Proverbs 1:7

7. As the preceding five verses may be regarded as stating the object of the book, so this may be considered as the motto, proposition, or text, which the author places at its head as containing the sum and substance of the whole, and which he designs to prove and illustrate.

The fear of the Lord יהוה JEHOVAH is the name commonly applied to the Divine Being in this book; seldom אלהים , ELOHIM God. The Septuagint adds to the first clause of this verse, as if exegetically, “And there is good understanding to all that practise it; and piety toward God is the beginning of discernment.”

The fear of Jehovah is a comprehensive expression, embodying, according to the conception of the Hebrew mind, the whole of piety or religion. (Job 28:28; Psalms 9:10; Psalms 111:10.) It implies a knowledge of the true God, of his existence, attributes, and works, and also of his relations to us as far as these several things were revealed in that day. As the idea of the great and everlasting God, our Maker and our Judge, strikes the mind with awe and reverence, from which proceed respect for his revealed will, and humiliation of mind, (Job 42:5-6,) so this term, the fear of the Lord, or reverence for Jehovah, comprehends both experimental and practical godliness, worship, and obedience. This fear of the Lord, then, resting on an intelligent apprehension of the divine majesty and his relations to us as revealed in his word, is the beginning, or the chief part, of knowledge of the intellectual attainments of a truly wise man. There is no study so high, so noble, so grand, so wholesome, so beneficent, as this. All others, which a man really wise pursues, are subordinate to this, and comprehended in it. The man who has a just conception of God and his relations to him can think of nothing that is not somehow related to this great theme, either as being in accordance with God’s will or contrary to that will as being forbidden or allowed. Hence all right learning and true science tends to honour God, as it tends to cultivate man. Moreover, the glorious idea of God in the mind is a quickening, elevating, and impelling element, that gives life, dignity, and force to mental action. It is only where this knowledge of God exists that man can rise to his true dignity as a rational, moral, and religious being. There is no motive to mental effort and high intellectual cultivation so powerful as that which true religion affords.

Many a youth “living after the flesh,” caring only for the things of the flesh, having no relish for other than sensual pleasures, neglects and rejects opportunities of mental improvement; but let him come under the dominion of religious feeling and principle let him attain to the fear of God, or, as Christianity has taught us to say, the love of God and his soul is immediately athirst for all useful knowledge. He feels that the improvement of his mind is one of his noblest privileges and highest duties; for only thus can he glorify and serve aright the Author of his being and salvation. These remarks elucidate the latter part of the verse.

Fools אוילים , ( evilim,) the gross, sensual, stupid.

Despise Trample under foot.

Wisdom and instruction מוסר , ( musar,) restraint, discipline. (See under Proverbs 1:2.) Compare on latter clause 1Ki 12:13 ; 1 Samuel 2:12-25; Acts 17:18.