Text -- Proverbs 29:13-27 (NET)

29:13 The poor person and the oppressor have this in common: the Lord gives light to the eyes of them both. 29:14 If a king judges the poor in truth, his throne will be established forever. 29:15 A rod and reproof impart wisdom, but a child who is unrestrained brings shame to his mother. 29:16 When the wicked increase, transgression increases, but the righteous will see their downfall. 29:17 Discipline your child, and he will give you rest; he will bring you happiness. 29:18 When there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but the one who keeps the law, blessed is he! 29:19 A servant cannot be corrected by words, for although he understands, there is no answer. 29:20 Do you see someone who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him. 29:21 If someone pampers his servant from youth, he will be a weakling in the end. 29:22 An angry person stirs up dissension, and a wrathful person is abounding in transgression. 29:23 A person’s pride will bring him low, but one who has a lowly spirit will gain honor. 29:24 Whoever shares with a thief is his own enemy; he hears the oath to testify, but does not talk. 29:25 The fear of people becomes a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord will be set on high. 29:26 Many people seek the face of a ruler, but it is from the Lord that one receives justice. 29:27 An unjust person is an abomination to the righteous, and the one who lives an upright life is an abomination to the wicked.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Wesley: Pro 29:15

Suffered to follow his own will without restraint and chastening.

Wesley: Pro 29:18

No prophecy; no publick preaching of God's word.

Wesley: Pro 29:19

Who is so not only in condition, but also in the temper of his mind, disingenuous, and stubborn.

Wesley: Pro 29:19

By mere words.

Wesley: Pro 29:19

Though he know thy mind, and his own duty.

Wesley: Pro 29:20

Who is rash and heady in the management of his affairs.

Wesley: Pro 29:21

Allowing him too much freedom, and familiarity.

Wesley: Pro 29:21

Will find him at last grow insolent, and forgetful of his servile condition.

Wesley: Pro 29:24

Which he is bound to do for the publick good.

Wesley: Pro 29:25

Is an occasion of many sins.

Wesley: Pro 29:26

The decision of his cause, and the success of all his endeavours.

JFB: Pro 29:13

(Compare Pro 22:2).

JFB: Pro 29:13

Literally, "man of vexations," an exactor.

JFB: Pro 29:13

Sustains their lives (1Sa 14:27; Psa 13:3); that is, both depend on Him, and He will do justice.

JFB: Pro 29:14

(Compare Pro 20:28; Pro 25:5). Such is the character of the King of kings (Psa 72:4, Psa 72:12).

JFB: Pro 29:15

(Compare Pro 13:24; Pro 23:13).

JFB: Pro 29:16

(Compare Pro 29:2, Pro 29:12; Psa 12:1-8).

JFB: Pro 29:16

And triumph in it (Psa 37:34-38; Psa 58:10-11).

JFB: Pro 29:17

(Compare Pro 29:3, Pro 29:15; Pro 19:18).

JFB: Pro 29:17

Peace and quiet (compare Pro 29:9).

JFB: Pro 29:18

Instruction in God's truth, which was by prophets, through visions (1Sa 3:1).

JFB: Pro 29:18

(Compare Margin), are deprived of moral restraints.

JFB: Pro 29:18

Has, and observes, instruction (Pro 14:11, Pro 14:34; Psa 19:11).

JFB: Pro 29:19

Who lacks good principle.

JFB: Pro 29:19

Or discovered.

JFB: Pro 29:19

That is, will not obey.

JFB: Pro 29:20

(Compare Pro 21:5).

JFB: Pro 29:20

Implying self-conceit (Pro 26:12).

JFB: Pro 29:21

Assume the place and privileges of one.

JFB: Pro 29:22

(Compare Pro 15:18). Such are delighted by discord and violence.

JFB: Pro 29:23

(Compare Pro 16:18; Pro 18:12).

JFB: Pro 29:23

Or, "such shall lay hold on honor" (Pro 11:16).

JFB: Pro 29:24

(Compare Pro 8:36).

JFB: Pro 29:24

(Lev 5:1), risks the punishment, rather than reveal truth.

JFB: Pro 29:25

Involves men in difficulty (compare Pro 29:6).

JFB: Pro 29:25

(Compare Margin; Pro 18:10).

JFB: Pro 29:26

(Compare Margin; Psa 27:8). God alone will and can do exact justice.

JFB: Pro 29:27

(Compare Pro 3:32). On last clause, compare Pro 29:16; Psa 37:12.

Clarke: Pro 29:13

The poor and the deceitful man - It is difficult to fix the meaning of תככים techachim , which we here render the deceitful man. The Targum has, "The poor and the man of Little Wealth."The Septuagint, "The usurer and the Debtor."The Vulgate, "The poor and Creditor."Coverdale, "The poor and the Lender."Others, "The poor and the Rich;""The poor and the Oppressors."I suppose the meaning may be the same as in Pro 22:2 (note): "The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all."Where see the note.

Clarke: Pro 29:16

When the wicked are multiplied - That, in the multiplication of the wicked transgression is increased, requires no proof; but an important doctrine attaches to this. On this account wicked nations and wicked families are cut off and rooted out. Were it not so righteousness would in process of time be banished from the earth. This will account for many of the numerous instances in which whole families fail.

Clarke: Pro 29:18

Where there is no vision - My old MS. Bible, following the Vulgate, translates: Whan prophecye schal failen, the peple schal ben to scatered. Where Divine revelation, and the faithful preaching of the sacred testimonies, are neither reverenced nor attended, the ruin of that land is at no great distance

Clarke: Pro 29:18

But he that keepeth the law, happy is he - Go how it may with others, he shall be safe. So our Lord: "Blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it."

Clarke: Pro 29:21

He that delicately bringeth up his servant - Such persons are generally forgetful of their obligations, assume the rights and privileges of children, and are seldom good for any thing.

Clarke: Pro 29:22

An angry man stirreth up strife - His spirit begets its like wherever he goes

Clarke: Pro 29:22

And a furious man aboundeth in transgression - His furious spirit is always carrying him into extremes, and each of these is a transgression.

Clarke: Pro 29:23

A man’ s pride shall bring him low - A proud man is universally despised, and such are often exposed to great mortifications.

Clarke: Pro 29:24

Hateth his own soul - נפשו naphsho , his life, as the outraged law may at any time seize on and put him to death

Clarke: Pro 29:24

He heareth cursing - אלה alah , the execration or adjuration, (for all culprits were charged, as before God, to tell the truth), ולא יגד velo yagpid , but He will not tell It. He has no fear of God, nor reverence for an oath, because his heart is hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Clarke: Pro 29:25

The fear of man bringeth a snare - How often has this led weak men, though sincere in their general character, to deny their God, and abjure his people! See the case of Peter; and learn from this, O reader, that where the mighty have been slain, thou wilt fall, unless thou call on the Strong for strength, and for courage to use it. Be not ashamed of Jesus nor of his people, nor of his cross. Glory in this, that thou knowest him, art joined to them, and art counted worthy to bear it.

Clarke: Pro 29:26

Many seek the ruler’ s favor - To be screened from the punishment determined by the law; but should he grant the favor sought, and pardon the criminal, this takes not away his guilt in the sight of God, from whom all just judgment proceeds.

Clarke: Pro 29:27

And he that is upright in the way - " But as for those that be in the right waye, the wicked hate them."- Coverdale

To this verse the Vulgate adds the following: Verbum custodiens filius extra perditionem erit ; "The son that keeps the word shall not fall into perdition."This is not in all copies of the Vulgate: but it was in that from which my old MS. Bible was made, where it is thus translated: The sone keping the worde schal ben out of perdicyon. I believe verbum here is intended for the Divine word; the revelation from God.

Defender: Pro 29:15

See note on Pro 22:15."

Defender: Pro 29:18

The word "vision" does not refer to far-sighted imagination, as this verse is commonly applied, but rather to actual divine revelation.

Defender: Pro 29:18

This word, "perish," means "open" or "exposed." When people today reject or ignore the revealed Word of God, they are open and helpless to resist the humanistic and occultic doctrines of men and devils.

Defender: Pro 29:18

True happiness, or blessing, is found only through "keeping" - that is, "guarding" God's Word, then obeying and proclaiming it."

TSK: Pro 29:13

the deceitful man : or, the usurer, Mat 9:9; 1Co 6:10

meet : Pro 22:2; Exo 22:25, Exo 22:26; Lev 25:35-37; Neh 5:5-7

Lord : Psa 13:3; Mat 5:45; Eph 2:1

TSK: Pro 29:14

king : Pro 29:4, Pro 16:12, Pro 20:28, Pro 25:5, Pro 28:16; Job 29:11-18; Psa 72:2-4, Psa 72:12-14, Psa 82:2, Psa 82:3; Psa 89:2; Isa 1:17, Isa 11:4; Jer 5:28, Jer 22:16; Dan 4:27

his throne : Isa 9:6, Isa 9:7; Luk 1:32, Luk 1:33; Heb 1:8, Heb 1:9

TSK: Pro 29:15

a rod, Pro 29:17, Pro 29:21, Pro 22:6, Pro 22:15, Pro 23:13, Pro 23:14; Heb 12:10, Heb 12:11

a child : Pro 10:1, Pro 10:5, Pro 17:21, Pro 17:25; 1Ki 1:6

TSK: Pro 29:16

the wicked : Pro 29:2 *marg.

but : Psa 37:34, Psa 37:36, Psa 58:10, Psa 91:8, Psa 92:9, Psa 92:11, Psa 112:8; Rev 15:4, Rev 18:20

TSK: Pro 29:17

Pro 29:15, Pro 13:24, Pro 19:18, Pro 22:15, Pro 23:13, Pro 23:14

TSK: Pro 29:18

there : 1Sa 3:1; Hos 4:6; Amo 8:11, Amo 8:12; Mat 9:36; Rom 10:13-15

perish : or, is made naked, 2Ch 28:19

but : Pro 19:16; Psa 19:11, Psa 119:2; Luk 11:28; Joh 13:17, Joh 14:21-23; Jam 1:25; Rev 22:14

TSK: Pro 29:19

servant : Pro 26:3, Pro 30:22

though : Job 19:16

TSK: Pro 29:20

Seest : Pro 29:11; Ecc 5:2; Jam 1:19

words : or, matters, Pro 14:29, Pro 21:5

more : Pro 26:12

TSK: Pro 29:22

angry : Pro 10:12, Pro 15:18, Pro 17:19, Pro 26:21, Pro 30:33

a furious : Pro 17:19, Pro 22:24; Jam 3:16

TSK: Pro 29:23

man’ s : Pro 18:12; 2Ch 32:25, 2Ch 32:26, 2Ch 33:10-12, 2Ch 33:23, 2Ch 33:24; Job 22:29, Job 40:12; Isa 2:11, Isa 2:12; Dan 4:30-37, Dan 5:20, Dan 5:21; Luk 14:11, Luk 18:14; Act 12:23; Jam 4:6-10; 1Pe 5:5

honour : Pro 15:33; Deu 8:2, Deu 8:3, Deu 8:16; Isa 57:15, Isa 66:2; Mat 5:3, Mat 18:4, Mat 23:12

TSK: Pro 29:24

partner : Pro 1:11-19; Psa 50:18-22; Isa 1:23; Mar 11:17

hateth : Pro 6:32, Pro 8:36, Pro 15:32, Pro 20:2

he : Lev 5:1; Jdg 17:2

TSK: Pro 29:25

fear : Gen 12:11-13, Gen 20:2, Gen 20:11, Gen 26:7; Exo 32:22-24; 1Sa 15:24, 1Sa 27:1, 1Sa 27:11; 1Ki 19:3; Isa 57:11; Mat 10:28, Mat 15:12, Mat 26:69-74; Joh 3:2, Joh 9:22, Joh 12:42; Joh 19:12, Joh 19:13; Gal 2:11-13; 2Ti 4:16, 2Ti 4:17

whoso : Pro 16:20, Pro 18:10, Pro 30:5; 1Ch 5:20; Psa 118:8, Psa 125:1; Ecc 7:18; Dan 3:28, Dan 6:23; 1Pe 1:21

safe : Heb. set on high, Psa 69:29, Psa 91:14

TSK: Pro 29:26

seek : Pro 19:6; Psa 20:9

ruler’ s favour : Heb. face of a ruler, Pro 16:7, Pro 19:21, Pro 21:1; Gen 43:14; Ezr 7:27, Ezr 7:28; Neh 1:11; Est 4:16; Psa 20:9; Psa 62:12; Isa 46:9-11; Dan 4:35

TSK: Pro 29:27

Pro 24:9; Psa 119:115, Psa 139:21; Zec 11:8; Joh 7:7, Joh 15:17-19, Joh 15:23; 1Jo 3:13

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Pro 29:13

Better, The poor and the oppressor. "Usurer,"as in the margin expresses the special form of oppression from which the poor suffer most at the hands of the rich. God has made them both and bestows His light equally on both.

Barnes: Pro 29:15

Left to himself - The condition of one who has been pampered and indulged. The mother who yields weakly is as guilty of abandoning the child she spoils, as if she cast him forth; and for her evil neglect, there shall fall upon her the righteous punishment of shame and ignominy.

Barnes: Pro 29:18

Vision - The word commonly used of the revelation of God’ s will made to prophets. Compare Isa 1:1; Nah 1:1.

When prophetic vision fails, obedience to the Law is the best or only substitute for it, both being forms through which divine wisdom is revealed. Very striking in the midst of ethical precepts is this recognition of the need of a yet higher teaching, without which morality passes into worldly prudence or degenerates into casuistry. The "wise man,"the son of David, has seen in the prophets and in their work the condition of true national blessedness. The darkest time in the history of Israel had been when there "was no open vision 1Sa 3:1; at such a time the people "perish,"are let loose, "are left to run wild."

Barnes: Pro 29:19

Servant - i. e., A slave, whose obedience is reluctant. He may "understand"the words, but they produce no good effect. There is still lacking the true "answer"of obedience.

Barnes: Pro 29:21

Son - The Hebrew word occurs here only and is therefore of doubtful meaning. The favored slave, petted and pampered from boyhood, will claim at last the privilege, perhaps the inheritance, of sonship.

Barnes: Pro 29:23

Honour shall uphold the humble in spirit - Better: The lowly in spirit shall lay hold on honor.

Barnes: Pro 29:24

On the first discovery of the theft, the person wronged Jdg 17:2, or the judge of the city (marginal reference), pronounced a solemn curse on the thief and on all who, knowing the offender, were unwilling to give evidence against him. The accomplice of the thief hears that curse, and yet is silent, and so falls under it, and "destroys his own soul."

Barnes: Pro 29:25

The confusion and wretchedness in which the fear of what men can do entangles us, is contrasted with the security of one, who not only "fears"the Lord, so as to avoid offending Him, but trusts in Him as his protector and guide.

Barnes: Pro 29:26

To trust in the favor of princes is to build upon the sands. The judgment which will set right all wrong will come from the Lord. It is better to wait for that than to run here and there, canvassing, bribing, flattering.

Barnes: Pro 29:27

The words point out not only the antagonism between the doers of good and evil, but the instinctive antipathy which the one feels toward the other.

Poole: Pro 29:13

The deceitful man Heb. the man of deceits , or of usuries , i.e. who hath enriched himself by such practices,

meet together converse together, and one needeth the other, as Pro 22:2 .

The Lord lighteneth both their eyes either their bodily eyes with the light of the sun, which promiscuously shines upon both; or the eyes of their minds with the light of reason and grace, which he indifferently gives to them; and therefore the one should not envy nor despise the other, but be ready to do good one to another, as God doth good to both.

Poole: Pro 29:14

Judgeth the poor and the rich too; but he names

the poor because these are most oppressed and injured by others, and least regarded by princes, and yet committed to their more special care by the King of kings.

Poole: Pro 29:15

The rod and reproof correction and instruction going together.

Left to himself suffered to follow his own will or lusts without restraint and chastening. His mother , and father too; but he names only the mother , either because her indulgence oft spoils the child, or because children commonly stand in least awe of their mothers, and abuse the weakness of their sex, and tenderness of their natures.

Poole: Pro 29:16

Are multiplied or rather, are advanced, because this is opposed to their

falling in the next clause; and so this Hebrew word is taken above, Pro 29:2 .

Transgression increaseth sin and sinners abound and grow impudent by impunity, and the example and encouragement of such rulers.

Their fall the destruction of such transgressors in due time.

Poole: Pro 29:17

Rest satisfaction to thy mind, and comfort in his amendment.

Poole: Pro 29:18

No vision i.e. no prophecy, for the prophets were anciently called seers, 1Sa 9:9 , i.e. no public preaching of God’ s law or word, (as appears by the opposite clause,) which is called prophecy , Rom 12:6 1Co 14:1 , &c., where the people are destitute of the means of instruction.

The people perish because they want the only means of salvation. Or, is made naked ; stripped of their best ornaments, God’ s favour and protection, as this word is taken, Exo 32:25 .

He that keepeth the law: this he saith rather than

he that hath vision which the laws of opposition might seem to require, to teach us that, although the want of God’ s word be sufficient for men’ s destruction, yet the having, and hearing, or reading of it is not sufficient for their salvation, except they also keep or obey it.

Poole: Pro 29:19

A servant who is so not only ill condition, but also in the temper of his mind, disingenuous, perverse, and stubborn,

will not be corrected by words by mere words without blows. Compare Pro 19:29 .

Though he understand though he know thy mind and words, and his own duty,

he will not answer either by words, expressing his readiness; or by deeds, speedily and cheerfully performing thy commands; but will neglect his duty, pretending that he did not hear or understand thee.

Poole: Pro 29:20

In his words or rather, in his business , who is rash and heady in the management of his affairs.

There is more hope of a fool who is sensible of his folly, and willing to hearken to the advice of others, as this word is used, Pro 26:12 , though commonly it be meant of a wilful and wicked fool;

than of him because he is self-confident, and neither considers things seriously within himself, nor seeks counsel from the wise.

Poole: Pro 29:21

He that delicately bringeth up his servant allowing him too much freedom, and familiarity, and delicious fare, shall have him become his son; will find him at last grow insolent and presumptuous, and forgetful of his servile condition.

Poole: Pro 29:22

Is by his passion easily transported into grievous and manifold sins against God, and others, and himself, as swearing, and cursing, and violence, yea, sometimes even to murder.

Poole: Pro 29:23

Shall bring him low because both God and man conspire against him, and abhor him.

Honour shall uphold the humble in spirit or, as others render it, without any difference in the sense,

the humble in spirit shall hold their honour shall be honoured by God and men. Thus honour, like a shadow, flees from them that pursue it, and follows them who flee from it.

Poole: Pro 29:24

Whoso is partner with a thief by receiving a share of the stolen goods upon condition of his concealment of the theft,

hateth his own soul he carrieth himself towards it as if he hated it; he woundeth and destroyeth it.

He heareth cursing he heareth the voice of swearing, as is said, Lev 5:1 ; the oath given to him by a judge adjuring him and other suspected persons to give information concerning it; and

betrayeth it not which he is bound to do, both by virtue of his oath, and for the public good, which ought to be preferred before all private contracts or friendships.

Poole: Pro 29:25

The fear of man inordinate fear of harm or mischief from men, which is fitly opposed to trust in God, because it comes from a distrust of God’ s promise and providence,

bringeth a snare is an occasion of many sins, and of great danger, both of injuries from men, and of sore punishments from God.

Putteth his trust in the Lord keeping God’ s way, and securely relying upon God to protect him from the designs and rage of wicked men.

Poole: Pro 29:26

Seek the ruler’ s favour: men study to please and engage their rulers by their obliging carriage, and humble petitions, and all other means, supposing that to be the only way to procure either right or favour from them, as they need or desire it.

Every man’ s judgment the decision of his cause, and the success of all his endeavours,

cometh from the Lord dependeth wholly upon God, who ruleth and inclineth their minds and hearts as it pleaseth him, Pro 21:1 .

Poole: Pro 29:27

Is an abomination to the just because such men, as such, are hated by God, and haters of and enemies unto God and all goodness, and public plagues to the church and state in which they live; and therefore he who loves these must needs hate them, as true friends hate those who are enemies to their friends.

Is abomination to the wicked of which See Poole "Pro 29:10" .

Haydock: Pro 29:13

Enlightener. Septuagint, "visitor," with punishment, as they seem to speak of palliated usury, which cannot escape God. See chap. xxii. 2.

Haydock: Pro 29:18

Prophecy, by the urim, or by the mouth of prophets, who were in great power and estimation, 3 Kings i. 24., and xii. 23., and 2 Paralipomenon xxv. 6., and xxviii. 8. (Calmet) ---

Septuagint, "There shall be none to explain the law to the impious nation." (Haydock) ---

When pastors are wanting, all goes to ruin, 1 Corinthians xi. 4. (Ven. Bede) (Calmet)

Haydock: Pro 29:20

Amendment. St. Jerome (as Evag.) says, after Thucydides: "Ignorance produces confidence, and learning fear."

Haydock: Pro 29:24

Soul, and exposeth himself to death, though this was only inflicted for stealing a man, Exodus xxi. 16. The night-thief might also be killed in the fact, Exodus xxii. 2. But if the person who had stolen denied it on oath, he was put to death for perjury, Leviticus v. 1.

Haydock: Pro 29:25

Fall. Human respects will not long preserve him from sin. (Calmet) ---

Septuagint have a double version: "Those who fear and are ashamed of men, shall be thrown down. But he who confideth in the Lord, shall rejoice. Impiety overturneth man, while he who trusteth in the Lord shall be saved." (Grabe) (Haydock)

Gill: Pro 29:13

The poor and the deceitful man meet together,.... Or "the usurer" ^q; who by usury, by fraud and deception, is possessed of the mammon of unrighteousness, and is become rich; he and the poor man meet together; and so the sense is the same as in Pro 22:2; See Gill on Pro 22:2;

the Lord lighteneth both their eyes; with the light of natural life, and with the light of natural reason, Joh 1:4; and so is the same as being "the Maker of them all", in the above place; or he bestows his providential favours on both; causes his sun to shine upon the rich and poor, the wicked and the righteous, Mat 5:45. Or it may be understood of the light of grace; for though, for the most part, God chooses and calls the poor of the world, and lightens their eyes with the light of his grace, when not many wise and noble are called and enlightened; yet this is not restrained wholly to men of one and the same condition of life; yea, God sometimes calls and enlightens publicans, tax gatherers, and extortioners, as Matthew and Zacchaeus.

Gill: Pro 29:14

The king that faithfully judgeth the poor,.... That truly executes justice and judgment among all his subjects, particularly the poor, who are too often neglected, because they cannot afford persons to plead their cause: such a king was Solomon; and especially the Messiah, of whom he was a type, Psa 72:1;

his throne shall be established for ever; be secure to him as long as he lives, and to his posterity after; justice to all men, and mercy to the poor, are the support of a prince's throne; see Pro 20:28.

Gill: Pro 29:15

The rod and reproof give wisdom,.... Are the means of giving wisdom to a child, reproved by its parent with the rod; and of driving out foolishness from him, and of making him wiser for the time to come; he shunning those evils for which he was before corrected, Pro 22:15; So the children of God grow wiser by the corrections and chastisements of their heavenly Father, which are always for their good; and he is a man of wisdom that hearkens to the rod, and to him that has appointed it, and learns the proper instructions from it, Mic 6:9;

but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame; a child that has the reins thrown upon his neck, is under no restraint of parents, but suffered to take his own way, is left to do his own will and pleasure; he does those things which his parents are ashamed of, one as well as another; though the mother is only mentioned, being generally most fond and indulgent, and most criminal in suffering children to have their own wills and ways; and so has the greater share in the shame that follows on such indulgences.

Gill: Pro 29:16

When the wicked are multiplied,.... Or "are in authority" ^r; as the word is rendered, Pro 29:2;

transgression increaseth; among the common people, being encouraged by their wicked rulers, whose examples they follow; or as the wicked themselves increase, in numbers, in age, in power, and riches, their sins increase too;

but the righteous shall see their fall, from their places of authority and power, of honour, riches, and grandeur, into a low and despicable condition, into ruin and destruction; and that with pleasure, because of the glory of God, his wisdom, justice, truth, and faithfulness, displayed therein; see Psa 58:10.

Gill: Pro 29:17

Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest,.... Ease of mind, satisfaction and contentment, freedom from all anxious thoughts and cares; the correction being taken in good part, and succeeding according to wish and design;

yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul; by his tenderness to his parents, obedience to them, and respect for them; by his prudent behaviour among men; by his sobriety, diligence, and industry in his calling; by his fear of God, and walking in his ways; than which nothing can give a greater delight and pleasure to religious parents.

Gill: Pro 29:18

Where there is no vision, the people perish,.... That is, "no prophecy", as the Vulgate Latin version renders it; and which is often the sense of the word, as the vision of Isaiah is the prophecy of Isaiah; and, in the New Testament, prophesying is often put for preaching; and here vision, or prophecy, signifies the public ministering of the word and ordinances, and want of persons to administer them; no expounder, as the Septuagint version; or interpreter, as the Arabic. This was the case in the latter end of Eli's life, 1Sa 3:1; in Asa's times, and before, 2Ch 15:3; in the Babylonish captivity, Eze 7:26; in the times of Antiochus, Psa 74:9; when John the Baptist and Christ first came preaching the word, Mat 9:36; and now is the case of the Jews, and will be till the time of their conversion. So it was in the Gentile world, before the Gospel was brought into it, Act 17:30; and so it now is in those places where the seven churches of Asia were; and in all Asia, which once heard the word of the Lord, even all that large country; and now it is not heard at all in it, but covered with Mahometan darkness. And this is the case in all Popish countries, subject to the see of Rome, where the word of God is not preached to the people, nor suffered so much as to be read by them; and even in reformed churches, for the most part, only a little morality is preached, and not the Gospel of Christ; so that here the people are perishing for lack of knowledge, Hos 4:6; and when the witnesses will be slain, who now prophesy in sackcloth, there will he an entire stop put to prophesying or preaching for a while; but, when they shall rise, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God, through the ministry of the word. Now, where there is no preaching, men perish in their sins; the word being the ordinary means of grace, of regeneration, conversion, faith, and salvation; without which, men know nothing of Christ, of peace, pardon, righteousness, and eternal life by him: and where there is preaching, yet it not being of the right kind, there is no spiritual knowledge spread by it, no food for souls under it; they perish with hunger, as the prodigal did, or are in starving and famishing circumstances; no comfort for the people of God, who perish in their comforts under such a ministry, 1Co 8:11; and poison is spread among others; false doctrine eats as a canker, and destroys souls. Again, where there is right vision and prophecy, or true preaching of the word, and that is despised and neglected, men perish notwithstanding; as the Jews of old, and all deniers and contemners of the word now, Act 13:41; and this seems to be intended here, as appears by the following clause. The word translated "perish" has various senses, which agree with the text. It may be rendered, "the people become idle", or "cease" ^s; from the performance of good works, grow dissolute in their manners, and licentious in their practices: or "they become refractory" ^t; fierce, obstinate, and ungovernable, and rebel against their superiors: or they are "made naked" ^u; stripped of their ornaments; of their privileges, civil as well as religious, which is often the case where no vision is; as well as of all virtue and morality, and of the blessing and protection of God;

but he that keepeth the law, happy is he: not the moral law, which no man can keep perfectly, but the law of faith. It may be rendered, "happy is he that observes doctrine" ^w; the doctrine of the Gospel, where it is preached; that attends to it, values and esteems it, receives it by faith, and with meekness; blessed is he, blessed are his eyes and ears; he sees wondrous things out of this law or doctrine, and he hears and knows the joyful sound, which brings salvation and eternal life unto him!

Gill: Pro 29:19

A servant will not be corrected by words,.... Not by them only, especially one that is of a servile, surly, and untractable disposition; otherwise a good servant, and well disposed to his master, and willing to serve him, and promote his interest, a word is sufficient for such an one; when he is bid to go, he goes; or to come, he comes, Mat 8:9; or if he has done wrong, and his fault is told him, he will amend another time; whereas a rough ill natured servant will not regard words, but must have blows to correct him;

for though he understand; what his master says, and what is his will, and knows he has done wrong, and ought to do otherwise, which is an aggravation of sin:

he will not answer; own his fault and promise to do better for the future; through the surliness of his nature, and contempt of his master, whom he does not think worthy of an answer: so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "he despises to answer"; thus Job was used by his servants, Job 19:16; There is an answering which is forbidden servants, Tit 2:9; but this what becomes them, and is expressive of their respect and reverence to their masters, and their ready, hearty, and cheerful obedience to them; and which especially should be in Christian servants to Christian masters, 1Ti 6:1.

Gill: Pro 29:20

Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words,.... Swift to speak either before God or men; that takes upon him to speak upon a subject, or return an answer to a question, before he has thoroughly thought of it, and well considered it, and digested what he should say; see Ecc 5:2; or "hasty in matters" ^x; in his business; runs rashly and precipitately into things, without duly considering within himself what is right and proper to be done, and without taking the advice of others;

there is more hope of a fool than of him; of one that has not the gift of elocution, or not so much sagacity in business, and yet takes time to think, and advises with others.

Gill: Pro 29:21

He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child,.... In a very tender and affluent way uses him with great familiarity; makes him sit at table, with him, feeds him with dainties, and clothes him in the most handsome manner, as if he was one of his own children:

shall have him become his son at the length: he will expect to be used as a son; he will not care to do any servile work, or anything, especially that is hard and laborious; he will be for supplanting the son and heir, and think to inherit all himself; or, however, become proud, haughty, and saucy. Jarchi interprets this of the evil imagination, or the corruption of nature, which is in a man from a child; which, if cherished and not subdued, wilt in the issue rule over a man: and some apply it to the body; which, if delicately pampered, and not kept under, will be master of the soul, instead of servant to it, and its members be instruments of unrighteousness.

Gill: Pro 29:22

An angry man stirreth up strife,.... In families, neighbourhoods, communities, churches, and commonwealths; that is, one that is given to anger, and gives way to it, in whom it prevails and rules;

and a furious man aboundeth in transgression; or, "a master of wrath or fury" ^y; one much addicted to it: or, "the husband of wrath": wedded to it, as a man to his wife: or, as the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "who is easy to be angry"; is easily provoked, wrath rises up in him at once; this leads him on to many sins, as cursing, swearing, murder,

Gill: Pro 29:23

A man's pride shall bring him low,.... As the pride of Adam, in affecting to be as gods, knowing good and evil; he lost the image of God; was brought into a state of darkness and ignorance, into debt and to a dunghill, to beggary and rags; filled with loathsome diseases, and left in thraldom and bondage to sin and Satan; and so all his posterity were brought into the same low estate. This might be exemplified in particular persons, in Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Herod, and others; and, as will be in that monster of pride, the man of sin and antichrist; who will be humbled and brought low in the midst of his pride and boasting, Rev 18:7;

but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit; not who are humble in appearance only, or merely in words, having a show of humility, a voluntary and affected one; but really in their hearts; whose spirits are humble and contrite; who are so in spiritual things, and are made so by the Spirit of God: they are such who are truly sensible of sin; of their folly, and want of spiritual knowledge; of their impotence, and weakness to do anything that is spiritually good; of their spiritual poverty, and want of righteousness; who see that salvation is all of grace; and that whatever they have is owing to the grace of God; that they are deficient in all their duties, and these insufficient to justify them before God; who submit to the righteousness of Christ, and give all the glory of salvation to the grace of God. These, as they are honourable, being clothed with humility, which is itself an ornament of great price; so they are honoured with more grace from the Lord; they are beautified with the garments of salvation; they have the honour to have the spiritual and gracious presence of God, and fellowship with him, who dwells with such as are of an humble spirit: these are the meek and lowly, that shall inherit the new earth, and reign as kings with Christ in it; and the poor in spirit, to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs: and this honour is durable, they shall always abide in it; the grace they have, which makes them glorious, springs up unto eternal life; and the glory they shall have is an eternal weight of glory, a crown of glory that fadeth not away: for so the words may be rendered, "the humble in spirit shall lay hold on glory" ^z or "honour"; possess it and enjoy it: or rather "shall retain" ^a it; shall hold it fast, as the word is translated in Pro 3:18; The sum of the proverb, in both parts, is the same with the words of Christ, often used by him, Mat 23:12.

Gill: Pro 29:24

Whoso is partner with a thief,.... That robs and steals, and raises away another man's property; which to do is sinful and contrary to the law of God, and punishable by it; and so it is to join with him in the theft, or to devise, or consent unto it; or to receive the stolen goods, or to hide and conceal them; or to hide the thief, or the theft, and not declare them; see Psa 50:18. Such an one

hateth his own soul; that is, he is not careful of it, he is not concerned for its welfare as he should be; for otherwise no man, properly speaking, hates his own flesh or body, and much less his soul; but he is negligent of the good of it, and, for the sake of the mammon of unrighteousness, runs the risk of the ruin of it; by which he shows that he loves the world more than his own soul; when the profit of the whole world is nothing to the soul of man, Mat 16:26; see Pro 8:36;

he heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not; or "does not declare it" ^b; he heareth the cursing of those that have lost their goods, and yet he does not declare where they are, and who is the author of the theft, though he knows; or, being suspected of being concerned in it, or, at least, of knowing who did it, be is had before a civil magistrate, and an oath is given him, which he takes, and yet he conceals the matter: which is an aggravation of his sin, and brings ruin to his soul. So the Targum,

"an oath is determined (or brought to him) and he confesseth not.''

Some understand this of a distinct evil, of hearing cursing and swearing, and taking the name of God in vain, and blasphemy against him; yet, through fear of incurring the displeasure of men, and being reckoned a busy body, or through indifference and want of zeal for the glory of God, do not discover it, or inform of it, to a proper person, for the punishment of such; see Lev 5:1; and render the words ^c, as "he that is partner with a thief hateth his own soul; so he that heareth cursing, and betrayeth it not."

Gill: Pro 29:25

The fear of man bringeth a snare,.... Either that which is subjectively in man; not a divine fear, or the fear of God, that grace which is put into the heart, for that leads to no snare, but tends to life; but a human fear, a servile one, a distrust of the power and providence, grace and goodness, of God, which has torment in it; which brings into bondage, and into many distresses and difficulties, and is opposed to trust in the Lord: or objectively, which has man for its object; a fear of losing the favour and friendship of men, of not having honour and applause from them; and a fear of their reproaches and reviling; of the wrath of men, of persecution from them, and of sufferings by them, even death itself; which has been sometimes a snare to ministers of the word, to drop or conceal some truths of it; and to professors of religion, not to embrace, own, and profess them; as many, through fear of the Jews, would not profess Jesus to be the Messiah, though they knew he was, Joh 7:13; yea, such a fear has been a snare to the best of men, and leads into temptation and sin; as particularly Abraham and Peter, Gen 12:12;

but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe; that trusts in the Lord as the God of nature and providence, and the God of all grace, for all mercies, spiritual, temporal, and eternal, and leaves himself and case with him; such an one is safe from men, and the fear of them, and from snares and temptations, and sin and mischief, which come by them: or, "shall be lifted up on high" ^d; he is upon a high rock, firm and sure; he dwells on high, his place of defence is the munition of rocks; he is in a high tower which is impregnable, in a city of refuge where he is safe; he is as immovable as Mount Zion; he is above the fear of man, or danger from him; he is out of the reach of all his enemies, men or devils; see Pro 18:10.

Gill: Pro 29:26

Many seek the ruler's favour,.... Or "face" ^e; are very desirous of being admitted into his presence, and of having his company and conversation; of having an opportunity to ask a favour of him, and of receiving honour from him, and of gaining him on their side, to take their part in a cause depending; see Pro 19:6;

but every man's judgment cometh from the Lord; who has the hearts of kings and rulers in his hand, and directs them in bestowing their favours, and in determining causes; so that all things are ultimately from the Lord; and therefore it is best to seek unto him, and trust in him: or the state and condition and circumstances of men, as to riches and honour, and the like, are all from the Lord, according as he sees fit; who sets up one and pulls down another, according to his pleasure.

Gill: Pro 29:27

An unjust man is an abomination to the just,.... Not his person, but his actions, his unrighteous actions, his ungodly life and conversation; which a man, holy, just, and good, loathes and abhors, and cannot forbear expressing his abhorrence of; and therefore shuns his company, and will have no fellowship with him. And, on the other hand,

he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked; that man that is upright in heart and life, that walks according to the rule of the divine word, in the path of holiness, in the way of truth and righteousness, he is abhorred by a wicked man; he cannot have any pleasure in his company; he is under some awe and restraint which is disagreeable to him; and he cannot bear the reproofs he gives him; besides, if he is silent, his whole life and conversation carries in it a tacit reproof, conviction, and condemnation of him. There always has been a mutual enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, Gen 3:15.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Pro 29:13

¹ tn Heb “a man of oppressions”; KJV “the deceitful man.” The noun תֹּךְ (tokh) means “injury; oppression” (BDB 1067 s.v.). Such men were usually the rich and powerful. The Greek and the Latin versions have “the debtor and creditor.”

² tn The verb פָּגַשׁ (pagash) means “to meet; to encounter.” In the Niphal it means “to meet each other; to meet together” (cf. KJV, ASV). The focus in this passage is on what they share in common.

³ sn The expression gives light to the eyes means “gives them sight” (cf. NIV). The expression means that by giving them sight the Lord gives them the light of life (e.g., Job 33:30; Ps 13:3). God creates and controls them all. So in spite of their circumstances in life, all people receive their life from God.

NET Notes: Pro 29:14

¹ tn The king must judge “in truth” (בֶּאֱמֶת, be’emet). Some have interpreted this to mean “faithfully” (KJV, ASV) but that is somewhat unclear. The idea is that the poor must be treated fairly and justly (cf. NIV “with fairness”; NRSV “with equity”); “truth” is that which corresponds to the standard of the law revealed by God. There must be no miscarriage of justice for these people simply because they are poor.

² sn The term “throne” is a metonymy of subject; it represents the dynasty, the reign of this particular king and his descendants. The qualification of the enduring administration is its moral character. The language of this proverb reflects the promise of the Davidic Covenant (e.g., Prov 16:12; 20:28; 25:5; 31:5).

NET Notes: Pro 29:15

¹ tn The word “rod” is a metonymy of cause, in which the instrument being used to discipline is mentioned in place of the process of disciplining someone. So the expression refers to the process of discipline that is designed to correct someone. Some understand the words “rod and reproof” to form a hendiadys, meaning “a correcting [or, reproving] rod” (cf. NAB, NIV “the rod of correction”).

² tn Heb “gives” (so NAB).

³ tn The form is a Pual participle; the form means “to let loose” (from the meaning “to send”; cf. KJV, NIV “left to himself”), and so in this context “unrestrained.”

⁴ sn The Hebrew participle translated “brings shame” is a metonymy of effect; the cause is the unruly and foolish things that an unrestrained child will do.

⁵ sn The focus on the mother is probably a rhetorical variation for the “parent” (e.g., 17:21; 23:24-25) and is not meant to assume that only the mother will do the training and endure the shame for a case like this (e.g., 13:24; 23:13).

NET Notes: Pro 29:16

¹ tn The verb רָבָה (ravah), which is repeated twice in this line, means “to increase.” The first occurrence here is usually taken to mean that when the wicked increase they hold the power (cf. NRSV, NLT “are in authority”; TEV, CEV “are in power”). The text does not explain the details, only that when the wicked increase sin will increase in the land.

² sn The Hebrew verb translated “see” in this context indicates a triumph: The righteous will gaze with satisfaction, or they will look on the downfall of the wicked triumphantly (e.g., Pss 37:4 and 112:8). The verse is teaching that no matter how widespread evil may be, the righteous will someday see its destruction.

NET Notes: Pro 29:17

¹ tn The verb, a Hiphil imperfect with a suffix, could be subordinated to the preceding imperative to form a purpose clause (indirect volitive classification): “that he may give you rest.” The same then could apply to the second part of the verse.

² tn Heb “your soul.” The noun נַפְשֶׁךָ (nafshekha, “your soul”) is a synecdoche of part (= inner soul) for the whole person (= you); see, e.g., Isa 43:4; 51:23; BDB 600 s.v. 4.a.2.

³ sn The parallelism of this verse is synthetic; the second half adds the idea of “delight/pleasure” to that of “rest.” So a disciplined child will both relieve anxiety (“give…rest”) and bring happiness to the parents.

NET Notes: Pro 29:18

¹ tn Heb “no vision.” The Hebrew word “vision” (from the verb חָזָה [khazah, “to see”]) refers to divine communication to prophets (as in 1 Sam 3:1) and not to individual goals or plans. C. H. Toy sees a problem here: The most calamitous period of Israel’s history was when prophetic vision was at its height, whereas people were often more obedient when God was silent. He also notes that in the book of Proverbs there is no mention of prophetic teaching with wisdom as a guide. So he emends the word to “guidance” following the LXX (Proverbs [ICC], 512). The TEV has “guidance”; the NIV retains “revelation.” It must be stated that the prophetic ministry was usually in response to the calamitous periods, calling the people back to God. Without them the downward rush to anarchy and destruction would have been faster than with these prophetic calls from God.

² tn The verb פָּרַע (para’) means “to let go; to let alone.” It occurs here in the Niphal with the meaning of “[the people] are let loose,” meaning, they cast off restraint (e.g., Exod 32:25). Cf. NLT “run wild.”

³ sn The law here refers to scripture, the concrete form of revelation. So the two halves of the verse provide the contrast: When there is no prophetic revelation there is chaos, but those who keep the revelation contained in scripture find blessing.

⁴ tn There is a tendency among commentators and English versions to translate אַשְׁרֵהוּ (’ashrehu) as “happy is he!” (cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, TEV, NLT). But “happy” can be a misleading translation. The Hebrew word refers to a heavenly bliss, an inner joy, that comes from knowing one is right with God and experiencing his blessing. “Happiness,” on the other hand, depends on what happens.

NET Notes: Pro 29:19

¹ sn Servants could not be corrected by mere words; they had to be treated like children for they were frequently unresponsive. This, of course, would apply to certain kinds of servants. The Greek version translated this as “a stubborn servant.”

² tn The Niphal imperfect here is best rendered as a potential imperfect – “cannot be corrected.” The second line of the verse clarifies that even though the servant understands the words, he does not respond. It will take more.

³ tn Heb “for he understands, but there is no answer.” The concessive idea (“although”) is taken from the juxtaposition of the two parts.

⁴ sn To say “there is no answer” means that this servant does not obey – he has to be trained in a different way.

NET Notes: Pro 29:20

¹ tn Heb “a man,” but there is no indication in the immediate context that this should be limited only to males.

² sn The focus of this proverb is on someone who is hasty in his words. This is the person who does not stop to think, but acts on the spur of the moment. To speak before thinking is foolishness.

³ sn Rash speech cannot easily be remedied. The prospects for a fool are better (e.g., Prov 26:12).

NET Notes: Pro 29:21

¹ tn There is no conditional particle at the beginning of the verse; however, the relationship of the clauses, which lay down the condition first and then (with a vav) the consequences, indicates a conditional construction here. Cf. also NAB, NIV, NCV, TEV.

² tn The word מָגוֹן (magon) is a hapax legomenon; accordingly, it has been given a variety of interpretations. The LXX has “grief,” and this has been adopted by some versions (e.g., NIV, NCV). The idea would be that treating the servant too easily for so long would not train him at all, so he will be of little use, and therefore a grief. J. Reider takes the word to mean “weakling” from the Arabic root na’na (“to be weak”), with a noun/adjective form muna’ana’ (“weak; feeble”); see his “Etymological Studies in Biblical Hebrew,” VT 4 [1954]: 276-95. This would give a different emphasis to the sentence, but on the whole not very different than the first. In both cases the servant will not be trained well. Rashi, a Jewish scholar who lived a.d. 1040-1105, had the translation “a master.” The servant trained this way will assume authority in the household even as the son. This may be behind the KJV translation “son” (likewise ASV, NASB). Tg. Prov 29:21 and the Syriac have “to be uprooted,” which may reflect a different text entirely.

NET Notes: Pro 29:22

¹ tn Heb “a man of anger.” Here “anger” is an attributive (“an angry man”). This expression describes one given to or characterized by anger, not merely temporarily angry. The same is true of the next description.

² tn Heb “possessor of wrath.” Here “wrath” is an attributive (cf. ASV “a wrathful man”; KJV “a furious man”).

³ tn Heb “an abundance of transgression.” The phrase means “abounding in transgression” (BDB 913 s.v. רַב 1.d]). Not only does the angry person stir up dissension, but he also frequently causes sin in himself and in others (e.g., 14:17, 29; 15:18; 16:32; 22:24).

NET Notes: Pro 29:23

¹ tn Heb “pride of a man,” with “man” functioning as a possessive. There is no indication in the immediate context that this is restricted only to males.

² tn There is a wordplay here due to the repetition of the root שָׁפֵל (shafel). In the first line the verb תִּשְׁפִּילֶנּוּ (tishpilennu) is the Hiphil imperfect of the root, rendered “will bring him low.” In the second line the word is used in the description of the “lowly of spirit,” שְׁפַל־רוּחַ (shÿfal-ruakh). The contrast works well: The proud will be brought “low,” but the one who is “lowly” will be honored. In this instance the wordplay can be preserved in the translation.

³ tn Heb “low in spirit”; KJV “humble in spirit.” This refers to an attitude of humility.

sn The Hebrew word translated “lowly” forms an implied comparison: To be humble is like being low, base, earthbound; whereas pride is often compared to being high, lofty – at least in one’s own eyes.

NET Notes: Pro 29:24

¹ sn The expression shares with a thief describes someone who is an “accomplice” (cf. NAB, NIV) because he is willing to share in the loot without taking part in the crime.

² tn Heb “hates his soul.” The accomplice is working against himself, for he will be punished along with the thief if he is caught.

³ tn Heb “oath” or “imprecation”; ASV “adjuration.” This amounted to an “oath” or “curse” (cf. NAB “he hears himself put under a curse”; NRSV “one hears the victim’s curse”) either by or on behalf of the victim, that any witness to the crime must testify (cf. Lev 5:1). However, in this legal setting referring to “a victim’s curse” could be misleading (cf. also KJV “he heareth cursing”), since it could be understood to refer to profanity directed against those guilty of the crime rather than an imprecation called down on a witness who refused to testify (as in the present proverb). The present translation specifies this as an “oath to testify.”

sn The oath to testify was not an oath to tell the truth before a court of law in the modern sense. Instead it was a “curse” or “imprecation” expressed by the victim of the theft, or by the legal authorities, called down on any witness of the crime who kept silent or refused to testify (as here). According to Lev 5:1, if a witness does not speak up he is accountable for the crime. This person hears the adjuration, but if he speaks up he is condemned, and if he does not speak up he is guilty under the law. The proverb is an unusual one; it seems to be warning against getting mixed up in any way with the thief, for it will create a serious ethical dilemma.

NET Notes: Pro 29:25

¹ tn Heb “the fear of man.” This uses an objective genitive to describe a situation where fearing what people might do or think controls one’s life. There is no indication in the immediate context that this should be limited only to males, so the translation uses the more generic “people” here.

² tn Heb “gives [or yields, or produces]”; NIV “will prove to be.”

³ sn “Snare” is an implied comparison; fearing people is like being in a trap – there is no freedom of movement or sense of security.

⁴ sn The image of being set on high comes from the military experience of finding a defensible position, a place of safety and security, such as a high wall or a mountain. Trusting in the Lord sets people free and gives them a sense of safety and security (e.g, Prov 10:27; 12:2).

NET Notes: Pro 29:26

¹ sn The idiom seek the face means to try to obtain favor from someone. According to the proverb, many people assume that true justice depends on the disposition of some earthly ruler.

² tn Heb “but from the Lord [is] justice of a man.” The last part uses the construct state followed by the genitive, which here shows the advantage – it is justice for the person. The implication of the matter is that people should seek the Lord’s favor (rather than a human ruler’s) if they want true justice.

NET Notes: Pro 29:27

¹ tn Heb “who is upright in the way” (so NASB; KJV and ASV are similar). Here “in the way” refers to the course of a person’s life, hence “who lives an upright life.” Cf. NAB “he who walks uprightly.”

sn The proverb makes a simple observation on life: The righteous detest the wicked, and the wicked detest the lifestyle of the righteous. Each is troublesome to the beliefs and the activities of the other.

Geneva Bible: Pro 29:18

^{( d )} Where [there is] no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy [is] he.

^{( d )} Where there are not faithful ministers of the word of God.

Geneva Bible: Pro 29:19

A ^{( e )} servant will not be corrected by words: for though he understandeth he will not answer.

^{( e )} He who is of a servile and rebellious nature.

Geneva Bible: Pro 29:25

The fear of man bringeth a ^{( f )} snare: but he who putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.

^{( f )} He who fears man more than God falls into a snare and is destroyed.

Geneva Bible: Pro 29:26

Many seek the ruler's favour; but [every] man's ^{( g )} judgment [cometh] from the LORD.

^{( g )} He does not need to flatter the ruler, for what God has appointed will come to him.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Pro 29:1-27

1 Observations of public government,

15 and of private.

22 Of anger, pride, thievery, cowardice, and corruption.

MHCC: Pro 29:13

Some are poor, others have a great deal of deceitful riches. They meet in the business of this world; the Lord gives to both the comforts of this life. To some of both sorts he gives his grace.

MHCC: Pro 29:14

The rich will look to themselves, but the poor and needy the prince must defend and plead for.

MHCC: Pro 29:15

Parents must consider the benefit of due correction, and the mischief of undue indulgence.

MHCC: Pro 29:16

Let not the righteous have their faith and hope shocked by the increase of sin and sinners, but let them wait with patience.

MHCC: Pro 29:17

Children must not be suffered to go without rebuke when they do amiss.

MHCC: Pro 29:18

How bare does a place look without Bibles and ministers! and what an easy prey is it to the enemy of souls! That gospel is an open vision, which holds forth Christ, which humbles the sinner and exalts the Saviour, which promotes holiness in the life and conversation: and these are precious truths to keep the soul alive, and prevent it from perishing.

MHCC: Pro 29:19

Here is an unprofitable, slothful, wicked servant; one that serves not from conscience, or love, but from fear.

MHCC: Pro 29:20

When a man is self-conceited, rash, and given to wrangling, there is more hope of the ignorant and profligate.

MHCC: Pro 29:21

Good usage to a servant does not mean indulgence, which would ruin even a child. The body is a servant to the soul; those that humour it, and are over-tender of it, will find it forget its place.

MHCC: Pro 29:22

An angry, passionate disposition makes men provoking to one another, and provoking to God.

MHCC: Pro 29:23

Only those who humble themselves shall be exalted and established.

MHCC: Pro 29:24

The receiver is as bad as the thief.

MHCC: Pro 29:25

Many are ashamed to own Christ now; and he will not own them in the day of judgment. But he that trusts in the Lord will be saved from this snare.

MHCC: Pro 29:26

The wisest course is, to look to God, and seek the favour of the Ruler of rulers; for every creature is that to us which God makes it to be.

MHCC: Pro 29:27

The just man abhors the sins of the wicked, and shuns their company. Christ exposed the wickedness of men, yet prayed for the wicked when they were crucifying him. Hatred to sin in ourselves and others, is a needful branch of the Christian temper. But all that are unholy, have rooted hatred to godliness.

Matthew Henry: Pro 29:13

This shows how wisely the great God serves the designs of his providence by persons of very different tempers, capacities, and conditions in the world, even, 1. By those that are contrary the one to the other. Some are poor and forced to borrow; others are rich, have a great deal of the mammon of unrighteousness ( deceitful riches they are called), and they are creditors, or usurers, as it is in the margin. Some are poor, and honest, and laborious; others are rich, slothful, and deceitful. They meet together in the business of this world, and have dealings with one another, and the Lord enlightens both their eyes; he causes his sun to shine upon both and gives them both the comforts of this life. To some of both sorts he gives his grace. He enlightens the eyes of the poor by giving them patience, and of the deceitful by giving them repentance, as Zaccheus. 2. By those that we think could best be spared. The poor and the deceitful we are ready to look upon as blemishes of Providence, but God makes even them to display the beauty of Providence; he has wise ends not only in leaving the poor always with us, but in permitting the deceived and the deceiver, for both are his (Job 12:16) and turn to his praise.

Matthew Henry: Pro 29:14

Here is, 1. The duty of magistrates, and that is, to judge faithfully between man and man, and to determine all causes brought before them, according to truth and equity, particularly to take care of the poor, not to countenance them in an unjust cause for the sake of their poverty (Exo 23:3), but to see that their poverty do not turn to their prejudice if they have a just cause. The rich will look to themselves, but the poor and needy the prince must defend (Psa 82:3) and plead for, Pro 31:9. 2. The happiness of those magistrates that do their duty. Their throne of honour, their tribunal of judgment, shall be established for ever. This will secure to them the favour of God and strengthen their interest in the affections of their people, both which will be the establishment of their power, and help to transmit it to posterity and perpetuate it in the family.

Matthew Henry: Pro 29:15

Parents, in educating their children, must consider, 1. The benefit of due correction. They must not only tell their children what is good and evil, but they must chide them, and correct them too, if need be, when they either neglect that which is good or do that which is evil. If a reproof will serve without the rod, it is well, but the rod must never be used without a rational and grave reproof; and then, though it may be a present uneasiness both to the father and to the child, yet it will give wisdom. Vexatio dat intellectum - Vexation sharpens the intellect. The child will take warning, and so will get wisdom. 2. The mischief of undue indulgence: A child that is not restrained or reproved, but is left to himself, as Adonijah was, to follow his own inclinations, may do well if he will, but, if he take to ill courses, nobody will hinder him; it is a thousand to one but he proves a disgrace to his family, and brings his mother, who fondled him and humoured him in his licentiousness, to shame, to poverty, to reproach, and perhaps will himself be abusive to her and give her ill language.

Matthew Henry: Pro 29:16

Note, 1. The more sinners there are the more sin there is: When the wicked, being countenanced by authority, grow numerous, and walk on every side, no marvel if transgression increases, as a plague in the country is said to increase when still more and more are infected with it. Transgression grows more impudent and bold, more imperious and threatening, when there are many to keep it in countenance. In the old world, when men began to multiply, they began to degenerate and corrupt themselves and one another. 2. The more sin there is the nearer is the ruin threatened. Let not the righteous have their faith and hope shocked by the increase of sin and sinners. Let them not say that they have cleansed their hands in vain, or that God has forsaken the earth, but wait with patience; the transgressors shall fall, the measure of their iniquity will be full, and then they shall fall from their dignity and power, and fall into disgrace and destruction, and the righteous shall have the satisfaction of seeing their fall (Psa 37:34), perhaps in this world, certainly in the judgment of the great day, when the fall of God's implacable enemies will be the joy and triumph of glorified saints. See Isa 66:24; Gen 19:28.

Matthew Henry: Pro 29:17

Note, 1. It is a very happy thing when children prove the comfort of their parents. Good children are so; they give them rest, make them easy, and free from the many cares they have had concerning them; yea, they give delight unto their souls. It is a pleasure to parents, which none know but those that are blessed with it, to see the happy fruit of the good education they have given their children, and to have a prospect of their well-doing for both worlds; it gives delight proportionable to the many thoughts of heart that have been concerning them. 2. In order to this, children must be trained up under a strict discipline, and not suffered to do what they will and to go without rebuke when they do amiss. The foolishness bound up in their hearts must by correction be driven out when they are young, or it will break out, to their own and their parents' shame, when they are grown up.

Matthew Henry: Pro 29:18

See here, I. The misery of the people that want a settled ministry: Where there is no vision, no prophet to expound the law, no priest or Levite to teach the good knowledge of the Lord, no means of grace, the word of the Lord is scarce, there is no open vision (1Sa 3:1), where it is so the people perish; the word has many significations, any of which will apply here. 1. The people are made naked, stripped of their ornaments and so exposed to shame, stripped of their armour and so exposed to danger. How bare does a place look without Bibles and ministers, and what an easy prey is it to the enemy of souls! 2. The people rebel, not only against God, but against their prince; good preaching would make people good subjects, but, for want of it, they are turbulent and factious, and despise dominions, because they know no better. 3. The people are idle, or they play, as the scholars are apt to do when the master is absent; they do nothing to any good purpose, but stand all the day idle, and sporting in the market-place, for want of instruction what to do and how to do it. 4. They are scattered as sheep having no shepherd, for want of the masters of assemblies to call them and keep them together, Mar 6:34. They are scattered from God and their duty by apostasies, from one another by divisions; God is provoked to scatter them by his judgments, 2Ch 15:3, 2Ch 15:5. 5. They perish; they are destroyed for lack of knowledge, Hos 4:6. See what reason we have to be thankful to God for the plenty of open vision which we enjoy.

II. The felicity of a people that have not only a settled, but a successful ministry among them, the people that hear and keep the law, among whom religion is uppermost; happy are such a people and every particular person among them. It is not having the law, but obeying it, and living up to it, that will entitle us to blessedness.

Matthew Henry: Pro 29:19

Here is the description of an unprofitable, slothful, wicked servant, a slave that serves not from conscience, or love, but purely from fear. Let those that have such servants put on patience to bear the vexation and not disturb themselves at it. See their character. 1. No rational words will work upon them; they will not be corrected and reformed, not brought to their business, nor cured of their idleness and laziness, by fair means, no, nor by foul words; even the most gentle master will be forced to use severity with them; no reason will serve their turn, for they are unreasonable. 2. No rational words will be got from them. They are dogged and sullen; and, though they understand the questions you ask them, they will not give you an answer; though you make it ever so plain to them what you expect from them, they will not promise you to mend what is amiss nor to mind their business. See the folly of those servants whose mouth by their silence calls for strokes; they might be corrected by words and save blows, but they will not.

Matthew Henry: Pro 29:20

Solomon here shows that there is little hope of bringing a man to wisdom that is hasty either, 1. Through rashness and inconsideration: Seest thou a man that is hasty in his matters, that is of a light desultory wit, that seems to take a thing quickly, but takes it by the halves, gallops over a book or science, but takes no time to digest it, no time to pause or muse upon a business? There is more hope of making a scholar and a wise man of one that is dull and heavy, and slow in his studies, than of one that has such a mercurial genius and cannot fix. 2. Through pride and conceitedness: Seest thou a man that is forward to speak to every matter that is started, and affects to speak first to it, to open it, and speak last to it, to give judgment upon it, as if he were an oracle? There is more hope of a modest fool, who is sensible of his folly, than of such a self-conceited one.

Matthew Henry: Pro 29:21

Note, 1. It is an imprudent thing in a master to be too fond of a servant, to advance him too fast, and admit him to be too familiar with him, to suffer him to be over-nice and curious in his diet, and clothing, and lodging, and so to bring him up delicately, because he is a favourite, and an agreeable servant; it should be remembered that he is a servant, and, by being thus indulged, will be spoiled for any other place. Servants must endure hardness. 2. It is an ungrateful thing in a servant, but what is very common, to behave insolently because he has been used tenderly. The humble prodigal thinks himself unworthy to be called a son, and is content to be a servant; the pampered slave thinks himself too good to be called a servant, and will be a son at the length, will take his ease and liberty, will be on a par with his master, and perhaps pretend to the inheritance. Let masters give their servants that which is equal and fit for them, and neither more nor less. This is very applicable to the body, which is a servant to the soul; those that delicately bring up the body, that humour it, and are over-tender of it, will find that at length it will forget its place, and become a son, a master, a perfect tyrant.

Matthew Henry: Pro 29:22

See here the mischief that flows from an angry, passionate, furious disposition. 1. It makes men provoking to one another: An angry man stirs up strife, is troublesome and quarrelsome in the family and in the neighbourhood, blows the coals, and even forces those to fall out with him that would live peaceable and quietly by him. 2. It makes men provoking to God: A furious man, who is wedded to his humours and passions, cannot but abound in transgressions. Undue anger is a sin which is the cause of many sins; it not only hinders men from calling upon God's name, but it occasions their swearing, and cursing, and profaning God's name.

Matthew Henry: Pro 29:23

This agrees with what Christ said more than once, 1. That those who exalt themselves shall be abased. Those that think to gain respect by lifting up themselves above their rank, by looking high, talking big, appearing fine, and applauding themselves, will on the contrary expose themselves to contempt, lose their reputation, and provoke God by humbling providences to bring them down and lay them low. 2. That those who humble themselves shall be exalted, and shall be established in their dignity: Honour shall uphold the humble in spirit; their humility is their honour, and that shall make them truly and safely great, and recommend them to the esteem of all that are wise and good.

Matthew Henry: Pro 29:24

See here what sin and ruin those involve themselves in who are drawn away by the enticement of sinners. 1. They incur a great deal of guilt: He does so that goes partner with such as rob and defraud, and casts in his lot among them, Pro 1:11, etc. The receiver is as bad as the thief; and, being drawn in to join with him in the commission of the sin, he cannot escape joining with him in the concealment of it, though it be with the most horrid perjuries and execrations. They hear cursing when they are sworn to tell the whole truth, but they will not confess. 2. They hasten to utter ruin: They even hate their own souls, for they wilfully do that which will be the inevitable destruction of them. See the absurdities sinners are guilty of; they love death, than which nothing is more dreadful, and hate their own souls, than which nothing is more dear.

Matthew Henry: Pro 29:25

Here, 1. We are cautioned not to dread the power of man, neither the power of a prince nor the power of the multitude; both are formidable enough, but the slavish fear of either brings a snare, that is, exposes men to many insults (some take a pride in terrifying the timorous), or rather exposes men to many temptations. Abraham, for fear of man, denied his wife, and Peter his Master, and many a one his God and religion. We must not shrink from duty, nor commit sin, to avoid the wrath of man, nor, though we see it coming upon us, be disquieted with fear, Dan 3:16; Psa 118:6. He must himself die (Isa 51:12) and can but kill our body, Luk 12:5. 2. We are encouraged to depend upon the power of God, which would keep us from all that fear of man which has either torment or temptation in it. Whoso puts his trust in the Lord, for protection and supply in the way of duty, shall be set on high, above the power of man and above the fear of that power. A holy confidence in God makes a man both great and easy, and enables him to look with a gracious contempt upon the most formidable designs of hell and earth against him. If God be my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid.

Matthew Henry: Pro 29:26

See here, 1. What is the common course men take to advance and enrich themselves, and make themselves great: they seek the ruler's favour, and, as if all their judgment proceeded from him, to him they make all their court. Solomon was himself a ruler, and knew with what sedulity men made their application to him, some on one errand, others on another, but all for his favour. It is the way of the world to make interest with great men, and expect much from the smiles of second causes, which yet are uncertain, and frequently disappoint them. Many take a great deal of pains in seeking the ruler's favour and yet cannot have it; many have it for a little while, but they cannot keep themselves in it, by some little turn or other they are brought under his displeasure; many have it, and keep it, and yet it does not answer their expectation, they cannot make that hand of it that they promised themselves they should. Haman had the ruler's favour, and yet it availed him nothing. 2. What is the wisest course men can take to be happy. Let them look up to God, and seek the favour of the Ruler of rulers; for every man's judgment proceeds from the Lord. It is not with us as the ruler pleases; his favour cannot make us happy, his frowns cannot make us miserable. But it is as God pleases; every creature is that to us that God makes it to be, no more and no other. He is the first Cause, on which all second causes depend; if he help not, they cannot, 2Ki 6:27; Job 34:29.

Matthew Henry: Pro 29:27

This expresses not only the innate contrariety that there is between virtue and vice, as between light and darkness, fire and water, but the old enmity that has always been between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, Gen 3:15. 1. All that are sanctified have a rooted antipathy to wickedness and wicked people. They have a good will to the souls of all (God has, and would have none perish); but they hate the ways and practices of those that are impious towards God and injurious towards men; they cannot hear of them nor speak of them without a holy indignation; they loathe the society of the ungodly and unjust, and dread the thought of giving them any countenance, but do all they can to bring the wickedness of the wicked to an end. Thus an unjust man makes himself odious to the just, and it is one part of his present shame and punishment that good men cannot endure him. 2. All that are unsanctified have a like rooted antipathy to godliness and godly people: He that is upright in the way, that makes conscience of what he says and does, is an abomination to the wicked, whose wickedness is restrained perhaps and suppressed, or, at least, shamed and condemned, by the uprightness of the upright. Thus Cain did, who was of his father the devil. And this is not only the wickedness of the wicked, that they hate those whom God loves, but their misery too, that they hate those whom them shall shortly see in everlasting bliss and honour, and who shall have dominion over them in the morning, Psa 49:14.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 29:13

13 The poor man and the usurer meet together -

Jahve lighteneth the eyes of both.

A variation of Pro 22:2, according to which the proverb is to be understood in both of its parts. That אישׁ תּככים is the contrast of רשׁ , is rightly supposed in Temura 16b; but Rashi, who brings out here a man of moderate learning, and Saadia, a man of a moderate condition (thus also the Targ. גּברא מצעיא , after Buxtorf, homo mediocris fortunae ), err by connecting the word with תּוך . The lxx δανειστοῦ καὶ χρεωφειλέτου ( ἀλλήλοις συνελθόντων ), which would be more correct inverted, for אישׁ תככים is a man who makes oppressive taxes, high previous payments of interest; the verbal stem תּכך , Arab. tak , is a secondary to R. wak , which has the meanings of pressing together, and pressing firm (whence also the middle is named; cf. Arab. samym âlaklab , the solid = the middle point of the heart). תּך , with the plur. תככים , scarcely in itself denotes interest, τόκος ; the designation אישׁ תככים includes in it a sensible reproach (Syr. afflictor ), and a rentier cannot be so called (Hitzig). Luther: steplang7 Reiche [rich men], with the marginal note: "who can practise usury as they then generally all do?"Therefore Löwenstein understands the second line after 1Sa 2:7 : God enlighteneth their eyes by raising the lowly and humbling the proud. But this line, after Pro 22:2, only means that the poor as well as the rich owe the light of life (Psa 13:4) to God, the creator and ruler of all things - a fact which has also its moral side: both are conditioned by Him, stand under His control, and have to give to Him an account; or otherwise rendered: God maketh His sun to rise on the low and the high, the evil and the good (cf. Mat 5:45) - an all-embracing love full of typical moral motive.

(Note: מאיר has, by Löwenstein, Mehuppach Legarmeh , but incorrectly, since after Legarmeh two conjunctives cannot occur. Also Norzi with Mehuppach Mercha is irregular, since Ben-Asher recognises only two examples of this double accentuation to which this מאיר does not belong; vid ., Thorath Emeth , p. 12. That the penultima toning מאיר in several editions is false scarcely needs to be remarked. Jablonski rightly points with Mehuppach on the ult ., and Zinnorith on the preceding open syllable.)

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 29:14

14 A king who judgeth the poor with truth,

His throne shall stand for ever.

בּאמת , as at Isa 16:5 (synon. באמונה , במישׁרים , במישׁור ), is equivalent to fidelity to duty, or a complete, full accomplishment of his duty as a ruler with reference to the dispensing of justice; in other words: after the norm of actual fact, and of the law, and of his duty proceeding from both together. מלך has in Codd., e.g. , Jaman ., and in the Venetian 1517, 21, rightly Rebia . In that which follows, שׁופט באמת are more closely related than באמת דלים , for of two conjunctives standing together the first always connects more than the second. מלך שׁופט באמת דלים is the truest representation of the logical grammatical relation. To 14b compare the proverb of the king, Pro 16:12; Pro 25:5.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 29:15

A proverb with שׁבט , Pro 29:15, is placed next to one with שׁופט , but it begins a group of proverbs regarding discipline in the house and among the people:

15 The rod and reproof give wisdom;

But an undisciplined son is a shame to his mother.

With שׁבט [a rod], which Pro 22:15 also commends as salutary, תּוכחת refers to discipline by means of words, which must accompany bodily discipline, and without them is also necessary; the construction of the first line follows in number and gender the scheme Pro 27:9, Zec 7:7; Ewald, §339c. In the second line the mother is named, whose tender love often degenerates into a fond indulgence; such a darling, such a mother's son, becomes a disgrace to his mother. Our "steplang7 ausgelassen ,"by which Hitzig translates משׁלּח , is used of joyfulness unbridled and without self-restraint, and is in the passage before us too feeble a word; שׁלּח is used of animals pasturing at liberty, wandering in freedom (Job 39:5; Isa 16:2); נער משׁלח is accordingly a child who is kept in by no restraint and no punishment, one left to himself, and thus undisciplined (Luther, Gesenius, Fleischer, and others).

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 29:16

16 When the godless increase, wickedness increaseth;

But the righteous shall see their fall.

The lxx translation is not bad: πολλῶν ὄντων ἀσεβῶν πολλαὶ γίνονται ἁμαρτίαι ( vid ., regarding רבה , Pro 29:2, Pro 28:28); but in the main it is only a steplang7 Binsenwahrheit , as they say in Swabia, i.e. , a trivial saying. The proverb means, that if among a people the party of the godless increases in number, and at the same time in power, wickedness, i.e. , a falling away into sins of thought and conduct, and therewith wickedness, prevails. When irreligion and the destruction of morals thus increase, the righteous are troubled; but the conduct of the godless carries the judgment in itself, and the righteous shall with joy perceive, in the righteous retribution of God, that the godless man will be cast down from his power and influence. This proverb is like a motto to Psa 12:1-8.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 29:17

17 Correct thy son, and he will give thee delight,

And afford pleasure to thy soul.

The lxx well translates ויניחך by καὶ ἀναπαύσει σε ;

(Note: Their translation of Pro 29:17 and Pro 29:18 here is found, in a marred and mutilated form, after Pro 28:17. At that place the words are καὶ ἀγαπήσει σε .)

הניח denotes rest properly, a breathing again, ἀνάψυξις ; and then, with an obliteration of the idea of restraint so far, generally (like the Arab. araḥ , compared by Fleischer) to afford pleasure or delight. The post.-bibl. language uses for this the words נחת רוּח , and says of the pious that he makes נחת רוח to his Creator, Berachoth 17a; and of God, that He grants the same to them that fear Him, Berach . 29b; in the morning prayer of the heavenly spirits, that they hallow their Creator בנחת רוח (with inward delight). Write with Codd. (also Jaman .) and older editions ויניחך , not ויניחךּ ; for, except in verbs ' ה ' ל , the suffix of this Hiphil form is not dageshed, e.g. , אמיתך , 1Ki 2:26; cf. also 1Ki 22:16 and Psa 50:8. מעדנּים the lxx understands, after 2Sa 1:24 ( עם־עדנים , μετὰ κόσμου ), also here, of ornament; but the word signifies dainty dishes - here, high spiritual enjoyment. As in Pro 29:15 and Pro 29:16 a transition was made from the house to the people, so there now follows the proverb of the discipline of children, a proverb of the education of the people:

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 29:18

18 Without a revelation a people becomes ungovernable;

But he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Regarding the importance of this proverb for estimating the relation of the Chokma to prophecy, vid ., vol. i. p. 41. חזון is, according to the sense, equivalent to נבוּאה , the prophetic revelation in itself, and as the contents of that which is proclaimed. Without spiritual preaching, proceeding from spiritual experience, a people is unrestrained ( יפּרע , vid ., regarding the punctuation at Pro 28:25, and regarding the fundamental meaning, at Pro 1:25); it becomes פּרע , disorderly, Exo 32:25; steplang7 wild und wüst , as Luther translates. But in the second line, according to the unity of the antithesis, the words are spoken of the people, not of individuals. It is therefore not to be explained, with Hitzig: but whoever, in such a time, nevertheless holds to the law, it is well with him! Without doubt this proverb was coined at a time when the preaching of the prophets was in vogue; and therefore this, "but whoever, notwithstanding,"is untenable; such a thought at that time could not at all arise; and besides this, תורה is in the Book of Proverbs a moveable conception, which is covered at least by the law in contradistinction to prophecy. Tôra denotes divine teaching, the word of God; whether that of the Sinaitic or that of the prophetic law (2Ch 15:3, cf. e.g. , Isa 1:10). While, on the one hand, a people is in a dissolute condition when the voice of the preacher, speaking from divine revelation, and enlightening their actions and sufferings by God's word, is silent amongst them (Psa 74:9, cf. Amo 8:12); on the other hand, that same people are to be praised as happy when they show due reverence and fidelity to the word of God, both as written and as preached. That the word of God is preached among a people belongs to their condition of life; and they are only truly happy when they earnestly and willingly subordinate themselves to the word of God which they possess and have the opportunity of hearing. אשׁרהוּ (defective for אשׁריהוּ ) is the older, and here the poetic kindred form to אשׁריו , Pro 14:21; Pro 16:20.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 29:19

From the discipline of the people this series of proverbs again returns to the discipline of home:

19 With words a servant will not let himself be bettered;

For he understandeth them, but conformeth not thereto.

The Niph . נוסר becomes a so-called tolerative, for it connects with the idea of happening that of reaching its object: to become truly bettered (taught in wisdom, corrected), and thus to let himself be bettered. With mere words this is not reached; the unreasonable servant needs, in order to be set right, a more radical means of deliverance. This assertion demands confirmation; therefore is the view of von Hofmann ( Schriftbew . ii. 2. 404) improbable, that 19b has in view a better-disposed servant: supposing that he is intelligent, in which case he is admonished without cause, then the words are also lost: he will let them pass over him in silence without any reply. This attempted explanation is occasioned by this, that מענה can signify nothing else than a response in words. If this were correct, then without doubt its fundamental meaning would correspond with כּי ; for one explains, with Löwenstein, "for he perceives it, and may not answer," i.e. , this, that a reply cut off frustrates the moral impression. Or also: for he understands it, but is silent - in praefractum se silentium configit (Schultens); and thus it is with the ancients (Rashi). But why should not ואין מענה itself be the expression of this want of any consequences? מענה cannot certainly mean humiliation

(Note: The Syr. and Targ. also think on ענה , for they translate: "for he knows that he receives no strokes.")

(Meîri, after Exo 10:3, הכנעה ), but why as an answer in words and not also a response by act (Stuart: a practical answer)? Thus the lxx ἐὰν γὰρ καὶ νοήσῃ, ἀλλ ̓ οὐχ ὑπακούσεται , according to which Luther: for although he at once understands it, he does not yet take it to himself. That מענה tahT . may mean obedience, the Aram. so understood, also at Pro 16:4. It denoted a reply in the most comprehensive meaning of the word, vid ., at Pro 16:1. The thought, besides, is the same as if one were to explain: for he understands it, and is silent, i.e. , lets thee speak; or: he understands it, but that which he perceives finds no practical echo.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 29:20

20 Seest thou a man hasty in his words?

The fool hath more hope than he.

Cf. Pro 26:12. Such an one has blocked up against himself the path to wisdom, which to the fool, i.e. , to the ingenuous, stands open; the former is perfect, of the latter something may yet be made. In this passage the contrast is yet more precise, for the fool is thought of as the dull, which is the proper meaning of כּסיל , vid ., under Pro 17:24. There is more hope for the fool than for him, although he may be no fool in himself, who overthrows himself by his words. "The προπετὴς ἐν λόγῳ αὐτοῦ (Sir. 9:18) has, in the existing case, already overleaped the thought; the כסיל has it still before him, and comes at length, perhaps with his slow conception, to it"(Hitzig); for the ass, according to the fable, comes at last farther than the greyhound. Hence, in words as well as in acts, the proverb holds good, "steplang7 Eile mit Weile "[= festina lente ]. Every word, as well as act, can only be matured by being thought out, and thought over. From this proverb, which finds its practical application to the affairs of a house, and particularly also to the relation to domestics, the group returns to the subject of instruction, which is its ground-tone.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 29:21

21 If one pampers his servant from youth up,

He will finally reach the place of a child.

The lxx had no answer to the question as to the meaning of מנון . On the other hand, for פּנּק , the meaning to fondle; delicatius enutrire , is perfectly warranted by the Aram. and Arab. The Talmud, Succa 52b, resorts to the alphabet בח '' אט in order to reach a meaning for מנון . How the Targ. comes to translate the word by מנסּח (outrooted) is not clear; the rendering of Jerome: postea sentiet eum contumacem , is perhaps mediated by the ἔσται γογγυσμός of Symmachus, who combines נון with לון , Niph . γογγύζειν . The ὀθυνηθήσεται of the lxx, with the Syr., von Hofmann has sought to justify ( Schriftbew . ii. 2. 404), for he derives מנון = מנהון from נהה . We must then punctuate מנּון ; but perhaps the lxx derived the word from אנן = מאנון , whether they pronounced it מנון (cf. מסרת = מאסרת ) or מנּון . To follow them is not wise, for the formation of the word is precarious; one does not see with the speaker of this proverb, to whom the language presented a fulness of synonyms for the idea of complaint, meant by using this peculiar word. Linguistically these meanings are impossible: of Jerome, dominus = ממנּה (Ahron b. Josef, Meîri, and others); or: the oppressed = מוּנה , from ינה (Johlson); or: one who is sick = מונה (Euchel). and Ewald's "steplang7 undankbar "[unthankful], derived from the Arabic, is a mere fancy, since (Arab.) manuwan does not mean one who is unthankful, but, on the contrary, one who upbraids good deeds shown.

(Note: In Jahrb . xi. p. 10f. Ewald compares, in an expressive way, the Ethiopic mannána ( Piel ) to scorn; menûn , a reprobate; and mannânı̂ , one who is despised; according to which מנון hcih could certainly designate "a man despising scornfully his own benefactors, or an unthankful man."But this verbal stem is peculiarly Ethiop., and is certainly not once found in Arab. For minnat (which Ewald compares) denotes benefaction, and the duty laid on one thereby, the dependence thereby produced. The verb (Arab.) minn (= מנן ) signifies to divide; and particularly, partly to confer benefaction, partly to attribute benefaction, reckon to, enumerate, and thereby to bring out the sense of obligation. Thus nothing is to be derived from this verbal stem for מנון .)

The ancients are in the right track, who explain מנון after the verb נוּן , Psa 72:17 = נין = בּן ; the Venet ., herein following Kimchi, also adopts the nominal form, for it translates (but without perceptible meaning) γόνωσις . Luther's translation is fortunate:

"If a servant is tenderly treated from youth up,

He will accordingly become a steplang7 Junker [squire]."

The ideas represented in modern Jewish translations: that of a son ( e.g. , Solomon: he will at last be the son) and that of a master (Zunz), are here united. But how the idea of a son (from the verb נון ), at the same time that of a master, may arise, is not to be perceived in the same way as with steplang7 Junker and the Spanish steplang10 infante and steplang10 hidalgo ; rather with מנון , as the ironical naming of the son (little son), the idea of a weakling (de Wette) may be connected. The state of the matter appears as follows: - the Verb נוּן has the meanings of luxuriant growth, numerous propagation; the fish has from this the Aram. name of נוּן , like the Heb. דּג , from דּגה , which also means luxuriant, exuberant increase ( vid ., at Psa 72:17). From this is derived נין , which designates the offspring as a component part of a kindred, as well as מנון , which, according as the מ is interpreted infin. or local, means either this, that it sprouts up luxuriantly, the abundant growth, or also the place of luxuriant sprouting, wanton growing, abundant and quick multiplication: thus the place of hatching, spawning. The subject in יהיה might be the fondled one; but it lies nearer, however, to take him who fondles as the subject, as in 21a. אחריתו is either adv. accus. for באחריתו , or, as we preferred at Pro 23:32, it is the subj. introducing, after the manner of a substantival clause, the following sentence as its virtual predicate: "one has fondled his servant from his youth up, and his (that of the one who fondles) end is: he will become a place of increase."The master of the house is thought of along with his house; and the servant as one who, having become a man, presents his master with ילידי בּית , who are spoilt scapegraces, as he himself has become by the pampering of his master. There was used in the language of the people, נין for בּן , in the sense on which we name a degenerate son a "steplang7 Schönes Früchtchen "[pretty little fruit]; and מנון is a place (house) where many נינים are; and a man (master of a house) who has many of them is one whose family has increased over his head. One reaches the same meaning if מנון is rendered more immediately as the place or state of growing, increasing, luxuriating. The sense is in any case: he will not be able, in the end, any more to defend himself against the crowd which grows up to him from this his darling, but will be merely a passive part of it.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 29:22

The following group begins with a proverb which rhymes by מדון , with מנון of the foregoing, and extends on to the end of this Hezekiah collection:

22 A man of anger stirreth up strife;

And a passionate man aboundeth in transgression.

Line first is a variation of Pro 15:18 and Pro 28:25. אישׁ and בּעל as here, but in the reverse order at Pro 22:24.

(Note: For אישׁ־אף (Löwenstein after Norzi) is to be written, with Baer ( Thorath Emeth , p. 19), אישׁ אף ,)91 . Thus also in Cod. Jaman .)

אף here means anger, not the nose, viz., the expanded nostrils (Schultens). In רב־פּשׁע the פשׁע is, after Pro 14:29; Pro 28:16; Pro 20:27, the governed genitive; Hitzig construes it in the sense of פשׁע רב , Psa 19:2, with יגרה , but one does not say גּרה פשׁע ; and that which is true of רבּים , that, after the manner of a numeral, it can precede its substantive ( vid ., under Ps. 7:26; Psa 89:51), cannot be said of רב . Much (great) in wickedness denotes one who heaps up many wicked actions, and burdens himself with greater guilt (cf. פשׁע , Pro 29:16). The wrathful man stirreth up ( vid ., under Pro 15:18) strife, for he breaks through the mutual relations of men, which rest on mutual esteem and love, and by means of his passionate conduct he makes enemies of those against whom he thinks that he has reason for being angry; that on account of which he is angry can be settled without producing such hostility, but passion impels him on, and misrepresents the matter; it embitters hearts, and tears them asunder. The lxx has, instead of רב , ἐξώρυξεν , of dreaming, כרה (Pro 16:27).

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 29:23

Pro 29:23 passes from anger to haughtiness:

A man's pride will bring him low;

But the lowly attaineth to honour.

Thus we translate תּתמך כּבוד (Lat. honorem obtinet ) in accord with Pro 11:16, and שׁפל־רוּח with Pro 16:19, where, however, שׁפל is not adj. as here, but inf. The haughty man obscures the honour which he has by this, that he boasts immeasurably of it, and aspires yet more after it; the lowly man, on the other hand, obtains honour without his seeking it, honour before God and before men, which would be of no worth were it not connected with the honour before God. The lxx: τοὺς δὲ ταπεινόφρονας ἐπείδει δόξῃ κύριους . This κύριους is indeed not contrary to the sense, but it is opposed to the style. Why the 24th verse should now follow is, as regards the contents and the expression, hard to say; but one observes that Pro 29:22-27 follow each other, beginning with the successive letters of the alphabet א ( ב ), ג , ח , ח , ר , ת ( ת ).

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 29:24

24 He that taketh part with a thief hateth himself;

He heareth the oath and confesseth not.

Hitzig renders the first member as the pred. of the second: "he who does not bring to light such sins as require an atonement (Lev 5:1.), but shares the secret of them with the sinner, is not better than one who is a partner with a thief, who hateth himself."The construction of the verse, he remarks, is not understood by any interpreter. It is not, however, so cross, - for, understood as Hitzig thinks it ought to be, the author should have expressed the subject by שׁמע אלה ולא יגיד , - but is simple as the order of the words and the verbal form require it. The oath is, after Lev 5:1, that of the judge who adjures the partner of the thief by God to tell the truth; but he conceals it, and burdens his soul with a crime worthy of death, for from a concealer he becomes in addition a perjured man.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 29:25

25 Fear of man bringeth a snare with it;

But he that trusteth in Jahve is advanced.

It sounds strange, Hitzig remarks, that here in the Book of an Oriental author one should be warned against the fear of man. It is enough, in reply to this, to point to Isa 51:12. One of the two translations in the lxx (cf. Jerome and Luther) has found this "strange"thought not so strange as not to render it, and that in the gnomic aorist: φοβηθέντες καὶ αἰσχυνθέντες ἀνθρώπους ὑπεσκελίσθησαν . And why should not חרדּת אדם be able to mean the fear of man (cowardice)? Perhaps not so that אדם is the gen. objecti , but so that חרדת אדם means to frighten men, as in 1Sa 14:15. חרדת אלהים , a trembling of God; cf. Psa 64:2; פחד איב , the fear occasioned by the enemy, although this connection, after Deu 2:25, can also mean fear of the enemy ( gen. objecti ). To יתּן , occasioned = brings as a consequence with it, cf. Pro 10:10; Pro 13:15; the synallage generis is as at Pro 12:25 : it is at least strange with fem. infinit. and infinitival nouns, Pro 16:16; Pro 25:14; Psa 73:28; but חרדּה (trembling) is such a nom. actionis , Ewald, §238a. Regarding ישׂגּב (for which the lxx.¹ σωθήσεται , and lxx² εὐφρανθήσεται = ישׂמח ), vid ., at Pro 18:10. He who is put into a terror by a danger with which men threaten him, so as to do from the fear of man what is wrong, and to conceal the truth, falls thereby into a snare laid by himself - it does not help him that by this means he has delivered himself from the danger, for he brands himself as a coward, and sins against God, and falls into an agony of conscience (reproach and anguish of heart) which is yet worse to bear than the evil wherewith he was threatened. It is only confidence in God that truly saves. The fear of man plunges him into yet greater suffering than that from which he would escape; confidence in God, on the other hand, lifts a man internally, and at last externally, above all his troubles.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 29:26

A similar gen. connection to that between חרדת אדם exists between משׁפט־אישׁ :

Many seek the countenance of the ruler;

Yet from Jahve cometh the judgment of men.

Line first is a variation of Pro 19:6, cf. 1Ki 10:24. It lies near to interpret אישׁ as gen. obj .: the judgment regarding any one, i.e. , the estimating of the man, the decision regarding him; and it is also possible, for משׁפּטי , Psa 17:2, may be understood of the judgment which I have, as well as of the judgment pronounced regarding me (cf. Lam 3:59). But the usage appears to think of the genit. after משׁפט always as subjective, e.g. , Pro 16:33, of the decision which the lot brings, Job 36:6, the right to which the poor have a claim; so that thus in the passage before us משׁפט־אשׁ means the right of a man, as that which is proper or fitting to him, the judgment of a man, as that to which as appropriate he has a claim (lxx τὸ δίκαιον ἀνδρί ). Whether the genit. be rendered in the one way or the other, the meaning remains the same: it is not the ruler who finally decides the fate and determines the worth of a man, as they appear to think who with eye-service court his favour and fawn upon him.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 29:27

27 An abomination to a righteous man is a villanous man;

And an abomination to the godless is he who walketh uprightly.

In all the other proverbs which begin with תועבת , e.g. , Pro 11:20, יהוה follows as genit., here צדּיקים , whose judgment is like that of God. אישׁ עול is an abhorrence to them, not as a man, but just as of such a character; עול is the direct contrast to ישׁר . The righteous sees in the villanous man, who boldly does that which is opposed to morality and to honour, an adversary of his God; on the other hand, the godless sees in the man that walketh uprightly ( ישׁר־דּרך , as at Psa 37:14) his adversary, and the condemnation of himself.

With this doubled ת the Book of Proverbs, prepared by the men of Hezekiah, comes to an end. It closes, in accordance with its intention announced at the beginning, with a proverb concerning the king, and a proverb of the great moral contrasts which are found in all circles of society up to the very throne itself.

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 28:1--29:27

C. Instructive Contrasts chs. 28-29

Most of the proverbs in this section are couplets, and most of them set forth a truth by means of a contrast.

28:2 When wickedness abounds in a land there is usually a high rate of turnover in the leadership (v. 2a). The Northern Kingdom of Israel is a case in point. Nevertheless a single wise ruler can bring stability to a land (v. 2b). God blessed the Southern Kingdom of Judah with relative stability because of David's godly leadership.

28:8 When authorities discover a person who gets rich by charging exorbitant interest and they bring him to justice, they usually turn his money over to others who are trustworthy and less greedy. This illustrates the fact that a person who amasses a fortune dishonestly normally loses it eventually.

28:11 Sometimes rich people think they are wise because they have accumulated much money (cf. 1 Tim. 6:17). However a wise person, even a poor wise man, can see that that is not the ultimate reason he is rich.

28:14 Fearing sin is in view here, not having a timid disposition or fearing God.¹⁹² The contrast of hardening the heart supports this view.

28:22 The evil eye represents the wicked purposes of a person. In this case it is a selfish desire to get rich. The person with the evil eye is misanthropic whereas the person with the good eye (22:9) is philanthropic.¹⁹³ The person in view here fails to look far into the future when he will be in need before God if not before men. Avarice leads to poverty.

28:27 Those who give to the poor will not lack what they need, which is God's blessing. They may also receive the blessing of other people and material benefits that God promised generous Israelites. We may supply the idea of blessing to the first statement legitimately since the contrast is with curses in the second statement.

29:11 "Always" is a poor translation. The idea is that fools customarily vent their feelings ("let it all hang out") whereas wise individuals control themselves.

29:13 The poor man is the oppressed, and the oppressor is the rich. They are opposites in this regard. Both owe God their sight and really all the common blessings He bestows on everyone. Giving light to their eyes may mean giving them life (cf. Job 33:30; Ps. 13:3).¹⁹⁴

29:16 We must take the divine perspective here as in all the proverbs. Individual cases may not fit the principle, but generally the principle holds true. The righteous will prevail, and the wicked will fail, eventually.

29:18 The AV translation has resulted in misunderstanding of this proverb. The "vision" (Heb. hazon) does not refer to some dream of success a person may have but to a prophetic vision that was a revelation from God (cf. 1 Sam. 3:1). The Hebrew verb translated "perish" (AV; para) does not mean "die in their sins" (e.g., because someone did not see the "vision" of the importance of evangelism). It means "cast off restraint." Without divine revelation people abandon themselves to their own sinful ways. God's Word restrains human wickedness, and those who keep it are happy. Thus "a nation's well-being depends on obedience to divine revelation."¹⁹⁵ There must be knowledge of divine revelation through preaching for there to be obedience to it.¹⁹⁶

29:21 On the surface this verse sounds as if it is a wise thing to pamper one's slave. However the point is that pampering, as opposed to disciplining, makes slaves disrespectful. A slave is not a son. To bring this parable over into modern life, an employee should not normally receive the same privileges as a son. If he does, the relationship essential to the effective operation of the business will suffer.

29:24 The bad thing about being a thief's partner is that when the thief gets caught and the authorities haul his partner into court he finds himself in a "no win" situation. If he defends his partner, he shares his guilt, but if he says nothing (or pleads the fifth amendment), his accusers assume he shares his guilt. Many a business man has discovered this to his sorrow.

Commentary -- Other

Evidence: Pro 29:15

A child doesn’t learn to do evil; he naturally knows how to be selfish and lie. However, he must be taught to share and truthful. See Pro 20:11 .

Evidence: Pro 29:25

See Psa 56:11 footnote.

Evidence: Pro 29:27

This is why the world hates the Christian. See Joh 15:18-19 .

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 29 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

Pro 29:1, Observations of public government, Pro 29:15, and of private; Pro 29:22, Of anger, pride, thievery, cowardice, and corruption.

Poole: Proverbs 29 (Chapter Introduction)

CHAPTER 29

The excellency of wisdom, with rules for government, Pro 29:1-14 . The parents’ duty to correct their children, Pro 29:15-17 . The misery of them that know not God’ s law, Pro 29:18 . Of anger, pride, thieving, cowardice, and corruption, Pro 29:19-26 . The godly and wicked an abomination to each other, Pro 29:27 .

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.