These opening verses of Proverbs 2 clearly link to Proverbs 1:20–33. The father calls on the son to receive his words (2:1, אֵ֫מֶר), and words (1:23, דָּבָר) are what wisdom speaks (1:21, אמר) and offers to those who turn at her reproof. It is Wisdom who cries out in 1:20-33, and it is to wisdom that the son is to make his “ear attentive” in 2:2). In 1:24 Wisdom “stretched out” [נטה] her hand, “and no one … heeded.” In 2:2 the son is instructed to incline [נטה] his heart to understanding. Wisdom cried out [קרא] to the simple (1:21, 24), and the son is told to “call out [קרא] for insight.” The simple called to Wisdom after the calamity that resulted from not heeding wisdom came upon them (1:28), but the son is to call to Wisdom ahead of time in 2:3. Wisdom raised her voice in calling to the simple (1:20), and the son is to raise his voice in calling for understanding (1:3). In 1:28 those who seek Wisdom only after rejecting her and suffering calamity will not find wisdom, but in 2:4, the son is encouraged to seek for wisdom as silver. Note the prologue’s link between the simple and the youth. The son as a youth is starting off simple, but he can become wise if he does what 2:1-4 lay out for him.
Notice also that Proverbs 2:5–11 contains numerous verbal connections with Proverbs 1:1–7.
Proverbs 2:12–16 looks back to Proverbs 1:8–19. Wisdom will deliver the son from the kind of men warned about there. Proverbs 2:17–19 looks forward to the forbidden woman who will be warned about in Proverbs 5–7.
Proverbs 2 is thus a key hinge chapter in the opening of the book.
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