Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 21:16
The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.
16. remain ] Rather, rest; find his resting-place, the end of his wanderings, among the dead (Heb. Rephaim. See Pro 9:18 note). , LXX.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
congregation of the dead – The Rephaim (compare the Pro 2:18 note).
Remain – i. e., He shall find a resting place, but it shall be in Hades.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 21:16
The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.
The wanderers gloomy state
I. What is meant by wandering out of the way of understanding? The book of nature and of providence is the way of understanding. This book was opened to all the heathen world, but from it they most shamefully wandered. Their philosophers erred most grossly. They wandered in following the vile affections of their own depraved hearts. Another way of understanding is the book of revelation. This was committed to the Jews as a separate and distinct people. But how much they wandered from it! Their teachers wandered from the doctrines and duties which they knew. We have the book of revelation complete, but there are those who never read the Scriptures, and there are many who wander from their precepts, preferring their own flattering conceits to the truth of God. The Bible may properly be called the way of understanding, because it contains all we need to know of God our maker, of Jesus Christ our Saviour, and of the Holy Ghost our teacher, sanctifier, guide, and comforter. Where pure and public worship is performed, there is the way of understanding.
II. The wanderers gloomy state. The congregation of the dead means that vast assembly which is made up of all who are dead in trespasses and sins. This is called spiritual death. It implies the prevalence of sin in the soul. Eternal death is the separation of soul and body, the whole man, from all heavenly possessions and enjoyments for ever; and the sensation of all misery in hell–misery in full measure, without mixture, intermission, or end. (Edward Phillips.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 16. The man once enlightened, that wandereth out of the way of understanding, in which he had walked, shall remain – have a permanent residence – in the congregation of the dead; rephaim, the lost; either separate spirits in general, or rather the assembly of separate spirits, which had fallen from primitive rectitude; and shall not be restored to the Divine favour; particularly those sinners who were destroyed by the deluge. This passage intimates that those called rephaim are in a state of conscious existence. It is difficult to assign the true meaning of the word in several places where it occurs: but it seems to mean the state of separate spirits, i.e., of those separated from their bodies, and awaiting the judgment of the great day: but the congregation may also include the fallen angels. My old MS. Bible translates, The man that errith fro the wei of doctrine, in the felowschip of geantis schal wonnen.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding; that forsaketh the rule of Gods word, and walketh after his own lusts;
shall remain in the congregation of the dead; shall, without repentance, be condemned to eternal death or damnation.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. the way ofunderstanding(Compare Pro 12:26;Pro 14:22).
remainthat is, rest asat a journey’s end; death will be his unchanging home.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding,…. The way of getting understanding, the good ways and word of God; that wanders from the house of God, the assembly of the saints, where the Gospel is preached, and the ordinances are administered; that, instead of attending on them, where he might gain the understanding of divine and spiritual things, wanders about in the fields, gets into bad company, walks with them in their ways, and turns to his own, as a sheep that goes astray: he
shall remain in the congregation of the dead; among those that are spiritually dead, dead in trespasses and sins; such an one he himself is, and such he is like to continue, and not be written among the living in Jerusalem; or among those who die the second and eternal death, among the damned in hell; so Jarchi interprets it of the congregation of hell; and a large congregation that will be, but dreadful to have an abode with them. The words are rendered by the Septuagint, and the versions that follow that, “shall rest in the congregation of the giants”; which some interpret of devils, and others of the giants of the old world b, damned spirits: resting with them does not design peace and quietness, for there will be none there; but a fixed settled abode, in opposition to wandering, in the preceding clause.
b See Mede’s Discourse 7. p. 32.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
16 A man who wanders from the way of understanding,
Shall dwell in the assembly of the dead.
Regarding , vid., Pro 1:3; and regarding , Pro 2:18. The verb means to repose, to take rest, Job 3:13, and to dwell anywhere, Pro 14:33; but originally like (Arab.) nakh and hadd , to lay oneself down anywhere, and there to come to rest; and that is the idea which is here connected with , for the figurative description of or is formed after the designation of the subject, 16a: he who, forsaking the way of understanding, walks in the way of error, at length comes to the assembly of the dead; for every motion has an end, and every journey a goal, whether it be one that is self-appointed or which is appointed for him. Here also it is intimated that the way of the soul which loves wisdom and follows her goes in another direction than earthwards down into hades; hades and death, its background appear here as punishments, and it is true that as such one may escape them.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
16 The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.
Here is, 1. The sinner upon his ramble: He wanders out of the way of understanding, and when once he has left that good way he wanders endlessly. The way of religion is the way of understanding; those that are not truly pious are not truly intelligent; those that wander out of this way break the hedge which God has set, and follow the conduct of the world and the flesh; and they go astray like lost sheep. 2. The sinner at his rest, or rather his ruin: He shall remain (quiescet—he shall rest, but not in pace—in peace) in the congregation of the giants, the sinners of the old world, that were swept away by the deluge; to that destruction the damnation of sinners is compared, as sometimes to the destruction of Sodom, when they are said to have their portion in fire and brimstone. Or in the congregation of the damned, that are under the power of the second death. There is a vast congregation of damned sinners, bound in bundles for the fire, and in that those shall remain, remain for ever, who are shut out from the congregation of the righteous. He that forsakes the way to heaven, if he return not to it, will certainly sink into the depths of hell.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Rejecter
Verse 16 refers to the man who wanders away from the way of understanding to which he is repeatedly called (Pro 4:5-8; Pro 1:20-23; Pro 8:1-6). The consequence is sad, the wandering stops and he remains (shall rest) in the congregation (assembly) of the dead, Pro 1:24-29; Pro 11:7; Pro 12:28; Pro 14:32; Luk 16:19-31.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 21:16
LIKE TO LIKE
I. The way of understanding. What is this way? In other parts of this book it is called the path of the just (chap. Pro. 4:18. See page 58). A way of righteousness (chap. Pro. 12:28, page 291), and a way of life (chap. Pro. 15:24, page 430). It is a way of understanding, because it is the path or method of life which is followed by those who have well considered their waywho regard both their present and future welfare in the highest sense of the word. The way of righteousness is a way of understanding, because it leads to spiritual life and blessedness, both here and hereafter; therefore those who walk in it give a proof of their wisdom. If we count a man to have no understanding who persists in walking on a road which those who know tell him leads to a precipice over which he must fall, and if the truth of what they say is confirmed by his own knowledge, how much more shall we count those of no understanding who persist in following the path of moral ruin? And by contrast the way of present moral light and life which is ever leading on to more light and life is well named the way of understanding.
II. The doom of the wanderer from it. He becomes one of an assembly with whom it is most undesirable to be numberedthe congregation of the dead. The graveyard is a place in which living men never take up their abode. Those who are there are there because they can no longer remain in the dwellings of the living and healthy. They would pollute the homes of those who are in life, and must therefore be separated from them. There is a spiritual graveyarda place to which those who are destitute of moral life must be banished, because they are unfit for any other dwelling. And there they must remain, for it is the only place suited to their character and disposition. Judas, when he left this world, went to his own place (Act. 1:25)to the place to which he belonged, because it was the abode of those like-minded with himself. From the parable of the rich man and Lazarus we infer that those who become numbered with that congregation will remain there until the great gulf fixed between them and the living is removed (Luk. 16:26).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The original word here translated remains, signifieth to rest and be quiet. It is rest that giveth understanding, and it is understanding that giveth rest. A disquieted mind doth not readily understand things, and it is the understanding of things that quieteth the mind. In the way, therefore, of understanding, there be many resting-places. He that is wearied with the cares of the world, when he understandeth that man is born to cares, resteth himself therein. He that is toiled in getting the things of this world, when he understandeth how little sufficeth nature, and that when he dieth all shall be taken from him, resteth himself there. He that tireth his brains to search out knowledge, when he understandeth that the greatest part of mens knowledge is the least of his ignorance, and that to know Jesus Christ is life everlasting, resteth himself there. But he that wandereth from the way of understanding meeteth with no rest in all the ways he goeshis thoughts are in no quietness, his heart hath no contentment, his mind no peace. It is the grave alone that is the bed of his rest; and when he cometh to the congregation of the dead, to the general assembly of all mankind, then he shall be quiet. Or else, to consider the verse as our translation hath it: everyone that understandeth his way is not in the way of understanding. The crafty politician understands his way well enough, and goes on readily in it; the covetous worldling understandeth his way well enough, and goes and gets apace in it; the cunning cheater understandeth his way well enough, and passeth through with it. But none of these are in the way of understanding: that is but one, and is the enlightening of the understanding by the word and grace of God. That is the way of understanding, because thereby we understand ourselves to be in the right way indeed. The man, therefore, that wandereth out of this way, when he hath wandered all his ways, shall end them at last in the congregation of the deadthat is the rendezvous to which all are gatheredand being once there, he shall remain for ever amongst them. For when that change is come, they that have passed the way of understanding shall pass from death to life, but they that have gone out of the way shall only go from one death to another.Jermin.
Pro. 21:17 has been treated with Pro. 21:5-7.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(16) Shall remain in the congregation of the dead.Described in Isa. 14:9; he shall not take part in the resurrection of Isa. 26:19. A prophecy of retribution after death.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. In the congregation of the dead , ( bikhal rephaim,) in the congregation or assembly of the rephaim, ghosts, shades, whose dwellingplace is sheol, the underworld, or infernal regions. The righteous expect to be delivered out of sheol, but of these “wanderers,” the proverb says they shall remain or abide there. On first clause compare Pro 2:18; Pro 4:14, et seq.: on second clause, Pro 2:18; Pro 19:18.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 16. The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 21:16. The man that wandereth, &c. He who deviates from the way of religion, shall remain in the congregation of the Rephaim: His lot shall be among those wicked souls hereafter; i.e. in the depths of sheol [hell], or the lowermost or most wretched parts of it; where the lewd and dissolute go, as he hath told us, chap. Pro 9:18. See Peters on Job, p. 363.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 21:16 The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.
Ver. 16. The man that wandereth out of the way. ] Let him wander while he will that deviateth from the truth according to godliness – he cannot possibly wander so far as to miss hell. God hath sworn in his wrath that no such vagrants shall enter into his rest; Psa 95:8-11 nay, “This shall they have of my hand, they shall lie down in sorrow,” Isa 50:11 they shall rest with Rephaims – if at least they can rest in that restless resting place of hell fire, in that congregation house of giants of Gehenna, where is punishment without pity, misery without mercy, sorrow without succour (help), crying without comfort, mischief without measure, torments without end and past imagination. Pro 2:18 See Trapp on “ Pro 2:18 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
man. Hebrew. ‘adam. App-14.
congregation = assembly.
dead = the Rephaim, who have no resurrection. See note on “deceased” and “dead” in Isa 26:14, Isa 26:19, and App-25.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 21:16
Pro 21:16
“The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding Shall rest in the assembly of the dead.”
The man that wanders out of the way of understanding is the man who rejects his obligation to love and obey the Creator. The assembly of the dead is a reference, first of all, to that cessation of mortality to which all men are appointed; and, secondly, it is that ultimate assembly of that incorrigibly wicked company to which the King shall say, “Depart … I never knew you.” Another rendition: “The man who wanders from the path of wisdom will rest in the assembly of the Shades.” “Every word of the second line here is charged with irony. The rebel who insists upon roaming anywhere he will is only hastening to lose his mobility (shall rest), his independence (in the assembly) and his life (of the dead).
Pro 21:16. Wandereth out of the way of understanding characterizes one who leaves, departs, goes astray from the established path. Shall rest in the assembly of the dead is used ironically: such probably thought or boasted that he would find the good way, but it didnt end as he had invisioned, for the rest to which such departures lead is the rest of death. King Ahab knew better when he allowed Jezebel to acquire Naboths vineyard for him as she did (1Ki 21:1-16), but it did him no good, leading to his death (1Ki 21:17-22). We should know the right way (Eph 5:17), walk the right way (Jer 6:16), and not forsake it (2Pe 2:20-21). This verse reminds one of Judes statement of wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved for ever (Jud 1:13). Men, like meteors that break off and go flying through space, soon come to their everlasting end!
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
wandereth: Pro 13:20, Psa 125:5, Zep 1:6, Joh 3:19, Joh 3:20, Heb 6:4-6, Heb 10:26, Heb 10:27, Heb 10:38, 2Pe 2:21, 2Pe 2:22, 1Jo 2:19
remain: Pro 2:18, Pro 2:19, Pro 7:26, Pro 7:27, Pro 9:18, Eph 2:1, Jud 1:12
Reciprocal: Gen 3:19 – and Psa 119:10 – O let me Pro 2:13 – leave Pro 27:8 – man Eze 18:24 – in his 1Jo 3:14 – that loveth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 21:16. The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding That forsaketh the rule of Gods word, and walketh after his own lusts; shall remain in the congregation of the dead Shall, without repentance, be condemned to eternal death and destruction; Hebrew, , In the congregation of the Rephaim; his lot shall be among those wicked souls hereafter, namely, in the depths of Sheol; or the lowest and most wretched parts of it, where the lewd and dissolute go, Pro 9:18. See this considered at large in the note on Job 26:5.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
"Rest" is the poetic equivalent of "dwell." [Note: Ibid., p. 404.]