Read the Bible in 2011 ◊ The Book of Proverbs
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
Fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
Proverbs 1:7
Thursday’s Bible reading for Week 36 is Proverbs 22. The third section of Proverbs, “Proverbs of Solomon,” ends at verse 16. The fourth section, “Words of Wise Men,” begins at 22:17. Since I did this for Psalms yesterday, let me give you the divisions of Proverbs. These sections and titles are from Derek Kidner.1
| The Book of Proverbs | ||
| 1:1–7 | Title, Introduction and Motto | |
| 1:8–9:18 | A Father’s Praise of Wisdom | |
| 10:1–22:16 | Proverbs of Solomon | |
| 22:17–24:22 | Words of Wise Men |
|
| 24:23–34 | Further Words of Wise Men | |
| 25:1–29:27 | Further Proverbs of Solomon (Hezekiah’s Collection) |
|
| 30:1–33 | Words of Agur | |
| 31:1–9 | Words of King Lemuel | |
| 31:10–31 |
An Alphabet of Wifely Excellence |
|
I looked at three other sources and while, as you may think, different titles are given, these divisions are fairly standard. I’ve used A. F. Walls previously and his are the same. D. A. Hubbard groups 1:1–9:18 into one section, and Gleason Archer divides the first nine chapters into two sections, but at 1:1–6 and 1:7–9:18.3, 4
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Isaiah 42 Photograph: ChristianPhotos.net – Free High Resolution Photos for Christian Publications
1Derek Kidner, Proverbs, p. 57.
2A. F. Walls, “Proverbs,” The New Bible Commentary: Revised, D. Guthrie, J. A. Motyer, eds., A. M. Stibbs, D. J. Wiseman, contributing eds., p. 550.
3D. A. Hubbard, “Proverbs, Book of,” The New Bible Dictionary, J. D. Douglas, organizing ed., F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, R. V. G. Tasker, D. J. Wiseman, consulting eds., pp. 1049–1050, 1050.
4Gleason Archer, “The Books of Wisdom: Job and Proverbs,” A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, pp. 466–467.
Original content: Copyright ©2011 Iwana Carpenter
Kindling for Candles 
I will put up a post on Proverbs 22. I haven’t yet finished it.
You may be wondering why in the middle of these two books I’m putting up the structure rather than at their beginning.
I wish I had thought of it before, but my posting some of my thoughts and reflections as I read the Bible was not meant to be an overview of the structure of every book, but to perk your interest in reading the Bible for yourself.
The structure of Psalms is fascinating to me because of the way each section ends with a doxology and I wanted to bring that out. I think the structure of Proverbs can help with understanding the book rather than considering it as random sayings. It’s actually even more structured than this. These are just a few things to get you interested so you will read the Bible and study it for yourself.