Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 16:1
The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, [is] from the LORD.
1. The preparations &c.] Rather:
To man belong the preparations (or plans) of the heart;
But from Jehovah is the answer of the tongue.
This cannot mean that wise thoughts are human, but wise words divine, that man unaided can plan well, but only by God’s help can speak well; but rather that after man has done his utmost in planning, his wisest plans may come to nought in the comparatively easy act of giving utterance to them with a view to their accomplishment, unless Jehovah guides his tongue. And the implied moral of the proverb is, If you cannot do the less without God, do not attempt to do the greater without Him; “In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths,” Pro 3:5-6. Comp. Pro 16:9 of this chapter.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The proverbs in Pro 16:1-7 have, more than any other group, an especially religious character impressed upon them. The name of Yahweh as Giver, Guide, Ruler, or Judge, meets us in each of them.
Pro 16:1
Better, The plans of the heart belong to man, but the utterance of the tongue is from Yahweh. Thoughts come and go, as it were, spontaneously; but true, well ordered speech is the gift of God. Compare Pro 16:9.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 16:1
The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord.
Heart-culture
We must allow no habits of mind to grow upon us which shall unfit us for making the best opportunities of life when they come. We have power in ourselves, by the grace of God, to quicken the perception which shall see the opportunity when it comes, and upon ourselves rests the responsibility of keeping the resolution and the will in hand, so as to grasp the opportunity while it is within our reach. Perception is to a great degree a matter of education. The faculty of observation is improved in a child by its parent or teacher. Great study elicits from the student in riper years a marvellous quickness and acuteness in observing. Illustrate cultured power of observation in the painter, forester, or naturalist. Same is true in the spiritual life. If your habitual practice be to refer all things to God, that devotion, that practice will give you a presence of mind in the face of every accident. A sudden sorrow may come, but you will not lose your presence of mind and readiness and accuracy of perception. Conversions that appear to be sudden, may not be so sudden as they seem to be; there may have been foregoing preparations, especially the habit of the previous life to refer all things to God with devotion. A man who has made himself unspiritual has dulled his sense of perception, and the man who has known the will of God and done it not, loses the power to rise up and follow Christ. See some ways in which the preparation of our own heart in former years makes us ready or unready to use the opportunities which God offers us. Take a mans discipline of temper, which touches a mans character very much indeed. To such a man a time of trial, disappointment, failure, comes. God thus affords the man an opportunity for the greatest and best of all the graces that can adorn humanity. It is an opportunity for true humility. The check will be a blessing to him if he has previously prepared himself by self-discipline and heart-culture. (Canon Furse.)
Human speech Divinely controlled
The sentiment, according to the A.V., is this–that it belongs to God to furnish the heart with all wisdom and grace, by which it is prepared to dictate to the tongue the utterance of whatever is truly good and profitable. Literally, the words are, To man the orderings of the heart; but from Jehovah is the answer of the tongue. The meaning appears to be, that whatever thoughts and purposes are in a mans mind–whatever sentiments it may be his intention to utter, if they are such as are likely to have any influence, or to produce effects of any consequence–they are all under supreme control. We have an exemplification of the fact in the case of Balaam. The preparation of his mind and heart was his own. He left his country, on the invitation of Balak, with a certain purpose; designing to utter what was in harmony with his love of the wages of unrighteousness. But the Lord turned the curse into a blessing. He made the infatuated false prophet to feel his dependence; so that, bent as his heart was to utter one thing, his tongue was constrained to utter another. Thus it often is, in ways for which the speakers and agents themselves cannot at the time account. One of these ways is, that by imperative, unanticipated circumstances, men are brought to say the very contrary of what they intended. Something changes in a moment the current of their thoughts and the tenor of their words. In every case there is complete Divine control. A man may revolve in his mind or heart thoughts without number, but he cannot so much as lisp or whisper one of them without God. (Ralph Wardlaw, D.D.)
Man proposes, God disposes
Taking the words as they stand before us, they give the idea that all goodness in man is from God.
1. The goodness in the heart is from Him. The preparations of the heart in man. The margin reads disposings. All the right disposings of the heart toward the real, the holy, and the Divine, are from the Lord. How does He dispose the heart to goodness? Not arbitrarily, not miraculously, not in any way that interferes with the free agency of man. He has avenues to the human heart of which we know nothing.
(1) That He is the author of all goodness in the soul.
(2) That we are bound to labour after this goodness.
2. Taking the words of the text as in our version, they teach that goodness in language is from God. And the answer of the tongue. The language is but the expression of the heart. But the words as they stand are not true to the original. A literal translation would be this: To man the orderings of the heart, but from Jehovah the answer of the tongue. Man proposes, God disposes.
I. This is an undoubted fact. A fact sustained–
1. By the character of God. All the plans formed in the human heart must necessarily be under the control of Him who is all-wise, and all-powerful. They cannot exist without His knowledge, they cannot advance without His permission, a fact sustained–
2. By the history of men. Take for examples the purposes of Josephs brethren, of Pharaoh in relation to Moses; of the Jews in relation to Christ, etc. A fact sustained–
3. By our own experience. Who has not found the schemes of his own heart taking a direction never contemplated by the author?
II. This is a momentous fact–
1. In its bearing on the enemies of God. Sinner, your most cherished schemes, whatever they may be, sensual, avaricious, infidel, are under the control of Him against whom you rebel; He will work them for your confusion, and His own glory. It is momentous–
2. In its bearing on the friends of God. It is all-encouraging to them. He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him (Psa 76:10). Trust in Him. (Homilist.)
A prepared heart
There are some of you who, at some time or other, made a great effort to be religious, and to prepare your own heart to feel, to pray, to be holy, to be ready to die. You strove very hard. Did you succeed? or was it a complete failure? Lay it down as a foundation-principle, the great axiom of religion–you can never prepare your own heart. No prayer, no effort, no strength of character, no system of theology, no quantity of good works will do it. We must always be putting back our heart into our Makers hands with such a prayer as this: Lord take my heart–for I cannot give it; and keep it for Thyself–for I cannot keep it for Thee.
1. God will carry on the preparation of the heart by discipline. It is all drill from first to last. Life is education. As soon as God has special purposes of mercy to any soul, and takes it in hand, discipline begins.
2. There is great preparation in Gods Word. We almost imperceptibly take the mind of the author. We get an intuition into the will of God.
3. Gods great instrument–if that be an instrument which is Himself–is the Holy Ghost.
4. But there is another, and, if possible, still higher stage in the great preliminary–union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Real, sensible, living union. Now, it is a great and very pleasing thought to know that this fourfold preparation of the heart is always going on. Now all that you have to do is to let God work, and He will work. (J. Vaughan, M A.)
The preparation of the heart the Lords work
The word preparations is a military term, signifying the marshalling of an army. The doctrine here is, that all our fitness for duty, and all our assistance in it, is from the Lord.
I. How doth God prepare the heart for duty? Preparation is twofold–that which divines call habitual, and also actual preparation for particular occasions of duty. That which is habitual respects our state; that which is actual represents our frames God assists us–
1. By calling off our vain and wandering thoughts, and so fixing our hearts for duty.
2. He works in our heart a holy fear and reverence of His majesty.
3. By giving us the savour of past experiences, and by giving us present desires, after communing with Him.
4. By sudden and unexpected enlargement of spirit. We are surprised into mercy.
II. How doth God prepare us in our speeches before Him?
1. He reveals to us our own wants, gives us some special errand to go with to God.
2. He gives us arguments and pleas to use in prayer.
3. He makes intercessions in us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
4. He guides and directs the soul to ask but for those things which God means to give. Use: If men cannot prepare themselves for duty, after grace is received, much less can they prepare themselves for grace while in an unregenerate state. Caution against three things.
(1) Known omissions.
(2) Conscience-wasting sins.
(3) Dependence on gifts, in your approach to God. (John Hill.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XVI
Man prepares, but God governs. God has made all things for
himself; he hates pride. The judgments of God. The
administration of kings; their justice, anger, and clemency.
God has made all in weight, measure, and due proportion.
Necessity produces industry. The patient man. The lot is under
the direction of the Lord.
NOTES ON CHAP. XVI
Verse 1. The preparations of the heart in man] The Hebrew is leadam maarchey leb, which is, literally, “To man are the dispositions of the heart; but from the Lord is the answer of the tongue.” Man proposes his wishes; but God answers as he thinks proper. The former is the free offspring of the heart of man; the latter, the free volition of God. Man may think as he pleases, and ask as he lists; but God will give, or not give, as he thinks proper. This I believe to be the meaning of this shamefully tortured passage, so often vexed by critics, their doubts, and indecisions. God help them! for they seldom have the faculty of making any subject plainer! The text does not say that the “preparations,” rather dispositions or arrangements, maarchey, “of the heart,” as well as “the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord;” though it is generally understood so; but it states that the dispositions or schemes of the heart (are) man’s; but the answer of the tongue (is) the Lord’s. And so the principal versions have understood it.
Hominis est animam preparare; et Domini gubernare linguam. – VULGATE. “It is the part of man to prepare his soul: it is the prerogative of the Lord to govern the tongue.”
min bar nash taritha delibba; umin yeya mamlala delishana. – CHALDEE. “From the son of man is the counsel of the heart; and from the Lord is the word of the tongue.”
The SYRIAC is the same. , . – SEPTUAGINT. “The heart of man deviseth righteous things, that its goings may be directed by God.”
The ARABIC takes great latitude: “All the works of an humble man are clean before the Lord; and the wicked shall perish in an evil day.” Of a man is to maken redy the inwitt: and of the Lorde to governe the tunge. – Old MS. Bible.
“A man maye well purpose a thinge in his harte: but the answere of the tonge cometh of the Lorde. – COVERDALE.
MATTHEW’S Bible, 1549, and BECKE’S Bible of the same date, and CARDMARDEN’S of 1566, follow Coverdale. The Bible printed by R. Barker, at Cambridge, 4to., 1615, commonly called the Breeches Bible, reads the text thus: – “The preparations of the hart are in man; but the answere of the tongue is of the Lord.” So that it appears that our first, and all our ancient versions, understood the text in the same way; and this, independently of critical torture, is the genuine meaning of the Hebrew text. That very valuable version published in Italian, at Geneva, fol. 1562, translates thus: Le dispositioni del cuore sono de l’huomo, ma la risposta del la lingua e dal Signore. “The dispositions of the heart are of man; but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.”
The modern European versions, as far as I have seen, are the same. And when the word dispositions, arrangements, schemes, is understood to be the proper meaning of the Hebrew term, as shown above, the sense is perfectly sound; for there may be a thousand schemes and arrangements made in the heart of man which he may earnestly wish God to bring to full effect, that are neither for his good nor God’s glory; and therefore it is his interest that God has the answer in his own power. At the same time, there is no intimation here that man can prepare his own heart to wait upon, or pray unto the Lord; or that from the human heart any thing good can come, without Divine influence; but simply that he may have many schemes and projects which he may beg God to accomplish, that are not of God, but from himself. Hence our own proverb: “Man proposes, but God disposes.” I have entered the more particularly into the consideration of this text, because some are very strenuous in the support of our vicious reading, from a supposition that the other defends the heterodox opinion of man’s sufficiency to think any thing as of himself. But while they deserve due credit for their orthodox caution, they will see that no such imputation can fairly lie against the plain grammatical translation of the Hebrew text.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Men can neither think nor speak wisely and well of themselves, or without Divine assistance. Or, as many others, both ancient and modern interpreters, render the verse,
The preparations, or dispositions, or orderings of the heart are in or from a man; (i.e. a man may consider and contrive in his own thoughts what he wills or designs to speak; which is spoken by way of concession, yet not excluding mans dependence upon God therein, which is evident both from many plain texts of Scripture, and from undeniable reason;) but the
answer or speech (as this word is oft used)
of the tongue is from the Lord. Men cannot express their own thoughts without Gods leave and help, and their tongues are oft overruled by God to speak what was besides and above their own thoughts, as he did Balaam, Num 23, and Caiaphas, Joh 11:49-51.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. preparationsschemes.
in manor literally,”to man,” belonging, or pertaining to him.
the answer . . . LordTheefficient ordering is from God: “Man proposes; God disposes.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The preparations of the heart in man,…. The sense of these words, according to our version, depends upon the next clause, and the meaning of the whole is, that a man can neither think nor speak without God: the “orderings” or “marshallings of the heart” a, as it may be rendered; that is, of the thoughts of the heart, which are generally irregular and confused; the ranging them in order, as an army in battle array, or as things regularly placed on a well furnished table; the fixing them on any particular subject, though about things civil and natural, so as closely to attend to them, and proceed in a regular manner in the consideration of them, are not without the concurrence of divine Providence: and whereas the thoughts of men’s hearts are evil, and that continually, and nothing but evil thoughts naturally proceed from thence; the ordering and marshalling of them, and fixing them to the attention and consideration of divine and spiritual things, are not without the supernatural grace of God; for we cannot think a good thought of ourselves, nor indeed anything of ourselves in a spiritual manner, 2Co 3:5; all preparations for religious service and duty, whether it be to pray unto God, or to preach in his name, are from the Lord; it is he that works in men both “to will and to do”; that gives them the willing mind, or a suitable frame for service, as well as ability to perform it; that pours out the Spirit of grace and supplication on them, and disposes and directs their minds to proper petitions, and furnishes his ministering servants in their studies with agreeable matter for their ministrations, Ps 10:17;
and the answer of the tongue [is] from the Lord; who made man’s mouth, and teaches him what to say, both before God and man; what he shall say in prayer to him, or in preaching to others; for the “door of utterance” in either service is from him, as well as the preparation for it: most versions and interpreters make these clauses distinct, the one as belonging to men, the other to God; thus, “to men [belong] the preparations of the heart, but from the Lord is the answer” or “[speech] of the tongue”; the former is said by way of concession, and according to the opinion of men; and the sense may be, be it so, that man has the marshalling and ordering of his own thoughts, and that he can lay things together in his mind, and think pertinently and properly on a subject, and is capable of preparing matter for a discourse; yet it is as easy to observe, that men can better form ideas of things in their minds, the they can express their sense and meaning; and though they may be ever so well prepared to speak, yet they are not able to do it, unless the Lord gives them utterance, and assists their memories; they lose what they had prepared, or deliver it in a disorderly and confused manner, and sometimes think to say one thing, and say another; their tongues are overruled by the Lord to say what they never intended, as in the cases of Balaam and Caiaphas. The Targum is,
“from man is the counsel of the heart, and from the Lord is the speech of the tongue.”
a “dispositiones sive ordinationes”, Montanus, Munster, Vatablus, Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis; “instructiones adversae aciei in corde”, Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Four proverbs of God, the disposer of all things:
1 Man’s are the counsels of the heart;
But the answer of the tongue cometh from Jahve.
Gesen., Ewald, and Bertheau incorrectly understand 1b of hearing, i.e., of a favourable response to what the tongue wishes; 1a speaks not of wishes, and the gen. after (answer) is, as at Pro 15:23; Mic 3:7, and also here, by virtue of the parallelism, the gen. subjecti Pro 15:23 leads to the right sense, according to which a good answer is joy to him to whom it refers: it does not always happen to one to find the fitting and effective expression for that which he has in his mind; it is, as this cog. proverb expresses it, a gift from above ( , Mat 10:19). But now, since neither means answering, nor yet in general an expression (Euchel) or report (Lwenstein), and the meaning of the word at 4a is not here in question, one has to think of him whom the proverb has in view as one who has to give a reason, to give information, or generally – since , like , is not confined to the interchange of words – to solve a problem, and that such an one as requires reflection. The scheme (project, premeditation) which he in his heart contrives, is here described as , from , to arrange, to place together, metaphorically of the reflection, i.e., the consideration analyzing and putting a matter in order. These reflections, seeking at one time in one direction, and at another in another, the solution of the question, the unfolding of the problem, are the business of men; but the answer which finally the tongue gives, and which here, in conformity with the pregnant sense of ( vid., at Pro 15:23, Pro 15:28), will be regarded as right, appropriate, effective, thus generally the satisfying reply to the demand placed before him, is from God. It is a matter of experience which the preacher, the public speaker, the author, and every man to whom his calling or circumstances present a weighty, difficult theme, can attest. As the thoughts pursue one another in the mind, attempts are made, and again abandoned; the state of the heart is somewhat like that of chaos before the creation. But when, finally, the right thought and the right utterance for it are found, that which is found appears to us, not as if self-discovered, but as a gift; we regard it with the feeling that a higher power has influenced our thoughts and imaginings; the confession by us, (2Co 3:5), in so far as we believe in a living God, is inevitable.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
As we read this, it teaches us a great truth, that we are not sufficient of ourselves to think or speak any thing of ourselves that is wise and good, but that all our sufficiency is of God, who is with the heart and with the mouth, and works in us both to will and to do,Phi 2:13; Psa 10:17. But most read it otherwise: The preparation of the heart is in man (he may contrive and design this and the other) but the answer of the tongue, not only the delivering of what he designed to speak, but the issue and success of what he designed to do, is of the Lord. That is, in short, 1. Man purposes. He has a freedom of thought and a freedom of will permitted him; let him form his projects, and lay his schemes, as he thinks best: but, after all, 2. God disposes. Man cannot go on with his business without the assistance and blessing of God, who made man’s mouth and teaches us what we shall say. Nay, God easily can, and often does, cross men’s purposes, and break their measures. It was a curse that was prepared in Balaam’s heart, but the answer of the tongue was a blessing.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
THE LORD’S WILL PREVAILS
(Proverbs 16),
The Lord’s Will Prevails
Verse 1, with verses 9 and 19:21, affirm that man is free to make his own plans but the LORD so orders related matters that His divine will prevails, 1Ki 12:24; Gen 50:20. Although man is free to plan, he is not of himself capable of directing his own steps and therefore needs divine guidance, Pro 20:24; Jer 10:23.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 16:1. Nearly all commentators agree in reading this verse, To man belong the preparations of the heart, but the answer of the tongue is from, the Lord. Preparations, lit. arrangements, orderly disposings, as those of an army in array, or as the loaves of the shewbread set in order.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 16:1
THE HEART AND THE TONGUE
I The human heart needs preparation.
1. It needs to be prepared for the reception of moral truth. When the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, it was not in a condition to receive seed into its bosom. There was a need of preparation before it was fit to receive seed which would produce herb after its kind. Light must play upon its surface, heat and moisture must penetrate the soil. And mans heart, in his present fallen condition, is like the earth before the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, Let there be light: and there was light. It needs some preparation before it can receive the truth of God so as to be benefited by itbefore it is that good ground into which, when the good seed falls, it brings forth fruit, some an hundred-fold, some sixty-fold, some thirty-fold (Mat. 13:3-8). As the plough must break the clods before the seed can be sown with any hope of harvest, so the fallow-ground of the heart must be broken upmust undergo some preparation before it can be a profitable receiver of moral truth (Hos. 10:12). Our Lord, in the parable of the sower, teaches most distinctly the truth that the good which is derived from hearing Divine truth depends upon the state of heart of him who hears.
2. It needs to be prepared to yield moral truth. All the preparation of the earth is to the endnot that it should be a receiver, but a giver. The seed is sown not that it should remain in the soil, but that the earth should bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater (Isa. 55:10). So it is with the human soul. It takes in the thoughts of God, that it may translate them into holy words and deeds. The preparation of the heart is but a means to the answer of the tongue. Out of the good treasure of the heart good things are expected to issue (Mat. 12:35). But unless there is preparation to receive there can be no giving out of anything that is worth the giving. The quality of the water that comes to the lip of the drinker depends upon the quality of the spring that fills the well. As we have often before remarked, the tree must be first good, and then the fruit will be good (Mat. 12:33). He whose heart is prepared by Divine influence to receive the Divine Word will not be at a loss for such an answer of the tongue as will bring glory to God, honour to himself, and blessings to others.
II. The preparation of the heart, and, therefore, the answer of the tongue, depends upon God. In nature laws are constantly at work to bring to pass certain facts and results, and man works with these laws, and in obedience to them. But behind the laws there must be a law-giverbehind the working there must be a workerand this worker and law-giver is God. The preparation of the earth is the work of man; yet both the preparation of the earth and the answer of the earth to that preparation is from God. There would be no harvest if the husbandman did not toil; but there would be no harvest if behind him and his toil there was not the Life-Giver. God is the spring of all activities, not only in the sower of the seed, but in the seed which is sown and in the earth in which it germinates. So in the preparation of the heart, and the right use of the tongue. Mans freedom and responsibility in these matters are insisted upon in the oracles of God. He and he alone is to be blamed if his heart is not prepared to receive the words of God. He is commanded as we saw just now to break up his fallow ground (Jer. 4:3)to prepare his spirit for the reception of Divine truth. Yet if a mans heart is thus prepared, and if by preparation of heart his tongue is able to speak good words, he is not the sole producer of the result. Behind the springs of thinkingbehind the means used by the man himselfGod is working both to will and to do of His good pleasure. God claims to be the Author of all good, whether in the bud of thought or in the fruit of action. From Him all good counsels and all just works do proceed. This is the teaching of this verse as it stands in our English Bible, but many commentators translate the verse differently. (See Critical Notes.) The thought as thus translated is similar to that in Pro. 16:9, upon which see Homiletics.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The great doctrine of all Scripture is, that heart religion is true religion. In nothing is Christianity more distinguished from all other systems of religion than in the moral purity which it inculcates and which it provides the means of producing. Other religions multiply articles of faith and ritual observances, and pompous ceremonials: this alone fixes upon the internal character of the worshipper and the actual state of the heart before God. God first gives grace, and then owns and honours the grace which He gives. The preparations of the heart are of the Lord; The prayer of the upright is His delight (chap. Pro. 15:8). This was discovered long before Solomons time. It was from the very first the primary design of the religion of the Bible. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain (Heb. 11:4). It is Gods prerogative to prepare the heart for Himself, and he does this especially, by establishing the principles of grace and holiness in the mind, and then actuating the habits of grace which His own spirit has implanted. We need preparation
1. For spiritual worship. The worship of God, as it necessarily includes all the devout affections, is the most spiritual act in which we are engaged. In prayer, in reading and hearing Gods word, and in approaching the sacramental table, we have especially to do with God, in the gracious relations in which He stands to us. And as these exercises raise us above the ordinary level of the world, and are foreign to our ordinary habits of thought and emotion as the creatures of dust and time, we need especial assistance to fix our attention, to purify our motives, and to realise the presence of the Master of assemblies. We need grace whereby to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear (Heb. 12:28). This preparation of the heart is Gods gift, it is Gods promise, it is the Churchs hope, and it has been realised in the experience of Gods faithful people in the ordinances of His appointment.
2. For active service. Christians have much to do for God in the world, in the family, in the Church, in the disposal of their ordinary business, etc. In all these things wisdom is needed to direct, and wisdom should be sought from him.
3. For patient suffering. It is a great thing to have a heart prepared for suffering. One important requisite is, to anticipate its approach, that that day may not come upon us unawares, that trial may not entangle us in temptation, but may, like the overflowings of the Nile, leave the means of fertility behind. Another requisite is that we should expect to meet with God in affliction. When God announces a long succession of national judgments, He says, And because I will do this, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel (Amo. 4:12). This text is usually applied to death and judgment, but it really relates to worldly disasters, and teaches that God would have us prepare to meet Him in the distressing changes of human life.
4. For enjoyment. If there is much to be suffered there is also much to be enjoyed. But a time of prosperity needs heart preparation, lest a time of ease be a time of danger. It is the bright day brings out the adder, and that craves wary walking. It was when Noah had escaped the deluge, and had gathered in his first vintage from the grapes he had planted, that he drank of the wine and was drunken. David, safe in the wilderness, was entangled in fatal snares when walking on the roof of his palace. (Note. Though heart preparation is from God, it is not given as a premium to sloth, but in proportion to the earnestness with which we seek the grace. The following passage from a letter of Colonel Gardiner tells how that man of God sought preparation from God for the Lords Supper. I took a walk on the hills and mountains over against Ireland. And could I give you a description of what passed there, you would agree that I had much better reason to remember my God from the hills of Port Pthan David from the Hermonites, the land of Jordan, and the hill Mizar. In short, I wrestled with the Angel of the Covenant some hours, and made supplication to Him with strong crying and tears until I had almost expired, but He strengthened me till I had power with God. You will be able to judge by what you have felt upon like occasions, after such a preparatory work, how blessed the Lords Supper was to me.)S. Thodey.
Man may lay out his plans, but God alone can give them effect in answer to the tongue of prayer (Pro. 16:9; chap. Pro. 19:21; 2Co. 3:5).Maurer.
Often what you dispose in the aptest order in your heart you cannot also express suitably with the tongue. What one aptly speaks is from God.Mercer.
Men often determine in heart to say something, but God overrules their tongue so as to say something utterly different, as in Balaams case (Numbers 23).Menochius.
God takes the stone out of the heart that it may feel (Eze. 36:26); draws it that it may follow; quickens it that it may live. He opens the heart that He may imprint His own law, and mould it into His own image (Act. 16:14; Jer. 31:33). He works, not merely by moral suasion or by the bare proposal of means of uncertain power, but by invisible Almighty agency. The work then begins with God. It is not that we first come, and then are taught; but first we learn, then we come (Joh. 6:45). Shall we then wait indolently till He works? Far from it. We must work, but in dependence upon Him. He works not without us, but with us, through us, in us, by us, and we work in Him (Php. 2:13; Job. 11:13). Ours is the duty, His is the strength; ours the agency, His the quickening grace. The work, as it is a duty, is ours; but as a performance it is Gods (Bishop Reynolds).Bridges.
Undoubtedly we arrange and plan. That is a matter of consciousness. But these are but the tools of the designer. He uses our plannings to shape the last word to His mind. The arrangings of the heart are, indeed, as much Gods as the final decree, because, in brief, everything is. He destines everything; but not in the same sense in which they are consciously mans. They precede the end, and are present. They cannot determine the end, that is future. I cannot determine now what I will say the next moment. God can. I can and do arrange. But at any convenient point, at any interval, even the very least, God can swing me round. What I shall say is a part of His providence. I cannot ordain to say it in such a way as that it shall be said. In the smallest interval that follows God may tempt Pharaoh, and he may have new views as to letting the children of Israel go. God cannot tempt me to evil; but He can govern by the privation of good. And, therefore, the kings heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever He will. This, of course, implicates God, to our weak seeming, in the sins of the wicked. The next verse discharges Him from any such accountability. (See Millers rendering of Pro. 16:2, in his comments.)Miller.
Though a man have never so exactly marshalled his matter in hand, as it were, in battle array, as the Hebrew imports, though he have set down with himself both what and how to speak, yet he shall never be able to bring forth his conceptions without the help of God. Digressions are not always unuseful. Gods spirit sometimes draws aside the doctrine to satisfy some soul which the preacher knows not. But though God may force it, yet man may not frame it.Trapp.
This is a matter of experience to which the preacher, the public speaker, the author, and every man to whom his calling or circumstances present a weighty difficult theme, can attest. As the thoughts pursue one another in the mind, attempts are made and again abandoned; the state of the heart is somewhat like that of chaos before the creation. But when, finally, the right thought and the right utterance for it are found, that which is found appears to us, not as if self-discovered, but as a gift; we regard it with the feeling that a higher power has influenced our thoughts and imaginings; the confession by us our sufficiency is of God (2Co. 3:5) in so far as we believe in a living God, is inevitable.Delitzsch.
Man doth not carry himself one-half of the way, and then as one wearied is carried the rest by God. But it is God who supporteth him in the heart as well as in the tongue: it is He that supporteth man in the preparations of the heart, and well as in the subsequent proceedings of the man. He is a God of the valleys as well as of the hills; and it is He that worketh as well in the lowest degree of goodness as in the highest. His praise reacheth from the root of the heart to the tip of the tongue, and all mans goodness is from His grace.Jermin.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER 16
TEXT Pro. 16:1-11
1.
The plans of the heart belong to man;
But the answer of the tongue is from Jehovah.
2.
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes;
But Jehovah weigheth the spirits.
3.
Commit thy works unto Jehovah,
And thy purposes shall be established.
4.
Jehovah hath made everything for its own end;
Yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
5.
Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to Jehovah:
6.
By mercy and truth iniquity is atoned for;
And by the fear of Jehovah men depart from evil.
7.
When a mans ways please Jehovah,
He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
8.
Better is a little, with righteousness,
Than great revenues with injustice.
9.
A mans heart deviseth his way;
But Jehovah directeth his steps.
10.
A divine sentence is in the lips of the king;
His mouth shall not transgress in judgment.
11.
A just balance and scales are Jehovahs;
All the weights of the bag are his work.
STUDY QUESTIONS OVER 16:1-11
1.
In view of Pro. 16:1 are all answers of the tongue from Jehovah?
2.
What is the implication or insinuation in Pro. 16:2?
3.
What does purposes mean in Pro. 16:3?
4.
Is its own end of the text or his own purpose of the footnote the real reading in Pro. 16:4?
5.
Why does God deplore mans pride so much (Pro. 16:5)?
6.
What is meant by hand joining in hand in Pro. 16:5?
7.
How do mercy and truth atone for iniquity (Pro. 16:6)?
8.
Why do some people not depart from evil (Pro. 16:6)?
9.
How does Jehovah make even a persons enemies to be at peace with a godly person (Pro. 16:7)?
10.
If Pro. 16:7 be true, how could there ever be any martyrs?
11.
What other passages resemble Pro. 16:8?
12.
What previous verse in this chapter resembles Pro. 16:9?
13.
Was (and is) a divine sentence in the lips of all kings (Pro. 16:10)?
14.
What were weights of the bag (Pro. 16:11)?
PARAPHRASE OF 16:1-11
1.
We can make our plans, but the final outcome is in Gods hands.
2.
We can always prove that we are right, but is the Lord convinced?
3.
Commit your work to the Lord, then it will succeed.
4.
The Lord has made everything for His own purposeseven the wicked, for punishment.
5.
Pride disgusts the Lord. Take my word for itproud men shall be punished.
6.
Iniquity is atoned for by mercy and truth; being good comes from reverence for God.
7.
When a man is trying to please God, He makes even his worst enemies to be at peace with him.
8.
A little, gained honestly, is better than great wealth gotten by dishonest means.
9.
We should make planscounting on God to direct us.
10.
God will help the king to judge the people fairly; there need be no mistakes.
11.
The Lord demands fairness in every business deal. He established this principle.
COMMENTS ON 16:1-11
Pro. 16:1. These first seven verses are all religious maxims, for they all contain the name Jehovah. The answer of the tongue appears to be set over against the plans of the heart. If so, the saying would refer to those times when a persons plans become altered by providence so that he ends up doing something else. There is a marvelous teaching here for those who believe in Gods providential leadership. See Pro. 16:9 also. When we pray, Thy will, not mine, be done, God may alter our thoughts either in a minor or a major way. Your writer can testify to this as he had personal well-laid vocational plans in life, and yet he believed that it was Gods will for him to say, Lord, I will devote my life to preaching your Word.
Pro. 16:2. Pro. 21:2 is very similar. The heart can be so deceptive (Jer. 17:9) that it often deceives the person himself into thinking he is right when he is wrong (Pro. 30:12). Laodicea had its own estimation of itself, but Christ weighed them and found them wanting (Rev. 3:17-18). If we practice self-justification in the eyes of people (Luk. 16:15), in time we may come to deceive ourselves into thinking we are all right even though we have not obeyed Gods commandments (Jas. 1:22).
Pro. 16:3. This verse is very similar to Psa. 37:5 : Commit thy way unto Jehovah; Trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass. The promise of Psa. 37:4 is: Delight thyself also in Jehovah: And he will give thee the desires of thy heart. God does not always overrule our purposes (He wouldnt unless they are wrong or unless He had some special plan for us), but it is His blessing that makes our plans and purposes come to pass.
Pro. 16:4. Jehovah had something definite in mind for everything He created, and if men do not fulfill His loving will, He will use them in another sense as recipients of His just wrath because of their sins. God was as glorified in His overthrow of Pharaoh as He was in His deliverance of Israel (Exo. 9:16). God is as glorified in the vessels of wrath as He is in the vessels of mercy (Rom. 9:22-23), only in a different way. Yes, He would much rather be glorified by showing mercy, but if man will not so glorify God, He will be glorified in His just wrath.
Pro. 16:5. Again we have a saying showing Gods abomination for pride. In comparison to God and His works, man is nothing (Psa. 8:3-4; Psa. 39:4-5). Even whole nations of the earth are nothing in comparison with Him (Isa. 40:15; Isa. 40:17). What each of us has, we should not boast of it, for we have received it (1Co. 4:7). Regardless of the area of our lives that we might be considering, before God boasting is excluded (Rom. 3:27). Other passages against pride: Pro. 6:16-17; Luk. 18:11-14; 1Pe. 5:5; 1Jn. 2:16). The last part of our present verse is found in Pro. 11:21 also, meaning that no matter how many alliances proud man may make, God can overthrow them all. Nor is there safety in numbers when God arises to punish the multitude of the wicked.
Pro. 16:6. God is in both parts of mans salvation: His fear causes man to depart from evil, and His mercy and truth atone for the sin that has been dropped. Mercy is that attribute of God that exhibits itself in our forgiveness; truth stands for the way that He has set up for us to come to Him for His forgiveness. Fear is a deterrent to sin; to crime, and to misbehavior (Pro. 14:16).
Pro. 16:7. It is not normal for enemies to be at peace with those whom they hate. There have been instances where God has so blessed individuals that his enemies so respected him or so feared him that they caused him no trouble. Such was true of Israel in Solomons days (1Ki. 4:20-21; 1Ki. 4:24-25). Such caused the Gibeonites to seek peace with Joshua and Israel (Jos. 9:9-11). Such caused Abimilech and the men of Gerar to seek Isaacs peace (Gen. 26:26-29).
Pro. 16:8. This should be a great passage to keep in mind when one is tempted to take a high-paying job or to get into a lucrative business that is not right. We know that taverns, theaters, gambling casinos, and other businesses connected with evil can make their owners or operators sizable sums, but it is better to work at something else that makes less money. Compare this verse with Psa. 37:16 and Pro. 15:16. Christians are commanded to work at divinely-approved jobs (Eph. 4:28; Tit. 3:8especially the marginal note on the latter). Remember, too, that righteousness is to be sought before even the earthly necessities of food, drink, and clothing (Mat. 6:33).
Pro. 16:9. This is but one of several passages that bear out the thought that man proposes, but God disposes. See Pro. 16:1; Pro. 19:21; Psa. 37:23; Pro. 20:24; Jer. 10:23. These verses emphasize a most precious truth: the providence and leadership of God in our lives. The song writer has tried to put into words both the belief and the feeling of our hearts when he wrote, He leadeth me; Oh, blessed thought! Oh, words with heavenly comfort fraught! We should pray for this leadership, follow it, and thank God for it constantly. It is one of the Christians greatest treasures.
Pro. 16:10. God has both instituted government (Rom. 13:1-7) and commanded that they rule justly (2Sa. 23:3; Deu. 16:18-20; Pro. 16:12 of this chapter). When a king does his duty properly, man is being ruled governmentally as God intends, and man should submit to his governments decrees as he would to God (1Pe. 2:13-14). The latter statement of the verse must be understood in this context; namely, that if he is wisely and righteously doing his kingly duty, his verdicts will be true verdicts.
Pro. 16:11. God commanded just measurements in business (Lev. 19:36) and declares that He is pleased with just weights and highly displeased with false ones (Pro. 11:1). To be right with God one must be honest in business.
TEST QUESTIONS OVER 16:1-11
1.
What word is found in the first seven verses of this chapter?
2.
How is the leadership of God shown in Pro. 16:1?
3.
Cite an example of some who were wrong but thought they were right (Pro. 16:2),
4.
What wonderful promise is contained in Pro. 16:3?
5.
How would you explain Pro. 16:4 to someone?
6.
Why is a proud person so abominable to God (Pro. 16:5)?
7.
What is meant by hand joining in hand (Pro. 16:5)?
8.
Comment upon mercys relationship to atonement (Pro. 16:6).
9.
Comment upon truths relationship to it (Pro. 16:6).
10.
Comment upon fears relationship to mans departure from evil (Pro. 16:6).
11.
Cite two Biblical examples of Pro. 16:7.
12.
What does God say is better than great revenues with injustice (Pro. 16:8;?
13.
Man proposes, but God ……………..
14.
In what sense is a divine sentence in the lips of a king (Pro. 16:10)?
15.
What does God say about just and unjust weights (Pro. 16:11)?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XVI.
(1) The preparations of the heart in man . . .Rather, To man belong the counsels of the heart. He may turn over in his mind what is the right thing to be said on any occasion, but from the Lord is the answer of the tongue. (Comp. Pro. 15:23.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. The preparations of the heart The weight of criticism is against this reading. There is unquestionably a sense in which the saying, as it stands, is true. But this does not seem to be the meaning here. The sense generally consented to is substantially this: the plans or arrangements of the heart appertain to man, but the utterance of the tongue is from Jehovah. It is somewhat similar to our English saying, “Man proposes, God disposes.” Jehovah is the giver of right words, from which health and life go forth.
But others understand “the answer of the tongue” to mean the answer to the tongue the answer to prayer. Comp. Mat 10:19-20; Rom 8:26 ; 2Co 3:5, and verse nine of this chapter.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Proverbs Of Solomon ( Pro 10:1 to Pro 22:16 ).
The proverbs in this section are now introduced by the brief subheading ‘The Proverbs Of Solomon’. Contrast ‘The sayings of Solomon, the Son of David, the King of Israel’ in Pro 1:1. The details given there do not need to be repeated because this is a subheadng, not a main heading. This is in line with comparable wisdom literature going back far beyond the time of Solomon
What follows in Pro 10:1 onwards is somewhat deceptive. Without careful study it can appear to contain simply a string of proverbs with no direct connection to each other. But closer examination soon reveals otherwise. Solomon has rather taken his vast knowledge of wisdom literature, and put together a series of sayings which gel together and give consecutive teaching.
Various attempts have been made to divide up this material, but none of them have been fully successful as the basis of construction and the dividing lines are not always clear. They tend to be somewhat subjective. But that some thought has gone into the presentation of the material is apparent by the way in which topics and ideas are grouped together. Consider for example Pro 10:2-5 which are based on the idea of riches and men’s cravings, whilst Pro 10:18-21 are all based on the lips or the tongue. On the whole, however, the basis of the presentation overall is tentative, for up until Pro 22:17 we do not have any clear introductory words which can help us to divide the text up.
What is certain is that we are not simply to see this as just a number of proverbs jumbled together with no connection whatsoever. And in our view Solomon made this clear by using the well known method (previously used by Moses in Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) of dividing up the text by means of chiasms as we have illustrated. Ancient Hebrew was written in one continuing steam of letters with no gaps to distinguish words, and no punctuation. This was not quite as confusing as it sounds for words and word endings followed definite patterns which were mainly distinguishable. But the only way of dividing it up into paragraphs was either by the way of material content, or by the use of chiasms (presenting the material in an A B C D D C B A pattern). In our view this latter method was used by Solomon in this section as we hope we have demonstrated..
The proverbs which follow are designed to give a wide coverage of wisdom and instruction, and as we study them we will receive guidance in different spheres. For this is the wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and instruction that Solomon has been speaking of in the Prologue. It is a revelation of ‘the fear of YHWH and the knowledge of God’ (Pro 2:5).
It will be noted at once that Solomon immediately expects us to be able to differentiate ‘the righteous’ from the ‘unrighteous’ (or ‘wicked’), and the wise from the ‘foolish’. This confirms that the righteous and the wise are in his eyes identifiable, and in Israel that would be because they walked in accordance with the covenant, the ‘Law of Moses’, as well as in the ways of wisdom. Thus wisdom does not exclude the Law, nor does it supersede it. It embraces it, although mainly from a non-ritualistic standpoint (consider, however, Pro 3:9-10; Pro 7:14; Pro 15:8; Pro 17:1; Pro 21:3; Pro 21:27). For it sees it from a less legalistic attitude, and encourages a broad view of life.
We must, however, recognise that ‘wicked’ does not mean ‘totally evil’ and that ‘foolish’ does not mean ‘stupid’. The wicked are those who come short of righteousness (the term regularly contrasts with the righteous). Basically they live disregarding God’s requirements in some aspect of their lives. They may appear solid citizens, but in parts of their lives they pay no heed to God. This might come out in false business practises, or in deceit, or in lack of love for others, or in selfishness, as being part of their way of life. That is why we often speak of ‘the unrighteous’ rather than of ‘the wicked’.
In the same way the ‘foolish’ are called foolish because they set aside God’s ways in the way in which they live their lives. They may be astute, clever and full of common sense, but they are ‘foolish’ because they disregard YHWH. (‘The fool has said in his heart, “there is no God” (Psa 14:1) even though he might give an outward impression of being religious).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
A Collection Of Solomon’s Proverbs ( Pro 10:1 to Pro 29:27 ).
Solomon’s presentation of The Book of Proverbs has followed the pattern of much Wisdom literature. This commenced with the initial heading detailing the details of the author and his purpose in writing (Pro 1:1-7), continued with a Prologue which laid the foundation for what was to follow (Pro 1:8 to Pro 9:18), and was then followed by the body of the work introduced by one or more subheadings. In Solomon’s case this main body comprises Pro 10:1 to Pro 29:27. It is usually divided up into four parts:
1) Proverbs of Solomon (Pro 10:1 to Pro 22:16), introduced by a subheading ‘The Proverbs Of Solomon’. This may possibly be divided into two sections, Pro 10:1 to Pro 15:21, and Pro 15:22 to Pro 22:16.
2) Words of the Wise (Pro 22:17 to Pro 24:22), introduced by an exhortation to hear the words of the wise. This is in a form comparable with exhortations in the Prologue, but there is no subheading in the text as we have it. It may rather therefore be seen as a third section of The Proverbs of Solomon, but with unusual characteristics.
3) Further Sayings of the Wise (Pro 24:23-34), introduced by the subheading, ‘these also are of the wise’.
4) Proverbs of Solomon copied out by the ‘Men of Hezekiah, King of Judah’ (Pro 25:1 to Pro 29:27), introduced by a specific heading.
The inclusion of the words of the wise within two sets of proverbs of Solomon, the first time without a subheading, suggests that we are to see the words of the wise and the sayings of the wise as also from Solomon, but based in each case more specifically on collections of Wisdom sayings known to him, which he himself, or his Scribes, had taken and altered up in order to conform them to his requirements thus making them finally his work. That does not necessarily mean that his proverbs in section 1 (Pro 10:1 to Pro 22:16) were not based on other material. He would have obtained his material from many sources. But once again we are to see them as presented after alteration by his hand.
We should note, for example, the continual references to YHWH that occur throughout the text. Whatever material Solomon may have appropriated, he refashioned it in order to make it the wisdom of the God of Israel, of YHWH their covenant God. This approach of taking what was written by others and refashioning it, while at the same time introducing further ideas of his own, may be seen as following the pattern of modern scholars, each of whom takes the works of others, and then reinterprets them in his own words, whilst adding to them on the basis of his own thinking. The final product is then seen as their own thinking, aided by others. The only difference is that Solomon would have been far more willing to copy down word for word what others had said and written without giving acknowledgement.
Having said that we must not assume that Solomon simply copied them down unthinkingly. As the Prologue has made clear, he did not see himself as presenting some general form of Wisdom teaching. He saw what he wrote down as given by YHWH, and as being in the words of YHWH (Pro 2:6). And he saw it as based on YHWH’s eternal wisdom, His wisdom which had also been involved in the creation of heaven and earth (Pro 3:19-20; Pro 8:22-31). Thus he wants us to recognise that what now follows is not a series of general wisdom statements, but is a miscellany revealing the wisdom of YHWH, the wisdom that leads men into the paths of life.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Proverbs Of Solomon Part 2 ( Pro 15:22 to Pro 22:16 ).
At this point there is a sudden switch from proverbs which contrast one thing with another, which have been predominant since Pro 10:1, to proverbs where the second clause adds something to the first. Whilst we still find some contrasting proverbs, especially at the beginning, they are not so common. This may suggest a deliberate intention by Solomon to separate his proverbs into two parts.
Furthermore such a change at this point would also be in line with seeing verse Pro 10:1 and Pro 15:20 as some kind of inclusio. The first opened the collection with ‘a wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a grief to his mother’ (Pro 10:1), whilst Pro 15:20 may be seen as closing it with the very similar ‘a wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish man despises his mother’. Pro 15:21 may then be seen as conjoined with Pro 15:20 and as a kind of postscript summing up the fool and the wise who have been in mind throughout the proverbs up to this point.
Pro 15:22, in fact, provides a particularly suitable introduction to a new section with its emphasis on the need for a ‘multitude of counsellors’, who can partly be found in the authors of the proverbs which follow (Solomon and the wise men).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
A Call To Commitment To YHWH And To Recognise His Control Over Our Lives ( Pro 15:29 to Pro 16:3 ).
Commencing with a mention of YHWH in Pro 15:29, YHWH is mentioned five times in this subsection. This includes the opening and closing proverbs which form an inclusio, and four references in the last four verses. He is mentioned a further six time in Pro 16:4-11. Thus in sixteen consecutive proverbs He is mentioned eleven times. This may well be seen as confirming the opening of a new section, the intention being to bring home how closely YHWH is involved in wisdom in Israel, and to lay the foundation for what is to follow.
The first four verses in the subsection refer to ‘hearing’. Thus YHWH hears the prayer of the righteous (Pro 15:29); good tidings make the bones fat (Pro 15:30); the ear of the wise listens to reproof (Pro 15:31); to listen to reproof is to obtain understanding (Pro 15:32). And they connect together. It is because YHWH hears the prayer of the righteous (Pro 15:29) that their eyes are alight with good things and they hear good tidings (Pro 15:30). As a consequence they heed His reproof (Pro 15:31), and gain more understanding (Pro 15:32). These verses are then followed by a minor chiasmus in which the activity of YHWH is enclosed within a ‘response to YHWH’ (fear of YHWH and commitment to YHWH) envelope.
The subsection is presented chiastically:
A YHWH is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous (Pro 15:29).
B The light of the EYES rejoices the heart, and good tidings make the bones fat (Pro 15:30).
C The ear which LISTENS TO THE REPROOF of life, will abide among the wise (Pro 15:31).
D He who REFUSES CORRECTION despises his own soul, but he who LISTENS TO REPROOF obtains understanding (Pro 15:32).
D The fear of YHWH is the DISCIPLINARY INSTRUCTION OF WISDOM, and before honour goes humility (Pro 15:33).
C The plans of the heart belong to man, but THE ANSWER OF THE TONGUE is from YHWH (Pro 16:1).
B All the ways of a man are clean in his own EYES, but YHWH weighs the spirits (Pro 16:2).
A Commit your works to YHWH, and your purposes will be established (Pro 16:3).
Note that in A YHWH hears the prayer of the righteous, and in the parallel they are to commit their works to YHWH, which will require prayer. In B the light of the EYES rejoices the heart, and in the parallel a man’s ways are clean in his own EYES. In C the ear listens to reproof, and in the parallel the answer of the tongue is from YHWH. Centrally in D there is one who refuses correction (discipline) and another who listens to reproof, while in the parallel we have the disciplinary instruction of wisdom, and deep humility.
Pro 15:29
‘YHWH is far from the wicked,
But he hears the prayer of the righteous.’
This does not, of course, mean ‘far from’ in distance, but rather ‘far from’ in spiritual experience. In the case of the unrighteous they have no contact with God and no assurance that He will hear their prayers. ‘If I regard iniquity in my heart YHWH will not hear me’ (Psa 66:18). If they offer sacrifices they are an abomination to God (Pro 15:8). No doubt in those days they nearly all of them participated in religious ritual, and in family prayers at meals, but it was all formal. It meant nothing, either to God or to them. It did not, however, relieve them from responsibility. He still ‘weighed their spirits’ (Pro 16:2; compare Psa 11:4). He still took note of their behaviour.
In stark contrast are the righteous, those who respond to God’s wisdom and seek to live by it. In their case God hears their prayers. He weighs their prayers up and responds as He sees fit. Their prayers are a delight to Him (Pro 15:8). He is concerned about their welfare (Pro 10:3; Pro 10:22).
Pro 15:30
‘The light of the eyes rejoices the heart,
And good tidings make the bones fat.’
It is because the righteous have fellowship with YHWH and He hears their prayers (Pro 15:29) that they see and hear good things. The ‘light of the eyes’, paralleling ‘good tidings’, seems to indicate good things that the eyes see, what comes in through the window of the eyes, and this agrees with the idea of ‘the ear which listens’ in the next verse. As Jesus said, ‘the light of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is single (fixed only on what is good and of God) your whole body will be full of light’ (Mat 6:22).
The parallel with good tidings can be seen as confirming that it is good things which are in mind. Thus we could paraphrase ‘as righteous men look on good things it rejoices their hearts’. They see the heavens, and they speak to them of the glory of God. They see the sky and it speaks to them of His handywork (Psa 19:1). They read His Law and delight in it (Psa 1:2; Psa 19:8 b; Psa 119:18; Psa 119:47; Psa 119:70). They mix with the righteous and delight in seeing their good deeds (Psa 101:6). They refuse to look on evil things (Psa 101:3). Whatever is good and honourable and true, they fix their eyes on such things and it brings them joy. In the context of the previous proverb they see YHWH answering their prayers and their heart’s rejoice. Indeed, their eyes are fixed on YHWH Himself and this fills them with rejoicing (Psa 25:15; Psa 123:1; Psa 141:8). Consequently they walk in the fear of YHWH.
And in the same way when the righteous hear a good report or good news it has a wholesome effect on them. It gives them inward strength and inward joy (their bones are made fat). They realise that it signifies that YHWH’s eye is on the righteous (Pro 15:3). Good news is always welcome, but especially so when it concerns the prospering of God’s ways. From Solomon’s view point it is because YHWH reigns over the righteous, and imparts to them His wisdom, that such good things occur (Pro 15:33; Pro 16:1-4; Pro 16:7; Pro 16:9). Because of this He does not allow the righteous to go hungry (Pro 10:3). He blesses them with riches both physical and spiritual (Pro 10:22). His way is a fortress to them (Pro 10:29). He shows His favour towards them (Pro 12:2). No wonder they rejoice.
Many, however, see ‘the light of the eyes’ as signifying the shining in the eyes of inner vitality and joy, in the same way as we would say ‘his eyes lit up’. But in our view that is not so good a parallel. In Psa 13:3 the lightening of the eyes indicated recovery from a death situation. In Psa 38:10 the Psalmist had lost ‘the light of his eyes’ because he was exhausted. In Ezr 9:8 it indicates a reviving of life. But all of these could indicate having hope revived by looking on life from a new perspective as a consequence of God’s reawakening, as seeing things in a new way.
Pro 15:31
‘The ear which listens to the reproof of life,
Will abide among the wise.’
In return His wise ones listen to the reproof which ensures that they will enjoy true life, to the reproof that results in life, to life-giving reproof. They respond to God’s chastening (Pro 3:11-12), and in consequence they themselves consort with the wise. They ‘walk with the wise’ (Pro 13:20). His people come together and exhort each other and help each other. They share in God’s life together.
Pro 15:32
‘He who refuses correction despises his own life,
But he who listens to reproof obtains understanding.’
And through listening to reproof they obtain understanding. They learn God’s wisdom and God’s ways. They gain true knowledge. They acquire good sense. Whilst those who refuse correction and reject discipline simply demonstrate by that that they despise their own lives. For they will not enjoy life, but rather death.
Pro 15:33
‘The fear of YHWH is the instruction of wisdom,
And before honour goes humility.’
Those who listen to reproof obtain understanding (Pro 15:32). Either wisdom instructs them in the fear of YHWH, or the fear of YHWH causes them to be instructed in wisdom, an instruction which has intrinsic within it the idea of discipline. Either way the fear of YHWH makes them wise. They see things through His eyes, and from His perspective. Through reproof and instruction in wisdom the righteous learn to walk in a way which is pleasing to Him.
And those who would please Him, if they would be honoured by Him, must first approach Him in humility. In God’s way of working humility must always precede honour. It is he who humbles himself who can be exalted. For no man can be trusted with honour who has not first been humbled, otherwise the honour will go to his head and will do him more harm than good. David’s road to God-given kingship was along the hard road of persecution and humiliation. He learned obedience by what he suffered. Paul in his hugely successful ministry went through the sufferings, persecutions and humiliations that kept him humble. Even our Lord Jesus Christ ‘learned obedience by the things that He suffered’ (Heb 5:8). It was because of the hard road that He trod that He knew by experience the cost of obedience, and came through triumphantly. The fear of YHWH and humility go hand in hand. ‘Thus says the High and Lofty One, Who inhabits eternity, Whose Name is Holy, “I dwell in the high and holy place with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, an to revive the heart of the contrite ones’ (Isa 57:15).
Pro 16:1
‘The plans of the heart belong to man,
But the answer of the tongue is from YHWH.’
We might summarise this as, ‘man can plan as much as he wants, but God always has the final word’, or ‘man proposes, but God disposes’. The idea behind the word for planning is ‘setting things in order, making arrangements’. All kinds of men are continually making all kinds of arrangements. That is their privilege as thinking beings. But in the end it is YHWH Who says what will be and what will not be. It is YHWH Who answers with His tongue. ‘So shall my word be which goes forth out of My Mouth, it will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and prosper in the way in which I send it’ (Isa 55:11). And one of the answers of His tongue is to speak to those who will listen to reproof, thereby gaining understanding (Pro 15:32).
And the most wonderful answer of His tongue was when He sent forth His Word (Joh 1:1-14), by Him bringing life to men and salvation from the guilt and power of sin, contrary to all man’s way of thinking.
Pro 16:2
‘All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes,
But YHWH weighs the spirits.’
The contrast between man’s planning, and YHWH’s response to it (Pro 16:1), now leads on to the idea that men always think that their own ideas are clean’ (right, justified, blameless). They think that what they are doing is right and justifiable. What they see with their eyes rejoices their hearts (Pro 15:30) because they are so confident in what they are doing. They see themselves as above criticism. They do not look underneath at their true motives.
But that is precisely what YHWH does do. He weighs their spirits. He considers the deepest thoughts of their hearts. The people in Noah’s day undoubtedly justified themselves, but YHWH saw that ‘every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually’ (Gen 6:5). Man may express his innocence, ‘if you say, “behold we did not know it”. But the writer replies, ‘does not He Who weighs the hearts consider it? And He Who keeps the inner life, does He not know it? And will He not render to every man according to His works?’ (Pro 24:12). For man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart (1Sa 16:7), and He continually assesses it.
The metaphor may have been derived from the ancient Egyptian belief that on death a man’s heart was weighed against truth. But if so it has been transformed into the idea of a continual assessment by God as He contemplates man’s behaviour and gets right to the root of the matter (the spirit within).
Pro 16:3
‘Commit your works to YHWH,
And your purposes will be established.’
So the answer is clear. If you would know that your plans are truly right, and that your way is truly pleasing, ‘commit what you do to YHWH, (literally ‘roll what you do on YHWH’), and your purposes will be established’ (confirmed, brought to fruition). This involves more than just a formal prayer of committal. Men have done such a thing and followed it by the most bestial of behaviour. It involves genuinely examining our ways before YHWH, and seeking His confirmation in our hearts when our hearts and minds are truly open to Him, before we proceed (compare Pro 3:6). You cannot ‘roll on YHWH’ what is displeasing to Him. An illustration of the idea, (but not necessarily the way to go about it), is found in 2Sa 2:1.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
Pro 16:1
Gesenius says the phrase “the answer of the tongue” means, “the hearing, or answering, of prayers.” (see comments on [ ]).
Pro 16:1 Comments – In order to understand Pro 16:1, it is best to look at similar verses, which are dealing with the same theme.
Pro 16:9, “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.”
Pro 19:21, “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.”
Pro 16:1 seems to say, “Though man begins the planning process, it is God who determines the final outcome.” This would carry the same meaning as Jas 4:13-15.
Jas 4:13-15, “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”
Pro 16:2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.
Pro 16:3 Pro 16:3 Jas 4:15
Pro 16:2-3 Comments Man’s Plans – Pro 16:2-3 are about man’s plans. We are not to make our own plans without the Lord being a part of this plan, because God knows our hearts (Pro 16:2). Rather, we are to commit ourselves into His hands (Pro 16:3). We find a similar statement in the book of James
Jas 4:13-16, “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.”
Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Pro 16:4
Rom 9:15, “For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
Rom 9:22, “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Pro 16:6 By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.
Pro 16:6
ASV, “ By mercy and truth iniquity is atoned for.”
YLT, “In kindness and truth pardoned is iniquity.”
Scripture References – Also note:
Joh 1:17, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
Pro 16:7 When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Pro 16:8 Pro 16:8
Pro 15:16, “Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith.”
Pro 16:9 A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
Pro 16:9
It is important for us to have a plan, and especially to seek the Lord’s will in this plan. However, the plan in itself is not enough. That is, we are not to have faith in the plan, even if the Lord inspired the plan in us. We are to keep our faith in God. We need to stay in touch with the Lord on a daily basis, so that He directs our steps. No plan in itself will succeed without the Lord’s involvement. God does not measure success by the outcome of the plan, but by the willingness of the heart of a man to love God and others in the midst of the working out of the plan. This idea is seen in Pro 3:5-6.
Pro 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
Kenneth Copeland said, “We make our plans and ask God to bless it. Ask God what His plan is and do it.” [111]
[111] Kenneth Copeland, “Sermon” ( Southwest Believers Convention, Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Fort Worth, Texas), 8 August 2008.
Illustration (1) – Note as an illustration how the Lord directed the steps of Philip the evangelist as he was led to witness to the Ethiopian eunuch in Act 8:26-39.
Illustration (2) – In Mat 26:5 the Jewish leaders were determined to control the outcome of the death of the Son of God. The Jewish people had just honored Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem by crying “Hosanna to the Son of David” (Mat 21:8-9) The crowds were willing to accept Him as their new king. Although the Jewish leaders wanted to kill Jesus quietly without the notice of the people, they had not yet factored in the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, which Matthew adds to the plot in Pro 26:14-16. When Judas presented himself to the Jewish leaders, they were subject to the time of this betrayal, which took place during the festive days in Jerusalem. It was necessary that prophecy by fulfilled and that the Passover Lamb of God be sacrificed on the Day of Atonement. While the Jewish leaders believed they were organizing this most wicked scheme of all humanity, God was taking control of its outcome for redemptive reasons according to Pro 16:9, “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps,” and Pro 19:21, “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.”
Scripture References – Note other similar verses:
Psa 33:10-11, “The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.”
Psa 37:5, “Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.”
Pro 19:21, “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.”
Pro 16:9 Comments – Note these words from Frances J. Roberts:
“I direct every motion of thy life, as the ocean bears a ship. Your will and intelligence may be at the helm, but divine providence and sovereignty are stronger forces. Ye can trust Me, knowing that any pressure I bring to bear upon thy life is initiated by My love, and I will not do even this except as ye are willing and desire.” [112]
[112] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 18.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Justification: Solomon’s First Collection (375 Sayings) [75] – The first nine chapters of the book of Proverbs serve as an introductory call from wisdom. In this introduction, we are exhorted to hear wisdom’s cry (chapter 1), and we are told how to find wisdom by putting it first in our lives (chapter 2). We are told of the blessings of finding wisdom (chapter 3) in contrast to the dangers of hearkening unto the call of the wicked and the harlot. We are shown how wisdom transforms our lives by learning the three paths of wisdom for the heart, mind and body of man (chapter 4). This is contrasted with three paths of destruction (chapters 5-6). We are shown the characteristics of the wicked man and the adulterous woman (chapters 6-7). Then, we are shown the excellence of wisdom and its characteristics (chapter 8). In conclusion, we have an invitation from wisdom to take food for the journey, with a choice to eat the stolen bread of the adulteress (chapter 9). The better we are able to understand the introduction of Proverbs, the better we will be able to understand its teachings in the rest of the book.
[75] Sailhamer says that there are 375 proverbs in Solomon’s First Collection (10:1 to 22:16), which equals the numerical value of Solomon’s Hebrew name. In addition, he says there are 611 laws listed in the Pentateuch, which equals the numerical value of the Hebrew word “Torah” ( ). He adds that the laws listed in the “Covenant Codes” (Exodus 21:1-23:12) are 42 (7 x 6), which was in intentional multiple of seven. His point is that such numerical coincidences reflect deliberate composition by the ancient Jewish scribes, and concludes that the laws, as well as the statutes, were not intended to be exhaustive. See John H. Sailhamer, Introduction to Old Testament Theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, c1995), 257.
Once we have chosen the path of wisdom, we are ready to continue on in the book of Proverbs. The next section of this book Isa 10:1 thru Pro 22:16. This is referred to as Solomon’s First Collection. This section is characterized by the fact that each verse contains individual truths that stand alone. They are practical truths that form a couplet. In chapter 10, we are given the choice to answer wisdom’s call to follow her by either obeying her words, or by disobeying her words and becoming the fool.
We now leave our preparation, which is compared to leaving our home and our parents. We now take a path on the journey of life. However, a quick observation of the following chapters shows us a list of randomly collected proverbs, which have no apparent relationship to one another, unlike the first nine chapters. However, if we look carefully, we will see signposts along this path of life. The introduction of chapters 1-9 began and ended with signposts. These signposts are found in Pro 1:7; Pro 9:10.
Pro 1:7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
Pro 9:10, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.”
The fear of the Lord will be our signpost throughout the book of Proverbs. The first nine chapters are an introduction, or beginning, to this path of life. This is why these first two signposts use the phrase, “beginning of knowledge and wisdom.”
If there is a beginning, then there is a journey; and if a journey, then a destination. These signposts will take us to our destination, which is to become like our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus, or we could say to walk in the fullness of Christ. We will liken this journey to John Bunyan’s book Pilgrim’s Progress, where the character named Christian made his way to the Eternal City. [76] Just as Pilgrim’s Progress is an allegorical story of a person’s journey to Heaven, so is the book of Proverbs a proverbial journey to Heaven.
[76] George Offor, ed., The Works of John Bunyan, 3 vols. (Edinburgh: Blackie and Son, 1855).
Now, let us look for other signposts as we launch out on this journey in life. Note that the phrase “the fear of the Lord” is used throughout the book of Proverbs:
Pro 10:27, “ The fear of the LORD prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.”
Pro 13:13, “Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.”
Pro 14:2, “He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the LORD : but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him.”
Pro 14:16, “ A wise man feareth , and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.”
Pro 14:26, “In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge.”
Pro 14:27, “ The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.”
Pro 15:16, “Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith.”
Pro 15:33, “ The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.”
Pro 16:6, “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.”
Pro 19:23, “ The fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.”
Pro 22:4, “By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life.”
Pro 23:17, “Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.”
Pro 24:21, “My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change:”
Pro 28:14, “Happy is the man that feareth alway : but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.”
Pro 31:30, “Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD , she shall be praised.”
Each of these signposts has been planted within a group of proverbs that emphasizes the subject related to that particular signpost. For example, Pro 10:27 tells us that the fear of the Lord gives us a long life. This proverb has been placed within a group of verses that largely deal with a long life (Pro 10:24 to Pro 11:22). Thus, we can ask ourselves if we are walking in these blessings of long life, or in a life of problems. If our life is blessed in this way, we are on the journey. However, if we find problems in our life that are not in God’s plan for us, then we have strayed off the path.
Pro 13:13 tells us of the rewards of fearing the Lord. This proverb is placed within a group of verses that refer to prosperity. Thus, we must check our life to see if the blessing of prosperity is operating in our life.
Pro 22:4 reminds us of the many blessings of wisdom, which are given in chapter 3. Thus, we can know while we are on the journey if we are still on the path of wisdom. We know this because the blessings of wisdom will be seen in our lives. If we find the curses in our lives, then we know that we have erred from the path of wisdom. This is how these signposts keep us on the right path.
These signposts symbolize the way in which the Lord guides our lives; for it is by the fear of the Lord that we make the decision to follow the path of wisdom. Without this fear, we may know the right decision, but as Solomon, we would err from the journey by failing to adhere to wisdom.
On a daily basis God will give us enough light for our daily needs. This can be called our “daily bread” (Mat 6:11).
Mat 6:11, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
This daily bread gives us enough light to guide our short steps. But there are certain times when the Lord will intervene in our life and show us enough light to see farther down the path. When we face major decisions or changes in our life, God will often speak to us or reveal Himself to us in a supernatural way and show us the right path. During these times, we are able to look back and look ahead and see a bigger picture of God’s plan for our lives. This is the way that God guided Jacob on special occasions, and this is the way that I have experienced the Lord’s guidance during major changes in my life. We can see this two-fold method of guidance in Psa 119:105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” The book of Proverbs symbolizes these occasions by planting signposts along the journey.
There are also warning signs along this journey. These warning signs symbolize those times when God gives us correction and discipline in order to keep us from straying from the path of life. As on a public highway, we must learn to heed the warning signs that tell us of dangers ahead, as well as the information signs that tell us where we are located. These signposts are warnings that tell us not to seek the richest, not to pursue the honor, or to pamper the flesh. Instead, we are to pursue the virtues, and not the blessings that come from these virtues. Some examples of these warnings are:
Pro 11:28, “He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch.”
Pro 13:11, “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.”
Pro 18:12, “Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.”
Pro 23:5, “Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.”
Pro 29:23, “A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.”
Wisdom cries out in the busiest places in society. She cries out in the crowded streets. She lifts up her voice in the major places where people meet and in the gates of the city. This is because wisdom speaks through other people. It speaks through situations around you. Life itself becomes a classroom, and wisdom in the teacher. Thus, in the book of Proverbs, we are shown different types of people in order to learn divine wisdom. Listen, and you will hear.
Regarding the hundreds of individual proverbs that we encounter on this path, there appears to be no organized manner in which they are presented us. This is because in the journey of life, our encounters with the wise man and the fool appear to come in the same random order.
When we look at Pro 10:1 thru Pro 15:33, we see a similarity in all of these proverbs. They all give us a one-verse contrast between the wise man and the fool. This means that in every decision we make in life, we either make a wise decision, or a foolish one. There is no way to straddle the fence in making decisions. Then we see a signpost in Pro 15:33.
Pro 15:33, “ The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.”
This verse says that the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom. In Pro 1:7; Pro 9:10, we are told that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This is because the first nine chapters are a preparation, or beginning, of the journey. But here in Pro 15:33, we are in a phase of the journey called “the instruction of wisdom”. We have been learning to identify the wise man and the fool under the instruction of these one-verse contrasts between these two people. Let me give a clear illustration. When my oldest daughter would sit on my lap, we would sometimes to Bible studies together. At the age of four, she began to ask me simple questions. “Daddy, is this person bad or good.” I would reply, “David was good, and Goliath was bad. The prophet Samuel was good, but King Saul was bad.” I would then explain, “Samuel was good because he obeyed God. Saul was bad because he tried to kill David.” This became my child’s first lesson about the wise man verses the fool. It is in this same pattern that God first teaches us how to identify the wise man and the fool as we journey through Pro 10:1 to Pro 15:33.
There are other signposts within this lengthy passage of Pro 10:1 thru Pro 15:33. One signpost is found in Pro 10:27.
Pro 10:27, “The fear of the LORD prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.”
This signpost is planted within a passage of Scriptures that deals with the longevity of the righteous verses the brevity of the wicked (Pro 10:24 thru Pro 11:22). Thus, this verse promises long life to those who fear the Lord.
A second signpost within Pro 10:1 thru Pro 15:33 is found in Pro 13:13.
Pro 13:13, “Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.”
This signpost is placed within a group of verses (Pro 13:1-25) that deal largely with the issue of financial blessings from the Lord. Thus, it promises a reward to those who fear the Lord.
In Pro 14:26-27, we see a signpost that refers to an abundant life. These two verses are placed within a group of proverbs that deal with one’s understanding of circumstances around him.
JFB notes that the parallelisms of Pro 10:1 to Pro 15:33 are mostly antithetic, that is, sayings that contrast values in life. They contrast the wise man to the fool. However, the couplets in Pro 16:1 to Pro 22:16 are synthetic. That is, these synthetic sayings in Pro 16:1 to Pro 22:16 are different in that they are one-verse proverbs that explain one another. The second part of the couplet further explains and builds its thoughts upon the first part of the couplet.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Justification: Antithetic Proverbs Pro 10:1 to Pro 15:33
2. Indoctrination: Synthetic Proverbs Pro 16:1 to Pro 22:16
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Justification: The Journey to a Place of Rest ( Pro 10:1 to Pro 29:27 ) In Proverbs 10-29 we find a new emphasis regarding our spiritual journey in life. We have heard the call of wisdom in the first nine chapters. Now we have to make the choice to follow the path of wisdom, or the path of the fool. It is our decision to pursue wisdom that will justify us before God. Thus, the underlying theme of Proverbs 10-29 is our justification before God the Father, while the final chapter brings us to a place of rest, which is the destination for man’s spiritual journey in life.
Throughout Proverbs 10-29 we encounter hundreds of individual proverbs that appear to have no organized arrangement in which they are presented us. This is because in the journey of life, our encounters with the wise man and the fool appear to come in the same random order. However, God has placed all things in His divine order. When we read individual proverbs, they appear to be randomly assembled, but if we will step back and look at them as a whole or in groups, we can see an order. These proverbs are clearly grouped together by themes, such as a pure heart, the tongue, a long life, and wealth. In the same way, the circumstances that we face in our daily lives appear to have no particular order. We see very little of God’s hand in our lives in a single day, but when we step back and look as our lives over the months or years, we very clearly see God’s sovereign hand at working in our lives. We recognize that He is divinely orchestrating His purpose and plan for our lives. This is the way that the verses in the book of Proverbs are arranged.
We have seen that Proverbs 1-9, about one third of the book, is man’s call to follow the path of wisdom. Thus, about one third of the book of Proverbs is an introduction, or a preparation, for the rest of this book. Why is that so? We know that Solomon was chosen to be the successor to the throne at his birth. Therefore, he received many years of training under King David for this great task. Even today, we spent the first twenty years of our lives going to school and training for a profession, which is about one third of our lives. We spend the next two thirds of our lives building upon these twenty years of preparation. In our lives, we spend the first twenty years in preparation, the next twenty years sowing, and the last twenty years reaping what we have sown. This is why these years seem to be turning points in many people’s lives. This was the pattern in King Solomon’s life of preparation and growing in wisdom, and this is the pattern found in the book of Proverbs. It is important to note that a season of preparation is something that God has designed and instituted in the human life. He created every human being with the capacity to be shaped and molded through a training process. We often use the term “brainwashing” in a negative sense to refer to a person who has been programmed to think in a negative way; but proper training also reprograms the mind and prepares an individual for the tasks of life. Our human make-up of the spirit, soul, and body were designed to receive training before practical application and abundant living can be achieved.
Although we will study these proverbs, we will find ourselves falling short of fulfilling them in our everyday lives. None of us has walked flawlessly in obedience to any single proverb. Therefore, each individual proverb reveals God’s standard of righteousness, pointing us to Jesus, who alone fulfilled this divine standard in our behalf. In this sense, this collection of proverbs is a collection of redemptive proverbs, revealing our need for a Redeemer, who alone fulfilled every proverb.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Justification: Solomon’s First Collection Pro 10:1 to Pro 22:16
2. Divine Service: Sayings of the Wise Pro 22:17 to Pro 24:34
3. Perseverance: Solomon’s Second Collection by Hezekiah Pro 25:1 to Pro 29:27
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Indoctrination: Solomon’s First Collection of Proverbs (Synthetic) – On our journey in chapters 10-15, we have learned to make wise choices and to avoid foolish decisions. In chapter 16, we begin to see that God’s purpose and plan in our lives is bigger than just daily decision-making. This section of Proverbs (Pro 16:1 to Pro 22:16) reveals the divine intervention of God on this journey in life. We must now learn that God has an all-inclusive divine plan for all of his creation, for all of mankind, and a plan for you and me in particular. We must learn not only to make a wise decision, but we must evaluate this decision in light of God’s divine plan for our lives. It is only by God’s divine intervention in our daily lives that we will be able to stay on the path that leads to eternal rest. God will intervene in order to keep our life balanced so that we will not stray in any one direction to far. Therefore, the journey becomes narrower and choices must be made more carefully.
Proverbs 10-15 have given us one-verse sayings that are clearly antithetical. That is, the first part of the verse contrasts with the second part. However, beginning in Pro 16:1 to Pro 22:16, we see a different type of proverb. In this next section of the book of Proverbs the one-verse says have two parts that complement one another. That is, the second phrase amplifies, or further explains, the first phrase, rather than contrast its counterpart. This means that the training is getting a little more intensive. This new section requires more contemplation that the previous section. Rather than contrasting the difference between the wise man and the fool, we begin to learn the consequences of our decisions, whether wise or foolish. We now move from identifying the wise and the fool (Pro 10:1 thru Pro 15:33) into learning the lasting effects that wisdom and foolishness have in our lives (Pro 16:1 thru Pro 22:16). We must learn that we will always reap the consequences of our behavior. This is the process of indoctrination that is a vital part of our spiritual journey.
As we look for signposts within this passage that confirm this theme, we find them in Pro 16:6 and Pro 19:23, which tell us that the fear of the Lord brings forgiveness of our sins and it delivers us from the visitation of evil that judges the wicked.
Pro 16:6, “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.”
Pro 19:23, “ The fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.”
It is interesting to note that the opening chapter of this lengthy passage begins with the theme of the sovereignty of God. This passage is place at this place on our journey in order that we might learn that God’s ways always prevail over man’s ways and that we must always reap what we sow.
Therefore, the truths in Pro 16:1 to Pro 22:16 are a little deeper in meaning that the previous section of Pro 10:1 to Pro 15:33. On our journey in Proverbs 10-15, we have seen how a man can make choices that will identify his character. Now, beginning in chapter 16, we take a deeper lesson in life in order to see a bigger picture. Although the outcome in life rests upon our daily choices, we must learn that God intervenes in our lives in order to include us into His divine plan for all of His creation, and for all of mankind. This means that God has a plan for you and me in particular.
Then, we see a signpost at Pro 22:4 as an indication that this phase of learning is ending. Note:
Pro 22:4, “By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life.”
Therefore, Pro 22:4 does not describe the beginning of wisdom (Pro 1:1 thru Pro 9:18), nor the instruction of wisdom (Pro 10:1 thru Pro 15:33), but rather the effects of applying wisdom to our lives. That is, wisdom brings to us the full rewards of riches, honour and life.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
v. 1. The preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Pro 16:1-7
These are specially religions maxims, and they all contain the name Jehovah.
Pro 16:1
The Authorized Version makes one sentence of this verse without any contrast or antithesis. This is plainly wrong, there being intended a contrast between the thought of the heart and the well ordered speech. It is better translated, The plans of the heart are man‘s: but the answer of the tongue is from Jehovah. Men make plans, arrange speeches, muster arguments, in the mind; but to put these into proper, persuasive words is a gift of God. “Our sufficiency is of God” (2Co 3:5). In the case of Balaam, God overruled the wishes and intentions of the prophet, and constrained him to give utterance to something very different from his original mental conceptions. But the present sentence attributes the outward expression of what the mind has conceived in every case unto the help of God (comp. Pro 16:9, Pro 16:33; Pro 15:23). Christ enjoined his disciples to trust to momentary inspiration in their apologies or defences before unbelievers (Mat 10:19). This verse is omitted in the Septuagint.
Pro 16:2
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes (Pro 21:2). He may deceive himself, and be blind to his own faults, or be following an ill-informed and ill-regulated conscience (Pro 12:15; Pro 14:12), yet this is no excuse in God’s eyes. The Lord weigheth the spirits. Not the “ways,” the outward life and actions only, but motives, intentions, dispositions (Heb 4:12). He too knows our secret faults, unsuspected by others, and perhaps by ourselves (Psa 19:12). The Septuagint has here, “All the works of the humble are manifest before God, but the impious shall perish in an evil day.” The next verse is omitted in the Greek; and the other clauses up to Pro 16:8 are dislocated.
Pro 16:3
Commit thy works unto the Lord. “Commit” (gol) is literally “roll” (, Theodotion), as in Psa 22:8 and Psa 37:5; and the injunction means, “Transfer thy burden to the Lord, cast upon him all that thou hast to do; do all as in his sight, and as an act of duty to him.” Thus Tobit says to his son, “Bless the Lord thy God alway, and desire of him that thy ways may be directed, and that all thy paths and counsels may prosper” (Tobit 4:19). The Vulgate, using a different punctuation (gal), renders, “Reveal to the Lord thy works?’ As a child opens its heart to a tender parent, so do thou show to God thy desires and intentions, trusting to his care and providence. And thy thoughts shall be established. The plans and deliberations out of which the “works” sprang shall meet with a happy fulfilment, because they are undertaken according to the will of God, and directed to the end by his guidance (comp. Pro 19:21; Psa 90:17; 1Co 3:9). This verse is not in the Septuagint.
Pro 16:4
The Lord hath made all things for himself. So the Vulgate, propter semetipsum; and Origen (‘Praef. in Job’), . That is, God hath made everything for his own purpose, to answer the design which he hath intended from all eternity (Rev 4:11). But this translation is not in accordance with the present reading, , which means rather “for its own end,” for its own proper use. Everything in God’s design has its own end and object and reason for being where it is and such as it is; everything exhibits his goodness and wisdom, and tends to his glory. Septuagint, “All the works of the Lord are with righteousness.” Yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. This clause has been perverted to support the terrible doctrine of reprobationthat God, whose will must be always efficacious, has willed the damnation of some; whereas we are taught that God’s will is that “all men should be saved, and come unto the knowledge of the truth,” and that “God sent his Son not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved” (1Ti 2:4; Joh 3:17; comp. Eze 33:11). Man, having freewill, can reject this gracious purpose of God, and render the means of salvation nugatory; but this does not make God the cause of man’s destruction, but man himself. In saying that God “made the wicked,” the writer does not mean that God made him as such, but made him as he made all other things, giving him powers and capacities which he might have used to good, but which, as a fact, he uses to evil. It will be useful here to quote the wise words of St. Gregory (‘Moral.,’ 6.33), “The Just and Merciful One, as he disposes the deeds of mortals, vouchsafes some things in mercy, and permits other things in anger; and the things which he permits he so bears with that he turns them to the account of his purpose. And hence it is brought to pass in a marvellous way that even that which is done without t,e will of God is not contrary to the will of God. For while evil deeds are converted to a good use, the very things that oppose his design render service to his design.” The day of evil is the hour of punishment (Isa 10:3; Job 21:30), which by a moral law will inevitably fall upon the sinner. God makes man’s wickedness subserve his purposes and manifest his glory, as we see in the case of Pharaoh (Exo 9:16), and the crucifixion of our blessed Lord (Act 2:23; comp. Rom 9:22). It is a phase of God’s moral government that an evil day should be appointed for transgressors, and it is from foreknowledge of their deserts that their punishment is prepared. The perplexing question, why God allows men to come into the world whom he knows will meet with perdition, is not handled here. Septuagint, “But the impious is kept for an evil day.” Cato, ‘Dist.,’ 2.8
“Nolo putes pravos homines peccata lucrari:
Temporibus peccata latent, sed tempore patent.”
Pro 16:5
(For the first member, see Pro 6:17; Pro 8:13.) Says the maxim
“Pride hath its certain punishment.”
We read in the Talmud, “Of every proud man God says, He and I cannot live in the world together.” A mediaeval jingle runs
“Hoc retine verbum, frangit Deus omne superbum.”
Septuagint, “Impure in the sight of God is every high-hearted man ().“ The second member is found in Pro 11:21, and must be taken as a form of adjuration. Septuagint, “Putting hands on hand unjustly, he shall not be innocent;” i.e. one who acts violently and unjustly shall be held guiltywhich seems a trite truism. Many commentators interpret the clause as if it meant that the cooperation and combination of sinners in evil practices will not save them from retribution. But hand clasping hand in token of completing a bargain or alliance is scarcely an early Oriental custom. There is an analogous saying in Greek which implies mutual assistance –
“Hand washes hand, and finger finger.”
The LXX. has here two distiches, the first of which occurs in the Vulgate, but the second is not found there. Neither appears in our present Hebrew text. “The beginning of the good way is to do what is just; this is more acceptable to God than to sacrifice sacrifices. He who seeketh the Lord shall find knowledge with righteousness; and they who seek him rightly alkali find peace.”
Pro 16:6
By mercy and truth iniquity is purged; atoned for. The combination “mercy and truth” occurs in Pro 3:3 (where see note), and intimates love to God and man, and faithfulness in keeping promises and truth and justice in all dealings. It is by the exercise of those graces, not by mere external rites, that God is propitiated (see on Pro 10:2). A kind of expiatory value is assigned to these virtues, which, indeed, must not be pressed too closely, but should be examined by the light of such passages in the New Testament as Luk 11:41; Act 10:4. Of course, such graces show themselves only in one who is really devout and God fearing; they are the fruits of a heart at peace with God and man, and react on the character and conduct. The LXX; which places this distich after Pro 15:27, translates, “By alms and faithfulness () sins are cleansed,” confining the term “mercy” to one special form, as in one reading of Mat 6:1, “Take heed that ye do not your righteousness [al. alms] before men.” By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. The practice of true religion, of course, involves abstinence from sin; and this seems so unnecessary a truth to be formally stated that some take the “evil” named to be physical, not moral evil; calamity, not transgression. But the two clauses are coordinate, and present two aspects of the same truth. The first intimates how sin is to be expiated, the second how it is to be avoided. The morally good man meets with pardon and acceptance, and he who fears God is delivered from evil. So we pray, in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses, and deliver us from evil.” Septuagint, “By the fear of the Lord every one declineth from evil” (comp. Pro 14:27).
Pro 16:7
When a man’s ways please the Lord, which they can do only when they are religious, just, and charitable. He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him; to submit themselves. Experience proves that nothing succeeds like success. Where a man is prosperous and things go well with him, even ill-wishers are content to east away or to dissemble their dislike, and to live at peace with him. Thus Abimelech King of Gerar fawned upon Isaac because he saw that the Lord was with him (Gen 26:27, etc.). This is the worldly side of the maxim. It has a higher aspect, and intimates the far reaching influence of goodnesshow it disarms opposition, arouses reverence and love, gives no occasion for disputes, and spreads around an atmosphere of peace. To the Jews the maxim was taught by external circumstances. While they were doing the will of the Lord, their land was to be preserved from hostile attack (Exo 34:24; 2Ch 17:10). And Christians learn that it is only when they obey and fear God that they can overcome the assaults of the enemies of their soulthe devil, the world, and the flesh Talmud, “He who is agreeable to God is equally agreeable to men.”
Pro 16:8
Better is a little with righteousness (Pro 15:16; Psa 37:16). “Righteousness” may mean here a holy life or just dealing; as without right, or, with injustice, in the second clause, may refer either generally wickedness, or specially to fraud and oppression (Jer 22:13). Says Theognis
,
.
“Wish thou with scanty means pious to live,
Rather than rich with large, ill-gotten wealth.”
Another maxim says to the same effect
.
Septuagint, “Better is small getting () with righteousness, than great revenues with iniquity” (see on Pro 15:29).
Pro 16:9
A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps (Pro 16:1). “Man proposes, God disposes” or, as the Germans say, “Der Mensch denkt, Gott lenkt” (comp. Pro 20:24). The word rendered “deviseth” implies, by its spectra, intensity of thought and care. Man meditates and prepares his plans with the utmost solicitude, hut it rests with God whether he shall carry them to completion or not, and whether, if they are to be accomplished, it be done with ease or with painful labour (comp. Gen 24:12, etc.). We all remember Shakespeare’s words in ‘Hamlet’
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.”
Septuagint, “Let the heart of man consider what is just, that his steps may be by God directed might” (comp. Jer 10:23).
Pro 16:10
A Divine sentence is in the lips of the king. (quesem) is “divination,” “soothsaying,” oracular utterance. Septuagint, . The king’s words have, in people’s minds, the certainty and importance of a Divine oracle, putting an end to all controversy or division of opinion. It seems to be a general maxim, not especially referring to Solomon or the theocratic kingdom, but rather indicating the traditional view of the absolute monarchy. The custom of deifying kings and invoking them as gods was usual in Egypt and Eastern countries, and made its way to the West. “It is the voice of a god, and not of a man,” cried the people, when Herod addressed them in the amphitheatre at Caesarea (Act 12:22). The Greeks could say
.
“God’s very living image is the king.”
And thus his utterances were regarded as irrefragably true and decisive. His month transgresseth not in judgment. The decisions which he gives are infallible, and, at any rate, irresistible. We may refer to Solomon’s famous verdict concerning the two mothers (1Ki 3:16, etc.), and such sentences as Pro 8:15, “By me (wisdom) kings reign, and princes decree justice” (see below on Pro 8:12; Pro 21:1); and David’s words (2Sa 23:4), “He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God” (Wis. 9:4, 10, 12). Delitzsch regards the second hemistich as giving a warning (consequent on the former clause), and not stating a fact, “In the judgment his mouth should not err.” The present chapter contains many admonitions to kings which a wise father like Solomon may have uttered and recorded for the benefit of his son. If this is the case, it is as strange as it is true that Rehoboam made little use of the counsels, and that Solomon’s latter days gave the lie to many of them.
Pro 16:11
A just weight and balance are the Lord’s (Pro 11:1); literally, the balance and scales of justice (are) the Lord‘s. They come under his law, are subject to the Divine ordinances which regulate all man’s dealings. The great principles of truth end justice govern all the transactions of buying and selling; religion enters into the business of trading, and weights and measures are sacred things. Vulgate, “The weights and the balance are judgments of the Lord;” being true and fair, they are regarded as God’s judgment. Septuagint, “The turn of the balance is justice before God.” All the weights of the bag are his work. Some have round a difficulty here, because the bag may contain false as well as true weights (Deu 25:13), and it could not be said that the light weights were the Lord’s work. This surely is captious criticism. The maxim merely states that the trader’s weights take their origin and authority from God’s enactment, from certain eternal principles which he has established. What man’s chicanery and fraud make of them does not come into view. (For the law that regulates such matters, see Le 19:35, etc.) That cheating in this respect was not uncommon we learn from the complaints of the prophets, as Mic 6:11. The religious character of the standard weights and measures is shown by the term “shekel of the sanctuary” (Exo 38:24, and elsewhere continually).
Pro 16:12
It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness. This and the following verse give the ideal view of the monarchthat which he ought to be rather than what be is (comp. Psa 72:1-20.). Certainly neither Solomon nor many of his successors exhibited this high character. The Septuagint, followed by some modern commentators, translates, “He who doeth wickedness is an abomination to kings;” but as the “righteousness” in the second clause (the throne is established by righteousness) undoubtedly refers to the king, so it is more natural to take the “wickedness” in the first member as being his own, not his subjects’. When a ruler acts justly and wisely, punishes the unruly, rewards the virtuous, acts as God’s vicegerent, and himself sets the example of the character which becomes so high a position, he wins the affection of his people, they willingly obey him. and are ready to die for him and his family (comp. Pro 25:5; Isa 16:5). Lawmakers should not be law breakers. Seneca, ‘Thyest.,’ 215
“Ubi non est pudor,
Nec cura juris, sanctitas, pietas, fides,
Instabile regnum est.”
Pro 16:13
Righteous lips are the delight of kings. The ideal king takes pleasure in the truth and justice which his subjects display in their conversation. Such a one hates flattery and dissimulation, and encourages honest speaking. They (kings) love him that speaketh right; that which is just (Pro 8:6). The two clauses are coordinate. Septuagint, “He loveth upright words” (comp. Pro 22:11).
Pro 16:14
The wrath of a king is as messengers of death. In a despotic monarchy the death of an offender follows quickly on the offence. Anger the king, and punishment is at hand; instruments are always ready who will carry out the sentence, and that before time is given for reconsideration. The murder of Thomas a Becket will occur as an illustration (comp. Est 7:8, etc). The LXX. translates, “The king’s wrath is a messenger of death,” taking the plural as put by enallage for the singular; but possibly the plural may intimate the many agents who are prepared to perform the ruler’s behests, and the various means which he possesses for punishing offenders. This first clause implies, without expressly saying, that, such being the case, none but a fool will excite the monarch’s resentment (comp. Ecc 8:4); then the second clause comes in naturally. But a wise man will pacify it. He will take care not to provoke that anger which gluts its resentment so quickly and so fatally (Pro 19:12; Pro 20:2). Septuagint, “A wise man will appease him,” the king; as Jacob propitiated Esau by the present which he sent forward (Gen 32:20, Gen 32:21).
Pro 16:15
In the light of the king’s countenance is life (Pro 15:30; Psa 4:6). As the king’s anger and the darkening of his countenance are death (Pro 16:14), so, when his look is cheerful and bright, it sheds joy and life around, as the rain refreshes the parched ground. A cloud of the latter rain. The former rain in Palestine falls about the end of October or the beginning of November, when the seed is sown; the latter rain comes in March or April, and is absolutely necessary for the due swelling and ripening of the grain. It is accompanied, of course) with cloud, which tempers the heat, while it brings fertility and vigour. To this the king’s favour is well compared. “He shall come down,” says the psalmist, “like the rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth” (Psa 72:6). The LXX; reading (beni) for (peni), translates, “In the light of life is the son of the king; and they who are acceptable to him are as a cloud of the latter rain.”
Pro 16:16
To get wisdom than gold (comp, Pro 3:14; Pro 8:10, Pro 8:11, Pro 8:19); and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver; Revised Version better, yea, to get understanding is rather to be chosen than [to get] silver. If the clauses are not simply parallel, and the comparative value of silver and gold is So be considered, we may, with Wordsworth, see here an intimation of the superiority of wisdom (chochmah) over intelligence (binah), the former being the guide of life and including the practice of religion, the latter denoting discernment, the faculty of distinguishing between one thing and another (see note on Pro 28:4, and the quotation from ‘Pirke Aboth’ on Pro 15:33). The LXX; for kenoh reading kinnot, have given a version of which the Fathers have largely availed themselves: “The nests of wisdom are preferable to gold, and the nests of knowledge are preferable above silver.” Some of the old commentators take these “nests” to be the problems and apothegms which enshrine wisdom; others consider them to mean the children or scholars who are taught by the wise man.
Pro 16:17
The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. To avoid the dangerous byways to which evil leads, one must walk straight in the path of duty (comp. Pro 15:19). Septuagint, “The paths of life decline from evil;” and this version adds some paragraphs in illustration, which are not in the Hebrew: “And the ways of righteousness are length of life. He who receiveth instruction will be among the good [or, ‘in prosperity,’ ], and he who observeth reproof shall become wise.” He that keepeth his way preserveth his soul. He who continues in the right way, and looks carefully to his goings, will save himself from ruin and death (Pro 13:3). Septuagint, “He who watcheth his own ways keepeth his life.” And then is added another maxim, “He that loveth his life will spare his mouth.”
Pro 16:18
Pride goeth before destruction. A maxim continually enforced (see Pro 11:2; Pro 17:19; Pro 18:12). Here is the contrast to the blessing on humility promised (Pro 15:33). A haughty spirita lifting up of spiritgoeth before a fall (comp. Dan 4:29, etc). Thus, according to Herodotus (Pro 7:10), Artabanus warned the arrogant Xerxes, “Seest thou how God strikes with the thunder animals which overtop others, and suffers them not to vaunt themselves, but the small irritate him not? And seest thou how he hurls his bolts always against the mightiest buildings and the loftiest trees? For God is wont to cut short whatever is too highly exalted” (comp. Horace, ‘Carm.,’ 2.10.9, etc.). Says the Latin adage, “Qui petit alta nimis, retro lapsus ponitur imis.” Caesar, ‘Bell. Gall.,’ 1.14, “Consuesse Deos immortales, quo gravius homines ex commutatione rerum doleant, quos pro sceiere eorum ulcisci velint, his secundiores interdum re, et diuturuiorem impunitatem concedere.” The Chinese say, “Who flies not high falls not low;” and, “A great tree attracts the wind.” The Basque proverb remarks, “Pride sought flight in heaven, fell to hell.” And an Eastern one, “What is extended will tear; what is long will break” (Lane).
Pro 16:19
This verse is connected in thought, as well as verbally, with the preceding. Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly. The Revised Version has, with the poor; but “meek” or “lowly” better contrasts with “proud” of the second clause. Psa 84:10, “I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.” Than to divide the spoil with the proud. To share in the fruits of the operations and pursuits of the proud, and to enjoy their pleasures, a man must cast in his lot with them, uudergo their risks and anxieties, and participate in the crimes by which they gain their wealth. The result of such association was told in verse 18. The Germans express the connection between abundance and folly by the terse apothegm, “Voll, toll;” “Full, fool.” Septuagint, “Better is the man of gentle mind with humility, than he who divideth spoil with the violent.”
Pro 16:20
He that handleth a matter wisely. Dabar, translated “matter,” is better rendered “word,” as in Pro 13:13, with which passage the present is in contrast. Thus Revised Version, he that giveth heed unto the word. Shall find good; Vulgate, eruditus in verbo reperiet bona. The “Word” is the Law of God; he who attends to this shall prosper. The rendering of the Authorized Version is supported by the Septuagint, “The man prudent in affairs is a finder of good things;” he attends to his business, and thinks out the best mode of accomplishing his plans, and therefore succeeds in a worldly sense (comp. Pro 17:20). Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he; or, hail to him, as in Pro 14:21. To heed the Word and to trust in the Lord are correlative things; handling a matter wisely can hardly belong to the same category. The Septuagint contrasts the worldly success of one who manages business wisely and discreetly with the blessedness of him who, when he has done all, commits his cause to God and trusts wholly to him: “He who hath trusted in the Lord is blessed ().“
Pro 16:21
The wise in heart shall be called prudent. True wisdom is recognized and acknowledged as such, especially when it has the gift of expressing itself appropriately (see on Pro 24:8). The sweetness (Pro 27:9) of the lips increaseth learning. People listen to instruction at the mouth of one who speaks well and winningly. Such a one augments knowledge in others, and in himself too, for he learns by teaching. Knowledge ought not to be buried in one’s own mind, but produced on fit occasions and in suitable words for the edification of others. Ec Pro 20:30, “Wisdom that is hid, and treasure that is hoarded up, what profit is in them both?” (see Mat 5:15). Septuagint, “The wise and prudent they call worthless (); but they who are sweet in word shall hear more.” Wise men are called bad and worthless by the vulgar herd, either because they do not impart all they know, or because they are envied fear their learning; but those who are eloquent and gracious in speech shall receive much instruction from what they bear, every one being ready to converse with them anal impart any knowledge which they possess.
Pro 16:22
Understanding is a well spring of life unto him that hath it (Pro 10:11; Pro 13:14). The possessor of understanding has in himself a source of comfort and a vivifying power, which is as refreshing as a cool spring to a thirsty traveller. In all troubles and difficulties he can fall back upon his own good sense and prudence, and satisfy himself therewith. This is not conceit, but the result of a well grounded experience. But the instruction of fools is folly; i.e. the instruction which fools give is folly and sin; such is the only teaching which they can offer. So the Vulgate, doctrina stultorum fatuitas; and many modern commentators. But musar is better taken in the sense of “discipline” or “chastisement” (as in Pro 1:7; Pro 7:22; Pro 15:5), which the bad man suffers. His own folly is the scourge which punishes him; refusing the teaching of wisdom, he makes misery for himself, deprives himself of the happiness which virtue gives, and pierces himself through with many sorrows. Septuagint, “The instruction of tools is evil.”
Pro 16:23
The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth. Out of the abundance of his heart the wise man speaks; the spirit within him finds fit utterance. Pectus est quod disertos facit. The thought and mind control the outward expression and make it eloquent and persuasive (comp. Pro 15:2). And addeth learning to his lips; Vulgate, “addeth grace.” But lekach, which means properly “reception,” “taking in,” is best rendered “learning,” as in Pro 16:21; Pro 1:5, etc. The intellect and knowledge of the wise display themselves in their discourse. Delitzsch, “Learning mounteth up to his lips.” Ec Pro 21:26, “The heart of fools is in their mouth; but the mouth of the wise is in their heart.” Septuagint, “The heart of the wise will consider what proceedeth from his mouth; and on his lips he will carry prudence ().“
Pro 16:24
Pleasant words are as an honeycomb. “Pleasant words” are words of comforting, soothing tendency, as in Pro 15:26; Psa 19:10. The writer continues his praise of apt speech. The comparison with honey is common in all languages and at all times. Thus Homer sings of Nestor (‘Iliad,’ 1.248, etc.)
“The smooth-tongued chief, from whose persuasive lips
Sweeter than honey flowed the stream of speech.”
(Derby.)
So the story goes that on the lips of St. Ambrose, while still a boy, a swarm of bees settled, portending his future persuasive eloquence. Sweet to the soul, and health to the bones (Pro 15:30). The verse forms one sentence. The happy results of pleasant words are felt in body and soul. Honey in Palestine is a staple article of food, and is also used as a medicinal remedy. Of its reviving effects we read in the ease of Jonathan, who from a little portion hurriedly taken as he marched on had “his eyes enlightened” (1Sa 14:27). Septuagint, “Their sweetness is the healing of the soul.”
.
“Speech the physician of the soul’s annoy.”
Pro 16:25
A repetition of Pro 14:12.
Pro 16:26
He that laboureth laboureth for himself; literally, the soul of him that laboureth laboureth for him. “Soul” here is equivalent to “desire,” “appetite” (comp. Pro 6:30), and the maxim signifies that hunger is a strong incentive to workthe needs of the body spur the labourer to diligence and assiduity; he eats bread in the sweat of his brow (Gen 3:19). Says the Latin gnome
“Largitor artium, ingeniique magister Venter.”
“The belly is the teacher of all arts,
The parent of invention.”
“De tout s’avise a qui pain faut,”
“He who wants bread thinks of everything.”
There is our own homely saw, “Need makes the old wife trot;” as the Italians say, “Hunger sets the dog a-hunting” (Kelly). For his mouth craveth it of him; his mouth must have food to put in it. The verb (akaph) does not occur elsewhere; it means properly “to bend,” and then to put a load on, to constrain to press. So here, “His mouth bends over him, i.e. urgeth him thereto” (Revised Version). Ecc 6:7, “All labour of man is for his mouth;” we should say stomach. Hunger in some sense is the great stimulus of all work. “We commanded you,” says St. Paul (2Th 3:10), “that if any would not work, neither should he eat.” There is a spiritual hunger without which grace cannot be sought or obtainedthat hungering and thirsting after righteousness of which Christ speaks, and which he who is the Bread of life is ready to satisfy (Mat 5:6; Joh 6:58). The Septuagint expands the maxim: “A man in labours labours for himself, and drives away () his own destruction; but the perverse man upon his own mouth carrieth destruction.”
Pro 16:27
This and the three following verses are concerned with the case of the evil man. An ungodly mana man of Belialdiggeth up evil. A man of Belial (Pro 6:12) is a worthless, wicked person, what the French call a vaurien. Such a one digs a pit for others (Pro 26:27; Psa 7:15), devises mischief against his neighbour, plots against him by lying and slandering and overreaching. Wordsworth confines the evil to the man himself; he digs it as treasure in a mine, loves wickedness for its own sake. But analogy is against this interpretation. Septuagint, “A foolish man diggeth evils for himself.” So Ec Pro 27:26, “Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein; and he that setteth a trap shall be taken therein.” As the gnome says
.
And in his lips there is as a burning fire (Pro 26:23) His words scorch and injure like a devouring flame. Jas 3:6, “The tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell.” Septuagint, “And upon his lips he treasureth up fire.”
Pro 16:28
A froward man soweth strife (Pro 6:14, Pro 6:19). The verb means, literally, “sends forth,” which may signify “scatters as seed” or “hurls as a missile weapon.” The character intended is the perverse man, who distorts the truth, gives a wrong impression, attributes evil motives; such a one occasions quarrels and heartburnings. And a whisperer separateth chief friends (Pro 17:9). Nirgan is either “a chatterer,” or “a whisperer,” “calumniator.” In Pro 18:8 and Pro 26:20, Pro 26:22 it is translated “tale bearer.” “Be not called a whisperer (),” says the Son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus 5:14), speaking of secret slander. “Slanderers,” says an old apothegm, “are Satan’s bellows to blow up contension.” Septuagint, “A perverse man sendeth abroad evils, and kindleth a torch of deceit for the wicked, and separateth friends.” The alternative rendering of the second clause, “estrangeth a leader,” i.e. alienates one leader from another, or from his army, is not confirmed by the authority of the versions or the best commentators.
Pro 16:29
A violent man enticeth his neighbour. The man of violence (Pro 3:31) is one who wrongs others by injurious conduct, by fraud or oppression. How such a one “enticeth,” talks a man over, we see in Pro 1:10, etc. Septuagint, “The lawless man tempts () friends.” And leadeth him into the way that is not good (Psa 36:4; Isa 65:2); a position where he will suffer some calamity, or be induced to commit some wickedness.
Pro 16:30
This verse is better taken as one sentence, and translated, as Nowack, “He that shutteth his eyes in order to contrive froward things, he that compresseth his lips, hath already brought evil to pass;” he has virtually effected it. From such a crafty, malignant man you need not expect any more open tokens of his intentions. He shutteth his eyes (comp. Isa 33:15); either that he may better think out his evil plans, or else he cannot look his neighbour in the face while he is plotting against him. The Vulgate has, attonitis oculis; Septuagint, “fixing () his eyes.” Moving his lips; rather, he who compresseth his lips, to hide the malignant smile with which he might greet his neighbour’s calamity (comp. Pro 6:13, etc.; Pro 10:10), or that neither by word nor expression he may betray his thoughts. Others take the two outward expressions mentioned as signals to confederates; but this is not so suitable, as they are the man’s own feelings and sentiments that are meant. One who gives these tokens bringeth evil to pass; he has perfected his designs, and deems them as good as accomplished, and you will do well to note what his bearing signifies. Some take the meaning to be, brings punishment on himself; but the warning is not given for the sinner’s sake. Septuagint, “He defines () all evils with his lips; he is a furnace of evil.”
Pro 16:31
The hoary head is a crown of glory (Pro 20:29). (For “crown,” see on Pro 17:6.) Old age is the reward of a good life, and therefore is an honour to a man (comp. Pro 3:2, Pro 3:16; Pro 4:10; Pro 9:11; Pro 10:27). If it be foundrather, it shall be foundin the way of righteousness; the guerdon of obedience and holiness; whereas “bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days” (Psa 55:23). It is well said in the Book of Wisdom (Wis. 4:8, etc.), “Honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years. But wisdom is the grey hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age.”
Pro 16:32
He that is slow to anger (Pro 14:29) is better than the mighty. The long suffering, non-irascible man is more of a hero than the valiant commander of a great army. One overcomes external foes or obstacles; the other conquers himself; as it is said, And he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city (Pro 25:28). ‘Pirke Aboth,’ 4.1, “Who is the hero? The man that restrains his thoughts.” Maxims about self-mastery are common enough. Says an unknown poet, “Fortior est qui se quam qui fortissima vincit Moenia, nec virtus altius ire potest.” So Publ. Syr; ‘Sent.,’ 795, “Fortior est qui cupiditates suas, quam qui hostes subjicit.” And the mediaeval jingle –
“Linguam fraenare
Plus est quam castra domare.”
At the end of this verse the Alexandrian Manuscript of the Septuagint, followed by later hands in some other uncials, adds, “and a man having prudence [is better] than a great farm.”
Pro 16:33
The lot is cast into the lap. The bosom or fold of the garment (Pro 6:27; Pro 17:23; Pro 21:14). It is not quite clear what articles the Jews used in their divinations by lot. Probably they employed stones, differing in shape or colour, or having some distinguishing mark. These were placed in a vessel or in the fold of a garment, and drawn or shaken thence. Such a practice has been common in all ages and countries; and though only cursorily mentioned in the Mosaic legislation (Num 26:55), it was used by the Jews from the time of Joshua, and in the earliest days of the Christian Church (see Jos 18:10; Jdg 20:9; 1Sa 10:20, 1Sa 10:21; Act 1:1-26 :28, etc.). As by this means man’s agency was minimized, and all partiality and chicanery were excluded, the decision was regarded as directed by Providence. There is one case only of ordeal in the Law, and that under suspicion of adultery (Num 5:12, etc.). In the Epistle to the Hebrews, in place of the lot we read (Heb 6:16), “An oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.” The whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. In these eases the Jew learned to see, in what we call chance, the overruling of Divine power. But this was not blind superstition. He did not feel justified in resorting to this practice on every trivial occasion, as persons used the Sortes Virgilianae or even the verses of the Bible for the same purpose. The lot was employed religiously in cases where other means of decision were not suitable or available; it was not to supersede common prudence or careful investigation; but, for example, in trials where the evidence was conflicting and the judges could not determine the case, the merits were ascer-rained by lot (comp. Jos 18:18). After the effusion of the Holy Spirit, the apostles never resorted to divination, and the Christian Church has wisely repudiated the practice of all such modes of discovering the Divine will. Septuagint, “For the unrighteous all things fall into their bosom, but from the Lord are all just things,” which may mean either that, though the wicked seem to prosper, God still works out his righteous ends; or the evil suffer retribution, and thus God’s justice is displayed.
HOMILETICS
Pro 16:1
Man’s thought and God’s work
Theology and philosophy have ever been confronted with the problem of the interrelation of the Divine and the human in life. If God is supreme, what room is there for man’s will, thought, and individual personality? If man has freedom and power, how can God be the infinite Ruler and Disposer of all things? It may not be possible to reconcile the two positions. But it must be unwise to ignore either of them. If we cannot mark their confines, we can at least observe the contents of the domain of each.
I. MAN HAS FREEDOM OF THOUGHT. “Man’s are the counsels of the heart.” Though externally constrained by circumstances, he is free to roam at large in the ample fields of imagination. The mind has a certain originative power. It is well nigh a creator of thoughtsat least it can select the ideas that occur to it, arrange them, draw deductions from them; or it can let its fancies grow into new shapes; or, again, it can organize schemes, project plans, formulate purposes. Now, this liberty and the power it implies carry with them certain momentous consequences.
1. We are responsible for our thoughts. They are all known to God, and they will all be judged by him. Let as therefore take heed what follies and fancies we harbour in our most secret “chambers of imagery.”
2. We may exercise power with our thoughts. These thoughts are seeds of actions. Inasmuch as we can direct them, we can turn the first springs of events. Here it is, in this inner workshop of the mind, that a man must forge his own future, and strike out works of public good.
3. We cannot be coerced in our thoughts. The tyrant may fling a man into a dungeon, but he cannot destroy the convictions that are enthroned in the bosom of his victim; he may tear out his tongue, but he can never tear out his thoughts. Here the powers of despotism fail; here the inalienable “lights of man” are over in exercise.
II. GOD WORKS THROUGH MAN‘S LIFE. “The answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” Though a man thinks out his ideas with originative power, when he comes into the world of action other influences lay hold of him, and his utterances are not wholly his own. This is conspicuously true of the prophet, who is not a mere mouthpiece of Divine words, but a living, thinking man; and yet whose utterances are inspired by God. The remarkable fact now is that it is true also of every man, of the godless man as well as the devout man. God controls the outcome of every man’s life.
1. He controls through internal impulses. Conscience is the voice of God, and every man has a conscience. When conscience is disobeyed, the willing service of God is rejected, but still an unconscious doing of God’s will may be brought about. In the days of the Exodus God was guiding even the stubborn Pharaoh to consent at last to the Divine purpose in the liberation of the Hebrews.
2. He controls through external circumstances. These modify a man’s words and deeds. Even after he has spoken, they give point and direction to what he has said and done.
Pro 16:4
The purpose of creation
It is commonly asserted that God made the world in love, that he created it from the goodness of his heart, because he desired to have creatures to bless. From this point of view, creation represents grace, giving, surrender, sacrifice, on the part of God. But another and apparently a contrary view is suggested by the words before us. Here it would seem that God created all things from self regarding motives, as a man makes a machine for his own use. The contradiction, however, is only superficial. For if we take the second view, we must still bear in mind what the character of God is. Now, God is revealed to us as essential]y love. Therefore only those things will please him that agree with love. A cruel Being might make for himself creatures that would amuse him by exhibiting contortions of agony, but a fatherly Being will be best pleased by seeing his family truly good and happy. It the universe is made to please Divine love, it must be made for blessedness. Yet it cannot be made for selfish happiness. It must be created so as to find its own good in God, and thus to give itself up to him as the End of its being. Apply this principle
I. IN REGARD TO THE UNIVERSE AT LARGE. The law of gravitation is universal All things tend to rush to their centres of attraction. In a large way the universe is drawn to God, its Centre.
1. It is ever more and more realizing the purpose of God. This is seen in all growththe seed becomes the flowering plant, etc. It is strikingly exemplified in the doctrine of evolution. The great thought of God concerning the universe is slowly emerging into fact.
2. It is continually approaching the thought of God. The higher orders of creatures are nearer to the nature and thought of the Infinite Spirit than the lower. The upward movement is a Godward movement.
3. It is growingly fulfilling the purpose of God. From the formless and void past the universe moves on to “one far off Divine event,” when God’s will shall be completely accomplished.
II. IN REGARD TO EVIL. Evil in itself, moral evil, cannot have been made by God, who is only holy. But in two respects evil may come within God’s purposes.
1. Physical evil directly works out God‘s purposes. It is only evil to our eyes, as shadows look gloomy and winter feels painful. Really it is good, because it is part of the whole good plan of the universe. God sends pain in love, that the issue of it may be the higher blessedness of his children.
2. Moral evil will be overruled for Divine purposes. The bad man has his uses. Nebuchadnezzar was essential to the chastisement of Israel. Judas Iscariot was an agent in the chain of events that issued in Christ’s great work of redemption.
III. IS REGARD TO INDIVIDUAL SOULS. We are all made for God. He is the End of our being, not only as the home and rest we need, but as the goal after which we should aim. The great aim of Christ’s work is to bring all things in subjection to God, that he “may be All in all” (1Co 15:28). The mistake of men is in seeking their own good first, even though this be the higher good of “other-worldliness.” For our great end is to forget self in God.
Pro 16:24
Pleasant words
I. PLEASANT WORDS ARE GOOD IN SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. They are said to cost little, while they are worth much. But often they are not to be had without trouble.
1. Sympathy. We must put ourselves to the trouble of entering into our brother’s feelings if we would speak with real kindness to him.
2. Self-suppression. Angry words may be the first to rise to our lips; bitter words of scorn or melancholy words springing from the gloom of our own minds may come more readily than the pleasant words that are due to our neighbours.
3. Thought. Words of honey soon cloy if no satisfying thoughts lie behind them. Pleasant words should be more than wordsthey should be messengers of healing, suggestions of helpfulness. Now, as some trouble is required for the production of this kind of speech in daily intercourse, it is well to consider how valuable it is. It draws hearts together. It lightens the load of life and oils its wheels. There are enough of clouds about the souls of most men to make it desirable that we should shed all the sunshine that we possibly can. It would, be like a migration from Northern gloom to Southern sunshine for all speech to be seasoned with truly pleasant words.
II. PLEASANT WORDS ARE NEEDED IN CHRISTIAN TEACHING. The preacher is not to be a false prophet of smooth sayings, whispering,” Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. There are times when hard words must be spoken and most unpleasant truths do need to be driven home to unwilling hearers. But it will be only the pressing necessity of the subject that will force men of tender hearts to utter painful words. When the topic is not of this character, the most winning words should be chosen.
1. In teaching the young. The gloom of some good people has repelled the young. Children ought to see the sunny side of religion. All who are themselves bright and happy should know that there is a greater gladness for them in Christ. The preacher of the gospel belies his rues:age when he proclaims it like a funeral dirge.
2. In interesting the careless. We cannot frown men into the Church. if we show the attractiveness of the gospel by cheerful manners, we help to commend it to the world.
3. In comforting the sorrowful. It is not necessary to speak sad words to the sad in order to prove our sympathy. It should be our aim to lighten the load of their sorrow.
III. PLEASANT WORDS ARE FOUND IN THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. Christ preached so that “the common people heard him gladly.” Men wondered at the “gracious wonts” that fell from his lips. Christianity is a religion of Divine grace. Surely there must be found many pleasant words in the description of it. The words of the gospel are pleasant, in particular, on several accounts.
1. They tell of God’s love.
2. They portray Christ.
3. They invite men to salvation.
4. They reveal the blessedness of the kingdom of heaven.
Pro 16:25
The treacherous path
What way have we here referred to? If the path be so deceptive, surely the guide should indicate it. Yet the way to destruction is not named, nor is its place pointed out on the chart of life. No doubt the reason of this indefiniteness of expression is just that the dangerous way is a broad road, very easy to discover, yet there are many tracks along it, and each person may take his own course. It is so broad that any description of it may possibly leave out some of its devious paths. Therefore it is better only to indicate its character and leave it for each to consider the warning, that an attractive appearance in the path is no proof of a safe end.
I. THE APPARENT RIGHTNESS OF THE WAY.
1. The fact. It is not only said that the way of death is attractive, like a smooth garden path winding among flower beds, while the way of life is a steep and rugged mountain track; but this way even seems to be right. There is an apparent justification for following it. Conscience is in danger of being deluded into giving it a quasi-sanction.
2. The cause. We are always tempted to condone the agreeable. If no danger is apparent, sanguine minds refuse to believe that they are approaching one. Convention simulates conscience. The multitude who tread the broad way tempt us into trusting the sanction of their example. It is difficult to believe that that is wrong which fashion encourages.
3. The limitations.
(1) The way only “seemeth” right, We need to be guarded against succumbing to the bondage of appearances. The question is not as to what a thing seems, but what it is.
(2) It is right in the eves of the man who is tempted to follow it, But it is not right in the eyes of God. We have to look to the higher standard of God’s approval. It is of no use that our course seems right to ourselves if it is wrong before God. On the other hand, it may be objected that these considerations destroy the validity of conscience; for if we are not to follow our own conscience, what higher guide can we have? The answer may be threefold.
(1) Seeming right may not be the verdict of our true consciences, but only the too readily accepted conclusion of more worldly considerations.
(2) Conscience may be perverted.
(3) At all events, while we have the light of revelation in Scripture and especially in Christ, we have a guide for conscience, to neglect which is to be left without excuse.
II. THE FATAL END OF THE WAY.
1. The importance of the end. The great question isWhither are we going? The purpose of a road is not to serve as a platform for stationary waiting, but to lead to some destination. It is foolish for the traveller to neglect the sign post, and only follow the attractiveness of the road, if he wishes to reach his home. In life the value of the course chosen is determined by its issues.
2. The character of the end. The end is “the way of death.” This is true of every course of sin. Dark and dreadful, without qualification of any kind, this goal ever stands at the end of the way of wickedness. Disappointment may come first, and sorrow, and weariness; it will be well for us if they warn us before we take the final plunge into soul destruction.
3. The manner of reaching the end. The pleasant way does not lead directly into the pit of destruction. It is only a preliminary stage in the downward journey. It brings the traveller to “the ways” of death. It may be regarded as a by-path running into the broad road. There are questionable amusements and dangerous friendships that are not themselves fatal, but they incline the careless to ways of evil They are perilous as subtle tempters fashioned like angels of light.
Pro 16:31
The glory of old age
I. OLD AGE MAY BE CROWNED WITH GLORY IN THE COMPLETION OF LIFE. it is not natural to die in youth. We talk of the bud gathered before it has opened on earth, that it may bloom with perfection in heaven, etc.; but we must confess that there is a great mystery in the death of children. If God so wills it, it is better to live through the whole three score years and ten into full old age. The broken column is the symbol of the unfinished life. “Such a one as Paul the aged” could say, “I have finished my course.”
1. Life is good. It may be sorrow stricken and it may be wrecked on the rocks of sin. Then, indeed, it is evil. There was one of whom it was said, “It had been good for that man if he had not been born” (Mat 26:24). But in itself life is good. Men in mental sanity prize it. The Old Testament idea of the value of a full long life is more healthy than the sickly sentimentalism that fancies an early death to be a Heaven-sent boon.
2. Time is for service. Therefore the longer the time allotted to one, the more opportunity is there for doing good. This, again, may be abused and misspent in sin. But the old age of a good man means the completion of a long day’s work. Surely it is an honour to be called into the field in the early morning of life, and to be permitted to toil on till the shadows descend on a long summer evening.
II. OLD AGE MAY BE CROWNED WITH GLORY IN ITS OWN ATTAINMENTS. A bad old age presents a hideous picture. A hoary-headed sinner is, indeed, a spectacle of horror. Mere old age is not venerable in itself. Reverence for years implies a belief that the years have gathered in a harvest of venerable qualities. Old age has its defects, not only in bodily frailty, but in a certain mental stiffening. Thus Lord Bacon says, “Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success;” and Madame de Stael says, “To resist with success the frigidity of old age, one must combine the body, the mind, and the heart; to keep these in parallel vigour one must exercise, study, and love.” But, on the other hand, there are inward attainments of a ripe and righteous old age that give to the late autumn of life a mellow flavour which is quite unknown in its raw summer. “Age is not all decay,” says a modern novelist; “it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk.” It has been remarked that women are most beautiful in youth and in old age. The wisdom, the judiciousness, the large patience with varieties of opinion which should come with experience, are not always round in old people, who sometimes stiffen into bigotry and freeze into dreary customs. But when these graces are found in a large and healthy soul, no stage of life can approach the glory of old age. Even when there is not capacity for such attainments, there is a beautiful serenity of soul that simpler people can reach, and that makes their very presence to be a benediction.
III. OLD AGE MAY BE CROWNED WITH GLORY IN ITS PREPARATION FOR THE FUTURE. In unmasking the horrible aspect of death and revealing the angel face beneath, Christianity has shed a new glory over old age. It is the vestibule to the temple of a higher life. The servant of God has been tried and disciplined by blessing, suffering, and service. At length he is “meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.” He can learn to resist the natural melancholy of declining powers with the vision of renewed energy in the heavenly future. Or, if he cares for rest, he may know that it will be a rest with Christ, and he can say, with the typical aged saint Simeon, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.”
Pro 16:32
Self-control
The world has always made too much of military glory. From the days of the Pharaohs, when brutal monarchs boasted of the number of cities they had sacked, to our own time, when successful generals receive thanks in Parliament, and grants of money far beyond the highest honours and emoluments ever bestowed upon the greatest and most useful civilians, it has been the habit of men to flatter and pamper soldiers out of all proportion to their deserts. But we are here reminded of a simple and private victory which is really greater than one of those great military exploits that send a shock of amazement round the world. It is a more noble feat to be able to rule one’s own spirit than to capture a city. Consider some of the ways in which this supreme excellence of self-control is apparent.
I. IT IS GREATER IN EFFORT. In ancient days, before the invention of heavy ordnance, a siege taxed all the energies of the most skillful and powerful general. This provincial city of Jerusalem was long able to hold out against the legions of florae. But self-control is even more difficult.
1. The enemy is within. The war of the soul is a civil war. We may be successful in external life, and yet unable to cope with the inner foes of our own hearts.
2. The enemy is turbulent. Some races are harder to rule than others; but no half-savage, wholly fanatical dervishes, could be more fierce than the wild passions that rage within a man’s own breast.
3. The enemy has acquired great power. The uprising of passion is not a veiled sedition; it is out-and-out rebellion. Long habit has given it a sort of vested interest in the privileges of its lawlessness.
4. The enemy is subtle. “The heart is deceitful above all things.” It is plotting treason when all looks safe. The careless soul slumbers over a mine of dynamite in the region of its own passions. It needs a supreme effort to quell and curb and rule such a foe.
II. IT IS GREATER IN RESULTS. At first sight this preposition must appear absurd. The man who curbs his own spirit does something inward, private, secret. The man who takes a city makes his mark on history. How can the self-control be the more fruitful thing?
1. It means more to the individual man. The successful, general has won a name of glory. Yet at its best it is but superficial and empty. He may be despising himself while the world is shouting his praises. But the strong soul that has learnt to control itself has the inward satisfaction of its self-mastery.
2. It means more to the world. Weak men may win a temporary success, but in the long run their inner feebleness is certain to expose itself. Such men may take a city, but they cannot rule it. They may do startling things, but not really great things, and the mischief of their follies will be more disastrous than the gain of their successes.
III. IT IS GREATER IN CHARACTER. True greatness is not to be measured by achievements, which depend largely upon external circumstances. One man has an opportunity of doing something striking, and another is denied every chance. Yet the obscure person may be really far greater than the fortunate instrument of victory. True greatness is in the soul. He is great who lives a great soul life, while a Napoleon may be mean in spite of his brilliant powers and achievements. In the sight of Heaven he stands highest who best fights the enemies in his own breast, because he exercises the highest soul powers. It is the province of Christian grace to substitute the glory of self victory for the vulgar glare of military success.
Pro 16:33
The lottery of life
I. LIFE APPEARS TO BE A LOTTERY. “The lot is cast into the lap.” We seem to depend largely on chance.
1. We are ignorant of important facts. We are obliged to grope our way through many dark places. Life comes to us veiled in mystery. It may be that certain material considerations would greatly modify our action if only we knew them, yet we must act without regard to them, from sheer ignorance.
2. We cannot, predict the future. Even when we do grasp the essential points of our situation in the present, we cannot tell what new possibilities may emerge. A sudden turn of the kaleidoscope may give an entirely novel complexion to life.
3. We are unable to master our circumstances. We find ourselves surrounded by innumerable influences which we may understand, more or less, but which we cannot alter. Sometimes it appears as though we were no more free agents than the driftwood that is cast up on the beach by the angry surf. Circumstances are too strong for us, and we must let circumstances take their course.
4. We cannot control the course of events. Many things happen quite outside the range of our lives, yet their results will strike across the path of our own actions. Other people are busy planning and working, and we do not all consult together and work in harmony. When many hands throw the shuttle it is impossible to bring out and sure design.
II. GOD DISPOSES OF THE LOTTERY OF LIES. Voltaire says, “Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.” It is but a name for our ignorance of the course of events, Nevertheless, if there were no mind behind the apparent confusion of life, universal causation would but give us a blind and purposeless fateno better, surely, than a wild and chaotic chance. But to one who believes in God the terrible uncertainty of the lottery of life is a great reason for prayer and trust.
1. God knows all. He knows every fact, and he foresees the whole future. Herein we have a grand reason fir faith. One who knows so much more than we do must needs often act in a way that we do not understand. But his infinite knowledge is a reason for our unlimited trust in him.
2. God controls all. Events seem to be tossed about in the lap of chance. Yet just as surely as laws of motion govern the slightest movement of all the leaves that are blown by an autumn wind, Divine purposes control all human events, in the midst of their seeming confusion. This runs; be so if God is God.
“He maketh kings to sit in sovereignty;
He maketh subjects to their power obey;
He pulleth down, he setteth up on high;
He gives to this, from that he takes away;
For all we have is his; what he will do, he may.”
(Spenser.)
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Pro 16:1-3
The rule and guidance of Jehovah
I. GOD THE OBJECT AND FULFILMENT OF HUMAN DESIRE. We are wishful, craving creatures, “with no language but a sigh.” The answer of the praying tongue and heart is God himselfin the fulness of his wisdom and love, the generosity of his gifts, the accessibility of his presence. A philosopher of this century actually taught that God was the Creator of human wishes and imagination. Let us rather say, it is God who creates and calls forth the longings of the finite heart, which is restless till it rests in him.
II. GOD THE CORRECTOR OF OUR FALSE JUDGMENTS. (Pro 16:2) We are prone to judge of actions and choices by their aesthetic value, i.e. by reference to our feeling of pleasure and pain; God pronounces on their ethical value, their relation to his Law and to the ideal of our own being.
III. GOD THE SUPPORT OF OUR WEAKNESS. (Pro 16:3.) What is the source of all care and over anxiety, but that we are unequal to the conflict with laws mightier than our frail energies and endeavours? Without God, we stand trembling in the presence of a giant late which can crush us. But there is no such fate to the believer in God, only a holy power and immovable will. “We are a care to the gods,” said Socrates. Much more can the Christian say this, and learn to ,get rid of his troubles by making them in childlike faith God’s troubles, his cares God’s cares. Our plans become fixed, our purposes firm, when we are conscious that they are God’s plans and purposes being wrought out through us.J.
Pro 16:4-9
The administration of rewards and punishments
I. THE MORAL DESIGNS OF GOD. (Pro 16:4.) The creation is teleological; it has a beginning, a process, and an end in view, all determined by the will and wisdom of God. If this is true of every plant, of every mollusc, it is true of every man. We are formed to illustrate his praise. Disobedience, with its consequences, ratifies his just and holy laws.
II. THE MORAL FEELINGS OF GOD. (Pro 16:5.) Only that which stands in a true relation to him can be true. Haughtiness and arrogance are, so to speak, in the worst taste. In the eyes of God they are not beautiful, and cannot escape his criticism and correction.
III. HIS PROVISION FOR THE OBLIVION OF GUILT AND THE CURE OF MORAL EVIL. (Pro 16:6.) In social relations he has opened a fountain, sweet and healing, for mutual faults and sins. Love hides a multitude of sins. “I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much” (comp. Isa 58:7; Dan 4:27). But prevention is better than healing, and in religion is the prophylactic against evil.
IV. GOD‘S RECONCILING LOVE. (Pro 16:7.) What sweeter pleasure does life yield than reconciliation? ‘Tis a deeper blessing than peace which has never been broken. Life is full of the principle of opposition; and God is manifested, first in the drawing of us to himself, and then in the union of estranged human hearts to one another.
V. THE LAW OF COMPENSATION. (Pro 16:8.) He hath set the one over against the other, that we should seek nothing alter him. Poverty has great advantages, if we will see it sois more favourable, on the whole, to moral health than the reverse condition. And the hard crust of honest poverty, how sweet! the luxurious living of the dishonest rich, how insipid! or how bitter!
VI. DIVINE RECTIFICATIONS. (Pro 16:9.) We must take heed to our own way; yet with all our care, we cannot ensure right direction or security. We need God’s rectification and criticism at every point, and hence should ever say to ourselves, “If the Lord will, we will do this or that” (Jas 4:15). The blending of human with Divine counsel, human endeavour with God’s guidance, may defy analysis, but is known in experience to be real.J.
Pro 16:10-15
Divine and human authority
I. THE DERIVATION OF AUTHORITY AND LAW FROM GOD. (Pro 16:10.) The true ruler is the representative of God. Royal decrees and legal statutes profess to rest, and must rest ultimately, if they are to be binding, upon the moral Law itself. Hence the reverence in old days for “the Lord’s anointed,” though in the person of a Charles Stuart, was the popular witness to a deep truth, which lies at the foundation of society.
II. PRINCIPLES OF STABLE RULE. (Pro 16:11.) The pair of scales have ever been viewed as the emblems of justice, and so the expressions, symbolically, of the nature of God. The second allusion is to the stone weights which the Oriental merchant carries in his bag, serving the purpose the more exactly, as not liable to rust. The exact balance and the just weight, then, if symbols of Jehovah, must be the symbols of every righteous human government.
III. THE PRINCIPLES OF ROYAL FAVOUR AND DISFAVOUR. (Pro 16:12-15.)
1. The ruler must be of pure sentiment, abhorring all kinds of immorality, keeping his court pure, “rearing the white flower of a blameless life in the fine light that beats upon the throne.” How much we owe in these respects to the example of our sovereign and her husband is written on the thankful heart of every religious Englishman.
2. Strong moral convictions. That the throne securely rests, not upon might, but right; not upon bayonets, but upon the Word of God. The influence proceeding from such a mind will be constantly felt as antipathetic to falsehood and corruption, and the other eating mildews of high places.
3. Sympathy with honest policies. How common is it to assume that politics have little or nothing to do with morality! No one who believes in the teaching of his Bible can accept such a dogma. He who acts upon it is already a traitor to his country and his God. As Greece had its Demosthenes, who has been called a “saint in politics,” so we have had, thank God, in our time Inca of eloquent tongue and true heart in the national councils. May their line and tradition never become extinct!
4. Their dread judicial power. (Pro 16:14.) The authorities who represent the penal powers of law are a terror to evil doers. There must be the power to punish. And a measured and well tempered severity does in a sense “reconcile” numbers, not to be affected otherwise, to a course of law-abiding and just conduct.
5. The attractions of their smile. (Pro 16:15.) Ever, while human nature continues what it is, the smile of the sovereign, the tokens of his favourthe star, the medal, the garter, the uniformwill be sought after with eagerness and worn with pride. There may be a side of idle vanity in this, yet equally a side of good. It is good to seek association with greatness, though the ideal of greatness may often be mistaken. Only let us see that there is no real greatness which does not in some way reflect the majesty of God.J.
Pro 16:16-26
The Divine justice in respect to the wise and fools
We see the moral order of God revealed in the character and life of men in various ways. Their conduct has a good or evil effect on themselves, on their fellows, and is exposed to Divine judgment. Let us take these in their order.
I. THE REFLEXIVE EFFECT OF MAN‘S CONDUCT.
1. Wisdom is enriching (Pro 16:16). To acquire it is better than ordinary wealth (Pro 3:14; Pro 8:10, Pro 8:11, Pro 8:19).
2. Rectitude is safety (Pro 16:17). It is a levelled and an even way, the way of the honest and good man; not, indeed, always to his own feeling, but in the highest view, “He that treads it, trusting surely to the right, shall find before his journey closes he is close upon the shining table lands to which our God himself is Sun and Noon.” The only true way of self-preservation is the way of right.
3. The truth of contrast (Pro 16:18). Pride foretells ruin; the haughty spirit, overthrow and destruction (Pro 15:25, Pro 15:33). The thunderbolts strike the lofty summits, and leave unharmed the kneeling vale; shiver the oak, and pass harmless over the drooping flower. We are ever safe upon our knees, or in the attitude of prayer. A second contrast appears in Pro 16:19. The holy life with scant fare better than a proud fortune erected on unjust gains,
“He that is down need fear no fall;
He that is low, no pride.”
4. The effect of religious principle (Pro 16:20). We need constantly to carry all conduct into this highest light, or trace it to this deepest root. Piety here includes two things:
(1) obedience to positive command;
(2) living trust in the personal God.
Happiness and salvation are the fruit. “I have had many things in my hands, and have lost them all. Whatever I have been able to place in God’s hands, I still possess” (Luther).
II. EFFECTS IS RELATION TO OTHERS.
1. The good man is pleasing to others (Pro 16:21, Pro 16:24). There is a grace on his lips, a charm in his conversation, in a “speech alway with grace, seasoned with salt.” How gladly men listened to our great Exemplar, both in public and in private! Thus, too, the good man sweetens instruction, and furthers its willing reception in the mind of his listeners.
2. He earns a good reputation for sense, discretion, prudence (Pro 16:21, Pro 16:22). And this not only adds to his own happiness (for we cannot be happy without the good will of our fellows), but it gives weight to his teaching (Pro 16:23). The teacher can produce little effect whose words stand not out in relief from the background of character. The true emphasis is supplied by the life.
3. The contrast (Pro 16:22). The folly of fools is self-chastising. The fool makes himself disagreeable to others; even if he chances upon a sound word or right action, it is devoid of the value and weight which only character can give. He incurs prejudice and opposition on every hand, sows thorns in his own path, and invites his own destruction.
III. THE PRINCIPLE OF DIVINE JUDGMENT IN ALL. Every one of these effects marks in its way the expression of the Divine will, the laws of a Divine order. But, above all, the end determines the value of choice and the quality of life. The great distinction between the seeming and the real is the distinction between facts as they appear in the light of our passions, our wishes, our lusts, our various illusions and self-deceptions, and facts as they are in the clear daylight of eternal truth and a judgment which cannot err (Pro 16:25). To guard against the fatal illusions that beset us, we should ask:
1. Is this course of conduct according to the definite rules of conduct as they are laid down in God’s Word?
2. Is it according to the best examples of piety? Above all, is it Christ-like, God-like?J.
Pro 16:26
The blessing of hunger
I. AT BOTTOM, HUNGER, THE NEED OF BREAD, IS THE GREAT STING AND GOAD TO ALL EXERTION, TO USEFUL ACTIVITY IN GENERAL.
II. HENCE HUNGER IS THE HELPER OF OUR TOIL. And we may thank God for every stimulus to do our best. Have not the best things been done for the world in every department by poor men?
III. AS APPLIED TO RELIGION, IT IS THE HUNGER OF THE SOUL WHICH PROMPTS US TO SEEK FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS; the emptiness of other joys which sends us to the feast of the gospel. Through toil and trouble, the worst unrest and distress can alone be overcome.J.
Pro 16:27-30
Penal judgments on guilt
I. GODLESS STRIVINGS. Life is full of success and failure. There are successes which cost the soul, and failures in which is contained the reaping of life eternal. The activity of the worthless man (Pro 16:27).
1. It is mischievous in spirit and in end. He is depicted as one who digs a grave for others (Pro 26:27; Jer 18:20, sqq.). And his words are like fire that scorches, blasting reputation, withering the buds of opening good in the sentiment of the young, scoffing down the right and true.
2. It is contentious; breeding quarrels, creative of strife, introducing breaches between friends, disuniting households. “Envy and every evil work” is wherever he goes.
3. It is the activity of the tempter, the seducer. Not content with error himself, he would have partners in sorrow and in guilt. It is thus truly diabolical.
4. It is metilated and determined (Pro 16:30). Very striking is the picture of this versethe eyes bah closed, the bit lips, the firm line about the mouth of one resolved on dark designs and their determined execution. What a power is thought for good or evil! Oh for its right direction by the loving and creative Spirit of all wisdom and goodness, that it may be ever inventive of kind and healing deeds, that may “seal up the avenues of ill,” rather than open them more widely to the processions of darkness and hate!J.
Pro 16:31, Pro 16:32
The gentle life
Portrayed with exquisite sweetness and beauty.
I. AN HONOURED AGE. The biblical pictures of the aged pious are very charming, and Polycarp, with his eighty-six years upon him, passing to another crown, that of martyrdom, is sublime; also “Paul the aged and the prisoner.” The text points out what we must all recognize for an aesthetic truth, that it is the association of age with. goodness which makes it truly respectable, venerable, beautiful.
II. MORAL HEROISM. The heathen type of heroism was strength of armbodily strength, manly courage against an outward foe. The spiritual and the Christian type is in strength of will against evil, self mastery, self-conquest, sublime patience. Better than to be members of any knightly order, “Companions” of the Bath, or any similar society speaking of the lower and carnal virtues, to be “companions in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.”J.
Pro 16:33
Chance and providence
I. CHANCE IS BUT AN EXPRESSION OF HUMAN IGNORANCE. When we speak of that which is contingent, we mean something the law of which is not yet known.
II. MAN‘S CONTROL OVER EVENTS IS LIMITED. We can give the external occasion to a decision; the decision itself rests with a higher power.
III. GOD OVERRULES ALL THINGS, AND OVERRULES THEM FOR THE BEST. To pretend that we are not free is to deny our nature, and so to deny him; and it is also a denial of him to think that we can be absolute masters of our fate. Between night and daytruths that are obscure and convictions that are clearour life is balanced. Life rests on two pillarsthe providence of God and the responsibility of man.J
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Pro 16:1, Pro 16:3, Pro 16:9
Thought, action, prayer
It may be said that the three main elements of human experience are those of thinking, of acting, and of praying. We have not done our best until we have done all of these.
I. THOUGHT. “The preparations of the heart belong to man” (Revised Version). “Thy thoughts” (“thy purposes,” Revised Version). We are told of Peter, after the denial, that “when he thought thereon, he wept” (Mar 14:72). But if he had thought beforehand what grief he would cause his Master by such unworthiness, he would not have had occasion to weep at all. “When Judas saw that he was condemned, he repented.” But if he had thought, he would have seen that this was the plain and inevitable issue of his action. The pity is that we do not think as we should before we act. The preparation of the heart belongs to us; it is our most bounden duty to think, and to think well, before we act. And we must remember that speech is action, and often most important and decisive action too. We should include in our thought, when we are forming our “purposes” (Revised Version), the consideration of the effects of our prepared action upon
(1) our Whole naturebodily, mental, spiritual;
(2) our family and our friends;
(3) our neighbours and associates;
(4) our fellow worshippers and fellow workers;
(5) the cause of Jesus Christ;
(6) not only the immediate, but the further future.
We should, so far as we can, think the whole subject through, look at it from all those points of view that we command; above all, we should take a decreasingly selfish and an increasingly generous and devout view of the subjects that come before us.
II. ACTION. “Thy works.” Thought must be followed by vigorous effort, or it will “lose the name of action.” Our works include not only those industries in which we are professionally engaged,these are of great importance to us, as those which occupy the greater part of our time and most of our strength; but they include also our contributions, larger or smaller, worthy or unworthy, to the condition of our homes, to the character and the destiny of our children, to the comfort and well being of our dependents or our employers, to the improvement of our locality, to the stability and freedom and success of the institutions (social, literary, ecclesiastical, municipal, national) upon which we can bring any influence to bear. We may move in a humble sphere, and yet, when all is told that the chronicles of heaven can tell, we may include in a busy and conscientious life many “works” that will not want the Divine approval or the blessing of mankind.
III. PRAYER. “The answer of the tongue is from the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established.” The two clauses imply, respectively,
(1) that God sometimes makes other issues to result than those which we expect;
(2) that God continually brings to pass that which we strive to accomplish, especially when we commend our cause to his Divine favour. The practical conclusions are these, respectively:
1. That we must be quite willing for the hand of God to give a different direction to our activities; quite prepared to accept another issue from that which we had set before our own minds. For God “seeth not as we see,” and he works out his gracious purposes in other ways than those of our choosing.
2. That we should always realize our dependence on God for a favourable issue, and earnestly ask his blessing on our labour. It is the touch of his Divine hand that must quicken into life, that must crown with true success.C.
Pro 16:2
(See homily on Pro 16:25.)C.
Pro 16:6
The penitent’s review and prospect
Placing ourselves in the position of the man who has sinned and suffered, and has been led to repentance and submission, of the man who is earnestly desirous of escaping from the sinful past and of becoming a new man and of living a new life, let us askWhat is his hope? what are his possibilities?
I. IN VIEW OF THE PAST AND OF HIS RELATIONS WITH GOD. What is his hope there? What are the possibilities of his sins being forgiven, his iniquity purged away? What he must rely upon, in this great domain of thought, is thistruth in himself and mercy in God.
1. He himself must be a true penitent, one that
” feels the sins he owns,
And hates what he deplores;”
that intends with full purpose of heart to turn from all iniquity and to cleave to righteousness and purity.
2. He must cast himself on the boundless mercy of God gained for him and promised to him in Jesus Christ his Saviour.
II. IN VIEW OF THE PAST AND OF HIS RELATIONS WITH MEN. God accepts true penitence of spirit and right purpose of heart, for he can read our hearts, and knows what we really are. But man wants more. Before he receives the sinner to his confidence and restores him to the position from which he fell, he wants clear proofs of penitence, manifestations of a new and a clean heart. The man who has put away his sin can only “purge” the guilty past by the practice of “mercy and truth,” of kindness and integrity, of grace and purity. He has done that which is wrong, false, hurtful. Let him now do that which is just, true, right; that which is kind, helpful, pitiful, generous; then we shall see that he means all that he says, that his professions are sincere; then he may be taken backhis iniquity purgedto the place which he has lost.
III. IN VIEW OF THE FUTURE, SAVING REGARD TO HIMSELF. How shall the penitent make good the promises he has made to his friends? How shall he ensure his future probity and purity? how shall he engage to walk in love and in the path of holy service, as he is bound to do, taking on him the name of Christ? The answer is, by walking on in reverence of spirit, by proceeding in “the fear of the Lord;” thus will he “depart from evil,” and do good. It is the man who cultivates a reverent spirit, who realizes the near presence of God, who walks with God in prayer and holy fellowship, who treasures in his mind the thoughts of God, and reminds himself frequently of the will of God concerning himit is he who will “never be moved from his integrity;” he will redeem his word of promise, he will live the new and better life of faith and holiness and love.C.
Pro 16:11
(and see Pro 11:1; Pro 20:10, Pro 20:23)
Honesty in business
The repetition of this maxim (see above) is an indication of the importance that should be attached to the subject. It is one that affects a very large proportion of mankind, and that affects men nearly every day of their life. The text reminds us
I. THAT BUSINESS IS WITHIN THE PROVINCE OF RELIGION. The man who says, “Business is business, and religion is religion,” is a man whose moral and spiritual perceptions are sadly confused. “God’s commandment is exceeding broad,” and its breadth is such as will cover all the transactions of the market. Commerce and trade, as much as agriculture, are “the Lord’s;” it is an order of human activity which is in full accord with his design concerning us; and it is a sphere into which he expects us to introduce our highest principles and convictions, in which we may be always serving him.
II. THAT DISHONESTY IS OFFENSIVE IN HIS SIGHT. “A false balance is his abomination” (Pro 11:1; Pro 20:10). Dishonesty is evil in his sight, inasmuch as:
1. It is a flagrant violation of one of his chief commandments. The second of all the commandments is this, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (see Mat 22:29). But to cheat our neighbour in the market is to do to him what we should strenuously protest against his doing to us.
2. It is a distinct breach of what is due to our brother. It is a most unbrotherly action; it is an act done in conscious disregard of all the claims our fellow men have on our consideration. Moreover, it is an injury to the society of which we are members; for it is one of those wrongs which are crimes as well as sins; it is an act which strikes at the root of all fellowship, all commerce between man and man.
3. It is an injury done by a man to himself. No man can rob his brother without wronging his own soul. He is something the worse forevery act of dishonesty he perpetrates. And he who is systematically defrauding his neighbours is daily cutting into his own character, is continually staining his own spirit, is destroying himself.
III. THAT HONESTY IS ACCEPTABLE TO GOD. “A just weight is his delight.” Not that all honest dealing is equally acceptable to him. Much here, as everywhere, depends upon the motive. A man may be honest only because it is the best policy, because he fears the exposure and penalty of fraud: there is small virtue in that. On the other hand, he may be strictly fair and just in all his dealings, whether his work be known or unknown, because he has a conviction of what is due to his neighbour, or because he has an abiding sense of what God would have him be and do. In this case his honesty is as truly an act of piety, of holy service, as was a sacrifice at the temple of Jehovah, as is a prayer in the sanctuary of Christ. It is an act rendered “unto the Lord,” and it is well pleasing in the sight of God his Saviour; he “serves the Lord Christ” (Col 3:23, Col 3:24). It is a great thing that we need not leave the shop or the ship, the office or the field, in order to render acceptable sacrifice unto the Lord our God. By simple conscientiousness, by sterling and immovable integrity, whatever the pest we occupy, maintained by us with a view to the observant eye of our ever-present Master, we may honour and please him as much as if we were bowing in prayer or lifting up our voice in praise in the worship of his house.C.
Pro 16:16
(See homily on Pro 8:10, Pro 8:11.)C.
Pro 16:18, Pro 16:19
(Pro 11:2; Pro 18:12)
Pride and humility
Great insistance is laid in Scripture on the evil of pride and the value of humility. The subject has a large place in those “thoughts of God,” which are communicated to us in his Word.
I. THE EVIL OF PRIDE.
1. It is based on falsity. For what has the richest or the strongest or the cleverest man, what has the most beautiful or the most honoured woman, that he or she has not received (1Co 4:7)? Ultimately, we owe everything to our Creator and Divine Benefactor; and the thought that our distinction is due to ourselves is an essentially false thought. Hence:
2. It is irreverent and ungrateful; for it is constantly forgetful of the heavenly source of all our blessings.
3. It is ugly and offensive in the sight of man. That self-respect which makes a man superior to all meanness and all unworthiness of himself is honourable and excellent in our eyes; but pride, which is an overweening estimate of our own importance or virtue, is wholly unbeautiful; it marks a man’s character as a scar marks his countenance; it makes the subject of it a man whom we look upon with aversion rather than delightour soul finds no pleasure in regarding him. It is positively offensive to our spirit.
4. It is repeatedly and severely condemned by God as a serious sin.
5. It is spiritually perilous in a very high degree. No truth is more constantly illustrated than that of the text, “Pride goeth before destruction,” etc. Pride begets a false confidence; this begets unwariness, and leads into the place of danger; and then comes the fall. Sometimes it is in health; at other times, in business; or it may be in office and in power; or, alas! it may be in morals and in piety. There is no field of human thought and action in which pride is not a most dangerous guide. It leads up to and (only too often) over the precipice.
II. THE EXCELLENCE OF HUMILITY. “Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly,” etc. And it is better because, while pride is open to all these condemnations (as above), humility is to be commended and to be desired for the opposite virtues.
1. It is founded on a true view of our own hearts. The lowlier the view we take of ourselves, the truer the estimate we form. There is a lowliness of word and demeanour that is feigned and that is false. A man may be “proud of his humility,” and may declaim his own sins with a haughty heart. But real humility is based on a thorough knowledge of our own nature, of its weakness and its openness to evil; on a full acquaintance with our own character, with its imperfection and liability to fail us in the trying hour.
2. It is admirable in itself. We do not, indeed, admire servility; we detest it heartily. But we do admire genuine humility. It is a very valuable adornment of a Christian character; it graces an upright life with a beauty no other quality can supply. There is no one whom it does not become, whom it does not make much more attractive than he (or she) would otherwise be.
3. It is the very gateway into the kingdom of God. It is the humble heart, conscious of error and of sin, that seeks the Teacher and the Saviour. It is the guide which conducts our spirit straight to the feet and to the cross of our Redeemer.
4. It is an attribute of Christian character which commends us to the love and to the favour of our Lord.
5. It is the only ground on which we are safe. Pride is a slippery place, where we are sure to slip and fall; humility is the ground where devotion, finds its home, which a reverent trustfulness frequents, where God is ready with the shield of his guardianship, from which temptation shrinks away, where human souls live in peace and purity and attain to their maturity in Jesus Christ their Lord.C.
Pro 16:25
(see Pro 14:12)
The supreme mistake
We may well be startled, and we may well be solemnized, as we witness
I. THE MARVELLOUS RANGE OF HUMAN COMPLACENCY. It is simply wonderful how men will allow themselves to be deceived respecting themselves. That which they ought to know best and most thoroughly, they seem to be least acquainted withtheir own standing, their own spirit, their own character. They believe themselves to be all right when, in fact, they are all wrong. They suppose themselves to be travelling in one way when they are moving in the very opposite direction. This strange and sad fact in our experience applies to:
1. Our direct relation to God. We may be imagining ourselves reconciled to him, in favour with him, enjoying his Divine friendship, engaged on his side, promoting his kingdom, while, all the time, we are far from him, are condemned by him, are doing the work of his enemies, are injuring his cause and his kingdom. Witness the hypocrites of our Lord’s time, and the formalists and ceremonialists of all times; witness also the persecutors of every age; witness those of every land and age who have failed to understand that it is he, and only he, who “doeth righteousness that is righteous” in the sight of God.
2. Our relation to our fellow men. How often men have thought themselves just when they have been miserably unjust, kind when they have been heartlessly cruel, faithful when they have been guiltily disloyal!
3. What we owe to ourselves. Only too often men think that conduct pure which is impure, consistent with sobriety which is a distinct step toward insobriety, agreeable which is objectionable, safe which is seductive and full of peril.
II. THE DISASTROUS END OF A SERIOUS MISTAKE. The way seems right to a man, and he goes comfortably and even cheerily along it, but the end of it isdeath.
1. In some cases this end is premature physical decline and dissolution.
2. In all cases it is spiritual decay and the threatened death of the soul, the departure and ultimate loss of all that makes human life honourable, all that makes a human spirit fair in the sight of God.
3. The death which is eternal.
III. OUR CLEAR WISDOM IN VIEW OF THIS POSSIBILITY. It is:
1. To ask ourselves how we stand in God‘s sight. Man may be accepting us on our own showing, but God does not do that. “The Lord weigheth the spirits” (Pro 16:2). He “looketh upon the heart;” he considers the aim that is before us and the spirit that is within us; what is the goal we are really seeking; what is the motive by which we are really animated; what is the deep desire and the honest and earnest endeavour of our heart.
2. To be or to become right with him. If we find ourselves wrong in his view, to humble our hearts before him; to seek his Divine forgiveness for all our wandering; to ask his guidance and inspiration to set forth upon a new course and to maintain it to the end. He alone can “show us the path of life.”C.
Pro 16:28
(See homily on Pro 17:9.)C.
Pro 16:31
The crown of old age
Many are the crowns which, in imagination, we see upon the head. Many are eagerly desired and diligently sought; such are those of fame, of rank, of wealth, of power, of beauty. These are well enough in their way; but
(1) that which is spent in winning them is often far more valuable than the good for which the sacrifice is made; and
(2) the crown, when it is worn, usually weighs heavier and gives less satisfaction than was imagined in the ardour of pursuit. Old age is a crown. It is natural that men should desire it, for two reasons.
1. It means a prolongation of life; and life, under ordinary conditions, is greatly desired, so that men cling to it even tenaciously.
2. It means the completion of the course of life. Age is one of its natural stages. It has its privations, but it has also its own honours and enjoyments; those who have passed through life’s other experiences may rightly wish to complete their course by wearing the hoary head of old age. But in connection with age, there is
I. THE CROWN OF SHAME. For it is not always found in the way of righteousness. An old man who is still ignorant of those truths which he might have learned, but has neglected to gather; or who is addicted to dishonourable indulgences which he has had time to conquer, but has not subdued; or who yields to unbeautiful habits of the spirit which he should long ago have expelled from his nature and his life; or who has not yet returned unto that Divine Father who has been seeking and calling him all his days;such an old man, with his grey hairs, wears a crown of dishonour rather than of glory. But while we may feel that he is to be condemned, we feel far more inclined to pity than to blame. For what is age not found in the way of righteousnessage without excellency, age without virtue, age uncrowned with faith and hope? Surely one of the most pitiable spectacles the world presents to our eyes. It is pleasant, indeed, to be able to regard
II. THE CROWN OF HONOUR. When old age is found in the way of righteousness, it is a crown of honour, in that:
1. It has upon it the reflection of an honourable past. It speaks of past virtues that have helped to make it the “green old age” it is; of past successes that have been gained in the battle of life; of past services that have been diligently and faithfully rendered; of past sorrows that have been meekly borne; of past struggles that have been bravely met and passed; for it was in the rendering and in the bearing and in the meeting of these that the hair has been growing grey from year to year.
2. It has the special excellency of the present. “A crown of beauty” (marginal reading). In the “hoary head” and in the benignant countenance of old age there is a beauty which is all its own; it is a beauty which may not be observable to every eye, but which is there nevertheless; it is the beauty of spiritual worth, of trustfulness and repose, of calmness and quietness; it is a beauty if not the beauty, of holiness. He who does not recognize in the aged that have grown old in the service of God and in the practice of righteousness something more than the marks of time, fails to see a crown of beauty that is visible to a more discerning eye.
3. It has the blessed anticipation of the future. It looks homeward and heavenward. A selfish and a worldly old age is grovelling enough; it “hugs its gold to the very verge of the churchyard mould;” but the age that is found in the ways of righteousness has the light of a glorious hope in its eyes; it wears upon its brows the crown of a peaceful and blessed anticipation of a rest that remains for it, of a reunion with the beloved that have gone on before, of a beatific vision of the Saviour in his glory, of a larger life in a nobler sphere, only a few paces further on.C.
Pro 16:32
(with Pro 14:17, Pro 14:29)
The command of ourselves
Our attention is called to the two sides of the subject.
I. THE EVIL OF IMPATIENCE. How bad a thing it is to lose command of ourselves and to speak or act with a ruffled and disquieted spirit appears when we consider that:
1. It is wrong. God gave us our understanding, our various spiritual faculties, on purpose that we might have ourselves under control; and when we permit ourselves to be irritated and vexed, to be provoked to anger, we do that which crosses his Divine purpose concerning us and his expectation of us; we do that which disappoints and grieves our Father.
2. It is a defeat. We have failed to do that which was set us to do. The hour when our will is crossed is the hour of trial; then it is seen whether we succeed or fail; and when we lose control of our spirit we are defeated.
3. It is an exhibition of folly. He that is hasty of spirit “exalteth folly” (Pro 14:29). He gives another painful illustration of folly; he shows that he is not the wise man we could wish that he were. He shows once more how soon and how easily a good man may be overcome, and may be led from the path of wisdom.
4. It conducts to evil. “He that is soon angry will deal foolishly” (Pro 14:17). A man who loses the balance of a good temper will certainly “deal foolishly.” We are never at our best when we are angry. Our judgment is disturbed; our mental faculties are disordered; they lose their true proportion. We do not speak as wisely, we do not act as judiciously, as we otherwise should. In all probability, we speak and act with positive folly, in a way which brings regret on our own part and reproach from our neighbour. Very possibly we say and do that which cannot easily, if ever, be undone. We take the bloom off a fair friendship; we plant a root of bitterness which we are not able to pluck up; we start a train of consequences which will run we know not whither.
II. THE TRUE CONQUEST. To be master of ourselves is to be “of great understanding,” to be “better than the mighty,” or than “he that taketh a city.” It is so, inasmuch as:
1. It is an essentially spiritual victory. To take a city is, in part, to triumph over physical obstacles, over walls and moats and bullets; but he that ruleth his spirit is doing battle with evil tempers and unholy inclinations and unworthy impulses. He is striving “not against flesh and blood,” but against the mightier enemies that couch and spring on the human soul; he is fighting with far nobler weapons than sword or bayonet or cannonwith thought, with spiritual energy, with deep resolve, with strenuous will, with conscience, with prayer. The victory is fought and won on the highest ground, the arena of a human spirit.
2. It is a victory over ourself. And this is worthier and better than one gained over another.
(1) There is no humiliation in it; on the contrary, there is self-respect and a sense of true manfulness.
(2) Our first duty is that we owe to ourselves. God has committed to each human spirit the solemn charge of his own character. We have other high and sacred functions to discharge, but the first and greatest of them all is to honour, to train, to rule, to cultivate, to ennoble, our own spirit. We are therefore carrying out the express will of God when we victoriously command ourselves.
3. It is bloodless and beneficent. The warrior may well forget the honours he has received when he is obliged to remember the cries of the wounded on the battlefield, and the tears of the widows and the orphans who are the victims of war. But he who rules his own spirit has no sad memories to recall, no heart-rending scenes to picture to his mind. His victories are unstained with blood; by the conquest of himself he has saved many a heart from being wounded by a hasty word, and he has preserved or restored that atmosphere in which alone happiness can live and prosperity abound.C.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Pro 16:1. The preparations of the heart, &c. Houbigant renders it, It is in man to prepare discourse within himself; it is in the Lord to moderate or rule the tongue. Bishop Patrick says, the Hebrew words run plainly thus; Man hath the disposing of the heart: He may, with God’s leave and common assistance, intend, propound, resolve within himself, what he will say and do; but that he shall be able to utter things in that order he hath premeditated, or, if he be able, shall attain the end of his deliberation and eloquent speech, is more than he can undertake; for that is as the Lord pleaseth. God, therefore, would have us to acknowledge this our weakness, and to fear and depend upon him; as it follows, Pro 16:3.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2. Admonition to a walk in the fear of God and obedience
Pro 16:1 to Pro 22:16
) Admonition to trust in God as the wise Ruler and Governor of the world
Chap. 16
1Mans are the counsels of the heart,
but the answer of the tongue is Jehovahs.
2All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
but Jehovah weigheth the spirits.
3Commit thy works to Jehovah,
so will thy plans be established.
4Jehovah hath made every thing for its end,
even the wicked for the day of evil.
5An abomination to Jehovah is every one who is proud in heart,
assuredly he will not go unpunished.
6By mercy and truth is iniquity atoned,
and through the fear of Jehovah one departeth from evil.
7If Jehovah hath pleasure in the ways of a man,
he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
8Better is a little with righteousness,
than great revenues without right.
9Mans heart deviseth his way,
but Jehovah directeth his steps.
10Decision belongeth to the lips of the king,
in judgment his mouth speaketh not wickedly.
11The scale and just balances belong to Jehovah,
His work are all the weights of the bag.
12It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness,
for by righteousness is the throne established.
13A delight to kings are righteous lips,
and he that speaketh uprightly is loved.
14The wrath of a king (is as) messengers of death,
but a wise man appeaseth it.
15In the light of the kings countenance is life,
and his favor is as a cloud of the latter rain.
16To gain wisdomhow much better is it than gold!
and to attain understanding to be preferred to silver!
17The path of the upright departeth from evil;
he preserveth his soul that giveth heed to his way.
18Before destruction cometh pride,
and before a fall a haughty spirit.
19Better is it to be humble with the lowly,
than to divide spoil with the proud.
20He that giveth heed to the word findeth good,
and he who trusteth Jehovah, blessed is he!
21The wise in heart shall be called prudent,
and grace on the lips increaseth learning.
22Understanding is a fountain of life to him that hath it,
but the correction of fools is folly.
23The heart of the wise maketh his mouth wise,
and increaseth learning upon his lips.
24As honey of the comb are pleasant words,
sweet to the soul and health to the bones.
25There is a way that seemeth right to man,
but its end are ways of death.
26The spirit of the laborer laboreth for him,
for his mouth urgeth him on.
27A worthless man searcheth after evil,
and on his lips is as it were scorching fire.
28A perverse man sendeth abroad strife,
and a backbiter separateth friends.
29A violent man enticeth his neighbor,
and leadeth him in a way that is not good.
30Shutting his eyes to devise mischief,
biting his lips, he bringeth evil to pass.
31A crown of glory is the hoary head;
in the way of righteousness it shall be found.
32He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.
33The lot is cast into the lap,
but from Jehovah is all its decision.
GRAMMATICAL AND CRITICAL
Pro 16:1.In the stands as simply synonymous with the auctoris of the first clause.
Pro 16:3.[A masc. verb agreeing with the fem., subject , which is less unnatural where the verb precedes; see Btt., 936, a.A.]
Pro 16:4.[ distinguished by the article and the daghesh as the noun with preposition and suffix, and not the comp. preposition with a suffix. See Green, Heb. Gram., 246, 2, a.A.]
Pro 16:7.[, Hiph. Imperf. written defective. Btt. suggests the proper reading as absimilated from the following . See 1013.A.]
Pro 16:13.[Ordinarily feminine forms of adjectives are employed in Hebrew to supply the lack of neuter and abstract forms. Occasionally as in masc. forms are used in elevated Style. See Btt., 707, 2.A.]
Pro 16:16.[Both the masc. and fem., forms of the Infin. constr. are here used, and , but with a masc. predicate, the Niph. part. , which has here the meaning of the Latin part. in dus. Btt., 990, 3, , and 997, 2, c.A.] For examples of the form comp. Pro 21:3; Pro 31:4.
Pro 16:19. in is here probably not to be regarded as the adjective, as in Pro 29:23; Isa 57:15 (so Bertheau, Elster, and others regard it), but an Infinitive, which is therefore equivalent to humiliari (Vulgate, comp. Ewald, Umbreit, Hitzig, etc.) For in the second clause an Infin. is the corresponding term: , to divide spoil; comp. with this Isa 53:12. [Fuerst, however (Lex., sub verbo), pronounces decidedly in favor of the adjective construction. Btt. regards it as an Infin., 987, 5, a.A.]
Pro 16:20. appears in Neh 8:13 construed with instead of ; compare, however, for this interchange of and chaps. Pro 29:5; Jer 6:10; Jer 6:19, etc.
Pro 16:27.[ is one of the few instances in which in the Masoretic punctuation a dual or plural form is disregarded in the vocalization of the suffix. Cases of the opposite kind are not rare. Btt., 886, c. The LXX conform to the Kthibh.A.]
Pro 16:28. (, Sir 5:14), is cognate with , a verb which in the Arabic means susurro, to whisper.
Pro 16:30., related to , clausit, is found only here in the Old Testament. [It is a gesture accompanying and expressive of crafty scheming; Fuerst, s. v.]
Pro 16:33.For the impersonal use of the passive with the accusative, comp. Gen 4:18; Gen 17:6; Jos 7:15; Psa 72:15, etc.
EXEGETICAL
1. Pro 16:1-3. Of God as the wise disposer and controller of all things in general.Mans are the counsels of the heart, but the answer of the tongue is Jehovahs.The answer of the tongue might indeed of itself signify the answer corresponding to the tongue, i.e., the supplicating tongue, and so denote the granting of mans request (Elster, comp. Umbreit, Bertheau, etc.) But since the heart with its hidden plans and counsels (lit., arrangements: equivalent to the more common fem. ), is here plainly contrasted with the tongue as the instrument in the disclosure of such plans (comp. Pro 10:8; Pro 14:20, and numerous exx.), therefore the answer of the tongue must here be the movement and utterance of the tongue, and Jehovah comes into the account as the giver of right words, from which health and life go forth, as the dispenser of the wholesome word in due season (Pro 15:23); comp. Mat 10:19-20; also Rom 8:26; 2Co 3:5. Luther therefore renders correctly But from the Lord cometh what the tongue shall speak; in general Hitzig is also right, except that he would unnecessarily read to Jehovah instead of , and so thinks too exclusively of Jehovah merely as the judge of the utterances of mans tongue. The idea Man proposes, God disposes (der Mensch denkt, Gott lenkt), forms moreover quite as naturally the proper subject of discourse in the verse before us, as below in Pro 16:9; Pro 16:33. [Our English version sacrifices entirely the antithetic nature and force of the verse.A.]
Pro 16:2. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, i.e., according to his own judgment, comp. Pro 12:15. Lit., something clean; comp. Ewald, Lehrb., 307, c.But Jehovah weigheth the spirits, i.e., he tries them, not literally ponderable, with reference to their moral weight; he wishes to test their moral competence. The ways and the spirits here stand contrasted as the outward action and the inward disposition; comp. 1Sa 16:7. In the parallel passage, Pro 21:2, hearts () occurs instead of spirits () (compare also Pro 21:12) and right () instead of clean ().
Pro 16:3. Commit thy works to Jehovah.For this phrase to roll something on some one, i.e., to commit and entrust it wholly to him, comp. Psa 22:8 (9), also Psa 37:5 (where is used instead of , upon instead of to).So will thy plans be established,i.e., thy thoughts and purposes, those according to which thou proposest to shape thy works, will then have a sure basis and result. Comp. Pro 19:21; Psa 90:17.
2. Pro 16:4-9. Gods wise and righteous administration in respect to the rewarding of good and the punishment of evil.Jehovah hath made everything for its end.The noun here signifies, not answer, as in Pro 16:1, or in Pro 15:1; Pro 15:23; but in general that which corresponds with the thing, the end of the thing. The suffix refers back to the all, all things. The Vulgate renders propter semet ipsum, but this would have . [See critical notes. Bertheau, Kamph., De W., N., S., M., etc., agree with our author in the interpretation which is grammatically most defensible, and doctrinally least open to exception. An absolute Divine purpose and control in the creation and administration of the world is clearly announced, and also the strength of the bond that joins sin and misery.A.]Even the wicked for the day of evil, i.e., to experience the day of evil, and then to receive His well merited punishment. It is not specifically the day of final judgment that is directly intended (as though the doctrine here were that of a predestination of the ungodly to eternal damnation, as many of the older Reformed interpreters held), but any day of calamity whatsoever, which God has fixed for the ungodly, whether it may overtake him in this or in the future life. Comp. the day of destruction, Job 21:30; the day of visitation, Isa 10:3. [Holdens rendering even the wicked He daily sustains, is suggested by his strong aversion to the doctrine of reprobation, but is not justified by the use of the Hebrew phrase, or by the slightest requirement or allowance in the parallelism. Liberal interpreters like Noyes find not the slightest reason for following him.A.]
Pro 16:5. With clause a compare Pro 15:9; Pro 15:25-26; with b, Pro 11:21.In regard to the two verses interpolated by the LXX (and Vulgate) after Pro 16:5, see Hitzig on this passage.
Pro 16:6. By mercy and truth is iniquity atoned.Mercy and truth here unquestionably, as in Pro 3:3 (where see notes), describes a relation of man to his neighbor, and not to God, as Bertheau maintains (see in reply to his view especially Hoffmanns Schriftbew., I., 518 sq.). [Nor is it Gods mercy and truth, as Holden suggests]. Loving and faithful conduct towards ones neighbor is, however, plainly not in and of itself named as the ground of the expiation of sin, but only so far forth as it is a sign and necessary expression of a really penitent and believing disposition of heart, and so is a correlative to the fear of God, which is made prominent in the second clause; just as in the expression of Jesus with reference to the sinning woman; Luk 7:47; or as in Isa 58:7; Dan 4:24, etc.One departeth from evil, lit., there is remaining far from evil, i.e., this is the result: so Pro 16:17.Evil is here according to the parallelism moral evil (not misfortune, calamity, in conformity with Pro 16:4; Pro 16:27, as Hitzig holds). This is however mentioned here with an included reference to its necessary evil results and penalties; therefore, if one chooses, it is evil and calamity together; comp. Pro 16:17.With Pro 16:7 compare Pro 25:21-22, where as means to the conciliation of enemies there is mentioned the personal loving disposition of the man involved, who here appears as an object of the divine complacency.With Pro 16:8 comp. Pro 15:16; with clause b in particular, Pro 13:23.
Pro 16:9. Mans heart deviseth his way. The Piel of the verb here denotes a laborious consideration, a reflecting on this side and that.But Jehovah directeth his steps. He determines them, gives them their direction, guides them (comp. notes on Pro 16:1, b). Umbreit, Bertheau, Ewald, Elster, [Noyes, Stuart,] he makes them sure. But then another conjugation (Pilel, ) would probably have been necessary, as in Psa 37:23. For the Hiphil comp. moreover Jer 10:23.
3. Pro 16:10-15. Of kings as intermediate agents or instruments in Gods wise administration of the world.A divine decision belongeth to the lips of the king. , oracular decision or prediction, here used in a good sense of a divine utterance (effatum divinum; comp. in the Vulg., divinatio). As representative of Jehovah, the supreme ruler and judge, a king, and especially the theocratic king of Israel, speaks words of divine validity and dignity (comp. Psa 82:6; Joh 10:34), which give an absolutely certain decision, particularly in contested judicial questions. Therefore that continues true which the second clause asserts: In judgment his mouth doth not speak wickedly. He deceives not, sins not is not possibly, a wish (his mouth should not err in judgment, Umbreit, Bertheau), but the passage rather lays down the principle: the King can do no wrong, in a narrower assertion of it, and with this difference, that it is here no political fiction, but a believing conviction. Righteousness at least in the final resort was under the theocratic monarchy of the Old Testament so absolute a demand of the idea, that one could not conceive it to be unrealized (Hitzig). [We have here the theory of the kings relations and obligations, and a clear statement of the presumptions of which he should, according to the divine order, have the benefit. These must be clearly overthrown by him, before the people are entitled to set them aside. Comp. Rom 13:1-2. Had this proverb been penned near the end, instead of near the beginning of the Jewish theocracy, it would have been difficult to avoid the suggestion that the ideal and the actual are often strangely, sharply at variance.A.].
Pro 16:11. The scale and just balances belong to Jehovah. The proposition expresses the idea of an ownership in Jehovah as the first cause: for like agriculture (Sir 7:15) God instituted weights and measures, as an indispensable ordinance and instrument in just business intercourse.His works are all the weights of the bag. His weights the oriental merchant (in Persia, e.g., even at the present day) is wont to carry in a bag; comp. Deu 25:13; Mic 6:11. Stones were in preference employed as weights because they do not wear away so easily, as iron, e.g., which from rusting easily changes its weight. Comp. Umbreit on this passage. Bertheau is quite too artificial. His work is all of it stones of the bag, i.e., is as sharply and accurately defined as the smallest and finest weights (?).
Pro 16:12-13. Two verses closely connected, expressing a single truth, which is brought out first negatively and then positively.It is an abomination to kings to commit iniquity; i.e., injustice practised or at least attempted by their subjects is an abomination to them, representing, as they do, God and divine justice. Comp. Pro 16:10, and with clause b also especially Pro 25:5.And he that speaketh uprightly is loved. For this use of the plur. masc. of , upright, which is therefore upright things, uprightness, comp. Dan 11:17; also Job 4:25.The verb is either to be taken with an indefinite subject, him one loveth, i.e., he is loved (Umbreit, Elster, etc.), or distributively, him he loveth, i.e., whoever is king for the time being.
Pro 16:14-15. Verses in like manner closely connected, and essentially expressing but one thought.The wrath of the king (is as) messengers of death. This plural in the predicate of the sentence hints that when the king is enraged manifold means and instruments stand at his command for the immediate destruction of the object of his wrath. Remember the despotism and the capricious arbitrariness of Oriental sovereigns, and compare Pro 19:12; Pro 20:2; Ecc 8:3-4.In the light of the Kings countenance is life. The friendly countenance, lit. light of the countenance, as in Psa 4:6 (7), is contrasted with the wrath Pro 16:14, a, as also are life and death.As a cloud of the latter rain. The harvest rain or latter rain (Vulg., imber serotinus) is a rain falling shortly before the harvest, in March or April, whose timely and abundant occurrence is indispensable to the success of Eastern harvests, especially so in Palestine; comp. Pro 11:14; Jer 3:3; Jer 5:24; and particularly Job 29:23-24, which latter passage is here a general parallel. [See Thomsons Land and Book, I. 130, II. 66].
Pro 16:16-26. Of Gods righteous administration in respect to the wise and the foolish.To gain wisdomhow much better is it than gold, i.e., than the acquisition of gold; compare, for an example of this abbreviated comparison (comparatio decurtata) Job 28:8; Psa 4:7 (8), etc. For the general sentiment of the ver. compare Pro 3:14; Pro 8:10-11; Pro 8:19.
Pro 16:17. The path (the raised, well-graded road ) of the upright departeth from evil, lit. is abiding far (to abide far) from evil, as in Pro 16:6; comp. also Pro 10:17; Pro 11:5; Pro 11:20.Hitzig expands the verse by four clauses which he introduces from the LXX, and in such an order that the second clause of the Masoretic text is separated from the first by three of the inserted clauses, and a sixth is appended as a final clause. Yet he fails to give satisfactory proof that this expanded form was the original, three verses being now represented by one.
Pro 16:18. Comp. Pro 15:25; Pro 15:33.The word here rendered fall (, tottering, downfall) is used only in this passage in the Old Testament.With respect to the sentiment of the ver. compare also the Arabic proverb, The nose is in the heavens, the seat in the mire (Nasus in clo est, nates in fimo), and the expression of Horace feriuntque summos fulgura montes (Odes, II. x. 11, 12).
[ And ever, where
The mountains summit points in air,
Do bolted lightnings flash.
Theo. Martins Translation.]
Pro 16:19. Better is it to live humbly with the lowly. . (with which reading of the Kthibh the LXX agrees, while the Kri reads ) describes those who are bowed down by troubles, the sufferers, the lowly; comp. Zec 9:9.
Pro 16:20. He that giveth heed to the word frindeth good, i.e., naturally, to the word of God, the word par excellence; comp. Pro 13:13.With the expression findeth good, or prosperity, comp. Pro 17:20; Pro 19:8. Blessed is he! () comp. Pro 14:21.
Pro 16:21. The wise in heart shall be called prudent, understanding, knowing, a possessor of , discernment. Comp. Pro 14:33.And grace on the lips (lit. of lips) increaseth learning, i.e., secures for learning an easy access in ever widening circles, comp. 23, b. The grace or literally the sweetness of the lips is here represented as a necessary attendant and helper of wisdom, as in Pro 15:2.
Pro 16:22. A fountain of life is understanding to him that hath it, lit. is the wisdom of its possessor. The thought is here in the first instance unquestionably of the blessing which comes directly to the possessor from his wisdom, and not of its life-dispensing, life-promoting influence on others, as Bertheau thinks. For this figure of a fountain of life compare Pro 10:11; Pro 13:14; Pro 14:27.But the correction of fools is folly. The subject, according to the antithetic parallelism, is folly, as wisdom is in clause a. The meaning can be no other than this: the folly of fools is for them a source of all possible disadvantages and adversities; the lack of reason is its own punishment (comp. Hitzig on this passage). [So N. and W., while H., M., and S. give to its active meaning, the instruction of fools, i.e., that which they give, is folly.A.].
Pro 16:23. Comp. remarks on Pro 16:21.And increaseth learning upon his lips. Upon his lips, so far forth as the word that comes from the heart rests on the lips, comp. Pro 16:27; Psa 16:4; and also the expression on the tongue, Psa 15:3 [where the original expresses more than mere instrumentality (with the tongue); who beareth not slander on his tongue (Hupfeld, on the passage), etc.A.].
Pro 16:24. As honey of the comb are pleasant words, lit. words of loveliness, as in Pro 15:26.For a like reference to the honey-comb see Psa 19:10 (11).Sweet to the soul. The adj. , for which we might expect the plural is to be regarded as a neuter used substantively; something sweet, sweetness; comp. Eze 3:3, and also Pro 16:2 above.
Pro 16:25. Literally identical with Pro 14:12;stricken out by Hitzig from the passage before us, because it is superfluous in the group (Pro 16:22-30) assumed to consist of eight only (?).
Pro 16:26. The spirit of the laborer laboreth for him, i.e., supports him in his labor, impels him to greater perseverance and exertion to gain his daily bread. [Zckler renders the hunger, etc. So Kamphausen. This seems to us unnecessary. is often the animal soul or spirit as distinguished from the higher intellectual, moral and religious nature. It is this spirit that feels the pressure of lifes necessities, and impels to effort for their relief; comp. Pro 10:3, etc.A.].For his mouth urgeth him on, i.e., as it longs for food. This verb (construed with and the accus. of the person) denotes, according to Arabic analogies to heap a load or burden on one (comp. , a weight, burden, Job 33:7) [E. V. be heavy upon thee]; and here specifically, to bind one, to drive and force him to do something (Vulg., compulit).With the general sentiment compare Ecc 6:7.
5. Pro 16:27-33. A new delineation of Gods justice in punishing the wicked and rewarding the pious. Pro 16:27-30 form here one connected description of the ungodly, nefarious conduct of the evil men on whom Gods judgment falls. Pro 16:31-32 contrast with these wicked men the upright and the gentle in spirit as the only happy men; Pro 16:33 is a general conclusion pointing us back to the beginning of the chapter.
Pro 16:27. A worthless man (man of Belial) searcheth after evil, literally diggeth evil, shovels out evil for himself, i.e., from the pit which he prepares for others, to destroy them (comp. Pro 26:27; Jer 18:20 sq.). For this expression man of Belial compare Pro 6:12.On his lips is as it were scorching fire (comp. Pro 16:23). The words of the worthless man are here on account of their desolating effects, compared to a blazing or scorching fire (comp. Eze 21:3; Pro 26:23; Job 31:12; Jam 3:5 sq.).
Pro 16:28. With clause a compare Pro 6:14; Pro 6:19.And a backbiter separateth friends, lit. divideth off the friend. The singular is not here used collectively, but in a certain sense distributively; divideth a friend from his fellow. So in Pro 17:9; comp. Pro 19:4.For the use of , backbiter comp. Pro 18:8; Pro 26:20; Pro 26:22.
Pro 16:29. With clause a compare Pro 3:31; Pro 1:10 sq. With b compare Psa 36:4 (5); Isa 65:2.[Rueetschi (as above cited, p. 145) thinks these verses (2729) more expressive if in each the first words are regarded as the predicates, prefixed for emphasis and stronger contrast; a worthless man is he, etc.; a perverse, contentious man is he, etc., a backbiter is he, etc.; a man of violence is he, etc.; although he may excuse his conduct as mere sport.A.].
Pro 16:30 describes more precisely, by two participial clauses which belong to the man of violence in Pro 16:29, the way in which this wicked man executes the ruin which he devises.Shutting his eyes to devise mischief, lit. to meditate craftiness; comp. Pro 2:12, Pro 6:14.Biting his lips. With this description, pressing in, pressing together his lips, comp. Pro 6:13; Pro 10:10, where this verb is used of the corresponding action with the eyes.
Pro 16:31. With clause a comp. Pro 4:19; Pro 20:29; with b, Pro 4:10 sq., Pro 3:2.
Pro 16:32. With a compare Pro 14:29.And he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. here not merely the spirit or the soul, but the temper, the passionate movement and excitement of the spirit. Comp. Pirke Aboth cap. Pro 4:1, where the question, Who is after all the true hero? is answered by a reference to the proverb of Solomon now before us. The Lord, moreover, in Mat 5:5, promises to the meek that they shall inherit the earth.
Pro 16:33. The lot is cast into the lap. Hitzig: In the bosom the lot is shaken, a rendering which does indeed conform more closely to the import of , the bosom of the clothing, but to us who are not Orientals gives a meaning easily misunderstood. For we are wont to call the doubled or folded front of the dress the lap.But from Jehovah is (cometh) all its decision, the final judicial sense as it were, (judgment, comp. Num 27:21) in which the result of the lot is reached. Comp. Pro 18:18, where, however, the discourse is specifically limited to the settling of judicial disputes by lot, while here attention is evidently directed to lots in general (and therefore to cases like Jos 7:19; 1Sa 14:37 sq., Num 16:8; Psa 22:18 (19), etc.)
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
A course of thought running with any unity through the entire chapter it is here again impossible to detect. Only small groups of connected proverbs stand forth here and there from the general level; e.g., Pro 16:1-3, Pro 16:10-15, Pro 16:27-30 (comp. especially the remarks on Pro 16:27 sq.). Hitzigs endeavor to develop here and in the two following chapters i.e., in general terms throughout the section Pro 15:33 to Pro 19:2), symmetrically constructed groups of eight verses each, is quite as unsuccessful as his similar assumptions in respect to the construction of the general division, chap. 1022:16, on definite numerical principles (comp. above, remarks on Pro 10:1 sq.; and on Pro 13:1).
A decided pre-eminence belongs in the chapter, as it is now defined, to the idea that God controls the action of man altogether according to His own wise judgment and good pleasure. That man proposes but God disposes,this truth which summons to humble confidence in God, and a childlike and unconditional surrender to the fatherly guidance of the Lords hand, stands at the head of the section as a whole (Pro 16:1), with a special emphasizing of the divine influence exerted over the manner and the results of human speech. It recurs again in Pro 16:10-15 before the connected delineation of the authority of human kings, as counterparts and representatives of the great King of heaven; and here there is special reference not to the speech but to the action of men (Pro 16:9). Finally it forms the conclusion of the chapter, and that in the form of a reference to the supreme control which God holds in His hand over the lot as any where employed by men (Pro 16:33). It is the doctrine of the divine government of the world (the gubernatio, with its four prominent forms or methods, permissio, impeditio, directio and determinatio); or again the doctrine of the divine co-operation with the free self-determined acts of men (the concursus as it exists tam ad bonas quam ad malas actiones hominum [with reference both to the good and to the evil actions of men]), that is asserted in these propositions and developed in various directions. Especially does the intermediate place which human kings and judges assume as representatives of the divine justice, and in a certain sense prophets of the divine will (Pro 16:10), also as typically gods on earth (Pro 16:13-15; comp. Psa 82:6), in their relation to the destiny of individual men, stand out in a significant prominence; it thus affords instructive premonition of the exhortations of the New Testament to obedience to the magistrates who stand in Gods place,such as are found in Mat 22:21; Rom 13:1 sq.; 1Pe 2:17, etc. Compare what Melanchthon observes on Pro 16:10 sq.; These words affirm that the whole political order, magistrates, laws, distinctions in authority, contracts, judgments, penalties are works ordained by the wisdom of God within the human race. Therefore since we know that political order is Gods work, let us love it, and seek to maintain it by our duty, and in modesty obey it for Gods sake, and let us render thanks to God the preserver, and let us know that the madness of devils and of men who disturb the political order is displeasing to God, etc.
Other ethical truths to which a significant prominence is given are contained particularly in
Pro 16:6. A reference to the fear of God, and penitent and believing consecration to God as the only way to the development of genuine fruits of love and of righteousness (see notes on this passage).
Pro 16:20. Combined view of the two chief requisites to a really devout life; 1) obedience to the word of God, and 2) inspiring confidence in God.
Pro 16:21; Pro 16:23 (comp. also Pro 16:24). The stress laid on the great value of an eloquent mouth, as an appropriate organ for a wise heart exercising itself in the service of the Lord.
Pro 16:32. Reference to gentleness of spirit and the ruling of ones own passions, as the best and surest means to the attainment of real power and greatnessan expressive Biblical testimony against all uncharitable advancement of self in the way of strife, and against the combative spirit of brawlers and duellists.
[Andrew Fuller: The doctrine of verse 7 stands in apparent contradiction with 2Ti 3:12. The truth seems to be that neither of the passages is to be taken universally. The peace possessed by those who please God does not extend so far as to exempt them from having enemies, and though all godly men must in some form or other be persecuted, yet none are persecuted at all times. The passage from Timothy may therefore refer to the native enmity which true godliness is certain to excite, and the proverb to the Divine control over it.]
HOMILETIC AND PRACTICAL
Homily on the chapter as a whole; Of Gods wise and righteous government of the world, as it is exhibited 1) in the life of men in general (19); 2) in the action and administration of earthly rulers (1015); 3) in the endeavors and results of human wisdom (1626); 4) in the righteous retribution which awaits both, the good and the evil (2733).Stcker: On Gods gracious care for men. 1) Proof that such a paternally upholding and governing providence of God over men exists, a) in general (Pro 16:1-9); b) through the government of the world in particular (1015). 2) The duties of the pious in recognition of this paternal providence and government of God (Pro 16:16-33).Wohlfarth:On the providence and government of God, and mans duty. Man proposes, God disposes,usually otherwise than we devise and desire, but always more gloriously and better than we could do. Hence humility, prudence and trust in God are the chief duties of man in return.
Pro 16:1-3. Melanchthon:It is well to consider that our resolves are a different thing from their success. That we may form successful and salutary resolutions we need Gods aid in two forms; in examining the different possible ways, and then in conforming our course to them. We must therefore at all times be of this firm purpose, to let our whole life be ruled by Gods word, and for all things to invoke Gods help.Geier (on Pro 16:1): Teachers, preachers and rulers especially must call earnestly on God for the careful government and sanctification of their tongue, in order that in the fulfilment whether of their public or their private duties the right word may always stand at their command, and nothing unseemly or injurious may escape them.(On Pro 16:3): The duties of our calling we must indeed fulfil with fidelity and diligence, but yet in all patience await from the Lord blessing and success.Berleb. Bible: If one is not able without God to utter a word that one has already conceived, how much less will one be able to bring any thing to pass without Gods aid. And how much more will this be true within the sphere of the spiritual life, since man is wholly insufficient of himself to think any thing as of himself (2Co 3:5), but must receive all from the Lord, etc.[Arnot (on Pro 16:2): The human heart is beyond conception cunning in making that appear right which is felt pleasant. The real motive power that keeps the wheels of life going round is this: men like the things that they do, and do the things that they like.]
Pro 16:4-9. Wrt. Bible (on Pro 16:4): Gods providence extends over good and wicked men (Mat 5:45); through His ordaining it comes to pass that the ungodly are punished in their time and as they deserve.Von Gerlach (on Pro 16:4): The wicked man also fulfils Gods design, when the day of calamity comes upon him; all without exception must serve Him.[Charnock (on Pro 16:4): If sin ends in any good, it is only from that Infinite transcendency of skill that can bring good out of evil, as well as light out of darkness.Waterland (on Pro 16:4): God bridles the wicked by laws and government and by the incessant labors of good men; and yet more immediately by His secret power over their hearts and wills, and over all their faculties; as well as over all occurrences and all second causes through the whole universe; and if He still affords them compass enough to range in, yet notwithstanding He rules over them with so strong and steady a hand, that they cannot move a step but by His leave, nor do a single act but what shall be turned to good effect.Beveridge (on Pro 16:4): God in His revelations hath told us nothing of the second causes which He hath established under Himself for the production of ordinary effects, that we may not perplex ourselves about them, but always look up to Him as the first cause, as working without them or by them as He sees good. But He hath told us plainly of the final cause or end of all things, that we may keep our eyes always fixed on that, and accordingly strive all we can to promote it.Bp. Hall (on Pro 16:6): It is not an outward sacrifice that God regards in His remission of the punishment of our sin; but when He finds mercy to the poor, and uprightness of heart towards Himself and men, then He is graciously pleased to forbear His judgments; inasmuch as these graces, being wrought in us by His Spirit, cannot but proceed from a true faith whereby our sins are purged.Bonar (on Pro 16:6): Forgiveness, ascertained forgiveness, conscious forgiveness, this is the beginning of all true fear. This expels a world of evil from the human heart and keeps it from re-entrance. It works itself out in such things as theseobedience, fellowship, love, zeal].Starke (on Pro 16:6): Not of merit but of grace are the sins of the penitent forgiven for Christs sake. One of the chief fruits of justification is, however, the exhibition of fidelity and truth towards ones neighbors (Eph 2:8-9; Eph 4:25).(On Pro 16:7): Think not that thou wilt thyself subdue and overcome thine enemies, but only seek to have God for thy friend; He can of all thy foes make thee friends.[Bates (on Pro 16:7): Many sins are committed for the fear of the anger of men, and presumption of the mercy of God; but it is often found that a religious constancy gains more friends than carnal obsequiousness.Trapp (on Pro 16:7): When God is displeased, all His creatures are up in arms to fetch in His rebels, and to do execution. At peace with Him, at peace with the creature too, that gladly takes His part, and is at His beck and check].Zeltner (on Pro 16:9): Be presumptuous in none of thy schemes, but thinking of thine own weakness put as the foundation of every undertaking if the Lord will (Jam 4:15).[Arnot (on Pro 16:9): The desires of human hearts and the efforts of human hands go into the processes of providence and constitute the material on which the Almighty works.]
Pro 16:10-15. Melanchthon; comp. Doctrinal and Ethical notes.Starke (on Pro 16:10): For the right conduct of the office of ruler and judge it is not enough to understand well secular laws and rights; Divine wisdom is also absolutely essential.(On Pro 16:12): Kings are not only not to do evil, or to let it be done by others with impunity; they are to hate and abhor it with all energy.Von Gerlach (on Pro 16:11): Weight and measure as the invisible and spiritual means by which material possessions are estimated and determined for men according to their value, are holy to the Lord, a copy of His law in the outer world; taken up by Himself into His sanctuary, and therefore, as His work, to be regarded holy also by men.(On Pro 16:14): Seasonable words of a wise man can easily avert the wrath of kings, destructive as that is. Therefore let each one mould himself into such a wise man, or find for himself such a one.
Pro 16:16-26. [Chalmers (on Pro 16:17): The reflex influence of the outward walk and way on the inner man.Arnot (on Pro 16:17): Doctrine, although both true and Divine, is for us only a shadow, if it be not embodied in holiness.Waterland (on Pro 16:18): Shame and contempt the end of pride, a) by natural tendency; b) because of Gods detestation and resolution to punish it.Muffet (on Pro 16:19): It is a pleasant thing to be enriched with other mens goods: it is a gainful thing to have part of the prey: it is a glorious thing to divide the spoil. It is better to be injured than to do injury; it is better to be patient than to be insolent; it is better with the afflicted people of God to be bruised in heart and low of port, than to enjoy the pleasures or treasures of sin or of this world for a season.Trapp (on Pro 16:20): He that, in the use of lawful means resteth upon God for direction and success, though he fail of his design, yet he knows whom he hath trusted, and God will know his soul in adversity ].Geier (on Pro 16:20): In doubtful cases to hold fast to Gods word and believingly hope in His help, ensures always a good issue.Starke (on Pro 16:21-22): Eloquence combined with wisdom is to be regarded as an excellent gift of God, and produces so much the more edification and profit.Lange (on Pro 16:21): One must first learn to think rightly before he can speak well.Von Gerlach (on Pro 16:26): Since that which causes us labor and trouble becomes a means of our subsistence, it in turn helps us overcome labor and trouble, for this very thing, by virtue of Gods wise, regulating providence, becomes for us a spur to industry.[Lawson (on Pro 16:26): Self-love is a damning sin where it reigns as the chief principle of action; but the want of self-love where it is required is no less criminal.]
Pro 16:27-33. Starke (on Pro 16:27 sq.): The lack of genuine love for ones neighbor is the source of all deception, persecution and slander of the innocent.Hypocrites can indeed by an assumed mien of holiness deceive men, but before the eyes of God all this is clear and open, to their shame.(On Pro 16:32): The greatest heroes and conquerors of the world are often just the most miserable slaves of their lusts.E. Lsch (on Pro 16:31see Sonntagsfeier, 1841, No. 27): Age, its burdens, its dignities; means to the attainment of a happy old age.Saurin (Sermon on Pro 16:32): On true heroismwhat it Isaiah , 1) to be ruler of ones spirit; 2) to gain cities and lands.Von Gerlach (on Pro 16:33): Chance there is not, and man can never give more than the outward occasion for the decision, which lies wholly in the hand of the Lord.[Trapp (on Pro 16:30): Wicked men are great students. Their wits will better serve them to find out a hundred shifts or carnal arguments than to yield to one saving truth, though never so much cleared up to them.Muffet (on Pro 16:31): Commendable old age leaneth upon two stavesthe one the remembrance of a life well led, the other the hope of eternal life.See Emmons Sermon on Pro 16:31.J. Edwards (on Pro 16:32): The strength of the good soldier of Jesus Christ appears in nothing more than in steadfastly maintaining the holy, calm meekness, sweetness and benevolence of his mind, amidst all the storms, injuries, strange behaviour, and surprising acts and events, of this evil and unreasonable world.Lawson (on Pro 16:32): The meek obtain the noblest victories and enjoy the happiest kind of authority.South (on Pro 16:33): Sermon on All contingencies under the direction of Gods providence.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
This chapter opens with a doctrine that we should do well to keep always uppermost in our remembrance, at whatever part of the divine word we open. Yea, not only when we are about to read, but when we are about to pray: in every state, under every undertaking, at all times, and in all places, in life and death. Oh! for grace to remember this sweet scripture, and for strength in grace to wait humbly at the throne of God in Christ, for the accomplishment of it. See the confirmation of the same. Jas 1:17 ; Psa 10:17 ; Phi 2:13 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Answer of the Tongue, Etc.
Pro 16
Here is a doctrine of inspiration which descends to the most practical line of life. This doctrine deals with the individual man, as well as collective humanity. Whenever the preparations of the heart are good that is, wise, prudent, purged of selfishness, and generous with the love of God, we find nothing less than a miracle of the Holy Ghost Naturally, the heart is deceitful above all things; it requires, therefore, great preparation, that is, cleansing, purifying, and ennobling; it is like an instrument out of tune, on which no good music can be played, and which indeed spoils every note which it professes to express; we see, therefore, how large is the work which God has to do in the human heart before that heart can represent the integrity of divine purpose and the unselfishness of divine love. When the heart is prepared the tongue is likewise qualified to play its part effectively and happily in the ministry of life. When the tongue is under the control of a purified heart its words will flow as from a fountain of wisdom, and men will know that the stream is worthy of the spring. It is in vain to attempt to tame the tongue until the heart has been subdued. After all, the tongue is but a servant, and it will respond to the discipline which is imposed upon it by the moral nature. First, then, make the tree good, then the fruit will be good; ask the Lord to cleanse the heart utterly from every evil purpose and mean desire, and the eloquence of the tongue will be limpid, honest, and beneficent. The practical duty suggested by this text is that we are to beseech the Lord that he would grant unto us the suitable preparation and the wise answer. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God A man undertaking to prepare his own heart is like a musical instrument undertaking to put itself in tune. The whole work is to be done from without and from above; in other words, it is a divine action, a very miracle of almightiness. Who can control the heart? Who can track all the devious way of the manifold purpose of life? Who is not conscious of an under-consciousness, a kind of sub-life, that never shows itself wholly even to the most careful observer or even to the man himself, a subtle faraway life that has plans, outlooks, motives, contemplations of its own? Verily, great is the mystery of life, and only One can control it, and that is the Lord who created the marvel.
“Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established” ( Pro 16:3 ).
Here we find the practical outcome, as we have pointed out, of the doctrine of the first verse. Man is to have no way of his own which he is not willing to subordinate to the inspiration of the Almighty. “Commit thy works” means, Yield thyself and all thy purposes to the Lord: ask him about everything: consider nothing too minute or insignificant for the regard of heaven. The downsitting, the uprising, the outgoing, the incoming of life, all these are to be watched and guarded from on high. Our danger is in supposing that we can undertake little things for ourselves. In reality there is nothing little, because everything we think or do or attempt has a distinct relation to a moral nature and to a moral responsibility, and consequently to a moral issue. When we begin to divide the actions of life into great and small we subject the soul to a very insidious temptation. If things were divisible into the two definite classes of great and small, the danger would be less extreme; but actions are graded into one another, colours are subdued from their highest expressiveness and shaded into lower colours, and it is at the point of shading, or at the line of transition, that the great spiritual difficulties of life occur. Whilst the final distribution is to the right hand and to the left, there is during life a process continually going on between the two extreme points, and somewhere in that process the soul may forget the vividness and definiteness of moral distinctions. There is a reward promised even in this text; may we not say a kind of heaven is outlined in this Book of Proverbs? The heaven of the man who commits his works unto the Lord is in the fact that his thoughts are to be established, his purposes are to be consummated, he is to be blessed with a sense of solid satisfaction; he is to be no longer a child driven to and fro and tossed about as by a fickle wind; he is to be rather as a tree planted by the right hand of God and abounding in all pleasant fruitfulness; or he is to be as a pillar in the house of God, founded on the eternal rock and reaching to the eternal heavens. The blessed effect of religion is to express itself in personal character. The religious man should be known by the clearness and largeness of his thoughts, by the nobleness and permanence of his character, by the beneficence and all but boundlessness of his charities. We shall know whether we have fully committed our work unto the Lord when we are assured that our thought is strong and true and wise and generously good.
“Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished” ( Pro 16:5 ).
What is there to be proud of? What hast thou that thou hast not received? Are we proud of beauty? beauty is but skin-deep, according to a well-approved proverb. Are we proud of wealth? riches make to themselves wings and flee away, as has been proved in many a tragical event. Are we proud of health? our breath is in our nostrils, and every man is but a tenant-at-will in the house of his body. But the pride here spoken of is a pride of heart; it may be a subtle and unexpressed pride, so far as anything concrete and definite is concerned. It may not relate to beauty, or riches, or bodily strength, or social position; it may be rather in a consciousness of superiority to other people, resulting in the cultivation of vanity, self-conceit, haughtiness, or contempt of others: they are not good enough for our society, they are unworthy of our regard, they are hardly of sufficient importance to be religiously cared for; it is in all such thoughts as these, so unchristlike and so undivine, that we find the most vicious pride. Hand joining in hand is no protection against the operation of the penal law. Proud men may combine themselves into a strong confederacy, but they shall burn like tow and go up like a crackling flame. God is mightier than all the forces that can be consolidated against him. Punishment slowly but surely follows the bad man in all the deviousness of his way, and in the long run he is crushed and ground into powder as by a great rock. It is folly to set the soul against God; for who can stand when the divine wrath burns? or who can answer when the thunder interrogates? Here again we come upon the necessity of a miracle being wrought in the heart, so that all pride may be taken out of it, all contempt may be subdued, and the heart itself be filled with generous thoughts and Christly charities. When anything is an a omination to the Lord, the Lord, as a consequence, fights against it, opposes it, humbles it, crushes it. Who will enter into controversy with the living God, challenge Omnipotence to contest? It may be because we have mistaken the mercy of God that we provoke such controversies: could we think for one moment of his almightiness, we should decline to appear to lift our puny hand against him. No man can subdue the pride of his own heart. Again and again we are brought to the solemn truth that that heart is an instrument which God alone can attune, and on which he alone can discourse music acceptable to his own ear.
“When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him” ( Pro 16:7 ).
Who has not proved this in his own practical experience? Efforts have been made to overcome the enemy, to flatter him, to bribe him, and yet his enmity has remained in all its stubbornness, the daily vexation of life, the daily difficulty of progress; but when the man who has suffered such enmity has committed his ways unto the Lord, and has invoked divine assistance, praying that he himself may be saved from the passion incident to provocation, and when he has made it his one business not to please his enemies, but to please the Lord, by a very curious and puzzling process enemies have been converted into friends. If this were not provable by countless instances, it would be one of the most incredible of all miracles; but there is hardly a man who has lived a large and active life, and who has lived at the same time a life devout and unselfish, who has not proved that this miracle has verily taken place. Perhaps there may be a negative aspect of the action of this miracle involved in the final words, “at peace with him:” there may not be cordial reunion, there may be no interchange of fellowship or visitation or confidence, but the enemy will forget to sneer, he will forbear to fight, he will withhold the malignant criticism, he will be as a beast of prey whose teeth and claws have been extracted. On the other hand, it is more likely that enmity will be turned into friendship, and hostility into confidence, for the Lord seldom builds a pillar without placing upon it a capital. He seldom leaves a tower half-built; it is not enough for God merely to subdue enmity. His glory is in its transformation to actual trust and love. We do far too much for ourselves; we seek our life, and therefore we lose it; we suppose we are more than a match for the enemy, and therefore we play off our resources against his: better to pray than to plan; better to forgive than to circumvent; better to think of God than to think of man or to think of God and thus think more truly and profoundly of man. Sometimes we do everything by doing nothing. Sometimes we win the battle by simply standing still and watching the wondrous ways of Providence.
“How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!” ( Pro 16:16 ).
Solomon returns to a very familiar doctrine, the very doctrine on which his book is based, and the very doctrine which he himself had proved in all the earlier processes of his better life. Gold changes in value; gold sometimes flies away like a frightened bird from the nest which it has warmed; but wisdom abides in winter and in summer; it is at once the most silent and the most eloquent of companions: it takes up no room, yet it fills the whole horizon of life; it can sing as well as speak; it has a key for every lock, it has an answer to every enigma; it loves to bow down in loving homage before the eternal throne, and to increase its volume and its quality by cultivating vital communion with the only wise God. Gold can remain with us in this world only; even suppose we can keep it to the very last day, and enjoy the very last luxury it can buy, we know of a certainty that it is the last luxury, that it is the last day, that it is the final effort; but wisdom is not something which the soul possesses, it is something which is transformed into the very nature of the soul; it gives the soul its highest and divinest qualities. What is it to have much silver, and to have no understanding? What is money in the hands of a fool? “Understanding” means sagacity, farsightedness, power of balancing one event against another, and especially that patient power which can wait until seed has grown, and until the mystery of growth has consummated itself. All human experience corroborates this text. There is nothing in gold, there is nothing in silver, that is not terminable; there is nothing in wisdom that is not of the nature of seed, which requires only to be sown in the right soil, administered to by the right agencies of nature, to grow up, some bearing thirty, some sixty, and some an hundredfold. A verse like this may be considered to be the very pivot of the Proverbs. Everything turns upon this pivot that relates to real sagacity, true prudence, faithful industry, profitable study, and a right comprehension of life and application of its functions.
“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” ( Pro 16:18 ).
Sentences of this kind can only have come after great experience. As we have before said, these proverbs are not speculations, but conclusions drawn from actual processes. We understand a statement of this kind best when we figure the writer as a man who has been watching the ways of life, and who has seen in a thousand instances ten times told how pride eventuates, and how a haughty spirit comes to fruition. The wise man tells us that pride yields the fruit of destruction, and a haughty spirit bears the fruit of humiliation. Pride can only grow for a certain time, strutting forth in all emptiness and vanity, as if it were a figure that deserved attention, and, behold, all the time it is walking along the level road to the pit of destruction: and a haughty spirit that is, a spirit full of self-conceit and contempt for others becomes so inflated and exaggerated and intolerable that at last it falls over the brink, and no man utters a cry of distress because it has sunk into the abyss. Only modesty is safe. Modesty is the first condition of true moral prosperity. When we come to know that we are nothing and have nothing in ourselves, and that we depend for everything upon the living God, we shall be saved from pride and from haughtiness.
“The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness” ( Pro 16:31 ).
Here, again, we come upon the moral test. The test is not, if it be found upon a throne, or with the control of vast material resources, but “if it be found in the way of righteousness.” An aged fool represents the very sum of folly; having, according to a well-known speech, seen the consequences of a thousand errors, he continues still to blunder; and in his case age has only meant a continuance and ripening of unwisdom. There is no more pitiable object upon the earth. All education has been thrown away or despised; every opportunity has been declined; every blessing of nature has been used for the succour and nutriment of error, mistake, and folly. On the other hand, how beautiful is the picture of the text! it is that of an aged philosopher who has seen the mystery of life unfolding little by little, and watched how wondrous is the purpose that is hidden in the little child, and has seen how all the way through life there has been the guidance of a hand invisible, the inspiration of a spirit far away and yet near at hand; the aged saint acknowledges that life is moral, that it is to be judged by the standard of righteousness, that it is not a game of chance, that the battle is not to the strong nor the race to the swift, but that through all there runs a purpose as beneficent as it is holy. The aged saint is found sitting at eventide telling all the wonders of the day, recounting the story of the fight, and going over all the particulars which have constituted the mystery of human experience. When such an aged saint is found in society all men gather around him who themselves wish to be wise; they consult him, they religiously admire him, and they praise him all the more that they first praise the God who made him what he is. We cannot prevent having the hoary head; the flying days, the hastening years, turn the raven locks into hoar-frost; but it does lie within our power to say whether that hoary head shall be a crown of glory or whether it shall be a token of humiliation and shame. We are not to put off the education of the soul until old age; old age is rather to be the proof that youth was devoted to the pursuit of wisdom and the love of understanding. A nation well stocked with hoary heads that are found in the way of righteousness is a nation rich with true riches.
“The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord” ( Pro 16:33 ).
Life without a sense of providence would be intolerable. With a sense of providence life becomes solemn, religious, in a sense appalling. When we cast the lot into the lap we seem to be taking the chances of life, to be merely speculating, and to be guiding ourselves by whatever may turn up in the whirling wheel of uncertainty. There is indeed such a wheel, but it is under the control of the living God. We think we are going to do something of our own wit and strength, yet we do but come to know that we have done nothing but realize what was written aforetime, yea, even in the counsels of eternity. The bad man says he will bring to ruin those whom he hates, and lo! when he has wrought out his evil purposes he finds that he has only established those whose power he intended to throw down. The crafty man elaborates counsels of wickedness and selfishness, and thinks he will bring them to fruition in the nighttime, and surprise society in the morning by his astuteness and his patience; and lo! no sooner does the dawn make the landscape evident than his counsel is seen to have been successful only in the outworking of his own confusion. Within limited circles we have great power, but within the great circle there is only One that reigneth, and that is the Lord of heaven and earth. We cannot overthrow men, we cannot do permanent injury to good men, we cannot finally hinder the progress of wise thought and beneficent ideas; for a while we may seem to be very successful herein, when we are all the time writing down the story of our own impotence, and we shall have to subscribe with our own hand the narrative of folly which we would gladly disown. Let any man recount the oppositions he has had to contend with in life, and then recount all his communion with God, and he will be the first to say that though the road has been very steep, and the wind often cold, and the whole air seemed to be filled with evil spirits, yet he has been led into an open place, and has been constrained by the mere impulse and inspiration of love to build a temple in honour of the God who has consummated his life in lovingkindness and tender mercy.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXII
MISCELLANEOUS PROVERBS
Pro 10:1-22:16
Solomon is the author of Pro 10:1-22:16 , and the character of this section is noticeable in the change from the direct and continuous appeal of the opening chapters of the book to the short and, for the most part, disconnected maxims, each of them contained, as a rule, in a couplet, or district, formed strictly on the model of Hebrew parallelism.
The one exception to the rule of the couplet is found in Pro 19:7 were there is a tristich, or stanza of three lines) which is explained by assuming that the last clause of this verse properly belongs to another proverb, of which one member has fallen out of our present text. This conclusion is in some measure confirmed by the appearance in the Septuagint of two complete distichs, though it does not help toward the restoration of the original Hebrew text.
Maurer calls this section, “Golden saying not unworthy of Solomon, fitted to form and fashion the whole life.” There are 376 proverbs in this collection and the parallelism is generally antithetic. A profitable study it would be to take this great section and classify each proverb in it as to the Hebrew parallelism found in it, and then paraphrase it so as to show its application to modern life, but such a plan would require more space than can be given to this discussion. An example of such paraphrase is found in W. J. Bryan’s paraphrase of Pro 22:3 , thus: A wise man sees the danger and gets out of the way, But the fool rushes on and gets it in the neck.
I give here several proverbs selected from those made by members of the author’s class in the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, as illustrations of the various kinds of parallelism found in the book of proverbs. Many of them are antithetic, like most of the proverbs found in the great section discussed so briefly in this chapter. The kind of parallelism found in each proverb is indicated by the word following it.
A wise man is as springtime to his neighbor, But the foolish are as the death of winter. Antithetic
A son that honors his father shall be honored in old age, But he that dishonors his parents shall suffer at the last. Antithetic
A wise man chooses his path, But they who Jack wisdom stumble on through life. Antithetic
In the house of the wicked strife prevails, But in the chambers of the righteous peace dwells. Antithetic
Christ is the foundation of religion, And religion is the foundation of the world. Synthetic
Heaven is a place of happiness But hell is a place of torment. Antithetic
What you were will not avail, It’s what you are that counts. Synthetic
Every proverb has encased a jewel, And wisdom is the key to unlock it. Climactic
Teachers impart knowledge, But pupils straightway forget it. Antithetic
Any fool can find fault, But the wise in heart will bridle the tongue. Antithetic
If people would be loved, They must first love others. Progressive
Love getteth to itself friends; While hatred maketh enemies. Antithetic
Duty calls ever and anon, Happy the man who heeds her call. Climactic
If you pay as you go, Your going will be good. Progressive
The bold eat the sweet morsel of victory, But the fearful are put to shame. Antithetic
The rebuke of a friend Is better than the compliment of an enemy. Progressive
As the rudder is to the ship, So is character to the life. Parabolic
A little schooling is a fooling with the looks, But true learning is a discerning of the books. Antithetic
The wicked rejoiceth in health, But calleth on the Lord in distress. Antithetic
The man who has an axe to grind Meets you with a smiling face. Progressive
Tis only noble thoughts Can make a noble man. Progressive
The wheels of time move slowly But they move surely. Climactic
The wicked purpose evil and are brought low, But the righteous purpose good and are exalted. Antithetic
The man who seeks to know the right shall find light. But he who seeks the lusts of the flesh shall find darkness. Antithetic
The going of the wicked is exceedingly crooked, But the path of the righteous is in the straight and narrow way. Antithetic
As a roaring lion in chains by the way, So is the adversary to the heavenly pilgrim. Parabolic
They who take part in others’ troubles Are apt to get into trouble, too. Progressive
QUESTIONS
1. Who is the author of Pro 10:1-22:16 and what is the character of this section?
2. What is exception to the rule that these Proverbs are expressed in couplets and how may this exception be explained?
3. What says Maurer of this section?
4. How many proverbs are in this section and what kind of parallelism is most common?
5. What is the suggestion by the author for a profitable study of this section?
6. Select ten of the most striking proverbs in this section and paraphrase them so as to show the application of them.
7. Now try your hand at making proverbs of every kind of Hebrew parallelism and indicate the kind of parallelism in each.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, [is] from the LORD.
Ver. 1. The preparations of the heart in man. ] He saith not ‘of man’ as if it were in man’s power to dispose of his own heart, but “in man,” as wholly wrought by God; for our sufficiency is not in ourselves, but “in him (as we live, so) we move” Act 17:28 – understand it of the motions of the mind also. It is he that “fashioneth the hearts of men,” Psa 33:13 shaping them at his pleasure. He put small thoughts into the heart of Ahasuerus, but for great purposes. And so he did into the heart of our Henry VIII about his marriage with Katherine of Spain, the rise of that Reformation here, Quam desperasset aetas praeterita, admiratur praesens, obstupescet futura, a as Scultetus hath it, which former ages despaired of, the present admireth, and the future shall stand amazed at.
And the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
a Scult. Annal. dec. 2 ep. dedic.
b disponere, ordinare, et aciem instruere, significat.
c , .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Proverbs Chapter 16
The maxims brought together in verses 1-8 fitly follow up the fear of Jehovah as the discipline of wisdom, and the path of humility before honour. Heart and ways are alike affected thereby.
“The preparations (or plans) of the heart [are] of man, but the answer of the tongue [is] from Jehovah.
“All the ways of a man [are] clean in his own eyes; but Jehovah weigheth the spirits.
“Commit thy works to Jehovah, and thy thoughts shall be established.
“Jehovah hath wrought every thing for his (or, its) own end yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
“Every proud heart [is] an abomination to Jehovah, hand in (or, for) hand (or, certainly) he shall not be held innocent (or, go unpunished).
“By mercy and truth iniquity is purged, and by the fear of Jehovah they depart from evil.
“When a man’s ways please Jehovah, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
“Better [is] a little with righteousness than great revenues without righteousness.” vv. 1-8.
Too well we know how readily the heart devises this way or that, and how constantly this fails to meet the difficulty. Happy he that waits on Him who sees the end from the beginning, and deigns to guide aright when the need arises. Then one can speak the right words in peace, and humbly; but the answer of the tongue is from Jehovah.
The same reference to Him delivers from the bias that regards all the ways of a man as clean in his own eyes. Jehovah weighs the spirit; who but He? Dependence on Him and confidence in Him are indispensable to judge, as for all else.
What a comfort that it is He who bids one to commit his works to Himself (literally, roll them upon Him), “and thy thoughts (not merely thy works) shall be established”! His goodness answers to our trusting Him with what is outward, and graciously establishes our “thoughts,” so apt to vacillate and pass away. How slow are even His own to learn the loving interest He takes in those that confide in Him!
Next is set before us the solemn truth, easily overlooked in the busy world of man, that Jehovah has wrought everything for His, or its, own end. Yet, is anything more certain? Is it not His reign? for evil abounds and the righteous suffer. Still His moral government is unfailing, whatever appearance may promise for awhile. The day will declare all. This is so true that He can add, “yea even the wicked for the day of evil.” How manifest all this will be in the coming judgment!
But even now He would have His people feel how offensive “every proud heart” is to Him – “an abomination,” and nothing less, to Jehovah. Yet how common pride is, and how little do men believe that God hates it, and will judge accordingly! The Highest despises not any. Hence, whatever the seeming support or the delay, beyond doubt one who so lives shall not be held innocent.
The next word is striking as only to be understood aright when a brighter light shone. Even before then no believer would have allowed that the mercy and truth were on man’s part to atone for his sins. It is in Christ and especially in His cross that they meet for the purging of the guilty and defiled. Anywhere else they are irreconcilable. Men plead “mercy” to escape the condemnation of “truth”; but if truth pronounce the just judgment of the wicked, what can mercy do to arrest the execution? The Lord Jesus alone bore the curse in all its truth, that the iniquities might be blotted out in the richest mercy. The grace of God appeared in Christ that His merciful remission of our sins might be His righteousness new manifested in the gospel. Truly, by the fear of Him is departure from evil.
This is it which, by a new nature as well as redemption, teaches those who believe to walk so as to please God, worthily of His calling and kingdom. In spite of natural enmity, the fruit of righteousness tells on conscience, so that even adversaries are made to be at peace with them.
Plain it is then that even here “better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.” Much more when the veil was lifted by Christ to let in the light of the eternal day on the present scene of flesh and world, alike enmity against God.
In verses 9-15 are given a fresh cluster of apothegms, in which we start with Jehovah as the sole power of directing the Israelite’s steps, and of maintaining equity in daily life. But there is next withal a striking enforcement of the honour due to the king.
“The heart of man deviseth his way, but Jehovah directeth his steps.
“An oracle is on the lips of the king; his mouth will not err in judgment.
“The just balance and scales [are I of Jehovah; all the weights of the bag [are] his work.
“[It is] an abomination to kings to commit wickedness; for the throne is established by righteousness.
“Righteous lips [are] the delight of kings; and they love him that speaketh aright.
“The fury of a king [is as] messengers of death; but a wise man will pacify it.
“In the light of the king’s countenance [is] life, and his favour [is] as a cloud of the latter rain.”
The heart of man away from God is lawless; and, shaking off the restraint of Him to whom he belongs and must give account, is fruitful of devices. As he loves his own way, so he changes it according to the object before him, or, it may be, some passing fancy. Jehovah alone can direct his steps; but this supposes dependence on Him and obedience to His Word, when it is His way, and not the man’s own. So Moses (Exo 23:13 ), when Israel forsook him and bowed down to the golden calf, prays, Show me Thy way.
Jehovah would have His people honour the king, especially in Israel, and to look for a wise and righteous decision. “An oracle is on the lips of a king.” It was no less a remembrancer to the king, that it should be said of him, his mouth will not err in judgment. How often alas! both king and people failed utterly. But a morning comes without clouds, when One of that very house shall rule over men righteously and in the fear of God; for man He is, though infinitely more. But David’s house was not so with God, either when he lived, or after his death when succeeded even by the favoured son who wrote these words. Judgment must act as well as sovereign grace, before Jehovah will make it grow. All honour to Him who once for all suffered for sins, and has given us life eternal, and will reign righteously.
Properly subjoined is that equity in the least things which Jehovah will have. “The just balance and scales are of Jehovah; all the weights of the bag are his work.” If Jehovah showed His interest in instructing man aright, when it was even the details of the fitches and the cummin, of the barley and the wheat, and not in the sowing only but in their due treatment at the harvest, so did He feel for the constant administration of every day’s exchange among men, to ensure right and guard against wrong. How much more does He feel their readiness to overlook sin and judgment for eternity!
Again would He set before all, that to commit wickedness is an abomination not to Himself only but to kings. What a standing rebuke if the throne were not established by righteousness! What an exposure if the king indulged in wickedness himself, instead of abhorring it in others! It is throughout here assumed that the king recognizes his place before Jehovah as His anointed.
Further we hear that kings take pleasure in those who in their speech vindicate what is right. “Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaketh right.” Flattery is natural at court, but contemptible to him that rules in the fear of God. Righteous lips may not always speak agreeably; but righteous kings appreciate the man who cleaves to justice and sound principle.
Just as terrible is the wrath of a king. He holdeth not the sword in vain. That he is incensed “as messengers of death,” especially to such as have reason to fear. “But a wise man will pacify it.” So we see in both Jonathan and David, who appealed not in vain to the monarch, even though unjust in his anger.
On the other hand, no less powerful is the effect of the king’s favour after alienation. “In the light of the king’s countenance is life, and his favour is as the cloud of the latter rain.” But what is any such privilege to compare with the place of stable nearness and grace which the believer even now enjoys through the Saviour, and looks on in assured hope of His glory! “Being therefore justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom also we have had the access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and we boast in hope of the glory of God.” Rom 5:1 , Rom 5:2 .
The precepts and warnings impressed on us in verses 17-24 are of a wider range and a more general moral character. The upright, the humble, the heedful, the wise, the pleasant of speech are pointed out and encouraged, with grave admonition to those who are otherwise.
“The highway of the upright [is] to depart from evil: he that taketh heed to his way keepeth his soul.
“Pride [goeth] before destruction; and a haughty spirit before a fall.
“Better [is it to be] a humble spirit with the poor [or, meek], than to divide the spoil with the strong (or, proud).
“He that giveth heed to the word shall find good; and whoso confideth in Jehovah, happy [is] he.
“The wise in heart is called intelligent (or, prudent), and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning.
“Wisdom [is] a fountain of life for him that hath it; but the instruction of fools [is] folly.
“The heart of the wise instructeth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips.
“Pleasant words [are as] a honey-comb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.”
In a world of evil, and the multitude following evil, it is no small thing to depart from evil. For the believer was once like the rest; and it is the grace of God which acts on conscience through Christ, in whom was no sin, and who died for us and our sins, that we might be forgiven and delivered. It is indeed the highway of the upright to depart from evil; but there is the positive side too: he that taketh heed to his way (and Christ is the way to the Christian) keepeth his soul.
Pride on the other hand is most offensive to Jehovah, and dangerous, yea, destructive, to man; and he is apt to be most lifted up when the blow falls; as we may see throughout Scripture, a haughty spirit before a fall. So Nebuchadnezzar, where mercy interceded; so Haman, where was only judgment.
Next we have the good portion of the humble spirit with the meek; just as the Lord pronounced such souls blessed whether for the kingdom of the heavens, or inheriting the earth when the Heir of all things takes it, even He then sharing with the great, and dividing spoil with the strong. For it is the inauguration of the King reigning in righteousness, in contrast with this evil age.
Then we have a fine climax. He that gives heed to the word without a doubt shall find good; but if he also confide in Jehovah, which is better, happy is he.
The wise in heart is called intelligent; and so he is, and inspires confidence. It differs much from what men call a long head, feared rather than trusted. And the sweetness of lips which accompanies that wisdom increases learning all round.
Wisdom is truly a fountain of life to him that has it, as he begrudges not its waters for those that have it not. The instruction of fools can be nothing but folly, and is fully exposed, because of the vain assumption to teach.
How different when the heart of the wise instructs his mouth, as it does, and adds learning to his lips. For there is not only profit but growth.
Such are indeed “pleasant words,” and they are as a honeycomb, sweet inwardly, and strengthening outwardly.
Verses 25-33. The first of these apothegms we have had before, in Pro 14:12 . The repetition indicates its importance, and our aptness to forget it. We may therefore consider it again.
“There is a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof [is] the ways of death.
“The appetite (or, soul) of the labouring man laboureth for him, for his mouth urgeth him on.
“A man of Belial diggeth evil, and on his lips [is] as a scorching fire.
“A froward (or, false) man soweth contention; and a talebearer separateth chief friends.
“A violent man enticeth his neighbour, and leadeth him a way [that is] not good.
“He that shutteth his eyes, [it is] to devise froward things; he that biteth his lips bringeth evil to pass.
“The hoary head [is] a crown of glory; it is found in the way of righteousness.
“The slow to anger [is] better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.
“The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision [is] of Jehovah.”
Self-love and self-will lead into self-deception, whatever be the honesty that would oppose a conscious wrong. We need therefore to look to Him who is greater than our heart, that we be guided by a wisdom above ourselves. How terrible to have trusted what one should have judged, lest, to one following a way that seemed right, its end should he only a way of death! He that hears and knows and follows the voice of Jesus finds Him not only the way but the truth and the life. Nor can one be too simple in listening to His words open to all. This is the Christian highway, and therefore is peace and joy, whatever the suffering and danger.
Humanly speaking, as idleness is a peril and misery, labour is good for a man as he is. He that is truly a working man has a need that impels him on his course of daily toil. His soul (appetite, or life) has wants that call for supply, or, as it is here put, “his mouth urgeth him on.” Others understand that “the soul of him that is troublesome shall suffer trouble; for his mouth turneth it on him.”
Verse 27 vividly sketches the ungodly. Not content with what appears on the surface, a man of Belial diggeth up evil, and on his lips is as a scorching fire. As James says of the tongue, it sets on fire all the course of nature, and is itself inflamed by hell. What can one think of the comment by a learned Romanist expositor (Maldonat), which Bishop Patrick cites? – “This is apparent by the example of the Spanish Inquisition, whereby he who speaks anything rashly against the faith is deservedly delivered to the fire, which I wish were done everywhere.” Romanism ignores and reverses Christianity.
The next form of mischief is a perverse or froward man sowing contention, and a talebearer separating chief friends. May we have grace not only to refuse such a spirit, but to reprove it, whenever it betrays its injurious and often insinuating way.
The violent man may not be so insidious; but the openness of his course, with apparent honesty, may entice his neighbour, and lead him into a way that is not good, possibly beyond his misleader.
The picture in verse 30 describes one of those that shut the eyes in their evil work; but it is to devise froward things, and one biting his lips, that he may bring evil to pass.
Nor must one be deceived by age, though it claims reverence. But how deplorable if it help on evil! “The hoary head is a crown of glory; it is (or, if it be) found in the way of righteousness.”
What a testimony to the patient and the self-restrained in verse 32! If he walk in the light, as every Christian does, even more than this should flow freely. Yet slowness to anger and self-control are admirable in their place.
The Jew resorted to the lot (v. 33), till the Spirit was given the believer in the gospel. But he was reminded that Jehovah directed. Christianity in this, as in all things, shows God providing some “better thing,” faithful though God was of old, and is still, now that in Christ He is far more intimately revealed and known.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
preparations = arrangements or plans. The Ellipsis (App-6) of the verb in the first clause must be supplied (as it is in the second clause): “To man [pertain] the plans of his heart; but from Jehovah [comes] the final decree. “Compare Pro 16:9. May be well rendered “the last word” (Compare Pro 16:4). See App-74. Illustrations: Balaam (Num 23:11, Num 23:12; Num 24:10-13. Jos 24:9, Jos 24:10. Neh 13:2). Compare Jer 10:23.
man = man. Hebrew. ‘adam. App-14.
answer. Hebrew. ma’aneh, from ‘anah, which is a word of wide meaning. The noun occurs only eight times (Job 32:3, Job 32:5. Job 15:1, Job 15:23; Job 16:1, Job 16:4; Job 20:19. Mic 3:7).
tongue. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause), App-6, for what is said by it. The silent and secret plans of man’s heart are contrasted with the disclosures of the tongue, which come from Jehovah. See note on “Himself”, Pro 16:4.
tongue. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause), App-6, for what is said by it.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Shall we turn now to Pro 16:1-33 , the sixteenth chapter and begin our study this evening.
The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD ( Pro 16:1 ).
God works in our lives even when we’re not aware of it. If we’re a child of God, God is continually working in our lives. It’s amazing how many times we say things that we don’t realize that at the time we are saying it, but actually it’s a word from the Lord. It just comes up. God prepares your heart. The preparations of the heart, they’re from God. In Philippians we read, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God that is working in you both to will and to do” ( Php 2:12-13 ). You see, God is planting now His law in the fleshly tablets of our heart, even as He promised to Jeremiah. “The day will come when I will no longer write my law on the tables of stone but in the fleshly tables of their heart.” So God plants His Word, God plants His desires right in your heart, so the preparations of the heart are from the Lord. How great it is to be a child of God and to have your life submitted to the Lord so that the Lord is directing from that just inner kind of desires and all that He plants within your own heart.
Second proverb:
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weighs the spirits ( Pro 16:2 ).
Now no matter what a guy does, it’s right. “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes.” You can justify everything you’ve done. We’re so full of excuses. “I did it because… ” Even if it’s wrong, we got a good reason or at least a good excuse. Of course, Benjamin Franklin said the man who is good with excuses is seldom good for anything else. “The ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but God weighs the spirits.” Now God knows the motives. God knows why I did it, the motive behind it, and that’s what’s important.
Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established ( Pro 16:3 ).
So many times we’re worried that we haven’t done enough. And probably correct. However, when we look at our service to God, we so often say, “Oh, but, you know, I should have done such a better job. You know, I… ” Could you have done a better job? “No. I did the best I could.” Well, that’s all God expects. God doesn’t expect more from you than what you can actually produce. So you’ve got to commit your works unto the Lord. Do your best and then just commit the rest. And your thoughts will be established.
“Well, you know, Lord, that’s the best I can do. Sorry You have to use this kind of instrument to do Your work, Lord, but that’s the way it is and that’s all I can do.” And I don’t go home and worry, “Oh, could I have done this? Could I have done that? Oh, I should have done this. I should have done that.” You just do your best and then you just place the rest in His hands. Your thoughts are then established. You rest. “Well, Lord, here it is, such as it is the best I can do.” And you just commit your work to the Lord and your thoughts then are established. Just resting. Best I could do. “God, you know, use it if you can. It’s my best.”
This is an interesting and yet a difficult proverb to understand.
The LORD has made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil ( Pro 16:4 ).
Now the word evil, of course, is a reference to the judgment that is coming. There is a scripture in Isaiah that has brought a lot of problems to people, where God has declared that He has created evil. And they say, “Oh, how could God create evil?” The word actually is judgments. God has created the judgments that come upon the evil. So, “The Lord has made all things for Himself.” “Thou has created all things, and for thy good pleasure they are and were created” ( Rev 4:11 ). And God has even created the evil or the wicked. Now God didn’t create them wicked, but He created wicked people. Can you catch the difference?
God created people; some of them are wicked. They don’t have to be, but they are. God created them. You can’t deny the fact that God created them. So in a sense, you can say God created the wicked. He didn’t create them wicked, but He created the wicked. They became wicked. God created them. And He has actually created also the judgments that shall come upon those wicked persons.
Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD ( Pro 16:5 ):
One of those, another one of those which God has a lot of things that are an abomination to Him. Again, you need to take your concordance and go through the book of Proverbs and go through this word abomination and find out how many things are an abomination unto God. Now, I don’t know exactly what an abomination is, but it sounds bad. And I know I don’t want to be one.
Now, “The proud in heart are an abomination to the Lord.” Oh, that pride. What a destroyer it is. We’ll get to that in a minute.
and though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished ( Pro 16:5 ).
This “hand in hand” again, the striking of the hand, making a deal, it’s usually a… in this case, joining hand in hand for strength, yet you can’t escape the punishment.
By mercy and truth iniquity is cleansed ( Pro 16:6 ):
God’s mercy and God’s truth. You remember John in the opening remarks concerning Jesus Christ said, “For the law came by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ” ( Joh 1:17 ). Of course, grace and mercy are sister kind of words. Mercy and truth. Grace and truth. “By mercy and truth iniquity is cleansed.”
and by the fear [or the reverence] of the LORD men depart from evil ( Pro 16:6 ).
Now the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. And so here, “By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.” There is a tremendous inconsistency; John points it out in his first epistle. He said, “He that saith he hath fellowship with God and walketh in darkness is lying” ( 1Jn 1:6 ). He isn’t telling the truth. You cannot walk in fellowship with God and have a desire and a love for evil. “By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.”
When a man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him ( Pro 16:7 ).
Thus, really the goal of each of our lives is and should be to be pleasing to God. Not what pleases you. Now usually we use as our standard, is it right or is it wrong? And trying to measure… and this was, of course, the mistake that the religious leaders in Judaism made concerning the law. Now what constitutes bearing a burden on the Sabbath day? What if you had false teeth? If you put your false teeth on on the Sabbath day, that means you’re bearing a burden, doesn’t it? You’re carrying something that isn’t natural to you. What about if you have a wooden leg? Sure, that’s a burden so you can’t put it on on the Sabbath day. And all of these little fine points, you know, they’re trying to tune the fine points of right and wrong.
You can throw all of that out the window. The real question is: is it pleasing to God? Is God pleased with it? Because you may sit down and rationalize that a particular action, a particular thing that you want to do, you may rationalize and say, “Well, sure, look, it’s all right,” and give all of your rationale for why it’s right. But it may not be pleasing to God. So really the rightness or the wrongness of a particular action isn’t what really matters. What really matters is, does it really please the Lord? My life, I desire that my life be pleasing. Jesus said, “I do always those things that please the Father” ( Joh 8:29 ). Now, if you use that as your standard, you won’t have to worry about right or wrong. You won’t have to sit and examine the thing to see if it’s really right or really wrong. Hey, does it please God? That’s where it’s at. “When a man’s ways please the Lord, then the Lord makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”
Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues without right ( Pro 16:8 ).
“A little that a righteous man hath is greater riches than many wicked” ( Psa 37:16 ). Same concept.
A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps ( Pro 16:9 ).
How many times our plans have been changed by the Lord. We’ve decided we’re going to do something, and God throws the monkey wrench in and stops us. I’m always sensitive to interruptions. Maybe God is trying to stop me. You know, the man who is expecting to be disturbed is the man who is never disturbed when disturbances come. If you are open to God and you think, “Well, Lord, any time I’m heading down a path You don’t want, You just stop me.” Therefore, I am expecting to be disturbed. Therefore, when the disturbance comes, it doesn’t disturb me, because my life and my steps are committed to the Lord.
So we devise something in our heart, but God directs our steps. And I want it that way. I don’t want to do my own will. I don’t want to fulfill my own purposes. I want God to stop me whenever I am getting out of line and doing something that isn’t from Him and directed by Him. I want the Lord to interrupt me. I want God to disturb me. I want God to direct my steps.
A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment ( Pro 16:10 ).
Now herein, of course, is a beautiful situation. When the king is a godly king, then God will direct his mouth, his lips and place, actually, God’s sentences within his lips. And his mouth will not transgress. Will be faithful in judgment.
A just weight and balance are the LORD’S: all the weights of the bag are his work ( Pro 16:11 ).
Now, again, we’ll get another proverb that deals with this pretty soon. All of their merchandising was done with the balanced scales. And so they would have little bags of weights. And the crooked merchant would have two bags of weights, divers weights: one that they would sell with, and one that they would buy with. So butchers have had their thumbs on the scales for years. Goes back to the time of Proverbs. Where in the balancing, they would use one set of weights to buy, and they would use another bag of weights to sell. It’s an abomination unto the Lord. False balances, an abomination unto God. But the true, honest in business. “A just weight and balance are the Lord’s, and all the weights of the bag are His work.”
It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by righteousness ( Pro 16:12 ).
So those who are in leadership actually have a greater responsibility before God.
Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaks right. The wrath of the king is as messengers of death: but a wise man will pacify it. In the light of the king’s countenance is life; and his favor is as a cloud of the latter rain ( Pro 16:13-15 ).
So here we have four proverbs that are related to each other because they all deal with kings. And inasmuch as none of you are kings, I don’t know, maybe you are. You’re the King’s kids.
Now Solomon declares:
How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver! ( Pro 16:16 )
You remember when he started out, God said to Solomon, “Ask of Me whatever you desire,” and Solomon prayed for wisdom. And God said, “In that you have asked for wisdom, you’ve asked for a good thing. And I will grant unto you wisdom. But I will also grant unto you that which you did not ask: riches and so forth.” And so wisdom, understanding, these are more valuable than gold, treasure, silver.
The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: and he that keeps his way preserveth his soul ( Pro 16:17 ).
Then one that is very familiar, but so often misquoted. How many times you’ve heard people say, “Pride goeth before a fall.” That’s not a scripture. This is the scripture from which that quotation is taken, but it is misquoted.
Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall ( Pro 16:18 ).
So pride goes before destruction. That haughty spirit, going to be brought down. “Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord, He shall lift thee up” ( Jas 4:10 ). “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted; he that exalteth himself shall be abased” ( Mat 23:12 ).
Better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud ( Pro 16:19 ).
So a couple of them that deal with pride and humility.
He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he ( Pro 16:20 ).
How neat it is to just have your trust in the Lord. Happy man. You’re not really disturbed by the circumstances of life. My trust is in God. Happy is he.
The wise in heart shall be called prudent: and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning. Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly ( Pro 16:21-22 ).
So understanding. “With all of thy getting, get understanding” ( Pro 4:7 ), David said to Solomon. It’s a wellspring of life to him who has it. Oh God, grant to us a better understanding. I think to have understanding is so important, because I think it is the key to compassion. There are many people in many circumstances in which we find it difficult to be compassionate.
In operating summer camps, which I did for years and years, you get those kids that are just behavioral problems. I’ve had the counselors come in and say, “You better get that kid out of my group or I’m going to kill him. He’s horrible. You know, he’s just screaming at night and always creating problems. I can’t stand that kid. Get him out of there before you have to carry him out. Going to do something rash.” And so I’ll bring the little kid in and I’ll sit him down and, of course, you know, he has to go to Chuck. And he comes in all trembling, and you know here he is. Like I’m going to be a monster. And I’ll go over and buy him an ice cream bar and sit him down and start talking, asking him, you know, about his home, about his background. Little kid will start unfolding the story how his dad, he never sees him. Doesn’t know where he is. Comes home, his mom’s usually drunk. Different men in the house who yell at him and tell him to get out of there, and all this kind of stuff. Man, you get the background stories of some of these little guys and you can’t believe it! It’s horrible. And then I’ll call the counselor back in and I said, “Do you realize that this is what happens when this little kid goes home and this is what the situation is?” “Oh, wow.” We have a whole changed attitude towards him. Now you understand why he’s fighting everybody. Man, this little kid has to fight for survival. And as you understand now the background, now you can have compassion, and now you can deal with him, and now you can minister to him.
Understanding is such an important thing. Ezekiel said, “I sat where they sat” ( Eze 3:15 ). And you really need to sit in another man’s place for a while to really understand that other person. I think one of the keys to relationship is to put yourself in the other person’s position. We have so many labor problems. Well, if you could reverse roles, if management could sit where labor is, and if labor could sit where management is, you could remove so many of these labor problems. The management would understand that this guy has to have a decent wage to live. But also this guy would understand that management has to have a profit to survive.
If a wife could sit where her husband sits, and if a husband could sit where his wife sits, how many problems this would solve. When he comes home at night, just all frazzled from the pressures and the hassles that he’s had all day, and sits down and just wants to turn on TV, and just tune out for a while, and he’s uncommunicative to his wife, well, if she could just understand the pressures, the hassles he’s had. On the same token, if he could just be with those kids all day long and be communicating to them, he’d understand the wife’s need to communicate on a different level when he gets home. “And I sat where they sat.” Understanding, understanding the other person’s position is so important, really, to compassion, to love. “It’s a wellspring of life to him who has it.” Oh God, grant that we might have better understanding.
The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips ( Pro 16:23 ).
So the heart is the issue of life.
Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, health to the bones ( Pro 16:24 ).
Now, I don’t know if the scientists have ever made any relationship between honey and the bones, but it’s sweet to the soul, honey, and health to the bones. What are they? Pleasant words. Oh, just cheerful words, pleasant words. How good they are.
There is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death ( Pro 16:25 ).
I think of so many people today who are deceived by false prophets, who are deceived by false religious systems. They’re convinced that they are right. “There is a way that seems right unto man, but the end of it” ( Pro 14:12 ). There’s another scripture, “Every man’s way is right in his own eyes” ( Pro 21:2 ). But here, “There is a way that seems right.” The way of life, you know. The philosophy of life that a man has chosen. It seems to be right. Eat, drink and merry. Tomorrow we die, you know. And you talk to that guy and he’s convinced that his philosophy is correct. “But the end thereof, the way of death.”
He that laboreth, laboreth for himself; for the mouth craves it of him ( Pro 16:26 ).
It’s a thing that your labor goes to feed yourself.
An ungodly man digs up evil: and in his lips there is a burning fire ( Pro 16:27 ).
Actually, James says, “Behold, what a great fire such a little matter kindleth! And the tongue is like a fire” ( Jas 3:5-6 ). The things that it can enflame.
A perverse man sows strife: and a whisperer can separate the best of friends. A violent man entices his neighbor, and leads him into the way that is not good. He shuts his eyes to devise perverse things: moving his lips he brings evil to pass. Now the hoary head [which is the gray, the hoary frost, the white hair] is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness ( Pro 16:28-31 ).
I think that one of the worst things in the world is a dirty old man. You know when people get old and gray-headed, they’re supposed to all be sweet and kind and loving. After all, they’re getting towards the end, and so you ought to be mellow. And to see a little old gray-hair lady using four-letter words and all that kind of… it just, it’s just wrong. It’s out of place.
My daughter used to work for a medical supply firm and she had to deliver some things to this little old lady in the hospital. And she walked in and saw her and thought, “Oh, what a sweet-looking little old lady.” And then this lady you know says, “Who the hell are you? And what are you doing here?” And just started all this filthy language. And it’s just somehow incongruent; it’s just out of place. “The gray hair is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.” But man, if it’s not.
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit is better than he that takes a city ( Pro 16:32 ).
How important it is. Slow to anger, ruling our own spirits. Important.
The lot is cast into the lap ( Pro 16:33 );
Now it’s a… the lot is a thing whereby they would oftentimes determine. You know, it’s like drawing a straw. They would cast lots into their lap.
but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD ( Pro 16:33 ).
Trying to get guidance or direction or to determine, they cast lots. But the real direction, the disposing of the thing comes from God. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Pro 16:1
Pro 16:1
“The plans of the heart belong to man; But the answer of the tongue is from Jehovah.”
“A man may think what he will say, but at the moment the word comes to him from the Eternal. “People make their plans, but it is the Lord who makes those things happen. “This proverb is identical in meaning with Pro 16:9, and with our saying that, `man proposes; God disposes.’
Pro 16:1. These first seven verses are all religious maxims, for they all contain the name Jehovah. The answer of the tongue appears to be set over against the plans of the heart. If so, the saying would refer to those times when a persons plans become altered by providence so that he ends up doing something else. There is a marvelous teaching here for those who believe in Gods providential leadership. See Pro 16:9 also. When we pray, Thy will, not mine, be done, God may alter our thoughts either in a minor or a major way. Your writer can testify to this as he had personal well-laid vocational plans in life, and yet he believed that it was Gods will for him to say, Lord, I will devote my life to preaching your Word.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Verse Pro 16:1. A somewhat obscure proverb which recognizes that man has to exercise his own reason in making his plans, but that he is dependent on the Lord for the answer of the tongue. Dr. Perowne’s interpretation is most likely the correct one. He says: “The implied moral of the proverb is, If we cannot do the less without God, do not attempt to do the greater without Him.”
Verse Pro 16:4. This is simply the affirmation of the fact that in the orderliness of the divine economy the harvest must be according to the sowing.
Verse Pro 16:21. Wisdom is recognized, and where there is ability to impart it, it becomes helpful to others.
Verse Pro 16:26. That is to say that hunger will make a man work when nothing else will. This is in harmony with the apostolic principle, “If a man will not work, neither let him eat.”
Verse Pro 16:32. This is a proverb that is constantly quoted, and very little believed. If men only recognized that there is more valor and heroism in self-control than in doughty deeds which others acclaim in song and story, how different our world would be.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Proverbs 16
The human proverb, Man proposes, but God disposes, finds its far earlier counterpart in Pro 16:1.
16:1
It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps (Jer 10:23). He may plan and arrange, but when the time arrives to speak or act the answer comes from Jehovah. See Balaam (Numbers 23-24).
16:2
Ever since the fall it has been second nature with man to justify himself. Until brought into the light of Gods holiness he is certain that his conduct is defensible. His ways are clean in his own eyes, but he is not to be trusted to judge himself rightly for the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Jehovah weighs the spirits. His balances are exact. His judgment is unerring; it is He who solemnly declares, Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting (Dan 5:27).
Only by allowing God to be the judge of his sin can a man receive the salvation provided through the finished work of the Son of God on Calvarys cross. Otherwise condemnation can be his only portion. See Belshazzar (Dan 5:25-30).
16:3
The word commit might be rendered roll. He who rolls his affairs over on the Lord will find Him ever ready to take charge of them all and to carry them on to a proper completion. But it must be remembered that if I thus commit all to Him, I no longer choose for myself what the outcome should be, but say with confidence, Thy will be done. God would have every desire whispered in His ear, and then left in faith that He may act according to His love and unerring wisdom. See Hannah (1Sa 1:9-20).
16:4-5
All things will result at last in the glory of God. Earths long tale of sin and sorrow will eventually result in magnifying His love and His holiness. Those saved by His grace will praise Him forever; but the wicked will also acknowledge His justice in the day of their condemnation. He detests pride; all who walk pridefully will be broken before Him, try as they may to resist His power. They will be declared guilty when He sits on the throne of judgment. How much better to bow in repentance now, while He is on a throne of grace! See His word regarding the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah (Jud 1:7; 2Pe 2:6).
16:6
Wrongdoing between men is best reconciled by lovingkindness and truth. This proverb is not referring to the atonement of our sins before God. No amount of kindly deeds and truthful words can purge the conscience of guilt and give acceptance with Him. But by showing repentance and making amends to someone who has been sinned against we will go far towards clearing his mind of the past evil. It is the fear of Jehovah that leads to departure from what is unholy and contrary to sound doctrine. This fear of God will lead one to endeavor to have a conscience void of offense both towards God and men. See the apostle Paul (Act 24:16).
16:7
The truth of this proverb is a far-reaching statement, which is not pondered often enough. It allows no exceptions. If a mans ways are pleasing to the Lord, his enemies will be unable to say one word against his character. They may hate him, but they are compelled to admit that God is with him.
If therefore my enemies are not at peace with me, I should ask myself, Do my ways really please God? Doubtless I soon will be reminded of something needing to be judged in His presence.
The one who goes on quietly through evil report and good report, will close the mouths of his enemies. He wastes no time in self-vindication, but is concerned only with pleasing God and committing all to Him who judges righteously. A holy, humble walk will silence even his worst foes. See Daniel (Dan 6:4-5).
16:8
Integrity of heart is better than thousands in silver and gold. How poor is the man who piles up his millions, but sacrifices his conscience to do it! A simple living, with the mind and heart at rest, and a walk in accordance with righteous principles is infinitely to be preferred to a large income coupled with covetousness and unholy practices. See Naboth and Ahab (1 Kings 21).
16:9
Compare this verse with Pro 16:1. People frequently think they are having their own way, when in reality the Lord is leading them through strange paths for their discipline and blessing. See Naomi (Rth 1:21).
16:10-15
These verses bring to our minds the ideal king. Occasionally earthly monarchs have been raised up who hated iniquity and loved righteousness. But this world still groans for the coming and reign of the true King, who will judge the nations with justice, and in whose mouth the vile person will be despised.
It is Gods Anointed alone whose throne will be established by righteousness and to whom lawlessness of every kind is an abomination. In His lips there is a sure decision, for His mouth does not break the laws of sound judgment. Christ is the grand pattern for all human rulers. To the degree that they imitate Him, they properly maintain the kingly glory.
Whatever is right and true among men is from God. All indecency and dishonest trickery are detestable in His eyes. So we have the weights and balances introduced in the middle of this section relating to kingly dignity. For the same integrity that directs the decision of the upright king also influences the measures used by the poorest of his subjects.
The king delights in lips of truth and loves sound speech. His anger is as a death-sentence, but wisdom will pacify it. In his favor is life and refreshment. If life is in the light of an earthly kings countenance, how much more life is in the light of the King of kings-In thy presence is fulness of joy (Psa 16:11). See David (2Sa 3:36).
16:16-17
Compare with notes on Pro 2:1-9. The man of wisdom and understanding has his fortune made for both worlds (see Dan 5:11). It is easy to be deceived by a counterfeit wisdom that does not come from above, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish. That wisdom which does not begin with the fear of the Lord is Satans counterfeit. Arrogant, worldly people may boast that they have all knowledge but they do not know to depart from evil. They follow the highway of iniquity.
16:18-19
Pride was an archangels ruin, as it has been the destruction of untold myriads of men and women on earth. It is the sure precursor of a fall; the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity cannot permit His creatures self-exaltation to go unchecked. It is far better to be little in ones own eyes and to find happy fellowship with the humble, than to share the pursuits and treasures of the proud in spirit.
It is when one sees pride in another that its hideousness is clearly revealed. How often we will complacently tolerate in ourselves what fills us with disgust when we see it in someone else. But God notices the least beginning of unjudged haughtiness in each heart. What mind can conceive how hateful it must all be to Him! May we see to it that this deadly sin is examined in His presence, before it leads us to our lasting sorrow! See Haman (Esther 5-7).
16:20-24
These five verses form a series of epigrams on the value of applying wisdom to the various affairs of life. To proceed wisely in a case presenting difficult obstacles assures a good result. This is true of those who confide in Jehovah and find their happiness in obeying Him.
When wisdom rules our innermost being our behavior will be discreet. Kindly lips will demonstrate a humble heart and willingness to be instructed. This is true understanding and like a spring of living water it flows forth to bless others. The opposite is true of fools. Their folly is evident to any person of discernment.
The condition of the heart is of prime importance. If all is right there, the words of the lips will also be upright. The profitable and pleasant counsel of the wise will replace the speculative boastings of worldly wisdom. Note the characteristics of true wisdom as described in Jam 3:17, and see the confession of the queen of Sheba (1Ki 10:6-9).
16:25
This verse repeats the statement of Pro 14:12. It emphasizes the danger of refusing the path of wisdom for self-chosen ways that only end in death. See note on that verse.
16:26
The laborer pursues his occupation because of his desire to be satisfied with the fruits of his toil. His appetite craves gratification and so he presses on in his service. This is as God ordained when the fall shut man out of the garden, and he was commanded to eat his bread in the sweat of his face. Wealth gotten without labor is generally a very dangerous acquisition. He who knows the weariness of honest toil will be careful how he uses the results of his labor. Ponder the cases of Ruth (Ruth 2), and of Gideon (Jdg 6:11-12).
16:27-28
See notes on Pro 11:13 and 17:9. Everyone addicted to the sinfully cruel habit of gossiping should ponder these words carefully. It is an ungodly man who digs up evil and whose lips seem to be set on fire of Hell. Such a one goes about scattering the seeds of strife as one might sow thistledown, or the pods of other noxious weeds, to result in a harvest of grief and anguish to many a soul.
There is no question that whispering and backbiting is one of the greatest curses among Christians. This detestable vice alienates the dearest friends and creates misunderstandings of all kinds. Many are defiled by repeating tales which a godly person would seek to cover and never repeat. See what mischief was brought about by the talebearing of Doeg the Edomite, and see that you follow not in the steps of so unsavory a wretch (1Sa 22:9-19).
16:29-30
Many an otherwise kindly and gracious soul has been misled by the energy and apparent earnestness of a violent man. His eyes were blinded and he was led on to join that violent man in things that were quite opposed to his own more mature judgment. Fair speech coupled with a magnetic personality have often led one into a way that was not good. It is wise not to be too easily persuaded. Before making a decision, take time to ascertain the mind of God, so you will not be a partaker of other mens sins. Neglect of this led Jehoshaphat, a most amiable man, into many a snare (2Ch 18:1; 20:35-37).
16:31
Probably the last line of this proverb should read simply, It shall be found in the way of righteousness. The verse does not say the hoary head will never be found in the paths of wickedness; alas, often white hairs crown the sinners head. But it is characteristic of the way of righteousness and when found there, it is indeed a diadem of honor. Riotous living in youth generally means feebleness in middle age and premature death. Temperance and righteousness tend to strengthen body and lengthen life. Hear the testimony of Caleb, who wholly followed the Lord (Jos 14:11); and note what is written of Moses (Deu 34:7).
16:32
Self-mastery is the greatest of all victories. Men have subdued kingdoms but were defeated in the effort to control themselves. A bad temper is often excused on the ground of genetic make-up, but it is rather the evidence of unjudged pride and impatience. Learn of me, said Jesus, for I am meek and lowly in heart (Mat 11:29). The meek man is not a spiritless man, but he is slow to anger. He can be righteously stirred when occasion requires, but not when it is his own dignity that is in question. Addto [self-control] patience (2Pe 1:6) is a verse for us all. It is generally a sign of weakness when one allows himself to become angry and excited in the face of opposition. Note Nehemiahs calmness of spirit and dependence on God when meeting the irritating sneers and downright opposition of the enemies of Jerusalem.
16:33
In this world it may seem that chance rules the lives of men (Ecc 9:11). But a supreme intelligence controls all things, even when He is unseen and unrecognized.
The men of ancient times frequently resorted to casting lots to determine troubling questions. It was used to divide Canaan among the tribes (Num 26:55-56) and was used on many occasions to detect guilty persons (for example, Jon 1:7). The last mention of the use of lots in Scripture is in connection with the election of Matthias to the vacant apostleship left by Judas (Act 1:15-26). It would seem that since the days of the patriarchs God had given judgment through lots, and so the company of the twelve used this method to keep their number complete. Paul evidently was never numbered with them. He was the messenger of the glory of Christ to the nations, while the twelve were connected primarily with testimony to the Jewish nation.
For instances of Gods giving judgment by the lot, see the cases of the two goats (Lev 16:8); Achan (Jos 7:16-18); and Jonathan (1Sa 14:41). In the book of Esther we find the lot (called Pur) used by Haman to determine a day for the destruction of the Jews (Est 3:7 and 9:24-25).
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Pro 16:2
Whether it be from the condition in which man is placed in this world, closely surrounded on all sides by what is visible and tangible, or because our understandings have been darkened in consequence of the fall, it is certain that we experience the greatest difficulty in forming any notion of things spiritual. The finite intellect sinks exhausted by the vain endeavour to picture to itself the infinite. Who can “by searching find out God”?
I. Now the natural consequence of this aversion and incapacity of our nature for spiritual ideas is a strong tendency to materialism in religion. And as the spirituality of the Divine nature is the truth most difficult for us to conceive, so it is the one most liable to be lost sight of, or corrupted. We are always prone to form gross and material conceptions of God, to think of Him as “altogether such an one as ourselves.” The practical results of this principle are always the same; a low and carnal morality always follows, like a dark shadow, a low and carnal creed.
II. There is a class of errors resulting from this principle, against which we have all need to be on our guard-I mean false views of the nature of God’s law and of the principle upon which His sentence is awarded. The true answer to all such errors, and the only solution of the difficulty which has caused them, lies in the statement of the truth that the controversy between God and man is about spiritual things, and that our position respecting Him is to be decided by the aspect which our spirits may wear in His eyes, or, as our text expresses it, that “the Lord weigheth the spirits.”
III. What is the sin of which a spirit can be guilty against God? Clearly, it cannot be any of these gross transgressions of the letter of the law, which are commonly called sins. To commit these it must be joined to a body. It must be a sin in that faculty which is exclusively spiritual; that is, in the will. The rebellion of the will, in any spirit, is strictly and properly sin; and the banishment from God’s presence which is the necessary consequence is eternal death. The law of God denounces eternal death as the punishment for all sins, not because they are all alike in moral guilt, but because they are all alike indications of the same condition of the sinner-one of enmity to God. The very lightest transgression proves, as clearly as the very greatest, the innate lawlessness of the perverted and therefore sinful will.
IV. It is true that you have to pass a spiritual ordeal, searching and terrible as the consuming fire of a sevenfold-heated furnace. But you may pass through it unscathed if in the midst of it the Son of man be your companion.
Bishop Magee, Sermons at St. Saviour’s, Bath, p. 183.
References: Pro 16:2.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv., No. 849, and My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 175. Pro 16:2-3, Pro 16:18, Pro 16:19.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 82; W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 59. Pro 16:3.-J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii., p. 310. Pro 16:4.-H. Thompson, Concionalia: Outlines for Parochial Use, 1st series, vol. i., p. 493. Pro 16:5-18.-New Manual of Sunday School Addresses, p. 10.
Pro 16:6
Value of almsgiving in the sight of God.
I. God knits together in the utmost closeness our own deeds, done by His grace, with His own deeds for us. When our Lord Himself says in plain words, “Give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you,” He does not unsay what He had said of faith and repentance, but He teaches the value of charity the more emphatically, in that He speaks of it alone. He so, loves the poor who endure patiently His own earthly lot of privation; He so loves the love which considers Himself in them, that He refuses no grace to their intercession which shall be needful to our salvation. He, in them, receives our gifts; He, for them, will receive ourselves.
II. What is that mercy which, if we have not, we “shall have judgment without mercy”? Those who have distinguished most carefully have laid down that what, in a large construction, we need, is alone ours, “our superfluities are the necessaries of the poor.” God’s commandment abides. He has not left almsgiving free to our choice, that we should plume ourselves upon our trifling charities, as though they were the free gifts of our liberality. The freedom of the Gospel is freedom from sin, not from duty; it is a free service that we may serve freely. He lays down no measure for us, that giving, as did the early Christians, “to their power, yea and beyond their power,” we might imitate in some measure the measureless love of our God for us. But the law of mercy itself is as absolute a law as any of the commandments given on Mount Sinai. It is the soul of all the commandments of the second table. The more God has revealed of His love, the more awful are the penalties of unlove. He has fenced the law of love with the penalty of the everlasting loss of the sight of God, who is love. “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.”
III. Our modern refinement will not bear the sight of Lazarus, nor allow him to lie at the gate of the rich, to elicit the mercy of the merciful, or to receive the charity of our dogs. We proscribe mendicity, we cannot proscribe misery. The law can make it a crime to ask alms in the name of Jesus. It cannot do away with the presence of Jesus. The deepest misery is the most retiring. To suffer, like our Lord, overlooked, despised, neglected of men, but precious in His sight, is most like to the earthly lot of the Redeemer of us all.
E. B. Pusey, Sermons before the University of Oxford, p. 359.
I. Solomon was speaking in the spirit of the Old Testament; yet you perceive in his words no sense of a contradiction between the two qualities of mercy and truth, no endeavour to show how they may be adjusted to each other. He assumes that they must work together, that one cannot exist without the other. He says simply, “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged;” both are equally enemies of iniquity; both are equally interested in its extirpation; both are equally interested in the delivery of the creature who is tormented by it. Such a view as this was surely the only one which could satisfy the Jews who believed in the God of Abraham. They felt that only a perfectly righteous being could be perfectly merciful. To be unmerciful, hard-hearted, selfish, was a part-a chief part-of their own unrighteousness and falsehood. Why, but because they had departed from that blessed Image after which they were formed, that Image in which mercy and truth are necessarily and eternally united?
II. I have spoken of the old dispensation. Is all changed, as we are sometimes told, in the new? Jesus said, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” Did any one see in Him that warfare of truth with mercy which we have so rashly dreamed of in the eternal mind? A warfare there was throughout His life upon earth-with foes seen and unseen, with Scribes and Pharisees, with the rulers of the darkness of this world, with spiritual wickedness in high places. But it was the warfare of truth and mercy against untruth and hardness of heart. He showed that mercy and truth were divided only by the evil that seeks to destroy both. He showed that it is by their perfect union that iniquity is purged.
III. And by the fear of this great and holy name do men depart from evil. The fear of One in whom dwells all mercy and truth; to be separated from whom is to be separated from mercy and truth; from whom comes restoration as well as life; who seeks to deliver us from the misery that is in us, that we may possess the treasures which are in Him,-this fear, when it is entertained in the heart, when it penetrates the whole man, will keep us from every evil way.
F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. iv., p. 215.
References: Pro 16:6.- W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 68. Pro 16:7.- J. Wells, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 459. Pro 16:9.- New Manual of Sunday School Addresses, p. 19; W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 74.
Pro 16:16
I. Better than gold! But gold is good, very good, and he who would put forward with success the far higher worth of wisdom had better not begin his argument by putting too low an estimate on gold. Gold is full of service; has in it wondrous potencies for smoothing life-travel, lightening burdens, cheering the poor, helping the needy, and glorifying God. Yet before all its power and glitter and glory I stand up and say, “How much better is it to get wisdom than gold!”
II. Both Solomon and Paul call Christ the Saviour by the name of Wisdom. Solomon also calls the Scriptures wisdom, and they who make piety their chief concern he calls wise. To know Christ, then, in the heart as a Saviour, in the mind as a Teacher, in the life as a Pattern, and in all things as a King-this is wisdom. It is the fear of the Lord, the love of His law, faith in His Cross, the power of His Spirit, the hope in His Word. This is better than gold.
III. Gold can be but an external possession, a mere accessory of life. Wisdom is a well, a fountain, in the Christian’s soul. It is fed by secret channels direct from the river of life, clear as crystal, which proceedeth from the throne of God and of the Lamb. The joy of the Lord is his strength, the strength of the Lord is his joy; and, filled from that perennial Fount of good, he lives, thrives, rejoices, utterly independent of the lack of gold.
J. Jackson Wray, Light from the Old Lamp, p. 16.
References: Pro 16:16.- W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 88. Pro 16:17.- Ibid., p. 93.
Pro 16:18
There is a tendency in knowledge to produce humility: so that the more a man knows the more likely he is to think little of himself.
I. Pride proves deficiency of knowledge-first, in respect of our state by nature. Who could be proud of beauty, if fraught with the consciousness that all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass? Who could be proud because of some little elevation above his fellow-men, who is deeply aware of his own position as an accountable creature, the subject and servant of an invisible King, in whose eyes all men are on a level? Who, once more, could be proud of his intellectual strength, of his wit, his wisdom, his elocution, who knew the height from which he had fallen; who saw in himself the fragments of what God designed and created him to be? It is ignorance, and ignorance alone, which allows of man’s being proud:
II. Pride shows deficiency of knowledge in respect of our state by grace. Nothing could be clearer from Scripture than that we owe our deliverance exclusively to the free unmerited goodness of God; and if to this argument for humility, which is interwoven with the whole texture of the Gospel, you add the constant denunciation of that Gospel against pride, its solemn demand of holiness as essential to all who would “inherit the kingdom of heaven,” you will see that the further a man goes in acquaintance with the Gospel, the more motive will he have for abasing himself before God, and shunning with all abhorrence a haughty and self-sufficient spirit.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2421.
References: Pro 16:20.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 392; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 126. Pro 16:22.-W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 99.
Pro 16:25
Our difficulty in life is often with things that seem to be right.
I. Does not the way of self-protection seem to be right? To a certain extent it is right; pressed unduly it becomes practical atheism.
II. Does not the way of physical persecution for truth’s sake seem to be right?
III. Does not the way of self-enjoyment seem right?
IV. Does not the way of judging by appearances seem right?
V. Does not the way of self-redemption seem right? This is the fatal error of mankind.
Application: (1) Lean not to thine own understanding. (2) Seek higher than human counsel. Put thy whole life into the keeping of God.
Parker, City Temple, vol. iii., p. 187.
References: Pro 16:31.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 156. Pro 16:32.-J. Vaughan, Children’s Sermons, 1875, p. 71. Pro 16:33.-Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 354; F. Tholuck, Hours of Devotion, p. 141. Pro 17:1-7.-R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. ii., p. 121. Pro 17:8-15.-Ibid., p. 133. Pro 17:12.-W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 104. Pro 17:16.-H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 11.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 16 In the Light of the Lord
The name Jehovah (LORD) appears eleven times in this chapter of Proverbs. The Lord has the final word, for to man belong the preparations (or plans) of the heart; but from the LORD is the answer of the tongue. It is the same thought as in our English proverb–Man proposes–God disposes. Man loves to justify himself, his ways are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits; He is the judge of ways and motives. Our works are to be committed (literal: rolled upon) unto the LORD, then establishment and blessing will follow. It is strange that these three verses were omitted in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament.
The LORD hath made all things for Himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil Pro 16:4. Much error has been taught in connection with this verse. Some have taught that God made some wicked. It is not said that God makes a man wicked, for He made man upright Ecc 7:29), but being wicked by his own choice he comes under the irrevocable law which dooms him to the day of evil, of calamity and punishment. By this, the Apostle teaches us, even in its final and most awful form, is revealed not the arbitrary predestination, but the righteous judgment of God Rom 2:5-29, T.T. Perowne).
The abomination to the Lord is to be proud in heart. Pride, not only pride as it works out in deeds, but pride as nourished in the heart, seen by the eyes of the Lord alone, is equally an abomination to Him. How much there is in these days! The second stanza of this proverb speaks of joining hand in hand, or hand to hand. It is the much praised team-work, confederation, alliance, etc., to do a big work and make a big name. Much of this attempt of doing big things in the day of small things has its source in the pride of the natural man.
In the sixth proverb of this chapter we have a Gospel text. The word mercy is literally grace. The word purged is the word translated elsewhere by covered or atoned. In the Lord Jesus Christ and His work is revealed grace and truth and by His work so blessedly finished on the cross our iniquity is covered. Then comes the fear of the Lord which results in departing from evil.
If a man walks in righteousness, in true humility, if he pleaseth the LORD, then his enemies will be silenced and not talk against him. Only too often the charges brought against the children of God by the enemies of truth, are the result of not walking in the truth.
Comforting to faith is the ninth verse. We may devise, plan, and often worry as we make our plans but behind it stands the LORD and in spite of our failures and mistakes He directeth the steps of the righteous.
Twice more the name of the LORD is given in this chapter. And whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he Pro 16:20. The only true happiness is to know the Lord, to trust Him and to follow Him. Inasmuch as we may increase in knowledge of Him, in confidence and in practical obedience our happiness is an increasing happiness. In the last verse we read that the disposing of the lot is of the LORD. The lot was used in the Old Testament. It is mentioned rarely in the New Testament, once preceding the day of Pentecost Act 1:26).
After the Holy Spirit came to guide and direct no lot is needed any longer. We pass over the many other blessed instructions recorded in this chapter. Private meditation and prayer unlock the many riches deposited in them.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
fear
(See Scofield “Psa 19:9”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
preparations: or, disposings, Pro 16:9, Pro 19:21, Pro 20:24, Pro 21:1, 2Ch 18:31, Ezr 7:27, Neh 1:11, Psa 10:17, Psa 119:36, Jer 10:23, Jer 32:39, Jer 32:40, Eze 36:26, Eze 36:27, 2Co 8:16, Phi 2:13, Jam 1:16-18
and: Exo 4:11, Exo 4:12, Exo 4:15, Jer 1:7-9, Mat 10:19, Mat 10:20, Luk 12:11, Luk 12:12, Luk 21:14, Luk 21:15
Reciprocal: Num 23:5 – General Deu 30:8 – General Jos 22:21 – answered 1Sa 7:3 – prepare 2Ch 29:36 – God Ezr 1:5 – whose spirit Pro 24:26 – shall Mar 14:15 – he will Col 1:12 – made
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
In these chapters we have a series of exhortations to a life of godliness expressed in general terms about as follows:
1. Confidence in God as a wise ruler (chap. 16) 2. A disposition of peacefulness and contentment (chap. 17) 3. The virtues of affability, fidelity, and others of a social nature (chap. 18) 4. Humility and meekness (chap. 19) 5. Sobriety, diligence and kindness (chap. 21) 6. Justice, patience, submission (chap. 21) 7. The attainment and preservation of a good name (chap. 22) 8. Warnings against avarice, licentiousness, and similar vices (chap. 23) 9. Warnings against ungodly companionship (chap. 24)
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
Pro 16:1. The preparations of the heart in man, &c. As we read this verse, it teacheth us a great truth, that we are not sufficient of ourselves to think, or speak, any thing of ourselves, that is wise and good, but all our sufficiency is of God, who is with the heart and with the mouth, and works in us both to will and to do, Php 2:13; Psa 10:17. But most read it otherwise, namely, thus: The preparation of the heart is in man, he may contrive this and the other; but the answer of the tongue Not only the delivering of what he designed to speak, but the issue and success of what he designed to do; is of the Lord That is, in short, 1st, Man may purpose; he hath a freedom of thought and of will permitted him; he may form his projects, and lay his schemes as he thinks best; but, after all, 2d, God disposeth; he easily can, and often does, cross mans purposes, and break his measures: nor can man proceed with success in any undertaking, nor carry into execution any design, without Gods assistance and blessing. It was a curse that was prepared in Balaams heart, but the answer of the tongue was a blessing.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 16:1. The preparations of the heart in man. As the field must be plowed, and the soil prepared for the seeds, so the heart of man must be prepared for grace. Afflictions in Egypt disposed the Hebrews to cry, and instruction must prepare the soul of the ignorant for conversion. When the conscience is oppressed with sin, and the body groans with pain, then we pray in the Spirit, and the Lord graciously accords the answer of our tongue. The Versions vary the reading, but the above is the sense. The LXX, The heart of man deviseth righteous things, that his ways may be directed by God. Vulgate, Hominum est animam prparare, et Domini gubernare linguam. It belongs to man to prepare his heart, and to God to direct the tongue.
Pro 16:2. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes. Because he contemplates his image in the mirror of his own heart, instead of viewing himself in the light of the Lord. Without the law he is all alive; but when the commandment comes, which is an emanation of the moral glory of God, sin revives, and his hopes are slain.
Pro 16:3. Commit thy works unto the Lord. Lay every plan before him, and seek his approbation and blessing; then thy thoughts and purposes shall be established. But if thou shalt find, after all, at the bottom of thy heart an unaccountable misgiving, be cautious of procedure. The events of the future are known only to the Lord.
Pro 16:4. The Lord hath made all things for himself. When the disputes about grace ran high in Holland, Grotius gave a comment on this verse. Sensus non est malus, si propter se ipsum intelligas, ut proprietates suas notas faciat, et impium non fieri talem a Deo, (absit!) sed fieri, sive poni, ad mala. The sense is not a bad one, if by all things being made for himself, you understand made as his property; and the wicked, not to have been made such of God, (heaven forbid) but to have become, or been drawn to evil. The Chaldee reads, The wicked is reserved for the evil day.
Pro 16:6. By mercy and truth iniquity is purged. Then it is not purged by the blood of bulls and goats. God who is rich in mercy gave his Son; and truth, faithful to the promise, accomplished it on Calvary. So grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And by the exercise of mercy and truth men give proof by the fruit, that their sins are really purged; for charity covereth a multitude of sins. Blessed is the man that considereth the poor and needy; him will the Lord deliver in the time of trouble.
Pro 16:10. A divine sentence is in the lips of the king. Hebrews kesem, divination, as in the margin. The kings of Israel were anointed, the Lord gave them of his Spirit, and counsellors stood at the foot of the throne; their decisions therefore were superior to the interests of party feeling.
Pro 16:15. The latter rain, as described in Deu 11:14. The royal favour brightens the countenance of the subject, banishes fear from the heart, and prompts him to perform every duty in excellence of temper, and uprightness of heart.
Pro 16:25. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man. The wicked own that their way is wrong, being convicted by their own conscience. But this pharisaical way of magnifying human rectitude, and consequently partially leaving the atonement, terminates in death. It nourishes human pride, it engenders prejudice and ignorance, and prevents the reception of converting grace and comfort. Consequently it leaves the soul a prey to pride, covetousness, and every sin which has a sort of decency in the eyes of men. Thus the pharisees, who appeared beautiful in the eyes of men, said of Jesus Christ, It is better that one die than all perish. Thus sin when it is conceived worketh death.
Pro 16:27. An ungodly man diggeth up evil, as miners dig for ores. His thoughts run on evil, and his tongue dwells on mens faults; but his proofs that other men are wicked do not prove that he himself is good.
Pro 16:33. The lot is cast into the lap. When Haman cast the lot for a lucky day to destroy the Jews, it fell in the middle of the twelfth month. Thus the Lord, ever watchful over his church, took time to provide for their safety, and for Hamans destruction. Yet, I know not that we have now any warrant to expect the Lord to give us an answer by lot, however doubtful or important the case. We should have recourse to counsel, prayer, and prudence: and then if men will put a matter to the lot, I will neither praise nor blame their conduct. For myself, I want no way but that of prayer and prudence.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Proverbs 16. The special feature is a group of aphorisms (Pro 16:10-15) relating to kings. The sentiments seem rather to reflect the picture of the ideal king than to indicate any particular period. The metaphors employed and the character depicted suggest a parallel with the ideal king of Psalms 72.
Pro 16:4. The lit. rendering of Pro 16:4 a is Yahweh has made every work for its answeri.e. the nexus of cause and effect seen in the moral government of the world is His work, a kind of prearranged harmony. The supreme instance is the case of the wicked, their answer is the day of evil. We have an assertion of the righteousness of Yahwehs government rather than of their predestination to judgment. There is no doubt, however, of the existence of the belief in predestination to blessing and judgment in later Jewis theology. This determinism is the fundamental feature in the eschatology of the Apocalyptists.
Pro 16:5. Pro 11:20*.
Pro 16:6. An excellent illustration is found in Dan 4:27 (cf. also Eze 18:21; Eze 18:27). Render Pro 16:6 b And by the fear of Yahweh there is escape from calamity.
Pro 16:8. cf. Pro 15:16.
Pro 16:10-15. This group relating to kings does not preserve the antithetic form characteristic of this section.
Pro 16:10. A divine sentence: lit. divination. For the precise meaning see Driver on Deu 18:10 f.
Pro 16:11 a. Just: qualifies scales only. Possibly, in view of the subject-matter of the group, the Lords originally read the kings, and was afterwards, through misapprehension, changed to the present reading. The authorization of normal weights and balances is then ascribed to the king. This may be illustrated from a lion weight found at Abydos (c. vi.v. cent. B.C.), with the inscription correct according to the commissioners of money.
Pro 16:15 b. cf. 2Sa 23:3 f.; Psa 65:10; Psa 72:6.the latter rain: not the heavy autumn and winter rain (Heb. the pourer), which breaks up the dry clods, but the gentler spring rain which fertilizes the crops.
Pro 16:20. cf. Pro 13:13.
Pro 16:21. learning: Toys rendering, here and in Pro 16:23, persuasiveness or power of persuasion, is too free. The word may have both a passive and an active (cf. Deu 32:2) meaning. The sense requires the latter: agreeable speech increases a mans capacity of imparting knowledge.
Pro 16:25 = Pro 14:12. Like the doublets in the Synoptic Gospels, this and other doublets in the same section suggest that the editor is using more than one source, and that the proverb occurs in both his sourcesi.e. he is handling groups or collections rather than selecting isolated aphorisms and arranging them.
Pro 16:26. Read mg.
Pro 16:27-30. A group on slander (cf. Pro 6:12-14*).
Pro 16:28. chief friends: cf. Pro 2:17, Psa 55:13. The word means prince in Gen 36:15, Zec 9:7, and the rendering alienates the prince is possible. But separates friends is probably the best rendering.
Pro 16:31 b. RVm is unwarranted. The meaning is that length of days is the reward of righteousness (cf. Psa 91:16 and the Deuteronomic expression that thou mayst prolong thy days.
Pro 16:33. In primitive Heb. religion the casting of the sacred lot (p. 100) seems to have been the priests prerogative (see H. P. Smith on 1Sa 14:41 f. in ICC and art. Lots in HDB), but later the practice of obtaining decisions in important matters became a practice of common life (cf. Jon 1:7, Act 1:26).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
16:1 The {a} preparations of the heart belong to man, and the answer of the tongue, [are] from the LORD.
(a) He derides the presumption of man, who dares to attribute anything to himself, as to prepare his heart or such like, seeing that he is not able to speak a word unless God gives it to him.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
1. Trusting God ch. 16
In this chapter, there is also a slight change in the form of the proverbs. Solomon expressed the earlier proverbs (chs. 10-15) mainly in antithetical parallelisms, but the proverbs in this section are mainly synonymous and synthetic parallelisms. Instead of the key word being "but" it now becomes "and."
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
B. How to Please God 16:1-22:16
There is a shift in emphasis in Solomon’s anthology here. Pleasing God (cf. 1Co 7:33; Col 1:10; 1Th 2:4; 1Jn 3:22) becomes a greater factor in the proverbs that follow, whereas those in chapters 10-15 had living successfully more in view. Nevertheless, this is only a change in proportion of emphasis. Both ends are present in both sections of the book (chs. 10-15 and Pro 16:1 to Pro 22:16).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The meaning of this proverb is similar to that of Pro 16:9. Even though man has freedom to plan, in the end he only fulfills the will of God by what he says. Man plans his words, but what really comes out takes place because God sovereignly controls. "Man proposes, God disposes," is a common equivalent.
". . . when someone is trying to speak before others, the Lord directs the words according to his sovereign will." [Note: Ibid., p. 1002.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER 17
A JUST BALANCE
“A just balance and scales are the Lords: all the weights of the bag are His work.”- Pro 16:11
“A false balance is an abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is His delight.”- Pro 11:1
“Diverse weights, and divers measures, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.”- Pro 20:10
“Diverse weights are an abomination to the Lord; and a false balance is not good.”- Pro 20:23
THE sixteenth chapter opens-and we may annex to it the last verse of chapter 15.-with a series of sayings which are grouped together on the principle that the name of the Lord occurs in each. There is no obvious connection between the successive verses, and some of them have been already touched on in previous lectures, but it will be worthwhile to glance at the series as a whole.
The Lords presence must be recognized and reverenced before we can make any progress in wisdom, and in His presence we must humble ourselves before we can expect any honor. {Pro 15:33} We are entirely dependent upon Him; although our hearts may form plans, we cannot utter anything aright unless He controls our tongue. {Pro 16:1} However self-satisfied we may be with our own ways, however convinced we may be of our own innocence, He weighs our spirit, and will often find a guilt which our conceit ignores, an impurity which our vanity would hide. {Pro 16:2} We should do well, therefore, to commit all our works to Him, in order that He may revise and correct our purposes and establish those which are good. {Pro 16:3} We cannot think too much of His all-inclusive wisdom and knowledge; everything lies in His hands and is designed for His ends; even the wicked who rebel against Him – men like Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Judas, Elymas-must in their inevitable punishment glorify His righteousness and truth. {Pro 21:4} For punishment is absolutely sure; the proud are an abomination to Him, and although they combine to oppose His will and to escape the penalty, it will be quite in vain. {Pro 16:5} On the other hand, where He sees mercy and truth He will purge iniquity, and when men fear Him they will depart from evil. {Pro 16:6} When His smile is upon them and He approves their ways, He will make their path plain, pacifying their enemies, and making their hearts glad. {Pro 16:7} He will guide them, even directing their steps, in such a manner that their own imperfect counsels shall turn to a happy and successful issue. “Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.” {Pro 26:20} Indeed we cannot exaggerate the minute observation of the Lord; no detail escapes His eye, no event is beyond His control; even what is generally called Chance is but another name for His unmarked and unknown direction; the very lot-that lot which settles contentions and separates the strong-cast into the lap is actually disposed by him {Pro 16:33} much more, therefore, are the deliberate transactions of commerce-those subtle bonds of the cash nexus which twine man to man and nation to nation-under His constant inspection and a subject of His most interested concern, “a just balance and scales are the Lords: all the Weights of the bag are His work.”
It is, then, as part of the Lords watchful activity and direct, detailed connection with all the affairs of human life, that He is interested in our business and trade. We may notice at once that this is very characteristic of the Old Testament religion. In the Deuteronomic Law it was written: “Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. A perfect and a just weight shalt thou have; a perfect and a just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. For all that do such things, even all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.” {Deu 26:13-16} Again, in the Levitical Law we find: “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meter-yard, in weight, or in measure. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.” {Lev 19:33; Lev 19:36}
The Israelite was encouraged to think that all the work in which he engaged was ordained by, and therefore under the observation of, his God. “Hate not laborious work, neither husbandry which the Most High hath ordained,” says Ecclesiasticus. {Sir 7:15} And there is a striking passage in Isaiah where the operations of agriculture are described in detail, and all are attributed to God, who instructs the husbandman aright and teaches him. It all comes from the “Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.” {Isa 28:23-29}
But at present we are concerned only with trade as a department of industrial life, and especially with the actual chaffering of exchange, the barter of goods for goods, the weights and measures which settle the quantities, and the rules which must govern all such transactions. We should gather that the commercial fraud of those primitive times took this comparatively simple form: the merchant would have, let us say, a half shekel which came a little short of the regulation weight; or he would have a cubit measure (1 ft. 9 in.) half an inch under a cubit; or he would have a vessel professing to hold a hin (i.e., a little more than a gallon), but actually holding a little less than a gallon; or he would have a dry measure, marked as an ephah (i.e., about three pecks), but incapable of holding the ostensible quantity. In an ordinary way he would use these inadequate measures, and thus nibble a little from every article which he sold to a customer. But in the event of a purchaser presenting himself who had a fuller knowledge or might conceivably act as an inspector and report the fraud to the judge, there would be a just half shekel weight in the bag, a full cubit rule hidden behind the counter, a hin or an ephah measure of legal dimensions within easy reach. You may smile at such primitive methods of deception, but it requires many generations for a civilized society to elaborate commercial fraud on the large scale.
Now passing at once to our own times and bringing the truth of our text to illuminate them, I should like to say a little to people engaged in business, whether employers or employed, whether the business is wholesale or retail. And let me assure you that I am not going to attempt a detailed examination and criticism of your business concerns. Such an attempt would be grossly impertinent, and might well expose me, not only to your indignation, but to your ridicule. No, I do not believe that it is the part of the preacher to meddle with matters which he does not understand; he only discredits his message by affecting an omniscience which he cannot possibly possess. I have no doubt that the youth who has been in a warehouse or behind the counter for six months already knows more of commercial habits, of trade practices, of the temptations and difficulties which practically press upon people in business, than I know, or am likely to know if I live to twice my present age. I shall not therefore insult you by attempting to point out evils and expose abuses, to denounce particular frauds, and to hold up any special people or classes of people to moral reprobation. My task is quite different; it is this: -I am to remind you, first, that God possesses that omniscience to which I can lay no claim, and therefore is intimately acquainted with all the transactions of your bank, your warehouse, your office, your counter, your workshop; and, secondly, that He regards with intense satisfaction all fair dealing, and with vindictive indignation every fraud, and trick, and lie. And on the strength of this I am to ask you very earnestly to review your lives and your practices in the light of His judgment, and to consider how you may bring all your doings in business into conformity with His will.
Perhaps you will let me, as a man speaking to his fellow-men, as a Christian, I hope, speaking to his fellow-Christians, expand these three points a little.
First. We are all of us tempted to think that a considerable proportion of our life is too insignificant to attract the particular attention of God. We can understand that He takes notice of our entrance into, and our exit from, the world, but we think that between the two limits He leaves us to “devise our own ways.” Or possibly we can recognize His interest in the crisis of our life, but are inclined to question His minute care of the common and monotonous routine. He marks what business we enter, but, when we are in it, lets us alone. He is interested in our marriage, but, when we are married, leaves husband and wife to adjust their own relations. Or He marks a large business transaction in which there is room for a really gigantic fraud, but cannot pay any attention to a minute sale over the counter, the trivial adulteration of a common article, the ingenious subterfuge for disposing of a damaged or useless stock. Is not this our unspoken but implicit mode of reasoning? And could anything be more illogical? The Divine Power which would create this infinitely diversified universe must be able to mark every tiniest detail of the tiniest object in it. Great and small are relative terms, and have no significance to Him. Naturalists tell us that in the scale of living creatures, arranged according to size, the common beetle occupies the middle point, the smallest living creature being as much smaller as the largest is larger than it. And yet the microscope, so far from showing that God takes less care with the infinitesimal creations of His hand, rather inclines us to say that the smaller the creature is, the more delicate adjustment, the more exquisite proportions, the more brilliant hues, does it display. Our Lord brought home to us this minuteness of the Divine Mind, this infinite power of embracing the veriest trifles of the creation in His thought and care, by assuring us that not a sparrow falls without His notice and that the hairs of our heads are all numbered.
There is, then, no logical resting-place, when we are thinking of the Mind of God. If He knows us at all, He knows all about us. If He marks what we consider the important things m our life, He marks equally what we consider the unimportant things. The whole life, with every detail from birth to death, is accurately photographed in the light of His omniscience; and as the exposed plate of the camera receives many details which escape the observation of our eyes, so the smallest and least observed transaction in the daily business, every figure entered truly or falsely in the ledger, every coin dropped justly or dishonestly into the till, every bale, every packet, every thread, every pin, which changes hands in the market, passes at once into the observant and comprehending mind of God.
Second. But in this exhaustive and detailed knowledge of the way in which you are conducting your business, His warm approval follows everything that is honest and just, His vehement censure lights on all that is dishonest or unjust. It may come as a great comfort to you to know that a little business matter which cost you a considerable struggle the other day was duly noted and recorded by the Lord. I was not present at the time, nor did anyone who was near you in the least surmise what was passing. But you suddenly recognized the possibility of making a large profit by simply adopting a very slight subterfuge; what made the case peculiarly difficult was that neighboring and rival firms to your certain knowledge did the like every day; the innocent faces of wife and children at home seemed to urge you, for what a difference would this sum of money make to their comfort and welfare in the coming year? You weighed the little trick over and over again, and set it now in this light, now in that, until at last the black began to seem grey, and the grey almost white. After all, was it a subterfuge? was it not merely a quite legitimate reserve, an even laudable commercial prudence? And then, as you wavered, some clear light of truth fell upon your mind; you saw distinctly what was the right course, and very quietly you took it; the prospect of gain was surrendered, you saw the advantage pass over to your rival; he availed himself of it, and went to church next Sunday just the same. Sometimes you have wondered whether after all you were not too scrupulous.
Now all that God knows; it is His delight; He has recorded it already in His Book, and also in your own moral nature, which is the stronger and the better for it.
On the other hand, it must be a subject of some concern to many that the same all-observing, all-recording Mind regards with hatred all the sharp practices by which in business we deceive and defraud one another. I suppose there is a way of making up books which would pass any accountant in London, and yet would not pass the audit of God. I suppose there are gains which to the average commercial conscience of today appear fair enough, and yet to the One who weighs the spirits of men seem to be quite illicit. There must be men who made their money long ago in certain ways best known to themselves, and are now living in great comfort; but all the time in the books of God a terrible record stands against them, and as the eye of God falls upon those pages, the moan of the ruined, the cry of the fatherless and the widow, and the horrified entreaties of the helpless come up into His ear.
We have no reason for thinking that the unjust balance has become any less abominable to the Lord because the eager and relentless competition of modern industrial life has multiplied, while it has refined, the methods of fraud, and has created a condition of things in which, as so many people urge, questionable practices have become actually necessary for one who would keep his head above water. We have no reason to think that God regards it as at all essential that any of us should keep his head above water. The warm and honorable reception given to Lazarus in heaven, when his head had gone under the waters on earth, might lead us to think that what we call failures here may possibly be regarded as grand successes there. But we have every reason to think that double-dealing, no matter what may be the plea, is abominable in the sight of the Lord.
It is in vain to point to the great prosperity which has fallen to the lot of some whose dishonorable practices have been notorious. It is beyond a doubt that knavery may be successful in its way and a clever rogue may outdistance an honest dullard. The proverb “Honesty is the best policy” is not, as some people seem to think, in the Bible; honesty may or may not be the best policy, according to the object which you have in view. If your object is simply to amass wealth, the saying will read, “Honesty is the best policy; and where it is not, be dishonest.” God does not judge in the least by worldly prosperity. From the parable just alluded to one would conclude that it is, in heaven, a certain presumption against a man; there may yet prove to be truth in the hard saying, “He that dies rich is damned.” If God hates these questionable practices which are said to exist in modern trade, and if He enters them all in His black books, they who prosper by employing them are none the less failures: their ruin is sure; their remorse will be as inevitable as their recovery will be impossible.
Third. I come therefore now to urge upon all of you that you should order all your business ways as in the sight of God, and concern yourselves chiefly with the thought how they may be in conformity with His holy Will. Do not be content with estimating your conduct by the judgment which other men would pass upon it. While such an estimate might reveal many things which would not pass muster, it is doubtful whether their problematical censure will afford an adequate motive for reform, and it is sure to overlook many of the evils which they are bound to wink at, because their own hands are not clean. Do not be content even with estimating your conduct by the standard of your own unaided conscience. Your conscience may at any given time be in a degraded state; in order to keep it quiet you may have brought it down to the level of your conduct. A thiefs conscience seldom troubles him unless his theft is unsuccessful, in which case it reproaches him for not being more careful and more skillful. You may, like St. Paul, know nothing against yourself and yet not be thereby justified. For doubtless most of the evil practices of our time represent a conscience that has been stupefied with sophistry and deadened with selfishness, so that the worst culprits are the first to put on an air of injured innocence, and those who are least guilty suffer most just because the conscience is still sensitive and has not yet been seared with the usual hot iron.
No, the only safe and effectual method is to bring all your business habits, all the practices of the counter and the counting-house, under the searching eye of the All-seeing One. Unless you realize that He sees and knows, and unless you humbly submit everything to His judgment, you are sure to go wrong; your standard will insensibly fail, and you will insensibly fall away even from the fallen standard. It is said that peculiar difficulties beset you in the present day; it is said that it was never so hard to be straightforward and above-board in commercial dealings; it is said that the insane Moloch of competition imperatively demands the blood of our youth, and even makes assaults on the established virtues of maturity. It may be so, though we are generally inclined to exaggerate the peculiar temptations of our own time in comparison with those of a former age; but if it is so, then there is all the more urgent a necessity that you should bring your affairs to Gods judgment, seek diligently to understand His will, and then ask Him for a peculiar strength to enable you to overcome these peculiar temptations. You will not alter His judgment of your conduct by attempting to ignore it. But by seeking to understand it, and by laying your heart open to be influenced by it, you will find that your conduct is perceptibly altered and apparent impossibilities are overcome, because “by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.” {Pro 16:6}