Doing a Topical Study in Proverbs

This week marks the last topical study we will do in Proverbs (atthis time – I left a lot of verses on the “cutting room floor” that we’llreturn to at a later date, Lord willing). If you’re interested in digging deeper into a different topic thatwasn’t covered, here’s a quick guide on how to do that using the websitebiblegateway.com.

How to Use Biblegateway to Do a Topical Study in Proverbs:

a) Go to biblegateway.com

b) Change NIV to NASB (or ESV) on the right hand side scrollbar.  Using a more literal translationlike the NASB will help you get more accurate and comprehensive results.

c) Type in the word you wish to search and click “Search.”  A list of all occurrences of that word willappear on the screen (about 25 per page – you may have to go to the next pageto see the rest of the results).

d) Find the occurrences of that word in Proverbs. Copy and pasteto a word document.

e) You will want to search as many related words to your subjectas possible in order to get the best results (example: if you are studying“anger,” you will want to search “anger,” “angry,” “angered,” “mad,” etc). Thegoal is to learn everything Proverbs says on a particular subject.

f) Begin to study your verses. Make notes on your printed verselist. What common threads do you see with this topic? Is there something theauthor keeps saying? What does the author say you should or shouldn’t doregarding your topic? Try to find a few common principles that are found inmore than one verse and write them down (example: angry people get in fights,angry people are not godly, etc).

Topic Ideas (with suggested searches in parenthesis)

1) Fear of the Lord (fear, Lord)

2) Food/Gluttony (glutton, food, eat, drink)

3) Marriage (husband, wife, woman)

4) Anger (anger, angry, mad)

5) Parenting (child, children, son, daughter)

6) Drunkenness (drunkard, drinker, wine, beer)

7) Good Company (companion, friend, friends, brother)

8) Discipline (discipline, rod)

9) Contentment (satisfied, satisfy)

10) Naivety and Prudence (naïve, prudence, prudent)

11) Laziness (laziness, lazy, sluggard)

12) Pride (pride, proud, humble, humility)

13) The Fool (fool, foolish)

14) Authorities (king, kings, ruler, rulers)

15) Joy (joy, joyful)

16) Truth (truth, truthful, true)

17) Tongue (tongue, word, words, mouth, lips, speech, speak, talk)

18) Upright (upright, uprightness)

19) Death (death, dead, sheol)

20) Wicked (wicked, wickedness)