Proverbs 10

Chap. X. Ver. 1—32. the second part of this book, being a collection of aphorisms more exactly answering to that title. (See note, ver. 1.) Those in this chapter relate chiefly to the difference between wisdom and folly, virtue and vice; and point out the preference of the former, both in itself and in its consequences. As these proverbs are mostly detached from each other, it will be impossible for us to notice them individually. We can only [point out] difficulties in our notes. Long life and prosperity were the sanctions of the Old Testament dispensation; yet the hopes of believers were not con- fined to the present life, for ‘the righteous hath an everlasting [inheritance]’ (ver. 25.) to which it is very difficult to attach any meaning without admitting “the hope of everlasting life.”

The days of the wicked, in the present life, are often shortened by their vices, and of ‘another and better world’ they have no prospect. justice and equity.— Chap. X. Ver. 1—33. The proverbs (or prophecy) of Agur.—Who this Agur was, neither Scripture nor tradition give us any account. Some Rabbins, ambitious to be wise above what is written, will needs have Agur to be Solomon; and some Christians explain the names Ithiel and Ucal of Jesus Christ. As, however, we wish to avoid this mystical trifling with the Scriptures, which we think both irreverent and dangerous, we shall content ourselves with taking up the apothegms in this chapter, as the sayings of a writer unknown; but whose character is sufficiently authenticated by his pro-

Notes on the verses

X. Ver. 1. Proverbs of Solomon.—(Here the Proverbs of Solomon, in this and several of the succeeding chapters, are properly so called, and the parallels of which they consist, are called the antithetic; when two lines, or members of a sentence, correspond with each other by an opposition of terms and sentiments; when the second is contrasted with the first, sometimes in expression, sometimes in sense only. Accordingly, the degrees of antithesis are various; from an exact contraposition of word to word, through a whole sentence, down to a general disparity, with something of contrariety, in the two propositions. In this example, every word has its opposite; for the terms father and mother are, as the logicians say, relatively opposite.

|— Bagster. Ver. 2. Righteousness delivereth from death—that is, a good character is a better protection than riches. | Ver. 2. As vinegar to the teeth.—(As the acidity of vinegar causes unpleasantness and pain to the teeth, by softening and dissolving the alkali of the bone, irritating the tender vessels, causes the eyes to smart, and prevents distinct vision; and as smoke, so a sluggish messenger is a continual vexation and loss to those by whom he is employed.) |—Bagster. * Not inhabit (or “inherit”) the earth.—See (Psalms 37:29, 34). Ver. 30. A just weight—Heb. “A perfect stone;” stones were undoubtedly used originally as weights.