The book of Proverbs is a collection on poetry designed to teach wisdom to Isreal. It was written primarily by Solomon, but others also contributed. Wisdom writings do not contain historical references and are therefore, difficult to date. However since Solomon is mentioned three different times (1:1; 10:1; 25:1) we can assume that it was written over the course of several hundred years from 950-700 BC.
A proverb is, in essence, a short poetic sentence whose purpose is to convey wisdom in a memorable, yet simple way. Proverbs are typically based on the personal experience of the author and cover the following topics, in no particular order: Marriage and Sexuality, Wealth and Poverty, the Power of Words, Childrearing, Personal Discipline, and Friendship. The book of Proverbs emphasizes the fear of the Lord as the key to a life filled with love, worship and obedience to God. While it deals with things that we encounter and deal with here on Earth, it reminds us the God is the ultimate source of Truth (2:5-6).
The key literary characteric within each proverb is parallelism. There are four types of parallelism seen in the book of Proverbs: Synonymous, Antithetical, Synthetic, and Comparative. Filled with practical advice, Proverbs can be considered a manual for teaching the biblical principles of prosperity, success, and godly living.
Solomon
Solomon is a personal name that can be interpreted as “his peace,” “(God) is peace,” “Salem (a god),” “intact,” or “his replacement.” He was the tenth son of David and the second son of Bathsheba. Solomon became the third king of Israel and reigned 40 years about 1000 b.c. He is remembered for his wisdom, his reconstruction of the Temple (1 Kings 5:8), and his wealth through trade and sound administrative practices. Solomon reigned from 970-931 BC.
Solomon is credited as having written 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 (1 Kings 4:32). He helped write the Books of Proverbs and Song of Songs (Prov. 1:1; Song 1:1) as well as several apocryphal and pseudepigraphal books. His wisdom is also illustrated in the by how he handled the accounts of the two women who each claimed to be the mother of a child (1 Kings 3:16) and by the visit of the queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10).
While the building of the temple is the most famous construction project attributed to Solomon, he also had other significant projects such as fortifying a number of cities that helped protect Jerusalem. He also build “store-cities” and established military bases.
Solomon divided the country into districts that did not adhere to the old tribal boundaries described in Kings (1 Kings 4:7-19). The districts provided supplies for the main government. This system, combined with control of the north/south trade routes between the Red Sea and Asia Minor, made it possible for Solomon to accumulate vast wealth. This wealth was augmented from trading in horses and chariots and from trade carried on by his fleet of ships (1 Kings 9:26-28; 10:26-29).
While Solomon was a wise king, he also had his faults and like others before him, he ultimately fell out of favor with God. He allowed his seven hundred wives, princesses and 300 concubines to worship their own gods, instead of the one true God. He even had altars built to worship these gods (1 Kings 11:7-8).
Megiddo (Mə gĭd´ dō)
The name means “a place of troops.” One of the most strategic cities of Canaan because it guarded the main pass through the Carmel mountain range. This mountain range was an obstacle along the route that connected Egypt with Mesopotamia. Megiddo had approximately 25
