Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 14:24
The crown of the wise [is] their riches: [but] the foolishness of fools [is] folly.
24. The crown of the wise ] i.e. the wisdom which is their crown ( Pro 14:18) is (constitutes) their riches. It is at once an ornament and a thing of price; whereas the folly of fools is, and always remains (only) folly. It is possible, however, to render, with R.V. marg., Their riches is a crown unto the wise, gracing and graced by the wearer; but the folly of fools no wealth can ennoble; it is still only folly.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The crown, i. e., the glory of the wise man constitutes his wealth. He alone is truly rich even as he alone (compare Pro 14:18 note) is truly king.
The seeming tautology of the second clause is really its point. Turn the foolishness of fools as you will, it comes back to foolishness at last.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 24. But the foolishness of fools is folly.] The Targum reads, The honour of fools is folly. The fool, from his foolishness, produces acts of folly. This appears to be the meaning.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The crown of the wise is their riches; they are a singular advantage and ornament to them, partly as they make their wisdom more regarded, when the poor mans wisdom is despised, Ecc 9:16; and partly as they give a man great opportunity to discover and exercise his wisdom or virtue by laying out his riches to the honour and service of God, and to the great and manifold good of the world; which also highly tends to his own glory and happiness.
But the foolishness of fools is folly; but as for rich fools, for to them the general word is to be restrained from the opposite clause, their folly is not cured, but made worse and more manifest by their riches. Their riches find them fools, and leave them fools; they are not a crown, but a reproach to them, and an occasion of their greater contempt. For the phrase, we have the like in the Hebrew text, 1Sa 1:21. The child Samuel was a child. It is an elegant figure called antanaclasis, used in all authors.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
24. (Compare Pr3:16).
foolishness . . . follyFollyremains, or produces folly; it has no benefit.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The crown of the wise [is] their riches,…. Riches being used by them to increase and improve their knowledge and wisdom, and for the good of men, are an honour to them, and give them credit and reputation among men of sense and goodness; see Ec 7:11;
[but] the foolishness of fools [is] folly; mere folly, extreme folly, just the same as it was; riches make them never the wiser; yea, their folly is oftentimes made more manifest through the ill use they make of their riches; spending them in the gratification of their sinful lusts; and making no use of them for their own improvement in knowledge, or for the good of their fellow creatures. The Targum is,
“the glory of fools is their folly;”
and that is no other than their shame, and in which they glory; such fools are wicked men.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
24 It is a crown to the wise when they are rich;
But the folly of fools remains folly.
From Pro 12:4, 31; Pro 17:6, we see that is the predicate. Thus it is the riches of the wise of which it is said that they are a crown or an ornament to them. More than this is said, if with Hitzig we read, after the lxx, , their prudence, instead of . For then the meaning would be, that the wise need no other crown than that which they have in their prudence. But yet far more appropriately “riches” are called the crown of a wise man when they come to his wisdom; for it is truly thus that riches, when they are possessed along with wisdom, contribute not a little to heighten its influence and power, and not merely because they adorn in their appearance like a crown, or, as we say, surround as with a golden frame, but because they afford a variety of means and occasions for self-manifestation which are denied to the poor. By this interpretation of 24a, 24b comes out also into the light, without our requiring to correct the first , or to render it in an unusual sense. The lxx and Syr. translate the first by (by a circumlocution), the Targ. by gloria , fame – we know not how they reach this. Schultens in his Com. renders: crassa opulentia elumbium crassities , but in his Animadversiones he combines the first with the Arab. awwale , precedence, which Gesen. approves of. But although the meaning to be thick (properly coalescere ) appertains to the verbal stem as well as the meaning to be before (Arab. al , awila , wal ), yet the Hebr. always and everywhere means only folly,
(Note: Ewald’s derivation of from = , null, vain, is not much better than Heidenheim’s from : one who says “perhaps” = a sceptic, vid., p. 59, note.)
from the fundamental idea crassities (thickness). Hitzig’s (which denotes the consequence with which the fool invests himself) we do not accept, because this word is Hitzig’s own invention. Rather is to be expected: the crown with which fools adorn themselves is folly. But the sentence: the folly of fools is (and remains) folly (Symmachus, Jerome, Venet., Luther), needs the emendation as little as Pro 16:22, for, interpreted in connection with 24a, it denotes that while wisdom is adorned and raised up by riches, folly on the other hand remains, even when connected with riches, always the same, without being either thereby veiled or removed – on the contrary, the fool, when he is rich, exhibits his follies always more and more. C. B. Michaelis compares Lucian’s simia est simia etiamsi aurea gestet insignia .
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
24 The crown of the wise is their riches: but the foolishness of fools is folly.
Observe, 1. If men be wise and good, riches make them so much the more honourable and useful: The crown of the wise is their riches; their riches make them to be so much the more respected, and give them the more authority and influence upon others. Those that have wealth, and wisdom to use it, will have a great opportunity of honouring God and doing good in the world. Wisdom is good without an inheritance, but better with it. 2. If men be wicked and corrupt, their wealth will but the more expose them: The foolishness of fools, put them in what condition you will, is folly, and will show itself and shame them; if they have riches, they do mischief with them and are the more hardened in their foolish practices.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
True Gain or Loss
Verse 24 suggests that the crown or reward of the wise is the true riches of wisdom; but the accomplishment of fools is the hopelessness that attends folly, Pro 3:35; Pro 8:11; Pro 8:18-19; Pro 16:16; Dan 12:2-3; Psa 5:5; Mat 7:26; Luk 12:20.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 14:24. Or, It is a crown to the wise when they are rich, but the folly of fools remains folly (Delitzsch).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 14:24
WEALTH WITH AND WITHOUT WISDOM
I. Both a wise man and a fool may attain to wealth. The intellectually wise, and the man who lacks mental ability, may both possess great riches. There are many who have vast estates and no more wisdom to manage them than an infant, and there are those whose ability is equal to their wealth and position. So with moral wisdom. Abraham, the friend of God, was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold (Gen. 13:2). Job, who had the Divine testimony to his perfectness and uprightness, was the greatest of all the men of the east (Job. 1:3). But many godless men like those mentioned in our Lords parables (Luk. 12:16; Luk. 12:20; Luk. 16:19-24) have much goods laid up for many years, and are clothed in purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day. God is no respecter of persons in the distribution of temporal good in the shape of riches, but if there is any leaning to one class of character more than to another, He would seem rather to favour the ungodly. Because such have their portion in this life (Psa. 17:14) and in this life only; because they have only this heaven upon earth; because they have no desire and conception of anything higher; it seems as if the Ruler of the universe often gives them the only good they are capable of appreciating. Some of the most miserable specimens of humanity that the world has ever seen have sat upon thrones, and a few of the greatest of Gods human children have likewise wielded sceptres. So with the crown of wealth; it has been and is worn by men quite irrespective of moral character, but the preponderance seems to be in favour of the moral fool. Looked at in the light of eternity there is no injustice or even mystery in this.
II. But wealth is an adornment to the wise man only. If you dress an Ethiopian in pure white linen you will not change the colour of his skin. The man is what he was though his raiment is changed, and the whiteness of his garments makes his skin look all the blacker. If a tree is barren, the most costly and perfect artificial fruit placed among its leaves will not add to its beauty. It will only produce an incongruity which will be altogether distasteful to the spectator. Its barrenness is only made the more conspicuous. So no wealth can give any dignity to a mental and moral fool. Wealth will not hide the intellectual barrenness, nor cover the black stains upon the mans moral character. Nay, the wealth only brings them more prominently into view. However rich a fool is the foolishness of fools is folly, and nothing else. But a man who is wise enough to know how to use wealthespecially if he is good enough to put it to the highest and best useseven though he be neither intellectually great or highly polished, will make his riches a crownwill so use them as to merit and receive the respect and goodwill of his fellow creatures. Wealth looks best upon the head of one who possesses both intelligence and goodness, but whenever it is studded with the gems of a wise and sympathetic liberality it is a royal diademit makes its wearer a king.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The Christian is rich in this world. We read in the 18th verse of the prudent making a crown of knowledge. Aladdin was rich when he had nothing but his lamp. If a ray of faith puts creation in bondage to a saint, then not only is his knowledge a crown, but his crown is his wealth. What needs Aladdin further than his lamp? The sovereignty of saints, even in a forlorn world, makes a perfect opulence; while the folly of fools, seeing that it could give place to this; seeing that he also could have the lamp; seeing that the crowned princes, the very best of them, were fools like him; and therefore, that it can only be because he is a fool that he does not throw off his folly;all this explains the closing clause, which is terse in its very quaintness; for, for the very reason that the crown of the wise is their wealth, the foolishness of fools is folly.Miller.
Though, as a fearful temptation (Mat. 13:22; Mat. 19:23), no wise man would desire riches; yet as the gift of God (1Ki. 3:13; Psa. 112:3)the gift, indeed, of His left hand (chap. Pro. 3:16)they may become His crown. What a crown they were to David and his wise son, as the materials for building the temple (1Ch. 29:1-5; 2Ch. 5:1); and to Job, as employed for the good of his fellow-creatures (Job. 29:6-17). So that, though wisdom under all circumstances is a blessing, it is specially pronounced to be good with an inheritance (Ecc. 7:11-12). It is necessary to distinguish between the thing itself and the abuse of it. Wealth is in fact a blessing, when honestly acquired and conscientiously employed. And when otherwise, the man is to be blamed, and not his treasure.Bridges.
What is the most gorgeous and dazzling earthly crown compared with a diadem of which the component parts are the blessings of the destitute relieved, the ignorant instructed, the vicious reclaimed, the afflicted comforted, the dying cheered with the hope of life, the perishing rescued from perdition and brought to God!Wardlaw.
If good men are spoiled of their wealth, they need not lament, as if they had lost their crown. For riches are an ornament of grace to the head of wise men, even when they are lost. Jobs patience in the loss of everything, did as much honour to him as his extraordinary beneficence whilst he was the richest man in the East. We honour his memory still more, when he sewed sackcloth upon his skin, and defiled his horn in the dust, than at the time when judgment was his robe and his diadem.Lawson.
As a horse is of no use without the bridle, so are riches without reason.Cawdray.
Not riches but wisdom gives a crown of glory (chap. Pro. 4:9). The prudent are crowned with knowledge, not with riches; therefore, the sense is, Wisdom (the opposite of folly), being the crown of the wise constitutes their true riches, and results in the heavenly riches; but the foolishness of fools is not riches to them, as the wise mans crown of wisdom is to him, but is, and continues folly, i.e., emptinessneither an ornamental crown nor enriching wisdom.Fausset.
The seeming tautology of the second clause is really its point. The foolishness of fools is. We expect something else, but the subject is also the predicate. The foolishness of fools is foolishness. That is the long and the short of it. Turn it as you will, it comes to that.Plumptre.
Wisdom in a poor man is but a petty lord. He may rule himself well, but he shall have little command or power over others. Riches make a wise man a king, and as they crown him with honour by being well used by him, so do they extend his dominion far and wide. Many are subject to the law of his discretion, and the force of his wise authority prevaileth many ways. Well, therefore, doth the crown of riches sit upon his head, whose wise head it is that makes them to be riches. But riches in a fool are his bauble, whereby he maketh himself and others sport. The wise being crowned by them are kings over their riches. They command them to their pleasure and use them to their honour. Whereas it is the folly of fools that they are galley-slaves to their own wealth.Jermin.
Give riches to a fool and you put a sword into a madmans hand; the folly of such fools will soon be foolishness. Why, was it not foolishness before? Yes, but now it is become egregious foolishness. To what end is a treasure, if a man have lost the key that leads to it.Trapp.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(24) The crown of the wise is their riches.They adorn and set off the wisdom of the wise, and bring it more prominently into notice; but the foolishness of fools remains folly. The rich fool only displays his folly all the more from being set in a conspicuous position.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. The crown of the wise Namely, their “knowledge,” see Pro 14:18, is their riches; their wisdom is their wealth.
But the foolishness of fools is folly Foolishness and nothing else. Turn it as you will, it comes to that. It is neither riches, nor honour, nor any thing else desirable. So, substantially, Speaker’s Commentary, Furst, and Conant.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 24. The crown of the wise is their riches,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 14:24. But the foolishness of fools is folly But their fortunes are a curse to fools. Houbigant; thus preserving the opposition with the preceding clause.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 14:24 The crown of the wise [is] their riches: [but] the foolishness of fools [is] folly.
Ver. 24. The crown of the wise is their riches. ] An ornament, an encouragement in well doing, and an instrument of doing much good, if God give a heart thereto; for quid cervo ingentia cornua, cum desit animus? To what end is a treasure, if a man have lost the key that leads to it?
“Vel mihi da clavem, vel mihi tolle seram.”
But the foolishness of fools is folly.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 14:24
Pro 14:24
“The crown of the wise is their riches; But the folly of fools is only folly.”
There is a purely earthly sense, of course, in which this is true; and it is exactly the type of proverb that should have been expected of him who was the richest man of his entire age; but the true crown of a rich man is not his money, but his integrity and his faithfulness to God. The Book of Proverbs becomes a little monotonous with its constant emphasis upon getting rich.
Pro 14:24. Notice folly all the way in this triple contrast: The crown vs. the folly; of the wise vs. of fools; and is their riches vs. is only folly. Pulpit Commentary: Decorate folly as you may, deck it out in gaud and ornament, it is still nothing but folly and is discerned as such, and that all the more for being made conspicuous.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
crown: Psa 112:9, Ecc 7:11, Ecc 7:12, Isa 33:6, Luk 16:9
foolishness: Pro 27:22, Psa 49:10-13, Luk 12:19, Luk 12:20, Luk 16:19-25
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 14:24. The crown of the wise is their riches They are a singular advantage and ornament to them, partly as they make their wisdom more regarded, while the poor mans wisdom is despised, Ecc 9:16; and partly as they give a man great opportunity to exercise wisdom or virtue, by laying out his riches in the service of God, to the great good of mankind; which also tends to his own glory and happiness; but the foolishness of fools, &c. But as for rich fools, their folly is not cured, but made worse and more manifest by their riches. Their riches find them fools, and leave them fools; they are not a crown, but a reproach to them, and an occasion of greater contempt.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The ends of the wise and the foolish are in view.
"The wise are crowned, that is, blessed with wealth (cf. Pro 3:16; Pro 8:18; Pro 8:21; Pro 15:6; Pro 22:4) because of their diligence (Pro 14:23), but foolish conduct results not in blessing but in more folly (cf. Pro 14:18)." [Note: Sid S. Buzzell, "Proverbs," in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, p. 936. Cf. Toy, p. 296; and McKane, p. 466.]