Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Proverbs 13:20-1
Walking With The Wise Will Result In Prosperity And A Well-knit And Integrated Family, Whilst Being A Fool Is A Prelude To Disaster (Proverbs 13:20 to Proverbs 14:1).
We have in this subsection a call to follow wisdom and be wise (Proverbs 13:20), righteous Proverbs 13:21; Proverbs 13:25) and good (Proverbs 13:22). He who does so will be recompensed with good (Proverbs 13:21); will find himself in a position to leave his descendants an inheritance (Proverbs 13:22); will properly discipline his son (Proverbs 13:24); will not go hungry (Proverbs 13:25); and will have a wise wife who will build up his household (Proverbs 14:1). In contrast are the fools (Proverbs 13:20); sinners (Proverbs 13:21); the poor (Proverbs 13:23); and the unrighteous (Proverbs 13:25). They will make those who trust them ‘smart' (Proverbs 13:20); will be pursued by evil (Proverbs 13:21); will eventually lose their inheritance (Proverbs 13:22); will eventually suffer hunger (Proverbs 13:23; Proverbs 13:25); and may have a wife who allows the household to collapse (Proverbs 14:1).
We should note the emphasis on the family. A good man ensures that his children and grandchildren are provided for (Proverbs 13:22). A loving father disciplines his son (Proverbs 13:24). A wise woman by her wisdom builds up her house (her family) (Proverbs 14:1).
The subsection can be presented chiastically:
A Walk with WISE men, and you will be wise, but the companion of FOOLS will smart for it (Proverbs 13:20).
B Evil pursues sinners, but the RIGHTEOUS will be recompensed with good (Proverbs 13:21).
C A good man leaves an inheritance to his CHILDREN'S CHILDREN, and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the righteous (Proverbs 13:22).
D Much food is in the tillage of the poor (Proverbs 13:23 a).
D But there is that is destroyed by reason of injustice (Proverbs 13:23 b).
C He who spares his rod hates his SON, but he who loves him is intent on disciplining him (Proverbs 13:24).
B The RIGHTEOUS eats to the satisfying of his inner man (nephesh), but the stomach of the wicked will want (Proverbs 13:25).
A Every WISE woman builds her house, but the FOOLISH plucks it down with her own hands (Proverbs 14:1).
Note that in A we have the accomplishment of the wise man, and in the parallel the accomplishment of the wise woman, whilst ‘fools' parallels ‘foolish'. In B the righteous will be recompensed with good, and in the parallel the righteous eats to the satisfying of his inner man. In C the good man provides for his children materially, and in the parallel the one who loves his son ‘provides for' his son by chastening him. Centrally in D, whilst there is much food in the tillage of the poor, in the contrasting parallel some of it is destroyed by injustice.
‘Walk with wise men, and you will be wise,
But the companion of fools will smart for it.'
Note the inclusio of wise men here and the wise woman in Proverbs 14:1. Walking with the wise makes a man wise, he marries a wise woman, and thus produces a wise family. Both the wise husband and the wise wife are needed to produce a well rounded individual. Compare the constant pairing with regard to wisdom teaching of the father and the mother (Proverbs 1:8; Proverbs 4:3; Proverbs 10:1). And note that Solomon is presented as a father figure (he refers to ‘my son') and wisdom is presented as a mother figure (wisdom is always feminine). So while a wise father is seen as vital for a family, a wise mother is also seen as essential.
The consequence of becoming wise will be that he will be recompensed with good (Proverbs 13:21), he will be in a position to leave wealth to his children's children (Proverbs 13:22), he will eat well both physically and spiritually, and his family will be made strong (Proverbs 14:1).
The lesson of the individual proverb is important. It is a reminder that we become like the company that we keep. Solomon exhorts ‘his son' (those whom he addresses for whom there is yet hope) to walk with wise men. He is to keep company with them, listen to them, and respond to what they say. Then he himself will become wise in God's wisdom. In the parallel by living with a wise woman, he (and the whole family) will be established in the right way (Proverbs 14:1).
In contrast those who walk with fools (those who do not respond to God's wisdom), and have fools as their companions, will suffer the consequences. They will ‘smart for it', they will ‘suffer harm' (like the one who is surety for a stranger (Proverbs 11:15)). They walk with fools (Proverbs 2:12), pay heed to what they say (Proverbs 1:11 ff) and become fools themselves. How much better had they been made to smart by their father's discipline (Proverbs 13:24). And the same will be true of those who have a ‘foolish' mother. They will live in an unhappy and disintegrated household (verse Proverbs 14:1).
We could take ro‘eh as a qal participle and translate as ‘the one who keeps companionship with' but the meaning is the same. Note that the r‘h (companion) yrw‘ (suffers harm), whilst in the next verse r‘h (evil) pursues sinners, connecting the two verses.
‘Evil pursues sinners,
But the righteous will be recompensed with good.'
The importance of walking with the wise (Proverbs 13:20) comes out in that ‘evil pursues sinners'. In view of the parallel clause ‘evil' includes all the unpleasant things that can face man (compare Proverbs 3:29), such as hunger, fierce storms, calamity and death (Proverbs 1:25; Proverbs 1:32; Proverbs 2:22; Proverbs 3:25; Proverbs 5:9; Proverbs 6:11; Proverbs 6:15; Proverbs 6:33; Proverbs 7:27). But it is probably also intended to include moral evil. A sinner attracts evil (what is not good) and it pursues him. Evil is here personified and seen as a remorseless enemy which hunts down its victims (see Proverbs 1:10; Proverbs 2:12; Proverbs 6:24; Proverbs 7:10). But it cannot touch those who walk with the wise. The righteous, instead of being pursued with the world's evils, will be recompensed with good (Proverbs 3:16) because by responding to Gods' wisdom they have become ‘good', (have had their mind set on following God's wisdom), and are thus becoming more and more good. Compare Matthew 6:33, ‘seek first the kingly rule of God and His righteousness, and all these things (food and clothing) will be added to you'.
In the parallel verse (Proverbs 13:25), ‘the righteous eats to the satisfying of his inner man (nephesh)', whilst the stomach of the non-righteous will be empty. Here is one of the ‘good' things which the righteous will enjoy. Note the parallel reference in Proverbs 13:25 to ‘the righteous'. Other good things described are that he becomes wealthy enough to leave an inheritance to his descendants (Proverbs 13:22), and that he weds a wife who will be a blessing to his future family (Proverbs 14:1).
Note also how the mention of ‘sinners' connects up with the verse which follows this (Proverbs 13:22). These connecting links demonstrate that Solomon wants us to connect the proverbs together. Sinners are those who fall short of ‘goodness' (Proverbs 13:22).
‘A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children,
And the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the righteous.'
The good man, the righteous man, the one who walks with the wise (Proverbs 13:20), is here contrasted with ‘the sinner', the one who falls short of goodness, the one who is unrighteous. Here we learn that the good man retains his wealth so that he is able to pass it on to his descendants, whilst the sinner fails to do so. The sinner loses it. Either he or his children, who will tend to grow up like him, will squander it, or he will lose it through some disaster. And in the end it will benefit the righteous. (The righteous will benefit in the end, the sinner will lose all).
The fact that the good man leaves his inheritance to his children's children also suggests that his own children will be ‘good men' so that they too prosper, for it is they who will ensure that the succession continues. And the reasons why they become good men is that they are properly disciplined (Proverbs 13:24) and have a good and wise mother (Proverbs 14:1). Thus by walking with the wise a good man benefits not only himself, but his children. They too become wise.
For an illustration of the clause ‘the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the righteous' compare Genesis 31:9; Genesis 31:16; Exodus 12:36; Deuteronomy 2:26; Deuteronomy 3:1; Esther 8:1; Psalms 105:44.
‘Much food is in the fallow (unploughed) ground of the poor,
But there is that is destroyed by reason of injustice (judgment).'
Standing by itself this could be saying that even if the poor did not work hard and plough their ground (fallow ground is untilled ground, ground which has not been broken up - see Hosea 10:12; Jeremiah 4:3), they would still be able to provide enough food for their families, were it not for the fact that their situation could be affected by injustice. But the idea is more likely that much food is there assuming that the poor would work hard and plough the ground. Then they would discover that it would produce much food. The injustice may have in mind that they could find themselves over-taxed, or having what they produced taken from them by invaders (compare Judges 6:3) or by a rich person using his influence on the courts, or by storms and unseasonal rain. The fact that they can produce ‘much food' is evidence that ‘the poor' are not to be seen as the destitute (they have land), and indicates that all could have been satisfactorily fed were it not for man's greed.
But in context the verse has a further significance. It is illustrating the fact that ‘evil pursues sinners' (Proverbs 13:21). For up to this point Solomon's clear teaching has been that the poor are poor because they are slothful (Proverbs 6:9; Proverbs 10:4). They have not followed the way of wisdom. And that is confirmed here by the reference to ‘fallow (untilled) ground'. They have not broken up their ground. And yet even so that ground could produce sufficient food were it not for the fact that ‘evil pursued them', that what they produce is subject to misfortune. It must be remembered that such injustices were regularly seen as due to the hand of YHWH punishing His people for their ill-doing (Judges 6:1).
An alternative is to paraphrase as, ‘much food could be in the fallow ground of the poor, were it not that it is swept away by poor judgment.' In other words the ground fails to produce what it could because the poor exercise poor judgment and do not break up the ground. They fail to produce because of their own slothfulness.
Either way this is central in the chiasmus because, coming in between the inclusio which refers to walking with the wise (Proverbs 13:20), and being brought up by the wise (Proverbs 14:1), Solomon wants to emphasise that sinners bring their misfortune on themselves in spite of God having initially shown His goodness towards them.
Brief Note On The Poor.
We may feel that Solomon is a little unfair to the poor when he suggests that they are always responsible for their own poverty. But we must remember that he saw the Israelite society in which he lived, and over whom he reigned, as composed of families each of which had its own portion of land handed down from their ancestors. Thus he considered that, on the whole, where this was so, they had the means by which they could feed themselves if they put in enough effort. Given this scenario we can see why he spoke as he did.
End of note.
‘He who spares his rod hates his son,
But he who loves him is intent on disciplining him.'
In Proverbs 13:22 the good man leaves an inheritance to his descendants, here he gives his son a different kind of inheritance by disciplining him in love so that he will learn wisdom. To ‘spare the rod' is to not use it. He fails to use it because he is not bothered about the way in which his son walks. In contrast the one who loves his son will discipline him when necessary. He is ‘intent on' disciplining him because he loves him and wants him to learn the way of wisdom. The fact that it would be done in love (‘he who loves him') would prevent it from being excessive.
This is not an admonition to beat one's children. It is an admonition to discipline them properly. The rod was the method of discipline in those days. Life was hard and time precious, and children rarely had privileges that could be withheld. The rod was a quick method of discipline, and psychological methods were unknown. Today we may use other methods of discipline. We live in an affluent age and children can always be punished by withholding privileges or, with young children, using ‘the naughty seat'. This was not possible, or even thought of, in those days. But good parents are still ‘intent on' sufficiently disciplining their children when necessary, so that they will learn what is good. And if this does finally require ‘the rod' they will use it. A judicious smack given in love (not in despair or temper) may well save the child much trouble (in spite of modern prejudices).
‘The righteous eats to the satisfying of his inner man (nephesh),
But the stomach of the wicked will want.'
In Proverbs 13:22 we read, ‘Evil pursues sinners, but the righteous will be recompensed with good.' This is illustrated here. It is because misfortune pursues sinners, that the stomach of the unrighteous will want (go hungry). In contrast the righteous will be recompensed with good, because the righteous will be satisfied, both physically by having sufficient food, and spiritually by feeding on wisdom. It is a reminder that the wise man chooses the way of righteousness, and discovers that in the end that is the way to wellbeing and life.
‘Every wise woman builds her house,
But the foolish plucks it down with her own hands.'
This is the second part of the inclusio, the first part being Proverbs 13:20. ‘Every wise woman' is paralleled with ‘wise men.' Like Ms Wisdom (Proverbs 9:1) this wise woman ‘builds her house', although in her case it is not a literal building but the ‘building' of the family. She spends her efforts on building up her family and making them wise. She instructs them in the Torah (Law of Moses) (Proverbs 1:8), and is deeply concerned if they go astray (Proverbs 10:1). Like woman wisdom she constantly exhorts them to walk in the right way, the way of the wise. Note that it is not said that she does it ‘with her own hands'. The idea is probably that she is assisted by YHWH. And as a consequence she is a ‘crown' to her husband (Proverbs 12:4).
In contrast is the foolish woman who plucks down her house ‘with her own hands'. She must take total responsibility for what happens, when her children are badly behaved and disunited, and when her household collapses. She is as rottenness in her husband's bones (Proverbs 12:4).