As I make my way through a preaching series from the Book of Proverbs, I will be relying pretty heavily on the commentaries listed below, particularly the one by Bruce Waltke. In addition, however, there are many other valuable resources on Proverbs. As you search for resources, you will experience a deluge of tools on sub-specializations within Proverbs. There are seemingly innumerable books that help you apply the proverbs in your parenting, marriage, finances, addictions, relationships, leadership, etc. The list below includes none of these. Rather, I have attempted to gather books that cover the biblical proverbs in their literary framework, as a single book of the Bible.
For starters, there is a short article by Robert Rothwell over at Tabletalk Magazine. Fred Zaspel has written a short guide, Proverbs: A Christian View for Credo Magazine. Also see Matthew Holst, Wisdom for Reading the Proverbs. Nick Batzig at Feeding on Christ has attempted to curate sermons from Proverbs. There is also a collection of book reviews at Themelios.
In 2015, Bruce Waltke recorded a series of lectures on Proverbs for a class taught at Knox Theological Seminary. You can search for the podcast, “Wisdom from Proverbs,” or check out lecture 1 and go from there.
As to books, there is a short section in O. Palmer Robertson’s book, The Christ of Wisdom: A Redemptive-Historical Exploration of the Wisdom Books of the Old Testament, which includes some historical context of the Book of Proverbs and a straightforward outline. This book is intended to address all the Bible’s wisdom literature, but the small portion on Proverbs is worth the read. If you want to expand on this small section in Robertson, look at the 200 pages in Graeme Goldsworthy’s, Gospel and Wisdom: Israel’s Wisdom Literature in the Christian life. I like Goldsworthy because he is very logical, highlights God’s creational order, and uses charts to help visualize complex ideas. You may also like How to Read Proverbs, by Tremper Longman, which is a focused 150 pages designed to help us understand how proverbs work in light of applying the Bible’s proverbs to our everyday Christian life. A new book to me that has already proven helpful is by Jonathan Akin, Preaching Christ from Proverbs. This is similar to The Beginning and End of Wisdom, by Douglas Sean O’Donnell. These books are intended to help those preaching and teaching from the Book of Proverbs and both are full of good advice. Along these lines, while I have not read it, you may like Nancy Guthrie, Wisdom of God: Seeing Jesus in the Psalms and Wisdom Books.
If you are looking for Bible studies on Proverbs, I always want to make sure the author is pointing us to Christ, which is what Kathleen Nielson does supremely well in the Living Word Bible Studies series, the God’s Word for You series, and the shorter Real Wisdom for Real Life series. Get a taste in her article, Proverbs in Their Place. Another good, Christ-centered study is the one by Lydia Brownback in the Knowing the Bible series.
As for commentaries, I think that the best small volume is by Derek Kidner, Proverbs, in the Tyndale Old Testament Commentary series. While it’s rather dated, it is still fresh. If you are okay with some slightly dated language, you should consider the older commentary (1847) by Charles Bridges, a Cambridge-educated Evangelical minister in the Church of England. His Exposition of the Book of Proverbs is available free online.
Finally, in case you were wondering, the main commentary that I will be using for this sermon series is the enormous two-volume commentary by Bruce Waltke, The Book of Proverbs. For years I have been looking forward to reading this. Ever since the second volume was published (2005), scholars postulated that it will be a very long time before anyone writes a better commentary on Proverbs. I now have an excuse to begin making my way through these 1200 pages.
