Proverbs 29

Proverbs 29:1

It is a bad symptom in the case of many, that instead of being fastened by reproofs, from the spirit, from ministers, from

Barns Chord Yon. Lusty-ner

from parents, they obstinately reject the admonition, and harden their necks, like bollocks, that refuse the yoke, and the consequence cannot but be fatal. Sudden and irremediable destruction awaits them: there is and can be no healing, as the word signifies, for those who refuse the only remedy that can cure their disease. They who continue in impetience, must sink into eternal perdition.

a Chap. xi. 10. & xxvi. 14. all. 8s. 6d. & 5. Or, interseal.

2. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

Proverbs 29:2

And with abundant reason; because they who themselves are governed by God’s word, will rule with mildness and equity. Whilst they, who have cast off regard to his authority, have no restraint upon their passions and pride; and under such rulers, neither religion, liberty, nor property are secure, chap. xi. 10. xxviii. 12, 28.

3. Who so loveth wisdom, rejoiceth his father: but he that keepeth company with harlots, spendeth his substance.

Proverbs 29:3

Tutored in the school of wisdom, a gracious youth delight in the good ways of God, and his pious parents behold with joy the pleasing prospect of his temporal and eternal welfare. But when appetite takes the reins, and the company of abandoned women is fought, misery and beggary enlist; the parent’s heart is broken, and in body and soul the unhappy victim of his passions is undone.

16th. A man of obliance.

4. The king by judgment established the land: but the that receiveth gifts, overthrooeth it.

Proverbs 29:4

Where justice is impartially executed, and liberty and property secure, there is a king established the land, it grows great, prosperous, and happy under his sway: but when ambitious princes suck the blood of their subjects, by heavy taxes; or magistrates for bribes connive at the wicked, and oppress the innocent, that nation is on the verge of ruin.

5. A man that flattereth his neighbour, spreadeth a net for his feet.

Proverbs 29:5

Beware of the man that flatters you; he hath some ill design: either he means to make a property of you, or wants to draw you into sin. Deteth the artful insinuations, and turn from him with indignation: thus shall the net spread for you entangle himself.

6. In the transgression of an evil man, there is a snare: but the righteous doth sing and rejoice.

Proverbs 29:6

Miserable are the ways, as well as the end of evil men. There is a snare in them, one sin draws on another; and troubles and plagues, the fruit of their transgressions, perpetually torment them: but the righteous, who have Christ for their portion, his word for their rule, his spirit their guide, his love their comfort, sing and rejoice, all their ways are predationless, their paths peace, and on earth they begin the songs of eternity.

7. The righteous considered the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it.

Proverbs 29:7

Though as poor, no man is entitled to favour; yet justice is a debt due to the manned, and both council and judge are bound to the right done, and the cause of the poor thoroughly investigated, and fairly decided. It is the mark of the wicked that the love of the fee, not of justice, influences his conduct; and that where little or nothing is to be got, he cares not to be at any trouble in examining, or pleading the cause of the indigent.

a Chap. xi. 12. Or, for a city on fire.

8. Scornful men bring a city into a snare: but wise men turn away wrath.

Proverbs 29:8

Scornful men, who scoff at religion, and speak evil of dignity, neither fearing God, nor regarding man, these bring a city into a snare, or blow upon a city: breath fashion among the people, enslave their minds against their governors, and bring some heavy courage upon themselves: but wise men, who are quiet in the land, and follow peace with all men, turn away wrath, sooth the exasperated spirits of the populace, extinguish the rising flame, cement the disunited members, and prevent the impending ruin.

9. If a wise man contended with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest.

Proverbs 29:9

It is absurd and fruitless to spend our breath on fools that are incorrigible; whether we use sharpness or pleasantry, they are alike miserable, and all the return they will make, will

be to abuse, or laugh at us for our pains; there is no rest, no good to be done, nor end of the dispute.

10. The blood-thirstly hate the upright: but the just seek his soul.

Proverbs 29:10

The enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman is inveterate and perpetual: good men are the objects of hatred to the wicked; they thirst for their blood; and especially they abhor those upright magistrates, who are their terror: but the just seek his soul; either of the sinner, praying for him, and labouring after his conversion; or of the upright, interposing to save his life from the hands of the blood-thirstly persecutors.

11. A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.

Proverbs 29:11

Prudent reserve is wise; to make every person we meet our confidant, or on every provocation to let loose the tongue without restraint, is folly.

12. If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked.

Proverbs 29:12

Liars are to be abhorred of all, especially of princes, round whom flatterers throng; and if they give ear to their reports and representations, each will strive to gain it by adulation and calumnism, and wickedness universally prevail: the ruler who thus loves and encourages, will be equally criminal with the servants who make the lie.

13. The poor and the deceitful man meet together: the LORD lightneth both their eyes.

Proverbs 29:13

In this world there is a mixed multitude; the poor and deceitful man, or usurer, who grows rich by usury and fraud, meet together in the concerns of business: the Lord lightneth both their eyes; either causing his sin to shine upon them, and bestowing the common blessings of his providence, or by his grace calling them into the light of his gospel, from which the rich are no more excluded than the poor, and sometimes they who have been the vilest publicans, become the most shining christians.

14. The king that faithfully judgeth the poor, his throne shall be established for ever.

Proverbs 29:14

continually, and a really penitent never desires to palliate a single circumstance: and before men also, when duty calls, he is ready to accuse himself, and take all the shame his sin deserves. And without this, neither pardon nor peace of conscience can be obtained; whilst both are promised to those who, with true repentance, turn to God, confessing and forsaking the iniquities they beware.

14. Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischief.

Servile fear is as contrary to all happiness in God, as filial fear tends to promote and increase it. Jealousy over our souls, least we should offend, will preserve our reopening in the infirmity of our conscience; and every day we shall desire to keep at a greater distance from sin: but he that hardneth his heart in presumptuous wickedness, shall fall into wishless, go from evil to worse, till he sinks into the abyss of misery.

15. As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear: so is a wicked ruler over the poor people.

Nothing serves to establish the throne, and perpetuate it to the posterity of the prince, as an upright administration of justice to the manned, which will engage the affections of all, and render them zealous to support his crown and dignity, under whom they enjoy such a distinguished blessing.

15. The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself, bringeth his mother to shame.

Proverbs 29:15

Woe to the unhappy people cursed with tyrannical rulers? harassed by oppression, unable to resist, and terrified with fears of greater evils than they feel.

16. The prince that wanteth understanding, is also a great oppressor: but he that hateth covetousness, shall prolong his days.

The necessity of correcting a child hath been repeatedly observed. The rod and reproof must go together, and then both are twice effectual; and when they are applied without anger, and with an evident design not for our pleasure, but their profit, they give wisdom: but a child indulged and left to himself is a child spoiled, and will bring his fond mother to shame, doing what will reflect dishonour upon his parents, and perhaps by and by insolently flying in her face.

16. When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increased: but the righteous shall see their fall.

Proverbs 29:16

It is as unwise, as wicked, for a prince to abuse his power, in plundering his subjects. For he is much richer on any emergence, who gains the affections of his people, than he who fills his treasury with exorbitant taxes. To dethrone a tyrannical king, few scruple to lend a helping hand; to support a mild administration, every purse is open, every person ready.

17. A man that doth violence to the blood of any person, shall flee to the pit, let no man stay him.

Iniquity countenanced by multitudes becomes impudent, and one wicked man emboldens another, and increases both the number and enormity of transgressions: but however many or mighty they are to work wickedness, their ruin approaches: the righteous need neither envy nor fear them, but shall behold their fall, either in this world, thrust down with shame from their high estate, or in the next doomed to the place of eternal shame and contempt.

17. Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest: yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.

Proverbs 29:17

Blood cries for blood. No composition must be received, no pardon granted; the life is fortered to justice, and none must stay the murderer from going down to the pit.

18. Who so walketh uprightly, shall be saved: but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once.

Though it be a painful thing to a parent’s heart to use severity, yet the blessed effects of the correction, in his child’s improvement, will afterwards afford great satisfaction and delight to his soul, both from the consciousness of having discharged his duty, and from the pleasing prospect of their well-doing in time and eternity.

18. Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Proverbs 29:18

He that walketh uprightly, in all good conscience before God and man, walketh surely; shall be saved from the present power of his enemies, and see the eternal salvation of God: but he that is perverse in his ways, without piety to God, or honestly to men; or in two ways, a hypocritical professor, whose lips go one way, his heart another, shall fall at once; when must secure, and crying peace to his soul, destruction sudden as terrible shall overtake him, and he shall not escape.

19. He that tilleth his land, shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons, shall have poverty enough.

Miserable is the state of that people who are left to the destitute of revelation, and the ministry of the word; they perish for

for lack of knowledge in their fins; or are made naked, as in the margin, stripped both of their armour and ornaments; or become idle, careless in their walk for want of warning; or go backward, as is usually seen where the gospel is taken away from a place, that many fall away quickly from their professions; or are rebellious, defstrate of the fear of God, they have no restraint, but call off the yoke of authority, and grow factions and turbulent; for all these senses the word bears: but he that superb do him, not only born, but obeys it, finds the blessing and comfort of his fidelity.

19. A servant will not be corrected by words: for though he understand, he will not answer.

Proverbs 29:19

Industry and affluence are close allied. They will have bread in plenty, who take pains to till their ground: but the idle and extravagant, the companions of others, vain and idle as themselves, shall have poverty enough, he shall wash it, reduced to the most abject state of want and wretchedness.

20. A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich, shall not be innocent.

We have here the character of an idle and incorrigible servant; words, even sharp ones, make no impression upon him, and though he understands what you say, yet so fallen and perverse, he will not deign to make answer, or promise to nullify what was amiss; a rod, and a smart one, must be laid on such a fool’s back.

Chap. xxii. 20. Sectt thou a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him.

Proverbs 29:20

Fidelity in our transactions, both with God and man, is the way to solid prosperity. We shall abound with blessings; those of the basket and store, so far as are good for us, with the richer grace of God, the more substantial good: but he that maketh haste to be rich, sets his heart upon it, and labours with restless anxiety, or is determined, by right or wrong, to increase his wealth, shall not be innocent. Though no direct injustice may be discovered, riches hastily gotten will awaken suspicion in the minds of men, and God, at least, will not hold him godless.

21. To have respect of persons, is not good: for, for a piece of bread that man will transgress.

Slow parts, with application, will make a scholar sooner than the volatile and flighty genius, that thinks long at nothing; and much more hope is there that he will grow wife who modestly is silent, than the man whose talkativeness and conceit makes his tongue run faster than his wife.

21. He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child, shall have him become his son at the length.

Proverbs 29:21

Partiality in the administration of justice, is highly criminal. A magistrate must forget the man; no ties of friendship, acquaintance, obligation, favours received or expected, must be in the least attended to; right alone must rule. Where this is violated, and bribes influence, there iniquity will grow habitual, and for the meanest gratification that man will transgress.

22. He that hasteth to be rich, hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.

Indulged servants are often spoiled; they forget their distance, and abute the kindness shown them; grow insolent and affirming, and by and by affect to be treated as the son, and claim the inheritance.

Chap. xx. 22. ‘An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression.

Proverbs 29:22

Behold the evils of covetousness. They who will be rich, will be ruined. He that hasteth to be rich, hath an evil eye, envious, and coveting what is another’s, and grudging every farthing laid out in absolute necessities on himself, or family, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him: he is poor in the midst of his possessions, not daring to use them; and God in just judgment causes the riches, he so eagerly scraped together, to be plundered or washed unaccountably, and the want he feared, to come upon him.

23. He that rebuketh a man, afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue.

Paffoonate men are the plague of society; every trifle exasperates them, and where they are, there is perpetual contention; whilst in their fury they stick at nothing, and by swearing, curling, and violence, add sin unto sin.

John xii. 23. ‘A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.

Proverbs 29:23

Rebukes are the genuine produce of friendship; they must be affectionate, free, private: and though bitter at first, and hardly to be digested, yet are afterwards acknowledged as real kindness, and bind a man to be your friend for ever. Whilst however pleasant the words of flattery may be to the ear, we shall, when we see the dangerous tendency of them, abhor the sycophant, and be ashamed of our own folly, in having ever been delighted with it.

24. Who so robeth his father or his mother, and faith, It is no transgressor; the same is the companion of a destroyer.

Pride and poverty are near allied; they who affect to live, to death, to appear above their station, are in the high-road to beggary, and worse than that, to hell; whilst the humble, who are little in their own eyes, honour shall uphold them, or they shall lay hold of it; their lowly opinion of themselves will be their recommendation to the wife, and God will exalt them to the honour of his present favour, and to his eternal kingdom in glory.

24. Whofo is partner with a thief, hateth his own soul: he heareth curling, and bewareeth it not.

Proverbs 29:24

Children are too apt to consider what is their parents as their own, and that it is no transgressor to make use of their property; whereas it is doubly criminal to be unjust to those, to whom they have such peculiar obligations: and the immediate road to the gallows; for the bad company such a wicked son keeps, leads him into such wickedness, and by and by it will end in robbery, or murder, perhaps of his own parents.

25. He that is of a proud heart, stirreth up strife; but he that putteth his trust in the LORD, shall be made fat.

The receiver of stolen goods is as bad as the thief, and bring: the same guilt and ruin upon his God: he hears the villain with solemn impressions denying the fact, yet his silent and will not convict him; or though summoned to give evidence, perjures himself to conceal his accomplice.

Chap. xii. 25. ‘The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whofo puteth his trust in the LORD, shall be safe.

Proverbs 29:25

He that is of a proud, or large heart, either covetously grasping, or infinitely overbearing, stirreth up strife; ever quarrelling with his neighbours, at law, or impatient of contradiction, and violent on the least persecution: but he that putteth his trust in the Lord, content with his provision, dependent on his providence, and coveting no man’s abundance, shall be made fat; God will prosper him in his worldly affairs, even as his soul prospereth, and make him happy and easy in whatsoever state he is.

26. He that trusteth in his own heart, is a fool: but who so walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.

Nothing is a more dangerous snare to the soul than the fear of man; through this many are led to make sinful compliances, to be ashamed of their profession, or deterred from the path of duty: but whofo puteth his trust in the Lord, rises superior to his fears, and daring to be faithful to God in the face of every danger and discouragement, shall find Divine support, and be false from the power and threatening of man, that is a worm.

Chap. xix. 26. ‘Many seek the ruler’s favour, but ’every man’s judgment cometh from the LORD.

Proverbs 29:26

Those who know their own hearts, will place no dependence upon them; persuaded their best wisdom is folly, their strength, weakness; their desert, damnation; and therefore that they must look out of themselves for all to Jesus Christ, if they would be delivered from the power and guilt of sin here, or the punishment of it hereafter. To trust in an heart deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, were the heights of folly, and must issue in misery.

27. He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack; but he that hideth his eyes, shall have many a curse.

This is the way of the world; they who are great will be carefied, and at their feet all bow down, in hopes of advantage; but every man’s judgment cometh of the Lord, and therefore his favour should be sought in the first place, who alone can make us truly happy; can order the displanations of his prevalence so as to give us success in our parlour here; and what is of infinitely greater moment, by him ous eternal judgment must be determined hereafter.

Chap. xx. 27. ‘An unjust man is an abomination to the just: Vet. I. and be that is upright in the way, is abomination to the wicked.

Proverbs 29:27

No man was ever the poorer for what he lent to the Lord, in relief of the indigent; God will supply all his lack: whilst the hard hearted and covetous, who would not look towards a poor man, or cast an eye over his pious case, shall have many a curse from the poor, who complain of his uncharitableness, from all who condemn such niggardly conduct, and above all, from God, who, as the patron of the poor, will not, with impunity, suffer them to be treated unkindly.

28. When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase.

Light and darkness are not more contrary to each other, than the unjust and the upright; there is a natural and irreconcilable antipathy between them. The unjust man is an abomination to the just; not his person indeed, but his ways; he shuns his society, testifies against his sins, and would have all men take knowledge of it, that he abhors the unfruitful works of darkness: the like aversion to goodness dwells in the bosom of the wicked; they hate both the men and their manners, cannot endure the reproach which the conduct of the upright casts upon them, and therefore, to the utmost of their power, would entrapate them from the earth.

Proverbs 29:28

This is similar to v. 12. and shews the unhappy situation of a people, when wicked men rule, and the wise and just are banished into obscurity: and how blessed the reverse is, when hurled from their abused eminence, the wicked perish, and better men succeed, to the encouragement of piety and justice, and by whose influence and examples the righteous increase.

C H A P. XXIX.

1. HE that being often reproved hardneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.