Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 29:18
Where [there is] no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy [is] he.
18. vision law ] “The vision is the actual contact between God and the human spirit, which is the necessary condition of any direct revelation; the law is the recorded result of such a revelation, either passed from mouth to mouth by tradition or written permanently in a book. We may then a little amplify the proverb for the sake of exposition: ‘Where there is no living revelation, no perceived contact between man and God, there the bonds which hold society together are relaxed and broken; but he that holds by the revelation that has been given, obeying the law, so far as it has been presented to him, happy is he.’ ” Horton.
It was this keeping the law, as they had received it, which was enjoined upon the Jews by the last of their prophets, in view of the coming centuries during which there should be no vision. Mal 4:4.
perish ] Rather, break loose, as the same word is rendered in Exo 32:25, R.V.; where, as here in the marg., A.V. has, is made naked. In this place R.V. renders, suitably enough, cast off restraint; but it seems desirable to adopt the same rendering in both places, because the historical incident affords a good and possibly an intended illustration of the proverb.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Vision – The word commonly used of the revelation of Gods will made to prophets. Compare Isa 1:1; Nah 1:1.
When prophetic vision fails, obedience to the Law is the best or only substitute for it, both being forms through which divine wisdom is revealed. Very striking in the midst of ethical precepts is this recognition of the need of a yet higher teaching, without which morality passes into worldly prudence or degenerates into casuistry. The wise man, the son of David, has seen in the prophets and in their work the condition of true national blessedness. The darkest time in the history of Israel had been when there was no open vision 1Sa 3:1; at such a time the people perish, are let loose, are left to run wild.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 29:18
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
The improvement of the ministry of the Word
What makes a people very unhappy with respect to the concerns of their souls? The want of vision puts a people in very unhappy circumstances. By vision is understood prophecy. By prophecy is meant the preaching, expounding, and applying the Word of God. Doctrine: Though the want of the ministry of the Word makes a people very unhappy, yet it is not the having of it, but the right improving of it that makes them happy.
I. Deplorable is the case of those who are deprived of the ministry of the Word. What makes the case so deplorable? The original word means, the people are naked, they are left in a bare condition (Exo 22:25). They are stripped of their ornaments, to their shame. They are stripped of their armour, left naked in the midst of danger. They are stripped of the means of their defence. Hence they are exposed in a special manner to the subtlety and violence of their spiritual enemies, without the ordinary means of help. Where there is no vision the people go backward. They leave their first love, their first ways in religion; they fall into a spiritual decay and apostasy. The people are drawn away: from their God and from their duty. The people are idle–they give over their work. The people perish–die for lack of instruction; are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
II. The mere having the ministry of the Word is not sufficient to make a people happy. The people may have it, and yet get no saving benefit from it. Outward privileges make no man a happy man. The mere having the Word will aggravate the condemnation of those that have it and walk not answerably to it.
III. A right improvement of the mercy of the Word will make a happy people. This improvement consists in two things–
1. Faith in Jesus Christ.
2. Holiness of life.
This improvement will make happy souls here and hereafter. Here, in peace with God, pardon of sin, all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; and hereafter in eternal salvation. It bids fair for prosperity in earthly things. It gives happiness under the crosses and trials of this world. It puts a happiness into the relations in which we stand. Directions for improving the ministry of the Word:
1. Pray much for a real benefit from ordinances.
2. Diligently attend upon ordinances.
3. Meditate upon what you hear, and converse with one another about it.
4. Set yourselves humbly to obey the truths delivered from the Lords Word, embracing them by faith.
5. Put your hand to the Lords work in your several stations in your families and among those with whom you converse, to prosecute the great ends of the gospel. (T. Boston, D D.)
The vitality of vision
I. Where there is no vision of the present working of Christ in the world, charity and hope fade. The progress of the age is Christs work. Beneficial operations of all kinds are His present-day miracles. The sympathy of the age, its mission, its humanity, its sacrifice, its enthusiasm for progress, is Christs doing. Let us see Him in the past and in the present. Then we shall have a nobler faith, a larger charity, and a radiant hopefulness.
II. Where there is no vision of the Divine Fatherhood, devotion decays. Our devotional life accords with the conception of God we hold up to our attention. If we think of God as stern, arbitrary, partial, we cannot experience love, worship, trust, sacrifice. The human heart is constituted to love only the lovable; to worship only the perfect and benevolent; to trust only the just and true.
III. Where there is no vision of Divine providence, practical energy declines. Give up the idea of a Supreme Mind caring for all, and life is not Worth living. Let the vision of the all-embracing providence of God be clear, and life will be transfigured. All Christian workers are thus sustained. Failure, loss, rejection, may be the record on the visible side; but faith sees on the unseen side an all-comprehending spiritual kingdom, and says, All things work together for good.
IV. Where there is no vision of truth and fact, knowledge decays. As tradition and conservation prevail truth becomes a dead carcase. The hour for revival, for reform, is come, and the minds that see the truth lead the new movement. The dreams of seers renew the life of the worlds thought.
V. Where there is no vision of the possibilities of human nature, sympathy decays. Man has instinctively recognised his fellow as spiritual, as free, as immortal, as possessing unlimited capacities of progress, and as the object, consequently, of intense interest and of unlimited love. The vision of that ideal of man is the inspiration of all philanthropy.
VI. Where there is no vision of duty, holiness declines. Man is the subject of relations. The highest relation he maintains is to Christ. His life-care is the duty he owes to Christ. As we have that vision before us, we shall ennoble all we do. VII. The vision of heaven saves hope from perishing. The inspiration of all progress is hope. The most fruitful hope we can cherish is the perfection of mankind in the celestial life in fellowship with Christ. Such a vision ennobles, sanctifies, vitalises, lights up the present with heavenly radiance, and makes death the gate of life. (T. Matthews.)
Divine vision essential to human salvation
I. True vision is a revelation from God. A communication not furnished by nature; not the product of human intellect, or imagination, or fancy; not the tradition of the elders, however venerable; but a special unfolding of the Divine nature and government, adapted to the moral exigencies of the race. Such a communication is possible. Such is probable–
1. From conflicting indications of the Divine character furnished by nature.
2. The universally felt moral necessities of man. Such is actually accomplished, as the whole body of Christian evidence attests.
II. There many places where, as yet, this vision is not. Where it is not known. Where it is not published. Where it is not believed.
III. Where it is not, the people perish.
1. It alone reveals a Saviour and a salvation adapted to man.
2. It alone is associated with spiritual power to deliver man from the bondage, and misery, and guilt, and doom, of sin. The vision of God is to them that possess it a most precious thing. They who possess it not ought to be the objects of the deepest compassion. They who do possess it are bound, by every consideration of gratitude and pity, to send it to those who do not. (J. M. Jarvie.)
Divine revelation
The text presents two facts concerning redemptive revelation.
I. Its absence is a great calamity. Where there is no vision, the people perish. The word perish has been variously rendered: some read will apostatise, others are made naked, others are dispersed, others are become disorderly. All renderings agree in expressing the idea of calamity, and truly is it not a sad calamity to be deprived of the Bible?
II. Its regulative experience is a great blessing. He that keepeth the law, happy is he. This vision is not an abstraction or a speculative system–it is a law; it comes with Divine authority; it demands obedience; it is not the mere subject for a creed, but the code for a life; its aim is to regulate all the movements of the soul. It is only those who are ruled by it who are made happy, those who have it and are not controlled by it will as assuredly perish. It is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law. Who is the happy man? Not the man who has the vision and does not study it, nor the man who studies it and never reduces it to practice: it is the man who translates the vision into his life. He that keepeth the law, happy is he. There is no heaven for man but in obedience to God. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
The soul perishing for lack of vision
The vision here is acquaintance with God and the things of the invisible world. Vision became almost synonymous with revelation Where there is no Bible, there can be no vision. To talk of preparing a nation for the reception of the Bible, by first of all civilising that nation is to betray ignorance of what has produced the degeneracy of humanity, and mistrust of the engine which God has placed in our hands. The civilisation must and will follow the reception of the Bible. Notice the marginal rendering, the people is made naked. The people is stripped, the people has no clothing in which to appear before God, if you take away revelation. They may attempt a righteousness of their own, and think to cover themselves with a covering which their own hands have woven. But the text is most emphatic in denouncing such schemes and hopes. We must put on Christ, and be clothed with His righteousness. If we would make s right and full use of the disclosures and statements of our Bible, we must, it would seem, have the things of redemption and futurity presented with the same distinctness and vividness to the internal organs, as the things of the world are to the external. This is the great triumph of spirit over matter. Speak to those whose religion is more than nominal, who do behold Christ with the eye of the soul. We account for much of that slow progress in piety, which you both observe in others and lament in yourselves, on the principle that you are but seldom occupied with contemplations of the invisible world. Let us not be wanting in diligence in using the telescope that has been entrusted to us to aid us in seeing the unseen. (H. Melvill, B.D.)
No vision
The question suggested by the text is, Can we see? Were we made to see? Is all else related by law of adaptation to man on this earth save God Himself who made the earth and man? It is vision that decides our scale in this world, and our honour and glory in the world to come. For ages men have believed that they were made to see and know God in His works and in His Word; that we have not only eyes, but objects; that we can hold intercourse with God–love Him, trust Him, and pray to Him. The peril of our age is no new peril. Materialism is as old as Sadducean Judaism. This is the great vital difference in men–vision. This it is that decides their principles, their ethics, their characters.
I. Materialistic ideas of life blind us to the true vision. We are in a world of material things. But we, Christians, build temples to the invisible Lord. We seek and we worship a Saviour whom, not having seen, we love. We judge morality to be more than utility. We walk by faith, not by sight. There is no true vision without the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.
II. Christ is the revealer of life and immortality. These words contain two distinct truths. Life is the spiritual view of all things. Immortality is life in Christ beyond the grave.
III. Character is decided by our visions of truth. The right life comes from the right thought. If my life is to be redeemed and moulded by Divine influences, then my vision is all in all to me.
IV. Perishing is seen in this present life. Men do perish! Compared with what you might be, you are now perishing. Woe to that nation that has no eye to see the face of God in Christ! (W. M. Statham.)
The beneficent influence of heavenly visions
Man has spiritual wants as well as bodily wants, and he must have spiritual things to satisfy them. Temporal and visible things meet and satisfy all the wants of the body, but the soul must receive its sustenance from the invisible and the eternal. The spiritual world is a fact to the senses of the soul as truly as the material world is a fact to the bodily senses. Visions are as necessary for the soul as food for the body, and so heavenly visions were not Gods gifts to one nation and for a limited time, but are to all countries and for all times. Godly men in our days are having visions exactly in the same sense as the seers and prophets of old; the difference is in degree, not in kind. But a distinction must be made between the seer in the highest sense and seers in a general sense. God inspires and gives special visions to a chosen few in different ages and countries. Note the powers of inward vision to which we give the names of insight and intuition–insight into human character, intuition of Divine principles–clear knowledge of what man is and how God will act. The original meaning of the word saw, is to cleave, or split; then to see into, to see through, to get down beneath the surface of things and discover their real nature. What characterises the bulk of Hebrew visions is penetrativeness. All the seers of the world are hard workers, and are active in their visions. Sometimes the seer does valuable service to the world by rediscovering some great revealed truth which had been hidden by the accretion of ages of erroneous human ideas and creeds. Luther was such an one. And we are to thank Heaven for seers like Carlyle, Ruskin, Beecher, Browning, and Tennyson, who fearlessly cleave old customs, shams, conventionalisms, dogmas, and creeds, and proclaim to the world, like the prophets of old, eternal and unchangeable truths. Note the mighty influence of heavenly visions on the world. What would have been the moral condition of the world if God had given no visions to holy and inspired men?
I. The restraining power of visions. In the days of Samuel there was no open vision. God mercifully raised him up, and gave him visions to enable him to check and restrain the ungodliness of his age. Our great want is more men of visions as political and social reformers and preachers.
II. The sustaining power of visions. Men are sure to perish socially and spiritually if God does not mercifully grant them visions.
III. The ennobling influence of visions upon mens characters. The tendency of Gods visions to men is to purify their thoughts, to elevate their spirits, to ennoble their characters. The objective in the visions gradually becomes subjective, as a part of the character. But you are not to expect these heavenly visions by sleeping and dreaming, but by holy meditation, fervent prayer, and strenuous effort to live the life of the Son of God.
IV. The blessedness of obedience to the heavenly visions. If we would know the highest joy of visions, we must obey them. (Z. Mather.)
Ideals
Man talks to God; that is prayer. God talks with man; that is inspiration. According to the sensational philosophy there is no vision, there is no invisible world, or at least we cannot know it directly and immediately. This takes all the glory out of life. Take out from man the power of perceiving the invisible and the eternal, and all life loses its life. God is no longer a Divine reality. He is only an opinion. The same philosophy which robs the universe of its God robs man of his soul. This philosophy is equally fatal to morals. There are no longer any great, eternal, immutable laws. Take vision out of religion, what have you left? You had a Church of Christ, now you have a Society of Ethical Culture.
I. Ideals are realities. What we call ideals are not conceptions we have created; they are realities we have discovered. The great laws of nature are not created by the scientists. They only formulate and express the laws of nature. The laws of harmony are eternal; and when the musician finds a new harmony, he finds what was before. In the ethical realm, the great laws of righteousness are not created; they are eternal. Moses did not make them, he only found forms in which to state them. God is not a thesis, an opinion, a theory, a supposition, created to account for phenomena; He is the great underlying reality of which all phenomena are the manifestation.
II. Imagination is seeing. Science owes its progress to this power of vision. All the greatest men of science first saw dimly and imperfectly the invisible realities, then followed, tested, and tried their visions, and proved the reality of them. The great seers and prophets of all time have not been men who have created thoughts to inspire us; they have been men with eyes that saw, and they have helped also to see.
III. Ideals being realities, and imagination seeing, scepticism is ignorance. By scepticism is meant the doubt that scoffs at the invisible and eternal, not the mere questioning of a particular dogma. We are not to measure the truth by our capacity to see, but our capacity to see by the truth. The world needs nothing so much as men who will carry the spirit of vision into every phase of life. There are two classes of men in this world–drudges and dreamers. The man who works without vision, who is not lifted up by his thoughts out of mere material things, he is a drudge. (Lyman Abbott.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. Where there is no vision] My old MS. Bible, following the Vulgate, translates: Whan prophecye schal failen, the peple schal ben to scatered. Where Divine revelation, and the faithful preaching of the sacred testimonies, are neither reverenced nor attended, the ruin of that land is at no great distance.
But he that keepeth the law, happy is he.] Go how it may with others, he shall be safe. So our Lord: “Blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
No vision, i.e. no prophecy, for the prophets were anciently called seers, 1Sa 9:9, i.e. no public preaching of Gods law or word, (as appears by the opposite clause,) which is called prophecy, Rom 12:6; 1Co 14:1, &c., where the people are destitute of the means of instruction.
The people perish, because they want the only means of salvation. Or, is made naked; stripped of their best ornaments, Gods favour and protection, as this word is taken, Exo 32:25.
He that keepeth the law: this he saith rather than
he that hath vision, which the laws of opposition might seem to require, to teach us that, although the want of Gods word be sufficient for mens destruction, yet the having, and hearing, or reading of it is not sufficient for their salvation, except they also keep or obey it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. no visioninstruction inGod’s truth, which was by prophets, through visions (1Sa3:1).
people perish(CompareMargin), are deprived of moral restraints.
keepeth the lawhas,and observes, instruction (Pro 14:11;Pro 14:34; Psa 19:11).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Where [there is] no vision, the people perish,…. That is, “no prophecy”, as the Vulgate Latin version renders it; and which is often the sense of the word, as the vision of Isaiah is the prophecy of Isaiah; and, in the New Testament, prophesying is often put for preaching; and here vision, or prophecy, signifies the public ministering of the word and ordinances, and want of persons to administer them; no expounder, as the Septuagint version; or interpreter, as the Arabic. This was the case in the latter end of Eli’s life, 1Sa 3:1; in Asa’s times, and before, 2Ch 15:3; in the Babylonish captivity, Eze 7:26; in the times of Antiochus,
Ps 74:9; when John the Baptist and Christ first came preaching the word, Mt 9:36; and now is the case of the Jews, and will be till the time of their conversion. So it was in the Gentile world, before the Gospel was brought into it, Ac 17:30; and so it now is in those places where the seven churches of Asia were; and in all Asia, which once heard the word of the Lord, even all that large country; and now it is not heard at all in it, but covered with Mahometan darkness. And this is the case in all Popish countries, subject to the see of Rome, where the word of God is not preached to the people, nor suffered so much as to be read by them; and even in reformed churches, for the most part, only a little morality is preached, and not the Gospel of Christ; so that here the people are perishing for lack of knowledge, Ho 4:6; and when the witnesses will be slain, who now prophesy in sackcloth, there will he an entire stop put to prophesying or preaching for a while; but, when they shall rise, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God, through the ministry of the word. Now, where there is no preaching, men perish in their sins; the word being the ordinary means of grace, of regeneration, conversion, faith, and salvation; without which, men know nothing of Christ, of peace, pardon, righteousness, and eternal life by him: and where there is preaching, yet it not being of the right kind, there is no spiritual knowledge spread by it, no food for souls under it; they perish with hunger, as the prodigal did, or are in starving and famishing circumstances; no comfort for the people of God, who perish in their comforts under such a ministry, 1Co 8:11; and poison is spread among others; false doctrine eats as a canker, and destroys souls. Again, where there is right vision and prophecy, or true preaching of the word, and that is despised and neglected, men perish notwithstanding; as the Jews of old, and all deniers and contemners of the word now, Ac 13:41; and this seems to be intended here, as appears by the following clause. The word translated “perish” has various senses, which agree with the text. It may be rendered, “the people become idle”, or “cease” s; from the performance of good works, grow dissolute in their manners, and licentious in their practices: or “they become refractory” t; fierce, obstinate, and ungovernable, and rebel against their superiors: or they are “made naked” u; stripped of their ornaments; of their privileges, civil as well as religious, which is often the case where no vision is; as well as of all virtue and morality, and of the blessing and protection of God;
but he that keepeth the law, happy [is] he: not the moral law, which no man can keep perfectly, but the law of faith. It may be rendered, “happy is he that observes doctrine” w; the doctrine of the Gospel, where it is preached; that attends to it, values and esteems it, receives it by faith, and with meekness; blessed is he, blessed are his eyes and ears; he sees wondrous things out of this law or doctrine, and he hears and knows the joyful sound, which brings salvation and eternal life unto him!
s “feriabitur”, Montanus. t “Rebellis erit”, Pagninus; “retroagitur”, Mercerus; “defecit, recedit”, Vatablus; “refractarius”, Gejerus. u “Nadatur”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Michaelis “denudatur”, Cocceius; “cessabit et otiosus erit, deficiet et retrocedit atque denudatur”, Baynus. w “qui observat legem”, i. e. “verbum Dei”, Cocceius; “doctrinam”, Amama.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
18 Without a revelation a people becomes ungovernable;
But he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
Regarding the importance of this proverb for estimating the relation of the Chokma to prophecy, vid., vol. i. p. 41. is, according to the sense, equivalent to , the prophetic revelation in itself, and as the contents of that which is proclaimed. Without spiritual preaching, proceeding from spiritual experience, a people is unrestrained ( , vid., regarding the punctuation at Pro 28:25, and regarding the fundamental meaning, at Pro 1:25); it becomes , disorderly, Exo 32:25; wild und wst , as Luther translates. But in the second line, according to the unity of the antithesis, the words are spoken of the people, not of individuals. It is therefore not to be explained, with Hitzig: but whoever, in such a time, nevertheless holds to the law, it is well with him! Without doubt this proverb was coined at a time when the preaching of the prophets was in vogue; and therefore this, “but whoever, notwithstanding,” is untenable; such a thought at that time could not at all arise; and besides this, is in the Book of Proverbs a moveable conception, which is covered at least by the law in contradistinction to prophecy. Tora denotes divine teaching, the word of God; whether that of the Sinaitic or that of the prophetic law (2Ch 15:3, cf. e.g., Isa 1:10). While, on the one hand, a people is in a dissolute condition when the voice of the preacher, speaking from divine revelation, and enlightening their actions and sufferings by God’s word, is silent amongst them (Psa 74:9, cf. Amo 8:12); on the other hand, that same people are to be praised as happy when they show due reverence and fidelity to the word of God, both as written and as preached. That the word of God is preached among a people belongs to their condition of life; and they are only truly happy when they earnestly and willingly subordinate themselves to the word of God which they possess and have the opportunity of hearing. (defective for ) is the older, and here the poetic kindred form to , Pro 14:21; Pro 16:20.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
See here, I. The misery of the people that want a settled ministry: Where there is no vision, no prophet to expound the law, no priest or Levite to teach the good knowledge of the Lord, no means of grace, the word of the Lord is scarce, there is no open vision (1 Sam. iii. 1), where it is so the people perish; the word has many significations, any of which will apply here. 1. The people are made naked, stripped of their ornaments and so exposed to shame, stripped of their armour and so exposed to danger. How bare does a place look without Bibles and ministers, and what an easy prey is it to the enemy of souls! 2. The people rebel, not only against God, but against their prince; good preaching would make people good subjects, but, for want of it, they are turbulent and factious, and despise dominions, because they know no better. 3. The people are idle, or they play, as the scholars are apt to do when the master is absent; they do nothing to any good purpose, but stand all the day idle, and sporting in the market-place, for want of instruction what to do and how to do it. 4. They are scattered as sheep having no shepherd, for want of the masters of assemblies to call them and keep them together, Mark vi. 34. They are scattered from God and their duty by apostasies, from one another by divisions; God is provoked to scatter them by his judgments, 2Ch 15:3; 2Ch 15:5. 5. They perish; they are destroyed for lack of knowledge, Hos. iv. 6. See what reason we have to be thankful to God for the plenty of open vision which we enjoy.
II. The felicity of a people that have not only a settled, but a successful ministry among them, the people that hear and keep the law, among whom religion is uppermost; happy are such a people and every particular person among them. It is not having the law, but obeying it, and living up to it, that will entitle us to blessedness.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Spiritual Famine
Verse 18 refers to “vision” in the sense of understanding the LORD’s will as revealed through His Word. If there be no such understanding there is spiritual famine and the people perish spiritually, Amo 8:11-12; Psa 74:9; but he who knows and heeds the Word shall be blessed, Pro 29:18; Joh 13:17; Jas 1:25.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 29:18. Vision. Rather Revelation. The word denotes prophetic prediction, the revelation of God by His seers (1Sa. 9:9); the chief function of these consisted in their watching over the vigorous fulfilling of the law, or in the enforcement of the claims of the law (Zckler).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 29:18
DIVINE REVELATION AND HUMAN OBEDIENCE
I. The human soul needs what it cannot produce. If the flower is to attain to its development of beauty and colour it must have the sunlight and the rain from without itselfit needs what it has no power to produce. The husbandman and all mankind need a harvest, but they have no power within themselves to supply their need; although they can plough, and plant, and sow, they cannot give the quickening rays of light and heat which alone can make the seed to live and grow. The entire human race has spiritual needs which it cannot supply, and capabilities which must be developed by influences outside and above itself. It needs a knowledge of Gods nature, and will, and purposes, if it is to grow in moral stature, and blossom and ripen into moral beauty and fruitfulness, but no human intellect or heart can acquire this knowledge by its own unaided efforts. If the human soul is to grow in goodness it must know God, and if it is to know Him, God must reveal Himself.
II. God by revelation has supplied mans need. This supply man had a right to look for and expect. He had a right to look to the Creator of his bodily appetites and needs for the supplies that are necessary to his physical life and well-being, and he does not look in vain. God has given the earth to the children of men (Psa. 115:16), and every year He causes it to bring forth and bud, not only giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, but an abundance of luxuries for his enjoyment. It is most natural and reasonable to look to the Giver of all these good things for the body, and expect from Him the supply of the deeper needs of the soul. We do not think a human parent does his duty to his child if he only feeds and clothes him and makes no effort to enlighten his mind and satisfy his heart. And surely the Great Father of the universe would not be worthy of His name if He dealt so with the children of whose bodies and souls He is the Author. But He has not left us thus unprovided for, but at sundry times and in divers manners He has spoken unto men (Heb. 1:1), telling them enough of Himself and of themselves to satisfy their spiritual cravings, and to elevate their spiritual nature.
III. It follows that gratitude and self-love should prompt men to listen to God, and to obey Him. If the foregoing assertions are true, it follows that man must give heed to the revelation of God, or sustain permanent and irretrievable loss. As he cannot reject the Divine provision for the body without bodily death, so he cannot refuse attention to Gods provision for his soul without spiritual ruinwithout causing to perish all those powers and faculties of his highest nature the exercise of which make existence worth having. Self-love, therefore, should prompt a man to keep the law, and if he do not listen to its voice he has only himself to blame for missing real happiness. If a man is starving, his best friend can do no more than supply his need, he must eat the food set before him; and when God has offered to the children of men that wine and milk which will satisfy the soul, and cause it to grow, He has done all that even a God can do. (Isa. 55:1-2.) Man is a self-murderer if he refuse it.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
He doth not say they may perish, but they do perish; or they are in danger of perishing, but they do certainly perish where there is no serious, conscientious, faithful, powerful preaching. There men perish temporarily; when vision, when preaching ceased among the Jews, oh, the dreadful calamities and miseries that came upon the people! There men perish totally: both the bodies and the souls of men perish where serious conscientious preaching fails (Hos. 4:6); My people are destroyed for want of knowledge. The Papists say that ignorance is the mother of devotion; but this text tells us that it is the mother of destruction.Brooks.
This is only a hypothetical case, for there are no such people. Nevertheless there is such a principle. Just in proportion as men do not know they will not be punished. Paul and Solomon are in full accord. They that sin without law shall also perish without law; but they that sin in the law shall be judged by the law. (Rom. 2:12.) These Proverbs elsewhere have taught the same doctrine (chap. Pro. 8:36). Men might all perish, but some less terribly, from a difference of light. All men have some light (Rom. 1:20); and that which they actually have is all that they shall answer for in the day of final account. Still there is a form of ignorance that will exactly proportion our guilt. It is ghostly ignorance, or the absence of spiritual knowledge. Perhaps I may still say that a man is punished for what he has, and not for what he has not. A man who knows of this ignorance, and has light enough to know his need of light, has enough to give account for in that without being supposed to suffer for a profound negation. Be this as it may, there is such an ignorance. It exactly grades our sins. It is the measure of our depravity, The profounder it sinks we sink. No man need sink or perish. There is a remedy. The word is nigh (us.)Miller.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(18) Where there is no vision.No revelation of Gods will (Isa. 1:1), when God teaches none by His Spirit that they may instruct others. So it was in the evil days of Eli (1Sa. 3:1), and Asa (2Ch. 15:3).
The people perish.Or, run wild. (Comp. Hos. 4:6.)
But he that keepeth the law.The teaching of those whom God has instructed (Comp. Isa. 1:10.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. No vision Revelation, divine instruction, prophetic guidance.
The people perish , ( yippara’h,) variously translated, are scattered, become dissolute, apostatize, are unrestrained, are unbridled, etc. Melanchthon understood it of a prophet, who, as the expounder of God’s laws, had a great hand in the government, and by his counsels, when followed, made the kingdom flourishing. Witness, Elisha in Samaria, and Isaiah in Jerusalem. But when prophecy ceased the people were scattered, or every one did that which was right in his own eyes. The proverb is capable of a wide application; and the history of the Israelites is an illustration of it. Gen 46:2; 1Sa 3:1; 2Sa 7:17; Job 4:13; Dan 2:19; Hos 3:4; Amo 8:12; 2Ch 15:3; Psa 74:9.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 29:18. Where there is no vision, &c. Houbigant renders this verse, That people is dissipated, among whom there are no answers of the prophets: that people is blessed with whom the law is preserved; which is very similar to the Vulgate. The LXX read, A wicked people shall have no person to explain the law; but, &c. The word chazon, rendered vision, signifies a prophetic sight, or knowledge; and very well justifies the interpretation of the Vulgate and Houbigant. A principal branch of this prophetic knowledge consisted in teaching the law.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 821
THE IMPORTANCE OF GOSPEL MINISTRATIONS
Pro 29:18. Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the Law, happy is he [Note: This brief sketch is given as an useful subject for a Mission Sermon. The contrast between Heathens in an ignorant and in a converted state would be very striking.].
THROUGHOUT the whole Scriptures, we have one unvaried testimony respecting man. We see, in every part,
I.
The deplorable state of those who know not the Gospel
Revelations to the prophets were often made in visions: and hence the subject-matter of the revelation was called their vision. Now, where no revelation is, or where, though given, it is not attended to, the people perish
[This is the unhappy state of the heathen world, who are constantly represented as dead in trespasses and sins, and as under the dominion of Satan [Note: Eph 2:1; Eph 2:11-13. Rom 3:19. 1Jn 5:19. We have no authority to depart from the plain declarations of Holy Writ.] Still more is this the state of Gods ancient people, whilst they reject the Messiah [Note: Isa 27:11. Hos 4:6. Joh 8:24.] But far worse is the state of those who hear, without obeying, the Gospel [Note: Joh 15:22. 2Co 4:3-4. 2Th 1:7-8. Heb 2:3.1Pe 4:17.] ]
II.
The blessedness of those who hear and obey it
Our Lord pronounces them supremely blessed [Note: Luk 11:28.]. And there is somewhat very emphatical in the declaration of it contained in our text
[Those who truly believe in Christ, and live altogether by faith on him, are happy. They are so, as restored to Gods favour [Note: Rom 5:1.] as enjoying his presence [Note: Psa 89:5.] as inheriting his glory [Note: Rev 22:14.] ]
Observe from hence
1.
The importance of missionary exertions [Note: Rom 10:13-15; Rom 10:17.]
2.
The importance of improving our present privileges
[On the due improvement of them depends both our present [Note: Mark the latter clause of the text.] and eternal happiness ]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 29:18 Where [there is] no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy [is] he.
Ver. 18. Where there is no vision the people perish. ] Or, Are barred of all virtue; laid naked and open to the dint of divine displeasure; scattered, worsted, and driven back. Great is the misery of those Brazilians, of whom it is said that they are sine fide, sine rege, sine lege, without faith, king, or law. And no less unhappy those Israelites about Asa’s time, that for a long season had been “without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.” 2Ch 15:3 Then it was that God’s “people were destroyed for lack of knowledge”; Hos 4:6 and not long after, that they sorrowfully complained that there was “no more any prophet among them, nor any that knew how long” Psa 74:9 – no minister, ordinary or extraordinary. How did it pity our Saviour to see the people “as sheep without a shepherd!” This troubled him more than their bodily bondage to the Romans, which yet was very grievous. Mat 9:36 And what good heart can but bleed to think of those once flourishing churches of Asia and Africa, now overspread partly with Mohammedanism and partly with heathenism; and that by the most miserable occasion might befall – namely, famine of the word of God, through lack of ministers! What a world of sects, superstitions, and other horrible abuses got into the Church of Rome, when prophecy was suppressed, and reading the Holy Scriptures inhibited! – and what a slaughter of souls ensued thereupon! Letters were framed by some, as sent from hell to the Popish clergy (A.D. 1072), wherein the devil and his angels give them many thanks for such a number of souls sent them down daily, by their neglect of preaching, as had never been before. a Hence it was that in this kingdom, at the first Reformation, for want of ministers, readers were sent; whence one of the martyrs wished that every able minister might have ten congregations committed to his charge, till further provision could be made; for of preaching it may be said, as once David did of Goliath’s sword, “There is none to that” for conversion of souls; as where that is wanting people go tumbling to hell thick and threefold.
But he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
a Mat., Paris. Hist.
b Wendelinus.
c Bucholcer.
d Vita Dav. Georg.
e Epiphan.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
no vision, &c. Illustration: Israel (1Sa 3:1. 1Ki 12:28-32; 1Ki 14:14-16).
the = a.
happy, &c. See note on Pro 3:13. Illustrations: Hezekiah (2Ch 29); Josiah(Pro 34:33; Pro 35:18. Jer 22:16).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 29:18
Pro 29:18
“Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint; But he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”
Both the American Standard Version and the RSV butchered this beautiful verse, neither of them approaching the grandeur of the KJV. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.
Pro 29:18. The word vision here implies the inspired message of God (often by a living representative of it). When there was not prophet to reveal Gods will to the people or no preacher to hinder their going into sin, people get into sin with nothing to restrain them. We note the license of Elis time, when there was no open vision (1Sa 3:1); in Asas day, when Israel had long been without a teaching priest (2Ch 15:3); and when the impious Ahaz made Judah naked (2Ch 28:19); or when the people were destroyed by reason of lack of knowledge of Divine things (Hos 4:6) (Pulpit Commentary). Yet, even in those days there would still be some who would keep the law, and those who did would be blessed of God: Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it (Luk 11:28); If you know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them (Joh 13:17); He that looketh into the perfect law…and so continueth, being not a hearer that forgetteth but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in his doing (Jas 1:25).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
there: 1Sa 3:1, Hos 4:6, Amo 8:11, Amo 8:12, Mat 9:36, Rom 10:13-15
perish: or, is made naked, 2Ch 28:19
but: Pro 19:16, Psa 19:11, Psa 119:2, Luk 11:28, Joh 13:17, Joh 14:21-23, Jam 1:25, Rev 22:14
Reciprocal: Psa 147:20 – not dealt so Isa 22:1 – of vision
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 29:18. Where there is no vision That is, no prophecy, the prophets being anciently called seers; no public preaching of Gods word, called prophecy, Rom 12:6; 1Co 14:4, &c. Where the people are destitute of the means of instruction; the people perish Because they want the chief means of salvation; but he that keepeth the law He does not say, he that hath the law, or he that hath vision, which the rules of opposition to the preceding clause might have given us reason to expect he would have said, but he that keepeth it; to teach us, that although the want of Gods word may be sufficient for mens destruction, yet the mere having and hearing, or reading of it, is not sufficient for their salvation, unless they also keep, or obey it.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
29:18 {d} Where [there is] no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy [is] he.
(d) Where there are not faithful ministers of the word of God.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The AV translation has resulted in misunderstanding of this proverb. The "vision" (Heb. hazon) does not refer to some dream of success a person may have but to a prophetic vision that was a revelation from God (cf. 1Sa 3:1). The Hebrew verb translated "perish" (AV; para) does not mean "die in their sins" (e.g., because someone did not see the "vision" of the importance of evangelism). It means "cast off restraint." Without the guidance of divine revelation people abandon themselves to their own sinful ways. God’s Word restrains human wickedness, and those who keep it are happy. Thus "a nation’s well-being depends on obedience to divine revelation." [Note: Ibid., p. 1116.] There must be knowledge of divine revelation through preaching for there to be obedience to it. [Note: Cf. Alden, p. 202.]