Proverbs 10:1

CHAPTER X

It is impossible to give summaries of such chapters as these,

where almost every verse contains a separate subject. Our

common version not being able to exhibit the contents as usual,

simply says, "From this chapter to the five and twentieth are

sundry observations upon moral virtues, and their opposite

vices." In general the wise man states in this chapter the

difference between the wise and the foolish, the righteous and

the wicked, the diligent and the idle. He speaks also of love

and hatred, of the good and the evil tongue, or of the

slanderer and the peace-maker.

NOTES ON CHAP. X.

Verse Proverbs 10:1. The proverbs of Solomon] Some ancient MSS. of the Vulgate have Proverbiorum liber secundus, "The second book of the Proverbs." The preceding nine chapters can only be considered as an introduction, if indeed they may be said to make even a part, of the proverbs of Solomon, which appear to commence only at the tenth chapter.

A wise son maketh a glad father] The parallels in this and several of the succeeding chapters are those which Bishop Lowth calls the antithetic; when two lines correspond with each other by an opposition of terms and sentiments; when the second is contrasted with the first; sometimes in expression, sometimes in sense only. Accordingly the degrees of antithesis are various; from an exact contraposition of word to word, through a whole sentence, down to a general disparity, with something of a contrariety in the two propositions, as: -

A wise son rejoiceth in his father.

But a foolish son is the grief of his mother.

Where every word has its opposite; for the terms father and mother are, as the logicians say, relatively opposite.