Proverbs 23:1
_what_ Rather, WHO. Be continually on your guard; let not the luxury that surrounds you betray you into forgetting in whose presence you are, for the favour of a ruler, an Eastern despot, is a dangerous thing.... [ Continue Reading ]
_what_ Rather, WHO. Be continually on your guard; let not the luxury that surrounds you betray you into forgetting in whose presence you are, for the favour of a ruler, an Eastern despot, is a dangerous thing.... [ Continue Reading ]
_put a knife_ i.e. Restrain forcibly thy appetite as with a knife held to thy throat. Others render, _thou wilt put_(R.V. marg.) and understand it to mean, that death may be the penalty of indulgence.... [ Continue Reading ]
Maurer quotes in illustration of these verses (1 3): "Keep thee from the man that hath power to kill, And thou shalt have no suspicion of the fear of death: And if thou come unto him, commit no fault, Lest he take away thy life: Know surely that thou goest about in the midst of snares, And wal... [ Continue Reading ]
_Labour not_ Rather, WEARY NOT THYSELF, R.V., as the same Heb. word is rendered "till his hand _was weary_," 2 Samuel 23:10; "_be weary_," Isaiah 40:30-31. Comp. John 6:27; 1 Timothy 6:9-10. _cease from thine own wisdom_ from the wisdom, namely, of becoming rich. Prudentiae tuae pone modum, set a l... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wilt thou set thine eyes_ More literally and forcibly: WILT THOU CAUSE THINE EYES TO FLY (or, _shall thine eyes fly_) UPON IT (with eager glance, as a bird swoops upon its prey, Isaiah 11:14)? IT IS GONE! It eludes even the swiftness of thy glance, and itself spreads its wings and flies away. FOR... [ Continue Reading ]
_evil_ i.e. _grudging_. See Proverbs 22:9 note, and comp. Deuteronomy 15:9; Matthew 20:15. _dainty meats_ Better, DAINTIES.... [ Continue Reading ]
_thinketh in his heart_ Rather, RECKONETH WITHIN HIMSELF, R.V. Not by his liberal words, "eat and drink," but by the mercenary reckoning of his heart, which is calculating meantime and grudging the cost, is he to be estimated.... [ Continue Reading ]
The feast will be in every way a failure: the food that should nourish will nauseate thee, and thy attempts at pleasant conversation will be wasted.... [ Continue Reading ]
See Proverbs 22:28. _enter not into_ to do him wrong as the parallelism implies.... [ Continue Reading ]
_their Redeemer_ viz. God, who is "a Father of the fatherless," Psalms 68:5. The Heb. word is _Goel_, and there is probably an allusion to the _Goel_among men, the nearest blood relation, whose duty it was not only to avenge the blood of his kinsman if he had been unjustly slain (Numbers 35:19), but... [ Continue Reading ]
_if thou beatest him_ Or, _though_, R.V. marg., meaning thou needest not to be afraid that corporal punishment will result in death. It is better, however, to understand _death_here as the consequence of the sin, into which, if allowed to go uncorrected, he will fall. See Proverbs 19:18 note. This v... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let not thine heart envy_ Comp. Psalms 37:1. be thou] Or, _let it_(thy heart) _be_. Some scholars repeat _envy_from the former clause: _but let it envy_with a nobler emulation (the Heb. word is frequently used in a good sense) _the fear of the Lord_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_an end_ See Proverbs 24:14; Proverbs 24:20; in both which places A.V. renders the same Heb. word, _reward_, as it does here in the margin, and as R.V. does in all three places in the text. It is perhaps better to retain in all these places the significant literal rendering, A FUTURE, A HEREAFTER: ... [ Continue Reading ]
_riotous_ Rather, GLUTTONOUS, as the same word is rendered in Proverbs 23:21 and Deuteronomy 21:20, A.V.... [ Continue Reading ]
_drowsiness_ occasioned by excess of meat and drink. Comp. Luke 21:34.... [ Continue Reading ]
_buy … sell_it _not_ Procure it at any cost: part with it on no consideration. Comp. Matthew 13:44-45. _also_ Rather, _even_, or, _yea_. The things mentioned are not additions to, but elements of "the truth." Comp. Malachi 4:4, R.V.... [ Continue Reading ]
_shall … shall_ Rather, LET _thy father_… and LET _her_&c. It is an exhortation to the son to verify by his own conduct the statement of the preceding verse. "Quod cum ita sit, da operam ut parentibus lætitiam crees," Maurer; εὐφραινέσθω, χαιρέτω, LXX.; gaudeat, exsultet, Vulg.... [ Continue Reading ]
_observe_ This is the corrected Heb. text to be _read_. The _written_text is, DELIGHT IN, R.V. text.... [ Continue Reading ]
Comp. Proverbs 22:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
_as_for _a prey_ Better, with A.V. marg., R.V. text, AS A ROBBER. _transgressors_ Better, TREACHEROUS. Those whom she seduces become in their turn seducers and untrustworthy in similar relations. _The Evils of Drunkenness_, Proverbs 23:29 .... [ Continue Reading ]
_woe … sorrow_ Lit. OH!… ALAS! _babbling_ Rather, CONTENTIONS, as the same Heb. word is rendered in Proverbs 18:19; the _quarrelsomeness_of the man in drink, leading to _pugnacity_, and so to "wounds without a cause." _redness_ Comp. Genesis 49:12, where however the word is used of the effect of w... [ Continue Reading ]
_seek_ There is a touch of irony (_non caret sale_, Maur.) in the use of a word in such a connection, which is used elsewhere of the diligent search for wisdom (Job 28:27), or other noble objects (Psalms 139:1). _mixt_ i.e. with spices, Proverbs 9:2; Isaiah 5:22.... [ Continue Reading ]
_moveth itself aright_ So R.V. marg.; but R.V. text, GOETH DOWN SMOOTHLY, as the same expression is rendered in Song of Solomon, Song of Solomon 7:9 [Hebrews 10], A.V. and R.V.... [ Continue Reading ]
_strange_women] This rendering, which is retained in R.V. marg. (comp. ἀλλοτρίαν, LXX.; _extraneas_, Vulg.), is in keeping with the usage of the word in this Book, and with the undoubted connection between excess of wine and lust; but _strange things_, R.V. text, preserves the parallelism better: th... [ Continue Reading ]
_in the midst of the sea_ as if it were a safe resting-place. A strong figure to denote the utter recklessness of danger which excess of drink induces. _upon the top of a mast_ It only weakens the figure to supply here _in the cradle_, or the like; just as it does in the former clause to introduce... [ Continue Reading ]
_sick_ Rather, HURT, R.V. or PAINED; ἐπόνεσα, LXX.; dolui, Vulg. Both the physical and moral insensibility of the drunkard to the consequences of his vice are perhaps pointed at. _awake_ i.e. shake off completely the stupor from which he is beginning to rouse himself. His first thought on regaining... [ Continue Reading ]