Read Proverbs 4 here (text coming …) or at Bible Gateway.
The Hebrew paragraphs:
4:1-19 {p} Children, receive and do not forsake your father’s wise instruction, and live
4:20-27 {p} Children, keep your father’s wise words in your heart, to walk in them, and live
Each of these paragraphs make their own Chiastic Structure. For example,
The central axis reveals the main point of the passage: The beginning of wisdom is: get wisdom, get understanding; that is, yearn for it; make it the primary goal of your life; hunt it down and do not ever stop pursuing it.
We learned in Proverbs 1 that the fear of YHVH is the beginning of knowledge.
What do knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, have to do with each other, the three concepts Scripture so often puts together?
For YHVH gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. Pro 2:6
KNOWLEDGE is Strong’s H1847 da’ath, an abstract concept meaning, “knowledge, intelligence;” from Strong’s H3045 ידע yada, a primitive root meaning “to know, to teach.”
yud י = closed hand, thus work, throw, worship
dalet ד = door, thus enter, move, hang
ayin ע = eye, thus watch, know, shade
It is by doing (yud) that we enter into (dalet) knowing (ayin).
Knowledge, since it comes by doing, is more than just book learning. Book learning is a place to start – we are engaged in Bible book learning every day, and the Bible itself has impressed upon us just how vital that is. But knowledge has only been achieved when we have done what we have learned in the book. For example, Yeshua told us to forgive our brothers. We know His instruction. But we have only really acquired that knowledge when we actually walk in forgiveness toward our brother from our heart.
UNDERSTANDING is Strong’s H998, biynah, an abstract concept meaning, “discernment, understanding,” from Strong’s H995 בין biyn, a primitive root meaning, “to discern or understand.”
bet ב = house, thus house, household, family, in, within
yud י = closed hand, thus work, throw, worship
nun נ ן = seed, thus continue, heir, son
In the era of the patriarchs, from the Ancient Hebrew Lexicon:
The tent was usually divided into two parts, one for the females and the other for the male[s]. The wall makes a distinction between the two sides.
The house or tent (bet) was closed off (yud) according to the genders determined by the seed (nun). “To understand” is the ability to discern between two things.
“Discernment” is from a Latin word, discernere, to separate, to distinguish between. It means, to detect with the eyes, so, to recognize evidence from concrete objects; to detect with other senses, including intuition; to identify as separate and distinct. It is to recognize the parts that extrapolate to the whole. Understanding is the next step from knowledge, because while knowledge deals with what is concrete, understanding uses what is concrete to draw conclusions.
WISDOM is Strong’s H2451 chokmah, an abstract concept meaning, “wisdom,” from Strong’s H2449 חכם chakam, a primitive root meaning “to be wise.”
chet ח = the wall, thus outside, divide, half
kaph כ ך = open palm, thus bend, open, allow, tame
mem מ ם = the water, thus chaos, mighty, blood
To rightly divide (chet) that which benefits (kaph) from that which causes chaos (mem), good from bad, truth from error, friend from foe.
Wisdom contains an element of understanding, because wisdom cannot come without rightly dividing between two things. But we see right away that wisdom is the next step from understanding. Now that we have rightly divided between, we must recognize that which benefits, is good, and is true, from that which causes chaos, is bad, and is false.
But we cannot know which is which from our own judgment. We are fallen, flawed, and our heart is desperately wicked. Thus no one can achieve wisdom without learning it from YHVH’s mouth. He reveals the benefit or chaos, the good or bad, the truth or lie. Which leads us back to book knowledge again. Think of the three, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, as a cyclical progression that never stops.
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