American Standard Version Proverbs 9

Proverbs 9:1-18
EXPOSITION
Pro_9:1-18

15. Fifteenth admonitory discourse, containing in a parabolic form an invitation of Wisdom (Pro_9:1-12), and that of her rival Folly (Pro_9:13-18). The chapter sums up in brief the warnings of the preceding part.
    Pro_9:1
    Wisdom was represented as having a house at whose portals persons waited eagerly for admission (Pro_8:34); the idea is further carried on. Wisdom hath builded her house. (For the plural form of khochmoth, “wisdom,” a plural of excellency, see on Pro_1:20.) As the “strange woman” in Pro_7:1-27. possessed a house to which she seduced her victim, so Wisdom is represented as having a house which she has made and adorned, and to which she invites her pupils. Spiritual writers see here two references—one to Christ’s incarnation, when he built for himself a human body (Joh_2:19); and another to his work in forming the Church, which is his mystical body (1Pe_2:5). And the sublime language used in this section is not satisfied with the bare notion that we have here only an allegorical representation of Wisdom calling followers to her. Rather we are constrained to see a Divine intimation of the office and work of Christ, not only the Creator of the world, as in Pro_8:1-36; but its Regenerator. She hath hewn out her seven pillars. Architecturally, according to Hitzig and others, the pillars of the inner court are meant, which supported the gallery of the first story. Four of these were m the corners, three in the middle of three sides, while the entrance to the court was through the fourth side of the square. The number seven generally denotes perfection; it is the covenant number, expressive of harmony and unity generally, the signature of holiness and blessing, completeness and rest. So in the Apocalypse the whole Church is represented by the number of seven Churches (Rev_1:4, etc.; see on Pro_26:16). Wisdom’s house is said to be thus founded because of its perfection and adaptability to all states of men. But doubtless there is a reference to the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit, which rested upon the Christ (Isa_11:2, etc.), and which are the support and strength of the Church, being symbolized by the seven-branched candlestick in the temple.
    Pro_9:2
    She hath killed her beasts. So in the parable of the marriage of the king’s son (Mat_22:1-46; which is parallel to the present), the king sends his servants to notify the guests that the oxen and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Wisdom has stores of nourishment for understanding and affection; and Christ has offered himself as a Victim in our behalf, and now makes bounteous offers of grace, and especially has ordained the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper for the strengthening and refreshing of the soul. She hath mingled her wine; Septuagint, “She hath mixed (ἐκέρασεν) her wine in a bowl.” The wine which, untempered, was too luscious or too fiery to drink, was made palatable by a certain admixture of water, it was always so mixed at the Passover; and the ancient Christian Liturgies direct the mixture in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, doubtless from traditional use. Some, however, think that allusion is here made to the custom of adding drugs to wine in order to increase its potency. Among the Greeks, ἄκρατος οἶνος meant “wine without water,” and in Rev_14:10 we have ἄκρατον κεκερασμένον, “undiluted wine mixed.” And probably in the text the notion is that the fluid for the guests’ delectation is properly prepared, that there may be no trouble when they arrive (see on Pro_23:30). She hath also furnished her table, by arranging the dishes, etc; thereon (Psa_23:5, “Thou preparest a table before me,” where the same verb, arak, is used; comp. Isa_21:5). Moralizing on this passage, St. Gregory says, “The Lord ’killed the sacrifices’ by offering himself on our behalf. He ’mingled the wine,’ blending together the cup of his precepts from the historical narration and the spiritual signification. And he ’set forth his table,’ i.e. Holy Writ, which with the bread of the Word refreshes us when we are wearied and come to him away from the burdens of the world, and by its effect of refreshing strengthens us against our adversaries” (’Moral,’ 17:43, Oxford transl.).
    Pro_9:3
    She hath sent forth her maidens, as in Mat_22:3, to call them that were bidden to the feast. The Septuagint has τοὺς ἑαυτῆς δούλους, “her servants,” but the Authorized Version is correct, and feminine attendants are in strict harmony with the rest of the apologue. By them are represented the apostles and preachers and ministers, who go forth to win souls for Christ. St. Gregory sees in their being called “maidens” an intimation that they are in themselves weak and abject, and are only useful and honoured as being the mouthpiece of their Lord (’Moral.,’ 33.33). She crieth upon the highest places of the city, where her voice could best be heard, as in Pro_8:2; Mat_10:27. She is not satisfied with delegating her message to others; she delivers it herself. Septuagint, “calling with a loud proclamation to the cup (ἐπὶ κρατῆρα);” Vulgate, Misit ancillas suas ut vocarent ad arcem et ad moenia civitatis, “She has sent her handmaids to invite to the citadel, and to the wails of the town.” On which rendering St. Gregory comments, “In that while they tell of the interior life, they lift us up to the high walls of the city above, which same walls, surely, except any be humble, they do not ascend” (’Moral.,’ 17:43).
    Pro_9:4-12
    Here follows the invitation of Wisdom, urging the attendance of guests at the sumptuous banquet which she has prepared (comp. Rev_19:9).
    Pro_9:4
    Whose is simple, lot him turn in hither. This is a direct address to the imprudent and inexperienced (see on Pro_7:7), calling them to turn aside from the way on which they are going, and to come to her. Vulgate, si quis est parvulus veniat ad me, which reminds one of Christ’s tender words, “It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish” (Mat_18:14). As for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him what follows (so Pro_9:16). Wisdom’s own speech is interrupted, and the writer himself introduces this little clause. She calls on the simple and the unwise, both as necessarily needing her teaching, and not yet inveterate in evil, nor wilfully opposed to better guidance. “The world by wisdom knew not God” and he “hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen” (1Co_1:21, 1Co_1:26, etc.; comp. Mat_11:25).
    Pro_9:5
    Come, eat ye of my bread. Wisdom now directly addresses the simple and the foolish (comp. Rev_22:17). And drink of the wine which I have mingled (see on Pro_9:2). Bread and wine represent all needful nourishment, as flesh and wine in Pro_9:2. So Christ says (Joh_6:51), “I am the living Bread which came down from heaven … and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Compare the invitation in Isa_55:1, “He, every one that thirsteth!” etc. The Fathers see here a prophecy of the gospel feast, wherein Christ gave and gives bread and wine as symbols of his presence (Mat_26:26, etc.).
    Pro_9:6
    Forsake the foolish, and live; Vulgate, relinquite infantiam; Septuagint, ἀπολείπετε ἀφροσύνην, “leave folly.” These versions take the plural פְתָאִים (petaim) as equivalent to an abstract noun, which gives a good sense; but the plural is not so used in our book, so we must admit the rendering of the Authorized Version, “Quit the class, give up being of the category of fools,” or else we must take the word as vocative, “Leave off, ye simple ones” (Revised Version), i.e. quit your simplicity, your folly. And live (see on Pro_4:4). It is not a mere prosperous life on earth that is here promised, but something far higher and better (Joh_6:51, “If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever”). The LXX. saw something of this when they paraphrased the clause, “Leave ye folly, that ye may reign forever.” Go in the way of understanding. Leaving folly, stay not, but make real progress in the direction of wisdom. Septuagint, “Seek ye prudence, and direct understanding by knowledge.”
    Pro_9:7-10
    These verses form a parenthesis, showing why Wisdom addresses only the simple and foolish. She giveth not that which is holy unto dogs, nor casteth pearls before swine (Mat_7:6).
    Pro_9:7
    He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame. He who tries to correct a scorner (see on Pro_1:22 and Pro_3:34), one who derides religion, loses his pains and meets with ribald mockery and insult. It is not the fault of messengers or message that this should be, but the hardness of heart and the pride of the hearer make him despise the teaching and hate the teacher (Mat_24:9). He that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot; rather, he that reproveth a sinner, it is his blot. Such a proceeding results in disgrace to himself. This is not said to discourage the virtuous from reproving transgressors, but states the effect which experience proves to occur in such cases. Prudence, caution, and tact are needed in dealing with these characters. Evil men regard the reprover as a personal enemy, and treat him with contumely, and hence arise unseemly bickerings and disputes, injurious words and deeds. To have wasted teaching on such unreceptive and antagonistic natures is a shameful expenditure of power. St. Gregory thus explains this matter: “It generally happens that when they cannot defend the evils that are reproved in them, they are rendered worse from a feeling of shame, and carry themselves so high in their defence of themselves, that they take out bad points to urge against the life of the reprover, and so they do not account themselves guilty, if they fasten guilty deeds upon the heads of others also. And when they are unable to find true ones, they feign them, that they may also themselves have things they may seem to rebuke with no inferior degree of justice” (’Moral.,’ 10.3, Oxford transl.).
    Pro_9:8
    Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee (see the last note, and comp. Pro_15:12, and note there). There are times when reproof only hardens and exasperates. “It is not proper,” says St. Gregory, “for the good man to fear lest the scorner should utter abuse at him when he is chidden, but lest, being drawn into hatred, he should be made worse” (’Moral.,’ 8.67). “Bad men sometimes we spare, and not ourselves, if from the love of those we cease from the rebuking of them. Whence it is needful that we sometimes endure keeping to ourselves what they are, in order that they may learn in us by our good living what they are not” (ibid; 20:47, Oxford transl.). Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. So Psa_141:5, “Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me, it shall be as oil upon the head; let not my head refuse it” (comp. Pro_19:25; Pro_25:12; Pro_27:6).
    Pro_9:9
    Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser. The Hebrew is merely “give to the wise,” with no object mentioned; but the context suggests “instruction,” even though, as in Pro_9:8, it takes the form of rebuke. Vulgate and Septuagint, “Give an opportunity to a wise man, and he will be wiser” (comp. Mat_13:12; Mat_25:29). To make the best use of all occasions of learning duty, whether they present themselves in a winning or a forbidden shape, is the part of one who is wise unto salvation (see Pro_1:5, and note there). Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. Wisdom being a moral and not merely an intellectual, quality. there is a natural interchange of “wise” and “just,” referring to the same individual, in the two clauses. Vulgate, festinabit accipere; Septuagint, “Instruct a wise man, and he shall have more given him.” The wise are thus rewarded with larger measures of wisdom, because they are simple, humble, and willing to learn, having that childlike spirit which Christ commends (Mat_18:3).
    Pro_9:10
    Wisdom returns to the first apothegm and principle of the whole book (Pro_1:7). Without the fear of God no teaching is of any avail. The knowledge of the holy is understanding. The word translated “the holy” is קְדשִׁים, a plural of excellence (see on Pro_30:3) like Elohim, and equivalent to “the Most Holy One,” Jehovah, to which it answers in the first hemistich. God is called “Holy, holy, holy” (Isa_6:3), in his threefold nature, and as majestic beyond expression. The only knowledge worth having, and which is of avail for the practical purposes of life, is the knowledge of God (see on Pro_2:5). Septuagint, “The counsel of the holy (ἁγίων) is understanding,” with the explanatory clause; “for to know the Law is the character of good thought.” This occurs again at Pro_13:15, though in the Hebrew in neither place.
    Pro_9:11
    The parenthetical explanation being concluded, in which Wisdom has intimated why it is useless to appeal to the scorner and tile wilful sinner, she now resumes the direct address interrupted at Pro_9:7, presenting a forcible reason for the advice given in Pro_9:6, though there is still some connection with Pro_9:10, as it is from the wisdom that comes from the fear of the Lord that the blessings now mentioned spring. For by me thy days shall be multiplied (see Pro_3:2, Pro_3:16; Pro_4:10, where long life is promised as a reward for the possession and practice of wisdom). The same result is attributed to the fear of God (Pro_10:27; Pro_14:27, etc.). In Pro_9:6 the address is in the plural; here it is singular. A similar interchange is found in Pro_5:7, Pro_5:8 (where see note).
    Pro_9:12
    If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself. A transition verse. Wisdom will bring thee good; as thou hast laboured well, so will be thy reward (1Co_3:8). The LXX. (Syriac and Arabic), with the idea of perfecting the antithesis, adds, καὶ τοῖς πλησίον, “My son, if thou art wise for thyself, thou shalt be wise also for thy neighbours”—which contains the great truth that good gifts should not be selfishly enjoyed, but used and dispensed for the advantage of others (Gal_6:6). In support of our text we may quote Job_22:2, “Can a man be profitable unto God? Surely he that is wise is profitable unto himself.” But if thou scornest, thou alone shalt hear it; i.e. atone for it, bear the sin, as it is expressed in Num_9:13, “Forevery man shall bear his own burden” (Gal_6:5). Thus Wisdom ends her exhortation. Septuagint, “If thou turn out evil, thou alone shalt bear (ἀντλήσεις) evils.” And then is added the following paragraph, which may possibly be derived from a Hebrew original, but seems more like a congeries made up from other passages, and foisted by some means into the Greek text: “He that stayeth himself on lies shepherdeth winds, and himself pursueth flying birds; for he hath left the ways of his own vineyard, and hath gone astray with the wheels of his own husbandry; and he goeth through a waterless desert, and over a land set in thirsty places, and with his hands he gathereth unfruitfulness.”
    Pro_9:13-18
    This section contains the invitation of Folly, the rival of Wisdom, represented under the guise of an adulteress (Pro_2:16; Pro_5:3, etc.; Pro_6:24, etc.; 7.).
    Pro_9:13
    I foolish woman; literally, the woman of folly, the genitive being that of apposition, so that this may well be rendered, in order to make the contrast with Wisdom more marked, “the woman Folly.” She is regarded as a real person; and between her and Virtue man has to make his choice. Is clamorous; turbulent and animated by passion (as Pro_7:11), quite different from her calm, dignified rival. She is simple; Hebrew, “simplicity,” in a bad sense; she has no preservative against evil, no moral fibre to resist temptation. And knoweth nothing which she ought to know. Ignorance is the natural accompaniment of Folly: in this case it is wilful and persistent; she goes on her way reckless of consequences. Septuagint, “A woman foolish and bold, who knows not shame, comes to want a morsel.”
    Pro_9:14
    She sitteth at the door of her house. She, like Wisdom, has a house of her own, and imitates her in inviting guests to enter. She does not send forth her maidens; she does not stand in the streets and proclaim her mission. Vice has an easier task; all she has to do is to sit and beckon and use a few seductive words. Her house is not supported by seven pillars, built on the grace of God and upheld by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. like that of Wisdom (Pro_9:1); it is an ordinary habitation of no stately proportions. but its meanness impedes not the uses to which she puts it, her own charms causing her victims to disregard her environments. On a seat in the high pluses of the city. Her house is in the highest and most conspicuous part of the city, and she sits before her door in reckless immodesty, plying her shameful trade (comp. Gen_38:14; Jer_3:2). The mimicry of her rival again appears, for Wisdom “crieth upon the highest places of the city” (Pro_9:3).
    Pro_9:15
    To call passengers who go right on their ways. With shameless effrontery she cries to all that pass by, she addresses her solicitations to persons who are going straight on their way, thinking nothing of her, having no idea of deviating from their pursued object. As they walk in the path of right and duty, she tries to turn them aside. Septuagint, “Calling to herself (προσκαλουμένη) those that pass by and are keeping straight in their ways.” The Fathers find here a picture of the seductions of heretical teaching, which puts on the mask of orthodoxy and deceives the unwary. Wordsworth notes that, in the Apocalypse, the false teacher bears some emblems of the Lamb (Rev_13:11). All false doctrine retains some element of truth, and it is because of this admixture that it procures adherents and thrives for a time.
    Pro_9:16, Pro_9:17
    These verses contain the invitation which Vice, in imitation of Virtue, and assuming her voice and manner, offers to the wayfarers.
    Pro_9:16
    Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. She uses the very same words which Wisdom utters (Pro_9:4). The latter had addressed the simple because they were inexperienced and undecided, and might be guided aright; the former now speaks to them because they have not vet made their final choice, can still be swayed by lower considerations, and may be led astray. Such persons find it hard to distinguish between the good and the evil, the false and the true, especially when their sensual appetite is aroused and sides with the temptress. No marvel is it that such are easily deceived; for we are told that, under certain circumstances, Satan transforms himself into an angel of light (2Co_11:14). That wanteth understanding. This is the other class addressed by Wisdom, and which Folly now solicits, urging them to follow her on the path of pleasure, promising sensual enjoyment and security.
    Pro_9:17
    This is what she says: Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. The metaphor of “stolen waters” refers primarily to adulterous intercourse, as to “drink waters out of one’s own cistern” (Pro_5:15, where see note) signifies the chaste connection of lawful wedlock. Wisdom offered flesh and wine to her guests; Folly offers bread and water. Wisdom invites openly to a well furnished table; Folly calls to a secret meal of barest victuals. What the former offers is rich and satisfying and comforting; what Vice gives is poor and mean and insipid. Yet this latter has the charm of being forbidden; it is attractive because it is unlawful. This is a trait of corrupt human nature, which is recognized universally. Thus Ovid, ’Amor.,’ Pro_3:4, Pro_3:17—
    “Nitimur in vetitum semper, cupimusque negata;
    Sic interdictis imminet aeger aquis.’
    Things easily attained, the possession of which is gotten without effort or danger or breach of restraint, soon pall and cease to charm. To some minds the astuteness and secrecy required for success have an irresistible attraction. Thus St. Augustine relates (’Conf.,’ 2.4) how he and some companions committed a theft, not from want and poverty, nor even from the wish to enjoy what was stolen, but simply for the pleasure of thieving and the sin. They robbed a pear tree by night, carried off great loads, which they flung to the pigs, and their only satisfaction was that they were doing what they ought not (“dum tamen fieret a nobis, quod eo liberet quo non liceret”). Septuagint, “Taste ye to your pleasure secret bread, and sweet water of theft.” Where water is a precious commodity, as in many pets of Palestine, doubtless thefts were often committed, and persons made free with their neighbor’s tank when they could do so undetected, thus sparing their own resources and felicitating themselves on their cleverness. On the metaphorical use of “waters” in Holy Scripture, St. Gregory says, “Waters are sometimes wont to denote the Holy Spirit, sometimes sacred knowledge, sometimes calamity, sometimes drifting peoples, sometimes the minds of those following the faith.” He refers to these texts respectively:
    Joh_7:38, etc.; Ec Joh_15:3; Psa_69:1; Rev_17:15 (“the waters are peoples”); Isa_22:20; and he adds, “By water likewise bad knowledge is wont to be designated, as when the woman in Solomon, who bears the type of heresy, charms with crafty persuasion, saying, ’Stolen waters are sweet’” (’Moral.,’ 19.9).
    Pro_9:18
    The deluded youth is supposed to be persuaded by the seductions of Folly and to enter her house. The writer, then, in a few weighty words, shows the terrible result of this evil compliance. But he knoweth not that the dead are there (see on Pro_2:18 and Pro_7:27). There are none “there,” in her house, who can be said to be living, they are rephaim, shadowy ghosts of living men, or else demons of the nether world. The Septuagint and Vulgate, with a reference to Gen_6:4, translate γηγενεῖς and gigantes. Her guests are in the depths of hell (sheol); Septuagint, “He knows not that giants perish at her side, and he meets with a trap of hell.” The terrible warning may profitably be repeated more than once, It is like Christ’s awful saying, three times enunciated, “Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched”. The LXX. has another paragraph at the end of this verse, which has no counterpart in the Hebrew: “But start away, delay not in the place, nor put thy name [’eye,’ al.] by her; for thus shalt thou pass over (διαβήσῃ) strange water; but abstain thou from strange water, and of a strange spring drink not, that thou mayest live long, and years of life may be added to thee.”
    HOMILETICS
    Pro_9:1-5
    The banquet of wisdom
    I. THE BANQUET HOUSE.
16. It is substantial. A house, not a mere tent. The feast of wisdom is no brief repast, rarely enjoyed, It is a lasting delight, a frequent refreshment always ready.
17. It is magnificent. Seven pillars are hewn out for the house. It is fitting that the house of God should be more beautiful than a man’s dwelling. He who enters into the habitation of God’s thoughts will find it beautiful and glorious. There is nothing mean about Divine truth. It is all large, noble, magnificent. He who comes into communion with is will find himself in no poor hovel. He will be in a palace of splendour, with which the material grandeur of marble columns, delicate tracery, etc; cannot vie.
    II. THE PROVISION. Rich and abundant—slaughtered beasts, spiced wine, a well furnished table. Nothing looks more sordid than poor fare in splendid apartments. This shad not be seen in the house of Divine wisdom, but, on the contrary, enough for all, and that of the best quality. No thoughts are so full nor so rich as the thoughts of revelation. There is variety here as in the viands of the banquet. And “all things are ready.” The table is spread. It waits for the guests. While we are praying for light, the light is shining about us. God has revealed his truth. Christ, the Light of the world, has appeared among us. The feast of the truths of the glorious gospel of the, blessed God is ready for all who will come and share in its bounties.
    III. THE INVITATION. The maidens are sent forth—not one, but many—that the message may go to all quarters. They cry in the highest places of the city, that the message may have the greatest publicity, may spread over the widest area, may reach all classes. This is the character of the call of God to us in his truth. He seeks us before we seek him. He has already sought us. The gospel is preached, proclaimed as by heralds; and this gospel contains the invitation to the rich banquet of Divine truth.
    IV. THE GUESTS. “The simple;” “him that lacketh understanding.” So in our Lord’s parable, “the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind” are called (Luk_14:21). The whole need not the physician; the full need not the feast. They who are satisfied with their own knowledge will not sit humbly at the feet of a Divine revelation. It is they who feel themselves to be foolish, who acknowledge their ignorance and grope dimly after the light, who will be able to enjoy the banquet of wisdom; and these people are specially invited. The heathen, the illiterate, the weak-minded, are all called to receive the saving truth of Christ.
    V. THE SATISFACTION. “Eat of my bread, and drink of the wine,” etc.
18. Divine truth is nourishing. “By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live” (Deu_8:3). Christ, the “Word,” is the Bread of life.
19. Divine truth is a source of joy. At the banquet there is wine that maketh glad the heart of man. The gospel offers no prison fare. It kills the fatted beast. It gives wine—spiced wine, things of pleasure and luxury. Yet the pleasure is not enervating; the gospel wine is not harmfully intoxicating. How much better this banquet than the injurious and really less pleasing least of folly (Pro_9:13-18)!
    Pro_9:8
    Reproof
    I. HOW TO GIVE REPROOF. The duty of reproving is one of the most difficult and delicate ever attempted. The people who are most rash in adventuring upon it too often fall into the greatest blunders, while those who are really fitted to undertake it shrink from the attempt. The mere utterance of a protest is generally worse than useless. It only raises anger and provokes to greater obstinacy. Unless there is some probability of convincing a man of the wrongness of his conduct, there is little good in administering rebukes to him. It is not the duty of any man to raise up enemies without cause. We should all seek, as far as in us lies, to live peaceably with all men. Of course, it may he incumbent upon us sometimes so to act that we shall provoke opposition. Jesus Christ could have avoided the enmity of the Jews, but only by unfaithfulness to his mission. Where we are in the way of our mission, or when any duty will be accomplished or any good done, we must not shrink from rousing antagonism. To do so is cowardice, not peaceableness. But if no good is done, we may only bring a nest of hornets about our heads by our indiscretion. Let us understand that while we are never to sanction evil doing, we are only called to rebuke it when the rebuke will not be certainly rejected; then we must risk insult for the sake of righteousness. The practical point, then. is that we consider the character of a man before attempting to rebuke him, and that we be not so anxious to protest against sin as to counsel the sinner and guide him to better ways. If he is in a hard, scornful mood, we had better wait for a more fitting opportunity. If he is too strong for us, we shall only injure the cause of right by attempting to grapple with him. Weak champions of Christianity have often only hurt themselves, discredited their cause, and afforded a triumph to powerful opponents by their rash encounters. In all cases to reprove well requires wisdom, tact, simplicity, humanity.
    II. HOW TO RECEIVE REPROOF. He who hates the reprover will become himself a scorner; the wise man will love the reprover. Our manner of accepting merited reproof will therefore be a test of our character. Thus viewed, may not the text class many of us with the scorners, though we had little suspected where our true place was to be found? It is too common for a man to reject all reproof with rage. Not inquiring whether the accusation is true, he unjustly regards it as an attack upon himself, as a personal insult. There may be fault with the reprover—very often there is. But a wise man will not shelter himself behind that. Granting that the method of reproof was unwise, harsh, offensive; still, was there no ground for any reproof? To be angry at all reproof is to be one of the worst of scorners—to scorn right and truth. For the conscientious man will not dare to reject appeals to his conscience; he will feel bound to listen to them, no matter how unwelcome the voice that speaks them. He will desire to be free from faults. Should he not, therefore, thank those people who show them to him? If he loves goodness, he ought to lore those whose advice will help him to remove the greatest hindrances to attaining it. If he hates sin as the disease of his soul, he should accept reproof as medicine, and treat the reprover as a valuable physician.
    Pro_9:9
    An open mind
    There are two classes of minds that seem to be armour proof against the invasion of new light. One contains those people who, to use the phraseology of the Roman Catholic Church, are in a state of “invincible ignorance.” The other contains the much more numerous people who know just enough to feel s pride of superiority to their fellows, and who wrap themselves up in the infallibility of self-conceit. To these persons Pope’s often misapplied maxim may be fairly appropriated –
    “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing;
    Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.”
    The truly wise man will be the first to see the limits of his knowledge and the infinite night of ignorance with which the little spot of light that he has as yet gained is surrounded. Having drunk of the wells of truth, he will have found his thirst not slaked, but stimulated; he will be a philosopher, a lover of wisdom. Such a man will have an open mind.
    I. CONSIDER THE CHARACTERISTICS OF AN OPEN MIND.
20. It is not an empty mind. A man may be prepared to receive fresh light without abandoning the light he already possesses. The seeker after truth need not be a sceptic. There may be many things clearly seen and firmly grasped in the mind of one who is ready to welcome all new truth.
21. It is not a weak mind. If a man is not a bigot, he need not be like a shuttlecock, driven about by every wind of doctrine. He will sift truth. He will consider new ideas calmly, impartially, judicially.
22. An open mind is willing to receive truth from any quarter. It may come from a despised teacher, from rival, from an enemy. The open mind will not exclaim, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”
23. An open mind is ready to receive unpleasant truth. The new light may threaten to interfere with the vested interests of ancient beliefs, it may expose the folly of long cherished crotchets, it may unsettle much of one’s established convictions, it may reveal truths which are themselves unpalatable, or it may wound our pride by exposing our errors. Still, the open mind will receive it on one condition—that it is genuine truth.
24. Such characteristics must be based on wisdom and justice. It is the wise man and the just who is ready to receive instruction. No small amount of practical wisdom is requisite for the discernment of truth amidst the distractions of prejudice. Justice is a more important characteristic. Indeed, it is one of the fundamental conditions of truth seeking. Science and philosophy would progress more rapidly, and theology would be less confused by the conflicts of bitter sectaries, if men could but learn to be fair to other inquirers, and to take no exaggerated views of the importance of their own notions.
    II. THE ADVANTAGES OF AN OPEN MIND.
25. The open mind will attain most truth. Truth is practically infinite. But our knowledge of it varies according as we are able to attain to a large and yet a discriminating receptivity. To the nut its shell is its universe. The man who locks himself up in the dungeon of prejudice will never see anything but his own prison walls.
26. Every attainment in knowledge prepares the way for receiving more knowledge. It intensifies the desire of possessing truth. Thus the inquirer may say—
    “The wish to know—that endless thirst,
    Which ev’n by quenching is awak’d,
    And which becomes or blest or curst
    As is the fount whereat ’tis slak’d—
    Still urged me onward, with desire
    Insatiate, to explore, inquire.”
    But not only is the thirst thus stimulated. Future knowledge grows upon past experience. Knowledge is not an endless level plain, to reach one district of which we must leave another. It is more like a great building, and as we rise from story to story, we gain new treasures by mounting on those previously possessed. The more we know, the easier is it to increase knowledge. This applies to religious as well as to secular things. Prophets and devout people were the first to welcome the advent of the Light of the world (see Luk_2:25-38). The more the Christian knows, the more wilt he be able to see of new spiritual truths. Thus he will come to welcome instruction with thankfulness.
    Pro_9:12
    True self-interest
    It is the duty of the Christian to bear his brother’s burden, and the duty of every man to love his neighbour as himself; it is also the privilege of the saint to lose his life for Christ’s sake, and to “spend and be spent” in the service of man. But there still remains a right and lawful, and even an obligatory, regard to self-interest. For one thing, if a man’s own heart and life are wrong, his work in the world must be wrong also.
    I. HE IS NOT TRULY WISE WHOSE OWN SOUL IS NOT SAFE.
27. He may know the truth. The wisdom that can unravel many mysteries is his. He has searched into the deep truths of revelation. A diligent reader of the Bible, he is well acquainted at least with the words that God teaches. But he has never regarded the practical bearing of all this truth. It has been to him but a shadow. Then his own soul may be wrecked, though the way to The haven is clear.
28. He may enlighten others. Perhaps he is a preacher of the gospel, and is able to hold up the torch to many a wayfarer. He is even urgent in pressing the truth upon his hearers. Or he is a champion for the defence of the truth, arguing vehemently with unbelievers. But all the while he never applies this truth to his own case. Saving others, he is himself a castaway (1Co_9:27). The pilot leads the imperilled mariners home, but is drowned himself. Surely this is the height of folly!
    II. HE WHO IS TRULY WISE WILL PROFIT BY HIS WISDOM.
29. He will see the necessity of applying truth to himself. This will be a part of his wisdom. We are all sadly tempted to delude ourselves into a false sense of security, and we need light and guidance to show us our danger and our course of safety. It is a mark of God-given wisdom to choose that course.
30. He will recognize the practical bearings of truth. It will do little good to regard one’s self only as a sort of example to which certain truths are attached. Mere self-examination of the most lucid and honest character will not save our souls. We have to go a step further, and act according to the knowledge that we gain in the light of God’s truth.
31. He will find the application of wisdom directly helpful. When a man does not hold aloof from it as from some curiosity only to be inspected, but embraces the truth of Christ, taking it home to his own heart, he discovers that it is a saving truth. By the personal reception of this Divine wisdom he reaches the way of salvation. Above all, when we remember that Christ is “the Wisdom of God,” we may see that for a man to receive that wisdom, i.e. to receive Christ, is to be wise for himself, because Christ brings the light of God’s truth, and Christ’s presence is the source of sure salvation.
    Pro_9:17
    Stolen waters.
    A fatal fascination, arising out of its very lawlessness, attaches itself to sin. Illicit pleasures are doubly attractive just because they are illicit. Let us consider the secret of these evil charms.
    I. THE PROVOCATION OF RESTRAINTS. There are many things which we do not care to have so long as they are within our reach, but which are clothed with a sudden attractiveness directly they are shut out from us. If we see a notice, “Trespassers will be prosecuted,” we feel an irritating restraint, although we have had no previous desire to enter the path that it blocks. Innumerable fruits grew in Eden, but the one forbidden fruit excited the greatest longing of appetite. Advertisers sometimes head their placards with the words, “Don’t read this!”—judging that to be the best way to call attention to them. If you say, “Don’t look!” everybody is most anxious to look. To put a book in an index expurgatorius is the surest means of advertising it.
    II. THE VALUE GIVEN BY DIFFICULTY OF ACQUISITION. We value little what we can buy cheaply. Rarity raises prices. If we have been to great labour and have run heavy risks in obtaining anything, we are inclined to measure the worth of it by what it has cost us. Many designs of sin are only achieved with great difficulty. They involve terrible dangers. When once accomplished, they are the more valued for this. The pleasures of adventure, the Englishman’s peculiar delights of the chase, are enlisted in the cause of wickedness.
    “All things that are,
    Are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.”
    III. THE SENSE OF POWER AND LIBERTY. If you have gained your end in spite of law and authority, there is a natural elation of triumph about it. When you have succeeded in breaking bounds, you taste the sweets of an illicit liberty.
    IV. THE ENJOYMENT OF SECRECY. To some minds there is a peculiar charm about this. To them especially “bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” Let it be all open and above board, let it he of such a nature that one would have no objection to the world knowing it, and the pleasure loses its most pungent element. The air of mystery, the sense of superiority in doing what those about one little suspect, become elements in the pleasures of sin. But surely the highest natures must be too simple and frank to feel the force of such inducements to sin!
    V. THE FASCINATION OF WICKEDNESS. Pure, naked evil will attract on its own account. There is a charm in absolute ugliness. Some men really seem to love sin for its own sake. A wild intoxication, a mad passion of conscious guilt, instils a fatal sweetness into stolen waters. But it is the sweetness of a deadly poison, the euthanasia of crime.
    All these horrible charms of sin need to be guarded against. We must not trust to our own integrity; it is not proof against the fatal fascinations of temptation. To resist them we must be fortified with the love of higher joys, fed with the wholesome food of the banquet of wisdom (see Pro_9:1-5), attracted by the beauty of holiness, and above all, led to the pure and nourishing delights of the gospel feast by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
    HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
    Pro_9:1-6
    Wisdom’s banquet; or, the call to salvation
    I. THE FIGURATIVE REPRESENTATION. Wisdom was termed, in Pro_8:30, a “workmistress,” in reference to the structure of the physical world. Here she whose delight is in men and human life is represented as the builder, i.e. the founder of moral and social order. The seven pillars denote grandeur, and, at the same time, sacredness. Her home is a temple. Religion is “the oldest and most sacred tradition of the race” (Herder); and it contains within it art, science, polity—all that makes human life stable, rich, and beautiful. Preparation has been made for a feast. The ox has been slain, the spiced wine has been mixed (Isa_5:22; Pro_23:30), the table set forth. Her servant has been sent forth, and her invitation has been freely made known on all the heights of the city. It is an invitation to the simple, the ignorant, the unintelligent, of every degree.
    II. THE SPIRITUAL CONTENTS. These receive a richer unfolding in the gospel (Mat_22:1-14; Luk_14:16-24). Instead of the practical personification of wisdom, we have the living presence of Christ, “the Wisdom of God.” Instead of the abstract, the concrete; for an ideal conception, a real Example and a present Object of faith. Instead of the splendid palace temple, on the other hand, we have the thought of the kingdom of God, or the Church, resting on its foundations of apostolic truth. To the provisions of the table correspond the rich spiritual nourishment derivable from Christ, his Word and work—the true Bread sent down from heaven. To the invitation of Wisdom, the call to salvation by Christ.
32. The New Testament echoes the Old, and the gospel is essentially the same in every way.
33. The gospel of Christ is the unfolding, expansion, enrichment, of the ancient spiritual lore.
34. The relation of the Divine to the human remains constant; it is that of supply to want, knowledge to ignorance, love and light to sorrow and darkness.
35. The invitation to the kingdom of heaven is free and general, conditioned by nothing except the need of its blessings.—J.
    Pro_9:7-9
    Warnings against refusal
    So, in connection with the preceding section, we may take these words.
    I. EVERY REFUSAL OF WISDOM IMPLIES THE PREFERENCE OF THE OPPOSITE. It implies that the associations of folly are more congenial than those of sound sense (Pro_9:6), which is a preference of death to life, in its effect.
    II. THE SCOFFING HABIT IS AN INDICATION OF FOLLY. (Pro_9:7.) Under the general head of fools come scoffers and wicked men of every degree. The cynic may prefer to speak of evil men and actions as fools and folly—”worse than a crime, a blunder”—and he utters more truth in this than he intends.
    III. THE SCOFFER IS ABUSIVE, AND THIS IS SIGNIFICANT OF HIS TEMPER. (Pro_9:7, Pro_9:8; comp. Exo_5:16; Psa_115:7.)
36. He neither has nor desires to have self-knowledge, and therefore hates the teacher who holds the mirror up to nature, and makes him see himself as he is.
37. He is the foil to the wise man, who is thankful for corrections, because he is set upon improvement and progress; and therefore loves the correcter, holding him creditor of his thanks, and recognizing the loyalty of the band which wounds.
38. The great distinction of the wise man from the fool is that the former has indefinite capacity of progress; the latter, qua fool, none.
39. As there is an indissoluble connection between folly and wickedness, so are wisdom and rectitude at one (Pro_9:9).—J.
    Pro_9:10-12
    Recurrence to first principles
    Life is made up of circles. We are ever coming back to whence we started. As history repeats itself, so must morality and religion. The shining points of wisdom appear and reappear with the regularity of the heavenly bodies. The vault of heaven has its analogue in the star-besprinkled vault of the moral relations. Iteration and repetition of first principles are constantly necessary, ever wholesome, peculiarly characteristic of Semitic thought. Wherever life is bounded to a small circle of interests, the same truths must be insisted on “over and over again.”
    I. RELIGION A FIRST PRINCIPLE.
40. Religion characterized. The fear of Jehovah. In other words, reverence for the Eternal One. We may unfold the definition, but can we substitute a better for it? It is a relation to the eternal and unseen, to a supersensual order, as opposed to that which is visible and transient. It is deep-seated in feeling. Reverence is the ground tone in the scale of religious feeling; we descend from it to awe and terror, or rise to joy and ecstasy. It is a relation, not to ourselves, or a projection of ourselves in fancy, but to a personal and holy Being.
41. Its connection with intelligence firmly insisted on. It is the beginning, or root principle, of wisdom, and “acquaintance with the Holy is true insight” (Pro_9:10). The question, often discussed, whether religion is a matter of feeling, knowledge, or will, arises from a fallacy. We may distinguish these functions in thought; but in act they are one, because the consciousness is a unity, not a bundle of things, a collocation of organs. In feeling we know, in knowledge we feel, and from this interaction arise will, acts, conduct. Hence so far as a man is soundly religious, he is likewise soundly intelligent. In the truest conception religion and wisdom are identical.
    II. WISDOM A FIRST PRINCIPLE. (Pro_9:11.) Here we come down from the region of speculation to that of practical truth.
42. The “will to live” is the very spring of our activity.
43. Only second to it in original power is the wish to be well, i.e. to have fulness, energy of life, consciousness. The extensive form of this wish is naturally the earlier, the more childlike—to enjoy many years, to live to a green old age, etc. The intensive form is later, and belongs to the more reflective stage of the mind. “Non vivere, sed valere, est vita” (Martial). ’Tis “more life and fuller that we want” (Tennyson). “One hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name.” This view comes more home to the modern mind than to that of the monotonous East, where the like fulness of interest was not possible. We say, “Better twenty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.”
    III. PERSONALITY A FIRST PRINCIPLE. (Pro_9:12.)
44. We have a distinct individual consciousness. “I am I, and other than the things I touch.” I know what my acts are as distinguished from my involuntary movements, my thoughts as distinct from the passive reflection of perceptions and phantasies unbegotten of my will.
45. Our wisdom or folly is our own affair, both in origin and consequences. We begot the habit, and must reap as we sow, bear the brunt of the conflict we may have provoked.
46. Neither our wisdom can enrich nor our folly impoverish God (Job_22:2, Job_22:3; Job_35:6-9; Rom_11:35; Rev_22:11, Rev_22:12).
    (1) It is a solemn thought; the constitution of our being reveals the decree of God, and may be thus interpreted: “Let him alone!” We are not interfered with. We are suffered to develop in the air and sun. Woe to us if we pervert the kindly gifts of God, and turn his truth into a lie!
    (2) “Take heed to thyself.” The effects of our acts may extend to others, but we cannot make others answer for them in the end.—J.
    Pro_9:13-18
    The invitation of Folly
    The picture to be taken in contrast with that at the beginning of the chapter.
    I. THE TEMPER OF FOLLY.
47. She is excitable and passionate (Pro_9:13), and may be fitly imaged as the harlot, the actress and mask of genuine feeling.
48. She is irrational, and knows not what is what. True love is not blind, either as to self or its objects.
49. She is like the harlot again in her shamelessness (Pro_9:14). Folly does not mind exposure, and rushes on publicity.
50. She is solicitous of company (Pro_9:15). Must have partners in guilt, and companions to keep her in countenance. Fools cannot be happy in solitude, cannot enjoy the sweet and silent charms of nature. Wisdom finds good both in the forest and the city, in the cloister or amidst the “busy hum of men.”
51. Folly is gregarious. Wherever there is a crowd, there is something foolish going on (Pro_9:16). It may be safely said of habitual gatherings in taverns and such places, “mostly fools.” The wise man goes apart to recover and strengthen his Individuality; the fool plunges into the throng to forget himself.
52. Folly is sly and secretive (Pro_9:17). The secret feast is here the illicit pleasure (cf Pro_30:20). The fact that people like what they ought not to like all the more because they ought not, is a complex phenomenon of the soul. The sweetness of liberty recovered is in it, and forms its good side. Liberty adds a perfume and spice to every pleasure, no matter what the pleasure may be. Augustine tells how he robbed an orchard as a boy, admitting that he did not want the pears, and arguing that it must therefore have been his depravity that led him to find pleasure in taking them! In the same way one might prove the depravity of the jackdaw that steals a ring. Let us repudiate the affectation of depravity, a great “folly” in its way; and rather draw the wholesome lesson that the love of liberty, of fun—in short, of any healthy exercise of energy, needs direction. The instinct for privacy and liberty gives no less zest to legitimate than to illicit pleasures.
    II. THE END OF FOLLY. (Pro_9:18.)
53. It is represented under images of darkness and dread. Shadows, “children of death,” dead men, departed ghosts, hover about the dwelling of Folly and the persons of her guests. And these, while even they sit at her table amidst feasting and mirth, are already, in the eyes of Wisdom the spectator, in the depths of hell. Thus the shadows of coming ill “darken the ruby of the cup, and dim the splendour of the scene.”
54. The indefinable is more impressive in its effect than the definable. As e.g. Burke has felicitously shown in his treatise on ’The Sublime and Beautiful.’ The obscure realities of the other world, the mysterious twilight, the chiaro-oscuro of the imagination: in this region is found all that fascinates the mind with hope or terror. If it be asked—What precisely will be the doom of the wicked, the bliss of the righteous? the answer is—Definite knowledge has not been imparted, is impossible, and would have less effect than the vague but positive forms in which the truth is hinted.
55. The indefinable is not the less certain. It is the definite which is contingent, uncertain. Our life is a constant becoming from moment to moment. This of its nature is as indefinable as the melting of darkness into day, or the reverse.—J.
    HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
    Pro_9:1-6
    The Divine invitation
    Wisdom invites the sons of men to a feast. Christ, “the Wisdom of God,” is inviting us all to partake of eternal life. A feast may well be regarded as the picture and type of life at its fullest. It combines so many of the best features of human life—bounty generously offered and graciously accepted, nourishment, enjoyment, social intercourse, intellectual and spiritual as well as bodily gratification. In the gospel of Christ there is offered to us life at its very fullest—Divine, eternal. We are invited by Eternal Wisdom to partake thereof, to “lay hold” thereupon. These verses suggest to us—
    I. THE COMPLETENESS OF THE DIVINE PREPARATION. (Pro_9:1, Pro_9:2.) The house is built, the full number of pillars hewn, the beasts killed, the wine mingled, the table set out. Everything is arranged and executed; nothing is forgotten or omitted. Every guest will find that which he needs. How complete is the preparation which God has made for us in the gospel of grace and life! The whole of the Old Testament may be said to be a part of the history of his preparation. All his dealings with his ancient people, and his control of the heathen nations, were leading up to the one great issue—the redemption of mankind by a life-giving Saviour. The New Testament continues the same account; the birth, the ministry, the life, the sorrows, the death, the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, the evangelizing work and the interpretive letters of the apostles, form the last part of the Divine preparation. And now everything is complete. The house is built, the table is spread, the wine outpoured. There is nothing which a guilty, sorrowing, striving, seeking soul can hunger or thirst for which it will not find at this heavenly feast. Mercy, full reconciliation, unfailing friendship, comfort, strength, hope, joy in God, everlasting life,—everything is there.
    II. THE GRACIOUSNESS OF THE INVITATION. (Pro_9:3, Pro_9:4.) Wisdom sends “her maidens” and “cries upon the highest places of the city.” She charges those to speak who are likeliest to be listened to, and to utter her invitation where it is surest to be heard. Moreover, she does not restrict her call to those who may be said to be her own children (Mat_11:19); on the other hand, she addresses herself specially to those who are strange to hereto “the simple,” to “him that wanteth understanding,” In the gospel of the grace of God:
56. It is the gracious Lord himself who speaks to us, and in the most winning way. It is he himself who says, “Come unto me;” “If any man thirst,” etc.; “I am the Bread of life,” etc.
57. He has, in his providence and grace, caused the message of mercy to be sounded where all can hear it—”upon the highest places of the city.”
58. He calks all men to his bountiful board, specially those who are in the greatest need (Luk_14:21-23; Mat_9:12, Mat_9:13).
    III. THE CHARACTER OF THE MESSAGE. (Pro_9:5, Pro_9:6.) Wisdom calls those who hear her messengers to forsake folly, to walk in righteousness, and thus to enter into life. The Wisdom of God himself calls those who hear his voice to:
59. Turn from their iniquity, turning away from the fellowship of the unholy as well as from the practice of sin.
60. Enter into closest fellowship with him himself; thus eating of the bread and drinking of the water of life; thus walking in the way of truth, holiness, love, wisdom; thus “going in the way of understanding.”
61. Partake with him the life which is Divine and eternal—life for God, life in God, life with God forever.—C.
    Pro_9:7-9
    The penalty and promise of instruction
    It is not only the function of the minister of Christ to “reprove, rebuke, and exhort” (2Ti_4:2); the “man of God” is to be so furnished from Scripture as to be able to administer “reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness” (2Ti_3:16.17). But instruction, especially when it takes the form of correction, has its penalty as well as its recompense.
    I. THE PENALTY OF INSTRUCTION. (Pro_9:7, Pro_9:8). It is in the heart of the wise to rebuke iniquity. Those who are upright and true, who hate evil even as God hates it, are stirred to a holy indignation when they behold the dark and shameful manifestations of sin, and remonstrance rises to their lips. It is as “fire in their bones” until they have “delivered their soul.”
62. Rebuke is often decidedly advantageous. It not, only relieves the mind of the godly speaker, but it shames those who should be made to blush for their deeds. Even when it fails to impress the principal defaulter, the arch-criminal, it may produce a wholesome influence on the minds of those who witness it. A burning flame of righteous wrath will sometimes consume much unrighteousness.
63. Nevertheless, it is true that the wise must count on the contrary being the result. It may be that remonstrance will be thrown away, that it will come to nothing but shame on the part of him that reproves—a “blot on the page,” and nothing but provocation to him that is rebuked, inciting him to hatred (Pro_9:8). The likelihood must be reckoned, and the wise must act accordingly. If there is hope of doing good, some risk may well be run. All interposition is not here discountenanced. Good men must use their discretion. There is a time to speak, using the language of strong and even severe reproach. On the ether hand—this is the truth of the text—there is a time to be silent, to leave abandoned and guilty men to be condemned of God. Reproach would be lost upon them; it would only come back with a severe rebound, and wound the speaker (see Mat_7:6).
    II. THE PROMISE OF INSTRUCTION. (Pro_9:8, Pro_9:9.)
64. There are those in whom is the spirit of docility. They are ready to learn. Of these are the young. Our Lord commended the spirit of childhood partly for this reason, viz. that it is the spirit of docility. It has openness of mind, eagerness of heart to receive instruction. Of these, also, are those in whom the spirit of wisdom dwells, but who have fallen into error.
65. Instruction in these cases will be well repaid. If we rebuke a wise man, a man who is essentially good but accidentally wrong, we shall meet with appreciation: “he will love us.” If we impart instruction to those already wise, we shall add to their excellency (Pro_9:9). So that intelligent, well timed instruction will do two things.
    (1) It will restore the erring—a most valuable and admirable action, on which the best of men may truly congratulate themselves.
    (2) It will multiply the power of the good. It will add knowledge and wisdom to those who are already wise; it will make good men better, happier, worthier, in themselves; it will also make them more influential for good in the sphere in which they move. This, then, is the threefold lesson of the text:
66. Know when to be silent under provocation.
67. Speak the word of reproach in season.
68. Communicate knowledge to all who will welcome it.—C.
    Pro_9:10, Pro_9:11
    Digging deep rising high, lasting long
    (See homilies on Pro_1:7 and Pro_3:1-4.) The fact that we meet with the opening sentence of the text in no less than three other places (Job_27:1-23 :28; Psa_111:10; Pro_1:7), gives to it a peculiar significance. It indicates that the Divine Author of the Bible would impress deeply on our minds the truth—
    I. THAT ON THE FEAR OF GOD, AS ON A SOLID ROCK, ALL HUMAN WISDOM RESTS. Nothing which a man can have in his outward circumstances or in his mind will compensate for the absence of this principle from the soul. He may have every conceivable advantage in his surroundings; he may have all imaginable shrewdness, dexterity, cleverness, acuteness of intellect; but if everything be not based on the fear of the living God, his character must be fatally incomplete, and his life must be a deplorable mistake. Reverence of spirit, devotion of habit, the obedience of the life,-this is the solid ground on which all wisdom rests. Let a man be ever so learned or so astute, if this be absent Wisdom itself writes him down a fool.
    II. THAT SACRED TRUTH IS THE LOFTIEST AND WORTHIEST SUBJECT OF HUMAN STUDY. It is well worth our while to give our careful and continuous thought to scientific, economical, historical, political truth. These will repay our study; they will enlarge our mind and heighten our understanding. But worthy as they are, they yield in importance to the truth which is sacred and, in an especial sense, Divine. To “understand and know God,” who he is, what is his character, what are the conditions of his abiding love; to know man, who and what he is, what constitutes the real excellence and nobility of human character, what are the perils which threaten and what the habits which elevate it; to know the “path of life,” the way back to God, to holiness, to heaven;—this is wisdom indeed. The knowledge of the holy is understanding. All other learning is slight in comparison with this supreme attainment.
    III. THAT THE SERVICE OF GOD IS INSEPARABLY CONNECTED WITH THE LASTING WELL-BEING OF MAN. (Pro_9:11.)
69. Obedience to Jehovah would have given a prolonged and enduring life to the Jewish nation in their own favoured land. Conformity to Divine Law, the practice of truth, purity, uprightness, simplicity of life and manners,—these will go far to ensure long life to any nation now.
70. Obedience to Divine Law, especially to one commandment (Exo_20:12), gave good hope of longevity to the children of the Law (Pro_9:11; Pro_3:2, Pro_3:16). Piety and virtue now have promise of life and health. The sober, the pure, the diligent, those mindful of God’s will, are likely to have their days multiplied and the years of their life increased.
71. To the true servants of Christ, who are faithful unto death, there is assured a “crown of life” (Rev_2:10).—C.
    Pro_9:12
    Wisdom and folly
    In this short verse we have some valuable thoughts suggested respecting both wisdom and folly.
    I. THE DISINTERESTEDNESS OF WISDOM. If any one should urge against the claims of Wisdom that they are very high, urgent, oppressive, that God’s commandment is “exceeding broad;” if it be asked by the young, “Why fling these shadows on our path? why weigh us down with these responsibilities?” it may well be replied by Wisdom, “Your services are not necessary to me. ’If I were hungry, I would not tell thee,’ etc.; if I plead with you, it is for your sake. You have need of my voice and my control; apart from me you cannot be blessed, you cannot realize the end of your being. I can do well without your devotion, but you cannot do without my favour. If you are wise, you will be wise for yourself.”
    II. THE INALIENABLE CHARACTER OF WISDOM AS A POSSESSION. The wise man in the Book of Ecclesiastes laments that riches are things which a wise man may take much trouble to gather, but he does not know who may scatter them. A man may be laborious and frugal, but not for himself; all the good may go to others who come after him. Thus is it with various acquisitions. Men no sooner gain them than they leave them behind for others; e.g. the hero, his glory; the student, his learning; the conqueror or discoverer, the territory he has gained or found. But if a man is wise, he is wise for himself as well as for others; he has a prize of which no accident will rob him, and which death itself will not take from his hands. Once his, it is his forever—it is an inalienable possession.
    III. THE PROFOUND NATURE OF TRUE WISDOM. There is a very shallow philosophy which assumes the name of wisdom, which invites us to stake everything on securing a comfortable and prosperous career in this world, leaving out of account the supreme realities of our obligations to God, our duty to our own spiritual and immortal nature, our responsibilities to other souls. This superficial and false teaching overlooks the fundamental fact that a man is more than his means, that ourself is greater than our circumstances, that it is a poor profit to gain a world and lose a soul, that if we are wise we shall be wise
    for ourselves.
    IV. THE STARTING POINT OF TRUE WISDOM. Some are speaking with indignation, not insincere, against so much insistence on a man’s seeking his own salvation. They say it is only a refined selfishness. It may be true that there are Christian teachers who enlarge on this aspect disproportionately; but it must ever remain a truth of great prominence that a man’s first duty to God is the duty he owes to himself. First, because his own soul is his primary and chief charge; and, secondly, because he can do little or nothing for the world till his own heart is right. If a man, therefore, will be wise, he must first be wise for himself.
    V. THE FATE OF FOLLY. “If thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.” This does not mean that only the sinner bears the consequences of his guilt—that is deplorably untrue; sin is widespreading and far-reaching in its evil consequences—it circulates and it descends. The passage means that the foolish man will have to bear alone the condemnation of his folly; every man that lives and dies impenitent must “bear his own burden” of penalty. The remorse and self-reproach of the future none will be able to divide; it must be borne by the sinner himself. There is One that once bore our transgressions for us, and will bear them away unto the land of forgetfulness now.—C.
    Pro_9:13-18
    The truth about sin
    Solomon, having told us of the excellency of Wisdom, and of the blessings she has to confer on her children, now bids us consider the consequences of listening to sin, when she, the foolish woman, utters her invitation. We learn—
    I. THAT SIN IN ITS LATER DEVELOPMENTS IS A VERY ODIOUS THING. What a painful and repulsive picture we have here of the foolish woman, who, though utterly ignorant and unworthy (Pro_9:13), assumes a conspicuous position in the city, places herself “on a seat in the high places,” speaks with a “clamorous” voice, and, herself unaddressed, calls aloud to those who are going on their way! When we present the scene to our imagination, we instinctively shrink from it as repelling and odious. All sin is hateful in the sight of God; to him it is “that abominable thing” (Jer_44:4). And to all the pure in heart it is also, though not equally, repulsive. In its later stages and final developments it is simply and thoroughly detestable.
    II. THAT TEMPTATION TO SIN BESETS THE UNWARY AS WELL AS THE EVIL MINDED. Folly addresses herself to “passengers who go right on their ways” (Pro_9:15). There are those who go wilfully and wantonly in the way of temptation. They seek the company of the profane, the attentions of the immoral. These walk into the net, and are ensnared. Then there are others who have no thought of evil in their heart; they are not “purposing to transgress;” but as they pass right on their way, the temptress throws her net at if not over them, that she may entangle them. The path of human life is beset with spiritual perils; it is necessary to be prepared against all forms of evil. We must not only be upright in intention, but wary and well armed also. “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary,” etc. (1Pe_5:8).
    III. THAT TO UNSANCTIFIED HUMAN NATURE SIN IS SOMETIMES A TERRIBLY SEDUCTIVE THING. “The foolish woman,” though she is said to “know nothing,” yet knows enough to say truly, “Stolen waters are sweet,” etc. (Pro_9:17). It is useless, because it is false, to deny that vice has its pleasures. Lasciviousness, revelry, avarice, usurpation, have their delights; and there is a peculiar pleasure in snatching unlawful gratifications rather than in accepting those which are honourable. When our nature is unregenerated and unsanctified, when passion is at its height, when in the soul there is the ardour and energy of youth, vice has powerful attractions. The young may well provide themselves against the dark hour of temptation with “the whole armour of God,” or they may not be able to stand victorious.
    IV. THAT THOSE WHO HAVE ABANDONED THEMSELVES TO SIN ARE IN THE EMBRACE OF RUIN. “He knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell’ (Pro_9:18). Not only is it true
    (1) that those who yield themselves to guilty passion are on the high road to ultimate perdition; but it is also true
    (2) that they are already in the depth of ruin. They are “dead while they live” (1Ti_5:6); they are “in the depths of hell” (text). To be sacrificing manhood or womanhood on the altar of an unholy pleasure, or an immoral gain, or an enslaving lamination; to be sinning continually against God, and to be systematically degrading our own soul to be falling lower and lower in the estimation of the wise until we become the object of their pity or their scorn;—this is ruin. No need to wait for judgment and condemnation; the guests of sin are in the depths of hell. If near the door, if on its step, if in its hall, “escape for thy life” (see Wardlaw, in loc.).—C.

Proverbs 9:1
If the Wisdom spoken of by Solomon be none other than Christ, the house of Wisdom must be the spiritual house which Christ builds—His Church. This house is described as being strong and stable. Wisdom hath hewn out her seven pillars. Seven is the number constantly used in the Bible to typify perfection or completeness: and the meaning is, that the building rests on so many and such strong pillars that, once erected, it will never fall.
I. The first pillar is that of Faith, which rests the most directly upon the foundation of all—that Rock which is Christ.
II. The second pillar is that of Hope. Despair is a deadly element in the spiritual house. There is no greater traitor in our camp than he who cries, “All is lost.”
III. The pillar of Love binds the whole building together, “the very bond of peace and of all virtues.” If faith be the foundation-stone on which the building rests, and hope the soaring tower which points to heaven, love is the porch by which all must enter, and without which they are intruders, who have climbed up some other way.
IV. There is the pillar of Discretion: the spirit which knows what to say and what not to say, what to do and what to leave undone. We are often discredited with the world because we lack this pillar in our building.
V. There is the pillar of Sacrifice. There is no room for drones in the hive, no place in the house for those who have not helped to build it, or are not helping to make it serve the purpose for which it was built.
VI. There is the pillar of Truthfulness. As a matter of eventual success, no less than of Christian duty, we must renounce the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
VII. The last pillar is that of Memory. Not only is the Church built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, we are surrounded also by a great cloud of witnesses, of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues—a multitude which no man can number, who form the unbroken line of our spiritual ancestry. We must not cut ourselves off from these. The memories of the past belong to the Church, as much as the hopes of the future.
A. Blomfield, Sermons in Town and Country, p. 260.
References: Pro_9:1-5.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xxii., p. 80; C. Kingsley, Discipline and other Sermons, p. 11; Outline Sermons to Children, p. 70.

Proverbs 9:1-6
The marriage supper for the king’s son.
I. The house. The frame is set up from everlasting, well-ordered in all things, and sure. The tried Foundation is the Lord our Righteousness. The seven pillars indicate, in Oriental form, that its supports and ornaments are perfect in strength and beauty.
II. The feast prepared. The provisions of God’s house are wholesome, various, plentiful. Whatever the covenant provides, the true Church diligently sets forth in the ordinances before the people.
III. The inviting messenger. These are the ambassadors whom Christ employs to carry the message of His mercy to their brethren.
IV. The invited guests. The message is specially addressed to the simple. Those who are conscious of ignorance are ever most ready to learn the wisdom from above.
V. The argument by which the invitation is supported is: (1) positive, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled;” and (2) negative, “Forsake the foolish and live.” The grand turning-point is to get the prodigal to break off from that which destroys him.
W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 209.
Reference: Pro_9:1-18.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 207.

Proverbs 9:3-4
Pro_9:3-4, Pro_9:16
I. Choose. Here is the manliness of manhood, that a man has a reason for what he does, and has a will in doing it. Be the masters and lords of the circumstances in which you stand. Put your heel on temptations if they come to you. Remember there is the alternative, the one thing or the other, and it becomes you to make up your mind, to resolve, to know why you have done so, and to act because and as you have resolved.
II. Choose wisdom. There are the two claimants that are standing wooing your affections: Wisdom, on the one side; and this “foolish woman,” the embodiment and impersonation of Folly, on the other. (1) At first sight, on a cursory reading of the earlier chapters of this Book of Proverbs, it may seem as if all that was meant by wisdom was a shrewd earthly common-sense and worldly prudence; while folly, on the other hand, may seem to be mere ignorance and want of understanding. But look a little closer, and you will see that the wisdom spoken of in all these chapters is closely connected, not only with clearness of the well-furnished head, but with uprightness of the heart. (a) The wisdom that he speaks about is wisdom that has rectitude for an essential part of it, the fibre of its very being a righteousness and holiness. If a man would be wise it must be with a wisdom that was in God before it is in him. (b) The true wisdom is no mere quality, but a living person; her voice is the voice of Christ, our Brother, our Sacrifice, and our Lord. (2) Mark the manner of these appeals and the consequences of listening to them. The wisdom of our text appeals to conscience. Folly appeals only to the sense of pleasure and desire of gratification. Severe and pure though the beauty of wisdom is, yet “her ways are ways of pleasantness, and her paths are peace.” “All the things thou canst desire” are not to be compared with what she has to bestow.
III. Choose Christ now. There is no more dark remembrance to a Christian man than the early days when he put off decision. Every day that you live makes it less likely that you will choose. Every day that you live makes it harder for you to choose aright. Every day adds to the heap of wasted hours that you will carry regretfully with you to your graves, if ever you give the trust of your spirits, the love of your hearts, the obedience of your lives to Christ Jesus at all.
A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester, p. 304.
References: Pro_9:5.—J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 3rd series, p. 48. Pro_9:7.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 183. Pro_9:7-9.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 213.

Proverbs 9:10
I. Nothing can prosper long that runs its head against any of the great walls of the universe. Life is known by its manifestations; no one has ever seen it. And no one ever sees the invisible barriers that close like a prison round the living, whenever they violate the laws of life. There arc unseen, pitiless limits existing—walls of adamant, against which the waves of human passion and human folly dash, and break, and are shattered without mercy, even though every drop be a life, and every life be dashed to pieces in hopeless agony in the vain endeavour to go its own way, and set its own will as the judge what that way shall be. There is an eternal march of judgment, which they who choose can see. And calm, and clear, and pitiless on every side, amidst the noise of ignorant self-will, the clash of blinded passion, and wisdom blinder still, the voiceless warning strikes upon the world; and the great prison walls close in on those who will have it so.
II. It may be said: “These are but words; what proof is there of this invisible, everlasting wall of doom, and of the unseen executioners, God’s secret police, that arrest the guilty and the careless, self-indulgent fools?” I answer: “Take any form of vice you like, give it power, give it wealth, and then—wait a few years and see what comes of it. Watch the curse day by day, and hour by hour, walking by the victim’s side; watch him dragged from bad to worse; stand in his dreary home when the last scene comes,—and doubt no more of God’s great prison walls on earth.”
III. But it is equally true that the great laws of life act for good to those who follow them. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” God has not only set His prison walls that punish, and appointed His secret police of vengeance that avenge; but He has also set within the broad space of the world the protecting walls of the fold of Christ, the happy home of those who follow Him, where His sheep go in and out, and find pasture.
E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons, vol. ii., p. 358.
References: Pro_9:10.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ix., p. 156. Pro_9:12.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 219. Pro_9:13-18.—Ibid., p. 221. Pro_10:1.—Ibid., p. 229. Pro_10:4.—Ibid., p. 234. Pro_10:1-5.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. i., p. 219.

Proverbs 9:16
Pro_9:3-4, Pro_9:16
I. Choose. Here is the manliness of manhood, that a man has a reason for what he does, and has a will in doing it. Be the masters and lords of the circumstances in which you stand. Put your heel on temptations if they come to you. Remember there is the alternative, the one thing or the other, and it becomes you to make up your mind, to resolve, to know why you have done so, and to act because and as you have resolved.
II. Choose wisdom. There are the two claimants that are standing wooing your affections: Wisdom, on the one side; and this “foolish woman,” the embodiment and impersonation of Folly, on the other. (1) At first sight, on a cursory reading of the earlier chapters of this Book of Proverbs, it may seem as if all that was meant by wisdom was a shrewd earthly common-sense and worldly prudence; while folly, on the other hand, may seem to be mere ignorance and want of understanding. But look a little closer, and you will see that the wisdom spoken of in all these chapters is closely connected, not only with clearness of the well-furnished head, but with uprightness of the heart. (a) The wisdom that he speaks about is wisdom that has rectitude for an essential part of it, the fibre of its very being a righteousness and holiness. If a man would be wise it must be with a wisdom that was in God before it is in him. (b) The true wisdom is no mere quality, but a living person; her voice is the voice of Christ, our Brother, our Sacrifice, and our Lord. (2) Mark the manner of these appeals and the consequences of listening to them. The wisdom of our text appeals to conscience. Folly appeals only to the sense of pleasure and desire of gratification. Severe and pure though the beauty of wisdom is, yet “her ways
are ways of pleasantness, and her paths are peace.” “All the things thou canst desire” are not to be compared with what she has to bestow.
III. Choose Christ now. There is no more dark remembrance to a Christian man than the early days when he put off decision. Every day that you live makes it less likely that you will choose. Every day that you live makes it harder for you to choose aright. Every day adds to the heap of wasted hours that you will carry regretfully with you to your graves, if ever you give the trust of your spirits, the love of your hearts, the obedience of your lives to Christ Jesus at all.
A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester, p. 304.
References: Pro_9:5.—J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 3rd series, p. 48. Pro_9:7.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 183. Pro_9:7-9.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 1st series, p. 213.

Proverbs 9:1
House. The sacred humanity, (St. Ignatius; St. Augustine, City of God 17:20) or the Church. (St. Gregory, Mor. 33:15) — Here we may receive all instruction, the seven sacraments, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Pleasure had mentioned here attractions: now those of true wisdom are set before us. (Calmet) — God sent his pastors at all times, to invite people to embrace the latter. They are all included in the number seven, both before and under the law, as well as in the gospel, where St. Paul styles Sts. Peter, James, and John, pillars, Galatians ii. This is the literal sense, on which the mystical is grounded, and both are intended by the Holy Ghost, intimating that the uncreated wisdom took flesh of the blessed Virgin [Mary], prepared the table of bread and wine, as Priest according to the order of Melchisedec, and chose the weak of this world to confound the strong, as St. Augustine explain this passage. (Sup. and q. 51.) (Worthington)

Proverbs 9:2
Victims. Moses ordered the blood to be poured out at the door of the tabernacle, and a part given to the priests, after which the rest might be taken away. The like was probably done at Jerusalem, Lev_17:4 These victims are contrasted with those of pleasure, chap. 7:14 — Mingled. It was not customary for any but barbarians and the gods to take pure wine. Some mixed two, others three, five, or even twenty parts of water. But the scholiast of Aristophanes says, the best method was to have three parts water, and two of wine. Mercury complains that his wine was half water. (Arist. Plut. v. Sun. i.) — The Fathers often apply this text to the feast of Jesus Christ in the blessed Eucharist. (Calmet) — St. Cyprian (ep. iii.) citeth the whole passage of Christ’s sacrifice in the forms of bread and wine. (Worthington)

Proverbs 9:3
Maids. Septuagint, “servant men,” the pastors of the church, inviting all to piety in so public a manner, that none can plead ignorance. (St. Gregory) (Calmet) — To invite. Protestants, “she crieth upon the highest places of the city.” (Haydock) — Christ enjoins his apostles to preach on the roofs, Mat_10:37

Proverbs 9:4
One. Simple, but not inconstant, like children, 1Co_14:20 Pleasure addresses the same, (chap. 7:7) but for their destruction. (Calmet)

Proverbs 9:7
Scorner. This is the reason why wisdom speaks only to the simple. The conceited would only laugh at her instructions. These scoffers represent heretics and libertines, chap. 1:22 (Calmet) — Where there is no hope of amendment, prudence and charity require us to be silent, as our rebukes would only procure us enmity, and make the sinner worse. (Worthington) — Of such St. John was afraid, and therefore ceased from writing, 3Jn_1:9. Yet St. Paul commands public reprehension, 1Ti_5:20 (Menochius) — When there is any prospect of good, all, particularly superiors, are bound to correct. (St. Augustine, City of God 1:9; and St. Basil, reg. fus. 158.) (Worthington)

Proverbs 9:9
Occasion. This word is found in Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic. We might supply instruction, (Calmet) with Protestants.

Proverbs 9:10
Prudence. Or “prudence is the science of the saints,” (Haydock) directing what to choose on all occasions to obtain heaven. (Calmet) — The knowledge contained in the holy Scriptures, and possessed by the saints, is superior to all other sciences. (Menochius)

Proverbs 9:13
And full. Protestants, “she is simple and knoweth nothing.” Septuagint, “is in want of a piece of bread.” They have several verses before this, which are here omitted. (Haydock) — Wisdom and pleasure are opposed to each other. (Calmet)

Proverbs 9:17
Pleasant. Impure pleasures are more delightful (Calmet) to sensual men. (Haydock) — The prohibition increases appetite. (Menochius)

Proverbs 9:18
Giants. Who lived when all flesh had corrupted its ways, (Gen_6:12) and were sentenced to hell, Job_26:5, and Isa_14:9 (Calmet)

Proverbs 9:1
(1760) Rev_1:20, Zec_4:2

Proverbs 9:8
Pro_15:12; Pro_10:8

Proverbs 9:9
Pro_12:15

Proverbs 9:10
(1761) It is the fear of YHWH that will lead one to heartfelt repentance that will in turn lead to knowledge, wisdom understanding and instruction. Without the fear of YHWH, the pride of man will rule in his heart, Pro_16:18, Pro_29:23, Pro_1:7; Pro_15:33

Proverbs 9:1-6

Introduction

This chapter is the conclusion and also summary of Proverbs 1-8 which is the introduction to this book. Both woman Wisdom and woman Folly make a final appeal. The two women illustrate the teaching of the previous eight chapters.

They both address the naive (Pro_9:4 Pro_9:16 ), those who lack wisdom. They are the gullible. They need wisdom to live, but they are very easily influenced by foolishness. Both women compete for their favor. They each do so in their own way with appropriate results. To respond to the invitation of woman Wisdom means to enter life. To accept the invitation of woman Folly means to enter the realm of the dead. Woman Wisdom offers life without saying anything about pleasure. Woman Folly offers pleasure without saying anything about death.

Woman Wisdom is portrayed as the Builder and Dweller of a beautiful house Who sends Her maids out to invite guests. Woman Folly is portrayed as a lewd woman who sits on a chair by the door of her house and lures passersby to come to her. Both women have organized a feast with a meal.

The Invitation of Wisdom

Wisdom, Who appears here for the last time in these introductory chapters, is also called “the highest Wisdom” (Pro_9:1 ). This means that in Her is a fullness of wisdom; all wisdom is in Her. Again, we see in this a clear picture of Christ “in Whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden” (Col_2:3 ).

Of Her it is said that She “has built Her house”. It is about something new, made by Her and available to all who respond to Her invitation. It is Her house. She has built it not only for Herself, but in it She wants to receive others and make them feel at home. Her house is a huge contrast to the house of the harlot. The harlot does not build Her house, but demolishes it.

Wisdom also “has hewn out her seven pillars” to have Her house rest on them. The number seven speaks of completeness, without defect, and perfection, without lack. The building is established on a perfect foundation, making it unshakable.

James mentions seven characteristics of “the wisdom from above” (Jas_3:17 ), which we can apply to the seven pillars. They are characteristics that can be perfectly seen in the Lord Jesus.

1. The first characteristic of wisdom is that it is “pure”. James emphasizes the importance of this by saying of purity that it takes the “first” place. The following characteristics flow from this. Purity is a first requirement because it is about Christ Who is pure.
2. Wisdom is “then peaceable”. Christ is the great Peacemaker. Whoever accepts Him and becomes wise will also be a peacemaker. The Lord Jesus also speaks in the Sermon on the Mount first about purity and then peace (Mat_5:8-9 ).
3. A next pillar of the house of woman Wisdom is called “gentle”. It is a house in which no one stands up for his own rights. How gentle was Christ.
4. He who is wise is also “reasonable”. Christ was willing to do what His Father told Him to do, that is, He complied completely with His Father’s will. It will also be so with everyone who accepts the invitation of Wisdom.
5. In His relationship to others, Christ was “full of mercy and good fruits”. He was and is compassionate to others who are in misery and is a blessing to them. Everyone who is wise will be so.
6. Christ was and is “without partiality” in His dealings with others. He neither favors nor excludes anyone. There is no regard for persons with Him, just as there is none with those who are wise.
7. Finally, He was and is “without hypocrisy”. There is no hypocrisy with Him. He does not pretend to be anything other than what He is, but is Who He says He is. The same is true of everyone who is wise.

Wisdom has not only prepared the house and the pillars. She has also prepared everything in that house Herself to receive and provide food for the guests (Pro_9:2 ). The menu consists of meat and wine, of food and drink, of the best kind.

That “She has slaughtered her slaughter” shows that She uses Her own cattle. In this we can see a reference to Christ Who gave Himself in death as a provision for sinners. Only on the basis of His death can they come to the banquet. So to speak, it is not a vegetarian banquet, but a banquet for which blood has been shed and where meat is eaten.

In picture, or in terms of its spiritual meaning, it is about eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking His blood. Eating it gives a person eternal life, but this must be followed by eating it continually (Joh_6:53-56 ). Since, given the invitation of woman Wisdom, others may eat of this flesh, we can think of Christ as the peace offering. The peace offering represents Christ in His work on the cross on the basis of which fellowship with Him, with God and with one another is possible (cf. 1Co_5:7-8 ).

This banquet, where fellowship is experienced, gives not only life but also joy. We see that joy in the wine She has mixed. Wine is a picture of joy (Jdg_9:13 ; Psa_104:15 ). She also took care of the wine. She has mixed it with water or with spices so that it is of the best quality. The wine speaks of utter joy that is enjoyed when there is fellowship with the Father and the Son and with one another (1Jn_1:1-4 ).

Next we see that She has “also” set Her table ready. The word “also” indicates an additional activity. A “table” speaks of fellowship, of possessing something in common and sharing it. That it says “Her table” means that Her concern is not only about providing food and drink for the guests, but also eating and drinking with them. “Her table” expresses fellowship with Her, sharing in what is Her portion.

When Wisdom has prepared everything to receive the guests, She sends out “Her maidens” (Pro_9:3 ). Through them She calls “from the tops of the heights of the city”. The maidens echo Her voice. She makes every effort to reach everyone with Her invitation. Everyone can hear Her, for She “calls”. Everyone can see Her, for She occupies a high place in the city. Thus Christ sends out His servants with His invitation to come to His banquet.

And whom does She invite? Everyone who is naive and acknowledges it, for he is asked to turn in to Her (Pro_9:4 ). What She makes, Her house, is spacious and has an unshakable foundation (Pro_9:1 ). What She offers, Her meal, is regal (Pro_9:2 ). Those whom She invites do not fit in. They are the opposite of regal, for they come from the streets and lack any qualification to be there. The Lord Jesus uses the same picture in a parable (cf. Luk_14:21-23 ).

Therefore, something must happen before someone accepts the invitation. For the call to come also implies a call to repentance. This is echoed in the words “let him turn in here”. What Wisdom offers can only be enjoyed if the path of sin is abandoned. He who recognizes that “understanding” lacks him, will turn from his foolish path; he will leave that path, repent, and come to Wisdom.

She invites, not just to come and see, but to come and eat of Her bread and drink of the wine She has mixed (Pro_9:5 ). How many people continue to stand at a distance looking at what Christ offers without actually accepting the eternal life He offers.

Some think it is too easy. You cannot just accept it. They believe that something has to be done by them first. Others want to enjoy life first. They believe they can decide for themselves when they will come. But it is an invitation without conditions and also an invitation that must be accepted unconditionally. All the invitees must do is come and do so immediately (cf. Isa_55:1 ).

Any excuse not to accept the invitation (cf. Luk_14:18-20 ) falls under “folly” that must be forsaken. Those who forsake them will live. As long as conversion has not taken place, a person is in death. But whoever listens to the voice of Wisdom, that is, the voice of the Son of God, will pass from death into life (Joh_5:24 ). This is life in its true and full sense that is offered at conversion.

Those who repent and live “proceed in the way of understanding”, which is the way in which one demonstrates understanding, a conduct and walk determined by understanding. It is the path on which the believer seeks fellowship with God and His own. On that path, Scripture is read and consulted and God’s guidance is sought in prayer. The counsel or instruction of fellow believers is also valued. These things demonstrate understanding.

Christ, the Wisdom of God, is no longer on earth. He has become the exalted Wisdom, glorified at the right hand of God. The Wisdom of God now becomes visible, is expressed, in the building of a spiritual house, the church. This house consists of the many sons whom Christ leads to glory. They know God and the mysteries, enabling them to live their life in the light of eternity.

Proverbs 9:7-12

The Scoffer and the Wise Man

Pro_9:7-12 form a transitional section connecting the previous section (Pro_9:1-6 ) with the next (Pro_9:13-18 ). Here we still hear Wisdom speaking, summarizing the main things of Her teaching. We can think of these words as spoken to the naive. He should not associate with a scoffer, not even to correct him (Pro_9:7 ). Indeed, if he seeks to correct him, he “gets dishonor for himself”. To argue with a mocker means to be showered with filth.

A scoffer is essentially “a wicked man”. It is someone who willfully sins and is not open to reason (2Pe_3:3-5 ). It is dangerous to reprove someone who willfully defies God. Such a person follows his own lusts and deliberately goes against all the commandments of God. It is throwing pearls before swine if we present him with the beauty of the gospel. There is a good chance that he will turn around to devour his reprover (Mat_7:6 ).

What this section says is a penetrating depiction of the two types of people we have encountered in this book: the scoffer and the wise. The “scoffer” is the person who lives with contempt for wise and sound teaching. His scoffing is so deep that he also cannot tolerate others listening to sound teaching. He expresses this by making cynical remarks about it.

Wisdom urgently advises not to reprove the scoffer, for this will only make him hate you (Pro_9:8 ). The scoffer is incorrigible. Therefore, Wisdom warns that anyone who tries to correct a scoffer is asking for trouble. Arguing and hurling insults are in the blood of these cynical troublemakers. The only response the scoffer gives is hatred. Anyone who tries to correct the scoffer is rejected by him with disgust.

It comes down to a situation where whoever is wise must become even wiser, and whoever is a scoffer must scoff even more (cf. Rev_22:11 ). Wisdom makes it clear that the character of each person will continue to develop in the direction he has chosen. Wisdom confronts a choice with eternal consequences.

Against the response of the scoffer to reproof is the response of the wise to reproof (Pro_9:8 ). The wise one will love the one who reproves him. He proves that he is a wise person by listening to an instruction. And not only that. He will love the instruction. Instruction that is accepted produces love, the opposite of the hatred that arises in the scoffer when he is reproved.

It shows that someone does not think highly of himself and is willing to receive further teaching. In addition to being a wise person, he is also a righteous person (Pro_9:9 ). Such a person wants to gain greater understanding of Who God is and of who he himself is. That understanding gives life its true richness and meaning. It is then lived with more and more satisfaction, because more and more is answered to the purpose of God with it.

True wisdom finds its origin in “the fear of the LORD” (Pro_9:10 ). Without fear, in the sense of reverence, for God, there can be no wisdom. No one is wise until he fears God. To fear means to be afraid of oneself for dishonoring God. It is not the fear of a slave for a master, but of one who loves God. The first evidence of wisdom, the beginning of it, is fearing God.

He who is wise from the fear of the LORD does not fear Him, but rather wants to be close to Him in order to know Him better. Through “the knowledge of the Holy One” – by Whom God is meant as the triune God – the wise person gains understanding of life, how it should be lived.

Whoever listens to the call of Wisdom and embraces its beginning, the fear of God, receives a wonderful reward. That reward is presented as an additional argument for accepting the invitation of Wisdom. Wisdom holds out the prospect of multitudes of days and addition of years, or eternal life (Pro_9:11 ). Here, as always, it is about the life of the soul and not physical life. “But the one who does the will of God”, that is, who listens to Wisdom, “will live forever” (1Jn_2:17 ).

In Pro_9:12 , the conclusion follows with an agreement and a contradiction. Both those who are wise and those who are scoffers face the consequences of who they are. He who is wise will benefit from it himself, while he who is a scoffer must bear the consequences of it himself. Whoever is wise and is guided by wisdom in his life will be rewarded by wisdom. Wisdom carries the reward within itself. The scoffer, he who scoffs at wisdom, injures only himself and will ultimately be in eternal pain.

“Each one” – both he who is wise and he who is a scoffer – “will bear his own load” (Gal_6:5 ), means that each is held accountable for everything he has done. The wise sows to the Spirit and the scoffer sows to his own flesh. The results are consistent with this (Gal_6:7-8 ).

Wisdom and scoff do not benefit or harm God (cf. Job_22:2-3 ). God finds no lack in Himself. He is the only blessed God. Wisdom and scoff often do affect others, but that too is not the issue here. What it is about here is what the ultimate part of the wise man and the scoffer will be on a personal level, the results of their personal choice. For those who see the similarity and the difference, the right choice will not be difficult.

Proverbs 9:13-18

The Invitation of the Woman of Folly

“The woman of folly” (Pro_9:13 ) is the strange woman, the harlot. We have heard and seen her before (Pro_2:16 Pro_5:3 Pro_7:5 ). She “is boisterous”. Her life is all restlessness. She has no stability and therefore cannot provide it, unlike woman Wisdom. Lacking the slightest bit of reason, she is “naive”, literally “simple”, and therefore extremely foolish. She “knows nothing”, that is, she has no knowledge of good at all. God is the great Absent One in her life.

All this lack of peace, understanding and knowledge does not shame her. She does not at all care what others think of her, what harm she does to families, bodies and souls of others and what she robs herself of and what she ultimately brings upon herself. Whoever accepts her invitation is no less guilty, of course, but here the initiative comes from her. Her shameless attitude and behavior is also expressed in increasingly shameless manners in our days. The posters along the roads and the advertisements in all kinds of media have long since abandoned shame.

The contrast with Woman Wisdom is enormous. Woman Wisdom has built a beautiful house and hewn out seven pillars for it (Pro_9:1 ). She worked hard for it. Then She prepared a meal and set the table (Pro_9:2 ). Woman Foolishness has done nothing. She does not build, but breaks down. She has neither prepared a house nor prepared a meal.

Woman Foolishness sits “at the doorway of her house” (Pro_9:14 ). She knows no shame, nor is any sense of inferiority foreign to her. That she sits “on a seat” means that she feels like a queen. She therefore imagines herself “by the high places of the city”. As she feels, so does she behave. She wants to exude authority, as if it is a privilege to interact with her.

It is reminiscent of “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots” (Rev_17:5 ), who says of herself in her heart, “I sit as queen” (Rev_18:7 ). It is a symbolic representation of the roman-catholic church, which is seated in Rome which is built on seven hills (Rev_17:9 ). This corrupt system has committed spiritual harlotry with the kings of the earth and positioned itself as one of them.

She is emphatically present in the streets (Pro_9:14 ) and she invites every passerby (Pro_9:15 ). She imitates Wisdom in several areas, as in the calling from the heights of the city, the invitation and the meal. Woman Folly holds to a form of Godliness, but she denies its power (2Ti_3:5 ). She is depraved in thought and rejected as to faith (2Ti_3:8 ). In her we see the devil at work as a master imitator.

The devil is also an excellent advertiser. We see this in advertising flyers and promotional videos, which always cater to the needs of man. He knows very well where the needs of man are. He knows the needs of man for food and drink and sexuality. These are not in themselves sinful needs, because they have been put into man by God. They are really human needs. They only become sinful needs when man starts providing for them without asking God and accepting the offers made by the devil.

Woman Folly, as the devil’s mouthpiece, addresses everyone, not just those who deliberately set out to sin. She calls to those “who are making their paths straight”, who do not want to deviate, but want to walk the right path in obedience to what they have been taught from the Word of God. However, she presents the right path as boring. Very slyly, she shows that deviation from the usual path provides the necessary variety, making life seemingly exciting and challenging.

She also imitates Wisdom by specifically addressing those who are “naive” (Pro_9:16 ; cf. Pro_9:4 ). Let that one turn from his path just once and come to her. Surely among all these passersby there is also someone “who lacks understanding”. To him she has a very attractive invitation.

She bluntly offers “stolen water” (Pro_9:17 ), inciting the passersby to illicit sexual intercourse with her. In doing so, she responds to passion as thirst (cf. Pro_5:15 ). This mode of quenching thirst is indeed stealing, for it is stealing the intimacy of one who alone is entitled to it. She presents it as “sweet”. Satan always presents sin as “sweet”, while its aftertaste is so very bitter.

To stolen water also belongs “bread [eaten] in secret”, which is “bread of mysteries”, “bread of hidden places” (cf. Deu_13:6 ). The enjoyment of this bread cannot bear the light of day. It presents it as “pleasant”, while its aftertaste is very foul.

By offering both water and bread in this way, she appeals to the tendency that lies within every human being, and that is the tendency to do something that is unlawful, that goes against the rules of God. But what she offers can rightly be called ‘a prison meal’, as the proverb says that a person in prison is ‘on water and bread’. Whoever drinks this water and eats this bread becomes a prisoner of hers.

The outcome is far worse than a prison. Whoever enters her house meets there a company of “the dead” (Pro_9:18 ). All his predecessors, “her guests”, who have accepted her invitation “are in the depths of Sheol” (Pro_2:18 Pro_7:27 ). The house of woman Folly turns out to be ‘the gullet to hell’. All who on earth drink of her water and eat of her bread will digest it in hell for all eternity. This confrontation with death encourages one to choose life.

Woman Wisdom and woman Folly illustrate two ways, each with its own end. The Lord Jesus calls these ways the broad way and the narrow way (Mat_7:13-14 ). He calls for avoiding the broad way and following the straight and narrow path of a righteous and wise life. The broad way leads to destruction; the narrow way leads to life. Almost all subsequent verses in this book propose these two paths: the way of and to life and the way of and to death.

Proverbs 9:1-12
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_9:1. Wisdom, in the plural, as in chap. Pro_1:20, to express excellence and dignity.
Pro_9:2. She hath mingled her wine. Some commentators understand the mingling to be with water, others with spices; both were customary among ancient orientals.
Pro_9:7. Latter clause. Most commentators translate, “he that rebuketh the wicked, it is his dishonour,” or, “it is a dishonour to him,” i.e., to the wicked man.
Pro_9:10. The Holy, generally understood to stand in apposition to Jehovah.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Pro_9:1-12
WISDOM’S FEAST
I. The house to which Divine Wisdom invites her guests is one which has cost time and labour in the preparation. “Wisdom hath builded her house.” The building of anything implies the expenditure of time and labour. When the eagle builds her nest and prepares a house for her yet unborn young she spends much time in her work and bestows much labour upon it. In the building of a house for human habitation, whether it be a palace or a cottage, time and care, and thought and labour must be given to the building. And so it is in mental building; when thoughts are to be gathered together and fashioned into a book, the gathering and the building involves the expenditure of mental labour and of many hours and days, and sometimes years, before the work is completed. And God has not departed from this rule in the works which He has wrought for the benefit of His creatures. The house which He has built for the habitation of man was not brought into its present form all at once. God did not create the heavens and the earth in one day or in a short period of time We read that “in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is” (Exo_20:2), and the record of the rocks confirms the testimony of revelation that the preparation of the earth for man was a work of time In creation Divine Wisdom “builded her house.” And what is true of creation is true also of redemption. The incarnation of the Son of God took place in the days of Tiberius Cæsar, but the process of building the plan of redemption had been going on for ages. In the Mosaic dispensation it was seen in outline. Its sacrifices were shadows of the house which God intended hereafter to build in the human nature of the man Christ Jesus. The temple of Herod was forty-six years in building (Joh_2:20), but the temple of God was in course of preparation for more than forty-six generations before it was brought to completion in “the Word made flesh” (See Hebrews, chap. 9).
II. That which has been long in preparation is strong and enduring in character. It hath “seven pillars.” The snow-flake is not long in being formed and it is not long in duration. The bubble upon the stream is built in an instant, and passes away as quickly. But the coral island has taken many years and cost a million lives, to build it, and now it stands a rock in the midst of the ocean, and has become the home of man. All that is strong and lasting in the world has taken time in its formation. So is it in the refuge where that is found which will satisfy the soul of man. It was long ere it was completed, but it is a lasting edifice, built upon a sure foundation (Heb_6:18-19).
III. The house which Wisdom has builded contains that which will satisfy human need. The soul-blessings which God offers to men are often compared to a feast (Isa_25:6; Mat_22:4). Here Wisdom is spoken of as having “killed her beasts, mingled her wine, furnished her table.” 1. It is plain that the human spirit needs a feast from the fact that God has spread the board. When the Lord Jesus furnished a table in the wilderness for the multitude it was to supply a manifest need. It was to meet Israel’s need that God fed them with manna in the wilderness. Man’s spiritual nature must starve without the feast which God’s wisdom has prepared. The existence of the feast proves the existence of the need. 2. This feast is of the best quality. The man who prepares a feast for his guests prepares of his best. The feast prepared by a poor man will be the best at his command; the banquet of a king will be such as befits his rank and resources. The banquet to which Divine Wisdom invites her guests is furnished with the most costly provisions that even God has to give. Christ, who declares Himself to be meat and drink to the spirit of man (Joh_6:51; Joh_6:54; Joh_6:56) is the best gift that God had to bestow upon man—the best food that Heaven could furnish. 3. Wisdom’s feast is one in which there is variety. There is flesh, wine, and bread (Pro_9:2; Pro_9:5). The feasts of the rich and great consist of many different dishes, and the variety adds to the enjoyment of the guests. God has provided many different kinds of food to satisfy our bodily appetite. Although they are all adapted to the same end, viz., to the nourishment of the body, the difference in their composition and flavour adds much to man’s enjoyment. The human spirit, like the human body, craves a variety in its food, and God has satisfied that craving. The revelation of God in Christ (in other words, the Gospel) reveals a great variety of spiritual truths upon which the spiritual nature of man can feed. There are things “new and old” in the Gospel treasury (Mat_13:52). And new revelations of life and immortality will be brought to light throughout the coming ages, and the feeling of those who partake of the royal banquet will be like that of the ruler of the feast at Cana: “Thou hast kept the good wine until now” (Joh_2:10).
IV. Those who invite to Wisdom’s feast must be pure in character. The sending forth of “maidens” seems to convey this idea. Maidenhood is a type of purity. The character of the inviter must be in keeping with the nature of the invitation. If a man gives an invitation to the Gospel-feast, he will find that those whom he invites will look at the invitation through the glass of his character, and unless it is one through which the invitation can be favourably viewed, there will be little hope of his words proving effectual. Character and doctrine are inseparable. God intends the first to be a recommendation of the last. The invitation to “Come,” from the lips of the Lord Jesus, was mighty in its power, because the purity of His teaching was equalled by the purity of His life. The great power of the invitation to Wisdom’s feast in the mouths of the first Christian teachers sprang from the character of those who gave the invitation (see 2Co_1:2).
V. The means by which the guests are brought in. They are invited. There can be no compulsion in bringing men to the feast of Wisdom. No man can be compelled to partake of a feast. Persuasion can be used, and men can be induced to eat of it from a sense of need, but force is useless. A man may be placed at the board and kept there against his will, but the eating must ever be his own act. And so it is with the spiritual blessings which God has prepared for men. All the force that can be exercised is the force of persuasion. The first servants who went forth to invite men to the Gospel-feast were fully convinced that the weapon which they were to use was that of persuasion. “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2Co_5:20). “Knowing the terrors of the Lord we persuade men” (2Co_5:11).
VI. The publicity and general nature of the invitation. “She crieth upon the highest places of the city.” On this head see Homiletics on chaps. Pro_1:20-21; Pro_8:2-3.
VII. The different characters with whom Wisdom’s servants meet in giving her invitation. They meet with the wise and just man (Pro_9:9), and with the wicked, who are again classified as the simple (Pro_9:4), and the scorners (Pro_9:7). There is often a great difference in things of the same class and kind. All the fruit upon a tree may be bad, but all may not be equally bad. So among sinners are men of different degrees of sinfulness. There are the simple—those who are merely heedless of Divine teachings through a culpable ignorance and thoughtlessness, there are men so bad that they scorn all God’s invitations and set at nought His threatenings. This character is held up in Scripture as having reached the climax of iniquity. (See Homiletics on chap. Pro_1:22). The just man (Pro_9:9), is here synonymous with the wise man. He only is a wise man who has a worthy end which he sets himself to attain, and who uses the best means to attain that end. Hence the good or just man is the only truly wise man. He lays hold of all the means within his reach to increase his godliness, to get power to enable him to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk with God, and thus shows himself to be a member of the kingdom of the good which is the kingdom of the wise. He must be a just man, one who is upright in all his relations in life, one who will not knowingly leave undone his duty to his fellow-men. A man who is right in his relations towards God will not fail in his relations towards men. Simeon was a devont man, therefore he was a just man (Luk_2:25), so was Cornelius (Act_10:2; Act_10:22). But these wise men are not all equally wise, and none are so wise that they cannot increase in wisdom, and therefore Wisdom sends forth her invitations to all, to the wise and just men as well as to the simple and the scorner.
VIII. The opposite effects of the invitation upon opposite characters. The scorner hates it—the wise man loves it (Pro_9:8). When the sun shines upon a diseased eye it produces a sense of discomfort, but the same light falling upon a healthy eye gives a sensation of pleasure. The opposite feelings are the results of opposite conditions. The different receptions which are given to God’s invitations arise from the different spiritual conditions of the men who hear them. The man who “loves darkness rather than light because his deeds are evil” is pained when he receives Wisdom’s invitation, because the very invitation condemns him. It is a rebuke to him (
Pro_9:7-8) for continuing to reject the feast for husks, for preferring to spend “money upon that which is not bread and his labour upon that which satisfieth not.” Hence he who thus reproveth a scorner gets to himself shame, and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot (Pro_9:7). The preacher of the Gospel endures the shame of the cross when he delivers his message to such an one, but it meets with quite an opposite reception from the wise and just. A wise man because he is wise desires more wisdom. Those who know most about a good thing are those who desire to know more, and this desire prevents them from being offended with those who offer to give them more knowledge. Even if Wisdom’s invitation takes the form of a rebuke (Pro_9:8), the wise man, considering that the end of the rebuke is to do him good, loves the ambassador of Wisdom who administers it. When a sick man receives severe treatment from a physician, he accepts it patiently because he bears in mind the end in view, viz., his restoration to health. And this is the light in which all wise men regard Divine reproof, whether it comes directly from Himself in the form of providential dispensations, or through the medium of the lips of one of His servants. The message which is a “savour of death” to the scorner, is a “savour of life” to them.
IX. If the invitation is effectual, there will be a forsaking and a fearing. “Forsake the foolish and live” (Pro_9:6). “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Pro_9:10). A forsaking of the wrong path must go before the entrance into the right one, and a fear that we may go wrong will help to keep us in the right way. A wholesome dread of God’s displeasure will lead a man to repentance, which is but another name for a change in life’s end, and aims, and purposes. A conviction that he has been going in the wrong direction will cause him to lend a willing ear to those who invite him to set out on the right path; and the acceptance of the invitation is the beginning of a life of true wisdom, because it is the beginning of the only safe and satisfying course of life.
X. Whatever reception is given to the invitations of Divine Wisdom, God is above all human approbation. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself; but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it” (Pro_9:12). The sun will go on shining, whatever men think or say about it. All the approbation of all the world will not add to the glory of the light that rules the day, and if men were to find fault with the manner in which it dispensed its light and heat, it would still hold on its way “rejoicing, as a strong man to run a race.” The children of Wisdom, who accept the Divine invitation, and fall in with God’s way of saving them, do not make God their debtor in any way. He would still be the moral Sun of the universe, if all mankind were to turn a deaf ear to His invitations, and all the praise of all the good in Heaven and earth cannot add one ray to the moral glory of His being. The scorn of the scorner cannot harm the God whose revelation he scorns, any more than a man could injure the wind that blows upon him by beating it. If men disapprove of God’s way of governing the world, or of His conditions of salvation, it cannot harm the Divine Being in any way. He is above all the approval or disapproval—all the rejection or acceptance of any finite creature. Eliphaz, the Temanite, spoke truly when he said, “Can a man be profitable to God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous? Or is it gain to Him that thou makest thy ways perfect?” (Job_22:2-3). It therefore follows, as a matter of course, that the Divine plan of redemption has been devised solely out of regard to His creatures; that love is the only motive that prompts Him to multiply invitations and warnings; and that the sufferings which are entailed upon men by their rejection of His provisions spring from nothing selfish or arbitrary in the Divine character.
XI. The acceptance of the Divine invitation is an obedience to the lawful instinct of self-love. Self-love is often confounded with selfishness, but they are widely different. The principle of self-love is recognised as lawful and right throughout the Bible. God commands a man to love his neighbour as he loves himself, thereby laying down the principle that self-love is necessary and right. Our Saviour appeals to this Divinely-implanted instinct when He urges men to save their souls, because of the infinite profit which they will thereby gain (Mar_8:36). And the fact that God has made self-love the standard whereby we are to measure our love to others, and that it is urged upon men as a motive by the Divine Son, at once places a great gulf between it and selfishness. Obedience to self-love leads men to obey Wisdom’s invitation and thus to become truly wise themselves. Self-love leads men to desire to make the best of their existence, and no man can do this unless he accepts the call to the feast which Wisdom has prepared. The Hebrew nation thought they could get profit to themselves apart from acceptance of the Divine proposals. They persuaded themselves that they could do without God’s way of life, and that the feast which He had prepared could be neglected with impunity. But they found when too late that they had done themselves an eternal wrong by “making light” of the call of the king’s servants. (See Mat_22:14). But “Wisdom is justified of her children,” and although our Lord likens the men of that generation to children who neither dance to the sound of joyful music nor mourn to strains of lamentation (Luk_7:31-35), there have always been some who have so regarded their real interest as to be willing guests of the Divine Inviter. Obeying His call they come into possession of a righteous character, the only attainment of real profit which can be gotten out of existence. It is the only end worth living for. The end of a true soldier’s existence is not the keeping of his bodily life. That with him is quite a secondary consideration. Neither is it his happiness. These things are nothing to him in comparison with the attainment of a character for bravery and fidelity to his trust. And so with every man in God’s universe. Not ease and comfort, not fame or high position, but character is that only which will make existence really profitable, which will make it a gain to live. Happiness will, of necessity, follow godliness, but it is not the thing to be aimed at. The attainment of the highest earthly fame, or the amassing of vast riches, will not necessarily make a man a good companion for himself, and if he is not this, he has failed to draw true profit out of his existence. He may be a wise man according to men’s judgment, but if he has failed to consult his own true self-interest, he is a fool. A position in heaven would be nothing to such a man if he could obtain it. The blessedness of the heavenly world springs from the holy character of those who inhabit it, and this can be obtained only by listening to Wisdom’s voice, and so gaining that “fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy, which is understanding” (Pro_9:10). “If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself” (Pro_9:12); in other words—thou thyself shall reap the first and principal benefit.
XII. The consequence of the rejection of Wisdom’s invitation must be borne by him who rejects it. “If thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.” If a man refuses to use the power which he possesses to walk, he will, in the course of time, lose the power of using his limbs. The man who will not listen to the promptings of self-love will stifle its voice. But though he may destroy self-love, he cannot destroy himself. That belongs to God alone. Man can make his existence into a terrible burden, can change that which God intended to be a blessing into a curse, and in this sense he can destroy himself—can “lose his soul;” but he must live still, and bear the consequences of his choice. We can burn up the most costly articles and reduce them to black ashes, but no power of man can annihilate a single particle of the ashes. They exist still in some form or other. So men, by scorning God’s invitations, can blacken and spoil the existence which God has given them, but they cannot annihilate themselves. They must live and bear the self-imposed burden.
ILLUSTRATION OF Pro_9:3
This may derive some illustration from a custom which Hasselquist noticed in Egypt, and which may seem to be ancient in that country. That it has been scarcely noticed by other travellers may arise from the fact that, although they may have seen the maidens on their way, they had not the means of knowing on what errand they were bound. He says that he saw a great number of women, who went about inviting people to a banquet in a singular, and, without doubt, in a very ancient manner. They were about ten or twelve, covered with black veils, as is customary in that country. They were preceded by four eunuchs; after them, and on the side, were Moors, with their usual walking staves. As they were walking, they all joined in making a noise, which, he was told, signified their joy, but which he could not find resembled a joyful or pleasing sound.—Kitto.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_9:1. “House” among the Hebrews was an image of all well-being (Exo_1:21). It means shelter. It means nurture. It means repose. It means the centre of all provision. It means the home of all convivial feasts. If Wisdom has built such a shelter for the lost, it means she has furnished for them every possible necessity. An Eastern house depended upon columns that were around a court. Samson put his hand upon such interior supports. If Wisdom “has hewed out her seven pillars,” it means that the provision she has made for the saints is absolutely secure. The very number “seven” betokens a perfect, because a sacred support; and we have but to ask upon what the Gospel rests in its eternal promises and in the righteousness of its Great Head, to settle the question as to these sacred pillars.—
Miller.
The Holy Spirit—having described in the foregoing chapter the office and work of Christ, as Creator, in the world of nature—now proceeds to describe His office and work in the world of grace. Solomon, the son of David, and the builder of the holy house at Jerusalem, here describes the operation of His own Divine Antitype, the Essential Wisdom, in building His house. The Son of God, having existed from eternity with the Father, in the fulness of time became Incarnate, building for Himself a human body, and also building for Himself a mystical body—the Church universal.… Wisdom’s seven pillars represent the perfection and universality of Christ’s work in both respects.—Wordsworth.
Pillars, and polished pillars. Anything is good enough to build a mud wall; but the church’s pillars are of marble, and those not rough but hewn; her safety is accompanied with beauty.—Trapp.
If Wisdom dwell anywhere, herself must build the house; if she set up the pillars, herself must hew them. Nothing can be meet to entertain her which is not her own work. Nothing can be fit for God’s residence, which is not made fit by God’s influence.—Jermin.
In the preceding chapter, Wisdom represented herself as manifest in all the works of God in the natural world; all being constructed according to the counsels of an infinite understanding. Here, she represents herself as the great potentate, who was to rule all that she had constructed; and having an immense family to provide for, had made an abundant provision, and calls all to partake of it.—Adam Clarke.
Pro_9:2. “She hath mingled her wine,” viz., with spices and other exhilarating ingredients, as was the custom in the East (Son_8:2). Not with water which is the emblem of degeneracy. The wine mingled with aromatic spices is the exhilarating joy and comforts of the gospel (Isa_55:1; Mat_26:29).—Fausset.
Does Christ give us His own flesh and blood, to nourish and refresh our souls? what grace, what comfort, what privilege will He withhold? He is most willing to communicate this provision to us.—Lawson.
God’s favour and grace is always ready to be found when it is faithfully sought. Our faith can never make Him tardy in desiring that at the present which He cannot give till hereafter, or in being beforehand to demand that which His ability is behindhand to perform. The messengers say not in the Gospel, Be there at such a time, and in the meanwhile things shall be prepared, or, Go with me now, and dinner will be ready anon; but Come, for all things are now ready.—Dod.
Christ provideth for His the best of the best; “fat things full of marrow, wines on the lees” (Isa_25:6); His own flesh, which is meat indeed; His own blood, which is drink indeed; besides that continual feast of a good conscience, whereat the holy angels, saith Luther, are as cooks and butlers, and the blessed Trinity joyful guests. Mr. Latimer says that the assurance of salvation is the sweatmeats of this stately feast.—Trapp.
Without asking what the flesh and wine specially mean, they are figures of the manifold enjoyment which makes at once strong and happy.—Delitzsch.
Pro_9:3. “Her maidens.” Sermons and providential strokes, the whole heraldry of the doctrine of salvation.—Miller.
Wisdom being personified as a feminine word, fitly has maidens as her ministers here. May there not also be an intimation (as Gregory and Bede suggest) of the natural feebleness of the Apostles and other ministers of the Gospel who have their treasure in earthen vessels (2Co_4:7), and also of the tender love which the preachers of the Gospel must feel for the souls of those to whom they are sent?… The great Apostle of the Gentiles speaks of himself spiritually as a nurse and a mother.—Wordsworth.
She, together with her maids, crieth; she puts not off all the business to them, but hath a hand in it herself. “We are workers together with God,” saith Paul.—Trapp.
Pro_9:4. Ignorance is not a cause that should stay men from hearing the Word of God, but rather incite them to it. Their necessity doth require it, for who hath more need of eye-salve than they whose eyes are sore? And who have more need of guides than they who have lost their sight and are become blind? And especially when the way is difficult and full of danger.—Dod.
Pro_9:5. Not for the first time, in John 6, or on the night of the Last Supper, had bread and wine been made the symbols of fellowship with eternal life and truth.—Plumptre.
Indeed, to come is to eat; to come to Wisdom by attention is to eat of her instructions by receiving it into the soul.—Jermin.
The invitation is free. So it is throughout the Bible. The blessings of salvation are the gift of God. They are offered to sinners with the freeness of Divine munificence. Not only may they be had without a price, but if they are to be had at all it must be without a price. This is one of their special peculiarities. In treating with our fellow-men in the communication of good, we make distinctions. From some, who can afford it, we take an equivalent; from others, who cannot, we take none. We sell to the rich, we give to the poor. In the present case there is no distinction. All are poor. All are alike poor; and he who presumes to bring what he imagines a price, of whatever kind, forfeits the blessings, and is “sent empty away.” The invitation, too, is universal; for all men, in regard to divine and spiritual things, are naturally inconsiderate and foolish, negligent and improvident of their best and highest interests. And it is earnest, repeated, importunate. Is not this wonderful? Ought not the earnestness and the importunity to be all on the other side? Should not we find men entreating God to bestow the blessings, not God entreating men to accept them? Wonderful? “No,” we may answer in the terms of the negro woman to the missionary when he put the question, “Is not this wonderful?” “No, Massa, it be just like him.” It is in the true style of infinite benevolence. But is it not wonderful that sinners should refuse the invitation? It is not in one view, and it is in another. It is not, when we consider their depravity and alienation from God. It is, when we think of their natural desire for happiness, and the manifest impossibility of the object of their desire being ever found, otherwise than by their acceptance of them.—Wardlaw.
Pro_9:7. The reproof given is duty discharged, and the retort in return is a fresh call to repentance for sin past, and a caution against sin to come.—Flavel.
Here caution is given how we tender reprehension to arrogant and scornful natures, whose manner it is to esteem it for contumely, and accordingly to return it.—Lord Bacon.
The three verses, 7–9, in their general preceptive form, seem somewhat to interrupt the continuity of the invitation which Wisdom utters. The order of thought is, however, this: “I speak to you, the simple, the open ones, for you have yet ears to hear; but from the scorner or evil-doer of such, I turn away.” The rules which govern human teachers, leading them to choose willing or fit disciples, are the laws also of the Divine Educator. So taken, the words are parallel to Mat_7:2, and find an illustration in the difference between our Lord’s teaching to His disciples and to them that were without.—Plumptre.
The passage is telling the consequences to the poor hardened man (see CRITICAL NOTES). Man is not like a thermometer, raised or sunken by every breath, but he is the subject of a change which makes a difference in moral influences. Without that change, instruction hardens him. With that change, it moves him and makes him better. Without the change the thermometer is always sinking; with the change it is rising all the time. This teaching is had in all forms in the New Testament. John says, “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you” (1Jn_2:12); his plain implication being, that it would be useless to write except for the grace of forgiveness. We hear of a “savour of death unto death” (2Co_2:16); and Christ tells (Joh_15:24) that “if He had not come among them, and done the works that none other man did, they had not had sin.”—Miller.
Pro_9:8. By which I do not understand that we are forbidden to preach to the impenitent, but that we are to contemplate two facts: first, that unless they are changed our preaching will make them worse, and, therefore, second, that though our preaching is a chosen instrument of the change itself, yet, if they are scorners—i.e., if they are what our Saviour calls “swine” (Mat_7:6), and He means by that, specially incorrigible—we are not to scatter our pearls to them. We are not to intrude religion upon scoffers. We are to withhold the good seed to some extent (yet with infinite compassion for all,) for what may more reasonably be hoped to be the good and honest ground (Mar_4:8).—Miller.
We must distinguish between the ignorant and the wilful scorner. Paul “did it ignorantly, in unbelief” (1Ti_1:13). His countrymen deliberately refused the blessing, and shut themselves out from the free offers of salvation.—Bridges.
Pro_9:9. Instruction may be given with advantage to the wise. 1. No truly wise man will account it impossible to make accessions to his wisdom. Such a man is not wise in his own conceit (Rom_12:16). His entrance into this course is of too recent a date, and the efforts which he has made to gain wisdom too defective, to permit him to think his wisdom incapable of augmentation (Joh_8:2). And (2) every wise man, whatever be the nature of his wisdom, will wish it to be increased as much as possible (Pro_18:15). Hence (3), whatever instruction is given to him which is adapted to his character and circumstances, that is, which shows wherein he is defective, either in the end which he is pursuing, or in the manner of his pursuit, no matter by whom the instruction is given, he will account himself happy in having it, and will be the better for it.—Sketches of Sermons.
Pro_9:10. Men cannot begin to be wise except in holiness; unless it begins to be the fact that God is teaching a man, you cannot teach him.—
Miller.
The heart that is touched with the loadstone of Divine love trembles still with godly fear.—Leighton.
The “knowledge of the holy” is the knowledge of all that is involved in hallowing God’s name; knowing experimentally all that tends to our sanctifying the Lord in our hearts and in life.—Fausset.
Some of the true wisdom is a nucleus, round which more will gather. A little island once formed in the bed of a great river, tends continually to increase. Everything adds to its bulk. The floods of winter deposit soil on it. The sun of summer covers it with herbage and consolidates its surface. Such is wisdom from above once settled in a soul. It makes all things work together for good to its possessor.—Arnot.
Pro_9:12. As we are not aware that the mass of the impenitent actually scoff at religion, we must look at this word, so often selected by Solomon, as meaning that practical scorn, by which men, who profess to respect the Gospel, show it the practical contempt of their worldliness.—Miller.
The principle involved in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25) is embodied in the first intimation. The talents are in the first instance not won by the servant, but given by the master. So wisdom is specifically the gift of God (Jas_1:5). Those servants who use the talents well, are permitted to retain for their own use both the original capital and all the profit that has sprung from it: whereas he who made no profit is not allowed to retain the capital. Thus the Giver acts in regard to the wisdom which it is his own to bestow. The wisdom, with all the benefit it brings, is your own. Every instance of wise acting is an accummulation made sure for your own benefit. It cannot be lost. It is like water to the earth. The drop of water that trembled on the green leaf, and glittered in the morning sun, seems to be lost when it glitters in the air unseen; but it is all in safe keeping. It is held in trust by the faithful atmosphere, and will distil as dew upon the ground again, when and where it is needed most. Thus will every exercise of wisdom, though fools think it is thrown away, return into your own bosom, when the day of need comes round. Equally sure is the law that the evil which you do survives and comes back upon yourself. The profane word, the impure thought, the unjust transaction, they are gone like the wind that whistled past, and you seem to have nothing more to do with them. Nay, but they have more to do with you. Nothing is lost out of God’s world, physical or moral. When a piece of paper is consumed in the fire and vanishes in smoke, it seems to have returned to nothing. If it bore the only evidence of your guilt, you would be glad to see the last corner disappear before the officers of justice came in. All the world cannot restore that paper and read the dreaded lines again. The criminal breathes freely now no human tribunal can bring home his crime. But as the material of the paper remains undiminished in the mundane system, so the guilt which it recorded abides, held in solution, as it were, by the moral atmosphere which encircles the judgment-seat of God. Uniting with all of kindred essence that has been generated in your soul, it will be precipitated by a law, and when it falls, it will not miss the mark. Thou alone shalt bear it. Those who have not found refuge in the Sin-bearer must bear their own sin. Sins, like water, are not annihilated, although they go out of our sight. They fall with all their weight either on the sin-doer or on the Almighty Substitute. Alas for the man who is “alone” when the reckoning comes.—Arnot.
A man’s self is not that which he is for a short time and space, but that which he is for continuance, indeed for an endless continuance. And therefore that which we are in this life is not ourselves, but that which we shall be, that is ourselves. So that whosoever is wise for that time is wise for himself, and for that time we shall be wise if we be made so by the instruction of Eternal Wisdom.—Jermin.

Proverbs 9:13-18
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_9:13. A foolish woman, rather, “the woman of folly,” an exact opposition of the personified wisdom of the former part of the chapter. Clamorous, “violently excited” (Zöckler).
Pro_9:15. Who go right on their ways. “Who are going straightforward in their paths” (Stuart).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Pro_9:13-18
THE FEAST OF FOLLY
That which strikes one upon reading this description is the analogy and the contrast which it presents to the feast of Wisdom.
I. Its analogies. 1. Both appeal to elements in the nature of man. Man is a compound, a complex being. He possesses a moral nature, a conscience, which can be satisfied only with moral truth and goodness, to which Wisdom appeals with her wine and bread of God’s revelation, and whose cravings they alone are able to appease. And he has sinful inclinations and passions which hanker after forbidden things, to which Folly appeals when she sets forth the attractions of her “stolen waters” and her “bread eaten in secret” (Pro_9:17). God’s wisdom and love are shown in appealing to the first, and Satan’s cunning and malice are manifested in the adaptation of his appeal to the second. 2. Both invite the same kind of character, viz., the “simple,” the inexperienced, those who have not tasted the sweets of godly living, yet “know not” from experience that the “dead” are in the house of Folly, that “her guests are in the depths of hell (Pro_9:18). Two potters may be desirous of possessing the same lump of clay in order to fashion it each one after his own desire. It is now a shapeless mass, but they know its yielding and pliable nature renders it capable of assuming any form, of taking any impress, which they may please to impart to it. The inexperienced in the experimental knowledge of good and evil are very much like potter’s clay; and here Wisdom and Folly, God and the devil, holiness and sin, stand side by side bidding for the clay, the one desiring to fashion out of it a “vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use” (2Ti_2:21), and the other anxious to make it a “vessel of wrath fitted to destruction” (Rom_9:22). 3. Both invite to the feasts through those who possess powers of persuasion. Though in the first Wisdom herself does not go forth, but sends her maidens, and in the second the woman herself goes out into the streets, yet they both belong to the sex which is, by common consent, allowed to be most skilled in the art of persuasion. History is full of instances of their power to influence for good and evil. There have been many Lady Macbeths, both in public and private life, and many “handmaids of the Lord” whose influence has been as mighty on the side of good. Both Wisdom and Folly possess ambassadors whose persuasive powers are mighty. 4. They utter their invitations in the same places. Wisdom “crieth upon the high places of the city” (Pro_9:3). Folly “sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city” (Pro_9:14). They both give invitations where they are most likely to obtain guests. In the places where many congregate are found the greatest variety of characters and those who have the most varied wants, and as in such places those who have wares of any kind to sell are sure of finding some to purchase, so the ambassadors of Divine wisdom and the emissaries of evil are certain, where the multitudes are gathered together, to find some to listen to their respective voices. 5. Both use the same words of invitation, and offer the same inducements. A feast is promised in both cases, i.e., both inviters promise satisfaction—enjoyment—to their guests. If a man coins bad money he must make it look as near as possible like the gold or he would not get anyone to accept it. It is only afterwards that his dupe finds that it lacks the ring of real gold. So the tempter to evil must make the advantages he professes to dispense look as much like real good as he possibly can. The false friend will often-times adopt the phraseology of the true, and will never be wanting in arguments to win his victim. The incarnate wisdom of God reminded His disciples that they might, in this respect and in others, learn something from the “children of this world,” who, in some matters, “are in their generation wiser than the children of light” (Luk_16:8). 6. Both make the invitation wide and free. “Whoso” is the word used by both. The kingdom of darkness, as well as the kingdom of light, is willing to gather of “every kind” (Mat_13:47). The only condition is “Enter in and partake of the banquet prepared.”
II. The Contrasts. 1. In the character of the inviters. In the one case they are “maidens,” emblematical (as we saw in considering the first feast) of purity; in the other she who invites is evidently a bold and wanton woman, identical with the one described in chapters 5 and 7 (compare Pro_5:6; Pro_7:11-12, with Pro_9:13-14). Each one who invites is an embodiment of the principles ruling in the house to which she invites; each one sets forth in her own deportment what will be the result of accepting the respective invitations. So that, although the words used may be similar, the simple might be warned from the difference in aspect and demeanour of those who use them. 2. In the place to which the simple are invited. “In the former case,” says Zöckler, “it is to a splendid palace with its columns, to a holy temple of God; in the latter to a common house, a harlot’s abode, built over an entrance to the abyss of hell.” The first invitation is to the abode of a righteous king, where law, and order, and peace reign; the second is to an abode of lawlessness and self-seeking, and consequently of incessant strife and misery. Those who dwell in the first are ever magnifying the favour by which they were permitted to enter; the inhabitants of the latter are eternally cursing those by whose persuasions their feet were turned into the path which leads to death. 3. Wisdom invites to what is her own; Folly invites to that which belongs to another. Wisdom hath killed
her beasts and mingled her wine; she cries, “Come, eat of my bread” (Pro_9:2; Pro_9:5). Folly saith to her victim, “Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant” (Pro_9:17). The first is therefore a lawful meal: its dainties may be enjoyed with a full sense that there is no wrong done to oneself, or to any other creature in the universe, by participating in it. It may be eaten publicly; there is no reason for concealment—no sense of shame. But the guests of Folly are all wronging themselves, and wronging God, and wronging their fellow-men by sitting down at her table. And they feel that it is so even when the waters taste the sweetest, and the bread the most pleasant. Hence their banquet is a secret one, “for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret” (Eph_5:12). Hence they “love darkness rather than light;” they “hate the light, lest their deeds should be reproved” (Joh_3:20-21). 4. The contrast in the results. There are poisonous fruits which are pleasant to the taste, but which lead to sickness and death. And there are bitter herbs which are not palatable, but which bring healing to the frame. Some of Wisdom’s dishes are seasoned with reproof and rebuke (Pro_9:8), but the outcome of listening to her call is an increase of wisdom and a lengthening of days and years (Pro_9:9-11). The feast of Folly is sweetened with “flattery” (chap. Pro_2:16; Pro_7:21). The lips of the tempter “drop as an honey-comb” (chap. Pro_5:2), but there is a deadly poison in the dish. Eating of her food brings a man down into a devil; the bread and wine of Wisdom nourishes and strengthens him until he becomes “equal unto the angels of God” (Luk_20:26).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_9:1-18. The prototypical relation of the contents of this chapter to our Lord’s parables founded on banquets (Mat_22:1-14; Luk_14:16-24) is evident, and therefore its special importance to the doctrines of the call of salvation.—Lange’s Commentary.
Pro_9:13. “Clamorous,” that is, so bustling as to allow no time for repentance (see 5, 6), like Cardinal Mazarin, of whom it was said that the devil would never let him rest. The sinner is so hurried along in the changes of life, as apparently to unsettle any attempted reformation. “Knows nothing;” an expression grandly doctrinal. The impenitent is blankly dark. Ecc_6:5 represents the perishing as like an untimely birth. “He hath not seen the sun, nor known anything.” “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned” (1Co_2:14). “Where can Wisdom be found?” says the inspired man (Job_28:14-22). “The depth saith, It is not in me; and the sea saith., It is not with me.” The woman of folly is blankly ignorant; for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and if she has not the beginning, then mental light, if she have any, must be but as “darkness” (Mat_6:23).—Miller.
A foolish woman is clamorous, and hath many words, but they are words only, for she knoweth nothing; the folly of sin is clamorous, and maketh many promises of pleasure and contentment, but they are promises only, and she performeth nothing.—Jermin.
Pro_9:15. Her chief aim is to secure the godly, or those inclined to become so; for she is secure as to others, and therefore takes no great trouble in their case.—Fausset.
Even the highway of God, though a path of safety, is beset with temptation. Satan is so angry with none as with those who are going right on.—Bridges.
Pro_9:16. Wisdom sets up her school to instruct the ignorant: Folly sets up her school next door to defeat the designs of Wisdom. Thus the saying of the satirist appears to be verified:—
“Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The devil surely builds a chapel there;
And it is found, upon examination,
The latter has the larger congregation.”—Defoe.
Adam Clark.
Folly does not invite the scorners, because she is secure of them, but only the “simple,” i.e., those who are such in the judgment of the Holy Spirit. Scripture expresses not what she says in outward words, but what is the reality. Whosoever turns in to her is a simpleton. Cartwright takes it that she calls the pious “simple.” Pro_9:15 favours this.—Fausset.
Pro_9:17. Folly shows her skill in seduction by holding out, in promise, the secret enjoyment of forbidden sweets. Alas! since the entrance of sin into the world, there has been among mankind a sadly strong and perverse propensity to aught that is forbidden, to taste what is laid under an interdict. The very interdiction draws towards it the wistful desires, and looks, and longings of the perverse and rebellious heart.—Wardlaw.
The power of sin lies in its pleasure. If stolen waters were not sweet, none would steal the waters. This is part of the mystery in which our being is involved by the fall. It is one of the most fearful features of the case. Our appetite is diseased.… Oh, for the new tastes of a new nature! “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.” When a soul has tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious, the foolish woman beckons you toward her stolen waters, and praises their sweetness in vain. The new appetite drives out the old.—Arnot.
Many eat that on earth that they digest in hell.—Trapp.
Indirect ways best please flesh and blood. “Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence” (Rom_7:8). We take this from our first parents, a greedy desire to eat of the forbidden fruit. All the other trees in the garden, although the fruit were as good, would not satisfy them.… Such is the corruption of our nature, that we like best what God likes worst.—Francis Taylor.
Pro_9:18. Of course “he knows not.” If the sinner only knew that he were already dead, he might wake up with a bound to the work of his salvation.—Miller.
All sinful joys are damned up with a but. They have a worm that crops them, nay, gnaws asunder their very root, though they shoot up more hastily and spread more spaciously than Jonah’s gourd.… When all the prophecies of ill success have been held as Cassandra’s riddles, when all the contrary minds of afflictions, all the threatened storms of God’s wrath could not dishearten the sinner’s voyage to these Netherlands, here is a but that shipwrecks all; the very mouth of a bottomless pit, not shallower than hell itself.… As man hath his sic, so God hath His sed.—T. Adams.

Proverbs 9:1-6
Wisdom hath builded her house.
Wisdom’s invitation
The Bible is fully of mystery, not merely in its doctrines, but also in the manner and in the language by which the truths of revelation are brought before us. In the personification of this passage, Wisdom is seen sympathising with man, caring for man, loving man, diffusing abroad amongst men the benefits of harmony, and of purity, and of eternal life.
I. The provision made by heavenly Wisdom for the spiritual wants of men. When Wisdom is here represented as having furnished her house, and built her dwelling, you have an idea, a correct conception of the Church of God. God is the builder of the Church, and the foundation is deep, broad, and wide, and altogether sufficient for the purposes of human salvation. Men are represented as living stones, quickened and animated, and hewn and fitted to occupy the position for which they are intended, cemented by Divine love, held in attraction to the foundation, and consequently held in relation to each other. In the passage the building is characterised by stability and durability. “Seven pillars.” Pillars, in Scripture, are emblems of strength, beauty, and durability. The number seven is indicative of perfection. Every pillar, every buttress, every support that Christianity needs the wisdom of God has provided. In the passages is the further idea of a gracious and adequate provision. “She hath killed her killings.” This is the idea of sacrifice. The idea of what is grateful and refreshing is likewise presented. “She hath mingled her wine.” Easterns mingled their wines in order, by the power of spices, to make them more attractive, and to strengthen their flavour. Then the “table is furnished.” Divine truth in its simplest and most complicated form—Divine truth that can guide, and purify, and train the spirit up for heaven—the truth that can make you free—the truth that can bless you with present happiness and eternal glory, is presented in the gospel. The provision of infinite love, then, is precisely adapted to your need.
II. The invitation presented to mankind to accept of this provision.

1. The parties employed to utter the invitation. When Wisdom, as the queen of heaven, spreads her table, she sends out her maidens. They are emblems of feebleness, purity, and attractiveness; and this is just the character of the messengers that were sent out by the Lord.
2. The persons to whom the invitation is directed. Here represented as being foolish, indiscreet, unwise, incompetent to guide their own affairs, incapable of obtaining that support and comfort which they need. Here is a correct idea of the ruined, the guilty, and the helpless condition of man. The gospel is preached to the ignorant, the guilty, and the wretched.
3. The scene of proclamation is described. It is made in the chief places of congress, at the opening of the gate, and the going in of the doors. This teaches us that the proclamation is to be made in the midst of large multitudes of people.
   III. The consideration by which this invitation is enforced and pressed home upon attention. There is not the mere announcement of provision, not the mere proclamation of the fact, but an entreaty on the part of those who go out with the messages. “Forsake the foolish and live.” Life is valuable—all life is valuable. The life of religion, the life of God in the soul of man, is the highest form of life. There is an appeal in the text to the love of enjoyment. There is an appeal also to the love of wisdom. Have you obeyed the invitation? (Gearge Smith, D. D,)

The rival banquets
(with Pro_9:13-18):—
I. The resemblances between them are set forth in a very striking manner.

1. It is the same class of men that is invited. They are in both cases “the simple,” “the void of understanding.”
2. The invitations are similar in—
   (1) Their universality;
   (2) their publicity (Pro_9:8; Pro_14:1-35); and
   (3) their urgency. Wisdom sends forth her messengers, and so, presumably, does Folly.
   II. But the differences are no less marked.
3. In the banquets themselves. Wisdom has built her grand, substantial palace or temple (Pro_9:1), in virtue of her share in creation (Pro_8:30), and she has provided a satisfying, nourishing, and gladsome feast (Pro_9:2). Not so Folly. In consistency with her parasitic nature, it is not her own goods that she creates and prepares, but she invites to the abuse or illicit enjoyment of the goods God has already bestowed. Wisdom sits as a princess in her rightful home; Folly is hardly more than at the door of her house, which is not described.
4. In the inducements presented. These are not the feasts themselves, but additional commendations setting forth their relative advantages. In the one case satisfying and nourishing viands are offered, whose result is life; in the other, the thing presented is pleasure, and that which is to give it is only spoken of in a mysterious, allusive way. It is the illicit and secret enjoyment that is the charm. But if the Queen of Sheba declared that “the half had not been told her” of the true wisdom, how much of the truth is kept back in the promises and fair speeches of Folly! Those who are once within her house are to all intents and purposes dead men, and are as if they were already “in the depths of Sheol!” (St. J. A. Frere, M.A.)

Wisdom’s house
I. What person is alluded to by the designation of “Wisdom”? (Pro_8:22-31). Here we have the eternity of Christ plainly set forth; His absolute Sovereignty saying, “By Me kings reign and princes decree justice.” He also assures us of His love: “I love them that love Me, and those that seek Me early shall find Me.” He also speaks of His extensive resources: “Riches and honour are with Me, yea durable riches and righteousness.”
II. The house which Wisdom has built.

1. An indestructible house. He formed, in the counsels of eternity, by unerring wisdom, a plan which no finite mind could have ever suggested, and which can admit of no improvement. We are thankful for a good plan, when we reflect that the permanence of a building is often, in some measure at least, dependent upon it. This building rests on the securest foundation—the three persons in the ever-blessed Trinity, the perfections of God, and the all-sufficient righteousness of the incarnate One. It reposes, not on the yielding sand of human merit or mortal workmanship, but on the Rock of Ages, which time cannot crumble or change. Not only is the foundation quite safe and immovable, but the superstructure is equally strong. In fact, it is perfectly invincible. “She hath hewn her seven pillars.” Pillars are used as the supports and ornaments of buildings, and the number seven is the symbol of perfection. We take the seven pillars to denote perfect strength and beauty. We next observe that Wisdom’s house affords perfect security to its inhabitants. It is a fortress, a strong tower, a house of defence, a castle of safety, to those who enjoy the privilege of dwelling in it.
2. A house of instruction. It is emphatically the house of Wisdom. A school where the best lessons are taught, in the best possible mode of teaching, and by the best of all teachers.
3. A banqueting house (Pro_9:2). The Church of the living God is a banqueting-hall in which we have the gospel feast prepared and exhibited for all who have a spiritual appetite; and the invitation is freely and earnestly given to all, for there is plenty of room and an abundance of provisions. The entertainment is in reality a feast upon a sacrifice, and what is that sacrifice on which all who wish may feast but the sacrifice of Christ, “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”? (S. Waller.)

Proverbs 9:3-4
Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither.
The choice of wisdom
Life is reduced to an alternative; there is clearly marked out for us all, at the beginning of our life, that all is one thing or the other, wisdom or folly. To these two voices, all the noise and tumult of life, and all the diverse voices in your own souls, may be reduced. They are all either the call of the wisdom of God, or they are the call of folly, sense, and sin. Let me counsel you, then—
I. To choose. The curse of men—and of young people especially—is that they drift into passions and habits before they know where they are. But it is a low and discreditable thing for men, old or young, that they should be the creatures and sport of the mere circumstances around them. All your life should have in it the deliberation and the resolve of a calm, settled choice. Here is the manliness of manhood, that a man has a reason for what he does, and has a will in doing it. Be the masters and lords of the circumstances in which you stand. There are two courses in life. There are but two. The two are utterly irreconcilable and discordant. You cannot have them both. Then be men, and choose.
II. Choose wisdom.

1. Look at these two personified claimants—Wisdom and Folly. Wisdom is closely connected with uprightness of heart. It is both an intellectual and a moral excellence. Wisdom has rectitude for an essential part of it, the fibre of its very being is righteousness and holiness. This wisdom is not only an attribute of the human soul. We rise to righteousness. If a man would be wise, it must be with a wisdom that was in God before it is in him. Our prayer should be, “In Thy wisdom make us wise.” A further step has to be taken. Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. There, in that living person, is the highest embodiment of all wisdom. All which is not of God is the “foolish woman.” All which does not inhere in Christ, and appeal to us through and from Him, is that clamorous and persistent voice which leads us all astray, if we listen to it. The world and sense—these are her grossest forms. But there are less offensive forms besetting us all.
   III. Choose now. Wisdom appeals to conscience. Folly appeals only to the sense of pleasure and the desire for its gratification. Both ask for your decision now. There is a strange tendency to put off decision. But it is an awful risk for a man to run. Every day that you live makes it less likely that you will choose. Every day that you live makes it harder for you to choose aright. Every day that you live takes away some of the power of resolving, and takes away some motive to resolve. (
   A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Proverbs 9:5
Come, eat of My bread.
Wisdom’s invitation
I. The invitation. He who invites is the Son of God—in the Proverbs represented as “Wisdom.” Of His generous invitation we remark—

1. That its acceptance is open to every human being on the face of the earth. The God of the gospel is no respecter of persons.
2. This invitation is urged with affectionate earnestness. How are men to be “compelled”? Not by coercion or legal enactments—not by bribery or the civil power—but by the mercies of God, and the gentleness of Christ.
3. There is such a character in the invitations of the gospel as leaves those inexcusable who reject them. Some excuse themselves on the ground that a self-denial which is beyond them is required, others on the ground of previous engagements. Speculations, worldliness, even domestic relationships, are pleaded as excuses.
   II. Inducements to the acceptance of the invitation. What would be inducements to accept an invitation to a feast?
4. Rank of the person inviting. Who, then, is it invites to the feast of the gospel?
5. The guests whom you were to meet. This company is select. It is composed of the wise and the good of every name: all are on a level at the feast of salvation.
6. The occasion of the entertainment. This is intended to supply you with immortal food, and to feed you with the meat that endureth unto everlasting life.
7. The consequences that may result from a refusal. Refusing this, you risk the favour of God. (J. R. Hibbard.)

The soul’s diet
The verse, most of it, metaphorical, setting out Wisdom’s instructions under the similitude of a feast, to which persons invited come and comfortably refresh themselves with meat and drink.
I. The soul’s diet is of Christ’s providing. This was prefigured in the manna, and foreshadowed in the rock, that miraculously gave water to the people.

1. The Word is from Him which feeds the soul.
2. The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, whereby we are fed, was of His institution, yea, of His own administration the first time.
3. He hath authority from heaven to find diet for souls.
4. None but He can provide wholesome diet.
   II. Men must come where Christ’s spiritual provisions are to be had.
5. We are invited to come, and it is discourtesy to refuse a friendly invitation.
6. We are commanded to come, and it is disobedience not to come.
7. The feast is prepared for us.
8. The benefits gotten by it may allure you to come for it.
   III. We must make use of wisdom’s provision as well as come. Coming to a feast doth no good if men be sullen, and will not eat or drink.
9. Our profitable use of God’s ordinances is required.
10. We are informed beforehand to what end we are invited.
11. The gift of this undeserved favour should make us ready to receive it.
12. No good will come to us by this spiritual food if we feed not on it. They who feed well get much good to their souls. (F. Taylor, B.D.)

Wisdom’s invitations
It seems to me as if this moment were throbbing with the invitations of an all-compassionate God. I have been told that the Cathedral of St. Mark’s stands in a square in the centre of the city of Venice, and that when the clock strikes twelve at noon all the birds from the city and the regions round about the city fly to the square and settle down. It came in this wise: A large-hearted woman passing one noonday across the square saw some birds shivering in the cold, and she scattered some crumbs of bread among them, and so on from year to year until the day of her death. In her will she bequeathed a certain amount to keep up the same practice, and now, at the first stroke of the bell at noon, the birds begin to come here, and when the clock has struck twelve the square is covered with them. How beautifully suggestive! Christ comes out to feed thy soul to-day. The more hungry you feel yourselves to be, the better it is. It is noon, and the gospel clock strikes twelve. Come in flocks! Come as doves to the window! All the air is filled with the liquid chime: Come! come! come! (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Proverbs 9:6
Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.
The foolish way forsaken
True religion includes two particulars, called in Scripture ceasing to do evil, and learning to do well.
I. What are the two ways mentioned in our text—namely, the way of the foolish and the way of understanding?

1. And with regard to the character of the foolish—whom and whose ways we are to forsake—how different is the estimate of the Word of God from the current opinions of mankind! The world usually account that man foolish who does not make the things of this life, in one or other of its aspects, the great object of his desires. The covetous man thinks him foolish who neglects the pursuit of riches, or is not skilful in obtaining them; the man of pleasure, him who does not endeavour to secure ease and amusement; the ambitious man, him who does not attain worldly honours. But, in the estimate of Scripture, though we had the worldly wisdom of each or all these classes of persons, and had not something infinitely above it, we should be numbered among the foolish. The rich man spoken of by our Lord, whose ground brought forth plentifully, was accounted a fool And why? Because he was laying up treasures for himself upon earth, and was not rich towards God; because he disregarded the great end and object of his being; because he made no preparation for death. In short, sin of every kind—irreligion, disobedience to God, and carelessness respecting our immortal interests—is called in Scripture foolishness. And can any folly be greater than sporting, as it were, upon the brink of eternity; calling down upon us the anger of our Almighty Creator; rejecting the means which He has provided for our pardon and reconciliation, or perverting the gospel of His mercy to our own destruction?
2. Such being the way of the foolish, we may easily infer what is the way of understanding. “Behold,” said Job, “the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” “The knowledge of the Holy,” says Solomon, in the chapter from which our text is taken, “is understanding”; and “a good understanding,” says the psalmist, “have all they who do His commandments.”
   II. The importance of forsaking the one and going in the other. “Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.”
3. And let us inquire why we must forsake the foolish, ungodly companions, ungodly practices, ungodly thoughts, ungodly books, everything that is ungodly. It might be sufficient to satisfy our reason to answer, that our Creator has commanded us to forsake them. But, in addition, He is pleased to appeal to our hopes and fears, by promises and threatenings. “Forsake the foolish, and live”; implying that the ways of the foolish are ways of death. Shall we not, then, forsake so dangerous a path, a path beset with thorns and snares.
4. But, in addition to the command to forsake the foolish, our text adds, “And go in the way of understanding.” These two duties are indeed inseparable; for the first step out of the path of destruction is a step in the path of life; yet it is important that each should be particularly noticed, because we are too apt to content ourselves with a few feeble advances, a few superficial attainments in religion, as if the victory were complete when we are but girding on our armour for the warfare. It is not enough that we have learned that the ways of sin are ways of bitterness and folly; we must, in addition, learn what is the way of understanding: we must walk in the paths of righteousness. And infinitely important is it that we should go in this way of understanding; for by no other path can we arrive at the kingdom of heaven. The language of the text shows us that religion involves active and zealous exertion. There is one path to be forsaken, and another to be discovered and pursued. To forsake means more than careless indifference, or partial reformation, or a temporary suspension of our evil habits. It is a fixed and determined resolution. (The Christian Observer.)

Proverbs 9:7-9
Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee.
Reproof
How to give it, and how to take it. Reproofs are like sharp knives, very needful and very useful; but they should not be in the hands of children. Those who handle them rashly will wound themselves and their neighbours. Sometimes reproofs are unskilfully administered, and sometimes unfaithfully withheld. The scorner is the principal figure in the scene of the text. He is in a state of nature. He has no spiritual life or light. He is a blusterer. He is hollow-sounding brass. He magnifies himself. He laughs at the good and at goodness. Accustomed to exaggerate everything, he exaggerates even his own wickedness. He glories in his shame. If you reprove such a scorner, you will probably get to yourself shame. You have trampled on a snake, and it is his nature to spurt forth his venom on you. Your stroke has stirred up every motive within the scorner to redouble his blasphemy. If you could find the scorner alone, his courage would not be so great. Whisper softly into his ear your solemn reproof. Find a soft spot about him, or make one by deeds of kindness. H you gain a brother thus, it is a bloodless victory. The joy is of the purest kind that lies within our reach on earth. The second half of the lesson is, “Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.” There is a double blessing; one to him who gets reproof, and one to him who gives it. It is the mark of wise man that he loves the reprover who tells him his fault. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

Reproof
I. As injuriously administered. A scorner is a man distinguished by self-ignorance, audacity, callousness, vanity, and irreverence. His grand aim is, by little sallies of wit and ridicule to raise the laugh against his superiors. To reprove these is injurious. It does them no service, but it brings pain to yourself. There are men beyond the reach of elevating influences, and it is worse than waste of labour to endeavour improving them.
II. As usefully administered.

1. By rebuking a wise man you enlist his affection. Every true man will feel grateful for wise counsels.
2. By instructing a wise man you render him a benefit. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser. (David Thomas, D.D.)

Godly admonitions received by the wise
Iron, which is one of the baser metals, may be hammered, and subjected to the most intense heat of the furnace; but though you may soften it for the time, you can never make it ductile like the precious metals. But gold, which is the most excellent of all, is the most pliant and easily wrought on, being capable of being drawn out to a degree which exceeds belief. So the most excellent tempers are the most easily wrought on by spiritual counsel and godly admonitions, but the viler sort, like the iron, are stubborn, and cannot be made pliant. (H. G. Salter.)

The scorner left alone
The invitation of Wisdom is addressed only to the simple, not to the scorner. She lets the scorner pass by, because a word to him would recoil only in shame on herself, bringing a blush to her queenly face, and would add to the scorner’s wickedness by increasing his hatred of her. Her reproof would not benefit him, but it would bring a blot upon herself: it would exhibit her as ineffectual and helpless. The bitter words of a scorner can make wisdom appear foolish, and cover virtue with a confusion which should belong only to vice. “Speak not in the hearing of a fool; for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.” Indeed, there is no character so hopeless as that of the scorner; there proceeds from him, as it were, a fierce blast, which blows away all the reproaches which goodness makes to him. Reproof cannot come near him; he cannot find wisdom, though he seek it; and as a matter of fact, he never seeks it. If one attempts to punish him, it can only be with the hope that others may benefit by the example; it will have no effect upon him. To be rid of him must be the desire of every wise man, for he is an abomination to all, and with his departure contention disappears. They that scoff at things holy, and scorn the Divine Power, must be left to themselves until the beginnings of wisdom appear in them—the first sense of fear that there is a God who may not be mocked, the first recognition that there is a sanctity which they would do well at all events to reverence. (R. F. Horton, D.D.)

Proverbs 9:9
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser.
The wise man rendered wiser by instruction
It is an infallible mark of true wisdom, to profit by instruction.
I. Take a more accurate view of the wise man; and inquire who it is that may be taken for such.

1. He who proposes to himself some end in what he does, and pursues that end in a rational and dexterous manner.
2. A truly wise man is the same as a good man.
3. He who to his resolution to make the attainment of moral goodness the great object of his existence adds a fixed and unalterable determination to pursue this according to Divine direction.
   II. Instruction may be given even to the advantage of the wise.
4. No truly wise man will account it impossible to make accessions to his wisdom.
5. Every wise man, whatever be the nature of his wisdom, will wish it to be increased as much as possible.
6. Whenever instruction is given to him which is adapted to his character and circumstances he will account himself happy in having it, and will be the better for it.
   III. When instruction is given to a wise man, he will yet be wiser.
7. He will endeavour to find out the motive of the person giving it.
8. He will consider the nature and tendency of the instruction or advise given.
9. He will pray that God may give him to see what is most valuable, and that He may influence his heart to profit by what is good. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)

The wise are willing to learn from any one
President Lincoln once said that he was willing to learn from any one who could teach him anything. Dore seems to have had a like spirit. Some years ago, a clever young Englishwoman—something more than an amateur artist—was brought one day by some friends to Dore’s studio. Unlike most Englishwomen, this was a very impulsive and irrepressible young person; and she offered the frankest criticism of all the works around. The picture on which Dore was then engaged occupied her attention particularly; and not content with recommending various improvements, she suddenly caught the brush from the artist’s hand, and saying coolly, “Don’t you think, Mr. Dore, that a touch of this kind would be an improvement there?” she actually altered the artist’s work with her own audacious fingers. Her friends were rather astonished, and one of them afterwards took occasion to apologise to him for her impulsiveness. Dore seemed only surprised to find that any apology or explanation should be considered necessary. He thought there was some justice in the suggestion thus practically made, and it seemed to him quite natural that one artist should help another. It did not seem to have occurred to him that there was anything presumptuous in the volunteer effort of the young beginner to lend a helping hand to one of the most celebrated and successful artists of the day.

Proverbs 9:10
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
A just conception of God
There are two things which sincere religion can never fail of attaining, one of which is the greatest ingredient—nay, the very foundation of all happiness in this world, and the other is the happiness and immortality which wait for us in the world to come. The latter we can only enjoy now through faith and hope; but the former is present with us, the certain consequence and necessary attendant upon a mind truly virtuous and religious. I mean, the ease and satisfaction of mind which flow from a due sense of God and religion, and the uprightness of our desires and intentions to serve Him.
I. A just conception of God, of his excellences and perfections, is the true foundation of religion. Fear is not a voluntary passion. We cannot be afraid or not afraid of things just as we please. We fear any being in proportion to the power and will which we conceive that being to have either to hurt or to protect us. The different kinds of fear are no otherwise distinguishable from one another than by considering the different conceptions or ideas of the things feared. The fear of a tyrant and the fear of a father are very different passions; but he that knows not the difference between a tyrant and a father will never be able to distinguish these passions. A right and due fear of God presupposes a right and due conception of God. If men misconceive concerning God, either as to His holiness and purity, or to His justice and mercy, their fear of Him will not produce wisdom. The proposition of the text is equivalent to this—a just notion and conception of God is the beginning of wisdom. We experience in ourselves different kinds and degrees of fear, which have very different effects and operations. The fear of the Lord is not an abject, slavish fear; since God is no tyrant. The properties of religious fear, as mentioned in Scripture, are various. It is clean. It is to hate evil. It is a fountain of life. In it is strong confidence. The fear of God signifies that frame and affection of soul which is the consequence of a just notion and conception of the Deity. It is called the fear of God because, as majesty and power are the principal parts of the idea of God, so fear and reverence are the main ingredients in the affection that arises from it. It follows that none should be void of the fear of God, but those who only want right notions of God.
II. The just conception of God is the right rule to form our judgments by, in all particular matters of religion. Wisdom here means true religion. There is religion which is folly and superstition, that better suits with any other name than that of wisdom. If the fear of God only in a general way shows us the necessity of religion, and leaves us to take our chance in the great variety of forms and institutions that are to be found in the world, it may be our hap to learn folly as well as wisdom, upon the instigation of this principle. But the fear of God further teaches us wherein true religion consists. In natural religion this is evidently the case, because in that state there is no pretence to any other rule that can come into competition with this. It is from the notion of a God that men come to have any sense of religion. When we consider God as lord and governor of the world, we soon perceive ourselves to be in subjection, and that we stand obliged, both in interest and duty, to pay obedience to the Supreme. Take from the notion of God any of the moral perfections that belong to it, and you will find such alteration must influence religion likewise, which will degenerate in the same proportion as the notion of God is corrupted. The superstitious man, viewing God through the false perspectives of fear and suspicion, loses sight of His goodness, and sees only a dreadful spectre made up of anger and revenge. Hence religion becomes his torment. That only is true religion which is agreeable to the nature of God. Natural religion is the foundation upon which revelation stands, and therefore revelation can never supersede natural religion without destroying itself. The difference between these two is this: in natural religion nothing can be admitted that may not be proved and deduced from our natural notions. Everything must be admitted for some reason. But revelation introduces a new reason, the will of God, which has, and ought to have, the authority of a law with us. As God has authority to make laws, He may add to our duty and obligations as He sees fit. It is not therefore necessary that all parts of a revelation should be proved by natural reason: it is sufficient that they do not contradict it; for the will of God is a sufficient reason for our submission. The essentials of religion, even under revelation, must be tried and judged by the same principle. No revelation can dispense with virtue and holiness. All such doctrines and all such rites and ceremonies as tend to subvert true goodness and holiness are not of God’s teaching or introducing. The way to keep ourselves stedfastly in the purity of the gospel is to keep our eye constantly on this rule. Could enthusiasm, or destructive zeal, ever have grown out of the gospel had men compared their practices with the natural sense they have of God? Could religion ever have degenerated into folly and superstition had the true notions of God been preserved, and all religious actions been examined in the light of them? Some, taking religion to be what it appears to be, reject all religion. Could men have judged thus perversely had they attended to the true rule, and formed their notions of religion from the nature and wisdom of God, and not from the follies and extravagances of men? How can the folly and perverseness of others affect your duty to God? How came you absolved from all religion, because others have corrupted theirs? Does the error or ignorance of others destroy the relation between you and God, and make it reasonable for you to throw off all obedience? The fear of God will teach you another sort of wisdom. (
Thomas Sherlock, D. D.)

The fear of the Lord
I. This principle will prepare you for discharging in an acceptable manner the duties which you owe more immediately to your Maker. It is the fear of the Lord alone that can inspire and animate your devotions. The sense of His glorious presence will inspire a higher tone of adoration, will give a deeper humility to your confessions, and add a double fervour to your prayers.
II. This principle will have a most salutary influence on the whole tenor of your conduct. The dictates of reason and conscience, considered as the commands of God, acquire thereby the force of a law; the authority of the lawgiver is respected, and it becomes a powerful motive to obedience.
III. But will not this year of the Lord abridge the happiness of life? The impression that we act continually under the inspection of an Omniscient Judge—will it not impose a restraint on our conduct? Will it not check the gaiety of our hearts and diffuse a gloom over the whole of our existence? If, indeed, the Almighty were a capricious tyrant, who delighted in the miseries of His creatures, if the fear of the Lord were that servile principle which haunts the minds of the superstitious, then you might complain, with justice, that the yoke of religion was severe. But it is a service of a more liberal kind which the Ruler of the world requires. It is a restraint to which, independently of religion, prudence would admonish you to submit. It is not a restraint from any innocent enjoyment, but from misery and infamy and guilt. (W. Moodie, D. D.)

The beginning of wisdom
This text occurs several times in the Old Testament, showing its importance; and it really sums up the teaching of the Bible for all classes and ages, and is one strikingly adapted for urging upon us the early religious education of our children.
I. What is “the fear of the Lord”?

1. The right knowledge of Him in what He is—
   (1) In creation.
   (2) In providence.
   (3) As revealed in His Word.
2. And, consequent upon this—
   (1) Reverence of Him.
   (2) Belief in His Word.
   (3) Love for Him as a Father.
   (4) Obedience to Him as a Master (Mal_1:6).
   Mark how a child, as it learns its duty to an earthly parent, is thus trained in its relation to its heavenly Father.
   II. This is true wisdom, which means here the knowledge of Divine things, rightly used. When we fear the Lord we are wise, because—
3. The heart is then taught by the Holy Ghost.
4. We set a right value on things temporal and eternal.
5. We listen to the words of Jesus and of the Scriptures, and repent and believe the gospel (Luk_10:42; 2Ti_3:15).
6. We seek to know and carefully follow His holy will (Eph_5:17).
7. We walk in a sure path of peace and safety (chap. 3:17).
   III. But our text states that this fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
8. It is at the root of all true wisdom; for we are never truly wise till we begin here, and only then do we know how to deal rightly with all things.
9. It is only reasonable then, and our solemn and bounden duty, to teach our children these blessed things early.
10. And God has confirmed the truth of the text by making this thoroughly practicable. Mark how the relations and circumstances of a child prepare it for learning: What God is as a Father. What Christ is as a Saviour. What the Holy Ghost is as a Teacher. Also what repentance, faith, obedience, etc., are, and the opposite of all these. Note the parables of Scripture.
11. And the Holy Ghost can reach a child’s heart; hence the parent’s encouragement to pray, and to use teaching in faith and perseverance. (C. J. Goodhart, M.A.)

True religion the evidence of a good understanding
We all naturally desire happiness. We all know that obtaining it greatly depends on a wise choice of our conduct in life; and yet very few examine, with any care, what conduct is likeliest to procure us the felicity that we seek. There is deeply rooted in the heart of man an inbred sense of right and wrong, which, however heedlessly overlooked or studiously suppressed by the gay or the busy part of the world, will from time to time make them both feel that it hath the justest authority to govern all that we do, as well as power to reward with the truest consolation and punish with the acutest remorse. Some see the absolute necessity of bringing virtue and duty into the account when they deliberate concerning the behaviour that leads to happiness; but they affect to set up virtue in opposition to piety, and think to serve the former by deprecating the latter. Perhaps only relatively few venture to deny the existence of a First Cause. If there exists a Sovereign of the universe, almighty and all-wise, it cannot be a matter that we are unconcerned in. He must have intended that we should pay Him those regards which are His due—a proper temperature of fear and love: two affections which ought never to be separated in thinking of God; whichever is expressed implies the other. This is the true wisdom of man. Consider its influence—
I. On the conduct. God has not planted in us passions, affections, and appetites, to grow up wild as accident directs, but to be diligently superintended, weeded, and pruned, and each confined to its proper bounds. It would both be unjust and unwise to reject the smallest inducement to any part of goodness; for we greatly need every one that we can have. But it is extremely requisite to observe where our chief security lies, and place our chief trust there. The reasonableness, the dignity, the beauty of virtue are doubtless natural, and ought to be strong recommendations of it. No motive, however, is at all times sufficient, excepting only the fear of God, taught as the truth is in Jesus. This is one unchangeable motive, level to the apprehension of every person, extending to the practice of every duty, including at once every moral disposition of heart and every prudent regard to our own good. The fear of God can pierce the inmost recesses of our minds and search the rightness of our most secret desires. Reverence of God’s authority will make us fear to injure the meanest of our fellow-creatures, and hope of sharing in His bounty will teach us to imitate it by the tenderest exercise of humanity and compassion.
II. What effect the fear of God must have on the enjoyment of our lives. It will make bad people uneasy. It restrains persons from dissolute pleasures. It gives a peculiar seriousness and awe to the minds of men. It moderates the liveliness of over-gay dispositions. As to the sufferings of life, religion prevents many and diminishes the rest. True religion being of such importance, there are some things which may justly be expected of mankind in its favour.

1. That they who have not yet carefully searched into the grounds of it should not take upon them to treat it with scorn or even disregard.
2. It may be expected also that they who profess to examine should do it fairly.
3. They who are so happy as to believe should secure and complete their happiness by what alone can do it—a suitable behaviour. On all accounts, therefore, it is our most important concern to cultivate and express the affections of piety, which are indeed the noblest movements of our souls towards the worthiest object, towards the attainment of the most blessed end. (Archbp. Secker.)

Proverbs 9:11
For by Me thy days shall be multiplied.
Of the wisdom of being religious
No desire is so deeply implanted in our nature as that of preserving and prolonging our life. Life and health are the foundation of all other enjoyments. The principal point of wisdom in the conduct of human life is so to use the enjoyments of this present world as that they may not themselves shorten that period wherein it is allowed us to enjoy them. Temperance and sobriety, the regular government of our appetites and passions, are the greatest instances of human wisdom. Religion adds strength to these things by annexing the promise of God’s immediate blessing to the natural tendency and consequences of things. “The fear of the Lord” and “the knowledge of the Holy” are two synonymous expressions, signifying “the practice of virtue and true religion.”
I. The practise of religion is, in general, man’s truest wisdom. The whole tenor of Scripture concurs in setting forth the wisdom of being virtuous and religious. Compare with the wisdom in understanding the arts and sciences. Wisdom of men in being able to overreach and defraud each other; wisdom of political skill; wisdom in words and artful representations of things; wisdom in searching out the secrets of nature. The only wisdom that all men are capable of, and that all men are indispensably obliged to attain, is the practical wisdom of being truly religious.
II. The practise of religion tends to prolong our life and lengthen our days. Promises of health and life are frequent in the Old Testament. See the fifth commandment with promise. There are threatenings of the wicked in the Old Testament, which declare their days shall be shortened. In the nature of things men destroy themselves and shorten their days by many kinds of wickedness. According to the same natural order and tendency of things, by peace and charity men are preserved from destruction; by temperance their bodies are maintained in health; by quiet of conscience and satisfaction of mind is a new life added to their spirits. In the positive appointment and constitution of Providence there was yet more assurance of the doctrine. The temporal promises of the Old Testament cannot now be applied with any certainty under the New, where eternal life is so much more clearly revealed.
III. How is this blessing to be desired by Christians under the gospel state. The gospel gives a mean notion of the present life and glorious representation of the happiness of that to come, so that a devout man may wish to be delivered from the miseries of this sinful world. But the best men need prolonged lives on earth for their own amendment and improvement; and if not for their own, for the sake of others. It may also be reminded that duties are entrusted to us, and we must not shirk them. And the longest life here is but a moment in comparison of eternity. We ought to make it the main care of our lives to secure our eternal happiness hereafter; only then do length of days become a blessing. (
S. Clarke, D. D.)

The criterion of true wisdom
The temporal interests of one man are so bound up with those of many others that you can scarcely find the individual of whom it may be said that he plans for himself alone, or acts for himself alone. If we stretch our thoughts from temporal things and fix them on spiritual, will the same thing hold? Hardly perhaps, for we can scarcely suppose that, through destroying his own soul, a man may also destroy the souls of many others. Unto every one amongst us there is vouchsafed a sufficiency of means, so that he who perishes does not perish through being involved in the ruin of another, but through having wrought his own individual destruction. Neither religion nor irreligion can be said to propagate themselves, as industry and idleness in temporal things. Religion, in the most emphatic sense, is a thing between each of us and God.
I. The criterion of wisdom. If a man be wise at all, he is wise for himself. The prime object of every class of society is the advancing its own interests. Men are set down as wise chiefly in proportion as practical results shall prove them to have been wise for themselves. Nevertheless, unless the wisdom have a heavenly character it cannot in any degree render the possessor truly wise for himself. If I be wise for myself I must be wise by making provision for the vast expansion of my being, and not by limiting attention to that period which is nothing but its outset. He cannot be wise for himself who dishonours himself, who degrades himself, who destroys himself. Can a man be pronounced to have been wise for himself before whose tomb a nation may be burning its incense of gratitude for his discoveries, whilst his spirit is brooding in darkness, and silence, and anguish over the vast infatuation which caused God to be forgotten whilst science is pursued? A man may be wise in all that the world calls wisdom, and yet in no sense wise for himself. Unless a man has been wise for eternity he has not been wise for himself. Only that wisdom which is from above, the wisdom which consists in knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, can make a man truly wise.
II. The advantage of possessing this wisdom is altogether personal. So far as the present life is concerned the consequences of the possession or non-possession of wisdom are not confined to the individual himself. The words of Solomon had respect to the future rather than to the present. The future consequences are altogether personal. From this flows the final woe of the impenitent. A terrible punishment is solitary confinement. There may be solitariness in hell. “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” (H. Melvill, B.D.)

The gain of the wise
I apply this text to the all-absorbing and vitally important matter—evangelical religion. It may be paraphrased thus: He that is truly wise, will find it to his own personal everlasting advantage; it is his interest as well as him duty to be made wise unto salvation: but he who scorns religion will find his scorning eventually infinitely to his disadvantage.
I. The decided subjection of the heart to God is the only true wisdom. It is wisdom in the abstract. It is wisdom contrasted with every other acquisition. By religion is meant faith in Jesus Christ. Religion is a vague tern which may be applied to that which is true, that which is false, and that which is formal. I mean by it, that faith in Jesus Christ which is the entire submission of the heart to Him, and a practical devotedness of the life to His service. This is not only wisdom in the abstract, but wisdom of a peculiar, personal, individual importance.
II. He who accomplishes this is an infinite gainer.

1. He gains the possession of the elements of present happiness. H the possession of a truly religious character does not in its own nature exempt an individual from the calamities of life, it does what is, on the whole, far more effectual and more elevating to his character—it enables him to bear them.
2. He gains the prospect of a saved eternity. The truly converted man is the only being on the face of the earth who has a rational hold upon the blessedness of heaven.
   III. He who scorns religion is an infinite loser. To scorn is to despise religion; to scoff at, to ridicule, to reject, to neglect it. He who will not repent is a scorner. He who puts off the concerns of religion is a scorner. He who is self-righteous is a scorner. Whatever the scorner is to bear, he is to bear alone.
3. He is to bear his own sins. The Christian’s sins have been borne by the Saviour in whom he trusts. The scorner has relinquished all claims upon the precious Saviour and His promises; he consents to bear the weight of his own sin.
4. He has to bear the weight of his own sorrows. The scorner throws by the precious balm of Gilead. He may take the miserable comfort of bending to the stroke of necessity, but it is a satisfaction filled with secret repinings and sorrows of the heart.
5. Look at this matter in relation to eternity. The scorner will bear the scorn of heaven and of hell.
6. The scorner will bear his own eternal self-reproaches. If there is any one thing on earth more difficult to endure than another, it is the accusation of a man’s own conscience. The mental anguish of consciously-deserved distress is intolerable. (G. T. Bedell, D.D.)

But if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.
The advantages, of a tractable person
I. The benefit which ensues from hearkening to good counsel.

1. The title or denomination of a tractable person. He is a “wise man.” It is a part of wisdom for a man to suspect his own wisdom, and to think that it is possible for him to deceive himself. It is a part of wisdom to discern between good and evil—to know what is to be left and what is to be embraced. It is a part of wisdom to know one’s best friends, and to give them all encouragement of being further friendly to us by hearkening to their counsel.
2. The benefit that accrues unto this wise man. He is wise unto himself. This wisdom redounds to a man’s own furtherance and account. He is much better for it every way. Wise for thyself—in thy inward man; in thine outward man, thy body and estate; in thy relations: there is no better way of providing for those who belong to thee than by labouring to walk in good ways. No man serves God in vain. This is true for this life and for the life to come. God bestows graces and rewards them. God has involved our own good in His glory, so that while we endeavour to promote the one we advance the other. We are no further wise ourselves than we are wise for our own souls.
   II. The inconvenience of the neglect of good counsel. The simple inconvenience: “Bear his scorning.” Scorners are such as have but mean thoughts of religion. Such as decline it for themselves. Such as deride and scoff at it. The grounds of scorning are unbelief, pride and self-conceitedness, thraldom and addiction to any particular lust. Scorning is surely followed by punishment, and in the expression “thou shalt bear it” is indicated the indefiniteness, the universality, and the unavoidableness of the punishment. Scorners persist in sin, and thus aggravate it so much the more to themselves. Scorners undervalue the kindness of reproof, and slight the motions of God’s Spirit in them. Beware, then, of the sin of scorning! (T. Horton D. D.)

The profit of Wisdom
She shows that she aims not at any emolument or profit of her own, but at the good of others, to whom she directs her precepts, and by keeping of them from miseries which otherwise they shall inevitably suffer.
I. Our wisdom profits not Jesus Christ, nor doth our scorning hurt Him. Because no man can make God wiser, holier, or happier. He is above all scorns. He needs not our approbation. He can raise up others that shall honour Him more than we can dishonour Him.
II. Our wisdom may profit ourselves. It may make men happy.

1. It brings profit to us in regard of our credit. All states reverence and prefer wise men.
2. In regard of means. Wise men ordinarily thrive in all trades.
3. It is profitable to the body and preserveth life.
4. It is profitable to the soul. It preserveth it from destruction.
   III. Our scorning hurts ourselves.
5. Because it frustrates the means of our salvation. Who will regard that word which he scorns?
6. It gives God just cause of our condemnation. No man will endure his word should be scorned, much less will God. (F. Taylor, B.D.)

The superiority of religion over infidelity
In the language of Solomon, to be wise is to be religious, and this language is at once correct and comprehensive. That alone deserves the name of wisdom which embraces all the important interests of man, and which reaches, in its effects, through the whole extent of his rational existence. True philosophy consists in a practical acquaintance with our duties and destination as rational and immortal beings, and in rendering this acquaintance subservient to the regulation of our affections and habits, so as to promote every virtuous disposition, and thus to prepare the soul for a state of purer and more dignified enjoyment. This is not only to be truly wise, but to be wise for ourselves. That is not properly a man’s own for the possession of which he has no permanent security. It is the peculiar excellence of religion that whilst it detracts nothing from the virtuous satisfactions which arise from honourable labour in any sphere of life, it superadds the consciousness of Divine favour. Much has been said and written of the tendency of mere moral virtue, independently of religious hopes, to make men happy. Whatever promotes self-government and temperance, and thus restrains those excesses which are inimical to health and peace, is wise; but this is not being wise for ourselves upon the best plan. It leaves out the animating considerations which religion alone can furnish. Here lies the superiority of religious wisdom. Besides all the sources of pleasure which are common to the Christian with the man of the world, it opens others of its own by furnishing objects of research to the understanding and interest to the heart infinitely more excellent and durable than any to which mere worldly wisdom can pretend. Can he, then, be wise for himself who prefers the plan of worldly wisdom to that wisdom which is from above? What is there of life or of joy in this wretched philosophy that should gain it so many proselytes? What should we gain by following their example? We might be flattered by empty praise as being unusually wise. If you care for such honour, it is of easy acquisition. You have only to deny your God and renounce your expectations from futurity, and it is done. But if you inquire what you will get in return, there are none to answer you. Let the advocates of unbelief estimate the advantages of their system as high as they please above ours, yet will that advantage dwindle into insignificance in the eye of true wisdom when the remotest probability of future account becomes a part of the computation. And where are such advantages to be found? And what must you lose in order to gain them? But they say, “Truth is wisdom; and truth must be supported, be the consequences what they may.” But is their so-called truth more than opinion? And every probability is on the side of the being of God and dependence of humanity on Him. Can there be wisdom, for ourselves or for others, in renouncing the cheering views of Christianity for the dreary systems of infidelity? (
Jas. Lindsay,D.D.)

The danger of not complying with the gospel-call
This verse is the epilogue or conclusion of the gospel-treaty with sinners. The entertainment the gospel meets with is twofold, and there are two sorts of gospel-hearers: compilers with the gospel-call; these are called the wise: refusers; these are styled scorners.
I. If thou be no complier with the gospel call thou art a scorner of it: there is no middle course. Thou art not a complier with the gospel-call as long as—

1. Thou entertainest any prejudice against religion and wilt not come to Christ.
2. Thou art in a doubt whether to come or not, or delayest and putteth off.
3. If thou dost come, but dost not turn from thy sins unto God in Christ sincerely, thoroughly, and universally, thou dost not comply. By not complying with the gospel-call thou abusest the mercy, goodness, and patience of God. Thou lookest on the gospel-call as a trifling, inconsiderable thing. Thou exposest it to shame and dishonour. Thou failest of thy fair promises. Thou makest thyself merry with thy disobedience to this call. Is not that scorning?
   II. If thou comply with the gospel-call thou shalt therein act wisely for thyself. The profit descends to themselves; it does not ascend to God. To confirm this, consider—
4. God is infinite in perfections, self-sufficient, and therefore the creatures can add nothing to Him.
5. All the goodness and profitableness of men or angels, or any creatures, can add nothing to Him. But by complying thou shalt advance thine own interest. (T. Boston.)

Proverbs 9:13-15
A foolish woman is clamorous.
The foolish woman
This might be understood, in all truth, of the “strange woman” with her enticements; but I am strongly inclined to interpret the passage of Folly as an allegorical personage set in contrast with Wisdom—Folly under all the forms and phases which it assumes in the world; all being included under this personification that entices from the gates of that house where Wisdom receives and entertains her guests. The characteristics of this second personage are the reverse of those of Wisdom. They are ignorance and thoughtless emptiness: what is wanting in solid and substantial ideas is made up by loud clamour and noisy importunity. She, too, hath builded her house. She, too, hath provided her entertainment. She, too, invites her guests. The houses are over against each other—on opposite sides of the way. Wisdom’s is on the right hand; Folly’s on the left. They are thus in the vicinity of each other; it being the very purpose of Folly to prevent, by her allurements, those who pass by from entering the doors of Wisdom. Each addresses her invitations, and uses—but from very different motives—every art of persuasion. Folly presents all her captivating allurements to the lusts and passions of corrupt nature; and she shows her skill in seduction by holding out, in promise, the secret enjoyment of forbidden sweets. There are pleasures in sin. It is from these that its temptations arise. Alas! Folly has the heart of man wholly on her side. (R. Wardlaw.)

Proverbs 9:14
For she sitteth at the door of her house.
The ministry of temptation
I. As conducted by depraved woman. A foolish woman is here the emblem of wickedness in the world.

1. She is ignorant. Blind to spiritual realities and claims. She is in the kingdom of darkness.
2. She is clamorous. Full of noise and excitement; bearing down all objections to her entreaties.
3. She is audacious. Modesty, which is the glory of a woman’s nature, has left her.
4. She is persuasive. She admits that her pleasures are wrong, and on that account more delectable.
   II. As directed to the inexperienced in life. To whom does she especially direct her entreaties? Not to the mature saint stalwart in virtue. She calls “passengers,” the “simple ones.”
   III. As tending to a most miserable destination. The ministry of temptation is very successful as conducted by depraved woman.
5. This woman obtained guests.
6. Her guests were ruined.
7. Her guests were ruined contrary to their intention. (Homilist.)

The pleasures of sin
One of the foul spirits that assail and possess men is singled out and delineated, and this one represents a legion in the background. This is no fancy picture. It is drawn from life. The plague is as rampant in our streets as it is represented to be in the Proverbs. Mankind have sat for the picture: there is no mistake in the outline, there is no exaggeration in the colouring. Let no youth ever once, or for a moment, go where he would be ashamed to be found by his father and his mother. This woman is the figure of all evil—the devil, the world, the flesh, whatever form they may assume and whatever weapons they may employ. The one evil spirit, dragged forth from the legion and exposed, is intended not to conceal, but to open up the generic character of the company. In this life every human being is placed between two rival invitations, and every human being in this life yields to the one or to the other. The power of sin lies in its pleasure. If stolen waters were not sweet, none would steal the waters. This is part of the mystery in which our being is involved by the fall. Our appetite is diseased. In man fallen there is a diseased relish for that which destroys. There is an appetite in our nature which finds sweetness in sin. And the appetite grows by what it feeds on. It is only in the mouth that the stolen water is sweet; afterwards it is bitter. One part of the youth’s danger lies in his ignorance: “He knoweth not that the dead are there.” (W. Arnot, D. D.)

Proverbs 9:15
To call passengers who go right on their ways.
The tempted ones
Who are the tempted? Young people who have been well-educated; these she will triumph most in being the ruin of.
I. What their real character is. “Passengers that go right on their ways”; that have been trained up in the paths of religion and virtue, and set out very hopefully and well; that seemed determined and designed for good, and are not (as that young man in Pro_7:8) “going the way to her house.” Such as these she has a design upon, and lays snares for, and uses all her arts, all her charms, to pervert them; if they go right on, and will not look toward her, she will call after them, so urgent are these temptations.
II. How the foolish woman represents them. She calls them “simple” and “wanting understanding,” and therefore courts them to her school, that they may be cured of the restraints and formalities of their religion. This is the method of the stage, where the sober young man that has been virtuously educated is the fool in the play, and the plot is to make him seven times more a child of hell than his profane companions, under colour of polishing and refining him, and setting him up for a wit and a beau. What is justly charged upon sin and impiety (Pro_9:4) that it is folly, is here very unjustly retorted upon the ways of virtue; but the day will declare who are the fools. (Matthew Henry.)

Proverbs 9:17-18
But he knoweth not that the dead are there.
The fatal banquet
Here two texts. Preach concerning a couple of preachers; one by usurpation, the other by assignation: the world’s chaplain, and the Lord’s prophet. First, the delightfulness of sin; second, converted Solomon. The text of the one is from hell’s scriotum est. The text of the other is the word of eternal truth. We are here presented with a banquet. The inviter is a degenerate woman, representing sin—such as ambition, pride, engrossing, bribery, faction, riot, oppression. The cheer is presented in several dishes—waters, stolen, secret; bread, eaten in secret, pleasant. Sins may be in some sense likened to waters.

1. Water is an enemy to digestion.
2. Water dulls the brain.
3. Grace is compared to fire, gracelessness to water.
4. Water is a baser element, as it were, sophisticate with transfusion.
5. Physicians say that water is a binder.
   On the other hand—
   (1) Waters mundify and cleanse; but these soil and infect.
   (2) Waters quench the thirst, and cool the heat of the body; but these rather fire the heart and inflame the affections.
   (3) We say of water, “It is a good servant, though an ill master”; but we cannot apply this to sin. It is not good at all; indeed, less ill when it serves than when it reigns. The nature of these waters is not more pernicious than their number is numerous. The first course of these waters are such sins as more immediately rob God. Atheism is the highest theft against God, because it would steal from Him, not His goods, but Himself. Heresy soon tickles the brain, and makes a man drunk. This sin robs God of His truth. Sacrilege robs God of His goods. Faction robs God of His order and peace. Profaneness robs God of His glory. The second sort of stolen waters are those sins which mediately rob God, immediately our brethren, depriving them of some comfort or right which the inviolable law of God hath interested them to—such as irreverence, murder, adultery, thievery, slander, flattery. The third sort of stolen waters—sins which immediately rob ourselves—such as pride, epicurism, idleness, envy, drunkenness, covetousness. Stolen—in this consists the approbation of their sweetness, that they come by stealth, and are compassed by dangerous and forbidden pains. A second argument of their sweetness is their cheapness. What a man gets by robbery comes without cost. A third argument is derived from our corrupt affections. Sin pleaseth the flesh. The other service at this banquet is bread; bread of secrecies, bread of pleasure. Bread implies much health, great comforts, fulness of all requisite good things. Since the devil will put the form of bread upon his tempting wickedness, let us examine what kind of bread it is. The seed is corruption; the influences that ripen the seed are temptations; when ripe it is cut down by the sickle of the devil’s subtlety; it is threshed out with the flail of his strength; the flood of concupiscence drives the mill that grinds it. The mill consists of two stones—pleasure and profit. The leaven is the colourable and fallacious arguments that persuade the sweetness of this bread. The oven that bakes it is our own evil affections. It is called” bread of secrecy.” Unjust things love privacy. But God sees. Satan’s guests unhappily come from the end of a feast to the beginning of a fray. All sinful joys are dammed up with a “but.” The devil does but cozen the wicked with his cates. The punishments of the wicked are most usually in the like; proper and proportional to their offences. The perdition that follows the feast of sin destroys a man in his goods, in his good name, in his health, in his soul. The tempted are called the dead. There are three kinds of death—corporal, spiritual, eternal. Corporal, when the body leaves this life spiritual, when the soul forsakes and is forsaken of grace; eternal, when both shall be thrown into hell. The text has also the attempted, the new guest whom sin strives to bring in to the rest. He is described by his ignorance: “Knoweth not.” Five kinds of ignorance: human, natural, affected, invincible, proud. The place of the banquet is the “depths of hell.” This amplifies the misery of the guests in three circumstances.
6. Their weakness: they are soon in.
7. The place: hell.
8. The unrecoverableness of it: the depth of hell.
   By hell is meant the deep bondage of wicked souls, Satan having by sin a full dominion over their consciences. (T. Adams.)

Proverbs 9:18
Her guests are in the depths of hell.
Whose guests shall we be?
It is through blindness and inconsideration that any man is entangled in the snares of the foolish woman. We are naturally starving creatures, and cannot find happiness within ourselves. As every man must have food to satisfy the natural cravings of hunger, so every soul must have some gratification to the desires of happiness. Wisdom and Folly do each spread a leash for men. The question is, Whose guests shall we be? And did we possess any wisdom, or any true and well-directed self-love, it might be easily decided. The entertainments of Wisdom are soul-quickening provision. They that hear her calls shall eat that which is good, and their souls shall live for ever. The guests of Wisdom are in the heights of heaven. They feast on the hidden manna, and on the fruits of the tree of life. The provisions of the foolish woman are a deadly, though perhaps a slow, poison. Her guests have their portion with the wicked giants who brought on the world a universal deluge, and with the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, who are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Let us consider where Joseph now is, and what blessings are come upon the crown of the head of him who so bravely resisted temptations the most alluring and the most threatening. Let us, on the other hand, remember Sodom and Gomorrah. (G. Lawson.).

Proverbs 9
Seventeenth Address. Chap. Pro_9:1-18
This Section, with which the Introduction to the Book concludes, consists of two parts, in which Wisdom personified (Pro_9:1-12) and Folly (Pro_9:13-18) represented by a vicious woman are set once more in vivid contrast to each other, contending for the adherence of the children of men. Each has her house to receive them (Pro_9:1; Pro_9:14), each her feast spread for them (Pro_9:2; Pro_9:17), each her invitation, couched, in part at least, in identical terms (Pro_9:4; Pro_9:16), which she utters forth in the high places of the city (Pro_9:3; Pro_9:14). The balance and symmetry of these two parts are not, however, artistically preserved. Moral earnestness over powers literary skill. The picture of Wisdom (Pro_9:1-5) is followed by her prolonged address (Pro_9:7-12), for which the companion picture (Pro_9:13-17) has to wait, the section being closed by a single note of warning from the Teacher himself (Pro_9:18).

Proverbs 9:1-18
The following commentary covers Chapters 1 through 9.
There are two very distinct parts in this book. The first nine chapters, which give the great general principles; and the proverbs, properly so called, or moral aphorisms or sentences, which indicate the path in which the wise man should walk. At the end of the book is a collection of such made by Hezekiah.
Let us examine the first part. The grand principle is laid down at the outset-the fear of the Lord on the one side, and on the other the madness of self-will, which despises the wisdom and instruction that restrain it. For, besides the knowledge of good and evil in respect of which the fear of the Lord will operate, there is that exercise of authority in God’s created order which is a check on will (the origin of all disorder), as that confided to parents and the like. And these are carefully insisted on, in contrast with independence, as the basis of happiness and moral order in the world. It is not simply God’s authority giving precepts, nor even His statements of the consequence of actions, but the order He has set up in the relationships He has established amongst men, especially of parents, subjection to them is really owning God in His order. It is the first commandment with promise.
There are two forms in which sin, or the activity of man’s will, manifests itself-violence and corruption. This was seen at the time of the deluge. The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. Satan is a liar and murderer. In man, corrupt lusts are even a more abundant source of evil. In chapter 1 violence is pointed out as the infringement of those obligations which the will of God has laid upon us. But wisdom cries aloud that her voice may be heard, proclaiming the judgment of those who despise her ways.
Chapter 2 gives us the result of subjection of heart to the words of wisdom, and an earnest search after it-the knowledge of the fear of Jehovah, and the knowledge of God Himself. He who applies himself to this shall be kept: he shall not only have no part with the wicked man, but he shall be delivered from the deceitful woman-from corruption. The judgment of the earth and the prosperity of the righteous are declared.
The latter principle being established, chapter 3 shews that it is not human sagacity or the prudence of man which imparts the wisdom here spoken of. Neither is it the ardent desire after prosperity and happiness, manifesting itself in crooked ways; but the fear of Jehovah and subjection to His word supply the one clue to guide us safely through a world of wickedness which He governs.
Chapter 4 insists on the necessity of pursuing wisdom at whatever cost; it is a path of sure reward. It warns against all association that would lead the contrary way and into ruin, adding that the heart, the lips, and the feet are to be watched.
Chapter 5 returns in detail to the corruption of heart that leads a man to forsake the wife of his youth for another. This path demoralises the whole man. But the eyes of Jehovah are upon the ways of man.
In chapter 6 wisdom will not be surety for another. It is neither slothful, nor violent, nor deceitful. The strange woman should be avoided as fire: there is no reparation for adultery. In chapter 7 the house of the strange woman is the path to the grave. To curb oneself, to be firm in resisting allurements, looking to Jehovah and hearkening to the words of the wise-such are the principles of life given in these chapters.
Chapter 8. The wisdom of God is active. It cries aloud; it invites men. Three principles distinguish it-discretion, or the right consideration of circumstances, instead of following self-will; hatred of evil, which evidences the fear of Jehovah; and detestation of arrogance and hypocrisy in man. It is by wisdom that kings and princes rule; strength, counsel, and sound wisdom, and durable riches, are found in it. Moreover Jehovah Himself has acted according to His own perfect discernment of the right relations of all things to each other; that is to say, He created them according to the perfection of His own thoughts. But this leads us farther; for Christ is the wisdom of God. He is the centre of all relations, according to the perfections of God; and is in Himself the object of God’s eternal delight. The everlasting wisdom of God is revealed and unfolded in Him. But this is not the only link. If Christ was the object of God the Father’s delight, as the centre and fulness of all wisdom, men have been the delight of Christ, and the habitable parts of Jehovah’s earth. It is in connection with men that Christ is seen, when considered as uniting and developing in Himself every feature of the wisdom and the counsels of God. The life that was in Him was the light of men. Christ is then the object of God the Father’s delight. Christ ever found His joy in God the Father, and His delight with the sons of men, [1] and in the earth inhabited by men. Here then must this wisdom be displayed. Here must the perfection of God’s ways be manifested. Here must divine wisdom be a guide to the conduct of a being subject to its direction. Now it is in Christ, the wisdom of God, that this is found. Whoso hearkens to Him finds life. Observe here that, all-important as this revelation is of the display of God’s wisdom in connection with men, we do not find man’s new place in Christ, nor the assembly here. She is called away from this present evil age to belong to Jesus in heaven. Christ cannot actually yet rejoice in the sons of men, if we take their state into account. When He takes possession of the earth, this will be fully accomplished-this will be the millennium. Meantime He calls on men to hear His voice. The principle of a path to be followed by hearkening to the words of wisdom is one of the greatest importance for this world, and of the most extensive bearing. There is the path of God, in which He is known. There is but one. If we do not walk in it, we shall suffer the consequences, even if really loving the Lord.
But in fact (chapter 9) wisdom has done more than this; it has formed a system, established a house of its own, upheld by the perfection of well-regulated and co-ordinate solidity. It is furnished with meat and wine; the table is spread; and, in the most public manner, wisdom invites the simple to come and partake, while pointing out to them the right way in which life is found. There is another woman; but before speaking of her, the Spirit teaches that instruction is wasted on the scorner; he will but hate his reprover. Wisdom is wise even in relation to its enemies. There is progress for the wise and the upright, but the beginning of it is the fear of Jehovah. This is its fundamental principle.
But scoffing is not the only character of evil. There is the foolish woman. This is not the activity of love which seeks the good of those who are ignorant of good. She is clamorous, sitting in the high places, at the door of her house, seeking to turn aside those who go right on their ways, and alluring those that have no understanding into the paths of deceit and sin; and they know not that her guests are the victims of death. Such are the general instructions which God’s warning wisdom gives us.
Note #1
So He became a man, and the unjealous testimony of the angels on His birth is, glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good pleasure in men. Man would not have Him, and the special relationship of His risen place as man with God, “my Father and your Father, my God and your God,” and that of the assembly was formed, but His delight was in that race; for the time it was not peace on earth but division, but even after the millennium the tabernacle of God will be with men, where we have both the special relationship and the general blessing.

Proverbs 9:1-18
Proverbs 9 – Wisdom’s Feast and Folly’s Funeral
A. The way of wisdom.

1. (1-6) Wisdom’s generous invitation.
   Wisdom has built her house,
   She has hewn out her seven pillars;
   She has slaughtered her meat,
   She has mixed her wine,
   She has also furnished her table.
   She has sent out her maidens,
   She cries out from the highest places of the city,
   “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
   As for him who lacks understanding, she says to him,
   “Come, eat of my bread
   And drink of the wine I have mixed.
   Forsake foolishness and live,
   And go in the way of understanding.
   a. Wisdom has built her house: Proverbs 8 described wisdom as a woman with blessings and benefits for those who listened and obeyed. Now Solomon pictures wisdom as a woman of generous hospitality who invites all (Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!).
   i. John Trapp wrote that wisdom here is literally in the plural. “Hebrew, Wisdoms, in the plural; and this, either honoris causa, for honour’s sake, or else by an ellipsis, as if the whole of it were ‘wisdom of wisdoms.’”
   ii. Built her house: Adam Clarke described the general understanding of this figure from the early church fathers and medieval theologians: “The house built by wisdom is the holy humanity of Jesus Christ; the seven pillars are the seven sacraments, or the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, or the whole of the apostles, preachers, and ministers of the Church; the slain beasts are the sacrifice of Christ”s body upon the cross; and the bread and mingled wine are the bread and wine in the sacrament of the Lord”s Supper!” Of this, Clarke wrote: “men have produced strange creatures of their own brain, by way of explanation.”
   b. Hewn out her seven pillars: The primary idea is that wisdom’s house is large, well-appointed, and unshakable. Through the centuries, various commentators have not been able to resist seeing some symbolic meaning in her seven pillars.
   i. “i.e. many pillars; whereby is intimated both the beauty and the stability of the church. Pillars; prophets, and apostles, and ministers of holy things, which in Scripture are called pillars, as Gal_2:9, and elsewhere.” (Poole)
   c. Come, eat of my bread: The customs and ethics of hospitality in the ancient near east made this invitation even more meaningful. Wisdom offers the simple and he who lacks understanding her provision, partnership, and protection.
   i. “So just as one would prepare a banquet and invite guests, wisdom prepares to press her appeal. All this imagery lets the simpleton know that what wisdom has to offer is marvelous.” (Ross)
   ii. Has slaughtered her meat: “Slaughtering, like the difficult and responsible activity of building a house, was normally a man’s job (cf. Gen_18:7; Jdg_6:19; 1Sa_25:11), but Wisdom is an extraordinary woman.” (Waltke)
   iii. Has mixed her wine: “1. With spices, to make it strong and delightful, this mixed wine being mentioned as the best, Pro_23:29-30. Or, 2. With water, as they used to do in those hot countries, partly for refreshment, and partly for wholesomeness; whereby also may be intimated that wisdom teacheth us temperance in the use of our comforts. Hath also furnished her table with all necessaries, and now waits for the guests.” (Poole)
   iv. “Among the ancient Jews, Greeks, and Romans, wine was rarely drank without being mingled with water; and among ancient writers we find several ordinances for this. Some direct three parts of water to one of wine; some five parts; and Pliny mentions some wines that required twenty waters: but the most common proportions appear to have been three parts of water to two of wine.” (Clarke)
   v. Sent out her maidens: Several older commentators see here an allusion to those who would preach the gospel. “So ministers are called – in prosecution of the allegory, for it is fit that this great lady should have suitable attendants – to teach them innocence, purity, and [diligence] as maidens, keeping the word in sincerity, and not adulterating and corrupting it.” (Trapp)
   d. Eat of my bread and drink of the wine: Several older commentators saw an allegorical reference to communion, the Lord’s Table, in the mention of bread and wine in Pro_9:5. This is an example of taking the figures from Hebrew poetry and wisdom literature and over-allegorizing them.
   i. “Lyrannus noteth on this chapter, that the Eucharist was anciently delivered in both kinds: but because of the danger of spilling the blood, the Church ordained that laymen should have the bread only. The Council of Constance comes in with a non obstante against Christ’s institution, withholding the cup from the sacrament.” (Trapp)
   e. Forsake foolishness and live: Wisdom makes the invitation, but the simple must respond. They must be willing to go in the way of understanding.
   i. “Just as food and drink give physical life, Solomon’s teachings give spiritual life. This truth finds an even better realization in Jesus’ invitation to the banquet in the kingdom of God (Luk_14:15-24). Wisdom has done her part; now the feckless and senseless must make a decision to feast and be healed.” (Waltke)
   ii. Him who lacks understanding: “Literally, he that wanteth a heart; who is without courage, is feeble and fickle, and easily drawn aside from the holy commandment.” (Clarke)
2. (7-9) Those who reject and receive wisdom.
   “He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself,
   And he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself.
   Do not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you;
   Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.
   Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser;
   Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.
   a. He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself: Having given the generous invitation, wisdom explained the folly and fruitlessness of trying to impose wisdom on the unwilling. The wicked man and the scoffer won’t receive wisdom and will often hate the one who tries to help.
   i. The scoffer: “He is the person who will not live by wise and moral teachings and is not content to let others do so without his cynical mocking.” (Ross)
   ii. Gets shame: “Shame (King James Version, Revised Version): better, abuse (Revised Standard Version). The further one goes with folly or wisdom, the less or the more will one put up with the criticism which is wisdom’s teaching-method.” (Kidner)
   iii. “Fools, scoffers, and the simple like to have their own way and be told they’re doing fine, but wise men and women want the truth. Teach wise people and they’ll accept the truth and become wiser; try to teach fools and they’ll reject the truth and become even greater fools.” (Wiersbe)
   iv. Isa_28:10 is an example of the scorning and taunting of one who delivers the truth. “One observeth that that was a scoff put upon the prophet; and is as if they should say, Here is nothing but line upon line, precept upon precept. The very sound of the words in the original – Zau le zau, kau lakau – carries a taunt, as scornful people by the tone of their voice, and rhyming words, scorn at such as they despise.” (Trapp)
   v. Do not correct a scoffer: “Solomon gives us here the rule of Christian prudence…. Why should we correct and rebuke when more harm than good will be the result? Avoid irritations. Wait for the favorable opportunity.” (Bridges)
   b. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser: In contrast, the wise and just man will benefit from wisdom’s invitation. This is something of the sense of Jesus’ words, For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him (Mat_13:12).
   i. “Literally give to the wise, and he will be wise. Whatever you give to such, they reap profit from it. They are like the bee, they extract honey from every flower.” (Clarke)
   ii. “David loved Nathan the better while he lived for dealing so plainly with him, and named him a commissioner for the declaring of his successor. [1Ki_1:32-35]” (Trapp)
3. (10-12) The beginning and benefits of wisdom.
   “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
   And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
   For by me your days will be multiplied,
   And years of life will be added to you.
   If you are wise, you are wise for yourself,
   And if you scoff, you will bear it alone.”
   a. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: The statement of Pro_1:7 is repeated again, here towards the end of this section of the book of Proverbs. Though Proverbs is a book that focuses on practical life, it is founded on this important principle: wisdom begins with a right relationship with God.
   i. Knowledge of the Holy One: “Holy is here in the plural number, importing the Trinity of Persons, as likewise Jos_24:19.” (Trapp) “The plural can express excellence or comprehensiveness, like the plural word for Deity: Elohim.” (Kidner)
   ii. The Holy One: “This title for the Lord underscores his ‘otherness,’ the sphere of his sacredness, separated from the mundane, the common, and the profane.” (Waltke)
   b. The fear of the Lord: This is a real fear, but in the sense of awe and reverence. It honors God as He really is – holy, just, and creator of all. It is not a cowering or servile fear, but it is a kind of fear nonetheless.
   c. The beginning of wisdom: Wisdom has a starting place, and it is in the recognition and honor of God. This means those who do not recognize or honor God fall short of true wisdom in some way or another.
   i. “We are ever beginning; every morning we start afresh; every task we take up is a new start; every venture in joy or in effort, must have its commencement. Then let every beginning be in the fear of Jehovah. That is Wisdom, and it leads in the way of Wisdom.” (Morgan)
   ii. “There is an old saying which runs, ‘Well begun is half done.’ This is true indeed when the beginning is inspired and conditioned by the fear of Jehovah.” (Morgan)
   d. By me your days will be multiplied: Wisdom brings her benefits to those who receive her. Finding wisdom’s start through the fear of the Lord will always be rewarded.
   e. If you are wise, you are wise for yourself: Solomon explained how wisdom and folly directly affect the individual. Sometimes we seek wisdom more for others than ourselves; Solomon reminded us that wisdom is for yourself; the scoffer will not gain from the wisdom of others. When he is foolish he will bear it alone.
   i. Perhaps there is something like this also implied: “Don’t seek wisdom to please others. That isn’t a right or sufficient motivation. You are the one who will most benefit from the wisdom you seek after, so let the motivation come from you and not from another.”
   ii. “This is perhaps the strongest expression of individualism in the Bible. Such statements (cf. Ezekiel 18; Gal_6:4-5) are not meant to deny that people benefit or suffer from each other’s characters (cf. Pro_10:1), but to emphasize that the ultimate gainer or loser is the man himself.” (Kidner)
   B. The way of folly.
4. (13-15) The seat of the foolish woman.
   A foolish woman is clamorous;
   She is simple, and knows nothing.
   For she sits at the door of her house,
   On a seat by the highest places of the city,
   To call to those who pass by,
   Who go straight on their way:
   a. A foolish woman is clamorous: Using symbolic figures, Solomon now presented the foolish way that rejects wisdom. Wisdom is like a gracious woman offering generous hospitality (Pro_9:1-12). Folly is like a clamorous, unpleasant woman – one who is simple, and knows nothing – looking for friends.
   i. Clamorous: “Speaks loudly, that she may be heard; and vehemently, that persons might be moved by her persuasions.” (Poole)
   b. She sits at the door of her house: Foolishness can be found in the home, but also in the highest places of the city. Wisdom works hard to make a wonderful meal and offer impressive hospitality; folly sits at the door and makes her call to those who pass by in either place.
   i. On a seat: “Probably chairs were so rare that only the highest nobleman owned one. In Elizabethan times chairs were a luxury. Common people sat on stools and benches, the gentry used cushions on the floor, and even the grandest ballroom rarely held more than one chair. Only the nobleman himself sat on it. When a teacher was raised to the position of professor, he was presented with an actual chair as a symbol of his elevated status in the world of learning. So also in Proverbs the chair or throne symbolizes a seat of honor (cf. 16:12; 20:8, 28; 25:5; 29:14).” (Waltke)
   ii. Who go straight on their way: “Who were going innocently and directly about their business without any unchaste design; for others needed none of those invitations or offers, but went to her of their own accord. And besides, such lewd persons take a greater pleasure in corrupting the innocent.” (Poole)
5. (16-18) The call of the foolish woman.
   “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here”;
   And as for him who lacks understanding, she says to him,
   “Stolen water is sweet,
   And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
   But he does not know that the dead are there,
   That her guests are in the depths of hell.
   a. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here: Folly imitates the call wisdom makes to the simple (Pro_9:4). She works to keep those she already has, the simple and him who lacks understanding. Folly has her own training program to bring her victims further along their path.
   i. “Wisdom says, ‘Let the simple turn in to me.’ No, says Folly, ‘Let the simple turn in to me.’ If he turn in to Wisdom, his folly shall be taken away and he shall become wise; if he turn in to Folly, his darkness will be thickened, and his folly will remain.” (Clarke)
   b. Stolen water is sweet: This is the message of folly, explaining how good it is to be bad. Things gained through transgression are more sweet and pleasant than what may be rightfully obtained.
   i. “If Pro_9:10 is the motto of the wise, here is that of the sophisticated.” (Kidner)
   ii. “Forbidden pleasures are most pleasing to sensualists, who count no mirth but madness; no pleasure, unless they may have the devil to their playfellow.” (Trapp)
   iii. “When Augustine describes how he stole fruit from the pear tree, he says that he did not do it because he was hungry, as he threw away most of the fruit, but for the mere pleasure of sin as sin. He did it to break God’s law.” (Bridges)
   iv. Stolen water is sweet: “I suppose this to be a proverbial mode of expression, importing that illicit pleasures are sweeter than those which are legal. The meaning is easy to be discerned; and the conduct of multitudes shows that they are ruled by this adage. On it are built all the adulterous intercourses in the land.” (Clarke)
   v. Water…bread: “A contrast is intended between the rich fare offered by Wisdom and the ordinary food tendered by the foolish woman.” (Waltke)
   c. But he does not know that the dead are there: There is some truth in the idea that transgression can make something feel better. There is some genuine allure in the excitement, independence, camaraderie, and pleasure in breaking God’s command and wisdom’s counsel. Sin has its pleasures for a season (Heb_11:25). Yet folly’s path has an end: the dead are there…her guests are in the depths of hell. Accepting folly’s invitation is to accept ultimate death and permanent misery for a few hours or days of what is sweet and pleasant. What they eat on earth will be digested in hell.
   i. “Folly allures her victim with the half-truth that sin gives pleasure (cf. Heb_11:25), but, like Satan (cf. Gen_3:4), she denies the connection between sin and death.” (Waltke)
   ii. &ldqauo;She calls to the same simple ones and invites them to her house. But if they accept her invitation, they’ll be attending a funeral and not a feast—and it will be their own funeral!” (Wiersbe)
   iii. “In every city, on every street, by every door of opportunity, these two voices of wisdom and folly are appealing to men. To obey the call of wisdom is to live. To yield to the clamor of folly is to die. How shall we discern between the voices? By making the fear of Jehovah the central inspiration of life. By yielding the being at its deepest to Him for correction and guidance.” (Morgan)

Proverbs 9:1
CONTENTS
In this chapter we have set before us the very different proposals of wisdom and folly. And we are shewn no less, how certainly the former leads to happiness, and the latter to misery.
Pro_9:1-6 Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table. She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.
We must still behold Christ under the office character of Wisdom, proclaiming grace and a fulness of blessings to his church and people. The house here said to be built with seven pillars, and the feast here said to be furnished, and the invitation sent forth for guests with the blessedness of those who accept thereof, and are made the partakers of it; these are plain representations of the gospel fulness, and the infinite mercy provided for poor sinners in Jesus. The house which Jesus hath built in the body of his temple, is the whole church at large; and the seven pillars spoken of, whether intended as an indefinite number to represent the whole, or referring by any allusion to what is said of the seven spirits which are said to be before the throne, the sense is the same. The Holy Ghost hath explained the whole of this subject to the church, when saying by his servant Paul, that it is built upon the foundation of the apostles, and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. Eph_2:20-21. And that Christ, the Wisdom-Mediator hath prepared and built the whole, the Holy, Ghost confirmed, when drawing a comparison between Moses as a servant in his house, and Christ as the Lord of this house; and determining the glory of Christ therefrom as proving his Godhead by having built all things. Heb_3:3-4. Perhaps by the seven pillars may be intended to represent the seven-fold gifts of the Holy Ghost. Rev_1:4. And we know that the whole gospel is uniformly represented throughout the Bible, under the similitude of a rich feast. Jesus hath prepared it, and it is he which giveth it. He hath mingled it also. For here is his body broken, and his blood shed; his flesh being meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed, to all that partake. And it is mingled as the paschal feast, which was typical of it set forth; for it is received by faith with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. A whole unleavened Christ into a broken, leavened, contrite heart. The righteousness, peace, and, joy, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, are the blessed food of the soul, received, and lived upon by faith; when the poor sinner is made to see and feel his need, and turns in at wisdom’s gracious invitation to the rich table. Isa_25:6-8; Exo_12:7; Exo_12:12; 1Co_5:7-8. The servants sent forth to call in the guests correspond to the gospel call by the ministers, and the plentiful means adopted to bring in the objects, for whom both the house and the feast are prepared: namely, the poor and the needy, the wretched and the miserable. Luk_14:16-24

Proverbs 9:7-12
He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.
These are so many various ways of setting forth the happy consequences of those, that at wisdom’s call are made wise unto salvation, They find all the blessed effects of that grace in the heart, in following what is here said, and giving themselves up to the guidance of wisdom.

Proverbs 9:13-18
A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing. For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, To call passengers who go right on their ways: Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.
We have in these verses the contrast to what was given in the former part of the chapter. Under the figure of a foolish woman, meaning ignorance altogether, is set forth the rival of Christ, the god of this world, blending the human mind with the delusions of his several temptations. 2Co_4:4. The similitude of sitting at the door of her house to call passengers, who are going the right way, to turn aside, and the proposals she makes of stolen waters and bread in secret; these are most apt representations of the devices of Satan. For I would have the Reader observe that the call here given, is given to such as are going the right way. Yes! Satan never gives any interruption to his servants, while going the wrong way in his drudgery. While the strong man armed keepeth the palace, the goods are in peace. Luk_11:21. But if wisdom’s call be heard among the household of Satan, where the Lord Jesus causeth it to be heard, for we all, (saith an apostle,) had our conversation in times past with the children of disobedience. Eph_2:2-3. No sooner doth a poor sinner attempt to run out of his kingdom, than all hell is up in arms to bring him back. And what a correspondence is here made of stolen waters and bread in secret, rendered pleasant to the lusts of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. 1Jn_2:16. And how surely are the wages of sin death. Rom_6:23.

Proverbs 9:18
REFLECTIONS
READER! do not too hastily dismiss this chapter. Can anything be more happily chosen to represent the path of grace, and the broad road of destruction, than the very different representations here made. Pause, and contemplate the vast distinction between them. Behold the house, the feast, the fatness, fulness, and eternal duration of those provisions which Jesus hath made for them that love him. Behold the wretched, empty, unsatisfying, deceitful, and stolen pleasures which sin proposeth; and do not forget the close of all; the dead are there, and her guests in the depths of hell.
Oh! for grace to hear wisdom’s voice. Oh! blessed Jesus, let thy seven pillars resting upon thyself be the foundation of my house; and thy table the one at which my soul may daily sit by grace here, and in glory eternally hereafter. And do thou, Lord, I pray thee, who hast spread all, furnished all, mingled all, and given freely all, without money and without price; give me every suited preparation to enjoy all, that I may never listen to the noise of the clamorous women, but be unceasingly eating of thy bread and drinking of the wine which thou hast mingled. Yea, Lord, may my whole soul be so hungering, and thirsting, and longing for the everlasting enjoyment of thee, that daily by faith here, and ere long in the fruition of thee in glory, I may live to thee, and with thee, and upon thee forever.