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Proverbs 22 · a question people ask

Who is the I of 22:17-21, and what are the "thirty excellent things"?

In the text

The chapter doesn't name him. The heading is inside his first words: "Turn your ear, and listen to the words of the wise. Apply your heart to my teaching" (22:17). The words are of the wise, and the teaching is my teaching. He speaks as I: "I teach you today, even you, so that your trust may be in the LORD" (22:19). Then he asks, "Haven’t I written to you thirty excellent things of counsel and knowledge" (22:20). The verse doesn't list the thirty things or say where they begin and end, and these notes don't count them. It does say what they are for: "To teach you truth, reliable words, to give sound answers to the ones who sent you?" (22:21). The book says nothing more of who "the wise" were, here or in its next heading, "These also are sayings of the wise" (Proverbs 24:23), and these notes add nothing.

The verses

“Turn your ear, and listen to the words of the wise. Apply your heart to my teaching. For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips. I teach you today, even you, so that your trust may be in the LORD. Haven’t I written to you thirty excellent things of counsel and knowledge, To teach you truth, reliable words, to give sound answers to the ones who sent you?”
Proverbs 22:17-21 · World English Bible
“These also are sayings of the wise: To show partiality in judgment is not good.”
Proverbs 24:23 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Proverbs 22

Proverbs 22: Train up a child

The new part at 22:17 opens with "the words of the wise", the very Hebrew words the book named at its start (1:6), and its teaching is for one thing: "so that your trust may be in the LORD" (22:19). And the rich and the poor share one Maker (22:2), who will "plead their case" (22:23).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions