Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Proverbs 12:9-16
The Righteous Are Compassionate And Hard Working And Will Prosper, While The Unrighteous Are Lacking In Compassion And Slothful And Will Suffer Lack And Be Punished (Proverbs 12:9).
The first three verses of this subsection deal with a man who is not too highly thought of, and yet (because he behaves wisely) is nevertheless prosperous enough to have a servant (Proverbs 12:9); a man who is kind to his animals (and thus gets the best out of them) (Proverbs 12:10); and a man who tills his land and has plenty of bread (Proverbs 12:11). He thus benefits from his wise behaviour. As a consequence he yields fruit both spiritually and physically (Proverbs 12:12), avoids trouble (Proverbs 12:13), talks wisely and is therefore satisfied with good (Proverbs 12:14), takes note of good advice (Proverbs 12:15), and hides his failings (Proverbs 12:16).
In contrast is the one who makes a lot of himself, but totally unjustifiably because he cannot even supply his family with food (Proverbs 12:9); who treats his animals harshly and thus gets little response from them (Proverbs 12:10); and follows the ways of the sluggard (Proverbs 12:11). As a consequence he wants to ape the ways of evil men with their false snares in order to make up for his own lack (Proverbs 12:12); finds himself ensnared by their evil talk (Proverbs 12:13); will get back what he deserves (Proverbs 12:14), ignores all good advice (Proverbs 12:15; and makes himself known for what he is, because, being incensed and having no restraint or shame, he reveals himself to be a fool. (Proverbs 12:16).
The subsection is presented chiastically:
A Better is he who is lightly esteemed, and has a servant, than he who honours himself, and lacks bread (Proverbs 12:9).
B A righteous man regards the life of his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel (Proverbs 12:10).
C He who tills his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows after vain persons is void of understanding (Proverbs 12:11).
D The wicked desires the net (snare) of evil men, but the root of the righteous yields fruit (Proverbs 12:12).
D In the transgression of the lips is a snare to the evil man, but the righteous will come out of trouble (Proverbs 12:13).
C From the fruit of the mouth of a man he will be satisfied with good, and the doings of a man's hands will be rendered to him (Proverbs 12:14)
B The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who is wise listens to counsel (Proverbs 12:15).
A A fool's vexation (his being incensed) is presently known, but a prudent man conceals shame (Proverbs 12:16).
In A the humble and diffident man nevertheless reveals his hard-working status by having a servant, but he does not seek to be esteemed, whilst the fool ‘honours himself', seeking esteem, even though his lack of bread reveals that he is concealing the truth about himself (e.g. that he is a sluggard). He is hiding his failures. In the parallel it is the shrewd man who hides his failures because he is ashamed of them (the shame he conceals might in fact be his hidden vexation), whilst the fool, because he is lacking in self control, makes his failures (in this case his bad temper) publicly known. In B the righteous man is kind to his animals, while the fool beats them unstintingly, whilst in the parallel the fool does exactly what he wants (thus he beats his animals), whilst the wise listens to the advice of others, and especially to wisdom and the Torah, which exhorts kind treatment of animals (Deuteronomy 25:4; compare Exodus 23:4; Exodus 23:12; Deuteronomy 22:1; Deuteronomy 22:6; Deuteronomy 22:10). In C he who tills the land diligently will have plenty of BREAD, whereas those who follow the empty-headed will go short, and in the parallel the former will be satisfied with good from the FRUIT of his mouth whilst the latter will get what he deserves. Centrally in D the wicked desire what the snares of evil men produce, and in the parallel are themselves ensnared by what evil men say. Meanwhile the righteous work hard and produce fruit, and because they do not listen to evil men they will come out of trouble.
‘Better is he who is lightly esteemed, and has a servant,
Than he who honours himself, and lacks bread.'
It is to misrepresent this proverb to suggest that it simply means that it is better to have low esteem and have food than to have high esteem of oneself and lack food, as though all that mattered was food. The point is rather that the former is prospering (he can afford a servant), and the assumption in Proverbs up to this point is that that is because he is wise. He has quietly got down to work without bothering about his reputation. But the latter is hungry, and this is because he has spent his time seeking to bring honour on himself, and in his arrogance has been lazy (and foolish) and thus lacks bread. Lack of bread has previously been, and continues to be, seen as due to the person's laziness (Proverbs 6:6; Proverbs 10:4; Proverbs 12:24; Proverbs 13:4).
The first man may be lightly esteemed by his neighbours. He has not been concerned about his reputation. But he has been wise and has worked sufficiently hard to be able to afford a servant. And he has been able to hide anything of which he might have been ashamed (Proverbs 12:16). He has let his work do the talking. This theme of fruitfulness continues on in the subsection. He tills his land and has plenty of bread (Proverbs 12:11). His root yields fruit (Proverbs 12:12).
In contrast the fool thinks a lot of himself, and has sought to be undeservedly highly esteemed. He may even have spent a lot of time boasting about his hard work and his coming crops. But he has proved in the end that he is really a sluggard. He has followed those who have no real understanding (Proverbs 12:11). And this is something that he cannot hide, because ‘in the day' when harvest time comes this will be known (Proverbs 12:16).
A suggested emendation followed by some of the versions is to repoint the Hebrew for servant as a participle, thus rendering it as ‘who serves' (i.e. who humbly serves himself). But ‘has a servant' is a more natural rendering, and contrasts better with ‘lacks bread'.
‘A righteous man regards the life of his beast,
But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
Going along with their attitude to work is their attitude towards their work-animals. The righteous man has concern for his animals (and possibly his servant). He is kind to them and looks after them properly as required by the Torah (Exodus 23:4; Deuteronomy 25:4; compare Exodus 23:12; Deuteronomy 22:1; Deuteronomy 22:6; Deuteronomy 22:10). In contrast the ‘wicked man', the sluggard, has treated his animals cruelly, probably in order to make up for his own laziness. As the verse demonstrates reference to his ‘tender mercies' is sarcastic. His way of caring for them has been to beat the life out of them, which would have contributed to his poor harvest.
Thus the wise man has acted in accordance with ‘counsel' (Proverbs 12:15), that is in accordance with wisdom and the Torah. The foolish man has done what is right in his own eyes (Proverbs 12:15). He has ignored the lessons of wisdom and the Torah.
‘He who tills his land will have plenty of bread,
But he who follows after those who are vain is void of understanding.'
The lightly esteemed, but wise, man tills his land diligently and has plenty of bread (in contrast with the one who lacks bread in Proverbs 12:9). The man who has made a lot of himself has imitated those who are empty and vain, and has thus proved that, in spite of his boasting, he ‘lacks understanding' (so he lacks both bread and understanding). Alternately it may refer to ‘what is vain (empty)'. He has followed after what is vain, taking labour-saving short cuts and hoping for the best. Sowing is much easier if you do not plough properly first, but it has disastrous consequences.
In the parallel Proverbs 12:14 the first man is satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth. Instead of boasting he has been giving instructions and guidance to his servant about the tilling of his land. And consequently his field has been fruitful. And not only that, all that he says produces a harvest for him, raising his esteem and winning friendship. In contrast the boastful man will have rendered to him the doings of his hands, including his slackness in labour, and his mistreatment of his animals.
It should be noted that ‘his land' probably consisted of strips in a field marked off by stones as landmarks. Most Israelites would not be rich enough to own a whole field, nor would the land tend to be divided into separate fields..
‘The wicked desires the net (snare) of evil men,
But the root of the righteous yields (fruit).'
The root of the righteous may mean his son(s), or simply the roots of what he has planted. Either way they ‘yield' well (they ‘give, put forth'). He has no need to look further for his sustenance. In contrast the unrighteous man, aware that his crops are not doing well, looks around for means of supplementing his income. He turns his thoughts to dishonesty. He turns his desires on crooked ways of making up for his lack, on ‘the snare of evil men'. This snare is illustrated in Proverbs 1:11 ff. where the activity of the men of violence is likened to a snare. He thinks that what he cannot achieve by hard toil, he might achieve by violence. The desire to avoid honest toil is often the cause of crime.
‘In the transgression of the lips is a snare to the evil man,
But the righteous will come out of trouble.'
The word used for ‘snare' often indicates the ‘striker' in the snare which springs down and traps the animal caught in the snare. The ‘transgression of the lips' may be the words of evil men who with them seek to trap the wicked man into behaving wickedly (compare Proverbs 1:11), but which can have no effect on the wise who will ‘come out of trouble'. This ties in well with the previous verse where the wicked man is dallying with evil men's snares. Or they may refer to the words of the wicked man which he uses to seek to strike and ensnare the righteous. But if so it will fail. The righteous, because of his wisdom, will come out of trouble.
‘From the fruit of the mouth of a man he (one) will be satisfied (or ‘satiated') with good,
And the doings of a man's hands will be rendered to him.'
In contrast to the transgression of the lips of evil men is the fruit of the mouth of the righteous which will satisfy either he himself or men in general. The fruit of his mouth will cause him (or others) to be satisfied with good, indeed to be satiated with good things. This includes his guidance to his servant, and his exhortation to him to work hard following his own example, which will result in a good harvest, and which contrasts with the ensnaring lips of evil men with their get rich quick ideas. Or it may simply be saying that in general a righteous man will speak in such ways as will only result in abundance of good for him or for others. For only a righteous man can in general always be satisfied with good by what he says. An unrighteous man at times speaks evilly.
The second part of the proverb may be seen as of general application (which is what ‘a man's' seems to indicate) and thus signify that each man will have rendered to him the doings of his hands, whether he works hard or works lazily. However, the context with its continual contrasts, and the fact that the righteous man is simply also called ‘a man' may indicate that this second part is speaking of the activities of the unrighteous man, with the implication being that he will receive the consequences of having lazy and harsh hands, lazy in effort and harsh in his treatment of his work animals.
‘The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
But he who is wise listens to counsel.'
In the parallel to this verse it says ‘a righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel' (Proverbs 12:10). The righteous man has regard to what others think, he is wise and listens to ‘counsel', that is, to what is said in wisdom and the Torah, where he learns that he must be kind to them and have consideration for them. Thus in Exodus 23:4 he must assist even the overburdened ass of his enemies; in Deuteronomy 25:4 he must allow the ox who treads the corn to eat of it; and in Exodus 23:12 he is to allow his ox and ass to benefit by the Sabbath ‘so that they might have rest'. Compare also Deuteronomy 22:1; Deuteronomy 22:6; Deuteronomy 22:10.
In contrast the fool ill-treats his animals because he ‘does what is right in his own eyes'. However, the proverb is not necessarily limited to this particular circumstance, for it also lays down a general rule that the wise listen to advice if it is from the right source (they even gladly listen to rebuke because they love knowledge - Proverbs 12:1), whilst the fool simply goes his own way doing his own thing.
It will be noted that Proverbs 12:15 are united by both referring to ‘a fool', in contrast, in the first case, to ‘he who is wise' and in the second case to ‘the shrewd'. The language repeats that continually found in the Prologue.
A fool's vexation is known in the day,
But a shrewd man conceals (covers up) shame.'
We might paraphrase this as ‘what a fool is incensed or excited about he makes immediately known (or makes known when the time comes), but what a shrewd man is ashamed of he keeps to himself'. In other words the fool immediately makes known his folly because he has little shame, whilst the shrewd man conceals errors and tempers that he is ashamed of simply because being righteous he is ashamed of them. Unlike the fool he does not glory in them. He wishes that they had never happened. He will seek to rectify them, but he does not want them publicised.
But the probability is that it looks back over the subsection and declares that when the harvest comes (‘the day') the fool has not worked hard enough and is thus vexed at what his field has produced, because that day has shown up the truth about him, whilst the shrewd man (the one previously lightly esteemed - Proverbs 12:9) has by his success covered up his shame and has thus grown in esteem. In other words the shrewd man covers up his shame by demonstrating that it is undeserved.
‘Vexation, excitement, being incensed', in other words losing calmness and control, is in contrast to the calm, controlled state of the shrewd man. Such loss of calmness and control was despised by wisdom teachers. ‘Vexation kills the foolish man, and jealousy slays the silly one' (Job 5:2).