Bible Commentary

Proverbs 8:4

The Pulpit Commentary on Proverbs 8:4

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Unto you, O men, I call. "Men," ishim ( אִישִׁים); equivalent to ἄνδρες, viri, men in the highest sense, who have some wisdom and experience, but need further enlightenment (; ).

The sons of man; בְּנֵי אָדָם, "children of Adam;" equivalent to ἄνθρωποι, homines, the general kind of men, who are taken up with material interests. St. Gregory notes ('Moral,' 27.6) that persons (heroines) of perfect life are in Scripture sometimes called "men" (viri).

And again, "Scripture is wont to call those persons 'men' who follow the ways of the Lord with firm and steady steps. Whence Wisdom says in the Proverbs, 'Unto you, O men, I call.' As if she were saying openly, 'I do not speak to women, but to men; because they who are of an unstable mind cannot at all understand my words'" ('Moral.

,' 28.12, Oxford transl.).

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