Every wise woman builds her house, but the foolish one tears it down with her own hands.
Parallel Translations
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Every wise woman builds her house, but the foolish one tears it down with her own hands.
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Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.
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Every wise woman buildeth her house; but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Proverbs 14:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Proverbs 31:10-31 Who can find a worthy woman? For her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband trusts in her. He shall have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax, and works eagerly with her hands. She is like the merchant ships. She brings her bread from afar. She rises also while it is yet night, gives food to her household, and portions for her servant girls. She considers a field, and buys it. With the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard. She arms her waist with strength, and makes her arms strong. She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp doesn’t go out by night. She lays her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle. She opens her arms to the poor; yes, she extends her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of the snow for her household; for all her household are clothed with scarlet. She makes for herself carpets of tapestry. Her clothing is fine linen and purple. Her husband is respected in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them, and delivers sashes to the merchant. Strength and dignity are her clothing. She laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom. Kind instruction is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household, and doesn’t eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also praises her: “Many women do noble things, but you excel them all.” Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman who fears Yahweh, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands! Let her works praise her in the gates!
- Proverbs 24:3-4 Through wisdom a house is built; by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all rare and beautiful treasure.
- Proverbs 21:9 It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop than to share a house with a contentious woman.
- Proverbs 21:19 It is better to dwell in a desert land, than with a contentious and fretful woman.
- Ruth 4:11 All the people who were in the gate, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May Yahweh make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, which both built the house of Israel; and treat you worthily in Ephrathah, and be famous in Bethlehem.
- Proverbs 9:13-15 The foolish woman is loud, undisciplined, and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, to call to those who pass by, who go straight on their ways,
- Proverbs 19:13 A foolish son is the calamity of his father. A wife’s quarrels are a continual dripping.
- 1 Kings 16:31 As if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him.
- 2 Kings 11:1 Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal offspring.
- 1 Kings 21:24-25 The dogs will eat he who dies of Ahab in the city; and the birds of the sky will eat he who dies in the field.” But there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (22 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That is, taketh pain to profit her family, and…
That is, taketh pain to profit her family, and to do that which concerneth her duty in her house.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Pro 14:1 Every wise woman buildeth her house: but…
Pro 14:1 Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.
Ver. 1. Every wise woman buildeth her own house.] Quaevis pia perita. Every holy and handy woman buildeth her house; not only by bearing and breeding up children, as Rachel and Leah builded the house of Israel, {Rth 4:11} but by a prudent and provident preventing of losses and dangers, as Abigail; as also by a careful planning, and putting everything to the best: like as a carpenter that is to build a house, lays the plan and platform of it first in his brain, forecasts in his mind how everything shall be, and then so orders his stuff, that nothing be cut to waste. Lo, such is the guise of the good housewife. As the husband is as the head from whom all the sinews do flow, so she is as the hands into which they flow, and enable them to do their office.
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But the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.] With both hands earnestly: she undoes the family whereof she is the calamity, be she never so witty, if with it she be not religious and thrifty, heedy and handy. {a} Be the husband never so frugal, if the wife be idle, or lavish, or proud, or given to gadding and gossipping, &c., he doth but draw water with a sieve, or seek to pull a loaded cart through a sandy way without the help of a horse; it little boots him to bestir himself, for he puts his gets "into a bag with holes." {Hag 1:6} He "labours in the very fire," {Hab 2:13} as Cowper, bishop of Lincoln, did, whose wife burnt all his notes that he had been eight years in gathering, lest he should kill himself with too much study (for she had much ado to get him to his meals), so that he was forced to fall to work again, and was eight years in gathering the same notes wherewith he composed his dictionary, that useful book. {b} How much happier in a wife was that learned Gul. Budaeus. Coniux mea, saith he, sic mihi morem gerit, ut non tractet negligentius libros meos quam liberos, &c. My wife seeing me bookish, is no less diligent about my books, than about my barns, whom she breeds up with singular care and tenderness. How well might he have done, having such a learned helper, as a countryman of his {c} did, of whom Thuanus reporteth, quod singulis annis singulos libros et liberos, reip. dederit: That he set forth every year a book and a child, a book and a child! But this by the way only.
{a} Sicut ut ligno vermis, ita perdit virum suum mulier malefica. - Hier.
{b} Young’s Benefit of Affliction.
{c} Andreas Tiraquellius.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Buildeth her house; maintaineth and improveth her family and…
Buildeth her house; maintaineth and improveth her family and estate, as this phrase is used, Exo 1:21; 2Sa 7:11; Psa 127:1.
Plucketh it down with her hands; either by her idleness and not using her hands, or by her foolish and sinful courses.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Buildeth - Maintains and improves her family and estate.…
Buildeth - Maintains and improves her family and estate. Her hands - By her idleness or sin.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Various moral sentiments. The antithesis between wisdom and
CHAPTER XIV
Various moral sentiments. The antithesis between wisdom and
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folly, and the different effects of each.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIV
Verse 1. Every wise woman buildeth her house] By her prudent and industrious management she increases property in the family, furniture in the house, and food and raiment for her household. This is the true building of a house. The thriftless wife acts differently, and the opposite is the result. Household furniture, far from being increased, is dilapidated; and her household are ill-fed, ill-clothed, and worse educated.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Pro 14:1. Every wise woman buildeth her house —…
Pro 14:1. Every wise woman buildeth her house — By her care, industry: diligence, and prudent management, she improves, and raises her family and estate. So the phrase is used Exo 1:21; 2Sa 7:11; Psa 127:1. He speaks of the woman, not exclusively of the man, of whom this is no less true, but because the women, especially in those times, were very industrious in managing their husbands’ estates. But the foolish plucketh it down with her hands — By her negligence, idleness, ill management, or want of economy, she lays it low, and wastes all that had been gotten by the care of others.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Every wise woman - literally, Wise women. The fullest…
Every wise woman - literally, Wise women. The fullest recognition that has as yet met us of the importance of woman, for good or evil, in all human society.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Charles Bridges 1846 · Public Domain WE have seen the wife to be a blessing…
WE have seen the wife to be a blessing or a curse to her husband. (Pro 12:4 .) Such is she to his house. Her wisdom may supply many of his defects; while all the results of his care and prudence may be wasted by her folly. The godly matron is the very soul of the house. She instructs her children by her example, no less than by her teaching. She educates them for God and for eternity; not to shine in the vain show of the world, but in the Church of God. Her household order combines economy with liberality (Pro 31:13, Pro 31:18-27 ); strict integrity in the fear of God. (Pro 31:30 .) Thus, as godly servants bring a blessing to the house (Gen 30:27 ; Gen 39:5 ) so does the wise woman build her house (Pro 24:3 ) under the blessing of God, ’establishing it in a firm and durable state.’†1 Who can estimate the worth of a Christian mother — a Hannah†2 — an Eunice?†3
But mark the foolish woman — her idleness, waste, love of pleasure, want of all forethought and care, her children’s wills allowed, their souls neglected, their happiness ruined! We see her house plucked down in confusion. A sad issue, if an enemy had done this! But it is the doing, or rather the undoing, of her own hands. In proportion to her power and influence is her capability of family mischief. Such was Jezebel, the destroyer of her house.†4
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What responsibility then belongs to the marriage choice, linked with the highest interests of unborn generations! If ever there was a matter for special prayer and consideration, this is it. Here to err once, may be an undoing of ourselves and of our house. Of how little account are birth, fortune, external accomplishments, compared with godly wisdom!†5
Footnotes:
†1 Diodati.
†2 1Sa 1:27-28 .
†3 2Ti 1:5 ; 2Ti 3:15 .
†4 1Ki 16:31-33 ; 1Ki 21:24-25 . Compare 2Ki 11:1 .
†5 Mr. Scott here aptly quotes the proverb — that ’a fortune in a wife is better than a fortune with a wife.’ ’For the building of a house three things are principally necessary; first, a holy coming together; secondly, a special fitness in the head of the family; and lastly, a holy living together. As many order the matter, they so provoke God by the first entering upon a family, that the family travels ever after under the burden of God’s anger.’ — Byfield on Col 3:18 .
Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs (1846) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain House. Giving her children a proper education, and taking…
House. Giving her children a proper education, and taking care of her house, chap. xii. 4., and Titus ii. 5. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain (δ) With reference to the relation between the wise…
(δ) With reference to the relation between the wise and the foolish, the rich and the poor, masters and servants
Chap. 14
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1 Woman’s wisdom buildeth her house,
but folly teareth it down with its own hands.
2 He that walketh uprightly feareth Jehovah,
but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him.
3 In the mouth of the foolish is a rod for his pride,
but the lips of the wise preserve them.
4 Where there are no oxen the crib is clean,
but much increase is by the strength of the ox.
5 A faithful witness cannot lie,
but a false witness uttereth lies.
6 The scorner hath sought wisdom, and findeth it not,
but to the man of understanding is knowledge easy.
7 Go from the presence of the foolish man;
thou hast not found (with him) lips of knowledge.
8 The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way,
the folly of fools is a deception.
9 The sacrifice maketh sport of fools,
but to the righteous there is favor.
10 The heart knoweth its own bitterness,
and let no stranger intermeddle with its joy.
11 The house of the wicked is overthrown,
but the tent of the upright shall flourish.
12 There is a way that seemeth right to man,
but the end thereof is the ways of death.
13 Even in laughter the heart will be (perchance) sad,
and the end of joy is sorrow.
14 He that is of a perverse heart shall be satisfied with his own ways,
but a good man (shall be satisfied) from him (E. V. “from himself”).
15 The simple believeth every word,
the wise giveth heed to his way.
16 The wise feareth and departeth from evil,
but the fool is presuming and confident.
17 He that is quick to anger worketh folly,
and the man of wicked devices is hated.
18 The simple have secured folly,
but the wise shall embrace knowledge.
19 The wicked bow before the good,
and sinners at the doors of the righteous.
20 The poor is hated even by his neighbor,
but they that love the rich are many.
21 Whosoever despiseth his friend is a sinner,
but he that hath mercy on the poor—blessings on him!
22 Do not they go astray that devise evil?
and are not mercy and faithfulness with them that devise good?
23 In all labor there is profit,
but mere talk (leadeth) only to want.
24 The crown of the wise is their riches,
the folly of fools (is evermore) folly.
25 A true witness delivereth souls,
but he that uttereth lies is a cheat.
26 In the fear of Jehovah is strong security,
and to His children He will be a refuge.
27 The fear of Jehovah is a fountain of life,
to escape the snares of death.
28 In the multitude of the people is the king’s honor,
but from want of people (cometh) the downfall of the prince.
29 He that is slow to wrath is great in understanding,
but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.
30 The life of the body is a quiet spirit,
but passion the rottenness of the bones.
31 He that oppresseth the poor hath reproached his Maker,
whosoever honoreth him hath had mercy on the poor.
32 By his wickedness is the wicked driven forth,
but the righteous hath hope (even) in his death.
33 In the heart of a man of understanding doth wisdom rest,
but in the midst of fools it maketh itself known.
34 Righteousness exalteth a nation,
but sin is a reproach to any people.
35 The king’s favor is towards a wise servant,
but his wrath against him that is base.
GRAMMATICAL AND CRITICAL
Pro_14:1.—Read חָכְמוֹת, as in Pro_1:20; Pro_9:1, and not חַכְמוֹת (fem. plur. constr.), as though “the wise ones among women” (comp. Jdg_5:29) were to be here designated (so the LXX, Vulg., Luther). [So substantially the E. V., Noyes, etc., distributing the plural on account of the singular of the verb. Fuerst regards חַכְ׀ as merely another form of the abstract noun. Bött. does not admit the possibility of this, but explains the form in the text as an indef. or distributive plural, holding, nevertheless, that the antithesis with אִוֶּלֶת requires here the usual abstract. §§ 700, c and n. 4, and 702, c, ε.—A.]
Pro_14:2.—The וֹ in בּוֹזֵהוּ is one of the few examples in the early Hebrew of the Hholem plen. in emphatic verbal forms beginning or ending a clause. See Bött., §167.—A.]
Pro_14:3.—The form תִּשְׁמוּרֵם should probably be changed to תִּשְׁמְרוּם, since the assumption of the lengthening of the vowel (vocal Sheva) in the syllable preceding (he accent seems hardly justified by analogies like Exo_18:26; Rth_2:8. Comp. Hitzig on this passage. [Bött. defends the form doubtfully, and regards it as probably an illustration of the speech of the Common people. The fem. form of the verb is indicated only by the prefix, and not by its ordinary termination. See §§ 367, b, 1043, 4 and n. 3, and 1047, e. See Green, § 105, d.—A.]
Pro_14:5.—[יְכַזֵּב, one of Böttcher’s examples of the “Fiens licitum,” what may or can bo; § 950, c, β; will not=can not.—A.]
Pro_14:6.—[בִּקֵּשׁ a “relative” perfect, like חֵרֵף and חוֹגֵן in Pro_14:31; “hath been seeking … and it is not,” “hath already virtually reproached his Maker,” “hath already shown mercy.”—Bött., § 950, 1.—A.]
נָקָל is undoubtedly a neuter participle, = נְקַלָּה, a trifle, a small, easy matter.
Pro_14:7.—[Three points come under consideration: 1) the meaning of מִנֶּגֶד לְ 2) the force of the perfect tense יָדַעְתָּ, and 3) the meaning of the connective וְ.On the first, in addition to the arguments of Z. in the exegetical notes, Rueetschi urges (as before cited, p. 140) that with verbs of motion the only natural rendering is “from before,” the לְ being justified by Deu_28:66 as well as the passage in Judges In regard to the second the simple perfect is easier than a predictive perfect; thou hast not=thou surely wilt not. Z. omits. the connective וְ in his version; “and” might be equivalent to “in case, or where thou hast not,” etc. Rueetschi somewhat more unnaturally renders “otherwise;” he obtains the very forcible meaning “otherwise thou hast not known lips of knowledge”—hast not learned their nature, and art now making this evident. De Wette agrees with Rosenmueller in rendering clause b as a relative clause—“and from him in whom thou hast not,” etc.—A.]
Pro_14:10.—[יִתְעָרַב - for - in final syllable under the influence of the guttural, Green, §119, 1; Bött., §§ 378, 1, 1055. In מָרַּת, derived from מָרַר, we have one of the few instances of a doubled ר. See Green, § 60, 4, a, Böttcher, § 392, 2, c.—A.]
Pro_14:12.—דֶּרֶךְ is used in the first clause as masc., in the second as fem. In the historical books, Jerem. and Proyerbs, this confusion is common. see Bött., §§ 657, 2; 877, i.e.—A.]
Pro_14:13.—The suffix in וְאַהֲרִיתָהּ refers to the following שִׂמְחָה, as in the passages cited above in connection with Pro_13:4, To divide וְאַהֲרִית הַשׂ׀ (J.D Michaelis, Hitzig) is an alteration altogether unnecessary in the case before us, where the expression “joy” in clause b is nothing but a repetition of that of “laughter” in clause a.
Pro_14:14.—To change to וּמִמַעֲלָלָיו (L. Capellus, Jaeger, etc.), or to מֵעַלָּיו (Elster, comp. Ewald) is plainly needless in view of the simple and obvious interpretation of מֵעָלָיו given in the notes.
[Bött. proposes with great confidence to amend clause b by substituting for אִישׁ the verb יָמִישׁ; §§ 460, 2, a, and. 1143, 6; “good will depart from him.”—A.]
Pro_14:15.—[Observe the emphatic change of accent and vocalization in פֶתִי.]
Pro_14:17.—In view of the explanation which may be given of the text, attempted emendations appear needless and inappropriate, such, e.g; as Ewald’s, who proposes instead of יִשָׂנֵא to read יְשַׁוֶּא (“he quiets his anger,” “keeps his equanimity”); or that of Hitzig, who to secure the same meaning reads יִשְׁאַן etc. [Rueetschi emphatically defends the received text.]
Pro_14:18.—[Observe the change of tense; נָחֲלוּ) “Perfectum repentinum” used of that which is easily and quickly done; יַכְתִּירוּ “Fiens licitum,” are disposed or inclined to wait, etc. Bött., §§ 950, B; 940, 2; 943, c, a.—A.]
Pro_14:25.—[יָפִּיחַ as in Pro_6:19; Pro_12:17; Pro_19:5; Pro_19:9, an irregular participial form.]
Pro_14:28.—רָזוֹן is a collateral form of רוֹזֵן as עָשׁוֹק of עוֹשֵׁק. The expression hero stands as a parallel to מֶלֶךְ, as the plural רוֹזְנִם often stands side by side with מְלָכִים.
Pro_14:30.—[בְּשָׂרִים, plural, probably, on account of the following עֲצָמוֹת. Bött. however (§ 695, 5) explains it as an example of the “pluralis extensivus” used also of the entire, the complete, the large,—“the life of the whole body.”—A.]
EXEGETICAL
1. Pro_14:1-7. On wisdom and folly in general.—Woman’s wisdom buildeth her house. [See critical notes]. It is plain that in contrast with this wisdom of the godly we are to understand by “folly” in clause b especially woman’s folly.—With Pro_14:2, a, compare Pro_10:9; with b, Pro_2:15; Pro_3:32.
Pro_14:3. In the fool’s mouth is a rod for his pride,—lit., “a rod of pride.” [Is this genitive subjective or objective? a rod which his pride uses, for himself, or others, or both, as it has been variously understood,—or a rod by which his pride is itself chastised ? The antithesis commends the latter, which is the view of Bertheau, Kamph., etc., as well as Z. According to S., “pride” is the subject and not, a limiting genitive—A.] Hitzig unnecessarily proposes to understand נַאֲוָה in the sense of גֵו “back,” a meaning which even in Job_41:7 hardly belongs to the word [although given by Aquila, Jerome, etc.] (Comp. Delitzsch on the passage.)—But the lips of the wise preserve them.—For the construction comp. Pro_11:6; Pro_12:6, etc.; for the meaning, Pro_10:13-14.
Pro_14:4. Where there are no oxen the crib remaineth empty.—אֵבוּם, “crib,” not “stall” (Umbreit); בָּר, in itself meaning “pure, clean,” is here “empty;” so sometimes ’נָקִי. The drift of the proverb is not quite the same as in Pro_10:15; Pro_13:8 (a commendation of moderate wealth as a means of doing good and as a preservative from spiritual want). Rather is this the probable meaning: “He who will develop his wealth to a gratifying abundance must employ the appropriate means; for “nothing costs nothing, but brings nothing in” (Elster, Hitzig).—With Pro_14:5 comp. Pro_12:17; with b in particular Pro_6:19.
Pro_14:6. The scorner hath sought wisdom, and findeth it not,—lit., “and it is not,” comp. Pro_13:7. The bearing of this proverb is plainly directed against that superficial, trivial, seeming culture of the scoffers at religion, (who, in the perverted sense of the word, are “the enlightened”), which lacks all genuine earnestness, and for that very reason all really deep knowledge and discernment.—But to the man of understanding is knowledge given.—See critical notes.
Pro_14:7. Go from the presence of the foolish man.—So Luther had already correctly rendered; also De Wette, Bertheau, Elster; for מִנֶגֶּד [from the front, from before] does not describe motion directly toward or at one (Ewald, comp. Umbreit), but remoteness from him, as Isa_1:16; Amo_9:3; and for the connection with לְ which, it is true, is unusual, comp. Jdg_20:34. [See critical notes].—Hitzig, following the LXX and Syr. vers., writes the first word of the verse כֹּל instead of לֵךְ, and in clause b reads כְּלִי־דַּעַת instead of בַּל יָדַעְתָּ, from which the meaning is obtained “The foolish man hath every thing before him, but lips of knowledge are a receptacle of Understanding” (LXX: ὅπλα δὰαἰσθήσεως). But the idea of the second clause experiences in this way no possible improvement, but only an injury (observe the tautological character of the expressions “lips of knowledge” and “receptacle or vessel of knowledge”), and for this reason we should retain the meaning given above for the first clause also.—In clause b the verb is a proper perfect, “thou hast not known or recognized lips of knowledge,” this is, if thou soughtest any such thing in him. [W. is wrong in rendering “over against,” and “wilt not know.”—A.]
2. Pro_14:8-19. Further delineation of the wise and the foolish, especially with reference to their contrasted lot in life.—The wisdom of the wise is to understand his way,—lit., “observe his way.” For this use of the verb with the accusative, in the sense of to “observe or consider something,” comp. Pro_7:7; Psa_5:2. For the sentiment of the verse comp. Pro_13:16, and Pro_14:15 below.—The folly of fools is deception.—“Deceit” here in the sense of self-deception, imposition on self, blindness, which is at last followed by a fearful self-sobering, a coming to a consciousness of the real state of the case (comp. Psa_7:15; Job_15:35).
Pro_14:9. The sacrifice maketh sport of fools,—i.e., the expiatory sacrifice which ungodly fools offer to God is utterly useless, fails of its object, inasmuch as it does not gain the favor of God, which is, on the contrary, to be found only among the upright (lit., “between upright men,” i.e., in the fellowship of the upright or honorable, comp. Luk_2:14). Thus Bertheau, Ewald, Elster [Stuart and Wordsworth], etc., while the majority, disregarding the singular member in the verb, translate “Fools make a mock at sin” [E. V., M., N., H.] (“make sport with sin,” Umbreit, comp. Luther). [Hodgson, rightly conceiving the grammatical relation, but making both subject and object concrete, renders “sinners mock at fools”]. Hitzig here again proposes violent emendations, and obtains the meaning “The tents (?) of the foolish are overthrown (??) in punishment; the house (?) of the upright is well pleasing.”
Pro_14:10. The heart knoweth its own bitterness,—lit., “a heart knoweth the trouble of its soul,” i.e., what one lacks one always knows best one’s self; therefore the interference of strangers will always be somewhat disturbing. If this be so, then it follows that it is also not advisable “to meddle with one’s joy,” and this is the point that is urged in clause b. A precept applicable unconditionally to all cases is of course not designed here. The author of our proverbs will hardly be put in antagonism to what the Apostle enjoins in Rom_12:15. It is rather a hard and intrusive manifestation of sympathy in the joy and sorrow of one’s neighbor, that is to be forbidden.—With 11, a, comp. Pro_12:7; Job_18:15; with b, Isa_27:6.—With Pro_14:12, a, comp. Pro_12:15; Pro_16:2.—But the end thereof are ways of death,—i.e., the way of vice, which at the beginning appears straight (the way is not directly described as the way of vice, yet is plainly enough indicated as such), at length merges itself wholly in paths that lead down to mortal ruin; comp. Pro_14:4; Pro_7:27.—The same verse appears again below in Pro_16:25. Pro_14:13. Even in laughter the heart will be (perchance) sad.—The Imperf. of the verb here expresses a possible case, something that may easily and often occur. The contrasted condition is suggested by Ecc_7:4 : “Though the face be sad, the heart may yet be glad.” [Notwithstanding Holden’s observation, that “though sorrow may be occasioned by laughter, it does not exist in it,” it is a deeper truth, that in circumstances producing a superficial joyousness, there is often an underlying, profounder sorrow.—A.]—And the end of joy is sorrow [not by a mere emotional reaction, but] in such a case as this; the heart, which under all apparent laughter is still sad, feels and already anticipates the evil that will soon have wholly transformed the gladness into grief.
Pro_14:14. He that is of a perverse heart shall be satisfied with his own ways, i.e., he who has departed from God (lit., “he that is turned aside in heart,” comp. Psa_44:19) is surfeited with his own ways, partakes of the ruinous results of his sinful action; comp. Pro_12:14; Pro_13:2; Pro_28:19.—But a good man (shall be satisfied) from him, i.e., the good man solaces himself in the contemplation of the wicked and his fate (Pro_29:16; Job_22:19; Psa_37:34; Psa_58:11); or, it may be, the upright man enters into the possession of the good which the other loses (comp. Pro_11:8; Pro_11:29; Pro_13:22). מֵעָלָיו, strictly “from with him,” expresses here this idea,—“from that which belongs to him as its foundation” (Hitzig), and therefore “from his experience, from the sorrowful occurrences of life in which he is deservedly involved.” [E. V., H., N., M. render reflexively “from himself,” and make the experiences parallel; each shall be satisfied “with his own ways,” or “from himself.” The third pers. suffix has this reflexive meaning after מֵעַל distinctly in 1Sa_17:22; 1Sa_17:39; Jon_3:6. The suffix in clause a is reflexive, “his own ways,” and we must regard the same construction as the simplest and most natural in b—A.]
Pro_14:15. The simple believeth every word,—Elster: “every thing.” But as objects of belief, it is, in the first instance and most directly, words alone that come under consideration, and reference is made here precisely to the unreliableness of words as used by men, as in Pro_6:1 sq.; Pro_10:19; Ecc_5:1 sq.; Psa_116:11, etc.—With clause b compare above Pro_14:8 a.
Pro_14:16. With clause a compare Pro_16:6; Pro_16:17.—The fool is presuming and confident.—Comp. Pro_21:24; Pro_28:16. The latter of these descriptive terms unquestionably describes a false security, and carnal arrogance, which is the opposite of the fear of God. The former epithet means “self-exalting, bearing one’s self insolently,” or it may be (like the Kal conj. of the same verb in Pro_22:3) “boldly rushing on, overriding” (Hitzig, comp. Luther, “rushes wildly through”).
Pro_14:17. He that is quick to anger worketh folly.—Strictly, “he who foams up quickly, who flies into a passion, “contrasted with the man who is “slow to anger,” Pro_14:29. [אַפַּיִם, the nostrils, then the breathing, which by its quietness or its excitement, marks the state of the temper].—And the man of wicked devices is hated.—Literally, “the man of shrewd reflections, well contrived counsels” (comp. remarks on Pro_1:4, and also Pro_12:2; Pro_24:8; Psa_37:7), who is not here set as a contrast, but as a counterpart to the passionate man; the crafty and subtle man, who, in spite of all his show of mildness, is still as thoroughly hated as the irascible and passionate man. The relation of the two clauses is accordingly not antithetic, but that of a logical parallel. With one manifestation of an evil disposition another is immediately associated, with a suggestion of the results which are in accordance with it; comp. Pro_10:10; Pro_10:18.
Pro_14:18. But the wise shall embrace knowledge.—יַכְתִּירוּ (comp. Ps. 142:8), literally, “surround, enclose,” cannot here mean “they crown themselves, or are crowned” [the verb is not reflexive] (Umbreit, comp. Luther [De W., E. V., H., N., S., M., W.]), but, as the parallel verb in clause a indicates, must convey simply the meaning of “laying hold upon,” i.e., gathering, accumulating [so Fuerst, Bertheau, Kamph., etc.].
Pro_14:19. And the wicked at the doors of the righteous,—i.e., they bow there (the verb is to be repeated from the first clause). The figure lying at the basis of this representation is that of the ambassadors of a conquered people, who, kneeling at the doors of their conqueror’s palace, await his command. For the general sentiment comp. Pro_13:9; Pro_13:22; also Psa_37:25, etc.
3. Pro_14:20-27. On riches and poverty in their causal connection with wisdom and folly.—The poor is hated even by his neighbor.—Comp. Pro_19:4; Sir_6:7 sq.; Pro_12:8 sq. Numerous parallels from classic authors (e.g., Theognis, V. 621, 697; Ovid, Trist., I., 9, 5, 6), and also from Rabbinical and Arabic authors, may be found in Umbreit’s Commentary in loco. “Is hated,” i.e., “is repelled as disagreeable, is obnoxious” (comp. Deu_20:15; Mal_1:3). How this may come to pass, how former friendship between two persons may be transformed into its opposite on account of the impoverishment of one of them, is impressively illustrated by our Lord’s parable of the neighbor whom a friend asks for three loaves (comp. Luk_11:6-8.)
Pro_14:21. Whosoever despiseth his friend is a sinner, i.e., he who neglects a friend that has fallen into destitution (comp. Pro_14:20 a), who does not render him assistance, sins just as surely as his act is praiseworthy who is compassionate to the poor or wretched (read עֲנִיִּים with the K’thibh). With the benediction in clause b compare Pro_17:20.
Pro_14:22. Do they not err that devise evil?—The figurative expression “carve evil” (comp. Pro_3:29; Pro_6:14) has as its counterpart in the second clause the kindred figure “carve out good,” i.e., contrive or devise good (bona machinari). Instead of יִתְעוּ “they err, or go astray ” (comp. Job_15:31) Hitzig reads יֵֹדְעוּ (from רעע): “Ought it not to go ill with them that devise evil?” But the language of the text characterizes with sufficient strength and clearness the unsettled and disastrous condition of those who have departed from God’s ways.—And are not mercy and truth with those that devise good?—The interrogative particle affects the second clause as well as the first (so Umbreit, and doubtless correctly, in opposition to most modern interpreters [e.g., E. V., De W., Bertheau, H., M., S., K, while Noyes agrees with our author]). The construction is like that in Pro_13:18.—“Mercy and truth” are probably God’s manifestations of Himself toward them, as in Gen_32:11; Psa_61:7, and not human attributes, as above in Pro_3:3 (see note in loco), or as in Pro_16:6; Pro_20:28. [So Trapp and others, while M. and S. make them human,—M. making these the experience, and S. the action of those who devise good.—A.]
Pro_14:23. In all labor there is profit, but idle talk (leadeth) only to want.—(Comp. Pro_11:24; Pro_21:5); in the latter passage “profit” and “want” are contrasted precisely as here.—“Idle talk;” in the Hebrew literally, “word of the lips;” comp. Isa_36:5; Job_11:2; Job_15:3. The sentiment of the entire verse is moreover plain: “One should beware of idle talk more than of the hardest toil” (Bertheau). Comp. Mat_12:36.
Pro_14:24. The crown of the wise is their riches, i.e. the well-earned possessions of the wise become his honor, are a real adornment to him, for which he is with good reason praised. “The folly of fools, on the other hand, is and continues folly,” though ho may ever so much parade and swell with it, though he may in particular studiously employ any riches he may chance to possess in splendidly decorating himself, and giving himself a magnificent appearance by all manner of outward trifles and finery (comp. Bertheau, Umbreit, Elster on this passage). [Trapp: “Why, was it not foolishness before they were rich? Yes, but now it is become egregious foolishness”].—Hitzig has here again needlessly felt constrained to amend. He reads in clause a “their prudence,” עָרְמָם, and in clause b, as the subject, “ostentation,” אוּלַת instead of אִוֶּלֶת; so he obtains the meaning, “The crown of the wise is their prudence (?); the pomp of fools is—drunken (??).”
Pro_14:25. A true witness delivereth souls, i.e. from the death involved in some false charge brought against them before the court, and which therefore threatens them in case a truthful witness does not clear them and bring their innocence to light.—But he that uttereth lies (comp. Pro_14:5; Pro_6:19) is a cheat.—Compare Pro_12:17, where, however, “deceit” מִרְמָה is object of the preceding verb “showeth forth,” and not predicate. Here the abstract “deception” stands emphatically for the concrete, “a deceitful man, one without substance or reliableness;” comp. above Pro_14:8, b. [Rueetschi (as above, p. 142) would simplify the construction by retaining מַצִּיל as the common predicate of both clauses, and would give to the second object the meaning “wrongful or unrighteous possession,” citing as a parallel Jer_5:27. We cannot commend the suggestion.—A.] Hitzig instead of “deceit” (מִרְמָה) reads מְרַמֶּה “he destroyeth” (i.e. souls), in order to obtain as exact an antithesis as possible to the “delivereth” in the first clause.
Pro_14:26. In the fear of Jehovah is strong security, or, the fear of Jehovah is strong security, is a sure reliance; for the preposition may properly stand before the subject as the בְּ essentiæ, as in Isa_26:4; Isa_57:6 (so Hitzig).—And to His children He will be a refuge.—“To His children,” i.e. doubtless to His worshippers, those faithful to Him, who for that very reason are His favorites and objects of His care (comp. Deu_14:1). This reference of the suffix to Jehovah Himself is unquestionably more natural than to refer it to the pious, an idea which must first be very artificially extracted from the “fear of Jehovah” (contrary to the view of Umbreit, Ewald, Bebtheau, Eister, [H., N., M., S]). Hitzig reads לְבֹנָיו “to its builders,” i.e., to them who seek to build up that strong fortress, that “security” of the fear of Jehovah (?). With Pro_14:27 comp. Pro_13:14. [Rueetschi (as above, p. 142) supports the idea rejected by Zöckler, that the divine protection extends to the children and the children’s children of such as honor God. Although not without grammatical warrant for the construction, and conveying beautifully a precious scriptural truth, we must regard the rendering as here somewhat forced.—A.]
4. Pro_14:28-35. Continued parallels between the wise and the foolish, the rich and the poor—with the addition of the closely related comparison of masters and servants.—From want of people (cometh) the downfall of the prince. “People” (לְאִֹם) as in Pro_11:26. Whether in the choice of the word rendered “prince” there is a hidden allusion to the ordinary meaning, “consumption” (Hitzig, comp. Umbreit). must remain in doubt. For this use of מְזִמָּה, downfall, ruin, comp. Pro_10:14; Pro_13:3.
Pro_14:29. He that is slow to anger is great in understanding.—Literally, he that is long or slow in anger, βραδὺς εἰς ὀργήν, Jam_1:19; therefore, the forbearing, the patient. “Great, i.e. rich in understanding” (comp. “great in acts,” 2Sa_23:20); comp. the Latin multus prudentia.—But he that is hasty in spirit (quick-tempered) oxalteth folly, i.e. makes much of it, carries it to excess. Thus Hitzig, and doubtless correctly, while the majority take the verb in the sense of “to exalt before the view of men,” manifestare, declarare, for which idea however the parallel passages Pro_12:23; Pro_13:16 are by no means conclusive [H., S., M., W. all take this view].
Pro_14:30. The life of the body is a quiet spirit.—Lit., “life of the members (see Critical Notes) is a heart of quietness” (מַרְפֵּא not meaning here “health,” but composuic, a tranquil condition, as in Pro_15:4; Ecc_10:4).—But passion the rottenness of the bones.—Comp. Pro_12:4, and for this use of קִנְאָה, “passionate zeal,” violent excitement in general (not specifically envy or jealousy) Job_5:2.
Pro_14:31. With clause a compare Pro_17:5, with b, Pro_19:17 a, and above Pro_14:21.
Pro_14:32. By his wickedness is the wicked driven forth, driven forth, i.e.,. from life; he is by a violent death swept away from this earthly life (comp. Psa_36:12; Psa_62:3),—But the righteous hath hope (even) in his death. Ho “is confident,” viz. in Jehovah; comp. Psa_17:7, where the same absolute use of the participle “trusting” occurs (the “trustful” in general, believers). As in Pro_11:7, and if possible even more distinctly than in that passage, we have expressed hero a hope in the continuance of the individual life after death, and a just retribution in the future world. Hitzig, to avoid this admission, reads in accordance with the LXX (ἐν τῇ ἑαυτοῦ ὁσιότητι) בְּתֻמּוֹ, in his uprightness, “but in his innocence doth the righteous trust.” But may not this divergent reading of the LXX owe its origin to the endeavor to gain an antithesis as exact as possible to the “in his wickedness” of the first clause? [Rueetschi (as last cited) preserves the recognition of a hope of immortality and also the poetical parallelism, by giving to the word “evil,” רָעָה, a physical rather than an ethical meaning: “in his misfortune (or adversity) the wicked is overthrown, but the righteous has confidence even in his death.” For the wicked all hope is gone. This seems to us a happy reconciliation of the grammatical and spiritual demands of the two parts of the verse.—A.]
Pro_14:33. In the heart of a man of understanding doth wisdom rest, i.e. quietly, silently; comp. Pro_10:14; Pro_12:16; Pro_12:23, and for this use of the verb 1Sa_25:9.—But in the midst of fools it maketh itself known, i.e.,. not “fools draw out the wisdom of the wise,” which is naturally quiet, in opposition to them and their folly (Hitzig), but, fools carry their wisdom, which is, however, in fact, only folly, always upon their tongues, and seek most assiduously to make it known (comp. Pro_12:23; Pro_13:16; Pro_15:2). The expression is pointed and ironical, and yet not for that reason unintelligible, especially after expressions like those in Pro_14:8; Pro_14:16; Pro_14:24, etc. It is therefore unnecessary with the Chaldee version to supply the noun “folly” again with the verb.
Pro_14:34. Righteousness exalteth a nation. Righteousness, צְדָקָה, is here used with a very comprehensive import, of religious and moral rectitude in every relation and direction, and is therefore not to be restricted, as it is by many recent commentators (Umbreit, Hitzig, etc.), to the idea of virtue. Just as little is the idea of “exalting” to be identified with the idea of “honoring” (as Elster, Hitzig, etc., would have it); it is rather a general elevation and advancement of the condition of the people that is to be indicated by the term; comp. above, Pro_14:29.—But Bin is a reproach to the people.—For the Aramaic term חֶסֶד, “shame,” comp. Pro_28:22 (also Pro_25:10), and Job_6:14. And yet in this national reproach and disgrace there is to be included the corresponding injury and misery of other kinds, so that in this view there is a certain justification for the Vulgate’s rendering, “miseros facit” (which however rests upon the different reading וְחִסַּר; comp. the LXX and the Syr. vers.), and for Luther’s “Verderderben,” destruction.
Pro_14:35. With clause a comp. Pro_16:12.—But his wrath will find out the base,—lit., “his wrath will the base be;” comp., e.g., Pro_11:1, where “his abomination” means the object of his abhorrence. To supply the preposition “to,” לְ, from clause a, is therefore needless (in opposition to the view of Umbreit, Bertheau).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
The representation of the entire chapter is plainly shaped by the contrast between the wise and the foolish, and it is only toward the end (Pro_14:20 sq.) that the kindred contrast between the rich and the poor, and at the very last (Pro_14:27 sq.) that between rulers and servants, is added.—Ethical truths to which a significant prominence is given, are contained especially in the following proverbs:
Pro_14:1. The building of the house by the wisdom of woman. “Only the characteristic wisdom of woman (not that of the man) is able to ‘build itself a house,’ i.e., to make possible a household in the true sense of the word; for the woman alone has the capacity circumspectly to look through the multitude of individual household wants, and carefully to satisfy them; and also because the various activities of the members of the family can be combined in a harmonious unity only by the influence, partly regulative and partly fostering, of a feminine character, gently but steadily efficient. But where there is wanting to the mistress of the house this wisdom attainable only by her and appropriate to her, then that is irrecoverably lost which first binds in a moral fellowship those connected by relationship of blood—that which makes the house from a mere place of abode to become the spiritual nursery of individuals organically associated.” (Elster).
Pro_14:6. The impossibility of uniting a frivolous disposition and jests at religion with true wisdom and understanding. “It is not by a one-sided action of the thinking power, but only by undivided consecration of the whole nature to God, which therefore involves above all other things a right relation of the spiritual nature to Him, that true knowledge in Divine things can be attained. The wise man, however, who has found the true beginning of wisdom, in bowing his inmost will before the Divine, not as something to be mastered by the understanding, but as something to be simply sought as a grace by the renunciation of the very self,—he can easily on this ground which God’s own power makes productive, attain a rich development of the understanding.” (Elster.)
Pro_14:10. The disturbing influence of an uninvited interference in the sorrow and the joy of one’s neighbor. “Every one has his own circle of sorrows and joys, which his neighbor must leave to him as a quiet sanctuary for himself. For in the liveliest sympathy of which one may ever be conscious, it will still often be altogether impossible to enter into the peculiarity of others’ sensibility with such a participation as is really beneficent. Therefore a Turkish proverb (in Von Hammer, Morgenl. Kleebl., p. 68) also says ‘Eat thine own grief and trouble not thyself for another’s’ ” (Umbreit).—Comp. above, our exegetical notes on this passage.
Pro_14:12. The self-deception of many men in regard to their courses, imagined to be healthful, but in reality leading to eternal ruin. Comp. Melanchthon: “The admonition relates to the mistiness and weakness of man’s judgment, and his many and great errors in counsel, for it is manifest that men often err in judging and in their deliberations. Now they are deceived either by their own imaginations, or by the example of others, or by habit, etc., and being deceived, they rush on all the more fascinated by the devil, as is written of Judas in Joh_13:27.”
Pro_14:14. The fool ever accumulating nothing but folly, and the wise man gaining in knowledge. Like Pro_14:24 this proverb is especially instructive with respect to the deep inner connection that exists on the one hand between foolish notions, and a poor, unattractive, powerless earthly position, destitute of all influence,—and on the other hand between true wisdom and large ability in the department both of the material and the spiritual. Von Gerlach pointedly says, “There is a certain power of attraction, according as a man is wise or foolish; the possessions also which the one or the other attains, are in accordance with his disposition.”
Pro_14:28. A sentiment directed against feeble princes who nevertheless array themselves with disproportionate splendor; and this, as also Pro_14:34, is designed to call attention to the principle, that it is not external and seeming advantages, but simply and solely the inward competence and moral excellence, whether of the head or of the members of a commonwealth, that are the conditions of its temporal welfare.
Pro_14:31. Compassion to the poor is true service of God; comp. Jam_1:27. Since God has created both rich and poor (1Sa_2:7), since He designs that they shall exist side by side and intermixed (Pro_22:2), since the poor and lowly man is in like manner a being created in His image (Jam_3:9), therefore he who deals heartlessly and violently with the poor insults that Being Himself who is the Maker and Ruler of all. The compassionate, on the contrary, discerns and honors His disposition toward His creatures, and the love which he manifests toward them, even the humblest and most unworthy, is in fact manifested toward God Himself; comp. Mat_25:40.
Pro_14:32. The confidence which the righteous man possesses even in his death. Compare the exegetical explanation of the passage.
HOMILETIC AND PRACTICAL
Homily on the entire chapter: The wisdom and folly of men considered in their respective foundations, natures and results; and 1) within the sphere of domestic life (Pro_14:1-7); 2) within that of civil life (Pro_14:8-25); 3) within that of political or national life (Pro_14:26-35).—Stöcker: Of human wisdom as the fruit of a right culture,—and 1) of the wisdom of domestic life (prudentia œconomica, Pro_14:1-25); 2) of the wisdom of public life (prudentia politica, Pro_14:26-35). Starke: The results of piety and ungodliness 1) in the household, and in social life generally (1–25); 2) in the relations of rulers in particular (26–35).
Pro_14:1-7. Berleburg Bible:—That wise women build their house, is to be understood not so much of the edifice consisting of wood, stone, plaster, as rather of the family and the household economy, which a wise woman always strives to keep in good condition and to improve. Psa_127:1.—Tübingen Bible (on Pro_14:3): He who is wise keepeth his mouth and still more his heart, that he may not in connection with outward consideration and high dignities fall into pride.—(On Pro_14:4): He that doth not work also shall not eat; the poverty of many springs from this, that they lack industry and diligence.—Starke (on Pro_14:6): He who in seeking wisdom has for his end pride and ambition, will never attain true wisdom, unless he changes his views.—(On Pro_14:7): Evil one always learns more quickly and easily than good; therefore avoid evil company.—[A. Fuller (on Pro_14:6): If our inquiries be influenced by a spirit of pride and self-sufficiency, we shall stumble at every thing we meet with; but he who knows his own weakness and conducts his inquiries with humility, shall find knowledge easy of attainment.—Arnot: Those who reject the Bible want the first qualification of a philosopher, a humble and teachable spirit. The problem for man is not to reject all masters, but to accept the rightful One. Submission absolute to the living God, as revealed in the Mediator, is at once the best liberty that could be, and the only liberty that is.—Trapp (on Pro_14:6): He that would have heavenly knowledge must first quit his heart of corrupt affections and high conceits.]
Pro_14:8-17. Tübingen Bible (on Pro_14:8):—Steady watchfulness and attention to one’s self is a great wisdom.—(On Pro_14:9): To make sport of sin is the height of wickedness.—Starke (on Pro_14:10): He who knoweth the heart alone knoweth the needs of thy heart, which no other besides doth know. He can likewise give thee joy where no other can create it for thee.—(On Pro_14:16): Reverence and love to God must be with us the strongest motive to avoid sin.—(On Pro_14:17): Between the hasty trespasses of passionate natures, and the deliberate wickedness of malicious man, there is always a great distinction to be made—Von Gerlach (on Pro_14:10): How hard it is to console and soothe others, Job’s answers to the discourses of his friends are a signal illustration.—-(On Pro_14:12): In connection with the deceptive, seductive show made by impiety, it is important to give more careful heed to one’s way in life.—(On Pro_14:17): A man who quickly falls into a passion does indeed commit a folly, but yet is far preferable to the coldly and selfishly calculating villain. One may well be indignant at the first—the last makes himself odious.—[Lord Bacon (Advancement of Learning, Book VIII.), on Pro_14:8; Pro_14:15 : He who applies himself to the true wisdom takes heed of his own ways, foreseeing dangers, preparing remedies, employing the assistance of the good, guarding himself against the wicked, cautious in entering upon a work, not unprepared for a retreat, watchful to seize opportunities, strenuous to remove impediments, and attending to many other things which concern the government of his own actions and proceedings. But the other kind of wisdom is entirely made up of deceits and cunning tricks, laying all its hope in the circumventing of others, and moulding them to its pleasure; which kind the proverb denounces as being not only dishonest, but also foolish, etc.—T. Adams (on Pro_14:9): Mocking is the medium or connection that brings together the fool and sin; thus he makes himself merry; they meet in mockery. Through many degrees men climb to that height of impiety. This is an extreme progress, and almost the journey’s end of wickedness.—Arnot (on Pro_14:10): The solitude of a human being in either extremity of the experiences of the human heart is sublime and solemnizing. Whether you are glad or grieved, you must be alone.—(On Pro_14:12): The result accords not with the false opinion, but with the absolute truth of the case. There is a way which is right, whatever it may seem to the world, and the end thereof is life. God’s way of coming to us in mercy is also our way of coming to Him in peace.—(On Pro_14:15): Trust is a lovely thing; but it cannot stand unless it get truth to lean upon.—John Howe, (on Pro_14:14): The good man is not the first fountain of happiness to himself, but a subordinate one a good man is, and so is satisfied from himself—a fountain fed from a higher fountain—by derivation from Him who is all in all, and more intimate to us than we ourselves. But the wicked man is the prime and first fountain of all misery to himself.—Flavel: The upright is satisfied from himself, that is, from his own conscience, which, though it be not the original spring, yet is the conduit at which he drinks peace, joy and encouragement.—R. South (on Pro_14:18): 30th of Posthumous Sermons].
Pro_14:18-25. Zeltner (on Pro_14:19): Bear patiently the pride of the ungodly; it lasts not long.—Starke (on Pro_14:20-21): The many promises that God will graciously reward kindness to the poor must make the Christian joyous and willing in labors of love.—(On Pro_14:22): Virtue and piety reward those who cherish them, but vices and sins cause nothing but pain and trouble.—Geier (on Pro_14:23): Prating and boastful men are like an empty vessel; if one strike it, it does indeed give forth a sound, but for all that nothing goes in.—(On Pro_14:25): Be intent upon truth in thy words, gestures, acts, and in thy whole walk.
Pro_14:26-35. Starke (on Pro_14:28): It is the duty of the lords of the land to see to it that their land be well cultivated, and in particular that “mercy and truth dwell in the land, righteousness and peace kiss each other” (Psa_85:11).—(On Pro_14:29): Impatience opposes the will of God, and is therefore the greatest folly.—(On Pro_14:30): Passion and wrath shorten the life, and care makes old before one’s time.—(On Pro_14:31): Despise no man, be he ever so humble, for thou knowest not but in that act thou art despising a true child of God.—(On Pro_14:32): There is surely a future life to be hoped for after death; otherwise how could the righteous be so comforted in their death?—(On Pro_14:34): Sin is the cause of all misery under the sun.—(On Pro_14:35): If the fidelity of his subjects is pleasing to a king, how much more will God take pleasure if one serves Him faithfully and with the whole heart, through the strength of Jesus Christ!—[Arnot (on Pro_14:25): The safety provided for God’s children is confidence in Himself, the strong tower into which the righteous run.—(On Pro_14:31): The necessary dependence of human duty upon Divine faith.—S. Davies (on Pro_14:32): 1) Every righteous man has a substantial reason to hope, whether he clearly see it or not; 2) Good men in common do in fact enjoy a comfortable hope; 3) The hope which the righteous hath shall be accomplished.—Saurin (on Pro_14:34): As there is nothing in religion to counteract the design of a wise system of civil polity, so there is nothing in a wise system of civil government to counteract the design of the Christian religion. The exaltation of the nation is the end of civil polity. Righteousness is the end of religion, or rather is religion itself.—Emmons (on Pro_14:34): It is the nature of sin 1) to lessen and diminish a people; 2) to sink and depress the spirit of a people; 3) to destroy the wealth of a people; 4) to deprive them of the blessings of freedom; 5) to provoke the displeasure of God and draw down His judgments.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1. Every wise woman — Literally, as to form,…
1. Every wise woman — Literally, as to form, the wisdoms of women; both plural, but with the verb in the singular, showing that the subject is to be taken as singular. Some render, woman’s wisdom buildeth. But the sense is well enough given in our common version.
The foolish — Literally, folly, but feminine in form; feminine folly plucketh. The sentiment is, that in building up a family, the woman, the wife and mother, has possibly more to do than the man. Great men have generally been more indebted to their mothers than to their fathers; and the greatness of certain families is traced chiefly to maternal wisdom and virtues. But of the foolish woman just the reverse may be said. She needs no help to pull down her house; her negligence, ill-management, extravagance, lack of capacity for family government, or other failings or vices, do the deed. She destroys her own family. For an example of the wise woman, see Pro_31:10, seq.; comp. also Pro_24:3-4, and Rth_4:11, seq. “A fortune in a wife is better than a fortune with a wife.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. Every wise woman] Some texts read the wisdoms…
1. Every wise woman] Some texts read the wisdoms (plur. of excellence, as in Pro_9:1) of women. And so in next clause, the folly (of women). A slightly different reading is followed by A.V. and R.V., the wise ones of (among) women, buildeth every one her house; σοφαὶ γυναῖκες, LXX.; sapiens mulier, Vulg. Comp. Her wise princesses, lit. the wise (ones) of her princesses, Jdg_5:29.
her hands] her own hands, R.V., as indicated by the order of the words in the Heb.: “with her hands plucketh it down.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) Every wise woman buildeth her house.—This should be…
XIV
(1) Every wise woman buildeth her house.—This should be rendered, “The wisdom (literally, wisdoms; see above on Pro_1:20; chokhmôth should probably be read here, as there, not chokhmôth) of women buildeth (for each) her house, but (their) folly plucketh it down,” &c.
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Buildeth her house.—Each person and each good work throughout the household grows, as it were, under her fostering hand. (Comp. Eph_2:21.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Every wise woman buildeth her house. Wise women order…
Every wise woman buildeth her house. Wise women order well their household matters and their families; they have an important influence, and exercise it beneficially. Gunaiko swzein oikian . "A good wife is the saving of a house.
The versions render as above. A different pointing of the word translated "wise" (chakhmoth) will give "wisdom" (chokhmoth), which it seems best to read here, as the parallel to the abstract term "folly" in the second member. So we have, "Wisdom hath builded her house". (comp. Pro_9:1 Pro_1:20) Thus: "The wisdom of women buildeth their house". (Pro_12:4 Pro_24:3) But the foolish plucketh it down with her hands; "but Folly plucketh it down with her own hands;" of course, the folly of women is intended. Gunh ga swthria . "Bane or salvation to a house is woman.
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Foolish, unprincipled women, by their bad management or their evil doings, ruin their families materially and morally. "The husband should labour," says a Servian proverb; "the wife should save.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-7. Traits of wisdom and folly.
I FEMININE WISDOM. (Ver. 1)
1. Its peculiar scope is the home. Women are physically and morally constructed with a view to the stationary life and settled pursuits of home. Its comfort, the strength of the race, the well being of society, are rooted, more than in any other human means, in the character, the principle, the love and truth of the wife and mother.
2. The absence of it is one of the commonest causes of domestic misery. The fact is but too well known to all who are acquainted with the homes of the poor, and indeed of all classes. The cause is not far to seek. The word "home" has hardly a meaning without the presence of a virtuous woman; and a home has seldom been wrecked while a virtuous woman remained in it.
II THE STRICT CONNECTION OF RELIGION AND MORALITY. (Ver. 2)
1. Fear of Jehovah includes reverence for what is eternal, faith in what is constant, obedience to what is unchanging law.
2. Contempt for Jehovah means the neglect of all this; and the preference of passion to principle, immediate interest to abiding good; what is selfish and corruptible to what is pure and durable and Divine.
III SPEECH A SCOURGE OR A SHIELD. (Ver. 3) The word of haste, which is at the same time the word of passion and of inconsiderateness, recoils upon the speaker. As an old proverb says, "Curses come home to roost." And what can put a stronger armour about a man, or cover him more securely as a shield, than the good words he has thrown forth, or in general the expression of his spirit in all that is wise and loving? The successive accretions of substance from year to year in the trunk of the oak tree may typify the strength coincident with growth in the good man"s life.
IV THE CONNECTION OF MENAS AND ENDS. (Ver. 4) Such seems to be the point of the saying. "Nothing costs nothing." If you keep no oxen, you have no manger to supply. But at the same time, nothing brings nothing in. The larger income is secured by the keeping of oxen. This is, in fact. the sense of the old saw, "Penny wise and pound foolish." In short, it is part of the science of life to know the limits of thrift and of expense. "A man often pays dear for a small frugality." "Cheapest," says the prudent, "is the dearest labour." In the more immediate interests of the soul, how true is it that only first expense of thought, time, love, upon others is the truest condition of our own blessedness!
V TRUTH AND LIES. (Ver. 5) Again and again we strike upon this primary stratum of character. We cannot define the truthful or untruthful man. We can feel them. The reason is as "simple as gravity. Truth is the summit of being; justice is the application of it to affairs. The natural force is no more to be withstood than any other force. We can drive a stone upwards for a moment into the air, but it is yet true that all stones will fall; and whatever instances may be quoted of unpunished theft, or of a lie which somebody credited, justice must prevail, and it is the privilege of truth to make itself believed.
VI THE UNWISDOM OF THE SCOFFER. (Ver. 6) He places himself in a false relation to truth; would measure it by his small mind, and weigh it in his imperfect scales. He has one principle only to apply to everything, and that the limited perception of his faculty or the narrow light of his experience. The description well applies to the free thinkers, the illuminati so called of the last century in England, France, and Germany, and their successors in the present day. There is the air of superior intelligence and zeal for truth, frequently concealing some passion of a very different; order. Or, again, there is the shallow assumption that absolute truth is to be found by the human intellect, which has led philosophers two many aberrations. The end is some fallacy and glaring self-contradiction. How different the spirit of him whom the teacher describes as intelligent"in this place! It is "easy" for him to be wise. It is like opening his lungs to the bountiful and all-embracing air, or expatiating on the boundless shore, like great Newton. Wisdom springs from the sense that truth in its infinity is ever beyond us. But the reference here is more to practical wisdom, the science of living from day to day. And good sense is the main requisite for its acquirement, the very opposite of which is the supercilious temper which disdains to learn from any and all.
VII THE EVIL OF FOOLISH COMPANY. (Ver. 7) And of all its conversation, its atmosphere, its temper. "Cast not pearls before swine." "Avoid the mixture of an irreverent commonness of speaking of holy things indifferently in all companies" (Leighton). "Do not overrate your strength, nor be blind to the personal risks that may be incurred in imprudent efforts to do good" (Bridges). "Better retreat from cavillers" (ibid.). J.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Ver. 1. Woman as a builder.
Where the light of revelation has shone, woman has had a position and a power, an honor and a happiness, such as she has not enjoyed elsewhere. Under the teaching of Christian truth she has been, or is being, rapidly raised to her rightful place, and is becoming all that the Creator intended her to be. We cannot forecast the future, but we may predict that her own especial province, the sphere where she will always shine, will be, as it is now, the home. It is her house" that she will either build up or pluck down "with her own hands." Whether she will do the one or the other depends on the question whether she shows
I GOODNESS (moral worth) or GUILT.
II IMPARTIALITY or an unwise and unrighteous preference of one child to another.
III DILIGENCE in the discharge of her household duties, or NEGLIGENCE.
IV KINDNESS OR ASPERITY in her bearing toward all the members of the home.
V PATIENCE OR IMPATIENCE in the government of her family and her servants. And since the upbuilding or the down plucking of "the house," the promotion or the ruin of domestic harmony and happiness, depends in so large a degree on the wisdom or the folly of the woman who is the wife and the mother, therefore:
1. Let every wise man think many times before he makes his choice.
2. Let every woman who is entering on this estate go forth to occupy it in
a. humility,
b. prayerfulness,
c. wise and holy resolution. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish…
Pro_14:1
Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.
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The wise builder
The Scriptures have adapted their instructions to every character and condition in human life.
I. Describe the wise woman.
1. She must know how to manage with prudence and care the concerns of a family. It is womans work to guide the house. How many, on marrying, find they need to learn the first principles of domestic economy. If a man can be more happy in any other house than his own, he is a lost man.
2. A wise woman will improve her taste and her manners. This in no way involves her becoming proud.
3. A wise woman will aim to improve her mind. The mind is enlarged by receiving ideas, and by using them as materials of thought and reasoning.
4. A wise woman will endeavour to enlighten and improve her conscience. This is the faculty of the soul by which we weigh the morality of an action. To improve the conscience we must give it light, and let it guide us. Well enlightened, it guides to happiness and heaven.
5. A wise woman will be particularly careful to cultivate the heart. The instinctive affections are capable of improvement by other means than grace. But the female character is essentially defective in the absence of piety. Religion has a peculiar sweetness when it mingles with the modest softness of the female character. By reason of their peculiar trials, females need the comforts, hopes, and prospects of religion more, if possible, than the other sex.
II. A wise woman buildeth her house. To build her house is to promote the best good of her husband and her offspring.
1. How will such a woman affect their estate? Her wisdom will save more than her hands could earn.
2. She will render her family respectable.
3. She will render her family happy. She will so manage as not to irritate their passions. Her example will breathe through the house a mild and soft atmosphere. There is no resisting the combined influence of so many virtues. What she cannot do by her precepts and examples, she effects by her prayers. Her influence surely extends beyond her own family.
Reflections:
1. Females see how they are to rise in the scale of being.
2. See the importance of supporting good schools.
3. See the importance of the gospel.
4. Females should make the Scriptures their daily study.
From the mother, rather than the father, the members of the family will take their character. (D. C. Clark.)
Wise and foolish wives
The foolish woman does not know that she is plucking down her house; she thinks she is building it up. By unwise energy, by self-assertion, by thoughtless speeches, by words flung like firebrands, she is doing unutterable mischief, not only to herself, but to her husband and family. There are, on the other hand, wise women who are quietly and solidly building the house night and day: they make no demonstration; the last characteristic that could be supposed to attach to them would be that of ostentation; they measure the whole day, they number its hours, they apportion its worth; every effort they make is an effort which has been reasoned out before it was begun; every word is looked at before it is uttered; every company is estimated before it is entrusted with confidence. In this way the wise woman consolidates her house. (J. Parker, D.D.)
House wifery
I. Its great power.
1. It can build up. Every wise woman buildeth her house.
(1) Materially. By her economy, industry, and wise management she increases its material resources. A good wife builds up her house--
(2) Spiritually. A good wife by her example, her spirit, her admonitions, her reproofs, her prayers, rears in her house a very temple of industry, intelligence, and worship.
2. It can pull down. The foolish plucketh it down with her hands. There are women who by their miserable tempers and degrading habits ruin their husbands and children.
II. Its necessary qualification. What is the necessary qualification for a good housewife? Wisdom. (Homilist.)
Home made happy by a good wife
A plain marble stone, in a churchyard, bears this brief inscription: She always made home happy. This epitaph was penned by a bereaved husband, after sixty years of wedded life. He might have said of his departed wife, she was beautiful, and accomplished, and an ornament to society, and yet not have said she made home happy. Alas, he might have added, she was a Christian, and not have been able to say, She always made home happy. What a rare combination of virtues and graces this wife and mother must have possessed! How wisely she must have ordered her house! In what patience she must have possessed her soul! How self-denying she must have been! How tender and loving! How thoughtful for the comfort of all about her! (Christian Treasury.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Pro_14:1. Wise woman, or “woman’s wisdom.”
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Pro_14:1. Wise woman, or “woman’s wisdom.”
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MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_14:1
THE HOUSE BUILDER AND THE HOUSE DESTROYER
I. A woman’s special sphere of work—her house. In this word is included all that in any way relates to the home life. Woman’s relation to it is threefold.
1. The house—properly so-called—the interior of the building, is under her especial care. It is her temple of service, she is its priestess. As the female priestess in the Roman temple and the Hebrew priest in the temple of God were responsible for the internal order of their temples, so is every woman responsible for the order, the cleanliness, and comfort of the house of which she is the social priestess. It is her house, and in it she is expected to perform duties to which she is not called in any other house. Her oversight and presence, if not her actual labour, are indispensable to the proper arrangement of everything in it.
2. The affairs or business of the house is her special care. It is for her to preside over the domestic economy of the house—over that which we call housekeeping. All transactions of this nature seem naturally to fall within her jurisdiction, and it looks odd and out of place to see them in other hands.
3. She is specially related to the life of the house. If she is a mother, she, above all others, has the charge of the children, her opportunities for influencing them are greater than those possessed by the father. Her life is always before them. Her words are treasured up and repeated by them. If she is a mistress, the servants are under her special jurisdiction and guidance.
II. The wise woman is a social architect. She “builds her house.”
1. Building implies a plan. No man sets about building a house without first having a plan, which is well considered in proportion to the wisdom of the builder. No argument-builder, with any wisdom, enters into an argument without first considering what he is going to do, and how he is going to do it, in order, if possible, to arrive at an unanswerable conclusion. So, to build a house in the sense of the text, there must be a plan of action. Every wise woman has an end in view in the government of her household. She has plans in relation to each department. She knows what she purposes to do before she begins to do anything.
2. Building implies personal exertion on the part of the architect. All his work is not done when he has drawn the plan and issued his orders. He must see that they are executed. He must, if needful, show how they are to be carried out. In times of emergency the general of an army must—like Napoleon at the Bridge of Lodi—engage himself in a hand-to-hand fight with the enemy. So will a wise woman. She does not always say, “Go,” but sometimes “Come.” She does not say, “That is the way,” when “This is the way” is necessary. She never contents herself with saying, “Do this,” without assuring herself that it is done.
3. Building implies a union of diverse materials to form a complete whole. Many and diverse materials are brought together to build a house. It would be impossible to erect a building of usefulness and beauty of one material alone. So a wise woman brings together many different elements, and blends them in due proportion, in order to make the home-life true, and beautiful, and good. Her wisdom is shown in developing the abilities and capacities of each member of the household, so that each may contribute to the strength and comfort of the whole. Upon the female head of the house, more than upon anyone else, depends the unity, peace, and concord of this temple of living stones.
III. An unwise woman, who is at the head of a house, caricatures her position by her conduct. Her position implies that she is a builder-up. Her conduct has the effect of pulling down. A clown upon a kingly throne is not more out of place than a foolish woman who bears the name of mistress, wife, and mother. The reins are in her hands, but she does not know how to guide the chariot; the materials are in her possession but she has no skill to use them. She is not only no centre of unity, she is a source of discord; she not only cannot build the house herself but she makes it impossible for anybody else to do anything towards it. She is not only no “crown to her husband,” but she is “rottenness to his bones” (chap. Pro_12:4).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
A good wife is heaven’s last best gift to a man; his angel of mercy; minister of graces innumerable; his gem of many virtues; his casket of jewels; her voice, his sweetest music; her smiles, his brightest day; her kiss, the guardian of his innocence; her arms, the pale of his safety; the balm of his health, the balsam of his life; her industry, his surest wealth; her economy, his safest steward; her lips, his faithful counsellors; her bosom, the softest pillow of his cares; and her prayers, the ablest advocates of heaven’s blessings on his head.—Jeremy Taylor.
The following is a translation of a Welsh Triad:—A good wife is modest, void of deceit, and obedient; pure of conscience, gracious of tongue, and true to her husband; her heart not proud, her manners affable, and her bosom full of compassion for the poor, labouring to be tidy, skilful of hand, and fond of praying to God; her conversation amiable, her dress decent, and her house orderly; quick of hand, quick of eye, and quick of understanding; her face benignant, her head intelligent, and provident, neighbourly, gentle, and of a liberal way of thinking; able in directing, providing what is wanting, and a good mother to her children; loving her husband, loving peace, and God.—New Handbook of Illustration.
“House” means all interests. “Has built” is preterite. If all interests are prosperous at present, it has been the work of the past. The second clause wisely returns to the future, which we commonly translate as the present, because the act is steadily running on, and includes both the present and the future. Wisdom in woman has built her house, beginning a long time ago; but “folly” in women is an affair of the present. If it had been at work long, it would have had no house to pull down. As entering upon the work of the wise, ungodly mothers tear down the house which generations of the righteous have been slowly building. The grand comment, however, is that this womanly wisdom or wise woman, like the woman of grace (chap. Pro_9:16), or woman of folly (chap. Pro_9:13) has an allegoric meaning. Women do much toward building up. But the text means more, that “wisdom,” as personified, is the only builder of a “house,” and “folly,” as impenitence, all that can pull it down.—Miller.
Only the characteristic wisdom of woman (not that of the man) is able to “build itself a house,” i.e., to make possible a household in the true sense of the word; for the woman alone has the capacity circumspectly to look through the multitude of individual household wants, and carefully to satisfy them; and also because the various activities of the members of a family can be combined in a harmonious unity only by the influence, partly regulative, and partly fostering, of a feminine character, gently but steadily efficient. But where there is wanting to the mistress of a house this wisdom attainable only by her, and appropriate only to her, then that is irrecoverably lost which first binds in a moral fellowship those connected by relationship of blood—that which makes the house, from a mere place of abode, to be the spiritual nursery of individuals organically associated.—Elster.
The fullest recognition that has as yet met us of the importance of woman, for good or evil, in all human society. Plumptre.
With calm, clear eyes, deep insight, ready sympathy; active, without bustle; alert, without over-anxious vigilance; ignorant perchance of æsthetic rules, yet with subtle touches transforming into a fine picture the home-spun canvas, and with a soft fairy music blending into harmony the noises of the day; apathetic about stocks and shares, and far-off millions; but with a keen appreciation of new sovereigns and no disdain for sixpences; a mere formalist, if professing interest in city improvements and parochial reforms, but as touching torn curtains and threadbare carpets much exercised in spirit; sure that the commotions of Europe will all come right, but shedding bitter tears at any outburst of juvenile waywardness, and praying earnestly, “Oh, that Ishmael may live before thee!” with small belief in the transcendental philosophy, and allowing that much may be said on both sides, but in the interpretation of the Ten Commandments positive, unreasoning, absolute; in theology hopelessly confounding the theology of the schools, and in an innocent way adopting half the heresies, but drinking direct from the fountain that living water which others prefer, chalybeate, through the iron pipe, or ærated from the filtering pond, and in a style which Calvin or Grotius might equally envy teaching the little ones the love of the Saviour; the angel of the house moulds a family for heaven, and by dint of holy example, and gentle control, her early and most efficacious ministry goes farther than any other to lay the foundations of future excellence, and train up sons and daughters for the Lord Almighty.—Dr. Jas. Hamilton.
St. Ambrose noteth that when God asked Abraham, “Where is thy wife, Sarah?”—He was not ignorant where Sarah was; but that He asked the question that by Abraham’s answer, “Behold, in the tent,” He might teach women where they ought to be—namely, in the house, and not so much in the house as in the affairs of the house, making ready provision to entertain God as Sarah was.—Jermin.
The modest virgin, the prudent wife, or the careful matron, are much more serviceable in life than petticoated philosophers, blustering heroines, or virago queens. She who makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims the one from vice and trains the other to virtue, is a much greater character than ladies described in romance, whose whole occupation is to murder mankind with shafts from their quiver or their eyes.—Goldsmith.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain If you ask what God and the word of…
Pro 14:1
If you ask what God and the word of God mean by wisdom and folly, the answer will embrace three particulars: on the side of wisdom, these—forethought, earnestness, perseverance; on the side of folly, in like manner, these—improvidence, irresolution, unsteadiness. Corresponding to these three qualities of the builder are the three conditions of building: (1) To build you must have a plan; (2) building requires toil; (3) The proof of the building is growth. What now, is the house?
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I. There is the house of the mind. It is the bounden duty of each one to build on some plan, and to begin early. If a plan is the first condition of building, toil, honest toil, is the second; and perseverance, brave and steadfast, is the third, and the most decisive.
II. The house of the life. Every one of us has a life—the most weighty word, the most mysterious possession, the most responsible charge. It is a matter almost of life and death to make choice, amongst many possibilities, of the work which is to fill our lifetime. Wisdom will forecast, even in these things, the plan of her future.
III. We should have missed the very point of the text if we did not see, in the house spoken of, the house of the everlasting hope. Have you so much as settled the plan of this house of the, hope? What is your idea of the thing to be built? Let us not trifle with the house of the great hope. Let us lay deep the foundation, than which no man can really lay any other. Let us seize earnestly, let us hold tenaciously, any fragment of Divine truth which conscience attests and the soul can echo; let us piece each to each, with a new realisation until the whole stands out at last in its breadth and in its satisfaction; at the end of all, God Himself shall consciously enter, and fill the house of our soul’s hope with the glorious illumination of His presence.
C. J. Vaughan, Counsels to Young Students, p. 31.
References: Pro 14:1-6.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 368. Pro 14:6.--W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 367. Pro 14:7.—Ibid., p. 373. Pro 14:7-12.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 378.
Pro 14:9
I. The various ways in which men make a mock at sin may be summed up under two heads: by their words, and by their actions. We show our scorn and contempt of a thing in our words, when we speak carelessly of it, or laugh at it, or turn it into ridicule. We show it in our actions, when we live in such a manner as proves that we have no value or regard for it. Even of the first kind of mockery, the mockery of words, few are wholly innocent; of the last kind of mockery, the mockery of deeds, all have been more or less guilty.
II. The guilt of such mockery is too plain; the folly is the folly of playing with death. It is the folly of provoking God to cut us off in the midst of our calculating wickedness. Above all is such conduct folly, because we are disabling our hearts and souls more and more for the work of repentance, without which we know and believe we can have no part in the promises of the Gospel. For nothing is more certain than that the longer a man persists in sin the harder it is to leave it off. His heart is deadened; his conscience is blunted; his soul closes itself by little and little against the impulses of the Holy Spirit.
III. If the end of the foolish mockers is so certain and terrible, let us seek wisdom,—that true wisdom which cometh from above, and which is first pure, then peaceable, full of mercy and gentleness, and of all good works. All who lack wisdom must ask it of God; no one had ever enough of it; no one has enough of it to learn its value without wishing for more.
A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons, p. 215.
I. It is requisite that we learn of God what is the evil of sin— making His testimony in this, as in all other matters, the subject of faith. (1) The circumstance of our being an interested party incapacitates us for forming a correct judgment of the evil. (2) We are incapacitated for giving judgment in consequence of our moral sense being blunted by the continual presentation of sin before our eyes, in the conduct of others. (3) We are incompetent to form a sufficient judgment on the evil of sin, in consequence of our inability to see all its mischievous effects.
II. Consider the judgment of God on sin. (1) In His word He expresses moral disapprobation of it. (2) He threatens to avenge sin with death, spiritual and eternal. (3) He has avenged, and continues to avenge, the transgression of His law, as an earnest of His executing to the full its penalty in the world to come. (4) The death of Christ was necessary for the pardon of sin. (5) He visits with afflictions the sins even of those who have been judicially reconciled to His government and adopted into His family, through the mediation of His Son.
III. The magnitude of sin may be argued from a consideration of the dignity of Him against whom it is committed. Sin offers insult and injury to all the attributes and perfections of the Deity. (1) It denies and violates the rights of His sovereignty as the Creator. (2) It insults His goodness. (3) It insults His power. (4) It insults His wisdom, His truth, and His holiness.
W. Anderson, Discourses, p. 223.
There are different ways in which men make a mock at sin. They may mock at sin in others, or they may mock at sin in themselves.
I. A man sees another doing what he knows to be wrong, and he makes a jest of it. He is finding amusement in that which might make angels weep, and which cost the Son of God His life. No one can thus make a mock at sin without thinking very lightly of the evil of sin. The heart grows hard and callous. And the next thing is to commit the sin which we have laughed at in others.
II. Another way of "mocking at sin" consists in making light of it in ourselves. It is very fearful to think how soon we come to this pass, notwithstanding all our better purposes, and all warnings to the contrary. How many men can look back upon a time when sins that they have since committed greedily seemed almost impossible to them. They forgot the guide of their youth, they kept not the covenant of their God. They shut their ears to God’s word, and their eyes to His judgments; they walked greedily in the way of ungodliness, they were "fools who made a mock at sin."
III. Observe what a verdict Solomon pronounces on persons who make a mock at sin; he calls them "fools." None but fools could be guilty of such amazing stupidity. Consider: (1) what sin is in its nature. It is the will of the creature set against the will of the Creator. (2) Consider the consequences of sin. See what an abomination sin is in God’s sight by the visible punishment which He has attached to it. (3) Look at the eternal consequences of sin. Shall we make a mock at that against which the wrath of Almighty God is so fearfully declared? (4) If we would truly see what sin is, we must see it in the light of redemption. Who can measure the guilt and the power of that sin from which we could only be redeemed by the sacrifice of the Son of God? See your folly in the light of your Redeemer’s tears, your Redeemer’s anguish, your Redeemer’s Cross; and confess as you look on His marvellous sacrifice that "fools" only can "make a mock at sin."
J. J. S. Perowne, Sermons, p. 31.
References: Pro 14:9.—C. Wordsworth, Old Testament Outlines, p. 157. Pro 14:10.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 375.
Pro 14:12
I. There are ways that lead to death. Each of us has come into contact with beings whom excesses have led to a premature end; others still occupy a place in the world, but their ruined health, their weakened faculties, show that, to use the words of St. Paul, "they are dead while living." The death in question here is the state of a soul condemned by Him who sees the most hidden recesses of our being, and whose judgment none can alter; it is the condition of a creature who has willingly separated itself from God.
II. Many a way that leads to perdition may seem to us to be right. Nothing is better calculated to disturb the superficial optimism in which so many of our fellow-men find a delusive security than the firm conviction of this fact. In their opinion, that a man may be saved, he must be sincere; in other words, the way he follows must seem to him to be right. (1) In the order of things temporal it is evident that sincerity in ignorance or error has never saved anyone from the often terrible consequences which such ignorance or error may entail. Societies are based upon this maxim: "No one is supposed to be ignorant of the law." Moreover, this axiom is graven in nature itself. Nature strikes those who violate its laws, and never takes into consideration their state of ignorance or good faith. (2) God is not an inexorable fatum. God takes into account the inward condition of each being, his ignorance, his involuntary errors. Therefore, if any should ask whether a man who is mistaken shall be saved or not if he is absolutely sincere, we shall answer that we are inclined to believe it; and that a way cannot lead to eternal death the man who has entered upon it believing it to be right and true. But this conclusion should reassure no one, for the point in question is precisely to discover if we are indeed absolutely sincere in the choice we make; now, the more I study men, the more I study myself, the more clearly do I perceive that nothing is more uncommon than this sincerity of which we speak so much, and of which so many people make a merit. None are entitled to say, "This way seems right to me, therefore I can enter upon it without fear." We must first of all examine whether we do not call right that which is simply pleasing to us, that which attracts us and flatters our secret instincts.
III. In every human life there are solemn hours when divergent paths open before us. On the choice we then make depends our entire future. When we find ourselves before an opening path, we must stop, measure it at a glance, and never enter it unless we may do so with the peace of a conscience that feels it is accomplishing the will of God.
E. Bersier, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 399.
Among the indications that we are not what we once were, there is, perhaps, none more decisive in its testimony than the depravation of the natural conscience. It is in consequence of this paralysis of the conscience that such an assertion as that in the text points to a phenomenon of constant occurrence among men.
I. The text does not say these apparently right ways are themselves the ways of death, but that they end in the ways of death.
II. The "ways" are mainly of two kinds—errors in practice and errors in doctrine; the former by far the most abundant, but the latter by no means so rare as to bear passing over in considering the subject. (1) The first practical error is that of a life not led under the direct influence of religion. I speak of the man who, however many virtues he may possess, however upright he may be in the duties of life, however carefully he may attend to the outward duties of religion, does not receive it into his heart nor act on its considerations as a motive. This is a way of life which usually seems right unto a man. He wins esteem from without, and has no accusing conscience within. But he is not a religious man. He has not the fear of God before his eyes. This approved way must end in the way of death. Improbable as it may seem that the correct liver, the blameless and upright man, should perish at last, it is but a necessary consequence from his having put by and rejected the only remedy which God has provided for the universal taint of our nature, by which taint, if not purged out, he must, as well as the rest of the unrenewed and ungodly, be ruined in the end. (2) Take the case of those who, believing from the heart and living in the main as in God’s sight, are yet notoriously and confessedly wanting in some important requisite of the Gospel. These ways seem right unto those who are following them. (3) Errors of doctrine. There is nothing in life for which we are so deeply and solemnly accountable, as the formation of our belief. It is the compass which guides our way, which if it vary ever so little from truth, is sure to cause a fatal divergence in the end. Whether we consider practice or belief, each man’s deeming is not each man’s law; every man’s deeming may be wrong, and we can only find that which is right by each one of us believing and serving God, as He has revealed Himself to us in Christ.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. vii., p. 50.
I. There is a theory very much in fashion, that if a man acts according to his convictions, he cannot be brought into condemnation. The principle here involved is simply this, that a man’s own ideas are his own standard, that he is a law unto himself, that if he does violence to his own views of truth and error, good and evil, he is reprehensible, but that if he be fully convinced in his own mind that is at once a bar to his condemnation. The text offers a strong protest against this theory, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man;" but, notwithstanding his sincerity, notwithstanding his convictions, the end thereof are the ways of death.
II. If we shall be judged not only as to whether we have acted by the guidance of conscience, but also whether our conscience was a right conscience; there flows from this the doctrine that conscience itself is a thing we are bound to train, and cherish, and educate, in order that it may never mislead us; a man is, in short, responsible for his conscience. It is a mysterious law of our spiritual nature that we have to mould and train our own proper guide. God has given conscience for our direction, but it remains with ourselves to secure that we be directed by it aright.
Bishop Woodford, Sermons in Various Churches, p. 83.
References: Pro 14:12.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 378; J. Thain Davidson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 369. Pro 14:13-24.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 387.
Pro 14:14
I. The good man’s satisfaction arises from the circumstance that he is regulated in his character and conduct by a fixed and stable thing, by principle. In contemplating anything to be done, in all his movements, in all moral questions, his object is to do what is right. In the midst of his activity, his satisfaction arises from himself, from the consciousness that he acts upon principle and in the sight of God; and therefore, if he should fail, looking back upon his failure, reflecting upon his error, he has still a satisfaction which the world can neither confer nor destroy.
II. The sentiment may be illustrated by the contrast which is often exhibited between the good man and the wicked, when the latter is called upon to eat the fruit of his own ways. The good man is not only preserved from pain and wretchedness, but is placed in such circumstances, the result of a wise and holy course of conduct, as to be able to help others; and thus he enjoys the highest satisfaction, not of being delivered, but of being a deliverer; enjoys something of the satisfaction of God Himself, who giveth to all and receiveth from none.
III. The satisfaction of the good man arises from his being preserved from the sting and reproach of an evil conscience. He has nothing that he ardently wishes to forget, or nothing that he dare not remember, because he believes that God has forgotten and blotted it out. The darkness and the light are both alike to him. "The good man is satisfied from himself."
IV. The last idea connected with this subject is that of the positive and increasing pleasure, the growing delight of the good man’s soul. I refer to that joyous healthiness of soul which arises from a life of purity, devotion, and goodness; that calm yet irrepressible feeling of delight, which daily and hourly, continually and always, fills the heart. It is not positive reflection upon doing, it is not thinking about character or actions, but the perpetual rising up in the soul of an inexpressible satisfaction. This is the way in which a good man is "satisfied from himself."
T. Binney, Penny Pulpit, No. 1389.
Here, in a short text, are three paradoxes.
I. A good man. As the royal are related to royalty, and the noble to nobility, so are the good to the godly, and they are related to God. Goodness is, therefore, an internal quality; thus the good man is whole within, sound within; you may know a good man by several marks, but they all throw you back on the internalism of his character. Hence his satisfaction; all health is within.
II. Here is a man satisfied. Contentment is the science of thankfulness. It is Christ’s fulness that gives the crown of contentment.
III. The source of the satisfaction—from himself. (1) He is satisfied with the object and foundation of his faith. (2) In the evidences of his religion, a good man shall be satisfied from himself. (3) In the ordinances of the sanctuary a good man shall be satisfied from himself. (4) In the law of life a good man is satisfied from himself. (5) In the apportionment and destiny of the world a good man is satisfied from himself.
E. Paxton Hood, Sermons, p. 400.
References: Pro 14:14.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi., No. 1235; W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st scries, p. 384; W. G. Horder, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvi., p. 100. Pro 14:15.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 388. Pro 14:16.—Ibid., p. 392.
Pro 14:23
I. In the text Solomon gives us a lesson which holds good through all matters of life. That it is a short-sighted mistake to avoid taking trouble; for God has so ordered the world that industry will always repay itself. God has set thee thy work, then fulfil it. Fill it full. Throw thy whole heart and soul into it. Do it carefully, accurately, completely. It will be better for thee and for thy children after thee. All neglect, carelessness, slurring over work, is a sin—a sin against God, who has called us to our work; a sin against our country and our neighbours, who ought to profit by our work; and a sin against ourselves also, for we ought to be made wiser and better men by our work.
II. Work, hard work, is a blessing to the soul and character of the man who works. Being forced to work and forced to do your best will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle man will never know. If you wish to see how noble a calling work is, consider God Himself, who although He is perfect does not need, as we do, the training which comes by work, yet works for ever with and through His Son, Jesus Christ, who said, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." God. works, because, though He needs nothing, all things need Him. You are called to copy God, each in his station, and to be fellow-workers with God for the good of each other and yourselves; called to work because you are made in God’s image, and redeemed to be the children of God.
C. Kingsley, Town and Country Sermons, p. 269.
References: Pro 14:24.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. viii., p. 252. Pro 14:25.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 396. Pro 14:25-31.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. ii., p. 1.
Pro 14:26
I. Real godliness involves confidence towards God. The reason is that reconciliation with God is complete. In the case of those who really fear the Lord there springs up between them and God a filial friendship.
II. Real godliness produces confidence towards men.
III. The confidence which real godliness awakens is adapted to all circumstances. In danger it becomes boldness; in duty and work it is conscious power.
IV. It is a confidence which abides to the end.
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 2nd series, No. 11.
References: Pro 14:26.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii., No. 1290; J. Vaughan, Children’s Sermons, 1875, p. 44; W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 401. Pro 14:30.—Ibid., p. 406.
Pro 14:31
I. Notice some suggestions as to the practice of mercy to the poor. We must not confine our aim either to the sins of the soul on the one hand, or to the sufferings of the body on the other.
II. Every one must do his part in the great work of helping those who cannot help themselves.
III. Mercy to the poor must be a law operating from within, and not a system adopted from without.
IV. There must be regulating wisdom as well as motive power.
V. Whatever share you may be able to take in the wholesale benevolence of organised societies, you should also carry on a retail business by personal contact with the sufferers.
W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 410.
References: Pro 14:32.—J. Owen, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 49; W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 417; Homiletic Magazine, vol. viii., p. 198; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 179. Pro 14:32-35.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. ii., p. 11. Pro 14:34.—J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii., p. 262; Bishop Temple, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 49.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain 1. The prosperity of the family depends on the…
1. The prosperity of the family depends on the wife (Pro_31:10-31).
3. Of pride] RM 'for his pride.'
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4. Where there are no oxen men have not to labour at keeping the crib clean, but at the same time there is no profit. The men who unload coal in Calais harbour used to sing: 'The coalis black, but the money's white.'
8. The wise man's concern is how shall he act; the foolish man's how shall he deceive others.
9. Lit.' the guilt-offering mocketh at fools.' This seems to mean that fools trust in its expiatory virtue, but that on their behalf it has no efficacy.
10. Every one knows where his own shoe pinches (1Ki_8:38).
11. Tabernacle] or 'tent,' used for 'house' (1Ki_12:16).
12. He mistakenly thinks that the path of self-indulgence leads to lasting prosperity.
13. Men do not always wear their heart on their sleeve. Black Care sits behind the horseman.
14. We get our deserts. The backslider in heart is he who forsakes God.
15. 'Quick believers need broad shoulders.'
16. Rageth] RV 'behaveth himself insolently'; will not be told, knows better than any one else.
17. Anger is temporary madness.
19. Not always: see Luk_16:20.
22. They wander from the way of safety and peace.
24. Riches rightly used are a crown: but a rich fool has no crown, has nought but folly.
28. Let the king follow a policy which shall' increase, not diminish, the number of his subjects.
29. Exalteth folly] i.e. exhibits. great folly.
30. A 'tranquil' heart (RM) is contrasted with a jealous one.
32. If we transpose two letters we get the following rendering: 'The wicked is thrust down through his evil-doing, but the righteous hath a refuge through his integrity.' In any case, it is hardly in keeping with the rest of Proverbs to find here a reference to the life beyond the grave.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain CHAPTER 14 The Wise and The Foolish: The Rich…
CHAPTER 14 The Wise and The Foolish: The Rich and The Poor
The contrast now concerns the wise and the foolish, the rich and the poor. Let us see some of these contrasts. “In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride, but the lips of the wise shall preserve them” Pro 14:3. The foolish shoots forth his foolishness like a branch. Separation from the foolish man is commanded in the seventh verse. The wise cannot have fellowship with the foolish, as the believer is not to be yoked to the unbeliever. Fools make a mock at sin Pro 14:9). The word “sin” in the original means “trespass offering.” That is exactly what the foolish man does, including the religious fool; he denies both sin and the blessed provision God has made to deliver from the guilt and power of sin. But among the righteous, says the next line, there is favor (acceptance). Because the righteous owns himself a sinner, judgeth himself and accepts God’s redemption through the one sacrifice.
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How true it is “the heart knoweth his own bitterness, and a stranger does not intermeddle with its joy” Pro 14:10. We can tell our troubles and sorrows to others, but the bitterness of the heart cannot be revealed, but it is known to One who is touched with our sorrows and the bitterness of life through which we pass, for He Himself passed through it also.
Here is another deep saying, which shows that behind this wisdom uttered by the wise king, there is another who knows all what is going on in human life and in the heart. “Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness” Pro 10:13. How often the sorrowful, the downcast covers all with forced laughter and no one suspects that underneath the mirth there is heaviness. This is true of children of the world, the foolish who reject true wisdom and know not the Lord Jesus Christ.
Of the poor and the rich we read that the poor is hated; the rich has many friends Pro 14:20). He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoreth Him hath mercy on the poor” Pro 14:31). To deal kindly with the poor and the lowly is God-like. The righteous will manifest his righteousness in a practical way by considering the poor.
Precious are two other proverbs in this chapter.
In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence;
And His children shall have a place of refuge.
The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,
To depart from the snares of death. Pro 14:26-35)
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain v. 1. Every wise woman buildeth her house, literally,…
v. 1. Every wise woman buildeth her house, literally, "Woman’s wisdom buildeth her house," the reference being to the prudence and foresight of the wise housekeeper, who manages well; but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands, her mismanagement results in ruin.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 builds her house
builds her house
"builds up her house" or "makes her house better"
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house
Possible meanings are 1) this may refer to her actual house, that is the building she lives in or 2) this may refer to her family.
with her own hands
The woman is represented by her "hands." AT: "by herself" or "by the way she behaves" (See: Synecdoche)
The one who ... the one who
"The person who ... the person who"
walks uprightly
"Walks" represents the conduct of life. AT: "conducts his life in a just and honest way" (See: Metaphor)
despises him
"grossly disrespects him" or "shows that he hates him"
in his ways despises him
The word "his" refers to the dishonest man and "him" refers to Yahweh.
translationWords
wise
house
fool
walk
fear
Yahweh
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 14:1 Building or tearing down the home is a…
14:1 Building or tearing down the home is a metaphor for strengthening or weakening one’s family.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.