Jakeh — Who lived either in Solomon's time, or rather afterwards, and was famous in his generation for wisdom and piety. The prophecy — The prophetical instruction; for as the prophets were public preachers as well as foretellers of things to come, so their sermons, no less than their predictions, a... [ Continue Reading ]
Surely — This he utters from a modest and humble apprehension of his own ignorance.... [ Continue Reading ]
I neither learned — I have not been taught in the schools of wisdom. Of the holy — Of the holy prophets. I have not such Divine inspirations as prophets strictly so called have received.... [ Continue Reading ]
Who — What mere man? None at all. Ascended — To learn the mind of God who dwells there. Descended — To teach men below what he had learned above. No man can fully know and teach us these things unless he hath been in heaven, and sent down from thence to the earth for that end. In his fists — To hold... [ Continue Reading ]
Pure — You must not expect the full knowledge of Divine mysteries from me, nor from any man, but from the word of God.... [ Continue Reading ]
Vanity — All vanity of heart and life; a vain conversation, or a love of the vain things of this world. Lies — All falsehood and deceit in my words and carriage. Convenient — Moderate and suitable both to my natural necessities, and to that condition of life in which thou hast put me.... [ Continue Reading ]
Deny thee — By trusting to riches, which is a denial of God, and by unthankfulness for, and abuse of his mercies. Who is the Lord — That I should serve him. Lest I take — Use false oaths either to vindicate myself when I am suspected, or to gratify others, as poor men frequently do.... [ Continue Reading ]
Accuse not — Without sufficient cause: for otherwise, in some cases this may be a duty. Curse thee — Desire God to punish thee. Guilty — By God, who is ready to plead the cause of the afflicted.... [ Continue Reading ]
A generation — A sort of men.... [ Continue Reading ]
Not washed — Who imagine they are truly religious, when they live in a course of wickedness.... [ Continue Reading ]
Devour — Extortioners, and cruel oppressors.... [ Continue Reading ]
The horse — leach — An insatiable creature, sucking blood 'till it is ready to burst. Two daughters — The following things resemble the horse — leach in its insatiableness; nothing being more ordinary than to call those persons or things the sons or daughters of those whose examples they imitate. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
The eye — He that scorneth or derideth his parents, tho' it be but with a look or gesture, and much more when he breaks out into opprobrious words and actions.... [ Continue Reading ]
Wonderful — The way whereof I cannot trace.... [ Continue Reading ]
Such is — So secret and undiscernible. Eateth — The bread of deceit in secret.... [ Continue Reading ]
Four — Which are intolerable in human societies.... [ Continue Reading ]
A servant — For such an one is commonly ignorant, and therefore commits many errors; he is poor, and therefore insatiable, he is proud and imperious, and usually injurious and cruel. A fool — A conceited fool. When — When he abounds in wealth.... [ Continue Reading ]
An odious — Proud, and perverse. Married — For then she displays all those ill humours, which before, she concealed. Is heir — Which great and sudden change transports her beside herself, and makes her insufferably proud and scornful.... [ Continue Reading ]
Bands — Several companies, in exact order.... [ Continue Reading ]
Hands — With her legs, which he calls hands, because they serve her for the same use, to do her work, to weave her web, and to catch gnats or flies. Palaces — Is not only in poor cottages, but many times in palaces also.... [ Continue Reading ]
An he — goat — Which marches in the head of the flock in a grave and stately manner, conducting them with great courage and resolution, and being ready to fight for them, either with beasts or men that oppose him. A king — Heb. a king and his people with him, a king when he hath the hearts and hands... [ Continue Reading ]
Thought — Designed any injury against thy neighbour. Lay thine hand — Do not open thy mouth to excuse it, but repent of it, and do so no more.... [ Continue Reading ]
The forcing — The stirring up of wrath, either in a man's self towards others, by giving way to passion; or in others by reproaches, or any other provocations. Bringeth forth — Is the cause of many quarrels.... [ Continue Reading ]