Proverbs 3:1-35
1 My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:
2 For length of days, and longa life, and peace, shall they add to thee.
3 Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:
4 So shalt thou find favour and goodb understanding in the sight of God and man.
5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
8 It shall be healthc to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
9 Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:
10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
11 My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:
12 For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
13 Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.
14 For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.
15 She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.
16 Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.
17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.
19 The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he establishedd the heavens.
20 By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.
21 My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion:
22 So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck.
23 Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble.
24 When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.
25 Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh.
26 For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.
27 Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.
28 Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.
29 Devisee not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee.
30 Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm.
31 Envy thou not the oppressor,f and choose none of his ways.
32 For the froward is abomination to the LORD: but his secret is with the righteous.
33 The curse of the LORD is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just.
34 Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly.
35 The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.
Fourth Discourse. The sage exhorts the young man to heed his oral instruction (torah), and to trust in Yahweh, fear Him, and honour Him in the prescribed manner of firstfruits. It is interesting to find torah used in its earlier prophetic sense of oral instruction, without reference to its later sense of the whole body of legislation represented by the Pentateuch. The torah of the wise man represents not his own individual authority, but the accumulated wisdom of experience. The torah of the prophet, although delivered in the name of Yahweh, represents ultimately the accumulated moral consciousness of the nation; while the torah of the priest in its later form at least represents the traditional and inherited ritual, the prescribed method of the cultus. Hence the primary idea of torah is the same in all three forms. (See pp. 121, 620, Deuteronomy 1:5 *, and for a fuller discussion, Law in HDB.) The traditional view of the moral government of the universe, challenged so passionately in Job, is here accepted as axiomatic; the reward of fearing Yahweh is material prosperity and long life, there is no outlook into the future.
Proverbs 3:8. navel: read flesh or body (LXX and Peshitta).
Proverbs 3:11 f. A comment, possibly by a later hand, on the meaning of misfortune. It represents the beginning of the problem discussed so fully in Job, and it offers the same solution as Eliphaz (Job 5:17 f.) and Elihu, a solution rejected by Job as inadequate. Chastisement could not be regarded as a proof of God's love until the belief in a future life with God, where its results should appear, had been established. Indeed, the pressure of the moral problem helped largely to establish the belief in ethical and individual immortality. (See art. on Immortality in DAC; cf. also Sir_2:1-6, Pss. of Solomon Proverbs 13:8 f.)
Proverbs 3:12. as a father: LXX (Hebrews 12:6) reads scourges, probably representing the presumably correct reading afflicts, as in Job 5:18.
Proverbs 3:13. Couplets in praise of wisdom, possibly a continuation of Proverbs 3:1, but probably a separate fragment of a poem in praise of wisdom. It and Proverbs 3:19 f. are closely related to the hymn in praise of wisdom in Proverbs 3:8, and may represent an excerpt from an earlier recension of it.
Proverbs 3:15. Repeated in a slightly modified form in Proverbs 8:11.
Proverbs 3:19 f. A comment on the place of Wisdom in creation, expanded in Proverbs 8:23 *. See Proverbs 3:13 *.
Proverbs 3:21. Another fragment on the blessings of wisdom addressed by the sage to the young man. The connexion is clearly broken, them (Proverbs 3:21 a) having no antecedent, since Proverbs 3:21 is not a continuation of Proverbs 3:19 f. If, however, the order of Proverbs 3:21 a and Proverbs 3:21 b be inverted, the sense may be restored. depart: Heb. difficult. LXX reads slip away, perhaps the source of slip away in Hebrews 2:1.
Proverbs 3:29. Detached exhortations and maxims totally differing in style from the rest of Proverbs 3:1, and more closely resembling the maxims of Proverbs 10:1 to Proverbs 22:16. The connecting thread is the conception of kindliness to one's neighbour as a fundamental part of morality which underlies much of the Code of the Covenant and the parallel portions of D and H.
Proverbs 3:27. for them to whom it is due: a forced rendering; Heb. is lit. from its owners. LXX has from the needy, Peshitta omits. Read perhaps from thy neighbours. power: lit. God (-' et), illustrating the primitive conception attaching to the word (cf. Genesis 31:29; Deuteronomy 28:32).
Proverbs 3:32. secret: Heb. implies intimate association (cf. Psalms 25:14; Psalms 55:14).
Proverbs 3:34. Neither RV nor RVm is satisfactory. Read with the scorners he shews himself scornful (Psalms 18:26). LXX is quoted in James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5.
Proverbs 3:35 b. promotion is the Heb. verb to exalt or to remove (as Isaiah 57:14). Shame exalts fools, i.e. makes them notorious, is possible but forced. An attractive emendation is fools change their glory into shame (cf. Hosea 4:7). Proverbs 14:18 may give the original text, fools await shame.