Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 19:27
Cease, my son, to hear the instruction [that causeth] to err from the words of knowledge.
27. That causeth to err ] The Heb. is simply, Cease to hear instruction to err. This may mean either, with A.V., Do not listen to instruction which if you follow it will lead you astray; or better, with R.V., Do not listen to (good) instruction, only to neglect it, and err in spite of it. Comp. Jas 1:22; Mat 7:26-27.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
literally, Cease, my son, to hear instruction, that thou mayest err from the words of knowledge; advice given ironically to do that to which his weakness leads him, with a clear knowledge of the evil to which he is drifting.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 19:27
Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.
Temptation to perilous listening
By the words of knowledge understand the principles and dictates of virtue and religion. The wise mans advice amounts to this–That we should be careful to guard against the arts and insinuations of such as set up for teachers of infidelity and irreligion.
I. The several temptations which men lie under to listen to such instructors. It is one step toward security to see the dangers we are exposed to. Since the fears and apprehensions of guilt are such strong motives to infidelity, the innocence of the heart is absolutely necessary to preserve the freedom of the mind. In the most unhappy circumstances of sin and guilt, religion opens to us a much safer and more certain retreat than infidelity can possibly afford. Vice is not the only root from which infidelity springs. Reason itself is betrayed by the vanity of our hearts, and sinks under the pride and affectation of knowledge. All kinds of laudable ambition grow to be vicious and despicable when, instead of pursuing the real good which is their true object, they seek only to make a show of an appearance of it. Thus it is that ambition for virtue produces hypocrisy; ambition for courage, boastings and unreasonable resentments; ambition for learning and knowledge, pedantry and paradoxes. Another sort of temptation is a kind of false shame, which often, in young people especially, prevails over the fear of God and the sense of religion. When religion suffers under the hard names of ignorance and superstition, they grow ashamed of their profession, and by degrees harden into denying God.
II. The danger that lies in listening to these instructors. Here only speak to such as have not yet made shipwreck of reason and conscience. It is an unpardonable folly and inexcusable perverseness for men to forsake religion out of vanity and ostentation; as if irreligion were a mark of honour and a noble distinction from the rest of mankind. We must answer for the vanity of our reasoning as well as for the vanity of our actions. If the punishments of another life be, what we have too much reason to fear they will be, what words can then express the folly of sin? Consider, therefore, with yourselves, that when you judge of religion, something more depends upon your choice than the credit of your judgment or the opinion of the world. Religion is so serious a thing as to deserve your coolest thoughts, and it is not fit to be determined in your hours of gaiety and leisure, or in the accidental conversation of public places. Trust yourself with yourself; retreat from the influence of dissolute companions, and take the advice of the psalmist, Commune with your own heart. (T. Sherlock, D. D.)
Avoid false books and teachers
The enemies of religion now say that every man in search of truth ought to put himself in a way to hear both sides. Lay it down as a general rule that men ought not to read those books or hear those preachers that inculcate gross errors, i.e., essential errors. The popular pretence that men must hear both sides is an insidious attack on the Bible, a covered insinuation that the Bible is insufficient to enlighten. Every one should early settle his belief in the leading doctrines of the gospel. Why need such an one expose himself to the infection of error. Men are naturally so averse to the truth that it is infinitely dangerous for those not fully confirmed in it to expose themselves to the contagion of error. They ought not to presume so much on their own stability. Men cannot parley with error and be safe. And if the man himself is safe, he ought to consider the injury he may do to others by encouraging the promulgation of dangerous errors. The encouragement of erroneous teachers and books is conspiring against God. Popularly it is said that truth will recommend itself to every mans conscience, and none can be injured by seeing it compared with error. In answer, it may be said–
1. This is founded on a principle which men would not admit in any other case.
2. The objection would be less deceptive if in matters of religion men were more inclined to truth than to error.
3. The retailers of false doctrine do not state things candidly.
4. The antidote to error does not always go along with the error itself.
5. Facts speak decisively against the encouragement of false books and teachers, under the pretence mentioned in the objection.
Apply–
1. To those who profess to be the friends of God and established in the truth. Do not encourage the promulgation of known errors.
2. To such as are not established in religious opinions. Get established without delay. Error in every form is couching to make you his prey. Beware of an indiscreet desire to read every new book and to hear every new preacher. (E. D. Griffin, D. D.)
A protest against the immoral
Socrates often frequented the theatre, which brought a great many thither out of a desire to see him. On which occasion it is recorded of him that he sometimes stood to make himself the more conspicuous, and to satisfy the curiosity of the beholders. He was one day present at the first representation of a tragedy of Euripides, who was his intimate friend, and whom he is said to have assisted in several of his plays. In the midst of the tragedy, which had met with very great success, there chanced to be a line that seemed to encourage vice and immorality. This was no sooner spoken, but Socrates rose from his seat, and without any regard to his affection for his friend or to the success of the play, showed himself displeased at what was said, and walked out of the assembly. (The Tatler.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 27. Cease, my son] Hear nothing that would lead thee away from God and his truth.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
If thou hast formerly, yet do not now any longer hearken to those false doctrines or evil counsels which tend to withdraw thee from the belief or practice of Gods holy word.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
27. Avoid whatever leads fromtruth.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Cease, my son, to hear the instruction,…. The counsel of bad men, or the doctrine of false teachers. The words are spoken either by Solomon to his son; or by Wisdom, that is, Christ, to everyone of his children, to beware of false prophets, and take heed what they hear; see Mt 7:15; such as the doctrines of the church of Rome; concerning the Scriptures, forbidding the people to read them; setting unwritten traditions upon a level with them, and making the pope an infallible interpreter of them; concerning merit, works of supererogation, indulgences, pardons, penance, purgatory, c. such as the instruction of the Arians, Sabellians, Socinians, Pelagians, and Arminians, concerning the Trinity, the deity of Christ, his satisfaction, imputed righteousness, the power and purity of human nature, and man’s free will
[that causeth] to err from the words of knowledge; the words of the living God, the Scriptures of truth; which communicate knowledge, and are profitable for instruction in righteousness; are the means of the true knowledge of God; that there is one, and that he is possessed of all perfections: particularly that he is gracious and merciful, and pardons all manner of sin; that he is in Christ, the God of all grace; that he is the God and Father of Christ, and the covenant God and Father of all his people in him; they give knowledge of his mind and will concerning the salvation of men, and of his ways and worship. The wholesome words of our Lord Jesus, the salutary doctrines of the Gospel, may be here meant; those words of grace, wisdom, and knowledge, which come from him, and give knowledge of his person, offices, relations, incarnation, and blessings of grace by him; from whence they are called the word of peace and reconciliation, the word of righteousness, the word of life, and the word of salvation. Now these are all words of knowledge; and are the means of a spiritual, experimental, and fiducial knowledge of Christ, which is preferable to all other knowledge, and even to everything in the world; and therefore care should be taken, and everything avoided that tends to cause to err from these words and doctrines, which convey, promote, and improve this knowledge. Jarchi and Aben Ezra transpose the words, thus;
“cease, my son, to err from the words of knowledge, to or that thou mayest hear instruction and the latter makes mention of such an interpretation, cease, my son, from the words of knowledge, if thou wouldest hear instruction, and after that err:”
that is, better never hear and know at all, than to turn from those doctrines and instructions; see 2Pe 2:20.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
27 Cease, my son, to hear instruction,
To depart from the words of knowledge.
Oetinger correctly: cease from hearing instruction if thou wilt make no other use of it than to depart, etc., i.e., cease to learn wisdom and afterwards to misuse it. The proverb is, as Ewald says, as “bloody irony;” but it is a dissuasive from hypocrisy, a warning against the self-deception of which Jam 1:22-24 speaks, against heightening one’s own condemnation, which is the case of that servant who knows his lord’s will and does it not, Luk 12:47. , in the meaning to leave off doing something further, is more frequently construed with seq. infin. than with (cf. e.g., Gen 11:8 with 1Ki 15:21); but if we mean the omission of a thing which has not yet been begun, then the construction is with , Num 9:13, Instead of , there might have been also used (omit rather … than…), and would be more distinct; but as the proverb is expressed, is not to be mistaken as the subord. infin. of purpose. The lxx, Syr., Targ., and Jerome do violence to the proverb. Luther, after the example of older interpreters: instruction, that which leads away from prudent learning; but musar always means either discipline weaning from evil, or education leading to good.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
27 Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.
This is a good caution to those that have had a good education to take heed of hearkening to those who, under pretence of instructing them, draw them off from those good principles under the influence of which they were trained up. Observe, 1. There is that which seems designed for instruction, but really tends to the destruction of young men. The factors for vice will undertake to teach them free thoughts and a fashionable conversation, how to palliate the sins they have a mind to and stop the mouth of their own consciences, how to get clear of the restraints of their education and to set up for wits and beaux. This is the instruction which causes to err from the forms of sound words, which should be held fast in faith and love. 2. It is the wisdom of young men to turn a deaf ear to such instructions, as the adder does to the charms that are designed to ensnare her. “Dread hearing such talk as tends top instil loose principles into the mind; and, if thou art linked in with such, break off from them; thou hast heard enough, or too much, and therefore hear no more of the evil communication which corrupts good manners.”
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Disregard of Truth
Verse 27 (disregarding supplied words in italics) commands the son to cease to hear instruction if you intend to err from the knowledge it conveys. This admonition is in harmony with Pro 17:16 and Peter’s teaching that it is better to not know the way of righteousness than to know and turn away, 2Pe 2:21.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(27) Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err . . .Or the passage may mean, Cease to hear instruction if you are only going to err afterwardsMake up your mind what you are intending to do hereafter, and act now accordingly; better not know the truth than learn it only to desert it. (Comp. 2Pe. 2:21.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
27. Cease to hear the instruction that causeth to err The verse is difficult. Leaving out the italics, it would be, “Cease, my son, to hear the instruction to err from the words of knowledge.” Conant renders: “So as to err.” Miller: “With the result of wandering.” Acken, in Zockler: “To depart from.” “Cease to hear instruction which leads thee to err.” Rosenmuller. It is probable that our Version has given the true sense. The Septuagint has: “A son who ceases to attend to the instruction of a father will cherish evil designs.” The Douay: “Cease not, my son, to hear instruction, and be not ignorant of the words of knowledge.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 27. Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 19:27. Cease, my son, &c. My son, that thou mayest hear instruction, cease to wander from the discourses of wisdom. Houbigant. Bishop Patrick’s paraphrase of the verse runs thus, “My son, beware of their discourse, who, under the shew of greater learning, seduce thee from the plain doctrine of virtue [and holiness]; or, if thou hast been unhappily engaged in such company, quit it presently and continue with those who honestly instruct thee. For remember this, to leave off hearing the instruction of good men is the first step towards a departure from all religion.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 19:27 Cease, my son, to hear the instruction [that causeth] to err from the words of knowledge.
Ver. 27. Cease, my son, to hear the instruction. ] “Beware of false prophets.” Mat 7:15 See Trapp on “ Mat 7:15 “ Take heed also what books ye read; for as water relisheth of the soil it runs through, so doth the soul of the authors that a man readeth.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
my son. The presence of this word here and in Pro 23:15, Pro 23:19, Pro 23:26; Pro 24:13, Pro 24:21, together with the employment of the second person, shows that these are proverbs for Solomon. See note under Structure above.
words = sayings. Hebrew. imrah. App-73.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 19:27
Pro 19:27
“Cease, my son, to hear instruction Only to err from the words of knowledge.”
“There are many deceivers in the world. They make it their business to clothe error with the appearance of truth, and to weaken and discourage those motives to holiness that are set before us in God’s word. The exhortation here speaks to us as children, warning us to beware of their devices and insinuations.
Pro 19:27. It does no good to be exposed to good instruction if it is not going to be followed. There are those who seem to be listening to what you are telling them, but they are only being polite or do not wish to engage in open disagreement, for when they go their way they have not been changed by what they have heard. In time Christian teachers will cease instructing people if they will not be obedient (Act 18:5-6).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Pro 14:7, Deu 13:1-4, 1Ki 22:22-28, Mat 7:15, Mat 16:6, Mat 16:12, Mar 4:24, Mar 7:6-14, Joh 10:5, 2Co 11:13-15, Eph 4:14, 1Ti 4:7, 1Ti 6:3-5, 2Pe 2:1, 2Pe 2:2, 1Jo 4:1, 2Jo 1:10, Rev 2:2
Reciprocal: Jdg 18:14 – now therefore 2Sa 13:5 – Lay thee 2Ch 10:13 – forsook 2Ch 22:4 – they were his Jer 23:16 – Hearken Eze 13:19 – to slay Mar 8:15 – Take Mar 12:27 – ye Jam 5:19 – err
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 19:27. Cease, my son, to hear the instruction, &c. If thou hast done it formerly, yet do not now, any longer, hearken to those false doctrines, or evil counsels, which tend to withdraw thee from the belief or practice of Gods holy word. Or, as Bishop Patrick interprets the verse, My son, beware of their discourse, who, under the show of greater learning, seduce thee from the plain doctrines of virtue; or, if thou hast been unhappily engaged in such company, quit it presently, and stick to those that honestly instruct thee; for, remember this, to leave off hearing the instruction of good men, is the first step toward a departure from all religion.