Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 11:27
He that diligently seeketh good procureth favor: but he that seeketh mischief, it shall come unto him.
27. diligently seeketh procureth seeketh ] Three different Heb. words are used. The shades of meaning are given by R.V.: diligently seeketh (with A.V.) i.e. makes good his chief aim; seeketh, i.e. whether consciously or not, is really seeking “favour with God and man”; searcheth after, i.e. is busily employed in the pursuit of mischief.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Procureth – Better, striveth after. He who desires good, absolutely, for its own sake, is also unconsciously striving after the favor which attends goodness.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
He that diligently seeketh, which is opposed to those who content themselves with lazy desires, or cold and careless endeavours, good, to do good to all men, as he hath opportunity,
procureth favour with God and men.
He that seeketh mischief, to do any mischief or injury to others,
it shall come unto him; it shall be requited either by mens malice and revenge, or by Gods just judgment.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
27. good [and] mischiefthatis, of others.
procureth . . .seekethimplying success.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He that diligently seeketh good,…. Or “early”; who rises early in the morning, as the word e signifies, and seeks both to do good, and to enjoy it all the day; who, in the first place, seeks the kingdom of God and his righteousness; who, in the morning of his youth, inquires after the best things; and diligently pursues what is for his own good and welfare, and that of others, and for the glory of God:
procureth favour, both of God and men: or, “seeketh favour” f; or that which is acceptable and well-pleasing unto God;
but he that seeketh mischief, it shall come unto him; that seeks to do hurt to others; that which he seeks to do to them shall come upon himself; see Ps 9:15; so antichrist, that leads into captivity, shall go into captivity; and that kills with the sword, shall be killed by it, Re 13:10.
e “qui mane quaerit”, Vatablus; “quarens mane”, Montanus; “qui mane vestigat”, Schultens; “bene consurgit diluculo”, V. L. so the Targum and Ben Melech. f “quaerit favorem, beneplacitum”, Vatablus, Michaelis; “benevolentiam”, Junius & Tremellius, Mercerus, Gejerus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
That self-sacrificing endeavour after the good of others finds its regard in the thought encircling the following proverbs.
27 He that striveth after good, seeketh that which is pleasing;
And he that searcheth after evil, it shall find him.
Here we have together three synonyms of seeking: (R. , findere ), which has the general meaning quaerere , from the root-idea of penetrating and pressing forwards; (R. .R( , terere ), which from the root-idea of trying (proving) corresponds to the Lat. studere ; and (whence here instead of , as instead of ), which means mane , and thus sedulo quaere ( vid., at Pro 1:28). From 27b, where by is meant evil which one prepares for another, there arises for the idea of good thoughts and actions with reference to others. He who applies himself to such, seeks therewith that which is pleasing, i.e., that which pleases or does good to others. If that which is pleasing to God were meant, then this would have been said (cf. Pro 12:2); the idea here is similar to Pro 10:32, and the word is used, and not , because reference is not made to a fact in the moral government of the world, but a description is given of one who is zealously intent upon good, and thus of a noble man. Such an one always asks himself (cf. Mat 7:12): what will, in the given case, be well-pleasing to the neighbour, what will tend to his true satisfaction? Regarding the punctuation here, , vid., at Pro 11:26. The subject to , which, Pro 10:24, stands as the fundamental idea, here follows from the governed , which may be the gen. (Psa 38:13) as well as the accus.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Folly and Misery of Sinners. | |
27 He that diligently seeketh good procureth favour: but he that seeketh mischief, it shall come unto him.
Observe, 1. Those that are industrious to do good in the world get themselves beloved both with God and man: He that rises early to that which is good (so the word is), that seeks opportunities of serving his friends and relieving the poor, and lays out himself therein, procures favour. All about him love him, and speak well of him, and will be ready to do him a kindness; and, which is better than that, better than life, he has God’s lovingkindness. 2. Those that are industrious to do mischief are preparing ruin for themselves: It shall come unto them; some time or other they will be paid in their own coin. And, observe, seeking mischief is here set in opposition to seeking good; for those that are not doing good are doing hurt.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verse 27 see comments on verse 17.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 11:27. Procureth, rather seeketh Favour, i.e., Gods favour. So it is generally understood. But Delitzsch reads He who striveth after good, seeketh that which is pleasing, i.e., that which pleaseth or doeth good to others.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 11:27
DILIGENT SEEKERS
I. An object worthy of search.Good. There is.
1. Material, temporal good. The human race need no exhortation to stimulate them to go in quest of this good. The child begins his search after this good as soon as he is conscious of need and finds himself in possession of power to seek it. And until old age these good things are sought without any admonition from God to lead a man to seek them.
2. But there is a higher goodthe good which ministers to the spiritual nature and forms a holy characterthe good of which Christ speaks when He says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. (Mat. 6:23). Men need to be exhorted to seek this good, and the Bible puts before them every kind of motive to stimulate men to the searchmotives drawn from the happiness of a future heaven and a future hell, and from the present heaven or hell which will result from the search or from the neglect of this true good. Men are, as a rule, too much occupied with seeking the lower and the transitory good to seek that which is spiritual and eternalthat Supreme Personal GoodGod Himself. God is the Good that the soul needs because He unites in Himself all that can minister to our better nature. The soul needs truthand God is truth. The soul needs something above itself to worship, to love, to obey. There is nothing can supply this need but the living God.
II. How this good is to be sought. Diligently. The diligence will be in proportion to the desire. The word here translated diligently is the same as that translated early in chap. Pro. 8:16. (See Homiletics on that passage).
III. The reward of diligent seekers after real good. Favour.
1. Of God. He loves to see men value that upon which He sets value, viz., their own spiritual and eternal gain.
2. Of good men always. Of bad men often. For the diligent seeking of this highest good does not make a man selfishon the contrary, the more earnest he is in the search, the more will he lay himself out to serve his fellow-men. In this the contrast is marked between the diligent search after material and spiritual good. The sentiment of the verse is the same as that in chap. Pro. 3:4 (see Homiletics on that verse).
IV. A most unworthy object of search. Mischief. Understanding this of evil in general which is most mischievous in its working and in its results, we remark
1. That it requires no great diligence to work moral mischief towards a mans self. To abstain from seeking good is to seek and to find mischief. To neglect salvation (Heb. 2:3) is enough to ruin.
2. That the man who plots to work mischief to another often sets the seekers after good an example of diligence. How much of planningwhat an expenditure of thought and activity is often put forth to ruin another!
3. That the man who seeks mischief is certain to find it. It will not wait even to be foundit will come to meet him. But there may and will be some amount of disappointment. If he seeks his own ruin he will certainly succeed, but if he seeks to do another a mischief, he may miscarry, but the intention will be fulfilled in himself. Whether he succeeds in harming another man or not, it is a law of moral gravitation that His mischief shall return upon his own head and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate (Psa. 7:16).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
There is no negative existence. Man is born for action. All of us are living with a stupendous measure of vital activity for good or for mischief. Man was never intendedleast of all the Christianto be idle. Our Divine Master went about doing good. He is a counterfeit who does not live after this pattern. Usefulness is everything. We must not rest in life received, nor must we wait to have it brought to us. We must seek it.Bridges.
From the last proverbs it has appeared that going after our own selfish gain, is really going after evil. Joy is innocent in itself; and yet, gone after absorbingly, it is an evil end. Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it (Luk. 17:33) Solomon, therefore utters a most philosophic truth when he says He that diligently seeketh good, etc., that is, who forgets himself, and is early (for that is the original sense) after what is intrinsically right and holy, that man is really the person who is seeking or hunting up favour; that is, if he could really gain it by hunting it up directly, and for his selfish good, he could not gain it more directly than by forgetting it, and striving for what is pure. (See Mat. 6:33). Then follows the antithesis. He that seeks mischief, etc., as one is conscious that he does when he turns his heart selfishly even after innocent joys. He goes after that which may in itself be innocent, like money, or like the support of life; in a way that to his own conscience makes it confessedly evil, shall have it come to him at the end of his course, infallibly as evil.Miller.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(27) Procureth favour.By the very act of striving after good, he is seeking for the favour of both God and man.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
27. Diligently seeketh good Seeketh or striveth for “good.” He shall receive favour.
Mischief Evil of any kind. Conant gives this verse this turn: “He that seeks good, favour shall seek him; but he that seeks evil, it shall come upon him.” See Est 7:10; Psa 7:15-16; Psa 9:15-16; Psa 10:2; Psa 57:6.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Righteous Seek What Is Good, Flourish Because They have True Life, Producing Its Fruit, And Will Be Recompensed on Earth. The Unrighteous Search After What Is Bad, Trust in Riches, Are Brought Low, And Also Receive Their Due Recompense ( Pro 11:27-31 ).
The ‘the one who –’ of Pro 11:26 now spurs a series of ‘the one who –’ statements (in translation). ‘The one who diligently seeks good’ (Pro 11:27 a), ‘the one who searches after evil’ (Pro 11:27 b), ‘the one who trusts in his riches’ (Pro 11:28) and ‘the one who troubles his own house’ (Pro 11:29), followed by a secondary ‘the one who is wise captures hearts’. Thus there are two positives and three negatives in chiastic form We could put them together and note that the one who diligently seeks good captures hearts, and the one who searches after evil and trusts in his riches troubles his own house. Both sentiments are true. Seeking good has positive benefits, searching after evil and trusting in riches has negative consequences.
These verses are presented chiastically:
A He who diligently seeks good, seeks favour, but he who searches after evil, it will come to him (Pro 11:27).
B He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like the green leaf (Pro 11:28).
C He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind (Pro 11:29 a).
C And the foolish will be servant to the wise of heart (Pro 11:29 b).
B The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise captures hearts (nephesh – men’s inner man) (Pro 11:30).
A Behold, the righteous will be recompensed in the earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner!’ (Pro 11:31)
Note that in A the diligent doer of good seek favour, while the searcher after evil finds evil, and in the parallel the righteous will be recompensed, as will the doer of evil. In B the righteous flourish like a green leaf, and in the parallel the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. Centrally in C the one who troubles his own house inherits nothing, and in the parallel he becomes a servant.
The contrasts here all connect with each other. On the one hand the righteous, the wise, diligently seek what is good (wholesome and morally right), they do not trust in riches but flourish because they have abundant life, they enjoy prosperity (they hire bondsmen), they bring blessing to everyone (their fruit is a tree of life), and they will be recompensed on the earth. In contrast are the unrighteous, the unwise, who search after evil (what is unwholesome and morally wrong), they trust in riches rather than YHWH, they bring down trouble on their own house, and lose what they have and themselves become bondservants, and they receive their due recompense.
Pro 11:27
‘He who diligently seeks good, seeks favour,
But he who searches after evil, it will come to him.’
This proverb can be compared with Pro 11:23, ‘the desire of the righteous is only good, but the expectation of the wicked is wrath’. But here the desire has turned into action, he not only desires ‘only good’ (in contrast with those whose motives are dubious), but diligently seeks ‘good’, a good which has more reference to positive public good (compare Pro 3:27), for he is seeking the welfare of others in contrast with the one who seeks to harm others. Furthermore he here obtains a benefit, the favour of YHWH. The idea of the latter is not that he is diligently seeking good in order to obtain favour, but that by diligently seeking good he is, as an unsought consequence, seeking favour. God is such that his seeking good necessarily means that he is seeking favour with God. He is bringing himself under His good pleasure.
In contrast the one who searches after evil, looking for evil things to do (compare Pro 1:16) will discover that evil comes to him. Instead of receiving the favour of God he will come under His approbation, and in some way suffer accordingly. His name will rot (Pro 10:7), he will fall (Pro 10:8; Pro 10:10; Pro 11:5), he will experience his worst fears (Pro 10:24), calamity will come on him and he will be no more (Pro 10:25), his expectation will perish (Pro 10:28), he will be destroyed (Pro 11:3), he will die (Pro 11:19), he will experience wrath (Pro 11:23).
Pro 11:28
‘He who trusts in his riches will fall,
But the righteous will flourish like the green leaf.’
Here the one who trusts in riches is paralleled with the one who searches after evil (Pro 11:27) and the one who troubles his own house (Pro 11:29). Part of his search after evil (wrongdoing, what is not good and wholesome) is in order to build up illicit riches (illicit because he is contrasted with the righteous). Compare Pro 1:11-19. And like the one who searches after wrongdoing he will fall by his own wickedness (Pro 3:5). The context may suggest that, unlike the green leaf, he falls as an autumn leaf that has crinkled and died. Or the reference might be to the fall of him and his house (Pro 11:29), or to falling by the sword, or to a building collapsing, or to falling to one’s death from a mountain pathway.
Like so many he thought that if he could become rich his position would be secure. But he was sadly wrong. And by his activities in search of riches he has troubled his own house. His own family will be involved in the consequences of what he has done (compare Pro 11:17).
In contrast the righteous will flourish like the green leaf, the leaf which is attached to the tree and receives full life from it. They will remain a vital and life-producing part of the fruitbearing tree which is true Israel (compare Jer 11:16). And they will do this because they heed the word of God, ‘His leaf will not wither and whatever he does will prosper’ (Psa 1:3).
(Whilst leaves are never elsewhere said to fall (naphal), but rather to wither (nabal) there is a reference to ‘falling’ figs in Nah 3:12 (naphal); compare also Rev 6:13. Elsewhere falling leaves and falling figs are both described in terms of nabal (Isa 34:4). So the two can be used synonymously. Thus there is nothing unlikely in the idea of this signifying leaves falling. Whilst normally leaves are said to wither and die, the emphasis here is not on the leaf withering, but on it losing connection with the its source of life (the tree)).
Pro 11:29
‘He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind,
And the foolish will be servant to the wise of heart.’
The one who ‘troubles his own house’, by searching after evil (Pro 11:27) or trusting falsely in riches rather than in YHWH (Pro 11:28), will inherit absolutely nothing. To inherit the wind is to inherit what is insubstantial and disappears as quickly as it comes. It is to inherit nothing substantial. To ‘trouble’ is ‘to bring down disasters on’. Ahab claimed that Elijah was a troubler of Israel in consequence of the drought, and Elijah replied that it was rather he who had troubled Israel (1Ki 18:17-18).
In those days, when men sank into dire poverty, the only way in which they could survive was by selling themselves into bondage. Thus as a consequence of disasters they could lose their wealth and descend from being landowners to bondsmen. That is the picture here. They (the fools, the unrighteous) have, with their false wisdom, lost everything and have become the servants of others (the wise, the righteous), those truly wise of heart, whose house is, of course, untroubled.
Pro 11:30
‘The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
And he who is wise captures hearts (nephesh -the breath, the inner man).’
The crowning blessing of the righteous is that they become a blessing to others. Their fruit is a tree of life, a lifegiving tree. By their lives, the ‘natural’ product of their walking in wisdom with God, they are a source of life and wellbeing to others. Through their wisely lived lives they win the hearts of men. We translate ‘hearts’ because that gives the sense. It does not strictly mean ‘winning souls’ in an evangelistic sense, although that is undoubtedly one of its outcomes. If we would ‘win men’s souls’ we must first win men’s hearts. Nephesh indicates the inner man, the ‘breath of life’. Jesus may well have been taking up this thought when He said to His disciples, ‘from now on you will catch men’ (Luk 5:10).
The reference to the tree of life indicates that God’s purpose for the spiritually wise, who follow God’s wisdom, is that they will play their part in restoring what has been lost by the fall. And they do it by attracting others to God’s way of wisdom. It is part of the process of restoration. We too are to be a tree of life to men and women as we attract men to Christ by the beauty of our lives, and of course by proclaiming His wisdom.
Pro 11:31
‘Behold, the righteous will be recompensed in the earth,
How much more the wicked and the sinner!’
The subsection ends with an assurance that all will be recompensed, whether for good or ill, because of what they reveal themselves to be. The righteous are not recompensed because somehow they have deserved a reward for their goodness. They are recompensed because having responded to God and His goodness and His wisdom, He has made them good. It is because they have ‘found favour’ (Pro 11:27). It is because their trust is in Him rather than in uncertain riches (implied in Pro 11:28; compare Pro 3:5-6). It is because their lives have become fruitful (Pro 11:30). God will therefore respond by giving them wholesome lives, prosperity and a life to come (Pro 3:16-18).
There may, however, also be included here the idea that even the righteous man falls short and requires chastening. See for example Pro 3:11-12. This would explain even more fully the ‘how much more’. If the righteous man has to be chastened, how much more will punishment fall on the unrighteous. This verse is cited from LXX in 1Pe 4:18, ‘if the righteous scarcely be saved, where will the ungodly and sinner appear?’
In contrast the wicked and sinner will also be recompensed, and the details of that recompense have been out lined above, ending inevitably in death. It is even more certain that the unrighteous will receive their due recompense, for that is rooted in the very moral fabric of creation. To deliberately partake of evil is to come under sentence of death. Life is God’s gift, but death is man’s deserts.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
v. 27. He that diligently seeketh good procureth favor,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 11:27 He that diligently seeketh good procureth favour: but he that seeketh mischief, it shall come unto him.
Ver. 27. He that diligently seeketh good. ] Heb., He that is up betime to promote the public good, as Joseph, who came not in till noon to eat meat; as Nehemiah, who willingly brake his sheep, and traded every talent for his people’s comfort; as Scipio Africanus, who usually went before day into the capitol, in cellam Iovis, and there stayed a great while, quasi consultans de Rep. cum Iove, a as consulting with his god about the public welfare; whence his deeds were pleraque admiranda, saith mine author, – amiable and admirable, the most of them. And as Daniel, who though sick, yet rose up and did the king’s business. Dan 8:27
It shall come to him.
a Gell., lib. vii. cap. 1.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
mischief. Hebrew. ra’a’. App-44.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 11:27
Pro 11:27
“He that diligently seeketh good seeketh favor; But he that searcheth after evil, it shall come unto him.”
“He who seeks what is morally good secures God’s favor, while he that seeks what is morally bad brings down on himself divine retribution.
Pro 11:27. One who seeks to do right will obtain the favor of both man and God. As a young man Jesus advanced…in favor with God and man (Luk 2:52). So did the child Samuel (1Sa 2:26). So will a virtuous person (Pro 31:28-31). Those who traffic in evil will have evil (trouble) come upon them: Est 7:10; Psa 7:15-16; Psa 9:15-16; Psa 10:2; Psa 57:6.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
diligently: Shochair, properly, “rising early to seek” what is greatly desired.
he that seeketh: Pro 17:11, Est 7:10, Psa 7:15, Psa 7:16, Psa 9:15, Psa 9:16, Psa 10:2, Psa 57:6
Reciprocal: Gen 47:25 – Thou hast 1Ki 20:7 – seeketh mischief Amo 5:14 – Seek
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 11:27-28. He that diligently seeketh good To do good to all men, as he hath opportunity; which is opposed to a mans contenting himself with lazy desires, or cold and careless endeavours; procureth favour With God and men; but he that seeketh mischief To do any mischief or injury to others; it shall come unto him It shall be requited, either by mens malice and revenge, or by Gods just judgment. He that trusteth in his riches As his protection, or portion and felicity; shall fall As a withered leaf; but the righteous Who make God alone, and not riches, the ground of their confidence, and source of their happiness; shall flourish as a branch Namely, a green and fruitful branch.