Israel

Proverbs

Mishlei

Anonymous / tradition (attributed in part to Solomon; multiple collections by different hands) · sayings collected from as early as the 9th century BC, with final editorial shaping in the Persian period, c. 5th-3rd century BC · Jerusalem (Israel) · poetry

Practical wisdom for ordinary life is itself a form of piety, because "fear of the Lord" and shrewd, observant living are treated as the same discipline rather than as rival goods.

fear of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom
composite collection spanning centuries
documented borrowing from Egyptian instruction literature
Wisdom personified as a figure alongside God

A composite anthology of short, memorable sayings and longer instructional poems on right conduct, family, work, speech, and the fear of the Lord as the starting point of wisdom. Its own headings mark it as a compilation from several collections attributed to Solomon, to unnamed sages, and to non-Israelite figures (Agur, Lemuel), spanning centuries of Israelite wisdom teaching alongside a wider ancient Near Eastern instruction-literature tradition. One extended passage (22:17-24:22) closely parallels the Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope, among the best-documented cases of direct literary borrowing in the Hebrew Bible. Its final section personifies Wisdom as God's first creation and companion, a figure later Jewish and Christian writers would develop at length.

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Sefaria - Proverbs

Descends from

Instruction of Amenemope · c. 1200-1000 BC

Fed into

Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) · Hebrew original composed c. 180s BC in Jerusalem; translated into Greek by the author's grandson c. 132 BC in Egypt
Wisdom of Solomon · c. 100-30 BC, possibly as late as the early 1st century AD

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