Proverbs 13

1. A WISE son heareth his father’s instruction : But a scorner heareth not rebuke.

2. A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth :

But the soul of the treacherous shall eat violence.

3. He that guardeth his mouth keepeth his life :

But he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.

4. The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing :

But the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.

5. A righteous man hateth lying :

But a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame.

6. Righteousness guardeth him that is upright in the way :

But wickedness overthroweth the sinner.

7. There is that maketh [or, feigneth] himself rich, yet hath nothing :

There is that maketh [or, feigneth] himself poor, yet hath great wealth.

8. The ransom of a man’s life is his riches : But the poor heareth no threatening.

9. The light of the righteous rejoiceth : But the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.

10. By pride cometh only contention : But with the well advised is wisdom.

11. Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished :

But he that gathereth by labour shall have increase.

12. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick : But when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

13. Whoso despiseth the word bringeth destruction on himself :

3. HE hath a mighty command over his spirit that can command his tongue, especially when he is provoked. It is a real part of perfection not to offend in word. . . . There is a speedy passage between the heart and the tongue. Evil thoughts are soon formed up into evil words. Caryl.

Idle speaking is precisely the beginning of all hollowness, halfness, unfaithfulness; the atmosphere in which rank weeds of every kind attain the mastery over noble fruits in man’s life, and utterly choke them out; one of the most crying maladies of these days, to be testi-

But he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.

14. The law of the wise is a fountain of life, To depart from the snares of death.

15. Good understanding giveth favour : But the way of the treacherous is rugged.

16. Every prudent man worketh with knowledge :

But a fool spreadeth out folly.

17. A wicked messenger falleth into evil : But a faithful ambassador is health.

18. Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth correction :

But he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured.

19. The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul :

But it is an abomination to fools to depart from evil.

20. Walk with wise men, and thou shalt be wise :

But the companion of fools shall smart for it.

21. Evil pursueth sinners :

But the righteous shall be recompensed with good.

22. A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children ;

And the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the righteous.

23. Much food is in the tillage of the poor : ut there is that is destroyed by reason of injustice.

24. He that spareth his rod hateth his son :

But he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

25. The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul :

But the belly of the wicked shall want.

fied against and in all ways to the uttermost withstood. Thou who wearest that cunning, heaven-made organ, a tongue, think well of this. Speak not, I passionately entreat thee, till thy thought have silently matured itself, till thou have other than mad and mad-making noises to emit; hold thy tongue till some meaning lie behind. No idlest word thou speakest but is a seed cast into time, and grows through all eternity! The recording angel, consider it well, is no fable, but the truest of truths. Carlyle.

It is a startling fact that so large a proportion of the preceptive part of the Bible should deal with sins of the tongue, and deal with them so severely. Extract all the verses of the Book of Proverbs which have reference to foolish talk, bad talk, or too much talk; and you will have a very large number of verses. Add to these the precepts of Paul forbidding corrupt communication, and prescribing speech with grace seasoned with salt. Close the list with that paragraph of James’ Epistle, which forms the body of the third chapter, and which speaks in such awful terms of the widespread mischief done by sins of the tongue, and with that later passage of the same epistle, in which the apostle reiterates with emphasis the caution against swearing contained in the Sermon on the Mount, “But above all things, my brethren, swear not;” and you have not only a portion of space devoted to this subject which seems to mere reason disproportionate to its merits; but also, which is more remarkable, the warnings against this class of sin are more deeply serious in tone than those against almost any other. E. M. G.

4. The indolent are self-indulgent; indolence is self-indulgence. The indolent cannot be amused by innocent relaxation. They are already relaxed. The indolent have no sufficient appreciation of the rights of others. They are accustomed to live, with little or no effort, on the fruits of the labors of those about them. It thus becomes a habit of mind with them to think of things and pleasures and persons as belonging to themselves. It is hardly possible for the indolent not to fall into debauch. It is their only refuge from ennui. Bascom.—Most true is this proverb in spiritual things. If the soul of the sluggard should be filled according to his desires, the fulness would not remain with him; it would be soon gone. There is no principle of life, no habit of faith, no element of a Divine nature, to turn what it receives into an everlasting part and possession of itself. Neither is there any disposition, in such a case, to go from strength to strength, from one degree of grace and glory to another; but a sluggish, inactive contentment, like that of a lazy, inefficient man, who would rather live idly by begging than help himself. G. B. C.

6. Those that are upright in their way; that mean honestly in all their actions, adhere conscientiously to the sacred and eternal rules of equity, and deal sincerely both with God and man, their integrity will keep them. The temptations of Satan shall not prevail over them, the reproaches and injuries of evil men shall not fasten upon them to do them any real mischief. Those that are wicked, even their wickedness will be their overthrow at last, and they are held in the cords of it in the mean time. Are they corrected, destroyed? It is their own wickedness that corrects them; that destroys them; they alone shall bear it. H.—Every sin has its appropriate punishment here in this world; not always visible, perhaps not always even certain, but yet always in prospect and almost always inflicted. Sins of appetite generally bring fearful punishment on the body; sins of indolence bring bitter regret for wasted time, loss of due place, inability to reach just and natural hopes, sometimes terrible privation; sins of untruth bring loss of all respect and honor, and deep self-contempt; each sin can be traced out to consequences enough to appall the doer on the very threshold of his folly, if he could but see them full before him. Bishop Temple.

If a man will serve his sin, let him at least reckon upon this, that in one way or other it will be ill with him; his sin will find him out; his path will be hard; there will be to him no peace. The night of concealment may be long, but dawn comes like the Erinnys to reveal and avenge its crimes. Not only is his punishment inevitable, but it is natural; not miraculous, but ordinary; not sudden, but gradual; not accidental, but necessary; not exceptional, but invariable. Retribution is the impersonal evolution of an established law. Retribution takes the form which of all others the sinner would passionately deprecate, for it is homogeneous with the sins on whose practice it ensues. Farrar.—Sin and the consequences of sin show a terrible power of possible accumulation. The transgression of some one of the seemingly little things of God’s law may apparently bring with it no direct evil consequences to the transgressor, or at least none that may not be, for a time, evaded. But the dues of sin mount up in a grim compound interest that knows no necessary ending, and the little thing of to-day becomes the avalanche of to-morrow. It is possible to treasure up for one’s self wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God—and God’s bank never fails. All that has been treasured up will be paid, with all the accumulations of the years. S. S. T.

The disclosure of transgression is sooner or later inevitable. There can be no burial of it so deep that in due time it will not have a resurrection. The voice that tells is somewhere. The stain is somewhere. The sore and shame are somewhere. The avenger is somewhere. The eternal right is over all. Out of the darkness and silence; out of the misguided zeal of friends; out of the eagerness of the guilty to seem indifferent and unconscious; out of the patience and sufferings of the wronged; out of the very emphasis of denial fortified by favorable public opinion; out of all concealments and subterfuges, will come eventually the revelation, the confession. There is no special miracle in all this, however singular seems the disclosure, but an eternal miracle through the righteous and perfect methods of God. Powers.—It is this inevitable Nemesis, this certainty that men will reap what they have sown, this exposition of the naked hideousness of wrong-doing, this vileness of sin, breaking through all the glitter of success and all the glare of present prosperity, wealth, or power; in a word, the just judgment of God written by the finger of God upon the wall, or declared by the voice of God from the pulpits of His truth, that men so obstinately close their ears and shut their eyes to, but which the Word of God so resolutely declares. It is the teacher’s office to proclaim it, to enforce it, to urge it, to insist upon it, whether men hear or whether they forbear. Bishop Hervey.

Use sin as it will use you; spare it not, for it will not spare you; it is your murderer and the murderer of the whole world. Use it, therefore, as a murderer should be used; kill it before it kills you; and though it bring you to the grave, as it did your Head, it shall not be able to keep you there. You love not death; love not the cause of death. Baxter.

7. Both cases retain that peculiar meaning of the conjugation which designates pretence, show. Both classes of such men are hypocrites and deceivers; the one for pretending to possess what he does not possess, the other for pretending to be worth nothing (in order to cheat his creditors), when in fact he is rich. Sentiment: “Men will often play the hypocrite for the sake of gain.” M. S.—In Oriental countries, where property is often unsafe, men might be tempted to conceal their wealth and put on the appearance of extreme poverty. The other extreme, the pretence of great wealth, is more often assumed for the sake of honor and distinction. H. C.

9. The light of the righteous. The happiness of the righteous shines like the sun and increases to their endless joy; but the happiness of the wicked is as feeble as the light of a candle, and will soon be extinguished. Bishop Patrick.—Very beautiful in its poetry is the idea of the light rejoicing in its brightness. Na ture itself, the sun in its glory, the stars in their courses sing for joy and rejoice. The distinction between the “light” and the “lamp” is also not without significance. The righteous have the true light in them. That which belongs to the wicked is but derived and temporary, and shall be extinguished before long. E. H. P. (See 4: 18.)

10. Pride is a bad mother of many bad children, these three especially: First, boasting of ourselves; secondly, contending with others; thirdly, despising of others. Caryl.—Contention only and nothing better than contention can be expected from pride. Pride will produce it. Pride is the chief occasion of strife. H. C.

Whatever hand other lusts may have in contention (passion, envy, covetousness), pride has the great hand; pride will itself sow discord, and needs no help. Pride makes men impatient of contradiction in either their opinions or their desires, impatient of competition and rivalry, impatient of concession and receding, from a conceit of certain right and truth on their side; and hence arise quarrels among relations and neighbors, quarrels in States and kingdoms, in churches and Christian societies. Men will be revenged, will not forgive, because they are proud. Those that are humble and peaceable are wise and well advised. Those that will ask and take advice, that will consult their own consciences, their Bibles, their friends, and will do nothing rashly, they are wise, as in other things so in this, that they will humble themselves, will stoop and yield, to preserve quietness and prevent quarrels. H.—The humble man as he pays due respect to others to the full, and so gives no kind of quarrel that way, so he challenges no such debt to himself, and thus avoids the usual contests that arise in this. Study, therefore, this excellent grace of humility, not the personated acting of it in appearance, which may be a chief agent for pride, but true lowliness of mind, to be nothing in your own eyes, and content to be so in the eyes of others. Leighton.

11. Vanity, nothingness, is a peculiar word for slight effort, or no effort. The meaning is: “Wealth which is in any way obtained without industry or effort.” Nothing is more true than that this is often squandered in a little time. But that which is gathered by industry, which is collected by handfuls, is commonly of that stable character which secures increase. M. S.—That which is got by industry and honesty will grow more, instead of growing less; it will be a maintenance, it will be an inheritance, it will be an abundance. He that labors, working with his hands, shall so increase, as that he shall have to give to him that needs (Eph. 4:28), and when it comes to that it will increase yet more and more. H.—The common law, the general fact, is that all other wealth except that in which the hand bears the prominent agency, both in procuring and preserving it, soon flees away, “quicker than a breath,” says the strong figure of the proverb. H. C.

Good, of various kinds, may come to us without our toiling; but it was not produced without somebody’s toiling. This is the law of that primal sentence, that everything valuable which man possesses shall be the fruit of the diligent hand. Then the laborer is the only and universal benefactor! He is monarch and dispenser of all earthly gifts! The artisan’s low bench is a throne! Stone.

12. “We live by hope.” When the realization of it is long deferred, the heart sinks with discouragement. Tree of life is a vivid image of the animating power of hope when it is fulfilled. M. S.—Nothing is more grateful than to enjoy that, at last, which we have long wished and waited for. When the desire does come it puts men into a sort of paradise, a garden of pleasure, for it is a tree of life. It will aggravate the eternal misery of the wicked that their hopes will be frustrated; and it will make the happiness of heaven the more welcome to the saints, that it is what they have earnestly longed for as the crown of their hopes. H.

13. He who despiseth God’s Word shall be held responsible—held as with a cord (the sense of the Hebrew) from which there can be no escape; but he who reverently fears and obeys it shall be recompensed. H. C.

15. In v. 15 the familiar sentiment, “the way of transgressors is hard,” which certainly in itself is a just and weighty sentiment, becomes “the way of the treacherous is rugged,” which fairly represents the original. The latter word is equivalent to harsh, rough, or painful. According to the proverbial usage of our own day, the transgressor has “a hard road to travel.” They do not think so who set out on that road, but they change their minds before they get to the end. Chambers.

Such is our nature, that God cannot make us happy or better till He has first sickened us with the things we prefer to Him. Behold, then, the goodness of God in making the “way of transgressors rugged;” in hedging with thorns the way to perdition; in defeating our plans of worldly repose; in all the experience

He gives to make us feel that we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth! Should He do less than make ours a life of affliction, while it is one of disservice to Him, the proofs of His benevolence toward us would be wholly obscured. H. H.

18. “Reproof” has the broad sense of instruction and good counsel, designed to make one better. He who faithfully observes such counsels will come to honor. His character and life will be improved, his faults corrected, and then all will esteem and honor him. The opposite course will end not in shame only, but in poverty—a consideration adapted to take hold of the heart. H. C.

19. The contrast here implies that the first clause has respect to the desire of the wise. This, it is taken for granted, is for good; and when that good is attained, then is it grateful to the spirit of a good man. On the other hand, fools cling with such tenacity to evil, that they will not quit it so as to cherish such desires. M. S.—The gist of the proverb lies in what is implied (not expressed) in the latter clause. All men, whether fools or wise, appreciate and long for the joy of gratified desire. But fools who abhor departing from evil cannot get it. Their life is a perpetual but fruitless endeavor to overcome and counterveil the laws that link together sin and misery, folly and ruin. Abhorring to depart from evil, they must forever miss the joy of gratified desire.

20. The proverb testifies to the power of the social law—the potent influence of associates—the good for good, and the evil for evil, and its consequent ruin. H. C.—There are many strong Bible utterances respecting the moulding influences of daily companionship upon our life and character. Sometimes they dwell specially on the causes that draw men together, assuming that like chooses like, and that a man may in fact be known by his associates. But more frequently the texts warn us of the consequences of intimacy. They warn or exhort about companionship because we become, as they assume, what our companions are; because men who live together in close contact and communion mould each other. Percival.—We are continually drawing and being drawn, impelling and resisting or yielding, assimilating ourselves to others, and others to ourselves; nor is it possible to go into any company and come from it exactly in the same state of mind. The moral modification is perpetually going on; and if we trace it exactly, we shall find that it is either evil or good; very seldom, if ever, entirely indifferent or neutral.

It is one of the fundamental laws of nature, that our minds should be subject to perpetual modification from the minds of others; nor is it within the reach of our will to determine whether this influence shall be exercised or not. Yet we may determine to what influence we subject it; we may determine what society we will keep, but not what influence the society we choose shall have upon us. R. Hall.

A goodly friend is a choice book, out of which we may learn many excellent things, and a precious treasure, whereby our souls may be enriched with virtue: “He that walketh with the wise shall be wise.” They who walk with them that are strong-scented with grace must needs receive somewhat of its savor. The very sight of that holiness which shineth brightly in their works will kindle thy spirit, and enlarge thy mind with an honest emulation of their worth. Swinnock.—Friendship maketh not only a fair day in the affections from storms and tempests; but it maketh daylight in the understanding, out of darkness and confusion of thoughts. Whosoever hath his mind fraught with many thoughts, his wits do clarify and break up in the communicating and discoursing with another, he tosseth his thoughts more easily, he marshalleth them more orderly, he seeth how they look when they are turned into words; finally, he waxeth wiser than himself, and that more by an hour’s discourse than by a day’s meditation. Bacon.

If there is any work in the world which peculiarly deserves the name of the work of the devil, it is the hindrance which men sometimes put in the path which their fellow-creatures are called by God to walk in. Of all the temptations which surround us in this world of temptations, the most difficult, in almost all cases, to deal with are those which our fellow-men cast in our way. Temptations of the devil, springing from within the soul, can generally be evaded, even if they seem irresistible in their direct encounter. Temptations from bodily appetite, the most terrible of all temptations in the moment of their power, can almost always be foreseen and a means of escape provided. But our duties will not let us quit the company of our fellows, and if they choose to tempt us, there is nothing left but to bear the temptation as best we may. The temptation is so sure to come that we must count upon it. It is the order of the world; it is the fire in which we are to be tried; it is the touchstone of our truth and our faith; it is the experiment of our love; it is the test by which our souls must be valued. But for all that there is no excuse for the tempter. Woe to that man by whom the offence cometh; woe to that man who makes himself the instrument of putting his brothers to their hardest probation. F. T.

21. This is only another way of saying that God will bring evil upon sinners and good to the obedient, implying perhaps that He has wrought more or less of essential retribution into the very nature of things and the laws of society. H. C.—Pursucth sinners. Evil pursues them close wherever they go, as the avenger of blood pursued the manslayer, and they have no city of refuge to flee to; they attempt an escape, but in vain. Whom God pursues He is sure to overtake. H.—No closer doth the shadow follow the body than the revenge of self-accusation follows sin. Walk eastward in the morning, the shadow starts behind thee; soon after it is upon thy left side; at noon it is under thy feet; lie down, it coucheth under thee; toward even it leaps before thee. Thou canst not be rid of it while thou hast a body and the sunlight. No more can thy soul quit the conscience of evil, ever torturing thee with affrights of more pains than thy nature can comprehend. Bishop H.

Every day that a bad man lives he is a worse man. He is on a sloping descent. Imperceptibly but really, and not so very slowly either; convictions are dying out, impulses to good are becoming feeble, habits of neglect of conscience are becoming fixed, special forms of sin—avarice, or pride, or lust—are striking their claws deeper into your soul, and holding their bleeding booty firmer. A. M.—Fearful it is to consider that sin does not only drive us into calamity, but it makes us also impatient, and embitters our spirit in the sufferance; it cries aloud for vengeance, and so torments men before the time even with such fearful outcries and horrid alarms, that their hell begins before the fire is kindled. It hinders our prayers, and consequently makes us hopeless and helpless. It perpetually affrights the conscience, unless by its frequent stripes it brings a callousness and an insensible damnation upon it. It makes us to lose all that which Christ purchased for us—all the blessings of His providence, the comforts of His Spirit, the aids of His grace, the light of His countenance, the hopes of His glory. Jeremy Taylor.

Here the avenger pursues the soul, but until mercy’s work is finished with the sinner’s mortal life, his final grasp is withheld. While the soul lives, however great its suffering and anguish, however dark its forebodings and piercing its self-reproaches, yet it finds some alleviation from these in absorbing pursuits and exciting pleasures. But in its future these pursuits and pleasures will be withdrawn, and all the pursuing evils will be left to work their unresisted will. There the sense of want, the conscious disquiet, the poignant self-reproach, the natural consequences of past evil deeds will be intensified. These will constitute the condemned soul’s entire experience. Its strong ungratified desires will unquenchably crave. The fires of conscience will perpetually burn. Forever shut out from the presence of God, forever excluded from the realm of light and love, from participation in celestial knowledge, affection, and blessedness, the adjudged sinner fast-bound in the chains of evil, he who was made in the image of God and destined for an immortal fellowship with God shall be prisoned in the abode of fallen spirits, shut up forever to their fearful companionship! B.

How indefeasible the happiness of the saints! The God that cannot lie has engaged that to the righteous good shall be repaid; they shall be abundantly recompensed for all the good they have done, and all the ill they have suffered in this world. H.—For the true man “pleasure” is not by any means the best thing, nor “pain” the worst and most dreadful. “Duty,” and the satisfactions which wait on duty, are infinitely before either. The satisfaction which comes of doing right in scorn of consequence is infinitely sweeter and profounder than any mere pleasure; and the shame and degradation which spring from doing what we know to be wrong are infinitely more dreadful than pain, though they include pain. And, therefore, God the Giver rewards us when we suffer pain for Him, not with a corresponding pleasure, but with that inward peace and blessedness which are of so much greater and more enduring worth. Cox.

22. A good man’s estate lasts; he leaves an inheritance to his children’s children. It is part of his praise, that he is thoughtful for posterity; that he does not lay all out upon himself, but is in care to do well for those that come after him; not by withholding more than is meet, but by a prudent and decent frugality. He trains up his children to this, that they may leave it to their children; and especially he is careful, both by justice and charity, to obtain the blessing of God upon what he has, and to entail that upon his children, without which the greatest industry and frugality will be in vain. A good man, by being good and doing good, by honoring the Lord with his substance and spending it in His service, secures it to his posterity; or if he should not leave them much of this world’s goods, his prayers, his instructions, his good example, will be the best entail; and the promises of the covenant will be an inheritance to his children’s children (Psalm 103:17). H.

Wealth of sinner laid up for the righteous. An expression of trust, that in the long run the anomalies of the world are rendered even. The heaped-up treasures of the wicked find their way at last into the hands of better men. E. H. P.

23. Much food is in the tillage of the poor. It was “the tillage of the poor,” the careful, diligent husbandry of the man who had only a little patch of land to look after, that filled the storehouses of the Holy Land. Hence the proverb of our text arose. It preserves the picture of the economical conditions in which it originated, and it is capable of, and is intended to have, an application to all forms and fields of work. In all it is true that the bulk of the harvested results are due, not to the large labors of the few, but to the minute, unnoticed toils of the many. Small service is true service, and the aggregate of such produces large crops. Spade husbandry gets most out of the ground. The laborer’s allotment of half an acre is generally more prolific than the average of the squire’s estate. Much may be made of slender gifts, small resources, and limited opportunities if carefully cultivated, as they should be, and as their very slenderness should stimulate their being. The most largely endowed has no more obligation and no fairer field than the most slenderly gifted lies under and possesses. God, who has builded up some of the towering Alps out of mica flakes, builds up His Church out of infinitesimally small particles—slenderly endowed men touched by the consecration of His love. If we truly employ whatsoever gifts God has given to us, then we shall be accepted according to that we have, and not according to that we have not. . . . The wholesome old proverb, “many littles make a mickle,” is as true about the influence brought to bear in the world to arrest evil and to sweeten corruption as it is about anything besides. Christ has a great deal more need of the cultivation of the small patches that He gives to the most of us than He has even in the cultivation of the large estates that He bestows on a few. Responsibility is not to be measured by amount of gift, but is equally stringent, entire and absolute, whatsoever be the measure of the endowments from which it arises. A. M.

24. We are not obliged to understand rod here in the mere literal sense; but it means at least correction in some way for faults. M. S. —The rod is the symbol of that authority which God has committed to fathers and mothers for training up their children in His nurture and admonition. The parent is not only to study child nature, but the special disposition of each child. He is to exercise his authority kindly yet firmly, wisely and prayerfully. Perhaps there was too much severity in the olden times. But there may be too much indulgence nowadays. If children are not taught to obey at home they will not grow up as law-abiding citizens of the republic and loyal subjects of the kingdom of God. Babb.