Proverbs 24 - Introduction

NOTICEABLE GROUPINGS IN CHAPTER 24

Wisdom

Through wisdom is a house builded; And by understanding it is established; And by knowledge are the chambers filled With all precious and pleasant riches (Proverbs 24:3-4).

A wise man is strong; Yea, a man of knowledge increaseth might (Proverbs 24:5).

By wise guidance thou shalt make thy war (Proverbs 24:6).

Wisdom is too high for a fool (Proverbs 24:7).

So shalt thou know wisdom to be unto thy soul (Proverbs 24:14).

Mischief

Their lips talk of mischief (Proverbs 24:2).

He that deviseth to do evil, Men shall call him a mischief-maker (Proverbs 24:8).

Envious

Be not thou envious against evil men (Proverbs 24:1).

Neither be thou envious at the wicked (Proverbs 24:19).

Wicked

Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the habitation of the righteous (Proverbs 24:15).

The wicked are overthrown by calamity (Proverbs 24:16).

Neither be thou envious at the wicked (Proverbs 24:19).

The lamp of the wicked shall be put out (Proverbs 24:20).

He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous, Peoples shall curse him (Proverbs 24:24).

Heart

Their heart studieth oppression (Proverbs 24:2).

Doth not he that weigheth the hearts consider it? (Proverbs 24:12).

Let not thy heart be glad when he is overthrown (Proverbs 24:17).

Tongue

He openeth not his mouth in the gate (Proverbs 24:7).

The scoffer is an abomination to men (Proverbs 24:9).

He kisseth the lips Who giveth a right answer (Proverbs 24:26).

Be not a witness against thy neighbor without cause (Proverbs 24:28).

Deceive not with thy lips (Proverbs 24:28).

Fool

Wisdom is too high for a fool (Proverbs 24:7).

The thought of foolishness is sin (Proverbs 24:9).

I went by the...vineyard of the man void of understanding (Proverbs 24:30).

Jehovah

Lest Jehovah see it, and it displease him (Proverbs 24:18).

Fear thou Jehovah (Proverbs 24:21).

Abhor

The scoffer is an abomination to men (Proverbs 24:9).

Nations shall abhor him (Proverbs 24:24).

Don-'t

Be not thou envious against evil men (Proverbs 24:1).

Lay not wait...against the habitation of the righteous (Proverbs 24:15).

Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth (Proverbs 24:17).

Fret not thyself because of evil-doers (Proverbs 24:19).

Company not with them that are given to change (Proverbs 24:21).

Be not a witness against thy neighbor without cause (Proverbs 24:28).

Deceive not with thy lips (Proverbs 24:28).

Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me (Proverbs 24:29).

Commands

Deliver them that are carried away unto death (Proverbs 24:11).

Eat thou honey, for it is good (Proverbs 24:13).

Fear thou Jehovah and the king (Proverbs 24:21).

Prepare thy work without, And make it ready for thee in the field (Proverbs 24:27).

LAZY PEOPLE

I recall hearing the story of a man who grew lazier and lazier with the passing of time. His family could get him to do nothing. Things finally got so bad that the two grown sons finally decided to take him out and shoot him. They loaded him in the wagon and put a tarpaulin over him as they started away. As they drove down the road, they met a neighbor who asked what they had under the tarpaulin. They told him. The neighbor said he hated to see them do that and he would help get their father back on his feet. He said, Here's a bushel of corn that I will give him. From under the cover came the voice of the father, Is it shelled? It wasn-'t. The old man said, Drive on.

It is hard for us to imagine anyone that lazy, yet the book of Proverbs says substantially the same thing, A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom (Revised Version says, burieth his hand in the dish-'), and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again (Proverbs 19:24).

Sloth (from which we get slothful) and slug (from which we get sluggard) are roots that come to us from Middle English, both meaning slow. That slow moving, lifeless animal in the zoo that spends his days hanging from branches upside down we call a sloth, and that slow moving, snail-like worm we call a slug because they are so slow. And the book of Proverbs repeatedly speaks of certain people as slothful and as sluggards because of their lack of ambition, because they are so extremely and needlessly slow. In fact, Proverbs has much to say upon the subject.

LAZY PEOPLE'S PLACES SHOW IT

Some people are builders and improvers where ever they go. Others merely occupy while everything goes to wrack and ruin. Some build up the soil while they reap greater profits from their land while others farm the ground to death or neglect it altogether.

Solomon tells of stopping to look at the place of a slothful man. He said, I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down (Proverbs 24:30-31). It takes work to work a field. It takes work to tend a vineyard. The way thorns and nettles took over was a testimony to every considering passerby that such a field belonged to a lazy man. It took too much work to keep the fence up, so they had fallen apart.

Such indolence and its effect on one's place reminds one that this same Solomon said in another book (Ecclesiastes) that because of slothfulness a building rots and because of idleness a house falls in.
What a shame when people are too lazy to keep their places up, to keep things repaired and fixed, and to have things growing and green.