Proverbs 9

Chap. IX. Ver. 1-18. Wisdom makes a feast and invites her guests.—Preserving the allegory, we should consider the house which Wisdom builded as a temple, and the pillars to be the several branches of science by which it is supported. The beasts killed intimate a great sacrifice, and the invitation given a feast upon that sacrifice; all which circumstances may direct us to the Christian church, as about to be erected, of which Jesus himself (the Wisdom of God) is the foundation, be no other than the great atonement offered upon Calvary, and the sacrificial feast, that “feast of fat things” foretold by the prophets, and exhibited in the gospel, the ministers and missionaries of which answer to the servants sent forth to invite the guests.

Such are the outlines of this admirable allegory, which may be filled up by referring to the parable of the marriage feast. ((Matthew 22:2-4).) Another character is here introduced as a contrast to the preceding, which answers to the adulteress described in chapter vii., though some think it no other than a personification of Folly in the character of a harlot, who is ignorant and clamorous, sitting on an elevated seat at the door of her house, and no less earnestly inviting the passers-by to partake of her secret and forbidden pleasures. But her sacrifices? Ah! “her —, are themselves sacrificed—they are ‘““in the depths of Here then are two opposite characters soliciting our attention with great earnestness, namely, Wisdom and Folly, God and the world.

O let us choose Wisdom and life, that we may live for ever! Miscellaneous proverbs.—Here begins

Notes on the verses

Chap. IX. Ver. 1. Wisdom.—[The infinite and eternal wisdom of God, which has so framed the universe, as to exhibit a scene of grandeur and stability; and made ample provision for the innumerable beings by which it is inhabited. Ver. 3. Sent forth her maidens—Hasselquist mentions a number of women in Egypt, with black veils, going about to invite people to a banquet, and making a strange and clamorous noise.] Ver. 7, He that reproveth a scorner, (that is, a hardened profligate,) getteth himself shame, &c.—He will be laughed at, and reproached. Ver. 8. Reprove not a scorner.—Upon the same principle our Lord directs us, “Cast not your pearls before swine,” &c. (Matthew 7:6). Ver. 10. Of the holy—Heb.

“Holy ones;” i. e. the blessed Trinity. So Holden, and Dr. J. P. Smith. Compare (Daniel 4:14). Ver. 14. A seat.—An elevated and conspicuous seat; a throne. Pitts describes the courtezans of Grand Cairo, as sitting at their doors, or parading the streets, very richly dressed. Ver. 17. Stolen waters—that is, illicit commerce,