"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths."
That verse from Proverbs was typed from memory, a mixture of the King James Version and the RSV. The NIV which is by now more familiar to me from years of preaching from it as the preferred translation in my church tradition (Baptist, is
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight."
My favourite reading version of the Bible is now the Revised English Bible, and it sharpens the translation further:
"Put all your trust in the Lord and do not rely on your own understanding. At every step you take keep him in mind, and he will direct your path."
The most recent scholarly commentary on Proverbs, (Paul Overland in the Apollos series) reads more like a paraphrase, but is the author's own translation:
"Incline your confidence towards the Lord with your entire mind, and do not habitually depend on your own insight: in all your ways know him and he personally will straighten your paths."
And finally, a translation from a leading Jewish scholar of Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible, in a commentary where he also provides his own translation, (M V Fox, Proverbs 1-9, Anchor Yale Commentary):
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and rely not on your own understanding. In all that you do, hold him in mind, and he will keep your path smooth."
All of these translations gather the gist of the text, with small but significant variations. Why trouble you with five different ways of saying (more or less) the same thing? I'll try to explain.
I first started reading the Bible seriously after I was converted at the age sixteen. The book of Proverbs was one of the first books I read through. I guess it was one of the chunks of the Bible that quickly made sense, and that sometimes reads like those Reader's Digest snippets and page fillers of practical wisdom, good advice, pithy sayings and self-help pointers to success in life.
My guide was a now battered and much used copy of Derek Kidner's distilled brilliance at getting quickly to the heart of things. Kidner's wee commentary passed on to me a fascination with the Wisdom tradition in the Hebrew Bible, and particularly how some of its verses can read like a commentary on the latest news of the 21st Century - from Fox News to the Financial Times, from the Guardian to the Daily Mail, from your favourite gossip sources to Have I Got News For You, and most other places where we go looking for someone else's take on the way the world is.
The Book of Proverbs is made up of several collections of ancient wisdom, telling us the tried and tested techniques, attitudes, responses, and reactions to all kinds of human behaviour, from the palace to the market place, from the home to the courts. How to make friends and keep them; when to keep your mouth shut and when to speak; learning to control money instead of letting it control us. And throughout, the contrasting moral options that always come at us in daily life; with examples of the virtues of faithfulness, compassion, truthfulness, and of their opposites of betrayal of trust, hard-heartedness, deceit - and these are only for starters.
This is a book to keep by the bedside and read a few verses morning and evening. Reminders of what a well lived human life looks like when lived wisely; and warnings of what a wasted life looks like when lived foolishly. So, in the world of human relationships of love, friendship, business partnership, neighbourly co-operation, the Sages gives the kind of advice that should be on the back of our business cards, on our screen savers, or a post-it on the fridge and certainly at the edge of your keyboard:
"Let your loyalty and good faith never fail; bind them around your neck, inscribe them on the tablet of your memory. So you will win favour and a good name in the sight of God and everyone else." (3.3-4, REB)
Chapters 1-9 of Proverbs makes the case for wisdom as the building blocks of a good life. Chapters 10-31 are crammed with one liners. Like this one:
"The righteous suit words to the occasion; the wicked know only subversive talk." (10.32)
Let that sink in. The righteous person wants to speak and act justly and constructively; the wicked bends words and to use an ugly word, weaponises words! Think of our own Parliament, and then read this:
"By the blessing of the upright a city is raised to greatness, but the words of the wicked tear it down." (11.11)
To raise, or tear down. Our words, attitudes, values and actions have outcomes. They raise or tear down. That's as true in Parliament as in our family life, in the shops as where we work, the office or the church. See what I mean? These one liners from Proverbs judge our habits of thought, our manipulative ways of speaking, the rush to criticise, to look for the worst, to opt for the convenient lie, to make me, I, my and mine the keywords in our ways of being.
Hence the advice near the beginning of the book, which reads as the learning outcome God sets for this course we are taking called "Living the Good Life" :
"Let your loyalty and good faith never fail; bind them around your neck, inscribe them on the tablet of your memory. So you will win favour and a good name in the sight of God and everyone else. Incline your confidence towards the Lord with your entire mind, and do not habitually depend on your own insight: in all your ways know him and he personally will straighten your paths." (3.3-6)
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