The English word “proverb” derives from the Latin words pro (“for”) and verba (“words”), which reflects the idea that a proverb condenses many words into a few. Unlike the polemical books of the NT, such as Romans, there is no sustained argument in the book of Proverbs, nor is there much of a logical structure in any particular paragraph. Rather, the book of Proverbs is largely a collection of separate, isolated, self-contained observations on reality which tell us how best to cope. They are units