Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 19:3
The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD.
The non-wisdom which, having brought about disasters by its own perverseness, then turns round and fretteth, i. e., angrily complains against the Providence of God.
Perverteth – Rather, overturneth, maketh to fail.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 19:3
The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the Lord.
The folly and sin of men in perverting their own way, and then fretting against God
Men are apt to charge all the afflictions which befall them upon God, whereas they bring most of them upon themselves. God is no further accessory to them than as, in the nature of things, and in the course of His wise providence, He hath established a connection between folly and suffering, between sin and misery. Homer observes that men lay those evils upon the gods which they have incurred through their own folly and perverseness. The foolishness of man signifies his want of thought and reflection; his indiscretion and rashness. It perverts his way, leads him aside from the path of wisdom and prudence, safety and happiness; by this means he brings himself into trouble, is reduced to necessity, perplexed with difficulties, or oppressed with sorrow. Then he committeth this grand error after all the rest, that his heart fretteth against the Lord. He is vexed, not at himself, but at Providence. Fretteth expresses the commotion and uneasiness there is in a discontented, ungoverned mind.
I. The general principle on which men act in this case is right and just. When they fret against the Lord they suppose that there is a God, and that He observes and interests Himself in the affairs of His creatures; and that it is a considerable part of His providential government to try, exercise, and promote the virtues of His rational creatures by the discipline of affliction.
II. The conclusion they draw is generally wrong, and their charge upon the providence of God groundless and unjust.
1. It is often the case with regard to mens health. Many complain that God denies them the health and spirits which He has given to others. But health very largely, and very directly, depends on mens management of themselves, by indulgence, fretfulness, inactivity, too close application to business, etc.
2. With regard to their circumstances in life. We see men impoverished and reduced to straits and difficulties. They complain that God brings them into straits, and embarrasses their circumstances. But most persons are really in straits through their own negligence, carelessness, or extravagance. Many are ruined in this world by an indolent temper. Cardinal de Retz used to say that misfortune was only another word for imprudence.
3. With regard to their relations in life. How many unhappy marriages there are! But they are almost always the consequence of foolish and wilful choices. Many complain that their children are idle, disobedient, and undutiful. But this is generally the result of parental inefficiency in training or in example.
4. With regard to mens minds and their religious concerns. Many who make a profession of religion are uneasy and fretful, without any external cause; but this is usually owing to their own negligence or self-willedness.
III. The folly and wickedness of such conduct. It is very absurd, for in most of these cases they have no one to blame but themselves. It likewise proceeds from ignorance of themselves. Fretfulness only tends to aggravate our afflictions and to hurt our minds. It may provoke God to bring upon us some heavier affliction. Application:
1. How much prudence, caution, and foresight are necessary for those who are setting out in life!
2. What a great and mischievous evil pride is!
3. Inquire to what your afflictions are owing.
4. Guard against the great sin of fretting against the Lord. (J. Orton.)
Mans sorrows the result of his sins
I. Illustrate the proverb.
1. As regards health.
2. As regards worldly substance.
3. As regards the vexations of domestic life.
4. From the state of the mind.
5. From the world in which we reside.
II. Instructions derivable from the proverb.
1. It instructs us with regard to sin.
2. It shows the inefficacy of mere suffering to bring a man to a proper state of thinking and feeling.
3. The disposition of the mind under sanctified affliction.
4. The reality of a moral providence.
5. Learn to look to God for His grace and guidance. (W. Jay.)
The misfortunes of men chargeable on themselves
I. Consider the external condition of man. He is placed in a world where he has by no means the disposal of the events that happen. Calamities befall us, which are directly the Divine dealing. But a multitude of evils beset us which are due to our own negligences or imprudences. Men seek to ascribe their disappointments to any cause rather than to their own misconduct, and when they can devise no other cause they lay them to the charge of Providence. They are doubly unjust towards God. When we look abroad we see more proofs of the truth of this assertion. We see great societies of men torn in pieces by intestine dissensions, tumults, and civil commotions. But did man control his passions, and form his conduct according to the dictates of wisdom, humanity, and virtue, the earth would no longer be desolated by wars and cruelties.
II. Consider the internal state of man. So far as this inward disquietude arises from the stings of conscience and the horrors of guilt, there can be no doubt of its being self-created misery, which it is impossible to impute to Heaven. But how much poison man himself infuses into the most prosperous conditions by peevishness and restlessness, by impatience and low spirits, etc. Unattainable objects pursued, intemperate passions nourished, vicious pleasures and desires indulged, God and Gods holy laws forgotten–these are the great scourges of the world; the great causes of the life of man being so embroiled and unhappy.
1. Let us be taught to look upon sin as the source of all our miseries.
2. The reality of a Divine government exercised over the world.
3. The injustice of our charging Providence with a promiscuous and unequal distribution of its favours among the good and the bad.
4. The necessity of looking up to God for direction and aid in the conduct of life. Let us hold fast the persuasion of these fundamental truths–that, in all His dispensations, God is just and good; that the cause of all the troubles we suffer is in ourselves, not in Him; that virtue is the surest guide to a happy life; and that he who forsakes this guide enters upon the path of death. (H. Blair, D. D.)
Fretting against God a frequent sin
Men are oftener guilty of this sin than they imagine. Our hearts fret against the Lord by fretting at the ministers and instruments of His providence; and therefore, when the people murmured against Moses in the wilderness, he tells them that their murmuring was not against him and his brother Aaron, but against the Lord. Instead of fretting, it is our duty to accept of the punishment of our iniquity, and to bless God that matters are not so bad with us as we deserve. If our troubles come upon us without any particular reason from our own conduct, yet reflections upon God would be very unjust. Jobs troubles were extremely grievous, and as they came upon him without cause in himself, he was made to acknowledge his great folly in reflecting upon God for his distresses. (G. Lawson, D. D.)
The untoward incidents of life must not be charged against God
Let us not charge God overhastily with the untoward incidents of life. In the main we are the manufacturers of our own life-material. If you give the weaver none but dark threads he can only fashion a sombre pattern. (J. Halsey.)
Life regarded as a wrong
George Eliot once said to a friend, with deep solemnity, that she regarded it as a wrong and misery that she had ever been born. (Oscar Browning.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. The foolishness of man] Most men complain of cross providences, because they get into straits and difficulties through the perverseness of their ways; and thus they fret against God; whereas, in every instance, they are the causes of their own calamities. O how inconsistent is man!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Perverteth his way; either.
1. Enticeth him to sin. Or rather,
2. Crosseth and blasteth his designs and enterprises, and brings losses and miseries upon him. His heart fretteth against the Lord; he ascribes his unhappiness not to his own sin and folly, which is the true cause of it, but to God and his providence, against which he unjustly murmurs.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. perverteth . . . wayturnshim back from right (Pro 13:6;Jas 1:13); and he blames God forhis failures.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The foolishness of man perverteth his way,…. The sinfulness of his heart and nature; the folly which is bound up in it causes him to go astray out of the way in which he should go, or makes things go cross with him; so that the ways he takes do not prosper, nor his schemes succeed; but everything goes against him, and he is brought into straits and difficulties;
and his heart fretteth against the Lord; laying all the blame on him; and ascribing his ill success, not to his own sin and folly, but to divine Providence, which works against him; and therefore frets and murmurs at him; and, instead of charging his own ways with folly, charges the ways of God with inequality; see Eze 18:25.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
3 The foolishness of a man overturneth his way,
And his heart is angry against Jahve.
Regarding , vid., at Pro 11:3; also the Arab. signification “to go before” proceeds from the root conception pervertere , for first a letting precede, or preceding ( e.g., of the paying before the delivery of that which is paid for: salaf , a pre-numbering, and then also: advanced money), consisting in the reversal of the natural order, is meant. The way is here the way of life, the walking: the folly of a man overturns, i.e., destroys, his life’s-course; but although he is himself the fabricator of his own ruin, yet the ill-humour ( , aestuare , vid., at Psa 11:6) of his heart turns itself against God, and he blames (lxx essentially correct: ) God instead of himself, viz., his own madness, whereby he has turned the grace of God into lasciviousness, cast to the winds the instruction which lay in His providences, and frustrated the will of God desiring his good. A beautiful paraphrase of this parable is found at Sir. 15:11-20; cf. Lam 3:39.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
3 The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD.
We have here two instances of men’s folly:– 1. That they bring themselves into straits and troubles, and run themselves a-ground, and embarrass themselves: The foolishness of man perverts his way. Men meet with crosses and disappointments in their affairs, and things do not succeed as they expected and wished, and it is owing to themselves and their own folly; it is their own iniquity that corrects them. 2. That when they have done so they lay the blame upon God, and their hearts fret against him, as if he had done them wrong, whereas really they wrong themselves. In fretting, we are enemies to our own peace, and become self-tormentors; in fretting against the Lord we affront him, his justice, goodness, and sovereignty; and it is very absurd to take occasion from the trouble which we pull upon our own heads by our wilfulness, or neglect, to quarrel with him, when we ought to blame ourselves, for it is our own doing. See Isa. l. 1.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
God Is Not To Blame For Man’s Folly
Verse 3 emphasizes the foolishness of the man who follows his own perverse way, scorning knowledge and wisdom; then seeks to blame the LORD for the troubles he brings on himself, 11:3; Psa 37:7; Isaiah 8; Isaiah 21, 22.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(3) The foolishness of man perverteth his way.A mans own self-will (Pro. 1:7) overturns his way. stops his progress, whether in temporal or spiritual matters, and then, instead of blaming himself, his heart fretteth against the Lord. (Comp. Isa. 8:21; Rev. 16:10-11.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Perverteth his way The primary idea is that of slipping; perhaps, makes slippery his way, and hence it is difficult to walk in because of this.
His heart fretteth Is angry with Jehovah, though without cause, the fault being his own. He complains of Providence on account of the evil which he brings on himself. Exo 16:8; Lam 3:39.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 3. The foolishness of man perverteth his way,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
DISCOURSE: 799
THE SINFULNESS OF MURMURING AGAINST GOD
Pro 19:3. The foolishness of man perverteth his way, and his heart fretteth against the Lord.
THE wickedness of the heart is deep and unsearchable. They who do not watch its motions, have no idea of its depravity; but they who diligently examine it may discover many evils, and by the light of Gods word attain considerable knowledge. The disposition mentioned in the text deserves special attention. We will,
I.
Illustrate the disposition here spoken of
The careless and ungodly world are ever ready to cast blame on God,
1.
On account of their sins
[They give the rein to every evil thought and desire; they expose themselves to every kind of temptation; they lay innumerable stumbling-blocks in their own way; and thus become enslaved by vicious lusts and appetites: against these iniquities God denounces his judgment: but the slaves of sin continue hardened in their evil ways; they condemn even God himself us the author of their sins. This was the conduct of Adam immediately after the fall [Note: Gen 3:12. He obliquely condemns God for giving the woman to him.], and is it too often imitated by his guilty descendants]
2.
On account of their sorrows
[Sorrow is entailed on all as the punishment of the first transgression: but most of the afflictions which men suffer are brought on them by their own folly. Some involve themselves in distress through sloth or intemperance; others ruin themselves by imprudence and extravagance. Others bring themselves into difficulties by the tempers which they exercise, and the habits which they form: but all under their calamities fret against the Lord. They are full of invectives against those that have been the more immediate occasions of their trouble [Note: Num 16:11; Num 16:41.]; they consider their lot as hard and severe; and thus do they reflect on Providence rather than on themselves. Cain, the first-born of Adam, indulged this malignant spirit [Note: Gen 4:13-14.]; nor are there any sons of sorrow who do not more or less follow his example.]
Nor are believers themselves wholly free from this disposition
[They watch and pray against their besetting sin, yet are sometimes brought under the power of it. On these occasions they are tempted to fret against the Lord; they are ready to expostulate with him like those of old [Note: Isa 58:3.]; they forget how justly they might have been eternally forsaken: and that the remaining power of their sins is the consequence both of former habits, and of present neglects. Under afflictions also they feel too much proneness to murmur. What sinful impatience did the holy Elijah manifest [Note: 1Ki 19:4.]! Even Job himself preserved not wholly a becoming temper [Note: Job 7:15-16.].]
This disposition however is most hateful in the sight of God.
II.
Point out the evil of it
It betrays the most deplorable ignorance
[God is not, nor can be, the author of sin. He maintains in all things the character given of him [Note: Deu 32:4.]: hence St. James shews the folly of casting blame on God [Note: Jam 1:13-14.]; nor can God punish any of us more than our iniquities deserve: hence the expostulation of the prophet is unanswerable [Note: Lam 3:39.]. Besides, to fret against God is not the way to interest him in our behalf, nor will it tend to the peace and composure of our own spirits. It is as unprofitable to us as it is unjust towards him. True wisdom would teach us to humble ourselves in his presence, and to renew our supplications with greater earnestness. This conduct is as sure to succeed, as the other is to fail of success [Note: Pro 28:13.].]
It manifests the most obstinate impenitence
[Both sins and sorrows ought to produce humility. When they increase our rebellion, our state is almost desperate [Note: Isa 1:5.]. How awfully does such a temper characterize Gods enemies [Note: Rev 16:9.]! and make us resemble those that are consigned over to perdition [Note: Mat 8:12.]! Surely nothing more heinous can be laid to our charge, nor any thing more speedily fit us for destruction.]
It evinces the most consummate arrogance
[To fret and murmur is, in fact, to reprove God. God himself considers it as a direct attack upon him [Note: Mal 3:13-14.]; and can any thing be more presumptuous in such worms as we? St. Paul reprobates this impiety with holy indignation [Note: Rom 9:20.], and every one who allows himself in it, must answer it at his peril [Note: Job 40:2.].]
We conclude with suitable advice
1.
Let us search into the occasions of our sins and sorrows
[We may be surprised into sin by a sudden temptation, but may trace our fall to preceding unwatchfulness; nor can we expect God to keep us, if we neglect to keep ourselves. We are rarely earnest enough in using the means of safety. We are too backward to meditation, prayer, and fasting. Our afflictions also may have come without any misconduct on our part: but who has not merited them by his sins? Men should only be considered as instruments in Gods hands [Note: Psa 17:13-14.]: and the consideration of his will should silence every murmur [Note: 2Sa 16:10.].]
2.
Let us always be careful to justify God
[We may not always be able to account for his dispensations, but we should not on that account doubt the equity of them: whatever we suffer, we should not charge God foolishly. Under the darkest dispensations we should say as the Psalmist [Note: Psa 22:2-3.]. If we wait we shall see the wisdom of many things which now seem utterly inexplicable; we may rest assured that Davids assertion shall be verified [Note: Psa 51:4.].]
3.
Let us see what improvement may be made of our troubles
[There is no rod which has not a voice to us. Our very sins may be permitted, in order to humble us, and to make us more thankfully cleave to the Saviour. Our trials, of whatever kind, are to purge away our dross, and to fit us for our eternal rest, To view them in this light will greatly compose our minds; instead of fretting against the Lord, we shall be thankful to him: and instead of increasing our misery, we shall make it a source of joy.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 19:3 The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD.
Ver. 3. The foolishness of a man perverteth his way. ] So that all goes cross with him, and God “walks contrary to him,” Lev 26:21 as it befell our King John, Queen Mary, and Henry IV of France. King John saw and acknowledged it in these words, Postquam, ut dixi, Deo reconciliatus, me ac mea regna (proh dolor!) Romanae subieci ecclesiae, nulla mihi prospera, sed omnia contraria advenerunt, a Ever since I submitted to the see of Rome, nothing hath prospered with me.
And his heart frets against the Lord.
a Mat. Paris.
b Turk. Hist., fol. 423.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
foolishness. Hebrew. ‘evil. See note on Pro 1:7. Not the same word as in verses: Pro 19:1, Pro 19:10, Pro 19:13, Pro 1:29.
man. Hebrew. ‘adam. App-14.
perverteth: or subverteth.
fretteth against = is angry with. Illustrations: Adam (Gen 3:12); Cain (Gen 4:13, Gen 4:14); Jehoram (2Ki 3:10, 2Ki 3:13; 2Ki 6:33); Jonah (Jon 4:1, Jon 4:4, Jon 4:9); Israel (Num 14:2, Num 14:3; Num 20:2-5; Num 21:4-6. Deu 9:23, Deu 9:24).
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 19:3
Pro 19:3
“The foolishness of man subverteth his way; And his heart fretteth against Jehovah.”
“It is a foolish thing for us to fall into difficulty (due to our own stubbornness or foolishness) and then to blame God for our calamities which we have brought upon ourselves.
Pro 19:3. Clarke: They get into straits and difficulties through the perverseness of their ways; and…they fret against God; whereas…they are the causes of their own calamities. Rom 1:19-32 gives a running account of the way mankind subverted its way: they began with a knowledge of God; there came a time when they did not glorify Him as they should; darkness set in upon their unspiritual hearts; in their conceit they began making idols, and the longer they went the worse representation of God they made; they came to be filled with all kinds of wickedness; God finally gave up on them until Gospel times.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
foolishness: Gen 3:6-12, Gen 4:5-14, Num 16:19-41, Num 17:12, Num 17:13, 1Sa 13:13, 1Sa 15:23, 1Sa 22:13-23, 1Ki 20:42, 1Ki 20:43, 2Ki 3:9, 2Ki 3:10, 2Ki 6:33, 2Ch 16:9, 2Ch 16:10, Act 13:45, Act 13:46
fretteth: Psa 37:1, Psa 37:7, Isa 8:21, Isa 8:22, Rev 16:9-11
Reciprocal: Gen 3:12 – General Gen 27:34 – he cried Num 14:39 – mourned greatly Deu 1:41 – We have sinned Jdg 21:3 – why is 2Sa 17:23 – saw Jer 3:21 – for they have Lam 3:39 – doth Eze 18:29 – General Eze 33:20 – Yet