THE PROVERBS
- Year from the Creation, 3004.
- Year before the birth of Christ, 996.
- Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 1000.
- Year since the Deluge, according to Archbishop Usher and
the English Bible, 1348.
- Year from the destruction of Troy, 185.
- Year before the first Olympiad, 224.
- Year before the building of Rome, 247.
Chapter 1
- The design of the proverbs, 1-6.
- An exhortation
to fear God, and believe his word, because of the
benefit to be derived from it, 7-9;
- to avoid the
company of wicked men, who involve themselves in
wretchedness and ruin, 10-19.
- Wisdom, personified,
cries in the streets, and complains of the contempt
with which she is treated, 20-23.
- The dreadful
punishment that awaits all those who refuse her
counsels, 24-33.
Verse 1. The proverbs of
Solomon
For the meaning of the word
proverb, see the introduction; and the
dissertation upon parabolical writing at the end
of the notes on Matthew
13:58. Solomon is the first of the sacred writers whose
name stands at the head of his works.
Verse 2. To know
wisdom
That is, this is the design of
parabolical writing in general; and the
particular aim of the present work.
This and the two following verses contain the
interpretation of the term parable, and the author's
design in the whole book. The first verse is the title,
and the next three verses are an explanation of the nature and
design of this very important tract.
Wisdom
chochmah may mean here, and in every other part of
this book, not only that Divine science by which we are
enabled to discover the best end, and pursue it by
the most proper means; but also the whole of that
heavenly teaching that shows us both ourselves and God,
directs us into all truth, and forms the whole of true
religion.
And instruction
musar, the teaching that discovers all its
parts, to understand, to comprehend the words or
doctrines which should be comprehended, in order that we may
become wise to salvation.
Verse 3. To receive the
instruction
haskel, the deliberately
weighing of the points contained in the
teaching, so as to find out their importance.
Equity
mesharim, rectitude. The pupil is to receive
wisdom and instruction, the words of wisdom and
understanding, justice and judgment, so perfectly
as to excel in all. Wisdom itself, personified, is his
teacher; and when God's wisdom teaches, there is no delay in
learning.
Verse 4. To give subtilty to the
simple
The word simple, from
simplex, compounded of sine, without, and
plica, a fold, properly signifies plain and
honest, one that has no by-ends in view, who is
what he appears to be; and is opposed to
complex, from complico, to fold together,
to make one rope or cord out of many
strands; but because honesty and
plaindealing are so rare in the world, and none but the
truly religious man will practice them, farther than
the fear of the law obliges him, hence simple
has sunk into a state of progressive deterioration. At first,
it signified, as above, without fold, unmixed,
uncompounded: this was its radical meaning.
Then, as applied to men, it signified innocent,
harmless, without disguise; but, as such persons were
rather an unfashionable sort of people, it sunk in its
meaning to homely, homespun, mean, ordinary. And, as
worldly men, who were seeking their portion in this life, and
had little to do with religion, supposed that wisdom,
wit, and understanding, were given to men that they
might make the best of them in reference to the things of
this life, the word sunk still lower in its meaning, and
signified silly, foolish; and there, to the dishonour
of our language and morals, it stands! I have taken those
acceptations which I have marked in Italics out of the
first dictionary that came to hand-Martin's; but
if I had gone to Johnson, I might have added to SILLY,
not wise, not cunning. Simplicity, that
meant at first, as MARTIN defines it, openness,
plaindealing, downright honesty, is now degraded to
weakness, silliness, foolishness. And these terms will
continue thus degraded, till downright honesty and
plaindealing get again into vogue. There are two Hebrew
words generally supposed to come from the same root,
which in our common version are rendered the
simple, pethaim, and or pethayim; the
former comes from patha, to be rash, hasty; the
latter, from pathah, to draw aside, seduce, entice. It
is the first of these words which is used here, and may be
applied to youth; the inconsiderate, the
unwary, who, for want of knowledge and experience, act
precipitately. Hence the Vulgate renders it
parvulis, little ones, young children, or little
children, as my old MS.; or very babes, as
Coverdale. The Septuagint renders it ακακοις,
those that are without evil; and the versions in
general understand it of those who are young, giddy,
and inexperienced.
To the young man
naar is frequently used to signify such as are in
the state of adolescence, grown up boys, very well
translated in my old MS. yunge fulwaxen; what we would
now call the grown up lads. These, as being giddy and
inexperienced, stand in especial need of lessons of wisdom
and discretion. The Hebrew for discretion,
mezimmah, is taken both in a good and bad
sense, as zam, its root, signifies to devise or
imagine; for the device may be either
mischief, or the contrivance of some good
purpose.
Verse 5. A wise man will
hear
I shall not only give such
instructions as may be suitable to the youthful and
inexperienced, but also to those who have much knowledge and
understanding. So said St. Paul: We speak wisdom among them
that are perfect. This and the following verse are
connected in the old MS. and in Coverdale: "By
hearyinge the wyse man shall come by more wysdome; and by
experience he shall be more apte to understonde a parable and
the interpretation thereof; the wordes of the wyse and the
darke speaches of the same."
Verse 6. Dark
sayings.
chidoth, enigmas or
riddles, in which the Asiatics abounded. I believe
parables, such as those delivered by our Lord, nearly
express the meaning of the original.
Verse 7. The fear of the
Lord
In the preceding verses Solomon shows
the advantage of acting according to the dictates of
wisdom; in the following verses he shows the danger of
acting contrary to them. The fear of the Lord signifies
that religious reverence which every intelligent being
owes to his Creator; and is often used to express the whole
of religion, as we have frequently had occasion to remark
in different places. But what is religion? The
love of God, and the love of man; the former producing
all obedience to the Divine will; the
latter, every act of benevolence to one's
fellows. The love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy
Spirit produces the deepest religious reverence, genuine
piety, and cheerful obedience. To love one's neighbour as
himself is the second great commandment; and as love
worketh no ill to one's neighbour, therefore it is said
to be the fulfilling of the law. Without love,
there is no obedience; without reverence, there
is neither caution, consistent conduct, nor
perseverance in righteousness.
This fear or religious reverence is said to be the
beginning of knowledge; reshith, the
principle, the first moving influence,
begotten in a tender conscience by the Spirit of God. No man
can ever become truly wise, who does not begin with
God, the fountain of knowledge; and he whose mind is
influenced by the fear and love of God will learn more in a
month than others will in a year.
Fools despise
evilim, evil men. Men of bad hearts, bad heads, and
bad ways.
Verse 8. My son, hear
Father was the title of preceptor, and
son, that of disciple or scholar, among
the Jews. But here the reference appears to be to the
children of a family; the father and the
mother have the principal charge, in the first
instance, of their children's instruction. It is supposed that
these parents have, themselves, the fear of the Lord, and that
they are capable of giving the best counsel to their children,
and that they set before them a strict example of all godly
living. In vain do parents give good advice if their
own conduct be not consistent. The father occasionally
gives instruction; but he is not always in the
family, many of those occupations which are necessary
for the family support being carried on abroad. The
mother-she is constantly within doors, and to
her the regulation of the family belongs; therefore she has
and gives laws. The wise man says in effect to every
child, "Be obedient to thy mother within, and carefully attend
to the instructions of thy father, that thou mayest the better
see the reasons of obedience; and learn from him how
thou art to get thy bread honestly in the world."
Verse 9. An ornament of grace unto
thy head, and chains
That is, filial
respect and obedience will be as ornamental to thee as
crowns, diadems, and golden chains and pearls are to
others.
Political dignity has been distinguished in many nations by
a chain of gold about the neck. Solomon seems here to
intimate, if we follow the metaphor, that the surest way of
coming to distinguished eminence, in civil matters, is to act
according to the principles of true wisdom, proceeding
from the fear of God.
Verse 10. If sinners entice thee,
consent thou not.
al tobe,
WILL-not. They can do thee no harm unless thy will join in
with them. God's eternal purpose with respect to man is that
his will shall be free; or, rather, that the
will, which is essentially FREE, shall never be
forced nor be forceable by any power. Not even the devil
himself can lead a man into sin till he consents. Were
it not so, how could God judge the world?
Verse 11. If they say, Come with
us
From all accounts, this is precisely the
way in which the workers of iniquity form their partisans, and
constitute their marauding societies to the present day.
Let us lay wait for
blood
Let us rob and murder.
Let us lurk privily
Let us lie in ambush for our prey.
Verse 12. Let us swallow them up
alive
Give them as hasty a death as if the
earth were suddenly to swallow them up. This seems to refer to
the destruction of a whole village. Let us destroy man, woman,
and child; and then we may seize on and carry away the whole
of their property, and the booty will be great.
Verse 14. Cast in thy
lot
Be a frater conjuratus, a sworn
brother, and thou shalt have an equal share of all the spoil.
Common sense must teach us that the words here used are
such as must be spoken when a gang of cutthroats, pickpockets,
associated together.
Verse 16. For their feet run to
evil
The whole of this verse is wanting in
the Septuagint, and in the Arabic.
Verse 17. Surely in vain the net is
spread in the sight of any bird.
This is a proverb of which the wise man here makes
a particular use; and the meaning does not seem as difficult
as some imagine. The wicked are represented as lurking
privily for the innocent. It is in this way alone that
they can hope to destroy them and take their substance; for if
their designs were known, proper precautions would be
taken against them; for it would be vain to spread
the net in the sight of those birds which men wish to
ensnare. Attend therefore to my counsels, and they shall never
be able to ensnare thee.
Verse 18. They lay wait for
their own blood
I believe it is the
innocent who are spoken of here, for whose blood
and lives these lay wait and lurk
privily; certainly not their own, by any mode of
construction.
Verse 19. Which taketh away the
life
A covetous man is in effect,
and in the sight of God, a murderer; he wishes to get all the
gain that can accrue to any or all who are in the same
business that he follows-no matter to him how many families
starve in consequence. This is the very case with him who sets
up shop after shop in different parts of the same town or
neighbourhood, in which he carries on the same business, and
endeavours to undersell others in the same trade, that
he may get all into his own hand.
Verse 20. Wisdom
crieth
Here wisdom is again
personified, as it is frequently, throughout this book;
where nothing is meant but the teachings given to man,
either by Divine revelation or the voice of the Holy
Spirit in the heart. And this voice of wisdom is
opposed to the seducing language of the wicked
mentioned above. This voice is everywhere heard, in public, in
private, in the streets, and in the house. Common sense,
universal experience, and the law of justice written on the
heart, as well as the law of God, testify against rapine and
wrong of every kind.
Verse 22. Ye simple
ones
pethayim, ye who have been
seduced and deceived. See on Proverbs
1:4.
Verse 23. Turn you at my
reproof
lethochachti, at my
convincing mode of arguing; attend to my
demonstrations. This is properly the meaning of the
original word.
I will pour out my spirit unto
you
"I wil expresse my mynde unto you;"
COVERDALE. Loo I shall bryngen to you my Spirit; Old
MS. Bible. If you will hear, ye shall have ample
instruction.
Verse 24. Because I have
called
These and the following words appear
to be spoken of the persons who are described, Proverbs
1:11-19, who have refused to return from their evil ways
till arrested by the hand of justice; and here the wise man
points out their deplorable state.
They are now about to suffer according to the demands of
the law, for their depredations. They now wish they had been
guided by wisdom, and had chosen the fear of the Lord; but it
is too late: die they must, for their crimes are proved
against them, and justice knows nothing of
mercy.
This, or something like this, must be the wise man's
meaning; nor can any thing spoken here be considered as
applying or applicable to the eternal state of the
persons in question, much less to the case of any man
convinced of sin, who is crying to God for mercy. Such persons
as the above, condemned to die, may call upon justice for
pardon, and they may do this early, earnestly; but they
will call in vain. But no poor penitent sinner on this side of
eternity can call upon God early, or seek him through Christ
Jesus earnestly for the pardon of his sins, without being
heard. Life is the time of probation, and while it lasts the
vilest of the vile is within the reach of mercy. It is only in
eternity that the state is irreversibly fixed, and
where that which was guilty must be guilty still. But let none
harden his heart because of this longsuffering of God, for if
he die in his sin, where God is he shall never come. And when
once shut up in the unquenchable fire, he will not pray for
mercy, as he shall clearly see and feel that the hope of his
redemption is entirely cut off.
Verse 27. Your destruction cometh as
a whirlwind
kesuphah, as the
all-prostrating blast. Sense and sound are here
well expressed. Suphah here is the gust of wind.
Verse 29. They hated
knowledge
This argues the deepest degree of
intellectual and moral depravity.
Verse 32. For the turning away of
the simple
This difficult place seems to
refer to such a case as we term turning king's
evidence; where an accomplice saves his own life by
impeaching the rest of his gang. This is called his
turning or repentance, meshubah; and he
was the most likely to turn, because he was of the
pethayim, seduced or deceived persons. And this
evidence was given against them when they were in their
prosperity, shalvah, their security, enjoying
the fruits of their depredations; and being thus in a state of
fancied security, they were the more easily taken and
brought to justice.
Verse 33. But whoso hearkeneth unto
me shall dwell safely
The man who hears the
voice of wisdom in preference to the enticements of the
wicked. He shall dwell in safety, yishcan
betach, he shall inhabit safety itself; he shall
be completely safe and secure; and shall be quiet from the
fear of evil, having a full consciousness of his own
innocence and God's protection. Coverdale translates,
"And have ynough without eney feare of evell." What the just
man has he got honestly; and he has the blessing of God upon
it. It is the reverse with the thief, the knave, the cheat,
and the extortioner: Male parta pejus dilabuntur; "Ill gotten,
worse spent."
