Verses 6-8 are the basis for the affirmation made in verse 5. The reason the seeker of wisdom will understand the fear and knowledge of God is because all knowledge comes from God.

“For the Lord gives wisdom”: “The Lord gives wisdom” may also be expressed, for example, “all wisdom comes from the Lord” (Contemporary English Version), or “the Lord is the source of wisdom.” Another way of expressing this is “Only the Lord can make a person wise.”

“From his mouth come knowledge and understanding”: This line reproduces the sense of the first line in metaphorical language. We may translate, for example: “His words bring knowledge and understanding.” Or: “We know and understand things because of him.”

If it is necessary to do away with the parallelism, we may say, for example, “The Lord gives us wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .