Three words carry on the chain of blessings: (1) “Length of days” (see the Psalms 91:16 note); (2) “Years of life,” i. e., of a life worth living (compare Psalms 30:5; Psalms 42:8); (3) “Peace,” tranquility inward and outward, the serenity of life continuing through old age until death. Compare 1... [ Continue Reading ]
The two elements of a morally perfect character: (1) “Mercy,” shutting out all forms of selfishness and hate. (2) “Truth,” shutting out all deliberate falsehood, all hypocrisy, conscious or unconscious. The words that follow possibly refer to the Eastern custom of writing sacred names on pieces o... [ Continue Reading ]
Compare Luke 2:52. These are the two conditions of true human growth.... [ Continue Reading ]
In preaching “trust in God” the moralist anticipates the teaching that man is justified by faith. To confide in God’s will, the secret of all true greatness, is to rise out of all our anxieties and plans and fears when we think of ourselves as the arbiters of our own fortunes, and so “lean to our ow... [ Continue Reading ]
Not in acts of solemn worship or great crises only, but “in all thy ways;” and then God will make the “path” straight and even.... [ Continue Reading ]
The great hindrance to all true wisdom is the thought that we have already attained it.... [ Continue Reading ]
NAVEL - The central region of the body is taken as the representative of all the vital organs. For “health” we should read healing, or, as in the marg. There is probably a reference to the local applications used by the surgery of the period as means of healing.... [ Continue Reading ]
“Substance” points to capital, “increase” to revenue. The Septuagint as if to guard against ill-gotten gains being offered as an atonement for the ill-getting, inserts the quaifying words, “honor the Lord from thy righteous labors.”... [ Continue Reading ]
Compare the marginal reference. This fullness of outward blessings does not exclude the thought of the “chastening” Proverbs 3:11, without which the discipline of life would be incomplete. “Presses” are the vats of a Roman vineyard, into which the wine flowed through pipe from the wine-press.... [ Continue Reading ]
DESPISE ... BE WEARY - The temper is not that of contempt. To struggle impatiently, to fret and chafe, when suffering comes on us, is the danger to which we are exposed when we do not accept it as from the hands of God. Compare Jonah 4:9; Job 5:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
The first distinct utterance of a truth which has been so full of comfort to many thousands; it is the summing up of all controversies (compare John 9:2) as to the mystery of suffering. The apostle writing to the Hebrews can find no stronger comfort Hebrews 12:6 than this; the Church, in her visitat... [ Continue Reading ]
The first beatitude of the Proverbs introduces a new lesson. “Getteth understanding,” literally as in the margin, probably in the sense of “drawing forth from God’s store, from the experience of life” (as in Proverbs 8:35; Proverbs 18:22). The preciousness of wisdom is dwelt on here, not the use to... [ Continue Reading ]
Compare Proverbs 2:4. “Fine gold” is apparently a technical word of that commerce, the native gold in the nugget or the dust.... [ Continue Reading ]
RUBIES - The פנינים _pânı̂ynı̂ym_ were among the costly articles of traffic, and red or rose-colored Lamentations 4:7. The last fact has led some to identify them with coral, or (as in the King James Version) with “rubies.” Most commentators, however, have identified them with pearls, which may con... [ Continue Reading ]
“Ways” and “paths” describe the two kinds of roads, the “highway” and the “byway.” In both these he who was guided by Wisdom would walk securely.... [ Continue Reading ]
This and the other references in Proverbs Proverbs 11:30; Proverbs 13:12; Proverbs 15:4 are the only allusions in any book of the Old Testament, after Genesis, to the “tree” itself, or to its spiritual significance. Further, there is the tendency to a half-allegorizing application of that history. “... [ Continue Reading ]
Hereto Wisdom has been thought of in relation to men. Now the question comes, What is she in relation to God? and the answer is, that the creative act implies a Divine Wisdom, through which the Divine will acts. This thought, developed in Proverbs 8, is the first link in the chain which connects thi... [ Continue Reading ]
Compare Genesis 1:7; Genesis 7:11; Job 38. Looking upon the face of Nature, men see two storehouses of the living water, without which it would be waste and barren. From the “depths” rush forth the surging waves, from the “clouds” falls the gentle rain or “dew;” but both alike are ordered by the Div... [ Continue Reading ]
LET NOT THEM DEPART - i. e., The wisdom and discretion of the following clause. Keep thine eye on them, as one who watches over priceless treasures.... [ Continue Reading ]
Under the form of this strong prohibition there is an equally strong promise. So safe will all thy ways be that to fear will be a sin.... [ Continue Reading ]
A marked change in style. The continuous exhortation is replaced by a series of maxims. FROM THEM TO WHOM IT IS DUE - literally, as in the margin. The precept expresses the great Scriptural thought that the so-called possession of wealth is but a stewardship; that the true owners of what we call ou... [ Continue Reading ]