Proverbs 16:16 - Exposition

To get wisdom than gold (comp, Proverbs 3:14 ; Proverbs 8:10 , Proverbs 8:11 , Proverbs 8:19 ); and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver; Revised Version better, yea, to get understanding is rather to be chosen than [to get] silver. If the clauses are not simply parallel, and the comparative value of silver and gold is So be considered, we may, with Wordsworth, see here an intimation of the superiority of wisdom ( chochmah ) over intelligence ( binah ) , the former being the guide of life and including the practice of religion, the latter denoting discernment, the faculty of distinguishing between one thing and another (see note on Proverbs 28:4 , and the quotation from 'Pirke Aboth' on Proverbs 15:33 ). The LXX ; for kenoh reading kinnot, have given a version of which the Fathers have largely availed themselves: "The nests of wisdom are preferable to gold, and the nests of knowledge are preferable above silver." Some of the old commentators take these "nests" to be the problems and apothegms which enshrine wisdom; others consider them to mean the children or scholars who are taught by the wise man.