Proverbs

Tyndale Old Testament Commentary #17

by Derek Kidner

Proverbs - a book full of wisdom, and yet a book demanding all one's wisdom to understand. Derek Kidner has not only provided a running commentary on the whole of Proverbs, but has also included two helpful study aids: a set of subject guides that bring together teaching scattered throughout the book, and a short concordance that helps locate lost sayings (in territory notoriously hard to search) and encourages further subject studies. In short, this volume is a wise person's guide to wisdom.

Genres: Reference, Christian, Theology, Biblical Studies, Religion, Old Testament, Nonfiction

192 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Frank Derek Kidner (1913-2008) was a British Old Testament scholar, best known for writing commentaries.

Reviews

[Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a highly condensed commentary -- hardly more than you might find in a study bible's notes. Yet Kidner, in his typical way, packs a lot of punch into a few words. Rarely did he neglect to address a question I had about anything in chapters 10-30 -- even if his comments were occasionally little more than a not toward a larger answer.

The greatest strengths of the book are Kidner's vivid restatements of proverbs in his own words, and his cross-references to other portions of Scripture that illustrate the principles found in particular verses. Both those features make this a particularly useful commentary for preaching (as well as for private study). His linguistic notes, though sparse, are usually also helpful.

The greatest weaknesses of the commentary are its brevity and its date. The terseness that works well enough for the collections of sayings making up the bulk of the book doesn't serve as well for the long-form poems of 1-9 or 31. In fact, I found Kidner almost entirely useless on 31:10-30 -- his page-and-a-half of commentary was so scanty he might as well have not written anything.

The date of the commentary is a weakness because he does spend a lot of ink comparing the translations most laypeople would have been using in 1964: the King James, the Revised Version (which I believe is the Anglo counterpart to the American Standard Version), and the Revised Standard Version. Of these three, only the first enjoys any wide recognition today. Reading along with the ESV meant I sometimes had to pull up Logos and do some quick comparisons to figure out what he meant by some specific comment.

Despite these drawbacks, this commentary is well worth reference -- though deeper study would certainly require supplementing with another one.

[Philip Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible commentary! I would place this in the “essential “ category.

[aiyana ! · Rating 5 out of 5]

a few things happened when i read this:

1. it caused me to stop and really think about what i was reading
2. it helped me understand the major themes of the book
3. it taught various interpretations that aren’t necessarily intuitive
4. it helped me take note of repeated ideas and patterns, and note the contrasts or nuances between them
5. it imparted wisdom, not just as a “self help” strategy, but “godliness in working clothes”, teaching me to view the rules of the world as God’s rules

basically it was great

[Ben Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kidner is one of my favorite commentators. This book is phenomenal, most notably Proverbs 1-9. Plenty of “one liners” in this. I want to read Waltke’s works on the Proverbs but for a short commentary, this couldn’t be better.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

It ought to come as no surprise that I am a fan of the book of Proverbs and the wisdom approach of the ancient Hebrews in general [1].  This book is, even now, a worthwhile book for those who want to understand the book of Proverbs better.  Although it is a pretty old book, by the standards of biblical commentaries at least, having been published in 1964, it is still worthwhile from a textual perspective despite not having the most recent translations included among it.  Indeed, its worth as a translation makes it quite a worthwhile and entertaining read.  What separates this slim (slightly less than 200 page) volume from the competition is that this book actually expects that its readers will care about the insights that can be gained from Proverbs from reading about, to give an example not at random, the wisdom of the wife of Nabal in 1 Samuel 25 as well as the worth of viewing cognates to the Hebrew in other Semitic languages like Ugaritic and Akkadian.  Of course, few people might be really interested in these matters, but for those who are, this book makes for a very worthwhile and scholarly read.

The contents of this book are divided into three very unequal parts.  The first part of the book, which takes up a bit more than 50 pages, consists of an introduction to wisdom in Israel and the ancient world and the structure, authorship, date of the book of Proverbs and then subject studies into such issues as the relationship between God and man, the biblical view of wisdom, the fool, the sluggard, the friend, words, the family, and life and death as they appear in the book of Proverbs.  The author mixes word studies with comparative language studies in related languages and also shows a sound understanding of the biblical context.  The second and largest section of the book consists of a short analysis that divides the book into sections and a longer commentary that runs for almost 130 pages, giving clever and sometimes humorous and thoughtful discussions of verses and passages, words and phrases, with the author choosing between the AV/KJV, RV, and RSV in an eclectic fashion, and also consulting ancient sources like the related wisdom literature of the ancient Near East and the LXX as well, which has a slightly different organization than the version we get from the Masoretic text.  The book then closes with a brief concordance that provides references to some of the more notable Proverbs that one might want to look up.  The result is a text that is short and informative and clearly oriented at an audience that has a high degree of regard for both intellectual knowledge about the Bible and for the high moral tone of Proverbs as scripture worthy of reflecting on and applying in one's life.

For those readers who appreciate a combination of intellectual study and practical application, this book offers a short but powerful commentary on one of the most notable books of the Bible for practical wisdom.  For this reader at least, the book hits the high notes of defending the Bible against those who would view the wisdom of Proverbs as disconnected or merely cynical and worldly wise, and demonstrates as well a subtle grasp of the semantic domains of the characteristic language of Proverbs, and contrasts the Bible's approach to wisdom with the wisdom literature of surrounding nations in a way that demonstrates the Bible's respect for the wisdom of neighbors but also the moral improvement found in Israel as a result of the blessings of divine revelation.  A reader of this book, if they are prepared to translate some of the language into more familiar terms (the book's references to Accadian, for example, would be better understood among contemporary scholars of Semitic languages as Akkadian, to give but one example, albeit a common one), but although this book demands a fair amount of prior knowledge to make it fully comprehensible, it rewards those who seek it out.  It would be ungenerous to ask anything more of a book than to reward those who seek to understand its contents.

[1] See, for example:

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[Nathaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I sat down one day with this book to find some information for a paper I was working on. I found myself riveted by the content and writing and ended up reading the entire commentary in one sitting (which says a lot given my attention span).

[SK · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Every word of God proves true;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him" (Proverbs 30:5).

I love the Proverbs. They are so timeless. Put all together, they convict and console one's soul, making godly wisdom highly desirable to the reader.

And Derek Kidner—what a winsome, faithful, and helpful guide! There is an elegance, creativity, and freshness to his writing. I can see why Tim Keller loved and relied on him so much. I look forward to reading his commentary on Ecclesiastes next.

Here's a representative sample of his writing. This is in response to Proverbs 12:30: "Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but those who plan peace have joy."

"Joy is an unexpected alternative to deceit; the two halves of the proverb make the point that what we pursue for others, and the way we pursue it, leaves its mark on our cast of mind. Peace includes the idea of general welfare—and to be planning this for other people is to enjoy its by-products ourselves" (95). How true that is!

And I will definitely hold on to Kidner's breakdown of the marks of wise words, distilled from the Proverbs. "Words at their best" will be honest, few, calm, and apt. (44-45). Not always easy to put into practice, but words to live by! I've committed those four adjectives to memory.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kidner is a master of brevity. His commentaries are suggestive rather than exhaustive, insightful, and he never wastes your time. As Spurgeon might say, he is "full of pith." As a general rule, he should always be consulted if he wrote a commentary on the book.

Proverbs, however, demands more than the constraints the Tyndale series will allow. After a helpful introduction and especially after chapter 9, Kidner's comments are reduced to little more than an occasional clarification of translation, a helpful cross reference, or a brief sentence (fragment) or two. But the proverbs themselves, being so compact and full of meaning, require unpacking, reflection, and application. I really can't see anyone writing a much better commentary in so short a space, but nevertheless such extreme brevity greatly diminishes the usefulness of this commentary. The seeker of wisdom would be better served by prayerfully and slowly working through Charles Bridges' work on Proverbs, and the preacher would find Bridges and Waltke far more useful.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good (short) commentary on Proverbs by Derek Kinder in the Tyndale Commentary series. The best part is the introduction where Kidner does a deeper dive into the various people we meet in Proverbs—the fool, the simple, the wicked, etc. He also goes more deeply into important topics in the book: life, the family, words, etc. If you don't read the introduction, you probably won't "get" the book.

[Tiffany Bowers · Rating 4 out of 5]

The introduction and the subject studies at the beginning are excellent and worth 5 stars. Anyone studying Proverbs would benefit from them. The commentary of individual chapters and verses is lackluster for the most part, and often just redirects the reader back to the subject studies.

[Jeff Parrish · Rating 3 out of 5]

a little dry, good word study, but did not unpack as much as I had hoped.

[Kingsley Layton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Derek Kidner is an absolute master in the areas he chooses to illuminate for us.

Thoroughly recommend.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the breakdown of the Hebrew language Kidner brings to Proverbs. While I felt the flow was clunky at times, the overall book is a great tool for reflecting on the words of the wise.

[R. West · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciated this commentary as a succinct and useful tool in my read through Proverbs.

[Jonathan Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the Tyndall series, and Kidner. But this was a bit dry and short. Felt deflated.

[Nathan Ezzell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Best, for me, to be used as a reference book. Good, thought provoking commentary on Proverbs.
[2 Stars = Good]

[ODAY · Rating 1 out of 5]

أفضل كتاب

[Zablon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Main takeaway- "Superficial habits of talk react on the mind; so that, e.g., cynical chatter, fashionable grumbles, flippancy, half-truths, barely meant in the first place, harden into well established habits of thought."

[Joe Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suspect that writing a commentary on wisdom literature is tough, if in a sense commentary on Psalms is like writing hymn stories, then Proverbs can be like a commentary on Poor Richard's Almanac if Solomon and friends had written it with Divine Inspiration. Derek Kidner is innovative in his approach as a very good section of the book collects thoughts about various types such as the sluggard, the fool and such and brings them to life in a way the more fragmented proverbs after chapter 10 sometimes do not. He also has a helpful mini-index of topics.
The commentary on the first nine chapters and the last two are quite good, but bogs down a bit in the lengthy one verse proverbs of Solomon. This might be an indictment of me and not Solomon, but I did struggle as a single guy with no family or farm to make use of many of these sayings.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tyndale Old Testament commentaries are some of the greatest introductory commentaries on the Old Testament, first began in the 1960’s,  there have been several revisions and replacements for older volumes in the series, many of these replacements have been commentaries from the late noted scholar Derek Kidner, who wrote a plethora of commentaries for this phenomenal  series.  Yet despite constant replacements being  added the current publisher of this series, IVP, has decided to take all of Kidner’s commentaries which have been replaced and revived them in a new series called Kidner Classic Commentaries.  Each of these works is the commentary formerly found in the Tyndale Old Testament series but revived so that they might not go out of print, which would be a shame for each and every one of his commentaries are worth owning.

In Kidner’s second volume of his commentary on the book of Proverbs, begins with a short introductory section,  which while short is extremely helpful, with Kidners typical insightfulness. In reference to the commentary on the text of this book of wisdom, Kidner takes great care in carefully exegeting the passage while giving great practical application to the reader throughout the textual commentary.  A pastor will find Kidner’s practical insights extremely helpful in giving application from the text to his congregants, while the laymen will find this commentaries easy to use formant and the non-technical format an easy read.

With regard of recommending, Proverbs , to others I would whole heartily recommend this commentary to students of scripture, Pastors, Bible Teachers, Sunday school teachers, with is enough depth to this text to understand a particularly issue in the text while giving aid to pastors in preaching the text.

This book was provided to me free of charge from IVP Publishing in exchange for an unbiased, honest review.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the classic commentary on Proverbs. The book is divided into two parts. The first part is a topical study where Kidner groups the relevant Proverbs passages into topics such as words, family, the sluggard, etc. He doesn't just list the verses, but he puts them into a subgroup under the main subject.

The second part is verse commentary. The commentary is brief but very helpful. Proverbs can be challenging to study because it isn't like most books that have one main theme and everything is building or connected to it.

This is the one book to have on Proverbs, if you only have one. The whole book is small compared to the subject matter. It could be used in a devotional manner to much profit. I highly recommend this little volume.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this commentary on a recommendation from C.J. Mahaney video I watched on line. What makes the book worth the money is the introduction. The introduction exposed me to categories and descriptions of these categories that made the book hugely edifying. It's very short, as I believe most commentaries in this series are. You won't get a huge exposition of every word or syntactical expression, rather you'll get the thrust of a passage or section of passages. If you're a laymen (like me) and not a pastor, I would whole-heartedly say start here.

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty much a straight commentary. However, most of what is commented on is corrections made in translation--that many modern translations address.

This is a good book for quick-reference. His outline is probably the best I've seen.

[Mike Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pithy, wise and scholarly...a very helpful commentary on the Old Testament book of Proverbs

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good, concise, orthodox, accessible

[Eric Lazarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have the old IVP version, and it was on the recommended commentary list for Proverbs at CTS. Very handy and useful, but a little short on many verses.

[Joel Rockey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid commentary on Proverbs. The first section was the most helpful.