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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 13:1

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A wise son [heareth] his father’s instruction: but a scorner heareth not rebuke.

Heareth – The verb of the second clause is inserted in the first, just as in the next verse that of the first is inserted in the second. Stress is laid upon the obstinacy of the scorner who refuses to hear, not only instruction, but also the much stronger rebuke.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Pro 13:1

A wise son heareth his fathers instruction: but a scorner heareth not rebuke.

The heedless scorner

The first part of the sentence has been rendered, is his fathers instruction; i.e., a wise son embodies his fathers instruction. A wise man may point to his son and say, This is the sum-total of my educational efforts. The proverb is careful to define the quality of the son whose education embodies the purposes of his father. He is to be a wise son; one who can make the most of his opportunities, who understands the process through which he is passing. A scorner is profited by nothing; being a satirist himself, he turns everything into satire; he mocks the speaker of good things, he parodies the highest poetry, he resents the most delicate and spiritual approach. We should not be struck by the mere ability of satire; we should remember its moral disadvantages, for it debases and impoverishes whatever it touches that is meant for its good. We speak of the satire that takes the moral purpose out of every appeal, and turns to derision all the efforts that are directed towards the souls real education. Wisdom gathers everything; scorning gathers nothing. It is for each man to say that he will walk in the one spirit or in the other, but let him distinctly know what the consequences of each spirit must be. (J. Parker, D.D.)

The teachable and unteachable son

I. The teachable son. A wise son heareth his fathers instruction. Solomon, of course, supposes that the father is what a father ought to be. He who attends to the instruction of a father, Solomon says, is wise. He is wise–

1. Because he attends to the Divine condition of human improvement. The Creator has ordained that the rising generation should get its wisdom from the teachings of its parents. It is by generations learning of predecessors that the race advances.

2. Because he gratifies the heart of his best earthly friend.

II. The unteachable son. A scorner heareth not rebuke. Some persons justly merit derision; some things merit contempt. A son who scorns either the person or the counsels of his father is not in a state of mind to hear rebuke–he is unteachable. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CHAPTER XIII

Various moral sentences; the wise child; continence of speech;

of the poor rich man and the rich poor man; ill-gotten wealth;

delay of what is hoped for; the bad consequences of refusing

instruction; providing for one’s children; the necessity of

correcting them, c.

NOTES ON CHAP. XIII

Verse 1. A wise son heareth his father’s instruction] The child that has had a proper nurturing, will profit by his father’s counsels but the child that is permitted to fulfil its own will and have its own way, will jest at the reproofs of its parents.

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

Heareth; which word is understood out of the next clause, as is frequent in the Hebrew text.

Instruction; or, rebuke or reproof.

Heareth not rebuke; he hateth reproof, either from his father or from any other man.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

1. (Compare Pro 6:1-5;Pro 10:1; Pro 10:17).

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

A wise son [heareth] his father’s instruction,…. As he should, and has good reason to do; since it must be cordial, faithful, and disinterested, as well as the effect of age and experience. He “asks for it” and “loves” it, as Jarchi supplies the text; he likes and approves of it, is well pleased with it, and delights in it; seeing it tends to his profit and advantage; he “receives” it, as the Targum, so Ben Melech; he listens to and obeys it, and acts agreeably to it, which shows him to be wise; and this is the way to be wiser and wiser. So one that is spiritually wise will attend to and receive the instruction of Wisdom or Christ; who stands in the relation of an everlasting fin, her to his children; whose instruction is the doctrine of the Gospel; which a wise man hears, so as to understand it; to love and like it, and approve of it; cordially to embrace and obey it, and put it in practice; see Mt 7:24. The word also signifies “correction” s, because instruction often comes by it; and he that is a wise man will hear the rod and him that has appointed it, and learn to know his mind by it, and receive instruction from it: or is “chastised by his father” t, and takes it well, Mic 6:9;

but a scorner heareth not rebuke; that is, a son who is a scorner, as the Targum and Aben Ezra; one that makes a mock at sin, and scoffs at religion: such a man will be so far from hearing, attending to, and receiving the rebuke and reproof of his father, that he will scoff also at that; such as were the sons in law of Lot, and the sons of Eli and Samuel. So scornful men, that make a jest of everything that is sacred, will not hearken to the reproof of God’s word, to the rebukes of Gospel ministers, or even to the rebukes of Providence, which will issue in their destruction, Pr 5:11.

s “obedivit castigationem”, Baynus, so Gejerus. t “Castigatur a patre, vel castigatus patris”, Scultens, so De Dieu.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The proverb Pro 12:28 is so sublime, so weighty, that it manifestly forms a period and conclusion. This is confirmed from the following proverb, which begins like Pro 10:1 (cf. 5), and anew stamps the collection as intended for youth:

1 A wise son is his father’s correction;

But a scorner listens not to rebuke.

The lxx, which the Syr. follows, translate , whence it is not to be concluded with Lagarde that they read in the sense of a Ni. tolerativum ; they correctly understood the text according to the Jewish rule of interpretation, “that which is wanting is to be supplied from the context.” The Targ. had already supplied from 1b, and is herein followed by Hitzig, as also by Glassius in the Philologia sacra. But such an ellipse is in the Hebr. style without an example, and would be comprehensible only in passionate, hasty discourse, but in a language in which the representation filius sapiens disciplinam patris audit numbers among the anomalies is not in general possible, and has not even its parallel in Tacitus, Ann. xiii. 56: deesse nobis terra, in qua vivamus – in qua moriemur, non potest , because here the primary idea, which the one expression confirms, the other denies, and besides no particle, such as the of this passage before us, stands between them. Bttcher therefore maintains the falling out of the verb, and writes before ; but one says not , but , Pro 1:8; Pro 4:1; Pro 19:27. Should not the clause, as it thus stands, give a sense complete in itself? But can hardly, with Schultens and Ewald, be taken as part. Hoph. of : one brought up by his father, for the usage of the language knows only as part. Hoph. of . Thus, as Jerome and the Venet. translate: a wise son is the correction of his father, i.e., the product of the same, as also Fleischer explains, “Attribution of the cause, the ground, as elsewhere of the effect.” But we call that which one has trained (vegetable or animal) his Zucht (= in the sense of ). To the wise son (Pro 10:1) who is indebted to the (Pro 4:1), stands opposed the ( vid., Pro 1:22), the mocker at religion and virtue, who has no ear for , strong and stern words which awaken in him a wholesome fear (cf. Pro 17:10, Jud 1:23: ).

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

1 A wise son heareth his father’s instruction: but a scorner heareth not rebuke.

Among the children of the same parents it is no new thing for some to be hopeful and others the contrary; now here we are taught to distinguish. 1. There is great hope of those that have a reverence for their parents, and are willing to be advised and admonished by them. He is a wise son, and is in a far way to be wiser, that hears his father’s instruction, desires to hear it, regards it, and complies with it, and does not merely give it the hearing. 2. There is little hope of those that will not so much as hear rebuke with any patience, but scorn to submit to government and scoff at those that deal faithfully with them. How can those mend a fault who will not be told of it, but count those their enemies who do them that kindness?

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

HEEDING OR SCORNING

INSTRUCTIONS,

(Proverbs 13)

Heeding or Scorning Instructions

Verse 1, as often in Proverbs, commends as wise the son who heeds a faithful father’s instruction. In sharp contrast is the scornful son who hears not instruction or rebuke. Serious consequences follow such, 1Sa 2:25; Pro 9:12; Pro 15:10; Pro 26:12.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES.

Pro. 13:1. Instruction, or correction. The Hebrew is literally, a wise son is his fathers correction, i.e., is the product of his fathers correction; or heareth may be supplied to correspond to the verb in the second clause.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 13:1

THE WISE SON AND THE SCORNER

I. A condition implied. That the father who gives the instruction, or administers correction, is a wise father. There are many fathers who are incapable of instructing their children in the right way, because they do not walk in it themselves. The father of these proverbs is always pre-supposed to be one who is himself morally wiseone whose life is a practical exposition of the good instruction which he gives. The father who can only instruct with his lips, but not with his life, cannot expect to command respect and obedience. He is like a man who tries to save a vessel from sinking by baling out the water in bucketfuls, while he leaves the great leak-hole unplugged. All that which is done is more than neutralised by what is left undone. If a physician prescribes a certain medicine for a disease from which he is suffering himself, but for which he refuses to take the remedy, he will find that his patients will think, if they do not say, Physician, heal thyself. And children will not be slow to see if a fathers practice fails to endorse a fathers precept.

II. He who takes the advice of a morally wise father shows himself to be wise also. The greatest proof of wisdom is a willingness to learn of those who know more than we do. Other things being equal, a father must know more than a son, and the son who hears his instruction, and submits to his discipline, ot only uses the means by which to become wise, but shows that he is already wise enough to use the right means to attain a desirable end. Christians are the sons of God, if they are wise sons they will hear the instructions of their Father. They show their wisdom in proportion as they submit cheerfully to His discipline as to that of the Only wise God (1Ti. 1:17).

III. He who will not listen to parental rebuke is in the last degree a sinner. We understand the last clause of this verse to refer likewise to a father and son. Parental instruction and correction are Gods ordained and special methods of training a human soul. There are many reasons why a parents rebuke should be regarded, if that of strangers is not listened to (see Homiletics on chap. Pro. 4:1; Pro. 4:4, p. 53). He who disregards that must be considered in as hopeless a case as he who scuttles the lifeboat sent to save him. When the word of a good father or mother is not obeyed it is practically scorned, and a scorner is the most hopeless of sinners.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS

The language of this verse is capable of two meanings: either that hearing instruction and not hearing reproof are the effect and manifestation, respectively, of a wise or a scornful mind; this wise son showing himself to be so by hearing his fathers instructions, and the scorner showing himself to be so by not hearing rebuke, or (reversing cause and effect), that wisdom and scorning are the results, respectively, of hearing or not hearing instruction and rebuke. In other wordsThe son that is instructed by his father turns out to be wise; he who receives no correction turns out a fool. In the first of the two senses the admonition is chiefly to childrenin the second, to parents.Wardlaw.

Piety is the fruit of training. If a man is a believer, it is a sign he has had believing nurture; and if a scorner, it is a sign he has had no rebuke. This text reiterates the promise made to the training of a child. To treat it as in our English version is simply to evolve a truism, and might do very well, grammatically, if the verb were future, and not perfect. The idea embraces the solemn lesson, that Christians are not to be made without training.Miller.

Or heareth and jeereth; as Lots sons-in-law, as Elis sons, and afterwards Samuels. Samuel succeeds Eli in his cross, as well as in his place, though not in his sin of indulgence. God will show that grace is by gift, and not by inheritance or education.Trapp.

There is in the conscience of the scorner a hidden discouragement, and privy despair, both of pardon of his sinfulness, and possibility to leave it: and that doth exasperate him against such as shall be dealing with it. Who is willing to have his wound laid open to his disgrace and torment, when he taketh it to be altogether incurable?Dod.

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

CHAPTER 13
TEXT Pro. 13:1-9

A wise son heareth his fathers instruction;

But a scoffer heareth not rebuke.

A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth;

But the soul of the treacherous shall eat violence.

He that guardeth his mouth keepeth his life;

But he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.

The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing;

But the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.

A righteous man hateth lying;

But a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame.

Righteousness guardeth him that is upright in the way;

But wickedness overthroweth the sinner.

There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing:

There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great wealth.

The ransom of a mans life is his riches;

But the poor heareth no threatening.

The light of the righteous rejoiceth;

But the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.

STUDY QUESTIONS OVER 13:1-9

Is the son wise to hear his father or wise because he hears (Pro. 13:1)?

Why does a scoffer not listen (Pro. 13:1)?

What is the meaning of soul in Pro. 13:2?

What are some things that guarded speech will not permit to be said (Pro. 13:3)?

What does open wide his lips mean (Pro. 13:3)?

From what small animal does our word sluggard come (Pro. 13:4)?

What is the small animal known for (Pro. 13:4)?

Does fat in Pro. 13:4 stand for something good or something bad?

Cite passages in which both God and godly people hate sin (Pro. 13:5).

10.

What does loathsome mean (Pro. 13:5)?

11.

List the contrasts in Pro. 13:6.

12.

How can a person emphasize riches and yet have none (Pro. 13:7)?

13.

How can a person be poor and yet have great wealth (Pro. 13:7)?

14.

What is meant in Pro. 13:8 by riches being the ransom of a mans life?

15.

What does Pro. 13:8 have in mind when it says the poor hear no threatening?

16.

What do light and lamp in Pro. 13:9 stand for?

PARAPHRASE OF 13:1-9

A wise youth accepts his fathers rebuke; a young mocker doesnt.

The good man wins his case by careful argument; the evil-minded only wants to fight.

Self-control means controlling the tongue! A quick retort can ruin everything.

Lazy people want much but get little, while the diligent are prospering.

A good man hates lies; wicked men lie constantly and come to shame.

A mans goodness helps him all through life, while evil men are being destroyed by their wickedness.

Some rich people are poor, and some poor people have great wealth!

Being kidnaped and held for ransom never worries the poor man!

The good mans life is full of light. The sinners road is dark and gloomy.

COMMENTS ON 13:1-9

Pro. 13:1. Instruction for the wise, rebuke for the unwise. Wisdom is shown in respecting the age, learning, and office of the father; the scoffer respects nobody. He is wise in his own conceit (Rom. 12:16). Samson did not regard the rebuke of his father (Jdg. 14:1-4) not did Elis son regard his (1Sa. 2:22-25). If a son will not respect his father enough to follow his instructions, it will not be surprising if he doesnt receive his rebuke. One who scoffs at his father now will scoff at God and sacred things also.

Pro. 13:2 Compare Pro. 12:14. Ever hear of eating your own words? What people do and say will determine what they eat as a result. What will you eat?

Pro. 13:3. Guarding ones mouth suggests that a person should not say just anything that comes into his/her mind. One who opens his lips wide is one who talks too much and consequently says some things he shouldnt. If we keep our mouth, we keep ourselves from many troubles (Pro. 21:23). Let us say with David, I will take heed to my ways, That I sin not with my tongue (Psa. 39:1).

Pro. 13:4. It is easy to pass somebodys nicely kept farmstead or home and wish to be a farmer or have a well kept home. It is easy to hear somebody speak who knows the Scripture and wish to be able to find things in the Bible. But while desiring is the basis of getting, it takes much work and application to make dreams and desires come true, and this becomes the downfall of the lazy (Pro. 10:4). Pulpit Commentary: He has the wish, but not the will.

Pro. 13:5. The righteous hate all sin (Rom. 12:9). The wicked are loathsome in the eyes of others who deplore their conduct, and they come to no good end.

Pro. 13:6. Pro. 11:6 is a companion verse. Righteousness keeps one from getting into trouble, but a sinner is overthrown in his wickedness.

Pro. 13:7. Some take the Hebrew for maketh himself to mean feign. If that translation is correct, the verse would be speaking of some who were poor but feigned themselves to be rich while others with great wealth would feign themselves poor. The above are both sometimes done. Another meaning commonly taken on the verse: some who would be rich and who do everything they can to become rich end in poverty while others are always giving away and giving away and yet end up rich. The latter view may be referring to the nothing that the wicked rich people will have in eternity (Luk. 12:20-21) and to the great wealth that the righteous will have who have laid up treasures in heaven (Mat. 6:20). Translations and commentaries seem to favor the first position.

Pro. 13:8. Clarke: In despotic countries a rich man is often accused of some capital crime, and to save his life, though he may be quite innocent, is obliged to give up his riches; but the poor in such countries are put to no trouble.

Pro. 13:9. Various passages refer to the lamp or light of the wicked being put out (Job. 18:5-6; Job. 21:17; Pro. 24:20). While applied to the individual and his life, the figure was drawn from their household habit: No house, however poor, is left without a light burning in it all night; the housewife rising betimes to secure its continuance by replenishing the lamp with oil. If a lamp goes out, it is a fatal omen (Geike). The Septuagint translates: The light of the righteous is everlasting; but the light of sinners is quenched.

TEST QUESTIONS OVER 13:1-9

What about a wise son and his fathers instruction (Pro. 13:1)?

What about a scoffer and rebuke (Pro. 13:1)?

What does Pro. 13:2 say a treacherous man will have to eat?

What does guarding ones mouth imply should be done (Pro. 13:3)?

Why will the sluggard have nothing (Pro. 13:6)?

Why will the diligent prosper (Pro. 13:4)?

What is a righteous mans attitude toward lying (Pro. 13:5).

Find the triple contrast in Pro. 13:6.

What two positions have been taken concerning the meaning of Pro. 13:7?

10.

What did a rich man sometimes have to sacrifice in order to save his life (Pro. 13:8)?

11.

What was meant by the lamp of the wicked being put out (Pro. 13:9)?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

XIII.

(1) A wise son heareth his fathers instruction.Or, is his fathers instruction, i.e., the result and embodiment of it.

A scorner.See above on Pro. 1:22.

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

1. A wise son, etc. There is no verb in this clause, and the translators have anticipated the verb heareth, of the next clause. This is with difficulty allowable here, for the verb in the second clause is negative, and in this is made affirmative. There is another mode, preferred by competent critics, of rendering the first clause: “A wise son is one who has been instructed by his father,” (so Stuart, Conant, etc.,) or, retaining the original and more specific meaning of the word, one who has been restrained by his father: and rendering the second clause thus: But one who is a scorner has not listened to rebuke. As much as to say, Whenever you see a truly wise man (wise in the sense of this book, compare Pro 1:7) you may be sure that he is one who in his youth had suitable parental training, discipline, correction; but when you see a scoffer an arrogant, conceited, wicked man you may be certain he is one who, when young, either did not receive, or would not profit by, rebuke. Comp. Pro 1:22; Pro 9:7; Pro 17:10.

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

The Proverbs Of Solomon ( Pro 10:1 to Pro 22:16 ).

The proverbs in this section are now introduced by the brief subheading ‘The Proverbs Of Solomon’. Contrast ‘The sayings of Solomon, the Son of David, the King of Israel’ in Pro 1:1. The details given there do not need to be repeated because this is a subheadng, not a main heading. This is in line with comparable wisdom literature going back far beyond the time of Solomon

What follows in Pro 10:1 onwards is somewhat deceptive. Without careful study it can appear to contain simply a string of proverbs with no direct connection to each other. But closer examination soon reveals otherwise. Solomon has rather taken his vast knowledge of wisdom literature, and put together a series of sayings which gel together and give consecutive teaching.

Various attempts have been made to divide up this material, but none of them have been fully successful as the basis of construction and the dividing lines are not always clear. They tend to be somewhat subjective. But that some thought has gone into the presentation of the material is apparent by the way in which topics and ideas are grouped together. Consider for example Pro 10:2-5 which are based on the idea of riches and men’s cravings, whilst Pro 10:18-21 are all based on the lips or the tongue. On the whole, however, the basis of the presentation overall is tentative, for up until Pro 22:17 we do not have any clear introductory words which can help us to divide the text up.

What is certain is that we are not simply to see this as just a number of proverbs jumbled together with no connection whatsoever. And in our view Solomon made this clear by using the well known method (previously used by Moses in Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) of dividing up the text by means of chiasms as we have illustrated. Ancient Hebrew was written in one continuing steam of letters with no gaps to distinguish words, and no punctuation. This was not quite as confusing as it sounds for words and word endings followed definite patterns which were mainly distinguishable. But the only way of dividing it up into paragraphs was either by the way of material content, or by the use of chiasms (presenting the material in an A B C D D C B A pattern). In our view this latter method was used by Solomon in this section as we hope we have demonstrated..

The proverbs which follow are designed to give a wide coverage of wisdom and instruction, and as we study them we will receive guidance in different spheres. For this is the wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and instruction that Solomon has been speaking of in the Prologue. It is a revelation of ‘the fear of YHWH and the knowledge of God’ (Pro 2:5).

It will be noted at once that Solomon immediately expects us to be able to differentiate ‘the righteous’ from the ‘unrighteous’ (or ‘wicked’), and the wise from the ‘foolish’. This confirms that the righteous and the wise are in his eyes identifiable, and in Israel that would be because they walked in accordance with the covenant, the ‘Law of Moses’, as well as in the ways of wisdom. Thus wisdom does not exclude the Law, nor does it supersede it. It embraces it, although mainly from a non-ritualistic standpoint (consider, however, Pro 3:9-10; Pro 7:14; Pro 15:8; Pro 17:1; Pro 21:3; Pro 21:27). For it sees it from a less legalistic attitude, and encourages a broad view of life.

We must, however, recognise that ‘wicked’ does not mean ‘totally evil’ and that ‘foolish’ does not mean ‘stupid’. The wicked are those who come short of righteousness (the term regularly contrasts with the righteous). Basically they live disregarding God’s requirements in some aspect of their lives. They may appear solid citizens, but in parts of their lives they pay no heed to God. This might come out in false business practises, or in deceit, or in lack of love for others, or in selfishness, as being part of their way of life. That is why we often speak of ‘the unrighteous’ rather than of ‘the wicked’.

In the same way the ‘foolish’ are called foolish because they set aside God’s ways in the way in which they live their lives. They may be astute, clever and full of common sense, but they are ‘foolish’ because they disregard YHWH. (‘The fool has said in his heart, “there is no God” (Psa 14:1) even though he might give an outward impression of being religious).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

A Collection Of Solomon’s Proverbs ( Pro 10:1 to Pro 29:27 ).

Solomon’s presentation of The Book of Proverbs has followed the pattern of much Wisdom literature. This commenced with the initial heading detailing the details of the author and his purpose in writing (Pro 1:1-7), continued with a Prologue which laid the foundation for what was to follow (Pro 1:8 to Pro 9:18), and was then followed by the body of the work introduced by one or more subheadings. In Solomon’s case this main body comprises Pro 10:1 to Pro 29:27. It is usually divided up into four parts:

1) Proverbs of Solomon (Pro 10:1 to Pro 22:16), introduced by a subheading ‘The Proverbs Of Solomon’. This may possibly be divided into two sections, Pro 10:1 to Pro 15:21, and Pro 15:22 to Pro 22:16.

2) Words of the Wise (Pro 22:17 to Pro 24:22), introduced by an exhortation to hear the words of the wise. This is in a form comparable with exhortations in the Prologue, but there is no subheading in the text as we have it. It may rather therefore be seen as a third section of The Proverbs of Solomon, but with unusual characteristics.

3) Further Sayings of the Wise (Pro 24:23-34), introduced by the subheading, ‘these also are of the wise’.

4) Proverbs of Solomon copied out by the ‘Men of Hezekiah, King of Judah’ (Pro 25:1 to Pro 29:27), introduced by a specific heading.

The inclusion of the words of the wise within two sets of proverbs of Solomon, the first time without a subheading, suggests that we are to see the words of the wise and the sayings of the wise as also from Solomon, but based in each case more specifically on collections of Wisdom sayings known to him, which he himself, or his Scribes, had taken and altered up in order to conform them to his requirements thus making them finally his work. That does not necessarily mean that his proverbs in section 1 (Pro 10:1 to Pro 22:16) were not based on other material. He would have obtained his material from many sources. But once again we are to see them as presented after alteration by his hand.

We should note, for example, the continual references to YHWH that occur throughout the text. Whatever material Solomon may have appropriated, he refashioned it in order to make it the wisdom of the God of Israel, of YHWH their covenant God. This approach of taking what was written by others and refashioning it, while at the same time introducing further ideas of his own, may be seen as following the pattern of modern scholars, each of whom takes the works of others, and then reinterprets them in his own words, whilst adding to them on the basis of his own thinking. The final product is then seen as their own thinking, aided by others. The only difference is that Solomon would have been far more willing to copy down word for word what others had said and written without giving acknowledgement.

Having said that we must not assume that Solomon simply copied them down unthinkingly. As the Prologue has made clear, he did not see himself as presenting some general form of Wisdom teaching. He saw what he wrote down as given by YHWH, and as being in the words of YHWH (Pro 2:6). And he saw it as based on YHWH’s eternal wisdom, His wisdom which had also been involved in the creation of heaven and earth (Pro 3:19-20; Pro 8:22-31). Thus he wants us to recognise that what now follows is not a series of general wisdom statements, but is a miscellany revealing the wisdom of YHWH, the wisdom that leads men into the paths of life.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Righteous Prevail Through Their Knowledge Of Wisdom, Whilst The Unrighteous Go Astray Because They Reject Wisdom ( Pro 12:25 to Pro 13:6 ).

In the first part of the subsection there is an emphasis on guiding and learning. ‘A good word makes (the heart) glad’ (Pro 12:25). ‘The righteous is a guide to his neighbour’ (Pro 12:26). ‘A wise son listens to his father’s instruction’ (Pro 13:1). ‘A man will eat good by the fruit of his mouth (because he has guided people)’ (Pro 13:2).

There is also an overall emphasis on diligence as against laziness. The ‘good word’ of Pro 12:25 requires effort to apply it to the particular needs of the anxious man, the righteous man ‘searches out’ what is required by his friend (Pro 12:26), the diligent man makes full use of what is of benefit to man (Pro 12:27), a man has to make fruitful use of his mouth if he is to ‘eat good’, (another metaphor) (Pro 13:2), it is the diligent who will prosper and become rich (Pro 13:4).

A third emphasis is on the right use of words. ‘A good word makes the heart of man glad’ (Pro 12:25), ‘the righteous is a guide to his neighbour’ (Pro 12:26), ‘a wise son listens to his father’s instruction’ (Pro 13:1), ‘from the fruit of his mouth a man will eat good’ (Pro 13:2), ‘he who guards his mouth preserves his life’ (Pro 13:3), ‘a righteous man hates lying’ (Pro 13:5)

But the prime emphasis is on solid teaching. The good word makes glad (Pro 12:25), the righteous searches out in order to guide his neighbour (Pro 12:26), the diligent brings forth the valuable wealth of man (Pro 12:27), the way of righteousness, as known through wisdom, is the way of life (Pro 12:28), the wise son listens to his father’s teaching (Pro 13:1), it is the soul of the diligent which will be made fat (Pro 13:4), the righteous man, having received wisdom, hates what is false (Pro 13:5), righteousness obtained through wisdom guards the upright (Pro 13:6).

The subsection is presented chiastically:

A Heaviness (anxiety) in the heart of a man makes it stoop, but a good word makes it glad (Pro 12:25).

B The righteous is a guide to his neighbour, but the way of the wicked causes them to err (Pro 12:26).

C The slothful man does not roast what he took in hunting, but the precious substance of men is to the diligent (Pro 12:27).

D In the way of righteousness is life, and in the pathway of it there is no death (Pro 12:28)

E A wise son listens to his father’s instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke (Pro 13:1)

E From the fruit of the mouth of a man one eats good, but the soul of the treacherous will eat violence (Pro 13:2).

D He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips will have destruction (Pro 13:3).

C The soul of the sluggard desires, and has nothing, but the soul of the diligent will be made fat (Pro 13:4).

B A righteous man hates lying, but a wicked man is loathsome, and comes to shame (Pro 13:5).

A Righteousness guards him who is upright in the way, but wickedness overthrows the sinner (Pro 13:6).

Note that in A heaviness anxiety a man’s heart STOOP, whilst in the parallel righteousness guards the UPRIGHT. In B the righteous is a true guide to his neighbour, while the wicked causes him to err, and in the parallel the righteous hates lying (and is therefore reliable), and the sinner causes himself to err and therefore loathsome and comes to shame. In C and its parallel the sluggard and the diligent are contrasted. In D the way of righteousness is LIFE and in its pathway is no DEATH, whilst in the parallel he who guards his mouth preserves his LIFE, and he who speaks (unwisely) will have DESTRUCTION. In E a wise son benefits by the words of his father, whilst in the parallel a man benefits by either his own words or the words of another.

Pro 12:25

‘Heaviness (anxiety) in the heart of a man makes it stoop (bow down),

But a good word makes it glad.’

The point here is that deep anxiety can bow a man down, but that a good word (sound advice, which in Proverbs is godly advice) wisely presented can restore its gladness. Such sound and godly advice and words, associated with the idea of peace and wellbeing, were a feature of the Prologue (Pro 1:2; Pro 1:8; Pro 2:1; Pro 2:6-7; Pro 2:10-11; Pro 3:2; Pro 3:15-18; etc.). They are a reminder that the promises and assurances of God are an antidote to anxiety (note Pro 3:5-6) and that true godly wisdom can bring a man peace. In the parallel ‘righteousness guards the one who is straight (upright)’ (Pro 13:6). Thus there wisdom and righteousness (the knowledge of God) are seen as the preventatives from deep anxiety.

Pro 12:26

‘The righteous is a guide to (searches out) his neighbour (bosom friend),

But the way of the wicked causes them to err.’

Strictly speaking the first clause reads literally ‘the righteous spies out/searches out (from/because of) his friend’. Whether there is a preposition min, shown in brackets as ‘from/because’), is questionable. Its presence depends on whether we take the noun for ‘friend’ as merea‘ or rea‘ (both are possible). Thus it could signify that the righteous man searches out (wisdom) because of/on behalf of his friend, thus acting as his guide. This would fit well into the theme of guiding and learning in Pro 12:25 and Pro 13:1. Alternatively it could signify that he searches out/spies out his bosom friend, because he does not want as a close friend one who is untrustworthy or unreliable (see Pro 13:20). This carefulness would tie in well with the carefulness demonstrated in Pro 12:27.

In the latter case ‘the way of the wicked causes them to err’ may signify that it is because they are not so careful in choosing their friends (compare Pro 1:11 ff.). In the case of the former it may signify that it is because they do not (like the righteous) seek out wisdom, something which is again a continual urging of the Prologue.

Either interpretation could gain support from the parallel verse in the chiasmus, ‘a righteous man hates lying, a wicked man — comes to shame’ (Pro 13:5). The righteous man searches out wisdom because he hates lying and deceit, or he ‘spies out’ his prospective bosom friend for the same reason.

Pro 12:27

‘The slothful man does not roast his game,

But the precious substance/wealth of men is to the diligent.’

The word translated ‘roast’ occurs only here in the Old Testament, but the translation has been remarkably supported by a 14th century BC tablet from Ras Ibn Hani, near Ugarit. It need therefore no longer be questioned. The point is that the slothful man is so lazy that rather than roasting his game for full enjoyment, he simply eats it raw. It may, however, be that Solomon wants us to see behind this simple statement and recognise that the same is true of wisdom. It is not just to be accepted as it is without thought and effort, ‘unroasted’, but must rather become palatable by deep consideration. This would tie in with the equal effort of the righteous in Pro 12:26, who does not just take things as they are but ‘searches them out’, and that in contrast to the slackness of the wicked man. The suggestion is further reinforced by the wording of the second clause, which while probably referring to the roasting of game, does so in a highly metaphorical form, stressing what is precious to man. It explains also the reference to ‘the inner life of the diligent being made fat’ in Pro 13:4.

The first clause concerning the behaviour of the slothful is in contrast to that of the diligent man. Using the translation above and seeing the ‘precious wealth of men’ as being game animals available from hunting once they have been roasted, the parallel is clear. The diligent are better off than the slothful because they enjoy delectable roast meat rather than raw game. They have made proper use of their precious resources. The emphasis here is on the greater benefit resulting from diligence. Continuing the metaphorical interpretation above, this also emphasises that the precious wealth to man of wisdom is also only to be obtained by diligence. This was a constant theme of the Prologue (Pro 2:1-4; Pro 3:3; Pro 4:5-6; Pro 4:20-23; Pro 6:20-22; Pro 7:1-4; Pro 8:17; Pro 8:33-34).

The translation of the second clause is, however, disputed, because the literal translation, keeping strictly to the Hebrew text, is, ‘But the wealth of a valuable (precious) man is diligent’ which may indicate that the big advantage of a valuable man, and what makes him valuable, is that he is diligent (and thus among other things roasts his game and studies wisdom deeply). Among a number of alternative translations the following have also been proposed:

‘The diligent (does roast) the precious wealth of man’. The implication being that the diligent are wiser than the slothful.

‘A rare treasure of a man is one who is diligent’. The idea in context possibly being how fortunate are those whose hunters or cooks supply their meat roasted, with the emphasis being on the value of the diligent man.

However, what is certain is that the basic message is the superiority of the diligent man to the slothful one, something already brought out in Pro 12:24, and underlined in the parallel passage to this in Pro 13:4. The diligent man partakes of what is so much better.

Pro 12:28

‘In the way of righteousness is life,

And in the pathway of it there is no death.’

The effort of the counsellor in Pro 12:25, the righteous man in Pro 12:26 and the diligent man in Pro 12:27, is all to one end, the propagation of righteousness. And that because the way of righteousness is life. For those who walk in that way there is no death. As always life means wholesome life and life that will be prolonged, untarnished by death. It has already been emphasised in Pro 2:19, Pro 3:2; Pro 3:22; Pro 4:13; Pro 4:22-23; Pro 6:23; Pro 8:35; Pro 9:11; Pro 10:11; Pro 10:16; Pro 11:4; Pro 11:19.

‘In the pathway of it there is no death.’ This could simply mean that the righteous will not meet premature death. But it must have been patently clear to Solomon that that was not true. In the light of Pro 14:32; Pro 15:25 the greater probability is that here there is the clear hint of immortality, which is strengthened even more if we see the idea of ‘no death’ as an echo of Anath’s promise of immortality in terms of ‘no death’ to Aqhat in the Ugaritic mythology and used as a vivid illustration by Solomon. Such a concept is inherent in the descriptions in the Prologue relating to the fate of the disobedient (Pro 2:18-19; Pro 5:5-6) and in the promise of the tree of life in Pro 3:18. It must also be seen in the light of Psa 16:11; Psa 17:15; Psa 23:6, and receives some support in Pro 10:2; Pro 10:25; Pro 11:4; Pro 11:19; Pro 12:19; Pro 14:32; Pro 15:24.

This second clause presents translation problems. It says literally, ‘and a way a path no death’, which we may paraphrase as ‘and a way of a pathway of no death’, which basically says the same as above.

In the chiasmus this verse parallels Pro 13:3, ‘he who guards his mouth keeps his life, he who opens wide his lips will have destruction’. Once again there is the promise of preserved life resulting from righteousness (a guarded mouth), whilst the second clause presents a contrast to the ‘no death’ here. The alternative for the wicked is destruction.

Pro 13:1

‘A wise son (listens to) his father’s instruction,

But a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.’

The themes of teaching and learning, of diligence, and of obtaining a foundation in wisdom and righteousness are now continued. The wise son pays diligent heed to his father’s disciplinary instruction (‘listens to’ is read back from the second clause). Unlike the scoffer he takes note of rebuke (compare Pro 1:23; Pro 1:25; Pro 1:30; Pro 6:23; Pro 9:8; Pro 10:17; Pro 12:1). Once more we note that the father (along with his wife) was to be the prime instrument for imparting wisdom (Pro 1:8-9; Pro 4:1; Pro 4:3; Pro 6:20; Pro 10:1). In contrast the scoffer refuses to listen to rebuke. ‘He does not love to be reproved’ (Pro 15:12). He hates it (Pro 15:10).

Pro 13:2

‘From the fruit of the mouth of a man he (or ‘one’) eats good,

But the soul of the treacherous will eat violence.’

In Pro 13:1 a wise son benefits by the words of his father, whilst here a man benefits, either from his own words or from the words of another, and ‘eats good’. The two ideas are in parallel. In contrast the one who would not listen to rebuke (Pro 13:1) ‘eats violence’.

The first clause is almost a repetition of Pro 12:14 a, ‘from the fruit of a mans mouth he (or ‘one’) will be satisfied with good’, and it conveys the same idea, whilst the idea of fruit reminds us of Pro 11:30, ‘the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life’. It is fruit that is ‘better than gold’ (Pro 8:19). There is a reminder here of the importance of listening to those who impart God’s wisdom. And it is a reminder also that to all who follow God’s wisdom what it says is important. We have to ensure that men eat good from it.

But the contrasting clause supports the idea that the one who benefits from the fruit of his mouth is himself (just as the treacherous ‘eats (his own) violence’). In other words those who speak what is good also benefit from it themselves. Because of what they say they have an appetite for good. How we talk makes a difference to what we are. In the parallel clause ‘the inner life, appetite’ (nephesh) of the treacherous itself eats violence, in other words the treacherous man has an appetite for violence which comes from deep within him, and he enjoys participating in it. Consequently he will ‘eat the fruit of his own ways’ in the end (Pro 1:31).

Pro 13:3

‘He who guards his mouth preserves his life,

But he who opens wide his lips will have destruction.

In Pro 12:28 we learned that ‘in the way of righteousness is life.’ In other words that those who walk in that way will experience abundant life, a life that will endure. And in Pro 11:2 we learned that a man ‘eats good from the fruit of his mouth’. He benefits himself, and fashions his character, by what he says. Now the two ideas are put together. To walk in the way of righteousness involves being careful of what we say, for ‘he who guards his mouth preserves his life.’ Once again the idea is that what we say not only reveals what we are, but actually affects what we are. We should therefore guard our mouths because, ‘in the multiplicity of words sin is not lacking’ (Pro 10:19). In consequence it is of great importance that we do guard our mouths, ensuring that nothing slips from them which will grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:29-30). By this means we will preserve whole and intact the life that God has given us. On the other hand the one who ‘opens wide his lips’, speaking without restraint or thought, will ‘have destruction’. He will bring retribution on himself. For by our words we will be revealed as righteous, and by our words we will be condemned (Mat 12:37),

Pro 13:4

‘The soul of the sluggard desires, and has nothing,

But the soul of the diligent will be made fat.’

There is a general principle here that lazy people want things in their ‘inner man, appetite’ (nephesh), but often don’t get them because of their laziness. They lie in bed and let the years slip away (see Pro 6:6-11). In contrast diligent people set about things, and get what they want and more. Thus their ‘inner men’ will be ‘made fat’, that is, will prosper and enjoy prosperity.

But in the context of guiding and listening, and of solid teaching (see introduction to the subsection) there is here special reference to the gathering of wisdom and truth. The lazy person wants to have wisdom and understanding, and every now and then he wants to know God and His word, but he never gets round to seeking them. Thus he ends up spiritually poor. Indeed he ends up with nothing that is worthwhile. But the one who from his heart (his inner person) diligently seeks, and makes an effort to understand, will not only find, but will grow and enjoy fullness of blessing. What such people receive they will ‘roast’, in other words, will take time and effort over it in order to enjoy it to the full (Pro 12:27). They will enjoy what is most precious in the earth (Pro 12:27).

Pro 13:5

‘A righteous man hates lying,

But a wicked man is loathsome, and comes to shame.’

As in Pro 12:26 we now have a contrast between the righteous and the unrighteous. There the righteous man ‘spied out’ his friends, like Joshua’s men spied out Canaan, in order to ensure that they were worthy friends, so that he would not be led astray by them (compare Pro 1:11 ff.). Here the righteous man hates lying (as does God – Pro 6:17; Pro 6:19; Pro 12:22). He searches out the truth. He cannot abide anything that smacks of deceit. He will therefore obtain a reputation for being honourable and trustworthy (he does not come to shame). In contrast the unrighteous man is loathsome before both God and man, for his way is that of deceit (Pro 11:20). He has the lying lips which are an abomination to God (Pro 6:17), and to honest men. He cannot be trusted, even with a confidence, and he destroys other people’ s reputations or wealth. And in the end his deceit will bring him into being shamed.

Pro 13:6

‘Righteousness guards him who is upright in the way,

But wickedness overthrows the sinner.’

The subsection ends with a summarising verse. The one who is walking uprightly in the way, listening to disciplinary instruction and responding to it, is guarded by his righteousness. ‘In the way of righteousness is life’ (Pro 12:28). His life is thus secure, and he walks with confidence without stumbling (Pro 10:9). For he who walks uprightly in the way is a delight to YHWH (Pro 11:20), and YHWH is a shield to him (Pro 2:7). In contrast is the sinner who is overthrown by his evildoing. His hope is not life but death. He will ‘have destruction’ (Pro 13:3). He is loathsome to YHWH (Pro 13:5).

‘Him who is upright in the way’ takes us right back into the atmosphere of the Prologue, where being, or not being, ‘in the way’ is a constant theme (Pro 1:15; Pro 2:13; Pro 2:15; Pro 2:18; Pro 2:20; Pro 4:11; Pro 4:14; Pro 4:18-19; etc.).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Pro 13:1-25 Wealth Gained by a Righteous Heart, Guarding the Tongue and Diligence in Work Pro 13:1-25 places emphasis upon the spirit, soul and body of man.

Pro 13:4 The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.

Pro 13:4 Word Study on “shall be made fat” – Strong says the Hebrew word “shall be made fat” ( ) (H1878) literally means, “to be fat,” and figuratively, “to satisfy.”

Pro 13:4 Comments – The lazy person sees the wealth of the diligent person and he wants these same things, but he never is able to obtain them. The diligent person is able to gain many things in this life, to the satisfying of his soul. Thus, in the eyes of the sluggard, the poor stay poor, and the rich become richer.

God doesn’t mind if a man has things and becomes prosperous. If you work hard, you can have these things (1Ti 6:17).

1Ti 6:17, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy ;”

Pro 13:7 There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.

Pro 13:7 “there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.” Comments – Moses left the royal courts of the richest nation on earth to serve the Lord with God’s people (Heb 11:25).

Heb 11:25, “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;”

Pro 13:8 The ransom of a man’s life are his riches: but the poor heareth not rebuke.

Pro 13:8 Comments – Note other translations for a better understanding:

Brenton, “A man’s own wealth is the ransom of his life: but the poor endures not threatening.”

Pro 13:8 reveals the good and bad aspects of being rich and of being poor. Although riches give one much comfort in life, it also attracts those who try to steal those riches. In contrast, a poor man may suffer without the comforts of life, but he does not bear the worry about losing his riches to thieves.

True wisdom evaluates every aspect of a situation. It is for this reason that wisdom sees the advantages and the disadvantages to being both rich and poor.

In the day of trouble, a man will give all of his riches in order to spare his own life. Illustrations:

1Ki 20:34, “And Benhadad said unto him, The cities, which my father took from thy father, I will restore; and thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. Then said Ahab, I will send thee away with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him, and sent him away.”

Jer 41:8, “But ten men were found among them that said unto Ishmael, Slay us not: for we have treasures in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey. So he forbare, and slew them not among their brethren.”

How common it is for very wealthy men to have their loved ones kidnapped just for the ransom. But a poor man does not have to worry about someone chasing after his riches. Rather, they are despised and overlooked. They are not given rebukes and threats upon their lives. Illustration:

2Ki 25:11-12, “Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away. But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen.”

Pro 13:9 The light of the righteous rejoiceth: but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.

Pro 13:10 Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.

Pro 13:10 Comments – Pro 13:10 shows the true cause of contention and strive, namely, “pride” (see Jas 3:16). A person who humbly receives instruction and reproof will walk in wisdom. But the person with a prideful heart will argue with instruction, thus producing strife. With employees, the proud ones will not take instruction well, but rather will resist with strife. The humble employee will receive instruction and will become a very wise person in a company.

Jas 3:16, “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.”

Pro 13:11 Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.

Pro 13:11 “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished” Comments – Within the context of the book of Proverbs, we learn that God leads us into prosperity after developing our spiritual, mental and physical well-being. This order of priority is found in chapter 3. Therefore, when wealth is gained without spiritual maturity and without the wisdom to manage it, a person makes bad decisions in managing it, and thus looses it.

It is the same foolish way of thinking that gave the person vain wealth that will cause this person to lose it. The Lord once said to me, “Faith brings a blessing, but wisdom manages that blessing.” In other words, the Lord may give us something, but if we lack wisdom, we can lose the blessing that He gave us.

Pro 13:13 Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.

Pro 13:13 Word Study on “destroyed” – Strong says the Hebrew word “destroyed” ( ) (H2254) means, “to wind tightly, to bind, especially by a pledge,” and figuratively, “to pervert, to destroy.” The Enhanced Strong says this word is used 29 times in the Old Testament, being translated in KJV as, it is translated, “ destroy 7, take a pledge 5, pledge 5, bands 2, brought forth 2, at all 1, corrupt 1, corruptly 1, offend 1, spoil 1, travaileth 1, very 1, withholden 1.”

Comments – These two shades of meaning are clearly seen in various translations. It can mean, “to repay”:

HNV, “ Whoever despises instruction will pay for it , But he who respects a command will be rewarded.”

Rotherham, “ He that despiseth a matter, shall get pledged thereto , but, he that revereth a commandment, the same shall be recompensed.”

Or, the word can mean, “to suffer”:

JPS, “Whoso despiseth the word shall suffer thereby ; but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.”

YLT, “Whoso is despising the Word is destroyed for it , And whoso is fearing the Command is repayed.”

Pro 13:13 Word Study on “ rewarded” – Strong says the Hebrew word “rewarded” ( ) (H7999) literally means, “to be safe,” and it figuratively means, “to be completed.” The Enhanced Strong says this word is used 116 times in the Old Testament, being translated in KJV as, “ pay 19, peace 11, recompense 11, reward 10, render 9, restore 8, repay 7, perform 7, good 6, end 4, requite 4, restitution 4, finished 3, again 3, amends 1, full 1, misc 8.”

Pro 13:13 Comments – The contrast in Pro 13:13 can be seen in the translation that says a man who despises God’s Word will have to pay for it, but one who fears the Word will be rewarded.

Pro 13:15 Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.

Pro 13:15 Word Study on “understanding” Gesenius says the Hebrew word “understanding” ( ) (H7922) means, “understanding, intelligence, prudence.” Strong says it means, “intelligence, success.” The Enhanced Strong says it is used 16 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as, “understanding 7, Wisdom 3, wise 1, prudence 1, knowledge 1, sense 1, discretion 1, policy 1.”

Strong says ( ) (H7922) comes from the primitive root ( ) (H7919), which means, “to be circumspect, and hence, intelligent.” The Enhanced Strong says it is used 63 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as, “understand 12, wise 12, prosper 8, wisely 6, understanding 5, consider 4, instruct 3, prudent 2, skill 2, teach 2, misc 7.”

Comments – The Hebrew noun ( ) (H7922) is a key word woven throughout in the book of Proverbs being used six times:

Pro 3:4, “So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.”

Pro 12:8, “A man shall be commended according to his wisdom : but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised.”

Pro 13:15, “Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.”

Pro 16:22, “ Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly.”

Pro 19:11, “ The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.”

Pro 23:9, “Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.”

This word refers to the ability of a man to think straight in contrast to the person who has a twisted mind.

Pro 13:20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

Pro 13:20 Illustration – One of the most life changing prayers that I ever prayed took place in the early 1990’s. I was working in the ministry of helps at my local church as an altar worker. I prayed that God would put me with a man of God in the church to strengthen me. I had been working for several years as a maintenance man at an apartment complex. In this type of occupation, many of the co-workers were uneducated and foolish sinners. In my grief of working in such an environment, I cried out to God for wise company.

Within a week after praying this prayer, I was asked to become the assistant to the man who was the minister over the altar workers. This gave me the opportunity for the next few years to rub shoulders with one of the greatest men of God in the church. As iron sharpens iron, this man sharpened my character for the better. As I walked with a wise man, I became wise.

I later prayed for God to put me with a man of God in my work. Soon, I received a promotion into the position as a supervisor. This gave me the opportunity to work closely with a man of God who was the CEO of the company. I spent the next four years learning principles of management that prepared me for the mission field. Walking with the wise had made me wise.

God is so willing to hear our prayer for wisdom.

Jas 1:5, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”

Pro 13:22 A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.

Pro 13:22 “and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just” Illustration – This wealth is given to us by God sometimes during the greatest trials in our lives.

Abraham took the spoil of the heathen when his nephew was taken captive in war:

Gen 14:16, “And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.”

The sons of Jacob took the spoil of Shalem, a city of Shechem, when their sister Dinah was defiled.

Gen 34:27-29, “The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city, because they had defiled their sister. They took their sheep, and their oxen, and their asses, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field, And all their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives took they captive, and spoiled even all that was in the house.”

The children of Israel spoiled the Egyptians when the land lay in ruins with death and destruction all around.

Exo 12:36, “And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.”

God gave the children of Israel the spoils of the land of Canaan. But this spoil came through the challenges of war.

Psa 105:44, “And gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labour of the people;”

David took the spoil of the Amalekites when they invaded Ziklag and took his wives and possessions.

1Sa 30:20, “And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David’s spoil.”

These examples show us that if we will live a righteous life before God, that He will cause what the enemy meant for bad to result in our prosperity. For it was in the greatest trial of Job’s life that his greatest prosperity came. Because Job remained righteous in the midst of a trial, God caused all of those around him to bring him to prosperity.

Job 42:11-12, “Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold. So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.”

Scripture References – Note similar verses:

Job 27:16, “Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay; He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver.”

Ecc 2:26, “For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.”

Pro 28:8, “He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.”

Pro 13:23 Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment.

Pro 13:23 Comments – Having lived in Africa, it became apparent to me that this is a continent that is rich in natural resources and potential wealth, but by injustice in corrupt leadership, this potential or prosperity has been swept away. Africa has resulted in remaining the poorest continent on earth as a result of this injustice.

Note other modern English translations:

BBE, “There is much food in the ploughed land of the poor; but it is taken away by wrongdoing.”

WebsterBible, “Much food [is in] the tillage of the poor: but there is [that is] destroyed for want of judgment.”

HNV, “An abundance of food is in poor people’s fields, But injustice sweeps it away.”

JPS, “Much food is in the tillage of the poor; but there is that is swept away by want of righteousness.”

Pro 13:24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

Pro 13:24 “He that spareth his rod hateth his son” – Comments – The greatest example of this is in the life of Eli, the high priest. Eli did not punish his sons for defiling the priesthood. Therefore, God cut off Eli and his two sons in judgment.

1Sa 2:29, “Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation; and honourest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people?”

1Sa 3:13, “For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.”

Pro 13:24 “ but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes” Word Study on “betimes” – Strong says the Hebrew word “betimes” ( ) (H7836) literally means, “to dawn,” and figuratively, “to be early at any task, to search for (with painstaking) ” The Enhanced Strong says this word is used 12 times in the Old Testament, being translated in KJV as, “ seek early 4, seek 2, diligently seek 2, betimes 1, misc 3.” It means, “to seek, seek early or earnestly, look early or diligently for, (Qal) to look for diligently, seek, (Piel) to seek, seek early.”

Comments – When a father loves his son, he is concerned about the well-being and future character of his son. Discipline is applied out of love. Therefore, he disciplines him “early”, or in the childhood when correction is most effective.

Pro 13:24 Comments – Pro 13:24 implies that a father’s love will give him the courage to discipline his son as often as it is needed. A loving father will not neglect this duty. This idea is in direct contrast to the word “spareth,” or “withholdeth.” The opposite of sparing the rod is diligently applying it.

Scripture References – Note similar verses:

Deu 8:5, “Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.”

Pro 3:12, “For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.”

Pro 19:18, “Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.”

Pro 22:15, “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.”

Pro 23:13-14, “Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.”

Pro 29:15, “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.”

Pro 29:17, “Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.”

Heb 12:7, “If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?”

Pro 13:25 The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul: but the belly of the wicked shall want.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Justification: Solomon’s First Collection of Proverbs (Antithetic Proverbs Wisdom verses Foolishness) – The proverbs contained in chapters 10 through 15 are located within Solomon’s First Collection of Proverbs. Almost all of these proverbs are similar in that they contrast the wise man with the fool, or good versus evil. [77] This means that in every decision we make in life, we either make a wise decision or a foolish one, a good one or a bad one. It will either bring us into a position of right standing with God, or separate us from God. There is no way to straddle the fence in making decisions. Thus, the primary theme of this passage in Pro 10:1 to Pro 15:33 is our justification before God. On our spiritual journey in life, we can most closely compare it to our justification through Jesus Christ our Lord. In other words, this group of proverbs provides a definition of true righteousness before God in the same way that the Sermon on the Mount expounds upon righteousness before God.
[77] Graeme Goldsworthy also suggests that the contrast of righteousness with wickedness is being emphasized in this section when he says, “ Proverbs 10 is a collection of sayings that mainly contrast wise and foolish behavior or, alternatively, righteous and wicked behavior. It would appear that these two pairs of opposites are synonymous. There is a cumulative effect to this chapter that works on the assumption of the character of God as the basis of assessing what is wise and righteous.” See Graeme Goldsworthy, Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture (Michigan: Eerdmans, 2000), 189.
Also woven within Pro 10:1 through Pro 15:33 we can see smaller groups of proverbs that have been collected together with similar themes. It is important to note that not all of the proverbs within a collection listed above are about the same theme. This is because each day that the Lord guides us, he gives us a variety of wisdom on our place. We do not receive a one-course meal, although we are going through a season of learning a lesson on a particular subject.
Within this passage we see four major topics, which are long life (Pro 10:27), riches (Pro 13:13), abundant life (Pro 14:26-27) and honor (Pro 15:33). Thus, we see a reference to the heart, soul, body and finances of man. These topics will later be summarized in Pro 22:4, as this learning phase of the journey comes to an end. Thus, the secondary theme of this passage of Pro 10:1 to Pro 15:33 is how wisdom and foolishness is reflected in the four-fold aspect of a man’s life.
Pro 22:4, “By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life.”
Also woven within Pro 10:2 through Pro 15:33 we can see smaller groups of proverbs that have been collected together with similar themes. These proverbs are groups by the same four-fold themes running throughout the book of Proverbs, which are the themes of the heart, of the tongue, of the labour of the body and of wealth. For example,
Pro 10:1-9 Let your heart guide you
Pro 10:10-32 The Tongue
Pro 10:27 to Pro 11:22 Long life
Pro 11:24-31 Wealth gained by sowing and reaping
Pro 12:1-12 The Righteous heart
Pro 12:13 to Pro 13:5 The Righteous tongue
Pro 12:24 to Pro 13:4 – Diligence
Pro 13:1-25 Wealth gained by a righteous heart, guarding the tongue and diligence in work
Pro 14:1-35 – The Mind – Understanding must guide our decisions
Pro 15:1-33 A Merry Heart
It is important to note that not all of the proverbs within a collection are about the same theme. For example, we will find a proverb about our mental, physical or financial wellbeing mingled within a group of verses that deals with our spiritual wellbeing. This is because each day that the Lord guides us, he gives us a variety of wisdom on our place. We do not receive a one-course meal, although we are going through a season of learning a lesson on a particular subject. Thus, wisdom offers us wine that is “mingled” as described in Pro 9:2.
Notes that these sections breaks are not distinct in that they overlap one another. This overlap represents the aspect of man’s spiritual journey in which God takes man through phases of learning that overlap.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Let your heart guide you Pro 10:1-9
2. The Tongue Pro 10:10-32
3. Long life Pro 10:27 to Pro 11:22
4. Wealth gained by sowing and reaping Pro 11:24-31
5. The Righteous heart Pro 12:1-12
6. The Righteous tongue Pro 12:13 to Pro 13:5
7. Diligence Pro 12:24 to Pro 13:4
8. Wealth by a right heart, guarded the tongue, & diligent work Pro 13:1-25
9. The Mind – Understanding must guide our decisions Pro 14:1-35
10. A Merry Heart Pro 15:1-33
Signposts – Woven within the themes of this passage are signposts that help us to identify these themes. On this part of the journey, we find four main signposts:
Pro 10:27, “ The fear of the LORD prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.”
Pro 13:13, “Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.”
Pro 14:27, “ The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.”
Pro 15:33, “ The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.”
These four signposts tell us that the fear of the Lord will give to us. Perhaps they refer to the four aspects of our wellbeing.
1. A long life (Pro 10:27) Our physical wellbeing
2. A reward (Pro 13:13) Our financial wellbeing
3. A fountain of life (Pro 14:27) Our spiritual wellbeing
4. Instruction and Honour (Pro 15:33) Our mental wellbeing
We know that we will receive these blessings if we follow the path of wisdom (see Pro 3:2).
Pro 3:2, “For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.”
We can see that a long life refers to the body, a reward refers to prosperity, a fountain of life refers to abundant life in our hearts, and instruction and honour reflects the character of a man, which is revealed in his mind, will and emotions. Thus, this passage of Scripture deals again with the spirit, soul, body and finances in our lives.
Pro 10:10-21 deals primarily with the tongue. Of the 12 verses in this passage, 8 deal directly with the words of our mouth. This is because our words set in motion the course of our lives.
First Signpost – Pro 10:24 to Pro 11:22 deals primarily with the theme of living a long life. Of these 33 verses, 18 of them deal directly with the issue of living a long life, or being cut off (see Pro 10:25; Pro 10:27-30; Pro 11:3-9; Pro 11:11; Pro 11:14-15; Pro 11:17; Pro 11:19; Pro 11:21). Thus, the signpost that summarizes the theme of this passage is found in Pro 10:27, which theme is to follow the path of wisdom, and we will live a long life on this earth. Note:
Pro 10:27, “The fear of the LORD prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.”
This signpost is planted within a passage of Scriptures that deals with the longevity of the righteous verses the brevity of the wicked (Pro 10:24 thru Pro 11:22). Thus, this verse promises long life to those who fear the Lord.
Pro 11:23-31 deals entirely with the issue of sowing and reaping. All nine verses clearly address this subject.
Second Signpost – A second signpost within this passage is found in Pro 13:13.
Pro 13:13, “Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.”
This signpost is placed within a group of verses (Pro 13:1-25) that deal largely with the issue of prosperity and financial blessings from the Lord. Thus, the signpost that summarizes the theme of this passage is found in Pro 13:13, which theme is to follow the path of wisdom, and we will be rewarded with prosperity from the Lord.
Third Signpost – In Pro 14:26-27, we see a signpost that refers to an abundant life. These two verses are placed within a group of proverbs that deal with the heart of a man.
Fourth Signpost – We see another signpost in Pro 15:33.
Pro 15:33, “ The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.”
Instruction and honor emphasize the mind of a man. This verse is found within a group of verses that place emphasis upon man’s mind. However, this closing verse also identifies the underlying theme of Pro 10:1 to Pro 15:33. Pro 15:33 says that the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom. In Pro 1:7; Pro 9:10, we were told that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This is because the first nine chapters are a preparation, or beginning, of the journey. But here in Pro 15:33, we are in a phase of the journey called “the instruction of wisdom”. We have been learning to identify the wise man and the fool under the instruction of these one-verse contrasts between these two people. Let me give a clear illustration. When my oldest daughter would sit on my lap, we would sometimes to Bible studies together. At the age of four, she began to ask me simple questions. “Daddy, is this person bad or good?” I would reply, “David was good, and Goliath was bad; the prophet Samuel was good, but King Saul was bad.” I would then explain, “Samuel was good because he obeyed God; Saul was bad because he tried to kill David.” This became my child’s first lesson about the wise man verses the fool. It is in this same pattern that God first teaches us how to identify the wise man and the fool as we journey through Pro 10:1 to Pro 15:33.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Justification: Solomon’s First Collection (375 Sayings) [75] – The first nine chapters of the book of Proverbs serve as an introductory call from wisdom. In this introduction, we are exhorted to hear wisdom’s cry (chapter 1), and we are told how to find wisdom by putting it first in our lives (chapter 2). We are told of the blessings of finding wisdom (chapter 3) in contrast to the dangers of hearkening unto the call of the wicked and the harlot. We are shown how wisdom transforms our lives by learning the three paths of wisdom for the heart, mind and body of man (chapter 4). This is contrasted with three paths of destruction (chapters 5-6). We are shown the characteristics of the wicked man and the adulterous woman (chapters 6-7). Then, we are shown the excellence of wisdom and its characteristics (chapter 8). In conclusion, we have an invitation from wisdom to take food for the journey, with a choice to eat the stolen bread of the adulteress (chapter 9). The better we are able to understand the introduction of Proverbs, the better we will be able to understand its teachings in the rest of the book.
[75] Sailhamer says that there are 375 proverbs in Solomon’s First Collection (10:1 to 22:16), which equals the numerical value of Solomon’s Hebrew name. In addition, he says there are 611 laws listed in the Pentateuch, which equals the numerical value of the Hebrew word “Torah” ( ). He adds that the laws listed in the “Covenant Codes” (Exodus 21:1-23:12) are 42 (7 x 6), which was in intentional multiple of seven. His point is that such numerical coincidences reflect deliberate composition by the ancient Jewish scribes, and concludes that the laws, as well as the statutes, were not intended to be exhaustive. See John H. Sailhamer, Introduction to Old Testament Theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, c1995), 257.
Once we have chosen the path of wisdom, we are ready to continue on in the book of Proverbs. The next section of this book Isa 10:1 thru Pro 22:16. This is referred to as Solomon’s First Collection. This section is characterized by the fact that each verse contains individual truths that stand alone. They are practical truths that form a couplet. In chapter 10, we are given the choice to answer wisdom’s call to follow her by either obeying her words, or by disobeying her words and becoming the fool.
We now leave our preparation, which is compared to leaving our home and our parents. We now take a path on the journey of life. However, a quick observation of the following chapters shows us a list of randomly collected proverbs, which have no apparent relationship to one another, unlike the first nine chapters. However, if we look carefully, we will see signposts along this path of life. The introduction of chapters 1-9 began and ended with signposts. These signposts are found in Pro 1:7; Pro 9:10.
Pro 1:7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
Pro 9:10, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.”
The fear of the Lord will be our signpost throughout the book of Proverbs. The first nine chapters are an introduction, or beginning, to this path of life. This is why these first two signposts use the phrase, “beginning of knowledge and wisdom.”
If there is a beginning, then there is a journey; and if a journey, then a destination. These signposts will take us to our destination, which is to become like our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus, or we could say to walk in the fullness of Christ. We will liken this journey to John Bunyan’s book Pilgrim’s Progress, where the character named Christian made his way to the Eternal City. [76] Just as Pilgrim’s Progress is an allegorical story of a person’s journey to Heaven, so is the book of Proverbs a proverbial journey to Heaven.
[76] George Offor, ed., The Works of John Bunyan, 3 vols. (Edinburgh: Blackie and Son, 1855).
Now, let us look for other signposts as we launch out on this journey in life. Note that the phrase “the fear of the Lord” is used throughout the book of Proverbs:
Pro 10:27, “ The fear of the LORD prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.”
Pro 13:13, “Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.”
Pro 14:2, “He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the LORD : but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him.”
Pro 14:16, “ A wise man feareth , and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.”
Pro 14:26, “In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge.”
Pro 14:27, “ The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.”
Pro 15:16, “Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith.”
Pro 15:33, “ The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.”
Pro 16:6, “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.”
Pro 19:23, “ The fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.”
Pro 22:4, “By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life.”
Pro 23:17, “Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.”
Pro 24:21, “My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change:”
Pro 28:14, “Happy is the man that feareth alway : but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.”
Pro 31:30, “Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD , she shall be praised.”
Each of these signposts has been planted within a group of proverbs that emphasizes the subject related to that particular signpost. For example, Pro 10:27 tells us that the fear of the Lord gives us a long life. This proverb has been placed within a group of verses that largely deal with a long life (Pro 10:24 to Pro 11:22). Thus, we can ask ourselves if we are walking in these blessings of long life, or in a life of problems. If our life is blessed in this way, we are on the journey. However, if we find problems in our life that are not in God’s plan for us, then we have strayed off the path.
Pro 13:13 tells us of the rewards of fearing the Lord. This proverb is placed within a group of verses that refer to prosperity. Thus, we must check our life to see if the blessing of prosperity is operating in our life.
Pro 22:4 reminds us of the many blessings of wisdom, which are given in chapter 3. Thus, we can know while we are on the journey if we are still on the path of wisdom. We know this because the blessings of wisdom will be seen in our lives. If we find the curses in our lives, then we know that we have erred from the path of wisdom. This is how these signposts keep us on the right path.
These signposts symbolize the way in which the Lord guides our lives; for it is by the fear of the Lord that we make the decision to follow the path of wisdom. Without this fear, we may know the right decision, but as Solomon, we would err from the journey by failing to adhere to wisdom.
On a daily basis God will give us enough light for our daily needs. This can be called our “daily bread” (Mat 6:11).
Mat 6:11, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
This daily bread gives us enough light to guide our short steps. But there are certain times when the Lord will intervene in our life and show us enough light to see farther down the path. When we face major decisions or changes in our life, God will often speak to us or reveal Himself to us in a supernatural way and show us the right path. During these times, we are able to look back and look ahead and see a bigger picture of God’s plan for our lives. This is the way that God guided Jacob on special occasions, and this is the way that I have experienced the Lord’s guidance during major changes in my life. We can see this two-fold method of guidance in Psa 119:105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” The book of Proverbs symbolizes these occasions by planting signposts along the journey.
There are also warning signs along this journey. These warning signs symbolize those times when God gives us correction and discipline in order to keep us from straying from the path of life. As on a public highway, we must learn to heed the warning signs that tell us of dangers ahead, as well as the information signs that tell us where we are located. These signposts are warnings that tell us not to seek the richest, not to pursue the honor, or to pamper the flesh. Instead, we are to pursue the virtues, and not the blessings that come from these virtues. Some examples of these warnings are:
Pro 11:28, “He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch.”
Pro 13:11, “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.”
Pro 18:12, “Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.”
Pro 23:5, “Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.”
Pro 29:23, “A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.”
Wisdom cries out in the busiest places in society. She cries out in the crowded streets. She lifts up her voice in the major places where people meet and in the gates of the city. This is because wisdom speaks through other people. It speaks through situations around you. Life itself becomes a classroom, and wisdom in the teacher. Thus, in the book of Proverbs, we are shown different types of people in order to learn divine wisdom. Listen, and you will hear.
Regarding the hundreds of individual proverbs that we encounter on this path, there appears to be no organized manner in which they are presented us. This is because in the journey of life, our encounters with the wise man and the fool appear to come in the same random order.
When we look at Pro 10:1 thru Pro 15:33, we see a similarity in all of these proverbs. They all give us a one-verse contrast between the wise man and the fool. This means that in every decision we make in life, we either make a wise decision, or a foolish one. There is no way to straddle the fence in making decisions. Then we see a signpost in Pro 15:33.
Pro 15:33, “ The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.”
This verse says that the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom. In Pro 1:7; Pro 9:10, we are told that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This is because the first nine chapters are a preparation, or beginning, of the journey. But here in Pro 15:33, we are in a phase of the journey called “the instruction of wisdom”. We have been learning to identify the wise man and the fool under the instruction of these one-verse contrasts between these two people. Let me give a clear illustration. When my oldest daughter would sit on my lap, we would sometimes to Bible studies together. At the age of four, she began to ask me simple questions. “Daddy, is this person bad or good.” I would reply, “David was good, and Goliath was bad. The prophet Samuel was good, but King Saul was bad.” I would then explain, “Samuel was good because he obeyed God. Saul was bad because he tried to kill David.” This became my child’s first lesson about the wise man verses the fool. It is in this same pattern that God first teaches us how to identify the wise man and the fool as we journey through Pro 10:1 to Pro 15:33.
There are other signposts within this lengthy passage of Pro 10:1 thru Pro 15:33. One signpost is found in Pro 10:27.
Pro 10:27, “The fear of the LORD prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.”
This signpost is planted within a passage of Scriptures that deals with the longevity of the righteous verses the brevity of the wicked (Pro 10:24 thru Pro 11:22). Thus, this verse promises long life to those who fear the Lord.
A second signpost within Pro 10:1 thru Pro 15:33 is found in Pro 13:13.
Pro 13:13, “Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.”
This signpost is placed within a group of verses (Pro 13:1-25) that deal largely with the issue of financial blessings from the Lord. Thus, it promises a reward to those who fear the Lord.
In Pro 14:26-27, we see a signpost that refers to an abundant life. These two verses are placed within a group of proverbs that deal with one’s understanding of circumstances around him.
JFB notes that the parallelisms of Pro 10:1 to Pro 15:33 are mostly antithetic, that is, sayings that contrast values in life. They contrast the wise man to the fool. However, the couplets in Pro 16:1 to Pro 22:16 are synthetic. That is, these synthetic sayings in Pro 16:1 to Pro 22:16 are different in that they are one-verse proverbs that explain one another. The second part of the couplet further explains and builds its thoughts upon the first part of the couplet.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Justification: Antithetic Proverbs Pro 10:1 to Pro 15:33
2. Indoctrination: Synthetic Proverbs Pro 16:1 to Pro 22:16
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Justification: The Journey to a Place of Rest ( Pro 10:1 to Pro 29:27 ) In Proverbs 10-29 we find a new emphasis regarding our spiritual journey in life. We have heard the call of wisdom in the first nine chapters. Now we have to make the choice to follow the path of wisdom, or the path of the fool. It is our decision to pursue wisdom that will justify us before God. Thus, the underlying theme of Proverbs 10-29 is our justification before God the Father, while the final chapter brings us to a place of rest, which is the destination for man’s spiritual journey in life.
Throughout Proverbs 10-29 we encounter hundreds of individual proverbs that appear to have no organized arrangement in which they are presented us. This is because in the journey of life, our encounters with the wise man and the fool appear to come in the same random order. However, God has placed all things in His divine order. When we read individual proverbs, they appear to be randomly assembled, but if we will step back and look at them as a whole or in groups, we can see an order. These proverbs are clearly grouped together by themes, such as a pure heart, the tongue, a long life, and wealth. In the same way, the circumstances that we face in our daily lives appear to have no particular order. We see very little of God’s hand in our lives in a single day, but when we step back and look as our lives over the months or years, we very clearly see God’s sovereign hand at working in our lives. We recognize that He is divinely orchestrating His purpose and plan for our lives. This is the way that the verses in the book of Proverbs are arranged.
We have seen that Proverbs 1-9, about one third of the book, is man’s call to follow the path of wisdom. Thus, about one third of the book of Proverbs is an introduction, or a preparation, for the rest of this book. Why is that so? We know that Solomon was chosen to be the successor to the throne at his birth. Therefore, he received many years of training under King David for this great task. Even today, we spent the first twenty years of our lives going to school and training for a profession, which is about one third of our lives. We spend the next two thirds of our lives building upon these twenty years of preparation. In our lives, we spend the first twenty years in preparation, the next twenty years sowing, and the last twenty years reaping what we have sown. This is why these years seem to be turning points in many people’s lives. This was the pattern in King Solomon’s life of preparation and growing in wisdom, and this is the pattern found in the book of Proverbs. It is important to note that a season of preparation is something that God has designed and instituted in the human life. He created every human being with the capacity to be shaped and molded through a training process. We often use the term “brainwashing” in a negative sense to refer to a person who has been programmed to think in a negative way; but proper training also reprograms the mind and prepares an individual for the tasks of life. Our human make-up of the spirit, soul, and body were designed to receive training before practical application and abundant living can be achieved.
Although we will study these proverbs, we will find ourselves falling short of fulfilling them in our everyday lives. None of us has walked flawlessly in obedience to any single proverb. Therefore, each individual proverb reveals God’s standard of righteousness, pointing us to Jesus, who alone fulfilled this divine standard in our behalf. In this sense, this collection of proverbs is a collection of redemptive proverbs, revealing our need for a Redeemer, who alone fulfilled every proverb.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Justification: Solomon’s First Collection Pro 10:1 to Pro 22:16
2. Divine Service: Sayings of the Wise Pro 22:17 to Pro 24:34
3. Perseverance: Solomon’s Second Collection by Hezekiah Pro 25:1 to Pro 29:27
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Physical Body of Man: Diligence This section places emphasis upon man’s physical body. The heart of man has been emphasized in Pro 12:1-12 and the mind has been emphasized in Pro 12:13 to Pro 13:5. We have passed a similar group of proverbs that placed emphasis upon man’s physical body in Pro 10:27 to Pro 11:22. However, these verses focused upon a long life. The proverbs found in Pro 12:24 to Pro 13:4 will focus upon diligence.
Pro 12:24 The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute.
Pro 12:24 “The hand of the diligent shall bear rule” Illustration – Presidents and leaders of countries are generally found to be hard-working men. The diligent man meets success in life.
Pro 12:24 “but the slothful shall be under tribute” Comments – The slothful man never has or keeps success in his life, but rather, he is a servant and in debt to those around him.
Pro 12:26 The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour: but the way of the wicked seduceth them.
Pro 12:26 “but the way of the wicked seduceth them” Comments – The NKJV reads, “For the way of the wicked leads them astray.” Note 1Co 15:33, “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.”
Pro 12:27 The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting: but the substance of a diligent man is precious.
Pro 12:27 “The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting” Illustration – While hunting in the woods as a child with my brothers and father, we have come across game animals that have been shot and left to rot on the ground. There is a saying among hunters not to ever kill what you can or will not eat, or do not kill animals for waste. The sluggard is too lazy to dress and roast the game which he has enjoyed hunting. He is also a poor steward of the things God gives him.
Pro 12:27 “but the substance of a diligent man is precious” Comments – He is a good steward of the things that God gives him. He takes care of material things and is gracious to God for them. He sees that the things that God has given to him are precious. In addition, the peers of a diligent man perceive that his goods are precious. For example, I was in the office of a travel agent today in order to purchase tickets for a trip (May 31, 2004). I was referred to use a particular person in a particular travel agency in town. When my wife and I arrived at their office, we immediately recognized one very busy and organized and well dressed individual. We immediately knew that this was the person that was recommended to us as a good travel agent to work with. All other employees in the office looked to him for advice. Even the boss walked in and proudly walked by him. This is because everyone in the office perceived that this man’s time, counsel and work was the most important in the office. Not only did this diligent man value his time and use it wisely, but all of his co-workers and his boss perceived the same value in his work.
Pro 12:27 Practical Application Pro 12:27 speaks of stewardship. God does not always give to us everything that we want immediately. We must labor and be found faithful before God will entrust us with His blessings and riches (note how Paul talks about this faithfulness in 1Ti 1:12). Otherwise, something easily gained is often despised. For example, I spent many years working and repairing homes and apartments. My tools became very precious to me. I had worked hard to purchase each one of them. I have seen teenagers who were given new cars and possessions by their wealthy parents just to have them wrecked and damages by undisciplined and slothful behaviour.
1Ti 1:12, “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;”
God is a good steward of His blessings and He gives them to us as we work to be faithful with what He has already given to us.
Spiritual Application – After having watched Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ (released 2004) today for the first time, I was overwhelmed, as were all who have seen this drama of Jesus’ suffering and death, of the pain He suffered at the hands of cruel men. How much does He now have compassion upon us when we are tempted into sin. He understands every ounce of emotions and temptation that we endure. He is willing to have compassion upon us when we fall and stumble for the price He paid through His suffering was incredible. The amount of effort and sacrifice He endured to purchase us as His possession will take eternity to be fully told to us. Remember in Pro 12:27 how we are told that to a diligent man his substance is precious. He was diligent to purchase us through His shed blood, so how much more precious we are to Him as His purchased possession.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

v. 1. A wise son heareth his father’s instruction, is the object and product of his father’ s corrective training; but a scorner heareth not rebuke, no matter how earnestly he is reproved, it makes no impression upon him.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION
Verse 13:1-15:19
Second section in this collection.
Pro 13:1
A wise son heareth his father’s instruction. The Authorized Version introduces the verb from the second member. The Hebrew is elliptical, “A wise son, his father’s discipline,” i.e. is the object or the result of his father’s education; he owes his wisdom to it. Septuagint, “A clever () son is obedient to his father.” But a scorner (Pro 1:22) heareth not rebuke; one who mocks at goodness and despises filial piety will not listen to reproof. Septuagint, “A disobedient son is in destruction.” Compare the case of Eli’s sons, and their fate (1Sa 2:25; 1Sa 4:17).
Pro 13:2
A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth (Pro 12:14; Pro 18:20). By his kindly speech and wise counsels he shall gain the good will of his neighbours and the blessing of God. Schultens observes that the word rendered “good” (tob) means what is pleasant to taste and smell, while that translated “violence” (chamas) signifies literally what is crude and unripe. The soul of the transgressors shall eat violence (Pro 1:31). The Authorized Version introduces the verb from the first clause unnecessarily. The meaning of this rendering is that sinners, especially the treacherous, bring on themselves retribution; the injuries which they devise against others recoil on their own heads (Pro 10:6). The Hebrew is, “The soul (i.e. the desire, or delight) of the perfidious (is) violence.” Such men have only one thing at heart, viz. to wrong their neighbour, and to increase their own property by any, even nefarious, precedings. Septuagint, “Of the fruits of righteousness the good man shall eat; but the lives of transgressors shall perish untimely.”
Pro 13:3
He that keepeth (guardeth) his mouth keepeth his life (Pro 18:21; Pro 21:23; comp. Psa 39:1; Jas 1:26). Thus the gnome
.
“The tongue hath many to destruction led.”
And Ecclesiasticus 28:25, “Weigh thy words in a balance, and make a door and bar for thy mouth. Beware thou slide not by it, lest thou fall before him that lieth in wait.” But he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction (Pro 10:14). The Vulgate paraphrases, “He who is inconsiderate in speech shall experience evils;” Septuagint, “will terrify himself”will occasion to himself many terrible alarms and inflictions. Hence the psalmist prays, “Set a watch, O Lord, before my month; keep the door of my lips.” So we have in the Danish, “A silent man’s words are not brought into court;” and in the Spanish, “Let not the tongue say what the head shall pay for;” while the Italians tell us, “The sheep that bleats is strangled by the wolf:” and “Silence was never written down” (Kelly). (See on Pro 18:6; Pro 20:19.)
Pro 13:4
(Comp. Pro 10:4.) The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing; literally, and nothing is therehe gains nothing (Pro 14:6; Pro 20:4). He has the wish, but not the will, and the empty wish without corresponding exertion is useless (Pro 21:25, etc.). Vulgate, “The indolent wishers, and wishes not;” he wishes for something, but he wishes not for the labour of getting it; he would like the result, but he hates the process by which the result is to be obtained. Septuagint, “In desires every idle man is occupied;” his mind is fixed wholly on aimless wishes, not on action. Shall be made fat (Pro 11:25); Septuagint, “The hands of the valiant are fully occupied ( ).”
Pro 13:5
Lying; Vulgate, verbum mendax; Septuagint, ; literally, a word of falsehood. But debar, “word,” is used, like in Hellenistic Greek, in a general sense for “thing,” i.e. the subject of speech. So here it is not only verbal lying that is meant, but every kind of deceit and guile. This naturally betrays itself by the speech, according to the proverb, “Show me a liar, and I will show you a thief.” A wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame. The clause is variously translated. Vulgate, confundit et confundetur, “causes shame to others and to himself.” Septuagint, “is put to shame, and shall not have licence of tongue ().” The Revised Version margin, “causeth shame and bringeth reproach.” Delitzsch, “brings into bad odour (Gen 34:30) and causes shame.” Hitzig, “behaveth injuriously and shamefully.” The antithesis is best brought out by the rendering that marks the effect of the wicked man’s “lying;” “He brings disgrace upon others (who have trusted him or have been associated with him) and causes shame.”
Pro 13:6
Righteousness keepeth (guardeth) him that is upright in the way; literally, uprightness of way, abstract for concrete, as in the second member, sin for sinner. Those who are good and innocent in the walk of life are preserved from evil, moral and material. Wickedness overthroweth the sinner; literally, sin “Overthroweth,” makes to slip. Vulgate, supplantet. The LXX. inverts the clause, “Sin makes the impious worthless ()” (see Pro 11:3, Pro 11:5, Pro 11:6). The verse is omitted in many Greek manuscripts.
Pro 13:7
There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing. “Maketh” may mean “feigns.” There are some who pretend to be rich while really they are poor (as Pro 12:9), and there are some who make themselves, i.e. pretend to be poor (as misers) while they have much wealth. The Vulgate elucidates this meaning by rendering, quasi dives and quasi pauper; and the Hebrew verbs confirm its correctness. The proverb in both members teaches one not to trust to appearances. Septuagint, “There are who enrich themselves, having nothing; and there are who humble themselves amid much wealth.” It is obvious that such a version lends itself to a Christian interpretation. The first clause reminds one of the rich fool who laid up treasure for himself, and was not rich toward God (Luk 12:21; comp. Rev 3:17, Rev 3:18). The second clause teaches that wealth expended in God’s service makes a man rich in the treasury of heaven (Luk 12:21, Luk 12:33). One who thus uses the means entrusted to him could be spoken of like St. Paul, “as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” (2Co 6:10).
Pro 13:8
The ransom of a man’s life are his riches. A rich man can save himself from many difficulties and dangers by the sacrifice of a portion of his wealth, e.g. when his money or his life is demanded by a robber; when men in authority make extortionate demands on pain of death; or when he has incurred extreme penalty by infringement of law (Exo 21:22, Exo 21:30). Spiritually discerned, the passage recalls Christ’s injunction, “Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles” (Luk 16:9). The poor heareth not rebuke; has not to listen to (Job 3:18) threats from the covetous or abuse from the envious. He has nothing to lose, and no one can gain anything by interfering with him. So the poor man is at peace. “A hundred men cannot rob one pauper.”
“Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator.”
Pro 13:9
The light of the righteous rejoiceth; laetificat, Vulgate. But the verb is intransitive, and means “burn joyfully,” bright and clear, as the sun rejoices as a strong man to run a race (Psa 19:5). This light (or) is the grace and virtue which adorn the good man’s life, and which beam through all his actions with a cheerful, kindly radiance (comp. Pro 4:18, Pro 4:19). This is a true light, kindled in his heart by God, different from the lamp (ner) of the wicked, which is devised and lighted by themselves, and has no element of permanence, but soon shall be put out (Pro 24:20; comp. Pro 20:20; Job 18:5; Joh 1:8; Joh 5:35, where the distinction between “light” and “lamp” is maintained). The lamp of the wicked is the false show of wisdom or piety, which may glimmer and deceive for a time, but is ere long detected and brought to naught. There may be here an allusion to a common custom in the East. “No house, however poor,” says Dr. Geikie (‘Holy Land,’ 1.117), “is left without a light burning in it all night; the housewife rising betimes to secure its continuance by replenishing the lamp with oil. If a lamp goes out, it is a fatal omen”. Septuagint, “The light of the righteous is everlasting; but the light of sinners is quenched.” Then is introduced a couplet not found in the Hebrew, of which the latter part is borrowed from Psa 37:21 or Psa 112:5, “Crafty souls go astray in sins; righteous men show mercy and pity.” The Vulgate inserts this paragraph after verse 13.
Pro 13:10
Only by pride cometh contention. Some render “surely” (raq) for only, as in Gen 20:11. Others rightly translate, “By pride cometh only, nothing but, contention.” Vulgate, “Between the proud disputes are always rife.” One who is haughty and overbearing, or who is too conceited to receive advice, is sure to quarrel with others. Septuagint, “An evil man with insult doeth evil.” With the well advised is wisdom; those who are not, like the proud, above taking advice and following it, are wise (Pro 11:2; Pro 12:15). As the Vulgate puts it, “They who do all things with counsel are directed by wisdom.” The LXX; reading differently, has, “They who know themselves are wise,” which implies that the wise know their own weakness and imperfection, and hearken humbly to good counsel
Pro 13:11
Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished; literally, wealth by a breath; i.e. wealth obtained without labour and exertion, or by illegitimate and dishonest means, is soon dissipated, is not blessed by God, and has no stability. Vulgate, “riches acquired hastily;” Septuagint, “substance gotten hastily with iniquity.” This makes the antithesis more marked, the contrast being between wealth gotten hastily and that acquired by diligent labour. Cito nata, cito pereunt, “Quickly won, quickly gone” (see on Pro 20:21; Pro 21:5). Says the Greek maxim
“Haste not for wealth, lest thou be quickly poor.”
He that gathereth by labour; literally, with the hand, handful after handful. Vulgate, paulatim, “little by little,” by patient industry. Labor improbus omnia vincit. Septuagint, “He that gathereth for himself with piety shall be increased.” Then is added, “A good man is merciful and lendeth,” from Psa 37:26. The Septuagint here uses the term , which is received in St. Paul’s pastoral Epistles and St. Peter’s, taking the place of the earlier phrase, ,
Pro 13:12
Hope deferred maketh the heart sick. Delay in the accomplishment of some much-desired good occasions sinking of the spirits, languor, and despondence. Many refer this sentence to the impatient longing for heaven which holy men feel, such as we may read in ‘De Imitatione,’ 3.48, 49, and in the hymns, “For thee, O dear, dear country;” and “We’ve no abiding city,” etc. And St. Paul can exclaim (Rom 7:24), “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (comp. Rom 8:23; Php 1:23). Septuagint, “Better is he who taketh in hand to aid with all his heart, than he who promises and raises hopes” (comp. Jas 2:15, Jas 2:16). When the desire comethwhen the object of the longing is obtainedit is a tree of life (Pro 11:30); there are then no longer languor and despondence, but strength and refreshment and vigorous action. Septuagint, “A good desire is a tree of life.”
Pro 13:13
Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed. “The word” is either the commandment of God (Deu 30:14), or warning and instruction. He who despises and neglects this word “brings on himself destruction.” Many good authorities take the latter verb in another sense, “is pledged by it;” as Revised Version in margin, “maketh himself a debtor thereto,” i.e. is still bound to fulfil his obligations to it; he cannot escape duty by ignoring or despising it, but is pledged to do it, and will suffer for its neglect. Hence Christ’s injunction to agree with our adversary quickly while we are in the way with him (Mat 5:25). Vulgate, “He who disparages (detrahit) anything binds himself for the future.” Septuagint, “He who despises a thing (, , ‘a command’) shall be despised by it.” Virtus se contemnentem contemnit. He that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded (Pro 11:31). The Vulgate rendering, “shall live in peace,” and that of the Septuagint, “shall be healthful,” are not so suitable. The “fearing the commandment” implies obedience to it; and reward is considered as fully pledged to obedience as punishment is to neglect. The Septuagint here adds a distich which Ewald regards as genuine, “Unto a crafty son there shall be nothing good; but to a wise servant all actions shall prosper, and his way shall be guided aright.” This is also found in the Vulgate of Pro 14:15. The Vulgate here inserts the paragraph found in the Septuagint at Pro 14:9 (q.v.), Animae dolosae errant in peccatis; justi autem misericordes sunt et miserantur.
Pro 13:14
The law (instruction) of the wise is a fountain of life (Pro 10:11), which has and imparts life (Ec Pro 21:13; Psa 36:9). The rules and teaching of wise men are a source of life to those who follow them, so that they depart from the snares of death (Pro 14:27). Obedience to good teaching saves from many dangers, material and spiritual, especially from the snare of the devil (2Ti 2:26). With “snares of death” we may compare Psa 18:5 and Horace’s (‘Carm.,’ 3.24. 8)
“Non mortis laqueis expedies caput.”
Septuagint, “The fool shall perish by the snare.”
Pro 13:15
Good understanding giveth favour (Pro 3:4); makes one acceptable to God and man. We are told of Christ that “he increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luk 2:52). As a good and wise man uses his gifts and graces properly, he wins higher favour from God, and kindles the love and respect of his fellow men. Alter this clause the Septuagint introduces that which occurs also in Pro 9:10, “It belongs to a good understanding () to know the Law.” The way of transgressors is hard; rough and rugged, leading to desolation, not to waters of comfort. Ec Pro 21:10, “The way of sinners is made plain with stones, but at the end thereof is the pit of hell.” Vulgate, “In the way of scorners is an abyss;” Septuagint, “The ways of scorners end in destruction.”
Pro 13:16
Every prudent man dealeth (worketh, acteth) with knowledge; i.e. with thought and deliberation, having previously well considered the bearings and issues of his plans. But a fool layeth open his folly; Revised Version, spreadeth out folly, as if exposing the wares of his shop (Pro 12:23; Pro 15:2). One works; the other talks.
Pro 13:17
A wicked messenger falleth into mischief; misfortune, calamity (Pro 17:20). A messenger who is false to his employer shall be detected and punished. The LXX; reading melek for malak, renders, “A rash king shall fall into evils.” Such a one adopts inconsiderate measures, makes war unadvisedly, etc. A faithful ambassador (literally, an ambassador of faithfulness, Pro 25:13) is health. One who faithfully performs his errand is a source of comfort and satisfaction both to his employer and to those to whom he is sent. Septuagint, “But a wise messenger shall deliver him”the king.
Pro 13:18
Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction; correction, discipline. Nowack takes the two nouns as predicates: “He that refuseth discipline is poverty and shame,” i.e. they are his lot. Such a one indulges his own lusts and passions, is headstrong in pursuing his own plans, and thus dissipates his fortune and acquires the contempt of all good men. Septuagint, “Discipline taketh away poverty and disgrace.” He that regardeth reproof shall be honoured. To listen to rebuke and to profit thereby is a proof of humility and self-knowledge, which wins respect from others. Lesetre refers to Theodosius’s submission to the sentence imposed upon him by St. Ambrose as a real honour and glory to him (comp. Pro 12:1; Pro 15:5, Pro 15:32).
Pro 13:19
The desire accomplished (comp. Pro 13:12). This is usually taken to mean the desire of what is good and honest, when it is fulfilled and realized, is a source of highest joy and comfort to the wise. Septuagint, “The desires of the pious are sweet to the soul.” But it is abomination to fools to depart from evil. The antithesis is not very obvious, but it may be: it is sweet to a good man to obtain his wish; but for a wicked man to leave, to abandon evil to which he clings so fondly, is a detestable alternative. Or the latter clause may mean that the wicked will not give up the evil which makes the satisfaction of their desire impossible. But it is best to take the first clause as a general statement, viz. the satisfaction of desire is pleasant to all men; then the latter member gives a special case and will signify, “For the sake of this pleasure bad men will not give up their evil wishes and plans; they will pursue what they have set their heart upon because they hate the idea of foregoing their evil designs.” Septuagint, “The deeds of sinners are far from knowledge,” i.e. from practical wisdom, prudence, and piety. The Vulgate introduces quite another thought, “Fools abhor those who flee from evil.” Compare the passage in Wis. 2, concerning the sinner’s hatred of the good.
Pro 13:20
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; or, according to the Khetib, walk with wise men, and thou shall be wise. Ecc 6:1-12 :36, “If thou seest a man of understanding, get thee betimes unto him, and let thy foot wear the steps of his door.” So the Greek maxim
.
“With wise conversing thou wilt wise become.”
and Eurip; ‘ Rhesus,’ 206
“A man that’s wise will thee true wisdom teach.”
A companion of fools shall be destroyed; literally, shall be broken, shall suffer moral ruin; Revised Version margin, “shall smart for it.” But the antithesis is not well brought out by this rendering: and as the word may bear the sense of “doing ill” as well as of “suffering ill,” the interpretation of the Vulgat. intimates the correct idea of the clause: “The friend of fools shall turn out the same;” “He who associates with fools shall do evil.” Septuagint, “He who roams about with fools shall be known.” “Tell me your companions, and I will tell you what you are.”
“Talis quis esse putatur qualis ei est sodalitas.”
A Dutch proverb says, “He that lives with cripples learns to limp;” and the Spanish, “He that goes with wolves learns to howl.” We have a homely English proverb, “He that lies down with dogs shall rise up with fleas;” so the Orientals say,” He that takes the raven for his guide shall light upon carrion.”
Pro 13:21
Evil pursueth sinners. Sinners suffer not only the natural consequences of crime in external evil, injury to body, estate, reputation, etc. (Psa 11:6), but also stings of conscience and remorse; even seeming prosperity is often a chastisement, and long impunity is only augmenting the coming retribution. As the shadow attends the substance, so guilt is attached to sin, and brings with it punishment. To the righteous good shall be repaid; or, he, Jehovah, shall repay good (comp. Pro 12:14); Revised Version, “The righteous shall be recompensed with good.” They shall have the answer of a good conscience, happiness here and hereafter. Septuagint, “Good shall take possession of (or, overtake) the righteous.”
Pro 13:22
A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children. This would be especially notable where a system of temporal rewards and punishments was expected and generally experienced. The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. Property unjustly acquired, or wickedly used, is taken from those who have it, and ultimately finds its way into better hands. They cannot keep it, and consequently cannot leave it to their children.
“De male quaesitis non gaudet tertius haeres.”
“Ill-gotten wealth no third descendant holds.”
This has often been the fate of property obtained by the sacrilegious seizure of what was dedicated to God’s service. For the general view of the clause, comp. Pro 28:8; Job 27:16, Job 27:17; Ecc 2:26; and the case of Jacob (Gen 31:9), and the Israelites (Exo 12:35, Exo 12:36), when “the righteous spoiled the ungodly” (Wis. 10:20).
Pro 13:23
Much food is in the tillage (tilled ground) of the poor (Pro 12:11). The word rendered “tillage” (nir) means ground worked for the first time, and therefore that on which much labour is bestowed. Hence the Vulgate rightly renders, novalibus. It occurs in Jer 4:3 and Hos 10:12, where our version has “fallow ground.” The poor, but righteous man, who industriously cultivates his little plot of ground, secures a good return, and is happy in eating the labour of his hands (Psa 128:2). Intend of “the poor,” the Vulgate has, “the fathers,” taking in this sense; so that the meaning would be that children who properly cultivate their paternal or hereditary fields obtain good crops. But the Authorized Version rendering is doubtless preferable. There is that is destroyed for want of judgment; rather, as the Revised Version, by reason of injustice. Rich men are often brought to ruin by their disregard of right and justice (mishpat). Some (poor men) are amply supplied by honest labour; others (rich) lose all by wrong dealing. Vulgate, “For others it (food) is gathered contrary to justice;” Septuagint, quite astray, The righteous shall pass many years in wealth; but the unrighteous shall suddenly perish”which seems to be an explanation or amplification of verse 22.
Pro 13:24
He that spareth his rod hateth his son. Correction of children is a great point with our author (see Pro 19:18; Pro 22:15; Pro 23:13, etc.; Pro 29:15, Pro 29:17). So Ecclesiasticus 30:1, “He that loveth his son causeth him oft to feel the rod, that he may have joy of him in the end.” Dukes, “Gold must be beaten, and a boy needs blows” (‘Rabbin. Blumenlese,’ 71). Chasteneth him betimes; literally, early in the morning (Pro 1:28; Pro 8:17), which may mean, in the morning of life, ere evil habits have time to grow, or directly after the offence. Or the expression may signify “diligently.” Vulgate, instanter; Septuagint, .
Pro 13:25
The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul (comp. Pro 10:3; Psa 34:10). The good man has always enough to satisfy his wants, because he is temperate, and his substance has the blessing of God. “The chief thing for life,” says Siracides (Ec Pro 29:21), “is water, and bread, and clothing, and a house to cover shame.” The belly of the wicked shall want. The wicked are punished by penury and desires never satisfied. These different results are providentially ordered.
HOMILETICS
Pro 13:1
A wise son.
The young man who considers himself to be exceptionally clever is tempted to idolize his own notions and despise parental correction. We are reminded that such conduct may be a grievous mistake and a proof of essential folly, and that true wisdom will follow a more humble course of filial duty. It is not merely obligatory on the son to submit to his father; it is for his own interest to follow paternal advice, and a mark of wisdom. Of course, this is taken as a general principle. A conscientious son may be cursed with a base-minded parent, whose directions it will be anything but wise to follow. By manly intelligence and with Christian liberty, general maxims can only be applied in view of suitable circumstances. We may take it that on the whole, when the relationship is normal, wisdom will prompt submission to paternal correction.
I. NO ONE CAN TRULY ESTIMATE HIS OWN CONDUCT. We cannot stand off from ourselves and view ourselves in perspective. We make the most egregious mistakes in judging ourselves, because we cannot see ourselves as others see us. The object is also the subject, and subjective feelings colour our objective perceptions of self. It is therefore a great security for a young man to have a guide apart from himself whom he can trust, as he can trust a father.
II. A FATHER CORRECTS IN LOVE. There are brutal parents, whose chastisement implies anything but sound correction. But the true father considers the highest interests of his son. If he expresses disapproval it is because he believes some material wrong has been done. His rebuke is for wholesome improvement.
III. A FATHER HAS LARGER EXPERIENCE THAN HIS SON. His age gives him the advantage of fuller knowledge and riper judgment. It mar also bring a certain stiffening of notions and aversion to innovation. But even then it may still be keen to detect real errors and right in warning against them.
IV. A FATHER HAS AUTHORITY OVER HIS SON. This was recognized longer in former times than in the present day, when many sons are over-anxious to emancipate themselves from parental control. Now, there is a certain wisdom in submitting to established authority. Rebellion can only be justified by extreme wrong. Where no plain cause for rebellion exists, it is wise as well as right to submit.
V. THE PARENTAL RELATION ON EARTH IS TYPICAL OF THE RELATION BETWEEN GOD AND HIS PEOPLE. All the arguments which point to the wisdom of a son’s submitting to correction from an earthly parent apply with immensely greater force to man’s position before God. God regards us with love; he knows everything; he has a right and power to direct and correct us. Whatever modern notions of domestic revolts may be entertained by any of us, it still remains clear that it is wise to bow before the correction of God, our great and good Father.
Pro 13:10
Pride and contention
I. THE REASONS WHY PRIDE PRODUCES CONTENTION.
1. It is self-assertive. The proud man claims a large and prominent place for himself. He will not endure a secondary position. He demands his fights not so much because he really wishes to enjoy them, as because they are his rights. He will not forego them even when he gains no advantage by the exercise of them. Now, this self-assertiveness threatens the supposed rights of others where the boundary line is as yet uncertain. It also provokes a similar spirit in a man’s neighbours.
2. It is exacting. Pride claims its dues. The proud lord will have every ounce of respect from his underlings. Even those who are met on equal terms are narrowly scrutinized to see if they withhold a shadow of the supposed rights from the jealousy of pride.
3. It is overbearing, It will not endure opposition; it is intolerant of differences of opinion; it would rather trespass on the rights of others than surrender any of its own claims. Thus it is perpetually challenging all who cross its path.
II. THE REGIONS IN WHICH PRIDE PRODUCES CONTENTION,
1. Among nations. It was thought that war sprang from the pride and jealousy of monarchs, and that when the people gained power war would cease. But republics declare war. There is a dangerous form of national pride. It is possible for a whole people to be carried away by unreasoning elation, and to make inordinate claims for itself, or to be unduly sensitive to affront.
2. In society. Pride is here one of the chief dangers to the order and peace of cities. The poor would endure the sight of the prosperity of the rich if they were not goaded by the more irritating spectacle of insulting pride. The least that they can do who have more than their share of the good things of life is to hold them with quiet humility. To flaunt their superiority of good fortune in the face of their miserable fellow citizens, and to make it a ground for scorn and contempt, is to rouse the latent rage of men who are already chafing under whatwhether rightly or wronglythey regard as a grossly unjust social order.
3. In private life. Pride is the most direful source of family quarrels. It separates the best friends, and it sets up the most invincible barriers against a speedy reconciliation. When love would hold out the hand of forgiveness, pride hangs back in gloomy resentfulness.
III. THE WAY TO PREVENT PRIDE FROM PRODUCING CONTENTION. There is but one way; pride must be humiliated and cast out. This monster sin is directly aimed at in the preaching of the gospel of the cross. It is found lurking in the breasts of men who are regarded as saints; but it is no part of their saintliness. It is still a sin in the sight of God. Christ cannot endure it, and one who would follow Christ must forsake it. There is no better way. of destroying it than by submission to the yoke of him who was “meek and lowly.”
Pro 13:11
Fraudulent gain
I. THE DELUSIVE APPEARANCE OF FRAUDULENT GAIN. This looks very different from coarse, vulgar robbery. The sleek swindler owns no common brotherhood with the brutal burglar. Fraudulent gain is got in the way of business; it is not at all like the money directly stolen from a man’s pocket. The process is so very roundabout that it is difficult to trace the transition from fair dealing to cheating. The decorous thief would be horrified at hearing his true name. He knows his actions are not quite straightforward, but the crookedness of them is almost hidden from himself by neat contrivances. Now, all this makes the pursuit of fraudulent gain the more treacherous and dangerous. A man who follows such a course is lost before he owns himself to be dishonest.
II. THE TEMPTATIONS TO MAKE FRAUDULENT GAIN. They spring from various sources.
1. Keen competition. It is so hard to make a living in the fierce contest of business life, when every rival is treated as an enemy, that any extra advantage is eagerly sought after.
2. Large promises. As the margin of profits shrink while the requirements of energy and alertness grow, any expedient that promises more speedy and remunerative returns is likely to present a fascinating appearance.
3. Compromising customs. Business is not always conducted on perfectly honest grounds, and the dishonesty that is prevalent claims to be sanctioned by usage. Moreover, if some departure from absolute fight is permitted, a greater degree of dishonesty is but another step in the same direction.
4. Hopes of secrecy. The man of business cannot afford to lose his good name, and therefore plain self interest holds him back from open theft. But the subtle pursuit of a more refined form of dishonesty appears to be possible without any less of character. Thus as the pressure of the opinion of society is eluded, the only conscience which some men recognize ceases to operate.
III. THE RUINOUS RESULTS OF MAKING FRAUDULENT GAIN.
1. It is a great sin. The delusive appearance of the pursuit blinds people to its true character. But theft cannot be made honest by becoming refined. All the laws of righteousness bristle up in front of the man who pursues dishonesty, and threaten his ruin. Even though social and civil retribution be evaded, there is a higher court of justice than any of man’s jurisdiction, and before its awful bar the wealthy, respected thief must ultimately stand condemned.
2. It is likely to lead to earthly ruin. The man whose life is one huge lie lives in a frail shell, which may be broken at any moment to expose him to pitiless punishments. Then what has he to fall back upon? He who has laid up treasures in heaven can afford to lose his poor, earthly stores; but one who has sold his prospects of heaven for brief earthly profits loses all when the gains of this life are snatched from him. The way of peace and safety can never be any other than the way of right.
Pro 13:12
Hope deferred
I. THE HOPE THAT IS DEFERRED. Most men who live to any purpose live by hope. It is scarcely possible to press forward with energy to a future that is wholly dark. The prospect of some future good is a present inspiration. Thus hope takes a large place in the heart of man. Note some of its forms.
1. The hope of youth. It is natural for youth to believe in the future, to treat its possibilities as certainties, and to colour its grey outline with the gorgeous hues of a fresh imagination.
2. The hope of this world. Pursuits of business or pleasure allure those who enter them with good promises.
3. The hope of heaven. They who have been disappointed in all earthly anticipations may cherish this glorious dream.
4. The hope that is unselfish. Hope need not be centred in personal pleasure. We may hope for a great cause, and hope to see some good effected, though by the sacrifice of ourselves.
5. The hope that is in God. A sorrowful soul may hope in God with no distinct visions of any possible future advantage, making God himself the Hope. “Christ our Hope.”
II. HOW THE HOPE IS DEFERRED.
1. By disillusion. From the first the hope may be too sanguine. The mirage is mistaken for the oasis. Or perhaps distance is misjudged. We think that we are near to the future that still lies in the remote distance with leagues of desert between us and it. Experience must dispel such an illusion.
2. By direct disappointment. The well founded hope may be deferred by a change of circumstances, or failure of ability to accomplish it, unfaithfulness to a promise, etc. Thus in life the expected “good time coming” is continually receding as men approach it. Hope may be deferred by trying changes of circumstances, or by a man’s own mistakes and failures.
III. WAY THE HEART IS MADE BITTER. To be lifted up and dropped down gives a shock which is not felt if we remain on the low ground. Disappointment is a source of keen pain in any case; but when it is repeated after vague anticipations and uncertainties, it is far more distressing. The hope deferred is not denied. We cannot banish it as a mistake. Such an act would be easier to bear; there would be first a great shock of disappointment, and then the dead hope would be buried out of sight, and the grief of the loss of it would grow lighter with time. But when the hope is deferred, it is continually present, yet as a disappointment. The mind is first on the rack of wondering expectation, and then there follows a sense of unutterable wearinesstrue heart-sickness. It is said that seasickness is produced by the sinking from beneath a person of the support on which he rests. The heart-sickness of a hope long deferred arises from a similar cause in the experience of souls.
IV. HOW THIS BITTERNESS MAY BE CURED.
1. By the satisfaction of the hope. Long deferred, it may yet come. When we are most despairing the tide may turn. The heart-sick mother is startled with a sudden joy in the return of her long lost sailor lad when she is relinquishing the weary hope of ever seeing him again.
2. By the rising of a new hope. If this may not be found in earthly experience, and the very mention of it sounds like treason to the faithful soul, it may indeed appear in higher regions of life. In the bitterness of earthly disappointment Christ’s great hope may be received.
3. By trusting in God. “Oh rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.” The earthly hope may be deferred, disappointed, shattered; yet some soul-satisfying answer will be given to the prayer of faith.
Pro 13:17
A faithful messenger
In early times, when no public postal arrangements existed, and when reading and writing were not generally cultivated, communications were more often sent by verbal messages and personal messengers. Great mischief would then accrue through unfaithfulness on the part of one of these agents of business or friendship. But important as would be the social effects arising out of this condition of affairs, far more momentous consequences must flow from the action of messengers between God and man. They indeed need to be faithful.
I. THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER IS A MESSENGER.
1. He carries a message. He has to declare the truth of God as he has received it. He is the custodian of a gospel. The prophet has to utter the word of inspiration, and the apostle to proclaim the kingdom of heaven, and Christ as its King. Something of the prophet and apostle must be found in every Christian preacher. He is to go forth with the message that God has given him.
2. He delivers his message in person. The message is not posted; it is carried personally, and delivered by the mouth of the messenger. It is not enough that God’s truth is recorded in the Bible, and that the Bible is circulated throughout the world. The living voice of the living man is needed. The missionary is God’s messengerso also is every true preacher of the gospel.
II. THE MESSENGER IS REQUIRED TO BE FAITHFUL.
1. He must deliver his message. The missionary must travel; the preacher at home must work among his people. Jonah was unfaithful in fleeing to Tarshish. Mere silence is unfaithfulness when one is entrusted with a message to deliver.
2. He must give it intact. He may neither add to it nor detract from it. Faithfulness in a Christian preacher means not shunning to declare the whole counsel of God, and not adding “vain philosophy” or “traditions of men” thereto. Of course, there is room for thought, reasoning, imagination, adaptation of the truth to the hearer, but not so as to modify the essential message.
3. He must disregard consequences. It may seem to him that the message is useless. Men may reject it; they may resent his offer of it; they may turn upon him and rend him. Yet it is just his duty to give the message that is entrusted to him.
III. THE FIDELITY OF THE MESSAGE SECURES HEALTH OF SOUL. Elsewhere we read, “The tongue of the wise is health” (ch. 12:18).
1. It is an evidence of honesty and moral courage. The existence of messengers who are faithful even under the most trying circumstances proves that honour and right are regarded. It is for the health of a community at large that such virile qualities should be found among the leaders of thought.
2. It secures the presentation of truth to men. All lies and delusions are noxious poisons. Truth is food and medicine for the soul. A community that is fed on truth, though the truth be tough or bitter, is nourished with wholesome diet. That is indeed a healthy society in which all the citizens are led by honest teachers to unsophisticated truth.
3. It brings the most needful messages to the world. The Christian teacher is called upon to preach Christto show the need of Christ in the ruin of sin, the grace of Christ to save, and the right of Christ to rule. These are health-giving truths; they constitute the direct antidote to the deadly poison of sin. He who honestly proclaims them makes for the health of his fellow men.
Pro 13:24
Sparing the rod
The primitive rigour of the Book of Proverbs is repudiated by modern manners. Not only in domestic training, but even in criminal law, people reject the old harsh methods, and endeavour to substitute milder means of correction. no doubt there was much that was more than rough, even brutal, in the discipline of our forefathers. The relation between father and child was too often lacking in sympathy through the undue exercise of parental authority, and society generally was hardened rather than purged by pitiless forms of punishment. But now the question is whether we are not erring towards the opposite extreme in showing more tenderness to the criminal than to his victim, and falling to let our children feel the need of some painful discipline. We idolize comfort, and we are in danger of thinking pain to be worse than sin. It may be well, therefore, to consider some of the disadvantages of neglecting the old-fashioned methods of chastisement.
I. IT IS A MISTAKE TO SUPPOSE THE ROD TO BE CRUEL BECAUSE IT HURTS. This mistake is made quite as much by the hand that should hold the rod as by the back that should feel it. Pain may he most wholesome. The highest form of punishment is that in which the cure of the offender is aimed at. To think more of the sufferings of the offender than of his sin is to show a failure of conscience, a lack of appreciation of the really evil condition of the sinner. We should learn that it is worse to sin than to suffer.
II. THERE ARE CERTAIN SPECIAL CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH PAINFUL CHASTISEMENT IS THE MOST WHOLESOME FORM OF CORRECTION.
1. In the offender. Some natures are redeemed by a process of punishment which will only crush others. A low and creel nature especially needs painful punishment.
2. In the offence. Sins of the morally degrading class are best punished with sharp pains. The treatment which may suit a more spiritual sin, and may well reveal the shame and evil of it, would not touch these coarser forms of wickedness.
III. IT IS A SIGN OF WEAKNESS OR SELFISHNESS TO WITHHOLD NEEDFUL CHASTISEMENT.
1. Of weakness. The lawful authority may not have the energy to proceed to an extremity. So serious an action requires strength of purpose.
2. Of selfishness. It must be simply agonizing for a kind-hearted father to have to bring pain and disgrace on his son. But to hold back from the exercise of wholesome discipline on this account is really to give way to sinful self-indulgence. The true father will hurt himself in punishing his child. No doubt a certain self-indulgent softness is to be found in the present objection of society to punish criminals with due severity.
IV. GOD‘S CHASTISEMENT OF HIS CHILDREN IS FOR THEIR GOOD. He does not hate his sons; therefore, at times, he does not spare his rod (see Pro 3:12). There is neither weakness in the Almighty nor selfishness in the All-merciful. He must and will chastise sin for the correction of the sinner. We must suffer if we sin, though it is for us to choose whether we are to endure the punishment of the impenitent or the chastisement of the penitent.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Pro 13:1
General truths of health and salvation
I. DOCILITY AS CONTRASTED WITH STUBBORNNESS. (Pro 13:1.) Let us carry this into the distinctly religious sphere. To he wise is to be a good listener. In the expressive phrase of the Bible, to “hearken to the voice of Jehovah,” to listen to the suggestions of the inward monitor, is the secret of a sober, well balanced habit of mind, and of every safe line of conduct. All that God teaches, by the voice of inspired teachers, by our own experience, by the inner revelations of the heart, is “a father’s instruction.” Above all, instruction by means of suffering is God’s fatherly way with souls. And we have the great example of Christ to guide us and to sweeten obedience, for he “learned” it by the things which he suffered. On the other hand, the scorner has cast aside all reverential awe in the presence of the Holy One. To refuse the faithful warnings of friends, to be no better for those lessons of experience which are written in personal suffering, is to disown one’s filial relation, and to estrange one’s self from God.
II. TRUE LIFE ENJOYMENT AND ITS CONTROL. (Pro 13:2.)
1. Enjoyment represented under the figure of eating. As indeed eating is a most significant act, the foundation of life. the pledge of social communism.
2. The foundation of enjoyment is in one’s inward state and ones social relations. The more widely we can enter into the life of others, the richer our life joy. The unsocial life not only dries up the springs of joy, but is positively punishedin extreme cases by law, as in crimes of violence alluded to in the text, always by the alienation of sympathy.
III. THE USE AND ABUSE OF SPEECH. (Pro 13:3; see on Pro 10:19, Pro 10:31; Pro 21:23.) How often this lesson recurs!
1. In the lower aspect it is a lesson of prudence. Reserve and caution make the safe man; loquacity and impulsiveness of speech the unsafe man.
2. In a higher point of view, the habit of silence, implying much meditation and self-communion, is good for the soul.
“Sacred silence! thou that art offspring of the deeper heart,
Frost of the mouth and thaw of the mind.”
How easy, on the other hand, to injure our souls by talking much about religion or subjects that lie on the circumference of religion, and falling into the delusion that talk may be substituted for life!J.
Pro 13:4, Pro 13:7, Pro 13:8, Pro 13:11
The value and use of property
I. THE WORTH OF THIS WORLD‘S GOODS IS ASSUMED. It is needless to show that property is a necessary institution of life under present conditions. All the strong things said in the gospel about riches do not dispute their value; it is in the relation of the spirit to them that evil arises. Their value as a means to the ends of the spirit is unquestioned, and everywhere assumed.
II. THE VANITY OF RICHES WITHOUT CORRESPONDING ACTION. Wishes are a great force in our nature (compare Mozley’s sermon on the ‘Power of Wishes’). Still, they have no practical effect unless they are transformed into will and into exertion of means to an end. It is the very characteristic of the fool that his mind evaporates in wishes; he is always desiring, but never at the pains to get anything. He is always idly expecting something to “turn up.” This is a sheer superstition, a sort of clinging to the magical belief that the course of nature can be altered for one’s private benefit. The lesson is, of course, equally applicable to higher things. “He would lain go to heaven if a morning dream would carry him there.” He wishes to be good, to die the death of the righteous, but, at the same time, to continue in a way of life that can lead neither to the one nor to the other. Hell is paved with good intentions.
III. THE SECRET OF PROSPERITY IS DILIGENCE. Here desire is united with exertion, and it is an almost irresistible combination, as the careers of men who have risen constantly show. To conceive a good thing with such is to desire it; to desire it is to begin at once to work for it. This course must bring “rich satisfaction”the satisfaction, by no means the least, of the pursuit, and the satisfaction in the end of entire or partial fruition. And so in moral and spiritual progress. We cannot overcome our weaknesses and sins by direct resistance, but we may react upon them by filling the mind with profitable matter of thought. The rich satisfaction depends in every case upon the same law; the personal energies must be aroused, and an object must be aimed at. Satisfaction is the complete joy of the mind in closing with and possessing a worthy and desirable object.
IV. THE CONCEIT OF RICHES IS NOT REAL RICHES. (Pro 13:7; comp. Pro 12:9.) The saying may he directed against the foolish pride of birth and ostentation without anything real to back it up. It strikes a common vice of modern timesthe aim to keep up appearances, and to pass for something greater in position than one really is. The contrasted example teaches the lesson of preferring the substance to the show, of being willing to appear much less than one is. And so in higher matters; take care to be what is sound and good in principle, and the seeming may be left for the most part to take care of itself. No appearances deceive God, and nothing that is real escapes him.
V. THE PRACTICAL SERVICE OF RICHES. (Pro 13:8.) They may provide a ransom from captivity, from penal judgment, from the hand of robbers. Their power to procure deliverances from the evils of life is much wider in the present day. The poor man, on the contrary, “listens to no rebuke,” i.e. no threats can extort from him what he has not got. He is helpless for want of means. A lesson not often taught from the pulpit, and perhaps not needed for the majorityprudent regard to the possible advantages of money, stimulating to industry in the quest for it. Still, some do need the lesson. And the Bible has no affectation of a false contempt for the means of living. Business men should be encouraged in their pursuit of wealth, and guided in their application of it.
VI. WEALTH ONLY PERMANENT WHEN WELL–GOTTEN. (Pro 13:11.) Perhaps the, translation to be preferred is, “Swindled wealth becomes small.” Hastily gotten generally means hastily spent. And dishonest gain burns the fingers. How often do we see a feverish passion for spending going hand in hand with unlawful or unhealthy getting! A healthy acquisition of wealth is gradual, and the result of steady industry. Rapid fortune making, or sudden “strokes of luck,” are certainly not to be envied in view of the good of the soul.
LESSONS.
1. Wealth is a good in itself. When we speak of it as an evil, we are using a certain figure of speech; for the evil is in the false relation of the soul to this as to other earthly objects.
2. In the desires that relate to wealth, their proper control and direction, the moral discipline probably of the majority must ever lie.
3. Safety is to be found in the religious habit, which sees in earthly objects good only as they can be connected with that which is beyond themselves, and is Divine and eternal.J.
Pro 13:5
Purity and impurity of sentiment
I. AVERSION FROM ALL UNTRUTH A LEADING CHARACTER OF PURITY. This does not imply that the good man never falls into acts or words which are untrue to his nature. But as a child of God, there is in his spiritual or ideal nature a rooted antipathy to lies, and a deep sympathy with truth in all its forms. ‘Tis only truthfulness which can impart fragrance, charm, delight, to character.
II. THE CONTRARY DISPOSITION OF THE WICKED IS LOATHSOME AND SHAMEFUL. Antipathy to truthand, alas! perversion may actually bring men to thisproduces upon the pure moral taste an impression akin to that of nausea or deformity upon the physical sensibility. And we blush for it as a common odium and disgrace of human nature.J.
Pro 13:6
The outward correspondence with the inward
I. UPRIGHTNESS IS THE DESIGNATION OF BOTH AN INWARD AND AN OUTWARD STATE.
1. As a sensuous image, uprightness suggests strength, confidence, well grounded stability.
2. As a figure of the mind and character, it denotes moral principle, fixed purpose, based upon firm faith in God and his moral order.
3. Its consequence is a state of security amidst danger, freedom from evil.
II. WICKEDNESS AND RUIN ARE INTERCHANGEABLE THOUGHTS.
1. The ruin begins in the inward decay of moral principle.
2. It is consummated in outward decayof reputation, of possessions, of health, of life.J.
Pro 13:9
Joy and gloom
I. LIGHT IS THE SYMBOL OF JOY.
II. HENCE THE CHEERFUL BURNING OF A LIGHT IS THE SYMBOL OF THE GOOD MAN‘S HEART. He sits in the centre and enjoys clear day.
III. GLOOM IS THE NATURAL EMBLEM OF SORROW.
IV. THE PUTTING OUT OF A LAMP IN DARKNESS IS THE EMBLEM OF THE EXTINCTION OF JOY, OF HOPEOf all that makes life worth having, and of life itself.J.
Pro 13:10
Pride and teachableness
I. PRIDE BEGETS CONTROVERSY, WHICH CAN SELDOM BE CARRIED ON LONG WITHOUT DEGENERATING INTO EGOTISM.
1. There is contention for contention’s sake, which is ever idle and baneful.
2. There is contention for truth’s sake. But in the latter lie many dangers to purity of temper. Whenever we become angry in controversy, as a great man said, we cease to contend for the truth, and begin to contend for ourselves.J.
Pro 13:12
The sickness of disappointment and the joy of fruition
I. HOPE DELAYED. Who has not known that sickness of the heart, that slow-consuming misery of which the text speaks? It is a sorrow of every age. Life itself is by some spent in this still lingering delay. The stern experience of the course of the world teaches us that the sentimental and romantic view of the future, so natural to youth, must give way to realities.
II. HOPE DELAYED IS THE TRAIL OF FAITH. The duration of the trial rather than the intensity is painful. So with Abraham in reference to Isaac (Gen 15:2, Gen 15:3).
III. THERE IS A LOVING PROVIDENTIAL MEANING AT THE HEART OF THESE TRIALS, They are essentially time trials; they have an endthe “end of the Lord.” So the boy named “Laughter” came to Abraham; so the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, and the delivered Were like unto them that dream! So Simeon could sing his Nunc dimittis on the appearance of the long expected Saviour; and on his resurrection the disciples “believed not for joy, and wondered.”
IV. A CERTAIN FRUITION IS PROMISED TO THE DESIRE OF THE RIGHTEOUS. “Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry” (comp. Rom 8:23; 2Co 5:2-4).J.
Pro 13:13-17
The value of the Divine Word
I. REVERENCE AND IRREVERENCE FOR THE DIVINE WORD. The “Word” is any revelation man receives of God, whether through nature, oracles of the prophets, or in his immediate consciousness. The last, in the deepest sense, is the condition of all other revelations. Irreverence is shown either when men are deaf and indifferent to the Divine voice, or when they suffer it to be out-clamoured by other voicesof passion, policy, etc. The result is that he who thus sins is “pledged” or forfeited to the Divine Law, here personified or regarded as a superhuman power. Hence appears the truth from this figure, that in disobedience our freedom is lost. On the contrary, reverence and obedience receive a certain reward: “Glory, honour, and peace to every man that worketh good” (Rom 2:10).
II. THE DOCTRINE OF THE WISE. (Pro 13:14.) The teaching that is founded on Divine revelation is a source of life, and a safeguard against the snares of death (comp. Pro 10:11).
III. THERE MUST BE RECEPTIVITY TOWARDS THIS. DOCTRINE. The Word must be “mixed with faith in those that hear.” The favour of God is free in one sense, i.e. is no earned result of our conduct; but it is conditional in another, viz. it depends on our compliance with his will. The contrast to the life in the light of God’s favour, watered by vital nourishment from the springs of truth, is the “way of the faithless,” which is “barren,” dry, as in “a dry and thirsty land where no water is.”
IV. PRUDENCE AND GOOD COUNSEL MUST BE ADDED TO REVERENCE. (Pro 13:16.) Thougtfulness is Deeded in studying the evidences, the substance, the applications of religion. And in the practical conduct of life how necessary! for more errors are committed for want of judgment and discrimination as to time, place, and circumstances, than for want of true and right purpose. The man destitute of tact pours folly abroad; temper, vanity, caprice, are exposed in all that he does and says.
V. FAITHFUL AND UNFAITHFUL MINISTRY. (Pro 13:17.) The wicked messenger prepares misfortune both for his master and for himself; while the faithful servant will amend even his master’s mistakes. Applied to sacred things, every Christian should consider himself a messenger, an apostle in however humble a sphere, of God and his truth. And “it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.”J.
Pro 13:18-25
The blessings of obedience and their counterpart
I. THE BLESSINGS OF OBEDIENCE.
1. Honour. (Pro 13:18.) “‘Tis a good brooch to wear in a man’s hat at all times,” says one of our old poets. Love is common to all the creatures, as life and death; honour belongs to men alone; and dishonour must be worse than death. The praise of others is the refiection of virtue, and a good name like flagrant ointment.
2. Satisfied desire. (Pro 13:19.) And what is sweeter than the attainment of worthy “ends and expectations”? And if we will but have faith, this satisfaction may be ours, by setting our hearts on internal blessings, the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
3. Improving companionship. (Pro 13:20.) Friendship with the wise makes daylight in the understanding out of darkness and confusion of thoughts. Our wits and understanding clarify and break up in communicating and discoursing with one another. “We toss our thoughts more easily, marshal them more soberly; see how they look when turned into words; we wax wiser than ourselves, and that more by an hour’s discourse than by a day’s meditation” (Lord Bacon).
4. Unfailing compensations. All things are double, one against another. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, on the one side; measure for measure, love for love, on the other. “Give, and it shall be given you;” “He that watereth shall be watered himself.” “What will you have?” saith God; “pray for it, and take it.” “if you serve an ungrateful master, serve him the more. Put God in your debt. Every stroke shall be repaid. The longer the payment is withholden, the better for you; for compound interest on. compound interest is the rate and usage of this exchequer.”
5. Hereditary good. (Pro 13:22.) We desire to prolong our blessings, in the view of fancy, beyond our lives; and the desire to leave behind a fortune, or a name and fame, is one of the most common and natural. The thought that all the good our life has produced wilt be still a germinant power with our descendants after we are gone, is one of the noblest and most inspiring.
6. Fruitful poverty. (Pro 13:23.) The image is that of the poor man’s field, which becomes rich in produce through the investment of his toil in it. The improvement of the ground is the most natural way of obtaining riches; it is our great mother’s blessing, the earth. The blessing of God visibly rests upon the behest labour of the poor.
7. Wise training of the young. (Pro 13:24.) The rod may stand as a figure for all correction, firm yet kindly discipline, and instruction. The wise father will seek to anticipate moral evil by subduing early the passionate temper. He will incessantly follow up his child with prayer, with discipline, with exhortations, that he may not later rue the absence of seasonable warnings.
8. Temperate enjoyment and sufficient supplies. (Pro 13:25.) The mind governed by religion and wisdom learns to reduce its wants to a small compass; and this is a great secret of content and of true riches. He who wants only what is necessary for the life and free action of the soul may rely with confidence on the infinite bounty of Providence.
II. THE COUNTERPART.
1. Poverty and shame. (Pro 13:18.) The one an outward misery, patent to all; the other not so patent, but more acute; for contempt, as the Indian proverb says, pierces through the shell of the tortoise. So long ago as old Homer, we find the sentiment, “Shame greatly hurts or greatly helps mankind”. “Take one of the greatest and most approved courage, who makes nothing to look death and danger in the face, in a base and a shameful action, and the eye of the discoverer, like that of the basilisk, shall strike him dead. So inexpressibly great sometimes are the killing horrors of this passion” (South, vol. 2. Pro 13:7.). The Bible designates this as a peculiar fruit of sin.
2. The unquenchable fire of lust. (Pro 13:19.) To this the correct rendering of the second member of the verse appears to point (Jas 1:14, Jas 1:15). ‘Tis hard to give up the bosom sin, which still in better moments is hateda loathsome tyranny, yet one which cannot be cast off.
3. Depraving companionship. (Pro 13:20.) Wicked companions invite to hell. “There are like to be short graces when the devil plays the host.”
4. Haunting troublers. (Pro 13:21.) Much romance has been woven about “haunted houses;” but what haunted house so gruesome as the bad man’s heart? His sin draws God’s wrath and punishments after it, even as the shadows follow his feet.
5. Forfeited wealth. (Pro 13:22.) Riches that come from the devil go back to him. Fraud, oppression, and unjust dealing are not really retentive; or wealth obtained by flattering, complying with others’ humours, and servility does not prosper. The Proverbs see the outrush of life with great clearness; they do not always explain the inner connection of cause and effect, which should be clear to us.
6. Self-destruction. (Verse 23.) Many a man is “carried away by his unrighteousness.” “In contrast with the contented, humble condition of the good man, the selfish and profligate ‘lovers of themselves without a rival,’ are often unfortunate; and whereas they have all their time sacrificed to themselves, they become in the end themselves sacrifices to the inconstancy of fortune, whose wings they thought by their self-wisdom to have pinioned” (Lord Bacon).
7. Weak indulgence to children. (Verse 24.) A most injurious error. It tends to weaken the young minds and foster all the violent passions; just as the opposite extreme tends to debase and incite to deceit. E. Irving, in one of his works, hints that a great proportion of the inmates of lunatic asylums have been only and spoilt children.
8. Want. (Verse 25.) “Great wants,” it has been said, “proceed from great wealth; but they are undutiful children, for they sink wealth down to poverty.”J.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Pro 13:1, Pro 13:13, Pro 13:18
The wisdom of docility, etc.: a sermon to the young
We have the positive and negative, the happy and the sorrowful aspects of the subject brought into view.
I. THE WISDOM OF DOCILITY. The excellency of docility is seen in its results:
1. In character. It is a “wise son” who heareth his father’s instruction.
(1) Already he is wise. Apart from all that he will gain by his teachableness, readiness to receive instruction is in itself an admirable feature of character; it is so more particularly in the young. In them it is positively essential to spiritual beauty and worth; and it goes a long way to constitute such worth. It is an attribute of mind which is pleasing to God, and which commends itself greatly to the esteem of man.
(2) It has the promise of wisdom further on. For he who is ready to learn, and more especially if he is willing to “regard reproof,” is on the high road to much attainment in knowledge, and also to heights of virtue and godliness. This habit of his will save him from many snares, and will enrich his soul with pure principles and houourable aspirations and right affections.
2. In circumstance. The docile son will “be rewarded,” will “be honored.” The path he treads is one which leads to competence, to comfort, to health, to honour, to “a green old age.” But there are three things which must be included in this readiness to learn. No one will be “wise,” and no one can expect to reap these desirable results, unless he
(1) is docile in the home, receiving “his father’s (and his mother’s) instruction (Pro 13:1);
(2) has respect to the “commandment,” the will of God as revealed in his Word (Pro 13:13);
(3) is willing to be corrected when he has gone astray, unless he “regards reproof” (Pro 13:18). For all of us fall into some error, make some mistakes, go astray in some directions; and we all need the kind hand that will lead us back and replace us in the right road.
II. THE FOLLY AND THE DOOM OF THE UNTEACHABLE. What should we think of the young captain who insisted on setting sail without any chart, trusting to his native cleverness to shun the shoals and rocks, and to make his way to port? We know what to judge concerning him, and what to prophesy concerning his vessel; we are sure that the one is a fool, and that the other will be a wreck. And what shall we think of youth when it resolves to sail forth on the great sea of life, disregarding the experiences of the wise, and trusting to its own sagacity? To take this course is:
1. To be unwise. Apart from all consequences which are in the future, it is the indication of a foolish spirit which is in itself deplorable. It shows a very ill-balanced judgment, a very exaggerated conception of one’s own ability, a lack of the modesty the presence of which is so great a recommendation, and the absence of which is so serious a drawback. It calls for and it calls forth the pity of the wise; it is well if it does not elicit their contempt.
2. To move in the direction of disaster. It is to be in the way which conducts
(1) to the loss of much that is very valuable, to “poverty” of more kinds than one (Pro 13:18);
(2) to shame (Pro 13:18), the forfeiture of good men’s regard, and a descent to a condition in which self-respect also is lost;
(3) to ultimate destruction (Pro 13:13). He that feareth not God’s commandment, nor regards man’s warning, is a candidate for contempt, is a swift traveller on the road to ruin.C.
Pro 13:4
(See homily on Pro 27:23.)C.
Pro 13:7
Wrong views of ourselves, given and received
One proverb may have many interpretations and many applications. This is such a one. It may well suggest to us two things.
I. THE GUILT OF CONVEYING A FALSE VIEW OF OURSELVES; whether this be done by the merchant in his office, or by the charlatan on the platform, or by the quack in his surgery, or by the preacher in his pulpit, or by the “philanthropist” in the newspaper, or by the man or woman of embellishment in society, or by the artist on canvas, or by the author in his book, or whether done by the common miser or the conscienceless beggar. Here is the double iniquity of:
1. Falsehood, or, at any rate, falseness. The man is false to himself, and forgets what is due to himself; consequently, he does that which wrongs and injures himself.
2. Fraud; imposture. A man practises on his neighbours; he deceives them; in the worst cases he induces others to run most serious risks to their health or their fortune.
II. THE MISFORTUNE OF FORMING A WRONG ESTIMATE OF OURSELVES.
1. This is sometimes an appropriate penalty. For if a man “makes himself” rich or poor in the eyes of others, it is extremely likely that he will before long imagine himself to be so. It is one of the well attested facts of human experience, that what men try to persuade their fellows to think, they come in time to believe themselves. And this holds good when the object as well e,s the subject is the man himself. Try to convince others that you are clever, learned, kind, pious, and before many months have been spent in the endeavour you will actually credit yourself with these qualities. And the result is an entirely mistaken view of yourself. This is a punitive consequence; for there is no moral condition from which we have such urgent need to pray and strive that we may be delivered. Is it not the last stage on the downward road?
2. It is a grave spiritual peril. Solemn, indeed, is the warning addressed by the risen Lord to the Church at Laodicea (Rev 3:14-19). But no warning can be too serious or too strong, whether addressed to the Church or the individual, when there is a false estimate of self, a supposition of wealth which is but imaginary, a false confidence which, if not awakened now, will be terribly aroused and shattered further on.
3. But a false estimate of ourselves may be, not a penalty, but rather a pity. When the heart thinks itself (makes itself) poor and destitute, while it is really “rich toward God,” it suffers as it need not suffer, and it lacks the strength for doing good which it need not lack. And this is not unfrequently the case. Men have been misinstructed concerning the kingdom of Christ; and long after they have been within it they have been supposing themselves to stand outside it. Wherefore let those who teach take care how they teach, and let all disciples “take heed how they hear,” that they may not think themselves wrong when they are right with God, rebels against the Divine Ruler when they are his accepted children.C.
Pro 13:12
with Pro 13:9 (first part) and Pro 13:19 (first part)
Hope and disappointment
We learn that
I. HOPE IS PLANTED AS AN INSTINCT IN THE HUMAN HEART, “Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts,” says the psalmist (Psa 22:9). We start on our course with a precious store of hopefulness in our soul; and it takes much to kill or to exhaust it. It lasts most men through life, though the troublous experiences we pass through weaken it, if they do not wound it unto death.
II. IT IS A SOURCE OF GREAT STRENGTH AND JOY TO US.
1. It is a source of strength to us. It leads us to entertain and to enter upon new ventures. It carries us on during many toils and through many difficulties. It sustains us to the end, when we are weary, and when we are opposed and baffled. “We are saved by hope.”
2. It is also a perennial source of joy. Rob life of its anticipations, and you deprive it of a very large proportion of its sweetness and satisfaction.
III. SIN HAS INTRODUCED DISAPPOINTMENT. We must regard this as one part, and one very serious part, of the penalty of sin. Not, of course, that each case of disappointment is the consequence of some particular antecedent wrong doing; but that it forms a part of that whole burden and trial of life which is the mark and the penalty of human sin. There are lighter disappointments which may not count for much, though these put together would make up no small aggregate of evil. But there are heavier disappointments which constitute a very large and serious part of our life sorrow. “Hope deferred” does indeed make the heart sick. The long and weary waiting for the return of the absent; for the manifestation of love ungratefully, and perhaps cruelly, withheld; for the health and strength which no treatment will restore; for the opening which would prove a great opportunity; for the signs of reformation in a beloved relative or friend; for the relenting and reconciliation of one who has been long estranged;this does fill the soul with an aching such as no other trouble brings. It is one of life’s very heaviest burdens. It is sometimes the burden and even the blight of a human life.
IV. IT IS THE PART OF CHRISTIAN WISDOM TO AVERT IT. Not that it can be wholly avertedthat is quite beyond our power. Not that there is any real blessing in the absence or the littleness of expectation. But that:
1. We should discourage and renounce the perilous and injurious habit of idle day dreams.
2. We should moderate our hopes according to our circumstances, and be contented only to look for that which, in the providence of God, we may reasonably and rightly expect to partake of.
V. IT IS THE PART OF CHRISTIAN SUBMISSION TO ACCEPT IT. We must suffer when our hopes are unfulfilled; but we may find great relief in the though; that it is the will of God that we are submitting to. The feeling that it is our Divine Friend who is letting us pass through the dark shadow of disappointment, and that it is the holy Lord seeking our highest good who is sending us through the refining fires,this will give balm to our wounded spirit; this will lighten the heavy load we bear.
VI. GOD WILL GIVE HIS PEOPLE SOME GOOD MEASURE OF FULFILMENT. We shall prove by our experience in many ways and in many spheresparticularly in those of
(1) our inner life and
(2) our work for our Lordthat “the light of the righteous rejoiceth,” that “when desire cometh, it is a tree of life,” that “desire accomplished is sweet to the soul.” If we rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him, he will give us our heart’s desires (Psa 37:4, Psa 37:7).
VII. THERE IS ONE SUPREME HOPE which may well sustain us in the darkest trials (1Pe 1:3, 1Pe 1:4).C.
Pro 13:20
Friendship: a sermon to the young
We have here a topic which comes very close home to us all, but especially to the young.
I. GOD HAS GIVEN US GREAT POWER OVER ONE ANOTHER. There are two sources of power we exercise.
1. That of ideas. As we speak or write to one another, we impart ideas to the mind; and as thought lies beneath feeling, and feeling beneath character and conduct (see homily on Pro 12:5), it is clearly of the gravest consequence what ideas we do instil into the mind of another. These ideas include information or knowledge, the presentation of motive and inducement, new aspects in which things are regarded, new views and conceptions of life, etc.
2. That of influence. As we associate with one another, we influence one another by
(1) the character which commands respect;
(2) affectionateness of disposition;
(3) charm of manner;
(4) strength of will;
(5) superiority in age or in social position;
(6) facility and force of utterance.
All these are elements of influence; they are sometimes united, and in combination they become a great moral force.
II. CLOSENESS OF INTIMACY SHOWS THIS POWER AT ITS HEIGHT. When two “walk together because they are agreed;” when there is a close and intimate union of heart. with heart, of mind with mind,there is an opening for the exertion of a power immeasurably great. Friendship has done more than anything else to enlarge or to warp the mind, to save or to betray the soul, to bless or to corrupt the life. The influence of a beloved friend or of a favourite author is wholly beyond calculation, and is almost beyond exaggeration. We give ourselves to one another; we impress our mind upon one another; we draw one another up or we drag one another down. Hence
III. IT IS OF SUPREME IMPORTANCE THAT WE CHOOSE OUR FRIENDS WELL. The friendships we form will either make or mar us. We shall certainly be conformed in spirit and in character to those whom we admit to the sanctuary of our soul; our lives will move with theirs toward the same goal; and we shall share their destiny for good or evil. How needful, then, that we bring to this choice our whole intelligence, our greatest care, that we do not let the accidents of locality or family connection or business association decide the intimacies of our life! There is no action on which our future more decisively depends than on this choice we make; let youth and young manhood (womanhood) look well to it. He that walketh with wise men will himself be wise, and he will reap all the fruits of wisdom; but the companion of fools, of those who fear not God and who honour not man, of the irreligious and the immoral, will be destroyed with a terrible, because a spiritual, destruction.
IV. HOW WISE TO WALK THE PATH OF LIFE WITH A. DIVINE FRIEND!with him who himself is “the Wisdom of God;” intimacy with whom will draw our spirit up toward all that is worthiest and noblest; whose presence will ensure guardianship from all serious evil, and enrichment with every true blessing, and will gladden with all pure and lasting joy.C.
Pro 13:21
Penalty pursuing sin
These are striking words, and they give us a graphic picture of penalty in pursuit of the guilt which is seeking and hoping to escape, but which is certain to be overtaken.
I. SIN AND SUFFERING ARE INSEPARABLY ASSOCIATED IN THOUGHT, In our judgment and in our feeling they go together; they belong to one another. There is no need to go beyond this point; it is ultimate. If we sin, we deserve to suffer, and must expect to suffer. It is right that we should, and the hand that brings it about is a righteous hand.
11. THEY OFTEN SEEM TO BE DIVIDED IN FACT. As we observe human life, we see that the murderer sometimes escapes the reach of law, that the swindler sometimes flourishes upon the losses of his victims, that the tyrant sometimes reigns long over the nation he has defrauded of its freedom, that sometimes the man who lives in the practice of vice continues to enjoy health for many years, that the dishonest author may reap a considerable reputation and may long remain unexposed, etc. but in this case
III. PENALTY IS PURSUING SIN AND WILL OVERTAKE IT. “Evil pursueth sinners” Justice is on the track, and sooner or later will lay its hand upon its victim.
1. It will most likely do so here. Very frequently, indeed almost always, some penalty immediately overtakes guilt; if not in bodily loss or suffering, yet in spiritual injury. And if not at once, penalty soon follows crime, vice, wrong doing. Or if not soon, yet after many years, the “evil” comes and lays its stern hand upon the shoulder. The man may not, probably does not, see or even believe in its approach. Its step is silent, and it may be slow, but it is constant and certain. The “evil” may be physical, and very of, on it is so; or it may be mental, intellectual; or it may be circumstantial; or it may be in reputation; or it may be in character, and this last, though least seen and often least regarded, is in truth the saddest and the most serious of all, for it affects the man himselfhe “loses his own soul.” Thus, “though leaden-footed,” penalty is “iron-handed.”
2. It will surely do so hereafter. (See Mat 25:31, Mat 25:32; 2Co 5:10, etc.) Yet not inconsistent with all this,
IV. THERE IS ONE MERCIFUL INTERCEPTION. If we truly repent of our sin, we shall be freely and abundantly forgiven.
1. God will change his condemnation into acceptance and parental favour, so that we shall walk thenceforward in the light of his countenance.
2. He will avert the heavier consequences of our sin by introducing into our heart and life all the remedial and restorative influences of righteousness. And there must be considered
V. THE CONVERSE BENEFICENT LAW AFFECTING THE RIGHTEOUS. “To the righteous good shall be repaid.”
1. All right acts are immediately followed by an inner and spiritual blessing; we must be something the better in soul forevery really right thing we do.
2. All right actions, done in a reverent and filial spirit, will bring God’s blessing down further on. He is “not unrighteous to forget our work of faith and our labour of love.” Such blessings come in many forms, and at various intervals; but they do come; they are following the upright, and they will overtake them and cream them.
3. The reward of integrity and faithfulness only comes in part below; God holds great things in reserve for us (Mat 25:21; 1Co 4:5).C.
Pro 13:24
Parental correction
Few proverbs “come home” to us like those which affect the daily government of our household. They make their appeal to the human heart, to universal experience.
I. THE PARENTAL INSTINCT.
1. This is, to let the child have his way; to give him the gratification be desires, to find a present pleasure in his momentary happiness.
2. This is, to spare him suffering. No parent can hear his child cry without suffering himself (herself). Our instinct is to save our children from every trouble, small and great, from which we can exempt them. And it “goes against the grain” to inflict punishment, to cause pain, to deprive of some known enjoyment. But we dare not be blind to
II. THE LESSON OF EXPERIENCE. Universal experience proves that to act on mere parental instruct is nothing less than selfish cruelty. It is to act as if we positively hated our children. For it is the one sure way to spoil them for life, to ruin their character. The undisciplined child becomes the wayward boy, the dissipated young man, the wreck of manhood. He becomes self-centred, incapable of controlling his spirit, exacting in all his relations, disregardful of all law and of all claims. It is to withhold the one condition under which alone we can expect any one to attain to an admirable and honourable manhood. It is to deny to our own children the most essential element of education. Experience proves that he who spares the rod acts as if he positively hated his son.
III. THE PRACTICE OF WISDOM. This is the well-moderated correction of love. This correction should be:
1. Carefully proportioned to the offence; the lighter ones, such as carelessness or inaptitude, being followed by the lighter rebuke, and the graver ones, such as falsehood or cruelty, being visited with severer measures.
2. Administered, not in the heat of temper, but in the calmness of conviction, and with the manifest sorrow of true affection.
3. As free as possible from physical violence. The “rod” need not be made of wood or iron. A look of reproach (Luk 22:61), a just rebuke or remonstrance, a wisely chosen exclusion from some appreciated privilege, may do much more good than any blows upon the body.
4. Strictly just, with a leaning to charitable construction. For one unjust infliction will do more harm than many just ones will do good.
5. Occasional and of brief duration. Nothing defeats its own purpose more certainly than perpetual fault- finding, or constantly repeated punishment, or penalty that is unrighteously severe. It behoves us always to remember that as our heavenly Father does not “deal with us after our sins” with rigorous penalties, and is not “strict to mark iniquity” with unfailing chastisement, so it becomes us, as parents, in the treatment of our children, to let pity and charity have a very large, modifying influence on our correction. He that loveth chastens “betimes;” he is not always chastening. He takes care to let his children know and feel that beneath and above and throughout his fatherly righteousness is his parental love.C.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Pro 13:1. A wise son, &c. A wise son regardeth the instruction of his father, but a son who is a scorner heareth not rebuke. Houbigant.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

) With reference to the use of temporal good, and of the word of God as the highest good
Chap. 13
1A wise son hearkeneth to his fathers correction,
but a scorner to no rebuke.
2By the fruit of ones mouth doth he enjoy good,
but the delight of the ungodly is violence.
3He that guardeth his mouth keepeth his life,
he that openeth wide his lips shall be destroyed.
4The sluggard desireth, but without the satisfying of his desire,
but the desire of the diligent is abundantly satisfied.
5Deceit the righteous hateth,
but the ungodly acteth basely and shamefully.
6Righteousness protecteth an upright walk,
but wickedness plungeth into sin.
7One maketh himself rich and hath nothing,
another professeth to be poor yet hath great riches.
8A ransom for a mans life are his riches,
but the poor heedeth no threatening.
9The light of the righteous rejoiceth,
but the lamp of the wicked goeth out.
10By pride cometh only contention,
but wisdom is with those who receive counsel.
11Gain through fraud vanisheth away,
but he that gathereth by labor increaseth it (his gain).
12Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,
but desire accomplished is a tree of life.
13Whosoever despiseth the word is bound to it,
he that feareth the commandment is rewarded.
14The instruction of the wise man is a fountain of life
to escape the snares of death.
15Kindly wisdom ensureth favor,
the way of the ungodly is desolate.
16The prudent man doeth all things with understanding,
but a fool spreadeth abroad folly.
17A bad messenger falleth into trouble,
but a faithful messenger is health.
18Poverty and shame (to him) that refuseth correction;
he that regardeth reproof is honored.
19Quickened desire is sweet to the soul,
and it is abomination to fools to depart from evil.
20Walk with wise men and become wise!
but whoso delighteth in fools becometh base.
21Evil pursueth sinners,
but to the righteous God repayeth good.
22A good man leaveth an inheritance to his childrens children,
and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.
23The poor mans new land (yieldeth) much food,
but many a one is destroyed by iniquity.
24He that spareth his rod hateth his son,
but whoso loveth him seeketh correction.
25The upright eateth to the satisfying of his hunger,
but the belly of the wicked shall want.
GRAMMATICAL AND CRITICAL
Pro 13:2. [The literal rendering is the soul of the wicked (shall feed upon) violence. Substantially this rendering is given by the E. V., by H., N., S., and M. Zckler [see exeg. notes] regards this verse as convoying the two ideas that violence is the wicked mans delight; and that it is his recompense. He feeds on it while he lives, and dies by it. Conceiving the former to be the more prominent idea hero he gives to a secondary and figurative meaning,the longing, the delight. We think that he has lost rather than gained by this refining.A.]
Pro 13:4. According to the Masoretic punctuation the clause would be literally rendered His soulthe sluggardslongeth [strongly desireth], and there is nothing, [His appetite. Z.] The suffix in would then stand pleonastically before the appended genitive [as e.g. Num 24:3; Deu 32:43]; would however be introduced as a parenthesis between the predicate and the subject, and would express substantially the idea without satisfaction, without finding anything. It appears simpler and less forced, however, to change the punctuation as Hitzig does, thus: , in which case receives the meaning by metonymy object of desire (comp. Psa 35:25; Isa. 58:19), and the meaning of the whole clause is as in our version.
Pro 13:5. [, which Z. regards as equivalent to , Btt. (see 1147, C. b.) regards as substituted for it by a mere interchange of weak and kindred consonants. The verbs are nearly related, being used of that which is offensive to the sense of smell, of that which changes color, by turning pale or otherwise. The one describes misconduct as offensive, the other as shameful.A.]
Pro 13:9. The verb seems to form a designed accord with comp. Pro 12:25.
Pro 13:11. [The different renderings grow partly out of different conceptions of the meaning of the noun and partly from different syntactical constructions. originally breath, then nothingness or vanity, is by most interpreters taken in some metaphorical sense. The rendering of the E. V., followed by H., is ambiguous, by or through vanity. M. and St. render without effort; Fuerst agrees with Z. in giving it an ethical meaning,that which is morally nothing, nothing right, nothing good. It so describes fraud and iniquity. Gesen., Noyes, etc., retain the primitive meaning, and treat the as comparative. See Exeg. Notes.A.]
Pro 13:15. [The rendering of in the E. V., is again ambiguous: good understanding. II., N., S., M. agree substantially with Z., interpreting the phrase as descriptive of prudence or discretion joined with kindness. Others, e.g. Fuerst, give it, with less probability, the passive meaning of consideration or reputation.A.]
Pro 13:16. Instead of we should read , in accordance with the correct rendering of the Vulg.: Astutus omnia agit cum consilio. [The English commentators without exception, so far as we know, follow the E. V. and the LXX, translate according to the pointing of the Mas. text: ; every wise man, etc. Z.s rendering is certainly more forcible, and justifies the vowel change.A.]
Pro 13:19. [The weight of authority has been decidedly against the authors conception of the poetic , Gesen. and Fuerst are against him, as well as the commentators cited. Kamph. may be added to those who agree with Z. in rendering this Niph. participle become as meaning come into being, developed, while the other conception is that it describes what has been completed, accomplished. Comp. Pro 13:12, b, desire that hath come, which is generally understood to be satisfaction. We cannot think that the proverb relates to the pleasure of desiring, but to that of being satisfied. The 2d clause is by H. regarded as an inference, therefore, etc.; E. V, N, S., M. regard it as an antithesisnotwithstanding their certain disappointment fools cling to evil. K. shapes the antithesis differently: a new desire is pleasant to the soul, hut if it be evil fools abhor to renounce it. Z.s view appears in the notes.A.]
Pro 13:20. [For the imper. use of the inf. abs. see Green 268, 2 and grammars generally. Niph. Imperf., more distinct than which might be a neuter Kal. Btt. 1147, A.A.]
EXEGETICAL
1. With chap. 13 Hitzig would have a new section commence, extending to Pro 15:32, and consisting of three subdivisions of symmetrical structure. The first of these subdivisions would be chap. 13, consisting of four groups of six verses each; the second, chap. 14, five groups of seven verses each; the third, chap. 15, four groups of eight verses eachaltogether 91 verses, precisely the same number as the preceding Section (chaps. 1012) contained.How arbitrary these assumptions are appears partly from the difficulties, often utterly insuperable, which meet the attempts to point out real divisions at the beginning and end of the several alleged groups of verses. It appears further from the fact that here again it is necessary to stamp as spurious one verse at least (Pro 13:23), a violent critical expedient to secure the symmetrical relation of groups that is demanded. Comp. above, Exeget. notes on chap. 10, No. 1.
With respect to the groups of verses that do develop themselves with satisfactory distinctness, and in general with reference to the order and progress of thought in the chapter before us, see the Doctrinal and Ethical notes.
2. Pro 13:1-3. Three introductory proverbs, general in their import.A wise son hearkeneth to his fathers correction.In this first clause we must supply hearkeneth from the second as predicate. The conception of others, e.g. J. D. Michaelis, Bertheau, etc.: A wise son is his fathers correction, i.e. the object of his correction,is less natural on account of its harshness. Parallel to the milder expression instruction, correction () in clause a, we have in b the stronger term rebuke (, as in Pro 17:10).No rebuke, no threatening, no earnest enforcement of law makes any impression on the scorner (Pro 1:22; Pro 9:7), the heedless reviler of religion, who has long ago thrown aside all childlike piety, and reverence for the holy. With Pro 13:2, clause a, comp. Pro 12:14; with b comp. Pro 10:6.The delight of the ungodly is violence, i.e. the eager desire () of maliciously disposed sinners is for violence (), which they wish to exercise upon others, and which therefore in turn recompenses them. Violence, therefore, stands here with a twofold meaning [active and passive] as in Pro 10:6. [See Critical Notes].Shall be destroyed., ruina, destruction, just as in Pro 10:14.[Take heed that thy tongue cut not thy throat; an Arabic proverb quoted by Trapp from Scaliger, Arab. Prov. 1:75.A.]
3. Pro 13:4-12. Nine proverbs relating mainly to the worth and right use of wealth.The sluggard desireth, but without the satisfying of his desire.[See Critical Notes].But the desire of the diligent is abundantly satisfied, literally, is made fat, comp. Pro 11:25.
Pro 13:5. Deceit the righteous hateth. appears to be not word of falsehood, deceitful language (Umbreit, Bertheau), but a designation of everything falling under the category of the deceitful ( being therefore equivalent to ); comp. Psa 41:9; Isa 44:4; it means therefore lies and frauds, deceit.But the ungodly acteth basely and shamefully. [See Critical Notes]. , lit., maketh offensive, stinking, stands here as equivalent to , acteth basely, or causeth shame; comp. Pro 19:26. The Hiphil form , which is found also in the parallel passage, here has an active meaning, acteth shamefully, while in Isa 54:4 it stands as passive: cometh to shame, or is put to shame. [So the E. V., H., N., and M., while S., K., etc., give the causative renderingA.].
Pro 13:6. Righteousness protecteth an upright walk, lit., innocence of way, an abstract for the concrete, and therefore equivalent to such as walk uprightly (comp. Pro 10:29). But wickedness plungeth into sin.Wickedness (), literally, perverse, malicious disposition describes that evil state of the heart which necessarily leads to sinful action (). The verb, which is here used in its natural meaning, overturn, plunge into something, has the end of its action, sin, connected with it without a preposition (comp. Pro 19:13). The old versions, and among modern expositors Bertheau, [Fuerst, H., N., M., S.], take the object as an abstract for the concrete, and therefore translate wickedness overthroweth sinners, by which rendering a more exact parallelism between a and b, it is true, is secured.
Pro 13:7. One maketh himself rich, and hath nothing at all.Comp. Pro 12:9, a maxim, which, like the one before us, is aimed at foolish pride of birth and empty love of display on the part of men without means. The boasting ones self there corresponds with the representing ones self rich here. Comp. also the similar proverb of the Arabs, in Meidani, III. 429. [The second clause is differently understood; W. interprets it as referring to the being rich in good works, and sacrificing all worldly things for God and His truth. So Holden; while Trapp, Bridges, N., S. and M. regard the clause as referring to the deceitful concealment of riches. The parallelism requires this view.A.]
Pro 13:8. A ransom for a mans life are his riches, i.e. the rich man can and under certain circumstances, as e.g. before a court, or when taken captive by robbers or in war, must, employ his wealth for his ransom.But the poor heedeth no threatening, i.e. no warning or threatening however sharp (rebuke as in Pro 13:1) will be able to force anything from him who has nothing the poor is deaf to every threat that aims at the diminution of his possessions, for where there is nothing, there the Emperor has lost his rights. The spirit of this maxim, in itself morally indifferent, seems like that of the similar proverb, Pro 10:15, to be directed to the encouragement of industry, and of some earthly acquisitions though they be but moderate. Elster is certainly in the wrong, in holding that the proverb depicts, not without a shade of irony, the advantages as well of great wealth as of great poverty. Against various other conceptions of the verse, especially of clause b, comp. Bertheau in loco. [Holden construes interrogatively: Doth not the poor, etc., understanding it of the helplessness of the poor; N. and M. understand it of the safety of the poor in his poverty; W. of his light-hearted independence; S. of the viciously or heedlessly poor, whom nothing can arouse to virtuous industry.A.]
Pro 13:9. The light of the righteous burneth joyously.The verb is here intransitive: is joyous, i.e. burns brightly, with vigorous blaze. Hitzig rightly directs attention to the fact that the same root () in Arabic signifies to laugh, or sport.But the lamp of the wicked goeth out. The lamp of the wicked () does not seem to be emphatically contrasted as a dim night lamp with the bright light of the righteous, but is probably a simple synonym of determined by the parallelism; comp. Job 28:5-6; Job 21:17; Job 22:28; Job 29:3.
Pro 13:10. By pride cometh only contention.Only () although in the Hebrew put first in the clause, belongs nevertheless to the subject (), and not to the by pride [as in E. V., and Stuart]; as though the meaning were, only by pride (or, only in excitement, ebullition of passion, Umbreit) does one begin strife. Comp. rather as an example of this prefixing of only (), Psa 32:6 [where Hupfeld and others do not admit this explanation only to him, etc.]; and for similar hyperbata with and comp. Pro 19:2; Pro 20:11; Isa 34:14. [N. and M. agree with our author. H. takes as a noun, ignorance with pride, etc. But if it be objected to the simple and obvious rendering of the words in their Hebrew order, that pride is not the only or chief cause of contention, it may no less be objected that contention is not the only or chief result of pride. Why may not the proverb be interpreted as comparing two dispositions, the proud, self-sufficient spirit, of clause a, and the modest inclination to consult and consider others, of clause b? Only by the former of these two is contention produced.A.]But wisdom is with those who receive counsel.Comp. Pro 12:15, b. Instead of , the well advised, those who hearken to counsel, Hitzig proposes to read , the modest. An unnecessary change to correspond with Pro 11:2.
Pro 13:11. Gain through fraud vanisheth away.[See Critical Notes]. The is used to describe gain coming from nothingness, from the unreal, i.e. secured in an unsubstantial, inconsiderate, fraudulent way (Ewald, Luther, etc.). Or (with Ziegler, Dderlein, Elster, Hitzig) let the pointing be (Pual part.); i.e. a hastily, fraudulently acquired wealth, substantia festinata, Vulg.To regard as a comparative, sooner than a breath (Umbreit, Noyes and others), has this against it,that a vanishing away, a diminution cannot be well predicated of a , a nothing, a mere phantom, but may be naturally of a possession gained in an unsubstantial or unworthy manner.But he that gathereth by laborincreaseth it. is either handful after handful (Ewald, Bertheau, Elster, etc.), or, according to his ability pro portione s. mensura sua (Hitzig). In both cases it describes the gradual and progressive accumulation of wealth, resulting from diligence and exertion, and so is in significant contrast with the impatient dishonesty of the preceding clause.
Pro 13:12. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick; comp. Pro 10:28. The predicate is not a substantive, sickness of heart (Umbreit), but a Hiph. partic.For the figure of the tree of life in clause b comp. Pro 11:30. [Desire that hath come, (Kal part.) is by common consent of lexicographers and commentators desire accomplished. This should be remembered in the exposition of Pro 13:19 a.A.]
4. Pro 13:13-17. Five proverbs relating to the value of the divine word as the highest good, and exhorting to obedience to it.Whosoever despiseth the word is in bonds to it, i.e. the word or the law of God (comp. for this absolute use of the term word () e.g., Pro 16:20). The word of divine revelation is here, as it were, personified as a real superhuman power, whose service one cannot escape, and in default of this he comes in bondage to it, i.e. loses his liberty. [The verb according to this rendering describes mortgages, bonds and other such legal obligations; wird verpfndet, Z.A.] Thus Schultens, Ewald, Elster correctly render, while many others, e.g. Umbreit, Bertheau, [K., E. V., N., S., M.] explain for him is destruction provided, he shall be destroyed. Hitzig, however, altogether arbitrarily takes the word of clause a in the sense of command, and the command () of clause b in the sense of prohibition, and accordingly translates whosoever despiseth the command is seized by it, and whoso avoideth (heedeth) the prohibition is rewarded (?). For the phrase he is requited, to him is requital, comp. Pro 11:31.
Pro 13:14. The instruction of the wise man is a fountain of life.Comp. Pro 10:11, where the mouth of the righteous, and Pro 14:27, where the fear of God is described by this figure. In the latter passage the 2d clause of our verse appears again. Snares of death an established formula for the description of mortal perils; comp. Psa 18:5; Pro 21:6, and also the Latin laquei mortis, Hor. Od. III. 24, 8.
Pro 13:15. Kindly wisdom produceth favor. Comp. Pro 3:4, where however the expresses a somewhat different idea, viz., passively, good reputation. [See Critical Notes].The way of the ungodly is desolate., perennis, elsewhere descriptive of a brook or river that flows inexhaustibly, seems here to denote either a standing bog (J. D., Michaelis, Umbreit), or, which is perhaps more natural, it belongs as an adjective to the noun way (), and characterizes the way of transgressors as ever trodden, i.e. altogether hard, solid, and therefore desolate and unfruitful (Bertheau, Ewald, Elster, etc.). [As compared with the more common conception of the hard way as rough, stony (Fuerst, H., S., M., W.) this has the advantage of following more naturally from the radical idea of continuance and permanence.A.] Hitzig prefers to read , makes hateful, produces hatred (?). [This is Noyes explanation].
Pro 13:16. [See Critical Notes]. For the meaning the wise man doeth all things with understanding, comp. Pro 12:23; Pro 15:2.
Pro 13:17. A bad messenger falleth into trouble.A bad messenger (lit., wicked) is not, as might be thought, one who is indolent, tardy, as in Pro 10:26 (so Bertheau), but one who is faithless, not true to his master, betraying him. He falls into trouble as a punishment for his faithlessness. Arnoldi and Hitzig unnecessarily substitute the Hiphil for the Kal, and render throws into trouble. The antithesis between a and b is at any rate not an exact one.But a messenger of fidelity, a faithful messenger.Comp. Pro 14:5; Pro 20:6, and for this participial form of the epithet, Pro 25:13.For this use of health, healing medicine, comp. Pro 12:18.
5. Pro 13:18-25. Eight additional admonitory I proverbs, pointing to the blessedness of obedience to the divine word.Poverty and shame (to him) that refuseth correction.The participial clause is to be taken as conditional, if one refuses correction (comp. Job 41:18). The connection with the main clause is not grammatically complete, because intelligible of itself, comp. Pro 27:7 (Hitzig). For the meaning of the verb comp. Pro 1:25; Pro 4:15; Pro 8:33.With clause b comp. Pro 15:5; Pro 15:32.
Pro 13:19. Quickened desire is sweet to the soul.[See Critical Notes.] Desire that has come to be (Niph. part.) cannot be designed to describe appeased desire (Vulg., Luther, Bertheau, Ewald, Elster [Fuerst, H., N., S., M., etc.], but, as the import of clause b and a comparison of 12, b suggest, a desire that is just originated, has just attained its development, now first vividly experienced but not yet satisfied (Umbreit, Hitzig). Now that this desire is in many instances directed toward evil, and that this evil desire is especially hard to appease,this is the truth to which clause b gives expression (comp. Jam 1:14-15). The second clause is not then antithetically related to the first, but it makes strongly prominent a single side of the general truth already uttered. [To what is said in the Critical Notes Rueetschis comment may be added (Stud. u. Krit., 1868, p. 139). He renders clause a like the Vulg., E. V., etc., regarding it as the statement of a general psychological fact, while b supplies a particular case, illustrative and not contrasted. His practical use of the sentiment of the proverb is embodied in the appeal Therefore see to it that thy desire be a good one in whose accomplishment thou mayest rightly rejoice! He pronounces Hitzigs and Z.s rendering of as untenable lexically, and false to fact.A.]
Pro 13:20. Walk with wise men and become wise.So according to the Kthibh: an infin. abs. [used as an imperative] followed by an imperative instead of a consecutive clause,which is to be preferred to the Kri [which is followed by LXX, Vulg., E. V., H., N., S. and M.]. The latter makes the language less spirited and needlessly assimilates it in form to the 2d clause.But whosoever delighteth in fools becometh base.In the Hebrew there is a play upon words: he who tendeth fools () showeth himself base . [This might be thus imitated in English: he who allendeth fools tendeth to folly]. For this use of the verb , to follow or attach ones self to some one, sectari aliquem, to cultivate intercourse with one, comp. Pro 28:7; Pro 29:3; Jer 17:16. From this is derived friend, comrade.
Pro 13:21. To the righteous God repayeth good.As subject of the verb we should supply in this instance not the indefinite subject, one, man, but rather Jehovah (unlike the instances in Pro 10:24; Pro 12:12). Hitzig needlessly substitutes as an emendation meeteth, suggested by the of the LXX. For the meaning comp. Pro 10:25; Pro 11:3; Pro 11:5, etc.
Pro 13:22. A good man leaveth an inheritance to his childrens children. For this absolute use of the Hiph., causeth to inherit, transmitteth his estate, comp. Deu 32:8. For the sentiment comp. Job 27:17; Ecc 2:26.
Pro 13:23. The poor mans new land (yieldeth) much food. The noun according to Hos 10:12; Jer 4:3, describes newly broken, newly ploughed land, i.e. a field newly cleared, and therefore cultivated with much effort (Vulg. correctly novalia: Luther less exactly furrows (Furchen). If such a field nevertheless yields its poor possessor much food, he must be a devout and upright poor man, and so possess the main condition of genuine prosperity, which is wanting to the man mentioned in clause b, who is evidently a man of means, a rich man, who in consequence of his iniquity (lit., by not-justice) is destroyed.Hitzig on the ground of the phraseology, which is certainly somewhat hard and obscure, pronounces the verse corrupt, and therefore reads instead of , and so gets for clause a the meaning A great man who consumes the income of capital (!). Furthermore he pronounces the whole verse spurious, and thinks it originally formed a marginal comment on Pro 11:24 (!!) but then by the mistake of some copyist was introduced into the text just at this point. [Rueetschi (as above quoted) interprets clause a in like manner of the righteous poor mans newly cleared land, which, although wrought with difficulty, abundantly rewards the labor. The of clause b he regards not as a verb there is, but as a substantive (comp. Pro 8:21), with the meaning substance, wealth. This is destroyed where there has been unrighteousness.A.]
Pro 13:24. He that spareth his rod hateth his son. See Pro 3:12; Pro 23:13-14; Pro 29:15; Sir 30:1.But whosoever loveth him seeketh it, correction. The suffix of the last verb here, as in Pro 13:22, refers to the object immediately following, and this noun is here used actively in the sense of chastisement, discipline which one employs with another. Others take the suffix as the indirect object, equivalent to , for him; he seeketh for him (the son) correction. This, however, is hot grammatically admissible. Hitzig maintains that the verb is here to be taken after the analogy of the Arabic in the sense of tame, subdue, and that the noun is a second accusative object (?),and that we should therefore translate he restraineth him by correction. So also Hofmann, Schriftbew. II. 2, 377 (follows him up with correction). With Pro 13:25 comp. Psa 34:10 (11), Pro 10:3, etc.
DOCTRINAL, ETHICAL, HOMILETIC, AND PRACTICAL
The idea which appears in the very first verse, of salutary discipline, or of education by the word of God and sound doctrine, also reappears afterward several times in a significant way (Pro 13:13-14; Pro 13:18; Pro 13:24; comp. Pro 13:6; Pro 13:10; Pro 13:20-21); it therefore to a certain extent controls the whole development of thought throughout this Section, so far as we may speak of anything of the kind. We have also here again as in chap. 4 (see above, p. 74,) a chapter on the true religious training of children. Only it is here specifically training to the wise use of earthly blessings (so in particular the group Pro 13:4-12), and to the knowledge of Gods word as the chief blessing (so especially in the 2d half, Pro 13:13-25); this is urged by most of the proverbs that are here grouped. Hence the frequent allusions to the blessing of constant diligence, and patient labor in ones earthly calling in reliance upon God (Pro 13:4; Pro 13:11; Pro 13:23; Pro 13:25); also to the great value of earthly possessions gathered under Gods gracious help, as important instrumentalities for the fulfilment of the spiritual duties also involved in ones calling (Pro 13:8; Pro 13:11-12; Pro 13:18; Pro 13:22); further to the hateful and harmful nature of pride and vanity (Pro 13:7 a, 10, 16, 18); to the evil consequences of unfaithfulness, since it necessarily smites its own lord (Pro 13:2; Pro 13:5; Pro 13:15; Pro 13:17); to the importance of good company, and of a decided abhorrence of that evil companionship which corrupts the morals (Pro 13:1; Pro 13:6; Pro 13:20; comp. 1Co 15:33), etc.
Therefore, in the homiletic treatment of the chapter as a whole, we have as a subject The true Christian education of children. 1) Its basis: Gods word (Pro 13:1; Pro 13:13-14); 2) its means: love, and strictness in inculcating Gods word (Pro 13:1; Pro 13:18; Pro 13:24); 3) its aim: guidance of the youth to the promotion of his temporal and eternal welfare (Pro 13:2 sq., Pro 13:16 sq.) Or, on the right use of Gods word as the basis, the means, and the end in all human culture. Or, on the word of God as the most precious of all possessions (comp. Mat 6:33; Mat 13:44-46; 1Pe 1:23-25).Stcker:The wise mans discipline (Disciplina sapientis). 1) Wherein it consists (110); 2) What qualities the well-trained wise man possesses, viz. chiefly, a) Moderation and prudence in the use of earthly good; b) Humility and modesty; 3) What is the blessing of a wise training.
Pro 13:1-3. Starke:No one is born pious; every one brings sin with him into the world; therefore from the tenderest childhood upward diligence should be employed with youth that they may grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph 6:2). There are spirits that from merest infancy onward have their jests at everything that belongs to virtue and piety (Gen 21:9); to improve such always costs much work and prayer.(On Pro 13:2-3): If words spoken heedlessly before a human tribunal are often so dangerous that they can bring one into the greatest misfortune, how can evil words be indifferent in the view of God the Supreme Judge (Mat 12:36)?Wohlfarth:On what does the happy result of education depend? 1) On the side of parents, on the strictest conscientiousness in the fulfilment of their duties as educators (Pro 13:1); 2) On the side of children, on their thankful reception of this training (Pro 13:2-9).
Pro 13:4-12. Starke (on Pro 13:5):The natural man shuns lying and deceit on account of the outward shame and reproach; the pious abhors them with all his heart for Gods sake.(On Pro 13:7): A mans condition may not be with certainty inferred from the outward appearance: all is not gold that glitters (Ecc 8:4; 1Sa 16:7). The spiritually poor who feels his inward poverty stands in the right relation, in which he can become truly rich in the grace of God.(On Pro 13:8): The poor man may have many advantages over the rich, in case he knows how to use his poverty aright.(On Pro 13:11): That many men of means become poor is caused by the fact that they do not wisely apply what is theirs, but waste it on all manner of useless things.(On Pro 13:12): If thou hast made some promise to thy neighbor, defer not long me fulfilment of the promise. He who gives promptly gives double.[Bridges (on Pro 13:5):It is not that a righteous man never lies. Nor is it a proof of a righteous man that he avoids lying. But true religion brings in the new tasteconformity to the mind of God.Trapp [on Pro 13:9):A saints joy is as the light of the sun, fed by heavenly influence, and never extinct, but diffused through all parts of the world.(On Pro 13:11): Ill-gotten goods fly away without taking leave of the owner.(On Pro 13:12): We are short-breathed, short-spirited. But as God seldom comes at our time, so He never fails at His own; and then He is most sweet because most seasonable.Arnot (on Pro 13:12):If the world be made the portion of an immortal spirit, to want it is one sickness, to have it is another. To desire and to possess a perishable portion are only two different kinds of misery to men].J. Lange (on Pro 13:12):Children of God must often hope long under the cross for their deliverance. Yet when this comes at length, it is so refreshing and joyful, that they begin as it were to live anew.Zeltner (on Pro 13:12):Set thy hope not on the vain, uncertain and transient, but on the imperishable and eternal, on God and His word, 1Co 4:18; 1Ti 6:17.
Pro 13:13-17. Tbingen Bible (on Pro 13:13):It is very great wisdom gladly to receive correction when one has erred; but it is folly to be angry when one is warned against everlasting destruction.Geier:Faithful discharge of the duties that devolve on us secures a good conscience and reward from God and men.[Trapp (on Pro 13:15):Natural conscience cannot but do homage to the image of God stamped upon the natures and works of the godly.Arnot:It is far-seeing mercy that makes the way of transgressors hard; its hardness warns the traveller to turn that he may live].Starke (on Pro 13:16):If thine act and project are to prosper, begin with prudence and good counsel, and so continue till thou hast done.Wohlfarth:Wisdom as the fountain of true life. Its correction like its counsel is health and blessing; its yoke is soft and light, because it urges us to act and to walk simply according to our destination.Von Gerlach (on Pro 13:13 sq.):A despiser of Gods word involves himself in its penalties, he falls sooner or later under its chastisement: while on the contrary his reward never fails the righteous.(On Pro 13:17): While the wicked messenger prepares misfortune for himself as well as for his master, the faithful makes good even his lords mistakes.
Pro 13:18-25. Berleburg Bible (on Pro 13:18):Where one finds a spirit that can tolerate no correction, is always excusing and defending itself, or throwing the blame on others, from such a one there is no good to be hoped.(On Pro 13:20): It is very profitable to cultivate friendship and familiar intercourse with spiritually-minded men, because one is in general wont easily to take to ones self the spirit of those with whom one associates.Zeltner (on Pro 13:20):If thou shunnest an infected house, how much more shouldst thou shun the company of the ungodly, that thou mayest not be touched by the poison of their sins and vices.[Arnot:The issue to be decided is not what herd you shall graze with a few years before your spirit return to the dust; but what moral element you shall move in during the few and evil days of life, till your spirit return to God who gave it.].Starke (on Pro 13:21):Sin evermore draws after it Gods wrath and judgments as the shadow always closely follows the body.[T. Adams (on Pro 13:22):The usurer lightly begets blind children that cannot see to keep what their father left them. But when the father is gone to hell for gathering, the son often follows for scattering. But God is just].Melanchthon (on Pro 13:23):It is better to possess small means, but use them well, and enjoy them with pious and contented mind, than to heap up great treasures, that pass not away without offences of many kinds.Osiander (on Pro 13:23).God gives to a pious man who is poor nevertheless nourishment enough if ho only labor diligently in his calling and forsake not prayer.J. Lange (on Pro 13:24):A good father follows his children unweariedly with prayer, correction and counsel, that he may not be forced afterwards bitterly to deplore omitting correction at the right time.Von Gerlach (on Pro 13:24):A loving father strives to correct his child early; he docs not wait till urgent need forces him to it.[John Howe:Fond parents think it love (that spares the rod); but divine wisdom calls it hatred.Bridges:The discipline of our children must commence with self-discipline. Nature teaches us to love them much. But we want a controlling principle to teach us to love them wisely. The indulgence of our children has its root in self-indulgence].
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

A wise son heareth his father’s instruction: but a scorner heareth not rebuke. A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth: but the soul of the transgressors shall eat violence. He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction. The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. A righteous man hateth lying: but a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame. Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way: but wickedness overthroweth the sinner. There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.
I pause at this last verse to ask the Reader if he hath marked the striking difference between the one here spoken of, as making himself rich, while poor; and the other, who having great riches, yet hath made himself poor. Every eye that reads what is here said, and looks into the world, may be struck with the application, when he seeth thousands like the church of the Laodiceans, fancying themselves rich, and increased with goods, and having need of nothing, while ignorant that they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Rev 3:17-18 . In the spiritual sense of these words, (and it is in this sense that they are evidently spoken) what multiplied instances are every day occurring. But, Reader! passing for the moment the consideration of such characters by, you cannot need, I should hope, any help to enable you to discover one most eminently represented in the character of making himself poor, while possessing great riches: Must not every eye be directed instantly to the contemplation of the precious Jesus? Who but He hath ever so humbled himself, and manifested a lowliness of soul like him? Ye know, saith Paul to the Corinthian church, ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet, for your sakes, he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. 2Co 8:9 . And what another lovely account to the same effect is that passage of Paul, Phi 2:5-11 . But, Reader! do not pass over the verse, until that you have questioned your own heart, whether the conscious sense of Jesus’s unequalled humbleness, and his immense treasure, hath brought your soul in love with him? Hath he blessed you with such views of him, as to delight in him; such views as to desire him, and such views as to choose him for your portion?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The Heedless Scorner, Etc.

Pro 13:1-13
This verse has been rendered, “is his father’s instruction;” the meaning being that a wise son embodies his father’s instruction, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:” a wise man may point to his son and say, This is the sum-total of my educational efforts. Observe, however, that the most careful and loving endeavours may be thrown away, as good seed may be cast upon stony ground and profit the sower nothing. The proverb is careful to define the quality of the son whose education embodies the purpose of the father; he is to be “a wise son,” that is to say, a son who can make the most of his opportunities, who really understands the process through which he is passing, and who can assimilate the intellectual food with which he is nourished. It is made clear that only such a son can profit by his father’s instruction by what immediately follows namely, that “a scorner heareth not rebuke,” that is to say, a scorner is profited by nothing; being a satirist himself, he turns everything into satire; he mocks the speaker of good things, he parodies the highest poetry, he resents the most delicate and spiritual approach; wine turns to vinegar in his mouth, and all that is beautiful is blighted when he looks upon it. We should not be struck by the mere ability of satire; we should remember its moral disadvantages, for it debases and impoverishes whatever it touches that is meant for its good. We are not now speaking of the satire which may be used as an argumentative weapon, for the exposure of wickedness, and for the ridicule of mere pretension: we are speaking of the satire which takes the moral purpose out of every appeal, and turns to derision all the efforts that are directed towards the soul’s real education. When instruction has been lost upon a man, we should look to the man himself as the explanation of that loss. It is easy to look upon the pastor of a church, and blame him for the poor results which have accrued from his ministry; we may mock him, and looking at his people may say, Are these the fruits of your labour? whereas we ought to look at the people and say, Is this the use you have made of the noble opportunities which have been put within your reach? had ye been wise sons ye would have received instruction, and profited by it, and in a blessed incarnation would have represented it to the whole world. Wisdom gathers everything; scorning gathers nothing: it is for each man to say that: he will walk in the one spirit or in the other, but let him distinctly know what the consequences of each spirit must be.
“There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches” ( Pro 13:7 ).

Christ’s own teaching is here anticipated. He that loseth his life for Christ’s sake shall find it; he that seeketh his life for his own sake shall lose it. Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die. We have to lose before we can gain; to sow before we can reap; to trust all the ministries of nature before we can fill our arms with sheaves. The voice of experience is heard in this testimony. There is nothing in mere reason to support it; on the contrary, there is much on the first appearance of things to discredit the assertion. Cause and effect would seem to be here wholly neglected. If a man be gathering all his days, will he not have an abundance at the last? If a man be scattering for a lifetime, is it; possible that he can have a mountain left at the close? The answer to these inquiries would seem to be instantaneous because obvious. Yet spiritual experience goes in a directly contrary direction. He who gives himself away most secures himself, provided the motive of the oblation be good, and that the spirit in which it is offered be the spirit of Jesus Christ. There must be no investment of charity; there must be no speculation in alms. The very spirit of sacrifice is ervealed in this noble text, especially in the words, “There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.” A philosopher once said he had nothing except that which he had given away. Christian natures go out of themselves and live in the good of others; that is to say, when they see others prospering they rejoice, and draw comfort from advantages which do not immediately belong to themselves. A man who has made himself poor in order that he might educate his children, and bring them up in the ways of virtue and honour, is a rich man, provided his children are grateful, and return to him due compensation for his endeavours: that compensation need not be in money, but in pureness, in nobleness of purpose, in chivalry of spirit; when he sees how his money is, so to say, growing crops of golden wheat in their mind and character, he is delighted, and accounts himself a rich man. Whoever has suffered in order that others may be free is rich in the liberty which he has secured for them. Whoever has expended himself that the sick and the dying may be recovered is rich in the health which has been established through the instrumentality of his labour. The selfish man always comes to nothing; for a time he seems to succeed, but he has no satisfaction even in his treasure; his flowers are without fragrance; his sky is but a great glaring arch; it is not atmosphered and made beautiful through the action of a thousand ministries, subtle in their operation, but gracious and infinite in their results. If this proverb could be thoroughly understood, it would set up a new standard in every life by which to judge prosperity and failure; it would make the first last, and the last first; men who understood it, and applied it to daily practice, would know that there is a success which is failure, and there is a failure which is success, and that nothing is to be accounted of that does not go down to the very foundations of righteousness and rise to the very glory of God.
“The light of the righteous rejoiceth: but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out” ( Pro 13:9 ).

By this we are to understand that the light of the righteous burns joyously, is a very image of gladness and rapture: the sun rejoiceth as a giant to run his course; he is, so to say, conscious of his power and of his speed; travelling does not weary him, shining does not exhaust him; at the end he is as mighty as at the beginning. It will be observed that in the one case the word is “light” as applied to the righteous, and in the other the word is “lamp” as applied to the wicked. The path of the just is as a shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day; the light of the righteous man is above, it is not of his own making, it never can be exhausted: the light in which the wicked man walks is a lamp of his own creation, he made it, he lighted it, he is above and greater than that light, and at any moment it may be extinguished; he walks in the fire and in the sparks which he himself has kindled; he is full of brilliant fancies, flashing and glaring eccentricities; he rejoices transiently in the rockets which he throws up into the air, but as they expire and fall back in dead ashes at his feet he sees how poor have been his resources, and how mean is the issue of a cleverness that is without moral basis and moral inspiration. God’s blessing is always attached to the true light. God himself is Light. Jesus Christ was the Light of the world, and Christians are to be lights of their day and generation, reflecting the glory of their Master. The wicked indeed have a kind of light; that should always be amply acknowledged: but it is a light of their own creation, and a light that is doomed to extinction, it shall be put out; a drop of rain shall fall upon it, and the little flicker shall expire, never to be rekindled.
“Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded” ( Pro 13:13 ).

The more literal rendering would be, “He that despiseth the word shall bring ruin on himself.” This is a great law of the Biblical revelation namely, that destruction is not a merely arbitrary act on the part of God, a mere penalty, but that it involves the idea of suicide or self-ruin. The man is not merely punished from without, he is punished from within. There is no threatening in the statement that if a man put his hand into the fire he will be burned; it is not a threatening, it is a warning, a foretelling, a statement of simple fact So we are told here that whoso despiseth the word the innermost wisdom, the logos, the eternal truth shall bring ruin upon himself, shall commit suicide. A view of this kind enables us to escape several practical mistakes into which they fall who do not understand the constitution of man and the purpose of divine law. As far as possible we should exempt God from the thought that he is standing outside of us merely for the sake of rewarding the good and punishing the evil, and that he does the one by so many crowns and sceptres, and the other by so many rods and stripes. The law of reward and also the law of punishment are to be found within ourselves. There is a profound truth in the proverb that virtue is its own reward, and vice is its own punishment: we need not wait to go before the divine Majesty in any ceremonious formality; we no sooner eat the forbidden fruit than we die. How true it is, “in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die:” thou shalt consciously die; without a single word being spoken from the judgment-seat death shall take place, the whole heaven shall be clouded, the whole earth shall become a sepulchre, and man himself, though living physically, will know that he is in very deed twice dead. Experience on every hand proves this. We ourselves know it. No sooner does an evil word proceed from our lips than we feel that we have sustained moral loss; no sooner do we execute a forbidden deed than we fall down dead in the presence of God. It is a mistake to limit the word “death” to merely physical decay or extinction. It is a consciousness of the soul, always connected with the doing of evil and the conscious desert of punishment. He that sinneth against God wrongeth his own soul. See, on the other hand, how equal is the law, for “he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded;” he who looks above for wisdom, and who will not move until God indicates time and place he shall be rewarded, with peace, with a sense of security, with daily light for daily needs. If this were a Biblical doctrine only it might be put to the disadvantage of being denominated metaphysical, or even sentimental; but we find the same law operating in the family, in social life, in the whole sphere and action of the commonwealth.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XXII
MISCELLANEOUS PROVERBS
Pro 10:1-22:16 .

Solomon is the author of Pro 10:1-22:16 , and the character of this section is noticeable in the change from the direct and continuous appeal of the opening chapters of the book to the short and, for the most part, disconnected maxims, each of them contained, as a rule, in a couplet, or district, formed strictly on the model of Hebrew parallelism.
The one exception to the rule of the couplet is found in Pro 19:7 were there is a tristich, or stanza of three lines) which is explained by assuming that the last clause of this verse properly belongs to another proverb, of which one member has fallen out of our present text. This conclusion is in some measure confirmed by the appearance in the Septuagint of two complete distichs, though it does not help toward the restoration of the original Hebrew text.
Maurer calls this section, “Golden saying not unworthy of Solomon, fitted to form and fashion the whole life.” There are 376 proverbs in this collection and the parallelism is generally antithetic. A profitable study it would be to take this great section and classify each proverb in it as to the Hebrew parallelism found in it, and then paraphrase it so as to show its application to modern life, but such a plan would require more space than can be given to this discussion. An example of such paraphrase is found in W. J. Bryan’s paraphrase of Pro 22:3 , thus: A wise man sees the danger and gets out of the way, But the fool rushes on and gets it in the neck.
I give here several proverbs selected from those made by members of the author’s class in the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, as illustrations of the various kinds of parallelism found in the book of proverbs. Many of them are antithetic, like most of the proverbs found in the great section discussed so briefly in this chapter. The kind of parallelism found in each proverb is indicated by the word following it.
A wise man is as springtime to his neighbor, But the foolish are as the death of winter. Antithetic
A son that honors his father shall be honored in old age, But he that dishonors his parents shall suffer at the last. Antithetic
A wise man chooses his path, But they who Jack wisdom stumble on through life. Antithetic
In the house of the wicked strife prevails, But in the chambers of the righteous peace dwells. Antithetic
Christ is the foundation of religion, And religion is the foundation of the world. Synthetic
Heaven is a place of happiness But hell is a place of torment. Antithetic
What you were will not avail, It’s what you are that counts. Synthetic
Every proverb has encased a jewel, And wisdom is the key to unlock it. Climactic
Teachers impart knowledge, But pupils straightway forget it. Antithetic
Any fool can find fault, But the wise in heart will bridle the tongue. Antithetic
If people would be loved, They must first love others. Progressive
Love getteth to itself friends; While hatred maketh enemies. Antithetic
Duty calls ever and anon, Happy the man who heeds her call. Climactic
If you pay as you go, Your going will be good. Progressive
The bold eat the sweet morsel of victory, But the fearful are put to shame. Antithetic
The rebuke of a friend Is better than the compliment of an enemy. Progressive
As the rudder is to the ship, So is character to the life. Parabolic
A little schooling is a fooling with the looks, But true learning is a discerning of the books. Antithetic
The wicked rejoiceth in health, But calleth on the Lord in distress. Antithetic
The man who has an axe to grind Meets you with a smiling face. Progressive
Tis only noble thoughts Can make a noble man. Progressive
The wheels of time move slowly But they move surely. Climactic
The wicked purpose evil and are brought low, But the righteous purpose good and are exalted. Antithetic
The man who seeks to know the right shall find light. But he who seeks the lusts of the flesh shall find darkness. Antithetic
The going of the wicked is exceedingly crooked, But the path of the righteous is in the straight and narrow way. Antithetic
As a roaring lion in chains by the way, So is the adversary to the heavenly pilgrim. Parabolic
They who take part in others’ troubles Are apt to get into trouble, too. Progressive
QUESTIONS

1. Who is the author of Pro 10:1-22:16 and what is the character of this section?
2. What is exception to the rule that these Proverbs are expressed in couplets and how may this exception be explained?
3. What says Maurer of this section?
4. How many proverbs are in this section and what kind of parallelism is most common?
5. What is the suggestion by the author for a profitable study of this section?
6. Select ten of the most striking proverbs in this section and paraphrase them so as to show the application of them.
7. Now try your hand at making proverbs of every kind of Hebrew parallelism and indicate the kind of parallelism in each.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Pro 13:1 A wise son [heareth] his father’s instruction: but a scorner heareth not rebuke.

Ver. 1. A wise son heareth his father’s instruction.] Heb., Is the instruction or discipline of his father; he was not natus sapiens, as Appollonius, sed factus, a not born wise to salvation, but made so by his father’s discipline, as Solomon. Pro 4:4 See Trapp on “ Pro 4:4 “

But a scorner heareth not rebuke. ] Or, Heareth and jeereth; – as Lot’s sons-in-law, as Eli’s sons, and afterwards Samuel’s. Samuel succeeds Eli in his cross, as well as in his place, though not in his sin of indulgence. God will shew that grace is by gift, not by inheritance or education. Ciceroni degenerem fuisse filium constat, et sapiens ille Socrates liberos habuit matri similiores quam patri, saith Seneca. Cicero had a son nothing like him; so had Socrates.
a Philostratus.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Proverbs Chapter 13

In chapter 13: 1-6, we have the temper, the means, and the traits of blessing in contrast with those of evil and shame; and we do well to weigh the words of Jehovah.
“A wise son [hath] his father’s instruction; but a scorner heareth not rebuke.
“A man shall eat good by the mouth’s fruit; but the soul of the treacherous [ is for] violence.
“He that guardeth his mouth keepeth his soul; he that openeth wide his lips [shall have] destruction.
“A sluggard’s soul desireth, and hath nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.
“A righteous one hateth lying; but the wicked maketh himself odious and cometh to shame.
“Righteousness guardeth him that is upright in the way; but wickedness overthroweth the sinner.” vv. 1-6.
A wise son bows thankfully to the divine provision of the family circle, and heeds his father’s correction, and the more when forced to feel folly is bound up with a child’s heart, not excepting his own. But what hope can there be of a scorner? of one who cannot conceive himself to blame, and counts him as an enemy who is faithful enough to tell him the truth?
The next case is not the duty of receiving, but the privilege of communicating good. Yet here too a man shall eat good by the fruit of a mouth that utters what is good to the use of edifying. And Jehovah of old impressed this on Israel by Moses, and on their sons. “Thou shalt talk of them [his words] when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou goest on the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign on thy hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.” Deu 6:7-9 . Were any words to compare with His? If this were irksome, what a tale it tells! The soul of transgressors brooks no superior, no restraint. Violence is its issue; and what can its end be?
But there is a bridle needed also. Hence he that guardeth his mouth keepeth his soul. As a good man said, one should think twice before speaking once. If any offend not in word, he is a perfect man (of thorough integrity), able to bridle the whole body also. How much of sorrow and shame he spares himself, and others who avenge a little folly by despising the wisdom they themselves lack! On the other hand, he that goes about blatant, opening his lips wide to tell all he thinks, feels, or hears of others, shall have the destruction which his malicious folly deserves.
Then we have the person too indolent to take trouble for good or ill, the sluggard. “A sluggard’s soul desires, and hath nothing.” All begins and ends in wishes, with which the Apostle dealt trenchantly in 2Th 3:10 . How different the lot of the diligent! They shall be made fat, says the wise man. In every sphere it is true in the main – unfailingly so in the things of God who raises above many a mistake, and values purpose of heart and ways.
There are men of the world who would be ashamed to lie in daily life, and are severe against it in others; yet they blink at it in politics and – religion! But “the righteous hateth lying” wherever it may be, and most of all in that which concerns Him who is the Truth. Nor can one wonder, seeing that “he is begotten by the word of truth,” is sanctified by the truth, and grows by it day by day, as he is set here in the responsible testimony of the truth. Yet no one is more tempted by Satan to betray the truth. Never was there a more pernicious cheat than to fancy that a Christian has immunity from falsehood, and is sure to speak the truth always. Still he is called to be truthful in love. This goes much farther. He that does not hate lying is a wicked person, “maketh himself odious” to all right-minded souls, “and cometh to shame.”
“Righteousness guardeth the upright in the way.” Such a one is not only bold as a lion, for what is man to be accounted of? Consistency in his relationship with God and man is the shield which Satan assails in vain; yet, as a Christian, he loves to be kept by God’s power through faith, for grace is dear to his soul, and he knows well that he is indebted to Him for all. On the contrary, “wickedness overthroweth the sinner.” Self and sin are all that he takes pleasure in; and the end of those things is death. No one is so terrible to him as God, no name hated so much as Christ, if he only told out the secret of his heart. The more he hears of Him, the more he hates his Judge, and spurns the hand meanwhile stretched out to save even him.
Walking in a vain show is natural to man as he is, but it does not always put on the same mask. The most prevailing snare is to pretend to have more than one possesses; but we must be prepared also for some pretending to have less than they have, in order to escape a duty, or from other selfish motives.
“There is that feigneth himself rich, and [hath] nothing; [there is] that feigneth himself poor, and [hath] great wealth.
“The ransom of a man’s life [is] his riches; but the poor heareth no threatening.
“The light of the righteous rejoiceth; but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.
“By pride cometh only contention; but with the well-advised [is] wisdom.
“Wealth [gotten] by vanity diminisheth; but he that gathereth with the hand shall have increase.
“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick; but a desire [that] cometh to pass [is] a tree of life.” vv. 7-12.
The knowledge of Christ who is the Truth is the only sure means of making the believer truthful in deed as in word. But even he has no force beyond the constant dependence of faith. To be content with the fact that one believed is a snare and may be ruinous; faith is unreal, if it be not a living faith and a believing life.
The richest and wisest of men was a fitting oracle to tell men how greatly they err that count riches to be happiness. They make him envied and plotted against; so a rich man’s life, even if otherwise well spent, is one of exposure to dangers and deceits, and hence of no little uneasiness to the sensitive. What a sad use of riches to be the ransom of one’s life! Here at least the poor man lives in peace. To the wicked, it is aimless to threaten him who has nothing to lose, nothing to excite the covetous. He that has mercy on the poor, happy is he; while he that oppresses them, reproaches his Maker, and shall give account of his ways. When Christ reigns, He will satisfy the poor with bread. Even in the evil day his poverty protects him largely, while the rich man is proportionately exposed.
What a true and striking contrast between “the light” of the righteous, and “the lamp” of the wicked! Their course and end are according to their source. There is no real righteousness in God’s estimate apart from Him who revealed Himself and justifies us by the faith of Christ. The light of the righteous therefore rejoiceth, as in it sins are effaced, and sorrows turned into profit and consolation. The lamp of the wicked may flare widely for a while during the pleasures of sin for a season; but ere long it dims, flickers, and shall be quenched.
Pride is the root of contention. What is emptier than self-applause and self-seeking? What so rules, not only those who affect great things in high life, but among the most debased of mankind? So it works in every circle of the world, and still more disgustingly in the Church, to which Christ has given the exemplar of what perfectly pleases God and edifies man by love in the truth. Pride leads to confusion, contention, and every evil work. The old man is ever proud in one way or another, being as self-sufficient as he is regardless and forgetful of Christ. Faith alone makes a man “well- advised” in a divine sense. With those led of the Spirit is wisdom, for Christ is before their eyes and their heart. He indeed from God is made to us wisdom, and all else we need; yet, whatever we have, what do we not need?
Then again we are reminded how wealth goes as it came. If got by light, unworthy, or dishonest ways, how it flies! For in such a case it has wings, not weight, and vanishes by no less vanity than it appeared for awhile. “But he that gathereth with the hand shall have increase.” God honours industry; and some that are great lords add lustre to their rank by being more truly working men than those who live by it and are too apt to boast of it. Such should every believer be, and put to shame those that eat without work! How happy too when “increase” enables one to give to the needy! how sad that any should take advantage of grace, instead of seeking to eat their own bread!
Next we are told of the blight created by disappointment, and the cheer given by receiving what the heart sought. “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick; but [when] desire cometh, it is a tree of life.” Some may have proved both experiences, and know how true it is. But we do well in the things of this life to judge our thoughts and desires before God by His Word, and ever to say in truth, “Thy will be done.”
Slighting the Word is of the most serious import. It is near akin to unbelief in the Lord, and its commonest occasion is also akin. For men doubt the deity of the Lord, because in His grace He deigned to become man; and they, because they see Him to be man, refuse Him to be God. This is heinous iniquity; for it takes advantage of His love, in glorifying God and thereby saving our souls by His redemption by suffering for our sins, to dishonour Himself and deny His personal glory as the Son. Similarly, the word comes through the human vessel from Moses to the Apostle John; and men lay hold of the human element to deny the divine, thus depriving it, as far as the hostile will can, of its divine authority.
“Whoso despiseth the word destroyeth himself; but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.
“The teaching of the wise [is] a fountain of life, to turn away from the snares of death.
“Good understanding procureth favour; but the way of the treacherous [is] rugged.
“Every prudent one acteth with knowledge; but the foolish layeth open folly.
“A wicked messenger falleth into evil; but a faithful ambassador [is] health.
“Poverty and shame [shall be to] him that refuseth instruction; but he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured.” vv. 13-18.
Verse 13 admits of an alternative rendering, though in effect it may come to the same sense. But competent persons understand the opening clause to mean “shall be held accountable” or “fall in debt to it.” The Septuagint strangely translates the verse, and adds to it: “He that slighteth a matter shall be slighted by it; but he that feareth a command hath health. To a crafty son there shall be nothing good; but a wise servant shall have prosperous doings, and his way shall be directed aright.” The Latin Vulgate departs still more widely from the Hebrew and hardly calls for citation save in a note.* What God exalts above all His name man despises at the peril of his own ruin; but to stand in awe of injunction is to insure recompense in due time. What a man sows he assuredly reaps.
*”He that disparageth anything bindeth himself for the future but he that feareth the commandment shall dwell in peace. Deceitful souls go astray in sins: the just are merciful, and show mercy.”
The word lends to and forms the teaching of the wise man, which is here described as a fountain of life. Such teaching refreshes as well as quickens, and guards from the destructive temptations which beset the path.
Again, the value of “good understanding” makes itself felt in a scene where folly abounds and the levity which so often veils our happiness. It procures favour, because it morally commends itself without an effort; whereas the way of the treacherous is indeed “hard” or rugged, as they themselves, and all that are ensnared by them. Fidelity is a jewel in a world of pitfall through deceit.
But “knowledge” has its use as well as a good understanding; and every prudent man works with it, instead of trusting himself unaided by it, or being content to go forward blindly. The foolish one spreads out folly; what else has he to lay bare? How blessed for Christians that, whatever be the personal deficiency of each, of God are they in Christ, who was made to them wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption! Yet no man is so foolish as one professing the Lord’s name, who depends on and seeks himself to the dishonour of his Master.
Next, we have the strongly drawn opposition between “a wicked messenger,” and “a faithful ambassador.” The one comprehends the widest class of varying degree; but even its most insignificant member falls into evil, and he can do nothing but mischief. The other is not only a messenger of the highest rank, but discharges his office with integrity, as “a faithful ambassador.” If the former by his wickedness can but fall into evil by his wickedness, the latter “is health” wherever he goes in a world of sin and misery.
Verse 18 contrasts the refusal of instruction with the readiness to take reproof to heart – a rare and precious trait in anyone. Poverty and shame must be his who has no ear for the instruction which enriches all, and which all need. But what honour falls to the wise and lowly mind that welcomes and weighs reproof! Grace alone can make it real.
As hope deferred makes the heart sick, so the fruition of what is desired is pleasant, but not unless the desire be governed by the fear of God. Without His will, not anything is wise, good, or sweet. Hence we read what follows.
“The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul; but [it is] abomination to the foolish to depart from evil.
“He that walketh with wise [men] becometh wise; but a companion of the foolish will be destroyed.
“Evil pursueth sinners; but to the righteous good shall be repaid.
“A good [man] leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children; but the sinner’s wealth [is] laid up for the righteous.
“Much food [is in] the tillage of the poor; but there is [that is] lost through injustice [or, want of judgment].
“He that spareth his rod hateth his son; but he that loveth him seeketh him early with discipline.
“The righteous eateth to satisfy his desire; but the belly of the wicked shall want.” vv. 19-25.
There is no sweetness for the soul at God’s expense. He it is that is looked to, instead of leaving Him out. But when He leads and sanctions, sweet is the accomplishment of what is desired. If He chastens what is wrong or leads to it, He has pleasure in gratifying His children beyond any earthly father. But to the natural heart, foolish in excluding Him and His will, what is so repulsive as to depart from evil?
As the fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom, so the heart values the company and counsel of the wise; and walking with them furnishes good lessons. But a companion of the foolish too surely proves where his heart is, cannot avoid being depraved by their evil communications, and unless delivered shall be destroyed.
For who can evade the witness that “evil pursueth sinners,” whatever their apparent prosperity for awhile? The leaving them for a season only precipitates and makes more terrible the end of unavailing sorrow and despair. How truly shall good be repaid to the righteous? God will be no man’s debtor. The Christian without doubt is called to share Christ’s sufferings, not perhaps for Him, but assuredly with Him. No such earthly prosperity is promised him as was to the pious Jew. On the contrary, they that desire to live piously in Christ Jesus must endure persecution. But the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to compare with the coming glory to be revealed unto us. In every way and time good shall be repaid to the righteous. God can never cease to be God.
A good man resembles Him who found him evil, and by grace made him a partaker of a divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust. Blessed of God, he leaves an inheritance, if not of gold and silver, better still, and abiding to his children’s children. The wealth of the sinner, great as it may seem, is laid up for the just. Ungodliness may prepare, devise, and entail; but God cares for those who serve Him. Thus the just shall put on the clothing meant for others, and the innocent shall divide the silver if He think fit.
Again, how true it is, in God’s ways, that “much food is in the tillage of the poor”! The soul that looks to Him does not murmur nor aspire after greater things. The little that is given is accepted with thankfulness: and diligent labour is applied, with the result of “much food.” On the other hand who does not know of great possessions squandered for want of judgment, if not for actual injustice? There is that is destroyed for lack of judgment. The language is divinely accurate, and in no way exaggerated. It may not as yet appear always; but it is the fact, and often plain enough to warn the heedless.
There is another form of following God’s ways in the due correction of the family. How many of the godly have spared the rod, and thus failed in love to their sons! Here is laid down the warning and the sort of love: “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him, or seeketh him early with discipline.” To spare is really to please oneself, and harm deeply one’s son.
Further, the little things of daily life test whether we have God and His will before us. “The righteous eateth to satisfy his desire [or, soul]; but the belly of the wicked shall want,” as the retribution even here of this selfish indulgence. “Whether then ye eat or drink, do all things to God’s glory.” This keeps us and pleases Him.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

instruction = correction, or discipline.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 13
In the thirteenth chapter of Proverbs, there is a continuation of the contrasting of the righteous with the wicked, the wise and the scorner, the transgressor and the good man.
A wise son hears his father’s instruction: but a scorner does not listen to rebuke. A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth: but the soul of the transgressors shall eat violence. He that keeps his mouth keeps his life: but he that opens wide his lips shall have destruction. The soul of the sluggard desires, and has nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. A righteous man hates lying: but a wicked man is loathsome, and comes to shame. Righteousness keeps him that is upright in the way: but wickedness overthrows the sinner. There are those that seem to be rich, and yet they have nothing: there are those that seem to be poor, yet they have great riches ( Pro 13:1-7 ).
That’s because true riches are not measured in material things. True riches have a standard in spirituality, in the eternal. Your true riches are those that you’ll possess five minutes after you’re dead. Now, a lot of people have been awfully rich in life, but five minutes after they’re dead, they’re going to be absolute paupers. They’ll have absolutely nothing. There are many people who have had nothing all through life, but five minutes after they’re dead, they’re going to have such vast riches, the true riches, spiritual riches.
Jesus in Luke’s gospel the twelfth chapter speaks a parable beginning with verse Pro 13:16 ,
And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room to bestow all of the my fruits? And he said, I know what I’ll do: I’ll pull down my barns, I’ll build bigger ones; and then I will bestow all my fruits and all of the my goods. Then I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall be those things that you have laid up? Who’s going to inherit it? So is he that layeth up treasures for himself, and is not rich toward God ( Luk 12:16-21 ).
True riches are those that are laid up in heaven. They are the riches that will not decline. They are the riches that cannot lose their value. True riches. So there are those who seem to be very rich, and yet, in reality, they have nothing. There are those who seem to be poor, and yet they are very rich.
The ransom of a man’s life are his riches: but the poor hears not rebuke. The light of the righteous rejoices: but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out. Only by pride comes contention ( Pro 13:8-10 ):
Now that’s an interesting statement, but examine it carefully. Whenever contention arises, somewhere behind it, someone’s pride. How important it is for us to come to the cross and to reckon our old man to be dead. But that’s the only way you’re going to get rid of pride. And that’s the only way you’re going to get rid, then, of contentions.
“I’m so upset. Did you hear what he did?” “Why are you so upset?” “Well, he said this about me and all.” “Well, how much truth is there to it?” “Well, I didn’t want people to know that bit of truth about me.” I want people to think, I always want people to think better of me than I really am. I always like pictures that flatter me. If they look too much like me I don’t care for them. I like them to make me look really handsome and all, you know. Oh, that’s a good picture. Doesn’t really look like me, but it’s sure good-looking, you know. Somehow we always want to put out a better impression. And anything that tarnishes, that creates contention within us. Pride is the basis of contention. “Only by pride comes contention.”
but with the well advised is wisdom. Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labor shall increase ( Pro 13:10-11 ).
Now there are a lot of scams whereby people are getting wealthy. A while back there were these pyramid parties. “Wealth gotten by vanity.” That is, you know, the get-rich schemes. Money that is gained by get-rich schemes is going to vanish.
I have a friend who is a member of the mafia, and I’ve been witnessing to him for quite a while. He loves to flash a roll. He loves to open up his safe and let me see hundred thousand dollars in hundred dollar bills. Or he loves to take me out to dinner and pull out a roll of twenty thousand dollars in hundred dollar bills, you know, peel them off. He just loves to flash of it. And he’s always, always dreaming up some scam to rip somebody off. He was laughing and telling me about how that he collected $20,000 from a guy to rub out another guy. And he said, “I was going to get $50,000 for the job.” He said, “I took $20,000 down, I should get $30,000 when he’s done.” But he said, “I just took the $20,000.” He said, “I didn’t rub out the guy,” but he says, “but I got $20,000.” He said, “But who’s the guy going to tell? Who’s he going to complain to?” Now he told me, he said, “You see this wad of money?” He said, “I have it now but,” he said, “out there there’s a hundred guys that know that I’m presently got the roll.” And he said, “All of them are sitting up nights dreaming up some scam by which to rip the money off of me.” And he said, “One of them will come up with something and I’ll be a sucker and I’ll go in for it, and he’s going to rip me off from this roll. And when he does, everybody will know that he’s got the roll and they’ll all then start dreaming up and I’ll start dreaming up a scam to rip him off from the roll.” He said, “We all know where the roll is.” And he says, “We all get to handle it every once in a while for a while.” But he says, “Sooner or later one of these guys gets to us with a scam and he rips us off, and then, you know, we have to go after him.” And he said, “It’s money that just passes through our hands every once in a while.” And I thought of this proverb. “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathers by labor shall increase.”
Hope deferred makes the heart sick ( Pro 13:12 ):
Oh yes, I’ll marry you, honey. Just wait a year. Oh, my heart’s sick. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.”
but when the desire comes, it’s a tree of life. Whoso despises the word shall be destroyed ( Pro 13:12-13 ):
And this would be the Word of God.
but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded ( Pro 13:13 ).
Will be blessed.
The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death. Good understanding gives favor: but the way of the transgressors is hard ( Pro 13:14-15 ).
Sometimes we look at sinners and say, “Oh man, he’s got his way.” No, the way of the transgressor is hard. God declares that. And we see that so many times. We see a person just really up against the wall. We see them just really, you know, they really had it. They come in and say, “Oh. Can’t believe.” “The way of the transgressor is hard.” It’s going to catch up with you, and when it does, man, you’ve had it.
Every prudent man deals with knowledge: but a fool lays open his folly. A wicked messenger falls into mischief: but a faithful ambassador is health. Poverty and shame will come to him who refuses instruction: but he who regards reproof shall be honored. The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul: but it’s abomination to fools to depart from evil ( Pro 13:16-19 ).
Desire accomplished. The completed goal, oh, how sweet it is.
He that walks with wise men shall be wise: but the companion of fools shall be destroyed. Evil pursues the sinners: but to righteous good shall be repaid. A good man leaves inheritance to his grandchildren: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that that destroys for want of judgment ( Pro 13:20-23 ).
It is interesting that the United States has had a tremendous food program for India. I forget exactly what percentage of the food that we send over, though, is eaten by rats. But it’s a large percentage of the grain that we send to support India is eaten by rats. And of course, they don’t believe in killing rats ’cause it might be your uncle. It could very well be one of mine. I always questioned him. But it really isn’t always for the lack of food that a person is hungry. It’s many times the lack of good judgment.
Now he that spares the rod hates his son: but he that loves him will chasten him often ( Pro 13:24 ).
Solomon has quite a bit to say about the correction of a child. “The foolishness of the world is bound up in the heart of the child, but the rod of instruction driveth it far from him” ( Pro 22:15 ). Then he said, “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” Now my son thought that was a command and when I started using rod, he said, “But the scripture says, ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child.'” He thought that I was supposed to spoil him, you know. And I said, “Son, you don’t understand. It means if I spare the rod I’ll spoil you. He that spares the rod hates his son.”
The righteous eats to the satisfying of his soul: but the belly of the wicked shall want ( Pro 13:25 ). “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Pro 13:1
Pro 13:1
“A wise son heareth his father’s instruction; But a scoffer heareth not rebuke.”
“A wise child loves discipline, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. “A sensible son heeds what his father tells him, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.
Pro 13:1. Instruction for the wise, rebuke for the unwise. Wisdom is shown in respecting the age, learning, and office of the father; the scoffer respects nobody. He is wise in his own conceit (Rom 12:16). Samson did not regard the rebuke of his father (Jdg 14:1-4) not did Elis son regard his (1Sa 2:22-25). If a son will not respect his father enough to follow his instructions, it will not be surprising if he doesnt receive his rebuke. One who scoffs at his father now will scoff at God and sacred things also.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Verse Pro 13:2. Compare this with Pro 12:14. As the words of a good man benefit himself as well as others, so the evil deeds of transgressors react upon themselves.
Verse Pro 13:5. The contrast here between the wicked and the righteous is intense, in that concerning the righteous man the proverb simply states he hateth lying; concerning the wicked it declares that he becomes loathsome. That is to say, a righteous man keeping himself separate from wickedness hates lying. An evil man giving himself over to lying or other forms of sin becomes hated by others.
Verse Pro 13:8. That is to say that if wealth has its advantages, so also has poverty. The rich man by his wealth may be able to conserve his life, but the poor man escapes the very dangers into which the rich are brought.
Verse Pro 13:14. In this proverb the words “depart from the snares of death” interpret the action of such as obey the law. Thus by obedience to law a man departs from the snares of death, and so law becomes a fountain of life.
Verse Pro 13:19. The reason that desire is not accomplished is declared in the second part of this proverb. Men will not pay the price of departing from evil, and so fail of the sweetness of fulfilled desire.
Verse Pro 13:23. This is the declaration of an abiding truth that there is sustenance in the land, but men are excluded from it by injustice.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

Proverbs 13
The truly wise person acknowledges that learning from the experiences of others may save him from much trouble. Others can teach him about the road they have already traveled, which is all new ground to him.
13:1
In the first verse of this portion we are again reminded that it is the wise who are grateful for counsel and help; the foolish scorner will not accept rebuke. In his self-confidence he passes on, indifferent to the words of the wise. He must learn by bitter experience of the snares and pitfalls he might have avoided had he humbly accepted counsel from those competent to teach. Contrast Isaac (Genesis 26) with Simeon and Levi (Gen 34:25-31).
13:2-3
The evil speaker is only laying up trouble and sorrow for himself in the future; and the one whose mouth is full of grace will surely find grace when he is in need. To control the lips is to keep the life. The mature man is the one who controls his tongue. He who lacks wisdom in this respect will bring sure destruction on himself. Shimei is a solemn warning of this principle (1Ki 2:8); while David, when tempted greatly to speak for himself, illustrates the opposite (1Sa 17:28-29).
13:4
The New Testament reiterates the principle declared in this verse: if any would not work, neither should he eat (2Th 3:10). It is as true of spiritual things as of physical. The diligent seeker of the precious truths in the Word of God is the one who rejoices over that Word as one who finds great spoil. The sluggards lot in life is leanness of soul and continual dissatisfaction. Contrast Ezr 7:10 with the returned captives (Hag 1:2-6).
13:5-6
A heart committed to truth is the secret of practical righteousness. The one who is following the way of holiness hates what is false. He has judged iniquity, and he desires to live before God so as to glorify His name in this world, where it has been so terribly dishonored. The disobedient man makes himself loathsome and is destroyed by his own sin. He is put to shame even in this life and his future portion is to be cast into outer darkness for eternity. Contrast Jehoiada and Athaliah (2 Kings 11).
13:7
It is the nature of fallen man to be hypocritical. The poverty-stricken will often pretend to be wealthy and the wealthy will feign poverty. He who has nothing desires to be esteemed as one who has much; and he who has great riches feels it is safer to be considered one who has little or nothing. The first is proud and vain; the last, mean and miserly. The one attitude was exhibited by the Laodiceans (Rev 3:17). The other attitude we see carried out by the wily Gibeonites to deceive Joshua and the army of Israel (Joshua 9).
13:8
The verse is confessedly ambiguous. Various renderings give little help. The thought seems to be that riches are the confidence of their possessor. He therefore can haughtily scorn the one who would reprove him. But the indigent is crushed by a rebuke, having no spirit left to stand against it. Apparently both are worldly men.
13:9
The flame of testimony burns brightly when fed with the oil of grace, which only the righteous possess. The lamp of the wicked may flare for a moment, but their true state of affairs will soon be evident. He lacks the oil, so the light must fail. Compare this proverb with the ten virgins (Mat 25:1-13).
13:10
The many bitter quarrels among saints meeting in the name of Christ are a dramatic commentary on the danger of pride. Strife comes only by pride. This solemn warning should be kept in mind. If the sin of pride were confessed and judged frankly before God, the reason for contention would be seen in its true light as contrary to Scriptures and opposed to the spirit of Jesus Christ! It is an old saying that it takes two to make a quarrel. Contention begins when the effort to maintain a foolish dignity prevails, or the heart covets what belongs to another. The strife soon ceases when the offended one meets his offender in lowliness and grace. Wisdom enables the well-advised to give the soft answer that turns away wrath. In the matter of the strife between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot, we see how pride was at the root. Abram solved the conflict most effectually when he offered first choice to Lot who had no title whatever to the land which Jehovah had given to Abram (Genesis 13).
13:11
That which comes easily, slips away easily. One highly values and is careful in the use of the treasure for which he has toiled. The principle abides when applied to the true riches, the precious truth of God. Some, like a sponge, readily absorb, but as readily give out under pressure. That which is valued is what has been won by labor. Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2Ti 2:15, italics added). Wealth such as this is surely worth the self-sacrifice and devotion required to obtain it; and when so obtained, it will abide and increase. See Ziba (2Sa 16:4; 19:29), as contrasted with Caleb (Jos 14:6-14).
13:12
The unsatisfied longing of a hungry soul results in faintness of spirit and sickness of heart. Such is the hopeless hope of those without Christ. How blessed the contrast in the case of the Christian! He, too, at times is sick with longing: longing to behold the Beloved of his soul. But soon his desire will be accomplished, and its fulfillment will be precious as the tree of life. David once was sick with yearning desire. He wanted to taste the water of the well of his childhood. But when his desire was met and the water was brought, it was too precious for him to taste. He poured it out before the Lord (1Ch 11:15-19).
13:13-15
The word of instruction brings favor with God and man, as was so abundantly proven by Joseph, Daniel, and a host of others. To despise this law of the wise is to expose oneself to shame now and loss in eternity. But he that fears the commandment, recognizing in it a fountain of life, will be preserved from the sorrowful way of the transgressor and the darkness of eternity. Pharaoh despised the word and fell beneath the avenging hand of the Lord. Saul despised the word and was put to grief before the Philistines. The last three kings of Judah despised the word and learned too late the terrible mistake made. The solemn example of these and many more in sacred and secular history should speak loudly to those bent on taking their own way and ignoring the Lords commands. The Lord has said, To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word (Isa 66:2).
13:16
A discreet person would take to heart the wisdom of the book of Proverbs. Only fools refuse it, thereby showing their folly. How sad that so many who are wise as to this world, should be fools as to the next! And yet, true wisdom for this life is demonstrated by obedience to God and dealing with the knowledge His Word imparts. It is the sinfully foolish one who turns a deaf ear to the voice of truth. Contrast Moses and Aaron with Korah and his company (Numbers 16).
13:17
The messenger who runs ahead, without waiting for his commission will only encounter and produce mischief. The one who faithfully goes forth as the ambassador of another carries health and blessing. This is all-important in the work of the gospel. We live in a day of great restlessness and activity. But few are the servants who wait to get the mind of the Lord as revealed in His Word. The result is much mischievous teaching and faulty instruction that bewilders and perplexes the hearers. Precious is the message of the faithful ambassador as he goes forth imploring men to be reconciled to God (2Co 5:20).
13:18
Men may foolishly consider it beneath their dignity to bow to instruction and learn from those competent to teach. But lasting honor comes to the one who is humble enough to receive help from whoever can impart true knowledge; while shame and poverty will be the portion of the self-sufficient soul. See Johanan and the captains (Jeremiah 42. Also compare with Pro 12:1).
13:19-20
The soul rejoices when the hearts desire is attained. But the only desire of the fool is the gratification of his unbridled passions. He refuses to believe that iniquity should be avoided. Evil communications corrupt good manners (1Co 15:33). Association with the wise tends to wisdom. Companionship with vain people leads to further vanity and results in moral and spiritual ruin. Contrast Rehoboam with the young king Josiah (1Ki 12:8; 2 Kings 22).
13:21-22
Throughout this book the principle of retribution is insisted on even in this life. The sinner pursues evil, only to find evil pursuing him; while the righteous man who extends his goodness to others is repaid by kindness. When the good man dies, whether he leaves a fortune in material things behind him or not, he bequeaths to his descendants an honored name and a holy example-an inheritance of incalculable value. That which the evildoer has laid up is soon dissipated and passes into hands better able to use it properly. Contrast Jonadab the Rechabite (Jer 35:6-11) with Coniah (Jehoiachin in niv, Jer 22:24-30).
13:23
The poor farmer, if diligent, will use every corner of his little plot. He produces an amount and a variety of food that is often astonishing to his wealthier neighbor. However, this same wealthy neighbor allows his acres to lie fallow and much of his crop to be carelessly wasted and destroyed.
The man of small opportunities often makes the most of what he has, while the one of large privileges becomes slothful and neglectful.
We can see an important spiritual lesson here. Frequently we see a gifted brother or sister with much leisure for study and prayer and boundless opportunities to enjoy the ministry. Yet he often will be careless and lazy, gaining very little real food daily and giving out little to others. On the other hand, we may see one whose daily toil occupies most of his waking hours and whose talents and education are average. Yet he devotes himself earnestly to using what he has and scarcely lets a moment slip by wasted. He gathers regularly much food for his own soul and constantly imparts refreshment and blessing to his brethren!
The lack of spirituality is not the result of a lack of time to cultivate the things of God; rather it indicates ones failure to use the opportunities presented.
We have heard of a blacksmith blowing a bellows, with a page of Gods word before him on the wall, that he might gather a little strength for his soul as he attended to his forge; and of a cobbler pegging shoes with his Testament in front of him, from which now and then he snatched a precious morsel for his spiritual upbuilding. It was the work of the poor, but it was filled with satisfaction.
No time for God generally means No heart for God, if the full truth were told. The diligent soul will make time. He often proves that a small portion of Scripture or a few minutes of prayer bear rich fruit, when heart and conscience are truly exercised. See the prayer of Jabez (1Ch 4:9-10).
13:24
Family discipline should be patterned after the divine discipline of Hebrews 12. It is not love, but the lack of it, that allows a child to go undisciplined. He is allowed to develop unchecked tendencies and inclinations that will result in future sorrow. Ours is a day of great laxity in discipline. The coming generation will reap the bitter fruit of the absence of restraint and the evident aversion to discipline in the majority of homes. A sickly sentimentality, supposedly wiser and more compassionate than God Himself, has made it fashionable to denounce the use of the rod as a relic of a barbarous age. But the difference in the character of disciplined children and the well-ordered home certainly proves the truth of Scripture.
It is even worse when control is ignored among Christians on the plea that grace is reigning. Grace never sets aside restraint. The two principles are not opposed. In the divine ways, grace and restraint work side by side, as they should in the home. Contrast Eli (1Sa 3:13-14) with Abraham (Gen 18:19).
13:25
The portion of the righteous may be small, but it is enjoyable because the heart and conscience are at rest. But the wicked, though he lives riotously in pleasure and plenty for a time, finds no real satisfaction; his recklessness will bring him to want at last. How much happier the portion of Lazarus at the gate of the rich man, with Abrahams bosom awaiting him, than that of the disobedient prodigal of the previous chapter (Luk 15:11-32 and 16:19-31).
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Pro 13:20
I. Of all the external circumstances which mould our life and character, our daily companionship may be said to be among the most potent, and the Bible utterances are very strong on this subject. Sometimes they dwell specially on the causes that draw men together, assuming that like chooses like, and that a man may in fact be known by his associates. But more frequently the texts warn us rather of the consequences of intimacy than of the causes of it. They warn or exhort about companionship because we become, as they assume, what our companions are; because men who live together in close contact and communion mould each other, as iron sharpeneth iron.
II. It is probable, indeed, that we should all direct our life, and choose our companionship, more carefully if we duly considered the long results of these things; if we remembered that in moral relations, as in other matters, it is not easy to start afresh when we please and unencumbered. Friendships are two-edged tools, which may open up for you the way to life or the way to death.
III. There is no more certain support to the weak or the young than the feeling of nearness to some friend whom they know to be strong and pure, earnest for what is right and a hater of evil. Our companionship with such an one is like living continually in a pure and healthy pasture, and as the nearest earthly resemblance to walking with God in Christ, as we hope in our perfection to walk with Him hereafter. These are the true servants of Christ, and they only have the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
J. Percival, Some Helps for School Life, p. 155.
References: Pro 13:20.-W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 355; Outline Sermons to Children, p. 75.
Pro 13:21
The expectation of concealment, and therefore of impunity, encourages the great mass of men in the sins which they commit. But you may take the very case in which, of all others, it would seem as though sin had been committed with impunity-the case in which a sin is finally pardoned for the sake of the Redeemer-and prove with the greatest accuracy of demonstration that nothing can be more unfounded than the expecting to escape all consequences in escaping the first. There is a perfect possibility-to use the very lowest word-that the man who commits a sin and afterwards repents and is forgiven, may have to bear a burden, through all his after-days on earth, which is distinctly the entailment or consequence of that sin; and with so fatal a power may his transgressions act on every moment of his eternity, that he shall occupy for ever a lower station in the glorified Church than would have been his had the transgression not been wrought.
II. There is something very peculiar in the expression, “evil pursueth the sinner.” It is as though it hunted him with the greatest pertinacity, tracking him through the various scenes of life, and then, when perhaps he has all the appearance of having evaded his enemy, and seems, as it were, effectually concealed, the enemy darts upon him suddenly, exacting all its punishment. You cannot think of evil pursuing, and then finding out, a man without thinking of that man as apparently armed against detection: for there is something in the expression which indicates search on the part of the sin, and therefore concealment on the part of the sinner. So that it may be at a moment when there is no remembrance of what has been done, or at least no apprehension of being called to a reckoning, that the crime reappears in the form of vengeance, and proves with what unwearied hostility it has followed the offender.
III. We believe it to be equally true that sins wrought after conversion are not suffered to pass unpunished, however they may be pardoned through the propitiation of Christ. If God is to show displeasure at the iniquities of His own people as well as of His enemies, it must be shown in this life; and hence we suppose it is true that “those whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,” not only because the chastisements prepare for glory, and, therefore, prove love, but also because chastisements are consequences of sin in those whom God loves, and must be experienced on this side of the grave.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1792.
References: Pro 13:22-25.-R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 355. Pro 13:24.-W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 359.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible

CHAPTER 13 The Contrast: Advantage and Disadvantage
The contrast in Proverbs concerning the righteous and the wicked is continued in this chapter, showing mostly the advantage of the righteous, illustrating a statement found in the prophet Isaiah: Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings Isa 3:10). Then the contrast: Woe unto the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him Pro 13:11). The righteous eats good by the fruit of his mouth; the transgressor receives violence. There is fatness for the soul of the diligent and nothing for the soul of the sluggard. Righteousness keepeth; wickedness overthrows. While the light of the righteous rejoiceth, the lamp of the wicked shall be put out. These are some of the contrasts.
In Pro 13:7 is a statement which may be applied to our Lord: There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches. He who has all the riches made Himself poor for our sake.
Then there is warning against pride. In fact the proverbs abound in these warnings. By pride cometh contention Pro 13:10). To the proud who refuseth correction cometh poverty and shame Pro 13:18).
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

wise: Pro 4:1-14, Pro 4:20-22, Pro 10:1, Pro 15:5, Pro 15:20
but: Pro 9:7, Pro 9:8, Pro 14:6, 1Sa 2:25, Isa 28:14, Isa 28:15
Reciprocal: Rth 2:23 – General 1Ki 5:7 – a wise son Pro 15:10 – grievous Pro 17:10 – General Jer 35:8 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Pro 13:1-3. A wise son, &c. Houbigant translates this verse, A wise son regardeth the instruction of his father; but a son who is a scorner heareth not rebuke. A man shall eat good Shall receive much comfort, credit, and benefit to himself; by the fruit of his mouth By his wise and profitable discourses; but the soul That is, the person, as the word soul often signifies; of the transgressors Of those that transgress with their lips, which seems to be the meaning here; shall eat violence Shall have that violence and injury returned upon themselves, which they have offered to others in word or deed. He that keepeth his mouth Namely, shut; that speaks sparingly, and with due care and caution; keepeth his life
Prevents many sins and mischiefs which others run into; but he that openeth wide his lips That takes the liberty of speaking whatever he pleases, or all that comes into his mind; shall have destruction From God or men.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Pro 13:1. A wise son heareth his fathers instruction. This maxim is in substance often repeated, it being of the last importance to hear the wisdom of a father proceeding from so much love, and sanctioned by long experience. And he who hearkens to a wise father is here called a wise son; while he who rejects paternal counsel altogether is branded with the name of a scorner.
Pro 13:2. Transgressors shall eat violence. The Septuagint, Shall perish before their time, or die by the hand of justice.
Pro 13:3. He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life. This is thought primarily to refer to the councils of the state; but it has a secondary bearing on all public parties and questions. A man should know when to be decided in speech and conduct, and when to keep silence.
Pro 13:7. There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing. The miser, and the man who lives beyond his income. Or we may read, that feigneth himself rich. To affect and make a display of wealth, is pride and ostentation; and if he be about to surrender to his creditors, it is hypocrisy, assumed with a view to impose on the public. A merchant about to break, has been known to enlarge his mansion, and make adjacent plantations at midsummer.
Pro 13:8. The ransom of a mans life are his riches. King Inas laws are still extant. He reigned over the West Saxons in Somerset, and other counties. We there find a fine fixed for every crime: the poor were left to pay with the loss of their heads, having no money. This fear awed them from the commission of crimes, which subjected the offender to rebuke and punishment.
Pro 13:9. The light of the righteousthe lamp of the wicked. Light and lamp, in the figurative language of scripture, designate wisdom or counsel, prosperity, children or posterity.
Pro 13:11. Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished. This was the opinion of the ancient Hebrews; and this also is the opinion of the modern English. In my travels I have often been struck with hearing of the history of fortunes gained by the slavetrade, by privateering, by lotteries, or wanton risks of speculation.
Pro 13:12. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick. This is true of the pleasures, honours and riches of the age. But the christian is supported in his heavenly expectations by the earnests of his future hopes.
Pro 13:13. The word, divine revelation. The commandment, the law of God. Without the former there is no salvation; but in keeping the latter there is great reward.
Pro 13:14. The law of the wise is a fountain of life. A good minister, says Erasmus, has a fountain of eloquence in his own breast. Lib. Ecclesiastes The words of Christ are spirit, and they are life. The promises of God revive the sinners soul with hope, with life and righteousness, the earnests of eternal joy.
Pro 13:22. The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. Perhaps God will drive him from his seat of wickedness by an untimely death. Good men may then become guardians to his children, or marry his daughters. Perhaps he will run through his fortune, and his industrious neighbours may purchase his lands. Let us hence learn to love righteousness, and to ensure the heavenly inheritance.
Pro 13:24. He that spareth the rod, hateth his son. Every child wishes to follow his own inclinations: and if these are to be indulged and confirmed, then every man must quarrel with his family, and quarrel with his neighbours. Children should therefore be taught obedience and submission; and in all cases cheerfully to give up their own will when it is improper to gratify it. We should accustom them to filial obedience by arguments, and all the sweetness of parental influence: but when stubbornness and revolt spring up in the heart, and when our words, like a knife blunted by use, have no effect, then we must use the rod, and maintain the authority of a father in the house. If we neglect this severer duty, we may be said to hate our son, by basely suffering those evils to become so enrooted in his heart as ultimately to prove his ruin. Let us at the same time be reminded, that all the Lords chastisements are intended to do us the same good.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Proverbs 13. This chapter has little that is fresh and no new groups of proverbs. We have a well-known reference to the weariness of waiting for a hope that comes not (Pro 13:12 and Pro 13:19 a). There is a new proverb relating to the faithfulness of messengers, perhaps with reference to diplomatic missions.
Pro 13:5. is loathsome: render behaves vilely.
Pro 13:7. Both AV and RV obscure the point of the aphorism, which contrasts two equally obnoxious social shams. Translate, There are poor people who pretend to be rich, and there are rich people who feign they are poor.
Pro 13:8. The last words appear to have come in by dittography from Pro 13:1. The real point of the contrast intended appears in Pro 10:15the social disadvantage of povertyand the last words should express a similar thought.
Pro 13:9. rejoiceth is hardly appropriate; read with a slight emendation ariseth (cf. Psa 112:4). LXX reads is for ever. The earlier meaning of light and lamp is the preservation of the family name and honour (cf. the promise to David to give him a lamp in Jerusalem, 1Ki 11:36, Psa 132:17). Later it acquires a more ethical meaning, the path of the just is as a shining light.
Pro 13:10. The text is very uncertain. The first three letters of MT are probably repeated by scribal error from Pro 13:9. Omitting them we read presumption causes strife. But the proverb is probably a corrupt form of Pro 11:2, as comparison with it suggests.
Pro 13:11. The Heb. reads lit. Wealth from nothingness grows less, but he who gathers by hand increases. Some change is clearly needed. The LXX gives a better sense and a suitable contrast, wealth got in haste (cf. Pro 20:21, Pro 28:22). The force of by hand (cf. mg.) is gradually, not by labour as the RV.
Pro 13:13 a is the converse of Pro 16:20 a.the word: the moral law, the law of Yahweh.
Pro 13:15 b gives no intelligible sense, and cannot be related to Pro 13:15 a. Lit. it reads the way of the treacherous is enduring; RV rugged has no justification. LXX reads, with slight change, is in destruction. But the two clauses are still unrelated, and probably belong to different couplets (cf. Sir 41:10).
Pro 13:17. The contrast is apparently between the mischief caused by a bad or incompetent messenger and the prosperous issue of affairs conducted by a reliable envoy or ambassador. The word used for ambassador or envoy suggests rather a political sense, and the LXX has the interesting though probably erroneous rendering a rash king gets into trouble, but a wise ambassador will deliver him. Read A false (or untrustworthy) messenger causes (his sender) to fall into trouble (cf. Pro 25:13).
Pro 13:19. Another case of two unrelated lines. For Pro 13:19 a cf. Pro 13:12, and for Pro 13:19 b cf. Pro. 29:37.
Pro 13:23. The Heb. gives no satisfactory sense or intelligible contrast. It reads lit. The fallow ground (as Hos 10:12, Jer 4:3) of the poor is abundance of food, and there is that is swept away by injustice. The VSS show similar confusion. No satisfactory emendation has been proposed.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

7. Fruits of wise living ch. 13
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

CHAPTER 14
PRIDE AND HUMILITY
“A wise son heareth his fathers instruction, but a scorner heareth not rebuke.”- Pro 13:1
Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth correction, but he that regardeth reproof shall be honored.”- Pro 13:18
“By pride cometh only contention, but with the well advised is wisdom.”- Pro 13:10
“Whoso despiseth the word bringeth destruction on himself; but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.”- Pro 13:13 This last proverb appears in another form, as, “He that giveth heed unto the word shall find good, and whoso trusteth in the Lord happy is he.”- Pro 16:20
BY a proud man we mean one who esteems himself better than others; by a humble man we mean one who counts others better than himself. The proud man is so convinced of his intrinsic superiority that if appearances are against him, if others obtain more recognition, honor, wealth than he, the fault seems to him to lie in the evil constitution of the world, which cannot recognize merit; for his own intrinsic superiority is the axiom which is always to be taken for granted; “his neighbors therefore find no favor in his eyes, and he even desires their calamity and ruin,” in order, as he would put it, that every one may be set in his due place. {Pro 21:10} Meanwhile he is always boasting of possessions, dignities, and gifts which do not yet, but some day will, appear to the public eye. He is like clouds which overcast the sky, and wind which frets the earth, without bringing any wholesome rain. {Pro 25:14} If, on the other hand, appearances are with him, if wealth, dignity, and honor fall to his share, he is affably convinced of his own supreme excellence; the proof of his own conviction is written large in his broad acres, his swelling dividends, and his ever-increasing troops of flatterers and friends; and he moves smoothly on to-what?-strange to say, little as he thinks it, to destruction, for “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” {Pro 16:18-19} If he only knew he would say, “Better is it to be of a lowly spirit with the meek than to divide the spoil with the proud”; {Pro 16:18-19} for “before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honor goeth humility.” {Pro 18:12} The event shows, if not in this world, yet the more surely in the next, that it is well to “let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.” {Pro 27:2}
When our eyes are open to see things as they are, we are no longer in the least impressed by the “proud and haughty man whose name is scorner working in the arrogance of pride.” {Pro 21:24} We may not live to see it, but we are quite persuaded that “a mans pride shall bring him low, but he that is of a lowly spirit shall obtain honor.” {Pro 29:23} “Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him.” {Pro 26:12}
Now what are the evil effects of pride, and what are the blessings that follow on humility?
First of all, pride cuts a. man off from all the salutary effects of reproof, rebuke, criticism, and counsel, without which it is not possible for any of us to become wise. “A wise son” is the result of “a fathers correction,” says the text, and such a son makes his father glad; {Pro 13:1, Pro 15:20} but the pride in a childs heart will often prevent him from receiving even the correction of a father, and will lead him to despise his mother. And if the parents have not firmness and wisdom enough to overcome this childish resistance, it will grow with years, and prove more and more disastrous. “He is in the way of life that heedeth correction, but he that forsaketh reproof erreth.” {Pro 10:17} “If he had loved reproof he would have acquired knowledge, but hating it he becomes brutish.” {Pro 12:1} It is evident then that this pride is folly. He is a fool that despises his fathers correction, but he that regardeth reproof getteth prudence. {Pro 15:8} He that refuseth correction despiseth his own soul, but he that hearkeneth to reproof getteth understanding. {Pro 15:32}
When we are grown up, and no longer under the tutelage of parents who love us, pride is still more likely to harden our hearts against criticism and counsel. The word of warning falls on the proud ear in vain, just because it is the word of warning, and often does the willful heart mourn as it suffers the penalty of its stubbornness. A man who refuses correction is a synonym for poverty and shame. {Pro 13:17} These words which we in our pride despise might be an incalculable benefit to us. Even the most witless criticism may be useful to a humble mind, even the most unjust attacks may lead us to wholesome self-searching, and to a more careful removal of possible offences. While if the criticism is fair, and prompted by a kind heart, or if the rebuke is administered by one whose wisdom and justice we respect, it is likely to do us far more good than praise and approval. “A rebuke entereth deeper into one that hath understanding than a hundred stripes into a fool.” {Pro 17:10} “Better is open rebuke than love that is hid.” {Pro 27:5} If we were wise we should value this plain and honest speaking much more than the insipid flattery which is often dictated by interested motives. {Pro 28:23} In fact, praise is a very questionable benefit; it is of no use at all unless we carefully test it, and try it, and accept it with the greatest caution, for only a small part of it is pure metal, most of it is mere dross; and praise that is not deserved is the most dangerous and deleterious of delights. But rebuke and criticism cannot do us much harm. Many great and noble men have been ruined by admiration and popularity, who might have thriven, growing greater and nobler, in the fiercest and most relentless criticism. Donatello, the great Florentine sculptor, went at one time of his life to Padua, where he was received with the utmost enthusiasm, and loaded with approbation and honors. But soon he declared his intention of returning to Florence, on the ground that the sharp assaults and the cutting criticisms which always assailed him in his native City were much more favorable to his art than the atmosphere of admiration and eulogy. In this way he thought that he would be stimulated to greater efforts, and ultimately attain to a surer reputation: In the same spirit the greatest of modern art critics has told us how valuable to him were the criticisms which his humble Italian servant made on his drawings. Certainly, “with those who allow themselves to be advised is wisdom.” {Pro 13:10} “He that trusteth in his own heart,” and cannot receive the advice of others, “is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely he shall be delivered,” sometimes perhaps by the humble suggestions of very simple people. {Pro 28:26}
Yes, “with the lowly is wisdom”: {Pro 11:2} they “hearken to counsel,” {Pro 12:15} and in doing so they get the advantage of many other wits, while the proud man is confined strictly to his own, and however great his capacity may be, it is hardly probable that he will Sum up all human wisdom in himself. The lowly gives heed to the word, no matter who speaks it, and finds good; {Pro 16:20} he abides among the wise, because he is always ready to learn; consequently, he becomes wise, and eventually he gets the honor which he deserves. {Pro 15:31; Pro 15:33} It is in this way that people of lowly station and very moderate abilities often come to the front. “A servant that deals wisely has rule over a son that causes shame, and has part in the inheritance among the brethren.” {Pro 17:2} To a crafty son no good shall be, but to a servant who is wise his actions shall prosper and his way be made straight. The consciousness of not being clever, and a wise diffidence in our own judgment, will often make us very thankful to learn from others and save us from the follies of willfulness; and thus very much to their own astonishment the humble find that they have outdistanced their more brilliant competitors in the race, and, walking in their humility, unexpectedly light upon recognition, and admiration, honor and love.
This first point, then, becomes very clear in the light of experience. One of the most injurious effects of pride is to cut off its miserable victim from all the vast help and service which rebuke and criticism can render to the humble. One of the sweetest results of a genuine humility is that it brings us to the feet of all wise teachers: it multiplies lessons for us in all the objects Which surround us; it enables us to learn even from those who seem to be too captious to teach, or too malevolent to be even wise. The humble mind has all the wisdom of the ages as its possession, and all the folly of fools as an invaluable warning.
Secondly, by pride comes nothing but strife, {Pro 13:10} and he loveth transgression that loveth strife; he that raiseth high his gate, i.e., builds a lofty house, seeketh destruction. {Pro 17:19} It is the pride of monarchs and nations which produces war; the sense of personal dignity which is always sudden and quick in quarrel; the feeling of swollen self-importance which is afraid to make peace lest it should suffer in the eyes of men. And in the affairs of private life our pride, rather than our sense of right, usually creates, fosters, and embitters divisions, alienations, and quarrels. “I am perfectly innocent,” says Pride; “I bear no resentment, but it would be absurd for me to make the first advances; when those advances are made, I am willing to forgive and to forget.” “I think I am innocent,” says Humility, “but then I may have been very provoking, and I may have given offense without knowing it; in any case, I may as well make an offer of apology; if I fail, I fail.”
Nor is this the only way in which strife grows out of pride, for “by pride comes nothing but strife.” All the foolish extravagances of social competition are to be traced to the same source. One man “raises high his gate,” builds a fine house, and furnishes it in the best way. He flatters himself that his “little place” is tolerably comfortable, and he speaks with some contemptuous pity of all his neighbors houses. Immediately all his neighbors enviously strive to excel him, and pride vies with pride, heartburnings are many and bitter. Then there comes on the scene one who in wealth and ostentation of wealth exceeds them all, and the first man is now racked with envy, strains every nerve to outdo the insolent intruder, suffers his debts to far exceed his assets, and soon incurs the inevitable crash. That is how pride works in one very obvious department of social life. But it is the same in every other department. Who can calculate the miseries which are produced by the grotesque assumptions of poor mortals to be superior to their fellow-mortals? Parents will mar their childrens lives by refusing their consent to marriages with those who, for some perfectly artificial reason, are held to be beneath them; or will still more fatally ruin their childrens happiness by insisting on alliances with those who are held to be above them. Those who prosper in the world will heartlessly turn their backs on relations who have not prospered. Men who earn their living in one particular way, or in no particular way, will loftily contemn those who earn their living in another particular way. Those who dress in the fashion will look in another direction when they pass people who do not dress in the fashion, though they may be under deep obligations to these slighted friends. This is all the work of pride. Then there are the sneers, the taunts, the sarcasms, the proud mans scorn, like “a rod in the mouth” indeed, {Pro 14:3} which falls with cutting cruelty on many tender backs and gentle faces. The overbearing temper of one who “bears himself insolently and is confident” {Pro 14:16} will sometimes take all the sweetness out of life for some delicate woman, or shrinking child, or humble dependent, bruising the poor spirit, rending the terrified heart, unnerving and paralyzing the weaker and more helpless nature.
From first to last this haughty spirit is a curse and a torment to everyone, and not least to itself. It is like a cold and biting wind. It is like an erosive acid. It produces more sorrows than the north wind produces icicles. It mars more lives than anyone but God is able to count. It breaks the hearts of the humble, it excites the passions of the wrathful, it corrupts the conduct of the weak. It ruins children, it poisons social life, it inflames differences, and plunges great nations into war.
If it were permitted to enter heaven, it would turn heaven into hell, it would range the hosts of heaven in envious cliques and mutually scornful castes, it would make the meek spirit sigh for earth, where there was at least the hope of death, and would turn the very presence and power of God into a constant object of envy and an incentive to rebellion. It is obvious, then, that pride cannot enter heaven, and the proud man, if he is to enter, must humble himself as a little child.
Third- and this leads us to contemplate the worst result of Pride and the loveliest outcome of Humility-“Every one that is proud of heart is an abomination to the Lord; though hand join in hand he shall not be unpunished.” {Pro 16:5} “The Lord will root up the house of the proud; but He will establish the border of the widow.” {Pro 15:25} In a word, Pride is hateful to God, who resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. The proud man, whether he knows it or not, comes into direct conflict with God: he may not intend it, but he is pitting himself against the Omnipotent. That hardening of the face is a sign of evil, just as the patient humble ordering of the way is a sign of righteousness. {Pro 21:29} In that high look and proud heart there seems to be something dignified, flashing, and luminous; it is undoubtedly much admired by men. By God it is not admired; it is regarded merely as the lamp of the wicked, and as sin. {Pro 21:4} The light, such as it is, comes from hell; it is the same light that burned on the faces of the apostate angels “oerwhelmed with floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire.” The proud man dares the thunderbolts of God. He scorns men whom he sees, and in doing so he scorns God whom he has not seen; the men whom he consciously scorns cannot, but the God whom he unwittingly scorns will, take vengeance upon him. He has hardened his heart, he has grown great in his own eyes, he has despised the creatures made in Gods image; he will suddenly be cut off, and that without remedy.
On the other hand, by humility men learn to know and to fear the Lord. God reveals Himself to the humble heart, not as a King of Terrors, but kind and good, with healing in His wings, leading the contrite spirit to implicit trust in Himself, and “whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.” {Pro 16:20} When we realize this we cannot wonder that so few people seem to know God; men are too proud; they think of themselves more highly than they ought to think, and consequently they do not think at all of Him; they receive honor one of another, and eagerly desire such honor, and consequently they cannot believe in Him, for to believe in Him implies the desire of no honor except such as comes from Him.
It is a strange truth that God should dwell in a human heart at all, but it is almost self-evident that if He is to dwell in any human heart it must be in one which has been emptied of all pride, one which has, as it were, thrown down all the barriers of self-importance, and laid itself open to the incoming Spirit. If we cling to ever so little of our natural egotism; if we dwell on any imagined excellence, purity, or power of our own; if we are conscious of any elation, any springing sense of merit, which would set us, in our own judgment, on some equality with God, -how could the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity enter in? That thought of vanity would seek to divide our nature with Him, would enter into negotiations for a joint occupation, and the insulted Spirit of God would depart.
If in ordinary human affairs “before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honor goeth humility”; {Pro 18:12} if even in our dealings with one another happiness and success and prosperity depend on the cultivation of a modest spirit, how much more when we come to deal with God must haughtiness appear the presage of destruction, and humility the only way of approach to Him!
It is not possible to think too humbly of yourself, it is not possible to be too lowly, you cannot abase yourself too much in His Holy Presence. Your only attitude is that of Moses when he took off his shoes because the place he stood on was holy ground; or that of Isaiah when he cried out that he was “a man of unclean lips.” To those who know you your humiliations may sound excessive, -as we are told the disciples of St. Francis remonstrated with him for his self-depreciation-but not to God or to your own heart. And He, if He has set His love upon you, and purposes to make you a temple for His indwelling, will use method after method of humbling you to prepare for His entrance. Again and again you will say, surely now I am low enough, am I not humbled in the dust? But His hand will still be upon you, and He will show you heads of pride which have yet to be leveled down. In the last humbling you will find that there is rising within you a certain pride in the humility itself. That also will He subdue. And some day, if you are willing, you shall be lowly enough for the Most High to dwell in, humble enough to offer a perpetual incense of praise.
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary

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