Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 24:27
Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house.
27. thy work ] viz. the work required for building thy house. Follow the course pursued in the erection of the Temple, 1Ki 6:7. Comp. 1Ch 28:2, I had made ready (the same Heb. word as is here rendered prepare) for the building.
Such preparing and making ready includes mental as well as material preparation, prudent “counting the cost,” as well as careful selection of materials. When this is understood, the proverb which has been obscured by supposing it to mean, “first till thy field and then build thy house,” or, “first make provision for a family and then found one,” is plain and forcible, and lends itself readily to moral and spiritual applications.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
i. e., Get an estate into good order before erecting a house on it. To build a house may, however, be equivalent (compare Exo 1:21; Deu 25:9; Rth 4:11) to founding a family; and the words a warning against a hasty and imprudent marriage. The young man is taught to cultivate his land before he has to bear the burdens of a family. Further, in a spiritual sense, the field may be the mans outer common work, the house the dwelling-place of his higher life. He must do the former faithfully in order to attain the latter. Neglect in one is fatal to the other. Compare Luk 16:10-11.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 24:27
Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house.
Preparation; its nature, obligation, and blessings
God loves preparations. God gives little but to preparations. All His own great works He has done preparedly. Creation was not done without great forethought (Pro 8:27-31). And redemption was no sudden after-thought, for before the foundation of the earth was laid redemption was cast in the mind of God. And every event that happens to every man, it was planned ages before the man was born. And the children of Israel did not enter Canaan till they had gone through a preparatory discipline. Neither did prophets, nor apostles, nor Jesus Himself, begin work without an interval of solitude and discipline for perfect readiness. The preparation of Jesus was marvellous. Ten-elevenths of that life, of which every moment was gold–ten-elevenths given to preparation. Rightly viewed, everything this side heaven, and perhaps we need not draw the limit line even there–everything is preparation. Within the compass of this present world everything is placed in the state and order that it is, to fit us for another thing which is coming afterwards. Just as in a good education every rule leads up to a higher rule, and every new piece of knowledge is the basis of another piece, so that the mind is always being made ready for something beyond it, so it is in Gods dispensations. A joy may be a prelude to a sorrow, or a sorrow may be a prelude to a joy, or a joy to a higher joy, or a sorrow to a still deeper sorrow. Nothing is isolated. It is not isolated joy; it is not isolated sorrow. The great thing we have to do is to be careful that we treat everything as preparatively. We should always be asking, when joy and sorrow comes, Of what is this the precursor? what is God going to do with me next? You cannot always be doing duties, but you can always be preparing for them. And remember, preparations are the long things; works are the short things. Let the preparation suit what you are going to do–a general preparation for general duty–but a special preparation for things special. The materials you gather in the field must be suited to the particular house which you are going to build. Always make a stop upon the eve, and search into your own heart, and say, Am I ready? has God given me a true preparation? If not, as far as you can, stop a little longer before you take another step. Whatever else you do, secure preparation before you begin. There is a frame of mind which is a continual preparedness. It is the Here I am! of the patriarchs. It is a high, blessed state. (J. Vaughan, M.A.)
Preparation for lifes duties, sorrows, and joys
I should place first among preparations–the Sunday. A Sunday will be a preparation, if you view it as preparatory. It does not much matter whether you look upon it as the day for laying in the minds food for the week, or as the day for raising the mind to its true tone and level for the week, or as the day to hallow anything to which you are looking, by bringing it out especially before God that day. It is a very good thing to use the Sunday for laying before God, and so solemnly consecrating, and obtaining strength and wisdom for, anything that you are planning or expecting in the course of the coming week. But if you will thus spend your Sunday as a ground, apart from the world, and in loftier ranges of thought, you are preparing your work without, and making it fit for yourself in the field; and afterwards build thine house. What is true of the Sunday is certainly true also of all private exercises of the soul; and most of all, our morning devotions. Our morning devotions should have a distinct, preparatory character. You will find it a good rule never to open your Bible without a little secret prayer. Certainly, whatever it is worth while for a Christian to do at all, it is worth while to do measuredly and deliberately. Better to do a few things so than multitudes lightly. And the God of order and of forethought will Himself bless what most honours Him, by holy premeditation and religious accuracy, in which He sees, therefore, the most of His own image. Map your day before you go out; plan carefully; lay all beginnings in God: Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house. But you say, What is this preparation? I cannot so prepare. Then what does that show, but that before the beginning there is another beginning, and that the preparation itself needs to be prepared? But if you ask, What is the right preparation for sorrow? I answer, first, not to anticipate sorrow, for that is not filial nor childlike, but to have it well laid in your mind that sorrow must come, and to know its nature, what it is. For the danger of sorrow is, lest it come upon us overwhelmingly, and paralyse our powers. Therefore, be in a state of mind which cannot be surprised–not ignorant of what sorrow is when it comes. Is not it a needful discipline? To prepare for joys the rule is opposite. The preparation there lies in the fact of the anticipation. You cannot expect too much. For one of the perils of a joy is its throwing the mind from its equilibrium by the rush of its novelty. But he who has dealt much with the great undertakings of Gods love and promise will scarcely be surprised at any happiness that ever comes. Is he not loved? So the joy will not come disturbingly to the mind. (J. Vaughan, M.A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 27. Prepare thy work without] Do nothing without a plan. In winter prepare seed, implements, tackle, geers, &c., for seed-time and harvest.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This is a domestical precept, requiring both industry and prudence in the management of a mans concerns, that he take care in the first place to furnish himself with cattle and the fruits of the field, which are necessary for his subsistence, and after that he may procure such things as are for ornament and comfort, such as the building of a convenient house is.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
27. Prepare . . . in thefieldSecure, by diligence, a proper support, and then build;provide necessaries, then comforts, to which a house ratherpertained, in a mild climate, permitting the use of tents.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Prepare thy work without,…. As Solomon did for the building of the temple; timber and stones were prepared, hewed, squared, and fitted for the building before brought thither, 1Ki 5:18; or diligently attend to thy business without doors, whatever it is, that thou mayest provide for thyself and family the necessaries and conveniences of life, which are in the first place to be sought after;
and make it fit for thyself in the field; let nothing be wanting in managing the affairs of husbandry, in tilling the land, in ploughing and sowing, and reaping, and gathering in the increase, that there may be a sufficiency for the support of the family;
and afterwards build thine house; when, though the blessing of God upon thy diligence and industry, thou art become rich, or however hast such a competent substance as to be able to build a good house, and furnish it in a handsome manner, then do it; but first take care of the main point, that you have a sufficiency to finish it; see the advice of Christ, Lu 14:28; necessaries are first to be sought after, before things ornamental and superfluous; first take care to live, and then, if you can, build a fine house. Jarchi interprets this of a man’s first getting fields, vineyards, and cattle, something beforehand in the world, and then take a wife, when he is able to maintain her, whereby his house may be built up; see Ru 4:11.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Warning against the establishing of a household where the previous conditions are wanting:
Set in order thy work without,
And make it ready for thyself beforehand in the fields, –
After that then mayest thou build thine house.
The interchange of and shows that by field-labour, 1Ch 27:26, is meant. , used of arrangement, procuring, here with , signifies the setting in order of the word, viz., the cultivation of the field. In the parallel member, , carrying also its object, in itself is admissible: make preparations (lxx, Syr.); but the punctuation (Targ., Venet.; on the other hand, Jerome and Luther translate as if the words were ) is not worthy of being contended against: set it (the work) in the fields in readiness, i.e., on the one hand set forward the present necessary work, and on the other hand prepare for that which next follows; thus: do completely and circumspectly what thy calling as a husbandman requires of thee – then mayest thou go to the building and building up of thy house ( vid., at Pro 24:3, Pro 14:1), to which not only the building and setting in order of a convenient dwelling, but also the bringing home of a housewife and the whole setting up of a household belongs; prosperity at home is conditioned by this – one fulfils his duty without in the fields actively and faithfully. One begins at the wrong end when he begins with the building of his house, which is much rather the result and goal of an intelligent discharge of duty within the sphere of one’s calling. The perf., with after a date, such as , , and the like, when things that will or should be done are spoken of, has the fut. signification of a perf. consec., Gen 3:5; Exo 16:6., Pro 17:4; Ewald, 344b.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
27 Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house.
This is a rule of prudence in the management of household affairs; for all good men should be good husbands, and manage with discretion, which would prevent a great deal of sin, and trouble, and disgrace to their profession. 1. We must prefer necessaries before conveniences, and not lay that out for show which should be expended for the support of the family. We must be contented with a mean cottage for a habitation, rather than want, or go in debt for, food convenient. 2. We must not think of building till we can afford it: “First apply thyself to thy work without in the field; let thy ground be put into good order; look after thy husbandry, for it is that by which thou must get; and, when thou hast got well by that, then, and not till then, thou mayest think of rebuilding and beautifying thy house, for that is it upon which, and in which, thou wilt have occasion to spend.” Many have ruined their estates and families by laying out money on that which brings nothing in, beginning to build when they were not able to finish. Some understand it as advice to young men not to marry (for by that the house is built) till they have set up in the world, and not wherewith to maintain a wife and children comfortably. 3. When we have any great design on foot it is wisdom to take it before us, and make the necessary preparations, before we fall to work, that, when it is begun, it may not stand still for want of materials. Solomon observed this rule himself in building the house of God; all was made ready before it was brought to the ground, 1 Kings vi. 7.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
God’s Family Plan
Verse 27 suggests thoughtful planning and preparation before building a house and establishing a family. It recommends first that the work or income needed be secured. Next build or provide the house required; afterwards marry and establish a family in accord with Divine instructions, Luk 14:28-30; Pro 18:22; 1Ti 5:14; Heb 13:4; Mar 10:9.
The sequence of parenthood, marriage or living together, income, home, so often practiced today, has many reasons for failure. It disregards all basic instructions of the all-wise LORD.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 24:27. House. This word may mean here as it does in Exo. 1:21, Rth. 4:11, 2Sa. 7:27 etc., the familythe household interests.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 24:27
PLAN AND PATIENCE
I. Here is a lesson in working with method. In all undertakings it is necessary to consider what is the most important and indispensable element of success, and to make sure of that first. In the building of a house in the literal sense, the first thing to be done is to have a well-considered plan, and to gather and prepare suitable and sufficient materials. If, when the building is half finished, it is found that some great difficulty has been overlooked, or that the materials and the means to procure them are inadequate, failure and disgrace are the result, and all the time and money hitherto spent upon the work is thrown away. So in any other undertaking. If a man desires a certain position in life for which special qualifications are needed, he must first endeavour to know exactly what the requirements are, and then make sure that he is able to fulfil them. If he makes a start without well considering these things he may waste much precious time and energy, and ruin his prospects for life. The same principle may be applied to any philanthropic enterprise. These often fail, because they are entered upon without any just conception of the difficulties to be encountered, or of the resources which will be required to carry them on to a successful issue.
II. A lesson in working with patience. The proverb seems to warn men not to be in too great a hurry to realise the fulfilment of their desires; not to be impatient to reap the harvest before the crop has had time to ripen. Men are sometimes so eager to obtain a certain good which to them appears desirable that they make a desperate and reckless attempt to gain it by some other road than that of patient perseverance. A man makes up his mind that he must live in a certain style, and keep up a certain appearance before the world, and he sets out to build a stately mansion without waiting until he has acquired the means whereby he can do it honestly. Men often desire to be at the beginning of their career where they can only be after days and years of toil, and if they act under the inspiration of this spirit of impatience they often most effectually shut themselves out entirely from the realisation of their desires.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
This wisdom the very little bees do practise and show us, who first get honey and bring it into their hives, and afterwards make their seats and honeycombs. Against this rule here set down divers sorts of people offend, yea, all that take a preposterous course, whether in the matters of this life, or in those things that are spiritual. Some enter into the state of marriage before either they have wit, or have provided and gotten by their labour sufficient food or wealth to maintain them. Others lay out much on banquets, buildings, pastimes, or apparel, before they have a good stock or large comings in. Others meddle with hard points of controversy before they have learned the plain principles of religion. Others first and especially seek after the goods of this world, and, in the second place, at their leisure, and very slowly, they follow after the kingdom of God.Muffet.
Possibly a spiritual meaning here, as elsewhere, lies beneath the prudential maxim. The field may be the mans outer common work, the house the dwelling-place of his higher life. He must do the former faithfully in order to attain the latter.Plumptre.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(27) Prepare thy work without . . .Method in work is here advised; first till the ground, and then build the house which will be maintained by the produce of the field. In the spiritual life, too, we should seek to perceive and know what things we ought to do, if we are not to waste time and energy upon unsuitable and unattainable objects.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
27. Prepare thy work without afterwards build thine house The sense is, first sustenance, then accommodation. The proverb is better adapted to a climate like that of parts of Palestine than to many others, though it has a qualified application in most countries. In some climates, however, a house comes in among the prime necessities. But it is a great error in a man of moderate circumstances to expend his slender capital upon an expensive house. The proverb may refer, as some suppose, to the founding or building of a house in a metaphorical sense, that is, a family. Thus it may be a warning against hasty and imprudent marriage. A young man should cultivate his land and have the means of living before he takes the burdens of a family. So Speaker’s Commentary.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 27. Prepare thy work without and make it fit for thyself in the field,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 24:27. Prepare thy work without, &c. He must begin to labour in his field, and perform the works without doors, before he builds his house: he must have wherewith to subsist, before he thinks of a commodious lodging: he must deliberate long, and reflect much, before he begins to build; but there must be no deliberation in point of sowing or tilling the ground: AEdificare diu cogitare oportet, (says Cato, de Re Rustic. cap. 3:) conferere cogitate non oportet, sed facere oportet. Our Saviour in the Gospel, Luk 14:28 requires him who thinks of building a tower to sit down first, and reckon with himself whether he has wherewith to go through with his undertaking, for fear of leaving his work imperfect, after having laid the foundations. In the moral sense, it is easy to make the application of this field, which must be cultivated before the building of a house, to the exercise of solid and interior graces and virtues, to a serious and profound study of the truths of religion, before the setting up to instruct or direct one’s neighbour. A man must be a good labourer before he becomes an architect in the house of God. Some take the phrase to signify the engaging in marriage. “Begin with cultivating your lands, and you will be enabled to feed your family; and after this, if you will, you may think of marrying.” See Calmet.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house. Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and deceive not with thy lips. Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me: I will render to the man according to his work. I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.
If we spiritualize what is here said of the diligence of the man that prepares his work, and then builds his house, and what is said of the negligence of the slothful; and if we make application of it to the heart, a very sweet subject will be found to arise out of the different views. Jesus passed by our whole nature, when in the ruined state of the vineyard here described. And lo! all was covered over with thorns and briars. Reader! what he wrought, and what he accomplished, I need not, I hope, tell you. He purchased our lost inheritance, with his blood. He then hedged it round, gathered out the stones of it, renewed the face of it; and by turning up the fallow ground of our hearts, prepared it for himself. And what is it now? Doth he not water it continually with his word and ordinances, the sweet influences of his grace and Holy Spirit? Doth he not watch over it for good with his whole heart and his whole soul? And doth he not come into it, to eat of his pleasant fruits, even the graces of his Spirit which he hath planted? Precious Jesus! may my soul consider it well, and receive instruction! May I look up to thee continually as the Proprietor of all! See to it, my soul, that thou art of the vineyard of the Lord of hosts, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant. Isa 5:7 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 24:27 Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house.
Ver. 27. Prepare thy work without, &c. ] God would have all his to be not good men only, but good husbands too; to order their affairs with discretion, and to take their fittest opportunities for despatch of household businesses. Pliny a hath a saying to like sense with this: Aedificandum, saith he, consito agro, et tunc quoque cunctanter, – Let building alone till thy field be tilled, vined, planted, &c.
a Lib, xviii, cap. 1.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 24:27
Pro 24:27
“Prepare thy work without, And make it ready for thee in the field; And afterward build thy house.”
This is obviously a figurative or idiomatic expression meaning that, “Counting the cost and preparing the materials are preliminary prerequisites for the accomplishment of any enterprise. Christ taught the same thing (Luk 14:28 ff).
Pro 24:27. The Scriptures show that there is preparatory work to be done before the actual construction begins: Which of you, desiring to build a tower, doth not first sit down and count the cost, whether he have wherewith to complete it? (Luk 14:28); And the king commanded, and they hewed out great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with wrought stone. And Solomons builders and Hirams builders and the Gebalites did fashion them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house (1Ki 5:17-18).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
1Ki 5:17, 1Ki 5:18, 1Ki 6:7, Luk 14:28-30
Reciprocal: Jdg 19:16 – his work Psa 112:5 – he will Pro 17:19 – he that Jer 22:14 – I will
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 24:27. Prepare thy work without Use both industry and prudence in the management of thy concerns, and do every thing in the proper order. First, mind those things which are most necessary, cultivating the ground, and furnishing thyself with cattle, and the fruits of the field, which are needful for thy subsistence; and after that thou mayest procure such things as are for ornament and comfort, such as the building of a convenient house. Some, by the house here, understand a family, and consider this to be a direction respecting engaging in marriage, interpreting the verse thus: Begin with cultivating thy land, and thou wilt be enabled to feed thy family; and after this, if thou wilt, thou mayest think of marrying. See Calmet.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
24:27 Prepare thy work outside, and make it fit for thyself in the field; {h} and afterwards build thy house.
(h) Be sure of the means how to compass it, before you take any enterprise in hand.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The farmer must pay more attention to the cultivation of his fields than to his personal comfort. Likewise everyone should put a well-ordered life, including a measure of financial security, ahead of getting married and starting a family. In a broader application, we should keep first things first. [Note: Whybray, The Book . . ., p. 153.]