Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 21:8
The way of man [is] froward and strange: but [as for] the pure, his work [is] right.
8. The way of man is froward and strange ] Rather, very crooked is the way of a man laden with guilt; as was the way of David when he was laden with the guilt of adultery, 2 Samuel 11. The annals of crime in every land and age illustrate the proverb.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Or, Perverse is the way of a sin burdened man.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 21:8
The way of man is froward and strange; but as for the pure, his work is right.
Pure
I. The nature of the man of God. It is pure. It is a grand thing to be clean in character. Take care that your words are clean. The very looks of a man of God are pure. The word pure implies that there is no wrong mixture in the composition of the righteous man. The nature of the pure man is genuine. The pure man is one who acts according to rule. He carries that rule in his conscience.
II. The nature of the work of the man of God. It is right, and therefore reliable. The man of God works as faithfully behind your back as before your face. He is always ready for any good work. His work is for the benefit of others. The man who sincerely desires to be pure in his motives and life is upheld by Divine power. The man of God has an inward source of happiness which does not depend on outward things. (W. Birch.)
The works of the righteous
A Christian is like the rose that drinks the dew as the sunbeam opens all its folds, then sheds a grateful fragrance on the wings of every gentle breeze which blows across it. Like also the rose, which spreads its varied colours to the sight of each beholding eye, proclaiming thus His glory; the glory of Him who sustains the shining sun, and sends refreshing morn and evening dew. So, the believer drinking of the flowing streams of love Divine, the heart-cheering promises of grace, with generous heart and bounteous hand, diffuses blessings like a fragrance around him, and blesses the place where he dwells. (H. G. Salter.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
The way of man; the course of his life. Of man; of every man; of man by nature and in his corrupt estate; of a wicked or impure man, to whom the pure is opposed in the next clause.
Strange; estranged from God and from mans primitive integrity, and from the rule of his actions, reason and Scripture; in which respects wicked men are called strangers, Psa 54:3; Eze 44:7, and elsewhere.
But as for the pure, his work is right; but he whose heart is pure and upright, his conversation is agreeable to it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. of manany one; his way isopposed to truth, and also estranged from it. The pure proves himselfsuch by his right conduct.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The way of man [is] froward and strange,…. Not the way of any and every man; not the way of righteous and good men, of believers in Christ; who know him, the way, and walk in him and after him, and being led by him; who have his spirit to be their guide, and do walk in his ways, and find pleasure in them; the way of such is not froward or perverse, but upright and even, and is not strange, for the Lord knows and approves of it: but the way of wicked and impure men, as may be learned from the opposition in the next clause; the way of unregenerate men, who are gone out of the good way, and turned to their own way, which is according to the course of the world, and after the prince of it, and according to the flesh, and dictates of corrupt nature, which is the common and broad road that leads to destruction. This is a “froward” or perverse way, a way contrary to reason and truth; contrary to the word of God, and the directions of it; it is a crooked distorted path; it is not according to rule; it is a deviation from the way of God’s commandment, and is a “strange” one; the Scriptures know nothing of it, and do not point and direct unto it; it estranges a man from God, and carries him further and further off from him. It may be rendered, “perverse [is] the way of a man, even of a stranger” t; of one that is a stranger to God and godliness; to Christ and his Gospel; to the Spirit, and the operations of his grace on the heart; to his own heart, and his state and condition by nature; and to all good men, and all that is good;
but [as for] the pure, his work [is] right. God is pure, purity itself, in comparison of whom nothing is pure; and his work in creation, providence, and grace, is right; there is no unrighteousness in him; and this sense is favoured by the Septuagint and Arabic versions: or rather every good man, who, through the pure righteousness of Christ imputed to him, and through his precious blood being sprinkled on him, or rather through being washed in it, and through the grace of God bestowed on him, is pure, wholly cleansed from sin; has a pure heart, speaks a pure language, and holds the mystery of faith in a pure conscience or conversation: and his work, or the work of God upon him, is right and good; or his work of faith, which he exercises on God, is hearty and genuine: and even his works, as the Targum, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, have it in the plural number; all his good works are right; being done from love, in faith, in the name and strength of Christ, and to the glory of God.
t “et alieni”, Pagninus, Montanus; “et extranei”, Vatablus; so Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
8 Winding is the way of a man laden with guilt;
But the pure – his conduct is right.
Rightly the accentuation places together “the way of a man” as subject, and “winding” as predicate: if the poet had wished to say (Schultens, Bertheau) “one crooked in his way” ( quoad viam ), he would have contented himself with the phrase . But, on the other hand, the accentuation is scarcely correct (the second Munach is a transformed Mugrash), for it interprets as a second pred.; but is adj. to . As (synon. , ) is a hapax leg., so also vazar , which is equivalent to (Arab.) mawzwr , crimine onustus , from wazria , crimen committere , properly to charge oneself with a crime. The ancient interpreters have, indeed, no apprehension of this meaning before them; the lxx obtain from the proverb a thought reminding us of Psa 18:27, in which vazar does not at all appear; the Syr. and Targ. translate as if the vav of vazar introduces the conclusion: he is a barbarian ( nuchrojo); Luther: he is crooked; Jerome also sets aside the syntax: perversa via viri aliena est ; but, syntactically admissible, the Venet. and Kimchi, as the Jewish interpreters generally, . Fleischer here even renounces the help of the Arab., for he translates: Tortuosa est via viri criminibus onusti, qui autem sancte vivit, is recte facit ; but he adds thereto the remark that “ vazar thus explained, with Cappellus, Schultens, and Gesenius, would, it is true, corresponding to the Arab. wazar , have first the abstract meaning of a verbal noun from wazira ;
(Note: The n. act formed from wazara is wazr , wizr , wizat . These three forms would correspond to the Heb. vezer , vezer , and zereth ( z’rah , cf. redeth , r’dah , Gen 46:3).)
the old explanation is therefore perhaps better: tortuosa est via viri et deflectens ( scil. a recta linea , thus devia est ), when the ‘ viri ‘ is to be taken in the general sense of ‘many, this and that one;’ the closer definition is reflected from the of the second clause.” But (1) as an adj. signifies peregrinus ; one ought thus rather to expect , degenerated, corrupt, although that also does not rightly accord; (2) the verbal noun also, e.g., ‘all , passes over into a subst. and adj. signification (the latter without distinction of number and gender); (3) , after its adj. signification, is related to (Arab.) wazyr , as is to hakym , to rahyb ; it is of the same form as , with which it has in common its derivation from a root of similar meaning, and its ethical signification. In 8b, is rightly accented as subj. of the complex pred. is the pure in heart and of a good conscience. The laden with guilt (guilty) strikes out all kinds of crooked ways; but the pure needs not stealthy ways, he does not stand under the pressure of the bondage of sin, the ban of the guilt of sin; his conduct is straightforward, directed by the will of God, and not by cunning policy. Schultens: Integer vitae scelerisque purus non habet cur vacillet, cur titubet, cur sese contorqueat . The choice of the designation [and the pure] may be occasioned by (Hitzig); the expression 8b reminds us of Pro 20:11.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
8 The way of man is froward and strange: but as for the pure, his work is right.
This shows that as men are so is their way. 1. Evil men have evil ways. If the man be froward, his way also is strange; and this is the way of most men, such is the general corruption of mankind. They have all gone aside (Psa 14:2; Psa 14:3); all flesh have perverted their way. But the froward man, the man of deceit, that acts by craft and trick in all he does, his way is strange, contrary to all the rules of honour and honesty. It is strange, for you know not where to find him nor when you have him; it is strange, for it is alienated from all good and estranges men from God and his favour. It is what he behold afar off, and so do all honest men. 2. Men that are pure are proved to be such by their work, for it is right, it is just and regular; and they are accepted of God and approved of men. The way of mankind in their apostasy is froward and strange; but as for the pure, those that by the grace of God are recovered out of that state, of which there is here and there one, their work is right, as Noah’s was in the old world, Gen. vii. 1.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Guilty and the Upright
Verse 8 as rendered by RV declares that the way of the guilty man is crooked or devious; but the way of the innocent is straight or upright, Pro 2:12-15; Pro 2:10-12.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 21:8
TWO WAYS
I. The way of fallen man. It is a froward or refractory way in relation to God. When we look at mans ways and compare them with the ways of all the creatures below him and inferior to him, we note a remarkable contrast. The sun, which was created to give him light and heat, never turns aside from its ordained path, and the moon never forsakes her orbit, but, with the rest of the heavenly bodies, continue in the way ordained for them at the creation, and impress us with a sense of order, and regularity, and obedience. And the living creatures beneath man remain true to their instincts, and manifestly fulfil their destinies in ministering to the wants of the human race. But when we come to man we come to a law-breaking, perverse creatureto a being who resists the law of God as written in his conscience, and the commands of God as given in revelation, and the very pleadings of self-love which often urge him to submission. The way of the Hebrew people under special Divine tuition is a specimen of the frowardness of all men in their natural condition, which is indeed a most unnatural condition, seeing that it is out of harmony with all the rest of creation. Delivered from bondage by miracle and fed and guided by the same miraculous love and power for nearly half a century, and again and again after their settlement in Canaan delivered from the consequences of their disobedience by the same mighty hand, the testimony against them was, Ephraim, is joined unto idols, let him alone (Hos. 4:15). Neither appeals to their conscience or their reason, or even to their own self-interest, nor promises nor threatenings, could induce them to choose Gods way in preference to their own, and when He appeared among them in flesh, and after He had risen from the grave and the full meaning of His incarnation and death was unfolded to them by His apostles, they still perversely chose to go about to establish their own righteousness rather than submit themselves unto the righteousness of God (Rom. 10:3). And man in general is as froward, as perverse, as was this froward people. Though their reason, and conscience, and self-love are all on the side of Gods way they persist in walking in their own.
II. The way of renewed man. It is a direct or straight way (see Critical Notes), because it is an obedient way. No man but a godly man keeps in one undeviating course, for none but he has but one aim and goal. The unrenewed man may be swayed by passion to-day, and by worldly interest to-morrow; but with him who has been born to a new and higher life one principle lies behind all his actions; and whatever his secondary plans and purposes, they are all subordinated to the one ruling lawthe will of God. His workwhatever it may bewhether that of the judge upon the bench, the minister in the pulpit, the tradesman behind the counter, or the sailor at the mast-head, has one end and aim above all others, viz., to glorify God; and this gives to it a directness and straightforwardness which is not an element in the walk and work of the ungodly. See also on chap. Pro. 10:9-10, page 153, and on chap. Pro. 11:3, page 196.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
No one is such a stranger in any land as man is in the land of righteousness; neither is any stranger so ignorant of his way, as man is of the way of virtue. Wherefore, man and purity are rightly opposed in our translation. For what is more froward, more impure, than mans way is? And he that is pure, how little man must he have in him. How must he put off man to put on purity. Wherefore, if in the whole way of man there be a right work, it is not the work of man, as he is man, but the grace of God.Jermin.
It is too natural for us to think that, if we are no worse than the generality of our neighbours, we are safe. But Solomon and Paul teach us, that, to walk as men, is not to walk like saints (Cor. Pro. 3:3). Whilst we are following the course of this world, we are walking in the broad road that leadeth to destruction, and not in the narrow way that leadeth unto life.Lawson.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(8) The way of man is froward and strange.The words may also mean Tortuous is the way of a man who is laden with sin. (Comp. Pro. 2:15.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Froward, etc. Better, winding, crooked. Stuart says, guilty. Zockler renders: “Crooked is the way of the guilty,” etc. It might be translated: “Unsteady is the way of a man laden with guilt, but, as to the pure, his work is straight.” We cannot leave this somewhat uncertain proverb without giving Conant’s rendering: “A man of crooked way turns aside: but the pure, his work is straight.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 8. The way of man is froward and strange,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 21:8. The way of man is froward and strange The true rendering is this, The way of the strange man is froward, but as for the pure his work is right. Grey.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 21:8 The way of man [is] froward and strange: but [as for] the pure, his work [is] right.
Ver. 8. The way of man is froward and strange. ] And therefore strange, because froward, various, and voluble, so that you know not where to have him, be is so unconstant, nor what to make of him, he is so uncertain and unsettled; “double minded,” Jam 1:8 double tongued; 1Ti 3:8 versutulus et versatilis –
“ Qui tantum constans in levitate sua. ”
Folieta Galeazo reports of Sforza, Duke of Milan, that he was a very monster, made up and compact of virtue and vice. Such of old were Alcibiades, and likewise Julian, the apostate, of whom Marcellinus saith, that by his vicious errors, obnubilabat gloriae multiplices cursus, he stained his many praiseworthy parts and practices. Galba, and our Richard III are said to have been bad men – good princes. And of King Henry VIII saith Mr Camden, Fuerunt quidem in eo rege magnae virtutes, nec minora vitia, confuso quodam temperamento mixtae – that is, there was a strange mixture of great virtues, and no less vices found in this king.
But as for the pure, his work is right.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The way, &c. Render, “The way of a man laden with guilt is unsteady”. Some codices, with Aramaean and Syriac, read “of a man who is an alien”.
pure = upright.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 21:8
Pro 21:8
“The way of him that is laden with guilt is exceeding crooked. But as for the pure, his work is right.”
The word `straight’ is given as an alternative reading in the American Standard Version margin for the word `right.’ It would, of course, make a more accurate contrast with the word `crooked’ in the first line.
Pro 21:8. Evil men wax worse and worse (2Ti 3:13). Such was the story of King Ahab, Herod and Herodias, and many others. One fellow was said to be so crooked that when he died, they didnt dig a grave for him-they just screwed him into the ground! Laden shows that guilt is a terrible load. Jesus said to the sinfully weary, Come unto me, all ye that…are heavy laden, and I will give you rest…unto your souls (Mat 11:28-29). The pure present a welcome contrast; Much is said in a few words: his work is right-it is like it ought to be. And may such increase!
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
way: Gen 6:5, Gen 6:6, Gen 6:12, Job 15:14-16, Psa 14:2, Psa 14:3, Ecc 7:29, Ecc 9:3, 1Co 3:3, Eph 2:2, Eph 2:3, Tit 3:3
but: Pro 15:26, Pro 30:12, Dan 12:10, Mat 5:8, Mat 12:33, Act 15:9, Tit 1:15, Tit 2:14, Tit 3:5, 1Pe 1:22, 1Pe 1:23, 1Jo 2:29, 1Jo 3:3
Reciprocal: Pro 6:14 – Frowardness Pro 15:9 – The way Pro 20:11 – General Isa 55:8 – General