Don’t Drop the Adjectives

Proverbs 8:17 (KJV) I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.

Or maybe it’s an adverb, it depends I guess on how you translate it.  When you look at the King James, you see how the word “seek” is modified by “early”.  That is legitimate.  I think I’ve written about getting up in the morning and making it your first priority of the day.  That’s a good way to interpret this.

But as I was reading today in the NET and comparing it to the KJV, I noticed that the modern translation left out the modifier.  It just had “seek”.  Seeking wisdom is always a good thing, but the modifier is what makes it powerful.

    Proverbs 8:17 (NET) I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.

A quick look over the other translations shows that they modify it different ways.  The NASB uses “diligently”.  Either way you look at it you need to take your seeking and find a way to make it more powerful.

So?  Sometimes the power of a statement is in the modifiers, rather than the basic statement itself.  Lean into those modifiers.  Listen to what they have to say.  Enjoy the full power of allowing wisdom to be a part of your life.