Proverbs 8
Butler1. DOTH not wisdom cry, And understanding put forth her voice?
2. In the top of high places by the way, Where the paths meet, she standeth;
3. Beside the gates, at the entry of the city, At the coming in at the doors, she crieth aloud:
4. Unto you, O men, I call; And my voice is to the sons of men.
5. O ye simple, understand subtilty; And, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.
6. Hear, for I will speak excellent things; And the opening of my lips shall be right things.
7. For my mouth shall utter truth; And wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8. All the words of my mouth are in righteous- ness; There is nothing crooked or perverse in them.
9. They are all plain to him that understandeth, And right to them that find knowledge.
10. Receive my instruction, and not silver: And knowledge rather than choice gold.
11. For wisdom is better than rubies: And all the things that may be desired are not to be compared unto her.
12. I wisdom have made subtilty my dwell- ing, And find out knowledge and discretion.
13. The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: Pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, And the froward mouth, do I hate.
14. Counsel is mine, and sound knowledge: I am understanding; I have might.
15. By me kings reign, And princes decree justice.
16. By me princes rule, And nobles, even all the judges of the earth.
17. I love them that love me; And those that seek me diligently shall find me.
18. Riches and honour are with me; Yea, durable riches and righteousness.
19. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; And my revenue than choice silver.
20. I walk in the way of righteousness, In the midst of the paths of judgment:
21. That I may cause those that love me to in- herit substance, And that I may fill their treasuries.
22. The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, Before his works of old.
23. I was set up from everlasting, from the be- ginning, Or ever the earth was.
24. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; When there were no fountains abounding with water.
25. Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills was I brought forth:
26. While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, Nor the beginning of the dust of the world.
27. When he established the heavens, I was there: When he set a circle upon the face of the deep:
28. When he made firm the skies above: When the fountains of the deep became strong:
29. When he gave to the sea its bound, That the waters should not transgress his commandment: When he marked out the foundations of the earth:
30. Then I was by him, as a master workman: And I was daily his delight, Rejoicing always before him;
31. Rejoicing in his habitable earth; And my delight was with the sons of men.
32. Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me: For blessed are they that keep my ways.
33. Hear instruction, and be wise, And refuse it not.
34. Blessed is the man that heareth me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors.
35. For whoso findeth me findeth life, And shall obtain favour of the LORD.
36. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: All they that hate me love death.
THE book rises here into a higher and more dramatic strain. Wisdom herself is introduced as speaking not merely, as in 1. 20-33, in the language of reproof, but as setting forth her own majesty and glory. Her work is seen in the marvels of the universe, in the order of human life. She is co-eternal with the self-existing God, is with Him as one brought up with Him, works out His will, is manifested in all His works. We are reminded of the teaching of John, the later development of the truth thus sown upon the field of human thought, that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;” that “without Him was not anything made that was made;” that He too was from all eternity “in the bosom of the Father.” . . . Wisdom and the Eternal Word are one. Christ, who is made unto us sanctification and redemption, is also made unto us Wisdom. This truth suggests counsels, warnings, hopes, encouragements. And let it not be forgotten that the Eternal Word reveals Himself (v. 31) as One whose “delights are with the children of men.” E. H. P.
In Christ we have the revelation of a God who can be known, and loved, and trusted, with a knowledge which, though it be not complete, is real and valid, with a love which is solid enough to be the foundation of a life, with a trust which is conscious that it has touched rock and builds secure. Nor is that fact that He is the revealer of God, one that began with His incarnation, or ends with His earthly life. From the beginning and before the creatural beginning, the Word was the agent of all Divine activity, the “arm of the Lord,” and the source of all Divine illumination, “the face of the Lord,” or, as we have the thought put in the remarkable words of this chapter of Proverbs, where the celestial and pure Wisdom is more than a personification though not yet distinctly conceived as a person, “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way. I was by Him as one brought up—or as a master worker—with Him, and I was daily His delight; and My delights were with the sons of men.” And after the veils of flesh and sense are done away, and we see face to face, I believe that the face which we shall see, and seeing shall have beauty born of the vision passing into our faces, will be the face of Jesus Christ, in which the light of the glory of God shall shine for the redeemed and perfected sons of God. A. M.
1-4. It is in the active service of life, in the work of the market-place, in the interchange of thought and the collision of minds differently constituted, that wisdom speaks to us. She comes as with an evangel, which she proclaims to all, which shuts out none but those who shut it out, seeking in her infinite compassion the ignorant and the foolish. E. H. P.
6-9. The subjects of which she proposes to speak are of the highest order of value, the great principles of truth and righteousness, the gravest of all questions of moral duty toward God and toward man. She speaks only truth, never falsehood; and such truth as is always plain to men of upright and honest heart. H. C.
6. They are of inestimable value; they are excellent things, princely things, so the Word is. Though level to the capacity of the meanest, yet there is that in them which will be entertainment for the greatest. They are Divine and heavenly things, so excellent that in comparison with them all other learning is but children’s play. Things which relate to an eternal God, an immortal soul, and an everlasting state, must needs be excellent things.—9. They are all plain, and not hard to be understood. If the book is sealed, it is to those who are willingly ignorant. But to those who depart from evil, who have that good understanding which they have who do the commandments, to them they are all plain, and there is nothing difficult in them. The way of religion is a highway, and the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. H.
13. Fearing the Lord is hating evil. Such fear is not merely a motive to the hating of evil; nor is it merely a tendency to such hating; perhaps Solomon meant to make a stronger statement than that it insures such hatred—viz., that it is essentially identical with it and really inseparable. For with such sentiments toward God men always conceive of Him as infinitely pure, holy, and good, they revere and love Him for these qualities; and what is this but to abhor all sin? H. C.—The fear of God is the foundation of character, of wise action and of happiness. Having that foundation, a man begins to live as one that is to live forevermore. Fearing God alone, he rises above all human fear; knowing he is to give account, he tries every deed. Counting himself not his own, he is grandly generous, living to do good and not to please himself. He prays, he toils, he lives for God. E. H. G.
Pride. Under no conceivable circumstances can pride want matter on which to feed. If one is proud of his virtue, another will be proud of his vice. Birth, station, talent, beauty, wealth, and every grade and kind of earthly good, by turns will minister to this all-present passion. Nay, even spiritual privileges may thus be turned by the carnal mind into poison; men may be puffed up by the religion of the meek and lowly Jesus; and after mortifying vanity in a thousand shapes, may be conquered at last by the conquered foe, and become proud even of their humility. J. J.
17. Love is the greatest thing that God can give us, for Himself is Love; and it is the greatest thing we can give to God, for it will also give ourselves, and carry with it all that is ours. Let our love be firm, constant, inseparable; not coming and returning like the tide, but descending like a never falling river, ever running into the ocean of Divine excellency, passing on in the channels of duty and a constant obedience, and never ceasing to be what it is till it comes to what it desires to be; still being a river till it be turned into a sea, and vastness, even the immensity of a blessed eternity. Bishop J. Taylor.
Love is the bond of perfectness, because love is itself the power that calls forth Divine law and order. For it was through law and order that God, in His love, meant to reveal Himself in the creation of the world; and it is to love we owe the law and order of the new creation. Rule and limits must be set to all things else, but love, that produces and includes both, has no need to be so restrained. Love needs no rule, for she is not unruly; she has no proud waves that must be broken, for she envies not, is not puffed up, but is long suffering and meek; she seeks not her own, and is not easily provoked (and what could raise more wild and foaming waves than that?), but beareth all things, because she hopeth all things. Therefore if love only dwells ever more richly among us, then the love of Christ, which is the source of all Christian brotherly love, will, on the one hand, constrain us to promote, by every means, thorough harmony and cheerful co operation in every good work. Schleiermacher.
Seek Me. The one true search of man can have but one object—God. What it is to find God we may try to state in different forms of words. But they must all have one meaning. To live daily under the conscious inspiration and guidance of His Spirit is to find Him. To believe in Christ, provided that belief embraces practice as well as faith and engages the affections as well as the intellect—which it must do if it is living and sincere—this is to find God, because God is in Christ. To keep a conscious harmony of one’s own will with God’s will, so as to gain spiritual liberty, patient submission, is to find him. To blend justice and mercy toward man with prayer is to find Him. To live so that the ruling aim or uppermost purpose shall be under the constant control of the principles of Christianity is to find Him. To be spiritually-minded and so discern spiritual things is to find Him. Of course, then, to be really seeking any of these things—which, after all, are essentially the same thing—is to seek God. F. D. H.—Blessed are they who live and move and have their being in that infinite presence which no eye can see, and which makes itself known to us in the secret experience of our hearts. Faith in God, as the one essential law of our spiritual well being; faith in what is spiritual and Divine; faith in ideas which reach toward a better order of things; faith in truth and justice as laws involving in themselves forces which must triumph at last; faith in man, not merely as an earthly being, but as created in the image of God; faith in the kingdom of holiness and love, not as far off, but as here in the midst of us, to advance and establish itself more and more in the souls of men; faith in the transforming ideas and influences revealed to us in the thought and life of Jesus—this is what is to save the individual soul, bring it into harmony with the universe of God, and thus redeem and sanctify the world. J. H. Morrison.
In the last clause it is a question of some interest whether the Hebrew verb means early in life—i.e., in youth; or earnestly, diligently. The word occurs in four other passages in this book—viz., 13:24: “He that loveth his son, chasteneth him betimes—i.e., seasonably, early. Also, 1:28: “They shall seek Me early, but they shall not find me;” but in this case they had long refused to seek God, and, therefore, at last God turns away His ear, and they seek Him not early, but earnestly, yet in vain. Also, 7:15: “Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek Thy face,” and 11:27: “He that diligently seeketh good, procureth favor.” It appears, therefore, that usage somewhat favors the sense of diligently, earnestly, rather than early in life, yet it cannot be deemed decisive. The consideration that Wisdom directs her appeal so generally to the young favors the sense, early in life. A hearty earnestness is no doubt implied. H. C.
18. The greatest things of this outward world are small compared with the soul. Faith, love, hope—these are the greatest possessions. To possess God and godlike character—that is the “durable riches and righteousness.” Worldly goods fly from hand to hand. Even when they remain in one man’s possession for a lifetime, he and they belong to different orders of things—and remain foreign to each other. Possession of these can never be thorough, permanent. The true riches are meant for a man.
They enter into the very substance of his being, and become interwoven with himself. They can never pass from him. A. M.
21. Wisdom leads in the paths of righteousness not only that she may keep her friends in the way of duty and obedience, but that she may cause them to inherit substance and may fill their treasures; which cannot be done with the things of this world, nor with anything less than God and heaven. The happiness of those that love God and devote themselves to His service is substantial and satisfactory. It is substance itself; it is a happiness which will subsist of itself and stand alone; spiritual and eternal things are the only real and substantial things. Joy in God is substantial joy, solid and well grounded; the promises are their bonds, Christ is their surety, and both substantial. They inherit substance; their inheritance hereafter is substantial, it is a weight of glory, it is substance (Heb. 10:34); all their happiness they have as heirs, it is grounded upon their sonship. It is satisfying; it will fill not only their hands, but their treasures; not only maintain them, but make them rich. Let the treasures of the soul be ever so capacious, there is enough in God and Christ and heaven to fill them. H.
24-26. The leading thought is beautifully expanded. When there were no great ocean deeps I was brought forth into action to plan this wondrous system of waters, made up of mountains, hills, fountains, streams, seas, and oceans, all constructed to minister to the great ends of utility and beauty in our world. H. C.
22-31. This portion of Scripture is very remarkable on several accounts. The older commentators and theologians understood it generally of the Eternal Word, or of the eternal going forth of the Logos—the same who is said (John 1:14) to “have become flesh and dwelt among us.” Many of the moderns have rejected this view. But let the reader carefully examine Col. 1:15-20; John 1:3; Heb. 1:2, 3, and ask himself, where did these writers get their doctrine of the Creative Word, or Logos? From inspiration, it may be said. Most true, indeed; but when we compare the similarity of language and idea, can we hesitate to believe that Paul had in mind both the spirit and letter of this and similar passages from the Old Testament, in what he says of “Him who is the First-born, or born before all creation, who is the image of the unseen God, and in whom, and through whom, were all things created, both in heaven and earth, both the seen and the unseen?” T. L.
We cannot wonder that most interpreters should have seen in these words a prophetic anticipation of the mystery revealed in the Prologue of John’s Gospel, and cannot doubt that they served to prepare men for it. So John, carrying the thought to its completion, declares that all which Wisdom here speaks of herself was true in its highest sense of the Word that became flesh, that “was in the beginning, and was with God, and was God,” by whom all things came into being, and who was also the Light that lighteth every man (John 1:1-14). E. H. P.—Whether or not the ancient writer of this Book of Proverbs understood what deep things he was saying when he painted Wisdom as a person—as a Person brought up with the Father “before the world was”—as a Person who rejoiced from the beginning “in the habitable parts of the earth”—we at least have a full right to lift the curtain, and let the light of the new flash back upon the old, and say, “Yes, Christ the power of God, and Christ the wisdom of God.” There, in that living person; there, in that gentle love; there, in that human form; there, in that eternal long-suffering; there, in that Brother of our race, who comes to atone, to bless, and to inspire us all, there is the highest embodiment of all wisdom. A. M.
22-31. The passage may be rendered thus: “The Lord possessed me as His own, or only Begotten, the Beginning of His ways, before His works of old. From eternity was I anointed, away before the beginning—the beginning of the antiquities of the earth. When there were no chaoses was I born, before there were any deeps swelling with waters; before the mountains were settled; before the hills was I born. When He had not made the earth, or the parts beyond, or the very beginning of the dust of the world. When He prepared the heavens I was there; when He established the skies above, when He made strong the fountains of the deep, when He made a law for the sea, even when He ordained the supports of the earth. I was ever with Him like an only child—day—day—was I His delight, rejoicing ever before Him. Glad was I in the orb of His earth, but my great joy was with the sons of Adam.” A feeling of vastness takes possession of us as we read this sublime description of the hypostatic wisdom, its eternal generation, its everlasting going forth in the ideal structure of the worlds. There is much of the same language we find in the ninetieth Psalm, but here is still more vividly presented the thought of stages of antiquity going far back, one after the other, to that most ancient date of all when Wisdom was alone with God, the Firstborn, before the beginning of His creative ways. We recognize in it the choral anthem of Genesis, with its keynote of ineffable times. There is the same thought of great successions, of an organic structure, like a building, rising stage after stage to its completion. The Word and the architectonical Wisdom are one. It is not only the commanding, fiat-giving voice, but the shaping, organizing, harmonizing agent, “rejoicing ever before Him, and whose delight was with the sons of men.” T. Lewis.
31. The closing words are also the highest and the noblest. Wisdom, who ordered the heavens, and laid firm the foundations of the earth, rejoicing in that work of hers, rejoices yet more in the world as inhabited by God’s rational creatures. Giving joy and delight to God, she finds her delight among the sons of men. So far the words remind us of Hooker’s noble doxology to the Divine Law, whose “seat is in the bosom of God, . . . to whom all things in heaven and earth do homage, owning her as the mother of their peace and joy.” But our thoughts are carried yet further. These words, like the rest, are as an unconscious prophecy fulfilled in the Divine Word, in whom were “hid all the treasures of Wisdom.” By Him all things came into being (John 1 : 3), and “are held together” (Col. 1 : 17); He too is “in the bosom of the Father” (John 1 : 18), and in Him the Father was well pleased; and yet His “joy also is fulfilled,” not in the glory of the material universe, but in His work among the sons of men.
32. The old exhortation returns now with a new force. The counsels are no longer those of prudence, calculation, human experience, but that of a wisdom wide as the universe, eternal as Jehovah, ordering all things. E. H. P.
34. Blessed.** There are fixed, axiomatic steps by which religion leads us intuitively, such as these: It is blessed to be true, through and through; cursed to be false. It is blessed to be meek; cursed to be haughty and proud. It is blessed to love one’s neighbor, and cursed not to do so. It is blessed to be penitent; cursed to be impenitent. It is blessed to be good and do good. Moreover, there must be One who answers to these conceptions, entitled to one love and homage. He must be infinite. The only One whose visible life coincides with these ideas is Jesus Christ, and He reflects the unseen God. S. E. Herrick.
35. Findeth life.** Christ is all that any soul can need, but what every soul must have that would find life. Sum up these four particulars: ulars: the right knowledge of God; a right standing or acceptance with God; holiness, or a character like God; deliverance from all evil, and a share in the blessedness of God. Is there anything more that any soul can want in the eternity of its being? Or is there anything in this brief but all-comprehensive summary of blessings that you can do without? Can you do without the knowledge of God as He is revealed in Christ? Then you must know Him out of Christ, as “a consuming fire.” Can you do without a pardon from the Saviour you have offended, the Judge to whose bar you hasten? Can you do without holiness? Can you do without redemption? And would you set up your wisdom against the wisdom of God; your pride against His grace? J. P. T.
35, 36. “Whoso findeth Me findeth life,” and “All they that hate Me love death.” Eternal life and eternal death are here plainly intended. The same must be understood in 12 : 28, where we are told that, “in the way of righteousness is life, and in the pathway thereof there is no death;” and in 14 : 27, where it is said that “the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.” In these places it is impossible to interpret the words life and death otherwise than as appertaining to a future state of being, because the wicked enjoy the present life as well as the righteous, and the righteous are subject to temporal death not less than the wicked. Still clearer, if possible, is the doctrine of future retribution in 14 : 32, “The wicked is driven away in his wickedness; but the righteous hath hope in his death.” If death is the annihilation of our being, the righteous are as much driven away as the wicked; and neither can have any well-grounded hope in the mortal struggle. E. C. W.
36. The choice of the verb for sinning suggests this shade of thought, He that misses My favor, making the fatal mistake of disowning and disregarding Me, wrongs not only Me, but, far more, himself. He perpetrates a fatal wrong against his own soul. All that hate Me virtually love death! Of course, if they hate Me, it is because they love sin, and loving sin is equivalent to loving death. H. C.—There is no middle state in the next world, no tolerable mediocrity, but two contrary states, yet alike in this, that the happiness and misery are equally eternal; and it is just that all who neglect eternal life should suffer eternal death, for it is the natural and necessary consequence of their option; therefore sinners are charged with extreme madness to wrong their own souls and to love death. Bates