Proverbs 1:28 - Exposition

The phase which the address now enters upon continues to the thirty-first verse. The change in this verse from the second to the third person is striking. It implies that Wisdom thinks fools no longer worthy of being addressed personally—" Quasi stultos indignos censunt ulteriori alloquio " (Gejerus and Michaelis). The declaration is the embodiment of the laughter and scorn of Proverbs 1:26 . The three verbs, "they shall call," "they shall seek," "they shall find," occur in uncommon and emphatic forms in the original. They are some out of the few instances where the future terminations are inserted fully before the pronominal suffix. I will not answer . The distress and anguish consequent upon their calamity and fear lead them to pray, but there will be no answer nor heed given to their cry. They are not heard, because they do not cry rightly nor in the time of grace (Lapide). See the striking parallel to the tenor of this passage in Luke 13:24-28 . They shall seek me early; i.e. diligently. The verb שָׁחַר ( shakhar ) is the denominative from the substantive שַׁחַר ( shakar ) , "the dawn, morning," and signifies to go out and seek something in the obscurity of the morning twilight (Delitzsch, Zockler), and hence indicates diligence and earnestness in the search. Gesenius gives the same derivation, but connects it with the dawn in the sense of the light breaking forth, and thus, as it were, seeking (see also Proverbs 2:1-22 :27; Proverbs 7:15 ; Proverbs 8:17 ; Hosea 5:15 ).