Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 8:1
Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?
Pro 8:1-3. The call of Wisdom. Comp. Pro 1:20-21.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
A companion picture to that in Prov. 7, and serving in some measure to generalize and idealize it. Wisdom also calls Pro 8:5 to the simple and the fools, and they have to choose between her voice and that of the temptress.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 8:1
Doth not Wisdom cry
The personification of Wisdom
Whatever may have been the satisfaction experienced by devout minds in reading this chapter, as if it contained the words of Christ and evidence of His pre-existent Divinity, I dare not withhold what I believe to be the true principle of interpretation.
The objections to its meaning Christ, or the Word, ere He became flesh, when in the beginning He was with God, and was God, are to my mind quite insuperable. For example–
1. It should be noticed that the passage is not so applied in any part of the New Testament. Had any New Testament writer expressly applied any part of the chapter to the Son of God, this would have been a key which we could not have been at liberty to refuse.
2. Wisdom here is a female personage. All along this is the case. Now under such a view the Scriptures nowhere else, in any of their figurative representations of the Christ, ever thus describe or introduce Him.
3. Wisdom does not appear intended as a personal designation, inasmuch as it is associated with various other terms, of synonymous, or at least of corresponding, import.
4. The whole is a bold and striking personification of the attribute of wisdom, as subsisting in Deity (see verse12: I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions).
5. Things which are true of a Divine attribute would naturally be susceptible of application to a Divine person. (R. Wardlaw.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER VIII
The fame and excellence of wisdom, and its manner of teaching,
1-4;
the matter of its exhortations, 5-12;
its influence among men, 13-21;
its antiquity, 22-31;
the blessedness of attending to its counsels, 32-35;
the misery of those who do not, 36.
NOTES ON CHAP. VIII.
Verse 1. Doth not wisdom cry?] Here wisdom is again personified; but the prosopopoeia is carried on to a greater length than before, and with much more variety. It is represented in this chapter in a twofold point of view:
1. Wisdom, the power of judging rightly, implying the knowledge of Divine and human things.
2. As an attribute of God, particularly displayed in the various and astonishing works of creation.
Nor has it any other meaning in this whole chapter, whatever some of the fathers may have dreamed, who find allegorical meanings every where. The wise man seems as if suddenly awakened from the distressful contemplation which he had before him,-of the ruin of young persons in both worlds by means of debauchery,-by the voice of wisdom, who has lifted up her voice in the most public places, where was the greatest concourse of the people, to warn the yet unsnared, that they might avoid the way of seduction and sin; and cause those who love her to inherit substance, and to have their treasuries filled with durable riches.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Put forth her voice; clearly and audibly instruct men how to avoid those fleshly lusts. He opposeth the inviting words of wisdom to the seducing speeches of the harlot.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1-4. The publicity anduniversality of the call contrast with the secrecy and intrigues ofthe wicked (Pr 7:8, &c.).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Doth not wisdom cry?…. Christ, who is the Wisdom of God;
[See comments on Pr 1:20]; and which clearly appears from his subsistence with the Father, his eternal existence, and from many personal properties, characters, and actions ascribed to him throughout the whole of this chapter, and in the following. “Crying” is here attributed to him, which signifies proclaiming, publishing, preaching the everlasting Gospel, which directs men in the right way of enjoying peace, comfort, honour, and eternal happiness; the allusion is to an herald that this up his voice aloud at noon day in the public streets when he proclaims; and is opposed to the whispers of a harlot, at night, in a corner; truth seeks no corner, its voice is heard at noon day, it will bear the light. Now, “does not” or “shall not Wisdom cry”, or Christ preach; verily he does or will, in his word, by his prophets under the former dispensation; in his own person, and by his apostles and ministers, under the present; who then would hearken to the alluring voice of a harlot, or hear Jezebel the wicked prophetess teach, when Christ himself preaches, or however by his faithful ministers?
and understanding put forth her voice? the same with Wisdom, or Christ, see Pr 8:14; by whose voice the Gospel is meant, which is the voice of Christ, which is heard and followed by the sheep of Christ, and not the voice of a stranger; and “putting it forth”, giving or uttering it, signifies the publication of it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The author has now almost exhausted the ethical material; for in this introduction to the Solomonic Book of Proverbs he works it into a memorial for youth, so that it is time to think of concluding the circle by bending back the end to the beginning. For as in the beginning, Pro 1:20., so also here in the end, he introduces Wisdom herself as speaking. There, her own testimony is delivered in contrast to the alluring voice of the deceiver; here, the daughter of Heaven in the highways inviting to come to her, is the contrast to the adulteress lurking in the streets, who is indeed not a personification, but a woman of flesh and blood, but yet at the same time as the incarnate of worldly lust. He places opposite to her Wisdom, whose person is indeed not so sensibly perceptible, but who is nevertheless as real, coming near to men in a human way, and seeking to win them by her gifts.
1 Doth not Wisdom discourse,
And Understanding cause her voice to be heard?
2 On the top of the high places in the way,
In the midst of the way, she has placed herself.
3 By the side of the gates, at the exit of the city,
At the entrance to the doors, she calleth aloud.
As points to that which is matter of fact, so calls to a consideration of it (cf. Pro 14:22); the question before the reader is doubly justified with reference to Pro 1:20. With , is interchanged, as e.g., Pro 2:1-6; such names of wisdom are related to its principal name almost as , , and the like, to . In describing the scene, the author, as usual, heaps up synonyms which touch one another without coming together.
Pro 8:2 By Hitzig understands the summit of a mountain, and therefore regards this verse as an interpolation; but the “high places” are to be understood of the high-lying parts of the city. There, on the way which leads up and down, she takes her stand. = Arab. ‘ly , old and poetic for , signifies here “hard by, close to,” properly, so that something stands forward over the edge of a thing, or, as it were, passes over its borders (Fl.). The , Hitzig, as Bertheau, with lxx, Targ., Jerome, interpret prepositionally as a strengthening of (in the midst); but where it once, Eze 1:27, occurs in this sense, it is fully written . Here it is the accus. loci of the substantive; “house of the ascent” (Syr. beth urchotho ) is the place where several ways meet, the uniting point, as (Eze 21:26), the point of departure, exit; the former the crossway, as the latter the separating way. Thus Immanuel: the place of the frequented streets; Meri: the place of the ramification (more correctly, the concentration) of the ways. signifies more than (she raises herself) and (she goes thither); it means that she plants herself there.
Pro 8:3 In this verse Bertheau finds, not inappropriately, the designations of place: on this side, on that side, and within the gate. , at the hand, is equivalent to at the side, as Psa 140:6. , of the town, is the same as , Pro 9:14, of the house: at the mouth, i.e., at the entrance of the city, thus where they go out and in. There are several of these ways for leaving and entering a city, and on this account are connected: generally where one goes out and in through one of the gates (doors). , fully represented by the French avenue, the space or way which leads to anything (Fl.). There she raises her voice, which sounds out far and wide; vid., concerning ( Graec. Venet. incorrectly, after Rashi, ), at Pro 1:20.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Invitation of Wisdom. | |
1 Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? 2 She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths. 3 She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors. 4 Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man. 5 O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. 6 Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things. 7 For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. 8 All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them. 9 They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge. 10 Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. 11 For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.
The will of God revealed to us for our salvation is here largely represented to us as easy to be known and understood, that none may have an excuse for their ignorance or error, and as worthy to be embraced, that none may have an excuse for their carelessness and unbelief.
I. The things revealed are easy to be known, for they belong to us and to our children (Deut. xxix. 29), and we need not soar up to heaven, or dive into the depths, to get the knowledge of them (Deut. xxx. 11), for they are published and proclaimed in some measure by the works of the creation (Ps. xix. 1), more fully by the consciences of men and the eternal reasons and rules of good and evil, but most clearly by Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. The precepts of wisdom may easily be known; for, 1. They are proclaimed aloud (v. 1): Does not Wisdom cry? Yes, she cries aloud, and does not spare (Isa. lviii. 1); she puts forth her voice, as one in earnest and desirous to be heard. Jesus stood and cried, John vii. 37. The curses and blessings were read with a loud voice by the Levites, Deut. xxvii. 14. And men’s own hearts sometimes speak aloud to them; there are clamours of conscience, as well as whispers. 2. They are proclaimed from on high (v. 2): She stands in the top of high places; it was from the top of Mount Sinai that the law was given, and Christ expounded it in a sermon upon the mount. Nay, if we slight divine revelation, we turn away from him that speaks from heaven, a high place indeed, Heb. xii. 25. The adulterous woman spoke in secret, the oracles of the heathen muttered, but Wisdom speaks openly; truth seeks no corners, but gladly appeals to the light. 3. They are proclaimed in the places of concourse, where multitudes are gathered together, the more the better. Jesus spoke in the synagogues and in the temple, whither the Jews always resorted, John xviii. 20. Every man that passes by on the road, of what rank or condition soever, may know what is good, and what the Lord requires of him, if it be not his own fault. There is no speech nor language where Wisdom’s voice is not heard; her discoveries and directions are given to all promiscuously. He that has ears to hear, let him hear. 4. They are proclaimed where they are most needed. They are intended for the guide of our way, and therefore are published in the places of the paths, where many ways meet, that travellers may be shown, if they will but ask, which is the right way, just then when they are at a loss; thou shalt then hear the word behind thee, saying, This is the way, Isa. xxx. 21. The foolish man known not how to go to the city (Eccl. x. 15), and therefore Wisdom stands ready to direct him, stands at the gates, at the entry of the city, ready to tell him where the seer’s house is, 1 Sam. ix. 18. Nay, she follows men to their own houses, and cries to them at the coming in at the doors, saying, Peace be to this house; and, if the son of peace be there, it shall certainly abide upon it. God’s ministers are appointed to testify to people both publicly and from house to house. Their own consciences follow them with admonitions wherever they go, which they cannot be out of the hearing of while they carry their own heads and hearts about with them, which are a law unto themselves. 5. They are directed to the children of men. We attend to that discourse in which we hear ourselves named, though otherwise we should have neglected it; therefore Wisdom speaks to us: “Unto you, O men! I call (v. 4), not to angels (they need not these instructions), not to devils (they are past them), not to the brute-creatures (they are not capable of them), but to you, O men! who are taught more than the beasts of the earth and made wiser than the fowls of heaven. To you is this law given, to you is the word of this invitation, this exhortation sent. My voice is to the sons of men, who are concerned to receive instruction, and to whom, one would think, it should be very welcome. It is not, to you, O Jews! only, that Wisdom cries, nor to you, O gentlemen! not to you, O scholars! but to you, O men! O sons of men! even the meanest.” 6. They are designed to make them wise (v. 5); they are calculated not only for men that are capable of wisdom, but for sinful men, fallen men, foolish men, that need it, and are undone without it: “O you simple ones! understand wisdom. Though you are ever so simple, Wisdom will take you for her scholars, and not only so, but, if you will be ruled by her, will undertake to give you an understanding heart.” When sinners leave their sins, and become truly religious, then the simple understand wisdom.
II. The things revealed are worthy to be known, well worthy of all acceptation. We are concerned to hear; for, 1. They are of inestimable value. They are excellent things (v. 6), princely things, so the word is. Though they are level to the capacity of the meanest, yet there is that in them which will be entertainment for the greatest. They are divine and heavenly things, so excellent that, in comparison with them, all other learning is but children’s play. Things which relate to an eternal God, an immortal soul, and an everlasting state, must needs be excellent things. 2. They are of incontestable equity, and carry along with them the evidence of their own goodness. They are right things (v. 6), all in righteousness (v. 8), and nothing froward or perverse in them. All the dictates and directions of revealed religion are consonant to, and perfective of, the light and law of nature, and there is nothing in them that puts any hardship upon us, that lays us under any undue restraints, unbecoming the dignity and liberty of the human nature, nothing that we have reason to complain of. All God’s precepts concerning all things are right. 3. They are of unquestionable truth. Wisdom’s doctrines, upon which her laws are founded, are such as we may venture our immortal souls upon: My mouth shall speak truth (v. 7), the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, for it is a testimony to the world. Every word of God is true; there are not so much as pious frauds in it, nor are we imposed upon in that which is told us for our good. Christ is a faithful witness, is the truth itself; wickedness (that is, lying) is an abomination to his lips. Note, Lying is wickedness, and we should not only refrain from it, but it should be an abomination to us, and as far from what we say as from what God says to us. His word to us is yea, and amen; never then let ours be yea and nay. 4. They are wonderfully acceptable and agreeable to those who take them aright, who understand themselves aright, who have not their judgments blinded and biassed by the world and the flesh, are not under the power of prejudice, are taught of God, and whose understanding he has opened, who impartially seek knowledge, take pains for it, and have found it in the enquiries they have hitherto made. To them, (1.) They are all plain, and not hard to be understood. If the book is sealed, it is to those who are willingly ignorant. If our gospel is hidden, it is hidden to those who are lost; but to those who depart from evil, which is understanding, who have that good understanding which those have who do the commandments, to them they are all plain and there is nothing difficult in them. The way of religion is a highway, and the way-faring men, though fools, shall not err therein, Isa. xxxv. 8. Those therefore do a great wrong to the common people who deny them the use of the scripture under pretence that they cannot understand it, whereas it is plain for plain people. (2.) They are all right, and not hard to be submitted to. Those who discern things that differ, who know good and evil, readily subscribe to the rectitude of all Wisdom’s dictates, and therefore, with out murmuring or disputing, govern themselves by them.
III. From all this he infers that the right knowledge of those things, such as transforms us into the image of them, is to be preferred before all the wealth of this world (Pro 8:10; Pro 8:11): Receive my instruction, and not silver. Instruction must not only be heard, but received. We must bid it welcome, receive the impressions of it, and submit to the command of it; and this rather than choice gold, that is, 1. We must prefer religion before riches, and look upon it that, if we have the knowledge and fear of God in our hearts, we are really more happy and better provided for every condition of life than if we had ever so much silver and gold. Wisdom is in itself, and therefore must be in our account, better than rubies. It will bring us in a better price, be to us a better portion; show it forth, and it will be a better ornament than jewels and precious stones of the greatest value. Whatever we can sit down and wish for of the wealth of this world would, if we had it, be unworthy to be compared with the advantages that attend serious godliness. 2. We must be dead to the wealth of this world, that we may the more closely and earnestly apply ourselves to the business of religion. We must receive instruction as the main matter, and then be indifferent whether we receive silver or no; nay, we must not receive it as our portion and reward, as the rich man in his life-time received his good things.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
II. WISDOM AND FOLLY PERSONIFIED
(Pro 8:1 to Pro 9:18)
INTRODUCTION
As in 1:20-32, chapters 8 and 9 present wisdom personified, speaking or acting as a person, and in feminine form. The significance of presenting wisdom in this manner is debated. Some regard wisdom as an attribute of God and the personification as a way of emphasizing the importance of wisdom to those being repeatedly admonished to seek wisdom. Those holding this opinion stress that as God utilized wisdom in everything, including creation, so man should realize that nothing right can be accomplished without wisdom. Others, however, view the personification as a reference to Christ, who was later clearly revealed as the wisdom of God in the New Testament, Col 2:2-3; 1Co 1:24; 1Co 1:30; 1Co 2:6-8; Eph 3:9; Col 1:15-17. In the opinion of this writer the divine person and divine attribute are so intertwined it is perhaps best to think of wisdom as related to both. Whatever is true of the wisdom of God is also true of the wisdom of God manifest in the person of Jesus.
Wisdom Seeks
(Pro 8:1-5)
Verses 1-5 reveal that wisdom actually seeks all, including the simple (naive, easily led) and the foolishly obstinate, Vs. 4-5. She appeals for a hearing in all the various places people may be found, the high places, gates, public places, Vs. 1-3; Pro 1:20-21; Pro 9:3.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Places of the paths in the midst of the highways. These ways are roads, solitary paths, not streets in the city, and the delineation proceeds in such an order as to exhibit Wisdom; first, in Pro. 8:2, as a preacher in the open country, in grove and field, on mountains and plains, and then in Pro. 8:3, to describe her public harangues in the cities, and in the tumult of the multitudes (Zckler).
Pro. 8:3. At the entrance of its doors, i.e., standing on the further side of the gateway (Zckler) at the entrance of the avenues (Stuart).
Pro. 8:4. The Hebrew words for men are different in the two clauses, the first signifies men of high position, the second men of the common sort (Psa. 49:2.) (Fausset).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPHPro. 8:1-3
THE NATURE OF WISDOMS CALL
Even if we reject the direct Messianic interpretation of this chapter, and understand Wisdom here to be only a poetical personification of an abstract attribute of God, it would be impossible, we think, for any minister of the New Testament to teach from it, and not find his way to Him who was in the beginning with God (Joh. 1:2), to the Christ who is the Wisdom of God (1Co. 1:24), in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3). To say the least, the language is admirably adapted to set forth the Incarnate Son, the Saviour of the world. The introductory paragraph reveals the intense desire of Wisdom to win disciples.
I. From her taking the initiative. Wisdom addresses man first. When two persons have become estranged by the wrong-doing of one, he who is in the wrong will be slow to find his way back to the other to acknowledge his fault. Because he is in the wrong he may conclude, and in many cases would rightly conclude, that an advance on his side would be useless. But an advance from him who is in the right would be more likely to be successful; such a course of conduct on his part would carry with it a powerful magnetic force to draw the offender back, and would be a most convincing proof of the desire of him who had been rightly offended to effect a reconciliation. And if the offence had been committed, not once, but many times, the reluctance of the offender to face his offended friend would be increased in proportion to the number of times the act had been repeated, and if, notwithstanding these repeated offences, advances should continue to be made from the other side, the desire for reconciliation would be made more and more manifest. Wisdom is here represented in this light, and God in Christ did take the initiative in reconciling the world unto Himself (2Co. 5:19). The Incarnate Wisdom came to men because men would not, and could not, by reason of their moral inability, come to Him first. In proportion to the distance men wander from God do they feel the impossibility of returning to Him unless they can receive from Him some encouragement to do so. This encouragement they have in the fact that the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost (Mat. 18:11), that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8).
II. From the variety of places where Wisdoms voice is heard (Pro. 8:2-3). If a man has goods to sell, he seeks those places where he will be most likely to find buyers; if he has thoughts which he wishes to make public, he goes where he will find the most hearers. The pilot has wisdom which he wants to sell to the less experienced ship-master, and he runs his cutter out into the highway of the channel. He is found at the entrance of the gates of the water-ways, at the mouths of the rivers; he places himself in the way of those who need his wisdom, and who will pay a good price for his skill. In proportion to a mans earnestness to obtain a market, or a hearing, will be his endeavour to seek out the places where he will most likely succeed. Wisdom is here represented as frequenting the most conspicuous places, the most crowded thoroughfares, to find buyers for that spiritual instruction which is to be had without money and without price (Isa. 55:1). Christ was found imparting the treasures of His wisdom wherever men would listen to His words. He went up into a mountain and taught (Mat. 5:1). He was found in the streets of the cities, in the temple, at the publicans feast (Luk. 5:27), in a boat on the shore of the lake. When multitudes were gathered at Jerusalem at the feasts, He was among them (Joh. 7:14; Joh. 7:37). At other times He went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom (Mat. 9:35). And thus He revealed His intense desire to give unto men those words which He declares to be spirit and life (Joh. 6:63).
III. From the earnest tone of her call. Doth not Wisdom cry. When the voice of Christ was heard upon earth it was in no indifferent tone He addressed His hearers. He was moved with compassion towards the multitudes who followed Him (Mat. 14:14). On the great day of the feast He stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let Him come unto Me and drink (Joh. 7:37). With what earnestness must He have uttered His lament over Jerusalem: If thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace (Luk. 19:42). A mans tone is more or less earnest to us in proportion as he gives proof that he is willing to follow up words by deeds. Judged in this light, how earnest must the call of Christ to men sound when they consider that He was willing to face Gethsemane and Calvary to give effect to His words. On this subject see also Homiletics on chap. Pro. 1:20-21.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro. 8:1. She crieth by the written word, by ministers, and by the dealings of Providence. Instead of the clandestine whisper of the adulteress in the dark, Wisdom puts forth her voice openly in the day, and in a style suitable to every capacity, so that all are left without excuse if they reject her, preferring darkness to light.Fausset.
The eternal Son of God gathers, plants, builds His Church by a voice, i.e., His word. All true teachers of the Word are crying voices through which Christ calls. Out of Christs school is no true wisdom. So long as Christs wisdom is still speaking outside thee it avails thee nothing; but when thou allowest it to dwell in thee it is thy light and life.Egard.
We cannot promulgate as doctrine, but we think the last day will show that wisdom plied every art; that what was all things working together for good in behalf of the believer, was something analagous in tendency in the instance of the sinner; that if the sinner thought his lot defeated repentance, he was mistaken; or that, could he have fared otherwise, his chances would have been improved: all this was largely error; moreover, that he will be held accountable at last for quite the opposite, and punished for a life singularly favoured and frequently adapted as the very best to lead him to salvation.Miller.
In her ministers, who are criers by office, and must be earnest (Isa. 58:1). See an instance in holy Bradford. I beseech you, saith he, I pray you, I desire you, I crave at your hands with all my very heart, I ask of you with hand, pen, tongue, and mind, in Christ, through Christ, for Christ, for His name, blood, mercy, power, and truths sake, my most entirely beloved that you admit no doubting of Gods final mercies towards you. Here was a lusty crier indeed.Trapp.
This form of interrogation, which expects as its answer an assenting and emphatic yes, truly, points to the fact clearly brought to view in all that has preceded, that Wisdom bears an unceasing witness in her own behalf in the life of men.Zckler.
Pro. 8:2. Standeth implies assiduous perseverance. Instead of taking her stand in dark places, in a corner, like the harlot (chap. Pro. 7:9), she standeth in the top of high places.Fausset.
Wisdom is representing as haunting all human paths. Folly lives upon them, too. Wisdom does not claim them as her own; Folly does. Wisdom has but one path. And she haunts every other to turn men out of such diverse journeyings into the one great track of holiness and truth.Miller.
Pro. 8:3. Thereby intending
(1) to reach the whole concourse of the lost, and
(2) to make human life at these great rallying places of men, speak its own lessons, and utter the loudest warnings against the souls impenitence.Miller.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER 8
TEXT Pro. 8:1-11
1.
Doth not wisdom cry,
And understanding put forth her voice?
2.
On the top of high places by the way,
Where the paths meet, she standeth;
3.
Beside the gates, at the entry of the city,
At the coming in at the doors, she crieth aloud:
4.
Unto you, O men, I call:
And my voice is to the sons of men.
5.
O ye simple, understand prudence;
And, ye fools, be of an understanding heart.
6.
Hear, for I will speak excellent things;
And the opening of my lips shall be right things.
7.
For my mouth shall utter truth;
And wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8.
All the words of my mouth are in righteousness;
There is nothing crooked or perverse in them.
9.
They are all plain to him that understandeth,
And right to them that find knowledge.
10.
Receive my instruction, and not silver;
And knowledge rather than choice gold.
11.
For wisdom is better than rubies;
And all the things that may be desired are not to be compared unto it.
STUDY QUESTIONS OVER 8:1-11
1.
What is the relationship between wisdom and understanding (Pro. 8:1)?
2.
What is meant by high places here (Pro. 8:2)?
3.
How does wisdom cry in these high places (Pro. 8:3)?
4.
Why do men need great wisdom and understanding (Pro. 8:4)?
5.
Would having an understanding heart raise these from being simpletons and fools (Pro. 8:5)?
6.
Is true wisdom ever wrong (Pro. 8:6)?
7.
Does wisdom ever compromise with wickedness (Pro. 8:7)?
8.
How would a student of logic designate the two statements in Pro. 8:8?
9.
Are some things plain to one person that are not to others (Pro. 8:9)?
10.
In what other passages is wisdom valued greater than earthly treasures (Pro. 8:10)?
11.
How were rubies used in those days (Pro. 8:11)?
PARAPHRASE OF 8:1-11
Pro. 8:1-11.
Cant you hear the voice of wisdom? She is standing at the city gates and at every fork in the road, and at the door of every house. Listen to what she says: Listen, men! she calls. How foolish and naive you are! Let me give you understanding. O foolish ones, let me show you common sense! Listen to me! For I have important information for you. Everything I say is right and true, for I hate lies and every kind of deception. My advice is wholesome and good. There is nothing of evil in it. My words are plain and clear to anyone with half a mindif it is only open! My instruction is far more valuable than silver or gold. For the value of wisdom is far above rubies; nothing can be compared with it.
COMMENTS ON 8:1-11
Pro. 8:1. Wisdom is again personified and is again feminine. Here is Hebrew parallelism in which the second line is a restatement of the first: wisdom and knowledge go together as do cry and put forth her voice. This section is very similar to Pro. 1:20-22 : Wisdom crieth aloud in the street; She uttereth her voice in the broad places; She crieth in the chief place of concourse; At the entrance of the gates, In the city, she uttereth her words: How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And scoffers delight them in scoffing, And fools hate knowledge? In Pro. 1:20-21 the material is set forth in the declarative mood while Pro. 8:1 introduces the material with the interrogative mood. The interrogative form, which expects an affirmative answer, is a mode of asserting a truth (Pulpit Commentary). However, it is just the opposite in Pro. 1:22 and Pro. 8:5Chapter 1 being interrogative and Chapter 8 exclamatory.
Pro. 8:2. She takes her stand…in the most open and elevated parts of the city where she may be best seen and heard by all who pass by…where many paths converge, and where people meet from different quarters (Pulpit Commentary).
Pro. 8:3. By lifting up her voice in the gates and doors to the city, she would be heard by all who were coming in and by all who were going out. It would be for the great who entered and for the lowly who entered. Nor does wisdom speak feeblyshe crieth aloud! Most people know what is right and wrong, what is wise and foolish, what should and shouldnt be done. How thankful we should be that wisdom is that prominent!
Pro. 8:4. Wisdom and understanding were being spoken about in Pro. 8:1-3; now they themselves begin to speak, and their direct quotation runs from this verse through Pro. 8:10.
Pro. 8:5. More parallelism: ye simple and ye fools go together, and understand prudence and be of an understanding heart are parallels. The simple are those not yet perverted but easily influenced for good or evil. This is where each person begins. If people do not acquire wisdom later on, then they are considered fools. The interjection form (introduced by O) shows the urgency of being directed in the right way. Webster says of prudence: Ability to regulate and discipline oneself through the exercise of the reason.
Pro. 8:6. Wisdom also claims to have imparted excellent things in Pro. 22:20 : Have I not written unto thee excellent things of counsels and knowledge? Wisdom is never wrong but
always right. Those who would excel must always exalt wisdom.
Pro. 8:7. And truth is tied in with wisdom and excellence and righteousness. Wisdom always speaks the truth because wickedness (lying, deceit, etc. ) is not only foreign to wisdom but is actually abominable to it. Oh, that each of us might be so wise that wickedness is abominable to our lips! Remember this when you find yourself involved in some church-trouble.
Pro. 8:8. Yes, and here comes righteousness to go along with or be a stronger expression of the right things of Pro. 8:6. And it is set over against or in contrast to wickedness in Pro. 8:7. The all are of the first statement is what logic calls a universal positive, and the nothing is of the second statement is called a universal negative. Both of these statements are absolutes, showing that everything about wisdom is righteous, and nothing about it is wicked.
Pro. 8:9. While wisdom may be too high for a fool (Pro. 24:7), it is certainly obtainable to one who wishes to see and understand. Our verse describes the type of person we should all be: one who understands because he has been looking for knowledge. To all such, wisdom is plain, clear, not difficult.
Pro. 8:10. With this verse closes the statement by wisdom and understanding that began in Pro. 8:4. More parallelism in this verse (find it). The opportunity to learn through instruction might be said to be a silver opportunity while the actual acquisition of knowledge through that instruction may be said to be a golden possession. Notice that a knowledge of the true and the right is here said to be a higher goal and a greater possession than wealth.
Pro. 8:11. The author of Proverbs here comments on the truthfulness of what wisdom and understanding affirmed in Pro. 8:10. He says the possession of wisdom is greater than possessing rubiesor anything else! Similar statements of such evaluation of wisdom: How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! Yea, to get understanding is rather to be chosen than silver (Pro. 16:16); The gaining of it is better than the gaining of silver, And the profit thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: And none of the things thou canst desire are to be compared unto her (Pro. 3:14-15); Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; Yea, with all thy getting get understanding (Pro. 4:7). As valuable as wisdom is, it is not something that can be acquired by money (like some commodity): It cannot be gotten for gold, Neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof (Job. 28:15). Euclid of Alexandria was right of long ago. Called the father of Geometry, when his king asked if there were not an easier way to learn geometry than by the study of the Elements (Euclids set of books), Euclid answered, There is no royal road to geometry (World Book Encyclopedia).
TEST QUESTIONS OVER 8:1-11
1.
These first verses are very similar to what earlier section in Proverbs?
2.
Comment on Pro. 8:2.
3.
By whom would wisdom and understanding be heard, according to Pro. 8:3?
4.
What begins in Pro. 8:4?
5.
Comment on ye simple (Pro. 8:5).
6.
Comment on ye fools (Pro. 8:5).
7.
Can you find a quartet of qualities in Pro. 8:6-8 that go together?
8.
Comment upon those 4 qualities in their desirableness in our lives.
9.
Contrast Pro. 8:9 with Pro. 24:7.
10.
What great comparative value is placed upon wisdom and understanding in Pro. 8:10-11, both by their own statement and by the writers comment?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
VIII.
(n). Fourteenth Discourse:The Praise of Wisdom (Proverbs 8)
(1) Doth not wisdom cry?See above on Pro. 1:20. In contrast with the secret allurements of Vice under the cover of night, is here represented the open invitation of Wisdom. (Comp. Joh. 18:20 : I spake openly to the world . . . and in secret have I said nothing.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE CALL OF Wisdom , vv1-4.
In striking contrast with the solicitations of sinful pleasure, presented in the last chapter under the type of an alluring but dissolute woman, the instructor now presents the strongest motives to the pursuit and acquisition of wisdom, which he again personifies and represents under the character of a pure, lovely, benevolent, discreet, and affectionate woman, who earnestly seeks, by all suitable means, to attract to herself the sincere affection of human hearts for a high and noble object, that of conferring all manner of good. Unlike the base character of the preceding chapter, she seeks no covert of darkness and secrecy, but gives her invitations publicly, and in the most frequented places, expostulating with the erring, and setting forth the value of the instruction she imparts, both because of its own intrinsic worth and of the heavenly source whence it emanates.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1. Doth not wisdom cry Call aloud. The negative form of the question implies an affirmative answer. It is a forcible way of saying that she does these things. The implied answer is dilated in Pro 8:2-3: compare Pro 1:20.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1). Wisdom Calls On Men To Hear Her ( Pro 8:1-4 ).
Wisdom had been defined for us earlier in the Prologue. She is based on ‘the fear of YHWH’ (Pro 1:29; Pro 2:5; Pro 9:10). She is given by God (Pro 2:6). She brings men to the knowledge of God (Pro 2:5). She is closely connected with the chastening of YHWH (Pro 3:11). And in what she says she reveals herself as the mouthpiece of YHWH (Pro 1:23-33). Indeed YHWH, by wisdom, knowledge and understanding, created the world (Pro 3:19-20). This last reference, referring to ‘wisdom, knowledge and understanding’ warns us against taking the personification too literally, and reminds us that wisdom is an attribute of God, along with knowledge and understanding. Thus she is equated with knowledge and understanding. Bible wisdom teaching is therefore about God and His ways. And yet this wisdom is communicable to men and can be possessed by them. It can be ‘known’ along with understanding (Pro 1:2), we can incline our ear and apply our hearts in order to obtain it along with understanding (Pro 2:1-4), we must obtain it along with understanding (Pro 4:5-8), along with understanding we are to see her as our sister and our kinswoman (Pro 7:4). The constant parallel with understanding warns against seeing her literally as an individual. She can be paralleled with the Scriptures, the word of God (Pro 2:6). She cannot be paralleled with our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God.
The subsection forms a chiasmus:
A Does not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth her voice? (Pro 8:1).
B On the top of high places by the way, where the paths meet, she stands (Pro 8:2).
B Beside the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors, she cries aloud (Pro 8:3).
A “To you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men” (Pro 8:4).
Note how in A wisdom and understanding call, and in the parallel her call is to the sons of men. And in B and parallel ‘she’ reaches out in every place where men are to be found.
Pro 8:1-4
‘Does not wisdom cry,
And understanding put forth her voice?
On the top of high places by the way,
Where the paths meet, she stands,
Beside the gates, at the entry of the city,
At the coming in at the doors, she cries aloud.’
“To you, O men, I call,
And my voice is to the sons of men.”
Note again the combination of wisdom and understanding. Wisdom cries out to men, understanding puts forth her voice. And she does so openly and forcefully wherever men are found. There is nothing secretive about her, in contrast with the strange woman who represents the world and its desires. She speaks from the top of high places by the way, she is found at road junctions, she is found beside the gates where men meet to converse, and justice is meted out (compare Pro 1:20-21 where it was ‘in the streets — to the public squares — at the entering of the gates, the chief places of concourse’). And her words are for all men, she calls to men, her voice is to the sons of men.
In the days when the only way to disseminate news and information was by the voice (as with the ancient town crier) those who sought to do so would stand on a high spot and proclaim what they had to say. It enabled them to project their voices. Indeed there was a well known stone in Jerusalem from which lost and found things were called out. Thus those who would proclaim wisdom would stand in such places. ‘By the way’. As men proceeded on their way they needed guidance on the way of life. ‘Where the paths meet’. At junctions and crossroads, to which men came from all directions, they needed to know which way to take, not only literally but spiritually.
‘The gates’, through which all entering or leaving the city had to pass, and where men used to gather to share information, hear news, pass judgment, and come to important decisions, was above all the place of concourse. Here too proclaimers of wisdom were to be found.
“To you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men.” It is to man that ‘wisdom and understanding’ speaks. It is the voice of Heaven speaking to mankind (Pro 8:22-31). While she may be heavenly she delights in ‘the habitable earth — the sons of men’ (Pro 8:31). In Proverbs wisdom and understanding are not earthly, humanistic wisdom and understanding, but the wisdom and understanding imparted by God (Pro 2:5-6).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Prologue To The Book ( Pro 1:8 to Pro 9:18 ).
It was common throughout the 3rd to the 1st millenniums BC for collections of wisdom saying to have a prologue preparing for the ‘sayings’ that would follow. Those sayings would then be introduced by a subheading. Proverbs thus follows the usual precedent in having such a prologue in Pro 1:8 to Pro 9:18, followed by general sayings in Pro 10:1 ff headed by a subheading (Pro 10:1). It was also common for such a prologue to be addressed to ‘my son’, or similar, with constant references being made to ‘my son’ throughout the prologue. And this is interestingly a feature of Proverbs 1-9, where it occurs fifteen times. One difference, however, lies in the fact that the ‘son’ was usually named in other wisdom literature, something which does not occur in Proverbs. Indeed, in Proverbs ‘my son’ is sometimes replaced by ‘sons’ (Pro 4:1; Pro 5:7; Pro 7:24; Pro 8:32). It is addressed to whoever will hear and respond.
The Prologue consists of ten discourses, and divides into two. It commences with five discourses, each of which follows a similar pattern, an opening appeal followed by two further subsections, and closing with a contrast between the righteous and the unrighteous, the wise and the foolish. We can compare how there are five ‘books’ to the Torah, and five books of Psalms. Five is the covenant number. Each of the subsections is in the form of a chiasmus.
From chapter 6 onwards the pattern changes. Initially we find a description of three types, whom we could describe as the naive, the foolish, the wicked (Pro 6:1-19), and this is followed by Pro 6:20 to Pro 9:18 which are centred on the contrast between the seductive power of the strange woman, and the uplifting power of woman wisdom, all continually urging the young man to turn from the enticements of the world and choose wisdom.
The prologue may be analysed as follows;
The Five Discourses.
1). Discourse 1. Addressed To ‘My Son’. Those Who Seek To Walk In The Fear Of YHWH Will Listen To The Instruction Of Godly Authority, And Will Avoid The Enticements Of Sinners Motivated By Greed. Wisdom Is Then Depicted As Crying Out To Be Heard, Longing For Response, Promising Inculcation Of Her Own Spirit, And Warning Of The Consequences Of Refusal (Pro 1:8-33).
2). Discourse 2. Addressed To ‘My Son’. The Source Of True Wisdom Is YHWH, And Those Who Truly Seek Wisdom Will Find YHWH Himself, And He Will Then Reveal His Wisdom To Them. This Wisdom That God Gives Them Will Then Deliver Them From All Who Are Evil, Both From Men Who Have Abandoned The Right Way, And From The Enticements Of Immoral Women (Pro 2:1-22).
3). Discourse 3. Addressed To ‘My Son’. The Young Man Is To Trust In YHWH, To Fear YHWH And To Honour YHWH, And In View Of Their Great Value Is To Find YHWH’s Wisdom And Obtain Understanding Which Will Be His Protection And Will Through YHWH’s Chastening Activity Restore Him To Man’s First Estate. In View Of Them He Is To Observe A Series Of Practical Requirements Which Will Result In Blessing For The Wise (Pro 3:1-35).
4). Discourse 4. Addressed to ‘Sons’. Wisdom And Understanding Are To Be Sought And Cherished, For They Produce Spiritual Beauty, and Lead Those Who Respond Unto The Perfect Day (Pro 4:1-19).
5). Discourse 5. Addressed To ‘My Son’ (and later ‘Sons’). He Is To Avoid The Enticements Of The Strange Woman Whose Ways Lead To Death, And Rather Be Faithful To His True Wife (Pro 4:20 to Pro 5:23).
A Description Of Three Contrasting Failures.
6). Discourse 6. The Naive, The Fool And The Scorner Illustrated. The First Addressed To ‘My Son’ Is A Call To Avoid Acting As A Surety For Others, The Second Addressed To ‘You Sluggard’, Is A Call To Shake Off Laziness, And The Third, Unaddressed, Concerns A Worthless Person And A Troublemaker (Pro 6:1-19).
A Contrast Between The Strange Seductive Woman And The Pure Woman Wisdom.
Discourse 7. Addressed To ‘My Son’. He Is Urged To Observe The Commandment And The Torah Of Father And Mother, Avoiding The Enticement Of The Adulterous Woman, And Being Aware Of The Wrath Of The Deceived Husband (Pro 6:20-35).
Discourse 8. Addressed To ‘My Son’. After Appealing To Him To Observe His Words Solomon Vividly Describes The Wiles Of A Prostitute And Warns ‘Sons’ Against Her (Pro 7:1-27).
Discourse 9. The Call of Ms Wisdom As The One Who Seeks Response, Gives Men True Instruction, Ensures Good Government, Enriches Men Physically and Spiritually, Was Present With God During Creation, And Blesses Men And Brings Them Into Life So That They Find God’s Favour (Pro 8:1-36).
Discourse 10. The Appeal Of Woman Wisdom Contrasted With The Allure Of Woman Folly (Pro 9:1-18).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Wisdom Calls in the Open Places to Everyone Wisdom’s character can be found in all aspects of society (Pro 8:1-5), for she calls in the open places to everyone. According to this passage, wisdom is found where people converse. Note in Pro 8:3 that the gates of the city were a place where the elders met to made laws and judge those laws. It was a place where wisdom was heard daily. Since wisdom has no physical aspect, we find her reflected in the lives of the people in our society.
Note how wisdom cries out in Pro 8:1-3, as well as in Pro 1:20-21. Pro 8:2-3 describes the most common places where people gather. Life is a classroom. There is much to learn by observing and interacting with people. It is in this environment that wisdom speaks.
Pro 1:20-21, “Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,”
Pro 8:1 Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?
Pro 8:2 Pro 8:3 Pro 8:3
Pro 8:34, “Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.”
Pro 8:4 Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.
Pro 8:5 Wisdom’s Character is Found in the Lives of People in Society – In this passage, we again see the call of wisdom as she cries out in the open places for men to follow her. Wisdom’s call to passersby can be contrasted to the call of the adulteress in Pro 7:6-13 a. However, for those who heed her call will their hearts and ears be opened to see the voice of wisdom in the lives of men and women of God. Wisdom’s character has many different virtues that are reflected in the lives of people around us. We can find wisdom in the hearts, minds, strength and wealth of others.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Wisdom Calls in the Open Places to Everyone Pro 8:1-5
2. Wisdom Is Found in the Hearts and in the Words of Righteous Men Pro 8:6-8
3. Wisdom Is Found by Those Whose Hearts Seek Her First Pro 8:9-11
4. Wisdom is Found in Those With Mental Acuteness Pro 8:12-14
5. Wisdom Is Found In Those Who Are Strong Pillars of Society Pro 8:15-17
6. Wisdom is Found in Financial Prosperity Pro 8:18-21
Parallel Passages – We can also find these similar characteristics of wisdom listed in Jas 3:13-18.
Jas 3:13-18, “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy . And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.”
This passage in James tells us that a man can demonstrate wisdom out of his good conversation, or lifestyle. We find this wisdom as we interact with other people in society. God has given to each person an in-built conscience (Rom 2:14-15) that tells us about our actions, whether they are right or wrong.
Rom 2:14-15, “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)”
Our conscience will help us to recognize wisdom during our interactions with others. This is the theme of Pro 8:1-21.
It has been my experience to find such wise people in society and hang out with them; for it is in such relationships that we are influenced and changed for the better. Thus, we make wisdom our companion by walking with those who have already made wisdom their companions.
The Characteristics of Divine Wisdom Pro 8:1-36 reveals the characteristics of divine wisdom. We have just had a lengthy passage that identifies the characteristics of earthly wisdom (Pro 6:12 to Pro 7:27). This type of wisdom will now be contrasted with divine wisdom. Now, how do we see the characteristics of wisdom, since she has no physical form? The answer will be found in the way divine wisdom is reflected in the lives of men and women of God in society (Pro 8:1-21). Her character can be found in all aspects of society, wherever people converse and interact with one another (Pro 8:1-5). We learn to listen to the words of others, of those who are speaking words of righteousness (Pro 8:6-8). Thus, wisdom’s characteristics are reflected in the lives of people. These words are easy to find to those who seek them above the riches of this world (Pro 8:9-11). Wisdom’s character has many different virtues that are reflected in the character of men (Pro 8:12-21). Not only can we find the divine characteristics of wisdom by looking at people in society, but creation itself reflects these noble virtues (Pro 8:22-31). Thus, one should heed her call and not reject it (Pro 8:32-36).
In contrast, Pro 6:12 thru Pro 7:27 has just given to us the characteristics of the foolish so that we can compare them. The call of wisdom can be contrasted to the call of the adulteress. Just as the adulteress called out to those passing by (Pro 7:6-13 a), so does wisdom cry out in Pro 8:1-4. Just as the adulteress entices the fool with descriptions of her lustful entertainment (Pro 7:13 b-21), so does wisdom attract us by telling us about her blessings (Pro 8:5-21). While wisdom opens her heart to us and reveals her true character (Pro 8:22-31), the adulteress hides her true intents, for she cares not about the well-being of her victims. The adulteress only wishes to satisfy her own lusts. As wisdom urges us to choose life and warns us about death (Pro 8:32-36), the adulteress gives no warning until the victim loses his life (Pro 7:22-23).
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Wisdom’s Character Found in Society Pro 8:1-21
2. Wisdom’s Character Found in Creation Pro 8:22-31
3. Choose Life or Death Pro 8:32-36
God the Father’s Foreknowledge: Calling Us to Our Journey (Preparation for the Journey) Most scholars consider Proverbs 1-9 to be a discourse, or a tribute, to wisdom. This section serves as an introduction to Solomon’s collection of wise, pithy sayings that follows. This introductory material is a preparation for being able to understand the rest of the book. Its underlying emphasis is the divine calling that God gives to every human being. Therefore, we find the statement of wisdom “crying out,” “uttering her voice” and “calling” used repeatedly throughout this section of Proverbs.
In these first nine introductory chapters, wisdom is personified as a person speaking in the feminine gender. Just as an artist sketches an outline of a painting, then splashes colors upon the canvas, until a beautiful painting emerges, so in these chapters of Proverbs does wisdom begin to reveal itself verse by verse (as an artist reveals a picture color by color) until chapter 8, when wisdom is seen as an intimate part of God and His creation. Wisdom is personified as a person speaking because man would be incapable of understanding his experiences in life without divine wisdom being given to him. This impartation is done in the person of the Holy Spirit. Wisdom is personified as a woman because the Hebrew word translated as “wisdom” is in the feminine gender.
These chapters contrast the table of blessings (Pro 9:1-6) with the trap of death (Pro 1:17-19, Pro 9:18). The wise man chooses wisdom’s table of blessings. In contrast, the fool chooses the trap of death, supposing that it is a table of blessing. Studying this introduction is a necessary preparation for finding one’s way through the rest of the book of Proverbs. Thus, a drama immediately unfolds in the introduction, revealing to us how wisdom sets a man free, but the trap of death ensnares its victims in the strongholds of sin. These strongholds do not turn its captives loose until it completes its assignment of death. In contrast, wisdom leads a man into his rightful place of glory and honor above God’s creation (Pro 3:35, Pro 31:30), and into submission to his Creator.
This section of Proverbs is actually a call to follow the path of wisdom, in which wisdom presents his arguments for choosing the path of wisdom over the path of the fool. God calls mankind to righteousness in this present Church age through the convicting power of the Holy Spirit that has been sent upon the earth, who convicts the world of sin righteousness and judgment (Joh 16:7-11); but prior to this age God called mankind to righteousness through wisdom, which testified from Creation (Rom 1:19-23), and from society. We see in these chapters that wisdom is a path that is to be diligently followed. Wisdom is a decision that is made on a daily basis, and these daily decisions will determine our destiny, both in this life and in the life to come. This book of wisdom contrasts the wise man with the fool throughout the book. As we will see in Proverbs, every decision that we make is either a wise decision, or a foolish one. Every decision affects our eternal destiny. This section begins with a call to follow wisdom (Pro 1:7-9), and ends by explaining how every human being decides between destinies, heaven or hell (Pro 9:1-18).
In the path of wisdom, there are many dangers. It is for this reason these nine chapters give us many warnings against the evil man and the adulteress, even before the real journey begins. The path of wisdom is narrow and easily missed. All of us have fallen off this path at one time or another in our lives. This book of Proverbs was written by King Solomon, considered the wisest person that has ever lived. Yet, even he fell off this path of wisdom because he allowed pride to blind his vision and dull his hearing. This gives us an indication of how narrow is this path to follow.
Pride is an attitude of the heart. It is the very reason that Solomon fell into idolatry. It is the root cause of every man’s failure. It comes clothed in many forms, such as false humility and it clothes itself in man-made titles of honour, such as “honorable, his lordship, his excellence, his grace, cardinal, pope, etc.” For example, the Pope in Rome carries the title of “His Holiness”. These nine chapters open and close with Pro 1:7; Pro 9:10, which reveal the secret of avoiding failure, which is caused by pride. We are told that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Pro 1:7 and Pro 9:10). This fear keeps us from falling off the path of wisdom.
This introductory material in Proverbs 1-9 makes up almost one third of the book. Why is this introduction to Proverbs so lengthy relative to the overall length of the book? It is because the preparation for our journey in life is also lengthy. Solomon was taught for many years before he took the throne as king of Israel. Good training takes time and a good education does not come quickly. The degree that a person receives a secular education usually determines the height of his career. In comparison, the degree that a person becomes rooted and grounded in the Word of God will determine the height of that person’s ministry. You must take the time to receive this introductory training in the first nine chapters of Proverbs before you are ready for the journey. The better we are able to understand the introduction of the book of Proverbs, the better we will be able to understand the rest of its teachings.
For hundreds of years in western civilization, a theological education was a part of a well-rounded education. All students learned the classical languages of Hebrew, Greek and Latin in order to study theological literature. The children of Israel were also to give each child a theological education. Solomon received such an education. Therefore, we can see this introduction to Proverbs as the theological training that everyone should go through in preparation for the journey in life.
One further note is worth mentioning about chapters 1-9. Upon reading, we must ask the question as to why this lengthy introduction in Proverbs spends so much time describing and warning the readers about the harlot. Perhaps because this is the one area that trapped and deceived Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived. This is the area that Solomon knows many of the young men he is training for leadership positions in the kingdom will be tempted. In addition, in a figurative sense, such spiritual adultery represents a believer who chooses to love the things of this world above his love for God.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. The Call of Wisdom to Young & Tender Pro 1:7-33
2. Answering Wisdom’s Call (A Hearing Heart) Pro 2:1-22
3. The Blessings of Wisdom Pro 3:1-35
4. Three Paths of Wisdom Pro 4:1-27
5. Three Paths of Destruction Pro 5:1 to Pro 6:11
6. Characteristics of the Evil People Pro 6:12 to Pro 7:27
7. Characteristics of Wisdom Pro 8:1-36
8. Wisdom’s Final Call (Food for the Journey) Pro 9:1-18
Of the Messiah, the Personal Wisdom.
v. 1. Doth not Wisdom cry, v. 2. She standeth in the top of high places, v. 3. She crieth at the gates, v. 4. Unto you, O men, I call, and My voice is to the sons of man, v. 5. O ye simple, understand wisdom, v. 6. Hear; for I will speak of excellent things, v. 7. For My mouth shall speak truth, v. 8. v. 9. They are all plain to him that understandeth, v. 10. Receive My instruction and not silver, v. 11. For wisdom is better than rubies, v. 12. I, Wisdom, dwell with prudence, v. 13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, v. 14. Counsel is Mine, v. 15. By Me kings reign, v. 16. By Me princes rule and nobles, even all the judges of the earth v. 17. I love them that love Me v. 18. Riches and honor, v. 19. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold, v. 20. I lead in the way of righteousness, v. 21. that I may cause those that love Me to inherit substance, EXPOSITION
Pro 8:1-36
14. Fourteenth admonitory discourse concerning Wisdomher excellence, her origin, her gifts. She is contrasted with the strange woman of Pro 7:1-27; and the exceeding greatness of the blessings which she offers exhibits in the most marked manner the nothingness of the deceiver’s gifts. One is reminded of the celebrated episode of the choice of Hercules, delineated by Xenophon, ‘Memorab.,’ 2.1. 21, etc. The chapter divides itself into four sections.
(1) Introductory (Pro 7:1-3); Wisdom calls on all to listen, and gives reasons for trusting to her (Pro 7:4-11).
(2) She displays her excellence (Pro 7:12-21).
(3) She discourses of her origin and action (Pro 7:22 -31).
(4) She again inculcates the duty of hearkening to her instructions (verses 32-36).
Pro 8:1
Doth not Wisdom cry? (see on Pro 1:20, and Introduction). The interrogative form, which expects an affirmative answer, is a mode of asserting a truth universally allowed. Wisdom is personified, though we are not so plainly confronted by an individual, as in the preceding case of the harlot. But it must be remembered that, whatever may have been the author’s exact meaning, however worldly a view the original enunciation may have afforded, we, reading these chapters by the light cast upon them by later revelation, see m the description of Wisdom no mere ideal of practical prudence and good sense, no mere poetic personification of an abstract quality, but an adumbration of him who is the Wisdom of God, the coeternal Son of the Father. The open, bold, and public utterances of Wisdom are in happy contrast to the secret and stealthy enticements of Vice. So Christ, the true Wisdom, says, “I have spoken openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogues, and in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and in secret spake I nothing” (Joh 18:20). The Septuagint changes the subject of this verse, and makes the pupil addressed: “Thou shalt proclaim () wisdom, that understanding () may obey thee;” which seems to mean that, if you wish to acquire wisdom, so that it may serve you practically, you must act as a herald or preacher, and make your desire generally known. St. Gregory has some remarks about wilful ignorance of what is right. “It is one thing,” he says, “to be ignorant; another to have refused to learn. For not to know is only ignorance; to refuse to learn is pride. And they are the less able to plead ignorance in excuse, the more that knowledge is set before them, even against their will. We might, perhaps, be able to pass along the way of this present life in ignorance of this Wisdom, if she herself had not steed in the corners of the way” (‘Moral.,’ 25.29).
Pro 8:2
She standeth in the top of high places, by the way. She takes her stand, not in thievish corners of the streets, like the harlot, but in the most open and elevated parts of the city, where she may be best seen and heard by all who pass by (see Pro 1:21, and note there). In the places of the paths; i.e. where many paths converge, and where people meet from different quarters.
Pro 8:3
The expressions in the text indicate the position which she takes and its capabilities. At the hand of the gates (1Sa 19:3). She posts herself at the side of the city gates, under the archway pierced in the wall, where she is sure of an audience. At the mouth of the city, inside the gate, where people pass on their way to the country. At the coming in at the doors, by which persons enter the town. Thus she catches all comers, those who are entering, as well as those who are leaving the city. Here standing, as in the Agora or Forum, she crieth; she calls aloud, saying what follows (Pro 8:4-36). It is a fine picture of the comprehensiveness of the gospel, which is meant for high and low, prince and peasant; which is proclaimed everywhere, in the courts of kings, in the lanes of the country, in the hovels of the city; which sets forth the infinite love of God, who is not willing that any should perish, but would have all men come to the knowledge of the truth (2Pe 3:9). Septuagint, “By the gates of the mighty she sits, in the entrances she sings aloud ().“
Pro 8:4-11
She summons various classes of persons to attend to her, showing how trustworthy she is, and how precious her instruction.
Pro 8:4
Unto you, O men, I call. “Men,” ishim (); equivalent to , viri, men in the highest sense, who have some wisdom and experience, but need further enlightenment (Isa 53:3; Psa 141:4). The sons of man; , “children of Adam;” equivalent to , homines, the general kind of men, who are taken up with material interests. St. Gregory notes (‘Moral ,’ 27.6) that persons (heroines) of perfect life are in Scripture sometimes called “men” (viri). And again, “Scripture is wont to call those persons ‘men’ who follow the ways of the Lord with firm and steady steps. Whence Wisdom says in the Proverbs, ‘Unto you, O men, I call.’ As if she were saying openly, ‘I do not speak to women, but to men; because they who are of an unstable mind cannot at all understand my words'” (‘Moral.,’ 28.12, Oxford transl.).
Pro 8:5
O ye simple, understand wisdom. “The simple,” those not yet perverted, but easily influenced for good or evil. See on Pro 1:4, where also is explained the word ormah, used here for “wisdom;” equivalent to calliditas in a good sense, or , as sometimes employed in the Septuagint; so here: , “subtlety.” Ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. For “fools” (khesilim), the intellectually heavy and dull, see on Pro 1:22. The heart is considered the seat of the mind or understanding (comp. Pro 15:32; Pro 17:16, etc.). Septuagint, “Ye that are untaught, take in heart ( ).” The call thus addressed to various classes of parsons is like the section in 1Jn 2:1-29, “I write unto you. little children,” etc.
Pro 8:6
I will speak of excellent things; de rebus magnis, Vulgate; , Septuagint. The Hebrew nagid is elsewhere used of persons; e.g. a prince, leader (1Sa 9:16; 1Ch 26:24); so it may here be best translated “princely,” “noble”an epithet which the subject matter of Wisdom’s discourse fully confirms (comp. Pro 22:20, though the word there is different). Hitzig and others, following the Syriac, prefer the meaning, “plain, evident truths” (comp. Pro 8:9); but the former interpretation is most suitable. The opening of my lips shall be right things. That which I announce when I open my mouth is just and right (Pro 23:16). Septuagint.
Pro 8:7
Another coordinate reason for attention. My mouth; chek, “palate” (Pro 5:3, where see note); the organ of speech. Shall speak truth; emeth (see on Pro 3:3). The verb (hagah) properly means “to speak with one’s self,” “to meditate;” and so the versions translate here, meditabitur, ; but this idea is not appropriate to the word joined with it, “the palate,” and it must be taken to signify to utter, as in Psa 35:28; Psa 37:30, etc. Wickedness is an abomination to my lips. Resha, “wickedness,” is the contrary of moral truth and right. Septuagint, “False lips are abominable in my sight.”
Pro 8:8
In righteousness; i.e. joined with righteousness equivalent to “righteous.” In Pro 3:16 the Septuagint has an addition which may perhaps be an echo of this passage: “Out of her mouth proceedeth righteousness, and she beareth upon her tongue law and mercy.” But more probably it is derived partly from Isa 45:23, and partly from Pro 31:26. There is nothing froward or perverse in them. In the utterance of Wisdom there is nothing crooked, no distortion of the truth; all is straightforward and direct.
Pro 8:9
They are all plain to him that understandeth. The man who listens to and imbibes the teaching of Wisdom finds these words intelligible, and “to the point.” Opening his heart to receive Divine instruction, he is rewarded by having his understanding enlightened; for while “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God” (1Co 2:14), yet “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him” (Psa 25:14), and “mysteries are revealed unto the meek” (Ecc 3:19, Complutensian *). Right to them that find knowledge (Pro 8:10). They form an even path without stumbling blocks for those who have learned to discern right from wrong, and are seeking to direct their lives in accordance with high motives. Septuagint, “They are all present () to those that understand, and right () to those that find knowledge.”
Pro 8:10
Receive my instruction, and not silver; i.e. acquire wisdom rather than silver, if ever the choice is yours. And knowledge rather than choice gold (comp. Pro 8:19; Pro 3:1-35 :140. (For “knowledge,” daath, see on Pro 2:10.) The comparison is implied rather than expressed in the first clause, while it is made clear in the second. Thus Hos 6:6, “I desired mercy, and not sacrifice,” the second matter mentioned being, not necessarily of no importance, but always in such cases of inferior importance to the other. We may quote Horace’s complaint of the worldliness of his countrymen, a marked contrast to the inspired counsel of Proverbs (‘Epist.,’ Pro 1:1, 52)
“Villus argentum est auro, virtutibus aurum.
O cives, cives! quaerenda pecunia primum est, Pro 8:11
(See Pro 3:14, Pro 3:15, and notes.)
Pro 8:12-21
Wisdom tells of her own excellence.
Pro 8:12
I wisdom dwell with prudence; rather, as in the Revised Version, I have made subtilty (Pro 8:5) my dwelling. Wisdom inhabits prudence, animates and possesses that cleverness and tact which is needed for the practical purposes of life. So the Lord is said to “inhabit eternity” (Isa 57:15). Septuagint, “I wisdom dwelt () in counsel and knowledge,” which recalls, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt () among us” (Joh 1:14). In 1Ti 6:16 we find the expression, “Who alone hath ( ) immortality,” exchanged with the phrase, “Who dwelleth () in the unapproachable light.” And find out knowledge of witty inventions. This rendering refers to the production and solution of dark sayings which Wisdom effects. But the expression is better rendered, “knowledge of deeds of discretion” (1Ti 1:4), or “of right counsels,” and it signifies that Wisdom presides over all well considered designs, that they are not beyond her sphere, and that she has and uses the knowledge of them. Septuagint, “I () called upon understanding,” i.e. it is I who inspire all good and righteous thought.
Pro 8:13
The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Wisdom here enunciates the proposition which is the foundation of all her teaching, only here, as it were, on the reverse side, net as the beginning of wisdom (Pro 1:7; Pro 9:10), but as the hatred of evil; she then proceeds to particularize the evil which the Lord hates. Taking the clause in this sense, we have no need to alter the persons and forms of the verbs to “I fear the Lord, I hate evil,” as Dathe and others suggest; still less to suppress the whole paragraph as a late insertion. These violent measures are arbitrary and quite unnecessary, the present text allowing a natural and sufficient exposition. There can be no fellowship between light and darkness; he who serves the Lord must renounce the works of the devil. Pride and arrogancy, which are opposed to the sovereign virtue of humility, are the first sins which Wisdom names. These are among the things which the Lord is said to hate (Pro 6:17, etc.). “Initium omnis peccati est superbia” (Ecc 10:15, Vet. Lat.). The evil way; i.e. sins of conduct, “way” being, as commonly, equivalent to “manner of life.” The froward mouth; literally, mouth of perverseness, sins of speech (see on Pro 2:12; and comp. Pro 10:31); Vulgate, os bilingue.
Pro 8:14
Having said what she hates, Wisdom now says what she is, and what she can bestow on her followers. Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom. There is some doubt about the meaning of the word translated “sound wisdom” (tushiyyah). The Vulgate has aequitas; the Septuagint, , “safety.” The word occurs elsewhere in this book and in Job, but only in two other places of Scripture, viz. Isa 28:29 and Mic 6:9. It means properly “elevation” or “furtherance,” or, as others say, “substance;” and then that which is essentially good end useful, which may be wisdom, aid, or security (see on Pro 2:7). Wisdom affirms that she possesses counsel and all that can help forward righteousness; see Job 12:13, Job 12:16, passages very similar to the present (comp. Wis. 8:9, etc.). I am understanding. Wisdom does not merely possess these attributes; they are her very nature, as it is said, “God is love” St. Jerome’s mea est prudentia, and the LXX.’s , lose this trait. I have strength. Wisdom directs the energies and powers of her pupils, which without her control would be spent wrongly or uselessly (comp. Ecc 7:19). Wisdom, understanding, and might are named among the seven gifts of the Spirit in Isa 11:2; and we may see in the passage generally an adumbration of him who is called “Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God” (Isa 9:6).
Pro 8:15
By me kings reign. By possession of wisdom kings are enabled to discharge their functions duly and righteously. So Solomon prayed for wisdom to enable him to rule his subjects properly (1Ki 3:9; Wis. 9:4). Princes (rozenim, Pro 31:4); either those who are weighty, inflexible, or these who weigh causes; the latter explanation seems most suitable. Vulgate, legum conditores; Septuagint, , These are said to decree justice; literally, to engrave just decrees on tablets; , Septuagint. Early expositors take these words as spoken by Christ, to whom they are very plainly applicable (comp. Isa 32:1).
Pro 8:16
Princes; here sarim, “leaders.” All the judges of the earth. These words stand without a conjunction, in apposition to what has preceded, by what is called asyndeton summativum (Pro 1:21), and gather in one view kings, princes, and leaders. Thus the Book of Wisdom, which speaks of the duties of rulers, commences by addressing of , “ye that are judges of the earth.” In the East judgment of causes was an integral part of a monarch’s duties. The reading of the Authorized Version is supported by the Septuagint, which gives . The Vulgate, Syriac, and Chaldee road, , “justice,” in place of , “earth;” but this seems to have been an alteration of the original text derived from some idea of the assertion there made being too comprehensive or universal. Nowack compares Psa 2:10 and Psa 148:11, “Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth.” The Fathers have taken these verses as spoken by God, and as asserting his supremacy and the providential ordering of human government, according to St. Paul’s saying, “There is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God”.
Pro 8:17
I love them that love me. So Christ says (Joh 14:21), “He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him” Love attracts love. “Magues amoris est amor.” They who love virtue and wisdom are regarded with favour by God. whoso inspiration they have obeyed, obtaining grace for grace. So Ben Sira says, “Them that love her the Lord doth love “(Ecclesiasticus 4:14); so Wis. 7:28, “God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wisdom.” The Septuagint changes the verbs in this clause, though they are parts of the same word in the Hebrew: . This reminds one of the passage in the last chapter of St. John (Joh 21:15-17). where a similar interchange is made. Those that seek me early shall find me (see the contrast in Pro 1:28). “Early” may mean from tender years; but more probably it is equivalent to “earnestly,” “strenuously,” as people deeply interested in any pursuit rise betimes to set about the necessary work (comp. Isa 26:9; Hos 5:15). The Septuagint, “They who seek () me shall find.” So the Lord says (Mat 7:7), “Seek (), and ye shall find;” Ecc 4:12, “He that loveth her loveth life; and they that seek to her early ( ) shall be filled with joy” (comp. Luk 21:38).
Pro 8:18
Riches and honour are with me (see Pro 3:16). Wisdom has these things in her possession to bestow on whom she will, as God gave them to Solomon in reward of his petition for wisdom (1Ki 3:13). Durable riches and righteousness. Things often regarded as incompatible. Durable, (athek), occurs only here (but see Isa 23:18), and means “old,” “venerable,” “long accumulated;” hence firm and lasting. Righteousness is the last reward that Wisdom bestows, without which, indeed, all material blessings would be nothing worth. Wealth obtained in a right way, and rightly used, is durable and stable. This was especially true under a temporal dispensation. We Christians, however, look not for reward in uncertain riches, but in God’s favour here and happiness in another world. The Septuagint, “Possession of many things, and righteousness.” What is denoted by “righteousness” is further explained in the following verses, 19-21.
Pro 8:19
My fruit is better than gold. We have had Wisdom called “a tree of life” (Pro 3:18), and the gain from possessing her compared to gold and silver (Pro 3:14). Fine gold (paz); Septuagint and Vulgate, “precious stone.” The word signifies “purified gold”gold from which all mixture or alloy has been separated. My revenue; Vulgate, genimina mea; Septuagint, ; Hebrew, tebuah, “produce,” “profits.”
Pro 8:20
I lead in the way (better, I walk in the way) of righteousness. I act always according to the rules of justice. In the midst of the paths of judgment. I swerve not to one side or the other (Pro 4:27). So the psalmist prays, “Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end;” “Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk” (Psa 119:33; Psa 143:8). And the promise is given to the faithful in Isa 30:21, “Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” Virtue, as Aristotle has taught us, is the mean between two extremes.
Pro 8:21
That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; (yesh), , “real, valuable possessions.” Those who love Wisdom will walk in her path, follow her leading, and therefore, doing God’s will, will be blessed with success. Such will lay up treasure in heaven, will provide bags which wax not old, will be preparing for “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away” (Mat 6:20; Luk 12:33; 1Pe 1:4). The LXX. here inserts a paragraph as a kind of introduction to the important section which follows: “If I declare unto you the things which daily befall, I will remember to recount the things of eternity;” i.e. thus far I have spoken of the advantages derived from Wisdom in daily circumstances; now I proceed to narrate her origin and her doings from all eternity. But the addition appears awkward, and is probably not now in its original position.
Pro 8:22-31
Wisdom speaks of her origin, her active operations, the part which she bore in the creation of the universe, her relation to God (see on Pro 1:20 and Pro 3:19, and Introduction). It is impossible to decide what was the exact view of the writer with regard to the wisdom of which he speaks so eloquently; but there can be no doubt that he was guided in his diction so as to give expression to the idea of him whom St. John calls the Word of God. The language used is not applicable to an impersonal quality, an abstract faculty of God. It describes the nature and office of a Person; and who that Person is we learn from the later Scriptures, which speak of Christ as the “Wisdom of God” (Luk 11:49) and “the Power of God and the Wisdom of God” (1Co 1:24). If we confine our inquiry to the questionWhat was in the mind of the author when he indited this wonderful section concerning Wisdom? we shall fail to apprehend its true significance, and shall be disowning the influence of the Holy Spirit, which inspires all Scripture, which prompted the holy men who spake to utter words of which they knew not the full spiritual significance, and which could only be understood by subsequent revelation. There is, then, nothing forced or incongruous in seeing in this episode a portraiture of the Second Person of the blessed Trinity, the essential Wisdom of God personified, the Logos of later books, and of the gospel. This interpretation obtained universally in the Church in the earliest times, and has commended itself to the most learned and reverent of modern commentators. That much which was contained in their own utterances was unknown to the prophets of old, that they did not fully perceive the mysteries which they darkly enunciated, we learn from St. Peter, who tells us that they who prophesied of the grace of Christ sought and searched diligently what the Spirit of God that was in them did point unto, and were shown that not unto themselves, but unto us, they ministered those things, secrets which angels themselves desire to look into (1Pe 1:10, etc.). Wisdom as a human endowment, animating all intellectual and even physical powers; Wisdom as communicating to man moral excellence and piety; Wisdom as not only an attribute of God, but itself as the eternal thought of God;under these aspects it is regarded in our book; hut under and through all it is more or less personified. Khochmah is contrasted in the next chapter, not with an abstraction, but with an actual woman of impure lifea real, not an imaginary, antagonist. The personality of the latter intimates that of the former (see Liddon, ‘Bampt. Lects.,’ 2.).
Pro 8:22
The Lord possessed me. Great controversy has arisen about the word rendered “possessed.” The verb used is (kanah), which means properly “to erect, set upright,” also “to found, form” (Gen 14:19, Gen 14:22), then “to acquire” (Pro 1:5; Pro 4:5, Pro 4:7, etc.) or “to possess” (Pro 15:32; Pro 19:8). The Vulgate, Aquila, Theodotion, Symmachus, Venetian, give “possessed;” Septuagint, , “made,” and so Syriac. The Arians took the word in the sense of “created” (which, though supported by the LXX; it seems never to have had), and deduced therefrom the Son’s inferiority to the Fatherthat he was made, not begotten from all eternity. Ben Sira more than once employs the verb in speaking of Wisdom’s origin; e.g. Ecc 1:4, Ecc 1:9; 24:8. Opposing the heresy of the Arians, the Fathers generally adopted the rendering , possedit, “possessed;” and even those who received the translation , explained it not of creating, but of appointing, thus: The Father set Wisdom over all created things, or made Wisdom to be the efficient cause of his creatures (Rev 3:14). May we not say that the writer was guided to use a word which would express relation in a twofold sense? Wisdom is regarded either as the mind of God expressed in operation, or the Second Person of the Holy Trinity; and the verb thus signifies that God possesses in himself this essential Wisdom, and intimates likewise that Wisdom by eternal generation is a Divine Personality. St. John (Joh 1:1), before saying that the Word was God, affirms that “the Word was with God ( ).” So we may assert that Solomon has arrived at the truth that Wisdom was , if he has left it for later revelation to declare that or . Whichever sense we assign to the verb on which the difficulty is supposed to hang, whether we take it as “possessed,” “formed,” or “acquired,” we may safely assume that the idea conveyed to Christian minds is thisthat Wisdom, existing eternally in the Godhead, was said to be “formed” or “brought forth” when it operated in creation, and when it assumed human nature. In the beginning of his way. So the Vulgate, in initio viarum suarum. But the preposition “in” does not occur in the original; and the words may be bettor translated, “as the beginning of his way”; i.e. as the earliest revelation of his working. Wisdom, eternal and uncreated, first puts forth its energy in creation, then becomes incarnate, and is now called, “the Firstborn of all creation ( )” (Col 1:15). Thus in Psa 2:7, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee” (Heb 1:5); and, “When he bringeth in the Firstborn into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him” (Heb 1:6). In the present clause, the ways of God are his works, as in Job 26:14 and Job 40:19, where behemoth is called “chief among the ways of God” (comp. Psa 145:17, where “ways” stands as a parallel to “works”). Before his works of old. These words are better regarded (with Delitzsch) as a second parallel object, (kedem), translated “before,” being not a preposition, but denoting previous existence. Hence we translate, “The foremost of his works of old;” i.e. the earliest revelation of his energy. There is a curious passage in the ‘Book of Enoch,’ ch. 42; which speaks of the personality and pre-existence of Wisdom, of her desire to dwell among men, frustrated by man’s wickedness: “Wisdom found no place where she could dwell; therefore was her dwelling in heaven. Wisdom came forth in order to dwell among the sons of men, and found no habitation; then she returned to her place, and took her seat among the angels.” We may add Wis. 8:3, “In that she dwelleth with God ( ), she magnifieth her nobility.”
Pro 8:23
I was set up from everlasting. The verb used here is remarkable. It is (nasak), in niph.; and it is found in Psa 2:6, “I have set my King upon my holy hill.” Both here and there it has been translated “anointed,” which would make a noteworthy reference to Christ. But there seems no proof that the word has this meaning. It signifies properly “to pour forth” (as of molten metal), then “to put down,” “to appoint or establish.” The versions recognize this. Thus the Septuagint, “he established () me;” Vulgate, ordinata sum; Aquila, ; Symmachus, ; Venetian, (comp. Ecc 1:9). So what is here said is that Wisdom was from everlasting exalted as ruler and disposer of all things. To express eternal relation, three synonymous terms are used. From everlasting; , Septuagint, as Delitzsch notes, points back to infinite distance. From the beginning; i.e. before the world was begun to be made; as St. John says (Joh 1:1), “In the beginning was the Word;” and Christ prays, “Glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (Joh 17:5). Or ever the earth was. This looks to the most remote time after the actual creation, while the earth was being formed and adapted.
Pro 8:24
The preexistence of Wisdom is still more expressly set forth. When there were no depths (Pro 8:27, Pro 8:28). The waste of waters which covered the face of the earth is meantthat great deep on which primeval darkness brooded (Gen 1:2). Before even this, man’s earliest conception of the beginning of the world, uncreated Wisdom was. Septuagint, “before he made the abysses” (see on Pro 3:20). I was brought forth; Vulgate, et ego jam concepta eram; Septuagint, at the end of Pro 8:25, , “he begetteth me.” The verb here is (chul), which is used of the travailing of women, and is rightly translated, “brought forth by generation.” It indicates in this place the energizing of Wisdom, her conception in the Divine mind, and her putting tbrth in operation. When there were no fountains abounding with water; i.e. springs in the interior of the earth (Gen 7:11; comp. Job 22:1-30; Job 26:1-14; Job 38:1-41.). Septuagint,”Before the springs of the waters came forward ().”
Pro 8:26
Before the mountains were settled (Job 38:6). It is questioned where the mountains were supposed to be fixed, and some have thought that they are represented as fixed in the depths of the earth. But, as we learn from Gen 1:9, they are regarded as rising from the waters, their foundations are laid in the great deep. So the psalmist, speaking of the waters, says, “They went up by the mountains, they went down by the valleys, unto the place which thou hast founded for them” (Psa 104:8; comp. Psa 24:2). What is here affirmed of Wisdom is said of Jehovah in Psa 90:2, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.”
Pro 8:26
The earth, nor the fields. The distinction intended is land as cultivated and occupied by buildings, etc; and waste uncultivated land outside towns. Septuagint, “The Lord made countries and uninhabited places ();” Vulgate, Adhuc terram non fecerat, et flumina. Hebrew, chutsoth; things without, abroad, hence open country. The Vulgate rendering, and that of Aquila and Symmaehus, , are plainly erroneous, as waters have already been mentioned (Pro 8:24). The highest part of the dust of the world; literally, the head of the dusts of the world. Some have interpreted this expression of “man,” the chief of those creatures which are made of the dust of the ground (Gen 3:19; Ecc 3:20). But the idea comes in awkwardly here; it is not natural to introduce man amid the inanimate works of nature, or to use such an enigmatical designation for him. St. Jerome has, cardines orbis terrarum, “the world’s hinges;” Septuagint, “the inhabited summits of the earth beneath the heavens; according to St. Hilary (‘De Trinit.,’ 12), “cacumina quae habitantur sub coelo.” Others take the term to signify the capes or promontories ot the world, the peaks and elevations; others, the clods of dry, amble land, in contrast to the untilled waste of waters; others, the chief elements, the matter of which the earth is composed. This last interpretation would lead us back to a period which has already been passed. Amid the many possible explanations, it is perhaps best (with Delitzsch, Nowack, etc.) to take rosh, “head” as equivalent to “sum,” “mass,” as in Psa 139:17. “How great is the sum (rosh) of them!” Then the expression comprehensively means all the mass of earth’s dust.
Pro 8:27
After asserting the pre-existence of Wisdom, the writer tells her part in the work of creation. When he prepared the heavens, I was there. When God made the firmament, and divided the waters above it and below (Gen 1:7), Wisdom cooperated. When he set a compass upon the face of the depth. (chug), “circle,” or “circuit” (as Job 22:14), means the vault of heaven, conceived of as resting on the ocean which surrounds the earth, in partial accordance with the notion in Homer, who speaks of the streams of ocean flowing back into itself (), ‘Iliad,’ 18:399; ‘Odyssey,’ 10:508, etc. That the reference is not to the marking out a limit for the waters is plain from the consideration that this interpretation would make the verse identical with Pro 8:29. Thus in Isa 40:22 we have, “It is he that sitteth above the circle (chug) of the earth;” i.e. the vault of heaven that encircles the earth. Septuagint, “When he marked out () his throne upon the winds.” The translators have referred tchom, “depth,” to the waters above.
Pro 8:28
When he established the clouds above. The reference is to the waters above the firmament (Gen 1:7), which are suspended in the ether; and the idea is that God thus made this medium capable of sustaining them. Vulgate, Quando aethera firmabat sursum; Septuagint, “When he made strong the clouds above” (comp. Job 26:8). When he strengthened the fountains of the deep; rather, as in the Revised Version, when the fountains of the deep became strong; i.e. when the great deep (Gen 7:11) burst forth with power (comp. Job 38:16). The Septuagint anticipates the following details by here rendering, “When he made secure the fountains of the earth beneath the heaven.”
Pro 8:29
When he gave to the sea his decree (chok, as Job 28:26; Jer 5:22); or, its bounds. The meaning is much the same in either case, being what is expressed in Job 38:8, etc,, “Who shut up the sea with doors and prescribed for it my decree, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shall thou come, and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?” The LXX. omits this hemistich. When he appointed the foundations of the earth. Job 38:4, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Who determined the measures thereof? or who stretched the line upon it? Wherein were the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the cornerstone thereof?”
Pro 8:30
Then I was by him. Wis. 9:9, “Wisdom was with thee; which knoweth thy works, and was present when thou madest the world.” So Joh 1:2, “The Word was with God.” As one brought up with him; Vulgate, cuncta componens; Septuagint, , “I was with him arranging things in harmony.” The Hebrew word is (amon), “an artificer,” “workman” (Jer 52:15). Thus in Wis. 7:22 Wisdom is called , “the worker of all things.” The Authorized Version takes the word in a passive state, as equivalent to alumnus, “foster child.” and this interpretation is etymologically admissible, and may possibly, as Schultens suggests, be glanced at in St. John’s expression (Joh 1:18), “the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.” But as the point here is the creative energy of Wisdom, it is best to take the term as denoting “artificer.” It will then accord with the expression , applied by the Fathers to the Word of God, by whom all things were made (Eph 3:9, Textus Receptus, and Heb 1:2). And I was daily his delight; literally, I was delights day by day, which may mean either as in Authorized Version, or “I had delight continually,” i.e. it may signify
(1) either that God took pleasure in the wisdom which displayed his workmanship, saw that it was very good (Gen 1:4, etc.), looked with delight on the beloved Son in whom he was well pleased (Mat 3:17, etc.); or
(2) it may mean that Wisdom herself rejoiced in her power and her work, rejoiced in giving effect to the Creator’s idea, and so “founding the earth” (Pro 3:19). Vulgate, delectabar per singulos dies. The Septuagint adopts the former of these views, “I was that wherein he took delight.” But the second interpretation seems most suitable, as the paragraph is stating rather what Wisdom is in herself than what she was in the eyes of Jehovah. What follows is a parallel. Rejoicing always before him; Vulgate, ludens coram eo omni tempore, as though the work of creation was a sport and pastime of a happy holiday. The expression is meant to denote the ease with which the operations were performed, and the pleasure which their execution yielded. David uses the same word, speaking of his dancing before the ark, when he says. “Therefore will I play before the Lord” (2Sa 6:21; comp. Pro 10:23).
Pro 8:31
Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth. Wisdom declares wherein she chiefly delighted, viz. in the world as the habitation of rational creatures. “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Gen 1:31); comp. Psa 104:31, and see the eloquent account of Wisdom in the book so named (Wis. 7:22-8:1). My delights were with the sons of men. Man, made in the image of God. is the principal object of creative Wisdom’s pleasure; and her joy is fulfilled only in the Incarnation. When the Word became flesh, then was the end and design of creation exhibited, and the infinite love of God towards man made, as it were, visible and palpable. Septuagint, “Because he rejoiced when he completed the world ( ), and rejoiced in the children of men.”
Pro 8:32-36
Wisdom renews the exhortation before given Pro 8:34
Watching daily at my gates. The idea suggested has been variously taken; e.g. as that of eager students waiting at the school door for their teacher’s appearance; clients besieging a great man’s portals; Levites guarding the doors of the temple; a lover at his mistress’s gate. This last notion is supported by Wis. 8:2, “I loved her, and sought her out from my youth; I desired to make her my spouse, and I was a lover of her beauty.” Waiting at the posts of my doors; keeping close to the entrance, so as to be quite sure of not missing her whom he longs to see.
Pro 8:35
For whoso findeth me findeth life. Here is the reason why the man is blessed who attends to the instruction of Wisdom. A similar promise is made at Pro 3:16, Pro 3:18, Pro 3:22. The truth here enunciated is also spoken or the Word of God, the everlasting Son of the Father. Joh 1:4, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men;” Joh 3:36, “He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life;” Joh 17:3, “This is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ” (comp. Joh 8:51; 1Jn 5:12; Ecc 4:12). Shall obtain favour of the Lord; Vulgate, hauriet salutem, which happily renders the Hebrew verb (Pro 12:2). The grace of God bringeth salvation (Tit 2:11). Septuagint, “For my outgoings () are the outgoings of life, and the will is prepared by the Lord ( ).” This latter clause was used by the Fathers, especially in the Pelagian controversy, to prove the necessity of prevenient grace.
Pro 8:36
He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. So Septuagint and Vulgate. And the truth stated is obvioushe who refuses to obey Wisdom, and transgresses her wholesome rules, will smart for it. Every sin involves punishment, injures the spiritual life, and demands satisfaction. But Delitzsch and others take , “my sinning one,” “my sinner,” in the older sense of “missing,” as Job 5:24, the derived meaning of “sinning” springing naturally from the idea of deviating from the right way or failing to hit the mark. So here the translation will be “he who misseth me,” which is a good contrast to “whoso findeth me,” of verse 35. He who takes a path which does not lead to wisdom is guilty of moral suicide. All that hate me love death (Pro 7:27). “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (Joh 3:36). They who will not hearken to Wisdom, and who scorn her counsels, do virtually love death, because they love the things and the practices which lead to death, temporal and spiritual Job 12:10, “They that sin are enemies to their own life” (comp. Wis. 1:12).
HOMILETICS
Pro 8:5
Wisdom for the simple
We may divide the simple into three classes.
1. There are those who think themselves wise while they are but fools: there is no hope for such.
2. There are people who make no pretence to wisdom, but who have chosen folly, and are quite indifferent to the claims and charms of wisdom.
3. There are anxious seekers after wisdom, who feel their present ignorance and incompetence with acute distress, and long to be among the wise, but despair of reaching the privileged circle. The first class will refuse to believe that the call of wisdom is for them, but to the other two it may come with effect.
I. THE SIMPLE NEED WISDOM. This reflection should concern the second classthose who as yet have despised and rejected wisdom.
1. Wisdom is a joy. Even pleasure is rejected in the renunciation of truth, knowledge, thought, the vision of God, and the revelation of his will. The narrow mind is a dark mind, and when the light of God breaks in it will be seen that many new delights of knowledge and joys of Divine truth, which have long been missed, can now be happily received.
2. Wisdom is a safeguard. Men stumble in the dark. Snares are set for the unwary. In this great, mysterious world we may easily go astray and be lost, perhaps be entrapped in fearful soul perils. It is much to know the way, to know ourselves, to know our dangers, to know the will of God and how to have his guiding and saving help.
3. Wisdom is life. The foolish soul is but half alive, and it is on the road to destruction. Mere knowledge itself is a free intellectual life, and the exercise of thought in the practical application of the truth which we have assimilated, i.e. wisdom, is a living activity. It is moil;. unfortunate that many young men in the present day seem to despise all intellectual pursuits, and confine the attention of their leisure moments to idle amusements or at best to athletics. They fail to see the mental death that they are courting. But infinitely worse are they who turn from the moral side of wisdomthe fear of the Lordand pursue the folly of godlessness, for this is soul death.
II. THE SIMPLE MAY HAVE WINDOW. Here is the encouragement for the third class of the simple. It is for children, for weak minds, and for uneducated people.
1. Mental improvement is attainable. Where there is a will to rise, the young man under most disadvantageous circumstances will find the means to cultivate self-education.
2. The highest wisdom is spiritual. This wisdom is not like Greek philosophyonly open to intellectual culture. It is the truth of God that may be rewaled to “babes and sucklings” (Mat 21:16), and yet it is the highest truth. To be spiritually wise we need. not be mentally clever. What is wanted is a sincere love of truth, a pure heart, and a childlike teachableness.
3. The gospel brings wisdom to the simple. That gospel was scoffed at for its apparent simplicity. Yet it was indeed the wisdom as well as the power of God (1Co 1:24). Christ comes to us as the eternal Wisdom incarnate. The simple may know him, and when such receive Christ they receive the Light of the world and a loftier wisdom than was ever reached by the sages of antiquity or can ever be attained in the cold light of science.
Pro 8:9
Plain words
The words of wisdom are here described as “plain words.” This expression has been so often abused that it is almost as important to see what it does not mean as to consider what it does mean.
I. WHAT THE EXPRESSION DOES NOT MEAN.
1. Lack of grace. A mistake arising from the confusion of two meanings of the term “plain” has been pointed out by Archbishop Whately, and yet it is often repeated. “Plain” means smooth, simple, easy, intelligible; “plain” also means bare, unadorned, unbeautiful. The two meanings are quite distinct. But some have thought that a plain sermon must be a sermon wanting in all grace of style and beauty of illustration. This is an inappropriate use of the word “plain.” The words of Christ were plain, i.e. clear and simple; yet they were very beautiful and full of living illustrations. The duty to be plain is no excuse for slovenliness of speech.
2. Intellectual feebleness. Some people insist on having a “simple gospel” in a way that leads one to think they would condemn all vigour of thought. They forget that the teaching of St. Paul, which they admire so much, teemed with the highest intellectuality, and that he regarded the truth of the crucified Christ as the wisdom of God, and only as falsely mistaken for foolishness by the Greeks. It is the charm of the highest thinking that it can simplify difficulties. We sometimes fail to detect the great intellectual power of a writer just because this has been so perfect as to disguise all effort and make the result of processes of thought clear; while the laboured attempts of weaker minds induce us to mistake obscurity for profundity. Any subject looks simple in the hands of a master.
3. Rudeness and offensiveness. Disagreeable people make a virtue of being plain spoken when they are really harsh and inconsiderate. There is no unkindness about the plain words of the Bible. The Christian teacher should remember the admonitions, “Be pitiful, be courteous.”
II. WHAT THE EXPRESSION DOES MEAN.
1. It signifies that the words of wisdom are intelligible. The first object of revelation, of course, is to reveal. The first object of speech is to declare thoughts. It is the neglect of this simple point that has given an excuse for the sarcasm that “words were invented to conceal thoughts.” The first duty of the speaker is to be plain. Afterwards he may be ornate if he will. But when the decorations of speech encumber its free movement and prevent it from accomplishing its practical ends, they are altogether encumbrances. And when intellectual power is wasted on a mere display of its own exercise, or confined to inventing difficulties and making obscure what was originally clear and simple, this also is misdirected. The Divine wisdom of the Bible claims to be intelligible. It is true that many people find. great difficulties in its pages, and all of us must confess that they are not to be fully measured and sounded. But
(1) they who approach them in a right way, having spiritual mind, so necessary for the discernment of spiritual things, will be able to understand the main, most important truths of Christianity; and
(2) whatever disputes may be raised about the meaning of the more abstract doctrines, the directions of duty and the indications of the things we are to do for our soul’s welfare are plain; indeed, the obscurity of religious subjects varies proportionately with their abstractness, with their separation from our life and duty.
2. It signifies that the words of wisdom indicate a plain sad simple course of action. They are “right,” or rather “straight to those that find knowledge.” We are not called to any complicated course of action. The intricacies of casuistry are not to be found in the Book of Proverbs nor anywhere else in the Bible. The way of duty is simple and straightforward.
Pro 8:13
Hatred of evil
I. RELIGION INCLUDES MORALS. This is the broad lesson of the text. It should be accepted as a self-evident truism. Yet it has been often obscured by dangerous sophisms. Thus some have regarded religion as consisting in correctness of creed or in assiduity of devotionthings treated by God as worthless unless accompanied by righteousness of conduct (Isa 1:10-17). There is a common impression that religious merits may be pleaded as a set off against moral deficiencies. No assumption can be more false, nor can any be more degrading or more injurious. The reverse is true. Religiousness increases the guilt of unrighteousness of life by raising the standard up to which one is supposed to live, and also adds the sin of hypocrisy. True religion is impossible without a proportionate devotion to righteousness. because it consists in the fear of God. But God is holy; to reverence him must involve the adoration of his characterthe love of goodness and the corresponding detestation of its opposite.
II. RELIGION INSPIRES MORALS WITH STRONG EMOTION. Morality is to obey the law. Religion goes further, and hates evil. It is not a matter of outward conduct only. It goes down to the secret springs of action. It rouses the deepest passions of the soul. We cannot accept Mr. M. Arnold’s definition of religion as “morality touched with emotion,” because it ignores the foundation of religion in “the fear of the Lord,” in devotion to a personal God; but the phrase may serve as an apt description of an essential characteristic of religion. The difficulty we all feel is that, while we know the better way we are often so weak as to choose the worse. A cold, bare exposition of morality will be of little use with this difficulty. What we want is a powerful impulse, and that impulse it is the function of religion to supply. It makes goodness not only visible but beautiful and attractive, and it inspires a hunger and thirst after righteousness, a passion for a God-like life in the love of God, a yearning after the likeness of Christ in devotion of heart to him. It also makes evil appear hideous, detestable, by its horrible opposition to these affections.
III. AMONG RELIGIOUS EMOTIONS IS THE PASSION OF HATRED. Religion is not based upon hatred. It begins with” the fear of the Lord,” with reverence for God rising up to love. No strong thing can rest on a mere negation. Neither morality nor religion starts from an attitude in regard to evil. But they lead on to this, and they are not perfect without it. The passion of hatred is natural; it has a useful, though a low, place in the array of spiritual forces. It is abused when it is spent upon persons, but it is rightly indulged against evil principles and practices. We are morally defective unless we can feel “the hate of hate, and scorn of scorn.” One of the means by which we are helped to resist sin is found in this hatred of it. It is not enough that we disapprove of it. We must loathe and abhor it from the very bottom of our hearts.
IV. RELIGIOUS HATRED IS DETESTATION OF EVIL ITSELF, NOT THE MERE DISLIKE OF ITS CONSEQUENCES. When Paley, in his ‘Moral Philosophy,’ described the function of religion in aiding morality as the addition of the prospect of future rewards and promises, he expressed a common sense truth, but a very low truth detached from more spiritual ideas and a very partial representation of the case. Religious morality is not simply nor chiefly the fear of God as a Judge who will punish us if we do wrong. It is reverence for a holy Father leading to hatred of all that is displeasing to him. We have no religion till we go beyond the instinctive dislike for pain that follows sin to hatred of sin itself. This is the test of true religionthat we love goodness and hate evil for their own sakes. It is interesting to observe that the sin selected for special abhorrence on the part of those who are inspired by “the fear of the Lord” is pride. This is spiritual wickedness of the most fatal character, In its feeling of personal merit and self-sufficiency it excludes both repentance and faiththe two fundamental conditions of spiritual religion. Therefore the spirit of the Pharisee and all pride must be hated above all things, and will be hated by those who have true reverence for the great and holy God, and true love for the lowly Christ who promised the kingdom of heaven to the “poor in spirit” (Mat 5:3).
Pro 8:17
The blessedness of loving and seeking Christ
Wisdom is here personified. This is only the beginning of a process that is to grow through subsequent ages, manifesting itself in the Books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, and finally developing into the doctrine of the “Logos” and the great revelation of Christ as the incarnate Word of God. We must not pretend to see the perfected thought in its earliest germ. The first personification of wisdom is little more than a figure of speech, an instance of the rich imaginative habits of Oriental thinking. Nevertheless, we know Christ to be the full, living embodiment of God’s wisdom. What is true of that wisdom is true of him. And, therefore, though the writer of the words before us had no thought of Jesus Christ the Son of God and Son of man, his teaching concerning Divine wisdom may be most useful when we connect it with the one perfect revelation of wisdom in our Saviour.
I. LOVE FOR LOVE.
1. Love to Christ must precede a deep knowledge of Christ. We love before we seek and find. Of course, we must know something of him to arouse our love; but when this initial knowledge is attained, Love must have her perfect work before knowledge can ripen.
2. Love to Christ must be based on what is lovable in him. Wisdom is beautiful and attractive, and can excite love. How much more, then, should the incarnation of Wisdom in our brother man do this! The contemplation of the beautiful life of Christ and the study of his perfect character urge us to love him; but surely what he has done for us, his sacrifice of himself, his death on our behalf, must be our chief grounds for loving him.
3. This love to Christ will be met by his love in return. It is true that his love precedes ours, nay, that it is the great source of our love. But
(1) it is not felt and enjoyed till it is returned, so that then it seems to come afresh as an answer to our love; and
(2) there must be a stronger, more tender, more intimate love to those who appreciate it than can be given to others. Christ loved all men, hut not as he loved St. John. Christians loving Christ enjoy his peculiar love.
4. To be loved by Christ is the best reward of loving him. True love is satisfied with nothing less than a return of love, but it is satisfied with this. If we have nothing else we have a pearl of great price in the love of Christ. Then we can afford to lose all earthly good things, can count them but dung, that we may win Christ.
II. FINDING FOR SEEKING.
1. We must seek Christ if we would possess him. He offers himself to all as a Saviour and a Master. But he must be followed and found. Our love to him will be the great attraction ever drawing us nearer to him.
2. The search for Christ must be earnest if it is to be successful. He will not answer a halfhearted call. Till we seek him with determination, reality, persistence, we shall meet no response. We must seek him before all things, must make Christ the chief end of life.
3. This earnest seeking will be rewarded by the receiving of Christ. Wisdom comes to him who seeks laboriously and patiently; much more will Wisdom incarnate, Wisdom with a heart to sympathize. Such a response will be the best reward of seeking. Better than anything that Christ could send us will be his own coming to dwell in our hearts. This will be the satisfaction of anxious inquiry in a full response, the blessing of love with love and close communion.
Pro 8:22-31
The primeval glory of Divine wisdom
I. THE HIGHEST WISDOM IS CREATED BY GOD. “The Lord created me as the first of his way.” This idea was suggested to the Greeks in the myth of Athene, who sprang from the head of Zeus. It is the poetic form of the great truth that God is the Creator of thoughts as well as of things; and it suggests that he not only called individual intelligences into being, but originated the primary laws and conditions of all intelligence, just as he ordained the laws of nature and the conditions of physical existence as well as the rocks and plants and animals subsequently created.
II. DIVINE WISDOM WAS ANTECEDENT TO MATERIAL CREATION. “‘Twas wrought from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.” Thought precedes action, Design anticipates execution. The architect comes before the builder. Archetypal ideas precede creative work. In the awful depths of primeval antiquity the great Thinker wrought out the plans of the universe which as the great Worker he has been since evolving in visible existences.
III. WISDOM ACCOMPANIED AND DIRECTED PHYSICAL CREATION. “I was by him as a master worker.” Wisdom did not cease when force appeared. The two wrought together. The result of their joint operation is the energetic cosmosforce and thought triumphing over death and chaos. When we endeavour to discover the secrets of nature, we are searching out the wisdom of God. When we learn the laws and processes of nature, we are able to think the thoughts of God. The naturalist should walk reverently, for he is treading in the footsteps of the mind of God. It should be our aim in studying nature to find God in his wisdom.
IV. THE DIVINE WISDOM IN CREATION LEADS ON TO THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE AND ORDER. First there is the confusion of the elements. Gradually these elements are marshalled into order till Wisdom is able to “rejoice in his earthly world.” The onward movement of all things here indicated and illustrated very fully by recent science reveals the wisdom of God with increasing clearness. Instead of thinking of that wisdom as chiefly manifested in primitive creation, we should see that it is most active and most glorious in the latest and richest development of the life of the universe.
V. THIS WISDOM IS ONE OF THE MOST GLORIOUS OF THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. God has glory of thought as well as glory of character. There must be all phases of perfection in the perfect Mind. God is not only to be regarded on the side of moral law and religious worship. He is the great Mathematician, Architect, Philosopher, Poet. Our thoughts of God are too “Churchy.” God is not only in the church. He is much in the fields. He has his workshops as well as his temples; nay, they are his best temples. Let us try to find him in “secular” thought and work, and worship him the more for the wisdom seen in his “earthly world.”
Pro 8:29
The decree of the sea
We live under the reign of law. This fact is taken to be the late revelation of modern science. But it is embedded in Old Testament teaching. There we see that the laws of nature, which are but the ways of God on earth, are recognized as fixed and stable. But the Bible helps us in two ways in examining those laws. First, it traces them back to their origin in a personal will. These are not merely channels of a blind force. They are decrees of an authority. Secondly, it teaches us to believe that they are good, wisely directed and tending to righteousness. They come from a wise, holy, just, and benevolent source. The decree of the sea has a special significance.
I. IT HAS A VAST DOMAIN. The sea covers three parts of the surface of the globe. Leagues upon leagues of spreading ocean roll round the earth with every tide. The sea is deep, and hides in its many waters myriads of living creatures. The fearful storms that sweep its surface tell sad tales of its more than giant strength. Here we are face to face with a frightful nature power. Yet that power is under law. God’s decree encircles it, and his hand reins it in with irresistible might. The sea is great, but God is greater; strong, but God is stronger. As we look at the fearful might and majesty of the ocean, we are called to bow before the infinitely greater Power who holds its waters in the hollow of his hand. If we tremble before its terror, we may remember that it is but the inanimate slave of our Father in heaven.
II. IT IS ENSHRINED IN MYSTERY. Men have discovered some of the laws of tides, currents, storms, etc. Yet the ocean is still, in many respects, a great mystery. What caverns are hidden beneath its dark waters? What monsters of the deep may still elude the grasp, of man’s observation? What secret terrors may burst upon his astounded gaze? Here is indeed a mystery. Yet this is all known to God, governed by God, subject to his law, humbly obedient to his decree. God rules over all the mysteries of the universe.
III. IT GOVERNS CHANGE. The sea is the symbol of fickleness and deceptiontoday smooth as a mirror, “green calm below, blue quietness above” (Whittier); tomorrow a black and storm-tossed chaos. Its restless waves never cease to crawl to and fro on the quietest day; its tides are ever ebbing and flowing. Yet it obeys law. There are laws of change, as in night and day, the seasons, etc. God rules over all the vicissitudes of life. Change does not mean chance.
IV. IT OVERRULES CONFUSION. God’s decree does not prevent the tempest, but the tempest itself obeys the law of God. The wild and wintry waste of waters, flecked with foam, and scoured with angry billows, is all under law and order. It is so in life. God does not prevent trouble; but he overrules it and limits its extent.
This decree of the sea is typical of the Divine government of what looks most tumultuous and lawless in life. Apply it throughout with the four pointsvastness, mystery, change, and confusion
(1) to earthly circumstances;
(2) to the ocean of human life;
(3) to the soul, that sea of many storms.
Pro 8:30
The pre-eminent glory of Christ
This is affirmed of wisdom, and wisdom in the Proverbs is always an abstraction, an attribute of God, or a grace conferred upon man. Thus we have the highly imaginative picture of a certain quality of thought described like a personal favourite in the heavenly presence. But surely it is not necessary for us to rest with this idea. The New Testament cannot be out of our minds when we read the Old. It was not long before Jews learnt to personify wisdom, and when Christ appeared he realized in his own Person what had previously been ascribed to an abstract quality. Christ is “the Truth” (Joh 14:6) and “the Wisdom of God” (1Co 1:24). His pre-existence is affirmed by himself (Joh 8:58) and repeatedly asserted by his apostles (e.g. Col 1:16). We may, then, think of Christ embodying this wisdom of God in the awful ages of the past, and see how truly what is here predicated of wisdom applies to him in whom that wisdom dwelt.
I. WISDOM IN CHRIST WAS WITH GOD. “I was by him.”
1. Wisdom was always with God, always at his right hand. There was never a time when God acted blindly, imperfectly, without full consciousness. We have no ground for thinking of a lawless chaos previous to the exercise of Divine wisdom and power in creation. Even when the world was” without form and void” (Gen 1:2), God’s wise thought presided over it. God’s mind did not grow like ours, from infantile simplicity. He was ever fully God.
2. Christ was similarly eternal with God. “The Word was with God” (Joh 1:1). When he came to our earth he came forth from God. His condescension was seen in this, that he left his place by the right hand of his Father and came down to dwelt with men.
II. WISDOM IN CHRIST WAS CONCERNED IN CREATION.
1. God made the universe in wisdom. It bears the impress of thought. Deep purposes have impregnated it. Creation is a parable of infinite ideas.
2. God created all things through Christ. “By whom he made the worlds” (Heb 1:2). Of course, the humanity of Jesus was not then existing. But the Divine side of our Lord was not only eternal; it was even directly active. Therefore there is a Christ-spirit in nature.
III. WISDOM IS CHRIST WAS GOD‘S DAILY DELIGHT.
1. God rejoices over his work, as an artist over the thing of beauty that his hand has fashioned according to the dream of his heart. “God saw that it was good” (Gen 1:10). The thought that is in God’s work is his especial delight. He cares not for mere exhibitions of brute force. He loves wisdom.
2. God rejoices over Christ. So Christ is God’s “beloved Son” (Mat 3:17). There are times when we grieve our Father, though at other seasons he may smile upon us. But Christ always dwelt under the smile of his Father, a daily delightrejoiced in for his wisdom and the holy and gracious use he made of it.
IV. CHRIST, BY HIS WISDOM, WAS REJOICING ALWAYS BEFORE GOD. Wisdom is a source of joy. Wisdom devoted to God is doubly joyous. Christ had an ancient joy (Joh 15:11). He left a happy home to come to us. The word for this joy is “sporting.” Is there humour in nature? May there be in heaven those lighter, innocent joys which make up so much of the mirth of children on earth? Why should Christ have been always solemn?
Pro 8:35, Pro 8:36
Life and favour with God
It is common to see this and similar passages applied directly to the soul’s possession of God, or to the special Christian faith in Jesus Christ. Now, it is quite true that we have here in germ what will lead up to those experiences. But apart from the mistake of ignoring the distinction between the elementary truth and its full development, there is a practical consideration that is too often overlooked. It is thought to be good policy to “Christianize” these passages of the Old Testament; i.e. it is thought they are thus most profitably used. On this low ground even an answer can be givenit may be shown that the policy is bad. The more Christian idea is true in itself. But it is expressed clearly enough in the New Testament. We gain no new light, therefore, if we contrive to see it here. We simply repeat a lesson that we have learnt elsewhere. But if we take the more literal meaning of the words, then, though the thought given to us may not be so exalted nor so valuable as the perfected Christian thought, it may have a distinct worth and use of its own, and therefore may add somewhat to our knowledge of Divine thingsan addition which we should not have if we read the words as a mere repetition of what we had already learnt elsewhere, however much more important that other lesson might be. The New Testament teaches us that we have life in Christ. We who have that later and fuller revelation gain little or nothing by reading the same truth in the Book of Proverbs. That life is to be found in the Divine wisdom may be a has valuable thought. But it is a distinct thought, and therefore some addition to our knowledge; and as such it should be spiritually helpful to us. For this reason, though it may be perfectly legitimate for us to show how the words of our text foreshadow the great truths of Christianity, it may be more profitable for us to keep to their simple meaning, and see how life and Divine favour are received through the finding of Divine wisdom.
I. WHAT IS MEANT BY FINDING DIVINE WISDOM.
1. It is not the mere knowledge of religious doctrine. Many have this, and yet miss the life eternal. We may know the Bible without knowing God.
2. It is not the results of some rare intuition, nor the achievements of elaborate intellectual effort; it is neither the vision of the mystic nor the secret of the Gnostic. For this wisdom is repeatedly offered to the simple with a most general invitation (e.g. verses 4, 5).
3. To find Divine wisdom is to come to the knowledge of God as far as this affects our own conduct, to know his disposition towards us, his will regarding our conduct, the way of life to which he calls us; it is further to know so much of God’s ways and thoughts as to be able to set them before us as a pattern, and thus to imbibe some of the great primeval wisdom described in the preceding verses; lastly, it is to set these thoughts in relation to practice and to make the knowledge of Divine things the rule of life.
II. HOW LIFE AND THE FAVOUR OF GOD RESULT FROM THE FINDING OF WISDOM.
1. Life.
(1) In this wisdom we see the way to lifethat life which is to Christians here on earth as well as hereafter the life eternal.
(2) The only life worth living is that lived with thoughts of God and aims directed by the knowledge of God. Eternal life consists in this knowledge of God.
2. The favour of God. God is pleased with us in so far as we walk in his ways. Divine wisdom only can direct us aright, so that we may please God. But the very habit of mind that consists in the thinking of Divine thoughts and the desiring and attempting to accomplish the purposes of Divine wisdom must be pleasing to God.
“Base-minded they that want intelligence; (Spenser.)
III. HOW SELF–INJURY AND DEATH RESULT FROM THE LOSS OF THIS WISDOM. “He that misseth me,” etc.
1. The common evils of life will lead to our ruin unless we are saved by higher means. The traveller who rejects the guide may parish in the perils of his path; the patient who disobeys the physician may die of his disease. We shall ruin ourselves in sin “if we neglect so great salvation.”
2. The rejection of Divine wisdom is itself a fatal sin. It is our duty to hearken to its voice. If we refuse to do this, we shall suffer as a penalty for our wilful disobedience to the message from Heaven.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Pro 8:1-9
Wisdom’s proclamation
Again it is a poetical personification of truth, of God’s Word, of religion, morality, sense, prudence; for all these are included in the comprehensive conception of wisdom that is placed before us.
I. THE PROCLAMATION OF TRUTH HAS NEVER FAILED IN THE WORLD. The cry is coeval with the world, with the conscience of man. The preacher has an institution second to none in antiquity and in honour.
II. THE PREACHER MUST RE CONSPICUOUS TO AND AUDIBLE BY ALL. (Pro 8:2, Pro 8:3.) On raised ground, in lonely paths (Pro 8:2), in the open air, in the field and forest; and. (Pro 8:3) in the towns and cities, at the places of public resort and traffic, at the gates in the Orient, in the centre of Western cities, the preacher’s voice has been beard. All eminent teachers in books are truly agents of Wisdom, and heralds of the kingdom of God.
III. THE SUBSTANCE OF TRUE PREACHING MUST BE THE SAME IN EVERY AGE.
1. It is human (Pro 8:3), and therefore intelligible, rational, practical.
2. It is especially addressed to inexperienceto the foolish and the thoughtless (see on Pro 1:4).
3. It deals with clear and manifest truth (see Hitzig’s reading of Pro 8:6), and so commends itself to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
4. It is disinterested, free from sophistry and compromise (Pro 8:7).
5. It is justcorrect and accurate in knowledge of human nature and of Divine things (Pro 8:8). And thus it is:
6. Acceptable and irresistible by the “honest and good heart” (Pro 8:9).J.
Pro 8:10-21
Wisdom’s pleadings
She has nothing novel to say concerning her nature, value, and blessings. Preaching must in the main be repetition; the iteration of the old, not with dry and sterile monotony, but with that freshness which comparison with everyday facts and illustrations gives. New combinations of facts are ever arising in which to frame the old precepts and set them forth. Besides, love gives novelty to old truth, as the old song is enjoyed from the lips of the latest sweet singer.
I. SHE APPEALS TO COMPARISON. (Pro 8:10, Pro 8:11.) By comparison we increase and strengthen our perceptions. In the knowledge of man, books, art, life, comparison is everything. We are to compare Wisdom with material objects of sense, such as gold and silver, that we may see her to be incomparable; and so each for ourselves repeat the choice of Solomon (comp. on Pro 3:14, Pro 3:15).
II. SHE APPEALS TO ASSOCIATION. (Pro 8:12.) Wisdom dwells with prudence. In modern language, the general implies the particular. Wisdom is intelligence in general; prudence, the appreciation of it in particular cases. In the poetical mode of representation we should say that Piety and Prudence are sisters, and go hand-in-hand, daughters of the voice of God, as Wordsworth said of duty. So, too, Wisdom has insight into enigmas, dark sayings, and generally deep things of God (see on Pro 1:4).
III. SHE UNFOLDS TEE CONTENTS OF HER MIND. (Pro 8:18, Pro 8:14.) One of her many aliases is the fear of Jehovah. And this is religion, which includes all wholesome aversions, viz. wickedness in general, and in particular assumption, arrogance, evil habits, perverted speech. In other words, her sympathies are all with lowliness, purity, love, and truth. Insight or sharp and deep perception is another of her attributes, and force (comp. on Pro 2:7).
V. SHE CLAIMS SUPREME AUTHORITY. (Pro 8:15, Pro 8:16.) Kings, rulers, princes, potentates, judges,all received those places and fulfil those functions through her and her alone. Authority in polities rests on consent or on force, or both. And these are traceable ultimately to reason, and reason is the “inspiration of the Almighty.” Exceptions form no part of this representation. In modern language, we say that government, as a principle or institute, rests on an ultimate Divine basis. The text says tic less than this, nor does it say mort.
V. SHE IS IN RECIPROCAL RELATION TO HER SUBJECTS. (Pro 8:17.) Her love is conditioned by love; the winning of her by the wooing. The notion that we can be passive, whether in knowledge or goodness, is an entire illusion. Such an illusion once prevailed as the doctrine of “innate ideas” now exploded in philosophy. All that becomes the portion of head or heart implies, necessitates a previous spiritual activity in us. We are ignorant because we will not learn, unhappy because we will not love.
VI. SHE COMMANDS WEALTH AND HONOUR AND THE AVENUES TO THEM. (Pro 8:18-21.) Riches, honour, self-increasing goods, and righteous” (comp. on Pro 3:16). The righteous here is elucidated by the next two verses; she shows the right way to all earthly good. She is a tree of life, and yields incomparable fruit both for value and abundance (Pro 8:19). She guarantees possessions to her votaries. The connection between righteous and worldly wealth is insisted on. Not that it is always obvious. Nor again are we to expect notice of exceptions in teaching that is from first to last absolute in form. The stringency of the connection is what we have to recognize; the knowledge of its complete application to all cases opens the relations of eternity and demands the omniscience of God.J.
Pro 8:22-36
Wisdom in eternity and in time
This sublime view lifts us at once above the seeming contradictions of time, and suggests the solution of all its problems in God.
I. SHE IS OF THE DIVINE BEGINNINGS OR ELEMENTS. (Pro 8:22.) An element in chemistry is the last simple substance we can reach in analysis. An element in thought is the last simple notion yielded by the dialectic of the understanding. Wisdom is thus before the visible creationthe earth, the sea, the mountains. The verses do but repeat and iterate this one simple and sublime thought. We may in like manner vary it in any form of thought and expression familiar to us. She is the Divine a priori; the logic of nature and spirit; the last and first, the ground of all existence; the eternal reason, the transcendent cause, the alpha and omega of the cosmic alphabet. We are trying to express the inexpressible, utter the unutterable, define the undefinable, find out God to perfection, if we press beyond these poor forms of speech and ignore the limit which separates the known from the unknowable, and reason from faith.
II. THE CREATION PROCEEDING FROM THE DIVINE WISDOM FULFILS ITS COURSE BY WISDOM. (Pro 8:27.) What we term in science the discovery of law is for religion the revelation of the mind of God in the world and in us. The cosmos is here conceived under the forms of the poetic imaginationthe heavens and their outstretched circle or vault; the clouds as massive bags or skins; the springs on earth as set in motion by direct Divine activity; the sea as bounded by a positive fiat; the earth as fixed on firm pillars, by one act as it were of the Divine Architect. And then was Wisdom at his side as mistress of the work (Pro 8:30), and was in delight day by day (Pro 8:30), “playing before him always; playing on the circle of the earth, and I had my delight in men” (Pro 8:31). One of the best illustrations of the poetical force and sense of this passage is in the Wisdom of Sirach 24: “I went forth from the mouth of the Highest, and as a mist I covered the earth. I pitched my tent in the heights, and my throne was as a pillar of cloud. The gyre of heaven I encircled alone, and in the depths of abysses I walked about. In the billows of the sea, and in all the earth, and among every people and nation, I was busy” (verses 3-6).
III. WISDOM‘S APPEAL AND PROMISES, (Verses 32-36.)
1. The appeal. “Listen to me, listen to instruction!” Drink out of this spring of eternity, whose currents flow through all the tracts of nature and of man. “Resist not!” for to resist is to oppose the law of things and to invite destruction. Let them be so eager to listen and to know that they shall daily apply, daily stand as suppliants or visitors at her door!
2. The promises. Happiness is repeatedly foretold (verses 32, 34). Life in all senses, intensive and extensive (verse 35). Favour with Jehovah (verse 35). And it follows, as the night the day, that he who sins against Wisdom, whether by neglect or direct disobedience, is guilty of a moral suicide, and shows a contempt for life and happiness, a perverse preference for death (see on Pro 4:13, Pro 4:22; Pro 7:27; comp. Eze 18:21).J.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Pro 8:1-21
The excellency of Divine wisdom: No. 1
In these verses we have portrayed to us the surpassing excellency of the wisdom of God.
I. IT IS AUDIBLE TO EVERY ONE. “Doth not Wisdom cry,” etc.? (Pro 8:1; see homily on Pro 1:20-23).
II. IT IS URGENT AND IMPORTUNATE. (Pro 8:2-4; see homily on Pro 1:20-23.)
III. IT MAKES ITS APPEAL TO UNIVERSAL MAN. (Pro 8:4, Pro 8:5.) “Unto you, O men, I call,” etc. There is nothing exclusive or partial in its address. Its sympathies are wide as the human soul. It draws no lines of latitude or longitude in any kingdom, beyond which it does not pass. It appeals to manJew and Gentile, male and female, bond and free, learned and ignorant, wise and foolish (simple), moral and immoral (fools).
IV. IT IS IN FULL HARMONY WITH ALL THAT IS BEST WITHIN US. Some voices that address us make their appeal to that which is lower or even lowest in our nature. Divine wisdom appeals to that which is highest and best.
1. To our sense of what is right and good (Pro 8:6, Pro 8:7).
2. To our love of that which is true (Pro 8:7).
V. IT IS AN APPRECIABLE THING. (Pro 8:9.) Through it takes high ground, not rooting itself in anything base, but making its appeal to that which is purest and noblest in our nature, it is still appreciable by all who can estimate anything at its true worth. To “him that understandeth,” to the man who is capable of any discernment, the words of heavenly wisdom will be plainthey will “receive them gladly;” while to those who have reached any height in attainment, the teaching of wisdom will be recognized as the excellent thing it is. The students of law will find in it the illustration of all true order; the disciples of ethics will perceive in it all that is morally sound and satisfying to the conscience; those who admire “the beautiful” will recognize that which is exquisite, admirable, sublime. The teaching of Divine wisdom is “right to them that find knowledge.”
VI. IT IS INTIMATELY ASSOCIATED WITH INTELLIGENT OBSERVATION. It consequently results in useful contrivances (Pro 8:12). So far from heavenly wisdom being confined, in its principles and its results, to the realm of the abstract and unseen, it is most closely allied with, and is constantly found in the company of, simple, homely discretion, the careful, intelligent observation of all surrounding objects and passing incidents. It issues, therefore, in “witty inventions.”
VII. IT ISSUES IN, AND IS ILLUSTRATED BY, MORAL AND SPIRITUAL WORTH. (Pro 8:13.) “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” and the fear of the Lord is so intimately and essentially bound up with the hatred of evil, that they may be practically identified; we may say that “the fear of the Lord is to hate evil”evil in all its forms, “pride, arrogancy,” etc.C.
Pro 8:1-21 (continued)
The excellency of Divine wisdom: No. 2
We have also these features of the wisdom of God
I. IT ENDOWS WITH THE WEALTH WHICH IS THE PRODUCT OF VIRTUE. (Pro 8:20, Pro 8:21.) It leads in that “way of righteousness” and those “paths of judgment” which result in “inheriting substance,” and being “filled with treasures.” It places in the hand of its followers all that measure of earthly good which they can regard with holy satisfaction and enjoy with a good conscience.
II. IT IS A SOURCE OF STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE IN HUMAN SOCIETY. (Pro 8:14-16,) It is attended with that breadth of understanding, that knowledge of affairs, that insight into “men and things,” which gives sagacity to statesmen and stability to thrones.
III. IT RECIPROCATES AN ATTACHMENT. (Pro 8:17.) The more we know, the more attractive does knowledge become to our admiring spirit. The further we advance into its domain, the firmer becomes our footing and the brighter becomes the light. Moreover, the highest peaks attainable by man are only reached by those who begin to climb in the days of their youth (vide homily infra).
IV. IT IS OF INCOMPARABLE VALUE TO THE HUMAN SOUL. (Pro 8:10, Pro 8:11, Pro 8:18, Pro 8:19.) If the choice should lie between wealth and wisdom, it is better far to choose the latter; for:
1. While wealth will not buy wisdom, wisdom will lead to wealth, later if not sooner, of one kind if not of another.
2. Wisdom itself is wealth; it is the possession of the mind, it is the inheritance of the soul, it is “durable riches and righteousness.”
The excellency of Divine wisdom: No. 3 (see below).C.
Pro 8:1-21
Christ the Wisdom of God: No. 1
Though it is not to be supposed that Jesus Christ was in the mind of the writer of this passage, yet as he does personify wisdom, and as wisdom was incarnated in that Son of man who was the Son of God, we should expect to find that the words of the wise man in the text would apply, in large measure, to the Lord Jesus Christ. They do so, and suggest to us
I. THE MANNER OF HIS TEACHING. (Pro 8:1-3) He “spake openly to the world, taught in the synagogue, and in the temple,” etc..
II. HIS APPEAL TO ALL CLASSES AND CONDITIONS OF MEN. (Pro 8:4, Pro 8:5.) He came unto the world at large, to “draw all men unto him.” None were, none are, so poor. or so rich, so ignorant or so learned, so simple or so subtle, so degraded or so refined, so spiritually destitute or so privileged, as to be out of range of his heavenly voice. All need his message; all are welcome to his kingdom.
III. HIS MANIFESTATION OF THE TRUTH. (Pro 8:6-8.) He came “to bear witness unto the truth” (Joh 18:37). He came to be the living Truth himself (Joh 14:6), so that the more we know of him and grow up into him, the more of Divine truth do we receive into our souls.
IV. THE APPRECIABLENESS OF HIS MESSAGE. (Pro 8:9.) When he spake with his own lips, men received his words, wondering at his wisdom and his grace (see Luk 2:47; Luk 4:22, Luk 4:32; Mat 7:28, Mat 7:29). “Never man spake like this Man,” said the officers to the chief priests (Joh 7:46). “The common people heard him gladly” (Mar 12:37). And now that he speaks to mankind from heaven, his message of truth and love is comprehensible to all who care to know his mind. To those who earnestly seek, the way becomes plain; to those who have “spiritual discernment,” the deeper things of God are intelligible; to those who “know him,” his dealings are seen to be right and true.
V. HIS RESPONSIVENESS. (Pro 8:17.) (See succeeding homily.)
VI. HIS INCOMPARABLE WORTH. (Pro 8:10, Pro 8:11.) Jewels, compared with him, are empty toys; gold, compared with him, is sordid dust. So great is his worth to the hungering heart, to the suffering spirit, to living, dying man, that all forms of earthly good are not to be named or counted in comparison.
VII. HIS SERVICE ISSUES IN THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE RECOMPENSE. (Pro 8:18-21.) The fruit of the service of Christ is honour, joy (including peace), righteousness (Pro 8:20), the “inheritance which is incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away” (Pro 8:21; 1Pe 1:4).C.
Pro 8:10, Pro 8:11
Wisdom and wealth
The immeasurable preference of heavenly wisdom to earthly wealth may be seen if we consider
I. THE FAILURE OF WEALTH. Wealth is continually found to fail; for:
1. It cannot even buy happiness. It may purchase a certain amount of excitement and jollity, but it will not secure contentment, even for one brief year.
2. Much less can it buy blessedness. That happy state of which our Lord so often spoke as blessednessthe deep and true gladness of heart which God plants within the soul, and which all may well wish to possessthis wealth is utterly unable to impart.
3. It will equally fail to buy wisdom. Indeed, it may be truly said that:
4. It often stands positively in the way of its acquisition (Mar 10:23-25).
II. THE CAPACITY OF WISDOM.
1. It tends to provide men with competency, if not with abundance. Honesty, purity, sobriety, diligence, frugality, those virtues which go with the “fear of the Lord,” tend to supply a man’s home with all that is needful and desirable.
2. It secures peace and joy of heart.
3. It, itself, is man’s chief treasure. Better the knowledge of God, the love of Christ, a holy, manly, loving spirit, than any external advantages whatsoever (see Jer 9:23, Jer 9:24).
4. It prepares for the enjoyment of the treasures which are in heaven (Mat 6:19-21).C.
Pro 8:17
The responsiveness of Christ
Adapting these words to him who became, and forever will be, the Wisdom of God, they may speak to us of
I. CHRIST‘S INITIATIVE LOVE. It is quite true that “we love him because he first loved us.” We should first consider “the great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins” (Eph 2:4, Eph 2:5). All our love to Christ springs from, has its source in, his spontaneous love toward us, unexcited by our affection, flowing from his own exceeding grace.
II. HIS RESPONSIVE LOVE. This involves much,
1. His special interest in those who are inquiring at his feet. “Jesus beholding him, loved him, and said into him, One thing thou lackest” (Mar 10:21). Zacchaeus (Luk 19:1-48.).
2. His Divine favour accorded to those who have accepted him as their Lord. “I love them that love me” (see Joh 11:5). These are his friends and his guests (Joh 14:23; Joh 15:14, Joh 15:15; Rev 3:20).
3. Spiritual blessings which he will impart. He will dwell with us by his Spirit, and the fruits of the Spirit will abound in us. If, then, our interest in Christ, and the yielding of our hearts to him, result in his close friendship and in those highest impartations which flow therefrom, how wise must be
III. EARLY DISCIPLESHIP TO HIM! For if we would make sure of finding him and possessing his friendship, we should seek him without delay. Delay is always dangerous. There may intervene between ourselves and him:
1. Other objects which may fascinate our souls and lead us away from him.
2. The growth of the deadly spirit of procrastination.
3. A sudden close of our present life. But early discipleship, the coming in faith to his feet, to his cross, to his kingdom, to his vineyard, means the certainty of holiness and usefulness below and the assurance of blessedness above.C.
Pro 8:22-31
The excellency of Divine wisdom: No. 3
We have here additional features of the wisdom of God, viz.
I. THAT THE WISDOM EVERYWHERE ILLUSTRATED DWELT IN THE DIVINE ONE FROM ETERNITY. (Pro 8:22-26.) Before anything visible was created, in the “far backward and abysm of time,” even to eternity, wisdom was an attribute of the infinite God.
II. THAT CREATION AND PROVIDENCE ARE THE DELIBERATE OUTWORKING OF THE DIVINE IDEA. “When he prepared the heavens then I was by him” (Pro 8:27-30). All things were constructed after the model in the Divine mind. Perfect intelligence, seeing through and foreseeing everything, directed everything according to absolute wisdom; thus the kindest end was gained by the surest means; thus beauty and serviceableness, grandeur and loveliness, are bound together in the visible world because they existed together in the mind of the great Architect (see Psa 104:24).
III. THAT THE WISDOM OF HIS WORK WAS A CONSTANT SOURCE OF SATISFACTION TO THE MIND OF GOD. (Pro 8:30.) “I was daily his delight.” We find a pure and God-given satisfaction in the execution of any work on which we have slant our utmost energy. We might have hesitated to refer this to the Supreme Intelligence, but the Word of God warrants us in doing this. We may, therefore, believe that the glories and beauties of creation are not only the source of joy to our minds (and the deeper and fuller in proportion to our purity and piety), but that they are also a source of satisfaction to him who made them what they are.
IV. THAT MAN IS THE SPECIAL OBJECT OF THE WISE ONE‘S CARE. (Pro 8:31.) “My delights were with the sons of men.”
1. When God made man upright he “blessed him” (Gen 1:28), and rejoiced in him as in his noblest work on earth.
2. When man fell God was grieved; the heavenly Father’s heart was saddened at his children’s disobedience and wrong doing.
3. When man returns to righteousness God is well pleased (Luk 15:23, Luk 15:24). There is no such wisdom shown in creation or in providence as in redemption. To arrange the laws of a material universe, to direct the affairs of an illimitable kingdom,there is wondrous wisdom in these Divine doings; but there is deeper wisdom still in redeeming a lost world, reconciling an alienated world, cleansing a guilty world, sanctifying an unholy world and fitting it for the society of the sinless in heaven.C.
Pro 8:22-31
Christ the wisdom of God: No. 2
Again regarding the Lord Jesus Christ as the Wisdom of God incarnate, we may let these words suggest to us
I. HIS ETERNITY. (Pro 8:22-26.)
II. HIS SONSHIP. (Pro 8:22, Pro 8:30.)
III. HIS AGENCY IN CREATION. (Verses 37-29; see also Joh 1:3, Joh 1:10; Eph 3:9; Col 1:16; Heb 1:2, Heb 1:3, Heb 1:10; 1Co 8:6.)
IV. HIS PRIMAL BLESSEDNESS. (Pro 8:30; and see Joh 17:5; Php 2:6.)
V. HIS SUPREME INTEREST IN MAN. (Pro 8:31.) “His delights were with the sons of men.” The interest taken by our Lord in ourselves was that of a
(1) Creator,
(2) Divine Ruler,
(3) Redeemer; it is now that of a
(4) sovereign Saviour.C.
Pro 8:32-36
The convincing argument
Here is a very strong, “Now, therefore.” The excellency of Divine wisdom has been so forcibly, so irresistibly urged that the speaker is entitled to drive his argument home and make a practical application. But the urgency of the case is summed up in the few following sentences. This is the reasoning: since
I. INATTENTION TO THE VOICE OF WISDOM IS THE DEPTH OF FOLLY. For:
1. It is self-robbery. “He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul” (Pro 8:36). The man that shuts his ears when God speaks robs himself of all those precious things which might make his heart rich and his life nobleof spiritual peace, of sacred joy, of heavenly hope, of an elevating faith, of holy love, of Divine comfort, of the best forms of usefulness.
2. It is self-destruction. “All they that hate me love death” (Pro 8:36). To harden our heart against the invitations and warnings of Divine wisdom is to tread the path which leads straight to the gates of spiritual and eternal death.
II. ATTENTION TO THE VOICE OF WISDOM IS OUR HIGHEST INTEREST.
1. It leads to “blessedness” (Pro 8:32, Pro 8:34); it ensures that state of soul which the eternal God declares to be the only enviable one, to be that which should be the object of our earnest aspiration.
2. It secures his own Divine favour (Pro 8:35)the “favour of the Lord,” the sunshine of his smile, the benediction of his voice; he will “lay his hand upon us” in fatherly love; he will surround us with his “everlasting arms” of powerful protection.
3. It constitutes life in its very essence and substance. “Whoso findeth me findeth life” (Pro 8:35). To be wise with the wisdom which is from above, to “know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent,” “to understand and know the Lord that exerciseth loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness,” to have gained “the secret of the Lord,” to have learnt by blessed experience “that the Lord is gracious,” “to be filled with the knowledge of his will,”this is life, human life at its highest, its best, its noblest. Moreover, it is that which issues in the eternal life on the other side the river, in the land where life is enlarged and ennobled far beyond the reach of our present thought. Since these things are so, “now, therefore,” we conclude that
III. DILIGENT DISCIPLESHIP IS THE ONLY OPEN COURSE. “Hearken,” “hear instruction,” “refuse it not,” etc. (Pro 8:32-34). This includes:
1. Earnest attention, hearkening, watching, waiting. Something much more than allowing ourselves by force of custom to be found where wisdom is discoursed, “putting in an appearance” at the sanctuary. It implies an earnest heedfulness of spirit; a diligent, intelligent, patient inquiry of the soul; a hungering of the heart for the saving truth of the living God.
2. Practical obedience”keeping the ways” of wisdom (Pro 8:32). “If we know these things, happy are we if we do them” (Joh 13:17; see Mat 7:21-27). As earnest disciples of Jesus Christ, the way to “keep his ways” is
(1) to accept himself as our Saviour and Lord, with our whole heart;
(2) to strive daily to embody his will in all the relations we sustain. That is to say, first enter into right relation to himself, making him the Saviour of our soul, the Friend of our heart, the Lord of our life; then strive to carry out his commandments in all the transactions and relationships of our human life.C.
Pro 8:1. Doth not wisdom cry, &c. We may consider this chapter as connected with the preceding, and making one continued discourse. The wise man has represented in what goes before, the dangerous seductions of pleasure, in the language of an adulterous woman. Here he describes wisdom inviting us to her love, in a noble, grand, elevated discourse, and by magnificent promises of the most solid advantages. From the 1st verse to the 12th she commends her doctrine and precepts; from the 12th to the 32nd she extols her divine and excellent works; and from the 32nd to the end, she invites to the search of her by the view of the richest recompences. Some of the ancient fathers who have written against the Arians, and many of the most able and pious moderns, understand by this eternal wisdom the second person of the Divine Trinity; so as to apply some part of the attributes of this wisdom to the divinity, and some to the humanity of the Son of God. See Calmet.
Third Group of Admonitory or Proverbial Discourses
Pro 8:1 to Pro 9:18
14. A second public discourse of wisdom personified
Pro 8:1-36
a) The richness of her gifts
(Pro 8:1-21)
1Doth not wisdom cry aloud,
and understanding lift up her voice?
2Upon the top of the high places, by the way,
in the midst of the way she placeth herself.
3By the side of the gates, at the exit from the city,
at the entrance to its doors she calleth aloud:
4To you, ye men, I call,
and my voice is to the sons of men!
5Learn wisdom, O ye simple ones,
and ye fools, be of an understanding heart!
6Hear, for I speak plain things,
and the utterances of my lips are right things;
7for my mouth meditateth truth,
and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8All the words of my mouth are right,
there is nothing crooked or false in them;
9they are all right to the man of understanding,
and plain to them that have attained knowledge.
10Receive my instruction and not silver,
and knowledge rather than choice gold!
11For wisdom is better than pearls,
and no precious things equal her.
12I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,
and find out knowledge of sagacious counsels.
13The fear of Jehovah is to hate evil,
pride, arrogance and an evil way, 14Counsel is mine, and reflection;
I am understanding; I have strength.
15By me kings reign
and rulers govern justly.
16By me princes rule
and nobles, all the judges of the earth.
17I love them that love me,
and they that seek me find me.
18Riches and honour are with me,
increasing riches and righteousness.
19Better is my fruit than the purest, finest gold,
and my revenue than choice silver.
20In the way of righteousness do I walk,
in the midst of the paths of justice,
21to ensure abundance to those that love me,
and to fill their treasuries.
b) The origin of her nature in God
(Pro 8:22-31)
22Jehovah created me as beginning of his way,
before his works of old.
23From everlasting was I set up,
from the beginning, before the foundation of the earth.
24When there were as yet no floods was I brought forth,
when there were no fountains abounding with water.
25Before the mountains were settled,
before the hills was I brought forth;
26while as yet he had not made land and plains
and the first clods of the earth.
27When he prepared the heavens I was there,
when he stretched out the firmament over the deep;
28when he established the clouds above,
when the fountains of the deep raged loudly;
29when he set to the sea its bounds,
that the waters should not pass its border; 30then was I at his side as director of the work,
and was delighted day by day, 31rejoicing in his earth,
and my delight did I find in the sons of men.
c) The blessing that flows from the possession of her
(Pro 8:32-36)
32And now, ye children, hearken unto me:
Blessed are they that keep my ways!
33Hear instruction, and be wise,
and be not rebellious.
34Blessed is the man that heareth me,
watching daily at my gates, 35For whosoever findeth me findeth life
and obtaineth favor from Jehovah;
36and whosoever sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul:
all they that hate me love death.
GRAMMATICAL AND CRITICAL
Pro 8:2. =, in the midst, is an Aramaic idiom, occurring also in Eze 41:9.A.
Pro 8:3. As to the form comp. Pro 1:20. [Btt. 929, .A.]
Pro 8:5. Instead of [understand ye in heart, be ye of an understanding heart, E. V.], we should probably read with the LXX [ ], Vulg., Arnoldi and Hitzig , direct your heart, i.e., exert your understanding, applicate animum. Comp. , Psa 57:8; and also 1Sa 7:3; Job 11:13; and to illustrate the use of in the sense of the understanding the reason, comp. several other passages in the Proverbs, especially Pro 15:32; Pro 17:16; Pro 19:8.
Pro 8:6. . [An illustration of the principle that single adjectives describing what is pre-eminent or striking appear in the more elevated style, raised as it were to personality, and are therefore put in the masc. plural; see Bttcher, 707, 2A.]
Pro 8:13. , [an infinitive of a verb having the feminine termination of the verbs ; see Btt., 1083, 13.A.].
[regularly ,after the rejection of one of the weak consonants, the vowel is assimilated from the initial vowel of the neighboring form ; for examples of the normal modification, , with and without suffixes,, see Mal 1:2; Hos 11:1; Hos 14:5 : Psa 119:167.Btt., 425, h.A.]
, [an example of the retention of the fuller form of the plural ending with weakened vowel and toneless suffix; see Btt., 1047, f.A.]
Pro 8:24. . With this fem. plural form there occurs in an isolated instance, Psa 104:10 [together with four others of construct and suffix forms], the masculine ; for which reason the masc. of the adjective is the less striking (Bertheau).
Pro 8:25. [Perfect tense with in the sense of a Pluperfect. Btt., 947, c.A.]
Pro 8:29. [ . Imperfect with in sense of an lmperf. Subj., so that, etc. Btt., 949, , 2.A.]
Pro 8:29. stands either for , or as Hitzig perhaps more correctly assumes for the Poal form . [Bttcher prefers the first of these explanations, citing this as an example of usage varying in certain words, and suggesting as a reason for the adoption of the fuller form in this case, correspondence with in the first clause. See 766, , and 1147.A.]
EXEGETICAL
1. Preliminary Remark. From the preceding larger group of admonitory discourses (chap. 47), that now before us, comprising only chap. 8 and 9, is distinguished chiefly by the fact that it returns to the representation, which has already been made in chapters 13 of Wisdom as a person. And this is so done that the two features of the representation which there appeared separately; the exhibition of Wisdom as a public preacher (Pro 1:20-33), and as a divine agent in the creation of the world (Pro 3:19-26), are now combined in one whole. Here Wisdom appearing as a preacher herself testifies to the aid which she rendered God at the creation (Pro 8:22 sq.). Besides this point of contact with the first main group, we may also direct attention to the mention of the fear of God as a disposition in the most intimate alliance, and even identical with wisdom (Pro 8:13); this also is common to the division before us and the first; for only in chapters 13 (see Pro 1:7; Pro 1:29; Pro 2:5; Pro 3:7) was any express utterance given to this form of the Hhokmah doctrine. The middle group (chap. 47) nowhere contains the expression the fear of Jehovah. There are however continually coming to view many connections between the second and third groups; especially the plural address ye children, repeated in the discourse of the personal Wisdom (Pro 8:32) from Pro 4:1; Pro 5:7; Pro 7:24 (see above, p. 95). Observe also the representation of Folly personified, as a counterpart to Wisdom (Pro 9:13-18), appearing as an adulteress of mien and bearing quite like the adulterous woman of chap. 7 who is as it were exhibited here, developed into a more comprehensive character (comp. Hitzig, p. 69).Furthermore this last section of the first main division of the Book of Proverbs consists of only two discourses of unequal length, chapters 8 and 9 each of which, however, in turn includes several subdivisions clearly distinguishable,chap. 8, comprising the three that have been given above, and chap. 9 the two parallel delineations of the personal Wisdom (Pro 8:1-12) and Folly personified (Pro 8:13-18).The unequal length of the two discourses Hitzig seeks to a certain extent to remove by striking out from chap. 8 a large number of verses, sixteen, and from chap. 9 a smaller number, six, as spurious additions by a later hand. His grounds of distrust are, however, here again of a purely subjective kind, and do not present for a single one of the passages in question any reliable evidence of their spurious character, as we shall hereafter have occasion to show in detail.
2. Pro 8:1-3. Doth not wisdom cry aloud? This form of interrogation (with ) which expects as its answer an assenting and emphatic Yes, truly! points to the fact clearly brought to view in all that has preceded, that wisdom bears an unceasing witness in her own behalf in the life of men.
Pro 8:2. Upon the top of the high places by the way, in order that those who pass along by the way may observe her. In the midst of the way. This Aramaic idiom gives no occasion for pronouncing the passage spurious (contrary to the view of Hitzig, who furthermore takes exception to the allusion to high places in the 1st clause, and therefore summarily pronounces the entire 2d verse interpolated). Umbreit translates at the house where roads cross, and interprets, not indeed of an inn located at cross-roads (as Dderlein does), but still of a house situated at the junction of several streets. But these ways are roads, solitary paths, not streets in the city, and the delineation proceeds in such an order as to exhibit Wisdom first, in Pro 8:2, as a preacher in the open country, in grove and field, on mountains and plains, and then in Pro 8:3 to describe her public harangues in the cities, and in the tumult of the multitudes. The condition therefore is unlike both to that presented in Pro 1:20-21, and to that in Pro 9:13, where in both cases the interior of a city alone furnishes the scene for Wisdoms activity as a preacher.
Pro 8:3. At the exit from the city, literally towards the mouth of the city, i.e., standing at the gate and facing the streets which centre there.At the entrance to its doors, (comp. Pro 1:21), i.e., standing on the farther (outer) side of the gateway.
3. Pro 8:4-11. This more general introduction to Wisdoms discourse, with the addition of Pro 8:12, Hitzig declares spurious, partly on account of the alleged tautological nature of Pro 8:6-9, giving no genuine progress to the thought,partly because Pro 8:10 is almost identical with Pro 8:19, and Pro 8:11 with Pro 3:15,and lastly, partly because of the peculiar form in Pro 8:4, which is said to betray a later date. Yet this very form is found also in Isa 53:3, and Psa 141:4, for both of which passages the later origin (in the exile, or even after the exile) is in like manner yet to be established. And as respects the alleged tautologies and repetitions, similar ones occur throughout the entire Book of Proverbs (comp. Introd. 12). The codices and old versions, however, know nothing whatever of the absence from the text of even a single one of these verses.
Pro 8:5. Learn wisdom, O ye simple ones. Comp. Pro 1:4.Ye fools, show understanding, see critical note, above.
Pro 8:6. I speak plain things. The word here translated plain might, it is true, designate noble, princely things, (comp. the of the LXX, the res magn of the Vulg., etc.); [So Wordsw., Holden, N. and M.], the parallelism however renders more natural the signification plain, evident (clara, manifesta); [So Stuart]; comp. a similar term in Pro 8:9. This only appropriate sense we find already given in the Chaldee and Syriac versions.
Pro 8:7. For my mouth meditateth truth, literally, my palate, comp. Song Son 5:16; Job 31:30. The function of speech does not appear to be here immediately associated with the palate, but, as the antithesis in the 2d clause shows, rather the inward moulding of the word as yet unspoken, by the silent working of the spirit,the reflective consideration which precedes speech.
Pro 8:8. Right, literally, in righteousness. For this use of thE preposition employed to introduce the predicate, and forming as it were the transition to the essenti, compare passages like Pro 24:5; Psa 29:4, and Ewald, 217 f.
Pro 8:9. Right to the man of understandingplain to them that have attained knowledge. Straight and plain stand contrasted with the crooked and false of the preceding verse. [Trapp: Plain in things necessary to salvation; for as all duties so all truths do not concern all men. God doth not expect or require that every man should be a doctor in the chair; but those points that direct to duty here and salvation hereafter, are clear, express and obvious to them that desire to understand them.]
The man of understanding is he who is so wise as not to despise the words of wisdom, who rather duly takes them to heart. They that have attained knowledge, literally the finders of knowledge, are those who have made progress in the sphere of ethical knowledge, the knowing, the mature and experienced. Umbreit incorrectly interprets to them that wish to find knowledge; the participle is here to be taken in a preteritive sense; comp. Gen 19:14; Neh 10:29. [Other examples may be found cited by Bttcher, 997, 2, II.]
Pro 8:10. Receive my instruction and not silver, i.e., when you have the choice prefer my instruction to silver. There is therefore here a comparison like that in the 2d clause, only somewhat otherwise expressed.Rather than choice gold. Hitzig, following the LXX and Chald., than tried gold. But means selected, chosen, and we have no trace elsewhere of the use of the partic. , which is indeed similar in form and easily substituted, for the designation of tried gold ( ). Comp. besides Pro 8:19, and in the foregoing, Pro 3:14; with Pro 8:11 comp. Pro 3:15.
4. Pro 8:12-21. I, Wisdom, dwell with prudence. That Wisdom who is speaking here emphatically calls herself by name is doubtless to be explained by the fact that only just before, in Pro 8:11, she had spoken of herself in the 3d person. Very unwarrantably Hitzig infers from this circumstance the spuriousness of this verse also.The dwelling of wisdom with prudence expresses a confidential or friendly relation,the same idea which is elsewhere indicated by the Hiphil of the closely related verb ; comp. Psa 139:3; Job 22:21. Inasmuch as the verb stands here with the simple accusative of the noun, without the prepositions ordinarily signifying with (for this construction comp. e.g., Psa 5:5) many translated I inhabit prudence and so conceive of prudence either as the sheltering roof (as e.g., Umbreit explains), or as a property subject to the disposal of prudence (thus Bertheau); but both are alike harsh and inapposite. The correct view is found in Ewald, Hitzig, Elster, the last of whom illustrates the relation of wisdom to prudence by the remark, prudence () denotes here right knowledge in special cases, in contrast with the more comprehensive idea of intelligence in general; the practical realization of the higher principle of knowledge found in wisdom ().And find out knowledge of sagacious counsels. To find out knowledge here stands for to know (comp. Job 32:13); the expression as a whole would therefore find its equivalent in the simpler and know sagacious counsels ( ). Comp. furthermore the notes on Pro 1:14.
Pro 8:13. The fear of Jehovah is to hate evil. Only thus far is the 1st member of this ver. to be carried; the following expressions, pride, arrogance, and an evil way (literally, way of evil) are, in spite of the present accentuation, to be regarded as prefixed objects to the verb I hate, so that the meaning of the entire verse is substantially this; Inasmuch as the fear of God, this beginning of all wisdom (see Pro 1:7; Pro 9:10) comprises within itself as a distinguishing characteristic the hatred of evil, I, wisdom, accordingly hate everything proud, wicked and crafty. (Comp. Hitzig on this passage). The general proposition forming the first member of the ver., which naturally gives us no exhaustive definition of the fear of God, but only a description of it by one of its chief characteristics (comp. Heb 11:1), is therefore, as it were, the major premise, from which the conclusion is drawn that forms the 2d and 3d members. The minor premise, however, which might have had some such form as the first clause of Pro 9:10, is omitted; the reasoning, as it here stands, taking the form of a lemma. In opposition to the diverse methods of punctuating and interpreting, such as are found in Umbreit, Bertheau, and most of the earlier commentators, comp. Hitzig and Elster on this passage.For the expression mouth of deceit or crafty mouth comp. Pro 2:12; Pro 10:31.
Pro 8:14 Hitzig pronounces an addition growing out of the similar passage Job 12:13, as he also explains the two following verses as founded upon the reading of Isa 32:1, and condemns them. But the accordance with these other passages is far too remote and partial to permit us to think of a derivation from them. In the case of Pro 8:14 and Job 12:13 we might more readily think of the converse relation of dependence, in case one must at all maintain any such relation as existing, which seems hardly necessary. For as respects the expressions wisdom, counsel, understanding, and strength, which are brought into combination in these verses, they are found, with the exception of the second, combined elsewhere, especially in Isa 11:2, where they are adduced quite as they are here, as attributes of the true ruler. The instances of paronomasia, however, in Pro 8:15-16, (kings are kings, and rulers rulers), were of themselves so natural, and suggested themselves so obviously, that neither for the author of our verses was there need of any reading of Isa 32:1, nor for Isaiah of any recollection of Pro 8:15-16, to give occasion for the employment of this trope.[Wordsw.: Sound wisdom, the very essence of things, whence they derive their soundness and strength].I am understanding, I have (lit. mine is) strength. This change in the pronouns is certainly not undesigned: understanding is to be exhibited as one with wisdom, strength however (i.e., true efficiency or energy), as a possession, or more precisely a result of wisdom, just as previously in the first clause counsel and reflection (comp. with respect to them Pro 2:17) are named as constant products, possessions, or attributes of wisdom.
Pro 8:16. And nobles, all Judges upon earth. These two subjects, attached without any copula to the princes of the 1st clause, are plainly intended to signify that all possible diverse classes of princes or rulers derive their power from the celestial wisdom of God (comp. the similar enumerations in Eph 1:21; Col 1:16, etc.). The idea that this proposition can hold only of just rulers, owes its origin doubtless to the old reading judges of righteousness () instead of judges of the earth (), (found in Syr., Chald., Vulg., R. Norzi, and still preferred by Bertheau). See objections to this and arguments in support of the Masoretic text in Hitzig.
Pro 8:17. I love them that love me. This conforms to the pointed text (). The written text (), them that love her (Wisdom) is not in keeping with the context, seems to have been occasioned by a wandering of the transcribers eye to the form of the verb following [which although a peculiar form of the 1st personsee critical note abovemight, unpointed, be mistaken for a form of the 3d person], and has therefore with abundant reason been rejected by all the old versions, several MSS., and by most of the recent interpreters (Umbreit, Ewald, Elster, and Hitzig).With the 2d clause of Pro 8:17, comp. Pro 1:28.
Pro 8:18. Comp. Pro 3:16.Increasing riches. This is probably the meaning which, with Hitzig, we should adopt (growing means, wachsend Vermgen); for the common rendering, old or durable riches, seems less appropriate, since the old is by no means necessarily the sound and permanent. Comp. rather, with reference to the idea of a steadily growing or accumulating wealth, Psa 62:10.And righteousness. What this here signifies is more fully explained in the first clause of Pro 8:20.
Pro 8:19. Better is my fruit, comp. the representation of wisdom as the tree of life in Pro 3:18, and to illustrate the purest, finest gold (in Hebrew properly two synonymous expressions for the idea of fine gold, comp. Psa 19:11; Psa 21:4; Song Son 5:11) compare Pro 3:14.
Pro 8:21. To ensure abundance to those that love me. The word here translated abundance () must here necessarily be a substantive, of similar import with a derived form () occurring in Pro 2:7, and substantially equivalent to the of the LXX and the of the Venetian version. For the verb to ensure plainly requires an object, and the position of this noun at the end of the clause shows that this is precisely the object governed by the verb. Moreover, if Hitzigs conception of the expression as an impersonal verb in the sense of prsto est, it is at my command, (I have it) were correct, we ought rather to have a pronominal object ( , there is to me). The verse as a whole, therefore, forms a conclusion to the preceding, setting forth the object of Wisdoms walking in paths of righteousness as described in Pro 8:20; in other words, what result follows from such a course to her friends and attendants. Comp. Bertheau on this passage. After Pro 8:21 the LXX has the words, If I declare to you the things that occur day by day, I will remember to enumerate the things that are from eternity [ , ]. This addition is evidently designed to prepare the way for the subsequent description of the antemundane origin and working of Wisdom; it appears, however, as ill adapted to this as to any possible place either at the beginning of the chapter, such as Jaeger proposes to assign it (Observatt., p. 63), or again before Pro 8:10, where Hitzig would be disposed to transfer it.
5. Pro 8:22-26. In this delineation of the divine origin of the personal Wisdom, the first half directs attention first to her existence before time, or her creation as the first of all created things.Jehovah created me as the beginning of his course. Thus versions as old as the LXX (), Chald., Syriac, with most of the modern commentators;while the exegesis of the ancient church from the time of the Arian controversy judged itself compelled to render the verb in the sense of possedit me (Vulg.), or (thus the Vers. Venet. and even Aquila); and this turn of expression was given, that the idea of a creation of eternal Wisdom, or what was equivalent, of the personal Word of God, might be excluded. But against the rendering, Jehovah possessed me, may be adduced, 1) the fact that the verb () does not signify simply to possess, but to attain to the possession, to acquire, which latter signification would find here a poor application; 2) the fact that the adjunct of the verb ( ) agrees better with the idea of creating than that of possessing; 3) that the double mention of Wisdoms being born, in Pro 8:24-25, and not less the expression in Pro 8:23, I was set up (or wrought out), corresponds better with the idea of a creation than with that of possessing or having; and 4) that the parallel passages, Sir 1:4; Sir 1:9; Sir 24:8, which are evidently formed on the model of that before us, also employ the verb (create), and not some such as or (have or possess). Even though accordingly the personal Wisdom is represented as one created at the beginning of the divine activity, not begotten, as a , , still we may by no means draw from this the conclusion of the correctness of the well-known Arian dogma that the Son of God is the first creation of God. For the delineations of the whole passage before us are of a poetical nature, and are not adapted to a direct application in forming dogmatic conceptions; and the personal Wisdom of our didactic poem is by no means simply identical with the Logos, or the Son of God. Comp. the Doctrinal notes.The beginning of His way is a second accusative depending on the verb; as beginning or first fruit of His way, i.e. His activity, His creative efficiency, His self-revelation. Instead of the singular, His way, we ought perhaps, with the LXX, the Vulgate, and many recent expositors, especially Hitzig, to read in the plural His ways (); the parallel expression before His works seems to speak decidedly for this reading.Before his works. The word here translated works () occurs only here; yet Comp. the corresponding feminine form in Psa 46:9 (). The word translated before () Hitzig regards as also a substantive, synonymous with beginning (), and therefore translates as foremost of His works. Yet the conception of it as a preposition is favored by the usage of the O. T. elsewhere.Of old (), long ago, literally, from long ago, comp. Psa 93:2.
Pro 8:23. From eternity. It seems necessary, with the expositors of the early church and many of recent times, such as Umbreit, Bertheau, Elster, etc., to regard this difficult verb which follows as a Niphal from , and therefore to translate it I was anointed, i.e. consecrated to a priestly royalty; comp. the ordinata sum of the Vulgate. But the verb is not elsewhere used in this conjugation; and the parallelism with Pro 8:22, as well as with those following, calls for a verb having some such meaning as establish, create, call into being. It seems therefore needful to read with the LXX, I was established ( = ), or, which would be better advised, so to interpret the form in the text as to give the idea of a being created, or something equivalent. To this end we may either translate, with the Versio Veneta, comparing Ecclesiastic. Pro 1:9 ( ), , I was poured forth, or which is on the whole to be preferred, with Hitzig we may vary the punctuation (), so that the expression shall stand as Perfect Niphal, of the verb , and have the signification I was woven or wrought; with this may be compared Psa 139:15; Isa 38:12.From the beginning, from the foundation of the earth. From the beginning, as in Isa 48:16. The foundation of the earth, an expression like that occurring in Isa 23:7 ( ), denoting the earliest primval period, the time of the beginning, the origin of the earth. How this establishment or production of Wisdom from the foundation of the earth is to be understood, namely, in the sense of an existence of Wisdom even prior to the earth (comp. Psa 90:2), appears from the three following verses.
Pro 8:24. When there were as yet no floods. Hitzig regards the mention of the waters before the mountains as inappropriate, and therefore conjectures that the verse is spurious. As though in Psa 104:6 and Job 38:8 the seas were not mentioned immediately before the earth as a whole, and also before the mountains!Fountains abounding with water. The meaning is, doubtless, the springs from which the floods or the deep broke forth; comp. Gen 7:11, and below, Pro 8:28.
Pro 8:25. Before the mountains were as yet settled, with their roots (Job 28:9) in the pliant earth; comp. Job 38:6, where mention is made of the settling even of the pillars of the earth (in the infinite space of the heavens). With the second clause comp. Psa 90:2.Land and plains. The LXX had in their day correctly rendered by [uninhabitable places]; these are unoccupied commons or plains, regions lying outside the occasionally occupied land (comp. Job 5:10).The first clods of the earth. Thus, with Hitzig, are we to understand this expression, and not the sum or mass of the clods of the earth (Cocceius, Schultens, Bertheau, Elster, etc.); and still less the first men (Jarchi), or even man as born of the earth (Umbreit); these last interpretations are plainly too far-fetched.
6. Pro 8:27-31. From the antemundane existence of Wisdom the poet now passes over to the description of her active coperation in the creation of the world. The same progress from the pre-existence to the world-creating activity of the divine Logos is found in several passages of the N. T., especially in Joh 1:1-3, Col 1:15-16.When he stretched out the firmament over the deep, i.e. when He fixed the vault of heaven, the arch of heaven (comp. Gen 1:8; Job 22:14), over the waters of the earth, as a barrier between the upper and lower waters (Gen 1:6; Job 26:10). Over the deep, in the Hebrew literally upon the surface of the deep, comp. Gen 1:2.
Pro 8:28. When he fixed the clouds above. Literally, when He made firm, made strong (); i.e. the clouds are, as in Job 26:8; Job 38:37, conceived of as bags, which only in case they are suitably secured and do not burst, prevent the mighty outpouring of the upper waters upon the earth.When the fountains of the deep (see Pro 8:24 above) raged violently. This is the interpretation to be given, with Umbreit, Winer, Hitzig, etc.; for the verb here unquestionably has the intransitive meaning, invalescere, vehementer agitari (comp. in Isa 43:16 the mighty waters). The transitive signification, when He made firm, i.e. restrained, bound up (LXX; most of the other versions, and recent interpreters like Elster) is inadmissible from the absence of the suffix with the infinitive.
Pro 8:29. When he set to the sea its bounds. Bound here in its local sense, limit, barrier, as in Jer 5:22; substantially the same as its border () in the 2d member. For this expression ( ) mouth or shore of the sea, instead of the phrase, elsewhere usual, lip of the sea ( ), as in Gen 41:3; comp. Isa 19:7; and for the description of the separation between the sea and the land in general, see Gen 1:9-10; Psa 94:9.When he settled the foundation pillars of the earth; end of the description of the earths creation, comp. Job 38:6.
Pro 8:30. Then was I at his side as directress of the work. This noun, derived from a verb () signifying to be firm, true, reliable (and also kindred to , dexter, the right hand, yet not to be regarded as Hoffmann takes it, Schriftbew., I. 95; as an infinitive absolute used adverbially, but necessarily as a substantive), denotes like the parallel form found in Song Son 7:2, artifex, artist, master of the work. [So Wordsw., Hold., Muensch., Noyes; Stuart translates confidant.A.] Comp. the description, undoubtedly based on the passage before us, found in Wis 7:21 : (wisdom which is the worker of all things); comp. the epithet (adapting) in the LXX, and the cuncta componens of the Vulgate, in our passage. In opposition to the rendering of by foster-child, alumnus, nutricius (Aquila, Schultens, Rosenmueller, Elster) may be urged first, that then in accordance with Lam 4:5 we ought to point , [which pointing Bttcher favors, see 660, 6 and n. 1], and then, that this form could hardly have stood in the text as a substantive without some adjunct defining it more closely. The verb should be rendered, not then became I (Bertheau), but then was I. For the existence of wisdom before the worlds creation and at the time of the worlds creation formed the principal subject of the preceding description, and not, e.g., her passing from previous rest to more active relations.And was delighted day by day. Literally, I was delight day by day. This abstract noun plainly stands in the predicate quite as appropriately as the parallel term in the 3d clause (the participle ) and aims like this expression to indicate that wisdom enjoyed and delighted in her creative activity. For the idiomatic use of this abstract noun comp. e.g., Psa 109:4 (but I am prayer); also notes on Pro 7:10 above.The verse following then declares that this her delight and exultation relates particularly to the manifold creatures of the earth, chiefly to man. The creative agency and control of the wisdom of God in the origin of the earth and its inhabitants, is therefore here represented as attended and sustained by the heartiest satisfaction in the natures that are created, especially in man, the personal image of God; and this is quite in harmony with the God saw that it was good of the six days of creation (Gen 1:10; Gen 1:12; Gen 1:18; Gen 1:31); comp. also Wis 7:22; Wis 7:27; Wis 7:29 sq. A reference of these expressions in Pro 8:31 to any period subsequent to the creation (Umbreit: In his earth do I now delight and am the joy of the children of men, comp. Mercerus and many of the elder interpreters, and also Luther), is suggested by nothing in the context, and is rather decidedly at variance with the connection. Not before Pro 8:32 does the author with and now return from the past to the present. When Hitzig feels constrained to strike out as spurious the second clause of Pro 8:30 (and I was in joy of heart day by day), and also the 1st clause of Pro 8:31 (sporting in His earth), this results from the fact that he has wholly missed the progressive character of the description, which gradually descends from God and His seat in the heavens to earth, and more specifically to the human race; just as, in his representation which shows throughout a peculiarly external and mechanical conception of the nature of wisdom, he maintains, The 1st clause of Pro 8:31 comes into contradiction with the first of Pro 8:30; for if wisdom is near Jehovah she cannot appropriately be at the same time disporting herself on the earth! A mere hasty glance at the later representations of the nature and activity of the hypostatic Wisdom, like Wis 7:8; Sirach 24, etc., might have convinced Hitzig of the superficial and untenable nature of such a view. Yet this is in truth nothing more than the necessary fruit of his entire rationalistic view of God and the world.
7. Pro 8:32-36. Concluding admonition and promise, based on Pro 8:22-31 as well as Pro 8:1-21.
Pro 8:33. Hear instruction, etc. Hitzig would have this whole verse stricken out because it has no rhythm, and because it comes in only as a disturbing clement between the benedictions in Pro 8:32; Pro 8:2 d clause, and Pro 8:34. But the lack of rhythm that is asserted rests on the conception of the subjective taste: and the position between two benedictions produces no distraction whatever; all the more since to the first and shorter of these two sentences beginning with Blessed, a corresponding admonition had been prefixed, Pro 8:32; Pro 8:1 st clause.And be not rebellious. Thus with Umbreit, Elster, etc., must we understand the prohibition without a grammatical object ( ). To supply from the 1st clause the idea instruction is unnecessary, especially since the intransitive and be wise had been interposed as the immediate antithesis to the verb refuse, or rebel. For the etymology and signification of this verb () see, furthermore, notes on Pro 1:25.
Pro 8:34. That hearkeneth to me, watching, etc. The expression, so that he watch () like the following phrase so that he keep, expresses not so much the design as the result of hearkening to wisdom; these expressions give, as it were, the manner of this hearkening, and thus correspond with the ablative of the gerund in Latin, or with the pres. participle (LXX: ).For whosoever findeth me, findeth life. This is in accordance with the Kri. The Kthibh is somewhat more artificial, for the finders of me are finders of life, i.e., those who find me, they find life. One may choose between the two readings which in import do not differ. [Ruetschi proposes (Stud. u. Krit., Jan. 1868, p. 134) to solve the difficulty in another way, retaining the consonants of the Kthibh, but modifying the punctuation, so that the two forms will be singular and apparently identical (), the second being a form artificially constructed with as a union vowel,(Ewald, 211, b, 1), so as to secure the juxtaposition of two forms apparently the same.A.].And obtain favor from Jehovah. Literally and draws forth, i.e., gains for himself, harvests, bears away.
Pro 8:36. And whosoever sinneth against me. Literally who misseth me in contrast with who findeth me in Pro 8:35. Comp. Job 5:24; Jdg 20:16.All they that hate me love death. Comp. Pro 4:13; Pro 4:22; Pro 7:27, and also Eze 18:31.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. For a correct understanding of the section before us two things in general are to be observed: 1) that the entire discourse is poetical, and that therefore the personification of Wisdom which forms its chief subject is also to be regarded as essentially, and in the first instance, the product of a bold poetical sweep of thought, and of a vivid oriental imagery; 2) that, however, because of the solemn earnestness and profoundly religious character of the discourse, its figurative element cannot possibly be viewed as the mere play of fancy; or an empty ringing of phrases, but must rather every where stand in more or less exact harmony with the supersensuous truth that is to be set forth. Wisdom, which here appears personified, as the principle of the worlds creation, as well as of its preservation and government, having sprung from God himself, and being absolutely supernatural, is no unsubstantial phantom, no unreal fiction of the fancy, no poetic creation without an underlying higher reality. It is rather a result of the profoundest religious and ethical inquiry, an object of the purest and most genuine knowledge of divine things, nay a product of divine revelationonly that this revelation has here passed through the medium of a poetic conception and representation, and for that very reason appears in its formal relations partially reflected, broken, or inaccurately exhibited. It is really the free poetic form, ideal in its portraiture, to which must be charged whatever in the statements before us is partially inadequate, inconsistent, and not directly applicable in the formation of dogmatic ideas. The substance, which is easily separable from this form, bears the impress of the most genuine divinely revealed truth, and forms one of the most important and strongest of the foundation pillars of Old Testament theology, on which the theology and Christology of the New Testament is reared, the doctrine of the Trinity in the ancient church, and indeed the whole glorious structure of Christian dogmatics.Comp. Staudenmaier, Die Lehre von der Idee, pp. 31 sq., and particularly Nitzsch, Ueber die wesentl. Dreieinfffkeit Gottes (Letter to Lucke, in the Stud. und Krit. 1841, ii; especially pp. 310 sq.).
2. In the picture of wisdom drawn in our chapter the two conceptions of the divine wisdom, and the wisdom of the creature, or of the celestial type of the Hhokmah and its earthly and human counterpart, are plainly so combined that they more or less flow into each other, and without a clear discrimination of their difference interchange, (as in the shorter description of the protection and blessing going forth from Gods creative wisdom for those who honor it,Pro 3:19-26). That wisdom is at the outset introduced as teaching and preaching (Pro 8:1 sq.), shows at once that she is regarded essentially as a self-conscious personal being, as a reflection therefore of the absolute personality, or the Godhead. And even within the first section (Pro 8:4-21), which refers in the first instance only to her manifestations in the moral and religious life of man, several features suggest the supernatural in her nature and relations. Thus especially the predicates counsel, understanding, strength, (in Pro 8:14) with which she is endowed as the Messiah is in Isa 11:2. So also the allusion to the fact that she imparts to and preserves for the kings, rulers, princes, and judges of the earth, all their power (Pro 8:15-16); and finally, with no less plainness, the declaration that she loves them that love her, and accordingly shows herself to be the dispenser of all benefits and blessings to her faithful ones (Pro 8:16-21). Of a purely earthly and creature principle all this could not be asserted. It is plainly not an abstract conception of moral philosophy, or any definition pertaining to the moral and intellectual conduct of men, that is thus described, but something higher, a nature fundamentally identical with the divine providence, the activity of God in preserving and ruling the world,a personal principle belonging to Gods revelation of Himself, which is not essentially different from the Logos of the New Testament or the Son of God.
This conception of the idea of a superhuman wisdom, which determines and controls with absolute power and knowledge the destinies of our race, conducts, however, immediately to the proper and hypostatic representation of Wisdom as an emanation from Gods eternal nature, as the partaker and mediator in His absolutely creative activity. From the description of Wisdom as the mediating principle in divine Providence (Pro 8:14-21), the poet passes to the exhibition of her mediating participation in the creation of the world, and in this connection he reveals in the same act the deepest sources and beginnings of her nature (Pro 8:22-31). Wisdom is, it is true, also a creation of God, but one coming into being before all other creatures, a first born () a beginning of the creation of God ( ), comp. Rev 3:14. And for that very reason she took part in His work of creation; she was not merely witness, but helper in the revelation of His power in the primitive creation that called His heavens and earth into being. She manifested herself as the regulative and formative principle, who in those mighty acts of creation rejoiced before Him, i.e., developed before Him in free, happy action, as it were in joyous sport and play, her infinitely rich life, and thus produced an infinite number and variety of creature forms. This creative activity of wisdom found however its end and its completion in the creation of men in whom she has her delight in an altogether pre-eminent degree (Pro 8:31) for they are called to be her conscious recipients, and under her enlightening influence to grow up into a walk in holy fellowship with God. Precisely for this reason the possession of wisdom, i.e., in the first instance that comparative, creative wisdom which is identical with the fear of God and righteousness, is the sum of all that can be recommended to man as the means to the attainment of the highest temporal and eternal welfare. For this relative wisdom is in fact nothing but the reflection and emanation of that which is absolute. It is the absolute divine wisdom as this has found its individual reflection in the life of individual man,the eternal wisdom of God entering into the subjective conditions of man, and so becoming creatural. When the concluding verses of the chapter (Pro 8:32-36) emphatically advise the obtaining of this wisdom which has thus become mundane and human, and point to the blessed consequences of its possession, they seize again upon that which was the starting-point in the whole admonition, and show how the secondary wisdom is derived from the primitive and conducts again to it, how the same holy life-power infinite in its perfection, which was active in the first creation of the world and of man, must also be efficient in their moral recreation and their perfecting after Gods likeness. Comp. Staudenmaier, as cited above, p. Pro 38: The eminence of man consists not merely in the fact that wisdom comes in him to self-consciousness, but also in the fact that by the Creator there has been conferred upon him in the gift of freedom the power to become as it were the second creator of his own life according to the innate divine idea. This idea appears therefore now a practical one: the impulse to become practical existed already in its living energy, or was this very energy; and with this it is at the same time clear that man with his freedom has pre-eminently a practical religious and moral problem set before him. Since however by this very freedom he also has it in his power not to follow his destination, and even to resist it, Wisdom appeals to him to hear her voice, and does this as she speaks to him both from within and from without,from within by ideas (through the voice of reason and conscience), from without, through divine revelation in which absolute wisdom dwells.
3. This representation of wisdom as a personal principle mediating between God and man, existing in God as the prototype, in man in the antitype, plainly stands in the closest relationship to the doctrine of the Logos in the New Testament.1
The connection, it is true, with a right exegesis of the main points involved (see notes on Pro 8:22-23; Pro 8:30, above), does not reach so far that wisdom is described outright as a child of God, be gotten in eternity and anointed, i.e., solemnly consecrated and sealed,and so is attended by those characteristic predicates with which Christ describes His absolutely unique metaphysical relation as Son to God (Joh 10:36; Joh 5:26; Joh 17:5; comp. Pro 1:1; Pro 1:18). And yet when she also is declared to have been created as beginning of the ways of God, there are surely not wanting emphatic intimations that her character is absolutely above that of creatures in both respects, that which concerns her coming into being before all creatures, and also her intimate fellowship of essence and of life with God. While furthermore the primval consecration to be a ruler over all things, to the ranks of a priestly regal mediatorship between God and His creation is not to be found among the points expressly emphasized in the description of Wisdom, yet the way in which she is described in Pro 8:14-16, as possessor and dispenser of all sovereign power and wisdom, reminds us distinctly enough of the omnipotence in heaven and earth that is given to the Son, and of His being endowed with the undivided fulness of the Divine Messiah-Spirit,which Isaiah in his day pronounces a spirit of all wisdom and understanding, all counsel, all strength, knowledge, and holy fear (Isa 11:2; comp. Joh 3:34; Mat 28:18). And although, finally, the name son or child is not given to her, and the exultation in the presence of God at the time of His creative activity, cannot fitly be conceived of as the intimation of a relation in any way like that existing between a sportive favorite child and his father, still the appellation directress of the work characterizes this being distinctly enough as a personal emanation from the very nature of God. And a mediatorial participation not only in the creative, but also in the redemptive and sanctifying activity of God is suggested, if only in gentle intimation, by what is said of her delight in the sons of men. To these points of correspondence which are presented in the chief individual features of the picture in Pro 8:22 sq., there may be added several unmistakable allusions to our chapter found in the New Testament. Among these the essential identity of the creative wisdom of God that is here described, with the Logos or the pre-existent Christ stands out most distinctly. When our Lord in Mat 11:19 (Luk 7:35) and probably also in Luk 11:49 (comp. Van Oosterzee on this passage) designates himself as the Wisdom of God, and at the same time speaks of children of this wisdom, meaning by this the men who are subject to her revealing and enlightening influence, especially the Jews, as having been Divinely influenced by law and prophecy, He can have chosen this mode of designating Himself only with His eye upon the Biblical delineations that were familiar to His hearers; and to these, beside Sirach 24 and Wisdom 7-9, etc., the passage before us would pre-eminently belong. When John ascribes to the Divine Logos both alike, the acting as medium of the activity of God in the creation of the world, and the accomplishment of His enlightening and saving efficiency on the world,when he in doing this distinctly characterizes the Logos not as a mere attribute or impersonal reason of God, but as a hypostasis self-conscious and freely coming forth from the absolute ground of the Divine essence, as a Divine personality seeking incarnation (Joh 1:1-18), the harmony of this description of his with Solomons praise of the Divine Wisdom cannot have continued to be merely unconscious. And this is all the less possible, from the consideration that this wisdom had already before his time and in manifold instances been designated by the name , e.g., Sir 1:4 (comp. Pro 24:3), Wis 9:1. When Paul in numerous passages asserts the same of his pre-existent Christ (especially 1Co 8:6; Col 1:15 sq.; Php 2:5 sq.), among the passages from the Old Testament lying at the foundation of his views in this matter, Pro 8:22 sq., cannot have been wanting. And furthermore his designation of the Son as the Wisdom of God (1Co 1:24; 1Co 1:30; comp. Rom. 13:27; Col 2:3) cannot have developed itself on any other basis. The same holds finally also of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (see Heb 1:2 sq.), as well as of the writer of the Apocalypse, who, by his emphatic use of the name of the Logos (Rev 19:13), shows himself plainly enough to be no other than the Evangelist John. His peculiar designation of Christ, already adduced above, as the beginning of the creation of God (Pro 3:14) may perhaps be viewed outright as a literal allusion to verse 22 of our chapter.2
If this were the case, the idea of a beginning of the creation of God would by no means for that reason require to be interpreted in the Arian sense. For in an author who elsewhere adopts the doctrine of the Logos the representation of Christ as the first creature of God would palpably be a monstrosity. John can in this expression intend to designate the Lord only as the active principle in the creation (comp. Duesterdieck on this passage). In just this active sense shall we be obliged to interpret the expression which possibly suggested Johns language,the beginning of the ways of Jehovah in our chapter, i.e., as relating to that activity of the eternal Wisdom of God which commenced His manifestation of Himself in creation, its mediating coperation in Gods world-creating act (see remarks on this passage above).
4. The only noteworthy difference between the idea of the Logos in the New Testament, and the hypostatic Wisdom of our passage consists, therefore, in the decidedly created character ascribed to the latter by the expression Jehovah created me in Pro 8:22, and the parallel expression in Pro 8:23. Our teacher of wisdom in the Old Testament, near as he may have come to the idea, was therefore unable to rise to an altogether clear discernment of the relation existing between God and His eternal Word, who in all His likeness of nature is yet personally distinct, and while appearing as the first-born of every creature, still on the other hand appears also as the only begotten Son of the living God, or as eternal personal emanation from the Divine essence. The hypostatic Hhokmah of our author (and also the of the Apocrypha, which differs from it in no essential characteristic) appears accordingly as an imperfect introduction and preparation for the idea of the Logos in the New Testament, the conception not having yet reached a full symmetrical development. So also the Spirit of God in the prophetic literature of the O. T. shows itself to be the prototype, the germinal basis for the of the N. T., this distinctly personal third Divine agent in salvation, with the Father and the Song of Solomon 3
In any event, however, this conception stands much nearer to the idea of the Logos or the Son in the New Testament, and contributed more directly to its development, than that personification of the creative word of Jehovah which appears here and there in Psalmists and prophets (e.g., Psa 33:6; Psa 147:15; Isa 55:11, etc.). For this last expression has, after all, no other value than poetic figures in general, hastily thrown out. The Hhokmah of our passage, however, is, notwithstanding the poetic character of its drapery, a conception developed with the greatest care, a fruit of profound and consecrated speculation, a bright ray of Divine revelation, which, among the Messianic prophecies of the O. T. that relate to the Divine side of the Redeemers nature, holds one of the most conspicuous places. Comp. Nitzsch, as above cited, pp. 319, 320.
[5. The error in our English exegetical and theological literature with respect to our passage has been, we think, the attempt to force upon it more of distinctness and precision in the revelation of the mysteries of the Divine nature than is disclosed by a fair exegesis. Sometimes it is the doctrine of the Logos that is made to stand out with all the clearness of the New Testament announcement; sometimes it is the eternal generation of the Son that Solomon is made, as the Spirits mouthpiece, to reveal. Owens elaborate arguments (Comm. on the Epistle to tho Hebrews, Exercitation 27), and Holdens extended and learned comments (Comm. in loc.), appear to us very plainly to err in this excess. If it be not unworthy of the Holy Spirit to employ a bold and graphic personification, many things in this chapter may be said of and by the personified Wisdom, which these and other similar authors regard as triumphantly proving that we have here the pre-existent Christ, the Son of God. How weak would that personification be which did not ascribe to the imagined person hate, love, power, etc. (see Holden) ! Why cannot a personified attribute, if the personification be at all successful, be represented as being born, as being by or near the Deity, as rejoicing in His sight, etc. (see Holden again)? And yet we need not go so far as Owen and say, A personal transaction before the creation of the world, between the Father and the Son, acting materially by their One Spirit, concerning the state and condition of mankind, with respect to Divine love and favor, is that which we inquire after, and which is here fully expressed. Wordsworth not agreeing with Gesenius, etc., in regard to the primary meaning of the much debated 4 admitting that it originally signifies acquire, nevertheless agrees with Gesen., Hupfeld (?), Noyes, Stuart and others in here rendering it created, because he wants an eternal generation as the product of his exegesis,a product far enough from the thoughts of most of those who agree with him in his rendering. We can, to say the least, go no farther than our author has done in discovering here the foreshadowings of the doctrine of the Logos. We are inclined to prefer the still more guarded statements, e.g., of Dr. J. Pye Smith (Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, I., 352), that this beautiful picture cannot be satisfactorily proved to be a designed description of the Saviours person; or that of Dr. John Harris (Sermon on Pro 8:30-36). At all events, while, on the one hand, none can demonstrate that Christ is here directly intended,on the other, none can prove that He is not contemplated; and perhaps both will admit that under certain conditions language such as that in our text may be justifiably applied to Him. One of these conditions is, that the language be not employed argumentatively, or in proof of any thing relating to Christ, but only for the purpose of illustration; and another is that when so employed, it be only adduced to illustrate such views of the Son of God as are already established by such other parts of Scripture as are admitted by the parties addressed.A.]
HOMILETIC AND PRACTICAL
Homily on the entire chapter. See the translation above, and comp. Stcker: The heavenly Wisdom which is the word of God is urgently commended to us: 1) by the good opportunity which we have to study it (Pro 8:1-5); 2) by the rich blessing that it brings us (Pro 8:6-21); 3) by the eminence and majesty of the teacher who teaches it, and who is no other than Christ, the eternal Son of God (Pro 8:22-36).Starke: The true Wisdoms invitation of all men to the Kingdom of God: 1) the invitation itself (Pro 8:1-10); 2) the inducements to give heed to it, namely: a) the inestimable value of wisdom (Pro 8:11-12); b) the blessings of those who accept her invitation to the Kingdom of God (Pro 8:13-36).Calwer Handbuch: Wisdom commends herself: 1) in general (Pro 8:1-5); 2) by her truthfulness (Pro 8:6-9); 3) by the prudence, understanding, honor and power that she imparts to her followers (Pro 8:10-21); 4) by her eternal existence, her participation in the creation, her delight in the sons of men (Pro 8:22-36).Wohlfarth: Wisdom the truest and best friend of men, her doors (Pro 8:34) standing open day by day to every one that needs and desires her.
Pro 8:1-11. Egard:The Eternal Son of God gathers, plants, builds His Church by a voice, i.e., His word. All true teachers of the word are crying voices through which Christ calls.Out of Christs school is no true wisdom; they who deem themselves wise and shrewd are unfitted to learn of Him.So long as Christs wisdom is still speaking outside of thee it avails thee nothing; but when thou allowest it to dwell in thee it is thy light and thy life.Thou shouldst have one heart and one mouth with Christ; if false and perverse things are found in thy mouth thou art still far from Christ.Silver and gold is mere vanity and nothingness; what can it help in the day of wrath and judgment? Let Gods word be thy highest and best treasure.Berleb. Bible: Wisdom (who speaks to us not only through the word written and preached, but also inwardly, as Gods voice in our hearts) is so far from keeping silence, that although we stop our ears, we yet hear her correction within at the entrances and doors of the heart; and although we will not understand her, we must nevertheless feel her. And this is a testimony how desirous God is of our blessedness.
Pro 8:12-21. Melanchthon (on Pro 8:14 sq.): Those counsels are just which agree with the word of God; and these counsels will at length have joyful issues, with the aid of the Son of God, who wills to aid those that continue in the word which He has given, and who call upon Him.Luther (marginal comment on Pro 8:15-16): Princes should act, speak, work, honorably and praiseworthily, that men may glory in and follow their example; and not as the tyrants, the foul, the cyclops, etc.Hasius: When true wisdom is taken into counsel in every thing, then in all ranks that will occur which each ones purpose demands according to a perfect ideal. Kings, princes, nobles, counsellors will act in conformity with the aim of their calling (2Ch 19:6-7).Things would stand much better in the world if men exercised their spirit more after holiness, and strove with greater zeal for wisdom, Mat 6:33.Berleburg Bible: No one can rightfully take to himself the name of a Christian ruler, but he who subjects himself in spirit and truth, in humble obedience to the control of the Almighty, lays himself at His feet and allows himself to be wholly ruled by Him. Others exercise a rude, violent and tyrannical control, and an assumed authority over the person of men.Von Gerlach: The wisdom who here announces herself is the very wisdom of God, and is therefore also, as all good can be from God alone, the soul of all good laws and ordinances (Pro 8:14-17), and must, as every thing earthly is ruled, disposed and rightly distributed among men by God, necessarily reward her disciples with welfare, honor and riches (Pro 8:18-21). [Pro 8:12. Charnock: All arts among men are the rays of Divine wisdom shining upon them. Whatsoever wisdom there is in the world, it is but a shadow of the wisdom of God.
Pro 8:13. Arnot: To fear retribution is not to hate sin; in most cases it is to love it with the whole heart. It is when sin is forgiven that a sinner can hate it. Then he is on Gods side. Instead of hating God for his holiness, the forgiven man instinctively loathes the evil of his own heart.Jona. Edwards: The affection of hatred as having sin for its object is spoken of in Scripture as no inconsiderable part of true religion. It is spoken of as that by which true religion may be known and distinguished.
Pro 8:15. Bp. Sanderson: On the efficient cause and consequent obligation of human law.Hooker: By me kings reign, etc. Not as if men did behold that book and accordingly frame their laws; but because it worketh in them, because it discovereth and (as it were) readeth itself to the world by them, when the laws which they make are righteous.
Pro 8:18. Arnot: The riches which the King of saints imparts along with the patent of nobility to support its dignity withal, are linked to righteousness and last forever. Handfuls are gotten on the ground, but a soulful is not to be had except in Christ.]
Pro 8:22-31. Geier:From this delineation there follows: 1) the personal difference of the Son from the Father; 2) the essential likeness of the Son to the Father, as partaker .of the Divine activity in creation; 3) the unutterable love of the Father to the Son (Pro 8:30); 4) the deep and grateful love which we in turn owe to this Divinely loved director and mediator in creation and redemption.Zeltner: All the works of Gods omnipotence and wisdom thou shouldst contemplate with holy joy and wonder, praise the Creator for them, and with them strengthen thyself in faith in His paternal providence.As an essential and indescribable fellowship exists between the Father and the Son, so does there exist between God and the believer a gracious spiritual union, on which the Christian must be most intent.Starke: All things have had their beginning except the Son of God regarded in His Divine nature. He is with the Father and the Holy Ghost true God from everlasting to everlasting. All that this Eternal Wisdom does in the kingdom of nature, as well as in that of grace, she does with gladness and delight: yea, there is in this work so lovely and wise an alternation and manifoldness, that we must in reason wonder at it (comp. Eph 3:10, the manifold wisdom of God).Von Gerlach:That play of wisdom in which the Lord takes pleasure, and her joyousness on the earth, in which she finds her joy among men, points to the childlike gladness of the love that ruled in creation, and to the confidential relation into which the children of wisdom on earth (Mat 11:19) enter, to her the very wisdom of God; comp. Pro 10:23. In this passage there is a most clearly prophetic gleam of the light of the New Testament; Gods eternal wisdom comes forth from Him that He may delight Himself in her activity; His own eternal nature the Father for his own blessedness contemplates in the Son. And it is in a love most intimately blended with wisdom that the Father created the world, to His own blessedness and that of His creatures.
Pro 8:32-36. Geier: The true fruits of obedience should follow the hearing of the word. To these belong: 1) walking the prescribed way; 2) willing reception of the Divine correction; 3) the extirpation of all inner opposition; 4) zealous and persistent seeking after salvation; 5) thankful enjoyment of the true wisdom when found.Von Gerlach (on Pro 8:34 sq.): Wisdom here appears as a sovereign, separate and secluded in the style of Oriental monarchs, so that only those know any thing of her who diligently keep watch at her doors. Wisdom, who is universal in her call and invitation (Pro 8:1-3), yet in the course of communication, in order to test the fidelity of her admirers, veils herself at times in a mysterious darkness, and reveals herself only to those who never intermit their search (Mat 7:7).[John Howe: There ought to be an expectation raised in us that the vital savor diffused in and by the word may reach us; and many are ruined for not expecting it, not waiting at the posts of wisdoms door.Trapp: Hear, etc. This way wisdom enters into the soul. Hear, therefore, for else there is no hope; hear, howsoever.Flavel: It is good to lie in the path of the Spirit.]
Footnotes:
[1]Comp. Nitzsch as cited above: Do you see here no trace of a divine process, a germ of an ontological self-distinction in God? For this Wisdom is indeed at first Gods communication localized in the world, particularly in man, and still more especially in Israel. Yet it will be understood as no mere creature like others, no angel, no dependent power or effect: it claims to be known and honored in its divinity. Without exhausting the idea of divinity it claims to be God of GodJehovah created mea creation which according to the connection gives no natural, creaturely being, but has a significance plainly transcending these bounds, etc.The truth of this representation holds also as against that which Von Hofmann (Schriftbew., I. pp. 95 sq.) has brought forward in support of the opposite view, i.e., that which denies the hypostatic nature of wisdom in our passage.
[2]We here presuppose the spurious character of the (which, besides, was early expunged by the correctors of the text) standing in the place of in the God. Sin. If this remarkable reading were genuine, the meaning of the expression would certainly be altogether different. But the assumption can hardly be avoided that there is here an attempted emendation in the interest of the Anti-monarchians or Anti-arians.
[3]Comp. also subsequent notes on Pro 30:3 sq.
[4][For a very full and candid discussion of this with other related points, see an article by Prof. E. P. Barrows, Biblioth. Sacra, April, 1858; also, Liddons Bamp. Lectures, pp. 60, 61.A.]
CONTENTS.
We have in this Chapter a most sublime account of some ancient events in eternity, and which, under the character of wisdom, the great speaker is calling upon the church to attend to. From beginning to end the subject is carried on by one and the same person. The chapter closeth with an exhortation.
Pro 8:1-4 Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors. Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.
The chapter opens with the cry of wisdom, and both the earnestness of the subject, and the earnestness with which it is enforced, recommend the whole to our attention. I do not presume to speak with a positiveness of determination; the general design of this Commentary being more to enquire than assert; more to seek the teaching of the Spirit, to be led by him into all truth, than to lead the Reader’s mind concerning truth. But with all humbleness of soul while going over this most sublime chapter, I would venture to say, that as it appears to me the whole contents of it are concerning Christ as God-man Mediator, set up from everlasting. And under this one well known title, and office character of wisdom, Christ is here calling upon His church to attend to some things spoken respecting himself, and the Father’s appointment of him to this office, which, if he had not communicated to the church, and by his Holy Spirit given an understanding to know, never could have been known or believed. Hence the chapter begins with the cry of’ this glorious person, and the subject is proposed in a way of question, Doth not wisdom cry? Is it not plain enough to be heard in the numberless ways by which Christ as Mediator is proclaimed, throughout the whole book of God? What indeed doth the Bible treat of beside? There is nothing in it from beginning to end but Jehovah’s love, and mercy and grace, and favour, in the gift of his Son for the salvation of sinners; and the glories of Christ’s person, and the grace, and love of his heart in voluntarily standing up their great surety, and Saviour in redemption. Is not the whole voice of wisdom lifted up to proclaim these things? And to whom is salvation thus proclaimed, and the Lord Jesus the great author of it set forth, but to you O ye sons of men, that need both Christ and His salvation so very highly!
Supreme Acquisitions
Pro 8:35-36
This striking contrast expresses the twofold universal classification of men those who find and those who miss true wisdom in life.
I. Looking first at the darker side of the contrast we see sin revealed as being both a missing of the Divine purpose and also a process of self-destruction. For to miss Christ either by reason of engaging the heart’s attention with other things, by the fatal power of careless inattention, or by engrossment in the search after the merely secondary things of life, is to fail in apprehending that for which creation and redemption alike have marked us out. And his folly is eternal who misses Christ for the sake of gaining any or aught other.
For at the same time he wrongeth his own soul’. Sin is but long-drawn-out self-destruction. It confuses those powers of spiritual apprehension by which we are enabled to determine the will of God and so to steer a straight course. It outrages conscience, violating that organ of moral sensitiveness until its approving or reproving voice is entirely hushed. Sin paralyses will-power, exercising a kind of moral hypnotism from which men often try to arouse themselves in vain.
It is, however, by robbing the soul of its only possibility of development that sin, which is in some shape or other a missing of Christ, wrongs it most. Just as everything in Nature needs its own proper element and environment in order to ensure the development of all its possibilities, so the soul of man needs Christ in order to reach its highest and truest life.
II. The brighter side of the contrast is bright indeed. ‘He that findeth Me findeth life,’ which is the very antithesis of sin’s result. For life is power to be and to do. Its manifestations are as visible and recognizable as are those of the sin to which allusion has been made. For with life comes the gift of vision power to see and to understand the will of God as the law of daily living. It brings, too, a quickening of conscience power to judge in matters of personal moral import. It imparts a strength of will power to purpose according to the knowledge received and judgment recorded. Above all, life is the true environment for development power to grow. In short Christ transforms the water of mere existence into the wine of true life.
III. It remains to be noted that this His wondrous gift is only made to him that ‘findeth Me,’ which is of course to him that seeketh. The man who wants to see Christ is always the man whom Christ wants to see, and he who sets his heart to know the life which He bestows is never disappointed of his desire.
J. Stuart Holden, Redeeming Vision, p. 114.
God’s Deepest Horror in Sin
Pro 8:36
I. This is not the common mode of thinking about sin. The common mode is to regard God’s horror of sin as resulting from a sense of injury to Himself. Here, on the contrary, the Divine horror of sin is said to consist in the fact that it is an injury to me . A father says to a child, ‘Do not go near the fire while I am out; if you do, I shall be very angry’. The child probably thinks that his anger will lie in the fact of being disobeyed. It will not lie there at all; it will be stirred purely by the fear that in its act of disobedience the child may have hurt itself. And if he finds that the child has hurt itself, his anger will be transmuted into the most intense pain.
II. Now, take what we call hell-fire. The heavenly Father cries to His children ‘I command you not to go near it lest you get scorched’. What is the ground of that command? Is it the wish to exercise a Divine authority? No; startling as it may seem, it is the wish to avert a Divine fear. You have heard the expression, ‘The fear of the Lord’. When I am exhorted to cultivate the fear of the Lord, what does that mean? It means that I am to get into my heart that fear which dwells in the heart of God, that I am to have for my brother the same dread which the heavenly Father has for His children. The fear of the Lord is the fear that His sons and daughters will touch the fire.
III. You speak of God’s sovereign decrees. God has no sovereign decrees; God’s decrees are all paternal. The decrees of a despot are meant to clip the subject’s wings; those of the Father are meant to expand the wings. Why are you forbidden to hate? Because hatred cramps the soul. Why are you forbidden to be jealous? Because jealousy narrows the soul. Why are you forbidden to be selfish? Because selfishness locks the soul. Why are you commanded to love? Because love is liberty. Why are you commanded to pity? Because pity is power. Why are you commanded to sympathize? Because sympathy is the heart’s soaring. The commands of your Father break the cage and set you free. He prescribes faith that you may fly. He offers grace that you may grow. He enjoins kindness that you may kindle. He exacts brotherhood that you may bloom. He requires service that you may sing. He invites prayer that you may prophesy. Not in His honour, but in yours, does He ask the homage of your heart; the Father has no glory but the enlargement of His child.
G. Matheson, Messages of Hope, p. 81.
References. .VIII. 36. W. L. Watkinson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxi. 1902, p. 401. Rocliffe Mackintosh, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxx. 1906, p. 379. IX. 1-6. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, p. 151. IX. 3, 4, and 16. A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester, p. 326. IX. 7, 9, 12. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, p. 154. IX. 10. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. iv. p. 239. C. S. Macfarland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 235. IX. 13-18. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, p. 159. IX. 17. J. Leith, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lviii. 1900, p. 45. X. 1. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, p. 164. X. 4. Ibid. p. 167. X. 7. Ibid. p. 168. Canon Bodington, Church Times, vol. xli. 1899, p. 639. Hensley Henson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. 1901, p. 73; see also vol. lxviii. 1905, p. 313. Hugh Black, University Sermons, p. 281. X. 8, 9. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, p. 170. X. 11, 14. Ibid. p. 172. X. 15. J. Percival, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxiv. 1908, p. 401. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, p. 175. X. 18-21. Ibid. p. 180. H. Jeffs, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxiii. 1908, p. 152.
The Absolute Good
The Cry of Wisdom
Pro 8
Her cry has already been heard in this book of sharp-cut, clear sentences, and we have been afraid because of the tone of her accusatory eloquence. Her voice was not what we imagined it to be, and we turned away from the fair speaker staggeringly, sorrowfully. Should it not speak like mother, or sister, or the other half of man’s poor heart? But it is somewhat like a fury. “Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: she crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof” (Pro 1:20-30 .) Now the voice is heard once more: what a change has come over it! Is it older? It is certainly tenderer. It has come after a new and sharp variety of experience. It is as one figure making its way between the soul and another figure, that other figure being the spectral evil, the very genius of ruin. We must read the seventh chapter if we would know the value of the exhortations in the eighth. The young man has been exposed to all the fire of hell, and wisdom cries and understanding puts forth her voice, and she pleads with the young man that he may come home in wisdom and purity.
A very vivid instance of personification is this. Wisdom and understanding are represented as living agents, ministries that can be seen, apostles sent from the hills of light that they may speak of glory and beauty and pureness to the children who dwell in the valleys of darkness. What answer can we make to this interrogation? A distinct and emphatic reply that it is even so. Yes, wisdom cries, and understanding puts forth her voice: we know it There is a voice which calls men to higher life, and we hear its sweet music every day, but do not receive it into an obedient heart. What if we suppose we discharge our duty by simply listening to its demands? That is a sad possibility in life. A man may think he accepts the gospel when he simply listens to it. True listening to the gospel means acceptance, obedience, sacrifice, reproduction of all holy life in sacred action, in solemn sacrifice. The voice is manifold. It is a voice within. What friend is that who inhabits your heart and says: My son, take care; be wise, be noble; scorn the mean deed; when thou doest thy charities open all thy fingers, and let thy liberality be a gospel to those who receive it; forget not thy God; pray without ceasing; be happy in thy Father; make the most of this poor little world, at the other end of it thou wilt find a white gate opening upon heaven; be brave, be true, be faithful, be grand; win an honest man’s sleep, and I will see that on thy tired eyelids the spirit of slumber shall lightly rest? What other voice is that which says: Do the best you can for yourself; come home with both hands full, however you may fill them; when the poor look to thee, turn thine eyes away cold, steely eyes; nor let one tear come into them, for that would be unmanly; fight the world, put thy foot upon its neck and fill thy pouch with all its pelf; never heed any other world that may yet have to dawn upon thee? We know these voices; we have heard them both. Sometimes they commingle, and the heart is in tumult. The same good voice is in nature, talking to us in the spring blooms, in the summer gold, in the autumn purple, in the winter silver; revealing to us an energy equal to the occasion; speaking of powers we have never calculated, energies on which we have laid no measuring line, the pulsations that will not be reckoned arithmetically. We therefore reply to the interrogation of the text with a distinct affirmative.
Has wisdom a few children to whom she will speak? and has understanding a limited family within whose boundaries she will conduct her ministry of illumination and encouragement? The answer is given in these words:
“She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors” ( Pro 8:2-3 ).
She sets up her tower everywhere, and speaks to all mankind. That is the true wisdom. When we come to understand the purpose and range of true wisdom, our business will be to see how many people we can get in, not how many we can keep out. Sometimes we shall endeavour to enlarge the gate, if haply we may bring some one in who otherwise would be kept outside. Wisdom does not whisper; she cries; she puts forth her voice; she asks the assistance of elevation: where men are found in greatest numbers she is found in greatest activity. Universality is a proof of the gospel. Any gospel that comes down to play the trick of eclecticism ought to be branded and dismissed and never inquired for. We want ministers that will speak to the world, in all its populations, climes, languages, and differences of civilisation and culture. Thus we know the great sun that makes the day: he shines as cheerily on the wilderness as on the cultivated garden; he will smile as blithely upon a little waif or homeless wanderer as upon petted prince or pampered child of luxury. Let the light of the daily sun be the image of the higher life, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. The light will fall according to the medium which it penetrates: so the gospel will come to men in different ways, but it will be the same gospel, nothing wanting in glory, and nothing deficient in tenderness; yet it will express itself according to the individuality of the receiver, here a genius and there a dull mind, yonder one who flies and lives on the wing, and another who sits under his roof-tree and is afraid of the wind.
Wisdom shows herself to be truly wise by recognising the different capacities and qualities of men:
“Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man” ( Pro 8:4 ).
Children who are at school are accustomed to distinguish between viri and homines between the strong and the weak. “Unto you, O men, I call” strong, virile, massive “and my voice is to the sons of man” the lesser, the weaker, the more limited in capacity, but men still and I will accommodate my speech to the capacity of every one, for I have come to bring the world to the temple of understanding. Then there is further discrimination; we read of the “simple” and of the “fools.” “Simple” is a word which, as we have often seen, has been abused. There ought to be few lovelier words than “simple,” without fold, or duplicity, or complexity, or involution: such ought. to be the meaning of simple and simplicity. Wisdom comes to fools, and says she will work miracles. Could a man say, “I am too far gone for wisdom to make anything of me,” he would by his very confession prove that he was still within the range of salvation. “To know one’s self diseased is half the cure;” to know one’s self to be ignorant is to have taken several steps on the way to the sanctuary of wisdom. This might be Christ speaking; yea, there are men who have not hesitated to say that by “wisdom” in this chapter is meant the Wisdom of God in history the Logos, the Eternal Son of God. Certainly the wisdom of this chapter seems to follow the very course which Jesus Christ himself pursued: he will call all men to himself the simple, and the foolish, and the faraway; he will make room for all. A wonderful house is God’s house in that way, so flexible, so expansive; there is always room for the man who is not yet in. We thought we had filled the banquet table; but that was our mistake; when we had emptied all the hedge population, and all the highway wanderers, and brought them into the house, we found that the more we brought in the more room we created, and the expression of those who played the evangelist to the hospitable host was, “and yet there is room.” Certainly! because yet there is another man not home, another nation not converted. The people who brought in all the wanderers were most impressed by the little effect which their labours took upon the space which was at their command. So wisdom will have men, and sons of men simple men, foolish men. By this universality of the offer judge the divinity of the origin.
What does wisdom offer? She offers to surpass in value everything that men have yet honoured with their recognition and appreciation. She will put aside rubies, and things that are to be desired, and all gold, and she will stand alone, absolutely unique in worth. Gold may be lost; rubies maybe stolen; desire may say, I cannot pant and gasp any longer, I have been filled to satiety; let me die. Not that these things are to be ignored as to their temporary value and uses. He is a foolish man who despises gold and rubies and pearls and choice silver; he is more foolish still who thinks they can buy anything that he can take into eternity with him. In death all these things leave the possessor. That is a mournful reality. May not a man take the family jewels with him? No, not one. Must he go into the other world empty-handed? Yes, empty-handed: he brought nothing into this world, and it is certain he can carry nothing out Then we have only a life-right in them? That is all; and even that right is considerably mitigated and limited by other claims and relationships. Then they all seem to come to nothing! Exactly; now the arithmetic is right. It was a long process, and the issue was a long line of ciphers. Is there anything that will go with a man clear through to the other spaces? Yes; character will go with him. The man’s character is the man himself. The wise man has the key of all the worlds; and the fool has the key of none. This is the one lesson that has to be learned, and the lesson that never will be learned, so far as our poor human imagination can carry us. Yet it is to be learned by all the world, according to the promise and decree of heaven. To have, and yet to act as if we had not; to use the world, and not abuse it; to have all things, and yet to stand above them, and make a mere convenience of them, that would seem to be the issue of truest, largest spirituality. He who is without wisdom is without riches. He who has wisdom has all wealth. The wise man is never solitary. He has the thoughts of ages. He is a silent prophet; he will not write his prophecies, but, oh, how they make him glow, how they send a radiance into his vision, how they make him despise the charms, seductions, and blandishments of a lying world that exhibits its emptiness to prove its treasure! Some men are never dull when they are alone. Sometimes persons will say, Do you not feel lonely? and the answer is, Yes, when anybody calls upon me I always feel lonely! Could I be let alone I would live in heaven “never so little alone as when alone;” “I am alone, yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.” With all thy getting, get wisdom, get understanding, and thou shalt have banqueting all the day long without satiety, and music without monotony.
“I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions” ( Pro 8:12 ).
Many men are prudent who are not wise that is to say, they are superficially cautious, sagacious, calculating; but they are never wise. True wisdom is the metaphysic of prudence. It is the innermost life and reality, and it expresses itself in the large prudence which sees more points than can be seen by mere cleverness. He that seeketh his life shall lose it; he that will throw away his life for Christ’s sake shall find it, and shall thus prove himself in the long run to be the truly prudent man. Beware of the prudence that is as a skeleton. The true prudence is the living body, inhabited by a living soul the soul is wisdom. Sometimes wisdom will drive a man to do apparently foolish things, at least, things that cannot be understood by those who live in rectangles, two inches by one and a-half. But “wisdom is justified of her children;” she calmly abides the issue of the third day, and raised again she vindicates her origin and declares her destiny.
“I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me” ( Pro 8:17 ).
Jesus Christ himself used words almost identical with these, for he said, “If any man love me, I will manifest myself to him;” nothing shall be kept back from his reverent scrutiny. We should know more of Christ if we loved him more. “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.”
“And those that seek me early.” The word “early” is not in the original. The passage therefore might be read thus, “And those that seek me shall find me.” Yet we cannot altogether throw out the word “early;” it seems to complete the rhythm. The word “seek,” as originally employed, is a word which involves the meaning of seeking in the dawn just as the east is brightening a little, just as the day is being born. Thus we have some claim to the word “early.” There are men who do not wait until midday in order to resume their journey after they have been benighted; they have, indeed, succumbed to circumstances, saying, “The darkness has overtaken us, and here we must lie;” but the moment there is a streak in the east they rise up; the staff is resumed, and the journey is prosecuted with renewed energy. This is the image of the text: They that seek me in the dawn shall find me; they that seek me at daybreak; they that come after me ere the dew be risen shall find me, and we shall have a long morning talk together: when the soul is young, when the life is free, when the heart is unsophisticated, they that seek me in the dawn shall find me, for I have been waiting for them, yea, standing by them whilst they were sleeping, and hoping that at the moment of awaking they would see me, and exclaim, Blessed Spirit, take charge of my poor, frail life all the day, and tell me what I ought to do. Fool is he who begins the day prayerlessly, who takes his own life into his own hand; verily in doing so he puts his money into bags with holes in them, and at night he shall have nothing.
Some have not scrupled to find in the whole chapter, especially in the latter portion of it, an image and a forecast of Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God. It is not necessary to believe that anything like a date is being fixed when “the beginning” is spoken of, and when creation is apparently outlined; the larger meaning is this, that before there was anything to look at, or any man to look at it, the Spirit of Wisdom was the Spirit of Eternity. True wisdom is not the child of civilisation is not the child of creation: it is the Son of God; it partakes of the very quality of God; it comes up from the mystery of eternity, and yet accommodates itself to all the limitations and necessities of time. Fierce controversies have raged round the conclusion of this chapter. Arianism found its battlefield here, as in other verses, and orthodox men sprang forth with well whetted instruments to defend what they believed to be the truth. All that is gone. We have lived to see that Christ is indeed everywhere, in all power, in all light, in all wisdom, in all truth, in all love. Let us take care how we drive Christ out of any book. He himself found his name and office in many places that were supposed to be filled with merely local details; he found himself in Moses, in the Prophets, in the Psalms, and in all the Scriptures. The apostles have not hesitated to declare that he was before all things, and that by him all things were created, and without him was not anything made that was made: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” There is no genius in mere depletion. That may be the inspired genius which finds Christ in unexpected places, and marvels that he spake with the woman. This was the surprise that continually followed the active ministry of the Son of God upon earth. People were amazed that he was found in such and such places: why, there he eats and drinks; yonder he has gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner; and yonder he says, “Woman, thy sins are forgiven thee;” expand thy wings, and fly like a dove to heaven’s windows; and yonder again the poor, little-minded, infantile disciples were amazed that he spake with the woman; and so was the woman herself; and so was every one to whom he ever did speak. “Never man spake like this man.” There was a touch in his tone, a quality in his soft hand that hid by its concealment the might almighty. There was a sympathy in his blessing which made the lame man leap for joy, and the blind man open his eyes as if startled into vision. Whilst, therefore, on the one hand, we should be careful that men do not import Christ into blank places, or, as it were, force him into positions which he does not really occupy in the Scriptures, there is another danger to be still more guarded against, and that is to ignore him simply because our eyes are holden that we may not see him until we come to the destined Emmaus; and then, when the day is far spent and the night is at hand, he may break our supper bread, and in breaking it may show that all the time he was in places unsuspected, near us with a marvellous proximity, and preparing us for the revelation which, had it come before, would have been at once premature and intolerable.
Over this study let us pause that we may pray:
Prayer
Almighty God, thou art waiting for our answer to the cry of wisdom. May our answer be the response of acceptance and love. We know that wisdom cries and that understanding puts forth her voice, and that wisdom and understanding are as womanly figures, mother and sister, crying and calling with all the pathos of deepest love. We have been deaf; we have turned aside from the way; we have loved darkness rather than light; we have done the things we ought not to have done; we have made hand, and foot, and head, and heart, and will, and imagination, and understanding, and every faculty, do the devil’s black work. It is well for us to say this to our own souls, that in our prayer we may speak: in tones of humility, and in our despair may yet be prepared for some gospel of light. If we had hearkened unto thy commandments, and made thy statutes our songs in the house of our pilgrimage, we had made the earth beautiful as heaven. But we are as ravening wolves; we live upon one another; we watch for one another’s stumbling and falling, and rejoice to be enriched by the poverty of others. We account him wise who is but a fool, if so be he fill both hands with gold, and pull down his barns and build greater. We would think of him as a wise man who knows most of God, who longs to see the larger spaces, to enjoy the longer summer day, who desires to be present with the Lord in all thought and sympathy and high resolve. Thus shall we come to a new standard of value; we shall account nothing manly that is not after the quality of Christ; we shall abhor all things that are evil and tainted, regarding them as sources of pestilence, and casting them away from us as things that are to be held in eternal hatred. Enable us to seek first thy kingdom and thy righteousness, that thereby we may prove ourselves to be wise. Let the time past suffice, wherein we have served the spirit of darkness and the prince of evil, and hence on from this sacred moment may we live to serve him who is purity and love. Thou hast sent down upon us many messages from heaven. We know them every one; we know them by their love, their fulness of grace, their tender sympathy, their adaptation to meet all the weariness and want and pain of life. Who can mistake the light of the sun? Is it not its own proof? Does it need other eloquence than its own warmth and radiance to attest its identity? It is even so with thy word: thy word is a sun and shield, a gospel of grace, a cry to men in danger, an encouragement to those who would do good, a sweet rebuke in blessing ending, and a great promise because a great discipline. May we quit ourselves like men; may we be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; wise unto salvation fools according to this world’s reckoning, but wise because beginning in God, and evermore tending to the point of origin, and living a life of worship that prays and serves and suffers and forgives. All this we have learned because we have been in the school of Jesus Christ thy Son; otherwise we had been as the pagans are, worshipping that which our own hands had made, looking down upon our gods in expectant pity, doomed to disappointment: now our look is upward, onward, heavenward; we see heaven opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God, and our hearts glow with a sacred fire, and our eyes are filled with wonder upon wonder never to be known. This is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ; this is the miracle of the Cross. Unto that Cross we come for pardon every day. The blood of Jesus Christ thy Son is our one hope; we have no other, we want no other; it is enough even unto infinity of sufficiency: grant that we may know its power, yield ourselves to its action; and may we know that we have been with Christ by the Spirit of Christ ruling in us, giving us sweetness of temper, breadth of charity, chivalry of soul that noble manliness that yearns only to forgive. We would be baptized for the dead; we would fill up the ranks that have been thinned by the cruel scythe; we would that the young and the indolent and the latent might all come forward in spiritual energy, saying, Here are we; send us every one, for the harvest truly is great. We pray for the comfort of those who are disconsolate. Teach the uncomforted how many are the sources of disquietude, lest they blame themselves too poignantly, and crush the very hope which thou hast created. We pray for those who are undergoing long, painful, unspeakable discipline; torn and wounded and bruised, beaten in the face and driven back when they think they have found the house-door that opens upon the kind hearthstone: we pray for them lest their hearts be too much discouraged, thou knowest what flesh and blood can bear; thy tender pity is our safeguard in the extremity of sorrow. Bless all little children, young lives, dreaming souls, who are gathering knowledge every day only to find that there is much more to be gathered: spare them; make them wise and strong and good. Regard those who are travelling on the sea; who are in faraway lands; who are trying to make homes in homeless places with honest hands and brave hearts. The Lord grant unto all men, and the sons of men, light and grace and blessing, the music of promise and the glory of hope. Amen.
Prayer
Almighty God, we bring our tribute of praise unto thee, small and unworthy; but thou dost not despise that which is little and insignificant, thou dost even choose the things that are not to bring to naught things that are; thou dost turn our gift of water into a gift of wine, and our two small mites which make a farthing thou dost look into gold. We therefore come to thee with such as we have; we give thee our hearts, our minds, the whole affection and the whole loyalty of which thou hast made us capable. We would keep back no part of the price; we would be thine altogether, our judgment, our fancy, our will, our love, and every energy of our nature. Help us to give thee the entire sacrifice, withholding nothing, a holy offering unto the Lord. Thou hast made us what we are wonders to ourselves, mysteries that have no answer in time; thou hast given us desires after immortality, longings and stirrings which cannot be explained in mortal tones, so that though we do ourselves injury and seek to grieve and quench thy Spirit, yet behold thy Spirit is here, a continual protest, and a continual promise. Teach us that if we do thee wrong we do ourselves wrong no man can grieve the Spirit without also endangering the soul itself. We commend one another again to thy great care, to thy gentle patience, to thy long-suffering and thy perpetual kindness; it is a sea without a shore, it is a firmament full of stars, it endureth for ever. Therefore do we trust in God and hope in thee, and our expectation is from the heavens. This earth is too small for us, we need the firmament as well as the dry land; and shall not the firmament itself become too narrow for our growing powers, for our enlarging capacities, for our heightening and ever-purifying desires? We believe we shall need all thy heaven, and it is our joy to know that in our Father’s house are many mansions. Help us, therefore, to yield ourselves to the inspiration of God, to follow the gentle lure of thy Holy Spirit, that we may come into the fulness of the estate of Christian manhood, being perfected in every power, and sanctified in every capability and every energy. Pardon our sins; every day exercise thine infinite prerogative of forgiveness; dismiss us from thy presence as pardoned ones, besprinkled with atoning blood as men who, having by faith touched the Cross and confessed their sins, are free evermore from the burden and the torment of guilt. Give thy servants understanding of their business, comprehension of the times; excite their best ambition, influence their purest desires, satisfy their noblest expectations. Thus within the narrow scope of time may every one labour well with industry continuous, and with hope that cannot be quenched. When our poor short day upon earth is done may we find that it was no day at all, but a brief night previous to the infinite morning. Amen.
XXI
THE INSTRUCTION OF WISDOM (CONTINUED)
Pro 8:1-9:18 The subject of Proverbs 8-9, wisdom personified and contrasted with Pro 7 , is aptly stated by Perowne, thus:
The personification of Wisdom in this chapter is highly suggestive. Already in the opening verses of the Book (Pro 1:20-33 ) Wisdom has been personified, has “uttered her voice,” as here she utters it, “in the street” and “in the chief places of concourse,” and has pleaded, as here she pleads, with the sons of men. But here the fair impersonation, following closely upon the vivid picture of the immediately foregoing section, presents itself to us in striking and designed contrast to the dark form that passed before us there. Not lurking furtively at the corners of the streets, in the deepening twilight; not leading astray with swift and stealthy footsteps and beguiling with whispered subtleties, but with free and open grace, “in the top of high places by the way,” in the sight of men, and with voice clear and melodious as a clarion-call does she utter forth her appeal (Pro 8:1-3 ). She speaks (Pro 8:4-36 ). While she addresses herself to every child of man, the “simple” and “fools” are specially invited to profit by her instruction (Pro 8:4-5 ). All her speech is plain and open, and needs only an intelligent ear to understand it (Pro 8:6-9 ). The treasures she offers are above all price, and such as even kings may covet (Pro 8:10-11 ). Telling us who she is and what she has to offer us (Pro 8:12-21 ), she goes on to affirm that her claim to attention is no less than that she is the eternal Possession and Fellow of Jehovah Himself, His joy and Counsellor in the creation and ordering of the universe, and that from the beginning her “delights were with the sons of men.” (Pro 8:22-31 ). Therefore, on premises such as these, she pleads with us yet again, as her children, that we refuse not the blessedness which she offers (Pro 8:32-36 ).
Why, we ask ourselves, does not the wise Teacher, having in mind to draw away his sons from the seduction of vice by subjecting them to the mightier attractions of virtue, set over against the abandoned woman of his first picture the pure and faithful wife, with her charm of holy love, as the subject of his second picture. Why does he not counsel his scholars, as indeed he does elsewhere (Pro 8:15-19 ), to find in God’s holy ordinance the true remedy for the pleasures of sin which the temptress offers them? Because, in the first place, he would lead them higher, and commend to them a yet worthier object of supreme affection, an object which at once includes and surpasses all pure and lawful objects of human devotion. . . . And then also because through the Spirit of God which was his in him, the ideal of comprehensive Wisdom which his mind formed took personal shape, and stood before him as the embodiment of all human virtue and perfection, a prophecy and a promise, such as had been vouchsafed to the bodily senses of others, a “preluding of the Incarnation”.
In Pro 8 we hear wisdom calling on top of the high places, at the crossroads and at the entrances of the city (Pro 8:1-3 ) ; she calls men, simple, and foolish, as well as the wise (Pro 8:4-5 ) ; her claim as to plainness of speech is that her sayings are excellent, righteous, and plain to him that understands (Pro 8:6-9 ); the treasures which she offers are instruction and knowledge which are more valuable than silver, gold, or rubies (Pro 8:10-11 ); what wisdom is and what she gives is found in Pro 8:12-21 ; her august claims are that she was in the beginning with Jehovah and was his great delight (Pro 8:22-31 ); her consequent appeal, then, was to heed her call, be wise and live (Pro 8:32-36 ).
Pro 9 , with which the Introduction to the book of Proverbs concludes, consists of two parts, in which wisdom personified (w. 1-12) and folly (vv. 13-18) represented by a vicious woman are set once more in vivid contrast to each other, con-tending for the adherence of the children of men. Each has her house to receive them (Pro 9:1 ; Pro 9:14 ), each her feast spread for them (Pro 9:2 ; Pro 9:17 ), each her invitation, couched, in part, at least, in identical terms (Pro 9:4 ; Pro 9:16 ), which she utters forth in the high places of the city (Pro 9:3 ; Pro 9:14 ). The balance and symmetry of these two parts are not, however, artistically preserved. Moral earnestness overpowers literary skill. The picture of wisdom (Pro 9:1-5 ) is followed by her prolonged address (Pro 9:7-12 ), for which the companion picture (Pro 9:13-17 ) has to wait, the section being closed by a single note of warning from the teacher himself (Pro 9:18 ).
The picture of wisdom in Pro 9:1-5 is the picture of a hostess, building her house, preparing her feast, sending out her invitations, and urging all classes to come and dine with her. This reminds us of the parable of the gospel feast as given by our Lord.
The meaning of the “seven pillars” of Pro 9:1 is significant. “Pillars form an important feature in Oriental Architecture, partly perhaps as a reminiscence of the tent with its supporting poles and partly also from the use of flat roofs, in consequence of which the chambers were either narrower, or divided into portions by columns.” Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, Art. “Pillar.” Here, however, it is better to suppose that the great banquet hall is open all along the front, so as it were to invite entrance, the proof being supported by a row (“seven” is the usual symbol of completeness) of stately pillars. The magnificent hall in which the lords of the Philistines sat and watch-ed Samson make sport in the courtyard outside, while on its flat roof no fewer than 3,000 people were assembled, was construct-ed on this principle; the two central pillars of the colonnade forming a chief support of the roof (Jdg 16:25-30 ).
To paraphrase Pro 9:6 , it would read somewhat as follows: “Come to a decision; your present neutral position is not tenable. Your choice lies between wisdom and the scorner. Therefore, break altogether with the scorner and the wicked man, and become the guest of wisdom.” Compare 2Co 6:17 ; 2Co 7:1 .
The thought expressed in Pro 9:7-9 is equal to that of Mat 7:6 , which gives the same thought exactly, thus: “Give not that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you.”
There is a principle enunciated in Pro 9:10 , a promise in Pro 9:11 and a warning in Pro 9:12 , viz: the principle of getting wisdom and understanding, the promise of long life and the warning against scorning lest he bear the penalty alone.
The description of the foolish woman is found in Pro 9:13 . She is here described as clamorous, simple, and a know-nothing. Her methods and inducement are given in Pro 9:14-17 . She sits at the door (or stands at the window) of her house and calls them that pass by, but only the simple heed her call, to whom she says her proverb: Stolen waters are sweet, And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
The final warning as to the results of yielding to her is given in Pro 9:18 . The poor, ignorant dupes do not know that under her house are the bodies of dead men whose spirits have been hurled into hell. We are here reminded of those hell holes in Paris, France, where many disappeared by means of the trapdoor, never to be seen again, of the case of one Mrs. Gunness who buried her scores, or the case of many roadhouses in modern times which are veritable traps of hell.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the subject of Proverbs 8-9, and what is the contrast here with Pro 7 ?
2. What is the deeper significance of this passage?
3. Where does wisdom call?
4. Whom does she call?
5. What is her claim as to plainness of speech?
6. What are the treasures which she offers?
7. What is wisdom and what does she give?
8. What are her august claims?
9. What, then, is her consequent appeal?
10. Of what does Pro 9 consist and what are the parallels between its parts?
11. What is the picture of wisdom here?
12. What is the meaning of the “seven pillars” of Pro 9:1 ?
13. What is the meaning of Pro 9:6 ?
14. What is the thought expressed in Pro 9:7-9 ?
15. What is the principle enunciated in Pro 9:10 , what is the promise in Pro 9:11 and what is the warning in Pro 9:12 ?
16. What is the description of the foolish woman?
17. What are her methods and what inducement does she offer?
18. What is the final warning as to the results of yielding to her?
Pro 8:1 Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?
Ver. 1. Doth not wisdom cry? ] And shall a harlot be sooner heard than she? Shall men prefer dross before gold, acorns before wheat, a swinesty before a sanctuary, dirty delights and sensual pleasures before peace that passeth all understanding, joy unspeakable and full of glory? Heathen stories a tell how Hercules, when he was young, was courted by Virtue on the one hand, and Pleasure on the other; but Pleasure lost her sweet words upon him; he hearkened to Virtue rather. Shall not we to Wisdom?
Put forth her voice. a Xenophon.
b Acts and Mon., 1490.
c Mr Fuller’s Holy State, p. 90.
Proverbs Chapter 8
In full contrast with evil, which is folly to the utmost, is the description of wisdom’s ways as here brought before us.
“Doth not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth her voice? On the top of high places by the way, where paths meet, she standeth; beside the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors, she crieth aloud. To you, O men, I call, and my voice [is] to the sons of man. O ye simple, understand prudence; and, ye foolish, be of understanding heart. Hear, for I will speak excellent things, and the opening of my lips [shall be] right things. For my palate shall meditate truth, and wickedness [is] an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth [are] in righteousness; [there is I nothing crooked or perverse in them. They [are] all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge. Receive my instruction, and not silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold; for wisdom [is] better than rubies, and all the things that may be desired are not comparable to her.” vv. 1-11.
Here is no courting of the dark, no flattery of the heedless, no fair speech to seduce into foul deeds and illicit indulgence. The wisdom which has its root in the fear of Jehovah is aboveboard and earnest with man. “Doth not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth her voice? On the top of high places, where paths meet, she standeth; beside the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors, she crieth aloud.” John the Baptist not only bore witness to Jesus, but “cried” (Joh 1:15 ). So did our Lord in the temple as He taught (Joh 7:28 ), and notably at the close of His rejected testimony (Joh 12:44 ) in importunate love.
How often in the Old Testament as in the New we are reminded of divine favour to mankind! Not with angels but with the human race does God plead, that they may hear and live. “The life was the light of men.” So it is here when wisdom cries aloud: “To you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men”; nay more, it beseeches the weak and the unwise. “O ye simple, understand wisdom, and ye fools, be of understanding heart.”
There are objects of desire in men’s eager eyes. Oh the ardour, when they learn that there is here a mine of silver, and a place for gold which they refine! Seas are crossed, deserts are penetrated, swamps and mountains drear are crossed, and heat or cold or famine is defied. And man puts an end to the darkness, and the utmost limit is explored. A shaft is opened far from human haunts; they are forgotten of the traveller, they hang afar from men, they swing to and fro. Out of the earth cometh bread, and underneath it is turned up as by fire. The stones of it are the place of sapphires; and it hath dust of gold; a path no bird of prey knows, nor vulture’s eye hath seen, nor sons of pride have trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed over it. The engineer puts forth his hands on the flints; he overturns mountains by the roots; he cuts out channels in the rocks; and his eye sees every precious thing. He binds the streams that they drip not, and the hidden things he brings forth to light. But wisdom, where shall it be found, and where is the place of understanding? Man knows not its value, neither is it found in the land of the living. The deep says, It is not with me; and the sea says, It is not with me. Neither gold nor silver, nor precious stones as onyx, sapphire, ruby, topaz, with gold most fine, nor jewels can procure or equal it. Whence then comes it, and where is its place? For it is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the heavens. Destruction and death say, We have heard its report with our ears. God understands its way, and He knows its place. And to man He said, “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding” (Job 28 ). Christ alone is its fullness.
Our exhortation encourages souls. “Hear, for I will speak excellent things, and the opening of my lips shall be right things. For my palate shall meditate truth, and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.” Where else can this be found? Outside the inspired Word, religion makes men worse than if they had none, and substitutes demons for the true God. Here the writer can say with assurance, All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing crooked or perverse in them. Man’s uncertainty and fallen nature expose him to both if he sets up to be an oracle. Whereas God’s words are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to him that findeth knowledge. Hence is the call. Receive my instruction, and not silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold; for wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not comparable to her. We can go no farther, now that the Son of God is come and given to us to know Him that is true. For He Himself is the true God, no less than the Father; and He is eternal life. Compare Joh 17:3 .
We are in a world dominated for the present by a subtle spirit of evil that has access to every heart. There is therefore constant need of a wisdom above man’s. For the Christian it descends from above; it is Christ, God’s wisdom no less than His power. Here, as being for Israel, the Holy Spirit presents wisdom for the earth. For the heaven and the earth belong to God, who in due time will expel the usurper and put all things under Him in fact and manifestation, as they are now in principle to faith. Meanwhile we have God occupying Himself with what is heavenly for His children, in the New Testament before the day arrives, as for His ancient people renewed to profit ere long by the Old Testament as here.
“I wisdom dwell in prudence, and find out knowledge of reflection. The fear of Jehovah [is] to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth do I hate. Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I [am] intelligence; I have strength. By me kings reign, and rulers make just decrees; by me princes rule, and nobles, all the judges of the earth. I love those that love me; and they that seek me early (or, diligently) shall find me. Riches and honour [are] with me; durable wealth and righteousness. My fruit [is] better than gold, yea than pure gold; and my revenue than choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment; that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance, and fill their treasuries.” vv. 12-21.
The Christian, though a heavenly man, walks on earth; and both needs to, and can, avail himself of such words as these, coming under the moral government of God as his Father (1Pe 1:17 ). Wisdom makes prudence its dwelling place, and there finds knowledge, if not of witty inventions, assuredly of reflections, a better thing. Thus are subtle adversaries met by a wisdom and its resources deeper than every snare. Its base is that fear of Jehovah which hates evil, for which intellectual sharpness and craft are no match. For divine wisdom in the Word forms the godly in obedience, not in the cleverness that outwits craft by profounder craft; for this would only dishonour God and sully the soul. Hence pride and arrogance on the one hand, and on the other the evil way and the perverse mouth, are hateful to God and His people. They are the ways and the words of self, far from Him who leads in the path of obedience, and gives counsel and sound wisdom to those who wait on Him and keep His word and with Him is not only intelligence but strength – all we need in this tangled and shifty scene.
None need wisdom so much as those in authority, the monarch in particular. “By me kings reign, and rulers make just decrees; by me princes rule and nobles, all the judges of the earth.” But this very language aptly discriminates the difference between the Old Testament, and the New Testament, that is the entirely new state of things under the gospel as compared with the law. For there is instruction in the New Testament only for subjection to authority, in the Old Testament for those who wield it also. The Christian waits to reign with Christ, content meanwhile to suffer with Him and for Him. No exhortation, no principle, no fact supposes him exercising worldly power where Christ was rejected, till He appears to judge the world. It was quite another condition before the princes of this age crucified the Lord of glory. But it is now a time of great and growing unbelief, and it is a hard trial for most believers to forego present power and honour. Indeed, since the apostles passed away, the true heavenly glory of the Christian and the Church has been well nigh forgotten and ignored.
But wisdom goes out far beyond rulers and the great, even to all that seek and prize it. “I love those that love me; and those that seek me earnestly shall find me.” So it ever is in divine pursuits. Those that are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. God has no blanks for the real. Wisdom from Him secures riches and honour – not for the Christian of a material sort, but better far, durable wealth, truly, and righteousness. Its fruit is indeed superior to pure gold or choice silver. Wisdom walks in the way of righteousness. Not “leading” but “walking” is the point here. To reason, to common sense, it may seem utterly foolish; for it often entails loss, and sacrifice, and suffering. But “he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” Christ to us is the way; and Him we follow whatever the case. Wisdom walks therefore in the midst of the paths of judgment, not outside them. And there only is blessing enjoyed, though it is not for the Christian in the basket and the store, in the bank or in stocks, but higher and unchanging.
From verses 22-31 we have the plainest and the brightest testimony of this Book to Christ’s glory. Who can fail to discern that He is here viewed as the Wisdom of God. The personality of His Wisdom is as marked here as of the Life in 1Jn 1 . This suits God if it does not man.
“Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth was. When no depths were, I was brought forth, when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth, while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the beginning of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I [was] there; when he set the circle upon the face of the deep; when he established the skies above; when the fountains of the deep became strong; when he imposed on the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment; when he appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by him, a nursling [or artificer], and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable world of his earth, and my delights [were] with the sons of men.” vv. 22-31.
The remarkable truth here signalized is the Wisdom portrayed with Jehovah before creation, and not merely in that display of almighty power guided by wisdom and goodness. More than this attribution of eternal wisdom, as Jehovah’s cherished companion before His works of old, a special object of His affection is carefully shown in mankind, even as He Himself was to Jehovah. This and this only explains why the earth should be so near and conspicuous an object to the love of God – often a theme of unbelieving wonder, if not for unworthy and thankless scorn.
“Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way.” There was Wisdom, not simply in Him, but with Him, as is said of the Word in Joh 1:1 : “the Word was with God,” just as surely as He “is God”; and such too is the account of Him as Life in 1Jn 1:2 , before He was manifested in flesh. “I was set up [lit. anointed] from everlasting, from the beginning before the earth was.” He was no creature of God, but was in being before His works. When depths were not nor fountains abounding with waters, He was brought forth; before mountains or hills were settled; while as yet He had not made the earth or the fields or the beginning of the dust of the world. He was there for the making and ordering of all, as He was before any. Nor did He thus precede the lower scene only, but the heavens which contain all. When Jehovah prepared the heavens, Wisdom was there; when He set the circle upon the face the deep, when He established the skies above. When the fountains of the deep became strong, when He imposed on the sea its decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment; when He appointed the foundations of the earth: then was Wisdom by Him, a nursling [or artificer], and a delight He was, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in His habitable world; and His delights were with the sons of men. It is a grand, true, and highly poetic description, worthy of Him who was proclaimed in its season the Worthy One.
But whatever wisdom wrought on earth or sea, if the heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse shows the work of His hands, there was a counsel deeper still, a love far beyond intelligence and power; and this we learn in the marvellous description. It is not the Wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which was ordained before the ages unto our glory (1Co 2:7 ). Nothing do we find of God’s sovereign love in choosing out souls to partake of heavenly relationship. It is His good pleasure in men, to be effectuated another day by His Son becoming man, and in that redemption which secures His glory and opens the way for all His dealings of grace. What we have here is no revelation of the secret that was hid in God till Christ rejected went back to God, and the Holy Spirit was sent to reveal it. But we have the inestimable purpose of God’s goodness toward man plainly stated, and distinct from the election of Israel for the earth, or of the saints who compose the Church for the heaven, and indeed for the universal inheritance with Christ.
Hence the force here of Wisdom being by Jehovah, His delight day by day, not only rejoicing always before Jehovah, but rejoicing Himself in the habitable parts of His earth, and His delights were with the sons of men. Though it be not Christ glorified on high, nor therefore our union with Him as His body, yet it is an expression of divine love in and toward man, far beyond what Israel ever realized, as it will be in the days of the kingdom here below when He reigns and all the families of the earth are blessed in Him. For it is divine delight in Him whose delights were and will be with the sons of men. Hence beautiful is the praise of the heavenly hosts at His birth heard by the lowly shepherds by night. “”Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill in men” beautiful in itself, and in their unjealous delight in His ways who made men, not angels, the especial object of His complacency.
The chapter concludes with a fatherly application to impress the blessedness of wisdom’s ways on the young, but from Jehovah.
“And now, sons, hearken to me, and blessed are [those that] keep my ways: hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed [is] the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of Jehovah. But he that sinneth against (or, misseth) me doeth violence to his own soul: all that hate me love death.” vv. 32-36.
When He who was afterward to become flesh and dwell among us was brought (so distinctly for the Old Testament) before the hearer of the written Word, we can understand that His grace makes itself deeply felt and calls special heed to communications meant to deal with the inner man. They rise far above ordinary obligation; they are not clothed with the thunder and lightning of Sinai, nor do they consist of typical pictures which illustrated the provision of divine mercy, when men failed and would own their sins suitably, the shadows of the good things to come. A divine personality (the daily delight to Jehovah, whose delights were with the sons of men who calls Himself, though set up from eternity, Wisdom dwelling with prudence) appeals peculiarly to heart and conscience. For who dues not feel the need of such guidance? Sons of men must be welcome to Him; and He, because He is divine, must be able to render Himself acceptable to them.
Doubtless the lack of known forgiveness and of life eternal in the Son of God left much to be desired, which we enjoy through the gospel. But what clearly appears in such a chapter as this was an immense favour; and none need wonder at the exhortation which follows it up, that the “sons” should hearken. But such words, like those of our Lord on the mount are meant to be done as well as heard. Indeed every one that hears and does them not can only be likened to a foolish man that built his house on the sand – great the fall when it comes – worse than if no house were built.
Here accordingly we are told that “blessed are those that keep my ways.” The glory and grace of Him who deigns to point out the ways of wisdom act on living faith and make it energetic through love. Where faith is not, all else fails ere long. “Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not.” How touchingly wisdom pleads while we only are the gainers! What can we add to divine majesty? The love of God delights in blessing; but blessing cannot be for sinful man, but in hearing instruction from Him who was made to us wisdom from above.
Again we have it applied to the individual. “Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.” Here we have the earnestness day by day and perseverance like a beggar in need that will not be denied, and waits in the face of what would discourage others less importunate. We find in the beginning of Luk 11 the value of prayer on His part who prayed as none else did, and led a disciple to seek of Him to teach them to pray. But the Spirit of God at the close of Luk 10 makes us know the need of His word antecedently – that we may not trust our own reasonings or imaginations, instead of all resting on the groundwork of divine truth received in faith. Of this the blessed sample is Mary, who also sat at the Lord’s feet and heard His word, and reaped endless and deep profit in comparison with her sister, Martha, who, loved of Him, and doubtless loving Him, was cumbered with much serving, and hence anxious and troubled about many things. Mary’s part is the good one which shall be taken away from none who value it.
“For (on the one hand) whoso findeth me findeth life and obtaineth favour of Jehovah.” So the prince of prophets writes: “Wherefore do ye weigh money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently to me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, and your soul shall live.” What better was known than “life” above that of nature through the faith of the divine Word, and Jehovah’s favour enjoyed also? It was not blessing in the city and in the field, or in the kine and in the flock, in the bucket and in the kneading-trough, nor even in being made the head rather than the tail. Old Testament believers knew and possessed by grace the blessing, though far from that fullness which we have now through and in Christ.
On the other hand. the way of self-will is ruinous for the life that now is, and for that which is to come. It is just the path of sin. “And he that sinneth against me (Wisdom) doeth violence to his own soul: all they that hate me love death.” There is not, nor ever was, true living, living to God but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Therefore it is that the just shall live by his faith. For faith comes of hearing, and hearing by the divine Word. Outside the path of faith on either side are the ways of death, and many are those who take them in the pursuit of man’s thoughts or present objects, of human religion or human irreligion, apart from the true God and Him in whom He reveals Himself by His Word and Spirit.
wisdom. Hebrew. chokmah = wisdom personified. Compare Pro 8:12.
Chapter 8
In chapter 8 we have an ode to wisdom. Wisdom is personified. And because of the personification of wisdom in this chapter, some have even likened wisdom unto Jesus Christ. “For in Him are hid all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” ( Col 2:3 ). So there are analogies that can definitely be drawn. Because Christ is the soul, the heart of wisdom. “In Him all the treasures of wisdom.” So there are definite analogies that can be made to wisdom and to Jesus Christ, and there is definite parallels. There are definite parallels.
Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? ( Pro 8:1 )
Now, of course, we have just this is in sharp contrast to the previous chapter where this loud, stubborn, little impudent female is running around with her words of flattery in the streets and all. But, “Doth not wisdom cry? And understanding put forth her voice?”
She stands at the top of the high places, by the way in the places of the paths. She cries at the gates, and at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors: Unto you, O men, I call; my voice is to the sons of man. O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things. For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing perverse or froward in them. They are all plain to him that understands, and right to them that find knowledge. Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold ( Pro 8:1-10 ).
In other words, prefer wisdom to wealth.
For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired cannot be compared to wisdom. I wisdom dwell with prudence, and I find out knowledge of witty inventions. The fear of the LORD is to hate evil ( Pro 8:11-13 ):
Now wisdom is speaking and declares,
pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the perverse mouth, I hate. Counsel is mine, sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength. By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all of the judges of the earth. I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. Riches and honor are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue better than choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures. The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or before the earth ever was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was brought forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me finds life, and shall obtain favor of the LORD. But he that sinneth against me wrongs his own soul: and all they that hate me love death ( Pro 8:13-36 ).
So we see how that Solomon is exhorting concerning wisdom. How wisdom is crying out for people, “Come, know me. Understand me. Listen to me.” And the value of wisdom, treasure.
Now you remember when David died and Solomon was appointed king in his place. The Lord came to Solomon and said, “Ask of Me whatever you want.” And Solomon prayed unto the Lord and said, “Oh, Lord, I ask that You will grant unto me wisdom in order that I might govern over these, Your people.”
Now Solomon was aware of the awesome responsibility that was placed upon him when he took the scepter from his father David and began to rule over Israel. He realized what an awesome responsibility this was. And he also realized his own inability to stand up to this awesome responsibility. “Oh God, I need wisdom to know how to govern over these, Your people. That I might go out and in before them in such a way and that I might be a proper king.” And God said unto Solomon, “Solomon, inasmuch as you’ve asked for wisdom, you’ve asked for a good thing. Because you didn’t ask for riches, you didn’t ask for fame, you didn’t ask for your enemies to be delivered in your hands, but you asked instead for wisdom, excellent choice. And because you didn’t ask for riches, fame, your enemies, but you’ve asked for wisdom instead, I’m not only going to give you wisdom, but I’m also going to give you great riches, fame and all.”
And so God gave unto Solomon wisdom above all of his predecessors. So that from all over the world, people came to sit at the feet of Solomon to hear the wisdom of this man. So it is proper that this man who was given so much wisdom by God and knew the value and the benefits of wisdom should exhort unto wisdom.
And in then the personification of wisdom, I’m sure as we were reading through, you could see the parallels and the analogies that could be made to Jesus Christ. How that He was with the Lord in the beginning of the creation and the beautiful picturesque speech of the creation of the earth before. I wonder what it was like before God created the universe. I wonder what there was. What dimensions and whatever, you know. “Before the earth ever was, before He laid the foundation, before He set the boundaries of the sea, before He raised up the mountains, I was there.” “
Pro 8:1-5
Pro 8:1-5
“This chapter forms at once the nucleus and the climax of this section of Proverbs. It includes a profound presentation of Wisdom as the moving principle of the ways of God.
The great problem in the chapter is the interpretation of Pro 8:22-31. Are they to be understood as speaking of Christ; or, are they merely a personification of Wisdom in the literary and poetic sense alone?
That the passage most certainly carries the most significant overtones of Jesus Christ himself is undeniable, although it falls short of being a prophecy. It is primarily a personification of Wisdom; and that pinpoints the stupidity of the Arian heresy that tried to challenge the Divinity and Eternal Existence of Christ upon the basis of a personification, a personification that does not pretend to say even one word about Jesus Christ.
Nevertheless, Christ is most certainly in it; and there is nothing here that, in any sense, contradicts the New Testament revelation concerning either our Lord Jesus Christ or the acceptance for generations of the teachings of Christian theologians who have applied many of the things written here to Christ.
“Solomon, the wisest of men, had in himself personally become (almost) a personification of a dark and vicious life. Being himself so wise, how could he have failed to know that someday there would indeed be an Incarnate Wisdom, a glorious and eternal contrast with the Incarnate Vice (whom he had just described in the previous chapter, and to which he himself bore a striking resemblance)? In his marvelous description of Wisdom personified, and in tracing out her sweet and high-souled utterances the teacher (Solomon), unconsciously to himself, becomes a prophet, and presents, as we shall see, a faint and wavering image of Him who of God was to be made the Wisdom of God unto men and who would exhibit the perfect life embodying in their fullness all of the attributes of Wisdom.
“The Christological interpretation of this chapter has existed from the earliest Christian centuries. Such New Testament passages as 1Co 8:6; Col 1:15-18; Heb 1:3; and Rev 3:14, written by the apostles Paul and John, clearly teach that the terminology used in this chapter regarding Wisdom has its full and complete meaning only in, `Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God’ (1Co 1:24).
Deane’s outline of the chapter is:
“I. Wisdom calls all to listen (Pro 8:1-5), and gives reasons for trusting her (Pro 8:6-11).
II. Displays her excellence (Pro 8:12-21).
III. She discourses regarding her eternity (Pro 8:22-31).
IV. She again warns against disobeying her commandments.
Pro 8:1-5
WISDOM CALLS ALL TO HEAR HER WORDS
“Doth not wisdom cry,
And understanding put forth her voice?
On the top of high places by the way,
Where the paths meet, she standeth;
Beside the gates, at the entrance of the city,
At the coming in of the doors, she crieth aloud:
Unto you, O men, I call;
And my voice is unto the sons of men.
O ye simple, understand prudence;
And ye fools, be of an understanding heart.”
What a contrast there is between the woman Wisdom, as depicted here, and the woman Vice as revealed in the previous chapter! “Wisdom does not speak in whispered seductive tones under the cover of twilight and darkness”; she thunders the truth from the gates of the city, shouts it in the public streets, and demands that all men of every class and condition heed her admonitions.
“O, ye simple, ye fools … understand” (Pro 8:5). “The `simple’ here are not the mentally handicapped, but sinners. The word `fools’ is what we call the moral vocabulary of Proverbs. The word is used 49 times in Proverbs, eighteen times in Ecclesiastes, and three times elsewhere.
Pro 8:1. Wisdom is again personified and is again feminine. Here is Hebrew parallelism in which the second line is a restatement of the first: wisdom and knowledge go together as do cry and put forth her voice. This section is very similar to Pro 1:20-22 : Wisdom crieth aloud in the street; She uttereth her voice in the broad places; She crieth in the chief place of concourse; At the entrance of the gates, In the city, she uttereth her words: How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And scoffers delight them in scoffing, And fools hate knowledge? In Pro 1:20-21 the material is set forth in the declarative mood while Pro 8:1 introduces the material with the interrogative mood. The interrogative form, which expects an affirmative answer, is a mode of asserting a truth (Pulpit Commentary). However, it is just the opposite in Pro 1:22 and Pro 8:5-Chapter 1 being interrogative and Chapter 8 exclamatory.
Pro 8:2. She takes her stand…in the most open and elevated parts of the city where she may be best seen and heard by all who pass by…where many paths converge, and where people meet from different quarters (Pulpit Commentary).
Pro 8:3. By lifting up her voice in the gates and doors to the city, she would be heard by all who were coming in and by all who were going out. It would be for the great who entered and for the lowly who entered. Nor does wisdom speak feebly-she crieth aloud! Most people know what is right and wrong, what is wise and foolish, what should and shouldnt be done. How thankful we should be that wisdom is that prominent!
Pro 8:4. Wisdom and understanding were being spoken about in Pro 8:1-3; now they themselves begin to speak, and their direct quotation runs from this verse through Pro 8:10.
Pro 8:5. More parallelism: ye simple and ye fools go together, and understand prudence and be of an understanding heart are parallels. The simple are those not yet perverted but easily influenced for good or evil. This is where each person begins. If people do not acquire wisdom later on, then they are considered fools. The interjection form (introduced by O) shows the urgency of being directed in the right way. Webster says of prudence: Ability to regulate and discipline oneself through the exercise of the reason.
STUDY QUESTIONS – Pro 8:1-5
1. What is the relationship between wisdom and understanding (Pro 8:1)?
2. What is meant by high places here (Pro 8:2)?
3. How does wisdom cry in these high places (Pro 8:3)?
4. Why do men need great wisdom and understanding (Pro 8:4)?
5. Would having an understanding heart raise these from being simpletons and fools (Pro 8:5)?
The section containing the instructions of wisdom ends with two discourses, the first of which is the great call of wisdom. This takes up and deals more minutely with the call in the earlier part of the book. It opens with an announcement that wisdom is making its appeal everywhere amid the busy activities of life. Then follows her call.
This is, first, an appeal to men to attend (verses Pro 8:4-11). This they should do because wisdom speaks excellent things, and speaks in righteousness. Moreover, the words of wisdom are plain and more valuable than all riches.
The foundations of wisdom are next declared (verses Pro 8:12-14). Essentially, these are prudence, knowledge, discretion. As for man, the foundation of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, which expresses itself in hatred of all He hates. In such wisdom lie the secrets of strength.
Then the values of wisdom are described (verses Pro 8:15-21). All authority is based on it. It is the lover of such as love it. It yields all highest wealth to such as love it.
Next, wisdom claims age-abiding relation to Deity (verses Pro 8:22-31). Ere the beginnings of creation, Jehovah possessed wisdom. Through all the processes wisdom wrought with God, and God delighted in wisdom, until man, the crowning glory of all, gave wisdom chief delight. This passage may be set side by side with the prologue to John’s Gospel, for fuller understanding.
The call ends with a final appeal (verses Pro 8:32-36). Those who attend to the call of wisdom are blessed indeed, and those who sin against wisdom wrong their own soul.
Better than Gold
Pro 8:1-21
This chapter contains a bewitching picture of Wisdom as a noble matron. Were it not for this feminine touch, we might, suppose that the Preacher had become a Prophet and was discerning the lineaments of Christ, who in His human life embodied the Divine Wisdom, as indeed He was the Eternal Word.
She stands in the open places; her ringing voice is heard down the streets, appealing to those who are entering the city gates or doors of the houses. There is no muttering or whispering; but the beauty of goodness illuminates all she says. She insists on her own value, as compared with the valuables that men prize. The central point in her promises is that she imparts those great moral qualities which imply the true leadership and right estimate of others. What a precious word is Pro 8:17 : but we can never forget that we love because He first loved us. Oh, the mystery and wonder of it! And can that love ever fail us?
Proverbs 8
This meditation on Wisdoms ways is a welcome relief from the folly and sin described in the previous chapter. This is especially true when the anointed eye discerns that wisdom as the uncreated Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God! Although the feminine form is used throughout, it is clear that in the latter part of the chapter it is Jesus who is before us.
8:1-7
Wisdom does not wait for men to seek her. She seeks to draw the simple from paths of error to the temple of knowledge and understanding. With yearning heart she takes her stand in the marketplace, the paths of pleasure, the courts of judgment, and the schools of learning. Anywhere and everywhere men are found, she is there- her cry and entreaty sounding above all the bustle of life. (See 1:20-23.)
Wisdom incarnate is to be found in our Lord Jesus Christ, the living Word. Similarly the instructions of Wisdom are to be found in the written Word. The only true and lasting wisdom and knowledge are contained in this precious volume which holy men of God [wrote] as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2Pe 1:21). Only true and right things are recorded there. Even when the sins of men and women are sharply delineated in all their grossness it is so we may learn from them.
Man may quibble; infidelity may sneer; pseudo-scholarship may reject; but He who cannot lie has declared, the scripture cannot be broken (Joh 10:35). It is an unhappy man who turns from this perfect wisdom to the vagaries of the human mind!
8:8-9
These verses are faiths answer to the critic who prates of contradictions and errors in the inspired Word of God. Modesty alone should suggest that the fault might be in the reader-not in the Word. But mans vanity and pride will not admit such a conclusion. Yet it will soon be proven to be true; for one jot or one tittle [the smallest letter, or vowel-point] shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled (Mat 5:18). How soon difficulties vanish when faith is exercised! Seemingly insurmountable objections are swept away in a moment when the light of Heaven shines into the soul and on the Scriptures. Jesus opened both the Scriptures and the understanding of the two with whom He walked to Emmaus. Difficulties vanish like mist before the rays of the sun when understanding is enlightened by the Word. They are all plain to him that understandeth, (Pro 8:9) for the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him (Psa 25:14).
8:10-11
Incomparable treasure is found in the sacred Scriptures, which are relentlessly attacked by supercilious and unspiritual critics. The best writings of the best men can not compare with Scripture, for it is the very breathings of God. In Job 28 we have the account of the patriarchs search for wisdom. All the precious metals and jewels of earth can not equal it, for the price of wisdom is above rubies (Job 28:18). Job finds it when he turns from everything on or under the earth to God Himself.
8:12-13
As noted earlier, wisdom is looked at as an essential part of deity. It is the very character of God-that character perfectly displayed in Christ. Evil, pride, and folly are all hateful to Him who is light and cannot abide the darkness.
8:14-16
These verses do not indicate that rulers always act according to understanding, but that none rule at all except by Gods appointment. The most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will (Dan 4:17). This gives the man of faith perfect rest in the midst of all the changing political scenes of earth. He can submit to any form of government or any character of chief magistrate because the powers that be are ordained of God (Rom 13:1).
8:17-21
Wisdom delights to reward those who seek her early in life, as in Solomons case. It is important to bear in mind that it is wisdom- and not God as such-that is referred to here. God also is a re-warder of them that diligently seek him (Heb 11:6). But it would be incorrect to limit His love only to those who return that love. Verse 17 refers to the active love of Wisdom.
In verses 18-21 we see the treasures Wisdom gives to the one who loves her. The gifts bestowed are unspeakably precious and beyond all human valuation. She gives them lavishly to the diligent seeker who has learned to love her for her own sake. Apart from her the feet will stray in follys paths.
8:22-31
From this point on, the anointed eye loses sight of all else and is fixed on Christ; for it is He who is now presented for the contemplation of our souls. We see Christ as the uncreated Word, yet the begotten Son by eternal generation-titles admittedly paradoxical, but after all distinctly Scriptural.
Some have suggested that the term only begotten implies a period, however remote, when the Son did not exist. Johns Gospel clearly refutes this, for the same was in the beginning with God (Johnl:2). He was begotten, not in the sense of beginning life, but as being of one nature and substance with the Father. There was never a moment in the past eternity when He was not with the Father. The apostle himself declares that the mystery is impossible to explain.
The Spirit carries us back beyond the beginning of Gen 1:1 to that beginning described in Joh 1:1. The Word who had no beginning was the Wisdom of God from eternity past. Pro 8:22 is a scene of fellowship-Jehovah possessed Him. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. Wisdom was the object of Jehovahs delight from everlasting.
No man knoweth the Son, but the Father (Mat 11:27). This is why the devout heart can rest and adore where the skeptic seeks in vain for rational explanations of a mystery beyond human understanding.
This picture of creation implies the unity of the divine nature. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son (Joh 3:16). Gods thoughts are above ours. Our best human language is a poor vehicle for the expression of such wondrous truths. Christ is eternally the Son, yet truly the Begotten.
Creation is ascribed to the Son elsewhere: Without him was not any thing made that was made (Joh 1:3). All things were created by him, and for himand by him all things consist (Col 1:16-17). He is superior to all creation because by Him the Father brought all things into being. Daily His Fathers delight, He shared in that display of power, always rejoicing in His presence (Pro 8:30). It is amazing grace that His delights were with the fallen sons of men. The love of His heart was set on those who did not deserve it (31). He speaks of the fallen sons of Adam-lost and guilty sinners.
Ere God had built the mountains,
Or raised the fruitful hills;
Before He filled the fountains,
That feed the running rills;
In Thee, from everlasting,
The wonderful I AM
Found pleasures never wasting,
And Wisdom is Thy name.
When, like a tent to dwell in,
He spread the skies abroad,
And swathed about the swelling
Of Oceans mighty flood,
He wrought by weight and measure;
And Thou wast with Him then:
Thyself the Fathers pleasure,
And Thine, the sons of men.
And couldst Thou be delighted
With creatures such as we,
Who, when we saw Thee, slighted
And nailed Thee to a tree?
Unfathomable wonder!
And mystery divine!
The voice that speaks in thunder
Says, Sinner, I am thine.
(Cowper)
8:32-36
The earnest request of these verses is based on Wisdoms declaration of love for men. Those who refuse instruction and spurn understanding trample on divine affection and harden the heart against divine grace.
We are given strong incentives to heed the voice of Wisdom. They include blessing, life, and the loving favor of the Lord. The one who refuses to listen sins against his own soul and seals his own destruction.
Pro 8:14
Consider (1) the self-assertion of Christ; (2) the bearing of that self-assertion on certain difficulties of our day.
I. The self-assertion of Christ is exhibited in three ways: (1) Christ claims a boundless power of satisfying human wants. He knows sin and sorrow through and through. Yet He never doubts His capacity of giving pardon and peace. (2) Christ claims for Himself the most transcendent ideals. The sun is not too glorious for Him: “I am the Light of the world. The morning star seen by the seer over the Grecian hills is not too fresh and lovely: “I am the Bright and Morning Star.” (3) Christ claims the possession of absolute truth by the very form and mode as well as by the substance of His teaching. He does not speak as a technical philosopher. He does not laboriously draw conclusions from syllogisms. He is at the centre of truth. Thus very much of His teaching is conveyed in an oracular form. It is divinely epigrammatic.
II. Consider the bearing of this on the difficulty which seems to be felt with distressing poignancy by many just at present. I mean the tone of much of the record in the Old Testament. (1) The Old Testament is a progressive system. When we are confronted with such objections, we should ask ourselves whether the things objected to form part of that progressive system, taken at a point short of its completion. (2) The Old Testament contains the pathology and diagnosis of sin. Its therapeutics are in the Gospel. Do the things excepted to form part of this pathology? If so, they are necessarily there and necessarily revolting. The Bible if divine, is yet “divine with the imperfections of our life.” Its pages are blistered with tears, and dripped with blood. Nay, they are sometimes splashed with mud. For sin is vulgar as well as awful. If it towers at times until it covers us with majestic shadows from awful heights, there are seasons when it grovels upon the dust in its meanness. (3) After all, it is chiefly to the thought of the text that we turn for confirmation. The great self-assertion of the “Amen” is our stay. We take the book as it is from the hand of Him who says, “I am understanding.”
Bishop Alexander, The Great Question, p. 45.
Reference: Pro 8:15.- J. Andrew, Dundee Pulpit, p. 169.
Pro 8:17
I. “I love them that love Me.” It might be inferred from such words as these, that man must love God as a preliminary to or condition of God’s loving man. But the truth is that our love to God is nothing else but the reflection of God’s love to us; in no way an earthly production, but is heavenly every way-birth, nurture, end, and aim. God must first love us, so as not merely to surround us with mercies, not merely to make arrangements which render possible our salvation; but so as to enter into our souls, and there re-impress His own image, producing what we naturally have not-a sense of His love by generating our love in return. As we breathe because God hath breathed into us the breath of life, we love because God hath kindled in us a flame of affection; so that there can be no genuine love except as the result of a renewal of nature. When we answer to God’s love, becoming new creatures through obeying the motions of His Spirit, and therefore having affections purified and sanctified so that they may fasten themselves once more on the Infinite and Invisible; then, as though He had not loved us before, so entire is the relationship into which we are brought, He speaks in the language of our text, “I love them that love Me.”
II. “Those that seek Me early shall find Me.” We do not argue from this that, if God have not been sought early it is in vain to seek Him at all. But, nevertheless, the explicit promise is to them that seek God early; and we may not, therefore, doubt that there are advantages to those who begin in their youth, which will always widely remove their case from that of others who give their first years to the world. Consider the motives which should urge the young to seek God early. (1) There is the acknowledged though practically forgotten fact, that the life of the young is as uncertain as that of the old-that health and strength are no security against the speedy approach of death. (2) If the text does not exclude those from finding who only seek at the last, it distinctly implies that they will have much greater difficulty than had they sought early. (3) As men grow older they gradually lose a relish for those enjoyments which have fascinated them in youth; so that they outlive the pleasures for which they have been content to peril their immortality. Is it not to insult God to offer Him the miserable remnant of life which you have kept from Him so long as it was possible to devote it to His enemies? You must seek God early, while there is a sacrifice to be made, while there are passions that may be mortified, advantages which may be resigned, pleasures which may be abandoned.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1684.
I. “I love them that love Me.” Consider what a blessed thing it must be to be loved by Jesus Christ,-by the Son of God Himself. (1) Jesus Christ is very great. (2) Jesus Christ is very rich. (3) Jesus Christ is very good. (4) He pardons the sins of those whom He loves. (5) He gives them power to become good. (6) He takes care that none whom He loves shall be lost. (7) He is getting ready a place in heaven for those whom He loves.
II. Let us see who are those that Jesus Christ loves. “I love them that love Me.” (1) Those who love Jesus Christ believe whatever He says in the Bible. (2) Those who love Jesus Christ try to please Him.
III. How are we to seek Jesus Christ? (1) We must seek Him in His own Book. (2) We must seek Him in His own House. (3) We must seek Him on our knees in prayer.
IV. “They shall find Me.” You will find the Lord’s presence in your own hearts and minds.
V. “Early.” (1) Seeking early is the safest way. (2) Seeking early is the happiest way. (3) Seeking early is the easiest way.
Bishop Ryle, Boys and Girls Playing, p. 19.
Consider the advantages of seeking early after God.
I. There is an incalculable advantage in beginning in season a work which we know to be long and difficult.
II. Another advantage of serving God in our youth is the defence which is thus set up against the encroachments of vice.
III. A third benefit is the promotion of happiness in the family circle, and the beneficent influence thus exerted upon companions and friends.
IV. Another blessing is the indescribable satisfaction which is afforded to parents and friends.
V. A fifth advantage of seeking God in youth is the ready access which it affords to a throne of grace.
VI. Another advantage is that we are thus prepared to meet with a smile the dark frowns of adversity.
VII. We are thus enabled to await, with calm and holy resignation, the coming of death.
J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 319.
References: Pro 8:17.-F. Tholuck, Hours of Devotion, p. 189. Pro 8:18-21.-W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 202. Pro 8:22-31.-Ibid., p. 205. Pro 8:22-36.-R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 195.
Pro 8:22-30
This is a description of the original solitude of God by a witness, His only-begotten and well-beloved Son.
I. This solitude was serene and happy. Even among men solitude is not always desolation. To make solitude happy two elements are required: first, that the mind be at ease and satisfied with itself; secondly, that it be employed also in some object out of itself. The serenity of God was, so to speak, composed of three elements: perfect self-satisfaction, profound self-contemplation, and the prescience, and in a sense the presence, of all created history, for “known unto God were all His works, from the foundation of the world.”
II. But there was society also with God. “I was by Him as one brought up by Him; I was daily His delight,” says the Logos. This shows a certain mysterious fellowship subsisting between the various Persons in the Godhead. From the glimpse given in the text of this communion, we gather that it was (1) familiar; (2) had always existed; (3) was incessant; (4) was unspeakably delightful.
III. Let us marvel especially at one part of the Divine employment throughout eternity. That is revealed to have been thinking of, nay, rejoicing in, man. How it elevates our conception of man to think of him forming one of the principal subjects of thought to God in His own serene eternity! And yet, how it humbles us to remember that God then thought of us as fallen, miserable, guilty beings, whom He must redeem from the horrible pit and the miry clay!
IV. Let us remember that while there is a sense in which we are always, there is a sense in which we are never, alone. Every soul is a Juan Fernandez-a solitary island with only one inhabitant; but that inhabitant is God. We must all one day meet this sole and silent one. The “lonely soul must flee to the lonely God.”
G. Gilfillan, Alpha and Omega, vol. i., p. 1.
Pro 8:23-25
Wisdom meant more to the Jews than to us, who have lost the sense of man’s unity by subdividing his faculties. It embraced to the Jew the mental and material range of the spiritual life: the ministers and magicians of Pharaoh are wise; so are Solomon and the angels; but also, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” and the wise man is the ideally good man in Pro 16:21, Pro 16:23.
I. Wisdom is ever at work in the world. Civilisation is nature inspired by man’s wisdom. The Book of Proverbs does little else than honour continuously the victorious mind of man.
II. We find that man is not final-original. A source of wisdom behind is suggested; our partial and fitful intellect points back. God is the fountain; we are the channels. God’s wisdom touched the gross chaos with intention, and its epic is the first chapter of Genesis. The only beautiful thing in mechanical and other processes is the reflection of God’s wisdom in ours. What a great hoard of humility we should have if this were recognised!
III. We need our beliefs for ordinary life; sorrow is inevitable, and the ghastly thing about it is, that we feel as if it were preordained when we are in it. It is like the mountain shadow, or the crouching lion awaiting the weary pilgrim on the plain. Wisdom has something to say: “I am older than sorrow.” She bears testimony to God’s plan, to His love, justice, and thoughtfulness. And so in temptation, when the world seems to be spinning a net round us, wisdom soothes us. She is before temptation. This Wisdom is Christ, the “Word” of St. John. What wonder, since “Word” is the utterance of Wisdom! In the Atonement Christ is peculiarly the Wisdom of the world; He conquers a lower obstacle; God’s love, before confined, pours into the sinner over a broken barrier.
Phillips Brooks, Oxford Magazine, June 3rd, 1885.
Pro 8:29-30
I. It is in the active service of life, in the work of the marketplace, in the interchange of thought and the collision of minds differently constituted, that wisdom speaks to us. She comes as with an evangel, which she proclaims to all, which shuts out none but those who shut it out, seeking in her infinite compassion the ignorant and the foolish.
II. Wisdom yearns, as it were, for human sympathy, and the wide spaces of the universe would seem dark and cold to her if man were not there. She “rejoices in the inhabited parts of the earth; “her” delights are with the sons of men.”
III. Wisdom and the Eternal Word are one. Christ, who is made unto us sanctification and redemption, is also made unto us Wisdom. This truth suggests counsels, warnings, hopes, encouragements. (1) To many among us who make it their work to be observers of the facts and students of the laws of nature, the truth which is thus revealed gives a new ground for thankfulness and hope. The place whereon they stand is holy ground. All traces of design, order, development, the unfolding of the higher from the lower,-what are these but marks of the Eternal Wisdom manifesting Itself according to Its own determinate counsel and foreknowledge? (3) But it must not be forgotten that the Eternal Word reveals Himself as One whose delights are with the sons of men. It is an evil and hateful thing in His sight when truth is divorced from love; when the dreamer, or the theorist, or the observer, lives in his own lordly pleasure-house of knowledge or of beauty, and shuts out all sympathy with human suffering and human weakness. (3) The identity of the Wisdom of the Book of Proverbs with the Word made flesh tells us of yet another path to win that treasure which is far above rubies-via crucis, via lucis. The path that leads to light and truth and wisdom is no path of pleasantness and ease. “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.” Those who follow Him as witnesses to the truth may well be contented to bear His reproach.
E. H. Plumptre, Theology and Life, p. 161.
References: Pro 8:31.-J. Keble, Sermons from Christmas to Epiphany, p. 127. Pro 8:32.-J. Wells, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 41.
Pro 8:36
Who is the “Me”? It is Wisdom. Who is the Wisdom? It is Christ; Christ is the Wisdom of God. What is the particular truth of the text? It is this, that sin is not only an offence to God, whom no man hath seen or can see, but it is a distinct and irreparable injury to the man, the sinner himself. It may be difficult to show men that they ought not to sin against a being whom they have never seen, or against spiritual, moral laws which they had no share in determining. Man may, under these circumstances, get up a kind of metaphysical defence against such obedience; but this unhappy possibility is met and overruled by the unalterable and appalling fact that not to obey is to suffer, to sin is to decline and perish, to go away from truth and purity and honour is to go into darkness and shame and intolerable torment. That is the tremendous hold which God has over you.
I. You have a strong emotional nature; you allow that. My question is, What are you going to make of it? Suppress it? Then you will wrong your own soul. Turn it towards low objects? Then you will debase one of the highest gifts of your nature. You must use it. Christ’s great appeal is to our feeling, our emotion, our homage, our loyalty. “He that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul;” tears the stops out of the great organ of his being.
II. You have a great imaginative nature. What are you going to do with it? He that sinneth against that wrongeth his own soul. The whole material universe is a bird’s small cage compared with the infinite resources of Him who fainteth not, neither is weary, and of whose understanding there is no searching. Whoso sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul, belittles himself, trivializes his own nature, wastes his powers, shuts himself up in a cell, when he might be enjoying the liberty of an ever-expanding firmament.
III. You have a profound moral nature. What are you going to make of it? The Lord brings us to practical judgments, to distinct personal consequences of our action, and we who would shrink from any merely metaphysical divinity, from any philosophical conception of right, are bound to feel in our own flesh and blood and bones that we have done wrong. What are you going to do? The good man makes the best of his powers; the Christian man gets the best out of himself; righteousness makes a man realise the grandest of his powers, the widest of his capacities, and imparts to him as he goes along such instalments of heaven as are harmonisable with a life on earth.
Parker, Fountain, Oct. 18th, 1877.
CHAPTER 8
1. The call and appeal of wisdom (Pro 8:1-11)
2. What wisdom is and what wisdom gives (Pro 8:12-21)
3. Wisdom; the Person, who He is (Pro 8:22-31)
4. The renewed appeal (Pro 8:32-36)
Pro 8:1-11. This is one of the most interesting chapters in the entire book. It begins with a call and appeal of wisdom, much like the call and appeal of the first chapter. If wisdom calls, has a voice, then wisdom must also be a person. Who personified wisdom is we learn most blessedly in this chapter. Wisdom calls to the sons of men; wisdom speaks of plain and excellent things; she speaks the truth; her words are the words of righteousness; wisdom is better than rubies.
Pro 8:12-21. This section may well be looked on as an introduction to the sublime revelation in Pro 8:22-31. Wisdom is a person and what wisdom gives, the power wisdom has, makes it clear that wisdom is a divine person. Kings and princes rule by that person, as well as the nobles and judges of the earth. The powers that be are ordained by this wisdom. And that person says:
I love them that love Me
And those that seek Me early shall find Me.
This wisdom has riches and honor to bestow; has durable riches and righteousness; the fruit of it is better than fine gold; those that love the wisdom will receive an inheritance. In the next place we hear who that person is.
Pro 8:22-31. The Wisdom is the Son of God. The personification of wisdom is found in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. This wonderful passage is a great prelude to the incarnation and the subsequent redemption work of the Son of God. Here Solomon beheld the highest of all; he had a vision of the Messiah of Israel, the Son of David, whose wisdom, peace and kingdom of peace and glory he but faintly foreshadowed. The critical school must of course deny this application to our Lord. The passage played a great role in subsequent thought, for it lies at the back of much of the speculation of Philo, and at a subsequent period was greatly employed by Christian theologians in support of their doctrine of the person of Christ through their identification of wisdom in this passage with Logos (the Word) of the fourth Gospel (New Century Bible).
Wisdom was possessed by the Lord in the beginning of His ways, before His works of old. But that is the beginning without a beginning.
In the beginning was the Word; and because the Word, the Son of God, is God, He like God has no beginning. The word possessed has also the meaning of formed. This word has been a battleground of controversy since the days of the Arian heresy. But it is well to remember that, all theological questions apart, it is impossible to understand the word, whatever rendering of it we adopt, as indicating that wisdom ever had a beginning, or was ever properly speaking created. Wisdom is inseparable from any worthy conception of Him who is the only wise God (1Ti 1:17), and therefore is like Him from everlasting to everlasting (Perowne). Wisdom, the Son of God, was always with God from everlasting. Before there ever was anything created, before the mountains were settled, or even the earth had been made, He was. And when creation began He was there. He, the Son, was by Him, as one brought up with Him. From the greater revelation in the New Testament we learn that all things were created not only for Him, but also by Him (Col 1:16). Wisdom speaks: And I was continually His delight, rejoicing always before Him. This can only be true of God the Son. And furthermore He says: Rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth; and My delight was with the sons of men. His delight was so great, that He laid by His glory, and left His eternal dwelling place to become man and redeem man by the death of the cross.
It is interesting to observe that this glimpse, this adumbration of a great truth, which was only to become fully clear in Christ Jesus our Lord, was advanced a tittle in clearness and completeness by a book which is not considered to be inspired, the so-called Book of Wisdom, in a passage which must be quoted: For she (i.e., Wisdom) is a breath of the power of God, and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty; therefore can no defiled thing fall into her. For she is the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God and the image of His goodness. And being but one, she can do all things; and remaining in herself, she maketh all things new; and in all ages entering into holy souls, she maketh them friends of God and prophets. For God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wisdom. For she is more beautiful than the sun, and above all the order of stars; being compared with the light, she is found before it.
Pro 8:32-36. Then follows the renewed appeal. Wisdom says, Whosoever findeth me findeth life. How true of our Lord; in Him we find and have life. note the two occurrences of blessed in this paragraph.
hell
Heb. “Sheol,” (See Scofield “Hab 2:5”)
Pro 1:20, Pro 1:21, Pro 9:1-3, Isa 49:1-6, Isa 55:1-3, Mat 3:3, Mat 4:17, Mat 28:19, Mat 28:20, Mar 13:10, Mar 16:15, Mar 16:16, Luk 24:47, Joh 7:37, Act 1:8, Act 22:21, Rom 15:18-21
Reciprocal: Pro 9:3 – she crieth Isa 45:19 – spoken Isa 46:12 – Hearken Jer 2:2 – cry Jer 17:19 – General Mat 10:27 – that preach Mat 22:9 – General Luk 8:8 – He that Luk 11:49 – the wisdom Luk 14:7 – put Joh 6:59 – in the Joh 12:44 – cried Act 17:17 – daily 1Co 1:24 – the wisdom
In these chapters we have a public discourse of Wisdom (personified) (chap. 8), and what Lange describes as an allegorical exhibition of the call of men to a choice of wisdom of folly (chap. 9).
It is really our Lord Jesus Christ putting forth this voice (Pro 8:1), and crying unto men at the gates of the city (Pro 8:4-5). It is He who speaks the excellent things (Pro 8:6), and on whose lips wickedness is an abomination (Pro 8:7). Of Him alone can it be predicted that there is nothing crooked (froward) in His mouth (Pro 8:8), or to be desired in comparison with Him (Pro 8:10-18). It is He whose fruit is better than gold and who fills our treasuries (Pro 8:19-21). Were there any doubt of this identify would it not be removed by the remainder of the chapter? Who was set up from everlasting (Pro 8:23)? Or, who was daily Gods delight (Pro 8:30)? And of whom can it be said that to find Him finds life (Pro 8:35)?
THE REDEEMER ANTICIPATING REDEMPTION
The heading of this paragraph expresses Arnots view of the latter part of the chapter. He says that if the terms are not applied to Christ they must be strained at every turn. Of course in a book written by Solomon it could not be said that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and died upon the cross, but if the Holy Spirit wished to make known something of the personal history of Christ before His coming, how could He have done so in plainer terms?
Quoting Arnot on Pro 8:30-31 :
These three things are set in the order of the everlasting covenant: (1) the Father well pleased with His Beloved, I was daily His delight; (2) the Son delighting in the Fathers presence, rejoicing always before Him; (3) the Son looking with prospective delight to the scene and subjects of His redemptive work, rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.
THE MARRIAGE SUPPER IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Arnot gives the foregoing title to the opening verses of chapter 9, where Wisdom, personifying the Son of God, has now come nigh unto men, having his habitation among them. Here we have the house, the prepared feast, the messengers, the invited guests, and the argument by which the invitation is supported. The positive side of that argument is: Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. The negative is: Forsake the foolish, and live.
The chapter closing exhibits Christs great rival standing in the same wide thoroughfare of the world and bidding for the youth who thronged it. All that is contrary to Christ and dangerous to souls, is gathered up and individualized in the person of an abandoned woman lying in wait for unwary passengers, baiting her hook with sin and dragging her victims down to hell.
QUESTIONS
1. What have we in these chapters?
2. Who really is speaking here?
3. What proves it?
4. Analyze Pro 8:30-31 from the New Testament point of view.
5. What parable of Christ is suggested in chapter 9?
Pro 8:1. Doth not wisdom cry It is a great question what this wisdom is, of which Solomon discourses so largely and profoundly in this chapter. Some understand it of that attribute or perfection of the divine nature which is called wisdom, whereby God perfectly knows all things, and makes known to men what he judges it necessary or expedient for them to know. This is Bishop Patricks opinion, who says, I take wisdom here, as it signifies in other places of this book, and hath been hitherto described; which Solomon now celebrates for her most venerable antiquity, and introduces like a most beautiful person, no less than a queen, or rather some divine being, who, having finished her own praises, concludes with an earnest invitation unto all to become acquainted with her instructions, if they mean to be happy, and to avoid the greatest miseries. Others, however, understand it of the Son of God, who is called the wisdom of God, Luk 11:49. And it cannot fairly be denied that some passages do best agree to the former, and others to the latter opinion. Possibly, says Poole, both may be joined together, and the chapter may be understood of Christ, considered partly in his personal capacity, and partly in regard to his office, which was to impart the mind and will of God to mankind. This he did, 1st, By revealing it to, and writing it upon, the mind of man at his first creation, Joh 1:1-4, &c. 2d, By publishing it unto the patriarchs in the time of the Old Testament, 1Pe 1:11; and 1Pe 3:18-20. 3d, By declaring it from his own mouth, and by his apostles and ministers under the gospel.
Pro 8:1. Doth not Wisdom cry? This woman is the reverse of the harlot, in the preseding chapter. She represents true religion clothed in every form of grace and glory: Christ, the Word and Wisdom of God. See on chap. 3.
Pro 8:3. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city. The gate was the usual place where the elders sat at proper times, and heard complaints. It is probable that the prophets often addressed the people in the area of the gate. Jeremiah delivered his prediction of the invasion of the Assyrians at the horsegate.
But who is this illustrious woman, bearing the appellation of Wisdom? It is in rhetoric a figure called prsopopia, the essential, eternal, and uncreated Wisdom of God personified. This wisdom has also been expounded to be the law, the holy scriptures, which are able to make us wise to salvation. And again, the Messiah, the Christ, the wisdom and power of God, his person and his ministry, designated in the acts of crying and preaching. How sublimely is the true wisdom introduced,teaching the nations, and commanding assent. She opens righteousness and life; she unveils immortality, to reclaim the mind from the vanities of the present world. Her lips speak the truth, her ministry is like a sunbeam, chasing before it the darkness of the present age. She presides in the councils of princes, dictates laws salubrious and wise, and leads nations to glory and honour.
Pro 8:15. Princes decree justice. Hebrews roznim, counsellors, the kings ministers.
Pro 8:16. By me princes rule. Hebrews sherim, rulers, or chiefs of the people.
Pro 8:17. I love them that love me. This matron from heaven casts encouraging regards on lovely youths, shocked at the horrors of vice, and desirous of finding the truth. Those whose judgments are gained by the glory of celestial doctrine, and whose hearts are touched with the drawings of grace; those who seek with contrite hearts, with intensity of mind, and watch and wait more than they who watch for the morning. To these belong the promise, those that seek me early shall find me. Not only those who seek in early years, but those who make religion their first and grand concern. They shall find their darkness and their fears chased away; the cheering rays of the sun of righteousness, the love of God shall be shed abroad in their heart, and their souls shall exult in the joys of remission. Oh what a contrast between the disciples of wisdom, and the victims of the harlot. Glory and virtue attend the one, while the shades and horrors of hell hide and overwhelm the other.
Pro 8:21. I will fill their treasures, with corn and wine, with gold and silver, with every blessing of the covenant. This is the double portion of temporal and spiritual good, everywhere promised and understood as the heritage of the righteous. Psalms 112.
Pro 8:22. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way. Hebrews kanani, he created me, he possessed me. The latter acceptation is here the true reading, as is evident from Gen 4:1. Eve exclaimed, on the birth of Cain, kaniti, I have gotten a man from the Lord. Now Eve did not create, but possessed her son. So is the sense of the new-testament assertions, that Christ is the word, the wisdom, and power of God. He is the only-begotten in the bosom of the Father. His words are, I and my Father are one: as the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father. But the LXX having translated the text, , created me, which is evidently the wrong acceptation, both here and in Sirach 24., Arius contended that if the Father begat the Son, he that was begotten had a beginning of existence; from which it is apparent that there was a time when the Son was not; from which this is a plain consequence, that he derived his existence from nothing;that being a creature, he was liable to change;and that, had it not been for our sakes, Christ had never existed. These are the bold words of Arius, and of the Socinians.
Against these, and all such allegations, it was in vain that Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, affirmed, that no paternity could be added to the Father, and no filiation could be added to the Son. In vain did he allege that the Son was begotten before the womb of the morning, Psa 110:3; that his goings forth were of old from everlasting, Mic 5:2; that he is the brightness of the Fathers glory, and the express image of his person; that he who hath seen the Son, hath seen the Father; and that Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Arius presently had a dozen presbyters and bishops to espouse his cause. The eastern churches were shook to their centre, yet they could not shake the rock on which the church is built, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. The issues were, that nearly a hundred bishops and presbyters assembled in council at Alexandria, and deposed Arius and his adherents. After awhile the emperor Constantine convened three hundred and eighteen bishops and presbyters at Nice, a city on the Asiatic shore, near Constantinople; and all of them, excepting five, drew up and subscribed the Nicene creed, That Christ is God of God, Light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.
Those three hundred and eighteen bishops comprised every thing in the church which was venerable in age, illustrious in wisdom and virtue, and that could hand down to us the christian faith, as once delivered to the saints. They were spiritually the grandchildren of the apostles, and apostolic men. There is neither doubt, nor shadow of doubt, but that the Omoousion faith, that the Son is one substance with the Father, was the faith of the whole primitive church. So are their sweet and most delightful hymns, sung in the church from the beginning, and cited about the year 200 by Clemens of Alexandria.
, The Word perennial, , To ages infinite, . The Light eternal.
Pro 8:23. I was set up from everlasting. Hebrews mai-lam, ab eternitate. Psa 90:2, and Mic 5:2, agree with this. When the word is used of God, or his attributes, it properly designates eternity.
Pro 8:27. When he prepared the heavens, I was there. The words in Psa 102:25 are similar, which an apostle has applied to Christ. Heb 1:10. Joh 1:3.
Pro 8:31. My delights were with the sons of men. He who appeared to the patriarchs was the Christ, the wisdom, the word of God. On this head, the christian fathers are agreed. Read their works, and study their apologies for the christian religion. See extracts, fair and faithful extracts from their writings, in bishop Bulls defence of the faith of the Nicene fathers, as above.
The testimony of heathen writers is in perfect accordance with this faith. Their mythology is built on the traditions, that the gods appeared to their fathers. The temples in China, in India, in Egypt, in Greece, in the Gothic nations, on this head, speak one language.
Pro 8:32. Now therefore hearken unto me. I who made you have a right to teach you. He who sins against me wrongs his own soul. He who hates me loves death.
Pro 8:35. Whoso findeth me findeth life. Length of days is in her right hand: Pro 3:16. But is this all that is here to be understood? If so, many wicked men attain great age. Those commentators who, admitting the divinity of Christ, declare that this chapter is a mere personification of Wisdom, and has no reference to Him, are not entitled to serious refutation. (1) They admit that the Wisdom here personified is divine; therefore the life that flows from it must be divine; that is, it must be spiritual and eternal life. (2) What is here affirmed of wisdom is strictly true of Christ, the Word and the Wisdom of the Father; but it is not true, except in relation to Him. No finding of man, no discoveries of divine wisdom, nor of any other perfection of the Deity, can give life to man, except in Christ Jesus. Our God is a consuming fire. Heb 12:29. (3) Hence the true and only effectual personification of the divine wisdom, is the WISDOM INCARNATE. Whatever perfections of God are personified in scripture, they all relate to and are exemplified in Christ; and that not by any fanciful accommodation, but by direct allusion and application of Him who inspired the scriptures. The scriptures, said the Saviour, testify of me, Joh 5:39; and, to Him give all the prophets witness. Act 10:43. It is sufficiently ridiculous to hear men abusing the fathers for their uniform application of this chapter to Christ; and professing to take high protestant ground, and to stand on the scriptures alone in a matter in which the fathers do but follow the apostles, all of whom saw the scriptures, both of the old and the new testament, to be full of Christ.
Proverbs 8. Wisdom Speaks in her own Person.This chapter forms at once the nucleus and the climax of this section of the book. The series of addresses on practical wisdom is fitly closed by a profounder presentation of wisdom as the moving principle in the ways of God. It reinforces the practical maxims of Pro 8:1-7 with the fundamental principle that the wise man is in harmony with God. Its date probably fixes the date of the whole section (see Introduction, and for a fuller discussion especially Cheyne, Job and Solomon, pp. 156f.). The relation of the conception of Wisdom personified to the Stoic Logos and to Greek philosophy in general cannot be discussed here. (See Wisdom Literature in HDB, and especially the excellent introduction by Holmes to the Book of Wisdom in Charles Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha.) The two main lines of development of this conception in Heb. thought are: (a) the growth of the conception of the Angel of Yahweh, developing into the later Jewish theologoumenon of Metatron, the mediator; (b) the tendency to personify the Word of Yahweh active in creation and in the moral government of the world, developing into the quasi-personal Memra of the Targums, and the Philonian Logos.
Pro 8:1-21. The Place of Wisdom in the Government of the World.
Pro 8:1-3. Proem. Wisdom is not secluded in the chamber of the sage, but cries aloud in the crowded concourse of the mart and highway.
Pro 8:4 f. The class of persons addressedthose who are in need of wisdom, the simple and the fools.
Pro 8:6-9. The nature of the instruction offered. Its essential characteristic is truth and righteousness, Gods own character as seen in His ways (cf. Deu 32:4). There is nothing twisted or crooked in it.
Pro 8:6. excellent things: i.e. princely things. The word is unusual, and found only here in this sense.
Pro 8:10 f. Preciousness of the instruction. In Pro 8:11 the personification breaks down for a moment, and the author speaks of wisdom in the third person, quoting Pro 3:15.
Pro 8:12-16. The right government of the world is due to Wisdom.
Pro 8:12. have . . . dwelling: the Heb. is strange; we should perhaps read create or possess (Targ., Syr.).
Pro 8:17-21. The rewards of those who receive the instruction of Wisdom. Those who seek Wisdom not only find her, but gain with her material prosperity and honour, although she is to be prized for her own sake and not for her rewards.
Pro 8:18. durable riches: lit. ancient riches (mg.). The same idea with the same Heb. word occurs in Isa 23:18 (RVm stately).The LXX has a curious and interesting addition to Pro 8:21 : If I have declared to you the things of the present, I will bear in mind to recount the things of the past. It marks the separation of the two sections of the chapter, and is apparently an exegetical gloss, intended to contrast the present government of the world by Wisdom with its creation in the past.
Pro 8:22-31. The Place of Wisdom in the Creation and Ordering of the Universe.Wisdom is not conceived as eternally coexistent with God, but as formed before Creation to be the instrument of creation. Cf. the Rabbinical doctrine that the Law was created before the world, and the Philonian conception of the Logos as first immanent, and then for creation and in the act of creation emanating from God in a quasi-personal form of existence. In Ecclus. the conception of Wisdom found here is identified with the Torah. The whole passage should be compared with Job 28, For the Christian application to Christ see Col 1:15*.
Pro 8:22 f. Wisdom the first of Gods works.
Pro 8:22 a. Render the Lord formed me as the first (or chief) of His ways.
Pro 8:24-26. Wisdom formed before the world. As in all the OT cosmologies the primeval state of the world is conceived of as a watery chaos. See Cosmogony in HDB.
Pro 8:25. settled: lit. sunk, according to the Semitic idea that the mountains had their bases in the subterranean ocean (cf. Job 26:11*, Psa 18:7, Jon 2:6.)
Pro 8:26. The Heb. is almost unintelligible and probably corrupt. No satisfactory emendation has been offered.
Pro 8:27-29. Wisdom present at the Creation. The Bab. conception of the heavenly ocean above separated from the ocean below by a solid vault is reflected here. In the Bab. mythology the vault is represented by the divided body of the Chaos dragon Tiamat, slain by Marduk (Gen 1:6 f.*).
Pro 8:27. circle: rather vault (cf. Job 22:14).
Pro 8:29. For the idea of a boundary fixed for the ocean by God cf. Gen 1:9 f.; Job 26:10; Job 38:8-11; Psa 104:6-9; Jer 5:22.
Pro 8:30 f. Wisdom the companion of God.
Pro 8:30. a master workman: requires a slight alteration of MT; so also AV, one brought up. AV seems to suit the context better, although the LXX and the Vulg. seem to support RV. For the corresponding term in the active sense cf. Num 11:12. In Wis 7:22 we find Wisdom described as the artificer of all things (see Holmes note).RVm had delight continually suits the context better, and is a justifiable rendering.rejoicing: better sporting (mg.).
Pro 8:32-36. Closing exhortation of Wisdom to the sons of men.
Pro 8:36. Render he that misseth me (mg.) doth violence to himself. To sin in Heb. as in Gr. has the force of to miss the mark. Lifes aim is awry. To miss intentionally that which is the spring of life is moral suicide.
To the writer Pro 8:1-36 provides one of the clearest proofs that the Lord Jesus is the Son of the Father from eternity. It is certainly not the only Scripture that proves this precious and wonderful truth, for all Scripture is united in this matter. However, this paper is written to answer some of the arguments some have advanced in objection to applying Wisdom as symbolising the Lord Jesus.
The New Testament tells us that ‘Christ’ is ‘God’s power and God’s wisdom’ (1Co 1:24 – JND’s. N.Tr.). Is it therefore even remotely possible that a chapter as Pro 8:1-36 that deals so extensively with the subject of wisdom has no connection with Christ whatever?
However, one objection is that wisdom is spoken of as ‘she’ in verses 1-2, so that this cannot refer to Christ personally. There is a beautiful answer to this. Verses 1 to 11 use the female pronouns to deal with the subject of wisdom subjectively, that is, as appealing to the response of individuals. This is the truth of ‘Christ in you.’
But from verse 12 to the end of the chapter, the female pronoun is not used. In fact, the writer in the first 11 verses reports the actions and words of the woman wisdom, but from verse 12 it is not a report, but a Person, calling Himself ‘I Wisdom’ speaking directly. This is not simply subjective, but objective. Thus the emphasis is not on how people are affected, but on truth that is absolutely true no matter how it affects men. All this long address is intended, not as an example for us to follow, but as a statement of marvellous facts to bow our hearts with adoration at the feet of Him who is Wisdom.
Following this great objective presentation, chapter 9 returns to the subjective ‘her’ and ‘she,’ for surely it is most becoming that after the objective has been declared, a subjective response should manifest itself. It is a beautiful result of bowing to the Lord Jesus and to His pure wisdom.
Another objection to applying these verses to the Lord Jesus is that in verses 24 and 25 Wisdom speaks of being ‘brought forth,’ and it is supposed that this must mean that wisdom did not always exist, while Christ always existed. But this view fails to consider verses 22-23, in which Wisdom declares, ‘Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way, before the earth was.’ We cannot therefore consider that being ‘set up’ or being ‘brought forth’ refers to a point of time when this occurred. Just as He was ‘set up from eternity,’ so He was brought forth from eternity. Similarly, the Lord Jesus is called ‘the Only Begotten Son of God’ (Joh 3:18). Some have dared to insist that this implies that Christ was begotten at some point of time, but it is not so. This phrase rather refers to His being eternally begotten of God. Men’s thoughts do not settle this question, but the Word of God does.
Also, if we dare to apply this scripture strictly to the principle of wisdom, and not the Lord Jesus, then are we saying that God acquired wisdom at some point of time? Surely every believer would consider the very thought of this to be thorough nonsense. Just as God’s wisdom is eternal, being one of His eternal attributes, so in fact is His beloved Son eternal, the One who is Wisdom personified.
These verses (12-26) are magnificently beautiful in describing something of the relationship and companionship of Persons, not merely of God’s delight in a principle, or a mere principle delighting in God. Yes, the rejoicing spoken of is on the part of Wisdom (v. 30), just as the Lord Jesus, the Son of the Father, rejoices in the Father’s fellowship; a fellowship and relationship which is eternal.
8:1 Doth not {a} wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?
(a) Solomon declares that man is the cause of his own perdition and that he cannot pretend ignorance, for God calls all men by his word and his works to follow virtue and flee from vice.
13. The function of wisdom ch. 8
Chapter 8 is an apology (defense) of wisdom. The argument of this section develops as follows. Wisdom would be every person’s guide (Pro 8:1-5; cf. Gal 5:18; Gal 5:22-23). She is morality’s partner (Pro 8:6-13), the key to success (Pro 8:14-21), the principle of creation (Pro 8:22-31), and the one essential necessity of life (Pro 8:32-36). Chapter 8 contains the longest sustained personification in the Bible. [Note: Merrill, p. 490.]
Wisdom as guide 8:1-5
By personifying wisdom Solomon was able to illustrate two things about it in these verses, both of which concern the guidance that is available in wisdom (understanding, insight). Wisdom is available everywhere (Pro 8:2-3) and to anyone (Pro 8:5). It does not take a superior intellect to be wise in the biblical sense.
CHAPTER 9
THE FIRST-BORN OF THE CREATOR
“Doth not Wisdom cry?”- Pro 8:1
In the last chapter a dark and revolting picture of Vice was drawn. This chapter contains a lovely and living picture of Wisdom. In this contrast, as we have already seen, Vice can be presented as a vicious woman, because it is unhappily only too easy to find such an incarnation in actual experience: Wisdom, on the other hand, cannot be presented as an actual person, but only as a personification, because there was, as yet, no Incarnation of Wisdom; far from it, Solomon, the wisest of men, the framer of many wise proverbs, had been in practical conduct an incarnation of folly rather than of wisdom, had himself become a proverb for a wise and understanding heart in combination with a dark and vicious life. Yet how could the teacher fail to feel that someday there must be an Incarnate Wisdom, a contrast to the Incarnate Vice, a conqueror and destroyer of it? In describing Wisdom personified, and in following out her sweet and high-souled utterance, the teacher unconsciously to himself becomes a prophet, and presents, as we shalt see, a faint and wavering image of Him who of God was to be made unto men Wisdom, of Him who was actually to live a concrete human life embodying the Divine Wisdom as completely as many poor stained human lives have embodied the undivine folly of vice. The description, then, is an adumbration of something as yet not seen or fully understood; we must be careful not to spoil its meaning by representing it as more, and by attempting to press the details in explanation of the being and the work of Christ. We shall do wisely to look at the whole picture as it formed itself before the eye of the writer, and to abstain from introducing into it colors or shades of our own. Our first task must be to follow the movement of the chapter as carefully as possible. Wisdom, unlike the vicious woman who lurks in the twilight at the corner of the street which contains her lair, stands in the open places; she makes herself as manifest as may be by occupying some elevated position, from which her ringing voice may be heard down the streets and up the cross-ways, and may attract the attention of those who are entering the city gates or the doors of the houses. As her voice is strong and clear, so her words are full and rounded; there is no whispering, no muttering, no dark hint, no subtle incitement to secret pleasures; her tone is breezy and stirring as the dawn; there is something about it which makes one involuntarily think of the open air, and the wide sky, and the great works of God. {Pro 8:1-6} There is the beauty of goodness in all that she says; there are the charming directness and openness of truth; she abhors tortuous and obscure ways; and if some of her sayings seem paradoxes or enigmas, a little difficult to understand, that is the fault of the hearer; to a tortuous mind straight things appear crooked; to the ignorant and uninstructed mind the eternal laws of God appear foolishness; but all that she says is plain to one who understands, and right to those who find knowledge. {Pro 8:7-9} She walks always in a certain and undeviating course-it is the way of righteousness and judgment-and only those who tread the same path can expect to perceive the meaning of what she says, or to appreciate the soundness of all her counsels. {Pro 8:20} And now she proclaims the grounds on which she demands the attention of men, in a noble appeal, which rises to a passionate eloquence and deepens in spiritual significance as it advances. Roughly speaking, this appeal seems to fall into two parts: from verse 10 to verse 21 (Pro 8:10-21) the obvious advantages of obeying her voice are declared, but at verse 22 (Pro 8:22) the discourse reaches a higher level, and she claims obedience because of her essential nature and her eternal place in the universe of created things.
In the first part Wisdom solemnly states her own value, as compared with the valuables which men usually covet-silver, and gold, and precious stones. That she is of more account than these appears from the fact that they are but parts of her gifts. In her train come riches; but they differ from ordinary riches in being durable; her faithful followers obtain substantial wealth, and their treasuries insensibly fill. {Pro 8:8-9} To riches she adds honor, a crown which worldly riches seldom bring, and, what is better still, the honor which she confers is associated with righteousness, while the spurious honor which is commonly rendered to riches, being conferred without any moral implication, is devoid of any moral appreciation. {Pro 8:18} But after all, she herself is her own best reward; the prosperity which accompanies her seems trivial compared with the desirableness of her own person. Her queenly dwelling is prudence, and at her touch all the charmed regions of knowledge and discovery fly open; they who dwell with her and are admitted to share her secrets find the fruit and the increase of the intellectual life incomparably better than fine gold or choice silver. And that gives to her endowments their peculiar completeness is that she requires a moral culture to go hand in hand with mental development; and leading her disciples to hate evil, and to avoid the arrogance and the pride of the intellect, she rescues knowledge from becoming a mere barren accumulation of facts, and keeps it always in contact with the humanities and with life. Indeed, she finds it one great part of her mighty task to instruct the rulers of men, and to fit them for the fulfillment of their high functions. Her queenly prerogative she shares with all her faithful followers. Since Wisdom is the actual arbiter of human life, the wise man is, as the Stoics would have said, a king: nor can any king be recognized or tolerated who is not wise. {Pro 8:10-16}
And all these advantages of wealth and honor, of knowledge, and power, and righteousness, are put within the reach of every one. Wisdom, is no churl in loving: she loves all who love her. She does not seek to withdraw herself from men: rather she chooses the places and the ways in which she can best attract them. Queenly as she is, she condescends to woo them. Her invitations are general, even universal. And therefore if any do not find her, it is because they do not seek her: if any do not share in her rich gifts and graces, it is because they will not take the trouble to claim them. {Pro 8:17}
But now we pass on to the second ground of appeal. Wisdom unveils herself, discloses her origin, shows her heart, stands for a moment on her high celestial throne, that she may make her claims upon the sons of men more irresistible. She was the first creation of God. Before the earth issued out of nothingness she was there. In joyous activity, daily full of delight, she was beside God, an architect, in the forming of the world. She saw the great earth shaped and clothed for the first time in the mantle of its floods, and made musical with the sound of its fountains. She saw the mountains and the hills built up from their foundations. She saw the formation of the dry land, and of the atoms of dust which go to make the ground. {Pro 8:26} She saw the sky spread out as a firm vault to cover the earth; and she saw God when
“in His hand He took the golden compasses, prepared
In Gods eternal store, to circumscribe
This universe and all created things.”
She saw the mighty tides of the ocean restricted to their appointed cisterns, and the firm outlines of the land fixed as their impassable barriers.
And this very Wisdom, who thus presided over the formation of land, and sea, and sky, is she who still sports with Gods fruitful earth-yes, sports, for the great characteristic of Wisdom is her exultant cheerfulness, and it must by no means be supposed that the foolish and the wicked have all the gaiety and mirth as their own. This Wisdom is she who too finds her peculiar delight with the sons of men. {Pro 8:23-31}
Is it not obvious, then, that men, who are her sons, ought to give ear to her counsels? What could establish a stronger claim for attention than this ancient origin, this honorable part in laying the very foundations of the earth, and this special interest in human life from the beginning. Raised to this high level, where we command so wide a prospect, are we not forced to see that it is our duty, our interest, our joy, to come as humble suitors to the gates of Wisdom and there to watch, and wait, and seek until we may obtain admission? Must we not search after her, when in finding her we find life and obtain favor of the Lord? Can we not perceive that to miss her is to miss life, to wrong our own souls-to hate her is to love death? Evidently her eagerness to win us is entirely disinterested; though she delights in us, she could easily dispense with us; on the other hand, though we do not delight in her, though we constantly turn a deaf ear to her, and refuse to walk in her ways, she is indispensable to us.
Such a passage as this gives rise to many reflections, and the longer we meditate upon it the more rich and suggestive it appears. Let us try to follow out some of the thoughts which readily present themselves, and especially such as are suggested by the verses which may be described as a poem of creation.
First of all, here is the noble idea which overturns at a touch all mythological speculations about the origin of things-an idea which is in deep harmony with all the best knowledge of our own time-that there is nothing fortuitous in the creation of the world; the Creator is not a blind Force, but an Intelligent Being whose first creation is wisdom. He is the origin of a Law by which He means to bind Himself; arbitrariness finds no place in His counsels; accident has no part in His works; in Wisdom hath He formed them all. In all heathen conceptions of creation caprice is supreme, law has no place, blind force works in this way or that, either by the compulsion of a Necessity which is stronger than the gods, or by freaks and whims of the gods which would be contemptible even in men. But here is the clear recognition of the principle that Gods Law is a law also to Himself, and that His law is wisdom. He creates the world as an outcome of His own wise and holy design, so that “nothing walks with aimless feet.” It is on this theological conception that the possibility of science depends. Until the universe is recognized as an ordered and intelligible system the ordered and intelligent study of it cannot begin. As long as the arbitrary and fortuitous are supposed to hold sway inquiry is paralyzed at its starting-point.
It may, however, be suggested that the doctrine of Evolution, which scientific men are almost unanimous in accepting, is inconsistent with this idea of Creation. By this doctrine our attention is directed to the apparently disordered collision of forces, and the struggle for existence out of which the order and progress of life are educed, and it is hastily assumed that a Wise Intelligence would not work in this way, but would exhibit more economy of resources, more simplicity and directness of method, and more inevitableness of result. But may we not say that the apparent fortuitousness with which the results are achieved is the clearest evidence of the wise purpose which orders and directs the process? For about the results there can be no question; order, beauty, fitness everywhere prevail; life emerges from the inorganic, thought from life, morality and religion from thought. The more our attention is called to the apparently accidental steps by which these results are reached, the more persuaded must we become that a great and a wise law was at work, that by the side of the Creator, as a master workman, was Wisdom from the beginning. Such a passage as this, then, prepares the way for all science, and furnishes the true conceptions without which science would be sterile. It takes us at a step out of a pagan into a truly religious mode of thinking; it leads us out of the misty regions of superstition to the luminous threshold of the House of Knowledge. It may be said with truth that many scientific facts which are known to us were not known to the writer; and this may raise a prejudice against our book in those minds which can tolerate no thought except that of the present generation, and appreciate no knowledge which is not, as it were, brought up to date; but the fruitful conception is here, here is the right way of regarding the universe, here the preparation of all science.
And now to advance to another idea which is implied in the passage, the idea that in the very conception of the universe human life was contemplated, and regarded with a peculiar delight by the Wisdom of God. The place which Man occupies in creation has been variously estimated in different religious systems and by different religious thinkers. Sometimes he has been regarded as the center of all things, the creature for whom all things exist. Then a reaction has set in, and he has been treated as a very insignificant and possibly transient phenomenon in the order of things. It is characteristic of the Bible that it presents a balanced view of this question, avoiding extremes in both directions. On the one hand, it very clearly recognizes that man is a part of the creation, that he belongs to it because he springs out of it, and rules over it only in so far as he conforms to it; on the other hand, it clearly insists on that relation between man and his Creator which is hinted at here. Man is always implicitly connected with God by some half-divine mediator. The Wisdom of God watches with an unmoved heart the growth of the physical world, but into her contemplation of mankind there enters a peculiar delight. There is that in man which can listen to her appeals, can listen and respond. He is capable of rising to the point of view from which she looks out upon the world, and can ever see himself in the light in which she sees him. In a word, man, with all his insignificance, has a sublime possibility in him, the possibility of becoming like God; in this he stands quite alone among created things; it is this which gives him his pre-eminence. Thus our passage, while it does not for a moment imply that the material universe was made for the sake of man, or that man in himself can claim a superiority over the other creatures of the earth-and so far takes a view which is very popular with scientific men-yet parts company with the philosophy of materialism in claiming for man a place altogether unique, because he has within him the possibility of being linked to God by means of the Wisdom of God.
And now we may notice another implication of the passage. While Wisdom celebrates her high prerogative as the first-born of the Creator and the instrument of the creation, and urges upon men as parts of the creation the observance of the Moral Law, she is implicitly teaching the great truth which men have been so slow to grasp, that the law of practical righteousness is of a piece with the very laws of creation. To put it in another form, the rules of right conduct are really the rules of the universe applied to human life. Laws of nature, as they are called, and laws of morality have their origin in one and the same Being, and are interpreted to us by one and the same Wisdom. It would be well for us all if we could understand how far-reaching this great truth is, and an intelligent study of this passage certainly helps us to understand it. None of us, in our wildest moments, think of pitting ourselves against the laws of nature. We do not murmur against the law of gravitation; we scrupulously conform to it so far as we can, knowing that if we do not it will be the worse for us. When heavy seas are breaking, and the spirit of the winds is let loose, we do not venture on the waves in a small, open boat, or if we do, we accept the consequences without complaint. But when we come to deal with the moral law we entertain some idea that it is elastic and uncertain, that its requirements may be complied with or not at pleasure, and that we may violate its eternal principles without any serious loss or injury. But the truth is, the Law is one. The only difference arises from the fact that while the natural laws, applying to inanimate objects or to creatures which enjoy no freedom of moral life, are necessarily obeyed, the moral rules apply to conscious reasoning creatures, who, possessed of freedom, are able to choose whether they will obey the law or not. Yes, the Law is one, and breaches of the Law are punished inevitably both in the natural and in the moral sphere. This same Wisdom, to which “wickedness is an abomination,” and which therefore exhorts the sons of men to walk in the ways of righteousness, is the great principle which ordered the physical universe and stamped upon it those laws of uniformity and inevitableness which Science delights to record and to illustrate.
But when we notice how the Wisdom who is here speaking is at once the mouthpiece of the laws which underlie the whole creation and of the laws which govern the moral life, it is easy to perceive how this passage becomes a foreshadowing of that wonderful Being who of God is made unto us Wisdom as well as Righteousness. Or, to put it in a slightly different way, we are able to perceive how this passage is a faint and imperfect glimpse into the nature and the work of Him whom in New Testament phraseology we call the Son of God-faint and imperfect, because this Wisdom, although represented as speaking, is still only an abstraction, a personification, and her relation both to God and to man is described in very vague and indefinite language; and yet, though faint and imperfect, very true as far as it goes, for it recognizes with wonderful distinctness the three truths which we have just been considering, truths that have become luminous for us in Christ; it recognizes, firstly, that the world was the creation of Wisdom, of Reason, or, if we may use the New Testament term, of the Word; it recognizes, secondly, that the thought of Man was contained in the very thought of creation, and that man was related in a direct and unique way with the Creator; lastly, it recognizes that goodness lies at the very root of creation, and that therefore natural law when applied to human life is a demand for righteousness.
It is interesting to observe that this glimpse, this adumbration of a great truth, which was only to become quite clear in Christ Jesus our Lord, was advanced a little in clearness and completeness by a book which is not generally considered to be inspired, the so-called book of Wisdom, in a passage which must be quoted. “For she [i.e., Wisdom] is a breath of the power of God, and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty; therefore can no defiled thing fall into her. For she is the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of His goodness. And being but one, she can do all things; and remaining in herself, she maketh all things new; and in all ages entering into holy souls, she maketh them friends of God and prophets. For God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wisdom. For she is more beautiful than the sun, and above all the order of stars; being compared with the light, she is found before it.”
In this passage Wisdom is still a mere impersonation, but the language employed is evidently very near to that which the New Testament applies to Christ. When Philo came to treat of the idea, and wished to describe this intermediate being between God and man, he employed another term; changing the feminine into the masculine, he spoke of it as the Logos. And this expression is adopted by the Fourth Gospel in describing the Eternal Son before He became flesh; the Word of the fuller revelation is the Wisdom of the Proverbs.
How far Christ recognized in this impersonation of our book a description or representation of Himself it is impossible to say. It is certain that on one occasion, in defending His action against the charges of the Pharisees, He declared, “Wisdom is justified of her children,” {Luk 7:35 Mat 11:19} a defense which can be most simply explained by supposing that Wisdom stands for Himself. It is certain, too, that He spoke of His own preexistence, {Joh 8:58} and that the Evangelist assigns to Him in that life before the Incarnation a position not unlike that which is attributed to Wisdom in our passage: “All things were made by Him: and without Him was not anything made that hath been made. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” {Joh 1:3; Joh 1:18} But whether our Lord expressly acknowledged the forecast of Himself which is contained in the passage or not, we cannot fail to mark with joy and wonder how strikingly all that is best in the utterance and in the delineation of Wisdom is produced, concrete, tangible, real, in Him.
He, like Wisdom in the book of Proverbs, appears in the busy haunts of man, appeals to them, invites them with large, open-armed generosity, His voice is to the sons of men. He, like Wisdom, can say with absolute truth, “All the words of My mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing crooked or perverse in them.” He too could speak of His teaching as “plain and right,” and could with simple literalness declare that His words were more precious than gold, while obedience to Him would cause men “to inherit substance.” With what force He might claim that even kings rule by Him we shall only know when the kingdoms of the world have become His in their integrity: but we can see at once how appropriate in His lips is the beautiful saying. “I love them that love Me, and those that seek Me early shall find Me.”
With equal suitability might He the First-born of all creation, the beginning of the creation of God, use the sublime language which follows. And He too could say that His delight was with the sons of men. Yes, how much that means to us! If His delight had not been with us, how could ours ever have been with Him? What a new meaning irradiates every human being when we realize that with him with her, is the delight of the Son of God! What a revelation lies in the fact, a revelation of what man was by his origin, made in the image of God, and of what he may be in the last event, brought to “the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ.” We must not speak as if He delights in us because He has redeemed us; no, He redeemed us because He delighted in us. Is not this a ground on which He may appeal to us, “Now, therefore, my sons hearken unto Me; for blessed are they that keep My ways?” And can we not say to Him with a fervor which the cold abstraction of Wisdom could not possibly excite. “We would watch daily at Thy gates, waiting at the posts of Thy doors. For when we find Thee we find life and obtain favor of the Lord. When we sin against Thee we wrong our own souls: when we hate Thee we love death?”
Yes, in place of this ancient Wisdom which, stately and lovely as she is, remains always a little intangible and unapproachable, Christ is made unto us Wisdom, and He speaks to us the old words with a deeper meaning, and new words which none but He could ever speak.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Virtus post nummos.”
. The Vatican text of the Septuagint omits this verse; it is added in the Alexandrian and Sin.
For God himself for wisdom most is prais’d,
And men to God thereby are nighest rais’d.”
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
and a deceitful mouth do I hate.
when he settled the foundation pillars of the earth;
rejoicing before him continually,
waiting at the posts of my doors!
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary