Don’t be envious of evil men, neither desire to be with them;
for their hearts plot violence and their lips talk about mischief.
Through wisdom a house is built; by understanding it is established;
by knowledge the rooms are filled with all rare and beautiful treasure.
A wise man has great power; and a knowledgeable man increases strength;
for by wise guidance you wage your war; and victory is in many advisors.
Wisdom is too high for a fool. He doesn’t open his mouth in the gate.
One who plots to do evil will be called a schemer.
The schemes of folly are sin. The mocker is detested by men.
If you falter in the time of trouble, your strength is small.
Rescue those who are being led away to death! Indeed, hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter!
If you say, “Behold, we didn’t know this,” doesn’t he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn’t he know it? Shall he not render to every man according to his work?
My son, eat honey, for it is good, the droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet to your taste;
so you shall know wisdom to be to your soul. If you have found it, then there will be a reward: Your hope will not be cut off.
Don’t lay in wait, wicked man, against the habitation of the righteous. Don’t destroy his resting place;
for a righteous man falls seven times and rises up again; but the wicked are overthrown by calamity.
Don’t rejoice when your enemy falls. Don’t let your heart be glad when he is overthrown,
lest Yahweh see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.
Don’t fret yourself because of evildoers, neither be envious of the wicked;
for there will be no reward to the evil man. The lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.
My son, fear Yahweh and the king. Don’t join those who are rebellious;
for their calamity will rise suddenly. Who knows what destruction may come from them both?
These also are sayings of the wise. To show partiality in judgment is not good.
He who says to the wicked, “You are righteous,” peoples will curse him, and nations will abhor him—
but it will go well with those who convict the guilty, and a rich blessing will come on them.
An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips.
Prepare your work outside, and get your fields ready. Afterwards, build your house.
Don’t be a witness against your neighbor without cause. Don’t deceive with your lips.
Don’t say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will repay the man according to his work.”
I went by the field of the sluggard, by the vineyard of the man void of understanding:
Behold, it was all grown over with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.
Then I saw, and considered well. I saw, and received instruction:
a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep,
so your poverty will come as a robber and your want as an armed man.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv7, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 22, 23, 27, 29, 32, 33 In the place where wisdom should be showed.
In the place where wisdom should be showed.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34 Pro 24:1 Be not thou envious against evil men,…
Pro 24:1 Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them.
Ver. 1. Be not thou envious against evil men.] Heb., Men of evil - such as are set upon sin; as are like Caracalla, qui nihil cogitabat boni, qui id non didicerat; quod ipse fatebatur, saith Dio, Who never thought of any good, &c. Envy not such a one his pomp, any more than we do a dead corpse his flowers and gaiety. See Pro 23:17.
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Neither desire to be with them.] That is, To be in their estate, so thou mightest be at their stay. This hath been the folly of some of God’s people, as David noteth, Psa 73:10. For the which they have afterwards befooled and bebeasted themselves, as he did, Psa 73:22.
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, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33 Their company or manner of life.
Their company or manner of life.
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 vv3, 7, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 27, 28, 30 We are tempted to envy those that grow rich,…
We are tempted to envy those that grow rich, and raise their estates and families, by such unjust courses as our consciences will by no means suffer us to use. But, to set aside that temptation, Solomon here shows that a man, with prudent management, may raise his estate and family by lawful and honest means, with a good conscience, and a good name, and the blessing of God upon his industry; and, if the other be raised a little sooner, yet these will last a great deal longer. 1. That which is here recommended to us as having the best influence upon our outward prosperity is wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge; that is, both piety towards God (for that is true wisdom) and prudence in the management of our outward affairs. We must govern ourselves in every thing by the rules of religion first and then of discretion. Some that are truly pious do not thrive in the world, for want of prudence; and some that are prudent enough, yet do not prosper, because they lean to their own understanding and do not acknowledge God in their ways; therefore both must go together to complete a wise man. 2. That which is here set before us as the advantage of true wisdom is that it will make men's outward affairs prosperous and successful. (1.) it will build a house and establish it, Pro 24:3. Men may by unrighteous practices build their houses, but they cannot establish them, for the foundation is rotten (Hab 2:9, Hab 2:10); whereas what is honestly got will wear like steel and be an inheritance to children's children. (2.) It will enrich a house and furnish it, Pro 24:4. Those that manage their affairs with wisdom and equity, that are diligent in the use of lawful means for increasing what they have that spare from luxury and spend in charity, are in a fair way to have their shops, their warehouses, their chambers, filled with all precious and pleasant riches - precious because got by honest labour, and the substance of a diligent man is precious - pleasant because enjoyed with holy cheerfulness. Some think this is to be understood chiefly of spiritual riches. By knowledge the chambers of the soul are filled with the graces and comforts of the Spirit, those precious and pleasant riches; for the Spirit, by enlightening the understanding, performs all his other operations on the soul. (3.) It will fortify a house and turn it into a castle: Wisdom is better than weapons of war, offensive or defensive. A wise man is in strength, is in a strong-hold, yea, a man of knowledge strengthens might, that is, increases it, Pro 24:5. As we grow in knowledge we grow in all grace, Pe2 3:18. Those that increase in wisdom are strengthened with all might, Col 1:9, Col 1:11. A wise man will compass that by his wisdom which a strong man cannot effect by force of arms. The spirit is strengthened both for the spiritual work and the spiritual warfare by true wisdom. (4.) It will govern a house and a kingdom too, and the affairs of both, Pro 24:6. Wisdom will erect a college, or council of state. Wisdom will be of use, [1.] For the managing of the public quarrels, so as not to engage in them but for an honest cause and with some probability of success, and, when they are engaged in, to manage them well, and so as to make either an advantageous peace or an honourable retreat: By wise counsel thou shalt make war, which is a thing that may prove of ill consequence if not done by wise counsel. [2.] For the securing of the public peace: In the multitude of counsellors there is safety, for one may foresee the danger, and discern the advantages, which another cannot. In our spiritual conflicts we need wisdom, for our enemy is subtle.
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 vv2–32 For their heart studieth destruction,.... To others; to good…
For their heart studieth destruction,.... To others; to good men, that separate from them, and reprove them, or are in their way; or any ways hinder them in the prosecution of their wicked designs; as Haman's heart studied the destruction of the Jews: or their hearts study to draw men into their destructive methods of living, and therefore should be shunned and avoided. Moreover, their hearts study destruction to themselves; they study what they shall eat and drink, which they pursue to intemperance; and how they shall compass their lewd designs, and which issue in their ruin; destruction and misery are in all the ways they devise and walk in;
and their lips talk of mischief; which they study in their hearts against others; as are their hearts, so are their lips; out of the abundance of the wickedness of their hearts their mouths speak mischievous things; and which, though they design for others, oftentimes fall upon themselves.
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 vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 32 Destruction - How they may oppress and destroy others.
Destruction - How they may oppress and destroy others.
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, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 30 Do not be envious. Of the house wisely built.…
CHAPTER XXIV
Do not be envious. Of the house wisely built. Counsel necessary
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in war. Save life when thou canst. Of honey and the honey-comb.
Of the just that falleth seven times. We should not rejoice at
the misfortune of others. Ruin of the wicked. Fear God and the
king. Prepare thy work. The field of the sluggard, and the
vineyard of the foolish, described.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXIV
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, 3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 27, 28, 30 Pro 24:1-2. Be not thou envious, &c. — The…
Pro 24:1-2. Be not thou envious, &c. — The proneness of good men, especially while they are weak, and only in the beginnings of their course of piety and virtue, to be dejected at the prosperity of the ungodly, and so to be tempted to imitate them, is the reason that the admonition which we here meet with is so often repeated; neither desire to be with them — Desire not their company, nor to imitate their manner of life. For their heart studieth destruction — How they may oppress and destroy others, which yet, at last, fails upon their own heads.
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, 3, 5, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33 A lesson given before, now combined with another. True…
A lesson given before, now combined with another. True followers after wisdom will admit neither envy of evil on the one hand, nor admiration or fellowship with it on the other.
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, 3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 27, 28, 30 THIS counsel has been lately given. (Pro 23:17 .)…
THIS counsel has been lately given. (Pro 23:17 .) But it is very difficult in the false glare of this world’s glory to "walk by faith, as the evidence of things not seen." (2Co 5:7 . Heb 11:1 .) In the confined atmosphere of impatience and unbelief, "the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy." (Jas 4:5 .) This evil spirit, if it does not bring the scandal of open sin, curses our blessings, withers our graces, cankers our peace, clouds our confidence, and stains our Christian profession. The full cup in the house of evil men stirs up the desire to be with them. (Psa 73:10-14 .) But if their fearful end did not restrain, their awful character is warning enough.†1 It is the malignity of Satan himself, studying destruction in their heart; mischief in their lips.†2 Take away then the delusive veil; and who would envy them? When Haman was studying the destruction of the holy nation, the barbed arrow of discontent was corroding his vitals.†3 Who would envy Judas, studying his Master’s destruction? In the agony of remorse, his "soul chose strangling, rather than life."†4 "Gather not my soul with sinners" — is the prayer of the child of God — "nor my life with bloody men, in whose hands is mischief."†5 Let me, instead of studying the destruction, study the salvation, of my fellow-sinners — what can I do to win them to Christ? Let me desire to be with the man of God, employed in this God-like work. The Christian is the only enviable person in the world. The seeming blessings of evil men are God’s heavy curses; and the smart of the stripes is a favor too good for them to enjoy. To judge wisely of our condition, it is to be considered, not so much how we fare, as upon what terms. If we stand right with heaven, every cross is a blessing; and every blessing a pledge of future happiness. If we be in God’s disfavor, every one of his benefits is a judgment; and every judgment makes way for perdition.†6 Instead of envying sinners in their successful wickedness, dread their character more than their end, and rejoice that your Father never counted the poor vanities of this world a worthy portion for you.
Footnotes:
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†1 Pro 23:18. Compare verses Pro 24:19-20, infra.
†2 Proverbs 1:11-14; Pro 4:16 ; 6:18. 1Sa 23:9 . Job 15:35 . Psa 7:14 ; Psa 114:2-6 . Mic 7:3 .
†3 Est 3:8-9; Est 5:13 .
†4 Mat 26:16; Mat 27:3-5 . Job 7:15 .
†5 Psa 26:9; Psa 28:3 .
†6 Bp. Hall’s Works, viii. 206.
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, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33 Like. Be not allured by their prosperity to imitate…
Like. Be not allured by their prosperity to imitate them, Psalm xxxvi. 1.
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 vv1, 23 d) Warning against intercourse with wicked and foolish men
d) Warning against intercourse with wicked and foolish men
Pro_24:1-22
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1 Be not envious of evil men,
and desire not to be with them,
2 for their heart studieth violence,
and their lips talk of mischief.—
3 By wisdom is the house builded,
and by understanding is it established;
4 by knowledge shall the chambers be filled
with all treasure that is precious and pleasant.
5 The wise man is full of strength,
and the man of understanding increaseth strength,;
6 for with wise counsel shalt thou mate war,
and victory is in abundance of counsellors.-—
7 Wisdom is too high for the fool;
he openeth not his mouth in the gate.
8 He that deviseth to do evil
shall be called a mischievous person.
9 The device of folly is sin,
and the scorner is an abomination to men.
10 If thou faint in the day of adversity
thy strength is small.
11 Deliver them that are taken to death,
and them that totter toward destruction, oh rescue them!
12 If thou sayest, Lo, we knew it not!
He that weigheth hearts will He not mark it ?
He that watcheth over thy soul, will He not know it ?
and He requiteth man according to his work.
13 My son, eat honey because it is good,
and honey comb which is sweet to thy taste;
14 so acquaint thyself with wisdom for thy soul;
when thou hast found it and the end cometh
thy hope also shall not be cut off.
15 Plot not as a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous,
assault not his dwelling-place;
16 for seven times doth the righteous fall and riseth again,
but the wicked shall plunge into destruction.
17 When thine enemy falleth rejoice not,
and if he stumbleth let not thine heart be glad;
18 lest Jehovah see it, and it be evil in His eyes,
and He turn away His anger from him.—
19 Be not enraged at evil doers,
envy not the wicked.
20 For no future shall there be to the evil;
the light of the wicked shall be put out.
21 My son, fear thou Jehovah and the King,
and go not with those who are given to change;
22 for suddenly shall their calamity rise,
and the destruction of them both, who knoweth it ?
GRAMMATICAL AND CRITICAL
Pro_24:6. לְךָ a dativus commodi [“ for thyself, thy advantage or interest”]; comp. לָמֹו, Pro_23:20.
Pro_24:7. רָאמֹות, scriptio plena, as in 1Ch_6:58; Zec_14:10. [Comp. Greek, § 156, 3, etc.).
Pro_24:8. For the construction of קָרָא with לְ comp. 16:21.
Pro_24:11. אִם stands here for לוּ, utinam, as in Psa_81:9; Psa_139:19; it is not to be regarded (as the LXX, Vulg., Umbreit, etc., take it) as a negative particle of adjuration, in the sense of μη, ja nicht, by no means. [See also Fuerst, sub v. For the time implied in the Part. לְקֻחִים, comp. rem. on 22:15; such, as have been taken and are now in that condition. For the full form תַּחְשׂוֹךְ comp. Crit. Notes on 22:7, 8.—A.].
Pro_24:13. נֹפֶת an apparent fem., construed here as masc. See Bött. § 648, b, and n. 1.—A.].
Pro_24:14. דְּעֵה or as the best MSS. read, (דְּעֶה is an Imper. from יָדַע instead of the usual form דְּעָה. [Comp. Bött. §§ 396, 956, c, 960, a; and Green, § § 97, 1, b, 148, 3.—A.].
Pro_24:17. [For the form בִּכָּשְׁלֹו instead of the fuller Niphal form, see Bött. § § 990, 1, b, 1036, 2; and Green, § § 91, b, 231, 5, a.—A.].
EXEGETICAL
1. Pro_24:1-2. Warning against intercourse with results wicked men (lit. “men of evil,” comp. 28:5;) comp. Pro_24:19; Pro_23:17; with. Pro_24:1, a, comp.also 23:3, 6; with 2 a comp. 15:28.
2. Pro_24:3-6. Praise of wisdom and its salutary results.—By wisdom is the house builded. Comp. 14:1, where it is specifically the wisdom of woman that is commended as builder of the house, for the expression in 3, b, comp. 3:19; for Pro_24:4 comp. also 3:10; 8:21.
Pro_24:5. The wise man is full of strength, lit., is “in strength,” i.e, furnished with strength, powerful; comp. the corresponding phrase in Psa_29:4. The LXX, Syr., Chald., read מֵעוֹז, i.e., more than, better than strength; comp. 16:32. But the Masoretic reading plainly gives us a simpler and more pertinent meaning.—And the man of understanding (lit. “man of knowledge”) increaseth strength, lit., “maketh power strong,” (comp. 2:14) he develops mighty strength (comp. the phrase in Job_9:19), he makes it available as a quality of his own.
Pro_24:6. For with wise counsel must thou make war, lit. “must thou carry on war for thyself,” i.e., must thou bring thy war to an end, carry it through. [So M., Wordsw., K., etc.]. Comp. 20:18, and for clause b, 11:14; 15:22.
3. Pro_24:7-10. Four separate proverbs, directed against folly, intrigue, scoffing and faint-heartedness.—Wisdom is too high for the fool. רָאמוֹת is strictly “heights” (excelsa, Vulg.), i.e., unattainably distant things, objects which are altogether too high; comp. Psa_10:5; Isa_30:18. Hitzig conjectures a double meaning, so far forth as the word in the form before us could have meant at the same time also “corals, costly ornaments” (in accordance with Job_28:18).—He openeth not his mouth in the gate; i.e., in judicial consultations and transactions of his fellow-citizens (comp. 22:22) he can bring forward nothing. [“He wore two fools if he should,” says Trapp, “for while he holds his tongue he is held wise”].
Pro_24:8. Shall be called (him they call) a mischievous person—a master or lord of mischief (an expression equivalent to that in Pro_12:2, “a man of wicked devices”). [“This is his property and ownership, mischief and wrong.” Wordsw.]
Pro_24:9. The device (meditation) of folly is sin;—i.e., there also where folly (or the fool, abstr. pro concr.) acts with consideration, and goes to work with a reflective prudence (זִמָּה, a similar term to that in Pro_24:8), it still brings to pass nothing good, but always only evil. It is indeed even worse with the scoffer, who, according to clause b, is an abhorrence and abomination to all men, because he, with his evil plans and counsels, unites furthermore great shrewdness, subtle wit, refined speculation—in general the exact opposite of folly.
Pro_24:10. If thou hast shown thyself faint in the day of adversity (anxiety, distress), thy strength is small;—i.e., thou art a coward and weakling, whose courage is feeble, and whose moral power and capacity for resistance is, as it were, crippled. Less appropriately Umbreit, Elster, etc (following the Vulg., Targum, etc.) “then sinketh thy strength also” (imminuetur fortitudo tua). But Hitzig’s emendation is also needless, רוּחֲכָה, “thy courage,” for כֹּחֵכָה, “thy strength,”—as is also his marvellous reproduction of the paronomasia (צָר–צָרָה) by: “am Tageder Klemme—klamm ist dein Muth” [“in the day of straits—straight is thy courage”]. Bertheau connects the verse closely with the two following: “Hast thou shown thyself faint in the day of trouble, was thy strength fearful, oh deliver,” etc. (?). At all points Ewald has the right view, and in general Luther, also: “He is not strong who is not firm in need.” [The principle is familiar enough that courage and hopefulness are half of man’s strength.—A.]
4. Pro_24:11-12. An admonition to a sympathizing and compassionate demeanor toward such as are in their innocency condemned to death, and are being borne to the place of execution. Comp. L. Mosheim: Commentatio ad loc. Pro_24:11-12; Helmstadt. 4to. [Kamph. suggests an easy and natural transition to this exhortation from the preceding. That had reference to courage in time of one’s own need, this to quick and sympathizing helpfulness in others’ extremity.—A.]—Deliver them that are taken to death (the participle here used has the same meaning as the forms of the verb found in Isa_57:13; Psa_49:16). That this appeal is made specifically to a judge (Umbreit), is, according to Pro_24:12 a, very improbable. He who is addressed seems rather to be one who is accidentally passing by in the vicinity of the place of execution, who is on the point of going on after the manner of the priest and the Levite in Luk_10:30 sq., with no sympathy, and without lifting a helping hand. That the author of the proverb, notwithstanding the singular which is immediately employed, still has in his eye a plurality, a whole host of such passers by, appears from the “Lo, we know it not,” which in Pro_24:12, a, he. supposes to be the answer to his appeal. Hitzig’s assumption is arbitrary, that the hard-hearted judges are Persians, and those who are in their innocence condemned to death, Jews, or Syrians, Samaritans, or some other Persian subjects of the period next succeeding the exile, possibly of the time of Ezra (9:9). The same is! true likewise of Bertheau’s opinion that there is no reference whatever to a judicial execution, but to a bloody battle, during which one ought courageously to protect those assailed by the foe, and not timidly to leave them to the threatening destruction. [Hardly any two of our English expositors agree as to the structure of this sentence, although they are nearly or quite unanimous in explaining its general meaning. N. and M. agree with the E. V. in making the first verb an Infinitive (which is possible) depending on the final verb of the sentence; E. V.: “if thou forbear to deliver,” etc.; N.: “ to deliver, etc., spare thyself not;” M.: “dost thou forbear to deliver,” etc. H., S. and Wordsw. agree with our author in making it an Imper., although H. and W. make the last clause conditional, like 12, a. The explanation of Z., S., Kamph., etc., is probably to be preferred which makes the אִם a particle of wishing, and the verb transitive rather than reflexive or neuter.—A.].—Lo! we knew it not!—Hitzig, in agreement with the LXX, “Lo, we know him not!” But in verse 11 there is plainly enough mention made of a number who are dragged to death. [As Kamph. suggests, the time when a plea of ignorance could fitly be put in, as well as the nature of the plea itself, tells against this personal interpretation. And it is also to be observed how idle the plea of ignorance becomes when it is God rather than man to whom one’s omissions are to be justified.—A.] And he will requite man according to his work.—The interrogative הֲלֹא of the second clause plainly has no further influence on this general sentence which concludes (comp. Ps. 62:13; Job_34:11; Rom_2:6).
5. Pro_24:13-14. Admonition to a diligent striving after wisdom.—My son, eat thou honey because it is good, etc.—A figurative injunction of a preparatory sort, serving as a basis for the admonition to strive after wisdom, contained in Pro_24:14. For this figure of honey and the honey-comb as the designation of something especially lovely and agreeable, comp. Psa_19:11.
Pro_24:14. So acquaint thyself with wisdom also for thy soul;—lit., “know wisdom for thy soul, appropriate it to thyself, recognized as precious and exceedingly palatable !” [The E. V., following the Vulg., takes the peculiar form of the Imperf. for a peculiar form of the noun “knowledge,” and supplies the substantive verb. H. and M. are in the same error.—A.]—When thou hast found it, and the end Cometh.—This last clause is still part of the conditional protasis, corresponding to the common use of אִם יֵשׁ, to introduce a conditional clause; comp. Gen_23:8; Gen_24:49; Jdg_6:36, etc. For making it a transition to the apodosis (“then cometh an end—then a future remaineth”—Hitzig, following the LXX, Vulg., Luther, etc. [so K.; E. V.: “then there shall be a reward;” so also H., N., M., W., while S. takes our author’s view.—A.]), not a single supporting case can be cited, in which וְיֵשׁ introduces the apodosis, in the sense “then or so will be” (comp. Bertheau on this passage). For the general sentiment compare furthermore 23:18.
6. Pro_24:15-18. Warning against malicious violence and delight in mischief.—Lie not in wait as a wicked man (that is, with wicked and mischievous intent) against the dwelling of the righteous; assault not (verb as in 29:26) his resting place.—Hitzig changes the verb in clause a to תַּקְרֵב and the noun to רַעַשׁ, and thus obtains the meaning: “Bring not alarm near to the dwelling of the righteous,” etc. (?).—
Pro_24:16. For seven times doth the righteous fall and riseth again;—i.e., many a misfortune overtakes him in life, yet he gives way before none, but always comes up again (Hitzig). Comp. Ps. 87:24; Jer_8:4; and with reference to the symbolical number seven, particularly Job_5:19.—But the wicked shall plunge into destruction—lit., “stumble, are brought to a downfall by calamity;” comp. Pro_4:19.
Pro_24:17-18 are closely connected with both the verses preceding, not merely by the recurrence of the ideas “fall” and “plunge” (stumble), but also by the substance of the thought; for delight in injury is the twin sister to a plotting intrigue and violence.—Lest Jehovah see it and it displease him—lit., “and it be evil in his eyes.”—And He turn away His anger from him—i.e., from the enemy (מֵעָלָיו referring back to Pro_24:16, “thine enemy”), to turn it upon thee thyself instead of him.
7. Pro_24:19-22. Warning against intercourse with wicked and seditious persons—Be not thou enraged at evil doers,—i.e., be not excited, envious (אַל־תִּתְחַר, “burn not,” here equivalent to the “envy not” of Pro_24:1) with regard to the undeserved prosperity of ungodly men, which perhaps might only stimulate to the imitation of their wicked conduct; comp. Psa_37:8; Psa_73:2-3; also Pro_1:11 sq. [Fuerst and some others understand this of excitement, impatience against evil doers, which cannot wait for God’s recompenses. This explanation, we think, is to be preferred here, although the other is clearly and frequently enough an injunction of the Scriptures.—A.]
Pro_24:20. For no future hall there be to the wicked.—אַחֲרִית hero in a different sense from that found in Pro_24:14 and in 23:18. [The two ideas most frequently conveyed by this noun, which is literally an “after,” something subsequent to the present, are a “future,” and an “end or issue,” i.e., to present relations. It is this last idea that Z. finds in Pro_24:14; Pro_23:18, the first in Pro_24:20. In the first two passages the “end” of the present suggests by implication and contrast a blessed future; this our verse denies to the wicked, not by implication, but by express assertion. It does not assert that he shall reach no end to his present relations, nor that he shall have no future whatever, but no future blessing. Some commentators are less exact in these discriminations, finding one general meaning in all the passages.—A.] With the general sentiment compare Job_20:5; Psa_37:2; Psa_37:9; Psa_37:38. With b in particular comp. Pro_13:9; Pro_21:4.
Pro_24:21. With a comp. Ecc_8:2 sq.; 10:20; 1Pe_2:17.—Go not with those who are given to change.—שׁוֹנִים [cognate with שְׁנַיִם, two], those “otherwise disposed, wishing otherwise,” i.e., opposing [the present order], seditious, revolutionary (Vulg., detractores). “Go not with them,” lit., “mingle thyself not,” as in 20:19.
Pro_24:22. And the destruction of them both—viz., of those who rebel against God and of those who rebel against the king. Others (Umbreit, Bertheau, etc. [De W., N., S., M., Wordsw., the genitive being treated as-a genitive of source, “the ruin proceeding from them both ”]; “and the penalty, the retribution of them both,” i.e., the punishment that goes forth from both, God and the king; Hitzig (in accordance with the Targ. and Syr.), “and the end of their years” (comp. Job_36:11). Our interpretation, as the simplest, is supported by the Vulg., Luther, Ewald, Elster [Kamph.]—Who knoweth it ?—i.e., who knows the time of their ruin; who knows how soon it will be precipitated? Comp. 16:14.
[The LXX, etc., introduce here several verses for which there is no authority in the present Hebrew texts. “A son that keeps the father’s commandment shall escape destruction; for such a one has fully received it. Let no falsehood be spoken by the king from the tongue; yea, let no falsehood proceed from his tongue. The king’s tongue is a sword, and not one of flesh; and whosoever shall be given up to it shall be destroyed; for if his wrath should be provoked, he destroys men with cords, and devours men’s bones, and burns them up as a flame, so that they are not even fit to be eaten by the young eagles. My son, reverence my words, and receive them, and repent.” Some of the editions also introduce at this point Pro_30:1-14.—A.]
DOCTRINAL, ETHICAL, HOMILETIC AND PRACTICAL
To refer the ideas of this section, which are very various in their substance and their applications, to the one fundamental category of a “Warning against intercourse with wicked and foolish men,” would not indeed answer in all respects and at all points; and yet the introductory and the concluding verses at least (Pro_24:1-2; Pro_24:19-22) do relate to this subject; and besides, the eulogiums upon wisdom which are interspersed (Pro_24:3-7; Pro_24:13-14), and the counsels against malicious intrigue, mockery, trickery and delight in mischief (Pro_24:8-9; Pro_24:15 sq., 17 sq.), may without any peculiar violence be brought under the same classification. There remains isolated, therefore, only the censuring criticism on an unmanly, faint-hearted bearing in hours of peril (Pro_24:10), and the warning against a heartless indifference to those who are innocently suffering (Pro_24:11-12). The latter passage in particular deserves attentive consideration, and a careful estimate of its practical bearings, for it belongs among those prefigurations and precursors of the distinctively Christian ethics, which occur somewhat rarely in the stage of revelation reached in the law of the Old Testament, and, in general, in any specific form in the literature of wisdom which centres in the name of Solomon. For even in a higher degree than the warning contained in Pro_24:17-18 of our chapter, against delight in injury, in one’s attitude towards his enemies,—and, if one is so disposed to view it, even in a higher degree than the demand of love to one’s enemies in Pro_25:21 sq.,—does this powerful enforcement of the duty of a courageous protection and deliverance of the innocent who are doomed to death, correspond with the culmination of ethical justice, and the perfect fulfilling of the law, which Christ exhibits for the members of the New Covenant, in the narrative of the good Samaritan (Luk_10:30 sq.), in His admonition to visit those in prison, and to the loving sacrifice of life itself in imitation of His own example, etc. (Mat_25:36 sq.; Joh_12:25; Joh_15:12-14). [Only a few of the exegetical and practical interpreters of our book have so well brought out this important point. Lawson suggests it when he says: “The wise man represents this piece of charity as a duty which we owe to our neighbors without exception; and with him agrees our Lord in the parable of the good Samaritan. We are not the disciples of Solomon or of Christ if we show love to those only,” etc. Arnot puts the principle with more characteristic vigor: “ Under God as Supreme ruler, and by His law, we owe every human being love; and if we fail to render it, we are cast into prison with other less reputable debtors. Nor will any thing be received in payment but the genuine coin of the kingdom; it must be love with a living soul in it and a substantial body on it.”—A.]
In the homiletic treatment of the whole passage one might take just this demand that is contained in Pro_24:11-12, of a compassionate love of one’s neighbor, that will not shun even deadly perils, as the highest exemplification of wisdom, to the attainment and preservation of which all the counselling and dissuasory suggestions of the section summon us; the topic might then be announced: “Mercy the highest wisdom,” or again: “The contrast between the wise man and the fool reaches its climax in the timid selfishness of the latter, and the former’s self-sacrificing love for his neighbor.”—Comp. Stöcker: On patience and sociability. In what the virtue consists (Pro_24:1-12), and how one is to practise it (Pro_24:13 sq).—Calwer Handb.: Shun evil, choose wisdom.
Pro_24:1 sq. Tübingen Bible (on Pro_24:1-2): It is one element in the prudence of the righteous to have no fellowship with the ungodly and to avoid their society.—Luther (marg. comment on Pro_24:3 sq.): When all is well ordered in a house it avails more than great labor; as, e.g., when one gives, where, to whom, and as one ought, etc.—Geier (on Pro_24:3 sq.): A household, if it is to be blessed, must not merely be wisely organized, but also prudently regulated and constructed.—Filling the chambers with temporal good is accounted great prosperity; but much more beautiful is it when the heart’s chamber is filled with the treasures of heavenly wisdom and virtue.—(On Pro_24:5-6): Strength of body without wisdom and prudence of heart, is like a giant who is robbed of the sight of his eyes.
Pro_24:7-10. Zeltner (on Pro_24:8-9): As true piety has its degrees, so has ungodliness. But they are followed by righteous retribution and punishment.—Starke (on Pro_24:10): Want and trouble is a genuine touchstone, with which one may determine how strong or how weak one is in faith and reliance on God.—Von Gerlach (same verse): In times of adversity the man whose strength stands fast in God has more power than usual. It is the fault of one’s own indolence if this is not the case, though his strength be scanty and restricted.—[Bp. Hopkins: That thy patience may be perfect, it must, be strong, as well as lasting. It must have nerves and sinews in it, to bear weighty burdens.]
Pro_24:11-12. Melanchthon: To unrighteous cruelty one should give no impulse; even private individuals ought, according to their strength and calling, to oppose tyrannical injustice without uproar or tumult.—Geier: Man never lacks excuses; but many of them are by the Lord found to be too light, Luk_14:18 sq.—Starke: To deliver men from bodily death is a great thing; but more glorious is it to aid a soul toward deliverance from spiritual and eternal death, Jam_5:20.
Pro_24:13 sq. Berleburg Bible (on Pro_24:13): Charge it upon thyself that thou have such inward experience of wisdom, that thou shalt relish its sweetness like honey and the honey-comb.—Starke (on Pro_24:16): To fall into sin and to fall into calamity are two different things. Beware of the former, and the Lord will not forsake thee in the latter.—Cramer: Whosoever rejoices in others’ adversity, his own calamity stands already outside the door.—[T. Adams: Let us beware that we do not slide; if slide, that we do not fall; if fall, that we fall forward, not backward. Behold thy Saviour calling, thy Father blessing, the Spirit assisting, the angels comforting, the Word directing, the glory waiting, good men associating.—Flavel: Though repeated spiritual falling shows the foulness it does not always prove the falseness of the heart.—Bridges (on Pro_24:17):—What has grace done for us, if it has not overcome nature by a holier and happier principle? To rejoice in the fall of an enemy would be to fall deeper than himself; to fall not into trouble, but into sin.—Trapp (on Pro_24:18):—Think thus with thyself, Either I am like my enemy, or else I am better or worse than he. If like him, why may I not look for the like misery? If better, who made me to differ? If worse, what reason have I then to insult?]
Pro_24:19-22. Starke (on Pro_24:19-20):—He that would look on the prosperity of ungodly men without envy and offence need only make a comparison between the brief instant of their joy and the unending eternity of their pain and punishment.—Zollikofer (Serm. on Pro_24:19-20):—Nullifying the objection against the divine government of the world, which is made on account of the unequal distribution of external prosperity among men, and the earthly well being of the ungodly (therefore a Theodicy).—[Arnot:—Here it is not the first and direct, but the secondary and circuitous effect of bad example, that is prominently brought into view. Some who are in no danger of falling in love with their neighbor’s sin, may be chafed by it into a hatred of their neighbor].—Melanchthon (on Pro_24:21):—God has given to men authority because He would have men hear and know His law, and thereby Himself, and also for this reason, because He would preserve human society from dissolution through endless disquiets and controversies. He has, however, ordained that we hearken to human governors for His sake, and that we must know that He punishes the rebellious.—[Bp. Sherlock:—The only lasting foundation of civil obedience is the fear of God; and the truest interest of princes is to maintain the honor of religion, by which they secure their own.—Arnot:—Take away godliness, and your loyalty without being increased in amount, is seriously deteriorated in kind; take away loyalty, and you run great risk of spoiling the purity of the remanent godliness. In the Scriptures the feebler force is made fast to the stronger, and so carried through in trying times. Loyalty is most secure where it has godliness to lean upon].—Geier (on Pro_24:22):—Certain as death in itself is, although we cannot know the time and manner of it, so surely does God’s punishment follow ungodliness and rebellion, but its time and form remain uncertain.
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, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32 talk . . . mischief--Their expressed purposes are to…
studieth--meditateth.
talk . . . mischief--Their expressed purposes are to do evil.
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, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30 1, 2. Be not thou envious — תקנא, (tekanne,)…
1, 2. Be not thou envious — תקנא, (tekanne,) jealous, angry, or excited.
The radical idea is heat. See Pro_24:19; also Pro_28:5; Pro_23:17; Pro_23:3; Pro_23:6; Psa_37:1; Psa_73:3. On Pro_24:2 comp. Psa_10:7. The good things of this life — health, wealth, station, honours, etc., are desirable. Wicked men often enjoy them, and good men often lack them. This has always been a source of perplexity and temptation to the righteous. Why should the ungodly prosper while the godly suffer? Thoughts like these arise, as they did in the mind of the psalmist. (Psa_73:3.) Hence the frequent admonition, not to envy the prosperity of the wicked, as though they were happier in their sins and riches than the righteous are in their piety and poverty. The Judge of all the earth will do right. It is ours to believe and wait.
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, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 34 1. Be not thou envious] Comp. Pro_23:17.
1. Be not thou envious] Comp. Pro_23:17.
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 vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 34 (3) Through wisdom is an house builded.—See above on…
XXIV
(3) Through wisdom is an house builded.—See above on Pro_14:1.
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, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 We return here to the more usual form, the…
We return here to the more usual form, the tetrastich. Be not thou envious against evil men. (see on Pro_23:17, where a similar warning is given, and comp. Ver. 19 below) "Men of wickedness," wholly given over to evil. Neither desire to be with them. Their company is pollution, and association with them makes you a partner in their sinful doings. The Septuagint prefaces the paragraph with the personal address, uie "son.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1, 2. Warning against evil company.
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I THE LOVE OF SOCIETY IS A NATURAL INSTINCT.
II EVIL COMPANY IS OFTEN MOST FASCINATING.
III THE ASSOCIATIONS THAT ARE FOUNDED UPON MERE FELLOWSHIP IN PLEASURE ABE SELDOM SATISFACTORY, OFTEN CORRUPTING.
IV THE BAD MAN"S COMPANY IS MORE TO BE SHUNNED THAN THAT OF ONE SUFFERING FROM A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE. "Wicked companions," said a man of the world, the novelist Fielding, "invite us to hell." "They are like to be short graces when the devil plays the host," said another. J.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Ver. 1. See homily on Pro_23:17, Pro_23:18. 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, 5, 9, 10, 11, 13, 17, 21, 23, 25, 27, 28, 30 Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire…
Pro_24:1
Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them.
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Evil men not to be envied
The first verse of this chapter is very naturally connected with the close of the chapter preceding. There is little room for envy of rich characters as the one there so graphically depicted, and of all men on earth they will be the last whose company will be desired by the wise and good. But the counsel before us may be taken more generally. Far be it that evil men of any stamp should be envied--either for their boasted freedom or their apparent prosperity. Their freedom is but the semblance of the blessing. It is the reality of bondage. They promise liberty, and are themselves the slaves of corruption. And their prosperity! Oh, deem it not a mark of Gods favour! It is all deceitful. It ends in ruin. Desire not to be with them. How oft-repeated is this counsel! How often is the warning enforced by similar reasons! For their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief. Their designs of evil fully matured find utterance. They communicate their projects to others like-minded with themselves--projects of fraud, peculation, robbery; or if on such matters there be a sense of social honour, and an adherence to the conventional morality of the world, there may be projects of impurity--of lewdness and seduction, of drunken frolic and revel, of the snares of temptation for some simple but sober youth, whom it will be so excellent a joke to induce to join them in sin. All this, under what palliative epithets soever it may pass in the world, is mischief and destruction. (R. Wardlaw, 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 v28 "Be not a witness against thy neighbor without cause,…
CHAPTER 25
FORGIVING
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"Be not a witness against thy neighbor without cause, and deceive not with thy lips. Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me; I will render to the man according to his work,"- Pro_24:28-29
"Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thy heart be glad when he is overthrown, lest the Lord see it and it displease Him, and He turn away His wrath from him."- Pro_24:17-18.
"He that is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished."- Pro_17:5
"If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he be thirsty give him water to drink; for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee."- Pro_25:21-22
THERE is no subject on which the teaching of the Proverbs more strikingly anticipates the morality of the New Testament than that of forgiveness to our enemies. Our Lord Jesus Christ could take some of these sayings and incorporate them unchanged into the law of His kingdom, for indeed it is not possible to surpass the power and beauty and truth of the command to feed those who have injured us if they are hungry, to give them drink when they are thirsty, and in this Divine way to kindle in them repentance for the injury which they have done. This is the high-water mark of moral excellence. No better state can be desired. When a human spirit is habitually in this tender and forgiving mood, it is already united with the Father of spirits, and lives.
It is almost superfluous to point out that even the saints of the Old Testament fall very far short of the lofty standard which is here set before us. The Psalmist, for example, is thinking of coals of a quite different sort when he exclaims: "As for the head of those that compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them. Let burning coals fall upon them; let them be cast into the fire; into deep pits that they rise not up again." {Psa_140:9-10} That is the old elemental hate of human nature, the passionate, indignant appeal to a righteous God against those who have been guilty of a wrong or an injury. Even Jeremiah, one of the latest, and certainly not the least holy, of the prophets, could cry out concerning his enemies: "Yet, Lord, Thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me; forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from Thy sight; but let them be overthrown before Thee; deal Thou with them in the time of Thine anger." {Jer_18:23} Words painfully natural, words echoed by many. a persecuted man of God, but yet quite inconsistent with the teaching of the Savior in the Sermon on the Mount, the teaching already foreshadowed in this beautiful proverb.
But it may not be superfluous to notice that the Proverbs themselves, even those which stand at the head of this chapter, do not all touch the high-water mark of Pro_25:21. Thus, for example, the motive which is suggested in Pro_24:18 for not rejoicing in the fall of an enemy is none of the highest. The idea seems to be, if you see your enemy undergoing punishment, if calamity is falling upon him from the Lord, then do not indulge in any insolent exultation, lest the Lord should be offended with you, and, in order to chastise your malignity, should cease to plague and trouble him. In such a view of the question, God is still regarded as a Nemesis that will resent any unseemly rejoicing in the calamity of another; {Pro_17:5 b} in proportion therefore as you wish to see your enemy punished, you must abstain from that joy in his punishment which would lead to its diminution. From a precept of that kind there is a vast moral stride to the simple prohibition of retaliation, announced without any reason given or suggested in Pro_24:29 -"Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me, I will render to the man according to his work." And from this again there is an incalculable stride to the positive spirit of love, which, not content with simply abstaining from vindictiveness, actually turns the tables, and repays good for evil, looking with quiet assurance to the Lord, and the Lord alone, for recognition and reward. Our wonder is occasioned not because all the Proverbs do not reach the moral altitude of this one, but rather that this one should be so high. When an ideal is set up far in advance of the general practice and even of the general thoughts of the time, we can ascribe it only to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
It needs no proof that forgiveness is better than revenge. We all know that-
"Revenge at first though sweet,
Bitter ere long back on itself recoils."
We all know that the immediate effect of forgiving our enemy is a sweet flow of tenderness in the soul, which surpasses in delight all the imagined joys of vindictiveness; and that the next effect is to soften and win the foe himself; the scornful look relents, the tears of passion give place to those of penitence, the moved heart is eager to make amends. We all know that nothing more powerfully affects our fellow-men than the exhibition of this placable temper. We all know that in forgiving we share Gods prerogative, and come into harmony with His Spirit.
Yet here is the melancholy fact that notwithstanding this proverbial truth, taken up into the teaching of our Savior, and echoed in the writings of His Apostles, even in a Christian society, forgiveness is almost as rare as it was in the days of King Solomon. Men are not ashamed-even professing Christians are not ashamed-to say about their enemies, "I will do so to him as he has done to me, I will render to the man according to his work." We even have a lurking admiration for such retaliatory conduct, calling it spirited, and we still are inclined to contemn one who acts on the Christly principle as weak or visionary. Still the old bad delight in seeing evil fall on the head of our enemies glows in our hearts; still the act of vengeance is performed, the bitter retort is given, the abusive letter is written, with the old sense of unhallowed pride and triumph. How is this? Ah, the simple truth is that it is a small matter to get right principles recognized, the whole difficulty lies in getting them practiced. We need a power which can successfully contend against the storm of passion and self-will in those terrible moments when all the calm lights of reason are quenched by the blinding surf of passion, and all the gentle voices of goodness are drowned by its roaring waves.
Sometimes we hear it said that the moral teaching of Christ is not original, but that all His precepts may be found in the words and writings of ancient sages, just as His teaching about forgiveness is anticipated by the proverb. Yes, but His claim does not rest upon His teaching, but upon the Divine and supernatural power which He has at His command to carry out His doctrines in the conduct of His disciples. This is the point which we must realize if this sweet and beautiful ideal is to be worked out in our lives. We have but touched the fringe of the question when we have conned His words, or shaped conceptions of what a life would be passed in conformity to them. The center of Christian doctrine is power, the power of Christ, the fountain of living waters opened in the heart, the grafting of the withering branches upon a living stock, the indwelling of Christ Himself, as the spring and principle of every holy action, and the effectual restraint on all our ungovernable passions.
But before looking more closely at this, we ought to pay some attention to the constant motive which our Lord, even in His teaching, presents for the practice of a forgiving disposition. He always bases the duty of forgiveness on the need which we have of Gods forgiveness; He teaches us to pray, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us"; and in the moving story of the unmerciful servant, who demanded the full payment from his fellow-servant just when his lord had pitifully remitted his own debt, He tells us that forgiveness of our enemies is an indispensable condition of our being forgiven by God. "His lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due. So shall also My Heavenly Father do unto you, if ye forgive not everyone his brother from your hearts." {Mat_18:35} It is not therefore only, as it is sometimes stated, that we ought to be moved to pity by remembering what God has done for us. No, there is a much sterner thought in our Lords mind; it is that if we do not forgive we shall not and cannot be forgiven. The forgiving spirit manifested to our fellow-men is that without which it is vain for us to come near and to ask God for pardon. If we have come, and are just about to offer our prayer, and if we then remember that we have aught against a brother, we must go first and be reconciled to him, before our prayer can be so much as heard.
Here is certainly a motive of a very powerful kind. Which of us would dare to cherish the bitter thought, or proceed with our plan of vengeance, if we remembered and realized that our vindictiveness would make our own pardon at the hands of God impossible? Which of the countless deeds of retaliation that stain with blood the pages of history would have been perpetrated, and which of the perpetrators would not have tremblingly relinquished all thought of reprisals, if they had seen that in those savage acts of vengeance they were not, as they supposed, executing lawful justice, but actually cutting off their own hope of pardon before the throne of God?
If we avenge ourselves, if society is constantly torn by the quarrels and the mutual recriminations of hostile men whose one thought is to give as good as they have got, it can only be because we do not believe, or do not realize, this solemn teaching of the Lord. He seems a faint and doubtful voice compared with the loud tumult of passion within; His authority seems weak and ineffectual compared with the mighty domination of the evil disposition. Powerful, therefore, as the motive is to which He constantly appeals, if He had left us nothing but His teaching on the subject we should not be materially better off than they who listened with attention to the teaching of the wise authors of these ancient Proverbs. What more has He left us?
It is His prerogative to give to those who believe in Him a changed heart. How much is meant by that, which only the changed heart can know! Outwardly we seem much alike; outwardly, there is little sign of an inward transformation; but far as the east is from the west is the unregenerate heart from the regenerate, the Christless heart from one which He has taken in His hands, and by His great redemption created anew. Now without stopping to follow the processes of faith by which this mighty change is effected, let us simply mark the characteristics of the change so far as it affects the matter in hand.
The first and most radical result of the New Birth is that God takes the place which self has occupied. All the thoughts which have clustered about your own being now turn to His Being, as stray fragments of iron turn to the magnet. Consequently, all the emotions and passions which are stimulated by self-love give place to those which are stimulated by the love of God. It is as if the pipes of your aqueduct had been changed at the fountain head, disconnected from the malarious waters of the marsh, and connected with the pure and sparkling water of the hills. Gods ways of regarding men, Gods feelings towards men, His yearning over them, His pity for them, flow into the changed heart, and so preoccupy it that resentment, hatred, and malice are washed out like the sour dregs in a cup which is rinsed in a running stream.
There is the man who did you the wrong-very cruel and unpardonable it was!-but, as all personal elements are quite out of the question, you regard him just as if you were not the injured being. You see him only as God sees him; you trace all the malignant workings of his mind; you know how the fire of his hate is a fire which burns the heart that entertains it. You see clearly how tormenting those revengeful passions are, how the poor soul mastered by them is diseased, how the very action in which it is triumphing now must become one day a source of bitter regret and implacable self-reproach; you soon begin to regard the ill deed as a shocking wound inflicted on the doer of it, and the wells of pity are opened. As if this enemy of yours had been quite innocent of all ill-will, and had been overtaken by some terrible calamity, your one instinctive thought is to help him and relieve him. Out of the fullness of your heart, without any sense of being magnanimous, or any thought of a further end, -simply for the pity of it, -you come to proffer him bread in his hunger and water in his thirst.
Yes, it is in the atmosphere of pity that personal resentment dies away, and it is only by the power of the Son of Man that the heart can be filled with a pity large enough to pardon all the sins of our kind.
It is this thought-though without any definite statement of the means by which it is produced-that finds expression in Whittiers touching lines:-
"My heart was heavy, for its trust had been
Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong;
So turning gloomily from my fellow-men,
One summer Sabbath day I strolled among
The green mounds of the village burying-place;
Where pondering how all human love and hate
Find one sad level; and how, soon or late,
Wronged and wrongdoer, each with meekened face!
And cold hands folded over a still heart,
Pass the green threshold of a common grave,
Whither all footsteps tend, whence none depart,
Awed for myself, and pitying my race,
Our common sorrow, like a mighty wave,
Swept all my pride away, and, trembling, I forgave."
Yes, one who is touched by the spirit of the Son of Man finds too much to pity in the great sorrowing world, and in its fleeting and uncertain life, to cherish vengeful feelings. Himself redeemed by the untold love of His Father, by the undeserved and freely offered pardon in Christ Jesus his Lord, he can feel for his enemies nothing but forbearance and love; if they too are Christians, he longs to win them back to the peace and joy from which their evil passion must have driven them; and if they are not, his eyes must fill with tears as he remembers how brief is their apparent triumph, how unsubstantial their gleam of joy. The desire to save them immediately masters the transitory wish to punish them. The pity of men, for the sake of the Son of Man, wins the day.
And now we may just glance at the effect which the Christly conduct has upon the offender, and the reward which God has attached to its exercise.
It is one of the most beautiful traces of Gods likeness, in even bad men, a characteristic to which there is no parallel in the animal creation, that though passion awakes passion, wrath, and vengeance revenge-so that savages pass their whole time in an unbroken series of blood feuds, the hideous retaliation bandied from tribe to tribe and from man to man, generation after generation-the spirit of meekness, proceeding not from cowardice, but from love, disarms passion, soothes wrath, and changes vengeance into reconciliation. The gleam of forgiveness in the eye of the injured is so obviously the light of God that the wrongdoer is cowed and softened before it. It kindles a fire in his spirit, his heart melts, his uplifted hand falls, his angry voice grows tender. When men are so dehumanized as to be insensible to this softening effect, when they interpret the gentleness as weakness, and are moved by the forgiving spirit simply to further injury and more shameless wrong, then we may know that they are possessed, -they are no longer men, -they are passing into the category of the lost spirits, whom the forbearance of God Himself leads not to repentance but only to added sin.
But if you have ever by the sweet spirit of Christ so mastered your natural impulse as to return good for evil lovingly and whole-heartedly, and if you have seen the regenerating effect in the beautiful subjugation of your foe and his transformation into a friend, it is not necessary to say much of the reward which God has in store for you. Do you not already possess it?
Yet the reward is certainly greater than you are able at once to apprehend. For what a secret is this which you possess, the secret of turning even the malignity of foes into the sweetest affection, the secret which lay in the heart of God as the spring and the means of mans redemption. The highest reward that God can give to His creatures is to make them partakers of His nature as He has made them in His own image. When we share in a Divine attribute we enter so far into the Divine bliss; and in proportion as this attribute seems removed from our common human nature, our spirit must exult to find that it has been really appropriated. What further reward, then, can he who avenges not himself desire? The pulse of the Divine heart beats in him; the tides of the Divine life flow through him. He is like God-God who opposes to mans ingratitude the ocean of His pardoning love; he is conscious of that which is the fountain of joy in the Divine Being; surely a man must be satisfied when he awakes in Gods likeness! And that satisfaction comes to everyone who has heaped coals of fire on his enemys head by feeding him in his hunger, and giving him water when athirst. Say not, "I will do so to him as he has done to me, I will render to the man according to his work." Love your enemies; pray for them which despitefully use 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, 7, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 21, 23, 27, 28, 30 Pro_24:5. A man of knowledge, rather “a man of…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Pro_24:5. A man of knowledge, rather “a man of understanding,” increaseth strength, literally “maketh power strong.” Miller translates the entire verse thus:—“A strong man, if wise, is as a power indeed; and a man of knowledge makes strength really strong.”
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MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Pro_24:1-6
HOUSE BUILDING
I. An undertaking founded upon wickedness lacks the first element of stability. A house built upon a sandy foundation, we all know, does not possess the first requisite of safety. It is useless to erect any building for fine weather purposes only—if it is not able to stand a storm all the labour expended upon it is lost. Those places are very few where the tempest does not come sometimes, and even if we could find so favoured a spot, a sandy foundation would not be a permanent one. The ordinary play of the elements and the changes of the seasons would be ever at work upon the loose and shifting soil, and in time the house must fall. So it is with any work undertaken with an evil purpose or from wicked motives. There are laws at work in God’s universe which will forbid such a building to remain long in existence. It is very easy work to lay the stones in the sand—much more easy than to hew out a place for them in the solid rock—and the apparently rapid success of evil men and evil deeds tempts many an unwise builder to work after their method. But the experience of the Psalmist is repeated in every age and must be to the end of time: “I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not; yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.” (Psa_37:35-36.)
II. True wisdom consists in patient continuance in well-doing. In this passage, as throughout the entire Book of Proverbs, wisdom is set up as the rival of evil, and sin is accounted as the height of folly. The wise man accounts everything foolishness which is against the moral law of the universe, and the good man is in his estimation the only wise man. That this is a just and true estimate is apparent to all who look a little beneath the surface of things—to all who realise that it is one thing to seem and another thing to be. The mansion upon the sand-bank appears to be a more desirable dwelling place than the cottage upon the rock, but time will prove which is the safer of the two. But permanence or safety are not the only recommendations to the house of wisdom. There is a satisfaction and a positive joy to be found in doing the right to which the evil-doer is a stranger. To be on the side of the good is to be on the side of God and of conscience, to know from experience that all the moral powers of the soul grow stronger with use, and such experimental knowledge fills the chambers of the soul “with all precious and pleasant riches” (Pro_24:4). These considerations ought to make it easy to obey Solomon’s precept: “Be not envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them.” The mariner on even a stormy sea would not envy the dweller in the lighthouse if he knew that the waves were rapidly undermining its foundation and rendering its speedy fall certain, and to envy a man a short-lived prosperity which must have a sad end is as contrary to the dictates of reason and self-love. A consideration of their “end” (Psa_73:17) is a good preservative against such an envy, and has been tried by many men since the days of Asaph with the same success. But without bringing the future into the present, envy of the wicked may be effectually prevented if we can realise their present loss. The inhabitant of the dwelling filled with materials to satisfy his bodily and mental appetites and wants does not envy him whose house is destitute of such comforts. Yet that would be more reasonable than for him who has the opportunity of rearing for himself a well-furnished house of wisdom—of building a character which shall be in itself a source of satisfaction and joy to his better nature—to desire the empty and unsatisfying portion of evil doers.
For Homiletics on Pro_24:6 considered by itself see on chap. Pro_11:14, page 214, and on chap. Pro_20:18, page 590.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_24:1. Sin is like sound, and it finds the moral nature of fallen man, like the atmosphere, a good conducting medium. The word or deed of evil does not terminate where it is produced. It radiates all round; and beside the direct propagation from a centre by diverging lines, it further reduplicates itself by rebounding like an echo from every object upon which it falls. Human beings may well stand in awe when they consider the self-propagating power of sin, and the facilities which their own corruption affords it. Different persons are affected in different ways. One is shaken by the example of wickedness in its first out-go, another by its rebounding blow, One is carried away in the stream, another hurts himself by his violent efforts to resist it. Some imitate the sin. Others fret against the sinner, Both classes do evil and suffer injury, Whether you be impatiently “envious against evil men,” or weakly “desirous to be with them,” you have sustained damage by the contact.—Arnot.
To be envious against evil men is plainly to confess ourselves to be worse than they are. For, as St. Gregory speaketh, we cannot envy except it be those whom we think to be better than ourselves. Indeed, to envy against evil men is to make wickedness to be goodness, and to show no goodness to be in his heart that is so envious.… Whosoever thou be that envieth evil men, I cannot tell who should envy thee, except the devil, because thou strivest to be more wicked than he is. For they are only the godly that he is envious against.—Jermin.
Pro_24:4. The last virtue here spoken of is knowledge, whereby the inward rooms of the house are filled with all precious substance; unto the providing and treasuring up of food, of money, and all things necessary and comfortable, the knowledge of times, the prices of things, and of the means whereby commodities may be obtained, is requisite.… It is not to be marvelled at that many young married folk and householders in these days have nothing in their families but want of necessaries and bare walls, seeing they want both wisdom and understanding, and knowledge.—Muffett.
Riches imply
(1) plenty of that which is precious and pleasant.
(2) Propriety. They must be that which is their own; and hereunto economical prudence much conduceth. God bestoweth abundance on the wicked ex largitate, only out of a general providence; but upon his people that are good husbands ex promisso, by virtue of this and the like promises.—Trapp.
Pro_24:5. A strong man. (See Miller’s rendering in the Critical Notes.) A common man, a better sort of man, a strong man, a mortal or weak man, are the four words for man in the Bible. This is a strong man. It means strong in a worldly sense. That man, if wise, is as a power indeed.… The meaning is that a “strong” man, if not “wise,” is not “strong” at all; that piety is itself strength; that the stronger a man without it, the weaker he is; that a strong man who is pious, not only becomes strong in that, but strong really by his worldly strength; because piety gives realness to every gift.—Miller.
I. Intelligence apart from piety is power. A man who has great intelligence, and knows how to use it, possesses a power superior to any physical force.… II. Piety apart from intelligence is a higher kind of power. It is the patience of love, endurance, patience, compassion; it is a power which will touch men’s hearts, move the very arm of Omnipotence, “take hold upon the strength of God.” III. Piety associated with intelligence is the highest creature power. What power on earth is equal to that possessed by the man of vast intelligence and consecrated affections, the man of sunny intellect and Heaven-inspired sympathies and aims?—Dr. David Thomas.
A wise man is not only strong in having wisdom, but in getting strength also.… For by wisdom knowing well the want and need of strength, he is careful and diligent to procure it; whereas many times strength, being presumptuous upon its own might, seeks not for wisdom to support it, and falls for want of having it.—Jermin.
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 I. The special object of all the training and…
Pro 24:10
I. The special object of all the training and discipline through which we pass in life is the increase of strength.
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II. Every life has its day of adversity. It is in the day of adversity that a man’s character is tested. Adversity makes or mars a man. A man is either the better or the worse for the trial through which he has passed.
III. Think what it is to faint as a Christian. It is to distrust God. Let us glorify God in loss, in suffering, in waiting.
Parker, City Temple, vol. iii., p. 363.
Reference: Pro 24:11.—E. White, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 310.
Pro 24:11-12
I. Groundless excuses can be of no avail as made to God, because, in the first place, He is a Being who considers everything. If God considers, if He be a God who searcheth the spirits, a God by whom actions are weighed, then I instantly learn, if there be vanity in an excuse, it must be detected, and if there be falsehood, it must be exposed. There is an overwhelming weight of condemnation in the question, "Doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it?"
II. But Solomon is not content with pointing out to the self-apologist that God considers everything: he goes on to remind him that God knows everything. It is the necessary property of the Divine Being that He should be acquainted with whatsoever was, or is, or is to come, so that to suppose Him ignorant or forgetful of the minutest thing is to charge Him with imperfection; and this, in other words, is to deny the Divinity. Throughout the circuits of immensity there cannot be the motion of a will nor the throb of an affection which escapes God’s observation. His is that omniscience to which there has never been an addition, from which there has never been an abstraction; His is that prodigious mind to which prophecy is history, and to which history is observation, which embraces everything at once, so that it can be said to foreknow or to recollect only in accommodation to our limited faculties, foreknowledge having to do with our future, recollection with our past, but both equally with the interminable present of Him who can describe Himself as "I am that I am." The question, "Doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it?" is followed with the yet more startling and the yet more overcoming one, "He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it?"
III. "Shall He not render to every man according to his works?" Man may be unmoved by our declaration of God as a God who considers and knows; but we have exhausted our resources and are forced to regard him as morally invulnerable if we find him unmoved by the startling interrogation, "and shall not He render to every man according to his works?"
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2658.
References: Pro 24:11, Pro 24:12.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 273. Pro 24:13-22.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. iii., p. 115. Pro 24:16.—F. Tholuck, Hours of Devotion, p. 281. Pro 24:17.—J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 8th series, pp. 266, 272, 279, 286. Pro 24:21.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 282. Pro 24:23-34.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. iii., p. 129.
Pro 24:30-32
I. The scene shows that if we will not have flowers and fruits, we shall certainly have thorns and nettles.
II. The scene shows that the sluggard and the fool cannot hide the results of their neglect.
III. The scene shows how possible it is to be right in some particulars and to be grievously wrong in others. The legal right of the slothful man to the possession of the field might be undisputed. It is not enough to possess; we must increase.
IV. The scene shows that even the worst abuses may be turned to good account. Keep your eyes open, and you will read moral lessons everywhere. (1) You will see that the finest possessions may be wasted: property, talent, influence, opportunity. (2) You will see that wickedness always moves in the direction of destruction.
Parker, City Temple, vol. ii., p. 108 (see also Pulpit Notes, p. 48).
References: Pro 24:30-34.—S. Cox, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. vi., p. 401; W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 290.
Pro 24:32
I. When the learner in God’s school goes out to observe mankind, he will think of the manner, and cautions, and rules for turning what he sees to the most beneficial account and of the most instructive points to fix his attention upon. (1) Let not his observing be merely of the nature of speculation, not simply a seeing and judging what men are. (2) Another admonition is against prejudice and arrogance in observing and judging. (3) Another is against taking pleasure in perceiving and ascertaining what is wrong in man. (4) Another grand rule is that our observations on other men should not be directed or suffered to go to the effect of our being better pleased with ourselves, with this exception: that if Divine grace has really wrought a work in us, we may well be delighted with that as such.
II. To such general considerations there might be added a variety of more special observations. (1) Think of the probable difference between our judgments of the persons we look upon and their own judgments of themselves. (2) One of the most conspicuous things to be noticed in looking on mankind is how temptation operates and prevails. (3) A prominent and mournful thing to be seen in looking on mankind will be the great errors, the lapses, of good men. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." (4) In looking on men, observe the effect of situation and circumstances. Look watchfully how men are affected, and who shall dare to say, "I have nothing to fear in a like situation"? (5) Happily there are worthier things here and there: exemplary virtues, graces, wisdom; and it is delightful to turn for instruction to these from the many things that instruct us as being evil. Let these better examples be observed, with attention to understand how they are formed and an earnest effort of imitation.
J. Foster, Lectures, 2nd series, p. 29.
References: Pro 24:33, Pro 24:34.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 331. Pro 25:1-5.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 296. Pro 25:1-7.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. iii., p. 143. Pro 25:2.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 187. Pro 25:8-13.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. iii., p. 152. Pro 25:11.—S. Cox, Expositions, 4th series, p. 149. Pro 25:13, Pro 25:19.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 303. Pro 25:14-20.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. iii., p. 163. Pro 25:15.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., p. 224.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv11, 30 Pro 24:11 - Pro 24:12.
Proverbs
THE CRIME OF NEGLIGENCE
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Pro 24:11 - Pro 24:12.
What is called the missionary spirit is nothing else than the Christian church working in a particular direction. If a man has a conviction, the health of his own soul, his reverence for the truth he has learnt to love, his necessary connection with other men, make it a duty, a necessity, and a joy to tell what he has heard, and to speak what he believes. On these common grounds rests the whole obligation of Christ’s followers to speak the Gospel which they have received; only the obligation presses on them with greater force because of the higher worth of the word and the deeper misery of men without it. The text contains nothing specially bearing on Christian missions, but it deals with the fault which besets us all in our relations and in life: and the wholesome truths which it utters apply to our duties in regard to Christian missions because they apply to our duties in regard to every misery within our reach. They speak of the murderous cruelty and black sin of negligence to save any whom we can help from any sort of misery which threatens them. They appear to me to suggest four thoughts which I would now deal with:-
I. The crime of negligence.
Not to use any power is a sin; to omit to do anything that we can do is a crime: to withhold a help that we can render is to participate in the authorship of all the misery that we have failed to relieve. He who neglects to save a life, kills. There are more murderers than those who lift violent hands with malice aforethought against a hated life. Rulers or communities who leave people uncared for to die, who suffer swarming millions to live where the air is poison and the light is murky, and first the soul and then the body, are dwarfed and die; the incompetent men in high places, and the indolent ones in low, whose selfishness brings, and whose blundering blindness allows to continue, the conditions that are fatal to life-on these the guilt of blood lies. Violence slays its thousands, but supine negligence slays its tens of thousands.
And when we pass from these merely physical conditions to think of the world and of the Church in the world, where shall we find words weighty and burning enough to tell what fatal cruelty lies in the unthinking negligence so characteristic of large portions of Christ’s professed followers? There is nothing which the ordinary type of Christian, so called, more needs than to be aroused to a living sense of personal responsibility for all the unalleviated misery of the world. For every one who has laid the sorrows of humanity on his heart, and has felt them in any measure as his own, there are a hundred to whom these make no appeal and give no pang. Within ear-shot of our churches and chapels there are squalid aggregations of stunted and festering manhood, of whom it is only too true that they are ‘drawn unto death’ and ‘ready to be slain,’ and yet it would be an exaggeration to say that the bulk of our congregations cast even a languid eye of compassion upon those, to say nothing of stretching out a hand to help. It needs to be dinned, far more than it is at present, into every professing Christian that each of us has an obligation which cannot be ignored or shuffled off, to acquaint ourselves with the glaring facts that force themselves upon all thoughtful men, and that the measure of our power is the measure of our obligation. The question, Has the church done its best to deliver these? needs to be sharpened to the point of ‘Have I done my best?’ And the vision of multitudes perishing in the slums of a great city needs to be expanded into the vision of dim millions perishing in the wide world.
II. The excuse of negligence.
The shuffling plea, ‘Behold we knew it not,’ is a cowardly lie. It admits the responsibility to knowledge and pretends an ignorance which it knows to be partly a false excuse, and in so far as it is true, to be our own fault. We are bound to know, and the most ignorant of us does know, and cannot help knowing, enough to condemn our negligence. How many of us have ever tried to find out how the pariahs of civilisation live who live beside us? Our ignorance so far as it is real is the result of a sinful indolence. And there is a sadder form of it in an ignorance which is the result of familiarity. We all know how custom dulls our impressions. It is well that it should be so, for a surgeon would be fit for little if he trembled and was shaken at the sight of the tumour he had to work to remove, as we should be; but his familiarity with misery does not harden him, because he seeks to remove the suffering with which he has become familiar. But that same familiarity does harden and injure the whole nature of the onlooker who does nothing to alleviate it. Then there is an ignorance of other suffering which is the result of selfish absorption in one’s own concerns. The man who is caring for himself only, and whose thoughts and feelings all flow in the direction of his own success, may see spread before him the most poignant sorrows without feeling one throb of brotherly compassion and without even being aware of what his eyes see. So, in so far as the excuse ‘we knew it not’ is true, it is no excuse, but an indictment. It lays bare the true reason of the criminal negligence as being a yet more criminal callousness as to the woe and loss in which such crowds of men whom we ought to recognise as brethren are sunken.
III. The condemnation of negligence.
The great example of God is put forward in the text as the contrast to all this selfish negligence. Note the twofold description of Him given here, ‘He that pondereth the heart,’ and ‘He that keepeth thy soul.’ The former of these presents to us God’s sedulous watching of the hearts of men, in contrast to our indolent and superficial looks; and in this divine attitude we find the awful condemnation of our disregard of our fellows. God ‘takes pain,’ so to speak, to see after His children. Are they not bound to look lovingly on each other? God seeks to know them. Are they not bound to know one another? Lofty disregard of human suffering is not God’s way. Is it ours? He ‘looks down from the height of His sanctuary to hear the crying of the prisoner.’ Should not we stoop from our mole-hill to see it? God has not too many concerns on His hands to mark the obscurest sorrow and be ready to help it. And shall we plead that we are too busy with petty personal concerns to take interest in helping the sorrows and fighting against the sins of the world?
No less eloquently does the other name which is here applied to God rebuke our negligence. ‘He preserveth thy soul.’ By His divine care and communication of life, we live; and surely the soul thus preserved is thereby bound to be a minister of preservation to all that are ‘ready to be slain.’ The strongest motive for seeking to save others is that God has saved us. Thus this name for God touches closely upon the great Christian thought, ‘Christ has given Himself for me.’ And in that thought we find the true condemnation of a Christianity which has not caught from Him the enthusiasm for self-surrender, and the passion for saving the outcast and forlorn. If to be a Christian is to imitate Christ, then the name has little application to those who see ‘them that are drawn to death,’ and turn from them unconcerned and unconscious of responsibility.
IV. The judgment of negligence.
‘Doth not He render to every man according to his works?’ There is such a judgment both in the present and in the future for Christian men as for others. And not only what they do, but what they inconsistently fail to do, comes into the category of their works, and influences their position. It does so in the present, for no man can cherish such a maimed Christian life as makes such negligence possible without robbing himself of much that would tend to his own growth in grace and likeness to Jesus Christ. The unfaithful servant is poorer by the pound hidden in the napkin which might all the while have been laid out at interest with the money-changers, which would have increased the income whilst the lord was absent. We rob ourselves of blessed sympathies and of the still more blessed joy of service, and of the yet more blessed joy of successful effort, by our indolence and our negligence. Let us not forget that our works do follow us in this life as in the life to come, and that it is here as well as hereafter, that he that goeth forth with a full basket and scatters the precious seed with weeping, and yet with joy, shall doubtless come again bringing his sheaves with him. And if we stretch our view to take in the life beyond, what gladness can match that of the man who shall enter there with some who will be his joy and crown of rejoicing in that day, and of whom he shall be able to say, ‘Behold I and the children whom Thou hast given me!’
I venture earnestly to appeal to all my hearers for more faithful discharge of this duty. I pray you to open your ears to hear, and your eyes to see, and your hearts to feel, and last of all, your hands to help, the miseries of the world. Solemn duties wait upon great privileges. It is an awful trust to have Christ and His gospel committed to our care. We get it because from One who lived no life of luxurious ease, but felt all the woes of humanity which He redeemed, and forbore not to deliver us from death, though at the cost of His own. We get it for no life of silken indolence or selfish disregard of the sorrows of our brethren. If there is one tear we could have dried and didn’t, or one wound we could have healed and didn’t, that is a sin; if we could have lightened the great heap of sorrow by one grain and didn’t, that is a sin; and if there be one soul that perishes which we might have saved and didn’t, the negligence is not merely the omission of a duty, but the doing of a deed which will be ‘rendered to us according to our works.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 5. Read, 'A wise man is better than a…
5. Read, 'A wise man is better than a warrior, and a man of knowledge than a man of strength.'
7. When put on his trial 'in the gate' of the city, where public business was usually transacted, he has nothing to say (Mat_22:12).
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10. Adversity is sent to bring out your strength: if you are slack and irresolute in the day of trial you are proved to be a weakling.
11, 12. Do not seek to evade your responsibilities (Gen_4:9; Jam_4:17).
13, 14. Wisdom is as sweet as honey.
16-18. Seven] an indefinite, but considerable number. The wrath will now fall on you.
20. Candle] RV 'lamp' (Pro_31:18).
21, 22. Take no part in conspiracies and revolutions.
23-34. is a short collection of sayings, with the heading, 'These also are sayings of the wise.'
26. Every man, etc.] 'He Kisseth the lips': i.e. behaves as a true friend.
27. Before 'building the house' (i.e. getting married), make proper provision.
28. This is in opposition to the ancient law of retaliation (Exo_21:23-25; Lev_24:17-21; Deu_19:21).
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 v21 (See Scofield "Psa 19:9")
fear
(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 CHAPTER 24 Instructions Continued
CHAPTER 24 Instructions Continued
In the final instructions of this chapter we find first a description of the evil men. Their heart studieth destruction; their lips talk mischief. This theme is repeatedly referred to in this chapter. In Pro 24:15 the evil man is addressed not to lay wait for the righteous and not to spoil his resting place. The Lord takes care of the righteous; he may be overcome by misfortunes seven times, yet will he rise again. Different it is with the wicked when he falls into mischief. Yet there must be no rejoicing over the fall of the enemy, nor gladness when he stumbled. This displeaseth the Lord. Still higher is the command of the New Testament, “Love your enemies; ... recompense no man evil for evil; ... overcome evil with good.” There is to be no fretting because of evil men nor envy (Pro 24:1 and Pro 24:19). Why should the righteous be envious at the wicked in their prosperity? The Thirty-seventh Psalm enters more fully into this; but here the same answer is given in a terse way. The wicked have no reward; their candle will be put out. Their calamity riseth suddenly, and who knoweth the ruin of them both? which means that the Lord and the king, will deal with the wicked. Another proverb of this chapter we mention: “If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small” Pro 24:10). The hour of trial is the hour which brings the test. When adversity brings despondency, and even worse, murmuring, it is an evidence that the heart does not fully trust the Lord.
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The last section of this chapter is introduced by the statement, “These things also belong to the wise,” or as it may be rendered, “These also are sayings of the wise.” The chapter ends with a vivid description of the slothful. His field and vineyard bear witness to his character. They are grown over with thorns and covered with nettles and the stone wall is broken down. And why all this? “Yet a little Sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands in sleep.” An illustration of this sluggard can be found a thousand times over again in our own land.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1–34 v. 1. Be not thou envious against evil men,…
v. 1. Be not thou envious against evil men, desiring their company on account of their apparent prosperity and good fortune, neither desire to be with them, to be one of their number, to he accepted into their ranks. cf Pro 23:17.
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, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32 General Information:
General Information:
These verses continue the "thirty sayings" (Proverbs 22:20).
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their hearts
The words "their hearts" refer to the whole person. AT: "they" (See: Synecdoche)
their lips
The words "their lips" refer to the whole person. AT: "they" (See: Synecdoche)
talk about trouble
"talk about causing harm" or "talk about creating problems"
translationWords
envy
evil
heart
trouble
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, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 26, 27, 28, 30, 33 24:1-2 Saying 19: See 1:8-19.
24:1-2 Saying 19: See 1:8-19.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.