Proverbs
Proverbs distills wisdom into portable form: short, sharpened sayings about money, speech, friendship, work, anger, and the slow architecture of character. It opens with a father's extended appeals to his son, where wisdom is personified as a woman calling in the streets, and folly as her seductive rival. Then come the collections of two-line proverbs, each a small act of observation about how God's world usually works. The foundation of it all is stated at the start: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The book closes with an alphabet poem honoring a valiant woman.
Chiefly Solomon; with sayings of the wise, Agur, and King Lemuel.
Core from Solomon's era, c. 950 BC; compiled by Hezekiah's time and later.
Young people and all who would learn to live skillfully.
To impart practical wisdom for daily life, grounded in the fear of the Lord.