_The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;_ Ver. 1. _The Proverbs._] Or, Master sentences; maxims, axioms, speeches of special precellence and predominance; received rules _a_ that must overrule matters, and mightily prevail in the minds of men. The principal, no doubt, they are of... [ Continue Reading ]
To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; Ver. 2. _To know wisdom._] That is, To give others to know; to wise them, as in Daniel 12:3; to give the knowledge of salvation; Luk 1:77 to show men "great and mighty things which they know not," Jer 33:3 but may here hence be... [ Continue Reading ]
To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; Ver. 3. _To receive the instruction._] Tertullian calls the Bible (and the Proverbs by a specialty) _nostra digesta,_ from the lawyers; and others our pandects, _a_ from them also. Is there not a thin veil laid over them, whic... [ Continue Reading ]
To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. Ver. 4. _To give subtilty._] Serpentine subtilty, Gen 3:1 sacred sagacity, a sharp wit, a deep reach, a Spirit that "searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God," 1Co 2:10 and transformeth a man "into the same image fr... [ Continue Reading ]
A wise [man] will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: Ver. 5. _A wise man will hear._] Hearing and seeing are by Aristotle called "the learned senses," because by these doors learning, yea, life, entereth into the soul. Isa 55:3 David Chytra... [ Continue Reading ]
To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings. Ver. 6. _To understand a proverb, and the interpretation._] Or, The sweetness thereof; there being nothing so sweet to a good soul as the knowledge of dark and deep mysteries. See Psa 119:103 where the s... [ Continue Reading ]
_The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of knowledge: [but] fools despise wisdom and instruction._ Ver. 7. _The fear of the Lord is the beginning._] Or, The chief and principal point _a_ of wisdom, as the word here signified; yea, wisdom itself. Job 28:28 This Solomon had learned by the instructio... [ Continue Reading ]
My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: Ver. 8. _Hear the instruction of thy father, &c._] It is not fit to disobey God, thy father, nor thy teacher, saith Aristotle _a_ Our parents, said Hierocles, are Yεοι εφεστιοι, our household gods: and their words sh... [ Continue Reading ]
_For they [shall be] an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck._ Ver. 9. _For they shall be an ornament._] "A man's wisdom maketh his face to shine." Ecc 8:1 _Tum pietate gravem, &c._ _a_ Oυ το χρυσος ουτε αδαμας ουτως αστραπτει. _b_ Neither gold nor precious stone so glittereth... [ Continue Reading ]
My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Ver. 10. _If sinners entice thee._] To an ill bargain; to a match of mischief, as Ahab did Jehoshaphat, as Potiphar's wife would have done Joseph; and truly, that he yielded not, was no less a wonder, than that those three worthies burnt not in the... [ Continue Reading ]
If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: Ver. 11. _If they say._] The dragon bites the elephant's ear, and thence sucks his blood; because he knows that to be the only place that he cannot reach with his trunk to defend. So deal the r... [ Continue Reading ]
Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: Ver. 12. _Let us swallow them up alive._] As the devil doth. 1 Peter 5:8 2Ti 2:26 _Homo homini demon._ The poor Indians have been heard to say, it had been better that their country had been given to the devil... [ Continue Reading ]
We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: Ver. 13. _We shall find all precious substance._] But those that rake together, _rem, rem, quocunque modo rem,_ that count all good fish that comes to net, will in the end catch the devil and all. _ Fill our houses with spo... [ Continue Reading ]
Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: Ver. 14. _Let us all have one purse._] How much better were a wallet to beg from door to door, than such a cursed hoard of evil gotten goods!... [ Continue Reading ]
My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: Ver. 15. _Walk not thou in the way with them._] "God will not take the wicked by the hand." Job 8:20 Why then should we? "Gather not my soul with sinners," saith David. Psa 26:9 "O Lord, let me not go to hell where the wi... [ Continue Reading ]
For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. Ver. 16. _For their feet run to evil._] By the abuse of their locomotive faculty, given them to a better purpose. They "run," as if they should not come time enough; they take long strides toward the burning lake, which is now but a little b... [ Continue Reading ]
Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. Ver. 17. _Surely in vain the net._] Which is to say, Silly birds pick up the meat, but see not the net, and so become a prey to the fowler. If the fruits of the flesh grow out of the trees of your hearts, saith blessed Bradford, _a_ surely,... [ Continue Reading ]
And they lay wait for their [own] blood; they lurk privily for their [own] lives. Ver. 18. _And they lay wait._] Their sin will surely find them out. "No doubt this man is a murderer," said those barbarians, Act 28:4 "whom though he had escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live." _a_ "Su... [ Continue Reading ]
So [are] the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; [which] taketh away the life of the owners thereof. Ver. 19. _Which taketh away the life._] The greater wealth, the greater spoil awaits a man: as a tree with thick and large boughs, every man desires to lop him. Trithemius writeth that the Tem... [ Continue Reading ]
Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: Ver. 20. _Wisdom._] Heb., Wisdoms: that is, the most absolute and sovereign wisdom, the Lord Jesus, "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," Col 2:3 who also "is made unto us of God wisdom, righteousness," &c. 1Co 1:3... [ Continue Reading ]
She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, [saying], Ver. 21. _In the chief place of concourse._] _Veritas non quaerit angulos._ Christ, as his manner was, preached in the synagogues; Paul disputed in the market with whomsoever he m... [ Continue Reading ]
How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Ver. 22. _How long, ye simple ones._] The _fatuelli_ that are easily persuaded into a fool's paradise. These are the best sort of bad men; the apostle calls them Aκακοι. Rom 16:1... [ Continue Reading ]
Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Ver. 23. _Turn you at my reproof._] He that reproves, and then directs not how to do better, is as he that snuffs a lamp, but pours not in oil to maintain it. _ Behold, I will pour out my Spiri... [ Continue Reading ]
Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; Ver. 24. _Because I have called, and ye refused._] If any ask, why did God suffer them to refuse, and not make them yield? I answer with Augustine, _Doctiorem quaerat, qui hanc quaestionem ei explicet:_ Let hi... [ Continue Reading ]
But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: Ver. 25. _But ye have set at naught._] As those recusant _a_ guests in the Gospel that pretended they therefore came not, because they had bought farms and oxen; but indeed it was because their farms and oxen had bought them. T... [ Continue Reading ]
I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; Ver. 26. _I also will laugh._] _Quod Deus loquitur cum risu, tu legas cum fletu._ _a_ If God laugh, thou hast good cause to cry. Note here the venomous nature of sin, which is so offensive to God, that it makes him (against his... [ Continue Reading ]
When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Ver. 27. _When your fear cometh as desolation._] _Scilicet,_ Of war, which lays heaps upon heaps, and leaves not a stone upon a stone. Mat 24:2 _ As a whirlwind._] Suddenly a... [ Continue Reading ]
Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: Ver. 28. _Then shall they call, &c._] This was Saul's misery; - The Philistines are upon me, and God will not answer me. This was Moab's curse. Isa 16:12 This was the case of David's enemies.... [ Continue Reading ]
For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: Ver. 29. _For that they hated knowledge._] These are the worst sort of sinners, Pro 1:22 that not only slight knowledge, but hate it, as thieves do a torch in the night; curse it, as Ethiopians do the scorching sun; fly against... [ Continue Reading ]
They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Ver. 30. _They would none of my counsel._] These are condemned and menaced, as well as those that despised or execrated God's reproof. So also in the precedent verse, not only they that "hated knowledge," but that "did not choose the fear... [ Continue Reading ]
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. Ver. 31. _Therefore shall they eat of the fruit._] Eat as they baked, drink as they brewed. They that sow the wind of iniquity, shall reap the whirlwind of misery, _Aequum est ut faber quas fecit compedes... [ Continue Reading ]
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. Ver. 32. _For the turning away._] Whereas it might be objected that meanwhile wicked men live at ease and prosper; it is granted, but withal asserted, that these fatted oxen are but fitted for the sl... [ Continue Reading ]
But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil. Ver. 33. _Shall be quiet from fear of evil._] _Impavidum ferient ruinae._ _a_ "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings." Psa 112:7 His ark is pitched within and without; tossed, it may be, but not drowned; shaken,... [ Continue Reading ]