WISDOM COMMENTARY

Volume 23

Proverbs

Alice Ogden Bellis

Sarah Tanzer

Volume Editor

Barbara E. Reid, OP

General Editor

A Michael Glazier Book

LITURGICAL PRESS

Collegeville, Minnesota

www.litpress.org

A Michael Glazier Book published by Liturgical Press

Cover design by Ann Blattner. Chapter Letter ‘W’, Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 4, Donald Jackson, Copyright 2002, The Saint John’s Bible, Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Woman at the Window © The Trustees of the British Museum. Reproduced by permission.

© 2018 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, microfiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or by any other means, known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews, without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint John’s Abbey, PO Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bellis, Alice Ogden, 1950– author.

Title: Proverbs / Alice Ogden Bellis ; Barbara E. Reid, OP, General Editor.

Description: Collegeville, Minnesota : LITURGICAL PRESS, 2018. | Series: Wisdom commentary ; Volume 23 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018007466 (print) | LCCN 2018018309 (ebook) | ISBN 9780814681473 (ebook) | ISBN 9780814681220

Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Proverbs—Commentaries. | Bible. Proverbs—Feminist criticism.

Classification: LCC BS1465.53 (ebook) | LCC BS1465.53 .B45 2018 (print) | DDC 223/.707—dc22

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018007466

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ISBN: 978-0-8146-8147-3

Editorial Consultants

Athalya Brenner-Idan

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza

Editorial Board

Mary Ann Beavis

Carol J. Dempsey

Amy-Jill Levine

Linda M. Maloney

Ahida Pilarski

Sarah Tanzer

Lauress Wilkins Lawrence

Seung Ai Yang

To the Howard University School of Divinity,

faculty, administrators, staff, alumni/ae, and most of all, students,

who together have provided this immigrant from the segregated South

a new home, where I have been gradually transformed by a new

appreciation for gratitude and a glimpse ...