Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 21:5
The thoughts of the diligent [tend] only to plenteousness; but of every one [that is] hasty only to want.
5. but of every one ] i.e. but the thoughts (supplied from the first clause) of every one. It is more literal, however, and at the same time avoids attributing “thoughts” to him whose fault is want of thought, to render with R.V.
But every one that is hasty hasteth only to want.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Here diligence is opposed, not to sloth but to haste. Undue hurry is as fatal to success as undue procrastination.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 21:5
The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness.
Diligence
Diligence, while it is opposed to laziness, is opposed also to rashness–to premature and inconsiderate haste. The diligent man first plans and then acts. He proceeds thoughtfully and systematically. Diligence can effect little, unless accompanied with careful forethought. Diligence means steady perseverance in execution. The projects of the attentive, plodding, persevering man, who begins in earnest and goes on to the end in earnest, prepared for difficulties, are those that promise to produce, and generally do produce, a favourable result. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
The diligent, who carefully and industriously prosecutes what he hath wisely contrived and resolved.
That is hasty; who manageth his affairs rashly, without due consideration.
Only to want; is likely to bring himself to poverty.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. The contrast is betweensteady industry and rashness (compare Pr19:2).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The thoughts of the diligent [tend] only to plenteousness,…. A man that is thoughtful and studious, and wisely forms schemes in his mind, and diligently pursues them; the issue of it is, generally speaking, prosperity and plenty: such a man is usually thriving and flourishing; and this holds good in things spiritual, as well as in things temporal, Mt 25:29;
but of everyone [that is] hasty only to want; that is in haste to be rich, and is resolved to be so, right or wrong, he comes at last to poverty and want: or he who is rash and precipitate in acting, who never thinks before he acts, but rashly engages in an affair; or, however, does not give himself time enough to think it over, but, as soon as ever it has entered his thoughts, he immediately attempts to put it in execution; a man so thoughtless and inconsiderate, so rash and hasty, brings himself and family to poverty; see Pr 20:21.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
5 The striving of the diligent is only to advantage.
And hastening all [excessive haste] only to loss;
or in other words, and agreeably to the Heb. construction:
The thoughts of the industrious are (reach) only to gain,
And every one who hastens – it (this his hastening) is only to loss.
Vid., at Pro 17:21. At Pro 10:4, Luther translates “the hand of the diligent,” here “the plans of an expert [ endelichen ],” i.e., of one actively striving (Pro 22:29, endelich = ) to the end. The , hastening overmuch, is contrasted with the diligent: Luther well: but he who is altogether too precipitant. Everywhere else in the Proverbs has a closer definition with it, wherefore Hitzig reads , which must mean: he who collects together; but along with is perfectly distinct. The thought is the same as our “ eile mit Weile ” [= festina lente ], and Goethe’s
Wie das Gestirn ohne Hast,
Aber ohne Rast
Drehe sich jeder
Um die eigne Last .
“Like the stars, without haste but without rest, let every one carry about his own burden,” viz., of his calling that lies upon him. The fundamental meaning of is to throng, to urge (Exo 5:13), here of impatient and inconsiderate rashness. While on the side of the diligent there is nothing but gain, such haste brings only loss; over-exertion does injury, and the work will want care, circumspection, and thoroughness. In the Book of Proverbs, the contrasts “gain” and “loss” frequently occur, Pro 11:24; Pro 14:23; Pro 22:16: profit (the increase of capital by interest), opp. loss (of capital, or of part thereof), as commercial terms.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
5 The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want.
Here is, 1. The way to be rich. If we would live plentifully and comfortably in the world, we must be diligent in our business, and not shrink from the toil and trouble of it, but prosecute it closely, improving all advantages and opportunities for it, and doing what we do with all our might; yet we must not be hasty in it, nor hurry ourselves and others with it, but keep doing fair and softly, which, we say, goes far in a day. With diligence there must be contrivance. The thoughts of the diligent are as necessary as the hand of the diligent. Forecast is as good as work. Seest thou a man thus prudent and diligent? He will have enough to live on. 2. The way to be poor. Those that are hasty, that are rash and inconsiderate in their affairs, and will not take time to think, that are greedy of gain, by right or wrong, and make haste to be rich by unjust practices or unwise projects, are in the ready road to poverty. Their thoughts and contrivances, by which they hope to raise themselves, will ruin them.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Sound Planning
Verse 5 suggests that careful investigation and planning before beginning a venture will tend to assure success and profit; but hasty, ill-conceived schemes, will likely .fail, wasting time and substance invested, Pro 10:4; Pro 12:5; Pro 13:4; Pro 16:3; Pro 28:20; Pro 29:20.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 21:5. Thoughts, rather the counsels, the calculatings.
Pro. 21:6. Vanity tossed to and fro. Rather a fleeting breath. The Hebrew word hebel, here translated vanity, means rapour.
Pro. 21:7. Robbery, or violence, rapacity.
Pro. 21:8. Zckler translates the first clause of this verse, Crooked is the way of the guilty man. Fausset remarks that the Hebrew word ish (man) expresses a man once good; froward implies his perversity, by having left the good way. Right, i.e., direct, straightforward.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 21:5; Pro. 21:7; Pro. 21:17
TWO ROADS TO WEALTH
I. The most likely road to lead to wealth.
1. Thoughtful diligence as opposed to thoughtless haste. We have before considered the necessity of thought before action (see on chap. Pro. 20:18), and the same idea is conveyed in the use of the first noun here (see Critical Notes). But although it is wise and necessary to think before we act, thinking must only be preparatory to action, and must not take its place. It is good for a man to make a good plan of his house before he begins to build; but a house on paper only will not shelter him from the winter storms. It is advisable for the captain to study his chart well before he embarks upon his voyage, but if he does no more he will never reach the desired port. So it is good for a man to take counsel with himself and others before he sets out upon the voyage of commercial lifebefore he begins to build for a competency or a fortune; but after the thought and with the thought there must be action, and there must be painstaking and persevering action. He must not be all eagerness to-day and indifference to-morrowhe must not work hard this week and neglect his business next week;such a man may get rich by a mere chance speculation or by a dishonest act, but, apart from all higher considerations, it is not the best road, because it is not the most likely road. No doubt there are men who have made their fortunes by short cutsby what is called luck, or by craft and robberybut these are the exceptions, and the way of diligent perseverance is the one by which riches are generally gotten.
2. Self-denial as opposed to self-indulgence. He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich (Pro. 21:17). He who spends in self-indulgence as fast as he earns will be always poor. The lover of pleasure and luxury will not be a lover of hard work, and as we have just seen, it is that alone by which most men grow rich. And the extravagant and idle man will not be very likely to keep within his means, and to confine himself to honest ways of making money. And both these roads are roads which lead in the end to ruin. It is not likely that Solomon here refers to any poverty except material poverty. But it is also true that no man whose heart is set upon the gratification of his own selfish desireswhose life is one of self-indulgent easecan ever be rich in the only true and lasting riches. He must always be in poverty as to character, as to intellectual wealth, and as to the gratitude and respect of those whom he might bless with his riches. If, therefore, ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another mans (or anothers), who shall give you that which is your own? Luk. 16:11-12). He is a poor man who has nothing but what he must leave behind him when he leaves the world. The greatest millionaire has nothing he can call his own if he has not a godly character.
II. The only blessed road to wealth, viz., the way of truth as opposed to lying, the way of honesty as opposed to dishonesty. We need not consider these sins separately, for they are inseparable in human character and conduct. The liar is a thief, for by his tongue he cheats men of their rights, and the thief lies in action as well as in word. Solomon does not say that thieves and liars shall not grow rich. As a matter of fact they often do, and leave far behind them in their race those who are plodding slowly on in the path of honest diligence. But he looks to the end of such a way of making money, and of those who so make it. It often vanishes like a vapour (see Critical Notes), while the man who made it still lives. One falsehood leads to another, and a little dishonesty bringing success leads to another and another, each one on a larger scale, until the bubble becomes too thin, and it bursts and all is gone. But if the rogue keeps his fortune till the lastif he meets death a rich man, and is buried with all the pomp of wealth,retribution awaits him before the tribunal of a righteous God. He sought death and destruction while he lived, and he found it even here;destruction of character and spiritual death, and he who here refused to do judgment goes to meet his judge a morally self-ruined manone whose spiritual deathblow has been dealt by his own hand. (On this subject see also Homiletics on chap. Pro. 13:11, page 306.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro. 21:5. Haste may have much of diligence in the temperament. But as indolence is its defect, this is its excess, its undisciplined impulse. The hand too often goes before, and acts without the judgment. Hence our English philosopher wisely counsels usnot to measure dispatch by the times of sitting, but by the advancement of the business. A wise man had it for a bye-word, when he saw men hasten to a conclusionStay a little that we may make an end the sooner. To choose time is to save time, and an unreasonable motion is but beating the air. The heavenly race is not to be run by so many heats, but by a steady course. Run, not with haste or speed, but with patience the race set before us. (Heb. 12:1.) The seed springing up in haste withered. (Mat. 13:20-21.)Bridges.
Pro. 21:6. They seek death because they not only walk in the way to it, but run and fly with post haste as if they were afraid they should come too late or that hell would be full before they got thither. Thus Balaams ass never carries him fast enough after the wages of wickedness. Set but a wedge of gold before Achan, and Joshua that could stop the sun in his course, cannot stay him from fingering of it. Judas, in selling his Master, what he doth, doth quickly.Trapp.
Treasures; literally stores; from a root to shut up. Tongue; standing for all instruments of labour (see comment on chap. Pro. 12:6). Lying; not telling lies in the worldly sense, for, so put, decent sinners would miss the signification, but lying in that high sense in which the most honest worldling may fill the portrait. Tongue; just coincident with fact, is of the haste of the last verse; that untrue uttering of thought against conviction in ones self, and, therefore, hardly to be dreamed of as spared by the Most High. Stores got by this lying career of business may seem solid, because they may be whole blocks of granite in some fire-proof square mile of street; and yet as to their possession the wise man employs a singularly intensive figure. They are driven breath! Surely he will pause at that! But no! They are driven breath as of men chasing after death! The meaning is, that the hot breath of a man rushing to his doom is like the money made by the deceived impenitent. First, it is utterly perishable; second, it betokens the speed; and third, the voluntary rush to get himself to ruin.Miller.
And forget not what the lying tongue includesthat he is chargeable with the evil who pretends, in any way, to be what he is not, to have what he has not, not to have what he has, to have said what he has not said, or to have done what he has not done, or not to have said and done what he has said and done; who tries to gain an end by any word, or act, or look, or even by silence and concealment designed to convey a false impressionby any means whatever not in harmony with honest truthwith simplicity and godly sincerity. This, says Solomon, is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death. It is a vanity; inasmuch as it involves both folly and sinthe folly being made evident in ultimate detection, exposure, shame, and lossloss of character, loss of confidence, and many a time loss of even what the falsehood had acquired. It is tossed to and fro. Men learn it from one another. The man who has been imposed upon retaliateshe has no satisfaction until he has succeeded in duping him by whom he has himself been taken in, in practising on him an equal or a better trick. It is practised with little thoughtwith the vanity of a light and inconsiderate mindand laughed at, in many instances, when it proves successful, instead of engendering remorse. Success produces a hundred imitators: and the cheats and the dupes are successively reversed, the dupe becoming in his turn the cheat, and the cheat the dupe.Wardlaw.
Pro. 21:17. Self-indulgence is not human happiness; it is a delirium, not a delight. It is a mere titillation of the dying nerves, not a Divine thrill of our imperishable sensibilities and powers. Its music is the notes of a maniac, not the strains of a seraph.David Thomas.
He may be rich secularly. For here is a proverb that on earth has but a partial verity. But now, spiritually it is as settled as the heavens. He that loveth his life shall lose it (Joh. 12:25). A man cannot scale heaven for its wine. Unless a man gets higher objects than himself, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And, therefore, it is literally true that the wealth that the soul attains is never made by the very most feverish desire to escape, or by the very most impassioned thirst for the mere joy of heaven. Man; the higher name for man. He may be ever so skilful. Loving; not, if it loves, but because it loves. It is no harm to love happiness; but it cannot be in loving it, or because we love it, that we can create everlasting riches.Miller.
Strange as it may seem, the way to enjoy pleasure is not to love it; to live above it; to rejoice as though we rejoiced not; to use the world, as not abusing it (1Co. 7:30-31); never pursuing it as our portion, or as making the happiness of an immortal being. The man who gives his whole heart and time to the love of pleasure, and sacrifices to it all his prudence and foresight, is surely on the highroad to poverty. On the same road is he that loveth wine, under the power of a mocking delusion. He that loveth oilone of the most precious fruits of Canaanmay find, that those who could not live without dainties came to want necessaries.Bridges.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(5) The thoughts of every one that is hasty tend only to want.This proverb is met with on all sides: More haste, worse speed; Festina lente; Eile mit Weile.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Thoughts Plans or purposes.
Diligent Or energetic.
Hasty Inconsiderate, rash, or in haste to be rich, catching eagerly at every seeming advantage, which often proves to be a disadvantage.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 5. The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness;
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 21:5 The thoughts of the diligent [tend] only to plenteousness; but of every one [that is] hasty only to want.
Ver. 5. The thoughts of the diligent tend only, &c. ] The word rendered “diligent” signifies one that is sedulous and solicitous in his business; that weighs circumstances and waits opportunities; that “sits down first and counts his costs”; Luk 14:28 that considers seriously, and then executes speedily. a Such a one was Abraham’s servant, Gen 24:1-9 Joseph, Boaz, Daniel. And how should such a man choose but thrive? See Trapp on “ Pro 10:4 “ A sufficiency he is sure of, though not of a superfluity.
But of every one that is hasty.
a Qui res omnes suas ordine facit loco et tempore, &c. Cuius limitatae et velut iudicio decisae actiones omnes. – Mercer.
thoughts = reckonings, or calculatings.
the diligent = a diligent one.
Pro 21:5
Pro 21:5
“The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; But every one that is hasty hasteth only to want.”
There is a diligent pursuit of that which one may consider his personal interests that is counter-productive. One may become so busy and so diligent in a selfish direction that he overlooks spiritual matters of far greater importance; and, it is that which seems to be referred to here. This seems to be the meaning: “The plans of the keen man show a profit, but all who are too hasty show a loss.
Pro 21:5. This verse speaks of the thoughts of the diligent, Pro 10:4 of the hand of the diligent, and Pro 13:4 of the soul of the diligent, and all three verses testify to their mutual prosperity. Diligent (as it stands in contrast with hasty) evidently means the honest, hard-working, patient person who steadily builds up his holdings; hasty evidently applies to the person who is a get-rich-quick-any-way type of person condemned by 1Ti 6:9-10. Even small communities have known examples of those who were out for the fast-buck who ended up in poverty and want, and cities contain many such examples.
thoughts: Pro 10:4, Pro 13:4, Pro 27:23-27, Eph 4:28, 1Th 4:11, 1Th 4:12
of every: Pro 14:29, Pro 20:21, Pro 28:22
Reciprocal: Pro 19:2 – and Pro 29:20 – words
Pro 21:5-6. The thoughts of the diligent Who carefully and industriously prosecutes what he hath wisely contrived and resolved; tend only to plenteousness To affluence and wealth; but every one that is hasty That manages his affairs rashly, without due consideration; only to want Is likely to bring himself to poverty. The getting of riches by a lying tongue By bearing false witness, or by any deceitful words or actions, such as those by which many men get riches; is a vanity tossed to and fro Is like the chaff or smoke, driven away by the wind; it is neither satisfactory nor durable, but quickly vanisheth away, as has been frequently observed of estates ill-gotten; of them that seek death That take those courses which bring death or destruction on them or theirs.
21:5 The thoughts of the diligent [tend] only to plenteousness; but of {c} every one [that is] hasty only to want.
(c) He who goes rashly about his business and without counsel.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes