Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 3:16

Length of days [is] in her right hand; [and] in her left hand riches and honor.

16. The LXX. add at the end of this verse:

“Out of her mouth proceedeth righteousness;

Instruction and compassion she beareth upon her tongue.”

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Pro 3:16

Length of days is in her right hand.

Godliness a help to longevity

So far from being true that good men, women, and children die sooner than others, the reverse is actually the case. As wickedness acts as a shortener of life, so does a regard for Gods wholesome laws help to lengthen it. It is an unnatural thing for one to desire to die before he has finished his work on earth. It cannot be wrong in us to love life, when God promises it to His children as a special blessing. It is easy to discover why religion is conducive to length of days. Obedient children will be most likely to avoid the vices and crimes which shorten life. The love of life is not peculiar to man as a fallen being. Why do we desire that length of days should be our portion?

I. Because life is pleasant, and the world, in spite of seasons of clouds and storms, is a beautiful one. Illustrate by the summer landscape. We love life for its many comforts and enjoyments. Who can estimate the pleasures of the family circle, the genial intercourse of friends, the cultivation of refinement and taste, the peculiar satisfaction which attends literary labours, the accumulation of property as a provision against the season of old age, and that we bear our part in works of beneficence and charity?

II. Because it is a season of usefulness.

III. Because through length of days on earth, we may be the better prepared to meet God. Eternity alone is the real life-time of the soul. A life without a purpose is utterly unworthy of him on whom God has bestowed mental gifts and the gift of immortality. (John N. Norton.)

The fruits of wisdom

There is a great difference between the Old Testament and the New, with respect to the motives by which religious virtue is severally enforced in them. In the old covenant there was an established connection between obedience and outward prosperity. The New Testament differeth from this very widely, both in its general declarations and the instances of fact which its history containeth. Our Lord assured His disciples that they must expect tribulation. Length of days, riches, and honours, instead of being promised as the rewards of Christianity, in some cases, must be renounced by all the servants and disciples of Jesus Christ. It may be that we are reminded of two expressions which seem to promise material prosperity (Mat 6:33; 1Ti 4:8). But in the first our Lords design is to show the folly of an inordinate carefulness, not about abundance of worldly things, outward splendour, and great wealth, but the necessaries of life, what we shall eat and drink, and wherewithal we shall be clothed. The promise therefore must be understood to extend no farther than to answer the intention of superseding our thoughtfulness about these needful things. As to the other text, it seemeth to mean that in the practice of true religion we may hope that, ordinarily, Gods gracious care will be employed for our support and preservation. If we observe the ordinary methods of Divine providence, and the general course and state of things, with their connection and dependence in this world, we shall find that, for the most part, the practice of the Christian virtues hath a tendency even to our outward advantage, and to promote our present interest, rather than the contrary. The observation holdeth more universally with respect to communities, some of which have risen from very small beginnings to great and powerful nations, by industry, frugality, the exact distribution of justice, fidelity, and other virtues; on the other hand, the history of all ages showeth that the most opulent and flourishing kingdoms have been precipitated into ruin by avarice, oppression, luxury, and injustice.

I. Wisdoms gift is length of days. Life importeth the capacity for enjoyments, and is the foundation of them all. Length of days has the preference of riches and honour, but not of an approving conscience. That a religious or virtuous course of life tendeth to prolong our days we may be convinced by experience. Temperance, meekness, and patience contribute to long life. Benevolence and the social virtues tend to secure life against that foreign violence to which the unjust, the cruel, and the inhumane are obnoxious.

II. Wisdoms gift is riches. There are abuses of wealth. But it may lawfully be sought after as the means of living easy, and enjoying the comforts of this world with moderation. Nature teacheth, and religion doth not forbid it, that we should endeavour to render our condition in this world tolerable. And wealth should also be valued as the means and ability of doing good in a religious and moral sense. Men ordinarily acquire riches by their parsimony, their industry and their credit, and to all these the moral virtues comprehended in wisdom are eminently serviceable. The natural effect of temperance, chastity, humility is to retrench a great many exorbitancies. And diligence is specially commended in religion. Mutual confidence is of great advantage for the getting of riches, and religious character is the sure ground of confidence.

III. Wisdoms gift is honour–that esteem, with the outward tokens and expressions of it, which men have in the world. This is a certain effect of wisdom or religious virtue, because virtue itself maketh the very character which is honourable, or the subject of esteem. Men cannot help having in their heart a veneration for the man who, by the whole course of his behaviour, appears to be pious, sober, just, and charitable, let his condition be what it will. (J. Abernethy, M. A.)

The discreet behaviour of the Christian respecting his outward welfare

Well-being in externals, though not the most important part of our happiness, is yet always a part of it, and consequently a care for its conservation and advancement cannot be absolutely wrong.

1. See that all your efforts to promote your outward welfare are innocent. Employ none other than fair and honest means to that end.

2. Never let your efforts so engross and occupy your mind as to allow you neither inclination nor leisure, time nor ability, to care and labour for that which more proximately and directly promotes the perfection of your spirit.

3. Do not assume that your efforts for your outward welfare must necessarily succeed, or that they are absolutely lost if they fail of success.

4. Dignify your efforts by forming just conceptions of the ultimate end of all earthly goods and outward distinctions.

5. Enjoy the fruits of your labour, in proportion as you reap them, and postpone not the legitimate, discreet use and enjoyment of them, till you shall have acquired and accumulated such or such a store of them. Enjoy all the pleasures, the comforts, the conveniencies of life, with a cheerful temper and without anxious care for the future. Enjoy them as men, not as children; enjoy them as Christians. (G. J. Zollikofer.)

The gain of true religion

Sir Henry Mitchell, a distinguished Methodist layman, made an interesting speech at Bradford, in which he referred to the late Sir Isaac Holden, who was a life-long Methodist. He died respected by every one who knew him, and more than a millionaire. Sir Henry went to see Sir Isaac a little while before his death, and said to him, You owe most to your religion and to Methodism. To which Sir Isaac replied, Everything. Sir Isaac added that his study of Methodist doctrine and experience had exercised a most wholesome discipline upon his mind, and had contributed very largely–perhaps more than any other influence that had been brought to bear upon his character–to his success in life.

The advantages of religion

Honour can only be attained by religion and virtue.

I. The true nature of honour.

1. Used to denote worthy and creditable parentage.

2. Or it signifies titles of place and dignity. Veneration is due to some callings and relations of men, though the persons themselves should not be virtuous.

3. The term is sometimes used for the esteem and reputation which a man hath in the world, especially amongst virtuous persons. Such honour is power, enabling a man to do things great and worthy; and it is safety, as it gives a man an interest in the esteem and affection of others.

II. Religion and virtue are the only means of attaining honour. This can be proved–

1. By testimony; from Scripture, from the concurrent opinion of wise men in all ages.

2. By reason. There may be a twofold cause of things–moral and natural. A moral cause is that which doth dispose a man to such a condition, upon the account of fitness or desert, and in this sense honour is the reward of virtue. The natural cause of a thing, by its own immediate efficacy, produces the effect; and in this sense likewise virtue is the cause of honour.

3. By experience; that practical knowing which every man may attain by his own observation. Two objections may be urged against what is thus proved–

(1) Good men have met with dishonour, as Christ and His disciples did.

(2) Vicious men have sometimes been had in honour. External honour may be due to them; internal honour is only given by those who do not know them. (Bp. John Wilkins.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 16. Length of days is in her right hand] A wicked man shortens his days by excesses; a righteous man prolongs his by temperance.

In her left hand riches and honour.] That is, her hands are full of the choicest benefits. There is nothing to be understood here by the right hand in preference to the left.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Wisdom is here represented as a great and generous princess distributing gifts to her subjects. She giveth them long life, &c., unless when she foresees that these things would prove snares and mischiefs to them, as they very frequently do to others.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

16, 17. Wisdom personified asbringing the best blessings (compare Mat 6:33;1Ti 4:8).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Length of days [is] in her right hand,…. Wisdom is here represented as a queen, as indeed she is above all kings and queens; see Pr 8:15; holding in one hand, instead of a sceptre, “length of days”; and in the other, instead of a globe, riches and honour: the allusion is thought by some on this clause to be to an ancient custom of numbering things, and the ages of men, by the hand and fingers, beginning with the left hand, and when they came to a hundred went to the right z; so that in that might be truly said to be “length of days”, few arriving to that number: or rather the reference is to what Solomon received of the Lord, who, asking wisdom, had not that only, but a long life, and riches and honour; see 1Ki 3:11. Some think that only temporal blessings are here meant, and, because health and long life are preferable to wealth and honour, the former are said to be in the right hand, and the latter in the left; but seeing in the preceding verses the advantages of wisdom are superior to silver, gold, and precious stones, it can hardly be thought that she should be represented as only having temporal blessings in her hands to bestow on her followers. Others are of opinion that spiritual and eternal blessings are the right hand ones, being the principal; and temporal blessings are the left hand ones, as being the less valuable, Mt 6:33; but to me they seem all of one sort, all spiritual and eternal ones, even those of the left hand, by comparing this passage with Pr 8:18. By “length of days” is meant “length of days for ever and ever”, Ps 21:4; or eternal life, a life of vision or enjoyment of God; a life of perfect knowledge, holiness, and pleasure; being free from all the imperfections, difficulties, and distresses of the present one, and which will last for ever; this is in the hand of Christ, not the promise and grant of it only, but the thing itself, in consequence of his asking it of his Father: and which he has in a covenant way, and so has a right and power to bestow it: and it being in his hands shows both the valuableness and the security and safety of it; and also that it is to be had from him, and is in his gift, and in no other; and is a pure gift of his grace; wherefore happy is the man that finds Wisdom, or Christ, since he finds and has eternal life in him;

[and] in her left hand riches and honour; by “riches” are meant not temporal riches, for these are not always to the wise, nor to the children of Wisdom, nor of Christ; and all that have these are not happy, nor are they durable: but spiritual riches are intended, the riches of grace; of pardoning, justifying, and sanctifying grace, and of all supplies of grace; and also the riches of glory, which are solid and satisfying, immense and unsearchable, lasting and durable: and by “honour” is designed not the honour which comes from men, or the honour of this world; for such who find Christ, and are possessed of him, and profess him, have but a small share of this, being, generally speaking, accounted the faith and offscouring of the world; but yet they are the children of God, and so have that name which is better than to be the sons and daughters of the greatest monarch; they are the spouse of Christ, and so his queen that stands at his right hand in gold of Ophir; they are made kings and priests unto God, and shall reign with Christ for evermore; this honour have all the saints, and is what is in the hands of Christ to give, and does give, to all that believe in him: or “glory” a, as the word signifies; the glory of God, eternal glory; this as well as grace is Christ’s gift, Ps 84:11.

z Vid. Nebrissens. Quinquagena, c. 16. & Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier l. 1. c. 14. to which Juvenial refers, when speaking of Nestor, “—-suos jam dextra computat annos”, Satyr. 10. v. 249. a “gloria”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Gejerus, Cocceius, Schultens.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

That wisdom is of such incomparable value is here confirmed:

16 Length of days is in her right hand;

In her left, riches and honour.

17 Her ways are pleasant ways,

And all her paths are peace.

18 A tree of life is she to those that lay hold upon her,

And he who always holdeth her fast is blessed.

As in the right hand of Jahve, according to Psa 16:11, are pleasures for evermore, so Wisdom holds in her right hand “length of days,” viz., of the days of life, thus life, the blessing of blessings; in her left, riches and honour (Pro 8:18), the two good things which, it is true, do not condition life, but, received from Wisdom, and thus wisely, elevate the happiness of life-in the right hand is the chief good, in the left the , Mat 6:33. Didymus: Per sapientiae dextram divinarum rerum cognitio, ex qua immortalitatis vita oritur, significatur; per sinistram autem rerum humanarum notitia, ex qua gloria opumque abundantia nascitur . The lxx, as between 15a and 15b, so also here after Pro 3:16, interpolate two lines: “From her mouth proceedeth righteousness; justice and mercy she bears upon her tongue,” – perhaps translated from the Hebr., but certainly added by a reader.

Pro 3:17

are ways on which one obtains what is agreeable to the inner and the outer man, and which it does good to enjoy. The parallel is not a genitive to to be supplied; that paths of Wisdom are themselves , for she brings well-being on all sides and deep inwards satisfaction (peace). In regard to , via eminens, elata , Schultens is right ( vid., under Pro 1:15);

(Note: The root is not , to grope, but ; whence Arab. natt , to bubble up, nata , to raise oneself, to swell up, etc.)

has Munach, and instead of the Metheg, Tarcha, vid., under Pro 1:31. The figure of the tree of life the fruit of which brings immortality, is, as Pro 11:30; Pro 15:4 (cf. Pro 13:12), Rev 2:7, taken from the history of paradise in the Book of Genesis. The old ecclesiastical saying, Lignum vitae crux Christi , accommodates itself in a certain measure, through Mat 11:19; Luk 11:49, with this passage of the Book of Proverbs. means to fasten upon anything, more fully expressed in Gen 21:18, to bind the hand firm with anything, to seize it firmly. They who give themselves to Wisdom, come to experience that she is a tree of life whose fruit contains and communicates strength of life, and whoever always keeps fast hold of Wisdom is blessed, i.e., to be pronounced happy (Psa 41:3, vid., under Psa 137:8). The predicate , blessed, refers to each one of the , those who hold her, cf. Pro 27:16; Num 24:9. It is the so-called distributive singular of the predicate, which is freely used particularly in those cases where the plur. of the subject is a participle ( vid., under Pro 3:35).

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

16. Right hand left hand Wisdom is here represented as dispensing her blessings with both hands, that is, abundantly. Some of the older commentators, and also some of the later, think that the blessings of the right hand have the precedence in value. “It was but just,” says Patrick, “to place length of days in her right hand; that is, to give it the precedence, because it was the chief promise of the law, and, indeed, the most desirable of earthly blessings, without which nothing can be enjoyed: after this follow wealth and reputation, things that men mightily covet, which he places in her left hand, as inferior blessings, but which come also from her gift.” Others think this a fanciful elaboration of the simple idea. “It is highly probable that Solomon alludes here to the promise of God to him. 1Ki 3:11-14; 2Ch 1:11-12.” Muenscher.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments