Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 23:15
My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
Another continuous exhortation rather than a collection of maxims.
Pro 23:16
The teacher rejoices when the disciples heart Pro 23:15 receives wisdom, and yet more when his lips can utter it.
Reins – See Job 19:27 note.
Pro 23:17
Envy sinners – Compare in Psa 37:1; Psa 73:3; the feeling which looks half-longingly at the prosperity of evil doers. Some connect the verb envy with the second clause, envy not sinners, but envy, emulate, the fear of the Lord.
Pro 23:18
Or, For if there is an end (hereafter), thine expectations shall not be cut off. There is an implied confidence in immortality.
Pro 23:20
Riotous eaters of flesh – The word is the same as glutton in Pro 23:21 and Deu 21:20.
Pro 23:21
The three forms of evil that destroy reputation and tempt to waste are brought together.
Drowsiness – Specially the drunken sleep, heavy and confused.
Pro 23:26
Observe – Another reading gives, let thine eyes delight in my ways.
Pro 23:28
As for a prey – Better as in the margin.
The transgressors – Better, the treacherous, those that attack men treacherously.
Pro 23:29
Woe … sorrow – The words in the original are interjections, probably expressing distress. The sharp touch of the satirist reproduces the actual inarticulate utterances of drunkenness.
Pro 23:30
Mixed wine – Wine flavored with aromatic spices, that increase its stimulating properties Isa 5:22. There is a touch of sarcasm in go to seek. The word, elsewhere used of diligent search after knowledge Pro 25:2; Job 11:7; Psa 139:1, is used here of the investigations of connoisseurs in wine meeting to test its qualities.
Pro 23:31
His color – literally, its eye, the clear brightness, or the beaded bubbles on which the wine drinker looks with complacency.
It moveth itself aright – The Hebrew word describes the pellucid stream flowing pleasantly from the wineskin or jug into the goblet or the throat (compare Son 7:9), rather than a sparkling wine.
Pro 23:32
Adder – Said to be the Cerastes, or horned snake.
Pro 23:34
The passage is interesting, as showing the increased familiarity of Israelites with the experiences of sea life (compare Psa 104:25-26; Psa 107:23-30).
In the midst of the sea – i. e., When the ship is in the trough of the sea and the man is on the deck. The second clause varies the form of danger, the man is in the cradle at the top of the mast, and sleeps there, regardless of the danger.
Pro 23:35
The picture ends with the words of the drunkard on waking from his sleep. Unconscious of the excesses of the night, his first thought is to return to his old habit.
When shall I awake … – Better, when I shall awake I will seek it yet again.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 23:15
My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
The happy parent
I. The attainment required. A pious youth is said to be wise in heart.
1. To show us that religion is wisdom.
2. That this wisdom is not notional, but consists principally in dispositions and actions. Religion has to do with the heart; and a knowledge that does not reach the heart, and govern the heart, is nothing.
II. The consequence anticipated. Pious children afford their parents pleasure on three principles.
1. A principle of benevolence.
2. Of piety. God is particularly pleased and glorified by the sacrifices of early religion.
3. Of self-interest. Distinguish between self-interest and selfishness. The piety of children affords parents evidence of the answer of their prayers and the success of their endeavours, and so delights them. It becomes a means of their usefulness. By such children parents hope to serve their generation. It ensures to parents a proper return of duty. And it will free them from a thousand bitter anxieties, such as are caused by childrens removal from home; taking any important step in life; or being bereaved of their dearest relations.
Conclusion:
1. Address those who, instead of a joy to their parents, are only a grief.
2. Address parents. Have you conscientiously discharged your duty towards your children? If you have, and nevertheless find your house not so with God as you desire, yield not to despair. Never cease to pray and to admonish. Some shower of rain may cause the seed, which has long been buried under the dryness of the soil, to strike root and spring up. (W. Jay.)
Religion, true wisdom
I. Why religion may be described as true wisdom.
1. As it involves the possession and right application of knowledge.
2. As it gives the first attention to the most momentous concerns.
3. As it adopts the most likely means for securing these great ends.
4. As it secures the greatest amount of good both for the present and the future.
II. The importance of this to young people.
1. Because of their necessary inexperience.
2. Because of the countless perils which surround them.
3. Because the future circumstances of life depend much upon the course adopted in youth.
III. The certain means of its atttainment.
1. There must be a deep conviction of its need and value.
2. There must be the hearty and simple application of faith, for its realisation.
3. Let this resolution, and application of devout earnestness and faith, be adopted now.
In conclusion, present the subject to your serious attention–
(1) By the evils of neglecting religion; and–
(2) The moral loveliness and excellency connected with devout and serious piety. (J. Burns, D.D.)
Parental wishes
Persons may form a judgment of their own dispositions from their wishes about their children. Worldly men make it their great work to provide those things for their children which they account their own best things. Saints desire above all things that the hearts of their children may be richly furnished with wisdom, and that their lips may speak right things; for the heart is the throne of Wisdom, and by the lips she discovers her possession of that throne. (George Lawson, D.D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
In the good success of my counsels, and in thy piety and happiness, which is as truly desirable and pleasant to me as my own.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15, 16. The pleasure affordedthe teacher by the pupil’s progress is a motive to diligence.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
My son, if thine heart be wise,…. To that which is good; so as from it to understand in a spiritual and experimental manner things divine and heavenly; he may be said to have a wise heart who knows in some measure what his heart is, the wickedness, the original depravity and corruption, of it; the plague of his own heart; the weakness and inability of it to do that which is good; the insufficiency of his own righteousness to justify him before God; the poverty of his spirit, and the folly of his mind: and who also is wise unto salvation; that knows the way of peace, pardon, righteousness, and salvation by Christ; and who applies to him for the same; builds on him, the foundation; prizes and values him; rejoices in him, and gives him the glory of his salvation; receives his doctrines, and obeys his commands; takes up and makes a profession of him on right principles, and walks wisely, becoming his character and profession;
my heart shall rejoice, even mine; it shall certainly and greatly rejoice; these words are spoken either by Solomon, who had a wise heart himself, and that either to his son, for whom he desired the same, nothing being more rejoicing to pious parents than to see their children becomes wise, especially in spiritual things; or else to those that attended on him for instruction, who was a preacher in Jerusalem; and what is the joy and crown of rejoicing of ministers but their converts, and to see them walking in the truth? 1Th 2:19 3Jo 1:4; or these words are spoken by Wisdom, that is, by Christ, to his children; who rejoices when he has found them, or when they are converted, and become wise in a spiritual sense, and walk worthy, whereby Wisdom is justified of her children, Lu 15:5; yea, there is joy in heaven, joy among the angels there, and even in the father of Christ, and of his people, Lu 15:7.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The following proverb passes from the educator to the pupil:
15 My son, if thine heart becometh wise,
My heart also in return will rejoice;
16 And my reins will exult
If thy lips speak right things.
Wisdom is inborn in no one. A true Arab. proverb says, “The wise knows how the fool feels, for he himself was also once a fool;”
(Note: The second part of the saying is, “But a fool knows not how a wise man feels, for he has never been a wise man.” I heard this many years ago, from the mouth of the American missionary Schaufler, in Constantinople.)
and folly is bound up in the heart of a child, according to Pro 22:15, which must be driven out by severe discipline. 15b, as many others, cf. Pro 22:19, shows that these “words of the wise” are penetrated by the subjectivity of an author; the author means: if thy heart becomes wise, so will mine in return, i.e., corresponding to it (cf. , Gen 20:6), rejoice. The thought of the heart in Pro 23:15 repeats itself in Pro 23:16, with reference to the utterance of the mouth. Regarding , vid., Pro 1:5. Regarding the “reins,” (perhaps from , to languish, Job 19:21), with which the tender and inmost affections are connected, vid., Psychologie, p. 268f.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Prudent Children A Joy to Parents
Verses 15-16, using the tender “MY SON” form of address often repeated in chapters 1 through 7, express the great joy of parents whose well instructed children manifest wisdom, Vs 24-25; Pro 22:6; Pro 10:1; Pro 15:20; Pro 27:11; Pro 29:3.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
15, 16. Heart and reins are used interchangeably. Cp. Psa 16:7; Psa 17:3.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Twelfth Saying (Tetrastitch) Comments – Pro 23:15-16 forms a single proverbial thought using four lines. This proverb tells us that our parents, our superiors as well as our Heavenly Father rejoice when we walk in wisdom and speak words of righteousness. In contrast, we grieve them when we do not walk upright.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
v. 15. My son, if thine heart be wise,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 23:15 My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
Ver. 15. My son, if thine heart be wise. ] Si vexatio det intellectum, if either by instruction or correction I may make thee wise or well spoken, Bonum virum, dicendi peritum – as Quintilian’s orator – totus laetitia dissiliam, I shall be a joyful man indeed. St John had no greater joy than to hear that his children walked in the truth. 3Jn 1:4 And St Paul could never be thankful enough for such a mercy. 1Th 3:9
Even mine.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Proverbs
A CONDENSED GUIDE FOR LIFE
Pro 23:15 – Pro 23:23
The precepts of this passage may be said to sum up the teaching of the whole Book of Proverbs. The essentials of moral character are substantially the same in all ages, and these ancient advices fit very close to the young lives of this generation. The gospel has, no doubt, raised the standard of morals, and, in many respects, altered the conception and perspective of virtues; but its great distinction lies, not so much in the novelty of its commandments as in the new motives and powers to obey them. Reverence for parents and teachers, the habitual ‘fear of the Lord,’ temperance, eager efforts to win and retain ‘the truth,’ have always been recognised as duties; but there is a long weary distance between recognition and practice, and he who draws inspiration from Jesus Christ will have strength to traverse it, and to do and be what he knows that he should.
The passage may be broken up into four parts, which, taken together, are a young life’s directory of conduct which is certain to lead to peace.
I. There is, first, an appeal to filial affection, and an unveiling of paternal sympathy Pro 23:15 – Pro 23:16. The paternal tone characteristic of the Book of Proverbs is most probably regarded as that of a teacher addressing his disciples as his children. But the glimpse of the teacher’s heart here given may well apply to parents too, and ought to be true of all who can influence other and especially young hearts. Little power attends advices which are not sweetened by manifest love. Many a son has been kept back from evil by thinking, ‘What would my mother say?’ and many a sound admonition has been nothing but sound, because the tone of it betrayed that the giver did not much care whether it was taken or not.
A true teacher must have his heart engaged in his lessons, and must impress his scholars with the conviction that their failure drives a knife into it, and their acceptance of them brings him purest joy. On the other hand, the disciple, and still more the child, must have a singularly cold nature who does not respond to loving solicitude and does not care whether he wounds or gladdens the heart which pours out its love and solicitude over him. May we not see shining through this loving appeal a truth in reference to the heart of the great Father and Teacher, who, in the depths of His divine blessedness, has no greater joy than that His children should walk in the truth? God’s heart is glad when man’s is wise.
Note, also, the wide general expression for goodness-a wise heart, lips speaking right things. The former is source, the latter stream. Only a pure fountain will send forth sweet waters. ‘If thy heart become wise’ is the more correct rendering, implying that there is no inborn wisdom, but that it must be made ours by effort. We are foolish; we become wise.
What the writer means by wisdom he will tell us presently. Here he lets us see that it is a good to be attained by appropriate means. It is the foundation of ‘right’ speech. Nothing is more remarkable than the solemn importance which Scripture attaches to words, even more, we might almost say than to deeds, therein reversing the usual estimate of their relative value. Putting aside the cases of insincerity, falsehood, and the like, a man’s speech is a truer transcript of himself than his deeds, because less hindered and limited by externals. The most precious wine drips from the grapes by their own weight in the vat, without a turn of the screw. ‘By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.’ ‘God’s great gift of speech abused’ is one of the commonest, least considered, and most deadly sins.
II. We have next the one broad precept with its sure reward, which underlies all goodness Pro 23:17 – Pro 23:18. The supplement ‘be thou,’ in the second clause of Pro 23:17 , obscures the close connection of clauses. It is better to regard the verb of the first clause as continued in the second. Thus the one precept is set forth negatively and positively: ‘Strive not after [that is, seek not to imitate or be associated with] sinners, but after the fear of the Lord.’ The heart so striving becomes wise. So, then, wisdom is not the result of cultivating the intellect, but of educating the desires and aspirations. It is moral and religious, rather than simply intellectual. The magnificent personification of Wisdom at the beginning of the book influences the subsequent parts, and the key to understanding that great conception is, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.’ The Greek goddess of Wisdom, noble as she is, is of the earth earthy when contrasted with that sovereign figure. Pallas Athene, with her clear eyes and shining armour, is poor beside the Wisdom of the Book of Proverbs, who dwelt with God ‘or ever the earth was,’ and comes to men with loving voice and hands laden with the gifts of ‘durable riches and righteousness.’
He is the wise man who fears God with the fear which has no torment and is compact of love and reverence. He is on the way to become wise whose seeking heart turns away from evil and evil men, and feels after God, as the vine tendrils after a stay, or as the sunflower turns to the light. For such wholehearted desire after the one supreme good there must be resolute averting of desire from ‘sinners.’ In this world full of evil there will be no vigorous longing for good and God, unless there be determined abstention from the opposite. We have but a limited quantity of energy, and if it is frittered away on multifarious creatures, none will be left to consecrate to God. There are lakes which discharge their waters at both ends, sending one stream east to the Atlantic and one west to the Pacific; but the heart cannot direct its issues of life in that fashion. They must be banked up if they are to run deep and strong. ‘All the current of my being’ must ‘set to thee’ if my tiny trickle is to reach the great ocean, to be lost in which is blessedness.
And such energy of desire and direction is not to be occasional, but ‘all the day long.’ It is possible to make life an unbroken seeking after and communion with God, even while plunged in common tasks and small cares. It is possible to approximate indefinitely to that ideal of continually ‘dwelling in the house of the Lord’; and without some such approximation there will be little realising of the Lord, sought by fits and starts, and then forgotten in the hurry of business or pleasure. A photographic plate exposed for hours will receive the picture of far-off stars which would never show on one exposed for a few minutes.
The writer is sure that such desires will be satisfied, and in Pro 23:18 says so. The ‘reward’ Rev. Ver. of which he is sure is the outcome of the life of such seekers after God. It does not necessarily refer to the future after death, though that may be included in it. But what is meant is that no seeking after the fear of the Lord shall be in vain. There is a tacit emphasis on ‘thy,’ contrasting the sure fulfilment of hopes set on God with the as sure ‘cutting of’ of those mistakenly fixed upon creatures and vanities. Psa 37:38 , has the same word here rendered ‘reward’ and declares that ‘the future [or reward] of the wicked shall be cut off.’ The great fulfilment of this assurance is reserved for the life beyond; but even here among all disappointments and hopes of which fulfilment is so often disappointment also, it remains true that the one striving which cannot be fruitless is striving for more of God, and the one hope which is sure to be realised, and is better when realised than expected, is the hope set on Him. Surely, then, the certainty that if we delight ourselves in God He will give us the desires of our hearts, is a good argument, and should be with us an operative motive for directing desire and effort away from earth and towards Him.
III. Special precepts as to the control of the animal nature follow in Pro 23:19 – Pro 23:21 . First, note that general one of Pro 23:19 , ‘Guide thine heart in the way.’ In most general terms, the necessity of self-government is laid down. There is a ‘way’ in which we should be content to travel. It is a definite path, and feet have to be kept from straying aside to wide wastes on either hand. Limitation, the firm suppression of appetites, the coercing of these if they seek to draw aside, are implied in the very conception of ‘the way.’ And a man must take the upper hand of himself, and, after all other guidance, must be his own guide; for God guides us by enabling us to guide ourselves.
Temperance in the wider sense of the word is prominent among the virtues flowing from fear of the Lord, and is the most elementary instance of ‘guiding the heart.’ Other forms of self-restraint in regard to animal appetites are spoken of in the context, but here the two of drunkenness and gluttony are bracketed together. They are similarly coupled in Deu 21:20 , in the formula of accusation which parents are to bring against a degenerate son. Allusion to that passage is probable here, especially as the other crime mentioned in it-namely, refusal to ‘hear’ parental reproof-is warned against in Pro 23:22 . The picture, then, here is that of a prodigal son, and we have echoes of it in the great parable which paints first riotous living, and then poverty and misery.
Drunkenness had obviously not reached the dimensions of a national curse in the date when this lesson was written. We should not put over-eating side by side with it. But its ruinous consequences were plain then, and the bitter experience of England and America repeats on a larger scale the old lesson that the most productive source of poverty, wretchedness, rags, and vice, is drink. Judges and social reformers of all sorts concur in that now, though it has taken fifty years to hammer it into the public conscience. Perhaps in another fifty or so society may have succeeded in drawing the not very obscure inference that total abstinence and prohibition are wise. At any rate, they who seek after the fear of the Lord should draw it, and act on it.
IV. The last part is in Pro 23:22 – Pro 23:23 . The appeal to filial duty cannot here refer to disciple and teacher, but to child and parents. It does not stand as an isolated precept, but as underscoring the important one which follows. But a word must be spared for it. The habits of ancient days gave a place to the father and mother which modern family life woefully lacks, and suffers in many ways for want of. Many a parent in these days of slack control and precocious independence might say, ‘If I be a father, where is mine honour?’ There was perhaps not enough of confidence between parent and child in former days, and authority on the one hand and submission on the other too much took the place of love; but nowadays the danger is all the other way-and it is a very real danger.
But the main point here is the earnest exhortation of Pro 23:23 , which, like that to the fear of the Lord, sums up all duty in one. The ‘truth’ is, like ‘wisdom,’ moral and religious, and not merely intellectual. ‘Wisdom’ is subjective, the quality or characteristic of the devout soul; ‘truth’ is objective, and may also be defined as the declared will of God. The possession of truth is wisdom. ‘The entrance of Thy words giveth light.’ It makes wise the simple. There is, then, such a thing as ‘the truth’ accessible to us. We can know it, and are not to be for ever groping amid more or less likely guesses, but may rest in the certitude that we have hold of foundation facts. For us, the truth is incarnate in Jesus, as He has solemnly asserted. That truth we shall, if we are wise, ‘buy,’ by shunning no effort, sacrifice, or trouble needed to secure it.
In the lower meanings of the word, our passage should fire us all, and especially the young, to strain every muscle of the soul in order to make truth for the intellect our own. The exhortation is needed in this day of adoration of money and material good. Nobler and wiser far the young man who lays himself out to know than he who is engrossed with the hungry desire to have! But in the highest region of truth, the buying is ‘without money and without price,’ and all that we can give in exchange is ourselves. We buy the truth when we know that we cannot earn it, and forsaking self-trust and self-pleasing, consent to receive it as a free gift. ‘Sell it not,’-let no material good or advantage, no ease, slothfulness, or worldly success, tempt you to cast it away; for its ‘fruit is better than gold,’ and its ‘revenue than choice silver.’ We shall make a bad bargain if we sell it for anything beneath the stars; for ‘wisdom is better than rubies,’ and he has been cheated in the transaction who has given up ‘the truth’ and got instead ‘the whole world.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Pro 23:15-16
Pro 23:15-16
“My son, if thy heart be wise, My heart will be glad, even mine: Yea, my heart will rejoice, When thy lips speak right things.”
We have here a tender and beautiful expression of a father’s devout and earnest ambition for his son, and a statement of what joy and happiness a truly upright son will bring to his father.
Pro 23:15. Other passages showing that good children bring joy to parents: Pro 10:1; Pro 23:24-25; Pro 29:3. There is a play on words here: If THY HEART be wise, MY HEART will be glad, Oh, how parents wait for and look for evidences of their childrens good qualities! Surely if children thought of this, how happy they could actually make their parents!. And how we can make our heavenly Father pleased by our wisely doing His will!
Pro 23:16. The wise heart of Pro 23:15 will reflect itself in lips that speak right things. How much good judgment is reflected by wise words, excellent speech, etc.!
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
My son: Pro 1:10, Pro 2:1, Pro 4:1, Mat 9:2, Joh 21:5, 1Jo 2:1
if: Pro 23:24, Pro 23:25, Pro 10:1, Pro 15:20, Pro 29:3, 1Th 2:19, 1Th 2:20, 1Th 3:8, 1Th 3:9, 2Jo 1:4, 3Jo 1:3, 3Jo 1:4
even mine: or, even I will rejoice, Jer 32:41, Zep 3:17, Luk 15:23, Luk 15:24, Luk 15:32, Joh 15:11
Reciprocal: Gen 48:2 – strengthened 1Ch 29:9 – David Pro 16:21 – wise Pro 17:21 – hath Pro 23:26 – My son Pro 27:11 – be wise Luk 1:14 – General Act 11:23 – purpose
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
This saying balances the previous one. The child’s choice is as vital as the parent’s discipline. The affectionate "My son" adds a warm touch and removes any inference that the writer enjoyed whipping his child. This father’s greatest concern was that his son should learn wisdom. Parents rejoice when they observe their children making wise choices.