Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 25:14
Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift [is like] clouds and wind without rain.
14. Lit.,
Clouds and wind and no rain;
A man who boasts himself of a gift of falsehood.
The rising wind and gathering clouds (1Ki 18:45) which, un-accompanied by rain, disappoint the expectation of the thirsty earth are an apt emblem of a man who promises much and performs nothing.
The Vulg. is true to the original, and forcible:
Nubes et ventus et pluviae non sequentes,
Vir gloriosus et promissa non complens.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The disappointment caused by him who promises much and performs little or nothing, is likened to the phenomena of an eastern climate; the drought of summer, the eager expectation of men who watch the rising clouds and the freshening breeze, the bitter disappointment when the breeze dies off, and the clouds pass away, and the wished for rain does not come.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. A false gift] mattath shaker, a lying gift, one promised, but never bestowed. “Whoso maketh greate boastes, and giveth nothing;” COVERDALE. SO the VULGATE: “Vir gloriosus, et promissa non complens;” “A bragging man, who does not fulfil his promises,” is like clouds which appear to be laden with vapour, and like the wind which, though it blow from a rainy quarter, brings no moistness with it. So the vain boaster; he is big with promise, but performs nothing.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift, pretending that he hath given, or promising that he will give, a man those gifts, which he neither hath given, nor intendeth to give him,
is like clouds and wind without rain; like empty clouds carried about with wind, and not affording that rain which by their appearance they promise.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. cloudsliterally, “vapors”(Jer 10:13), clouds only inappearance.
a false giftpromised,but not given.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift,…. Of his charity and alms deeds; bragging of great things he does this way, when he does nothing; or who is very vain in making large promises of what he will give, when he does not perform; either not having it in his heart, or in the power of his hands, to give what he promises; Satan like, who offered to give all the kingdoms of this world to Christ, if he would worship him, when nothing of it belonged unto him, or was in his power to give: and so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, “a glorious man”; that is, a vainglorious man, and “not fulfilling promises”. It may very well be applied to false teachers, who boast of their gifts and spiritual knowledge, when they have none; speaking great swelling words of vanity, when they are empty of all that is good, and are as follow:
[is like] like clouds and wind without rain; which make a show and appearance of rain, promise much, but produce none; see 2Pe 2:17 Jude 1:12.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This proverb relates to the word which promises much, but remains unaccomplished:
Clouds and wind, and yet no rain –
A man who boasteth with a false gift.
Incorrectly the lxx and Targ. refer the predicate contained in the concluding word of the first line to all the three subjects; and equally incorrectly Hitzig, with Heidenheim, interprets , of a gift that has been received of which one boasts, although it is in reality of no value, because by a lying promise a gift is not at all obtained. But as , Pro 23:3, is bread which, as it were, deceives him who eats it, so is a gift which amounts to a lie, i.e., a deceitful pretence. Rightly Jerome: vir gloriosus et promissa non complens . In the Arab. salid , which Fleischer compares, the figure 14a and its counterpart 14b are amalgamated, for this word signifies both a boaster and a cloud, which is, as it were, boastful, which thunders much, but rains only sparsely or not at all. Similar is the Arab. khullab , clouds which send forth lightning, and which thunder, but yet give no rain; we say to one, magno promissor hiatu : thou art (Arab.) kabarakn khullabin , i.e., as Lane translates it: “Thou art only like lightning with which is no rain.” Schultens refers to this proverbial Arabic, fulmen nubis infecundae . Liberality is called (Arab.) nadnay , as a watering, cf. Pro 11:25. The proverb belongs to this circle of figures. It is a saying of the German peasants, “ Wenn es sich wolket, so will es regnen ” [when it is cloudy, then there will be rain]; but according to another saying, “ nicht alle Wolken regnen ” [it is not every cloud that yields rain]. “There are clouds and wind without rain.”
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
14 Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain.
He may be said to boast of a false gift, 1. Who pretends to have received or given that which he never had, which he never gave, makes a noise of his great accomplishments and his good services, but it is all false; he is not what he pretends to be. Or, 2. Who promises what he will give and what he will do, but performs nothing, who raises people’s expectations of the mighty things he will do for his country, for his friends, what noble legacies he will leave, but either he has not wherewithal to do what he says or he never designs it. Such a one is like the morning-cloud, that passes away, and disappoints those who looked for rain from it to water the parched ground (Jude 12), clouds without water.
| Miscellaneous Maxims. | |
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
False Teachers
Verse 14 describes practices which identify false teachers. They talk big, make claims and promises they cannot fulfill. Peter and James speak of such in the N. T., 2Pe 2:1; 2Pe 2:18-19; Jud 1:12.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 25:14. A false gift. This gift is generally understood to be one bestowed by the boaster, but which is worth nothing, or the mere promise of a gift which is never fulfilled.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 25:14
CLOUDS WITHOUT RAIN
I. Those who promise and do not perform are wantonly cruel. To raise expectations without fulfilling them is one of the greatest unkindnesses of which men can be guilty. For however sorely the gift or the service desired may be needed, if the needy brother has never had any hope of possessing it, his sense of loss is not nearly so keen as it is if, depending on the word of another, he has felt as if the coveted good was almost in his grasp. The thirsty traveller in the desert feels his thirst more terribly after the deceitful mirage has led him to believe that a refreshing lake is just within his reach. He thinks he sees the sparkling water but a few paces distant, and is already in fancy drinking his fill when all his hopes are destroyed by the vanishing of the deception, and he is in a far worse condition than he was before its appearance. There are many men who are as deceitful and as disappointing as the mirage of the desert. Their large promises awaken bright hopes in the breast of some wayfarer on the journey of life, and he looks forward with confident joy to the time when he shall possess the promised gift. But his heart is gradually made sick by the deferred hope (chap. Pro. 13:12) until at last he becomes aware that he has been cruelly deceived, and finds himself a far more wretched man than he was before the promise was made to him.
II. As a rule he who promises most will perform the least. Those who bestow most upon others are those who do not spend much time in talking about what they will do. Sometimes a heavy cloud is seen in the heavens, which seems as if it would every moment fall in refreshing showers. But a few drops only fall on the parched earth, and while the husbandman is looking with confident expectancy it vanishes from his sight. On another day a cloud which seems to promise far less falls in abundance upon the thirsty land. This is not the rule in nature, but it is in relation to the promises and performances of men. The loud boaster is well-nigh certain to be a cloud without rain, and should therefore never be relied upon, and the greatest givers are generally those who promise least.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
This verse may be understood, either of Gods gift to man, or mans gift to God, or else of man to any other man. For many there are who boast of those gifts which God never bestowed on them; and though God be infinite in His bounty, yet by their lying do make Him more bountiful than He is. Many there are who boast of their gifts to God, either in regard of the church or the poor, whereas His church or His poor have them as little as God Himself needs them. Many boast of their kind gifts to others, whereas their not performing them makes them more unkind than if they never had promised. Their false gifts are as the clouds, and their boasting as the winds. Their false gifts do lift them up, as the clouds are; their great boasting maketh a great noise as the wind doth. The winds drive the clouds and scatter them; so doth their boasting spread abroad the fame of their false gifts; and as the clouds without rain darken the heavens without watering the earth; as the dry wind troubleth the air without refreshing the ground; so these boasters even darken the heaven with their naughtiness, and trouble the earth with their brags, but satisfy none with their deeds.Jermin.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(14) Whoso boasteth himself of a false gifti.e., talks loudly of what he is going to do for another, and then does nothing.
Clouds and wind.Generally followed by heavy rain, (Comp. 1Ki. 18:45.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. A false gift This is understood of one that boasts of an intended gift which he never bestows.
Like clouds without rain Clouds and wind sometimes give promise of rain that comes not. Coverdale translates according to the sense: “Whose maketh great boasts and giveth nothing.” Compare 2Pe 2:17; Jud 1:12. For false gift here, the Geneva has “false liberalitie.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 25:14. Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift Or, pretends he will give a valuable gift, and disappoints the expectation, is like clouds and wind without rain. See 1Ki 18:45.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain. By long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone. Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.
This last verse I beg the Reader to observe, is put in the form of a question. Hast thou found honey? If we accept it naturally in reference to the body, of eating the things, which perish in using; what follows may be taken literally. But if we take it spiritually, who can have too much of Christ, the honey found in scripture? We shall best explain this scripture in this sense by another: I charge ye, 0 daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him that I am sick of love. Son 5:8 . As if she had said, I love Christ so much that I am overpowered with my love of him. It hath induced a sickness of soul to long after him more and more. Sweet thought of Jesus this! And which those who have found Christ the very honey and the honey-comb of the soul, sometimes, I hope, know what it is to feel it.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 25:16
“Hast thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.”
Pleasures and Penalties
There is no denial of the goodness and the sweetness of honey. Not one word is spoken against the thing that is found, or against the appetite that desires it. We are not told that honey is a bad thing and dangerous to take; nor are we told that the appetite which desires honey is a bad appetite and must be crucified. Let us clearly understand this, because out of it will come the whole reasoning of the discourse. Honey is good. To eat it is perfectly proper; but the text tells us that we ought only to eat sufficient, because if we eat to excess we shall really punish ourselves. That is a wonderful law of nature. It is marvellous to notice how our appetites are our constables taking us up, arresting us with a strong hand, if we over-indulge them. The beginning is very good. You say it is impossible to eat too much of this, it is so sweet; and before the clock has gone half round you blame yourself almost for beginning the very feast which was so delicious.
There is a stopping-place in nature. If you go beyond the proper stopping-place, nature arrests you, and smites you with an unsparing hand. You profess to be lovers of law, and you call yourselves law-abiding. Prove your own words. It is easy to be law-abiding when there is no temptation to be law-violating. It is just where we are tempted to break the law that we require the exhortation to keep it. “He that breaketh through a hedge, a serpent shall bite him.” How is it that there is always a serpent on the other side of the hedge? Who put that serpent there? Why is that serpent there? That serpent is the very security of your life. You would kill yourself with honey if it did not sate you. You would revel in license, not in liberty, if the serpent did not bite you whenever you exceeded the determined line of God. Be thankful for punishments; they keep the world sweet and pure. Be thankful that your appetite can be sated, and that sweetness turns to poison; that wine brings madness, and that self-indulgence brings the very de-humanizing of your nature. It is along that line of penalty that you find the security of your individual life, of your family relations, and of your social completeness and rest.
One would think that men did not need such an exhortation as is in the text. Yet it is precisely these commonplace exhortations that men do need. We require to be spoken to plainly right along the line of common everyday experience, and that book and that teaching will get the strongest hold upon us that does not pass over our heads in obscure mysteries, but addresses the middle line of life and that turns commonplace itself to the highest and noblest uses. What I want to teach is this: the satisfaction of man can never come out of anything that is finite therefore man himself is not finite in any sense that can bring his nature into insignificance and contempt. Man can only be satisfied with the very fulness of God, therefore man is immortal. From the very circumstance that honey sates and returns from the appetite that once it pleased, I argue that there is no satisfaction in things sensuous, in things material, in things finite; and that if we want rest, contentment, completeness, and peace we must find these in the infinite. Let us thus fearlessly apply the principle, and not handle it timidly. Apply it to the obtainment and possession of money. It is not in money to make any man rich. Men say they will be content when they have enough. Precisely. But what is enough? Name the amount, and say, That certainly is enough. So it may be in the distance, and whilst yet it is unobtained, but the moment you obtain the sum which you considered in your comparative poverty to be enough you will find that it is still too little. Much will have more, and more will magnify itself into more still. It is not in anything that is finite to satisfy that inward self of yours; therefore, that inward self is greater than all outward great things, and there is something in you that requires a keener and more delicious sweetness than any the hand can gather. It is difficult to make men believe this doctrine. We have had rich men amongst us who have preached it to us. The richest man in Europe was asked, “How does it feel to be a millionaire?” He replied, “It just feels as though you could pay twenty shillings in the pound.” That was a man who retained his sanity; who kept his head upon his shoulders and his eyes in his head. But there have been men whose wealth has become their poverty, and whose riches have crushed them into the dust, in which they have spent their whole life.
Apply the principle to gaiety. The young life says it will be gay; it will not mope, it will not whine, it will see life, it will see the world, it will whirl through all the giddy dance, and will always be happy, with a new scene every day, with new surroundings week by week and month by month. Tomorrow shall be as this day, and more abundant. A brighter light shall make the face brighter still. That is the poetry; what is the reality? The young life returns from the evening toils and enjoyments weary, sated and, oh that continual headache! At first a headache only. The gas was too hot, the air was oppressive. It will be better to-morrow night. The next night comes, and, lo! on the following morning there is a twinge of heart-ache. Did that come of the gas, of the hot air, of the late hours? The headache might come from such causes, but this is a heart-ache. What do heart-aches come from? And do they come to young lives? Have they no pity upon the young, and fair, and happy ones? None. It is not in gaiety to make you glad. Hast thou found gaiety? “Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.” I would allow some liberty. I am not an ascetic monk who would seek to shut you up in a hermitage or cell far away from all society. I like to see you glad. I fear to see the first wrinkle on the young, smooth flesh. I call it an enemy. I say, Could not this dear face have been spared the ripping and wrinkling of old time and care? I would have you enjoy life. Hast thou found enjoyment? Eat so much of it as is sufficient for thee, but know when to stop; be master of the occasion. Say to the tempter: No more; so far you are a friend and helper, but if you come one step further than this you become a foe and deadly enemy; go back till I call thee again. By all the faint hearts, by all the dreary lives, by all the blighted hopes, by all the wrinkled faces, by all the bent backs of those who have gone to find heaven in gaiety, I adjure you to eat only so much as is sufficient for you, lest you be filled therewith, and vomit it. What is the true meaning of these words? Eating and drinking in excess incapacitates the mind for realising the conception of immortality. Eating and drinking have only one day more, to-morrow we die! You can eat and drink until the poetry is killed in your soul. We have known young, fresh lives, full of dream and vision, take gradually to the eating of honey, and the drinking of wine, and the sating of animal appetite, until the eyes lost their speculation, until the head became distenanted of all great thoughts, and until the tongue once eloquent stammered and babbled, and only half told its foolish tale. Eating and drinking do not stop therefore, you see, at the body; they assail the mind. They go on until they bring down the daring wing of fancy, and the angel that is in the man is killed by the overfeeding of his body.
Let me ask one question; pray answer as frankly as I inquire. There is a man who has much cattle, which he feeds with the very finest food that money can buy and care gather together. His cattle live, so to say, in a state of daily luxury, but that same man starves his little children in the house. What do you say about him? That is my question. Let reason answer; let good feeling reply. I have stated the case in its naked simplicity. What is he? I will call him a base man will you? Yes. I will denounce him as immoral will you? Very well; that is precisely what you are doing if you are feeding your animal nature, and drinking yourself into a state of debauchery, and neglecting to feed the mind that makes you a man, and the sensibilities which distinguish you from the beasts of the field. Apply your own logic. But here comes the supreme difficulty. Men may have opinion without having faith. Men may give you a sound answer in the abstract, yet lack that peculiar something that turns opinion into courage, and sanctifies courage until it becomes faith. There can be no controversy as to whether overindulgence is good or bad. Bad for body and soul, bad for the family, bad for society. That is your opinion, but no man is saved by his opinions. Remember that your opinion is contra-dieted by your conduct. Opinion is to be passed through a process until it becomes faith. This is the victory that over-cometh the world, even our faith. An opinion may be expressed by a nod of the head. An opinion may be indicated by the uplifting of a hand, but it is in faith alone to answer temptation, to overcome the enemy, and to crush the serpent’s head. Let me assume shall I do so? that some poor soul goes with me word for word, and says, “Would God I could turn my opinions into faith, what a different man I would be, and what a large life would open before me.” So far, good; not an angel in heaven but will help you. It is not easy to go from opinion to faith. It is not easy to set the tempting honey and the tempting wine aside, and to say, No more. Any preacher that trifled with my temptations would be no preacher to me. I must hear one who acknowledges that mine is a difficult task, that mine is one of the subtlest diabolisms that ever tried to wreck a human life. It is easy for a man who never had any temptation to deliver a lecture to show you what to do. But we are talking to one another with the masonry of a common understanding. We are not talking metaphysics that lie millions of miles away from practical experience. But we are agreed that ours is a hard task, and we are agreed to ask God to overcome the enemy. Is that so? Then a beginning must be made; the final word must be spoken. When you speak that word you will create history upon earth and history in heaven. But it is hard. You will do it some day? That is an aggravation of your case. To postpone the fight is the success of the enemy. Now we are all in the same condemnation. The preacher is not a fine man and you inferior clay. We are all in the same position, there is no escape, we are in the same awful depravity; and if there be one voice only speaking, it is not a voice that speaks of itself, but takes up into its tones the thunder and the music of God’s judgments and Christ’s Gospel.
Then, with regard to others, I may say, How does God graciously conduct us into a conception of the greatness of human nature. He finds honey for us, and says, “See if it be in sweetness to satisfy?” And we eat the honey over-much until we know the agonies of satiety. We say, “No more of that It is sweet in the beginning, but it is as poison in the end. Never more will we touch that sweetness.” God says to us, “Is it in wine to inspire?” And we take the wine, and the centres of nervous power are touched and titillated, and we begin to see figures in the air, and our voice acquires a new boldness, and we plunge into the conversation with suggestions that in our soberer moments we dare not have uttered. And we say, “This is the panacea, this is the true friend that will get us out of the darkness, and lead us up to the heights of true enjoyment.” And we get more, and a cloud forms upon the mind; and more and gradually we stumble in our speech; and more and we lose our identity, and become worse than the beasts that perish; and we find that in wine is exhilaration, not inspiration; that whilst it gives with one hand, it takes away with the other, and it steals the senses which it at first excited. We find that it is not in wine to make the heart of man permanently glad. Thus, God sends us gold to make us rich. And we dig for it, and smelt it, and purify it, and make it into ornaments, and wear it; and at first we are as pleased with it as a child with a new toy, but at last we find that it can really do very little for us. It can only be changed at one counter. “Now,” says God by his providence, “you see what you are, by seeing that sweetness cannot satisfy you, wine cannot inspire you, money cannot enrich you.” Why? Because you are born in the image and likeness of God. It is the divinity that stirs within you; you cannot satisfy the divinity within you with honey, or wine, or gaiety. Who can satisfy the hunger of the soul with the grass of the earth? What is the argument? We are more than mortal; we know it though we cannot explain it. What we can explain is, of necessity, finite, and, in all probability, superficial. There is no other answer to the uprising of the soul in its noblest moods.
What, then, are you going to do? because you have very little time to do it in, whatever it is. And it gets shorter. You never knew an old man say that the years were so much longer than they used to be when he was a boy. Old men say that time flies. Men of experience say that their life is as a vapour that cometh for a little while and then vanisheth away. Old pilgrims, bending over their staves, tell royal Pharaohs that few and evil have been the days of their servants. So, whatever we are going to do, we must do at once. “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” What say you? Who is on the Lord’s side? I know what a battle you will have to fight You say, if it were not for many complications which you cannot explain, you would do all that is now suggested. The case is a difficult one, but there have been others in circumstances quite as bad as yours who, by the help of the grace of God, have done the thing which I want you to do. The best way to do a thing is to do it; explanation will follow in due time. They that do the will shall know of the doctrine. Now, what are you going to do? This is business; this is not pleasure. This is not a transient interview having no purport and no use; it is business. What are you going to do? Do not live the fool’s life, or you will die the fool’s death. I know there are others who say, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” But you do not die to-morrow! If I were certain that you would die like dumb, driven cattle to-morrow, even then I should exhort you to be true and honourable and charitable, because virtue brings its own reward every day. But you do not die to-morrow. To die to live! The rich man died, and in hell he opened his eyes. We do not die to-morrow. We are not dogs; we have not been dogs in our life, therefore we shall not be dogs in our death. Moreover, the reasoning is false that says, “Eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” You do not live to yourself; you have your wife, your children, your friends, and they go down when you go down. You cannot say a bad word in your family without that bad word falling scorchingly upon the youngest life in your house. You could not die in the ditch like a forsaken dog without that sweet little child of yours coming one day to hold down its head in unutterable shame, because of a father who murdered his own life, and insulted every instinct that gives nobleness to human nature. The case is not limited by your own personality. Fifty years hence men may sometimes have to blush for you. By the greatness of the case, by its far-stretching issues, by its intrinsic importance, I adjure you to look to Christ, who came to save just such as you. If you are lost, he came for you; if you are dead, he is the resurrection and the life; if you are leprous, so that no man dare touch you, he dare, he is your friend, your Saviour. His great heart-door stands open night and day, and he waits to be gracious. Come now. You have seen the world, and it is a lie; you have eaten its honey, and it brings sickness; you have drunk its wine, and it brings madness; you have tried its gaiety, and it brings sadness, and under the purple robe is an aching heart. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Note
“The diet of eastern nations has been in all ages light and simple. As compared with our own habits, the chief points of contrast are the small amount of animal food consumed, the variety of articles used as accompaniments to bread, the substitution of milk in various forms for our liquors, and the combination of what we should deem heterogeneous elements in the same dish, or the same meal. The chief point of agreement is the large consumption of bread, the importance of which in the eyes of the Hebrew is testified by the use of the term lechem (originally food of any kind) specifically for bread, as well as by the expression ‘staff of bread’ (Lev 26:26 ; Psa 105:16 ; Eze 4:16 , Eze 14:13 )…. An important article of food was honey, whether the natural product of the bee (l Sam. Pro 14:25 ; Mat 3:4 ), which abounds in most parts of Arabia (Burckhardt, Arabia, 1:54), or the other natural and artificial productions included under that head, especially the dibs of the Syrians and Arabians, i.e., grape juice boiled down to the state of the Roman defrutum , which is still extensively used in the East (Russell, 1:82); the latter is supposed to be referred to in Gen 43:11 and Eze 27:17 . The importance of honey, as a substitute for sugar, is obvious; it was both used in certain kinds of cake (though prohibited in the case of meat offerings, Lev 2:11 ), as in the pastry of the Arabs (Burckhardt, Arabia, 1:54), and was also eaten in its natural state either by itself (1Sa 14:27 ; 2Sa 17:29 ; 1Ki 14:3 ), or in conjunction with other things, even with fish ( Luk 24:42 ). ‘Butter and honey’ is an expression for rich diet (Isa 7:15 , Isa 7:22 ); such a mixture is popular among the Arabs (Burckhardt, Arabia, 1:54). ‘Milk and honey’ are similarly coupled together, not only frequently by the sacred writers, as expressive of the richness of the promised land, but also by the Greek poets (cf. Callim. Hymn in Jov. 48; Horn. Oba 1:20Oba 1:20 :68). Too much honey was deemed unwholesome ( Pro 25:27 ). With regard to oil, it does not appear to have been used to the extent we might have anticipated; the modern Arabs only employ it in frying fish (Burckhardt, Arabia, 1:54), but for all other purposes butter is substituted: among the Hebrews it was deemed an expensive luxury ( Pro 21:17 ), to be reserved for festive occasions ( 1Ch 12:40 ); it was chiefly used in certain kinds of cake (Lev 2:5 ff.; 1Ki 17:12 ). ‘Oil and honey’ are mentioned in conjunction with bread in Eze 16:13 , Eze 16:19 . The Syrians, especially the Jews, eat oil and honey ( dibs ) mixed together (Russell, 1:80). Eggs are not often noticed, but were evidently known as articles of food (Isa 10:14 , Isa 59:5 ; Luk 11:12 ), and are reckoned by Jerome ( In Epitaph. Paul. 1:176) among the delicacies of the table,” Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible.
Prayer
Almighty God, we cannot understand our life: it is full of mystery; so bright, so dark: now one long day, full of music and light and joy; and then suddenly a great gloom of midnight, in which we can see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing, but pressure and despair. Yet we love to live. Even in our poverty and loss and pain and dreariness, there is a wondrous magic, a marvellous fascination in the very act of living. What is this life but a spark of thine own duration, a hint of what is meant by Eternity, a revelation of the beginning of Immortality? All life is thy gift, perilous gift! gracious gift! so difficult to be finite, so hard to be incomplete; so trying to see heights we cannot reach, and breadths upon which we cannot lay our little hands. Yet thou hast filled us with a strange spirit of ambition: we would know what is behind everything, above it, and below it; we want to read all the writing thou hast written upon the broad heavens, and we can hardly spell one word of it; yet the whole seems to mean God is light, God is love, God reigneth. These lessons are enough for us to know now. They are the first lessons; all the detail and meaning, and furthest, deepest, grandest music must come by-and-by. Help us to believe this, to live in this noble hope, and to wait for it with all patience, industry, and resignation. We bless thee for all the comforts of life. Thou dost give unto us our health, and friends, and opportunities of progress, and our highest faculties; thou dost feed the inspiration of the soul by continued breathings from heaven, and thou dost promise to our expanding capacity larger thoughts, bounties now undreamed of as to their wealth and continuity. We bless thee for all the religious feeling which makes us lift up ourselves from the dust and set our whole being towards the light of heaven. We are not beasts that perish; thou art not a potter who having made a beautiful vase will dash it to the ground and set his foot upon the pieces; thou dost not mean us to complete the contemptible journey from dust to dust too small a circle for the capacities and powers and aspirations with which thou hast enriched and ennobled us. This is not thy meaning. Thy purpose is other than this, whatever it may be, and however impossible to us to set it out in words. We feel the most of our religion: we feel our immortality. We would not have it explained; for then it would be a thing measurable and namable in equivalent terms: we would feel it, grope after it, have an inexpressible assurance of it, and touch all life’s duties and sorrows with its peculiar with its heavenly dignity. Thou dost visit us in various ways, to chasten our life, too educate our spirit, and to bring us to thy meaning of manhood. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. Help the bereaved to bear the stroke; give them light even in darkness, and in the dreariest of all silence may they hear a voice speaking to the heart. Thou dost take away, and none can hinder; thou dost close the ear to our appeal, and on tired eyes there softly lies the stillest of all slumbers. This is thy doing, and man may but weep, and wonder, and then resign himself, and say, It is well: it is better with those who have gone than with those who have remained, for they have gone forward to coronation, and we abide to plough and sow, in all winds and weathers, in all tumults and uproars; to continue life’s little business and to be stung by life’s keen pains. Give all who suffer the nobler view, the further outlook, the larger life that abolishes death. Whilst we live may we live well, wisely, simply, trustfully; and may ours be the blessedness of those servants who are found waiting when their Lord cometh. Fill us with thy Spirit Spirit of truth, light, liberty, and justice; make us rich with heaven’s own goodness, make us strong men, and yet do thou cover all our strength with the beauty of tenderness; may our words be wise and firm, and yet may the tone in which we speak indicate the gentle heart, the loving spirit, the sympathising Soul. We bless thee for thy Son. O wondrous word! that God should have a son! we would see the Son: he may be like the Father; we cannot see the Father, we would therefore see his Son, for surely he will represent him, he will turn the speech of the Father into our mother tongue, and we may be able here and there to catch a word, and understand it, and to trust to such word for the larger revelation which is yet to come. We thank thee for the Cross. Once we did not understand it; it was to us grim and ghastly, full of all horrible feeling and suggestion; but now we see in it a new shape, a new thought, the very heart of God; the mystery of redemption by blood, and the mystery of joy through sorrow, and the mystery of mysteries, life through death. Now there is no death to those who see the Cross and cling to it and trust to it; the bitterness of death is passed, and when death itself shall come it will be but a momentary shadow, fleeting before some invisible but mighty spirit. The Lord come to us day by day, for the day would be blank which brought no God. Give us strength and courage. May we abide in the sanctuary of great principles, and stand for ever in the temple of truth, and know that all kingdoms, tyrannies, oppressions, wrongs, must go down: for there is one coming who is the Son of man. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Pro 25:14 Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift [is like] clouds and wind without rain.
Ver. 14. Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift ] As Ptolemy, surnamed D , from his fair promises, slack performances; as Sertorius, the Roman, that fed his creditors and clients wlth fair words, but did nothing for them, Pollicitis dives quilibet esse potest; as that pope and his nephew, of whom it is recorded that the one never spoke as he thought, the other never performed what he spoke; lastly, as the devil who promised Christ excelsa in excelsis, mountains on a mountain, and said, “All this will I give thee,” Mat 4:9 whenas that all was just nothing more than a show, a representation, a semblance, or if it had been something, yet it was not his to give; for “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” Physicians call their drugs D , gifts, and yet we pay dear for them. Apothecaries set fair titles upon their boxes and gaily pots, but there is oftentimes aliud in titulo, aliud in pyxide, nothing but a bare title. Such are vain boasters, pompous preachers, painted hypocrites, Popish priests, such as was Tecelius [Tetzel], that sold iudulgences in Germany, and those other mass mongers in Gerson’s time that preached publicly to the people, that if any man would hear a mass he should not on that day be smitten with blindness, nor die a sudden death, nor want sufficient sustenance, &c. These were clouds without rain, that answer not expectation. Jdg 1:12
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
false = pretended. Illustrations: Zedekiah(1Ki 22:11); Hananiah (Jer 28:1-4); Shemaiah (Jer 29:24-31); false apostles (2Co 11:13-15).
wind. Hebrew. ruach. App-9.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 25:14
Pro 25:14
“As clouds and wind without rain, So is he that boasteth himself of his gifts falsely.”
We may have here the origin of the common designation of such a braggart as “windy” or as “an old wind bag.”
Pro 25:14. Boasteth himself of his gifts falsely is translated by Coverdale: Whoso maketh great boasts, and giveth nothing, and the Vulgate translates: A bragging man, who does not fulfill his promises. Such promises remind one of clouds and winds in dry weather, but no rain results. Jud 1:12 also refers to these clouds without water, carried along by winds people. Some people make a big show with their words, but they do not come through with what they have promised-and sometimes they were premising to give it to God! Ecc 5:5 says, Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Therefore Ecc 5:4 says, When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou vowest.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
boasteth: Pro 20:6, 1Ki 22:11, Luk 14:11, Luk 18:10-14, 2Co 11:13-18, 2Co 11:31, 2Pe 2:15-19, Jud 1:12, Jud 1:13, Jud 1:16
of a false gift: Heb. in a gift of falsehood
Reciprocal: Rom 1:22 – General Rom 15:18 – I will 1Co 4:8 – ye are full 2Co 10:13 – we will not Gal 6:3 – if 1Ti 6:4 – He Jam 4:16 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 25:14. Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift Falsely pretends that he hath given, or will give, a valuable gift; or who raises high expectations by promising much, and then deceives them by performing little or nothing; is like clouds and wind without rain Is like empty clouds carried about with wind, and not affording that rain which by their appearance they promise.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
25:14 Whoever boasteth himself of a false gift [is like] {k} clouds and wind without rain.
(k) Which have an outward appearance, and are nothing within.