Proverbs Chapter 2 verse 4 Holy Bible

ASV Proverbs 2:4

If thou seek her as silver, And search for her as for hid treasures:
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BBE Proverbs 2:4

If you are looking for her as for silver, and searching for her as for stored-up wealth;
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DARBY Proverbs 2:4

if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hidden treasures:
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KJV Proverbs 2:4

If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
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WBT Proverbs 2:4


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WEB Proverbs 2:4

If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures:
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YLT Proverbs 2:4

If thou dost seek her as silver, And as hid treasures searchest for her,
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Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 4. - If thou seekest, etc. The climax in the series of conditions is reached in this verse; and the imagery employed in both clauses indicates that the search after Wisdom is to be persevering, unrelaxing, and diligent, like the unremitting toil and labour with which men carry on mining operations. "To seek" (בָּקַשׁ, bakash) in the original is properly "to seek diligently" (piel), and is kindred to "to search" (קָפַשׂ, khaphas), which again is equivalent to "to dig" (חָפַר, khaphar), the Vulgate effodere, "to dig out." Compare the expression in Job 3:21, "And dig for it more than for hid treasures." We trace in these verbs the idea in the mind of the teacher indicated above, which finds expression also in the object of the search, the silver, in its crude state, and the hidden treasures (מַטְמֹנִים mat'monim), i.e. the treasures of gold, silver, and precious metal concealed in the earth. The comparison here made between the search for Wisdom and the search for the hidden treasures of the earth was not unfamiliar to the Hebrew mind, as it is found worked out with great beauty of detail in the twenty-eighth chapter of Job. Again, the comparison of Wisdom with things most precious in the estimation of man is natural and common, and occurs in Psalm 119:72; Job 28:15-19. The same ideas and comparisons here used are presented to us in the New Testament teaching, in our Lord's parable of the man who finds the hid treasure in the field, and, in the phraseology of St. Paul, who speaks of "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," and of "the unsearchable riches of Christ." "Divine knowledge is an inexhaustible mine of precious ore" (Wardlaw). The language of the Proverbs would receive additional three from the circumstances of the reign of Solomon, the most splendid and prosperous era in the annals of the Jewish national history, in the means taken to secure the treasures of other and distant countries; the wealth and the riches of that reign (see 2 Chronicles 9:20-22) would help to bring out the idea of the superlative value of Wisdom. In no era of the Jewish national history was there such abundance of riches, such splendid prosperity, as in the reign of Solomon, whose ships of Tarshish brought "gold and silver" (see 2 Chronicles 9:20-22), and this state of things would give point to the comparisons which the teacher uses in our text.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(4) If thou seekest her as silver.--That the process of mining was understood long before the time of Solomon, is proved by the remains of copper mines discovered in the peninsula of Sinai, and the gold mines in the Bisharee desert of Egypt. Rock inscriptions have been found near the former, dating from a great age, in the opinion of Lepsius from 4000 B.C. (See the article "Mines," in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible; comp. also the description in Job 28:1-11.) Silver was brought to Solomon from Arabia (2Chronicles 9:14) and Tarshish (2Chronicles 9:21), probably Tartessus, in Spain.Searchest for her as for hid treasures.--From the great insecurity of life and property in Eastern countries, the hiding of treasures in the earth has always been of frequent occurrence. It would often, no doubt, happen that the owner would die without disclosing the place of concealment to any one else, and the treasure thus be lost. Hunting after such hoards has in consequence been always of the keenest interest to Orientals, and as such furnishes the groundwork for one of our Lord's parables (Matthew 13:44).