My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you,
so as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;
yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding;
if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures:
then you will understand the fear of Yahweh, and find the knowledge of God.
For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his saints.
Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.
For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,
to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things,
who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness,
who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil,
who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths,
to deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words,
who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God;
for her house leads down to death, her paths to the departed spirits.
None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life.
So you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.
But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 21 That is, keep them in thine heart.
That is, keep them in thine heart.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–22 Pro 2:1 My son, if thou wilt receive my…
Pro 2:1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
Ver. 1. My son.] Fatherly and filial affection ought to be between teacher and hearers. "But who is their father?" {1Sa 10:12} "O my father, my father," said he to the dying prophet. {2Ki 13:14} "Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest," said that idolatrous Micah to the wandering Levite. {Jdg 17:10} Popish novices do so observe their padres (as they call them), that though they command them a voyage to China or Peru, without dispute or delay they presently set forward {a} Tu et asinus unum estote, said one once to a young novice, who being about to enter into a monastery, asked his counsel how he should carry himself. "Come, children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord." {Psa 34:11}
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{a} Spec. Europ.
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 vv1–21 These words are spoken by Solomon, either,
These words are spoken by Solomon, either,
1. In the name of wisdom, as before; or rather,
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2. In his own name. Hide my commandments with thee; lay them up in thy mind and heart with care, as men do their choicest treasures.
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 vv1, 10 Job had asked, long before this, Where shall wisdom…
Job had asked, long before this, Where shall wisdom be found? Whence cometh wisdom? (Job 28:12, Job 28:20) and he had given this general answer (v. 23), God knoweth the place of it; but Solomon here goes further, and tells us both where we may find it and how we may get it. We are here told,
I. What means we must use that we may obtain wisdom.
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1. We must closely attend to the word of God, for that is the word of wisdom, which is able to make us wise unto salvation, Pro 2:1, Pro 2:2. (1.) We must be convinced that the words of God are the fountain and standard of wisdom and understanding, and that we need not desire to be wiser than they will make us. We must incline our ear and apply our hearts to them, as to wisdom or understanding itself. Many wise things may be found in human compositions, but divine revelation, and true religion built upon it, are all wisdom. (2.) We must, accordingly, receive the word of God with all readiness of mind, and bid it welcome, even the commandments as well as the promises, without murmuring or disputing. Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears. (3.) We must hide them with us, as we do our treasures, which we are afraid of being robbed of. We must not only receive, but retain, the word of God, and lodge it in our hearts, that it may be always ready to us. (4.) We must incline our ear to them; we must lay hold on all opportunities of hearing the word of God, and listen to it with attention and seriousness, as those that are afraid of letting it slip. (5.) We must apply our hearts to them, else inclining the ear to them will stand us in no stead.
2. We must be much in prayer, Pro 2:3. We must cry after knowledge, as one that is ready to perish for hunger begs hard for bread. Faint desires will not prevail; we must be importunate, as those that know the worth of knowledge and our own want of it. We must cry, as new-born babes, after the sincere milk of the word. Pe1 2:2. We must lift our voice for understanding lift it up to heaven; thence these good and perfect gifts must be expected, Jam 1:17; Job 38:34. We must give our voice to understanding (so the word is), speak for it, vote for it, submit the tongue to the command of wisdom. We must consecrate our voice to it; having applied our heart to it, we must employ our voice in seeking for it. Solomon could write probatum est - a tried remedy, upon this method; he prayed for wisdom and so obtained it.
3. We must be willing to take pains (Pro 2:4); we must seek it as silver, preferring it far before all the wealth of this world, and labouring in search of it as those who dig in the mines, who undergo great toil and run great hazards, with indefatigable industry and invincible constancy and resolution, in pursuit of the ore; or as those who will be rich rise up early, and sit up late, and turn every stone to get money and fill their treasures. Thus diligent must we be in the use of the means of knowledge, following on to know the Lord.
II. What success we may hope for in the use of these means. Our labour shall not be in vain; for, 1. We shall know how to maintain our acquaintance and communion with God: "Thou shalt understand the fear of the Lord (Pro 2:5), that is, thou shalt know how to worship him aright, shalt be led into the meaning and mystery of every ordinance, and be enabled to answer the end of its institution." Thou shalt find the knowledge of God, which is necessary to our fearing him aright. It concerns us to understand how much it is our interest to know God, and to evidence it by agreeable affections towards him and adorations of him. 2. We shall know how to conduct ourselves aright towards all men (Pro 2:9): "Thou shalt understand, by the word of God, righteousness, and judgment, and equity, shalt learn those principles of justice, and charity, and fair dealing, which shall guide and govern thee in the whole course of thy conversation, shall make thee fit for every relation, every business, and faithful to every trust. It shall give thee not only a right notion of justice, but a disposition to practise it, and to render to all their due; for those that do not do justly do not rightly understand it." This will lead them in every good path, for the scripture will make the man of God perfect. Note, Those have the best knowledge who know their duty, Psa 111:10.
III. What ground we have to hope for this success in our pursuits of wisdom; we must take our encouragement herein from God only, Pro 2:6-8.
1. God has wisdom to bestow, Pro 2:6. The Lord not only is wise himself, but he gives wisdom, and that is more than the wisest men in the world can do, for it is God's prerogative to open the understanding. All the wisdom that is in any creature is his gift, his free gift, and he gives it liberally (Jam 1:5), has given it to many, and is still giving it; to him therefore let us apply for it.
2. He has blessed the world with a revelation of his will. Out of his mouth, by the law and the prophets, by the written word and by his ministers, both which are his mouth to the children of men, come knowledge and understanding, such a discovery of truth and good as, if we admit and receive the impressions of it, will make us truly knowing and intelligent. It is both an engagement and encouragement to search after wisdom that we have the scriptures to search, in which we may find it if we seek it diligently.
3. He has particularly provided that good men, who are sincerely disposed to do his will, shall have that knowledge and that understanding which are necessary for them, Joh 7:17. Let them seek wisdom, and they shall find it; let them ask, and it shall be given them, Pro 2:7, Pro 2:8. Observe here, (1.) Who those are that are thus favoured. They are the righteous, on whom the image of God is renewed, which consists in righteousness, and those who walk uprightly, who are honest in their dealings both with God and man and make conscience of doing their duty as far as they know it. They are his saints, devoted to his honour, and set apart for his service. (2.) What it is that is provided for them. [1.] Instruction. The means of wisdom are given to all, but wisdom itself, sound wisdom, is laid up for the righteous, laid up in Christ their head, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and who is made of God to us wisdom. The same that is the Spirit of revelation in the word is a Spirit of wisdom in the souls of those that are sanctified, that wisdom of the prudent which is to understand his way; and it is sound wisdom, its foundations firm, its principles solid, and its products of lasting advantage. [2.] Satisfaction. Some read it, He lays up substance for the righteous, not only substantial knowledge, but substantial happiness and comfort, Pro 8:21. Riches are things that are not, and those that have them only fancy themselves happy; but what is laid up in the promises and in heaven for the righteous will make them truly, thoroughly, and eternally happy. [3.] Protection. Even those who walk uprightly may be brought into danger for the trial of their faith, but God is, and will be, a buckler to them, so that nothing that happens to them shall do them any real hurt, or possess them with any terrific apprehensions; they are safe, and they shall think themselves so. Fear not, Abraham; I am thy shield. It is their way, the paths of judgment in which they walk, that the Lord knows, and owns, and takes care of. [4.] Grace to persevere to the end. If we depend upon God, and seek to him for wisdom, he will uphold us in our integrity, will enable us to keep the paths of judgment, however we may be tempted to turn aside out of them; for he preserves the way of his saints, that it be not perverted, and so preserves them in it safe and blameless to his heavenly kingdom. The assurances God has given us of his grace, if duly improved, will excite and quicken our endeavours in doing our duty. Work out your salvation, for God works in you.
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 vv1–22 My son,.... These are either the continuation of the…
My son,.... These are either the continuation of the words of Solomon to his son Rehoboam; or to anyone that came to him for instruction, or was within the reach of being taught by him; whom he addresses in this tender and affectionate manner, in order to gain his attention to what he was about to say: or else they are the words of Wisdom, or Christ, continued, thus bespeaking: his children and people; and giving them some very wholesome counsel and advice, backed with the most powerful and prevailing arguments;
if thou wilt receive my words; or doctrines: the doctrines of the Gospel, relating to the person, office, and grace of Christ, and salvation by him; such as the words of peace, pardon, righteousness, and life; which are to be received, not as the word of man, but as the word of God; and with all readiness of mind and willingness, as they were by the Bereans; and most gladly, as by the three thousand pricked to the heart under Peter's sermon; and as they are and will be by every sensible sinner;
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and hide my commandments with thee; in the heart; so as to have a high esteem of them, and a hearty affection and value for them; retain them in memory, and frequently think of them and meditate upon them, and constantly observe them; see Psa 119:11.
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 vv1, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20 Solomon shews, that they who diligently seek wisdom shall…
Solomon shews, that they who diligently seek wisdom shall find it, ver. 1-9. He shews the advantage of it, that it would preserve them from evil men, ver. 10-15. And evil women, ver. 16-19. And would lead them into, and keep them in the way of good men, ver. 20-22.
Hide - Lay them up in thy heart with care, as men do their choicest treasures.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 7, 9, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22 The teacher promises his pupil the highest advantages, if…
CHAPTER II
The teacher promises his pupil the highest advantages, if he
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will follow the dictates of wisdom, 1-9.
He shall be happy in its enjoyment, 10, 11;
shall be saved from wicked men, 12-15;
and from the snares of bad women, 16-19;
be a companion of the good and upright; and be in safety in the
land, when the wicked shall be rooted out of it, 20-22.
NOTES ON CHAP. II.
Verse 1. My son] Here the tutor still continues to instruct his disciple.
Hide my commandments with thee] Treasure them up in thy heart, and then act from them through the medium of thy affections. He who has the rule of his duty only in his Bible and in his head, is not likely to be a steady, consistent character; his heart is not engaged, and his obedience, in any case, can be only forced, or done from a sense of duty: it is not the obedience of a loving, dutiful child, to an affectionate father. But he who has the word of God in his heart, works from his heart; his heart goes with him in all things, and he delights to do the will of his heavenly Father, because his law is in his heart. See Pr 3:3.
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 vv1, 6, 8, 10, 16, 18, 20 Pro 2:1-5. My son, &c. — These words are…
Pro 2:1-5. My son, &c. — These words are spoken by Solomon, either, 1st, In the name of wisdom, as before: or rather, 2d, In his own name. If thou wilt hide my commandments with thee — Wilt lay them up in thy mind and heart with care, as men do their choicest treasures; So that thou incline, &c. — Give thyself to the study of wisdom with affection and diligence. Yea, if thou, criest after knowledge — Namely, unto God, the only giver of it. Hebrew, אם לבינה תקרא, if thou callest to knowledge, that is, invitest it to come to thee; earnestly desirest its guidance; If thou seekest her as silver — With the same unwearied diligence and earnest desire, and patient expectation under all delays, disappointments, and difficulties, which the men of the world use in pursuit of riches, or in digging in mines of silver; Then shalt thou understand — More perfectly and profitably; the fear of the Lord — Which is the beginning of this wisdom, Pro 1:7.
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 vv1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 Now in the divine order comes the promise Pro…
Now in the divine order comes the promise Pro 2:5. The conditions of its fulfillment are stated in Pro 2:1-4 in four sets of parallel clauses, each with some shade of distinct meaning. Thus, not “receiving” only, but “hiding” or treasuring up - not the “ear” only, but the “heart” - not the mere “cry,” but the eager “lifting up the voice.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Charles Bridges 1846 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 10, 12, 16, 20 Wisdom, having solemnly warned rebellious scorners, now instructs her…
Wisdom, having solemnly warned rebellious scorners, now instructs her dutiful children. The dark question long before asked — "Where shall wisdom be found?" (Job 28:12, Job 28:20-21 ) — is now answered. It is here set before us, as the fear and knowledge of God (Pro 2:5 ); a principle of practical godliness (Pro 2:7-9 ); a preservation from besetting temptations (Pro 2:10-19 ); and a guide into the right and safe path. (Pro 2:20 .) Hence follow the security of its scholars (Pro 2:21 ), and the certain ruin of its ungodly despisers. (Pro 2:22 .)
The rules for its attainment are such as the simplest comprehension can apply. Carefully pondered, and diligently improved, they will furnish a key for the understanding of the whole word of God. Let us examine them more distinctly.
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Receive my words — Let them be "the seed cast into the ground of an honest and good heart" (Luk 8:15 ) — a heart prepared of God. (Pro 16:1 .) Read the book of God as one who "sat at the feet of Jesus, and heard his word." (Luk 10:39 .) Like the Bereans, "receive it with all readiness" (Act 17:11 ); like the Thessalonians, with reverential faith, acknowledging its supreme authority (1Th 2:13 ). Hide my commandments with thee. Carry them about with thee as thy choicest treasure for greater security (Col 3:16, with Mat 13:44 ); as thy furniture always at hand for present use. (Pro 4:20-21 ; Pro 7:3 . Job 22:22 .) Let the heart be the hiding-place for the treasure. (Luk 2:19, Luk 2:51 . Psa 119:11 .) Satan can never snatch it thence.
But there must be an active, practical habit of attention.†1 Yet to incline the ear, and apply the heart — "who is sufficient for these things?" Oh! my God! Let it be thine own work on me — in me. Thou alone canst do it.†2 Let it be with me, as with thy Beloved Son — "Waken my ear morning by morning to hear as the learned." (Isa 50:4 .) So let me under thy grace "incline mine ear, and hear, that my soul may live." (Ibid. Isa 55:3 .)
Without this spirit of prayer — there may be attention and earnestness; yet not one spiritual impression upon the conscience; not one ray of Divine light in the soul. Earthly wisdom is gained by study; heavenly wisdom by prayer. Study may form a Biblical scholar; prayer puts the heart under a heavenly tutorage, and therefore forms the wise and spiritual Christian. The word first comes into the ears; then it enters into the heart; there it is safely hid; thence rises the cry — the lifting up of the voice. Thus, "the entrance of thy word giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple." (Psa 119:130 .) God keeps the key of the treasure-house in his own hand. "For this he will be enquired of" (Eze 36:37 ) to open it unto thee. We look for no other inspiration than Divine grace to make his word clear and impressive. Every verse read and meditated on furnishes material for prayer. Every text prayed over opens a mine of "unsearchable riches," with a light from above, more clear and full than the most intelligent exposition. David (Psa 119:18 &c.) and his wise son (1Ki 3:9-12 ) sought this learning upon their knees; and the most matured Christian will continue to the end to lift up his voice for a more enlarged knowledge of God. (Eph 1:17-18 .)
But prayer must not stand in the stead of diligence. Let it rather give energy to it.†3 The miner’s indefatigable pains; his invincible resolution; his untiring perseverance; seeking, yea, searching for hid treasures, — such must be our searching into the sacred storehouse.†4 To read, instead of "searching the Scriptures," is only to skim the surface, and gather up a few superficial notions.†5 The rule of success is — Dig up and down the field; and if the search be discouraging, dig again. The patient industry of perusal and re-perusal will open the embosomed treasure. "Surely there is a vein for the silver." (Job 28:1 .) Yet what miner would be content with the first ore? Would he not search deeper and deeper, until he has possessed himself of the whole; not satisfied with taking away much, but determined to leave nothing? Thus let us daily explore "the length, and the breadth, and the depth" of our boundless stores, until we be "filled with all the fullness of God." (Eph 3:18-19 .)
This habit of living in the element of Scripture is invaluable. To be filled from this Divine treasury; to have large portions of the word daily passing through the mind; gives us a firmer grasp, and a more suitable and diversified application of it. Yet this profit can only be fully reaped in retirement. We may read the Scriptures in company. But to search them, we must be alone with God. Here we learn to apply ourselves wholly to the word, and the word wholly to us. This enriching study gives a purer vein of sound judgment. The mere reader often scarcely knows where to begin, and he performs the routine without any definite object. His knowledge therefore must be scanty and ineffective. Nor is the neglect of this habit less hurtful to the Church. All fundamental errors and heresies in the Church may be traced to this source — "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures." (Mat 22:29 .) They are mostly based on partial or disjointed statements of truth. Truth separated from truth becomes error. But the mind prayerfully occupied in the search of Divine truth — crying and lifting up the voice — will never fail to discern the two great principles of godliness — The fear and knowledge of God. There is no peradventure nor disappointment in this search — Then shalt thou understand. The LORD giveth wisdom; it cometh out of his mouth. None shall search in vain. (Job 32:8 . Isa 48:17 ; Isa 54:13 . Jas 1:5, Jas 1:17 . Compare Gen 41:38-39 . Exo 4:12 . Dan 1:17 .) Never has apostasy from the faith been connected with a prayerful and diligent study of the word of God.
Footnotes
†1 Pro 22:17; Pro 23:12 . The Emperor Constantine stood hours to hear the word; replying, when asked to sit, ’that he thought it wicked to give negligent ears, when the truth handled was spoken of God.’ — (Euseb. De Vita Constant. Lib. 4.) Foxe records of Edward VI. ’That never was he present at any sermon commonly, but would excerp them, or note them with his own hand.’ — Vol. V.700. Yet Bishop Hooper thought, that his royal master’s love for the preached word needed to be quickened. — Sermon 7th on Jonas.
†2 Pro 20:12. "Thou giving me the ear, I have heard, as thou wouldest thy word to be heard." — Jerome on Hab 3:2 .
†3 On one side is Luther’s inestimable axiom — ’Bene orasse est bene studuisse.’ On the other side is the balance of the old proverb — ’Ora et labora.’ Compare Mat 11:12 . ’We are all,’ says the heavenly Leighton, ’too little in the humble seeking and begging this Divine knowledge; and that is the cause why we are so shallow and small proficients. "If thou cry, and lift up thy voice for understanding, search for it as for hid treasures;" sit down upon thy knees, and dig for it. That is the best posture, to fall right upon thy golden vein, and go deepest to know the mind of God, in searching the Scriptures, to be directed and regulated in his ways; to be made skillful in ways of honouring him, and doing him service. This neither man nor angels can teach him, but God alone.’ — Sermon on Psa 107:43 .
†4 ’Viscera terræ extrahimus, ut digito gestiatur gemma, quam petimus. Quot manus afferuntur, ut unus niteat articulus! Simili studio, industriâ, constantiâ, Sapientiæ inquisitioni incumbendum erat.’ — Plin. lib. ii. c. 65.
†5 Compare Joh 5:39 . Greek (Ereunate tas graphas oti umeis dokeite en autais zoen aionion echein kai ekeinai eirin ai marturousai peri emou) — a similar allusion to the miner’s toil. ’I can speak it by experience’ — said a wise man — ’that there is little good to be gotten by reading the Bible cursorily and carelessly. But do it daily and diligently, with attention and affection; and you shall find such efficacy, as is to be found in no other book that can be named.’ — Erasmus’s Preface to Luke. Peter Martyr gives the same testimony, Epist. Dedic. To Comment. On Rom. The following relic of our renowned Elizabeth will be read both with interest and profit. It was written on a blank leaf of a black-letter edition of St. Paul’s Epistles, which she used during her lonely imprisonment at Woodstock. The volume itself, curiously embroidered by her own hand, is preserved in the Bodleian: — ’August. I walk many times into the pleasant fields of the Holy Scriptures, where I pluck up the goodlisome herbs of sentences by pruning, eat them by reading, chew them by musing, and lay them up at length in the high seat of memorie, by gathering them together, that so, having tasted their sweetness, I may the less perceive the bitterness of this miserable life.’ — Miss Strickland’s Queens of England, vi. 113.
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 vv1, 7, 8, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21 If. This proves free will. To become truly wise,…
If. This proves free will. To become truly wise, we must desire it with the same avidity as a miser seeks for riches. (Worthington) --- We must also pray, (ver. 3.) with humility (ver. 2.) to God, the giver of wisdom, ver. 6. Every science which has not Him for the beginning and end, is vain and dangerous. (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 On v1 3. Exhibition of the blessed consequences of obedience and…
3. Exhibition of the blessed consequences of obedience and of striving after wisdom
Pro_2:1-22
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1 My son, if thou receivest my words
and keepest my commandments by thee,
2 so that thou inclinest thine ear to wisdom,
and turnest thine heart to understanding;
3 yea, if thou callest after knowledge,
to understanding liftest up thy voice;
4 if thou seekest her as silver,
and searchest for her as for hidden treasure;
5 then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah,
and find knowledge of God;—
6 for Jehovah giveth wisdom,
from his mouth (cometh) knowledge and understanding:
7 and so he layeth up for the righteous sound wisdom,
a shield (is he) for them that walk uprightly,
8 to protect the paths of justice,
and guard the way of his saints;—
9 then shalt thou understand righteousness and justice
and uprightness,—every good way.
10 If wisdom entereth into thine heart,
and knowledge is pleasant to thy soul,
11 then will discretion watch over thee,
understanding will keep thee,
12 to deliver thee from an evil way,
from the man that uttereth frowardness,
13 (from those) who forsake straight paths,
to walk in ways of darkness;
14 who rejoice to do evil,
who delight in deceitful wickedness;
15 whose paths are crooked,
and they froward in their ways;—
16 to deliver thee from the strange woman,
from the stranger who maketh her words smooth,
17 who hath forsaken the companion of her youth
and forgotten the covenant of her God.
18 For her house sinketh down to death
and to the dead (lead) her paths;
19 her visitors all return not again,
and lay not hold upon paths of life.
20 (This is) that thou mayest walk in a good way
and keep the paths of the righteous!
21 For the upright shall inhabit the land,
and the just shall remain in it:
22 but the wicked are cut off from the land,
and the faithless are driven out of it.
GRAMMATICAL AND CRITICAL
[Pro_2:1 sq. De Wette and Noyes conceive of the first two verses as not conditional, but as containing the expression of a direct and independent wish: Oh that thou wouldest receive, etc. The LXX, Vulg., Luther, etc., make the first verse conditional, but find the apodosis in Pro_2:2. Muenscher finds in Pro_2:2 an independent condition, and not a mere sequence to the preceding; so Holden, with a slightly different combination of the parts of Pro_2:2 : If by inclining thine ear…thou wilt incline thine heart, etc. M., H., Stuart and others find the apodosis of the series of conditional clauses in Pro_2:5, agreeing in this with the E. V. These diverse views do not essentially modify the general import of the passage. Zöckler it will be observed finds the apodosis in Pro_2:5; Pro_2:9, Pro_2:6-8 being parenthetical.—A.].
Pro_2:7. For the construction with the Stat, constr. compare Isa_33:15. [Compare Green. § § 254, 9, b and 274, 2.]
Pro_2:8. The infinitive לִנְצֹר is followed by the imperf. יִשְׁמֹר as above in Pro_2:2. [For explanations of the nature and use of this infinitive construction see Ewald, 237, c. The literal rendering would be “for the guarding, protection, keeping.” Whose keeping the paths, etc.? Holden understands it of the righteous: “who walk uprightly by keeping the paths, etc.” Most commentators understand it of God, who is “a shield for the protection, i.e., to protect, etc.” Zöckler in translation conforms the following Kal pret. to this infin., while most others reverse the process.—A.]
Pro_2:10. [The כִּי with which the verse commences is differently understood, as conditional or temporal, or as causal. Thus E. V., N., M.,“when wisdom, etc.;” S., K., Van Ess, “for wisdom, etc.;” De W., Z., “if wisdom, etc.” Between the first and last there is no essential difference, and this view of the author is probably entitled to the preference.—A.].
The feminine דַעַת, “knowledge” (which is used here, as in Pro_1:7, as synonymous with חָכְמָה “wisdom”) has connected with it the masculine verbal form יִנְעָם, because this expression “it is lovely” is treated as impersonal, or neuter, and דַּעַת is connected with it as an accusative of object [acc. synecd., “there is pleasure to thy soul in respect to knowledge”]. Comp. the similar connection of דַּעַת with the masculine verbal form נָקַל in Pro_14:6;—also Gen_49:15, 2Sa_11:25.
“Pro_2:11. [For the verbal form תִּנְצְרֶכָּה, with נ unassimilated, “for the sake of emphasis or euphony,” see Bött., § 1100, 3.—A.].
Pro_2:12. רַע is a substantive subordinate to the stat. constr. דֶּרֶךְ as in Pro_8:13, or as in תַּהְפֻּכוֹת רַע Pro_2:14, in אַנְשֵׁי־רַע, Pro_28:5, etc.
Pro_2:18. בַּיִת ,שָׁחָה־בֵּיתָהּ which, is everywhere else masculine is here exceptionally treated as feminine; for שָׁחָה is certainly to be regarded as 3d sing. fem. from שׁוּחַ, and not with Umbreit and Elster as a 3d sing, masc., for only שׁוּחַ and not שָׁחָה (to stoop, to bow) has the signification here required, viz., that of sinking (Lat. sidere). The LXX read שַׁתָּה from שׁתָתַ, and therefore translate: έ̓θετο γὰρ παρὰ τῷ θανάτῳ τὸν οἶκον αὑτῆς [she set her house near to death] in which construction however שָׁתַת sidere, is incorrectly taken as transitive. [Both Böttcher and Fuerst recognize the possibility of deriving this form as a 3d sing. fem., either from שׁוּחַ or from שָׁחַח, which have a similar intrans. meaning. To שָׁתַת neither Rödiger (Gesen. Thes.) nor Robinson’s Gesenius, nor Fuerst gives any other than a transitive meaning.—A.]. Perhaps Böttcher (De Inferis, §§ 201, 292; Neue Aehrenl., p. 1) has hit upon the true explanation, when he in like manner makes the wanton woman the subject, but treats בֵּיתָהּ not as object but as supplementary to the verb, and therefore translates “for she sinks to death, with her house, and to the dead with her paths. [Röd. (Thesaur. p. 1377, a) expresses his agreement with B., but states his view differently: “de ipsa muliere cogitavit scriptor initio hemistichii prioris, tum vero in fine ad complendam sententiam loco mulieris subjectum fecit בֵּיתָהּ." Fuerst also pronounces it unnecessary to think of any other subject than בֵּיתָהּ.—A.]. Compare however Hitzig’s comment on this passage, who remarks in defence of the common reading that בַּיִת is here exceptionally treated as feminine, because not so much the house itself is intended as “the conduct and transactions in it” (comp. Pro_7:27; Isa_5:14).
Pro_2:22. “With יִקּרֵתוּ, the expression which is employed also in Psa_37:9, to convey the idea of destruction, there corresponds in the 2d clause יִסְּחוּ, which as derived from נסח (Deu_28:63; Psa_52:5; Pro_15:25) would require to be taken as Imperf. Kal and accordingly to be translated actively: “they drive them out,” i.e., they are driven out (so e.g., Umbreit, Elster, and so essentially Bertheau also). But inasmuch as the parallelism requires a passive verb as predicate for בּוֹגְדּים (i.e., the faithless, those who have proved recreant to the theocratic covenant with Jehovah, comp. Pro_11:3; Pro_11:6; Pro_13:2; Pro_22:12) which is employed unmistakably as synonymous with רְשָעִיִם,—and inasmuch as no verb םָחַח exists as a basis for the assumed Niphal form יִסַּחוּ, we must probably read with Hitzig, יֻסְּחוּ, as an Imperf. Hophal from נָסַח and compare יֻקַח as an Imperf. Hophal of לָקֵח (used with the Pual of the same verb).
EXEGETICAL
1. Pro_2:1-9. This first smaller division of the chapter forms a connected proposition, whose hypothetical protasis includes Pro_2:1-4, while within the double apodosis (Pro_2:5; Pro_2:9) the confirmatory parenthesis, Pro_2:6-8 is introduced. The assertion of Ewald and Bertheau [with whom Kamphausen and Stuart agree] that the entire chap. forms only one grand proposition, rests on the false assumption that the “if” כִּי in Pro_2:10 is to be regarded as a causal particle, and should be translated by “for,”—to which idea the relation of Pro_2:10 both to Pro_2:9 and to Pro_2:11 is opposed. Comp. Umbreit and Hitzig on this passage. [On the other hand, the LXX, Vulg., Luther, etc., complete the first proposition, protasis and apodosis, within the first two verses; the Vulgate e.g. renders “si susceperis … inclina cor tuum, etc.,” and Luther “willst du, meine Rede annehmen … So lass dein Ohr u. s. w.” The E. V. ends the proposition with Pro_2:5 as the apodosis.—A.].—If thou receivest my words. To the idea of “receiving” that of “keeping” stands related as the more emphatic, just as “commandments” (מִצוֹת) is a stronger expression than “words” (אֲמָרִים). In the three following verses also we find this same increased emphasis or intensifying of the expression in the second clause as compared with the first,—especially in Pro_2:4, the substance of which as a whole presents itself before us as a superlative, or final culmination of the gradation which exists in the whole series of antecedent clauses, in so far as this verse sets forth the most diligent and intent seeking after wisdom.
Pro_2:3. Yea, if thou callest after knowledge, i.e., if thou not only inclinest thine ear to her when she calls thee, but also on thine own part callest after her, summonest her to teach thee, goest to meet her with eager questioning. This relation of climax to the preceding is indicated by the כִּי אִם, imo, yea, rather; comp. Hos_9:12; Isa_28:28; Job_39:14 [comp. Ewald, §343, b]. The Targum translates the passage “If thou callest understanding thy mother,” and must therefore have read כִּי אֵם. But the Masoretic pointing is to be preferred for lexical reasons (instead of אֵם, according to the analogy of Job_16:14 we should have expected אִמּי, “my mother”), and because of the parallelism between Pro_2:1; Pro_2:3. Still “knowledge” (בּינָה), as well as “understanding,” which is named as its counterpart in the parallel clause, appears evidently as personified.—-Pro_2:4. If thou seekest her, etc.—- “The figure of diligent seeking is taken from the tireless exertion employed in mining, which has before been described in the Book of Job, chap. 28., with most artistic vivacity in its widest extent. The מַטֵמֹנִים are surely the treasures of metal concealed in the earth (comp. Jer_41:8; Jos_7:21.),” Umbreit. [For illustrations of the peculiar significance of this comparison to the mind of Orientals, see Thomson’s Land and Book, I., 197.—A.].
Pro_2:5. Then wilt thou understand the fear of Jehovah.— “Understand” is here equivalent to taking something to one’s self as a spiritual possession, like the “finding” in the second clause, or like δέχεσθαι [“receiveth”] in 1Co_2:14. The “fear of Jehovah” (comp. Pro_1:7) is here clearly presented as the highest good and most valuable possession of man (comp. Isa_33:6), evidently because of its imperishable nature (Psa_19:9), and its power to deliver in trouble (Pro_14:26; Psa_115:11; Sir_1:11 sq.; Pro_2:7 sq.).—And find knowledge of God.—Knowledge of God is here put not merely as a parallel idea to the “fear of Jehovah” (as in Pro_9:10; Isa_11:2), but it expresses a fruit and result of the fear of Jehovah, as the substance of the following causal proposition in Pro_2:6-8 indicates. Comp. the dogmatical and ethical comments. [Is the substitution of Elohim for Jehovah (in clause 6) a mere rhetorical or poetical variation? Wordsworth calls attention to the fact that this is one of five instances in the Book of Proverbs in which God is designated as Elohim, the appellation Jehovah occurring nearly ninety times. The almost singular exception seems then to be intentional, and the meaning will be, the knowledge of “Elohim—as distinguished from the knowledge of man which is of little worth.” In explaining the all but universal use of Jehovah as the name of God in our book, while in Eccles. it never occurs, Wordsworth says, “when Solomon wrote the Book of Proverbs he was in a state of favor and grace with Jehovah, the Lord God of Israel; he was obedient to the law of Jehovah; and the special design of the Book of Proverbs is to enforce obedience to that law,” etc. (see Introd. to Eccles., p. 78)—A.].
Pro_2:6-8. The Divine origin of wisdom must make it the main object of human search and effort, and all the more since its possession ensures to the pious at the same time protection and safety. —And so he layeth up for the righteous sound wisdom.—So we must translate in accordance with the K’thibh וְצָפֵן which is confirmed by the LXX and Pesch. as the oldest reading. The K°ri יִצְפּן, without the copulative, would connect the proposition of Pro_2:7 with Pro_2:6 as essentially synonymous with it, to which construction the meaning is however opposed. [The majority of commentators prefer the K’ri, making this verse a continuation and not a consequence of the preceding. Kamphausen agrees with our author in what seems to us the more forcible construction, which has the advantage also of resting on the written text; comp. Böttcher, § 929, b.—A.]. צָפַן to protect, to preserve, after the manner of a treasure or jewel, over which one watches that it may not be stolen; comp. above, Pro_2:1, and also Pro_7:1; Pro_10:14.—In regard to תּוּשׁיָּה [rendered “sound wisdom” by the E. V. here and in Pro_3:21; Pro_8:14; Pro_18:1] properly prosperity and wisdom united, see Introd., § 2, note 3. The word is probably related to יֵשׁ, and denotes first the essential or actual (so e.g., Job_5:12), and then furthermore help, deliverance (Job_6:13), or wisdom, reflection, as the foundation of all safety; so here and Pro_3:21; Pro_8:14; Pro_18:1; Job_11:6 sq.; Isa_28:29. Comp. Umbreit and Hirzel on Job_5:12. Hitzig (on Pro_3:21) derives the word from the root שָׁוָה, which he says is transposed into וָשָׁה (? ?), and therefore defends as the primary signification of the expression “an even, smooth path,” or subjectively “evenness,” i.e., of thought, and so “considerateness;” he compares with this מִישׁוֹר which signifies “plain” as well as “righteousness.”—A shield for them that walk blamelessly.—The substantive מָגֵן (shield) is most correctly regarded as an appositive to the subject, “Jehovah:” for also in Psa_33:20; Psa_84:11; Psa_89:18, Jehovah is in like manner called a shield to His saints. In opposition to the accusative interpretation of מָגֵן [which is adopted by Stuart among others], as object of the verb צָפַן (he secureth, or ensureth) we adduce, on the one hand, the meaning of this verb, and on the other the fact that we should expect rather מָגֵן הִיא (as an appositive to תּוּשִיָּה). The old translations, as the LXX and Vulgate, furthermore read the word as a participle (מְמַגֵּן or מֵגֵן); they translate it by a verb (LXX: ὑπερασπιεῖ τὴν πορείαν αὐτῶν).—הֹלְכֵי תֹם, literally the “walkers of innocence,” are the same as “those that walk uprightly,” Pro_10:9 (the הוֹלְכִים בַּתֹּם) or Psa_84:11 (the הוֹלְכִים בְּתָמִים).—To protect the paths of justice, etc.—The 8th verse gives more specifically the way in which God manifests Himself to the pious as a shield, and the ensurer of their safety. “Paths of justice” are here, by the substitution of the abstract for the concrete expression, paths of the just, and therefore essentially synonymous with the “way of the pious” in the second clause. Comp. Pro_17:23.
Pro_2:9 carries out the import of the parallel Pro_2:5 as the particle אָז repeated from the preceding verse shows.—Every good path.—This expression (כָּל־מַעְגַּל־טוב) includes the three conceptions given above, justice, righteousness and integrity, and thus sums up the whole enumeration. Therefore, it is attached without a copula; comp. Psalms 8. Pro_2:9 b.
2. Pro_2:10-19 form a period which in structure is quite like Pro_2:1-9; only that the hypothetical protasis is here considerably shorter than in the preceding period, where the conditions of attaining wisdom are more fully given, and with an emphatic climax of the thought. This is connected with the fact that in the former period the Divine origin of wisdom, here, on the contrary, its practical utility for the moral life and conduct of man forms the chief object of delineation. There wisdom is presented predominantly as the foundation and condition of religious and moral rectitude in general,—here specially as a power for the consecration of feeling and conduct, or as a means of preservation against destructive lusts and passions.—If wisdom entereth into thine heart.—This “coming into the heart” must be the beginning of all attaining to wisdom; then, however, she who has, as it were, been received as a guest into the heart must become really lovely and dear to the soul. There is, therefore, a climax of the thought, as above in Pro_2:1-4. The heart is here, as always, named as the centre and organic basis of the entire life of the soul, as the seat of desire, and the starting point for all personal self-determination. The soul, on the contrary, appears as the aggregate and sum total of all the impulses and efforts of the inner man. The former designates the living centre, the latter the totality of the personal life of man. Comp. Beck, Bibl. Seelenlehre, p. 65; Delitzsch, Bibl. Psychol., pp. 248 sq.; von Rudloff, Lehre vom Menschen, pp. 59 sq. What the last mentioned author, pp. 64 sq., remarks in criticism upon Delitzsch’s too intellectual conception of the idea of the heart as the “birthplace of the thoughts,”—that every where in the Scriptures it appears to belong more to the life of desire and feeling, than to the intellectual activity of the soul,—this view finds foundation and support especially in the passage now before us, as well as in most of the passages which mention heart and soul together (e.g., Pro_24:12; Psa_13:2; Jer_4:19; Deu_6:5; Mat_22:37; Act_4:32). Comp. also Hitzig on this passage.—And knowledge is pleasant to thy soul.—[For a peculiarity of grammatical structure in the original, see critical notes.]
Pro_2:11. Then will reflection watch over thee.—שָׁמַר עַל as in Pro_6:22. שָׁמַר (construed, however, with a mere accusative of the object) and נָצַּר have already been found connected in Pro_2:8 above, and occur again in Pro_4:6. מְזִמָּה here reflection, considerateness (LXX: βουλὴ καλή), properly “wisdom, so far forth as its direction is outward, and it presents itself in relation to the uncertain, testing it, and to danger, averting it” (Hitzig).
Pro_2:12. To deliver thee from an evil way— properly “from the way of evil.” —From the man that uttereth perverseness.—תַּהְפֻּכוֹת perverseness, a strong abstract form [found almost exclusively in Proverbs—Fuerst] which expresses the exact opposite of מֵישָׁרִים (“uprightness,” Pro_1:3; Pro_2:9),—it is therefore deceitfulness, subtlety, maliciousness. Comp. the expressions, “mouth of perverseness,” Pro_8:13; Pro_10:32; “tongue of perverseness,” Pro_10:31; “man of perverseness,” Pro_16:28; also passages like Pro_6:14; Pro_16:30; Pro_23:33.
Pro_2:13-15. Closer description of the wayward or perversely speaking man, in which, because of the generic comprehensiveness of the conception אִישׁ, the plural takes the place of the singular.—Who forsake straight paths.—The participle הָעזְֹבִים expresses, strictly interpreted, a preterite idea, “those who have forsaken;” for according to Pro_2:15 the evil doers who are described are already to be found in crooked ways.—In dark ways.—Comp. Rom_13:12; Eph_5:11; 1Th_5:5; also Job_24:15; Isa_29:15.—Deceitful wickedness—literally “perverseness of evil” (comp. remarks on Pro_2:12) a mode of combining two nouns which serves to strengthen the main idea.—Whose paths are crooked—literally, “who in respect to their ways are crooked;” for the prefixed אָרְחתֵיהֶם is to be construed as an accusative of relation belonging to the following עִקְּשִׁים; comp. Pro_19:1; Pro_28:6. In the second clause in the place of this adverbial accusative, there is substituted the more circumstantial but clearer construction with בְּ “perverse in their ways.”
Pro_2:16-19. The representation passes into a warning against being betrayed by vile women, just as in Pro_5:3; Pro_6:24; Pro_7:5 sq.—From the strange woman, from the wanton woman.—As “strange woman” (אִשָּׁה זָרָה) or a “wanton woman” (נָכְרִיָה, properly “unknown,” and so equivalent to “strange or foreign woman”) the betrayer into unchastity is here designated, so far forth as she is the wife of another (comp. Pro_6:26), who, however, has forsaken her husband (Pro_2:17), and therein has transgressed also God’s commandment, has broken the covenant with her God (Pro_2:17; Pro_2:1. c.).—The person in question is accordingly at all events conceived of as an Israelitess; and this is opposed to the opinion of those who, under the designation “the strange, or the foreign woman” (especially in connection with the last expression which appears as the designation of the adulteress in Pro_5:20; Pro_6:24; Pro_7:5; Pro_23:27), think first of those not belonging to the house of Israel, because the public prostitutes in Israel were formerly, for the most part, of foreign birth (so especially J. F. Frisch: Commentatio de muliere peregrina apud Ebræos minus honeste habita, Leips., 1744, and among recent commentators, e.g., Umbreit). This view is in conflict with the context of the passage before us quite as decidedly as is the idea of the LXX, which interprets the foreign and wanton woman as the personification of temptation in contrast with wisdom (Pro_1:20 sq.), but to carry out this view is obliged to introduce all manner of arbitrary relations,—e.g., referring that of the “companion of youth” in Pro_2:17 to the instruction in Divine truth (διδασκαλία νεότητος), which was a guide in youth. It is decisive against this allegorical conception of the strange woman, which has been a favorite with some Christian expositors also, such as Melanchthon, Joach. Lange, Chr. B. Michaelis, that the wicked and perverse men in Pro_2:12-15 cannot possibly be interpreted figuratively, but certainly only as individual concrete representatives of moral evil. [This word נָכְרִיָה is “especially applied to those ‘strange women’ whom Solomon himself loved in his old age, and who turned away his heart from the Lord his God, and beguiled him to favor and encourage the worship of their false gods (see 1Ki_11:1-8; comp. Neh_13:26-27). Here is a solemn lesson. Solomon warns his son against that very sin of which he himself was afterwards guilty. Thus by God’s goodness Solomon’s words in this Divinely inspired book were an antidote to the poison of his own vicious example.” Wordsworth].—Who maketh her words smooth— i.e., who knows how to speak flattering and tempting words; comp. Pro_7:21; Psa_5:9; Rom_3:13.
Pro_2:17. The companion of her youth.—The same expression occurs also in Jer_3:4; comp. Psa_55:13, where אַלוּף in like manner means companion, confidant. The forsaking of this “companion of youth,” i.e., the first lawful husband, is, at the same time, a “forgetting of the covenant of her God,” i.e., a forgetting, a wilful disregard of that which she has solemnly vowed to God. Marriage appears here not merely as a covenant entered into in the presence of God, but in a certain sense one formed with God. Quite similar is the representation in Mal_2:14, where the adulterous Israelite is censured for the faithless abandonment of his אִשָּׁה נְעוּרִים (wife of youth)
because God was witness with her at the formation of the marriage covenant. That the marriages of the Israelites “were not consummated without sacred rites connected with the public religion, although the Pentateuch makes no mention of them,” is accordingly a very natural assumption,—one which, e.g., Ewald, Bertheau, Hitzig, Reinke, v. Gerlach, etc., have made on the ground of the two passages here under consideration, especially the passage in Malachi. Yet compare besides A. Köhler on the latter passage (Nachexil. Prophh., IV. 102 sq.), who finds there a witness of Jehovah, not at the consummation, but at the violation of marriage.
Pro_2:18-19. For her house sinks down to death, etc.—A reason for the strong expression in Pro_2:16, “to deliver thee from the strange woman.”—And to the dead her paths.—The רְפָאִים (i.e., properly the weak, languid, powerless [Gesen., Thes.: quieti, silentes,—Fuerst, “the dark, the shadowy”]; comp. the εἴδωλα καμόντων of Homer, and the umbræ of Virgil) are the dwellers in the kingdom of the dead (comp. Pro_21:16; Ps. 138:10; Isa_14:9; Isa_26:14; Isa_26:18-19), and stand here, like the Latin inferi, for the world of the dead, or Sheol itself.—Her visitors all return not again,—because from Sheol there is no return to the land of the living; see Job_7:9-10,—and comp. Pro_5:5-6.—Paths of life, as in Psa_16:11; Pro_5:6.
3. Pro_2:20-22. “While the לְמַעַן [in order that] is strictly dependent on Pro_2:11, and co-ordinate with the לְ of the two final clauses in Pro_2:12 sq. and 16 sq., still we are to recognize in the announcement of a purpose which it introduces, a conclusion of the entire admonitory discourse which this chapter contains,—an epilogue, as it were (“all this I say to thee in order that,” etc.), which again may be resolved into a positive and a negative proposition (Pro_2:20-21 and Pro_2:22). Umbreit’s translation of לְמַעַן by “therefore” is ungrammatical, nor can it be justified by reference to passages like Psa_30:12; Psa_51:4; Hos_8:4.—The upright shall inhabit the land.—In the description of the highest earthly prosperity as a “dwelling in the land” (i.e., in the native land, not upon the earth in general, which would give a meaning altogether vague and indefinite), we find expressed the love of an Israelite for his fatherland, in its peculiar strength and its sacred religious intensity. “The Israelite was, beyond the power of natural feeling, which makes home dear to every one, more closely bound to the ancestral soil by the whole form of the theocracy; torn from it he was in the inmost roots of life itself strained and broken. Especially from some Psalms belonging to the period of the exile this patriotic feeling is breathed out in the fullest glow and intensity. The same form of expression has also passed over into the New Testament, comp. Mat_5:5, and also, with regard to the idea as a whole, Psa_37:9; Psa_37:11; Psa_37:29; Pro_10:30” (Elster).—But the wicked shall be rooted out from the land.—See critical notes above.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
He only who seeks after wisdom, i.e., who turns his practical efforts wholly toward it, and walks in its ways, finds true wisdom. For wisdom in the objective sense, is a gift of God, an effluence from Him, the only wise (Rom_16:27). It can therefore come into possession of him alone who seeks appropriately to make his own the true subjective wisdom, which is aspiration after God and divine things; who in thought and experience seeks to enter into communion with God; who devotes himself entirely to God, subjects himself fully to His discipline and guidance, in order that God in turn may be able to give Himself wholly to him, and to open to him the blessed fulness of His nature.—This main thought of our chapter, which comes out with especial clearness in Pro_2:5-6, is essentially only another side, and somewhat profounder conception, of the motto which, in Pro_1:7, is prefixed to the entire collection, viz., that the fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom,—or again, of the significant utterance in Pro_28:5 : “They that seek God understand all things.” Within the limits of the New Testament we may compare above all else, what the Lord, in Joh_7:17, presents as the condition of a full comprehension of Himself and of the divine truth revealed in Him: “If any man will do His will he shall know whether this doctrine be of God;” likewise: “Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find,” etc. (Mat_7:7); and also: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Eph_5:14). Comp. further the passage from the Book of Wisdom (Pro_6:12-13), which Melanchthon, with perfect propriety, cites in this connection: “Wisdom is willingly found of them that seek her, yea, she cometh to meet and maketh herself known to those that desire her;” and also David’s language: “In thy light do we see light” (Psa_36:9), the well-known favorite motto of Augustine, which in like manner, as it was employed by the profound metaphysician Malebranche, ought to be used by all Christian philosophers as their daily watchword and symbol.
In the second section of this admonition (Pro_2:10-19) this true wisdom, to be conferred by God, to be found only with God, is more completely exhibited, on the side of its salutary influence upon the moral life of humanity, especially as a preserver against sin and vice and their ruinous consequences. After this in conclusion the epilogue (Pro_2:20-22) contrasts the blessed results of wise and righteous conduct and the punishment of ungodliness in strongly antithetic terms, which remind us of the close of the first Psalm and of the Sermon on the Mount (Mat_7:24-27; comp. Psa_1:6). Comp. the exegetical comments on these two sections.
HOMILETIC
Homily on the entire chapter: The main stages in the order of grace, contemplated from the point of view of the wisdom of the Old Testament: 1) The call (Pro_2:1-4); 2) Enlightenment (Pro_2:5-6); 3) Conversion (Pro_2:7-10); 4) Preservation or sanctification (Pro_2:11-20); 5) Perfection (Pro_2:21-22).—Starke:—The order of proceeding for the attainment of true wisdom and its appropriate use: 1) the order for the attainment of wisdom consists in this,—that we a) ask for it, (1–3), b) search for it with care and diligence (4). 2) The wisdom thus attained is the only true wisdom, as appears a) from its own characteristics (5), b) from the person of its giver (6), c) from the conduct of the men who possess it (7, 8). 3) This only true wisdom is profitable, a) for the attainment of righteousness in faith and life (9–11, b) for deliverance from evil (12–19), c) for the steadfast maintenance of an upright life (20–22).—Simpler and better Stöcker:—Studiosi sapientiæ 1) officium (1–8); 2) præmium (9–22). [The student of Wisdom 1) in his duty, 2) in his reward].—Calwer Handb.: The way to wisdom consists 1) in listening to its call (1, 2); 2) in searching for it prayerfully (3–6); 3) in deference to that portion of wisdom which one has already attained, by earnestness in a holy walk (7–9); 4) in the experience of the power of wisdom, which lies in this, that it preserves from ways of evil, especially of impurity (10–22).
Pro_2:1-9. Melanchthon:—“He admonishes how we may make progress (in wisdom): for he combines two causes: 1) God’s aid; 2) our own zeal.” (No. 2 ought here necessarily to have been put first—an improvement which was made by Stöcker in his reproduction of this analysis of Melanchthon).—Stöcker:—The rounds upon which one must, with divine help, climb up to the attainment of wisdom are seven: 1) eager hearing; 2) firm retention; 3) attentive meditation; 4) unquestioned progress; 5) due humiliation; 6) devoted invoking of God’s, help; 7) tireless self-examination.—[Chalmers (on Pro_2:1-9):—The righteousness of our conduct contributes to the enlightenment of our creed. The wholesome reaction of the moral on the intellectual is clearly intimated here, inasmuch as it is to the righteous that God imparteth wisdom].—Starke (on Pro_2:1-4):—As the children of the world turn their eyes upon silver and treasures, run and race after them, make themselves much disquiet to attain them, though after all they are but shadows and vanity; so ought the children of God to use much more diligence to attain heavenly wisdom, which endures forever, and makes the man who possesses it really prosperous.—[Pro_2:1-6. Bridges:—Earthly wisdom is gained by study; heavenly wisdom by prayer. Study may form a Biblical scholar; prayer puts the heart under a heavenly pupilage, and therefore forms the wise and spiritual Christian. But prayer must not stand in the stead of diligence. Let it rather give life and energy to it.—Arnot (Pro_2:2):—The ear inclined to divine wisdom will draw the heart: the heart drawn will incline the ear. Behold one of the circles in which God, for His own glory, makes His unnumbered worlds go round.—(Pro_2:4). Fervent prayer must be tested by persevering pains.—Trapp (Pro_2:2):—Surely as waters meet and rest in low valleys, so do God’s graces in lowly hearts.—(Pro_2:3). A dull suitor begs a denial].—Starke (On Pro_2:5-9) :—Righteousness of faith and righteousness of life are closely connected. As soon as the first exists (Pro_2:5-8) the other must also show itself in an earnest and pure walk before God and man, Luk_1:74-75; Php_1:11.—Lange (on Pro_2:6):—One may indeed by natural knowledge very readily learn that God is a very benevolent being; but how He becomes to a sinner the God of love, this can be learned only from the mouth of God in the Holy Scriptures.—[Trapp (Pro_2:9):—“Thou shalt understand righteousness,” not as cognoscitiva, standing in speculation, but as directiva vitæ, a rule of life.]
Pro_2:10-22.—[Pro_2:11. Bridges:—Before wisdom was the object of our search. Now, having found it, it is our pleasure. Until it is so it can have no practical influence.—Arnot:—It is pleasure that can compete with pleasure; it is “joy and peace in believing” that can overcome the pleasure of sin.]—Stöcker (on Pro_2:10-12):—Wisdom helps such as love her in all good, and preserves them against all evil; she directs them to the good and turns them from the evil way.—(On Pro_2:12-19):—Wisdom delivers from the three snares of the devil, viz., 1) from a godless life; 2) from false doctrine; 3) from impurity and licentiousness.—Starke (on Pro_2:12 sq.):—Daily experience teaches us that we are by nature in a condition from which we need deliverance. But how few are there of those who are willing to be delivered, Mat_23:37!—(On Pro_2:20-22):—Not merely some steps in the right way, but continuing to the end brings blessedness, Mat_24:13!—Granted that for a time it goes ill with the godly in this world. God’s word must nevertheless be made good, if not here, surely in eternity, Psa_126:5.—[Bridges:—The spell of lust palsies the grasp by which its victim might have taken hold of the paths of life for his deliverance.]—Hasius (on Pro_2:21-22):—People who mean rightly neither with God nor men are with their posterity rooted out of the world. He who observes will even now see plain proofs of this, Psa_73:19; Psa_34:16.—Von Gerlach (on Pro_2:21 :)—The meaning of the promise, so common in the law, of “the pious dwelling in the land” depends especially on the fact that Canaan was type and pledge of the eternal inheritance of the saints in light.
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.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 Listen attentively and reflect seriously (Pro 1:24; Psa 130:2).
Listen attentively and reflect seriously (Pro 1:24; Psa 130:2).
understanding--right perception of truth.
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 vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22 THE TEACHER SHOWS HOW TO FIND Wisdom , vv1-9.
THE TEACHER SHOWS HOW TO FIND Wisdom , vv1-9.
The last verse of the preceding chapter makes a very suitable close to the discourse of Wisdom. The general character of that discourse is that of a modern practical and hortatory sermon — dissuading from evil and persuading to good, with appropriate threatenings and promises. This introduction of Wisdom speaking for herself is a very natural and ornamental episode, carrying out the main design of the author — the idea with which he set out in his motto or text, (Pro_1:7,) “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” With this key to Pro_2:1-5 scarcely another word is necessary to make the whole harmonious and impressive. Nevertheless, the force of a few of the words may be exhibited. The author, it will be seen, now speaks again in his own person.
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1. Hide my commandments with thee — Treasure up my precepts.
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 vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 1. hide] or, lay up, R.V.; as a treasure…
1. hide] or, lay up, R.V.; as a treasure stored carefully.
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 vv1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 21 (c) Third Discourse:—An Exhortation to follow after Wisdom (Proverbs…
II.
(c) Third Discourse:—An Exhortation to follow after Wisdom (Proverbs 2).
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(1) Hide—i.e., store up. (Comp. Pro_2:4.)
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 vv1–22 Vers. 1-22. Third admonitory discourse, pointing out the benefits…
Vers. 1-22. Third admonitory discourse, pointing out the benefits which arise from a sincere, earnest, and persevering search after Wisdom.
This discourse divides itself into three parts.
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(1) Vers. 1-9: a statement of the conditions which, if fulfilled, result in the highest knowledge of Jehovah the fear of Jehovah and the knowledge of God, who is the Source of wisdom and the Protection and Ensurer of safety to the righteous.
(2) Vers. 10-19: the negatively beneficial results of Wisdom, in delivery from the paths of evil, from destructive lusts and passions, from the temptations of wicked men and wicked women.
(3) Vers. 20-22: the epilogue, or conclusion, combining encouragement on the one hand, and warning on the other.
The teacher here reverts to the original form of his address, as appears from the employment of the term, my son. It seems clear that it is no longer Wisdom personified who is the speaker, from the fact that the words, "wisdom and understanding" in ver. 2 are used without the possessive pronoun "my," which would have been undoubtedly inserted if this address had been a continuation of the discourse in the preceding chapter. Some of the ideas of that address, however, are restated, as the crying and lifting up the voice after Wisdom, and the conclusion, wherein the respective destinies of the pious and wicked are portrayed. The particle "if" ( is conditional, and serves to introduce the series of clauses (vers. 1-4) which lay down the conditions upon which the promises depend, and which form the protasis to the double apodosis in vers. 5 and 9. De Wette, Meyer, and Delitzsch regard it as voluntative, as expressing a wish on the part of the teacher, and translate, "Oh that thou wouldst!" and "if," is used in this way in Psa_139:19; but the LXX (ean ) and Vulgate (si) make it conditional. It is repeated in an emphatic form in ver. 3. Receive.
The verbs "receive" and "hide" show that the endeavour after Wisdom is to be candid and sincere. "To receive" (hql) seems to be here used, like the LXX decesyai in the sense of "to receive graciously," "to admit the words of Wisdom." It is noticeable that there is a gradation in emphasis in the various terms here used by the teacher. Just as "commandments" is stronger than "words," so "hide" is stronger than "receive." The emphasizing is carried on in the following verses in the same way, and at length culminates in ver. 4, which sums up the ardent spirit in which the search after Wisdom is to be prosecuted in presenting it to us in its strongest form. Hide. The original (px, tsaphan) is here used in a different sense to that in which it occurs in Pro_1:11, Pro_1:18. It here refers, as in Pro_7:1 Pro_10:14; and Pro_13:22, to the storing or laying up, as of treasure, in some secret repository, and means "to lay up." The Divine commands of the teacher are to be hidden in safe custody in the memory, in the understanding, in the conscience, and in the heart. (cf. Pro_4:21 Pro_7:1) The psalmist expresses the same idea in Psa_119:11, "Thy words have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Vers. 1-5. The search for wisdom.
I DIVINE WISDOM MUST BE SOUGHT BEFORE IT CAN BE FOUND. It is true that Wisdom cries aloud in the street and invites the ignorant and simple to partake of her stores. But the burden of her cry is to bid us seek her, It is the voice of invitation, not that of revelation. The latter is only audible to those who incline their ears purposely and thoughtfully. The thoughtless are satisfied with hasty impressions of the moment; but the only religious convictions worth considering are the outcome of thought and prayer. Still, it is to be observed that this wisdom is not reserved for the keen-sighted, the intellectual, the philosophical. It is not ability, but industry, that is required; not exceptional capacity to attain knowledge, but diligence in pursuing it. Laborious dulness can never achieve the triumphs of the brilliant scholar in secular studies. Industry alone will not make a senior wrangler. But the highest knowledge, Divine knowledge, depends so much more on moral considerations which are within the reach of all, that it can stand upon this democratic basis and offer itself to all patient inquirers.
II THE SEARCH FOR DIVINE WISDOM MUST BEGIN IN RECEPTIVE FAITH. This wisdom is not innate; it is not attained by direct observation; it is not the result of self-sustained reasoning. It comes as revelation, in the voice of God. Thus the soul"s first duty is to hear. But the right attitude towards the Divine revelation is not merely a state of receptivity. It is one of faith and careful attention, receiving the words and hiding them. All through the Bible this essential distinction between heavenly truth. and philosophy, between the mere intellectual requisites of the one and the faith and obedience which lie at the root of the other, is apparent. The first steps towards receiving the wisdom of God are childlike trust and that purity and devoutness which bring the soul into communion with God.
III THE SEARCH FOR DIVINE WISDOM MUST BE MAINTAINED WITH INCREASING EARNESTNESS. The verses before us describe a progressive intensity of spiritual effort receiving, hiding the commandment, inclining the ear, applying the heart, crying after, lifting up the voice, seeking, searching as for hid treasure. The truth may not be found at once. But the earnest soul will not desist at the first discouragement; if his heart is in the pursuit, he will only press on the more vigorously. It is, moreover, the characteristic of Divine truth that a little knowledge of it kindles the thirst for deeper draughts. Thus we are led on to the most energetic search. Spirituality does not discourage the eager energy with which men seek worldly gain; on the contrary, it bids us transfer this to higher pursuits, and seek wisdom as men seek for silver, and sink mines after hidden treasures. Christ does not say, "Be anxious for nothing;" but, "Be not anxious for the morrow in order that we may transfer our anxiety to more important concerns, and "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
IV THE SEARCH FOR DIVINE WISDOM WILL BE REWARDED WITH SUCCESS. Some question this, and, after weary pursuit, abandon the quest in despair, or settle down into indolent indifference. Perhaps they lack patience toiling in the night and taking nothing, they cannot hold on till the dawn, when the Master will give them a rich draught; or they seek wrongly, not in spiritual faith, but in cold human reason; or they seek a mistaken goal the explanation of mystery rather than practical wisdom as the guide of life. This wisdom is promised to those who truly seek, and it is attainable.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-9. The conditions of religious knowledge.
The previous chapter having shown us in a variety of representations the necessity and the worth of wisdom, the question is now dealt with How shall it be sought and attained?
I CONDITIONS ON MAN"S SIDE. The enumeration is climactic, proceeding from the less strong to the stronger expressions.
1. Receptivity. The open mind and heart, ever ready to "adopt" true sentiments and appropriate them as one"s own. The point is not to ask Who says this? By what channel does it come to me? But Is it sound? is it true? If so, it is for me, and shall be made my own. Truth is common property.
2. Attention, concentration, assimilation. "Keeping her commands with us." The thorough student finds it necessary to exercise his memory, and to help it by the use of notebooks, where he hides his knowledge. So must we hive and store, arrange and digest, our religious impressions, which otherwise "go in at one ear and out at the other." Short germ sayings may be thus kept in the memory; they will burst into fertility some day.
3. Active application. In figurative language "bending the ear" and "turning the heart" in the desired direction. The mind must not be passive in religion. It is no process of "cramming," but of personal, original, spiritual activity throughout.
4. Passionate craving and prayerfulness. "Calling Sense to one"s side, and raising one"s voice to Prudence to give another rendering to ver. 3. We must invoke the spirit of Wisdom for the needs of daily conduct; thus placing ourselves in living relation with what is our true nature. Fra Angelico prayed before his easel; Cromwell, in his tent on the eve of battle. So must the thinker in his study, the preacher in his pulpit, the merchant at his desk, if he would have the true clearness of vision and the only genuine success. True prayer is always for the universal, not the private, good.
5. Persevering and laborious exertion. illustrated by the miner"s toil. The passage (Job 28), of extraordinary picturesque power and interest, describing the miner"s operations, may help us to appreciate the Illustration. The pursuit of what is ideal is still more arduous than that of the material, as silver and gold. It is often said that the perseverance of the unholy worker shames the sloth of the spiritual man. But let us not ignore the other side. The toil in the spiritual region is not obvious to the eye like the other, but is not the less really practised in silence by thousands of faithful souls. We should reflect on the immense travail of soul it has cost to produce the book which stirs us like a new force, though it may appear to flow with consummate ease from the pen. Such are the conditions of "understanding the fear of Jehovah," or, in modern language, of appropriating, making religion our own; "receiving the things of the Spirit of God," in the language of St. Paul. (1Co_2:14) It is the highest human possession, because permanent, inalienable, and preservative amidst life"s ills.
II CONDITIONS ON THE SIDE OF GOD. If religion be the union or identification of the soul with God, he must be related to us in such a way as makes this possible.
1. He is wisdoms Source and Giver. He not only contains in himself that knowledge which, reflected in us, becomes prudence, sense, wisdom, piety; he is an active Will and a self-communicating Spirit. The ancients had a glimpse of this when they said that the gods were not of so grudging or envious a nature as not to reveal their good to men. God is self-revealing; "freely gives of his things" to us, that we may know, and in knowing, possess them.
2. His wisdom is saving. "Sound wisdom" (ver. 7) may be better rendered soundness, or s alvation, or health, or saving health. It seems to come from a root signifying the essential or actual. Nothing is essential but health for sensuous enjoyment; nothing but health, in the larger sense, for spiritual enjoyment. Let us think of God as himself absolute Health, and thus the Giver of all health and happiness to his creatures.
3. He is Protector of the faithful. The Hebrew imagination, informed by constant scenes of war, delights to represent him as the Buckler or Shield of his servants. (Psa_18:2 Psa_33:20 Psa_89:19) Those who "walk in innocence" seem to bear a charmed life. They "fear no evil," for he is with them. The vast sky is their tent roof. They may be slain, but cannot be hurt. To be snatched from this world is to be caught to his arms.
4. He is eternal Justice. Being this in himself, the "way of his saints," which is synonymous with human rectitude, cannot be indifferent to him. Right is the highest idea we can associate with God. It is exempt from the possible suspicion of weakness or misdirection which may cleave to the mere idea of goodness or kindness. It essentially includes might. Thus the soul finds shelter beneath this vast and majestic conception and faith of its God. These, then, are the conditions, Divine and human, of religion. That we may realize it in ourselves, "understand right, justice, and equity in a word, "every good way" of life and thought, uniting piety with morality the conditions must be faithfully fulfilled. Perfect bodily health may not be attainable; some of its conditions lie without the sphere of freedom, and within that of necessary law. Spiritual health is attainable, for it lies within the sphere of freedom. Then God is realized; it is the ether of the soul, and the region of love and light and blessedness. J.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-9. The course, the goal, and the prize of wisdom.
These are comprehensive verses; they include the three main features of the heavenly race.
I THE COURSE OF THE WISDOM SEEKER. He who searches for wisdom is a wise runner in a heavenly race; he is pursuing an end which the Divine Author of his being distinctly and emphatically commends.
1. His search for life-giving truth must be characterized by readiness to receive. He must be wholly different in spirit from those who are disinclined to learn; still more must he be far removed from those who scornfully reject; he must be a son who "will receive the words" of wisdom the words of the "only wise God," of him who is "the Wisdom of God"(ver. 1).
2. But there must be not only readiness; there should be eagerness to receive. He must "incline his ear" (ver. 2). Not only be prepared to listen when Wisdom speaks, but make a distinct and positive effort to learn the truth which affects him and which will bless him.
3. Beyond this, there must be carefulness to retain. The student must not let his mind be a sieve through which knowledge passes and from which it is readily lost; he must make it a reservoir which will retain; he is to "hide God"s commandments" within him (ver. 1). to take them down into the deep places of the soul whence they will not escape.
4. Farther, there must be perseverance in the search. He must "apply his heart to understanding" (ver. 2). Not by "fits and starts" is the goal to be reached, but by steady, patient, continuous search.
5. And there must also be enthusiasm in the endeavour (vers. 3, 4). With the impassioned earnestness with which a man who is lest in the pathless wood, or is sinking under the whelming wave, "cries" and "lifts up his voice," should the seeker after heavenly wisdom strive after the goal which is before him. With the untiring energy and inexhaustible ardour with which men toil for silver or dig for the buried treasure of which they believe themselves to have found the secret, should the soul strive and search alter the high end to which God is calling it.
II THE GOAL HE WALL SURELY REACH. He who thus seeks for heavenly truth will attain that to which he is aspiring; "for the Lord giveth wisdom," etc. (ver. 6). There is no man who desires to be led into the path of that Divine wisdom which constitutes the life and joy of the soul, and who pursues that lofty and holy end in the spirit here commended, who will fail to reach the goal toward which he runs. That earnest and patient runner shall be helped of God; Divine resources shall be supplied to him; he shall run without weariness, he shall walk without fainting, till the winning post is clasped. (see Mat_5:6 Mat_7:7, Mat_7:8)
1. He shall apprehend the essential elements of religion. "Thou shall understand the fear of the Lord" (ver. 5). He will be led into a spiritual apprehension of that which constitutes the foundation and the essence of all true piety. He will be able to distinguish between the substance and the shadow, the reality and the pretence of religion.
2. He shall also and this is a still greater thingattain to a vital and redeeming knowledge of God himself. "Thou shall find the knowledge of God" (ver. 5). To know him is eternal life, (Joh_17:3) But this knowledge must be what in the case of the earnest disciple of heavenly wisdom it will become a vital knowledge; it must be of the whole spiritual nature, and not only of the intellectual faculty. It must be a knowledge which
(1) engages the whole powers of the spirit;
(2) which brings joy to the soul;
(3) which leads to an honest effort after God-likeness.
III THE PRIZE HE WILL WIN. It may be truly said that the runner in the race finds a deeper satisfaction in clasping the goal while his competitors are all behind him than in wearing the chaplet of honour on his brows. And it may be truly said that the most blessed guerdon which the heavenly runner wins is in that knowledge of God which is his "goal" rather than in the after honours which are his "prize." Yet we may well covet with intense eagerness the prize which Wisdom holds in her hand for those who are victorious. It includes much.
1. Stores of deep spiritual verities. "He layeth up sound wisdom," etc. (ver.7) greater and deeper insight into the most profound and precious truth.
2. Discernment of all practical wisdom. "Thou shall understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path" (ver. 9).
3. Divine guardianship along all the path of life. "He is a Buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment," etc. (vers. 7, 8). 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 On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 16, 17, 20, 22 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom.
Pro_2:1-5
So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom.
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Wisdom
This is constantly connected with religion. A religious fear of God is the first step in true wisdom. He who would know God aright must love Wisdom and humbly and vigorously seek after her. Wisdom is spoken of as a virtue, as much as truthfulness or charity or sobriety. It is identified with goodness. There is a real, true sense in which wisdom may be put for religion: the God-fearing man is the wise man; without the fear of God it is impossible to call any man truly wise. Taking the lowest view of things, only a selfish view, looking only at what is to be gained, the religious man is a wise man. If the good man proves to have been wrong, he loses nothing in the end, for he has had his own happiness here--peace of mind, a quiet conscience, and good prospects for the future. To take a higher view of the subject. The religious man is concerned with far grander and more exalted things than any other man. The principal attribute of a wise, discerning man is to be able to see things as they really are, to pierce through outside appearances and get at the heart of things, and not be cheated by sham outsides. To do this is a sign of wisdom. The religion of Jesus Christ treats of such mighty concerns that it is impossible to give the name of wise to him who thinks lightly of it. Wisdom is something which must be laboured for; it is not to be sought merely for amusement, but the search is to be the very business of mans life. (H. Goodwin, M,A.)
The endeavour to obtain true wisdom
The wise man is now come to the top of the ladder which doth bring us to true wisdom. The lowest step was a docile heart (Pro_2:1). The next, human instruction (Pro_2:2). The next above that, prayer to God (Pro_2:3). The last, study and painful endeavour through Gods blessing to obtain it (Pro_2:4). We must not lie in a ditch and cry, God, help! We must not so trust to our prayers that we give over our endeavours.
I. Heavenly wisdom is of great price.
II. Heavenly wisdom is far remote and hidden from us. It is beyond our invention and beyond our apprehension.
III. We must search for the means of obtaining heavenly wisdom.
IV. We must use the means when we find them. (Francis Taylor.)
The true wisdom
I. The nature of true wisdom. It is different from what the world calls wisdom. Its nature is different; its object and end are different. It is such a knowledge as is connected with the fear of God and obedience to His will. Worldly wisdom may be of use in directing us in those things which concern the present life, but spiritual wisdom will direct us in those things which concern the life to come.
II. The means which are to be used for obtaining wisdom.
III. If the means are used, success will certainly follow. Worldly wisdom is too often connected with pride; spiritual wisdom is always accompanied by humility.
IV. The source to which we must ever ascribe that success. God and God alone is the author of it. The teaching of this passage may be summed up thus--
1. There is a wisdom which man does not naturally possess, yet without which no man can be happy.
2. This wisdom consists not in the depths of science and learning, but in the fear of the Lord.
3. This wisdom is the gift of God.
4. It may be obtained by every one who desires it and diligently seeks for it in the way which God has appointed. (J. S. Pratt, B. C. L.)
Rules for the attainment of wisdom
I. There must be an active, practical habit of attention. Earthly wisdom is gained by study; heavenly wisdom by prayer. Prayer puts the heart under a heavenly tutorage.
II. Prayer must not stand in the stead of diligence. Let it rather give energy to it. The miners indefatigable pains, his invincible resolution, his untiring perseverance. The rule of success is: Dig up and down the field, and if the search be discouraging, dig again. The patient industry of perusal and reperusal will open the embosomed treasure. The habit of living in the element of Scripture is invaluable. Yet this profit can only be fully reaped in retirement. To search the Scriptures we must be alone with God. This enriching study gives a purer vein of sound judgment. All fundamental errors and heresies in the Church may be traced to partial and disjointed statements of truth. Truth separated from truth becomes error. But the mind prayerfully occupied in search of Divine truth--crying and lifting up the voice--will never fail to discern the two great principles of godliness, the fear and knowledge of God. There is no peradventure nor disappointment in this search. Never has apostasy from the faith been connected with a prayerful and diligent study of the Word of God. (C. Bridges.)
The inquiry after Divine truth
I. It must be candid--sincere. It is said of fools that they despise wisdom and instruction. But the children of Wisdom receive her words. They give them what they are entitled to, a serious and deliberate attention. They listen, they remember, they meditate, they examine, they accept, they lay up for use. If you feel the value of your privilege in having the Word of God in your possession, you will attend to the instructions and counsels, the admonitions, the encouragements, the commands which in the Bible are set before you. There are some who refuse to hear at all. This is unreasonable, uncandid, unmanly, and most infatuated. There are some who only seem to hear; the spirit of assentation has in it no sincerity, no heart. When there is sincerity of heart you will hide with you the Divine counsels and commands; hide the contents of the Word in the memory, in the understanding, in the conscience, in the heart.
II. It must be earnest. An inquiry determined on gratification, and that spares no pains on its attainment. Divine Wisdom is in earnest in imparting her instructions, and the pupil should be in earnest in seeking her instructions. He who is sensible of his inability to guide himself in the perplexing paths of life will be all solicitude for a conductor, Divine guide who may bring him into the right way and keep him in it.
III. With earnestness must re united importunate perseverance. This is implied in the variety of expressions used in succession to each other. Men discover the value they set on the treasures of this world by their unrelaxing diligence in seeking them. They do not give up the search immediately because they do not immediately succeed. Divine knowledge is fitly compared to treasure. The comparison is natural and common. But how few even of the people of God who profess to have learned the value of this wisdom and knowledge by a happy experience discover the longing, the vehement and persevering research, for the attainment of a larger and larger amount of it which might be expected of them I There is no way in which the Word can be in us richly without an eager seeking after it, or dwell in us richly without a careful and jealous keeping of it. There are powerful spiritual inducements presented. Then thou shalt understand the fear of the Lord, etc. By these terms true religion is expressed. Knowledge of God is the first lesson of heavenly wisdom. On the right apprehension of this lesson all the rest necessarily depends--
You cannot be right in the rest
Unless you think rightly of Him.
Wrong views of God will vitiate every other department of your knowledge. The fear of the Lord, founded in the knowledge of Him, is something to the right understanding of which experience is indispensable.
IV. The source from which true wisdom is to be obtained. The Lord giveth wisdom. In two ways--by His Word and by His Spirit. These two are really one, for God neither gives wisdom by His Word without His Spirit nor by His Spirit without His Word. The word rendered sound wisdom is one of general import, signifying anything real, solid, substantial. God has stores of wisdom laid up for present use; He will ever give larger and clearer manifestations of Himself, of His truths, of His ways, and of His will out of His inexhaustible stores, and there is also a treasure of invaluable wisdom and knowledge in reserve for His people in a future and better world. Another promise is safety. A buckler to them that walk uprightly. Jehovah is security amidst all the assaults of the enemies of the upright, and especially amidst the fiery darts of the wicked one, which, when the shield of Jehovahs power is interposed, cannot touch him, but fall, quenched and pointless, to the ground. (R. Wardlaw, D.D.)
The promises of Wisdom
Man must listen to Wisdom if he would be wise; his attitude must be one of attention; he must turn his ear towards the heavens and listen for every whisper that may proceed from the skies, and whilst his ear is listening his heart must be applied with unbroken attention to understanding. Everything depends upon our spirit as to the results of our study in the school of Wisdom. The crying after knowledge and lifting up the voice for understanding are equivalent to an exercise in prayer. There must also be activity or energy of the intensest quality. Seeking as for silver is an allusion to mining. The remains of copper mines have been discovered in the peninsula of Sinai and the remains of gold mines in one part of the desert of Egypt. Wisdom does not lie on the surface. It is to be dug for. Searching as for hid treasure reminds of the insecurity of property in the East and its frequent burial. God has purposely hidden both wisdom and understanding in order that the energy of man might be developed in searching for them. Wisdom is hidden in ancient books; in the experience of the whole world; in all difficult places; and is to be sought for with perseverance and zeal; the very act of searching being accompanied by a blessing. The Lord alone can give wisdom. He is the one fountain of wisdom. Elsewhere are partial revelations, broken experiences, hints of meaning, temporary satisfactions, but until we have discovered the Lord, and set Him always before us, we shall be working without a centre. True religion comes before true philosophy. Righteousness of character is necessary to the enjoyment of the treasures of sound wisdom. By sound wisdom we are to understand furtherance or advancement. God is evermore on the side of those who are righteous or upright or holy. Wisdom enters into the heart, and thus keeps the whole life pure. Knowledge is not merely an acquisition, it becomes a real pleasure to the soul, and not until it has become such a pleasure are we really in possession of it. Discretion and understanding are represented as the keepers of the soul--its protectors and guides--saving the soul from the way of the evil man, and protecting it from the man who delights in froward things, literally, in the misrepresentation and distortion of the truth. (J. Parker, D.D.)
Spiritual excellence
I. Spiritual excellence described. It is the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of God. Godliness has to do with both the intellect and the heart. It is knowledge and fear. In true spiritual excellence there is a blending of reverent love and theologic light--such a blending that both become one; the love is light and the light is love. This is not the means to heaven, it is heaven--in all times, circumstances, and worlds
II. Spiritual Excellence attained.
1. By the reception of Divine truth. The receptive faculty must be employed.
2. By the retention of Divine truth. What we receive from the Divine mind we must hold fast.
3. By the search after Divine truth. The ear must be turned away from the sounds of earthly pleasure, the din of worldliness, and the voices of human speculation, and must listen attentively to communications from the spiritual and eternal.
4. The search must be earnest and persevering. By so much as spiritual excellence is more valuable than all worldly treasures should be our ardent, unwearied diligence in quest of it. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v12 "To deliver thee from the way of the evil…
CHAPTER 3
WISDOM AS THE GUIDE OF CONDUCT
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"To deliver thee from the way of the evil man…To deliver thee from the strange woman."- Pro_2:12-16
WISDOM is concerned, as we have seen, with the whole universe of fact, with the whole range of thought; she surveys and orders all processes of nature. We might say of her,
"She doth preserve the stars from wrong, And the most ancient heavens by her are fresh and strong."
But while she is occupied in these high things, she is no less attentive to the affairs of human life, and her delight is to order human conduct, not despising even the smallest detail of that which is done by men under the sun. Side by side with physical laws, indeed often intertwined with them, appear the moral laws which issue from the lively oracles of Wisdom. There is not one authority for natural phenomena, and another for mental and moral phenomena. As we should say now, Truth is one: Science is one: Law is one. The laws of the physical order, the laws of the speculative reason, the laws of practical life, form a single system, come from the sole mind of God, and are the impartial interests of Wisdom.
As the great authority on Conduct, Wisdom is pictured standing in the places where men congregate, where the busy hum of human voices and the rush of hurried feet make it necessary for her to lift up her voice in order to gain attention. With words of winsome wooing-"for wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy soul" {Pro_2:10}-or with loud threats and stern declarations of truth -"the backsliding of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them" {Pro_1:32} -she tries to win us, while we are yet young, to her paths of pleasantness and her ways of peace. Her object is to deliver youth,
(1) from the evil man, and
(2) from the evil woman, or in the most comprehensive way "to deliver us from evil."
First of all, we may spend a few moments in noting the particular temptations to which men were exposed in the days when these chapters were written. There was a temptation to join a troop of banditti, and to obtain a living by acts of highway robbery which would frequently result in murder; and there was the temptation to the sin which we call specifically Impurity, a temptation which arose not so much from the existence of a special class of fallen women, as from the shocking looseness and voluptuousness of married women in well-to-do circumstances.
Society under the kings never seems to have reached anything approaching to an ordered security. We cannot point to any period when the mountain roads, even in the neighborhood of the capital, were not haunted by thieves, who lurked in the rocks or the copses, and fell upon passing travelers, to strip and to rob, and if need be to kill them. When such things are done, when such things are even recounted in sensational literature, there are multitudes of young men who are stirred to a debased ambition; a spurious glory encircles the brow of the adventurer who sets the laws of society at defiance; and without any personal entreaty the foolish youth is disposed to leave the quiet ways of industry for the stimulating excitement and the false glamour of the bandit life. The reckless plottings of the robbers are described in Pro_1:11-14. The character of the men themselves is given in Pro_4:16-17 : "They sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fail. For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence." The proverb in Pro_24:15 is addressed to such a one: "Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the habitation of the righteous; spoil not his resting-place."
The rebukes of the prophets-Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah-may have a wider application, but they seem at any rate to include this highwaymans life. "Your hands are full of blood" is the charge of Isaiah; and {Isa_1:15} again, "Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity." {Isa_59:7} "They build up Zion with blood," says Micah indignantly. {Mic_3:10} Jeremiah cries with still more vehemence to his generation, "Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor": {Jer_2:34} and again, "But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it." {Jer_22:17}
We are to conceive, then, the young and active men of the day constantly tempted to take these unhallowed paths which seemed to promise wealth; the sinners were always ready to whisper in the ears of those whose life was tedious and unattractive, "Cast in thy lot among us; we will all have one purse." The moral sense of the community was not sufficiently developed to heartily condemn this life of iniquity; as in the eighteenth century among, ourselves, so in Israel when this book was written, there existed in the minds of the people at large a lurking admiration for the bold and dashing "gentlemen of the way."
The other special temptation of that day is described in our book with remarkable realism, and there is no false shame in exposing the paths of death into which it leads. In Pro_5:3-20 the subject is treated in the plainest way: "Her latter end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on Sheol." It is taken up again in Pro_6:24-35 : "Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? or can one walk upon hot coals and his feet not be scorched?" The guilty man who has been betrayed by the glitter and beauty, by the honeyed words and the soft entreaties, "shall get wounds and dishonor, and his reproach shall not be wiped away."
Pro_7:5-27 a most vivid picture is drawn of the foolish youth seduced into evil; there he is seen going as an ox to the slaughter, as one in fetters, "till an arrow strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life." And the Introduction closes with a delineation of Folly, which is obviously meant as a counterpart to the delineation of Wisdom in Pro_1:20, etc. {Pro_9:13-18} The miserable woman sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city; with seductive words she wins the foolish passers-by to enter her doors: "The dead are there; her guests are in the depths of Sheol."
It is a temptation which in many varying forms has always beset human life. No small part of the danger is that this evil, above all others, grows in silence, and yet seems to be aggravated by publicity. The preacher cannot speak plainly about it, and even writers shrink from touching the subject. We can, however, be thankful that the book, which is Gods book rather than mans, knows nothing of our false modesty and conventional delicacy: it speaks out not only boldly, but minutely; it is so explicit that no man who with a prayerful heart will meditate upon its teachings need fall into the pitfall-that pitfall which seems to grow even more subtle and more seductive as civilization advances, and as the great cities absorb a larger proportion of the population; or if he fail he can only admit with shame and remorse, "I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof. Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me. I was well-nigh in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly." {Pro_5:12-14}
In the second place, we must try to look at these temptations in the light of our own day, in order that we may listen to the voice of wisdom, not in the antiquarian, but rather in the practical spirit. The second temptation exists amongst us almost unchanged, except that the vast accumulation and concentration of vice in great cities has provided that mournful band of women whom a great moralist has designated the Vestal Virgins of Humanity, consecrated to shame and ruin in order to preserve unsullied the sacred flame of the domestic altar. The result of this terrible development in evil is that the deadly sin has become safer for the sinner, and in certain circles of society has become recognized as at any rate a venial fault, if not an innocent necessity. It is well to read these chapters again with our eye on the modern evil, and to let the voice of Wisdom instruct us that the life is not the less blighted because the body remains unpunished, and vice is not the less vicious because, instead of ruining others for its gratification, it feeds only on those who are already ruined. If the Wisdom of the Old Testament is obscure on this point, the Wisdom of the New Testament gives no uncertain sound. Interpreting the doctrine of our book, as Christians are bound to do, by the light of Christ, we can be left in no doubt, that to all forms of impurity applies the one principle which is here applied to a specific form: "He doeth it that would destroy his own soul." "His own iniquities shall take the wicked, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin." {Pro_6:32 and Pro_5:22}
But with regard to the first of the two temptations, it may be urged that in our settled and ordered society it is no longer felt. "We are not tempted to become highwaymen, nor even to embark on the career of a professional thief." We are disposed to skim lightly over the warning, under the impression that it does not in any way apply to us. But stop a moment! Wisdom spoke in the first instance direct to the vice of her day, but she gave to her precepts a more general coloring, which makes it applicable to all time, when she said, "So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; it taketh away the life of the owners thereof." {Pro_1:19} The specific form of greediness described in this first chapter may have become obsolete among decent and respectable people; but that greed of gain which showed itself then in a particular form is alive today. Dressed in a different garb, it presents temptations of a slightly different order; but the spirit is the same, the issue, the fatal issue, is the same. It is a melancholy fact that in the most progressive and civilized communities the greed of gain, instead of dying out, becomes aggravated, acquires a dominant influence, and sways men as the master passion. The United States, a country so bountiful to her children that a settled peace might be supposed to pervade the life of men who can never be in fear of losing the necessaries, or even the comforts, of life, are inflamed with a fierce and fiery passion. Society is one perpetual turmoil; life is lived at the highest conceivable pressure, because each individual is seeking to gain more and ever more. In our own country, though society is less fluid, and ancient custom checks the action of disturbing forces, the passion for gain becomes every year a more exacting tyranny over the lives of the people. We are engaged in a pitiless warfare, which we dignify by the name of competition; the race is to the swift, and the battle to the strong. It becomes almost a recognized principle that man is at liberty to prey upon his fellow man. The Eternal Law of Wisdom declares that we should treat others as we treat ourselves, and count the interests of others dear as our own; it teaches us that we should show a tender consideration for the weak, and be always ready, at whatever cost, to succor the helpless. But competition says, "No; you must try rather to beat the weak out of the field; you must leave no device untried to reduce the strength of the strong, and to divert into your own hands the grist which was going to your neighbors mill." This conflict between man and man is untempered by pity, because it is supposed to be unavoidable as death itself. In a community so constituted, where business has fallen into such ways, while the strong may hold their own with a clean hand, the weaker are tempted to make up by cunning what they lack in strength, and the weakest are ground as the nether millstone. The pitilessness of the whole system is appalling, the more so because it is accepted as necessary.
The bandit life has here emerged in a new form. "Come, let us lay wait for blood," says the Sweater or the Fogger, "let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause; let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, and whole as those that go down into the pit." The Bandit is an outcast from society, and his hand is turned against the rich. The Sweater is an outcast from society, and his hand is turned against the poor. By "laying wait" he is able to demand, from weak men, women, and children, the long hours of the day for unceasing toil, and the bitter hours of the night for hunger and cold, until the gaunt creatures, worn with weariness and despair, find a solace in debauchery or an unhallowed rest in death.
Now, though the temptation to become a sweater may not affect many or any of us, I should like to ask, Are there not certain trades or occupations, into which some of us are tempted to enter, perfectly honeycombed with questionable practices? Under the pretext that it is all "business," are not things done which can only be described as preying upon the innocence or the stupidity of our neighbors? Sometimes the promise is, "We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil." {Pro_1:13} Sometimes the simple object is to escape starvation. But there is the miserable temptation to sacrifice probity and honor, to stifle compassion and thought, in order to bring into our own coffers the coveted wealth. And is there not, I ask, a similar temptation lurking in a thousand haunts more or less respectable-a temptation which may be described as the spirit of gambling? The essence of all gambling, whether it be called speculative business or gaming, in stock and share markets or in betting clubs and turf rings, is simply the attempt to trade on the supposed ignorance or misfortune of others, and to use superior knowledge or fortune for the purpose, not of helping, but of robbing them. It may be said that we do it in self-defense, and that others would do the same by us; yes, just as the bandit says to the young man, "We do not want to injure the traveler yonder; we want his purse. He will try to shoot you; you only shoot him in self-defense." It is the subtlety of all gambling that constitutes its great danger. It seems to turn on the principle that we may do what we like with our own; it forgets that its object is to get hold of what belongs to others, not by honest work or service rendered, but simply by cunning and deception.
It is, then, only too easy to recognize, in many varied shapes of so-called business and of so-called pleasure, "the ways of those who are greedy of gain." Wisdom has need to cry aloud in our streets, in the chief place of concourse, in the city, in exchanges and marts. Her warning to the young man must be explicit and solemn: "My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not." The bandit life still has its attractions, though its methods are changed; it plays upon the idle imagination: it promises freedom from laborious and distasteful toil; but it says nothing of the ways of death into which it leads.
Now, in the third place, we come to the protest of Divine Wisdom against these evil ways in which men are tempted to walk. They are, she says, folly of the most egregious kind. There may be an apparent success or a momentary gratification: "precious substance may be amassed, and houses may be filled with spoil"; but the people who are betrayed into these wicked courses "shall be cut off from the land." {Pro_2:22} They "lay wait for their own blood"; greed "taketh away the life of the owner thereof"; {Pro_1:19} and as for the strange woman, that flattereth with her words, "none that go unto her return again." {Pro_2:19}
It needs but a clear vision or a little wise reflection to see the destructive tendency of Evil. It is the commonest fact of experience that where "vice goes before, vengeance follows after." Why do men not perceive it? There is a kind of fatuity which blinds the eyes. The empty-headed bird sees the net spread out before its eyes; {Pro_1:17} many of its fellows have already been caught; the warning seems obvious enough, but it is all "in vain": eager to get the bait-the dainty morsel lying there, easy obtainable - the foolish creature approaches, looks, argues that it is swifter and stronger than its predecessors, who were but weaklings! it will wheel down, take the food, and be gone long before the flaps of the net can spring together. In the same way the empty-headed youth, warned by the experience of elders and the tender entreaties of father and mother, assured that these ways of unjust gain are ways of ruin, is yet rash enough to enter the snare in order to secure the coveted morsel. And what is the issue? Setting at naught all the counsel of Wisdom, he would none of her reproof. {Pro_1:25} A momentary success led to wilder infatuation, and convinced him that he was right, and Wisdom was wrong; but his prosperity destroyed him. Soon in the shame of exposure and the misery of remorse he discovers his mistake. Or, worse still, no exposure comes; success continues to his dying day, and he leaves his substance to his heirs; "he eats of the fruits of his own way, and is filled with his own devices," {Pro_1:31-32} but none the less he walks in the ways of darkness-in paths that are crooked and perverse-and he is consumed with inward misery. The soul within is hard, and dry, and dead; it is insensible to all feelings except feelings of torture. It is a life so dark and wretched, that when a sudden light is thrown upon its hidden secrets men are filled with astonishment and dismay, that such things could exist underneath that quiet surface.
Finally, note these two characteristics of the Divine Wisdom:
(1) she is found in her fullness only by diligent seekers; and
(2) rejected, she turns into the most scornful and implacable foe.
She is to be sought as silver or hidden treasure is sought. The search must be inspired by that eagerness of desire and passion of resolve with which avarice seeks for money. No faculty must be left unemployed: the ear is to be inclined to catch the first low sounds of wisdom; the heart is to be applied to understand what is heard; the very voice is to be lifted up in earnest inquiry. It is a well-known fact that the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of God are not fruits which grow on every wayside bush, to be plucked by every idle passer-by, to be dropped carelessly and trodden under foot. Without seriousness and devotion, without protracted and unflagging toil, the things of God are not to be attained. You must be up betimes; you must be on your knees early; you must lay open the book of Wisdom, pore over its pages, and diligently turn its leaves, meditating on its sayings day and night. The kingdom of God and His righteousness must be sought, yes, and sought first, sought exclusively, as the one important object of desire. That easy indifference, that lazy optimism-"it will all come right in the end"-that habit of delay in deciding, that inclination to postpone the eternal realities to vanishing shadows, will be your ruin. The time may come when you will call, and there will be no answer, when you will seek diligently, but shall not find. Then in the day of your calamity, when your fear cometh, what a smile of scorn will seem to be on Wisdoms placid brow, and around her eloquent lips! What derision will seem to ring in the well-remembered counsels which you rejected. {Pro_1:24-31} O tide in the affairs of men! O tide in the affairs of God! We are called to stand by death-beds, to look into anguished eyes which know that it is too late. The bandit of commercial life passes into that penal servitude which only death will end; what agony breaks out and hisses in his remorse! The wretched victim of lust passes from the house of his sin down the path which inclines unto death; how terrible is that visage which just retains smirched traces that purity once was there! The voice rings down the doleful road, "If I had only been wise, if I had given ear, wisdom might have entered even into my heart, knowledge might have been pleasant even to my soul!"
And wisdom still cries to us, "Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 12, 21 MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Pro_2:1-5
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Pro_2:1-5
HUMAN UNDERSTANDING AND DIVINE KNOWLEDGE
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I. Divine knowledge is within the reach of the human understanding. When a physician has created an appetite in his patient, he sees that he is provided with food that will satisfy his hunger. As God has given the eye, so He has given light to meet its needs. God has created man with a need, and with capabilities of knowing Him, and has therefore placed such knowledge within his reach. “The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, etc.” (Rom_10:8).
II. The conditions of its attainment.
1. Attention. In all departments of knowledge we must begin by doing the easiest thing. The first thing we have to do is to listen to what the teacher has to say. Everybody can do that. This is the first thing to be done in order to attain a knowledge of God. We can listen to His message. We can “receive” His words, “incline our ear.” “Faith cometh by hearing.”
2. Retention. The simple attention of the soul is not the reclaiming power. The hearing will not bless us if we do not hold the truth in our memory. “And some seed fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up” (Mat_13:4). But the ploughed earth receives the seed, and holds it, and hides it, and by retention comes seed to the sower and bread to the eater. We must not only “receive” but “hide” the words of God.
3. Reflection. This prevents forgetfulness; this is indispensable to retention. The rules of grammar, or of arithmetic, must not only be received into the memory, but meditated upon. We must “apply” our minds to them in order to understand them. The soul which receives and holds Divine truth must apply itself to the understanding of it.
4. Supplication. If the learner has not only the book, but the author of the book at hand, he can turn to him and ask him to unfold the meaning of the difficult passages, or to show him how to apply the rules. We have not only the Divine Word of God, but we have the Divine Spirit; not only the Book of Wisdom, but the Author of the Book, the source of wisdom. And He has promised to give wisdom for the asking. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him (Jas_1:5). There must be an asking in order to receive. “If thou criest after knowledge, etc.”
5. Perseverance. Those who find a few diamonds upon the surface of the ground do not then bring their labours to a conclusion. They dig down beneath, and toil on for months and years if the mine yields. They do not cease while they think there is more to be gained. The Divine wisdom is a mine which yields a little on the surface, but we must not stop there: we must dig down deep, we must continue to hear, to remember, to meditate, to cry for enlightenment,—we must ask, and seek, and knock, and never cease to “search” for the hidden and exhaustless treasures of wisdom.
III. The certainty of success if the conditions are fulfilled. Then shalt thou understand, etc. The mariner puts out to sea, and fulfils all the conditions known to him for reaching the country to which he is bound, but he may find a grave midway between his starting-point and his goal. The husbandman sows the seed, and fulfils all the conditions upon which a good harvest depends. But his crop may fail notwithstanding: he may not reap the golden grain. But no such disappointment ever befals the earnest seeker after the knowledge of God.
ILLLUSTRATION OF Pro_2:4
“There are frequent allusions to hid treasure in the Bible. Even in Job we read that the bitter in soul dig for death more earnestly than for hid treasure. There is not another comparison within the whole compass of human action so vivid as this. I have heard of diggers actually fainting when they have come even upon a single coin. They become positively frantic, dig all night with a desperate earnestness, and continue to work until utterly exhausted. There are, at this hour, hundreds of persons engaged in it all over the country. Not a few spend their last farthing upon these ruinous efforts.… It is not difficult to account for this hid treasure. The country has always been subject to revolutions, invasions, and calamities of different kinds.… Warriors and conquerors from every part of the world sweep over the land, carrying everything away that falls into their hand. Then, again, this country has ever been subject to earthquakes, which bury everything beneath her ruined cities.”—Thomson’s “Land and the Book.”
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_2:1-2. The sinner is here told how he may become serious. In any conceivable path if thou wilt do that lowest conceivable thing—just listen; and, that thy listening may not be a mere passing flash, if thou wilt pause upon it, and attend. If a man just takes a chair and thinks for a moment of death and judgment and eternity, his heart begins to feel, and it will go on feeling to any length. It requires the Spirit, no doubt; but what is the Spirit but the Spirit of the God of Nature? He will come in the track of thought just as surely as a star is dragged after Him in the track of gravitation.—Miller.
The word of God is a vital seed, but it will not germinate unless it be hidden in a softened, receptive heart. It is here that Providence so often strikes in with effect as an instrument in the work of the Spirit. The place and use of providential visitations in the Divine administration of Christ’s kingdom is to break up the way of the word through the incrustations of worldliness and vanity that encase a human heart, and keep the word lying hard and dry upon the surface.—Arnot.
Angels, who are so much our superiors, apply themselves to the learning of it: they are already supplied with the stores of truth, and yet they desire to pry deeper into the mystery of it. Surely, then, the wisest of us ought to apply our whole hearts.—Lawson.
There are some who do hear, or rather, seem to hear. They profess to be all attention; but it is mere pretence—the mere result of politeness and courtesy to the speaker. This is worse than not hearing at all, inasmuch as it is the reality of neglect, with the guilt of hypocrisy added to it.—Wardlaw.
Pro_2:2. Lie low at God’s feet and say,—“Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” His saints “sit down at His feet, every one to receive His word.”—Trapp.
Even as worldlings, when they hear of some good bargain, hearken very diligently; or as they who think that one speaketh of them put their ears near to him that speaketh.—Muffet.
Pro_2:3. Earthly wisdom is gained by study; heavenly wisdom by prayer. Study may form a biblical scholar; prayer puts the heart under a heavenly pupilage, and therefore forms the wise and spiritual Christian. But prayer must not stand in the stead of diligence. Let it rather give life and energy to it.—Bridges.
Knowledge is God’s gift, and must be sought at His hand, since He is the “Father of Lights,” and sells us “eye-salve” (Rev_3:17).—Trapp.
It is not any longer a Nicodemus inclined towards Jesus, he cannot tell how, and silently stealing into His presence under cloud of night; it is the jailer of Philippi springing in and crying with a loud voice: “What must I do to be saved?”—Arnot.
Pro_2:4. The same image occurs in Joh_5:39 : “Search the Scriptures.” Not merely scrape the surface and get a few superficial scraps of knowledge, but dig deep, and far, and wide. The “treasures” are “hidden” by God, not in order to keep them back from us, but to stimulate our faith and patient perseverance in seeking for them.—Fausset.
Men never prayed that way and were not answered. Men seek money—
(1) always;
(2) as a matter of course;
(3) against all discomfitures;
(4) under all uncertainties.—Miller.
Will not the far-reaching plans, and heroic sacrifices, and long-enduring toil of Californian and Australian golddiggers rise up and condemn us who have tasted and known the grace of God? Their zeal is the standard by which the Lord stimulates us now, and will measure us yet. Two things are required in our search—the right direction and the sufficient impulse. The Scriptures point out the right way, the avarice of mankind marks the quantum of forcefulness, wherewith the seeker must press on.—Arnot.
This intimates
(1) a loss or want of something. Else men seek not for it.
(2) A knowledge of this want or loss. Else men sit still.
(3) Some goodness indeed, or, in our own opinion, of the thing sought. Men are, or should be, content to lose what is evil.
(4) Some benefit to ourselves in it. Else few will seek it, though good in itself.
(5) An earnest desire to find it. Else men have no heart to seek it.
(6) A constant inquiry after it, wheresoever there is any hope to find it. Else we seek in vain. So in seeking wisdom—we must want it, and know that we want it, and see good in it, and that to ourselves, and seek it earnestly and constantly, if we would find it.—Francis Taylor.
Pro_2:5. That which impels men to the pursuit is also the prize which rewards them. If any distinction between God (Elohim, see “Critical Notes”) and the Lord (Jehovah) can be pressed here, it is that in the former the glory, in the latter the personality of the Divine nature is prominent.—Plumptre.
He understandeth the fear of the Lord, whose understanding feareth the Lord. The knowledge of God is found in all His creatures, but he findeth the knowledge of God who, being lost in his sins, is found by God in the acknowledgment of them … And as fear advanceth to the knowledge of God, so the knowledge of God bringeth us to the fear of Him.—Jermin.
This knowledge of God is the first lesson of heavenly wisdom. On the right apprehension of this lesson all the rest necessarily depends. Wrong views of God will vitiate every other department of your knowledge. Without right views of God you can have no right views of His law. Without right views of His law you can have no right views of sin, either in its guilt or in its amount. Without right views of sin you can have no right views of your own condition, and character, and prospects as sinners. Without right views of these you can have no right views of your need of a Saviour, or of the person, and righteousness, and atonement of that Saviour. Without right views of these you can have no right views of your obligations to Divine grace, etc.… The fear of the Lord, founded on the knowledge of Him, is something to the right understanding of which experience is indispensable. To a man who had never tasted anything sweet, you would attempt in vain to convey, by description, a right conception of the sensation of sweetness. And what is true of the sensations is true also of the emotions. To a creature that had never felt fear you would hardly convey, by description, an idea of its nature; and equally in vain would it be to make love intelligible to one that had never experienced that affection. It is thus to a depraved creature with regard to holy and spiritual affections. “The fear of the Lord”—a fear springing from love and proportioned to it—such a creature cannot understand but by being brought to experience it.—Wardlaw.
The knowledge of God regulates the fear and prevents it from sinking into terror, or degenerating into superstition, but guides it to express its power in checking and subduing every corrupt affection and animating the soul to every instance of obedience.—Lawson.
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 On v1 Pro 2:1-5
Pro 2:1-5
This is only one passage out of many in which wisdom is connected with religion, in which it is asserted that a religious fear of God is the first step in true wisdom, and that he who would know God aright must love wisdom, and humbly and vigorously seek after her.
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I. Even taking the lowest view of things, that is only a selfish view, looking only to what is to be gained, making it only a matter of profit and loss, the religious man is the wise man. For it has been often argued, that even though a man who gives his mind to religion be wrong, yet he loses nothing in the end; he has had his own happiness here, and has trodden the weary vale of life buoyed up by the expectation of a glorious resurrection morning. But if we think of another life, which is the happier then? If the religious man be right, what becomes of the irreligious?
II. Religion is wisdom and ungodliness folly, because the religious man is concerned with far grander and more exalted things than any other man. The principal attribute of a wise discerning man is to be able to see things as they really are, to pierce through outside appearances, and get at the heart of things, and not be cheated by sham outsides; and, therefore, when a man is deceived by the show of the world, and believes its promises, and lays up his treasure here, and thinks his treasure real and safe, I think that the man is in reality weak in judgment and childish in his way of viewing things. I can see no wisdom in him, but quite the reverse.
III. Wisdom is spoken of as a thing that must be laboured for; it is not to be sought merely for amusement, but the search is to be the very business of man’s life; there is no point more clearly laid down, none more insisted on, than the necessity of exertion in the pursuit of wisdom. There are lessons enough in the Book of God for every day of the longest life, and he who puts off learning them will find that they will press heavily upon him when he has the least power to learn. The wisdom we are to seek is the result of many actions; almost every act tells one way or another, tends either to wisdom or folly.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 1st series, p. 239.
References: Pro 2:1-9.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 52. Pro 2:1-15.—Outline Sermons to Children, p. 65.
Pro 2:2-5
I. Solomon’s meaning is, that we are to begin life by fearing God, without understanding it; as a child obeys his parents without understanding the meaning of their commands. If we do not always know the reason at first, we shall know it in due time, and get, so Solomon says, to understand the fear of the Lord. In due time we shall see from experience that we are in the path of life.
II. This is the secret of life—to believe that God is your Father, schooling and training you from your cradle to your grave; and then to please Him and obey Him in all things, lifting up daily your hands and thankful heart, entreating Him to purge the eyes of your soul, and give you the true wisdom, which is to see all things as they really are, and as God Himself sees them. If you do that, you may believe that God will teach you more and more how to do, in all the affairs of life, that which is right in His sight, and, therefore, good for you. He will reward you by making you more and more partakers of His Holy Spirit and of truth, by which, seeing everything as it really is, you will at last—if not in this life, still in the life to come—grow to see God Himself, who has made all things according to His own eternal mind, that they may be a pattern of His unspeakable glory; and beyond that, who needs to see? For to know God and to see God is eternal life itself.
C. Kingsley, The Good News of God, p. 204
References: Pro 2:4.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., p. 224. Pro 2:4, Pro 2:5.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 88.
Pro 2:6
Religion may be properly considered in relation to the ends of study, and to the spirit in which these ends are to be pursued.
I. Education ought to discipline and to strengthen the powers of the mind. This is the real object of all study. Men are to be prepared for their work. The best student is the man who is most, not the man who has learned most. No good student will neglect any side of his being. He must have fulness of nature, wideness of capacity; all that God has given him must receive its due regard.
II. It is here that the subject of religion comes to be considered by the student. The nature which he possesses is distinctly religious—that is to say, he has capacities and powers which have relation to the Supreme Being, and which require training and discipline equally with all the others. Man is naturally formed for God, and if a man does not attend to that faculty whereby he regards God and can apprehend Him, he neglects that part of himself which is most important and most influential.
III. Consider the influences which religion exerts upon the student. (1) It renders him reverent. Nothing is so unsuitable to the man who desires a cultivated mind as arrogance and self-esteem. All wisdom is humble. Religion and its duties produce reverence. The religious man recognises the constant presence of God. The world to him becomes a temple, and every duty is a sacrifice. All objects of study with such a man ascend towards God, and shine in the light of the Divine throne. (2) Another element of the studious nature is the harmony which subsists between the different powers of the soul. Man cannot gain intellectual vigour when his whole being is torn asunder by conflicting forces. Outward physical quietness is the usually necessary condition of study. Inward spiritual peace is as needful. Religion will give this. Nothing in our nature so tends to preserve the balance and equipoise of the whole. And how is this religious life sustained, except by the knowledge of Him who is the express image of the Father, and the shining ray of the central light of God? To the student especially does Christ appeal. His religion is the religion of intelligence. He is the Word. We are to know Him, and through Him to know God.
L. D. Bevan, Sermons to Students, p. 9 (see also Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 337).
References: Pro 2:10, Pro 2:11.—Old Testament Outlines, p. 156. Pro 2:12-19.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 97.
Pro 2:10-11
I. If we look at the teaching of Scripture upon the subject of Christian humility, we find that its two main characteristics are: (1) distrust of self and of purely human wisdom; (2) trust in, and gratitude to, God as the Giver of all good gifts. From these qualities, when carried into practice, spring modesty and forbearance, and consideration in our dealings with each other; a devotion to, and worship of, Him to whom we acknowledge that all we have is due. Christian humility then, in its widest acceptation, is the attribute alike of a good citizen and a good Christian. It summarises, so to speak, and gathers into one focus that duty to man and duty to God which our Lord Himself, the pattern standard of humility, declared to be the sum total of Christian practice. It is the crowning grace of every relation of human life: in young and old, in teacher and in learner, in master and in servant, in parent and in child, at the councils of statesmen, in busy scenes of merchandise and industry, or at little children’s play.
II. We do not, of course, suppose that humility, unlike any other virtue, has not its limits. Obedience may be slavish and unreasoning; self-effacement may cover a shrinking from responsibility; self-sacrifice may even be quixotic and useless. Childlike humility is indeed a crown of human character, a necessary ingredient in human perfection; but it may not stand in the way of Christian zeal for high and noble objects; it may not bar the path of Christian duty by encouraging weakness and irresolution. Shrink not from self-assertion in the cause of good when once you have ascertained that it is the cause of good, and not the cause of self; let not humility stay your hand from the plough when there is hard, rough soil of evil lives and evil habits to be broken up, misery to be relieved, degradation to be raised, and the very germs of civilisation to be implanted; in that great field of labour, whether in heathen lands afar, or amid scarcely less heathen scenes at home, where the labourers are so few and the work so great, and where so much has to be done to prepare the soil before there can be even a distant hope of harvest.
T. L. Papillon, Oxford and Cambridge Undergraduates’ Journal, Feb. 28th, 1884.
Reference: Pro 2:10-22,—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i.. p. 64.
Pro 2:17
I. There is a season when youth becomes independent and intolerant of control, when gentle guidance is mistaken for love of interference and of power, when the youth and the maiden think scorn to follow the ways and maxims of the parent, the friend, the teacher, and take pride in forming a code and gathering maxims of their own; in speaking their own words and walking after the light of their own eyes. These are critical days in every man’s life—days which determine whether he is to be a pilgrim to the light, or to drop down into the darkness—days when he is made or marred for ever. On which side am I? Which have I chosen for my lot? Is the guide of my youth still my guide?—that soft voice still my monitor? Is my father’s God my God for ever and ever, and have I taken Him for my guide unto death?
II. Notice the reason of this woful departure and falling away: "She forgetteth the covenant of her God." The solemn fact that God’s vows are upon her is suffered to pass from her into forgetfulness. She saith in her heart, "There is no God."
And if she, one of ancient Israel was bound to God, by a covenant, what shall we say in this matter? The covenant of our God began in our earliest days. Baptism and confirmation were to us seals of the covenant, most solemn and important. You bound yourselves to forsake God’s enemies; you bound yourselves to cleave to Him and serve Him. (1) We are bound by that covenant to stand aloof from Satan. How are we situated with regard to the great enemy of our souls? He is ever busy around us; knowing our weak points, urging our evil tempers, suggesting, prompting, decoying us into sin. Are we his enemies, or are we in league with him? (2) We are to stand aloof from the world. Those who are bound by God’s covenant should not run to the excess prevalent in the ungodly world, in adornment of person, in frivolity of amusement, in countenancing any of those employments or meetings where merely self-display is the object; that the person, and the household, and the furniture, and the equipage of the Christian should be modest, unobtrusive, showing the conscientious stewardship of one who has a neighbour to benefit and edify, and a God to glorify, and not the lavish expenditure of one who lives for himself, or for his family, or for the world.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. vii., p. 16.
References: Pro 3:1.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 269; W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 106. Pro 3:1-4.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. vi., p. 83. Pro 3:1-10.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 75.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Search for Wisdom
The Search for Wisdom
1-4. The condition which must be fulfilled. Spinoza said, 'The effort to understand is the first and sole basis of virtue.'
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1. Hide] i.e. as a treasure.
2. The heart in OT. is the seat of the intellect.
4. Wealth was hoarded in the shape of gold and jewels. In times of peril this was buried (Gen_43:23; Job_3:21; Jer_41:8; Mat_13:44). Hence the suspicion with which Orientals have often regarded modern explorers.
5-8. The result. It brings us into relation with Him who is the only source of wisdom and safety.
7. Sound wisdom] read, 'deliverances.'
8. His saints] read, 'His pious' or 'loving ones'; those who love and are beloved by Him (Psa_12:1; Psa_30:4; Psa_31:23).
9-19. A further result. It saves from the seductions of bad men and women.
10. When] RV 'for.' It becomes part of his very mind.
16-18. The stress laid in these chapters on sensual vice proves that the evil was a flagrant one. The population was drawn to the great towns where such temptations are common. The strange woman (Pro_22:14) was not a foreigner but an adulteress or harlot, to whom the man was not related. In later ages Jewish pride entitled such a person 'an Aramæan,' as though no Jewess would stoop so low.
17. The 'friend of her youth' (RV) is her husband (Jer_3:2-5). The covenant of her God] Though there was perhaps no religious ceremony, the marriage relation was a religious one (Exo_20:14; Mal_2:14).
18. Read,
'For her house leads down unto Death,
And her paths unto the Shades.'
She and her guests are on their way to that under-world which is tenanted by the Shades, the disembodied, shadow-like, hopeless dead (Pro_9:18). The ancient idea of a future existence, not worthy of the name of existence, prevails all through this book.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv5, 21 Also; Pro 3:7, (See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
fear
Also; Pro 3:7, (See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. The pursuit of wisdom and its results (Pro…
CHAPTER 2
1. The pursuit of wisdom and its results (Pro 2:1-9)
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2. Preservation from the evil man and the strange woman (Pro 2:10-19)
3. The path of the righteous (Pro 2:20-22)
Pro 2:1-9 This second chapter of divine instructions begins with an exhortation to pursue after Wisdom. The sayings of Wisdom, that is the Word of the Lord, must be received, laid up, the ear must incline to hear them, the heart must be applied to understanding. In verse 3 mention is made of prayer. There must be crying after knowledge and for understanding and that must be followed by seeking and searching. If these conditions are fulfilled then the fear of the Lord is one’s portion as well as the knowledge of God. These are excellent instructions for the study of the Word of God. If followed then the Lord will give wisdom (Jas 1:5). He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous. He Himself is the Wisdom and in Him are laid up all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col 2:3). He also is a shield (the better word for buckler) to them that walk uprightly, and the way of His saints is preserved by Him.
Pro 2:10-19. When Wisdom entereth the heart and the soul rejoiceth in true knowledge, what blessed consequences will follow! There is preservation and deliverance. The way of the evil man, the proud, the ungodly and their crooked ways hold out no attraction to those who love and seek wisdom. Then for the first time the strange woman, the foreign woman is mentioned. While a prostitute is meant, the warning to Solomon was to beware of the allurement of those who were outside of the commonwealth of Israel, the heathen Canaanitish cults in which prostitution played such a prominent part. If we look on these instructions as given to a young man, we see the temptations out lined which are peculiar to the young-disobedience to parents, evil companions and the lust of the flesh.
Pro 2:20-22. He who ordereth his conduct according to divine instruction will walk in the way of the good and keep the paths of the righteous, dwelling in the land of promise while the wicked have no such hope.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 10 Advantages in Accepting Wisdom
Advantages in Accepting Wisdom
v. 1. My son, so Wisdom, as the proper teacher of all men cries out, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee, laying them up in store, guarding them as a precious treasure,
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v. 2. so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, yielding a ready obedience, and apply thine heart to understanding, ready to accept it, to make use of the right discrimination in every situation in life;
v. 3. yea, if thou criest after knowledge, calling and inviting it, and liftest up thy voice for understanding, in order to be able to distinguish between good and evil, between wise and foolish;
v. 4. If thou seekest her as silver, with the same eagerness, and searchest for her as for hid treasures, with the avidity which avarice induces in a person digging for gold or jewels,
v. 5. then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, making this childlike reverence for Jehovah, the outflow of faith, one’s most valuable possession, and find the knowledge of God, for the fear of God is the basis of all true wisdom, and its object is God Himself.
v. 6. For the Lord giveth wisdom, granting it as a gift of His free favor; out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding, it is a matter of revelation in His Word. The ability of having the right judgment in the various situations in life and of discriminating properly in applying this knowledge is a gift of the Lord.
v. 7. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous, preserving it after the manner of a treasure or a jewel; He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly, for wisdom shields all those who exercise themselves in a blameless conduct.
v. 8. He keepeth the paths of judgment, protecting the ways of justice, the conduct of those who try to behave in agreement with the demands of justice, and preserveth the way of His saints, guiding and guarding them from foolish and wicked behavior.
v. 9. Then shalt thou understand righteousness and judgment and equity, all parts of the duty included in a godly conduct toward God and man; yea, every good path, for it is only with the wisdom gained from the Word of God, as the source of true wisdom, that a person’s conduct will be in accordance with His will.
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 vv1, 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 16, 18, 20 General Information:
General Information:
A father teaches his child using poetry. (See: Parallelism)
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if you receive my words
"if you listen to what I am teaching you"
treasure up my commandments with you
Valuing what is commanded is spoken of as if the commandments were a treasure and the person were a safe place to store the treasure. AT: "consider my commands to be as valuable as a treasure" (See: Metaphor)
make your ears pay attention
This is an idiom. AT: "force yourself to listen carefully" (See: Idiom)
to wisdom
This abstract noun can be stated as an adjective. AT: "to the wise things I am teaching you" (See: Abstract Nouns)
incline your heart to understanding
Here "heart" represents a person's mind. The phrase "incline your heart" is an idiom that means to commit or fully dedicate one's mind to a task. AT: "try hard to understand what is wise" or "fully dedicate yourself to understanding wise teachings" (See: Metonymy and Idiom)
translationWords
receive
word
command
wise
heart
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 vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 16, 17, 18, 20 2:1-22 The father urges his son to seek wisdom.…
2:1-22 The father urges his son to seek wisdom. It will protect him from evil men and from the dangers of promiscuous women. The son must seek wisdom, while understanding that it is a gift from God.
2:1 To treasure my commands means to give attention to them and obey them; they allow us to live to the fullest.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.