Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 9:5
Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine [which] I have mingled.
5. eat ] Rather, eat ye, R.V. The word is plural. The invitation though addressed to each ( Pro 9:4) is extended to all. Comp. Isa 55:1.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
A parallel to the higher teaching of the Gospels (compare Joh 6:27; Mat 26:26).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 9:5
Come, eat of My bread.
Wisdoms invitation
I. The invitation. He who invites is the Son of God–in the Proverbs represented as Wisdom. Of His generous invitation we remark–
1. That its acceptance is open to every human being on the face of the earth. The God of the gospel is no respecter of persons.
2. This invitation is urged with affectionate earnestness. How are men to be compelled? Not by coercion or legal enactments–not by bribery or the civil power–but by the mercies of God, and the gentleness of Christ.
3. There is such a character in the invitations of the gospel as leaves those inexcusable who reject them. Some excuse themselves on the ground that a self-denial which is beyond them is required, others on the ground of previous engagements. Speculations, worldliness, even domestic relationships, are pleaded as excuses.
II. Inducements to the acceptance of the invitation. What would be inducements to accept an invitation to a feast?
1. Rank of the person inviting. Who, then, is it invites to the feast of the gospel?
2. The guests whom you were to meet. This company is select. It is composed of the wise and the good of every name: all are on a level at the feast of salvation.
3. The occasion of the entertainment. This is intended to supply you with immortal food, and to feed you with the meat that endureth unto everlasting life.
4. The consequences that may result from a refusal. Refusing this, you risk the favour of God. (J. R. Hibbard.)
The souls diet
The verse, most of it, metaphorical, setting out Wisdoms instructions under the similitude of a feast, to which persons invited come and comfortably refresh themselves with meat and drink.
I. The souls diet is of Christs providing. This was prefigured in the manna, and foreshadowed in the rock, that miraculously gave water to the people.
1. The Word is from Him which feeds the soul.
2. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper, whereby we are fed, was of His institution, yea, of His own administration the first time.
3. He hath authority from heaven to find diet for souls.
4. None but He can provide wholesome diet.
II. Men must come where Christs spiritual provisions are to be had.
1. We are invited to come, and it is discourtesy to refuse a friendly invitation.
2. We are commanded to come, and it is disobedience not to come.
3. The feast is prepared for us.
4. The benefits gotten by it may allure you to come for it.
III. We must make use of wisdoms provision as well as come. Coming to a feast doth no good if men be sullen, and will not eat or drink.
1. Our profitable use of Gods ordinances is required.
2. We are informed beforehand to what end we are invited.
3. The gift of this undeserved favour should make us ready to receive it.
4. No good will come to us by this spiritual food if we feed not on it. They who feed well get much good to their souls. (F. Taylor, B.D.)
Wisdoms invitations
It seems to me as if this moment were throbbing with the invitations of an all-compassionate God. I have been told that the Cathedral of St. Marks stands in a square in the centre of the city of Venice, and that when the clock strikes twelve at noon all the birds from the city and the regions round about the city fly to the square and settle down. It came in this wise: A large-hearted woman passing one noonday across the square saw some birds shivering in the cold, and she scattered some crumbs of bread among them, and so on from year to year until the day of her death. In her will she bequeathed a certain amount to keep up the same practice, and now, at the first stroke of the bell at noon, the birds begin to come here, and when the clock has struck twelve the square is covered with them. How beautifully suggestive! Christ comes out to feed thy soul to-day. The more hungry you feel yourselves to be, the better it is. It is noon, and the gospel clock strikes twelve. Come in flocks! Come as doves to the window! All the air is filled with the liquid chime: Come! come! come! (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. Come, eat of my bread] Not only receive my instructions, but act according to my directions.
Drink of the wine – I have mingled.] Enter into my counsels; be not contented with superficial knowledge on any subject, where any thing deeper may be attained. Go by the streams to the fountain head. Look into the principles on which they were formed; investigate their nature, examine their properties, acquaint thyself with their relations, connections, influences, and various uses. See the skill, power, and goodness of God in their creation. And when thou hast learned all within thy reach, know that thou knowest but little of the manifold wisdom of God. Let what thou hast learned humble thee, by showing thee how very little thou dost know. Thou hast drunk of the provided wine; but that wine was mingled with water, for God will hide pride from man. He dwells only on the surface of religious and philosophical learning, who does not perceive and feel that he is yet but a child in knowledge; that he see through a glass darkly; that he perceives men like trees walking; and that there are lengths, breadths, depths, and heights, in the works and ways of God, which it will require an eternity to fathom. Here below the pure wine is mingled with water: but this is God’s work. Yet there is enough; do not therefore be contented with a little. To this subject the words of the poet may be well applied: –
A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
For scanty draughts intoxicate the brain,
But drinking largely sobers us again.
POPE
Among the ancient Jews, Greeks, and Romans, wine was rarely drank without being mingled with water; and among ancient writers we find several ordinances for this. Some direct three parts of water to one of wine; some five parts; and Pliny mentions some wines that required twenty waters: but the most common proportions appear to have been three parts of water to two of wine. But probably the yayin masach, mingled wine, was wine mingled, not with water, to make it weaker; but with spices and other ingredients to make it stronger. The ingredients were honey, myrrh, mandragora, opium, and such like, which gave it not only an intoxicating but stupifying quality also. Perhaps the mixed wine here may mean wine of the strongest and best quality, that which was good to cheer and refresh the heart of man.
If we consider the mixed wine as meaning this strong wine, then the import of the metaphor will be, a thorough investigation of the works of God will invigorate the soul, strengthen all the mental powers, enlarge their capacity, and enable the mind to take the most exalted views of the wonders of God’s skill manifested in the operations of his hand.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Come, eat of my bread,…. Which stands for all the provisions of Christ’s house; it designs the Gospel, which to a believer is more than his necessary food; and the ordinance of the supper, one of the symbols of which is bread; and more especially Christ himself, the bread of God, the living bread that came down from heaven, which is to be eaten by faith; and this only, for everything else is that which is not bread; and this daily, as the Israelites ate their manna; this is the believer’s daily bread; and largely and freely, to which they are welcome by Christ; and with gladness and singleness of heart, joyfully and with sincerity;
and drink of the wine [which] I have mingled; of the love of Christ; or of the love of the Father, Son, and Spirit, which meet and mingle together: to “drink” of this is to partake of it by faith, and be persuaded of interest in it; this may be drank largely of, for there is enough, a river of it; and without danger, it is not intoxicating as wine, wherein is excess; and it may be had freely, without money and without price, So 1:2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(5) Come, eat of my bread . . .Comp. the invitations of Isa. 55:1 and Joh. 6:35.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Come The sense is continued from the preceding verse. The sentiment, stripped of metaphor, is: Wise instructions, received with relish, will afford comfort, satisfaction, and pleasure of the highest and noblest kind. Comp. Isa 55:1, seq. “Not for the first time in John 6, or in the last supper, were bread and wine made the symbols of fellowship with eternal life and truth.” Speaker’s Com.
The wine I have mingled There is considerable diversity of opinion among commentators as to whether this mingling of wine was to make it stronger or weaker. In general, the Europeans English, Scotch, and Germans favour the idea of strengthening: and the Americans, of the later class especially, incline to the opinion of dilution: though Muenscher (American) says, The temperate nations of antiquity were not in the habit of drinking wine drugged, or even undiluted, except at feasts of drunkenness and debauchery, in which they sometimes indulged, when the wine was mixed with potent ingredients to increase its strength. Whether the greater or less progress of temperance principles has any thing to do with the exegesis in these two classes, we know not. The Hebrews were essentially a temperate people, and can hardly be supposed to have imposed less restraint on their appetites than did the Greeks and Romans. So also Dr. A. Clarke. Instead of “the wine I have mingled,” the Geneva has, “wine I have drawn.”
The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic add to this chapter the following: “But hasten away; delay not in the place; neither fix thine eye upon her: for thus thou shalt go through strange waters: and do thou return from strange waters, and drink not at a strange fountain, that thou mayest live long, and years of life be added to thee.” Very good advice, but not in the original Hebrew.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Partaking Of The Great Feast ( Pro 9:5-6 ).
“Come, eat you of my bread,
And drink of the wine which I have mingled.
Leave off, you naive ones, and live,
And walk in the way of understanding.”
All are called to come and eat of her food (her bread included the slaughtered beasts – Pro 9:2), and drink of the wine that she has mingled. This food and wine was to be found in the words of YHWH (Pro 2:6) as revealed through their teachers. How different it was from the food of wickedness and wine of violence in Pro 4:17. They are to leave off whatever they are doing, their naive way of living, and come to partake of what she has provided so that they might truly live, and walk in the way of understanding. (In our Lord’s parables some refused to leave off, and were therefore rejected – Luk 15:16-24).
This call to ‘live’ has been prominent in the Prologue. As we have seen, it includes not only longevity (Pro 3:2; Pro 3:16; Pro 3:18; Pro 9:11), but also wellbeing and spiritual prosperity (Pro 1:9; Pro 1:23; Pro 3:8; Pro 3:18; Pro 3:24-25; Pro 4:8-9; Pro 4:16; Pro 8:21). It is the way of security and peace (Pro 1:33; Pro 3:2; Pro 3:18; Pro 3:24-25). And it is the opposite of entering into the grave world (Pro 2:18; Pro 5:5; Pro 7:27; Pro 9:18), for that is the threat made against those who reject wisdom. It is a ‘life more abundant’ (Joh 10:10), and it promises on death entrance into the presence and joy of YHWH (Psa 16:11; Psa 17:15). And all this comes to the one who walks in the way of understanding.
These concepts of ‘living, and ‘walking in the way of understanding’ will in the next subsection be related to the choices made by ‘the wise’ and ‘the scorner’. There ‘understanding’ will be related to the fear of YHWH and the knowledge of the Holy One (Pro 9:10), whilst wisdom will reward her followers with long and prosperous lives (Pro 9:11). In contrast scorners will sink into hate.
We all have to choose which way we will go, whether in the broad way, the way of the naive, fools and scorners, or in the narrow way, the way of wisdom and life (Mat 7:13-14), or, as here, the way of understanding.
Jesus, of course, could take this one step further. Wisdom could only offer knowledge, and understanding, and words, and shrewdness and discernment. Jesus Christ offered us Himself. ‘I am the Bread of Life,’ He said. ‘He who comes to Me will never hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst’ (Joh 6:35).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Pro 9:5. Eat of my bread, &c. That is, “Attend to, receive, and practise my precepts.” Our blessed Lord may be understood in this sense, Joh 6:53.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 9:5 Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine [which] I have mingled.
Ver. 5. Come, eat of my bread. ] Stand not off in a sinful modesty; say not, I am not worthy, &c., but “Come,” for “the Master calls you,” as they said to the blind man, who therefore came. And those recusant guests, by not coming when invited, might “not taste” of Christ’s supper; for they were unworthy. Mat 22:1-7
And drink of the wine which I have mingled.
a Caranza.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
bread. Put by Figure of speech Synecdoche (of Part), App-6, for all kinds of food.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 9:2, Pro 9:17, Psa 22:26, Psa 22:29, Son 5:1, Isa 55:1-3, Jer 31:12-14, Mat 26:26-28, Joh 6:27, Joh 6:49-58
Reciprocal: Exo 16:15 – This is 2Ch 9:4 – the meat Isa 55:2 – eat 1Co 11:24 – eat
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
9:5 Come, eat of my {f} bread, and drink of the wine [which] I have mixed.
(f) By meat and drink is meant the word of God, and the ministration of the sacraments, by which God nourishes his servants in his house which is the Church.