Chapter 1
Verse 1 starts like this:  "The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:..."

2023 - Then the purpose of the book is given:  To impart wisdom and instruction to those who "need" it.  If young, these proverbs are a head start.  If old, these are to add to existing wisdom.  In either case, the idea is to raise the "wisdom quotient" of all who read these words.  That seems an appropriate ambition for the wisest man who ever lived.

First Lesson:  First there is an appeal for the listener to pay attention. This verse:
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. [Pro 1:7 ESV]  In the previous verses, Solomon has told us how important it is to obtain wisdom, to spend time gaining instruction.  This verse gives us the first square, the starting place for learning wisdom.  Fear of this type - reverential deference and complete humility is the foundation stone upon which wisdom is built.  Those who do not fear God - or don't believe in Him at all - can be smart, but they cannot be wise.  Calculus is not wisdom.  Geophysics and astronomy are not about wisdom.  These are about knowledge, about describing what we can see and observe and extrapolating backwards to understand how these things got here, and forward to understand where things will be next year.  Knowledge is about rocks and stars and calculations.  Wisdom deals with things like righteousness, justice, and equity - things which cannot be weighed or measured. There are no equations for "justice".     
 
Note this verse:
10 Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can govern this people of yours, which is so great?" [2Ch 1:10 ESV]
Wisdom and knowledge are different things, but surely they are intimately related.  Knowledge is about "factual" things.  About events, about numbers, about the moon revolving around the earth.  These are knowledge.  Wisdom is how you determine which woman is really the baby's mother.  Proverbs is about wisdom.

The first "wise saying" the very first one, is about the things criminals do.  They lie in wait for people that they have no grudge against.  They steal and they all have one purse.  They urge each other on.
Then we hear a prediction about their fate.  They set an ambush for their own lives.  They are the cause of their own premature deaths.  Don't be like them!

2021- This is about criminal gangs.  Men banded together to overwhelm and rob travelers, neighbors, whomever they can overwhelm.  What they all have in common is greed for unjust gain.  This thread of injustice is always there with these people, through vs. 19.  The indictment is against people who's greed leads them to justify their own injustice as means to an end.  They are outside convention, outside orthodoxy, outside the law, and it the attraction of profiting by injustice action that seems to them a shortcut.  These are people who are bad because they are thrilled with doing things wrong.  These are not thieves of convenience of need or starvation, these are "professional" thieves who have chosen this as a way of life because they LIKE being thieves.  These people exist.  They have always existed.  And they incorporate violence into their injustice.  "Wait for blood", "ambush the innocent", "swallow them alive".  All these indicate violence toward law-abiding people.  No regard for their victims at all.

Second Lesson:  Wisdom speaks, from various public forums, she speaks, and urges all to listen to her, to gain wisdom and knowledge, to stop being scoffers and fools that ignore wisdom. This verse:
22 "How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? [Pro 1:22 ESV]
It is easier to ignore wisdom and embrace simplicity, scoffing, and foolishness.  It is hard to be a wise person.  In aggregate, men take the easy way.  Wisdom will require effort.

Calamity comes to those who refuse wisdom.  And when they finally cry out, wisdom will ignore them.  It will be too late.  This is saying that once your foolishness has gotten you into dire straits, it will be too late to learn.  These verses to end chapter 1:
32 For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; 33 but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster." [Pro 1:32-33 ESV]
Ignorance gets you killed, makes you worry, robs you of peace.  Wisdom brings ease, and peace of mind.

2021 - I always thought this was God talking, saying that if you turned from Him, bad things would happen, and because you'd not listened to Him, He wouldn't listen to you.  That's not who's talking.  Wisdom personified is talking.  The point is that we need to seek wisdom and knowledge.  We don't need to just go skip skip skipping through life and not worry about the bigger picture, the deeper things, the insights.  If we do seek these things, life will be better.  But if we decide we don't have time for study, for serious observation, for comparing and contrasting behaviors - we are just complacent - then things will happen TO us, rather than our living in security, and being able to weather the storms that come.

2022 - I see a good comparison between these verses in Proverbs 1 and Romans 1.  At some point, when you've disdained right thinking for too long, when you have abandoned seeking true wisdom and begun making up your own - and calling yourself wise for doing so, you get this:  28 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. [Pro 1:28 ESV].  No recovery possible.  Very similar to these verses:  24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. [Rom 1:24-25 ESV].  Both say that things can only go so far, God's outstretched hand and offer of wisdom can only be shunned for so long, and then he will turn his back and leave us to the ends to which reliance on human intelligence alone have lead to all through history.  Babylon, Rome, Greece...Germany, perhaps even England.  And now, isn't the US standing at this crossroad, between human intelligence and God's word?  Reliance on human wisdom, insight, and intelligence has historically failed every time.  But Israel is still there.
Hmm...that is an interesting idea.  Shapiro's book comes to mind.  The spread of Judeo-Christian values has always led to blessings on nations.  In the OT this was exemplified in the ebbs and revivals of Israel, but we see it also in modern times.  National success is proportional to commitment to God's laws.  That has always been the way.
This would be an involved FB post...but possible.

Chapter 2
2021 - Continues where 1 left off.  This is stressing the need to study and learn wisdom.  It doesn't just happen, and the point here is that the effort will be worth it.  That wisdom is a necessity and a requirement of a good and peaceful life.  Then we turn to the ultimate source of wisdom, God and His word.  See next.

First Lesson:  1-5, Reader (son) is urged to seek out wisdom.  To listen to wise words.  6-8, Wisdom is from the Lord, and is a guard and a shield to the righteous.  This verse:
6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; [Pro 2:6 ESV]

9-15, The result is understanding, perception, anticipation of what is coming and so preparation for it.  It keeps us safe from evil men.  These two introductory verses:
12 delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, [Pro 2:12 ESV] -deliverance from evil men, and then
16 So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, [Pro 2:16 ESV] - deliverance from evil women.

Second lesson:  16-19, Specific deliverance.  First, from the "forbidden woman".  Or "strange" woman.  The "foreign" woman.  Depending on translation, this woman is a flatterer, a seductress, promiscuous, adulterous, wayward.  ESV says it this way:
16 So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, [Pro 2:16 ESV], and the translation footnote on "forbidden" says "strange, and the footnote on "adulteress" says "foreign woman".

This is the first mention of women as a common source of the downfall of men.  Strange would mean unknown.  The gods of heathen nations were described with the same word as having "strange" gods, Israel was captive in a nation with a "strange" language.  Out of experience, unknown in the sense of foreign - part of some other culture with habits and ways outside our experience.  A woman raised under different cultural rules is what this is about.  Women that you don't know through friends or parents or social circles.  Women who's way of thinking, of processing, you don't know anything at all about, other than what they tell you about themselves.  Foreign women likely meant just that in Solomon's time.  Women from other countries come to Jerusalem to strike it rich.  Women with different customs, language, different gods, different views.  Women totally out of our experience.

vs 17 goes on to tell us that these women are divorced from their first husbands, and they they have no loyalty to God.  These women are to be avoided - because avoiding them is WISE!

Third lesson: 20-22, Result:  The righteous will continue in the land.  The wicked will be cut off.  
2023 - Here are the closing verses:
21 For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it, 22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it. [Pro 2:21-22 ESV]
Solomon wrote this as a principle, not as a prophecy, yet it seems to be playing out in our time.  These are good verses to to pray back to God on behalf of Israel.

Chapter 3
First paragraph:  Son, listen well.  Don't forget these things, and you will have a long and peaceful life.  Then some basic keys to this are listed:

First instruction: 3, 4, First, have steadfast love and faithfulness, and so find favor in the sight of God and man.  These should be the character traits that you are known by.  

Second instruction: 5-8, Trust in the Lord completely.  Look always to Him.  Don't depend on yourself at all.  Find your answers in His Word, not in your own intelligence, not from Greek Philosophers.  From God alone.  The result will be a healthy life.

Third instruction:  9, 10, Honor God with your wealth, possessions, and so on.  Tithe.  Be generous in tithing.  Give to God, and He will give back to you.

Fourth instruction: 11, 12, If you are "reproved", accept it as God's way of teaching those He loves.  This is not punishment so much as reproof.  Refining.  Guiding.  Figure out what you are being reproved about, and work on that part of your character.  

Verses : 13-18, On the benefits of searching for wisdom as a way of life.

Vss 19,20,
19 The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; 20 by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew. [Pro 3:19-20 ESV]
Wisdom is the basis of God's created universe.  Order, logic, predictability were all built in from the very beginning.  Sin introduced chance.  Sin produced effects without cause.  Because of randomness, evil profit and righteous suffer sometimes.  Disease attacks both the evil and the good.  Since wisdom was fundamental in creation, it needs to be foundational in our thinking.  

Vss 21-27, Hang on to wisdom and discretion, and so have peace when others fear.  You won't have to be afraid because your confidence is in God, and you can be generous, rather than worrying about keeping everything close, just in case.  Seems like this should only go through 26, and that 27 belongs with the next section...but maybe not.

Vss  28-35, We seem to shift (at 27 really) into more practical day to day statements of advice, each one verse long.  There are five of these.  The first two about neighbors, then about dealing with strangers, and then about evil men.  
God's curse is on the evil.  Results to those who choose evil are that God scorns them.

27 says do good to others when they deserve it, and when it is in your power.
28 says pay your debts as soon as you have the ability to do so.  Keep current accounts.
29 says get along with your neighbor!
30 Don't start trouble for no good reason.  Don't be aggressive for aggression's sake.  
31 Don't wish you had what the violent have.  Don't covet this way of living.  

32-35 are about results.  The effects that go with the cause.  They are about how God sees these things, and about how God works.  God curses the wicked, blesses the righteous.  A straight up east to comprehend contrast.  Here again, as in the FB post from Psalms, God gives us back what we dish out.  He scorns the scorners.  He honors the humble - as they do not honor themselves.  

2021 - Vs. 34:
34 Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor. [Pro 3:34 ESV].  Looked up scornful because it is not that common a word for us today.  It is an interesting word.  It means what it says, certainly.  It is from a Hebrew word pronounced "loots".  In its most literal sense, it means "to make mouths".  In that regard it is associated with interpreting a foreign language.  Try reading Spanish or French, and see if you don't twist your  mouth and tongue into some pretty awkward and unusual positions.  It also means to scorn, to talk arrogantly.  What bothered me about this is it said that God is scornful in this situation.  So I don't think we should use arrogant.  God can't be arrogant.  Here is what Merriam-Webster says about "scorn"
             1    : open dislike and disrespect or mockery often mixed with indignation                                                               
             2    : an expression of contempt or derision                                                               
             3    : an object of extreme disdain, contempt, or derision : something contemptible                           
I think the verse could as easily, and more understandably to me, say "Toward the contemptuous he is contemptuous".   Or something like that...But it would be bad translation.  Looking at Merriam-Webster again, it creates a problem in that contemptuous is an adjective, and "loots" is a verb.  Can't really do that.  I think the bottom line, after all that, is that you don't want God scorning you.                         

Chapter 4
Section 1, 1-10:  First, the reader is urged to hear.  Many of the Proverbs start this way.  Then the writer relates that his own father urged him to get wisdom, to grow in wisdom, because it will make your life better, more peaceful, more successful.  "...The beginning of wisdom is this:  Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight."  vs. 7
The word translated "insight" in vss 1 and 5 seem to be translated as "understanding" pretty much every where else in the Bible that they occur.  Interlinear shows "understanding" even in these ESV verses that read as insight.  NLT translates it good judgement.  Perhaps what is in view is more than understanding - a deeper comprehension - than just glossing right over it as understanding.  NET calls it discernment.  This verse:
9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?" [1Ki 3:9 ESV]
When God asked Solomon what he wanted, Solomon asked for wisdom, right?  Actually no.  He asked for an understanding mind, the word for understanding being this word "insight" or "understanding".  Well...not quite.  There is also this:
29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, 30 so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. [1Ki 4:29-30 ESV]
He asked for understanding, and God gave him both wisdom and understanding.  They are very different words, but I don't know the shades of meaning.  Maybe, like yesterday, understanding is about the numbers - about how things work, while wisdom is un-quantifiable.  
Just to top it all off, there is this verse:
7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. [Pro 4:7 ESV]
Interesting isn't it.  I read Proverbs to gain wisdom, and I don't even know the difference between wisdom and understanding.  And now I also read that this verse is omitted from the Septuagint entirely!
2023 - All these chapters so far have encouraged the seeking of, and the remembering of, wisdom.  Implication is that it CAN be learned and that we ought to learn it.  And it seems the way to learn it is to listen to those who already have it.  It is like wisdom must be passed on, not invented.  Like the multiplication tables.  The better you learn the basics the further you can go.

Section 2:  10-13, I have taught you wisdom, hold onto it, and have a better life.  Then the lesson, 13-17 - Do not choose the evil way.  They can't sleep  unless they've done evil, they live with violence.  The alternative to that is vvs 18, 19.  where life gets brighter and brighter for the righteous, while the evil stumble in the dark, and don't know what tripped them up.  This verse:
18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. [Pro 4:18 ESV]  We should be getting wiser as we go older, if we are seeking what is right.  But the violent lose even what they have.  They stumble through life in darkness, as in the next verse:
19 The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble. [Pro 4:19 ESV]

Section 3:  20-23, another urging for the reader to listen to these wise words.  Then, watch what you say, look straight ahead when you walk, and make sure of each step.  Go straight ahead.  That's the right way.

2021 - There are three sections to this Proverb, each beginning with a call for the hearer/reader to pay attention to what is about to be said.  There is an urging to listen to the advice about to be offered, and details of the results of heading that advice, then there is the advice itself, and that is followed by the consequences of ignoring the advice.  It is like the writer has distilled the learning of his whole life into three crucially important axioms which, if followed, lead to the best life we can have.  This verse contains the first axiom:  5 Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. [Pro 4:5 ESV]
The first, best advice is to seek out real wisdom, real truth.  We are to spend our time on what is true, worthy, and timeless.  We should look for wisdom in the words of those already wise.  We should search for wisdom, buy it if it costs money, and never let it go.  There is also another idea that is implicit here.  Wisdom is "old".  Wisdom is never the newest fad, the untried truth, the "discovery" of the current generation.  For something to be "wisdom", it must have stood the test of time.  If it is wisdom, your parents knew about it, the previous generation knew, and most probably many generations before that knew it, understood it and had done their part in testing it to make sure it held up.  Consider this fundamental characteristic of wisdom in light of the things going on today.  So many of the ideas that are being put forward today and disturbing the peace and tranquility of our lives are brand new to us.  They were unknown as recently as the previous generation.  They are in fact little more than postulated but as yet untested theories.  These ideas do not stand up to the test for true wisdom.  Therefore we should not embrace them but hold fast to what we were taught.  If these new ideas are sound, they will stand the test of time.  The first axiom then, is that wisdom comes from the past, not from the present.  It comes from history, not from science.
Wow!  What a great 1 of 3 Facebook post!

The second axiom in this Proverb is found here: 14 Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. [Pro 4:14 ESV].  Here is personal responsibility.  We all make choices.  The writer of this Proverb now focuses on which choice is best.  Note that he doesn't present this as a continuum, where you can choose to operate half a standard deviation below the mean (half good and half bad) so a little bit worse than most people but still better than a lot of other people.  Neither can we choose to be a bit better than average and just be content right there.  We can't decide to just work hard enough for a D, nor to be content with a B.  We can't, because the choices keep coming - every day, week and year.  We are urged here to avoid the low roads every single time our journey takes us past one.  These choices in life start early and never stop.  When we're children, we might have to decide whether to admit we took an unauthorized cookie from the jar.  Later, we might have to decide whether to disclose the rampant termite damage in the house we're trying to sell.  For some, who've already gotten well down one of those evil paths, the choice might be whether or not to kill someone after robbing them.  Make no mistake, though.  Wherever we are in life right now, we still have to choose, every day, where to go from here.  The advice in this verse is to always take the high road.
Possible FB post 2 of 3.

The third axiom in Proverbs 4 is here in this verse:  23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. [Pro 4:23 ESV]
There is an old adage that says "Character is what you do when no one else is around."  I think that's what this is about because the next few verses are warnings against half truths, hidden objectives, and flirtation with evil.  We can behave any way we want, and we can fool almost everyone if we practice.  We can make Christians believe we are saints, we can make fellow prisoners fear us as pure evil.  But we cannot fool ourselves about who we are, and we cannot fool God about who we are.  This Proverb urges us to keep duplicity far from us and to ensure that what we seem to be is what we really are.  Pilgrims on the path to being what God wants for us should be who we really are.
Possible FB post 3 of 3.  What a chapter.  As many times as I've read this Proverb, I never saw these before.

Chapter 5
Lesson 1, Reader, listen well.  Then avoid the lips of a forbidden (strange) woman.  They lead to destruction and death.  Then a second admonition to listen, followed by the results of consorting with strange women.  It leads to dissipation, failure, mental and physical ruin, and an old age filled with regret.

Lesson 2, Admonition to "drink from your own cistern" and be satisfied with the wife of your youth.  Doing so leads to a good life.  We should live this kind of life because God sees our choices, sees the paths we take.  The wicked die for lack of discipline.

(10/5/19 - Advice for young men.  First, evaluate a woman you are attracted to by the criteria in vss 1-14.  Do the characteristics of the forbidden woman sound like this woman you are interested in?  Test her, ask questions, listen to her answers, and find out if she "ponders the path of life" or instead is just bouncing along on the current.  Reacting, not acting.  Then in vss 15-23, learn how to live with the wife you are with.  Stay faithful is the first thing, only to her.  This is fundamental.  Don't look around, don't "dream of what might have been", or of "what might be".  This is your wife, she is all you will ever need if you focus and make it so.
Shouldn't churches teach this?  To young men starting at about age 15, and on through about age 35???)

(1/5/21 - These warnings against foreign/strange women appear over and over in Proverbs.  Perhaps these warnings are about the injunction in Mosaic Law to NOT intermarry with the women of other nations!  These are about keeping the nation of Israel pure - marrying only wiht other Jews - and  not about prostitutes and loose women at all.  I will read these many proverbs this way from now on and see if they make better sense in context than they have up to now.  Just off the top of my head they sure seem to.  As in vs 10 here:  10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner, [Pro 5:10 ESV]  Surely this really means "foreign", as contrasted with Israel.  The inheritance you leave, in such a case, might be to a Moabite or Edomite.  There would certainly be a foreign claim on Isreali land in such a case.  I bet this is what this has meant all along!)

2021 - I read this today through the lens of the three FB posts I found in the last chapter.  The pattern here in 5 is much like chapter 4, except there is only one lesson.  There is an injunction to listen to the advice about to be offered, there is the advice, in vss. 3, 4; 3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, 4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. [Pro 5:3-4 ESV].  Then the characteristics of this woman are listed - and they have nothing to do with her being foreign, so I think that possible meaning is just interpretation rather than translation, same as the "or brothers and sisters" after so many verses.   This is about a deceitful, willing adulteress.  Her characteristics are given, and the results of "jumping into bed with her" for a lifetime are given.  Then, if we still aren't sure whether this is a foreign woman or an adulteress, we get the contrasted look at what a good woman is like, what a proper wife is like, and why a relationship with this second kind of woman is far better.  I have so very often wondered if foreign or adulteress was the right translation, and today I think it is very obvious.  It almost makes me angry that the distracting footnote is even here.  It is not about all foreigners!  What about Ruth???  What about Hagar???
This might be a FB post, but I think is more likely a bit longer lesson for young men.

Chapter 6
2021 -This chapter also starts with "My son...", again offering advice to a young man on how best to live a life.  In 4 we saw the three foundational axioms.  In 5 we see the contrast between a good woman, the wife of our youth, that we should honor and love and the adulteress, the skanky woman that will be a temptation to us.  And now we get to 6, and see what kind of advice will be there.  Also, I note for the record that Chapters 1-3 also started with "my son".  (In 1 it comes after the general introduction.  I really should go back and pick up the advice in those three to establish the continuity that I'm sure is embedded.

1-5, Never put up security for your neighbor.  It is always a bad idea.  If you do it, then work day and night to get out of it.  It is not specific as to how.  Seems you are on the hook until your neighbor discharges the debt that you secured.  Urge your neighbor to pay off the debt early, so you can be released.  Maybe wart him until he pays as much to get rid of your nagging as to discharge the debt.
2021-This advice takes a different form that what was in 4 and 5.  There is no urgent plea for the son to listen.  No list of the benefits of taking the advice.  Instead, it starts right off in vs 1 with a two verse if, followed by a long 1 verse then, and then two verses of hurry up and do it now.  This is about dealing with neighbors.  Not sure how broad that category might be.  I think it is saying never to enter into a business partnership with your neighbor, especially do not fund the neighbor's venture.  MSB note says the idea is more like "Don't co-sign for your neighbors loans".  It is better to give to the poor, or if you really want to help your neighbor, then YOU loan him the money at 0 interest.  This is the better way.  If you can afford to lend the money yourself, and do so, and the neighbor defaults, you lost your money.  But if you co-sign and he defaults, the creditor might take all your assets to repay the loan, especially if the neighbor has lost all that he had and there is nothing left there to use for repayment.  This makes better sense.  
So the three fundamentals, how to choose a wife and stay loyal to her, and now how to conduct business affairs.

2025 - In vs 3, the NASB95 CSV and KJV say "humble yourself", the ESV says "plead urgently", NLT says "swallow your pride" when you go to your neighbor to try and extricate yourself from this mess.  I think the idea is that your neighbor came to you as the one who had money, as someone further up the food chain, and possibly the pride of this is what got you into trouble in the first place.  Now it has turned out that your pride has you in a very vulnerable spot with the bank on the loan for which you co-signed.  So eschew that pride, and go beg your neighbor to take your name off the loan, even to the point of loaning him your own money.  This is a serious situation.  Look at the way "escape" from this loan is couched...like a gazelle delivered from the hunter...

6-15, Don't be lazy.  Don't spend your time sleeping, laying on your bed.  If you do, poverty is the result.
2021 - I can now see this as continued advice about commerce, about running your business affairs.  You can't be lazy.  You need to keep your head in the game.  

12-15, Characteristics of wicked men detailed.  Also the prediction that their end will suddenly overtake them, and they won't be able to recover.
2021 - Some insight into recognizing those you want to avoid in business?

16-19, Seven things abominable to God:
    haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, hurrying to evil, a false witness, stirring up trouble among brothers.
2021 - Add'l business advice, but I would think this is also about choosing our friends.  If God hates them, they are poor prospects for us to love.  They will not make great friends.  These should be avoided in both business and personal life.

20-23, Urges the reader to listen.  A lesson is coming up.  The lesson is to avoid "the evil woman", from the "adulteress".  Some notes in TCR say the first is the wife of a neighbor, and the second is a foreign woman.  Maybe foreign women tended to be prostitutes?  Or had different standards of purity?  vs 26 seems to say that prostitutes are bad enough, and leave you with almost nothing, but another man's wife can cost you your whole life.  I think that's what it's saying.  This is because that woman's husband will never forgive, never stop, never think justice is done and you can be left alone.  Your reputation will mean nothing to that man.  
2021 - Admonishment to listen to the wisdom of our parents.  It doesn't say to listen to college professors, politicians, or business men.  It says listen to parents.  That is interesting.  Perhaps because our parents know us best, understand our weaknesses best, and since they know where we come from, they  know how to direct us forward.
2022 - There is a MSB footnote to vs 24 that "re-vocalizes" it to say "from the wife of a neighbor".  Then this is corroborated in vs 26, showing us that this little passage is not really about prostitutes so much as about adulterous women - women who do this for fun, for adventure, out of boredom, out of anger at their own husbands.  Prostitutes are bad, we see that in vs 26, but these verses are contrasting prostitutes with married but adulterous women...and the married women are far worse to mess with than the prostitutes...despite what we saw about prostitutes already in chapter 5!
2023 - Got hung up here again on the "revocalization" of the phrase in vs 24.  The word is "issa", pronounced "ish-shaw".  It has a multitude of possible meanings, all around it being the feminine of words that mean man, mankind, male animals....this is opposite of that.  I went and looked up a number of the places where the word is translated.  There are 780 of them.  In the early part of Genesis, they almost always are about Eve - and up through Noah's wife - the word is always translated either wife, or in Eve's case, "the woman".  I am not going to look up all 780 of the places it is used.  I will say that based on the uses I did check on, the usage here is probably not "female stranger".  I believe it implies a close, perhaps even a loved woman.  Wife is probably best - an evil wife being what is in view - but it could be an evil girlfriend, a fiance'....someone to whom you are emotionally attached.  Vs 26 seems to corroborate this translation, but ONLY because it is the same word.  ESV is consistent about translating it the same way in both 24 and 26.  The words for adulteress and prostitute in these two verses are different from issa, and different from each other.  So...three kinds of women.  Two invariably of low morals, but the one that is the real subject here is of a kind with them, though not in their profession.  Wow.  That sort of makes it even worse for the "wife" that is in view here.  Kingly advice to the princes that will be pursued by ambitious women...makes very good sense in that context.  

So chapter 4 is about staying far from the wicked, who practice violence, and crave disorder.
Chapter 5 is about avoiding "strange" women, who disperse your energy, your focus, your direction, your accomplishment.
Chapter 6 is about dealing with everyday life through vs 19.  The rest of the chapter is about staying away from other men's wives.  Seems to be different than Chapter 5, which was about foreigners.  This is about neighbors.
2021 - Vss 20-35 follow the pattern of chapter four.  There is the long plea that the hearer will heed this advice.  The results of heeding the advice are discussed, especially vs 24.  Then beginning in 25, we get the advice, and the consequences of not heeding the advice are listed.  In vs 26, I think the writer lets us know that we are no longer talking about the woman in Chapter 5.  This woman is not one that we are considering for marriage.  This one is later in life, after marriage.  This is about women who move in our circle, but who have perhaps the disposition of a prostitute, though they are married.  These are women who, because of their  circumstances, lead us to presume they have integrity.  In fact they do not.  The contrast in vs 26 between a prostitute and this kind of woman says the married one is far more likely to cause us harm. 

Chapter 7
2021 - Again we start with "My son..."  Reasons for heeding the coming advice are given.  The advice is in 4, and the consequence in 5.  It seems that here in 7, the advice of the previous three chapters, each of which was a standalone lesson, is now tied together into one connecting principle.

Introduction.  The reader, "my son", is urged to listen to the teaching, to the wisdom of the writer, and keep it close and follow it always.  Then the last verse introduces the subject of the lesson:  Keep away from strange women, from foreign women.  This verse:
4 Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," and call insight your intimate friend, [Pro 7:4 ESV]
Once again, the word translated insight is elsewhere translated understanding.  Maybe we are to understand that both wisdom (intangible) and understanding (based on learning and knowledge and facts) are necessary to accrue the benefits described in proverbs.  Maybe wisdom is not possible without understanding.  Maybe it is part of the foundation that wisdom is built on.

2023 - In verse 5 we find that word "issa" yet again.  This time it is not translated wife but "strange woman".  This seems to be to be entirely inconsistent with what we saw in the last chapter in vss 24-26.  Why is it about a stranger here?  Here is the verse, so we can consider how it might have been translated more consistently:
5 to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words. [Pro 7:5 ESV].  Seems to me that "evil woman", as in 6:24, would make the same sense here, and again identify that the aims of both women to whom we are emotionally attached and  prostitutes - strangers - is the same.  Yeah...ESV needs to be at least consistent with "issa", unless there is context to change the translation.  Hmm....and vss 6-9 may very well give us the context of the kind of woman we're talking about, and at the same time show us just how variable the translations of issa can be.  Hebrew makes Greek seem easy to learn!  ...And yet another twist!  The "wife" in the contextual story claims to be married, she just goes out and prostitutes herself when her husband is gone.  For the money or the thrill we do not know.  But this would make the context of "issa" in vs 5 indicative of an unfaithful, perverse, evil wife that ought not be trusted by her own husband.  So I am back to "evil woman" instead of forbidden woman.

Lesson:  The next three sections tell a story illustrating the dangers of the women in the introduction.  The writer tells a story from personal experience.  The first character is a young man lacking sense, who wanders thoughtlessly through the streets, and unintentionally ends up near "her" corner.  The second character is dressed as a prostitute.  Interesting that it doesn't label her a prostitute.  Her character and manner are described.  Loud and wayward.  Moving always moving here and there.  She meets the first character and tempts him with sex, and says she came to meet him specifically and share her bed with him.  She is a wife, because she tells him her husband is not at home.  (12/7/19.  No, I had this wrong.  She tells him she is married so he won't know she is a prostitute.  She tells him her "husband" has money, so he won't think she's going to charge him for her time.  She is deceiving him on many levels in order to corrupt him.  Sleeping with a married women is pretty bad, but at least both are motivated to keep it secret, so their reputations can remain intact and appearances be kept up.  So a man might be more tempted by a "wife" than by a prostitute who has no care for her reputation or that of her clients.  Much easier to say no to a prostitute than to a married woman who can't stay away from you. This is what "I Honestly Love You" is really about.)  Maybe true, maybe part of the act - so he won't be put off by a prostitute so much as have an affair with another man's wife.  Seems less sinful somehow, though we've already seen that the opposite is the case.  Then the result.  She persuades him.  Suddenly he makes up his mind to go with her, not knowing that he will ultimately pay with his life for this.  
2021 - Following the combined advice, the consequences of not heeding the advice are illustrated with a story about what happened to one young man.  We seem to be talking about a prostitute, but she never asks for money.  She claims to have a husband who is not home.  So the second kind of woman.  More dangerous than a prostitute.  More deadly than a prostitute.  While co-signing for your neighbor can get you into trouble, far more time is spent on warnings against the wrong women, and this closing verse of Chapter 7 tells why:
27 Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death. [Pro 7:27 ESV].  Stay away from married, but adulterous, women.

Final paragraph:  Sons, listen to me, and stay away from women like this.  She has destroyed many a man already, and her house is the way to hell.

11/7/21 - Two thing as I read this today:  In vss 19, 20, this woman claims to be married.  She is not at all faithful if she is married.  Does this refer us back to the woman in 6:25 to the end of the chapter?  Not a mere prostitute, which would be bad enough, but a married woman behaving like a prostitute, the most dangerous of all?
And also there is vs 26:  26 for many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng. [Pro 7:26 ESV].  This is a woman serially unfaithful, if married, or serially promiscuous if unmarried.  In either case, this father is letting his sons know that they can judge these women by their reputations.  This is not like deciding whether to have sex before marriage when you're both virgins.  This is about knowing what you are dealing with when a different kind of woman comes into your life - either a prostitute or a married woman.  Vs 6:26 seems to say that prostitutes should be fairly easy to deal with, and while they are to be avoided they perhaps don't ruin your life.  But a married woman, as described here in 7?  You better look out, and you better not believe you can change her and settle her down, and you better not be so naive as to think this is her first time being unfaithful.  You will be wrong on all counts.

2023 - Is it ironic that Solomon is writing these words?  Is this before or after he had 300 wives and 500 concubines?  Before he was seduced into building altars and temples for his wives so they could worship false gods right there in his capitol city?  Did Solomon write this before all that, or is he warning his sons not to  make the same mistakes he did?  I think it was written before, and he failed to take his own advice.  He lost his resolve as he got older.  Another very big problem for men.

Chapter 8
2021 - This chapter does not start with "My son...".  This chapter is very different from what has come before.  It is interesting here that wisdom is personified in this chapter, and speaks for herself, advertises, announces herself.  Also interesting is that wisdom is personified as female.

This chapter is about wisdom itself.  There are four divisions to it in my Bible (TCR).

2024 - Oh my, look at this verse:
2 On the heights beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; [Pro 8:2 ESV], or the NASB95:
2 On top of the heights beside the way, Where the paths meet, she takes her stand; [Pro 8:2 NASB95].
This whole chapter is about wisdom, and worth a quick reading.  This verse tells us where to look for wisdom.  At the top of the highest hill.  At the point of decision.  Wisdom doesn't fall in our laps.  Wisdom requires effort, and even at the top of the climb we still have to decide which path is best.  And when we decide, right or wrong, we come out wiser on the other side.  If all our decisions are easy and obvious...we are still in the valley.  Time to change course and look for the high road.
FB'd this one on 11/4/24.

The first section:  Wisdom is speaking, and urges all to hear her, to understand, because what she offers is only truth.  No deceit, no lies.  Especially the simple and the fools should listen.  Wisdom is better than silver, gold, or jewels.  Pursue wisdom.
2021 - Wisdom does not hide from us.  Wisdom is right out in the open, sitting at the city gate, and calling out, offering to inform and enrich all who seek her.  
Perhaps there are some more "tests" for what is wisdom here also:  
Vs 6, wisdom is noble and right.
Vs 7, true, not wicked
Vs 8, righteous, not devious or crooked.
Vs 9, Wisdom is straight.  Here and in 8, the point it that wisdom does not come in convoluted riddles from which it must be teased out.  Wisdom says exactly what it means.

Second section:  Wisdom hates evil, pride, arrogance, and perverted speech.  Those in power who have wisdom govern justly.  Wisdom is not any kind of secret knowledge.  It can be found if it is sought.  Wisdom brings with it riches and honor.  This verse:
14 I have counsel and sound wisdom; I have insight; I have strength. [Pro 8:14 ESV]  Interlinear says insight is again "understanding".  However, KJV, NKJV, and Septuagint, plus others translate this phrase "I am understanding" instead of I have insight.  

Third section:  One of my favorites.  The section on which the whole explanation of the fallen world we live in derives.  Here, to me, is the explanation for why bad things happen to good people, and good things to bad.  Here is the explanation for accidents, premature death in all it forms, diseases, suffering, pain, and death.  All that is in this section.  The key verse:
22 "The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. [Pro 8:22 ESV]
TCR notes say possessed could be translated fathered, or created.  Wisdom came first.  God decided to make an ordered, logical, predictable world.  This decision came first, before any creative act.  Wisdom was there before the beginning.  Wisdom demands cause and effect, traceable, understandable, rational.  But sin broke that connection.

Fourth section:
Wisdom speaks, urging hearers to pay attention.  These verses conclude the chapter:
35 For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, 36 but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death." [Pro 8:35-36 ESV]

2025 - 23 Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. [Pro 8:23 ESV].  NASB95 is even better:
23 "From everlasting I was established, From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth. [Pro 8:23 NASB95].
I am struck once again with this idea, this concept, that wisdom predates creation.  We are all aware of cause and effect, of a right way and wrong way to do just about everything.  These are built in.  The universe has infallible rules.  Rules that we can count on, so we can predict results, consequences, outcomes.  The universe is entirely predictable, and the history of man is one of uncovering the rules.  Man didn't make the rules, and we cannot decide what the rules will be.  We can only discover what is already there.  It is this way because wisdom came first.  It could have been all magic and spells and random chance.  Apples could have sometimes fallen up.  Thunder might not have always followed the lightning.  Earth's rotation might have changed direction regularly, or perhaps at least changed velocity, so that no two days could be counted on to have the same length.  How can we explain the source of these rules that most of us don't even know, yet they determine everything that happens.
Except God.  God is outside these rules because he invented the rules.  God can do miracles, God can cause outcomes that don't follow the rules.  That is where God lives - outside the standard rules.  I am glad God chose to be a just God, a merciful God, and gracious God.  Because if not bound by the rules, imagine what He could do otherwise?

Chapter 9
More about wisdom.  Three sections.
First section:  Wisdom invites the simple to figuratively come to the feast she has prepared to nourish them.  She offers a bounty to any who will come and partake.  She offers this without cost or obligation.

Second section:  This section offers some wise "principles".  Some insight into dealing with certain kinds of people.  A little about scoffers, a little about the wise.
2021, 5/9 - 7 He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked [man getteth] himself a blot. 8 Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. [Pro 9:7-8 KJV].  It occurred to me this morning that the point of this is that we should recognize scorners and wicked men, and not waste our time trying to talk them into doing the right thing.  Doing so brings only more problems with them where none existed before.  Leave them alone, don't confront, don't correct, don't reason with people like this.  Save your time and your breath and leave them to God's correction.  Just not worth your time to "fix them".  But you have to know one when you see one.  Correcting one who has just made a mistake is a good thing, but you have to know his underlying character before you decide whether to reprove or not.
2021 - 11/9/21:  I think these verses are making the point that we are much better off - if we have wisdom to impart, and not all of us really do - mentoring the wise, the seekers, the learners, than we can ever be trying to re-direct the arrogant scoffers.  Scoffers offer no positive return, and in fact may lead to personal hurt and injury.  I'd say it is almost guaranteed.  Teach the seekers, don't correct the closed.

Third section:  The woman "Folly" described.  Again, this is about prostitutes, and the dangers of consorting with them.  They lead to death.  

A really good study, in Proverbs especially, would be the phrase "the fear of the Lord".  This is used several times, and each time gives us information as to just what exactly this "fear" looks like.  Here is an example:
13 The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. [Pro 8:13 ESV], and there are also verses where it is phrased like this:
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. [Pro 9:10 ESV]

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2022 - Here are all the occurrences of "fear of the Lord" in Proverbs.  There are a lot more than I expected to find:
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. ... 29 Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, [Pro 1:7, 29 ESV]
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. [Pro 2:5 ESV]
13 The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. [Pro 8:13 ESV]
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. [Pro 9:10 ESV]
27 The fear of the LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short. [Pro 10:27 ESV]
26 In the fear of the LORD one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge. 27 The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death. [Pro 14:26-27 ESV]
16 Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble with it. ... 33 The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor. [Pro 15:16, 33 ESV]
6 By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil. [Pro 16:6 ESV]
23 The fear of the LORD leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm. [Pro 19:23 ESV]
4 The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is riches and honor and life. [Pro 22:4 ESV]
17 Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day. [Pro 23:17 ESV]
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2021 - I recall doing a FB post on this chapter, contrasting the invitation of Wisdom to come and dine, to leave your simple ways, to walk in the way of insight, with the invitation of Folly, where "Stolen water is sweet, and secret bread is pleasant".  We can spend our lives striving for understanding, going straight ahead, turning neither right nor left, or we can hide all that we do, focus on devious, indirect methods of gain.  We can live a truthful life or a deceitful one.  This is a crucial choice, each and every time it occurs.

8/1/20:  Read the MSB intro to chapter 10 today.  It says that 10:1-22:16 are collected proverbs of Solomon.  There are 375 of them.  They are in no particular order, and only occasionally grouped by subject.  It says they are often without a context to qualify their application.  They are based on Solomon's inspired knowledge of the Law and the Prophets.  "The parallel two-line proverbs of chaps 10-15 are mostly contrasts or opposites (antithetical), while those of chaps. 16-22 are mostly similarities or comparisons (synthetical)."  Cool that there are names for what I had previously noticed.  

Chapter 10
2021 - As I read back through my notes before starting today's reading, it occurred to me to check and see if the "connectors", and and but, actually appear in the Hebrew.  Not knowing the first thing about Hebrew kind of handicaps me in this, but the interlinear in the Blue Letter Bible app gives me some clues.  In the translation of vs 1, for example, the connector "but" is included with the translation of the word kes-eel'.  If you look at the definition of that word, it means fool as you would expect, but there is not "but".  UNLESS, it is part of the jots and tittles.  I have always believed those marks are about pronunciation of the word only, basically supplying the correct vowels so that there is no ambiguity.  I wish I knew whether they can also supply the connecting word.  Just looking at the other occurrences of the word in the OT, I see and used some, but used some, and many times, no connector at all.  Let me compare here:

כְּסִיל 
This is what the inflected Hebrew looks like in 10:1, translated "but a foolish".  The inflected in this case is exactly the same as the root.  Here is 10:1:
1 The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother. [Pro 10:1 ESV]

וּכְסִילִים
This is the Hebrew in the verse below, translated "and fools".
22 "How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? [Pro 1:22 ESV]
This doesn't appear to be the same kind of usage as 10:1.  I would expect these to look different.

Here is one more:
וּכְסִיל
6 The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this: [Psa 92:6 ESV]
In each of these three cases the inflected form is different, and there are three different translations.  I would say, just looking at them, that I don't know enough about Hebrew to have an opinion on these translation and their accuracy.  Perhaps the "ands" and the "buts" are precisely known by the differences in the words.  That's what it looks like.  As you look at these three, remember that Hebrew is written and read back from right to left.  
This has been a nice little exercise to remind me how much I don't know.  It also convinces me yet a gain that we need to always be careful with our translations, and before we "fall on our sword" over what we think a verse means - especially if we are departing from how the verse is usually explained, or if we are depending on the verse as primary support for a position, we really need to dig deep, look at several translations, and avoid interpretive Bibles like NIV and others that don't just bring the Hebrew across as nearly word for word as possible, but try to translate the thought - not the letter - of what is written.  We need to be so very careful about this.  Now.  Moving on!

Just before this chapter starts in my TCR, there is the notation "Proverbs of Solomon".  This was perhaps a collection found all together, or identified in some way as originating with Solomon himself.  Wonder where the first 9 originated?  None of them really identifies Solomon.  (Wrong again.  Proverbs 1:1, the first sentence, says "The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, King of Israel".  Amazing the things I can miss...)
The next several chapters, including the three for today, have no divisions in them.  They are just Proverbs, one or two verses of wisdom as a thought, and then the next.  
Every verse in this chapter is a sort of "couplet".  Each is a saying, a nugget of wisdom.  Each is a contrast of the wise way and the unwise, of the good and the bad, and so on.  Following are a few examples:
10 Whoever winks the eye causes trouble, and a babbling fool will come to ruin. ...
15 A rich man's wealth is his strong city; the poverty of the poor is their ruin. ...
2021 - 9/10, I think the point of this verse is that both the rich and the poor are mistaken.  Wealth is not a strong city.  We see elsewhere that wealth is fickle and fleeting, and to place such confidence in it is a mistake.  On the other hand, being poor is not ruinous either.  Lack of money doesn't make you a failure and shouldn't make you hopeless.  It is surely a more difficult existence, but joy is still possible.  Both rich and poor are crediting or blaming the things of this world for their state.  But this is the wrong standard by which to judge, yet both rich and poor apply it.  That is what this verse is about.

2021 - 5/10, 16 The labour of the righteous [tendeth] to life: the fruit of the wicked to sin. [Pro 10:16 KJV].  What the righteous do day to day tends to life, but the harvest of the wicked is sin.  This calls up to me that a lot of work goes into a crop, and that tends to make the crop better, more productive, and so on.  So a good harvest is the result of righteous labor.  But the harvest of the wicked, the result of all their work, will still be sin.  

2021 - 5/10, 18 He that hideth hatred [with] lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, [is] a fool. [Pro 10:18 KJV]
Whether you keep your hatred to your self, or say it right out loud, you are a fool.  KJV is awesome here.

19 When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent. [Pro 10:10, 15, 19 ESV]
There are so many patterns in Proverbs that I have missed, even though I've read it through, one chapter a day, for months and months.  Years even.  But I never stopped to see the underlying organization.
This chapter has 32 verses.  Each verse is a compound sentence.  In English, in the ESV, 25 introduce the second sentence with the connector "but", showing a contrast between the first and second sentence.  vs 18 seems to me the first verse where "and" is the connector (2020 Nope.  vs 10 uses "and".  I was thinking that maybe when "and" was used, the contrast was connected...as in the wise man digs a hole and the wicked fall in.  This is just a made up thing to illustrate - 11:8 is a good example of what I mean.  The righteous avoids trouble, but trouble is still there, it just happens to the wicked instead.  The trouble itself was inevitably going to happen to someone.  But the point is that whatever action is in the first half, it leads to a result in the second half.  So that is an "and" connector.  The ones that use "but" are just differences in the results of contrasting behaviors.  One does not necessarily lead to the other.  However...this first place where "and" is used doesn't work out that way.  Too bad, because it was a pretty neat theory I think...)  There are two verses before that where "but" is not used, but seems to be implied.  vs 18 needs an "and".  22 is the next where "and" is needed.  26 is not really a compound sentence.  You need both halves for a complete sentence.  This is the only verse in the chapter that is not a compound sentence.

2024 - Vs 19 is a very profound verse:
19 When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, But he who restrains his lips is wise. [Pro 10:19 NASB95].  The more you talk, the more likely you are to offend.  Talk enough, and the likelihood approaches certainty.  I NEED TO SHUT UP!!!

Here is one that I like, in light of current (2020) events:
25 When the tempest passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous is established forever. [Pro 10:25 ESV]

Chapter 11
This chapter is organized like 10.  A few to notice:
2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom. [Pro 11:2 ESV]
The majority of vss 3-11 contrast the righteous and the unrighteous, in behavior, in reputation, in legacy.  These would be a good study.
1-15 are set up so that the undesirable (behavior, action, etc) is stated first, then the desirable, as vs 2 above.

2021 - These verses about personal honesty/integrity/truth:
5 The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight, but the wicked falls by his own wickedness. 
6 The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the treacherous are taken captive by their lust. ... 
8 The righteous is delivered from trouble, and the wicked walks into it instead. [Pro 11:5-6, 8 ESV]
I can't help but read these in light of Jordan Peterson's "rule":  "Always tell the truth, or at least don't lie".  In the first one, blameless surely means no lies were told.  A lie even for a good reason is still a lie, and there would be blame.  Deceit trips up those who depend on it.  In 6, just the fact that one is truthful leads to a better outcome.  Bad people and liars associate with bad people and liars.  It will get you.  In 8, better outcomes are expected and more likely when we are truthful in our dealings.  Peterson seems to think this concept of truth being a better choice than lies somehow evolved as man evolved, and the repeated, empirical evidence of the results of each choice was gradually evaluated and it was found, in all groups, types, cultures and geographies, that truth/righteousness was the high road.  Yet it is only man that reached this conclusion, and even in men, there is still not 100% agreement, as in "Nice guys finish last".  It makes far more sense to me that the "in His image" aspect of our creation included innate recognition of good over bad, right over wrong - and even more fundamentally, we understood which was which!  I can't see that ever ever ever evolving so consistently over so many diverse groups and cultures on the entire planet.  Somewhere, most likely man somewhere, would have decided strong and weak were the primordial concepts and that strength was the ultimate determiner of behavior.  That didn't happen.  (2024 - I can't figure out what this sentence should have said.  I surely don't understand it this way?)
Could be a FB post here, but it will take a lot of time to work out.

2021-11/6, this verse:  12 Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent. [Pro 11:12 ESV]
I think it is interesting that this verse is not about whether the neighbor is a deserving candidate for belittling.  Perhaps he is dumb as a rock, foolish as it gets.  BUT, it is still best for us to remain silent.  Belittling someone is to belittle one of God's creations.  It just isn't a smart thing to do.  

But this changes for verses 16 and 17.  For emphasis?  Or just coincidence?
16 A gracious woman gets honor, and violent men get riches.
17 A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself. [Pro 11:16-17 ESV]
18 is back to the first pattern, 19 is the second, 20 and 21 are the first, 
22 is yet another pattern.  There is no contrast, just a comparison of one thing to another:
22 Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman without discretion. [Pro 11:22 ESV]
Three proverbs with good first, then bad.  23-25.
26 bad good
27 good bad
28 bad good
29 bad bad
30 good good
31 good bad, but really a different kind of proverb.
This cannot be random.  It may well be arranged this way so that reading them is easier.  They don't get boring if the pattern is changing.  It is easier to keep reading, because you have to stop and think about each proverb.  
The first six verses are compound, with "but" to contrast the first with the second.
7 is an "and", and is continuation, not contrast.
8 uses "and", though "but" would work.  It is a contrast.  Vss 9-15 are contrasts, using "but".
16 is divided by gender.  Contrasts good women with violent men.  And.
"but" through 21.
22 is comparison, not contrast.
It continues like this.  I see no end to the "dissection" of these proverbs.  Their structure and organization are as much a study as the wisdom they impart.

Here's one for FB:
25 Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered. [Pro 11:25 ESV]
Feeling isolated and alone?  Feel like you're being taken advantage of by one and all, and that it is high time someone comforted you instead of the other way around?  This little proverb says the cure to the problem is not receiving, but still more giving.  We need to get our minds off ourselves and our "needs", and instead give until it hurts.

2021 - 26 The people curse him who holds back grain, but a blessing is on the head of him who sells it. [Pro 11:26 ESV]
This is about profiteering.  About letting people suffer a lack of basic provision, and selling into high demand for high profit while people are starving.  This is NOT about sharing everything that we wisely provisioned for ourselves and so starving with them.  This is about cruelty in the name of profit.  Prescription drugs come to mind.

These last three verses are all very compelling:
29 Whoever troubles his own household will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart. 30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise. 31 If the righteous is repaid on earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner! [Pro 11:29-31 ESV]

To me, 29 says don't stir up trouble within the walls of your own home.  If you do, what you've built is going to fall apart.  MSB says it is more about managing the economics of your house properly.  If you neglect it, then your house literally gets "blown away, and you end up working for a better manager.  Or...what if Solomon is looking back to "Honor thy father and they mother..." and saying that aggravating your parents can result in a loss of inheritance completely.  No money, no property, just wind?  And if you are such a fool as to lose your inheritance, then for your lifetime, you serve someone wise.
"captures souls" is an interesting phrase.  In MSB's NASB version,it reads "wins souls".  The note there says it literally means "to take lives" in the sense of doing them good or influencing them with wisdom's ways.  It is also used for capturing people for evil purposes.  Several references are given.  

31.  Would be nice (I guess we all think of ourselves as righteous) if this was literally and constantly true.  But it is not.  MSB explains (and I'm paraphrasing that note) it well, saying that ultimately, God's justice - reward to the righteous and punishment to sinners - is meted out AFTER we are dead, and we arrive in either heaven or hell.  What we get here are the foretastes of both, as the righteous experience God's personal care and goodness, and the wicked are void of that experience.  Back to my words...this verse does not in any way promise the downfall of the wicked during his/her life on earth.  It sometimes works that way, but there are many exceptions.

Chapter 12
1 good bad
2 good bad
3 bad good
2021 - 3 No one is established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will never be moved. [Pro 12:3 ESV]
Cheating, lying, deceit, and so on are not good foundations for lasting stability.  They will not elevate one's reputation, they will not serve as a base for expansion.  People who choose to operate this way are only in it for themselves, not for their posterity, and certainly not for the benefit of their fellow man.  These are terrible, selfish, uncaring people.  Vs 7 confirms:  7 The wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous will stand. [Pro 12:7 ESV]

4 good bad
5 good bad
6 bad good
7 bad good
8 good bad
9 good bad
2024 - Reads pretty well in ESV, but not so much in KJV, NASB, and so on.  So here it is in ESV:
9 Better to be lowly and have a servant than to play the great man and lack bread. [Pro 12:9 ESV].  Also good is this one:
9 Better to be an ordinary person with a servant than to be self-important but have no food. [Pro 12:9 NLT]
10 good bad
2024 - About pets maybe.  Certainly about livestock.  You still choose how you treat them, even if you plan to eat them:
10 A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal, But [even] the compassion of the wicked is cruel. [Pro 12:10 NASB95].

11 good bad
12 bad good
13 bad good
14 good good?
15 bad good
16 bad good
16 The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores an insult. [Pro 12:16 ESV]  I am really bugged when so many of these proverbs about fools apply so obviously to me.  I have lived a lot of my life as a fool.  There was always a reason that I didn't get promoted.  Those in authority recognized that I was a fool.  Very good at the nuts and bolts, but a fool as a person.

17 good bad
18 bad good
19 good bad
20 bad good
21 good bad
22 bad good
23 good bad
24 good bad
25 bad good
26 good bad
27 bad good
28 good good
The pattern changes, but I don't see that there is some overall.  It looks like there is variety, to ease the reading and to keep your attention, but no pattern inside pattern.  Unless you have to be Solomon to see it.
A couple I liked:
10 Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel. ...
15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. ...
23 A prudent man conceals knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaims folly. [Pro 12:10, 15, 23 ESV]

Chapter 13
Seems to be a continuation of the section labeled proverbs of Solomon.  Single verse proverbs, contrasting the wise way and the unwise way.
First three are wise/unwise.

2021 - Here is vs 1:
1 A wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. [Pro 13:1 ESV].  I don't think the son in the first part and the scoffer in the second are related.  You could do this without the "but" in between.  It is not needed, and it seems to me that by putting it in there, there is an implication that the opposite of wise son is scoffer, but it isn't, and that instruction and rebuke are synonyms, and they are not.  Why do they put that word in there?   I was hung up on this same thing this morning, but I do not, as yet, have any answers.  I got very excited about cantillation marks, but that kind of fizzled out.
Ahhh, here is something;  in the KJV and NKJV, supplied words are italicized.  This is not the case in the ESV.  So you get this:
1 A wise son [heareth] his father's instruction: but a scorner heareth not rebuke. [Pro 13:1 KJV].  They supplied "hears" in the first to correspond with what is in the second.
1 A wise son [heeds] his father's instruction, But a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. [Pro 13:1 NKJV]  Note further that "but" is not italicized in either one.  So that word must somehow be included in the Hebrew, and I just don't understand how that works.  Makes sense, because every single translation puts that conjunction in there and in the very same place.  
And here in vs 2, they do it the same way.  In this case, "eat good" is actually there in the first half of the proverb, but is supplied in the second part.  
2 A man shall eat good by the fruit of [his] mouth: but the soul of the transgressors [shall eat] violence. [Pro 13:2 KJV].  This is a bit of a difficult verse anyway.  I read many translations and they are all over the place.  Nothing consistent at all.  Eat good by the fruit of his mouth?  What does that mean?  That a well spoken or maybe an honest man will always be at peace with those he deals with, but "bullies", bold talkers, threateners will get a punch in the nose?  Hmm...that might actually be pretty close.  In fact, the next verse, if taken as context for vs 2, seems to bear that out:
3 Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin. [Pro 13:3 ESV]

Fourth is unwise/wise.
Five and six are w/u
Seven is an exception.  Does not really say which way is best.  
Eight is the same.  It tells how things are, but makes no judgement of which is preferred.  Both of these verses concern wealth and poverty.
Nine is w/u.
10 is one of my favorites:  It is u/w.
10 By insolence comes nothing but strife, but with those who take advice is wisdom. [Pro 13:10 ESV]
    KJV says it this way:
    By pride comes nothing but strife, But with the well-advised is wisdom.
I looked up insolence and I looked up pride.  They are not at all the same thing.  Not by definition anyway.  I need to find the original word, and see how it is translated elsewhere in each version.  Until I got this ESV, I always read this as pride.  It seemed to say that any argument, any contention, any interpersonal stress of any kind was because of one's own pride.  Not the other persons, but our own, because we would feel that the other person was thinking they were better than us, more deserving, and believed they had authority over us.  They believed they came first.  But...if that bothers us, it is because that is in fact how we feel about that other person.  Now...insolence?  I don't think I'm insolent.  More study is needed here.
2021 - Here are the definitions of the word per the BLB Interlinear:  pride, insolence, presumptuousness, arrogance.  Really, any one of them is appropriate in the verse, and perhaps that is why Solomon chose it.  He covers a lot of ground with this one little word.  "zaw-done'" is the pronunciation.  If you look at it backwards, and note the the wise take advice, then who is the opposite of "advice takers"?  Advice rejectors.  It seems to me that presumptuousness or arrogance are the appropriate translations.

11 is another contrast, but not necessarily a judgement.  
2021- I might well call this the "Dave Ramsay Verse:
11 Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. [Pro 13:11 ESV]  In some translations, it is Wealth gained by fraud that dwindles.

12 also.  There doesn't seem to be a choice, but there is a contrast.
13 u/w.
14 Still another form.  Wise action is stated, and the result it will bring is stated.
15 w/u
16 w/u
17,18 u/w
19 is unusual.  It states a truth - that desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul.  Then describes how evil people pervert that truth.  Those who are evil desire evil things - they think achieving that desire will be sweet to them.  But in fact turning away from evil desire is the best course, and they consider that turning away to be abomination.
20 is w/u
21 is u/w
22 w/u
23 A statement of how things could be, except for evil.
24 u/w
25 Contrasts the state of wise vs unwise behavior.  The unwise are always in want.  The wise are satisfied with what they have.

Chapter 14
Same form as the previous chapters.  Single verse per proverb, and there are the various forms seen above.  Many simple w/u and u/w, with a few of the others thrown in.
2021 - 2 Whoever walks in uprightness fears the LORD, but he who is devious in his ways despises him. [Pro 14:2 ESV].  Do Proverbs work both ways, that is, are they Boolean in construction.  This construction is along the lines of If A, then B, if NOT A then NOT B.  Sort of.  It is really stronger than that, and the words are not precisely opposite.  The devious might be a subset of the "not righteous", and the despisers a subset of those who do not fear God.  But I don't think it says that all who are unrighteous are devious.  So the next question is, are all who despise him devious?  And again I think not.  You can be devious and not despise God.  

2021 - 5 A faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness breathes out lies. [Pro 14:5 ESV]
This seems pretty redundant at first glance.  But I think that second part means that a false witness tells lies with every breath.  Kinda gives you a different sense when you read it that way.  Ought to make it easy to track down whether they are faithful or false really quickly.  If lying is like breathing, there will be a long trail of lies behind them - to their spouses, their landlords, all their creditors in fact, and most of their "friends".  A good lawyer will dig into the reputation for lying of the other side's witnesses.
Possible FB post.

6 A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain, but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding. [Pro 14:6 ESV].  Is this instruction or commentary only?  Can you change yourself from scoffer to man of understanding?  According to James, in the NT, you can.
Look at these two, separated by a couple of verses, but the same:
10 The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy. ... 13 Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief. [Pro 14:10, 13 ESV]
There's a lot here.

2024 - This verse I really like:
23 In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty. [Pro 14:23 ESV].  Does this "toil" always mean physical labor, or can it mean study - Bible study, Greek, photography, shooting and such, art - painting and such, music - piano, violin and such.  Hmm...here is the definition of Strongs H6089 - "ate'-seb".
1. pain, hurt, toil, sorrow, labour, hardship
    1. pain
    2. hurt, offense
    3. toil, hardship
2. vessel, creation, object
3. (TWOT) idol
Used only 7 times in the KJV.  In three of those it is "sorrow". twice "labor", once "grief".  So not seeing a lot artistic endeavor there, nor even plowing the lower 40 really.  More like dealing with the bad things that will inevitably come our way in life all bring some kind of gain with them.  ESV translates the word "toil" which to me has the connotation of "forced labor", or work in excess of what is reasonable.  The word ought to be associated with adversity, not with chosen self-improvement or advancement.  This word does not imply that the toil itself will lead to physical or material gain.  Seems to be more about learning/maturing from difficult circumstances.  Too bad.  I liked my way of looking at it better...But I'm going with what Solomon meant, not what I want him to mean!

2025 - This verse in NASB95:
30 A tranquil heart is life to the body, But passion is rottenness to the bones.[Pro 14:30 NASB95]
30 A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot. [Pro 14:30 ESV]
I sure hope ESV is the better translation!  Passion is rotten?  Never get excited, never be firm?  
Where other translations deviate, it says envy or jealousy in most cases.  Even NASB20 changes it to jealousy.  

2021 - 33 Wisdom rests in the heart of a man of understanding, but it makes itself known even in the midst of fools. [Pro 14:33 ESV].  Universal conscience.  General revelation.

Chapter 15
2021 - This one:
1 A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. [Pro 15:1 ESV]
An answer is always in response, as to a question.  The implication here is that someone is trying to start trouble, and the way to prevent is not to get defensive, which is what the question is trying to provoke in the first place.  A harsh word is a "word that hurts".  It is something said with the intention of hurting.  It is the kind of statement that should be answered softly.  Never initiate a quarrel by making a harsh statement.  Interesting that the proverb tells us the proper response to a hurtful statement that should never be made in the first place.
Possible FB post?

2021-This verse:
2 The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly. [Pro 15:2 ESV]
I was thinking that wise people make use of knowledge - as in science, learning, study - but the foolish just say whatever seems right to them at the time without any regard for whether they can support their position.  It should be obvious in this day when male and female are only the traditional, patriarchal, oppressive genders, and there are many more.  Wokeness abounds, and none of it is based on science.  If we are wise, we will put our emphasis, and base our understanding, on knowledge, not on folly.
Possible FB post.

11 Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the LORD; how much more the hearts of the children of man! [Pro 15:11 ESV]
No secrets.  None at all.  No such thing as alone time.
Note on these words: Sheol and Abaddon are both used to represent what we generally call hell.  They describe very similar places - if not the same place.  Both places are "bad".  I wonder - though I didn't find anything saying so - if one is the bad place for men and the other is the abyss, or pit, where the fallen angels are confined.  Sheol is associated with the word Hades...and I think Hades is where the sinful dead are, as contrasted with Paradise, where the saved dead were confined before the resurrection.  Sheol is Strong's 7585:  shᵉʼôwl, sheh-ole'; or שְׁאֹל shᵉʼôl; from H7592; hades or the world of the dead (as if a subterranean retreat), including its accessories and inmates:—grave, hell, pit.  Abaddon, used several times also in Job, is Strongs H11:  ʼăbaddôwn, ab-ad-done'; intensive from H6; abstract, a perishing; concrete, Hades:—destruction.  Wilhelm Gesenius, author of the Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon well known in some circles, also includes the word pit as part of the explanation of Abaddon.  Strongs says both words are proper nouns about a location.  A specific place.  The ESV, RSV, and NASB all "transliterate" these two words, capitalized, as Sheol and Abaddon.  But the KJV, NKJV translate them as "Hell and destruction".  Hell is capitalized as the beginning of the sentence in KJV but destruction is not, so I would say KJV did not consider either as a proper noun.  In the NKJV, this is changed to both words capitalized, recognizing them as proper nouns, but keeping the words themselves the same.  The NIV translates them Death and Destruction, both capitalized, but we certainly wouldn't immediately recognize them as place names.  So...after all that, I am off on this side trail because of the reading in 1Peter 3 yesterday about Jesus descending into prison, and what that might mean.  While Proverbs in my Blue Letter Bible seems to indicate that the book is translated from a Hebrew text, 1 Peter was - I think - originally written in formal Greek.  Peter didn't use either Sheol or Abaddon, but the Greek word phylake, which is a feminine noun, not a proper place name.  It is about "a guarded place".  Strongs G5438:  φυλακήphylakḗ, foo-lak-ay'; from G5442; a guarding or (concretely, guard), the act, the person; figuratively, the place, the condition, or (specially), the time (as a division of day or night), literally or figuratively:—cage, hold, (im-)prison(-ment), ward, watch.

22 Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed. [Pro 15:22 ESV]
28 The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things. [Pro 15:28 ESV]
    Never really noticed this one before.  Slow down.  Think first.  No matter how much heat is in the moment.
2021 -  For so many years, if I had an emotional reaction to what someone said, what I really heard was "Remove all filters and engage mouth".  What an emotional reaction should have done was scream "Look out, hit the brakes, there's danger here!"  And I write this sentence as if I'm over this now.  I am not, but I am getting better at using emotion for my benefit instead of letting it push me into trouble!

This chapter is organized as those before, back to the beginning of 10.

Chapter 16
Each of the first seven verses has the word "Lord" in it.  They show man's actions or thoughts, and then what the Lord has to do with them.  As this verse:
2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit. [Pro 16:2 ESV]
Others explain how God works in our lives.  As this verse:
7 When a man's ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. [Pro 16:7 ESV]

(5/16/20, once a month reading)  This verse:
6 By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil. [Pro 16:6 ESV]
Interesting to relate this to the annual Day of Atonement in the OT, and the changed heart of the NT.  Atonement is always there, no matter what covenant.

The next verses are not like what has gone before.  They are not contrasts, or comparisons.  Each verse is a complete thought.  They are more like "and" statements than "or" statements.  For instance:
15 In the light of a king's face there is life, and his favor is like the clouds that bring the spring rain. [Pro 16:15 ESV]
These are different than the proverbs found in 10-15.  But as before, there is an occasional exception to the pattern which breaks things up to keep the readers attention.

Another time:  (Prov. 16:1-4 all go together, contrasting the discernment of man toward himself with God's perfect discernment.  We can be "certain" of ourselves, and still wrong before God.)

The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. [Pro 16:4 ESV]
Now isn't this a comforting FB post!?

2021 - Isn't t his one interesting:
30 Whoever winks his eyes plans dishonest things; he who purses his lips brings evil to pass. [Pro 16:30 ESV]
30 With narrowed eyes, people plot evil; with a smirk, they plan their mischief. [Pro 16:30 NLT]
30 Whoever winks with their eye is plotting perversity; whoever purses their lips is bent on evil. [Pro 16:30 NIV]
30 He shutteth his eyes to devise froward things: moving his lips he bringeth evil to pass. [Pro 16:30 KJV]
Looks like the translators had quite a tough time with this one.  Hard to be sure any of them got it right...What they all have in common is that the look on a man's face can tell you a lot about what's going on in his mind.  There's a lot written about how the FBI - or the police in general - can tell if you're lying.  Perhaps the really good ones can tell if you're up to no good, even if you haven't done it yet.  This verse does seem to lend credibility to that whole line of thinking.

2021 - I checked back, and the previous chapter was full of contrasts, using the conjunctive "but".  This chapter makes far more use of what I would call intensifiers, using the conjunctive "and".  There are some contrasts, but they use "than".

Chapter 17
This chapter is like 16.  Complete thoughts in each verse, with the last of the verse building on the first part or adding a second example, or expanding the principle.  And the occasional "break" thrown in.

2021 - This is a favorite of mine.  Was surprised to see I didn't have it in here:
12 Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly. [Pro 17:12 ESV]
I think about riots.  You don't want to run into rioters.  Reason, logic, mercy, cause and effect - none of these exist when you run into a mob, into a pack of fools doing what they do.  

Chapter 18
More like 16 and 17.  As this first verse in 18:
1 Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment. [Pro 18:1 ESV]
This seemed to me to apply to Mom's decision about Dale.  She went against everyone's advice.
2021 - Compare this to Peterson's arguments in Chapter 1 of "Beyond Order", where he says communication - talking - to other people is one of the ways we stay sane, stay within the norm.  Because others will tell us when we're getting too far out there.  Solomon recognized this a very long time ago.  I don't know if Peterson is a Christian - he is very self-contradictory about it - but I know that he makes a lot of points with which I can put a verse.  
And then look at the next verse:  
2 A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion. [Pro 18:2 ESV]
Get on YouTube and watch people argue their points!  They don't want to understand, to discuss with an eye toward distilling the real truth from the discussion!  They just want to make their point, often loudly and repeatedly, by shouting down the other person.  This is by definition foolish behavior.  People who do this are fools.  So the next time you see a video of someone screaming about their point and actively shutting down the other person, you will know that the shouter is a fool.  If that person is a fool, then the point that person is making is a foolish point.  This would clarify so very many of the foolish ideas that are just rampant these days.
Possibly two FB posts.

Here's one to remember:
A fool's lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating. [Pro 18:6 ESV]

10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe. [Pro 18:10 ESV]
It is not sin, nor is it cowardly, to run away to a safe place.  

More "and" statements.  I never noticed this change in the construction of the proverbs before.

Chapter 19
2021 - I have to be careful about projecting Peterson onto the Bible, rather than the Bible onto Peterson.  But here is a verse where they both seem to be saying the same thing:
1 Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool. [Pro 19:1 ESV]
Is this about speaking up, getting yourself fired for speaking up, and then losing you home, your car, etc being better than continuing in a situation that compromises you and requires you to say things you don't believe and also to pretend that you do believe them in order to keep your job?  Is Solomon saying only a fool would do these things?  I mean, it surely seems like Solomon said it first, and Peterson picked it up and ran with it, applying it to our culture today.  The most focused statement of it from Peterson was in the video I sent Kris.  It says that working in a place that "weakens" you batters your very soul.  It shouldn't be tolerated.  It surely seems like they are saying the same thing.

2024 - That word translated crooked here in ESV can also be translated as perverse and froward.  The BLB definition adds twisted and distorted.  These words do not seem to me to imply that "crooked in speech" is something you do to keep your job.  These words seem more about intentionally distorting the truth for no real reason than to steer others toward the wrong conclusions.  No personal gain involved, just perverse, inexplicable misleading.  This makes better sense in that I don't think a person who nods yes when he means no under direct questioning is a fool.  Depends on the question of course, but mostly I wouldn't think it is foolish.  But perverseness...That is foolish.

These continue as 18 was.  There are no contrasts or comparisons, more like a principle is stated and then a corollary, a result - a possible result, or one of many possible results - or an intensification of the original statement.  For instance:
3 When a man's folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the LORD. [Pro 19:3 ESV]

I noticed this one the second time:
27 Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge. [Pro 19:27 ESV]  Makes me think of those who just "turn off" when they recognize that you're basing your position on the Bible.  

10 Unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the LORD. ... 23 Unequal weights are an abomination to the LORD, and false scales are not good. [Pro 20:10, 23 ESV]
God doesn't like shady business practices.  Unequal weights are a way to mislead buyers about what they are getting.  Like replacing a metal part with plastic, like making the sheet metal on a car thinner so it's more prone to dents, or making the clear coat thinner making it more prone to chipping.  I think all these things we see, these subtle, unrecognizable modifications of existing products so that they are cheaper to manufacture, and yet they sell for the same old price, are the kind of things these verses are about.  This is greed.  This is abomination.

Chapter 20
Both 20 and 21 continue likewise.  Some examples:
3 It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling. ...
So...avoidance is more than acceptable as a strategy to avoid problems.  You do not have to "stand your ground", and it is in fact discouraged by this verse.  Honor is in avoiding strife, not in fighting and winning.

5 The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. [Pro 20:5 ESV]  So many possible interpretations of this verse.  Does it mean that a man of understanding can find out what others are really thinking, really planning?  As in deciphering the strategic plan of an opposing nation or opposing King, or even an opposing neighbor or business competitor?    Or does it mean that the one with understanding can help a King, or man, or business associate to focus on his true path and so help him to accomplish more than he might have otherwise?  Or is it to help identify our own faults and problems so that we can become better people?  This is one of those verses that is rich in possibilities that might be funneled down to only one by a poor translation because it also interprets.  

Noticed this verse 2/20/21:
11 Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright. [Pro 20:11 ESV]  I was drawn to this verse from the first, thinking it said it was really easy to tell good kids from bad kids.  But today I read the footnote on the verse in the Thompson's Chain Reference Bible.  Here is an alternate translation they give:  11 Even a child can dissemble in his actions, though his conduct seems pure and upright.  This gives the verse a very different look than the ESV translation.  So looked a little further...I am not crazy about the NIV but here it is anyway:  11 Even small children are known by their actions, so is their conduct really pure and upright? [Pro 20:11 NIV]  Clearly, the NIV has tried to convey the "dissembling" inference.  Looking at the interlinear, it seems that the only way to know which version of the word "nakar" to use is from the context - and we don't have any context here in this short little proverb.  The word translated either "make known" in the sense of "make it obvious" in the ESV or "can dissemble" in the sense of "disguise the truth" is a primitive root verb in Hebrew - so these meanings are ancient.  You know that Solomon knew both definitions of the word.  It would seem that he purposely used this ambiguous word in order to make two wise statements at the same time.  One statement is saying that we all evaluate children by how they behave, and the other warns us that even little children are well able to deceive for their own purposes.  For instance, children can look quite innocent when you come into a room with two kids in it and a broken lamp.  If you punish the one who "looks" guilty, there is every possibility that you have rewarded the one most accomplished at disguising guilt.  This would be a bad thing!  So my previous assumption - that you can always appraise the true character of a child by the behavior of that child is a vast oversimplification.  Even children are complicated, and wisdom is required to deal with them, train them, teach them - to bring them up in the way that they should go.  I think Solomon's real point here is that we shouldn't jump to conclusions about children.
Possible FB post

2024 - Most translations take the approach I did originally - that you can judge the character even of children, by their pure and upright actions.  Not only children, but EVEN children.  So this is about adults also, and certainly there is room there for deception in actions.  Maybe Solomon's real point is that while actions speak quite loudly, it is wise to look beyond them to motivation, it is smart not to look at actions ONLY.  Not even in innocent little children.  And he could be saying that there are people who, even as children, intentionally misrepresent themselves as pure and  upright to gain favor when those are really in their character.

11 Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright. ...
    Isn't this one interesting.  So much for zero tolerance.  Behavior matters, in children and in grown ups.
19 Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler.
[Pro 20:3, 11, 19 ESV]

Second time, I notice vs 9, kind of sitting in there by itself, and very different from the verses around it:
9 Who can say, "I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin"? [Pro 20:9 ESV]  It "stands out" because it doesn't follow any of the patterns we've seen up to here.  And the verses after it go back to the patterns already noted.  MSB comments on the meaning of the verse, but not the difference in pattern.  I think we're supposed to pick this verse out.  

2021 - This verse:
22 Do not say, "I will repay evil"; wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you. [Pro 20:22 ESV]
It is just not up to us to seek revenge.  We are never to do so.  

2021- This verse:
25 Strike a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence; reprove a man of understanding, and he will gain knowledge. [Pro 19:25 ESV]
You punish a scoffer so that others - followers - will learn.  The scoffer is beyond help already.  So remember, when you take on a scoffer - live or on social media - it is not for his benefit, but for the benefit of those he is influencing.  Remember who your real audience is.
But when you reprove a wise man, it is for his benefit, so that he will become still wiser.

Chapter 21
2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart. ...
5 The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. ...
09/21:  6 The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death. [Pro 21:6 ESV].  Footnote says that last part, in most Hebrew manuscripts, reads "vapor for those who seek death".  I think the verse applies all the way down to not speaking up when the cashier gives you too much change.  And I think it is suicide.  And I think Jordan Peterson is onto it when he says "Tell the truth, or at least don't lie" and goes into the how being untruthful spirals you into becoming a person that you have no respect for.  Solomon was way ahead of Jordan Peterson, but Peterson gets it too.

2021 - Here it is again, same thought as in Chapter 19 mentioned above:
11 When a scoffer is punished, the simple becomes wise; when a wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge. [Pro 21:11 ESV]

24 "Scoffer" is the name of the arrogant, haughty man who acts with arrogant pride.
    Scoffers are spoken against many times in Proverbs.  Here is the definition of a scoffer.  In today's culture it might be a doubter, a cynic.  But that isn't what the Bible means.  These are people who "professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."  People who need look no further than their own brilliance for the answers to life's questions, and who look down on those of inferior intellect (which means all but themselves!).
[Pro 21:2, 5, 24 ESV]

Second time:
22 A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the stronghold in which they trust. [Pro 21:22 ESV]
This gets my attention.  Is this promoting a strategy for war?  For taking a city?  Is it about Kings?  Or is it more general, as a tactic for the weak to gain advantage over their oppressors?  Is occupying the police station bringing down the stronghold?  Well...it might be for the wise, but not for the foolish.  MSB says it means that wisdom is better than strength.  So better to outsmart than to assault?  The attack - whether physical or not - is still against the stronghold of the enemy.  What would that be in our government?  What is Pelosi's stronghold?  What is Trump's?  Are their strongholds attacked?  There is so much here that could be considered.  So many events/movements/assaults that could be analyzed in light of this proverb.

Chapter 22
First 2 are single verse proverbs.
3 is a contrast between wise and unwise.
Most of the verses through 16 are the single verse types, with either elaboration, consequence or amplification in the second part.  I have noticed that a lot of the other kind - the ones that show a contrast between the consequences of wise vs unwise behavior, have the connector "but" in them.  And a lot of them could easily have that word but seem to avoid it so that not all verses read the same.  A few of the "but" version are in the first sixteen here - 3, 12, and 15.  There are also some where the second half starts with "and", 1, 7, 8, and 10.
Verses 17 through 21 start a new section called "words of the wise" in my TCR/ESV.  Vs 17 starts with "Incline your ear..." to introduce this section.  Verse 20 indicates that there will be 30 such "words".
Verses 22 and 23 are a single proverb, with the connector "for".
24 and 5 are a single with "lest" connecting them.
26 and 27 are a single with two separate sentences, no connector.
28 and 29 are each a separate proverb.
So in Chapter 22, we get the first 5 of the thirty perhaps?

Second time - I've noticed this verse many times, so want to highlight it here.  It is an unusual thought:
14 The mouth of forbidden women is a deep pit; he with whom the LORD is angry will fall into it. [Pro 22:14 ESV]  The word forbidden can also be translated strange, as in a woman of different culture, different country, different customs.  Seems to encourage us to stick with women close by.  But until this proverb, it never occurred to me that exotic, foreign women and their ways were in fact a sign of God's anger toward someone.

When proverbs talks about women, there is this forbidden/strange woman, and there is the adulteress/foreign woman.  I assume they are different words, and it might make an interesting study to see what is said of each one, to try and characterize them using more modern terms.  However, Pro 5:20 uses both words in the same proverb maybe.  Need to see the underlying, but it is worded "...a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress."  This crosses over my two observations above.

Chapter 23
1, 2, and 3 are a single proverb.
4, 5 are one.
6-8 are one.
9 is a single.
10, 11 are one.
12 seems to be a further injunction to listen, not a proverb at all.
13, 14 are one.
15, 16 speaks directly to "my son" about the hoped for results of either wisdom in general, or of verses 13, 14.  Maybe they are even a part of those.
17, 18 are a single one.

19 starts a new division - at least TCR/ESV chose to put a break here.
19 starts with "hear my son...".  19-21 seem to go together and enjoin the son against drunkenness and gluttony.  Excess.
22-25 is another injunction to listen to these words, and make your father and mother proud.
26-28, A proverb against prostitutes and foreign women/adulteresses.
29-35 are a long section about alcohol, it's effects, and the long term result of excess drinking.  This section is about alcoholism.
So,
So I wold say there are 10 add'l proverbs of the 30 in this section.

5/23/21 - 9 Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words. [Pro 23:9 ESV]  An interesting verse in these days that seem so full of fools.  Why argue with someone who says there are countless genders when there are only two?  That person is a fool.  And there are lots of other foolish things being said right now.  Many say Christians should be speaking out, and in the right circumstances we certainly should.  But there are also times to keep silent.

Chapter 24
1, 2 are a single proverb.
3-7 may well be a single proverb.  But it might also be two.
8, 9 are a single proverb.
10-12 are a single proverb.  This is the one about saving those who are stumbling to their deaths.  The section starts with if you stumble when things get tough, you haven't much strength.
13, 14 are one.
15, 16, are one.
17, 18 are together.
19, 20 are one.
21, 22 are one.

So this would add 9.  5, 10, 9 are 24.  Possibly 25.  But I do not see 30 proverbs here.

Vs 23 starts with "these are also sayings of the wise..." and offers the first one.
24-26 go together.
27 is one.
28, 29 go together. 
30-34 contain a personal observation from which a principle about laziness is deduced.

It seems very obvious at this point that Proverbs as a book was put together over time, and arranged according to someone's idea of how it should be organized.  I doubt that the original time of writing is unknown, so it would not be correct to try and see Solomon's wisdom "evolving" as he gets older from Prov 1 to the last one.  Solomon was given wisdom in one single moment. 
So this is a collection.  We can look at each chapter...but even those are of someone's design and the chapters weren't really there.  They are in the order that God intended, we know that. 

Second time, this very current, very timely observation:
24 Whoever says to the wicked, "You are in the right," will be cursed by peoples, abhorred by nations, 25 but those who rebuke the wicked will have delight, and a good blessing will come upon them. [Pro 24:24-25 ESV]
Good FB post.

Chapter 25
This chapter starts a new section - proverbs of Solomon that were "discovered" and compiled when Hezekiah was King of Israel, 200 years after Solomon.  MSB says there are 137 such proverbs.

25 is divided, by someone I know not - perhaps Hezekiah's scholars - into stanzas.  We shall see whether the stanzas each have a common theme.
1st stanza, the word "king" plays in each proverb.  Some are single verse contrasts, some are two verses long.  Some are about how a king should rule, some about how to behave in the presence of a king.  There is this verse to start it all off:
2 It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out. [Pro 25:2 ESV]
A clear contrast between how God rules and how men rule.  Or...what God considers worthy of glory, and what men do.  God delights in bringing about His will in ways undiscoverable to mere men.  Men get glory from their machinations being made known to all.  Maybe that's what this means, maybe not.

2021 - This verse:
2 It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out. [Pro 25:2 ESV]
Here, perhaps, is the reason that there are things we just cannot understand.  This implies, surely, that there are things we will never unravel.  Again, the things we cannot know are the things God has put here so we know He exists.  What happened before the big bang?  What is Hubble's Constant, really?  These unanswerable - or least these things that are restricted to untestable theories - glorify God by demonstrating his transcendence of human knowledge.
Possible FB post following up on the post of 10/21/21.  Would need to put it up pretty soon.

4 Take away the dross from the silver, and the smith has material for a vessel; [Pro 25:4 ESV]
The implications here, in light of some of the Jordan Peterson things I've been reading!  Clean up  your room before you start to clean up the planet.  Get the log out of your own eye before you start improving your neighbor.  Peel back the distractions in your life that are unproductive before you tackle the book you've always wanted to write.  
I think a good post could be made of this, but it will need more work!  Hmm, just now I noted that once things are cleaned up, the vessel is made by someone else.  Be careful with this one....Perhaps it is just the setup to 5, and not meant to stand alone.

2nd, A three verse proverb about maintaining harmony with your neighbor.

3rd, Four verses about communication.  About words "fitly spoken", with good intention, for the benefit of the hearer.

4th, Covers many subjects.  They are about relationships for the most part.  The proverb about loving your enemy is in this 4th one.  

2021, This verse, which should be a FB post if it hasn't been one already:
26 Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked. [Pro 25:26 ESV]

There are also two proverbs about honey.  The first says don't eat too much of it, the second says too much honey is not good.  The first is to avoid vomiting, the second is an analogy, but the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain about the second part of the verse.  They really don't know the point of this second one.  The two are pretty far apart in the stanza.  The ESV says this:
27 It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one's own glory. [Pro 25:27 ESV]
KJV ends with "...so for men to search their own glory is not glory."
NKJV says "...to seek one's own glory is not glory."
RSV ends with "...so be sparing of complimentary words."
NASB "...Nor is it glory to search out one's own glory."
This is probably not a life-changing proverb, but I find the "untranslatable" to be interesting.
After looking at these possibilities, the jist seems to be that as too much honey makes a good thing a bad thing, too much seeking after your own glory is a bad thing.  Neither is bad in and of itself, it is in the excess of either that there is harm.
You know, this could also be about narcissism.  Or about truly self-admirers.  Having a good self image is ok, even necessary, and a little indulgence is called for.  BUT, to continue, to be self-consumed with how awesome you are...that's a different thing.  Maybe 26:12 is related?
It also occurs to me that these untranslatable proverbs may be that way on purpose.  This one for instance, since we cannot be sure of the original meaning, makes us look deeper and in this case many truths are found, instead of just one.

These verses need some thought also:
21 If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, 22 for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you. [Pro 25:21-22 ESV]
Looking at the last part of the verse kind of separates this thought from the whole "love your enemies" of the NT, as found here:
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; [Mat 5:44 KJV]
The Proverb is about war, about large scale relationships.  Jesus is speaking to individuals.  The point of what Jesus said is not to ultimately cause pain to your enemies.  It is not that at all.  But that was the point of Solomon's proverb.  Makes me think of the way the Jews and Arabs propagandize things.  If Israel retaliates for attacks, the Arabs say the Jews are killing their children.  They portray themselves as just folks, and the Israeli's as aggressors.  The US sends food aid to countries that hate us following natural disasters.  This makes those enemies look mean and spiteful and unjustified in hating us.  This proverb may well be about using propaganda to your advantage.  I don't believe it is all about letting a violent looter into your house and offering him a cold drink because his looting and burning has him overheated.  No....I don't think it means this at all.
And one last point.  Jesus does not include those who break in and threaten violence against your family.  He says those that curse you - that's words not physical violence, those that hate you - an attitude not an action, despitefully use you - put you in harms way to save themselves maybe, cheat and rob you "legally" with no regard.  But this is not a physical thing.  Persecution.  Hounding, cheating you, slandering you, demeaning you.  But still, I do not believe that physical violence is implied.
Of course, I don't want it to be implied.  I want "permission" to defend myself and my family from violent people who want to physically hurt or kill.  I'll give them my money clip, but I won't give them my daughter.  And I want that attitude to be ok.  I want permission to kill to protect my own.  That sounds harsh, but that is what I want this to say.  I hope I have treated it fairly and correctly in this discussion.

2021 - Per MSB, burning coals were heaped on top of metals to soften them so they could be worked.  Think of heating a horseshoe red hot so that it can be shaped and sized.  The idea then is that kindness to enemies "softens" their disposition toward us, makes them less antagonistic toward us, cracks the door open for us to bring them around to our side of the battle.  Is this saying the same thing as Jesus says in Mat 5:44 above?  MSB points out that Paul quotes this Proverb in Rom. 12:20.  It is pretty clear that Paul is using the verse the same way the Proverb means it.  Jesus does not add the last part of the verse, the burning coals part.  Perhaps we should imply it because so much of what he says is parallel to the Proverb.  Here is the whole passage from Matthew, part of the Sermon on the Mount:
43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. [Mat 5:43-48 ESV]
Jesus is contrasting his teaching with the teaching of the Pharisees (or some other false adage, as quoted).  Love your neighbor, hate your enemy is incorrect.  We should love all men, treat all men the same, pray for all - even those who would hurt us, because God sends rain to all men, not just the good.  We are to love our enemies because they too are God's creation.  There is no further objective involving coals.  This doesn't imply that we are to open the gates to our enemies.  But are to pray for them.
The Sermon on the Mount seems to be about the attitude we ought to have towards others.  An eye for an eye is contrasted with turn the other cheek.  Hate your enemy is contrasted with pray for all men.  Jesus is not precluding either self- or national defense.  He is not saying to unlock your doors at night and welcome thieves, robbers, and rapist inside, and offer them a cup a tea when they're done.  Not even a little bit is he saying that.  But if you are robbed, pray for the robber, don't seek him out to kill him for what he has done.  If someone slaps us in anger, we are not to reply with anger, with tit for tat.  But if someone seeks to kill us for our wallet, this does NOT say let them kill us.  It might well say give them the wallet, but it doesn't say let them beat you half to death.  A slap is not "great bodily harm".  Wow.  I think I finally understand these things.

2024 - Two of these proverbs are about not eating too much honey:
16 If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit it. ... 
27 It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one's own glory. [Pro 25:16, 27 ESV]
I find it hard to believe that these verses are just about not eating too much honey.  I expect - thought I don't know firsthand - that too much of anything will come back up.  I see in 27 the comparison between indulging in something that tastes good and indulging in self aggrandizement, in not just tooting your own horn but hiring an orchestra to do it.  Neither of these accomplishes what we think.  Perhaps 16 is only here to set up 27 - if you're wise enough to remember 16 by the time you get to 27.  Perhaps 16 is about honey, alcohol, wealth, work, exercise, and hobbies.  Do any of these to excess, and you ruin them forever.  After throwing up honey, you'll never want honey again.  In the same way, devotion to anything, even to very good things, to the exclusion of all else, to the taking over of all else, is going to end up "spoiling" the things you greatly enjoy - your favorite things.  Yes.  That's what these two are about.  Finally!

Chapter 26
Still part of the 137 proverb section, but this chapter has no stanzas.  All just one long recitation.
2 Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, a curse that is causeless does not alight. [Pro 26:2 ESV]  When people hate you without reason, their hatred does you no harm.  Doesn't hurt your reputation, does not inhibit your daily life or your plans.

8/26/2021 - 11 Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. [Pro 26:11 ESV]
22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: "The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire." [2Pe 2:22 ESV]
I had not connected these two before today.

3-12 should be a stanza.  They are all about fools.  About how to deal with them, about how you shouldn't depend on them or hire them for important work, and about their effect on those around them.  Good stuff for "A Field Guide to Fools".  Here is verse 3:
3 A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools. [Pro 26:3 ESV]
Makes it seem like corporal punishment for grown men is just the most natural think in the world.  Making a fool behave has a formula, just as bringing horses and donkeys to behaving.  We don't do this anymore.  We don't do it at all.

13-16, could be a stanza about "sluggards".  This would be the excessively lazy, unwilling to work, and full of excuses as to why he cannot.  They aren't much good to anyone.  But we aren't told what to do about them.

17-23, These are about those who go looking for trouble, or who by their own actions cause trouble, dissent, dissatisfaction and so on.   But they are all alike.  Interesting verse in light of recent self-defense reading I've done:
17 Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears. [Pro 26:17 ESV]
This says just leave it alone.  Let others work things out, lest you participate in the repercussions of others.

Why didn't they divide these up like they did 25?
24-26, One sentence in three verses about those with hidden hatred in their hearts.  They are plotters in secret.  They speak sweetly while planning your downfall.  Those who hate cannot be trusted in a relationship.
27, 28 seem unconnected.  They just seem like they were thrown in to "fill up the page".

Chapter 27
2021 - Occurs to me that all these seemingly unrelated, one-off, verses are the ones that were found and copied from Solomon in Hezekiah's day.  They began in chapter 25, and MSB says there are 137 of them.  Up until 25, there seemed to always be some kind of organization to the verses.  They seemed to either be topical, or at least their construction was variable enough to keep it interesting to read them.  But not these that Hezekiah's men found.  They seem to have just slapped them all in here with no regard at all for the readers sensibilities.  Looks like that is going to continue at least through 29.

Continues as 26.  Single verses mostly.  First stanza goes 22 verses.
1st Stanza, All these verses stand alone.  No common subjects in successive verses that I can see.  

This verse:
3 A stone is heavy, and sand is weighty, but a fool's provocation is heavier than both. [Pro 27:3 ESV]  There are several verses like this that I want to "collect".  I think this says that one of the most challenging situations that a "non-fool" can ever face is dealing with a fool who is in full "foolishness".  This is a very nearly "unquenchable" kind of fire, and should be undertaken with extreme care...even though it probably won't help.

I like this verse:
7 One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet. [Pro 27:7 ESV]
How many people are walking around in this world willing to digest bitterness because they are starving for something, anything.  How many have no good reason to get up in the morning except they're hungry.  I pray they find peace in God, who is overflowing with the very food that they seek, but they are blind to the offer.

2021 - This one:
[Pro 27:13 ESV] Take a man's garment when he has put up security for a stranger, and hold it in pledge when he puts up security for an adulteress.
The word translated adulteress in this verse is transliterated "nah-cree".  Looking at the Interlinear outline of Biblical usage, this is almost always about foreigners.  Not once does the KJV ever translate this word as harlot or adulteress.  NASB also uses adulteress.  One of them goes so far as to use seductress.  Here is the one that seems closest to me:  [Pro 27:13 NIV] Take the garment of one who puts up security for a stranger; hold it in pledge if it is done for an outsider.  BUT, it is very obvious that this is both translation and interpretation.  And the fact that it is the one that I think comes closest to what is meant by the words used means I am interpreting also.  Even so, we are talking about loan collateral, and why sex in any form has to enter into that I do not understand.  The verses before and after don't infer it either.  All these are pretty one "one off" verses.

15 and 16 seem to be the same proverb.  Quarrelsome wives and restraining the wind.  Then it goes back to single standalones.
This verse:
22 Crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his folly will not depart from him. [Pro 27:22 ESV]
Doesn't this say that a true fool is incurable?

2nd stanza, 23-27 all seem to be about diligence in your work.  Diligence pays off in security and sufficiency.

(5/27/20.  Prov 27:23-27 finally make sense.  The warning is that you can't eat gold or drink silver.  Being rich is one thing, but being able to feed and clothe yourself and your family if those riches disappear is more important.  That first verse - know well the condition of your flocks - is about being prepared for hard times, rather than settling comfortably into the cushions of wealth.   Simple things will keep you alive, and take care of your family.  Make sure you keep that "core" of self-sufficiency intact.  I think that's what this section is about.  Good FB post here.)

Chapter 28
No breaks in this chapter.  All one reading.
4 Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive against them. [Pro 28:4 ESV]
Much food for thought here.  Shall I keep my guns when they are outlawed?  To do so would praise the wicked...
19 Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty. [Pro 28:19 ESV]
Most of these verses are contrasts between the results of right and wrong behavior.  Money is a common subject of individual verses - how it is earned, how it is used.  For example:
22 A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him. [Pro 28:22 ESV]

Chapter 29
No breaks.
2023 - This verse struck me today:
9 If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet. [Pro 29:9 ESV].  Now think about those TV interview programs where they just sit around and shout at each other.  The one interviewed gets irritated and refuses to be quiet while the host talks.  The host asks a question and then interrupts his "guest" and shouts him down.  And how about those where three or four people are ALL shouting at the same time and you can't understand what any of them are trying to say.  Think Jerry Springer.  Think Piers Morgan.  Think CNN and Fox - they aren't always this way, but they are both sometimes guilty of it.  And what about the political debates we'll be seeing more and more often for the next year or so?  Based on this verse from Proverbs, we ought to watch and see who laughs or rages...but never shuts up.  Never listens.  Consider the possibility that if everyone on the show  - or on the debate stage - is shouting, then perhaps they are all fools.  Should we be spending any time watching fools yell at each other?  Should we even consider casting our votes for someone who can't have a conversation without shouting?  This verses is just two verses down:  11 A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back. [Pro 29:11 ESV].  We might want to keep these two verses handy.
Possible FB post.

This verse could use some study:
18 Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law. [Pro 29:18 ESV]
I may be reading too much into it, but this concept of "casting off restraint" seems to describe present day America.

26 Many seek the face of a ruler, but it is from the LORD that a man gets justice. [Pro 29:26 ESV]
The long term view of justice...

27 An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous, but one whose way is straight is an abomination to the wicked. [Pro 29:27 ESV]
When we see the riots, the brick throwing, the mobs beating a helpless person, it offends us because it is so unjust, so useless.  We have no room in our hearts to sympathize with these things.  It is difficult or impossible to overlook, to forgive, and especially to justify such behavior.  But here's the thing.  To these people, it is just as impossible to sympathize with us when we go calmly about our business doing things that are peaceful and legal.  They cannot stand to see this, it infuriates them to the same extend that their violence infuriates us.  We want them stopped now!  And they want us stopped too.  We are mutually abominable.  But we never see ourselves as that other one sees us, just as it never occurs to them that we want them thrown in jail and the key thrown away.

Chapter 30
These last two are "The words of Agur son of Jakeh.  The oracle.  MSB says he was an unknown sage who likely studied wisdom in the time of Solomon.
1st Stanza, Agur says he is not very smart, and has little understanding.

2nd, God's word is true, do not be adding to it.

3rd, He asks two things.  That he not be a liar, and that he be neither poor nor rich.  It seems to me that he has control of the first one, and at least some control of the second one.  In any case, he seeks an honest life of modest means as the best condition from which to seek God's wisdom.

4th, A single verse about not slandering other people's slaves.  I would say it goes double for their children!

5th, I break this after 14 though in my TCR it is hard to say there's really a break there.  11-14 describe a situation where there are many evil people who consider themselves wise - as in there is none wiser, none they need answer to.  They are a generation bursting with pride in their own wisdom.

2021 - 11 There are those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers. 12 There are those who are clean in their own eyes but are not washed of their filth. 13 There are those--how lofty are their eyes, how high their eyelids lift! 14 There are those whose teeth are swords, whose fangs are knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, the needy from among mankind. [Pro 30:11-14 ESV]  A TCR footnote says this first phrase might be read "There is a generation", rather than "There are those..."  Interlinear confirms that, and also suggests "There is an age..." might be a possible translation.  Note that four characteristics are given of this "age".  Disrespectful to parents comes first.  It comes first.  Perhaps an indictment of the parents though more than of the children.  This age results from poor parenting.  Next are the self-deluded, the I'm OK, You're OK, bunch who believe that they are just fine as they are, not realizing the filth and stink they give off.  Third, the arrogant, the prideful, the scoffers.  We've seen them before.  And last, the greedy seekers of material gain, who will oppress the weakest, most defenseless people there are to enrich themselves. 
Possible FB post, but this is only identification, not application.  Would need more. 

6th, Four things never satisfied: Sheol, the barren womb, dry, thirsty ground, and fire.

7th, vs 17 alone.  Those who disrespect their parents will come to a bad end.

8th, Four wonderful things: an eagle in the sky, a snake on a rock, a ship on the sea, a man with a maiden.  Somewhere I read that none of these leave a trail.  Per MSB, these four are prelude to vs 20.
9th, A single verse, 20.  Adulteresses don't see anything wrong with what they do.  Does this tie back to the previous four things, things that leave no trail?
MSB says that's exactly it, as follows.  Eagles leave no trail in the air, nor snakes on rock, ships on water, or men with virgins.  MSB says these illustrate hypocrisy in that they are all concealed, all "plausibly deniable".  An adulteress also leaves no evidence of her deeds, and can go on pretending to be a fine, virtuous woman.  No one knows that she is a hypocrite.

10th, four that make the earth tremble:  A slave who becomes king, a fool full of food, an unloved woman who gets married, a maidservant that displaces her mistress.  All these are likely to have a profound, and sinful, sort of pride.  That is, the world is uncomfortable when the natural order is upset.  There is no single verse following this list of four as there was a single for the previous four.  Perhaps it is not needed.

11th, Four small wise things: ants, rock badgers (conies?), locusts, and spiders (lizards?).  Planning and wisdom are better than great strength.  Again, there is not a single verse following these to make the point.  The point is embedded.  Size is not all there is.  Wisdom can find a niche, even for the small in the middle of giants.

12th, Four stately in their movements: Lions, roosters, he-goats, and kings when with their armies.  MSB says this is about the bearing of one who lives wisely, deports himself properly, and so has confidence in his position.

13th, Last two verses might be a summary:  Do not exalt yourself.  Don't be one of the self-wise in the generation of such people.  Don't be part of them.  Five groups of four that stand out.  Perhaps to give us a sense of perspective, lest we think too much of ourselves.  Even spiders make the list, but few men do.

MSB says the single verses go with the four before.  So the never satisfied are like leeches.  An adulteress can deny because she's left no trace, like eagles leave no trail.

3/30/21 -
11 [There is] a generation [that] curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother. 12 [There is] a generation [that are] pure in their own eyes, and [yet] is not washed from their filthiness. 13 [There is] a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up. 14 [There is] a generation, whose teeth [are as] swords, and their jaw teeth [as] knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from [among] men. [Pro 30:11-14 KJV]  KJV starts each of these with "There is a generation...".  ESV starts each with "there are those...". NASB starts them with "There is a kind of man....", and NASB20 starts with "There is a kind of person..."  I wonder where "generation" came from?  Is KJV right and this is about a "time" to come, a prophetic section, or is this just about the kind of people that we might find in the world?

Chapter 31
King Lemuel writes these.  Jewish tradition says Lemuel is Solomon.  There are two parts.  Instructions to rulers in some basic things, like avoiding too much wine.  Also, to judge rightly, defending the poor and needy - those who have no means of defending themselves.
The second part is the description of an excellent wife.  In TCR, it doesn't seem to say that it is written by anyone in particular.  Agur perhaps.  I had always thought it had an intro that said it was Agur's mother who wrote it.  That is not indicated in the ESV.  Instead, verse 1 says that this is an oracle that Lemuel's mother taught him.  This may well mean that she didn't write it, but she thought it important enough to teach her son.  But that could be just about the first part, not necessarily the whole thing.  ESV says 10-31 are an acrostic poem using the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.  This part seems to be written more to women as a standard to work for than what a mother would say to her son about good women.