Proverbs 20 commentary

It seems hard to believe that men of the greatest abilities, as well as the ignorant, should render themselves fools and madmen, merely for the taste or excitement produced by strong liquors.

How formidable kings are to those who provoke them! how much more foolish then is it to provoke the King of kings!

To engage in quarrels is the greatest folly that can be. Yield, and even give up just demands, for peace’ sake.

He who labours and endures hardship in his seed-time for eternity, will be properly diligent as to his earthly business.

Though many capable of giving wise counsel are silent, yet something may be drawn from them, which will reward those who obtain it.

It is hard to find those that have done, and will do more good than they speak, or care to hear spoken of.

A good man is not liable to uneasiness in contriving what he shall do, or in reflecting on what he has done, as those who walk in deceit. And his family fare better for his sake.

If great men are good men, they may do much good, and prevent very much evil.

Some can say, Through grace, we are cleaner than we have been; but it was the work of the Holy Spirit.

See the various deceits men use, of which the love of money is the root. The Lord will not bless what is thus gotten.

Parents should observe their children, that they may manage them accordingly.

All our powers and faculties are from God, and are to be employed for him.

Those that indulge themselves, may expect to want necessaries, which should have been gotten by honest labour.

Men use arts to get a good bargain, and to buy cheap; whereas a man ought to be ashamed of a fraud and a lie.

He that prefers true knowledge to riches, follows the ways of religion and happiness. If we really believed this truth, the word of God would be valued as it deserves, and the world would lose its tempting influence.

Those ruin themselves who entangle themselves in rash suretiship. Also those who are in league with abandoned women. Place no confidence in either.

Wealth gotten by fraud may be sweet, for the carnal mind takes pleasure in the success of wicked devices; but it will be bitter in the reflection.

Especially we need advice in spiritual warfare. The word and Spirit of God are the best counsellors in every point.

Those dearly buy their own praise, who put confidence in a man because he speaks fairly.

An undutiful child will become very miserable. Never let him expect any peace or comfort.

An estate suddenly raised, is often as suddenly ruined.

Wait on the Lord, attend his pleasure, and he will protect thee.

A bargain made by fraud will prove a losing bargain in the end.

How can we form plans, and conduct business, independently of the Lord?

The evasions men often use with their own consciences show how false and deceitful man is.

Justice should crush the wicked, and separate them from the virtuous.

The rational soul and conscience are as a lamp within us, which should be used in examining our dispositions and motives with the revealed will of God.

Mercy and truth are the glories of God's throne.

Both young and old have their advantages; and let neither despise or envy the other.

Severe rebukes sometimes do a great deal of good. But such is the corruption of nature, that men are loth to be rebuked for their sins. If God uses severe afflictions, to purify our hearts and fit us for his service, we have cause to be very thankful.

CHAPTER 20

Pr 20:1-30.

1. mocker--scorner. Such men are made by wine.

strong drink--made by spicing wine (compare Is 5:11, 22); and it may include wine.

raging--or boisterous as a drunkard.

deceived--literally, "erring," or reeling.

2. (Compare Pr 19:12). Men who resist authority injure themselves (Ro 13:2).

3. to cease from strife--or, better, "to dwell from or without strife," denoting the habit of life.

fool ... meddling--(Pr 17:14).

4. shall ... beg--literally, "ask" (in this sense, Psa 109:10).

5. Counsel ... water--that is, deeply hidden (Pr 18:4; Psa 13:2). The wise can discern well.

6. Boasters are unreliable.

goodness--or, "kind disposition."

7. The conduct of good men proclaims their sound principles. God's covenant and their good example secure blessing to their children (Pr 4:26; Psa 112:1, 2).

8. As in Pr 14:35; 16:10, 15, this is the character of a good king, not of all kings.

9. The interrogation in the affirmative strengthens the implied negation (compare Job 15:14; Ec 7:20).

10. Various measures, implying that some are wrong (compare Pr 11:1; 16:11).

11. The conduct of children even is the best test of principle (compare Mt 7:16).

12. Hence, of course, God will know all you do (Psa 94:9).

13. Activity and diligence contrasted with sloth (Pr 6:9; 10:11).

lest ... poverty--literally, "be deprived of inheritance."

14. when ... his way--implying that he goes about boasting of his bargains.

15. The contrast denotes the greater value of knowledge (compare Pr 3:14-16).

16. Take his garment--implies severe exaction, justified by the surety's rashness.

a strange woman--by some readings "strangers," but the former here, and in Pr 27:13, is allowable, and strengthens the sense. The debauchee is less reliable than the merely careless.

17. Bread ... sweet--either as unlawfully (Pr 9:17) or easily obtained.

mouth ... gravel--well expresses the pain and grief given at last.

18. (Compare Pr 15:22). Be careful and considerate in important plans.

19. Those who love to tell news will hardly keep secrets.

flattereth ... lips--(compare Margin; Pr 1:10).

meddle ... him--literally, "join," or "associate with."

20. his lamp--(Compare Pr 13:9; 24:20).

21. gotten hastily--contrary to God's providence (Pr 28:20), implying its unjust or easy attainment; hence the man is punished, or spends freely what he got easily (compare Pr 20:17).

22. (Compare Psa 27:14; Ro 12:17-19).

23. (Compare Pr 20:10; 11:1).

24. Man's goings--literally, "Stately steppings of a strong man."

a man--any common man.

understand--or, "perceive."

25. devoureth ... holy--or, better, "who rashly speaks promises," or "devotes what is holy," consecrating any thing. This suits better the last clause, which expresses a similar view of the results of rashly vowing.

26. (Compare Pr 20:8).

bringeth ... over them--The wheel was used for threshing grain. The figure denotes severity (compare Am 1:3).

27. The spirit ... Lord--Men's minds are God's gifts, and thus able to search one another (compare Pr 20:5; Pr 18:8, 17; 1Co 2:11).

28. (Compare Pr 3:3; 16:6, 12).

29. The glory of young men ... the beauty of old men--Each age has its peculiar excellence (Pr 16:31).

30. blueness--literally, "joining," the process of uniting the edges of a wound throws off purulent matter.

stripes ... belly--So punishment provides healing of soul (Pr 18:8), by deterring from evil courses.

Wine is a mocker - It deceives by its fragrance, intoxicates by its strength, and renders the intoxicated ridiculous.

Strong drink - שכר shechar, any strong fermented liquor, whether of the vine, date, or palm species.

The fear of a king - Almost the same with Pro 19:12 (note), which see.

It is an honoer for a man - The same sentiment as Pro 19:11.

The sluggard will not plough - For other parts of this character, see the preceding chapter, Proverbs 19 (note). It is seldom that there is a season of very cold weather in Palestine; very cold days sometimes occur, with wind, rain, and sleet. They begin their ploughing in the latter end of September, and sow their early wheat by the middle of October. And this is often the case in England itself. The meaning of the proverb is: the slothful man, under the pretense of unfavorable weather, neglects cultivating his land till the proper time is elapsed.

Counsel in the heart of man - Men of the deepest and most comprehensive minds are rarely apt, unsolicited, to join in any discourse, in which they might appear even to the greatest advantage; but a man of understanding will elicit this, by questions framed for the purpose, and thus pump up the salubrious waters from the deep and capacious well. The metaphor is fine and expressive.

Most men will proclaim - Many men merciful ben clepid: a feithful man forsoth, who schal finde? Old MS. Bible.

A king that sitteth in the throne of judgment - Kings should see to the administration of the laws, as well as of the state transactions, of their kingdom. In the British constitution there is a court for the king, called the King's Bench, where he should sit, and where he is always supposed to be sitting. The eyes - the presence, of the monarch in such a place, scatter evil - he sees into the case himself, and gives right judgment, for he can have no self-interest. Corrupt judges, and falsifying counsellors, cannot stand before him; and the villain is too deeply struck with the majesty and state of the monarch, to face out iniquity before him.

Who can say, I have made any heart clean - No man. But thousands can testify that the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed them from all unrighteousness. And he is pure from his sin, who is justified freely through the redemption that is in Jesus.

Divers weights and divers measures - A peise and a peise; - Old MS. Bible: from the French pois, weight. Hebrew: "A stone and a stone; an ephah and an ephah." One the standard, the other below it; one to buy with, the other to sell by.

Even a child is known by his doings - That is, in general terms, the effect shows the nature of the cause. "A childe is known by his conversation," says Coverdale. A child is easily detected when he has done evil; he immediately begins to excuse and vindicate himself, and profess his innocence, almost before accusation takes place. Some think the words should be understood, every child will dissemble; this amounts nearly to the meaning given above, But probably the principal this intended by the wise man is, that we may easily learn from the child what the man will be. In general, they give indications of those trades and callings for which they are adapted by nature. And, on the whole, we cannot go by a surer guide in preparing our children for future life, than by observing their early propensities. The future engineer is seen in the little handicraftsman of two years old. Many children are crossed in these early propensities to a particular calling, to their great prejudice, and the loss of their parents, as they seldom settle at, or succeed in, the business to which they are tied, and to which nature has given them no tendency. These infantine predilections to particular callings, we should consider as indications of Divine Providence, and its calling of them to that work for which they are peculiarly fitted.

The hearing ear and the seeing eye - Every good we possess comes from God; and we should neither use our eyes, nor our ears, nor any thing we possess, but in strict subserviency to his will.

Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty - Sleep, indescribable in its nature, is an indescribable blessing; but how often is it turned into a curse! It is like food; a certain measure of it restores and invigorates exhausted nature; more than that oppresses and destroys life. A lover of sleep is a paltry, insignificant character.

It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer - How apt are men to decry the goods they wish to purchase, in order that they may get them at a cheaper rate; and, when they have made their bargain and carried it off, boast to others at how much less than its value they have obtained it! Are such honest men? Is such knavery actionable? Can such be punished only in another world? St. Augustine tells us a pleasant story on this subject: A certain mountebank published, in the full theater, that at the next entertainment he would show to every man present what was in his heart. The time came, and the concourse was immense; all waited, with deathlike silence, to hear what he would say to eaeh. He stood up, and in a single sentence redeemed his pledge: -

Vili vultis Emere, et Caro Vendere.

You all wish to Buy Cheap, and Sell Dear."

He was applauded; for every one felt it to be a description of his own heart, and was satisfied that all others were similar. "In quo dicto levissimi scenici omnes tamen conscientias invenerunt suas.' - De Trinitate, lib. xiii., c. 3; Oper. vol. vii., col. 930.

There is gold - Gold is valuable, silver is valuable, and so are jewels; but the teachings of sound knowledge are more valuable than all.

Take his garment that is surety for a stranger - I suppose the meaning to be, If a stranger or unknown person become surety in a case, greater caution should be used, and such security taken from this stranger as would prevent him from running away from his engagements.

Bread of deceit is sweet - Property acquired by falsehood, speculation, etc., without labor, is pleasant to the unprincipled, slothful man; but there is a curse in it, and the issue will prove it.

With good advice make war, - Perhaps there is not a precept in this whole book so little regarded as this. Most of the wars that are undertaken are wars of injustice, ambition, aggrandizement, and caprice, which can have had no previous good counsel. A minister, who is perhaps neither a good nor a great man, counsels his king to make war; the cabinet must be brought into it, and a sufficient number out of the states of the kingdom gained over to support it. By and by, what was begun through caprice must be maintained through necessity. Places must be created, and offices must be filled with needy dependents, whose interest it may be to protract the war, till they get enough to pay their debts, and secure independence for life. And for these most important ends the blood of the country is spilled, and the treasures of the people exhausted! I have met with a fact precisely of this kind under the reign of Louis XIV.

Whoso curseth his father - Such persons were put to death under the law; see Exo 21:17; Lev 20:9, and here it is said, Their lamp shall be put out - they shall have no posterity; God shall cut them off both root and branch.

An inheritance - gotten hastily - Gotten by speculation; by lucky hits; not in the fair progressive way of traffic, in which money has its natural increase. All such inheritances are short-lived; God's blessing is not in them, because they are not the produce of industry; and they lead to idleness, pride, fraud and knavery. A speculation in trade is a pubiic nuisance and curse. How many honest men have been ruined by such!

I will recompense evil - Wait on the Lord; judgment is his, and his judgments are sure. In the mean time pray for the conversion of your enemy.

Man's goings are of the Lord - He, by his providence, governs all the great concerns of the world. Man often traverses these operations; but he does it to his own damage. An old writer quaintly says: "They who will carve for themselves shall cut their fingers."

Who devoureth that which is holy - It is a sin to take that which belongs to God, his worship, or his work, and devote it to one's own use.

And after vows to make inquiry - That is, if a man be inwardly making a rash vow, the fitness or unfitness, the necessity, expediency, and propriety of the thing should be first carefully considered. But how foolish to make the vow first, and afterwards to inquire whether it was right in the sight of God to do it! This equally condemns all rash and inconsiderate conduct. My old MS. Bible translates, Falling is of men often to vowen to seyntis, and after, the vouw is agen brawen. Is it possible that Wiclif could have translated this verse thus? as it strongly countenances vows to and invocations of saints.

Bringeth the wheel over them - He threshes them in his anger, as the wheel does the grain on the threshing-floor. Every one knows that grain was separated from its husks, in Palestine, by the feet of the oxen trampling among the sheaves, or bringing a rough-shod wheel over them. Asiatic kings often threshed their people, to bring out their property; but this is not what is intended here.

The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord - God has given to every man a mind, which he so enlightens by his own Spirit, that the man knows how to distinguish good from evil; and conscience, which springs from this, searches the inmost recesses of the soul.

Mercy and truth preserve the king - These are the brightest jewels in the royal crown; and those kings who are most governed by them have the stablest government.

The glory of young men is their strength - Scarcely any young man affects to be wise, learned, etc.; but all delight to show their strength and to be reputed strong. Agility, one evidence of strength, their particularly affect; and hence their various trials of strength and fleetness in public exercises.

And the beauty of old men is the gray head - They no longer affect strength and agility, but they affect wisdom, experience, prudent counsels, etc., and are fond of being reputed wise, and of having respect paid to their understanding and experience.

The blueness of a wound - חברות chabburoth, from חבר chabar, to unite, to join together. Does it not refer to the cicatrice of a wound when, in its healing, the two lips are brought topether? By this union the wound is healed; and by the previous discharge the lace-rated ends of fibres and blood-vessels are purged away. So stripes, though they hurt for the time, become the means of correcting and discharging the moral evil of the inmost soul, the vice of the heart, the easily-besetting sin.

In this chapter, verses fourteen to nineteen, inclusive, are wanting in the Septuagint and Arabic; and the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, come in after the twenty-second. It is difficult to account for these variations, unless they were occasioned by the change of leaves in MSS.

A mocker - Wine immoderately drunk makes men mockers. Raging - Makes men full of rage.

The fear - The terror which the wrath of a king causes.

Meddling - Is always ready to begin strife, and obstinate in the continuance of it.

Counsel - Designs of doing something of moment. Deep water - Is secret and hard to be discovered.

His eyes - With his very looks, or by his diligent inspection into affairs.

Divers - One greater for shew and one lesser for use.

Is known - The future disposition of a man may be probably conjectured from his childish manners.

Open - Shake off sloth and betake thyself to thy employment with diligence and vigour.

The lips - But wise speeches are of far greater worth.

Take - As a pledge, without which he ought not to be trusted. Of him - That is surety.

Established - The way to bring our purposes to good effect is to manage them with serious consideration.

Lamp - His name and memory shall utterly perish.

His way - What the issue of his designs will be.

A snare - It brings guilt upon him. After - After a man has made vows to enquire for ways to break them.

The wheel - As the cart - wheel was anciently turned over the sheaves to beat the corn out of them. He punishes them as their offences deserve.

The spirit - The reasonable soul. The candle - Is a clear and glorious light set up in man for his information and direction. Of the Lord - So called because it comes from God in a more immediate manner than the body, Eccles 12:7, and because it is in God's stead, to observe and judge all our actions. Searching - Discerning not only his outward actions, which are visible to others, but his most inward thoughts and affections. The belly is here put for the heart, as it is frequently.

The blueness - Grievous wounds, which make men black and blue; or severe punishments. Cleanseth - Are the means to reclaim a wicked man, and to purge out his corruption. The belly - Of the heart. Grievous wounds or stripes cleanse not only the outward man by keeping it from evil actions, but even the inward man, by expelling or subduing vile affections: which is a great and blessed benefit of afflictions.

1 WIne is a mocker , strong drink is raging , and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wi[illegible: 1+ letters]e .

Wine immoderately drunk makes men mockers or scoffers at God and men. Compare Hos. 7. 5.

Makes men full of rage and passion.

Is a Fool, or a mad Man, because he depriveth himself of the use of his reason.

2 The fear of a King is as the roaring of a lion, whoso provoketh him to anger, sinneth against his own soul .

Passively taken, the terror which the wrath of a King causeth, by comparing this with Ch. 19. 12.

Exposeth himself to manifest danger of Death.

Marginal references: Ch. 16. 14. & 19. 12.

3 It is an honour to a man to cease from strife , but every fool will be medling .

Either to prevent it, or, if it be begun, to put an end to it: which, although proud and profane Persons esteem dishonourable to them, is indeed their glory, because it is an evidence of their great wisdom and power over their passions, and of their respect and obedience to their Soveraign Lord, in which their Honour and Happiness consists.

To wit, with matters of strife, he is always ready to begin strife, and obstinate in the continuance of it.

Marginal references: Ch. 17. 14.

4 The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold , therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing .

Of the Plowing season, which is in Autumn and towards Winter. He hates and avoids all laborious and difficult work, although his own necessity and interest oblige him to it.

And not obtain an Alms not in that time of Plenty and bounty, because mens Hearts are justly hardned against that Man who by his own sloth and wilfulness hath brought himself to want.

Marginal references: Ch. 10. 4.; Or, Winter.

5▪ Counsel in the heart of man is like deep Water , but a man of understanding will draw it out .

Either 1. Wisdom or ability to give good Counsel. Or 2. Designs or purposes of doing somthing of moment: for this word is frequently used in both senses but the last seems fittest here.

Either 1. is there in great abundance. Or 2. is secret and hard to be discovered.

By prudent Questions and Discourses, and a diligent Observation of his words and actions.

Marginal references: Ch. 18. 4.

6 Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness ; but a faithful man who can find ?

Most men are forward to profess Religion, and speak of their own good deeds.

One who is indeed what he seemeth and professeth himself to be.

There are but few such to be found.

Marginal references: Or, bounty.

7 The just man walketh in his integrity ; his children are blessed after him .

He proveth himself to be so not onely by his profession, of which he spoke in the former Verse, but by his sincere and unblameable conversation.

By vertue of that Covenant which God hath made with such men, which is not confined to their Persons, but entaileth Blessings upon their Posterity.

Marginal references: Ps. 112. 2.

8 A king that [illegible: 1+ letters]itteth in the throne of judgment , scattereth away all evil with his eyes .

That makes it his great care and business to execute Judgment and Justice among his People, especially if he do this in his own Person, as was usual in ancient Times, and sees things with his own Eyes. As for the Phrase, the sign or gesture is here put for the thing signified by it.

Effectually punisheth and suppresseth all wickedness.

With his very looks, or by his diligent inspection into affairs.

Marginal references: Ch. 16. 10. Vers. 26.

9 Who can say , I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin ?

No Man living upon Earth can say this truly and sincerely. Compare 1 Kings 8. [illegible: 1+ letters]6. Iob 14. 4. & 15. 14. Eccles. 7. 21. 1 Ioh. 1. 8.

I am perfectly free from all guilt and filth of sin in my Heart and Life.

Marginal references: 1 Kin. 8. 46. 2 Chr. 6. 36. Job 14. 4. Ps. 51. 5. Eccles. 7. 20. 1 Ioh. 1. 8.

10 Divers weights, and divers measures , both of them are alike abomination to the LORD.

One greater and truer for publick shew, and one lesser and false for private use, when they had an opportunity of deceiving.

Marginal references: Vers. 23. Deut. 25. 13, &c. Ch. 11. 1. & 16. 11. Mic. 16. 1[illegible: 1+ letters]; Heb. a stone and a stone.; Heb. an Ephah, and an Ephah.

11 Even a child is known by his doings , whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.

Young Children discover their inclinations or dispositions even by their childish speeches and carriages, as not having yet learnt the art of dissembling.

Or rather, will be; for it is not expressed in the Hebrew, and therefore may be either way supplied. The sense is, The future disposition and conversation of a Man may very probably be conjectured from his childish manners.

12 The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them .

It is God alone who gives us our Senses and Natural faculties, and the use and exercise of them, and especially a power of employing them aright to see and observe the works of God, and to hear and receive his Word and all wholesom instructions. Whence he leaves it to us to gather, that God doth exactly see and hear all mens words, and actions though never so secret. He names the Eye, and Ear, because these are the two Senses by which instructions are conveyed to the mind; but under them he seems to comprehend all other senses and powers of Soul or Body, by a Synecdoche.

Marginal references: Exod. 4. 11. Ps. 94. 9.

13 Love not sleep , lest thou come to poverty: open thine eyes , and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.

i. e Immoderate sleep, or sloth or idleness. Take sleep because necessity requires it, not from any love to it.

Awake out of sleep, shake off sloth and betake thy self to thy employment with diligence and vigor.

Marginal references: Ch. 6. 9. & 12. 14. & 19. 15.

14 It is naught , it is naught saith the buyer , but when he is gone his way , then he boasteth .

The commodity is but of little worth.

To wit, to the Seller: he discommends it that he may bring down the price of it.

With the commodity purchased.

That by his wit he hath over-reached the Seller, and got a great advantage to himself. This he notes as a common but reprovable practice.

15 There is gold , and a multitude of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel .

To wit, in the World, in divers mens hands, by whom it is highly prized.

But wise speeches proceeding from an understanding or honest Heart are of far greater worth and use, both to him that uttereth them▪ and to those that receive and improve them to their own benefit.

Marginal references: Ch. 3. 15. & 8. 11.

16 Take his garment that is surety for a stranger , and take a pledg of him for a strange woman .

To wit, as a Pledge, without which he ought not to be trusted, because by this action he sheweth himself to be a Fool, and he taketh the ready way to beggery. Obj. This precept contradicts that Law which forbad the taking of a Garment for a Pledge, Exod. 22. 26. Answ.. It doth not contradict it, for the cases vastly differ; for that Law concerned onely the Poor, who were forced to borrow for their own necessity, and therefore deserve pity; whereas this reacheth onely those who are or would be thought rich and sufficient Security for others, and who borrow not for their own need, but for a meer Stranger, for which folly they deserve to be severely punished. Besides, this may be onely a Prediction, though it be delivered in the form of a Precept, as many Predictions are; and so shews what may be expected by him that is guilty of such folly, even that he shall be stripped of his Garments and other necessaries.

For a Forreigner or a Person unknown to him.

That is surety: which words are to be understood out of the foregoing Clause.

For an Harlot, who is so called, Prov. 2. 16. and elsewhere.

Marginal references: Ch. 22. 27. & 27. 13.

17 Bread of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel .

Gain or pleasure procured by unrighteous courses.

It shall be bitter and pernicious at last like grit[illegible: 1+ letters]y Bread, which offends the Teeth and Stomach: it will certainly bring upon him the horrours of a guilty Conscience, and the wrath and judgments of the Almighty God.

Marginal references: Ch. 9. 17.; Heb. bread of lying, or, falshood.

18 Every purpose is established by counsel , and with good advice make war.

The way to bring our purposes and desires to a good effect, is to manage them with serious consideration and good advice.

Or, therefore. This is necessary in every common undertaking, and much more in a thing of such high importance as War is.

Marginal references: Ch. 15. 22.; Ch. 24. 6.

19 He that goeth about as a tale-bearer, revealeth secrets , therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips .

He that delighteth in and accustometh himself to the practice of spreading Tales or evil Reports, will not forbear to publish the greatest secrets which are committed to his trust. Or, as others render it, and as the words lie in the Hebrew Text, He that revealeth secrets (contrary to his promise or the trust reposed in him, you may by that token be assured that) he doth and will go about as a Tale-bearer. He who divulgeth secrets cannot or will not forbear to publish other things, and so is not fit to be trusted with any thing.

To prevent that mischief. Heb. and. So the following Sentence is not inferred from the former, but onely added to it.

Avoid frequent and familiar society and conversation with him.

By which artifice he seeks to gain thy affections, and so to fish out all thy secrets, which he may impart to others whom he may oblige hereby, and so render his company more acceptable.

Marginal references: Ch. 11. 13.; Or, inticeth.

20 Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness .

Heb. and; which is used for or, Exod. 12. 5. Levit. 6 3. and elsewhere.

His comfort and happiness, his Name and Memory which are oft compared in Scripture to a Lamp or Light.

Shall utterly perish; he shall die Childless, and with Ignominy.

Marginal references: Exod. 21. 17. Lev. 20. 9. Mat. 15. 4.; Or, Candle.

21 An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning , but the end thereof shall not be blessed .

An Estate somtimes is got suddenly in the very beginning of a Man's labours for it, in which case it may be presumed that some undirect and unrighteous courses were used, for the getting of it, because Riches are very seldom given by God, or gotten by men, without mens diligence. But this, as well as many other Proverbs, are to be understood of the common course, although it admit of some exceptions. For somtimes Merchants or others get great Estates speedily by one happy Voyage, or by some other prosperous event. This Translation follows the Hebrew Marginal reading, but according to the Textual reading, it may be thus rendered and understood, An Inheritance gotten in the beginning (to wit, of a mans indeavours) is abominable, to wit, unto God, being supposed to be unjustly gotten, as was now said.

At last it shall be cursed and wither by God's just judgment.

Marginal references: Ch. 28. 20.

22 Say not thou , I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD , and he shall save thee.

In thy Heart: give not way to any such evil Thoughts or Purposes.

To whom it belongs to execute vengeance, and to deliver his People from all their Enemies.

Marginal references: Deut. 32. 35. Ch. 17. 13. & 24. 29. Rom. 12. 17 1 Thess. 5. 15. 1 Pet. 3. 9.

23 Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD , and a false balance is not good .

Of which see above on v. 10.

Is very wicked and hateful to God and men.

Marginal references: Vers. 10.; Heb. balances of deceit.

24 Man's goings are of the LORD ; how can a man then understand his own way .

All mens purposes and actions.

Are ordered and over-ruled by God's wise and powerful Providence to accomplish his own counsel and good pleasure, and not what men list or intend

Either 1. what course he ought to take; which he cannot know without God's direction and assistance, Compare Prov. 16. 9. Ier. 10. 23. Or 2. what the issue of his designs will be, whether they shall succeed or be disappointed, the way being taken for the end or event to which it leads, as it is in many other places. The scope of the Proverb is to shew, that all the events of humane life are neither ordered nor foreseen by Mans, but onely by God's Providence, and therefore men should onely mind the doing of their duty, and then quietly depend upon God for a good Issue to their endeavours.

Marginal references: Ps. 37. 23. Ch. 16. 9. Jer. 10. 23.

25 It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy , and after vows to make enquiry .

It brings guilt and God's curse and vengeance upon him.

i. e. Those Meats or Drinks which were devoted or consecrated to God. Under which one kind he comprehends and forbids all alienation of Sacred or Dedicated things from God to a Man's private use or benefit: Of which see Levit. 27. 9. Deut. 23. 21. Mal. 3▪ 8, 9. Act. 5. 1, &c.

After a Man hath made Vows to consider whether he can possibly, or may lawfully keep them, and to invent or enquire of others all ways possible to break his Vow, and to satisfie or deceive his Conscience in so doing. Which enquiry is justly censured as a sin and snare, because it is an evidence of a covetous or irreligious Mind, and is the ready way and first step towards the open violation of it.

26 A wise king scattereth the wicked and bringeth the wheel over them.

Who seriously minds his Duty and his true interest.

Breaks their Companies and Consederacies, and forceth them to flee several ways for their own safety, driveth them from his presence, and from the Society of honest men, as the Chaff is by the Husbandman separated from the Corn, and driven away by the Wind, of which this Hebrew word is commonly used; and to which the next Clause hath some reference.

s As the Cart-wheel was anciently turned over the Sheaves to beat the Corn out of them, Isa. 28. 27, 28. He punisheth them severely, as their Offences deserve. This or such like punishments were not unusual among the Eastern Nations, as we may gather from, 2 Sam. 8. 2. & 12. 31 Amos 1. 3.

Marginal references: Psal. 101. 5, &c. Vers. 3.

27 The spirit of a man is the candle of the LORD , searching all the inward parts of the belly .

i. e. The reasonable Soul.

Is a clear and glorious light set up in Man for his information and direction.

So called partly because it comes from God in a more immediate and peculiar manner than the Body doth, Eccles. 12. 7. and partly because it is in Gods stead to observe and judge all a Man's actions.

Discerning not onely his outward actions, which are visible to others, but his most inward and secret thoughts and affections, which no other Man can see, 1 Cor. 2. 11. The Belly is here put for the Heart, as it is frequently. The Soul can reflect upon and judge of its own dispositions and actions. Which plainly sheweth that the Heart is not so deceitful, but that a Man by diligent study of it, and the use of the means appointed by God, may arrive at a certain knowledge of its state and condition, in reference to God, and to Salvation.

Marginal references: Or, lamp.

28 Mercy and truth preserve the king , and his throne is upheld by mercy .

Clemency to Offenders, and bounty to worthy, and to indigent Persons.

Faithfulness in keeping his Word and Promises inviolably.

Because they engage God to guard him, and gain him the reverence and affections of his People, which is a Kings greatest safety and happiness.

Which is again mentioned, to shew that although it be an act of Grace, and therefore in some sort free, yet Princes are obliged to it both by their duty, and by their Interest, because it is a singular means of their preservation.

Marginal references: Ps. 101. 1. Ch. 29. 14.

29 The glory of young men is their strength; and the beauty of old men is the gray head .

That wherein they glory as their Priviledge above old men.

i. e. Their old Age expressed by the outward sign of it, wherein they glory as their peculiar Priviledge, as a Testimony of their Piety and God's Blessing, and as a token of their great experience and wisdom. The design of this Proverb is to declare the several advantages of several Ages▪ and the mutual need they have one of another, and thereby to engage them to mutual love and assistance, and to friendly converse, and to make every one contented with his own Age and Condition, and not to envy nor yet despise his Brother or the difference of their Ages, as is very usual among men.

Marginal references: Ch. 16. 31.

30 The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil ; so do stripes the inward parts of the belly .

Grievous wounds which make men black and blew, or severe punishments.

Are the most effectual means to reclaim a wicked Man, and to purge out his corruption.

Heb. and stripes, which answer to the wounds in the former Clause.

i Either 1. Which pierce even to the inward parts of the Belly, and so we are to understand out of the former Branch, cleanse away evil. Or 2. They cleanse the inward parts of the Belly, i. e. of the Heart. So this is an addition to the former Clause, and the sense of the whole is, Grievous wounds or stripes do cleanse not only the outward Man by keeping it from evil actions, but even the inward Man, by expelling or subduing vile affections. Which is mentioned as a great and blessed benefit of afflictions.

Marginal references: Heb. is a [illegible: 1 word] Medi [illegible: 1+ letters] against [illegible: 1 word] ▪

Pro 20:1

This proverb warns against the debauchery with which free-thinking is intimately associated.

Wine is a mocker, mead boisterous;

And no one who is overtaken thereby is wise.

The article stands with יין. Ewald maintains that in 10:1-22:6 the article occurs only here and at Pro 21:31, and that it is here, as the lxx shows, not original. Both statements are incorrect. The article is found, e.g., at Pro 19:6; Pro 18:18, Pro 18:17, and here the personification of “wine” requires it; but that it is wanting to שׁכר shows how little poetry delights in it; it stands once for twice. The effects of wine and mead (שׁכר from שׁכר, to stop, obstruct, become stupid) are attributed to these liquors themselves as their property. Wine is a mocker, because he who is intoxicated with it readily scoffs at that which is holy; mead is boisterous (cf. הומיּה, Pro 7:11), because he who is inebriated in his dissolute madness breaks through the limits of morality and propriety. He is unwise who, through wine and the like, i.e., overpowered by it (cf. 2Sa 13:28), staggers, i.e., he gives himself up to wine to such a degree that he is no longer master of himself. At Pro 5:19 we read, שׁגה ב, of the intoxication of love; here, as at Isa 28:7, of the intoxication of wine, i.e., of the passionate slavish desire of wine or for wine. The word “Erpicht” [avidissimus], i.e., being indissolubly bound to a thing, corresponds at least in some degree to the idea. Fleischer compares the French: être fou de quelque chose. Isa 28:7, however, shows that one has to think on actual staggering, being overtaken in wine.

Pro 20:2 2 A roaring as of a lion is the terror of the king;    And he that provoketh him forfeiteth his life.

Line first is a variation of Pro 19:12. The terror which a king spreads around (מלך, gen. subjecti., as, e.g., at Job 9:34 and generally) is like the growling of a lion which threatens danger. The thought here suggested is that it is dangerous to arouse a lion. Thus מתעבּרו does not mean: he who is angry at him (Venet.: χολούμενος αὐτῷ), but he who provokes him (lxx, Syr., Targ., Jerome, Luther). התעבּר signifies, as we saw at Pro 14:16, to be in a state of excessive displeasure, extreme anger. Here the meaning must be: he who puts him into a state of anger (lxx, ὁ παροξύνων αὐτόν, in other versions with the addition of καὶ ἐπιμιγνύμενος, who conducts himself familiarly towards him = מתערבו). But can mitharvo have this meaning? That the Hithpa. of transitive stems, e.g., התחגּן (1Ki 8:59) and השׁתּמּר (Mic 6:16), is construed with the accus. of that which any one performs for himself (cf. Ewald’s Gramm. Arab. §180), is not unusual; but can the Hithpa. of the intrans. עבר, which signifies to fall into a passion, “express with the accusative the passion of another excited thereby” (Ewald, §282a)? There is no evidence for this; and Hitzig’s conjecture, מתעבּרו (Tiphel of the Targ. תּעבור = עברה), is thus not without occasion. But one might suppose that התעבּר, as the reflexive of a Piel or Hiphil which meant to be put into a state of anger, may mean to draw forth the anger of any one, as in Arab., the VIIIth form (Hithpa.) of ḥaḍr, to be present, with the accus. as reflexive of the IVth form, may mean: sibi aliquid praesens sistere. Not so difficult is חטא with the accus. of that which is missing, vid., Pro 8:36 and Hab 2:10.

Pro 20:3 3 It is an honour to a man to remain far from strife;    But every fool showeth his teeth.

Or better: whoever is a fool quisquis amens, for the emphasis does not lie on this, that every fool, i.e., every single one of this sort, contends to the uttermost; but that whoever is only always a fool finds pleasure in such strife. Regarding התגּלּע, vid., Pro 17:14; Pro 18:1. On the contrary, it is an honour to a man to be peaceable, or, as it is here expressed, to remain far from strife. The phrase may be translated: to desist from strife; but in this case the word would be pointed שׁבת, which Hitzig prefers; for שׁבת from שׁבת means, 2Sa 23:7, annihilation (the termination of existence); also Exo 21:19, שׁבתּו does not mean to be keeping holy day; but to be sitting, viz., at home, in a state of incapability for work. Rightly Fleischer: “ישׁב מן, like Arab. ḳ'ad ṣan, to remain sitting quiet, and thus to hold oneself removed from any kind of activity.” He who is prudent, and cares for his honour, not only breaks off strife when it threatens to become passionate, but does not at all enter into it, keeps himself far removed from it.

Pro 20:4 4 At the beginning of the harvest the sluggard plougheth not;    And so when he cometh to the reaping-time there is nothing.

Many translators (Symmachus, Jerome, Luther) and interpreters (e.g., Rashi, Zöckler) explain: propter frigus; but חרף is, according to its verbal import, not a synon. of קר and צנּה, but means gathering = the time of gathering (synon. אסיף), from חרף, carpere,Vid., Fleischer in Levy’s Chald. Wörterbuch, i. 426. as harvest, the time of the καρπίζειν, the plucking off of the fruit; but the harvest is the beginning of the old Eastern agricultural year, for in Palestine and Syria the time of ploughing and sowing with the harvest or early rains (חריף = יורה, Neh 7:24; Ezr 2:18) followed the fruit harvest from October to December. The מן is thus not that of cause but of time. Thus rendered, it may mean the beginning of an event and onwards (e.g., 1Sa 30:25), as well as its termination and onwards (Lev 27:17): here of the harvest and its ingathering and onwards. In 4b, the Chethı̂b and Kerı̂ vary as at Pro 18:17. The fut. ישׁאל would denote what stands before the sluggard; the perf. שׁאלו places him in the midst of this, and besides has this in its favour, that, interpreted as perf. hypotheticum, it makes the absence of an object to שׁאל more tenable. The Chethı̂b, ושׁאל, is not to be read after Psa 109:10 : he will beg in harvest - in vain (Jerome, Luther), to which Hitzig well remarks: Why in vain? Amid the joy of harvest people dispense most liberally; and the right time for begging comes later. Hitzig conjecturally arrives at the translation: “A pannier the sluggard provideth not;

Seeketh to borrow in harvest, and nothing cometh of it.”

But leaving out of view the “pannier,” the meaning “to obtain something as a loan,” which שׁאל from the connection may bear, is here altogether imaginary. Let one imagine to himself an indolent owner of land, who does not trouble himself about the filling and sowing of his fields at the right time and with diligence, but leaves this to his people, who do only as much as is commanded them: such an one asks, when now the harvest-time has come, about the ingathering; but he receives the answer, that the land has lain unploughed, because he had not commanded it to be ploughed. When he asks, there is nothing, he asks in vain (ואין, as at Pro 14:6; Pro 13:4). Meîri rightly explains מחרף by מתחלת זמן החרישׁה, and 4b by: “so then, when he asks at harvest time, he will find nothing;” on the other hand, the lxx and Aram. think on חרף, carpere conviciis, as also in Codd. here and there is found the meaningless מחרף.

Pro 20:5 5 The purpose in the heart of a man is deep water;    But a man of understanding draweth it out. “Still waters are deep.” Like such deep waters (Pro 18:4) is that which a man hath secretly (Isa 29:15) planned in his heart. He keeps it secret, conceals it carefully, craftily misleads those who seek to draw it out; but the man of תּבוּנה, i.e., one who possesses the right criteria for distinguishing between good and bad, true and false, and at the same time has the capacity to look through men and things, draws out (the Venet. well, ἀνέλξει) the secret עצה, for he penetrates to the bottom of the deep water. Such an one does not deceive himself with men, he knows how to estimate their conduct according to its last underlying motive and aim; and if the purpose is one that is pernicious to him, he meets it in the process of realization. What is here said is applicable not only to the subtle statesman and the general, but also the pragmatical historian and the expositor, as, e.g., of a poem such as the book of Job, the idea of which lies like a pearl at the bottom of deep water.

Pro 20:6 6 Almost every one meeteth a man who is gracious to him;    But a man who standeth the test, who findeth such a one?

As ציר אמונים, Pro 13:17, signifies a messenger in whom there is confidence, and עד אמונים, Pro 14:5, a witness who is altogether truthful, so אישׁ אמוּנים is a man who remains true to himself, and maintains fidelity toward others. Such an one it is not easy to find; but patrons who make promises and awaken expectations, finally to leave in the lurch him who depends on them - of such there are many. This contrast would proceed from 6a also, if we took קרא in the sense of to call, to call or cry out with ostentation: multi homines sunt quorum suam quisque humanitatem proclamat (Schelling, Fleischer, Ewald, Zöckler, and also, e.g., Meîri). But אישׁ חסדּו is certainly to be interpreted after Pro 11:17, Isa 57:1. Recognising this, Hitzig translates: many a man one names his dear friend; but in point of style this would be as unsuitable as possible. Must יקרא then mean vocat? A more appropriate parallel word to מצא is קרא = קרה, according to which, with Oetinger, Heidenheim, Euchel, and Löwenstein, we explain: the greater part of men meet one who shows himself to them (to this or that man) as אישׁ חסד, a man well-affectioned and benevolent; but it is rare to find one who in his affection and its fruits proves himself to be true, and actually performs that which was hoped for from him. Luther translates, with the Syr. and Targ. after Jerome: Viel Menschen werden From gerhümbt [many men are reputed pious]; but if יקרא were equivalent to יקּרא, then אישׁ חסד ought to have been used instead of אישׁ חסדו. The lxx read רב אדם יקר אישׁ חסד, man is something great, and a compassionate man is something precious; but it costs trouble to find out a true man. The fundamental thought remains almost the same in all these interpretations and readings: love is plentiful; fidelity, rare; therefore חסד, of the right kind, after the image of God, is joined to אמת.

Pro 20:7 7 He who in his innocence walketh as one upright,    Blessed are his children after him!

We may not take the first line as a separate clause with צדּיק, as subject (Van Dyk, Elster) or predicate (Targ.); for, thus rendered, it does not appropriately fall in as parallel to the second line, because containing nothing of promise, and the second line would then strike in at least not so unconnectedly (cf. on the contrary, Pro 10:9; Pro 14:25). We have before us a substantival clause, of which the first line is the complex subject. But Jerome, the Venet., and Luther erroneously: the just man walking in his innocence; this placing first of the adj. is in opposition to the Hebr. syntax. We must, if the whole is to be interpreted as nom., regard צדיק as permutative: one walking in his innocence, a righteous one. But, without doubt, tsedek is the accus. of the manner; in the manner of one righteous, or in apposition: as one righteous; cf. Job 31:26 with Mic 2:7. Thus Hitzig rightly also refers to these two passages, and Ewald also refers to Pro 22:11; Pro 24:15. To walk in his innocence as a righteous man, is equivalent to always to do that which is right, without laying claim to any distinction or making any boast on that account; for thereby one only follows the impulse and the direction of his heart, which shows itself and can show itself not otherwise than in unreserved devotion to God and to that which is good. The children after him are not the children after his death (Gen 24:67); but, according to Deu 4:40, cf. Job 21:21, those who follow his example, and thus those who come after him; for already in the lifetime of such an one, the benediction begins to have its fulfilment in his children.

Pro 20:8

The following group begins with a royal proverb, which expresses what a king does with his eyes. Two proverbs, of the seeing eye and the necessary opening of the eyes, close it. 8 A king sitting on the seat of justice,    Scattereth asunder all evil with his eyes.

Excellently the Venet. ἐπὶ θρόνου δίκης, for כּסּא־דין is the name of the seat of rectitude (the tribunal), as the “throne of grace,” Heb. 4:17, is the name of the capporeth as the seat of mercy; the seat of the judge is merely called כסא; on the other hand, כסא־דין is the contrast of כּסּא הוּות fo, Psa 94:20 : the seat from which the decision that is in conformity with what is right (cf. e.g., Jer 5:28) goes forth, and where it is sought. As little here as at Pro 20:26 is there need for a characterizing adj. to melek; but the lxx hits the meaning for it, understands such to דין: ὅταν βασιλεὺς δίκαιος καθίσῃ ἐπὶ θρόνου. By the “eyes” are we then to understand those of the mind: he sifts, dignoscit, with the eyes of the mind all that is evil, i.e., distinguishes it subjectively from that which is not evil? Thus Hitzig by a comparison of Psa 11:4; Psa 139:3 (where Jerome has eventilasti, the Vulg. investigasti). Scarcely correctly, for it lies nearer to think on the eyes in the king’s head (vid., Pro 16:15); in that case: to winnow (to sift) means to separate the good and the bad, but first mediately: to exclude the bad; finally, Pro 20:26 leads to the conclusion that מזרה is to be understood, not of a subjective, but of an actual scattering, or separating, or driving away. Thus the penetrating, fear-inspiring eyes of the king are meant, as Immanuel explains: בראיית עיניו מבריחם מפניו ומפזר אותם בכל פיאה. But in this explanation the personal rendering of כּל־רע is incorrect; for mezareh, meant of the driving asunder of persons, requires as its object a plur. (cf. 26a). Col-ra is understood as neut. like Pro 5:14. Before the look of a king to whom it belongs to execute righteousness and justice (Isa 16:5), nothing evil stands; criminal acts and devices seen through, and so also judged by these eyes, are broken up and scattered to all the winds, along with the danger that thereby threatened the community. It is the command: “put away the evil” (Deu 13:6 [5]), which the king carries into effect by the powerful influence of his look. With col-ra there is connected the thought that in the presence of the heavenly King no one is wholly free from sin.

Pro 20:9 9 Who can say I have made my heart clean,    I am pure from my sins?

It is the same thought that Solomon expresses in his prayer at the consecration of the temple, 1Ki 8:46 : there is no man who sinneth not. To cleanse his heart (as Psa 73:13), is equivalent to to empty it, by self-examination and earnest effort after holiness, of all impure motives and inclinations; vid., regarding זכה, to be piercing, shining brightly, cloudlessly pure, Fleischer in Levy’s Chald. Wörterbuch, i. 424. The consequence of זכּות is, becoming pure; and the consequence of זכּות לב, i.e., of the purifying of the heart, the being pure from sinful conduct: I have become pure from my sins, i.e., from such as I might fall into by not resisting temptations; the suffix is not understood as actual, but as potential, like Psa 18:24. No one can boast of this, for man’s knowledge of himself and of his sins remains always limited (Jer 17:9.; Psa 19:13); and sin is so deeply rooted in his nature (Job 14:4; Job 15:14-16), that the remains of a sinful tendency always still conceal themselves in the folds of his heart, sinful thoughts still cross his soul, sinful inclinations still sometimes by their natural force overcome the moral resistance that opposes them, and stains of all kinds still defile even his best actions.

Pro 20:10

This proverb passes sentence of condemnation against gross sins in action and life.

Diverse stones, diverse measures -

An abomination to Jahve are they both.

The stones are, as at Pro 11:1; Pro 16:11, those used as weights. Stone and stone, ephah and ephah, means that they are of diverse kinds, one large and one small (the lxx, in which the sequence of the proverbs from Pro 20:10 is different, has μέγα καὶ μικρόν), so that one may be able deceitfully to substitute the one for the other. איפה (from אפה, to bake) may originally have been used to designate such a quantity of meal as supplied a family of moderate wants; it corresponds to the bath (Eze 45:11) as a measure for fluids, and stands here synecdochically instead of all the measures, including, e.g., the cor, of which the ephah was a tenth part, and the seah, which was a third part of it. 10b = Pro 17:5, an echo of Lev 19:36; Deu 25:13-16. Just and equal measure is the demand of a holy God; the contrary is to Him an abhorrence.

Pro 20:11 11 Even a child maketh himself known by his conduct,      Whether his dispostion be pure and whether it be right.

If מעלל may be here understood after the use of עולל, to play, to pass the time with anything, then גּם neht  refers thereto: even by his play (Ewald). But granting that מעולל [children], synon. with נער, had occasioned the choice of the word מעלל (vid., Fleischer on Isa 3:4), yet this word never means anything else than work, an undertaking of something, and accomplishing it; wherefore Böttcher proposes מעוּליו, for מעלוּל may have meant play, in contradistinction to מעלל ot noitcni. This is possible, but conjectural. Thus gam is not taken along with b'amalalav. That the child also makes himself known by his actions, is an awkward thought; for if in anything else, in these he must show what one has to expect from him. Thus gam is after the syntactical method spoken of at Pro 17:26; Pro 19:2, to be referred to נער (also the child, even the child), although in this order it is referred to the whole clause. The verb נכר is, from its fundamental thought, to perceive, observe from an ἐναντιόσημον: to know, and to know as strange, to disown (vid., under Isa 3:9); the Hithpa. elsewhere signifies, like (Arab.) tankkar, to make oneself unknowable, but here to make oneself knowable; Symmachus, ἐπιγνωρισθήσεται, Venet. γνωσθήσεται. Or does the proverb mean: even the child dissembles in his actions (Oetinger)? Certainly not, for that would be a statement which, thus generally made, is not justified by experience. We must then interpret 11b as a direct question, though it has the form of an indirect one: he gives himself to be known, viz., whether his disposition be pure and right. That one may recognise his actions in the conduct of any one, is a platitude; also that one may recognise his conduct in these, is not much better. פּעל is therefore referred by Hitzig to God as the Creator, and he interprets it in the sense of the Arab. khulk, being created = natura. We also in this way explain יצרנוּ, Psa 103:14, as referable to God the יצר; and that poal occurs, e.g., Isa 1:31, not merely in the sense of action, but also in that of performance or structure, is favourable to this interpretation. But one would think that poal, if thus used in the sense of the nature of man, would have more frequently occurred. It everywhere else means action or work. And thus it is perhaps also here used to denote action, but regarded as habitual conduct, and according to the root-meaning, moral disposition. The N.T. word ἕργον approaches this idea in such passages as Gal 6:4. It is less probable that 11b is understood with reference to the future (Luther and others); for in that case one does not see why the poet did not make use of the more intelligible phrase אם זך וישׁר יהיה פעלו. It is like our (Germ.) proverb: Was ein Haken werden will krümmt sick bald what means to become a hook bends itself early; or: Was ein Dörnchen werden will spitzt sich bei ZeitenA similar comparison from Bereschith Rabba, vid., Duke’s Rabbin. Blumenlese, p. 126. [what means to become a thorn sharpens itself early], and to the Aram. בוצין בוצין מקטפיה ידיע = that which will become a gourd shows itself in the bud, Berachoth 48a.

Pro 20:12 12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye -      Jahve hath created them both.

Löwenstein, like the lxx: the ear hears and the eye sees - it is enough to refer to the contrary to Pro 20:10 and Pro 17:15. In itself the proverb affirms a fact, and that is its sensus simplex; but besides, this fact may be seen from many points of view, and it has many consequences, none of which is to be rejected as contrary to the meaning: (1.) It lies nearest to draw the conclusion, viâ eminentiae, which is drawn in Psa 94:9. God is thus the All-hearing and the All-seeing, from which, on the one side, the consolation arises that everything that is seen stands under His protection and government, Pro 15:3; and on the other side, the warning, Aboth ii. 1: “Know what is above thee; a Seeing eye and a Hearing ear, and all thy conduct is marked in His book.” (2.) With this also is connected the sense arising out of the combination in Psa 40:7 : man ought then to use the ear and the eye in conformity with the design which they are intended to subserve, according to the purpose of the Creator (Hitzig compares Pro 16:4); it is not first applicable to man with reference to the natural, but to the moral life: he shall not make himself deaf and blind to that which it is his duty to hear and to see; but he ought also not to hear and to see with pleasure that from which he should turn away (Isa 33:15) - in all his hearing and seeing he is responsible to the Creator of the ear and the eye. (3.) One may thus interpret “hearing” and “seeing” as commendable properties, as Fleischer suggests from comparison of Pro 16:11 : an ear that truly hears (the word of God and the lessons of Wisdom) and an eye that truly sees (the works of God) are a gift of the Creator, and are (Arab.) lillhi, are to be held as high and precious. Thus the proverb, like a polished gem, may be turned now in one direction and now in another; it is to be regarded as a many-sided fact.

Pro 20:13 13 Love not sleep, lest thou become poor;      Open thine eyes, and have enough to eat.

What is comprehended in the first line here is presented in detail in Pro 6:9-11. The fut. Niph. of רוּשׁ, to become poor (cf. Pro 10:4), is formed metaplastically from ירשׁ, Pro 23:21; Pro 30:9, as at 1Sa 2:7; Hitzig compares (Arab.) ryth, which, however, means to loiter or delay, not to come back or down. The R. רש signifies either to be slack without support (cf. דּל), or to desire (cf. אבון, Arab. fkyr, properly hiscens, R. פק, as in פקח, to open widely, which here follows). Regarding the second imper. 13b, vid., Pro 3:4 : it has the force of a consequence, Las deine augen wacker sein, So wirstu brots gnug haben (Luth.) [Let thine eyes be open, so shalt thou have bread enough]. With these two proverbs of the eyes, the group beginning with Pro 20:8 rounds itself off.

Pro 20:14

The following group has its natural limit at the new point of departure at Pro 20:20, and is internally connected in a diversity of ways. 14 “Bad, bad!” saith the buyer;      And going his way, he boasteth then.

Luther otherwise: “Bad, bad!” saith one if he hath it;

But when it is gone, then he boasteth of it.

This rendering has many supporters. Geier cites the words of the Latin poet:

“Omne bonum praesens minus est, sperata videntur Magna.”

Schultens quotes the proverbs τὸ παρὸν βαρύ and Praesentia laudato, for with Luther he refers ואזל לו to the present possession (אזל, as 1Sa 9:7 = (Arab.) zâl, to cease, to be lost), and translates: at dilapsum sibi, tum demum pro splendido celebrat. But by this the Hithpa. does not receive its full meaning; and to extract from הקּונה the idea to which ואזל לו refers, if not unnecessary, is certainly worthless. Hakkoneh may also certainly mean the possessor, but the possessor by acquisition (lxx and the Venet. ὁ κτώμενος); for the most part it signifies the possessor by purchase, the buyer (Jerome, emptor), as correlate of מכר, Isa 24:2; Eze 4:12. It is customary for the buyer to undervalue that which he seeks to purchase, so as to obtain it as cheaply as possible; afterwards he boasts that he has bought that which is good, and yet so cheap. That is an every-day experience; but the proverb indirectly warns against conventional lying, and shows that one should not be startled and deceived thereby. The subject to ואזל לו is thus the buyer; אזל with לו denotes, more definitely even than הלך לו, going from thence, s'en aller. Syntactically, the punctuation ואזל לו [and he takes himself off] (perf. hypoth., Ewald, 357a) would have been near (Jerome: et cum recesserit); but yet it is not necessary, with Hitzig, thus to correct it. The poet means to say: making himself off, he then boasts. We cannot in German place the “alsdann” [then] as the אז here, and as also, e.g., at 1Sa 20:12; but Theodotion, in good Greek: καὶ πορευθεὶς τότε καυχήσεται. We may write ואזל לו with Mercha on the antepenult, on which the accent is thrown back, cf. חונן, Pro 19:17, but not לּו; for the rule for Dagesh does not here, with the retrogression of the tone, come into application, as, e.g., in אוכל לּחמי, Psa 41:10. Singularly the Syr. and Targ. do not read רע רע, but רע לרע, and couple Pro 20:15 with 14. In the lxx, Pro 20:14-19 are wanting.

Pro 20:15 15 There is indeed gold, and many pearls;      But a precious treasure are lips full of knowledge.

In order to find a connection between this proverb and that which precedes, we need only be reminded of the parable of the merchantman who sought goodly pearls, Mat 13:45. The proverb rises to a climax: there is gold, and there are pearls in abundance, the one of which has always a higher value than the other; but intelligent lips are above all such jewels - they are a precious treasure, which gold and all pearls cannot equal. In a similar manner the N.T. places the one pearl above the many goodly pearls. So might דעת (chokma) be called the pearl above all pearls (Pro 3:15; Pro 8:11); but the lips as the organ of knowledge are fittingly compared with a precious vessel, a vessel of more precious substance than gold and pearls are.

Pro 20:16 16 Take from him the garment, for he hath become surety for another;      And for strangers take him as a pledge.

The same proverb Pro 27:13, where קח, with the usual aphaeresis, here interchanges with it the fuller form לקח, which is also found at Eze 37:16. To this imperative חבלהוּ is parallel: take him as a pledge (Theodotion, Jerome, the Venet. and Luther); it is not a substantive: his pledge (Targ.), which would require the word חבלתו (חבלו); nor is it to be read with the Syr. חבלהוּ, one pledges him; but it is imperative, not however of the Piel, which would be חבלהוּ, and would mean “destroy him;” but, as Aben Ezra rightly, the imperative of Kal of חבל, to take as a pledge, Exo 22:25, for חבלהוּ without any example indeed except חננני, Psa 9:14; cf. Psa 80:16. The first line is clear: take his garment, for he has become good for another (cf. Pro 11:15), who has left him in the lurch, so that he must now become wise by experience. The second line also is intelligible if we read, according to the Chethı̂b, נכרים (Jerome, the Venet.), not נכריּם, as Schultens incorrectly points it, and if we interpret this plur. like בנים, Gen 21:7, with Hitzig following Luther, as plur. of the category: take him as a pledge, hold fast by his person, so as not to suffer injury from strange people for whom he has become surety. But the Kerı̂ requires נכריּה (according to which Theodotion and the Syr., and, more distinctly still than these, the Targ. translates), and thus, indeed, it stands written, Pro 27:13, without the Kerı̂, thus Bathra 173b reads and writes also here. Either נכריּה is a strange woman, a prostitute, a maitresse for whom the unwise has made himself surety, or it is neut. for aliena res (lxx Pro 27:13, τὰ ἀλλότρια), a matter not properly belonging to this unwise person. We regard נכרים in this passage as original. בעד coincides with Pro 6:26 : it does not mean ἀντὶ, but ὑπέρ; “for strange people” is here equivalent to for the sake of, on account of strange people” is here equivalent to for the sake of, on account of strange people (χάριν τῶν ἀλλοτρίων, as the Venet. translates it).

Pro 20:17 17 Sweet to a man is the bread of deceit;      Yet at last his mouth is full of gravel. “Bread of deceit” is not deceit itself, as that after which the desire of a man goes forth, and that for which he has a relish (thus, e.g., Immanuel and Hitzig); but that which is not gained by labour, and is not merited. Possession (vid., Pro 4:17) or enjoyment (Pro 9:17) obtained by deceit is thus called, as לחם כּזבים, Pro 23:3, denotes bread; but for him who has a relish for it, it is connected with deceit. Such bread of lies is sweet to a man, because it has come to him without effort, but in the end not only will he have nothing to eat, but his tongue, teeth, and mouth will be injured by small stones; i.e., in the end he will have nothing, and there will remain to him only evil (Fleischer). Or: it changes itself (Job 20:14) at last into gravel, of which his mouth is filled full, as we might say, “it lies at last in his stomach like lead.” חצץ is the Arab. ḥaṭny, gravel (Hitzig, grien = gries, coarse sand, grit), R. חץ, scindere. Similarly in Arab. ḥajar, a stone, is used as the image of disappointed expectations, e.g., the adulterer finds a stone, i.e., experiences disappointment.

Pro 20:18 18 Plans are established by counsel,      And with prudent government make war.

From the conception of a thought, practically influencing the formation of our own life and the life of the community, to its accomplishment there is always a long way which does not lead to the end unless one goes forward with counsel and strength combined, and considers all means and eventualities. The Niph. of כּוּן means, in a passive sense: to be accomplished or realized (Psa 141:2). The clause 18a is true for times of war as well as for times of peace; war is disastrous, unless it is directed with strategic skill (vid., regarding תּחבּות, Pro 1:5). Grotius compares the proverb, Γνῶμαι πλέον δρατοῦσιν ἢ σθένος χειρῶν. In Pro 24:6, the necessity of counsel is also referred to the case of war. Ewald would read [the infin.] עשׂה, or עשׂה: with management it is that one carries on war. But why? Because to him the challenge to carry on war appears to be contrary to the spirit of proverbial poetry. But the author of the proverb does certainly mean: if thou hast to carry on war, carry it on with the skill of a general; and the imper. is protected by Pro 24:6 against that infin., which is, besides, stylistically incongruous.

Pro 20:19 19 He that goeth out gossiping revealeth a secret;      And the babbler have nothing to do.

Luther otherwise (like Hitzig) -

Be not complicated with him who revealeth a secret,

And with the slanderer, and with the false (better: loquacious) mouth, so that ל and the warning apply to the threefold description, a rendering which Kimchi also, and Immanuel, and others at least suggest. But in connection with Pro 11:13, the first line has the force of a judicium, which includes the warning to entrust nothing to a babbler which ought to be kept silent. Write גּולה סּוד, as found in Codd. and old Edd., with Munach on the penultima, on which the tone is thrown back, and Dagesh to ס, after the rule of the דחיק (Gesen. §20, 2a), altogether like קונה לב, Pro 15:32. 19b the Venet. translates after the first meaning of the word by Kimchi, τῷ ἀπαταιῶνι τοῖς χείλεσι, to him who slanders and befools, for it thus improves Theodotion’s τῷ ἀπατῶντι τὰ χείλη αὐτοῦ. But פּתה means, Job 5:2 - cf. Hos 7:11 - not him who befools another, but him who is befooled, is slandered, by another (Aben Ezra: שׁיפתוהו אחרים), with which שׂפתיו here does not agree. But now he who is easily befooled is called פּתה, as being open to influence (susceptible), patens; and if this particip. is used, as here, transitively, and, on account of the object שׂפתיו standing near cannot possibly be equivalent to מפתּה, the usage of the language also just noticed is against it, then it means patefaciens or dilatans (cf. הפתּה, Gen 9:27, Targ. אפתּי = הרחיב), and places itself as synon. to פשׂק, Pro 13:3; thus one is called who does not close his mouth, who cannot hold his mouth, who always idly babbles, and is therefore, because he can keep nothing to himself, a dangerous companion. The Complut. rightly translates: μετὰ πλατύνοντος τὰ ἑαυτοῦ μὴ μίχθητι χείλη.

Pro 20:20

The following group begins, for once more the aim of this older Book of Proverbs becomes prominent, with an inculcation of the fourthi.e., The fifth according to the arrangement of the Westminster Confession. commandment. 20 He that curseth his father and his mother,      His light is extinguished in midnight darkness.

The divine law, Exo 21:17; Lev 20:9, condemns such an one to death. But the proverb does not mean this sentence against the criminal, which may only seldom be carried into execution, but the fearful end which, because of the righteousness of God ruling in history, terminates the life of such an unnatural son (Pro 30:17). Of the godless, it has already been said that their light is extinguished, Pro 13:9, there is suddenly an end to all that brightened, i.e., made happy and embellished their life; but he who acts wickedly (קלּל, R. קל, levem esse, synon. הקלה, Deu 27:16), even to the cursing of his father and mother, will see himself surrounded by midnight darkness (Symmachus, σκοτομήνῃ, moonless night), not: he will see himself in the greatest need, forsaken by divine protection (Fleischer), for Jansen rightly: Lux et lucerna in scripturis et vitae claritatem et posteritatem et prosperitatem significat. The apple of the eye, אישׁון, of darkness (vid., Pro 7:9), is that which forms the centre of centralization of darkness. The Syr. renders it correctly by bobtho, pupil of the eye, but the Targ. retains the אשׁוּן of the Kerı̂, and renders it in Aram. by אתוּן, which Rashi regards as an infin., Parchon as a particip. after the form ערוּך; but it may be also an infin. substantive after the form עזוּז, and is certainly nothing else than the abbreviated and vocally obscured אישׁון. For the Talm. אשׁן, to be hard, furnishes no suitable idea; and the same holds true of אשׁוּני, times, Lev 15:25 of the Jerusalem Targ.; while the same abbreviation and the same passing over of o into u represents this as the inflected אישׁון (= עת). There is also no evidence for a verb אשׁן, to be black, dark; the author of Aruch interprets אשׁונא, Bereschith Rabba, c. 33, with reference to the passage before us, of a dark bathing apartment, but only tentatively, and אישׁון is there quoted as the Targ. of צל, Gen 19:8, which the text lying before us does not ratify. Ishon means the little man (in the eye), and neither the blackness (Buxtorf and others) nor the point of strength, the central point (Levy) of the eye.Vid., Fleischer in Levy’s Chald. Wörterbuch, i. 419.

Pro 20:21 21 An inheritance which in the beginning is obtained in haste,      Its end will not be blessed.

The partic. מבחל may, after Zec 11:8, cf. Syr. bhlaa', nauseans, mean “detested,” but that affords here no sense; rather it might be interpreted after the Arab. bajila, to be avaricious, “gotten by avarice, niggardliness,” with which, however, neither נחלה, inheritance, nor, since avarice is a chronic disease, בּראשׁונה agrees. On the contrary, the Kerı̂ מבהלת [hastened] perfectly agrees, both linguistically (vid., Pro 28:22; cf. Pro 13:11) and actually; for, as Hitzig remarks, the words following Pro 20:20 fully harmonize with the idea of an inheritance, into the possession of which one is put before it is rightly due to him; for a son such as that, the parents may live too long, and so he violently deprives them of the possession (cf. Pro 19:26); but on such a possession there rests no blessing. Since the Piel may mean to hasten, Est 2:9, so מבהל may mean hastened = speedy, Est 8:14, as well as made in haste. All the old interpreters adopt the Kerı̂; the Aram. render it well by מסרהבא, from מסרהב, overturned; and Luther, like Jerome, haereditas ad quam festinatur.

Pro 20:22 22 Say not: I will avenge the evil;      Hope in Jahve, so will He help thee.

Men ought always to act toward their neighbours according to the law of love, and not according to the jus talionis, Pro 24:29; they ought not only, by requiting good with evil (Pro 16:13; Psa 7:5, Psa 35:12), not to transgress this law of requital, but they ought to surpass it, by also recompensing not evil with evil (vid., regarding שׁלּם, and synon. to Pro 17:13); and that is what the proverb means, for 22b supposes injustice suffered, which might stir up a spirit of revenge. It does not, however, say that men ought to commit the taking of vengeance to God; but, in the sense of Rom 12:17-19; 1Pe 3:9, that, renouncing all dependence on self, they ought to commit their deliverance out of the distress into which they have fallen, and their vindication, into the hands of God; for the promise is not that He will avenge them, but that He will help them. The jussive וישׁע (write וישׁע, according to Metheg-setzung, §42, with Gaja as העמדה, with the ע to secure distinct utterance to the final guttural) states as a consequence, like, e.g., 2Ki 5:10, what will then happen (Jerome, Luther, Hitzig) if one lets God rule (Gesen. §128, 2c); equally possible, syntactically, is the rendering: that He may help thee (lxx, Ewald); but, regarded as a promise, the words are more in accordance with the spirit of the proverb, and they round it off more expressively.

Pro 20:23 23 An abomination to Jahve are two kinds of weights;      And deceitful balances are not good.

A variant to Pro 20:10, Pro 11:1. The pred. לא־טוב (Pro 17:26; Pro 18:5; Pro 19:3) is conceived of as neut.; they are not good, much rather bad and pernicious, for the deceiver succeeds only in appearance; in reality he fails.

Pro 20:24 24 The steps of a man depend on Jahve;      And a man - how can he understand his way?

Line first is from Psa 37:23, but there, where the clause has the verbal predicate כּוננוּ, the meaning is that it is the gracious assistance of God, by virtue of which a man takes certain steps with his feet, while here we have before us a variation of the proverb “der Mensch denkt, Gott lenkt” = man proposes, God disposes, Pro 16:9, Jer 10:23; for מן, as at 2Sa 3:37; Psa 118:23, denotes God in general as conditioning, as the ultimate cause. Man is indeed free to turn himself hither or thither, to decide on this course of conduct or on that, and is therefore responsible for it; but the relations co-operating in all his steps as the possible and defining conditions are God’s contrivance and guidance, and the consequences which are connected with his steps and flow therefrom, lie beyond the power of man - every one of his steps is a link of a chain, neither the beginning nor the end of which he can see; while, on the other hand, God’s knowledge comprehends the beginning, middle, and end, and the wisdom of God ruling in the sphere of history, makes all human activity, the free action of man, subservient to his world-plan. The question, which has a negative answer, is applicable to man: what, i.e., how shall he understand his way? מה is like, e.g., Exo 10:26; Job 9:2; Job 19:28, accus., and fluctuates between the functions of a governed accusative: What does he understand... (Job 11:8) and an adv.: how, i.e., how so little, how even not, for it is the מה of the negative question which has become in (Arab.) mâ a word of negation. The way of a man is his life's-course. This he understands in the present life only relatively, the true unravelling of it remains for the future.

Pro 20:25 25 It is a snare to a man to cry out hastily “holy;”      And first after vows to investigate.

Two other interpretations of the first line have been proposed. The snare of a man devours, i.e., destroys the holy; but then מוקשׁ אדם must be an expression of an action, instead of an expression of an endurance, which is impossible. The same is true against the explanation: the snare of a man devours, i.e., consumes, eats up the holy, which as such is withdrawn from common use. Jerome with his devotare sanctos, and Luther with his das Heilige lestern [to calumniate the holy], give to לוּע = בּלע a meaning which loses itself in the arbitrary. Accordingly, nothing is to be done with the meaning καταπίεται (Aquila, the Venet.). But ילע will be the abbreviated fut. of לוּע (from ילוּע), or לעע (ילע), Job 6:3 = (Arab.) laghâ temere loqui (proloqui); and קדשׁ (after Hitzig: consecration, which is contrary to usage) is like κορβᾶν, Mar 7:11, the exclamation to which one suddenly gives utterance, thereby meaning that this or that among his possessions henceforth no longer belongs to him, but is consecrated to God, and thus ought to be delivered up to the temple. Such a sudden vow and halting deference to the oath that has been uttered is a snare to a man, for he comes to know that he has injured himself by the alienation of his property, which he has vowed beyond that which was due from him, or that the fulfilling of his vow is connected with difficulties, and perhaps also to others, with regard to whom its disposal was not permitted to him, is of evil consequences, or it may be he is overcome by repentance and is constrained to break his oath. The lxx hits the true meaning of the proverb with rare success: Παγὶς ἀνδρὶ ταχύ τι τῶν ἰδίων ἁγιάσαι, μετὰ δὲ τὸ εὔξασθαι μετανοεῖν γίνεται. נדרים is plur. of the category (cf. 16b Chethı̂b), and בקּר, as 2Ki 16:15, Arab. baḳr, examinare, inquirere, means to subject to investigation, viz., whether he ought to observe, and might observe, a vow such as this, or whether he might not and ought not rather to renounce it (Fleischer). Viewed syntactically, 25a is so difficult, that Bertheau, with Hitzig, punctuates ילע; but this substantive must be formed from a verb ילע (cf. Hab 3:13), and this would mean, after (Arab.) wala', “to long eagerly for,” which is not suitable here. The punctuation shows ילע as the 3rd fut. What interpreters here say of the doubled accent of the word arises from ignorance: the correct punctuation is ילע, with Gaja to ע, to give the final guttural more force in utterance. The poet appears to place in the foreground: “a snare for a man,” as a rubrum; and then continuing the description, he cries out suddenly “holy!” and after the vow, he proceeds to deliberate upon it. Fleischer rightly: post vota inquisiturus est (in ea) = יהיה לבקּר; vid., at Hab 1:17, which passage Hitzig also compares as syntactically very closely related.

Pro 20:26 26 A wise king winnoweth the godless,      And bringeth over them the wheel.

A variant to Pro 20:8, but here with the following out of the figure of the winnowing. For אופן with מזרה is, without doubt, the wheel of the threshing-cart, עגלה, Isa 28:27.; and thus with מזרה, the winnowing fork, מזרה is to be thought of; vid., a description of them along with that of the winnowing shovel, רחת, in Wetzstein’s Excursus to Isa., p. 707ff. We are not to think of the punishment of the wheel, which occurs only as a terrible custom of war (e.g., Amo 1:3). It is only meant that a wise king, by sharp and vigorous procedure, separates the godless, and immediately visits them with merited punishment, as he who works with the winnowing shovel gives the chaff to the wind. Most ancient interpreters think on אופן (from אפן, vertere) in its metaphorical meaning: τρόπος (thus also Löwenstein, he deals with them according to merit), or the wheel of fortune, with reference to the constellations; thus, misfortune (Immanuel, Meîri). Arama, Oetinger, and others are, however, on the right track.

Pro 20:27

With a proverb of a light that was extinguished, Pro 20:20 began the group; the proverb of God’s light, which here follows, we take as the beginning of a new group. 27 A candle of Jahve is the soul of man,      Searching through all the chambers of the heart.

If the O.T. language has a separate word to denote the self-conscious personal human spirit in contradistinction to the spirit of a beast, this word, according to the usage of the language, as Reuchlin, in an appendix to Aben Ezra, remarks, is נשׁמה; it is so called as the principle of life breathed immediately by God into the body (vid., at Gen 2:7; Gen 7:22). Indeed, that which is here said of the human spirit would not be said of the spirit of a beast: it is “the mystery of self-consciousness which is here figuratively represented” (Elster). The proverb intentionally does not use the word נפשׁ, for this is not the power of self-consciousness in man, but the medium of bodily life; it is related secondarily to nshmh (רוח), while נשׁמת חיים (רוח) is used, נפשׁ חיים is an expression unheard of. Hitzig is in error when he understands by נשׁמה here the soul in contradistinction to the spirit, and in support of this appeals to an expression in the Cosmography of Kazwîni: “the soul (Arab. âl-nefs) is like the lamp which moves about in the chambers of the house;” here also en-nefs is the self-conscious spirit, for the Arab. and post-bibl. Heb. terminology influenced by philosophy reverses the biblical usage, and calls the rational soul נפשׁ, and, on the contrary, the animal soul נשׁמה, רוח (Psychologie, p. 154). חפשׂ is the particip. of חפּשׂ, Zep 1:12, without distinguishing the Kal and Piel. Regarding חדרי־בטן, lxx ταμιεῖα κοιλίας, vid., at Pro 18:8 : בּטן denotes the inner part of the body (R. בט, to be deepened), and generally of the personality; cf. Arab. bâtn âlrwh, the interior of the spirit, and Pro 22:18, according to which Fleischer explains: “A candle of Jahve, i.e., a means bestowed on man by God Himself to search out the secrets deeply hid in the spirit of another.” But the candle which God has kindled in man has as the nearest sphere of illumination, which goes forth from it, the condition of the man himself - the spirit comprehends all that belongs to the nature of man in the unity of self-consciousness, but yet more: it makes it the object of reflection; it penetrates, searching it through, and seeks to take it up into its knowledge, and recognises the problem proposed to it, to rule it by its power. The proverb is thus to be ethically understood: the spirit is that which penetrates that which is within, even into its many secret corners and folds, with its self-testing and self-knowing light - it is, after Mat 6:22, the inner light, the inner eye. Man becomes known to himself according to his moral as well as his natural condition in the light of the spirit; “for what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?” says Paul, 1Co 2:11. With reference to this Solomonic proverb, the seven-branched candlestick is an ancient symbol of the soul, e.g., on the Jewish sepulchral monuments of the Roman viâ Portuensis. Our texts present the phrase נר יהוה; but the Talm. Pesachim 7b, 8a, the Pesikta in part 8, the Midrash Othijoth de-Rabbi Akiba, under the letter נ, Alphasi (יף''ר) in Pesachim, and others, read נר אלהים; and after this phrase the Targum translates, while the Syr. and the other old versions render by the word “Lord” (Venet. ὀντωτής), and thus had יהוה before them.

Pro 20:28 28 Love and truth guard the king;      And he supports his throne by love.

We have not in the German [nor in the Eng.] language a couple of words that completely cover חסד ואמת; when they are used of God, we translate them by grace and truth [Gnade u. Wahrheit], Psa 40:12 (יצּרוּני); when of men, by love and truth [Liebe u. Treue], Pro 16:6; and when of the two-sided divine forces, by kindness and truth, Pro 3:3. Love and truth are the two good spirits that guard the king. If it is elsewhere said that the king’s throne is supported “with judgment and with justice,” Isa 9:6 [7]; here, on the other side, we see that the exercise of government must have love as its centre; he has not only to act on the line of right, שׁוּרת הדּין; but, as the later proverb says, in such a way, that within this circle his conduct is determined by the central motive of love. In this sense we give the king not only the title of Grossmächtigster [most high and mighty], but also that of “Allergnädigster” most gracious, for the king can and ought to exercise grace before other men; the virtue of condescension establishes his throne more than the might of greatness.

Pro 20:29 29 The ornament of young men is their strength;      And the honour of the old is grey hairs.

Youth has the name בּחוּר (different from בּחוּר, chosen), of the maturity (R. בחר, cogn. בכר, בגר, whence Mishn. בּגרוּת, manhood, in contradistinction to נערוּת) into which he enters from the bloom of boyhood; and the old man is called זקן (Arab. dhikn, as Schultens says, a mento pendulo, from the hanging chin זקן, (Arab.) dhakan, chin, beard on the chin). To stand in the fulness of fresh unwasted strength is to youth, as such, an ornament (תּפארת, cf. פּארוּר, blooming colour of the countenance); on the contrary, to the old man who has spent his strength in the duties of his office, or as it is said at Pro 16:31, “in the way of righteousness,” grey hairs (שׂיבה, from שׂב, Arab. shâb, canescere) give an honourable appearance (הדר, from הדר, turgidum, amplum esse, vid., at Isa 63:1).

Pro 20:30 30 Cutting wounds cleanse away evil,      And reach the inner parts of the body.

The two words for wounds in line first stand in the st. constr.; חבּוּרה (from חבר, to be bound around with stripes, to be striped) is properly the streak, the stripe; but is here heightened by פּצע (from פּצע, to cleave, split, tear open), beyond the idea of the stripe-wound: tearing open the flesh, cuts tearing into the flesh. The pred. is after the Kerı̂ תּמרוּק; but this substantive, found in the Book of Esther, where it signifies the purification of the women for the harem (according to which, e.g., Ahron B. Joseph explains כמו תמרוק לנשׁים שׁהוא יפה להם), is syntactically hard, and scarcely original. For if we explain with Kimchi: wounds of deep incision find their cleansing (cure) by evil, i.e., by means which bring suffering (according to which, probably the Venet. μώλωπες τραύματος λάμψουσιν ἐν κακῷ), then תמרוקן, with the pronoun pointing back, one would have expected. But the interpretation of בּרע, of severe means of cure, is constrained; that which lies nearest, however, is to understand רע of evil. But if, with this understanding of the word, we translate: Vibices plagarum sunt lustratio quae adhibetur malo (Fleischer), one does not see why בּרע, and not rather gen. רע, is used. But if we read after the Chethı̂b תּמריק, then all is syntactically correct; for (1.) that the word ימריקוּ, or תּמרקנה, is not used, is in accordance with a well-known rule, Gesen. §146. 3; and (2.) that המריק is connected, not directly with an accus. obj., but with ב, has its analogy in התעה ב, Jer 42:2, השׁרישׁ בּ, Job 31:12, and the like, and besides has its special ground in the metaphorical character of the cleansing. Thus, e.g., one uses Syr. 't'aa' of external misleading; but with Syr. k of moral misleading (Ewald, §217, 2); and Arab. '  of erecting a building; but with Arab. b of the intellectual erection of a memorial (monument). It is the so-called Bâ̇âlmojâz; vid., de Sacy’s Chrest Arab. i. 397. The verb מרק means in Talm. also, “to take away” (a metaph. of abstergere; cf. Arab. marak, to wipe off)Vid., Dozy’s Lettre à M. Fleischer (1871), p. 198. and that meaning is adopted, Schabbath 33a, for the interpretations of this proverb: stripes and wounds a preparedness for evil carries away, and sorrow in the innermost part of the body, which is explained by דרוקן (a disease appearing in diverse forms; cf. “Drachenschuss,”; as the name of an animal disease); but granting that the biblical מרק may bear this meaning, the ב remains unaccountable; for we say מרק עצמו לעברה, for to prepare oneself for a transgression (sin of excess), and not בעברה. We have thus to abide by the primary meaning, and to compare the proverb, Berachoth 5a: “afflictive providences wash away all the transgressions of a man.” But the proverb before us means, first at least, not the wounds which God inflicts, but those which human educational energy inflicts: deep-cutting wounds, i.e., stern discipline, leads to the rubbing off of evil, i.e., rubs it, washes it, cleanses it away. It may now be possible that in 30b the subject idea is permutatively continued: et verbera penetralium corporis (thus the Venet.: πληγαὶ τῶν ταμιείων τοῦ γαρστρός), i.e., quorum vis ad intimos corporis et animi recessus penetrat (Fleischer). But that is encumbered, and חדרי־בטן (cf. Pro 20:27, Pro 18:8), as referring to the depths to which stern corporal discipline penetrates, has not its full force. וּמכּות is either a particip.: and that is touching (ferientes) the inner chambers of the body, or חדרי־בטן is with the ב, or immediately the second object of תמריק to be supplied: and strokes (rub off, cleanse, make pure) the innermost part. Jerome and the Targ. also supply ב, but erroneously, as designating place: in secretioribus ventris, relatively better the lxx and Syr.: εἰς ταμιεῖα κοιλίας. Luther hits the sense at least, for he translates:

One must restrain evil with severe punishment,

And with hard strokes which one feels.

Miscellaneous Maxims.

1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

Here is, 1. The mischief of drunkenness: Wine is a mocker; strong drink is raging. It is so to the sinner himself; it mocks him, makes a fool of him, promises him that satisfaction which it can never give him. It smiles upon him at first, but at the last it bites. In reflection upon it, it rages in his conscience. It is raging in the body, puts the humours into a ferment. When the wine is in the wit is out, and then the man, according as his natural temper is, either mocks like a fool or rages like a madman. Drunkenness, which pretends to be a sociable thing, renders men unfit for society, for it makes them abusive with their tongues and outrageous in their passions, ch. xxiii. 29. 2. The folly of drunkards is easily inferred thence. He that is deceived thereby, that suffers himself to be drawn into this sin when he is so plainly warned of the consequences of it, is not wise; he shows that he has no right sense or consideration of things; and not only so, but he renders himself incapable of getting wisdom; for it is a sin that infatuates and besots men, and takes away their heart. A drunkard is a fool, and a fool he is likely to be.

2 The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul.

See here, 1. How formidable kings are, and what a terror they strike upon those they are angry with. Their fear, with which (especially when they are absolute and their will is a law) they keep their subjects in awe, is as the roaring of a lion, which is very dreadful to the creatures he preys upon, and makes them tremble so that they cannot escape from him. Those princes that rule by wisdom and love rule like God himself, and bear his image; but those that rule merely by terror, and with a high hand, do but rule like a lion in the forest, with a brutal power. Oderint, dum metuant—Let them hate, provided they fear. 2. How unwise therefore those are that quarrel with them, that are angry at them, and so provoke them to anger. They sin against their own lives. Much more do those do so that provoke the King of kings to anger. Nemo me impune lacesset—No one shall provoke me with impunity.

3 It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling.

This is designed to rectify men's mistakes concerning strife. 1. Men think it is their wisdom to engage in quarrels; whereas it is the greatest folly that can be. He thinks himself a wise man that is quick in resenting affronts, that stands upon every nicety of honour and right, and will not abate an ace of either, that prescribes, and imposes, and gives law, to every body; but he that thus meddles is a fool, and creates a great deal of needless vexation to himself. 2. Men think, when they are engaged in quarrels, that it would be a shame to them to go back and let fall the weapon; whereas really it is an honour for a man to cease from strife, an honour to withdraw an action, to drop a controversy, to forgive an injury, and to be friends with those that we have fallen out with. It is the honour of a man, a wise man, a man of spirit, to show the command he has of himself by ceasing from strife, yielding, and stooping, and receding from his just demands, for peace-sake, as Abraham, the better man, Gen. xiii. 8.

4 The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.

See here the evil of slothfulness and the love of ease. 1. It keeps men from the most necessary business, from ploughing and sowing when the season is: The sluggard has ground to occupy, and has ability for it; he can plough, but he will not; some excuse or other he has to shift it off, but the true reason is that it is cold weather. Though ploughing time is not in the depth of winter, it is in the borders of winter, when he thinks it too cold for him to be abroad. Those are scandalously sluggish who, in the way of their business, cannot find in their hearts to undergo so little toil as that of ploughing and so little hardship as that of a cold blast. Thus careless are many in the affairs of their souls; a trifling difficulty will frighten them from the most important duty; but good soldiers must endure hardness. 2. Thereby it deprives them of the most necessary supports: Those that will not plough in seed-time cannot expect to reap in harvest; and therefore they must beg their bread with astonishment when the diligent are bringing home their sheaves with joy. He that will not submit to the labour of ploughing must submit to the shame of begging. They shall beg in harvest, and yet have nothing; no, not then when there is great plenty. Though it may be charity to relieve sluggards, yet a man may, in justice, not relieve them; they deserve to be left to starve. Those that would not provide oil in their vessels begged when the bridegroom came, and were denied.

5 Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.

A man's wisdom is here said to be of use to him for the pumping of other people, and diving into them, 1. To get the knowledge of them. Though men's counsels and designs are ever so carefully concealed by them, so that they are as deep water which one cannot fathom, yet there are those who by sly insinuations, and questions that seem foreign, will get out of them both what they have done and what they intend to do. Those therefore who would keep counsel must not only put on resolution, but stand upon their guard. 2. To get knowledge by them. Some are very able and fit to give counsel, having an excellent faculty of cleaving a hair, hitting the joint of a difficulty, and advising pertinently, but they are modest, and reserved, and not communicative; they have a great deal in them, but it is loth to come out. In such a case a man of understanding will draw it out, as wine out of a vessel. We lose the benefit we might have by the conversation of wise men for want of the art of being inquisitive.

6 Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?

Note, 1. It is easy to find those that will pretend to be kind and liberal. Many a man will call himself a man of mercy, will boast what good he has done and what good he designs to do, or, at least, what an affection he has to well-doing. Most men will talk a great deal of their charity, generosity, hospitality, and piety, will sound a trumpet to themselves, as the Pharisees, and what little goodness they have will proclaim it and make a mighty matter of it. 2. But it is hard to find those that really are kind and liberal, that have done and will do more than either they speak of or care to hear spoken of, that will be true friends in a strait; such a one as one may trust to is like a black swan.

7 The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.

It is here observed to the honour of a good man, 1. That he does well for himself. He has a certain rule, which with an even steady hand he governs himself by: He walks in his integrity; he keeps good conscience, and he has the comfort of it, for it is his rejoicing. He is not liable to those uneasinesses, either in contriving what he shall do or reflecting on what he has done, which those are liable to that walk in deceit. 2. That he does well for his family: His children are blessed after him, and fare the better for his sake. God has mercy in store for the seed of the faithful.

8 A king that sitteth in the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes.

Here is, 1. The character of a good governor: He is a king that deserves to be called so who sits in the throne, not as a throne of honour, to take his ease, and take state upon him, and oblige men to keep their distance, but as a throne of judgment, that he may do justice, give redress to the injured and punish the injurious, who makes his business his delight and loves no pleasure comparably to it, who does not devolve the whole care and trouble upon others, but takes cognizance of affairs himself and sees with his own eyes as much as may be, 1 Kings x. 9. 2. The happy effect of a good government. The presence of the prince goes far towards the putting of wickedness out of countenance; if he inspect his affairs himself, those that are employed under him will be kept in awe and restrained from doing wrong. If great men be good men, and will use their power as they may and ought, what good may they do and what evil may they prevent!

9 Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?

This question is not only a challenge to any man in the world to prove himself sinless, whatever he pretends, but a lamentation of the corruption of mankind, even that which remains in the best. Alas! Who can say, "I am sinless?" Observe, 1. Who the persons are that are excluded from these pretensions—all, one as well as another. Here, in this imperfect state, no person whatsoever can pretend to be without sin. Adam could say so in innocency, and saints can say so in heaven, but none in this life. Those that think themselves as good as they should be cannot, nay, and those that are really good will not, dare not, say this. 2. What the pretension is that is excluded. We cannot say, We have made our hearts clean. Though we can say, through grace, "We are cleaner than we have been," yet we cannot say, "We are clean and pure from all remainders of sin." Or, though we are clean from the gross acts of sin, yet we cannot say, "Our hearts are clean." Or, though we are washed and cleansed, yet we cannot say, "We ourselves made our own hearts clean;" it was the work of the Spirit. Or, though we are pure from the sins of many others, yet we cannot say, "We are pure from our sin, the sin that easily besets us, the body of death which Paul complained of," Rom. vii. 24.

10 Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the Lord .

See here, 1. The various arts of deceiving that men have, all which evils the love of money is the root of. In paying and receiving money, which was then commonly done by the scale, they had divers weights, an under-weight for what they paid and an over-weight for what they received; in delivering out and taking in goods they had divers measures, a scanty measure to sell by and a large measure to buy by. This was done wrong with plot and contrivance, and under colour of doing right. Under these is included all manner of fraud and deceit in commerce and trade. 2. The displeasure of God against them. Whether they be about the money or the goods, in the buyer or in the seller, they are all alike an abomination to the Lord. He will not prosper the trade that is thus driven, nor bless what is thus got. He hates those that thus break the common faith by which justice is maintained, and will be the avenger of all such.

11 Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.

The tree is known by its fruits, a man by his doings, even a young tree by its first fruits, a child by his childish things, whether his work be clean only, appearing good (the word is used ch. xvi. 2), or whether it be right, that is, really good. This intimates, 1. That children will discover themselves. One may soon see what their temper is, and which way their inclination leads them, according as their constitution is. Children have not learned the art of dissembling and concealing their bent as grown people have. 2. That parents should observe their children, that they may discover their disposition and genius, and both manage and dispose of them accordingly, drive the nail that will go and draw out that which goes amiss. Wisdom is herein profitable to direct.

12 The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them.

Note, 1. God is the God of nature, and all the powers and faculties of nature are derived from him and depend upon him, and therefore are to be employed for him. It was he that formed the eye and planted the ear (Ps. xciv. 9), and the structure of both is admirable; and it is he that preserves to us the use of both; to his providence we owe it that our eyes are seeing eyes and our ears hearing ears. Hearing and seeing are the learning senses, and must particularly own God's goodness in them. 2. God is the God of grace. It is he that gives the ear that hears God's voice, the eye that sees his beauty, for it is he that opens the understanding.

13 Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.

Note, 1. Those that indulge themselves in their ease may expect to want necessaries, which should have been gotten by honest labour. "Therefore, though thou must sleep (nature requires it), yet love not sleep, as those do that hate business. Love not sleep for its own sake, but only as it fits for further work. Love not much sleep, but rather grudge the time that is spent in it, and wish thou couldst live without it, that thou mightest always be employed in some good exercise." We must allow it to our bodies as men allow it to their servants, because they cannot help it and otherwise they shall have no good of them. Those that love sleep are likely to come to poverty, not only because they lose the time they spend in excess of sleep, but because they contract a listless careless disposition, and are still half asleep, never well awake. 2. Those that stir up themselves to their business may expect to have conveniences: "Open thy eyes, awake and shake off sleep, see how far in the day it is, how thy work wants thee, and how busy others are about thee! And, when thou art awake, look up, look to thy advantages, and do not let slip thy opportunities; apply thy mind closely to thy business and be in care about it. It is the easy condition of a great advantage: Open thy eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread; if thou dost not grow rich, yet though shalt have enough, and that is as good as a feast."

14 It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.

See here 1. What arts men use to get a good bargain and to buy cheap. They not only cheapen carelessly, as if they had no need, no mind for the commodity, when perhaps they cannot go without it (there may be prudence in that), but they vilify and run down that which yet they know to be of value; they cry, "It is naught, it is naught; it has this and the other fault, or perhaps may have; it is not good of the sort; and it is too dear; we can have better and cheaper elsewhere, or have bought better and cheaper." This is the common way of dealing; and after all, it may be, they know the contrary of what they affirm; but the buyer, who may think he has no other way of being even with the seller, does as extravagantly commend his goods and justify the price he sets on them, and so there is a fault on both sides; whereas the bargain would be made every jot as well if both buyer and seller would be modest and speak as they think. 2. What pride and pleasure men take in a good bargain when they have got it, though therein they contradict themselves, and own they dissembled when they were driving the bargain. When the buyer has beaten down the seller, who was content to lower his price rather than lose a customer (as many poor tradesmen are forced to do—small profit is better than none), then he goes his way, and boasts what excellent goods he has got at his own price, and takes it as an affront and a reflection upon his judgment if any body disparages his bargain. Perhaps he knew the worth of the good better than the seller himself did and knows how to get a great deal by them. See how apt men are to be pleased with their gettings and proud of their tricks; whereas a fraud and a lie are what a man ought to be ashamed of, though he have gained ever so much by them.

15 There is gold, and a multitude of rubies: but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.

The lips of knowledge (a good understanding to guide the lips and a good elocution to diffuse the knowledge) are to be preferred far before gold, and pearl, and rubies; for, 1. They are more rare in themselves, more scarce and hard to be got. There is gold in many a man's pocket that has no grace in his heart. In Solomon's time there was plenty of gold (1 Kings x. 21) and abundance of rubies; every body wore them; they were to be bought in every town. But wisdom is a rare thing, a precious jewel; few have it so as to do good with it, nor is it to be purchased of the merchants. 2. They are more enriching to us and more adorning. They make us rich towards God, rich in good works, 1 Tim. ii. 9, 10. Most people are fond of gold, and a ruby or two will not serve, they must have a multitude of them, a cabinet of jewels; but he that has the lips of knowledge despises these, because he knows and possesses better things.

16 Take his garment that is surety for a stranger: and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.

Two sorts of persons are here spoken of that are ruining their own estates, and will be beggars shortly, and therefore are not to be trusted with any good security:—1. Those that will be bound for any body that will ask them, that entangle themselves in rash suretiship to oblige their idle companions; they will break at last, nay, they cannot hold out long; these waste by wholesale. 2. Those that are in league with abandoned women, that treat them, and court them, and keep company with them. They will be beggars in a little time; never give them credit without good pledge. Strange women have strange ways of impoverishing men to enrich themselves.

17 Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.

Note, 1. Sin may possibly be pleasant in the commission: Bread of deceit, wealth gotten by fraud, by lying and oppression, may be sweet to a man, and the more sweet for its being ill-gotten, such pleasure does the carnal mind take in the success of its wicked projects. All the pleasures and profits of sin are bread of deceit. They are stolen, for they are forbidden fruit; and they will deceive men, for they are not what they promise. For a time, however, they are rolled under the tongue as a sweet morsel, and the sinner blesses himself in them. But, 2. It will be bitter in reflection. Afterwards the sinner's mouth shall be filled with gravel. When his conscience is awakened, when he sees himself cheated, and becomes apprehensive of the wrath of God against him for his sin, how painful and uneasy then is the thought of it! The pleasures of sin are but for a season, and are succeeded with sorrow. Some nations have punished malefactors by mingling gravel with their bread.

18 Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.

Note, 1. It is good in every thing to act with deliberation, and to consult with ourselves at least, and, in matters of moment, with our friends, too, before we determine, but especially to ask counsel of God, and beg direction from him, and observe the guidance of this eye. This is the way to have both our minds and our purposes established, and to succeed well in our affairs; whereas what is done hastily and with precipitation is repented of at leisure. Take time, and you will have done the sooner. Deliberandum est diu, quod statuendum est semel—A final decision should be preceded by mature deliberation. 2. It is especially our wisdom to be cautious in making war. Consider, and take advice, whether the war should be begun or no, whether it be just, whether it be prudent, whether we be a match for the enemy, and able to carry it on when it is too late to retreat (Luke xiv. 31); and, when it is begun, consider how and by what arts it may be prosecuted, for management is as necessary as courage. Going to law is a kind of going to war, and therefore must be done with good advice, Prov. xxv. 8. The rule among the Romans was nec sequi bellum, nec fugere—neither to urge war nor yet to shun it.

19 He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.

Two sorts of people are dangerous to be conversed with:—1. Tale-bearers, though they are commonly flatterers, and by fair speeches insinuate themselves into men's acquaintance. Those are unprincipled people that go about carrying stories, that make mischief among neighbours and relations, that sow in the minds of people jealousies of their governors, of their ministers, and of one another, that reveal secrets which they are entrusted with or which by unfair means they come to the knowledge of, under pretence of guessing at men's thoughts and intentions, tell that of them which is really false. "Be not familiar with such; do not give them the hearing when they tell their tales and reveal secrets, for you may be sure that they will betray your secrets too and tell tales of you." 2. Flatterers, for they are commonly tale-bearers. If a man fawn upon you, compliment and commend you, suspect him to have some design upon you, and stand upon your guard; he would pick that out of you which will serve him to make a story of to somebody else to your prejudice; therefore meddle not with him that flatters with his lips. Those too dearly love, and too dearly buy, their own praise, that will put confidence in a man and trust him with a secret or business because he flatters them.

20 Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.

Here is, 1. An undutiful child become very wicked by degrees. He began with despising his father and mother, slighting their instructions, disobeying their commands, and raging at their rebukes, but at length he arrives at such a pitch of impudence and impiety as to curse them, to give them scurrilous and opprobrious language, and to wish mischief to those that were instruments of his being and have taken so much care and pains about him, and this in defiance of God and his law, which had made this a capital crime (Exod. xxi. 17, Matt. xv. 4), and in violation of all the bonds of duty, natural affection, and gratitude. 2. An undutiful child become very miserable at last: His lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness; all his honour shall be laid in the dust, and he shall for ever lose his reputation. Let him never expect any peace or comfort in his own mind, no, nor to prosper in this world. His days shall be shortened, and the lamp of his life extinguished, according to the reverse of the promise of the fifth commandment. His family shall be cut off and his posterity be a curse to him. And it will be his eternal ruin; the lamp of his happiness shall be put out in the blackness of darkness (so the word is), even that which is for ever, Jude 13, Matt. xxii. 13.

21 An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed.

Note, 1. It is possible that an estate may be suddenly raised. There are those that will be rich, by right or wrong, who make no conscience of what they say or do if they can but get money by it, who, when it is in their power, will cheat their own father, and who sordidly spare and hoard up what they get, grudging themselves and their families food convenient and thinking all lost but what they buy land with or put out to interest. By such ways as these a man may grow rich, may grow very rich, in a little time, at his first setting out. 2. An estate that is suddenly raised is often as suddenly ruined. It was raised hastily, but, not being raised honestly, it proves soon ripe and soon rotten: The end thereof shall not be blessed of God, and, if he do not bless it, it can neither be comfortable nor of any continuance; so that he who got it at the end will be a fool. He had better have taken time and built firmly.

22 Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the Lord , and he shall save thee.

Those that live in this world must expect to have injuries done them, affronts given them, and trouble wrongfully created them, for we dwell among briers. Now here we are told what to do when we have wrong done us. 1. We must not avenge ourselves, no, nor so much as think of revenge, or design it: "Say not thou, no, not in thy heart, I will recompense evil for evil. Do not please thyself with the thought that some time or other thou shalt have an opportunity of being quits with him. Do not wish revenge, or hope for it, much less resolve upon it, no, not when the injury is fresh and the resentment of it most deep. Never say that thou wilt do a thing which thou canst not in faith pray to God to assist thee in, and that thou canst not do in mediating revenge." 2. We must refer ourselves to God, and leave it to him to plead our cause, to maintain our right, and reckon with those that do us wrong in such a way and manner as he thinks fit and in his own due time: "Wait on the Lord, and attend his pleasure, acquiesce in his will, and he does not say that he will punish him that has injured thee (instead of desiring that thou must forgive him and pray for him), but he will save thee, and that is enough. He will protect thee, so that thy passing by one injury shall not (as is commonly feared) expose thee to another; nay, he will recompense good to thee, to balance thy trouble and encourage thy patience," as David hoped, when Shimei cursed him, 2 Sam. xvi. 12.

23 Divers weights are an abomination unto the Lord ; and a false balance is not good.

This is to the same purport with what was said v. 20. 1. It is here repeated, because it is a sin that God doubly hates (as lying, which is of the same nature with this sin, is mentioned twice among the seven things that God hates, ch. vi. 17, 19), and because it was probably a sin very much practised at that time in Israel, and therefore made light of as if there were no harm in it, under pretence that, being commonly used, there was no trading without it. 2. It is here added, A false balance is not good, to intimate that it is not only abominable to God, but unprofitable to the sinner himself; there is really no good to be got by it, no, not a good bargain, for a bargain made by fraud will prove a losing bargain in the end.

24 Man's goings are of the Lord ; how can a man then understand his own way?

We are here taught that in all our affairs, 1. We have a necessary and constant dependence upon God. All our natural actions depend upon his providence, all our spiritual actions upon his grace. The best man is no better than God makes him; and every creature is that to us which it is the will of God that it should be. Our enterprises succeed, not as we desire and design, but as God directs and disposes. The goings even of a strong man (so the word signifies) are of the Lord, for his strength is weakness without God, nor is the battle always to the strong. 2. We have no foresight of future events, and therefore know not how to forecast for them: How can a man understand his own way? How can he tell what will befal him, since God's counsels concerning him are secret, and therefore how can he of himself contrive what to do without divine direction? We so little understand our own way that we know not what is good for ourselves, and therefore we must make a virtue of necessity, and commit our way unto the Lord, in whose hand it is, follow the guidance and submit to the disposal of Providence.

25 It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy, and after vows to make enquiry.

Two things, by which God is greatly affronted, men are here said to be ensnared by, and entangled not only in guilt, but in trouble and ruin at length:—1. Sacrilege, men's alienating holy things and converting them to their own use, which is here called devouring them. What is devoted in any way to the service and honour of God, for the support of religion and divine worship or the relief of the poor, ought to be conscientiously preserved to the purposes designed; and those that directly or indirectly embezzle it, or defeat the purpose for which it was given, will have a great deal to answer for. Will a man rob God in tithes and offerings? Mal. iii. 8. Those that hurry over religious offices (their praying and preaching) and huddle them up in haste, as being impatient to get done, may be said to devour that which is holy. 2. Covenant-breaking. It is a snare to a man, after he has made vows to God, to enquire how he may evade them or get dispensed with, and to contrive excuses for the violating of them. If the matter of them was doubtful, and the expressions were ambiguous, that was his fault; he should have made them with more caution and consideration, for it will involve his conscience (if it be tender) in great perplexities, if he be to enquire concerning them afterwards (Eccl. v. 6); for, when we have opened our mouth to the Lord, it is too late to think of going back, Acts v. 4.

26 A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them.

See here, 1. What is the business of magistrates. They are to be a terror to evil-doers. They must scatter the wicked, who are linked in confederacies to assist and embolden one another in doing mischief; and there is no doing this but by bringing the wheel over them, that is, putting the laws in execution against them, crushing their power and quashing their projects. Severity must sometimes be used to rid the country of those that are openly vicious and mischievous, debauched and debauching. 2. What is the qualification of magistrates, which is necessary in order to do this. They have need to be both pious and prudent, for it is the wise king, who is both religious and discreet, that is likely to effect the suppression of vice and reformation of manners.

27 The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord , searching all the inward parts of the belly.

We have here the dignity of the soul, the great soul of man, that light which lighteth every man. 1. It is a divine light; it is the candle of the Lord, a candle of his lighting, for it is the inspiration of the Almighty that gives us understanding. He forms the spirit of man within him. It is after the image of God that man is created in knowledge. Conscience, that noble faculty, is God's deputy in the soul; it is a candle not only lighted by him, but lighted for him. The Father of spirits is therefore called the Father of lights. 2. It is a discovering light. By the help of reason we come to know men, to judge of their characters, and dive into their designs; by the help of conscience we come to know ourselves. The spirit of a man has a self-consciousness (1 Cor. ii. 11); it searches into the dispositions and affections of the soul, praises what is good, condemns what is otherwise, and judges of the thoughts and intents of the heart. This is the office, this the power, of conscience, which we are therefore concerned to get rightly informed and to keep void of offence.

28 Mercy and truth preserve the king: and his throne is upholden by mercy.

Here we have, 1. The virtues of a good king. Those are mercy and truth, especially mercy, for that is mentioned twice here. He must be strictly faithful to his word, must be sincere, and abhor all dissimulation, must religiously discharge all the trusts reposed in him, must support and countenance truth. He must likewise rule with clemency, and by all acts of compassion gain the affections of his people. Mercy and truth are the glories of God's throne, and kings are called gods. 2. The advantages he gains thereby. These virtues will preserve his person and support his government, will make him easy and safe, beloved by his own people and feared by his enemies, if it be possible that he should have any.

29 The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the gray head.

This shows that both young and old have their advantages, and therefore must each of them be, according to their capacities, serviceable to the public, and neither of them despise nor envy the other. 1. Let not old people despise the young, for they are strong and fit for action, able to go through business and break through difficulties, which the aged and weak cannot grapple with. The glory of young men is their strength, provided they use it well (in the service of God and their country, not of their lusts), and that they be not proud of it nor trust to it. 2. Let not young people despise the old, for they are grave, and fit for counsel, and, though they have not the strength that young men have, yet they have more wisdom and experience. Juniores ad labores, seniores ad honores—Labour is for the young, honour for the aged. God has put honour upon the old man; for his gray head is his beauty. See Dan. vii. 9.

30 The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.

Note, 1. Many need severe rebukes. Some children are so obstinate that their parents can do no good with them without sharp correction; some criminals must feel the rigour of the law and public justice; gentle methods will not work upon them; they must be beaten black and blue. And the wise God sees that his own children sometimes need very sharp afflictions. 2. Severe rebukes sometimes do a great deal of good, as corrosives contribute to the cure of a wound, eating out the proud flesh. The rod drives out even that foolishness which was bound up in the heart, and cleanses away the evil there. 3. Frequently those that most need severe rebukes can worse bear them. Such is the corruption of nature that men are as loth to be rebuked sharply for their sins as to be beaten till their bones ache. Correction is grievous to him that forsakes the way, and yet it is good for him, Heb. xii. 11.

CHAP. XX. Verſ. 1. Wine is a mocker, &c.]

FOr (firſt) it mocks the Drunkard, and makes a fool of him, promiſing him pleaſure,Decepit ebrietas Lotum quem Sodoma non decepit. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. but paying him with the ſtinging of an Adder, and biting of a Cockatrice, Chap. 23.32. (See the Note there.) Wine is a comfortable creature, Judg. 9.12. one of the chief lenitives of humane miſeries, as Plato calls it; but exceſs of wine, 1 Pet. 4.3. is (as one well ſaith) Blondus daemon, dulce venenum, ſuave peccatum; quam qui in ſe habet, ſe non habet; quam qui facit, non facit peccatum, ſed totus eſt peccatum. That is, a fair ſpoken Devil, a ſweet poiſon, a ſin which hee that hath in him, hath not himſelf, and which hee that runs into, runs not into a ſingle ſin, but is wholly turned into ſin. Secondly, It renders a man a mocker, even one of thoſe ſcorners, for whom judgements are prepared, as Solomon had ſaid in the fore-going verſe. See Hoſ. 7.5. Iſa. 28.1. 1 Sam. 25. Abigail would not tell Nabal of his danger till hee had ſlept out his Drunkenneſs, leſt ſhee ſhould have met wich a mock, if not with a knock.

Strong drink is raging] All kinde of drink that will alienate the underſtanding of a man, and make him drunk; As Ale, Beer, Sider, Perry, Metheglin, &c. Of this Pliny cries out, Hei, mirâ vitiorum ſolertiâ inventum eſt quemadmodum aqua quoque inebriaret. Portentoſum ſanè potionis genus! Lib. 14 cap. ult. quaſi non ad alium uſum natura parens humano generi fruges dediſſe videatur. So witty is wickedneſs grown now, that there is a way invented to make a man drunk with water; a monſtrous kinde of drink ſurely! as if Dame nature had beſtowed corn upon us to ſuch a baſe a baſe. See the Note on Chap 23.29. Saint Paul very fitly yoaketh together Drunkards, and Raylers, 1 Cor. 6.9.

And whoſoever is deceived thereby is not wiſe] For when the wine is in, the wit is out. They have a practice of drinking the Out's, as they call it; all the wit out of the head, all the money out of the purſe, &c. And thereby affect the title of Roaring Boyes, by a woful Prolepſis (doubtleſs) here for hereafter.

Verſ. 2. The fear of a King is as the roaring of a Lion. See Chap. 16.14. and 19.12.

Verſ. 3. It is an honour for a man to ceaſe from ſtrife] To ſtint it rather than to ſtir it; to bee firſt in promoting peace and ſeeking reconciliation, as Abraham did in the controverſie with Lot, Memento (ſaid Ariſtippus to Aeſchines, Plutarch. de cohib. ira. with whom hee had a long ſtrife) quod cum eſſem natu major, prior te acceſſerim. Remember ſaid hee, that though I am the elder man, yet I firſt ſought reconciliation. I ſhall well remember it, ſaid Aeſchines, and whiles I live,Laer. l. 2. I ſhall acknowledge thee the better man, becauſe I was firſt in falling out, and thou art firſt in falling in again.

But every fool will bee medling] Or mingling himſelf with ſtrife; hee hath an itching to bee doing with it, to bee quarrelling, brabling, lawing.Caeſar. com. Once it was counted ominous to commence actions, and follow ſutes. Now nothing more ordinary, for every trifle, treading upon their graſs, or the like. This is as great folly, as for every ſlight infirmity to take Phyſick.

Verſ. 4. The ſluggard will not plow by reaſon of the cold] So the ſpiritual ſluggard either dreams of a delicacy in the wayes of God (which is a great vanity) or elſe if heaven bee not to bee had without the hardſhip of holineſs, Chriſt may keep his heaven to himſelf.Mat. 19.22. The young man in the Goſpel went away grieved that Chriſt required ſuch things that hee could not bee willing to yeeld to. The Hebrews have a common Proverb amongſt them; Hee that on the even of the Sabbath hath not gathered what to eat, ſhall not at all eat on the Sabbath: Meaning thereby, that none ſhall reign in heaven, that hath not wrought on earth. Man goeth forth (ſaith the Pſalmiſt) to his work, and to his labour untill the evening, Pſal. 104.23. So till the Sun of his life bee ſet, hee muſt bee working out his ſalvation. This is to work the work of him that ſent us, as our Saviour did. Which expreſſion of working a work, notes his ſtrong intention upon it, as Jer. 18.18. to deviſe devices, notes ſtrong plotting to miſchief the Prophet. So Luke 22.15. With a deſire have I deſired, &c. yea how am I ſtraightned, till it bee accompliſhed? Luke 12.50. Lo Chriſt thirſted exceedingly after our ſalvation, though hee knew it ſhould coſt him ſo dear. Is not this check to our dulneſs and ſloth?

Verſ. 5. Counſel in the heart of a man is like deep water] See Chap. 18.4. As the red Roſe, though outwardly not ſo fragrant, is inwardly far more cordial than the Damask, being more thrifty of its ſweetneſs, and reſerving it in it ſelf: So it is with many good Chriſtians.

But a man of underſtanding will draw it out] And ſurely this is a fine skill to bee able to pierce a man that is like a veſſel full of wine, and to ſet him a running.

Verſ. 6. Moſt men will proclaim every one his own goodneſs] As the Kings of Egypt would needs bee called [non-Latin text not transcribed], Bountiful, or Benefactors; many of the Popes Pit and Bonifacii, &c. The Turks will needs bee ſtiled the only Muſulmans, or true Beleevers; as Papiſts the onely Catholicks. The Swenk feldians (Stinkfeldians, Scbluſſenb, Luther called them from the ill ſavour of their opinions) intituled themſelves with that glorious name, The Confeſſours of the glory of Chriſt. Hiſtor. Dav. Georg. David George that monſtrous Heretick, that was ſo far from accounting Adulteries, Fornications, Inceſts, &c. for being any ſins, that hee did recommend them to his moſt perfect Scholars, as acts of grace, and mortification, &c. yet hee was wonderfully confident of the abſolute truth of his tenets, and doubted not but that the whole world would ſoon ſubmit to him, and hold with him. Hee wrote to Charles the Emperour, and the reſt of the States of Germany, an humble and ſerious admonition (as hee ſtiled it) written by the command of the Omnipotent God, diligently to bee obeyed, becauſe it contained thoſe things whereupon eternal life did depend.

But a faithful man who can finde] Diaconos paucitas honorabiles fecit, ſaith Hierome. The paucity of pious perſons makes them precious. Perrarò grati reperiuntur, ſaith Cicero. It is hard to finde a thankful man. Faithful friends are in this age all for the moſt part gone in Pilgrimage, Daniels Hiſt. and their return is uncertain, ſaid the Duke of Buckingham to Biſhop Morton, in Richard the third his time.

Verſ. 7. The just man walketh in his integrity] Walketh conſtantly; not for a ſtep or two onely,Continenter ambulat. when the good fit is upon him. See the Note on Gen. 17.1.

His children are bleſſed after him] Perſonal goodneſs is profitable to poſterity; yet not of merit, but of free grace, and for the promiſe ſake; which Jehu's children found and felt to the fourth Generation, though himſelf were a wicked Idolater.

Verſ. 8. A King that ſitteth in the Throne of Judgement, &c.] Kings in their own perſons ſhould ſit and judge of cauſes ſometimes; to take knowledge (at leaſt) what is done by their officers of Juſtice. I have ſeen the King of Perſia many times to alight from his horſe (ſaith a late Traveller) onely to do juſtice to a poor body.The Preachers Travels, by John Cartwright. Hee puniſheth theft and man-ſlaughter ſo ſeverely, that in an age a man ſhall hardly hear either of the one, or of the other.

Verſ. 9. Who can ſay I have made my heart clean?] That can I, ſaith the proud Phariſee, and the Popiſh Juſtitiary. Non habeo Domine, quod mihi ignoſcas; I have nothing Lord for thee to pardon, ſaid Iſidore the Monk. When Saint Paul, that had been in the third Heaven, complains of his inward impurities, Rom. 7.15. and though hee ſhould have known no evil by himſelf, yet durſt hee not look to bee thereby juſtified, 1 Cor. 4.4. And holy Job could ſay,Job 9.30, 31. If I waſh my ſelf with ſnow-water, and make my hands never ſo clean; yet God would plunge him in the ditch, ſo that his own cloths ſhould abhor him. And if thou Lord ſhouldeſt mark iniquities, ſaith David, who ſhould ſtand before thee? Pſal. 130.3.

Verſ. 10. Divers weights, and divers meaſures, &c.] See the Notes on chap. 11.1. & 16.11. Now if the very weights and meaſures are abomination, how much more the men that make uſe of them? And what ſhall become of ſuch as meaſure to themſelves a whole ſix daies, but curtal Gods ſeventh, or miſ-imploy it?

Verſ. 11. Even a childe is known by his doings, &c.] Either for the better, as wee ſee in young Joſeph, Sampſon, Samuel, Solomon, Timothy, Athanaſius, Origen, &c. It is not a young Saint, an old Devil; but a young Saint, an old Angel: Or for the worſe, as Canaan the ſon of Ham (who is therefore curſed with his Father, becauſe (probably) hee had a hand in the ſin,) Iſmael, Eſau, Vajezatha, the youngeſt ſon of Haman, Eſth. 10.9. Hebricians obſerve, that in the Hebrew this youths name is written with a little Zain, Amama. but a great Vau, to ſhew, that though the youngeſt, yet he was the moſt malicious againſt the Jews, of all the ten. Early ſharp, ſay we, that will be thorn.

Verſ. 12. The hearing ear, and the ſeeing eye, &c.] There are that have ears to hear, and hear not; that have eyes to ſee, and ſee not: for they are a rebellious houſe, Ezek. 12.2. Now when God ſhall ſay to ſuch, as Iſa. 42.18. Hear yee deaf, and look yee blind, that you may ſee; when hee ſhall give them an obedient ear, and a Scripture-ſearching eye, ſenſes habitually exerciſed to diſcern both good and evil, Heb. 5.14. ſo that they hear a voyce behind them, ſaying, This is the way, &c. and they ſee him that is inviſible, as Moſes: then is it with them as it is written, Eye hath not ſeen, nor ear heard, &c. i. e. Natural eye never ſaw, natural ear never heard ſuch things;1 Cor. 2.9, 10 But God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit.

Verſ. 13. Love not ſleep, leſt thou come to poverty] In ſleep there is no uſe either of ſight or hearing, or any other ſenſe. And as little is there of the Spiritual ſenſes in the ſleep of ſin, Zach. 4.1. It fared with the good Prophet as with a drowſie Perſon, who though awake and ſet to work, yet was ready to ſleep at it; and Peter, James, and John, if the Spirit hold not up their eyes, may be in danger to fall aſleep at their prayers, Matth. 26. and ſo fall into Spiritual poverty: for if Prayer ſtands ſtill, the whole trade of Godlineſs ſtands ſtill. And a powerleſs Prayer, proceeding from a ſpirit of ſloth, joyned with preſumption, makes the beſt men liable to puniſhment for profaning Gods Name: ſo that he may juſtly let them fall into ſome ſin, which ſhall awaken them with ſmart enough. See chap. 19.15. with the Note.

Verſ. 14. It is naught, it is naught, ſaith the buyer] Or, ſaith the poſſeſſour; and ſo Melancthon reads it: as taxing that common fault and folly of ſlighting preſent mercies, but deſiring and commending them when they are loſt. Virtutem incolumem odimus, ſublatam ex oculis quarimus invidi, Iſrael deſpiſed the pleaſant land, Pſal. 106.24. and the precious Manna, Numb. 11.6. and Solomons gentle Government, 1 King. 12.4. Our corrupt nature weighs not good things till we want them; as the eye ſees nothing that lyes upon it.

Verſ. 15. There is gold and a multitude of rubies] Quintilian defines an Oratour, Vir bonus, dicendi peritus. A good man, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. that can deliver himſelf in good language. Such a maſter of ſpeech was St. Paul, who was therefore by thoſe Heathen Lyſtrians called Mercury, becauſe he was the chief Speaker, Acts 14.12. Such afore him was the Prophet Iſaiah, and our Saviour Chriſt, who ſpake as never man ſpake, his enemies themſelves being Judges. Such after him was Chryſoſtome, Baſil, Nazianzen, famous for their holy eloquence. So were Mr. Rogers and Mr▪ Bradford Martyrs: in whom it was hard to ſay, whether there were more force of eloquence and utterance in preaching,Act. & Mon. fol. 1782. Juſtin. lib. 1. or more holineſſe of life and converſation, ſaith Mr. Fox. Now it Darius could ſay, that he preferred one Zopyrus before ten Babylons: And if when one deſired to ſee Alexanders Treaſures and his Jewels, he bade his Servants ſhew him not [non-Latin text not transcribed], but [non-Latin text not transcribed], not his talents of ſilver, and ſuch other precious things, but his friends:Liban. exemplar. Progym. Chri. 1. What an invaluable Price think we doth the King of Heaven ſet upon ſuch learned Scribes, as doe out of the good treaſure of their hearts, throw forth good things for the uſe of many?

Verſ. 16. Take his garment] and ſo provide for their own indempnity. See the notes on chap. 6.1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

And take a pledge of him for a ſtrange woman] i. e. for a Whoriſh woman, utcunque tibi ſit cog nita, vel etiam cognata. Hee that will undertake for ſuch a ones debts, or run in debt to gratifie her, ſhould bee carefully lookt to, and not truſted without a ſufficient pawn.Euſeb. in vit. Conſtant. How can hee bee faithful to mee that is unfaithful to God? ſaid Conſtantinus Chlorus to his Courtiers and Counſellors?

Verſ. 17. Bread of deceit is ſweet to a man] Sins murthering-morſels will deceive thoſe that devour them. There is a deceitfulneſſe in all ſin, Heb. 3.13. a lye in all vanity, Jer. 2.8. The ſtollen waters of adultery are ſweet, Prov. 9.17. but bitterneſſe in the end: ſuch ſweet meat hath ſowre ſauce. Commodities craftily or cruelly compaſſed, yeeld a great deal of content for preſent. But when the unconſcionable Cormorant hath ſwallowed down ſuch riches, he ſhall vomit them up again; God ſhall caſt them out of his belly, Joh. 20.15. Either by remorſe and reſtitution in the mean time, or with deſpair and impenitent horrour hereafter.

His mouth ſhall be filled with gravel] Pane lapidoſo, as Seneca hath it, with grit and gravel, to the torment of the teeth, that is, terrour of the Conſcience, and torture of the whole man. Such a bitter-ſweet was Adams Apple, Eſaus meſs, the Iſraelites Quails, Jonathans Hony, the Amalekites Cates after the ſack of Ziklag, 1 Sam. 30.16. Adonijahs Dainties, 1 King. 1. which ended in horrour; ever after the meal is ended, comes the reckoning. Men muſt not think to dine with the Devil, and then to ſup with Abraham, Iſaac, and Jacob in the Kingdome of Heaven: to feed upon the poyſon of Aſps, and yet that the Vipers tongue ſhall not ſlay them, Job 20.16. When the Aſpe ſtings a man, it doth firſt tickle him, ſo as it makes him laugh, till the poyſon by little and little gets to the heart,Speed in Q. Elizah. and then it pains him more than ever it delighted him. So doth ſin. At Alvolana in Portugal three miles from Lisbon, many of our Engliſh Souldiers under the Earl of Eſſex periſhed, by eating of Honey, purpoſely left in the houſes, and ſpiced with poyſon, as it was thought. And how the treacherous Greeks deſtroyed many of the Weſtern Chriſtians, French and Engliſh, marching toward the Holy-land, by ſelling them meal mingled with Lime, is well known out of the Turkiſh Hiſtory.

Verſ. 18. Every purpoſe is eſtabliſhed by counſel] That thy proceedings bee not either unconſtant or uncomfortable,Deliberandum eſt diu quod ſtatuendum eſt ſemel. deliberate long ere thou reſolve on any enterpriſe. Adviſe with God eſpecially, who hath ſaid, Woe bee to the rebellious children that take counſel, but not of me, &c. Iſa. 30.1. David had able Counſellours about him: but thoſe he moſt eſteemed and made uſe of, were Gods teſtimonies, Pſal. 119.24. Thy teſtimonies alſo are my delight, and the men of my counſel. Princes had learned men ever with them, called [non-Latin text not transcribed] Remembrancers, Monitors, Counſellours, as Themiſtocles had his Anaxagoras, Alexander his Ariſtotle, Scipio his Panaetius and Polybius: of which latter Pauſanias teſtifieth,Paſuan. lib. 8. that he was ſo great a Politician, that what he adviſed never miſcarried. But that is very remarkable that Gellius reports of Scipio Africanus, that it was his cuſtome before day to goe into the Capitol in cellam Jevis, and there to ſtay a great while, quaſi conſultans de Rep. cum Jove, as if hee were there adviſing with his God concerning the Common-wealth:Gell. lib. 7. Whence it was that his deeds were pleraque admiranda, admirable for the moſt part, ſaith the Author. But we have a better example: David in all his ſtreights went to ask counſel of the Lord,1 Cor. 1.30. Iſa. 9.6. who anſwered him. Doe we ſo, and God will not fail us, for he hath made Chriſt wiſedome unto us, and a wonderful Counſellour.

And with good advice make warre] Ahab in this might have been a Precedent to good Joſiah. He would not goe againſt Ramoth-Gilead, till he had firſt adviſed with his falſe Prophets. But that other Peerleſs Prince, though the famous Prophet Jeremy was then living, and Zephaniah, and a whole Colledge of Seers, yet he doth not ſo much as once ſend out of doors to ask, ſhall I goe up againſt the King of Aegypt? Sometimes both grace and wit are aſleep in the holieſt and warieſt breaſts. The Souldiers rule among the Romans was, Non ſequi, Vege[illegible: 1 letter]. l. 1. c. 17 Lucian. non fugere bellum: Neither to fly, nor to follow after warre. The Chriſtian Motto is, Nec temorè nec timidê, be neither temerarious nor timorous. And that's a very true ſaying of the Greek Poet, Lucian. [non-Latin text not transcribed] [non-Latin text not transcribed].

Verſ. 19. He that goeth about as a Tale-bearer] Therefore make not ſuch of thy counſel: For if they can give counſel, yet they can keep none. See the note on chap. 11.13.

Therefore meddle not with him that flattereth] Tale-carriers and flatterers are neither of them fit Counſellors. Theſe will ſay as you ſay, bee it right or wrong; thoſe will tell abroad all that you ſay, and more, too to do you a miſchief. The good Emperour Aurelius was even bought and ſold by ſuch evil Counſellors. And Auguſtus complained when Varus was dead, that hee had none now left, that would deal plainly and faithfully; with him.

Verſ. 20. Who ſo curſeth his father, &c.] See the Notes on Exod. 21.17. and on Mat. 15.4. Parents uſually give their children ſweet and ſavoury counſel; but they, for want of grace, liſten rather to flatterers and whiſperers, vilipending their Parents advice, and vilifying them for the ſame, as Elies ſons did.

His lamp ſhall bee put out in obſcure darkneſs] Heb. In blackneſs of darkneſs. Theſe are thoſe raging waves of the Sea, foaming out their own ſhame, — to whom is reſerved the blackneſs of darkneſs for ever, Jude 13. An exquiſite torment, ſuch are ſure of in hell, whom the Holy Ghoſt curſeth in ſuch emphatical manner, in ſuch exquiſite termes; Beſides the extream miſery they are likely here to meet with, who when they ought to bee a lamp to their parents, 1 King. 15.4. (as Abner was, or by his name ſhould have been) do ſeek to put out their lamp, to caſt a ſlur upon them, and to quench their coal that is left, as ſhee ſaid, 2 Sam. 14.7. It may very well bee that the temporal judgement here threatned, is, that ſuch a graceleſs childe ſhall dye childleſs, and that there ſhall bee Nullus cui lampada tradat.

Verſ. 21. An inheritance may bee gotten haſtily, &c.] By wiſhing and working the death of Parents, or by any other evil arts whatſoever. See an inſtance hereof in Achan, Achab, Gehezi, Adonijah his leaping into the Throne without his Fathers leave. Jehoahaz alſo, the younger ſon of Joſiah, would needs bee King after his Father, putting by his eldeſt brother Jehoiakim; but hee was ſoon put down again, and put into bands by Pharaoh Necho, 2 King. 23. Hee pourtrayed the Ambitioniſt to the life, that pictured him ſnatching at a Crown, and falling, with this Motto, Sic mea fata ſequor.

Verſ. 22. Say not thou, I will recompence evil] Much leſs, ſwear it, as ſome miſcreants do: to whom, Eſt vindicta bonum, & vitâ dulcius ipſâ. In reaſon, tallying of injuries is but juſtice. It is the firſt office of juſtice (ſaith Tully) to hurt no body, unleſs firſt provoked by injury. Whereupon Lactantius, O quàm ſimplicem veramque ſententiam (ſaith hee) duorum verborum adjectione corrupit! O what a dainty ſentence marred the Oratour by adding thoſe two laſt words! How much better Seneca! immane verbum eſt ultio. Non minus mali eſt injuriam referre quam inferre. La et. Inſtit. l. 6. c. 20. Revenge is a baſe word, but a worſe deed; it being no leſs an offence to requite an injury, than to offer it, as Lactantius hath it. The mild and milken man (as his name ſpeaks him) was ſuch an enemy to revenge, that hee diſlikes the waging either of law, or of war with any that have wronged us. Wherein though I cannot bee of his minde, yet I am clearly of opinion, that not revenge but right ſhould bee ſought in both. Neither can I hold it valour, but raſhneſs, in our Richard the firſt, who being told as hee ſate at ſupper, that the French King had beſiedged his Town of Vernoil in Normandy, proteſted, that hee would not turn his back untill hee had confronted the French; and thereupon hee cauſed the wall of his palace that was before him to bee broken down toward the South, and poaſted to the Sea-coaſt immediately into Normandy.

But wait on the Lord] Who claims vengeance as his, Deut. 32.35. Rom. 12.19. (See the Notes there) and will ſtrike in for the patient, as hee did Num. 12.2. While Moſes is dumb, God ſpeaks; deaf, God hears and ſtirs. Make, God your Chancellour, in caſe no law will relieve, and you ſhall do your ſelves no diſſervice. If compelled to go a mile, rather than revenge, go two; yea, as far as the ſhooes of the preparation of the Goſpel of peace will carry you, and God will bring you back with everlaſting joy, Iſa. 35.10. This is the way to bee even with him that wrongs you, nay to bee above him.

Verſ. 23. Divers weights are an abomination] In righting and revenging themſelves men are apt to weigh things in an uneven ballance, to bee overpartial in their own cauſe, and to judge that an hainous offence in another, that is ſcarce blame-worthy in themſelves. It is beſt therefore to lay down all injuries at Gods feet, who will bee ſure to give a juſt recompence to every tranſgreſſion, Heb. 2.2. and will elſe turn his wrath from our enemies to us, for our diverſe weights and falſe ballances. See the Note on verſe 10. of this Chapter.

Verſ. 24. Mans goings are of the Lord] See the Notes on Chap. 16.1, 9. God brought Paul to Rome by a way that hee little dreamed of. Auſtin once travelling loſt his way, Aug. in Enchirid. ad Laurent. cap. 17. and fetching a compaſs came ſafe to the place hee intended; whereas had hee kept the right way, hee had been caught by an armed band of the Donatiſts that lay in wait for him. The ſteps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, Pſal. 37.23. and hee findes himſelf ſometimes croſſed with a bleſſing: As when Iſabel Queen of England was to repaſs from Zeland into this Kingdome with an Army, in favour of her ſon againſt her husband, ſhee had utterly been caſt away, had ſhee come to the port intended, being there expected by her enemies; but Providence (againſt her will) brought her to another place where ſhee ſafely landed. Good therefore, and worthy of all acceptation is the Wiſe-mans counſel, In all thy wayes acknowledge GOD, and hee ſhall direct thy path, Prov. 3.6. See the Note there.

Verſ. 25. It is a ſnare to a man who devoureth, &c.] Hee doth as a fiſh that ſwallows the hook, as the Eagle that ſtole the fleſh from the Altar with a coal ſticking to it, that ſet the whole neſt on fire, &c. What a ſad end befell Cardinal Wolſey, Act. & Mon. whileſt hee ſought more to pleaſe the King than God, as himſelf ſaid? And what a revenging hand of God purſued his five chief Agents that were moſt inſtrumental for him in that ſacrilegious enterpriſe? One of them killed his fellow in a duel, and was hanged for it. A third drowned himſelf in a Well. A fourth fell from a great eſtate to extream beggery. Dr. Allen (the laſt and chiefeſt of them) being Arch-biſhop of Dublin, was cruelly ſlain by his enemies.Scult. Annal. tom. 2. p. 332. Utinam his & ſimilibus exemplis edocti diſcant homines res ſemel Deo conſecratas timidè attrectare! ſaith Scultetus, who relates this ſtory; I would men would take heed by theſe and the like examples how they meddle with things once conſecrated to God. If Divine Juſtice ſo ſeverly puniſhed thoſe that converted Church goods (though not ſo well adminiſtred) to better uſes, doubtleſs, becauſe they did it out of ſelfiſh and ſinful principles and intentions; what ſhall become of ſuch as take all occaſions to rob God, that they may inrich themſelves? Luth. in Gen. 47 Spoliantur parochiae & Scholae non aliter ac fi fame necare nos velint, ſaith Luther, Pariſhes and Schools are polled and robbed of their mantenance, as if they meant to ſtarve us all.

And aftervews to make inquiry] viz. How hee may devour that tid bit without kecking, and not finde it hard meat on his conſcience. But a man may eaſily eat that on earth, Speeds Chron. fol. 826. that hee ſhall have time enough to digeſt in hell. The fear of this made Queen Mary reſtore again all Eccleſiaſtical livings aſſumed to the Crown, ſaying, that ſhee ſet more by the ſalvation of her own ſoul, than ſhee did by ten Kingdoms. Ibid. 496. And upon the like motive King Lewis of France (about the year 1152.) caſt the Popes Bulls (whereby hee required the fruits of vacancies of all Cathedral Churches of France) into the fire, ſaying, Hee had rather the Popes Bulls ſhould roaſt in the fire, than his own ſoul ſhould fry in hell.

Verſ. 26. A wiſe King ſcattereth the wicked] Dreins the Country of them by his juſt ſeverity, yet with due diſcretion, as appears by the latter words, and bringeth the wheel over them, Blunts Voyage pag. 12. Zevecat. in obſerv. polit. compared with Iſa. 28.27, 28. The Turks juſtice will rather cut off two innocent men, than let one offender eſcape. The Venetians puniſh with death whoſoever ſhall miſ-imploy a penny of the publick ſtock to his own private profit. Dureſcite, dureſcite, ô infoelix Lantgravic, ſaid the poor Smith to the Lantgrave of Thuring, that was more milde than was for his peoples good. The ſword of Juſtice muſt, I confels, bee furbuſhed with the oyl of mercy; but yet there are caſes wherein ſeverity ought to caſt the ſcale.

Verſ. 27. The ſpirit of a man is the candle of the Lord] Some read it, The breath of a man, that is, his life, is the candle of the Lord, and ſenſe it thus Look how men deal by their Lights or Lamps, ſo doth God by our Lives; Some we put out as ſoon as lighted: others we let alone till half waſted, and others again till Wax, and Week, and all be conſumed. So ſome dye younger, ſome older, as God pleaſeth. But the word Neſhamah here uſed, as it holds affinity with the Hebrew Shamajim Heaven, ſo it doth with the Latine word Mens the Mind, or reaſonable Soul, which indeed is that light that is in us, by an excellency, Matth. 6.23. that ſpirit of a man that knows the things of a man, 1 Cor. 2.11. that candle that is in a mans belly or body, as in a Lanthorn, making the leaſt more perſpicuous. This is true by a ſpecialty of that Divine faculty of the Soul, Conſcience, which is frequently called the Spirit of a man, as being planted of God in all and every part of the reaſonable Soul; where ſhe produceth occaſionally ſeveral operations, being the Souls School-maſter. Monitor, and Domeſtical Preacher; Gods ſpye, and Mans over-ſeer; the principal Commander, and chief Controuler of all his doings and deſires.

Conſcia mens ut cuique ſua eſt, ita concipit intraOvid. Pectora pro facto ſpemque metumque ſuo.

Surely it is a moſt Celeſtial gift (ſaith one.) It is ſo of God and in man, Bifeild on 1 Pet. 2. that it is a kind of middle thing betwixt God and man; leſs than God, and yet above man. Huet. of Conf. It may be called our God (ſaith another) in the ſenſe that Moſes was Pharaohs: having power to controul and avenge our diſobediences, with greater Plagues than ever Moſes brought on Aegypt. Auſon. Therefore that was no evil counſel of the Poet.— Imprimis reverere teipſum. And, Turpe quid auſurus, te, ſine teſte, time.

Verſ. 28. Mercy and truth preſerve the King] Theſe are the beſt guard of his Body, and ſupporters of his Throne. Mildneſs and righteouſneſs, leuity and fidelity doe more ſafe-guard a Prince than munitions of rocks, or any war-like preparations: amidſt which Henry the fourth of France periſhed, when Queen Elizabeth of England lived and dyed with glory. That French King being perſwaded by the Duke of Sully not to re-admit the Jeſuits, anſwered; Give me then ſecurity for my life. But he was ſhortly after ſtabbed to death by their inſtigation: when our Queen, that ſtuck faſt to her Principles, was not more loved of her Friends than feared of her Foes, being protected by God beyond expectation. Our King John thought to ſtrengthen himſelf by gathering mony, the ſinews of War: but mean-while he loſt his peoples affections, thoſe joynts of peace, and came after endleſs turmoyls to an unhappy end. So did our late Soveraign of bleeding memory.

Verſ. 29. The glory of young men is their ſtrength] ſc. If well uſed, in following their Callings, and fighting for their Countries, as thoſe young men of the Princes of the Provinces did, 1 King. 20.20. and not in quarrelling and Duelling, as thoſe yongſters of Helketh-hezzurim, 2 Sam. 2. who ſheathed their ſwords in their fellows bowels.

And the beauty of old men is their gray-head] That ſilver crown of hoary hairs (ſaith one) which the finger of God doth ſet upon their heads, makes them Venerable in all places where they come: ſo that they carry an authority or majeſty with them, as it were. See the Note on chap. 16.31.

Verſ. 30. The blowneſſe of the wound cleanſeth] Some muſt be beaten black and blew, ere they will be better: neither is wit any thing worth with them till they have paid well for it. The Jewes were ever beſt when in worſt condition. The Athenians, Non niſi atrati, would never mend till they were in mourning. And, Anglica geus eſt optima fleus, & peſſima rident,

As a great Stateſ-man ſaid of this Nation. Phyſicians commonly cure a Lethargie by a Fever. Chirurgians let their Patients bloud ſometimes, etiam ad deliquium animae. The Scorpion heals his own wounds: and the Viper being beaten and applied cures his own biting. Surely as the ſcourging of the garment with a ſtick, beats out the mothes and the duſt: ſo doe corrections corruptions from the heart; and as launcing lets out filth, ſo doth affliction ſin.