Proverbs 9 commentary

Christ has prepared ordinances to which his people are admitted, and by which nourishment is given here to those that believe in him, as well as mansions in heaven hereafter. The ministers of the gospel go forth to invite the guests. The call is general, and shuts out none that do not shut out themselves. Our Saviour came, not to call the righteous, but sinners; not the wise in their own eyes, who say they see. We must keep from the company and foolish pleasures of the ungodly, or we never can enjoy the pleasures of a holy life. It is vain to seek the company of wicked men in the hope of doing them good; we are far more likely to be corrupted by them. It is not enough to forsake the foolish, we must join those that walk in wisdom. There is no true wisdom but in the way of religion, no true life but in the end of that way. Here is the happiness of those that embrace it. A man cannot be profitable to God; it is for our own good. Observe the shame and ruin of those who slight it. God is not the Author of sin: and Satan can only tempt, he cannot force. Thou shalt bear the loss of that which thou scornest: it will add to thy condemnation.

How diligent the tempter is, to seduce unwary souls into sin! Carnal, sensual pleasure, stupifies conscience, and puts out the sparks of conviction. This tempter has no solid reason to offer; and where she gets dominion in a soul, all knowledge of holy things is lost and forgotten. She is very violent and pressing. We need to seek and pray for true wisdom, for Satan has many ways to withdraw our souls from Christ. Not only worldly lusts and abandoned seducers prove fatal to the souls of men; but false teachers, with doctrines that flatter pride and give liberty to lusts, destroy thousands. They especially draw off such as have received only partial serious impressions. The depths of Satan are depths of hell; and sin, without remorse, is ruin, ruin without remedy. Solomon shows the hook; those that believe him, will not meddle with the bait. Behold the wretched, empty, unsatisfying, deceitful, and stolen pleasure sin proposes; and may our souls be so desirous of the everlasting enjoyment of Christ, that on earth we may live to him, daily, by faith, and ere long be with him in glory.

CHAPTER 9

Pr 9:1-18. The commendation of wisdom is continued, under the figure of a liberal host, and its provisions under that of a feast (compare Lu 14:16-24). The character of those who are invited is followed by a contrasted description of the rejectors of good counsel; and with the invitations of wisdom are contrasted the allurement of the wicked woman.

1. house--(compare Pr 8:34).

her--or, "its" (the house).

seven pillars--the number seven for many, or a sufficiency (Pr 6:31).

2. mingled--to enhance the flavor (Pr 23:30; Is 5:22).

furnished--literally, "set out," "arranged."

3. maidens--servants to invite (compare Psa 68:11; Is 40:9).

highest places--ridges of heights, conspicuous places.

4-6. (Compare Pr 1:4; 6:32). Wisdom not only supplies right but forbids wrong principles.

7-8. shame--(Compare Pr 3:35).

a blot--or, "stain on character." Both terms denote the evil done by others to one whose faithfulness secures a wise man's love.

9. The more a wise man learns, the more he loves wisdom.

10. (Compare Pr 1:7).

of the holy--literally, "holies," persons or things, or both. This knowledge gives right perception.

11. (Compare Pr 3:16-18; 4:10).

12. You are mainly concerned in your own conduct.

13. foolish woman--or literally, "woman of folly," specially manifested by such as are described.

clamorous--or, "noisy" (Pr 7:11).

knoweth nothing--literally, "knoweth not what," that is, is right and proper.

14. on a seat--literally, "throne," takes a prominent place, impudently and haughtily.

15-16. to allure those who are right-minded, and who are addressed as in Pr 9:4, as

simple--that is, easily led (Pr 1:4) and unsettled, though willing to do right.

17. The language of a proverb, meaning that forbidden delights are sweet and pleasant, as fruits of risk and danger.

18. (Compare Pr 2:18, 19; 7:27).

Wisdom hath builded her house - The eternal counsel of God has framed the universe.

She hath hewn out her seven pillars - Every thing has been so constructed as to exhibit a scene of grandeur, stability, and durableness.

She hath killed her beasts - God has made the most ample provision for the innumerable tribes of animal and intellectual beings, which people the whole vortex of created nature.

She hath sent forth her maidens - The wisdom of God has made use of the most proper means to communicate Divine knowledge to the inhabitants of the earth; as a good and gracious Creator wills to teach them whence they came, how they are supported, whither they are going, and for what end they were formed. It is a custom to the present day, in Asiatic countries, to send their invitations to guests by a company of females, preceded by eunuchs: they go to the doors of the invited, and deliver their message.

Whoso is simple - Let the young, heedless, and giddy attend to my teaching.

Him that wanteth understanding - Literally, he that wanteth a heart; who is without couraye, is feeble and fickle, and easily drawn aside from the holy commandment.

Come, eat of my bread - Not only receive my instructions, but act according to my directions.

Drink of the wine - I have mingled - Enter into my counsels; be not contented with superficial knowledge on any subject, where any thing deeper may be attained. Go by the streams to the fountain head. Look into the principles on which they were formed; investigate their nature, examine their properties, acquaint thyself with their relations, connections, influences, and various uses. See the skill power, and goodness of God in their creation. And when thou hast learned all within thy reach, know that thou knowest but little of the manifold wisdom of God. Let what thou hast learned humble thee, by showing thee how very little thou dost know. Thou hast drunk of the provided wine; but that wine was mingled with water, for God will hide pride from man. He dwells only on the surface of religious and philosophical learning, who does not perceive and feel that he is yet but a child in knowledge; that he see through a glass darkly; that he perceives men like trees walking; and that there are lengths, breadths, depths, and heights, in the works and ways of God, which it will require an eternity to fathom. Here below the pure wine is mingled with water: but this is God's work. Yet there is enough; do not therefore be contented with a little. To this subject the words of the poet may be well applied: -

A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:

For scanty draughts intoxicate the brain,

But drinking largely sobers us again.

Pope

Among the ancient Jews, Greek, and Romans, wine was rarely drank without being mingled with water; and among ancient writers we find several ordinances for this. Some direct three parts of water to one of wine; some five parts; and Pliny mentions some wines that required twenty waters: but the most common proportions appear to have been three parts of water to two of wine. But probably the יין מסך yayin masach, mingled wine, was wine mingled, not with water, to make it weaker; but with spices and other ingredients to make it stronger. The ingredients were honey, myrrh, mandragora, opium, and such like, which gave it not only an intoxicating but stupifying quality also. Perhaps the mixed wine here may mean wine of the strongest and best quality, that which was good to cheer and refresh the heart of man.

If we consider the mixed wine as meaning this strong wine, then the import of the metaphor will be, a thorough investigation of the works of God will invigorate the soul, strengthen all the mental powers, enlarge their capacity, and enable the mind to take the most exalted views of the wonders of God's skill manifested in the operations of his hand.

Forsake the foolish - For the companion of fools must be a fool.

And live - Answer the end for which thou wert born.

He that reproveth a scorner - לץ lets, the person who mocks at sacred things; the libertine, the infidel; who turns the most serious things into ridicule, and, by his wit, often succeeds in rendering the person who reproves him ridiculous. Wisdom seems here to intimate that it is vain to attempt by reproof to amend such: and yet we must not suffer sin upon our neighbor; at all hazards, we must deliver our own soul. But no reproof should be given to any, but in the spirit of love and deep concern; and when they contradict and blaspheme, leave them to God.

Give instruction to a wise man - Literally give to the wise, and he will be wise. Whatever you give to such, they reap profit from it. They are like the bee, they extract honey from every flower.

The fear of the Lord - See on Pro 1:7 (note). The knowledge of the holy; קדשים kedoshim, of the holy ones: Sanctorum, of the saints - Vulgate. boulh agiwn, the counsel of the holy persons.

For by me thy days shall be multiplied - Vice shortens human life, by a necessity of consequence: and by the same, righteousness lengthens it. There is a long addition here in the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate: "He who trusts in falsity feeds on the winds; and is like him who chases the fowls of heaven. He forsakes the way of his own vineyard, and errs from the paths of his own inheritance. He enters also into lonely and desert places, and into a land abandoned to thirst; and his hands collect that which yieldeth no fruit."

If thou be wise - It is thy own interest to be religious. Though thy example may be very useful to thy neighbors and friends, yet the chief benefit is to thyself. But if thou scorn - refuse to receive - the doctrines of wisdom, and die in thy sins, thou alone shalt suffer the vengeance of an offended God.

A foolish woman is clamorous - Vain, empty women, are those that make most noise. And she that is full of clamor, has generally little or no sense. We have had this character already, see Pro 7:11. The translation of the Septuagint is very remarkable: Γυνη αφρων και θρασεια, ενδεης ψωμου γινεται, "A lewd and foolish woman shall be in need of a morsel of bread."

For she sitteth at the door of her house - Her conduct here marks at once her folly, impudence, and poverty. See above on Pro 7:6 (note), etc., where the reader will find a similar character.

Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither - Folly or pleasure here personified, uses the very same expressions as employed by Wisdom, Pro 9:4. Wisdom says, "Let the simple turn in to me." No, says Folly, "Let the simple turn in to me." If he turn in to Wisdom, his folly shall be taken away and he shall become wise; if he turn in to Foliy, his darkness will be thickened, and his folly will remain.

Wisdom sets up her school to instruct the ignorant:

Folly sets her school up next door, to defeat the designs of Wisdom.

Thus the saying of the satirist appears to be verified: - "Wherever God erects a house of prayer,

The devil surely builds a chapel there.

And it is found upon examination,

The latter has the larger congregation."

De Foe.

Stolen waters are sweet - I suppose this to be a proverbial mode of expression, importing that illicit pleasures are sweeter than those which are legal The meaning is easy to be discerned; and the conduct of multitudes shows that they are ruled by this adage. On it are built all the adulterous intercourses in the land.

But he knoweth not that the dead are there - See on Pro 2:18 (note). He does not know that it was in this way the first apostates from God and truth walked. רפאים rephaim; gigantev, the Giants - Septuagint. The sons of men, the earth-born, to distinguish them from the sons of God, those who were born from above. See the notes on Gen 6:1, etc.

Her guests are in the depths of hell - Those who have been drawn out of the way of understanding by profligacy have in general lost their lives, if not their souls, by their folly. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic make a long addition to this verse: "But draw thou back, that thou mayest not die in this place; neither fix thy eyes upon her; so shalt thou pass by those strange waters. But abstain thou from strange waters, and drink not of another's fountain, that thou mayest live a long time, and that years may be added to thy life." Of this addition there is nothing in the Hebrew, the Chaldee, or the Vulgate, as now printed: but in the editio princeps are the following words: Qui enim applicabitur illi descendet ad inferos; nam qui abscesserit ab ea salvabitur. These words were in the copy from which my old MS. Bible has been made, as the following version proves: Who forsoth schal ben joyned to hir, schal falle doun on to hell: for whi he that goth awai fro hir, schal be saved. Three of my own MSS. have the same reading.

Her house - For the reception of her guests. Seven - Many pillars; whereby is intimated the beauty and stability of the church. Pillars - Prophets, and apostles, and ministers.

Killed - Made provision for the guests. Mingled - With water, as they used to do in those hot countries. Furnished - With all necessaries, and now waits for the guests.

Maidens - Her servants to invite the guests, ministers of the word whom he calls maidens for the decency of the parable; for wisdom being compared to a great princess, was fit to be attended upon by maidens. Highest places - From such high seats as those from which judges delivered their sentences, and officers made proclamations.

Simple - Ignorant, and weak.

A former - He shews whom he meant by the foolish, ver.6, even scorners and wicked men, and presses his last advice of forsaking them because there was no good, but hurt to be got from them.

A scorner - An obstinate and incorrigible sinner.

For thyself - Thou dost not profit me but thyself.

At the door - Watching for occasions of sin.

Go right - Who are going innocently about their business.

Simple - This title is not given them by her, but by Solomon.

Sweet - From the difficulty of obtaining them; and because the very prohibition renders them more grateful to corrupt nature.

1. WIsdom hath built her house : she hath hewn out her seven pillars .

For the reception and entertainment of her Guests, as appears from the following passages. This house is opposed to the Harlots House mentioned, Prov. 7. 8. and it is to be understood, either 1. of the heavenly House or the Palace of Glory: Or rather 2. of the Church which Christ, the Wisdom of the Father, hath erected and established in the World, in which this following Feast is made, which is called God's House, 1 Tim. 3. 15. Heb. 3. 3, 4.

i. e. Many Pillars; whereby is intimated both the beauty and the stability of the Church▪

Prophets, and Apostles, and Ministers of Holy things, which, in Scripture are called Pillars, as Gal. 2. 9. and elsewhere.

2. She hath killed her beasts ; she hath mingled her wine ; she hath also furnished her table .

i. e. Made provision for the Guests: which is meant of the Ordinances, Gifts, Graces, Comforts and Eternal Felicities which God doth offer and give to men in and by the Church.

Either 1. with Spices, to make it strong and delightful, this mixed Wine being mentioned as the best, Prov. 23. 29, 30. Or 2. with Water, as they used to do in those hot Countries, partly for refreshment, and partly for wholesomness. Whereby also may be intimated that Wisdom teacheth us temperance in the use of our comforts.

With all necessaries, and now waits for the Guests.

Marginal references: Matth. 22. [illegible: 1 word].; Heb. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word].

3. She hath sent forth her maidens , she crieth upon the highest places of the city:

Her Servants to invite the Guests, Ministers of the Word whom he calls Maidens partly for the decency of the parable; for Wisdom being compared to a great Princess, was fit to be attended upon by Maidens; and partly to shew that God by his Word did work sweetly, though strongly, and did allure and draw, rather than drive sinners to repentance.

Either upon the tops of the Houses which were flat: Or rather from such high seats as those from which Judges delivered their Sentences, and Officers made Proclamations, for the conveniency of the Peoples better hearing.

Marginal references: Ch. 8. 2.; Heb. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] of the [illegible: 1 word] places

4. Whoso is simple , let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding , she saith to him,

Ignorant, and weak, and subject to delusion and willing to learn: to shew that Wisdom rejects those Scholars who are proud and self conceited.

Heb. heart, which signifies understanding, Ier. 5. 21. Hos. 7. 11.

6. Forsake the foolish , and live: and go in the way of understanding .

i. e. The wicked, and their courses and society: you must either forsake them or me, for we are irreconcilable enemies.

Which leads to it and is prescribed by it.

7. He that reproveth a[illegible: 1+ letters] scorner , getteth to himself shame : and he that rebuketh a wicked man, getteth himself a blot .

The connexion may be conceived thus, Having invited the simple, he forbids the invitation of scorners: Or thus, He sheweth who he meant by the foolish, v. 6. even scorners and wicked men, as they are here called, and he presseth his last advice of forsaking them because there was no good, but hurt to be got by conversation with them.

Partly from the scorner who will revile and deride him, and partly from others, because he is frustrated in his design and hope, and by his imprudence hath brought an inconvenience upon himself:

A censure or reproach.

8 Reprove not a scorner , lest he hate thee : rebake a wise man , and he will love thee .

An obstinate and incorrigible sinner who scornfully rejects and despiseth the means of amendment. Thus Physicians deny Physick to Persons in desperate condition.

Whereby thou wilt not onely expose thy self without necessity to his malice and rage, but also make thy self utterly uncapable of doing him that good which possibly thou mightest do by other more prudent and proper means.

Who is opposed to the Scorner, to intimate that Scorners, howsoever they are thought by themselves or others to be witty or wise, yet in God's account, and in truth, are fools.

Both for that faithfulness and charity which he perceiveth in thee, and for that benefit which he receiveth from thee.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1+ letters]at. 7. 6.

9. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser, teach a just man , and he will increase in learning.

In the Hebrew it is onely, give: for as receiving is put for learning, Prov. 1. 3. so giving is put for teaching both in Scripture and in other Authors: of which see my Latin Synopsis.

Called a wise Man in the former branch; to intimate that good men are the onely wise men.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. 1. 5.

10. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledg of the holy is understanding .

Either 1. of holy men, whether such as all Saints learn▪ or rather such as the holy men of God, the Servants of this Wisdom, teach from God's VVord: Or rather 2. of Holy things▪ the Hebrew word being here taken in the Neuter Gender, as it is Numb. 5. 17. and elsewhere: for this seems best to answer to the fear of the Lord in the other branch.

Is the onely true and necessary and useful knowledge.

Marginal references: Job 28. 28. Ps. 111. 10. Chap. 1. 7.

12. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thy self but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it .

Thou dost not profit me, but thy self by it: I advise thee for thine own good.

The blame and mischief of it falls wholly upon thee, not upon me or my VVord or Ministers who have warned thee.

Marginal references: Heb. and.

13. A foolish woman is clamorous , she is simple and knoweth nothing .

By which he understands, either 1. folly, which is opposite to that VVisdom of which he hath been so long discoursing, and so it may include all wickedness, either in principle, as Idolatry, Heresy, &c. or in practice. Or 2. the Harlot: which with submission, seems most probable to me, partly because all the following decription exactly agrees to her, especially what is said, v. 17. as also v. 18. which in effect was said of the Harlot before, Ch. 2. 18. & 5. 5. and partly because such transitions from discoursing of VVisdom, to a discourse of Harlots are frequent in Solomon, as we have seen Ch. 2. 16. & 5. 3. & 7. 5.

Speaks loudly that she may be heard and vehemently that Persons might be moved by her persuasions.

To wit, aright, nothing that is good, nothing for her good, though she be subtil in little artifices for her own wicked ends.

Marginal references: Ch. 7. 11.

14. For she sitteth at the door of her house on a seat, in the high places of the city.

Which notes her idleness and impudence and diligence in watching for occasions of sin.

15. To call passengers, who go right on their ways :

Who were going innocently and directly about their business without any unchast design; for others needed none of those invitations or offers, but went to her of their own accord. And besides such leud Persons take a greater pleasure in corrupting the innocent.

16. Whoso is simple , let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,

Which title is not given to them by her, for such a reproach would not have allured them, but driven them away▪ but by Solomon who represents the matter of her invitation in his own words that he might discover the truth of the business, and thereby dissuade and deter those whom she invited.

17. Stolen waters are sweet , and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

By which he understandeth, either 1. Idolatry or other wickednesses, which in Solomon's time before his fall were publickly forbidden and punished, but privately practised. Or rather 2. Adultery.

Partly from the difficulty of obtaining them; partly from the art which men use in contriving such secret sins; and partly because the very prohibition renders it more grateful to corrupt Nature.

Marginal references: Ch. 2[illegible: 1+ letters]. 17.; Heb. of secrecies.

18. But he knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell.

i. e. He doth not consider it seriously, whereby he proveth his folly.

Pro 9:1

Regarding חכמות, vid., at Pro 1:20. It is a plur. excellentiae, which is a variety of the plur. extensivus. Because it is the expression of a plural unity, it stands connected (as for the most part also אלהים, Deus) with the sing. of the predicate. The perfects enumerate all that Wisdom has done to prepare for her invitation. If we had a parable before us, the perf. would have run into the historical ותּשׁלח; but it is, as the תקרא shows, an allegorical picture of the arrangement and carrying out of a present reality. Instead of בּנתה לּהּ בּית there is בּנתה בּיתהּ, for the house is already in its origin represented as hers, and 1b is to be translated: she has hewn out her seven pillars (Hitzig); more correctly: her pillars, viz., seven (after the scheme דבּתם רעה, Gen 37:2); but the construction is closer. שׁבעה is, altogether like Exo 25:37, the accusative of the second object, or of the predicate after the species of verba, with the idea: to make something, turn into something, which take to themselves a double accusative, Gesen. §139, 2: excidit columnas suas ita ut septem essent. Since the figure is allegorical, we may not dispense with the interpretation of the number seven by the remark, “No emphasis lies in the number” (Bertheau). First, we must contemplate architecturally the house with seven pillars: “They are,” as Hitzig rightly remarks, “the pillars of the מסדּרון (porch) [vid. Bachmann under Jdg 3:23, and Wetstein under Psa 144:12, where חטב is used of the cutting out and hewing of wood, as חצב of the cutting out and hewing of stone] in the inner court, which bore up the gallery of the first (and second) floors: four of these in the corners and three in the middle of three sides; through the midst of these the way led into the court of the house-floor the area.” But we cannot agree with Hitzig in maintaining that, with the seven pillars of chap. 8 and 9, the author looks back to the first seven chapters (Arab. âbwab, gates) of this book; we think otherwise of the component members of this Introduction to the Book of Proverbs; and to call the sections of a book “gates, שׁערים,” is a late Arabico-Jewish custom, of which there is found no trace whatever in the O.T. To regard them also, with Heidenheim (cf. Dante’s Prose Writings, translated by Streckfuss, p. 77), as representing the seven liberal arts (שׁבע חכמות) is impracticable; for this division of the artes liberales into seven, consisting of the Trivium (Grammar, Rhetoric, and Dialectics) and Quadrivium (Music, Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy), is not to be looked for within the old Israelitish territory, and besides, these were the sciences of this world which were so divided; but wisdom, to which the discourse here refers, is wholly a religious-moral subject. The Midrash thinks of the seven heavens (שׁבעה רקיעים), or the seven climates or parts of the earth (שׁבעה ארצות), as represented by them; but both references require artificial combinations, and have, as also the reference to the seven church-eras (Vitringa and Chr. Ben. Michaelis), this against them, that they are rendered probable neither from these introductory proverbial discourses, nor generally from the O.T. writings. The patristic and middle-age reference to the seven sacraments of the church passes sentence against itself; but the old interpretation is on the right path, when it suggests that the seven pillars are the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. The seven-foldness of the manifestation of the Spirit, already brought near by the seven lamps of the sacred candelabra (the מנורה), is established by Isa 11:2 (vid., l.c.); and that Wisdom is the possessor and dispenser of the Spirit she herself testifies, Pro 1:23. Her Spirit is the “Spirit of wisdom;” but at the same time, since, born of God, she is mediatrix between God and the world, also the “Spirit of Jahve,” He is the “spirit of understanding,” the “spirit of counsel,” and the “spirit of might” (Isa 11:2); for she says, Pro 8:14, “Counsel is mine, and reflection; I am understanding, I have strength.” He is also the “spirit of knowledge,” and the “spirit of the fear of the Lord” (Isa 11:2); for fear and the knowledge of Jahve are, according to Pro 9:14, the beginning of wisdom, and essentially wisdom itself.

Pro 9:2

If thus the house of Wisdom is the place of her fellowship with those who honour her, the system of arrangements made by her, so as to disclose and communicate to her disciples the fulness of her strength and her gifts, then it is appropriate to understand by the seven pillars the seven virtues of her nature communicating themselves (apocalyptically expressed, the ἑπτὰ πνεύματα), which bear up and adorn the dwelling which she establishes among men. Flesh and wine are figures of the nourishment for the mind and the heart which is found with wisdom, and, without asking what the flesh and the wine specially mean, are figures of the manifold enjoyment which makes at once strong and happy. The segolate n. verbale טבח, which Pro 7:22 denoted the slaughtering or the being slaughtered, signifies here, in the concrete sense, the slaughtered ox; Michaelis rightly remarks that טבח, in contradistinction to זבח, is the usual word for mactatio extrasacrificialis. Regarding מסך יין, vid., under Isa 5:22; it is not meant of the mingling of wine with sweet scents and spices, but with water (warm or cold), and signifies simply to make the wine palatable (as κεραννύναι, temperare); the lxx ἐκέρασεν εἰς κρατῆρα, κρατήρ is the name of the vessel in which the mixing takes place; they drank not ἄκρατον, but κεκερασμένον ἄκρατον, Rev 14:10. The frequently occurring phrase ערך שׁלחן signifies to prepare the table (from שׁלּח, properly the unrolled and outspread leather cover), viz., by the placing out of the dishes (vid., regarding ערך, under Gen 22:9).

Pro 9:3

The verb קרא, when a feast is spoken of, means to invite; קראים, Pro 9:18 (cf. 1Sa 9:13, etc.), are the guests. נערותיה the lxx translates τοὺς ἑαυτῆς δούλους, but certainly here the disciples are meant who already are in the service of Wisdom; but that those who are invited to Wisdom are thought of as feminine, arises from the tasteful execution of the picture. The invitation goes forth to be known to all far and wide, so that in her servants Wisdom takes her stand in the high places of the city. Instead of בּראשׁ, Pro 8:2; Pro 1:21, there is used here the expression על־גּפּי. We must distinguish the Semitic גּף (= ganf), wings, from גנף = כנף, to cover, and גּף (= gaff or ganf), the bark, which is derived either from גּפף or גּנף, Arab. jnf, convexus, incurvus et extrinsecus gibber fuit, hence originally any surface bent outwards or become crooked (cf. the roots cap, caf, קב כף גף גב, etc.), here the summit of a height (Fl.); thus not super alis (after the analogy of πτερύγιον, after Suidas = ἀκρωτήριον), but super dorsis (as in Lat. we say δορσυμ μοντις, and also viae).

Pro 9:4-6

Now follows the street-sermon of Wisdom inviting to her banquet: 4 Who is simple? let him come hither!”    Whoso wanteth understanding, to him she saith: 5 “Come, eat of my bread,    And drink of the wine which I have mingled! 6 Cease, ye simple, and live,    And walk straight on in the way of understanding.”

The question מי פּתי (thus with Munach, not with Makkeph, it is to be written here and at Pro 9:16; vid., Baer’s Torath Emeth, p. 40), quis est imperitus, is, as Psa 25:12, only a more animated expression for quisquis est. The retiring into the background of the נערות (servants), and the immediate appearance of Wisdom herself, together with the interruption, as was to be expected, of her connected discourses by the אמרה לּו, are signs that the pure execution of the allegorical representation is her at an end. Hitzig seeks, by the rejection of Pro 9:4, Pro 9:5, Pro 9:7-10, to bring in a logical sequence; but these interpolations which he cuts out are yet far more inconceivable than the proverbial discourses in the mouth of Wisdom, abandoning the figure of a banquet, which besides are wholly in the spirit of the author of this book. That Folly invites to her, Pro 9:16, in the same words as are used by Wisdom, Pro 9:4, is not strange; both address themselves to the simple (vid., on פּתי at Pro 1:4) and those devoid of understanding (as the youth, Pro 7:7), and seek to bring to their side those who are accessible to evil as to good, and do not dully distinguish between them, which the emulating devertat huc of both imports. The fourth verse points partly backwards, and partly forwards; 4a has its introduction in the תקרא of Pro 9:3; on the contrary, 4b is itself the introduction of what follows. The setting forth of the nom. absolutus חסר־לב is conditioned by the form of 4a; the מי (cf. 4a) is continued (in 4b) without its needing to be supplied: excors (= si quis est excors) dicit ei (not dixit, because syntactically subordinating itself to the תקרא). It is a nominal clause, whose virtual predicate (the devoid of understanding is thus and thus addressed by her) as in Pro 9:16.

Pro 9:7-9

In what now follows the discourse of Wisdom is continued; wherefore she directs her invitation to the simple, i.e., those who have not yet decided, and are perhaps susceptible of that which is better: 7 “He who correcteth a scorner draweth upon himself insult;    And he who communicateth instruction to a scorner, it is a dishonour to him. 8 Instruct not a scorner, lest he hate thee;    Give instruction to the wise, so he will love thee. 9 Give to the wise, and he becomes yet wiser;    Give knowledge to the upright, and he gains in knowledge.”

Zöckler thinks that herewith the reason for the summons to the “simple” to forsake the fellowship of men of their own sort, is assigned (he explains 6a as Ahron b. Joseph: הפרדו מן הפתאים); but his remark, that, under the term “simple,” mockers and wicked persons are comprehended as belonging to the same category, confounds two sharply distinguished classes of men. לץ is the freethinker who mocks at religion and virtue (vid., Pro 1:22), and רשׁע the godless who shuns restraint by God and gives himself up to the unbridled impulse to evil. The course of thought in Pro 9:7 and onwards shows why Wisdom, turning from the wise, who already are hers, directs herself only to the simple, and those who are devoid of understanding: she must pass over the לץ and רשׁע dna , because she can there hope for no receptivity for her invitation; she would, contrary to Mat 7:6, “give that which is holy to the dogs, and cast her pearls before swine.” יסר, παιδεύειν (with the prevailing idea of the bitter lesson of reproof and punishment), and הוכיח, ἐλέγχειν, are interchangeable conceptions, Psa 94:10; the ל is here exponent of the object (to bring an accusation against any one), as Pro 9:8, Pro 15:12 (otherwise as Isa 2:4; Isa 11:4, where it is the dat. commodi: to bring unrighteousness to light, in favour of the injured). יסר לץ is pointed with Mahpach of the penultima, and thus with the tone thrown back. The Pasek, placed in some editions between the two words, is masoretically inaccurate. He who reads the moral to the mocker brings disgrace to himself; the incorrigible replies to the goodwill with insult. Similar to the לקח לו here, is מרים tollit = reportat, Pro 3:25; Pro 4:27. In 7b מוּמו is by no means the object governed by וּמוכיח: and he who shows to the godless his fault (Meîri, Arama, Löwenstein: מומו = על־מומו, and thus also the Graec. Venet. μῶμον ἑαυτῷ, scil. λαμβάνει); plainly מומו is parallel with קלון. But מומו does not also subordinate itself to לקח as to the object. parallel קלון: maculam sibimet scil. acquirit; for, to be so understood, the author ought at least to have written לו מוּם. Much rather מומו is here, as at Deu 32:5, appos., thus pred. (Hitzig), without needing anything to be supplied: his blot it is, viz., this proceeding, which is equivalent to מוּמא הוּא ליהּ (Targ.), opprobrio ipsi est. Zöckler not incorrectly compares Psa 115:7 and Ecc 5:16, but the expression (macula ejus = ipsi) lies here less remote from our form of expression. In other words: Whoever correcteth the mockers has only to expect hatred (אל־תוכח with the tone thrown back, according to rule; cf. on the contrary, Jdg 18:25), but on the other hand, love from the wise.

Pro 9:10

These words naturally follow: 10 “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Jahve,      And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

This is the highest principle of the Chokma, which stands (Pro 1:7) as a motto at the beginning of the Book of Proverbs. The lxx translate ראשׁית there (Pro 1:7), and תּחלּת here, by ἀρχή. Gusset distinguishes the two synonyms as pars optima and primus actus; but the former denotes the fear of God as that which stands in the uppermost place, to which all that Wisdom accomplishes subordinates itself; the latter as that which begins wisdom, that which it proposes to itself in its course. With יהוה is interchanged, Pro 2:5, אלהים, as here קדושׁים, as the internally multiplicative plur. (Dietrich, Abhandlungen, pp. 12, 45), as Pro 30:3, Jos 24:9; Hos 12:1, of God, the “Holy, holy, holy” (Isa 6:3), i.e., Him who is absolutely Holy. Michaelis inaccurately, following the ancients, who understood not this non-numerical plur.: cognitio quae sanctos facit et sanctis propria est. The דּעת, parallel with יראת, is meant of lively practical operative knowledge, which subordinates itself to this All-holy God as the normative but unapproachable pattern.

Pro 9:11

The singular reason for this proverb of Wisdom is now given: “For by me will thy days become many,

And the years of thy life will be increased.”

Incorrectly Hitzig: “and years of life will increase to thee;” הוסיף is always and everywhere (e.g., also Job 38:11) transitive. In the similar passage, Pro 3:2, יוסיפו had as its subject the doctrine of Wisdom; here חכמה and בינה it is not practicable to interpret as subj., since 11a Wisdom is the subject discoursing - the expression follows the scheme, dicunt eos = dicuntur, as e.g., Job 7:3; Gesen. §137 - a concealing of the operative cause, which lies near, where, as Pro 2:22, the discourse is of severe judgment, thus: they (viz., the heavenly Powers) will grant to thee years of life (חיּים in a pregnant sense, as Pro 3:2) in rich measure, so that constantly one span comes after another. But in what connection of consequence does this stand with the contents of the proverb, Pro 9:10? The ancients say that the clause with כי refers back to Pro 9:5. The Pro 9:7-10 (according also to Fl.) are, as it were, parenthetic. Hitzig rejects these verses as an interpolation, but the connection of Pro 9:11 with 5f. retains also something that is unsuitable: “steps forward on the way of knowledge, for by me shall thy days become many;” and if, as Hitzig supposes, Pro 9:12 is undoubtedly genuine, whose connection with Pro 9:11 is in no way obvious, then also will the difficulty of the connection of Pro 9:7-10 with the preceding and the succeeding be no decisive mark of the want of genuineness of this course of thought. We have seen how the progress of Pro 9:6 to 7 is mediated: the invitation of Wisdom goes forth to the receptive, with the exclusion of the irrecoverable. And Pro 9:11 is related to Pro 9:10, as the proof of the cause from the effect. It is the fear of God with which Wisdom begins, the knowledge of God in which above all it consists, for by it is fulfilled the promise of life which is given to the fear of God, Pro 10:27; Pro 14:27; Pro 19:23, cf. Deu 4:40, and to humility, which is bound up with it. Pro 10:17.

Pro 9:12

This wisdom, resting on the fear of God, is itself a blessing to the wise: “If thou art wise, thou art wise for thyself;

And if thou mockest, thou alone shalt bear it.”

The lxx, with the Syr., mangle the thought of 12a, for they translate: if thou art wise for thyself, so also thou wilt be wise for thy neighbour. The dat. commodi לך means that it is for the personal advantage of the wise to be wise. The contrast expressed by Job 22:2.: not profitable to God, but to thyself (Hitzig), is scarcely intended, although, so far as the accentuation is antithetic, it is the nearest. The perf. ולצתּ is the hypothetical; Gesen. §126, 1. To bear anything, viz., anything sinful (חטא or עון), is equivalent to, to atone for it, Job 34:2, cf. Num 9:13; Eze 23:35. Also 12b is a contrast scarcely aimed at. Wisdom is its own profit to man; libertinism is its own disgrace. Man decides, whenever he prefers to be wise, or to be a mocker of religion and of virtue, regarding his own weal and woe. With this nota bene the discourse of Wisdom closes.

Pro 9:13-15

The poet now brings before us another figure, for he personifies Folly working in opposition to Wisdom, and gives her a feminine name, as the contrast to Wisdom required, and thereby to indicate that the seduction, as the 13th proverbial discourse (chap. 7) has shown, appears especially in the form of degraded womanhood: 13 The woman Folly [Frau Thorheit] conducts herself boisterously,      Wantonness, and not knowing anything at all; 14 And hath seated herself at the door of her house,      On a seat high up in the city, 15 To call to those who walk in the way,      Who go straight on their path.

The connection of אשת כּסילוּת is genitival, and the genitive is not, as in אשׁת רע, Pro 6:24, specifying, but appositional, as in בת־ציון (vid., under Isa 1:8). הומיּה [boisterous] is pred., as Pro 7:11 : her object is sensual, and therefore her appearance excites passionately, overcoming the resistance of the mind by boisterousness. In 13b it is further said who and how she is. פּתיּוּת she is called as wantonness personified. This abstract פּתיּוּת, derived from פּתי, must be vocalized as אכזריּוּת; Hitzig thinks it is written with a on account of the following u sound, but this formation always ends in ijjûth, not ajjûth. But as from חזה as well חזּיון = חזיון as חזון is formed, so from פּתה as well פּתוּת like חזוּת or פּתוּת like לזוּת, רעוּת, as פּתיוּת (instead of which פּתיּוּת is preferred) can be formed; Kimchi rightly (Michlol 181a) presents the word under the form פּעלוּת. With וּבל (Pro 14:7) poetic, and stronger than לאו, the designation of the subject is continued; the words וּבל־ידעה מּה (thus with Mercha and without Makkeph following, ידעה is to be written, after Codd. and old editions) have the value of an adjective: and not knowing anything at all (מה = τὶ, as Num 23:3; Job 13:13, and here in the negative clause, as in prose מאוּמה), i.e., devoid of all knowledge. The Targ. translates explanatorily: not recognising טבתּא, the good; and the lxx substitutes: she knows not shame, which, according to Hitzig, supposes the word כּלמּה, approved of by him; but כלמה means always pudefactio, not pudor. To know no כלמה would be equivalent to, to let no shaming from without influence one; for shamelessness the poet would have made use of the expression ובל־ידעה בּשׁת. In וישׁבה the declaration regarding the subject beginning with הומיה is continued: Folly also has a house in which works of folly are carried one, and has set herself down by the door (לפּתח as לפי, Pro 8:3) of this house; she sits there על־כּסּא. Most interpreters here think on a throne (lxx ἐπὶ δίφρου, used especially of the sella curulis); and Zöckler, as Umbreit, Hitzig, and others, connecting genitiv. therewith מרמי קרת, changes in 14b the scene, for he removes the “high throne of the city” from the door of the house to some place elsewhere. But the sitting is in contrast to the standing and going on the part of Wisdom on the streets preaching (Evagrius well renders: in molli ignavaque sella); and if כסא and house-door are named along with each other, the former is a seat before the latter, and the accentuation rightly separates by Mugrash כסא from מרמי קרת. “According to the accents and the meaning, מרמי קרת is the acc. loci: on the high places of the city, as Pro 8:2.” (Fl.). They are the high points of the city, to which, as Wisdom, Pro 9:3, Pro 8:2, so also Folly, her rival (wherefore Ecc 10:6 does not appertain to this place), invites followers to herself. She sits before her door to call לעברי דרך (with Munach, as in Cod. 1294 and old editions, without the Makkeph), those who go along the way (genitive connection with the supposition of the accusative construction, transire viam, as Pro 2:7), to call (invite) המישּׁרים (to be pointed with מ raphatum and Gaja going before, according to Ben-Asher’s rule; vid., Methegsetz. §20), those who make straight their path, i.e., who go straight on, directly before them (cf. Isa 57:2). The participial construction (the schemes amans Dei and amans Deum), as well as that of the verb קרא (first with the dat. and then with the accus.), interchange.

Pro 9:16-17

The woman, who in her own person serves as a sign to her house, addresses those who pass by in their innocence (לתמּם, 2Sa 15:11): 16 “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither!”      And if any one is devoid of understanding, she saith to him: 17 “Stolen waters taste sweet,      And the bread of secrecy is pleasant.” פּתי (folly, simplicity) has a side accessible to good and its contrary: Wisdom is connected with the one side, and Folly with the other. And as the חסר־לב offers a vacuum to Wisdom which may perhaps be filled with the right contents, so is this vacuum welcome to Folly, because it meets there no resistance. In this sense, Pro 9:16 is like Pro 9:4 (excepting the addition of a connecting and of a concluding ו: et si quis excors, tum dicit ei); the word is the same in both, but the meaning, according to the two speakers, is different. That to which they both invite is the pleasure of her fellowship, under the symbol of eating and drinking; in the one case it is intellectual and spiritual enjoyment, in the other sensual. That Wisdom offers (Pro 9:5) bread and wine, and Folly water and bread, has its reason in this, that the particular pleasure to which the latter invites is of a sensual kind; for to drink water out of his own or out of another fountain is (Pro 3:15-20) the symbol of intercourse in married life, or of intercourse between the unmarried, particularly of adulterous intercourse. מים גּנוּבים (correct texts have it thus, without the Makkeph) is sexual intercourse which is stolen from him who has a right thereto, thus carnal intercourse with אושׁת אישׁ; and לחם סתרים fleshly lust, which, because it is contrary to the law, must seek (cf. furtum, secret love intrigue) concealment (סתרים, extensive plur., as מעמקּים; Böttcher, §694). Just such pleasure, after which one wipes his mouth as if he had done nothing (Pro 30:20), is for men who are without wisdom sweet (מתק, Job 20:12) and pleasant; the prohibition of it gives to such pleasure attraction, and the secrecy adds seasoning; and just such enjoyments the כסילות, personified carnality, offers. But woe to him who, befooled, enters her house!

Pro 9:18

He goes within: 18 And he knows not that the dead are there;      In the depths of Hades, her guests.

How near to one another the house of the adulteress and Hades are, so that a man passes through the one into the other, is already stated in Pro 2:18; Pro 7:27. Here, in the concluding words of the introduction to the Book of Proverbs, addressed to youth, and for the most part containing warning against sinful pleasure, these two further declarations are advanced: the company assembled in the house of lewdness consists of רפאים, i.e., (cf. p. 83) the old, worn-out, who are only in appearance living, who have gone down to the seeming life of the shadowy existence of the kingdom of the dead; her (כסילות) invited ones (cf. Pro 7:26, her slaughtered ones) are in the depths of Hades (not in the valleys, as Umbreit, Löwenstein, and Ewald translate, but in the depths, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, ἐπὶ τοῖς βαθέσι; for עמקי is not only plur. to עמק, but also per metaplasmum to עמק, Pro 25:3, as אמרי to אמר), thus in שׁאול תּחתּית (Deu 32:22); they have forsaken the fellowship of the life and of the love of God, and have sunk into the deepest destruction. The house of infamy into which Folly allures does not only lead to hell, it is hell itself; and they who permit themselves to be thus befooled are like wandering corpses, and already on this side of death are in the realm of wrath and of the curse.The lxx has considerable additions introduced after Pro 9:18, as also after Pro 9:12, of which we shall elsewhere speak.

The Invitation of Wisdom.

1 Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: 2 She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table. 3 She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city, 4 Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, 5 Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. 6 Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding. 7 He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. 8 Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. 9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. 11 For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased. 12 If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.

Wisdom is here introduced as a magnificent and munificent queen, very great and very generous; that Word of God is this Wisdom in which God makes known his goodwill towards men; God the Word is this Wisdom, to whom the Father has committed all judgment. He who, in the chapter before, showed his grandeur and glory as the Creator of the world, here shows his grace and goodness as the Redeemer of it. The word is plural, Wisdoms; for in Christ are hid treasures of wisdom, and in his undertaking appears the manifold wisdom of God in a mystery. Now observe here,

I. The rich provision which Wisdom has made for the reception of all those that will be her disciples. This is represented under the similitude of a sumptuous feast, whence it is probable, our Saviour borrowed those parables in which he compared the kingdom of heaven to a great supper, Matt. xxii. 2; Luke xiv. 16. And so it was prophesied of, Isa. xxv. 6. It is such a feast as Ahasuerus made to show the riches of his glorious kingdom. The grace of the gospel is thus set before us in the ordinance of the Lord's supper. To bid her guests welcome, 1. Here is a stately palace provided, v. 1. Wisdom, not finding a house capacious enough for all her guests, has built one on purpose, and, both to strengthen it and to beautify it, she has hewn out her seven pillars, which make it to be very firm, and look very great. Heaven is the house which Wisdom has built to entertain all her guests that are called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb; that is her Father's house, where there are many mansions, and whither she has gone to prepare places for us. She has hanged the earth upon nothing, there in it we have no continuing city; but heaven is a city that has foundations, has pillars. The church is Wisdom's house, to which she invites her guests, supported by the power and promise of God, as by seven pillars. Probably, Solomon refers to the temple which he himself had lately built for the service of religion, and to which he would persuade people to resort, both to worship God and to receive the instructions of Wisdom. Some reckon the schools of the prophets to be here intended. 2. Here is a splendid feast got ready (v. 2): She has killed her beasts; she has mingled her wine; plenty of meat and drink are provided, and all of the best. She has killed her sacrifice (so the word is); it is a sumptuous, but a sacred feast, a feast upon a sacrifice. Christ has offered up himself a sacrifice for us, and it is his flesh that is meat indeed and his blood that is drink indeed. The Lord's supper is a feast of reconciliation and joy upon the sacrifice of atonement. The wine is mingled with something richer than itself, to give it a more than ordinary spirit and flavour. She has completely furnished her table with all the satisfactions that a soul can desire-righteousness and grace, peace and joy, the assurances of God's love, the consolations of the Spirit, and all the pledges and earnests of eternal life. Observe, It is all Wisdom's own doing; she has killed the beasts, she has mingled the wine, which denotes both the love of Christ, who makes the provision (he does not leave it to others, but takes the doing of it into his own hands), and the excellency of the preparation. That must needs be exactly fitted to answer the end which Wisdom herself has the fitting up of.

II. The gracious invitation she has given, not to some particular friends, but to all in general, to come and take part of these provisions. 1. She employs her servants to carry the invitation round about in the country: She has sent forth her maidens, v. 3. The ministers of the gospel are commissioned and commanded to give notice of the preparations which God has made, in the everlasting covenant, for all those that are willing to come up to the terms of it; and they, with maiden purity, not corrupting themselves or the word of God, and with an exact observance of their orders, are to call upon all they meet with, even in the highways and hedges, to come and feast with Wisdom, for all things are now ready, Luke xiv. 23. 2. She herself cries upon the highest places of the city, as one earnestly desirous of the welfare of the children of men, and grieved to see them rejecting their own mercies for lying vanities. Our Lord Jesus was himself the publisher of his own gospel; when he had sent forth his disciples he followed them to confirm what they said; nay, it began to be spoken by the Lord, Heb. ii. 3. He stood, and cried, Come unto me. We see who invited; now let us observe,

(1.) To whom the invitation is given: Whoso is simple and wants understanding, v. 4. If we were to make an entertainment, of all people we should not care for, much less court, the company of such, but rather of philosophers and learned men, that we might hear their wisdom, and whose table-talk would be improving. "Have I need of madmen?" But Wisdom invites such, because what she has to give is what they most need, and it is their welfare that she consults, and aims at, in the preparation and invitation. He that is simple is invited, that he may be made wise, and he that wants a heart (so the word is) let him come hither, and he shall have one. Her preparations are rather physic than food, designed for the most valuable and desirable cure, that of the mind. Whosoever he be, the invitation is general, and excludes none that do not exclude themselves; though they be ever so foolish, yet, [1.] They shall be welcome. [2.] They may be helped; they shall neither be despised nor despaired of. Our Saviour came, not to call the righteous, but sinners, not the wise in their own eyes, who say they see (John ix. 41), but the simple, those who are sensible of their simplicity and ashamed of it, and him that is willing to become a fool, that he may be wise, 1 Cor. iii. 18.

(2.) What the invitation is. [1.] We are invited to Wisdom's house: Turn in hither. I say we are, for which of us is there that must not own the character of the invited, that are simple and want understanding? Wisdom's doors stand open to such, and she is desirous to have some conversation with them, one word for their good, nor has she any other design upon them. [2.] We are invited to her table (v. 5): Come, eat of my bread, that is, taste of the true pleasures that are to be found in the knowledge and fear of God. By faith acted on the promises of the gospel, applying them to ourselves and taking the comfort of them, we feed, we feast, upon the provisions Christ has made for poor souls. What we eat and drink we make our own, we are nourished and refreshed by it, and so are our souls by the word of God; it has that in it which is meat and drink to those that have understanding.

(3.) What is required of those that may have the benefit of this invitation, v. 6. [1.] They must break off from all bad company: "Forsake the foolish, converse not with them, conform not to their ways, have no fellowship with the works of darkness, or with those that deal in such works." The first step towards virtue is to shun vice, and therefore to shun the vicious. Depart from me, you evil-doers. [2.] They must awake and arise from the dead; they must live, not in pleasure (for those that do so are dead while they live), but in the service of God; for those only that do so live indeed, live to some purpose. "Live not a mere animal-life, as brutes, but now, at length, live the life of men. Live and you shall live; live spiritually, and you shall live eternally," Eph. v. 14. [3.] They must choose the paths of Wisdom, and keep to them: "Go in the way of understanding; govern thyself henceforward by the rules of religion and right reason." It is not enough to forsake the foolish, but we must join ourselves with those that walk in wisdom, and walk in the same spirit and steps.

III. The instructions which Wisdom gives to the maidens she sends to invite, to the ministers and others, who in their places are endeavouring to serve her interests and designs. She tells them,

1. What their work must be, not only to tell in general what preparation is made for souls, and to give a general offer of it, but they must address themselves to particular persons, must tell them of their faults, reprove, rebuke, v. 7, 8. They must instruct them how to amend—teach, v. 9. The word of God is intended, and therefore so is the ministry of that word, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.

2. What different sorts of persons they would meet with, and what course they must take with them, and what success they might expect.

(1.) They would meet with some scorners and wicked men who would mock the messengers of the Lord, and misuse them, would laugh those to scorn that invite them to the feast of the Lord, as they did, 2 Chron. xxx. 10, would treat them spitefully, Matt. xxii. 6. And, though they are not forbidden to invite those simple ones to Wisdom's house, yet they are advised not to pursue the invitation by reproving and rebuking them. Reprove not a scorner; cast not these pearls before swine, Matt. vii. 6. Thus Christ said of the Pharisees, Let them alone, Matt. xv. 14. "Do not reprove them." [1.] "In justice to them, for those have forfeited the favour of further means who scorn the means they have had. Those that are thus filthy, let them be filthy still; those that are joined to idols, let them alone; lo, we turn to the Gentiles." [2.] "In prudence to yourselves; because, if you reprove them," First, "You lose your labour, and so get to yourselves shame for the disappointment." Secondly, "You exasperate them; do it ever so wisely and tenderly, if you do it faithfully, they will hate you, they will load you with reproaches, and say all the ill they can of you, and so you will get a blot; therefore you had better not meddle with them, for your reproofs will be likely to do more hurt than good."

(2.) They would meet with others, who are wise, and good, and just; thanks be to God, all are not scorners. We meet with some who are so wise for themselves, to just to themselves, as to be willing and glad to be taught; and when we meet with such, [1.] If there be occasion, we must reprove them; for wise men are not so perfectly wise but there is that in them which needs a reproof; and we must not connive at any man's faults because we have a veneration for his wisdom, nor must a wise man think that his wisdom exempts him from reproof when he says or does any thing foolishly; but the more wisdom a man has the more desirous he should be to have his weaknesses shown him, because a little folly is a great blemish to him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour. [2.] With our reproofs we must give them instruction, and must teach them, v. 9. [3.] We may expect that our doing so will be taken as a kindness, Ps. cxli. 5. A wise man will reckon those his friends who deal faithfully with him: "Rebuke such a one, and he will love thee for thy plain dealing, will thank thee, and desire thee to do him the same good turn another time, if there be occasion." It is as great an instance of wisdom to take a reproof well as to give it well, [4.] Being taken well, it will do good, and answer the intention. A wise man will be made wiser by the reproofs and instructions that are given him; he will increase in learning, will grow in knowledge, and so grow in grace. None must think themselves too wise to learn, nor so good that they need not be better and therefore need not be taught. We must still press forward, and follow on to know till we come to the perfect man. Give to a wise man (so it is in the original), give him advice, give him reproof, give him comfort, and he will be yet wiser; give him occasion (so the LXX.), occasion to show his wisdom, and he will show it, and the acts of wisdom will strengthen the habits.

IV. The instructions she gives to those that are invited, which her maidens must inculcate upon them.

1. Let them know wherein true wisdom consists, and what will be their entertainment at Wisdom's table, v. 10. (1.) The heart must be principled with the fear of God; that is the beginning of wisdom. A reverence of God's majesty, and a dread of his wrath, are that fear of him which is the beginning, the first step towards true religion, whence all other instances of it take rise. This fear may, at first, have torment, but love will, by degrees, cast out the torment of it. (2.) The head must be filled with the knowledge of the things of God. The knowledge of holy things (the word is plural) is understanding, the things pertaining to the service of God (those are called holy things), that pertain to our own sanctification; reproof is called that which is holy, Matt. vii. 6. Or the knowledge which holy men have, which was taught by the holy prophets, of those things which holy men spoke as they were moved by the holy Ghost, this is understanding; it is the best and most useful understanding, will stand us in most stead and turn to the best account.

2. Let them know what will be advantages of this wisdom (v. 11): "By me thy days shall be multiplied. It will contribute to the health of thy body, and so the years of thy life on earth shall be increased, while men's folly and intemperance shorten their days. It will bring thee to heaven, and there thy days shall be multiplied in infinitum—to infinity, and the years of thy life shall be increased without end." There is no true wisdom but in the say of religion and no true life but in the end of that way.

3. Let them know what will be the consequence of their choosing or refusing this fair offer, v. 12. Here is, (1.) The happiness of those that embrace it: "If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself; thou wilt be the gainer by it, not Wisdom." A man cannot be profitable to God. It is to our own good that we are thus courted. "Thou wilt not leave the gain to others" (as we do our worldly wealth when we die, which is therefore called another man's, Luke xvi. 12), "but thou shalt carry it with thee into another world." Those that are wise for their souls are wise for themselves, for the soul is the man; nor do any consult their own true interest but those that are truly religious. This recommends us to God, and recovers us from that which is our folly and degeneracy; it employs us in that which is most beneficial in this world, and entitles us to that which is much more so in the world to come. (2.) The shame and ruin of those that slight it: "If thou scornest Wisdom's proffer, thou alone shalt bar it." [1.] "Thou shalt bear the blame of it." Those that are good must thank God, but those that are wicked may thank themselves; it is not owing to God (he is not the author of sin); Satan can only tempt, he cannot force; and wicked companions are but his instruments; so that all the fault must lie on the sinner himself. [2.] "Thou shalt bear the loss of that which thou scornest; it will be to thy own destruction; thy blood will be upon thy own head, and the consideration of this will aggravate thy condemnation. Son, remember, that thou hadst this fair offer made thee, and thou wouldst not accept it; thou stoodest fair for life, but didst choose death rather."

The Invitation of Folly.

13 A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing. 14 For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, 15 To call passengers who go right on their ways: 16 Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, 17 Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. 18 But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.

We have heard what Christ has to say, to engage our affections to God and godliness, and one would think the whole world should go after him; but here we are told how industrious the tempter is to seduce unwary souls into the paths of sin, and with the most he gains his point, and Wisdom's courtship is not effectual. Now observe,

I. Who is the tempter—a foolish woman, Folly herself, in opposition to Wisdom. Carnal sensual pleasure I take to be especially meant by this foolish woman (v. 13); for that is the great enemy to virtue and inlet to vice; that defiles and debauches the mind, stupefies conscience, and puts out the sparks of conviction, more than any thing else. This tempter is here described to be, 1. Very ignorant: She is simple and knows nothing, that is, she has no sufficient solid reason to offer; where she gets dominion in a soul she works out all the knowledge of holy things; they are lost and forgotten. Whoredom, and wine, and new wine, take away the heart; they besot men, and make fools of them. (2.) Very importunate. The less she has to offer that is rational the more violent and pressing she is, and carries the day often by dint of impudence. She is clamorous and noisy (v. 13), continually haunting young people with her enticements. She sits at the door of her house (v. 14), watching for a prey; not as Abraham at his tent-door, seeking an opportunity to do good. She sits on a seat (on a throne, so the word signifies) in the high places of the city, as if she had authority to give law, and we were all debtors to the flesh, to live after the flesh, and as if she had reputation, and were in honour, and thought worthy of the high places of the city; and perhaps she gains upon many more by pretending to be fashionable than by pretending to be agreeable. "Do not all persons of rank and figure in the world" (says she) "give themselves a greater liberty than the strict laws of virtue allow; and why shouldst thou humble thyself so far as to be cramped by them?" Thus the tempter affects to seem both kind and great.

II. Who are the tempted—young people who have been well educated; these she will triumph most in being the ruin of. Observe, 1. What their real character is; they are passengers that go right on their ways (v. 15), that have been trained up in the paths of religion and virtue and set out very hopefully and well, that seemed determined and designed for good, and are not (as that young man, ch. vii. 8) going the way to her house. Such as these she has a design upon, and lays snares for, and uses all her arts, all her charms, to pervert them; if they go right on, and will not look towards her, she will call after them, so urgent are these temptations. (2.) How she represents them. She calls them simple and wanting understanding, and therefore courts them to her school, that they may be cured of the restraints and formalities of their religion. This is the method of the stage (which is too close an exposition of this paragraph), where the sober young man, that has been virtuously educated, is the fool in the play, and the plot is to make him seven times more a child of hell than his profane companions, under colour of polishing and refining him, and setting him up for a wit and a beau. What is justly charged upon sin and impiety (v. 4), that it is folly, is here very unjustly retorted upon the ways of virtue; but the day will declare who are the fools.

III. What the temptation is (v. 17): Stolen waters are sweet. It is to water and bread, whereas Wisdom invites to the beasts she has killed and the wine she has mingled; however, bread and water are acceptable enough to those that are hungry and thirsty; and this is pretended to be more sweet and pleasant than common, for it is stolen water and bread eaten in secret, with a fear of being discovered. The pleasures of prohibited lusts are boasted of as more relishing than those of prescribed love; and dishonest gain is preferred to that which is justly gotten. Now this argues, not only a bold contempt, but an impudent defiance, 1. Of God's law, in that the waters are the sweeter for being stolen and come at by breaking through the hedge of the divine command. Nitimur in vetitum—We are prone to what is forbidden. This spirit of contradiction we have from our first parents, who thought the forbidden tree of all others a tree to be desired. 2. Of God's curse. The bread is eaten in secret, for fear of discovery and punishment, and the sinner takes a pride in having so far baffled his convictions, and triumphed over them, that, notwithstanding that fear, he dares commit the sin, and can make himself believe that, being eaten in secret, it shall never be discovered or reckoned for. Sweetness and pleasantness constitute the bait; but, by the tempter's own showing, even that is so absurd, and has such allays, that it is a wonder how it can have any influence upon men that pretend to reason.

IV. An effectual antidote against the temptation, in a few words, v. 18. He that so far wants understanding as to be drawn aside by these enticements is led on, ignorantly, to his own inevitable ruin: He knows not, will not believe, does not consider, the tempter will not let him know, that the dead are there, that those who live in pleasure are dead while they live, dead in trespasses and sins. Terrors attend these pleasures like the terrors of death itself. The giants are there—Rephaim. It was this that ruined the sinners of the old world, the giants that were in the earth in those days. Her guests, that are treated with those stolen waters, are not only in the highway to hell and at the brink of it, but they are already in the depths of hell, under the power of sin, led captive by Satan at his will, and ever and anon lashed by the terrors of their own consciences, which are a hell upon earth. The depths of Satan are the depths of hell; remorseless sin is remediless ruin, it is the bottomless pit already. Thus does Solomon show the hook; those that believe him will not meddle with the bait.

CHAP. IX. Verſ. 1. Wiſdome]

HEbr. Wiſdomes in the plural; and this, either honoris cauſa, for honours ſake, or elſe by an Ellypſis, as if the whole of it were Wiſdome of Wiſdomes, as the Song of Songs for a moſt excellent Song, Cant. 1.1. Junius renders it Summa ſapientia: See the Note of Chap. 1.20.

Hath builded her houſe] That is, the Church, 1 Tim. 3.15. See the Note there.

Shee hath hewn out her ſeven pillars] Pillars, and poliſhed pillars. Any thing is good enough to make up a mud-wall; but the Churches Pillars are of Marble; and thoſe, not rough, but hewn; her ſafety is accompanied with beauty.

Verſ. 2. Shee hath killed her Beaſts] Chriſt provideth for his the beſt of the beſt, fat things full of marrow, wines on the lees, &c. Iſa. 26. his own fleſh which is meat indeed, his own blood which is drink indeed, Joh. 6.55. beſides that continual feaſt of a good conſcience, whereat the holy Angels (ſaith Luther) are as Cooks, and Butlers, and the bleſſed Trinity joyful gueſts.

Shee hath mingled her Wine] That it may not inflame or diſtemper. Chriſt ſpake as the people were able to hear, liſping to them in their own low language; So muſt all his Miniſters accommodating themſelves to the meaneſt capacities. Mercers note here is, Cum ſobrietate tractandae Scripturae. The Scriptures are to bee handled with ſobriety.

Shee hath alſo furniſhed her table] So that it even ſweats with variety of precious viands wherewith her gueſts are daily and daintily fed. Mr. Latimer ſayes, That the aſſurance of Salvation, is the ſweet-meats of this ſtately Feaſt. But what a do[illegible: 1 letter]t was Cardinal Bobba, who ſpeaking in commendation of the Library of Bonony (which being in an upper-room hath under it a Victualling-houſe,Angel. Roccha in Vatican. p. 395. and under that a Wine-cellar) had thought hee had hit it, in applying thereunto this Text, Wiſdome hath built her an houſe, hath m[illegible: 1 letter]ngled her wine, and furniſhed her table?

Verſ. 3. Shee hath ſent forth her Maidens] So Miniſters are called (in proſecution of the allegory, for it is fit that this great Lady ſhould have ſuitable attendants) to teach them innocency, purity, and ſedulity, as Maidens; keeping the word in ſincerity, and not adulterating and corrupting it, as Vintners oft do their Wines, or Huckſters their Wares. Hence Iſaiah alſo putteth the Prophets and Evangeliſts in the Feminine gender, Mebaſhereth, Iſa. 52.7.

Shee crieth upon, &c.] Shee, together with her maids, crieth; ſhee puts not off all the buſineſs to them, but hath a hand in it her ſelf. Wee are workers together with God, ſaith Paul.

Verſ. 4. Who ſo is ſimple] and withall perſwadeable; that have not yet contracted that callum obductum, corneas fibras, brawny breaſts, horney heart-ſtrings.

Shee ſaith to him] It is Chriſt then that ſpeaketh in his Miniſters, He that heareth you, heareth mee: Yee received it not as the word of man, but as it is indeed, the Word of the ever-living God.

Verſ. 5. Come eat of my bread] Stand not off in a ſinful modeſty; ſay not, I am not worthy, &c. but come, for the Maſter calls you, as they ſaid to the blinde man, who therefore came. And thoſe reculant gueſts, by not coming when invited, might not taſte of Chriſts Supper; for they were unworthy, Matth. 22.

And drink of the wine which I have mingled] Loe here a full feaſt, not a dry feaſt. Liranus noteth on this Chapter, that the Euchariſt was anciently delivered in both kinds: But becauſe of the danger of ſpilling the blood, the Church ordained that Lay-men ſhould have the bread onely.Caranza. The Council of Conſtance comes in with a Non-obſtante againſt Chriſts inſtitution, with-holding the Cup from the Sacrament.

Verſ. 6. Forſake the fooliſh] No coming to this Feaſt in the tottered rags of the old Adam; You muſt relinquiſh your former evil courſes and companies. There are that read the words thus, Forſake, O fooliſh ones, viz. your own wayes, and live.

And go in the way of underſtanding] Renounce your vices, and practice the contrary graces. True repentance ſtands in an intire change of the whole man, from all that is evil, to all that is good.

Verſ. 7. He that reproveth a ſcorner] This, with the three next verſes, may ſeem to come in by way of Parentheſis: And they do not obſcurely intimate, what manner of hearers Miniſters moſtly meet with, viz. ſuch as our Saviour did, [non-Latin text not transcribed] Luke 16.14. But the Phariſees that were covetous, derided, or blew their noſes at him, as One renders it. And ſuch as long before him the Prophet Iſaiah did, Chap. 28.10. Precept upon precept, line upon line, &c. One obſerveth that that was a ſcoff put upon the Prophet: And is as if they ſhould ſay, Here is nothing but line upon line, precept upon precept. The very ſound of the words in the Original (Zau le zau, kau, lakau) carries a taunt, as ſcornful people by the tone of their voyce, and riming words, ſcorn at ſuch as they deſpiſe.

Verſ. 8. Reprove not a ſcorner] See my Common-place of Admonition. Look how Dogs prefer loathſome carrion before the ſweeteſt odours, and would fl[illegible: 1 letter]e in the faces of ſuch as would drive them from it: So is it here.

And hee will love thee] When hee hath well conſidered he will; though for preſent he may ſeem to do otherwiſe▪ As Aſa ſwaggered with the Prophet, and put him in priſon. We read in the Eccleſiaſtical Hiſtory, that Agapetus Biſhop of Rome, being ſent by Theodatus King of Goths to Conſtantinople on an Ambaſſage to Justinian, and having obtained a peace, hee was earneſtly intreated by the Emperour to ſubſcribe and confirm the Hereſie of Eutyches. This when hee utterly refuſed to do, the Emperour threatned him in caſe hee did not. Agapetus thereto boldly replied, I had a deſire to wait upon Juſtinian, whom I took to be a moſt pious Prince, but now I perceive him to bee a moſt violent perſecutor, a ſecond Diocleſian. With this free reproof, and Gods bleſſing withall, Juſtinian was ſo wrought upon, that hee preſently embraced the true Faith; and baniſhing Biſhop Anthemius, a great propagator of the Eutychian Hereſie,Funcius. hee ſet up Menna an Orthodox Divine in his room, whom Agapetus conſecrated, if Platina may bee beleeved. David loved Nathan the better while hee lived, for dealing ſo plainly with him: Aug. Comp. And named him a Commiſſioner for the declaring of his Succeſſor, 1 King. 1. So Alipius loved Auſtin for reproving him.

Verſ. 9. Give admonition to a wiſe man] This is an Alms that the pooreſt may give, and bee never the poorer, but the better. For by inſtructing another, a man engageth himſelf, leſt hee hear, Phyſician heal thy ſelf, Turpe eſt doctori, cum culpa redarguit ipſum. See my common place of Admonition.

Verſ. 10. The fear of the Lord] See the Note on Chap. 1.7. Here it is given as a reaſon why wiſe men are the better for ſharp and ſeaſonable admonition, becauſe the fear of the Lord is in them. This makes them, when they are reproved of all, fall upon their faces, worſhip God, and ſay, God is in you of a truth, 1 Cor. 14.26. What ſhall wee ſay unto my Lord? What ſhall wee ſpeak? How ſhall wee juſtifie our ſelves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy ſervants, &c. Gen. 44.16.

And the knowledge of the holy] That is, of the holy God. Holy is here in the plural number, importing the Trinity of Perſons, as likewiſe Joſh. 24.19. Howbeit wee may well take in here, holy Angels and Saints, whoſe Kingdome is in Daniel ſaid to bee the ſame with the Kingdome of God, Dan. 7.22, 27. and whoſe knowledge is the right underſtanding of Gods will revealed in his Word.

Verſ. 11. For by mee thy daies] This verſe depends upon verſ. 6. See the Note on verſ. 7. Thoſe that embrace wiſdome, ſhall bee paid for their pains, either in mony, or monies-worth: Either they ſhall dye, as Abraham did, with a good gray-head, or elſe with Joſiah, they ſhall live long in a little time, and then live for ever in Heaven. Henoch had the ſhorteſt life of any of the ten Patriarchs: But then hee was recompenced in the longeſt life of his Son Methuſalah, but eſpecially, in that God took him to glory. Beſides, that though hee departed the world ſoon, yet fulfilled hee much time, as Mr. Hooker hath it.Eccleſ poſit. l. 4. p. 168.

And the year of thy life ſhall bee encreaſed] Heb. They ſhall encreaſe the years of thy life. That is, they that ſurvive thee, ſhall perpetuate thy memory, thy good name ſhall never dye. Some live to bee their own Executors for their good name; and yet they ſee them (not honeſtly) buried before themſelves dye: Nay, many are as thoſe, Job 27.15, 23. hiſſed and kickt off this Stage of the World, buried before they are half dead. There is ſcarce a vicious man, whoſe name is not rotten before his carkaſs. On the other ſide, a good mans name is oft-times the heir to his life. Or, if obſcured for a time, as the Martyrs were, yet as the Sun breaks through the cloud that masketh it, ſo God ſhall bring forth their righteouſneſs as the light, and their judgement as the noon-day, Pſal. 37.6.

Verſ. 12. If thou bee wiſe, thou ſhalt] The benefit ſhall bee thine own. Plutarch reports of the Palm-tree, that it yeelds to the Babylonians 360. ſeveral commodities; And is therefore in great eſteem amongſt them. How ſhould men eſteem of found wiſdome, ſith there is a [non-Latin text not transcribed] in it, 1 Tim. 4.8. a thouſand commodities to bee reaped by it?

Thou alone ſhalt bear it] Thy ſcorning ſhall not, as thou thinkeſt, hurt him that tendereth thy ſalvation. For as the air, when beaten, is not hurt, no, nor ſo much as divided, but returns to his place, and becomes thicker: Ita animus recti conſcius, & ad optima erectus, non admittit irridentium flatus, nec ſentit, ſaith One; ſo an honeſt heart, ſet for Heaven, ſlights the contempts of graceleſs perſons, and pitties them that jeer when they ſhould fear, as much as good Lot once did his prophane Sons in Law. His words to ſuch are like thoſe of the Prophet; Bee not yee mockers, leſt your bands bee increaſed; Iſa. 28.22. with 10. See verſ. 7. of this Chapter.

Verſ. 13. A fooliſh woman is clamorous] This woman is Folly, as that woman ſitting in the Epah is wickedneſs, Zach. 5.7. Lavater is of opinion, that as by Wiſdome is meant Chriſt, ſo by this fooliſh woman here is meant Antichriſt; to whom therefore hee finely fitteth and applieth all the following words.

Is clamorous] Folly is full of words, and of a laviſh tongue: her factours are extreme talkative, and uſually lay on more words than the matter will bear: A great deal of ſmall talk you ſhall uſually have from them. A fool alſo is full of words, Eccleſ. 10.14 ſaith Solomon, and this fond cuſtome of his is there expreſſed by way of imitation, in his vain tautologies: A man cannot tell what ſhall bee; and what ſhall bee after him who can tell? Eccleſ. 10.24. The baſeſt things are ever the moſt plentiful. Some kinde of Mice breed a hundred and twenty young ones in one neſt; whereas the Lion and Elephant bear but one at once; ſo the leaſt wit yeelds the moſt words. Ariſtophanes and Lucian, when they deſcribe fools, they call them [non-Latin text not transcribed], Gapers, or Open-mouthed. Guiltineſs is ever clamorous, and the moſt lewd are moſt loud, Act. 7.27, 28.

Verſ. 14. For ſhee ſitteth at the door] In a Harlots habit, to ſee and bee ſeen, the guiſe and garb of Harlots. Tully wittily compareth the Greek tongue to an ambitious ſtrumpet, quae multo luxu ſuperfluat, which overlaſheth in too much bravery: But the Latin tongue to an honeſt and modeſt Matron, cui nihil deeſt quod ad honeſtum pertineat mundiciem, That wants nothing pertaining to a neceſſary neatneſs. Such a like compariſon between Wiſdome and Folly is here made by Solomon.

Mat. 24.Verſ. 15. That go right on their way] Shee fights at the faireſt, ſeeks to ſeduce the forwardeſt. They ſhall deceive if it were poſſible, the very elect. Flies ſettle upon the ſweeteſt perfumes, when they are cold, and corrupt them.

Mat. 7.Verſ. 16. Who is ſimple] Wiſdomes own words, verſ. 4. Take heed, ſaith our Saviour; they come unto you in ſheeps cloathing, but truſt them not: for with fair words and flattering ſpeeches, they deceive the hearts of the ſimple, Rom. 16. Samuel himſelf could not have ſpoken more gravely, ſeverely, divinely to Saul, than the f[illegible: 1 letter]iend at Endor did; when the Devil himſelf puts on gravity and religion, who can marvel at the hypocriſie of men?

Verſ. 17. Stollen waters are ſweet] Forbidden pleaſures are moſt pleaſing to Senſualiſts, who count no mirth but madneſs, no pleaſure, unleſs they may have the Devil to their play-fellow. Veniſon is nothing ſo ſweet, they ſay, as when it is ſtolen.

Ovid.Quod licet ingratum eſt; quod non licet, acrius urit: Sic interdictis imminet ager aquis.

Men long to bee medling with the murthering morſels of ſin, which nouriſh not, but rent and conſume the belly that receives them. Many eat that on earth,In terris manducant quod apud inferos digerant. Auguſtin. that they digeſt in Hell.

Verſ. 18. That the dead are there] See the Notes on Chapter 2.18. and 7.27.