Proverbs 1:1-33
1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;
2 To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;a
4 To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.b
5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
6 To understand a proverb, and the interpretation;c the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginningd of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
9 For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chainse about thy neck.
10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
11 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:
12 Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:
13 We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:
14 Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:
15 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:
16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
17 Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
18 And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.
19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
20 Wisdomf crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:
21 She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
Proverbs 1:1. Proverbs, apothegms, parables, sentences, similitudes. The proverbs of a nation are the compressions of wisdom into short maxims, which like the coins of a country worn bare by use, pass from hand to hand, without scruple or fear. The Hebrew word משׁלים mishelim, from משׁל mashal, to rule or govern, signifies a collection of wise sayings for the government of life and conduct.
Proverbs 1:2. To know wisdom. This little volume comes cheap to us, but it cost the king of Israel, the great oriental philosopher, who surpassed Ethan, Heman, Chalcol, and Darda in wisdom, a whole life of labour and of study. 1 Kings 4:30.
Proverbs 1:4. To give subtilty, wariness, cautionary wisdom, to the simple. The LXX, ακακοις, those without evil, the innocent. Vulgate, parvulis, the little ones, those who from youth and inexperience act rashly and precipitately.
Proverbs 1:5. A wise man will hear. The wise and illustrious Solomon opens his volume by setting forth the nature and design of his work. Wisdom, according to him, is no other than the luminous truth of revelation embraced by the mind, revered in the heart, and practised in the life. Then correspondent dispositions are formed, for divine wisdom is more than theory; it is pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and all good fruit. Hence it is no other than real religion in all its doctrines, and in all its duties. And to conform the heart and life to the wise counsel of God, is assuredly both the best wisdom and the first duty of all mankind. It ennobles the mind with sacred knowledge, it adorns the heart with purity, and clothes the character with rectitude. In a word, it opens every avenue of intellectual pleasure and moral happiness to the soul of man.
Proverbs 1:7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. This is the first proverb, and worthy of the first place. The fear of the Lord is real religion. It puts a young man into the right road, leading to glory and virtue. The Saviour admonishes us first to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Also Job 28:28.
Proverbs 1:8. My son, hear the instruction of thy father. To give the more effect to this volume, Solomon, very prudently, and with all the affability of condescension, speaks in the person of a father to his son. This mode of speaking was common for aged tutors to their pupils. Instruction coming in this form is natural and persuasive; and it falls with all the weight of paternal influence and of hoary experience. How then should we be affected with the condescension of God, who speaks to us as the Father of mercies, and loves us with the tenderest affection.
Proverbs 1:9. Chains about thy neck. Hebrews torques; a ring of gold round the neck, often bestudded with gems, and from which the flowing robes of the east were sometimes suspended. Schultens, in his Latin translation of the Proverbs, illustrates this from the Arabic by the idea of a serpent twisted round the neck.
Proverbs 1:10. If sinners entice thee, consent thou not. The first positive instruction Solomon here gives, is a caution to youth against bad company. However inclined to foolishness the heart of a youth may be, having some delicacy and modesty, he is shocked at the grosser crimes, and does not intend irrecoverably to take the route of vice. But on associating with persons totally depraved, impelled by passion, and allured by temptations, he cannot tell whether exile or the gallows may soon be his lot. Many bad young men in Israel, it would seem, were induced to join the bands of robbers whose haunts were in the deserts and the woods, and whose end was destruction: being outlawed they went on in a course of crimes till arrested by the hand of justice. See on Judges 19.
Proverbs 1:17. Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. The allegory here is beautiful; if a poor bird take warning, why not those foolish youths!
Proverbs 1:20. Wisdom crieth without. Like Minerva among the Greeks she is here arrayed in the female character; for mothers advise their children for good. Hence both father and mother join their voices to save youth from sin.
Proverbs 1:22. How long ye simple ones. Youth are not only cautioned against vice, but a remedy is prescribed in real religion. Hence wisdom as a tender matron cries in the streets, and in all the public resorts of the wicked. She then says, this is all vanity and empty show. Shun this place, avoid the breath of this infected crowd, and come and shelter your weakness under my roof, and the wings of my protecting love. And that her instructions may be received with the more conviction and propriety, she divides the crowd into three classes; for wicked men are not all equally depraved. First, the simple ones who merely run with the throng, and love giddiness and folly. Secondly, the scoffers who having vanquished their own conscience, next attempt to deride God's most sacred word. Thirdly, the consummately hardened fools, who being learned in wickedness hate instruction. This last class of sinners are in an awful situation, and on the verge of destruction. Yet even to these she says, Turn at my reproof; and I will pour out my spirit upon you. Hence the most hardened and profligate should be called to repentance, for the very brands of wickedness are sometimes plucked from the burning.
Proverbs 1:24. Because I have called, have knocked, have waited, love assaying all its arts to win the soul. The remaining addresses, often repeated by the prophets, are to the incorrigible, the abandoned, the reprobates. I have stretched out my hand, in a succession of paternal corrections, but all has been disregarded. You have been deaf to my voice, and blind to my ways; you have followed passion, instead of wisdom; therefore I am about to mock you in trouble, and bid you go to your harlots for pleasure, and to your physicians for health; yea, when arrests and imprisonment await you suddenly like a whirlwind, I will refer you to the bar of justice which will do you no wrong. Return then, return, oh sinner, while his wrath delays; for it yet is love that uses severer words.
Proverbs 1:32. The turning away [that is, the sloth and ease] of the simple shall slay them. On the other hand, the prosperity of fools, who like Sodom and Gomorrah, live in pride, idleness, and fulness of bread, shall destroy them; and to see what end both those characters come to, shall destroy all their unfounded hopes.