who were being groomed for positions of leadership.”19 However, the individual sayings reflect the family (or clan) wisdom of centuries past handed down from father to son throughout the generations (cf. Prov. 4:1–4).20 As Johnson states, the Book of Proverbs is “the boiled-down summation of many generations of experience in living.”21 Motto. The motto of the book is found in 1:7 and 9:10 (“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge/wisdom”). This serves not only as a literary inclusio22