Proverbs 20

Proverbs 20:2

2. — sinneth against his own soul.] Incurs the danger of death. Dr. Isham.

Proverbs 20:4

4. The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold:] In Syria they begin to plow about the latter end of September, and sow their earliest wheat about the middle of October. The frosts are never severe enough to prevent their ploughing all the winter. Dr. Russell.

Proverbs 20:5

5. Counsel in the heart of man &c.] Though the designs and intentions of some men are as hard to be sounded as deep waters; yet there are persons of such penetrating understandings, and of so great a reach, that they will find means to discover them, and to draw them out. Bp. Patrick.

Proverbs 20:6

6. — but a faithful man who can find?] A faithful man, one who will steadily perform what he has pro-

Moral virtues, and their contrary vices. Before CHRIST about 1000. d Ps. 112. 2. c Ps. 51. 5. Job 14. 4.

Proverbs 20:8

8. A king that sitteth in the throne of judgment &c.] A king who acts justly.

Proverbs 20:10

10. Divers weights, &c.] A fraudulent diversity of weights and measures is abominable unto the Lord. Bp. Hall.

Proverbs 20:11

11. Even a child &c.] It is not difficult, by the carriage and disposition of a person in childhood, to judge what is to be hoped or feared of him in riper years; either good or evil begins to shew itself betimes. Bp. Hall.

Proverbs 20:12

12 The hearing ear, &c.] We are here reminded, that we derive from God all that we have, and all that we are, and that therefore none ought to take glory to himself for any excellent qualities of mind or body which he may possess. Calmet.

Proverbs 20:13

13. — open thine eyes.] That is, arise betimes in the morning, and follow some honest employment. Dr. Wells.

14. It is naught,—saith the buyer: That is, the buyer unjustly tries to overreach the seller, by disparaging his goods: but when he has obtained them at his own price, he boasts of having tricked him. Dr. Wells.

Proverbs 20:16

16. Take his garment] Take a garment (take the uttermost security thou canst) from him who is so inconsiderate as to become surety for an utter stranger; and also take a present pledge of him who has the folly to become surety for a strange or infamous woman. Dr. Wells.

Proverbs 20:17

17. Bread of deceit] Under the name of the “bread

Proverbs 20:20

20.—his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.] His comfort and help shall be taken from him when he has most need of it, and he shall be left utterly miserable and disconsolate. Bp. Hall.

Proverbs 20:22

22. Say not thou, I will recompense &c.] Take not revenge for an injury received, where thou art not the proper judge, but leave thy cause to the Lord, and expect his righteous sentence. Bp. Patrick.

23. Man’s goings are of the Lord; No man can take one step towards any thing he designs, without the permission of the Lord; who sometimes overrules the motions of men unto ends so far distant from their thoughts, that it is impossible for them to know what the event shall be of any thing they undertake. Bp. Patrick.

Proverbs 20:25

25. It is a snare to the man &c.] That man entangleth his soul in the snares of death, who taketh back to a profane use that which is once consecrated to God, and who, after he has vowed any thing to the Lord, argues within himself how he may alter that holy purpose, and de fraud God of his due. Bp. Hall.

Proverbs 20:26

26. – and bringeth the wheel over them.] A metaphor, to express the due punishment of the wicked, taken from the custom of threshing corn by means of a wheel drawn over it by oxen, Isa. xxviii. 27. 28. Bp. Patrick.

Proverbs 20:27

27. The spirit of man &c.] The soul is a principle of light to guide and direct man in all his motions, enabling him to reflect, not only on his own actions,

Before CHRIST about 1000.

Proverbs 20:30

30. The blueness of a wound &c.] The meaning seems to be, that a wicked man, who has received due correction for his crimes, will be cured of them, or will not so easily fall into the like again; and that though stripes chiefly affect the body, yet they have likewise an effect on (the chambers of the belly) the inward recesses of the mind; restraining the offender by the fear of punishment. That this is the meaning of the Hebrew, rendered “the inward parts of the belly,” appears from that elegant comparison of the conscience or spirit of a man, verse 27, to a light within him, searching out and discovering his most secret thoughts. Dr. Gray. Chap. XXI. ver. 1. The king’s heart is &c.] It is not in the power of kings, much less of other men, either to do or to design what they please, but their very wills are subject to the great Lord of all, who diverts them as easily from what they intend, or inclines them to that which they resolve against, as the gardener draws the streams of water, through the trenches he cuts, into what part of the ground he thinks good. Bp. Patrick.