Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 21:4
A high look, and a proud heart, [and] the plowing of the wicked, [is] sin.
4. the plowing ] This, which is an admissible rendering, is virtually retained ( the tillage) in R.V. marg. The haughty bearing, the proud look, the prosperous labours of the wicked are alike condemned as “sin.” But it is better to render lamp, instead of plowing or tillage, even the lamp of the wicked is sin. , LXX.; lucerna, Vulg.
The lamp burning brightly and steadily in the tent or house is the symbol of the prosperity of an individual (Pro 13:9; Job 18:6; and of a dynasty, 1Ki 11:36; 1Ki 15:4). But in the case of “the wicked,” instead of being accepted with humble thankfulness as lighted by Jehovah (Psa 18:28), it finds expression in “an high look and a proud heart,” and therefore “is sin.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The plowing – The Hebrew word, with a change in its vowel points, may signify either:
(1) the fallow field, the tillage of Pro 13:23, or
(2) the lamp.
According to: (1) the verse would mean, The outward signs of pride, the proud heart, the broad lands of the wicked, all are evil. (2) however, belongs, as it were, to the language of the time and of the book Pro 13:9; Pro 24:20. The lamp of the wicked is their outwardly bright prosperity.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 4. A high look] The evidence of pride, self-conceit, and vanity. A proud heart, from which the high look, c., come.
And the ploughing] ner, lucerna, the lamp, the prosperity and posterity of the wicked is sin – it is evil in the seed, and evil in the root, evil in the branch, and evil in the fruit. They are full of sin themselves, and what they do is sinful.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
An high look; one gesture or sign of pride put for all the rest, Pro 6:17.
A proud heart; pride lurking and reigning in the heart, though it do not discover itself to men by outward actions, but be disguised with a show of humility, it is frequently.
The ploughing; either,
1. Strictly and properly so called: even their civil or natural actions, which in themselves are lawful and good, are made sinful, as they are managed by ungodly men, without any regard to the service and glory of God, which ought to be the great end of all our actions, 1Co 10:31, and with a design of serving their own wicked lusts by it. Or,
2. Metaphorically, their designs and endeavours, which are said to be sin, because they are wholly and fully set upon sin, and they make sin their trade or business, which is called ploughing wickedness, Job 4:8. But all the ancient interpreters, and divers others, render the word the lamp or light, as this Hebrew word, even thus pointed, is rendered, 1Ki 11:36; 15:4; 2Ki 8:19; 2Ch 21:7; and the lamp of the wicked is a phrase used in this book, Pro 13:9; 24:20, as also Job 21:17; whereas the ploughing of the wicked is a phrase not elsewhere used. And this seems best to agree with the context, for by their lamp he seems to understand all their pomp and glory, that worldly greatness and prosperity, which is the fuel of their pride, and therefore is most fitly joined with it. Is sin; it is by them turned into sin, and made the occasion of much wickedness. The whole verse may be thus rendered, An high look and a proud heart, which is the light or glory of the wicked, (i.e. wherein they glory, esteeming it magnanimity or gallantry of spirit,) is sin, i.e. is a great and grievous sin. And in this manner the learned Mercer renders the verse, save only that he translates the Hebrew word nir, the ploughing.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. high look(Compare Margin;Ps 131:1).
proud heartor, “heartof breadth,” one that is swollen (compare Ps101:5).
ploughingbetter”lamp,” a frequent figure for prosperity (Pr20:20); hence joy or delight.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
An high look, and a proud heart,…. The former is a sign of the latter, and commonly go together, and are both abominable to the Lord; see Ps 101:5. A man that looks above others, and with disdain upon them, shows that pride reigns in him, and swells his mind with a vain opinion of himself; this may be observed in every self-righteous man; the parable of the Pharisee and publican is a comment upon it; sometimes there may be a proud heart under a disguise of humility; but the pride of the heart is often discovered by the look of the eyes. It may be rendered, “the elevation of the eyes, and the enlargement of the heart” p; but not to be understood in a good sense, of the lifting up of the eyes in prayer to God, with faith and fear; nor of the enlargement of the heart with solid knowledge and wisdom, such as Solomon had; but in a bad sense, of the lofty looks and haughtiness of man towards his fellow creatures, and of his unbounded desires after filthy lucre or sinful lusts: the Targum renders it,
“the swelling of the heart,”
with pride and vanity;
[and] the ploughing of the wicked [is] sin; taken literally; not that it is so in itself; for it is a most useful invention, and exceeding beneficial to mankind, and is to be ascribed to God himself; and of this the Heathens are so sensible, that they have a deity to whom they attribute it, and whom they call Ceres q, from , to plough; it only denotes that all the civil actions of a wicked man, one being put for all, are attended with sin; he sins in all he does. Or, metaphorically, for his schemes, contrivances, and projects, which are the ploughing of his mind; these are all sinful, or tend to that which is so. Some understand this particularly of his high look and proud heart, which are his ploughing and his sin; Ben Melech; and others of his ploughing, or persecuting and oppressing, the poor. The word is sometimes used for a lamp or light, and is so rendered here by some, “the light of the wicked [is] sin” r; their outward happiness and prosperity leads them into sin, involves them in guilt, and so brings them to ruin and destruction: and this way go the Targum: Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions.
p “elatio oculorum et latitudo cordis”, Piscator, Michaelis, Cocceius, Schultens. q “Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terram instituit”, Virgil. Georgic. l. 1. r “Incerna impiorum”, V. L. Mercerus, Gejerus, Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
4 Loftiness of eyes and swelling of heart –
The husbandry of the godless is sin.
If , in the sense of light, gives a satisfactory meaning, then one might appeal to 1Ki 11:36 (cf. 2Sa 21:17), where appears to signify lamp, in which meaning it is once (2Sa 22:29) written (like ); or since = (ground-form, nawir , lightening) is as yet certainly established neither in the Heb. nor Syr., one might punctuate instead of , according to which the Greeks, Aram., and Luther, with Jerome, translate. But of the lamp of the godless we read at Pro 13:9 and elsewhere, that it goeth out. We must here understand by the brilliant prosperity (Bertheau and others) of the wicked, or their “proud spirit flaming and flaring like a bright light” (Zckler), which is contrary to the use of the metaphor as found elsewhere, which does not extend to a prosperous condition. We must then try another meaning for ; but not that of yoke, for this is not Heb., but Aram.-Arab., and the interpretation thence derived by Lagarde: “Haughtiness and pride; but the godless for all that bear their yoke, viz., sin,” seeks in vain to hide behind the “for all that” the breaking asunder of the two lines of the verse. In Heb. means that which lightens (burning) = lamp, , the shining (that which burns) = fire, and , Pro 13:23, from , to plough up (Targ. 1Sa 8:12, = ) the fresh land, i.e., the breaking up of the fallow land; according to which the Venet. as Kimchi: , which as Ewald and Elster explain: “where a disposition of wicked haughtiness, of unbridled pride, prevails, there will also sin be the first-fruit on the field of action; , novale , the field turned up for the first time, denotes here the first-fruits of sin.” But why just the first-fruits, and not the fruit in general? We are better to abide by the field itself, which is here styled , not (or as once in Jer 39:10, ); because with this word, more even than with , is connected the idea of agricultural work, of arable land gained by the digging up or the breaking up of one or more years’ fallow ground (cf. Pea ii. 1, , Arab. sikak , opp. , Arab. bur , Menachoth 85a, , a fresh broken-up field, Erachin 29b, , , opp. , to let lie fallow), so that may mean the cultivation of the fields, and generally the husbandry, i.e., the whole conduct and life of the godless. is here ethically metaph., but not like Hos 10:12; Jer 4:3, where it means a new moral commencement of life; but like , arare , Job 4:8; Hos 10:13; cf. Pro 3:29. is not adj. like Pro 28:25, Psa 101:5, but infin. like , Pro 10:21; and accordingly also is not adj. like , or past like , but infin. like Isa 10:12. And is the pred. of the complex subject, which consists of , a haughty looking down with the eyes, , breadth of heart, i.e., excess of self-consciousness, and taken as an asyndeton summativum: pride of look, and making oneself large of heart, in short, the whole husbandry of the godless, or the whole of the field cultivated by them, with all that grows thereon, is sin.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
4 An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.
This may be taken as showing us, 1. The marks of a wicked man. He that has a high look and a proud heart, that carries himself insolently and scornfully towards both God and man, and that is always ploughing and plotting, designing and devising some mischief or other, is indeed a wicked man. The light of the wicked is sin. Sin is the pride, the ambition, the glory and joy, and the business of wicked men. 2. The miseries of wicked man. His raised expectations, his high designs, and most elaborate contrivances and projects, are sin to him; he contracts guilt in them and so prepares trouble for himself. The very business of all wicked men, as well as their pleasure, is nothing but sin; so Bishop Patrick. They do all to serve their lusts, and have no regard to the glory of God in it, and therefore their ploughing is sin, and no marvel when their sacrificing is so, ch. xv. 8.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Unconcerned Wicked
Verse 4 (AV margin and RV render the second line as applying to the lamp or light of the wicked). The verse suggests that the proud look, proud heart, and arrogant life of the unconcerned are all sinful. Other references show the LORD’s view as an abomination; and the eventual consequences as death, Pro 6:16-18; Pro 13:9; Pro 24:20.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 21:4. The ploughing. This word is by most modern commentators translated, as in the marginal references, light. It is likewise so rendered in the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and in Luthers version. Ewald, Elster, Wordsworth, and others, translate as in the English version. The Hebrew words are very similar. Those who adopt the former rendering understand the word to stand in apposition to the high look and the proud heart of the first clause (literally To be lofty of eyes, and to be swollen of heart), and regard it as a figurative representation of the spirit of the wicked man. Ewald and others refer the ploughing of the wicked to the very first-fruits of a mans activity.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 21:4
THE PLOUGHING OF THE WICKED
I. The high look and the proud heart indicate a man wrong at the foundation of his character. They show that he has not yet learned the alphabet of true godlinessthat he has not yet begun to know his guilt and his weakness. He is ignorant of the depravity of his moral natureof the capabilities of wrong that lie hidden within him, undeveloped now, it may be, but ready to assert their presence when the temptation presents itself. The man who has been born blind is entirely ignorant of the outline even of his own features, but he does not form a conception which is farther removed from the reality than a spiritually unenlightened man does of the real features of his moral character. The proud man by his pride proclaims his moral blindnesshis high look is a sure indication that the light within him is darknessthat he has never seen himself as he really is. Hence it follows that he is wrong at the very core and centre of his moral being; where pride holds her throne there is no room for God, there is no confession of sin, and no yielding to Divine guidance.
II. While the heart is wrong the whole life will be wrong. This truth is expressed in the proverb, however we translate the verb in the second clause (See Critical Notes). Things that are not wrong in themselves become wrong if done from a sinful motive. A man may plough a field, and in itself the action may be neither good nor bad, but if he plough in order to sow a crop of thistles the action is a criminal one. A man may be diligent and painstaking in his business, and his diligence may in itself seem commendable, but if he exercises it only to gain money for sinful ends his very buying and selling becomes sin. And if we translate the word light, and understand it to signify prosperity, the truth taught is very much the same. While a mans pride keeps him at a moral distance from God, no matter how successful he may be, the taint and curse of unpardoned guilt is upon all his gains and possessions.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Holy intention is to the actions of a man that which the soul is to the body, or form to its matter, or the root to the tree, or the sun to the world, or the fountain to the river, or the base to a pillar. Without these the body is a dead trunk, the matter is sluggish, the tree is a block, the world is darkness, the river is quickly dry, the pillar rushes into flatness and ruin, and the action is sinful, or unprofitable and vain.Jeremy Taylor.
The evil spirit called sin may be trained up to politeness, and made to be genteel sin; it may be elegant, cultivated sin; it may be very exclusive and fashionable sin; it may be industrious, thrifty sin; it may be a great political manager, a great commercial operator, a great inventor; it may be learned, scientific, eloquent, highly-poetic sin! Still it is sin, and, being that, has in fact the same radical and fundamental quality that, in its ranker and less restrained conditions, produces all the most hideous and revolting crimes of the world.Bushnell.
All thine actions while unregeneratewhether inward or outward, whether worldly or religiousare all sinful and cursed. Like the leper under the law, thou taintest whatever thou touchest, and makest it unclean. Thy calling is not without its corruption. nay, thy very religious exercises are sinful. Thine incense stinks of the hand that offered it. The vessel of thy heart is not clean, and God will not taste of the liquor which cometh out of it. Because thy person is not accepted, thy performances are all rejected. Thou art in the flesh, and therefore canst not please God (Rom. 8:8).Swinnock.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(4) The plowing of the wicked.i.e., their work, all they do; for it is not done to please God but themselves; nor carried on in His strength, but in reliance upon their own, and therefore it is sin, not pleasing to Him. For the word here translated plowing, see above on Pro. 13:23, where it is rendered tillage. It may also signify lamp (see above on 13:9).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Ploughing of the wicked The versions and critics differ on the word rendered “ploughing.” The balance is in favour of rendering , ( nir,) a lamp or light, the emblem of prosperity, joy, splendour, etc. Stuart renders thus: “Softness of look and pride of heart, the light of the wicked, is sin.” So, substantially, Conant. The Speaker’s Commentary prefers the old reading. Miller, “Elation of eyes and dilation of heart, the very light of the wicked, is the sin offering.” On the whole, the reading of the Authorized Version may be permitted to stand. Comp. Pro 6:17. The Septuagint, Vulgate, etc., read lamp instead of ploughing. “A hautie loke, and a proude hart, which is the light of the wicked, is sinne.” Geneva Bible.
v. 4. An high look and a proud heart, Pro 21:4. And the ploughing of the wicked Dr. Grey is for taking the two parts of the verse separately, thus, “A lofty look and a proud heart go generally together; i.e. the countenance shews the disposition of the mind, the lamp of the wicked is sin.” The lamp seems to signify that which men make the rule or guide of their actions. In this sense the law of the Lord is the lamp of the righteous, but sin is the lamp of the wicked. See chap. Pro 6:23. Psa 119:105.
Pro 21:4 An high look, and a proud heart, [and] the plowing of the wicked, [is] sin.
Ver. 4. An high look and proud heart. ] See Trapp on “ Pro 6:17 “
And the ploughing of the wicked is sin. And. Omit this “And”.
plowing: or tillage. See App-74.
the wicked = lawless ones. Hebrew. rasha’. App-44.
sin. Hebrew. chata’. App-44. The special word for the sin offering. Render the verse “A lofty look and a proud heart, [which is] the tillage of the lawless, [is more acceptable to them than] the sin offering. “This supply of the Ellipsis (App-6.) from the preceding verse completes the sense, and shows that the two are strictly related.
Pro 21:4
Pro 21:4
“A high look, and a proud heart, Even the lamp of the wicked, is sin.”
“Haughty eyes, and an ambitious mind – the tillage of the wicked is sin. “Haughty looks and a proud heart – these sins mark a wicked man. “Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin. “Because of their pride and arrogance, the vow of evil men is a sin. It is evident that the translators do not know exactly what this passage says. One thing is clear, God hates pride and arrogance. The uncertainty derives from the word translated `vow’ in the Anchor Bible. “It means either `newly plowed land’ or `a lamp.’ `Vow’ seems to be a guess.
Pro 21:4. This verse deals with pride and the prosperity of the proud. A high look is one of the outward expressions of a proud heart. Over and over does God speak His displeasure with mans exalted opinion of himself (Pro 6:16-17; Dan 4:29-37). Pulpit Commentary: Lamp is…a metaphor for prosperity and happiness (2Sa 22:29; 1Ki 11:36); and it is here said that the sinners outward prosperity and joyousness, springing from no good source, being founded in self, and not resting in virtue and godliness, are in themselves sinful and displeasing to God.
An high look: Heb. Haughtiness of eyes, Pro 6:17, Pro 8:13, Pro 30:13, Psa 10:4, Isa 2:11, Isa 2:17, Isa 3:16, Luk 18:14, 1Pe 5:5
and the: Pro 21:27, Pro 15:8, Rom 14:23
plowing of the wicked: or, light of the wicked
Reciprocal: Lev 11:34 – General 2Sa 22:28 – but thine Pro 15:9 – The way Eze 16:49 – pride Hag 2:14 – So is this people Zec 14:20 – shall there Luk 21:34 – your hearts Tit 1:15 – but
Pro 21:4. A high look One sign of pride put for all the rest; and a proud heart Pride lurking and reigning in the heart, though it do not discover itself to men by outward actions, but be disguised with a show of humility, as it frequently is; and the ploughing of the wicked Even their civil or natural actions, which in themselves are lawful and good, are made sinful, as they are managed by ungodly men, without any regard to the glory of God, which ought to be the end of all our actions; is sin Is by them turned into sin, and made the occasion of much wickedness.
21:4 An high look, and a proud heart, [and] the {b} plowing of the wicked, [is] sin.
(b) That is, the thing by which he is guided or which he brings forth as the fruit of his work.
The "lamp" of the wicked seems to be their life (cf. Pro 13:9 b) or, more particularly, their conscience (cf. Pro 20:27). If this is so, the verse is saying that arrogance and pride are the sum and substance of the life of the wicked, and that these are sin.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)