The book of Proverbs has a deep historical interest, as well as a moral, social, industrial, and pious one. Solomon doubtless did not compose all the proverbs contained in it. Many of them he selected, digested, and arranged. But the mass of the book passed through his hands, or at least his mind; therefore it has his sanction. But there can be little doubt that by far the greater part of the book originated among the Hebrew people as such. They bear the evident stamp of serious thinking and devout minds.
They are obviously a selection, inasmuch as in 1 Kings 4:32 we are told that Solomon “spake three thousand proverbs.” If he drew from these in order to compose the book of Proverbs, he must have selected, for the book contains less than one thousand. And the internal evidence discloses that the proverbs of other wise men besides Solomon are contained in it. The store, then, of Hebrew proverbs must have been very great in the time of Solomon.
It is here that we come to see the historical element of the book. It is a picture–a vivid picture–of the internal Hebrew man; of his genius, feelings, practical reasonings, morals, industry, and social conditions. Not that there were no dissenters from many of its maxims; for there were doubtless bad men among them at the time. But the mass of the people must have been of a different character, for how else could they relish and heartily approve of such a manual of ethics, of sobriety, chastity, industry, and economy as this book contains?
In this book, then, is virtually contained the history of their mental and moral state and progress–a history more minute, more graphic, more extensive, and I may add, more interesting than all the external histories of the nation. And all the heathen moralists and proverbialists joined together cannot furnish us with such a book as that of the Proverbs in the sacred Scriptures.
–Moses Stuart, Commentary on Proverbs