Proverbs 8:4 - Exposition

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 ( Isaiah 53:3 ; Psalms 141:4 ). 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.).