American Standard Version Proverbs 23

Proverbs 23:1-35
EXPOSITION
Pro_23:1-3
A hexastich closely connected with the last verse of the preceding chapter, as if the warning was addressed to the man of skill whom his talents had made the guest of kings.
Pro_23:1
When thou sittest to eat with a ruler. This, of course, would be a great honour to a man of lowly birth, or to one of the middle class, to whom the manners of courts and palaces were practically unknown. Consider diligently what is before thee. So the Vulgate, Qua apposita sunt ante faciem tuam; and the Septuagint, Τὰ παρατιθέμενά σοι. Take heed lest the unusual dainties on the table tempt thee to excess, which may lead not only to unseemly behaviour, but also to unruly speech, revealing of secrets, etc. But the latter words may also be tendered, “him that is,” or, “who is before thee.” And this gives a very appropriate sense. The guest is enjoined to fix his attention, not on the delicate food, but on the host, who is his superior, and able to exalt and to destroy him (compare the cautious maxims in Ecclesiasticus 13:2, 6, 7, 11, etc.).
Pro_23:2
And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. “Stab thy gluttony,” Wordsworth. Restrain thyself by the strongest measures, convince thyself that thou art in the utmost peril, if thou art a glutton or wine bibber (Ecclesiasticus 34:12 [31]). The LXX. gives a different turn to the injunction, “And apply (ἐπίβαλλε) thy hand, knowing that it behoves thee to prepare such things.” This is like the warning of Siracides, in the chapter quoted above, where the disciple is admonished not to attend the banquets of rich men, lest he should be tempted to vie with them, and thus ruin himself by attempting to return their civilities in the same lavish manner. The earlier commentators have used the above verses as a lesson concerning the due and reverent partaking of the Holy Communion, thus: “When you approach the table of Christ, consider diligently what is represented by the elements before you, and have discernment and faith, lest you eat and drink unworthily; and after communicating walk warily, mortify all evil desires, live as in the presence of the Lord Jesus, the Giver of the feast.”
Pro_23:3
Be not desirous of his dainties. (For “dainties,” see on Pro_23:6.) Be not too greedy of the bounties of the royal table, so as to forget discretion, and be led to say and do things which are inexpedient or unseemly. For they are deceitful meat. Oftentimes such entertainment is not offered for friendship’s sake, but for some sinister purpose—to make a man expose himself, to get at a man’s real character or secrets. Far from being a sign of favour and good will, the seeming honour is deceptive and dangerous. We all know Horace’s lines, ’Ars Poet.,’ 434, etc.—
“Reges dicuntur multi, urgere culullis
Et torquere mero, quem perspexisse laborant,
Au sit amicitia dignus.”
Hitzig quotes the Eastern proverb, “He who eats of the sultan’s soup burns his lips, even though it he after a length of time.” We have too the Indian saying, “An epicure digs his grave with his teeth,” which is true in more senses than one. “Keep thee far from the man that hath power to kill,” says Siracides (Ecc_9:13); “so shalt thou not be troubled with fear of death: and if thou come unto him, commit no fault, lest he presently take away thy life; remember that thou goest in the midst of snares, and that thou walkest upon the battlements of the city.” Then for the reasons which induce a ruler to ply a guest with wine, we have, “In vino veritas, quod est in corde sobrii, est in ore ebrii.” Theognis writes—
Ἐν πυρὶ μὲν χρυσόν τε καὶ ἄργυρον ἴδριες ἄνδρες
Γιγνώσκους ἀνδρὸς δ οἶνος ἔδειξε νόον,
Καὶ μάλα περ πινυτοῦ τὸν ὐπέρ μέτρον ἤρατο πίνων,
Ὥστε καταισχῦναι καὶ πρὶν ἐόντα σοφόν.
The Septuagint combines the ending of Pro_23:2, “But if thou art more insatiable, desire not his victuals, for these appertain to (ἔχεται) a false life.”
Pro_23:4, Pro_23:5
These form a pentastich.
Pro_23:4
Labour not—weary not thyself—to be rich. Joh_6:27, “Labour not for the meat that perisheth,” where the warning is against that absorbing eagerness for wealth which leads to evil doing and neglect of all higher interests. Cease from thine own wisdom. The wisdom (binah, Pro_3:5) is that which is necessary for making and keeping wealth. Vulgate, Prudentiae tuae pone modum. This is not the highest form of wisdom (chochmah), but rather the faculty of distinguishing one thing from another, mere discernment, which may exist without any religious or keen moral sense (see note on Pro_16:16, where possibly the contrast is expressed). Talmud, “He who augments his riches augments his cares.” Erasmus, ’Adag,,’ quotes or writes—
“Jupiter ementitur opes mortalibus ipse,
Sic visum ut fuerit, cuicunque, bonove, malove?
Septuagint, “If thou art poor, measure not thyself (μὴ παρεκτείνου) with a rich man, but in thy wisdom refrain thyself.”
Pro_23:5
Wilt thou sat thine eyes upon that which is not? more literally, wilt thou let thine eyes fly upon it, and it is gone? Why cast longing looks towards this wealth, and so prepare for yourself loss and disappointment? The pursuit is vain, and the result is never secure; what you gained by long toil and prudent care may be lost in an hour. Do you wish to incur this danger? Wordsworth quotes Persius, ’Sat.,’ 3.61—
“An passim sequeris corvos testaque lutoque?”
For riches certainly make themselves wings. The subject, unexpressed, is riches, and the Hebrew phrase implies absolute certainty: Making they will make for themselves. They fly away as an eagle toward heaven; or, like on eagle that flieth toward heaven, where not even sight can follow. Publ. Syr; 255, “Longinquum est omne quod cupiditas flagitat.” The Telugu compares worldly prosperity to writing upon water. Says the Greek moralist—
Βέβαιον οὐδέν ἐν βίῳ δοκεῖ πέλειν
“There’s naught in life that one can deem secure.”
Septuagint, “If thou fix thine eye upon him (the rich patron), he will nowhere be seen, for wings like an eagle’s are ready prepared for him, and he will return to the house of his master (τοῦ προεστηκότος), and leave you to shift for yourself.”
Pro_23:6-8
Another maxim, here a heptastich, concerning temperance.
Pro_23:6
Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye; the envious and jealous man, in contrast to the “good of eye” (Pro_22:9). Vulgate, Ne comedas cum heroine invido. Septuagint, ἀνδρὶ βασκάνῳ, the man who has the evil eye that fascinates, which, however, is a later idea; here the notion is rather of a grudging, sordid temper, that cannot bear the sight of others’ happiness or prosperity (comp. Deu_15:9; Mat_20:15). Ecclesiasticus 16:8, Πονηρὸς ὁ βασκαίνων ὀφθαλμῳ, “The envious man hath an evil eye; he turneth away his face, and he is one who despiseth men.” Dainty meats; as in verse 3. The word (matammoth) occurs also throughout Gen_27:1-46; where it is rendered, “savoury meat.” Talmud, “To ask a favour from a miser is as if you asked wisdom from a woman, modesty from a harlot, fish on the dry land.”
Pro_23:7
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. The verb here used is שָׁעַר (shaar), “to estimate, ….to calculate,” and the clause is best rendered, For as one that calculates with himself, so is he. The meaning is that this niggardly host watches every morsel which his guest eats, and grudges what he appears to offer so liberally. In the Authorized Version the word “heart” occurs twice in this verse, but the Hebrew words are different. The first is nephesh, “breath,” equivalent to “mind;” the second is leb, “heart.” The Vulgate paraphrases the clause, Quoniam in similitudinem arioli et conjectoris, aestimat quod ignorat, “For like a soothsayer or diviner he conjectures that of which he is ignorant.” Eat and drink, saith he to thee. He professes to make you welcome, and with seeming cordiality invites you to partake of the food upon his table. But his heart is not with thee. He is not glad to see you enjoy yourself, and his pressing invitation is empty verbiage with no heart in it. The Septuagint, pointing differently, translates, “For as if one should swallow a hair, so he eats and drinks.” The Greek translators take the gnome to apply to one who invites an envious man to his table, and finds him eating his food as if it disgusted him. They go on, “Bring him not in to thee, nor eat thy morsel with him; for (Pro_23:8) he will vomit it up, and outrage thy fair words.” In agreement with the gnome above, we find in the Talmud, “My son, eat not the bread of the covetous, nor sit thou at his table. The bread of the covetous is only pain and anguish; the bread of the generous man is a source of health and joy.”
Pro_23:8
The morsel which thou hast eaten shall thou vomit up. Food thus grudgingly bestowed will only create disgust, and do thee no good; thou wilt feel annoyed to have eaten it, and wilt long to get rid of it. And lose thy sweet words. You will have expended in vain your civil speeches and thanks for the entertainment provided for you; you really owe no gratitude for fare so grudgingly bestowed. Some think that by the “sweet words” are meant the conversation at table with which you have endeavoured to amuse your host—the witty sayings, enigmas, and apothegms, which entered so largely into the programme of a good talker. All such efforts are thrown away on the jealous, morose host. But the former explanation is more agreeable to the context.
Pro_23:9
Here is another case in which “sweet words” are lost. Speak not in the ears of a fool. This does not mean, as it would in our English phrase—whisper not to a fool; but do not take the trouble to try to make him understand, impart nothing to him. The “fool” here (kesil) is the dull, stolid, stupid man. who cannot be moved from his own narrow groove (see on Pro_1:22). It is a mere casting of pearls before swine (Mat_7:6) to speak to such a man of high aims, righteous motives, self-sacrifice (comp.
Pro_9:8). He will despise the wisdom of thy words. He cannot enter into the meaning of words of wisdom; he has no appetite for them, he cannot assimilate them; and in his self-satisfied dulness he feels for them nothing but contempt (Ecclesiasticus 22:7, etc; “Whoso teacheth a fool is as one that glueth a potsherd together, and as he that waketh one from a sound sleep. He that telleth a tale to a fool speaketh to one in a slumber: whey he hath told his tale, he will say, What is the matter?”)
Pro_23:10, Pro_23:11
An enlargement of Pro_22:28 combined with Pro_22:22, Pro_22:28.
Pro_23:10
Enter not into the fields of the fatherless. Do not think to appropriate the fields of orphans, as if there were no our to defend their rights (comp. Pro_15:25).
Pro_23:11
For their Redeemer is mighty. The redeemer (goel) is the near kinsman, who had to avenge bloodshed, carry on the blood feud, or vindicate the cause of a relation otherwise unsupported (see Num_25:12, 19, 21; Le 25:25; Rth_3:2, Rth_3:9, Rth_3:12). God himself will be the orphans’ Goel. This term is often applied to God; e.g. Job_19:25; Psa_19:14; Jer_50:34. He shall plead their cause with thee. He will, as it were, conduct their cause, try thee, convict thee of injustice, and pronounce thy condemnation (Pro_22:23).
Pro_23:12
commences a new series of proverbs of wisdom. This general admonition is addressed to all, tutor and disciple, educator and educated. Apply thine heart unto instruction. (For musar, “instruction,” see note on Pro_1:2.)
Pro_23:13
An injunction to the tutor or parent (comp. Pro_13:24; Pro_19:18; Pro_22:15; Pro_29:17). For if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. This has been understood in various senses; e.g. “Though than scourge him, that correction will not kill him;… . If thou chastise him, thou wilt save him from the doom of the rebellious son” (Deu_21:18-21); or, “He shall not die eternally,” which rather anticipates the conclusion in the next verse. The expression merely means—Do not be weak, thinking that you will injure your child by judicious correction, and in this fear withholding your hand; but punish him firmly when necessary, and, far from harming him, you will be doing him the greatest good.
Pro_23:14
Shalt deliver his soul from hell (sheol); de inferno, Vulgate; ἐκ θανάτου, Septuagint. Premature death was regarded as a punishment of sin, as long life was the reward of righteousness. Proper discipline preserves a youth not only from many material dangers incident to unbridled passions, but saves him from spiritual death, the decay and destruction of grace here, and the retribution that awaits the sinner in another world (comp. Ec Pro_30:1-12).
Pro_23:15
The moralist now addresses the disciple, and so to the end of the chapter. If thine heart be wise; become wise by profiting by discipline, and having its natural folly (Pro_22:15) eradicated. My heart shall rejoice, even mine. The pronoun is repeated for the sake of emphasis (as in Pro_22:19), the speaker thus declaring his supreme interest in the moral progress of his pupil.
Pro_23:16
My reins shall rejoice. The “reins” (kelayoth), kidneys, are regarded as the seat of feeling and sensation (Job_19:27). or of the inner nature generally (Psa_16:7; Rev_2:22). I shall rejoice in my very soul when thy lips speak right things; i.e. when thy heart is so replete with wisdom, thy mind so well instructed as to utter naught but what is true and sensible (Pro_8:6). The composition of these two verses is noteworthy, Pro_23:15 being parallel to Pro_23:16, and Pro_23:15 to Pro_23:16. Septuagint, “And thy lips shall linger in words (ἐνδιατρίψει λόγοις) with my lips, if they be right,” which seems to mean, “If thy lips utter what is right, they will gather wisdom from my words and impart it to others.”
Pro_23:17
Let not thine heart envy sinners, when thou seest them apparently happy and prosperous (comp. Pro_3:31; Pro_24:1, Pro_24:19; Psa_37:1; Psa_73:3). The Authorized Version, in agreement with the Septuagint, Vulgate, Arabic, and other versions, takes the second clause of this verse as an independent one: but it seems evidently to be constructionally connected with the preceding, and to be governed by the same verb, so that there is no occasion to insert “be thou.” But be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. Jerome, corrected, would read, Non aemuletur cor tuum peccatores, sed timorem Domini tota die, As Delitzsch and Hitzig, followed by Nowack, have pointed out, the Hebrew verb, קָנָא (kana), is here used in two senses. In the first clause it signifies to be envious of a person: in the second, to be zealous for a thing, both senses combining in the thought of being moved with eager desire. Ζηλοτυπέω is used in this double sense, and aemulor in Latin. So the gnome comes to this—Show your heart’s desire, not by envy of the sinner’s fortune, but by zeal for true religion, that fear of the Lord which leads to strict obedience and earnest desire to please him.
Pro_23:18
For surely there is an end. Some take the hemistich conditionally, rendering אִם “when,” or “if the end comes;” but cue sees no object in the thought being expressed conditionally; and it is best. with the Authorized Version, Nowack, and others, to take כִּי אִם equivalent to “assuredly,” as in Jdg_15:7; 2Sa_15:21. “End” (acharith) is the glorious future that awaits the pious (Pro_24:14; Jer_29:11). The prosperity of simmers is not to be envied, for it is transitory and deceptive; but for the righteous, however depressed at times there is a happy end in prospect. And thine expectation (hope) shall not be cut off. The hope of comfort here and reward hereafter shall be abundantly realized. The writer has a firm belief in the moral government of God, and in a future life which shall rectify all anomalies (comp. Pro_14:32; Wis. 5:15, etc.; Ecc_1:13). Septuagint, “For if thou keep them, thou shalt haw posterity, and thy hope shall not be removed” (Psa_37:9; Job_42:12).
Pro_23:19-21
An exhortation to temperance, as one of the results of the fear of God, prefaced by an exhortation to wisdom.
Pro_23:19
Hear thou. The pronoun gives force and personality to the injunction (Job_33:33). Guide thine heart in the way. (For אשׁר, “to guide straight,” see on Pro_4:14) “The way” is the right way, in distinction to the many wrong paths of life—the way of understanding, as it is called (Pro_9:6). Septuagint, “Direct aright the thoughts of thy heart,” for right thoughts lead to right actions.
Pro_23:20
Wine bibbers; persons who meet together for the express purpose of drinking intoxicating liquors. Among riotous eaters of flesh. The Hebrew is “of flesh for themselves,” whence some take the meaning to be “of their own flesh,” i.e. who by their gluttony and luxury ruin their own bodies. But tile parallelism with the wine drinker shows plainly that the flesh which they eat is meant, and the idea is that they eat for the gratification of their own appetites, caring nothing for anything else. The combination of glutton and wine bibber was used as a reproach against our blessed Lord (Mat_11:19). The versions of Jerome and the LXX. point to the contributed entertainments, where each guest brought some article to the meal, like our picnics. Thus Vulgate, “Be not among parties of drinkers, nor at the banquets of those who contribute flesh to eat;” Septuagint. “Be not a wine bibber, and strain not after contributed feasts (συμβολαῖς) and purchases of meats.”
Pro_23:21
Intemperance leads to prodigality, carelessness, and ruin. And drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. The luxury and excess spoken of above lead to drowsiness and inability to work, and poverty follows as the natural result (comp. Pro_19:15; Pro_24:33, etc.). The Vulgate still harps on the same string as in the previous verse, “Those who waste time in drinking, and who give picnics (dantes symbola), shall be ruined, and semnolence small clothe with rags.” The LXX. introduces a new idea which the Hebrew does not warrant, “For every drunkard and whoremonger shall be poor, and every sluggard shall clothe himself with tatters and rags.”
Pro_23:22-25
An octastich, containing an earnest exhortation to the disciple.
Pro_23:22
That begat thee. This is a claim on the attention and obedience of the son. When she is old. When old age with its consequent infirmities comes upon thy mother, despise her not, but rather thank God for giving her long life, and profit by her love and long experience (comp. Ecc_3:1, etc; where the exhortation to honour parents is very full and touching).
Pro_23:23
Buy the truth, and sell it not (comp. Pro_4:5, Pro_4:7; Pro_16:16). Consider truth as a thing of the highest value, and spare no pains, cost, or sacrifice to obtain it, and, when gotten, keep it safe; do not barter it for earthly profit or the pleasures of sense; do not be reasoned out of it, or laughed out of it; “sell it not,” do not part with it for any consideration. The second clause gives the sphere in which truth moves, or the three properties which appertain to it. These are: wisdom (chochmah), practical knowledge; instruction (musar), moral culture and discipline; and understanding (binah), the faculty of discernment (see notes on Pro_1:2). This verse is omitted in the chief manuscripts of the Septuagint.
Pro_23:24
The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice. The father of a righteous son who has won truth and profited by the possession has good cause to be glad (Pro_10:1). Septuagint erroneously, “A righteous father brings up children well.” The second clause repeats the first in different words, with the further idea that the wise son affords his father practical proof of the excellence of his moral training. The contrast is seen in Pro_17:21.
Pro_23:25
Shall be glad; or, let them be glad; gaudeat, Vulgate; εὐφραινέσθω, Septuagint. She that bare thee. As in Pro_23:24 the father’s joy was expressly mentioned, so here prominence is given to that of the mother. In the former case it is “he that begetteth;” here, “she that beareth.”
Pro_23:26-28
A hexastich, in which Wisdom herself is the speaker, and warns against unchastity.
Pro_23:26
Give me thine heart. Do not waste thy powers and affections on evil objects, but set thy soul with all its best faculties on me, Wisdom, who alone can satisfy its desires and aspirations. There is an eloquent passage in a tract that has gone by St. Bernard’s name, though not written by him, which is worth quoting: “Cor nostrum nihil dignius perficere potest, quam ut ei se restituat a quo factum est: et hoc a nobis Dominus expetit dicens, ’Fili, da mihi cor tuum.’ Tunc siquidem cor hominum Deo datur, quando omnia cogitatio terminatur in eum, gyrat et circumflectitur super eum, et nihil vult possidere praeter eum. Sicque colligato sibi animo, eum diligit, ut sine ipso amarus sit omnis amor. Nec aliud dixerim cor Domino dare, quam ipsum captivare in omni obsequium ejus, et ita voluntati ejus ex toto supponere, ut nihil aliud velit, quam quod noverit eum velle.” Let thine eyes observe my ways; keep closely to the paths of virtue which I teach thee, especially the path of purity, as the next verse shows. Vulgate, Vias meas custodiant; Septuagint, Ἐμὰς ὁδοὺς πήρειτωσαν. This is the reading of the Keri, תִּצֹרְנָה; the Khetib, which Delitzsch and others prefer, reads תִּרְצֶנָה, “delight in” my ways.
Pro_23:27
The need of the emphatic injunction in Pro_23:26 is exemplified by the dangers of impurity. A deep ditch; as Pro_22:14. A strange woman is a narrow pit. (For “strange woman,” equivalent to “harlot,” see on Pro_2:16.) A narrow pit is one with a narrow month, from which, if one falls into it, it is difficult to extricate one’s self. The verse indicates the seductive nature of the vice of unchastity: how easy it is to be led into it! how difficult to rise from it! Thus St. Chrysostom (’Hom. 11, in 1 Corinthians’), “When by unclean desire the soul is made captive, even as a cloud and mist darken the eyes of the body, so that desire intercepts the foresight of the mind, and suffers no one to see any distance before him, either precipice, or hell, or fear; but thenceforth, having that deceit as a tyrant over him, he comes to be easily vanquished by sin; and there is raised up before his eyes as it were a partition wall, and no windows in it, which suffers not the ray of righteousness to shine in upon the mind, the absurd conceits of lust enclosing it as with a rampart on all sides. And then, and from that time forward, the unchaste woman is everywhere meeting him—before his eyes, before his mind, before his thoughts, in station and presence. And as the blind, although they stand at high noon beneath the very central point of the heaven, receive not the light, their eyes being fast closed up; just so these also, though ten thousand doctrines of salvation sound in their ears from all quarters, having their soul preoccupied with this passion, stop their ears against all discourses of that kind. And they know it well who have made the trial. But God forbid that you should know it from actual experience!” The LXX. has changed the allusion: “For a strange house is a pierced wine jar (πίθος τετρημένος), and a strange well is narrow,” where the idea seems to be that the private well, which is dug for the convenience of one family only, is not to be relied upon, and will yield not enough to supply others’ wants. Hence would arise a warning against coveting a neighbour’s wife. There is a Greek proverb about drawing wine into pierced jars (Xen; ’OEcon.,’ 7.40).
Pro_23:28
She also lieth in wait as for a prey. “Yea, she [Pro_22:19] lieth in wait,” as is graphically described in Pro_7:1-27. (comp. Jer_3:2). Chetheph is better taken, not as “prey,” but in a concrete sense as the person who snatches it, the robber. Vulgate, Insidiatur in via quasi latro (comp. Psa_10:9). And increaseth the transgressors among men. The Greek and Latin versions have taken רוֹסִיף as meaning “kills,” “destroys.” But the verb yasaph always means “to add,” here “to multiply.” The special transgression indicated is treachery or faithlessness. The harlot leads her victim to be faithless to his God, his wife, his parents, his tutor, his master. Septuagint, “For he shall perish suddenly, and every transgressor shall be destroyed.”
Pro_23:29-35
Here follows a mashal ode or song on the subject of drunkenness, which is closely connected with the sin mentioned in the previous lines.
Pro_23:29
Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? Hebrew, lemi oi, lemi aboi, where oi and aboi are interjections of pain or grief. So Venetian, τίνι αἲ τίνι φεῦ; Revised Version margin, Who hath Oh? who hath Alas? The Vulgate has stumbled at the second expression, which is an ἄπαξ λεγόμενον, and resolving it into two words, translates, Cujus patri vae? Contentions; the brawling and strife to which drunkenness leads (Pro_20:1). Babbling; שִׂיחַ (siach) is rather “meditation,” “sorrowful thought” showing itself in complaining, regret for lost fortune, ruined health, alienated friends. Others render “misery, … penury.” St. Jerome’s foveae is derived from a different reading. The LXX. has κρίσεις, “lawsuits,” ἀηδίαι καὶ λέσχαι, “disgust and gossipings.” Wounds without cause; wounds which might have been avoided, the result of quarrels in which a sober man would never have engaged, Redness of eyes. The Hebrew word chakliluth is commonly taken to mean the flashing of eyes occasioned by vinous excitement. The Authorized Version refers it to the bloodshot appearance of a drunkard’s eyes, as in Gen_49:12, according to the same version. but Delitzsch, Nowack, and many modern commentators consider that the word indicates “dimness of sight,” that change in the power of vision when the stimulant reaches the brain. Septuagint, “Whose eyes are livid (πελιδνοί)?” The effects of intemperance are described in a well known passage of Lucretius, ’De Rer. Nat.,’ 3.475, etc.—
“Denique, cor hominum quota vini vis penetravit
Acris, et in venas discessit diditus ardor,
Consequitur gravitas membrorum, praespediuntur
Crura vacillanti, tardescit lingua, madet mens,
Nant oculei; clamor, singultus, jurgia gliscunt.”
We may refer to the article in Jeremy Taylor’s ’Holy Living’ on “Evil Consequents to Drunkenness,” and to Ecclesiasticus 34:25 (31), etc.
Pro_23:30
The answer to the above searching questions is here given. They that tarry long at the wine (Isa_5:11), who sit till late hours drinking. They that go to seek mixed wine; i.e. go to the wine house, place of revelry, where they may taste and give their opinion upon “mixed wine,” mimsak, wine mingled with certain spices or aromatic substances, or else simply with water, as it was too luscious to be drunk undiluted (see on Pro_9:2). Septuagint, “those who hunt out where carousals are taking place.”
Pro_23:31
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red. Be not attracted by its beautiful appearance. The wine of Palestine was chiefly “red,” though what we call white wine was not unknown. The Vulgate flavescit points to the latter. When it giveth his colour in the cup. For “color” the Hebrew has “eye,” which refers to the sparkling and gleaming which show themselves in wine poured into the cup. It is as though the cup had an eye which glanced at the drinker with a fascination which he did not resist. When it moveth itself aright. Having warned against the attraction of sight, the moralist now passes to the seduction of taste. Hebrew, when it goeth by the right read. This may refer to its transference from the jar or skin to the drinking cup; but it mere probably alludes to the drinker’s throat, and is best translated, “when it glideth down smoothly.” Vulgate, ingreditur blande. The wine pleases the palate, and passes over it without roughness or harshness (comp. So Pro_7:9). The LXX. has enlarged on the original thus: “Be ye not drunk with wine, but converse with just men, and converse in public places (ἐν περιπάτοις). For if thou set thine eyes on goblets and cups, afterwards thou shalt walk more bare than a pestle (γύμνοτερος ὐπέρου).” This last expression, pistillo nudior, is a proverb. Regarding the danger of looking on seductive objects, the Arab, in his sententious language, says, “The contemplation of vice is vice.”
Pro_23:32
At the last it biteth like a serpent. Wine is like the subtle poison of a serpent, which affects the whole body, and produces the most fatal consequences (comp. Ecclesiasticus 21:2). Nachash is the generic name for any of the larger tribe of snakes (Gen_3:1, etc.); the poisonous nature of its bite was, of course, well known (Num_21:9). Stingeth like an adder. The Hebrew word is tsiphoni, which is usually rendered “cockatrice” in the Authorized Version, hut the particular species intended has not been accurately identified. There was some confusion in men’s minds as to the organ which inflicted the poisonous wound. Thus a psalmist says, “They have sharpened their tongue like a serpent” (Psa_140:3). But the verb “sting” is to be taken in the sense of puncturing, making a wound. Vulgate, Sicut regulus venena diffundet, “It will diffuse its poison like a basilisk:” Septuagint, “But at the last he stretches himself like one stricken by a serpent, and the venom is diffused through him as by a horned snake (κεράστου).”
Pro_23:33
The excitement occasioned by wine is now described. Thine eyes shall behold strange women. Ewald, Delitzsch, and others take זָדוֹת to mean “strange things,” as affording a better parallel to the “perverse things” of the next clause. In this case the writer intends to denote the fantastic, often dreadful, images produced on the brain by the feverish condition of the inebriated. But the often denounced connection between drunkenness and incontinence, the constant reference to “strange women” in this book, and the general consensus of the versions, lead one to uphold the rendering of the Authorized Version. It seems, too, somewhat meagre to note these illusions as one of the terrible effects of intemperance, omitting all mention of the unbridling of lust, when the eyes look out for and rove after unchaste women.
Thine heart shall utter perverse things (comp Pro_15:28; Mat_15:19). The drunkard’s notions are distorted, and his words partake of the same character; he confuses right and wrong; he says things which he would never speak if he were in full possession of his senses. Septuagint, “When thine eyes shall see a strange woman, then thy mouth shall speak perverse things.”
Pro_23:34
As he that lieth down in the midst of the sea. The dazed and unconscious condition of a drunkard is described by one familiar with sea life, as in Psa_104:25, etc.; Psa_107:23, etc. The Hebrew has “in the heart of the sea” (Jon_2:4), i.e. the depth. Many understand the idea to be that the drunkard is compared to a man asleep in a frail boat, or to one slumbering on board a ship sunk in the trough of the sea. But the “lying” here does not imply sleep, but rather immersion. The inebriated person is assimilated to one who is drowned or drowning, who is cut off from all his former pursuits and interests in life, and has become unconscious of surrounding circumstances. This much more exactly represents the case than any notion of sloping amid danger. Septuagint, “Thou shalt lie as in the heart of the sea.” Or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast; the extreme point of the sailyard, where no one could lie without the greatest peril of falling off. The drunkard is exposed to dangers of all kinds from being unable to take care of himself, and yet is all the time unconscious of his critical situation. Corn. a Lapide, followed by Plumptre, considers that the cradle, or look out, on the top of the mast is meant, where, if the watchman slept, he would be certain to endanger his life. Vulgate, “like a pilot fallen asleep, who has dropped the tiller,” and is therefore on the way to shipwreck. Septuagint, “as a pilot in a great storm.”
Pro_23:35
The drunkard is represented as speaking to himself. The LXX. inserts, “and thou shelf say” as the Authorized Version does: They have stricken me, shall thou say, and I was not sick; or, I was not hurt. The drunken man has been beaten (perhaps there is a reference to the “contentions,” Pro_23:29), but the blows did not pain him; his condition has rendered him insensible to pain. He has some vague idea the he has suffered certain rough treatment at the hands of his companions, but it has made no impression on him. They have beaten me, and I felt it not; did not even know it. Far from recognizing his degradation and profiting by the merzed chastisement which he has incurred, he is represented as looking forward with pleasure to a renewal of his debauch, when his drunken sleep shall be over. When shall I awake? I will seek it (wine) yet again. Some take מָתַי (mathai) as the relative conjunctive: “When I awake I will seek it again;” but it is always used interrogatively, and the expression thus becomes more animated, as Delitzsch observes. It is as though the drunkard has to yield to the effects of his excess and sleep off his intoxication, but he is. as it were, all the time longing to be able to rouse himself and recommence his orgies. We have had words put into the mouth of the sluggard (Pro_6:10). The whole verse is rendered by the LXX thus: “Thou shalt say, They smote me, and I was not pained, and they mocked me, and I knew it not. When will it be morning, that I may go and seek those with whom I may consort?” The author of the ’Tractutus de Conscientia’ appended to St. Bernard’s works, applies this paragraph to the cuss of an evil conscience indurated by wicked habits and insensible to correction.
HOMILETICS
Pro_23:1-3
Sycophancy and independence
The reader is here warned against the danger of depending too much on the favour of great people. Possibly that favour is only offered as a bribe, and the unwary recipient of it may be no better than a dupe, who has unconsciously sold himself. At the best it tends to destroy the spirit of independence.
I. HE WHO DEPENDS ON THE FAVOUR OF A GREAT MAN PUTS HIMSELF IN HIS POWER. In proportion to the power to help is the power to hurt. It is a dangerous thing to trust one’s interests to man at all; but it is doubly dangerous where there is no equality of relationship.
II. DEPENDENCE ON THE FAVOUR OF THE GREAT TEMPTS TO DISHONOURABLE CONDUCT. The sycophant is in danger of stooping to unworthy actions in order to please his patron. He is tempted to deceive and flatter in the hope of winning favour. The will of the great man supersedes the conscience of his dependant. Thus sycophancy wrecks the moral nature.
III. THIS DEPENDENCE DESTROYS TRUE MANLINESS. The poor creature who lives on the favour at the great loses all self-reliance. The honest industry that earns a night’s repose is exchanged for miserable tricks of cringing slavery. Such conduct may earn the dainties of luxury, but only at the cost of all that life is worth living for. It is infinitely better to be independent, though compelled to live on the coarsest fare.
IV. SUCH A DEPENDENCE ON THE GREAT IS SURE TO BE DISAPPOINTING. The sycophant succeeds in obtaining a place at the banquet. But he cannot enjoy the feast like those guests who meet the host on terms of equality. He sits in constant dread of offending the great man. Though hungry, he shrinks from eating too much. He must almost put a knife to his throat to check his appetite; i.e. he must be always nervously on his guard against trespassing too far on the good will of his host. Surely such a condition must be miserable at the best!
V. THE ONLY SAFE DEPENDENCE IS THAT OF MAN ON GOD. This is not degrading, but ennobling; for God is worthy of all trust, honour, and adoration. He never deceives those who put their confidence in him. There is no painful fear for those who accept, his gracious invitation to the “wedding feast,” for he is kind and merciful.
VI. AMONG MEN THE SAFEST CONDITION IS ONE OF MANLY INDEPENDENCE. This does not mean churlish indifference and selfish isolation from all social intercourse. The text supposes a person’s presence at the great man’s table, while it warns against the danger of the situation. We want to learn to be friendly with all men, and, at the same time, self-reliant through inward dependence on God alone.
Pro_23:4
Labouring to be rich
Never was the advice of the wise man more appropriate than it is in the present day; but never were people more slow to accept it. Let us consider the grounds on which is based the warning, “Labour not to be rich.”
I. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR MOST PEOPLE TO BECOME RICH. In the lottery of life the prizes are few and the blanks many. If the race for wealth is accelerated, the stakes are not multiplied. Or, if it be by production rather than by commerce that the riches are to he got, so that greater industry may actually create more wealth, still each of the multitude of the toilers can share but a fraction of the total produce. Riches only fall into the hands of a very small number of persons. Consequently, labouring to be rich often becomes just a species of gambling. It frequently partakes of the selfish, cruel character of gambling, the few fortunate persons enriching themselves at the expense of the large number of unfortunate persons. If a man can be content to work with his fellows and share with them, he will be saved from a multitude of anxieties that must besiege him the moment he enters the exciting race for riches.
II. THE COST OF LABOURING TO BE RICH IS EXORBITANT.

1. In energy. The fierce battle of life tries a man who only strives to keep his ground. They who would force their way on to marked success must toil with double effort. Rising early, sitting up late, taking no holidays, working at high pressure, they must put out every effort if they would pass equally eager competitors.
2. In time. The riches are not usually reached soon. As a rule, it takes many years to pile up a great fortune, and when the coveted end is attained, the tired toiler is too old and weary to enjoy it.
3. In higher riches. The wealth- seeker sinks into a low materialism. He becomes a mere machine for coining guineas, and his soul is ground to dust in the money making mill.
   III. WHEN THE PURSUIT OF RICHES IS SUCCESSFUL, THE ATTAINMENT IS DISAPPOINTING. Riches bring new cares. There is an anxiety to retain what has been won at so great a cost. They may make themselves wings, and “fly away as an eagle toward heaven” (Pro_23:5). If no fear is felt on this account, wealth itself is found to be unsatisfactory. The mere money seeker has not cultivated any taste for the finer enjoyments which his wealth could buy him. He cannot satisfy his soul with money; he has no soul to enjoy the best things in art, etc; which money can purchase. But even if he could enjoy those things, they would not satisfy; for man has deep wants which neither money nor its purchases can ever meet. Riches are a poor salve for a breaking heart.
   IV. LABOURING TO BE RICH LEADS TO THE NEGLECT OF THE NOBLER PURSUITS OF LIFE.
4. Mind culture. It might be better to be more poor and to have time for reading, music, meditation.
5. Social intercourse. Buried in business, the fierce toiler after money has no leisure or h, art for cultivating the friendship of his neighbours.
6. The service of God. “Life is more than meat;” “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Labouring to be rich too often means working for self and toiling for earth. Men sometimes make family claims an excuse for doing nothing directly in the service of Christ; when, if they were honest, they would confess that they are simply labouring to be rich. The family, which in this case is a larger self, becomes a shield for selfishness.
   Pro_23:22
   The mighty Redeemer
   I. THE HELPLESS NEED A MIGHTY REDEEMER. In simple, rough times some provision had to be made to protect the weak from the overbearing insolence and tyranny of the strong. When the arm of the law was not capable of maintaining justice, private friends were required and authorized to take up the cause of the wronged. The
   goel, or avenger, was then needed to stand up for his helpless kinsfolk. But there were extreme cases in which no such assistance could bring deliverance, either because no relative was living who could undertake the task, or because the distress was so desperate that no human hand could relieve it. This might happen with heartbroken widows robbed of husband, children, and land, and left penniless and friendless. But even such cases of the utmost distress are not so desperate as that of the soul in its sin and wretchedness, utterly and hopelessly undone unless some mighty hand of redemption is stretched out to save it.
   II. GOD IS A MIGHTY REDEEMER. Two essential conditions were required in the redeemer. He must have a right to interfere, and he must have power to succeed. God has both.
7. The right. The right of the old Hebrew redeemer was blood relationship. The nearest kinsman was called to act as goel. God is nearly related to man. He is the Father of all. The friendless poor have One left who regards them as of his family. Christ came as a brother man to be the Redeemer of the human race.
8. The power.
   (1) God has power as the Almighty. He can overthrow the greatest. If the poor man has God on his side, he need not fear the most imperious tyranny; it is as child’s play before the majesty of heaven.
   (2) Christ has power as the crucified Saviour. The great redemption from man’s worst enemy, sin, is won by the cross of Christ. Now he is “able to save unto the uttermost.”
   III. GOD’S MIGHTY REDEMPTION IS AVAILABLE. He is not only a mighty Redeemer; he is willing to help, and he does afford succour.
9. He acts in justice. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen_18:25). At present we witness cruel injustice. The poor are oppressed by the strong. Hard toiling men, women, and children in manufacturing centres are ground into penury by the fierce mill of competition, while ruthless “middle men” fatten on their ill-paid labour. The few in prosperity revel in luxury that they wring out of the many in penury. God will not permit such cruel wrongs to last forever. The Redeemer is an Avenger. The blood of the victims of those who make haste to be rich at the expense of their starving brethren cries out to heaven for vengeance. It will not always cry in vain.
   (1) Meanwhile, seeing that the Redeemer of the poor is mighty, it would be well for the reckless oppressors to repent before the sword of judgment is unsheathed.
   (2) They who are working at the apparently hopeless task of helping the poor and oppressed have a great encouragement. God, the mighty Avenger, is on their side.
10. He acts in mercy. He pities the suffering poor. They are his children, and he will not forget their needs. Love is the inspiration of Divine redemption. This is the secret of Christ’s great redemption of sinners. Justice is ultimately satisfied here; but the first motive is mercy, for the helpless are also the ill-deserving. Yet even their Redeemer is mighty.
    Pro_23:17, Pro_23:18
    Envying sinners
    I. THERE IS A GREAT TEMPTATION TO ENVY SINNERS. The wise man would wastewords in giving a warning if he saw no danger. This temptation is fascinating on various accounts.
11. Sinners prosper. This was the old ground of the psalmist’s perplexity. The righteous were suffering while the wicked were fattening in ill-earned luxury (Psa_73:3-9).
12. Sinners take forbidden paths with impunity. They trespass and are not arrested. Thus they attain their ends by easy ways from which conscientious people are restrained. They are not troubled with scruples.
13. Sinners escape onerous duties. There are great and weighty obligations that rest like a heavy yoke on the shoulders of an earnest man who tries to do his duty to God and his fellows, all of which are simply ignored by the man of lower morals. Hence the apparently easier course of the latter. He can refuse the subscription list, decline to work in the benevolent society, and shirk all the burdens that come from sympathy with the suffering.
14. Sinners enjoy wicked pleasures. They are pleasure seekers, and they seem to obtain pleasure. Thus at a superficial glance they appear to have sources of happiness from which those who are more rigorous in regarding the law of righteousness are excluded. The child of the Puritan home envies the gay cavalier his merry revelry.
    II. IT IS WRONG TO ENVY SINNERS.
15. This is to doubt God’s justice. Though we cannot yet see the issue of events, we must believe that God will not allow injustice to flourish forever, unless he cares not for the course of the world or is unable to set it right. To suppose any such condition is to distrust God.
16. This is to form a low estimate of the purpose of life. We are not sent into the world simply to enjoy ourselves, but primarily to do our duty. If we are fulfilling that great purpose, it is a degradation to envy those who seem to be more fortunate than ourselves in the mere enjoyment of worldly pleasures.
17. This is to yield to the attraction of unworthy delights. The pleasures of sinners are sinful. To lust after such forbidden fruit is to have a depraved appetite. The soul that is truly pure will loathe the delights of sin. It will not be hard on a good man that his conscience forbids him to frequent the haunts of vicious revelry. He could find no true pleasure for himself amid such scenes.
    III. IN THE END THE MISTAKE OF ENVYING SINNERS WILL BE DEMONSTRATED. “For surely there is an end” The pleasure seeker is short-sighted. To judge of the wisdom of following his course, we must see what it leads to.
18. The pleasure must end. The delights of evil are brief, and they are followed by wretchedness. The wild devotee of pleasure soon becomes a debauched and blase wreck of humanity. If one is prudent enough to avoid extreme folly, still death will soon come and put an end to all worldly pleasure.
19. Sinful pleasure produces suffering. It corrupts body and soul; it sows seeds of disease and misery. They who sow to the flesh will reap corruption.
20. There will be retribution in the next world. There is a future. Does the sinner consider this? Does the foolish man who envies him remember it?
    Pro_23:26
    Our Father’s claim
    I. GOD CLAIMS NOTHING LESS THAN THE HEART.
21. Some offer belief of the intellect. It is well to understand truth and to believe in that which is revealed about God. We may give many thoughts to God; but these, without the heart, will not satisfy him.
22. Some offer external service. This is claimed by God, but only as the fruit of a loving heart. Given in hard, mechanical work, without love or devotion, it is worthless in the sight of God.
23. Some offer money, sacrifices, worship. All such things are acceptable only as growing out of the heart. In heartless worshippers these are but mockery; and are rejected by God.
24. God’s true children must give their hearts. They must give themselves, their inmost being, their very lives, thoughts, affections, desires.
    II. THE HEART IS CLAIMED BY GOD ABOVE ALL.
25. The world tries to claim it. Some men are enchained in its fascinations, and so withdrawn from God.
26. Sin endeavours to ensnare it. If it is not a divine possession, it will be held by sin. It cannot be detached. It will be given to evil if not to God.
27. Self hopes to hold it. In selfishness men would retain their hearts, their love and devotion, for their own interests. Yet in doing so their hearts harden, shrink, and perish.
28. God has the supreme claim on the heart. We must not be satisfied with devotion to the Church or with good will towards men. The first duty is to love the Lord our God with all our heart. He mast be first.
    III. THE HEART MUST BE WHOLLY GIVEN TO GOD. We must not be content to love God half-heartedly. We must give our heart to God, and give it wholly, if we would satisfy his claim.
29. Give it in affection. This means a supreme surrender of our heart’s love to God.
30. Give it in devotion. God expects loyal service, not merely the adoration of the lips or the work of the hands, but the consecration of the very soul and life and being to him.
31. Give it in trust. If one truly gives his heart to God, it is put in a safe place, to be guarded from harm and sin. God is the safest treasury for man’s most precious treasure. When the heart is entrusted to God, he will not betray it; its affection and devotion will lead it not to desire evil; it will be in a sanctuary amid the storms and battles of life.
    IV. GOD CLAIMS THE HEART OF HIS SON BECAUSE HE IS A FATHER. This is a family claim. The call, My son, justifies the claim, “Give me thine heart.”
32. The claim rests on the obligation of the filial tie. A young man may freely choose or refuse a particular person to be his friend. But he is not thus free in regard to his father. He owes duty and love to a father. God is represented by Malachi as saying, “A son honoreth his father … if then I be a Father, where is mine honour?” (Mal_1:6).
33. The claim is strengthened by the love of God. He is a good Father; he does not ask his son to do what he has not done himself. God first gives his heart to his child, and then seeks the child’s heart in return.
    V. THE HEART MUST BE GIVEN VOLUNTARILY TO GOD. God is Lord of all, and he has a right to enforce universal obedience. But he cares not for loveless, compulsory service. Therefore he condescends to wait for willing devotion, and to ask for the heart of his son.
34. Perhaps the heart is not yet given to God. God seeks what he has not received.
35. The heart can only be given by decision of will. We shall remain away from God unless we decide to respond to the call of our Father, and freely offer him our hearts.
    Pro_23:31, Pro_23:32
    The danger of strong drink
    I. IT IS TERRIBLY FASCINATING.
36. It is beautiful to the eye. The wine sparkles in the cup.
37. It is palatable. Though children at first shudder at it, as at some unnatural product, the early dislike is easily surmounted, and then nothing can be more attractive.
38. It is exhilarating. It gives pleasurable excitement, stimulates jaded energies, enlivens conversation, drowns sorrow, and promises still larger enjoyments.
39. It is recommended by social influences. Good fellowship seems to go with the use of strong drink. In some circles to decline it appears unsociable.
    II. IT IS FEARFULLY DANGEROUS. The mischief is not seen at first. It is “at last” that “it biteth like a serpent” Hence its snake-like deception, as welt as the deadliness of its venom. But this venom is so deadly that all need to be warned against its fatal consequences. It bites in many places; e.g.:
40. The purse. Money runs out like water, business fails, the home is wrecked and broken up as the effect of this serpent-bite of strong drink.
41. The health. The firm hand becomes palsied, the bright eye dimmed, and the strong body diseased when this venom of intoxication is in the blood.
42. The mental powers. The brain is weakened with the body. Thought is paralyzed or reduced to inanity. The lawyer, the doctor, the scholar, lose the faculties necessary for their avocations.
43. The moral nature. The one sin of intemperance too often debauches the conscience and prepares the way for other sins (see Pro_23:33).
44. Reputation. The drunkard loses his character. His good name vanishes in smoke when this deadly serpent lays hold of him.
45. Soul life. This, too, is poisoned and slain. Religion is wrecked. The drunkard cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
    III. IT SHOULD BE UTTERLY SHUNNED. It is urged that all these indisputably evil things only come from drinking to excess. They are the results of the abuse, not of the use of strong drink. Men should be wise enough to take warning, and not to go to excess with what, used in moderation, is perfectly harmless. This was not the opinion of the wisest man. He not only urged his reader to refrain from excess; he would have him not even look at the fascinating cup, lest he should be ensnared by its snake-like charms. Many things concur to demand this extra caution.
46. The terrible extent and evil of intemperance. This is no small failing, but a national vice, and a source of wide and awful wretchedness. As no ordinary enemy has to be faced, so no ordinary means will secure us against it.
47. The insidious nature of the temptation. It works by slow degrees. At first it appears to be harmless. The fatal steps lead down slowly and without a shock of surprise, till it is too late to return. It is best to hold back at first.
48. The needlessness of the strong drink. Except in particular conditions of weakness and illness, it is not required. To renounce it is not to sacrifice any really good thing.
    HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
    Pro_23:1-8
    Hints and warnings on conduct
    I. PERILS OF COURTLY LIFE. (Pro_23:1-3.) The Arab proverb says, “He who sups with the sultan burns his lips,” and, “With kings one sits at the table for honour’s sake, not for that of appetite.” Horace says that kings are said to press dainties and wine upon those whom they desire to scrutinize and test, as to whether they be worthy of friendship. The caution is therefore one dictated by prudence. And in general it may be thus understood: Beware of going to places and frequenting society where watchfulness and prudence are likely to be overborne; and take care that the body, by being pampered, becomes not the master of the soul.
    II. PERILS AND VANITY OF RICHES. (Pro_23:4, Pro_23:5.) This precept does not forbid industry and diligent toil for worldly gain; but only excessive carefulness in regard to it, over-valuation of its worth, and the burning lust of avarice, which implies want of confidence in God and of the sense of our true position in the world. The antidote is the exhortation of the Saviour to lay up treasures in heaven—to make certain of the incorruptible riches (Mat_6:19, Mat_6:20). “It is a wise course to be jealous of our gain, and more to fear than to desire abundance. It is no easy thing to carry a full cup with an even hand” (Leighton).
    III. CORRUPTION FROM EVIL ASSOCIATIONS. (Pro_23:6-8.) The man of the evil eye is the jealous or envious temper; his heart is dyed in its dark relent. There is no genuine hospitality here; it is like that of the Pharisees who invited our Lord. This bitter sauce of envious hatred will presently be found giving a disgusting flavour to his delicacies. Discontent will poison the best food and wine. “Mens minds will either feed on their own good or others’ evil, and whoso wanteth the one will prey upon the other.” Envy takes no holidays. The devil is represented as the envious man who sows tares among the wheat at night. Always it works subtly, in the dark, and to the prejudice of good things, such as is the wheat (Bacon). Instead of seeking the pleasures which bring disgust, let us secure a humble fare with Christian content (Php_4:11).—J.
    Pro_23:9-11
    Holding aloof from evil
    I. THE FOOL. (Pro_23:9.) There is “a time to keep silence.” Truth may be desecrated in certain company by speech and honoured by silence. Pearls are not to be cast before swine. The silence of Christ was equally eloquent with his words. How much does the sentence convey, “He answered hint never a word”! Beyond a certain point explanations are worse than useless; the caviller only takes them as food for his folly and encouragement to his perversity.
    II. THE OPPRESSOR. (Pro_23:10.) The property of the widow and the fatherless is in the protection of the Almighty. He is the Eternal Vindicator of down-trodden right. In the bright evangelical picture of conduct it is the very opposite of violence and oppression to the weak that is held up for our emulation: “To visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction.” And the negative side is, in one word, “to keep one’s self unspotted from the world.”—J.
    Pro_23:12-18
    Discipline in Divine wisdom
    I. THE TEMPER OF DOCILITY. (Pro_23:12.) It is submission of the affections to a higher law. It is the resignation of the will to a higher leading. It is the opening of the understanding to Divine counsels. It is the realization, on the one hand, of dependence and need; on the other, of the light, the wisdom, and the goodness which ever meet that need.
    II. THE NECESSITY OF DISCIPLINE FOR THE YOUNG. (Pro_23:13, Pro_23:14; see on Pro_3:27; Pro_19:18; Pro_22:15.) Luther says, in his blunt way, “Beat your son, and the hangman will not beat him. There must be a beating once for all; if the father does it not, Master Hans will; there is no help for it. None ever escaped it; for it is God’s judgment.” Another sternly says, “Many parents deserve hell on their children’s account, because they neglect to train them in piety.”
    III. JOY IN DUTIFUL CHILDREN. (Pro_23:15, Pro_23:16.) It is next to the joy in the personal sense of God’s grace. None but a parent knows the heart of a parent—the “travailing in birth” over their souls, the joy of discovering symptoms of the new life. “May all my sons be Benaiahs, the Lord’s building; then will they all be Abners, the father’s light: all my daughters Bithiahs, the Lord’s daughters; and then they will be all Abigails, their father’s joy” (Swinnock). What must be the joy in heaven and in the bosom of God over his returning and dutiful children!
    IV. ENVY OF THE WICKED REBUKED. (Pro_23:17, Pro_23:18.) When Socrates was asked what was most troublesome to good men, he replied, “The prosperity of the wicked.” Here, then, is a great temptation. It needs an antidote in reason. There is no reason for this envy. They are not truly happy. We look at them from the outside; the dark discontent of the heart is concealed from us. To live in the communion of God, on the other hand, is a secret, a certain, a profound and all-compensating joy. The enjoyment of the wicked, such as it is, must have its end; while the child of God ends only to begin anew—sinks below the horizon to rise in the power of an endless life. We have thus three resources against sin: the avoidance of evil example; reverence before God; and constant recollection of the blessings of piety and virtue.—J.
    Pro_23:19-25
    The perils of dissipation and the antidote
    “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
    I. PERILS OF DISSIPATION. (Pro_23:20, Pro_23:21.) Gluttony and wine bibbing. As the stomach is the centre of health, so it is also of disease. A wise man (Dr. Johnson) said that if one did not care for one’s stomach, one was not likely to care for anything. It is equally true that he who cares only or chiefly for the flesh will make a wreck of everything else. Gluttony has been pointed to as “the source of all our infirmities, the fountain of all our diseases. As a lamp is choked by superabundance of oil, a fire extinguished by excess of fuel, so is the natural heat of the body destroyed by intemperate diet.” By slow degrees, and more and more, the habits of self-indulgence undermine the strength of body, still more certainly the vigour of mind, until poverty comes like an armed man.
    II. THE ANTIDOTE.
49. Early instruction to be constantly recalled. (Pro_23:22.) Along with the affectionate association of the parents who gave it. That “men shall be disobedient to their own parents” (2Ti_3:2) is one of the marks of the great apostasy in Scripture. But “comely and pleasant to see, and worthy of honour from the beholder,” is a child understanding the eye of his parent (Bishop Hall).
50. The truth of life to be held in supreme value. (Pro_23:23.) Wisdom, discipline, insight,—these are various names of the one thing, different aspects of the pearl of great price. There are required in the truth seeker—attention, willingness for toil, judgment, the constant preference of reason to prejudice, teachableness, humility, self-control. Translated into Christian terms, this pearl of great price is “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.” Bunyan beautifully describes the pilgrims answering the sneering reproach, “What will you buy?” They lifted their eyes above: “We will buy the truth!” And no sacrifice is too costly with this end in view, as the example of holy men and martyrs teaches—Moses, Paul, the Hebrews (Heb_11:24-26). To sell one’s birthright for a mess of pottage (as Esau, Judas, and Demas) is indeed to “gain a loss.”
51. Consideration of the joy we give to others by well doing. (Pro_23:24, Pro_23:25.) That heart must be unnatural or utterly depraved which feels not the force of this motive—to repay a father’s anxious love, and the yearning tenderness of her that bare him. A selfishness may supply the motive even here, since parental gladness is the child’s own joy as he walks in the ways of pleasantness and peace.—J.
    Pro_23:26-28
    The harlot’s true character
    I. IT IS DANGEROUS AND PERNICIOUS. (Pro_23:27, Pro_23:28.) It may be compared to a deep pit or to a narrow and deep well, out of which, if one falls therein, there is no easy escape. Or to a fell robber lying in wait for the unwary and the weak.
    II. THE TRUE RESOURCE OF SAFETY. This is in the heart given up to God (Pro_23:26). If that heart be already polluted, he can wash it and make it clean. But he who yields his heart to the prince of this world becomes the enemy of God and of his eternal wisdom.—J.
    Pro_23:29-35
    The perils of drunkenness
    I. THE IMMEDIATE EXTERNAL EFFECTS. (Verses29, 30.) Trouble, quarrels, violence, deformity. “No translation or paraphrase can do justice to the concise, abrupt, and energetic manner of the original.” “Oh that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! that we should with joy, revel, pleasure, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!”
    II. THE ULTIMATE CONSEQUENCES. (Pro_23:32.) It “bites like a serpent, and spits poison like a basilisk.” This is the course of all sin; like Dead Sea fruits that tempt the taste, and turn to ashes on the lips. It is the “dangerous edge of things,” against which men have to be on their guard. The line between use and abuse is so easily passed over. Corruptio optimi pessima.
    III. THE EFFECT ESPECIALLY ON THE INTELLIGENCE. (Pro_23:33-35.) The mind falls into bewilderment, and sees double or awry. The victim of intoxication is indeed “at sea,” and like one sleeping on the very verge of danger and sudden death. In a spiritual sense he is drunk who does not perceive the great danger of his soul, but becomes more secure and stubborn under every chastisement (Jer_5:8). It is the dreadful insensibility—depicted by yet. 35 which imitates the thought and speech of the drunkard—which is among the worst consequences of the vice. “The sight of a drunkard is a better sermon against that vice than the best that was ever preached upon the subject.” “He who hath this sin, hath not himself; whosoever doth commit it, cloth not commit sin, but he himself is wholly sin”.—J.
    HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
    Pro_23:1-3
    The temptation of the table
    It is probable that Solomon had in view those who did not often sit down to a “good dinner,” and who, when they were invited to a feast by some one who was able to spread his table with delicacies, found themselves subjected to a strong temptation to unusual indulgence. Dr. Kitto tells us that, in the East, men would (and now will) eat an almost incredible amount of food when a rare opportunity offered itself. From the moral and the religious standpoint this matter of appetite demands our attention to—
    I. A SPECIAL SPHERE OF OBEDIENCE AND SELF-CONTROL. Appetite is undoubtedly of God; and for few things, on the lower level, have we more occasion to thank our Creator than for the fact that he has made our food to be palatable, and caused us so to crave it that the partaking of it is a pleasure. Otherwise, the act of eating in order to keep ourselves alive and strong would be a daily weariness and penalty to us. But as it is, the necessary act of eating is a constant source of pleasure. But with the pleasure there enters inevitably a temptation. Appetite in man, strengthened as it is by man’s imaginative faculty, and fostered as it is by the inventiveness which provides all kinds of inviting dainties, becomes one of those things which allure to excess, and thus to sin. To maintain the golden mean between asceticism on the one hand and epicurism or gluttony on the other hand is not found to be an easy task. Medical science inclines now to the view that a very large proportion of people take more to eat than is really for their good—especially in later life. Frequently, perhaps generally, this is rather a mistake than an offence. But the wise man will carefully consider how far he should go, and where he should draw the line. In doing this he will more especially consider two things.
52. How he should act at the table, so as not in any way to weaken his intelligence by what he eats or drinks.
53. How he should act so as to keep himself in health and strength for all useful activity in the days to come. By resolving to act with a firm self-command, with the higher and indeed the highest end in view, he may, in eating and drinking, do what he does “to the glory of God” (see 1Co_10:31).
    II. THOSE TO WHOM THIS FORMS A SPECIALLY STRONG TEMPTATION. “If thou be a man given to appetite.” Some men are so constituted that to have the greatest delicacies in the world before them would be no temptation to them; others have an appetency which they have the greatest difficulty in controlling,—this may arise either from heredity, or from their individual bodily organization, or (as is oftenest the case) from the habit of indulgence. There are also—
    III. OCCASIONS WHEN THIS TEMPTATION IS SPECIALLY SEVERE. Such as that indicated in the text (see also 1Co_10:27). There are times when it would be churlish, and even unchristian, to refuse an invitation; but the presence of food or of stimulants upon the table may be a serious inducement to transgression. Then “put a knife to thy throat;” determinately stop at the point of strict moderation; resolutely and fearlessly refuse that of which you know well that you have no right to partake; distinctly and definitely decline the dish or the cup which you cannot take with a good conscience. For consider—
    IV. THE FOLLY AND THE SIN OF INDULGENCE. “They are deceitful meat.” Excess may bring some momentary enjoyment, but:
54. It is quickly followed by pain, disorder, feebleness, incapacity; even if not of a serious order, yet humiliating enough to a man who respects himself.
55. The habit of it leads with no uncertain step to physical and also to mental and moral degeneracy.
56. The pleasure afforded, like all the grosser gratifications, declines with indulgence.
57. All excess is sin. It is a misuse and profanation of that body which is given us as the organ of our own spirit, and should be regarded and treated as “the temple of the Holy Ghost” (1Co_6:19).—C.
    Pro_23:4, Pro_23:5
    The worthelessness of wealth
    Wealth is not, indeed, absolutely worthless; it has a distinct value of its own; but relatively to man’s deeper necessities, and to his other, spiritual resources, it is to be held in slight esteem.
    I. THE UNSUBSTANTIAL AS DISTINGUISHED FROM THE REAL. “Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?” Money regarded as that which purchases food, clothing. shelter, books, etc; has a certain value not easily overstated. But mere wealth, as wealth, has but a fictitious and unreal virtue. A man may have it and have it not at the same time. A rich man may be, to all intents and purposes, a very poor one. He may own land the scenery upon which he is wholly unable to appreciate; soil which he has not the spirit or the wisdom to cultivate; houses which he neither inhabits nor causes to be inhabited; gardens whose paths no feet are treading, and whose beauty no eyes are admiring; books which he has not the taste or even the power to read, etc. In fact, his wealth is only a possibility and not a reality to him. Practically, he “sets his eyes upon that which is not.” And it is quite a common thing for men to be wealthy far beyond their capacity of enjoyment; their riches do not serve them any real purpose; they remain unused, and are as if they were not at all (see Mat_25:29; Luk_8:18). On the other hand, knowledge, wisdom, pure and holy love, a generous interest in the welfare of others, joy in God and in the friendship of the good,—these are real blessings. A man who has these must be and is enriched thereby.
    II. THE TRANSIENT AS DISTINGUISHED FROM THE ABIDING. “Riches certainly make themselves wings,” etc.
58. They are insecure. It is impossible to mention any “investment” that is absolutely secure. Even “real property” has been found to become depreciated and even positively worthless in the market. And of the more orginary sources of wealth, it is proverbial that they have all a limited, and many of them but a slight, security. A revolution in government, in trade, even in fashion or in taste, and the ample means are reduced to nothing, the millionaire is brought down to bankruptcy. A poor foundation, indeed, on which to build the structure of human happiness and well being is the possession of riches.
59. They must soon be laid down.
    III. THE HUMAN AS DISTINGUISHED FROM THE DIVINE. To “labour to be rich” is of man. To work for wealth, and even to live for it is to be borne along on the current of human energy, is to breathe the atmosphere which human society is throwing round him. It is “our own wisdom.” But it is not the wisdom of God. That says to us, “Labour not for the meat which perisheth;” “Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth;” “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” The wisdom which is from above speaks to us of “forsaking all to follow Christ;” of parting with everything for one inestimable pearl; of agonizing to enter in at the strait gate. It tells us that the service of God, the friendship of Jesus Christ, the life of holy usefulness, the life testimony to a Divine Redeemer, the rest of soul which comes with spiritual rectitude, the inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled and which fadeth not away,—that all this is not only more precious than gold, it is absolutely priceless; it is the one thing for which it is worth our while to labour with all our strength, to sacrifice all that we have.—C.
    Pro_23:6-8
    The graces of giving, receiving, and refusing
    The text treats of a hospitality which does not deserve the name, and of our duty when we are invited to accept a glint that is grudged. It thus opens the whole subject of giving and receiving. There are three graces here.
    I. THE GRACE OF GIVING. This is one which is readily recognized as heaven born.
60. God commends it to us. He says, “Give, and it shall be given unto you” (Luk_6:38); “Give to him that asketh thee” (Mat_5:42); “He that giveth let him do it with liberality” (Revised Version); “given to hospitality” (Rom_12:8, Rom_12:13).
61. It is the best reward of labour (Eph_4:28).
62. It is the most God-like of all graces. For God lives to give; he is ever giving forth to all his creation; he is feeding the multitudes and millions of his creatures beneath every sky.
63. It is the source of the purest and most elevating joy. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
    II. THE GRACE OF RECEIVING. If it is right and good for some men to give cf their abundance, then the correlative act of receiving must also be right and good. There is, indeed, a virtue, a grace, in receiving cheerfully and cordially as well as gratefully, which may be almost, if not quite, as acceptable to God as that of generosity itself. There is truth in Miss Proctor’s lines—
    “I hold him great who for love’s sake
    Can give with generous, earnest will;
    Yet he who takes for love’s sweet sake,
    I think I hold more generous still.”
    III. THE GRACE OF REFUSING.
64. We may rightly refuse a gift, whether it he in the way of hospitality or not, which we are sure the giver cannot honestly afford; we do not wish to be enriched or entertained at the expense of his creditors.
65. We may properly decline a gift if we feel that it is offered us under a misconception; when we are imagined to be, or to believe, or to be working toward, that which is contrary to our spirit, our creed, our aim
66. We do well to decline the hospitality which does not come from the heart. The host is “as he thinketh in his heart.” His fair or “sweet words” are no real part of himself; they only come from his lips; and if he is grudging us what he gives us, we may well wish ourselves far away from his table. No man who has any self-respect whatever will wish to take a crust from the man who counts what he gives his friends. Such food as that, however dainty, would choke us as we ate it. Nor is it begrudged hospitality alone that we should have the independence to refuse, but all else that is in the shape of gift; all money, all position, all friendship. Better to go entirely without than to have abundance at the cost of our own self-respect. Better to toil hard and wait long than to accept such offers as those. Better to turn to him “who giveth liberally and upbraideth not,” and ask of him.—C.
    Pro_23:10
    (See homily on Pro_22:28.)—C.
    Pro_23:13, Pro_23:14
    (See homily on Pro_13:24.)—C.
    Pro_23:17, Pro_23:18
    God’s righteous judgment
    Nothing is more foolish than to endeavour to found a proof of the righteousness of God’s rule upon a single case of human experience. Yet is that often done. A good man seizes upon a piece of good fortune in a godly man’s life, and exaggerates its importance; a bad man pounces upon a piece of bad fortune and draws unwarrantable conclusions therefrom. But are there not indications, if not proofs, to be had for the seeking, that all things are under the direction of a just and righteous Ruler? Yes; if we look far and wide enough. For as we look, we see that all men, good and bad, are rewarded according to their works.
    I. All the laws which regulate the recompense of labour exist FOR THE UPRIGHTEOUS AS WELL AS FOR THE RIGHTEOUS. Take, e.g.:
67. The covetous man. Consider all that he foregoes in order to reap his harvest—all the physical, social, domestic, literary, philanthropic, religious advantages and delights that he sacrifices; consider all the immense and ceaseless pains and toils he goes through, and the risks he runs, to achieve his object. And he gets his prize; he has earned it. He will find it weighted with more burdens and freighted with fewer and smaller blessings than he thought, end it will not last him long. Do not envy him or begrudge him what he receives; he has paid a very heavy price for it. and is surely welcome to it.
68. The hypocrite. He is a very painstaking, hardworking man; he spares himself no trouble, no sacrifice; he makes long prayers, for which he has no heart; he abstains from food he would fain be eating; he parts with money which he longs to keep; he goes through the most wearisome experiences in order that he may win a little passing honour. He has his reward; he is very welcome to it. He has earned it; we will not envy him; there is nothing more for him to receive (Mat_6:5).
69. The man of pleasure. He also pays a very high price for his momentary gratifications—the degradation of his powers, the disregard of his friends, the loss of his self-respect, the decline of his health, etc.; and all this for mere enjoyment which becomes less keen and vivid every clay. We will not envy him. Unholy pleasure is the costliest thing in the whole world.
    II. All the laws which regulate the recompense of labour exist FOR THE RIGHTEOUS MAN AS WELL AS FOR THE UNRIGHTEOUS.
70. By returning unto God in penitential self-surrender we seek reconciliation, peace, joy, the full re-establishment of our filial relations with God; and we had what we seek. “Surely there is a reward” (Revised Version) for us, and “our expectation is not cut off.”
71. By “walking in the fear of the Lord all the day long,” consulting his will and endeavouring to follow him, we seek his Divine favour and a growing measure of likeness to our Lord. And we find what we seek.
72. By kind Christian helpfulness, by sympathy and succour freely and gladly given to those in need, we seek the blessedness of him that gives (Act_20:35), the gratitude of true and loving hearts, the present smile and final benediction of the Son of man (Mat_25:34-40). And we find and shall find it. Surely there is a reward for us; our hope shall not be cut off. No; let us “envy not the sinner;” let us make him welcome to all he has; let us try to elevate and enlarge his hope and his reward by changing the spirit of his mind. As for ourselves, let it be in our hearts to say, “God is faithful who hath called us to the fellowship of his Son;” let us anticipate the anthem of the angels, and sing already, “Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, O thou King of saints!”—C.
    Pro_23:20, Pro_23:21
    (See below.)—C.
    Pro_23:23
    The freedom and the price of truth
    We have often to insist upon—
    I. THE FREEDOM OF THE TRUTH. In one sense, truth is essentially free. If firm and strong as the granite rock, it is also fluent as the water, elastic as the air. It belongs to no man, and cannot be patented or monopolized; it is the inheritance of mankind. We are all of us bound to communicate it freely, to “pass it on like bread at sacrament.” This is emphatically the case with the truth of the gospel. “Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat … without money and without price;” “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” But the lesson of the text is—
    II. THE PRICE OF TRUTH. Truth has sometimes to be paid for; it has its own price, and we must be willing to buy it.
73. That truth for which we involuntarily pay some price. We go forth into the world with crude, immature notions, which we find, by painful experience, have to be corrected and perhaps changed.. Sometimes this necessary lesson is very costly to us. In this way we have to buy the truth as to:
    (1) The checkered character of our human life. We have to learn, painfully enough, that it does not answer to our early dreams, but is sadly dashed with disappointment, with failure, with loss, with trouble; that it is many coloured, with a large admixture of the dull or even the dark.
    (2) The imperfections of the good. That there is a large amount of profession without any reality at all; that some really good men allow themselves to be overtaken in serious fault; that all good men have some defects which tarnish the perfect brightness of their character; that human excellency is not so much an attainment as an earnest and admirable endeavour.
    (3) The strength and weakness of our own character. We have to find, at the cost of much humiliation, where our strength ends and our weakness begins. Such truths as these we buy without bargain; we do not agree to the price that we pay. There is not the freedom of contract we usually have in any purchase we make. But we may part willingly, and even cheerfully, as we are called upon to do, with that which we lose, thankfully accepting the truth we acquire; and so doing we practically and wisely “buy the truth.”
74. The truth for which we voluntarily pay the price.
    (1) A completer knowledge of God’s Word. Our knowledge of the book of God is very varied; it may be very slight or it may be very deep and full. How deep or how full depends on whether or not we will pay the price of this excellent wisdom; the price is that of patient, reverent study.
    (2) The surpassing blessedness of true consecration; the peace and the joy to be had in Christ and in his holy and happy service. We do not know as much as we might, and as we should, of this; but we do not pay the price of knowledge. That price is whole-hearted surrender of ourselves to our Saviour and to his service. So long as we “keep back part of the price” we cannot know this experience; but if we will “yield ourselves unto God” unreservedly, we shall know the truth in its fulness. We may make a special point of
    (3) the beauty and excellency of Christian work; and the price of knowing this is the act of hearty and faithful labour, sustained by much earnest prayer for the inspiration and the blessing of God. We complete the thought of the text by considering—
    III. THE ABSOLUTE PRICELESSNESS OF THE TRUTH. “Sell it not.” Heavenly wisdom, once gained, is not to be parted with for any consideration whatever. Nothing on earth represents its value. To lose it is to sign away our inheritance. It is to be held at all costs whatever.—C.
    Pro_23:24 26
    (See homily on Pro_10:1.)—C.
    Pro_23:29-35
    (with Pro_23:20, Pro_23:21)
    Drunkenness
    A most striking picture is given as here of the manifold evils of this great curse. In a few strokes Solomon brings before us most, if not all, of its painful and pitiable consequences. Their name is legion, for they are indeed many.
    I. THE CONTEMPT OF THE SOBER. (Pro_23:20.) The very word “drunkard,” or “wine bibber,” is indicative of the deep disregard in which the victim of this vice is held by sober men.
    II. POVERTY. (Pro_23:21.) It is striking and surprising how soon men of large means are brought down to straitness of circumstance, and even poverty itself. It is what they spend on this craving, and what they lose by its ill effects upon them, that drag them down.
    III. PHYSICAL DETERIORATION. (Pro_23:29.) Dissipation soon tells on a man’s personal appearance; he shows by his garments, and still more by his countenance, that he is mastered by that which he puts into his mouth. Vice means ugliness.
    IV. CONTENTIOUSNESS. (Pro_23:29.) We need all our powers in good balance to control ourselves so that we are not provoked to the hasty word and to the lasting quarrel. But the man who is excited by wine is in the worst possible condition for ruling his spirit and commanding his tongue. He is likely enough to speak the sentence which is followed by the blow, or, what is worse, the long continued feud.
    V. IMPURITY. (Pro_23:33.) The excitement of the intoxicating cup has had much to do with the saddest departures from the path of purity and honour; with the entrance upon the road of utter ruin.
    VI. INFATUATION. (Pro_23:34, Pro_23:35.) The drunkard is seen by his friends to be sinking and falling; in his circumstances, his reputation, his health, his character, he is palpably perishing. Those who really love and pity him warn him with earnest remonstrance, with affectionate entreaty, but it is of no avail. He acts with as much infatuation as would a man who made a bed of the waves or the top of a mast. After he has been stricken and has suffered, he goes back to his cups, and is stricken and suffers again.
    VII. THE AGONY OF REMORSE. “At the last it biteth like a serpent,” etc. The sting of remorse which a man suffers when he awakes to a full sense of his folly is something pitiful to witness, and must be far more terrible to endure. The man suffers a penalty which is worse than bodily torture; it is the just punishment in his own soul for his folly and his sin. In one sense it is self-administered, for it is the stern rebuke of conscience; in another sense it is the solemn and strong condemnation of the Supreme.
    VIII. BITTER BONDAGE. Worse, if possible, than the sting of remorse is the sense of helpless bondage in which he finds that he is held. “At the last” is a tyranny which the evil habit, the strong craving, exercises over the man’s spirit. He knows and feels his humiliation and loss; he essays to escape; he strives, he writhes to become freed; but he tries in vain; he is “holden with the cords of his sins” (Pro_5:22); he is a poor, miserable captive, the slave of vice.
    Such are the consequences of departure from sobriety. It is the first step which is the most foolish and the most avoidable. When a certain stage is reached, restoration, though not impossible or impracticable, is very difficult. Let all men, as they love their soul, keep well within that boundary line that divides sobriety from intemperance. Moderation is good; abstinence is better, for it is safer, and it is kinder to others. “Look not” on the tempting cup; turn the eyes to purer and nobler pleasure.—C.

Proverbs 23:7
I. This is the Hebrew way of telling us, in a casual word about feasting, that a man’s inmost thinking is the true index to his character.
II. Christianity accepts and endorses this inward and broad basis of manhood, and employs its fact and revelation, impulse and inspiration, to secure a thorough regeneration of man’s inmost life. Nothing is more absurd than to speak of Christianity as hostile to the most daring and intrepid thought. Hostile to thinking! It lives upon it, thrives by it, compels it, pushes itself into every section of our manifold experience by it, and revolutionises the world by breaking the dull continuity of man’s mechanical movements with its spiritual goads to freshness and venture of thought. Its greatest men have been strong, capable, and heroic thinkers.
III. This is a thinking age. The manliest thinking is done with the heart; that is, with the whole of the inner forces of the life.
IV. Modern thinking, ignoring the Biblical rule, is smitten with the blight of cowardice, falls a victim to unreality, and lacks, notwithstanding its pride, Lutheran courage, holy daring, and self-devotion.
V. We expect too much to be done by mere thinking. Mere thought is analytical, surgical, cuts to pieces. We are analysts where we need a temper of friendly personal trust. Mere thinking never was the key to unlock another human heart. We get nothing from the man in whom we will not confide. The first need for many of us is not more thinking, but immediate obedience to what we know.
VI. No thinking is manly that fails to take adequate account of the force of intense moral enthusiasms. It is provable that only in the white heat of a glowing passion for an ethical goal have we the clearest vision of eternal fact.
VII. The thinking that is of the brain only, and not of the heart, is in serious danger of passing over the unseen order and treating it as though it did not exist.
VIII. Above all things, do not let us be alarmed at any of the mistakes and mischiefs that cause disobedience to the Christian law of manly thinking. We need have no misgiving about the future. Man is essentially a thinker and a unit; and he must think towards unity, and truth, and perfection. “God is his refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble;” therefore after every temporary eclipse the Sun of righteousness will break forth and reveal again the way to the Father.
J. Clifford, The Dawn of Manhood, p. 66.
References: Pro_23:7.—R. Tuck, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiii., p. 285. Pro_23:12-23.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. iii., p. 83. Pro_23:15-35.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 256.

Proverbs 23:17
I. Holy Scripture is full of warnings against this fatal form of envy, for indeed in this form came the first temptation to our mother Eve. Why did she look towards the fatal tree, and reach out her hand, and touch the fruit, and take it, and taste it but because the tempter had contrived to put it into her weak and foolish heart that by so doing she would become as a god; that is, as an angel, as the tempter himself? Holy Scripture could hardly say more against our envying sinners than that by it came the fall of man, and by it the captivity and ruin of the Jewish people.
II. God’s Holy Spirit, thus proclaiming the mischief, in His love proclaims also the remedy. The way not to let one’s “heart envy sinners” is to “be in the fear of the Lord all the day long;” to keep up a regular, habitual, serious sense that God is here, the great and good God; to turn towards Him instinctively in all temptations, as children in trouble run for shelter to their parents. One who in earnest has this in his mind cannot possibly envy sinners.
III. We are almost sure to begin to wish ourselves like the wicked if we willingly abide in their company. Therefore doth the wise man especially caution us that if we would not be “envious towards evil men,” we must not “desire to be with them.” Remember the end of these men; then you will leave off envying them, and you will begin to pity them and pray for them.
J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Sundays after Trinity, Part I., p. 53.

Proverbs 23:19
In our course through life, our minds are liable to be placed in certain states of feeling strongly marked, and for the time strongly prevailing, and this by causes, by influences, and circumstances independent of our will. These states of feeling, thus involuntarily produced, should be carefully turned to a profitable account; we should avail ourselves of what there is in them specially adapted to afford improvement.
I. It would surely be a wise application of a pleasurable state of feeling to seek most seriously that some of it may be directed into the channel of gratitude to God. These bright and warm states of feeling should be regarded as cultivators regard the important weeks of the spring; as mariners regard the blowing of favourable winds; as merchants seize a transient and valuable opportunity for gain; as men overlaboured and almost overmatched in warfare regard a strong reinforcement of fresh combatants. The spring and energy of spirit felt in these pleasurable seasons of the heart should be applied to the use of a more spirited performance of the Christian duties in general, but especially to those which are the most congenial, such as the exercises and services most directly expressive of gratitude to God, the study and exertions for promoting the happiness of men.
II. The infelicitous season of the soul—shall it not be turned, by wisely “guiding the heart,” to lasting advantage? Now that light thoughts, and brisk spirits, and worldly pleasures and hopes are aloof for a while, take the opportunity for serious consideration.
III. We will apply the admonition to one more state of feeling which not seldom visits an observer of mankind; namely, an indignant excitement of mind against human conduct. This may enforce on you the necessity of a most carefully disciplined judgment. It may surely contribute to aggravate your permanent impression of the extreme evil of sin, and therefore to justify the Almighty in that part of His economy which is directed in hostility against it, to impress upon you that what is so much to be hated is no less to be dreaded.
J. Foster, Lectures, 1st series, p. 28.
Reference: Pro_23:19-23.—H. W. Beecher, Sermons, 4th series, p. 368.

Proverbs 23:23
The text declares two great truths: first, that truth is a matter of purchase; and, secondly, that there is a possibility of selling it and an inclination to do so.
I. Truth is, of course, in itself, one, perfect, and eternal; but to us it is a growing and increasing treasure. The discovery of truth rolls onward, widening as it rolls. While along its banks far back gathered the eager crowd of inquirers who came to dip their vessels into the passing stream, to each company it appeared broader; it swelled in a more magnificent current; it washed the banks of a deeper channel. We cannot see where the river rushes to the sea; it may be far, it may be near: but we see the shore where we are standing, and we know the truth that we have bought.
II. How shall we who have got truth devote ourselves in any way to its enlargement or retention? (1) One way in which we all of us can continue to purchase truth is by having the eye ever open to its still developing lessons. (2) A more direct means of the acquisition of truth will be reading, meditation, and conversation. (3) The reproof of the wise and good or of those in authority over us will be a third means by which we can purchase truth for ourselves. (4) Prayer to God becomes a constant mode of purchasing truth.
III. There is great danger lest we sell what has been gained by the sufferings of centuries, and cut ourselves off from the blessings which generations of our ancestors have striven to give us. Among other shrines at which we are tempted to sell the truth at this day, there are none more common than those that are raised by the principles of Erastianism, commercialism, and scepticism. We are the executors of a great will, the testament of the Cross and the day of Pentecost. We are responsible for our administration of it. But more than that, we are the heirs of the property and the inheritance which that will distributes. We all of us stand in two relationships. If we forfeit our claim of having performed the one faithfully, we forfeit the other. If we betray our trust, we forfeit our inheritance, and cancel for ourselves at least the testament of Calvary and the covenants of the bride of Christ.
E. Monro, Practical Sermons, vol. iii., p. 65.

The teaching of one who had a right to speak, from the largest experience, perhaps, that any man had, is that truth is hard to get and difficult to retain: “Buy the truth, and sell it not.” The force of the metaphor lies in this, that we cannot obtain truth without cost, and that when we have it we shall be bribed to part with it. “Buy it”—then there must be a price; “sell it not”—then there must be a temptation to let it go.
I. What is the cost of truth? (1) You must follow truth wherever it leads you. (2) You must get out of the littlenesses and narrownesses of party feeling. (3) You must feel and act as an infant in intellect, being conscious of weakness and ignorance even in your strongest point. (4) You must fling away the selfishness of an indolent, luxurious, and pleasure-seeking life. (5) You must begin with God, else your brightest truth will be full of shadows, and your best wisdom shall turn out folly.
II. Truth is a precious treasure. But where there is a treasure, there the robbers will come. And they will come very deceptively, not by force, but by artifice. And they will pretend to buy. But the bargain is ruinous, ruinous to the seller. It often takes as much to keep truth as it does to get it. A little worldliness, a little frittering of pleasures, will enervate the very fibre of truth. And if you trifle with truth in one thing, you will loosen it in another thing, till you can scarcely keep it in anything. Christ and the Holy Ghost alone can make truth; and where they live, there is the image of God. And every seeker of truth, whether consciously or not, is striving after a thing no less than the image of God.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 12th series, p. 85.
References: Pro_23:23.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 181; J. Vaughan, Children’s Sermons, 5th series, p. 160; R. Newton, Bible Warnings, p. 60.

Proverbs 23:26
I. The wise man here uses the word “heart” in the fullest sense. It includes the whole mind, the spirit, and the soul. These are what the Lord claims, and what the wise man here claims in the name of the Lord. Bear in mind that, although this claim is put affectionately and appealingly, it is a claim, and admits of no compromise. God will not be put off with any minor or inferior concession. He says to every child of man, “My son, give Me thine heart.”
II. It is a very comprehensive claim, this demand of the heart. The best way to comply with it is to identify God with everything which will bear contact with Him. If you would give God your heart, just think over to yourself the list of all those pursuits in business, study, or pleasure for which you feel you have the strongest taste, and in which you find the most congenial enjoyment. The evil thing which is wrong in itself must be struck out of the list, and your heart given to God. A life thus controlled and regulated would, be indeed a blessed and a model life.
III. God demands your heart that He may enlighten, convince, pardon, sanctify, keep, dignify, and save you. We might press the demand on the ground: (1) of right; (2) of reason; (3) of gratitude; (4) of self-interest. Yield your heart to Him humbly, believingly, unreservedly, cheerfully, irrevocably.
A. Mursell, Calls to the Cross, 123.

I. Consider the relationship to God which is conveyed in the text: “My son.” Can any closer, any more endearing, tie be suggested? Consider what is involved in the term “Father.” (1) God is the Author of our being. (2) God not only bestows upon us life, but the means of enjoying it. He provides us with all that we want. (3) In one particular, God’s love is shown to us in a way that no analogy can reach. Our earthly parents can only provide the means of our education, our instruction, our start in life. What if these are neglected, misused,. and misapplied? Why, henceforth there is little help for us; “the voyage of our life is lost in shallows and in miseries.” Our parents try remedies, but it is often too late; they are often in vain, ineffectual to do away with the mischief once wrought. God has provided a better remedy for His children.
II. Consider what God asks us to give: “My son, give Me thine heart? This implies that we have a power over our affections. There can be no doubt that the heart influences the will, and in a less degree the understanding. We are called upon to give our hearts to God.
III. Consider what this means. The loyal affection which a son feels towards his earthly parents throws some light upon the concentrated love with which we are called upon to regard Him “in whom we live, and move, and have our being.” We may in our lighter moments, and for purposes of amusement, prefer the society of younger persons; but still there is a fund of deep, undisturbed love for our parents, with which the most enthusiastic friendship will not bear comparison—a love which sometimes slumbers, but never dies; a love the reality of which we cannot endure to be questioned. Such, in its calm repose, in its loyal attachment, and in its undying constancy, is the Christian’s love to God.
G. Butler, Sermons in the Chapel of Cheltenham College, p. 327.
References: Pro_23:26.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 184; J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii., p. 127; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. viii., p. 87; H. Wonnacott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 289. Pro_23:29.—J. N. Norton, The King’s Ferry Boat, p. 50. Pro_23:29-35.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. ii., p. 303. Pro_24:1-12.—Ibid., vol. iii., p. 98. Pro_24:1, Pro_24:19, Pro_24:20.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 268.

Proverbs 23:1
Sit. Saul sat at table, and the custom of lying down was adopted only a little while before the captivity. It was recent among the Romans. (Calmet) — Soliti patres considere mensis. (Virgil, Æneid 7:170)

Proverbs 23:2
Throat. Restrain intemperance and talkativeness, Sir_31:12 Septuagint, “stretch forth thy hand, knowing that thou must prepare the like; but if thou be more insatiable, (3.) desire not his meats, for he has them of deceitful life.” They cannot afford real happiness, (Haydock) and to vie with the rich would only reduce them to poverty, Sir_13:2 St. Augustine (tr. xlvii. in Joan.) explains this text of the blessed Eucharist, observing, that we must give our life for our brethren, as Christ did for us. Before communion, we must slay the old man, and subdue our passions. (Calmet) — Power. Protestants, “if thou be a man given to appetite.” The situation of a courtier is very critical. (Haydock) — Those who eat with the kings of Persia, were nicely observed by an eunuch, lest they should cast their eyes on any of his concubines. (Lucian. de Merced.)

Proverbs 23:3
Deceit. Poison. He wishes to discover thy secret.

Proverbs 23:4
Prudence. Be more solicitous for this, than to acquire riches. (Calmet) — Yet this wisdom must be sober, Rom_12:3, and 1Ti_6:9 Septuagint, “being poor, do not stretch forth thyself to the rich, but prudently retire,[“] ver. 2. (Haydock)

Proverbs 23:5
Riches. Septuagint, “to him, the rich man, he no where appears. He has prepared,” &c. (Haydock) — Like. Hebrew, “as the eagle, it will fly,” &c. (Haydock) — We must therefore fix our hearts on more durable goods.

Proverbs 23:6
Man. Hebrew, “eat not bread of an evil eye,” the envious, or rather the sordid miser.

Proverbs 23:7
Like. Protestants, “as he thinketh is his heart, so is he: eat,” &c. (Haydock) — He is still convinced that his guests will ruin him: or “like one guarding, or trembling for his soul.” Septuagint, “swallowing a hair, he saith,” &c. He is afraid of expense, and would allow himself as little as possible. — Diviner. Such endeavour to speak what may come to pass, but are full of anxiety; so the miser’s words are contrary to his real sentiments, (Calmet) as the diviner knows that he is imposing on mankind. (Haydock)

Proverbs 23:8
Words. Thou wilt be disgusted, and repine, Sir_31:25

Proverbs 23:10
Ones. Hebrew and Septuagint, “ancient boundaries.”

Proverbs 23:11
Kinsman. Hebrew Gaal, “tutor, defendant, or redeemer,” the Lord (Haydock) himself, Lev_25:25

Proverbs 23:16
Reins. Inmost affections.

Proverbs 23:18
Thou. Protestants, “surely there is an end.” Marginal note, “reward.” (Haydock) — The testimony of a good conscience affords the greatest comfort in death. Septuagint, “if thou observe these things, thou shalt have posterity.” Hebrew, “hopes.”

Proverbs 23:20
Eat. Such feasts tend to corrupt the morals, and to misspend time.

Proverbs 23:21
Rags. At death the insolent shall be exposed to shame.

Proverbs 23:23
Sell. Acquire as much wisdom as possible, and keep it with care. (Calmet) — Septuagint, “do not drive wisdom from thee.”

Proverbs 23:27
Pit. It is difficult to overcome this passion, when once it has got possession of the heart. We must therefore watch over it, and consecrate it in variably to wisdom, ver. 26.

Proverbs 23:28
Him. Protestants, “increaseth the transgressors among men,” (Haydock) and like a harpy, kills all whom she can entrap.

Proverbs 23:29
Whose father. St. Jerome has read ab avi, instead of abo, (Calmet) which is an interjection, (Bochart) alas! or it means, “trouble.” Septuagint, “drunkenness,” (Chaldean; Calmet) or “sorrow.” (Protestants) — Falls. Septuagint, “hath sorrows.” Hebrew, “babbling,” (Protestants; Haydock) or discontents of mind. (Calmet) — Cause. Drunkards often fall upon their best friends, as Alexander did on Clytus. (Menochius)

Proverbs 23:31
Yellow. Or bright, as it is said there is only one red wine in Palestine. — Pleasantly. Hebrew, “it goeth right,” and is excellent. (Calmet)

Proverbs 23:32
Basilisk, (regulus). Hebrew Tsiphoni, (Haydock) as asp. (Cerastes, &c.) (Psa_90:13)

Proverbs 23:33
Women. Wine excites to lust. (Calmet) See chap. 20:1 — Shall. Septuagint, “shall these.” (Haydock)

Proverbs 23:34
When. Septuagint, “in a great wave.” Never is reason more wanted, nor less able to perform her duty.

Proverbs 23:35
Drew. Chaldean, “plundered.” Septuagint, “mocked at me.” — Again. This is the woeful effect of drunkenness, that men are not deterred from it, though they be sensible of its dreadful consequences. (Menochius)

Proverbs 23:5
Hag_1:6, Pro_27:24

Proverbs 23:10
Deu_19:14, Pro_22:28

Proverbs 23:13
Pro_19:18; Pro_22:15

Proverbs 23:17
(1791) A true believer should have more fear of YHWH, than fear of wanting to please man. Pro_1:7

Proverbs 23:18
(1792) A true believer’s hope is in the resurrection, Psa_16:9-11

Proverbs 23:23
(1793) YHWH’s truth is freely provided by His true servants throughout the world. Anyone selling the word of YHWH is committing a grave sin.

Proverbs 23:21
Pro_23:29-30

Proverbs 23:22
Exo_20:12

Proverbs 23:23
Mat_10:8

Proverbs 23:35
(1794) The drunkard is so inebriated that he does not even realize that he is being abused, and yet when he awakens the next day he will go right back to his drunken stupor, (Pro_26:11, 2Pe_2:22).

Proverbs 23:1-3

Dining With a Ruler

Solomon warns his son to be considerate if he is invited by a ruler to eat with him (Pro_23:1 ). He may feel flattered that the ruler invites him. In doing so, he may also be misled by the richly set table with the delicious food that makes your mouth water when you look at it. However, he should not look at ‘what’ he has before him, that delicious food, but at “who” (this is the better translation) he has before him, the ruler.

With that in mind, he must “put a knife” to his “throat” (Pro_23:2 ). This is especially true if he is “a man of [great] appetite”. The consumption of good food is not wrong, the craving for it is. The food on the table in front of him looks very attractive. Added to this, he is hungry and would like to swallow it in a moment. The father knows the danger of losing control of yourself and starting to feast. You are then a double prisoner. You are a prisoner of your gluttony and you are a prisoner of the ruler. You didn’t control yourself in his presence.

That is why the instruction to the son echoes “put a knife to your throat”, which means as much as “curb your appetite” or “control yourself”. It means to threaten your gluttony with death. The instruction is that it is better to put your knife to your throat than in the meat on the table. It comes down to what the Bible calls self-judgment. The Lord Jesus calls for this when He speaks of tearing out the eye and cutting off the hand as soon as we are tempted to do or look at something bad (Mat_5:29-30 Mat_18:8-9 ; 1Co_9:24 ).

The reason for the warning and instruction of Pro_23:1-2 is given in Pro_23:3 . The “delicacies” are a bait to get something done from him or to get information from him or to secure for himself his support. Let him not desire it, “for it is deceptive food”. The invitation to the meal was not made because he is such an important guest, but to put him in a good mood and then get something done from him. There are selfish motives behind it.

Therefore, as mentioned, he should not look at what he has in front of him (delicious food), but at who he has in front of him. Because Eve did not pay attention to who she had in front of her and only looked at what she had in front of her, sin entered the world (Gen_3:1-6 ). Because we are no better and also for us the temptation is great to accept such an invitation and take in such a meal, it is necessary that we pray for protection, as David did (Psa_141:4 ).

We can also apply “deceptive food” to false teachings about God’s Word. False teachers can present their false teachings about God in a ‘palatable’ way. For example, it sounds very appealing that God is love and yet He will not be so unmerciful as to let a man be eternally in hell in eternal pain. This false teaching is very ‘palatable’ to many people who thereby absorb the false teaching of ‘universal atonement’ into their heart, so that they are poisoned in their thinking.

Proverbs 23:4-5

Wealth Has Wings

Wealth has the same attraction as the food on a ruler’s table in the previous verses. Also, wealth is just as deceptive as the food on the ruler’s table. Therefore, wealth must also be handled very carefully. The warning is not to weary oneself to gain wealth (Pro_23:4 ). He who does weary himself for this purpose is absorbed and caught up in it. It is about wanting to become rich. He who wants to become rich runs great spiritual risks (1Ti_6:9-10 ).

We can imagine that the son is young and ambitious. He has many abilities and sees many challenges. But the father keeps telling him not to use his “consideration” to list all kinds of benefits that make wealth worth putting effort in to it, to toil for it. Let him stop looking for good reasons for doing something that is bad.

The reality is that just as his eyes ‘fly’ over the wealth, the wealth also “flies”, according to the literal translation of Pro_23:5 : “Will your eyes fly upon it and it is not?” Solomon uses a pun here with the word fly. The eyes fly and the wealth flies. Just as quickly as the eyes fly, wealth make itself wings and flies away quickly. Wealth evaporates with the speed of “an eagle that flies [toward] the heavens”. You lose out, with no way to retrieve the wealth. One wrong speculation, a bank that fails, a thief who breaks in, and you have lost your entire capital at once.

The warning Solomon gives his son and us is not a warning against diligence and zeal, but against greed for money, against materialism with its dangers, the thirst for more wealth. It is better to use all our strength to gather treasures in heaven (Mat_6:19-20 ). It is also better, in imitation of Paul, to give all our strength to the work for the Lord. In setting our priorities, we show what we use our “consideration” for.

Proverbs 23:6-8

Hypocritical Hospitality

It is a mistake to accept hospitality from a stingy person (Pro_23:6 ). With every bite you take, you see him looking angry. The literal translation of “a selfish man”, is “angry eye” – see the contrast with “he who is generous” (Pro_22:9 ), which is someone with an “abundant eye”; see the notes on Proverbs 22:9. This miser is ill-mannered and inhospitable. You should have no desire to eat with him of “his delicacies”, no matter how much your mouth waters when you see such an abundance of the most delicious food before you. There is really nothing appetizing about a meal with such a person.

The man you are eating with is not as he pretends to be (Pro_23:7 ). As you sit eating, he is calculating what he has lost in terms of what you devour. It causes a hole in his wealth. He does make the invitation to “eat and drink”, but he doesn’t do it wholeheartedly, he doesn’t mean it, he is stingy. He does it grudgingly. Inwardly, with his heart, he is not connected to you, even though a meal expresses fellowship. He pays more attention to how much you eat – and thus what it costs him – than whether you enjoy it.

As the meal progresses, the host’s face contracts, making the food taste increasingly bad to you (Pro_23:8 ). Finally, his lack of sincerity will make you lose your appetite to the point that you vomit up what you have already eaten. And oh, how you will regret your compliments. You have expressed your appreciation for the invitation and praised your host for his good taste, but it is all wasted tribute. The man turns out to be a miser who just sat and watched you grumbling over each bite you took.

Proverbs 23:9

Don’t Waste Wise Words on a Fool

It makes no sense to speak words that are wise to an incorrigible fool. It is not because he would not understand what you are saying. Neither is it because he would listen poorly or that he would not even listen at all. It is much worse. It is not a matter of ignorance or impropriety, but of contempt for those kinds of words. A fool despises wisdom and therefore it is a waste of time to try to say something wise to him.

Words in which there is something wise, he will take as a correction and thus as an attack on his activities. He does not wish to be confronted with this in any way. He will reveal himself as an enemy of it and turn against you.

What Solomon is saying to his son here corresponds to what the Lord Jesus says to His disciples: “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces” (Mat_7:6 ).

Proverbs 23:10-11

Honoring the Property of the Powerless

Again the wise teacher points out to respect the rights of others to their property (Pro_23:10 ; Pro_22:28 ). This time he warns against moving “the ancient boundary” that demarcates the territory of the fatherless orphan. He who moves them violates his property. Not to “go into the fields of the fatherless” means that no one should come into those fields with hostile intentions, that is with the intention to move the boundary and thus rob some of their fields.

Pro_23:11 makes it clear why it is wise not to commit land grabbing and certainly not from the defenseless orphans. For he who does so will have to deal with Someone Who stands up for those who have no earthly father on whom they can lean and who stands up for them. They have a “Redeemer” Who is “strong” (Jer_50:34 ). He takes their case to Himself and will deal with the transgressor by taking him to court and condemning him. He is Goel, the Savior, the Helper (Psa_10:14 ), for those who can count on no man for help (Job_19:25 ). Widows and orphans, as defenseless, are under the direct care of God (Psa_68:5 Psa_82:3 Psa_146:9 ; Hos_14:4 ).

Proverbs 23:12

A Renewed Call to Listen

This proverb or instruction to the son is again an introductory exhortation and recalls the way many a section in the first main section (Proverbs 1-9) begins (Pro_1:8 Pro_2:1 Pro_3:1 Pro_4:1 Pro_5:1 Pro_6:20 Pro_7:1 Pro_8:1-6 ). The section on the words of the wise also begins with it (Pro_22:17 ). The son must open and apply his heart to discipline and listen carefully to the knowledge passed on to him by his father and mother. It is an activity required of the son.

“Apply” is an act, an activity, that is requested. A person must apply it to himself. This is not about a physical action, but his heart and his ear must apply it. It is not idly waiting for something to happen, a certain feeling or any such thing. The heart and ear must turn away from everything they are busy with to devote themselves to the teaching of wisdom.

Proverbs 23:13-14

Discipline Is Necessary

After the word is addressed to the son in Pro_23:12 , the word is addressed to the parents in Pro_23:13-14 . There have so far been two instructions about using the rod to correct (Pro_13:24 Pro_22:15 ) and a reference to abusing it, which could result in the death of the son (Pro_19:18 ). Now the two types of instruction are brought together.

If a child son commits an act of disobedience, he must be disciplined (Pro_23:13 ). This can be done verbally, but sometimes it is necessary for him not only to hear, but to feel that he has been disobedient. Then he must be struck with the rod. As noted earlier (see comments on Proverbs 22:15), it is not to be beaten without restraint. It is to confront him with his sin in a painful way. Sin always causes pain. He will not die from it, but rather he will be kept alive by it, that is, in the life God purposed and which gives the greatest satisfaction.

The infliction of physical discipline must be done by the parent himself, “you” (Pro_23:14 ). He should not leave that to another person. By disciplining him, the parent indicates that he is personally involved in his son’s well-being. He does not discipline because he is better. He himself has needed that discipline and has benefited from it.

It is not cruel to strike a child man with the stick; on the contrary, it is cruel not to do it. A child who has never been disciplined becomes, in most cases, unruly in his dealings with others. One who has never felt the pain of the rod of correction is often cruel, without any compassion toward others. He ends up in death, in the grave and in eternal pain. He dies prematurely due to a fatal lack of education. The use of the rod for correction could have saved his life from this and he could have lived a valuable and blessed life.

Proverbs 23:15-16

Wisdom Causes Gladness

These verses continue the topic of the previous two verses. The choice a child makes is just as important as the parents’ discipline. Discipline saves his life, but he must do something with his life. The father’s greatest concern is that he teach his son wisdom. The instruction with the use of the rod is part of that.

The father tells his son that his heart rejoices when the heart of his son is wise (Pro_23:15 ). He has done his best to instruct him in wisdom, while using the rod in necessary cases. Now it is the son’s turn to speak. What a joy it will be to the father’s heart when his son demonstrates a wise heart by making good choices. The son’s wise heart brings joy to the heart of his father. There is connectedness of heart. A son has a wise heart only when he lives in fellowship with God. The father emphasizes the joy of his father’s heart by saying “my own heart”.

In addition to the wise choices the son makes, the wisdom of his heart is also evident in speaking with his lips “what is right” (Pro_23:16 ). He will express himself appropriately on the issues at hand, making a substantial contribution to the realization of a plan or the solution of a problem. His words demonstrate wisdom and understanding of the complexities of life. That wisdom and understanding come not from below, but from above (Jas_3:13 Jas_3:17 ). It is wisdom that is “is vindicated by all her children” (Luk_7:35 ), that is, wisdom is evident in the lives of these children, from what they show and hear.

The father cannot conceal his joy when he hears his son speak like this. He expresses his deep joy at this by speaking of his “inmost being”, literally “kidneys”, that “will rejoice”. The kidneys, along with the heart, symbolically represent the deepest, innermost feelings (cf. Job_19:27 ; Psa_7:9 Psa_16:7 Psa_26:2 ; Jer_11:20 ). This is consistent with what the ancient apostle John says that he is “very glad”, that is, it is his deepest joy when he hears that his (spiritual) children are “walking in the truth” (2Jn_1:4 ; cf. 1Th_2:19-20 ).

What makes us happy as parents? Is it when we can show them off because of their nice diplomas, good position in society or even in the church? If they are healthy and talented? None of these are wrong things, but if that is our joy, we are one level too low. The only thing that should be important to parents is that their children have a living relationship with the Lord Jesus and live from that relationship. That gives a joy that never disappears.

Proverbs 23:17-18

The Fear of the LORD Gives Hope

These verses tell of a danger that threatens the young man that causes him to abandon wisdom, but they also tell of what enables him to hold on to it and what it brings him. When envy of sinners arises in his heart (Pro_23:17 ), wisdom is driven out. Wisdom remains in the heart only if it always is focused on “the fear of the LORD”.

There is no verb in the second line of verse – the word “live” is not there – so the thought of the first line of verse continues directly. The thought is that the first line of verse is warning the son not to envy sinners and the second line of verse is urging him to be envious of the fear of the LORD. It is the contrast is between wrong envy and right envy. The wrong envy is sin; the good envy is a spiritual exercise.

Envy sinners results from a comparison between what they have and what he can accomplish or afford (Psa_73:3-5 ). Such envy is opposed to trust and always stems from distrust of God. It is a lack of trust in God that He does not give you what you need. It involves doubting God and His love. That is why it is important to envy the fear of the LORD always. If you do that, if you focus on possessing that, you can joyfully accept your fate as something He gives you. You can then count on His blessing and rely on His promises and do that all day and all days.

The word “surely” with which Pro_23:18 begins gives the reason for the foregoing. For sinners there is no future. Therefore, it is folly to envy them. There is a future for those who envy the fear of the LORD and remain in it. Those who live in relationship with Him need not envy anyone. How the future is faced depends on fearing God. He is the One Who gives hope.

The Hebrew word for hope is tiqvah which literally means ‘cord’. This word is used for the cord that Rahab had to tie in the window (Jos_2:17-18 ). This cord was the symbol of the hope she had that she would be spared when Jericho was captured. Hope is what connects us to the eternity of God. Therefore, it cannot be cut off, ever, whereas the hope of sinners is cut off, because that hope is based on something outside of God and therefore, by definition, without foundation.

Proverbs 23:19

Again the Call to Listen

Once again the father emphatically addresses his son with the words “my son”. It is about you, my son, whom I love so much to see go a way that is to the glory of God. There is no end of becoming wise on earth. One who is wise will want to become wiser each time. One of the characteristics of someone who is wise is an awareness of the need to keep growing in wisdom. He who says he is perfect in wisdom is lying and is boundlessly haughty.

Listening underlies becoming wise. He who listens can become wise. Listening indicates the attitude of the disciple. The son is a disciple. The direction of the heart is inextricably related to this. The heart should not be directed in one’s own way, but “in the way” of the Lord or of wisdom. All the wisdom we gain is for the purpose of going the right way, the way of wisdom, which is no different from the way of the Lord. It is the way of life in which everything happens under His authority and to His glory.

Proverbs 23:20-21

Bad Company

The father insistently warns his son not to be in the company of drunkards and gluttons (Pro_23:20 ). These people know no measure. They represent a class of people characterized by a dramatic lack of self-control. They are spineless and characterless addicts. They are a company the son should avoid. If he befriends them, it will have a negative impact on his view of drunkenness and gluttony.

By the way, excessive drinking and eating are often symptoms of deeper problems. Alcohol is known to be primarily a ‘solvent’. It is used to temporarily reduce or forget soul distress and tension (cf. Pro_31:6-7 ). The same is true of too much food. Problems do not drive out to God, but to drink and food. Drunks and gluttons shut God out of their lives.

Pro_23:21 begins with the word “for”, meaning that now follows the motivation for the warning of the previous verse. The drunkard and glutton squander their money on their addiction. Their drinking and eating financially ruin them. They often put themselves deep in debt. They also drag their families along to the abyss. The intoxication in which they live continuously can be seen on them. They wear clothes “with rags” or “torn clothes” because every penny goes on drink or food and is not spent on repairing the clothes.

We can apply the ‘torn clothes’ spiritually as well. Drunks and gluttons live a life with “tears”. First, it is a life with tears in the sense of a double life. As long as they can keep the addiction hidden, they live two lives, a life with two faces. But their whole life tears into countless shreds when they can no longer keep their addiction hidden. This happens when they can no longer do their job properly and are fired or when creditors come forward because they are no longer meeting their financial obligations.

Proverbs 23:22-25

Honor and Rejoice Your Father and Mother

Soon after Pro_23:19 , the call for the son to listen is heard again in Pro_23:22 . Now it is added that he must listen to his father, the motivation being that he was the one who begot him. The son must listen to his father because he owes his natural life to him. This emphasizes not so much the biological relationship but a deeply human relationship. A father must realize the great privilege of having been allowed to beget a son and at the same time the tremendous responsibility (which is also a privilege) to teach his son the fear of the LORD as the beginning of wisdom.

It is one of the great tragedies of our time that more and more children have only a biological father. They have absolutely no human relationship with him, let alone a deeply human one, to say nothing at all about the task of teaching him the fear of God. It is downright shocking to hear that a father seeks contact via Facebook with his son whom he has not looked after for ten years because he ran off with another woman. After ten years, the son suddenly receives a request from his father via Facebook if he wants to become ‘his friend’. I leave it to the reader to think about the son’s reaction.

Solomon also has a word for his son about the mother. The son should not despise her “when she is old”. Not to despise means to have deep respect. Today children know much more intellectually than their parents. Often they also have more abilities. The intellectual knowledge of the parents lags far behind that of the children, and also their physical strengths decline. Diseases of old age may make their appearance, making the mother needy.

There is a great danger that the advice of an old mother will be despised by a child. It takes time to visit her. You already have so little time and the little free time you would like to spend for yourself. And if she then also gives her advice regarding what you are doing or want to do, you don’t want that at all. Such a child shows great ingratitude and insensitivity for the many years his mother has been there for him. She was always there for him.

The instruction not to despise the mother must still sound powerfully today. If the son is a wise son, he will continue to have deep respect for her among other things because of her commitment to him. Her care has allowed him to achieve what he is today. It is a reason to keep listening to his mother. Not that she continues to tell him what he should and should not do in the way she used to. It is about children continuing to listen to the experiences of life that she went through with God. Children still have to go through that. They do wise and honor her when they listen to her. She speaks through her words and through her whole life.

The first expression of honoring parents is to follow them in their holding to the truth. Therefore, in Pro_23:23 follows the instruction to buy the truth and not to sell it. He who is eager to have something, buys it and pays the price asked for it. He who sells something prefers the money to what he is selling. He who buys the truth and does not sell it pays the purchase price for it, no matter how high it is, and will not sell it again for any price, no matter how high the bid. It is not about a desire to buy the truth, but about actually purchasing it for the price it is worth.

Truth is not a particular doctrine, but consists of “wisdom and instruction and understanding”. These things are more valuable in life than any material prosperity and are necessary to make life on earth valuable. Their value is eternal and is connected to the knowledge of God in Christ. The ‘purchase price’ is the time we invest, the efforts we make and the resources we purchase to know more of the truth. Buying also means going to Christ and asking Him to give us wisdom, instruction and understanding by His Spirit (cf. Rev_3:18 ).

The appreciation for the truth that is evident from buying makes parents happy. Pro_23:24-25 describe the exuberant joy of parents whose son reveals himself to be righteous and wise. The father “will greatly rejoice” (Pro_23:24 ). It is again pointed out that he has “sired” him (Pro_23:22 ), emphasizing the profound involvement. It is the son who has come forth from him. He has sired him to make him a wise son.

In Pro_23:25 , the son is told to make sure that both his father and his mother are glad and rejoice. This will be so when they see that he longs to go his way with the Lord. The father begot, the mother gave birth. Together they have raised the son. When they see that their upbringing has the effect they ardently desired, they have a deep joy (cf. 2Jn_1:4 ; 3Jn_1:4 ). Children must be made aware of the fact that by living a Godly life they will be a joy to their parents.

Proverbs 23:26-28

Two Ways

Solomon asks his son to give him his heart. By this he means that his son gives full attention to the teaching he gives him. In doing so, the father also points out his own ways, his actions and his walk, thus giving his son an example worth following (cf. 1Co_4:16 1Co_11:1 ; Php_3:17 ; 1Th_1:6 ). He now appeals not to his ears to listen, but to his eyes to look. Let him keep the ways of his father before his eyes. Nor should he just look at them, but look at them with “delight” as something attractive.

In Pro_23:26 , the father has turned insistently to his son, urging him to keep his ways before his eyes, to imitate him in them, and to take delight in them. In Pro_23:27 comes the reason, which is indicated by the word “for”. His urgent call is related to the sexual dangers that threaten the son. If he gives his heart to his father and keeps the ways of his father in mind, his heart will not go out to “a harlot” or “an adulterous woman”, i.e. a strange woman, and he will not set his eyes on her.

The father warns him about two kinds of women. The “harlot” is the prostitute, the woman who offers herself to commit sexual impurity with her. For payment, of course. The “adulterous woman” or “strange woman” is the married woman who wants something different. Today, both types of women also offer themselves through the Internet and commercials.

The father calls the harlot “a deep pit” and the adulterous woman “a narrow well”. If the son engages with the one, he will sink deep, and if he engages with the other, he will fall into utter distress. He will not be able to free himself from either the pit or the well. The pit and the well are a vestibule of hell. Only through Divine intervention in grace and power will it be possible to free himself from the pit and the well.

Pro_23:28 emphasizes that the son is dealing with a danger that is not merely latent, but is actually at work. As mentioned, the woman offers herself. For this “she lurks like a robber”. The word “surely” that precedes it gives extra force to his remark. Surely, that is how it is, and not otherwise. In Proverbs 7, the father described in detail the ways of the harlot and the consequences of her depravity (it is good to read that chapter again). Here he repeats that in brief.

Every man she persuades to commit harlotry with her “increases the faithless among men”. It means that her victims demonstrate faithlessness to God’s institution of marriage and are also faithless to their own marriage relationship. She also leads people to all kinds of other forms of faithlessness, such as lying, stealing, killing someone, committing suicide.

Proverbs 23:29-35

The Disastrous Consequences of Drunkenness

Immediately following the warning about harlotry in Pro_23:26-28 is a warning about drunkenness in Pro_23:29-35 . This subject has already been briefly addressed by the wise in Pro_23:20-21 . Drunkenness is closely related to harlotry (Rev_17:2 ) and also easily leads to harlotry (Pro_23:33 ). Vividly and imaginatively, the wise man paints the picture of someone who is drunk.

He begins in Pro_23:29 with six questions, to which he gives the answer in Pro_23:30 . In Pro_23:31 he has some advice, while in Pro_23:32 he shows the consequences if his advice is not followed. In Pro_23:33-34 , he addresses his son directly. He concludes his description in Pro_23:35 with words that come from the mouth of the drunkard himself.

The drunkard is one who cries “woe” and “sorrow” because he is miserable (Pro_23:29 ). These cries can also refer to what he causes others, such as his family, by his drunkenness. The drink turns him into someone who seeks contention, a troublemaker. When he awakens from his intoxication, there is “complaining”, because he is miserable. The “wounds” he has, he has received during his drunkenness, either from a fight or from stumbling or bumping into something over and over again in his waddling gait. They are “wounds without cause”, because he would not have suffered those wounds had he not been drunk. Because of his drunkenness, he can no longer see clearly, for his eyes are bloodshot, making his vision blurry and double.

The answer in Pro_23:30 to the six questions of Pro_23:29 is as brief as it is telling. Drunkards are described here as people “who linger long over wine” and “who go to taste mixed wine”. They do not drink a little glass with their food, but wine fills their existence. They continue drinking into the early hours. This includes tasting mixed drinks. This increases the drinking pleasure.

Drunks know no time and no responsibility. They are people without a spine. The fact that they have to be at work on time the next day does not concern them. They don’t think about how things are at home. They are in a daze and unable to think about responsibilities.

The father advises his son not to look at the wine “when it is red” (Pro_23:31 ), that is, when the wine has a special attractiveness. This may be when you are going through an unpleasant period, or have to deal with a major disappointment. There may then be a special temptation from wine to drink from it. Therefore, the urgent advice is not to look at it. If you do, you will see how attractive it is. Your resistance to it will melt like snow in the sun. You will put the cup of wine to your mouth and experience how smoothly it goes down.

But you must remember that the brief pleasure ends with the bite of a serpent and the sting of a viper (Pro_23:32 ). You will “at last” be destroyed by it. No one indulges in wine when he thinks for a moment about what the end is. His fellow drinkers don’t tell him that. They offer him the first glass of wine. If he doesn’t take it, they laugh at him. Therefore, he takes the glass and drinks it. Indeed, it drinks easily and it tastes exquisite. It ends up demolishing his entire human dignity.

In Pro_23:33-34 , the father addresses his son directly. He should be aware that drunkenness makes boundaries blur and easily leads him to harlotry and debauched talk (Pro_23:33 ). His clouded brain no longer has the awareness that he is married. His eyes become eyes that see strange things or strange women, his eyes are full of adultery, and because he no longer has a sense of standards, he comes to the disgusting act of adultery. The language he utters is of the same perverse, disgusting content. Uninhibitedly, the most disgusting things come out of his mind.

The drunken son will be utterly insensitive to what happens to him (Pro_23:34 ). A drunkard does not know what he is doing, where he is and where he is going. He may find himself in the heart of the sea, in a heavy storm, but totally unaware that he could just drown. He is like a sleeper to whom nothing penetrates. Or he may find himself in the top of a mast, where he is swinging back and forth and can make a deadly fall, unaware of this danger. Again, he is like a sleeper to whom nothing penetrates. He saunters down the street and wallows in his own vomit without the slightest awareness of it (
Isa_28:7-8 ; cf. Psa_107:26-27 ).

The drunkard knows he has been beaten, but he does not know by whom (Pro_23:35 ). It has not made him sick or bound him to his bed. They even struck him with hard blows, but he felt nothing. How wonderful it is to be drunk! Anything can happen to you, but it doesn’t bother you at all. This life he wants to continue. He is incorrigible, he just wants to remain drunk and therefore numb to misery. Therefore, when he wakes up, he will again reach for his great comforter, the bottle (Isa_56:12 Isa_5:11 ). What a tragedy!

Proverbs 23:1-3
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_23:1. When thou sittest, etc. Miller here translates “Forasmuch as thou sittest,” and applying the word ruler to God gives to the proverb a meaning entirely different from that generally attached to it. See his remarks in the Suggestive Comments. What is before thee? Rather “Who is before,” etc.
Pro_23:2. Put a knife, etc. Zöckler, Ewald, and others translate “Thou hast put,” or “thou puttest.” The meaning may then be “Thou hast virtually destroyed thyself if thou art a self-indulgent man.” Delitzsch, however, gives the verb the imperative form, as in the English version.
Pro_23:3. Deceitful meat. Literally “Bread of lies.” Many commentators understand this to mean a deceptive meal, which is not given from motives of hospitality.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH Pro_23:1-3
THE TEMPTATIONS OF THE TABLE
I. The table of a wealthy man is a place of temptation to the sin of overindulgence. At such a table there is a great variety of dishes, and the human appetite, in common with every bodily sense and mental faculty, delights in variety. The eye is best pleased with a diversified landscape, the ear with a diversity of sound, and the mind when it can vary the objects of its contemplation. So man’s appetite is most gratified by a variety of food, and there is much more temptation to excess under such circumstances than when his hunger has to be satisfied from a single dish. Then, again, the food at such a repast is generally of the most tempting kind—all the countries of the world are put under contribution to supply it with dainties, and much skill and time is expended upon the preparation of the food. There is little danger of eating too much when bread is the only fare, but it begins and increases in proportion to the palatable nature of the viands. And the proverb seems to be addressed to those to whom a seat at the rich man’s or ruler’s table was not an every-day occurrence—to those to whom it was not given to feast so sumptuously every day—and this would increase the force of the temptation. The variety and the rarity of the dishes is much more tempting to one unaccustomed to such feasts.
II. It is most degrading and injurious to yield to such a temptation. This is implied in the strong metaphor which Solomon uses. An undue indulgence in the pleasures of the table, even when it does not amount to positive gluttony, is a most fruitful source of disease, and for this cause, if for no other, dainty food well deserves the name which is here given to it. But it is also most injurious to man’s better nature; it is often the first step to habits of intemperance and licentiousness, but if it does not lead to them it is altogether incompatible with intellectual and moral excellence. A man who is not master of his appetite is below the brute and can be neither great nor good. It is well to remember that an appeal to the appetite was one of the elements in the first temptation. An Eastern fable runs thus: “A king once permitted the devil to kiss him on either shoulder. Immediately two serpents grew from his shoulders, which, furious with hunger, attacked his head and attempted to get at his brain. The king tore them away. But he soon saw with horror that they had become part of himself, and that, in wounding them he was lacerating his own flesh.” Such is the deplorable condition of every victim of appetite and lust.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
First, thy duty is to be temperate as to the quantity of thy diet.… God gave man food to further, not to hinder him in his general and particular calling, and surely they sin who feed till, like fatted horses, they are unfit for service.… Christians may cheer nature, but they must not clog it. It is a great privilege in the charter granted us by the King of Kings, that we should have dominion over the creatures; but it will be a sordid bondage if we suffer them to have dominion over us. Socrates was wont to say, that evil men live that they may eat and drink, but good men eat and drink that they may live.… Secondly, thy duty is to be temperate as to the quality of thy diet. Though no certain quality of food can be set down, yet in general this must be observed, that we make not provision for the flesh. (Rom_13:12.) We may preserve the flesh, but we must not provide for the flesh. Our enemy is strong enough already, we need not put more weapons into his hands.… The Christian may take his food, but his food must not take him.… It is not unlawful to eat dainties, but it is unlawful to set the mind upon them.… We may eat and digest dainties, but we may not crave and desire dainties. God made man not for fleshly dainties, but for spiritual delights.… Elijah could be content with a raven for his cook. Daniel fed and thrived upon pulse: he looked fairer by it than those that did eat the king’s fare. Brown bread and the gospel are good cheer, said the martyr. John the Baptist could live upon locusts and wild honey. The apostles had some ears of corn for a Sabbath-day’s dinner. Though God is pleased out of mercy to afford us better provision, yet our work must be to mind moderation.—Swinnock.
It is of the Lord that hunger is painful and food gives pleasure; between these two lines of defence the Creator has placed life with a view to its preservation. The due sustenance of the body is the Creator’s end; the pleasantness of food is the means of obtaining it. When men prosecute and cultivate that pleasure as an end, they thwart the very purposes of Providence.—Arnot.
(It will be seen that the following comment is based on Miller’s rendering. See CRITICAL NOTES.) Kings like to see their guests eat. At the very utmost, this part of our behaviour is a matter of indifference. But of God nothing could be more exact. We are all eating with Him; in fact, feeding upon Him; as though He were Himself bread. “Forasmuch,” therefore, is just in place. “Discerning well who is before thee,” that also, is perfectly consistent. And then our sin, what is that? Why, fleshly appetite! What is innocent at courts is idolatry in the banquet to the skies.… Serving the creature more than the Creator, Paul expresses it; and gives us ample analogy after a New Testament kind (Rom_1:25, see also Jas_4:3), for understanding how we have put a knife to our throat, if we be men given to appetite.—Miller.

Proverbs 23:4-5
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_23:5. Wilt thou set thine eyes? etc. Rather “Wilt thou look eagerly after it, and it is gone?”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_23:4-5
THE DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES
In order to get the true meaning of this proverb it is necessary to define what Solomon understands by labouring to be rich. We call the possessor of vast estates or a large account at the bank a rich man, and so he is, if he lives within his income, paying his way and having a surplus to bestow upon the needy. But so is the village smith, who with less than a hundredth part of the income of the nobleman or merchant prince “looks the whole world in the face and owes not any man.” Riches and poverty are but relative terms, and when we consider how indispensable it is that some men should possess more than a mere sufficiency for their personal needs, we may be sure that the wise man did not mean to discourage all effort to gain even more than enough for our daily needs. But the labour which is here forbidden is evidently that all-absorbing pursuit of wealth which engrosses the entire man to the exclusion of higher claims. When men make gold their god instead of their servant it is obvious that the boundary line of lawful pursuit is passed, and that deprecated in the proverb is entered upon. The text—
I. Condemns all following after wealth under the inspiration of the natural heart. Man’s “own wisdom” is an insufficient and dangerous guide in this matter as in all others. The unrenewed heart of man is selfish and sordid, prone to think only of its own desires and to set up a false standard of happiness. Only the wisdom that cometh from above can show men what is worth striving after, what will really bless the present and afford satisfaction in the future. If a man buys and sells and gets gain with a constant reference to the will of God, and in dependence upon Him, he will not labour to be rich—in other words, he will, with Paul, learn in whatsoever state he is to be content, and will know how to fulfil the duties which come with abundance and how to exhibit the graces which can only be manifested in poverty.
II. Teaches that only those who do not trust in riches can really enjoy their possession, or escape bitter sorrow in their loss. Every rich man knows that it is possible that his wealth may leave him, and that it is certain that he must leave his wealth. The uncertainty of retaining them through life, and the certainty of losing them at death, are two thorns which must be found in the pillow of everyone who makes riches the chief good of his existence, and must surely deprive him of any heartfelt satisfaction from their possession. The soul of man is made for something higher and more lasting than any earthly good, and of all that men call good, and esteem precious, there is nothing which has less to satisfy the cravings of the soul than mere material wealth, or that is more easily and quickly lost. The only way, therefore, to get any present satisfaction in it, and to ensure oneself against future disappointment from it, is to follow the Apostolic injunction, and “trust not in uncertain riches, but in the living God.” (1Ti_6:17.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Not like a tame bird, that returns; nor like a hawk, that will show where she is by her bells; but like an eagle, whose wings thou canst neither clip nor pinion. All their certainty is in their uncertainty, and they are only stable in this, that they cannot be stable.… Wealth is like a bird; it hops all day from man to man, as that doth from tree to tree; and none can say where it will roost or rest at night. It is like a vagrant fellow, which, because he is big-boned, and able to work, a man taketh in a-doors, and cherisheth; and perhaps for a while he takes pains; but when he spies opportunity the fugitive servant is gone, and takes away more with him than all his service came to.—
T. Adams.
What a startling interdict this! What an immense proportion of the world’s toil, and especially in such a community as our own, does it bring under condemnation and proscription! Were all the labour directed to this forbidden end to cease,—How little would be left!—what a sudden stagnation would there be of the turmoil of busy activity with which we are daily surrounded! What are the great majority of men about,—in our city and in our country? What keeps them all astir? What is the prevailing impulse of all the incessant bustle and eager competition of our teeming population? Are not all,—with a wider or a narrower estimate of what riches mean,—“labouring to be rich?”—The love of fame has been called the universal passion. Is not the love of money quite as much, if not more, entitled to the designation? Yes; and many a time does the wisdom of the world set itself to the defence of the world’s toil and the world’s aim—alleging many plausible, and some more than plausible, things in its pleadings. “Riches,” say they, “keep a man and his family from dependence. Riches enable a man to enjoy many comforts that are in themselves lawful and desirable. Riches procure a man distinction and influence in society. By this and other means, riches put it in a man’s power to do good:—why should we not ‘labour to be rich?’ ” It is all true; and the plea is in part quite legitimate. Yet Solomon, by the Spirit, with the authority, and in the kindness of God, enjoins—“labour not to be rich.”—Wardlaw.
It were a most strange folly to fall passionately in love with a bird upon the wing.… How much better were it, since riches will fly, for thyself to direct their flight towards heaven, by relieving the necessitous servants and members of Jesus Christ.—Bishop Hopkins.

Proverbs 23:6-8
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_23:6. Him that hath an evil eye—i.e., the jealous man.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Pro_23:6-8
FEIGNED GENEROSITY
I. Men’s inward life and feelings are often directly opposed to their outward life and actions. A man is here pictured as manifesting a large hospitality. His board is laden with dainty meats and surrounded with guests whom he presses to eat and drink with such an appearance of goodwill that it seems ungenerous to suspect him of insincerity. But words and even deeds do not always proclaim the man. “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he;” and this man’s thoughts give the lie to his actions. He gives of his good things from no desire to cheer and relieve those who are poorer than himself, or to cement the bonds of friendship with his equals, but from some unworthy, and, it may be, from some base motive. He puts on for the time the garment of benevolence, but he is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” and will not hesitate to throw off his disguise, if the selfish ends which he has in view demand it. It is painful for us to be obliged to admit the truthfulness of the portrait here sketched by the Wise Man, but we know that it is not an exaggerated one.
II. Those who encourage such hypocrisy will meet with a well-deserved punishment. It is taken for granted, and it is undoubtedly true, that there is a false gloss upon such feigned generosity which makes it easy to distinguish from the real thing. And, if we accept the hospitality of such a man knowing it to be a deception, we too practise hypocrisy, and thus become a partaker of his evil deeds. Such a man is guilty of two heinous sins, he is first a covetous and self-seeking sinner and then he is a gross hypocrite. The covetous man is according to the Inspired Book an idolator (Col_3:5), and our Lord when on earth could endure without anger all contradiction of sinners against Himself (Heb_12:3) except hypocrisy. This always set His holy nature on fire with indignation and called forth the only Woes that ever passed His lips. It was forbidden to the apostolic churches to sit at the table of any man who, “calling himself a brother,” was yet covetous or an idolator” (1Co_5:11). For such a man was under a far deeper condemnation than one who openly manifested his real character, seeing that he added to his other sins that of professing to be what he was not, and to eat with such a man was not only to countenance his covetousness and idolatry but to share his hypocrisy. The Old Testament preacher here issues the same prohibition and obviously for the same reasons, and if men disregard them they fully deserve the negative and the positive punishment with which they are here threatened. All the friendly words which they utter to save appearances and to further selfish interests, and which convict them in their turn of hypocrisy, will be “lost,” and bitter regret and self-condemnation will be their final portion.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The injunction, or dissuasion, I need not surely say, is by no means intended to give any licence or encouragement to a spirit of pride or disdain. No. It is only a salutary warning to be cautious of bringing yourselves under obligation to any selfish and hypocritical dissembler of kindness, who only wishes to lay you under such obligation to serve purposes of his own. The man who has thus entertained you will boast of his hospitality; tell others of it, making the most of it for his own behoof; set it down against you, debiting you on account of it with certain expected good turns at your hand, when he comes to need them. He will throw it up to you, should you not do all he looks for; or rail at you to others for ingratitude and meanness in forgetting his kindness. He will remind you of it again and again, with vexatious importunity,—teazing you for your favour and influence in some object he has in view for himself or his family. It is amazing what an amount of expectation a man of this sordid and selfish disposition will found upon a dinner! Your having sat at his table, eaten of his dainties, and drunk of his wines, is price enough even for your conscience itself. Beware of him. Keep yourself free.—Wardlaw.

Proverbs 23:9
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_23:9
THE MORALLY INCURABLE
I. A man may become morally incurable by human instructors. There are cases of bodily disease which it would be quite useless for the most skilful physician to attempt to cure; such an attempt would only be a throwing away of time and energy on his part which might be usefully employed upon another patient. And so there is at least one form of moral disease which is beyond the reach of human effort. It is that of the man who scoffs at everything, and upon whom, therefore, the most affectionate entreaties and the most solemn warnings are thrown away.
II. To offer to such an incurable fool the wisdom of God is to break a Divine commandment. The Redeemer Himself, under the Gospel dispensation, issued such a prohibition. Even among the beneficent utterances of the Sermon on the Mount comes the command, “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” (Mat_7:6.) Although Christ and His disciples were sent forth to proclaim the Gospel message among men who, on account of their bitter animosity to Him and to His teachings were compared to “wolves” (Luk_10:3.), there were others in a far more hopeless condition before whom they were forbidden to place the great truths of the kingdom of God, and they were such characters as the fool of this proverb, who would have “despised the wisdom of their words.” The deep import of the words of Solomon are fully seen when we consider the even more startling utterance of Him who loved and died for all men.
III. There is Divine compassion for the sinner in this commandment. To offer to such a man what he would scoff at, would be to give him an occasion of increasing his own guilt by a new refusal of Divine truth. Mercy, therefore, is mingled with the stern judgment of the prohibition.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
We often speak of retribution as if it always lay beyond the grave, and the day of grace as extending through the whole life of man; but such is not the fact. Retribution begins with many men here. The day of grace terminates with many men before the day of death. There are those who reach an unconvertible state, their characters are stereotyped and fixed as eternity. The things that belong to their peace are hid from their eyes. They are incorrigible. Such is the character referred to in the text.—Dr. David Thomas.
Those that are reproved by ministers, and Christian friends may learn from this verse that they have no reason to take it amiss, or to think that they are treated with contempt. They are considered as offenders, but at the same time as offending brethren, who are not incurably perverse. They would be treated in a very different way, and might reckon themselves with more justice to be considered in the light of scorners, and dogs, and swine if there were no means used to recover them to repentance.—Lawson.

Proverbs 23:10-11
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_23:11. Their Redeemer. Their Goel, or Avenger. In the Hebrew law this word is applied to the nearest kinsman. (See Rth_3:12.)
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_23:10-11
THE RIGHTS OF PRIVATE PROPERTY
I. In the community formed under Divine direction there was a possession of personal and private property. When the land of Canaan was first divided among the tribes, it is evident that each family had its respective allotment, the boundaries of which were clearly defined. (See Deu_19:14, etc.) Each head of a family became, therefore, a possessor of property, to which no other person, not even the king in the days of the monarchy, had any right. (See 1Ki_21:1-3.) This kingdom, therefore, formed under direct Divine supervision, was not governed on communistic principles; each man had his own inheritance, which became more or less valuable according to the industry and skill expended upon it. Social inequalities must have resulted from this arrangement, which were prevented from becoming too great by the arrangements connected with the year of jubilee, but which within certain limits were evidently not regarded by God as opposed to the welfare of His chosen people. We may infer, then, that the idea that it would be better for mankind if all things were possessed in common—if no man had anything which he could call his own—is not a Divine idea, and is a mistaken one.
II. Those who are too helpless to protect their own rights are especially under the protection of God. The depravity of human nature is seen in the almost universal tendency displayed by the strong to forget the claims of the weak; but when this tendency is carried to the length of wronging the widow and the fatherless, it seems as if a man had sunk to the lowest depths of moral degradation. Yet there were such specimens of fallen humanity in the commonwealth established and governed by God Himself, as there are in nominally Christian England. But, from the earliest days of Jewish history, God declared Himself to be the Guardian of the widow and the fatherless, and the field which was their inheritance might have been well called God’s Acre, from which all intruders were warned off by Divine command and threatening. This is a truth which it may be well for all those to lay to heart who hold property in trust for such dependent ones, or who have any other responsibility in relation to them. It is surely a comforting thought for the fatherless themselves that the place of the earthly parent is taken by One whose power as much exceeds all human power as His love goes beyond all human love.
ILLUSTRATION
The state of Palestine with regard to enclosures is very much the same now as it has always been. Though gardens and vineyards are surrounded by dry stone walls or hedges of prickly pear, the boundaries of arable fields are marked by nothing but a little trench, a small cairn, or a single erect stone placed at certain intervals. It is manifest that a dishonest person could easily fill the gutter with earth, or remove these stones a few feet without much risk of detection and thus enlarge his own field by a stealthy encroachment on his neighbour’s.—Dr. Jamieson.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The words in the first clause of the verse have been sometimes applied in a very different department—even to the danger and the criminality of intermeddling with old and long established articles of doctrine in religion, and principles and statutes of civil polity.… It is clear, however, that there can be no period of prescription for truth,—or rather for falsehood,—no length of time, that is, by which error that has passed for truth can become anything else than error. No time can transmute wrong into right. Changes, no doubt, should be made with caution. The longer anything has been received as a truth, the improbability of its being found an error becomes ever the greater. But if any dogma in any human system of Christian doctrine is proved, from a full and careful investigation of the word of God, to have been set down and held as a truth by mistake,—it would be a most strange and mischievous attachment to antiquity for its own sake, that would resist its being expunged and the truth discovered substituted in its room. Never must we forget, that the most ancient landmarks of truth and duty are those which have been fixed here—in the Bible—by the hands of prophets, apostles, and evangelists, under the immediate direction of the “Spirit of the Lord.” There are none so old as these. From the Bible human standards have been formed. Their landmarks profess to be in agreement, in the bounding lines of truth and error marked out by them, with those which are set down there. But when, on a careful survey, any of them are found to have been misplaced, and to bring any part of the region of error within the boundary of the territory of truth,—their removal becomes a duty of imperative obligation.—Wardlaw.
The word for redeemer signifies the man who was “next of kin,” the kinsman on whom, by the law of Moses, it was incumbent as a matter of duty, and with whom too it was a matter of interest, to look after the concerns of his poor relations; with whom lay indeed the avenging of their blood, if in any case their life should, in cruel selfishness, be taken away. It was on the principle of that statute that Boaz called upon the next of kin to come forward and redeem the inheritance of Elimelech at the hand of Naomi, and that, upon his hearing the conditions and declining, he did it himself. Now he who happened to be the redeeming kinsman might himself be poor, and powerless, and without either means or influence. But they should not, on that account, be unprotected and unbefriended. Jehovah himself would take the place of their kinsman—would “plead their cause,” would maintain their rights, would redress their wrongs, would bring His power to bear against their oppressors. He would fulfil for them the part of their near relation: and he is “mighty.” Hear his words:—“Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.” (Exo_22:22-24.) These, you may think, are Old Testament threatenings, belonging to a judicial law that has passed away; or, more properly, they belong to the special theocracy, being strictly no part of the judicial law, inasmuch as they do not prescribe any punishment to be inflicted by the hand of man, but announce what Jehovah himself would, by his own interposition, execute. Be it so. But think you that the character of God has changed? Such assurances and threatenings are not mere warnings of punishment; they are expressions of character.—Wardlaw.
Adored be the unsearchable pity, grace, and condescension of Emmanuel! When He could not redeem as God, He became our kinsman, that He might be our Redeemer! (Heb_2:14-16.)—Bridges.

Proverbs 23:12-28
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_23:17. Let not thine heart envy, etc. The verb translated envy refers to both objects in the verse, and is better translated “strive after.” Miller renders it “be aglow.” “It is,” he says, “a verb expressive of all emotion.” (See Num_25:11-13.)
Pro_23:18. Surely there is an end. Delitzsch here reads, “Truly there is a future.” “The root of the Hebrew,” says Miller, signifies afterward.
Pro_23:20. Eaters of flesh. This may be translated “Devourers of their own flesh”—i.e., those who destroy their bodies by sensual indulgence.
Pro_23:23. The word also should be omitted in this verse. The three nouns in the second clause stand in apposition to the one in the first. Instruction, rather “discipline”
Pro_23:25. This verse should be, “Let thy father and thy mother be glad, and her that bare thee rejoice.
Pro_23:26. Observe, rather delight.
Pro_23:28. As for a prey, Delitzsch and Zöckler here translate “like a robber.” Transgressors, rather “the faithless.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Pro_23:12-28
PARENTAL DUTIES AND PARENTAL JOYS
This paragraph contains no subject upon which Solomon has not dwelt before, but their repetition shows the great importance which he attached to them.
I. He repeats the truth that corporeal punishment is a necessary and salutary element of parental training. (See Homiletics on chap. Pro_13:24, page 234, and on chap. Pro_19:18, page 573.)
II. He shows by example that appeals are also to be made to the higher and better nature of the child. Although the rod is to have its place, it is not to be the only force employed—a child is a reasoning and loving creature, and that training will miserably fail which does not take this fact into account. And in proportion as the child grows in years will the rod become less needful and effectual, and wise warning and loving entreaty will take its place. He is here besought to “give his heart to wisdom” and to live “in the fear of Jehovah”—1. Because of the exceeding joy that he will bring to his parents. (See Pro_23:15; Pro_23:24-25.) This is a thought that cannot fail to have weight with any son or daughter of good parents who is capable of grateful emotion. The consideration of the tender love and the unwearying patience that have surrounded them from their birth, and of the power that now lies in their hand to requite that long ministry of tenderness and long suffering, ought to be a powerful motive to dissuade from the evil path and to allure into the good way. And it has been and ever will be, for many a child of godly parents has been kept in the hour of temptation by the remembrance of his father or his mother, even when he has not thought upon his God. (See also Homiletics on chap. Pro_10:1, page 137.) 2. Because of the temporal ruin of an opposite course. (See Pro_23:21; Pro_23:27-28.) All these subjects have been considered before. (See Homiletics on chap. Pro_21:17, page 609, and on chap. Pro_6:6-11, page 79, and on chap. Pro_6:24, page 89.) 3. Because of the rewards and punishments of the life to come. (See Pro_23:18.) This verse (see CRITICAL NOTES) undoubtedly refers to the day of death and to the life beyond it, as do also chaps. Pro_11:7, and Pro_14:32. (See Homiletics on pages 201 and 391.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_23:13. The command is framed upon the supposition that parents often fail on the side of tenderness; the word is given to nerve them for a difficult duty. There is no ambiguity in the precept; both the need of correction, and the tremendous issues that depend on it, are expressed with thrilling precision of language.—Arnot.
Pro_23:15-16. Now the proverb personates the father, and, instead of a roundabout speech, utters the temper that should inspire the beating. There will be no good unless the father shows the son that it will be his highest joy, if the son learns wisdom. If thou be really “wise.” That is the caution of the first clause. If it be no sham thing, but an affair of the “heart;” then “my heart shall rejoice,” down in the same depths. And then, as men are great actors, and may look virtue as they whip a child, when they do not feel it much, Solomon protests that it must be real. Each part of this sentence must be meant. Not,—Thou must be a good citizen, or a clever worker, or a moral actor, or a good gratifying son; but the boy must see, (and he surely will see it, if it is felt), that the yearning is that he become
wise in heart, i.e., a good earnest Christian, and then on the other hand, that down in the same depths, not with outward expressions of pleasure, but in your very heart—not in your made-up heart, which you keep to show to others, but in your very self—the proverb echoes your feeling, “My heart shall rejoice, even mine.” The reduplication intensifies the sense. And then, unwilling to shake loose from the thought, he pushes it further. “Yea my reins shall rejoice.” That deepest, firmest, lastingest receptacle of joy, the patient reins shall rejoice or “exult”—the very highest feeling coming from the deepest depths. “When thy lips,” which are the best expounders of the heart, “speak right things.” The doctrine therefore is that a man will save his child if he disciplines him with these witnessed tokens of his manifest affection.—Miller.
Pro_23:17. This habitual fear of the Lord is nothing separate from common life. It gives to it a holy character. It makes all its minute details not only consistent with, but component parts of, godliness. Acts of kindliness are “done after a godly sort.” (Joh_3:5-6.) Instead of one duty thrusting out another, all are “done heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto man.” (Eph_6:6. Col_3:23.) Some professors confine their religion to extraordinary occasions. But Elijah seems to have been content to await his translation in his ordinary course of work. (2Ki_2:1-12.) An example that may teach us to lay the greater stress upon the daily and habitual, not the extraordinary, service. Others are satisfied with a periodical religion; as if it was rather a rapture or an occasional impulse, than a habit. But if we are to engage in morning and evening devotions, we are also to “wait upon the Lord all the day.” (Psa_25:5.) If we are to enjoy our Sabbath privileges, we are also to “abide in our weekly calling with God.” Thus the character of a servant of God is maintained—“devoted to His fear.” (Psa_119:38.)—Bridges.
Pro_23:18. “Cut off,” as the worldling’s is.” The worldling expects to be cut off. He toils with a hope, and that so vivid that he becomes aglow (see Miller’s rendering, in Pro_23:17) in worldly earnestness of purpose; and yet, ab imo, he knows that it will be cut off.… How can any intellect stand against such appeals? Work for something that will pay, for … there is something that shall never be “cut off.”—Miller.
Pro_23:19. The hinging pivot of this verse is the pronoun thou. Friends may do ever so much, but in the end it must be thyself. There is an eternal “way.” It is a way not for the feet but for the heart. The heart has some day to rise up and enter it. Once in, it will never wander any more out. My son, take that critical step. A man has a certain amount of strength, a certain amount of susceptibility let us call it, in matters of conversion.… Now the father, in his more immediate entreaties to his child, is to remember this.—Miller.
Pro_23:20. A man grows old by the common use of his faculties; but if he pleases he can travel faster. He can make drafts upon his flesh with wine, and burn faster.… A man can seek death by the most moral impenitence. But he can also travel faster. He can do it by drunkenness. He can do it by trains of trespasses, of which common drunkenness may stand as chief.—Miller.
We are forbidden not only to be drunkards or gluttons, but to be found in the company of such persons; for bad company is the common temptation which the devil uses to draw men to these sins. Those who have been long inured to a temperate course of life must not think that they are at liberty to infringe this precept, and to mingle themselves with the sons of riot, because they are strong enough in their own eye to overcome all the temptations of sensuality. Christ charges His own disciples, who had been practised in every virtue under his own eye, and who had less temptations to this vice than any other men, to take heed to themselves that their hearts might not be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness.—Lawson.
Pro_23:23. Solomon bids us buy the truth, but does not tell us what it must cost, because we must get it though it be ever so dear. We must love it both shining and scorching. Every parcel of truth is precious as filings of gold; we must either live with it or die for it.… A man may lawfully sell his house, land, or jewels, but truth is a jewel that excels all prices, and must not be sold; it is our heritage: “Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever” (Psa_119:111). It is a legacy that our forefathers have bought with their bloods, which should make us willing to lay down anything or lay out anything to purchase it.—Brooks.
A merchant buys for the very purpose of selling; and he will not buy unless he has a pretty good assurance that he will sell at a profit; that he can get for his article more than he has given. The case here, then, is quite peculiar. It is all buying. The article is one which is to be bought but never sold. And why? For the best possible reason, that it can never be sold at a profit, there is nothing too valuable to be given for it, there is nothing valuable enough to be taken for it.… 1. The buyer tests his article. He uses means to ascertain its genuineness.… The cautious purchaser makes sure of his bargain, and all the surer, the higher the price.… Now, all that is presented to us as truth must be thus tested. In physical science scientific men will not take upon trust what professes to be a new discovery without examining thoroughly the experiments by which it is said to have been ascertained.… Thus, too, does the metaphysician in regard to every new theory in mental science; and the moral philosopher in the department of ethics.… Now, we are as far as possible from wishing it to be otherwise in the department of religion. In proportion to the importance of the case,—to the height of the authority on which the claims to acceptance are rested,—the magnitude at once of the benefits promised, and of the risks incurred,—ought to be the solicitude and care with which the testing process is conducted. This then is the last department of all, in which what professes to be truth should be taken upon trust; in which inquiry should be careless, and faith easy. The obligation to examine is imperative and solemn; and marvellous, indeed, is the indisposition of men to enter on the investigation. Men who, with the utmost earnestness and perseverance, will test every alleged truth in science, in history, or in politics, cannot be persuaded to apply their powers to an inquiry more important, by infinite degrees, than any other that can engage the attention of the human mind! They either decline it altogether, or they set about it with a levity and a superficiality utterly at variance with what such a question demands, and from which no just appreciation or correct conclusion can be anticipated. 2. It is not enough for the buyer to ascertain the genuineness of his article. He sets about estimating its real worth; its worth intrinsically, and its worth adventitiously; its worth in itself, and its worth to him. The two may be widely different. The diamond is of incomparably more intrinsic worth than the grain of barley; but the cock in the fable spurned away the former and picked up the latter. In the present case,—having once ascertained the divine authority of the record,—there can be no hesitation about either the intrinsic or the relative value of what it makes known. All truth is precious; but its preciousness is, of course, endlessly varied in degree. Two things may be considered as combining to constitute its value. These are—its subject, and its utility. In natural science some truths present a union of both. The discoveries of astronomy for example, are, many of them, full of intrinsic interest from their vastness and sublimity, and the impressions they give of the transcendent majesty of God; while, in some of their practical bearings, they are of pre-eminent advantage to men. But in a peculiar sense may this be affirmed of the discoveries of divine revelation. These discoveries present views of God’s moral government, in its great essential principles and in their practical application, such as have in them a weight of moral grandeur, and a consequent depth of absorbing interest surpassing all that nature can disclose. And, while they possess intrinsic preciousness above all other truths,—think of their value when estimated by the blessings which are unfolded in them, and to which the faith of them introduces the believer, in time and in eternity! The purchaser values the article he is about to purchase, by the amount of benefit the possession of it will bring him. In like manner must you estimate the value of “the truth” you are here counselled to buy. The value of it, in this view, is summed up by our Lord himself, when he says, “THIS IS LIFE ETERNAL.” What then, the real worth to you, of any other compared with this? 3. The buyer, when he has estimated the value of his article, makes proportional sacrifices to obtain possession of it. Foolish estimates there may be; and these foolish estimates may be the occasion of foolish bargains; and these may be the grounds of regret and self-dissatisfaction. But supposing the certainty of all the benefits, for time and eternity, which in the Bible are promised and guaranteed in connection with “the truth,” O! what is there, in the whole compass of what this world can confer, that should not, without one moment’s hesitation, be sacrificed for its attainment? 4. In proportion to the buyer’s estimate of his article, and the cost at which he has obtained it, will be the jealousy with which he retains and guards it. “Sell it not.” Selling the truth, is not simply letting slip from the mind the remembrance of mere abstractions; it is to give up the profession and faith of it for the sake of the very things which we sacrificed for it. But “sell it not.” Sell it not for the pleasures of sin. Sell it not for the
riches and honours of the world. O part not with the pearl of great price for the husks which the swine do eat.… And be prompt with your bargain. Those who are much set upon an article will not delay their purchase, lest perchance it should pass from their hands. Blessed be God there is no danger here, so far as others coming forward before you is concerned.… But if not now prompt and decided you may be thwarted in another way. Death may decide the matter for you.—Wardlaw.
Pro_23:26. A supplication is come, as it were, from God to man, that man would send God his heart; penned by Solomon under the name of wisdom (chap. Pro_9:1), and directed to her sons … He which always gave, now craves; and he which craves always, now gives. Christ stands at the door like a poor man, and asks not bread, nor clothes, nor lodgings, which we should give to His members, but our heart—that is, even the continent of all, and governor of man’s house.… Should God be a suppliant unto thee and me, but that our unthankfulness condemns us, that for all the things which He hath given unto us, we never considered yet what we should give unto Him before He asketh.… Mark what God hath chosen for Himself: not that which any other should lose by, like the demands of them which care for none but themselves, but that which, being given to God, moves us to give every man his due.… Give God thy heart, that He may keep it; not a piece of thy heart, not a room in thy heart, but thy heart. The heart divided, dieth. God is not like the mother which would have the child divided, but like the natural mother which said, Rather than it should be divided, let her take it all. Let the devil have all, if He which gave it be not worthy of it.… As a man considers what he does when he gives, so God licenseth us to consider of that which we do for Him, whether He deserves it, whether we owe it, whether He can require it, lest it come against our will; therefore give Me, saith God, as though He would not strain upon us, or take it from us.… Is God so desirous of my heart? What good can my heart do to God? It is not worthy to come under His roof. I would I had a better gift to send unto my Lord; go, my heart, to thy Maker; the Bridegroom hath sent for thee, put on thy wedding garment, for the King Himself will marry thee. Who is not sorry now that he did not give his heart before? Is he not worthy to die that will take his heart from Him that made it, from Him that redeemed it, from Him which preserves it, from Him that will glorify it, and gives it to him that will infect it, torment it, condemn it? Will a servant reach the cup to a stranger when his master calls for it? Or will a man sell his coat if he have no more? What dost thou reserve for God, when thou hast given Satan thine heart? Christ hath promised to come and dwell with thee (Rev_3:20); where shall He stay, where shall He dine, if the chamber be taken up, and the heart let forth to another? Thou art but a tenant, and yet thou takest His house over his head, and placest in it whom thou wilt, as if thou wert landlord.—Henry Smith.
I. Man has nothing higher to dispose of. His heart is given when he sets his strongest affections upon an object. Wherever he centres his strongest love his heart is, and wherever his heart is, he is.… II. Man is compelled to dispose of it. He is forced, not by any outward coercion, but by an inward pressure. It is as necessary for the soul to love as it is to the body to breathe. The deepest of all the deep hungers of humanity is the hunger of the soul to love. Sometimes so ravenous does man’s animal appetite for food become, that he will devour with a kind of relish the most loathsome things; and so voracious is the heart for some object to love, that it will settle down upon the lowest and most contemptible creatures rather than not love at all. III. Man alone can dispose of it. No one can take it from is by force. He is the only priest who can present it.—Dr. David Thomas.
Pro_23:28. Uncleanness leads to faithlessness of manifold kinds; and it makes not only the husband unfaithful to the wife, but also the son to the parents, the scholar to the teacher and pastor, the servant to the master. The adulteress, inasmuch as she entices now one and now another into her net, increases the number of those who are faithless towards men. But are they not, above all, faithless towards God? Delitzsch.

Proverbs 23:29-35
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_23:30. Mixed wine—i.e., wine mixed with strong spices.
Pro_23:31. When it giveth his colour, etc., literally, “When it showeth its eye.” This may refer to its brightness, or to the head, or pearl of the wine. “When it moveth itself,” etc., rather “when it glideth down with ease.”
Pro_23:33. Strange women, rather “strange things.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Pro_23:29-35
THE DRUNKARD’S PICTURE
I. The drunkard is an entire inversion of man as God intended him to be. God made man’s mind to rule his body, but the drunkard’s bodily appetites rule his mind. God gave man an intellect to guide his actions; He intended the various limbs of his body to be the servants of his will, and to obey the dictates of his reason. But the drunkard not only gives up all his spiritual and intellectual power to his body, but all his other bodily powers to the rule of one sense—that of his palate. Men who are not awake to their spiritual and mental needs might be expected to have as much regard for their animal wants, and to be as careful to avoid bodily suffering as the brute creation. But it is not so with the drunkard—although nights and days of privation and suffering are often the fruits of an hour’s drinking, he voluntarily undergoes the former in order to enjoy the latter. Not only is conscience and reason and heart sacrificed to his mouth, but every other bodily sense is made to serve the one sense and every other part of the body to suffer, that one part may be gratified if but for a moment.
II. He is an entire inversion of what we might expect even a fallen man to be. Looking at man as he is when he lives for this world only, he is generally alive to his own immediate temporal interests and careful to avoid in the future what has brought him suffering in the past. But it is not so with the slave to drink. If only wife and children had to lead lives of misery and his own life was a constant round of even animal enjoyment, the drunkard’s career would not be such an unaccountable infatuation. Human selfishness would be sufficient to account for it. But who suffers like the drunkard himself? The wise man enumerates some of his miseries—woe, grief, contentions and wounds without cause, the stings of remorse, the disordered brain, and entire loss of consciousness and of power to defend one’s own life and property—this is the drunkard’s heritage. And in the intervals between his madness he knows it and drinks to the dregs the bitter cup of bodily and mental misery that must always follow the immoderate use of the wine cup. And yet his language is “I will seek it yet again.” The child that has been burnt dreads the fire, but the poor drunkard scarred from head to foot with the marks of the flames, seems with all his other losses to have lost also the natural instinct of self-preservation and the power of learning anything from the great teacher—experience.
III. A consideration of the strength and nature of the drunkard’s chain should lead all to shun that which enslaved him. When we consider what havoc intoxicating drink has wrought, it is marvellous that men do not turn from it with loathing; that they are not afraid to play with so deadly, and yet so treacherous an enemy to mankind. When the sailor knows that there is a treacherous whirlpool in the ocean, which has engulfed a thousand noble vessels, he is careful to give it a wide berth, to keep far beyond the outermost ring of the current. But the habit of men in general seems to be to try how near they can come to this moral and social gulf of death, without being drawn beneath the waters. The experiment is fraught with deadly peril, and is often a fatal one. Solomon’s advice is to ensure safety, by not even “looking upon the wine when it is red.”
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
There is mention made of a monk at Prague, who having heard at shrift the confessions of many drunkards, wondered at it, and for experiment would try his brain with this sin, and accordingly stole himself drunk. Now, after the vexation of three sick days, to all that confessed that sin he enjoined no other penance than this: “Go and be drunk again.” Surely his meaning was like that of Seneca, that drunkenness was a torment and affliction to itself.—Spencer.
Drunkenness is a special water at the devil’s banquet. This sin is a horrible self-theft … Thieves cannot steal lands, unless they be Westminster Hall thieves, crafty contenders that eat out a true title with a false evidence; but the drunkard robs himself of his lands. Now he dissolves an acre, and then an acre, into the pot, till he hath ground all his ground at the malt quern, and run all his patrimony through his throat. Thus he makes himself the living tomb of his forefathers—of his posterity. He needs not trouble his sick mind with a will, or distrust the fidelity of executors.—T. Adams.
Pro_23:29. The best that can come of drunkenness is repentance—that fairest daughter of so foul a mother—and that is not without its woe, and alas! its sorrow and redness of eyes with weeping for sin.—Trapp.
Pro_23:31. He that would avoid the commission of sin must avoid the occasion of sin. If we would not fall down the hill we must beware of coming near the brow of it. Keep thee far from an evil matter. When the wine laughs in thy face then shut thine eyes lest it steal into thine heart. A guest may easily be kept out of the house at first, but if once entertained it is hard to turn him out of doors. When the governor of a fort once comes to parley with the enemy that besiegeth him there is great fear that the place will be surrendered.—
Swinnock.
Pro_23:33. One remarkable peculiarity of this chapter is the junction and alternation of these two kindred sins. There they stand, like two plants of death, each growing on its own independent root, and nourished by the same soil, but cleaving close to each other by congeniality of nature, and twisted round each other for mutual support.… The alliance, so generally formed and so firmly maintained between drunkenness and licentiousness, is a master-stroke of Satan’s policy. It is when men have looked upon the deceitful cup, and received into their blood the poison of its sting, that their eyes behold “strange women;” and when they have fallen into that “narrow pit,” they run back to hide their shame, at least from themselves, in the maddening draught.—Arnot.
Pro_23:34. The passage is interesting, as showing what Psa_104:25-26; Psa_107:23-30, also show, the increased familiarity of the Israelites with a sea life.—Plumptre.
It is very foul weather in which a drunkard saileth. For as St. Ambrose speaketh, the multitude of lusts in him do raise a great tempest, which toss his mind to and fro, sailing as it were in the narrow sea of his body, so that he cannot be pilot to itself.… But that which maketh the drunkard’s case worst of all is this: it is a shipwreck of the body only which in a tempest is feared, but he maketh shipwreck of his soul if repentance be not a plank of safety to him.—Jermin.

Proverbs 23:1-3
Put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.
Moderation
This virtue the people of God ought to practise in everything. They should exercise self-government in the desire, the use, the enjoyment, and the regret of all that pertains to the present world. Here is commended laying restraint on the animal appetites.

1. There are few things, if any, more disgusting and degrading than the studied and anxious indulgence of these appetites. It is particularly loathsome when the man appears to catch with extraordinary avidity the occurrence of a feast, and to be resolved on making the most of his opportunity.
2. There are on such occasions temptations to over-indulgence and excess. And then our self-jealousy and watchfulness should be proportioned to two things—the strength of propensity and the amount of temptation. Eat as if a knife were at thy throat. Eat in the recollection and impression of thine imminent danger. Or the expression may mean, “Otherwise thou wilt put a knife to thy throat if thine appetite have the dominion.”
3. A man’s conduct on such occasions is marked, especially if he be a religious professor. He may in this way bring reproach upon religion, which ever ought, and which, when genuine and duly felt, will impose a restraint on such indulgences.
4. We should also be on our guard against the ostentation of abstinence and plainness—the affectation of extraordinary abstemiousness.
5. There should be special vigilance if there be reason to suspect any snare, any intended temptation for answering a selfish or malicious purpose. Worldly men sometimes do, very wickedly, lay snares for the godly. (R. Wardlaw, D.D.)

Proverbs 23:4
Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.
Mammon
All the precepts of Scripture have their origin in the benevolence of God. Man labours to be rich because he is voluntarily ignorant or forgetful of the requirements of his nature.
I. Labouring to be rich implies the consecration of our powers to that one object in particular. But this is not the end for which we are endowed with an intellectual faculty and all the susceptibilities of a moral nature. The accumulation of riches as an end is no more worthy the noble powers of man than building a pyramid of sand. Infinitely beneath the dignity and Divine origin of man is the labouring to be rich.
II. Whatever tends to widen the distance between God and man must be regarded as an aggravation of our fallen and ruined condition. We are so constituted that we cannot be engrossed with the successful pursuit of two objects at once. You cannot be labouring to be rich, and to be wise unto salvation at the same time. By our own wilful act to alienate the heart from God must be the most inconceivable of all misfortunes, since the highest object of man’s existence is to hold communion with God. For this his nature was originally framed, and in this alone will his nature ever find contentment or repose.
III. The ruinous effects that the passion under notice occasions in all the moral powers of its victim. People imagine that riches confer greatness. A man is honoured according to the abundance of his capital. The tendency of this is to inflate the mammon-worshipper with personal vanity. But the greatness which is the exclusive offspring of opulence is a hollow, spurious, and mere visionary greatness. Unsanctified riches tend to render their possessor vain, proud, impatient of restraint, forgetful of the sources of true greatness, and insensible to the wants or respect that is due to others. And the pursuit of riches always ends in disappointment. “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” The true riches, like an overflowing stream, irrigate the heart, and make it bear fruit for eternity, but avarice of gold rushes like a torrent of scorching lava—it may excite the wonder and attract the common attention of mankind, but it leaves behind its devastating march a solitude, and barrenness, and ruin, and death. (W. H. Hill, M.A.)

Proverbs 23:7
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.
The importance of a man’s thoughts

1. A man is as his thoughts.
2. A man has control over his thoughts.
3. God helps him in the exercise of that control.
   “We are that really, both to God and to man, which we are inwardly.” (Matthew Henry.)

Thoughts
I. The infinite importance of men’s thoughts. This text, in counselling for a particular case, and bidding us test the sincerity of one who invites us, asserts a principle of wide application. You do not know a man until you know his thoughts. God knows him perfectly, because He knows his thoughts.

1. You cannot know a man merely by listening to his words or watching his actions. There is always more, and often better, in men than comes into expression.
2. The revelations of close and trustful friendships are revelations of the thoughts.
3. The claims of God reach beyond right action, and demand right thought. The law of God searches the secret intents of the heart.
4. The redemption that is provided includes in its scheme the sanctification of the very thought.
5. All sin is represented as springing up out of, and finding expression for, lust in the sphere of thought. Show, by appeal to Christian experience, the difficulty found in the restraining of thought. In the unrestrainedness of thought often comes to us the feeling and the mastery of sin.
   II. The amount of control man has over his thoughts. If he had no control over them his moral responsibility would be gone. We cannot help the evil thoughts coming to us. We have control—
6. Over the material of our thoughts. The materials are the sum of past impressions. Thinking is the combining, comparing, and rearranging of the actual contents of the mind. We can direct ourselves away from the evil and towards the good. We can fill our minds with good suggestions and associations. Illustrate from going into scenes suggestive of vice; reading questionable or immoral books, etc.
7. Over the processes of thought. There may be the nourishing of the evil. There may be the swaying of the mind through the power of the renewed will, and with the help of the indwelling Spirit. Apply to wandering thoughts in the house of God. Do we make the mastery of such evil the subject of real effort?
   III. The help God renders man in the exercise of such control. An attempt to regulate thoughts will bring the conviction of human helplessness. When a man has mastered conduct he cannot say that he has mastered himself. When he thinks he has mastered “thoughts” he will surely find that he needs to cry unto God, saying, “Try me and know my thoughts . . . and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Robert Tuck, B.A.)

The thoughts of the heart the best evidence of a man’s spiritual state
The knowledge of ourselves is one of the most noble and excellent attainments in human life. He that knows himself stands fair for immortal felicity. Doctrine: The thoughts of men’s hearts do evidence what their spiritual state is. These do ordinarily give the best and surest measure of the frame of men’s minds. What thoughts, then, evidence the spiritual state of men? Not occasional thoughts. Not such as arise from strong convictions, that come on us suddenly. Not such as arise from apparent Divine desertions. Despairing thoughts are no sure evidence of the condition of souls. Not such as arise from violent temptations. Not such as arise from men’s particular calling and manner of life. Not such as arise from attendance upon, and the performance of, religious duties. The religious discourse of others may produce pious thoughts in an unregenerate person. A man may read God’s Word and be yet far from the kingdom. So he may attend the preaching of the Word, and even pray, without having more than surface thoughts. Answering the question affirmatively, mention may be made of voluntary thoughts, such as the mind is apt for and inclines towards. Four qualifications must attend them if they are to be a complete rule and a perfect standard of trial. They must be natural, numerous, satisfactory, and operative. Let us each see to it that our thoughts be such as evidence us to be holy persons. Practise frequent, serious, and close examination. (Nathanael Walter.)

The heart-state
The body is not the man. Our bodies die. Neither are a man’s words himself. Words are often used to conceal, to misrepresent, to counterfeit. Neither is it possible, universally, to discern the essence of character in action. What good man is there who has not again and again failed to do himself justice in his life? Often, on the other hand, actions are much more beautiful than the thoughts of the heart. The essence of human character is found in the heart. It is the disposition, it is the heart-state, which is the true man. This test of human character is a just one, for our life is a progress, is in the direction of the realisation of this heart-state. Action is but heart-expression. The heart-thought, or purpose, is the true man. Not only is human progress towards the realisation of this heart-state, but the separation of the man from this full expression and realisation of his inner desire is not a matter of his own choice or creation, and therefore cannot enter as an element into his character. The field open, covered by the human choice, is only this, present desire. It often happens that a man is to a certain extent kept under the power of religious truth who is in heart utterly disloyal to the Divine law. When the life differs from the heart the latter, not the former, must be regarded as the true man. Sooner or later the full coincidence between the external and internal is inevitable; the full expression of the heart is sure to come.

1. Tendency is everything in the moral world.
2. Explain the different destinies of the Christian and un-Christian life.
3. Abstain from all judgment of your fellow-men.
4. Encourage those who are true and good at heart. (S. S. Mitchell, D.D.)

Thought the index of character
I. This is the Hebrew way of telling us in a casual word about feasting that a man’s inmost thinking is the true index to his character. Talk is superficial. The lip gives a smiling welcome whilst a lofty disdain is in the heart. Mellifluous speech often comes from a malign spirit, whilst “groanings that cannot be uttered” are signs of a yearning supremely Divine. To the perfect ear of God, who catches the faintest quiver of hypocrisy in our devotion, and the lightest tone of insincerity in our song, our “words” justify or condemn us; but to our dull and insensitive organs they are unreliable signs, and our conclusions from them require to be corrected and qualified by the study of other data. We are, therefore, driven back upon the Hebrew teaching that a man is built up from within; that as he does his inward work—all his inward work—so he is in character, being, and power. He must be a whole man in his thinking in order to be to all intents and in all respects a man; for manly thinking, according to our ancient Scriptures, lies at the basis of manhood.
II. Christianity accepts and endorses this inward and broad basis of manhood, and employs its fact and revelation, impulse and inspiration, to secure a thorough regeneration of man’s inmost life. It seeks to re-create him as a thinker, refuses to look on the mere “scholar” as the full man, and works on the Hebrew idea, lately re-announced by Emerson, that the true notion of manhood is “man thinking; not man the victim of society and a mere thinker, or still worse, the parrot of other men’s thinking”—but man, thinking “in his heart,” with all his inward forces, conscience and will, fancy and emotion, hope and experience—thinking in the whole of him, and with the whole of him, and for the whole of him and his race, and so making speech the clear, full, and indivisible echo of his thought, and deed the visible garment of his inward life. God means us to be men, and He evokes the forces of an inward life by compelling us to wield the sword with our full strength against the enemy. For as a man battles for truth in his heart, so is he. Cowardly thinking makes a weak and poor life. Christ creates inward courage, heroic daring for reality and right, and renews the manliness of the world.
III. This is a thinking age. The sluggard intellect has received an unparalleled awakening, and thinking of nearly all kinds is proceeding with astonishing celerity and productiveness. The manliest thinking is done with the heart, i.e., with the whole of the inner forces of the life.
IV. Modern thinking, ignoring the Biblical rule, is smitten with the blight of cowardice, falls a victim to unreality, and lacks, notwithstanding its pride, Lutheran courage, holy daring, and self-devotion. Young men, do not be misled by the syren of a false peace. Truth is a prize to be won by strenuous battle with the shows and pretences of error, and the shock of downright attack with the foes of faith ought only to whet desire, quicken appetite, and concentrate your forces so that you may become masker of the situation. Give to your thinking the courage of the heart, the force of a resolute energy, the patience of an inflexible will, and as sure as you are true to your whole self God will be found of you in Christ Jesus, and become the sunshine of your life and the joy of your heart.
V. Another form of this mistake is that we expect too much to be done by mere thinking. Science thinks everything out, and we want to make all life scientific, and so we take out of it our personal trusts, and the subtle ministry of the reflex action of deeds on our thoughts. Convert thought-out truth into loyalty to Jesus Christ, and obedience to His laws. Courageous deed, following intrepid thinking, made the Reformation.
VI. No thinking is manly which fails to take adequate account of the force of intense moral enthusiasms. It is provable that only in the white heat of a glowing passion for an ethical goal have we the clearest vision of eternal fact.
VII. Again, the thinking that is of the brain only and not of the heart is in serious danger of passing over the “unseen” order and treating it as though it did not exist. It ignores the invisible forces which somehow or other, and from somewhere or other, undeniably find, move, and educate men.
VIII. But, above all things, do not let us be alarmed at any of the mistakes and mischiefs that cause disobedience to the Christian law of manly thinking. We need have no misgiving about the future. Man is essentially a thinker and a unit, and he must think towards unity, and truth, and perfection. Be his mistakes numberless, he cannot stop. He is made for God. “God is his refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble”; therefore, after every temporary eclipse, the Sun of Righteousness will break forth and reveal again the way to the Father. (J. Clifford, D.D.)

Thought
The capacity of thinking is a most wonderful thing. Here lies man’s supremacy ever all the visible world about him. All great undertakings, the glorious enterprises of men for men’s salvation, were once only thoughts. The character of a man’s thoughts determines the character of his life. His actions are inspired from within. Every product of the soul, whether it be an action or a purpose, is first a germ. Sin lies in the soul in germs—in germs as well as in actions. The moral success of life consists in killing evil thoughts in the germ. There are few purer and richer pleasures in this world than the enjoyment of sweet thoughts, happy thoughts, holy thoughts. The heart determines our everlasting destiny. A heart without holiness never shall see the Lord. Christ is the only purifier of the heart. (Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D.)

Proverbs 23:10-11
Their Redeemer is mighty.
Social injustice
I. Social injustice indicated. “Remove not the old landmarks.” What are the landmarks? The rights of man as man.

1. Every man has a right to personal freedom.
2. To the produce of his own labour.
3. To freedom in religion.
   II. Social injustice perpetrated on the helpless. “Enter not into the fields of the fatherless.” Orphans have their rights. There are villains in society who perpetrate outrages on orphans.
4. This is cowardly.
5. This is cruel.
6. This is common.
   III. Social injustice judicially regarded by God. “Their Redeemer is mighty.” Redeemer here means “next of kin.” The mighty God is the protector of the helpless. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

The fatherless
These are taken under God’s special protection; with Him they not only find mercy shown to them, but justice done for them. He is their Redeemer, their God, their near kinsman, that will take their part, and stand up for them with jealousy, as taking Himself affront in the injuries done to them. He is mighty—almighty; His omnipotence is engaged and employed for their protection, and their proudest and most powerful oppressors will not only find themselves an unequal match for this, but will find that it is at their peril to contend with it. Every man must be careful not to injure the fatherless in anything, or to invade their rights. Being fatherless, they have none to redress their wrongs, and, being in their childhood, they do not so much as apprehend the wrong that is done them. Sense of honour, and much more the fear of God, would restrain men from offering any injury to children, especially fatherless children. (Matthew Henry.)

Proverbs 23:12
Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
Spiritual knowledge
I. Because of its own worth. A knowledge of the creation, its elements, laws, objects, extent, is valuable, but a knowledge of the Creator is infinitely more valuable. “This is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.”
II. Because man is prone to overlook the importance of this knowledge. It is sad, that that which man requires most he cares least for, that the most priceless treasure is least valued.
III. Because to attain it there must be personal application. “Apply thine heart unto instruction.” It is a knowledge that cannot be imparted irrespective of the use of man’s own faculties. He must apply persistently, earnestly, devoutly. (Homilist.)

The heart and the ears
Observe the connection between the application of the heart and the ears. The heart open to sound advice or moral precept is yet shut to Christ and His doctrine. It is closed up in unbelief, prejudice, indifference, and the love of pleasure. A listless heart, therefore, produces a careless ear. But when the heart is graciously opened, softened, and enlightened, the attention of the ear is instantly fixed. This, indeed, is the Lord’s creative work; yet wrought by a God of order in the use of His own means. Awakened desire brings to prayer. Prayer brings the blessing. And precious then is every word of knowledge. (C. Bridges, M.A.)

Proverbs 23:15
My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
The happy parent
I. The attainment required. A pious youth is said to be wise in heart.

1. To show us that religion is wisdom.
2. That this wisdom is not notional, but consists principally in dispositions and actions. Religion has to do “with the heart”; and a knowledge that does not reach the heart, and govern the heart, is nothing.
   II. The consequence anticipated. Pious children afford their parents pleasure on three principles.
3. A principle of benevolence.
4. Of piety. God is particularly pleased and glorified by the sacrifices of early religion.
5. Of self-interest. Distinguish between self-interest and selfishness. The piety of children affords parents evidence of the answer of their prayers and the success of their endeavours, and so delights them. It becomes a means of their usefulness. By such children parents hope to serve their generation. It ensures to parents a proper return of duty. And it will free them from a thousand bitter anxieties, such as are caused by children’s removal from home; taking any important step in life; or being bereaved of their dearest relations.
   Conclusion:
6. Address those who, instead of a joy to their parents, are only a grief.
7. Address parents. Have you conscientiously discharged your duty towards your children? If you have, and nevertheless find your “house not so with God “as you desire, yield not to despair. Never cease to pray and to admonish. Some shower of rain may cause the seed, which has long been buried under the dryness of the soil, to strike root and spring up. (W. Jay.)

Religion, true wisdom
I. Why religion may be described as true wisdom.

1. As it involves the possession and right application of knowledge.
2. As it gives the first attention to the most momentous concerns.
3. As it adopts the most likely means for securing these great ends.
4. As it secures the greatest amount of good both for the present and the future.
   II. The importance of this to young people.
5. Because of their necessary inexperience.
6. Because of the countless perils which surround them.
7. Because the future circumstances of life depend much upon the course adopted in youth.
   III. The certain means of its atttainment.
8. There must be a deep conviction of its need and value.
9. There must be the hearty and simple application of faith, for its realisation.
10. Let this resolution, and application of devout earnestness and faith, be adopted now.
    In conclusion, present the subject to your serious attention—
    (1) By the evils of neglecting religion; and—
    (2) The moral loveliness and excellency connected with devout and serious piety. (J. Burns, D.D.)

Parental wishes
Persons may form a judgment of their own dispositions from their wishes about their children. Worldly men make it their great work to provide those things for their children which they account their own best things. Saints desire above all things that the hearts of their children may be richly furnished with wisdom, and that their lips may speak right things; for the heart is the throne of Wisdom, and by the lips she discovers her possession of that throne. (George Lawson, D.D.)

Proverbs 23:17
Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.
Envy of sinners forbidden, and the fear of God enjoined
I. Some of the reasons why men very frequently are induced to envy sinners.

1. They perhaps see them possessed of wealth, in the enjoyment of many outward comforts, and encircled with the means of gratification; and these are things after which human nature hankers. The idea of happiness is commonly connected with the possession of them. But, surely, to envy these fleeting possessions little becomes a wise man. Surely his lot is not to be desired who lives here under the Divine displeasure, and who must very shortly endure the righteous judgment of a justly offended God.
2. But we find men sometimes disposed to envy sinners on account of the apparent freedom from care and anxiety in which they live. But that gay unconcern about eternal things which is attributed to them we ought to commiserate rather than envy.
3. But whatever circumstances in the condition of the sinner men may admire, unbelief is the source from which all envy of his lot must proceed.
   II. The nature and effects of the fear of the Lord.
4. It is not a fear of Him as an irresistible and implacable enemy; but it is a fear grounded on a just perception of the excellency of the Divine character, connected with love to Him, and with an expectation of the largest blessings from His hand.
5. But what are the effects which the fear of God will produce?
   (1) In the first place, it will lead to repentance for sin, accompanied by an earnest desire of reconciliation to God, and of the restoration of His favour.
   (2) But again, the fear of God is the only principle which can lead a man to an universal and unreserved obedience to His commands. (B. Scott, M.A.)

The cure for envy
The cure for envy lies in living under a constant sense of the Divine presence, worshipping God and communing with Him all the day long, however long the day may seem. True religion lifts the soul into a higher region, where the judgment becomes more clear, and the desires are more elevated. The more of heaven there is in our lives, the less of earth we shall covet. The fear of God casts out the envy of men. The death-blow of envy is a calm consideration of the future. The wealth and glory of the ungodly are a vain show. This pompous appearance flashes out for an hour, and then is extinguished. What is the prosperous sinner the better for his prosperity when judgment overtakes him? As for the godly man, his end is peace and blessedness, and none can rob him of his joy; wherefore, let him forego envy, and be filled with sweet content. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The nature and advantages of the fear of the Lord
Scarcely anything has a more immediate influence upon our duty or comfort than the due government of our passions. Hence the wise and virtuous, in all ages, have employed themselves in forming rules for their regulation. But it is found more easy to prescribe, than to reduce these rules to practice. The religion of Jesus provides the assistance requisite to enable us to comply with rules.
I. What is it to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long? Fear is a passion of the human mind, and stands opposed to hope. It always has for its object some evil, real or supposed. Here its object is the evil and danger of sinning against God, and the just displeasure of God, in consequence of offending Him. To fear these is to fear the Lord in the best sense of the phrase. We should live under the habitual influence of this holy temper, and carry it with us into all the duties of the religious and social life.
II. Why should we study to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long?

1. It is an excellent guard against the commission of sin. The man cannot knowingly and deliberately sin against God who has a suitable sense of His being, perfections, character and government.
2. It really assists us in the right performance of duty. It greatly tends to invigorate the graces of the Spirit in the soul, and to call them forth into lively exercise.
3. It excites us to the important duty of watchfulness, and greatly assists us therein.
4. God recommends this duty to our study and practice, by His Divine authority. Then if you would be in the fear of the Lord—
   (1) Study to acquire more and more of the knowledge of God: the knowledge of His perfections, character, and government; especially as they are manifested in and through His Son Jesus Christ.
   (2) Be much frequent in meditating upon the Divine perfections.
   (3) Be much in the great duties of prayer and watchfulness. (John Rodgers, D.D.)

Of the duty of fearing God
The fear of the Lord is sometimes the whole duty of man; sometimes the devotional duties of religion.
I. The true notion of fearing God.

1. It must be such a fear as includes in it a high degree of love. Then we shall make a difficulty of nothing He commands. Then our service of Him will be rendered more acceptable.
2. It includes it in a generous hope and confidence. Hope is the spring of industry.
   II. The influence this fear has to suppress in us all envious and disquieting thoughts. By a holy fear we secure to ourselves an interest in His special providence and protection and grace here, and in the promises of glory and eternal life hereafter.
   III. Proper motives and arguments to enforce this duty of fearing God.
3. From the consideration of His infinite power and majesty.
4. From His intimate knowledge of all our thoughts, words, and actions, and of the secret springs of them.
5. The consideration of God’s justice. He hath appointed a day wherein He will judge the world in righteousness. This is an irresistible argument to excite us to the practice of piety. (R. Fiddes, D.D.)

The principle by which each person is to be perpetually governed
Many mistake by viewing religion as separate from common life, and as hardly to be made to accord with it.
I. The principle which is to actuate us. “The fear of the Lord.” The fear attends the whole of religion.

1. As a quality, to temper the whole; to bind doctrine and knowledge; to keep confidence from growing up into rank presumption, and liberty from degenerating into licentiousness.
2. As a quickener, to excite and to enliven the whole.
   II. The extensiveness of its influence. To be in the fear shows the frequency of its exercise, and of its invariable constancy. See the attributes of this fear as regards—
3. Devotions, regular and ejaculatory.
4. The business of the day.
5. The trials of the day.
6. Its relaxation, recreation, and refreshment.
7. The company of the day.
8. The opportunities and occasions of the day.
   III. The advantage of its habitualness.
9. It will render religion more easy and pleasant.
10. It will render your religion more obvious and certain. It furnishes the best evidences of its reality. Then be concerned to exercise diligence.
    (1) All the day long you are in danger.
    (2) God is all day long doing you good.
    (3) All the day long you are observed, even by your fellow-creatures, much more than you are aware of.
    (4) You are accountable all the day long. (W. Jay.)

The wicked not to be envied
I. What is it in sinners that we are apt to envy?

1. Many sinners have much money. Riches are not necessary to any man. Still, human nature is so weak and so corrupt that but few men can look at the wealthy without envying them.
2. Sometimes the wicked seem to have a great deal of pleasure. Take their word for it, and no people are so happy. Those who have not health, or money, or time thus to live at ease, are very apt to envy these lovers of pleasure.
3. Some sinners seem to get many of the honours of life. They seek the honour that cometh from man, and they have their reward. Silly people stand off and admire and envy.
4. Some envy the wicked for their apparent freedom from restraint. The law of God does not bind them any further than suits themselves. To a carnal mind this looks like a fine way of getting through the world, and the foolish envy these lawless ones.
5. Sometimes sinners seem to be, and for a long time are, free from afflictions, which so much distress the righteous.
   II. There is no good ground fob preferring the state of sinners. There is really no Divine blessing permanently resting on the wicked, as there is on the righteous. There is also a sad amount of alloy mixed up with all that sinners have. The passions of sinners are at war with each other and with mankind. The devices of the wicked will ruin them. The wicked are not without smitings of conscience. All nature is armed against the wicked. Instead of envying sinners, pity them and pray for them. Let the righteous show that they are pleased with the choice which they have made. (W. S. Plumer, D.D.)

Divine providence
The text is a persuasive to contentment and satisfaction with Divine providence, which permits wicked men to flourish for awhile, enforced with this reason, that there is a reward laid up for all such as trust in God and meekly submit to His will.

1. Let the times be never so perilous and dangerous, yet God’s providence ought not to be questioned by us, whatever its unequal distributions be. Answering the objection that, if God’s providence governs all the issues and events of things, virtue should never go unrewarded, plead that there is no man but has grievously sinned against the Lord. Therefore they can have no cause to question His justice in their suffering. Besides this, it may be urged that affliction is a proof of God’s tender love and kindness; that the prosperity of the wicked often turns to their hurt and disadvantage; and that the day of judgment will set all things right.
2. Show how we are to demean ourselves under the actual oppressions of prosperous wickedness. The best course for a man to take is to hold himself to God, to trust in Him, and order himself according to His will.
3. We must not go out of the road of duty, and do as the wicked do, because we see them prosper.
4. The flourishing condition of the wicked is but short-lived, and therefore not to be envied.
5. There is an assured reward, if ye have patience awhile, and meekly submit to the will of God in His providential administrations. Then seek to live so that God may bless you with the continuance of His blessings. (T. Knaggs, M.A.)

All the day long
I. The prescribed course of the believer “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” We must be in the fear of the Lord before we can remain in it. The fear is for all the day, and for every clay. Some have a religion of show, others a religion of spasms. Ours must never be a religion that is periodic in its flow, like certain intermittent springs. Beware of the godliness which varies with the calendar. Note the details which are comprised in this exhortation. Remember not merely to associate religion with the routine of life, but also with special occasions. There are excellent reasons for being in the fear of the Lord all the day long. He sees us all the day long. Sin is equally evil all the day long. You always belong to Christ. You can never tell when or how Satan will attack you. Your Lord may come at any hour.
II. The probable interruption. It has happened to godly men in all ages to see the wicked prosper, and they have been staggered by the sight. There is no real cause for envying the wicked; and envying them will do you serious harm. Envy helps in no way, and hinders in many ways.
III. The helpful consideration.

1. There is an end of this life.
2. There is an end of the worldling’s prosperity.
3. God has an end in your present trouble and exercise.
4. There will be no failure to your expectation. The promise of God is in itself a possession, and our expectation of it is in itself an enjoyment. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

A caution against envy and a call to piety
I. A serious caution. This should be regarded—

1. Because envy is a disposition of mind whose influence can never be justified.
2. Because to envy sinners is absurd.
   II. The admonitory precept. This implies—
3. To be in possession of correct and spiritual ideas of His holy and exalted character.
4. To cultivate suitable dispositions of heart towards Him.
   III. An encouraging assertion. “For surely there is an end,” etc.
5. There is an end to that prosperity with which the efforts of sinners are crowned.
6. There is an end to the tribulation of the saints.
7. The expectation of those who continue in the fear of the Lord shall not be cut off. Human expectations are cut off by slothful and indolent habits, and by unforeseen occurrences. Instead of envying sinners, saints should pity them, pray for them, set them good examples, and try to save them. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)

Proverbs 23:18
Surely there is an end.
The end
Let religion be the very atmosphere in which you live and move and have your being; and the reason for this is, “surely there is an end.”
I. The solemn certainty which nobody can deny.

1. All our actions, thoughts, feelings, capabilities, everything about us, relations and all the rest of it, will come to a close, and leave behind them consequences that never come to a close. Behind everything something else lies, and that afterwards is made by the present, and is an outcome of it. The fleeting events and fugitive thoughts and feelings and actions of our daily life, that pass away and are forgotten, all leave behind them consequences which grow and grow for ever and ever.
2. Everything we do here will mould our character and help to make ourselves, and will spring up after many days. That is true of life and of the great hereafter beyond life.
   II. The bright possibilities which go along with this text. The hereafter to which the end of life is the narrow portal shall more than fulfil all thy expectations. Take Christ for your Saviour, and Master, and then swift-footed time may work His will; when this wide earth and all its fleeting scenes will change, you will be brought to the fulfilment of all your hopes, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)

Duties and reasons
The words of the text contain—
I. Duties.

1. The avoidance of envy. Envy is that affection which causes grief at the happiness and prosperity of others. It is associated with maliciousness. It is derived from a Latin word signifying “not to see.” The name is therefore characteristic. Why should not sinners be envied? Because it is foolish to do so. It is a false supposition that they are happy because they possess temporal advantages. Because it is unjust. Because it is un-Christian. We are taught by God to pity and pray for sinners.
2. A reverence for God. This fear is not slavish, that urges us to flee from danger, but filial, Divinely wrought in the soul.
   II. Reasons. All obligations are founded on reasons.
3. There is an end to the sinner’s prosperity. There is an end to every Christian’s trials.
4. God here promises to realise the expectations of those who fear Him. What do they expect? Their temporal wants supplied. Deliverance from dangers. Help in trouble. Grace to restrain from sin, to sanctify their souls, and to prepare them for heaven. These expectations shall not be cut off. (T. Harland.)

The afterwards and our hope
The Book of Proverbs seldom looks beyond the limits of the temporal, but now and then the mists lift and the wider horizon is disclosed. Our text is one of these exceptional instances, and is remarkable, not only as expressing confidence in the future, but as expressing it in a very striking way. “Surely there is an end,” says our Authorised Version, substituting in the margin, for end, “reward.” The latter word is placed in the text of the Revised Version. But neither “end” nor “reward” conveys the precise idea. The word so translated literally means “something that comes after.” So it is the very opposite of “end “; it is really that which lies beyond the end—the “sequel,” or the “future”—as the margin of the Revised Version gives alternately, or, more simply still, the “Afterwards.” Surely there is an afterwards behind the end. And then the proverb goes on to specify one aspect of that afterwards: “Thine expectation”—or, better, because more simply, “thy hope”—shall not be cut off. And then, upon these two convictions it builds the plain, practical exhortation: “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.”
I. The certainty of the hereafter. My text, of course, might be watered down and narrowed so as to point only to sequels to deeds realised in this life. And then it would be teaching us simply the very much-needed lessons that even in this life “whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” But it seems to me that we are entitled to see here, as in one or two other places in the Book of Proverbs, a dim anticipation of a future life beyond the grave. Now, the question comes to be, Where did the coiners of proverbs, whose main interest was in the obvious maxims of a prudential morality, get this conviction? They did not get it from any lofty experience of communion with God, like that which in the seventy-third Psalm marks the very high-water mark of Old Testament faith in regard to a future life. They did not get it from any clear definite revelation, such as we have in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but they got it from thinking over file facts of this present life as they appeared to them, looked at from a standpoint of a belief in God, and in righteousness. And so they represent to us the impression that is made upon a man’s mind, if he has the “eye that has kept watch o’er man’s mortality,” that is made by the facts of this earthly life, viz., that it is so full of onward-looking, prophetic aspect, so manifestly and tragically, and yet wonderfully and hopefully, incomplete and fragmentary in itself, that there must be something beyond in order to explain, in order to vindicate the life that now is. You sometimes see a row of houses, the end one of which has, in its outer gable wall, bricks protruding here and there, and holes for chimney-pieces that are yet to be put in. And just as surely as that external wall says that the row is half-built, and there are some more tenements to be added to it, so surely does the life that we now live here, in all its aspects almost, bear upon itself the stamp that it, too, is but initial and preparatory. You sometimes see, in the bookseller’s catalogue, a book put down “volume one; all that is published.” That is our present life—volume one, all that is published. Surely there is going to be a sequel, volume two. What is the meaning of the fact that of all the creatures on the face of the earth only you and I, and our brethren and sisters, do not find in our environment enough for our powers? What is the meaning of the fact that lodged in men’s natures there lies that strange power of painting to themselves things that are not as though they were? So that minds and hearts go out wandering through eternity, and having longings and possibilities which nothing beneath the stars can satisfy, or can develop? The meaning of it is this: “surely there is a hereafter.” God does not so cruelly put into men longings that have no satisfaction, and desires which never can be filled, as that there should not be, beyond the gulf, the fair land of the hereafter. Every human life obviously has in it, up to the very end, the capacity for progress. There may be masters in workshops who take apprentices, and teach them their trade during the years that are needed, and then turn round and say, “I have no work for you, so you must go and look for it somewhere else.” That is not how God does. When He has trained His apprentices He gives them work to do. “Surely there is a hereafter.” But that is only part of what is involved in this thought. It is not only a state subsequent to the present, but it is a state consequent on the present, and the outcome of it. To-day is the child of all the yesterdays, and the yesterdays and to-day are the parent of to-morrow. The past, our past, has made us what we are in the present, and what we are in the present is making us what we shall be in the future. And when we pass out of this life we pass out, notwithstanding all changes, the same men as we were. And so we carry ourselves with us into that future life, and “what a man soweth that shall he also reap.” “Oh! that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their ‘afterwards.’”
II. Now, secondly, my text suggests the immortality of hope. “Thine expectation”—or rather, as I said, “thy hope”—“shall not be cut off.” This is a characteristic of that hereafter. What a wonderful saying that is which also occurs in this Book of Proverbs, “The righteous hath hope in his death”! Ah! We all know how swiftly, as years increase, the things to hope for diminish, and how, as we approach the end, less and less do our imaginations go out into the possibilities of the sorrowing future. And when the end comes, if there is no afterward, the dying man’s hopes must necessarily die before he does. If when we pass into the darkness we are going into a cave with no outlet at the other end, then there is no hope, and you may write over it Dante’s grim word: “All hope abandon, ye who enter here.” “The righteous hath hope in his death.” “Thine expectation shall not be cut off.” But, further, that conviction of the afterward opens up for us a condition in which imagination is surpassed by the wondrous reality. Here, I suppose, nobody ever had all the satisfaction out of a fulfilled hope that he expected. The fish is always a great deal larger and heavier when we see it in the water than when it is lifted out and scaled. But there does come a time, if you believe that there is an afterwards, when all we desired and painted to ourselves of possible good for our craving spirits shall be felt to be but a pale reflex of the reality, like the light of some unrisen sun on the snowfields, and we shall have to say “the half was not told to us.”
III. And now, finally, notice the bearing of all this on the daily present. “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” Why, if there were no future, it would be just as wise, just as blessed, just as incumbent upon us to “be in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” But, seeing that there is that future, and seeing that only in it will hope rise to fruition, and yet subsist as longing, surely there comes to us a solemn appeal to “be in the fear of the Lord all the day long,” which, being turned into Christian language, is to live by habitual faith, in communion with, and love and obedience to, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Surely, surely the very climax of folly is shutting the eyes to that future that we all have to face, and to live here ignoring it and God, and cribbing, cabining, and confining all our thoughts within the narrow limits of the things present and visible. “Surely there is an afterwards,” and if thou wilt “be in the fear of the Lord all the day long,” then for evermore “thy hope shall not be cut off.” (A. Maclaren, D.D.)

Proverbs 23:19
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
Three important precepts
The words are very direct and personal.
I. The precept contained in the word “hear.” I take it to mean, “Hear the gospel.” “Take heed what ye hear.”

1. Take care that you hear with a view to obtaining faith in the Lord Jesus.
2. Hear without prejudice.
3. Hear for yourself.
4. Hear when the sermon is done.
5. Hear the gospel as the voice of God. He that hath an ear towards God will find that God hath an ear towards him.
   II. The precept contained in the words “be wise.”
6. Try to understand what you hear. Try to know saving truth.
7. Believe the gospel as it comes from God. This is an age of doubt. But it does not take any great quantity of brain to be a doubter.
8. Be affected by what you have heard.
9. Take care that you do not wander into evil company.
10. Take care to do what you hear.
    III. The precept contained in the words “guide thine heart in the way.” There is but one “way.” The “way” is often described in Scripture. It is the way of faith; of truth; of holiness; of peace. It is a narrow way. Then put your heart into your religion. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The self-discipline suitable to certain mental moods
In our course through life our minds are liable to be placed in certain states of feeling, strongly marked, and for the time strongly prevailing. And this by causes, by influences and circumstances, independent of our will. We might call them moods—by some they are denominated frames. These states of feeling should be carefully turned to a profitable account; we should avail ourselves of what there is in them specially adapted to afford improvement. The states of feeling to which we refer are such as are not essentially evil. They may be called a kind of natural seasons in the soul. These varied feelings are of the two great classes, the pleasing and the unpleasing; the latter being felt oftener and more sensibly. Take the image of a person in a high state of exhilaration; his soul over-running with delight, his countenance lighted up with animation. What will be the benefit of this if he do not exercise reflection, if he do not “guide his heart”? It may lead to direct evil. At the best, he will just indulge himself in the fulness of his satisfaction. He will have no use of his delight but to enjoy it. One point of wisdom in such a case may be, somewhat to repress and sober such an exhilaration of the heart. Some of this exhilaration should be directed into the channel of gratitude to God. It should lead a man to watch narrowly to see what kind of nature he has to be acted upon; a sad nature, truly, if he finds that the more its wishes are gratified the worse it becomes, if left to itself. The spring and energy of spirit felt in these pleasurable seasons of the heart should be applied to the use of a more spirited performance of the Christian duties in general, but especially to those that are the most congenial. How much time is passed by mankind collectively in a state of feeling decidedly infelicitous, as compared with their experience of animated pleasure! And how small a portion of this painful feeling is turned to any good account! There are occasional states of darkened, gloomy feeling, in which sensibility becomes pensiveness, and gravity sadness. The immediate cause may have been some untoward turn of events; some painful disappointment, or death of friends, or constitutional tendency, or defective health. But this infelicitous season of the soul may be turned to lasting advantage. When the disorder is mainly due to bodily conditions, expedients of alleviation may properly be sought. But at such times opportunity is given for serious consideration. Are there no great and solemn questions which you have hitherto left undecided? This is reasonable pleading. It is but requiring that a man should not be willing to come out from a temporary and special state of feeling without having availed himself of that advantage which it has specially offered him. Apply to another state of feeling—an indignant excitement of mind against human conduct. (John Foster.)

Proverbs 23:23
Buy the truth, and sell it not.
A domestic homily on buying the truth
When the wise man counselled his pupil to “buy the truth,” he had the whole range of truth before his mind: truth in history, in science, in social economics, in morals, and in religion. It is a slander that revelation, or the religion which accepts revelation as its guide, seeks the shade of ignorance and demands to lead its devotees blindfolded through the universe. Revelation demands light, and ever more light. The words of the text are a warrant for all investigation that has truth for its object. But it more especially refers to moral and religious truth.
I. The truth is an eminently desirable possession. Truth is capable of becoming much more intimately and inseparably the possession of a man than any of those things which men usually call their possessions. The truth bought secures to men the great end of all possessions—blessedness. The truth restores conscience to an active and undisputed sovereignty, harmonises the will and the reason, and casts out the foreign elements which have disturbed the movements of the inner life.
II. It is our duty to secure the truth as our possession. “Buy.” Do not stand chaffering about it; promptly make it your own.

1. We must go in quest of it. A man must be assiduous, painstaking, persevering in his search. And he must be cautious.
2. We must approach Truth, and live with her, trustfully. The intellect may assent, while the soul remains sceptical, and stands aloof.
3. The truth must be obeyed. She enters the soul as a queen. She demands to dictate every action, to shape every plan, to control every feeling. There is, perhaps, no utterly conclusive evidence of what is strictly moral or religious truth, but that of the inward witness, which speaks in the soul of the man who is living in the truth; that is, cordially and spontaneously obeying it.
4. We must be ready to make sacrifice for the truth. Prejudices must be sacrificed. Tastes, appetites, and passions, which the truth cannot sanction, must be sacrificed. If we are to get and hold the truth we must search, trust, obey, and make sacrifice. (Alex. Hannay, D.D.)

Buying the truth
To be said of all truths, but especially of the highest.
I. How is truth bought? In one sense it is free as air, but in seeking and keeping it we make surrenders. Labour and search may need to be paid. Prejudice, pride of heart, illusions broken. Sins of heart and life forsaken. Esteem of friends and of the world may need to be parted with.
II. How truth may be sold. Not when it is communicated; thereby we buy more. But when it is not communicated, when it is betrayed from fear or allurement, when it is held in unrighteousness, selfishness, treachery, inconsistency, we sell the truth.
III. Why, when bought, it should never be sold. It has a value beyond all you can get for it. Its value grows the longer you keep it. It buys all other good things at last. When sold, it is hard to be bought back. (John Ker, D.D.)

Buy the truth, sell it not
I. Inquire what truth is. Of truths there are many kinds.

1. Those proper to the studies of great scholars.
2. Those concerning the preservation of our bodies.
3. Those concerning the making and executing of laws.
4. Those relating to husbandry, tillage, and business. The truth here is “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.”
   II. The nature and quality of this merchandise. It containeth all those precepts and conclusions that concern the knowledge and service of God, and that conduce to virtue and integrity and uprightness of life. This truth is fit and proportionable to the soul of man, which is made capable of it. As it is fitted to all, so it is lovely and amiable in the eyes of all, even of those who will not buy it.
   III. The truth must be bought. It will not be ours unless we lay out something and purchase it. We do not stumble on this truth by chance. If men’s faith cost them more, they would make more use of it than they do.
   IV. What is it to buy the truth? The price is yourselves. Ye must lay down yourselves at the altar of truth, and be offered up as sacrifice for it. You must offer up your understandings, your wills, and your affections. Give up your prejudices. Cast away all malice to the truth, all distasting of it, all averseness to it. What helps does the God of truth afford us for the obtaining of the truth?
5. Meditation, or fixing of our thoughts upon the truth.
6. Prayer, which draweth down grace.
7. Exercise and practice of those truths we learn. (A. Farindon, B.D.)

Buying the truth
Truth is but one, and it is in God, and of God; nay, it is God Himself. This truth is from Him conveyed into divers things, which are therefore termed true. The Word is the truth, because God is the author of it; because inspired men wrote it; because Christ confirmed it; and because the Spirit of Truth interprets it. Buying includes a desire of the commodity; a repairing to the place where it is set to sale; a skill to discern and know the goodness of it; giving a price proportionable to the value of it; and a storing of it up for necessary uses. (S. Hieron.)

The birthright of truth
I. Truth is a matter of purchase. Truth is, in itself, one, perfect, and eternal. To us it is a growing and increasing treasure. The truth we consider is that which has been delivered down to us through the Scriptures. We get truth by having the eye ever open to observe it; by reading, meditation, and conversation.
II. Truth must not be sold. Amongst other shrines at which we shall be tempted to sell the truth is—

1. The commercial spirit of the day. We are tempted by the mode in which the arrangements of the kingdom of Christ are compelled to make way for the arrangements of this world. This absorption of mind by the spirit of earthly gain gives little time for religious exercises, and breeds an inclination to extol certain business virtues.
2. Men sacrifice the truth on the altar of narrow-minded exclusiveness in the application of the privileges and blessings of truth. Truth is lost in sectarianism.
3. There is peril for truth in the spirit of rationalism that is abroad. (E. Monro.)

The price of truth
I. What it costs to know truth. By truth we mean, an agreement between an object and our idea of it. We want to know, What is moral truth? What is universal truth? To attain it, take seven precepts. Be attentive. Do not be discouraged at labour. Suspend your judgment. Let prejudice yield to reason. Be teachable. Restrain your avidity of knowing. In order to edify your mind, subdue your heart.
II. The worth and advantages of truth.

1. It will open to you an infinite source of pleasure.
2. It will fit you for the various employments to which you may be called in society.
3. It will free you from many disagreeable doubts about religion.
4. It will render you intrepid at the approach of death. (E. Monro)

The sale of truth
“Sell not the truth” means—

1. Do not lose the disposition of mind, the aptness to universal truth, when ye have acquired it.
2. It reproves those mercenary souls who trade with their wisdom and sell it, as it were, by the penny.
3. By selling may be understood, betraying truth. To betray truth is, through any sordid motive, to suppress, or to disguise, things of consequence to the glory of religion, the interest of a neighbour, or the good of society.
   There are six orders of persons who may sell truth—
4. The courtier.
5. The indiscreet zealot.
6. The apostate.
7. The judge.
8. The politician.
9. The pastor. (E. Monro.)

Buy the truth
The meaning of the exhortation seems to be, that we should endeavour to acquire that happy disposition of soul which will make us give to every question the time and attention it deserves; to every proof its due force; to every difficulty its full weight; and to every advantage its true value. But this disposition cannot be had for nought; it must be acquired by attention and toil: it must be bought by the sacrifice of dissipation and of indolence. We can easily observe in what narrow bounds the mind of man is confined; how defective its powers are, and how limited their operations. If, therefore, when it is necessary to consider some combined proposition, we do not bestow upon it proportionable attention, we shall infallibly overlook some of its properties, and, consequently, our conclusion will be partial and absurd. This reasoning is confirmed by invariable experience: for every man may remember some things which have appeared false or true, certain or doubtful, according to the hurry or the attention with which he examined them. To acquire this habitual attention is commonly a toilsome work, and therefore demands the sacrifice of our indolence. The labour of the mind is evidently more wearisome than that of the body: for we may see the greatest part of mankind submitting without repugnance to the heaviest bodily toil, rather than suffer that which is mental. This labour, however, is surmountable; and, like all others, by custom, may be rendered easy. Exercise is therefore necessary to acquire the faculty of continued attention, which, when once acquired, will enable us to compare the most sublime ideas, and to investigate the most abstruse parts of knowledge. Then shall we reckon as nothing the sacrifices we have made; and the truth, when we have obtained it, will never be deemed too dear. It will open to us a fruitful source of pleasures; it will form us to fill with propriety our different employments; it will rid us of all troublesome scruples; and render us intrepid at the approach of death. The placid and serene pleasures of the intellect are beyond comparison sweeter than those which are excited merely by the gross organs of sense, or by the more turbulent passions of the soul. And if the pleasure of advancing in human knowledge be very great, as it is universally allowed to be, what charms must accompany the attainment of that knowledge which concerns the things of immortality! It is in retirement that our attention can exert its full force, and consider religion in all its views. Truth will enable us, besides, to fill with propriety the different employments to which we are called in society. A man who has cultivated his mind will distinguish himself in every station; and a man whose way of thinking is erroneous or futile, will in every station be pitied or despised. Truth will, moreover, free us from every importunate and troublesome scruple. “To be tossed about with every wind of doctrine” is a most violent situation; and yet it is a situation which none can avoid, except those who are seriously engaged in the study of truth, or those who are utterly insensible. Finally, the value of truth appears in the serenity which it procures at the approach of death. The famous story of Cato Uticensis is well known. Having resolved to quit this world, he wished much to be assured that there was another. For this purpose he read over attentively Plato’s book concerning the immortality of the soul; and the reasonings of that philosopher satisfied him so fully, that he died with the greatest tranquillity. He saw beyond the grave another Rome, where tyranny could have no dominion, where Pompey could be no more oppressed, and Caesar could triumph no more. So long as the soul fluctuates between light and darkness, between persuasion and doubt; so long as it has only presumptions and probabilities in favour of religion; it is nearly impossible to behold death without dread; but the Christian who is enlightened, confirmed, and strengthened, being raised above its power, is secure from all its terrors. If Cato the heathen could brave this terrible king, what would not Cato the Christian have done? (A. Macdonald.)

Buy the truth
I. The value and importance of truth. Were it a matter of equal and unavailing indifference whether we embraced truth or error, what advantages could be derived from the culture of education, from the progress of learning, or the discoveries of knowledge? Were this maxim once admissible, the untutored heathen, and the enlightened Christian would be completely on a level. Were truth of no importance to the security, the welfare, and the happiness of mankind, what occasion is there for the deep researches of philosophers, for the ardent zeal of theologians, and for the wearisome labours of the real student? But in the awful concerns of religion, where the salvation of the soul is at stake, the value and importance of truth rises in an infinite proportion!
II. In what manner we must buy it. Solomon does not intimate in my text at what rate we must buy the truth, because we cannot buy it too dear. We may be said, then, to buy the truth when we devote our earthly riches to the attainment and diffusion of Christian knowledge. For it has been well remarked, “Riches should be employed for the getting knowledge rather than knowledge for the getting riches.” We also buy the truth when we pay attention to the means of obtaining it. Thus, when we diligently search the Holy Scriptures, and make them our chief study, when we pray to God in secret, and when we strictly regard the ordinances of the gospel, we then bestow some pains to know the truth.
III. The danger and guilt of selling it. (
John Grose, M.A.)

The practical value of opinions
There is hardly anything so plain in respect to human duty, that a wrong state of moral feeling may not cause it to be doubted, or even to be denied. It is an every-day occurrence to hear the value of truth disputed. The usual form is this—“It is no matter what a man believes if his life is only right.” The assertion sounds familiar and trite, yet on examination it will appear to be one of the most glaring and self-evident of falsehoods. To act right without knowledge is hardly less a practicable thing than to see without the proper organs. Consider what is necessary to be done in order to prove the position true that it is no matter what a man believes on religious subjects if his life be right. It must be shown either—

1. That there are no certain truths pertaining to religion; or else—
2. That these truths have no necessary connection with the conduct of men; or—
3. That the consequences of their conduct, whether right or wrong, will be the same. Our conclusion is, that it is not to be expected that the conduct, the lives of men, will be materially better than their opinions; by opinions understanding the actual living convictions of their minds. It is therefore an imperative duty to set a high value upon truth in our religious thinking. Religious opinions should not only be firmly fixed; they should also be right opinions. (R. Palmer, D.D.)

Buy the truth, and sell it not
In every subject there is a “truth” somewhere. The original of “truth”—the mould in which it is all first cast—must be the mind of God. But, how do these great archetypes of the mind of God reach and impress themselves upon the mind of man? First, God has given us revelation to be their reflector. But because the most important “truth” of all truths to us is how a sinner can be saved—how a just God can forgive a rebel—therefore, as Christians, we generally call the gospel “the truth.” And well it deserves the name! But the teaching of one who had a right to speak, from the largest experience, perhaps, that any man had, is, that “truth” is hard to get and difficult to retain. “Buy the truth, and sell it not.” And what is the cost of “truth”? You must get out of the littlenesses and narrownesses of party feeling. You must go high enough to have large views of things. Next, you must feel and act as an infant in intellect, being conscious of weakness and ignorance—even in your strongest point; willing to be taught. Whatever your talent may be, you can never purchase “truth” but by fag. There must be a real expenditure of hard work. And you must build up carefully, accurately, systematically; taking nothing for granted. And your prayers must not be easy, common-place things. But now, I would suppose that the contract is complete, and that, with the necessary expenditure—much effort and much prayer—you have bought the “truth,”—some “truth”—little it may be, but real and genuine. Let me give you a caution. “Truth” is a precious treasure. But where there is, a treasure there the robbers will come! And they will come very deceptively. Not by force, but by artifice. And they will pretend to “buy.” But the bargain is ruinous! For it is one thing to “buy,” and it is another thing to “sell”; and men often will give us very little for that for which we have given a great deal! It will be a bad bargain if you sell “truth” at any price. But many things will lure you. It may be a little love of making an excitement, which will tempt you to exaggerate the “truth”; and if you exaggerate it, you have well-nigh lost it. Or it may be a love of popularity, which makes you wish to please every one with whom you are, and therefore to accommodate your views to everybody; and you pare off a little on the one side, and you add a little on the other side, till the whole shape and character is changed, and the “truth” comes out no “truth” at all. Or it may happen that “truth,” which you feel to be “truth,” stands in the way of your worldly interest, and you are tempted to sacrifice it on the altar of fame or mammon. Or the prejudices of your social position, or your professional ideas, lead you to view and present “truth” under such a medium as shall altogether misrepresent and well-nigh pervert it. Or mere indolence may creep over you, and you may give away to carelessness what you once obtained by so great an outlay! And it often takes as much to keep “truth” as it does to get it. A little worldliness, a little frittering of pleasures, will enervate the very fibre of “truth.” And still more and more solemnly, one vice can emasculate all “truth.” If a man continue in sin, the “truth” must go. (J. Vaughan, M.A.)

Bartering for eternity
Some of the characteristics of a wise spiritual merchant.

1. He will not neglect to take an account of stock.
2. He will be on his guard against burglars.
3. He will watch the state of the markets.
4. He will be careful to get a profit out of everything that passes through his hands.
5. He will not take any unnecessary risks. (T. De Witt Talmage, D.D.)

The preciousness of the truth
This statement is not to be understood in a literal or commercial sense. Following the figure that is here used, see—
I. That the truth ought to be carefully examined. No wise man buys an article without looking very closely into it. There is no good thing but has its counterfeits and imitations. The article we are here advised to purchase is admitted to be the most valuable of all things, and it is therefore the last thing that should be taken on trust. That it is liable to be perverted and debased we all know. The great Teacher did not require His hearers to take His declarations upon trust. He courted and even demanded inquiry. The principle of private judgment may be abused.
II. The truth has to be appraised. A careful estimate of its value has to be formed. It is offered only on one condition—the sacrifice, or at least the free surrender of all we have.
III. To complete the transaction we must close with the terms on which article is offered. The truth is a system of doctrine and discipline, which needs to be carefully studied, thoroughly grasped, and diligently improved.
IV. The truth can never be sold, except at a serious loss. It may be sold or sacrificed—

1. From a spirit of mere cowardice.
2. From a feeling of false charity and selfish complaisance.
3. By being accommodated to what is called “the spirit of the age.” (Walter M. Giloray, D.D.)

The important purchase and prohibited sale
I. The commodity recommended. “The truth.”

1. There is doctrinal truth.
2. There is experimental truth.
3. There is practical truth.
   II. The counsel given. “Buy the truth.” To obtain the truth we must—
4. Come to the mart of truth.
5. Sacrifice the hindrances to truth.
6. Employ the means truth recommends.
   III. Let this purchase be urged by several considerations.
7. From your absolute need of it.
8. From the free and easy mode of its acquisition.
9. From its essential worth. When possessed it must be retained.
   IV. By whom is the truth sold.
10. By the mercenary minister.
11. By the temporising professor.
12. By the false speaker.
13. By the flatterer.
14. By the backslider.
    V. Reasons why we should not sell the truth. (J. Burns, D.D.)

The cost of religion
The Bible contains the truth which we have to buy. He that has a religion that has cost him nothing has a religion that is worth nothing. You cannot be religious without some sacrifice. It costs less in early than in later life. (E. Birch, M.A.)

The nature and importance of truth
I. What truth is. By truth, I mean a right apprehension of all those things which tend to promote the happiness of mankind. This includes the idea of all virtuous and religious obligations. Truth, in its utmost latitude, relates to a variety of things which are matters of mere speculation only; and these may afford some pleasure to men of deep thought and learning. But that truth which is the object of all men’s concern has a more immediate respect to happiness. And this consists in a right knowledge of religion and virtue. This shines in practice more than in speculation. Other truths may please the ear, and soothe the fancy; but this improves the judgment, and mends the heart.
II. We should use all proper means to obtain the knowledge of truth. It is absolutely requisite that a man should first know, before he can rightly do, what is good; and therefore if the soul of man be ignorant of truth, it must at the same time be destitute of virtue; and if it be destitute of virtue, it is utterly incapable of happiness. Nor is the search after truth less pleasant than profitable. For, in the course of our inquiry, we must contemplate God, nature, and ourselves. In contemplating the Divine Being, what a spacious field of pleasure lies open to the mind! What noble transports must the soul feel from a view of Him, who is the fountain of perfection; in whom dwells beauty, knowledge, truth, wisdom, virtue, and all moral excellence! In the contemplation of nature, we see as it were in perspective an infinite variety of beautiful appearances, and relations of things to each other; all which serve to fill the mind with the most pleasing ideas of beauty, order, and harmony. And in the survey of ourselves we may observe a curious machine consisting of various springs and movements, each of which contributes some pleasure or advantage either to ourselves or others. Again, truth is the most beautiful, as well as pleasant. For all “beauty is truth. Thus, in architecture true proportions make the beauty of a building. In music, true measures make the beauty of harmony; and in poetry, which deals so much in fable, truth still is the foundation: for all fiction is no longer pleasing than while it bears a resemblance with truth.” And so, in like manner, the beauty of actions, affections, and characters arises from honesty and moral truth. For what can be more beautiful than just sentiments, graceful actions, regular passions, and agreeable behaviour? Thus nature itself leads to virtue, and truth has a kind of moral magic in it which charms irresistibly. Who, then, would refuse at any rate to purchase the knowledge of truth, which is so pleasant, so beautiful, so advantageous? But in this honest way of merchandising truth, and in all our researches after it, great care must be taken that we are not imposed upon either by ignorant or designing men. Falsehood often courts us under the appearance of truth, as some sort of glittering stones will counterfeit true diamonds. Thus, among some professors of Christianity, superstition counterfeits the name of religion, and many idle ceremonies pass current instead of pure substantial virtue. To prevent this, we should study human nature, and the nature of God, so far as He is discovered to us by the light of reason and revelation.
III. When by our faithful endeavours we have gained the truth the text suggests to us, we should upon no consideration part with it. “Buy the truth, and sell it not.” If truth be of so great importance as to have virtue, religion, and even happiness depend upon it, what wise man would ever part with it? For can any equivalent be given for the loss of it? And why should we exchange a greater for a lesser good? In our journey through this world we meet with many rugged ways and difficulties. But truth will lead us safely through all into the wished-for haven. All worldly goods are imperfect and of short duration; but truth is eternal in its original, and will never fail to give complete satisfaction to all who persevere in it. But you will ask, When may we be said to part with the truth? We part with it whenever we let any interest, prejudice, or passion prevail over us, contrary to the dictates of right reason. As, therefore, we value our greatest interest, let us honestly endeavour to know the truth; and let us apply ourselves to all proper means for this purpose, such as reading, conversation, and prayer to God. The same honest diligence which is used in learning other arts and sciences will bring us to the knowledge of all that truth which is necessary for any to know. And God requires no more of us than what our respective capacities and opportunities will allow. (N. Ball.)

The merchandise of truth
I. The valuable commodity requisite for human life. Truth is that commodity which feeds the moral life.

1. It is of universal comprehension.
2. It is of common necessity and fitness.
3. It is a thing of common end in life.
4. It is the crown and complement of life.
   II. The commerce of truth.
5. One compartment in the market of truth is acquaintance and fair dealing with ourselves.
6. Communion with the Father of our spirit.
7. Study of the works and words of God.
8. Acquaintance with humanity.
9. Christian means and provision.
   Truth is cheap at any cost. One condition in the pursuit of truth is a high and holy motive. Another is right use of our powers and opportunities. A third is seeking and following the best. A fourth is submission to the Divine will. Another is perseverance; and another faith.
   III. The conservative Duty. It is easy in the sale, but difficult to buy. Nothing can compensate for its absence. The sale of truth always means an unjust bargain. (T. Hughes.)

Truth should be purchased, but never sold
I. The truth is a precious thing. “Buy the truth.” What is truth? It is reality. In contradistinction to all that is fictitious and false.

1. Reality in relation to the chief good. What a number of false theories there are concerning human dignity and human happiness. Truth is the reality of these.
2. Reality in relation to personal conduct. There are hollow men, sham men. Truth makes men real. Brings their conceptions into perfect accord with eternal facts, and their personal conduct into perfect accord with their conceptions. Christ is embodied truth. The preciousness of this truth may be estimated by the influence it has exerted on the race. Intellectual truth is precious, moral truth is more precious, redemptive truth is more precious than all.
   II. Truth to be obtained must be purchased. It can only be purchased by—
3. Study.
4. Devotion.
5. Labour.
6. Self-surrender.
   III. Truth once purchased should never be sold. “Sell it not.” Truth can be sold. Judas sold it. It can be sold for power, for fame, for worldly pleasure, etc. “Sell it not.” If you sell it, you sell your moral usefulness. You sell your self-respect. You sell your power of conscience. You sell your dignity. Hold it as Daniel, Stephen, and Paul held it. (Homilist.)

The highest commerce
I. The importance of acquiring the truth.

1. We should make diligent search for it.
2. We should be willing to sacrifice and surrender all for it.
3. Again, truth must be obeyed in order to be made our own.
   II. The importance of retaining the truth. “Sell it not.” We should not part with it.
4. Because of its intrinsic value.
5. Because it does not rise and fall in value like other things. The markets of this world are for ever fluctuating, etc. Truth is ever the same.
6. Because it can be appropriated or made our own as nothing else can. “A man’s life (well-being) consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” Worldly goods are of no value to a man when the last hour comes. But true religion will go with him into adversity, into affliction, and will comfort him even in death. (D. Morgan.)

Truth cannot be disposed of without injury
Truth is not like a watch-seal, which a man can dispose of without any injury to his character. It is a vital element of character, and thus of happiness; and he who barters it for anything, will soon realise that he has not only sacrificed the greater for the less, but given up the chief thing in human nobility and joy. (T. Carlyle.)

Proverbs 23:25
Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.
Filial piety
Respect and love for parents are not, indeed, the motives which operate with the greatest force upon minds renewed by the Spirit of grace and truth. With such the most powerful incentives to action are those which derive their origin from the relation we sustain to God, the author of life and salvation. It is sometimes the case that an ingenuous youth is more influenced by the recollection of the counsels of a departed father or mother than he would have been by the same counsels had that father or mother not been taken from him; and never, in any circumstances, does filial piety appear more lovely and attractive.
I. Cultivate a reverence for parental counsels and authority. At no period of their lives are young persons so tempted to disregard parental authority as when they are passing from boyhood to manhood. They are desirous to be thought independent, and capable of directing themselves. They become impatient of restraint, and the advice even of parents whom they both reverence and love is often irksome. Better show your claim to be considered youths of a truly noble and independent spirit by always daring to do what is right, and by always yielding due obedience to parental commands. Despise not a mother’s fears, however unfounded they may be. Be it your aim to remove them, not by maintaining that there is no ground for them, but by reverently receiving her admonitions, and conforming yourself to them.
II. Seek with all earnestness after truth. To how many a father and mother it would be as life from the dead could they be assured that you were all earnestly seeking the pearl of great price, ready and desirous to purchase it at any cost—at any sacrifice! But do not be indifferent to other truth, truths of physical, ethical, or political science. And always keep to truth as opposed to falsehood, dissimulation, and hypocrisy. The commands of God, the social interests of men, the very existence of civil society, call for an unwavering adherence to truth. Attend also to truth in the sense of fidelity, sincerity, and punctuality in keeping promises.
III. Seek after “wisdom, instruction, and understanding.” These different terms were employed not so much for the purpose of exact discrimination, as to indicate the earnestness with which they should be sought. Be it your aim to make all possible advances in both human and Divine knowledge, but especially in the latter.
IV. Seek the company of the wise and good, selecting for associates only those who are distinguished for sobriety of conduct. Your associations, of whatever kind they be, cannot fail to exert an influence over you. If your companions be the wise and good, you cannot but receive advantage from the connection.
V. Be careful in your choice of books. Such is the constitution of our minds that everything we read makes an impression upon them. As is your reading so are you.
VI. Cherish virtuous sentiments and virtuous habits. That your sentiments may be virtuous, you must give yourselves to the study of virtue. (John Maclean, D.D.)

Proverbs 23:26
My son, give Me thine heart.
The heart a gift for God
I. Love prompts this request of wisdom.

1. Only love seeks after love. We care not to be loved by those whom we do not love. When God asks human love it is because God is love. It is an instance of infinite condescension that God should say, “My son, give Me thine heart.” The Great Benefactor becomes Himself the petitioner. It must be because of the great love of God that He condescends to put Himself into such a position.
2. It can only be supreme love which leads wisdom to seek after the heart of such poor things as we are. Wisdom must be of a most condescending kind. Only infinite love would come a-wooing to such hearts as ours. For what has God to gain? He is too great for us to make Him greater, too good for us to make Him better, too glorious for us to make Him more illustrious. He can gain nothing—we gain everything by the gift. Yet He does gain a son.
   II. Wisdom persuades us to obey this loving request. To take our hearts and give them up to God is the wisest thing that we can do.
3. Many others crave our hearts, and our hearts will surely go one way or the other. It is well to guard your heart with all the apparatus that wisdom can provide.
4. Wisdom urges to immediate decision, because it is well to have a heart at once occupied and taken up by Christ.
   III. Let us be wise enough at once to attend to this admonition of wisdom. When? At once. How? Freely. Do it thoroughly. You cannot give Christ a piece of a heart, for a heart that is halved is killed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The heart for God
Here thou art a giver, God the petitioner, thy heart the gift which He claimeth by the name of a son. Once God required offerings and sacrifices which men were unwilling to give, because it was a dear service of God; but now He saith that the heart is more than all burnt-offerings and sacrifices. Thy alms to the poor, thy counsel to the simple, thy inheritance to thy children, thy tribute to Caesar, but thy heart to God. Not a piece of thy heart, not a room in thy heart, but thy heart. Some have a double heart, but God acknowledgeth only one heart. God doth not require the heart as though He required no more but the heart. The heart carrieth the whole man with it. There is much strife for the possession of man’s heart. Unless we feel that we owe it to God we shall but give it against our will. The wise man, picking out the heart for God, spake as though he would set out the pleasantest, and fairest, and easiest way to serve Him, without any grudging or toil or weariness. Touch but the first link, all the rest will follow; so set the heart a-going, and it is like the poise of a clock, which turns all the wheels one way. God’s requiring the heart showeth that all the things of this world are not worthy of it, or even a piece of it. We should serve God for Himself, and not for ourselves, as he which gives his heart doth all for love. God challengeth the heart by the name of a Son. Therefore now ask your hearts whose they are, and how they are moved with these words. What shall become of hearts when He who craves them now shall judge them hereafter? (
H. Smith.)

The Divine request
I. The nature of this request. “Heart” is another term for “soul,” or the immortal part of man. The soul of man possesses certain powers or faculties, by which he is enabled to reason, judge, remember, choose, determine, and perform all the acts of rationality. To render the heart to God is—

1. To give the understanding to know and contemplate the Divine perfections. The understanding is the leading faculty in the human soul.
2. To offer Him the will. Every man possesses a self-determining power.
3. To surrender the affections to Him. This giving of the heart must be done, in an entire dependence on Divine aid; promptly, cheerfully, entirely, perpetually.
   II. The reasons for complying with the request.
4. Gratitude.
5. Fidelity. You have promised to do it, resolved to do it.
6. Justice. Every human being is emphatically the property of the Most High. God is the absolute, unalienable proprietor of all. In demanding your heart He asks for that to which He alone has right.
7. Safety. This depends on being in the holy keeping of God.
8. Self-interest. Here your duty and interest go hand in hand. Inferences:
   (1) That nothing will be acceptable with God where the heart is withheld.
   (2) That God uses all conceivable methods to induce men to give Him their hearts.
   (3) Everything in religion, on the part of man, must be voluntary. (R. Treffry.)

God’s appeal to man
I. The human heart is not by nature in God’s possession. This fact is sustained—

1. By man’s actions. Man’s actions in his unregenerated state prove that his heart is not under the control of the Divine. Man in this condition has no sympathy with the truths, realities, principles, and pleasures of the blessed gospel of God.
2. By the experience of the good of all ages.
3. By the testimony of God’s Word.
   II. God desires possession of the human heart. This desire of God—
4. Is founded on judicial ground. It is only right that God should have the heart. We are not our own; He who made us has an inalienable right to all we have and are. “He bought us with the precious blood of Christ.”
5. Is founded on filial relation—“My son, give Me thine heart.” God and man are near relations; man is the offspring of the Divine.
6. Is founded on God’s love to man. God’s love to man prompted Him to make this appeal. He desires his heart that He may enlighten it with His Spirit, cleanse it with the blood of His Son.
   III. God desires a willing possession of the human heart—“My son, give Me thine heart.” God says, “Give Me thine heart” wholly, voluntarily, unreservedly, gratefully, and believingly.
7. That God does not exercise compulsion on man’s will—“ Give Me thine heart.” God recognises man’s free agency.
8. The dignity of man recognised by God. Man’s consent is necessary.
9. The glory of the Divine character. If God would compel man to serve Him and surrender to Him his heart, his service would not render any glory to God; the service would be void of virtue. (J. O. Griffiths.)

God’s request and man’s duty
Take the words as those of a greater than Solomon.
I. Why does God make any request of man? God loves a voluntary offering, a willing surrender from such a creature as man. A man is able to disobey. God is pleased when man yields Him a hearty and willing obedience.
II. What is the request God makes of men. “Give Me thine heart.” Heart is another name for the affections, and the affections are as essential a part of every man as his intellect or his will. God says, “Give Me thy supreme love.” Here is a demand which few men comply with, which none in their natural state comply with. Men will give God everything except their hearts. This is a request concerning which some people stand in doubt whether they ought to comply with it.
III. Why does God make this request of man?

1. Because the heart is the most valuable thing we have.
2. Where the heart is given, everything else will follow.
3. The heart can never be happy until it is given to God. So that God makes this request not for any selfish reason, but in the greatest goodness, and the most God-like loving-kindness.
   IV. How does God make this request of man? In various ways. He does it by all the comforts of our present life. He does it by experience of the sorrows of life. In the Cross of Jesus this request is uttered. (Francis Tucker, B.A.)

Giving the heart
I. The command.

1. Its nature. “Thy heart”—the centre of thought and life.
2. Its extent. Includes the will, strength, love.
3. Its reasonableness.
   II. The obstacles.
4. Its singularity.
5. The tendency of human nature—to flee from, instead of drawing nigh to Him.
6. The world’s temptations.
7. The influence of Satan.
   III. Encouragements.
8. God’s love.
9. God’s invitation.
10. Our desolate condition.
    IV. Helps.
11. Earnestness.
12. Carefulness.
13. Jealous regard.
14. Prayer, and the means of grace. (Homilist.)

The Divine requisition
I. Explain the text.

1. Men do not naturally give their hearts to God.
2. God will not force us to comply with the demand.
3. To give the heart implies—
   (1) That we heartily renounce all that God has forbidden.
   (2) A hearty belief in the fulfilment of all the promises.
   (3) That we seek and cleave to God constantly as our portion.
   II. Enforce the text.
4. It is just and right.
5. Our interest requires it.
   III. Now, what answer will you give my Lord to the text?
6. “Oh,” say some, “I gave it long since. I am only sorry I did not give it before, and sorry I have so often backslidden in heart; but to whom shall I go?”
7. “Yes,” says another, “I desire and endeavour to do it; but what a struggle for life!” Do not despair; lift it up as thou art able, and “if darkness endure for a night, joy shall come in the morning”; the Lord is nigh thee; He can loosen thy heart. Look up—the day of redemption draweth nigh.
8. “Yes,” says another—“my heart? Do you desire that? Ask for my money, my tongue, my voice, my feet, my hands, anything and everything but that. It is otherwise engaged.” My Master has not left a power in my commission to compromise it; He will not take aught else.
9. “Yes,” says another, “by His help I will; it is right. I cannot be safe without, and it is kind He seeks it. But when? Tomorrow—to-night is impossible; in a very short time I will.” I doubt thou wilt perish for ever! (J. Summerfield, M.A.)

The surrender of the heart to God
I. The reason why the surrender of the heart is indispensably required.

1. Nothing less is worthy the acceptance of Him who knows the most hidden purposes of the mind.
2. God alone can satisfy the heart.
3. None but God can renew or sanctify the heart, and thereby prepare it for the holiness of heaven.
   II. In what manner this necessary command can be complied with.
   III. The happy effects that will follow from a prompt and universal obedience. The morality of the gospel is founded on the basis of gratitude and the efficacious principle of love to God. A sense of His pardoning love and favour will be the completion of our wishes, the source of our joys, and the very foretaste of heaven. (John Grose, M.A.)

On giving the heart to God
I. What is meant by giving God our heart. “Give Me all thine affections. Let Me be their object, let Me be the centre where they all meet. Give Me thy hope, thy fear, thy joy, thy desire, thy love, thy delight. Hate that which I hate; love what I command; desire what I promise. Rejoice in hope of My favour; fear My wrath; delight to do My will. Let all the powers of thy mind, under the influence of these affections, be given to Me. Let thine understanding be employed in comprehending and admiring My works, and ways; thy conscience in approving and disapproving according to My holy will; thy will in yielding an implicit conformity to Mine; thy memory in retaining the instructions and consolations of My Word.”
II. How reasonable it is to give God our heart. If a fellow-creature is entitled to our affections because of his moral excellences, how much more God, who possesses these excellences in infinite perfection!
III. How blessed it is to give God our heart.
IV. How important it is to give God our heart. Without giving the heart to God all our works are only varnished sins, splendid vices, pleasing abominations. And further, it is the giving of the heart to God that prepares us for a better world.
V. How we may be enabled to give God our heart. (Miles Jackson.)

The surrender of the heart to God
God is to exercise lordship over all the capacities and volitions of the soul; over all our spiritual, moral, and intellectual powers.
I. The nature, extent, and reasonableness of this command. It implies a clear and enlightened understanding of the things of God, especially the gospel method of salvation. The command is reasonable in view of the relations of God to us.
II. Difficulties in making this surrender. Such as affect the young. Temptations of young manhood. Trials and evils of school experience. Entering business. Forms of recreation. Directions:

1. Be in earnest.
2. If you have given God your heart take care what goes in and what comes out of it.
3. Look well to whom beside you give any share of your heart.
4. Beware of carelessness in secret devotion.
5. Keep up attendance on holy ordinances. (Daniel Moore, M.A.)

The gift of the heart to God (to young men)
The heart is never truly ours until we have given it away. Until we have put it in some hand, or laid it upon some altar, we never fully realise its possession, never feel its power, never know its capacities, never understand how profound are its wants, nor how sublime are its aspirations. No man can live an earnest, social, or spiritual life, and keep his heart unto himself. And sooner or later the heart will be given either to some purpose, or to some object, or to some idol, or to God. Because of this necessity in the heart to belong to some object, the clamour for it is great. The applicants positively throng up the path of life. Fashion is there, and Pleasure is there, and Fame is there, and Knowledge is there, and all that fascination and subtlety and loud-sounding promises can do they import into their appeals. But a voice of tenderness and authority speaks to us from above, “My son, give Me thine heart.” This appeals to us by the simple majesty of right. God’s right to the heart lies in this—

1. He created that heart. And His request tells us at once of God’s right and of man’s freedom.
2. He has bestowed, and is bestowing, continually upon it His care. Home and friendships, and the myriad bright hopes of life, testify that we have a Father in our God. God has been watching over your life, arranging with His wisdom and forethought and love the interests of your soul, and for all this care and anxious fatherhood, He asks this return, “My son, give Me thine heart.”
3. He has provided redemption for it. We are not our own, we are bought with a price. In asking for the heart God asks for that which controls the life—for your love, your supreme love, your undivided love. God does not want your service without your heart. Reasons why your heart should be given to God now:
   (1) Because God alone can justify it.
   (2) Because of the ten thousand snares which it will save you.
   (3) Because the longer the gift is delayed the less probable is it that it will be ever given at all. Let it be a definite act; on your part a solemn consecration. (Henry Wonnacott.)

God requires the heart
I. The relation. “My son.” He speaks here, and not to a stranger—to a son (Eph_2:19). A son, not a slave. A son; thou wert not always so (Eph_2:1-4; Eph_2:13; 1Jn_3:2). A son; therefore, in a way of gratitude and mutual affection, give thy heart to thy Father.
II. The manner of yielding up the heart to God. It is here expressed by a way of giving.

1. Give it cheerfully (2Co_9:7).
2. Presently (2Co_6:2; Heb_4:7).
3. Give it; do not lend it only. Many lend their hearts under a sermon, like those in Eze_33:32. God is pleased to call that a gift which indeed is a debt (Rom_8:12; Rom_12:1).
   III. To whom the heart must be given.
4. Not to the creature (Mat_10:37).
5. Not to the world (2Ti_4:10; 1Jn_2:15).
6. Not to Satan (Eph_2:2).
7. Not to sin (chap. 1:10).
8. Give it to Him who gave Himself for thee (Gal_2:20).
   IV. The gift itself. “The heart.”
9. Not the outward man only, not the body only: God dwells not so much in these temples as in broken and contrite spirits. He doth not here ask for the shell, but the kernel; not for the casket, but for the jewel.
10. Not in appearance, but in reality.
11. Not a part, but the whole. God is like the true mother (1Ki_3:26).
12. Give thine heart, i.e., all the powers and faculties of thy soul.
    To conclude:
13. Because it is His due. He is the maker, the purchaser (1Co_6:20); the spouse (Hos_2:19).
14. It is pleasing and acceptable to Him. He asks it; it is all thou canst give Him. It is a comprehensive gift. He that gives the heart will give all things (Rom_8:32).
15. All performances without the heart will be rejected (Amo_5:21-22).
16. Give thine heart to God: if it be a hard heart, He will make it new (Deu_30:6; Eze_36:26). (T. Hannam.)

First give the heart to God, and then delight will follow
Would it not be much more natural to reverse the order? First, learn to delight in God’s ways, and the more we rejoice in them the more easily we may learn to love Him, to give Him our heart. So it would seem love will grow out of delight. But how wise is God’s order! First the heart, then delight. For the second is, in reality, only possible when the first has been accomplished. Thousands strive to find pleasure in the ways of God, but because they have not yet given their heart to Him, because they still go their own ways, and God crosses those ways again and again, they only get as far as to bow their heads in a kind of dull resignation under some Divine visitation; but they never delight in all God’s ways; they never attain to a comforting hope which even in dark days does not cast away its confidence, and which has so great a reward. Oh, examine thyself, whence comes it that thou hast so often murmured at God’s ways, hast felt thyself hardly dealt with, and couldst not forgive Him that He did not lead thee by another way, that He took this away from thee and left that, when thou wouldst have chosen the contrary? It comes from this—thou hast not given thy whole heart to God! Only when thy heart shall rest in Him, and in His peace, will it be contented with all His dispensations. (T. Christlieb, D.D.)

Giving the heart to God a reasonable duty
Mankind are reasonable creatures, and the religion which God enjoins upon them is a reasonable service. But it has always been found extremely difficult to reason with men upon religious subjects. God here speaks with paternal affection and authority.
I. Explain the precept in the text.

1. It implies the exercising of love to God. To love, and to give the heart, signify the same thing.
2. It implies loving God for what He is in Himself. Men may love God for His favours, without loving His true character.
3. It implies loving God supremely. He is the Supreme Being, He possesses supreme natural, and moral excellences; and to love Him for these is to love Him supremely.
   II. The reasonableness of complying with this Divine injunction. Consider—
4. That we are the offspring of God.
5. He is infinitely worthy of the love of all mankind.
6. The conduct, as well as the character, of God makes giving Him our hearts reasonable.
7. This will afford us the highest happiness that we are capable of enjoying.
8. There is really nothing to hinder us from thus giving our hearts. Improvement:
   (1) It is reasonable that all men should be really religious.
   (2) Not reasonable to think hardly of God if He rejects services when hearts are withheld.
   (3) It is reasonable to exhort men to exercise supreme love to God immediately.
   (4) Every scheme of religion which keeps hearts from God is unreasonable.
   (5) It is most unreasonable to withdraw hearts from God when they have once been given. (N. Emmons, D.D.)

The hearts of young people demanded for God
The subject to consider is not the giving of your hearts to God, in opposition to hypocrisy and mere devotion, but the giving your hearts, that is, yourselves, to Him, preferably to all other competitors for your affection. Many will be courting your youthful affections, and endeavouring to engage your hearts to them—the world, the flesh, the devil, vain and wicked companions.
I. Who has the greatest claim to your hearts? Consider the equity and reasonableness of the demands of God, your Creator and Redeemer. Contrast with the pretensions of the devil, the world or the flesh.
II. Where may you bestow your hearts with the greatest advantage?

1. Suppose that the world and the flesh are able, at present, to make good their specious promises, what will come when the transitory pleasures are passed away?
2. Even with regard to this life, the advantage is far from being so much on their side as they would make you believe. The insinuations that religion will make you unhappy are mere calumnies that stand confuted by a thousand experiences to the contrary. The devil, the world, and the flesh promise you indeed riches, honour, and abundance of pleasures, but they promise what it is not in their power to give.
   Motives urging to the immediate surrender of the heart to God are—
3. This will be particularly acceptable to God and the Redeemer.
4. It will be singularly comfortable and advantageous to yourselves.
5. If you refuse God your hearts now, perhaps hereafter it will be too late to offer them.
6. Consider what the refusal of your hearts to God implies in it.
7. Think how you will answer your refusal at the great day. (John Oakes.)

The gift of the heart
If we would have any of our offerings find favour in the eyes of God our hearts must go with them. It is the heart which is challenged and demanded; withhold that, and you withhold all. The wise man uses the word “heart” in its fullest sense. Sometimes it only denotes some one particular faculty of the soul, the understanding or the will or the affections. Here it includes the whole mind, spirit, and soul. All these the Lord claims. This is a very comprehensive claim. The best way to comply with it is to identify God with everything which will bear contact with Him. Nothing will bear this contact but what He has constructed and ordained. A life thus controlled and regulated would be indeed a blessed and a model life. Nothing could take one whose life was thus regulated by surprise. God demands your heart that He may enlighten, convince, pardon, sanctify, keep, dignify, and save you. We press for this surrender on the ground of right, for your heart belongs to Him who challenges the surrender; on the ground of reason, for your heart was formed for Him who claims it; on the ground of gratitude, for no other has such claims on you. We might press it on the ground of self-interest. God is ready to take possession if you are ready to yield. Then give your heart to Him humbly, believingly, unreservedly, cheerfully, irrevocably. (A. Mursell.)

The gift for God
(to the young):—
I. What it means to give God our hearts.
II. Why we should give our hearts to God.

1. Because He has the best right to them.
2. Because He can make the best use of them. He can make them new. He can make them clean. He can make them happy. (R. Newton, D.D.)

A gift God asks
(to the young:—
I. God asking something. God who is continually giving to us all, is here asking for something.
II. From whom he asks it. Not from any’ one great, but from us.
III. What he asks. We could not give Him the things we have, for they are His already. He asks for yourself.
IV. Why he asks it. This you may learn from the name He gives you. “My son.” You are even by nature precious to God. (C. A. Salmond, M.A.)

Heart in religion
In this text God speaks to man and asks for his heart.
I. The Divine request.

1. Sincerity. A man is said to be sincere when he engages his heart in any work. And God asks for sincerity. He will not be satisfied with a bare profession.
2. Earnestness. When a man is in earnest about anything we say his heart is in it. So when God asks for the heart He means us to be in earnest. He hates indifference.
3. Entire devotion. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,” etc.
4. Delight. Whatever a man engages his heart in he is said to delight in. Some men set their heart upon earthly things, and find in them their chief delight.
   II. The nature of the request. “My son, give Me.”
5. It is an affectionate request. All God’s wooing breathes forth an air of affectionate regard for the welfare of man.
6. It is a reasonable request. (Homilist.)

Characteristics of a great love

1. It likes to be with the object of its affection.
2. There is the presence of a desire to serve the object of its affection. Love is tireless in ministry. It is always giving itself away.
3. It desires union with its object in thought, if not in body. Love never journeys unaccompanied by love.
4. The chief characteristic of love is its unselfishness. Is your love for God unselfish, or do you love Him only as a means of securing His favour? Your duty is to set yourself to apprehend God. To know Him is to love Him, and your not loving Him shows that you do not know Him. The question which concerns your highest happiness, here and hereafter, is not touching technicalities of creed, of ceremony, of intellectual interpretation of selected passages out of God’s Word. The supreme question is, Do you love God? (W. H. H. Murray.)

The heart given to God
I. Consider the question of right and justice. God demands you for Himself; the Lord Jesus Christ claims your heart. In opposition to them are ranged sin and Satan, the world and the flesh, the vain, the worldly, and the profligate. Can you hesitate as to the justice of these opposing claims? “Behold,” saith God, “My hands have made thee and fashioned thee. My visitation hath since preserved thy soul in life. Thou hast lived on the provisions of My bounty. Thou hast indeed provoked Me with thy sins, yet have I borne with thee. Nay, I have sent My only begotten Son to redeem and save thee.” Hear, also, the Lord Jesus Christ urge His claim upon you. “I left the bosom of My Father, and united Myself to flesh and blood, that I might suffer and die for thee, when thou wast lost beyond recovery by any human power.” And now what are the pretensions which the devil, the world, and the flesh can make to your affections that will admit for one moment to be set against these powerful claims? What have they done; what can they do for you? They deceive, they ensnare, they corrupt, they defile, they trouble, they ruin you; but they neither will nor can promote your real good.
II. Consider on whom you may bestow them with the greatest advantage. And here I must confess that the world and the flesh have more to say for themselves than under the former head. Right and title they have none at all; but they promise you much in the way of interest and advantage. Under their guidance, they tell you, you will enjoy a life of pleasure and ease, free from the restraints of religion; you will have unbounded liberty of conduct, and withhold your eyes from no joy; whereas religion is an irksome and melancholy service.

1. I will suppose, for the sake of argument, that the world and the flesh are able to make good all their promises. Delightful prospect! Yes, but how long is it to last? You are to enter into another world, and to appear at the bar of God, there to give an account of your conduct. Had you given your hearts to God, He would now have opened the kingdom of heaven to you, and given you a share in its everlasting pleasures. Your choice has been different, and you now reap the fruits of it. Is it, then, worth while to purchase the short-lived pleasures of sin at so dear a rate as this?
2. Supposing, therefore, that the world and the flesh were able to make good those promises by which they estrange your hearts from God, even then it would be the height of madness to listen to them. But this is far from being the case. On the contrary, the ways of religion will be found to be eminently ways of pleasantness, as well as its end peace. There is nothing truly desirable, even in this life which the servants of God are not as likely to partake of as any other persons whatsoever. Religion is friendly to health, and, generally speaking, to reputation. The idea, therefore, that religion tends to make men unhappy is a mere calumny. The truth is, the devil, the world, and the flesh promise you what it is not in their power to give. For even the good things of this life are distributed by the providence of God, and without His leave you cannot enjoy the meanest comfort. But if you give your hearts to God, He will certainly bestow as much of those things upon you as His wisdom knows to be best for you. Since, then, the cause of piety has thus plainly the advantage, you will be inexcusably blind to your own interest if you give not your hearts to God. Thus, if God spare your lives, you will be fitted to be eminently useful in the world; or if you die at an early age, you will be prepared to meet death, and to bid it welcome. Consider what the refusal of your hearts to God implies. You in effect say, “I dislike His service; I disown His title to me; I can place my affections on better objects; I desire to have nothing to do with God.” This is the plain language of your conduct. (Christian Observer.)

And let thine eyes observe My ways.—
Observation
Observation is the earliest preceptor of infants, and the grown-up man’s every-day guide. The infant learns to prattle, and to utter those sounds so endearing to its parents, by hearing those around it repeat them; it observes the sounds, and imitates them. We cannot learn from nature except by observation. She has indeed a voice which speaks loudly and continuously to the ears of all who will listen. She has a school in which all who will may learn. It was observation in Newton which led to the discovery of the laws of gravitation. He observed the apple fall, and reasoned on it. But, had he not observed the falling body, he might never have discovered what is so useful for us to know. It was observation on the part of Galvani’s wife which led to the knowledge of galvanism and electricity. She observed the legs of some frogs to twitch, on which her husband was experimenting. She marked the fact and the result was the discovery of that useful and all-pervading agency, electricity. The value of the discovery has of late been more forcibly impressed on us by the successful laying of the Atlantic telegraph, by which distant countries, separated by seas of vast extent and great depth, are brought into almost momentary connection. It was observation which led to the discovery of glass. Sand and flint were accidentally melted together on the seashore, and the result was a transparent substance which we call glass, and which in cold countries like our own is so invaluable in lighting our homes, while the chilly air is kept outside. It was observation on the part of the architect, Smeaton, which led to the successful building of the Eddystone lighthouse. Two buildings had been previously erected on that fatal rock; the one was burnt, and the other blown down. He observed that the form of the oak-tree seemed the strongest in nature. He acted on this, and built the lighthouse after the model of an oak-tree’s trunk. Its continuance for so many years proves the truth of his deduction. (Church of England Magazine.)

Proverbs 23:29-35
They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
The woes of the drunkard
The ugly sketch given here should be enough to warn all young people against tampering with a vice which may make it a portrait of them. The questions, six in number, fall into three pairs, which deal respectively with the man’s feelings of discomfort, his relations with others, and his physical sufferings. Who is the original of this foul picture of degradation and misery? The answer is keenly sarcastic. It is the man who “lingers long over the wine.” The loss of the power of self-control is indicated in the term. If we would only realise the “afterwards” of any vice, we should turn from it with dread. The misfortune is, that we do not look an inch beyond the present pleasure. Note three degrading effects of drunkenness.

1. The effect in deceiving the senses and lowering the moral tone.
2. The common sense, the instinct of self-preservation, ordinary prudence, and the sense of the fitness of things, are suspended.
3. The last piece of degradation is given, for greater liveliness of impression, in the form of the drunkard’s own soliloquy. He feels himself all over as he begins to rouse from his tipsy sleep, and pities himself that he has been so badly handled. He is waking, but he is not yet himself. As he staggers back into consciousness, the first thing that he thinks of is a renewal of his debauch. The awful tyranny of the evil habit, which has become a diseased second nature, is only too well known. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)

Returning from evil ways
The first difficulty in the way of return for the intemperate, who have got on the wrong tack, is the force of moral gravitation. It is easier to go down than it is to go up. The next thing is the power of evil habit. If a man wants to return from evil practices, society repulses him. How may these obstacles be overcome?

1. Throw yourself on God.
2. Quit all your bad associations.
3. Seek Christian advice. If you have a Christian friend, go to him. (T. De Witt Talmage, D.D.)

Against intemperance
As implied in this passage this indicates the tendency of human nature.

1. The moral degradation of intemperance. It is the destruction of everything manly and noble in human nature.
2. The physical degradation. Corruption in the heart works out its marks upon the face and in the manners. A distinguished German authority has given the scientific degradation resulting upon the generations succeeding the victim of the drink habit.
3. The social degradation. Intemperance as an evil reaches the state. Nine-tenths of the crimes of society result from, or are abetted by, drink. This theme is a warning. Directly and indirectly, the appeal is made to all who come within the sound of its voice. (
   D. O. Mears.)

Drunkenness
I. The evils of drunkenness.

1. Sorrow (Pro_23:29). Drink has probably broken more hearts than any other thing. It is taken to drown sorrow, but, alas! it creates it.
2. Folly. “Babbling”—a profanation of the sacred gift of speech, and as such is to be avoided (1Ti_6:20).
3. Disease. “Wounds.” Look in at the hospitals. Read the medical reports.
4. Disfigurement. “Redness cf the eyes.”
5. Waste of time. “Tarry long.”
6. Dissatisfaction. “Yet again” (Pro_23:35). Drink creates an insatiable appetite for itself.
7. Insensibility. “Felt it not” (Pro_23:35). The nerves of the drunkard are benumbed, and nature’s monitors are impaired. Physical insensibility is followed by moral insensibility (Eph_4:19).
8. Uncleanness. Drink fires the passions, and gives the “strange women” (Pro_23:33) their best opportunities.
9. Exposure to danger (Pro_23:34).
   II. The remedy for drunkenness (verse31). It is very simple. Abstain from strong drink—don’t even look at it. Temptation sometimes enters through the eye. But beyond and above all look to Jesus for deliverance from this and every other form of evil. (H. Thorne.)

Pleasant vices dangerous
Gas is a great spoiler of the air; but it has the merit of giving timely warning of the danger by the horrible smell which accompanies its escape. This smell is perceptible when there is only one part in a thousand parts of air; becomes very offensive when the proportion Isa_1:1-31/750 or 1/500, and is almost insupportable as the proportion increases. If the gas has escaped from a crack in the pipes, and been allowed to mingle with the air in which a free circulation by ventilation is possible, so that the proportion of gas amounts to 1/11, it explodes on the introduction of a candle. But the reason why this catastrophe so seldom occurs is because the smell of gas is so utterly offensive that the evil demands and receives proper attention long before it reaches danger point. This fact illustrates very well a great truth in the moral world, namely, that when evil is offensive in itself its danger to the community is slight. In exact ratio to the pleasantness of vice is the danger to be apprehended from it. (Scientific Illustrations.)

A temperance topic

1. The use of intoxicating drinks is financially unbusinesslike. It keeps men in poverty, and they keep their families is the deepest want.
2. It destroys self-respect.
3. It defiles the body.
4. It destroys life.
5. It enfeebles the mind.
6. It breaks down the will.
7. It obliterates heart and conscience.
8. It destroys souls. Let us use our every influence to correct this evil. (G. B. F. Hallcock.)

On the sin of drunkenness
I. The causes which lead to it.

1. Example. Seeing others in this state, and imitating them without being aware of the results which will follow.
2. Evil associations. We cannot be too careful in selecting our associates.
3. Afflictions of a peculiar kind, especially mental, and those produced by disappointment.
4. The ease with which liquor is procured.
   II. Some of the evils attendant upon drunkenness.
5. Babbling. Owing to temporary deprivation of the use of reason.
6. Contentions. The man acts like a madman.
7. Wounds without cause.
8. Redness of eyes.
   III. The consequences resulting from this sin. Woe and sorrow.
9. From the consumption of his property.
10. From the loss of his reputation.
11. From the decay of his health.
12. From the injury done to his family.
13. From the loss of his immortal soul.
    IV. The duty of avoiding the sin of drunkenness. Think not that it will do you good, but reflect on the consequences to which it leads, so abominable in the sight of God, so injurious to yourselves and those around you, and so hateful in the estimation of all those who truly reflect. (E. Miller, M.A.)

Drunkenness
The Bible considers intemperance in all its phases, and shows that, with all other sins, it springs from a sinfulness which is common to mankind, and shows that the true remedy for it, as for all sins, lies in the deliverance Divinely provided for the sinfulness which is their root.
I. The drunkard’s condition is described. Woes and sorrows, strifes and anxieties, wounds and diseases, deadened perceptions and a destroyed will, mingle in this awful picture. Here is disclosed a general wreck of manhood.

1. Physical evils. Alcohol vitiates the blood and fills it with poisonous humour. The changes produce gross and enfeebled bodies, diseases of the heart, lungs, and other organs, and a constant waste of physical powers.
2. Mental evils. Alcohol directly affects the brain. It creates an unnatural brilliancy of intellect. But this brief advantage is purchased at the cost of the mind itself. Other effects on the mind seriously deteriorate a man’s progeny. Drink destroys not only the mind of the drunkard, but also the mind of his offspring.
3. Moral and spiritual evils. Drunkenness inflames the passions. It leads to contentions. It is the great cause of crime. It destroys self-control and thus overthrows the citadel of manhood.
   II. The steps by which men become drunkards. Alcohol is first taken in its simplest, as wine, beer, cider. At first it is taken only occasionally, and at the invitation of others. Literature lends its voice to enticing temptations. Those who allow themselves to acquire the habit of drinking make that which they hate a part of themselves.
   III. The way to avoid being a drunkard. Let alcohol alone. Keep in view that the woes of drink come from an indulgence that was moderate in the beginning. No temptation to drink is more dangerous than that which makes it a sign of good-fellowship. Total abstinence is the only safe ground to stand upon. But the Christian will do more than hold himself in safety. The Christian must give all the weight of his influence, by example, word, and action, as a Christian, a neighbour, and a citizen, against this evil. (Monday Club Sermons.)

Against intemperance
I. The delusiveness of this sin. Call no pleasure pleasurable until you have asked what the cost is to be.
II. The traits of disposition resulting from wine-drinking.

1. The drunkard is contentious.
2. He is a discontented man.
3. He loses his mind.
4. He is a reckless man.
   III. The results of drinking are in part suggested.
5. The speech of the drunkard is bad.
6. The body is harmed by drink.
7. The drunkard tends to become possessed of all evil desires.
   IV. This way of living becomes permanent. In its origin drunkenness is but an episode; in its conclusion it is a character. What a man does once he tends to do again.
8. This permanence is shown in the deliberateness of the drunkard’s full-grown folly.
9. And so the habit fastens itself more and more firmly upon him, until at last, even when he is grovelling in the lowest depths, he still calls ever for more of that which has brought him there. The more a man drinks, the more he does not want to stop. (D. J. Burrell.)

The woes of the drunkard
Is it not Shakespeare himself who says, by the mouth of the disgraced and ruined Cassio, “O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee Devil”? What does drink cost in human misery? Ah, how can I tell you? Can I count the leaves of the forest, or the sands upon the shore? And the sounds of this misery are like the sighing of the leaves of illimitable forests, and the plashing on the shores of unfathomable seas. For it is the horrible fact that the drink which we, as a nation, are drinking, not from the necessities of thirst, but from the mere luxuries of appetite—drink often adulterated with the vilest and most maddening ingredients—yes, this rubied and Circean cup which we sip, and smile while it is converting thousands of our brethren into swine—this subtle, serpentine, insidious thing which we cherish in our bosoms, and laugh and play with its brightness, while it is stinging thousands of our brothers into raging madness—costs us millions of money, myriads of criminals, thousands of paupers, thousands of ruined women, hundreds and thousands of men and women goaded by misery, into suicide and madness, with every blossom in what might have been the garland of their lives blighted as by a fury’s breath. (Dean Farrar.)

Safety imperceptibly passed by the drinker
Who can detect the line of demarcation that separates the colours of the rainbow, where the yellow tint blends into the deep orange colour, and that deep orange colour into the deeper red! What mind, however disciplined or practised, can tell the line of demarcation that shades off the varying sentiments of men, and separates the schools of theological opinion? And if the human eye, aided by the most powerful lenses, cannot discern any line of demarcation in the tints of the rainbow, and the skilled theologian cannot pronounce as to where or what is the dividing line between one school of theology and another, how can we expect the dulled, darkened, blunted brain of the drinker to be able to detect that imperceptible line in his progress, at one side of which is safety, and beyond it danger? Or, suppose he could, would it be ethically right for a man to push forward designedly to the furthest verge where he supposed that moral innocence merged into guilt and sin? The rainbow tints may indeed thus meet and blend; phases of thought and opinion may shade off into each other; but it surely can never be that moral innocence and moral guilt could ever stand in such close proximity together as that the one should merge into the other. (R. Maguire.)

The warning against intemperance
We should mind this warning against the serpent of intemperance, because—
I. Its sting is a costly sting.
II. Its sting is an injurious sting.
III. Its sting is a disgraceful sting. (R. Newton, D.D.)

The drink serpent
Drink is like the serpent—
I. Because it is poisonous. Alcohol is primarily a brain-poison, but there is not a tissue nor an organ of the body which it does not injure.
II. Because it is subtle (Gen_3:1). As a rule men glide into drunkenness unconsciously to themselves. Probably the drunkard is the last person to know that he has become such.
III. Because it is like the devil. In the Scriptures the serpent is the symbol of Satan. Drink, like the devil, leads men into all kinds of sin. The connection of drink with unchastity is set forth in this passage. (G. A. Bennetts, B.A.)

Description of drunkenness
An inferior master in the art of moral painting gives us a just picture of drunkenness in these words. “Drunkenness is a distemper of the head, a subversion of the senses, a tempest of the tongue, a storm in the body, the shipwreck of virtue, the loss of time, a wilful madness, a pleasant devil, a sugared poison, a sweet sin, which he that has, has not himself, and he that commits it, doth not only commit sin, but is himself altogether sin.” (George Lawson, D.D.)

The drunkard’s picture

1. His sensual indulgence.
2. His offensive garrulousness.
3. His bloodshot face. The habits of the man come to be marked by their effects upon his looks.
4. His wretched condition.
5. His easy temptability. He is ripe for the crimes of adultery, falsehood, blasphemy, and other enormities.
6. His reckless stupidity.
7. His unconquerable thirst. However bitter his reflections upon his awaking, and his remorse, his thirst remains unquenched. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

Woes of intemperance
The Assyrians had a fancy that, if a demon saw his own face in a mirror, he could not bear the ugly sight, and would vanish. Unfortunately, vicious men are not so easily frightened, for many a drunkard knows perfectly what a degraded creature he has made himself, and yet is not restrained. But the photograph may deter others from beginning so suicidal a course. The appeal to consequences may not be the highest, but it is legitimate, and ought to be powerful with all rational beings. The consequences here appealed to are exclusively personal ones, there being no reference to the drunkards’ miserable homes, to wrecked family blessings, nor even to blasted prospects, and the havoc wrought by drink in pauperising and bringing to rags. What it does to the man himself in body and soul is the portrait painter’s theme here. The torrent of questions with which he begins brings out the mental discomfort and bodily mischief consequent on intoxication. The two questions in verse 29B repeat the substance of the’ three in A. “Complaining” seems to include “woe” and “sorrow,” and “wounds without cause” are the natural results of the “contentions” equally without cause. According to the best and most recent authorities, the bodily symptom here noticed is dulness, not “redness,” of eyes, the glazed, unperceiving stare so sadly well known as a sign of intoxication. There are far more grave physical consequences of the habit than that—shattered nerves, shaking hands, knotted livers—but the painter here is thinking rather of the act than of the habit. His answer to his questions comes with emphasis, and has a dash of sad irony in it. What an epitaph for a man: “He was a connoisseur in wines; he did not know much about science or history or philosophy or theology or art or commerce or morality, but he was a perfect master at blending whisky!” A solemn warning follows the etching of the drunkard, which is bitten in on the plate with acid. The wine appeals to the sense of sight, as it gleams in golden cup or crystal goblet, and it appeals also to the sense of taste as “it goeth down smoothly.” But it is not done with when it is swallowed, and, like all delights of sense, it has an “afterwards” which is not delightful. “Violent delights have violent ends.” In Pro_23:33 we see him in the height of his excitement; in Pro_23:34, in the stupor that follows; in Pro_23:35, in his waking. The first stage is marked by hallucinations and a torrent of vile speech. “Thine eyes shall behold strange things,” by which are meant the absurd delusions of the drunkard. Imagination is stimulated, and the senses befooled, by the fumes; the man reels about in a world of his own creating, which has nothing corresponding to it in reality. There is a still more terrible meaning possible to this part of the picture, though probably not the one intended—namely, the frightful visions accompanying delirium tremens, which dog the drunkard’s steps, and drive him into paroxysms of terror. Further, his loss of self-control is signalised by the loose speech in which the rank heart pours itself out in “perverse things.” There is a strange and awful connection between intoxication and foul words from the depths of the “evil treasure” of the heart. The second stage is that of collapse and stupor. The excitement, of course, ends in that, and the drunkard flings himself down anywhere, utterly careless of danger, and utterly unconscious of his surroundings. He is like a man that “lieth down in the midst of the sea,” neither a comfortable nor a safe bed, “or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast,” where there is neither room to lie, nor security as the ship rolls, and the uneasy couch rolls still more. He sleeps out his heavy slumbers, and, when he does, he discovers for the first time the bruises and wounds which he has received. But these do not curb the tyrannous appetite which brought them on him. Undeterred by them, he wishes for the complete return of sober consciousness, only that he may renew his debauch. Christ’s solemn saying, “Whoso committeth sin is the slave of sin,” has no more tragical exemplification than in the miserable drunkard, who can no more resist the craving for drink than he can stop Niagara. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)

Proverbs 23:35
They have beaten me and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again..
Satan’s anesthetic

1. The application of anaesthetics to surgery is one of the most beneficent discoveries of the present age. One shudders at the very thought of the surgical operations of the olden days, executed without the merciful drug that makes the patient unconscious of his agony. But almost every good thing in the kingdom of God is travestied in the kingdom of Satan. Satan has therefore his own anodyne which he uses to the ruin of the bodies and souls of men. It is evident from the proverb that alcohol was known to be an anaesthetic three thousand years ago. Modern science corroborates the ancient saying. Most people know that a man in liquor often appears insensible to wounds which otherwise would cause intense pain. Medical men occasionally use alcohol as an anesthetic when chloroform is inadmissible. The practical result of this property of alcohol is that the intemperate man—and many a regular “moderate” drinker, too—is unconscious of the gradual deterioration of his bodily frame. The vital organs are becoming diseased and their functions deranged; but meanwhile the process is most rapidly going on in the brain. Hence all the perceptions are dulled, and the painful sensations, that otherwise would give timely warning of the growing mischief, are to some extent unfelt. One of the purposes of pain is to sound a warning note, to give a signal that something is wrong, that some part of the complex mechanism of the body is out of gear. Our duty is, therefore, not to be contented with allaying the pain, but if possible to cure the disease which causes the pain.
2. The moral anaesthesia to which alcohol gives rise is even more terrible than the physical. Acting as a subtle brain-poison, it works sad havoc with the moral perceptions. All delicacy of conscience is quickly lost, the distinctions between right and wrong become blurred, and the man once honoured and trusted becomes a liar, a thief, and an ingrate. The loving, dutiful son becomes selfish, morose, and attacks his mother with murderous violence. Now, in such cases as these (which are, alas! only too common) we cannot believe that the honest man wilfully takes to lying, the affectionate father wilfully becomes the savage brute, or the dutiful son is filled wilfully with a fierce hatred of his mother. Evidently the mind, conscience, and will become diseased. Alcohol not only dulls the sense of pain in the physical system; it is an ansesthetic that dulls the mind so as to produce unconsciousness of the moral havoc that is being made. The unhappy being loses his power of truthfulness, and yet is hardly conscious that he is a liar. It should be remembered that absolute drunkenness is not always necessary to produce such results. The free and regular use of alcoholic beverages, though stopping short of intoxication, will assuredly produce more or less injury to the body and degradation of the mind and will, both in the drinker and in his children. Let us beware lest we even in the least degree impair these God-like qualities with which we have been endowed.
3. The last words of the text express what we are accustomed to call the “drink crave.” When intoxication is over, and all the misery and depression that are the after-results of excess are felt, then the unhappy victim of the drink-habit says in effect, if not in the actual words of the text, “I will seek it yet again.” The man who is always strictly moderate in his use of alcohol then steps in and says, “But why are you so foolish as to seek it again? Has it not done you enough harm already? Why not leave it alone?” But if he knew into what a state the poor drunkard had fallen—a state of both physical and mental degradation—he would not talk so glibly. First of all, the drink-crave has a physical basis. Certain of the vital organs are so affected and in such distress that the overpowering crave for drink is as natural, under the circumstances, as the craving of an excessively hungry man for food. Inebriety becomes, in fact, an actual and terrible bodily disease, not easily to be cured. Further than that, the mind of the inebriate is so obscured that he does not realise his fall as do those about him. The horror of his position does not appear to him. Strange and sad to say, this mental blindness, often extends to the near relatives.
4. Probably many moderate drinkers would agree with what has been said, and would give thanks that they are not as other men are. Yes, by all means let them give thanks for God’s protecting grace. But let them also ask themselves whether their example as moderate drinkers is helpful to their family and friends, whether the edifying spectacle of their self-restraint is likely to diminish the number of drunkards or to lessen the peril to which so many are exposed. (
   J. E. Crawshaw.).

Proverbs 23:1
what] Rather, who. Be continually on your guard; let not the luxury that surrounds you betray you into forgetting in whose presence you are, for the favour of a ruler, an Eastern despot, is a dangerous thing.

Proverbs 23:2
put a knife] i.e. Restrain forcibly thy appetite as with a knife held to thy throat. Others render, thou wilt put (R.V. marg.) and understand it to mean, that death may be the penalty of indulgence.

Proverbs 23:3
Maurer quotes in illustration of these verses (1–3):
“Keep thee from the man that hath power to kill,
And thou shalt have no suspicion of the fear of death:
And if thou come unto him, commit no fault,
Lest he take away thy life:
Know surely that thou goest about in the midst of snares,
And walkest upon the battlements of a city.” Sir_9:13.

Proverbs 23:4
Labour not] Rather, Weary not thyself, R.V., as the same Heb. word is rendered “till his hand was weary,” 2Sa_23:10; “be weary,” Isa_40:30-31. Comp. Joh_6:27; 1Ti_6:9-10.
cease from thine own wisdom] from the wisdom, namely, of becoming rich. Prudentiae tuae pone modum, set a limit to thy prudence in acquiring wealth. Vulg.
We may, however, render cease of thine own wisdom, “by reason of thine own understanding,” R.V. marg. Let thine own sense teach thee better. τῇ δὲ σῇ ἐννοίᾳ ἀπόσχου, LXX.

Proverbs 23:5
Wilt thou set thine eyes] More literally and forcibly: Wilt thou cause thine eyes to fly (or, shall thine eyes fly) upon it (with eager glance, as a bird swoops upon its prey, Isa_11:14)? it is gone! It eludes even the swiftness of thy glance, and itself spreads its wings and flies away.
For riches (supplied from Pro_23:4) certainly make themselves wings, Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven.
Comp. for the sentiment πλούτου ἀδηλότης, 1Ti_6:17.

Proverbs 23:6
evil] i.e. grudging. See Pro_22:9 note, and comp. Deu_15:9; Mat_20:15.
dainty meats] Better, dainties.

Proverbs 23:7
thinketh in his heart] Rather, reckoneth within himself, R.V. Not by his liberal words, “eat and drink,” but by the mercenary reckoning of his heart, which is calculating meantime and grudging the cost, is he to be estimated.

Proverbs 23:8
The feast will be in every way a failure: the food that should nourish will nauseate thee, and thy attempts at pleasant conversation will be wasted.

Proverbs 23:10
See Pro_22:28.
enter not into] to do him wrong as the parallelism implies.

Proverbs 23:11
their Redeemer] viz. God, who is “a Father of the fatherless,” Psa_68:5. The Heb. word is Goel, and there is probably an allusion to the Goel among men, the nearest blood relation, whose duty it was not only to avenge the blood of his kinsman if he had been unjustly slain (Num_35:19), but generally to befriend him and espouse his cause (Lev_25:25; Rth_3:9; Rth_3:12-13; Rth_4:1; Rth_4:4).
He] the word is emphatic; q.d. with Him and not with them thou wilt have to reckon.

Proverbs 23:13
if thou beatest him] Or, though, R.V. marg., meaning thou needest not to be afraid that corporal punishment will result in death. It is better, however, to understand death here as the consequence of the sin, into which, if allowed to go uncorrected, he will fall. See Pro_19:18 note. This view is borne out by the next verse here.
Pro_23:15-35. The style of composition changes from separate proverbs or wise maxims to a continuous address, not unlike chaps. 1–9 in character.

Proverbs 23:17
Let not thine heart envy] Comp. Psa_37:1.
be thou] Or, let it (thy heart) be. Some scholars repeat envy from the former clause: but let it envy with a nobler emulation (the Heb. word is frequently used in a good sense) the fear of the Lord.

Proverbs 23:18
an end] See Pro_24:14; Pro_24:20; in both which places A.V. renders the same Heb. word, reward, as it does here in the margin, and as R.V. does in all three places in the text. It is perhaps better to retain in all these places the significant literal rendering, a future, a hereafter: “or, sequel, or, future, Heb. latter end,” R.V. marg. here. “You will scarcely fail,” writes Maurer, “to recognise here a sure hope of immortality; seeing that many unrighteous men prosper and righteous men are miserable, even to the end of their earthly lives.” Psalms 73. is a sermon on this text. The LXX. however, render ἔκγονα here, and the same Heb. word ἐγκαταλείμματα, Psalms 37. (36. in LXX.) 38.

Proverbs 23:20
riotous] Rather, gluttonous, as the same word is rendered in Pro_23:21 and Deu_21:20, A.V.

Proverbs 23:21
drowsiness] occasioned by excess of meat and drink. Comp. Luk_21:34.

Proverbs 23:23
buy … sell it not] Procure it at any cost: part with it on no consideration. Comp. Mat_13:44-45.
also] Rather, even, or, yea. The things mentioned are not additions to, but elements of “the truth.” Comp. Mal_4:4, R.V.

Proverbs 23:25
shall … shall] Rather, Let thy father … and let her &c. It is an exhortation to the son to verify by his own conduct the statement of the preceding verse. “Quod cum ita sit, da operam ut parentibus lætitiam crees,” Maurer; εὐφραινέσθω, χαιρέτω, LXX.; gaudeat, exsultet, Vulg.

Proverbs 23:26
observe] This is the corrected Heb. text to be read. The written text is, delight in, R.V. text.

Proverbs 23:27
Comp. Pro_22:14.

Proverbs 23:28
as for a prey] Better, with A.V. marg., R.V. text, as a robber.
transgressors] Better, treacherous. Those whom she seduces become in their turn seducers and untrustworthy in similar relations.
The Evils of Drunkenness, Pro_23:29-35.

Proverbs 23:29
woe … sorrow] Lit. oh!… alas!
babbling] Rather, contentions, as the same Heb. word is rendered in Pro_18:19; the quarrelsomeness of the man in drink, leading to pugnacity, and so to “wounds without a cause.”
redness] Comp. Gen_49:12, where however the word is used of the effect of wine on the eyes in a good sense. The LXX. have here τίνος πελιδνοὶ (bloodshot) οἱ ὀφθαλμοί; suffusio oculorum, Vulg. Some however render the word darkness here (R.V. marg.), and dark or dark-flashing (in contrast to the white teeth) in Genesis.

Proverbs 23:30
seek] There is a touch of irony (non caret sale, Maur.) in the use of a word in such a connection, which is used elsewhere of the diligent search for wisdom (Job_28:27), or other noble objects (Psa_139:1).
mixt] i.e. with spices, Pro_9:2; Isa_5:22.

Proverbs 23:31
moveth itself aright] So R.V. marg.; but R.V. text, goeth down smoothly, as the same expression is rendered in Song of Solomon, Son_7:9 [Hebrews 10], A.V. and R.V.

Proverbs 23:33
strange women] This rendering, which is retained in R.V. marg. (comp. ἀλλοτρίαν, LXX.; extraneas, Vulg.), is in keeping with the usage of the word in this Book, and with the undoubted connection between excess of wine and lust; but strange things, R.V. text, preserves the parallelism better: the eye of the drunkard is haunted by strange visions; his mouth utters perverse words.

Proverbs 23:34
in the midst of the sea] as if it were a safe resting-place. A strong figure to denote the utter recklessness of danger which excess of drink induces.
upon the top of a mast] It only weakens the figure to supply here in the cradle, or the like; just as it does in the former clause to introduce on the deck of a ship. “The rig of an ancient ship was more simple and clumsy than that employed in modern times. Its great feature was one large mast, with one large square sail fastened to a yard of great length,” Smith’s Dict. of Bible, Art. Ship. The drunkard is as foolhardy as one who should lie down to sleep there.
It is difficult to understand how Dean Stanley finds here “a notice rare in any ancient writings, unique in the Hebrew Scriptures, of the well-known signs of sea-sickness” (Jewish Church, ii. 186).

Proverbs 23:35
sick] Rather, hurt, R.V. or pained; ἐπόνεσα, LXX.; dolui, Vulg. Both the physical and moral insensibility of the drunkard to the consequences of his vice are perhaps pointed at.
awake] i.e. shake off completely the stupor from which he is beginning to rouse himself. His first thought on regaining consciousness is to repeat his fault.
it] the wine which though it has not been mentioned since Pro_23:31, is uppermost in his thoughts. The whole description is strikingly vivid.

Proverbs 23:1-35
The following commentary covers Chapters 10 through 31.
In chapter 10 begin the details which teach those who give ear how to avoid the snares into which the simple might fall, the path to be followed in many cases, and the consequences of men’s actions: in short, that which characterises wisdom in detail, what may be prudence for man, divine discretion for the children of God; and also, the result of God’s government, whatever appearances may be for awhile. It is well to observe, that there is no question of redemption or propitiation in this book; it proposes a walk according to the wisdom of God’s government.
In the final chapter we have the character of a king according to wisdom, and that of the woman in her own house-the king who does not allow himself that which, by darkening his moral discernment through the indulgence of his lusts, would make him unfit to govern. In the woman we see the persevering and devoted industry which fills the house with riches, brings honour to its inhabitants, and removes all the cares and anxieties produced by sloth. The typical application of these two specific characters is too evident to need explanation. The example of the woman is very useful, as to the spirit of the thing, to one who labours in the assembly.
Although in this book the wisdom produced by the fear of Jehovah is only applied to this world, it is on that very account of great use to the Christian, who, in view of his heavenly privileges, might, more or less, forget the continual government of God. It is very important for the Christian to remember the fear of the Lord, and the effect of God’s presence on the details of his conduct; and I repeat that which I said at the beginning, that it is great grace which deigns to apply divine wisdom to all the details of the life of man in the midst of the confusion brought in by sin. Occupied with heavenly things, the Christian is less in the way of discovering, by his own experience, the clue to the labyrinth of evil through which he is passing. God has considered this, and He has laid down this first principle, “wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.” Thus the Christian may be ignorant of evil (if a worldling were so, he would fall into it), and yet avoid it through his knowledge of good. The wisdom of God gives him the latter; the government of God provides for all the rest. Now, in the Proverbs, we have these things in principle and in detail. I have not dwelt on the figurative character of the forms of evil. They are rather principles than figures. But the violent man of the last days is continually found in the Psalms; and Babylon is the full accomplishment of the woman who takes the simple in her snares and leads them down to death; just as Christ is the perfect wisdom of God which leads to life. But these two things which manifest evil proceed from the heart of man at all times since the fall: only we have seen that there is an active development of the wiles of the evil woman, who has her own house and her own arrangements. It is not simply the principle of corruption, but an organised system, as is that of sovereign wisdom.

Proverbs 23:1-35
Proverbs 23 – Words of the Wise
A. Wisdom in the “do not” warnings.

1. (1-3) Do not be deceived at the ruler’s table.
   When you sit down to eat with a ruler,
   Consider carefully what is before you;
   And put a knife to your throat
   If you are a man given to appetite.
   Do not desire his delicacies,
   For they are deceptive food.
   a. When you sit down to eat with a ruler: The idea is of a generous invitation to eat with powerful people at a table loaded with delicious, well-prepared food. This was something like what Daniel and his companions later faced in Daniel 1.
   i. “The rich do not give away their favors for free. They want something in return, and it is generally much more than what they have invested. One can lose one’s own soul in the exchange.” (Garrett)
   b. Consider carefully what is before you: Don’t be overwhelmed and seduced by the atmosphere of power and luxury. If you are vulnerable to these temptations, then beware (put a knife to your throat).
   i. “The expression ‘put a knife to your throat’ (v. 2) means ‘to curb your appetite’ or ‘to control yourself’ (like ‘bite your tongue’).” (Ross)
   ii. “It is a shame for a saint to be a slave to his palate. Isaac loved venison too, too well.” (Trapp)
   iii. Given to appetite: “Though referring here narrowly to food, can be interpreted broadly with reference to all appetites. Total prohibition is necessary for a person who cannot control his appetites; the disciple can give no place to lust (cf. Mat_5:29-30).” (Waltke)
   c. They are deceptive food: The ruler’s table may be your ruin. You may be so seduced by the atmosphere of power and luxury that you surrender what should not be surrendered, you promise what should not be promised, and in effect you worship and serve what should not be worshipped and served.
   i. “So the warning is not to indulge in his impressive feast—the ruler wants something from you or is observing you.” (Ross)
   ii. “Let every young man desirous of walking in the ways of wisdom, keep his eye illuminated by the fear of Jehovah, all who put before him their material dainties, lest they rob him of his spiritual excellencies.” (Morgan)
2. (4-5) Do not make an idol of wealth.
   Do not overwork to be rich;
   Because of your own understanding, cease!
   Will you set your eyes on that which is not?
   For riches certainly make themselves wings;
   They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.
   a. Do not overwork to be rich: Many times, the Book of Proverbs rebukes and even mocks the lazy man. Yet this does not mean that work and the wealth that comes from work should be made an idol. One may begin to worship work; that one should cease and do so because of your understanding. You know better.
   b. Riches certainly make themselves wings: Though working hard is a mark of wisdom, we don’t live for the riches that may come from that work. Those riches are too vulnerable and temporary to be a worthy focus of our life.
   i. Like an eagle toward heaven: “The addition adds to the metaphor of the swift and powerful eagle that he outstrips all attempts to capture him. Riches will certainly disappear, and once gone, they are gone forever.” (Waltke)
3. (6-8) Do not eat at the table of a stingy man.
   Do not eat the bread of a miser,
   Nor desire his delicacies;
   For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
   “Eat and drink!” he says to you,
   But his heart is not with you.
   The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up,
   And waste your pleasant words.
   a. Do not eat the bread of a miser: The ruler’s table was a dangerous place (Pro_23:1-3), but so is the table of the miser, the one with an evil or ungenerous eye.
   i. The miser: “The envious or covetous man, who secretly grudgeth thee the meat which he sets before thee, as this phrase is used, Pro_28:22; Mat_20:15; as, on the contrary, a liberal man is said to have a good eye, Pro_22:9.” (Poole)
   b. “Eat and drink!” he says to you: The stingy man says this to his guests, but his heart is not with you. He doesn’t want you to really enjoy yourself at his table, because he wants to keep more food for himself. You will offend him if you are foolish enough to take him at his word.
   i. “That is, of a miserly muckworm, that wisheth thee choked for so doing, even then when he maketh greatest show of hospitality and humanity.” (Trapp)
   ii. “But there are no such dangers linked to the invitations of the Gospel. The table is ready, and the invitations have been sent out. The only qualification is our own hunger to accept the invitation and eat the heavenly food. Then we discover that our appetite increases with every mouthful we consume.” (Bridges)
   c. The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up: The table of the miser will be such an unpleasant experience that the food you enjoyed will come back to bother you. The pleasant words spoken at his table will seem wasted.
   i. “These proverbs contradict the common notion that Proverbs regards the rich as righteous and thus favored by God. To the contrary, wealthy people often are viewed with a marked suspicion, and their company is not always valued.” (Garrett)
4. (9) Do not waste your words on the fool.
   Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,
   For he will despise the wisdom of your words.
   a. Do not speak in the hearing of a fool: This assumes that the one doing the speaking is not himself a fool and is a wise man.
   i. In the hearing: “…rather, in the ears (King James Version); it is direct address, not something overheard.” (Kidner)
   b. He will despise the wisdom of your words: The fool will not receive or appreciate your wisdom. It will be as Jesus later described – like throwing pearls before pigs (Mat_7:6).
5. (10-11) Do not steal from others.
   Do not remove the ancient landmark,
   Nor enter the fields of the fatherless;
   For their Redeemer is mighty;
   He will plead their cause against you.
   a. Do not remove the ancient landmark: Literally, the ancient landmark was normally a stone marker for a property line. Moving the landmark was a way to make your field bigger and to steal from your neighbor. Symbolically, the ancient landmark was a tradition or custom from ancestors.
   b. Nor enter the fields of the fatherless: The field of the orphan needed special care and protection. It was evil to enter the fields of the fatherless to take some of the harvest from those who had trouble protecting it.
   c. Their Redeemer is mighty: The orphan and all who are vulnerable have a special protector, a Redeemer. He has vowed to plead their cause against all who would come to take what they have.
   i. Redeemer is the meaningful Hebrew word goel. “The Redeemer/Avenger (goel) was usually a powerful relative who would champion the rights of the defenseless; but if there was no human goel God would take up their cause (see Gen_48:16; Exo_6:6; Job_19:25; Isaiah 41-63).” (Ross)
6. (12) Do not neglect wisdom.
   Apply your heart to instruction,
   And your ears to words of knowledge.
   a. Apply your heart to instruction: Wisdom can be given out, but it must be received to be of any lasting good. The reception of wisdom isn’t passive; it is active, received with a heart that truly applies wisdom and instruction.
   i. “The verse is in the imperative and suggests that education is vital to one’s whole life.” (Garrett)
   b. And your ears to words of knowledge: We mostly receive wisdom by what we hear, especially in the guidance we receive from the wise. Our ears must be tuned to receive and apply God’s wisdom. When the heart and the ears work together to receive wisdom, much is gained.
   i. “When the heart is graciously opened and enlightened, the ears instantly become attentive.” (Bridges)
7. (13-14) Do not fail to correct your children.
   Do not withhold correction from a child,
   For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.
   You shall beat him with a rod,
   And deliver his soul from hell.
   a. Do not withhold correction from a child: The concept here is not that correction is imposed on a child, but that it properly belongs to a child and to not bring needed correction is to withhold it.
   b. You shall beat him with a rod: The figure of the rod in Proverbs is sometimes used literally and sometimes figuratively. There is place for both literal, physical correction of a child (such as spanking), and correction through the rod of an alternative punishment or word.
   i. “However, the cleansing rod must be applied with the warmth, affection and respect for the youth. Warmth and affection, not steely discipline, characterize the father’s lectures (cf. Pro_4:1-9). Parents who brutalize their children cannot hide behind the rod-doctrine of Proverbs.” (Waltke)
   ii. “This text does not justify brutalizing children. Parents who find it only too easy to apply the rod, and especially those who lose their tempers when doing so, should consider Eph_6:4.” (Garrett)
   iii. “An intemperate use of this scriptural ordinance brings discredit on its efficacy and sows the seed of much bitter fruit. Children become hardened under an iron rod. Sternness and severity close up their hearts. It is very dangerous to make our children afraid of us.” (Bridges)
   c. And deliver his soul from hell: The word translated hell here is actually sheol, which first has the idea of the grave. Sometimes it is used in the sense of physical death, and other times in the sense of eternal death. Either or both may be in view here.
8. (15-16) The joy of a father imparting wisdom.
   My son, if your heart is wise,
   My heart will rejoice—indeed, I myself;
   Yes, my inmost being will rejoice
   When your lips speak right things.
   a. If your heart is wise, my heart will rejoice: The general context of the Book of Proverbs is of a father teaching wisdom to his children. Here Solomon reflected on the great happiness he would have if his children actually received and lived in this wisdom.
   b. When your lips speak right things: Wisdom (or the lack of wisdom) is often seen in the words we speak. When the father hears his child’s lips speak right things, he has reason to believe that the lessons of wisdom have been learned.
   i. Inmost being: “Of all human organs, the Old Testament associates the kidneys in particular with a variety of emotions. The range of usage is very wide; the kidneys are looked upon as the seat of emotions from joy to deepest agony.” (Kellermann, cited in Waltke)
9. (17-18) Do not envy sinners.
   Do not let your heart envy sinners,
   But be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day;
   For surely there is a hereafter,
   And your hope will not be cut off.
   a. Do not let your heart envy sinners: This is an easy trap to fall into. On this side of eternity and the ultimate judgments of God it may seem that sin is unpunished and righteousness is unrewarded.
   i. “Our hearts, instead of envying sinners, should be full of compassion for them, for they have nothing to look forward to but death.” (Bridges)
   b. Be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day: Instead of being jealous of the wicked, determine to have an eternal perspective rooted in the fear of the Lord, an active recognition of the greatness and righteousness of God.
   i. In a sermon on this verse, Charles Spurgeon gave a wonderful definition of the fear of the Lord: “The fear of the Lord is a brief description for true religion. It is an inward condition, betokening hearty submission to our heavenly Father. It consists very much in a holy reverence of God, and a sacred awe of him. This is accompanied by a child-like trust in him, which leads to loving obedience, tender submission, and lowly adoration.”
   ii. All the day: “Men must wake with God, walk with him, and lie down with him, be in continual communion with him and conformity unto him. This is to be in heaven beforehand.” (Trapp)
   c. For surely there is a hereafter: If this life was all there would be, then we would have much more reason to envy sinners. Yet, as the conclusion of the Book of Ecclesiastes demonstrates, surely there is a hereafter, and therefore wisdom means that we should live in the fear of the Lord.
   B. A father warns his child about wine and women.
10. (19-21) The danger of drinking companions.
    Hear, my son, and be wise;
    And guide your heart in the way.
    Do not mix with winebibbers,
    Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;
    For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
    And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.
    a. Hear, my son, and be wise: This repeats the basic context of Proverbs, that it is the wise instruction and guidance of a father to his children.
    i. Hear: “I have read that in the reign of Queen Elizabeth there was a law made that everybody should go to his parish church; but many sincere Romanists loathed to go and hear Protestant doctrine. Through fear of persecution, they attended the parish church; but they took care to fill their ears with wool, so that they should not hear what their priests condemned. It is wretched work preaching to a congregation whose ears are stopped with prejudices.” (Spurgeon)
    b. Do not mix with winebibbers, or with gluttonous eaters of meat: The wise counsel to a son or daughter is that they should not mix with those who overindulge in alcohol or food. The drunk and the glutton have a bad future (poverty and rags), and the wise man or woman will not share it with them.
    i. “The ‘drunkard’ and the ‘glutton’ represent the epitome of the lack of discipline.” (Ross)
    ii. Will come to poverty: “Nay, to eternal misery in hell; [1Co_6:10] but few men fear that; beggary they hold worse than any hell…. But poverty to such is but a prelude to a worse matter.” (Trapp)
    iii. Drowsiness:“The self-indulgent are reduced to destitution (21a) due to the drowsiness that accompanies addiction to wine and over-eating (21b). Their full stomachs empty their minds.” (Waltke)
11. (22) An exhortation to listen to parents.
    Listen to your father who begot you,
    And do not despise your mother when she is old.
    a. Listen to your father who begot you: Wisdom can never be learned until the attention is won. There must be a deliberate effort to listen.
    b. Do not despise your mother when she is old: This affirms the principle of honor your father and mother in Exo_20:12 (and later in Eph_6:2). When parents become old, they should receive special attention and care.
12. (23) The attitude to have towards wisdom.
    Buy the truth, and do not sell it,
    Also wisdom and instruction and understanding.
    a. Buy the truth, and do not sell it: We should have the mentality that we are willing to gain truth and wisdom and gain it at a cost instead of wanting to forsake it for profit.
    i. Buy the truth:“Purchase it upon any terms, spare no pains nor cost to get it.” (Poole) “Buy the truth; that is, be willing at all risks to hold to the truth. Buy it as the martyrs did when they gave their bodies to be burned for it. Buy it as many have done when they have gone to prison for it.” (Spurgeon)
    ii. Do not sell it: “Sell it not; sell it not; it cost Christ too dear. Sell it not; you made a good bargain when you bought it. Sell it not. Sell it not; it has not disappointed you; it has satisfied you, and made you blessed Sell it not; you want it. Sell it not, you will want it. The hour of death is coming on, and the day of judgment is close upon its heels. Sell it not; you cannot buy its like again; you can never find a better.” (Spurgeon)
    iii. “The Savior says that we should buy from him (Rev_3:18). This settles the matter. If we do not really want the goods, we will not pay much attention to the proverb. For we only buy what we eagerly desire.” (Bridges)
    b. Also wisdom and instruction and understanding: Proverbs often uses these terms to mean the same thing. Truth, instruction, and understanding in this context are all ways of describing wisdom.
13. (24-25) Wise children bring joy to their parents.
    The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,
    And he who begets a wise child will delight in him.
    Let your father and your mother be glad,
    And let her who bore you rejoice.
    a. The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice: It is a great blessing for parents to have righteous and wise children. That parent will delight in him.
    b. Let your father and your mother be glad: One reason for a son or daughter to pursue and gain wisdom is that it will make one’s parents glad. It will be an appropriate blessing and reward those who gave the son or daughter life and an upbringing.
14. (26-28) The danger of the immoral woman.
    My son, give me your heart,
    And let your eyes observe my ways.
    For a harlot is a deep pit,
    And a seductress is a narrow well.
    She also lies in wait as for a victim,
    And increases the unfaithful among men.
    a. Give me your heart: Solomon understood that wisdom must be received with the heart. It can’t only be a matter of facts or principles learned in the mind or even memorized. Wisdom must be received into a willing, given, heart.
    b. Let your eyes observe my ways: At least at the time of writing this, Solomon could point to his own life as an example of wisdom when it came to the dangers of an immoral woman. He knew teaching is most effective when it comes from a life that knows and lives wisdom.
    i. Observe my ways: “The Hebrew here hath it, Let thine eyes run through my ways. Get a full prospect of them, and diligently peruse them. Fix and feed thine eyes upon the best objects, and restrain them from gazing upon forbidden beauties, lest they prove to be windows of wickedness, and loopholes of lust.” (Trapp)
    c. A harlot is a deep pit: The pit in mind is the trap dug and concealed to capture a large animal. As an animal might fall into such a deep pit, so the danger of the harlot is real and concealed.
    i. “This smooth talking beauty (see 5:1-6; 6:25; 7:10-21) engages in sexual intercourse for lust and/or money with no intention and/or capability of a binding and enduring relationship. Having trapped her victim, he cannot escape the pit because it is deep.” (Waltke)
    ii. “Samson broke the bonds of his enemies, but he could not break the bonds of his own lusts. He choked the lion, but he could not choke his own wanton love” (Ambrose, cited in Bridges).
    d. A seductress is a narrow well: A well is a source of satisfying water, and the sexual relationship of a husband and wife is described as good water from a well (Pro_5:15). Here the idea is of a well that doesn’t satisfy. The seductress offers great satisfaction but ultimately doesn’t deliver, lacking the true intimacy and trust that build a satisfying sexual experience.
    i. Narrow well: “Connotes that this sexual partner frustrates him. The fornicator came hoping to quench his sexual appetite, but…he finds her incapable of the intimacy necessary to satisfy that thirst.” (Waltke)
    e. Increases the unfaithful among men: This is not to lay all the blame upon the harlot or immoral woman, but her trap captures many. If there were fewer harlots and immoral women there would be fewer unfaithful among men.
    i. “Unchastity may be romanticized, but the hard facts are faithfully given here: captivity (27: no unaided escape), ruthlessness (28a), social disruption (28b).” (Kidner)
    ii. “She is the cause of innumerable sins against God, and against the marriage-bed, against the soul and body too, and by her wicked example and arts involveth many persons in the guilt of her sins.” (Poole)
15. (29-35) The misery of abusing alcohol.
    Who has woe?
    Who has sorrow?
    Who has contentions?
    Who has complaints?
    Who has wounds without cause?
    Who has redness of eyes?
    Those who linger long at the wine,
    Those who go in search of mixed wine.
    Do not look on the wine when it is red,
    When it sparkles in the cup,
    When it swirls around smoothly;
    At the last it bites like a serpent,
    And stings like a viper.
    Your eyes will see strange things,
    And your heart will utter perverse things.
    Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
    Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying:
    “They have struck me, but I was not hurt;
    They have beaten me, but I did not feel it.
    When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?”
    a. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Solomon reminded us of many of the ill effects of alcohol and intoxicating drugs. They bring woe and sorrow. They bring contentions and complaints. They bring wounds and redness of eyes. Unrestrained, immoderate use of alcohol and abuse of drugs will bring these sorrows to one’s life, and countless tragedies prove it.
    i. “This poem is a small masterpiece; it is surely the most effective combination lampoon and lament over the sorry state of the drunkard.” (Garrett)
    b. Those who linger long at the wine: The picture is of those who abuse alcohol or other intoxicants, and who are always looking for a stronger drink (go in search of mixed wine).
    i. “‘Lingering over’ alcohol describes those who derive comfort and security in knowing that a glass of wine is at hand, ready to deaden the senses.” (Garrett)
    c. It sparkles in the cup: Wine can be pleasing on many levels – in how it looks, smells, tastes, and makes one feel. These pleasing aspects of intoxicants never justify their unrestrained or immoderate use.
    i. When it swirls around smoothly: “When it sparkleth and frisketh, and seems to smile upon a man.” (Poole)
    d. At the last it bites like a serpent: Eventually, the abuse of alcohol or drugs will bite and sting. As Solomon described, the eyes will see strange things, and your heart will utter perverse things.
    i. Like several commentators, Waltke saw a deliberate purpose in setting the warning against the seductive woman (Pro_23:26-28) next to this warning against intoxication. “Both the vixen and wine are hidden and deadly traps. The preceding saying unmasks the unchaste wife as a triumphant huntress and this one uncovers wine as a poisonous snake.”
    e. You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea: The person who abuses alcohol or drugs will drown in their sin and misery. They will be like a person on a sinking ship who denies their danger. Living in denial, unable or unwilling to see their danger (they have struck me, but I was not hurt), their only thought is when they “may seek another drink.”
    i. “In a ship in the midst of the sea. This phrase notes the temper and condition of the drunkard, the giddiness of his brain, the unquietness of his mind, and especially his extreme danger joined with great security.” (Poole)
    ii. One who lies at the top of the mast: “Escalates his giddiness and danger by comparinga him to one sleeping in the crow’s nest on top of the rigging where the ship’s rocking is greatest.” (Waltke)
    iii. “The passage describes more than a night’s drinking and a morning’s hangover. It describes the increasingly degenerative effects, physical and mental, of the habitual drinker and the alcoholic” (Aitken, cited in Waltke)
    iv. “Wine (and in modern society, illicit drugs) brings physical pain and debilitation, exhausts one’s resources, takes away mental acuity, and yet leaves one craving for more of the same.” (Garrett)
    v. Yet there is hope in Jesus for the drunkard and drug addict. “Is anything too hard for the Lord? May his name be praised for a full deliverance from the enslavement to sin—to all sins and to every individual sin—and even from the chains of this giant sin. The drunkard becomes sober, the unclean holy, the glutton temperate. The love of Christ overpowers the love of sin.” (Bridges)

Proverbs 23:1-8
When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee: And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat. Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.
The wise man is guarding, in those verses, against two of the great leading sins of a fallen nature; the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. The sin of luxury, and the deceitfulness of riches. And what multitudes among the sons of men are continually falling by their means. The Lord Jesus, in his unequalled manner, gives a caution against the surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life, lest the great day of account come in the midst of our enjoyment and find the soul unprepared. Luk_21:34.

Proverbs 23:9-16
Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless: For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee. Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge. Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell. My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
Here are precepts against another great leading sin, the lust of the eye, the coveting what is not our own; and in the accomplishment of wishes so dishonourable to trample over the just rights of such as cannot stand up for themselves. 1Jn_2:16. What a blessed security, and indeed the only security is that, which ariseth from resting upon Christ, and having him for our treasure and portion. We have a beautiful sentiment of the Psalmist upon this occasion. Psa_17:14-15.

Proverbs 23:17-18
Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
Nothing can be more conclusive; by way of strengthening the faith of the believer, than what is contained in these verses. When we consider the transitory triumph of bad men, and the sure expectation of the just; this becomes enough to prop up the soul under all exercises. I pray the Reader to turn to a most delightful passage to this effect. Psa_37:35 to the end.

Proverbs 23:19-35
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice. My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit. She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men. Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
All these verses are directed to one and the same subject, and a very animated subject they form, in dissuading from sin and enforcing an attendance on the means of grace. They are so plain and yet so nervous, that any attempt to illustrate, by way of comment, would weaken, instead of heightening the representation. The figure of a man sleeping on the mast, in the midst of a boisterous sea, is happily chosen, to picture the perilous condition of those, who in the voyage of life sleep on, and fancy themselves secure until they fall to rise no more, amidst the waves beneath. T here, is no peace saith my God to the wicked. Isa_57:21.

Proverbs 23:35
REFLECTIONS
WHAT evils spring out of the corruptions of our fallen nature! And until grace hath renewed the heart it is full of uncleanness. Like the poor man under the possession of the enemy whose name was Legion; so troops of lusts, and a legion of foes of darkness lead the heart under continued captivity. Every sin, every vanity of life, as Barrabbas of old, is preferred to the Redeemer. The meanest husks of the world, the dross of fancied happiness, in short anything and everything of a carnal nature, takes the lead in the carnal mind. Lord! I would say for myself and Reader, give to us to know and seek the unfading pleasures which are in Christ and his gospel. Here let our desires be directed; and in him and his great salvation let all our wishes centre. Blessed Jesus! thou hast said, and the truth of it is undeniable; he that hath thee hath substance, and thou wilt fill all his treasures, for riches and honor are with thee; yea, durable riches and righteousness.