We know that good is good and bad is bad. But, like any clich , it's so commonplace that the truth of it loses friction. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. To call the Bible great literature is not merely to speak of its superior sentence structure.
Proverbs is part of a much larger project.
Its moral authority grows out of its literary merit, and its literary merit grows out of its moral authority. These two sides are as inseparable as the front and back of the same page. Perhaps we don't need to read the Bible to accept that good is good and bad is bad, but unlike the Christian right's knee-jerk ploys, the Bible demands of us more than acceptance. Jesus spoke in parables not because they made it easier to understand his message, but because they made it more difficult. Beyond mere acceptance, the parables demanded engagement by his disciples.