Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 21:13

Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.

Pro 21:13

Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.

The cry of the poor

I. Social distress. The cry of the poor. The poor may be divided into two classes.

1. The deserving. There is a poverty that comes on men by circumstances over which they have no control: infirm bodies, diseased faculties, social oppression, untoward events. Such poverty is often associated not only with great intelligence, but with virtue and piety of a high order.

2. The undeserving.

II. Social heartlessness. Whoso stoppeth his ears.

1. The wealthy.

2. The legislating. In the name of heaven, what is the good of a government if it cannot overcome pauperism?

III. Social retribution. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

An unmerciful disposition

1. We may always expect, both in general society and in the Church of God, the rich and poor to meet together. Wherever there has been property it has been in various portions; and were there an equal division of property to-day, there would be a difference to-morrow. There are varieties of poverty; for poverty is a relative and comparative term. And among the indigent and dependent poor there are also varieties–the industrious and the indolent; the sober and the intemperate; the virtuous and the vicious, the deserving and the undeserving.

2. Nothing can be of greater consequence than marking this distinction, and regulating our charity accordingly. There is a stopping of the ears that is at times a virtue–requiring an effort of self-denying principle in opposition to the mere emotion and impulse of present pity. Charity must be exercised judiciously.

3. The sin here reproved is an unmerciful disposition; unfeeling hardness of heart; pitiless, avaricious, griping selfishness. This may be exemplified in beating down the wages of the poor labourer and artisan; in the denial of protection to the poor when it is pleaded for against oppression, and when we have it in our power to afford it. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 13. Whoso stoppeth his ears] See the conduct of the priest and Levite to the man who fell among thieves; and let every man learn from this, that he who shuts his ear against the cry of the poor, shall have the ear of God shut against his cry. The words are quite plain; there is no difficulty here.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, when they cry out by reason of oppression or want, and beg relief from him, he also shall cry himself unto God or men, in his straits which God will bring upon him.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

13. The principles ofretribution, often taught (compare Psa 18:26;Mat 7:1-12).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor,…. For want of bread; or, “of the weak”, as the Septuagint and other versions; for want of help and protection, when in the greatest distress; and, with the most pressing importunity, entreats his assistance, and yet refuses to hear him out: or, if he does, will not relieve him, which is all one as if he heard him not, or denied him a hearing;

he also shall cry himself; the Targum and Syriac version add, “unto God”. The sense is, that even such an one shall be brought into the like distressed circumstances, when he shall make application to God, and to his fellow creatures, for relief and assistance:

but shall not be heard; a deaf ear will be turned to him by both: the same measure he has measured shall be measured to him again; no mercy shall be shown to an unmerciful man, either by God or man; see Jas 2:13.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

13 He that stoppeth his ear at the cry of the poor

he also calls and is not heard.

Only the merciful find mercy, Mat 5:7; the unmerciful rich man, who has no ear for the cry of the , i.e., of him who is without support and means of subsistence, thus of one who is needing support, will also remain unheard when he himself, in the time of need, calls upon God for help. Cf. the parable of the unmerciful servant of the merciful king, Mat 18:23. in , as Isa 23:15; Gen 4:13; Gen 27:1; no preposition of our [German] language [nor English] expresses, as Fleischer here remarks, such a fulness of meaning as this does, to which, after a verb of shutting up such as (cf. Pro 17:28), the Arab. ‘n would correspond, e.g., a’my ‘n altryk : blind, so that he does not see the way.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

      13 Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.

      Here we have the description and doom of an uncharitable man. 1. His description: He stops his ears at the cry of the poor, at the cry of their wants and miseries (he resolves to take no cognizance of them), at the cry of their requests and supplications–he resolves he will not so much as give them the hearing, turns them away from his door, and forbids them to come near him, or, if he cannot avoid hearing them, he will not need them, nor be moved by their complaints, no be prevailed with by their importunities; he shuts up the bowels of his compassion, and that is equivalent to the stopping of his ears, Acts vii. 57. 2. His doom. He shall himself be reduced to straits, which will make him cry, and then he shall not be heard. Men will not hear him, but reward him as he has rewarded others. God will not hear him; for he that showed no mercy shall have judgment without mercy (Jam. ii. 13), and he that on earth denied a crumb of bread in hell was denied a drop of water. God will be deaf to the prayers of those who are deaf to the cries of the poor, which, if they be not heard by us, will be heard against us, Exod. xxii. 23.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Verse 13 warns those insensitive to the valid cries of the poor of a time when they too will cry for help but shall not be heard. This counsel is emphasized by Pro 24:11-12, also Pro 25:21 which applies it to one’s enemy. See also Jas 2:13; 1Jn 3:17.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 21:13

THE CRY OF THE POOR

I. The cry of the poor may always be heard. The poor, said the Saviour, ye have always with you (Joh. 12:8), and so long as sin is in the world it must be so. There are many whom sickness and bereavement makes poor, and many who are in need because of the sin of others, besides those who have been brought to poverty by their own wrong-doings. And from all these creatures of need there comes a crya direct appeal, it may be, for help, or the voice of lamentation because of their distress. This cry may be around us even when no appeal comes from the lip, and when no word of complaint is uttered. The wrongs of the oppressed and the miseries of the needy cry still when there is no speech nor language, and when no voice is heard.

II. No human creature can afford to stop his ears to this cry. Not one of the millions who walk the earth can reckon upon being always independent of the pity and help of his fellow-creatures. He may be almost certain that he will not be so. He is not sure, however rich he is now, that he may not have to cry for bread, or he may have to cry for help in sickness or for sympathy in sorrow. It is quite certain that he will at some period of his existence cry to God for mercy. If, therefore, he is deaf to the cry of those whose distress he can relieve, he is as unwise as that servant of whom our Lord speaks in His parable, who refused to have compassion on his fellow-servant to the amount of a hundred pence, while he himself stood in need of the forgiveness of a far heavier debt. (Mat. 18:23; Mat. 18:35). He who stops his own ears at the cry of the poor stops the ears of God against his own, for in the day when the favour of the King of the universe will be more precious than the wealth of ten thousand worlds, the charge will be brought against him, I was an hungred and ye gave Me no meat; I was thirsty and ye gave Me no drink, etc. (Mat. 25:42).

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS

When we have reason to complain that we cry and shout, but God shutteth our prayer, let us consider our ways; perhaps we have shut our ears on some occasions against the cries of the poor. This was one reason why God accepted not the prayers and fasts of those people whom Isaiah speaks of in the fiftieth chapter of his book.Lawson.

Did a rich man know for certain, that himself should be a beggar before he died, it would make him give to the poor when they cried, that others might give to him when he cried. Now the wise man here assureth every hard churl, that although now he be never so rich, yet shall he be a beggar. The cries of the poor are but Gods proclamation, whereby He publisheth His pleasure for the relieving of them. It is God therefore Himself that is not heard when they are denied; it is God that is not heard in His command, as well as the poor in his necessity. And, therefore, being made deaf as it were with the loudness of His own crying, He doth not hear the uncharitable when they cry unto him.Jermin.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(13) He also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.Because he showed no mercy. (Comp. Mat. 5:7; Mat. 18:30; Jas. 2:13.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

13. Whoso stoppeth his ears Refuseth to listen to entreaty.

Shall not be heard His “cry” shall not be answered. It is implied that this shall happen because of his stopping his ears. Compare Mat 18:23-35; Mat 25:41, et seq.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments