Proverbs משלי
Shlomo's book of practical wisdom: how to live, choose friends, speak and raise children.
Mishlei is neither narrative nor law but a collection of sayings addressed to «my son». Ascribed to Shlomo, it speaks of the everyday: laziness and diligence, money and guaranteeing loans, choosing friends, an unrestrained tongue, wine, anger.
Its central image is chochma, wisdom personified as a woman calling in the street, set against the «strange woman» who calls in secret. Tradition reads the first as Torah and the second as temptation, but the text also works plainly: it is a book about choosing.
Dozens of phrases entered the language from it — «the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord», «as water reflects face to face, so one heart to another». It closes with Eshet Chayil, the hymn to the woman of the house sung on Friday night before kiddush.