Teks -- Proverbs 13:1-25 (NET)

13:1 A wise son accepts his father’s discipline, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. 13:2 From the fruit of his speech a person eats good things, but the faithless desire the fruit of violence. 13:3 The one who guards his words guards his life, but whoever is talkative will come to ruin. 13:4 The appetite of the sluggard craves but gets nothing, but the desire of the diligent will be abundantly satisfied. 13:5 The righteous person hates anything false, but the wicked person acts in shameful disgrace. 13:6 Righteousness guards the one who lives with integrity, but wickedness overthrows the sinner. 13:7 There is one who pretends to be rich and yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor and yet possesses great wealth. 13:8 The ransom of a person’s life is his wealth, but the poor person hears no threat. 13:9 The light of the righteous shines brightly, but the lamp of the wicked goes out. 13:10 With pride comes only contention, but wisdom is with the well-advised. 13:11 Wealth gained quickly will dwindle away, but the one who gathers it little by little will become rich. 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is like a tree of life. 13:13 The one who despises instruction will pay the penalty, but whoever esteems instruction will be rewarded. 13:14 Instruction from the wise is like a life-giving fountain, to turn a person from deadly snares. 13:15 Keen insight wins favor, but the conduct of the unfaithful is harsh. 13:16 Every shrewd person acts with knowledge, but a fool displays his folly. 13:17 An unreliable messenger falls into trouble, but a faithful envoy brings healing. 13:18 The one who neglects discipline ends up in poverty and shame, but the one who accepts reproof is honored. 13:19 A desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul, but fools abhor turning away from evil. 13:20 The one who associates with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm. 13:21 Calamity pursues sinners, but prosperity rewards the righteous. 13:22 A benevolent person leaves an inheritance for his grandchildren, but the wealth of a sinner is stored up for the righteous. 13:23 There is abundant food in the field of the poor, but it is swept away by injustice. 13:24 The one who spares his rod hates his child, but the one who loves his child is diligent in disciplining him. 13:25 The righteous has enough food to satisfy his appetite, but the belly of the wicked lacks food.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Pro 13:2 - Shall eat

Shall receive comfort, and benefit by his wise and profitable discourses.

Wesley: Pro 13:6 - Keepeth him

From that over - throw which befal sinners.

Wesley: Pro 13:7 - Maketh rich

Some men who have little or nothing, pretend to have great riches.

Wesley: Pro 13:7 - Maketh rich

Some rich men profess to be poor.

Wesley: Pro 13:8 - Riches

Riches enable a man to redeem his life when it is in greatest danger, and poverty preserves a man from many injuries. Because they are cautious, that they may not provoke others; and because they are esteemed objects of pity.

Wesley: Pro 13:9 - The light

The prosperity.

Wesley: Pro 13:9 - Rejoiceth

Shines with a pleasant and constant brightness. Rejoicing is here ascribed to the light, as it is to the sun, Psa 19:5, metaphorically.

Wesley: Pro 13:9 - Put out

Their felicity shall have a hidden end.

Wesley: Pro 13:10 - Pride

It is chiefly, pride which blows up the coals of contention.

Wesley: Pro 13:10 - Well

advised - Who are not governed by their passions, but by prudent considerations.

Wesley: Pro 13:10 - Wisdom

Which teaches them to avoid contention.

Wesley: Pro 13:11 - Vanity

By wicked practices.

Wesley: Pro 13:12 - Hope deferred

Delays in obtaining what a man passionately desires.

Wesley: Pro 13:12 - The desire

The good desired.

Wesley: Pro 13:12 - A tree of life

It is satisfactory, and reviving.

Wesley: Pro 13:13 - The word

The word of God.

Wesley: Pro 13:14 - The law

The instruction, or counsel; as the word law, is frequently understood in scripture.

Wesley: Pro 13:15 - Giveth

Makes a man acceptable to God.

Wesley: Pro 13:15 - Rough

Offensive and hateful to God and men, as rough ways are to a traveller.

Wesley: Pro 13:16 - Knowledge

Considerately and discreetly.

Wesley: Pro 13:16 - Layeth open

By his foolish actions.

Wesley: Pro 13:17 - A messenger

Who is unfaithful in the execution of that which is committed to his charge.

Wesley: Pro 13:17 - Is health

Procures benefit, as to his master, so to himself.

Wesley: Pro 13:19 - Sweet

Whatsoever men earnestly desire, the enjoyment of it is sweet to them; therefore sinners rejoice in the satisfaction of their sinful lusts, and abhor all restraint of them.

Wesley: Pro 13:21 - Evil

Punishment proportionable to their sin.

Wesley: Pro 13:23 - The poor

Poor persons by their diligent labours, and God's blessing often grow rich.

Wesley: Pro 13:23 - Destroyed

Or, consumed, brought to poverty, for want of discretion.

Wesley: Pro 13:24 - Hateth his son

His fond affection, is as pernicious to him as hatred.

JFB: Pro 13:1

(Pro. 13:1-25)

(Compare Pro 6:1-5; Pro 10:1, Pro 10:17).

JFB: Pro 13:2 - shall eat

That is, obtain (Pro 12:14).

JFB: Pro 13:2 - transgressors

As in Pro 2:22.

JFB: Pro 13:2 - violence

Or, "mischief" to themselves.

JFB: Pro 13:3 - He . . . mouth . . . life

Because evil speeches may provoke violence from others.

JFB: Pro 13:3 - he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction

On last clause, compare Pro 10:14.

JFB: Pro 13:4

(Compare Pro 12:11, Pro 12:27).

JFB: Pro 13:5 - loathsome . . . shame

Better, causeth shame and reproach (compare Pro 19:26), by slander, &c., which the righteous hates.

JFB: Pro 13:6

A sentiment of frequent recurrence, that piety benefits and sin injures.

JFB: Pro 13:7

In opposite ways men act hypocritically for gain of honor or wealth.

JFB: Pro 13:8

Riches save some from punishment, while others suffer because they will not heed the rebuke of sloth, which makes and keeps them poor.

JFB: Pro 13:9 - light . . . lamp

Prosperity; the first, the greater, and it

JFB: Pro 13:9 - rejoiceth

Burns brightly, or continues, while the other, at best small, soon fails.

JFB: Pro 13:10

The obstinacy which attends self-conceit, produces contention, which the well-advised, thus evincing modesty, avoid.

JFB: Pro 13:11 - by vanity

Or, "nothingness," that is, which is vain or useless to the public (as card playing or similar vices).

JFB: Pro 13:11 - gathereth . . . labour

(Compare Margin), little by little, laboriously.

JFB: Pro 13:12 - desire cometh

Is realized.

JFB: Pro 13:12 - a tree of life

Or, "cause of happiness."

JFB: Pro 13:13 - the word

That is, of advice, or, instruction (compare Pro 10:27; Pro 11:31).

JFB: Pro 13:14

(Compare Pro 10:11).

JFB: Pro 13:14 - fountain

Or, "source of life."

JFB: Pro 13:14 - to depart

(compare Pro 1:2-4), or, "for departing," &c., and so gives life.

JFB: Pro 13:15

Right perception and action secure good will, while evil ways are difficult as a stony road. The wicked left of God find punishment of sin in sinning.

JFB: Pro 13:15 - hard

Or, "harsh" (compare Hebrew: Deu 21:4; Jer 5:15).

JFB: Pro 13:16 - dealeth

Acts with foresight.

JFB: Pro 13:16 - a fool . . . folly

For want of caution.

JFB: Pro 13:17 - A wicked

Or, "unfaithful"

JFB: Pro 13:17 - messenger falleth into mischief

Or, "by mischief," or "evil," and so his errand fails. Contrasted is the character of the faithful, whose faithfulness benefits others.

JFB: Pro 13:18

(Compare Pro 10:17; Pro 12:1).

JFB: Pro 13:19

Self-denial, which fools will not endure, is essential to success.

JFB: Pro 13:20

The benefits of good and evil of bad society are contrasted.

JFB: Pro 13:21

(Compare Pro 11:31).

JFB: Pro 13:21 - good . . . repaid

Or, "He (God) will repay good."

JFB: Pro 13:22 - wealth . . . just

While good men's estates remain in their families, God so orders that the gains of sinners enure to the just (compare Pro 28:8; Psa 37:18, Psa 37:22, Psa 37:26, &c.).

JFB: Pro 13:23

The laboring poor prosper more than those who injudiciously or wickedly strive, by fraud and violence, to supersede the necessity of lawful labor.

JFB: Pro 13:24 - spareth

Or, "withholds."

JFB: Pro 13:24 - rod

Of correction.

JFB: Pro 13:24 - hateth

Or, acts as if he hated him (compare Pro 3:12; Pro 8:36).

JFB: Pro 13:24 - chasteneth . . . betimes

Or, "diligently seeks for him all useful discipline."

JFB: Pro 13:25

The comparative temporal prosperity of the righteous and wicked, rather than contentment and discontent, is noted.

Clarke: Pro 13:1 - A wise son heareth his father’ s instruction

A wise son heareth his father’ s instruction - The child that has had a proper nurturing, will profit by his father’ s counsels; but the child that is permitted to fulfill its own will and have its own way, will jest at the reproofs of its parents.

Clarke: Pro 13:3 - He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life

He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life - How often have the foolish, headstrong, and wicked, forfeited their lives by the treasonable or blasphemous words they have spoken! The government of the tongue is a rare but useful talent

Clarke: Pro 13:3 - But he that openeth wide his lips

But he that openeth wide his lips - He that puts no bounds to his loquacity, speaks on every subject, and gives his judgment and opinion on every matter. It has often been remarked that God has, given us two Eyes, that we may S聥e much; two Ears, that we may Hear much; but has given us but One tongue, and that fenced in with teeth, to indicate that though we hear and see much, we should speak but little.

Clarke: Pro 13:4 - The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing

The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing - We often hear many religious people expressing a desire to have more of the Divine life, and yet never get forward in it. How is this? The reason is, they desire, but do not stir themselves up to lay hold upon the Lord. They are always learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. They seek to enter in at the strait gate, but are not able, because they do not strive.

Clarke: Pro 13:7 - There is that maketh himself rich

There is that maketh himself rich - That labors hard to acquire money, yet hath nothing; his excessive covetousness not being satisfied with what he possesses, nor permitting him to enjoy with comfort what he has acquired. The fable of the dog in the manger will illustrate this

Clarke: Pro 13:7 - There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches

There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches - " As poor,"said St. Paul, "yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things."The former is the rich poor man; the latter is the poor rich man

As the words are here in the hithpael conjugation, which implies reflex action, or the action performed on one’ s self, and often signifies feigning or pretending to be what one is not, or not to be what one is; the words may be understood of persons who feign or pretend to be either richer or poorer than they really are, to accomplish some particular purpose. "There is that feigneth himself to be rich, yet hath nothing; there is that feigneth himself to be poor, yet hath great riches."Both these characters frequently occur in life.

Clarke: Pro 13:8 - The ransom of a man’ s life

The ransom of a man’ s life - Those who have riches have often much trouble with them; as they had much trouble to get them, so they have much trouble to keep them. In despotic countries, a rich man is often accused of some capital crime, and to save his life, though he may be quite innocent, is obliged to give up his riches; but the poor, in such countries, are put to no trouble.

Clarke: Pro 13:9 - The light of the righteous rejoiceth

The light of the righteous rejoiceth - They shall have that measure of prosperity which shall be best for them; but the wicked, howsoever prosperous for a time, shall be brought into desolation. Light and lamp in both cases may signify posterity. The righteous shall have a joyous posterity; but that of the wicked shall be cut off. So 1Ki 11:36 : "And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a light ( נר ner , a lamp) always before me."1Ki 15:4 : "Nevertheless for David’ s sake did the Lord give them a lamp, to set up his son after him."See also Psa 132:17, and several other places.

Clarke: Pro 13:10 - By pride cometh contention

By pride cometh contention - Perhaps there is not a quarrel among individuals in private life, nor a war among nations, that does not proceed from pride and ambition. Neither man nor nation will be content to be less than another; and to acquire the wished-for superiority all is thrown into general confusion, both in public and private life. It was to destroy this spirit of pride, that Jesus was manifested in the extreme of humility and humiliation among men. The salvation of Christ is a deliverance from pride, and a being clothed with humility. As far as we are humble, so far we are saved.

Clarke: Pro 13:11 - Wealth gotten by vanity

Wealth gotten by vanity - Wealth that is not the result of honest industry and hard labor is seldom permanent. All fortunes acquired by speculation, lucky hits, and ministering to the pride or luxury of others, etc., soon become dissipated. They are not gotten in the way of Providence, and have not God’ s blessing, and therefore are not permanent.

Clarke: Pro 13:12 - Hope deferred maketh the heart sick

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick - When once a good is discovered, want of it felt, strong desire for the possession excited, and the promise of attainment made on grounds unsuspected, so that the reality of the thing and the certainity of the promise are manifest, hope posts forward to realize the blessing. Delay in the gratification pains the mind; the increase of the delay prostrates and sickens the heart; and if delay sickens the heart, ultimate disappointment kills it. But when the thing desired, hoped for, and expected comes, it is a tree of life, עץ חיים ets chaiyim , "the tree of lives;"it comforts and invigorates both body and soul. To the tree of lives, in the midst of the gardens of paradise, how frequent are the allusions in the writings of Solomon, and in other parts of the Holy Scriptures! What deep, and perhaps yet unknown, mysteries were in this tree!

Clarke: Pro 13:13 - Whoso despiseth the word

Whoso despiseth the word - The revelation which God has in his mercy given to man - shall be destroyed; for there is no other way of salvation but that which it points out

Clarke: Pro 13:13 - But he that feareth the commandment

But he that feareth the commandment - That respects it so as to obey it, walking as this revelation directs - shall be rewarded; shall find it to be his highest interest, and shall be in peace or safety, as the Hebrew word ישלם may be translated.

Clarke: Pro 13:14 - The law of the wise is a fountain of life

The law of the wise is a fountain of life - Perhaps it would be better to translate, "The law is to the wise man a fountain of life."It is the same to him as the "vein of lives," מקור חיים mekor chaiyim , the great aorta which transmits the blood from the heart to every part of the body. There seems to be here an allusion to the garden of paradise, to the tree of lives, to the tempter, to the baleful issue of that temptation, and to the death entailed on man by his unwisely breaking the law of his God.

Clarke: Pro 13:16 - The way of transgressors is hard

The way of transgressors is hard - Never was a truer saying; most sinners have more pain and difficulty to get their souls damned, than the righteous have, with all their cross-bearings, to get to the kingdom of heaven.

Clarke: Pro 13:17 - A wicked messenger

A wicked messenger - The Septuagint: basileuv yrasuev, a bold king; instead of מלאך malach , a messenger, they had read מלך melech , a king: but they are singular in this rendering; none of the other versions have it so. He that betrays the counsels of his government, or the interests of his country, will sooner or later fall into mischief; but he that faithfully and loyally fulfils his mission, shall produce honor and safety to the commonwealth.

Clarke: Pro 13:19 - The desire accomplished

The desire accomplished - See on Pro 13:12 (note).

Clarke: Pro 13:20 - He that walketh with wise men shall be wise

He that walketh with wise men shall be wise - To walk with a person implies love and attachment; and it is impossible not to imitate those we love. So we say, "Show me his company, and I’ ll tell you the man."Let me know the company he keeps, and I shall easily guess his moral character.

Clarke: Pro 13:22 - A good man leaveth an inheritance

A good man leaveth an inheritance - He files many a prayer in heaven in their behalf, and his good example and advices are remembered and quoted from generation to generation. Besides, whatever property he left was honestly acquired, and well-gotten goods are permanent. The general experience of men shows this to be a common case; and that property ill-gotten seldom reaches to the third generation. This even the heathens observed. Hence

De male quaesitis non gaudet tertius haeres

"The third generation shall not possess the goods that have been unjustly acquired."

Clarke: Pro 13:23 - That is destroyed for want of judgment

That is destroyed for want of judgment - O, how much of the poverty of the poor arises from their own want of management! They have little or no economy, and no foresight. When they get any thing, they speedily spend it; and a feast and a famine make the chief varieties of their life.

Clarke: Pro 13:24 - He that spareth his rod hateth his son

He that spareth his rod hateth his son - That is, if he hated him, he could not do him a greater disservice than not to correct him when his obstinacy or disobedience requires it. We have met with this subject already, and it is a favourite with Solomon. See Psa 34:10 (note) and Psa 37:3 (note)

The Rev. Mr. Holden makes some sensible observations on this passage: "By the neglect of early correction the desires (passions) obtain ascendancy; the temper becomes irascible, peevish, querulous. Pride is nourished, humility destroyed, and by the habit of indulgence the mind is incapacitated to bear with firmness and equanimity the cares and sorrows, the checks and disappointments, which flesh is heir to."

Clarke: Pro 13:25 - To the satisfying of his soul

To the satisfying of his soul - His desires are all moderate; he is contented with his circumstances, and is pleased with the lot which God is pleased to send. The wicked, though he use all shifts and expedients to acquire earthly good, not sticking even at rapine and wrong, is frequently in real want, and always dissatisfied with his portion. A contented mind is a continual feast. At such feasts he eats not.

Defender: Pro 13:12 - tree of life

Fulfilled hope, like true wisdom and righteousness, is so vitalizing as to be like the very tree of life (see note on Pro 3:18)."

Defender: Pro 13:13 - destroyed

This is a sober warning to those who would question the Word of God (Mat 7:26, Mat 7:27; Rev 22:18, Rev 22:19)."

Defender: Pro 13:22 - inheritance

This "inheritance" may or may not include material substance, but the real "inheritance" is that of godly teaching and example, as well as answered prayer for the family."

Defender: Pro 13:24 - spareth his rod

Contrary to modern humanistic child psychology, the Bible clearly teaches - especially here in the book of Proverbs - that judicious corporal punishment, if administered carefully, lovingly, and appropriately, is necessary in child-raising (Pro 22:15; Pro 23:13, Pro 23:14; Pro 29:15)."

TSK: Pro 13:1 - wise // but

wise : Pro 4:1-14, Pro 4:20-22, Pro 10:1, Pro 15:5, Pro 15:20

but : Pro 9:7, Pro 9:8, Pro 14:6; 1Sa 2:25; Isa 28:14, Isa 28:15

TSK: Pro 13:2 - eat // the soul

eat : Pro 12:14, Pro 18:20

the soul : Pro 1:11-13, Pro 1:18, Pro 1:31, Pro 4:17, Pro 10:11; Psa 75:8, Psa 140:11; Jer 25:27-31; Hab 2:8, Hab 2:17; Rev 16:6

TSK: Pro 13:3

Pro 10:19, Pro 12:13, Pro 21:23; Psa 39:1; Mat 12:36, Mat 12:37; Jam 1:26, Jam 3:2-12

TSK: Pro 13:4 - desireth // but // made

desireth : Pro 10:4, Pro 12:11, Pro 12:24, Pro 26:13; Num 23:10

but : Pro 2:2-9, Pro 8:34; Joh 6:27; Heb 6:11; 2Pe 1:5-11

made : Pro 11:25, Pro 28:25; Psa 92:14; Isa 58:11

TSK: Pro 13:5 - righteous // is // and

righteous : Pro 6:17, Pro 30:8; Psa 119:163; Eph 4:25; Col 3:9

is : Eze 6:9, Eze 20:43, Eze 36:31; Zec 11:8

and : Pro 3:35; Dan 12:2; Rev 21:8

TSK: Pro 13:6 - Righteousness // wickedness // the sinner

Righteousness : Pro 11:3, Pro 11:5, Pro 11:6; Psa 15:2, Psa 25:21, Psa 26:1

wickedness : Pro 5:22, Pro 21:12; 2Ch 28:23; Psa 140:11

the sinner : Heb. sin

TSK: Pro 13:7 - is that maketh himself rich // that maketh himself poor

is that maketh himself rich : Pro 13:11, Pro 12:9; Luk 18:11-14; 1Co 4:8; 2Pe 2:19; Rev 3:17

that maketh himself poor : Ecc 11:1, Ecc 11:2; 1Co 4:10, 1Co 4:11; 2Co 4:7; Rev 2:9

TSK: Pro 13:8 - ransom // the poor

ransom : Pro 6:35; Exo 21:30; Job 2:4; Psa 49:6-10; Jer 41:8; Mat 16:26; 1Pe 1:18, 1Pe 1:19

the poor : 2Ki 24:14, 2Ki 25:12; Jer 39:10; Zep 3:12

TSK: Pro 13:9 - light // lamp

light : Pro 4:18; 1Ki 11:36; Psa 97:11, Psa 112:4

lamp : or, candle, Pro 20:20, Pro 24:20; Job 18:5, Job 18:6, Job 21:17; Isa 50:10, Isa 50:11; Mat 22:13, Mat 25:8

TSK: Pro 13:10 - Only // with

Only : Pro 21:24; Jdg 12:1-6; 1Ki 12:10, 1Ki 12:11, 1Ki 12:16; 2Ki 14:10; Luk 22:24; 1Ti 6:4; Jam 3:14-16, Jam 4:1, Jam 4:5, Jam 4:6; 3Jo 1:9, 3Jo 1:10

with : Pro 12:15, Pro 12:16, Pro 17:14, Pro 19:20, Pro 20:18, Pro 25:8; Jdg 8:1-3; Luk 14:28-32; Act 6:1-5

TSK: Pro 13:11 - Wealth // he // by labour

Wealth : Pro 10:2, Pro 20:21, Pro 28:8; Job 15:28, Job 15:29, Job 20:15, Job 20:19-22, Job 27:16, Job 27:17; Ecc 5:14; Jer 17:11; Hab 2:6, Hab 2:7; Jam 5:1-5

he : Pro 13:22, Pro 13:23, Pro 20:21, Pro 27:23-27; Psa 128:2

by labour : Heb. with the hand

TSK: Pro 13:12 - Hope // when // a tree

Hope : Psa 42:1-3, Psa 69:3, Psa 119:81-83, Psa 143:7; Son 5:8

when : Pro 13:19; Gen 21:6, Gen 21:7, Gen 46:30; 1Sa 1:26-28; Psa 17:15, Psa 40:2, Psa 40:3; Luk 2:29, Luk 2:30; Joh 16:22

a tree : Pro 3:18, Pro 11:30; Rev 22:2

TSK: Pro 13:13 - despiseth // he // rewarded

despiseth : Pro 1:25, Pro 1:30, Pro 1:31; 2Sa 12:9, 2Sa 12:10; 2Ch 36:16; Jer 43:2, Jer 44:16, Jer 44:17; Eze 20:13, Eze 20:16, Eze 20:24; Luk 16:31; Heb 10:28, Heb 10:29

he : Ezr 10:3; Psa 115:13; Isa 66:2; Mal 3:16

rewarded : Heb. in peace, Psa 19:11, Psa 119:165; Mat 5:12; 2Jo 1:8

TSK: Pro 13:14 - law // to

law : Pro 9:11, Pro 10:11, Pro 14:27, Pro 16:22

to : Pro 15:24, Pro 16:6, Pro 16:17; 2Sa 22:6, 2Sa 22:7; Psa 18:5, Psa 116:3

TSK: Pro 13:15 - Good // but

Good : Pro 3:4, Pro 14:35; 1Sa 18:14-16; Luk 2:52; Act 7:10

but : Pro 4:19, Pro 15:10; Psa 95:9-11; Jer 2:19; Rom 6:21

TSK: Pro 13:16 - prudent // a fool // layeth

prudent : Pro 12:22, Pro 12:23, Pro 15:2, Pro 21:24; Psa 112:5; Isa 52:13; Mat 10:16; Rom 16:19; 1Co 14:20; Eph 5:17

a fool : 1Sa 25:10, 1Sa 25:11, 1Sa 25:17, 1Sa 25:25; Ecc 10:3

layeth : Heb. spreadeth

TSK: Pro 13:17 - wicked // but // a faithful ambassador

wicked : Pro 10:26, Pro 26:6; Jer 23:13-16, Jer 23:28; Eze 3:18, Eze 33:7, Eze 33:8; 2Co 2:17

but : Pro 25:13, Pro 25:23; 1Co 4:2; 2Co 5:20; 1Ti 1:12; 2Ti 2:2

a faithful ambassador : Heb. an ambassador of faithfulness

TSK: Pro 13:18 - Poverty // he

Poverty : Pro 13:13, Pro 5:9-14, Pro 12:1, Pro 15:5, Pro 15:31, Pro 15:32, Pro 19:6; Jer 5:3-9; Heb 12:25

he : Pro 9:9, Pro 25:12; Psa 141:5

TSK: Pro 13:19 - The desire // it is // depart

The desire : Pro 13:12; 1Ki 1:48; Psa 21:1, Psa 21:2; Son 3:4; 2Ti 4:7, 2Ti 4:8; Rev 7:14-17

it is : Pro 29:27

depart : Pro 3:7, Pro 16:6, Pro 16:17; Job 28:28; Psa 34:14, Psa 37:27; 2Ti 2:19

TSK: Pro 13:20 - that // but // destroyed

that : Pro 2:20; Psa 119:63; Son 1:7, Son 1:8; Mal 3:16; Act 2:42; Heb 10:24

but : Pro 1:11-19, Pro 2:12-19, Pro 7:22, Pro 7:23, Pro 7:27, Pro 9:6; Gen 13:12, Gen 13:13, Gen 14:12; 1Ki 12:8, 1Ki 12:10; 1Ki 22:4, 1Ki 22:32; 2Ch 19:2; 1Co 15:33, 1Co 15:34; 2Co 6:14-18; Rev 18:4

destroyed : Heb. broken

TSK: Pro 13:21 - pursueth // righteous

pursueth : Gen 4:7; Num 32:23; Psa 32:10, Psa 140:11; Act 28:4

righteous : Isa 3:10, Isa 3:11; Rom 2:7-10

TSK: Pro 13:22 - leaveth // the wealth

leaveth : Gen 17:7, Gen 17:8; Psa 25:12, Psa 25:13, Psa 102:28, Psa 112:2, Psa 128:6

the wealth : Pro 28:8; Job 27:16, Job 27:17; Ecc 2:26

TSK: Pro 13:23 - food // destroyed

food : Pro 12:11, Pro 12:14, Pro 27:18, Pro 27:23-27, Pro 28:19; Ecc 5:9

destroyed : Pro 6:6-11, Pro 11:5, Pro 11:6; Psa 112:5; Ecc 8:5, Ecc 8:6; Jer 8:7-10

TSK: Pro 13:24

Pro 3:12, Pro 8:36, Pro 19:18, Pro 22:15, Pro 23:13, Pro 23:14, Pro 29:15, Pro 29:17; Luk 14:26; Heb 12:6-8

TSK: Pro 13:25 - righteous // the belly

righteous : Psa 34:10, Psa 37:3, Psa 37:16, Psa 37:18, Psa 37:19; 1Ti 4:8; Heb 13:5

the belly : Pro 6:11, Pro 24:34; Deu 28:48, Deu 32:24; Isa 65:13, Isa 65:14; 2Th 3:10

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Pro 13:1 - Heareth // Instruction // Heareth not rebuke

Heareth which word is understood out of the next clause, as is frequent in the Hebrew text.

Instruction or, rebuke or reproof.

Heareth not rebuke he hateth reproof, either from his father or from any other man.

Poole: Pro 13:2 - Shall eat good // By the fruit of his mouth // The soul // The transgressors // Shall eat violence

Shall eat good shall receive much comfort, and credit, and benefit to himself.

By the fruit of his mouth by his wise and profitable discourses.

The soul i.e. the person, as the soul is oft used.

The transgressors who transgress with their lips, as this general phrase may be restrained from the former clause.

Shall eat violence shall have that violence and injury returned upon themselves, which they have offered to others in word or deed.

Poole: Pro 13:3 - He that keepeth his mouth // keepeth his life

He that keepeth his mouth to wit, to the opening of it; who speaks sparingly, and with due care and caution;

keepeth his life prevents many sins and mischiefs which others run into. He that openeth wide his lips , that takes liberty to speak every thing which pleaseth him, or cometh into his mind, shall have destruction, from God or men.

Poole: Pro 13:4 - Hath nothing // Shall be made fat

Hath nothing because he contenteth himself with lazy desires without diligent endeavours.

Shall be made fat he shall be enriched with the fruit of his own labours.

Poole: Pro 13:5 - Hateth lying // A wicked man // Cometh to shame

Hateth lying both in himself and in other men, whereby he getteth that good name which is like a precious ointment.

A wicked man who accustometh himself to lying, as may be gathered from the foregoing words.

Cometh to shame makes himself contemptible and hateful to all that know him; there being scarce any reproach which men more impatiently endure, and severely revenge, than that of being called or accounted a liar.

Poole: Pro 13:6 - Keepeth him // The sinner

Keepeth him either from sin, or from that overthrow which befalls sinners, in the next clause.

The sinner Heb. the man of sin , who giveth up himself to wicked courses.

Poole: Pro 13:7

Some men who have little or nothing pretend to have great riches, and carry themselves accordingly; either out of pride and vanity, or with a design to gain reputation with others whom they intend to defraud. Some rich men seem and profess themselves to be very poor, that they may preserve and increase their estates, by concealing them from those who would either desire a share in them, or take them away by deceit or violence.

Poole: Pro 13:8

This verse sets forth, either,

1. The several advantages of riches and poverty. Riches enable a man to redeem his life when it is in greatest danger, and poverty preserves a man from those rebukes and injuries which endanger and oft destroy the rich. Or,

2. The convenience of poverty above riches. Riches frequently expose men to the peril of losing their lives by false accusers, or thieves, or tyrants, which they are forced to redeem with the loss of their riches; whereas poverty commonly secures men not only from such kinds of death, but even from rebukes and injuries; partly because such persons are cautious that they may not offend or provoke others; and partly because their persons and actions are neglected and slighted, and they are esteemed objects of pity.

Poole: Pro 13:9 - The light // Rejoiceth // The lamp of the wicked shall be put out

The light the prosperity or happiness, which is oft called a light or lamp in Scripture, and other authors.

Rejoiceth shineth with a pleasant and constant brightness and glory; for this is opposed to the putting out in the next clause. Rejoicing is here ascribed to the light, as it is to the sun, Psa 19:5 , both metaphorically, because they would rejoice in it if they were capable of any such passions; and metonymically, because they refresh and cheer men’ s spirits. So mountains and trees are said to rejoice, Psa 65:12 96:12 .

The lamp of the wicked shall be put out their felicity shall have a sudden and a dismal end.

Poole: Pro 13:10 - Only by pride cometh contention // With the well-advised

Only by pride cometh contention which is not to be understood exclusively as to all other causes; for contentions oft spring from ignorance, or mistake, or covetousness, or other passions: but eminently, because as pride bloweth up those coals of contention which other lusts kindle, so ofttimes pride alone, without any other cause, stirreth up strife; which it doth by making a man self-conceited in his opinions, and obstinate in his resolutions, and impatient of any opposition, and many other ways.

With the well-advised who are not governed by their own passions, but by prudent consideration, and the good counsel of others, is wisdom ; which teacheth them to avoid and abhor all contention.

Poole: Pro 13:11 - By vanity // By labour

By vanity by vain, or deceitful, or wicked practices. Shall be diminished , because the curse of God attends upon it.

By labour by diligence in an honest calling.

Poole: Pro 13:12 - Hope deferred // The desire // It is a tree of life

Hope deferred delays in obtaining that good which a man passionately desireth and hopeth for.

The desire the good desired and expected; acts being oft put for the objects,

It is a tree of life it is most sweet, and satisfactory, and reviving.

Poole: Pro 13:13 - Despiseth // Shall be destroyed // That feareth the commandment

Despiseth disobeyeth it wilfully and presumptuously. The word ; the word of God, which is called the word by way of eminency, Deu 30:14 , compared with Rom 10:18 1Th 5:17 , and elsewhere.

Shall be destroyed except he repent, and return to his obedience.

That feareth the commandment that hath a reverence to its authority, and is afraid to violate it.

Poole: Pro 13:14 - The law // Of the wise

The law the doctrine, instruction, or counsel; as the word law is frequently understood in Scripture.

Of the wise of holy men, who are commonly called wise, as sinners are called fools, in this book.

Poole: Pro 13:15 - Good understanding // the way of transgressors // Giveth favour // The way // Is hard

Good understanding discovering itself by a man’ s holy and righteous practices and ways, as appears from the opposition of

the way of transgressors to it; and as words of understanding in this and other books of Scripture commonly include practice.

Giveth favour maketh a man acceptable both to God and men.

The way the carriage or manner of conversation.

Is hard or, rough , as this very word is used, Deu 21:4 ; offensive and hateful to God and men, as rough ways are to a traveller; fierce, and intractable, and incorrigible.

Poole: Pro 13:16 - Dealeth // doth // Layeth open his folly

Dealeth Heb. acteth , or

doth manageth all his affairs, with knowledge; considerately and discreetly.

Layeth open his folly by his heady and foolish actions.

Poole: Pro 13:17 - A wicked messenger // Is health

A wicked messenger who is unfaithful in the execution of that which is committed to his charge, as appears by the opposite clause,

falleth into mischief shall not escape punishment from God, or from them who sent him.

Is health or, wholesome ; procureth safety and benefit, as to his master, so also to himself.

Poole: Pro 13:18 - Instruction // He that regardeth reproof

Instruction whereby he might have been kept from destructive and dishonourable courses.

He that regardeth reproof that considers it seriously, receiveth it kindly, and reformeth himself by it, shall be honoured, and enriched, which is implied from the former branch. Not that it is so always, but commonly, and when God sees it good for a man. Or if he do not always gain riches, he shall certainly have honour both from God and men.

Poole: Pro 13:19 - The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul // But

The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul the satisfaction of a man’ s desires by the enjoyment of the things desired is very acceptable to him; which may be taken either,

1. Of the desire of fools, which may be understood out of the next clause. So the sense of the verse is, It is sweet to sinners to indulge and satisfy their desires, which are wholly carnal and sinful, and for that reason they love sin, and hate the thoughts of leaving it, because their desires are wholly and fully set upon it. Or,

2. Of good desires, or of the desires of wise and good men, as the LXX., and Chaldee, and Syriac, and Arabic interpreters understand it, by the opposition of

fools in the next clause. So the sense may be this. The desires of good men are set upon what is good, and they rejoice when they attain to it, and are grieved when they fall short of it; but the desires of the wicked are set upon sin, and it is a pleasure to them to commit it, and an abomination to them to be hindered from it. Or rather,

3. Of desires in general. Whatsoever men do earnestly desire, the enjoyment of it is very sweet and grateful to them; and therefore sinners rejoice in the pursuit and satisfaction of their sinful lusts, and abhor all restraint and mortification of them. For this is certain and confessed, that many things are understood in these short proverbial speeches which are not expressed.

But or, and , as this particle properly signifies; or, therefore , as it is frequently used.

Poole: Pro 13:20 - Walketh // Shall be wise

Walketh commonly converseth and associateth himself.

Shall be wise shall learn wisdom and goodness, both from their counsels and examples. The design of this proverb is to show the wonderful influence which a man’ s society hath upon him, either to save, or to corrupt and destroy him.

Poole: Pro 13:21 - Evil // Pursueth // Sinners // Good

Evil evil of punishment proportionable to their evil of sin, as appears from the next clause.

Pursueth and sooner or later shall certainly overtake them, albeit they please themselves with hopes of impunity.

Sinners obstinate and incorrigible sinners.

Good God’ s blessings and true happiness.

Poole: Pro 13:22

Is by God’ s powerful providence ofttimes translated to good men of another family, who will be more faithful stewards of it.

Poole: Pro 13:23 - Much food is in the tillage of the poor // Destroyed // For want of judgment

Much food is in the tillage of the poor poor and mean persons, by their diligent labours in tillage or other employments, and God’ s blessing upon them, ofttimes grow rich.

Destroyed or, consumed , to wit, in his estate, brought to poverty.

For want of judgment either,

1. For want of discretion and convenient care and diligence in tilling his land, and in managing his affairs, which he neglects himself, and leaves to the care of others; whereas poor men are forced by their necessities to look to their own concerns, and to use their utmost diligence in them. Or rather,

2. By injustice, as this phrase is used, Pro 16:8 Jer 17:11 22:13 Eze 22:29 . Nor do I find it in any other scripture. By his frauds, rapines, and oppressions, and other unjust and wicked practices, whereby he seeks to enrich himself, as refusing and scorning to get an estate by honest labours. So this agrees with what is said Pro 13:11 .

Poole: Pro 13:24 - He that spareth // his rod // hateth his son // Chasteneth him betimes

He that spareth Heb. withholdeth it from his son when it is due to him,

his rod that correction which his son’ s fault requires, and he as a father is required to give him,

hateth his son not directly and properly in regard of his affection, but consequently, and in respect of the event. His fond affection is as pernicious to him as his or another man’ s hatred could be.

Chasteneth him betimes either,

1. In his tender years, as soon as he is capable of it. Or,

2. Speedily, before he be hardened and inveterate in sin. God’ s favour and blessing gives the righteous man a competent estate, and a heart to use it, and comfort and satisfaction in it; whereas wicked men commonly want either all these blessings, or some of them.

Poole: Pro 13:25

God’ s favour and blessing gives the righteous man a competent estate, and a heart to use it, and comfort and satisfaction in it; whereas wicked men commonly want either all these blessings, or some of them.

PBC: Pro 13:23

See Philpot: THE TILLAGE OF THE POOR

Haydock: Pro 13:1 - Doctrine

Doctrine. Or he gives proof of his good education, (Calmet) and excites even his father to advance in piety. (Ven. Bede) ---

Septuagint, "is obedient to his father; but the disobedient son is in destruction." (Haydock)

Haydock: Pro 13:2 - Mouth

Mouth. In reward of his good speeches. (Calmet) ---

Septuagint, "of justice the good man eateth; but the souls of the lawless perish before the time," chap. xii. 13.

Haydock: Pro 13:3 - Hath

Hath. Hebrew, "who openeth his lips inconsiderately, is lost, Judges xi. 35. (Haydock)

Haydock: Pro 13:4 - Willeth not

Willeth not. Hebrew, "hath not." He only desires riches, or to be converted, and will not labour, chap. xxi. 25., and Ecclesiasticus v. 8.

Haydock: Pro 13:5 - Confounded

Confounded. The detractor is like swine, stirring up dirt. (St. Chrysostom, 32. ad Pop.) ---

The liar is not believed, even when he speaks the truth. (Aristotle)

Haydock: Pro 13:6 - Sinner

Sinner. Symmachus, "draweth on sin." Virtue is the best safeguard.

Haydock: Pro 13:7 - Riches

Riches. Such was St. Paul, 2 Corinthians vi. 10. Some affect to be rich, while others are never satisfied. Semper avarus eget. Lazarus was very rich in God's sight. [Luke xvi. 20.]

Haydock: Pro 13:8 - Reprehension

Reprehension. Or is not able to defend himself, like the rich. (Calmet) ---

He is not exposed so much to great revolutions. (Bayn.)

Haydock: Pro 13:9 - Out

Out. They are hated as well as their offspring. (Calmet)

Haydock: Pro 13:10 - Contentions

Contentions. As none will yield. (Menochius) ---

Hebrew, "only by pride cometh contention." (Protestants) ---

"Pride is the mother of all sects." (St. Augustine)

Haydock: Pro 13:11 - Haste // By little

Haste. Hebrew, "by vanity," and injustice. Those who become rich on a sudden fall under suspicion, as a Roman objected to Sylla, who had inherited nothing. (Plut.[Plutarch?]) ---

By little. Hebrew, "he that gathereth by labour, (Septuagint, piety) shall increase." (Protestants) (Haydock)

Haydock: Pro 13:12 - Hope // Soul

Hope. Septuagint, "(the just shews mercy and lends) better is he who begins heartily to assist, than he who promises and leads to hope. For a bad (Grabe substitutes good) desire is a tree of life." ---

Soul. Protestants, "maketh the heart sick." (Haydock) ---

The pain increases in proportion to our eager desire. Calvin maintains, that the souls of the blessed are not yet in heaven, but hope: and of course he would establish a sort of purgatory for them. (Haydock)

Haydock: Pro 13:13 - Come // Deceitful

Come. To defend what he has asserted, or to pass for a liar. Hebrew, "shall be destroyed by it." (Mont.[Montanus?]) (Haydock) ---

Those who despise God's order shall perish. ---

Deceitful, &c. This is not in Hebrew, nor in some of the Latin editions. (Calmet) ---

Septuagint, "to the deceitful son nothing shall be good. But the ways of the wise servant shall prosper, and his paths shall be made straight," chap. xiv. 15. (Haydock)

Haydock: Pro 13:14 - That

That. Septuagint, "but the fool is slain in the snare." (Haydock)

Haydock: Pro 13:15 - Grace

Grace. God assists those who strive to be well instructed. (Calmet)

Haydock: Pro 13:17 - Of the

Of the. Hebrew, "a wicked ambassador." A king generally chooses people like himself. (Menochius) ---

Septuagint have read melec. "A rash king shall," &c.

Haydock: Pro 13:18 - To him

To him. Hebrew, "destroy discipline," so that the most wretched are often noted for immorality. Septuagint, "instruction takes away poverty," as "the whole earth supports the man that has a trade," Greek: technion, according to the Greek proverb. (Calmet)

Haydock: Pro 13:19 - That is

That is. Septuagint, "of the pious, but the works of the impious are far from knowledge." (Haydock)

Haydock: Pro 13:20 - Become

Become. Septuagint, "be known." A person's disposition may be seen by the company which he frequents.

Haydock: Pro 13:22 - Heirs

Heirs. This was more observable under the old law: yet we often seem the distress to which the unjust are exposed. De male quæsitis non gaudet tertius hæres. (Calmet)

Haydock: Pro 13:23 - Fathers

Fathers. Heirs often lose their property by their misconduct. Hebrew and (Haydock) Chaldean read, "of the poor," who till their land better than those who have too large farms. (Menochius) ---

Nature requires but little. (Calmet) ---

Septuagint, "the just shall spend many years in affluence: but the unjust are cut off at once." (Haydock)

Haydock: Pro 13:24 - Betimes

Betimes. God has always treated his friends in this manner, to preserve them from sin, or to increase their reward. (Calmet)

Gill: Pro 13:1 - A wise son heareth his father's instruction // but a scorner heareth not rebuke

A wise son heareth his father's instruction,.... As he should, and has good reason to do; since it must be cordial, faithful, and disinterested, as well as the effect of age and experience. He "asks for it" and "loves" it, as Jarchi supplies the text; he likes and approves of it, is well pleased with it, and delights in it; seeing it tends to his profit and advantage; he "receives" it, as the Targum, so Ben Melech; he listens to and obeys it, and acts agreeably to it, which shows him to be wise; and this is the way to be wiser and wiser. So one that is spiritually wise will attend to and receive the instruction of Wisdom or Christ; who stands in the relation of an everlasting fin, her to his children; whose instruction is the doctrine of the Gospel; which a wise man hears, so as to understand it; to love and like it, and approve of it; cordially to embrace and obey it, and put it in practice; see Mat 7:24. The word also signifies "correction" ^s, because instruction often comes by it; and he that is a wise man will hear the rod and him that has appointed it, and learn to know his mind by it, and receive instruction from it: or is "chastised by his father" ^t, and takes it well, Mic 6:9;

but a scorner heareth not rebuke; that is, a son who is a scorner, as the Targum and Aben Ezra; one that makes a mock at sin, and scoffs at religion: such a man will be so far from hearing, attending to, and receiving the rebuke and reproof of his father, that he will scoff also at that; such as were the sons in law of Lot, and the sons of Eli and Samuel. So scornful men, that make a jest of everything that is sacred, will not hearken to the reproof of God's word, to the rebukes of Gospel ministers, or even to the rebukes of Providence, which will issue in their destruction, Pro 5:11.

Gill: Pro 13:2 - A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth // but the soul of the transgressors shall eat violence

A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth,.... Or, "of the mouth"; either another's or his own, since the word his is not in the text; though it is supplied by the Targum, Aben Ezra, the Vulgate Latin, and Syriac versions, as by us. The Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, "shall eat of the fruits of righteousness". I should choose to translate the whole thus: "a good man shall eat of the fruit of his mouth": so Aben Ezra interprets it, "a good man shall eat"; and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions render it. The sense is, that a good man brings forth good things out of the good treasure of his heart by his mouth; which not only minister grace to the hearers, and are for the use of edifying to others, but also to himself; while he gives wholesome counsel and advice to others, it is of service to himself; while he comforts others, he comforts himself; and while he teaches and instructs others, he teaches and instructs himself: so a good minister of Jesus Christ, while he feeds others with knowledge and understanding, he himself is nourished up with the words of faith and good doctrine; so Jarchi refers it to a man's doctrine, and the reward of it here and hereafter;

but the soul of the transgressors shall eat violence; Jarchi interprets it,

"the delight of transgressors is violence;'' ^u.

that is, what their souls desire, choose, will, and take pleasure in, even using violence, and doing mischief to others; and to the same purpose is the note of Gersom: but Aben Ezra supplies it from the former clause, as we do; and the sense is, that the same measure they mete out to others shall be measured out to them again; what they give others to eat, they shall eat themselves, even the bread of violence; see Pro 4:16. And this will be the case of all perfidious and treacherous ones, as the word ^w used signifies; of false teachers and cruel persecutors; and of Babylon, of whom it will he said, "reward her as she rewarded you", Rev 18:6.

Gill: Pro 13:3 - He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life // but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction

He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life,.... He that keeps his mouth shut keeps it as with a bridle; keeps it from speaking things of other persons, particularly of such as are in high places, of kings and princes, and civil magistrates: he keeps himself quiet and comfortable; keeps himself from many troubles, which otherwise he would come into; keeps his life from danger, to which it would be exposed, should he speak evil of dignities, or give himself the freedom, as some do, whereby they are brought to an untimely end; see Pro 18:21; besides, persons ought to be careful of their words, since by them a man will either be justified or condemned hereafter, Mat 12:37;

but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction; or "consternation" ^x: he that is rash and inconsiderate, hasty with his lips, a talkative man; that speaks freely everything that comes into his mind, regardless of the characters of men, or consequences of things; is often brought into frights and fears, through the menaces and threatenings of men in power, whose characters he has made too free with, and oftentimes is brought to ruin and destruction: so he, whose throat is as an open sepulchre, belching out filthy words, horrid oaths, curses, and imprecations, destruction is near him, even in all his ways; and the man of sin, that opens his mouth in blasphemy against God, and his tabernacle, and his saints, shall go into perdition, Rev 13:5.

Gill: Pro 13:4 - The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing // but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat

The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing,.... He desires knowledge, but does not care to be at any pains to get it, and so has it not; he desires riches, but chooses not to make use of the means, to be diligent and industrious, and so he is without them; he desires to wear good clothes and rich raiment, but is unwilling to labour for them, and therefore is clothed with rags; he desires food, and plenty of it, but refuses to work for it; and he that will not work should not eat, and therefore he has it not, but starves and famishes: and, in spiritual things, the sluggard desires heaven and happiness, but does not care to do the duties of religion; he would die the death of the righteous, but is unwilling to live his life; to abstain from sin, and live soberly and righteously, is too hard service for him; he does not choose to do or suffer anything for the cause of Christ and true religion. Jarchi's note is, that

"in the future state he shall see the glory of the wise man, and desire it; but shall not attain to it;''

but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat; become rich; increase in temporal things, and have great plenty and prosperity; and so, in spiritual matters, such who are diligent in the use of means, constantly attend on the word and ordinances, and labour for the meat which endures to everlasting life; such are filled and satisfied, as with marrow and fatness; and become fat and flourishing, and fruitful in every good word and work; and shall at last arrive to that state where there will be no more hunger and thirst.

Gill: Pro 13:5 - A righteous man hateth lying // but a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame

A righteous man hateth lying,.... Or, "a word of falsehood" ^y; as being contrary to honour, truth, and conscience. He hates it in himself and others; he hates all sorts of lies, lies in common conversation, religious lies, doctrinal ones, false doctrines, lies spoken in hypocrisy; such as the followers of antichrist spread, being given up unto them that they might be damned, 1Ti 4:2; these are an abomination to God and all good men, Rev 21:27;

but a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame; or, "causes" or "spreads a stink" ^z: all wicked men are loathsome and abominable, being very corrupt in principle and practice; all over defiled with sin, and covered with wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores, from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet; and especially liars, who are often brought to shame and confusion in this life, and will hereafter come to everlasting shame and contempt. Or, "makes himself to stink" ^a; in the nostrils of all good men, and so brought to shame: or "digs"; a metaphor, as Cartwright thinks, from those that dig in the earth, where such as are covered with shame would gladly put their heads.

Gill: Pro 13:6 - Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way // but wickedness overthroweth the sinner

Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way,.... Men of uprightness and integrity, whose hearts are sincere in the ways of God; the principle of grace and righteousness in them keeps them in those ways, and will not suffer them to turn aside into crooked paths; the word of righteousness, the doctrine of the Gospel, is a means of preserving them from sin, and of keeping them in the right way; particularly the doctrine of Christ's righteousness, and justification by it, is a great antidote against sin, and a powerful motive and incentive to the performance of good works, and all the duties of religion: it engages men to observe every command of Christ, to walk in all his ways; and is a great preservative from false doctrine and antichristian worship;

but wickedness overthroweth the sinner; it is the cause of his utter overthrow, of his being punished with everlasting destruction. It is, in the Hebrew text, "sin" ^b itself; the sinner is so called, because he is perfectly wicked, as Jarchi observes; he is nothing but sin, a mere mass of sin and corruption. Aben Ezra renders it, "the man of sin"; and it may be well applied to him, who is emphatically called so, and is likewise the son of perdition; who, for his wickedness, will be overthrown and destroyed at the coming of Christ, and with the brightness of it, 2Th 2:3.

Gill: Pro 13:7 - There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing // there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches

There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing,.... Some persons make a great show of riches, and would be thought to be rich; put on fine clothes, live at a high rate, and appear in great pomp, and yet not worth a farthing; which they do to gratify their pride and ambition, and to draw in others to trust them with their substance. So in spirituals; some persons, as hypocrites, would be thought to be rich in grace, and to be possessed of all the graces of the Spirit, faith, hope, and love; and yet have nothing of true grace, only what is counterfeit; the root of the matter is not in them; no principle of life and grace, only a name to live; nothing of the power, only the form, of godliness; no oil of grace in the vessels of their hearts, only the lamp of an outward profession: some, as the Pharisees, would be thought to be rich in good works, when they have no good thing in them, and do nothing that is spiritually good; either what they do is not done according to the revealed will of God, as many things done by the Pharisees formerly, and by the Papists now, or they do not flow from love; nor i are they done in faith, nor in the name and strength of Christ, nor to the glory of God by him: some, as the same persons, would be thought to be rich in righteousness, when they have no true righteousness at all; not the righteousness of the law, which requires perfection of obedience; not the righteousness of faith, which is the righteousness of another; the righteousness of God is imputed, and is without the works of men; they have no righteousness that can justify them, or save them, or bring them to heaven: some, as the Arminians, would be thought to be rich in spiritual strength, and in the power of their free will, when they have neither will nor power to do anything spiritually good; neither to regenerate and convert themselves, nor to come to Christ, nor to do any good work: some, as the Perfectionists, would be thought to be so rich as to be free from sin, and perfect in grace, when they have none at all, as says the apostle, 1Jo 1:8; their picture is drawn in Ephraim, and their language spoke by him, Hos 12:8. The apostate church of Rome would be thought rich with the merits of saints, and works of supererogation, when she has no merit at all; nor is it possible for a creature to, merit anything at the hands of God; compare with all this Rev 3:17;

there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches; there are some, on the other hand, who greatly degrade themselves; live in a very mean way, as though they were very poor; either through covetousness, or because they would not draw upon them the envy of their neighbours, or encourage their friends to borrow of them, or invite thieves to steal from them, or for some low end or another: the pope of Rome sometimes affects to seem poor, though at other times, and in other respects, he would be thought rich; at the Lateran procession the newly elected pope scatters pieces of brass money among the people, saying, as Peter, whose successor he pretends to be, did, "Silver and gold have I none", Act 3:6; yet comes into great riches. These words may be applied spiritually, in a good sense; there are some who are sensible of their spiritual poverty, and own it; they ingenuously express the sense they have of their own nothingness and unworthiness; they declare they have nothing, and can do nothing; they renounce all their own works in the business of salvation, and ascribe it wholly to the grace of God; they have very mean thoughts, and speak very meanly of themselves, as less than the least of saints, and the chief of sinners: yea, some carry the matter too far in the expressions of their poverty; will not be persuaded that they have the true riches of grace, at least will not own it; but give way to their doubts and fears about it, when they are possessed of much; to whom some think these words are applicable. However, they are to such who are "poor in spirit", Mat 5:3, as before described; who have, notwithstanding, "great riches", the riches of justifying grace, the riches of Christ's righteousness: the riches of pardoning grace, a large share thereof, much being forgiven them; the riches of sanctifying grace, faith, more precious than that of gold that perisheth, with all other graces; the riches of spiritual knowledge, preferable to gold and silver: they have Christ, and all things along with him; they have God to be their portion, and exceeding great reward; they have a large estate, an incorruptible inheritance, in heaven; they have a better and a more enduring substance there; "theirs is the kingdom of heaven", Mat 5:3; it is prepared for them, and given to them; compare with this 2Co 6:10.

Gill: Pro 13:8 - The ransom of a man's life are his riches // but the poor heareth not rebuke

The ransom of a man's life are his riches,.... As Benhadad's were to him, when he was in the hands of the king of Israel, 1Ki 20:34; and as the treasures the ten men had in the field were to them, for the sake of which Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, slew them not, Jer 41:8. This is the advantage of riches when a man is taken captive in war, or by pirates, or is in the hands of thieves and robbers, he can redeem himself by his money; or when his life is in danger by diseases, he can procure healing medicines; or by famine, he can get food to preserve it, when a poor man cannot: but this is not to be done always, and is only to be understood of a temporal life; for, as to the spiritual and eternal redemption of the soul of man, that requires a greater ransom price than such corruptible things as silver and gold; nothing short of the precious blood of Christ is sufficient for that, Job 36:18. Moreover, these words may not so much design the convenience as the inconvenience of riches to men; since these often invite thieves to assault their persons, and break into their houses, and threaten their lives; and put wicked men upon forming schemes, and drawing up charges and accusations against them, purely to get their money; which bring their lives into danger, and which they can only redeem by their riches;

but the poor heareth not rebuke; no charge and accusation is brought against him; no rebuke or reproof is given him; no notice is taken of him, because nothing is to be got from him; he may sleep with his door unlocked, thieves will give him no disturbance; he may travel upon the road without being bid to stand ^c. Jarchi interprets this of him that is poor in the law; that hearkens not to reproofs and admonitions, given him to depart from evil: but rather it may be applied to the poor in spirit; who trust not in themselves and their own righteousness, but in the grace of God and righteousness of Christ; who indeed hear the rebukes of good men, and take them kindly; and of bad men, and return not revilings for them; and also the rebukes of Providence, or the chastisements of their heavenly Father, yet they will never hear any rebuke in wrath from him here or hereafter; when the rich in their own conceit, who trust in their riches and righteousness, and think to ransom their souls from death by them, will have rebukes with flames of fire.

Gill: Pro 13:9 - The light of the righteous rejoiceth // but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out

The light of the righteous rejoiceth,.... The light of joy and gladness, which is sown for them, and arises to them; the light of spiritual knowledge and experience they have; the light of sound doctrine; the light of good works, and a Gospel conversation; all this, as it is delightful to themselves and others, so it is increasing more and more to the perfect day, and it continues: so the Septuagint and Arabic versions, "light is always for the righteous"; especially it will be in the latter day, and particularly in the New Jerusalem state, when there will be no night, Rev 21:23;

but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out; the light of the righteous is like that of the sun, bright and pleasant; but the light of the wicked is like that of a lamp, lesser and not so agreeable, nor will it last; their prosperity is short lived, their joy is but for a moment; the pleasures of sin are but for a season; their candle soon goes out; it is put out in obscure darkness, and they themselves are reserved to blackness of darkness, Job 18:5; as prosperous and flourishing as the kingdom of antichrist has been or is, it will be full of darkness, Rev 16:12.

Gill: Pro 13:10 - Only by pride cometh contention // but with the well advised is wisdom

Only by pride cometh contention,.... Though it comes by other things, yet by this chiefly, and there are no contentions without it: or "truly", "verily", "certainly ^d, by pride", &c. Unless the words may be better rendered, "an empty man through pride will give contention" ^e, or make it; such as are empty of knowledge and wisdom; and such are generally the most proud, and are very apt to raise contentions, and foment divisions: contentions in families, in neighbourhoods, in towns, cities, and countries, and in churches, are generally owing to pride; what contentions and confusions has the pride of the pope of Rome brought into kingdoms and states, into councils, and into the church of God!

but with the well advised is wisdom: such who are humble and modest will seek counsel of God; will consult the sacred oracles, and ask advice of those who are superior to them in knowledge and understanding; and so will neither raise contentions themselves, nor join with those that make them, but do all they can to lay them; these show that true wisdom is with them.

Gill: Pro 13:11 - Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished // but he that gathereth by labour shall increase

Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished,.... In an unjust or unlawful way, either by robbery and theft, as Aben Ezra; or by fraud and tricking, by overreaching and circumventing others; or by vain practices, as by cards or dice, and by stage playing and the like; or by curious and illicit arts, as necromancy, judiciary astrology, and such like things; whatever is gotten in a wicked way very seldom lasts long; it lessens by little and little till it comes to nothing ^f; see Jer 17:11; and sometimes very quickly and suddenly, all at once; thus that mass of riches which the church of Rome has got together by her vain and wicked practices, by her idolatry, pardons, and indulgences, will in one hour come to nought, Rev 18:17;

but he that gathereth by labour shall increase, or "that gathereth by the hand" or "in it" ^g; by hand labour in an honest way, or with the diligent hand, which maketh rich; who labours with his hand and gets by in sufficient to support himself and his family, and to give to the necessities of others; who does not lay it up in coffers, but keeps it in his hand to distribute; such generally thrive and flourish: some copies read it, "he that gathereth, עד, unto the hand" ^h, that gathers and puts it into the hands of others; that liberally communicates to the poor; he shall increase, as commonly liberal persons do; so the Targum,

"he that gathereth and giveth to the poor shall increase in substance.''

Gill: Pro 13:12 - Hope deferred maketh the heart sick // but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,.... That is, the object hoped for; if it is not enjoyed so soon as expected, at least if it is delayed any length of time, the mind becomes uneasy, the heart sinks and fails, and the man is dispirited and ready to despond, and give up all hope of enjoying the desired blessing; whether it be deliverance from any evil, or the possession of any good;

but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life; when that which is hoped and wished for, and has been long expected and desired, comes; when there is an accomplishment of men's wishes, it is as grateful to him as the tree of life was in Eden's garden; it gives him an unspeakable pleasure and delight. This may be applied to many things in a spiritual way, as to the first coming of Christ; and some have thought this is greatly regarded and chiefly intended; this was the object of the hope of Old Testament saints; and it was hoped for on a good foundation, on the promise of God, which was frequently repeated, enlarged, and confirmed; yet this promised and hoped for blessing was deferred a long time; from the first promise of it to its accomplishment were four thousand years; though not deferred longer than the appointed time, yet longer than the saints expected, and which sometimes made their hearts sick; they became weak and feeble, fearful and dispirited, lest it should never come to pass, which occasioned fresh promises and assurances to them; see Isa 35:3, Mal 3:1; but when "the desire" came, Christ the desired object; and who is desirable for the excellencies of his person, his mediatorial qualifications, the work of redemption and salvation he came about, and the blessings he brought with him; and who is the "desire of all nations" that was to come, Hag 2:7; it was exceeding joyful and delightful to all that expected him, and were looking for redemption in Israel, or Christ; "the coming desire" ⁱ, as it may be rendered, is "a tree of life", or "lives", the author of life, natural, spiritual, and eternal; see Pro 3:18. It may be applied also to the spiritual presence of Christ, and communion with him; this is what believers, being sometimes without, hope and wait for; and sometimes it is deferred a long time, at least they think it so, which makes them very uneasy, and even sick of love, as the church was, Son 5:8; but when what they so earnestly desire is granted them, it is as if they were in Eden's garden, or rather in the paradise above, plucking the fruit of the tree of life: likewise it may be applied to eternal glory and happiness; this is the object of hope in the present state; it is sometimes impatiently expected and desired, and the language of the soul is, "Why is his chariot so long in coming?", "come, Lord Jesus, come quickly", Jdg 5:28; and when this desired happiness is enjoyed, how sweet will it be! and the sweeter for having been so much longed and wished for; and when the saints will be in the paradise of God, and eat of the tree of life in the midst of it, and never hunger more.

Gill: Pro 13:13 - Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed // but he that feareth the commandment // shall be rewarded

Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed,.... The word of God. Either Christ, the essential Word; which must be a great evil, considering the dignity of his person; great ingratitude, considering the grace of his office; very dangerous, considering what a quick, sharp, and powerful Word he is: and such may be said to despise him who despise his ministers, and the Gospel preached by them; and which may be meant by the word, that being the word of God and of truth, the word of righteousness, peace, life, and salvation; and is to them that perish foolishness; and to whom it is so, they shall perish, and be punished with everlasting destruction, for their contempt of it, and disobedience to it. Or the written word may be meant, the Scriptures, which are given by inspiration of God, and therefore ought to be had in the greatest reverence; and yet are greatly slighted and despised by the man of sin and his followers; who set up and prefer their unwritten traditions to them, and so make them of none effect: such are all false teachers, that despise or abuse them, they bring destruction to themselves; for so the words may be rendered, "shall bring destruction to himself", or shall receive detriment from it: so the Targum, from the word itself; the Syriac version, "by it"; and the Arabic version, "by the commandment itself"; by the threatenings in it, and according to them: or, "because of it"; because of the contempt of it;

but he that feareth the commandment; receives the word with reverence, trembles at it; fears God, and keeps his commandments, and fears to break them: he

shall be rewarded; with good, as the Targum adds; for in keeping the commandments of God there is great reward: or, "shall enjoy peace", or "be in safety" ^k; for great peace have they which love the law of God, and serve it: or, "shall be sound, and in health" ^l; when those that despise it "shall be corrupted" ^m; as the word in the preceding clause may be rendered.

Gill: Pro 13:14 - The law of the wise is a fountain of life // to depart from the snares of death

The law of the wise is a fountain of life,.... Or "doctrine" ⁿ; the doctrine of those who are taught by the word, and are wise unto salvation; the words or doctrines of the wise, which are given forth by one Shepherd; the instructions of such who are like Scribes, well instructed themselves unto the kingdom of heaven: these are as a fountain of living water; which are the means of quickening dead sinners, and of reviving and refreshing the souls of weary saints; and bring life and immortality to light, and point and lead to eternal life: and so direct souls

to depart from the snares of death; the snares of sin, Satan, and the world, to shun and avoid them; with which men being entangled, are brought to destruction and death.

Gill: Pro 13:15 - Good understanding giveth favour // but the way of transgressors is hard

Good understanding giveth favour,.... A good understanding in things natural and civil gives favour among men; and so a good understanding in divine and spiritual things gives a man favour among religious people, makes him taken notice of by them, and acceptable to them: and such an understanding no man has, unless it be given him; and such appear to have one that do the commandments of God, Psa 111:10. The Israelites, for having and keeping the statutes of the Lord, were accounted by others a wise and an understanding people; and Christ, as man, when he increased in wisdom, grew in favour with God and men. It may be rendered, "good doctrine", as the Vulgate Latin version, or "right doctrine", as the Arabic version, "gives grace" ^o; is the means of conveying grace into the hearts of men, and of increasing it. What if it should be rendered, "grace gives a good understanding" ^p? since it is certain, that an understanding to know God and Christ is a gift of grace, 1Jo 5:20;

but the way of transgressors is hard; ungrateful and unpleasant to themselves and others; it is a rough and rugged way, in which they stumble and fall; and cannot walk with pleasure themselves, when their consciences are awakened, and they are loaded with guilt, and filled with terror; and must be very disagreeable to those who have seen the evil of them.

Gill: Pro 13:16 - Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge // but a fool layeth open his folly

Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge,.... In order to get more, and with men of knowledge for the same purpose; all he does is with knowledge and discretion; he does not meddle with things, nor has he to do with persons, he knows nothing of; he both acts and speaks with knowledge, cautiously, wisely, considering well time, place, and persons: and every wise and good man deals with evangelical knowledge, and studies to grow in the knowledge of the Gospel, and the mysteries of it; in the knowledge of Christ, and of God in Christ; the issue of which is life eternal;

but a fool layeth open his folly; or "spreads" ^q it; and exposes it to the view of everyone, by his foolish talk and indiscreet actions.

Gill: Pro 13:17 - A wicked messenger falleth into mischief // but a faithful ambassador is health

A wicked messenger falleth into mischief,.... That does not do his errand right, nor deliver his message faithfully; such an one falls from the degree of honour in which he was into disgrace; he loses his master's favour that sent him; he is degraded from his post and office: he falls "by evil", or "into evil" ^r; by the evil of sin, into the evil of punishment. So wicked ministers and false teachers, such who transform themselves into the apostles of Christ and into angels of light, who corrupt the word of God, and handle it deceitfully; these shall receive their just condemnation; since they do a deal of mischief to the souls of men, and therefore shall fall into mischief themselves, even into everlasting perdition;

but a faithful ambassador is health; or, "an ambassador of truths" ^s; one that performs his embassy well and truly, he is salutary, useful, and profitable to himself, and to them that send him: the word for ambassador is translated an "hinge", Pro 26:14; and he is so called, because upon his negotiations abroad the hinge of political affairs turn at home. An ambassador of Christ, who does his work faithfully, keeps back nothing that is profitable, but declares the whole counsel of God; the sound doctrines he delivers are health to the souls of men; as well as he is approved of God and Christ; and so it turns to his own health and advantage, who will hear one day said unto him, "Well done, good and faithful servant", Mat 25:23.

Gill: Pro 13:18 - Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction // but he that regardeth reproof // shall be honoured

Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction,.... Of parents, masters, and ministers of the word; the instruction of wisdom, the instruction of the Gospel, in things relating to their present spiritual peace, and to their eternal welfare: such generally come to poverty and disgrace in this life, and to everlasting shame and contempt in another; see Pro 5:11;

but he that regardeth reproof; the reproof of the word, and of the ministers of it, and of all good men, and takes it kindly, and acts according to it,

shall be honoured; with riches and reputation; if not with the riches of this world, yet with the riches of grace and glory; and shall have honour among the saints, and from the Lord himself; who will honour those that honour him, as they do who regard the reproof and instruction of his word, 1Sa 2:30.

Gill: Pro 13:19 - The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul // but it is abomination to fools to depart from evil

The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul,.... Whether the desire be after riches and honour, after wisdom and knowledge; or after the best things, the knowledge of God, and communion with him; an interest in Christ, and the blessings of his grace, as pardon, righteousness, &c. and a right and title to eternal glory and happiness, and the enjoyment of that: and how sweet are these things the soul desires, when they are possessed! see Pro 13:12; such are "the desires of the godly", as the Septuagint render the word;

but it is abomination to fools to depart from evil; they cannot bear the thoughts of parting with their lusts; they are so delightful to them, not knowing anything of the sweetness of the things before mentioned; and which they can never enjoy without departing from sin, to which they are exceedingly averse.

Gill: Pro 13:20 - He that walketh with wise men shall be wise // but a companion of fools shall be destroyed

He that walketh with wise men shall be wise,.... Who is a companion of them that fear the Lord; converses frequently with them in private about spiritual and experimental things, and walks with them in public in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord; he by those means grows wiser and wiser, gains a large stock of spiritual knowledge and experience; for this holds good both in natural and spiritual wisdom, a man of any capacity at all will improve by keeping wise company;

but a companion of fools shall be destroyed; the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "shall become like them"; be a fool as they are, and grow still more and more foolish. The Septuagint version is, "shall be known"; known by the company he keeps to be a fool also: or rather, "shall be broken" ^t; ruined and destroyed, "evil communications corrupt good manners", 1Co 15:33, and so bring to ruin and destruction.

Gill: Pro 13:21 - Evil pursueth sinners // but to the righteous good shall be repaid

Evil pursueth sinners,.... They pursue the evil of sin, and the evil of punishment pursues them, and at last overtakes them; their damnation, though it may seem to slumber and linger, it does not; it is upon the full speed after them, and will quickly seize upon them. Some understand this of the evil of sin in the conscience, which pursues the sinner, and fills him with terror;

but to the righteous good shall be repaid; or, "he shall recompense the righteous with good" ^u, or "good to the righteous"; that is, God shall do it; for all the good things they have done, from a right principle, and to a right end; which good works of theirs will pursue and follow them; and for all the ill things they have suffered for righteousness's sake, a reward of grace, though not of debt, will be given them; as they have had their evil things here, they shall have their good things hereafter; as well as are often recompensed in this life, either in themselves or in their posterity, as follows.

Gill: Pro 13:22 - A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children // and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just

A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children,.... He not only has a sufficiency for the present support of himself and family; but is so prospered and succeeded, as to leave an inheritance after him; and which is continued to and enjoyed, not only by his immediate offspring, but theirs also; for being got honestly, it wears well; see Pro 13:11;

and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just; the riches which wicked men get are laid up in the purposes of God for good men; and in his providence they are translated from the one to the other: so the riches of the Egyptians were designed for the Israelites, and by the providence of God were put into their hands; see Job 27:16.

Gill: Pro 13:23 - Much food is in the tillage of the poor // but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment

Much food is in the tillage of the poor,.... The poor are generally employed in tilling land; from whose labours in ploughing and sowing much food arises to men, bread to the eater, and seed to the sower: or a poor farmer, that has but a small farm, a few acres of land, to till; yet through his diligence and industry, with the blessing of God upon it, he gets a comfortable livelihood for himself and family; much food, or a sufficiency of it for the present year, and seed to sow land again the following year;

but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment; or discretion in tilling his land, and managing the affairs of husbandry, which is God's gift, Isa 28:26; or, "through injustice" ^w, as some render it; for want of doing that which is right and just; not paying his labourers their hire and wages, as he ought, and so it is blasted, and comes to ruin. This may be spiritually applied. By the "poor" may be understood the poor ministers of the Gospel; who, though poor, make many rich, 2Co 6:10; much spiritual food is to be had under their labours and ministrations, they being employed in cultivating the churches: or else the poor saints and poor churches themselves may be meant; who are tilled by them, among whom is plenty of spiritual provisions; as in the poor Protestant churches, who, though in the wilderness, are nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, when there is no food in the apostate church of Rome: and so by the "tillage" may be meant the church of Christ itself, which is "God's husbandry", 1Co 3:9; his agriculture, his tillage, his arable land; which he has separated and distinguished from the wide world, and employs his power and care about. For he is the husbandman, Joh 15:1; it is he that breaks up the fallow ground of men's hearts; that makes the ground good which he tills; who sows the seed of the word, and the seed of his grace there; who waters it with the dews of his grace, and causes his people to grow as the corn, and ripens them for glory: and when the harvest is come, the end of the world or of life, he sends his reapers, his angels, to gather them, the wheat, into his garner. And he employs the ministers of the word as under husbandmen, as labourers under him and with him; these are the ploughmen that hold the plough of the Gospel, and manage that; these are his sowers that go forth, bearing the precious seed of the word, and sow it under his direction; and these water the ground that is sown and planted; their doctrines distil as the rain and dew upon it; and these bring in their sheaves with joy at last. And now in this tillage is much spiritual food; in God's husbandry, the church, are the word and ordinances, in which are milk for babes, and meat for strong men, salutary, wholesome, nourishing, and strengthening food; here Christ, the best food, is set forth to faith to feed upon; true and real food, meat and drink indeed, spiritual, savoury, satisfying food; soul reviving, refreshing, and nourishing food; here is plenty of it, enough and to spare: and yet there are some that are destroyed for want of spiritual judgment and discerning; who take the poison of false teachers instead of the food to be had under a Gospel ministry; so the followers of the man of sin are given up to believe a lie and be damned; for want of judgment, they receive the grossest absurdities, and perish; as others also give in to damnable heresies, denying the deity, satisfaction, and righteousness of Christ, and other soul destroying notions; see Hos 4:6.

Gill: Pro 13:24 - He that spareth his rod hateth his son // but he that loveth him // chasteneth him betimes

He that spareth his rod hateth his son,.... Who withholds or withdraws his rod of correction, which is in his hand, which he has power to use, and ought to exercise at proper times; he, instead of loving his son, may be said to hate him; for such fond love is no better than hatred; and, if he really hated him, he could scarcely do a more ill thing by him than not to correct him for a fault; which was the sin of good old Eli, and both he and his sons suffered for it;

but he that loveth him; that has a true love for his son, and a hearty concern for his welfare and future good; he will regulate his affections by his judgment, and not give way to a fond passion, to the prejudice of his child: but he

chasteneth him betimes, or "in the morning" ^x; in the morning of his infancy, before vicious habits are contracted, or he is accustomed to sinning, and hardened in it; or as soon as a crime is perpetrated, before it is forgot or repeated: or every morning, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra; that is, continually, as often as it is necessary, or as faults are committed.

Gill: Pro 13:25 - The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul // but the belly of the wicked shall want

The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul,.... He is blessed with a sufficient competency to live upon; and he is contented with what he has, and uses it moderately; he has enough to eat, and is contented with his portion, and eats no more than sufficeth; he eats to the satisfying of his appetite, and no more; he does not indulge to luxury and excess: and so as to spiritual things; he eats to the satisfying of his soul, with the goodness and fatness of God's house, with the word and ordinances, with the promises of the Gospel, and with Jesus Christ, the bread of life; with these he is satisfied, as with marrow and fatness;

but the belly of the wicked shall want; not only spiritual food, which he has no appetite for, but corporeal food; he shall starve in the midst of plenty, not having a heart to put that food into his mouth, and fill his belly with it, as nature requires, through his covetousness; or, having spent his substance in rioting and wantonness, wants bread to satisfy the craving of his appetite.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Ayat / Catatan Kaki

NET Notes: Pro 13:1

¹ tn The term “accepts” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness and clarity.

² tc G. R. Driver suggested reading this word as מְיֻסַּר (mÿyussar, “allows himself to be disciplined”); see his “Hebrew Notes on Prophets and Proverbs,” JTS 41 (1940): 174. But this is not necessary at all; the MT makes good sense as it stands. Similarly, the LXX has “a wise son listens to his father.”

tn Heb “discipline of a father.”

³ sn The “scoffer” is the worst kind of fool. He has no respect for authority, reviles worship of God, and is unteachable because he thinks he knows it all. The change to a stronger word in the second colon – “rebuke” (גָּעַר, ga’ar) – shows that he does not respond to instruction on any level. Cf. NLT “a young mocker,” taking this to refer to the opposite of the “wise son” in the first colon.

NET Notes: Pro 13:2

¹ tn Heb “lips” (so NIV); KJV “mouth.” The term “lips” is a metonymy of cause for what the lips produce: speech.

² tn Heb “he eats [what is] good.”

³ tn Heb “the desire of the faithless.” The noun “faithless” is a subjective genitive: “the faithless desire….”

⁴ tn The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, traditionally “soul”) has a broad range of meanings, and here denotes “appetite” (e.g., Ps 17:9; Prov 23:3; Eccl 2:24; Isa 5:14; Hab 2:5; BDB 660 s.v. 5.c) or (2) “desire” (e.g., Deut 12:20; Prov 13:4; 19:8; 21:10; BDB 660 s.v. 6.a).

⁵ tn Heb “violence.” The phrase “the fruit of” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied by the parallelism. The term “violence” is probably a metonymy of cause: “violence” represents what violence gains – ill-gotten gains resulting from violent crime. The wicked desire what does not belong to them.

tc The LXX reads “the souls of the wicked perish untimely.” The MT makes sense as it stands.

NET Notes: Pro 13:3

¹ tn Heb “mouth” (so KJV, NAB). The term פֶּה (peh, “mouth”) functions as a metonymy of cause for speech.

² tn The term “but” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

³ tn Heb “opens wide his lips.” This is an idiom meaning “to be talkative” (BDB 832 s.v. פָּשַׂק Qal). Cf. NIV “speaks rashly”; TEV “a careless talker”; CEV “talk too much.”

⁴ sn Tight control over what one says prevents trouble (e.g., Prov 10:10; 17:28; Jas 3:1-12; Sir 28:25). Amenemope advises to “sleep a night before speaking” (5:15; ANET 422, n. 10). The old Arab proverb is appropriate: “Take heed that your tongue does not cut your throat” (O. Zockler, Proverbs, 134).

NET Notes: Pro 13:4

¹ tn The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, traditionally “soul”) has a broad range of meanings, and here denotes “appetite” (e.g., Ps 17:9; Prov 23:3; Eccl 2:24; Isa 5:14; Hab 2:5; BDB 660 s.v. 5.c) or (2) “desire” (e.g., Deut 12:20; Prov 19:8; 21:10; BDB 660 s.v. 6.a).

² sn The contrast is between the “soul (= appetite) of the sluggard” (נַפְשׁוֹ עָצֵל, nafsho ’atsel) and the “soul (= desire) of the diligent” (נֶפֶשׁ חָרֻצִים, nefesh kharutsim) – what they each long for.

³ tn The Hitpael verb means “to lust after; to crave.” A related verb is used in the Decalogue’s prohibition against coveting (Exod 20:17; Deut 5:21).

⁴ tn Heb “will be made fat” (cf. KJV, NASB); NRSV “is richly supplied.”

NET Notes: Pro 13:5

¹ tn Heb “a word of falsehood.” The genitive “falsehood” functions as an attributive genitive. The construct noun דְּבַר (dÿvar) means either “word” or “thing.” Hence, the phrase means “a false word” or “a false thing.”

² tc The versions render this phrase variously: “is ashamed and without confidence” (LXX); “is ashamed and put to the blush” (Tg. Prov 13:5); “confounds and will be confounded” (Vulgate). The variety is due in part to confusion of בָּאַשׁ (ba’sh, “to stink”) and בּוֹשׁ (bosh, “to be ashamed”). Cf. NASB “acts disgustingly and shamefully.”

tn Heb “acts shamefully and disgracefully.” The verb בָּאַשׁ (ba’ash) literally means “to cause a stink; to emit a stinking odor” (e.g., Exod 5:21; Eccl 10:1) and figuratively means “to act shamefully” (BDB 92 s.v.). The verb וְיַחְפִּיר (vÿyakhppir) means “to display shame.” Together, they can be treated as a verbal hendiadys: “to act in disgraceful shame,” or more colorfully “to make a shameful smell,” or as W. McKane has it, “spread the smell of scandal” (Proverbs [OTL], 460). W. G. Plaut says, “Unhappily, the bad odor adheres not only to the liar but also to the one about whom he lies – especially when the lie is a big one” (Proverbs, 152).

NET Notes: Pro 13:6

¹ sn Righteousness refers to that which conforms to law and order. One who behaves with integrity will be safe from consequences of sin.

² tn Heb “blameless of way.” The term דָּרֶךְ (darekh) is a genitive of specification: “blameless in respect to his way.” This means living above reproach in their course of life. Cf. NASB “whose way is blameless”; NAB “who walks honestly.”

³ sn Righteousness and wickedness are personified in this proverb to make the point of security and insecurity for the two courses of life.

NET Notes: Pro 13:7

¹ tn The Hitpael of עָשַׁר (’ashar, “to be rich”) means “to pretend to be rich” (BDB 799 s.v. עָשַׁר Hithp); this is the so-called “Hollywood Hitpael” function which involves “acting” or pretending to be something one is not.

² tn The Hitpolel of רוּשׁ (rush, “to be poor”) means “to pretend to be poor” (BDB 930 s.v. Hithpolel); this is another example of the “Hollywood Hitpael” – the Hitpolel forms of hollow root verbs are the equivalent of Hitpael stem forms.

³ sn The proverb seems to be a general observation on certain people in life, but it is saying more. Although there are times when such pretending may not be wrong, the proverb is instructing people to be honest. An empty pretentious display or a concealing of wealth can come to no good.

NET Notes: Pro 13:8

¹ sn As the word “ransom” (כֹּפֶר, cofer) indicates, the rich are susceptible to kidnapping and robbery. But the poor man pays no attention to blackmail – he does not have money to buy off oppressors. So the rich person is exposed to legal attacks and threats of physical violence and must use his wealth as ransom.

² tn Heb “the life of a man.”

³ tn The term גְּעָרָה (gÿ’arah) may mean (1) “rebuke” (so KJV, NASB) or (2) “threat” (so NIV; cf. ASV, NRSV, NLT ). If “rebuke” is the sense here, it means that the burdens of society fall on the rich as well as the dangers. But the sense of “threat” better fits the context: The rich are threatened with extortion, but the poor are not (cf. CEV “the poor don’t have that problem”).

NET Notes: Pro 13:9

¹ sn The images of “light” and “darkness” are used frequently in scripture. Here “light” is an implied comparison: “light” represents life, joy, and prosperity; “darkness” signifies adversity and death. So the “light of the righteous” represents the prosperous life of the righteous.

² tn The verb יִשְׂמָח (yismah) is normally translated “to make glad; to rejoice.” But with “light” as the subject, it has the connotation “to shine brightly” (see G. R. Driver, “Problems in the Hebrew Text of Proverbs,” Bib 32 [1951]: 180).

³ sn The lamp is an implied comparison as well, comparing the life of the wicked to a lamp that is going to be extinguished.

⁴ tc The LXX adds, “Deceitful souls go astray in sins, but the righteous are pitiful and merciful.”

tn The verb דָּעַךְ (da’akh) means “to go out [in reference to a fire or lamp]; to be extinguished.” The idea is that of being made extinct, snuffed out (cf. NIV, NLT). The imagery may have been drawn from the sanctuary where the flame was to be kept burning perpetually. Not so with the wicked.

NET Notes: Pro 13:10

¹ sn The parallelism suggests pride here means contempt for the opinions of others. The wise listen to advice rather than argue out of stubborn pride.

² tn The particle רַק (raq, “only”) modifies the noun “contention” – only contention can come from such a person.

³ tn The Niphal of יָעַץ (ya’ats, “to advise; to counsel”) means “to consult together; to take counsel.” It means being well-advised, receiving advice or consultation (cf. NCV “those who take advice are wise”).

NET Notes: Pro 13:11

¹ tc The MT reads מֵהֵבֶל (mehevel, “from vanity”). The Greek and Latin versions (followed by RSV) reflect מְבֹהָל (mÿvohal, “in haste”) which exhibits metathesis. MT is the more difficult reading and therefore preferred. The alternate reading fits the parallelism better, but is therefore a less difficult reading.

tn Heb “wealth from vanity” (cf. KJV, ASV). The term הֶבֶל (hevel) literally means “vapor” and figuratively refers to that which is unsubstantial, fleeting, or amount to nothing (BDB 210 s.v.). Used in antithesis with the expression “little by little,” it means either “without working for it” or “quickly.” Some English versions assume dishonest gain (cf. NASB, NIV, CEV).

² tn Heb “will become small.” The verb מָעָט (ma’at) means “to become small; to become diminished; to become few.” Money gained without work will diminish quickly, because it was come by too easily. The verb forms a precise contrast with רָבָה (ravah), “to become much; to become many,” but in the Hiphil, “to multiply; to make much many; to cause increase.”

³ tn Heb “by hand”; cf. KJV, ASV, NASB “by labor.”

⁴ tn Heb “will increase.”

NET Notes: Pro 13:12

¹ sn The word “hope” (תּוֹחֶלֶת [tokhelet] from יָחַל [yakhal]) also has the implication of a tense if not anxious wait.

² tn The verb is the Pual participle from מָשַׁךְ (mashakh,“to draw; to drag”).

³ sn Failure in realizing one’s hopes can be depressing or discouraging. People can bear frustration only so long (W. G. Plaut, Proverbs, 153).

⁴ tn Heb “a desire that comes”; cf. CEV “a wish that comes true.”

⁵ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.

NET Notes: Pro 13:13

¹ tn Heb “the word.” The term “word” means teaching in general; its parallel “command” indicates that it is the more forceful instruction that is meant. Both of these terms are used for scripture.

² tc The MT reads יֵחָבֶל (yekhavel, “he will pay [for it]”; cf. NAB, NIV) but the BHS editors suggest revocalizing the text to יְחֻבָּל (yÿkhubal, “he will be broken [for it]”; cf. NRSV “bring destruction on themselves”).

tn Heb “will be pledged to it.” The Niphal of I חָבַל (khaval) “to pledge” means “to be under pledge to pay the penalty” (BDB 286 s.v. Niph). Whoever despises teaching will be treated as a debtor – he will pay for it if he offends against the law.

³ tn Heb “fears a commandment”; NIV “respects a command.”

⁴ tn Heb “he” or “that one” [will be rewarded].

⁵ tc The LXX adds: “A crafty son will have no good thing, but the affairs of a wise servant will be prosperous; and his path will be directed rightly.”

NET Notes: Pro 13:14

¹ tn The term תוֹרָה (torah) in legal literature means “law,” but in wisdom literature often means “instruction; teaching” (BDB 435 s.v.); cf. NAV, NIV, NRSV “teaching”; NLT “advice.”

² tn Heb “instruction of the wise.” The term חָכָם (khakham, “the wise”) is a genitive of source.

³ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.

⁴ tn Heb “fountain of life” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV). The genitive חַיִּים (khayyim) functions as a genitive of material, similar to the expression “fountain of water.” The metaphor means that the teaching of the wise is life-giving. The second colon is the consequence of the first, explaining this metaphor.

⁵ tn The infinitive construct with preposition לְ (lamed) gives the result (or, purpose) of the first statement. It could also be taken epexegetically, “by turning.”

⁶ tn The term “person” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

⁷ tn Heb “snares of death” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). The genitive מָוֶת (mavet) functions as an attributive adjective. The term “snares” makes an implied comparison with hunting; death is like a hunter. W. McKane compares the idea to the Ugaritic god Mot, the god of death, carrying people off to the realm of the departed (Proverbs [OTL], 455). The expression could also mean that the snares lead to death.

NET Notes: Pro 13:15

¹ tn Heb “good insight.” The expression שֵׂכֶל־טוֹב (sekhel-tov) describes a person who has good sense, sound judgment, or wise opinions (BDB 968 s.v. שֵׂכֶל).

² tn Heb “gives”; NASB “produces.”

³ tn Heb “way,” frequently for conduct, behavior, or lifestyle.

⁴ tc The MT reads אֵיתָן (’etan, “enduring; permanent; perennial”; BDB 450 s.v. יתן 1). Several scholars suggest that the text here is corrupt and the reading should be “harsh; hard; firm; rugged” (BDB 450 s.v. 2). G. R. Driver suggested that לֹא (lo’, “not”) was dropped before the word by haplography and so the meaning would have been not “enduring” but “passing away” (“Problems in the Hebrew Text of Proverbs,” Bib 32 [1951]: 181). The LXX, Syriac, and Tg. Prov 13:15 reflect a Hebrew Vorlage of תֹאבֵד (to’ved) “are destroyed.” The BHS editors suggest emending the text to אֵידָם (’edam) “their calamity” from אֵיד (’ed, “calamity, distress”; BDB 15 s.v.): “the way of the faithless [leads to] their calamity.” The idea of “harsh” or “hard” could also be drawn from a meaning of the word in the MT meaning “firm,” that is, enduring.

NET Notes: Pro 13:16

¹ sn The shrewd person knows the circumstances, dangers and pitfalls that lie ahead. So he deals with them wisely. This makes him cautious.

² tn Heb “spreads open” [his folly]. W. McKane suggests that this is a figure of a peddler displaying his wares (Proverbs [OTL], 456; cf. NAB “the fool peddles folly”). If given a chance, a fool will reveal his foolishness in public. But the wise study the facts and make decisions accordingly.

NET Notes: Pro 13:17

¹ tn Heb “bad.”

² tn The RSV changes this to a Hiphil to read, “plunges [men] into trouble.” But the text simply says the wicked messenger “falls into trouble,” perhaps referring to punishment for his bad service.

³ tn Or “evil.”

⁴ tn Heb “an envoy of faithfulness.” The genitive אֱמוּנִים (’emunim, “faithfulness”) functions as an attributive adjective: “faithful envoy.” The plural form אמונים (literally, “faithfulnesses”) is characteristic of abstract nouns. The term “envoy” (צִיר, tsir) suggests that the person is in some kind of government service (e.g., Isa 18:2; Jer 49:14; cf. KJV, ASV “ambassador”). This individual can be trusted to “bring healing” – be successful in the mission. The wisdom literature of the ancient Neat East has much to say about messengers.

⁵ tn The verb “brings” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the parallelism; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness.

NET Notes: Pro 13:18

¹ tn The verb III פָּרַע (para’) normally means “to let go; to let alone” and here “to neglect; to avoid; to reject” (BDB 828 s.v.).

² tn The phrase “ends up in” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the parallelism; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness.

³ sn Honor and success are contrasted with poverty and shame; the key to enjoying the one and escaping the other is discipline and correction. W. McKane, Proverbs (OTL), 456, notes that it is a difference between a man of weight (power and wealth, from the idea of “heavy” for “honor”) and the man of straw (lowly esteemed and poor).

NET Notes: Pro 13:19

¹ tn Heb “an abomination of fools.” The noun כְּסִילִים (kÿsilim, “fools”) functions as a subjective genitive: “fools hate to turn away from evil” (cf. NAB, TEV, CEV). T. T. Perowne says: “In spite of the sweetness of good desires accomplished, fools will not forsake evil to attain it” (Proverbs, 103). Cf. Prov 13:12; 29:27.

NET Notes: Pro 13:20

¹ tn Heb “walks.” When used with the preposition אֶת (’et, “with”), the verb הָלַךְ (halakh, “to walk”) means “to associate with” someone (BDB 234 s.v. הָלַךְ II.3.b; e.g., Mic 6:8; Job 34:8). The active participle of הָלַךְ (“to walk”) stresses continual, durative action. One should stay in close association with the wise, and move in the same direction they do.

² tn The verb form יֵרוֹעַ (yeroa’) is the Niphal imperfect of רָעַע (ra’a’), meaning “to suffer hurt.” Several have attempted to parallel the repetition in the wordplay of the first colon. A. Guillaume has “he who associates with fools will be left a fool” (“A Note on the Roots רִיע, יָרַע, and רָעַע in Hebrew,” JTS 15 [1964]: 294). Knox translated the Vulgate thus: “Fool he ends that fool befriends” (cited by D. Kidner, Proverbs [TOTC], 104).

NET Notes: Pro 13:21

¹ tn Heb “evil.” The term רָעָה (ra’ah, “evil”) here functions in a metonymical sense meaning “calamity.” “Good” is the general idea of good fortune or prosperity; the opposite, “evil,” is likewise “misfortune” (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV) or calamity.

² sn This statement deals with recompense in absolute terms. It is this principle, without allowing for any of the exceptions that Proverbs itself acknowledges, that Job’s friends applied (incorrectly) to his suffering.

NET Notes: Pro 13:22

¹ tn Heb “good.”

² sn In ancient Israel the idea of leaving an inheritance was a sign of God’s blessing; blessings extended to the righteous and not the sinners.

³ tn Heb “the children of children.”

⁴ sn In the ultimate justice of God, the wealth of the wicked goes to the righteous after death (e.g., Ps 49:10, 17).

NET Notes: Pro 13:23

¹ tn Heb “fallow ground” (so NASB). The word נִיר (nir) means “the tillable [or untilled; or fallow] ground.” BDB 644 s.v. says this line could be rendered: “abundant food [yields] the fallow ground of poor men” (i.e., with the Lord’s blessing).

² tc The MT reads “there is what is swept away because [there is] no justice” (וְיֵשׁ נִסְפֶּה בְּלֹא מִשְׁפָּט, vÿyesh nispeh bÿlo’ mishpat). The LXX reads “the great enjoy wealth many years, but some men perish little by little.” The Syriac reads “those who have no habitation waste wealth many years, and some waste it completely.” Tg. Prov 13:23 reads “the great man devours the land of the poor, and some men are taken away unjustly.” The Vulgate has “there is much food in the fresh land of the fathers, and for others it is collected without judgment.” C. H. Toy says that the text is corrupt (Proverbs [ICC], 277). Nevertheless, the MT makes sense: The ground could produce enough food for people if there were no injustice in the land. Poverty is unnecessary as long as there is justice and not injustice.

NET Notes: Pro 13:24

¹ sn R. N. Whybray cites an Egyptian proverb that says that “boys have their ears on their backsides; they listen when they are beaten” (Proverbs [CBC], 80). Cf. Prov 4:3-4, 10-11; Eph 6:4; Heb 12:5-11.

² sn The importance of parental disciplining is stressed by the verbs “hate” and “love.” “Hating” a child in this sense means in essence abandoning or rejecting him; “loving” a child means embracing and caring for him. Failure to discipline a child is tantamount to hating him – not caring about his character.

³ tn Heb “his son.”

⁴ tn Heb “him”; the referent (his child) is specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Heb “seeks him.” The verb שָׁחַר (shahar, “to be diligent; to do something early”; BDB 1007 s.v.) could mean “to be diligent to discipline,” or “to be early or prompt in disciplining.” See G. R. Driver, “Hebrew Notes on Prophets and Proverbs,” JTS 41 (1940): 170.

⁶ tn The noun מוּסָר (musar, “discipline”) functions as an adverbial accusative of reference: “he is diligent in reference to discipline.”

NET Notes: Pro 13:25

¹ tn The noun נֶפֶשׁ (traditionally “soul”; cf. KJV, ASV) here means “appetite” (BDB 660 s.v. 5.a).

² tn Heb “he will lack.” The term “food” is supplied in the translation as a clarification. The wicked may go hungry, or lack all they desire, just as the first colon may mean that what the righteous acquire proves satisfying to them.

Geneva Bible: Pro 13:2

A man shall eat good by the fruit ^{( a )} of [his] mouth: but the soul of the transgressors [shall eat] violence.

^{( a )} If he uses his tongue to God's glory, and the profit of his neighbour, God will bless him.

Geneva Bible: Pro 13:4

The soul of the sluggard ^{( b )} desireth, and [hath] nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.

^{( b )} He always desires, but takes no pains to get anything.

Geneva Bible: Pro 13:8

The ransom of a man's life [is] his riches: but the poor ^{( c )} heareth not rebuke.

^{( c )} For his poverty, he is not able to escape the threatenings, which the cruel oppressors use against him.

Geneva Bible: Pro 13:10

Only by pride ^{( d )} cometh contention: but with the well advised [is] wisdom.

^{( d )} When as every man contends to have preeminence, and will not give place to another.

Geneva Bible: Pro 13:11

^{( e )} Wealth [gotten] by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth ^{( f )} by labour shall increase.

^{( e )} That is, goods evil gotten.

^{( f )} That is, with his own labour.

Geneva Bible: Pro 13:13

Whoever despiseth ^{( g )} the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.

^{( g )} Meaning the word of God, by which he is admonished of his duty.

Geneva Bible: Pro 13:17

A wicked messenger falleth ^{( h )} into mischief: but a faithful ambassador [is] health.

^{( h )} Brings many inconveniences both to himself and to others.

Geneva Bible: Pro 13:20

He that walketh with wise [men] shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be ^{( i )} destroyed.

^{( i )} As he is partaker of their wickedness, and bears with their vices, so will he be punished alike as they are.

Geneva Bible: Pro 13:22

A good [man] leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the ^{( k )} wealth of the sinner [is] laid up for the just.

^{( k )} Read (Job 27:16-17).

Geneva Bible: Pro 13:23

Much food [is in] the fallow ground of the ^{( l )} poor: but there is [that is] destroyed for lack of judgment.

^{( l )} God blesses the labour of the poor, and consumes their goods who are negligent, because they think they have enough.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Rentang Ayat

Maclaren: Pro 13:7 - A Libation To Jehovah

The Poor Rich And The Rich Poor

There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.'--Proverbs 13:7.

Two singularly-contrasted characters are set in opposition here. One, that of a man who lives like a millionaire and is a pauper; another, that of a man who lives like a pauper and is rich. The latter character, that of a man who hides and hoards his wealth, was, perhaps, more common in the days when this collection of Proverbs was put together, because in :all ill-governed countries, to show wealth is a short way to get rid of it. But they have their modern representatives. We who live in a commercial community have seen many a blown-out bubble soaring and glittering, and then collapsing into a drop of soapsuds, and on the other hand, we are always hearing of notes and bank-books being found stowed away in some wretched hovel where a miser has died.

Now, I do not suppose that the author of this proverb attached any kind of moral to it in his own mind. It is simply a jotting of an observation drawn from a wide experience; and if he meant to teach any lesson by it, I suppose it was nothing more than that in regard to money, as to other things, we should avoid extremes, and should try to show what we are, and to be what we seem. But whilst thus I do not take it that there is any kind of moral or religious lesson in the writer's mind, I may venture, perhaps, to take this saying as being a picturesque illustration, putting in vivid fashion certain great truths which apply in all regions of life, and which and their highest application in regard to Christianity, and our relation to Jesus Christ. There, too, there is that maketh himself rich, and yet hath nothing; and there is that maketh himself poor, and yet'--or one might, perhaps, say therefore-' hath great riches.' It is from that point of view that I wish to look at the words at this time. I must begin with recalling to your mind.

I. Our Universal Poverty.

Whatever a man may think about himself, however he may estimate himself and conceit himself, .there stand out two salient facts, the fact of universal dependence, and the fact of universal sinfulness, which ought to bear into every heart the consciousness of this poverty. A word or two about each of these two facts.

First, the fact of universal dependence. Now, wise men and deep thinkers have found a very hard problem in the question of how it is possible that there should be an infinite God and a finite universe standing, as it were, over against Him. I am not going to trouble you with the all-but-just-succeeding answers to that great problem which the various systems of thinking have given. These lie apart from my present purpose. But what I would point out is that, whatever else may be dark and difficult about the co-existence of these two, the infinite God and the finite universe, this at least is sun-clear, that the creature depends absolutely for everything on that infinite Creator. People talk sometimes, and we are all too apt to think, as if God had made the world and left it. And we are all too apt to think that, however we may owe the origination of our own personal existence to a divine act, the act was done when we began to be, and the life was given as a gift that could be separated from the Bestower. But that is not the state of the case at all. The real fact is that life is only continued because of the continued operation on every living thing, just as being is only continued by reason of the continued operation on every existing thing, of the Divine Power. In Him we live,' and the life is the result of the perpetual impartation from Himself in whom all things consist,' according to the profound word of the Apostle. Their being depends on their union with Him. If it were possible to cut a sunbeam in two, so that the further half of it should be separated from its vital union with the great central fire from which it rushed long, long ago, that further half would pale into darkness. And if you cut the connection between God and the creature, the creature shrivels into nothing. By Him the spring buds around us unfold themselves; by Him all things are. So, at the very foundation of our being there lies absolute dependence.

In like manner, all that we call faculties, capacities, and the like, are, in a far deeper sense than the conventional use of the word gift' implies, bestowments from Him. The Old Testament goes to the root of the matter when, speaking of the artistic and aesthetic skill of the workers in the fine arts in the Tabernacle, it says, the Spirit of the Lord' taught Bezaleel; and when, even in regard to the brute strength of Samson--surely the strangest hero of faith that ever existed--it says that when' the Spirit of the Lord came upon him,' into his giant hands there was infused the strength by which he tore the lion's jaws asunder. In like manner, all the faculties that men possess they have simply because He has given them. What hast thou that thou hast not received? If thou hast received, why dost thou boast thyself?' So there is a great psalm that gathers everything that makes up human life, and traces it all to God, when it says, They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house,' for from God comes all that sustains us; Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures,' for from God comes all that gladdens us; with Thee is the fountain of life,' for from Him flow all the tiny streams that make the life of all that live; in Thy light shall we see light,' for every power of perceiving, and all grace and lustre of purity, owe their source to Him. As well, then, might the pitcher boast itself of the sparkling water that it only holds, as well might the earthen jar plume itself on the treasure that has been deposited in it, as we make ourselves rich because of the riches that we have received. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his strength. Let not the rich man glory in his riches; but he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.'

Then, turn for a moment to the second of the facts on which this universal poverty depends, and that is the fact of universal sinfulness. Ah! there is one thing that is our own-

If any power we have, it is to will.'

We have that strange faculty, which nobody has ever thoroughly explained yet, but which we all know to exist, of wrenching ourselves so far away from God, in whom we live and move and have our being,' that we can make our thoughts and ways, not merely lower than, but contradictory of, and antagonistic to, His thoughts, and His ways. Conscience tells us, and we all know it, that we are the causes of our own actions, though from Him come the powers by which we do them. The electricity comes from the central power station, but it depends on us what sort of wheels we make it drive, and what kind of work we set it to do. Make all allowances you like for circumstances--what they call nowadays environment,' by which formidable word some people seem to think that they have explained away a great many difficulties--make all allowances you like for inheritance--what they now call heredity,' by which other magic word people seem to think that they may largely obliterate the sense of responsibility and sin--allow as much as you like, in reason, for these, and there remains the indestructible consciousness in every man, I did it, and it was my fault that I did it; and the moral guilt remains.'

So, theft, there are these two things, universal dependence and universal sinfulness, and on them is built the declaration of universal poverty. Duty is debt. Everybody knows that the two words come from the same root. What we ought is what we owe. We all owe an obedience which none of us has rendered. Ten thousand talents is the debt and--they had nothing to pay.' We are like bankrupts that begin business with a borrowed capital; by reason of our absolute dependence; and so manage their concerns as to find themselves inextricably entangled in a labyrinth of obligations which they cannot discharge. We are all paupers.

And so I come to the second point, and that is--

II. The Poor Rich Man.

There is that maketh himself rich, and yet hath nothing.' That describes accurately the type of man of whom there are thousands; of whom there are dozens listening to me at this moment; who ignores dependence and is not conscious of sin, and so struts about in self-complacent satisfaction with himself, and knows nothing of his true condition. There is nothing more tragic--and so it would be seen to be if it were not so common--than that a man, laden, as we each of us are, with a burden of evil that we cannot get rid of, should yet conceit himself to possess merits, virtues, graces, that ought to secure for him the admiration of his fellows, or, at least, to exempt him from their censure, and which he thinks, when he thinks about it at all, may perhaps secure for him the approbation of God. The deceitfulness of sin' is one of its mightiest powers. There is nothing that so blinds a man to the real moral character of actions as that obstinate self-complacency which approves of a thing because it is mine. You condemn in other people the very things you do yourself. You see all their ugliness in them; you do not recognise it when it is your deed. Many of you have never ventured upon a careful examination and appraisement of your own moral and religious character. You durst not, for you arc afraid that it would turn out badly. So, like some insolvent who has not the courage to face the facts, you take refuge in defective bookkeeping, and think that that is as good as being solvent. Then you have far too low a standard, and one of the main reasons why you have so low a standard is just because the sins that you do have dulled your consciences, and like the Styrian peasants that eat arsenic, the poison does not poison you, and you do not feel yourself any the worse for it. Dear brethren! these are very rude things for me to say to you. I am saying them to myself as much as to you, and I would to God that you would listen to them, not because I say them, but because they are true. The great bulk of us know our own moral characters just as little as we know the sound of our own voices. I suppose if you could hear yourself speak you would say, I never knew that my voice sounded like that.' And I am quite sure that many of you, if the curtain could be drawn aside which is largely woven out of the black yarn of your own evil thoughts, and you could see yourselves as in a mirror, you would say, I had no notion that I looked like that.' There is that maketh himself rich, and yet hath nothing.'

Ay! and more than that. The making of yourself rich is the sure way to prevent yourself from ever being as. We see that in all other regions of life. If a student says to himself, Oh! I know all that subject,' the chances are that he will not get it up any more; and the further chance is that he will be ploughed' when the examination-day comes. If the artist stands before the picture, and says to himself, Well done, that is the realisation of my ideal!' he will paint no more anything worth looking at. And in any department, when a man says Lo! I have attained,' then he ceases to advance.

Now, bring all that to bear upon religion, upon Christ and His salvation, upon our own spiritual and religious and moral condition. The sense of imperfection is the salt of approximation to perfection. And the man that says I am rich' is condemning himself to poverty and pauperism. If you do not know your need, you will not go to look for the supply of it. If you fancy yourselves to be quite well, though a mortal disease has gripped you, you will take no medicine, nor have recourse to any physician. If you think that you have enough good to show for man's judgment and for God's, and have not been convinced of your dependence and your sinfulness, then Jesus Christ will be very little to you, and His great work as the Redeemer and Saviour of His people from their sins will be nothing to you. And so you will condemn yourselves to have nothing unto the very end.

I believe that this generation needs few things more than it needs a deepened consciousness of the reality of sin and of the depth and damnable nature of it. It is because people feel so little of the burden of their transgression that they care so little for that gentle Hand that lifts away their burden. It is because from much of popular religion--and, alas! that I should have to say it, from much of popular preaching--there has vanished the deep wholesome sense of poverty, that, from so much of popular religion, and preaching too, there has faded away the central light of the Gospel, the proclamation of the Cross by which is taken away the sin of the whole world. So, lastly, my text brings before us--

III. The Rich Poor Man.

There is that maketh himself poor and yet'--or, as varied, the expression is, therefore hath great riches.' Jesus Christ has lifted the thoughts in my text into the very region into which I am trying to bring them, when in the first of all the Beatitudes, as they are called, He opened His mouth and said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.' Poor, and therefore an owner of a kingdom! Now I need not, at this stage of my sermon, insist upon the fact that that consciousness of poverty is the only fitting attitude for any of us to take up in view of the two facts with which I started, the fact of our dependence and the fact of our sinfulness. What absurdity it seems for a man about whom these two things are true, that, as I said, he began with a borrowed capital, and has only incurred greater debts in his transactions, there should be any foothold left in his own estimation on which he can stand and claim to be anything but the pauper that he is. Oh! brethren, of all the hallucinations that we put upon ourselves in trying to believe that things are as we wish, there is none more subtle, more obstinate, more deeply dangerous than this, that a man full of evil should be so ignorant of his evil as to say, like that Pharisee in our Lord's parable, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are. I give tithes, I pray … I am this, that, and the other thing; not like that wretched publican over there.' Yes, this is the fit attitude for us, --He would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven.'

Then let me remind you that this wholesome recognition of facts about ourselves as they are is the sure way to possess the wealth. Of course, it is possible for a man by some mighty influence or other brought to bear upon him, to see himself as God sees him, and then, if there is nothing more than that, he is tortured with the sorrow that worketh death.' Judas went out and hanged himself'; Peter went out and wept bitterly.' The one was sent' to his own place,' wherever that was; the other was sent foremost of the Twelve. If you see your poverty, let self-distrust be the nadir, the lowest point, and let faith be the complementary high point, the zenith. The rebound from self-distrust to trust in Christ is that which makes the consciousness of poverty the condition of receiving wealth.

And what wealth it is!--the wealth of a peaceful conscience, of a quiet heart, of lofty aims, of a pure mind, of strength according to our need, of an immortal hope, of a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt; where thieves do not break through nor steal.' Blessed be God! the more we have the riches of glory in Christ Jesus, the more shall we feel that we have nothing, and that all is His, and none of it ours. And so, as the rivers run in the valleys, and the high mountain-tops are dry and barren, the grace which makes us rich will run in the low ground of our conscious humiliation and nothingness.

Dear brother! do you estimate yourself as you are? Have you taken stock of yourself? Have you got away from the hallucination of possessing wealth? Has your sense of need led you to cease from trust in yourself, and to put all your trust in Jesus Christ? Have you taken the wealth which He freely gives to all who sue in forma pauperis? He does not ask you to bring anything but debts and sins, emptiness and weakness, and penitent faith. He will strengthen the weakness, fill the emptiness, forgive the sins, cancel the debts, and make you' rich toward God.' I beseech you to listen to Him, speaking from heaven, and taking up the strain of this text: Because thou sayest I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.' And then you will be of those blessed poor ones who are rich through faith, and heirs of the Kingdom.'

Maclaren: Pro 13:23 - A Libation To Jehovah

The Tillage Of The Poor

Much food. is in the tillage of the poor.'--Proverbs 13:23.

PALESTINE was a land of small peasant proprietors, and the institution of the Jubilee was intended to prevent the acquisition of large estates by any Israelite. The consequence, as intended, was a level of modest prosperity. It was the tillage of the poor,' the careful, diligent husbandry of the man who had only a little patch of land to look after, that filled the storehouses of the Holy Land. Hence the proverb of our text arose. It preserves the picture of the economical conditions in which it originated, and it is capable of, and is intended to have, an application to all forms and fields of work. In all it is true that the bulk of the harvested results are due, not to the large labours of the few, but to the minute, unnoticed toils of the many. Small service is true service, and the aggregate of such produces large crops. Spade husbandry gets most out of the ground. The labourer's allotment of half an acre is generally more prolific than the average of the squire's estate. Much may be made of slender gifts, small resources, and limited opportunities if carefully cultivated, as they should be, and as their very slenderness should stimulate their being.

One of the psalms accuses the children of Ephraim' because, being armed and carrying bows, they turned back in the day of battle.' That saying deduces obligation from equipment, and preaches a stringent code of duty to those who are in any direction largely gifted. Power to its last particle is duty, and not small is the crime of those who, with great capacities, have small desire to use them, and leave the brunt of the battle to half-trained soldiers, badly armed.

But the imagery of the fight is not sufficient to include all aspects of Christian effort. The peaceful toil of the husbandman that labours' stands, in one of Paul's letters, side by side with the heroism of the man that warreth.' Our text gives us the former image, and so supplements that other.

It completes the lesson of the psalm in another respect, as insisting on the importance, not of the well endowed, but of the slenderly furnished, who are immensely in the majority. This text is a message to ordinary, mediocre people, without much ability or influence.

I. It Teaches, First, The Responsibility Of Small Gifts.

It is no mere accident that in our Lord's great parable He represents the man with the one talent as the hider of his gift. There is a certain pleasure in doing what we can do, or fancy we can do, well.

There is a certain pleasure in the exercise of any kind of gift, be it of body or mind; but when we know that we are but very slightly gifted by Him, there is a temptation to say, Oh! it does not matter much whether I contribute my share to this, that, or the other work or no. I am but a poor man. My half-crown will make but a small difference in the total. I am possessed of very little leisure. The few minutes that I can spare for individual cultivation, or for benevolent work, will not matter at all. I am only an insignificant unit; nobody pays any attention to my opinion. It does not in the least signify whether I make my influence felt in regard of social, religious, or political questions, and the like. I can leave all that to the more influential men. My littleness at least has the prerogative of immunity. My little finger would produce such a slight impact on the scale that it is indifferent whether I apply it or not. It is a good deal easier for me to wrap up my talent--which, after all, is only a threepenny bit, and not a talent--and put it away and do nothing.'

Yes, but then you forget, dear friend! that responsibility does not diminish with the size of the gifts, but that there is as great responsibility for the use of the smallest as for the use of the largest, and that although it does not matter very much to anybody but yourself what you do, it matters all the world to you.

But then, besides that, my text tells us that it does matter whether the poor man sets himself to make the most of his little patch of ground or not. There is much food in the tillage of the poor.' The slenderly endowed are the immense majority. There is a genius or two here and there, dotted along the line of the world's and the Church's history. The great men and wise men and mighty men and wealthy men may be counted by units, but the men that are not very much of anything are to be counted by millions. And unless we can find some stringent law of responsibility that applies to them, the bulk of the human race will be under no obligation to do anything either for God or for their fellows, or for themselves. If I am absolved from the task of bringing my weight to bear on the side of right because my weight is infinitesimal, and I am only one in a million, suppose all the million were to plead the same excuse; what then? Then there would not be any weight on the side of the right at all. The barns in Palestine were not filled by farming on a great scale like that pursued away out on the western prairies, where one man will own, and his servants will plough a furrow for miles long, but they were filled by the small industries of the owners of tiny patches.

The tillage of the poor,' meaning thereby not the mendicant, but the peasant owner of a little plot, yielded the bulk of the food.' The wholesome old proverb, many littles make a mickle,' is as true about the influence brought to bear in the world to arrest evil and to sweeten corruption as it is about anything besides. Christ has a great deal more need of the cultivation of the small patches that He gives to the most of us than He has even of the cultivation of the large estates that He bestows on a few. Responsibility is not to be measured by amount of gift, but is equally stringent, entire, and absolute whatsoever be the magnitude of the endowments from which it arises.

Let me remind you, too, How the same virtues and excellences can be practised in the administering of the smallest as in that of the greatest gifts. Men say --I dare say some of you have said--Oh! if I were eloquent like So-and-so; rich like somebody else; a man of weight and importance like some other, how I would consecrate my powers to the Master! But I am slow of speech, or nobody minds me, or I have but very little that I can give.' Yes! He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.' If you do not utilise the capacity possessed, to increase the estate would only be to increase the crop of weeds from its uncultivated clods. We never palm off a greater deception on ourselves than when we try to hoodwink conscience by pleading bounded gifts as an excuse for boundless indolence, and to persuade ourselves that if we could do more we should be less inclined to do nothing. The most largely endowed has no more obligation and no fairer field than the most slenderly gifted lies under and possesses.

All service coming from the same motive and tending to the same end is the same with God. Not the magnitude of the act, but the motive thereof, determines the whole character of the life of which it is a part. The same graces of obedience, consecration, quick sympathy, self-denying effort may be cultivated and manifested in the spending of a halfpenny as in the administration of millions. The smallest rainbow in the tiniest drop that hangs from some sooty eave and catches the sunlight has precisely the same lines, in the same order, as the great arch that strides across half the sky. If you go to the Giant's Causeway, or to the other end of it amongst the Scotch Hebrides, you will find the hexagonal basaltic pillars all of identically the same pattern and shape, whether their height be measured by feet or by tenths of an inch. Big or little, they obey exactly the same law. There is much food in the tillage of the poor.'

II. But Now, Note, Again, How There Must Be A Diligent Cultivation Of The Small Gifts.

The inventor of this proverb had looked carefully and sympathetically at the way in which the little peasant proprietors worked; and he saw in that a pattern for all life. It is not always the case, of course, that a little holding means good husbandry, but it is generally so; and you will find few waste corners and few unweeded patches on the ground of a man whose whole ground is measured by rods instead of by miles. There will usually be little waste time, and few neglected opportunities of working in the case of the peasant whose subsistence, with that of his family, depends on the diligent and wise cropping of the little patch that does belong to him.

And so, dear brethren! if you and I have to take our place in the ranks of the one-talented men, the commonplace run of ordinary people, the more reason for us to enlarge our gifts by a sedulous diligence, by an unwearied perseverance, by a keen look-out for all opportunities of service, and above all by a prayerful dependence upon Him from whom alone comes the power to toil, and who alone gives the increase. The less we are conscious of large gifts the more we should be bowed in dependence on Him from whom cometh every good and perfect gift'; and who gives according to His wisdom; and the more earnestly should we use that slender possession which God may have given us. Industry applied to small natural capacity will do far more than larger power rusted away by sloth. You all know that it is so in regard of daily life, and common business, and the acquisition of mundane sciences and arts. It is just as true in regard to the Christian race, and to the Christian Church's work of witness.

Who are they who have done the most in this world for God and for men? The largely endowed men? Not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble are called.' The coral insect is microscopic, but it will build up from the profoundest depth of the ocean a reef against which the whole Pacific may dash in vain. It is the small gifts that, after all, are the important ones. So let us cultivate them the more earnestly the more humbly we think of our own capacity. Play well thy part; there all the honour lies.' God, who has builded up some of the towering Alps out of mica-flakes, builds up His Church out of infinitesimally small particles--slenderly endowed men touched by the consecration of His love.

III. Lastly, Let Me Remind You Of The Harvest Reaped From These Slender Gifts When Sedulously Tilled.

Two great results of such conscientious cultivation and use of small resources and opportunities may be suggested as included in that abundant food' of which the text speaks.

The faithfully used faculty increases. To him that hath shall be given.' Oh! if I had a wider sphere how I would flame in it, and fill it!' Then twinkle your best in your little sphere, and that will bring a wider one some time or other. For, as a rule, and in the general, though with exceptions, opportunities come to the man that can use them; and roughly, but yet substantially, men are set in this world where they can shine to the most advantage to God. Fill your place; and if you, like Paul, have borne witness for the Master in little Jerusalem, He will not keep you there, but carry you to bear witness for Him in imperial :Rome itself.

The old fable of the man who told his children to dig all over the field and they would find treasure, has its true application in regard to Christian effort and faithful stewardship of the gifts bestowed upon us. The sons found no gold, but they improved the field, and secured its bearing golden harvests, and they strengthened their own muscles, which was better than gold. So if we want larger endowments let us honestly use what we possess, and use will make growth.

The other issue, about which I need not say more than a word, is that the final reward of all faithful service--Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord' is said, not to the brilliant, but to the faithful' servant. In that great parable, which is the very text-book of this whole subject of gifts and responsibilities and recompense, the men who were entrusted with unequal sums used these unequal sums with equal diligence, as is manifest by the fact that they realised an equal rate of increase. He that got two talents made two more out of them, and he that had five did no more; for he, too, but doubled his capital. So, because the poorer servant with his two, and the richer with his ten, had equally cultivated their diversely-measured estates, they were identical in reward; and to each of them the same thing is said: Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.' It matters little whether we copy some great picture upon a canvas as big as the side of a house, or upon a thumbnail; the main thing is that we copy it. If we truly employ whatsoever gifts God has given to us, then we shall be accepted according to that we have, and not according to that we have not.

MHCC: Pro 13:1

There is great hope of those that reverence their parents. There is little hope of any who will not hear those that deal faithfully with them.

MHCC: Pro 13:2

By our words we must be justified or condemned, Mat 12:37.

MHCC: Pro 13:3

He that thinks before he speaks, that suppresses evil if he have thought it, keeps his soul from a great deal both of guilt and grief. Many a one is ruined by an ungoverned tongue.

MHCC: Pro 13:4

The slothful desire the gains the diligent get, but hate the pains the diligent take; therefore they have nothing. This is especially true as to the soul.

MHCC: Pro 13:5

Where sin reigns, the man is loathsome. If his conscience were awake, he would abhor himself, and repent in dust and ashes.

MHCC: Pro 13:6

An honest desire to do right, preserves a man from fatal mistakes, better than a thousand fine-drawn distinctions.

MHCC: Pro 13:7

Some who are really poor, trade and spend as if they were rich: this is sin, and will be shame, and it will end accordingly. Some that are really rich, would be thought to be poor: in this there is want of gratitude to God, want of justice and charity to others. There are many hypocrites, empty of grace, who will not be convinced of their poverty. There are many fearing Christians, who are spiritually rich, yet think themselves poor; by their doubts, and complaints, and griefs, they make themselves poor.

MHCC: Pro 13:8

Great riches often tempt to violence against those that possess them; but the poor are free from such perils.

MHCC: Pro 13:9

The light of the righteous is as that of the sun, which may be eclipsed and clouded, but will continue: the Spirit is their Light, he gives a fulness of joy: that of the wicked is as a lamp of their own kindling, easily put out.

MHCC: Pro 13:10

All contentions, whether between private persons, families, churches, or nations, are begun and carried forward by pride. Disputes would be easily prevented or ended, if it were not for pride.

MHCC: Pro 13:11

Wealth gotten by dishonesty or vice, has a secret curse, which will speedily waste it.

MHCC: Pro 13:12

The delay of what is anxiously hoped for, is very painful to the mind; obtaining it is very pleasant. But spiritual blessings are chiefly intended.

MHCC: Pro 13:13

He that stands in awe of God, and reverences his word, shall escape destruction, and be rewarded for his godly fear.

MHCC: Pro 13:14

The rule by which the wise regulate their conduct, is a fountain yielding life and happiness.

MHCC: Pro 13:15

The way of sinners is hard upon others, and hard to the sinner himself. The service of sin is slavery; the road to hell is strewed with the thorns and thistles that followed the curse.

MHCC: Pro 13:16

It is folly to talk of things of which we know nothing, and to undertake what we are no way fit for.

MHCC: Pro 13:17

Those that are wicked, and false to Christ and to the souls of men, do mischief, and fall into mischief; but those that are faithful, find sound words healing to others and to themselves.

MHCC: Pro 13:18

He that scorns to be taught, will certainly be brought down.

MHCC: Pro 13:19

There are in man strong desires after happiness; but never let those expect any thing truly sweet to their souls, who will not be persuaded to leave their sins.

MHCC: Pro 13:20

Multitudes are brought to ruin by bad company. And all that make themselves wicked will be destroyed.

MHCC: Pro 13:21

When God pursues sinners he is sure to overtake them; and he will reward the righteous.

MHCC: Pro 13:22

The servant of God who is not anxious about riches, takes the best method of providing for his children.

MHCC: Pro 13:23

The poor, yet industrious, thrive, though in a homely manner, while those who have great riches are often brought to poverty for want of judgment.

MHCC: Pro 13:24

He acts as if he hated his child, who, by false indulgence, permits sinful habits to gather strength, which will bring sorrow here, and misery hereafter.

MHCC: Pro 13:25

It is the misery of the wicked, that even their sensual appetites are always craving. The righteous feeds on the word and ordinances, to the satisfying of his soul with the promises of the gospel, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Bread of life.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:1

Among the children of the same parents it is no new thing for some to be hopeful and others the contrary; now here we are taught to distinguish. 1. There is great hope of those that have a reverence for their parents, and are willing to be advised and admonished by them. He is a wise son, and is in a far way to be wiser, that hears his father's instruction, desires to hear it, regards it, and complies with it, and does not merely give it the hearing. 2. There is little hope of those that will not so much as hear rebuke with any patience, but scorn to submit to government and scoff at those that deal faithfully with them. How can those mend a fault who will not be told of it, but count those their enemies who do them that kindness?

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:2

Note, 1. If that which comes from within, out of the heart, be good, and from a good treasure, it will return with advantage. Inward comfort and satisfaction will be daily bread; nay, it will be a continual feast to those who delight in that communication which is to the use of edifying. 2. Violence done will recoil in the face of him that does it: The soul of the transgressors that harbours and plots mischief, and vents it by word and deed, shall eat violence; they shall have their belly full of it. Reward her as she has rewarded thee, Rev 18:6. Every man shall drink as he brews, eat as he speaks; for by our words we must be justified or condemned, Mat 12:37. As our fruit is, so will our food be, Rom 6:21, Rom 6:22.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:3

Note, 1. A guard upon the lips is a guard to the soul. He that is cautious, that thinks twice before he speaks once, that, if he have thought evil, lays his hand upon his mouth to suppress it, that keeps a strong bridle on his tongue and a strict hand on that bridle, he keeps his soul from a great deal both of guilt and grief and saves himself the trouble of many bitter reflections on himself and reflections of others upon him. 2. There is many a one ruined by an ungoverned tongue: He that opens widely his lips, to let our quod in buccam venerit - whatever comes uppermost, that loves to bawl, and bluster, and make a noise, and affects such a liberty of speech as bids defiance both to God and man, he shall have destruction. it will be the destruction of his reputation, his interest, his comfort, and his soul for ever, Jam 3:6.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:4

Here is, 1. The misery and shame of the slothful. See how foolish and absurd they are; they desire the gains which the diligent get, but they hate the pains which the diligent take; they covet every thing that is to be coveted, but will do nothing that is to be done; and therefore it follows, They have nothing; for he that will not labour let him hunger, and let him not eat, 2Th 3:10. The desire of the slothful, which should be his excitement, is his torment, which should make him busy, makes him always uneasy, and is really a greater toil to him than labour would be. 2. The happiness and honour of the diligent: Their soul shall be made fat; they shall have abundance, and shall have the comfortable enjoyment of it, and the more for its being the fruit of their diligence. This is especially true in spiritual affairs. Those that rest in idle wishes know not what the advantages of religion are; whereas those that take pains in the service of God find both the pleasure and profit of it.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:5

Note, 1. Where grace reigns sin is loathsome. It is the undoubted character of every righteous man that he hates lying (that is, all sin, for every sin is a lie, and particularly all fraud and falsehood in commerce and conversation), not only that he will not tell a lie, but he abhors lying, from a rooted reigning principle of love to truth and justice, and conformity to God. 2. Where sin reigns the man is loathsome. If his eyes were opened, and his conscience awakened, he would be so to himself, he would abhor himself and repent in dust and ashes; however, he is so to God and all good men; particularly, he makes himself so by lying, than which there is nothing more detestable. And, though he may think to face it out awhile, yet he will come to shame and contempt at last and will blush to show his face, Dan 12:2.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:6

See here, 1. Saints secured from ruin. Those that are upright in their way, that mean honestly in all their actions, adhere conscientiously to the sacred and eternal rules of equity, and deal sincerely both with God and man, their integrity will keep them from the temptations of Satan, which shall not prevail over them, the reproaches and injuries of evil men, which shall not fasten upon them, to do them any real mischief, Psa 25:21.

Hic murus aheneus esto, nil conscire sibi .

Be this thy brazen bulwark of defence,

Still to preserve thy conscious innocence.

2. Sinners secured for ruin. Those that are wicked, even their wickedness will be their overthrow at last, and they are held in the cords of it in the mean time. Are they corrected, destroyed? It is their own wickedness that corrects them, that destroys them; they alone shall bear it.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:7

This observation is applicable,

I. To men's worldly estate. The world is a great cheat, not only the things of the world, but the men of the world. All men are liars. Here is an instance in two sore evils under the sun: - 1. Some that are really poor would be thought to be rich and are thought to be so; they trade and spend as if they were rich, make a great bustle and a great show as if they had hidden treasures, when perhaps, if all their debts were paid, they are not worth a groat. This is sin, and will be shame; many a one hereby ruins his family and brings reproach upon his profession of religion. Those that thus live above what they have choose to be subject to their own pride rather than to God's providence, and it will end accordingly. 2. Some that are really rich would be thought to be poor, and are thought to be so, because they sordidly and meanly live below what God has given them, and choose rather to bury it than to use it, Ecc 6:1, Ecc 6:2. In this there is an ingratitude to God, injustice to the family and neighbourhood, and uncharitableness to the poor.

II. To their spiritual state. Grace is the riches of the soul; it is true riches; but men commonly misrepresent themselves, either designedly or through mistake and ignorance of themselves. 1. There are many presuming hypocrites, that are really poor and empty of grace and yet either think themselves rich, and will not be convinced of their poverty, or pretend themselves rich, and will not own their poverty. 2. There are many timorous trembling Christians, that are spiritually rich, and full of grace, and yet think themselves poor, and will not be persuaded that they are rich, or, at least, will not own it; by their doubts and fears, their complaints and griefs, they make themselves poor. The former mistake is destroying at last; this is disquieting in the mean time.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:8

We are apt to judge of men's blessedness, at least in this world, by their wealth, and that they are more or less happy accordingly as they have more or less of this world's goods; but Solomon here shows what a gross mistake it is, that we may be reconciled to a poor condition, and may neither covet riches ourselves nor envy those that have abundance. 1. Those that are rich, if by some they are respected for their riches, yet, to balance that, by others they are envied and struck at, and brought in danger of their lives, which therefore they are forced to ransom with their riches. Slay us not, for we have treasures in the field, Jer 41:8. Under some tyrants, it has been crime enough to be rich; and how little is a man beholden to his wealth when it only serves to redeem that life which otherwise would not have been exposed! 2. Those that are poor, if by some, that should be their friends, they are despised and overlooked, yet, to balance that, they are also despised and overlooked by others that would be their enemies if they had any thing to lose: The poor hear not rebuke, are not censured, reproached, accused, nor brought into trouble, as the rich are; for nobody thinks it worth while to take notice of them. When the rich Jews were carried captives to Babylon the poor of the land were left, 2Ki 25:12. Welcome nothing, once in seven years. Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator - When a traveller is met by a robber he will rejoice at not having much property about him.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:9

Here is, 1. The comfort of good men flourishing and lasting: The light of the righteous rejoices, that is, it increases, and makes them glad. Even their outward prosperity is their joy, and much more those gifts, graces, and comforts, with which their souls are illuminated; these shine more and more, Pro 4:18. The Spirit is their light, and he gives them a fulness of joy, and rejoices to do them good. 2. The comfort of bad men withering and dying: The lamp of the wicked burns dimly and faint; it looks melancholy, like a taper in an urn, and it will shortly be put out in utter darkness, Isa 50:11. The light of the righteous is as that of the sun, which may be eclipsed and clouded, but will continue; that of the wicked is as a lamp of their own kindling, which will presently go out and is easily put out.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:10

Note, 1. Foolish pride is the great make-bate. Would you know whence come wars and fightings? They come from this root of bitterness. Whatever hand other lusts may have in contention (passion, envy, covetousness), pride has the great hand; it is its pride that it will itself sow discord and needs no help. Pride makes men impatient of contradiction in either their opinions or their desires, impatient of competition and rivalship, impatient of contempt, or any thing that looks like a slight, and impatient of concession, and receding, from a conceit of certain right and truth on their side; and hence arise quarrels among relations and neighbours, quarrels in states and kingdoms, in churches and Christian societies. Men will be revenged, will not forgive, because they are proud. 2. Those that are humble and peaceable are wise and well advised. Those that will ask and take advice, that will consult their own consciences, their Bibles, their ministers, their friends, and will do nothing rashly, are wise, as in other things, so in this, that they will humble themselves, will stoop and yield, to preserve quietness and prevent quarrels.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:11

This shows that riches wear as they are won and woven. 1. That which is won ill will never wear well, for a curse attends it which will waste it, and the same corrupt dispositions which incline men to the sinful ways of getting well incline them to the like sinful ways of spending: Wealth gotten by vanity will be bestowed upon vanity, and then it will be diminished. That which is got by such employments as are not lawful, or not becoming Christians, such as only serve to feed pride and luxury, that which is got by gaming or by the stage, may as truly be said to be gotten by vanity as that which is got by fraud and lying, and will be diminished. De male quaesitis vix gaudet tertius haeres - Ill-gotten wealth will scarcely be enjoyed by the third generation. 2. That which is got by industry and honesty will grow more, instead of growing less; it will be a maintenance; it will be an inheritance; it will be an abundance. He that labours, working with his hands, shall so increase as that he shall have to give to him that needs (Eph 4:28); and, when it comes to that, it will increase yet more and more.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:12

Note, 1. Nothing is more grievous than the disappointment of a raised expectation, though not in the thing itself by a denial, yet in the time of it by a delay: Hope deferred makes the heart sick and languishing, fretful and peevish; but hope quite dashed kills the heart, and the more high the expectation was raised the more cutting is the frustration of it. It is therefore our wisdom not to promise ourselves any great matters from the creature, not to feed ourselves with any vain hopes from this world, lest we lay up matter for our own vexation; and what we do hope for let us prepare to be disappointed in, that, if it should prove so, it may prove the easier; and let us not be hasty. 2. Nothing is more grateful than to enjoy that, at last, which we have long wished and waited for: When the desire does come it puts men into a sort of paradise, a garden of pleasure, for it is a tree of life. It will aggravate the eternal misery of the wicked that their hopes will be frustrated; and it will make the happiness of heaven the more welcome to the saints that it is what they have earnestly longed for as the crown of their hopes.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:13

Here is, 1. The character of one that is marked for ruin: He that despises the word of God, and has no regard to it, no veneration for it, nor will be ruled by it, certainly he shall be destroyed, for he slights that which is the only means of curing a destructive disease and makes himself obnoxious to that divine wrath which will certainly be his destruction. Those that prefer the rules of carnal policy before divine precepts, and the allurements of the world and the flesh before God's promises and comforts, despise his word, giving the preference to those things that stand in competition with it; and it is to their own just destruction: they would not take warning. 2. The character of one that is sure to be happy: He that fears the commandment, that stands in awe of God, pays a deference to his authority, has a reverence for his word, is afraid of displeasing God and incurring the penalties annexed to the commandment, shall not only escape destruction, but shall be rewarded for his godly fear. In keeping the commandment there is great reward.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:14

By the law of the wise and righteous, here, we may understand either the principles and rules by which they govern themselves or (which comes all to one) the instructions which they give to others, which ought to be as a law to all about them; and if they be so, 1. They will be constant springs of comfort and satisfaction, as a fountain of life, sending forth streams of living water; the closer we keep to those rules the more effectually we secure our own peace. 2. They will be constant preservatives from the temptations of Satan. Those that follow the dictates of this law will keep at a distance from the snares of sin, and so escape the snares of death which those run into that forsake the law of the wise.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:15

If we compare not only the end, but the way, we shall find that religion has the advantage; for, 1. The way of saints is pleasant and agreeable: Good understanding gains favour with God and man; our Saviour grew in that favour when he increased in wisdom. Those that conduct themselves prudently, and order their conversation aright in every thing, that serve Christ in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, are accepted of God and approved of men, Rom 14:17, Rom 14:18. And how comfortably will that man pass through the world who is well understood and is therefore well accepted! 2. The way of sinners is rough and uneasy, and, for this reason, unpleasant to themselves, because unacceptable to others. It is hard, hard upon others, who complain of it, hard to the sinner himself, who can have little enjoyment of himself while he is doing that which is disobliging to all mankind. The service of sin is perfect slavery, and the road to hell is strewed with the thorns and thistles that are the products of the curse. Sinners labour in the very fire.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:16

Note, 1. It is wisdom to be cautious. Every prudent discreet man does all with knowledge (considering with himself and consulting with others), acts with deliberation and is upon the reserve, is careful not to meddle with that which he has not some knowledge of, not to launch out into business which he has not acquainted himself with, will not deal with those that he has not some knowledge of, whether they may be confided in. He is still dealing in knowledge, that he may increase the stock he has. 2. It is folly to be rash, as the fool is, who is forward to talk of things he knows nothing of and undertake that which he is no way fit for, and so lays open his folly and makes himself ridiculous. He began to build and was not able to finish.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:17

Here we have, 1. The ill consequences of betraying a trust. A wicked messenger, who, being sent to negotiate any business, is false to him that employed him, divulges his counsels, and so defeats his designs, cannot expect to prosper, but will certainly fall into some mischief or other, will be discovered and punished, since nothing is more hateful to God and man than the treachery of those that have a confidence reposed in them. 2. The happy effects of fidelity: An ambassador who faithfully discharges his trust, and serves the interests of those who employ him, is health; he is health to those by whom and for whom he is employed, heals differences that are between them, and preserves a good understanding; he is health to himself, for he secures his own interest. This is applicable to ministers, Christ's messengers and ambassadors; those that are wicked and false to Christ and the souls of men do mischief and fall into mischief, but those that are faithful will find sound words to be healing words to others and themselves.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:18

Note, 1. He that is so proud that he scorns to be taught will certainly be abased. he that refuses the good instruction offered him, as if it were a reflection upon his honour and an abridgment of his liberty, poverty and shame shall be to him: he will become a beggar and live and die in disgrace; every one will despise him as foolish, and stubborn, and ungovernable. 2. He that is so humble that he takes it well to be told of his faults shall certainly be exalted: He that regards a reproof, whoever gives it to him, and will mend what is amiss when it is shown him, gains respect as wise and candid; he avoids that which would be a disgrace to him and is in a fair way to make himself considerable.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:19

This shows the folly of those that refuse instruction, for they might be happy and will not. 1. They might be happy. There are in man strong desires of happiness; God has provided for the accomplishment of those desires, and that would be sweet to the soul, whereas the pleasures of sense are grateful only to the carnal appetite. The desire of good men towards the favour of God and spiritual blessings brings that which is sweet to their souls; we know those that can say so by experience, Psa 4:6, Psa 4:7. 2. Yet they will not be happy; for it is an abomination to them to depart from evil, which is necessary to their being happy. Never let those expect any thing truly sweet to their souls that will not be persuaded to leave their sins, but that roll them under their tongues as a sweet morsel.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:20

Note, 1. Those that would be good must keep good company, which is an evidence for them that they would be good (men's character is known by the company they choose) and will be a means of making them good, of showing them the way and of quickening and encouraging them in it. He that would be himself wise must walk with those that are so, must choose such for his intimate acquaintance, and converse with them accordingly; must ask and receive instruction from them, and keep up pious and profitable talk with them. Miss not the discourse of the elders, for they also learned of their fathers, Ecclesiasticus 8:9. And (Ecclesiasticus 6:35), Be willing to hear every godly discourse, and let not the parables of understanding escape thee. 2. Multitudes are brought to ruin by bad company: A companion of fools shall be broken (so some), shall be known (so the Septuagint), known to be a fool; noscitur ex socio - he is known by his company. He will be like them (so some), will be made wicked (so others); it comes all to one, for all those, and those only, that make themselves wicked, will be destroyed, and those that associate with evil-doers are debauched, and so undone, and at last ascribe their death to it.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:21

Here see, 1. How unavoidable the destruction of sinners is; the wrath of God pursues them, and all the terrors of that wrath: Evil pursues them closely wherever they go, as the avenger of blood pursued the manslayer, and they have no city of refuge to flee to; they attempt an escape, but in vain. Whom God pursues he is sure to overtake. They may prosper for a while and grow very secure, but their damnation slumbers not, though they do. 2. How indefeasible the happiness of the saints is; the God that cannot lie has engaged that to the righteous good shall be repaid. They shall be abundantly recompensed for all the good they have done, and all the ill they have suffered, in this world; so that, though many have been losers for their righteousness, they shall not be losers by it. Though the recompence do not come quickly, it will come in the day of payment, in the world of retribution; and it will be an abundant recompence.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:22

See here, 1. How a good man's estate lasts: He leaves an inheritance to his children's children. It is part of his praise that he is thoughtful for posterity, that he does not lay all out upon himself, but is in care to do well for those that come after him, not by withholding more than is meet, but by a prudent and decent frugality. He trains up his children to this, that they may leave it to their children; and especially he is careful, both by justice and charity, to obtain the blessing of God upon what he has, and to entail that blessing upon his children, without which the greatest industry and frugality will be in vain: A good man, by being good and doing good, by honouring the Lord with his substance and spending it in his service, secures it to his posterity; or, if he should not leave them much of this world's goods, his prayers, his instructions, his good example, will be the best entail, and the promises of the covenant will be an inheritance to his children's children, Psa 103:17. 2. How it increases by the accession of the wealth of the sinner to it, for that is laid up for the just. If it be asked, How should good men grow so rich, who are not so eager upon the world as others are and who commonly suffer for their well-doing? It is here answered, God, in his providence, often brings into their hands that which wicked people had laid up for themselves. The innocent shall divide the silver, Job 27:16, Job 27:17. The Israelites shall spoil the Egyptians (Exo 12:36) and eat the riches of the Gentiles, Isa 61:6.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:23

See here, 1. How a small estate may be improved by industry, so that a man, by making the best of every thing, may live comfortably upon it: Much food is in the tillage of the poor, the poor farmers, that have but a little, but take pains with that little and husband it well. Many make it an excuse for their idleness that they have but a little to work on, a very little to be doing with; but the less compass the field is of the more let the skill and labour of the owner be employed about it, and it will turn to a very good account. Let him dig, and he needs not beg. 2. How a great estate may be ruined by indiscretion: There is that has a great deal, but it is destroyed and brought to nothing for want of judgment, that is, prudence in the management of it. Men over-build themselves or over-buy themselves, keep greater company, or a better table, or more servants, than they can afford, suffer what they have to go to decay and do not make the most of it; by taking up money themselves, or being bound for others, their estates are sunk, their families reduced, and all for want of judgment.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:24

Note, 1. To the education of children in that which is good there is necessary a due correction of them for what is amiss; every child of ours is a child of Adam, and therefore has that foolishness bound up in its heart which calls for rebuke, more or less, the rod and reproof which give wisdom. Observe, It is his rod that must be used, the rod of a parent, directed by wisdom and love, and designed for good, not the rod of a servant. 2. It is good to begin betimes with the necessary restraints of children from that which is evil, before vicious habits are confirmed. The branch is easily bent when it is tender. 3. Those really hate their children, though they pretend to be fond of them, that do not keep them under a strict discipline, and by all proper methods, severe ones when gentle ones will not serve, make them sensible of their faults and afraid of offending. They abandon them to their worst enemy, to the most dangerous disease, and therefore hate them. Let this reconcile children to the correction their good parents give them; it is from love, and for their good, Heb 12:7-9.

Matthew Henry: Pro 13:25

Note, 1. It is the happiness of the righteous that they shall have enough and that they know when they have enough. They desire not to be surfeited, but, being moderate in their desires, they are soon satisfied. nature is content with a little and grace with less; enough is as good as a feast. Those that feed on the bread of life, that feast on the promises, meet with abundant satisfaction of soul there, eat, and are filled. 2. It is the misery of the wicked that, through the insatiableness of their own desires, they are always needy; not only their souls shall not be satisfied with the world and the flesh, but even their belly shall want; their sensual appetite is always craving. In hell they shall be denied a drop of water.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:1

The proverb Pro 12:28 is so sublime, so weighty, that it manifestly forms a period and conclusion. This is confirmed from the following proverb, which begins like Pro 10:1 (cf. 5), and anew stamps the collection as intended for youth:

1 A wise son is his father's correction;

But a scorner listens not to rebuke.

The lxx, which the Syr. follows, translate Ψἱὸς πανουργὸς ὑπήκοος πατρί , whence it is not to be concluded with Lagarde that they read נוסר in the sense of a Ni . tolerativum ; they correctly understood the text according to the Jewish rule of interpretation, "that which is wanting is to be supplied from the context."The Targ. had already supplied שׁמע from 1b, and is herein followed by Hitzig, as also by Glassius in the Philologia sacra . But such an ellipse is in the Hebr. style without an example, and would be comprehensible only in passionate, hasty discourse, but in a language in which the representation filius sapiens disciplinam patris audit numbers among the anomalies is not in general possible, and has not even its parallel in Tacitus, Ann . xiii. 56: deesse nobis terra, in qua vivamus - in qua moriemur, non potest , because here the primary idea, which the one expression confirms, the other denies, and besides no particle, such as the ו of this passage before us, stands between them. Böttcher therefore maintains the falling out of the verb, and writes יבּין before בּן ; but one says not בין מוסר , but שׁמע מוסר , Pro 1:8; Pro 4:1; Pro 19:27. Should not the clause, as it thus stands, give a sense complete in itself? But מוּסר can hardly, with Schultens and Ewald, be taken as part . Hoph . of יסר : one brought up by his father, for the usage of the language knows מוסר only as part. Hoph . of סוּר . Thus, as Jerome and the Venet . translate: a wise son is the correction of his father, i.e. , the product of the same, as also Fleischer explains, "Attribution of the cause, the ground, as elsewhere of the effect."But we call that which one has trained (vegetable or animal) his steplang7 Zucht (= παιδεία in the sense of παίδευμα ). To the wise son (Pro 10:1) who is indebted to the מוסר אב (Pro 4:1), stands opposed the לץ ( vid ., Pro 1:22), the mocker at religion and virtue, who has no ear for גּערה , strong and stern words which awaken in him a wholesome fear (cf. Pro 17:10, Jud 1:23 : ἐν φόβῳ ).

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:2

2 From the fruit of the mouth of a man he himself enjoys good;

But the delight of the godless is violence.

2a = Pro 12:14, where ישׂבּע for יאכל . A man with a fruit-bringing mouth, himself enjoys also the blessing of his fruit-producing speech; his food (cf. βρῶμα , Joh 4:34) is the good action in words, which in themselves are deeds, and are followed by deeds; this good action affords enjoyment not merely to others, but also to himself. Ewald and Bertheau attract יאכל to 2b; so also does Fleischer: "the violence which the בּגדים wish to do to others turns back upon themselves; they must eat it also, i.e. , bear its evil consequences."The thought would then be like Pro 10:6 : os improborum obteget violentia , and "to eat violence"is parallel to "to drink (Pro 26:6) violence (injury)."But wherefore then the naming of the soul, of which elsewhere it is said that it hungers or satiates itself, but never simply (but cf. Luk 12:19) that it eats? On the contrary, נפשׁ means also appetitus , Pro 23:2, and particularly wicked desire, Psa 27:12; here, as Psa 35:25, the object of this desire ( Psychol . p. 202). Regarding בגדים , vid ., above, p. 85. There are such as do injury in a cunning deceitful manner to their neighbour to their own advantage. While the former (the righteous) distributes to his neighbour from the inner impulse without having such a result in view, yet according to God's direction he derives enjoyment himself therefrom: the desire of the latter goes to חמס , ἀδικία , and thus to the enjoyment of good unrighteously and violently seized.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:3

3 He that guardeth his mouth keepeth his soul;

He that openeth his lips, to him it is destruction.

3a is extended in Pro 21:23 to a distich. Mouth and soul stand in closest interchangeable relation, for speech is the most immediate and continuous expression of the soul; thus whoever guards his mouth keeps his soul (the Venet ., with excellent rendering of the synonym, ὁ τηρῶν τὸ στόμα ἑαυτοῦ φυλάσσει τὴν ψυχὴν ἑαυτοῦ ), for he watches that no sinful vain thoughts rise up in his soul and come forth in words, and because he thus keeps his soul, i.e. , himself, safe from the destructive consequences of the sins of the tongue. On the contrary, he who opens wide his lips, i.e. , cannot hold his mouth (lxx ὁ δὲ προπετὴς χείλεσιν ), but expresses unexamined and unconsidered whatever comes into his mind and gives delight, he is destruction to himself (supply הוּא ), or to him it is destruction (supply זאת ); both interpretations are possible, the parallelism brings nearer the former, and the parallel Pro 18:7 brings nearer the latter. פּשׂק means to spread (Schultens diducere cum ruptura vel ad rupturam usque ), here the lips, Pih . Eze 16:25, the legs, Arab. fashkh , farshkh ; vid ., regarding the R. פש , to extend, to spread out, Fleischer in the supplements to the A. L. Z . 1843, col. 116. Regarding the Mishle word מחתּה , vid ., under Pro 10:14.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:4

The three proverbs (Pro 13:1-3) which refer to hearing and speaking are now following by a fourth which, like Pro 13:2 and Pro 13:3, speaks of the נפשׁ .

The soul of the sluggard desires, yet has not;

But the soul of the industrious is richly satisfied.

The view that the o in נפשׁו עצל is the cholem compaginis , Böttcher, §835, meets with the right answer that this would be the only example of a vocal casus in the whole of gnomic poetry; but when on his own part ( Neue Aehrenlese , §1305) he regards נפשׁו as the accus. of the nearer definition (= בּנפשׁו ), he proceeds inadvertently on the view that the first word of the proverb is מתאוּה , while we read מתאוּה , and נפשׁו is thus the nom. of the subject. נפשׁו עצל means "his (the sluggard's) soul"(for עצל occurs as explanatory permutative briefly for נפשׁ עצל ), as סעיפיה פּריּה means "its branches ( i.e. , of the fruitful tree),"Isa 17:6. One might, it is true, add ה to the following word here, as at Pro 14:13; but the similar expression appertaining to the syntax ornata occurs also 2Sa 22:33; Psa 71:7, and elsewhere, where this is impracticable. Meîri appropriately compares the scheme Exo 2:6, she saw him, viz., the boy. With reference to the ואין here violently (cf. Pro 28:1) introduced, Böttcher rightly remarks, that it is an adverb altogether like necquidquam , Pro 14:6; Pro 20:4, Psa 68:21, etc., thus: appetit necquidquam anima ejus, scilicet pigri . 4b shows the meaning of the desire that has not, for there תדשּׁן occurs, a favourite strong Mishle word (Pro 11:25; Pro 28:25, etc.) for abundant satisfaction (the lxx here, as at 28:25, ἐν ἐπιμελείᾳ , sc. ἔσονται , instead of which, Montfaucon supposed πιμελείᾳ , which is, however, a word not authenticated). The slothful wishes and dreams of prosperity and abundance (cf. Pro 21:25., a parallel which the Syr. has here in view), but his desire remains unsatisfied, since the object is not gained but only lost by doing nothing; the industrious gain, and that richly, what the slothful wishes for, but in vain.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:5

Two proverbs of the character of the righteous and of the effect of righteousness:

A deceitful thing the righteous hateth;

But the godless disgraceth and putteth to shame.

With דּבּר in the sphere of an intelligible generality (as here of falsehood, or Psa 41:9 of worthlessness) a concrete event is in view, as with דּברי in the following plur. a general fact is separated into its individual instances and circumstances ( vid ., at Psa 65:4); for דבר means not only the word in which the soul reveals itself, but also any fact in which an inner principle or a general fact or a whole comes forth to view. The righteous hateth all that bears in it the character of a falsehood (punctuate דּבר־שׁקר with Gaja , cf. Pro 12:19), but the godless ... Should we now, with Bertheau, Hitzig, and others, translate "acteth basely and shamefully"? It is true that both Hiphs . may be regarded as transitive, but this expression gives not right contrast to 5a, and is pointless. We have seen at Pro 10:5 that הבישׁ , like השׂכּיל , has also a causative signification: to put to shame, i.e. , bring shame upon others, and that Pro 19:26, where מבישׁ וּמחפּיר are connected, this causative signification lies nearer than the intrinsically transitive. Thus it will also here be meant, that while the righteous hateth all that is false or that is tainted by falsehood, the godless on the contrary loves to disgrace and to put to shame. But it is a question whether יבאישׁ is to be derived from בּאשׁ = בּושׁ , and thus is of the same meaning as יבישׁ ; הבאישׁ , Isa 30:5, which there signifies pudefactum esse , is pointed הבאישׁ , and is thus derived from a יבשׁ = בּושׁ , vid ., 2Sa 19:6. But הבאישׁ occurs also as Hiph . of בּאשׁ , and means transitively to make of an evil savour, Gen 34:30, cf. Exo 5:21, as well as intransitively to come into evil savour, 1Sa 27:12. In this sense of putidum faciens , bringing into evil savour, יבאישׁ occurs here as at Pro 19:26, suitably along with יחפיר ; Pro 19:26 is the putidum facere by evil report (slander), into which the foolish son brings his parents, here by his own evil report, thus to be thought of as brought about by means of slander. The old translators here fall into error; Luther renders both Hiphils reflexively; only the Venet . (after Kimchi) is right: ὀζώσει (from an ὀζοῦν as trans. to ὀζεῖν ) καὶ ἀτιμώσει , he makes to be of ill odour and dishonours.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:6

6 Righteousness protecteth an upright walk,

And godlessness bringeth sinners to destruction.

The double thought is closely like that of Pro 11:5, but is peculiarly and almost enigmatically expressed. As there, צדקה and רשׁעה are meant of a twofold inner relation to God, which consists of a ruling influence over man's conduct and a determination of his walk. But instead of naming the persons of the תּמימי דּרך and חטּאים as the objects of this influence, the proverb uses the abstract expression, but with personal reference, תּם־דּרך and חטּאת dna תּם , and designates in two words the connection of this twofold character with the principles of their conduct. What is meant by תּצּר and תּסלּף proceeds from the contrasted relationship of the two (cf. Pro 22:12). נצר signifies observare , which is not suitable here, but also tueri ( τηρεῖν ), to which סלּף ( vid ., at Pro 11:3, and in Gesen. Thesaurus ), not so much in the sense of "to turn upside down," pervertere (as Pro 11:3; Pro 23:8), as in the sense of "to overthrow," evertere (as e.g. , Pro 21:12), forms a fitting contrast. He who walks forth with an unfeigned and untroubled pure mind stands under the shield and the protection of righteousness (cf. with this prosopopoeia Psa 25:21), from which such a walk proceeds, and at the same time under the protection of God, to whom righteousness appertains, is well-pleasing. but he who in his conduct permits himself to be determined by sin, godlessness (cf. Zec 5:8) from which such a love for sin springs forth, brings to destruction; in other words: God, from whom the רשע , those of a perverse disposition, tear themselves away, makes the sin their snare by virtue of the inner connection established by Him between the רשׁעה and the destruction (Isa 9:17). In the lxx this 6th verse was originally wanting; the translation in the version of Aquila, in the Complut. and elsewhere, which the Syr. follows, falsely makes חטאת the subj.: τοὺς δὲ ἀσεβεῖς φαύλους ποιεῖ ἁμαρτία .

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:7

Two proverbs of riches and poverty: -

There is one who maketh himself rich and hath nothing;

There is another who representeth himself poor amid great riches.

A sentence which includes in itself the judgment which Pro 12:9 expresses. To the Hithpa . התכּבּד (to make oneself of importance) there are associated here two others, in the meaning to make oneself something, without anything after it, thus to place oneself so or so, Ewald, §124a. To the clauses with ו there is supplied a self-intelligible לּו .

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:8

8 A ransom for a man's life are his riches;

But the poor heareth no threatening.

Bertheau falls into error when he understands גּערה of warning; the contrast points to threatening with the loss of life. The wealth of the rich before the judgment is not here to be thought of; for apart from this, that the Torâ only in a single case permits, or rather ordains (Exo 21:29.), ransom from the punishment of death, and declares it in all other cases inadmissible, Num 35:31. (one might indeed think of an administration of justice not strictly in accordance with the Mosaic law, or altogether accessible to bribery), 8b does not accord therewith, since the poor in such cases would fare ill, because one would lay hold on his person. But one may think e.g. , on waylayers as those introduced as speaking Pro 1:11-14. The poor has no room to fear that such will threateningly point their swords against his breast, for there is nothing to be got from him: he has nothing, one sees it in him and he is known as such. But the rich is a valuable prize for them, and he has to congratulate himself if he is permitted to escape with his life. Also in the times of war and commotion it may be seen that riches endanger the life of their possessor, and that in fortunate cases they are given as a ransom for his life, while his poverty places the poor man in safety. To לא שׁמע Hitzig fittingly compares Job 3:18; Job 39:7 : he does not hear, he has no need to hear. Michaelis, Umbreit, Löwenstein (who calls to remembrance the state of things under despotic governments, especially in the East) also explain 8b correctly; and Fleischer remarks: pauper minas hostiles non audit , i.e. , non minatur ei hostis . Ewald's syntactic refinement: "Yet he became poor who never heard an accusation,"presents a thought not in harmony with 8a.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:9

The three following proverbs in Pro 13:9-11 have at least this in common, that the two concluding words of each correspond with one another almost rhythmically.

9 The light of the righteous burneth joyously,

And the lamp of the godless goeth out.

The second line = Pro 24:20, cf. Pro 20:20. In the Book of Job 18:5., אור רשׁעים ידעך and נרו עליו ידעך (cf. Pro 21:17) stand together, and there is spoken of (Pro 29:3) a divine נר as well as a divine אור which enlightens the righteous; however, one must say that the poet, as he, Pro 6:3, deliberately calls the Torâ אור , and the commandment, as derived from it and separated, נר , so also here designedly calls the righteous אור , viz., אור היום (Pro 4:18, cf. 2Pe 1:19), and the godless נר , viz., נר דלוק - the former imparts the sunny daylight, the latter the light of tapers set in darkness. The authentic punctuation is אור־צדיקים , Ben-Naphtali's is ' אור צ' si s'i without Makkeph . To ישׂמח Hitzig compares the "laughing tongue of the taper"of Meidâni, iii. 475; Kimchi also the "laughing, i.e. , amply measured span, טפח שׂוהק ,"of the Talmud; for the light laughs when it brightly shines, and increases rather than decreases; in Arab. samuḥa has in it the idea of joy directly related to that of liberality. The lxx translates ישׂמח incorrectly by διαπαντός , and has a distich following Pro 13:9, the first line of which is ψυχαὶ δόλιαι ( נפשׁ רמיּה ?) πλανῶνται ἐν ἁμαρτίαις , and the second line is from Psa 37:21.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:10

10 Nothing comes by pride but contention;

But wisdom is with those who receive counsel.

The restrictive רק (only) does not, according to the sense, belong to בּזדון (by pride), but to מצּה , vid ., under Psa 32:6 and Job 2:10. Of יתּן = there is, vid ., under Pro 10:24. Bertheau's "one causes"is not exact, for "one"[ man ] is the most general personal subject, but יתן is in such cases to be regarded as impersonal: by pride is always a something which causes nothing but quarrel and strife, for the root of pride is egoism. Line second is a variant to Pro 11:2. steplang7 Bescheidenheit (modesty) is in our old [German] language exactly equivalent to steplang7 Klugheit (prudence). But here the צנועים are more exactly designated as permitting themselves to be advised; the elsewhere reciprocal נועץ has here once a tolerative signification, although the reciprocal is also allowable: with such as reciprocally advise themselves, and thus without positiveness supplement each his own knowledge by means of that of another. Most interpreters regard 10b as a substantival clause, but why should not יתן be carried forward? With such as permit themselves to be advised, or are not too proud to sustain with others the relation of giving and receiving, there is wisdom, since instead of hatred comes wisdom - the peaceful fruit resulting from an interchange of views.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:11

11 Wealth by means of fraud always becomes less;

But he that increaseth it by labour gains always more.

We punctuate הון־מהבל (with Makkeph , as in Ven. 1521, Antw. 1582, Frank.-on-the-Oder 1595, Gen. 1618, Leyden 1662), not הון מהבל (as other editions, and e.g. , also Löwenstein); for the meaning is not that the wealth becomes less by הבל (Targ., but not the Syr.), or that it is less than הבל (Umbreit), but הון־מהבל is one idea: wealth proceeding from הבל ; but הבל tub ;הב , properly a breath (Theod. ἀπὸ ἀτμοῦ or ἀτμίδος ), then appearance without reality (Aquila, ἀπὸ ματαιότητος ), covers itself here by that which we call swindle, i.e. , by morally unrestrained fraudulent and deceitful speculation in contrast to solid and real gain. The translations: ἐπισπουδαζομένη μετὰ ἀνομίας (lxx), ὑπερσπουδαζομένη (Symmachus, Quinta ),

(Note: A fragment of an anonymous translation, so called from the place it holds in Origen's Hexapla.)

festinata (Jerome), do not necessarily suppose the phrase מהבּל = מבהל , Pro 20:21 Kerı̂ , for wealth which comes מהבל is obtained in a windy (unsubstantial) manner and as if by storm, of which the proverb holds good: "steplang7 so gewonnen so zerronnen "(= quickly come, quickly go). מהבל needs neither to be changed into that unhebraic מהבּל (Hitzig) nor into the cognate מבהל (Ewald), but yet inferior to מהבל in the content of its idea. The contrast of one who by fraud and deception quickly arrives at wealth is one who brings it together in his hand, ἐπὶ χειρός ( Venet .), i.e. , always as often as he can bear it in his hand and bring it forth (Ewald, Bertheau, Elster, and Lagarde), or according to the measure of the hand, κατὰ χεῖρα (which means "according to external ability"), so that על , which is applied to the formation of adverbs, e.g. , Psa 31:24 (Hitzig) - by both explanations על־יד has the meaning of "gradually,"- is used as in the post-bibl. Hebr. על יד על יד = מעט מעט , e.g. , Schabbath 156a ( vid ., Aruch under על ) (distinguish from ביד = with thought, intentionally, Berachoth 52b). There is scarcely a word having more significations that יד . Connected with על , it means at one time side or place, at another mediation or direction; that which is characteristic here is the omission of the pronoun ( על־ידו , על־ידיו ). The lxx translates על יד with the unrestrained freedom which it allows to itself by μετ ̓ εὐσεβείας , and has following πληθυνθήσεται another line, δίκαιος οἰκτείρει καὶ κιχρᾷ (from Psa 37:26).

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:12

The figures of paradise in Pro 13:12 and Pro 13:14 require us to take along with them the intermediate verse (Pro 13:13).

12 Deferred waiting maketh the heart sick,

And a tree of life is a wish accomplished.

Singularly the lxx Κρείσσων ἐναρχόμενος βοηθῶν καρδίᾳ , followed by the Syr. (which the Targ. Transcribes):

(Note: That the Targum of the Proverbs is a Jewish elaboration of the Peshito text, vid ., Nöldeke in Merx' Archiv , Bd. ii. pp. 246-49.)

Better is he who begins to help than he who remains in hesitating expectation, by which תחלת is doubled, and is derived once from הוחיל , to wait, and the second time from החל , to begin. If the lxx, with its imitators, deteriorates to such a degree proverbs so clear, beautiful, and inviolable, what may one expect from it in the case of those not easily understood! משּׁך signifies also, Isa 18:2, to be widely extended (cf. Arab. meshaḳ ), here in the sense of time, as נמשׁך , to prolong, Isa 13:22, and post-bibl. משׁך הזּמן , the course of time. Regarding תּוחלת , vid ., at Pro 10:28, where as Pro 11:27 תּקות , here תּאוה , as also Psa 78:29 of the object of the wish, and with בוא in the sense of being fulfilled (cf. Jos 21:43), as there with הביא in the sense of accomplishing or performing. Extended waiting makes the heart sick, causes heart-woe ( מחלה , part. fem . Hiph . of חלה , to be slack, feeble, sick; R. חל , to loosen, to make loose); on the contrary, a wish that has been fulfilled is a tree of life (cf. p. 23), of a quickening and strengthening influence, like that tree of paradise which was destined to renew and extend the life of man.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:13

13 Whoever despiseth the word is in bonds to it,

And he that feareth the commandment is rewarded.

The word is thought of as ordering, and thus in the sense of the commandment, e.g. , 1Sa 17:19; Dan 9:23, Dan 9:25. That which is here said is always true where the will of a man has subordinated itself to the authoritative will of a superior, but principally the proverb has in view the word of God, the מצוה κατ ̓ ἐξ . as the expression of the divine will, which (Pro 6:3) appears as the secondary, with the תורה , the general record of the divine will. Regarding בּוּז ל of contemptuous, despiteful opposition, vid ., at Pro 6:30, cf. Pro 11:12. Joël records the prevailing tradition, for he translates: "Whoever despises advice rushes into destruction; whoever holds the commandment in honour is perfect."But that ישׁלּם is to be understood neither of perfection nor of peace (lxx and Jerome), but means compensabitur (here not in the sense of punishment, but of reward), we know from Pro 11:31. The translation also of יחבל לו by "he rushes into destruction"(lxx καταφθαρήσεται , which the Syr.-Hexap. repeats; Luther, "he destroys himself;"the Venet . οἰχησεταί οἱ , periet sibi ) fails, for one does not see what should have determined the poet to choose just this word, and, instead of the ambiguous dat. ethicus , not rather to say יחבּל נפשׁו . So also this יחבל is not with Gesenius to be connected with חבל = Arab. khabl , corrumpere , but with חבל = Arab. ḥabl , ligare, obligare . Whoever places himself contemptuously against a word which binds him to obedience will nevertheless not be free from that word, but is under pledge until he redeem the pledge by the performance of the obedience refused, or till that higher will enforce payment of the debt withheld by visiting with punishment. Jerome came near the right interpretation: ipse se in futurum obligat ; Abulwalîd refers to Exo 22:25; and Parchon, Rashi, and others paraphrase: משׁכּן יתמשׁכּן עליו , he is confiscated as by mortgage. Schultens has, with the correct reference of the לו not to the contemner, but to the word, well established and illustrated this explanation: he is pledged by the word, Arab. marhwan (rahyn ), viz., pigneratus paenae (Livius, xxix. 36). Ewald translates correctly: he is pledged to it; and Hitzig gives the right explanation: "A חבלה [a pledge, cf. Pro 20:16] is handed over to the offended law with the חבוּלה [the bad conduct] by the despiser himself, which lapses when he has exhausted the forbearance, so that the punishment is inflicted."The lxx has another proverb following Pro 13:13 regarding υἱὸς δόλιος and οἰκέτης σοφός ; the Syr. has adopted it; Jerome has here the proverb of the animae dolosae ( vid ., at Pro 13:9).

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:14

14 The doctrine of the wise man is a fountain of life,

To escape the snares of death.

An integral distich, vid ., p. 8 of the Introduction. Essentially like 14a, Pro 10:11 says, "a fountain of life is the mouth of the righteous."The figure of the fountain of life with the teleological ' לסור וגו (the ל of the end and consequence of the action) is repeated Pro 14:27. The common non-biblical figure of the laquei mortis leads also to the idea of death as יקוּשׁ a fowler, Psa 91:3. If it is not here a mere formula for the dangers of death (Hitzig), then the proverb is designed to state that the life which springs from the doctrine of the wise man as from a fountain of health, for the disciple who will receive it, communicates to him knowledge and strength, to know where the snares of destruction lie, and to hasten with vigorous steps away when they threaten to entangle him.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:15

Four proverbs follow, whose connection appears to have been occasioned by the sound of their words ( שׂכל ... כל , בדעת ... ברע , רשׁע ... רישׁ ).

15 Fine prudence produceth favour;

But the way of the malicious is uncultivated.

Regarding שׂכל טוב (thus to be punctuated, without Makkeph with Munach , after Codd. and old editions), vid ., p. 84; for the most part it corresponds with that which in a deep ethical sense we call fine culture. Regarding יתּן , vid ., at Pro 10:10 : it is not used here, as there, impersonally, but has a personal subject: he brings forth, causes. Fine culture, which shows men how to take the right side and in all circumstances to strike the right key, exercises a kindly heart-winning influence, not merely, as would be expressed by ימצא חן , to the benefit of its possessor, but, as is expressed by יתּן חן , such as removes generally a partition wall and brings men closer to one another. The איתן [ perennis ], touching it both for the eye and the ear, forms the contrast to יתן חן . This word, an elative formation from יתן = Arab. wtn , denotes that which stretches itself far, and that with reference to time: that which remains the same during the course of time. "That which does not change in time, continuing the same, according to its nature, strong, firm, and thus איתן becomes the designation of the enduring and the solid, whose quality remains always the same."Thus Orelli, Die hebr. Synonyme der Zeit u. Ewigkeit , 1871. But that in the passage before us it denotes the way of the בגדים as "endlessly going forward,"the explanation of Orelli, after Böttcher ( Collectanea , p. 135), is withdrawn by the latter in the new Aehrenlese (where he reads ריב איתן , "constant strife"). And נחל איתן (Deu 21:4) does not mean "a brook, the existence of which is not dependent on the weather and the season of the year,"at least not in accordance with the traditional meaning which is given Sota ix. 5 (cf. the Gemara), but a stony valley; for the Mishna says: איתן כמשׁמעו קשׁה , i.e. , איתן is here, according to its verbal meaning, equivalent to קשׁה (hard). We are of the opinion that here, in the midst of the discussion of the law of the עגלה ערופה (the ritual for the atonement of a murder perpetrated by an unknown hand), the same meaning of the איתן is certified which is to be adopted in the passage before us. Maimuni

(Note: = R. Moses b. Maimum = Rambam , so called by the Jews from the initial letters of his name = Maimonides, d. 1204.)

(in Sota and Hilchoth Rozeach ix. 2) indeed, with the Mishna and Gemara, thinks the meaning of a "strong rushing wâdy"to be compatible; but קשׁה is a word which more naturally denotes the property of the ground than of a river, and the description, Deu 21:4 : in a נחל איתן , in which there is no tillage and sowing, demands for נחל here the idea of the valley, and not primarily that of the valley-brook. According to this tradition, the Targum places a תּקּיפא in the Peshito translation of 15b, and the Venet . translates, after Kimchi, ὁδὸς δὲ ἀνταρτῶν (of ἀνταρτής from ἀνταίρειν ) ἰσχυρά . The fundamental idea of remaining like itself, continuing, passes over into the idea of the firm, the hard, so that איתן is a word that interchanges with סלע , Num 24:21, and serves as a figurative designation of the rocky mountains, Jer 49:19, and the rocky framework of the earth, Mic 6:2. Thus the meaning of hardness ( πετρῶδες , Mat 13:5) connects itself with the word, and at the same time, according to Deu 21:4, of the uncultivable and the uncultivated. The way of the בּגדים , the treacherous, i.e. , the manner in which they transact with men, is stiff, as hard as stone, and repulsive; they follow selfish views, never placing themselves in sympathy with the condition of their neighbour; they are without the tenderness which is connected with fine culture; they remain destitute of feeling in things which, as we say, would soften a stone. It is unnecessary to give a catalogue of the different meanings of this איתן , such as vorago (Jerome), a standing bog (Umbreit), and ever trodden way (Bertheau), etc.; Schultens offers, as frequently, the relatively best: at via perfidorum pertinacissime tensum ; but יתן does not mean to strain, but to extend. The lxx has between 15a and 15b the interpolation: τὸ δὲ γνῶναι νόμον διανοίας ἐστὶν ἀγαθῆς .

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:16

16 Every prudent man acteth with understanding;

But a fool spreadeth abroad folly.

Hitzig reads, with the Syr. (but not the Targ.) and Jerome, כּל ( omnia agit ), but contrary to the Hebr. syntax. The כּל־ is not feeble and useless, but means that he always acts בּדּעת , steplang7 mit Bedacht [with judgment] ( opp . בּבלי דעת , inconsulto , Deu 4:42; Deu 19:4), while on the contrary the fool displays folly. Pro 12:23 and Pro 15:2 serve to explain both members of the verse. steplang7 Bedächtigkeit [judgment] is just knowledge directed to a definite practical end, a clear thought concentrated on a definite point. יקרא , he calls out, and יבּיע , he sputters out, are parallels to יפרשׂ . Fleischer: פּרשׂ , expandit ( opp . Arab. ṭawy , intra animum cohibuit ), as a cloth or paper folded or rolled together, cf. Schiller's

(Note: "steplang7 Er breitet es heiter und glänzend aus,

Das zusammengewickelte Leben .") -

"He spreads out brightly and splendidly

The enveloped life."

There lies in the word something derisive: as the merchant unrolls and spreads out his wares in order to commend them, so the fool does with his foolery, which he had enveloped, i.e. , had the greatest interest to keep concealed within himself - he is puffed up therewith.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:17

17 A godless messenger falls into trouble;

But a faithful messenger is a cordial.

The traditional text, which the translations also give (except Jerome, nuntius impii , and leaving out of view the lxx, which makes of Pro 13:17 a history of a foolhardy king and a wise messenger), has not מלאך , but מלאך ; the Masora places the word along with המלאך , Gen 48:16. And יפל is likewise testified to by all translators; they all read it as Kal , as the traditional text punctuates it; Luther alone departs from this and translates the Hiph .: "a godless messenger bringeth misfortune."Indeed, this conj. יפּל presses itself forward; and even though one read יפּל , the sense intended by virtue of the parallelism could be no other than that a godless messenger, because no blessing rests on his godlessness, stumbles into disaster, and draws him who gave the commission along with him. The connection מלאך רשׁע is like אדם רשׁע , Pro 11:7 (cf. the fem. of this adj., Eze 3:18). Instead of בּרע is בּרעה , Pro 17:20; Pro 28:14, parallels (cf. also Pro 11:5) which the punctuators may have had in view in giving the preference to Kal . With מלאך , from לאך , R. לך , to make to go = to send, is interchanged ציר , from צוּר , to turn, whence to journey (cf. Arab. ṣar , to become, to be, as the vulg. "to be to Dresden = to journey"is used). The connection ציר אמוּנים (cf. the more simple ציר נאמן , Pro 25:13) is like Pro 14:15, עד אמונים ; the pluralet . means faithfulness in the full extent of the idea. Regarding מרפּא , the means of healing, here to strength, refreshment, vid ., Pro 4:22; Pro 12:18.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:18

18 Poverty and shame (to him) who rejecteth correction;

But he who regardeth reproof is honoured.

We are neither to supply אישׁ before רישׁ קלונו (or more correctly, abstr. pro concr ., as רמיּה , Pro 1:27), nor ל before פורע , as Gesenius ( Lehrgeb . §227a) does; nor has the part . פּורע the value of a hypothetical clause like Pro 18:13, Job 41:18, although it may certainly be changed into such without destroying the meaning (Ewald, Hitzig); but "poverty and shame is he who is without correction,"is equivalent to, poverty and shame is the conclusion or lot of him who is without correction; it is left to the hearer to find out the reference of the predicate to the subject in the sense of the quality, the consequence, or the lot (cf. e.g. , Pro 10:17; Pro 13:1; Pro 14:35).

(Note: Vid ., regarding the strong demand which the Hebr. style makes on hearer and reader, my Gesch. der jüdischen Poesie (1863), p. 189.)

Regarding פרע , vid ., p. 73. The Latin expression corresponding is: qui detrectat disciplinam . He who rejects the admonition and correction of his parents, his pastor, or his friend, and refuses every counsel to duty as a burdensome moralizing, such an one must at last gather wisdom by means of injury if he is at all wise: he grows poorer in consequence of missing the right rule of life, and has in addition thereto to be subject to disgrace through his own fault. On the contrary, to him who has the disgrace to deserve reproof, but who willingly receives it, and gives it effect, the disgrace becomes an honour, for not to reject reproof shows self-knowledge, humility, and good-will; and these properties in the judgment of others bring men to honour, and have the effect of raising them in their position in life and in their calling.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:19

Two pairs of proverbs regarding fools and wise men, ranged together by catchwords.

19 Quickened desire is sweet to the soul,

And it is an abomination to fools to avoid evil.

A synthetic distich, the first line of which, viewed by itself, is only a feebler expression of that which is said in Pro 13:12, for תּאוה נהיה is essentially of the same meaning as תאוה באה , not the desire that has just arisen and is not yet appeased (Umbreit, Hitzig, Zöckler), which when expressed by a part . of the same verb would be הוה (= אשׁר היתה ), but the desire that is appeased (Jerome, Luther, also Venet . ἔφεσις γενομένη , i.e. , after Kimchi: in the fulfilling of past desire; on the contrary, the Syr., Targ. render the phrase נאוה of becoming desire). The Niph . נהיה denotes not the passing into a state of being, but the being carried out into historical reality, e.g. , Eze 21:12; Eze 39:8, where it is connected with באה ; it is always the expression of the completed fact to which there is a looking back, e.g. , Jdg 20:3; and this sense of the Niph . stands so fast, that it even means to be done, finished (brought to an end), to be out, to be done with anything, e.g. , Dan 2:1.

(Note: We have said, p. 156, that a Niph . in which the peculiar causative meaning of the Hiph . would be rendered passively is without example; we must here with נהיה add, that the Niph . of intransitive verbs denotes the entrance into the condition expressed by the Kal , and may certainly be regarded, according to our way of thinking, as passive of the Hiphil (Gesen. §51, 2). But the old language shows no ההוה to which נהיה (Arab. âinhaway , in Mutenebbi) stood as passive; in the Arab. also the seventh form, rightly regarded, is always formed from the first, vid ., Fleischer's Beiträge , u.s.w., in the Sitzungs-Bericht. d. Sächs. Gesellschaft d. Wiss . 1863, p. 172f.)

The sentence, that fulfilled desire does good to the soul, appears commonplace (Hitzig); but it is comprehensive enough on the ground of Heb 11 to cheer even a dying person, and conceals the ethically significant truth that the blessedness of vision is measured by the degree of the longing of faith. But the application of the clause in its pairing with 19b acquires another aspect. On this account, because the desire of the soul is pleasant in its fulfilment, fools abhor the renouncing of evil, for their desire is directed to that which is morally worthless and blameworthy, and the endeavour, which they closely and constantly adhere to, is to reach the attainment of this desire. This subordinate proposition of the conclusion is unexpressed. The pairing of the two lines of the proverb may have been occasioned by the resemblance in sound of תועבת and תּאוה . סוּר is n. actionis , like Pro 16:17, cf. 6. Besides, it in to be observed that the proverb speaks of fools and not of the godless. Folly is that which causes that men do not break free from evil, for it is the deceit of sinful lust which binds them fast thereto.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:20

20 Whoever goes with wise men, becomes wise;

And whoever has intercourse with fools, becomes base.

Regarding the significance of this proverb in the history of the religion and worship of Israel, vid ., p. 39. We have translated 20a after the Kerı̂ ; the translation according to the Chethı̂b is: "go with wise men and become wise"(cf. Pro 8:33), not הלוך , for the connection of the (meant imperatively) infin . absol . with an imper. (meant conclusively) is not tenable; but הלוך is an imper. form established by הלכוּ , Jer 51:50 (cf. הלוך = לכת , Num 22:14), and appears to have been used with such shades of conception as here as intercourse and companionship for לך . Regarding ירוע gnid , vid ., at Pro 11:15; there it meant malo afficietur , here it means malus ( pejor ) fiet . The Venet . (contrary to Kimchi, who explains by frangetur ) rightly has κακωθήσεται . There is here a play upon words; רעה means to tend (a flock), also in general to be considerate about anything (Pro 15:14; 44:20), to take care of anything with the accusative of the person (Pro 28:7; Pro 29:3), to hold intercourse with any one: he who by preference seeks the society of fools, himself becomes such (Jerome, similis efficietur ), or rather, as ירוע expresses, he comes always morally lower down. "A wicked companion leads his associate into hell."

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:21

21 Evil pursueth sinners,

And the righteous is repaid with good.

To תּרדּף of the punishment which follows after sinners at their heels, cf. Nah 1:8. Greek art gives wings to Nemesis in this sense. To translate 21b, with Löwenstein, "The pious, the good rewards them,"is untenable, for טוב , the good ( e.g. , Pro 11:27), never appears personified, only טוב , goodness, Psa 23:6, according to which the lxx τοὺς δὲ δικαίους καταλήψεται ( ישׂיג ) ἀγαθά . Still less is טוב meant personally, as the Venet . τὰ δὲ δίκαια ἀποδώσει χρηστός , which probably means: righteous conduct will a good one, viz., God, reward. טוב .dr is an attribute of God, but never the name of God. So the verb שׁלּם , after the manner of verbs of educating and leading ( גמל , עשׂה , עבד ), is connected with a double accusative. The Syr., Targum, and Jerome translate passively, and so also do we; for while we must think of God in the retribuet , yet the proverb does not name Him any more than at Pro 12:14, cf. Pro 10:24; it is designedly constructed, placing Him in the background, with vague generality: the righteous will one, will they, reward with good - this expression, with the most general personal subject, almost coincides with one altogether passive.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:22

22 The good man leaveth behind him for his children's children,

And the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.

As a commencing word, טוב signifies in the Mishle for the most part bonum ( prae ); but here, as at Pro 12:2, cf. Pro 22:9; Pro 14:4, it signifies bonus . As the expression that God is טוב (Psa 25:8, etc.) of the O.T. is equivalent to the N.T. that He is ἀγάπη , so that man who in his relation to others is determined by unselfish love is טוב for the good man [steplang7 der Gütige ], i.e. , the man who is willing to communicate all good is truly good, because the essence of צדקה , righteousness of life, is love. Such an one suffers no loss by his liberality, but, according to the law, Pro 11:25, by which a dispenser of blessings is at the same time also a recipient of blessings, he has only gain, so that he makes his children's children to inherit, i.e. , leaves behind him an inheritance extending even to his grandchildren ( vid ., regarding הנחיל , p. 182; here trans. as containing its object in itself, as at Deu 32:8 : to make to inherit, to place in possession of an inheritance). The sinner, on the contrary ( חוטא sing. to חטּאים , ἁμαρτωλοί ), loses his wealth, it is already destined to pass over to the righteous who is worthy of it, and makes use (cf. Job 27:17) of that which he possesses in accordance with the will and appointment of God - a revelation of justice appertaining to time, the exceptions to which the old limited doctrine of requital takes no notice of. חיל , strength, then like our "steplang7 Vermögen "(cf. opes, facultates ), that by means of which one is placed in circumstances to accomplish much (Fl.); cf. regarding the fundamental idea contorquere, compingere , p. 226, also regarding צפן , properly condensare , then condere , p. 61.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:23

Connected with Pro 13:22 there now follow two proverbs regarding sustenance, with one intervening regarding education.

23 The poor man's fresh land gives food in abundance,

And many are destroyed by iniquity.

The Targ. and Theodotion ( μέγας ) translate רב , but the Masora has רב־ with short Kametz , as Pro 20:6; Ecc 1:8 (cf. Kimchi under רבב ). The rendering: multitudo cibi est ager pauperum , makes the produce the property of the field (= frugum fertilis ). ניר .)s is the new field ( novale or novalis , viz., ager ), from ניר , to make arable, fruitful; properly to raise up, viz., by grubbing and freeing of stones ( סקּל ). But why, asks Hitzig, just the new field? As if no answer could be given to this question, he changes ניר into ניב , and finds in 23a the description of a rentier , "a great man who consumes the income of his capital."But how much more intelligible is the new field of the poor man than these capitals ( ראשׁים ) with their per cents ( ניב )! A new field represents to us severe labour, and as belonging to a poor man, a moderate field, of which it is here said, that notwithstanding its freshly broken up fallow, it yet yields a rich produce, viz., by virtue of the divine blessing, for the proverb supposes the ora et labora . Regarding ראשׁים = רשׁים , vid ., at Pro 10:4. Jerome's translation, patrum (properly, heads), follows a false Jewish tradition. In the antithesis, 23b, one is tempted to interpret ישׁ in the sense of Pro 8:21 [substance, wealth], as Schultens, opulentia ipsa raditur quum non est moderamen , and Euchel: that which is essentially good, badly managed, goes to ruin. But ישׁ and וישׁ at the beginning of a proverb, or of a line of a proverb, in every case means est qui . That a wealthy person is meant, the contrast shows. נספּה , which denotes anything taken away or gathered up, has the same meaning here as at 1Sa 27:1 : est qui (Fl. quod , but the parallel does not demand this) abripiatur , i.e. , quasi turbine auferatur et perdatur ; the word reminds us of סופה , whirlwind, but in itself it means only something smooth and altogether carried off. The בּ is here as at Gen 19:15; elsewhere בּלא משׁפּט means with injustice (properly, not-right), Pro 16:8, Jer 22:13; Eze 22:29; here it is not the ב of the means, but of the mediate cause. While the (industrious and God-fearing) poor man is richly nourished from the piece of ground which he cultivates, many a one who has incomparably more than he comes by his unrighteousness down to a state of beggary, or even lower: he is not only in poverty, but along with this his honour, his freedom, and the very life of his person perish.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:24

24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son,

And he who loveth him visits him early with correction.

The paedagogic rule of God, Pro 3:12, avails also for men, Pro 23:13., Pro 29:15. The rod represents here the means of punishment, the patria potestas . He who spareth or avoideth this, and who does this even from love, has yet no true right love for his son; he who loveth him correcteth him early. With ἐπιμελῶς παιδεύει of the lxx (cf. Sir. 30:1, ἐνδελεχήσει μάστιγας ) the thought is in general indicated, but the expression is not explained. Many erroneously regard the suffix of שׁחרו as referring to the object immediately following (de Dieu, Ewald, Bertheau, Zöckler); Hitzig, on the contrary, rightly remarks, that in this case we should expect the words to be, after Pro 5:22 (cf. Exo 2:6), את־המּוּסר . He himself, without any necessity, takes שׁחר in the sense of the Arab. skhar , compescere . Hofmann ( Schriftbew . ii. 2. 402) is right in saying that " שׁחר is connected with a double accusative as elsewhere קדּם occurs; and the meaning is, that one ought much more to anticipate correction than restrain it where it is necessary." שׁחר means to go out early to anything, according to which a Greek rendering is ὀρθρίζει ( Venet . ὀρθριεῖ ) αὐτῷ παιδείαν : maturat ei castigationem = mature eum castigat (Fl.). שׁחר does not denote the early morning of the day (as Rashi, לבקרים ), but the morning of life (as Euchel, בשׁחר ימיו ). "The earlier the fruit, the better the training."A father who truly wishes well to his son keeps him betimes under strict discipline, to give him while he is yet capable of being influenced the right direction, and to allow no errors to root themselves in him; but he who is indulgent toward his child when he ought to be strict, acts as if he really wished his ruin.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 13:25

25 The righteous has to eat to the satisfying of his soul;

But the body of the godless must suffer want.

Jerome translates תחסר freely by insaturabilis (he has want = has never enough), but in that case we would have expected תחסר תּמיד ; also in 25a עד־שׂבע would have been used. We have thus before us no commendation of temperance and moderation in contrast to gluttony, but a statement regarding the diversity of fortune of the righteous and the godless - another way of clothing the idea of Pro 10:3. שׂבע is a segolate form, thus an infin. formation, formally different from the similar שׂבע , Pro 3:10. Regarding בּטן , vid ., Psychol . p. 265f.; it is a nobler word than "steplang7 Bauch "[belly], for it denotes not the external arch, but, like κοιλία (R. בט , concavus ), the inner body, here like Pro 18:20, as that which receives the nourishment and changes it in succum et sanguinem . That God richly nourishes the righteous, and on the contrary brings the godless to want and misery, is indeed a rule with many exceptions, but understood in the light of the N.T., it has deep inward everlasting truth.

Constable: Pro 10:1--22:17

II. COUPLETS EXPRESSING WISDOM 10:1--22:16

Chapters 1-9, as we have seen, contain discourses that Solomon evidently wrote urging his sons to choose the way of wisdom for their lives.⁹² At 10:1 we begin the part of the book that sets forth what the wise way is in a variety of life situations.

"Until now the book of Proverbs has been identifying the truly wise man. Form this point on, it will describe how such a man should conduct his life from day to day. This logical topical order appears in many New Testament epistles, where the saved person is first identified, and then the daily life he should live is described [e.g., Rom. 1-5 and 6-8; Eph. 1-3 and 4-6]."⁹³

There are 184 maxims in chapters 10-15 and 191 in chapters 16-22 for a total of 375.⁹⁴ This represents only a few of the 3,000 proverbs Solomon wrote (1 Kings 4:32). Most of the proverbs in this section are one verse long and contain two lines each; they are couplets. The second line contrasts, compares, or completes the idea expressed in the first line. In chapters 10-15 most couplets contain antithetic parallelism. The key word is "but." In chapters 16-22 there are more synonymous parallelisms marked by the conjunction "and." There are also continuous sentences in which the second line continues the thought of the first line (e.g., 14:26). Some couplets contain comparisons in which the relative value of two things is set forth (e.g., 11:31). Some contain a statement in the first line followed by an explanation in the second line (e.g., 20:2).⁹⁵

Is there any logic to the arrangement of these seemingly unrelated proverbs? In some places there is a general association of ideas, and in some places there is a recurring key word (e.g., "king" in 16:12-15, and "Yahweh" in 16:1-7). However many of these couplets have no logical connection with what immediately precedes or follows in the context. This anthology style is typical of other ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature.

"The absence of a systematic arrangement is due to the traditional character of the contents. There is no need of a closely knit argument; striking images, incisive wording are all that is required to give a fresh appeal to the truth of familiar viewpoints."⁹⁶

"It is also surprising to find lofty precepts mixed with more trivial' apothegms. Of course, this is a misconception based on the modern-day viewpoint of life. From the sages' perspective each proverb is an expression of wisdom,' which is . . . the fixed order of reality. Viewed from this perspective no sentence is trivial . . ."⁹⁷

Why did the Holy Spirit not arrange these proverbs topically so we could study all of them that deal with one subject together? Probably He did so because the method He chose is "a course of education in the life of wisdom."⁹⁸

"As we read Proverbs chapter by chapter, the Spirit of God has the freedom to teach us about many subjects, and we never know from day to day which topic we'll need the most. Just as the Bible itself isn't arranged like a systematic theology, neither is Proverbs. What Solomon wrote is more like a kaleidoscope than a stained-glass window: We never know what the next pattern will be."⁹⁹

In the notes that follow (on 10:1-22:16) I have commented only on those proverbs that appear to me to need clarification in the NASB.

Constable: Pro 13:1-25

7. Fruits of wise living ch. 13

13:3 This caution applies to transparent sharing as well as verbose communication. Both can bring ruin to the speaker.

13:4 The "soul" stands for the whole person (cf. Matt. 16:24-27; Mark 3:4; Luke 6:9; 9:56; Rom. 13:1; 1 Thess. 5:20; James 1:21; 5:20).

"The slothful wishes and dreams of prosperity and abundance . . . but his desire remains unsatisfied, since the object is not gained but only lost by doing nothing; the industrious gain, and that richly, what the slothful wishes for, but in vain."¹¹⁷

13:8 The idea in this contrast is that a rich man may lose his money by having to buy himself out of trouble. A poor man is not the target of robbers and kidnappers because he has little money. The more money a person has the more financial obligations become his, but a poor man is free of these distractions. Another view is that the poor man cannot buy himself out of trouble since his means are limited.¹¹⁸

13:11 Wealth obtained by fraud would be money gotten by not working for it (e.g., in gambling). This kind of income dwindles in that though it is "easy come" it is also "easy go."

"This is a warning against wild speculation."¹¹⁹

13:19 Even though it is pleasant to hope for something better and then see it happen, a fool will not do so because he would rather continue practicing evil. Fools characteristically do not hope for higher things. They only want to continue in evil.

"In spite of the sweetness of good desires accomplished, fools will not forsake evil to attain it."¹²⁰

13:25 This proverb illustrates the difference between a proverb and a promise. It expresses a condition that is generally true in this life all other things being equal. However, God never promised that He would keep every righteous person from starving to death (cf. Matt. 6:33; Lev. 26).

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Lainnya

Evidence: Pro 13:13

The Word will judge and condemn the guilty on the Last Day. Those who fear when they realize that they have sinned against God by transgressing His Law will be rewarded in the gospel. See Gal 3:24 .

Evidence: Pro 13:19

Sinners love darkness ; it is their security. See Pro 14:9 ; Joh 3:19-20 .

Pendahuluan / Garis Besar

JFB: Proverbs (Pendahuluan Kitab)

THE NATURE AND USE OF PROVERBS.--A proverb is a pithy sentence, concisely expressing some well-established truth susceptible of various illustrations and applications. The word is of Latin derivation, literally meaning for a word, speech, or discourse; that is, one expression for many. The Hebrew word for "proverb" (mashal) means a "comparison." Many suppose it was used, because the form or matter of the proverb, or both, involved the idea of comparison. Most of the proverbs are in couplets or triplets, or some modifications of them, the members of which correspond in structure and length, as if arranged to be compared one with another. They illustrate the varieties of parallelism, a distinguishing feature of Hebrew poetry. Compare Introduction to Poetical Books. Many also clearly involve the idea of comparison in the sentiments expressed (compare Pro 12:1-10; Pro 25:10-15; Pro 26:1-9). Sometimes, however, the designed omission of one member of the comparison, exercising the reader's sagacity or study for its supply, presents the proverb as a "riddle" or "dark saying" (compare Pro. 30:15-33; Pro 1:6; Psa 49:4). The sententious form of expression, which thus became a marked feature of the proverbial style, was also adopted for continuous discourse, even when not always preserving traces of comparison, either in form or matter (compare Pro. 1:1-9:18). In Eze 17:1; Eze 24:3, we find the same word properly translated "parable," to designate an illustrative discourse. Then the Greek translators have used a word, parabola ("parable"), which the gospel writers (except John) employ for our Lord's discourses of the same character, and which also seems to involve the idea of comparison, though that may not be its primary meaning. It might seem, therefore, that the proverbial and parabolic styles of writing were originally and essentially the same. The proverb is a "concentrated parable, and the parable an extension of the proverb by a full illustration." The proverb is thus the moral or theme of a parable, which sometimes precedes it, as in Mat 19:30 (compare Pro 20:1); or succeeds it, as in Mat. 22:1-16; Luk 15:1-10. The style being poetical, and adapted to the expression of a high order of poetical sentiment, such as prophecy, we find the same term used to designate such compositions (compare Num 23:7; Mic 2:4; Hab 2:6).

Though the Hebrews used the same term for proverb and parable, the Greek employs two, though the sacred writers have not always appeared to recognize a distinction. The term for proverb is, paroimia, which the Greek translators employ for the title of this book, evidently with special reference to the later definition of a proverb, as a trite, sententious form of speech, which appears to be the best meaning of the term. John uses the same term to designate our Saviour's instructions, in view of their characteristic obscurity (compare Pro 16:25-29, Greek), and even for his illustrative discourses (Pro 10:6), whose sense was not at once obvious to all his hearers. This form of instruction was well adapted to aid the learner. The parallel structure of sentences, the repetition, contrast, or comparison of thought, were all calculated to facilitate the efforts of memory; and precepts of practical wisdom which, extended into logical discourses, might have failed to make abiding impressions by reason of their length or complicated character, were thus compressed into pithy, and, for the most part, very plain statements. Such a mode of instruction has distinguished the written or traditional literature of all nations, and was, and still is, peculiarly current in the East.

In this book, however, we are supplied with a proverbial wisdom commended by the seal of divine inspiration. God has condescended to become our teacher on the practical affairs belonging to all the relations of life. He has adapted His instruction to the plain and unlettered, and presented, in this striking and impressive method, the great principles of duty to Him and to our fellow men. To the prime motive of all right conduct, the fear of God, are added all lawful and subordinate incentives, such as honor, interest, love, fear, and natural affection. Besides the terror excited by an apprehension of God's justly provoked judgments, we are warned against evil-doing by the exhibition of the inevitable temporal results of impiety, injustice, profligacy, idleness, laziness, indolence, drunkenness, and debauchery. To the rewards of true piety which follow in eternity, are promised the peace, security, love, and approbation of the good, and the comforts of a clear conscience, which render this life truly happy.

INSPIRATION AND AUTHORSHIP.--With no important exception, Jewish and Christian writers have received this book as the inspired production of Solomon. It is the first book of the Bible prefaced by the name of the author. The New Testament abounds with citations from the Proverbs. Its intrinsic excellence commends it to us as the production of a higher authority than the apocryphal writings, such as Wisdom or Ecclesiasticus. Solomon lived five hundred years before the "seven wise men" of Greece, and seven hundred before the age of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. It is thus very evident, whatever theory of his sources of knowledge be adopted, that he did not draw upon any heathen repositories with which we are acquainted. It is far more probable, that by the various migrations, captivities, and dispersions of the Jews, heathen philosophers drew from this inspired fountain many of those streams which continue to refresh mankind amid the otherwise barren and parched deserts of profane literature.

As, however, the Psalms are ascribed to David, because he was the leading author, so the ascription of this book to Solomon is entirely consistent with the titles of the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters, which assign those chapters to Agur and Lemuel respectively. Of these persons we know nothing. This is not the place for discussing the various speculations respecting them. By a slight change of reading some propose to translate Pro 30:1 : "The words of Agur, the son of her who was obeyed Massa," that is, "the queen of Massa"; and Pro 31:1 : "The words of Lemuel, king of Massa"; but to this the earliest versions are contradictory, and nothing other than the strongest exegetical necessity ought to be allowed to justify a departure from a well-established reading and version when nothing useful to our knowledge is gained. It is better to confess ignorance than indulge in useless conjectures.

It is probable that out of the "three thousand proverbs" (1Ki 4:32) which Solomon spoke, he selected and edited Pro. 1:1-24:34 during his life. Pro. 25:1-29:27 were also of his production, and copied out in the days of Hezekiah, by his "men," perhaps the prophets Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah. Such a work was evidently in the spirit of this pious monarch, who set his heart so fully on a reformation of God's worship. Learned men have endeavored to establish the theory that Solomon himself was only a collector; or that the other parts of the book, as these chapters, were also selections by later hands; but the reasons adduced to maintain these views have never appeared so satisfactory as to change the usual opinions on the subject, which have the sanction of the most ancient and reliable authorities.

DIVISIONS OF THE BOOK.--Such a work is, of course, not susceptible of any logical analysis. There are, however, some well-defined marks of division, so that very generally the book is divided into five or six parts.

1. The first contains nine chapters, in which are discussed and enforced by illustration, admonition, and encouragement the principles and blessings of wisdom, and the pernicious schemes and practices of sinful persons. These chapters are introductory. With few specimens of the proper proverb, they are distinguished by its conciseness and terseness. The sentences follow very strictly the form of parallelism, and generally of the synonymous species, only forty of the synthetic and four (Pro 3:32-35) of the antithetic appearing. The style is ornate, the figures bolder and fuller, and the illustrations more striking and extended.

2. The antithetic and synthetic parallelism to the exclusion of the synonymous distinguish Pro. 10:1-22:16, and the verses are entirely unconnected, each containing a complete sense in itself.

3. Pro. 22:16-24:34 present a series of admonitions as if addressed to a pupil, and generally each topic occupies two or more verses.

4. Pro. 25:1-29:27 are entitled to be regarded as a distinct portion, for the reason given above as to its origin. The style is very much mixed; of the peculiarities, compare parts two and three.

5. Pro. 30:1-33 is peculiar not only for its authorship, but as a specimen of the kind of proverb which has been described as "dark sayings" or "riddles."

6. To a few pregnant but concise admonitions, suitable for a king, is added a most inimitable portraiture of female character. In both parts five and six the distinctive peculiarity of the original proverbial style gives place to the modifications already mentioned as marking a later composition, though both retain the concise and nervous method of stating truth, equally valuable for its deep impression and permanent retention by the memory.

TSK: Proverbs (Pendahuluan Kitab)

The wisdom of all ages, from the highest antiquity, has chosen to compress and communicate its lessons in short, compendious sentences, and in poetic language, which were readily conceived and easily retained, and circulated in society as useful principles, to be unfolded as occasion required. Indeed, such short maxims, comprehending much instruction in a few words, and carrying their own evidence with them, are admirably adapted to direct the conduct, without overburdening the memory, or perplexing the mind with abstract reasonings; and hence there are, in all countries and in all languages, old proverbs, or common sayings, which have great authority and influence on the opinions and actions of mankind. Such maxims, however, want their proper basis, the sanction of a Divine Original; and being generally the mere result of worldly prudence, are often calculated to impose on the judgment, and to mislead those who are directed by them. But the proverbs in this book not only are far more ancient than any others extant in the world, and infinitely surpass all the ethical sayings of the ancient sages; but have also received a Divine imprimatur, and are infallible rules to direct our conduct in every circumstance of human life. They are so justly founded on the principles of human nature, and so adapted to the permanent interests of man, that they agree with the manners of every age; and are adapted to every period, condition, or rank in life, however varied in its complexion or diversified by circumstance. Kings and subjects, rich and poor, wise and foolish, old and young, fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, masters and servants, may here learn their respective duties, and read lessons of instruction for the regulation of their conduct in their various circumstances; while the most powerful motives, derived from honour, interest, love, fear, natural affection, and piety, are exhibited to inspire an ardent love of wisdom and virtue, and the greatest detestation of ignorance and vice. These maxims are laid down so clearly, copiously, impressively, and in such variety, that every man who wishes to be instructed may take what he chooses, and, among multitudes, those which he likes best. " He is wise," say St. Basil, " not only who hath arrived at a complete habit of wisdom, but who hath made some progress towards it; nay, who doth as yet but love it, or desire it, and listen to it. Such as these, by reading this book, shall be made wiser; for they shall be instructed in much divine, and in no less human learning....It bridles the injurious tongue, corrects the wanton eye, and ties the unjust hand in chains. It persecutes sloth, chastises all absurd desires, teaches prudence, raises man’s courage, and represents temperance and chastity after such a fashion that one cannot but have them in veneration."

TSK: Proverbs 13 (Pendahuluan Pasal)

Overview

Poole: Proverbs 13 (Pendahuluan Pasal)

CHAPTER 13

MHCC: Proverbs (Pendahuluan Kitab)

The subject of this book may be thus stated by an enlargement on the opening verses. 1. The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. 2. Which treat of the knowledge of wisdom, of piety towards God, of instruction and moral discipline, of the understanding wise and prudent counsels. 3. Which treat of the attainment of instruction in wisdom, which wisdom is to be shown in the conduct of life, and consists in righteousness with regard to our fellow-creatures. 4. Which treat of the giving to the simple sagacity to discover what is right, by supplying them with just principles, and correct views of virtue and vice; and to the young man knowledge, so that he need not err through ignorance; and discretion, so that by pondering well these precepts, he may not err through obstinacy. Take the proverbs of other nations, and we shall find great numbers founded upon selfishness, cunning, pride, injustice, national contempt, and animosities. The principles of the Proverbs of Solomon are piety, charity, justice, benevolence, and true prudence. Their universal purity proves that they are the word of God.

Matthew Henry: Proverbs (Pendahuluan Kitab)

An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of The Proverbs

We have now before us, I. A new author, or penman rather, or pen (if you will) made use of by the Holy Ghost for making known the mind of God to us, writing as moved by the finger of God (so the Spirit of God is called), and that is Solomon; through his hand came this book of Scripture and the two that follow it, Ecclesiastes and Canticles, a sermon and a song. Some think he wrote Canticles when he was very young, Proverbs in the midst of his days, and Ecclesiastes when he was old. In the title of his song he only writes himself Solomon, perhaps because he wrote it before his accession to the throne, being filled with the Holy Ghost when he was young. In the title of his Proverbs he writes himself the son of David, king of Israel, for then he ruled over all Israel. In the title of his Ecclesiastes he writes himself the son of David, king of Jerusalem, because then perhaps his influence had grown less upon the distant tribes, and he confined himself very much in Jerusalem. Concerning this author we may observe, 1. That he was a king, and a king's son. The penmen of scripture, hitherto, were most of them men of the first rank in the world, as Moses and Joshua, Samuel and David, and now Solomon; but, after him, the inspired writers were generally poor prophets, men of no figure in the world, because that dispensation was approaching in the which God would choose the weak and foolish things of the world to confound the wise and mighty and the poor should be employed to evangelize. Solomon was a very rich king, and his dominions were very large, a king of the first magnitude, and yet he addicted himself to the study of divine things, and was a prophet and a prophet's son. It is no disparagement to the greatest princes and potentates in the world to instruct those about them in religion and the laws of it. 2. That he was one whom God endued with extraordinary measures of wisdom and knowledge, in answer to his prayers at his accession to the throne. His prayer was exemplary: Give me a wise and an understanding heart; the answer to it was encouraging: he had what he desired and all other things were added to him. Now here we find what good use he made of the wisdom God gave him; he not only governed himself and his kingdom with it, but he gave rules of wisdom to others also, and transmitted them to posterity. Thus must we trade with the talents with which we are entrusted, according as they are. 3. That he was one who had his faults, and in his latter end turned aside from those good ways of God which in this book he had directed others in. We have the story of it 1 Kings 11, and a sad story it is, that the penman of such a book as this should apostatize as he did. Tell it not in Gath. But let those who are most eminently useful take warning by this not to be proud or secure; and let us all learn not to think the worse of good instructions though we have them from those who do not themselves altogether live up to them.

II. A new way of writing, in which divine wisdom is taught us by Proverbs, or short sentences, which contain their whole design within themselves and are not connected with one another. We have had divine laws, histories, and songs, and how divine proverbs; such various methods has Infinite Wisdom used for our instruction, that, no stone being left unturned to do us good, we may be inexcusable if we perish in our folly. Teaching by proverbs was, 1. An ancient way of teaching. It was the most ancient way among the Greeks; each of the seven wise men of Greece had some one saying that he valued himself upon, and that made him famous. These sentences were inscribed on pillars, and had in great veneration as that which was said to come down from heaven. A coelo descendit, Gnōthi seauton - Know thyself is a precept which came down from heaven. 2. It was a plain and easy way of teaching, which cost neither the teachers nor the learners much pains, nor put their understandings nor their memories to the stretch. Long periods, and arguments far-fetched, must be laboured both by him that frames them and by him that would understand them, while a proverb, which carries both its sense and its evidence in a little compass, is quickly apprehended and subscribed to, and is easily retained. Both David's devotions and Solomon's instructions are sententious, which may recommend that way of expression to those who minister about holy things, both in praying and preaching. 3. It was a very profitable way of teaching, and served admirably well to answer the end. The word Mashal, here used for a proverb, comes from a word that signifies to rule or have dominion, because of the commanding power and influence which wise and weighty sayings have upon the children of men; he that teaches by them dominatur in concionibus - rules his auditory. It is easy to observe how the world is governed by proverbs. As saith the proverb of the ancients (1Sa 24:13), or (as we commonly express it) As the old saying is, goes very far with most men in forming their notions and fixing their resolves. Much of the wisdom of the ancients has been handed down to posterity by proverbs; and some think we may judge of the temper and character of a nation by the complexion of its vulgar proverbs. Proverbs in conversation are like axious in philosophy, maxims in law, and postulata in the mathematics, which nobody disputes, but every one endeavours to expound so as to have them on his side. Yet there are many corrupt proverbs, which tend to debauch men's minds and harden them in sin. The devil has his proverbs, and the world and the flesh have their proverbs, which reflect reproach on God and religion (as Eze 12:22; Eze 18:2), to guard us against the corrupt influences of which God has his proverbs, which are all wise and good, and tend to make us so. These proverbs of Solomon were not merely a collection of the wise sayings that had been formerly delivered, as some have imagined, but were the dictates of the Spirit of God in Solomon. The very first of them (Pro 1:7) agrees with what God said to man in the beginning (Job 28:28, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ); so that though Solomon was great, and his name may serve as much as any man's to recommend his writings, yet, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. It is God, by Solomon, that here speaks to us: I say, to us; for these proverbs were written for our learning, and, when Solomon speaks to his son, the exhortation is said to speak to us as unto children, Heb 12:5. And, as we have no book so useful to us in our devotions as David's psalms, so have we none so serviceable to us, for the right ordering of our conversations, as Solomon's proverbs, which as David says of the commandments, are exceedingly broad, containing, in a little compass, a complete body of divine ethics, politics, and economics, exposing every vice, recommending every virtue, and suggesting rules for the government of ourselves in every relation and condition, and every turn of the conversation. The learned bishop Hall has drawn up a system of moral philosophy out of Solomon's Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. The first nine chapters of this book are reckoned as a preface, by way of exhortation to the study and practice of wisdom's rules, and caution against those things that would hinder therein. We have then the first volume of Solomon's proverbs (ch. 10-24); after that a second volume (ch. 25-29); and then Agur's prophecy (ch. 30), and Lemuel's (ch. 31). The scope of all is one and the same, to direct us so to order our conversation aright as that in the end we may see the salvation of the Lord. The best comment on these rules is to be ruled by them.

Topical Index of Proverbs

Twenty chapters of the book of Proverbs (beginning with ch. 10 and ending with ch. 29), consisting mostly of entire sentences in each verse, could not well be reduced to proper heads, and the contents of them gathered; I have therefore here put the contents of all these chapters together, which perhaps may be of some use to those who desire to see at once all that is said of any one head in these chapters. Some of the verses, perhaps, I have not put under the same heads that another would have put them under, but the most of them fall (I hope) naturally enough to the places I have assigned them.

1. Of the comfort, or grief, parents have in their children, according as they are wise or foolish, godly or ungodly, Pro 10:1; Pro 15:20; Pro 17:21, Pro 17:25; Pro 19:13, Pro 19:26; Pro 23:15, Pro 23:16, Pro 23:24, Pro 23:25; Pro 27:11; Pro 29:3

2. Of the world's insufficiency, and religion's sufficiency, to make us happy (Pro 10:2, Pro 10:3; Pro 11:4) and the preference to be therefore given to the gains of virtue above those of this world, Pro 15:16, Pro 15:17; Pro 16:8, Pro 16:16; Pro 17:1; Pro 19:1; Pro 28:6, Pro 28:11

3. Of slothfulness and diligence, Pro 10:4, Pro 10:26; Pro 12:11, Pro 12:24, Pro 12:27; Pro 13:4, Pro 13:23; Pro 15:19; Pro 16:26; Pro 18:9; Pro 19:15, Pro 19:24; Pro 20:4, Pro 20:13; Pro 21:5, Pro 21:25, Pro 21:26; Pro 22:13, Pro 22:29; Pro 24:30-34; Pro 26:13-16; Pro 27:18, Pro 27:23, Pro 27:27; Pro 28:19. Particularly the improving or neglecting opportunities, Pro 6:6; Pro 10:5

4. The happiness of the righteous, and the misery of the wicked, Pro 10:6, Pro 10:9, Pro 10:16, Pro 10:24, Pro 10:25, Pro 10:27-30; Pro 11:3, Pro 11:5-8, Pro 11:18-21, Pro 11:31; Pro 12:2, Pro 12:3, Pro 12:7, Pro 12:13, Pro 12:14, Pro 12:21, Pro 12:26, Pro 12:28; Pro 13:6, Pro 13:9, Pro 13:14 15, 21, 22, 25; Pro 14:11, Pro 14:14, Pro 14:19, Pro 14:32; Pro 15:6, Pro 15:8, Pro 15:9, Pro 15:24, Pro 15:26, Pro 15:29; Pro 20:7; Pro 21:12, Pro 21:15, Pro 21:16, Pro 21:18, Pro 21:21; Pro 22:12; Pro 28:10, Pro 28:18; Pro 29:6

5. Of honour and dishonour, Pro 10:7; Pro 12:8, Pro 12:9; Pro 18:3; Pro 26:1; Pro 27:21. And of vain-glory, Pro 25:14, Pro 25:27; Pro 27:2

6. The wisdom of obedience, and folly of disobedience, Pro 10:8, Pro 10:17; Pro 12:1, Pro 12:15; Pro 13:1, Pro 13:13, Pro 13:18; Pro 15:5, Pro 15:10, Pro 15:12, Pro 15:31, Pro 15:32; Pro 19:16; Pro 28:4, Pro 28:7, Pro 28:9

7. Of mischievousness and usefulness, Pro 10:10, Pro 10:23; Pro 11:9-11, Pro 11:23, Pro 11:27; Pro 12:5, Pro 12:6, Pro 12:12, Pro 12:18, Pro 12:20; Pro 13:2; Pro 14:22; Pro 16:29, Pro 16:30; Pro 17:11; Pro 21:10; Pro 24:8; Pro 26:23, Pro 26:27

8. The praise of wise and good discourse, and the hurt and shame of an ungoverned tongue, Pro 10:11, Pro 10:13, Pro 10:14, Pro 10:20, Pro 10:21, Pro 10:31, Pro 10:32; Pro 11:30; Pro 14:3; Pro 15:2, Pro 15:4, Pro 15:7, Pro 15:23, Pro 15:28; Pro 16:20, Pro 16:23, Pro 16:24; Pro 17:7; Pro 18:4, Pro 18:7, Pro 18:20, Pro 18:21; Pro 20:15; Pro 21:23; Pro 23:9; Pro 24:26; Pro 25:11

9. Of love and hatred, peaceableness and contention, Pro 10:12; Pro 15:17; Pro 17:1, Pro 17:9, Pro 17:14, Pro 17:19; Pro 18:6, Pro 18:17-19; Pro 20:3; Pro 25:8; Pro 26:17, Pro 26:21; Pro 29:9

10. Of the rich and poor, Pro 10:5, Pro 10:22; Pro 11:28; Pro 13:7, Pro 13:8; Pro 14:20, Pro 14:24; Pro 18:11, Pro 18:23; Pro 19:1, Pro 19:4, Pro 19:7, Pro 19:22; Pro 22:2, Pro 22:7; Pro 28:6, Pro 28:11; Pro 29:13

11. Of lying, fraud, and dissimulation, and of truth and sincerity, Pro 10:18; Pro 12:17, Pro 12:19, Pro 12:22; Pro 13:5; Pro 17:4; Pro 20:14, Pro 20:17; Pro 26:18, Pro 26:19, Pro 26:24-26, Pro 26:28

12. Of slandering, Pro 10:18; Pro 16:27; Pro 25:23

13. Of talkativeness and silence, Pro 10:19; Pro 11:12; Pro 12:23; Pro 13:3; Pro 17:27, Pro 17:28; Pro 29:11, Pro 29:20

14. Of justice and injustice, Pro 11:1; Pro 13:16; Pro 16:8, Pro 16:11; Pro 17:15, Pro 17:26; Pro 18:5; Pro 20:10, Pro 20:23; Pro 22:28; Pro 23:10, Pro 23:11; Pro 29:24

15. Of pride and humility, Pro 11:2; Pro 13:10; Pro 15:25, Pro 15:33; Pro 16:5, Pro 16:18, Pro 16:19; Pro 18:12; Pro 21:4; Pro 25:6, Pro 25:7; Pro 28:25; Pro 29:23

16. Of despising and respecting others, Pro 11:12; Pro 14:21

17. Of tale-bearing, Pro 11:13; Pro 16:28; Pro 18:8; Pro 20:19; Pro 26:20, Pro 26:22

18. Of rashness and deliberation, Pro 11:14; Pro 15:22; Pro 18:13; Pro 19:2; Pro 20:5, Pro 20:18; Pro 21:29; Pro 22:3; Pro 25:8-10

19. Of suretiship, Pro 11:15; Pro 17:18; Pro 20:16; Pro 22:26, Pro 22:27; Pro 27:13

20. Of good and bad women, or wives, Pro 11:16, Pro 11:22; Pro 12:4; Pro 14:1; Pro 18:22; Pro 19:13, Pro 19:14; Pro 21:9, Pro 21:19; Pro 25:24; Pro 27:15, Pro 27:16

21. Of mercifulness and unmercifulness, Pro 11:17; Pro 12:10; Pro 14:21; Pro 19:17; Pro 21:13

22. Of charity to the poor, and uncharitableness, Pro 11:24-26; Pro 14:31; Pro 17:5; Pro 22:9, Pro 22:16, Pro 22:22, Pro 22:23; Pro 28:27; Pro 29:7

23. Of covetousness and contentment, Pro 11:29; Pro 15:16, Pro 15:17, Pro 15:27; Pro 23:4, Pro 23:5

24. Of anger and meekness, Pro 12:16; Pro 14:17, Pro 14:29; Pro 15:1, Pro 15:18; Pro 16:32; Pro 17:12, Pro 17:26; Pro 19:11, Pro 19:19; Pro 22:24, Pro 22:25; Pro 25:15, Pro 25:28; Pro 26:21; Pro 29:22

25. Of melancholy and cheerfulness, Pro 12:25; Pro 14:10, Pro 14:13; Pro 15:13, Pro 15:15; Pro 17:22; Pro 18:14; Pro 25:20, Pro 25:25

26. Of hope and expectation, Pro 13:12, Pro 13:19

27. Of prudence and foolishness, Pro 13:16; Pro 14:8, Pro 14:18, Pro 14:33; Pro 15:14, Pro 15:21; Pro 16:21, Pro 16:22; Pro 17:24; Pro 18:2, Pro 18:15; Pro 24:3-7; Pro 7:27; Pro 26:6-11; Pro 28:5

28. Of treachery and fidelity, Pro 13:17; Pro 25:13, Pro 25:19

29. Of good and bad company, Pro 13:20; Pro 14:7; Pro 28:7; Pro 29:3

30. Of the education of children, Pro 13:24; Pro 19:18; Pro 20:11; Pro 22:6, Pro 22:15; Pro 23:12; Pro 14:14; Pro 29:15, Pro 29:17

31. Of the fear of the Lord, Pro 14:2, Pro 14:26, Pro 14:27; Pro 15:16, Pro 15:33; Pro 16:6; Pro 19:23; Pro 22:4; Pro 23:17, Pro 23:18

32. Of true and false witness-bearing, Pro 14:5, Pro 14:25; Pro 19:5, Pro 19:9, Pro 19:28; Pro 21:28; Pro 24:28; Pro 25:18

33. Of scorners, Pro 14:6, Pro 14:9; Pro 21:24; Pro 22:10; Pro 24:9; Pro 29:9

34. Of credulity and caution, Pro 14:15, Pro 14:16; Pro 27:12

35. Of kings and their subjects, Pro 14:28, Pro 14:34, Pro 14:35; Pro 16:10, Pro 16:12-15; Pro 19:6, Pro 19:12; Pro 20:2, Pro 20:8, Pro 20:26, Pro 20:28; Pro 22:11; Pro 24:23-25; Pro 30:2-5; Pro 28:2, Pro 28:3, Pro 28:15, Pro 28:16; Pro 29:5, Pro 29:12, Pro 29:14, Pro 29:26

36. Of envy, especially envying sinners, Pro 14:30; Pro 23:17, Pro 23:18; Pro 24:1, Pro 24:2, Pro 24:19, Pro 24:20; Pro 27:4

37. Of God's omniscience, and his universal providence, Pro 15:3, Pro 15:11; Pro 16:1, Pro 16:4, Pro 16:9, Pro 16:33; Pro 17:3; Pro 19:21; Pro 20:12, Pro 20:24; Pro 21:1, Pro 21:30, Pro 21:31; Pro 29:26

38. Of a good and ill name, Pro 15:30; Pro 22:1

39. Of men's good opinion of themselves, Pro 14:12; Pro 16:2, Pro 16:25; Pro 20:6; Pro 21:2; Pro 26:12; Pro 28:26

40. Of devotion towards God, and dependence on him, Pro 16:3; Pro 18:10; Pro 23:26; Pro 27:1; Pro 28:25; Pro 29:25

41. Of the happiness of God's favour, Pro 16:7; Pro 29:26

42. Excitements to get wisdom, Pro 16:16; Pro 18:1; Pro 19:8, Pro 19:20; Pro 22:17-21; Pro 23:15, Pro 23:16, Pro 23:22-25; Pro 24:13, Pro 24:14; Pro 27:11

43. Cautions against temptations, Pro 16:17; Pro 29:27

44. Of old age and youth, Pro 16:31; Pro 17:6; Pro 20:29

45. Of servants, Pro 17:2; Pro 19:10; Pro 29:19, Pro 29:21

46. Of bribery, Pro 17:8, Pro 17:23; Pro 18:16; Pro 21:14; Pro 28:21

47. Of reproof and correction, Pro 17:10; Pro 19:25, Pro 19:29; Pro 20:30; Pro 21:11; Pro 25:12; Pro 26:3; Pro 27:5, Pro 27:6, Pro 27:22; Pro 28:23; Pro 29:1

48. Of ingratitude, Pro 17:13

49. Of friendship, Pro 17:17; Pro 18:24; Pro 27:9, Pro 27:10, Pro 27:14, Pro 27:17

50. Of sensual pleasures, Pro 21:17; Pro 23:1-3, Pro 23:6-8, Pro 23:19-21; Pro 27:7

51. Of drunkenness, Pro 20:1; Pro 23:23, Pro 23:29-35

52. Of the universal corruption of nature, Pro 20:9

53. Of flattery, Pro 20:19; Pro 26:28; Pro 28:23; Pro 29:5

54. Of undutiful children, Pro 20:20; Pro 28:24

55. Of the short continuance of what is ill-gotten, Pro 20:21; Pro 21:6, Pro 21:7; Pro 22:8; Pro 28:8

56. Of revenge, Pro 20:22; Pro 24:17, Pro 24:18, Pro 24:29

57. Of sacrilege, Pro 20:25

58. Of conscience, Pro 20:27; Pro 27:19

59. Of the preference of moral duties before ceremonial, Pro 15:8; Pro 21:3, Pro 21:27

60. Of prodigality and wastefulness, Pro 21:20

61. The triumphs of wisdom and godliness, Pro 21:22; Pro 24:15, Pro 24:16

62. Of frowardness and tractableness, Pro 22:5

63. Of uncleanness, Pro 22:14; Pro 23:27, Pro 23:28

64. Of fainting in affliction, Pro 24:10

65. Of helping the distressed, Pro 14:11, Pro 14:12

66. Of loyalty to the government, Pro 24:21, Pro 24:22

67. Of forgiving enemies, Pro 25:21, Pro 25:22

68. Of causeless curse, Pro 26:2

69. Of answering fools, Pro 26:4, Pro 26:5

70. Of unsettledness and unsatisfiedness, Pro 27:8, Pro 27:20

71. Of cowardliness and courage, Pro 28:1

72. The people's interest in the character of their rulers, Pro 28:12, Pro 28:28; Pro 29:2, Pro 29:16; Pro 11:10, Pro 11:11

73. The benefit of repentance and holy fear, Pro 28:13, Pro 28:14

74. The punishment of murder, Pro 28:17

75. Of hastening to be rich, Pro 28:20, Pro 28:22

76. The enmity of the wicked against the godly, Pro 29:10, Pro 29:27

77. The necessity of the means of grace, Pro 29:18

Constable: Proverbs (Pendahuluan Kitab)

Introduction

Title

The title of this book in the Hebrew Bible is "The Proverbs of Solomon, the Son of David, King in Israel" (cf. 1:1). The Greek Septuagint called this book "Proverbs of Solomon." The Latin Vulgate named it "The Book of Proverbs."

There is some debate about whether 1:1 is the title of the whole book or just the title of the first section (chs. 1-9). The first view has in its favor the fact that the Hebrew Bible took the verse as the title of the book. According to this view the references to Solomon in 1:1 are an indication that he was the primary author of the proverbs in the book.¹

The second view is that 1:1 simply introduces the first major section of the book. The support for this view is that some succeeding sections begin with a similar caption (cf. 10:1; 24:23; 25:1; 30:1; 31:1).²

In either case the book got its title from the proverbs it contains. The whole book is a book of proverbs so the title is appropriate.

"To read straight through a few chapters of Proverbs is like trying to have a conversation with someone who always replies with a one-liner."³

Writer

Proverbs claims to be a compendium of the wise sayings of several different individuals.⁴ Solomon originated some of them (10:1-22:16 and chs. 25-29 definitely, and probably chs. 1-9 as well).⁵ Unnamed wise men (sages) wrote other parts (22:17-24:34 definitely, and possibly chs. 1-9). Hezekiah's men copied some of Solomon's proverbs and added them to this collection (chs. 25-29). Agur and King Lemuel produced chapters 30 and 31 respectively.

We do not know who the sages were who wrote 22:17-24:34 nor do we know the names of the men whom King Hezekiah instructed to compile some of Solomon's sayings. Agur and Lemuel are unknown to us also, though Lemuel seems to have been a non-Israelite monarch.⁶

Some of the proverbs appear to have been copied from, or at least influenced by, earlier Mesopotamian and Egyptian books of wisdom.⁷

". . . whatever the Spirit of God inspired the ancient writers to include became a part of the Word of the Lord. Such inclusions then took on a new and greater meaning when they formed part of Scripture; in a word, they became authoritative and binding, part of the communication of the divine will."⁸

Date

Solomon reigned from 971 to 931 B.C. and Hezekiah from 715 to 686 B.C.⁹ We do not know when the sages, Agur, or Lemuel lived.

The earliest the Book of Proverbs could have been in its final form was in Hezekiah's day, but it may have reached this stage later than that. We have no way to tell.

The contents of the book could have been in existence in Solomon's lifetime though not assembled into the collection we know as the Book of Proverbs.

Message¹⁰

The Book of Proverbs contains no history. It is purely didactic. It is a book of explicit instruction. Like the other Old Testament wisdom books, Job and Ecclesiastes, it does not contain references to Israel's laws, rituals, sacrifices, or ceremonies. It deals with philosophy primarily. A philosopher is by definition a lover of wisdom. Proverbs is a book that focuses primarily on wisdom, as do Job and Ecclesiastes. In this sense these books are philosophical.

There is a fundamental difference between the philosophy we find in these books and all other philosophy. Other philosophies begin with a question. Hebrew philosophy begins with an affirmation. Its basic affirmation is that God exists. Therefore we can know ultimate truth only by divine revelation.

To many people the Book of Proverbs seems to be a grab bag of wise sayings that lacks any system or order. Nevertheless in a sense this is the most carefully organized of all the books of the Old Testament.

The first verse is its title page. Verses 2-7 are its preface that contains an explanation of the purpose of the book, the method of the Author, and the fundamental affirmation of the book (in v. 7). Then follow three parts of the body of the book. First, there are discourses in defense and application of the fundamental affirmation (1:8--ch. 9). Then we have proverbs Solomon collected and arranged to provide wisdom (chs. 10-24). Next there are additional wise words from Solomon that other people collected after Solomon died (chs. 25-29). An appendix that contains specific words of wisdom by two other sages, Agur and Lemuel, concludes the book (chs. 30-31).

Proverbs is one of the most timeless Old Testament books. The reader needs very little knowledge of ancient Hebrew life and culture to understand and appreciate it. We can understand the contents fairly easily and can apply them directly to modern life.

Let's look first at the fundamental affirmation and then observe how the application of that declaration unfolds in the chapters that follow.

The fundamental affirmation is the deepest insight in Hebrew philosophy (1:7).

There is a presupposition in this statement. It is that God is all wise. We can only find wisdom in God ultimately. This presupposition underlies all of what we read in Job and Ecclesiastes as well as in Proverbs. Furthermore the Hebrews assumed that God expressed His wisdom in all His works and in all His ways. They believed that all natural phenomena revealed God's wisdom. Wherever they looked, they saw God: on land, at sea, in the earth, or in the sky. We can see that viewpoint clearly in Genesis 1:1 (cf. John 14:6).

This fundamental affirmation also contains an inevitable deduction: if wisdom is perfect in God, then wisdom in man consists in the fear of God. A person is wise to the extent that he or she apprehends and fears God. The "fear" of God does not mean a dread that results in hiding from God. It is rather an emotional recognition of God. It is not fear that He may hurt me but fear that I may hurt Him. That is the kind of fear that produces holy character and righteous conduct. Intellectual apprehension of God precedes this emotional recognition, and volitional submission to God's will follows it. When a person comes to this emotional recognition of God he or she comes to the condition for being wise, not that in so doing he or she becomes wise (1:7). We can begin to be wise only when we come into proper relation to God as ultimate Wisdom.

Beginning with 1:8 and continuing to the end of the book, what we have is the application of that affirmation to the various situations and circumstances of life.

I would like to consider what God revealed here in the three spheres of life dealt with in the book: the home, friendship, and the world. In the home, the child must learn wisdom. In friendship, the youth must apply wisdom. In the world, the adult must demonstrate wisdom.

The first sphere is that of the home (1:8-9). God did not teach the responsibility of the father and mother here but took for granted that they would instruct their children. The child needs to hear parental instruction to live in the fear of the Lord. Young children cannot grasp abstract concepts. For them God is incarnate in father and mother. Fathers and mothers reflect the image of God to their children. Both parents are necessary to reveal God to the child fully. Children see some of God's character in the mother's attitudes and actions (cf. Matt. 23:37). They see other aspects of God's character in the father. You do not have to try to teach your young child systematic theology. Just live in the fear of God yourself, and your child will learn what he or she needs to learn about God, for that stage in life, just by observing you. I do not mean to exclude verbal instruction. My point is that young children learn wisdom by observing their parents as well as by listening to them.

The second sphere of life is friendship (1:10-19). The day must come when the child, in the natural process of development, moves out into a wider circle of experience.

Personally I believe the Bible presents two duties that children have to their parents.

When the child's sphere of life is his home, he is to obey his parents. However, that duty does not continue forever. When he moves into the larger sphere of life outside the home, his duty is to honor his parents. This duty does continue forever.

When a child enters this second sphere of life, guided at first by parental council but then finally on its own, wisdom gives important instruction (1:10). He should avoid certain friendships. He should beware of people who seek to make friends with him because they have selfish interests and unscrupulous methods. We have many warnings in Proverbs against people who are not true friends. There is no more important stage in a young person's development than when he or she begins to choose companions. Then, and from then on, he or she must follow the wisdom that comes from the fear of the Lord. The youth must submit to the Lord's wisdom, having learned that in the sphere of the home, to succeed in the larger arenas of life. The choice of a mate is one of these companion decisions.

The third sphere of life is the world, symbolized in Proverbs by the street, the gates, and the city (1:20-33; cf. chs. 2-9).

The first word of warning to the youth who leaves home to enter the world on his own is this. Beware of the evil way of those who do not fear the Lord (1:20-32). There is also a gracious promise (1:33). Wisdom does not say withdraw from the world. Wisdom says remember the fate of those who forget God. Wisdom promises that those who live in the fear of the Lord will be quiet and safe even in the turmoil of the world. Do you see how important preparation for living in this sphere of life is? Children must learn to take God into account in the home, and then in their friendships, before they launch out into the world. This instruction is what really prepares them for life.

The series of discourses beginning, "My son," represents the voice of home sounding in the youth's ears who has left home and is living in the world (chs. 2-7). The father tells his son how his father instructed him in wisdom and how this enabled him to live successfully in the world. Then specific warnings follow concerning impurity, laziness, bad companions, and adultery. As the young man climbs toward a higher position in life, wisdom comes to him again with instruction concerning how he can avoid the pitfalls of that stage of his life (ch. 8). The discourses close with a contrast in which Solomon personified wisdom and folly as two women (ch. 9). One is a woman of virtue and beauty, and the other is a woman of vice and ugliness. Solomon contrasted the value and victory of wisdom with the disaster and defeat of folly. He contrasted the wisdom of fearing God with the folly of forgetting God.

I would summarize the message of Proverbs this way. The person who learns the fear of God (an emotional recognition of God) in every sphere of life will be successful, but those who forget God will fail. By an emotional recognition of God I mean taking God into account, being aware of His reality and presence, making decisions in view of His existence and revelation. This is what fearing God means.

The precepts urging a life of wisdom center on 3:1-10. This passage concentrates on that subject. Proverbs 3:5-6 is some of the best advice anyone ever gave.

The practice of wisdom centers on 8:32-36.

The power for living a life of wisdom centers on 1:8 (cf. James 1:5; 3:37; Col. 2:3).

Constable: Proverbs (Garis Besar)

Outline

I. Discourses on wisdom chs. 1-9

A. Introduction to the book 1:1-7

1. The title of the book 1:1

2. The purpose of the book 1:2-6

3. The thesis of the book 1:7

B. Instruction for young people 1:8-7:27

1. Warning against consorting with sinners 1:8-19

2. Wisdom's appeal 1:20-33

3. Wisdom as a treasure chs. 2-3

4. Encouragements to obey these instructions ch. 4

5. Warnings against unfaithfulness in marriage ch. 5

6. Other dangerous temptations 6:1-19

7. Further warnings against adultery 6:20-7:27

C. The value of wisdom and wise conduct chs. 8-9

1. The function of wisdom ch. 8

2. Wisdom and folly contrasted ch. 9

II. Couplets expressing wisdom 10:1-22:16

A. The marks of wise living chs. 10-15

1. Things that produce profit 10:1-14

2. Things of true value 10:15-32

3. Wise living in various contexts 11:1-15

4. Wise investments 11:16-31

5. The value of righteousness 12:1-12

6. Avoiding trouble 12:13-28

7. Fruits of wise living ch. 13

8. Further advice for wise living chs. 14-15

B. How to please God 16:1-22:16

1. Trusting God ch. 16

2. Peacemakers and troublemakers ch. 17

3. Friendship and folly ch. 18

4. Further advice for pleasing God 19:1-22:16

III. Wise sayings 22:17-24:34

A. Thirty sayings of the wise 22:17-24:22

1. The first group 22:17-23:11

2. The second group 23:12-24:22

B. Six more sayings of the wise 24:23-34

IV. Maxims expressing wisdom chs. 25-29

A. Instructive analogies 25:1-27:22

1. Wise and foolish conduct ch. 25

2. Fools and folly ch. 26

3. Virtues and vices 27:1-22

B. A discourse on prudence 27:23-27

C. Instructive contrasts chs. 28-29

V. Two discourses by other wise men chs. 30-31

A. The wisdom of Agur ch. 30

1. The introduction of Agur 30:1

2. Wisdom about God 30:2-9

3. Wisdom about life 30:10-33

B. The wisdom of Lemuel ch. 31

1. The introduction of Lemuel 31:1

2. The wise king 31:2-9

3. The wise woman 31:10-31

Constable: Proverbs

Proverbs

Bibliography

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Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: Proverbs (Pendahuluan Kitab)

THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.

INTRODUCTION.

This book is so called, because it consists of wise and weighty sentences, regulating the morals of men; and directing them to wisdom and virtue. And these sentences are also called Parables, because great truths are often couched in them under certain figures and similitudes. (Challoner) --- Wisdom is introduced speaking in the nine first chapters. Then to chap. xxv. more particular precepts are given. (Worthington) --- Ezechias caused to be collected (Haydock) what comes in the five next chapters, and in the two last. Some other, or rather Solomon himself, under (Worthington) different titles, gives us Agur's and his mother's instructions, and his own commendations of a valiant woman, (Haydock) which is prophetical of the Catholic Church. He also wrote the two next works, besides many other things, which have been lost. This is the first of those five, which are called "sapiential," giving instructions how to direct our lives, by the dictates of sound reason. (Worthington) --- It is the most important of Solomon's works, though collected by different authors. (Calmet) --- T. Paine treats Solomon as a witty jester. But his jests are of a very serious nature, and no one had before heard of his wit. (Watson)

Gill: Proverbs (Pendahuluan Kitab)

INTRODUCTION TO PROVERBS

This book is called, in some printed Hebrew copies, "Sepher Mishle", the Book of Proverbs; the title of it in the Vulgate Latin version is,

"the Book of Proverbs, which the Hebrews call "Misle":''

in the Septuagint version it has the name of the writer, the Proverbs of Solomon; and so in the Syriac version, with the addition of his titles,

"the son of David, king of Israel.''

This and Ecclesiastes are both of them by the Jews ^a called Books of Wisdom: and it is common with the ancient Christian writers ^b to call the book of Proverbs by the names of "Wisdom" and "Panaretos"; names they give also to the apocryphal books of Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of Solomon; and therefore this is to be carefully distinguished from them. The author of this book was King Solomon, as the "first" verse, which contains the inscription of it, shows; for he was not a collector of these proverbs, as Grotius is of opinion, but the author of them, at least of the far greater part; and not only the author, but the writer of them: the Jews ^c say that Hezekiah and this men wrote them; it is true indeed the men of Hezekiah copied some, Pro 25:1; but even those were written by Solomon. R. Gedaliah ^d would have it that Isaiah the prophet wrote this book; but without any foundation. At what time it was written is not certain; the Jewish writers generally say ^e it was written by Solomon, as were the books of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs, in his old age, when near the time of his death; though some think it was written before his fall: and it may be it was not written all at once, but at certain times, when these proverbs occurred unto him and were spoken by him, and as occasion served: however, it is not to he doubted but that they were written under the inspiration of God. The Jews once thought to have made this book of Proverbs an apocryphal one, because of some seeming contradictions in it; but finding that these were capable of a reconciliation, changed their minds, as became them ^f. Among Christians, Theodore of Mopsuest, in the sixth century, denied the divine authority of this book, and attributed it merely to human wisdom; which opinion of his was condemned in the second council at Constantinople: and in later times it has been treated with contempt by the Socinians, and particularly by Father Simon and Le Clerc; but the authority of it is confirmed by the writers of the New Testament, who have cited passages out of it; see Rom 12:20 from Pro 25:21. The book consists of "five" parts; "first", a preface or introduction, which takes up the first "nine" chapters; the "second", the proverbs of Solomon, put together by himself, beginning at the tenth chapter to the twenty-fifth; the "third", the proverbs of Solomon, copied by the men of Hezekiah, beginning at the twenty-fifth chapter to the thirtieth; the "fourth", the words of Agur, the thirtieth chapter, the "fifth", the instruction of Solomon's mother, Bathsheba, the thirty-first chapter.