Proverbs 25

Another Collection of Proverbs. Chaps. 25-30.

Here begins a new section. Some call it the third, some the fourth, and others the fifth part of the book. The form and style correspond in a good degree with what is generally called the Second Part, or, the Proverbs Proper, which began with the tenth chapter and ended with the twenty-second chapter and sixteenth verse. Out of the great mass of Solomon’s proverbs, (2 Kings 4:32,) probably preserved in various rolls or manuscripts, “the men of Hezekiah” his scribes or literary courtiers, and inspired men such as Isaiah, Hosea, Micah, Shebna, etc., selected the following, to the end of chapter twenty-nine, as a supplement to the original book. What remained after this culling by these learned men we may suppose not to have been so well adapted to, or so necessary for, edification in manners or in morals. Thus they have been permitted by divine providence to go into oblivion. The following have been culled out, as “written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” There is some repetition of proverbs in this portion itself, and quite a number of repetitions of the proverbs in Part Second. This would seem to indicate, as Stuart observes, that this Part was made up from different sources, which, here and there, portions of Part Second embodied. When the transfer was made, they were taken as they stood in the manuscript from which they were copied.