Proverbs 15:6-7

CRITICAL NOTES.—

Proverbs 15:6. Miller translates the first clause, “The house of the righteous is great treasure” (see his Comment); revenue, rather “gain.”

Proverbs 15:7. Disperse; some translators read “winnow,” or “sift.” Stuart translates the last clause of this verse “The heart of the fool is not stable;” Delitzsch reads, “Direction is wanting to the heart of fools,” i.e., it has not the right direction.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 15:6

LIKE IN CIRCUMSTANCES, BUT UNLIKE IN CHARACTER

I. The wicked and the righteous are often on a level as regards material wealth. One may have “much treasure” and the other great “revenues,” or gain. The laws of nature have no respect to character. God makes His sun to “shine upon the evil and the good, and sendeth rain upon the just and upon the unjust” (Matthew 5:45), so that the wicked man reaps a harvest as abundant as that of the righteous man. And all the laws of Providence move with the same even step, certainly showing no favour to the good man over the bad.

II. But though their possessions may be equal, there is a great inequality in the enjoyment of them. Character makes all the difference here. Even “a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked” (Psalms 37:16). The wicked man is troubled by a sense of being out of harmony with all that is holy, and just, and true in the universe of God, and with a foreboding of future retribution. The wealth of the spirit is so much more than material wealth as the spirit is so much more than the body. It is wealth to have “a conscience purged from, dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14), and to “lay up treasure” without being thus “rich toward God” (Luke 12:21) is only to “spend money for that which is not bread, and labour for that which satisfieth not.” (See on chap. Proverbs 3:14; Proverbs 8:11, etc.)

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS

“The treasure in the house of the righteous” may be understood not of mere wealth, but of whatever is possessed with contentment and cheerfulness, with gratitude to God, with an assurance of His fatherly regard, with the peace that passeth all understanding, with resignation of spirit to the Divine will, with the present enjoyment of spiritual blessing, and the well-founded “hope of glory, honour, and immortality.” … We may suppose the revenues of the wicked to be acquired and enjoyed wickedly. But if not—yet if possessed and expended without the fear of God, and if the means themselves of banishing that fear, and preventing the choice of a better portion,—it may truly be affirmed that in them there is “trouble.”—Wardlaw.

“The house,” as we have repeatedly seen (see on chap. Proverbs 9:1, Proverbs 14:1), means a man’s whole interest. The mere interest of the “righteous,” whether it seem high or low; his lot, whether it be on high or on a dunghill; his hap, just as it is, whether it be easy or under pain, is, under the covenant of the Almighty, an enormous riches; while not “the house of the wicked” (for the wise man intends another of his climaxes); but stating his condition in the most favourable way, “the revenue of the wicked,” imagining that to be of the most favourable kind; and not “the revenue of the wicked,” but in the revenue, as though the trouble were in the revenue itself, is, literally, the being troubled (Niphal). The splendours of the lost will involve but trouble in the whole eternity.—Miller.

The treasures of the wicked are too much for their good and too little for their lusts.… But is it not the crown of the Christian’s crown, and the glory of his glory that he cannot desire more?—Bridges.

The riches of the wicked, in which they pride themselves, often consist of paper, and if bonds and charters make a man rich, the righteous cannot be poor, when they have bonds upon God Himself for everything they need, and the charter which shows their sure title to an everlasting inheritance. The devil robbed Job, but he could not make him poor, for his chief treasure lay quite out of reach of the enemy.—Lawson.

Every righteous man is a rich man, whether he hath more or less of the things of this life. For, first, he hath plenty of that which is precious. Secondly, Propriety; what he hath is his own; he holds all in capite-tenure in Christ; he shall not be called to account as a usurper. “All is yours” (1 Corinthians 3:22), “because you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” And although he hath little, many times, in present possession, he is rich in reversion.—Trapp.

His house is God’s treasury, himself is God’s treasure; wherefore God watcheth over his house to defend and preserve it; and himself God keepeth, as the apple of His eye.—Jermin.

Even the trifling sum which the righteous keeps in his house is a great treasure, because it has God’s blessing; but all the revenues, the large annual rents of the wicked from all his vast estate, are mere troubles.—Burgon.

The thought of Proverbs 15:7 has been treated before. (See Proverbs 15:2, etc.)

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS

Utterance is a gift, and dumb Christians are blameworthy as well as dumb ministers. “Speak, that I may see thee,” said Socrates. When the heart is full, it overfloweth in speech. We know metals by their tinkling, and men by their talking.—Brooks.

In their houses, they catechise their children; in the company of their neighbours, they entreat of God’s word and works; in the church, if they be teachers, they publish wholesome doctrine.—Muffet.

Most commentators say scatter or disperse. “Winnow,” which has usage (Ruth 3:2), bears better upon the second clause. (See renderings in Critical Notes.) Winnowing knowledge, i.e., letting the lips, under the guidance of wisdom, be an instrument for holding folly back and giving utterance to knowledge, must be the finest practice for giving strength to piety; while the second clause shows the incompetence of folly to “winnow” anything, by saying that “the heart of the foolish is not fixed” (and therefore lacks the first principles of choice, in separating one thing from the other).—Miller.

The foolish sow cockle as fast as wiser men do corn, and are as busy in digging descents to hell as others are in building staircases for heaven.—Trapp.