Proverbs 15:11

Hell and destruction [are] before the Lord,.... Or "the grave" (a), which is the pit of destruction; where bodies being put, putrefy, and are destroyed by worms: this is known by the Lord, even the

Hell and destruction are before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men? Hell and destruction (Hebrew, Sheol and Abaddon) (are) before the Lord.

Destruction; put for the place of destruction, by a usual metonymy; the place and state of the damned, of which men know nothing but by Divine revelation. The hearts; whose thoughts and affections, though they lie deep, discover themselves by outward signs and actions.

Proverbs 15:11 Hell and destruction [are] before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?Ver. 11. Hell and destruction are before the Lord.] "Tophet is prepared of old"; and wherever it is, as it skills not curiously to inquire, - below us it seems to be, et ubi sit sentient qui curiosius quaerunt - so it is most certain that "hell is naked before God, and destruction uncovered in his sight." We, silly fishes, see one another jerked out of the pond of life by the hand of death; but we see not the frying pan and the fire that they are cast into, that "die in their sins," and refuse to be reformed. Cast they are into utter darkness. In tenebras ex tenebris infeliciter exclusi, infelicius excludendi. Howbeit this thickest "darkness hideth not from God, but the light shineth as the day"; he perfectly knows the state of the dead and the damned. Oh that men knew more of it, and did believe in any measure that eternity of extremity that is there to be endured! Oh that they would be forewarned to flee from this wrath to come! Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end, those quatuor novissima! Utinam ubique de Gehenna dissereretur, saith Chrysostom. He that doth but hear of hell, is without any further labour or study taken off from sinful pleasures, saith Nyssen. But if a man had but one glimpse of it, it were enough, saith Bellarmine, to make him not only turn Christian and sober, but anchorite and monk; to live after the strictest rule that can be. But, alas! we cannot get men to think of it till they be plunged headlong into it. “ Esse aliquos manes, &c. Vel pueri credunt nisi qui nondum aere levantur.” - Juvenal. No, though one should come from the dead to testify unto them, they would not be persuaded. How much more then the hearts of the children of men.] Though deep and deceitful, full of turnings and windings, Multae sunt in animo latebrae, multi recessus , saith Cicero, yet God can fathom and find them out. He searcheth the hearts and reins, which yet are the most remote and abstruse of all the entrails, covered from the eye of the anatomist with fat and flesh, &c. By "hearts and reins" understand thoughts and affections; the reins being the seat of the strongest affection, that which is for generation. Lo, these are pervious and patent to the eyes of God, yea, dissected, quartered, cleft in the backbone - as the apostle’ s word, τετραχηλισμενα signifies - how much more then their evil actions! These cannot possibly be hidden from God’ s all-seeing eye, though they dig deep to secure themselves, as those gunpowder traitors; though they throw thereupon wood, stones, and rubbish, all these to God would be but as spectacles to make their sins appear the greater, or as perspectives to multiply them. Pareus, in loc. Augustin., Hom. 16.

(11) Hell and destruction.—“Hell” is here the general name for the unseen world (Hades) beyond the grave, so called, according to one derivation, from its always “asking” for more victims, and never being satisfied. (Comp. Proverbs 27:20.) “Destruction” (Abaddon) is the lowest hell, corresponding to the “abyss” of Luke 8:31; Revelation 9:1; Revelation 9:11; the abode of evil spirits and the lost. (For the thought, comp. Job 26:6, and Psalms 139:8.)

Verse 11. Hell and destruction] שאול ואבדון sheol vaabaddon. Hades, the invisible world, the place of separate spirits till the resurrection: and Abaddon, the place of torment; are ever under the eye and control of the Lord.

11. Hell and destruction] Sheol and Abaddon with “The grave,” and “Destruction” in the marg. R.V. In their preface the Revisers explain that “with a view to obviate inevitable misunderstanding,” they “have left in the historical narratives the rendering (of A.V.) ‘the grave,’ or ‘the pit,’ with a marginal note, ‘Heb. Sheol,’ to indicate that it does not signify the place of burial; while in the poetical writings they have put most commonly ‘Sheol’ in the text, and ‘the grave’ in the margin.” In like manner, “Abaddon, which has hitherto been known to the English reader of the Bible only from the New Testament (Revelation 9:11), has been introduced in three passages (Job 26:6; Proverbs 15:11; Proverbs 27:20), where a proper name appeared to be required for giving vividness and point.” Comp. for the thought, Job 26:6; Psalms 139:1-16.

11. Hell and destruction — Sheol and abaddon, the under world, the infernal regions. The Hebrew sheol corresponded somewhat to the Greek hades, which word is generally used for it is the Septuagint.