Proverbs 23
DOYLYProverbs 23:2
- — put a knife to thy throat.] Be careful by all means to restrain thy wanton appetite, if thou be a man given to please thy palate. Bp. Hall. This is a bold Eastern phrase, expressive of the absolute necessity of restraining the appetites, and intimating that there is as much danger in indulging them, as there is in running against a knife applied to the throat. Dr. Durell. 4. Labour not to be rich: Do not too eagerly strive and labour to be rich; and follow not thy own carnal wisdom, which suggests to thee wrong ways to the hasty acquirement of wealth. Bp. Hall. 5. Will thou set thine eyes? Will thou be so intent
upon riches, and pursue them with such haste and earnestness, which, perhaps, thou canst never catch; or
which if thou dost, may be gone as fast as they came; and by all thy care and pains never be recovered?
“They fly away as an eagle.” He sets forth the inconstancy of riches by the flight of an eagle, which of
all birds is observed to fly swiftest and highest “toward heaven.” Bp. Patrick.
Proverbs 23:6
6-8. Eat thou not the bread &c.] Court not the acquaintance of a malicious person; whatever kindness
Proverbs 23:10
- — enter not into the fields &c.] Invade not the estates of the fatherless; for God (ver. 11.) is in a special manner their Redeemer and Protector, who is mighty above all others. Dr. Wells.
Proverbs 23:13
- — he shall not die.] He shall be preserved from destruction. Dr. Isham. 18. For surely there is an end; For surely there shall be a blessed reward of all thy holy endeavours, and thy expectation of a joyful retribution shall not be disappointed. Bp. Hall. 20. — among riotous eaters of flesh: This is a general caution against intemperate and riotous feasting. 23. Buy the truth, and sell it not; That is, Spare no cost to purchase truth, and sell it not for any gain. Dr. Ibbot. 27. — is a deep ditch; From which it is difficult to escape. Dr. Isham. See chap. xxii. 14. 29. — who hath babbling? who hath wounds without
cause? Who is given to idle obscene words? who suffers stripes and wounds in distempered frays? Bp. Hall.
Before CHRIST about 1000. e Chap. 3. & 24. 1. Ps. 37. 1. & 73. 3. f Chap. 24. 14. g Or. reward. g Rom. 13. 13. Eph. 5. 18. their flesh. i Chap. 10. 1. & 15. 20. Moral virtues, and their contrary vices. Before CHRIST about 1000.
Proverbs 23:30
- — mixed wine.] The Hebrew word means wine mixed with the lees, which was of a highly intoxicating quality. Parkhurst. Or, spiced wine. Michaelis.
Proverbs 23:31
- Look not thou upon the wine &c.] Suffer not thine eyes to be tempted by beholding with too much pleasure the pure and grateful colour of wine, when it shews itself in the cup and sparkles, through the strength and spirit that is in it. Bp. Hall.
— when it is red.] Red wine is more esteemed in the East than white; and we are told in the Travels of Olearius, that it is customary with the Armenian Christians in Persia to put Brazil wood, or saffron, into their wine, to give it an higher colour, when the wine is not so red as they like; as they set little value on white wine. Harner.
Proverbs 23:34
- — thou shalt be as he that &c.] Thy head shall be as giddy, and thy brain as much turned, as if thou wert laid sea-sick in the midst of the ship, or placed on the top of the tottering mast. Bp. Hall.
Proverbs 23:35
- They have stricken me, &c.] This verse describes the drunken man’s insensibility to blows.
Chap. XXIV. ver. 1. Be not thou envious &c.] The proneness of good men to be dejected at the prosperity of the ungodly, and so to be tempted to imitate them, is the reason that the admonition given in this verse is so often repeated. We find it before at chap. iii. 31; xxiii. 17; and it is repeated at ver. 19, of this chapter. Bp. Patrick.