Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path!
Parallel Translations
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Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path!
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Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
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Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thy heart in the way.
Cross-references (5)
Passages linked to Proverbs 23:19 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Proverbs 23:26 My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways.
- Proverbs 4:10-23 Listen, my son, and receive my sayings. The years of your life will be many. I have taught you in the way of wisdom. I have led you in straight paths. When you go, your steps will not be hampered. When you run, you will not stumble. Take firm hold of instruction. Don’t let her go. Keep her, for she is your life. Don’t enter into the path of the wicked. Don’t walk in the way of evil men. Avoid it, and don’t pass by it. Turn from it, and pass on. For they don’t sleep unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light that shines more and more until the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness. They don’t know what they stumble over. My son, attend to my words. Turn your ear to my sayings. Let them not depart from your eyes. Keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and health to their whole body. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.
- Proverbs 23:12 Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
- Proverbs 6:6 Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise;
- Proverbs 9:6 Leave your simple ways, and live. Walk in the way of understanding.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain In the observation of God’s commandments.
In the observation of God’s commandments.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Pro 23:19 Hear thou, my son, and be wise,…
Pro 23:19 Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
Ver. 19. Hear thou, my son, and be wise.] Hearing is one of the learned senses, as Aristotle calls it. Wisdom entereth into the soul by this door, as folly did at first, when the woman listened to the old serpent’s illusions. This sense is first up in the morning; and this preface the wise man purposely premiseth to his following discourse; as well knowing how hardly young men are drawn off from drinking matches and good fellow meetings,
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And guide thine heart in the way.] That is to say, Let knowledge and affection be as twins, and run parallel; let them mutually transfuse life and vigour, the one into the other. Practise God’s will as fast as thou understandest it. The Tigurine translation reads it, Ut beatura sit in via cor tuum: That thine heart may be blessed in the way.
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 Be wise; rest not in hearing, but see that…
Be wise; rest not in hearing, but see that thou growest wiser and better by it.
Guide thine heart; order the whole course of thine affections and actions.
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In the way; in God’s way, oft called the way, as hath been observed before.
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 Here is good advice for parents to give to…
Here is good advice for parents to give to their children; words are put into their mouths, that they may train them up in the way they should go. Here we have,
I. An earnest call to young people to attend to the advice of their godly parents, not only to this that is here given, but to all other profitable instructions: "Here, my son, and be wise, Pro 23:19. This will be an evidence that thou art wise and a means to make thee wiser." Wisdom, as faith, comes by hearing. And again (Pro 23:22): "Hearken unto thy father who begot thee, and who therefore has an authority over thee and an affection for thee, and, thou mayest be sure, can have no other design than thy own good." We ought to give reverence to the fathers of our flesh, who begot us, and were the instruments of our being; much more ought we to obey and be in subjection to the Father of our spirits, who made us and is the author of our being. And since the mother also, from a sense of duty to God and from love to her child, gives him good instructions, let him not despise her, nor her advice, when she is old. When the mother was grown old we may suppose the children to be grown up; but let them not think themselves past being taught, even by her, but rather respect her the more for the multitude of her years and the wisdom which they teach. Scornful and insolent young men will make a jest, it may be, of the good advice of an aged mother, and think themselves not concerned to heed what an old woman says; but such will have a great deal to answer for another day, not only as having set at nought good counsel, but as having slighted and grieved a good mother, Pro 30:17.
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II. An argument to enforce this call, taken from the great comfort which this will be to their parents, Pro 23:24, Pro 23:25. Note, 1. It is the duty of children to study how they may gladden the hearts of their good parents, and do it yet more and more, so that they may greatly rejoice in them, even when the evil days come and the years of which they say they have no pleasure in them but this, to see their children do well, as Barzillai to see Chimham preferred. 2. Children will be a joy to their parents if they be righteous and wise. Righteousness is true wisdom; those who do good so well for themselves. Those are completely such as they should be who are not only wise (that is, knowing and learned), but righteous (that is, honest and good), and not only righteous (that is, conscientious and well-meaning), but wise (that is, prudent and discreet) in the management of themselves. If such the children be, especially all the children, the father and mother will be glad, and think nothing too much that they have done, or do, for them; they will please themselves in them, and give God thanks for them; particularly she that bore them with pain, and nursed them with pains, will rejoice in them, and reckon herself well requited, and the sorrow more than forgotten, because a wise and good man is the product of it, who is a blessing to the world he was born into.
III. Some general precepts of wisdom and virtue.
1. Guide thy heart in the way, Pro 23:19. It is the heart that must be taken care of and directed aright; the motions and affections of the soul must be towards right objects and under a steady guidance. If the heart be guided in the way, the steps will be guided and the conversation well ordered.
2. Buy the truth and sell it not, Pro 23:23. Truth is that by which the heart must be guided and governed, for without truth there is no goodness; no regular practices without right principles. It is by the power of truth, known and believed, that we must be kept back from sin and constrained to duty. The understanding must be well-informed with wisdom and instruction, and therefore, (1.) We must buy it, that is, be willing to part with any thing for it. He does not say at what rate we must buy it, because we cannot buy it too dear, but must have it at any rate; whatever it costs us, we shall not repent the bargain. When we are at expense for the means of knowledge, and resolved not to starve so good a cause, then we buy the truth. Riches should be employed for the getting of knowledge, rather than knowledge for the getting of riches. When we are at pains in searching after truth, that we may come to the knowledge of it and may distinguish between it and error, then we buy it. Dii laboribus omnia vendunt - Heaven concedes every thing to the laborious. When we choose rather to suffer loss in our temporal interest than to deny or neglect the truth they we buy it; and it is a pearl of such great price that we must be willing to part with all to purchase it, must make shipwreck of estate, trade, preferment, rather than of faith and a good conscience. (2.) We must not sell it. Do not part with it for pleasures, honours, riches, any things in this world. Do not neglect the study of it, nor throw off the profession of it, nor revolt from under the dominion of it, for the getting or saving of any secular interest whatsoever. Hold fast the form of sound words, and never let it go upon any terms.
3. Give my thy heart, Pro 23:26. God in this exhortation, speaks to us as unto children: "Son, Daughter, Give my thy heart." The heart is that which the great God requires and calls for from every one of us; whatever we give, if we do not give him our hearts, it will not be accepted. We must set our love upon him. Our thoughts must converse much with him, and on him, as our highest end. The intents of our hearts must be fastened. We must make it our own act and deed to devote ourselves to the Lord, and we must be free and cheerful in it. We must not think to divide the heart between God and the world; he will have all or none. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. To this call we must readily answer, "My father, take my heart, such as it is, and make it such as it should be; take possession of it, and set up thy throne in it."
4. Let thy eyes observe my ways; have an eye to the rule of God's word, the conduct of his providence, and the good examples of his people. Our eyes must observe these, as he that writes observes his copy, that we may keep in the right paths and may proceed and persevere in them.
IV. Some particular cautions against those sins which are, of all sins, the most destructive to the seeds of wisdom and grace in the soul, which impoverish and ruin it. 1. Gluttony and drunkenness, Pro 23:20, Pro 23:21. The world is full of examples of this sin and temptations to it, which all young people are concerned to stand upon their guard against and keep at a distance from Be not a wine-bibber; we are allowed to drink a little wine (Ti1 5:23), but not much, not to make a trade of it, never to drink to excess. Be not a riotous eater of flesh, as the Israelites were, who lusted exceedingly after it, saying, Who will give us flesh to eat? Whereas Paul, though he is free to eat flesh, yet resolves that he will eat no flesh while the world stands rather than make his brother to offend; so indifferent is he to it, Co1 8:13. Be not an excessive eater of flesh. Intemperance must be avoided in meat as well as drink. Be not a luxurious eater of flesh, not pleased with any thing but what is very nice and delicate, savoury dishes, and forced meat. Some take not only a pleasure, but a pride, in being curious about their diet, and, as they call it, eating well; as if that were the ornament of a gentleman, which is really the shame of a Christian, making a God of the belly. "Be not a wine bibber, and be not a riotous eater; and therefore, be not among wine-bibbers nor among riotous eaters; do not give them countenance, lest thou learn their ways and insensibly fall into those sins, or at least lose the dread and detestation of them. They covet to have thee among them; for those that are debauched themselves are very desirous to debauch others; therefore do not gratify them, lest thou endanger thyself." He fetches an argument against this sin from the expensiveness of it and its tendency to impoverish men: and if men will not be deterred from it by the ruin it brings on their secular interests, which lie nearest their hearts, no marvel that they are not frightened from it by what they are told out of the word of God of the mischief it does them in their spiritual and eternal concerns. The drunkard and the glutton hate to be reformed, though they are told they shall come to poverty, nay, though they are told they shall come to hell. Drunkenness is the cause of drowsiness; it stupefies men, and makes them inattentive to business, and then all goes to wreck and ruin: thus men that have lived creditably come to be clothed with rags. 2. Whoredom. This is another sin which takes away the heart that should be given to God, Hos 4:11. He shows the danger which attends that sin, Pro 23:27, Pro 23:28, (1.) It is a sin from which few recover themselves when once they are entangled in it. It is like a deep ditch and a narrow pit, which it is almost impossible to get out of; and therefore it is wisdom to keep far enough from the brink of it. Take heed of making any approaches towards this sin, because it is so hard to make a retreat from it, conscience, which should head the retreat, being debauched by it, and divine grace forfeited. (2.) It is a sin which bewitches men to their ruin: The adulteress lies in wait as a robber, pretending friendship, but designing the greatest mischief, to rob them of all they have that is valuable, to strip them both of their armour and of their ornaments. Even those who, being virtuously educated, endeavour to shun the adulteress, she will lie in wait for, that she may assault them when they are off their guard and she has them at an advantage. Let none therefore be at any time secure. (3.) It is a sin that contributes more than any other to the spreading of vice and immorality in a kingdom: It increases the transgressors among men. One adulteress may be the ruin of many a precious soul and may help to debauch a whole town. It increases the treacherous or perfidious ones; it not only occasions husbands to be false to their wives and servants to their masters, but many that have professed religion to throw off their profession and break their covenants with God. Houses of uncleanness are therefore such pest-houses as ought to be suppressed by those whose office it is to take care of the public welfare.
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 Hear thou, my son, and be wise,.... Hear the…
Hear thou, my son, and be wise,.... Hear the instruction of a father, of the word of Wisdom, of the ministers of the Gospel, which is the way to be wise unto salvation; faith comes by hearing; spiritual wisdom, and an increase of it; the Spirit of God, and his gifts and graces;
and guide thine heart in the way; in the way of the Lord, in the way of wisdom and understanding, in the way of truth and faith, in the way of religious worship, in the way of the commandments and ordinances of the Lord; in all which the heart should be guided and directed, or otherwise it will be of no avail.
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 Guide - Order the whole course of thine affections…
Guide - Order the whole course of thine affections and actions. In the way - In God's way.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Pro 23:19-21. Hear and be wise — Rest not…
Pro 23:19-21. Hear and be wise — Rest not in hearing, but see that thou grow wiser and better by it. And guide thy heart in the way — Order the whole course of thine affections and actions in God’s way, often termed the way, as has been observed before. Be not among wine-bibbers — Avoid their conversation and company, lest thou be either infected or injured by them. The drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty — Which is the common effect of revelling, feasting, and riotous living. Drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags — They are wont to be attended also with immoderate sleeping, laziness, and neglect of all business, which as certainly will reduce men to extreme beggary as gluttony or drunkenness does.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles Bridges 1846 · Public Domain These repeated exhortations to hear, remind us of our…
These repeated exhortations to hear, remind us of our Lord’s earnest and affectionate call — "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Mat 11:15 ; Mat 13:9 .) They shew the great importance of hearing, as the first step to be wise. For wisdom, no less than "faith, cometh by hearing." (Rom 10:17, with Pro 1:5 .) "Guide thine heart in the way." The promise makes this call effectual — "I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment." (Pro 8:20 .)
But the call specially warns against a besetting temptation. God’s creature abuses his gifts.†1 Wine becomes the occasion of excess. Riotous eaters of the flesh degrade the soul, as the slave of the body. Not only be not one of them, but be not amongst them. (Pro 28:7 .) Can we be among the leprous without infection? May we not get a stain, that will not easily be wiped out? Do we not insensibly receive the mold of our society?†2 Did not Lot probably learn his dreadful wickedness by contact with the ungodly?†3 The truest love is not to sit down with them, but to labor for their conversion; and, if this be ineffectual, to avoid them. Young people! remember — ’Tinder is not apter to take fire, wax the impression of the seal, paper the ink, than youth to receive the impression of wickedness.’†4 Fancy not that the enemy intends even your present happiness. His malice holds out a poisoned bait. Poverty and shame are the temporal fruits.†5 But the eternal ruin of his deluded victims is his far more deadly design.
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Noah as a wine-bibber,†6 and the Corinthian converts, profaning the sacred feast by drunkenness and gluttony,†7 warn the man of God — "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." (Mat 26:41 .) Always however evangelize these parental warnings with the principles of the Gospel. "Walk not in rioting and drunkenness; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ" — the only effectual cover from the wantonness of the flesh. — "Having these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit."†8
Footnotes:
†1 Isa 5:11-12, Isa 5:22 ; Isa 22:13 . Hab 2:5, with Psa 104:14-15 . 1Ti 4:3-5 .
†2 Psa 106:35. Compare Mat 24:49 .
†3 Gen 19:30-32, with Eze 16:49-50 .
†4 Greenhill, on Eze 19:4 .
†5 Pro 6:11; Pro 20:13 ; Pro 21:17 . Isa 28:1-3 . Joe 1:5 . Luk 15:13-16 .
†6 Gen 9:20-21.
†7 1Co 11:21 .
†8 Rom 13:13-14. 2Co 7:1 .
Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs (1846) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain guide . . . way--or direct thy thoughts to…
guide . . . way--or direct thy thoughts to a right course of conduct (compare Pro 4:4; Pro 9:6).
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 19. In the way — Meaning the right way,…
19. In the way — Meaning the right way, the way in which it ought to go. Control the affections, sentiments, and intellectual processes. Direct your studies aright.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (19) Hear thou, my son, whatever others may do.…
(19) Hear thou, my son, whatever others may do. (Comp. above, on Pro_22:19.)
Guide thine heart in the way.—That is, of God. (Comp. Isa_40:3, and note on Act_9:2.)
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 Vers. 19-21. An exhortation to temperance, as one of…
Vers. 19-21. An exhortation to temperance, as one of the results of the fear of God, prefaced by an exhortation to wisdom.
Hear thou. The pronoun gives force and personality to the injunction. (Job_33:33) Guide thine heart in the way. (For rva, "to guide straight," see on Pro_4:14) "The way" is the right way, in distinction to the many wrong paths of life the way of understanding, as it is called. (Pro_9:6) Septuagint, "Direct aright the thoughts of thy heart," for right thoughts lead to right actions.
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Vers. 19-25. The perils of dissipation and the antidote.
"Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
I PERILS OF DISSIPATION. (Vers. 20, 21) Gluttony and wine bibbing. As the stomach is the centre of health, so it is also of disease. A wise man (Dr. Johnson) said that if one did not care for one"s stomach, one was not likely to care for anything. It is equally true that he who cares only or chiefly for the flesh will make a wreck of everything else. Gluttony has been pointed to as "the source of all our infirmities, the fountain of all our diseases. As a lamp is choked by superabundance of oil, a fire extinguished by excess of fuel, so is the natural heat of the body destroyed by intemperate diet." By slow degrees, and more and more, the habits of self-indulgence undermine the strength of body, still more certainly the vigour of mind, until poverty comes like an armed man.
II THE ANTIDOTE.
1. Early instruction to be constantly recalled. (Ver. 22) Along with the affectionate association of the parents who gave it. That "men shall be disobedient to their own parents" (2Ti_3:2) is one of the marks of the great apostasy in Scripture. But "comely and pleasant to see, and worthy of honour from the beholder," is a child understanding the eye of his parent (Bishop Hall).
2. The truth of life to be held in supreme value. (Ver. 23) Wisdom, discipline, insight, these are various names of the one thing, different aspects of the pearl of great price. There are required in the truth seeker attention, willingness for toil, judgment, the constant preference of reason to prejudice, teachableness, humility, self-control. Translated into Christian terms, this pearl of great price is "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord." Bunyan beautifully describes the pilgrims answering the sneering reproach, "What will you buy?" They lifted their eyes above: "We will buy the truth!" And no sacrifice is too costly with this end in view, as the example of holy men and martyrs teaches Moses, Paul, the Hebrews. (Heb_11:24-26) To sell one"s birthright for a mess of pottage (as Esau, Judas, and Demas) is indeed to "gain a loss.
3. Consideration of the joy we give to others by well doing. (Vers. 24, 25) That heart must be unnatural or utterly depraved which feels not the force of this motive to repay a father"s anxious love, and the yearning tenderness of her that bare him. A selfishness may supply the motive even here, since parental gladness is the child"s own joy as he walks in the ways of pleasantness and peace. J.
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 Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide…
Pro_23:19
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
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Three important precepts
The words are very direct and personal.
I. The precept contained in the word hear. I take it to mean, Hear the gospel. Take heed what ye hear.
1. Take care that you hear with a view to obtaining faith in the Lord Jesus.
2. Hear without prejudice.
3. Hear for yourself.
4. Hear when the sermon is done.
5. Hear the gospel as the voice of God. He that hath an ear towards God will find that God hath an ear towards him.
II. The precept contained in the words be wise.
1. Try to understand what you hear. Try to know saving truth.
2. Believe the gospel as it comes from God. This is an age of doubt. But it does not take any great quantity of brain to be a doubter.
3. Be affected by what you have heard.
4. Take care that you do not wander into evil company.
5. Take care to do what you hear.
III. The precept contained in the words guide thine heart in the way. There is but one way. The way is often described in Scripture. It is the way of faith; of truth; of holiness; of peace. It is a narrow way. Then put your heart into your religion. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The self-discipline suitable to certain mental moods
In our course through life our minds are liable to be placed in certain states of feeling, strongly marked, and for the time strongly prevailing. And this by causes, by influences and circumstances, independent of our will. We might call them moods--by some they are denominated frames. These states of feeling should be carefully turned to a profitable account; we should avail ourselves of what there is in them specially adapted to afford improvement. The states of feeling to which we refer are such as are not essentially evil. They may be called a kind of natural seasons in the soul. These varied feelings are of the two great classes, the pleasing and the unpleasing; the latter being felt oftener and more sensibly. Take the image of a person in a high state of exhilaration; his soul over-running with delight, his countenance lighted up with animation. What will be the benefit of this if he do not exercise reflection, if he do not guide his heart? It may lead to direct evil. At the best, he will just indulge himself in the fulness of his satisfaction. He will have no use of his delight but to enjoy it. One point of wisdom in such a case may be, somewhat to repress and sober such an exhilaration of the heart. Some of this exhilaration should be directed into the channel of gratitude to God. It should lead a man to watch narrowly to see what kind of nature he has to be acted upon; a sad nature, truly, if he finds that the more its wishes are gratified the worse it becomes, if left to itself. The spring and energy of spirit felt in these pleasurable seasons of the heart should be applied to the use of a more spirited performance of the Christian duties in general, but especially to those that are the most congenial. How much time is passed by mankind collectively in a state of feeling decidedly infelicitous, as compared with their experience of animated pleasure! And how small a portion of this painful feeling is turned to any good account! There are occasional states of darkened, gloomy feeling, in which sensibility becomes pensiveness, and gravity sadness. The immediate cause may have been some untoward turn of events; some painful disappointment, or death of friends, or constitutional tendency, or defective health. But this infelicitous season of the soul may be turned to lasting advantage. When the disorder is mainly due to bodily conditions, expedients of alleviation may properly be sought. But at such times opportunity is given for serious consideration. Are there no great and solemn questions which you have hitherto left undecided? This is reasonable pleading. It is but requiring that a man should not be willing to come out from a temporary and special state of feeling without having availed himself of that advantage which it has specially offered him. Apply to another state of feeling--an indignant excitement of mind against human conduct. (John Foster.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain Pro 23:15 - Pro 23:23.
Proverbs
A CONDENSED GUIDE FOR LIFE
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Pro 23:15 - Pro 23:23.
The precepts of this passage may be said to sum up the teaching of the whole Book of Proverbs. The essentials of moral character are substantially the same in all ages, and these ancient advices fit very close to the young lives of this generation. The gospel has, no doubt, raised the standard of morals, and, in many respects, altered the conception and perspective of virtues; but its great distinction lies, not so much in the novelty of its commandments as in the new motives and powers to obey them. Reverence for parents and teachers, the habitual ‘fear of the Lord,’ temperance, eager efforts to win and retain ‘the truth,’ have always been recognised as duties; but there is a long weary distance between recognition and practice, and he who draws inspiration from Jesus Christ will have strength to traverse it, and to do and be what he knows that he should.
The passage may be broken up into four parts, which, taken together, are a young life’s directory of conduct which is certain to lead to peace.
I. There is, first, an appeal to filial affection, and an unveiling of paternal sympathy {Pro 23:15 - Pro 23:16}. The paternal tone characteristic of the Book of Proverbs is most probably regarded as that of a teacher addressing his disciples as his children. But the glimpse of the teacher’s heart here given may well apply to parents too, and ought to be true of all who can influence other and especially young hearts. Little power attends advices which are not sweetened by manifest love. Many a son has been kept back from evil by thinking, ‘What would my mother say?’ and many a sound admonition has been nothing but sound, because the tone of it betrayed that the giver did not much care whether it was taken or not.
A true teacher must have his heart engaged in his lessons, and must impress his scholars with the conviction that their failure drives a knife into it, and their acceptance of them brings him purest joy. On the other hand, the disciple, and still more the child, must have a singularly cold nature who does not respond to loving solicitude and does not care whether he wounds or gladdens the heart which pours out its love and solicitude over him. May we not see shining through this loving appeal a truth in reference to the heart of the great Father and Teacher, who, in the depths of His divine blessedness, has no greater joy than that His children should walk in the truth? God’s heart is glad when man’s is wise.
Note, also, the wide general expression for goodness-a wise heart, lips speaking right things. The former is source, the latter stream. Only a pure fountain will send forth sweet waters. ‘If thy heart become wise’ is the more correct rendering, implying that there is no inborn wisdom, but that it must be made ours by effort. We are foolish; we become wise.
What the writer means by wisdom he will tell us presently. Here he lets us see that it is a good to be attained by appropriate means. It is the foundation of ‘right’ speech. Nothing is more remarkable than the solemn importance which Scripture attaches to words, even more, we might almost say than to deeds, therein reversing the usual estimate of their relative value. Putting aside the cases of insincerity, falsehood, and the like, a man’s speech is a truer transcript of himself than his deeds, because less hindered and limited by externals. The most precious wine drips from the grapes by their own weight in the vat, without a turn of the screw. ‘By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.’ ‘God’s great gift of speech abused’ is one of the commonest, least considered, and most deadly sins.
II. We have next the one broad precept with its sure reward, which underlies all goodness {Pro 23:17 - Pro 23:18}. The supplement ‘be thou,’ in the second clause of Pro 23:17, obscures the close connection of clauses. It is better to regard the verb of the first clause as continued in the second. Thus the one precept is set forth negatively and positively: ‘Strive not after [that is, seek not to imitate or be associated with] sinners, but after the fear of the Lord.’ The heart so striving becomes wise. So, then, wisdom is not the result of cultivating the intellect, but of educating the desires and aspirations. It is moral and religious, rather than simply intellectual. The magnificent personification of Wisdom at the beginning of the book influences the subsequent parts, and the key to understanding that great conception is, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.’ The Greek goddess of Wisdom, noble as she is, is of the earth earthy when contrasted with that sovereign figure. Pallas Athene, with her clear eyes and shining armour, is poor beside the Wisdom of the Book of Proverbs, who dwelt with God ‘or ever the earth was,’ and comes to men with loving voice and hands laden with the gifts of ‘durable riches and righteousness.’
He is the wise man who fears God with the fear which has no torment and is compact of love and reverence. He is on the way to become wise whose seeking heart turns away from evil and evil men, and feels after God, as the vine tendrils after a stay, or as the sunflower turns to the light. For such wholehearted desire after the one supreme good there must be resolute averting of desire from ‘sinners.’ In this world full of evil there will be no vigorous longing for good and God, unless there be determined abstention from the opposite. We have but a limited quantity of energy, and if it is frittered away on multifarious creatures, none will be left to consecrate to God. There are lakes which discharge their waters at both ends, sending one stream east to the Atlantic and one west to the Pacific; but the heart cannot direct its issues of life in that fashion. They must be banked up if they are to run deep and strong. ‘All the current of my being’ must ‘set to thee’ if my tiny trickle is to reach the great ocean, to be lost in which is blessedness.
And such energy of desire and direction is not to be occasional, but ‘all the day long.’ It is possible to make life an unbroken seeking after and communion with God, even while plunged in common tasks and small cares. It is possible to approximate indefinitely to that ideal of continually ‘dwelling in the house of the Lord’; and without some such approximation there will be little realising of the Lord, sought by fits and starts, and then forgotten in the hurry of business or pleasure. A photographic plate exposed for hours will receive the picture of far-off stars which would never show on one exposed for a few minutes.
The writer is sure that such desires will be satisfied, and in Pro 23:18 says so. The ‘reward’ {Rev. Ver.} of which he is sure is the outcome of the life of such seekers after God. It does not necessarily refer to the future after death, though that may be included in it. But what is meant is that no seeking after the fear of the Lord shall be in vain. There is a tacit emphasis on ‘thy,’ contrasting the sure fulfilment of hopes set on God with the as sure ‘cutting of’ of those mistakenly fixed upon creatures and vanities. Psa 37:38, has the same word here rendered ‘reward’ and declares that ‘the future [or reward] of the wicked shall be cut off.’ The great fulfilment of this assurance is reserved for the life beyond; but even here among all disappointments and hopes of which fulfilment is so often disappointment also, it remains true that the one striving which cannot be fruitless is striving for more of God, and the one hope which is sure to be realised, and is better when realised than expected, is the hope set on Him. Surely, then, the certainty that if we delight ourselves in God He will give us the desires of our hearts, is a good argument, and should be with us an operative motive for directing desire and effort away from earth and towards Him.
III. Special precepts as to the control of the animal nature follow in Pro 23:19 - Pro 23:21. First, note that general one of Pro 23:19, ‘Guide thine heart in the way.’ In most general terms, the necessity of self-government is laid down. There is a ‘way’ in which we should be content to travel. It is a definite path, and feet have to be kept from straying aside to wide wastes on either hand. Limitation, the firm suppression of appetites, the coercing of these if they seek to draw aside, are implied in the very conception of ‘the way.’ And a man must take the upper hand of himself, and, after all other guidance, must be his own guide; for God guides us by enabling us to guide ourselves.
Temperance in the wider sense of the word is prominent among the virtues flowing from fear of the Lord, and is the most elementary instance of ‘guiding the heart.’ Other forms of self-restraint in regard to animal appetites are spoken of in the context, but here the two of drunkenness and gluttony are bracketed together. They are similarly coupled in Deu 21:20, in the formula of accusation which parents are to bring against a degenerate son. Allusion to that passage is probable here, especially as the other crime mentioned in it-namely, refusal to ‘hear’ parental reproof-is warned against in Pro 23:22. The picture, then, here is that of a prodigal son, and we have echoes of it in the great parable which paints first riotous living, and then poverty and misery.
Drunkenness had obviously not reached the dimensions of a national curse in the date when this lesson was written. We should not put over-eating side by side with it. But its ruinous consequences were plain then, and the bitter experience of England and America repeats on a larger scale the old lesson that the most productive source of poverty, wretchedness, rags, and vice, is drink. Judges and social reformers of all sorts concur in that now, though it has taken fifty years to hammer it into the public conscience. Perhaps in another fifty or so society may have succeeded in drawing the not very obscure inference that total abstinence and prohibition are wise. At any rate, they who seek after the fear of the Lord should draw it, and act on it.
IV. The last part is in Pro 23:22 - Pro 23:23. The appeal to filial duty cannot here refer to disciple and teacher, but to child and parents. It does not stand as an isolated precept, but as underscoring the important one which follows. But a word must be spared for it. The habits of ancient days gave a place to the father and mother which modern family life woefully lacks, and suffers in many ways for want of. Many a parent in these days of slack control and precocious independence might say, ‘If I be a father, where is mine honour?’ There was perhaps not enough of confidence between parent and child in former days, and authority on the one hand and submission on the other too much took the place of love; but nowadays the danger is all the other way-and it is a very real danger.
But the main point here is the earnest exhortation of Pro 23:23, which, like that to the fear of the Lord, sums up all duty in one. The ‘truth’ is, like ‘wisdom,’ moral and religious, and not merely intellectual. ‘Wisdom’ is subjective, the quality or characteristic of the devout soul; ‘truth’ is objective, and may also be defined as the declared will of God. The possession of truth is wisdom. ‘The entrance of Thy words giveth light.’ It makes wise the simple. There is, then, such a thing as ‘the truth’ accessible to us. We can know it, and are not to be for ever groping amid more or less likely guesses, but may rest in the certitude that we have hold of foundation facts. For us, the truth is incarnate in Jesus, as He has solemnly asserted. That truth we shall, if we are wise, ‘buy,’ by shunning no effort, sacrifice, or trouble needed to secure it.
In the lower meanings of the word, our passage should fire us all, and especially the young, to strain every muscle of the soul in order to make truth for the intellect our own. The exhortation is needed in this day of adoration of money and material good. Nobler and wiser far the young man who lays himself out to know than he who is engrossed with the hungry desire to have! But in the highest region of truth, the buying is ‘without money and without price,’ and all that we can give in exchange is ourselves. We buy the truth when we know that we cannot earn it, and forsaking self-trust and self-pleasing, consent to receive it as a free gift. ‘Sell it not,’-let no material good or advantage, no ease, slothfulness, or worldly success, tempt you to cast it away; for its ‘fruit is better than gold,’ and its ‘revenue than choice silver.’ We shall make a bad bargain if we sell it for anything beneath the stars; for ‘wisdom is better than rubies,’ and he has been cheated in the transaction who has given up ‘the truth’ and got instead ‘the whole world.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain v. 19. Hear thou, my son, and be wise,…
v. 19. Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way, by directing it to go straight forward on the right way, in conduct becoming a believer, a child of God.
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 General Information:
General Information:
These verses continue the "thirty sayings" (Proverbs 22:20).
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Hear—you!—my son
"Listen carefully, my son." The speaker speaks an extra word to make sure the hearer is paying attention.
direct your heart in the way
Deciding to do what is right is spoken of as if one person were showing another person the correct path to follow. AT: "make sure you do what is wise" (See: Metaphor)
gluttonous eaters of meat
Possible meanings are 1) "people who eat more meat than they need to" or 2) "meat" represents food in general. AT: "people who eat more food than they need to" (See: Synecdoche)
slumber will clothe them with rags
The word "slumber" is an exaggeration for a person spending so much time enjoying food and drink that he does not do necessary work. This activity is spoken of as if it were a parent putting clothes on a child. AT: "because they spend so much time eating and drinking, they will do no work and so will become poor" (See: Personification and Hyperbole and Generalization)
translationWords
son
wise
heart
drunk
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 23:19-21 Saying 15: Discipline is necessary for living a…
23:19-21 Saying 15: Discipline is necessary for living a wise and balanced life. Overindulgence in drink (drunkards, see also 23:29-35), food (gluttons, see also 23:1-3), or sleep (see also 10:5; 19:15) results in poverty.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.