Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 9:10
The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy [is] understanding.
10. the beginning of wisdom ] See Pro 1:7, note, where however the Heb. word for “beginning” is different. Between the antagonistic companies (dealt with in Pro 9:7-9) of “her children” (Mat 11:19), who have already accepted her invitation, and who love her for her reproofs and profit by her instruction ( Pro 9:8-9), and of the “scorners” and “wicked,” who hate and defame her ( Pro 9:7-8), there is the as yet neutral company of the “simple,” to whom Wisdom now resumes her direct appeal. And in doing so she reverts to first principles, and lays down again the essential condition on which alone wisdom can be attained.
the holy ] Rather, the Holy One. The word is plural, the plural of excellence or dignity. The parallel between the clauses of the verse is thus preserved. The same word occurs in Pro 30:3; Hos 11:12 [Heb 12:1 ], where it is rendered, as it is here, the Holy One, in R.V.
The A.V., in its rendering of the phrase, follows the LXX. ( ) and Vulg. (scientia sanctorum).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The holy – The word in the Hebrew is plural, agreeing, probably, with ‘elohym understood (so in Pro 30:3). The knowledge of the Most Holy One stands as the counterpart to the fear of Yahweh.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 9:10
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
A just conception of God
There are two things which sincere religion can never fail of attaining, one of which is the greatest ingredient–nay, the very foundation of all happiness in this world, and the other is the happiness and immortality which wait for us in the world to come. The latter we can only enjoy now through faith and hope; but the former is present with us, the certain consequence and necessary attendant upon a mind truly virtuous and religious. I mean, the ease and satisfaction of mind which flow from a due sense of God and religion, and the uprightness of our desires and intentions to serve Him.
I. A just conception of God, of his excellences and perfections, is the true foundation of religion. Fear is not a voluntary passion. We cannot be afraid or not afraid of things just as we please. We fear any being in proportion to the power and will which we conceive that being to have either to hurt or to protect us. The different kinds of fear are no otherwise distinguishable from one another than by considering the different conceptions or ideas of the things feared. The fear of a tyrant and the fear of a father are very different passions; but he that knows not the difference between a tyrant and a father will never be able to distinguish these passions. A right and due fear of God presupposes a right and due conception of God. If men misconceive concerning God, either as to His holiness and purity, or to His justice and mercy, their fear of Him will not produce wisdom. The proposition of the text is equivalent to this–a just notion and conception of God is the beginning of wisdom. We experience in ourselves different kinds and degrees of fear, which have very different effects and operations. The fear of the Lord is not an abject, slavish fear; since God is no tyrant. The properties of religious fear, as mentioned in Scripture, are various. It is clean. It is to hate evil. It is a fountain of life. In it is strong confidence. The fear of God signifies that frame and affection of soul which is the consequence of a just notion and conception of the Deity. It is called the fear of God because, as majesty and power are the principal parts of the idea of God, so fear and reverence are the main ingredients in the affection that arises from it. It follows that none should be void of the fear of God, but those who only want right notions of God.
II. The just conception of God is the right rule to form our judgments by, in all particular matters of religion. Wisdom here means true religion. There is religion which is folly and superstition, that better suits with any other name than that of wisdom. If the fear of God only in a general way shows us the necessity of religion, and leaves us to take our chance in the great variety of forms and institutions that are to be found in the world, it may be our hap to learn folly as well as wisdom, upon the instigation of this principle. But the fear of God further teaches us wherein true religion consists. In natural religion this is evidently the case, because in that state there is no pretence to any other rule that can come into competition with this. It is from the notion of a God that men come to have any sense of religion. When we consider God as lord and governor of the world, we soon perceive ourselves to be in subjection, and that we stand obliged, both in interest and duty, to pay obedience to the Supreme. Take from the notion of God any of the moral perfections that belong to it, and you will find such alteration must influence religion likewise, which will degenerate in the same proportion as the notion of God is corrupted. The superstitious man, viewing God through the false perspectives of fear and suspicion, loses sight of His goodness, and sees only a dreadful spectre made up of anger and revenge. Hence religion becomes his torment. That only is true religion which is agreeable to the nature of God. Natural religion is the foundation upon which revelation stands, and therefore revelation can never supersede natural religion without destroying itself. The difference between these two is this: in natural religion nothing can be admitted that may not be proved and deduced from our natural notions. Everything must be admitted for some reason. But revelation introduces a new reason, the will of God, which has, and ought to have, the authority of a law with us. As God has authority to make laws, He may add to our duty and obligations as He sees fit. It is not therefore necessary that all parts of a revelation should be proved by natural reason: it is sufficient that they do not contradict it; for the will of God is a sufficient reason for our submission. The essentials of religion, even under revelation, must be tried and judged by the same principle. No revelation can dispense with virtue and holiness. All such doctrines and all such rites and ceremonies as tend to subvert true goodness and holiness are not of Gods teaching or introducing. The way to keep ourselves stedfastly in the purity of the gospel is to keep our eye constantly on this rule. Could enthusiasm, or destructive zeal, ever have grown out of the gospel had men compared their practices with the natural sense they have of God? Could religion ever have degenerated into folly and superstition had the true notions of God been preserved, and all religious actions been examined in the light of them? Some, taking religion to be what it appears to be, reject all religion. Could men have judged thus perversely had they attended to the true rule, and formed their notions of religion from the nature and wisdom of God, and not from the follies and extravagances of men? How can the folly and perverseness of others affect your duty to God? How came you absolved from all religion, because others have corrupted theirs? Does the error or ignorance of others destroy the relation between you and God, and make it reasonable for you to throw off all obedience? The fear of God will teach you another sort of wisdom. (Thomas Sherlock, D. D.)
The fear of the Lord
I. This principle will prepare you for discharging in an acceptable manner the duties which you owe more immediately to your Maker. It is the fear of the Lord alone that can inspire and animate your devotions. The sense of His glorious presence will inspire a higher tone of adoration, will give a deeper humility to your confessions, and add a double fervour to your prayers.
II. This principle will have a most salutary influence on the whole tenor of your conduct. The dictates of reason and conscience, considered as the commands of God, acquire thereby the force of a law; the authority of the lawgiver is respected, and it becomes a powerful motive to obedience.
III. But will not this year of the Lord abridge the happiness of life? The impression that we act continually under the inspection of an Omniscient Judge–will it not impose a restraint on our conduct? Will it not check the gaiety of our hearts and diffuse a gloom over the whole of our existence? If, indeed, the Almighty were a capricious tyrant, who delighted in the miseries of His creatures, if the fear of the Lord were that servile principle which haunts the minds of the superstitious, then you might complain, with justice, that the yoke of religion was severe. But it is a service of a more liberal kind which the Ruler of the world requires. It is a restraint to which, independently of religion, prudence would admonish you to submit. It is not a restraint from any innocent enjoyment, but from misery and infamy and guilt. (W. Moodie, D. D.)
The beginning of wisdom
This text occurs several times in the Old Testament, showing its importance; and it really sums up the teaching of the Bible for all classes and ages, and is one strikingly adapted for urging upon us the early religious education of our children.
I. What is the fear of the Lord?
1. The right knowledge of Him in what He is–
(1) In creation.
(2) In providence.
(3) As revealed in His Word.
2. And, consequent upon this–
(1) Reverence of Him.
(2) Belief in His Word.
(3) Love for Him as a Father.
(4) Obedience to Him as a Master (Mal 1:6).
Mark how a child, as it learns its duty to an earthly parent, is thus trained in its relation to its heavenly Father.
II. This is true wisdom, which means here the knowledge of Divine things, rightly used. When we fear the Lord we are wise, because–
1. The heart is then taught by the Holy Ghost.
2. We set a right value on things temporal and eternal.
3. We listen to the words of Jesus and of the Scriptures, and repent and believe the gospel (Luk 10:42; 2Ti 3:15).
4. We seek to know and carefully follow His holy will (Eph 5:17).
5. We walk in a sure path of peace and safety (chap. 3:17).
III. But our text states that this fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
1. It is at the root of all true wisdom; for we are never truly wise till we begin here, and only then do we know how to deal rightly with all things.
2. It is only reasonable then, and our solemn and bounden duty, to teach our children these blessed things early.
3. And God has confirmed the truth of the text by making this thoroughly practicable. Mark how the relations and circumstances of a child prepare it for learning: What God is as a Father. What Christ is as a Saviour. What the Holy Ghost is as a Teacher. Also what repentance, faith, obedience, etc., are, and the opposite of all these. Note the parables of Scripture.
4. And the Holy Ghost can reach a childs heart; hence the parents encouragement to pray, and to use teaching in faith and perseverance. (C. J. Goodhart, M.A.)
True religion the evidence of a good understanding
We all naturally desire happiness. We all know that obtaining it greatly depends on a wise choice of our conduct in life; and yet very few examine, with any care, what conduct is likeliest to procure us the felicity that we seek. There is deeply rooted in the heart of man an inbred sense of right and wrong, which, however heedlessly overlooked or studiously suppressed by the gay or the busy part of the world, will from time to time make them both feel that it hath the justest authority to govern all that we do, as well as power to reward with the truest consolation and punish with the acutest remorse. Some see the absolute necessity of bringing virtue and duty into the account when they deliberate concerning the behaviour that leads to happiness; but they affect to set up virtue in opposition to piety, and think to serve the former by deprecating the latter. Perhaps only relatively few venture to deny the existence of a First Cause. If there exists a Sovereign of the universe, almighty and all-wise, it cannot be a matter that we are unconcerned in. He must have intended that we should pay Him those regards which are His due–a proper temperature of fear and love: two affections which ought never to be separated in thinking of God; whichever is expressed implies the other. This is the true wisdom of man. Consider its influence–
I. On the conduct. God has not planted in us passions, affections, and appetites, to grow up wild as accident directs, but to be diligently superintended, weeded, and pruned, and each confined to its proper bounds. It would both be unjust and unwise to reject the smallest inducement to any part of goodness; for we greatly need every one that we can have. But it is extremely requisite to observe where our chief security lies, and place our chief trust there. The reasonableness, the dignity, the beauty of virtue are doubtless natural, and ought to be strong recommendations of it. No motive, however, is at all times sufficient, excepting only the fear of God, taught as the truth is in Jesus. This is one unchangeable motive, level to the apprehension of every person, extending to the practice of every duty, including at once every moral disposition of heart and every prudent regard to our own good. The fear of God can pierce the inmost recesses of our minds and search the rightness of our most secret desires. Reverence of Gods authority will make us fear to injure the meanest of our fellow-creatures, and hope of sharing in His bounty will teach us to imitate it by the tenderest exercise of humanity and compassion.
II. What effect the fear of God must have on the enjoyment of our lives. It will make bad people uneasy. It restrains persons from dissolute pleasures. It gives a peculiar seriousness and awe to the minds of men. It moderates the liveliness of over-gay dispositions. As to the sufferings of life, religion prevents many and diminishes the rest. True religion being of such importance, there are some things which may justly be expected of mankind in its favour.
1. That they who have not yet carefully searched into the grounds of it should not take upon them to treat it with scorn or even disregard.
2. It may be expected also that they who profess to examine should do it fairly.
3. They who are so happy as to believe should secure and complete their happiness by what alone can do it–a suitable behaviour. On all accounts, therefore, it is our most important concern to cultivate and express the affections of piety, which are indeed the noblest movements of our souls towards the worthiest object, towards the attainment of the most blessed end. (Archbp. Secker.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. The fear of the Lord] See on Pr 1:7. The knowledge of the holy; kedoshim, of the holy ones: Sanctorum, of the saints. – Vulgate. , the counsel of the holy persons.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Of the holy; either,
1. Of holy men, whether such as all saints learn, or rather such as the holy men of God, the servants of this wisdom, teach from Gods word; or rather,
2. Of holy things, the Hebrew word being here taken in the neuter gender, as it is Num 5:17, and elsewhere; for this seems best to answer to
the fear of the Lord in the other branch.
Is understanding; is the only true, and necessary, and useful knowledge.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. (Compare Pr1:7).
of the holyliterally,”holies,” persons or things, or both. This knowledge givesright perception.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The fear of the Lord [is] the beginning of wisdom,…. This shows who the wise men are, and in what true wisdom lies; no man is wise till he fears the Lord, and he that does so is a wise man, at least then he begins to be one; this is the principal part of wisdom, Pr 1:7; and is at the first of it; it is the beginning of grace; it is the first act of wisdom, or grace; or which appears as soon as a man is converted and caused to know wisdom in the hidden part; as repentance, faith, and love, quickly show themselves in one act or another, so does the fear of God; for the former are never without the latter; for fear is an awe and reverence of the divine Being, joined with love to him, trust in him, and a desire to serve and worship him in a right manner; no sooner is a man converted, but presently there is in him a fear of offending God, from a principle of love to him; for not a slavish but a filial fear is here intended;
and the knowledge of the Holy [is] understanding: either the knowledge of the Holy Ones, as the three divine Persons in the Godhead, who are so called, Jos 24:19; the knowledge of God the Father, who is holy in his nature and works; not a mere natural knowledge of him by the light of nature; nor a mere notional knowledge of him by revelation; not a legal knowledge of him as a lawgiver, and an offended Judge; but an evangelical knowledge of him in Christ, as his God and Father; and as the God of all grace in him; so as to have faith and hope in him, access unto him, and communion with him; this is right understanding: so the knowledge of Christ, God’s Holy One; a knowledge of him in his person, offices, and grace; an inward knowledge of him, a spiritual acquaintance with him, so as to approve of him, believe in him, and appropriate him to one’s self; this is to attain to a good degree of understanding: as likewise the knowledge of the Holy Spirit, the author of sanctification; of his person, and operations of grace; as a convincer and comforter; as a Spirit of illumination and faith, of regeneration and sanctification; and as the Spirit of adoption, and the earnest of glory; this is another branch of spiritual understanding. Moreover, such knowledge which holy men have, and which makes them so; and which holy men of God, moved by the Holy Ghost, have communicated in the sacred Scriptures, of which they are the penmen. The knowledge of holy things may also be meant; of the holy mysteries of religion, of the holy doctrines of the Gospel, which are all according to godliness, and teach men to live in a holy manner: the faith once delivered to the saints is a most holy faith, encourages and promotes holiness of heart and life; as the doctrines of God’s everlasting love; eternal election; the unconditionality of the covenant of grace; redemption by Christ; conversion by efficacious grace; justification by Christ’s righteousness; pardon by his blood; satisfaction by his sacrifice; and perseverance by his power: and now a knowledge of these things, not notional, but experimental, is understanding indeed; as well as a knowledge of holy and gracious experiences.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
These words naturally follow:
10 “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Jahve,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
This is the highest principle of the Chokma, which stands (Pro 1:7) as a motto at the beginning of the Book of Proverbs. The lxx translate there (Pro 1:7), and here, by . Gusset distinguishes the two synonyms as pars optima and primus actus ; but the former denotes the fear of God as that which stands in the uppermost place, to which all that Wisdom accomplishes subordinates itself; the latter as that which begins wisdom, that which it proposes to itself in its course. With is interchanged, Pro 2:5, , as here , as the internally multiplicative plur. (Dietrich, Abhandlungen, pp. 12, 45), as Pro 30:3, Jos 24:9; Hos 12:1, of God, the “Holy, holy, holy” (Isa 6:3), i.e., Him who is absolutely Holy. Michaelis inaccurately, following the ancients, who understood not this non-numerical plur.: cognitio quae sanctos facit et sanctis propria est . The , parallel with , is meant of lively practical operative knowledge, which subordinates itself to this All-holy God as the normative but unapproachable pattern.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
TEXT Pro. 9:10-18
10.
The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom;
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
11.
For by me thy days shall be multiplied,
And the years of thy life shall be increased.
12.
If thou are wise, thou art wise for thyself;
And if thou scoffest, thou alone shall bear it.
13.
The foolish woman is clamorous;
She is simple, and knoweth nothing.
14.
And she sitteth at the door of her house,
On a seat in the high places of the city,
15.
To call to them that pass by,
Who go right on their ways:
16.
Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither;
And as for him that is void of understanding, she saith to him,
17.
Stolen waters are sweet,
And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
18. But he knoweth not that the dead are there;
That her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
STUDY QUESTIONS OVER 9:10-18
1.
Where is the opening statement of Pro. 9:10 first mentioned in Proverbs?
2.
Where else in Proverbs is the truth in Pro. 9:11 found?
3.
The foolish woman of Pro. 9:13 is to be contrasted with what other woman?
4.
Is this low-down woman ashamed of herself and her business (Pro. 9:14)?
5.
Are wicked people evangelistic for sin (Pro. 9:15)?
6.
Who will get caught by such a wicked woman (Pro. 9:16)?
7.
Do sinners believe what Pro. 9:17 says?
8.
Why does Pro. 9:18 begin with but?
PARAPHRASE OF 9:10-18
Pro. 9:10-12.
For the reverence and fear of God are basic to all wisdom. Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding. Wisdom will make the hours of your day more profitable and the years of your life more fruitful. Wisdom is its own reward, and if you scorn her, you may only hurt yourself.
Pro. 9:13-18.
A prostitute is loud and brash, and never has enough of lust and shame. She sits at the door of her house or stands at the street corners of the city, whispering to men going by, and to those minding their own business. Come home with me, she urges simpletons, stolen melons are the sweetest; stolen apples taste the best! But they dont realize that her former guests are now citizens of hell.
COMMENTS ON 9:10-18
Pro. 9:10. Other passages agreeing with the first statement: The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom (Job. 28:28); The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom (Psa. 111:10); The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge (Pro. 1:7). No one can be a person of real understanding who does not know the holy One in whom alone originally resided wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. The Greeks were famous for their knowledge, but the Greeks through their philosophies knew not God (1Co. 1:21). Paul (the writer of 1Co. 1:21) knew, for he had been to Athens and had beheld the famous city full of idols (Act. 17:16). Is it any wonder, then, that when he preached there the resurrection of the dead some mocked (Act. 17:32)? Nor do present-day philosophies that disregard the revelation of God in the Bible have an understanding of our holy God.
Pro. 9:11. The parenthetical explanation being concluded in which wisdom has intimated why it is useless to appeal to the scorner and the wilful sinner, she now resumes the direct address interrupted at Pro. 9:7, presenting a forcible reason for the advice given in Pro. 9:6, though there is still some connection with Pro. 9:10 as it is from the wisdom that comes from the fear of the Lord that the blessings now mentioned spring (Pulpit Commentary). Other passages on what imparts long life: My son…let thy heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and years of life, And peace, will they add to thee (Pro. 3:1-2); The fear of Johovah prolongeth days; But the years of the wicked shall be shortened (Pro. 10:27).
Pro. 9:12. Though thy example may be very useful to thy neighbors and friends, yet the chief benefit is to thyself. But if thou scornrefuse to receivethe doctrines of wisdom, and die in thy sins, thou alone shalt suffer the vengeance of an offended God (Clarke). There is a sense in which others let you be wise if it is your choice to be wise, and others let you scoff if that be your choice. Whatever your choice, the non-committee multitude will not join you. In other words, the scholar who is right tries to tell the others and is not always believed (at least, is not always joined), and the scoffer who is wrong tries to gain adherents to his way of thinking, and he runs into a similar reception.
Pro. 9:13. The foolish woman of this and following verses is in contrast to the woman wisdom of Pro. 9:1-6. As this wicked woman has been fully identified in previous sections (Pro. 2:16-19; Pro. 5:3-23; Pro. 6:24-35; Pro. 7:5-27), this section is speaking of the immoral woman. Our verse says she is foolish, clamorous, simple, and knoweth nothing. The Bible has no compliments for the adulteress (or the adulterer). She is foolish instead of wise, for it is much wiser to be happily married to a good man than to sell yourself for a few minutes to any man who comes along. She is clamorous (boisterous, loud, forward), which was pointed out in Pro. 7:11-13 wherein she was said not to remain in her house but to get out on the street and aggressively proposition men. She is simple, for her trade does not necessitate her to develop her mind, and little is a harlot concerned or involved in the concerns and the involvements of the community. She knoweth nothing, for she either doesnt know or doesnt care what she is doing, how she is looked upon, what harm she is bringing to the homes and bodies and souls of others, and of what she is robbing herself of and ultimately bringing upon herself.
Pro. 9:14. She is forward, not bashful, in pushing her trade. She is bold and not ashamed.
Pro. 9:15. She gets out in the passing crowd and tries to get customers. But thank God, most people have enough sense to keep going right on their ways instead of stopping and getting involved with her. Those who do not fall for her are men who have been taught from youth to fear adultery, or who are happily married to good wives and have righteous children at home to whom they are examples, or who have committed themselves to a godly life that even if once guilty of such behavior will have no part in it.
Pro. 9:16. Anyone who will listen to her and go with her really isnt any wiser than she was described as being in Pro. 9:13. She employs the same words as wisdom uses (see Pro. 9:4); she is going to educate the simple who are void of understanding. They will learn all right, but it will be the wrong thing, and the time will come when they will see that they listened to the wrong person: Thou mourn at thy latter end, When thy flesh and thy body are consumed, And say, How have I hated instruction, And my heart despised reproof; Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, Nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! (Pro. 5:11-13).
Pro. 9:17. Hers is an invitation to commit adultery with her. She is referred to as stolen waters, for she does not really belong to those who accept her invitation, for is she is married (as in Pro. 6:29 and as in Pro. 7:19-20), she belongs to her husband, and if she is unmarried she should belong to and save herself for the man whom she will later marry. God never intended that any woman would be to society like the old town-well of years ago or like the block of stock-salt in the cow pasture. A woman who does not save herself (or a man who does not save himself) for the mate that she (or he) will later marry really does not deserve a pure mate in marriage! It is only a saying that stolen melons are sweeter. Why should any man choose the arms and the bosom and the intimacies of an impure, ungodly woman to the sweet and attractive and good wife whom he has personally chosen and shared life with over the years? No, stolen waters are not better! Therefore, drink waters out of thine own cistern, And running waters out of thine own well…Rejoice in the wife of thy youth. As a loving hind and a pleasant doe, Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; And be thou ravished always with her love (Pro. 5:15-19).
Pro. 9:18. The sweetness and the pleasantness that she promised in Pro. 9:17 end in deathjust like all sin. Other passages connecting immorality with death: Pro. 2:18; Pro. 7:27. Other passages connecting sin with death: Rom. 6:23; Jas. 1:15.
TEST QUESTIONS OVER 9:10-18
1.
What success do philosophies of men have in common to a knowledge of God (Pro. 9:10)?
2.
What great promise is contained in Pro. 9:11?
3.
Comment on Pro. 9:12.
4.
In what way is an immoral woman foolish (Pro. 9:13)?
5.
In what way simple (Pro. 9:13)?
6.
In what way clamorous (Pro. 9:13)?
7.
In what way knoweth nothing (Pro. 9:13)?
8.
What shows her forwardness (Pro. 9:14)?
9.
Do most men of the crowd stop with her or pass right on (Pro. 9:15)?
10.
Why will they do this (Pro. 9:15)?
11.
What kind of education does the immoral woman give to the simple (Pro. 9:16)?
12.
Why is she stolen waters if married (Pro. 9:17)?
13.
Why also stolen waters if yet unmarried (Pro. 9:17)?
14.
How does her praise of sweetness and pleasantness turn out (Pro. 9:18)?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(10) The fear of the Lord . . .Comp. Isa. 11:2, where the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord is counted as the gift of God. (For the general sense of the passage, see above, on Pro. 1:7.)
Knowledge of the holyi.e., the Holy One, as in Pro. 30:3.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom See on Pro 1:7; Pro 2:5. As in the beginning of this introductory discourse (or lecture, as we would call it in modern phrase,) the author commenced with this maxim, expressed in somewhat different form, as his motto or text, so now, in drawing to a conclusion, he returns to it, and repeats it with some modification and addition. In Pro 1:7 the form is , yirath Yehovah reshith da’hath, the fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge. Here the form is, , tehhillath hhokmah yirath Yehovah, the beginning of wisdom is the fear of Jehovah. The proposition being a convertible one, the subject and predicate exchange places. Possibly nothing more was intended than variety of expression. In our way it may be stated thus: To fear the Lord is the first and most important thing in order to obtain knowledge. Pro 1:7. The first and most important thing in order to be wise is to fear the Lord. Pro 9:10.
In the next member we find a synonymous parallelism.
And the knowledge of the Holy is understanding Literally, the Holy Ones; but this is undoubtedly a plural of excellency or intensity the Most Holy One. The sentiment of the verse is: Even a beginning cannot be made in true wisdom without piety. Scorners and wicked persons, therefore, cannot attain unto it. Some commentators, and the Geneva Bible, render , ( kedhoshim,) holy things. But the other sense, given above, is better, and more generally approved.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 9:10. Understanding Schultens, Calmet, and many others, render this Prudence; Christian prudence, true prudence, which consists in discerning what is more or less advantageous in all matters, and in choosing the means proper for execution, is undoubtedly the knowledge of the Holy; for it is by this that they are conducted through divine grace in the right way to heaven, and avoid the dangers which destroy so many thoughtless and imprudent persons. Some understand the text differently; The knowledge of holy things is the true prudence. Others translate the whole verse thus; The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and the beginning of prudence is the knowledge of holy things; as the law of God, his worship, &c.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 9:10 The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy [is] understanding.
Ver. 10. The fear of the Lord. ] See Trapp on “ Pro 1:7 “ Here it is given as a reason why wise men are the better for sharp and seasonable admonition, because the fear of the Lord is in them. This makes them, when they are reproved of all, “fall upon their faces, worship God, and say, God is in you of a truth.” 1Co 14:26 What shall we say unto my lord? What shall we speak? How shall we justify ourselves? “God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants,” &c. Gen 44:16
And the knowledge of the holy.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
the beginning: not the end. See note on Pro 1:7.
wisdom. See note on Pro 1:2.
the knowledge, &c. Not departing from evil from policy, but hating it (Pro 8:13).
the holy = the Holy One. (Plural of majesty.)
understanding = discernment. See note on Pro 1:2.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
fear
(See Scofield “Psa 19:9”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
The fear: Pro 1:7, Job 28:28, Psa 111:10, Ecc 12:13
the knowledge: Pro 2:5, Pro 30:3, 1Ch 28:9, Mat 11:27, Joh 17:3, 1Jo 5:20
Reciprocal: Psa 119:125 – that I Pro 19:25 – reprove Act 10:33 – are we
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
WISDOMS BEGINNING IS GODS FEAR
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Pro 9:10
I. Nothing can prosper long that runs its head against any of the great walls of the universe.Life is known by its manifestations; no one has ever seen it. There is an eternal march of judgment, which they who choose can see. And calm, and clear, and pitiless on every side, amidst the noise of ignorant self-will, the clash of blinded passion, and wisdom blinder still, the voiceless warning strikes upon the world; and the great prison walls close in on those who will have it so.
II. It may be said: These are but words; what proof is there of this invisible, everlasting wall of doom, and of the unseen executioners, Gods secret police, that arrest the guilty and the careless, self-indulgent fools?Take any form of vice you like, give it power, give it wealth, and thenwait a few years and see what comes of it. Watch the curse day by day, and hour by hour, walking by the victims side; watch him dragged from bad to worse; stand in his dreary home when the last scene comesand doubt no more of Gods great prison walls on earth.
III. But it is equally true that the great laws of life act for good to those who follow them.The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Rev. E. Thring.
Illustration
The Christians Rose, said Martin Luther, is not a Red Rose, but a Whitewhiter than snow; his joys are not the gaieties of this lower earth, but the blessedness of the world of spirits. Another voice rings in my earthat of Folly, of Madam Bubble. It has enchantment in its dulcet tones. It promises me enjoyment more immediate, more manifest, more reckless and riotous, than Wisdoms calmer delights. But I shall make shipwreck of myself, if Duessa entice me and Una go unheeded. The simple it is who is attracted like the moth to the flame. He knoweth not that the shades are there; that her guests are in the depths of Sheol. So let me prefer the White Rose to the Red.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Pro 9:10-12. The fear of the Lord, &c. The very first, and, indeed, the principal thing which is to be instilled into all mens minds, (without which they will make no progress in true wisdom,) is a serious sense of the Divine Majesty, and an awful regard toward him. And next, that no knowledge deserves the name of understanding but that which disposes us to devote ourselves, in holy obedience, to God; or the knowledge and practice of true religion, and the duties of it: see notes on Job 28:28; Psa 111:10; Pro 1:7. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself
Thou dost not profit me, but thyself by thy wisdom. I advise thee for thine own good. But if thou scornest If thou despisest and deridest the advice which I give thee, thou alone shalt bear it The blame and mischief of it will fall wholly upon thee, not upon me, or my word, or ministers, who have warned thee.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
9:10 The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the Holy One [is] {i} understanding.
(i) He shows what true understanding is, to know the will of God in his word which is meant by holy things.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
33
CHAPTER 2
THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”- Pro 1:7
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”- Pro 9:10
“To fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and it was created with the faithful in the womb”- Sir 1:14; also Psa 111:10
THE book of Proverbs belongs to a group of works in the Hebrew literature the subject of which is Wisdom. It is probably the earliest of them all, and may be regarded as the stem, of which they are the branches. Without attempting to determine the relative ages of these compositions, the ordinary reader can see the points of contact between Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, and a little careful study reveals that the book of Job, though fuller, and richer in every respect, belongs to the same order. Outside the canon of Holy Scripture we possess two works which avowedly owe their suggestion and inspiration to our book, viz., “The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach,” commonly called Ecclesiasticus, a genuinely Hebrew product, and “The Wisdom of Solomon,” commonly called the Book of Wisdom, of much later origin, and exhibiting that fusion of Hebrew religious conceptions with Greek speculation which prevailed in the Jewish schools of Alexandria.
Now, the question at once occurs, What are we to understand by the Wisdom which gives a subject and a title to this extensive field of literature? and in what relation does it stand to the Law and the Prophets, which form the great bulk of the Old Testament Scriptures?
Broadly speaking, the Wisdom of the Hebrews covers the whole domain of what we should call Science and Philosophy. It is the consistent effort of the human mind to know, to understand, and to explain all that exists. It is, to use the modern phrase, the search for truth. The “wise men” were not, like Moses and the Prophets, inspired legislators and heralds of Gods immediate messages to mankind; but rather, like the wise men among the earlier Greeks, Thales, Solon, Anaximenes, or like the Sophists among the later Greeks, Socrates and his successors, they brought all their faculties to bear in observing the facts of the world and of life, and in seeking to interpret them, and then in the public streets or in appointed schools endeavored to communicate their knowledge to the young. Nothing was too high for their inquiry: “That which is far off, and exceeding deep; who can find it out?” {Ecc 7:24} yet they tried to discover and to explain that which is. Nothing was too lowly for their attention; wisdom “reaches from one end to another mightily, and sweetly orders all things.” {RAPC Wis 8:1} Their purpose finds expression in the words of Ecclesiastes, “I turned about, and my heart was set to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the reason of things.” {Ecc 7:25}
But by Wisdom is meant not merely the search, but also the discovery; not merely a desire to know, but also a certain body of conceptions ascertained and sufficiently formulated. To the Hebrew mind it would have seemed meaningless to assert that Agnosticism was wisdom. It was saved from this paradoxical conclusion by its firmly rooted faith in God. Mystery might hang over the details, but one thing was plain: the whole universe was an intelligent plan of God; the mind might be baffled in understanding His ways, but all that existence is of His choosing and His ordering was taken as the axiom with which all thought must start. Thus there is a unity in the Hebrew Wisdom; the unity is found in the thought of the Creator; all the facts of the physical world, all the problems of human life, are referred to His mind; objective Wisdom is Gods Being, which includes in its circle everything; and subjective wisdom, wisdom in the human mind, consists in becoming acquainted with His Being and all that is contained in it, and meanwhile in constantly admitting that He is, and yielding to Him the rightful place in our thought.
But while Wisdom embraces in her wide survey all things in heaven and in earth, there is one part of the vast field which makes a special demand upon human interest. The proper study of mankind is man. Very naturally the earliest subject to occupy human thought was human life, human conduct, human society. Or, to say the same thing in the language of this book, while Wisdom was occupied with the whole creation, she specially rejoiced in the habitable earth, and her delight was with the sons of men.
Theoretically embracing all subjects of human knowledge and reflection, the Wisdom of the Hebrew literature practically touches but little on what we should now call Science, and even where attention was turned to the facts and laws of the material world, it was mainly in order to borrow similitudes or illustrations for moral and religious purposes. King Solomon “spake of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.” {1Ki 4:33} But the Proverbs which have actually come down to us under his name refer almost exclusively to principles of conduct or observation of life, and seldom remind us of the earth, the sea, and the sky, except as the dwelling-place of men, the house covered with paintings for his delight or filled with imagery for his instruction.
But there is a further distinction to be drawn, and in attempting to make it plain we may determine the place of the Proverbs in the general scheme of the inspired writings. Human life is a sufficiently large theme; it includes not only social and political questions, but the searchings and speculations of philosophy, the truths and revelations of religion. From one point of view, therefore, wisdom may be said to embrace the Law and the Prophets, and in a beautiful passage of Ecclesiasticus the whole covenant of Jehovah with Israel is treated as an emanation of wisdom from the mouth of the Most High. Wisdom was the inspiration of those who shaped the law and built the Holy House, of those who ministered in the courts of the Temple, and of those who were moved by the Holy One to chide the faults of the people, to call them to repentance, to denounce the doom of their sin, and proclaim the glad promise of deliverance. Again, from this large point of view Wisdom could be regarded as the Divine Philosophy, the system of thought and the body of beliefs which would furnish the explanation of life, and would root all the decisions of ethics in eternal principles of truth. And this function of Wisdom is presented with singular beauty and power in the eighth chapter of our book, where, as we shall see, the mouth of Wisdom shows that her concern with men is derived from her relation with the Creator and from her comprehension of His great architectural design in the construction of the world.
Now, the wisdom which finds expression in the bulk of the Proverbs must be clearly distinguished from wisdom in this exalted sense. It is not the wisdom of the Law and the Prophets; it moves in a much lower plane. It is not the wisdom of chapter 8, a philosophy which harmonizes human life with the laws of nature by constantly connecting both with God.
The wisdom of the Proverbs differs from the wisdom of the Prophets in this, that it is derived not directly, but immediately from God. No special mind is directed to shape these sayings; they grow up in the common mind of the people, and they derive their inspiration from those general qualities which made the whole nation in the midst of which they had their birth an inspired nation, and gave to all the literature of the nation a peculiar and inimitable tone. The wisdom of the Proverbs differs, too, from the wisdom of these introductory chapters in much the same way; it is a difference which might be expressed by a familiar use of words; it is a distinction between Philosophy and Proverbial Philosophy, a distinction, let us say, between Divine Philosophy and Proverbial Philosophy.
The Proverbs are often shrewd, often edifying, sometimes almost evangelical in their sharp ethical insight; but we shall constantly be reminded that they do not come with the overbearing authority of the prophetic “Thus saith the Lord.” And still more shall we be reminded how far they lag behind the standard of life and the principles of conduct which are presented to us in Christ Jesus.
What has just been said seems to be a necessary preliminary to the study of the Proverbs, and it is only by bearing it in mind that we shall be able to appreciate the difference in tone between the nine introductory chapters and the main body of the book; nor should we venture, perhaps, apart from the consideration which has been urged, to exercise our critical sense in the study of particular sayings, and to insist at all points on bringing the teaching of the wise men of old to the standard and test of Him who is Himself made unto us Wisdom.
But now to turn to our text. We must think of wisdom in the largest possible sense, as including not only ethics, but philosophy, and not only philosophy, but religion; yes, and as embracing in her vast survey the whole field of natural science, when it is said that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; we must think of knowledge in its fullest and-most liberal extent when we read that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
In this pregnant truth we may distinguish three ideas: first, fear, or, as we should probably say, reverence, is the pre-requisite of all scientific, philosophical, or religious truth; second, no real knowledge or wisdom can be attained which does not start with the recognition of God; and then, thirdly, the expression is not only “the fear of God,” which might refer only to the Being that is presupposed in any intelligent explanation of phenomena but the “fear of the Lord,” i.e., of Javeh, the self-existent One, who has revealed Himself in a special way to men as “I AM WHAT I AM”; and it is therefore hinted that no satisfactory philosophy of human life and history can be constructed which does not build upon the fact of revelation.
We may proceed to dwell upon these three thoughts in order.
1. Most religious people are willing to admit that “the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.” {Pro 14:27} But what is not always observed is that the same attitude is necessary in the intellectual sphere. And yet the truth may be illustrated in a quarter which to some of us may be surprising. It is a notable fact that Modern Science had its origin in two deeply religious minds. Bacon and Descartes were both stirred to their investigation of physical facts by their belief in the Divine Being who was behind them. To mention only our great English thinker, Bacons “Novum Organum” is the most reverent of works, and no one ever realized more keenly than he that, as Coleridge used to say, “there is no chance of truth at the goal where there is not a childlike humility at the starting-point.”
It is sometimes said that this note of reverence is wanting in the great scientific investigators of our day. So far as this is true, it is probable that their conclusions will be vitiated, and we are often impressed by the feeling that the unmannerly self-assertion and overweening self-confidence of many scientific writers augur ill for the truth of their assertions. But, on the other hand, it must be remembered that the greatest men of science in our own, as in all other ages, are distinguished by a singular simplicity, and by a reverence which communicates itself to their readers. What could be more reverent than Darwins way of studying the coral-insect or the earthworm? He bestowed on these humble creatures of the ocean and of the earth the most patient and loving observation. And his success in understanding and explaining them was in proportion to the respect which he showed to them. The coral-diver has no reverence for the insect; he is bent only on gain, and he consequently can tell us nothing of the coral reef and its growth. The gardener has no reverence for the worm; he cuts it ruthlessly with his spade, and flings it carelessly aside; accordingly he is not able to tell us of its lowly ministries and of the part it plays in the fertilization of the soil. It was Darwins reverence which proved to be the beginning of knowledge in these departments of investigation; and if it was only the reverence of the naturalist, the truth is illustrated all the better, for his knowledge of the unseen and the eternal dwindled away, just as his perception of beauty in literature and art declined, in proportion as he suffered his spirit of reverence towards these things to die.
The gates of Knowledge and Wisdom are closed, and they are opened only to the knock of Reverence. Without reverence, it is true, men may gain what is called worldly knowledge and worldly wisdom; but these are far removed from truth, and. experience often shows us how profoundly ignorant and how incurably blind pushing and successful people are, whose knowledge is all turned to delusion, and whose wisdom shifts round into folly, precisely because the great prerequisite is wanting. The seeker after real knowledge will have little about him which suggests worldly success. He is modest, self-forgetful, possibly shy; he is absorbed in a disinterested pursuit, for he has seen afar the high, white star of Truth; at it he gazes, to it he aspires. Things which only affect him personally make but little impression on him; things which affect the truth move, agitate, excite him. A bright spirit is on ahead, beckoning to him. The color mounts to his cheek, the nerves thrill, and his soul is filled with rapture, when the form seems to grow clearer and a step is gained in the pursuit. When a discovery is made he almost forgets that he is the discoverer; he will even allow the credit of it to pass over to another, for he would rather rejoice in the truth itself than allow his joy to be tinged with a personal consideration.
Yes, the modest, self-forgetful, reverent mien is the first condition winning Truth, who must be approached on bended knee, and recognized with a humble and a prostrate heart. There is no gainsaying the fact that this fear, this reverence, is “the beginning” of wisdom.
2. We pass now to an assertion bolder than the last, that there can be no true knowledge or wisdom which does not start from the recognition of God. This is one of those contentions, not uncommon in the Sacred Writings, which appear at first sight to be arbitrary dogmas, but prove on closer inquiry to be the authoritative statements of reasoned truth. We are face to face, in our day, with an avowedly atheistic philosophy. According to the Scriptures, an atheistic philosophy is not a philosophy at all, but only a folly: “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.” We have thinkers among us who deem it their great mission to get rid of the very idea of God, as one who stands in the way of spiritual, social, and political progress. According to the Scriptures, to remove the idea of God is to destroy the key of knowledge and to make any consistent scheme of thought impossible. Here certainly is a clear and sharp issue.
Now, if this universe of which we form a part is a thought of the Divine mind, a work of the Divine hand, a scene of Divine operations, in which God is realizing, by slow degrees, a vast spiritual purpose, it is self-evident that no attempt to understand the universe can be successful which leaves this, its fundamental idea, out of account; as well might one attempt to understand a picture while refusing to recognize that the artist had any purpose to express in painting it, or indeed that there was any artist at all. So much everyone will admit.
But if the universe is not the work of a Divine mind, or the effect of a Divine will; if it is merely the working of a blind, irrational Force, which realizes no end, because it has no end to realize; if we, the feeble outcome of a long, unthinking evolution, are the first creatures that ever thought, and the only creatures who now think, in all the universe of Being; it follows that of a universe so irrational there can be no true knowledge for rational beings, and of a scheme of things so unwise there can be no philosophy or wisdom. No person who reflects can fail to recognize this, and this is the truth which is asserted in the text. It is not necessary to maintain that without admitting God we cannot have knowledge of a certain number of empirical facts; but that does not constitute a philosophy or a wisdom. It is necessary to maintain that without admitting God we cannot have any explanation of our knowledge, or any verification of it; without admitting God our knowledge can never come to any roundness or completeness such as might justify our calling it by the name of Wisdom.
Or to put the matter in a slightly different way: a thinking mind can only conceive the universe as the product of thought; if the universe is not the product of thought it can never be intelligible to a thinking mind, and can therefore never be in a true sense the object of knowledge; to deny that the universe is the product of thought is to deny the possibility of wisdom.
We find, then, that it is not a dogma, but a truth of reason, that knowledge must start with the recognition of God.
3. But now we come to an assertion which is the boldest of all, and for the present we shall have to be content to leave behind many who have readily followed us so far. That we are bound to recognize “the Lord,” that is the God of Revelation, and bow down in reverence before Him, as the first condition of true wisdom, is just the truth which multitudes of men who claim to be Theists are now strenuously denying. Must we be content to leave the assertion merely as a dogma enunciated on the authority of Scripture?
Surely they, at any rate, who have made the beginning of wisdom in the fear of the Lord should be able to show that the possession which they have gained is actually wisdom, and does not rest upon an irrational dogma, incapable of proof.
We have already recognized at the outset that the Wisdom of this book is not merely an intellectual account of the reason of things, but also more specifically an explanation of the moral and spiritual life. It may be granted that so far as the Intellect alone claims satisfaction it is enough to posit the bare idea of God as the condition of all rational existence. But when men come to recognize themselves as Spiritual Beings, with conceptions of right and wrong, with strong affections, with soaring aspirations, with ideas which lay hold of Eternity, they find themselves quite incapable of being satisfied with the bare idea of God; the soul within them pants and thirsts for a living God. An intellectual love of God might satisfy purely intellectual creatures; but to meet the needs of man as he is, God must be a God that manifests His own personality, and does not leave Himself without a witness to His rational creature. A wisdom, then, that is to truly appraise and rightly guide the life of man must start with the recognition of a God whose peculiar designation is the self-existent One, and who makes Himself known to man by that name; that is, it must start with the “fear of the Lord.”
How cogent this necessity is appears directly the alternative is stated. If Reason assures us of a God that made us, a First Cause of our existence and of our being what we are; if Reason also compels us to refer to Him our moral nature, our desire of holiness, and our capacity of love, what could be a greater tax on faith, and even a greater strain on the reason, than to declare that, notwithstanding, God has not revealed Himself as the Lord of our life and the God of our salvation, as the authority of righteousness or the object of our love? When the question is stated in this way it appears that apart from a veritable and trustworthy revelation there can be no wisdom which is capable of really dealing with human life, as the life of spiritual and moral creatures; for a God who does not reveal Himself would be devoid of the highest qualities of the human spirit, and the belief in a God who is inferior to man, a Creator who is less than the creature, could furnish no foundation for an intelligible system of thought.
Our text now stands before us, not as the unsupported deliverance of dogma, but as a condensed utterance of the human reason. We see that starting from the conception of Wisdom as the sum of that which is, and the sufficient explanation of all things, as including therefore not only the laws of nature, but also the laws of human life, both spiritual and moral, we can make no step towards the acquisition of wisdom without a sincere and absolute reverence, a recognition of God as the Author of the universe which we seek to understand, and as the Personal Being, the Self-existent One, who reveals Himself under that significant name “I AM,” and declares His will to our waiting hearts. “To whom hath the root of wisdom been revealed? or who hath known her wise counsels? There is one wise, and greatly to be feared, the Lord sitting upon His throne.” {Ecc 1:6; Ecc 1:8}
In this way is struck the keynote of the Jewish “Wisdom.” it is profoundly true; it is stimulating and helpful. But it may not be out of place to remind ourselves even thus early that the idea on which we have been dwelling comes short of the higher truth which has been given us in Christ. It hardly entered into the mind of a Hebrew thinker to conceive that “fear of the Lord” might pass into full, whole-hearted, and perfect love. And yet it may be shown that this was the change effected when Christ was of God “made unto us Wisdom”; it is not that the “fear,” or reverence, becomes less, but it is that the fear is swallowed up in the larger and more gracious sentiment. For us who have received Christ as our Wisdom, it has become almost a truism that we must love in order to know. We recognize that the causes of things remain hidden from us until our hearts have been kindled into an ardent love towards the First Cause, God Himself: we find that even our processes of reasoning are faulty until they are touched with the Divine tenderness, and rendered sympathetic by the infusion of a loftier passion. And it is quite in accordance with this fuller truth that both science and philosophy have made genuine progress only in Christian lands and under Christian influences. Where the touch of Christs hand has been most decisively felt, in Germany, in England, in America, and where consequently Wisdom has attained a nobler, a richer, a more tender significance, there, under fostering powers, which are not the less real because they are not always acknowledged, the great discoveries have been made, the great systems of thought have been framed, and the great counsels of conduct have gradually assumed substance and authority. And from a wide observation of facts we are able to say, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge”; yes, but the Wisdom of God has led us on from fear to love, and in. the Love of the Lord is found the fulfillment of that which trembled into birth through fear.