This passage indicates that the following proverbs were not included in the original text of Proverbs. They are still the writings of Solomon, who was inspired by God, but they were appended to the book many years later in King Hezekiah’s day. These were not recordings of oral traditions because the verse indicates they were copied or transcribed from one or more additional written documents. II Chronicles 31 indicates that Hezekiah appointed servants to do various tasks on behalf of the Lord. Likely, this was one of them. There were prophets, such as Isaiah, Micah, and Hosea, during this time, and any one of them could have been asked to take on the task.<\/p>\n
God gains glory because we cannot guess the reasons behind His actions (Romans 11:33). God doesn’t have to explain Himself, and the fact that we cannot fully understand God emphasizes how much greater He is than man. However, kings are not God. Their glory comes when they search for information. God knows everything, but He doesn’t reveal everything He knows. Instead, He insists that leaders figure out what is going on. It brings them honor when they show understanding of people and the various situations that come before the kings.<\/p>\n
But like any person, no other person knows exactly what a king thinks (I Corinthians 2:11). His thoughts are as difficult to understand as the entire universe. We may learn a bit about the universe, but we won’t ever comprehend it all. Those who seek to advise a king should remember this.<\/p>\n
Dross is a worthless material mixed in with raw silver ore. It is only when the worthless material is removed that the silver becomes usable. In the same way, a kingdom containing widespread evil is not stable. Only by removing evil is a king’s rule made stable because only righteousness is stable (Psalms 101:3,8). This is especially true if evil exists within the government. No king can rule justly if his servants are corrupt (Jeremiah 6:27-30).<\/p>\n
Holding self-pride before someone superior to you is a quick route to embarrassment. Recall that no one knows the king’s mind; where you might think you are superior to others, the king may very well have a different opinion. Thus, having a ruler bestow honor on you is better than being lowered by the ruler in the sight of other people (Luke 14:7-11).<\/p>\n
Continuing with the idea of the difficulty of pride, we are warned not to take a neighbor to court quickly. No one knows everything, and you may disagree due to a lack of knowledge. What happens when you appear in court and are made to look foolish because of some vital but overlooked fact? (Matthew 5:25).<\/p>\n
Instead, try to settle the argument directly with your neighbor. If it is settled, then don’t reveal the problem to anyone else (Matthew 18:15-17). The knowledge you learn in settling the matter is not yours to divulge. Gossiping about settled matters will only ruin your reputation.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tProverbs\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You Don’t Know Everything Text: Proverbs 25:1-10 Later Additions (Proverbs 25:1) This passage indicates that the following proverbs were not included in the original text of Proverbs. They are still the writings of Solomon, who was inspired by God, but they were appended to the book many years later in King Hezekiah’s day. These were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":16504,"menu_order":33,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-65511","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":65469,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/proverbs-practical-advice-on-life\/what-you-should-not-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":65511,"position":0},"title":"What You Should Not Do","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"What You Should Not Do Text: Proverbs 22:17-28 Listen to the Words of Wisdom (Proverbs 22:17-21) Beginning with Proverbs 22:17 there is a change in the style used since chapter 10. The use of mostly two-line proverbs gives way to a variable number of lines. Most not only give advice\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65433,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/proverbs-practical-advice-on-life\/conduct\/","url_meta":{"origin":65511,"position":1},"title":"Conduct","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Conduct Text: Proverbs 20:1-30 Anger (Proverbs 20:1-3) Alcoholic drinks loosen the tongue and loosen control of your emotions (Hosea 7:5-6). It is never wise to get intoxicated, and those who are intoxicated think and act foolishly. You should not make another person angry who has the power to do something\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65400,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/proverbs-practical-advice-on-life\/bad-attitudes\/","url_meta":{"origin":65511,"position":2},"title":"Bad Attitudes","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Bad Attitudes Text: Proverbs 18:1-19 Self-Willed (Proverbs 18:1-3) A person who isolates himself does so because of his selfishness and anger. He doesn't want to deal with contradictory desires and thoughts, so he separates himself where there is no one to disagree with what he wants. Reasoning with such a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65573,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/proverbs-practical-advice-on-life\/justice\/","url_meta":{"origin":65511,"position":3},"title":"Justice (Proverbs)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Justice Text: Proverbs 29:2-27 Benefits of Wisdom (Proverbs 29:2-11) When righteousness is generally prevalent in a society, people are happier as a whole. Some translations say \"when the righteous are in authority\" but the Hebrew word\u00a0birovoth\u00a0means \"when being abundant.\" In contrast, it only takes a single wicked ruler to make\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65474,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/proverbs-practical-advice-on-life\/overindulging\/","url_meta":{"origin":65511,"position":4},"title":"Overindulging","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Overindulging Text: Proverbs 22:29-23:21 The Value of Skill (Proverbs 22:29) When a person is particularly skillful in his work, he will not live an obscure life. People will notice him, even the rich and powerful. This sets the proper standard in contrast with the section that follows, which involves things\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22525,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/survey-of-the-bible\/survey-of-the-bible-proverbs\/","url_meta":{"origin":65511,"position":5},"title":"Survey of the Bible – Proverbs","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Survey of the Bible - Proverbs Text: Proverbs 1:1-7 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Like the book of Psalms, Proverbs is a collection of writings \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The major of the Proverbs were written by Solomon, just as the majority of Psalms was written by David. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Solomon\u2019s proverbs are in \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapters 1-9 - Proverbs 1:1 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0b.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chapters\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65511\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}