Proverbs 8:1
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Does not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?
American King James Version (AKJV)
Does not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?
American Standard Version (ASV)
Doth not wisdom cry, And understanding put forth her voice?
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Is not wisdom crying out, and the voice of knowledge sounding?
Webster's Revision
Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?
World English Bible
Doesn't wisdom cry out? Doesn't understanding raise her voice?
English Revised Version (ERV)
Doth not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth her voice?
Definitions for Proverbs 8:1
Clarke's Proverbs 8:1 Bible Commentary
Doth not wisdom cry? - Here wisdom is again personified; but the prosopopoeia is carried on to a greater length than before, and with much more variety. It is represented in this chapter in a twofold point of view:
1. Wisdom, the power of judging rightly, implying the knowledge of Divine and human things.
2. As an attribute of God, particularly displayed in the various and astonishing works of creation.
Nor has it any other meaning in this whole chapter, whatever some of the fathers may have dreamed, who find allegorical meanings every where. The wise man seems as if suddenly awakened from the distressful contemplation which he had before him, - of the ruin of young persons in both worlds by means of debauchery, - by the voice of wisdom, who has lifted up her voice in the most public places, where was the greatest concourse of the people, to warn the yet unsnared, that they might avoid the way of seduction and sin; and cause those who love her to inherit substance, and to have their treasuries filled with durable riches.
Barnes's Proverbs 8:1 Bible Commentary
A companion picture to that in Proverbs 7, and serving in some measure to generalize and idealize it. Wisdom also calls Proverbs 8:5 to the "simple" and the "fools," and they have to choose between her voice and that of the temptress.
Wesley's Proverbs 8:1 Bible Commentary
8:1 Wisdom - It is a great question what this wisdom is. Some understand it of the Divine wisdom; others of the second person in the Godhead: and it cannot be denied that some passages best agree to the former, and others to the latter opinion. Possibly both may be joined together, and the chapter may be understood of Christ considered partly in his personal capacity, and partly in regard of his office, which was to impart the mind and will of God to mankind.