In this volume, Katharine Dell offers a guide to the nature and character of the Book of Proverbs. She explores its key messages and major theological themes, notably God as creator and Wisdom as mediator, standing at the center of a profound theological relationship between God and humanity. Dell provides an overview of scholarly evaluations of these writings, which explore its literary forms, subdivisions, content, purpose, and social contexts. Summarizing important modern debates, she also examines the intertextual and canonical relationship of Proverbs to other biblical books, the afterlife of Proverbs in wisdom material from the Apocrypha, Qumran, and the New Testament, and the place of Proverbs in the history of interpretation. Her book will help readers to understand the nature and character of the book of Proverbs. It also enables them to assess its key messages and to see its wider context within the canon of scripture and its relevance within the history of interpretation.

Katharine Dell is Professor of Old Testament Literature and Theology in the Faculty of Divinity, and Fellow in Divinity at St. Catharine's College, University of Cambridge. An internationally-recognized expert on the wisdom books of the Old Testament, she is the author of volumes on Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Wisdom Literature and The Biblical World.

1. Wisdom in Proverbs: The Fountain of Life; 2. Scholarly Evaluations of Proverbs: A Selective Overview; 3. The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Knowledge: The Theology of Proverbs 1-9; 4. The Theology of the Oldest Proverbial Material; 5. Echoes of Egypt: The Theology of Proverbs 22:17-24:22; 30:1-14; and 31:1-31; 6. Following Life's Path: The Theology of the Book of Proverbs as a Whole; 7. Speaking to a Wider Audience: The Theological Influence of the Book of Proverbs in the Canon; 8. Offering Sagacious Advice: The Ongoing Significance of the Book of Proverbs.