there (Genesis 12:8).
“God qara'd to Moses out of the burning bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’” (Exodus 3:4).
And nathan your voice for understanding (v3)
“Nathan” (naw-than) – To lift up; to set before; to dedicate; to give
Similar to qara, Solomon uses another common Hebrew word to emphasize the conversational aspect of wisdom. When coupled with words of speech like voice or cry, “nathan” adds a directional detail. Our cries for wisdom aren’t just spoken out, but spoken up, to be heard by the Lord.
In Numbers 13-14, when Israel’s spies return from scoping out Canaan with news of strong people and fortified cities, Israel in its hopelessness “nathan’d a loud cry and wept.”
“Nathan” is also used throughout the Old Testament to describe the act of giving or setting something before someone. In humility, we implore God to give us wisdom, again recognizing that He alone is the source of it.
“And God said, ‘Behold, I have nathan you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food’” (Genesis 1:29).
In Leviticus, many of the instances when Israel is commanded concerning offerings, they are told to nathan their sacrifice for their guilt and worship.
If you baqash it like silver (v4)
“Baqash” (baw-kash) – To seek; to desire
Pursuing God’s wisdom means to seek after it with intent – like a person fervently seeks his greatest desire or a woman chases after her betrothed. We are to seek God’s wisdom with all our hearts and all our souls, striving to get everything we possibly can from Him.
“Baqash the LORD your God and you will find Him, if you baqash after Him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29).
“One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I baqash after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life” (Psalm 27:4).
“I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will baqash him whom my soul loves. I baqash’d him, but found him not” (Song of Solomon 3:2).
And chaphas for it as for hidden treasures (v4)
”Chaphas” (khaw-fas) – To search for (especially something concealed)
Solomon uses a Hebrew synonym to “baqash” to convey searching after wisdom as for hidden treasure. This term implies that wisdom may be obscure at times and that we may labor to find it as one excavates for diamonds buried in the ground. Yet, we are still to seek it with patience, trust, and perseverance, thus strengthening its value for us.
“And [Joseph] chaphas’d, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack” (Genesis 44:12).
“Let us chaphas and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!” (Lamentations 3:40).
The outcome: Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God (v5)
In our zealous pursuit of wisdom, Solomon promises that we will gain two things in return: understanding the fear of the Lord and finding the knowledge of God. Put another way, wisdom helps to foster a right relationship with God and godly living.
To fear and know God is to have the right estimation of Him. It is to recognize that He is holy and that we are not, that He is our perfect Creator and that we are rebellious creatures at enmity with Him. This realization should lead us, in fear, to repent of anything that conflicts with the God who made us. This fearful knowledge also leads to an even greater wisdom once hidden for ages (Colossians 1:25-27) – that God dealt with our rebellion in an unexpected way, by mercifully sending His Son to pay the penalty for our sins and to reconcile us to Himself as His adopted children.
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15)
The Proverbs 2 pursuit of this fearful knowledge, first of God’s holiness and second of the Gospel, leads to true godly living. We no longer try to make up for our sin out of a guilty fear of retribution or an effort to earn our salvation. No, we strive to please God out of gratitude for the costly grace of Christ and a desire to do right by Him. As we increase in fear and knowledge of our holy, heavenly Father, we learn to examine our hearts in light of Him, aligning them with what He delights in and turning them from what He hates. This, Solomon says, is the purpose of Wisdom.
We can’t ever exhaust our understanding of God’s character nor His grace in the Gospel, so the promise Solomon gives is a recurring, even eternal one. In all our receiving and storing, heeding and inclining toward, calling out for and requesting, seeking and arduously searching for wisdom, may we discover more of our God and His glorious Gospel.