Proverbs 19 commentary

A poor man who fears God, is more honourable and happy, than a man without wisdom and grace, however rich or advanced in rank.

What good can the soul do, if without knowledge? And he sins who will not take time to ponder the path of his feet.

Men run into troubles by their own folly, and then fret at the appointments of God.

Here we may see how strong is men's love of money.

Those that tell lies in discourse, are in a fair way to be guilty of bearing false-witness.

We are without excuse if we do not love God with all our hearts. His gifts to us are past number, and all the gifts of men to us are fruits of his bounty.

Christ was left by all his disciples; but the Father was with him. It encourages our faith that he had so large an experience of the sorrows of poverty.

Those only love their souls aright that get true wisdom.

Lying is a damning, destroying sin.

A man that has not wisdom and grace, has no right or title to true joy. It is very unseemly for one who is a servant to sin, to oppress God's free-men.

He attains the most true glory who endeavours most steadily to overcome evil with good.

Christ is a King, whose wrath against his enemies will be as the roaring of a lion, and his favour to his people as the refreshing dew.

It shows the vanity of the world, that we are liable to the greatest griefs where we promise ourselves the greatest comfort.

A discreet and virtuous wife is more valuable than house and riches.

A sluggish, slothful disposition makes men poor; it brings them to want. And this applies both to the present life and that which is to come.

If we keep God's word, God's word will keep us from every thing really hurtful. We abuse the doctrine of free grace, if we think that it does away the necessity and advantage of obedience. Those that live at random must die. This truth is clearly taught in words enough to alarm the stoutest sinner.

God has chosen the poor of this world, to be rich in faith, and heirs of his kingdom.

When parents keep under foolish tenderness, they do their best to render children a comfort to them, and happy in themselves.

The spared and spoiled child is likely to become a man of great wrath.

Those that would be wise in their latter end, must be taught and ruled when young.

What should we desire, but that all our purposes may agree with God's holy will?

It is far better to have a heart to do good, and want ability for it, than to have ability for it, and want a heart to it.

Those that live in the fear of God, shall get safety, satisfaction, and true and complete happiness.

Indolence, when indulged, so grows upon people, that they have no heart to do the most needful things for themselves.

A gentle rebuke goes farthest with a man of understanding.

The young man who wastes his father's substance, or makes his aged mother destitute, is hateful, and will come to disgrace.

It is the wisdom of young men to dread hearing such talk as puts loose and evil principles into the mind.

Those are the worst of sinners, who are glad of an opportunity to sin.

The unbelief of man shall not make God's threatenings of no effect. Christ himself, when bearing sins not his own, was not spared. Justice and judgment took hold of our blessed Surety; and will God spare obstinate sinners?

CHAPTER 19

Pr 19:1-29.

1. (Compare Pr 28:6). "Rich" for fool here. Integrity is better than riches (Pr 15:16, 17; 16:8).

2. The last illustrates the first clause. Rashness, the result of ignorance, brings trouble.

3. perverteth ... way--turns him back from right (Pr 13:6; Jas 1:13); and he blames God for his failures.

4. (Compare Pr 14:20). Such facts are often adduced with implied disapprobation.

5. Compare Pr 19:9, where perish explains not escape here (compare Psa 88:9, 10).

8. (Compare Margin; Pr 15:32).

loveth ... soul--or, "himself," which he evinces by regarding his best interests.

keepeth--or, "regards."

10. (Compare Pr 17:7). The fool is incapable of properly using pleasure as knowledge, yet for him to have it is less incongruous than the undue elevation of servants. Let each abide in his calling (1Co 7:20).

11. (Compare Pr 14:29; 16:32). This inculcation of a forgiving spirit shows that true religion is always the same (Mt 5:22-24).

12. (Compare Pr 16:14, 15; 20:2). A motive to submission to lawful authority.

13. calamity--literally, "calamities," varied and many.

continual dropping--a perpetual annoyance, wearing out patience.

14. A contrast of men's gifts and God's, who, though author of both blessings, confers the latter by His more special providence.

and--or, "but," implying that the evils of Pr 19:13 are only avoided by His care.

15. a deep sleep--a state of utter indifference.

idle soul--or, "person" (compare Pr 10:4; 12:24).

16. (Compare Pr 10:17; 13:13).

despiseth ... ways--opposed to keeping or observing, neglects (Pr 16:17) (as unworthy of regard) his moral conduct.

17. (Compare Pr 14:21; Psa 37:26).

hath pity--shown by acts (compare Margin).

18. (Compare Pr 13:24; 23:13).

let not ... spare--literally, "do not lift up thy soul" (Psa 24:4; 25:1), that is, do not desire to his death; a caution to passionate parents against angry chastisement.

19. Repeated efforts of kindness are lost on ill-natured persons.

20. (Compare Pr 13:18-20).

latter end--(Pr 5:11). In youth prepare for age.

21. (Compare Pr 16:1, 9; Psa 33:10, 11). The failure of man's devices is implied.

22. desire--that is, to do good, indicates a kind disposition (Pr 11:23); and the poor thus affected are better than liars, who say and do not.

23. The fear ... life--(Compare Pr 3:2).

abide--or, "remain contented" (1Ti 4:8).

not visited with evil--(Pr 10:3; Psa 37:25), as a judgment, in which sense visit is often used (Psa 89:32; Jr 6:15).

24. bosom--literally, a wide dish in which the hand was plunged in eating (Mt 26:23). Compare Pr 26:15, the sentiment expressed with equal irony and less exaggeration.

25. Such is the benefit of reproof; even the simple profit, much more the wise.

26. Unfilial conduct often condemned (Pr 17:21-25; 20:20; De 21:18, 21).

27. Avoid whatever leads from truth.

28. ungodly witness--(Compare Margin), one false by bad principles (compare Pr 6:12).

scorneth judgment--sets at naught the dictates of justice.

devoureth--literally, "swalloweth," as something delightful.

29. Their punishment is sure, fixed, and ready (compare Pr 3:34; 10:13).

Better is the poor - The upright poor man is always to be preferred to the rich or self-sufficient fool.

Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good - Would it not be plainer, as it is more literal, to say, "Also, to be without knowledge, is not good for the soul?" The soul was made for God; and to be without his knowledge, to be unacquainted with him, is not only not good, but the greatest evil the soul can suffer, for it involves all other evils. The Chaldee and Syriac have: "He who knows not his own soul, it is not good to him." "Where no discretion is, there the soul is not well." - Coverdale.

And he that hasteth with his feet sinneth - And this will be the case with him who is not Divinely instructed. A child does nothing cautiously, because it is uninstructed; a savage is also rash and precipitate, till experience instructs him. A man who has not the knowledge of God is incautious, rash, headstrong, and precipitate: and hence he sinneth - he is continually missing the mark, and wounding his own soul.

The foolishness of man - Most men complain of cross providences, because they get into straits and difficulties through the perverseness of their ways; and thus they fret against God; whereas, in every instance, they are the causes of their own calamities. O how inconsistent is man!

The poor is separated from his neighbor - Because he has the "disease of all-shunned poverty."

Do hate him - They shun him as they do the person they hate. They neither hate him positively, nor love him: they disregard him; they will have nothing to do with him. שנא sana signifies not only to hate, but to show a less degree of love to one than another. So Jacob loved Rachel, but hated Leah - showed her less affection than he did to Rachel.

Delight is not seemly for a fool - תענוג taanug, splendid or luxurious living, rank, equipage, etc. These sit ill on a fool, though he be by birth a lord.

For a servant to have rule over princes - I pity the king who delivers himself into the hands of his own ministers. Such a one loses his character, and cannnot be respected by his subjects, or rather their subjects. But it is still worse when a person of mean extraction is raised to the throne, or to any place of power; he is generally cruel and tyrannical.

It is his glory to pass over a transgression - "No," says what is termed a man of honor; "he must meet me as a gentleman; I must have his blood, let God say what he will." O poor, dastardly coward! thou canst not bear the reproach of poor, flimsy, paltry fellows who ridicule thee, because thou hast refused to commit murder. Such laws should be put down by law; and the man that gives a challenge should be hanged, because he intends to commit murder.

The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion - There is nothing more dreadful than the roaring of this tyrant of the forest. At the sound of it all other animals tremble, flee away, and hide themselves. The king who is above law, and rules without law, and whose will is his own law, is like the lion. This is strongly descriptive of the character of Asiatic sovereigns.

The contentions of a wife are a continual dropping - The man who has got such a wife is like a tenant who has got a cottage with a bad roof through every part of which the rain either drops or pours. He can neither sit, stand work, nor sleep, without being exposed to these droppings. God help the man who is in such a case, with house or wife!

A prudent wife is from the Lord - One who has a good understanding, אשה משכלת ishshah mascaleth; who avoids complaining, though she may often have cause for it.

Into a deep sleep - תרדמה tardemah, the same into which Adam was thrown, before Eve was taken from his side. Sloth renders a man utterly unconscious of all his interests. Though he has frequently felt hunger, yet he is regardless that his continual slothfulness must necessarily plunge him into more sufferings.

Lendeth unto the Lord - O what a word is this! God makes himself debtor for every thing that is given to the poor! Who would not advance much upon such credit? God will pay it again. And in no case has he ever forfeited his word.

Let not thy soul spare for his crying - This is a hard precept for a parent. Nothing affects the heart of a parent so much as a child's cries and tears. But it is better that the child may be caused to cry, when the correction may be healthful to his soul, than that the parent should cry afterwards, when the child is grown to man's estate, and his evil habits are sealed for life.

A man of great wrath - He who is of an irritable, fiery disposition, will necessarily get himself into many broils; and he that is surety for him once is likely to be called on again and again for the same friendly office.

There are many devices, etc. - The same sentiment as in Pro 16:1 (note), where see the note.

A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom - Is too lazy to feed himself, If he dip his hand once in the dish, he is too lazy to put it in a second time. It is a strange case that a man, through his excessive slothfulness, would rather starve than put himself to the trouble to eat.

He that wasteth his father - Destroys his substance by riotous or extravagant living, so as to embitter his latter end by poverty and affliction; and adds to this wickedness the expulsion of his aged widowed mother from the paternal house; is a son of shame - a most shameful man; and a son of reproach - one whose conduct cannot be sufficiently execrated. Who tormentith the fader, and fleeth the modir, schenful schal ben, and unblisful - Old MS. Bible. The common reading of the Vulgate is, et fugat matrem, and expels his mother; but the Old Bible was taken from a copy that had fugit matrem, shuns his mother, flees away from her, leaves her to affliction and penury. It is prostitution of the term to call such, man.

Cease, my son - Hear nothing that would lead thee away from God and his truth.

Stripes for the back of fools - Profane and wicked men expose themselves to the punishments denounced against such by just laws. Avoid, therefore, both their company and their end.

Hasteth - That rashly and headily rushes into actions.

Perverteth - Blasts his designs and enterprises. Fretteth - He ascribes his unhappiness not to his own sin, but to God and his providence.

A friend - in profession.

Brethren - His nearest relations. Hate - Despise and shun him. Pursueth - Earnestly imploring their pity.

Delight - To live in pleasure and outward glory, doth not become him, nor suit with him; because prosperity corrupts even wise men, and makes fools mad; and because it gives him more opportunity to discover his folly, and to do mischief both to himself and others.

Dropping - Are like rain continually dropping upon an house.

Casteth - Makes a man careless, and like one asleep in his business.

His ways - The commands of God.

While - Before custom in sin, and thy indulgence have made him incorrigible. Let not - Forbear not to give him due and necessary correction.

Great wrath - Of strong passions. Deliver - If thou forbear to punish him. Do it - Thou must deliver him again and again.

The desire - The hearty desire of being kind is accepted by God, and should be owned by men as a real kindness. A poor man - Who is not able to give what he desires to do. A liar - Than a rich man who feeds the poor with fair promises, but doth not perform what he pretends.

Satisfied - Shall be fully contented with God's favour and blessing.

Bring it - To feed himself; he expects that the meat should drop into his mouth.

Scorner - An obstinate and impudent transgressor. Simple - Who sin thro' ignorance, being possibly drawn to it by the scorner's evil counsel or example. Reprove - A verbal reproof will be more effectual for his reformation, than the severest punishments will be to a scorner.

Wasteth - His father's estate. Chaseth - Causes her to avoid his presence, and to go from the house where he is.

Scorneth - Hath no reverence to the place of justice, nor to the presence of God there. Devoureth - Utters it with greediness and delight.

Prepared - Although they be deferred for a time, yet they are treasured up for them.

1 BEtter is the poor that walketh in his integrity , than he that is perverse in his lips , and is a fool .

Who is upright in his words and actions.

That useth to speak wickedly, which proceeds from a wicked heart, and is usually attended with an evil Life.

Is an Hypocrite, or a wicked man, for this is opposed to the upright man in the former clause; yea, though he be rich, which is implied from the same clause.

Marginal references: Chap. 28. 6.

2 Also that the soul be without knowledg , it is not good : and he that hasteth with his feet , sinneth.

Which is the principal cause and director of all mens actions.

Without Wisdom or Prudence to discern his way, and what, and how, he ought to act in his several cases and concernments.

It is very evil and pernicious.

That rashly and headily rusheth into actions without serious consideration. So two vices are here censured, the want of Knowledg, and the neglect or di[illegible: 1+ letters]use of Knowledg in a mans actions.

3. The foolishness of man perverteth his way , and his heart fretteth against the LORD .

Either 1. enticeth him to sin. Or rather 2. Crosseth and blas[illegible: 1+ letters]eth his designs and enterprises, and brings losses and miseries upon him.

He ascribes his unhappiness not to his own sin and folly, which is the true cause of it, but to God and his Providence, against which he unjustly murmurs.

4 Wealth maketh many friends, but the poor is separated from his neighbour .

Is disowned and forsaken by those who are most obliged to help him.

Marginal references: Ch. 14. 20.

5 A false witness shall not be unpunished , and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.

Though he escape the observation and punishment of men, yet he shall not avoid the judgment of God.

That accustometh himself to lying, either in judgment, or in common conversation.

Marginal references: Ver. 9. Exod. 23. 1. Deut. 19. 16, 19. Ch. 6. 19. & 21. 28.; Heb. held innocent.

6 Many will entreat the favour of the prince , and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts.

Or, as others, of the liberal or bountiful man: which comes to the same thing: for Kings were antiently called Benefactors, Luk. 22. 25.

Not sincerely, as daily experience shews, but in shew or profession, or in the outward expressions of it, whereby they may oblige him.

Marginal references: Heb. face.; Heb. a man of gifts.

7 All the brethren of the poor do hate him , how much more do his friends go far from him? he pursueth them with words , yet they are wanting to him .

His nearest and dearest Relations, who are oft called Brethren in Scripture, by a common Synecdoche.

i. e. Despise and shun him, as men do any thing which they hate, and as the following words explain it.

His former companions, who in his prosperity professed friendship to him.

Earnestly imploring their pity. Or, he urgeth (Heb. pursueth) their words, i. e. alledgeth their former promises, and professions of Friendship. Or, without any supplement, he seeketh words, as the Preacher sought to find out acceptable words, Eccles. 12. 10. wherewith he might prevail or move them to pity.

Heb. they are not, either 1. His Friends are not, to wit, what they pretended to be, friends to him. Or 2. Their words are vain, and without effect, there is no reality in them.

Marginal references: Ch. 14. 20.

8 He that getteth wisdom, loveth his own soul , he that keepeth understanding shall find good .

Or, loveth himself, because he procures great good to his Soul, or to himself, as it follows, as sinners on the contrary are said to hate their Souls, Prov. 29. 24. because they bring mischief upon them.

That observeth and carefully practiseth its precepts, as that Phrase is commonly used.

Shall have great benefit by it, both for his conduct in this Life, and for his happiness in the next.

Marginal references: Heb. an heart.

9 A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish .

This was said before, v. 5. and seems to be here repeated, either for its great use and weight in humane society, and to shew how much God abhors such practices; or to shew the pernicious effects of this sin, and consequently of all other sins, one eminent kind being put for all the rest, and this in opposition to the good effects of Wisdom or Piety, which he declared in the foregoing verse.

10 Delight is not seemly for a fool, much less for a servant to have rule over princes .

To live in Pleasure, and Plenty, and outward Glory.

Who is of a servile condition and disposition, not much differing from a Fool, who is a servant to his Lusts, and wholly unfit to rule other men.

i. e. Over men of better quality than himself: for servants are commonly ignorant, and when they are advanced they grow insolent, and presumptuous, and intolerable.

b It doth not become him, nor suit with him, partly because Prosperity corrupts even wise men, and makes fools mad, and partly because it gives him more opportunity to discover his folly, and to do mischief both to himself and others. He implies that a rod or punishment is fitter for him than pleasure, as is noted, Prov. 10. 13. & 26. 3.

Marginal references: Eccl. 10. 6.; Ch. 30. 22. Eccl. 10. 7.

11 The discretion of a man deferreth his anger, and it is his glory to pass over a transgression .

This is opposed to the perverse judgment of worldly men who account it [illegible: 1+ letters]olly and stupidity, not quickly to resent a provocation, and a dishonour and reproach not to revenge it.

Marginal references: Chap. 14. 29.; Or, prudence.

13 A foolish son is the calamity of his father, and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping .

Are like rain continually dropping upon an house which by degrees marreth the House and Houshold stuff, and driveth the inhabitants out of it. He compareth her to a continual dropping, because of that inseparable Union and necessary cohabitation of Husband and Wife together, notwithstanding such contentions.

Marginal references: Chap. 10. 1. & 15. 20. & 17. 21, 25.; Ch. 21. [illegible: 1+ letters] ▪ [illegible: 1 word] & 27. 15.

14 House and riches are the inheritance of fathers, and a prudent wife is from the LORD .

Is vouchsafed to a man by a singular providence of God, who is the only Searcher and Ruler of hearts, exactly discerning who are prudent or pious, in which even wise mens judgments are commonly mistaken, and inclining the minds and hearts of persons one towards another.

Marginal references: Ch. 18. 22.

15 Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep , and an idle soul shall suffer hunger.

Maketh a man careless and negligent, and like one asleep in his business, whereby he cometh to want, as it follows.

Marginal references: Chap. 1[illegible: 1+ letters] ▪ [illegible: 1+ letters] ▪ & 20. 13.

16 He that keepeth the commandment , keepeth his own soul, but he that despiseth his ways , shall die.

The commands of God called by way of eminency the commandment, as the Word is oft used Emphatically for the word of God, as hath been noted before.

Either 1. His own ways, by not taking heed to his ways, so as to order his Conversation aright. Or 2. The ways of God, who is understood in the former clause.

Marginal references: Luk. 11. 28.

17 He that hath pity on the poor, lendeth unto the LORD , and that which he hath given will he pay him again.

Who takes what is done to them as done to himself, because it is done to them whom God, as to this particular, hath put in his own stead, to be his receivers, and whom God hath in a peculiar manner commended to the care and charity of all other men.

Marginal references: Mat. 10 42. & 25. 40. 2 Cor. 9. 6, 7.; Or, his deed.

18 Chasten thy son while there is hope , and let not thy soul spare for his crying .

Before custom in sin, and thy indulgence hath made him hard-hearted and incorrigible.

Forbear not to give him due and necessary correction.

Which o[illegible: 1+ letters]t stirs up a foolish and pernicious pity in Parents towards them. This word, with some small difference in the points, is used in this sense, Isa. 14. 11. Or, as it is in the margent, to his destruction, intimating that this is a cruel pity, and a likely way to expose him to that death threatned to stubborn Sons, Deut. 21. 18, 21. But this clause is, and may be, rendred otherwise, yet, or but do not lift up thy soul (which signifies a vehement desire, Deut. 24. 15. Psal. 25. 1. Ier. 44. 14. let not thy passion, or eager desire of chastening him, transport thee so far as) to cause him to die, i. e. use moderation in this work.

Marginal references: Chap. 13. 24. & 23. 13.; Or, to his [illegible: 1 word], or, to cause him to die.

19 A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment; for if thou deliver him , yet thou must do it again .

Or, He who is of great wrath, of strong passions. Which may be understood either 1. More particularly, of a Son of such a temper, who is very impatient of correction, and breaks forth into violent passions upon that occasion; and then the following words contain the Parents duty, which is to take care to punish him, because if he spare him that time for his passion, he must do so again and again, the same cause returning upon him, and so must wholly forbear to chasten him. Or 2. More generally, of any man of a fierce and furious temper and carriage, and then the next words declare only the event, by his great and repeated provocations he will bring punishment upon himself either from God or Men.

If either a Parent, or another person provoked by him, forbear to punish him. He turneth his speech to the party, as is usual in Scripture, and in other Authors.

Heb. thou must add, to wit, to deliver him again and again, as oft as he shall offend: or, thou wilt add or encrease, to wit, his wrath, which thou shouldst subdue.

Marginal references: Heb. add.

20 Hear counsel, receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end .

Before thy Death come. Which he adds not exclusively, as if he ought not to be wise before, but Emphatically to shew, that how foolishly soever he had spent his former and younger years, it highly concerned him to be wise before it was too late, or before Death came.

Marginal references: Psal. 55. 23.

21 There are many devices in a mans heart , nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand .

Understand out of the opposite Clause, which shall not stand but be disappointed.

His eternal (and unchangeable and most wise Decree, which oft-times contradicts, and always over-rules the designs and purposes of men.

i. e. Be certainly fulfilled, as this Phrase is used, Ier. 44. 28, 29. and elsewhere.

Marginal references: Job. 23. 13. Psal. 33. 10, 11. Chap. 16. 1, 9. Isa. 46. 10. Heb. 6. 17.

22 The desire of a man is his kindness, and a poor man is better than a liar .

Either 1. of any or every Man. All men desire, and it is desirable to be in a capacity of being kind and bountiful to others, whereby they gain love and honour, and many other great advantages. Or 2. of the poor man, expressed in the next Clause. The hearty will or desire of being kind or liberal to others in necessity is all the kindness which a poor Man can shew, and is accepted by God, and should be owned by men as a real kindness. Compare 2 Cor. [illegible: 1+ letters]. 12. Or 3. of the rich Man, as may be gathered from the opposition of this Man to the poor Man in the following Clause; such Ellipses being very common in this Book, as hath been noted again and again. So the sense may be this, There be a sort of rich men all whose kindness and charity consists in good desires and well-wishes to Persons in misery, saying to them, depart in p[illegible: 1+ letters]ace, be ye warmed and filled, but not giving them those things which are needful, as it is expressed, Iam. 2. 16. And this sense seems to agree very well with the following Clause. But being singular in this exposition, I submit it to the judicious Reader.

Who is not able to give what he desires to do.

Than a rich Man who feeds the poor with good words and fair promises, but doth not perform what he pretends, and is able to do.

23 The fear of the LORD tendeth to life, and he that hath it shall abide satisfied , he shall not be visited with evil c.

shall want nothing, and shall be fully contented with God's favour and blessing. With any destructive affliction.

24 A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom , and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again .

Either to keep it warm in cold Weather: Or, to give it rest, being loth to oppress it with the labour of any action. It is a sarcastical Hyperbole.

To wit, to feed himself; he expects that the Meat should drop into his Mouth.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] 1[illegible: 1+ letters] ▪ 1[illegible: 1+ letters]. [illegible: 1 word] 13. 15.

25 smite a scorner , and the simple will beware, and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledg .

An obstinate and impudent Transgressor, who rejects and scorns all admonitions, and therefore is to be taught with blows.

Who sin through ignorance, and imprudence, and infirmity, being possibly drawn to sin by the scorners evil counsel or example.

A verbal reproof will be more effectual for his reformation than the severest punishments will be to a scorner.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] 21. 11.; [illegible: 1 word] will be [illegible: 1 word].

26 He that wasteth his father , and chaseth away his mother , is a son that causeth shame, and bringeth reproach .

i. e. His Fathers estate by unjust or riotous courses.

Causeth her to avoid and abhor his presence and society, and to go from the House where he is.

Both to himself and to his Parents and Family. But this Verse may very well be rendred otherwise, the last words being made the subject of the Proposition, as is usual in Scripture, A Son that causeth shame and bringeth reproach (upon himself and his friends by wicked ways) wasteth his Fathers (estate and health and comfort) and chaseth or driveth away his Mother. These are the effects of his wickedness.

27 Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledg .

If thou hast formerly, yet do not now any longer hearken to those false Doctrines or evil counsels which tend to withdraw thee from the belief or practice of God's holy Word.

28 An ungodly witness scorneth judgmen , and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity .

Hath no reverence to the place of Justice, nor to the presence of God there, nor to that Sacred and Solemn Work of executing Judgment, but in spight of all gives in a false Testimony

Uttereth wickedness with as great greediness, and delight, and ease, as they swallow down delicious Meats and Drinks. Compare Iob 15. 16.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. a wit [illegible: 1+ letters] of Beli[illegible: 1+ letters]l.

29 Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.

Either by men, or at least by God; although they be deferred for a time, yet they are treasured up for them, and shall infallibly be inflicted upon them.

Pro 19:1

The plur. רעים, Pro 18:24, is emphatic and equivalent to רעים רבּים. The group Pro 19:1-4 closes with a proverb which contains this catchword. The first proverb of the group comes by שׂפתיו into contact with Pro 18:20, the first proverb of the preceding group. 1 Better a poor man walking in his innocence,    Than one with perverse lips, and so a fool.

The contrast, Pro 28:6, is much clearer. But to correct this proverb in conformity with that, as Hitzig does, is unwarrantable. The Syr., indeed, translates here as there; but the Chald. assimilates this translation to the Heb. text, which Theodotion, and after him the Syro-Hexapl., renders by ὑπὲρ στρεβλόχειλον ἄφρονα. But does 1a form a contrast to 1b? Fleischer remarks: “From the contrast it appears that he who is designated in 1b must be thought of as עשׁיר” [rich]; and Ewald, “Thus early the ideas of a rich man and of a fool, or a despiser of God, are connected together.” Saadia understands כסיל [a fool], after Job 31:24, of one who makes riches his כּסל [confidence]. Euchel accordingly translates: the false man, although he builds himself greatly up, viz., on his riches. But כסיל designates the intellectually slothful, in whom the flesh overweighs the mind. And the representation of the rich, which, for 1b certainly arises out of 1a, does not amalgamate with כסיל htiw , but with עקּשׁ שׂפתיו. Arama is on the right track, for he translates: the rich who distorts his mouth, for he gives to the poor suppliant a rude refusal. Better Zöckler: a proud man of perverse lips and haughty demeanour. If one with haughty, scornful lips is opposed to the poor, then it is manifestly one not poor who thinks to raise himself above the poor, and haughtily looks down on him. And if it is said that, in spite of this proud demeanour, he is a fool, then this presents the figure of one proud of his wealth, who, in spite of his emptiness and nequitia, imagines that he possesses a greatness of knowledge, culture, and worth corresponding to the greatness of his riches. How much better is a poor man than such an one who walketh (vid., on תּם, vol. i, p. 79) in his innocence and simplicity, with his pure mind wholly devoted to God and to that which is good! - his poverty keeps him in humility which is capable of no malicious conduct; and this pious blameless life is of more worth than the pride of wisdom of the distinguished fool. There is in contrast to עקּשׁוּת a simplicity, ἁπλότης, of high moral worth; but, on the other side, there is also a simplicity which is worthless. This is the connecting thought which introduces the next verse.

Pro 19:2 2 The not-knowing of the soul is also not good,    And he who hasteneth with the legs after it goeth astray.

Fleischer renders נפשׁ as the subj. and לא־טוב as neut. pred.: in and of itself sensual desire is not good, but yet more so if it is without foresight and reflection. With this explanation the words must be otherwise accentuated. Hitzig, in conformity with the accentuation, before us: if desire is without reflection, it is also without success. But where נפשׁ denotes desire or sensuality, it is always shown by the connection, as e.g., Pro 23:2; here דּעת, referring to the soul as knowing (cf. Psa 139:14), excludes this meaning. But נפשׁ is certainly gen. subjecti; Luzzatto’s “self-knowledge” is untenable, for this would require דעת נפשׁו; Meîri rightly glosses נפשׁ דעת by שׂכל. After this Zöckler puts Hitzig’s translation right in the following manner: where there is no consideration of the soul, there is no prosperity. But that also is incorrect, for it would require אין־טוב; לא־טוב is always pred., not a substantival clause. Thus the proverb states that בלא־דעת נפשׁ is not good, and that is equivalent to היות בלא־דעת נפשׁ (for the subject to לא־טוב is frequently, as e.g., Pro 17:26; Pro 18:5, an infinitive); or also: בלא־דעת נפשׁ is a virtual noun in the sense of the not-knowing of the soul; for to say לא־דעת was syntactically inadmissible, but the expression is בלא־דעת, not בּלי דעת (בּבלי), because this is used in the sense unintentionally or unexpectedly. The גּם which begins the proverb is difficult. If we lay the principal accent in the translation given above on “not good,” then the placing of גם first is a hyperbaton similar to that in Pro 17:26; Pro 20:11; cf. אך, Pro 17:11; רק, Pro 13:10, as if the words were: if the soul is without knowledge, then also (eo ipso) it is destitute of anything good. But if we lay the principal accent on the “also,” then the meaning of the poet is, that ignorance of the soul is, like many other things, not good; or (which we prefer without on that account maintainingThe old interpreters and also the best Jewish interpreters mar the understanding and interpretation of the text, on the one side, by distinguishing between a nearest and a deeper meaning of Scripture (דרך נגלה and דרך נסתר); on the other by this, that they suppose an inward connection of all the proverbs, and expend useless ingenuity in searching after the connection. The former is the method especially adopted by Immanuel and Meîri, the latter has most of all been used by Arama. the original connection of Pro 19:1 and Pro 19:2), that as on the one side the pride of wisdom, so on the other ignorance is not good. In this case גם belongs more to the subject than to the predicate, but in reality to the whole sentence at the beginning of which it stands. To hasten with the legs (אץ, as Pro 28:20) means now in this connection to set the body in violent agitation, without direction and guidance proceeding from the knowledge possessed by the soul. He who thus hastens after it without being intellectually or morally clear as to the goal and the way, makes a false step, goes astray, fails (vid., Pro 8:36, where חטאי is the contrast to מצאי).

Pro 19:3 3 The foolishness of a man overturneth his way,    And his heart is angry against Jahve.

Regarding סלף, vid., at Pro 11:3; also the Arab. signification “to go before” proceeds from the root conception pervertere, for first a letting precede, or preceding (e.g., of the paying before the delivery of that which is paid for: salaf, a pre-numbering, and then also: advanced money), consisting in the reversal of the natural order, is meant. The way is here the way of life, the walking: the folly of a man overturns, i.e., destroys, his life's-course; but although he is himself the fabricator of his own ruin, yet the ill-humour (זעף, aestuare, vid., at Psa 11:6) of his heart turns itself against God, and he blames (lxx essentially correct: αἰτιᾶται) God instead of himself, viz., his own madness, whereby he has turned the grace of God into lasciviousness, cast to the winds the instruction which lay in His providences, and frustrated the will of God desiring his good. A beautiful paraphrase of this parable is found at Sir. 15:11-20; cf. Lam 3:39.

Pro 19:4 4 Wealth bringeth many friends;    But the reduced - his friend separateth himself.

The very same contrast, though otherwise expressed, we had at Pro 14:20. Regarding הון, vid., vol. i, p. 63. דל is the tottering, or he who has fallen into a tottering condition, who has no resources, possesses no means. The accentuation gives Mugrash to the word (according to which the Targ. translates), for it is not the subject of יפּרד: the reduced is separated (pass. Niph.) by his misfortunes, or must separate himself (reflex. Niph.) from his friend (מרעהוּ, as Ecc 4:4, prae socio suo); but subject of the virtual pred. מרעהוּ יפּרד: the reduced - his friend (מרעהו, as Pro 19:7) separates himself, i.e., (according to the nature of the Semitic substantival clause) he is such (of such a fate) that his friend sets himself free, whereby ממּנּוּ may be omitted as self-obvious; נפרד means one who separates himself, Pro 18:1. If we make דל the subject of the separatur, then the initiative of the separation from the friend is not expressed.

Pro 19:5

In Pro 19:5 and Pro 19:9 we have the introductory proverb of two groups, the former of which, in its close as well as its beginning, cannot be mistaken. 5 A lying witness remaineth not unpunished;    And he who breathes out lies escapeth not.

Regarding יפיח, vid., vol. i, p. 148: as here we read it of false witness at Pro 6:19; Pro 14:5, Pro 14:25. לא ינּקה occurs four times before, the last of which is at Pro 17:5. The lxx elsewhere translates יפיח כזבים by ἐκκαίειν ψευδῆ, to kindle lies; but here by ὁ δὲ ἐκαλῶν ἀδίκως, and at Pro 19:9 by ὃς δ ̓ ἂν ἐκκαύσῃ κακίαν, both times changing only because ψευδής goes before, and instead of ψευδῆ, the choice of a different rendering commended itself.

Pro 19:6 6 Many stroke the cheeks of the noble;    And the mass of friends belongeth to him who gives.

The phrase 'חלּות פּני פל signifies to stroke the face of any one, from the fundamental meaning of the verb חלה, to rub, to stroke, Arab. khala, with which the Heb., meaning to be sick, weak (viribus attritum esse), and the Arabic: to be sweet (properly laevem et politum, glabrum esse, or palatum demulcere, leniter stringere, contrast asperum esse ad gustum), are connected (Fl.). The object of such insinuating, humble suing for favour is the נדיב (from נדב, instigare), the noble, he who is easily incited to noble actions, particularly to noble-mindedness in bestowing gifts and in doing good, or who feels himself naturally impelled thereto, and spontaneously practises those things; cf. the Arab. krym, nobilis and liberalis (Fl.), and at Job 21:28; parall. אישׁ מתּן, a man who gives willingly, as אישׁ חמה, Pro 15:18, one who is easily kindled into anger. Many (רבּים, as Job 11:19) stroke the face of the liberal (Lat. caput mulcent or demulcent); and to him who gives willingly and richly belongs כל־הרע, the mass (the totality) of good friends, cf. Pro 15:17; there the art. of הרע, according to the manner of expression of the Arab. grammarians, stood for “the exhaustion of the characteristic properties of the genus”: the friend who corresponds to the nature (the idea) of such an one; here it stands for “the comprehension of the individuals of the genus;” all that is only always friend. It lies near with Ewald and Hitzig to read וכלּה רע (and every one is friend...) (כלּה = כלּו, as Jer 8:10, etc.); but why could not כל־הרע be used as well as כל־האדם, perhaps with the sarcastic appearance which the above translation seeks to express? The lxx also had וכל הרע in view, which it incorrectly translates πᾶς δὲ ὁ κακός, whereby the Syr. and the Targ. are led into error; but מתּן is not one and the same with שׂחד, vid., Pro 18:6. On the contrary, there certainly lies before us in Pro 19:7 a mutilated text. The tristich is, as we have shown, vol. i, p. 15, open to suspicion; and the violence which its interpretation needs in order to comprehend it, as a formal part of 7ab, places it beyond a doubt, and the lxx confirms it that 7c is the remainder of a distich, the half of which is lost.

Pro 19:7 7ab. We thus first confine our attention to these two lines -

All the brethren of the poor hate him;

How much more do his friends withdraw themselves from him?

Regarding אף כּי, quanto magis, vid., at Pro 11:31; Pro 15:11; Pro 17:7. In a similar connection Pro 14:20 spake of hatred, i.e., the cooling of love, and the manifesting of this coldness. The brethren who thus show themselves here, unlike the friend who has become a brother, according to Pro 17:17, are brothers-german, including kindred by blood relation. כּל has Mercha, and is thus without the Makkeph, as at Psa 35:10 (vid., the Masora in Baer’s Liber Psalmorum, 1861, p. 133). Kimchi (Michlol 205a), Norzi, and others think that cāl (with קמץ רחב) is to be read as at Isa 40:12, where כּלו is a verb. But that is incorrect. The case is the same as with את, Pro 3:12; Psa 47:5; Psa 60:2. As here ě with Mercha remains, so ǒ with Mercha in that twice occurring כּלו; that which is exceptional is this, that the accentuated כל is written thus twice, not as the usual כּל, but as כּל with the Makkeph. The ground of the exception lies, as with other peculiarities, in the special character of metrical accentuation; the Mercha represents the place of the Makkeph, and ā thus remains in the unchanged force of a Kametz-Chatuph. The plur. רחקוּ does not stamp מרעהוּ as the defectively written plur.; the suffix ēhu is always sing., and the sing. is thus, like הרע, 6b, meant collectively, or better: generally (in the sense of kind), which is the linguistic usage of these two words, 1Sa 30:26; Job 42:10. But it is worthy of notice that the Masoretic form here is not מרעהוּ, but mמרעהוּ, with Sheva. The Masora adds to it the remark לית, and accordingly the word is thus written with Sheva by Kimchi (Michlol 202a and Lex. under the word רעה), in Codd., and older editions. The Venet., translating by ἀπὸ τοῦ φίλου αὐτοῦ, has not noticed that. But how? Does the punctuation מרעהו mean that the word is here to be derived from מרע, maleficus? Thus understood, it does not harmonize with the line of thought. From this it is much more seen that the punctuation of the inflected מרע, amicus, fluctuates. This word מרע is a formation so difficult of comprehension, that one might almost, with Olshausen, §210; Böttcher, §794; and Lagarde, regard the מ as the partitive מן, like the French des amis (cf. Eurip. Med. 560: πένητα φεύγει πᾶς τις ἐκποδὼν φίλος), or: something of friend, a piece of friend, while Ewald and others regard it as possible that מרע is abbreviated from מרעה. The punctuation, since it treats the Tsere in מרעהו, 4bIn vol. i. p. 266, we have acknowledged מרעהו, from מרע, friend, only for Pro 19:7, but at Pro 19:4 we have also found amicus ejus more probable than ab amico suo (= מן רעהו). and elsewhere, as unchangeable, and here in מרעהו as changeable, affords proof that in it also the manner of the formation of the word was incomprehensible.

Seeking after words which are vain. 7c. If now this line belongs to this proverb, then מרדּף must be used of the poor, and לא־המּה, or לו־המּה (vid., regarding the 15 Kerîs, לּו for לא, at Psa 100:3), must be the attributively nearer designation of the אמרים. The meaning of the Kerı̂ would be: he (the poor man) hunts after mere words, which - but no actions corresponding to them - are for a portion to him. This is doubtful, for the principal matter, that which is not a portion to him, remains unexpressed, and the לו־המּה eht  [to him they belong] affords only the service of guarding one against understanding by the אמרים the proper words of the poor. This service is not in the same way afforded by לא המּה they are not; but this expression characterizes the words as vain, so that it is to be interpreted according to such parallels as Hos 12:2 : words which are not, i.e., which have nothing in reality corresponding to them, verba nihili, i.e., the empty assurances and promises of his brethren and friends (Fl.). The old translators allLagarde erroneously calls Theodotion’s ῥήσεις οὐκ αὐτῷ a translation of the Kerı̂; οὐκ is, however, לא, and instead of αὐτῷ the expression αὐτῶν, which is the translation of המה, is also found. read לא, and the Syr. and Targ. translate not badly: מלּוי לא שׁריר; Symmachus, ῥήσεσιν ἀνυπάρκτοις. The expression is not to be rejected: לא היה sometimes means to come to לא, i.e., to nothing, Job 6:21; Eze 21:32, cf. Isa 15:6; and לא הוּא, he is not = has no reality, Jer 5:12, אמרים לא־המה, may thus mean words which are nothing (vain). But how can it be said of the poor whom everything forsakes, that one dismisses him with words behind which there is nothing, and now also that he pursues such words? The former supposes always a sympathy, though it be a feigned one, which is excluded by שׂנאהוּ [they hate him] and רחקוּ [withdraw themselves]; and the latter, spoken of the poor, would be unnatural, for his purposed endeavour goes not out after empty talk, but after real assistance. So 7c: pursuing after words which (are) nothing, although in itself not falling under critical suspicion, yet only of necessity is connected with this proverb regarding the poor. The lxx, however, has not merely one, but even four lines, and thus two proverbs following 7b. The former of these distichs is: Ἔννοια ἀγαθὴ τοῖς εἰδόσιν αὐτὴν ἐγγιεῖ, ἀνὴρ δὲ φρόνιμος εὑρήσει αὐτήν; it is translated from the Hebr. (ἔννοια ἀγαθή, Pro 5:2 = מזמּות), but it has a meaning complete in itself, and thus has nothing to do with the fragment 7c. The second distich is: Ὁ πολλὰ κακοποιῶν τελεσιουργεῖ κακίαν, ὃ δὲ ἐρεθίζει λόγους οὐ σωθήσεται. This ὃς δὲ ἐρεθίζει λόγους is, without doubt, a translation of מרדף אמרים (7c); λόγους is probably a corruption of λόγοις (thus the Complut.), not, he who pursueth words, but he who incites by words, as Homer (Il. iv. 5f.) uses the expression ἐρεθιζέμεν ἐπέεσσι. The concluding words, οὐ σωθήσεται, are a repetition of the Heb. לא ימלט (cf. lxx 19:5 with 28:26), perhaps only a conjectural emendation of the unintelligible לא המה. Thus we have before us in that ὁ πολλὰ κακοποιῶν, κ.τ.λ., the line lost from the Heb. text; but it is difficult to restore it to the Heb. We have attempted it, vol. i, p. 15. Supposing that the lxx had before them לא המה, then the proverb is - “He that hath many friends is rewarded with evil,

Hunting after words which are nothing;”i.e., since this his courting the friendship of as many as possible is a hunting after words which have nothing after them and come to nothing.

Pro 19:8 8 He that getteth understanding loveth his soul,    And he that values reasonableness will acquire good; or, more closely, since this would be the translation of ימצא טוב, Pro 16:20; Pro 17:20 : so it happens, or it comes to this, that he acquires good (= היה למצא); the inf. with ל is here, as at Pro 18:24, the expression of a fut. periphrasticum, as in the Lat. consecturus est. Regarding קנה־לּב, vid., Pro 15:32, and שׁמר תּבוּנה vol. i. p. 119. That the deportment of men is either care for the soul, or the contrary of that, is a thought which runs through the Book of Proverbs.

Pro 19:9

The group of proverbs (Pro 19:9-16) now following begins and closes in the same way as the preceding. 9 A lying witness doth not remain unpunished,    And one who breathes out lies perisheth, or goeth to ruin, for אבד (R. בד, to divide, separate) signifies to lose oneself in the place of the separated, the dead (Arab. in the infinite). In Pro 19:5, instead of this ἀπολεῖται (lxx), the negative οὐ σωθήσεται is used, or as the lxx there more accurately renders it, οὐ διαφεύξεται.

Pro 19:10 10 Luxury becometh not a fool;      How much less a servant to rule over princes.

Thus also with לא נאוה (3 p. Pil. non decet, cf. the adj. Pro 26:1) Pro 17:7 begins. אף כּי rises here, as at Pro 19:7, a minori ad majus: how much more is it unbecoming = how much less is it seemly. The contrast in the last case is, however, more rugged, and the expression harsher. “A fool cannot bear luxury: he becomes by it yet more foolish; one who was previously a humble slave, but who has attained by good fortune a place of prominence and power, from being something good, becomes at once something bad: an insolent sceleratus” (Fl.). Agur, xxx. 22f., describes such a homo novus as an unbearable calamity; and the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes, written in the time of the Persian domination, speaks, Ecc 10:7, of such. The lxx translates, καὶ ἐὰν οἰκέτης ἄρξηται μεθ ̓ ὕβρεως δυναστεύειν, rendering the phrase כּשׂרים by μεθ ̓ ὕβρεως, but all other translators had בּשׂרים before them.

Pro 19:11 11 The discretion of a man maketh him long-suffering,      And it is a glory for him to be forbearing toward transgression.

The Syr., Targum, Aquila, and Theodotion translate האריך אפו by μακροθυμία, and thus read האריך; but Rashi, Kimchi, and others remark that האריך is here only another vocalization for האריך, which is impossible. The Venet. also translates: Νοῦς ἀνθρώπου μηκυνεῖ τὸν θυμὸν ἑαυτοῦ; the correct word would be αὐτοῦ: the discretion (intellectus or intelligentia; vid., regarding שׂכל, Pro 3:4) of a man extends his anger, i.e., brings it about that it continues long before it breaks out (vid., Pro 14:29). One does not stumble at the perf. in view of Pro 19:7, Pro 18:8; Pro 16:26, and the like; in the proverbial style the fut. or the particip. is more common. In the synonymous parallel member, תפארתּו points to man as such: it is an honour to him to pass by a transgression (particularly that which affects himself), to let it go aside, i.e., to forbear revenge or punishment (cf. Arab. tjâwz 'aly); thus also the divine πάρεσις (Rom 3:25) is designated by Mic 7:18; and in Amo 7:8; Amo 8:2, עבד stands absol. for the divine remission or passing by, i.e., unavenging of sin.

Pro 19:12 12 A murmuring as of a lion is the wrath of the king,      And as dew on plants is his favour.

Line 1 is a variation of Pro 20:2; line 2a of Pro 16:15. זעף is not the being irritated against another, but generally ill-humour, fretfulness, bad humour; the murmuring or growling in which this state of mind expresses itself is compared to that of a lion which, growling, prepares and sets itself to fall upon its prey (vid., Isa 5:29, cf. Amo 3:4). Opposed to the זעף stands the beneficial effect of the רצון, i.e., of the pleasure, the delight, the satisfaction, the disposition which shows kindness (lxx τὸ ἱλαρὸν αὐτοῦ). In the former case all are afraid; in the latter, everything lives, as when the refreshing dew falls upon the herbs of the field. The proverb presents a fact, but that the king may mirror himself in it.

Pro 19:13 13 A foolish son is destruction for his father,      And a continual dropping are the contentions of a wife.

Regarding הוּת, vid., at Pro 17:4, cf. Pro 10:3. Line 2a is expanded, Pro 27:15, into a distich. The dropping is טרד, properly striking (cf. Arab. tirad, from tarad III, hostile assault) when it pours itself forth, stroke (drop) after stroke = constantly, or with unbroken continuity. Lightning-flashes are called (Jer Berachoth, p. 114, Shitomir’s ed.) טורדין, opp. מפסיקין, when they do not follow in intervals, but constantly flash; and b. Bechoroth 44a; דומעות, weeping eyes, דולפות, dropping eyes, and טורדות, eyes always flowing, are distinguished. An old interpreter (vid., R. Ascher in Pesachim II No. 21) explains דלף טרד by: “which drops, and drops, and always drops.” An Arab proverb which I once heard from Wetzstein, says that there are three things which make our house intolerable: âlṭaḳḳ (= âldhalf), the trickling through of rain; âlnaḳḳ, the contention of the wife; and âlbaḳḳ, bugs.

Pro 19:14 14 House and riches are a paternal inheritance,      But from Jahve cometh a prudent wife.

House and riches (opulentia), which in themselves do not make men happy, one may receive according to the law of inheritance; but a prudent wife is God’s gracious gift, Pro 18:22. There is not a more suitable word than משׂכּלת (fem. of משׂכּיל) to characterize a wife as a divine gift, making her husband happy. שׂכל (השׂכּל) is the property which says: “I am named modesty, which wears the crown of all virtues.”The lxx translates: παρὰ δὲ ἁρμόζεται γυνὴ ἀνδοί. Here as often (vid., my Jesurun) The Arab. usus loquendi makes itself felt in the idiom of the lxx, for shâkl means ἁρμόζειν.

Pro 19:15 15 Slothfulness sinketh into deep sleep,      And an idle soul must hunger.

Regarding תּרדּמה and its root-word רדם, vid., at Pro 10:5. הפּיל, to befall, to make to get, is to be understood after Gen 3:21; the obj. על־האדם, viz., העצל, is naturally to be supplied. In 15b the fut. denotes that which will certainly happen, the inevitable. In both of its members the proverb is perfectly clear; Hitzig, however, corrects 15a, and brings out of it the meaning, “slothfulness gives tasteless herbs to eat.” The lxx has two translations of this proverb, here and at Pro 18:8. That it should translate רמיה by ἀνδρόγυνος was necessary, as Lagarde remarks, for the exposition of the “works of a Hebrew Sotades.” But the Hebrew literature never sunk to such works, wallowing in the mire of sensuality, and ἀνδρόγυνος is not at all thus enigmatical; the Greek word was also used of an effeminate man, a man devoid of manliness, a weakling, and was, as the lxx shows, more current in the Alexandrine Greek than elsewhere.

Pro 19:16 16 He that keepeth the commandment keepeth his soul;      He that taketh no heed to his ways dies.

As at Pro 6:23, cf. Ecc 8:5, מצוה is here the commandment of God, and thus obligatory, which directs man in every case to do that which is right, and warns him against that which is wrong. And בּוזה דּרכיו (according to the Masora with Tsere, as in Codd. and old editions, not בוזה) is the antithesis of נצר דּרכּו, Pro 16:17. To despise one’s own way is equivalent to, to regard it as worth no consideration, as no question of conscience whether one should enter upon this way or that. Hitzig’s reading, פּוזר, “he that scattereth his ways,” lets himself be drawn by the manifold objects of sensuality sometimes in one direction and sometimes in another, is supported by Jer 3:13, according to which it must be מפזּר; the conj. is not in the style of the Book of Proverbs, and besides is superfluous. The lxx, which is fond of a quid pro quo - it makes, 13b, a courtesan offering a sacrifice she had vowed of the wages of sin of the quarrelsome woman - has here, as the Heb. text: ὁ καταφρονῶν τῶν ἑαυτοῦ ὁδῶν. Thus after the Kerı̂ ימת, as also the Targ., Syro-Hexap., and Luther; on the contrary, the Syr., Jerome, the Venet. adopt the Chethı̂b יוּמת: he will become dead, i.e., dies no natural death. The Kerı̂ is more in the spirit and style of the Book of Proverbs (Pro 15:10; Pro 23:13; Pro 10:21).

These verses we take together. But we have no other reason for making a pause at Pro 19:21, than that Pro 19:22 is analogous to Pro 19:17, and thus presents itself to us as an initial verse.

Pro 19:17 17 He lendeth to Jahve who is compassionate to the lowly,      And his bounty He requites to him.

As at Pro 14:31, חונן is part. Kal. The Masoretically exact form of the word is חונן (as ואוזל, Pro 20:14) with Mercha on the first syllable, on which the tone is thrown back, and the העמדה on the second. The Roman legal phrase, mutui datione contrahitur obligatio, serves to explain the fundamental conception of לוה, mutuo accipere, and הלוה, mutuum dare (vid., Pro 22:7). The construction, Exo 22:24, “to make any one bound as a debtor, obligare,” lies at the foundation of the genitive connection 'מלוה ה (not מלוה). With 17b cf. Pro 12:14, where the subject of ישׁיב (Kerı̂) remains in the background. גמלו (not גמלּו) is here his work done in the sense of good exhibited. “Love,” Hedinger once said, “is an imperishable capital, which always bears interest.” And the Archbishop Walther: nam Deo dat qui dat inopibus, ipse Deus est in pauperibus. Dr. Jonas, as Dächsel relates, once gave to a poor man, and said, “Who knows when God restores it!” There Luther interposed: “As if God had not long ago given it beforehand!” This answer of Luther meets the abuse of this beautiful proverb by the covetous.

Pro 19:18

This proverb brings to view once more the pedagogic character of this Older Book of Proverbs:

Correct thy son, for yet there is hope;

But go not too far to kill him.

That כּי tahT is meant relatively, as at Pro 11:15, is seen from Job 11:18; Job 14:7; Jer 31:16.; כּי־ישׁ תּקוה is the usual expression for etemin spes est. Though a son show obstinacy, and manifest a bad disposition, yet there is hope in the training of the youth of being able to break his self-will, and to wean him from his bad disposition; therefore his education should be carried forward with rigorous exactness, but in such a way that wisdom and love regulate the measure and limits of correction: ad eum interficiendum animam ne tollas (animum ne inducas). נפשׁך is not the subject, for in that case the word would have been תּשּׁאך (2Ki 14:10). It is the object: To raise the soul to something is equivalent to, to direct his desire to it, to take delight in it. The teacher should not seek correction as the object, but only as the means; he who has a desire after it, to put the child to death in the case of his guilt, changes correction into revenge, permits himself to be driven by passion from the proper end of correction, and to be pushed beyond its limits. The lxx translates freely εἰς δὲ ὕβρις, for ὕβρις is unrestrained abuse, מוסר אכזרי as Immanuel glosses. Besides, all the ancients and also the Venet. translate המיתו as the inf. of המית. But Oetinger (for he translates: lift not thy soul to his cry, for which Euchel: let not his complaining move thy compassion) follows the derivation from המה suggested by Kimchi, Meîri, and Immanuel, and preferred by Ralbag, so that המיתו after the from בּכית is equivalent to המיתו. But leaving out of view that המה means strepere, not lamentari, and that נשׂא נפשׁו means attention, not desire, Pro 23:13 points out to us a better interpretation.

Pro 19:19

Another proverb with נשׂא:

A man of excessive wrath must suffer punishment;

For if thou layest hold of it, hindering it, thou makest it only worse.

The lxx, Syr., and Targ. translate as if the words were גּבר חמה (as בּעל חמה, Pro 29:22). Theodotion, the Venet., and Luther render the Kerı̂ גּדל־; Jerome’s impatiens is colourless. The Chethı̂b גרל gives no appropriate meaning. The Arab. jaril means lapidosus (whence גּורל, cf. Aram. פּסּא = ψῆφος), and Schultens translates accordingly aspere scruposus iracundiae, which is altogether after the manner of his own heavy style. Ewald translates גּרל as derived from the Arab jazyl, largus, grandis; but the possibility of the passing over of ר into ז, as maintained by Ewald and also by Hitzig, or the reverse, is physiologically undemonstrable, and is confirmed by no example worthy of mention. Rather it may be possible that the Heb. had an adj. גּרל or גּרל in the sense of stony, gravel-like, hard as gravel, but tow rather than gravel would be appropriate to חמה. Hitzig corrects גּמל חמה, “who acts in anger;” but he says שׁלּם חמה, to recompense anger, Isa 59:18; גמל חמה is without support. This correction, however, is incomparably more feasible than Böttcher’s, “moderate inheritance bears expiation;” חמה = חמאה must mean not only thick [curdled] milk, but also moderation, and Böttcher finds this “sound.” From all these instances one sees that גרל is an error in transcription; the Kerı̂ גּדל־חמה rightly improves it, a man is thus designated whose peculiarity it is to fall into a high degree of passionate anger (חמה גדולה, Dan 11:44): such an one has to bear ענשׁ, a fine, i.e., to compensate, for he has to pay compensation or smart-money for the injury suffered, as e.g., he who in strife with another pushes against a woman with child, so that injury befalls her, Exo 21:22. If we compare this passage with 2Sa 14:6, there appears for תּצּיל the meaning of taking away of the object (whether a person or a thing) against which the passionate hothead directs himself. Therewith the meaning of ועוד תּוסף accords. The meaning is not that, הצּיל, once is not enough, but much rather must be repeated, and yet is without effect; but that one only increases and heightens the חמה thereby. It is in vain to seek to spare such a violent person the punishment into which he obstinately runs; much more advisable is it to let him rage till he ceases; violent opposition only makes the evil the greater. With כּי אם, “denn wenn” [for then], cf. Pro 2:3, “ja wenn” [yea if], and with ועוד in the conclusion, Job 14:7 (a parallelism syntactically more appropriate than Psa 139:18).

Pro 19:20 20 Hearken to counsel, and receive instruction,      That thou mayest become wise afterwards.

The rule of morals, Pro 12:15, receives here the paraenetic tone which is the keynote of the introduction chap. 1-9. Löwenstein translates: that thou mayest finally become wise. But בּאחריתך corresponds rather to our “hinfort” [posthac] than to “endlich” [finally]. He to whom the warning is directed must break with the self-willed, undisciplined ראשׁית beginning of his life, and for the future (τὸν ἐπίλοιπον ἐν σαρκὶ χρόνον, 1Pe 4:2) become wise. The relative contrast between the two periods of life is the same as at Job 8:7.

Pro 19:21 21 Many are the thoughts in a man’s heart;      But Jahve’s counsel, that stands.

In תּקוּם lies, as at Isa 40:8, both: that the counsel of God (His plan of the world and of salvation) is accomplished and comes into actual fact, and that it continues. This counsel is the true reality elevated above the checkered manifoldness of human purposes, aims, and subjectivities, which penetrates and works itself out in history. The thoughts of a man thus gain unity, substance, endurance, only in so far as he subjects himself to this counsel, and makes his thoughts and actions conformable and subordinate to this counsel.

Pro 19:22

The series makes a new departure with a proverb regarding the poor (cf. Pro 19:17):

A man’s delight is his beneficence;

And better is a poor man than a liar.

The right interpretation will be that which presses upon תּאות no strange meaning, and which places the two parts of the verse in an inner mutual relation ethically right. In any case it lies nearer to interpret תאות, in relation to man, actively than passively: that which makes man worthy of desire (Rashi), adorns and distinguishes him (Kimchi, Aben-Ezra); or, that which is desired by man, is above all things sought for (Luzzatto); and, in like manner, the Heb. meaning for חסדּו lies nearer than the Aram. (vid., Pro 14:34): the pleasure of a man is his disgrace (Ralbag). Thus Bertheau’s translation: the desire of a man is his charitas, must mean: that which brings to a man true joy is to act amiably. But is that, thus generally expressed, true? And if this were the thought, how much more correctly and distinctly would it be expressed by שׂמחה לאדם עשׂות חסד (cf. Pro 21:15)! Hitzig so rightly reminded by חסדו of the Pharisee who thanks God that he is not as other men; the word ought to have been חסד to remove every trace of self-satisfaction. Hitzig therefore proposes from the lxx and the Vulgate the text-correction מתּבוּאת no, and translates, “from the revenue of a man is his kind gift;” and Ewald, who is satisfied with תּבוּאת, “the gain of a man is his pious love.” The latter is more judicious: חסד (love) distributed is in reality gain (according to Pro 19:17); but 22b corresponds rather with the former: “better is he who from want does not give תבואה, than he who could give and says he has nothing.” But was there then need for that καρπός of the lxx? If a poor man is better than a lord given to lying - for אישׁ with רשׁ is a man of means and position - i.e., a poor man who would give willingly, but has nothing, than that man who will not give, and therefore lies, saying that he has nothing; then 22a means that the will of a man (cf. תאות, Pro 11:23) is his doing good (vid., regarding חסד, ad Pro 3:3), i.e., is its soul and very essence. Euchel, who accordingly translates: the philanthropy of a man consists properly in his goodwill, rightly compares the Rabbinical proverb, אחד המרבה ואחד הממעיט ובלבד שׁיתבוון, i.e., one may give more or less, it all depends on the intention, the disposition.

Pro 19:23 23 The fear of Jahve tendeth to life;      Satisfied, one spendeth the night, not visited by evil.

The first line is a variation of Pro 14:27. How the fear of God thus reacheth to life, i.e., helps to a life that is enduring, free from care and happy, 23b says: the promises are fulfilled to the God-fearing, Deu 11:15 and Lev 26:6; he does not go hungry to bed, and needs fear no awakening in terror out of his soft slumber (Pro 3:24). With ו explic., 23a is explained. לין שׂבע means to spend the night (the long night) hungry. as לין ערוּם, Job 24:7, to pass the night in nakedness (cold). נפקד, of visitation of punishment, we read also at Isa 29:6, and instead of בּרע, as it might be according to this passage, we have here the accus. of the manner placing the meaning of the Niph. beyond a doubt (cf. Pro 11:15, רע, in an evil manner). All is in harmony with the matter, and is good Heb.; on the contrary, Hitzig’s ingenuity introduces, instead of שׂבעו, an unheard of word, ושׂרע, “and he stretches himself.” One of the Greeks excellently translates: καὶ ἐμπλησθεὶς αὐλισθήσεται ἄνευ ἐπισκοπῆς πονηρᾶς. The lxx, which instead of רע, γνῶσις, translates thus, דּע, discredits itself. The Midrash - Lagarde says of its translation - varies in colour like an opal. In other words, it handles the text like wax, and forms it according to its own taste, like the Midrash with its “read not so, but so.”

Pro 19:24 24 The slothful hath thrust his hand into the dish;      He bringeth it not again to his mouth.

This proverb is repeated in a different form, Pro 26:15. The figure appears, thus understood, an hyperbole, on which account the lxx understand by צלחת the bosom or lap, κόλπον; Aquila and Symmachus understand by it the arm-pit, μασχάλην or μάλην; and the Jewish interpreters gloss it by חיק (Kimchi) or קרע החלוק, the slit (Ita. fenditura) of the shirt. But the domestic figure, 2Ki 21:13, places before us a dish which, when it is empty, is wiped and turned upside down;While צפּחת, ṣaḥfat, in the sense of dish, is etymologically clear, for צלּחת, neither ṣalaḥ (to be good for), nor salakh (to be deaf, mangy), offers an appropriate verbal meaning. The Arab. zuluh (large dishes) stands under zalah (to taste, of the tasting of good), but is scarcely a derivative from it. Only צלח, which in the meaning of good for, proceeding from the idea of penetrating through, has retained the root-meaning of cleft, furnishes for צלּחת and צלוחית a root-word in some measure useful. and that the slothful when he eats appears too slothful to bring his hand, e.g., with the rice or the piece of bread he has taken out of the dish, again to his mouth, is true to nature: we say of such a man that he almost sleeps when he eats. The fut. after the perf. here denotes that which is not done after the former thing, i.e., that which is scarcely and only with difficulty done; לּו ... גּם may have the meaning of “yet not,” as at Psa 129:2; but the sense of “not once” = ne ... quidem, lies here nearer Deu 23:3.

Pro 19:25 25 The scorner thou smitest, and the simple is prudent;      And if one reprove the man of understanding, he gaineth knowledge

Hitzig translates in a way that is syntactically inexact: smite the scorner, so the simple becomes prudent; that would have required at least the word ויערם: fut. and fut. connected by ו is one of many modes of expression for the simultaneous, discussed by me at Hab 3:10. The meaning of the proverb has a complete commentary at Pro 21:11, where its two parts are otherwise expressed with perfect identity of thought. In regard to the לץ, with whom denunciation and threatening bear no fruit (Pro 13:1; Pro 15:12), and perhaps even produce the contrary effect to that intended (Pro 9:7), there remains nothing else than to vindicate the injured truths by means of the private justice of corporal punishment. Such words, if spoken to the right man, in the right spirit, at the right time, may affect him with wholesome terrors; but even though he is not made better thereby, yet the simple, who listens to the mockeries of such not without injury, will thereby become prudent (gain הערים = ערמה, prudence, as at Pro 15:5), i.e., either arrive at the knowledge that the mockery of religion is wicked, or guard himself against incurring the same repressive measures. In 25b והוכח is neither inf. (Umbreit), which after Pro 21:11 must be וּבהוכח, nor impr. (Targ., Ewald), which according to rule is הוכח, but the hypothetic perf. (Syr.) with the most general subject (Merc., Hitzig): if one impart instruction to the (dat. obj. as Pro 9:7; Pro 15:2) man of understanding (vid., Pro 16:21), then he acquires knowledge, i.e., gains an insight into the nature and value of that which one wishes to bring him to the knowledge of (הבין דּעת, as Pro 29:7; cf. Pro 8:5). That which the deterring lesson of exemplary punishment approximately effects with the wavering, is, in the case of the man of understanding, perfectly attained by an instructive word.

We have now reached the close of the third chief section of the older Book of Proverbs. All the three sections begin with בּן חכם, Pro 10:1; Pro 13:1; Pro 15:20. The Introduction, chap. 1-9, dedicates this collection of Solomonic proverbs to youth, and the three beginnings accordingly relate to the relative duties of a son to his father and mother. We are now no longer far from the end, for Pro 22:17 resumes the tone of the Introduction. The third principal part would be disproportionately large if it extended from Pro 15:1 to Pro 22:15. But there does not again occur a proverb beginning with the words “son of man.” We can therefore scarcely go wrong if we take Pro 19:26 as the commencement of a fourth principal part. The Masora divides the whole Mishle into eight sedarim, which exhibit so little knowledge of the true division, that the parashas (sections) Pro 10:1; Pro 22:17 do not at all find their right place.The 915 verses of the Mishle, according to the Masora, fall into eight sedarim, beginning as follows: Pro 1:1; Pro 5:18; Pro 9:12; Pro 14:4; Pro 18:10; Pro 22:22; Pro 25:13; Pro 28:16.

The MSS, however, contain evidences that this Hagiograph was also anciently divided into parashas, which were designated partly by spaces between the lines (sethumoth) and partly by breaks in the lines (phethucoth). In Baer’s Cod. Jamanensis,Vid., the Prefatio to the Masoretico-Critical Edition of Isaiah by Baer and myself; Leipzig, 1872. after Pro 6:19, there is the letter פ written on the margin as the mark of such a break. With Pro 6:20 (vid., l.c.) there indeed commences a new part of the introductory Mashal discourses. But, besides, we only seldom meet withThere are spaces within the lines after Pro 1:7, Pro 1:9, Pro 1:33; Pro 2:22; Pro 3:18, Pro 3:35; Pro 5:17, Pro 5:23; Pro 6:4, Pro 6:11, Pro 6:15, Pro 6:19 (here a פ), Pro 6:35, Pro 8:21, Pro 8:31, Pro 8:35; Pro 9:18; Pro 17:25; Pro 18:9; Pro 22:19, Pro 22:27; Pro 23:14; Pro 24:22, Pro 24:33; Pro 26:21; Pro 28:10, Pro 28:16; Pro 29:17, Pro 29:27; Pro 30:6, Pro 30:9, Pro 30:14, Pro 30:17, Pro 30:20, Pro 30:24, Pro 30:28, Pro 30:33; Pro 31:9. coincidences with the division and grouping which have commended themselves to us. In the MS of the Graecus Venetus, Pro 19:11, Pro 19:16, and Pro 19:19 have their initial letters coloured red; but why only these verses, is not manifest. A comparison of the series of proverbs distinguished by such initials with the Cod. Jaman. and Cod. II of the Leipzig City Library, makes it more than probable that it gives a traditional division of the Mishle, which may perhaps yet be discovered by a comparison of MSS.Vid., Gebhardt’s Prolegomena to his new edition of the Versio Veneta.

But this much is clear, that a historico-literary reconstruction of the Mishle, and of its several parts, can derive no help from this comparison.

Pro 19:26

With Pro 19:26 there thus begins the fourth principal part of the Solomonic collection of proverbs introduced by chap. 1-9.

He that doeth violence to his father and chaseth his mother,

Is a son that bringeth shame and disgrace.

The right name is given in the second line to him who acts as is described in the first. שׁדּד means properly to barricade [obstruere], and then in general to do violence to, here: to ruin one both as to life and property. The part., which has the force of an attributive clause, is continued in the finite: qui matrem fugat; this is the rule of the Heb. style, which is not filome'tochos, Gesen. §134, Anm. 2. Regarding מבישׁ, vid., at Pro 10:5; regarding the placing together of הבישׁ והחפּיר, vid., Pro 13:5, where for הבישׁ, to make shame, to be scandalous, the word הבאישׁ, which is radically different, meaning to bring into bad odour, is used. The putting to shame is in בּושׁ ni si  (kindred with Arab. bâth) thought of as disturbatio (cf. σύγχυσις) (cf. at Ps. 6:11), in חפר (khfr) as opertio (cf. Cicero’s Cluent. 20: infamia et dedecore opertus), not, as I formerly thought, with Fürst, as reddening, blushing (vid., Psa 34:6). Putting to shame would in this connection be too weak a meaning for מחפּיר. The paedagogic stamp which Pro 19:26 impresses on this fourth principal part is made yet further distinct in the verse that now follows.

Pro 19:27 27 Cease, my son, to hear instruction,      To depart from the words of knowledge.

Oetinger correctly: cease from hearing instruction if thou wilt make no other use of it than to depart, etc., i.e., cease to learn wisdom and afterwards to misuse it. The proverb is, as Ewald says, as “bloody irony;” but it is a dissuasive from hypocrisy, a warning against the self-deception of which Jam 1:22-24 speaks, against heightening one’s own condemnation, which is the case of that servant who knows his lord’s will and does it not, Luk 12:47. חדל, in the meaning to leave off doing something further, is more frequently construed with ל seq. infin. than with מן (cf. e.g., Gen 11:8 with 1Ki 15:21); but if we mean the omission of a thing which has not yet been begun, then the construction is with ל, Num 9:13, Instead of לשׁגּות, there might have been also used מלּשׁגּות (omit rather ... than...), and למען שׁגות would be more distinct; but as the proverb is expressed, לשׁגות is not to be mistaken as the subord. infin. of purpose. The lxx, Syr., Targ., and Jerome do violence to the proverb. Luther, after the example of older interpreters: instruction, that which leads away from prudent learning; but musar always means either discipline weaning from evil, or education leading to good.

Pro 19:28 28 A worthless witness scoffeth at right;      And the mouth of the godless swalloweth up mischief.

The Mosaic law does not know the oath of witnesses; but the adjuring of witnesses to speak the truth, Lev 4:1, places a false statement almost in the rank of perjury. The משׁפּט, which legally and morally binds witnesses, is just their duty to state the matter in accordance with truth, and without deceitful and malicious reservation; but a worthless witness (vid., regarding בּליּעל, Pro 6:12) despiseth what is right (יליץ with accus.-obj. like Pro 14:9), i.e., scornfully disregards this duty. Under 28b Hitzig remarks that בלע only in Kal means to devour, but in Piel, on the contrary, to absorb = annihilate; therefore he reads with the lxx and Syr. דּין justice instead of און mischief: the mouth of the wicked murders that which is right, properly, swallows down his feeling of right. But בּלּע interchanges with בּלע in the sense of swallowing only, without the connected idea of annihilation; cf. כּבלּע for the continuance [duration] of a gulp = for a moment, Num 4:20 with Job 7:29; and one can thus understand 28b without any alteration of the text after Job 15:16; cf. Pro 20:12-15, as well as with the text altered after Isa 3:12, by no means so that one makes און the subject: mischief swallows up, i.e., destroys, the mouth of the wicked (Rashi); for when “mouth” and “to swallow” stand connected, the mouth is naturally that which swallows, not that which is swallowed (cf. Ecc 10:12 : the mouth of the fool swallows, i.e., destroys, him). Thus 28b means that wickedness, i.e., that which is morally perverse, is a delicious morsel for the mouth of the godless, which he eagerly devours; to practise evil is for him, as we say, “ein wahrer Genuss” [a true enjoyment].

Pro 19:29 29 Judgments are prepared for scorners,      And stripes for the backs of fools. שׁפמים never means punishment which a court of justice inflicts, but is always used of the judgments of God, even although they are inflicted by human instrumentality (vid., 2Ch 24:24); the singular, which nowhere occurs, is the segolate n. act. שׁפט = שׁפוט, 2Ch 20:9, plur. שׁפוּטים. Hitzig’s remark: “the judgment may, after Pro 19:25, consist in stripes,” is misleading; the stroke, הכּות, there is such as when, e.g., a stroke on the ear is applied to one who despises that which is holy, which, under the circumstances, may be salutary; but it does not fall under the category of shephuthim, nor properly under that of מהלמות. The former are providential chastisements with which history itself, or God in history, visits the despiser of religion; the latter are strokes which are laid on the backs of fools by one who is instructing them, in order, if possible, to bring them to thought and understanding. נכון, here inflected as Niph., is used, as Job 15:23, as meaning to be placed in readiness, and thus to be surely imminent. Regarding mahalǔmoth, vid., at Pro 18:6.

The Disadvantages of Poverty.

1 Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.

Here see, 1. What will be the credit and comfort of a poor man, and make him more excellent than his neighbour, though his poverty may expose him to contempt and may dispirit him. Let him be honest and walk in integrity, let him keep a good conscience and make it appear that he does so, let him always speak and act with sincerity when he is under the greatest temptations to dissemble and break his word, and then let him value himself upon that, for all wise and good men will value him. He is better, has a better character, is in a better condition, is better beloved, and lives to better purpose, than many a one that looks great and makes a figure. 2. What will be the shame of a rich man, notwithstanding all his pomp. If he have a shallow head and an evil tongue, if he is perverse in his lips and is a fool, if he is a wicked man and gets what he has by fraud and oppression, he is a fool, and an honest poor man is to be preferred far before him.

2 Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth.

Two things are here declared to be of bad consequence:—1. Ignorance: To be without the knowledge of the soul is not good, so some read it. Know we not our own selves, our own hearts? A soul without knowledge is not good; it is a great privilege that we have souls, but, if these souls have not knowledge, what the better are we? If man has not understanding, he is as the beasts, Ps. xlix. 20. An ignorant soul cannot be a good soul. That the soul be without knowledge is not safe, nor pleasant; what good can the soul do, of what is it good for, if it be without knowledge? 2. Rashness. He that hastes with his feet (that does things inconsiderately and with precipitation, and will not take time to ponder the path of his feet) sins; he cannot but often miss the mark and take many a false step, which those prevent that consider their ways. As good not know as not consider.

3 The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the Lord .

We have here two instances of men's folly:—1. That they bring themselves into straits and troubles, and run themselves a-ground, and embarrass themselves: The foolishness of man perverts his way. Men meet with crosses and disappointments in their affairs, and things do not succeed as they expected and wished, and it is owing to themselves and their own folly; it is their own iniquity that corrects them. 2. That when they have done so they lay the blame upon God, and their hearts fret against him, as if he had done them wrong, whereas really they wrong themselves. In fretting, we are enemies to our own peace, and become self-tormentors; in fretting against the Lord we affront him, his justice, goodness, and sovereignty; and it is very absurd to take occasion from the trouble which we pull upon our own heads by our wilfulness, or neglect, to quarrel with him, when we ought to blame ourselves, for it is our own doing. See Isa. l. 1.

4 Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour.

Here, 1. We may see how strong men's love of money is, that they will love any man, how undeserving soever he be otherwise, if he has but a deal of money and is free with it, so that they may hope to be the better for it. Wealth enables a man to send many presents, make many entertainments, and do many good offices, and so gains him many friends, who pretend to love him, for they flatter him and make their court to him, but really love what he has, or rather love themselves, hoping to get by him. 2. We may see how weak men's love of one another is. He who, while he prospered, was beloved and respected, if he fall into poverty is separated from his neighbour, is not owned nor looked upon, not visited nor regarded, is bidden to keep his distance and told he is troublesome. Even one that has been his neighbour and acquaintance will turn his face from him and pass by on the other side. Because men's consciences tell them they ought to relieve and succour such, they are willing to have this excuse, that they did not see them.

5 A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.

Here we have, 1. The sins threatened—bearing false witness in judgment and speaking lies in common conversation. Men could not arrive at such a pitch of impiety as to bear false witness (where to the guilt of a lie is added that of perjury and injury) if they had not advanced to it by allowing themselves to speak untruths in jest and banter, or under pretence of doing good. Thus men teach their tongues to speak lies, Jer. ix. 5. Those that will take a liberty to tell lies in discourse are in a fair way to be guilty of the greater wickedness of false-witness-bearing, whenever they are tempted to it, though they seemed to detest it. Those that can swallow a false word debauch their consciences, so that a false oath will not choke them. 2. The threatening itself: They shall not go unpunished; they shall not escape. This intimates that that which emboldens them in the sin is the hope of impunity, it being a sin which commonly escapes punishment from men, though the law is strict, Deut. xix. 18, 19. But it shall not escape the righteous judgment of God, who is jealous, and will not suffer his name to be profaned; we know where all liars will have their everlasting portion.

6 Many will intreat the favour of the prince: and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts. 7 All the brethren of the poor do hate him: how much more do his friends go far from him? he pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him.

These two verses are a comment upon v. 4, and show, 1. How those that are rich and great are courted and caressed, and have suitors and servants in abundance. The prince that has power in his hand, and preferments at his disposal, has his gate and his ante-chamber thronged with petitioners, that are ready to adore him for what they can get. Many will entreat his favour, and think themselves happy in it. Even great men are humble suppliants to the prince. How earnest then should we be for the favour of God, which is far beyond that of any earthly prince. But, it should seem, liberality will go further than majesty itself to gain respect, for there are many that court the prince, but every man is a friend to him that gives gifts; not only those that have received, or do expect, gifts from him, will, as friends, be ready to serve him, but others also will, as friends, give him their good word. Prodigals, who are foolishly free of what they have, will have many hangers-on who will cry them up as long as it lasts, but will leave them when it is done. Those that are prudently generous make an interest by it which may stand them in good stead; those that are accounted benefactors exercise an authority which may give them an opportunity of doing good, Luke xxii. 25. 2. How those that are poor and low are slighted and despised. Men may, if they please, court the prince, and the princely, but they may not trample upon the poor and look at them with disdain. Yet so it often is: All the brethren of the poor do hate him; even his own relations are shy of him, because he is needy and craving, and expects something from them, and because they look upon him as a blemish to their family; and then no marvel if others of his friends, that were nothing akin to him, go far from him, to get out of his way. He pursues them with words, hoping to prevail with them by his importunity to be kind to him, but all in vain; they have nothing for him. They pursue him with words (so some understand it), to excuse themselves from giving him any thing; they tell him that he is idle and impertinent, that he has brought himself into poverty, and therefore ought not to be relieved; as Nabal said to David's messengers: "There are many servants now a days that run away from their masters; and how do I know but that David may be one of them?" Let poor people therefore make God their friend, pursue him with their prayers, and he will not be wanting to them.

Domestic Grievances.

8 He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul: he that keepeth understanding shall find good.

Those are here encouraged, 1. That take pains to get wisdom, to get knowledge, and grace, and acquaintance with God; those that do so show that they love their own souls, and will be found to have done themselves the greatest kindness imaginable. No man ever hated his own flesh, but loves that, yet many are wanting in love to their own souls, for only those love their souls, and consequently love themselves, aright, that get wisdom, true wisdom. 2. That take care to keep it when they have got it; it is health, and wealth, and honour, and all, to the soul, and therefore he that keeps understanding, as he shows that he loves his own soul, so he shall certainly find good, all good. He that retains the good lessons he has learnt, and orders his conversation according to them, shall find the benefit and comfort of it in his own soul and shall be happy here and for ever.

9 A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish.

Here is, 1. A repetition of what was said before (v. 5), for we have need to be again and again warned of the danger of the sin of lying and false-witness-bearing, since nothing is of more fatal consequence. 2. An addition to it in one word; there it was said, He that speaks lies shall not escape, and intimated that he shall be punished. Here it is said, His punishment shall be such as will be his destruction: he shall perish; the lies he forged against others will be his own ruin. It is a damning destroying sin.

10 Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes.

Note, 1. Pleasure and liberty ill become a fool: Delight is not seemly for such a one. A man that has not wisdom and grace has no right nor title to true joy, and therefore it is unseemly. It ill becomes those that do not delight in God to delight in any thing, nor how to manage themselves, and therefore they do but expose themselves. It becomes ungracious fools to be afflicted, and mourn, and weep, not to laugh and be merry; rebukes are more proper for them than delights. Delight is seemly for a man of business, to refresh him when he is fatigued, but not for a fool, that lives an idle life and abuses his recreations. The prosperity of fools discovers their folly and destroys them. 2. Power and honour ill become a man of a servile spirit. Nothing is more unseemly than for a servant to have rule over princes; it is absurd in itself, and very preposterous, for none are so insolent and intolerable as a beggar on horseback, a servant when he reigns, ch. xxx. 22. It is very unseemly for one that is a servant to sin and his lusts to rule over and oppress those that are God's freemen and made kings and priests to him.

11 The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.

A wise man will observe these two rules about his anger: 1. Not to be over-hasty in his resentments: Discretion teaches us to defer our anger, to defer the admission of it till we have thoroughly considered all the merits of the provocation, seen them in a true light and weighed them in a just balance; and then to defer the prosecution of it till there be no danger of running into any indecencies. Plato said to his servant, "I would beat thee, but that I am angry." Give it time, and it will cool. 2. Not to be over-critical in his resentments. Whereas it is commonly looked upon as a piece of ingenuity to apprehend an affront quickly, it is here made a man's glory to pass over a transgression, to appear as if he did not see it (Ps. xxxviii. 13), or, if he sees fit to take notice of it, yet to forgive it and meditate no revenge.

12 The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour is as dew upon the grass.

This is to the same purport with what we had ch. xvi. 14, 15, and the design of it is, 1. To make kings wise and considerate in dispensing their frowns and smiles. They are not like those of common persons; their frowns are very terrible and their smiles very comfortable, and therefore it concerns them to be very careful that they never frighten a good man from doing well with their frowns, nor ever give countenance to a wicked man in doing ill with their smiles, for then they abuse their influence, Rom. xiii. 3. 2. To make subjects faithful and dutiful to their princes. Let them be restrained from all disloyalty by the consideration of the dreadful consequence of having the government against them; and let them be encouraged in all good services to the public by the hopes of the favour of their prince. Christ is a King whose wrath against his enemies will be as the roaring of a lion (Rev. x. 3) and his favour to his own people as the refreshing dew, Ps. lxxii. 6.

13 A foolish son is the calamity of his father: and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.

It is an instance of the vanity of the world that we are liable to the greatest grief in those things wherein we promise ourselves the greatest comfort. It is as it proves. What greater temporal comfort can a man have than a good wife and good children? Yet, 1. A foolish son is a great affliction, and may make a man wish a thousand times he had been written childless. A son that will apply himself to no study or business, that will take no advice, that lives a lewd, loose, rakish life, and spends what he has extravagantly, games it away and wastes it in the excess of riot, or that is proud, foppish, and conceited, such a one is the grief of his father, because he is the disgrace, and is likely to be the ruin, of his family. He hates all his labour, when he sees to whom he must leave the fruit of it. 2. A cross peevish wife is as great an affliction: Her contentions are continual; every day, and every hour in the day, she finds some occasion to make herself and those about her uneasy. Those that are accustomed to chide never want something or other to chide at; but it is a continual dropping, that is, a continual vexation, as it is to have a house so much out of repair that it rains in and a man cannot lie dry in it. That man has an uncomfortable life, and has need of a great deal of wisdom and grace to enable him to bear his affliction and do his duty, who has a sot for his son and a scold for his wife.

14 House and riches are the inheritance of fathers: and a prudent wife is from the Lord .

Note, 1. A discreet and virtuous wife is a choice gift of God's providence to a man—a wife that is prudent, in opposition to one that is contentious, v. 13. For, though a wife that is continually finding fault may think it is her wit and wisdom to be so, it is really her folly; a prudent wife is meek and quiet, and makes the best of every thing. If a man has such a wife, let him not ascribe it to the wisdom of his own choice or his own management (for the wisest have been deceived both in and by a woman), but let him ascribe it to the goodness of God, who made him a help meet for him, and perhaps by some hits and turns of providence that seemed casual brought her to him. Every creature is what he makes it. Happy marriages, we are sure, are made in heaven; Abraham's servant prayed in the belief of this, Gen. xxiv. 12. 2. It is a more valuable gift than house and riches, contributes more to the comfort and credit of a man's life and the welfare of his family, is a greater token of God's favour, and about which the divine providence is in a more especial manner conversant. A good estate may be the inheritance of fathers, which, by the common direction of Providence, comes in course to a man; but no man has a good wife by descent or entail. Parents that are worldly, in disposing of their children, look no further than to match them to house and riches, but, if withal it be to a prudent wife, let God have the glory.

Circumspection and Charity.

15 Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger.

See here the evil of a sluggish slothful disposition. 1. It stupefies men, and makes them senseless, and mindless of their own affairs, as they were cast into a deep sleep, dreaming much, but doing nothing. Slothful people doze away their time, bury their talents, live a useless life, and are the unprofitable burdens of the earth; for any service they do when they are awake they might as well be always asleep. Even their souls are idle and lulled asleep, their rational powers chilled and frozen. 2. It impoverishes men and brings them to want. Those that will not labour cannot expect to eat, but must suffer hunger: An idle soul, one that is idle in the affairs of his soul, that takes no care or pains to work out his salvation, shall perish for want of that which is necessary to the life and happiness of the soul.

16 He that keepeth the commandment keepeth his own soul; but he that despiseth his ways shall die.

Here is, 1. The happiness of those that walk circumspectly. Those that make conscience of keeping the commandment in every thing, that live by rule, as becomes servants and patients, keep their own souls; they secure their present peace and future bliss, and provide every way well for themselves. If we keep God's word, God's word will keep us from every thing really hurtful. 2. The misery of those that live at large and never mind what they do: Those that despair their ways shall die, shall perish eternally; they are in the high road to ruin. With respect to those that are careless about the end of their ways, and never consider whither they are going, and about the rule of their ways, that will walk in the way of their hearts and after the course of the world (Eccl. xi. 9), that never consider what they have done nor what they are concerned to do, but walk at all adventures (Lev. xxvi. 21), right or wrong, it is all one to them—what can come of this but the greatest mischief?

17 He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord ; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.

Here is, I. The duty of charity described. It includes two things:—1. Compassion, which is the inward principle of charity in the heart; it is to have pity on the poor. Those that have not a penny for the poor, yet may have pity for them, a charitable concern and sympathy; and, if a man give all his goods to feed the poor and have not this charity in his heart, it is nothing, 1 Cor. xiii. 3. We must draw out our souls to the hungry, Isa. lviii. 10. 2. Bounty and liberality. We must not only pity the poor, but give, according to their necessity and our ability, Jam. ii. 15, 16. That which he has given. Margin, His deed. It is charity to do for the poor, as well as to give; and thus, if they have their limbs and senses, they may be charitable to one another.

II. The encouragement of charity. 1. A very kind construction shall be put upon it. What is given to the poor, or done for them, God will place it to account as lent to him, lent upon interest (so the word signifies); he takes it kindly, as if it were done to himself, and he would have us take the comfort of it and to be as well pleased as ever any usurer was when he had let out a sum of money into good hands. 2. A very rich recompence shall be made for it: He will pay him again, in temporal, spiritual, and eternal blessings. Almsgiving is the surest and safest way of thriving.

Miscellaneous Maxims.

18 Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.

Parents are here cautioned against a foolish indulgence of their children that are untoward and viciously inclined, and that discover such an ill temper of mind as is not likely to be cured but by severity. 1. Do not say that it is all in good time to correct them; no, as soon as ever there appears a corrupt disposition in them check it immediately, before it gets head, and takes root, and is hardened into a habit: Chasten thy son while there is hope, for perhaps, if he be let alone awhile, he will be past hope, and a much greater chastening will not do that which now a less would effect. It is easiest plucking up weeds as soon as they spring up, and the bullock that is designed for the yoke should be betimes accustomed to it. 2. Do not say that it is a pity to correct them, and that, because they cry and beg to be forgiven, you cannot find in your heart to do it. If the point can be gained without correction, well and good; but if you find, as it often proves, that your forgiving them once, upon a dissembled repentance and promise of amendment, does but embolden them to offend again, especially if it be a thing that is in itself sinful (as lying, swearing, ribaldry, stealing, or the like), in such a case put on resolution, and let not thy soul spare for his crying. It is better that he should cry under thy rod than under the sword of the magistrate, or, which is more fearful, that of divine vengeance.

19 A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again.

1. As we read this, it intimates, in short, that angry men never want woe. Those that are of strong, or rather headstrong, passions, commonly bring themselves and their families into trouble by vexatious suits and quarrels and the provocations they give; they are still smarting, in one instance or other, for their ungoverned heats; and, if their friends deliver them out of one trouble, they will quickly involve themselves in another, and they must do it again, all which troubles to themselves and others would be prevented if they would mortify their passions and get the rule of their own spirits. 2. It may as well be read, He that is of great wrath (meaning the child that is to be corrected and is impatient of rebuke, cries and makes a noise, even that wrath of his against the rod of correction) deserves to be punished; for, if thou deliver him for the sake of that, thou wilt be forced to punish him so much the more next time. A stomachful high-spirited child must be subdued betimes, or it will be the worse for it.

20 Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.

Note, 1. It is well with those that are wise in their latter end, wise for their latter end, for their future state, wise for another world, that are found wise when their latter end comes, wise virgins, wise builders, wise stewards, that are wise at length, and understand the things that belong to their peace, before they be hidden from their eyes. A carnal worldling at his end shall be a fool (Jer. xvii. 11), but godliness will prove wisdom at last. 2. Those that would be wise in their latter end must hear counsel and receive instruction, in their beginnings must be willing to be taught and ruled, willing to be advised and reproved, when they are young. Those that would be stored in winter must gather in summer.

21 There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord , that shall stand.

Here we have, 1. Men projecting. They keep their designs to themselves, but they cannot hide them from God; he knows the many devices that are in men's hearts,—devices against his counsels (as those, Ps. ii. 1-3; Micah iv. 11),— devices without his counsel (no regard had to his providence, as those Jam. iv. 13, this and the other they will do, and not take God along with them),—devices unlike God's counsels; men are wavering in their devices, and often absurd and unjust, but God's counsels are wise and holy, steady and uniform. 2. God overruling. Various men have various designs, according as their inclination or interest leads them, but the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand, whatever becomes of the devices of men. His counsel often breaks men's measures and baffles their devices; but their devices cannot in the least alter his counsel, not disturb the proceedings of it, nor put him upon new counsels, Isa. xiv. 24; xlvi. 11. What a check does this give to politic designing men, who think they can outwit all mankind, that there is a God in heaven that laughs at them! Ps. ii. 4. What comfort does this speak to all God's people, that all God's purposes, which we are sure are right and good, shall be accomplished in due time!

22 The desire of a man is his kindness: and a poor man is better than a liar.

Note, 1. The honour of doing good is what we may laudably be ambitious of. It cannot but be the desire of man, if he have any spark of virtue in him, to be kind; one would not covet an estate for any thing so much as thereby to be put into a capacity of relieving the poor and obliging our friends. 2. It is far better to have a heart to do good and want ability for it than have ability for it and want a heart to it: The desire of a man to be kind, and charitable, and generous, is his kindness, and shall be so construed; both God and man will accept his good-will, according to what he has, and will not expect more. A poor man, who wishes you well, but can promise you nothing, because he has nothing to be kind with, is better than a liar, than a rich man who makes you believe he will do mighty things, but, when it comes to the setting to, will do nothing. The character of the men of low degree, that they are vanity, from whom nothing is expected, is better than that of men of high degree, that they are a lie, they deceive those whose expectations they raised.

23 The fear of the Lord tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.

See what those that get by it that live in the fear of God, and always make conscience of their duty to him. 1. Safety: They shall not be visited with evil; they may be visited with sickness or other afflictions, but there shall be no evil in them, nothing to hurt them, because nothing to separate them from the love of God, or hurt to the soul. 2. Satisfaction: They shall abide satisfied; they shall have those comforts which are satisfying, and shall have a constant contentment and complacency in them. It is a satisfaction which will abide, whereas all the satisfactions of sense are transient and soon gone. Satur pernoctabit, non cubabit incoenatus—He shall not go supperless to bed; he shall have that which will make him easy and be an entertainment to him in his silent and solitary hours, Ps. xvi. 6, 7. 3. True and complete happiness. Serious godliness has a direct tendency to life; to all good, to eternal life; it is the sure and ready way to it; there is something in the nature of it fitting men for heaven and so leading them to it.

24 A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again.

A sluggard is here exposed as a fool, for, 1. All his care is to save himself from labour and cold. See his posture: He hides his hand in his bosom, pretends he is lame and cannot work; his hands are cold, and he must warm them in his bosom; and, when they are warm there, he must keep them so. He hugs himself in his own ease and is resolved against labour and hardship. Let those work that love it; for his part he thinks there is no such fine life as sitting still and doing nothing. 2. He will not be at the pains to feed himself, an elegant hyperbole; as we say, A man is so lazy that he would not shake fire off him, so here, He cannot find in his heart to take his hand out of his bosom, no, not to put meat into his own mouth. If the law be so that those that will not labour must not eat, he will rather starve than stir. Thus his sin is his punishment, and therefore is egregious folly.

25 Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware: and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge.

Note, 1. The punishment of scorners will be a means of good to others. When men are so hardened in wickedness that they will not themselves be wrought upon by the severe methods that are used to reclaim and reform them, yet such methods must be used for the sake of others, that they may hear and fear, Deut. xix. 20. If the scorner will not be recovered from his sin, the disease being inveterate, yet the simple will beware of venturing upon the sin which exposes men thus. If it cure not the infected, it may prevent the spreading of the infection. 2. The reproof of wise men will be a means of good to themselves. They need not be smitten; a word to the wise is enough. Do but reprove one that has understanding and he will so far understand himself and his own interest that he will understand knowledge by it, and not miss it again through ignorance and inadvertency when once he has been told of it; so kindly does he take reproof and so wisely improve it.

26 He that wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother, is a son that causeth shame, and bringeth reproach.

Here is, 1. The sin of a prodigal son. Besides the wrong he does to himself, he is injurious to his good parents, and basely ungrateful to those that were instruments of his being and have taken so much care and pains about him, which is a great aggravation of his sin and renders it exceedingly sinful in the eyes of God and man: He wastes is father, wastes his estate which he should have to support him in his old age, wastes his spirits, and breaks his heart, and brings his gray head with sorrow to the grave. He chases away his mother, alienates her affections from him, which cannot be done without a great deal of regret and uneasiness to her; he makes her weary of the house, with his rudeness and insolence, and glad to retire for a little quietness; and, when he has spent all, he turns her out of doors. 2. The shame of a prodigal son. It is a shame to himself that he should be so brutish and unnatural. He makes himself odious to all mankind. It is a shame to his parents and family, who are reflected upon, though, perhaps, without just cause, for teaching him no better, or being in some way wanting to him.

27 Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.

This is a good caution to those that have had a good education to take heed of hearkening to those who, under pretence of instructing them, draw them off from those good principles under the influence of which they were trained up. Observe, 1. There is that which seems designed for instruction, but really tends to the destruction of young men. The factors for vice will undertake to teach them free thoughts and a fashionable conversation, how to palliate the sins they have a mind to and stop the mouth of their own consciences, how to get clear of the restraints of their education and to set up for wits and beaux. This is the instruction which causes to err from the forms of sound words, which should be held fast in faith and love. 2. It is the wisdom of young men to turn a deaf ear to such instructions, as the adder does to the charms that are designed to ensnare her. "Dread hearing such talk as tends top instil loose principles into the mind; and, if thou art linked in with such, break off from them; thou hast heard enough, or too much, and therefore hear no more of the evil communication which corrupts good manners."

28 An ungodly witness scorneth judgment: and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity.

Here is a description of the worst of sinners, whose hearts are fully set in them to do evil. 1. They set that at defiance which would deter and detain them from sin: An ungodly witness is one that bears false witness against his neighbour, and will forswear himself to do another a mischief, in which there is not only great injustice, but great impiety; this is one of the worst of men. Or an ungodly witness is one that profanely and atheistically witnesses against religion and godliness, whose instructions seduce from the words of knowledge (v. 27); such a one scorns judgment, laughs at the terrors of the Lord, mocks at that fear, Job xv. 26. Tell him of law and equity, that the scriptures and an oath are sacred things, and not to be jested with, that there will come a reckoning day; he laughs at it all, and scorns to heed it. 2. They are greedy, and glad of that which gives them an opportunity to sin: The mouth of the wicked eagerly devours iniquity, drinks it in like water, Job xv. 16.

29 Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.

Note, 1. Scorners are fools. Those that ridicule things sacred and serious do but make themselves ridiculous. Their folly shall be manifest unto all men. 2. Those that scorn judgments cannot escape them, v. 28. The unbelief of man shall not make God's threatenings of no effect; those that devour iniquity swallow the hook with the bait. The civil magistrate has judgments prepared for scorners, for otherwise he would bear the sword in vain; but if he be remiss, and connive at sin, yet God's judgments slumber not; they are prepared, Matt. xxv. 41.

CHAP. XIX. Verſ. 1. Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity]

THat poor, but honeſt man, that ſpeaks ſupplications, Chap. 18.23. but abuſeth not his lips to leud and looſe language, is better than that rich fool that anſwers him roughly and robuſtiouſly (as Nabal did Davids meſſengers) and otherwiſe, ſpeaks ill, thinks worſe. Wee uſually call a poor man a poor ſoul: a poor ſoul may bee a rich Chriſtian, and a rich man may have a poor ſoul.

Verſ. 2. Alſo that the ſoul bee without knowledge, Lib. 3. Eth. it is not good] An ignorant man is a naughty man. Ignorat ſanè improbus omnis, ſaith Ariſtotle. Every bad-minded man is in the dark; neither can any good come into the heart, but it muſt paſs through the underſtanding; and the difference of ſtature in Chriſtianity grows from different degrees of knowledge. The Romans were full of knowledge, and therefore full of goodneſs, chap. 15.14.

And hee that haſteth with his feet ſinneth] Or, wandreth out of the way. As hee that is out of his way, the faſter hee rides or runs, the farther hee is out; ſo is blinde zeal. It is like metal in a blind horſe, that running upon the rocks and precipices firſt breaks his hoofs, and then his neck: Or like the Devil in the poſſeſſed, that caſt him ſometimes into the fire, and ſometimes into the water.

Verſ. 3. The fooliſhneſs of a man perverteth his way] So that all goes croſs with him,Lev. 26.21. and God walks contrary to him; as it befell our King John, Queen Mary, and Henry the fourth of France. King John ſaw and acknowledged it in theſe words,Mat. Paris. Poſiquam, ut dixi, Deo reconciliatus, me ac mea regna (proh dolor!) Romanae ſubjeci Eccleſiae, nulla mihi proſpera, ſed omnia contraria advenerunt. Ever ſince I ſubmitted to the Sea of Rome, nothing hath proſpered with mee.

And his heart frets againſt the Lord] As the cauſe of his calamity. Birds of prey, that have been long kept in the dark, when they get abroad, are out of meaſure raging and ravenous; ſo are ignorant ſpirits, they let flye on all hands (when in durance eſpecially) and ſpare not to ſpit their venome in the very face of God; as did Pharaoh, when that thick darkneſs was upon him; the King of Iſrael that ſaid, Behold this evil is of the Lord, and what ſhould I wait for the Lord any longer? 2 King. 6.33. Mahomet the firſt Emperour of the Turks, being wonderfully grieved with the diſhonour and loſs hee had received at the laſt aſſault of Scodra, Turk hiſt. fol. 423. in his choler and frantick rage moſt horribly blaſphemed againſt God, ſaying, that it were enough for him to have care of heavenly things, and not to croſs him in his worldly actions.

Verſ. 4. Wealth maketh many friends] Res amicos invenit, ſaith hee in Plautus. Wine, ſaith Athenaeus, hath [non-Latin text not transcribed], a force in it to make friendſhip. Wealth wee are ſure hath; but as that is no ſound love that comes out of cups, it is but ollaris amicitia; ſo neither are they to bee truſted, that wealth wins to us. Hired friends are ſeldome either ſatisfied, or ſure; but like the Ravens in Arabia, that, full gorged, have a tuneable ſweet record, but empty, ſcreetch horribly. Flies ſoon faſten upon honey, and vermine will haunt a houſe where food is to bee gotten.

But the poor is ſeparated from his neighbour] Who either turns from him as a ſtranger, or againſt him, as an enemy. Nero being condemned to dye, and not finding any one that would fall upon him, and diſpatch him, cryed out, Itane, nec amicum, nec inimicum habeo? Have I now neither friend, nor foe, that will do this for mee?

Verſ. 5. A falſe witneſs ſhall not bee unpuniſhed] Many poor people care not to lend their rich friend an oath at a need: And many rich, though they think ill of Pillory-perjury, yet they make little conſcience of a merry lye. Neither of theſe ſhall paſs unpuniſhed. And this ſentence may bee to them, as thoſe knuckles of a mans hand were to Baltaſar, to write them their deſtiny, or as Daniel was to him, to read it unto them.

Verſ. 6. Many will intreat the favour of the Prince] Yea, lye at his feet, and lick up his ſpittle, not being loyal in love for conſcience, but ſubmiſs in ſhew for commodity. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Orph. in Arg. Every man will bee thruſting in where any thing is to bee gotten. The Poets make Litae or Petitions to bee the daughters of Jupiter, and ever about him, to ſignifie, ſaith the Mythologiſt, that Princes and great ones are ſeldome without ſuppliants and ſuters.

And every man is a friend, &c.] See the Note on Chap. 17.8.

Verſ. 7. All the brethren of the poor do hate him] How much more then his hired friends? Theſe are like Crows to a dead Carcaſe, which if they flock to it, it is not to defend, but to devour it; and no ſooner have they bared the bones, but they are gone. See the Note on Chap. 14.20.

Verſ. 8. Hee that getteth wiſdome] Hebr. Hee that getteth, or poſſeſſeth an heart; For wee are born brutes, and are compared to the horſe and mule that have none underſtanding, Pſal. 32. Hearts wee have all, but our fooliſh hearts are darkned, Rom. 1.21. yea, a deceived heart hath turned us aſide that wee cannot deliver our ſouls, nor ſay, Is there not a lye in my right hand? Iſa. 44.20. Well may the rich have many friends, but not many hearts; For without wiſdome no man can love his own ſoul, much leſs can hee truly love another. Therefore by how much better it is for a man to love his own ſoul as hee ought, than to bee beloved of others for his gifts; by ſo much it is better to get wiſdome, than to get wealth.

Verſ. 9. A falſe witneſs, &c.] See Verſ. 5.

Verſ. 10. Delight is not ſeemly for a fool] Dignitas in indigno eſt ornamentum in luto, ſaith Salvian: Health, Wealth, Nobility, Beauty, Honour, and the like, are ill beſtowed upon a wicked man, who will abuſe them all to his own and other mens undoing.Secunda res etiam ſapicutum animos fatigant; quanto magis inſoleſcent stulti rerum ſucceſſu proſpero? Saluſt. The wiſeſt have enough to do to manage theſe outward good things: What may wee then expect from fools? (See the Note on Chap. 14.24.) if they make wiſe men fools, they will make fools mad men.

Much leſſe for a ſervant to rule over Princes] As Abimelech that bramble did over the Cedars of Lebanus: as Tobiah the Servant the Ammonite ſought to do over Nehemiah, and the Princes of Judah: As the ſervants of the Emperour Claudius did over him and the whole State (which occaſioned that verſe to be pronounced on the Theatre, [non-Latin text not transcribed])

As Becket and Wolſey affected to do in their Generations: And as the Bridgemaker of Rome, who ſtiles himſelf Servus ſervorum, a ſervant of ſervants, and yet acts as a Dominus Dominantium, & Rex Regum, Lord of Lords, and King of Kings. Round about the Popes Coin are theſe words ſtamped, That Nation that will not ſerve thee, ſhall bee rooted out. His Janizaries alſo the Jeſuites are as a moſt agile ſharp ſword, whoſe blade is ſheathed at pleaſure in the bowels of every Common-wealth, but the handle reacheth to Rome and Spain. This made that moſt valiant and puiſſant Prince, Henry the fourth of France, when hee was perſwaded by one to baniſh the Jeſuites, ſay, Give mee then ſecurity for my life.

Verſ. 11. The diſcretion of a man deferreth his anger] Plato, when angry with his ſervant, would not correct him at that time, but let him go with Vapulares niſi iraſcerer, I am too angry to beat thee. A young man that had been brought up with Plato, returning home to his Fathers houſe,Sen. de ita, lib. 3. c. 11. and hearing his Father chide and exclaim furiouſly, ſaid, I have never ſeen the like with Plato. See the Note on Chap. 14.29. Anger, by being deferred, may bee diminiſhed, ſo it bee not concealed for a further opportunity of miſchief, as Abſoloms toward Amnon, and Tiberiuſſes, whom the more hee meditated revenge,Lentus in meditando ubi prorapiſſet, &c. Tacit. the more did time and delay ſharpen it: And the farther off hee threatned, the heavier the ſtroke fell.

And it is his glory to paſs over a tranſgreſſion] Heb. To paſs by it, as not knowing of it, or not troubled at it: Thus David was deaf to the railings of his enemies, and as a dumb man, in whoſe mouth are no reproofs. Socrates, when hee was publickly abuſed in a Comedy, laughed at it: Polyagrus vero ſeipſum ſtrangulabat, ſaith Aelian; but Polyagrus, not able to bear ſuch an indignity, hanged himſelf. Auguſtus likewiſe did but laugh at the Satyrs and buffooneries which they had publiſhed againſt him: and when the Senate would have further informed him of them, hee would not hear them. The manlier any man is, the milder and readier to paſs by an offence: this ſhews, that hee hath much of God in him (if hee do it from a right principle) who bears with our evil manners, and forgives our treſpaſſes, beſeeching us to bee reconciled. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Act. 13 When any provoke us, wee uſe to ſay, Wee will bee even with him: There is a way whereby wee may bee not even with him, but above him, and that is, forgive him. Wink at ſmall faults eſpecially. Qui neſcit diſſimulare, neſcit vivere. Hee that cannot lye, is not fit to live.

Verſ. 12. The Kings wrath is at the roaring of a Lion] Heb. Of a young Lion, which (being in his prime) roars more terribly; ſets up his roar with ſuch a force, that hee amazeth the other Creatures whom hee hunteth,Ambroſ. He[illegible: 1 letter]s. lib. 6. cap. 5. ſo that (though far ſwifter of foot than the Lion) they have no power to flye from him. Kings have long hands, ſtrong clutches: Good therefore is the wiſe mans counſel, Eccleſ. 8.2, 3, 4. See the Note on Chap. 16.14, 15.

Verſ. 13. A fooliſh Son is the calamity of his Father] Children are certain cares, but uncertain comforts. Let them prove never ſo towardly, yet there is ſomewhat to do to breed them up, and bring them to good. But if they anſwer not expectation, the Parents grief is unexpreſſible. See the Note on Chap. 10.1. and 15.20. How many an unhappy Father is tempted to wiſh with Auguſtus, O utinam caelebs vixiſſem, orbuſque periſſem?

And the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping] Like as a man that hath met with hard uſage abroad, thinks to mend himſelf at home; but is no ſooner ſate down there, but the rain dropping thorow the roof upon his head, drives him out of doors again:Conjugium Conjurgium. De diſcordi conjugio Theomiſtocles dixit, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Such is the caſe of him that hath a contentious wife; a far greater croſs than that of ungracious children, which yet are the Fathers calamities and heart-breaks. Auguſtus had been happy if hee had had no children: Sylla, if hee had had no wife. All evils, as elements, are moſt troubleſome, when out of their proper place, as impiety in Profeſſours, injuſtice in Judges, diſcomfort in a wife. This is like a tempeſt in the Haven, moſt troubleſome, moſt dangerous.

Verſ. 14. Houſe and riches are the inheritance of the Fathers] Viz. More immediately. God gives them to the Parents, and they leave them to their children, being moved thereto by God: Though a carnal heart looks no higher than Parents, cares not ſo hee may have it, whence hee hath it. It is Dos non Deus that maketh marriages with them; good enough, if goods enough; mony is the greateſt medlet, and drives the bargain and buſineſs to an upſho[illegible: 1 letter]. Moſtly, ſuch matches prove unhappy and uncomfortable. How can it bee otherwiſe, ſith Hic Deus nihil fecit? God indeed had a hand in it, but for their juſt puniſhment, that ſo followed after lying vanities, and ſo forſook their own mercies.

But a prudent wife is of the Lord] Nature makes a Woman, Election a Wife; but to bee prudent, wiſe, and virtuous, is of the Lord. A good, wife was one of the firſt real and royal gifts beſtowed on Adam. God ſet all the creatures before him ere hee gave him a wife; that ſeeing no other fit help, hee might prize ſuch a gift, not a gift of induſtry, but of deſtiny, as one ſaith; for Marriages are made in Heaven, as the common ſort can ſay, and as very Heathens acknowledge. The Governour of Eskichiſar hearing Othoman the Great Turk his relation of a fair Lady whom hee was in love with, and had highly commended for her virtues, ſeemed greatly to like of his choice, ſaying, that ſhee was by the divine providence appointed onely for him to have.Turk. Hiſt. fol. 136.

Verſ. 15. Slothfulneſs caſteth into a deep ſleep] Sloth bringeth ſleep, and ſleep poverty. See this excellently ſet forth, Chap. 6.9, 10, 11. See the Notes there, and on chap. 10.4.

Verſ. 16. Hee that keepeth the Commandement, keepeth his own ſoul] This is the firſt fruit of ſhaking off ſloth and ſleepineſs. Hee that ſtirs up himſelf to take hold of God, Iſa. 64.7. and to take hold of his Covenant, Iſa. 56.4. to love the name of the Lord, and to bee his ſervant, verſ. 6. to love him, and keep his Commandements, Exod. 20.6. to do that little hee does out of love, if it bee no more than to think upon his Commandements to do them, Pſal. 103.18. this mans ſoul ſhall bee bound up in the bundle of life, hee ſhall finde his name written in the book of life. For in vitae libro ſcribuntur omnes qui quod poſſunt, faciunt, etſi quod debeut non poſſunt, ſaith Bernard. Their names are written in Heaven who do what they can, though they cannot do what they ought. If there bee a willing mind, 2 Cor. 8.12. God accepts, according to what a man hath, not according to what hee hath not. Aug. Exchir. cap. 32. And here alſo, Nolentem praevenit Deus ut velit, volentem ſubſequitur ne fruſtrà velit. God that gives both to will and to do, cauſeth his people to keep his Commandements,Ezek. 36. Iſa. 26. and worketh all their works in them, and for them. Lex jubet, gratia juvat: petamus ut det, quod ut habeamus jubet. Aug. in Exod. quaſt. 55. The Law commandeth, but Grace helpeth; let us beg that God would make us to be what hee requires us to be.

But hee that despiſeth his waies] That is, Gods waies, chalked out in his word. See the Note on chap. 13.13. Or, Hee that deſpiſeth his own waies, Aut mentem aut reſtim comparandum. Chryſip. lives careleſly, and at randome; walks at all adventures with God, cui vita eſt incompoſita, & poſſimè morata contra gnomonem & canonem Decalogi, a looſe and lawleſs perſon, hee ſhall dye, not a natural death onely (as all do) but ſpiritual and eternal. There is but an inch betwixt him and hell, which already gapes for him, and will certainly ſwallow him up.

Verſ. 17. Hee that hath pitty upon the poor, lendeth, &c.] This is a ſecond fruit of ſhaking off ſloth, and working with the hands the thing that is good,Epheſ. 4.28. that one may have to give to him that needeth. Hee doth not give it, but lend it, God accepts it both as [non-Latin text not transcribed], as a gift, and a Loue, ſaith Baſil: Nay,Orat. de Eleemoſ. he lends it upon uſury, Faeneratur Domino; and that to the Lord, who both binds himſelf to repay, and gives us ſecurity for it under his own hand here. Hee will pay him again to bee ſure of it, [non-Latin text not transcribed] in Piel, hee will fully and abundantly repay him; moſtly in this world, but infallibly in the world to come. Evagrius in Cedrenus bequeathed three hundred pounds to the poor in his Will; but took a bond before-hand of Syneſius the Biſhop, for the repayment of it in another life; And the very next night, (ſaith the hiſtory) after his departure, appearing to him in his ſhape, delivered in the bond cancelled, and fully diſcharged.

Verſ. 18. Chaſten thy Son while there is hope] See the Note on chap. 13.24.

Verſ. 19. A man of great wrath ſhall ſuffer puniſhment] Hee that laies the reynes in the neck, and ſets no bounds to his wrath, whether in chaſtiſing his childe, or otherwiſe, ſhall bee ſure to ſmart for it: ſhall bring himſelf and his friends into great trouble. Such therefore as are cholerick ſhould pray much, and prevent all occaſions of wrath; as Callius and Cotis, becauſe they would not bee ſtirred up to anger, burned their enemies letters before they were read. The like did Pompey to the Letters of Sertorius, and Caſar to Pompey's Letters.

Verſ. 20. Hear counſel, and receive inſtruction] Or, correction. Here hee directs his ſpeech to the younger ſort, and exhorts them, 1 To hear counſel, that is, to keep the Commandement, as verſ. 16. 2 To receive correction of Parents, as verſ. 18. as the onely way to ſound and laſting wiſdome: For Vexatio dat intellectum; Piſcator ictus ſapit; Quae nocent docent, &c. Or Salomon may here bring in the Father thus leſſoning his untoward childe, whom hee hath laſhed. For to correct, and not inſtruct, is to ſnuff the Lamp, but not poure in oyl to feed it.

Verſ. 21. There are many deviſes in a mans heart] They may purpoſe, but God alone diſpoſeth of all. See the Note on chap. 16.1.9. Some think to riſe by ill principles, but it will not bee. Some to bee rich, but God croſſeth them, and holds them to priſoners pittances, to hard meat, as wee ſay. Some, to live long, and to enjoy what they have gotten: but they hear, Thou fool, Luk. 12. this very night ſhall thy ſoul bee taken from thee, &c. Some ſet themſelves to root out true Religion, to dethrone the Lord Chriſt, &c. But God ſees and ſmiles, looks and laughs, Pſal. 2. The counſel of the Lord, that ſhall ſtand when all is done. Chriſt ſhall reign in the midſt of his enemies: the ſtone cut out of the mountains without hands, ſhall bring down the golden Image with a vengeance, and make it like the chaff of the Summer-floor, Dan. 2.35. Sciat Celfitudo veſtra & nihil dubitet, (ſaith Luther in a letter to the Electour of Saxony) longè aliter in coelo quàm Noribergae de hoc negotio concluſum eſſe. Scult. Annal. Let your highneſs bee ſure that the Churches buſineſs is far otherwiſe ordered in Heaven, than it is by the Emperour and States at Norinberg. And Gaud eo quod Chriſtus Dominus eſt; alioqui totus deſperaſſem. I am glad that Chriſt is King; for otherwiſe I had been utterly out of heart and hope, ſaith holy Myconius in a Letter to Calvin, upon the view of the Churches enemies.

Verſ. 22. The deſire of a man is his kindneſs] Or, his mercy. Many have a great mind to bee held merciful men, and vainly give out what they would do, if they had wherewith; and perhaps they ſpeak as they think too (this may bee one of thoſe many deviſes, thoſe variae & vanae cogitationes in the heart of a man, verſ. 21.)

But the poor man is better than a liar] For though hee hath nothing to give, yet having a giving affection, hee is better than a lyar, that is, than ſuch a rich man, who before hee was rich would brag what hee would do if hee were rich, and yet now is a niggard.

Saturatus pernoctabit, Hee ſhall not go ſupperleſs to bed.Verſ. 23. The fear of the Lord tendeth to life, &c.] Life, ſaturity, and ſecurity from evil (from the hurt, if not from the ſmart of it) are all aſſured here to thoſe that fear God. Who would not then turn ſpiritual purchaſer? See Chap. 22.4.

Verſ. 24. A ſlothful man hideth his hand in his boſome] The Latines ſay, Hee wraps it in his cloak, Manum habet ſub pallio. Hee puts it in his pocket ſay wee. Erewhiles wee had him faſt aſleep; and here going about his buſineſs, as if hee were ſtill aſleep; ſo lazie that any the leaſt labour is grievous to him, hee can hardly finde in his heart to feed himſelf, ſo to uphold the life of his hands, which hee ſhould maintain with the labour of his hands, 2 Theſſ. 3.10. and with the ſweat of his brows, Gen. 3. Very ſucklings get not their milk without much tugging and tyring themſelves at the Dug.

Verſ. 25. Smite a ſcorner, and the ſimple will leware] Alterius perditio, tua ſit cautio, ſaith the Wiſe-man. Seeſt thou another man ſhipwrackt? look well to thy tackling. Poena ad paucos, &c. Let but a few bee puniſhed, and many will bee warned and wiſed; any will, but the ſcorner himſelf, who will not bee better, though braid in a mortar. This ſcorner may very well bee the ſluggard mentioned in the former verſe. Smite him never ſo much, there is no beating any wit into him. Pharaoh was not a button the better for all that hee ſuffered; but Jethro taking notice of Gods heavy hand upon Pharaoh, and likewiſe upon the Amalekites, was thereby converted, and became a Proſelyte, as Rabbi Salomon noteth upon this Text.

Verſ. 26. Hee that waſteth his father] That ſpoileth, pilfereth, pillageth, preyeth upon his father; Not ſo much as ſaying with that Scape-thrift in the Goſpel,Luke 15. Give mee the portion that falls to my ſhare. Idleneſs and incorrigibleneſs lead to this wickedneſs, as may appear by the context.

Verſ. 27. Ceaſe my ſon to hear the inſtruction] Beware of falſe Prophets, Mat. 7.24. See the Note there. Take heed alſo what books yee read; for as water reliſheth of the ſoil it runs through, ſo do the ſoul of the Authors that a man readeth.

Verſ. 28. An ungodly witneſs ſcorneth judgement] As if hee were out of the reach of Gods rod.Eccleſ. 8. Pſal. 50. And becauſe judgement is not preſently executed, therefore his heart is ſet in him to do wickedly, hee looks upon God as an Abbettor of his perjury. His mouth devoureth iniquity, as ſome ſavoury morſel. But know they not that there will bee bitterneſs in the end? Let them but mark what follows.

Verſ. 29. Judgements are prepared for ſcorners] For theſe ſcorners (that promiſe themſelves impunity) are judgements, not one, but many, not appointed onely, but prepared long ſince, and now ready to bee executed.