Proverbs 31

Proverbs 31:1-9

Here is, 1. An exhortation to Lemuel, a young prince, to take hold of the sins he would be tempted to, and to do the duties of the place

he was called to, ver. 1—9. 2. The description of a virtuous woman, especially in the relation of a wife, and the enjuvity of a family, which Lemuel’s mother drew up, either as an instruction to her daughters, as the foregoing verses were to her son, or as a direction to her son in the choice of a wife; she must be single and modest, diligent and frugal, dutiful to her husband, careful of her family, detested in her discharge, and in the education of her children, and, above all, conscientious in her duty to God; such a one as this, if he can find her, will make him happy. ver. 10—31.

1. THE words of king Lemuel, * the prophecy that his mother taught him. 2. What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows? 3. ‘Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings. 4. If it is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink: 5. ‘Left they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. 6. ‘Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine to those that be of heavy hearts. 7. Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his miltry no more. 8. ‘Open thy mouth for the dumb, * in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. 9. Open thy mouth, * judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.

Interpreters are divided concerning the person of king Lemuel: but the two most probable opinions are, either that he was the king of some bordering country of Judea, whose mother was an Israelite, and taught him those lessons; or that it was another name of Solomon, which his third mother gave him, intimating his being devoted to God, as the word signifies: and what, by the inspiration of God, this gracious woman delivered to him, he took care to transmit in writing for future generations. We have first,

1. Her address. What, my son? either it intimates the tender concern with which she spoke; or, as wanting words to enforce the lessons she was about to deliver; or, as designed to awaken his attention; or as an expostulation, having observed in him a tendency to the evils from which she would dissuade him, and which were so unbecoming a prince: and hereunto the following words seem most suited: What, the son of my womb? have I brought thee forth with sorrow, and educated thee with such parental care? and shall it be fruitless? hear what the tenderest affection dictates; and grant me, it is all I ask, this small return for all my pains: and what, the son of my vows? devoted to God from earliest infancy; the son of many prayers; and docilely criminal it would be in such to be unfaithful. Note, (1.) That mother shews true tenderness to her children, who labours from earliest infancy to bring them up in the nursery and admonition of the Lord; and the more exalted their station, the more carefully their education deserves to be attended to. (2.) We must plead with our children the many prayers that have been offered for them, and the obligations they are under of being early devoted to God, and acquainted with his word, as what will render their unfaithfulness most ungrateful and inexcusable.

2. Her warning. (1.) Against treachess: Give not thy strength to woman, for by indulgence with harlots, both the strength of the body is impaired, and the faculties of the mind debilitated; nor thy voice into that which destroyed king; one false step had nearly ruined his father; and by this sin, kingdoms have been overruined. (2.) Against drunkenness: The moderate use of wine, and other good things, is not forbidden; but all excels in a king were doubly criminal and scandalous; it is a profanation of their dignity, disqualifies them for the discharge of their high estate, gives the most pernicious example to their subjects, makes God’s law so gotten, and lays them open to exercise wanton tyranny and cruel injustice. Note, If drunkenness be so unbecoming a king, how ought those who are anointed kings and priests unto God, to be especially careful of excels, and shun whatever would lead them to so dishonourable a deed.

3. Her advice: To be liberal, compassionate, the advocate of the oppressed, and the upright magistrate: these are the things that exalt a king. Instead of abusing affluence, employ it for the use of the needy; give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, to support his fainting spirits, and none to those that be of a heavy heart, to revive them when dejected, low, and in distress. Let him drink moderately and forget his poverty, his spirits being cheered and refreshed, and remember his misery no more. Wine thus employed is well befloomed. How much better thus to put our bottle to our indigent neighbour’s mouth to revive his fainting soul, than in excels to drown his senses, and discover the shame of his nakedness? Spiritually this represents the state of a sinner’s soul, distressed under a sense of guilt, persisting under the apprehensions of the Divine wrath,

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Before Christ conscious of his abject spiritual poverty: to them the sweet wine of gospel promises should be freely given, that a sense of the love of God in Christ may cheat their drooping hearts; and by faith, drinking in a rich supply of mercy and grace, they may forget their poverty, and no more consider their misery. God having forgiven their iniquity, and promising to heal all their infirmities. Instead of negligence or oppression, open thy mouth for the dumb, be the advocate of the disconcerted or ignorant, who cannot plead their own cause, and rescue them from their cruel predicament, who seem best on their destruction. Open thy mouth with boldness and zeal, judge rightensely, without respect to persons, uncared by any consideration, and plead the cause of the poor and needy, whose encanels might expose them to be trampled upon, their cause neglected, or their right exercised.

1 Chap. xii. 4. Ibid. 21. 5. see. 14. 1 Rom. xiii. 1. 6 Luke xii. 6. 7 Heb. 7aith. 1 Heb. 7aith. 8 Heb. xiii. 16. 9 Or, double garments. 9 Col. iv. 6. 7 Cor. xiii. 6. 10 Or, gotten in his. 7. Pet. iii. 6. 5. 7 Acts ix. 20.

10. ¶ Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. 11. The heart of her husband doth freely truth in her, so that he shall have no need of good. 12. She will do him good, and not evil, all the days of her life. 13. She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. 14. She is like the merchant ships, she bringeth her food from afar. 15. ‘She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household,’ and a portion to her maidens. 16. She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hand she planteth a vineyard. 17. She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheth her arms. 18. She perciveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goth not out by night. 19. She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the diff. if. 20. ‘She flerecheth out her hand to the poor; yea, the reacheth forth her hands to the needy. 21. She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with § scarlet. 22. She maketh herself covering of tapestry, her clothing if silk and purple. 23. Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land. 24. She maketh fine linen, and selleth is, and -wereth grelles unto the merchant. 25. Strength and honour are her clothing, and she shall rejoice in time to come. 26. ‘She opmeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue’ is the law of kindness. 27. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. 28. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseeth her: 29. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excelled them all. 30. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised. 31. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates.

11. (See p. 1). This is the description of what good wives should be; it is a pattern they ought to copy, and if they reach not the summit of perfection, yet should be desirous of advancing towards it. We have,

12. The enquiry made after such a virtuous woman: The feature they are, the more diligently are they to be fought out. Many appear well at a distance, set off with every genteel accomplishment, and in person and manners engaging, who, when proved, often deceive men’s expectations, and leave them without remedy to mourn the relishes and folly of their choice: but where God in mercy is pleased to bestow on us a helpmeet, truly excellent, whose amiableness appears greatest the nearer she is viewed, and the more she is tried; her price indeed is far above rubies.

13. Her description:

[1.] She behaves so as to engage and deserve the entire confidence of her husband: she never gives him the least occasion for jealousy, nor reason to doubt her discretion in the management of his domestic affairs; has no separate interests, nor ever waftes on herself in needless expense his substance, so that he shall have no need of profit; driven to entertain to supply her extravagance. She will do him good; study his temper, make it her delight to please him, seek his advantage, and do every thing that may contribute to his comfort, profit, and honour in this world and in the next, and this all the days of her life.

[2.] She is active and industrious, and looks narrowly into her affairs; neither eats the bread of idleness, nor loves the bed of flesh: her house is the scene of order, diligence, and frugality. She does not love to dress and visit, and cast and fannie at public places; her house is her happiness, and her domestic employments her delight. Her family is up before the day, and breakfasted, ready for their work as soon as the light arises, and each have their allowed portion, and know their proper employment, v. 15. herself in the midst of them lets the encouraging example; and having provided free and usual at the

most advantageous market, useeth willingly with her hands, not regarding it as a burden, but counting her duty her pleasure, v. 13. and this she doth with her might, v. 17. Her work is not some foolish finery, that may be more properly called idleness than labour, but what will be of use to her family. She is not ashamed of the spindle and the disaff, v. 19. and with the candle light lengthens out the day, till the fit time of repose arrives, v. 18.

[3.] She is wise in the disposition of what she hath wrought, and knows how to turn it to the best advantage, v. 18. whether for domestic uses, or to exchange with the merchants, v. 24. for food brought from afar, v. 14. to supply the wants of her household; or for money: and with this, having considered a field, how convenient or improbable it may be, she buyeth it; and with the savings of her industry planteth a vineyard, to improve her purchase, and increase her husband’s possessions.

[4.] She is charitable. Though she lays up a provision for her family, it is not at the expense of the poor; her hands are open to relieve their necessities, and she indigent ever find in her a bountiful friend: her diligence and autonomy enables her both to provide for her own, and have enough besides to spare.

[5.] Her family appears in the greatest credit. Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land; her good conduct advances his reputation; his wealth increases by her management: even his very dress, and that of his attendants, helpsek her care, and his honour; for all her household are clothed in scarlet; and he is able to appear in splendor by her means; or, in double garments, having two suits for winter and summer; so that in every season they are really clad. Her house is elegantly adorned with tapestry of her own work; and though her dress is neither her vanity nor her concern, she appears suitable to her stations; and can afford, because she earns, the silk and purple which she wears.

[6.] To enhance her character, she opmeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness; never haughty, assuming, fullest, pecuish, contentious; but her language is tender endearment, and duriful submission; she would rather hear than speak: when she offers her advice to her husband, she pretends not to disbate, but refers herself to his determination; avoids every occasion of dispute, or wisely yields to his superior judgment; and all her family are hearers of her gracious discourse. As she wishes to govern her household by love, not by threatening, her very commands are obliging, and her corrections tempered with gentleness.

[7.] To crown the whole. She is truly religious: the fourth the Lord; is governed in all her conduct by the principles of his word, and a regard for his glory, and this adds double suffice to all her other excellencies. Beauty of person is pleasing, but it is a fading transient good, compared with the more substantial beauty of the mind: disease may soon crop, and age must quickly wither this fair flower; but time shall more improve the graces of the food, and render the union of kindred spirits, heirs together of the grace of life, more intimate and endeared.

3. The blessedness of such conduct will be great.

[1.] It will proeunt praise and honour from all around: her husband will thank God, and count himself happy in such a partner; her children will bless her care, and grow up to acknowledge and admit her gracious instructions: every eye will own her virtues; and she shall be praised, as worthy a name among the most excellent and honourable of women, v. 29. which her own spouse will not allow her equal to be found, and admires her as the flower of her sex.

[2.] She will have cause to rejoice in all time to come, v. 25. her works continuing to speak her excellence, she shall reap the fruit of her hands, strength and honour be her constant clothing in this world, and in the world to come she shall receive the reward of fidelity, and rejoice eternally there, where there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage, but the souls of the glorified saints are advanced to a state of higher blessedness than mortality ever knew, and are made like unto the angels.

Some have thought this description is purely mystical, and applicable to the spouse of Christ, the church, whose inviolable purity and fidelity render her dearer to him than rubies; yea, he proved how highly he valued her, when he bought her with his blood: he truth her with his gospel, his ordinances, his children, assured of her care over them, v. 11. his honour and interests are her constant concern for ever, v. 12. The external garments of profession, and the white linemen, the righteousness of saints, are, through grace, her constant labour, v. 13. By prayer and communion with God she goes out, as merchant ships, to heaven, and returns, fraught with the bread of life, from that far country, v. 14. the stewards of her mysteries, rising early, dispense to each their portion, feeding each member of the family with those words of truth which are suited to their state and conclusion, v. 15. The scripture is the field the purchases, and is enriched thereby: a purchase indeed, made without money, and without price, Matt. xiii. 44. He. iv. 1, and in her vineyard new concerns are daily planned, and grow up to bring forth fruit unto God, v. 16.

She Before Christ 1015. She labours for the glory of her lord, and the good of the souls

intrusted to her, with all her might, v. 17. Her merchandise of grace is better than silver; her lamp of profession ever

burning; and in the darkest night of adversity her hope is never extinguished, v. 18. She is incessant in well-doing, v.

19. and her spirit is charity itself, v. 20. The double garments, beautiful and shining, of righteousness imputed and implanted, adorn her household, which no change of seasons or

trials can affect, v. 21. Her house is decently adorned, and her ordinances administered with dignity, v. 22. Her husband, the great belligerent of souls, is known, honoured, and adored, both by his saints below, and by angels above, v. 23. Her ministers receiving of her stores, make a rich return of precious

souls, v. 24. Strong in grace, and honourable, she shall rejoice in all the ages of time and eternity, v. 25. The doctrines of Divine wisdom, and gospel grace, are by her dispensed, v. 26. Her discipline is exact, and no idleness suffered under her roof, v. 27. The members of Christ, her children, bless God for their mercies, and pray for her peace and prosperity; and the Lord himself approves her fidelity, v. 28. and gives her the highest commendation, v. 29. All other beauty, and human glory, shall fade, but to eternity shall the church of the redeemed be for a praise, v. 30. when her works follow her to the gates of heaven, and Christ shall bestow upon her the promised recompense of eternal birth.

Before Christ 1015. The End of the Book of PROVERBS. VOL. I. 9K THE EVANGELICAL EXPOSITOR; OR, A PRACTICAL COMMENT Upon the BOOK of ECCLESIASTES.

The account we have of Solomon’s apology from God in the latter end of his reign, 1 Kings xi. 1. is the tragical part of his story: we may suppose he spake his Proverbs in the prime of his time, while he kept his integrity, but delivered his Ecclesiastes when he was grown old (for of the burdens and decays of age he speaks feelingly, chap. xii.) and was, by the grace of God, recovered from his backslidings: there he dictated his observations, here he wrote his own experiences. The title of the book and the penman we shall meet with in the first verse, and therefore shall here only observe.

1. That it is a Sermon, a Sermon in print: the text is, chap. i. 2. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity; and the scope of it is to convince us of the vanity of the world, and its utter insufficiency to make us happy; the vilemess of sin, and its certain tendency to make us miserable; of the wisdom of being religious, and the solid comfort and satisfaction that is to be had in doing our duty both to God and man; and this should be intended in every sermon, and that is a good sermon by which those points are in any measure gained.

2. That it is a penitential sermon, as some of David’s psalms are penitential psalms; it is a recantation sermon, in which the predther sadly laments his own folly and mistake, in promising himself satisfaction in the things of this world, and even in the forbidden pleasures of sense, which now he finds more bitter than death. His fall is a proof of the weakness of man’s nature; Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor say, I shall never be such a fool as to do so and so, when Solomon himself, the wisest of men, played the fool so egregiously; nor let the rich man glory in his riches, since Solomon’s wealth was so great a snare to him, and did him a great deal more hurt than Job’s poverty did him. His recovery is a proof of the power of God’s grace, in bringing one back to God that had gone so far from him, and the riches of God’s mercy in accepting him, notwithstanding the many aggravations of his sin, pursuant to the promise made to David, that if his children should commit iniquity, they should be corrected, but not abandoned and disinterested, 2 Sam. vii. 14, 15. Let him therefore that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall, and let him that is fallen, make haste to get up again, and not despair either of assistance or of acceptance therein.

3. That it is a practical, profitable sermon: Solomon being brought to repentance, resolves, like his father, to teach transgressors God’s way, Psal. li. 13. and to give warning to all to take heed of splitting upon those rocks which had been fatal to him; and these were fruits meet for repentance. The fundamental error of the children of men, and that which is at the bottom of all their departures from God, is the same with that of our first parents, hoping to be as gods, by entertaining themselves with that which seems good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise. Now the scope of this book is to shew, that this is a great mistake; that our happiness consists not in being as gods to ourselves, to have what we will, and do what we will, but in having him that made us to be a God to us. The moral philosophers disputed much about man’s felicity or chief good; various opinions they had about it; but Solomon in this book determines the question, and assures us, that to fear God and to keep his commandments is the whole of man. He tried what satisfaction might be found in the wealth of the world, and the pleasures of sense, and at last pronounced all vanity and vexation; yet multitudes will not take his word, but will make the same dangerous experiment, and it proves fatal to them. He, (1.) Shews the vanity of those things in which men commonly look for happiness, as human learning and policy, sensual delights, honour and power, riches and great possessions. And then, (2.) He prescribes remedies against the vexation of spirit that attends them.

Though