Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 10:11
The mouth of a righteous [man is] a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
11. violence covereth &c.] See Pro 10:6, note. The former ( a) of the meanings suggested there best suits the parallelism here.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Compare Pro 10:6. Streams of living water (like the fountain of living waters of Jer 2:13; Jer 17:13, and the living water of Joh 4:10), flow from the mouth of the righteous, but that of the wicked is covered, i. e., stopped and put to silence by their own violence.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 10:11
The mouth of the righteous is a well of life.
Streams in the desert
A man who receives, professes, and obeys the truth, is like a well of water; while a man who retains the form of religion, but denies its power, is like a waterless well.
I. The true believer is like a well. The likeness between the natural and the spiritual may be thus traced.
1. In the manner of its flow. It is an overflow. When the well flows for the benefit of others, itself is full. Itself is satisfied, and out of its abundance it flows over to satisfy the wants of others. When a Christian has not much for himself, he has nothing for his neighbours. As the full well must run over, so the satisfied soul must make known in some form the Saviours love.
2. In the effects of its overflow. It refreshes and fertilises the surrounding barrenness. Travellers always take special notice of the effects produced by springs on certain spots in the desert. They make oases. So the neighbourhood feels the effect of the presence of Christians. There cannot be a lively Christian in a godless family, or a lively Church in a godless neighbourhood, without some spiritual commotion among those who are near.
3. As to source whence the well gets its supply. Though the water springs up from beneath, the supply has come down from above. So the Christian says, All my springs are in Thee. The facts in nature are well known. For Christians, all depends on the supply they get from a covenant God. The Spirit poured out reaches by hidden paths the veins of the heart, and fills it–then it can overflow in blessing. This truth is taught as a doctrine (Joh 7:37-39), and manifested in the experience of the disciples (Luk 9:54).
II. A hypocrite is like a well without water. He who has neither the profession nor the power, is not a well at all. He who has the profession but not the power is a well, but there is no water in it. Counterfeit Christians are not simply useless, they are destroyers (compare Jud 1:12 : Clouds without water). Christian professors need to see well to it that they are not deceiving and destroying their neighbours. Their profession constitutes them wells, but what if they are wells without water? When God finds us dry, we have cause to fear lest He visit us in judgment, and cut off from us our own supply. Practical lessons:
1. Some wells are not empty, and yet are as useless as if they were. They are filled with bitter water. Some professing Christians with knowledge and correct principles, nevertheless are of an angry, biting, censorious, malicious, proud, selfish spirit. Let Christians imitate the gentleness as well as the faithfulness of Christ.
2. Some wells are not empty, and yet are as useless as if they were. They are filled, or nearly filled, with stagnant water. The water is stagnant, for none has found its way in for a long time from the secret channels, and none has run out over the brim. Secret, earnest, constant getting of the fulness that is hid in Christ is the only sure way of being blessed yourself and becoming s blessing to others. (Christian Treasury.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life] mekor chaiyim, is the vein of lives; an allusion to the great aorta, which conveys the blood from the heart to every part of the body. The latter clause of this verse is the same with that of Pr 10:6.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A well of life; continually sending forth waters of life, or such good and wholesome words as are very refreshing and useful, both to themselves and others, for the preserving of their natural life, and for the promoting of their spiritual and eternal life. We have the same phrase Psa 36:9. Violence covereth the mouth of the wicked; the same words were used before, Pro 10:6, where see the notes; and they may be understood in the same sense here, and the opposition of this clause to the former may be conceived thus: As the mouth of a good man speaketh those things which are good and beneficial to himself and others, so the mouth of the wicked uttereth violence, or injury, or things injurious to others. which at last fall upon himself. But it is no new thing for the same words and phrases to be taken in different senses in the same chapter, and sometimes in the same verse, as Mat 8:22, and elsewhere; and therefore these words may here be, and are by many, translated and interpreted thus, the mouth of the wicked covereth (i.e. concealeth) violence or mischief, which he plotteth against others. And so here is a double opposition between the righteous and the wicked; first in the contrary effects, the former causeth life, the latter mischief and death; and secondly in the manner of producing them, the righteous doth it by uttering his words, and the wicked doth it by concealing his mind.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. a wellor, “source”of good to himself and others (Joh 7:37;Joh 7:38). On last clause, see onPr 10:6.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The mouth of a righteous [man is] a well of life,…. Like a fountain of living water, continually running and flowing with water, wholesome, reviving, and refreshing; so the righteous man’s mouth, out of the abundance of his heart, overflows with good things, which minister grace to the hearers, and are for the use of edifying; things that are pleasant and profitable, grateful and acceptable, comforting, refreshing, and pleasing, and which tend to the good of the life that now is, and that which is to come;
but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked; so that nothing comes out of it but what is pernicious and hurtful; what savours of rapine and violence; nothing but lying and deceit, cursing and swearing, and such like filthy and corrupt communication; [See comments on Pr 10:6]. The Targum is, “the mouth of the ungodly covers injury”; which is meditated in the heart; so the Vulgate Latin version.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Another proverb, similar to the half of Pro 10:6:
A fountain of life is the mouth of the righteous;
But the mouth of the godless hideth violence.
If we understand 11b wholly as 6b: os improborum obteget violentia , then the meaning of 11a would be, that that which the righteous speaks tends to his own welfare (Fl.). But since the words spoken are the means of communication and of intercourse, one has to think of the water as welling up in one, and flowing forth to another; and the meaning of 11b has to accommodate itself to the preceding half proverb, whereby it cannot be mistaken that (violence), which was 6b subj., bears here, by the contrast, the stamp of the obj.; for the possibility of manifold windings and turnings is a characteristic of the Mashal. In the Psalms and Prophets it is God who is called , Psa 36:10; Jer 2:13; Jer 17:13; the proverbial poetry plants the figure on ethical ground, and understands by it a living power, from which wholesome effects accrue to its possessor, Pro 14:27, and go forth from him to others, Pro 13:14. Thus the mouth of the righteous is here called a fountain of life, because that which he speaks, and as he speaks it, is morally strengthening, intellectually elevating, and inwardly quickening in its effect on the hearers; while, on the contrary, the mouth of the godless covereth wrong ( violentiam ), i.e., conceals with deceitful words the intention, directed not to that which is best, but to the disadvantage and ruin of his neighbours; so that words which in the one case bring to light a ground of life and of love, and make it effectual, in the other case serve for a covering to an immoral, malevolent background.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
11 The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
See here, 1. How industrious a good man is, by communicating his goodness, to do good with it: His mouth, the outlet of his mind, is a well of life; it is a constant spring, whence issues good discourse for the edification of others, like streams that water the ground and make it fruitful, and for their consolation, like streams that quench the thirst of the weary traveller. It is like a well of life, that is pure and clean, not only not poisoned, but not muddled, with any corrupt communication. 2. How industrious a bad man is, by concealing his badness, to do hurt with it: The mouth of the wicked covers violence, disguises the designed mischief with professions of friendship, that it may be carried on the more securely and effectually, as Joab kissed and killed, Judas kissed and betrayed; this is his sin, to which the punishment answers (v. 6): Violence covers the mouth of the wicked; what he got by violence shall by violence be taken from him, Job 5:4; Job 5:5.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Pro. 10:6-7; Pro. 10:11
THE WAY TO PRESENT BLESSEDNESS AND FUTURE FAME
We connect the first and last of these verses, because the latter clause in both is the same.
I. Opposite characters revealed by a great contrast in speech (Pro. 10:11). When a righteous man opens his mouth, it is as if the cover was removed from a pure, clear well of water. He has no evil intentions to conceal: his words are an index to his heart. By them men may read his thoughts with the same ease as they can see what is at the bottom of a clear spring of water. There is medicinal virtue in themthey heal as well as refresh the spirits of men. What a well of life have the words of Christ been for centuries to millions of the human race. But a wicked man cannot let all the thoughts of his heart be laid open to the light of day. His mouth conceals injury (see Critical Notes). He has plans which are not devised for the good of his fellow-creatures, and he must use his words not to reveal, but to hide what is in his mind. And if he lets his tongue loose, and permits his thoughts to flow out into words, they do not bless his hearers, but are like a poisonous stream, carrying moral death wherever they flow.
II. Character yields a present blessing or a present curse. Blessings are upon the head of the righteous, etc. A mans present comfort within himself, and the inheritance of good-will he now receives from his fellow-men, as well as the favour of God, are all dependent upon what he is in his character. The kingdom of heaven is now inherited by him. All the beatitudes uttered by our Lord speak of a present blessedness. Blessed are the poor in spirit, etc. The opposite truth is not expressed, but it is implied. Curses, not blessings, are the present inheritance of the man whose mouth is covered by violence.
III. Character determines the nature of our future fame (Pro. 10:7).
1. The memory of the righteous is blessed, because what they did upon the earth is the means of bringing blessings upon others after they are gone. Many a son has received kindness for the sake of the righteousness of his father. God blesses the children for the fathers sake. I will make him prince all the days of his life for David my servants sake, whom I chose, because he kept my commandments and my statutes (1Ki. 11:34). Fear not, said God to Isaac, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abrahams sake (Gen. 26:24). Cyrus was raised up to deliver Israel for Jacobs sake (Isa. 45:4). Men can but bless the memory of those whose past godliness is the means of bringing blessings upon them in the present.
2. The just mans memory is blessed because he leaves behind him reproductions of his own character. All life will reproduce itself. After a tree has decayed and gone to dust, others will be in full life and vigour that were seedlings of the old tree. Intellectual life is reproductive. The man of mighty genius leaves disciples to carry out his ideas after he is gone. Good men are the parents of good children, or make other men good by their words and lives. They that dwell under his shadow shall return, and they shall grow as the vine (Hos. 14:7). The good must be held in blessed remembrance so long as there are those upon earth who are the reproductions of their character.
3. The memory of some is blessed because they did deeds which never can be reproduced by otherswhich have left a fragrance behind them which can never be repeated. The one act of Abraham, when he prepared to offer up Isaac at Gods command, can never be repeated; but is the one which, above all his other acts of faith, causes him to be held in everlasting remembrance. And so it has been with many of the leaders of the Church in all ages. They have performed acts of godly heroism which we cannot imitate, but of which we reap the reward, and for which we bless their memory. Especially is this true of Him who is pre-eminently the Holy One and the Just, whose glorious name is blessed for ever (Psa. 72:19), because He endured the cross and despised the shame. But the converse of all this is the lot of the wicked. We can but remember them when we are brought face to face with the evil they have left behind them; but we turn from the remembrance as we turn from some offensive putrid object, while the memory of the just is as a sweet savour. Contrast the feelings with which Christendom now regards the emperors of Rome and the fishermen of Galilee.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro. 10:6. Not one, but many blessings are on the head of the righteous: the blessing of peace, the blessing of plenty, the blessing of health, and the blessing of grace, shall be upon them. The precious ointment of the Lords favour or blessing shall so be poured upon their heads as that it shall not here stay, but run down to the rest of the members of their bodies, and enter into their very hearts.Muffet.
Blessings: not simply good things, but good things bestowed by another; not simply good things bestowed by another, but divinely bestowed as sacred benedictions. Blessings are for the righteous exclusively; that is, for no one else. For the head; not the mouth, not the hand; because often without eithers agency. On his head; because unconsciously, and sometimes even when asleep.Miller.
Pro. 10:7. The memory of the just is blessed
(1) because of his winning friendship;
(2) because of his unfeigned piety;
(3) because of his steadfast patience;
(4) because of his noble, public-spirited activity.Ziegler, from Langes Commentary.
And what signifies an empty name? It brings honour to God, and prolongs the influence of his good example who has left it. His good works not only follow him, but live behind him. As Jeroboam made Israel to sin after he was dead, so the good man helps to make others holy whilst he is lying in the grave. Should it so happen that his character is mistaken in the world, or should his name die out among men, it shall yet be had in everlasting remembrance before God; for never shall those names be erased from the Lambs book of life, which were written in it from the foundation of the world.Lawson.
Not what he remembers, but what is remembered of him. He blesses after he is dead. So does the wicked, but, like most other growths in nature, by his decay. Name; that which is known of a man. The name of God is that which may be known of God. The memory of the righteous, viz., of the Church of God, is that which propagates her, and causes her to hand down her strength. Our walk about Zion, our telling her towers, our marking her bulwarks, is for this grand aim, among the rest, that we may tell to the generation following (Psa. 48:12-13).Miller.
I. The memory of the just is blessed, self-evidently so, for the mind blesses it and reverts to it with complacency, mingled with solemnity,returns to it with delight from the sight of the living evil in the world, sometimes even prefers this silent society to the living good. They show in a most evident and pleasing manner the gracious connection which God has constantly maintained with a sinful world. His uninterrupted connection with it by justice and sovereign power has been manifest in mighty evidence: but His saints have been the peculiar illustration of His grace, His mercy, acting on this world. II. It is so, when we consider them as practical illustrations, verifying examples of the exellence of genuine religion; that it is a noble thing in human nature, and makes, and alone makes, that nature noble;that, whatever scoffers may say, or the vain world pretend to disbelieve, here is what has made such men as nothing else, under heaven, could or can. III. Their memory is blessed while we regard them as diminishing to our view the repulsiveness and horror of death. Our Lords dying was the fact that threw out the mightiest agency to this effect. But, in their measure, His faithful disciples have done the same. When we contemplate them as having prepared for it with a calm resolutionas having approached itmultitudes with a calm resignation and fortitude, and very many with an animated exultation;as having passed it, and emerged in brightness beyond its gloomthey seem to shine back through the gloom, and make the shade less thick. IV. It is blessed, also, as combined with the whole progress of God upon the earth,with its living agency throughout every stage. He has never, and nowhere, had a visible cause in the world, without putting men in trust with it. Think of what men have been employed and empowered to do in the propagation of truth, in the incessant warfare against evil, in the exemplification of all the virtues by which he could be honoured.John Foster.
Pro. 10:11. A Church is but a body of righteous men. What would the world do without the Church? The influences of a Church, and that a land is ruined without a Church, and that one generation hands on the worship of God to another, all are illustrations on a grand scale of how the mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life. A good man will constantly be doing good to others. But wrong covers the mouth of the wicked, so that he can give no blessing; so keeps him from any possible usefulness, that he cannot utter good, or make his mouth, as the righteous can, a fountain of life to all about him.Miller.
In a hot summers day I was sailing with a friend in a tiny boat on a miniature lake, enclosed like a cup within a circle of steep, bare Scottish hills. On the shoulders of the brown, sun-burnt mountain, and full in sight, was a well, with a crystal stream trickling over its lip, and making its way down towards the lake. Around the wells mouth, and along the course of the rivulet, a belt of green stood out in strong contrast with the iron surface of the rock all around. What do you make of that? said my friend, who had both an open eye to read the book of Nature and a heart all aglow with its lessons of love. We soon agreed as to what should be made of it. It did not need us to make it into anything. There it was, a legend clearly printed by the finger of God on the side of these silent hills, teaching the passer-by how needful a good man is, and how useful he may be in a desert world. The Lord looks down, and men look up, expecting to see a fringe of living green around the lip of a Christians life-course.Arnot.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(11) Violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.If these words are to be taken as in Pro. 10:6, then the first line must mean that the righteous man speaks to his own profit. But perhaps it will be better here to interpret the second line in the sense of the mouth of the godless hideth violence, i.e., it conceals under deceitful words the mischief intended for others. With God is the well of life (Psa. 36:9; Rev. 22:17); and in like manner the mouth of the righteous brings comfort and refreshment to the weary and heavy laden.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. A well of life Comp, Pro 13:14; Pro 18:4. A fountain continually sending forth refreshing and wholesome speech. But violence, etc. This is the same as the latter clause of Pro 10:6, which see.
Covereth Perhaps the meaning of the word here is over-spreads, spreads abroad, or covers over, as the waters do the sea, in which the idea of abundance exists. The verb is in the intensive form. If, with some, we take pi, “mouth,” as the nominative, we can make out the antithesis; but the mouth of the wicked covers over with (spreads abroad) violence, injury; that is, does great injury; in opposition to the good which is done by the mouth of the righteous. On first clause compare Psa 37:30; Eph 4:29; Ecc 10:12; Mat 12:34; Jas 3:5-6.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 11. The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
The Righteous and the Wicked, Etc.
Pro 10:11-32
This has been proved in all lands and in all ages. The righteous man sets his face towards the kingdom of life, and whatever has in it true life he claims for companionship and instruction. We know the good man by his love of life; life lives in the light; life indeed itself is light: in God there is no death, and in God’s righteousness nothing is to be found of decay. The righteous man always speaks living words, whether they are words of justice, words of condemnation, or words of criticism; he never speaks merely for the sake of destroying, or for the sake of displaying his power; his continual object is to vivify, to refresh, to quicken into larger existence, and to bless with all the inspiration and comfort of hope those whose supreme purpose is to be good and to do good. The mouth of the wicked man is as the mouth of a volcano. When the wicked man speaks he utters curses or criticisms that are charged with censure; his tone itself is full of bitterness, and as for his words they are drawn swords. Happily, his violence is such that it defeats itself. In all condemnation there comes a point when the object of it is pitied rather than reprobated. In the violence of the wicked man there is no measure; it is simple exaggeration; it is injustice expressed with fury. There are wicked uses of emphasis, especially in the case where bad men attempt to prove themselves to be earnest simply because they speak vociferously and with enforced and unnatural emphasis. The oath of a bad man is but an instance of violence. It is wanting wholly in the dignity and calmness of assured life: it is a spasm, a paroxysm, an ebullition, as wanting in nobleness as it is wanting in reason. When a righteous man opens his mouth the world has a right to expect that words of wisdom will be spoken. Character justifies that expectation. Could the mouth of a righteous man be other than a well of life then all the comfort of social intercourse would be destroyed. Though we know not the precise words which a righteous man may utter upon any occasion, yet we are sure from his character that when he does speak his words will be seasoned with salt, and in them there will be the savour of a true, because rational, piety.
“Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins” ( Pro 10:12 ).
Love is not a New Testament virtue or grace, nor is it left for the New Testament to praise it in high strains of music. From the beginning love has been as an angel in the world, gladdening men by its brightness, soothing men by its persuasiveness, and luring souls with infinite gentleness towards all that is true and beautiful. Hatred can only live in multiplying strife; its conception of human life is so poor that it glories in tumults and uproars, being utterly unable to appreciate the importance and the value of peace. We may know whether we are inspired by the spirit of hatred by the preference we have for strife or unity. Where we are conscious of loving controversy, delighting in mutual hostility, and deepening the aversions of men one to another, we may be sure that the devil has taken full possession of the temple of our heart, and that all that is divine and heavenly has been cast out. Love takes the largest view of life; it does not vex itself with temporary details, with transient aberrations; it looks down into the very core and substance of the soul, and, knowing that the heart is true in its supreme desires, it covers many flaws and specks, yea, even faults and sins, in the hope that concealment may destroy their influence and their very existence. There is a covering up which is a vain concealment, a merely deceitful trick: no such covering up is meant here; this is rather the covering up with which God covers the iniquities of the pardoned man, the sins of him who has confessed all his guilt, and desired an exercise of the divine mercy. Love is not mere sentiment; an easy-going action of the mind, too self-complacent and self-indulgent to enter with energy into any moral inquiry. The love which is commended in Scripture is an ardent love keen, critical, sagacious, far-sighted, not imagining that things are destroyed because they are concealed; it is the love of God which at all costs must expel sin from the universe, and set up the kingdom of God amongst men. No Christian can yield to the spirit of hatred. When he feels that that spirit is getting the upper hand of him he betakes himself to secret intercourse with God and fights the awful battle at the Cross. For the time being he ceases all public profession, withdraws from everything like ostentatious show of interest in divine things, and conducts the tremendous controversy within the shadow of the Cross of Christ.
“In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found: but a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding” ( Pro 10:13 ).
In no case will the wise man utter one word of commendation for the encouragement of wickedness or folly. With a genius marked by its supreme inventiveness, he never devises an excuse for the bad man. Not one of the bad man’s sins will he cover up with the robe of charity, for he is talking about men who are utterly unworthy of such protection: they are bad at the core, bad at the root, bad in and out, altogether corrupt and God-forsaken. The rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding, and yet the rod will do him no good. We learn in other parts of this book that if a fool be brayed in a mortar his folly will not depart from him. What wonder if after being beaten with the rod he is still void of understanding? No outward appeal can create an inward capacity. The rod itself can only be useful where there is something within that can be quickened into beneficent activity. Yet the rod must not be spared from the back of him that is void of understanding, lest some men should take encouragement from his exemption to go and repeat his wickedness. Society is continually thrashing the man who is void of understanding: the chastisement may not be inflicted with a rod as that term is usually understood; but it comes in the form of neglect, or disdain, or contempt, or rejection, or scornful laughter. The man void of understanding is never admitted to the innermost home; he is made to point a jest; he is treated with the contempt which is due to men who have nothing to lose. Void of understanding! to this degradation men may come! Wisdom may withdraw, understanding may decline to conduct its ministry any further, all that is beautiful may shrink back ashamed, and the man may be left little better than a ghastly skeleton. What is life without understanding? What is human intercourse without the inspiration of wisdom? We are not told that a man must have wealth in order to have understanding; on the contrary, we are informed that wisdom may dwell with him who has nothing of this world’s goods, and that the poorest house may be the very sanctuary of God. God rebukes wisdom when it becomes conceit, and he looks down upon understanding when it forgets its indebtedness for its very life to the inspiration of heaven. There is a wisdom that is unwise; there is an understanding that is pitifully destitute of sagacity. Not many wise are called into the kingdom of heaven, not because they are wise, but because their wisdom ministers to their conceit, and their understanding is paraded as a property of their own creation and maintenance. True wisdom is true humility. It knows that it knows nothing. It falls down before God, and asks for the wisdom which cometh from above, which by the very heavenliness of its descent forbids all self-inflation and self-idolatry.
“Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction” ( Pro 10:14 ).
So the wise man has always the advantage. The fool always goes to the bottom, and is ultimately turned out of society with a laugh of disdain. Wise men continually add to their knowledge. Every wise man is further on to-day than he was yesterday. Oftentimes knowledge comes by self-correction, for wise men are not ashamed to say that they have made mistakes, and that they desire to correct them. To know ourselves mistaken is really to be on the high road to true wisdom. Who can expect to be altogether wise? or to come to an estate which glories in personal infallibility? The wise man shows his wisdom in remembering that what has to be conquered is infinitely more than that which has been already achieved. The wisest men are the most modest men. They are as sensible of their deficiencies as they are of their acquirements; yea, more so, for wise men think that nothing has been acquired whilst anything remains to be accomplished. The wise man keeps abreast with all new literature, all new science, all new discovery; not that he necessarily receives it just as it comes to him, but he lays hold of it that he may examine it with patient care, with a heart prepared to receive whatever is proved to be divine and useful. The mouth of the foolish is full of wind; there is no tone of music in it; every word the foolish man utters brings him nearer and nearer to his destruction. The fool is always running down hill, and at the foot of it he will perceive an abyss into which he must fall without any lament on the part of those who witness his overthrow. The foolish man builds his house upon the sand. The foolish man is deceived by nearness and by bulk. The foolish man insists upon having his heaven in his hand here and now, and upon spending it as he goes. He has no future, simply because he has no past, and that again simply because he has no heart.
“The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty” ( Pro 10:15 ).
This is taking a limited view of social situations. It is the rich man himself who says that his wealth is his strong city: he supposes he can buy everything, and therefore possess everything, not knowing that mere money can never constitute the truest proprietorship. Money buys transient rights; money buys the land, but it can never buy the landscape. He holds the title deeds who really and truly loves the estate. The destruction of the poor is in very deed their poverty, because they are unable to avail themselves of opportunities which come and go: they see where they could enter in and be strong, but they have not the golden key which opens the door. In many instances they are contemned simply because they are poor, so that their counsel is not sought, and they have no chance of proving their wisdom. Every one expects the poor man to be silent; he would seem to have no right to speak; and his silence is mistaken not for modesty but for incapacity. Pitiable indeed is the sight of any man who owes all his influence simply to his money; to know that if he were divested of his property there is no one who listens to him would permit him to speak any more. A sad thing indeed when a man’s furniture is greater than himself; when the house is greater than the tenant, where the outward figure and sign but represent in enlarged irony the emptiness of the soul within. Yet the poor man may wait for his opportunity, for it is sure to come if he is truly wise. It will come suddenly, unexpectedly, and if he be prepared for the crisis it will mark a turning point in his life. The great thing to be guarded against is the despair which naturally follows extreme destitution. What wonder if men who have a continual battle to live should sometimes be inclined to give up the strife, saying that it is too hard for their waning strength? Jesus Christ never contemned the poor; he said, “The poor have the gospel preached to them;” in many instances he rejected the proud rich, but in no case did he ever repel the humble poor. Still it is to be remembered that a man is not necessarily wise simply because he is destroyed by poverty. The soul is not pious simply because the body is naked. Character is altogether independent of circumstances. So let us beware of that loose indiscrimination which regards all rich men as bad and all poor men as good. There are rich men who are poor in spirit, and there are poor men who are proud and intolerable in their vanity.
“The labour of the righteous tendeth to life: the fruit of the wicked to sin. He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth” ( Pro 10:16-17 ).
The labour of the righteous is indeed life as it proceeds; it has not to wait for life at the other end of the process; every righteous deed brings its own instant heaven, and its own sweet complacency, its own ample reward. As with the righteous, so with the wicked. Character is destiny. Whilst the wicked man accomplishes his wicked purposes he already enters upon his lot in perdition. His sleep is but troubled repose; his heart loses everything that tends towards the light and that gives promise of true and fruitful development. The wicked man grows in sin. We cannot stand still in iniquity, saying, We have taken our degree, and therefore need not add to our knowledge. Having begun to sin, it would seem as if we were compelled to advance, or to turn right round in the strength of God. To stand still in sin is impossible. The wicked man should lay this lesson to heart, because although it may not be obvious to him that he is worse to-day than he was ten years ago, yet the great law of decay proceeds, and he will find, however much the outside may be as it was long ago, the inward nature has been corrupted and almost totally destroyed. To grow in life, what a heaven is that! Jesus Christ said he came to give life, and to give it more abundantly; to give it wave upon wave, and billow upon billow, until it should utterly drive out of the soul every remnant and shadow of death. To know whether we are in the way of life we must inquire whether we are keeping instruction, or whether we are yielding ourselves up to our own will, and allowing passion to dominate the soul. If we are prepared to accept reproof, we may be sure that the spirit of true wisdom is still within us. He who accepts reproof acknowledges his mistakes, and repents of his errors, and resolves never to repeat them. Passion can do nothing for a man but agitate and ultimately ruin him. Instruction alone is safety, is dignity, is completeness. Reprove a wise man, and he will become wiser, for he loves the reproof which brings him nearer to the altar of truth. Stubborn men can never grow in true wisdom; they are self-contented, they are self-complete, they boast of their obstinacy, and hardening their neck to all reproof they come to sudden calamity and final obliteration. Thus the appeal comes to us, by riddle, and prophecy, and psalm, and pious exhortation; by example and warning; by all that is truest in experience and most thoroughly ascertained in history; that if we would be wise we must accept instruction from above, and we have only to consult our own souls, and to follow our own desires, and to exclude the light of heaven, in order to plunge into the infinite abysses. Who will be wise? Who will refuse reproof? Who will take up his staff, and pursue a journey to the city of life? Who will run madly forth to seek the city of destruction? These are questions which every man must answer for himself. They cannot be answered sentimentally or temporarily; they must be so answered as to give tone to life, purpose to activity, inward and abiding motive to all the energy and exertions of life.
“The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it” ( Pro 10:22 ).
The word “blessing” and the word “rich” are each to be considered in their uniqueness, and not in the general sense attributed to such words by lexicographers. Blessing may come variously, even through the rod of chastisement, through the furnace of discipline, through the wilderness of pilgrimage: it is not the less a blessing because it disguises itself under circumstances of a distressing character. “Rich” does not always mean wealth, or gold, or estates, things that can be numbered and valued and exchanged in the marketplace. The poor are said to be rich in faith. He is rich who has not many necessities. Contentment always means true riches. The man who is blessed of God is rich in satisfactions of a spiritual kind rich in wisdom, rich in hope, rich in gratitude: so rich that he never can be patronised, or bribed, or allured from highways of righteousness in order that he may secure to himself some temporary advantage. On the other hand, we may take “blessing” and “rich” as words that are to be used! in their most ordinary significance. The sunshine is a blessing for the good man, because it means so much more than is visible to the eye or palpable to the touch: it is the open gate of heaven; it is the pledge of a light infinitely brighter than itself; it is a smile accommodated to human weakness. Sometimes, too, the Lord invests his people with wealth of a material kind, constituting them his trustees, knowing that they will act as faithful stewards, and minister their bounty to the weak and the poor and the helpless, according to ever-varying human necessity. No sorrow is added with it, to show that the wealth has not been honestly obtained; it is not stolen wealth; it is not wealth secured at the disadvantage of others; the Christian does not live upon the sorrows of mankind. He who makes money by illegitimate means, or by involving others in penury and distress, will find that in all he has there is a tormenting sting: conscience will not let him sleep; memory will trouble him with visions of evil which has been done by his own hand, and will haunt him night and day with the fear of just retribution. Whatever sorrow is in our life is not of the Lord’s sending, unless it be in some disciplinary aspect; then it is sorrow intended to work out some larger joy. There is a godly sorrow, which worketh repentance. There is a selfish sorrow, which torments those who feel it with grief upon grief.
“It is as sport to a fool to do mischief: but a man of understanding hath wisdom” ( Pro 10:23 ).
Everything depends upon our view of the universe as to what is regarded as mischief. If we are living in a universe whose end is harmony, and whose entire construction points to that end, then even an idle word may be an offence to the spirit of order, which is the spirit of music. The fool seeks only momentary titillation or delight for himself; it is a pleasure to him to see things thrown down, to draw a brush across the finest work of art, to puncture fair flowers with rough steel, to torture animal life so as to extort cry, or excite anger, or lead to some manner of collision as between animal and animal which shall give the foolish observer a fool’s pleasure. Nothing is so easily done as mischief. It is emphatically a fool’s occupation. The fool does not scruple to do mischief to reputation, to the peace of mind, to the prosperity and comfort of his fellow-men. It is not difficult for him to propagate false reports, to ask injurious questions, to suggest imaginary hindrances to confidence and promotion. Being detected in his folly, he says he was in sport; he meant no mischief by it; he thought he would create an opportunity for mutual laughter: he does not see that every action has a meaning, and that the wise man looks towards issues and results before committing himself to processes. A mischievous word once spoken can never be withdrawn except in a merely technical sense; it has gone forth and will continue to do mischief to the end of life. The man of understanding is set in opposition to the character described as a fool; he has wisdom, which is more than knowledge; he calculates, balances, adapts, and arranges, and in short his whole life is a construction well founded, well shaped, and gathering itself up into all that is lovely and secure in home and church and altar. The man of understanding may have less temporary excitement than the fool has: sometimes indeed he may seem to be slow, solemn, lifeless, taking little or no interest in the bubbles that are sparkling around him, and in the rockets that are hissing and spluttering in the night whose silence they offend. His riches are within. His soul is at peace. He is a continual worshipper, who, praying without ceasing, holds large and profitable commerce with heaven, and in his very worship he grows in intellectual wisdom. There is no fallacy greater than that because a man is spiritually minded he cannot be intellectually energetic. The contrary proposition would more nearly approach the truth.
“The fear of the Lord prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened” ( Pro 10:27 ).
In no merely literal sense is this to be taken; otherwise we should be at a loss to account for the death of children, and for the death of those who in early life are taken away from usefulness, whilst wicked men are spared many years and die in a remote old age. We must take such words ideally, remembering that ideality is often the true reality. In the Old Testament length of days is set down as equivalent to what is known in the New Testament as immortality. Length of days is a promise made to obedience, to the honour of father and mother, and to the true worship of God. The Lord says he will multiply the days of those who love him, and though that is not fulfilled in the letter it is more than fulfilled in the spirit. Days are not to be numbered always. They are to be measured and weighed. A day to the wise man is more than a day to the fool. The wise man makes the most of his time; every moment is a jewel, every hour is a crown, every day is an opportunity for securing blessings larger than can be contained within the limits of time. The fear of the Lord is true health. That may be regarded as the real meaning of the proposition. A man cannot truly fear God, and neglect himself, neglect his health, neglect all those minor considerations which are too little valued in estimating the whole sphere and purpose of lite. Again and again the foolish sentiment is reproved which is to the effect that religion consists wholly in vocal exercise, in sighings and protestations and sentiments; whereas it is in reality the severest of discipline, causing everything to be cleared out of the way that hinders upward and continuous progress. The years of the wicked are shortened, because there is nothing in them; though their number be many their length is short; they come and go without improvement, and the wicked man is no wiser at the end than he was at the beginning. He is living for the next speculation, the next excitement, the next uncertain and tempting chance; he spends his years in running after bubbles which glitter in the air, and when he grasps them he finds that he has seized the prize of nothingness.
“The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish” ( Pro 10:28 ).
We must distinguish between hope and expectation. The righteous man lives by hope, and his hope is already a realisation of the soul. In the mere letter his hope may not have come to pass, but it brings with it the deep and serene assurance which no merely superficial circumstances can agitate or destroy. He knows that though sorrow may endure for a night joy will come in the morning. If righteousness could be dissociated from gladness a severe blow would be dealt at the claims of morality. To be right is to be happy. To be building on the true foundation is to be building in the right direction, and with the assured confidence that God himself will dwell in the house. The expectation of the wicked is mere nightmare; it is in very deed a castle in the air, without foundation, without roof, without walls an airy nothing, existing only in the foolish brain of the foolish dreamer. The wicked man is devoid of everything that is solid, enduring, permanent; his, as we have just said, is a life of chance, and risk, and ambition, always ending in disappointment and mortification. If the wicked man could truly succeed the whole argument for righteousness would be overturned. The wicked man succeeds only partially, temporarily, in a very transient and unsatisfactory sense. In the very act of pulling down his barns to build greater he is called away to face the Judge whose existence he has denied, or whose claims he has disallowed. The only man who can live for ever in the sunlight of divine favour is the man who is righteous in motive, in soul, in purpose, and no man can be thus righteous who is not living in closest sympathy with the Son of God, and who is not daily inspired by God the Holy Ghost.
“The way of the Lord is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity. The righteous shall never be removed: but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth. The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom: but the froward tongue shall be cut out. The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable: but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness” ( Pro 10:29-32 ).
The contrast continues to be between the righteous and the wicked. As we have seen from the beginning, not a word of commendation or hope is extended to those who are out of sympathy with truth and love. The tongue of the froward may be glib, but never eloquent, in the sense of setting truth to music, and uttering the law with persuasiveness and consistency. The froward tongue shall be cut out, for it never did any good, nor can it ever be used to the instruction of the world. On the other hand, the lips of the righteous are a fountain of living water, knowing what is acceptable, and issuing only such words as can lift the life to a higher level, and confer benedictions upon the heart of man. The righteous and the wicked are absolutely distinctive as to their position, the righteous shall never be removed, but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth: it is of infinite consequence to note that permanence is associated with righteousness, and that the triumphing of the wicked is but for a moment. Time tries all things. As human experience deepens men are able to test more critically and accurately all the elements which are offered to them for their moral satisfaction. Wickedness may come with a great flourish of trumpets, and with great offers of decoration and promotion, but all the offers are but so much wind, passing by and leaving no impression behind, and the oath of the wicked man is but a remembered lie. The Lord is on the side of the righteous man, and has promised to give strength to the upright. If there is any truth whatever in this promise (and all history attests its truthfulness), then there is equal truth in what follows namely, that destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity. They themselves destroy everything, therefore they themselves shall be destroyed. They shall commit suicide with weapons of their own manufacture; they shall be hanged upon scaffolds which they themselves have erected. Were all this merely poetry it might open the way to a great deal of excited discussion; it is not poetry, however, but history which we ourselves can test, and, having tested it from year to year through a long lifetime, the venerable reader is enabled to say, This is in very deed the word of God, and he alone is wise who believes and applies it.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Pro 10:11 The mouth of a righteous [man is] a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
Ver. 11. The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life. ] Vena vitae os iusti. A fountain runs after it hath run, so doth a good man’s mouth incessantly utter the “words of truth and soberness,” Act 25:26 more perennis aquae. See the reason hereof: Psa 37:30-31 the “law of his God is in his heart,” that “law of his mind,” Rom 7:23 that counterpane of the written law, Heb 8:10 that “good treasure” Mat 12:35 that is daily drawn out, and yet not diminished. Salienti aquarum fonti undas si tollas, nec exhauritur, nec extenuatur, sed dulcesit. Take water from a well, it loses nothing, but becomes better and sweeter.
But violence covereth.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
mouth. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause), App-6, for what is spoken by it.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 10:11
Pro 10:11
“The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life; But violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.”
The RSV renders the second clause here, “The mouth of the wicked conceals violence.”
Pro 10:11. The blessings brought by the mouth of the righteous is set in contrast to the sorrow and destruction brought by the wicked in Pro 10:10. Psa 37:30 also speaks of the mouth of the righteous. People are helped by what good people say. This verse ends the same as Pro 10:6.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
mouth of a: Pro 10:20, Pro 10:21, Pro 10:32, Pro 13:14, Pro 15:7, Pro 16:22-24, Pro 18:4, Pro 20:15, Psa 37:30, Psa 37:31, Eph 4:29
but: Pro 10:6, Psa 107:42, Ecc 10:12-14, Mat 12:34-37, Jam 3:5-8
Reciprocal: Gen 9:20 – an husbandman 1Ki 12:13 – answered Psa 140:9 – let the mischief Pro 10:13 – the lips Pro 10:31 – mouth Pro 13:2 – the soul Joh 7:38 – out
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 10:11. The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life Continually sending forth waters of life, or such words as are refreshing and useful, both to himself and others, both for the preserving of natural life, the promoting of spiritual, and ensuring of eternal life; but violence, &c. See on Pro 10:6. As the mouth of a good man speaketh those things which are good and beneficial to himself and others, so the mouth of a wicked man uttereth violence, or injury, or things injurious to others, which at last fall upon himself.