Proverbs 23

Proverbs 23:1

Augustine of Hippo: What is “the table of a powerful man” except that one from which is taken the body and blood of him who has laid down his life for us? And what is to sit at it except to approach humbly? And what is to consider and understand the things that are set before you except to reflect worthily upon so great a grace? — TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF John 84:2

Augustine of Hippo: You are approaching the table of a potentate. You, the faithful, know what table you are approaching.… What regal table are you approaching? One who sets himself before you, not a table spread by the skill of cooks. Christ sets his table before you, namely, himself. Approach this table, and take your fill. Be poor, and you will have your fill. — SERMON 332:2

Augustine of Hippo: It is certainly a great table where the lord of the table is himself the banquet. Nobody feeds his guests on himself, yet that is what the Lord Christ did, being himself the host, himself the food and drink. So the martyrs recognized what they ate and drank, so that they could give back the same kind of thing. — SERMON 329:1

Bede: When you sit down to eat with a ruler, etc. All things are said through allegory: When you sit down to read with a teacher, to be refreshed by the bread of the word, diligently understand what is written, and maintain the discernment of sacred reading in your speech, if, however, you are such a one and so learned that you have in your power your soul, and not as an unlearned one in the mind of your teaching. For he placed the throat for speech, because the voice is in the throat; the knife, for discernment, as we prepare food with a cutting knife when we are refreshed. And sitting to eat, he places a knife to his throat, when he who diligently meditates on divine words brings forth discerning words from his mouth, and does not often revolve words on his tongue other than those of the heavenly oracle. This, however, is done by him who has his soul in his power, that is, who has learned to maintain the state of a wise mind unshaken among the errors of the deceivers. Hence he rightly adds: — Commentary on Proverbs

Evagrius Ponticus: The divine Scripture should be understood in an intellectual and spiritual sense, because the knowledge of sense perception, literally understood, is not the truth. — SCHOLIA ON Proverbs 251:23.1

Jerome: Holy writ warns us to partake of the feast prudently when we have been invited to dine at the table of a rich man. I might say that a rich man’s table of Scripture has been laid before us. We enter a meadow filled with flowers; here the rose blushes; there the lilies glisten white; everywhere flowers abound in all varieties. — HOMILIES ON THE Psalms 11 (Psalms 77)

John Chrysostom: “If you sit at the dinner table of a prince, understand with prudence what is set before you.” Christ is anticipated here as the prince. His table and food are the words of his doctrine and his eternal goods which he has prepared for those who love him. Each Christian sits at his dinner table. The one who understands with prudence what Jesus has taught with his works and words extends his hand, which means that with his works he begins to show that he is an imitator of Christ, made humble, a peaceful lover of all and patient in tribulations. The one who does not do this but instead gazes with eagerness at the pleasures of the world must give up any desire for eternal goods which at any rate he will never own. The pleasures of the world are characteristic of a false life, and those who love them will never enjoy eternal possessions. — COMMENTARY ON THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON, FRAGMENT 23:1

Origen of Alexandria: What therefore is “the table of the powerful one,” except the mind of that one who says, “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me”; and “when I am weak, then I am strong”? On this “clean table of the powerful one,” that is, in his heart, in his mind is offered “a loaf” to the Lord. At the table of this powerful apostle, if you sit to eat, “understand intelligently what is set before you,” that is, perceive spiritually what is said by him. — HOMILIES ON Leviticus 13:4.6

Proverbs 23:3

Bede: Do not desire his delicacies, etc. Which is to say openly, do not desire to listen to the words of him who is accustomed to deceive his listeners with the sweetness of false doctrines. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 23:4

Bede: Do not labor to be rich. He signifies the riches of knowledge, which we are forbidden to seek beyond the measure of our capacity. — Commentary on Proverbs

Bede: But set bounds for your wisdom. Namely that which is said above: Do not transgress ancient boundaries, which your fathers have set; that is, the boundaries of faith given by the fathers. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 23:5

Bede: Do not lift your eyes to riches, etc. Do not lift your mind to search the secrets of divinity, which you cannot penetrate. For these are open only to the heavenly citizens. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 23:6

Basil of Caesarea: Wise, therefore, was he who forbids us even to dine in company with an envious man, and in mentioning this companionship at table, he implies a reference to all other social contacts as well. Just as we are careful to keep material which is easily inflammable as far away as possible from fire, so we must refrain insofar as we can from contracting friendships in circles of which envious persons are members. By so doing, we place ourselves beyond the range of their shafts. We can be caught in the toils of envy only by establishing intimacy with it. — HOMILY CONCERNING ENVY

Bede: Do not eat with an envious man, etc. Do not speak of Scriptures with a heretic, because he envies human salvation, preferring to deceive rather than correct; for just as a soothsayer and dream interpreter considers things he does not know, so a heretic presumes to interpret in the Scriptures as he pleases, things he does not understand. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 23:7

Bede: Eat and drink, he will say to you, etc. He says, Learn securely and do what I teach, while he himself does not have certain faith in what he teaches, knowing he has invented from his heart what he would teach. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 23:8

Bede: The food you have eaten you will vomit, etc. The perverse thoughts you had learned from heretics, you must either abandon by correction through repentance, or after death be compelled to suffer punishment for them, and lose the words of confession, by which, while they preached, you thought you should humbly favor them. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 23:9

Bede: Do not speak in the ears of fools, etc. This is similar to that of the Gospel, Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, etc. (Matthew 7:6). Just as he previously admonished not to listen to the doctrines of heretics, so now he urges not to insert the secrets of truth into impure men, seduced by the love of vain glory. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 23:10

Bede: Do not touch the boundaries of the little ones, etc. He calls the Lord the near one of the little ones and orphans because, while in the flesh, he deigned to be a companion in faith more to the poor than the rich. Otherwise, the same Lord is of all, rich to all who call upon him. However, by the name of orphans and little ones, those can be fittingly designated about whom the Lord said: See that you do not despise one of these little ones who believe in me. For I say to you that their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven (Matthew 18). Whoever touches their fields and boundaries, that is, who harms their good conversation by disturbing them, will not evade the judgment of the Lord. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 23:11

Commodian: Receive into thy ears the teaching of the great Solomon: God hates the poor man to be a pleader on high. [Prov. 23:11] Therefore submit thyself, and give honour to Him that is powerful; for the soft speech-thou knowest the proverb-melts. [Prov. 15:1] One is conquered by service, even although there be an ancient anger. — On Christian Discipline, LXXII

Proverbs 23:13

Augustine of Hippo: If the evil will is always to be left to its own freedom, why are careless shepherds rebuked, and why is it said to them, “The wandering sheep you have not called back, that which was lost you have not sought”? — LETTER 173

Basil of Caesarea: As small children who are negligent in learning become more attentive and obedient after being punished by their teacher or tutor, and as they do not listen before the lash, but, after feeling the pain of a beating, hear and respond as though their ears were just recently opened, improving also in memory, so likewise with those who neglect divine doctrine and spurn the commandments. For, after they experience God’s correction and discipline, then the commandments of God which had always been known to them and always neglected are most readily received as though by ears freshly cleansed. — HOMILY ON THE BEGINNING OF Proverbs 5

Caesarius of Arles: When someone presumes to commit a sin against God, he ought to suffer a monastic penance. This should be done in a kind and devout spirit, so that through rebuke he may be corrected in this life in such a way that he may not perish in the future. For every sin which is not corrected in this world will be punished in the future life. Sacred Scripture speaks thus about the son and the servant: “Strike him with the rod,” it says, “and you will save him from the nether world.” — SERMONS 235:3

Proverbs 23:17

Bede: Do not let your heart envy sinners, etc. If throughout the whole day, that is, the whole time you dwell in the light of this world, you strive both to avoid the examples of sinners and to fear the Lord, you will have the hope of blessed reward at the last, that is, when you reach the end of this life, with him also attesting, who said: Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life (Revelation 2). — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 23:20

Bede: Do not be among winebibbers, etc. For to bring meats to be eaten, is in conversation of derogation, to repeatedly mention the vices of neighbors, about whose punishment it is immediately added: — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 23:21

Bede: And dressed in rags will be the sluggard. For his death will find him despicable and devoid of all good works, as his languor occupied him here in seeking the crimes of another’s life through slander. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 23:22

Evagrius Ponticus: As the ancient saying goes, soul is the mother of the mind, because it is the soul which leads the mind to enlightenment by means of practical virtues. — SCHOLIA ON Proverbs 258:23.22

Proverbs 23:25

Bede: Let your father and mother rejoice, etc. Let God the Father rejoice over your righteousness; let the Church, your mother, also rejoice; and let the priest who regenerated you through the grace of baptism, and who educated you from childhood, rejoice in your good works. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 23:26

Augustine of Hippo: If you don’t give yourself, you will lose yourself. Charity herself speaks through wisdom and tells you something to save you from panicking at being told, “Give yourself.” If anyone wanted to sell you a farm he would say to you, “Give me your gold,” and if it was something else, “Give me your coppers,” “Give me your silver.” Now listen to what charity says to you, speaking through the mouth of wisdom: “Give me your heart, son. Give me,” she says. Give her what? “Your heart, son.” It was ill when it was with you, when you kept it to yourself. You were being pulled this way and that by toys and trifles and wanton, destructive loves. Take your heart away from all that. Where are you to drag it to, where are you to put it? “Give me your heart,” she says. “Let it be mine, and it won’t be lost to you.” — SERMON 34:7

Proverbs 23:27

John Chrysostom: Solomon compared the love of [such a] woman with the deep pit. She calls a halt only when she sees that her lover has been stripped of all his possessions. Even more so, she does not stop then but decks herself out more elaborately and insults him in his humiliation, and draws ridicule upon him, and causes him so much misfortune that words are inadequate to describe it. — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF John 87

Proverbs 23:29

Apostolic Constitutions: Since you are the presbyters and deacons of Christ, you ought always to be sober, both among yourselves and among others, so that you may be able to warn the unruly. Now the Scripture says, “The men in power are passionate. But let them not drink wine, lest by drinking they forget wisdom and are not able to judge aright.” Wherefore, [the bishops] and the presbyters and the deacons are those of authority in the church next to God Almighty and his beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. We say this, not that they are not to drink at all, otherwise it would be to the reproach of what God has made for cheerfulness, but that they not be disordered with wine. For the Scripture does not say, “Do not drink wine”; but what says it? “Drink not wine to drunkenness.” . — CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES

Basil of Caesarea: “Who has woe? Who has sorrow?” For whom is there distress and darkness? For whom eternal doom? Is it not for the transgressors? For those who deny the faith? And what is the proof of their denial? Is it not that they have denied their own confession? And when and what did they confess? Belief in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Ghost, when they renounced the devil and his angels and uttered those saving words. What fit title, then, has been discovered for them, for [these former] children of light to use? Are they not addressed as transgressors, as having violated the covenant of their salvation? — ON THE SPIRIT 11:27

Bede: Woe to whom? Woe to whose father? He asks, while disputing, for what crimes of men the greatest punishment from the Lord is reserved. And he himself responds through reasoning, that without any doubt, it is to those who, through drunkenness, fall into excess. To whom, he says, is woe? To whose father is woe? Woe is named as eternal destruction. About which the Lord says: Woe to the one through whom scandal comes (Matt. XVIII). And this father of whom is woe imminent, he either names the man from whom someone receives the example of wicked deeds to sin externally, or certainly the devil, who pours the poison of pestilent suggestion into the heart internally. About whom it was said to the Jews: You are of your father the devil, and you wish to do your father’s desires (John VIII). — Commentary on Proverbs

Bede: To whom quarreling? To whom a pitfall? Quarreling, because he who is rendered impotent of senses by drunkenness cannot maintain the harmony of peace; a pitfall, because he who cannot distinguish between good and bad, as if captivated in mind, does not tremble in falling into the mire of vices everywhere. And the drunkard often falls into that pitfall; about which it was premised: For a deep pit is the harlot; and a narrow well, the alien. — Commentary on Proverbs

Bede: To whom wounds without cause? etc. Wounds without cause, because many, filled beyond measure with wine, have received wounds in their limbs out of fear, which they have endured for no cause; weakening of the eyes, because the immoderate drink of wine produces darkness to many physical sights and blindness of inner senses. — Commentary on Proverbs

Caesarius of Arles: Understand this, brethren, that every drunkard who has made drinking a habit will have leprosy within, in his soul, because the soul of the drunkard is known to be such as the flesh of the leper is seen to be. Therefore one who wishes to free himself of the sin of drunkenness, where not only his soul is killed but even his body is weakened, should drink merely as much as suffices. If he is unwilling to observe this rule, he will be hateful to God and an object of reproach to people. — SERMON 189:5

Caesarius of Arles: People who want to be like this try miserably to excuse themselves. They say, My friend will be unpleasant if I do not give him as much as he wants to drink when I invite him to a banquet. [But I say to you,] Do not have a friend who is willing to make you displeasing to God, for he is both his own enemy and yours. If you make yourself and someone else intoxicated, you will have a man as your friend but God as an enemy. — SERMON 46:4

Clement of Alexandria: By the mention of redness of eyes—a sign of death—it is made clear that the wine-bibber is already dead to the Word and to reason. It declares his death to the Lord. If one forgets the motives that prompt him to seek the true life, he is dragged down to corruption. With good reason, then, the Educator, in his concern for our salvation, sternly forbids us, “Do not drink wine to drunkenness.” — The Instructor Book 2

Nilus of Sinai: Since you are the presbyters and deacons of Christ, you ought always to be sober, both among yourselves and among others, so that you may be able to warn the unruly. Now the Scripture says, “The men in power are passionate. But let them not drink wine, lest by drinking they forget wisdom and are not able to judge aright.” Wherefore, [the bishops]27 and the presbyters and the deacons are those of authority in the church next to God Almighty and his beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. We say this, not that they are not to drink at all, otherwise it would be to the reproach of what God has made for cheerfulness, but that they not be disordered with wine. For the Scripture does not say, “Do not drink wine”; but what says it? “Drink not wine to drunkenness.” — CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES 8:4.44

Proverbs 23:30

Bede: For those who tarry long over wine and go to seek mixed wine, etc. Symbol is a Greek name, and it means conference. There is a conference of words, as is usual in councils; there is also one of money or other things, as the present place teaches. Therefore, those who tarry long over wine indulge in speaking about the disgrace of another’s life. But to offer a potluck is like contributing words in a conversation of slander, just as everyone usually provides food for a meal. But those who indulge in drinks and give potlucks will be consumed, because, as it is written: Every slanderer will be uprooted. — Commentary on Proverbs

Bede: Is it not to those who linger over wine? etc. He does not forbid drinking wine for need, but lingering in wine beyond time and usefulness, and competing to empty each other’s chalices; according to Isaiah: Woe to you who are mighty to drink wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink (Isaiah V). — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 23:33

Bede: Your eyes will see strange women, etc. It is a customary and almost natural vice to follow feminine lust after the poison of drunkenness spreads in the heart, accompanied by wickedness and foulness of words. — Commentary on Proverbs

Proverbs 23:34

Bede: And you will be like one sleeping in the midst of the sea, etc. He sleeps in the midst of the sea, who, placed in the temptations of this world, neglects to foresee the movements of impending vices, as if neglecting the impending heaps of waves, and like a sleeping helmsman loses the rudder, when the mind, to govern the ship of the body, loses its diligence. — Commentary on Proverbs

Gregory the Dialogist: For he sleeps in the midst of the sea who, placed among the temptations of this world, neglects to look out for the motions of vices that rush in upon him like impending heaps of waves. And the steersman, as it were, lets go the rudder when the mind loses the earnestness of solicitude for guiding the ship of the body. For, indeed, to let go the rudder in the sea is to leave off intentness of forethought among the storms of this life. For, if the steersman holds fast the rudder with anxious care, he now directs the ship among the billows right against them, now cleaves the assaults of the winds aslant. So, when the mind vigilantly guides the soul, it now surmounts some things and treads them down, now warily turns aside from others, so that it may both by hard exertion overcome present dangers, and by foresight gather strength against future struggle. — Pastoral Rule, Part 3

Proverbs 23:35

Bede: And you will say, They struck me, but I was not hurt, etc. The voice of one beaten and sleeping is expressed. The mind, indeed, sleeping from the care of diligence, is struck and does not hurt, because just as it does not foresee impending evils, so it also does not recognize what it has committed. It is dragged and does not feel, because it is led by the allurements of vices, and yet does not awaken to its own guard. It indeed wishes to wake up, to find wines again, because although it is pressed from its own guard by the sleep of stupefaction, it nevertheless strives to wake up to the cares of the world, so that it is always intoxicated with pleasures. And while it sleeps for that in which it should have vigilantly watched, it seeks to watch for that for which it could have laudably slept. — Commentary on Proverbs

Gregory the Dialogist: Whence, also, the utterance of one that is stricken and yet sleeps is expressed by Solomon, who says, “They have beaten thee, and I was not pained; they have dragged me, and I felt it not. When shall I awake and again find wine?” For the soul that sleeps from the care of its solicitude is beaten and feels not pain, because, as it foresees not impending evils, so neither is it aware of those which it has perpetrated. It is dragged, and in no wise feels it, because it is led by the allurements of vices, and yet is not roused to keep guard over itself. But again it wishes to awake, that it may again find wine, because, although weighed down by the sleep of its torpor from keeping guard over itself, it still strives to be awake to the cares of the world, that it may be ever drunk with pleasures; and, while sleeping to that wherein it ought to have been wisely awake, it desires to be awake to something else, to which it might have laudably slept. — The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 3, Chapter 32