son or sons (1:8; 4:1). These sons are not small children but young men on the verge of (or at the beginning of) adulthood, like the young man so vividly described in Proverbs 7. This focus on “sons” gives the impression that Proverbs might have served (initially at least) as a manual of instruction for young men. This impression was confirmed in 1923 with the discovery and publication of a booklet from ancient Egypt entitled The Instruction of Amenemope (Pritchard: 421–24). Amenemope was an employee