Waltke, Bruce K. and Ivan D. V. De Silva. Proverbs: A Shorter Commentary.

Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Eerdmans, 2021. 472 pp. Pb; $38.00. Link to Eerdmans

When Eerdmans published Bruce Waltke’s two-volume NICOT Proverbs commentary in 2004,
reviewers immediately recognized it as one of the most comprehensive and insightful
commentaries on Proverbs written in the twentieth century. It was one of those books reviewers
call “magisterial.” Now fifteen years later, Waltke and his
student Ivan De Silva have simplified the technical aspects of
the earlier commentary and brought it up to date.

The authors are clear; they did not simply condense the earlier
commentary. There is considerable revision, primarily in the
recent literature now cited in the footnotes. Most influential is
Michael Fox’s two-volume Proverbs commentary in the Yale
Anchor Bible (2008, 2009). The only new research in the
commentary is on the “foreign woman,” the Sitz im Leben for
the dissemination of Proverbs in ancient Israel, the existence of
doublets, and a few exegetical comments in the body of the
commentary.

There are several differences from the original commentary.

First, the book now conforms to the Chicago Manual of Style
and Hebrew translations are more gender neutral, although in
sections addressed to a son the masculine pronoun is retained. Second, Waltke translates the
divine name as I AM. Readers familiar with Waltke’s An Old Testament Theology (Zondervan,
2007) will be familiar with this practice. Third, unlike the original commentary, the shorter
commentary does not arrange proverbs into larger meaningful clusters. Since the shorter
commentary does not engage in a detailed exegesis of the Hebrew text, the clusters are less
evident. Fourth, the shorter commentary includes a subject index so teachers and pastors can
quickly find proverbs on a subject (pages 442-55).

The sixty-two-page introduction discusses the various collections within Proverbs, suggesting
“Solomon’s fingerprint can be found in all but the last two collections” (p. 6). After a very brief
notice of Ancient Near Eastern parallels, Waltke introduces readers to the features of Hebrew
poetry and the wisdom genre. Two-thirds of the introduction is a theology of the book of
Proverbs, including expected topics like God, Revelation and anthropology. Proverbs
commentaries normally include a section defining the wise and the fools. The wise are the
righteous, the ones who are upright and blameless. The wise fear the Lord and will receive their
reward, including wealth and life. In contrast, the fool is unrighteous, senseless and sluggardly.
They too will receive their own reward, the grave. Because experience demonstrates many wise
people suffer and fools prosper, Waltke asks, “does Proverbs promise too much?” After looking
briefly at three common suggestions for solving the problem, Waltke suggests the promises
found in Proverbs are “mostly validated by experience” (p. 43). Proverbs tell the truth, but not
the whole truth (there are exceptions). The book is a “primer on morality for the young” (p. 44)
and does require trust in I AM.

Since this is a Christian commentary, it is not surprising to see a section on Christology. Since
the original commentary, Waltke contributed two books on reading Psalms as Christian scripture,
The Psalms as Christian Worship (Eerdmans 2010), The Psalms as Christian Lament (Eerdmans
2014, reviewed here) and The Psalms as Christian Praise (Eerdmans, 2019). Like the Psalms,
Waltke argues the Proverbs are directly relevant to the Christian, although the book is surpassed
by the teachings of Jesus (p. 57). He also includes several pages surveying and evaluating the
“Wisdom Woman as a type of Christ” (p. 59-61). Although commonly found in early church
discussions of Christ, the apostles themselves ever use Proverbs for their Christology. He does
offer a short list of “striking similarities” between the personification of wisdom and John’s
representation of Jesus (p. 61).

The body of the commentary works through the book verse-by-verse, usually devoting a brief
paragraph to each saying. All Hebrew appears in transliteration and the editors removed most
technical details of Hebrew syntax present in the original commentary. Most readers will have no
trouble following the commentary.

Conclusion. In the introduction to the volume, the authors state the commentary is “intended for
the Bible lover” (xvi). This shorter commentary is exactly what most teachers and pastors need
for understanding the book of Proverbs. Eerdmans is to be applauded for publishing this
affordable major commentary and making Waltke’s work available to a wider audience.

NB: Thanks to Eerdmans for kindly providing me with a review copy of this book. This did not
influence my thoughts regarding the work.

Published on May 19, 2021 on Reading Acts.