The wise man well understood the desire for certainty. Many evidently came to him, or sent messengers to find an assured answer to the problems of life and death. It is possible that a number of proverbs that follow were especially written for such a messenger to take back to his master. If this was the case, it may be that the entire section to the end of ch. 24 was part of this reply, since ch. 25 begins the proverbs copied out by Hezekiah’s scribes (see ch. 25:1).