Proverbs 9

In regard to every course that would lead men to unhappiness, Christianity has stood from the first at the entrance of the paths, and uttered its warning cry. The nations have not heard it, but have rushed by and rushed on, till they have reaped the fruit of their own devices in the corruption of morals, in the confusion of society through oppression and misrule; and then philosophy has condescended to discover these evils, and, if it has done anything for the permanent relief of society, it has brought it back to the letter or spirit of the Gospel. The stern teachings of experience are making it manifest, and they will continue to do it more and more, that the Bible is God’s statute-book for the regulation of His moral creatures, and that the laws of the Bible can no more be violated with impunity than the natural laws of God. M. H.

Great multitudes utterly reject Christ and stay fast in their sins. They have no time to be religious, or the sacrifices are too great. Some are too poor to have any heart left, and some are too rich—so rich, so filled up with goods, that a camel can as well get through a needle’s eye, as Christ get into their love. Some are too much honored to receive Him, and some too much want to be. Some are in their passions, some in their pleasures, some in their expectations. Some are too young, and wait to give Him only the dry remains of life, after the natural freshness is gone. Some are too old and too much occupied with old recollections and stories of the past forever telling, to have any room longer for His reception. Some are too ignorant, and think they must learn a great deal before they can receive Him. Others know too much, having stifled their capacity already in the dry-rot of books and opinions. The great world thus, under sin, even that part of it which is called Christian, is very much like the inn at Bethlehem, preoccupied, crowded full in every part, so that, as the Mother of Jesus looked up wistfully to the guest-chambers that cold night, drawing her Holy Thing to her bosom, in like manner Jesus Himself stands at the door of these multitudes, knocking vainly there. H. B.

1. WISDOM hath builded her house, She hath hewn out her seven pillars : 2 She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; She hath also furnished her table. 3 She hath sent forth her maidens, she crieth Upon the highest places of the city, 4 Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: As for him that is void of understanding, she saith to him, 5 Come, eat ye of my bread, And drink of the wine which I have mingled. 6 Leave off, ye simple ones, and live; And walk in the way of understanding. 7 He that correcteth a scorner getteth to himself reviling: And he that reproveth a wicked man getteth himself a blot. 8 Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: Reprove a wise man, and he will love thee. 9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser:

Teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. 10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. 11 For by me thy days shall be multiplied, And the years of thy life shall be increased. 12 If thou art wise, thou art wise for thyself: And if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it. 13 The foolish woman is clamorous; She is simple, and knoweth nothing. 14 And she sitteth at the door of her house, On a seat in the high places of the city, 15 To call to them that pass by, Who go right on their ways, 16 Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: And as for him that is void of understanding, she saith to him, 17 Stolen waters are sweet, And bread eaten in secret is pleasant. 18 But he knoweth not that the dead are there; That her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

TITs is the closing part of the large discourse which reaches from 6 : 20 to 9 : 18. It is a kind of summary of the whole, not closely connected and rigidly continuous, but passing from one subject rapidly to another, in order to touch upon the leading points of the discourse. It ends, as we might expect such a discourse to do, with a most solemn warning against the crime in question, by setting the fearful and inevitable consequences of it before the reader.

The chapter begins with the declaration that Wisdom has provided herself a house or temple, where all due preparation is made for the feast, to which she invites her chosen guests (vs. 1, 2). She sends forth her criers to summon these guests; yet not any one and every one is invited, but the simple, who lack information (vs. 3, 4). The scorner and the vile transgressor are not fitted for the instructions of Wisdom, and would not receive them or profit by them. Her guests are invited to an excellent repast, not of physical luxuries, but (what is much better) of exhortations to walk in the way of life (vs. 5, 6). Scorners refuse reproof; and to administer it only brings contempt and contumely on the reprover (vs. 7, 8). Not so with the wise (v. 9). Wisdom is the fear of God, which secures long life; for this receives a recompense which is meet, as scorning also does (vs. 9-12). But that enemy of all true wisdom, the adulteress, who watches for her prey, and gives out her invitations, addresses the simple, and tells them that “stolen waters are sweet” (vs. 13-17). It is an unwary youth, who does not see that her ways lead, as they surely do, to destruction (v. 18).

1. The writer had just spoken of watching and waiting at the doors of wisdom. Here he assigns to her a dwelling—a goodly structure, well supported and magnificently adorned, in the manner of a temple. M. S.

1-6. True wisdom is no mere quality, but a living Person; and when she “buildeth her house,” and slayeth her sacrifices, and “crieth in the highest places of the city,” the invitation comes to us from the lips of Christ our Brother, our Sacrifice, and our Lord. It is He that says, “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither.” “If any man will, let him come unto Me.” A. M.—The marriage supper for the king’s son: The house. The frame is set up from everlasting, well ordered in all things, and sure. The tried Foundation is the Lord our Righteousness. The seven pillars indicate, in Oriental form, that its supports and ornaments are perfect in strength and beauty. The feast prepared. The provisions of God’s house are wholesome, various, plentiful. Whatever the covenant provides, the true Church diligently sets forth in the ordinances before the people. The inviting messenger. These are the ambassadors whom Christ employs to carry the message of His mercy to their brethren. The invited guests. The message is specially addressed to the simple. Those who are conscious of ignorance are ever most ready to learn the wisdom from above. The argument by which the invitation is supported is: (1) positive, “Come, eat of My bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled;” and (2) negative, “Forsake the foolish and live.” The grand turning-point is to get the prodigal to break off from that which destroys him. Aruot.

3. Mingled wine. In Isa. 1 : 22 “wine mixed with water” is expressly mentioned; and this is what we believe to be intended in the present case, as well as in most if not all others in which the term occurs. This impression is confirmed to our mind by the distinct knowledge we possess that the ancients were greatly in the habit of mixing water with their wine, and that pure wine was seldom taken, except in the feasts of drunkenness, when it might even be mixed with stronger ingredients. But under all ordinary circumstances the wine was mixed with water, so as to form a table drink, refreshing, and but slightly exciting, unless taken in very large quantities. The quantity of water was usually proportioned to the strength of the wine. Sometimes three parts water were added to one of wine, and at other times five parts water to one of wine. Kitto.

4-16. This Book of Proverbs (emphatically a young man’s book) sets before us one thing or other, wisdom or folly. The whole of the early chapters show us the picture of a lad, standing at the opening of his life, and round about him a variety of voices and inducements, some drawing him one way and some drawing him another. They paint for us youth as it comes to us all, wooed by enticements of sinners, by siren songs from every side, exhorted by the grave words of a severer wisdom, counselled by a father’s lips, implored by a mother’s tears. To young men these conflicting voices speak. Now, is it not a great gain that here we should get all these diverse appeals that are made to us from all sides, all the different ways which open out for us in the course of life, gathered up and packed together into two? Life is reduced to an alternative; there is clearly marked out for us all at the beginning of our life that all is one thing or other, wisdom or folly. Wisdom sits in the highest places of the city and cries, “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither!” Folly sits in the highest places of the city, and cries with the same invitation, “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither!” And to these two voices all the noise and tumult of life and all the diverse voices in your own souls may be reduced. They are all either the call of the wisdom of God, or they are the call of folly, sense, and sin. A. M.

7. He meets with shameful and reproachful treatment; not that what he does is shameful, but that the man reproved acts shamefully toward him. 8. This verse gives the ground of the preceding assertion. The hatred of the scorner is roused by reproof, and so he will manifest it in reproaches. Exactly the reverse will be the wise man’s conduct. He will be grateful, and will love thee for fidelity. 9. The giving in this case implies admonitory counsel. The good man will duly appreciate this, and so will add to his stock of instruction. M. S.

10,11. Wisdom begins with the fear of God. This fear must always be its chief element. The word “holy” in the clause, “The knowledge of the holy,” refers to God in the special sense of knowing God as the Holy One, and of having a just conception of His perfect purity of character. This is true understanding. Such a sense of a holy and just God imparts the best practical understanding of personal duty. Such practical wisdom (especially in those days) conduced to longevity. God’s blessing was with it. H. C.

Because the fear or love of God, the knowledge or study of His will, faith or trust in Him, the remembrance of Him, or frequent meditating upon His laws, are principal parts of religion, and have so great an influence upon men that one of these virtues can hardly be found separate from the rest, or without producing its genuine effects in a religious life; therefore each of these are frequently put singly in Scripture for the whole of religion. And because each one of these phrases singly signifies the sum of religion, therefore any two of them may likewise be used as synonymous to each other; as, in the text, the fear and the knowledge of the Lord: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding.” S. Clarke.—The wisdom that he speaks about is wisdom that has rectitude for an essential part of it, the fibre of its very being is righteousness and holiness. There is no true wisdom which does not rest calmly upon a basis of truthfulness of heart, and is not guarded and nurtured by righteousness and purity of life. Man is one—one and indissoluble. The intellect and the conscience are but two names for diverse parts of the one human being, or rather they are but two names for diverse workings of the one immortal soul. And though it be possible that a man may be enriched with all earthly knowledge, while his heart is the dwelling-place of all corruption; and that, on the other hand, a man may be pure and upright in heart, while his head is very poorly furnished and his understanding very weak—yet these exceptional cases do not touch the great central truth, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding.” Here, then is the first outline of this fair form that rises before you—a wisdom satisfying and entire for all the understanding, and not a dry, hard, abstract wisdom either, but one which is all glowing with light and purity, and is guidance for the will, and cleansing for the conscience, and strength for the practical life—wisdom which is morality and righteousness; morality and righteousness which is the highest wisdom. A. M.

12. Here is a plain, positive assertion of every man’s exclusive responsibility for his own acts and of his own suffering of their consequences. The meaning is, If thou hast gotten wisdom, religion, salvation, thou shalt get what it gives in thine own heart’s experience; but if thou dost despise and neglect it, thou alone shalt bear the consequences of such neglect. B.

Nothing is more difficult than to realize that every man has a distinct soul, that every one of all the millions who live or have lived is as whole and independent a being in himself as if there were no one else in the whole world but he. Newman.—It is this distinct personality that gives their dignity to individual men. The special dignity of each individual redeemed man is that he, sharing this nature which is united to God, has in it a form of life peculiar to himself, something that no other being has; that he has to do for God what no one else is so called to do, or perhaps is so able to do; that he can exhibit in himself a character of grace, and fill a place, a sphere of glory, which no one but he himself is called to occupy, or perhaps can in all respects occupy as God purposed. From this fact of distinct individual existence flow all duties and responsibilities, all relations and claims of service in the momentous issues of life. They are, if fulfilled, the accomplishment of our special calling of God; if neglected, they are the measure of our utter loss and eternal condemnation. Canon Cartér.

There is no escape from the law that makes the work of regeneration into higher spiritual states personal, reserved, separate. There is no social salvation excusing the individual. Society is a great interest, but it can never shift responsibility from you and me. Men must go into the kingdom of heaven, if they go at all, just as they go into any grand experience—be born again, just as they are born into the life that now is—one by one, and each for himself. And alone we must go, and be prepared to go by prayer and faith, through all the deeper and more solemn exigencies of our life; alone through besetting temptation, and the loss of what is most precious; alone through the defection of friends and through personal discouragement; alone to the judgments of the Most High; alone from thence to reap as each hath sown. F. D. H.

We alone have to do with Him alone. The awful fact of individuality, that solemn mystery of our personal being, has its most blessed or its most dread manifestation in our relation to God. There no other being has any power. Counsel and stimulus, suggestion or temptation, instruction or lies, which may tend to lead us nearer to Him or away from Him, they may indeed give us; but after they have done their best or their worst, all depends on the personal act of our own innermost being. Man nor angel can affect that but from without. The old mystics called prayer “the flight of the lonely soul to the only God.” It is the name for all religion. These two, God and the soul, have to “transact,” as our Puritan forefathers used to say, as if there were no other beings in the universe but only they two. Angels and principalities and powers may stand beholding with sympathetic joy; they may minister blessing and guardianship in many ways; but the decisive act of union between God and the soul they can neither effect nor prevent. A. M.

13-18. In several points this description of the foolish woman stands in contrast over against Wisdom as she appears in this chapter. She, too, has a house of her own, at the door of which she sits; her seat is “in the high places of the city” (precisely the same words which are said of Wisdom, v. 3); like Wisdom, she, too, invites the simple to turn in hither, and he that wanteth understanding (compare v. 6); but her arguments are peculiarly her own. “Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” Her appeals turn on the pleasures of sinning. H. C.—A certain scorn is traceable in the details of the contrast. The foolish woman has her house, but it is no stately palace with seven pillars, like the home of Wisdom. No train of maidens wait on her and invite her guests, but she herself sits at the door, forcing herself into a position as prominent as that of Wisdom (compare v. 14 with v. 3), counterfeiting her voice, making the same offer to the same class (compare v. 16 with v. 4). The words of the temptress appeal to the besetting sin of all times and countries, the one great proof of the inherent corruption of man’s nature. Pleasures are attractive because they are forbidden. “I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet” (Rom. 7: 7). As in 2: 18, the veil is drawn away, and behind the scene of voluptuousness is seen the world of the dead. The spectres of past transgressors haunt it. Perishing in their guilt, or losing their true life, they are already in the depths of Hades. No words can add anything to the awfulness of that warning, and with it the long introduction closes and the collection of separate proverbs begins. Wisdom and Folly have each spoken; the issues of each have been painted in life like hues. The learner is left to choose. E. H. P.

V. 12. The true life hidden and lived alone. All the visible relations we sustain, the pursuits in which we are employed, the achieved results of toil, the ties of association with others, the varied physical and social influences to which we are subject—all that makes up the round of external incidents, relations, employments, actions and events, derive meaning and value alone from their bearing upon the inward life of the soul. In themselves they are but the signals and tokens of the invisibly acting spirit, the indices of the hidden moral nature, the media through which the unseen vital forces of the soul are manifested, the temporary objects designed to stimulate these forces to action. But hidden far down beneath them all is the deep, resistless undercurrent of real vital action and experience, flowing darkly and alone. Made up is this mysterious life-current of thoughts and feelings, of aspirations and sympathies, of griefs and joys, of spiritual gains and disappointments, temptations, struggles, falls and victories, which are incapable of expression of transfer, or of participation. And this is man’s real history, never known and therefore never written by man, known and written only by the All-seeing God