Proverbs is written for everyone yet it presents itself as instruction from a king or queen to a royal son, a prince. Proverbs is itself a collection of books. The first book (chapters 1-9) starts off as Solomon addressing “my son” (1:1-8) and climaxes with Queen Wisdom addressing “sons” (8:32). Corresponding to this, the whole book of Proverbs is closed by that last book (chapter 31), in which King Lemuel’s mother, rather than a father, exhorts him to stay away from the wrong women and value instead a godly wife.
As one would expect in a text addressing young men, it motivates them to avoid behavior that demonstrates “your strength is small” (Proverbs 24:10). It explicitly acknowledges strength as a young man’s gift (20:29). But it insists that real strength comes from wisdom (8:14; 24;5). Men can learn from virtuous women so they don’t misuse their strength (11:16ff). Indeed, the first temptation mentioned in Proverbs is to be recruited into a robber gang (1:10ff), something that would be an option to them because of their strength. Proverbs ends with a warning to not “give your strength to women” (31:3). Rather, a king should prefer a godly wife who “dresses herself with strength, and makes her arms strong” (31:17), because “strength and dignity are her clothing” (31:24).
Proverbs is filled with material endorsing obedience to God and trusting Him. In this way it has much in common with most other books in the Bible. But it is also concerned with the ways people can sabotage and weaken themselves rather than mature as adults.
Proverbs reads like simple aphorisms and yet declares itself a book of riddles (1:6). Wisdom seems a way to wealth, yet wisdom is to be preferred to wealth (3:14-16; 8:10-11) and the constant warnings against envying the wicked (3:31; 23:17) show an expectation that folly often seems to lead to prosperity. So the many simple statements about wisdom producing success are, in fact, statements of faith about a future that God promises and is not yet visible.
Solomon Says, my book on Proverbs, is available at Athanasius Press and Amazon.com (Kindle). Also in audiobook format at Audible.com.