Teks -- Proverbs 20:29-30 (NET)

20:29 The glory of young men is their strength, and the splendor of old men is gray hair. 20:30 Beatings and wounds cleanse away evil, and floggings cleanse the innermost being.

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

Wesley: Pro 20:30 - The blueness

Grievous wounds, which make men black and blue; or severe punishments.

Wesley: Pro 20:30 - Cleanseth

Are the means to reclaim a wicked man, and to purge out his corruption.

Wesley: Pro 20:30 - The belly

Of the heart. Grievous wounds or stripes cleanse not only the outward man by keeping it from evil actions, but even the inward man, by expelling or subduing vile affections: which is a great and blessed benefit of afflictions.

JFB: Pro 20:29 - The glory of young men . . . the beauty of old men

Each age has its peculiar excellence (Pro 16:31).

JFB: Pro 20:30 - blueness

Literally, "joining," the process of uniting the edges of a wound throws off purulent matter.

JFB: Pro 20:30 - stripes . . . belly

So punishment provides healing of soul (Pro 18:8), by deterring from evil courses.

Clarke: Pro 20:29 - The glory of young men is their strength

The glory of young men is their strength - Scarcely any young man affects to be wise, learned, etc.; but all delight to show their strength and to be reputed strong. Agility, one evidence of strength, their particularly affect; and hence their various trials of strength and fleetness in public exercises

Clarke: Pro 20:29 - And the beauty of old men is the gray head

And the beauty of old men is the gray head - They no longer affect strength and agility, but they affect wisdom, experience, prudent counsels, etc., and are fond of being reputed wise, and of having respect paid to their understanding and experience.

Clarke: Pro 20:30 - The blueness of a wound

The blueness of a wound - חברות chabburoth , from חבר chabar , to unite, to join together. Does it not refer to the cicatrice of a wound when, in its healing, the two lips are brought topether? By this union the wound is healed; and by the previous discharge the lace-rated ends of fibres and blood-vessels are purged away. So stripes, though they hurt for the time, become the means of correcting and discharging the moral evil of the inmost soul, the vice of the heart, the easily-besetting sin

In this chapter, verses fourteen to nineteen, inclusive, are wanting in the Septuagint and Arabic; and the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, come in after the twenty-second. It is difficult to account for these variations, unless they were occasioned by the change of leaves in MSS.

Defender: Pro 20:30 - cleanseth away evil

The translation here is difficult, and this verse has sometimes been misused to justify heavy flogging of sinners. The essence, however, seems to be an analogy: As the infection in a wound is cleansed by the blood flowing through it, so God's chastening (or a father's chastening) will, if rightly applied, remove evil thoughts and behavior from the life."

TSK: Pro 20:29 - glory // the beauty

glory : Jer 9:23, Jer 9:24; 1Jo 2:14

the beauty : Pro 16:31; Lev 19:32

TSK: Pro 20:30 - cleanseth away evil // stripes

cleanseth away evil : Heb. is a purging medicine against evil

stripes : Pro 19:25, Pro 22:15; Isa 27:9; Heb 12:10

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

Poole: Pro 20:29 - The glory of young men // The beauty of old men is the grey head

The glory of young men that wherein they glory as their privilege above old men.

The beauty of old men is the grey head i.e. their old age, expressed by the outward sign of it, wherein they glory as their peculiar privilege, as a testimony of their piety and God’ s blessing, and as a token of their great experience and wisdom. The design of this proverb is to declare the several advantages of several ages, and the mutual need they have one of another, and thereby to engage them to mutual love and assistance, and to friendly converse, and to make every one contented with his own age and condition, and not to envy nor yet despise his brother, or the difference of their ages, as is very usual among men.

Poole: Pro 20:30 - The blueness of a wound // cleanseth away evil // So do stripes // the inward parts of the belly

The blueness of a wound grievous wounds, which make men black and blue, or severe punishments,

cleanseth away evil are the most effectual means to reclaim a wicked man, and to purge out his corruption.

So do stripes Heb. and stripes , which answer to the wounds in the former clause,

the inward parts of the belly either,

1. Which pierce even to the inward parts of the belly; and so we are to understand out of the former branch, cleanse away evil . Or,

2. They cleanse the inward parts of the belly, i.e. of the heart. So this is an addition to the former clause, and the sense of the whole is, Grievous wounds or stripes do cleanse not only the outward man, by keeping it from evil actions, but even the inward man, by expelling or subduing vile affections; which is mentioned as a great and blessed benefit of afflictions.

Haydock: Pro 20:30 - Evils // Belly

Evils. The wicked shall derive benefit from correction. ---

Belly. They shall feel the remorse of conscience, as Chaldean seems to indicate. (Calmet) ---

A serious illness often causes people to repent. (Menochius)

Gill: Pro 20:29 - The glory of young men is their strength // and the beauty of old men is the gray head

The glory of young men is their strength,.... That is the excellent thing in them, and it is to their honour when it is employed in the service of their king and country, and especially in the service of God and religion; though it does not become them to glory in it, Jer 9:23;

and the beauty of old men is the gray head; an index of wisdom and prudence; see Job 12:12. The design of the proverb is to show that both have their excellencies and usefulness, young men and old men, and should not despise one another; nor either of them be despised in a commonwealth, both being useful in it, the one for strength, the other for counsel; and so in the church of Christ; see 1Jo 2:13.

Gill: Pro 20:30 - The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil // so do stripes the inward part of the belly

The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil,.... Rubs it off and scours it away, as the word ^m signifies, or is a clearing and rubbing it off; some men must be beaten black and blue, or must have very sore correction, before they can be reclaimed and reformed from their evil ways; so some interpret it of the evil man ⁿ: sanctified afflictions to God's people are the means of purging away their iniquities, their dross, and their sin; but there is nothing so effectually cleanses from sin as the blood of Jesus, or heals or cures of it as his blue wounds and stripes; see Isa 27:9;

so do stripes the inward part of the belly; or heart and conscience; by means of corrections and chastisement men are brought to an inward sense of sin; they are shown their transgressions wherein they have exceeded, and are commanded to return from iniquity, Job 36:9; they lament and mourn over sin, confess it and forsake it; and then may the inwards of the heart, the mind and conscience, defiled with them, be said to be cleansed from them; especially when led by these stripes and corrections to the stripes, wounds, and blood of Christ which, being applied, cleanse from all, sin inwardly and outwardly.