Proverbs 21
Butler1. THE king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD as the watercourses :
He turneth it whithersoever he will.
2. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes :
But the LORD weigheth the hearts.
3. To do justice and judgment
Is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
4. An high look, and a proud heart,
Even the lamp of the wicked, is sin.
5. The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness :
But every one that is hasty hasteth only to want.
6. The getting of treasures by a lying tongue
Is a vapour driven to and fro ; they that seek them seek death.
7. The violence of the wicked shall sweep them away ;
Because they refuse to do judgment.
8. The way of him that is laden with guilt is exceeding crooked :
But as for the pure, his work is right.
9. It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop,
Than with a contentious woman in a wide house.
10. The soul of the wicked desireth evil :
His neighbour findeth no favour in his eyes.
11. When the scorner is punished, the simple is made wise :
And when the wise is instructed, he receiveth knowledge.
12. The righteous man considereth the house of the wicked ;
How the wicked are overthrown to their ruin.
13. Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor,
He also shall cry, but shall not be heard.
14. A gift in secret pacifieth anger,
And a present in the bosom strong wrath.
15. It is joy to the righteous to do judgment ;
But it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity.
16. The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding
Shall rest in the congregation of the dead.
17. He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man : He that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich.
18. The wicked is a ransom for the righteous ; And the treacherous cometh in the stead of the upright.
19. It is better to dwell in a desert land,
Than with a contentious and fretful woman.
20. There is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise ;
But a foolish man swalloweth it up.
21. He that followeth after righteousness and mercy
Findeth life, righteousness, and honour.
22. A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, And bringeth down the strength of the confidence thereof.
23. Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue Keepeth his soul from troubles.
24. The proud and haughty man, scorner is his name,
He worketh in the arrogance of pride.
25. The desire of the slothful killeth him ;
For his hands refuse to labour.
26. There is that coveteth greedily all the day long :
But the righteous giveth and withholdeth not.
27. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination :
How much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind !
28. A false witness shall perish :
But the man that heareth shall speak so as to endure.
29. A wicked man hardeneth his face :
But as for the upright, he ordereth his ways.
30. There is no wisdom nor understanding
Nor counsel against the LORD.
31. The horse is prepared against the day of battle :
But victory is of the LORD.
1. GOD can turn the mighty influence of kings into channels of beneficence, along which he can make it pour blessings all abroad at his own good pleasure. So he used Cyrus, the Persian king, for blessings upon His captive children in Babylon. So He makes even the wrath of kings praise Himself. If he can shape the mighty issues of the counsels of kings with infinite ease, and even their very counsels themselves, how much more all the purposes and works of men of lesser power ! H. C.
2. Much of religion lies in doing judgment and justice, from a principle of duty to God and love to our neighbor; and this is more pleasing to God than all burnt-offerings and sacrifices. H.
4. An high look and a proud heart (literally, lofty eyes and swelling of heart) are repulsive to God, because they are the manifestations of a spirit that disowns His supreme authority and disregards the law of love to man. Lamp or light is used figuratively to denote whatever the wicked most delight in and count most vital to their happiness. Since they are in rebellion against God, their lamp or light is precisely that which most sustains them in this rebellion, which constitutes their chief joy and chief reward in the ways of sin. Light is a common, not to say universal, symbol of prosperity and joy. That which is the source or fountain of such prosperity to the wicked is the thing here referred to. It feeds their pride, fosters their high looks; therefore this, along with their high looks and proud heart, goes to constitute their sin.
5. “Thoughts” (as usual in this Hebrew word) has the sense of plans, arrangements for business. The active and diligent are here put in contrast with the rash and headlong whose schemes are never well considered. H. C.—The diligent labors constantly and in a prudent manner with a well-concerted plan; but he who urges on with haste to acquire a fortune becomes poor. M. S.—Those that are hasty, that are rash and inconsiderate in their affairs and will not take time to think, that are greedy of gain by right or wrong, and make haste to be rich by unjust practices or unwise projects, they are in the ready road to poverty. Their contrivances, by which they hope to raise themselves, will ruin them.
6. This shows the folly of those that hope to enrich themselves by dishonest practices, by oppressing and overreaching those with whom they deal, by false-witness bearing, or by fraudulent contracts; of those that make no conscience of their assertions when there is anything to be got by a falsehood. While they are seeking wealth by unlawful practices they are really seeking death, they lay themselves open to the envy and ill-will of men by the treasures they get, and to the wrath and curse of God by the lying tongue wherewith they get them. H.—Nothing can be more clearly laid down than this: that God requires truth on the lips and justice in the balance; and that the opposites, untruth and dishonesty, God abhors. This doctrine, so clearly stated, needs to be strongly pressed upon conscience; for, almost more than the breach of chastity, the breach of integrity, the use of deceit to gain a worldly advantage or elude a worldly loss has left a sad blot on the character of many Christians, and enfeebled the moral influence of the Church. D. F.
8. Pure. Labor with all closest, most persistent application to conceive purity: what it would be to you if your soul were in it; the consciousness of it; the essential peace; the elevation above all passion and unregulated impulse; the singleness and simplicity of it; the glowing shapes and glorified visions of a pure imagination; the oneness of your soul with God; the conscious participation of what is highest in God, his untemptable chastity in goodness and truth. Work at this idea of purity, turn it round and round in your contemplations, reach after it, pray yourself into it, and have it thus as the highest conceivable good, the real good you seek—to be pure. H. B.
11. The contrast lies between the different ways and consequences of instruction. A simpleton learns through fear of punishment; the wise man through simple admonition.
17. The reason of this is obvious. He expends his property on his objects of pleasure, and therefore lays up nothing. M. S.—Giving himself up to sensual enjoyment, he will consume as fast as he earns, and even faster if he can, and so will accumulate nothing. Besides this, such sensuality of life steals a man’s health and vigor away, and makes him prematurely old and feeble. H. C.—There would seem to be a wide distinction between the prodigal and the idler; but, in fact, they are closely related. Both are fools; both are on the way to poverty; the one scatters what he has and soon will have nothing; the other never has anything to scatter. Both make their bed in poverty. R. S. McArthur.
19. In the name of common sense, what is the reason for the worst side of so many men and women being seen where the most of their life is spent? Where so much of the happiness of others depends on us—viz., in the home, there let us show the best side of ourselves. H. Varley.
20. That is, the wise man will secure ample provision for his household; the foolish man will devour all he has instead of laying up some part of it in store. M. S.—The wise lay up for future use, and therefore have on hand, but fools lay aside nothing; but forthwith consume all. Solomon labors to encourage not only industry but a wise provision for the future. H. C.—The proverb may have also a higher application. The wise man stores up all “treasure to be desired” of wisdom, all “oil” of Divine influence, which strengthens and refreshes, and so is ready at all times for the work to which the Master calls him. Compare the parable of the wise and foolish virgins (Matt. 25:1-13). E. H. P.
When the foolish have vainly lavished their treasure and their oil and come to poverty, they are like those virgins of the parable who cried in vain to others, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out. Character, to be used for eternity, must be formed in time, and in good time; and so, to be used for happiness in life, good habits must be early formed, and they will be a treasure to be desired in the house of the wise, and an oil of life in their dwelling. The habits of evil formed in the indulgence and gratification of youthful indolence, appetite, and passion, are draughts which, presented at manhood, take all its strength and capital away and make it bankrupt, make life a burden and a beggary; presented at old age they make it an age of weakness, pain, and misery. On the other hand, good habits in early life, habits of true religion, of industry, of self-restraint, of moral purity, of reverence, kindness, decision, punctuality, and avoidance of evil example are a treasure put out at compound interest, and an inexhaustible oil of prosperity and happiness. They are the sure foundation of success in this life, and of life eternal. Cheever.
21. The repetition of “righteousness” in the second clause is obviously emphatic. The man who keeps that will assuredly find it, but he will find besides it the “life” and the “honor” which he was not seeking. E. H. P.—Those that follow after righteousness shall find righteousness; God will give them grace to do good, and they shall have the pleasure and comfort of it; they that make conscience of being just to others shall be justly dealt with by others, and others shall be kind to them. Seek and you shall find, and with it shall find both life and honor, everlasting life and honor, the crown of righteousness. H.—Taken from end to end the Bible is charged with righteousness; it will have the neighbor loved as the man himself; it will have the harvest like the seed-time; it will insist upon right balances and full weights; it will have no concealed iniquities; it carries its candle of flame into the secrets of the mind, the hidden places of motive and purpose and ultimate, but unexpressed intent. J. P.
22. Here, again, the meaning is at once literal and figurative. Even in war, counsel does more than brute strength. But the proverb is also a parable, and may be transferred to the warfare which is carried on in the inner battlefield of the soul. There also wisdom is mighty to the “pulling down of strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4, where Paul uses the very words of the LXX. version of this passage), and the wise man scales and keeps the city which the strong man armed has seized and made his own. E. H. P.
23. Compare 13:3 and 12:13. So large a part of the mischiefs of life comes from abuse of the tongue that Solomon guarantees exemption from most of the ills of society to him who discreetly governs that unruly member. The Apostle James states the case with about equal strength (Jam. 3:2). H. C.—He that offends not in word is a perfect man. Speech is a sacred prerogative; the tongue rules the word, and we should see to it that our hearts rule it. Let us weigh the import of what we utter, speak with the deliberation of rational and accountable beings, speak according to our real purposes and thoughts. J. H. T.
One of the greatest hindrances to personal piety—that which eats out the heart and soul of true religion—is an unrestrained and unchastened exercise of the tongue. If persons could but be persuaded to banish from their lips empty talk (talk relevant to nothing in particular, gossip about their neighbors’ concerns and arrangements, little profanemesses of expression, and the like) and to leave only such speech as was instructive or amusing, a vast amount of moral and spiritual mischief would be swept away as so much rubbish out of the world, and men would be introduced by the effort into the atmosphere of holiness, as finding themselves unable to effect such a clearance without constant mindfulness of the presence of God. E. M. G.
26. Coveteth greedily. The covetous seek how much they can call their own, by whatever means—of how much benefit they can hold a monopoly, from how large a place in God’s universe they can keep other men off, and how much envy they can rouse in rivals and neighbors. These have never mastered their baser and greedier instincts, and so have never known the Divine joy of being blessed for their benefactions, and have never tasted of the peace that passeth understanding. Very often such persons seem to succeed. It requires a spiritual judgment to uncover their emptiness, and show how real ruin is compatible with apparent success. F. D. H.
Avarice is content with the bare possession of the essence; stopping short at the means, it is
satisfied without the end. By a strange infatuation it looks upon gold as its own end. Other vices have a particular view to enjoyment (falsely so called), but the very term miser is a confession of the misery which attends avarice; for, in order to save his gold, the miser robs himself. He cannot be said to possess wealth; wealth possesses him; or else he possesses it like a fever which burns and consumes him as if molten gold were circulating in his veins. Many vices wear out and are abandoned as age and experience increase, but avarice strikes deeper root as age advances; and, like the solitary tree of the desert, flourishes amid sterility where nothing else could survive. J. H.—Man is the only proprietor on earth, and the only miser. It is by blind instinct that the bee and the ant fill their garners. Man’s ignorance of what himself is capable of enjoying throws him upon the capital error of looking to things exterior and alienable, as his wealth; and in making this ill choice he heaps to himself a world of care; for a thousand accidents may come and intervene between his passion and its object. Thus it is, that while other irregular desires bring their retributive sorrow after the hour of gratification is gone by, Avarice stands scourge in hand over her victim, and inflicts a cruel pang at every instant. I. T.