Read the Bible in 2023 ◊ The Book of Proverbs

As we begin reading Proverbs, I want to give you an overview of the main divisions of the book. These divisions and titles are from Derek Kidner in his book, Proverbs: An Introduction and Commentary.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’ve looked at three other sources, and while, as you might think, different titles are given, these divisions are fairly standard. A. F. Walls uses these divisions.² 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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Silvesterzug Laterne: Bk muc. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
King Solomon: Gustave Doré, Dore’s illustrations for the Book of Proverbs. Public Domain.
¹Derek Kidner, Proverbs: An Introduction and Commentary (Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove IL: 1965) 57.
²A. F. Walls, “Proverbs,” The New Bible Commentary: Revised, D. Guthrie, J. A. Motyer, eds., A. M. Stibbs, D. J. Wiseman, contributing eds. (Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove IL: 1970) 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. (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids MI: 1962) 1049–1050, 1050.
⁴Gleason Archer, “The Books of Wisdom: Job and Proverbs,” A Survey of Old Testament Introduction (Moody Press, Chicago IL: 1974) 466–467.

I’m using Michael Coley’s Bible reading plan (one page PDF to print) to read through the Bible in 2023. Each day my posts are on different books because he divides Bible readings into seven categories, one for each day of the week: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Gospels. There’s more information on his plan and other ones at Read the Bible in 2023.

Copyright ©2011–2023 Iwana Carpenter