Week 22 Proverbs
A couple of days ago I was reading the introduction to Proverbs and I wanted to get clarification on the word discipline so I looked at another version of the bible.
One version used the word discipline and the other said instruction. A third version also said discipline (so I wondered if I could use a Majority-Rules rule to break the tie).
I also saw that one version said equity but the other two said fair.
One said clever. The others prudence.
One said purpose. Two: discretion.
But then I saw that all three agreed that: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
None of them thought up an alternate word for fear. I looked up fear in an old paperback thesaurus and saw things like bad-feeling fright danger anxiety apprehension dread panic. Like that. None of which sound so great.
I’m concerned about fear and I’ve noticed that sometimes my bible has a marginal substitute: revere. Revere adds something to fear. Which is good because I figure there’s something different about fearing the Lord than, say, being terrified by a zombie.
I checked a word book. Fear was used at least 400 times in the OT. More than a hundred of those were about fearing the Lord.
I need to think more about fear. Solomon says that fearing the Lord is a prerequisite to knowledge. Mandatory Step One.
Start with fear…then move on from there.
Note: quote from Proverbs 1:7 (NLT NIV & NASB)