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110 essays on the artistic and literary beauty of the Bible, filed under the part of scripture they read.

Old Testament

Proverbs

Why would fearing the Lord bring healing to your belly button and drink to your bones? Two hidden centers, and what God gives them.

Proverbs isn't a loose collection of moral tidbits. It's the story of a father teaching his son wisdom, one stage at a time.

The riddles of Proverbs begin in its very first verse: a whole story in one line, and a name rearranged.

If you think the proverbs are simple, obvious pieces of moral wisdom, try this experiment. They were written to be the opposite.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Solomon frames it as a riddle. Here is how to untangle it, and where Solomon got the idea.

Who is mocking whom? In Proverbs 20:1 the ambiguity is the point: the confusion in the wording mirrors the confusion of drunkenness.