Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 13:15
Good understanding giveth favor: but the way of transgressors [is] hard.
15. transgressors ] Rather, the treacherous, R.V.
hard ] rugged, R.V., i.e. harsh and forbidding, like a desert or rocky place (Deu 21:4) in contrast to the “favour” which “good understanding” “giveth,” or “getteth.” The LXX. render, is in destruction.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Hard – The primary meaning of the original word is permanence (compare Deu 21:4; Mic 6:2). This may be applied as here to the hard dry rock, to running streams, or to stagnant pools. In either case, the idea is that of the barren dry soil, or the impassable marsh, in contrast with the fountain of life, carrying joy and refreshment with it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 13:15
Good understanding giveth favour.
A sound intellect
I. The nature of a sound intellect. A good understanding must include four things.
1. Enlightenment. The soul without knowledge is not good. A good understanding is that which is well informed, not merely in general knowledge, but in the science of duty and of God.
2. Impartiality. A good intellect should hold the balance of thought with a steady hand.
3. Religiousness. It must be inspired with a deep sense of its allegiance to heaven.
4. Practicalness. It should be strong and bold enough to carry all its decisions into actual life. A good understanding have all they that do His commandments. Thus it appears a good understanding is tantamount to practical godliness.
II. The usefulness of a sound intellect. The greatest benefactor is the man of a good understanding. The thoughts of such men as these are the seeds of the worlds best institutions, and most useful arts and inventions. The man of good understanding is the most useful in the family, in the neighbourhood, in the market, in the press, in the senate, in the pulpit, everywhere.
1. No favours so valuable as mental favours. He who really helps the mind to think with accuracy, freedom, and force, to love with purity, and to hope with reason, helps the man in the entirety of his being.
2. No one can confer mental favours who has not a good understanding. An ignorant man has no favour to bestow on souls. Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge the wing with which we fly to heaven (Shakespeare). Let us, therefore, cultivate a sound intellect. I make not my head a grave, says Sir T. Browne, in his quaint way, but a treasury of knowledge; I intend no monopoly, but a community in learning; I study not for my own sake only, but for theirs that study not for themselves; I envy no man that knows more than myself, but pity them that know less. I instruct no man as an exercise of my knowledge, or with an intent rather to nourish and keep it alive in mine own head than beget and propagate it in his; and, in the midst of all my endeavours, there is but one thought that dejects me–that my acquired parts must perish with myself, nor can be legacied among my honoured friends. (Homilist.)
But the way of transgressors is hard.—
The course, act, and punishment of sin
I. The course of sin.
1. A disposition to regard life as a matter of circumstances. Personal freedom is, however, never nullified, personal responsibility never suspended. The track and trend of a mans life is largely within his own determination.
2. The text speaks of a way, i.e., a trodden path. It refers to a course that is chosen, and persisted in. It is the habit of the sinners life–a much-frequented track.
3. Sin indulged in soon becomes sin confirmed. How soon a track is made across the soft earth. The dearest idol was once a plaything, a diversion.
4. This is the sure and certain tendency of sin. Wild oats mean a harvest of thorns. It is a cruel thing that is done, when men speak lightly of what is wrong.
II. The act of sin.
1. Sin is one: a great, awful unit. But sin is viewed under various aspects. Here the idea is that of one who deals treacherously, one who deceives, or deceives himself.
2. This is the quality of sin committed in Christian lands. Sin against light and love. This is sin which makes pity impossible, save with God, and with such as the Godlike.
III. The punishment of sin. All sin is visited with punishment. The pleasures of sin are but for a season. The punishment comes. The present punishment of sin is here emphasised; if that is not enough to drive you from the way of the transgressor, what of the death-bed, of the judgment-seat, of the never-dying worm? Where, then, is salvation? Look at what is suggested by one and another.
1. Retirement; a life of seclusion and penitence.
2. A firm stand against the encroaching sin.
3. Altered associations. These are the proposals of policy, or human calculations. Gods proposal for salvation is an absolute and unconditional forsaking. (George Lester.)
The hardship of sin
But who believes this? None who set their opinion against the testimony of revelation.
I. What is to be understood by the way of transgressors? Transgressor is but another name for sinner. Transgression supposeth either something done that was forbidden or something omitted that was commanded.
II. The doctrine of the text respecting this way. It is not rendered harder than it ought to be, through undue severity in God.
1. The kindness of God renders it difficult either to shun or to resist the light.
2. It is sometimes necessary for the Divine Being to carry Himself with some severity against daring and obdurate sinners, for a warning to others.
3. Jehovahs efforts to save render those who finally abuse His goodness singularly criminal. Improvements:
(1) How much sinners are deceived in this way of the transgressors!
(2) What madness will it be for any to continue in it!
(3) It will be impossible for any to be saved who will not quit it.
(4) What a mercy that we may yet do so!
(5) While we are in the way with the Lord, let us humble ourselves before Him, let us return to Him, and sue for His salvation. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)
The way of transgressors hard
In regard to a large class of sins, retribution follows in the present life. Sin never pays. It means sorrow, distress, pain, whether that pain follows immediately or after a while. The point of the text is, that retribution follows now, in this present world. The earliest steps of vice seem pleasant; if it were not so, it would offer no temptation. To yield to lower appetites and passions is so easy, so natural, so inviting. But the wilful do not go far without being brought to a very different conclusion. The way of transgressors turns out to be rough and hard. I might endeavour to deter you from evil courses by telling you of the judgment to come; but what I wish to impress is that there is a day of reckoning even here. Look at the misery which intemperance brings; which licentiousness brings; which gambling brings; which fraudulent dealing brings. Then let this be the hour of your final, and ever-to-be-remembered decision for God and righteousness. (J. T. Davidson, D.D.)
Warning against transgressors ways
Four losses, caused by transgression, which help to make the way hard.
1. The loss of a good conscience.
2. The loss of character.
3. The loss of usefulness.
4. The loss of the soul.
When we go into the way of transgressors, we do not know that we shall ever have an opportunity of repenting and believing in Jesus. And no matter what part of the transgressors ways we may have walked in, we shall find it a hard way, because it will be sure to bring the loss of heaven to us. (R. Newton, D. D.)
The hard way of sin
I. The way of the sinner is a hard way, because it is unprofitable–hard work and poor pay–the devil is a hard lord and a mean paymaster.
II. It is a hard way, because in the end it is usually a failure. Most men see only the present, and when summer is here one feels it must never end; but winter comes on at last.
III. It is a hard way, because opposed to all the stronger principles that prevail in life and destiny. The transgressor braves the mighty current of that eternal river which has swept on its bosom every being borne down to the shoreless sea of the judgment of God. Examples: Absalom, Judas, Pharaoh. No use fighting against God.
IV. It is a hard way, because it is an unhappy way. Conscience and all the better self rebel–opposed to all ones highest associates and surroundings.
V. A hard way, because it ends in eternal ruin–no opportunity to repair the damage. A hard life here, and hereafter eternal ruin!
VI. The only easy way is the way of obedience–the life that now is and the life that is to come. Turn from your hard master and serve the Lord Jesus Christ, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light. (C. G. Wright.)
The rough road
I. What do we mean by a transgressor? One who breaks a law or violates a command.
II. The painful path. The R.V. says, But the way of the treacherous is rugged. The way of wickedness is difficult and dangerous to travel as a rugged road. How true; young people may not think so; but old men will tell you the prophet knew what he was saying when he uttered the words, They weary themselves to commit iniquity. Chrysostom says, Virtue is easier than vice. Mr. H. W. Beecher used to tell of a man in America who had the habit of stealing all his firewood. He would get up on cold nights and go and take it from his neighbours woodpiles. It was ascertained that he spent more time and worked harder to get his fuel than he would have been obliged to if he had earned it in an honest way, and at ordinary wages. And this is a type of thousands of men who work a great deal harder to please the devil than they would have to work to please God. It is easier to be sober than intemperate, honest than dishonest, etc.
III. The way is hard; for it is frequently a path of sorrow and suffering. As certain serpents before they strike their prey fix their eyes upon it and fascinate it, and then at last devour it, so does sin fascinate the foolish sons of Adam–they are charmed with it, and perish for it. Woe unto their souls, for they have rewarded evil to themselves.
IV. The way is hard; for it is the way of bitter recollections. (J. E. Whydale.)
Personal responsibility
I. Man is constituted to avoid transgression. This is taught by–
1. Physical science.
2. Moral consciousness.
3. Common experience.
II. Man is punished for each transgression.
1. Each sinful act increases sinful desire.
2. Each sinful act weakens spiritual strength. As the sinful desire weakens, the power of resistance diminishes. A reed that has been overcome by the rushing torrent finds it more difficult to stand erect before the next.
3. Each single act is living in the memory.
III. Man is punished by an eternal law which condemns transgression.
1. This is a law additional to, but in harmony with, his constitution.
2. This is a law to be satisfied only by atonement. (The Congregational Pulpit.)
The way of transgressors is hard
A murderers last words are seldom very edifying, as it often happens that they are merely the expression of conviction that the speaker, in spite of his crimes, is going straight from the scaffold to heaven. The dying words of James Tracy, executed in Chicago, are, however, an exception to the rule. They deserve the careful attention of young people who think that it is a fine thing to see life, by which they generally mean vicious life. Tracy said, I do not believe any man who has known a life of virtue can ever be contented with a life of vice. The farmer who has spent his life on his farm, never seeing more of the world than the road to market, or more of society than the village congregation, is happier than the sporting man who gets his money easily but questionably, and sees society in its wildest dissipation. I hope that my fate may prove a warning to young men who are cheating themselves with the idea that there can be any peace, happiness, or prosperity in a crooked life. Perhaps the readers of immoral novels and young people attracted by the pleasures of vice will heed the solemn statement of a man who was qualified to speak with authority, even though they despise the same warning given in the Bible.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. The way of transgressors is hard.] Never was a truer saying; most sinners have more pain and difficulty to get their souls damned, than the righteous have, with all their cross-bearings, to get to the kingdom of heaven.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Good understanding; discovering itself by a mans holy and righteous practices and ways, as appears from the opposition of
the way of transgressors to it; and as words of understanding in this and other books of Scripture commonly include practice.
Giveth favour; maketh a man acceptable both to God and men.
The way; the carriage or manner of conversation.
Is hard; or, rough, as this very word is used, Deu 21:4; offensive and hateful to God and men, as rough ways are to a traveller; fierce, and intractable, and incorrigible.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. Right perception and actionsecure good will, while evil ways are difficult as a stony road. Thewicked left of God find punishment of sin in sinning.
hardor, “harsh”(compare Hebrew: Deu 21:4;Jer 5:15).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Good understanding giveth favour,…. A good understanding in things natural and civil gives favour among men; and so a good understanding in divine and spiritual things gives a man favour among religious people, makes him taken notice of by them, and acceptable to them: and such an understanding no man has, unless it be given him; and such appear to have one that do the commandments of God, Ps 111:10. The Israelites, for having and keeping the statutes of the Lord, were accounted by others a wise and an understanding people; and Christ, as man, when he increased in wisdom, grew in favour with God and men. It may be rendered, “good doctrine”, as the Vulgate Latin version, or “right doctrine”, as the Arabic version, “gives grace” o; is the means of conveying grace into the hearts of men, and of increasing it. What if it should be rendered, “grace gives a good understanding” p? since it is certain, that an understanding to know God and Christ is a gift of grace, 1Jo 5:20;
but the way of transgressors [is] hard; ungrateful and unpleasant to themselves and others; it is a rough and rugged way, in which they stumble and fall; and cannot walk with pleasure themselves, when their consciences are awakened, and they are loaded with guilt, and filled with terror; and must be very disagreeable to those who have seen the evil of them.
o “gratiam”, Pagninus, Montanus. Vatablus. Mercerus. Drusius, Michaelis, Schultens. p “Successum bonum dat gratia”, Junius & Tremellius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Four proverbs follow, whose connection appears to have been occasioned by the sound of their words ( … , … , … ).
15 Fine prudence produceth favour;
But the way of the malicious is uncultivated.
Regarding (thus to be punctuated, without Makkeph with Munach, after Codd. and old editions), vid., p. 84; for the most part it corresponds with that which in a deep ethical sense we call fine culture. Regarding , vid., at Pro 10:10: it is not used here, as there, impersonally, but has a personal subject: he brings forth, causes. Fine culture, which shows men how to take the right side and in all circumstances to strike the right key, exercises a kindly heart-winning influence, not merely, as would be expressed by , to the benefit of its possessor, but, as is expressed by , such as removes generally a partition wall and brings men closer to one another. The [ perennis ], touching it both for the eye and the ear, forms the contrast to . This word, an elative formation from = Arab. wtn , denotes that which stretches itself far, and that with reference to time: that which remains the same during the course of time. “That which does not change in time, continuing the same, according to its nature, strong, firm, and thus becomes the designation of the enduring and the solid, whose quality remains always the same.” Thus Orelli, Die hebr. Synonyme der Zeit u. Ewigkeit, 1871. But that in the passage before us it denotes the way of the as “endlessly going forward,” the explanation of Orelli, after Bttcher ( Collectanea, p. 135), is withdrawn by the latter in the new Aehrenlese (where he reads , “constant strife”). And (Deu 21:4) does not mean “a brook, the existence of which is not dependent on the weather and the season of the year,” at least not in accordance with the traditional meaning which is given Sota ix. 5 (cf. the Gemara), but a stony valley; for the Mishna says: , i.e., is here, according to its verbal meaning, equivalent to (hard). We are of the opinion that here, in the midst of the discussion of the law of the (the ritual for the atonement of a murder perpetrated by an unknown hand), the same meaning of the is certified which is to be adopted in the passage before us. Maimuni
(Note: = R. Moses b. Maimum = Rambam, so called by the Jews from the initial letters of his name = Maimonides, d. 1204.)
(in Sota and Hilchoth Rozeach ix. 2) indeed, with the Mishna and Gemara, thinks the meaning of a “strong rushing wdy” to be compatible; but is a word which more naturally denotes the property of the ground than of a river, and the description, Deu 21:4: in a , in which there is no tillage and sowing, demands for here the idea of the valley, and not primarily that of the valley-brook. According to this tradition, the Targum places a in the Peshito translation of 15b, and the Venet. translates, after Kimchi, (of from ) . The fundamental idea of remaining like itself, continuing, passes over into the idea of the firm, the hard, so that is a word that interchanges with , Num 24:21, and serves as a figurative designation of the rocky mountains, Jer 49:19, and the rocky framework of the earth, Mic 6:2. Thus the meaning of hardness ( , Mat 13:5) connects itself with the word, and at the same time, according to Deu 21:4, of the uncultivable and the uncultivated. The way of the , the treacherous, i.e., the manner in which they transact with men, is stiff, as hard as stone, and repulsive; they follow selfish views, never placing themselves in sympathy with the condition of their neighbour; they are without the tenderness which is connected with fine culture; they remain destitute of feeling in things which, as we say, would soften a stone. It is unnecessary to give a catalogue of the different meanings of this , such as vorago (Jerome), a standing bog (Umbreit), and ever trodden way (Bertheau), etc.; Schultens offers, as frequently, the relatively best: at via perfidorum pertinacissime tensum ; but does not mean to strain, but to extend. The lxx has between 15a and 15b the interpolation: .
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
15 Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.
If we compare not only the end, but the way, we shall find that religion has the advantage; for, 1. The way of saints is pleasant and agreeable: Good understanding gains favour with God and man; our Saviour grew in that favour when he increased in wisdom. Those that conduct themselves prudently, and order their conversation aright in every thing, that serve Christ in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, are accepted of God and approved of men,Rom 14:17; Rom 14:18. And how comfortably will that man pass through the world who is well understood and is therefore well accepted! 2. The way of sinners is rough and uneasy, and, for this reason, unpleasant to themselves, because unacceptable to others. It is hard, hard upon others, who complain of it, hard to the sinner himself, who can have little enjoyment of himself while he is doing that which is disobliging to all mankind. The service of sin is perfect slavery, and the road to hell is strewed with the thorns and thistles that are the products of the curse. Sinners labour in the very fire.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Favor or Futility
Verse 15 affirms in the first line that good understanding obtains favor, Pro 3:13-18; Pro 4:1; Pro 4:7; (compare also 1Sa 18:14; Dan 1:8-9). The second line is difficult, but the thought appears to be: the way of the transgressors (the faithless and treacherous) leads to their ruin or destruction, Pro 11:3; Jdg 9:1-5; Jdg 9:48-57; Isa 33:1.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 13:15. Good understanding, rather discretion. Hard, stony, uncultivated. This is the generally received rendering, but the word often signifies perpetual. Miller says We find it in thirteen places, and in every one of them it means perpetual. Strong or perpetual is thy dwelling-place (Num. 24:21). Mighty rivers are perpetual, or perennial rivers (Psa. 74:17). Mighty nation (Jer. 5:15) corresponds with next expression ancient nation, and is to be rendered perpetual (or permanent). Umbreit translates it a standing bog or marsh.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 13:15
A BAD WAY AND A GOOD UNDERSTANDING
I. Favour is here spoken of as a thing to be desired. It is desirable to have the favour of any man if thereby we can do him any good. It was desirable that Joseph should have Pharaohs favour, as he was thereby enabled to gain his ear and help him in his perplexity. The favour which Daniel obtained from Nebuchadnezzar enabled him to be a great blessing to that monarch. A man who his regarded by his fellow creatures with favour possesses a powerful instrument which he may use to do them good. On this account the favour of men is to be desired. It is also desirable to have the favour of good men as thereby we may get good. Good men are the only living representatives of God in the world, and next to the blessedness of having the favour of the parent is the blessedness of having that of His children. Therefore the favour of men is to be desired both for their sakes and for our own.
II. The instrument of obtaining favour. Good understanding or good intelligence. Mans highest and truest intelligence springs from moral relation and sympathy with God. All intellectual intelligence is derived from Him, and this intelligence alone will often gain for men a large share of human favour. There are many men of great mental intelligence, who do not acknowledge the existence of God, who have won high places in the esteem of men. But these words refer to those who have been enlightened by the teaching of the Divine spirit, and are in sympathy with God and with His moral laws. Such men are not less intelligent concerning other matters, but more so. Other things being equal, a godly mans purely intellectual powers are quickened by his godliness. If an ungodly man becomes a true servant of God, all the powers of his mind are thereby strengthened. Observation confirms this, and it is impossible that it should be otherwise. If a man cannot come into communion with a wiser man, without gaining in intelligence, how can he come into communion with the Fountain of all wisdom without becoming a more intelligent man in every sense of the word? What a capable man of business Joseph was. When quite a youth, and without any previous training, he became controller of the household of an Egyptian nobleman; and when only thirty was not only the first lord of Egypt, but showed himself fully equal to all the exigencies of his position. Whence did his good understanding proceed? Was it not from his moral relationship with the God of his fathers? Can we find such an one as this is? said the heathen king,a man in whom the spirit of God is (Gen. 41:38). The possession of this good understanding in temporal and secular matters gives a man favour in the eyes of other men. The possession of spiritual intelligence gives him favour in the eyes of all the good. There is a relationship among all true members of the family of God, which is stronger and deeper than any merely human relationship. And this spiritual intelligence gives a man a moral power among all his fellow-men. They cannot withhold the testimony of their consciences, unless they are altogether hardened they must secretly, if not openly, give him their esteem and confidence. Natural conscience, says Trapp, cannot but do homage to the image of God stamped upon the nature and works of the godly.
III. The way of those who are destitute of this spiritual intelligence. All such men are transgressors. Their spiritual nature is dormantthey are without spiritual discernment. In scriptural phrase they are blind (Rev. 3:17) and dead (Eph. 2:1). Their way is hard, however we use the word. (See Critical Notes.)
1. It is hard in the sense of being a well-trodden way. It has become hard by being much frequentedby being perpetually used. It has several elements of attraction.
1. Antiquity is on its side. It is an old wayit has been in use for ages. No man, says our Lord, having drunk old wine, straightway desireth new (Luk. 5:39). Men are naturally conservativenaturally inclined to go as their fathers went. True it is that there is an older waythe way of the good (see Homiletics on chap. Pro. 4:14-19, page 58), but still the way of the transgressor is very ancient.
2. Mens natural inclination leads into that way. Men are led by their inclination, unless there is a stronger principle within them. We are born with a tendency to evil rather than to goodto walk after the devices of our own heart rather than according to the will of God. In most men inclination is as strong as will, and leads them to tread the way of the transgressor.
3. It is attractive because of the numbers who tread it. Many there be which go in thereat (Mat. 7:13). Many men make that fact a city of refuge wherein to shelter themselves from the admonitions of conscience. I only do as others do is regarded by many men as an impregnable citadel wherein they can securely await the righteous judgments of God (See Homiletics on page 8, 2nd head).
2. It is hard and therefore desolate, unfruitful. The common highway that is trodden down by many feet is not the place in which to look for a golden harvest. The stony rock is not a soil whence flowers spring. Men do not expect to gather choice fruit on the desolate moorland. Neither can the way of the transgressor yield the flowers or the pleasant fruits of life. Thorns and nettles are there, but no golden harvest. The favour neither of God nor man is his portion. He can only reap as he has sown (See Homiletics on chap. Pro. 11:18-20, page 223).
3. It is a hard way in the sense that it is a miserable way. Every act carries with it a present judgment. Every action has its reaction of pleasure or of pain. Every step, therefore, in the way of transgression has its accompanying reproach of conscience. Then the way of sin is a way of self-deception. What is more painful than to be the subject of constant deception? We have just dwelt upon the heart-sickness of hope deferred (Pro. 13:12); the sinner is a constant victim of this malady. Nothing can be a more bitter experience than to stake our all upon a promise, and when the time comes for its fulfilment, to find that it was made only to be broken. Yet this is the experience of a transgressor of Gods law, not once or twice, but all through his life. It is his lot not only to deceive but to be deceived (2Ti. 3:13). He is ever promising himself, and is ever being promised by the master whom he serves, satisfaction as the result of his deeds, but he is always finding that the performance falls as far short of the promise as it did when the devil led our first parents into sin, by the promise ye shall be as gods, and performed it by making them slaves to himself. This is another ingredient in the hardness of the way. He is a slave to him who has deceived him. Many a man is fully alive to the deceptive nature of sinto its utter powerlessness to give him real pleasureand yet he goes on it. Why is this? He is bound by a chain which he finds it well nigh impossible to break. Evil habits, as well as good ones, grow stronger by exercise. Slavery is hard under any master, excepting under Him whose service is perfect freedom. How bitter, then, is slavery to one who has deceived us. Yet this is not the hardest part of the hard way. None who are thus victims of the great deceivernone whom he has made his bond slaves but feel that they are so by their own consent. Each evil thought unchecked, each evil thought indulged, has forged a link in the chain. Their condition has been likened, by an old writer, to that of a man who has been busily at work in carrying stick after stick to make a pile of wood, and then finds that he has only been heaping up materials for a fire upon which he is to be burned.
IV. But though the way of transgressors is hard, it is not too hard. Its very hardness is intended to lead them to leave it. Because the end will be worse than the way, it is the tenderest mercy to make the way hard. It only tells him that he has taken the wrong road. The pain that he suffers is only the voice of God, saying, Do thyself no harm. When a mountain pass becomes so blocked with fallen rocks that every step is a misery, does it not admonish the traveller to turn back before he makes a fatal slip? When in the regions of eternal snow a man feels intense pain from the biting cold, and encounters at every step the corpse of one who has been frozen to death by persistently disregarding the voice of nature, is it not suicide to continue? Can he say he received no admonition? Is not all pain a warning that some good law has been transgressed? Is it not a sentinel with a drawn sword to turn back the unwary from the precipice? Even so is the hardness of the way of the transgressor.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
For the most part the word translated good understanding corresponds with that which, in a deep ethical sense, we call fine culture, which shows men how to take the right side, and in all circumstances to take the right key, exercise a kindly, heart-winning influence, not merely to the benefit of its possessor, but such as removes a partition wall, and brings men closer to each other. The word translated hard denotes that which stretches itself far, and with reference to time, that which remains the same during the course of time. That which does not change in time, continuing the same, according to its nature, strong, firm, thus becomes the designation of the enduring and the solid, whose quality remains always the same. The fundamental idea of remaining like itself, continuing, passes over into the idea of the firm, the hard, and, at the same time, of the uncultivated and the uncultivatible. The way of transgressors, or of the treacherous, i.e., the manner in which they transact with men, is stiff, as hard as stone, repulsive; they follow selfish views, never placing themselves in sympathy with the condition of their neighbour; they are without the tenderness which is connected with fine culture; they remain destitute of feeling in things which, as we say, would soften a stone,Delitzsch.
Many seek favour as the gift of others which it is in their own power to give themselves. For, get a good understanding, whereby to understand well what thou goest about, and how to go about it. It is true, as Tertullian speaketh, now and then it falls out, that in a great tempest wherein sea and heaven are confounded, the haven is attained by a happy error; and now and then, in darkness, the way of entrance and going out is found by a blind happiness. But this is a favour which has no holdfastit is a good understanding that giveth favour.Jermin.
Is not the way of transgressors pleasant in prospect, although it ends in death? No; sin barters away future safety but does not secure present peace in return. Things are not always what they seem. The pleasures of sin are not only limited in their duration, they are lies even while they last. The race is torture and the goal perdition. But the right way is not a soft and silky path for the foot of man to tread upon; and, if one thing happens to all in the journey of life, what advantage have the good? Much every way, and specifically thus: The hardness which disciples experience in following their Lora is righteousness rubbing on their remaining lusts, and so wasting their deformities away; whereas the hardness of a transgressors way is a carnal mind in its impotent enmity dashing itself against the bosses of the Almightys buckler. As the pains of cure differ from the pains of killing, so differs the salutary straitness which presses the entrance at the gates of life, from the hardness which hurts transgressors as they flee from God.Arnot.
Sin, as of its nature, sinks always lower under bond (Pro. 13:13), and must, therefore, de jure, be perpetual (see Millers rendering, in Critical Notes). For, strange enough, the man without good intelligence, i.e., the best kind of knowledge, neglects to act on what knowledge he has. The worst man has knowledge enough to save himthat is (to expound an averment which is only in one sense true), Gods goodness is such that if a man would use the light he had, he would start from that point, and be helped into the kingdom.Miller.
Different senses have been affixed to these words
1. Good understanding showeth favour to othersi.e., is mild and conciliatory, while the way of transgressors is hard, unyielding, stern.
2. Ingenuous manners procure favour; but rugged is the path of the artfuli.e., exposing him to incessant difficulties, while open dealing makes a mans way plain before him.
3. More probably the meaning in both parts of the verse terminates on the persons self. Intelligent and sound judgment, by fitting a man to be a wise and useful counsellor, procures him favour. On the contrary, the way of transgressors, like By-path Meadow in the Pilgrims Progress, presents at its entrance all that is tempting to allure into it, but supplies no real enjoyment to the traveller in it at last.Wardlaw.
Wicked men live under a hard taskmaster. I was held before conversion, said Augustine, not with an iron chain, but with the obstinacy of my own will. The philosophical infidel bears the same testimony. I begin to fancy myself in a most deplorable condition, environed with the deepest darkness on every side (Essays, I. 458). Voltaire, judging of course from his own heart, pronounces, In man is more wretchedness than in all other animals put together. Man loves life, yet knows he must die. I wish, continues this wretched witness for his master, I had never been born. The worldly infidel adds his seal to the record. Colonel Gardiner declared, that in his course of wickedness he had often envied the existence of a dog.Bridges.
The hardness of the transgressors way.
I. A truth to be confirmed. It is hard to themselvesto others, to their families, their friends, to society.
II. A dispensation to be approved. It illustrates the mingled justice and mercy of God, who has made the way to hell difficult. The hardness of the way of sin is often the means of stopping sinners in their course. The sufferings of the wicked operate as a check and preservative to the righteous.
III. A warning to be enforced. Take care how you take the first step. Be anxious, if you have entered the road, to retrace your step. Remember that the hardness of the way is nothing to the bitterness of the endS. Thodey.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(15) Good understanding giveth favour.Comp. the union of wisdom and favour with God and man (Luk. 2:52).
The way of transgressors is hard.Rough and barren as the valley described in Deu. 21:4, in contrast to the green pastures and waters of comfort of Psa. 23:2.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Good understanding Intelligence accompanied with kindness; kindly wisdom.
Way of transgressors Their conduct; frequently denoted as “a way.”
Is hard Difficult, rough, perhaps hard to bear; Zockler renders: “desolate.” The primary idea of the word seems to be that of perpetuity, as an ever-trodden way, hence hard and desolate, destitute of verdure, etc. This word, rendered hard, has been a hard word for the critics.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 15. Good understanding giveth favor,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 13:15. Good understanding giveth favour, &c. A good understanding granteth favour, but the demeanor of the insolent is pertinacious. Schultens. The meaning of the verse seems to be this, says Bishop Patrick; “If a man have understanding enough to be thoroughly good, he will find things favourable to his honest desires; but they who take evil courses meet with great difficulties, and are forced to go backward and forward, and wind and turn every way, to bring about their ends, or to save themselves perhaps from ruin.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 781
THE WAY OF TRANSGRESSORS HARD
Pro 13:15. The way of transgressors is hard.
THE Scriptures abound with weighty aphorisms, which deserve the deepest consideration. For the most part, they will be found directly opposed to the general opinions of mankind. The maxims of men are too often founded on the appearance of things, and on the respect they bear to our temporal advantage; but the declarations of God exhibit things as they really are, and as they will approve themselves to be, if we take into consideration their aspect on eternity. The transgressors of Gods law account themselves happy in having cast off his yoke, and freed themselves from the restraints which his law would impose upon them. But the truth is, that he is under a most desperate delusion, and grievously deceives his own soul. A good understanding, regulating the conduct agreeably to Gods commands. will ensure to a man favour and comfort, both in this world and the next: but the way of transgressors is hard. Their whole life is a state,
I.
Of bondage
[Whatever be the besetting sin of the ungodly, it has within them the force of a law, to which alas! they yield a willing obedience [Note: Rom 7:21.]. As the ten tribes ran willingly after the commandment of Jeroboam to the commission of idolatry, to which they had an inward and almost invincible propensity [Note: Hos 5:11.]; so do the worldling, the sensualist, the drunkard, follow but too readily, the impulse of their own corrupt hearts. A spring will not more naturally rise, when the power which compressed it is removed, than their lusts will rise to demand their wonted gratification, when an opportunity for indulgence is afforded them. The poor infatuated agents will call this liberty [Note: 2Pe 2:19.]; but the whole Scriptures designate it bondage: Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey [Note: Rom 6:16.]? Yes, in yielding to temptation we are the servants of sin [Note: Rom 6:17.]; and the servants of Satan also: for he it is who worketh in all the children of disobedience [Note: Eph 2:2.], and leads them captive at his will [Note: 2Ti 2:26.]. In fact, the whole Gospel takes this for granted: for Christ was sent on purpose to redeem us from this bondage [Note: Luk 4:18.], and to make us free indeed [Note: Joh 8:36.]. But, whilst thus enslaved, are we not in a most pitiable condition? True, we may not be sensible of the bondage, because the service of sin and Satan is in accordance with our own corrupt inclinations: but we are, in fact, the more to be pitied, because of our insensibility: even as a maniac is, whose whole life is occupied in things which tend to the destruction of his own welfare. The transgressors life is also a state,]
II.
Of disquietude
[The ungodly man, whatever be his pursuit, finds nothing in which his soul can rest. Possess what he may, in the midst of his sufficiency he is in straits [Note: Job 20:22.]. There is always a secret something unpossessed; some object which he thinks would make him happy, but which, even when in appearance almost attained, eludes his grasp: and after he has hewn out to himself a cistern with great labour, he finds it only a broken cistern, that can hold no water [Note: Jer 2:13.]. His continual disappointments fill him with vexation; so that he finds even the objects of his fondest hope prove, in the issue, to be vanity and vexation of spirit. Not being devoted to his God, he wants those enjoyments and those prospects which alone can afford consolation to him under his trials To his other pains are added those of a self-condemning conscience. He tries indeed to stifle the voice of conscience; and betakes himself to business, and pleasures, and company, in order to get rid of its remonstrances: but there are times when it will speak, especially a time of sickness and approaching dissolution; and at those seasons he feels regret that he has so long and so entirely disregarded his eternal interests. Gladly at such a season would he consent to have his miserable life protracted to an indefinite period, yea, or to suffer annihilation; not because he could contemplate either the one or the other with pleasure, but because he dreads the judgment for which he has neglected to prepare.
Say, Brethren, whether such away be not hard and painful? Yet I appeal to the conscience of every man, whether that declaration be not verified in his own experience; The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked [Note: Isa 57:20-21.]. Yes, verily, this testimony is incontrovertible; and it proves beyond all doubt the truth in my text, that the way of transgressors is hard.
But all this is heightened by the consideration of the transgressors way as a state,]
III.
Of danger
[In some respect it may be said of every man, that he is exposed to danger, and that we know not what a day or an hour may bring forth. But, if we be servants of Christ, we have nothing to fear; since He is pledged to preserve us from every thing that shall be really evil, and to make all things work together for our good [Note: Rom 8:28.]. Even death itself is a blessing to the pious man, who is privileged to count it amongst his richest treasures [Note: 1Co 3:22.]. Far different from this, however, is the state of the ungodly man: he knows not but that the next moment may precipitate him into the bottomless abyss of hell. Death waits but for its commission from on high, and it will in an instant transmit his soul to the bar of judgment, and to the presence of his offended God. What a fearful thought! With what terror would it inspire the unconverted man, if it were contemplated aright! Could we but conceive a transgressor hurried to the tribunal of his Judge, to give up his great account, and to receive his final doom, what a view should we have of the folly of his ways! Oh! the anguish to which he is now subjected under the wrath of an avenging God? what weeping under the load of his misery! what wailing on account of his folly, in having so wasted his day of grace! and what gnashing of teeth, with unprofitable execrations against his avenging God! Such is the danger to which the unconverted man is every moment exposed. At his most joyous feasts, this sword is suspended over him by a single hair; which cut or rent asunder, he is instantly consigned to endless woe. Whether the transgressor think of it or not, this is his state; and a miserable state it is: and if he awake not out of it before death shall seize him, it were better for him that he had never been born.]
Improvement
1.
How desirable is the conversion of the soul to God!
[Compare the state of a converted soul with that which has been before described. The saint, doubtless, has his trials, as well as the ungodly man: but in him, so far as it prevails, religion makes a most essential difference: it frees him from the law of sin and death [Note: Rom 8:2.]; and he finds all its ways to be the ways of pleasantness and peace [Note: Pro 3:17.]. If men consulted only their happiness in this life, they would devote themselves to God, whose service is perfect freedom: but if they take eternity into the account, they will confess him to be the only happy man, who enjoys the Divine favour and looks forward with confidence to a participation of the Divine glory.]
2.
How infatuated are they who delay to seek it!
[Truly, if men were conscious of their danger in an unconverted state, they could no more sleep than they could in a ship that was on fire, or on a rafter on which they were making their escape to land. I pray you, beloved, consider the shortness and uncertainty of time! Consider how every days continuance in sin operates to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, to harden your own hearts, to confirm your evil habits, to accumulate your load of guilt, and to augment the misery that awaits you. O! will you delay to turn unto your God? Will you delay one single hour? What if your soul be required of you this very night, and your doom be fixed without a hope or possibility of change for ever? I beseech you, to-day, while it is called to-day, harden not your hearts; but repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
The Way of Transgressors, Etc.
Pro 13:15-24
Good understanding gives favour with man, and it also gives favour with God; it may stand for sympathy, or appreciation, or mutual knowledge; or it may stand for a desire to do that which is right and good at all costs and under all circumstances; a man who displays this high moral quality will be found to have made many friends without any attempt to make them. Character asserts itself, and brings its own results in due sequence. The cantankerous or contentious man is continually separating himself from his fellows. He is a firebrand, he continually brings an element of discord with him: he does not understand the large word, the gracious interpretation, the sympathetic feeling; he takes up all hard things, and magnifies them, and makes them harder still; he dwells upon their qualities and turns them into occasions of offence. A genial man, a man of good understanding, a man of fine sagacity, and solid judgment, and really responsive heart, lifts up the valleys, brings down the mountains, makes the crooked places straight and the rough places plain; and wherever he goes men are conscious that he brings with him the spirit of peace. Are we not prepared to re-echo the words, “The way of transgressors is hard”? It is rough, stony, difficult to travel, always uphill, or sinking suddenly down into bottomless pits; it is put in contrast to the green pastures and the still waters by which the good man walks. Is this a merely Biblical doctrine, a doctrine of churches, of priests, of superstition? Is it not the most plainly-written fact in conscious life? Even where the transgressor seems to succeed, we cannot tell how much he has to endure in his own conscience; we know not how hard is the pillow of the man who has been plotting mischief all day, and who has lain down only that he may dream of further iniquity. There are other transgressors whose way is obviously hard; they have destroyed all confidence in their probity, they have revealed an iniquitous spirit, they have shown how hollow is their whole nature, how absolutely devoid they are of conscience and honour and every element of good. When they go out of our presence we know that they go into a wilderness of darkness; no man has a smile for them; no heart has a place of trust in which they can rest; the world turns against them, and leaves them to ever-increasing humiliation and ever-extending loss. The results of wickedness come upon a man in a thousand different ways. They are not summed up in one punishment, which may be endured once for all. The consciousness of wickedness follows a man all the days of the week and all the hours of the day, and comes up at the most unexpected times; it afflicts him with constant nightmare; every tap at the door may be the coming-in of the jailer; every post may bring the letter of doom; everything that occurs is charged with a possibility of mischief. The stars in their courses fight against the bad man; he has no satisfaction in his feast, no holiday in his summer; the flowers that he plants in his garden become poison trees, and the birds that ought to sing to him seem to bring messages suggestive of vengeance and penalty. Yet though all this is known perfectly, how few are they who turn away from transgression, hating it with a perfect hatred, and proving the reality of their hatred not by moaning over the consequences of sin, but in repenting of it because it is an essential evil, not only hurtful to man but offensive and wounding to God. How deeply founded in human nature seems to be the divine law when every breach of that law leads to punishment of the most distressing kind. We may know somewhat of the dignity of the law by the immediateness of the punishment which follows its violation. A little law could never have ended in such disastrous consequences to those who have trespassed. By the infinity of the consequences we may know somewhat of the dignity of the law which has been transgressed.
“He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Evil pursueth sinners: but to the righteous good shall be repayed” ( Pro 13:20-21 ).
The very desire to walk with the wise is itself a sign of wisdom. No bad man could ever wish to be in heaven, for heaven itself would be no paradise to him, because of the condition of his soul. No fool could desire the society of the wise, for he could not understand their language, nor could he identify himself with their purposes. The wise are men who are disposed to encourage approach rather than to resent it, if by such encouragement they can really develop wisdom in others. It might be thought that wise men would not allow any but the wise to walk with them, which is perfectly true; but: they distinguish between a desire to be wise and the attainment of wisdom itself; in their eyes the desire for wisdom is itself wisdom, and is accounted a credential and guarantee enough of good faith. It is no sign of refinement to mock the vulgarity of others. It is no sign of wisdom to be dwelling ostentatiously and resentfully upon the ignorance of men who have had no opportunities to learn. It is the part of wisdom and of dignity to find out what is good in a man, to encourage and to foster it, if mayhap that which is little may become great, and that which is weak may be made strong. Fools can do nothing for their companions but bring them to moral ruin. Even their laughter is madness, and their mirth is but a variety of despair. Their laughter is all in their mouth, it is not in their soul, it is not the deep healthy rational laughter which indicates real spiritual gladness. The difficulty is to persuade young people of the difference between the wise and the foolish, because in many instances the foolish seem to have no little amount of enjoyment; and youthful sagacity is not sufficiently strengthened and quickened to see that things are not to be judged within the limits of to-day or to-morrow, but are to be estimated according to their final and lasting consequences. Fools never begin knowledge, so they make no progress in its upward and heavenward way. They live entirely by the day, and from hand to mouth; they have no resources of knowledge, no deep treasures of wisdom: what water they drink flows on the surface, it does not spring from the rock, therefore it is dried up in summer, and in winter it is frozen over; they cannot go below and find the springing water which no sun can dry and which no frost can readily penetrate. Wise men have bread to eat which the world knoweth not of. They do not live upon superficial maxims, which are the mere inventions of momentary wit, but upon those deep and vital principles which are modern throughout all time because they are ancient in all history, yea, because they are part of the very substance and constitution of manhood. What is said of fools applies to the whole circle and range of folly; it applies not only to intellectual fools, but to moral fools, for there are moral lunatics as certainly as there are mental incapables: men who have false rules of business, false maxims by which they direct their conduct, little empty proverbs which sound as if they were wise, but which experience has proved to be unphilosophical. There is no living word but the Word of God, no wisdom but that which is found in the inspired volume; it knows man, it speaks the language of man, it understands all the necessity of man, and will abide when all other words have exhausted their barren messages. The thought is pursued in the word “evil pursueth sinners.” It would seem as if the hounds of vengeance were set upon the track of the evil man, and as if escape from them were simply impossible. How many are the penal resources of God! What snares, and fire and brimstone! What thunderbolts and hailstones God can command! Evil pursues sinners in the body, ruining health, impairing digestion, rendering sleep impossible, fevering the brain, and maddening the whole being with tempests of excitement; evil pursues the sinner in his children; it would seem as if they grew up to smite him for his folly, and to rebuke him with many judgments, and even with sore penalties for his neglect and perversity and selfishness. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” The sward is not willing to make a bed for him; the flowers shudder when he plucks them, the sunlight is abused by his very presence, all nature is out of sympathy with him, for nature is the manifestation of God, the very embodiment of his natural attributes. Turn from these consequences, which are inevitable, and look to the fact that “to the righteous good shall be repaid”; in the harvest-time he shall know what kind of seed he has sown, and into what ground he has cast it. In seedtime itself there is much that is doubtful, speculative, much that is trying to faith and patience; not until the harvest can we tell what good we did in the sowing season. Blessed be God, there is a time of reaping as well as of sowing. On the other hand, awful is the law of the Lord, because the wicked man cannot escape the harvest for which he has prepared. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.”
“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 ).
All this is true in the matter of material possession, but in a still larger sense is it true of moral character. There is a sense in which no man can leave his character to another; that is to say, a man cannot adopt the character of an ancestor, and use it as if it were so much material property. There is, however, another and larger sense in which we do inherit the character of our forefathers; we are respected on account of that character; great things are expected of us because we have come of a good stock; people reason that as the father was so excellent a man, it is impossible that the children can be altogether wanting in excellence. In this sense we are reaping what we have not sown, and are in the enjoyment of riches for which we have not laboured. This gives us a view of posterity which ought to act as an inspiration. No man liveth unto himself, even for a single day; all the time he is really living for posterity, and in such a way that posterity will be affected, either happily or unhappily, by the course of action with which his name is identified. It is just as true that the bad man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: how impossible it is for the children of a bad man to get credit for being and doing anything really good! Alas! they are followed by the world’s suspicion to the very end of the chapter of life: when they do well no credit is given to them for their well-doing, because it is known that their fathers were men of corrupt spirit and low character. This is indeed wholly unjust: but who can take out of human nature the line of depravity out of which the injustice springs as out of a native and congenial soil? The wise man teaches that the wealth of the sinner is not always to be in the hands of the bad man, but that really the sinner without knowing it is working for the just. Jesus Christ says, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth,” that is, they shall possess the earth, they shall hold it as men hold property; they shall govern it by the very gentleness and modesty of their spirit. All things are yours if you are Christ’s. Even when the bad man seems to prosper, he is simply increasing your balance at the bank. The money of the bad man leaves him, is afraid of him and ashamed of him, and will not tarry with him from one generation to another: with a kind of spiritual consciousness it says, This is not my rightful owner, this house is not my home; I must go to sustain the good and the true in extending and upholding the kingdom of light and life. The main thought that should fix itself upon every mind is that whatever we do runs on from one generation to another. The empty sophism that posterity has done nothing for us ought to give way before the certain and solemn truth that we are doing a great deal for posterity; for every good thought we think and every good word we speak must have an effect in moulding the character of the coming time. What is true of good is true of evil. To think that we shall one day be execrated for our selfishness is surely an intolerable punishment, and is such as ought to turn us from the evil of our ways.
“He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes” ( Pro 13:24 ).
Under this apparent severity is to be found the spirit of true kindness. It would seem as if the last word in the text were an emphatic word. There is a good deal of chastening, but it is not timely; the will has grown strong, the passions have acquired tenacious hold upon the mind, the chastening comes too late in life. It is the easiest of all things to spare the rod; it enables family life to proceed with fluency; it avoids all controversy and all painful collision as between the elder and the younger. For a time this is beautiful, so much so that people commend the family as one characterised by great harmony and union; on the contrary, it ought to be reprobated. It is the severest cruelty that can be inflicted upon a child not to show that child the limits of his will, and the necessity of accommodating that will to the judgment and pleasure of others. The spoiled child comes to hate the spoiling parent. The child that is wisely chastened comes to love the very hand that used the rod. Children must be taught that all things are not theirs, that the world is a place for discipline, and that all life is valuable only in proportion as it has been refined and strengthened by patient endurance. What can be more pitiful than to see a parent who imagines that by allowing the child to have all its own way, he is kind, benevolent, and tender? Such a man has no right to such a character: call him foolish, selfish, cruel, tyrannical; all these characteristics are his, for he has deserved them by the course of imbecility which he has selfishly pursued. Let no merely cruel man take encouragement from these words to use the rod without measure, and to use it merely for the sake of showing his animal strength. That is not the teaching of the passage. The chastening is to be with measure, is to be timely, is to have some proportion to the offence that is visited, and is to give more pain to the inflicter of the punishment than to its receiver. Great wisdom is required in the use of the rod. The rod has to be used upon every man sooner or later; we cannot escape chastisement: we must be made to feel that the world is not all ours, that there are rights and interests to be respected besides those which we ourselves claim: the sooner that lesson can be instilled into the mind the better; if it can be wrought into the heart and memory of childhood it will save innumerable anxieties and disappointments in all after-life.
So the book of wisdom rolls on, touching human life at every point, decorating the whole house of life with motto and maxim and philosophy, infinite in suggestion and gracious in encouragement. It would seem as if the wise man were first throwing out of his right hand and then out of his left hand something for the good, something for the bad; a blessing for the wise, a curse for the foolish; each sentence is self-balanced, the light and the darkness go together, heaven and hell are set in juxtaposition: it is the good man, and the bad man; the wise man, and the foolish man; the righteous, and the wicked; the faithful, and the transgressor. Where the classification is so broad and distinct no mistake can be made as to our position. If we have shaded down wickedness until it has lost somewhat of its ghastliness, it is only ourselves that are deceived, the nature of wickedness itself is unchanged. If we have mitigated the penalty of righteousness until it has become quite easy to us, so easy as to cost us no thought and no effort, we have deceived ourselves, we have not brought down the standard of righteousness. All these proverbs are a call to discipline, they never spare the soul, they never caress it into idleness, or soothe it into indifference; the proverbs are so many spears dug into our sides, that we may run the race of life more surely and more speedily, keeping our eyes steadfastly fixed on the goal towards which we are hastening. We cannot, however, live upon proverbs, however sententious and epigrammatic; we must have gospels, expositions of the fatherhood of God, comments upon the nature of sin and upon the possibilities of the soul; we must be entreated and wooed and persuaded, not spurred and goaded by sharply-pointed maxims. To the maxims we shall come in due course, and we shall affirm every one of them, sealing each with the seal of our companionship and experience. Meanwhile, we may go to the school of Christ, and learn of him who is meek and lowly in heart, and find rest to our souls, not in the adoption of moral epigrams, but in the reception of saving truths.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Pro 13:15 Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors [is] hard.
Ver. 15. Good understanding giveth favour. ] See this exemplified in Joseph, David, Daniel, Paul. Act 27:43 ; Act 28:2 God oft speaketh for such in the hearts of their enemies, who cannot but admire their piety and patience, and spend more thoughts about them than the world is aware of; as Darius did about Daniel when cast into the den. Natural conscience cannot but do homage to the image of God stamped upon the natures and works of the godly: when they see in them that which is above the ordinary nature of men, or their expectation, they are afraid of the name of God, whereby they are called, Deu 28:9-10 and are forced to say, “Surely this is a wise and understanding nation”; Deu 4:6 “God is in this people of a truth”; 1Co 14:25 “Certainly this was a righteous man.” Luk 23:47
But the way of transgressors is hard.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
giveth favour. Illustrations: Abraham (Gen 23:10, Gen 23:11); Joseph (Gen 39:2); Joshua (Jos 6:27); David (1Sa 18:14); Abigail (1Sa 25:3, 1Sa 25:18-34); Daniel (Dan 1:8, Dan 1:9; Dan 6:3); Samuel (1Sa 2:26. 1Sa 22:1).
hard = rough. This meaning may be substituted for its usual rendering “strong”. See Gen 49:24. Exo 14:27. Num 24:21. Jer 5:15. Amo 5:24. Mic 6:2, &c. Hebrew. ‘eythan.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 13:15
Pro 13:15
“Good understanding giveth favor; But the way of the transgressor is hard.”
There are two views of this passage. The way of the transgressor may be interpreted as in the RSV, “The way of the faithless is their ruin,” or it may be referred to the way of the transgressor’s behavior, his manner, as in this: “The manners of rogues are rough. We prefer the interpretation that views the earthly life of every transgressor as encompassing many sorrows and misfortunes.
Pro 13:15. We honor the person who knows and uses his understanding aright whether he be parent, leader, or neighbor. On the other hand we see the unbearable outcome of sin in Cains statement, My punishment is greater than I can bear (Gen 4:13), in King Sauls miserable end (1Sa 28:15-25; 1Sa 31:1-4), and in Judas Iscariots suicide (Mat 27:3-5).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Good: Pro 3:4, Pro 14:35, 1Sa 18:14-16, Luk 2:52, Act 7:10
but: Pro 4:19, Pro 15:10, Psa 95:9-11, Jer 2:19, Rom 6:21
Reciprocal: Psa 1:1 – way Pro 14:9 – among Pro 16:20 – handleth Pro 22:5 – Thorns Isa 21:2 – grievous Act 26:14 – hard
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 13:15. Good understanding Discovering itself by a mans holy and righteous practices; giveth favour Maketh a man acceptable both to God and men; but the way of transgressors Their conduct, or manner of conversation is hard; Hebrew, , rough, as this very word is rendered Deu 21:4; it is offensive to God and men, as rough ways are to travellers; fierce, intractable, and incorrigible. Bishop Patrick interprets the verse thus: If a man have understanding enough to be thoroughly good, he will find things favourable to his honest desires; but they that take evil courses meet with great difficulties, and are forced to go backward and forward, and wind and turn every way, to bring about their ends, or save themselves perhaps from ruin.