Psalms 111:10

111:10 To obey the Lord is the fundamental principle for wise living; ¹ 

all who carry out his precepts acquire good moral insight. ² 

He will receive praise forever. ³ 

Job 28:28

28:28 And he said to mankind,

‘The fear of the Lord ⁴  – that is wisdom,

and to turn away from evil is understanding.’” ⁵ 

Jeremiah 8:8-9

8:8 How can you say, “We are wise!

We have the law of the Lord”?

The truth is, ⁶  those who teach it ⁷  have used their writings

to make it say what it does not really mean. ⁸ 

8:9 Your wise men will be put to shame.

They will be dumbfounded and be brought to judgment. ⁹ 

Since they have rejected the word of the Lord,

what wisdom do they really have?

Matthew 7:24

Hearing and Doing

7:24 “Everyone ¹⁰  who hears these words of mine and does them is like ¹¹  a wise man ¹²  who built his house on rock.

James 3:13

True Wisdom

3:13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct he should show his works done in the gentleness that wisdom brings. ¹³ 

¹ tn Heb “the beginning of wisdom [is] the fear of the Lord.”

² tn Heb “good sense [is] to all who do them.” The third masculine plural pronominal suffix must refer back to the “precepts” mentioned in v. 7. In the translation the referent has been specified for clarity. The phrase שֵׂכֶל טוֹב (shekhel tov) also occurs in Prov 3:4; 13:15 and 2 Chr 30:22.

³ tn Heb “his praise stands forever.”

⁴ tc A number of medieval Hebrew manuscripts have YHWH (“Lord”); BHS has אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Lord”). As J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 383) points out, this is the only occurrence of אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Lord”) in the book of Job, creating doubt for retaining it. Normally, YHWH is avoided in the book. “Fear of” (יִרְאַת, yir’at) is followed by שַׁדַּי (shadday, “Almighty”) in 6:14 – the only other occurrence of this term for “fear” in construct with a divine title.

⁵ tc Many commentators delete this verse because (1) many read the divine name Yahweh (translated “Lord”) here, and (2) it is not consistent with the argument that precedes it. But as H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 185) points out, there is inconsistency in this reasoning, for many of the critics have already said that this chapter is an interpolation. Following that line of thought, then, one would not expect it to conform to the rest of the book in this matter of the divine name. And concerning the second difficulty, the point of this chapter is that wisdom is beyond human comprehension and control. It belongs to God alone. So the conclusion that the fear of the Lord is wisdom is the necessary conclusion. Rowley concludes: “It is a pity to rob the poem of its climax and turn it into the expression of unrelieved agnosticism.”

⁶ tn Heb “Surely, behold!”

⁷ tn Heb “the scribes.”

⁸ tn Heb “The lying pen of the scribes have made [it] into a lie.” The translation is an attempt to make the most common interpretation of this passage understandable for the average reader. This is, however, a difficult passage whose interpretation is greatly debated and whose syntax is capable of other interpretations. The interpretation of the NJPS, “Assuredly, for naught has the pen labored, for naught the scribes,” surely deserves consideration within the context; i.e. it hasn’t done any good for the scribes to produce a reliable copy of the law, which the people have refused to follow. That interpretation has the advantage of explaining the absence of an object for the verb “make” or “labored” but creates a very unbalanced poetic couplet.

⁹ tn Heb “be trapped.” However, the word “trapped” generally carries with it the connotation of divine judgment. See BDB 540 s.v. לָכַד Niph.2, and compare usage in Jer 6:11 for support. The verbs in the first two lines are again the form of the Hebrew verb that emphasizes that the action is as good as done (Hebrew prophetic perfects).

¹⁰ tn Grk “Therefore everyone.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.

¹¹ tn Grk “will be like.” The same phrase occurs in v. 26.

¹² tn Here and in v. 26 the Greek text reads ἀνήρ (anhr), while the parallel account in Luke 6:47-49 uses ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") in vv. 48 and 49.

¹³ tn Grk “works in the gentleness of wisdom.”