CHAPTER IX _Wisdom builds her house, makes her provision for a great feast,_ _calls her guests, and exhorts them to partake of her_ _entertainment_, 14. _Different admonitions relative to the acquisition of wisdom_, 7-12. _The character and conduct of a bad woman_, 13-18. NOTES ON CHAP. IX.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Proverbs 9:2. _SHE HATH KILLED HER BEASTS_] God has made the most ample provision for the innumerable tribes of animal and intellectual beings, which people the whole vortex of created nature.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Proverbs 9:3. _SHE HATH SENT FORTH HER MAIDENS_] The wisdom of God has made use of the _most proper means_ to communicate Divine knowledge to the inhabitants of the earth; as a good and gracious Creator wills to teach them _whence_ they _came_, how they are _supported,_ _whither_ they are _goi... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Proverbs 9:4. _WHOSO_ IS _SIMPLE_] Let the young, heedless, and giddy attend to my teaching. _HIM THAT WANTETH UNDERSTANDING_] Literally, _he that wanteth a_ _heart_; who is without _courage_, is _feeble_ and _fickle_, and _easily drawn_ aside from the holy commandment.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Proverbs 9:5. _COME, EAT OF MY BREAD_] Not only receive my instructions, but _act_ according to my directions. _DRINK OF THE WINE - I HAVE MINGLED._] Enter into my counsels; be not contented with _superficial knowledge_ on any subject, where any thing _deeper_ may be attained. Go by the _str... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Proverbs 9:6. _FORSAKE THE FOOLISH_] For the companion of fools must be a fool. _AND LIVE_] Answer the _end_ for which thou wert _born_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Proverbs 9:7. _HE THAT REPROVETH A SCORNER_] לץ _lets_, the person who _mocks_ at sacred things; the _libertine_, the _infidel_; who turns the most serious things into ridicule, and, by his _wit_, often succeeds in rendering the person who reproves him ridiculous. Wisdom seems here to intimate... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Proverbs 9:9. _GIVE_ INSTRUCTION _TO A WISE_ MAN] Literally _give to the_ _wise, and he will be wise_. Whatever you give to such, they reap profit from it. They are like the bee, they extract honey from every flower.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Proverbs 9:10. _THE FEAR OF THE LORD_] See on Proverbs 1:7. The knowledge of the holy; קדשים _kedoshim_, of the holy ones: _Sanctorum_, of the saints. - _Vulgate_. βουλη αγιων, the counsel of the holy persons.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Proverbs 9:11. _FOR BY ME THY DAYS SHALL BE MULTIPLIED_] Vice shortens human life, by a necessity of consequence: and by the same, righteousness lengthens it. There is a long addition here in the _Septuagint, Syriac_, and _Vulgate_: "He who trusts in falsity feeds on the winds; and is like him... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Proverbs 9:12. _IF THOU BE WISE_] It is thy own interest to be religious. Though thy example may be very useful to thy neighbours and friends, yet the chief benefit is to _thyself_. But if thou scorn - refuse to receive - the doctrines of wisdom, and die in thy sins, _thou alone_ shalt suffer... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Proverbs 9:13. _A FOOLISH WOMAN_ IS _CLAMOROUS_] Vain, empty women, are those that make _most noise_. And she that is _full_ of clamour, has generally _little_ or no _sense_. We have had this character already, see Proverbs 7:11. The translation of the _Septuagint_ is very remarkable: Γυνη αφρ... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Proverbs 9:14. _FOR SHE SITTETH AT THE DOOR OF HER HOUSE_] Her conduct here marks at once her _folly, impudence_, and _poverty_. See above on Proverbs 7:6, c., where the reader will find a similar character.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Proverbs 9:16. _WHOSO_ IS _SIMPLE, LET HIM TURN IN HITHER_] FOLLY or PLEASURE here personified, uses the very same expressions as employed by _Wisdom_, Proverbs 9:4. Wisdom says, "Let the simple turn in to me." No, says Folly, "Let the simple turn in to me." If he turn in to _Wisdom_, his foll... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Proverbs 9:17. _STOLEN WATERS ARE SWEET_] I suppose this to be a proverbial mode of expression, importing that _illicit pleasures_ _are sweeter than those which are legal_. The meaning is easy to be discerned; and the conduct of multitudes shows that they are ruled by this adage. On it are bui... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Proverbs 9:18. _BUT HE KNOWETH NOT THAT THE DEAD ARE THERE_] See on Proverbs 2:18. He does not know that it was in this way the first apostates from God and truth walked. רפאים _rephaim_; γιγαντες, the GIANTS. - _Septuagint_. The _sons of men_, the _earth-born_, to distinguish them from the _s... [ Continue Reading ]