Some classify the Books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon as “Poetical Books” or “Wisdom Literature.” It is, perhaps more precise to classify Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes as Wisdom Literature.

At the most basic level, Proverbs is a book of wisdom. In a way, it’s a book of wit.
Much of the collection is in couplets and, as we noticed in the Psalms, parallelism is very easy to see.
Beyond parallelism, the literary style is referred to as māšāl or something like a byword, or to be compared to, or we could simplify it to a simile: Proverbs 6:23 – the commandment is a lamp, the teaching is a light.

Join Michael as he teaches an overview of the book of Proverbs.