Text -- Proverbs 25:6-28 (NET)

25:6 Do not honor yourself before the king, and do not stand in the place of great men; 25:7 for it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here,” than to put you lower before a prince, whom your eyes have seen. 25:8 Do not go out hastily to litigation, or what will you do afterward when your neighbor puts you to shame? 25:9 When you argue a case with your neighbor, do not reveal the secret of another person, 25:10 lest the one who hears it put you to shame and your infamy will never go away. 25:11 Like apples of gold in settings of silver, so is a word skillfully spoken. 25:12 Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover to the ear of the one who listens. 25:13 Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to those who send him, for he refreshes the heart of his masters. 25:14 Like cloudy skies and wind that produce no rain, so is the one who boasts of a gift not given. 25:15 Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a soft tongue can break a bone. 25:16 When you find honey, eat only what is sufficient for you, lest you become stuffed with it and vomit it up. 25:17 Don’t set foot too frequently in your neighbor’s house, lest he become weary of you and hate you. 25:18 Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow, so is the one who testifies against his neighbor as a false witness. 25:19 Like a bad tooth or a foot out of joint, so is confidence in an unfaithful person at the time of trouble. 25:20 Like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar poured on soda, so is one who sings songs to a heavy heart. 25:21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, 25:22 for you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the Lord will reward you. 25:23 The north wind brings forth rain, and a gossiping tongue brings forth an angry look. 25:24 It is better to live on a corner of the housetop than in a house in company with a quarrelsome wife. 25:25 Like cold water to a weary person, so is good news from a distant land. 25:26 Like a muddied spring and a polluted well, so is a righteous person who gives way before the wicked. 25:27 It is not good to eat too much honey, nor is it honorable for people to seek their own glory. 25:28 Like a city that is broken down and without a wall, so is a person who cannot control his temper.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Wesley: Pro 25:6

Do not affect frequent and familiar society with greater persons than thyself.

Wesley: Pro 25:9

If thou hast any quarrel with him, first try to compose it by private discourse with him.

Wesley: Pro 25:9

Let not heat of contention provoke thee to divulge any of his secrets committed to thy trust.

Wesley: Pro 25:10

Reproach thee for thy gross violation of the laws of prudence, justice and friendship.

Wesley: Pro 25:11

Which it seems was usual in those times, and was grateful to the eye for the beauty and variety both of the colours and figures, the golden apples appearing through net - work of silver.

Wesley: Pro 25:13

As drink cooled with ice or snow, as is usual in hot countries.

Wesley: Pro 25:14

Promising what he never intends to give.

Wesley: Pro 25:14

Like empty clouds carried about with wind, and not affording that rain which they promise.

Wesley: Pro 25:15

By patient submission and expectation.

Wesley: Pro 25:15

Softens the hardest heart.

Wesley: Pro 25:16

By honey he understands, not only all delicious meats, but all worldly delights, which we are here taught to use with moderation.

Wesley: Pro 25:17

Visit him not too frequently.

Wesley: Pro 25:18

Is as cruel and pernicious as any instrument of death.

Wesley: Pro 25:20

Which dissolves the nitre, and makes it useless and ineffectual.

Wesley: Pro 25:21

By bread and water he understands all things necessary for his subsistence.

Wesley: Pro 25:22

In so doing, which words are expressed Rom 12:20, where this text is quoted. Thou shalt melt him into repentance, and love.

Wesley: Pro 25:25

Because it comes more rarely and difficultly, after it hath been long expected.

Wesley: Pro 25:26

When righteous men are oppressed by the wicked, the state of that common - wealth is as deplorable, as if the publick fountains were corrupted.

Wesley: Pro 25:27

For health.

Wesley: Pro 25:27

Industriously to seek for applause.

Wesley: Pro 25:27

Is not only sinful, but shameful also.

JFB: Pro 25:6-7

Do not intrude into the presence of the king, for the elevation of the humble is honorable, but the humbling of the proud disgraceful (Luk 14:8-10).

JFB: Pro 25:8

(Compare Pro 3:30).

JFB: Pro 25:8

Lest you do what you ought not, when shamed by defeat, or "lest thou art shut out from doing any thing."

JFB: Pro 25:9-10

(Compare Mat 5:25, Margin).

JFB: Pro 25:9-10

That is, of your opponent, for his disadvantage, and so you be disgraced, not having discussed your difficulties with him.

JFB: Pro 25:11

Literally, "quickly," as wheels roll, just in time. The comparison as apples . . . silver gives a like sense.

JFB: Pro 25:11

Either real apples of golden color, in a silver network basket, or imitations on silver embroidery.

JFB: Pro 25:12

Those who desire to know and do rightly, most highly esteem good counsel (Pro 9:9; Pro 15:31). The listening ear is better than one hung with gold.

JFB: Pro 25:13

Snow from mountains was used to cool drinks; so refreshing is a faithful messenger (Pro 13:17).

JFB: Pro 25:14

Literally, "vapors" (Jer 10:13), clouds only in appearance.

JFB: Pro 25:14

Promised, but not given.

JFB: Pro 25:15

Gentleness and kindness overcome the most powerful and obstinate.

JFB: Pro 25:15

Or, "slowness to anger" (Pro 14:29; Pro 15:18).

JFB: Pro 25:16-17

A comparison, as a surfeit of honey produces physical disgust, so your company, however agreeable in moderation, may, if excessive, lead your friend to hate you.

JFB: Pro 25:18

A false witness is as destructive to reputation, as such weapons to the body (Pro 24:28).

JFB: Pro 25:18

Literally, "answereth questions," as before a judge, against his neighbor.

JFB: Pro 25:19

Treachery annoys as well as deceives.

JFB: Pro 25:20

Not only is the incongruity of songs (that is, joyful) and sadness meant, but an accession of sadness, by want of sympathy, is implied.

JFB: Pro 25:21-22

(Compare Mat 5:44; Rom 12:20). As metals are melted by heaping coals upon them, so is the heart softened by kindness.

JFB: Pro 25:23

Better, "As the north wind bringeth forth (Psa 90:2) or produces rain, so does a concealed or slandering tongue produce anger."

JFB: Pro 25:24

(Compare Pro 21:9, Pro 21:19).

JFB: Pro 25:25

(Compare Pro 25:13).

JFB: Pro 25:25

That is, of some loved interest or absent friend, the more grateful as coming from afar.

JFB: Pro 25:26

From troubled fountains and corrupt springs no healthy water is to be had, so when the righteous are oppressed by the wicked, their power for good is lessened or destroyed.

JFB: Pro 25:27

Satiety surfeits (Pro 25:16); so men who are self-glorious find shame.

JFB: Pro 25:27

"not" is supplied from the first clause, or "is grievous," in which sense a similar word is used (Pro 27:2).

JFB: Pro 25:28

Such are exposed to the incursions of evil thoughts and successful temptations.

Clarke: Pro 25:7

Come up hither - Our Lord refers to this, see Luk 14:8 (note), and the notes there. Be humble; affect not high things; let those who are desperate climb dangerous precipices; keep thyself quiet, and thou shalt live at ease, and in peace. Hear the speech of a wise heathen on this subject: -

Quid fuit, ut tutas agitaret Daedalus alas;
Icarus immensas nomine signet aquas

Nempe quod hic alte, dimissus ille volabat.
Nam pennas ambo nonne habuere suas

Crede mihi; bene qui latuit, bene vixit; et infra
Fortunam debet quisque manere suam

Vive sine invidia; mollesque inglorius annos
Exige: amicitias et tibi junge pares

Ovid, Trist. lib. iii., El. 4, ver. 21

"Why was it that Daedalus winged his way safely, while Icarus his son fell, and gave name to the Icarian sea? Was it not because the son flew aloft, and the father skimmed the ground? For both were furnished with the same kind of wings. Take my word for it, that he who lives privately lives safely; and every one should live within his own income. Envy no man; pray for a quiet life, though it should not be dignified. Seek a friend, and associate with thy equals."

Clarke: Pro 25:8

Go not forth hastily to strive - לרב lerib , to enter into a lawsuit. Keep from this pit or the bottomless deep, unless urged by the direst necessity.

Clarke: Pro 25:9

Debate thy cause with thy neighbor - Take the advice of friends. Let both sides attend to their counsels; but do not tell the secret of thy business to any. After squandering your money away upon lawyers, both they and the judge will at last leave it to be settled by twelve of your fellow citizens! O the folly of going to law! O the blindness of men, and the rapacity of unprincipled lawyers

On this subject I cannot but give the following extract from Sir John Hawkins’ s Life of Dr. Johnson, which he quotes from Mr. Selwin, of London: "A man who deliberates about going to law should have

1.    A good cause

2.    A good purse

3.    A good skillful attorney

4.    Good evidence

5.    Good able counsel

6.    A good upright judge

7.    A good intelligent jury; and with all these on his side, if he have not

8.    Good luck, it is odds but he miscarries in his suit."O the glorious uncertainty of the law!

Clarke: Pro 25:11

A word fitly spoken - על אפניו al ophannaiv , upon its wheels. An observation, caution, reproof, or advice, that comes in naturally, runs smoothly along, is not forced nor dragged in, that appears to be without design, to rise out of the conversation, and though particularly relative to one point, will appear to the company to suit all

Clarke: Pro 25:11

Is like apples of gold in pictures of silver - - Is like the refreshing orange or beautiful citron, served up in open work or filigree baskets, made of silver. The Asiatics excel in filigree silver work. I have seen much of it, and it is exquisitely beautiful. The silver wire by which it is done they form into the appearance of numerous flowers; and though these wires are soldered everywhere at their junctions with each other, yet this is done with such delicacy and skill as to be scarcely perceptible. I have seen animals formed on this filigree work, with all their limbs, and every joint in its natural play. Fruit-baskets are made also in this way, and are exquisitely fine. The wise man seems to have this kind of work particularly in view; and the contrast of the golden yellow fruit in the exquisitely wrought silver basket, which may be all termed picture work, has a fine and pleasing effect upon the eye, as the contained fruit has upon the palate at an entertainment in a sultry climate. So the word spoken judiciously and opportunely is as much in its place, as the golden apples in the silver baskets.

Clarke: Pro 25:12

As an ear-ring of gold - I believe נזם nezem to mean the nose-ring with its pendants; the left nostril is pierced, and a ring put through it, as in the ear. This is very common in almost every part of the East, among women of condition. This is a farther illustration of the above metaphor.

Clarke: Pro 25:13

As the cold of snow - That snow was frequent in Judea, is well known; and that in the East they have snow-houses - places dug under ground, where they lay up snow for summer use - is also a fact. By means of the mass of snow desposited in them the icy temperature is kept up, so that the snow is easily preserved. The common method of cooling their wine, which is as easy as it is effectual, is by dipping a cloth in water, wrapping it round the bottle, and then hanging the bottle in the heat of the sun. The strong evaporation carries off the caloric from the wine, and the repetition of the wet cloth in the same exposure, makes the wine almost as cold as ice

How agreeable this must be in a burning climate, may be easily conceived. Perhaps it is this to which the wise man refers; for it is a fact that they could have no snow in harvest unless such as had been preserved as mentioned above; but this could be only in a few places, and within the reach of a very few persons. But cooling their liquors by the simple mode of evaporation already explained, was within the reach even of the laborers in the harvest field. I think the text favors this supposition; for כצנת שלג ketsinnerth sheleg , need not be referred to snow itself procuring cold, but to a coldness like that of snow, procured by evaporation. If this interpretation be allowed, all difficulty will be removed.

Clarke: Pro 25:14

A false gift - מתת שקר mattath shaker , a lying gift, one promised, but never bestowed. "Whoso maketh greate boastes, and giveth nothing;"Coverdale. So the Vulgate : "Vir gloriosus, et promissa non complens ;""A bragging man, who does not fulfill his promises,"is like clouds which appear to be laden with vapor, and like the wind which, though it blow from a rainy quarter, brings no moistness with it. So the vain boaster; he is big with promise, but performs nothing.

Clarke: Pro 25:15

A soft tongue breaketh the bone - This is similar to another proverb on the same subject: "A soft answer turneth away wrath."An angry word does nothing but mischief.

Clarke: Pro 25:16

Hast thou found honey? - Make a moderate use of all thy enjoyments. "Let thy moderation be known unto all, and appear in all things."

Clarke: Pro 25:17

Withdraw thy foot - Another proverb will illustrate this: "Too much familiarity breeds contempt."

Clarke: Pro 25:20

As vinegar upon nitre - The original word נתר nather is what is known among chemists as the natron of the ancients and of the Scriptures, and carbonate of soda. It is found native in Syria and India, and occurs as an efflorescence on the soil. In Tripoli it is found in crystalline incrustations of from one third to half an inch thiek. It is found also in solution in the water of some lakes in Egypt and Hungary. The borders of these lakes are covered with crystalline masses, of a grayish white or light brown color; and in some specimens the natron is nearly pure carbonate of soda, and the carbonate is easily discovered by effervescing with an acid. It appears to have its Hebrew name from נתר nathar , to dissolve or loosen: because a solution of it in water is abstersive, taking out spots, etc. It is used in the East for the purposes of washing. If vinegar be poured on it, Dr. Shaw says a strong fermentation immediately takes place, which illustrates what Solomon says here: "The singing of songs to a heavy heart is like vinegar upon natron:"that is, "there is no affinity between them; and opposition, colluctation, and strife, are occasioned by any attempt to unite them."And poureth vyneper upon chalke - Coverdale. This also will occasion an effervescence. See Jer 2:22.

Clarke: Pro 25:21

If thine enemy be hungry - See this and the next verse explained, Rom 12:20 (note).

Clarke: Pro 25:22

Thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head - Not to consume, but to melt him into kindness; a metaphor taken from smelting metallic ores: -

So artists melt the sullen ore of lead

By heaping coals of fire upon its head

In the kind warmth the metal learns to glow

And pure from dross the silver runs below

S. Wesley.

||&&$

Clarke: Pro 25:23

The north wind driveth away rain - The margin has, "The north wind bringeth forth rain."It is said that the "north wind brings forth rain at Jerusalem, because it brings with it the vapours arising from the sea that lies north of it."The marginal is the true reading; and is supported by the Chaldee, Syriac, and Septuagint; but the Arabic reads south wind

Clarke: Pro 25:23

A backbiting tongue - A hidden tongue.

Clarke: Pro 25:24

It is better to dwell in a corner - See the note on Pro 21:9 (note).

Clarke: Pro 25:27

It is not good to eat much honey - Coverdale translates the whole passage thus: "Like as it is not good to eat to muche hony; even so, he that wyll search out hye thinges, it shal be to hevy for him." As he that etith myche honye, and it is not to him goode; so, that is a sercher of mageste, schal ben oppressid of glorie - Old MS. Bible. He that searches too much into mysteries, is likely to be confounded by them. I really think this is the meaning of the place; and shall not puzzle either myself or my reader with the discordant explanations which have been brought forward with the hope of illustrating this passage.

TSK: Pro 25:6

Put not forth thyself : Heb. Set not out thy glory, Pro 25:27, Pro 27:2

in the presence : Pro 16:19; Exo 3:11; 1Sa 9:20-22, 1Sa 15:17, 1Sa 18:18-23; 2Sa 7:8-17; Psa 131:1; Jer 1:6-10; Amo 7:12-15

TSK: Pro 25:7

that it : Pro 16:19; Luk 14:8-10

Come : Be humble; affect not high things; keep thyself quiet; and thou shalt live at ease, in safety, and in peace. Rev 4:1

than : Luk 18:14; 1Pe 5:5

TSK: Pro 25:8

hastily : Pro 17:14, Pro 18:6, Pro 30:33; 2Sa 2:14-16, 2Sa 2:26; 2Ki 14:8-12; Luk 14:31, Luk 14:32

what : Pro 14:12; Jer 5:31; Mat 5:25

TSK: Pro 25:9

with : Mat 18:5-17

a secret to another : or, the secret of another, Pro 11:13, Pro 20:19

TSK: Pro 25:10

thine : Psa 119:39

TSK: Pro 25:11

word : Pro 15:23, Pro 24:26; Ecc 12:10; Isa 50:4

fitly spoken : Heb. spoken upon his wheels

is like : Rather ""is like golden apples (tappuchim , in Arabic, tuffach ), in baskets (maskeeyoth , in Arabic, shakeekat ), of silver.""A word spoken with propriety, opportunely, and suitably to the occasion, is as much in its place, and as conspicuously beautiful, as the golden fruit which appears through the apertures of an exquisitely wrought silver basket.

TSK: Pro 25:12

an earring : Job 42:11

a wise : Pro 1:8, Pro 1:9, Pro 9:8, Pro 15:5, Pro 15:31, Pro 15:32, Pro 27:5, Pro 27:6; 1Sa 25:31-34; Psa 141:5

TSK: Pro 25:13

Pro 25:25, Pro 13:17, Pro 26:6; Phi 2:25-30

TSK: Pro 25:14

boasteth : Pro 20:6; 1Ki 22:11; Luk 14:11, Luk 18:10-14; 2Co 11:13-18, 2Co 11:31; 2Pe 2:15-19; Jud 1:12, Jud 1:13, Jud 1:16

of a false gift : Heb. in a gift of falsehood

TSK: Pro 25:15

long : Pro 15:1, Pro 16:14; Gen. 32:4-21; 1Sa 25:14, 24-44; Ecc 10:4

the bone : Rather, ""a bone;""that is, soft and conciliating language will often accomplish the most difficult things.

TSK: Pro 25:16

Hast : Pro 24:13, Pro 24:14; Jdg 14:8, Jdg 14:9; 1Sa 14:25-27; Isa 7:15, Isa 7:22

lest : Pro 25:27, Pro 23:8; Luk 21:34; Eph 5:18

TSK: Pro 25:17

Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour’ s : or, Let thy foot be seldom in thy neighbour’ s, Gen 19:2, Gen 19:3; Jdg 19:18-21

weary : Heb. full, Rom 15:24

TSK: Pro 25:18

Pro 12:18; Psa 52:2, Psa 55:21, Psa 57:4, Psa 120:3, Psa 120:4, Psa 140:3; Jer 9:3, Jer 9:8; Jam 3:6

TSK: Pro 25:19

2Ch 28:20, 2Ch 28:21; Job 6:14-20; Isa 30:1-3, Isa 36:6; Eze 29:6, Eze 29:7; 2Ti 4:16

TSK: Pro 25:20

that taketh : Deu 24:12-17; Job 24:7-10; Isa 58:7; Jam 2:15, Jam 2:16

vinegar : Pro 10:26

so : Psa 137:3, Psa 137:4; Ecc 3:4; Dan 6:18; Rom 12:15; Jam 5:15

TSK: Pro 25:21

Pro 24:17; Exo 23:4, Exo 23:5; Mat 5:44; Luk 10:33-36; Rom 12:20, Rom 12:21

TSK: Pro 25:22

For : Not to consume, but to melt him into kindness; a metaphor taken from smelting metalic ores.

the Lord : 2Sa 16:12; Mat 10:13; 1Co 15:18

TSK: Pro 25:23

north : Job 37:22

driveth : etc. or, bringeth forth rain; so doth a backbiting tongue an angry countenance, Monconys says, that when travelling on the second of January, 1648, from Tripoli in Syria, between Lebanon and the sea, it rained without ceasing, while the north wind blew directly in his face.

so : Pro 26:20; Psa 15:3, Psa 101:5; Rom 1:30; 2Co 12:20

TSK: Pro 25:24

Pro 19:13, Pro 21:9, Pro 21:19, Pro 27:15, Pro 27:16

TSK: Pro 25:25

cold : Gen 21:16-19; Exo 17:2, Exo 17:3, Exo 17:6; Jdg 15:18, Jdg 15:19; 2Sa 23:15; Psa 42:1, Psa 42:2; Psa 63:1; Isa 55:1; Jer 18:14; Joh 7:37; Rev 21:6, Rev 22:17

so : Pro 15:30; Isa 52:7; Nah 1:15; Luk 2:10, Luk 2:11; Rom 10:15; 1Ti 1:15

TSK: Pro 25:26

Gen 4:8; 1Sa 22:14-18; 2Ch 24:21, 2Ch 24:22; Mat 23:34-37, Mat 26:69-74; Act 7:52; 1Th 2:15; Rev 17:6

TSK: Pro 25:27

not good : Pro 25:16

so : Pro 27:2; Joh 5:44; 2Co 12:1, 2Co 12:11; Phi 2:3

TSK: Pro 25:28

Pro 16:32, Pro 22:24; 1Sa 20:30, 1Sa 25:17

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Pro 25:6-7

The pushing, boastful temper is, in the long run, suicidal. It is wiser as well as nobler to take the lower place at first in humility, than to take it afterward with shame. Compare Luk 14:8-10, which is one of the few instances in which our Lord’ s teaching was fashioned, as to its outward form, upon that of this book.

Barnes: Pro 25:8

The general meaning is: It is dangerous to plunge into litigation. At all times, there is the risk of failure, and, if we fail, of being at the mercy of an irritated adversary. Without the italics, the clause may be rendered, "lest thou do something (i. e., something humiliating and vexatious) at the end thereof."

Barnes: Pro 25:9

An anticipation of the highest standard of ethical refinement Mat 18:15, but with a difference. Here the motive is prudential, the risk of shame, the fear of the irretrievable infamy of the betrayer of secrets. In the teaching of Christ the precept rests upon the divine authority and the perfect example.

Barnes: Pro 25:11

Apples of gold - Probably the golden colored fruit set in baskets (i. e., chased vessels of open worked silver); so is a word spoken upon its wheels (i. e., moving quickly and quietly on its way). The proverb may have had its origin in some kingly gift to the son of David, the work of Tyrian artists, like Hiram and his fellows. Others gazed on the cunning work and admired, but the wise king saw in the costly rarity a parable of something higher. "A word well set upon the wheels of speech"excelled it. Ornamentation of this kind in the precious metals was known, even as late as in the middle ages, as oeuvre de Salomon.

Barnes: Pro 25:12

The theme of this proverb being the same as that of Pro 25:11, its occurrence suggests the thought that rings used as ornaments for ears, or nose, or forehead, and other trinkets formed part of the works of art spoken of in the foregoing note, and that the king had something at once pointed and wise to say of each of them.

Barnes: Pro 25:13

A picture of the growing luxury of the Solomonic period. The "snow in harvest"is not a shower of snow or hail, which would be terrifying and harmful rather than refreshing (compare 1Sa 12:17-18); but, rather, the snow of Lebanon or Hermon put into wine or other drink to make it more refreshing in the scorching heat of May or June at the king’ s summer palace on Lebanon (1Ki 9:19, note; Son 7:4, note). More reviving even than the iced wine cup was the faithful messenger. Contrast Pro 10:26.

Barnes: Pro 25:14

The disappointment caused by him who promises much and performs little or nothing, is likened to the phenomena of an eastern climate; the drought of summer, the eager expectation of men who watch the rising clouds and the freshening breeze, the bitter disappointment when the breeze dies off, and the clouds pass away, and the wished for rain does not come.

Barnes: Pro 25:15

A soft tongue - Winning and gentle speech does what it seems at first least capable of doing; it overcomes obstacles which are as bones that the strongest jaws would fail to crush.

Barnes: Pro 25:16

Hast thou found honey? - Compare Jdg 14:8; 1Sa 14:27. The precept extends to the pleasure of which honey is the symbol.

Barnes: Pro 25:17

Let thy foot be seldom in the house of thy friend, etc. Though thy visits were sweet as honey, he may soon learn to loathe them.

Barnes: Pro 25:18

Maul - A heavy sledge hammer. The word is connected with "malleus:"its diminutive "mallet"is still in use.

Barnes: Pro 25:19

Stress is to be laid on the uselessness of the "broken tooth"and the "foot out of joint,"or tottering, rather than on the pain connected with them. The King James Version loses the emphasis and point of the Hebrew by inverting the original order, which is "a broken ... joint is confidence"etc.

Barnes: Pro 25:20

Examples of unwisdom and incongruity sharpen the point of the proverb. Pouring vinegar upon nitre or potash utterly spoils it. The effervescence caused by the mixture is perhaps taken as a type of the irritation produced by the "songs"sung out of season to a heavy heart.

The verb rendered "taketh away"may have the sense (as in Eze 16:11) of "adorning oneself,"and the illustration would then be, "as to put on a fine garment in time of cold is unseasonable, so is singing to a heavy heart."

Barnes: Pro 25:21-22

A precept reproduced by Paul Rom 12:20; the second clause of which seems at first sight to suggest a motive incompatible with a true charity. Lev 16:12 suggests an explanation. The high priest on the Day of Atonement was to take his censer, to fill it with "coals of fire,"and then to put the incense thereon for a sweet-smelling savor. So it is here. The first emotion in another caused by the good done to him may be one of burning shame, but the shame will do its work and the heart also will burn, and prayer and confession and thanksgiving will rise as incense to the throne of God. Thus, "we shall overcome evil with good."

Barnes: Pro 25:23

The marginal reading is far more accurate and gives a better sense. The northwest wind in Palestine commonly brings rain, and this was probably in the thought of the writer.

Barnes: Pro 25:24

Compare the Pro 21:9 note.

Barnes: Pro 25:25

The craving of wanderers for news from the home that they have left is as a consuming thirst, the news that quenches it as a refreshing fountain.

Barnes: Pro 25:26

Falling down before - i. e., Yielding and cringing. To see this instead of stedfastness, is as grievous as for the traveler to find the spring at which he hoped to quench his thirst turbid and defiled.

Barnes: Pro 25:27

So for men ... - A difficult sentence, the text of which is probably defective. The words are not in the original. Many commentators render: so to search into weighty matters is itself a weight, i. e., people soon become satiated with it as with honey. Possibly a warning against an over-curious searching into the mysteries of God’ s word or works.

Poole: Pro 25:6

Put not forth thyself Heb. Do not magnify or glorify thyself , by vaunting speech or carriage, but, which is implied, carry thyself humbly and modestly, which is most pleasing to kings, and most becoming and safe for them.

Stand not in the place of great men do not affect nor use frequent and familiar society with greater persons than thyself, whereby thou mayst easily involve thyself in much guilt, and expose thyself to envy or contempt, and to many other inconveniences.

Poole: Pro 25:7

For better it is it is more for thy credit and comfort,

that it be said unto thee by some public officer, or by the king himself. Whom thine eyes have seen ; into whose presence and acquaintance thou hast so boldly intruded thyself, who as before he observed thy impudence, so now he sees and suffers this public disgrace to be cast upon thee.

Poole: Pro 25:8

Go not forth hastily without necessary cause and due consideration, to strive, either judicially or otherwise.

Put thee to shame for thy folly in undertaking what thou wast not able to accomplish, and for thy injustice in charging him wrongfully.

Poole: Pro 25:9

Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself if thou hast any quarrel with him, first try to compose it by private discourse with him. Compare Mat 5:25 18:15 Luk 12:58 .

Discover not a secret any secret. Let no heat of contention provoke thee to divulge any of his secret counsels committed to thy trust, or to reproach him with any of his secret faults, as is usual in lawsuits and other contentions. Or, the secret ; any secret difference between thee and him, which therefore is fittest to be ended secretly between you, and not to be imparted to any other.

Poole: Pro 25:10

Put thee to shame reproach thee for thy gross violation of the laws of prudence, and justice, and charity, and friendship therein.

And thine infamy turn not away and that disgrace which thou didst design against another fall and be fastened upon thyself.

Poole: Pro 25:11

A word fitly spoken for the matter, and season, and other circumstances of it,

is like apples of gold in pictures of silver which it seems was usual in those times, and was grateful to the eye for the beauty and variety both of the colours and figures, the golden apples appearing through net-work of silver, or being engraven or portrayed upon tablets of silver.

Poole: Pro 25:12

As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold highly acceptable, and a great ornament, and not an offence and dishonour, as fools esteem it;

so is a wise reprover that reproves an offender faithfully; yet prudently, in the fittest manner and season.

Upon an obedient ear to a man that hearkens to it, and is instructed and reformed by it.

Poole: Pro 25:13

As the cold of snow either,

1. As drink cooled with ice or snow, as was and is usual in hot countries. Or,

2. As a cool air, such as is in snowy seasons. Or,

3. As drink which is as cold as snow.

He refresheth the soul of his masters with a true account and speedy despatch of those important affairs which were committed to him.

Poole: Pro 25:14

Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift pretending that he hath given, or promising that he will give, a man those gifts, which he neither hath given, nor intendeth to give him,

is like clouds and wind without rain like empty clouds carried about with wind, and not affording that rain which by their appearance they promise.

Poole: Pro 25:15

By long forbearing by patient submission and expectation,

is a prince persuaded or pacified , whereas his rage is increased by opposition. Compare Ecc 10:4 .

A soft tongue a mild and humble answer,

breaketh the bone softeneth a heart which is as hard as bone or stone. He alludes to those oils which sink through the flesh to the very bone. See Psa 109:18 .

Poole: Pro 25:16

Honey in those parts was oft found in woods or fields, as Jud 14:8 , &c.; 1Sa 14:25 . By honey he understands, not only all delicious meats, but all present and worldly delights, which we are here taught to use with moderation. Honey excessively taken disposeth a man to vomiting.

Poole: Pro 25:17

Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour’ s house visit him not too frequently nor unseasonably, lest he be weary of thee, and so hate thee, as men are apt to loathe those meats of which they surfeit, as was now observed, Pro 25:16 .

Poole: Pro 25:18

Is as cruel and pernicious to him as any instrument of death. The design of the proverb is to show the wickedness of slander, and that a false witness is in some respect as bad as a murderer.

Poole: Pro 25:19

It is not only deceitful, but hurtful, as a broken tooth though it make show of helping, yet is not only unhelpful to a man for chewing his meat, but also troublesome and painful; and as a foot out of joint doth not help, but hinder and pain, him that attempts to walk upon it.

Poole: Pro 25:20

In cold weather when it is most seasonable and necessary.

As vinegar upon nitre which dissolves the nitre, and makes it useless and ineffectual.

So is he he is no less absurd and impertinent,

that singeth songs to an heavy heart whose grief is not relieved, but increased by it, as common experience showeth, and divers learned authors have observed.

Poole: Pro 25:21

By bread and water he understands all things necessary for his subsistence.

Poole: Pro 25:22

For understand, in so doing, which words are expressed Rom 12:20 , where this text is quoted,

thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head either,

1. In a bad sense, thou shalt hereby aggravate his sin, and occasion a more speedy and grievous vengeance from God, which, like fire from heaven, shall fall upon his head and consume him. Not that he persuades him to do a kindness with an evil intent, with an expectation, or desire, or design of bringing God’ s wrath upon him; but only he foretells what would happen, and dissuades him from taking vengeance, and provokes him to kindness instead of it, because vengeance is God’ s peculiar work, which he will certainly inflict upon such persons; which argument is used to that very purpose by St. Paul, Rom 12:19 . Or,

2. In a good sense, thou shalt melt him into repentance, and inflame him with love and kindness to thee for so unexpected and undeserved a favour; he shall be as heartily grieved and tormented with the thoughts of his vile and wicked carriage to thee, as a man would be that had burning coals of fire heaped upon his head. But if these coals of fire do not melt him, but still he hardens his heart against thee, they will consume him. Thus either by the one or by the other way thou shalt be secured and delivered from him. The metaphor may seem to be taken from founders, who melt the hardest metals by heaping coals of fire upon them. And the head may be here mentioned rather than any other part, because in Scripture phrase both blessings and curses are said to fall upon men’ s heads, i.e. upon them, heads being frequently put for persons.

The Lord shall reward thee thy charity to him shall be fully recompensed to thee, if not by him, yet by God, which is far better.

Poole: Pro 25:23

An angry countenance in the hearer, who by his countenance showeth his dislike of such persons and practices.

A backbiting tongue Heb. a secret tongue , which privily slandereth his neighbour, as it is expressed, Psa 101:5 , and as the manner of backbiters is. But this verse is otherwise rendered in the margin, and by divers others, the north wind bringeth forth (as this verb properly and most frequently signifies, and as it is rendered by all the ancient interpreters, and by many others) rain (which it doth in Judea, because the sea lies northward as well as westward from it, as also in Africa, as Aristotle observes, though it drive away rain in countries of another situation):

so doth a backbiting tongue (cause)

an angry countenance it causeth much anger and mischief; both to the person slandered, and to the slanderer, and to other persons who may be concerned with or for either of them, as is manifest from common experience.

Poole: Pro 25:25

Because it comes thither more rarely and difficultly after it hath been long expected and earnestly desired; all which circumstances make it more acceptable.

Poole: Pro 25:26

Falling down either,

1. Into sin. So the sense is, When a just man is either allured or terrified into any sinful practice before wicked men, or into any base and servile compliance with their lusts, he who by his excellent counsels was like a fountain or well of life , as his mouth is called, Pro 10:11 , sending forth refreshing streams for the benefit of many, is now corrupted and rendered unserviceable. Or rather,

2. Into misery, of which kind of falling this word is constantly used, and never to my remembrance of falling into sin. And so the sense is this, When righteous men are oppressed and devoured by the wicked, the state of that commonwealth is as deplorable, as if the public fountains, from whence all the people fetch their water, were corrupted, and it is a sign that the fountains of justice are poisoned.

Poole: Pro 25:27

Not good to wit, for the health of the body.

For men which words are easily understood, both out of the foregoing clause, where the honey is supposed to be eaten by men, and out of the following words, which are evidently meant of them.

To search their own glory industriously to seek for honour and applause from men.

Is not glory is not only sinful, but shameful also, and a sign of a vain and mean spirit. The negative particle not is here understood out of the former part of the verse, as it is Psa 1:5 9:18 .

Poole: Pro 25:28

Over his own spirit over his passions, and especially his anger, Which is signified by this word, Pro 16:2 Ecc 10:4 .

Is like a city that is broken down, and without walls exposeth himself to manifold dangers and mischiefs.

Haydock: Pro 25:6

Glorious, or a boaster. (Haydock) ---

We must not seek the first places, Luke xiv. 10. Vive sine invidia, mollesque inglorius annos

Exige; amicitias et tibi junge pares. (Ovid, Trist. iii. 4.)

Haydock: Pro 25:8

Not. Septuagint, "repent when thy friend may reproach thee." (Haydock) ---

Friend. A word spoken in haste may expose him to ridicule.

Haydock: Pro 25:9

Stranger. It sometimes happens that friends fall out; but if either disclose the secret of the other, he will be deemed infamous. (Calmet) (Josephus, contra Apion 2.) ---

St. Ambrose says of his brother Satyrus, "though we had all things in common, yet the secret of our friends was not so."

Haydock: Pro 25:10

Grace, &c., is no in Hebrew, Complutensian, St. Jerome, &c. But it is in the Septuagint, "favour and friendship may give liberty; which keep thou for thyself, that thou mayst not be exposed to great shame. But guard thy ways unchangeably." (Haydock) ---

Avoid quarrels.

Haydock: Pro 25:11

Time, (Symmachus) "on its wheels," (Hebrew) flowing smoothly, (Calmet) or "according to his two faces, is apples of gold in network of silver. The Scriptures have a double sense. The exterior one leads to that sense which is interior, and more excellent. (Maimonides) (Parkhurst, p. 366.) ---

Gold, oranges. ---

Beds. On such the kings of Parthia slept, and these metals were very common under Solomon, 3 Kings x. 27., and Esther i. 6. (Calmet) ---

Montanus renders mascioth "transparent cases." Protestants, " pictures of silver."

Haydock: Pro 25:12

Bright. Hebrew chali cathem, "an ornament of fine gold," (Montanus; Protestants; Haydock) may probably denote a collar or ring. The eastern nations wore rings fixed at the top of the ears, and under the nose. Some were so large that they put their meat through them. The Scripture often alludes to these customs, which are so different from ours. (Canticle of Canticles vii. 1.)

Haydock: Pro 25:13

Harvest. In June and July, when the heat was most intense, people of quality had snow from Libanus to mix with what they drank, Jeremias xviii. 14. (Calmet)

Haydock: Pro 25:15

Hardness. Hebrew and Septuagint, "bones." (Haydock)

Haydock: Pro 25:16

Up. We must moderate the sensual appetite, (Menochius) and even the study of wisdom, which is compared to honey, chap. xxiv. 13., Romans xii. 3., and Ecclesiastes vii. 17. (Calmet) ---

We must not be too familiar, ver. 17. (Ven. Bede) (Cajetan)

Haydock: Pro 25:17

Having. Hebrew, "being tired of thee." No man is so perfect, but he will manifest some defect, and become importunate. (Calmet) Nulli te facias nimis sodalem. (Martial)

Haydock: Pro 25:20

And. Protestants, "as he that taketh away a, &c., and as vinegar....to a heavy heart." (Haydock) ---

The former sentence may be joined with the preceding, as it is improper to deprive a person of his garment, no less than to trust in the faithless; though some would suppose (Calmet) that this conduct, as well as the mixing of vinegar with nitre, is no less absurd than to attempt to relieve by music those who are extremely afflicted, Ecclesiasticus xxii. 6. (Tirinus) ---

But Solomon does not speak of such, but only of those who are "heavy;" and we know that music has wonderful efficacy in relieving them, (1 Kings xvi. 17.) in like manner as this mixture serves to cleanse the skin and garments, (Jeremias ii. 22.; Calmet) and to purify the ears, when they are deafish. (Pliny, [Natural History?] xxxi. 10.; Vales. lx.) ---

As a, &c., is not in Hebrew, St. Jerome, &c. (Calmet) ---

The Chaldean has the latter part, (Haydock) "grief tries the heart, as fire does silver. As the worm eats wood, so folly," &c. (Calmet)

Haydock: Pro 25:22

Coals of charity; (St. Chrysostom in Romans xii. 20.) or, if he prove obstinate, his punishment will be the greater. (Geier.) ---

The former sense is more received. (Calmet)

Haydock: Pro 25:23

Rain; (Symmachus; Protestants) or marginal note, "bringeth forth rain." (Haydock) ---

But St. Jerome, who live in the country, knew that this wind was rather dry; and therefore he has abandoned the Septuagint, raiseth the clouds," Job xxxvii. 9., Joel ii. 20., and Ecclesiasticus xviii. 23. The countries north of Palestine were not calculated to produce vapours and rain, which came rather from the south. (Calmet) ---

Tongue. If the hearers would shew their displeasure, detractors would soon be reduced to silence. (St. Jerome, ad. Rust.) (St. Bernard)

Haydock: Pro 25:24

It is. Chap. xxi. 9. Sixtus V does not insert this verse here.

Haydock: Pro 25:25

Tidings. Hebrew and Septuagint. The Vulgate seems rather to speak of a "good messenger." Homer said that a good messenger honoured the business most. (Pindar, Pyth. viii.) (Calmet)

Haydock: Pro 25:26

Falling into disgrace, or sin, occasions the wicked to exult, as if there were no God or religion. (Calmet)

Haydock: Pro 25:27

Majesty, viz., of God. For to search into that incomprehensible Majesty, and to pretend to sound the depths of the wisdom of God, is exposing our weak understanding to be blinded with an excess of light and glory, which hit cannot comprehend. (Challoner) ---

When the Church proposes to us any mystery, we have only to believe. Hebrew, "but it is glorious to sound their glory," and see where the wicked end, that we may not envy them, chap. iii. 31., and Psalm xxxvi. 7. (Calmet) ---

Protestants, "so for men to search their own glory, is not glory," but a sin. (Haydock) ---

"It is not good to eat too much honey," (Chaldean) or to sound the glorious words of God and wisdom, or the mysteries of religion. Septuagint, "But it is right to reverence glorious speeches," (Calmet) with esteem and humility. (Cat. Græc.)

Haydock: Pro 25:28

Speaking. He lays himself open to every attack, chap. xxix. 11.

Gill: Pro 25:6

Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king,.... Intrude not thyself into his presence; or rush not into it in a rude and irreverent way; or be not ambitious to be a courtier: or "do not appear glorious", as the Vulgate Latin version renders it; or "honour thyself" ^a as the word signifies; do not appear too gay at court, or make too splendid an appearance, above thy fortune and station; and which may seem to vie with and outdo the king himself, which will not be well taken; princes love not to be equalled, and much less excelled;

and stand not in the place of great men; where the king's family or his nobles should stand, his ministers and counsellors of state, and those that wait upon him.

Gill: Pro 25:7

For better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up hither,.... It is much more to thine honour and credit to seat thyself in a place rather beneath than above thee; which being observed by some of the officers at court, or by him whose business it is to look after such things, he will beckon or call to thee to come up to a higher and more honourable place:

than that thou shouldest be put lower, in the presence of the prince whom thine eyes have seen; than that thou shouldest be thrust away with a severe rebuke for thy boldness and arrogance, in approaching too near the king's person, and taking the place of some great man, which did not become thee, and be forced down to a lower place, to thy great mortification; and the more, as this will be in the presence of the prince thou hadst the curiosity of seeing, and the ambition of making thyself acceptable to, by a gay and splendid appearance; and now with great disgrace turned out of his presence, or at least driven to a great distance from him. Our Lord seems to refer to this passage, in Luk 14:8.

Gill: Pro 25:8

Go not forth hastily to strive,.... To go to law with a neighbour; think well of it beforehand; consider the nature of the cause, whether right or wrong; or whether it is a matter of such moment as to go to law about; whether it will not be deemed a frivolous and vexatious suit; whether able to bear the expenses of it, and what may probably be the success of it;

lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof; for a livelihood, having spent all thy substance in the lawsuit, and so reduced to poverty as not to know how to live, or how and where to show thy face, through the disgrace that shall fall upon time by losing the cause;

when that neighbour hath put thee to shame; in open court, and proved himself to be in the right, and that thou art in the wrong; himself an honest man, and thee a litigious person.

Gill: Pro 25:9

Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself,.... Between thee and him alone; lay the matter before him, and hear what he has to say for himself, by which you will better judge of the nature of the cause; try to compromise things, and make up the difference between you, which is much better than to commence a lawsuit; at least such a step should be taken first; see Mat 5:25;

and discover not a secret to another; if the thing in controversy is a secret, do not acquaint another person with it; keep it among yourselves, if the affair can be made up without bringing it into a court of judicature; besides, by communicating it to others, you may have bad counsel given, and be led to take indirect methods: or, "the secret of another", or, "another secret do not discover" ^b; if you know anything scandalous and reproachful of your neighbour and his family, you are contending with, which does not concern the cause in hand, do not divulge it, as persons from a spirit of revenge are apt to do, when they are quarrelling or litigating a point with each other.

Gill: Pro 25:10

Lest he that heareth it put thee to shame,.... Or, "reproach thee" ^c with treachery and deceit. Either the person of whom it is told, or the person to whom it is told; who may make thee ashamed, either by fixing the odious character of a defamer, a whisperer, and backbiter, on thee; or by making a retaliation, and in his turn make known some secret things concerning thyself, which before were not known, and, now published, will be to thy disgrace;

and thine infamy turn not away; it shall stick so close to thee, that thou shalt never get clear of it as long as thou livest, or ever retrieve thy credit; the brand of infamy shall ever be upon thee.

Gill: Pro 25:11

A word fitly spoken,.... Or, "a word spoken on its wheels" ^d: that proceeds aright, keeps due order, is well circumstanced as to matter, method, time, place, and persons; a discourse well put together, properly pronounced, roundly, easily, and fluently delivered to proper persons, and adapted to their circumstances; and "seasonably" spoken, as the Targum and many versions render it:

is like apples of gold in pictures of silver; either like apples made of gold, and so valuable and precious; or as apples, called golden from their colour, as golden pippins, and golden rennets; or oranges, which are sometimes called golden apples: either of these in silver cases and enclosures, as Aben Ezra and Gersom interpret the word, or in a silver cup, as the Syriac version, or in silver lattices, as Maimonides, through which they may be seen, look very pleasant and delightful. The words may design, as some think, silver baskets of network ^e; into which golden apples or oranges being put, and placed on a table, look very beautiful; and to such a word fitly spoken is compared. This may be applied to the word of the Gospel, as spoken by Christ, the great Prophet of the church; who has the tongue of the learned, to speak a word in season to weary souls, Isa 50:4; and by his ministers, who publish the Gospel, that faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation: this being the word of salvation, is fitly spoken to all sensible sinners, and must be exceeding agreeable to them; since it is of salvation from all sin, and for the chief of sinners, and entirely of free grace; includes all blessings in it, and is for ever; and since it is a proclamation of pardon of all sorts of sins and sinners, and of all their sins, and according to the riches of grace; and is also the word of reconciliation, and publishes peace to rebels, who could not make their own peace with God; and yet this is done by the blood of Christ, as the Gospel declares: and, seeing it is likewise the word of righteousness, which reveals the righteousness of Christ as justifying, when a man's own righteousness will not acquit him; and invites weary souls to Christ for rest, and therefore must be grateful to all such persons, and be esteemed as valuable as balls or apples of gold; and as pleasant and delightful to see and hear of as those set in silver baskets of network; and be as refreshing and comfortable, and as grateful to the taste, as real apples of the best kind; see Son 2:2. It may also be applied to the promises of grace, seasonably spoken, and suitably applied by the Spirit of God; who takes the promises which are in Christ, and shows and opens them to souls in distress, at the most proper and seasonable time; and which are exceeding great and precious, yield abundance of pleasure and delight, and are very comfortable. Yea, this may be applied to the words of good men, in private conversation, either by way of counsel, or comfort, or admonition; and to every word that is with grace, and ministers grace to the hearer, and is for the use of edifying, when time, place, persons, and circumstances, are observed. Maimonides ^f thinks the external sense of the word is meant by the silver, and the internal sense by the gold; which latter is seen through, and is much better than the former.

Gill: Pro 25:12

As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold,.... As a golden earring, when first put on, gives pain and uneasiness; but, being well hung and fixed, is very ornamental, being of fine gold, and especially when any jewels are upon it; which may be meant by the ornament, as the word is rendered, Son 7:1;

so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear; such is the reproof of a wise man, which is seasonably given, in a fit and proper manner; and which appears to proceed from love, and is designed for good, and done in great affection and faithfulness: this, though it may be a little grating to the ear at first, yet, when well considered and received, instead of leaving any infamy or reproach on the person reproved, it is an ornament to him, as well as reflects honour upon the reprover. It may be rendered, " so is he that reproveth a wise man, upon" or "with an obedient ear" ^g; a wise man that has an obedient or hearing ear, who is so wise as to altered to reproofs given him, and which he takes kindly, and receives profit and advantage from them; see Pro 9:8.

Gill: Pro 25:13

As the cold of snow in the time of harvest,.... As water as cold as snow; or as a breeze of air, such as in a time of snow; and so Jarchi,

"as the cold of the days of snow, which a man desires in summer, and not snow simply, for snow itself is not good in the time of harvest;''

see Pro 24:1. Or rather "as a shield" or "covering of snow" ^h, as the word signifies: perhaps, as Gussetius ⁱ thanks, a vessel in such a form, in which snow was kept in summer, is meant; and the same word, the two first radical letters being doubled, is used for the pot, or urn, in which the manna was kept, Exo 16:33. As snow, that in those hot countries used to be kept in vessels, in places underground, to cool their drink with in summertime; just as ice is kept with us, in like places, for the same purpose; and then the sense is, as drink cooled with snow is very agreeable, and exceeding refreshing to those that labour in the field in the time of harvest;

so is a faithful messenger to them that send him: for he refresheth the soul of his masters: such an one that is sent with a message, and faithfully executes it, while he is gone, the mind of his master is very thoughtful about the it sue and success of it; but when he returns and gives him an account of it, and especially when he succeeds to his wish; it "restores" and settles his mind, as the word ^k signifies; and gives him a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction, and renders the messenger dear and valuable to him. Christ is the messenger, one of a thousand, sent by his divine Father on a message of grace and salvation, in which he has succeeded being faithful to him that appointed him; and so exceeding acceptable to him, his servant, his elect, in whom his soul delighteth! Gospel ministers are messengers, and faithful ones, whose feet are beautiful, and their words acceptable to souls to whom they are sent, and are a sweet savour to him that sent them; and who will commend them as good and faithful servants, and appoint them rulers over many cities, and introduce them into his joy.

Gill: Pro 25:14

Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift,.... Of his charity and alms deeds; bragging of great things he does this way, when he does nothing; or who is very vain in making large promises of what he will give, when he does not perform; either not having it in his heart, or in the power of his hands, to give what he promises; Satan like, who offered to give all the kingdoms of this world to Christ, if he would worship him, when nothing of it belonged unto him, or was in his power to give: and so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "a glorious man"; that is, a vainglorious man, and "not fulfilling promises". It may very well be applied to false teachers, who boast of their gifts and spiritual knowledge, when they have none; speaking great swelling words of vanity, when they are empty of all that is good, and are as follow:

is like like clouds and wind without rain; which make a show and appearance of rain, promise much, but produce none; see 2Pe 2:17, Jud 1:12.

Gill: Pro 25:15

By long forbearing is a prince persuaded,.... To come into measures, and do that which his council and ministry advise him to, and to which he may seem at first very averse; but by a mild and gentle representation of things, by an humble submission of them to him, and by frequent remonstrances and patient waiting, his mind is softened, bent, and inclined to take their advice, and pursue the measures suggested to him; which, had they been pressed with heat, haughtiness, and haste, would have been rejected;

and a soft tongue breaketh the bone; or "hardness", as the Vulgate Latin version renders it; soft words, or words delivered in soft language, remove hardness and roughness from the minds of men; and work upon, influence, and bend men, whose wills are obstinate and stubborn, and make them pliable and tractable: so David, with a soft tongue, wrought upon Saul, his enemy; and Abigail, by her soft language, turned the mind of David, who was bent upon the destruction of Nabal, 1Sa 24:16; see Pro 15:1. Jarchi interprets this soft tongue of prayer and supplication, by which severe things against sinners are removed from them; and so he understands the former clause of the forbearance of God, which gives encouragement to sinners, to persuade him in their favour by repentance and prayer; see Mat 18:26.

Gill: Pro 25:16

Hast thou found honey?.... Of which there was great plenty in Judea; and was to be found in fields and woods, 1Sa 14:25;

eat so much as is sufficient for thee; to satisfy appetite, without overcharging the stomach; what may be conducive to health, and no more;

lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it; that is, overfilled; filled to a loathing of it, so as to cause a casting of it up this is not merely to be understood in a literal sense; something more is intended, as in Pro 24:13; and according to the sense there, that which Maimonides ^l gives of this seems agreeable; that it respects the getting of wisdom and knowledge, which, like honey, is sweet and desirable, and excellent, and nourishing, moderately used: but then persons should take care to keep within due bounds, and not seek to be too wise; or to exercise themselves in things too high for them, and aim at that which is above their capacity; but should content themselves with what is within their reach and compass: and so Gersom understands it. Some think that moderation in the use of worldly things and lawful pleasures is here recommended: and others that the words refer to what follow; that when a man has got a pleasant and delightful friend, he should not visit him too often; lest, too much familiarity bringing contempt, he should lose his friend: so Jarchi connects the words,

Gill: Pro 25:17

Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour's house,.... Not but that it is commendable to be neighbourly and friendly, or for one neighbour to visit another; but then it should not be very frequent; a man should not be always or often at his neighbour's house. So the words may be rendered, "make thy foot precious" or "rare at thy neighbour's house" ^m; be seldom there;

lest he be weary of thee, and so hate thee; or, "lest he be sated with thee" ⁿ; filled with thy company to a loathing of it, as the stomach with eating too much honey, and so his friendship be turned into hatred.

Gill: Pro 25:18

A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour,.... In whose house he has often been, and whom he has frequently visited; and, observing what was done there, not only discovers and tells abroad the secrets of his family, but even things which are false; yea, in a court of judicature, appears a witness against him, and swears falsely to his hurt and prejudice. Such a man

is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow; that is, to his neighbour, against whom he bears false witness; and, by so doing, he mauls his fame, his credit, character, and reputation; and, as with a sword, takes away his life; and against whom there is no more guarding than against a sharp arrow, that comes from afar, suddenly and swiftly.

Gill: Pro 25:19

Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble,.... It is not good to put confidence in any man, not in princes, nor in the best of men; much less in an unfaithful, prevaricating, and treacherous man; and especially in a time of distress and trouble, depending on his help and assistance, which is leaning on a broken reed, and trusting to a broken staff. Or, "the confidence of an unfaithful man in time of trouble" ^o; that which he puts confidence in; who trusts in his riches, or in his righteousness, or in his own heart, all which are vain and deceitful:

is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint; which are so far from being of any use, the one in eating food, and the other in walking, that they are both an hindrance to those actions, and cause pain and uneasiness: or, "a bad tooth", so the Targum and Syriac version; a rotten one.

Gill: Pro 25:20

As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather,.... Either takes it off of himself, or another person, when it would be rather more proper to put another garment on, and so is exposed to the injury of cold weather;

and as vinegar upon nitre: nitre was found in Egypt, beyond Memphis, as Strabo says ^p; there were two mines of nitre, which produced much, and thence it was called the Nitriotic Nome: others say, nitre has its name from Nitria, a town in Egypt ^q, which gives name to the Nitrian desert, where there is a lake called Latron; from the bottom of which, that sort of nitre, called Natron, arises to the top, as is apprehended, and there, by the heat of the sun, condenses into this kind of substance ^r, which will react with an acid; and so vinegar poured upon it will irritate and disturb it, cause it to react, and make a noise and a hissing. This must be understood only of this sort of nitre, of the nitre of the ancients; not of the moderns, which is no other than saltpetre; for though this will ferment with vinegar, saltpetre will not ^s: nitre is dissolved by a liquid, but not any, only that which is cold, as Aristotle observes ^t, as is vinegar; and therefore, with great propriety, this is joined to what goes before;

so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart; rather distresses and afflicts him the more; as he cannot sing himself, he cannot bear to hear others sing; such rather should be condoled and wept with than to have songs sung to them. Some understand the words in a sense the reverse; the word rendered taketh away, in the first clause, has the signification of adorning with a garment; hence they render it, "as he that putteth on a garment ^u for ornament in cold weather, and as vinegar to nitre, so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart"; that is, as an additional garment drives away cold, and vinegar dissolves nitre, so singing songs to a heavy hearted man drives away sorrow; as in the case of Saul, such an effect had music on him, 1Sa 16:21; or rather, to put on a thin garment for ornament in cold weather is as absurd and unseasonable as to put vinegar to nitre, or to a wound, as Schultens, and to sing songs to a heavy heart; all absurd.

Gill: Pro 25:21

If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat,.... Which includes all manner of food; whatever persons may have in their houses, that they should bring out and feed the hungry with, even though an enemy;

and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink; which was what was usually and in common drank in those countries. These two, bread and water, take in all the necessaries of life; and giving them is expressive of all acts of beneficence and humanity to be performed to enemies; see 2Ki 6:22; or "drink to him", so Pagninus and Montanus; which is still more expressive of respect and kindness.

Gill: Pro 25:22

For thou shall heap coals of fire upon his head,.... Not to increase his punishment and damnation, the more aggravated by kindness shown him; but to bring him by such means to a sense of former injuries, and to shame for them, repentance of them, and love of the person injured, and carefulness for the future of doing him any further wrong;

and the Lord shall reward thee: with good things, for all the good done to thine enemy, whether it has the desired effect on him or not; or whether he rewards thee or not; see Rom 12:20.

Gill: Pro 25:23

The north wind driveth away rain,.... So the geographer ^w says, the swift north wind drives away the moist clouds; which usually come from the opposite quarter, the south. The word used has the signification of conceiving, and begetting, and bringing forth; hence some ^x render it to a different sense, and so the Targum,

"the north wind bringeth forth rain;''

and in this sense Gersom interprets it, and says,

"the north wind produces rain in Jerusalem, because it brings there the vapours that ascend from the sea, which lies north unto it;''

and the philosopher ^y says, that in the northern parts of the world the south wind produces rain; and in the southern parts the north wind produces it, as in Judea. But in Job 37:22, fair, fine, golden, serene, "weather", is said to "come out of the north"; agreeably to which, the north wind is by Homer ^z called αιθρηγενετης, the producer of serene weather; and by Virgil ^a "clarus aquilo", i.e. what makes serene. The Arabic version reads it, "the south wind"; and that does bring rain, and, as that version has it, excites the clouds. But the first reading and sense of the words seem best ^b, and agree with what follows:

so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue; drives it away, discourages and silences it. When a man puts on a stern countenance, a frowning and angry look, on such who bring him slanderous reports and idle tales of their neighbours, and reproach and backbite them, it checks them, and puts a stop to their practices; whereas listening to them, and especially with an air of pleasure, encourages them in them; were there not so many that take pleasure in hearing those talebearers and backbiters, were they more roughly dealt with, as the blustering north wind does with the rain, there would not be so much of this evil practised.

Gill: Pro 25:24

It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman and in a wide house. See Gill on Pro 21:9.

Gill: Pro 25:25

As cold waters to a thirsty soul,.... Water is naturally cold; and is by classic writers expressed by "cold" itself ^c, and is very refreshing to one athirst through heat: or, "to a weary soul" ^d; to one wearied with labour; or to a traveller weary with travelling, especially in hot countries, as in the deserts of Arabia, or in places where it is rare to meet with a brook, stream, or fountain of water; which, when he does, it is exceeding pleasant and agreeable to him;

so is good news from a far country; so acceptable is it to hear from a friend in a distant part of the world, and particularly to hear good news of him. Such is the Gospel; it is good news, and glad tidings of good things; it brings the good news of the grace, and favour, and good will of God to men; of his appointment and provision of a Saviour for them; of the incarnation of Christ; of salvation being wrought out by him for the chief of sinners, which is free, full, and for ever; and of peace, pardon, righteousness, and eternal life, through him, And this comes "from a far country"; from heaven, the better country than Canaan, which was a type of it, or any country in this world, and which is afar from hence; the Gospel comes from God in heaven, and it is a report concerning that; it is good news to saints, of an estate they have there, an inheritance, a house, a city and kingdom prepared for them there: this news is brought by the prophets of the Old Testament, who diligently inquired of salvation by Christ; by the angels at Christ's incarnation; by John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ; by Christ himself, who was anointed to preach good tidings to the meek; and by his apostles, and all the faithful ministers of the word: and the message they bring is good news; not to carnal and self-righteous persons, but to sensible sinners; and to them it is as cold waters to a weary or thirsty soul; it assuages the heat of the law, and the wrath that works in the conscience; it quenches the thirst of carnal things, and after a man's own righteousness; it revives and refreshes his weary drooping spirits, and fills him with a joy unspeakable and full of glory; as Jacob's spirits were revived on hearing the good news of Joseph, Gen 45:26.

Gill: Pro 25:26

A righteous man falling dozen before the wicked,.... Either falling into calamity and distress by means of the wicked man, through his malice and cunning, and which be seeing, rejoices at; or crouching unto him, bowing before him, yielding to him, not daring to oppose or reprove him; or falling into sin in his presence, which he ever after reproaches him for, and openly exposes him, so that his usefulness is lost; and especially if he joins with the wicked man in his course of living; and particularly if a civil magistrate, and acts unrighteously in his office: he

is as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring; like a spring or fountain muddied with the feet of men or beasts; so that; he who was before as a clear spring of flowing water, a fountain of justice to his neighbours, from whom good doctrine and wholesome advice flowed, is now of no use by instruction or example, but the contrary.

Gill: Pro 25:27

It is not good to eat much honey,.... That is too much otherwise it is good to eat, Pro 24:13; but too much is hurtful, it surfeits the stomach increases choler ^e and creates loathing; and indeed, too much of anything is bad ^f;

so for men to search their own glory is not glory: to set forth their own excellencies, to sound forth their own praises to seek honour of men, to use all methods to gain popular applause; this is not glorious and praiseworthy, but dishonourable; or it may be rendered as it literally lies in the original, "but to search out", or "the searching out of their glory is glory" ^g; either the glory of righteous men, as Aben Ezra interprets it, such as stand and do not fall before the wicked; to search out their excellencies and virtues, and follow their example, is glorious and honourable: or to search the glory of the knowledge of divine things, comparable to honey, is commendable and glorious; for though a man may eat too much honey, yet he cannot have too much knowledge of divine and spiritual things, or be satiated and overfilled with them; to which the Septuagint version agrees, "but we ought to honour glorious words": the glorious truths of the word of God ought to be had in great esteem, and to search out the glory of them is honourable; our Lord directs to a search of the Scriptures, because they testify of him, Joh 5:39; and we can never know too much of him, or of the precious doctrines of the Gospel; unless this is to be understood of such things as should not be curiously inquired into; men should not be wise above what is written nor search into those things which God has concealed; as his own nature and perfections, the mode of subsisting of the three Persons in the Godhead, his secret purposes and decrees, and unsearchable judgments. To which sense agrees the Vulgate Latin version,

"so he who is the searcher of majesty shall be oppressed by glory;''

he shall be bore down by it, and not able to bear the glory of it: and the Targum is,

"to eat much honey is not good, nor to search glorious words.''

Jarchi takes the words in this sense; and illustrates them by the work of creation, Ezekiel's vision of the wheels, the decrees of God, and the reasons of them.

Gill: Pro 25:28

He that hath no rule over his own spirit,.... His affections and passions, puts no restraint, unto them, as the word signifies; no guard against them, no fence about them, to curb his curiosity, to check his pride and vanity, to restrain his wrath and anger and revenge, and keep within due bounds his ambition and itch of vainglory;

is like a city that broken down and without walls; into which the may go with pleasure, and which is exposed to the rapine and violence of everyone; and so a man that has no command of himself and passions, but gives the reins to them, is exposed to the enemy of souls, Satan and is liable to every sin, snare and temptation.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Pro 25:7

¹ tn The phrase “for him” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

² sn This proverb, covering the two verses, is teaching that it is wiser to be promoted than to risk demotion by self-promotion. The point is clear: Trying to promote oneself could bring on public humiliation; but it would be an honor to have everyone in court hear the promotion by the king.

³ tn The two infinitives construct form the contrast in this “better” sayings; each serves as the subject of its respective clause.

⁴ tc Most modern commentators either omit this last line or attach it to the next verse. But it is in the text of the MT as well as the LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and most modern English versions (although some of them do connect it to the following verse, e.g., NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

NET Notes: Pro 25:8

¹ tn Heb “do not go out hastily to strive”; the verb “to strive” means dispute in the legal context. The last clause of v. 7, “what your eyes have seen,” does fit very well with the initial clause of v. 8. It would then say: What you see, do not take hastily to court, but if the case was not valid, he would end up in disgrace.

sn The Hebrew verb רִיב (riv) is often used in legal contexts; here the warning is not to go to court hastily lest it turn out badly.

² tn The clause begins with פֶּן (pen, “lest”) which seems a bit out of place in this line. C. H. Toy suggests changing it to כִּי (ki, “for”) to make a better connection, instead of supplying an ellipsis: “lest it be said what…” (Proverbs [ICC], 461).

NET Notes: Pro 25:9

¹ tn The verse begins with the direct object רִיבְךָ (ribkha, “your case”) followed by the imperative from the same root, רִיב (riv, “argue”). It is paralleled by the negated Piel jussive. The construction of the clauses indicates that the first colon is foundational to the second: “Argue…but do not reveal,” or better, “When you argue…do not reveal.”

² sn The concern is that in arguing with one person a secret about another might be divulged, perhaps deliberately in an attempt to clear oneself. The point then is about damaging a friendship by involving the friend without necessity or warrant in someone else’s quarrel.

NET Notes: Pro 25:10

¹ tn The noun דִּבָּה (dibbah, “infamy; defamation; evil report; whispering”) is used of an evil report here (e.g., Gen 37:2), namely a true report of evil doing. So if a person betrays another person’s confidence, he will never be able to live down the bad reputation he made as one who betrays secrets (cf. NIV).

NET Notes: Pro 25:11

¹ sn The verse uses emblematic parallelism, stating the simile in the first part and the point in the second. The meaning of the simile is not entirely clear, but it does speak of beauty, value, and artistry. The “apples of gold” (possibly citrons, quinces, oranges, or apricots) may refer to carvings of fruit in gold on columns.

² tn Heb “on its wheels.” This expression means “aptly, fittingly.” The point is obviously about the immense value and memorable beauty of words used skillfully (R. N. Whybray, Proverbs [CBC], 148). Noting the meaning of the term and the dual form of the word, W. McKane suggests that the expression is metaphorical for the balancing halves of a Hebrew parallel wisdom saying: “The stichos is a wheel, and the sentence consisting of two wheels is a ‘well-turned’ expression” (Proverbs [OTL], 584). The line then would be describing a balanced, well-turned saying, a proverb; it is skillfully constructed, beautifully written, and of lasting value.

NET Notes: Pro 25:12

¹ sn This saying is another example of emblematic parallelism; the first half is the simile, and the second half makes the point from it: A wise rebuke that is properly received is of lasting value. The rebuke in the ear of an obedient student is like ornaments of fine jewelry.

² tn The “ear of the listener” refers to the obedient disciple, the one who complies with the reproof he hears. Cf. KJV, ASV, NAB “an obedient ear.”

NET Notes: Pro 25:13

¹ sn The emblem in the parallelism of this verse is the simile of the first line. Because snow at the time of harvest would be rare, and probably unwelcome, various commentators have sought to explain this expression. R. N. Whybray suggests it may refer to snow brought down from the mountains and kept cool in an ice hole (Proverbs [CBC], 148); this seems rather forced. J. H. Greenstone following Rashi, a Jewish scholar who lived a.d. 1040-1105, suggests it might refer to the refreshing breeze that comes from snow-capped mountains (Proverbs, 260). C. H. Toy suggests a snow-cooled drink (Proverbs [ICC], 464), and W. McKane an application of ice water to the forehead (Proverbs [OTL], 585). Some English versions replace “snow” with “water” (cf. TEV “cold water”; CEV “cool water”). These all attempt to explain the simile; but the point is clear enough, a faithful servant is refreshing to his master. The analogy could be hypothetical – as refreshing as the coolness of snow would be in harvest time.

² tn Heb “he restores the life [or, soul] of his masters.” The idea suggests that someone who sends the messenger either entrusts his life to him or relies on the messenger to resolve some concern. A faithful messenger restores his master’s spirit and so is “refreshing.”

NET Notes: Pro 25:14

¹ sn The emblem now is one of clouds and winds that would be expected to produce rain; they gain attention and raise people’s expectations but prove to be disappointing when no rain is forthcoming, and hence could be thought of as deceitful.

² tn The form מִתְהַלֵּל (mithallel) is the Hitpael participle of the well-known word for “praise”; but in this stem it means “to praise oneself” or “to boast.” The description of “windbag” seems appropriate in this context.

³ tn Heb “a gift of falsehood.” This would mean that the individual brags about giving a gift, when there is no gift.

NET Notes: Pro 25:15

¹ tn Heb “long of anger” or “forbearance” (so NASB).

² tn The two imperfect verbs in this line may be nuanced as potential imperfects because what is described could happen, but does not do so as a rule.

³ tn The “tongue” is a metonymy of cause; and so the expression here refers to soft or gentle speech. This fits well with the parallel idea of patience (“long of anger”) – through a calm patient persuasion much can be accomplished. Some English versions relate this figure directly to the persuasion of a ruler in the previous line (cf. TEV “can even convince rulers”).

⁴ sn The idea of breaking a bone uses the hardest and most firm part of the body in contrast to the “softness of the tongue.” Both are figurative, forming a comparison. A gentle speech can break down any stiff opposition.

NET Notes: Pro 25:16

¹ tn The verse simply begins “you have found honey.” Some turn this into an interrogative clause for the condition laid down (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NLT); most make the form in some way subordinate to the following instruction: “when you find…eat.”

² tn The verb means “to be satisfied; to be sated; to be filled.” Here it means more than satisfied, since it describes one who overindulges and becomes sick. The English verb “stuffed” conveys this idea well.

³ sn The proverb warns that anything overindulged in can become sickening. The verse uses formal parallelism to express first the condition and then its consequences. It teaches that moderation is wise in the pleasures of life.

NET Notes: Pro 25:17

¹ tn Heb “make your foot rare.” The verb is הֹקַר (hoqar), the Hiphil imperative of יָקַר (yaqar, “to be rare; to be precious”). To “make one’s foot rare” would mean to keep the visits to a minimum as well as making them valuable – things increase in value, according to the nuances of this word, when they are rare.

² tn Heb “gets full.” This verb means “to be sated; to be satisfied; to be filled.” It is often used with reference to food, but here it refers to frequent visits that wear out one’s welcome (cf. NLT).

NET Notes: Pro 25:18

¹ sn The first line identifies the emblem of the proverb: False witnesses are here compared to deadly weapons because they can cause the death of innocent people (e.g., Exod 20:16; Deut 5:20; and Prov 14:5).

² tn The verb עָנָה (’anah) followed by the preposition בְּ (bet) with its object means “to testify against” (answer against someone). With the preposition לְ (lamed) it would mean “to testify for” someone. Here the false witness is an adversary, hence the comparison with deadly weapons.

³ tn While עֵד (’ed) could be interpreted as “evidence” (a meaning that came from a metonymy – what the witness gives in court), its normal meaning is “witness.” Here it would function as an adverbial accusative, specifying how he would answer in court.

NET Notes: Pro 25:19

¹ sn The similes in this emblematic parallelism focus on things that are incapable of performing certain activities – they are either too painful to use or are ineffective.

² tn Since there is no preposition to clarify the construction, there are two ways to take the term מִבְטָח (mivtakh, “confidence”) in the context. It can either refer (1) to reliance on an unfaithful person, or it can refer (2) to that on which the unfaithful person relies. C. H. Toy argues for the second, that what the faithless person relies on will fail him in the time of trouble (Proverbs [ICC], 466). This view requires a slight change in the MT to make “confidence” a construct noun (i.e., the confidence of the faithless); the first view, which fits better the MT as it stands, says that “confidence [in] a faithless person” is like relying on a decaying tooth or a lame foot. This is the view preferred in most English versions, including the present one.

³ tn Heb “in the day of trouble”; KJV, NASB “in time of trouble.”

NET Notes: Pro 25:20

¹ tc The consonants of the Hebrew text of this verse are similar to the consonants in v. 19. The LXX has a much longer reading: “Like vinegar is bad for a wound, so a pain that afflicts the body afflicts the heart. Like a moth in a garment, and a worm in wood, so the pain of a man wounds the heart” (NRSV follows much of the LXX reading; NAB follows only the second sentence of the LXX reading). The idea that v. 20 is a dittogram is not very convincing; and the Greek version is too far removed to be of help in the matter.

² tn The second simile mentions pouring vinegar on soda. The LXX has “scab,” but that does not fit as a sensitive thing. The reference is to sodium carbonate (natural in Egypt) which can be neutralized with vinegar.

³ sn It is inappropriate and counterproductive to sing songs to a heavy heart. One needs to be sensitive to others (e.g., 1 Sam 19:9).

NET Notes: Pro 25:22

¹ sn The imagery of the “burning coals” represents pangs of conscience, more readily effected by kindness than by violence. These coals produce the sharp pain of contrition through regret (e.g., 18:19; 20:22; 24:17; Gen 42-45; 1 Sam 24:18-20; Rom 12:20). The coals then would be an implied comparison with a searing conscience.

² sn The second consequence of treating enemies with kindness is that the Lord will reward the act. The fact that this is promised shows that the instruction here belongs to the religious traditions of Israel.

NET Notes: Pro 25:23

¹ sn One difficulty here is that it is the west wind that brings rain to Israel (e.g., 1 Kgs 18:41-44). C. H. Toy suggests that the expression is general, referring to a northwest wind – unless it is an error (Proverbs [ICC], 468). J. P. M. van der Ploeg suggests that the saying originated outside the land, perhaps in Egypt (“Prov 25:23,” VT 3 [1953]: 189-92). But this would imply it was current in a place where it made no sense. R. N. Whybray suggests that the solution lies with the verb “brings forth” (תְּחוֹלֵל, tÿkholel); he suggests redefining it to mean “repels, holds back” (cf. KJV “driveth away”). Thus, the point would be that the north wind holds back the rain just as an angry look holds back slander (Proverbs [CBC], 149). But the support for this definition is not convincing. Seeing this as a general reference to northerly winds is the preferred solution.

² tn Heb “a tongue of secret” or “a hidden tongue,” referring to someone who goes around whispering about people behind their backs (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV “a backbiting tongue”).

³ tn The phrase “brings forth” does not appear in Hebrew in this line but is implied by the parallelism with the previous line; it is supplied here in the translation for clarity.

⁴ sn The verse implies a comparison between the two parts to make the point that certain things automatically bring certain results. Gossiping words will infuriate people as easily as the northerly winds bring the cold rain.

NET Notes: Pro 25:24

¹ tn This proverb is identical with 21:9; see the notes there.

NET Notes: Pro 25:25

¹ tn Heb “a weary [or, faint] soul” (so NASB, NIV); KJV, ASV, NRSV “a thirsty soul,” but “soul” here refers to the whole person.

² sn The difficulty of getting news of any kind from a distant land made its reception all the more delightful when it was good (e.g., Gen 45:27; Prov 15:30).

NET Notes: Pro 25:26

¹ tn The Niphal participle is from רָפַס (rafas), which means “to stamp; to tread; to foul by treading [or, by stamping].” BDB 952 s.v. defines it here as a “fountain befouled.” The picture is one of a spring of water where men and beasts gather and muddy it by their trampling in and out of it.

² tn The Hophal participle from שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to ruin; to destroy; to corrupt”) provides a general description – the well has been “ruined” or “corrupted” (so ASV) and is therefore unusable.

³ tn The verb מָט (mat) means “to give way; to move.” This probably refers to the integrity of the righteous being lost – comparing it to moving [off course]. T. T. Perowne writes, “To see a righteous man moved from his steadfastness through fear or favour in the presence of the wicked is as disheartening as to find the stream turbid and defiled at which you were longing to quench your thirst” (Proverbs, 161). But the line may refer to the loss of social standing and position by the righteous due to the plots of the wicked – just as someone muddied the water, someone made the righteous slip from his place.

NET Notes: Pro 25:27

¹ sn This is a figure of speech known as tapeinosis – a deliberate understatement to emphasize a worst-case scenario: “it is bad!”

² tn Heb “and the investigation of their glory is not glory.” This line is difficult to understand but it forms an analogy to honey – glory, like honey, is good, but not to excess. The LXX rendered this, “it is proper to honor notable sayings.” A. A. MacIntosh suggests, “He who searches for glory will be distressed” (“A Note on Prov 25:27,” VT 20 [1970]: 112-14). G. E. Bryce has “to search out difficult things is glorious” (“Another Wisdom ‘Book’ in Proverbs,” JBL 91 (1972): 145-47). R. C. Van Leeuwen suggests, “to seek difficult things is as glory” (“Proverbs 25:27 Once Again,” VT 36 [1986]: 105-14). The Hebrew is cryptic, but not unintelligible: “seeking their glory [is not] glory.” It is saying that seeking one’s own glory is dishonorable.

NET Notes: Pro 25:28

¹ tn Heb “whose spirit lacks restraint” (ASV similar). A person whose spirit (רוּחַ, ruakh) “lacks restraint” is one who is given to outbursts of passion, who lacks self-control (cf. NIV, NRSV, CEV, NLT). This person has no natural defenses but reveals his true nature all the time. The proverb is stating that without self-control a person is vulnerable, like a city without defenses.

Geneva Bible: Pro 25:10

Lest he that heareth [it] put thee to shame, and thy infamy ^{( h )} turn not away.

^{( h )} Lest while you think by this means to have an end of the matter, it put you to further trouble.

Geneva Bible: Pro 25:13

As the cold of snow ^{( i )} in the time of harvest, [so is] a faithful messenger to them that send him: for he refresheth the soul of his masters.

^{( i )} In the time of great heat, when men desire cold.

Geneva Bible: Pro 25:14

Whoever boasteth himself of a false gift [is like] ^{( k )} clouds and wind without rain.

^{( k )} Which have an outward appearance, and are nothing within.

Geneva Bible: Pro 25:15

By long ^{( l )} forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the ^{( m )} bone.

^{( l )} By not creating opportunity to provoke him further.

^{( m )} That is, the heart that is bent to anger, as in (Pro 15:1).

Geneva Bible: Pro 25:16

Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is ^{( n )} sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled with it, and vomit it.

^{( n )} Use moderately the pleasures of this world.

Geneva Bible: Pro 25:20

[As] he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, [and as] vinegar upon ^{( o )} soda, so [is] he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.

^{( o )} Which melts it, and consumes it.

Geneva Bible: Pro 25:22

For thou shalt heap ^{( p )} coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.

^{( p )} You will, as if by force, overcome him, in so much that his own conscience will move him to acknowledge the benefits, and his heart will be inflamed.

Geneva Bible: Pro 25:28

He that [hath] no rule over his own spirit [is like] a city [that is] ^{( q )} broken down, [and] without walls.

^{( q )} And so is in extreme danger.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Pro 25:1-28

1 Observations about kings,

8 and about avoiding causes of quarrels, and sundry causes thereof.

Maclaren: Pro 25:28

An Unwalled City

He that hath no rule over his oven spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.'--Proverbs 25:28.

THE text gives us a picture of a state of society when an unwalled city is no place for men to dwell in. In the Europe of to-day there are still fortified places, but for the most part, battlements are turned into promenades; the gateways are gateless; the sweet flowers blooming where armed feet used to tread; and men live securely without bolts and bars. But their spirits cannot yet afford to raise their defences and fling themselves open to all comers.

We may see here three points: the city defenceless, or human nature as it is; the city defended, human nature as it may be in Christ; the city needing no defence, human nature as it will be in heaven.

I. The City Defenceless, Or Human Nature As It Is.

Here we are in a state of warfare which calls for constant shutting out of enemies. Temptations are everywhere; our foes compass us like bees; evils of many sorts seduce. We can picture to ourselves some little garrison holding a lonely outpost against lurking savages ready to attack if ever the defenders slacken their vigilance for a moment. And that is the truer picture of human nature as it is than the one by which most men are deluded. Life is not a playground, but an arena of grim, earnest fighting. No man does right in his sleep; no man does right without a struggle.

The need for continual vigilance and self-control comes from the very make of our souls, for our nature is not a democracy, but a kingdom. In us all there are passions, desires, affections, all of which may lead to vice or to virtue: and all of which evidently call out for direction, for cultivation, and often for repression. Then there are peculiarities of individual character which need watching lest they become excessive and sinful. Further, there are qualities which need careful cultivation and stimulus to bring them into due proportion. We each of us receive, as it were, an undeveloped self, and have entrusted to us potential germs which come to nothing, or shoot up with a luxuriance that stifles unless we exercise a controlling power. Besides all this, we all carry in us tendencies which are positively, and only, sinful. There would be no temptation if there were no such.

But the slightest inspection of our own selves clearly points out, not only what in us needs to be controlled, but that in us which is meant to control. The will is regal; conscience is meant to govern the will, and its voice is but the echo of God's law.

But, while all this is true, it is too sadly true that the accomplishment of this ideal is impossible in our own strength. Our own sad experience tells us that we cannot govern ourselves; and our observations of our brethren but too surely indicate that they too are the prey of rebellious, anarchical powers within, and of temptations, against the rush of which they and we are as powerless as a voyager in a bark-canoe, caught in the fatal drift of Niagara. Conscience has a voice, but no hands; it can speak, but if its voice fails, it cannot hold us back. From its chair it can bid the waves breaking at our feet roll back, as the Saxon king did, but their tossing surges are deaf. As helpless as the mud walls of some Indian hill-fort against modern artillery, is the defence, in one's own strength, of one's own self against the world. We would gladly admit that the feeblest may do much to keep himself unspotted from the world'; but we must, if we recognise facts, confess that the strongest cannot do all. No man can alone completely control his own nature; no man, unenlightened by God, has a clear, full view of duty, nor a clear view of himself. Always there is some unguarded place.

Unless above himself he canErect himself, how mean a thing is man!'

but no man can so lift himself so as that self will not drag him down. The walls are broken down and the troops of the spoilers sack the city.

II. The Defended City, Or Human Nature As It May Be In Christ.

If our previous remarks are true, they give us material for judging how far the counsels of some very popular moral teachers should be followed. It is a very old advice, know thyself'; and it is a very modern one that

Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-controlLead life to sovereign power.'

But if these counsels are taken absolutely and without reference to Christ and His work, they are counsels of despair,' demanding what we cannot give, and promising what they cannot bestow. When we know Christ, we shall know ourselves; when He is the self of ourselves, then, and only then, shall we reverence and can we control the inner man. The city of Mansoul will then be defended when the peace of God keeps our hearts and minds in Jesus.'

He who submits himself to Christ is lord of himself as none else are. He has a light within which teaches him what is sin. He has a love within which puts out the flame of temptation, as the sun does a coal fire. He has a motive to resist; he has power for resistance; he has hope in resisting. Only thus are the walls broken down rebuilded. And as Christ builds our city on firmer foundations, He will appear in His glory, and will lay the windows in agates, and all thy borders in precious stones.' The sure way to bring our ruined earth, without form and void,' into a cosmos of light and beauty, is to open our spirit for the Spirit of God to brood upon the face of the waters.' Otherwise the attempts to rule over our own spirit will surely fail; but if we let Christ rule over our spirit, then it will rule itself.

But let us ever remember that he who thus submits to Christ, and can truly say, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' still needs defence. The strife does not thereby cease; the enemies still swarm; sin is not removed. There will be war to the end, and war for ever; but He will keep our heads in the day of battle'; and though often we may be driven from the walls, and outposts may be lost, and gaping breaches made, yet the citadel shall be safe. If only we see to it that He is the glory in the midst of us,' He will be a wall of fire round about us.' Our nature as it may be in Christ is a walled city as needing defence, and as possessing the defence which it needs.

III. The City Defenceless, And Needing No Defence; That Is, Human Nature As It Will Be Hereafter.

The gates shall not be shut day nor night,' for everything that defileth' is without. We know but little of that future, what we do know will, surely, be theirs who here have been guarded by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation.' That salvation will bring with it the end for the need of guardianship; though it leaves untouched the blessed dependence, we shall stand secure when it is impossible to fall. And that impossibility will be realised, partly, as we know, from change in surroundings, partly from the dropping away of flesh, partly from the entire harmony of our souls with the will of God. Our ignorance of that future is great, but our knowledge of it is greater, and our certainty of it is greatest of all.

This is what we may become. Dear friends! toil no longer at the endless, hopeless task of ruling those turbulent souls of yours; you can never rebuild the wails already fallen. Give up toiling to attain calmness, peace, self-command. Let Christ do all for you, and let Him in to dwell in you and be all to you. Builded on the true Rock, We shall stand stately and safe amid the din of war. He will watch over us and dwell in us, and we shall be as a city set on a hill,' impregnable, a virgin city. So may it be with each of us while strife shall last, and hereafter we may quietly hope to be as a city without walls, and needing none; for they that hated us shall be far away, for between us and them is a great gulf fixed,' so that they cannot cross it to disturb us any more; and we shall dwell in the city of God, of which the name is Salem, the city of peace, whose King is Himself, its Defender and its Rock, its Fortress and its high Tower.

MHCC: Pro 25:6-7

Religion teaches us humility and self-denial. He who has seen the glory of the Lord in Christ Jesus, will feel his own unworthiness.

MHCC: Pro 25:8-10

To be hasty in beginning strife, will bring into difficulties. War must at length end, and might better be prevented. It is so in private quarrels; do all thou canst to settle the matter.

MHCC: Pro 25:11-12

A word of counsel, or reproof, rightly spoken, is especially beautiful, as fine fruit becomes still more beautiful in silver baskets.

MHCC: Pro 25:13

See what ought to be the aim of him that is trusted with any business; to be faithful. A faithful minister, Christ's messenger, should be thus acceptable to us.

MHCC: Pro 25:14

He who pretends to have received or given that which he never had, is like the morning cloud, that disappoints those who look for rain.

MHCC: Pro 25:15

Be patient to bear a present hurt. Be mild to speak without passion; for persuasive language is the most effectual to prevail over the hardened mind.

MHCC: Pro 25:16

God has given us leave to use grateful things, but we are cautioned against excess.

MHCC: Pro 25:17

We cannot be upon good terms with our neighbours, without discretion as well as sincerity. How much better a Friend is God than any other friend! The oftener we come to him, the more welcome.

MHCC: Pro 25:18

A false testimony is dangerous in every thing.

MHCC: Pro 25:19

Confidence in an unfaithful man is painful and vexatious; when we put any stress on him, he not only fails, but makes us feel for it.

MHCC: Pro 25:20

We take a wrong course if we think to relieve those in sorrow by endeavouring to make them merry.

MHCC: Pro 25:21-22

The precept to love even our enemies is an Old Testament commandment. Our Saviour has shown his own great example in loving us when we were enemies.

MHCC: Pro 25:23

Slanders would not be so readily spoken, if they were not readily heard. Sin, if it receives any check, becomes cowardly.

MHCC: Pro 25:24

It is better to be alone, than to be joined to one who is a hinderance to the comfort of life.

MHCC: Pro 25:25

Heaven is a country afar off; how refreshing is good news from thence, in the everlasting gospel, which signifies glad tidings, and in the witness of the Spirit with our spirits that we are God's children!

MHCC: Pro 25:26

When the righteous are led into sin, it is as hurtful as if the public fountains were poisoned.

MHCC: Pro 25:27

We must be, through grace, dead to the pleasures of sense, and also to the praises of men.

MHCC: Pro 25:28

The man who has no command over his anger, is easily robbed of peace. Let us give up ourselves to the Lord, and pray him to put his Spirit within us, and cause us to walk in his statutes.

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:6-7

Here we see, 1. That religion is so far from destroying good manners that it reaches us to behave ourselves lowly and reverently towards our superiors, to keep our distance, and give place to those to whom it belongs " Put not forth thyself rudely and carelessly in the king's presence, or in the presence of great men; do not compare with them "(so some understand it); "do not vie with them in apparel, furniture, gardens, house-keeping, or retinue, for that is an affront to them and will waste thy own estate."2. That religion teaches us humility and self-denial, which is a better lesson than that of good manners: "Deny thyself the place thou art entitled to; covet not to make a fair show, nor air at preferment, nor thrust thyself into the company of those that are above thee; be content in a low sphere if that is it which God has allotted to thee."The reason he gives is because this is really the way to advancement, as our Saviour shows in a parable that seems to be borrowed from this, Luk 14:9. Not that we must therefore pretend modesty and humility, and make a stratagem of it, for the courting of honour, but therefore we must really be modest and humble, because God will put honour on such and so will men too. It is better, more for a man's satisfaction and reputation, to be advanced above his pretensions and expectations, than to be thrust down below them, in the presence of the prince, whom it was a great piece of honour to be admitted to the sight of and a great piece of presumption to look upon without leave.

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:8-10

I. Here is good counsel given about going to law: - 1. "Be not hasty in bringing an action, before thou hast thyself considered it, and consulted with thy friends about it: Go not forth hastily to strive; do not send for a writ in a passion, or upon the first appearance of right on thy side, but weigh the matter deliberately, because we are apt to be partial in our own cause; consider the certainty of the expenses and the uncertainty of the success, how much care and vexation it will be the occasion of, and, after all, the cause may go against thee; surely then thou shouldst not go forth hastily to strive. "2. "Bring not an action before thou hast tried to end the matter amicably (Pro 25:9): Debate thy cause with thy neighbour privately, and perhaps you will understand one another better and see that there is no occasion to go to law."In public quarrels the war that must at length end might better have been prevented by a treaty of peace, and a great deal of blood and treasure spared. It is so in private quarrels: "Sue not thy neighbour as a heathen man and a publican until thou hast told him his fault between thee and him alone, and he has refused to refer the matter, or to come to an accommodation. Perhaps the matter in variance is a secret, not fit to be divulged to any, much less to be brought upon the stage before the country; and therefore end it privately, that it may not be discovered." Reveal not the secret of another, so some read it. "Do not, in revenge, to disgrace thy adversary, disclose that which should be kept private and which does not at all belong to the cause."

II. Two reasons he gives why we should be thus cautious in going to law: - 1. "Because otherwise the cause will be in danger of going against thee, and thou wilt not know what to do when the defendant has justified himself in what thou didst charge upon him, and made it out that thy complaint was frivolous and vexatious and that thou hadst no just cause of action, and so put thee to shame, non-suit thee, and force thee to pay costs, all which might have been prevented by a little consideration."2. "Because it will turn very much to thy reproach if thou fall under the character of being litigious. Not only the defendant himself (Pro 25:8), but he that hears the cause tried will put thee to shame, will expose thee as a man of no principle, and thy infamy will not turn away; thou wilt never retrieve thy reputation."

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:11-12

Solomon here shows how much it becomes a man, 1. To speak pertinently: A word upon the wheels, that runs well, is well-circumstanced, in proper time and place - instruction, advice, or comfort, given seasonably, and in apt expressions, adapted to the case of the person spoken to and agreeing with the character of the person speaking - is like golden balls resembling apples, or like true apples of a golden colour (golden rennets), or perhaps gilded, as sometimes we have gilded laurels, and those embossed in pictures of silver, or rather brought to table in a silver network basket, or in a silver box of that which we call filigree - work, through which the golden apples might be seen. Doubtless in was some ornament of the table, then well known. As that was very pleasing to the eye, so is a word fitly spoken to the ear. 2. Especially to give a reproof with discretion, and so as to make it acceptable. If it be well given, by a wise reprover, and well taken, by an obedient ear, it is an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold, very graceful and well becoming both the reprover and the reproved; both will have their praise, the reprover for giving it so prudently and the reproved for taking it so patiently and making a good use of it. Others will commend them both, and they will have satisfaction in each other; he who gave the reproof is pleased that it had the desired effect, and he to whom it was given has reason to be thankful for it as a kindness. That is well given, we say, that is well taken; yet it does not always prove that that is well taken which is well given. It were to be wished that a wise reprover should always meet with an obedient ear, but often it is not so.

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:13

See here, 1. What ought to be the care of a servant, the meanest that is sent on an errand and entrusted with any business, much more the greatest, the agent and ambassador of a prince; he ought to be faithful to him that sends him, and to see to it that he do not, by mistake or with design, falsify his trust, and that he be in nothing that lies in his power wanting to his master's interest. Those that act as factors, by commission, ought to act as carefully as for themselves. 2. How much this will be the satisfaction of the master; it will refresh his soul as much as ever the cold of snow (which is hot countries they preserve by art all the year round) refreshed the labourers in the harvest, that bore the burden and heat of the day. The more important the affair was, and the more fear of its miscarrying, the more acceptable is the messenger, if he have managed it successfully and well. A faithful minister, Christ's messenger, should be thus acceptable to us (Job 33:23); however, he will be a sweet savour to God, 2Co 2:15.

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:14

He may be said to boast of a false gift, 1. Who pretends to have received or given that which he never had, which he never gave, makes a noise of his great accomplishments and his good services, but it is all false; he is not what he pretends to be. Or, 2. Who promises what he will give and what he will do, but performs nothing, who raises people's expectations of the mighty things he will do for his country, for his friends, what noble legacies he will leave, but either he has not wherewithal to do what he says or he never designs it. Such a one is like the morning-cloud, that passes away, and disappoints those who looked for rain from it to water the parched ground (Jud 1:12), clouds without water.

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:15

Two things are here recommended to us, in dealing with others, as likely means to gain our point: - 1. Patience, to bear a present heat without being put into a heat by it, and to wait for a fit opportunity to offer our reasons and to give persons time to consider them. By this means even a prince may be persuaded to do a thing which he seemed very averse to, much more a common person. That which is justice and reason now will be so another time, and therefore we need not urge them with violence now, but wait for a more convenient season. 2. Mildness, to speak without passion or provocation: A soft tongue breaks the bone; it mollifies the roughest spirits and overcomes those that are most morose, like lightning, which, they say, has sometimes broken the bone, and yet not pierced the flesh. Gideon with a soft tongue pacified the Ephraimites and Abigail turned away David's wrath. Hard words, we say, break no bones, and therefore we should bear them patiently; but, it seems, soft words do, and therefore we should, on all occasions, give them prudently.

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:16

Here, 1. We are allowed a sober and moderate use of the delights of sense: Hast thou found honey? It is not forbidden fruit to thee, as it was to Jonathan; thou mayest eat of it with thanksgiving to God, who, having created things grateful to our senses, has given us leave to make use of them. Eat as much as is sufficient, and no more. Enough is as good as a feast. 2. We are cautioned to take heed of excess. We must use all pleasures as we do honey, with a check upon our appetite, lest we take more than does us good and make ourselves sick with it. We are most in danger of surfeiting upon that which is most sweet, and therefore those that fare sumptuously every day have need to watch over themselves, lest their hearts be at any time overcharged. The pleasures of sense lose their sweetness by the excessive use of them and become nauseous, as honey, which turns sour in the stomach; it is therefore our interest, as well as our duty, to use them with sobriety.

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:17

Here he mentions another pleasure which we must not take too much of, that of visiting our friends, the former for fear of surfeiting ourselves, this for fear of surfeiting our neighbour. 1. It is a piece of civility to visit our neighbours sometimes, to show our respect to them and concern for them, and to cultivate and improve mutual acquaintance and love, and that we may have both the satisfaction and advantage of their conversation. 2. It is wisdom, as well as good manners, not to be troublesome to our friends in our visiting them, not to visit too often, nor stay too long, nor contrive to come at meal-time, nor make ourselves busy in the affairs of their families; hereby we make ourselves cheap, mean, and burdensome. Thy neighbour, who is thus plagued and haunted with thy visits, will be weary of thee and hate thee, and that will be the destruction of friendship which should have been the improvement of it. Post tres saepe dies piscis vilescit et hospes - After the third day fish and company become distasteful. Familiarity breeds contempt. Nulli te facias nimis sodalem - Be not too intimate with any. He that sponges upon his friend loses him. How much better a friend then is God than any other friend; for we need not withdraw our foot from his house, the throne of his grace (Pro 8:34); the oftener we come to him the better and the more welcome.

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:18

Here, 1. The sin condemned is bearing false witness against our neighbour, either in judgment or in common conversation, contrary to the law of the ninth commandment. 2. That which it is here condemned for is the mischievousness of it; it is in its power to ruin not only men's reputation, but their lives, estates, families, all that is dear to them. A false testimony is every thing that is dangerous; it is a maul (or club to knock a man's brains out with), a flail, which there is no fence against; it is a sword to wound near at hand and a sharp arrow to wound at a distance; we have therefore need to pray, Deliver my soul, O Lord! from lying lips, Psa 120:2.

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:19

1. The confidence of an unfaithful man (so some read it) will be like a broken tooth; his policy, his power, his interest, all that which he trusted in to support him in his wickedness, will fail him in time of trouble, Psa 52:7. 2. Confidence in an unfaithful man (so we read it), in a man whom we thought trusty and therefore depended on, but who proves otherwise; it proves not only unserviceable, but painful and vexatious, like a broken tooth, or a foot out of joint, which, when we put any stress upon it, not only fails us, but makes us feel from it, especially in time of trouble, when we most expect help from it; it is like a broken reed, Isa 36:6. Confidence in a faithful God, in time of trouble, will not prove thus; on him we may rest and in him dwell at ease.

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:20

1. The absurdity here censured is singing songs to a heavy heart. Those that are in great sorrow are to be comforted by sympathizing with them, condoling with them, and concurring in their lamentation. If we take that method, the moving of our lips may assuage their grief (Job 16:5); but we take a wrong course with them if we think to relieve them by being merry with them, and endeavouring to make them merry; for it adds to their grief to see their friends so little concerned for them; it puts them upon ripping up the causes of their grief, and aggravating them, and makes them harden themselves in sorrow against the assaults of mirth. 2. The absurdities this is compared to are, taking away a garment from a man in cold weather, which makes him colder, and pouring vinegar upon nitre, which, like water upon lime, puts it into a ferment; so improper, so incongruous, is it to sing pleasant songs to one that is of a sorrowful spirit. Some read it in a contrary sense: As he that puts on a garment in cold weather warms the body, or as vinegar upon nitre dissolves it, so he that sings songs of comfort to a person in sorrow refreshes him and dispels his grief.

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:21-22

By this it appears that, however the scribes and Pharisees had corrupted the law, not only the commandment of loving our brethren, but even that of loving our enemies, was not only a new, but also an old commandment, an Old Testament commandment, though our Saviour has given it to us with the new enforcement of his own great example in loving us when we were enemies. Observe, 1. How we must express our love to our enemies by the real offices of kindness, even those that are expensive to ourselves and most acceptable to them: "If they be hungry and thirsty, instead of pleasing thyself with their distress and contriving how to cut off supplies from them, relieve them, as Elisha did the Syrians that came to apprehend him,"2Ki 6:22. 2. What encouragement we have to do so. (1.) It will be a likely means to win upon them, and bring them over to be reconciled to us; we shall mollify them as the refiner melts the metal in the crucible, not only by putting it over the fire, but by heaping coals of fire upon it. The way to turn an enemy into a friend is, to act towards him in a friendly manner. If it do not gain him, it will aggravate his sin and punishment, and heap the burning coals of God's wrath upon his head, as rejoicing in his calamity may be an occasion of God's turning his wrath from him, Pro 24:17. (2.) However, we shall be no losers by our self-denial: "Whether he relent towards thee or no, the Lord shall reward thee; he shall forgive thee who thus showest thyself to be of a forgiving spirit. He shall provide for thee when thou art in distress (though thou hast been evil and ungrateful), as thou dost for thy enemy; at least it shall be recompensed in the resurrection of the just, when kindnesses done to our enemies shall be remembered as well as those shown to God's friends."

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:23

Here see, 1. How we must discourage sin and witness against it, and particularly the sin of slandering and backbiting; we must frown upon it, and, by giving it an angry countenance, endeavour to put it out of countenance. Slanders would not be so readily spoken as they are if they were not readily heard; but good manners would silence the slanderer if he saw that his tales displeased the company. We should show ourselves uneasy if we heard a dear friend, whom we value, evil-spoken of; the same dislike we should show of evil-speaking in general. If we cannot otherwise reprove, we may do it by our looks. 2. The good effect which this might probably have; who knows but it may silence and drive away a backbiting tongue? Sin, if it be countenanced, becomes daring, but, if it receive any check, it is so conscious of its own shame that it becomes cowardly, and this sin in particular, for many abuse those they speak of only in hopes to curry favour with those they speak to.

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:24

This is the same with what he had said, Pro 21:9. Observe, 1. How those are to be pitied that are unequally yoked, especially with such as are brawling and contentious, whether husband or wife; for it is equally true of both. It is better to be alone than to be joined to one who, instead of being a meet-help, is a great hindrance to the comfort of life. 2. How those may sometimes be envied that live in solitude; as they want the comfort of society, so they are free from the vexation of it. And as there are cases which give occasion to say, "Blessed is the womb that has not borne,"so there are which give occasion to say, "Blessed is the man who was never married, but who lies like a servant in a corner of the house-top. "

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:25

See here, 1. How natural it is to us to desire to hear good news from our friends, and concerning our affairs at a distance. It is sometimes with impatience that we expect to hear from abroad; our souls thirst after it. But we should check the inordinateness of that desire; if it be bad news, it will come too soon, if good, it will be welcome at any time. 2. How acceptable such good news will be when it does come, as refreshing as cold water to one that is thirsty. Solomon himself had much trading abroad, as well as correspondence by his ambassadors with foreign courts; and how pleasant it was to hear of the good success of his negotiations abroad he well knew by experience. Heaven is a country afar off; how refreshing is it to hear good news thence, both in the everlasting gospel, which signified glad tidings, and in the witness of the Spirit with our spirits that we are God's children.

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:26

It is here represented as a very lamentable thing, and a public grievance, and of ill consequence to many, like the troubling of a fountain and the corrupting of a spring, for the righteous to fall down before the wicked, that is, 1. For the righteous to fall into sin in the sight of the wicked - for them to do any thing unbecoming their profession, which is told in Gath, and published in the streets of Ashkelon, and in which the daughters of the Philistines rejoice. For those that have been in reputation for wisdom and honour to fall from their excellency, this troubles the fountains by grieving some, and corrupts the springs by infecting others and emboldening them to do likewise. 2. For the righteous to be oppressed, and run down, and trampled upon, by the violence or subtlety of evil men, to be displaced and thrust into obscurity, this is the troubling of the fountains of justice and corrupting the very springs of government, Pro 28:12, Pro 28:28; Pro 29:2. 3. For the righteous to be cowardly, to truckle to the wicked, to be afraid of opposing his wickedness and basely to yield to him, this is a reflection upon religion, a discouragement to good men, and strengthens the hands of sinners in their sins, and so is like a troubled fountain and a corrupt spring.

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:27

I. Two things we must be graciously dead to: - 1. To the pleasures of sense, for it is not good to eat much honey; though it pleases the taste, and, if eaten with moderation, is very wholesome, yet, if eaten to excess, it becomes nauseous, creates bile, and is the occasion of many diseases. It is true of all the delights of the children of men that they will surfeit, but never satisfy, and they are dangerous to those that allow themselves the liberal use of them. 2. To the praise of man. We must not be greedy of that any more than of pleasure, because, for men to search their own glory, to court applause and covet to make themselves popular, is not their glory, but their shame; every one will laugh at them for it; and the glory which is so courted is not glory when it is got, for it is really no true honour to a man.

II. Some give another sense of this verse: To eat much honey is not good, but to search into glorious and excellent things is a great commendation, it is true glory; we cannot therein offend by excess. Others thus: "As honey, though pleasant to the taste, if used immoderately, oppresses the stomach, so an over-curious search into things sublime and glorious, though pleasant to us, if we pry too far, will overwhelm our capacities with a greater glory and lustre than they can bear."Or thus: "You may be surfeited with eating too much honey, but the last of glory, of their glory, the glory of the blessed, is glory; it will be ever fresh, and never pall the appetite."

Matthew Henry: Pro 25:28

Here is, 1. The good character of a wise and virtuous man implied. He is one that has rule over his own spirit; he maintains the government of himself, and of his own appetites and passions, and does not suffer them to rebel against reason and conscience. He has the rule of his own thoughts, his desires, his inclinations, his resentments, and keeps them all in good order. 2. The bad case of a vicious man, who has not this rule over his own spirit, who, when temptations to excess in eating or drinking are before him, has no government of himself, when he is provoked breaks out into exorbitant passions, such a one is like a city that is broken down and without walls. All that is good goes out, and forsakes him; all that is evil breaks in upon him. He lies exposed to all the temptations of Satan and becomes an easy prey to that enemy; he is also liable to many troubles and vexations; it is likewise as much a reproach to him as it is to a city to have its walls ruined, Neh 1:3.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 25:6-7

There now follows a second proverb with מלך , as the one just explained was a second with מלכים : a warning against arrogance before kings and nobles.

6 Display not thyself before the king,

And approach not to the place of the great.

7 For better than one say to thee, "Come up hither,"

Than that they humble thee before a prince,

Whom thine eyes had seen.

The גּדלים are those, like Pro 18:16, who by virtue of their descent and their office occupy a lofty place of honour in the court and in the state. נדיב ( vid ., under Pro 8:16) is the noble in disposition and the nobleman by birth, a general designation which comprehends the king and the princes. The Hithpa . התהדּר is like the reflex forms Pro 12:9; Pro 13:7, for it signifies to conduct oneself as הדוּר or נהדּר ( vid ., Pro 20:29), to play the part of one highly distinguished. עמד has, 6b, its nearest signification: it denotes, not like נצּב , standing still, but approaching to, e.g. , Jer 7:2. The reason given in Pro 25:7 harmonizes with the rule of wisdom, Luk 14:10.: better is the saying to thee, i.e. , that one say to thee (Ewald, §304b), עלה הנּה (so the Olewejored is to be placed), προσανάβηθι ἀνώτερον (thus in Luke), than that one humble thee לפני נדיב , not: because of a prince (Hitzig), for לפני nowhere means either pro (Pro 17:18) or propter , but before a prince, so that thou must yield to him (cf. Pro 14:19), before him whom thine eyes had seen, so that thou art not excused if thou takest up the place appropriate to him. Most interpreters are at a loss to explain this relative. Luther: "which thine eyes must see,"and Schultens: ut videant oculi tui . Michaelis, syntactically admissible: quem videre gestiverunt oculi tui , viz., to come near to him, according to Bertheau, with the request that he receives some high office. Otherwise Fleischer: before the king by whom thou and thine are seen, so much the more felt is the humiliation when it comes upon one after he has pressed so far forward that he can be perceived by the king. But נדיב is not specially the king, but any distinguished personage whose place he who has pressed forward has taken up, and from which he must now withdraw when the right possessor of it comes and lays claim to his place. אשׁר is never used in poetry without emphasis. Elsewhere it is equivalent to נתנש , quippe quem , here equivalent to רפנש , quem quidem . Thine eyes have seen him in the company, and thou canst say to thyself, this place belongs to him, according to his rank, and not to thee - the humiliation which thou endurest is thus well deserved, because, with eyes to see, thou wert so blind. The lxx, Syr., Symmachus (who reads 8a, לרב , εις πλῆθος ), and Jerome, refer the words "whom thine eyes had seen"to the proverb following; but אשר does not appropriately belong to the beginning of a proverb, and on the supposition that the word לרב is generally adopted, except by Symmachus, they are also heterogeneous to the following proverb:

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 25:8-10

8 Go not forth hastily to strife,

That it may not be said, "What wilt thou do in the end thereof,

When now thy neighbour bringeth disgrace upon thee?"

9 Art thou striving with thy neighbour? strive with him,

But disclose not the secret of another;

10 That he who heareth it may not despise thee,

And thine evil name depart no more.

Whether ריב in לריב is infin ., as at Jdg 21:22, or subst ., as at 2Ch 19:8, is not decided: ad litigandum and ad litem harmonize. As little may it be said whether in אל־תּצא [go not forth], a going out to the gate (court of justice), or to the place where he is to be met who is to be called to account, is to be thought of; in no respect is the sense metaphorical: let not thyself transgress the bounds of moderation, ne te laisse pas emporter ; יצא לרב is correlate to בּוא לרוב , Jdg 21:22. The use of פּן in 8b is unprecedented. Euchel and Löwenstein regard it as an imper .: reflect upon it (test it); but פּנה does not signify this, and the interjectional הס does not show the possibility of an imper . Kal פּן , and certainly not פּן ( פּן ). The conj. פּן is the connecting form of an original subst. (= panj ), which signifies a turning away. It is mostly connected with the future, according to which Nolde, Oetinger, Ewald, and Bertheau explain מה indefinite, something, viz., unbecoming. In itself, it may, perhaps, be possible that פן מה was used in the sense of ne quid ( Venet . μήποτέ τι ); but "to do something,"for "to commit something bad,"is improbable; also in that case we would expect the words to be thus: פן תעשׂה מה . Thus מה will be an interrogative, as at 1Sa 20:10 ( vid ., Keil), and the expression is brachyogical: that thou comest not into the situation not to know what thou oughtest to do (Rashi: פן תבא לידי לא תדע הם לעשׂות ), or much rather anakoluth.; for instead of saying פּן־לא תדע מה־לּעשׂות , the poet, shunning this unusual פן לא , adopts at once the interrogative form: that it may not be said at the end thereof (viz., of the strife); what wilt thou do? (Umbreit, Stier, Elster, Hitzig, and Zöckler). This extreme perplexity would occur if thy neighbour (with whom thou disputest so eagerly and unjustly) put thee to shame, so that thou standest confounded ( כלם , properly to hurt, French blesser ). If now the summons 9a follows this warning against going out for the purpose of strife: fight out thy conflict with thy neighbour, then ריבך , set forth with emphasis, denotes not such a strife as one is surprised into, but that into which one is drawn, and the tuam in causam tuam is accented in so far as 9b localizes the strife to the personal relation of the two, and warns against the drawing in of an אחר , i.e. , in this case, of a third person: and expose not the secret of another אל־תּגל (after Michlol 130a, and Ben-Bileam, who places the word under the ' פ ' פתחין בס , is vocalized with Pathach on ג , as is Cod. 1294, and elsewhere in correct texts). One ought not to bring forward in a dispute, as material of proof and means of acquittal, secrets entrusted to him by another, or secrets which one knows regarding the position and conduct of another; for such faithlessness and gossiping affix a stigma on him who avails himself of them, in the public estimation, Pro 25:10; that he who hears it may not blame thee ( חסּד = Aram. חסּד , vid ., under Pro 14:34), and the evil report concerning thee continue without recall. Fleischer: ne infamia tua non recedat i.e. , nunquam desinat per ora hominum propagari , with the remark, "in דבּה , which properly means in stealthy creeping on of the rumour, and in שׁוּב lies a (Arab.) tarshyḥ ," i.e. , the two ideas stand in an interchangeable relation with a play upon the words: the evil rumour, once put in circulation, will not again retrace its steps; but, on the contrary, as Virgil says:

Mobilitate viget viresque acquirit eundo .

In fact, every other can sooner rehabilitate himself in the public estimation that he who is regarded as a prattler, who can keep no secret, or as one so devoid of character that he makes public what he ought to keep silent, if he can make any use of it in his own interest. In regard to such an one, the words are continually applicable, hic niger est, hunc tu, Romane, caveto , Pro 20:19. The lxx has, instead of ודבתך 10b, read ומריבתך , and translated it with the addition of a long appendix: "They quarrel, and hostilities will not cease, but will be to thee like death. Kindness and friendship deliver, let these preserve thee, that thou mayest not become one meriting reproaches (Jerome: ne exprobrabilis fias ), but guard thy ways, εὐσυναλλάκτως ."

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 25:11

The first emblematical distich of this collection now follows:

11 Golden apples in silver salvers.

A word spoken according to its circumstances.

The Syr. and Jerome vocalize דּבר דּבר , and the Targ. דּבר דּבר ; both are admissible, but the figure and that which is represented are not placed in so appropriate a relation as by דּבר דּבר ; the wonderfully penetrating expression of the text, which is rendered by the traditional nikkud , agrees here with the often occurring דּבר (= מדבּר ), also its passive דּבוּר . The defective writing is like, e.g. , בּטח , Psa 112:7, and gives no authority to prefer דּבּר = מדבּר (Böttcher). That דּברי , corresponding to the plur. תּפּוּחי , is not used, arises from this, that דבר is here manifestly not a word without connection, but a sentence of motive, contents, and aim united. For על־אפניו , the meaning of בּעתּו presents itself from Pro 15:23, according to which, among the old interpreters, Symmachus, Jerome, and Luther render "at its time."Abulwalîd compared the Arab. âiffan (âibban , also 'iffan , whence 'aly 'iffanihi , justo tempore ), which, as Orelli has shown in his Synon. der Zeitbegriffe , p. 21f., comes from the roots af ab , to drive (from within) going out, time as consisting of individual moments, the one of which drives on the other, and thus denotes time as a course of succession. One may not hesitate as to the prep. על , for אפנים would, like עתּות , denote the circumstances, the relations of the time, and על would, as e.g. , in על־פּי and על־דּברתי , have the meaning of κατά . But the form אפניו , which like חפניו , Lev 16:12, sounds dualistic, appears to oppose this. Hitzig supposes that אפנים may designate the time as a circle, with reference to the two arches projecting in opposite directions, but uniting themselves together; but the circle which time describes runs out from one point, and, moreover, the Arab. names for time âfaf , âifaf , and the like, which interchange with âiffan , show that this does not proceed from the idea of circular motion. Ewald and others take for אפניו the meaning of wheels (the Venet ., after Kimchi, ἐπὶ τῶν τροχῶν αὐτῆς ), whereby the form is to be interpreted as dual of אפן = אופן , "a word driven on its wheels,"- so Ewald explains: as the potter quickly and neatly forms a vessel on his wheels, thus a fit and quickly framed word. But דבר signifies to drive cattle and to speak = to cause words to follow one another (cf. Arab. syâḳ , pressing on = flow of words), but not to drive = to fashion in that artisan sense. Otherwise Böttcher, "a word fitly spoken, a pair of wheels perfect in their motion,"to which he compares the common people "in their jesting,"and adduces all kinds of heterogeneous things partly already rejected by Orelli ( e.g. , the Homeric ἐπιτροχάδην , which is certainly no commendation). But "jesting"is not appropriate here; for what man conceives of human speech as a carriage, one only sometimes compares that of a babbler to a sledge, or says of him that he shoves the cart into the mud.

(Note: It is something different when the weaver's beam, minwâl in Arab., is metaph. for kind and manner: they are 'aly minwâl wâḥad , is equivalent to they are of a like calibre, Arab. kalib , which is derived from καλόπους ( καλοπόδιον ), a shoemaker's last.)

Is it then thus decided that אפניו is a dual? It may be also like אשׂריו , the plur. especially in the adverbial expression before us, which readily carried the abbreviation with it ( vid ., Gesen. Lehrgebr . §134, Anm. 17). On this supposition, Orelli interprets אפן from אפן , to turn, in the sense of turning about, circumstances, and reminds of this, that in the post-bibl. Heb. this word is used as indefinitely as τρόπος , e.g. , באופן מה , quodammodo ( vid ., Reland's Analecta Rabbinica , 1723, p. 126). This late Talm. usage of the word can, indeed, signify nothing as to the bibl. word; but that אפנים , abbreviated אפנים , can mean circumstances, is warranted by the synon. אודות . Aquila and Theodotion appear to have thus understood it, for their ἐπὶ ἁρμόζουσιν αὐτῷ , which they substitute for the colourless οὕτως of the lxx, signifies: under the circumstances, in accordance therewith. So Orelli thus rightly defines: " אפנים denote the âḥwâl , circumstances and conditions, as they form themselves in each turning of time, and those which are ascribed to דבר by the suffix are those to which it is proper, and to which it fits in. Consequently a word is commended which is spoken whenever the precise time arrives to which it is adapted, a word which is thus spoken at its time as well as at its place (van Dyk, fay mahllah ), and the grace of which is thereby heightened."Aben Ezra's explanation, על פנים הראויים , in the approved way, follows the opinion of Abulwalîd and Parchon, that אפניו is equivalent to פניו (cf. aly wajhihi , sua ratione ), which is only so far true, that both words are derived from R. פן , to turn. In the figure, it is questionable whether by תּפּוּחי זהב , apples of gold, or gold-coloured apples, are meant (Luther: as pomegranates and citrons); thus oranges are meant, as at Zec 4:12. הזּהב denotes golden oil. Since כסף , besides, signifies a metallic substance, one appears to be under the necessity of thinking of apples of gold; cf. the brazen pomegranates. But (1) apples of gold of natural size and massiveness are obviously too great to make it probable that such artistic productions are meant; (2) the material of the emblem is usually not of less value than that of which it is the emblem (Fleischer); (3) the Scriptures are fond of comparing words with flowers and fruits, Pro 10:31; Pro 12:14; Pro 13:2; Pro 18:20, and to the essence of the word which is rooted in the spirit, and buds and grows up to maturity through the mouth and the lips, the comparison with natural fruits corresponds better in any case than with artificial. Thus, then, we interpret "golden apples"as the poetic name for oranges, aurea mala , the Indian name of which with reference to or (gold) was changed into the French name orange , as our steplang7 pomeranze is equivalent to pomum aurantium . משׂכּיּות is the plur. of משׂכּית , already explained, Pro 18:11; the word is connected neither with שׂכך , to twist, wreathe (Ewald, with most Jewish interpreters)

(Note: On this proceeds also the beautiful interpretation by Maimuni in the preface to More Nebuchim : Maskiyyôth sont des ciselures réticulaires , etc., according to Munk's translation from the Arab. text, vid ., Kohut's Pers. Pentateuch-Uebers . (1871), p. 356. Accordingly Jewish interpreters ( e.g. , Elia Wilna) understand under אפניו the four kinds of writing: פשׁט , רמז , דרושׁ , and סוד , which are comprehended under the memorial word פרדס .)

nor with שׂכה , to pierce, infigere (Redslob, vid ., under Psa 73:7); it signifies medal or ornament, from שׂכה , to behold (cf. שׂכיּה , θέα = θέαμα , Isa 2:6), here a vessel which is a delight to the eyes. In general the Venet . rightly, ἐν μορφώμασιν ἀργύρου ; Symmachus and Theodotion, more in accordance with the fundamental idea, ἐν περιβλέπτοις ἀργύρου ; the Syr. and Targ. specially: in vessels of embossed work ( נגוּדי , from נגד , to draw, to extend); yet more specially the lxx, ἐν ὁρμίσκῳ σαρδίου , on a chain of cornelian stone, for which, perhaps, ἐν φορμίσκῳ (Jäger) ἀργυρίου , in a little silver basket, is the original phrase. Aquila, after Bereschith rabba c . 93, translates by μῆλα χρύσου ἐν δίσκοις ἀργυφίου . Jerome: in lectis argenteis , appears to have fallen into the error of taking משב for משכב , lectus . Hitzig here emends a self-made ἅπαξ λεγ . Luther's "golden apples in silver baskets"is to be preferred.

(Note: A favourite expression of Goethe's, vid ., Büchmann's Geflügelte Worte , 1688.)

A piece of sculpture which represents fruit by golden little disks or points within groups of leaves is not meant - for the proverb does not speak of such pretty little apples - but golden oranges are meant. A word in accordance with the circumstances which occasion it, is like golden oranges which are handed round in silver salvers or on silver waiters. Such a word is, as adopting another figure we might say, like a well-executed picture, and the situation into which it appropriately fits is like its elegant frame. The comparison with fruit is, however, more significant; it designates the right word as a delightful gift, in a way which heightens its impression and its influences.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 25:12

Another proverb continues the commendation of the effective word; for it represents, in emblem, the interchangeable relation of speaker and hearer:

A golden earring and an ornament of fine gold -

A wise preacher to an ear that heareth;

i.e. , as the former two ornaments form a beautiful ensemble , so the latter two, the wise preacher of morality and an attentive ear, form a harmonious whole: על , down upon, is explained by Deu 32:2. נזם , at Pro 11:12, standing along with באף , meant a ring for the nose; but here, as elsewhere, it means an earring (lxx, Jerome, Venet .), translated by the Syr. and Targ. by קדשׁא , because it serves as a talisman. A ring for the nose

(Note: Vid ., Gieger's Zeitschrift , 1872, pp. 45-48, where it is endeavoured to be shown that נזם , as an earring, is rejected from the later biblical literature, because it had become "an object used in the worship of idols,"and that the word was used only of a ring for the nose as a permissible ornament, while עגיל was used for the earring. But that does not apply to the Solomonic era; for that, in the passage under review, נזם signifies a ring for the nose, is only a supposition of Geiger's, because it accords with his construction of history.)

cannot also be here thought of, because this ornament is an emblem of the attentive ear: willingly accepted chastisement or instruction is an ear-ornament to him who hears (Stier). But the gift of the wise preacher, which consists in rightly dividing the word of truth, 2Ti 2:15, is as an ornament for the neck or the breast חלי (= Arab. khaly , fem. חליה = ḥilyt ), of fine gold ( כּתם , jewel, then particularly precious gold, from כּתם , Arab. katam , recondere ).

(Note: Hitzig compares Arab. kumêt ; but this means bayard, as Lagarde remarks, the Greek κόμαιθος ; and if by כתם gold foxes (gold money) are to be thought of, yet they have nothing whatever to do with bayards (red-brown horses); cf. Beohmer, de colorum nominibus equinorum , in his Roman. Stud . Heft 2, 1872, p. 285.)

The Venet . well: κόσμος ἀπυροχρύσου (fine gold); on the contrary (perhaps in want of another name for gold), כתם is translated, by the lxx and Syr., by sardine; by the Targ., by emerald; and by Jerome, by margaritum .

(Note: Another Greek translates πίνωσις χρυσῆ . This πίνωσις is a philological mystery, the solution of which has been attempted by Bochart, Letronne, and Field.)

It looks well when two stand together, the one of whom has golden earrings, and the other wears a yet more precious golden necklace - such a beautiful mutual relationship is formed by a wise speaker and a hearer who listens to his admonitions.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 25:13

The following comparative tristich refers to faithful service rendered by words:

Like the coolness of snow on a harvest day

Is a faithful messenger to them that send him:

He refresheth the soul of his master.

The coolness ( צנּה from צנן , צנן , to be cool) of snow is not that of a fall of snow, which in the time of harvest would be a calamity, but of drink cooled with snow, which was brought from Lebanon or elsewhere, from the clefts of the rocks; the peasants of Damascus store up the winter's snow in a cleft of the mountains, and convey it in the warm months to Damascus and the coast towns. Such a refreshment is a faithful messenger ( vid ., regarding ציר , Pro 13:17, here following קציר as a kind of echo) to them that send him ( vid ., regarding this plur. at Pro 10:26, cf. Pro 22:21); he refreshes, namely ( ו explicativum , as e.g. , Eze 18:19, etenim filius , like the ו et quidem , Mal 1:11, different from the ו of conditional clause Pro 23:3), the soul of his master; for the answer which he brings to his master refreshes him, as does a drink of snow-cooled water on a hot harvest day.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 25:14

This proverb relates to the word which promises much, but remains unaccomplished:

Clouds and wind, and yet no rain -

A man who boasteth with a false gift.

Incorrectly the lxx and Targ. refer the predicate contained in the concluding word of the first line to all the three subjects; and equally incorrectly Hitzig, with Heidenheim, interprets מתּת שׁקר , of a gift that has been received of which one boasts, although it is in reality of no value, because by a lying promise a gift is not at all obtained. But as לחם כזבים , Pro 23:3, is bread which, as it were, deceives him who eats it, so מתת שׁקר is a gift which amounts to a lie, i.e. , a deceitful pretence. Rightly Jerome: vir gloriosus et promissa non complens . In the Arab. ṣaliḍ , which Fleischer compares, the figure 14a and its counterpart 14b are amalgamated, for this word signifies both a boaster and a cloud, which is, as it were, boastful, which thunders much, but rains only sparsely or not at all. Similar is the Arab. khullab , clouds which send forth lightning, and which thunder, but yet give no rain; we say to one, magno promissor hiatu : thou art (Arab.) kabaraḳn khullabin , i.e. , as Lane translates it: "Thou art only like lightning with which is no rain."Schultens refers to this proverbial Arabic, fulmen nubis infecundae . Liberality is called (Arab.) nadnay , as a watering, cf. Pro 11:25. The proverb belongs to this circle of figures. It is a saying of the German peasants, "steplang7 Wenn es sich wolket, so will es regnen "[when it is cloudy, then there will be rain]; but according to another saying, "steplang7 nicht alle Wolken regnen "[it is not every cloud that yields rain]. "There are clouds and wind without rain."

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 25:15

Three proverbs follow, which have this in common, that they exhort to moderation:

15 By forbearance is a judge won over,

And a gentle tongue breaketh the bone.

קצין ( vid ., Pro 6:7) does not denote any kind of distinguished person, but a judge or a person occupying a high official position. And פּתּה does not here mean, to talk over or delude; but, like Jer 20:7, to persuade, to win over, to make favourable to one; for ארך אפּים ( vid ., Pro 14:29) is dispassionate calmness, not breaking out into wrath, which finally makes it manifest that he who has become the object of accusation, suspicion, or of disgrace, is one who nevertheless has right on his side; for indecent, boisterous passion injures even a just cause; while, on the contrary, a quiet, composed, thoughtful behaviour, which is not embarrassed by injustice, either experienced or threatened, in the end secures a decision in our favour. "Patience overcomes"is an old saying. The soft, gentle tongue (cf. רך , Pro 15:1) is the opposite of a passionate, sharp, coarse one, which only the more increases the resistance which it seeks to overcome. "Patience,"says a German proverb, "breaks iron;"another says, "Patience is stronger than a diamond."So here: a gentle tongue breaketh the bone ( גּרם = עצם , as at Pro 17:22), it softens and breaks to pieces that which is hardest. Sudden anger makes the evil still worse; long-suffering, on the contrary, operates convincingly; cutting, immoderate language, embitters and drives away; gentle words, on the contrary, persuade, if not immediately, yet by this, that they remain as it were unchangeable.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 25:16

Another way of showing self-control:

Hast thou found honey? eat thy enough,

Lest thou be surfeited with it, and vomit it up.

Honey is pleasant, salutary, and thus to be eaten sparingly, Pro 24:13, but ne quid nimis . Too much is unwholesome, 27a: αὐτοῦ καὶ μέλιτος τὸ πλέον ἐστὶ χολή , i.e. , even honey enjoyed immoderately is as bitter as gall; or, as Freidank says: steplang7 des honges süeze erdruizet sô mans ze viel geniuzet [the sweetness of honey offends when one partakes too much of it]. Eat if thou hast found any in the forest or the mountains, דּיּךּ , thy enough (lxx τὸ ἱκανόν ; the Venet . τὸ ἀρκοῦν σοι ), i.e. , as much as appeases thine appetite, that thou mayest not become surfeited and vomit it out ( והקאתו with Tsere , and א quiesc., as at 2Sa 14:10; vid ., Michlol 116a, and Parchon under קוא ). Fleischer, Ewald, Hitzig, and others, place Pro 25:16 and Pro 25:17 together, so as to form an emblematic tetrastich; but he who is surfeited is certainly, in Pro 25:16, he who willingly enjoys, and in 17, he to whom it is given to enjoy without his will; and is not, then, Pro 25:16 a sentence complete in itself in meaning? That it is not to be understood in a purely dietetic sense (although thus interpreted it is a rule not to be despised), is self-evident. As one can suffer injury from the noblest of food if he overload his stomach therewith, so in the sphere of science, instruction, edification, there is an injurious overloading of the mind; we ought to measure what we receive by our spiritual want, the right distribution of enjoyment and labour, and the degree of our ability to change it in succum et sanguinem , - else it at last awakens in us dislike, and becomes an evil to us.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 25:17

This proverb is of a kindred character to the foregoing. "If thy comrade eats honey,"says an Arabic proverb quoted by Hitzig, "do not lick it all up."But the emblem of honey is not continued in this verse:

Make rare thy foot in thy neighbour's house,

Lest he be satiated with thee, and hate thee.

To make one's foot rare or dear from a neighbour's house is equivalent to: to enter it seldom, and not too frequently; הוקר includes in itself the idea of keeping at a distance (Targ. כּלה רגלך ; Symmachus, ὑπόστειλον ; and another: φίμωσον πόδα σου ), and מן has the sense of the Arab. 'an , and is not the comparative, as at Isa 13:12 : regard thy visit dearer than the house of a neighbour (Heidenheim). The proverb also is significant as to the relation of friend to friend, whose reciprocal love may be turned into hatred by too much intercourse and too great fondness. But רעך is including a friend, any one with whom we stand in any kind of intercourse. "Let him who seeks to be of esteem,"says a German proverb, "come seldom;"and that may be said with reference to him whom his heart draws to another, and also to him who would be of use to another by drawing him out of the false way and guiding on the right path - a showing of esteem, a confirming of love by visiting, should not degenerate into forwardness which appears as burdensome servility, as indiscreet self-enjoyment; nor into a restless impetuosity, which seeks at once to gain by force that which one should allow gradually to ripen.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 25:18-22

This group of proverbs has the word רע in each of them, connecting them together. The first of the group represents a false tongue:

Pro 25:18

18 A hammer, and a sword, and a sharp arrow -

A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour.

An emblematic, or, as we might also say, an iconological proverb; for 18a is a quodlibet of instruments of murder, and 18b is the subscription under it: that which these weapons of murder accomplish, is done to his neighbour by a man who bears false witness against him - he ruins his estate, takes away his honour, but yet more: he murders him, at one time more grossly, at another time with more refinement; at one time slowly, at another time more quickly. מפיץ , from פּוּץ , is equivalent to מפּץ , and מפּץ from נפץ ; the Syr. and Targ. have instead פדועא ( פדיעא ) from פּדע = פּצע ; the word פּריעא , on which Hitzig builds a conjecture, is an error of transcription ( vid ., Lagarde and Levy). The expression, 18b, is from the decalogue, Exo 20:16; Deu 5:17. It is for the most part translated the same here as there: he who speaks against his neighbour as a false witness. But rightly the lxx, Jerome, the Venet ., and Luther: false testimony. As אל sA .y signifies both that which is mighty = power, and Him who is mighty = God, so עד signifies both him who bears testimony and the testimony that is borne, properly that which repeats itself and thereby strengthens itself; accordingly we say ענה עד , to give testimony in reply - viz. to the judge who asks - or generally to offer testimony (even unasked); as well as ענה לעד , Deu 31:21, i.e. , as evidence (Jerome, pro testimonio ). The prep. ב with this ענה has always the meaning of contra , also at 1Sa 12:3; Gen 30:33 is, however, open to question.

Pro 25:19

19 A worthless tooth and an unsteady foot -

Trust in a faithless man in the day of need.

The form רעה (with Mercha on the antepenult), Isa 29:19, takes the place of an inf . absol .; רעה here (about the tone syllable of which Dechî does not decide, thus without doubt Milra ) is certainly not a subst.: tooth of breaking (Gesen.); for how strange such a designation of a worthless tooth! שׁן is indeed mas. in 1Sa 14:5, but it can also be used as fem., as רגל , which is for the most part fem., also occurs as mas., Göttche. §650. Böttcher, in the new Aehrenlese , and in the Lehrbuch, takes רעה as fem. of an adj. רע , after the form חל ; but חל is not an adj., and does not form a fem., although it means not merely profanity, but that which is profane; this is true also of the Aram. חוּל ; for חוּלתּא , Est 2:9, Targ., is a female name mistaken by Buxtorf. Are we then to read רעה , with Hitzig, after the lxx? - an unimportant change. We interpret the traditional רעה , with Fleischer, as derived from רועעה , from רועע , breaking to pieces (crumbling), in an intransitive sense. The form מוּעדת is also difficult. Böttcher regards it as also, e.g. , Aben Ezra after the example of Gecatilia as part . Kal . = מועדת , "only on account of the pausal tone and the combination of the two letters מע with û instead of ô ."But this vocal change, with its reasons, is merely imaginary. מוּעדת is the part. Pual , with the preformative מ struck out, Ewald 169d. The objection that the part. Pual should be ממעד , after the form מבער , does not prove anything to the contrary; for מועדת cannot be the fem. so as not to coincide with the fem. of the part . Kal , cf. besides to the long û the form without the Dagesh יוּקשׁים , Ecc 9:12 = מיקּשׁים (Arnheim, Gramm . p. 139). רגל מוּעדת is a leg that has become tottering, trembling. He who in a time of need makes a faithless man his ground of confidence, is like one who seeks to bite with a broken tooth, and which he finally crushes, and one who supports himself on a shaking leg, and thus stumbles and falls. The gen. connection מבטח בוגד signifies either the ground of confidence consisting in a faithless man, or the confidence placed in one who is faithless. But, after the Masora, we are to read here, as at Psa 65:6, מבטח , which Michlol 184a also confirms, and as it is also found in the Venice 1525, Basel 1619, and in Norzi. This מבטה is constr. according to Kimchi, notwithstanding the Kametz ; as also משׁקל , Ezr 8:30 (after Abulwalîd, Kimchi, and Norzi). In this passage before us, מבטח בוגד may signify a deceitful ground of confidence (cf. Hab 2:5), but the two other passages present a genit. connection of the words. We must thus suppose that the ā of מבטח and משׁקל , in these three passages, is regarded as fixed, like the â of the form (Arab.) mif'âl .

Pro 25:20

The above proverb, which connects itself with Pro 25:18, not only by the sound רע , but also by שׁן , which is assonant with שׁנון , is followed by another with the catchword רע :

20 He that layeth aside his coat on a day of frost, vinegar on nitre,

And he who welcomes with songs a dejected heart.

Is not this intelligible, sensible, ingenious? All these three things are wrong. The first is as wrong as the second, and the third, which the proverb has in view, is morally wrong, for one ought to weep with those that weep, Rom 12:15; he, on the contrary, who laughs among those who weep, is, on the most favourable judgment, a fool. That which is wrong in 20a, according to Böttcher in the Aehrenlese , 1849, consists in this, that one in severe cold puts on a fine garment. As if there were not garments which are at the same time beautiful, and keep warm? In the new Aehrenlese he prefers the reading משׁנּה : if one changes his coat. But that surely he might well enough do, if the one were warmer than the other! Is it then impossible that מעדה , in the connection, means transire faciens = removens ? The Kal עדה , tarnsiit , occurs at Job 28:8. So also, in the poetic style. העדה might be used in the sense of the Aram. אעדּי . Rightly Aquila, Symmachus, περιαιρῶν ; the Venet . better, ἀφαιρούμενος (Mid.). בּגד is an overcoat or mantle, so called from covering, as לבוּשׁ (R. לב , to fasten, fix), the garment lying next the body, vid ., at Psa 22:19. Thus, as it is foolish to lay off upper clothing on a frosty day, so it is foolish also to pour vinegar on nitre; carbonic acid nitre, whether it be mineral (which may be here thought of) or vegetable, is dissolved in water, and serves diverse purposes ( vid ., under Isa 1:25); but if one pours vinegar on it, it is destroyed. לב־רע

(Note: The writing wavers between על לב־רע (cf. על עם־דּל ) and על־בל רע dna )על ע .)

is, at Pro 26:23 and elsewhere, a heart morally bad, here a heart badly disposed, one inclined to that which is evil; for שׁר שׁיר is the contrast of קונן קינה , and always the consequence of a disposition joyfully excited; the inconsistency lies in this, that one thinks to cheer a sorrowful heart by merry singing, if the singing has an object, and is not much more the reckless expression of an animated pleasure in view of the sad condition of another. שׁיר על .rehtona signifies, as at Job 33:27, to sing to any one, to address him in singing; cf. דּבּר על , Jer 6:10, and particularly על־לב , Hos 2:16; Isa 40:2. The ב of בּשּׁרים is neither the partitive, Pro 9:5, nor the transitive, Pro 20:30, but the instrumental; for, as e.g. , at Exo 7:20, the obj. of the action is thought of as its means (Gesen. §138, Anm. 3*); one sings "with songs,"for definite songs underlie his singing. The lxx, which the Syr., Targ., and Jerome more or less follow, has formed from this proverb one quite different: "As vinegar is hurtful to a wound, so an injury to the body makes the heart sorrowful; as the moth in clothes, and the worm in wood, so the sorrow of a man injures his heart."The wisdom of this pair of proverbs is not worth much, and after all inquiry little or nothing comes of it. The Targ. at least preserves the figure 20b: as he who pours vinegar (Syr. chalo ) on nitre; the Peshito, however, and here and there also the Targum, has jathro (arrow-string) instead of methro (nitre). Hitzig adopts this, and changes the tristich into the distich:

He that meeteth archers with arrow on the string,

Is like him who singeth songs with a sad heart.

The Hebrew of this proverb of Hitzig's ( מרים קרה על־יתר ) is unhebraic, the meaning dark as an oracle, and its moral contents nil.

Pro 25:21-22

21 If thine enemy hunger, feed him with bread;

And if he thirst, give him water to drink.

22 For thereby thou heapest burning coals on his head,

And Jahve will recompense it to thee.

The translation of this proverb by the lxx is without fault; Paul cites therefrom Rom 12:20. The participial construction of 22a, the lxx, rightly estimating it, thus renders: for, doing this, thou shalt heap coals on his head. The expression, "thou shalt heap"( σωρεύσεις ), is also appropriate; for חתה certainly means first only to fetch or bring fire ( vid ., Pro 6:27); but here, by virtue of the constructio praegnans with על , to fetch, and hence to heap up - to pile upon. Burning pain, as commonly observed, is the figure of burning shame, on account of undeserved kindness shown by an enemy (Fleischer). But how burning coals heaped on the head can denote burning shame, is not to be perceived, for the latter is a burning on the cheeks; wherefore Hitzig and Rosenmüller explain: thou wilt thus bring on him the greatest pain, and appease thy vengeance, while at the same time Jahve will reward thy generosity. Now we say, indeed, that he who rewards evil with good takes the noblest revenge; but if this doing of good proceed from a revengeful aim, and is intended sensibly to humble an adversary, then it loses all its moral worth, and is changed into selfish, malicious wickedness. Must the proverb then be understood in this ignoble sense? The Scriptures elsewhere say that guilt and punishment are laid on the head of any one when he is made to experience and to bear them. Chrysostom and others therefore explain after Psa 140:10 and similar passages, but thereby the proverb is morally falsified, and Pro 25:22 accords with Pro 25:21, which counsels not to the avenging of oneself, but to the requital of evil with good. The burning of coals laid on the head must be a painful but wholesome consequence; it is a figure of self-accusing repentance (Augustine, Zöckler), for the producing of which the showing of good to an enemy is a noble motive. That God rewards such magnanimity may not be the special motive; but this view might contribute to it, for otherwise such promises of God as Isa 58:8-12 were without moral right. The proverb also requires one to show himself gentle and liberal toward a needy enemy, and present a twofold reason for this: first, that thereby his injustice is brought home to his conscience; and, secondly, that thus God is well-pleased in such practical love toward an enemy, and will reward it; - by such conduct, apart from the performance of a law grounded in our moral nature, one advances the happiness of his neighbour and his own.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 25:23

The next group of proverbs extends from Pro 25:23 to Pro 25:28.

23 Wind from the north produceth rain;

And a secret tongue a troubled countenance.

The north is called צפון , from צפן , to conceal, from the firmament darkening itself for a longer time, and more easily, like the old Persian apâkhtara , as (so it appears) the starless, and, like aquilo , the north wind, as bringing forward the black clouds. But properly the "fathers of rain"are, in Syria, the west and the south-west; and so little can צפון here mean the pure north wind, that Jerome, who knew from his own experience the changes of weather in Palestine, helps himself, after Symmachus ( διαλύει βροχήν ), with a quid pro quo out of the difficulty: ventus aquilo dissipat pluvias ; the Jewish interpreters (Aben Ezra, Joseph Kimchi, and Meîri) also thus explain, for they connect together תחולל , in the meaning תמנע , with the unintelligible חלילה (far be it!). But צפון may also, perhaps like ζόφος ( Deutsch. Morgenl. Zeitsch . xxi. 600f.), standing not without connection therewith, denote the northwest; and probably the proverb emphasized the northern direction of the compass, because, according to the intention of the similitude, he seeks to designate such rain as is associated with raw, icy-cold weather, as the north wind (Pro 27:16, lxx, Sir. 43:20) brings along with it. The names of the winds are gen. fem ., e.g. , Isa 43:6. תּחולל (Aquila, ὠδίνει ; cf. Pro 8:24, ὠδινήθην ) has in Codd., e.g. , the Jaman ., the tone on the penult ., and with Tsere Metheg ( Thorath Emeth , p. 21) serving as העמדה . So also the Arab. nataj is used of the wind, as helping the birth of the rain-clouds. Manifestly פנים נזעמים , countenances manifesting extreme displeasure ( vid ., the Kal זעם , Pro 24:24), are compared to rain. With justice Hitzig renders פנים , as e.g. , Joh 2:6, in the plur. sense; because, for the influence which the tongue slandering in secret (Psa 101:5) has on the slandered, the "sorrowful countenance"would not be so characteristic as for the influence which it exercises on the mutual relationships of men: the secret babbler, the confidential communication throwing suspicion, now on this one and now on that one, behind their backs, excites men against one another, so that one shows to another a countenance in which deep displeasure and suspicion express themselves.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 25:24

24 Better to sit on the top of a roof,

Than a quarrelsome woman and a house in common.

A repetition of Pro 21:9.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 25:25

25 Fresh water to a thirsty soul;

And good news from a far country.

Vid ., regarding the form of this proverb, vol. i. p. 9; we have a similar proverb regarding the influence of good news at Pro 15:30. Fresh cold water is called at Jer 18:14 מים קרים ; vid ., regarding קר , 18:27. " עיף , cogn. יעף , and עוּף , properly to become darkened, therefore figuratively like (Arab.) gushiya 'alyh , to become faint, to become feeble unto death, of the darkness which spreads itself over the eyes"(Fleischer).

This proverb, with the figure of "fresh water,"is now followed by one with the figure of a "fountain":

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 25:26

26 A troubled fountain and a ruined spring -

A righteous man yielding to a godless man.

For the most part, in מט one thinks of a yielding in consequence of being forced. Thus e.g. , Fleischer: as a troubled ruined spring is a misfortune for the people who drink out of it, or draw from it, so is it a misfortune for the surrounding of the righteous, when he is driven from his dwelling or his possession by an unrighteous man. And it is true: the righteous can be compared to a well ( מעין , well-spring, from עין , a well, as an eye of the earth, and מקור , fountain, from קוּר , R. קר , כר , to round out, to dig out), with reference to the blessing which flows from it to its surroundings (cf. Pro 10:11 and Joh 7:38). But the words "yielding to"(contrast "stood before,"2Ki 10:4, or Jos 7:12), in the phrase "yielding to the godless,"may be understood of a spontaneous as well as of a constrained, forced, wavering and yielding, as the expression in the Psalm בּל־אמּוט [ non movebor , Psa 10:6] affirms the certainty of being neither inwardly nor outwardly ever moved or shaken. The righteous shall stand fast and strong in God without fearing the godless (Isa 51:12.), unmoveable and firm as a brazen wall (Jer 1:17.). If, however, he is wearied with resistance, and from the fear of man, or the desire to please man, or from a false love of peace he yields before it, and so gives way - then he becomes like to a troubled fountain ( רפשׂ , cogn. רמס , Eze 34:18; Isa 41:25; Jerome: fans turbatus pede ), a ruined spring; his character, hitherto pure, is now corrupted by his own guilt, and now far from being a blessing to others, his wavering is a cause of sorrow to the righteous, and an offence to the weak - he is useful no longer, but only injurious. Rightly Lagarde: "The verse, one of the most profound of the whole book, does not speak of the misfortunate, but of the fall of the righteous, whose sin compromises the holy cause which he serves, 2Sa 12:14."Thus also e.g. , Löwenstein, with reference to the proverb Sanhedrin 92b: also in the time of danger let not a man disown his honour. Bachja, in his Ethics , referring to this figure, 26a, thinks of the possibility of restoration: the righteous wavers only for the moment, but at last he comes right ( מתמוטט ועולה ). But this interpretation of the figure destroys the point of the proverb.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 25:27

This verse, as it stands, is scarcely to be understood. The Venet . translates 27b literally: ἔρευνά τε δόξας αὐτῶν δόξα ; but what is the reference of this כּבדם ? Euchel and others refer it to men, for they translate: "to set a limit to the glory of man is true glory;"but the "glory of man"is denoted by the phrase כּבד אדם , not by כּבדם ; and, besides, חקר does not mean measure and limit. Oetinger explains: "To eat too much honey is not good; whereas the searching after their glory, viz., of pleasant and praiseworthy things, which are likened to honey, is glory, cannot be too much done, and is never without utility and honour;"but how can כּבדם be of the same meaning as כּבד הדברים אשׁר or הנמשׁלים כּדּבשׁ - such an abbreviation of the expression is impossible. Schultens, according to Rashi: vestigatio gravitatis eorum est gravitas , i.e. , the searching out of their difficulty is a trouble; better Vitringa (since כבוד nowhere occurs in this sense of gravitas molesta ac pondere oppressura ): investigatio praestantiae eorum est gloriosa ; but Vitringa, in order to gain a connection to 27a, needs to introduce etiamsi , and in both explanations the reference of the כּבדם is imaginary, and it by no means lies near, since the Scripture uses the word כבוד of God, and His kingdom and name, but never of His law or His revelation. Thus also is an argument against Bertheau, who translates: the searching out of their glory (viz., of the divine law and revelation) is a burden, a strenuous occupation of the mind, since חקר does not in itself mean searching out, and is equivocally, even unintelligibly, expressed, since כבוד denotes, it is true, here and there, a great multitude, but never a burden (as כּבד ). The thought which Jerome finds in 27b: qui scrutator est majestatis opprimetur a gloria , is judicious, and connects itself synonym. with 27a; but such a thought is unwarranted, for he disregards the suff. of כּבדם , and renders כבוד in the sense of difficulty (oppression). Or should it perhaps be vocalized כּבדם (Syr., Targ., Theodotion, δεδοξασμένα = נכבּדות )? Thus vocalized, Umbreit renders it in the sense of honores ; Elster and Zöckler in the sense of difficultates ( difficilia ); but this plur., neither the biblical, nor, so far as I know, the post-bibl. usage of the word has ever adopted. However, the sense of the proverb which Elster and Zöckler gain is certainly that which is aimed at. We accordingly translate:

To surfeit oneself in eating honey is not good,

But as an inquirer to enter on what is difficult is honour.

We read כּבדם instead of כּבדם . This change commends itself far more than כּבד מכּבוד ( וחקר ), according to which Gesenius explains: nimium studium honoris est sine honore - impossible, for חקר does not signify nimium studium , in the sense of striving, but only that of inquiry: one strives after honour, but does not study it. Hitzig and Ewald, after the example of J. D. Michaelis, Arnoldi, and Ziegler, betake themselves therefore to the Arabic; Ewald explains, for he leaves the text unchanged: "To despise their honour (that is, of men) is honour (true, real honour);"Hitzig, for he changes the text like Gesenius: "To despise honour is more than honour,"with the ingenious remark: To obtain an order [ insigne ordinis ] is an honour, but not to wear it then for the first time is its bouquet. Nowhere any trace either in Hebrew or in Aramaic is to be found of the verb חקר , to despise (to be despised), and so it must here remain without example.

(Note: The Hebrew meaning investigare , and the equivalent Arabic ḥaḳr , contemnere ( contemtui esse ), are derivations from the primary meaning (R. חק ): to go down from above firmly on anything, and thus to press in (to cut in), or also to press downward.)

Nor have we any need of it. The change of כּבדם into כּבדם is enough. The proverb is an antithetic distich; 27a warns against inordinate longing after enjoyments, 27b praises earnest labour. Instead of דּבשׁ הרבּות , if honey in the mass were intended, the words would have been דּבשׁ הרבּה (Ecc 5:11; 1Ki 10:10), or at least הרבּות דּבשׁ (Amo 4:9); הרבות can only be a n. actionis , and אכל דּבשׁ its inverted object (cf. Jer 9:4), as Böttcher has discerned: to make much of the eating of honey, to do much therein is not good (cf. Pro 25:16). In 27b Luther also partly hits on the correct rendering: "and he who searches into difficult things, to him it is too difficult,"for which it ought to be said: to him it is an honour. כּבדם , viz., דברים , signifies difficult things, as ריקים , Pro 12:11, vain things. The Heb. כּבד , however, never means difficult to be understood or comprehended (although more modern lexicons say this),

(Note: Cf. Sir. 3:20f. with Ben-Sira's Heb. text in my Gesch. der jüd. Poesie , p. 204 (vv. 30-32); nowhere does this adj. כבד appears here in this warning against meditating over the transcendental.)

but always only burdensome and heavy, gravis , not difficilis . כבדם are also things of which the חקר , i.e. , the fundamental searching into them (Pro 18:17; Pro 25:2.), costs an earnest effort, which perhaps, according to the first impression, appears to surpass the available strength (cf. Exo 18:18). To overdo oneself in eating honey is not good; on the contrary, the searching into difficult subjects is nothing less than an eating of honey, but an honour. There is here a paronomasia . Fleischer translates it: explorare gravia grave est ; but we render grave est not in the sense of molestiam creat , but gravitatem parit (weight = respect, honour).

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 25:28

This verse, counselling restraint as to the spirit, is connected with the foregoing, which counsels to self-control as to enjoyment:

A city broken through, now without walls -

A man without self-control over his spirit.

A "city broken down"is one whose wall is "broken,"2Ch 32:5, whether it has met with breaches ( פּרצים ), or is wholly broken; in the former case also the city is incapable of being defended, and it is all one as if it had no wall. Such a city is like a man "who hath no control over his own spirit"(for the accentuation of the Heb. words here, vid ., Thorath Emeth , p. 10): cujus spiritui nulla cohibitio (Schultens), i.e. , qui animum suum cohibere non potest (Fleischer: עצר , R. צר , to press together, to oppress, and thereby to hold back). As such a city can be plundered and laid waste without trouble, so a man who knows not to hold in check his desires and affections is in constant danger of blindly following the impulse of his unbridled sensuality, and of being hurried forward to outbreaks of passion, and thus of bringing unhappiness upon himself. There are sensual passions ( e.g. , drunkenness), intellectual ( e.g. , ambition), mingled ( e.g. , revenge); but in all of these a false ego rules, which, instead of being held down by the true and better ego, rises to unbounded supremacy.

(Note: Vid ., Drbal's Empirische Psychologie , §137.)

Therefore the expression used is not לנפשׁו , but לרוּחו ; desire has its seat in the soul, but in the spirit it grows into passion, which in the root of all its diversities is selfishness ( Psychol . p. 199); self-control is accordingly the ruling of the spirit, i.e. , the restraining (keeping down) of the false enslaved ego-life by the true and free, and powerful in God Himself.

Constable: Pro 25:1--29:27

IV. MAXIMS EXPRESSING WISDOM chs. 25--29

We return now to the proverbs of Solomon (cf. 1:1-22:16). Chapters 25-26 contain proverbs that are mainly comparisons. The key words in these chapters are "like . . . so." Chapter 27 is a mixture of comparative and antithetical proverbs. Chapters 28-29 contain maxims that are mainly contrasts marked by the word "but." In all these chapters there are mostly couplets but also some longer proverbs. I counted 66 proverbs in the group of analogies (25:1-27:22) and 54 in the group of contrasts (chs. 28-29). This gives us 120 proverbs in this major section of the book if we exclude the discourse on prudence in 27:23-27.

I will again (in chs. 25-29, as in 10:1-22:16) comment only on those verses that seem to me to need clarification.

Constable: Pro 25:1-28

1. Wise and foolish conduct ch. 25

25:1 A group of scholars who served during King Hezekiah's reign (715-686 B.C.) added more of Solomon's 3,000 proverbs (1 Kings 4:32) to the former collection (1:1-22:16). These men lived about 250 years after Solomon. Solomon ruled from 971-931 B.C. This verse introduces chapters 25-29.

"The proverbs in these chapters differ in that there are more multiple line sayings and more similes; chapters 28-29 are similar to chapters 10-16, but chapters 25-27 differ in having few references to God."¹⁸²

25:2 The fact that God has chosen not to reveal everything human beings want to know has resulted in our holding Him in awe and glorifying Him (cf. Deut. 29:29). However a king's subjects hold him in awe and glorify him when he diligently investigates a matter and does not make his decisions on the basis of superficial understanding.

25:8-10 This proverb advises us to settle disputes out of court whenever possible. It is not wise to drag someone hastily into court to argue. We should be cautious about divulging information. This may lead to embarrassment (v. 8). We should not divulge secrets to clear ourselves in arguments or we may ruin a friendship. The plaintiff should debate his case with his neighbor out of court. Then the point of disagreement will not become public knowledge (v. 9) and give the plaintiff a bad reputation (v. 10).

"To run to the law or to the neighbors is usually to run away from the duty of personal relationship--see Christ's clinching comment in Matthew 18:15b."¹⁸³

25:11 "Gold" may refer to the color of the fruit or possibly to the metal. "Settings" suggests an appropriate background such as an attractive basket or frame if the picture of an apple is in view. The point is that just the right words spoken at the right time in the right way can be as pleasing as a beautiful piece of fruit in a suitable container.¹⁸⁴

25:15 By adding a few words the idea of this verse becomes clearer. "By forbearance [of speech] a ruler may be persuaded." That is, do not speak too long. A gentle tongue can be very powerful.

"Calm and patient speech can break down insurmountable opposition."¹⁸⁵

25:16 Anything overindulged, even the most desirable of things, can become distasteful and repulsive.

"Since Eden, man has wanted the last ounce out of life, as though beyond God's enough' lay ecstasy, not nausea."¹⁸⁶

25:21-22 Clearly the point of this proverb is to return good for evil (cf. Matt. 6:4-6; Rom. 12:20). Such conduct will bring blessing from God and remorse to the evildoer. Still what does heaping burning coals on the head of the abuser mean? Evidently this clause alludes to an ancient custom. When a person's fire went out at home, he or she would go to a neighbor and get some live coals to rekindle the fire. Carrying the coals in a pan on the head involved some danger and discomfort for the person carrying them, but they were an evidence of the neighbor's love. Likewise the person who receives good in return for evil feels somewhat uncomfortable even though he receives a good gift. His discomfort arises over his guilt for having wronged his neighbor in the first place. So returning good for evil not only secures the blessing of God (v. 22b), it also convicts the wrongdoer of his ways (v. 22a) in a gentle way.

25:23 The angry countenance belongs to the person who is the target of the backbiting (slanderous) tongue. Sly words can infuriate people just as a northerly wind brings rain. These are inevitable results.

25:27 Both practices in this verse are pleasant for the person who engages in them, but they can affect him adversely if he pursues them to excess.

Commentary -- Other

Evidence: Pro 25:19

A broken tooth or a foot out of joint cause the most pain when they are put under pressure. How do we react when we are put under pressure to share our faith?

Evidence: Pro 25:28

We allow the enemy entrance when we give the flesh free reign, having no self-control over our spirit.

Introduction / Outline

JFB: Proverbs (Book Introduction)

THE NATURE AND USE OF PROVERBS.--A proverb is a pithy sentence, concisely expressing some well-established truth susceptible of various illustrations and applications. The word is of Latin derivation, literally meaning for a word, speech, or discourse; that is, one expression for many. The Hebrew word for "proverb" (mashal) means a "comparison." Many suppose it was used, because the form or matter of the proverb, or both, involved the idea of comparison. Most of the proverbs are in couplets or triplets, or some modifications of them, the members of which correspond in structure and length, as if arranged to be compared one with another. They illustrate the varieties of parallelism, a distinguishing feature of Hebrew poetry. Compare Introduction to Poetical Books. Many also clearly involve the idea of comparison in the sentiments expressed (compare Pro 12:1-10; Pro 25:10-15; Pro 26:1-9). Sometimes, however, the designed omission of one member of the comparison, exercising the reader's sagacity or study for its supply, presents the proverb as a "riddle" or "dark saying" (compare Pro. 30:15-33; Pro 1:6; Psa 49:4). The sententious form of expression, which thus became a marked feature of the proverbial style, was also adopted for continuous discourse, even when not always preserving traces of comparison, either in form or matter (compare Pro. 1:1-9:18). In Eze 17:1; Eze 24:3, we find the same word properly translated "parable," to designate an illustrative discourse. Then the Greek translators have used a word, parabola ("parable"), which the gospel writers (except John) employ for our Lord's discourses of the same character, and which also seems to involve the idea of comparison, though that may not be its primary meaning. It might seem, therefore, that the proverbial and parabolic styles of writing were originally and essentially the same. The proverb is a "concentrated parable, and the parable an extension of the proverb by a full illustration." The proverb is thus the moral or theme of a parable, which sometimes precedes it, as in Mat 19:30 (compare Pro 20:1); or succeeds it, as in Mat. 22:1-16; Luk 15:1-10. The style being poetical, and adapted to the expression of a high order of poetical sentiment, such as prophecy, we find the same term used to designate such compositions (compare Num 23:7; Mic 2:4; Hab 2:6).

Though the Hebrews used the same term for proverb and parable, the Greek employs two, though the sacred writers have not always appeared to recognize a distinction. The term for proverb is, paroimia, which the Greek translators employ for the title of this book, evidently with special reference to the later definition of a proverb, as a trite, sententious form of speech, which appears to be the best meaning of the term. John uses the same term to designate our Saviour's instructions, in view of their characteristic obscurity (compare Pro 16:25-29, Greek), and even for his illustrative discourses (Pro 10:6), whose sense was not at once obvious to all his hearers. This form of instruction was well adapted to aid the learner. The parallel structure of sentences, the repetition, contrast, or comparison of thought, were all calculated to facilitate the efforts of memory; and precepts of practical wisdom which, extended into logical discourses, might have failed to make abiding impressions by reason of their length or complicated character, were thus compressed into pithy, and, for the most part, very plain statements. Such a mode of instruction has distinguished the written or traditional literature of all nations, and was, and still is, peculiarly current in the East.

In this book, however, we are supplied with a proverbial wisdom commended by the seal of divine inspiration. God has condescended to become our teacher on the practical affairs belonging to all the relations of life. He has adapted His instruction to the plain and unlettered, and presented, in this striking and impressive method, the great principles of duty to Him and to our fellow men. To the prime motive of all right conduct, the fear of God, are added all lawful and subordinate incentives, such as honor, interest, love, fear, and natural affection. Besides the terror excited by an apprehension of God's justly provoked judgments, we are warned against evil-doing by the exhibition of the inevitable temporal results of impiety, injustice, profligacy, idleness, laziness, indolence, drunkenness, and debauchery. To the rewards of true piety which follow in eternity, are promised the peace, security, love, and approbation of the good, and the comforts of a clear conscience, which render this life truly happy.

INSPIRATION AND AUTHORSHIP.--With no important exception, Jewish and Christian writers have received this book as the inspired production of Solomon. It is the first book of the Bible prefaced by the name of the author. The New Testament abounds with citations from the Proverbs. Its intrinsic excellence commends it to us as the production of a higher authority than the apocryphal writings, such as Wisdom or Ecclesiasticus. Solomon lived five hundred years before the "seven wise men" of Greece, and seven hundred before the age of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. It is thus very evident, whatever theory of his sources of knowledge be adopted, that he did not draw upon any heathen repositories with which we are acquainted. It is far more probable, that by the various migrations, captivities, and dispersions of the Jews, heathen philosophers drew from this inspired fountain many of those streams which continue to refresh mankind amid the otherwise barren and parched deserts of profane literature.

As, however, the Psalms are ascribed to David, because he was the leading author, so the ascription of this book to Solomon is entirely consistent with the titles of the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters, which assign those chapters to Agur and Lemuel respectively. Of these persons we know nothing. This is not the place for discussing the various speculations respecting them. By a slight change of reading some propose to translate Pro 30:1 : "The words of Agur, the son of her who was obeyed Massa," that is, "the queen of Massa"; and Pro 31:1 : "The words of Lemuel, king of Massa"; but to this the earliest versions are contradictory, and nothing other than the strongest exegetical necessity ought to be allowed to justify a departure from a well-established reading and version when nothing useful to our knowledge is gained. It is better to confess ignorance than indulge in useless conjectures.

It is probable that out of the "three thousand proverbs" (1Ki 4:32) which Solomon spoke, he selected and edited Pro. 1:1-24:34 during his life. Pro. 25:1-29:27 were also of his production, and copied out in the days of Hezekiah, by his "men," perhaps the prophets Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah. Such a work was evidently in the spirit of this pious monarch, who set his heart so fully on a reformation of God's worship. Learned men have endeavored to establish the theory that Solomon himself was only a collector; or that the other parts of the book, as these chapters, were also selections by later hands; but the reasons adduced to maintain these views have never appeared so satisfactory as to change the usual opinions on the subject, which have the sanction of the most ancient and reliable authorities.

DIVISIONS OF THE BOOK.--Such a work is, of course, not susceptible of any logical analysis. There are, however, some well-defined marks of division, so that very generally the book is divided into five or six parts.

1. The first contains nine chapters, in which are discussed and enforced by illustration, admonition, and encouragement the principles and blessings of wisdom, and the pernicious schemes and practices of sinful persons. These chapters are introductory. With few specimens of the proper proverb, they are distinguished by its conciseness and terseness. The sentences follow very strictly the form of parallelism, and generally of the synonymous species, only forty of the synthetic and four (Pro 3:32-35) of the antithetic appearing. The style is ornate, the figures bolder and fuller, and the illustrations more striking and extended.

2. The antithetic and synthetic parallelism to the exclusion of the synonymous distinguish Pro. 10:1-22:16, and the verses are entirely unconnected, each containing a complete sense in itself.

3. Pro. 22:16-24:34 present a series of admonitions as if addressed to a pupil, and generally each topic occupies two or more verses.

4. Pro. 25:1-29:27 are entitled to be regarded as a distinct portion, for the reason given above as to its origin. The style is very much mixed; of the peculiarities, compare parts two and three.

5. Pro. 30:1-33 is peculiar not only for its authorship, but as a specimen of the kind of proverb which has been described as "dark sayings" or "riddles."

6. To a few pregnant but concise admonitions, suitable for a king, is added a most inimitable portraiture of female character. In both parts five and six the distinctive peculiarity of the original proverbial style gives place to the modifications already mentioned as marking a later composition, though both retain the concise and nervous method of stating truth, equally valuable for its deep impression and permanent retention by the memory.

TSK: Proverbs (Book Introduction)

The wisdom of all ages, from the highest antiquity, has chosen to compress and communicate its lessons in short, compendious sentences, and in poetic language, which were readily conceived and easily retained, and circulated in society as useful principles, to be unfolded as occasion required. Indeed, such short maxims, comprehending much instruction in a few words, and carrying their own evidence with them, are admirably adapted to direct the conduct, without overburdening the memory, or perplexing the mind with abstract reasonings; and hence there are, in all countries and in all languages, old proverbs, or common sayings, which have great authority and influence on the opinions and actions of mankind. Such maxims, however, want their proper basis, the sanction of a Divine Original; and being generally the mere result of worldly prudence, are often calculated to impose on the judgment, and to mislead those who are directed by them. But the proverbs in this book not only are far more ancient than any others extant in the world, and infinitely surpass all the ethical sayings of the ancient sages; but have also received a Divine imprimatur, and are infallible rules to direct our conduct in every circumstance of human life. They are so justly founded on the principles of human nature, and so adapted to the permanent interests of man, that they agree with the manners of every age; and are adapted to every period, condition, or rank in life, however varied in its complexion or diversified by circumstance. Kings and subjects, rich and poor, wise and foolish, old and young, fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, masters and servants, may here learn their respective duties, and read lessons of instruction for the regulation of their conduct in their various circumstances; while the most powerful motives, derived from honour, interest, love, fear, natural affection, and piety, are exhibited to inspire an ardent love of wisdom and virtue, and the greatest detestation of ignorance and vice. These maxims are laid down so clearly, copiously, impressively, and in such variety, that every man who wishes to be instructed may take what he chooses, and, among multitudes, those which he likes best. " He is wise," say St. Basil, " not only who hath arrived at a complete habit of wisdom, but who hath made some progress towards it; nay, who doth as yet but love it, or desire it, and listen to it. Such as these, by reading this book, shall be made wiser; for they shall be instructed in much divine, and in no less human learning....It bridles the injurious tongue, corrects the wanton eye, and ties the unjust hand in chains. It persecutes sloth, chastises all absurd desires, teaches prudence, raises man’s courage, and represents temperance and chastity after such a fashion that one cannot but have them in veneration."

TSK: Proverbs 25 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

Pro 25:1, Observations about kings, Pro 25:8, and about avoiding causes of quarrels, and sundry causes thereof.

MHCC: Proverbs (Book Introduction)

The subject of this book may be thus stated by an enlargement on the opening verses. 1. The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. 2. Which treat of the knowledge of wisdom, of piety towards God, of instruction and moral discipline, of the understanding wise and prudent counsels. 3. Which treat of the attainment of instruction in wisdom, which wisdom is to be shown in the conduct of life, and consists in righteousness with regard to our fellow-creatures. 4. Which treat of the giving to the simple sagacity to discover what is right, by supplying them with just principles, and correct views of virtue and vice; and to the young man knowledge, so that he need not err through ignorance; and discretion, so that by pondering well these precepts, he may not err through obstinacy. Take the proverbs of other nations, and we shall find great numbers founded upon selfishness, cunning, pride, injustice, national contempt, and animosities. The principles of the Proverbs of Solomon are piety, charity, justice, benevolence, and true prudence. Their universal purity proves that they are the word of God.

Matthew Henry: Proverbs (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of The Proverbs

We have now before us, I. A new author, or penman rather, or pen (if you will) made use of by the Holy Ghost for making known the mind of God to us, writing as moved by the finger of God (so the Spirit of God is called), and that is Solomon; through his hand came this book of Scripture and the two that follow it, Ecclesiastes and Canticles, a sermon and a song. Some think he wrote Canticles when he was very young, Proverbs in the midst of his days, and Ecclesiastes when he was old. In the title of his song he only writes himself Solomon, perhaps because he wrote it before his accession to the throne, being filled with the Holy Ghost when he was young. In the title of his Proverbs he writes himself the son of David, king of Israel, for then he ruled over all Israel. In the title of his Ecclesiastes he writes himself the son of David, king of Jerusalem, because then perhaps his influence had grown less upon the distant tribes, and he confined himself very much in Jerusalem. Concerning this author we may observe, 1. That he was a king, and a king's son. The penmen of scripture, hitherto, were most of them men of the first rank in the world, as Moses and Joshua, Samuel and David, and now Solomon; but, after him, the inspired writers were generally poor prophets, men of no figure in the world, because that dispensation was approaching in the which God would choose the weak and foolish things of the world to confound the wise and mighty and the poor should be employed to evangelize. Solomon was a very rich king, and his dominions were very large, a king of the first magnitude, and yet he addicted himself to the study of divine things, and was a prophet and a prophet's son. It is no disparagement to the greatest princes and potentates in the world to instruct those about them in religion and the laws of it. 2. That he was one whom God endued with extraordinary measures of wisdom and knowledge, in answer to his prayers at his accession to the throne. His prayer was exemplary: Give me a wise and an understanding heart; the answer to it was encouraging: he had what he desired and all other things were added to him. Now here we find what good use he made of the wisdom God gave him; he not only governed himself and his kingdom with it, but he gave rules of wisdom to others also, and transmitted them to posterity. Thus must we trade with the talents with which we are entrusted, according as they are. 3. That he was one who had his faults, and in his latter end turned aside from those good ways of God which in this book he had directed others in. We have the story of it 1 Kings 11, and a sad story it is, that the penman of such a book as this should apostatize as he did. Tell it not in Gath. But let those who are most eminently useful take warning by this not to be proud or secure; and let us all learn not to think the worse of good instructions though we have them from those who do not themselves altogether live up to them.

II. A new way of writing, in which divine wisdom is taught us by Proverbs, or short sentences, which contain their whole design within themselves and are not connected with one another. We have had divine laws, histories, and songs, and how divine proverbs; such various methods has Infinite Wisdom used for our instruction, that, no stone being left unturned to do us good, we may be inexcusable if we perish in our folly. Teaching by proverbs was, 1. An ancient way of teaching. It was the most ancient way among the Greeks; each of the seven wise men of Greece had some one saying that he valued himself upon, and that made him famous. These sentences were inscribed on pillars, and had in great veneration as that which was said to come down from heaven. A coelo descendit, Gnōthi seauton - Know thyself is a precept which came down from heaven. 2. It was a plain and easy way of teaching, which cost neither the teachers nor the learners much pains, nor put their understandings nor their memories to the stretch. Long periods, and arguments far-fetched, must be laboured both by him that frames them and by him that would understand them, while a proverb, which carries both its sense and its evidence in a little compass, is quickly apprehended and subscribed to, and is easily retained. Both David's devotions and Solomon's instructions are sententious, which may recommend that way of expression to those who minister about holy things, both in praying and preaching. 3. It was a very profitable way of teaching, and served admirably well to answer the end. The word Mashal, here used for a proverb, comes from a word that signifies to rule or have dominion, because of the commanding power and influence which wise and weighty sayings have upon the children of men; he that teaches by them dominatur in concionibus - rules his auditory. It is easy to observe how the world is governed by proverbs. As saith the proverb of the ancients (1Sa 24:13), or (as we commonly express it) As the old saying is, goes very far with most men in forming their notions and fixing their resolves. Much of the wisdom of the ancients has been handed down to posterity by proverbs; and some think we may judge of the temper and character of a nation by the complexion of its vulgar proverbs. Proverbs in conversation are like axious in philosophy, maxims in law, and postulata in the mathematics, which nobody disputes, but every one endeavours to expound so as to have them on his side. Yet there are many corrupt proverbs, which tend to debauch men's minds and harden them in sin. The devil has his proverbs, and the world and the flesh have their proverbs, which reflect reproach on God and religion (as Eze 12:22; Eze 18:2), to guard us against the corrupt influences of which God has his proverbs, which are all wise and good, and tend to make us so. These proverbs of Solomon were not merely a collection of the wise sayings that had been formerly delivered, as some have imagined, but were the dictates of the Spirit of God in Solomon. The very first of them (Pro 1:7) agrees with what God said to man in the beginning (Job 28:28, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ); so that though Solomon was great, and his name may serve as much as any man's to recommend his writings, yet, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. It is God, by Solomon, that here speaks to us: I say, to us; for these proverbs were written for our learning, and, when Solomon speaks to his son, the exhortation is said to speak to us as unto children, Heb 12:5. And, as we have no book so useful to us in our devotions as David's psalms, so have we none so serviceable to us, for the right ordering of our conversations, as Solomon's proverbs, which as David says of the commandments, are exceedingly broad, containing, in a little compass, a complete body of divine ethics, politics, and economics, exposing every vice, recommending every virtue, and suggesting rules for the government of ourselves in every relation and condition, and every turn of the conversation. The learned bishop Hall has drawn up a system of moral philosophy out of Solomon's Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. The first nine chapters of this book are reckoned as a preface, by way of exhortation to the study and practice of wisdom's rules, and caution against those things that would hinder therein. We have then the first volume of Solomon's proverbs (ch. 10-24); after that a second volume (ch. 25-29); and then Agur's prophecy (ch. 30), and Lemuel's (ch. 31). The scope of all is one and the same, to direct us so to order our conversation aright as that in the end we may see the salvation of the Lord. The best comment on these rules is to be ruled by them.

Topical Index of Proverbs

Twenty chapters of the book of Proverbs (beginning with ch. 10 and ending with ch. 29), consisting mostly of entire sentences in each verse, could not well be reduced to proper heads, and the contents of them gathered; I have therefore here put the contents of all these chapters together, which perhaps may be of some use to those who desire to see at once all that is said of any one head in these chapters. Some of the verses, perhaps, I have not put under the same heads that another would have put them under, but the most of them fall (I hope) naturally enough to the places I have assigned them.

1. Of the comfort, or grief, parents have in their children, according as they are wise or foolish, godly or ungodly, Pro 10:1; Pro 15:20; Pro 17:21, Pro 17:25; Pro 19:13, Pro 19:26; Pro 23:15, Pro 23:16, Pro 23:24, Pro 23:25; Pro 27:11; Pro 29:3

2. Of the world's insufficiency, and religion's sufficiency, to make us happy (Pro 10:2, Pro 10:3; Pro 11:4) and the preference to be therefore given to the gains of virtue above those of this world, Pro 15:16, Pro 15:17; Pro 16:8, Pro 16:16; Pro 17:1; Pro 19:1; Pro 28:6, Pro 28:11

3. Of slothfulness and diligence, Pro 10:4, Pro 10:26; Pro 12:11, Pro 12:24, Pro 12:27; Pro 13:4, Pro 13:23; Pro 15:19; Pro 16:26; Pro 18:9; Pro 19:15, Pro 19:24; Pro 20:4, Pro 20:13; Pro 21:5, Pro 21:25, Pro 21:26; Pro 22:13, Pro 22:29; Pro 24:30-34; Pro 26:13-16; Pro 27:18, Pro 27:23, Pro 27:27; Pro 28:19. Particularly the improving or neglecting opportunities, Pro 6:6; Pro 10:5

4. The happiness of the righteous, and the misery of the wicked, Pro 10:6, Pro 10:9, Pro 10:16, Pro 10:24, Pro 10:25, Pro 10:27-30; Pro 11:3, Pro 11:5-8, Pro 11:18-21, Pro 11:31; Pro 12:2, Pro 12:3, Pro 12:7, Pro 12:13, Pro 12:14, Pro 12:21, Pro 12:26, Pro 12:28; Pro 13:6, Pro 13:9, Pro 13:14 15, 21, 22, 25; Pro 14:11, Pro 14:14, Pro 14:19, Pro 14:32; Pro 15:6, Pro 15:8, Pro 15:9, Pro 15:24, Pro 15:26, Pro 15:29; Pro 20:7; Pro 21:12, Pro 21:15, Pro 21:16, Pro 21:18, Pro 21:21; Pro 22:12; Pro 28:10, Pro 28:18; Pro 29:6

5. Of honour and dishonour, Pro 10:7; Pro 12:8, Pro 12:9; Pro 18:3; Pro 26:1; Pro 27:21. And of vain-glory, Pro 25:14, Pro 25:27; Pro 27:2

6. The wisdom of obedience, and folly of disobedience, Pro 10:8, Pro 10:17; Pro 12:1, Pro 12:15; Pro 13:1, Pro 13:13, Pro 13:18; Pro 15:5, Pro 15:10, Pro 15:12, Pro 15:31, Pro 15:32; Pro 19:16; Pro 28:4, Pro 28:7, Pro 28:9

7. Of mischievousness and usefulness, Pro 10:10, Pro 10:23; Pro 11:9-11, Pro 11:23, Pro 11:27; Pro 12:5, Pro 12:6, Pro 12:12, Pro 12:18, Pro 12:20; Pro 13:2; Pro 14:22; Pro 16:29, Pro 16:30; Pro 17:11; Pro 21:10; Pro 24:8; Pro 26:23, Pro 26:27

8. The praise of wise and good discourse, and the hurt and shame of an ungoverned tongue, Pro 10:11, Pro 10:13, Pro 10:14, Pro 10:20, Pro 10:21, Pro 10:31, Pro 10:32; Pro 11:30; Pro 14:3; Pro 15:2, Pro 15:4, Pro 15:7, Pro 15:23, Pro 15:28; Pro 16:20, Pro 16:23, Pro 16:24; Pro 17:7; Pro 18:4, Pro 18:7, Pro 18:20, Pro 18:21; Pro 20:15; Pro 21:23; Pro 23:9; Pro 24:26; Pro 25:11

9. Of love and hatred, peaceableness and contention, Pro 10:12; Pro 15:17; Pro 17:1, Pro 17:9, Pro 17:14, Pro 17:19; Pro 18:6, Pro 18:17-19; Pro 20:3; Pro 25:8; Pro 26:17, Pro 26:21; Pro 29:9

10. Of the rich and poor, Pro 10:5, Pro 10:22; Pro 11:28; Pro 13:7, Pro 13:8; Pro 14:20, Pro 14:24; Pro 18:11, Pro 18:23; Pro 19:1, Pro 19:4, Pro 19:7, Pro 19:22; Pro 22:2, Pro 22:7; Pro 28:6, Pro 28:11; Pro 29:13

11. Of lying, fraud, and dissimulation, and of truth and sincerity, Pro 10:18; Pro 12:17, Pro 12:19, Pro 12:22; Pro 13:5; Pro 17:4; Pro 20:14, Pro 20:17; Pro 26:18, Pro 26:19, Pro 26:24-26, Pro 26:28

12. Of slandering, Pro 10:18; Pro 16:27; Pro 25:23

13. Of talkativeness and silence, Pro 10:19; Pro 11:12; Pro 12:23; Pro 13:3; Pro 17:27, Pro 17:28; Pro 29:11, Pro 29:20

14. Of justice and injustice, Pro 11:1; Pro 13:16; Pro 16:8, Pro 16:11; Pro 17:15, Pro 17:26; Pro 18:5; Pro 20:10, Pro 20:23; Pro 22:28; Pro 23:10, Pro 23:11; Pro 29:24

15. Of pride and humility, Pro 11:2; Pro 13:10; Pro 15:25, Pro 15:33; Pro 16:5, Pro 16:18, Pro 16:19; Pro 18:12; Pro 21:4; Pro 25:6, Pro 25:7; Pro 28:25; Pro 29:23

16. Of despising and respecting others, Pro 11:12; Pro 14:21

17. Of tale-bearing, Pro 11:13; Pro 16:28; Pro 18:8; Pro 20:19; Pro 26:20, Pro 26:22

18. Of rashness and deliberation, Pro 11:14; Pro 15:22; Pro 18:13; Pro 19:2; Pro 20:5, Pro 20:18; Pro 21:29; Pro 22:3; Pro 25:8-10

19. Of suretiship, Pro 11:15; Pro 17:18; Pro 20:16; Pro 22:26, Pro 22:27; Pro 27:13

20. Of good and bad women, or wives, Pro 11:16, Pro 11:22; Pro 12:4; Pro 14:1; Pro 18:22; Pro 19:13, Pro 19:14; Pro 21:9, Pro 21:19; Pro 25:24; Pro 27:15, Pro 27:16

21. Of mercifulness and unmercifulness, Pro 11:17; Pro 12:10; Pro 14:21; Pro 19:17; Pro 21:13

22. Of charity to the poor, and uncharitableness, Pro 11:24-26; Pro 14:31; Pro 17:5; Pro 22:9, Pro 22:16, Pro 22:22, Pro 22:23; Pro 28:27; Pro 29:7

23. Of covetousness and contentment, Pro 11:29; Pro 15:16, Pro 15:17, Pro 15:27; Pro 23:4, Pro 23:5

24. Of anger and meekness, Pro 12:16; Pro 14:17, Pro 14:29; Pro 15:1, Pro 15:18; Pro 16:32; Pro 17:12, Pro 17:26; Pro 19:11, Pro 19:19; Pro 22:24, Pro 22:25; Pro 25:15, Pro 25:28; Pro 26:21; Pro 29:22

25. Of melancholy and cheerfulness, Pro 12:25; Pro 14:10, Pro 14:13; Pro 15:13, Pro 15:15; Pro 17:22; Pro 18:14; Pro 25:20, Pro 25:25

26. Of hope and expectation, Pro 13:12, Pro 13:19

27. Of prudence and foolishness, Pro 13:16; Pro 14:8, Pro 14:18, Pro 14:33; Pro 15:14, Pro 15:21; Pro 16:21, Pro 16:22; Pro 17:24; Pro 18:2, Pro 18:15; Pro 24:3-7; Pro 7:27; Pro 26:6-11; Pro 28:5

28. Of treachery and fidelity, Pro 13:17; Pro 25:13, Pro 25:19

29. Of good and bad company, Pro 13:20; Pro 14:7; Pro 28:7; Pro 29:3

30. Of the education of children, Pro 13:24; Pro 19:18; Pro 20:11; Pro 22:6, Pro 22:15; Pro 23:12; Pro 14:14; Pro 29:15, Pro 29:17

31. Of the fear of the Lord, Pro 14:2, Pro 14:26, Pro 14:27; Pro 15:16, Pro 15:33; Pro 16:6; Pro 19:23; Pro 22:4; Pro 23:17, Pro 23:18

32. Of true and false witness-bearing, Pro 14:5, Pro 14:25; Pro 19:5, Pro 19:9, Pro 19:28; Pro 21:28; Pro 24:28; Pro 25:18

33. Of scorners, Pro 14:6, Pro 14:9; Pro 21:24; Pro 22:10; Pro 24:9; Pro 29:9

34. Of credulity and caution, Pro 14:15, Pro 14:16; Pro 27:12

35. Of kings and their subjects, Pro 14:28, Pro 14:34, Pro 14:35; Pro 16:10, Pro 16:12-15; Pro 19:6, Pro 19:12; Pro 20:2, Pro 20:8, Pro 20:26, Pro 20:28; Pro 22:11; Pro 24:23-25; Pro 30:2-5; Pro 28:2, Pro 28:3, Pro 28:15, Pro 28:16; Pro 29:5, Pro 29:12, Pro 29:14, Pro 29:26

36. Of envy, especially envying sinners, Pro 14:30; Pro 23:17, Pro 23:18; Pro 24:1, Pro 24:2, Pro 24:19, Pro 24:20; Pro 27:4

37. Of God's omniscience, and his universal providence, Pro 15:3, Pro 15:11; Pro 16:1, Pro 16:4, Pro 16:9, Pro 16:33; Pro 17:3; Pro 19:21; Pro 20:12, Pro 20:24; Pro 21:1, Pro 21:30, Pro 21:31; Pro 29:26

38. Of a good and ill name, Pro 15:30; Pro 22:1

39. Of men's good opinion of themselves, Pro 14:12; Pro 16:2, Pro 16:25; Pro 20:6; Pro 21:2; Pro 26:12; Pro 28:26

40. Of devotion towards God, and dependence on him, Pro 16:3; Pro 18:10; Pro 23:26; Pro 27:1; Pro 28:25; Pro 29:25

41. Of the happiness of God's favour, Pro 16:7; Pro 29:26

42. Excitements to get wisdom, Pro 16:16; Pro 18:1; Pro 19:8, Pro 19:20; Pro 22:17-21; Pro 23:15, Pro 23:16, Pro 23:22-25; Pro 24:13, Pro 24:14; Pro 27:11

43. Cautions against temptations, Pro 16:17; Pro 29:27

44. Of old age and youth, Pro 16:31; Pro 17:6; Pro 20:29

45. Of servants, Pro 17:2; Pro 19:10; Pro 29:19, Pro 29:21

46. Of bribery, Pro 17:8, Pro 17:23; Pro 18:16; Pro 21:14; Pro 28:21

47. Of reproof and correction, Pro 17:10; Pro 19:25, Pro 19:29; Pro 20:30; Pro 21:11; Pro 25:12; Pro 26:3; Pro 27:5, Pro 27:6, Pro 27:22; Pro 28:23; Pro 29:1

48. Of ingratitude, Pro 17:13

49. Of friendship, Pro 17:17; Pro 18:24; Pro 27:9, Pro 27:10, Pro 27:14, Pro 27:17

50. Of sensual pleasures, Pro 21:17; Pro 23:1-3, Pro 23:6-8, Pro 23:19-21; Pro 27:7

51. Of drunkenness, Pro 20:1; Pro 23:23, Pro 23:29-35

52. Of the universal corruption of nature, Pro 20:9

53. Of flattery, Pro 20:19; Pro 26:28; Pro 28:23; Pro 29:5

54. Of undutiful children, Pro 20:20; Pro 28:24

55. Of the short continuance of what is ill-gotten, Pro 20:21; Pro 21:6, Pro 21:7; Pro 22:8; Pro 28:8

56. Of revenge, Pro 20:22; Pro 24:17, Pro 24:18, Pro 24:29

57. Of sacrilege, Pro 20:25

58. Of conscience, Pro 20:27; Pro 27:19

59. Of the preference of moral duties before ceremonial, Pro 15:8; Pro 21:3, Pro 21:27

60. Of prodigality and wastefulness, Pro 21:20

61. The triumphs of wisdom and godliness, Pro 21:22; Pro 24:15, Pro 24:16

62. Of frowardness and tractableness, Pro 22:5

63. Of uncleanness, Pro 22:14; Pro 23:27, Pro 23:28

64. Of fainting in affliction, Pro 24:10

65. Of helping the distressed, Pro 14:11, Pro 14:12

66. Of loyalty to the government, Pro 24:21, Pro 24:22

67. Of forgiving enemies, Pro 25:21, Pro 25:22

68. Of causeless curse, Pro 26:2

69. Of answering fools, Pro 26:4, Pro 26:5

70. Of unsettledness and unsatisfiedness, Pro 27:8, Pro 27:20

71. Of cowardliness and courage, Pro 28:1

72. The people's interest in the character of their rulers, Pro 28:12, Pro 28:28; Pro 29:2, Pro 29:16; Pro 11:10, Pro 11:11

73. The benefit of repentance and holy fear, Pro 28:13, Pro 28:14

74. The punishment of murder, Pro 28:17

75. Of hastening to be rich, Pro 28:20, Pro 28:22

76. The enmity of the wicked against the godly, Pro 29:10, Pro 29:27

77. The necessity of the means of grace, Pro 29:18

Constable: Proverbs (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Title

The title of this book in the Hebrew Bible is "The Proverbs of Solomon, the Son of David, King in Israel" (cf. 1:1). The Greek Septuagint called this book "Proverbs of Solomon." The Latin Vulgate named it "The Book of Proverbs."

There is some debate about whether 1:1 is the title of the whole book or just the title of the first section (chs. 1-9). The first view has in its favor the fact that the Hebrew Bible took the verse as the title of the book. According to this view the references to Solomon in 1:1 are an indication that he was the primary author of the proverbs in the book.¹

The second view is that 1:1 simply introduces the first major section of the book. The support for this view is that some succeeding sections begin with a similar caption (cf. 10:1; 24:23; 25:1; 30:1; 31:1).²

In either case the book got its title from the proverbs it contains. The whole book is a book of proverbs so the title is appropriate.

"To read straight through a few chapters of Proverbs is like trying to have a conversation with someone who always replies with a one-liner."³

Writer

Proverbs claims to be a compendium of the wise sayings of several different individuals.⁴ Solomon originated some of them (10:1-22:16 and chs. 25-29 definitely, and probably chs. 1-9 as well).⁵ Unnamed wise men (sages) wrote other parts (22:17-24:34 definitely, and possibly chs. 1-9). Hezekiah's men copied some of Solomon's proverbs and added them to this collection (chs. 25-29). Agur and King Lemuel produced chapters 30 and 31 respectively.

We do not know who the sages were who wrote 22:17-24:34 nor do we know the names of the men whom King Hezekiah instructed to compile some of Solomon's sayings. Agur and Lemuel are unknown to us also, though Lemuel seems to have been a non-Israelite monarch.⁶

Some of the proverbs appear to have been copied from, or at least influenced by, earlier Mesopotamian and Egyptian books of wisdom.⁷

". . . whatever the Spirit of God inspired the ancient writers to include became a part of the Word of the Lord. Such inclusions then took on a new and greater meaning when they formed part of Scripture; in a word, they became authoritative and binding, part of the communication of the divine will."⁸

Date

Solomon reigned from 971 to 931 B.C. and Hezekiah from 715 to 686 B.C.⁹ We do not know when the sages, Agur, or Lemuel lived.

The earliest the Book of Proverbs could have been in its final form was in Hezekiah's day, but it may have reached this stage later than that. We have no way to tell.

The contents of the book could have been in existence in Solomon's lifetime though not assembled into the collection we know as the Book of Proverbs.

Message¹⁰

The Book of Proverbs contains no history. It is purely didactic. It is a book of explicit instruction. Like the other Old Testament wisdom books, Job and Ecclesiastes, it does not contain references to Israel's laws, rituals, sacrifices, or ceremonies. It deals with philosophy primarily. A philosopher is by definition a lover of wisdom. Proverbs is a book that focuses primarily on wisdom, as do Job and Ecclesiastes. In this sense these books are philosophical.

There is a fundamental difference between the philosophy we find in these books and all other philosophy. Other philosophies begin with a question. Hebrew philosophy begins with an affirmation. Its basic affirmation is that God exists. Therefore we can know ultimate truth only by divine revelation.

To many people the Book of Proverbs seems to be a grab bag of wise sayings that lacks any system or order. Nevertheless in a sense this is the most carefully organized of all the books of the Old Testament.

The first verse is its title page. Verses 2-7 are its preface that contains an explanation of the purpose of the book, the method of the Author, and the fundamental affirmation of the book (in v. 7). Then follow three parts of the body of the book. First, there are discourses in defense and application of the fundamental affirmation (1:8--ch. 9). Then we have proverbs Solomon collected and arranged to provide wisdom (chs. 10-24). Next there are additional wise words from Solomon that other people collected after Solomon died (chs. 25-29). An appendix that contains specific words of wisdom by two other sages, Agur and Lemuel, concludes the book (chs. 30-31).

Proverbs is one of the most timeless Old Testament books. The reader needs very little knowledge of ancient Hebrew life and culture to understand and appreciate it. We can understand the contents fairly easily and can apply them directly to modern life.

Let's look first at the fundamental affirmation and then observe how the application of that declaration unfolds in the chapters that follow.

The fundamental affirmation is the deepest insight in Hebrew philosophy (1:7).

There is a presupposition in this statement. It is that God is all wise. We can only find wisdom in God ultimately. This presupposition underlies all of what we read in Job and Ecclesiastes as well as in Proverbs. Furthermore the Hebrews assumed that God expressed His wisdom in all His works and in all His ways. They believed that all natural phenomena revealed God's wisdom. Wherever they looked, they saw God: on land, at sea, in the earth, or in the sky. We can see that viewpoint clearly in Genesis 1:1 (cf. John 14:6).

This fundamental affirmation also contains an inevitable deduction: if wisdom is perfect in God, then wisdom in man consists in the fear of God. A person is wise to the extent that he or she apprehends and fears God. The "fear" of God does not mean a dread that results in hiding from God. It is rather an emotional recognition of God. It is not fear that He may hurt me but fear that I may hurt Him. That is the kind of fear that produces holy character and righteous conduct. Intellectual apprehension of God precedes this emotional recognition, and volitional submission to God's will follows it. When a person comes to this emotional recognition of God he or she comes to the condition for being wise, not that in so doing he or she becomes wise (1:7). We can begin to be wise only when we come into proper relation to God as ultimate Wisdom.

Beginning with 1:8 and continuing to the end of the book, what we have is the application of that affirmation to the various situations and circumstances of life.

I would like to consider what God revealed here in the three spheres of life dealt with in the book: the home, friendship, and the world. In the home, the child must learn wisdom. In friendship, the youth must apply wisdom. In the world, the adult must demonstrate wisdom.

The first sphere is that of the home (1:8-9). God did not teach the responsibility of the father and mother here but took for granted that they would instruct their children. The child needs to hear parental instruction to live in the fear of the Lord. Young children cannot grasp abstract concepts. For them God is incarnate in father and mother. Fathers and mothers reflect the image of God to their children. Both parents are necessary to reveal God to the child fully. Children see some of God's character in the mother's attitudes and actions (cf. Matt. 23:37). They see other aspects of God's character in the father. You do not have to try to teach your young child systematic theology. Just live in the fear of God yourself, and your child will learn what he or she needs to learn about God, for that stage in life, just by observing you. I do not mean to exclude verbal instruction. My point is that young children learn wisdom by observing their parents as well as by listening to them.

The second sphere of life is friendship (1:10-19). The day must come when the child, in the natural process of development, moves out into a wider circle of experience.

Personally I believe the Bible presents two duties that children have to their parents.

When the child's sphere of life is his home, he is to obey his parents. However, that duty does not continue forever. When he moves into the larger sphere of life outside the home, his duty is to honor his parents. This duty does continue forever.

When a child enters this second sphere of life, guided at first by parental council but then finally on its own, wisdom gives important instruction (1:10). He should avoid certain friendships. He should beware of people who seek to make friends with him because they have selfish interests and unscrupulous methods. We have many warnings in Proverbs against people who are not true friends. There is no more important stage in a young person's development than when he or she begins to choose companions. Then, and from then on, he or she must follow the wisdom that comes from the fear of the Lord. The youth must submit to the Lord's wisdom, having learned that in the sphere of the home, to succeed in the larger arenas of life. The choice of a mate is one of these companion decisions.

The third sphere of life is the world, symbolized in Proverbs by the street, the gates, and the city (1:20-33; cf. chs. 2-9).

The first word of warning to the youth who leaves home to enter the world on his own is this. Beware of the evil way of those who do not fear the Lord (1:20-32). There is also a gracious promise (1:33). Wisdom does not say withdraw from the world. Wisdom says remember the fate of those who forget God. Wisdom promises that those who live in the fear of the Lord will be quiet and safe even in the turmoil of the world. Do you see how important preparation for living in this sphere of life is? Children must learn to take God into account in the home, and then in their friendships, before they launch out into the world. This instruction is what really prepares them for life.

The series of discourses beginning, "My son," represents the voice of home sounding in the youth's ears who has left home and is living in the world (chs. 2-7). The father tells his son how his father instructed him in wisdom and how this enabled him to live successfully in the world. Then specific warnings follow concerning impurity, laziness, bad companions, and adultery. As the young man climbs toward a higher position in life, wisdom comes to him again with instruction concerning how he can avoid the pitfalls of that stage of his life (ch. 8). The discourses close with a contrast in which Solomon personified wisdom and folly as two women (ch. 9). One is a woman of virtue and beauty, and the other is a woman of vice and ugliness. Solomon contrasted the value and victory of wisdom with the disaster and defeat of folly. He contrasted the wisdom of fearing God with the folly of forgetting God.

I would summarize the message of Proverbs this way. The person who learns the fear of God (an emotional recognition of God) in every sphere of life will be successful, but those who forget God will fail. By an emotional recognition of God I mean taking God into account, being aware of His reality and presence, making decisions in view of His existence and revelation. This is what fearing God means.

The precepts urging a life of wisdom center on 3:1-10. This passage concentrates on that subject. Proverbs 3:5-6 is some of the best advice anyone ever gave.

The practice of wisdom centers on 8:32-36.

The power for living a life of wisdom centers on 1:8 (cf. James 1:5; 3:37; Col. 2:3).

Constable: Proverbs (Outline)

Outline

I. Discourses on wisdom chs. 1-9

A. Introduction to the book 1:1-7

1. The title of the book 1:1

2. The purpose of the book 1:2-6

3. The thesis of the book 1:7

B. Instruction for young people 1:8-7:27

1. Warning against consorting with sinners 1:8-19

2. Wisdom's appeal 1:20-33

3. Wisdom as a treasure chs. 2-3

4. Encouragements to obey these instructions ch. 4

5. Warnings against unfaithfulness in marriage ch. 5

6. Other dangerous temptations 6:1-19

7. Further warnings against adultery 6:20-7:27

C. The value of wisdom and wise conduct chs. 8-9

1. The function of wisdom ch. 8

2. Wisdom and folly contrasted ch. 9

II. Couplets expressing wisdom 10:1-22:16

A. The marks of wise living chs. 10-15

1. Things that produce profit 10:1-14

2. Things of true value 10:15-32

3. Wise living in various contexts 11:1-15

4. Wise investments 11:16-31

5. The value of righteousness 12:1-12

6. Avoiding trouble 12:13-28

7. Fruits of wise living ch. 13

8. Further advice for wise living chs. 14-15

B. How to please God 16:1-22:16

1. Trusting God ch. 16

2. Peacemakers and troublemakers ch. 17

3. Friendship and folly ch. 18

4. Further advice for pleasing God 19:1-22:16

III. Wise sayings 22:17-24:34

A. Thirty sayings of the wise 22:17-24:22

1. The first group 22:17-23:11

2. The second group 23:12-24:22

B. Six more sayings of the wise 24:23-34

IV. Maxims expressing wisdom chs. 25-29

A. Instructive analogies 25:1-27:22

1. Wise and foolish conduct ch. 25

2. Fools and folly ch. 26

3. Virtues and vices 27:1-22

B. A discourse on prudence 27:23-27

C. Instructive contrasts chs. 28-29

V. Two discourses by other wise men chs. 30-31

A. The wisdom of Agur ch. 30

1. The introduction of Agur 30:1

2. Wisdom about God 30:2-9

3. Wisdom about life 30:10-33

B. The wisdom of Lemuel ch. 31

1. The introduction of Lemuel 31:1

2. The wise king 31:2-9

3. The wise woman 31:10-31

Constable: Proverbs

Proverbs

Bibliography

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Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: Proverbs (Book Introduction)

THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.

INTRODUCTION.

This book is so called, because it consists of wise and weighty sentences, regulating the morals of men; and directing them to wisdom and virtue. And these sentences are also called Parables, because great truths are often couched in them under certain figures and similitudes. (Challoner) --- Wisdom is introduced speaking in the nine first chapters. Then to chap. xxv. more particular precepts are given. (Worthington) --- Ezechias caused to be collected (Haydock) what comes in the five next chapters, and in the two last. Some other, or rather Solomon himself, under (Worthington) different titles, gives us Agur's and his mother's instructions, and his own commendations of a valiant woman, (Haydock) which is prophetical of the Catholic Church. He also wrote the two next works, besides many other things, which have been lost. This is the first of those five, which are called "sapiential," giving instructions how to direct our lives, by the dictates of sound reason. (Worthington) --- It is the most important of Solomon's works, though collected by different authors. (Calmet) --- T. Paine treats Solomon as a witty jester. But his jests are of a very serious nature, and no one had before heard of his wit. (Watson)

Gill: Proverbs (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO PROVERBS

This book is called, in some printed Hebrew copies, "Sepher Mishle", the Book of Proverbs; the title of it in the Vulgate Latin version is,

"the Book of Proverbs, which the Hebrews call "Misle":''

in the Septuagint version it has the name of the writer, the Proverbs of Solomon; and so in the Syriac version, with the addition of his titles,

"the son of David, king of Israel.''

This and Ecclesiastes are both of them by the Jews ^a called Books of Wisdom: and it is common with the ancient Christian writers ^b to call the book of Proverbs by the names of "Wisdom" and "Panaretos"; names they give also to the apocryphal books of Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of Solomon; and therefore this is to be carefully distinguished from them. The author of this book was King Solomon, as the "first" verse, which contains the inscription of it, shows; for he was not a collector of these proverbs, as Grotius is of opinion, but the author of them, at least of the far greater part; and not only the author, but the writer of them: the Jews ^c say that Hezekiah and this men wrote them; it is true indeed the men of Hezekiah copied some, Pro 25:1; but even those were written by Solomon. R. Gedaliah ^d would have it that Isaiah the prophet wrote this book; but without any foundation. At what time it was written is not certain; the Jewish writers generally say ^e it was written by Solomon, as were the books of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs, in his old age, when near the time of his death; though some think it was written before his fall: and it may be it was not written all at once, but at certain times, when these proverbs occurred unto him and were spoken by him, and as occasion served: however, it is not to he doubted but that they were written under the inspiration of God. The Jews once thought to have made this book of Proverbs an apocryphal one, because of some seeming contradictions in it; but finding that these were capable of a reconciliation, changed their minds, as became them ^f. Among Christians, Theodore of Mopsuest, in the sixth century, denied the divine authority of this book, and attributed it merely to human wisdom; which opinion of his was condemned in the second council at Constantinople: and in later times it has been treated with contempt by the Socinians, and particularly by Father Simon and Le Clerc; but the authority of it is confirmed by the writers of the New Testament, who have cited passages out of it; see Rom 12:20 from Pro 25:21. The book consists of "five" parts; "first", a preface or introduction, which takes up the first "nine" chapters; the "second", the proverbs of Solomon, put together by himself, beginning at the tenth chapter to the twenty-fifth; the "third", the proverbs of Solomon, copied by the men of Hezekiah, beginning at the twenty-fifth chapter to the thirtieth; the "fourth", the words of Agur, the thirtieth chapter, the "fifth", the instruction of Solomon's mother, Bathsheba, the thirty-first chapter.