Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 17:16
Wherefore [is there] a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing [he hath] no heart [to it]?
16. heart ] i.e. understanding, R.V.; see Pro 15:32, note. We might almost render, capacity. Wisdom cannot be bought for a price: it can only be assimilated by a wise, or wisdom-loving heart. Its words are ; its teachers teach, , “interpreting spiritual things to spiritual men” (as some translate 1Co 2:13). So was Incarnate Wisdom wont to cry, “Who hath ears to hear let him hear” (Mat 13:9 ff.; comp. Rev 2:11; Rev 2:17; Rev 2:29; Rev 3:6; Rev 3:13; Rev 3:22).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
More literally: Why is there a price in the hand of a fool? Is it to get wisdom when he has no heart for it? No money will avail without the understanding heart.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 17:16
Wherefore is there a price in the hand of fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?
Opportunities of youth
The term fool is not used in the modern sense of a man without reason; but rather in the sense of an unreasoning man. The term is applied much as we apply the term wicked man. The figure in the text is one drawn from commerce. It represents a man who has been given a sum which he is to invest. He spends part of it in dissipation, part in unwise and unprofitable commodities, and some part in shadows and cheats and pretences; and when he has expended that sum he is a bankrupt. Wicked or foolish men have committed to them a price or a capital, and what is the use if they have no heart to use it right? What good does it do them if they do not employ it as they should? The idea that men are sent into this world for a purpose, and that they are equipped for the accomplishment of that purpose, is given in both the Testaments. Men comprehensively have committed to them, in bodily organs, and in their mental equipment, a power singularly complex, but wise and efficient, and as compared with the agencies of nature in its adaptations to the work of life, surpassing the human frame itself. Natural laws are the great agencies of nature that are being used or fructified by the volition of man. Each man stands at the centre of a sphere of possibilities where he, through knowledge, may come to control natural law and work in his limited sphere as God works in the infinite sphere. Then there is the good name and fame which descends to many of us from our parents. There is a presumption that stock and blood will tell, and that a good father will have good children. It is invaluable to a young man beginning life to have the kindly expectation, the generous sympathy and goodwill of those to whom he comes. What a price is put into the hands of the young in our time in the matter of education; if a man has a heart for knowledge, if he has an ambition to acquire it, and if he is quick to discern, the eye, the ear, every sense becomes the minister of education. Alas! that there should be so many who care nothing for it! Closely connected with this is the capital of bodily health. Good health is a wonderful help to morality, to nobility of character, and to calmness and decision of judgment and action. Next is the capacity of industry. I believe fervently in enterprise, but I also believe fervently in the good old-fashioned notions about patient industry. Every person has that in him by which he can win a moderate success in life by simply doing, day by day, the right things, however humble a sphere he may be in. To many have also been given the invaluable qualities of integrity, honour, and fidelity. These are very valuable from a commercial point of view. A man who is honest, and truthful, and full of integrity, when he has finally been proved, has everybody engineering for him. Then look upon life as a very solemn thing. God has given you one life, and has put capital into your hands, and sent you into this world to buy immortality. Do not squander that price. Listen to the voice of wisdom. (H. Ward Beecher.)
Means and abilities to get wisdom
We may define wisdom to be a right apprehension of those things that are best for us, and a diligent pursuit of them by such means as are agreeable to the laws of piety and virtue. Men have sometimes abilities and opportunities to act wisely for themselves, but neglect them, and have no heart to make their just advantages of them.
1. A man of good natural faculties and endowments of mind may be said to have the price of wisdom in his hand, when he hath no heart to it.
2. This price may be understood of the schools of good education and learning. Those who are brought up in such places often act the part of fools.
3. Riches are in many respects the price of wisdom, in that they enable their owners to buy books, to hire teachers, and to be at leisure to spend their time in the study of useful learning.
4. Men of great power and authority have the price of wisdom in their hands.
5. We have a noble price put into our hands to get wisdom, in the ordinances of religion and means of grace we enjoy. These advantages are the portion of every Christian. But these opportunities are sadly often in the hands of those who have no heart to make use of them. This appears–
(1) From the want of zeal in attending public worship; and–
(2) From the errors and vices of our common conversation.
We often condemn our own mismanagement of the talents which God has given us, and look back with much regret upon those opportunities which have slipped through our hands. But the power is often given without the will, so that we suffer many opportunities to pass away and be lost without improving them to any good purpose. (W. Reading, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Wherefore? the question implies that it is unworthily placed, and that it is to no purpose or benefit of the possessor.
A price; possessions or riches, as all the ancient translators render it, of which this word is used, Isa 55:1, and elsewhere, under which all opportunities and abilities of getting it are comprehended.
To get wisdom; for the obtaining whereof rich men have many and great advantages above others.
No heart to it; neither common discretion to discern the worth of wisdom, and his advantage to get it; nor any sincere desire to get it; for the heart is commonly used in Scripture both for the understanding, and for the will and affections.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. Though wealth cannot buywisdom for those who do not love it, yet wisdom procures wealth(Pro 3:16; Pro 14:24).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Wherefore [is there] a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom,…. Natural wisdom and knowledge. By this “price” may be meant money, riches, worldly substance, of which a foolish man is possessed; by means of which he might purchase useful books for the improvement of his mind, and procure himself instructors that might be very useful to him; but instead of seeking after that which he most wants, and making use of his substance to furnish him with it, he spends it on his back and belly, in fine clothes and luxurious living; in rioting and drunkenness, in chambering and wantonness, at balls and plays, in taverns and brothel houses: or spiritual wisdom and knowledge; the means of which are reading the word, hearing the Gospel, frequent opportunities of attendance on a Gospel ministry, in season and out of season, and conversation with Gospel ministers and other Christians; but, instead of making use of these, he neglects, slights, and despises them. And it is asked, with some degree of indignation and admiration, why or to what purpose a fool is favoured with such means;
seeing [he hath] no heart [to it]? to wisdom; he does not desire it, nor to make use of the price or means, in order to obtain it; all is lost upon him; and it is hard to account for it why he should have this price, when he makes such an ill use of it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
We take Pro 17:16-21 together. This group beings with a proverb of the heartless, and ends with one of the perverse-hearted; and between these there are not wanting noticeable points of contact between the proverbs that follow one another.
Pro 17:16 16 Why the ready money in the hand of the fool;
To get wisdom when he has yet no heart?
The question is made pointed by , thus not: why the ready money when…? Is it to obtain wisdom? – the whole is but one question, the reason of which is founded in (thus to be accented with Mugrash going before).
(Note: If we write with Makkeph, then we have to accentuate with Tarcha Munach, because the Silluk word in this writing has not two syllables before the tone. This sequence of accents if found in the Codd. Ven. 1521, 1615, Basel 1619, while most editions have , which is false. But according to MSS we have without Makkeph, and that is right according to the Makkeph rules of the metrical Accentuationssystem; vid., Torath Emeth, p. 40.)
The fool, perhaps, even makes some endeavours, for he goes to the school of the wise, to follow out their admonitions, (Pro 4:5, etc.), and it costs him something (Pro 4:7), but all to no purpose, for he has no heart. By this it is not meant that knowledge, for which he pays his honorarium, remains, it may be, in his head, but goes not to his heart, and thus becomes an unfruitful theory; but the heart is equivalent to the understanding, in the sense in which the heart appears as the previous condition to the attainment of wisdom (Pro 18:15), and as something to be gained before all (Pro 15:32), viz., understanding, as the fitting intellectual and practical habitus to the reception, the appropriation, and realization of wisdom, the ability rightly to comprehend the fulness of the communicated knowledge, and to adopt it as an independent possession, that which the Greek called , as in that “golden proverb” of Democrates: , or as in Luk 24:25, where it is said that the Lord opened of His disciples to understand the Scriptures. In the lxx a distich follows Pro 17:16, which is made up of 19b and 20b, and contains a varied translation of these two lines.
Pro 17:17 17 At all times the right friend shows himself loving;
And as a brother is he born for adversity.
Brother is more than friend, he stands to one nearer than a friend does, Psa 35:14; but the relation of a friend may deepen itself into a spiritual, moral brotherhood, Psa 18:24, and there is no name of friend that sounds dearer than , 2Sa 1:26. 17a and 17b are, according to this, related to each other climactically. The friend meant in 17a is a true friend. Of no other is it said that he loves , i.e., makes his love manifest; and also the article in not only here gives to the word more body, but stamps it as an ideal-word: the friend who corresponds to the idea of such an one.
(Note: The Arab. grammarians say that the article in this case stands, l’astfragh khsanas aljnas , as an exhaustive expression of all essential properties of the genus, i.e., to express the full ideal realization of the idea in that which is named.)
The inf. of the Hiph., in the sense “to associate” (Ewald), cannot therefore be , because is not derived from , but from . Thus there exists no contrast between 17a and 17b, so that the love of a friend is thought of, in contradistinction to that of a brother, as without permanency (Fl.); but 17b means that the true friend shows himself in the time of need, and that thus the friendship becomes closer, like that between brothers. The statements do not refer to two kinds of friends; this is seen from the circumstance that has not the article, as has. It is not the subj. but pred., as , Job 11:12: sooner is a wild ass born or born again as a man. The meaning of there, as at Psa 87:5., borders on the notion of regenerari; here the idea is not essentially much less, for by the saying that the friend is born in the time of need, as a brother, is meant that he then for the first time shows himself as a friend, he receives the right status or baptism of such an one, and is, as it were, born into personal brotherly relationship to the sorely-tried friend. The translation comprobatur (Jerome) and erfunden [is found out] (Luther) obliterates the peculiar and thus intentional expression, for is not at all a metaphor used for passing into the light – the two passages in Proverbs and in Job have not their parallel. is not equivalent to (cf. Psa 9:10; Psa 10:1), for the interchange of the prep. in 17a and 17b would then be without any apparent reason. But Hitzig’s translation also: as a brother he is born of adversity, is impossible, for after and always designates that for which the birth is an advantage, not that from which it proceeds. Thus will be that of the purpose: for the purpose of the need, – not indeed to suffer (Job 5:7) on account of it, but to bear it in sympathy, and to help to bear it. Rightly Fleischer: frater autem ad aerumnam ( sc. levandam et removendam ) nascitur . The lxx gives this sense to the : , .
Pro 17:18 18 A man void of understanding is he who striketh hands,
Who becometh surety with his neighbour.
Cf. Pro 6:1-5, where the warning against suretyship is given at large, and the reasons for it are adduced. It is incorrect to translate (Gesen., Hitzig, and others) , with the lxx, Jerome, the Syr., Targ., and Luther, “for his neighbour;” to become surety for any one is , Pro 6:1, or, with the object. accus. Pro 11:15, another suitable prep. is ; but never means pro ( ), for at 1Sa 1:16 it means “to the person,” and 2Sa 3:31, “before Abner’s corpse (bier).” is thus here the person with whom the suretyship is entered into; he can be called the of him who gives bail, so much the more as the reception of the bail supposes that both are well known to each other. Here also Fleischer rightly translates: apud alterum ( sc. creditorem pro debitore ).
Pro 17:19 19 He loveth sin who loveth strife;
He who maketh high his doors seeketh destruction.
A synthetic distich. Bttcher finds the reason of the pairing of these two lines in the relationship between a mouth and a door (cf. Mic 7:6, ). Hitzig goes further, and supposes that 19b figuratively expresses what boastfulness brings upon itself. Against Geier, Schultens, and others, who understand directly of the mouth, he rightly remarks that is not heard of, and that taht dn would be used instead. But the two lines harmonize, without this interchangeable reference of os and ostium . Zanksucht [quarrelsomeness] and Prunksucht [ostentation] are related as the symptoms of selfishness. But both bear their sentence in themselves. He who has pleasure in quarrelling has pleasure in evil, for he commits himself to the way of great sinning, and draws others along with him; and he who cannot have the door of his house high enough and splendid enough, prepares thereby for himself, against his will, the destruction of his house. An old Hebrew proverb says, , aedificandi nimis studiosus ad mendicitatem redigitur . Both parts of this verse refer to one and the same individual, for the insanum aedificandi studium goes only too often hand in hand with unjust and heartless litigation.
Pro 17:20 20 He that is of a false heart findeth no good;
And he that goeth astray with his tongue falleth into evil.
Regarding , vid., Pro 11:20. In the parallel member, is he who twists or winds ( vid., at Pro 2:12) with his tongue, going about concealing and falsifying the truth. The phrase (the connecting form before a word with a prep.) is syntactically possible, but the Masora designates the word, in contradistinction to , pointed with Pathach, Lev 13:16, with as unicum , thus requires , as is also found in Codd. The contrast of is here , also neut., as Pro 13:21, cf. Pro 16:20, and , Pro 13:17.
Pro 17:21 The first three parts of the old Solomonic Book of Proverbs ((1) Prov 10-12; (2) 13:1-15:19; (3) 15:20-17:20) are now followed by the fourth part. We recognise it as striking the same keynote as Pro 10:1. In Pro 17:21 it resounds once more, here commencing a part; there, Pro 10:1, beginning the second group of proverbs. The first closes, as it begins, with a proverb of the fool.
21 He that begetteth a fool, it is to his sorrow;
And the father of a fool hath no joy.
It is admissible to supply , developing itself from , before ( vid., regarding this passive formation, at Pro 10:1, cf. Pro 14:13), as at Isa 66:3, (Fl.: in maerorem sibi genuit h. e. ideo videtur genuisse ut sibi maerorem crearet ); but not less admissible is it to interpret as a noun-clause corresponding to the (thus to be written with Makkeph): it brings grief to him. According as one understands this as an expectation, or as a consequence, , as at Pro 23:24, is rendered either qui gignit or qui genuit . With , seldom occurring in the Book of Proverbs (only here and at Pro 17:7), , occurring not unfrequently, is interchanged. Schultens rightly defines the latter etymologically: marcidus h. e. qui ad virtutem, pietatem, vigorem omnem vitae spiritualis medullitus emarcuit ; and the former: elumbis et mollitie segnitieve fractus , the intellectually heavy and sluggish (cf. Arab. kasal , laziness; kaslan , the lazy).
(Note: Nldeke’s assertion (Art. Orion in Schenkel’s Bibel-Lexicon) that the Arab. kasal corresponds to the Hebr. proceeds from the twofold supposition, that the meaning to be lazy underlies the meaning to totter ( vid., also Dietrich in Gesenius’ Heb. Wrterbuch), and that the Hebr. must correspond with the Arab. s . The former supposition is untenable, the latter is far removed (cf. e.g., and kurs , and sifr , and miskn ). The verb , Aram. , is unknown in the Arab.)
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
16 Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?
Two things are here spoken of with astonishment:– 1. God’s great goodness to foolish man, in putting a price into his hand to get wisdom, to get knowledge and grace to fit him for both worlds. We have rational souls, the means of grace, the strivings of the Spirit, access to God by prayer; we have time and opportunity. He that has a good estate (so some understand it) has advantages thereby of getting wisdom by purchasing instruction. Good parents, relations, ministers, friends, are helps to get wisdom. It is a price, therefore of value, a talent. It is a price in the hand, in possession; the word is nigh thee. It is a price for getting; it is for our own advantage; it is for getting wisdom, the very thing which, being fools, we have most need of. We have reason to wonder that God should so consider our necessity, and should entrust us with such advantages, though he foresaw we should not make a right improvement of them. 2. Man’s great wickedness, his neglect of God’s favour and his own interest, which is very absurd and unaccountable: He has no heart to it, not to the wisdom that is to be got, nor to the price in the use of which it may be got. He has no heart, no skill, nor will, nor courage, to improve his advantages. He has set his heart upon other things, so that he has no heart to his duty or the great concerns of his soul. Wherefore should a price be thrown away and lost upon one so undeserving of it?
| True Friendship. | |
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Wisdom Cannot Be Purchased
Verse 16 suggests that wisdom cannot be obtained by purchase or other means when one has no desire to learn, Pro 15:14.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 17:16
NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITIES
I. One of the uses which ought to be made of wealth. Men ought to use it to get wisdom. It is obvious that a wealthy man has more opportunities of gaining knowledge than a poor man has, and an increase of knowledge ought to make a man wiser. A rich mans wealth gives him access to the wisdom of the great minds of past ages, and it often obtains for him the companionship of the most learned men of his own generation. It enables him to gain a knowledge of the world on which he lives and of the men who people it; by travel he can stand face to face with all the glorious works of God in nature, and he can mingle with men of various races and see human nature in all its various phases. And these experiences ought to make him a wise man. Wealth is given to men for this purpose, among others, to make them intellectually and morally betterfor although spiritual blessings cannot be purchased for money, yet where the grace of God is in the heart, the price in the hand will increase a mans opportunities of growing in the knowledge of God and in the practice of godliness. Those who are rich in this world may and ought to lay up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life (1Ti. 1:17-19). Their wealth ought not to be a hindrance but a help to high spiritual attainments. When we use bread rightly we get strength out of it; when we use water rightly we get refreshment out of it; when we use light rightly we get guidance out of it; and when the gift of wealth is rightly used, men get wisdom out of it.
II. Wealth bestowed, where we can give no reason for its bestowal. Wealth in the hand of a fool seems thrown away. If we saw a bundle of bank-notes in the hands of an infant we should at once say they were in the wrong hand; but many a princely fortune is at the disposal of men who are as incapable now of putting it to a good use, as they were when they were children. Neither the head nor the heart are capable of guiding the handthere is neither moral nor intellectual capability to make the riches the means of blessing even the possessor. Wherefore, then, is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, especially when there are so many men in poverty who would make the best possible use of riches? We cannot answer the question. Even the wise man does not attempt to solve the problem. Men daily come face to face with facts connected with human existence which they cannot explain. In some of these they can see adaptation; although they cannot tell how it is that the thing is so, they can discern a fitness in its being so. But there are other facts in the government of God for which we can assign no reason, and the price in the hand of a fool is one of them. The Divine Ruler of mens destinies fulfils His wise purposes in ways and by means which often perplex His finite creatures.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
We understand the term a price, as signifying whatever puts it in anyones power to acquire the particular object. The phraseology is borrowed from the market. Any article, we are wont to say, may be had there, if a man has but the price to pay for it. What the price is to the article wanted, the means of acquiring are to wisdom. When we wish to put any article of ordinary merchandise within a persons power, we furnish that person with the price at which it is valued. There are cases, however, in which this may not be enough. The price may be in a mans hand, and yet the article may not be within his reach, not, at the time, to be had. Happily, it is never so with the wisdom here spoken of. If the means are possessed of acquiring it, it may always be acquired. It is in the hand of God himself; and He is never either at a distance that we cannot repair to Him, or unwilling to bestow it upon us when we come to Him for itbestow it, I say, for we must remember, with regard to divine wisdom, that, in a literal sense, it cannot be purchased. It must be had without money and without price. It is not to be gotten for gold. Why is it, then, that in so many cases in which the price is in the hand to get wisdom, the means of securing it possessed, its lessons remained unlearned, the mind ignorant, the heart unimproved? Here is the answerthe only one that can with truth be given,there has been no heart to it. The principle is of wide application, and might be largely illustrated There is no maxim more thoroughly established by experience, than that a man cannot excel in anything to which his heart does not lie. When do men succeed best in the pursuit of any object? Is it not when they have a heart to it? What is it that keeps all men astir in the pursuit and acquisition of wealth? Is it not that they have a heart to it? How do men acquire celebrity in any of the departments of science or of art? Is it not when they have a heart to it?some measure of enthusiastic eagerness and persevering delight in the pursuit? I put it to your consciences,whether there be anything else whatever, that keeps you from the knowledge and the fear of God, wherein true religion consists, than your having no heart to them? Talk not to me of inability:your inability is entirely moral, and consists in nothing else whatever than your having no heart to that which is good. And is this not criminal? If not, then there is no sin nor crime on earth, in hell, in the universe; nor is the existence or the conception of such a thing as moral evil possible. The want of heart to that which is good, is the very essence of all that is sinful. You offer anything but a valid excuse for your want of religion, when you say you have no heart to it. You plead in excuse the very essence of your guilt. If you desired to fear God, and could not help the contrary, your inability might be something in your behalf. But the thing cannot be. To desire to fear God, and not to be able, is a contradiction in terms. The having of the desire is the having of the principle. There can be no desiring to fear without fearing, no desiring to love without loving.Wardlaw.
No means can make a man wise who wanteth a good will to learn heavenly wisdom. Ishmael had good education, and Ahithophel had quick capacity, and the fool spoken of in the Gospel had great wealth, and none of all these attained to any grace. One of them was strong, and another witty, and another wealthy, but never a one wise and godly. Judas had as good a teacher as Peter, or any other apostle, and had as good company, and saw as many miracles; and yet they having good hearts became worthy and excellent persons, and he having a false heart became a traitor and a devil.Dod.
Wherefore serve good natural parts, either of body or mind; or authority, opportunity, or other advantages, if they be not rightly improved and employed? Certainly they will prove no better than Uriahs letters to those that have them; or as the sword which Hector gave to Ajax, which, so long as he used it against his enemies, served for help and defence, but after he began to abuse it, turned into his own bowels. This will be a bodkin at thy heart one day: I might have been saved, but I woefully let slip those opportunities which God had thrust into my hand. Trapp.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(16) Wherefore is there a price . . .He will still remain a fool, though he has paid high for instruction, if he has no capacity for taking it in.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. A price, etc. The ancient interpreters understood , ( mehhir,) price, in the sense of wealth, estate. Taken in this sense the proverb might be translated: “Why is this? an estate in the hands of a fool, to acquire wisdom! and he no heart!”
Heart Possibly in the sense of taste or capacity. It sometimes happens that men of no intellectual culture or taste become rich, and, having an indefinite notion of the excellence and value of learning as securing respect in society, would be willing to pay a large sum for it if money could buy it. But their age, and previous want of culture, render them incapable of obtaining it. So, also, a man of wealth is willing sometimes to expend large sums on a son or daughter to secure for them the accomplishments of an education, for which they have neither taste nor capacity. Money will not buy brains. There must be “heart” taste, capacity, application. Comp. Psa 32:9; Jer 5:21.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Ways Of The Fool ( Pro 17:16-23 ).
The main emphasis in this subsection is on the ways of the fool (Pro 17:16; Pro 17:21), the man void of mind (heart) (Pro 17:16; Pro 17:18; Pro 17:20), the unrighteous man (Pro 17:23). He thinks he can buy wisdom, but cannot for he has no mind for it (Pro 17:16); because he is void of mind he becomes a surety, putting himself in danger of ruin (Pro 17:18); he loves transgression bringing strife on himself (Pro 17:19 a); he exalts himself above his neighbours (Pro 17:19 b): he has a wayward mind and perverse tongue which bring bad consequences (Pro 17:20); he brings distress on his family (Pro 17:21); and he perverts justice for a secret bribe (Pro 17:23).
One of his follies is that he falls for quick fixes. He thinks he can obtain wisdom without effort (Pro 17:16); and he thinks he can become wealthy without effort (Pro 17:18; Pro 17:23).
In contrast is the wise man who has companions in adversity (Pro 17:17) and is therefore cheerful of heart, something which is a good medicine and therefore sustains him in adversity (Pro 17:22).
The subsection is presented chiastically:
A Why is there a PAYMENT in the hand of a FOOL to buy wisdom, seeing he has no MIND (heart) for it? (Pro 17:16)’
B A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity (Pro 17:17).
C A man void of understanding MIND (heart) strikes hands, and becomes surety in the presence of his neighbour (Pro 17:18).
D He loves transgression who loves strife, he who raises high his gate seeks destruction (Pro 17:19).
D He who has a wayward MIND (heart) finds no good, and he who has a perverse tongue falls into mischief (Pro 17:20).
C He who begets a FOOL does it to his sorrow, and the father of a fool has no joy (Pro 17:21).
B A cheerful HEART is a good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones (Pro 17:22).
A A wicked man receives a BRIBE out of the bosom, to pervert the ways of justice (Pro 17:23).
Note that in A the fool thinks that he can buy wisdom for a payment without effort, and in the parallel he himself (as the unrighteous) can be bought with a secret payment to commit folly. In B a loving friend and a brother are a support in adversity, and in the parallel a cheerful heart is a good medicine. In C a man without understanding (and therefore a fool) puts himself in danger of being sold off as a bondsman, and in the parallel he brings sorrow and distress on his father (who will watch his fall and have to redeem him). Centrally in D the one who loves transgression brings strife on himself, whilst in the parallel the one with a wayward heart and perverse tongue finds no good and falls into mischief.
Pro 17:16
‘Why is there a payment in the hand of a fool to buy (obtain) wisdom,
Seeing he has no mind (heart) for it?’
In Pro 17:8 the fool thought that by using bribes he could obtain anything that he wanted. But here he learns how wrong he was. He comes along payment in hand to obtain wisdom, but he is unable to do so. For however much wealth he has he could not obtain wisdom, because the obtaining of wisdom requires a receptive heart. As Jesus said to Peter, ‘flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but My Father Who is in Heaven’ (Mat 16:17). The problem that the people of Isaiah’s day had was not that they had no wealth, it was that their eyes were blinded and their hearts were hardened (Isaiah 6:18). And the problem that the fool has here is that any attempts to use wealth in order to buy wisdom would be useless, because his heart and mind had no desire for it.
We could paraphrase this as, ‘what is the point of a fool having wealth with which to buy wisdom when he is so spiritually blind that it can do him no good?’ To put it another way, the fool does not deserve wealth because he will always use it in order to obtain the wrong things. Such waste is illustrated in Pro 5:10 where the young man who went with the seductress lost all his money to her wayward friends.
Note that this fool had wealth in his hand, but was unable to obtain the true wealth because his heart was closed to it. He was like the people spoken of by Isaiah, ‘why do you spend your money for that which is not (spiritual) food, and your labour for that which does not satisfy? — bend your ear and come to me, hear that your inner man might live —’ (Isa 55:2-3). What was required was not to spend money, but to hear and respond. But the fool would not bend his ear, nor would he truly seek wisdom (otherwise he would not have been a fool). If he wanted wisdom at all it was on easy terms. And indeed, a fool can be conned into buying quick-fix wisdom, even though he has no heart or mind for it, but it will not do him any good.
Solomon had earlier told his ‘son’ to ‘buy/obtain wisdom’ in Pro 1:5; Pro 4:5-7, but there it was by hearing God’s words and commandments. By that means he would obtain what was better than silver and more valuable than gold (Pro 3:13-14; Pro 8:10-11). It was, in fact, far too valuable to be obtainable by simply making a payment.
But let us not be mistaken. There are many ‘fools’ in our own day who think that they can obtain wisdom by expending money, for they do not distinguish between wisdom and knowledge. Outwardly they can learn all about God, but it does not bring them any closer to Him. For the things of God are spiritually discerned (Joh 6:63; 1Co 2:9-16), and only open to those who seek with a true heart. Payments can close men’s minds (Pro 17:23), but they cannot open them.
Pro 17:17
‘A friend (harea) loves at all times,
And a brother is born for adversity.’
Another thing that money cannot buy is true friends. The wealthy man will always have his hangers-on (Pro 14:20; Pro 18:24 a; Pro 19:4; Pro 19:6) but he will not find them reliable when he really needs them. However, a true friend loves ‘at all times’ (this comes first in the Hebrew for emphasis). He loves when times are good, and he loves when times are hard. And a true brother (one who is not so much a blood relative but one who acts as a true brother should) is ‘born for adversity’, in other words is there when he is needed and things have become difficult. These are friends who ‘stick closer than a brother’ (Pro 18:24 b).
It is not likely that this is intended to indicate that a true friend is better than a brother by birth, in that one is there at all times but the other only appears at times of adversity, even though there may be truth in that. For a brother may be close all the time, and some brothers would not be bothered anyway. If anything we could read it is as meaning that when things are really difficult only a brother can be relied on. But it is probably best to see it as signifying that a true friend and a true brother are those who are equally reliable when they are needed. For they come with a cheerful heart (a ready willingness) as good medicine to their friend (Pro 17:22).
Pro 17:18
‘A man void of understanding strikes hands,
And becomes surety in the presence of his neighbour (harea).’
The same word is used for neighbour here as was used for friend in Pro 17:17, thus linking the two proverbs together. But the thought is very different. It is NOT that the man who acts as surety is a true friend, for he is depicted as a ‘man void of heart/mind/understanding’, and as acting, not on behalf of his neighbour but in the presence of his neighbour. The point is more that he should not have involved his neighbour as a witness to the transaction. For to Solomon, acting as a surety was the act of a naive man who was heading for disaster (see Pro 6:1-5), and it may be that it even involved his neighbour in some measure of liability.
Whilst the details of the transaction is not clear, what is clear is that the surety was gambling his future, probably for the sake of a commission (just as he thought he could obtain wisdom without effort, so does he think that he can become wealthy without effort). If the loan was called in he could lose everything and find himself sold of as a bond-slave in order to pay off as much of the debt as possible. This would be a great grief to his father (Pro 17:21), not only because his father would not like to see him sold off as a bond-slave, but also because it would then be his duty, if at all possible, to redeem him, thus depleting the family finances.
Pro 17:19
‘He loves transgression who loves strife,
He who raises high his gate seeks destruction.’
Note the move forward. In Pro 17:16 the fool thought that he could buy wisdom and make himself wise. But he had no ‘heart’ for it. In Pro 17:18 he proved himself to be a man without ‘understanding/heart’, a fool, because he acts as surety outside the family. Now he reveals that he is a rebel at heart (the word for ‘transgression’ also means ‘rebellion’) and ‘loves strife’ (in contrast to the righteous who love their friends (Pro 17:17)). In Pro 17:20 he will reveal that he has a wayward ‘heart’ and a perverse tongue that produce no good.
‘Loving transgression/rebellion’ and ‘loving strife’ are seen as the same thing. The one who loves the one will love the other. He is thus either a sower of discord (abominated by YHWH – Pro 6:19), having a perverse tongue, or an open rebel, having a wayward heart (Pro 17:20). And this last would be supported by the fact that he ‘raises high his gate’. He wants his gate to be higher than that of his neighbours, and even possibly above the Temple, thus expressing his superiority and strength against both God and his neighbours. But by so challenging God and by so challenging others he is inviting destruction. All who raise themselves above their neighbours are there to be shot at. And as a consequence he is seeking destruction, both by God and his neighbours. So he started by trying to get wisdom on the cheap, and ends up in destruction. Such is the lot of the fool.
We can compare him with Shebna who built his tomb high above the others, and would as a consequence be brought down (Isa 22:15-19), or Haman who set himself above others, had a wayward heart and a perverse tongue in his behaviour towards Mordecai, and as a consequence perished (Est 3:1 to Est 8:1).
Pro 17:20
‘He who has a wayward heart finds no good,
And he who has a perverse tongue falls into mischief.
In a verse parallel to Pro 17:19 we learn that the one who loves transgression does so because he has a wayward heart. He had had no heart for wisdom (Pro 17:16), and this is therefore not surprising. It is what we would expect. And the consequence is that he ‘finds no good’. Nothing good comes from his life, only evil (non-good). And as a result he finds no good for himself. His wayward heart has led him into wayward activity. ‘Finding good’ is limited to the righteous (Pro 11:23).
In the same way the one who has a perverse tongue ‘falls into mischief’, not so much because of what he does, but because of what he says. He is a rabble-rouser. He stirs up trouble in others. And he brings trouble on himself. See Pro 1:11-14; Pro 2:12; Pro 2:14; Pro 8:13; Pro 10:31-32.
Pro 17:21
‘He who begets a fool does it to his sorrow,
And the father of a fool has no joy.’
We can now understand why a fool’s natural father has begotten him ‘to his sorrow’, and why he ‘has no joy’. He sees his son chasing pseudo-wisdom. He sees him ruined by acting as a surety, and is himself called on to step in, to the depletion of the family wealth. And he sees him involving himself in rebellion and causing dissension. He can have no doubt where it will all lead. When his son is a fool a father’s lot is not a happy one.
Pro 17:22
‘A cheerful heart is a good medicine,
But a broken spirit dries up the bones.’
In contrast to the non-joy of the father, and in line with his deep sorrow, we have a proverb concerning joy and sorrow. The righteous man is to cultivate a cheerful heart, cheerful because he looks to YHWH and His wisdom (Pro 3:13; Pro 3:18; Pro 16:20). And this will be a good medicine for him (Pro 12:25; Pro 18:14), because it will enable him to overcome the downturns in life, and will be good medicine for others because he will be able to support his friends and brothers when they face adversity (Pro 17:17).
In contrast is the broken spirit of the man who does not trust in YHWH. When things go wrong (like an errant son, or some catastrophe in life) his broken spirit dries him up inside. He becomes listless and loses any zest for life (Pro 18:14). How important it is that we find our joy in God, so that when trouble comes we have a refuge (Pro 18:10) and a sustainer. For the way to ensure ‘healthy bones’ is to fear YHWH and depart from evil (Pro 3:7-8).
Pro 17:23
‘A wicked man receives a bribe out of the bosom,
To pervert the ways of justice.’
The subsection ends with this proverb concerning the perverting of justice as a consequence of the receipt of secret bribes, something which undermines the very fabric of society. The ‘unrighteous (wicked) man’ is the equivalent of the fool in his folly. Being unable to buy wisdom (Pro 17:16), the unrighteous man (the wicked, the fool, the worthless man) is himself bought. Unable to obtain wisdom without effort, he determines to obtain wealth without effort. He falls back on opening himself to receiving secret bribes, bribes ‘out of the bosom’, which refers to a fold in a man’s cloak which was similar to a pocket. The picture is vivid as we see the briber take gold from his secret pocket and slip it to the judge or the false witness. Both are confident that no one will see. But because they are both fools they forget that YHWH can see, and declares His woes upon them (Isa 5:23). The horror with which such injustice was viewed by the generality of people comes out in Pro 24:24.
This man illustrates much of the subsection. He is the opposite of the friend who loves at all times (Pro 17:17), and is similar in motive to the man who acts as a surety for payment (Pro 17:18), he wants quick silver and gold to his own destruction. He has a wayward heart and a perverse tongue (Pro 17:20), and he is a grief to his godly father (Pro 17:21). Here, unlike in Pro 17:8, the bribe is specifically related to justice. He receives a secret bribe so that he will pervert the ways of justice, either because he is a judge in a position to influence the decision, who twists the facts of a case in order to benefit his briber, or because he is a false witness testifying falsely against the innocent. Either way he has a perverse tongue (Pro 17:20). Such men are an abomination to YHWH (Pro 6:19), for what they do is not hidden from Him (Pro 15:11; Pro 16:2; Pro 17:3). Evil behaviour like this came to its head in the so-called trials of Jesus. There too there were false witnesses and perverted judgments. It is no wonder that Jerusalem was destroyed.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
v. 16. Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 17:16. Wherefore is there a price, &c. What would it profit a fool to have that wherewith he might purchase wisdom, whilst he hath no heart? Houbigant. No discretion to discern the worth of wisdom, no desire to gain it, no understanding to use it properly?
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 17:16 Wherefore [is there] a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing [he hath] no heart [to it]?
Ver. 16. Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool? &c. ] Wealth without wit is ill bestowed. Think the same of good natural parts, either of body or mind; so for authority, opportunity, and other advantages. Whereto serve they, if not rightly improved and employed? Certainly they will prove no better than Uriah’s letters to those that have them; or as that sword which Hector gave Ajax; which so long as he used against his enemies, served for help and defence, but after he began to abuse it to the harm of harmless beasts, it turned into his own bowels. This will be a bodkin at thy heart one day, ‘I might have been saved, but I woefully let slip those opportunities that God had thrust into my hands, and wilfully cut the throat of mine own poor soul, by an impenitent continuance in sinful courses, against so many dissuasives.’ Oh the spirit of fornication, that hath so besotted the minds of the most, that they have no heart to look after heaven while it is to be had, but trifle and fool away their own salvation!
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Wherefore is there a price, &c. = Why is this ready money in the hand of a fool to get wisdom when he has no sense? Illustrations: Israel (2Ch 30:10); the Jews (Luk 4:28); Herod Antipas (Luk 23:11); Jews (Joh 5:40; Joh 8:45); Athenians (Act 17:32, Act 17:33); Felix (Act 24:25-27); Agrippa (Act 26:28).
wisdom. Hebrew. chakmah. See note on Pro 1:2.
heart. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Subject), App-6, for the sense in it.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 17:16
Pro 17:16
“Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom, Seeing he hath no understanding?”
This is a down to earth recognition that teaching can be wasted on a fool. This is not a snobbish remark; because, as always in Proverbs, the fool gets himself into his situation by his own stubbornness and wickedness.
Pro 17:16. Why pay out money for books and then not read, study, or use them? Why pay tuition fees to go to school when one does not really want to study and learn? Pulpit Commentary: A fool thinks that there is a royal road to wisdom, and that it, like other things, is to be purchased with money. One who has a heart for learning will treasure and value every opportunity for learning (books, lectures, films, travel, etc.), such as Abraham Lincoln, and they rise on the wings of acquired knowledge and bless others with the knowledge they have gained. But pupils are not all students, teachers soon discover.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
a price: Pro 1:22, Pro 1:23, Pro 8:4, Pro 8:5, Pro 9:4-6, Isa 55:1-3, Act 13:46, 2Co 6:1
seeing: Pro 14:6, Pro 18:15, Pro 21:25, Pro 21:26, Deu 5:29, Psa 81:11-13, Hos 4:11, Joh 3:20, Act 28:26, Act 28:27
Reciprocal: Psa 111:2 – that have Pro 4:5 – Get wisdom Pro 10:21 – wisdom Pro 15:32 – getteth understanding Pro 18:2 – fool Pro 19:8 – wisdom Pro 23:23 – Buy Ecc 10:2 – but Jer 5:21 – understanding Hos 7:11 – without Mat 13:19 – and understandeth Mat 13:44 – like Luk 7:32 – are Luk 7:35 – General Rom 1:28 – as they did 2Pe 3:5 – they willingly
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 17:16. Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool, &c. The Hebrew is literally, Wherefore is this? A price in the hand of a fool to procure wisdom, and not a heart? The question implies, that the price is unworthily placed, and that it is to no purpose, or benefit of the possessor. All the ancient translators interpret the word , here rendered price, of possessions, or riches, of which the same word is used Isa 55:1, and elsewhere. It comprehends all opportunities and abilities of getting wisdom; seeing he hath no heart to it Neither discretion to discern the worth of it, nor any sincere desire to get it. Observe, reader, this price, these abilities and opportunities to gain wisdom, are put into all our hands; we have rational souls, the means of grace, the aids of the Holy Spirit, liberty of access to God by prayer, time and opportunity, perhaps also we have good parents, relations, friends, ministers, books to assist us. A sufficient price, therefore, is put into our hands, wherewith to procure wisdom, a talent, or talents rather, of inestimable value; and surely we shall be inexcusable, and cannot escape condemnation and wrath, if we die without it.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
17:16 Why [is there] a {g} price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing [he hath] no heart [to it]?
(g) What good does it do the wicked to be rich, seeing he does not set his mind to wisdom?
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The idea here is that it is foolish for a fool to try to buy wisdom when he does not have the sense to comprehend it, [Note: McKane, p. 505.] or does not intend to follow that wisdom. Why go to school and pay good money for tuition if you do not plan to put into practice what you are learning?
"It is possible to be educated and to have no heart for truth, for truth has a moral dimension which education cannot provide." [Note: Larsen, p. 189.]