Proverbs 23:1
WHAT IS BEFORE THEE - Beware lest dainties tempt thee to excess. Or, “consider diligently who is before thee,” the character and temper of the ruler who invites thee.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT IS BEFORE THEE - Beware lest dainties tempt thee to excess. Or, “consider diligently who is before thee,” the character and temper of the ruler who invites thee.... [ Continue Reading ]
i. e., “Restrain thy appetite, eat as if the knife were at thy throat.” Others render the words “thou wilt put a knife to thy throat” etc., i. e., “indulgence at such a time may endanger thy very life.”... [ Continue Reading ]
DAINTIES ... DECEITFUL MEAT - Such as “savory meat,” venison Genesis 27:4, offered not from genuine hospitality, but with some by-ends.... [ Continue Reading ]
CEASE FROM THINE OWN WISDOM - i. e., “Cease from the use of what is in itself most excellent, if it only serves to seek after wealth, and so ministers to evil.” There is no special contrast between “thine own wisdom” and that given from above, though it is of course implied that in ceasing from his... [ Continue Reading ]
SET THINE EYES - literally, as in the margin, i. e., “gaze eagerly upon;” and then we get an emphatic parallelism with the words that follow, “they fly away as an eagle toward heaven;” “certainly make themselves wings.”... [ Continue Reading ]
A different danger from that of Proverbs 23:1. The hazard here is the hospitality of the purse-proud rich, avaricious or grudging even in his banquets. EVIL EYE - Not with the later associations of a mysterious power for mischief, but simply, as in the margin ref. and in Matthew 20:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
THINKETH - The Hebrew verb is found here only, and probably means, “as he is all along in his heart, so is he (at last) in act.”... [ Continue Reading ]
The “fool” here is one willfully and persistently deaf to it, almost identical with the scorner.... [ Continue Reading ]
The reason is given for the precept Proverbs 23:10. THEIR REDEEMER - See Job 19:25 note. It was the duty of the גאל _gā'al_, the next of kin, to take on himself, in case of murder, the office of avenger of blood Numbers 35:19. By a slight extension the word was applied to one who took on himself a... [ Continue Reading ]
i. e., “You will not kill your son by scourging him, you may kill him by with holding the scourge.” Proverbs 23:14 HELL - Sheol, the world of the dead.... [ Continue Reading ]
Another continuous exhortation rather than a collection of maxims. Proverbs 23:16 The teacher rejoices when the disciple’s heart Proverbs 23:15 receives wisdom, and yet more when his lips can utter it. REINS - See Job 19:27 note. Proverbs 23:17 ENVY SINNERS - Compare in Psalms 37:1; Psalms 73:3;... [ Continue Reading ]