Stay away from a foolish man, for you won’t find knowledge on his lips.
The wisdom of the prudent is to think about his way, but the folly of fools is deceit.
Fools mock at making atonement for sins, but among the upright there is good will.
Parallel Translations
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Stay away from a foolish man, for you won’t find knowledge on his lips.
The wisdom of the prudent is to think about his way, but the folly of fools is deceit.
Fools mock at making atonement for sins, but among the upright there is good will.
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Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge.
The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit.
Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favour.
Show all 3 translations
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Go from the presence of a foolish man, for thou wilt not perceive the lips of knowledge.
The wisdom of the prudent is to look well to his way; but the folly of fools is deceit.
Amends pleadeth for fools; but among the upright there is good will.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (2)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (33)
- Ephesians 5:17 (v8) Therefore don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
- Proverbs 13:20 (v7) One who walks with wise men grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.
- Proverbs 9:6 (v7) Leave your simple ways, and live. Walk in the way of understanding.”
- 1 Corinthians 5:11 (v7) But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a…
- Ephesians 5:11 (v7) Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them.
Show all 33 cross-references
- 2 Timothy 3:13 (v8) But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
- Proverbs 19:27 (v7) If you stop listening to instruction, my son, you will stray from the words of knowledge.
- Colossians 1:9-10 (v8) For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the…
- James 3:13 (v8) Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good conduct that his deeds are done in gentleness of wisdom.
- Psalms 111:10 (v8) The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. All those who do his work have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!
- Psalms 119:5 (v8) Oh that my ways were steadfast to obey your statutes!
- Psalms 119:34-35 (v8) Give me understanding, and I will keep your law. Yes, I will obey it with my whole heart. Direct me in the path of your commandments, for I…
- Psalms 119:73 (v8) Your hands have made me and formed me. Give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments.
- Proverbs 2:9 (v8) Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.
- Proverbs 8:20 (v8) I walk in the way of righteousness, in the middle of the paths of justice,
- Proverbs 10:23 (v9) It is a fool’s pleasure to do wickedness, but wisdom is a man of understanding’s pleasure.
- Proverbs 11:18 (v8) Wicked people earn deceitful wages, but one who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward.
- Proverbs 26:18-19 (v9) Like a madman who shoots torches, arrows, and death, is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, “Am I not joking?”
- Romans 14:17-18 (v9) for God’s Kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these…
- Psalms 143:8 (v8) Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my…
- Proverbs 8:35 (v9) For whoever finds me, finds life, and will obtain favor from Yahweh.
- Proverbs 13:15 (v9) Good understanding wins favor, but the way of the unfaithful is hard.
- Proverbs 30:20 (v9) “So is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth, and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’
- Jeremiah 13:20 (v8) Lift up your eyes, and see those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you, your beautiful flock?
- Luke 12:19-20 (v8) I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ “But God said to him,…
- Ephesians 4:22 (v8) that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit,
- 2 Timothy 3:15-17 (v8) From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.…
- Proverbs 1:22 (v9) “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge?
- Proverbs 3:4 (v9) So you will find favor, and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
- Proverbs 12:2 (v9) A good man shall obtain favor from Yahweh, but he will condemn a man of wicked plans.
- Jude 1:18 (v9) They said to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts.”
- Job 15:16 (v9) how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
- Job 34:7-9 (v9) What man is like Job, who drinks scorn like water, Who goes in company with the workers of iniquity, and walks with wicked men? For he has…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (22 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v9 Doth not know the grievousness thereof, nor God’s judgments…
Doth not know the grievousness thereof, nor God’s judgments against the same.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Pro 14:7 Go from the presence of a foolish…
Pro 14:7 Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not [in him] the lips of knowledge.
Ver. 7. Go from the presence of a foolish man.] If he be a proud fool, as Pro 14:6, a scorner and derider of good counsel, and one that knows not how to lisp out the least syllable of savoury language, break off society with such as soon as may be; for what good can be gotten by their company or conference? "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" They infect the very air they breathe upon, and are therefore called λοιμοι, pests, {a} according to the Septuagint, {Psa 1:1} their tongues have the very plague in them; "their breath as fire shall devour you." {Isa 33:11} Non potest vir ille sine convitiis quenquam a quo dissentit vel in levissimis, nominare, saith Dr Rivet concerning Bishop Montague; that man hath not the power to forbear railing at any one that dissents from him, though in never so small a matter. Is there any good to be gotten by such? Do not "their words eat as a gangrene." {2Ti 2:17}
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{a} Dabhar a word, Debher a pest.
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 On vv7–9 Avoid the company and conversation of ungodly men, when…
Avoid the company and conversation of ungodly men, when they break forth into foolish or wicked discourses, lest thou either be infected by them, or seem to approve of them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv7–9 See here, 1. How we may discern a fool…
See here, 1. How we may discern a fool and discover him, a wicked man, for he is a foolish man. If we perceive not in him the lips of knowledge, if we find there is no relish or savour of piety in his discourse, that his communication is all corrupt and corrupting, and nothing in it good and to the use of edifying, we may conclude the treasure is bad. 2. How we must decline such a one and depart from him: Go from his presence, for thou perceivest there is no good to be gotten by his company, but danger of getting hurt by it. Sometimes the only way we have of reproving wicked discourse and witnessing against it is by leaving the company and going out of the hearing of it.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Go from the presence of a foolish man,.... A…
Go from the presence of a foolish man,.... A wicked one; avoid him, shun his company, depart from him, have no fellowship with him, it, being dangerous, infectious, and hurtful;
when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge; when it is observed that his lips pour out foolishness, what is corrupt and unsavoury, unchaste and filthy; what does not minister grace to the hearers, nor is for the use of edifying, nor any ways improving in useful knowledge, but all the reverse: the Targum is,
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"for there is no knowledge in his lips,''
in what is expressed by them; some understand this ironically, and render the words thus, "go right against a foolish man" (f); join in company with him, "and thou shalt not know the lips of knowledge", or learn anything by him; if you have a mind to be ignorant, keep company with a foolish man; so Jarchi and Gersom: or rather to this sense the words may be rendered, "go to a foolish man, seeing thou knowest not the lips of knowledge" (g), since thou dost not approve of wise and knowing men, whose lips would teach knowledge; and despisest the Gospel, and Gospel ministers the pope of Rome, as Cocceius on the text serves, and hear him, what his holiness and infallibility says; or some other false teacher.
(f) "e regione viri stulti", De Dieu; so Gussetius, p. 495. and Schultens (g) "Abi ut stes cora in viro stolido", Cocceius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv8–9 His way - Consists not in vain speculations, but…
His way - Consists not in vain speculations, but in a diligent study of his duty, and of the way to eternal happiness. The folly - The wit of ungodly men, which is really their folly, is employed only in finding out ways of deceiving.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Verse 7. When thou perceivest not - the lips…
Verse 7. When thou perceivest not - the lips of knowledge.] Instead of דעת daath, knowledge, several MSS. have שקר sheker, a lie. How this reading came I cannot conjecture. The meaning of the adage is plain: Never associate with a vain, empty fellow, when thou perceivest he can neither convey nor receive instruction.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv8–9 Pro 14:8. The wisdom of the prudent is to…
Pro 14:8. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way — It consists not in vain speculations, nor in a curious prying into other men’s matters, much less in subtle arts of deceiving others, but in a diligent study of his own duty, and of the way to true and eternal happiness; but the folly of fools is deceit — The wit of ungodly men, which, though they account it their wisdom, is really their folly, is employed only in finding out ways of overreaching and deceiving others, and themselves too.
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 On vv8–9 The Hebrew counterpart to the Greek “Know thyself.” “The…
The Hebrew counterpart to the Greek “Know thyself.” “The highest wisdom is for a person to understand his own way. The most extreme folly is self-deceit.” The word “deceit” may, however, involve fraud practiced upon others. The folly of fools shows itself then in their ceaseless effort to deceive.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Charles Bridges 1846 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Fellowship with the ungodly is absolutely forbidden, and it…
Fellowship with the ungodly is absolutely forbidden, and it is never safe to contradict a plain command. (Pro 9:6 . 2Co 6:17 .) Let us labour to win their souls to Christ. But the rule of prudence directs — "Cast not your pearls before swine." ’Avoid’ — says the holy Leighton — ’the mixture of an irreverent commonness of speaking of holy things indifferently in all companies.’†1 Therefore when we perceive not in the foolish man the lips of knowledge, go from his presence. Some may be called to dispute with him. But take care that the call is clear. It is at least the safest path to dispatch your business with him as in a shower of rain, and not to loiter in his society.
Sweet indeed is the glow of the Savior’s name upon the young Christian’s lips. Its warmth may put elder Christians to shame. But we must warn him — Harm may be got in an imprudent endeavour to do good. Confess your Master, wherever he may open your door and your mouth. But better retreat from cavillers. (Pro 26:4 . 1Ti 6:4-5 .) You may be foiled by specious reasonings. Beware of tampering with your simplicity by the hazardous experiment, how much poison your constitution may bear. (1Co 15:33 .) If our Lord exposed himself to moral danger; yet think of the impenetrable cover of his sanctity, his perfect self-government, his rules of godly prudence. Do we feel secure in the strength of our Christian habits? None are so confirmed, as to be safe in relaxation of watchfulness, and wanton rushing into danger. There is a perpetual warfare with the old principles of corruption. No dependence can be placed upon any habits, that do not produce right conduct, and right apprehension of present duty. The path of sin is much more easily avoided than relinquished. We can far more readily keep out of the course of the stream, than stem the torrent. Walk closely with God; and under his cover and shield bear a protest against the ungodly. (Psa 119:114-115 .) Commune much with his people. The very sight of a man of God is refreshing. (Pro 27:9 .)
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Footnotes:
†1 Mat 7:6. Leighton in loco, vol. iii.
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 On vv7–9 Prudence. Thou wilt presently perceive his weakness. Hebrew, "abandon…
Prudence. Thou wilt presently perceive his weakness. Hebrew, "abandon a," &c. He is not capable of hearing reason: keep at a distance.
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Avoid the society of those who cannot teach you.
Avoid the society of those who cannot teach you.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv7–9 7. Go from the presence — The original of…
7. Go from the presence — The original of the proverb is obscure; but probably our version gives the sense.
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 On vv7–9 7. Go from … when thou perceivest not] Rather,…
7. Go from … when thou perceivest not] Rather, Go into … and thou shalt not perceive, R.V. text. Take up your position, as it were, over against him, and contemplate him carefully, and weigh his words; and your first impression of him will be confirmed, “thou shalt not perceive” &c.
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 On vv7–9 (7) Go from the presence of a foolish man—(khesîl)—i.e.…
(7) Go from the presence of a foolish man—(khesîl)—i.e. a dull, stupid one, when the time comes that you see you can do him no good; for “evil communications corrupt good manners.” Thus Samuel “came no more to see Saul,” when he saw that remonstrances were unavailing with him, though he continued to “mourn” for him, remembering from what high estate he had fallen.
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 On vv7–9 Go from the presence of a foolish man. There…
Go from the presence of a foolish man. There is some doubt about the rendering of this passage. The Vulgate gives, vade contra stultum, which is probably to be taken in the sense of the Authorized Version. The Revised Version has, "Go into the presence of a foolish man." The Hebrew dgNmi (minneged) may mean "from before," "over against," "in the presence of." Hence arises an ambiguity. The Authorized Version considers the sentence to be an injunction to turn away from a stupid man when you perceive that you can do him no good. The Revised Version is equivalent to "if you go into the presence," etc. When thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge; Revised Version, and thou shalt not perceive in him, etc., which embodies a truism with no special point. The whole sentence is better translated, Go forth from the presence of a foolish man, and thou hast not known the lips of knowledge; i.e., as Nowack explains, "Leave the presence of a fool, and you carry nothing away with you; after all your intercourse with him, you quit his presence without having gained any advance in true knowledge". (see on Pro_20:15) The LXX presents a very different version: "All things are adverse to a foolish man; but wise lips are the arms of knowledge (aisyhsewv )." A foolish man, by his inconsiderate, slanderous, or bitter words, makes every one his enemy; a wise man uses his knowledge to good purposes; his words are the instruments by which he shows what he is.
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 On vv7, 9 Go from the presence of a foolish man.
Pro_14:7
Go from the presence of a foolish man.
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The society to be shunned
Man is a social being. The text holds up the society which we should avoid--the society of the foolish.
I. It is unprofitable. What you want in society is knowledge. True knowledge shall--
1. Rightly guide.
2. Truly comfort.
3. Religiously inspire the soul.
But such knowledge is not to be got from the foolish man. He has no power to help you, and therefore time spent in his society is waste.
II. It is misleading. The folly of fools is deceit.
1. They cheat themselves. They fancy they have the true ideas, and the true pleasures, but it is a miserable delusion.
2. They cheat others. They mislead by the falsehood of their speech and the craftiness of their policy.
3. It is wicked. They make a mock at sin. Go, then, from the presence of a foolish man. Seek the society of the wise. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Safety in flight
It is the intention of their Maker that some creatures should seek safety, not in fighting, but in fleeing. In the moral conflict of human life it is of great importance to judge rightly when we should fight and when we should flee. The weak might escape if they knew their own weakness, and kept out of harms way. That courage is not a virtue which carries the feeble into the lions jaws. To go in among the foolish for the rescue of the sinking may be necessary, but it is dangerous work, and demands robust workmen. Your first duty is your own safety. But on some persons at some times there lies the obligation to encounter danger for the safety of a neighbour. (W. Arnot, D.D.)
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 On v7 Pro_14:8. Deceit, or “deception.”
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Pro_14:8. Deceit, or “deception.”
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Pro_14:9. Many translators read this verse, “The sacrifice,” or “the sin-offering, makes a sport of,” or “mocks fools.” So Zöckler, Elster, Ewald, Stuart, Wordsworth, etc. Miller translates, “Sin makes a mock at fools.” Among, or “to.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF PARAGRAPH.—Pro_14:7-9
THE FOOL AND THE PRUDENT MAN
I. How to know a fool. The dead carcase that is above ground is its own evidence. No one needs to inquire what it is, or where it is. The pestilential atmosphere which surrounds it tells its own tale. So a fool is a self-evidencing person. His words proclaim his character. He says nothing that is worth saying. Nothing that can enlighten a man’s mind or better his nature is to be found in his conversation. “The lips of knowledge” are not with him. But there is not simply the absence of wisdom. He is not a negative character. No man’s soul can remain like an empty house; if wisdom is absent sin comes in and takes up its abode. The fool is also a knave. “The folly of fools is deceit,” and in this also he will sooner or later be his own evidence. Like particles of poisonous matter, his deceit, as well as his ignorance, will make its presence known. His words will sooner or later betray his untruthful character. He will also be known by his profanity. “Fools make a mock at sin.” The most perfect beings in God’s universe regard sin as a serious matter, knowing, as they do, the bitter fruits which spring from one sinful action. God Himself treats sin as a terrible and awful reality. Yet men are to be found who make light of it, and others so depraved as to laugh at that which God regards with abhorrence, and visits with retribution.
II. How to treat a fool. “Go from the presence of a foolish man.” There are three reasons why we go from the neighbourhood of a polluted and polluting carcase. First, its odour is offensive to us. Secondly, to linger near may generate disease in our bodies. Thirdly, being diseased ourselves, we may become an occasion of injury to others. So a man void of moral wisdom ought to be an offensive presence to every man. Our moral instincts ought to be strong enough without any outside voice to say, “Go from him.” The “folly of a fool,” being deceit, he is an incarnation of the devil; our own self-love should prompt us to quit his society. The man that mocks at sin is a generator of moral disease, we cannot be in his company without moral injury, and if we catch the pestilence ourselves we shall in turn infect others with the disease.
III. What constitutes a prudent or morally wise man. He “understands his way.” A fool cannot be said to have a way or method of life any more than the leaf which is driven before the wind, or the timber that is floating down the rapid. Like them, he is the victim of circumstances; he is driven hither and thither by the currents of inclination or passion. He has no “way” to understand. He is as a cloud driven before the hurricane. He floats like a rudderless vessel upon the sea of life. But a prudent man has a “way,” or method of life (see Homiletics on chap. Pro_13:14), and the great business of his life is to “understand” it—to find the best means of bringing his life into conformity with that rule of righteousness which is his standard of life; to gather from the voice of God in revelation, in conscience, and in Providence what course he is to pursue, what at all times is the right thing to do, and what is the right way of doing it. This is the life-study of the man who is morally prudent, and the highest aim that a man can propose to himself is to attain to a right understanding of his way. (On the latter clause of Pro_14:9 see Homiletics on chap. Pro_13:14).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_14:7. The path of sin is much more easily avoided than relinquished. We can far more easily keep out of the course of the stream than stem the torrent—Bridges.
Thou mayest tarry with a foolish man while he holdeth his peace, and while he is willing and patient to hear thee. For he may get knowledge by hearing, and thou mayest have comfort by speaking. But it is time to be gone when by his lips thou perceivest knowledge to be gone from them.—Jermin.
In nature, some creatures are strong and bold, having both instincts and intruments for combat: other creatures are feeble but fleet. It is the intention of their Maker that they should seek safety, not in fighting, but in fleeing. It would be a fatal mistake if the hare, in a fit of bravery, should turn and face her pursuers. In the moral conflict of human life it is of great importance to judge rightly when we should fight and when we should flee. The weak might escape if they knew their own weakness, and kept out of harm’s way. That courage is not a virtue which carries the feeble into the lion’s jaws. I have known of some who ventured too far with the benevolent purpose of bringing a victim out, and were themselves sucked in and swallowed up. To go in among the foolish for the rescue of the sinking may be necessary, but it is dangerous work, and demands robust workmen … The specific instruction recorded in Scripture for such a case is, “save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted with the flesh” (Jud_1:23). He who would volunteer for this work must fear lest the victim perish ere he get him dragged out, and fear lest himself be scorched by the flame.—Arnot.
Pro_14:8. We are not to infer, because “wisdom” eludes the scorner, that it is, therefore, something mystic. It fits earth so closely, that it actually carves our “way.” Nay, more closely still, it is actually path-finding itself. She takes a man from her very gate, and tells him all that he must do. She not only discerns paths, but that is all of her; she does nothing else. “The wisdom of the subtle is the making discernible of his way,” while, on the other hand, “the folly of the stupid is (its own) delusion.” All of us having a way, and all of us following it with the great energy of our lives, “the excellency and knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.” Wisdom grasps its end; folly never. Wisdom is the great pathfinder; folly a “delusion.”—Miller.
Every man has a final destination before him. The way of all is the way to the grave, and to eternity. But in that eternity are two widely different states. To the opposite states there are two ways—“the narrow,” and “the broad.” Oh the infinite value of true wisdom here,—the wisdom that understands both ways, and rightly chooses between! The folly of fools is deceit may mean that the folly of fools proves to them deceit. Their confidence in it, and their expectations from it, are sheer delusion. Or the sense may be, “deceit is the folly of fools.” “New stratagems,” says Lord Bacon, “must be devised, the old failing and growing useless; and as soon as ever a man hath got the name of a cunning crafty companion, he hath deprived himself utterly of the principal instrument for the management of his affairs,—which is trust.” Policy, therefore, on this as on other accounts, is “the folly of fools.—Wardlaw.
When men are acquainted with everything but what they ought to know, they are only notable fools. If we had hearts large as the sands upon the sea-shore, and filled with a world of things, whilst we remained ignorant of the way of attaining true happiness, we should resemble that philosopher who was busied gazing at the moon till he fell into the ditch.… They are fools who know other people’s business better than their own. Some people, if you will take their own word for it, could reign better than the king and preach better than the minister. They know, in short, how to manage in every condition but their own.—Lawson.
Religion is an orderly thing, as wise as it is warm. Whatever be the excitement of an irregular course, more good is done by steady consistency. To break the ranks in disorder, to be eager to understand our neighbour’s way (Joh_21:21-22), obscures the light upon our own. The true wisdom is to understand what belongs to us personally and relatively (1Ki_3:6-9; Ecc_8:5). “As God hath distributed to every man, so let him walk, and abide with God” (1Co_7:17). Let the eye do the work of the eye, and the hand of the hand. If Moses prayed in the mount, and Joshua fought in the valley (Exo_17:10-11), it was not because one was deficient in courage, and the other in prayer; but because each had his appointed work, and understood his own way.—Bridges.
Every one that goeth on in the right way doth not understand his way. Hence it is that many so often wander out of it, hence that so easily they are drawn from it. But he that is prudent looketh into his way, considereth the dangers of it, provideth himself against the enemies that he shall or may meet with, and being well assured of the righteousness of the way, he goeth on with confidence and safety. And this is the wisdom of the prudent, this proves him to be wise.… Again, the folly of fools, though it be folly in themselves, it is deceit to the devil, who maketh them to think that to be the right way, wherein they are clean out of the way.—Jermin.
Pro_14:9. The word here used signifieth both the fault and the guilt of it, whereby the offender is liable unto wrath and punishment. For they being firmly joined together, the Hebrew joineth them in the same word. Notwithstanding fools not finding the scourge of sin tied immediately unto the act committed, as if they were mocked when they are told of punishment to come, they make a mock at it. The favour, therefore, which the righteous show them is quickly to make them feel the rod of justice. For while they punish the offence they show great love to the offender, not only in stopping the course of his sinning, which is the stopping the increase of his misery, but it may be also working his amendment, which is the salvation of his soul.—Jermin.
The idea of sacrificial offering is that of expiation (see Critical Notes for the renderings of the word translated sin): it is a penitential work, it falls under the prevailing point of view of an ecclesiastical punishment, a satisfaction in a church-disciplinary sense. The forgiveness of sin is conditioned by this,
(1) that the sinner either abundantly makes good by restitution the injury inflicted on another, or in some other way bears temporal punishment for it, and
(2) that he willingly presents the sacrifice of rams or of sheep, the value of which the priest has to determine in its relation to the offence. Fools fall from one offence to another, which they have to atone for by the presentation of sacrificial offerings; the sacrificial offering mocketh them, for it equally derides them on account of the self-inflicted loss, and on account of the efforts with which they must make good the effects of their frivolity and madness; while on the contrary, among men of upright character, a relation of mutual favour prevails, which does not permit that the one give to the other an indemnity, and apply the trespass-offering. Delitzsch.
“Sin makes a mock at fools; but between upright beings there is favour.” Not makes sport, as a fool might, of engaging in his sins. A fool may make sport of sin, but hardly could be said to make a mock at it. “Sin makes a mock at fools,” but between “upright beings,” or “among the righteous,” we cannot conceive of any mockery. The upright God, and the upright saint; the upright saint and the upright Saviour; grace and judgment; faith, and the scenes of the last day; between these there must be goodwill, i.e., mutual delight and favour. So 1Jn_4:17-18, “Herein does the love gain its end between us (that is, between God and us; see Pro_14:16), that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world,” etc.—Miller.
Among the righteous is favour; that is to say, the practice of virtue and uttering of gracious speeches, joined with such goodwill and sweet joy as that their, meeting is like the precious ointment that was poured on the head of Aaron.—Muffet.
The conduct of the man who makes a mock at sin involves—
1. Impiety. To mock at sin is to despise God’s holiness, set at nought God’s authority, to abuse God’s goodness, to disregard and slight God’s glory.
2. Cruelty. The scoffer may pretend to humanity, but there breathes not on earth a more iron-hearted monster. He may profess to feel for the miseries of mankind; for the ravages of disease and death over their bodies; of fire, and flood, and storm over their means of life and comfort; of melancholy, and idiotcy, and madness over their minds. But he makes a mock at the prolific cause of all. There is not an ill that man is called upon to suffer that does not owe its origin to sin. Like the “star called wormwood” in the Apocalyptic vision, it has fallen on every “fountain and river” of human joy, turning all their waters into bitterness. It is the sting of conscience. It is the venom and barb of the darts of the King of Terrors. It is the very life of the “worm that dieth not.” Oh! the miserably-mistaken flattery that can speak of the kind-heartedness of the man who laughs at that which is the embryo-germ of all the sufferings of time, and all the woes of eternity.
3. Infatuation. Sin is the evil that is ruining the sinner himself—the disease that is preying upon his own vitals—the secret consuming fire that is wasting his eternal all. Yet the deluded victim of its power makes a jest of it!—Wardlaw.
Some men are so like their father, the devil, that they will tempt men to sin that they may laugh at them.—Lawson.
To complete the antithesis, the sense must be supplied, fools make a mock at sin (and so incur the wrath of God); but (the righteous regard sin as a serious offence), and therefore among the righteous there is the favour of God.—Fausset.
The fool’s sport—sin.
1. Sin, which is so contrary to goodness that it is abhorred of those sparks and cinders which the rust of sin hath not quite eaten out of our nature as the creation left it.
2. Sin, which sensibly brings on present judgments, or if not, is the more fearful. The less it receives here, the more is behind.
3. Sin, that shall at last be laid heavy on the conscience: the lighter the burden was at first, it shall be at last the more ponderous. The wicked conscience may for awhile lie asleep, but this calm is the greatest storm.
4. Sin, which provokes God to anger.
5. Sin, which was punished even in heaven.
6. Sin, which God so loathed that he could not save men because of it, except by the death of His own Son. Oh, think if ever man felt sorrow like Him, or if He felt any sorrow except for sin. Did the pressure of it lie so heavy upon the Son of God, and doth a son of man make light of it? Thou mockest at thy oppressions, oaths, frauds; for these He groaned. Thou scornest His gospel preached; He wept for thy scorn. Thou knowest not, O fool, the price of sin; thou must do, if thy Saviour did not for thee. If He suffered not this for thee, thou must suffer it for thyself.—T. Adams.
They dance with the devil all day, and yet think to sup with Christ. Their sweet meat must have sour sauce, but among the righteous, though they sin of infirmity, yet forasmuch as they are sensible of and sorrowful for their failings, and see them to confession, God will never see them to their confusion.—Trapp.
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.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v9
Proverbs
SIN THE MOCKER
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Pro 14:9.
The wisdom of this Book of Proverbs is not simply intellectual, but it has its roots in reverence and obedience to God, and for its accompaniment, righteousness. The wise man is the good man, and the good man is the godly man. And as is wisdom, so its opposite, folly, is not only intellectual feebleness-the bad man is a fool, and the godless is a bad man. The greatest amount of brain-power cultivated to the highest degree does not make a man wise, and about many a student and thinker God pronounces the sentence ‘Thou fool!’
That does not mean that all sin is ignorance, as we sometimes hear it said with a great show of tolerant profundity. There is some ignorance in all sin, but the essence of sin is the aversion of the will from a law and from a Person, not the defect of the understanding. So far from all sin being but ignorance, and therefore blameless, there is no sin without knowledge, and the measure of ignorance is the measure of blamelessness; unless the ignorance be itself, as it often is, criminal. Ignorance is one thing, folly is another.
One more remark by way of introduction must be made on the language of our text. The margin of the Revised Version correctly turns it completely round, and for ‘the foolish make a mock at guilt,’ would read, ‘guilt mocketh at the foolish.’ In the original the verb in our text is in the singular, and the only singular noun to go with it is ‘guilt.’ The thought then here is, that sin tempts men into its clutches, and then gibes and taunts them. It is a solemn and painful subject, but perhaps this text rightly pondered may help to save some of us from hearing the mocking laugh which echoes through the empty chambers of many an empty soul.
I. Sin mocks us by its broken promises.
The object immediately sought by any wrong act may be attained. In sins of sense, the appetite is gratified; in other sins, the desire that urged to them attains its end. But what then? The temptation lay in the imagination that, the wrong thing being done, an inward good would result, and it does not; for even if the immediate object be secured, other results, all unforeseen, force themselves on us which spoil the hoped for good. The sickle cuts down tares as well as wheat, and the reaper’s hands are filled with poisonous growths as well as with corn. There is a revulsion of feeling from the thing that before the sin was done attracted. The hideous story of the sin of David’s son, Amnon, puts in ugliest shape the universal experience of men who are tempted to sin and are victims of the revulsion that follows-He ‘hated her exceedingly, so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her.’ Conscience, which was overpowered and unheard amid the loud cries of desire, speaks. We find out the narrow limits of satisfaction. The satisfied appetite has no further driving power, but lies down to sleep off its debauch, and ceases to be a factor for the time. Inward discord, the schism between duty and inclination, sets up strife in the very sanctuary of the soul. We are dimly conscious of the evil done as robbing us of power to do right. We cannot pray, and would be glad to forget God. And a self thus racked, impoverished, and weakened, is what a man gains by the sin that promised him so much and hid so much from him.
Or if these consequences are in any measure silenced and stifled, a still more melancholy mockery betrays him, in the continuance of the illusion that he is happy and all is well, when all the while he is driving headlong to destruction. Many a man orders his life so that it is like a ship that sails with huzzas and bedizened with flags while a favouring breeze fills its sails, but comes back to port battered and all but waterlogged, with its canvas ‘lean, rent, and beggared by the strumpet wind.’ It is always a mistake to try to buy happiness by doing wrong. The price is rigorously demanded, but the quid pro quo is not given, or if it seems to be so, there is something else given too, which takes all the savour out of the composite whole. The ‘Folly’ of the earlier half of this book woos men by her sweet invitations, and promises the sweetness of stolen waters and the pleasantness of bread eaten in secret, but she hides the fact, which the listener to her seducing voice has to find out for himself after he has drunk of the stolen waters and tasted the maddening pleasantness of her bread eaten in secret, that ‘her guests are in the depths of Sheol.’ The temptations that seek to win us to do wrong and dazzle us by fair visions are but ‘juggling fiends that keep the word of promise to the ear, and break it to the hope.’
II. Sin mocks fools by making them its slaves.
There is not only a revulsion of feeling from the evil thing done that was so tempting before, but there is a dreadful change in the voice of the temptress. Before her victim had done the sin, she whispered hints of how little a thing it was. ‘Don’t make such a mountain of a molehill. It is a very small matter. You can easily give it up when you like.’ But when the deed is done, then her mocking laugh rings out, ‘I have got you now and you cannot get away.’ The prey is seduced into the trap by a carefully prepared bait, and as soon as its hesitating foot steps on to the slippery floor, down falls the door and escape is impossible, We are tempted to sin by the delusion that we are shaking off restraints that fetter our manhood, and that it is spirited to do as we like, and as soon as we have sinned we discover that we were pleasing not ourselves but a taskmaster, and that while the voice said, ‘Show yourself a man, beyond these petty, old-fashioned maxims’; the meaning of it was, ‘Become my slave.’
Sin grows in accordance with an awful necessity, so that it is never in a sinner’s power to promise himself ‘It is only this one time that I will do the wrong thing. Let me have one lapse and I will abjure the evil for ever after.’ We have to reckon with the tremendous power of habit, and to bethink ourselves that a man may never commit a given sin, but that if he has committed it once, it is all but impossible that he will stop there. The incline is too slippery and the ice too smooth to risk a foot on it. Habit dominates, outward circumstances press, there springs up a need for repeating the draught, and for its being more highly spiced. Sin begets sin as fast as the green flies which infest rose-bushes. One has heard of slavers on the African coast speaking negroes fair, and tempting them on board by wonderful promises, but once the poor creatures are in the ship, then on with the hatches and, if need be, the chains.
III. Sin mocks fools by unforeseen consequences.
These are carefully concealed or madly disregarded, while we are in the stage of merely being tempted, but when we have done the evil, they are unmasked, like a battery against a detachment that has been trapped. The previous denial that anything will come of the sin, and the subsequent proclamation that this ugly issue has come of it, are both parts of sin’s mockery, and one knows not which is the more fiendish, the laugh with which she promises impunity or that with which she tells of the certainty of retribution. We may be mocked, but ‘God is not mocked. Whatever a man soweth, that’-and not some other growth-’shall he also reap.’ We dwell in an all-related order of things, in which no act but has its appropriate consequences, and in which it is only fools who say to themselves, ‘I did not think it would matter much.’ Each act of ours is at once sowing and reaping; a sowing, inasmuch as it sets in motion a train the issues of which may not be realised by us till the act has long been forgotten; a reaping, inasmuch as what we are and do to-day is the product of what we were and did in a forgotten past. We are what we are, because we were long ago what we were. As in these composite photographs, which are produced by laying one individual likeness on another, our present selves have our past selves preserved in them. We do not need to bring in a divine Judge into human life in order to be sure that, by the play of the natural laws of cause and effect, ‘every transgression and disobedience receives its just recompense of reward.’ Given the world as it is, and the continuous identity of a man, and you have all that is needed for an Iliad of woes flowing from every life that makes terms with sin. If we gather into one dismal pile the weakening of power for good, the strengthening of impulses to evil, the inward poverty, the unrest, the gnawings of conscience or its silence, the slavery under evil often loathed even while it is being obeyed, the dreary sense of inability to mend oneself, and often the wreck of outward life which dog our sins like sleuth-hounds, surely we shall not need to imagine a future tribunal in order to be sure that sin is a murderess, or to hear her laugh as she mocks her helpless victims.
But as surely as there are in this present world experiences which must be regarded as consequences of sin, so surely do they all assume a more dreadful character and take on the office of prophets of a future. If man lives beyond the grave, there is nothing to suggest that he will there put off character as he puts off the bodily life. He will be there what he has made himself here. Only he will be so more intensely, more completely. The judgments of earth foretell and foreshadow a judgment beyond earth.
There is but one more word that I would say, and it is this. Jesus has come to set the captives of sin free from its mockery, its tyranny, its worst consequences. He breaks the power of past evil to domineer over us. He gives us a new life within, which has no heritage of evil to pervert it, no memories of evil to discourage it, no bias towards evil to lead it astray. As for the sins that we have done, He is ready to forgive, to seal to us God’s forgiveness, and to take from our own self-condemnation all its bitterness and much of its hopelessness. For the past, His blood has taken away its guilt and power. For the future it sets us free from the mockery of our sin, and assures us of a future which will not be weakened or pained by remembrances of a sinful past. Sin mocks at fools, but they who have Christ for their Redeemer, their Righteousness, and their Life can smile at her impotent rage, and mock at her and her impotent attempts to terrify them and assert her lost power with vain threats.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv7–9 v. 7. Go from the presence of a foolish…
v. 7. Go from the presence of a foolish man, it being a matter of wisdom for a person to keep his distance from such a one, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge, remembering that lie has never yet uttered a truly sensible word.
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 On vv7, 9 on his lips
on his lips
The word "lips" represents what a person says. AT: "from his speech" or "with his comments" (See: Metonymy)
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the prudent
a person who has good judgment or sense
his own way
The word "way" represents the conduct of life of a person. AT: "his conduct" or "how he lives" (See: Metonymy)
the folly of fools is deception
The foolishness of fools is that they think they are wise, when they are not.
translationWords
fool
know
wise
deceive
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 On v9 14:9 The godly acknowledge their mistakes and sins, leading…
14:9 The godly acknowledge their mistakes and sins, leading to change and reconciliation. Fools defend themselves by making fun of guilt.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.