American Standard Version Proverbs 25

Proverbs 25:1-28
EXPOSITION
Verse 1-29:27
Part VI. SECOND GREAT COLLECTION OF SOLOMONIC PROVERBS, gathered by “the men of Hezekiah,” in which wisdom is set forth as the greatest blessing to the king and his subjects.
Pro_25:1
The superscription: These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah King of Judah copied out. The word “also” implies that a previous collection was known to the compiler of the present book—probably the one which we have in Pr 10-22:16, of which nine proverbs are inserted here. But there was still a large number of proverbial sayings attributed to Solomon, and preserved partly by oral tradition and partly in writing, which it was advisable to collect and secure before they were lost. The zeal of Hezekiah took this in hand. He was not, as far as we know, an author himself, but he evidently felt a warm interest in literature, and “the men of Hezekiah,” not mentioned elsewhere, must have been his counsellors and scholars, to whom was entrusted the duty of gathering together into a volume the scattered sayings of the wise king. Among those contemporaries, doubtless, Isaiah was eminent, and it is not improbable that Shebna the scribe and Josh the chronicler were members of the learned fraternity (2Ki_18:18). The verb rightly translated “copied out” (athak) means, properly, “to remove,” “to transfer” from one place to another (transtulerunt, Vulgate); hence it signifies here to copy into a book words taken from other writings or people’s mouths. The sayings thus collected, whether truly Solomon’s or not, were extant under his name, and were regarded as worthy of his reputation for wisdom. The title is given in the Septuagint, thus: Αὗται αἱ παιδεῖαι Σαλωμῶντος αἱ ἀδιάκριτοι ἂς ἐξεγραψαντο οἱ φίλοι Ἐζεκίου τοῦ βασιλέως τῆς Ἰουδαίας. What is meant by ἀδιάκριτοι is uncertain. It has been translated “impossible to distinguish,” equivalent to “miscellaneous;” “beyond doubt,” equivalent to “genuine,” “hard to interpret,” as in Polyb; 15.12, 9. St. James (Jas_3:17) applies the term to wisdom, but the interpreters there are not agreed as to the meaning, it being rendered “without partiality,” “without variance,” “without doubtfulness,” etc. It seems best to take the word as used by the LXX. to signify “mixed,” or “miscellaneous.”
Pro_25:2-7
Proverbs concerning kings.
Pro_25:2
It is the glory of God to conceal a thing. That which is the chief glory of God is his mysteriousness, the unfathomable character of his nature and attributes and doings. The more we search into these matters, the more complete we find our ignorance to be; finite faculties are utterly unable to comprehend the infinite; they can embrace merely what God chooses to reveal. “Secret things belong unto the Lord our God” (Deu_29:29), and the great prophet, favoured with Divine revelations, can only confess, “Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself” Isa_45:15; comp Ecc_8:17; Rom_11:33, etc.). But the honour of kings is to search out a matter. The same word is used for “glory” and “honour” in both clauses, and ought to have been rendered similarly. It is the king’s glory to execute justice and to defend the rights and safety of his people. To do this effectually he must investigate matters brought before him, look keenly into political difficulties, get to the bottom of all complications, and watch against possible dangers. The contrast between the glory of God and that of the king lies in this—that whereas both God and the king desire man’s welfare, the former promotes this by making him feel his ignorance and littleness and entire dependence upon this mysterious Being whose nature and designs mortals cannot understand; the latter advances the good of his subjects by giving them confidence in his zeal and power to discover truth, and using his knowledge for their benefit. Septuagint, “The glory of God concealeth a word (λόγον): but the glory of a king honoureth matters (πράγματα).”
Pro_25:3
This proverb is connected with the preceding by the idea of “searching” (chakar) common to both. Such emblematic proverbs are common in this second collection (see Pro_25:11). Three subjects are stated, of which is predicated the term unsearchable, viz. The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings. As you can never rise to the illimitable height of the heavens, as you can never penetrate to the immeasurable depth of the earth, so you can never fathom the heart of a king, can never find out what he really thinks and intends (comp. Job_11:8). It may be that tacitly a warning is intended against flattering one’s sell that one knows and can reckon on the favour of a king; his good disposition towards you may be only seeming, or may any moment become changed. The Septuagint has for “unsearchable” (חֵקֶר אֵין) ἀνεξέλεγκτος, “unquestionable.” The commentators refer to a passage in Tacitus (’Ann.’ Pro_6:8), where M. Terentius defends himself for being a friend of Sejanus by the fact of the impossibility of investigating a great man’s real sentiments. “To us,” he says to Tiberius, “it appertains not to judge whom you exalt above all others and for what reason you do so. Facts which are obvious we all notice. We see who is the man upon whom you heap wealth and honours, who it is that has the chief power of dispensing rewards and punishments; that these were possessed by Sejanus no one can deny. But to pry into the hidden thoughts of a prince, and the designs which he meditates in secret, is unlawful and hazardous; nor would the attempt succeed.”
Pro_25:4, Pro_25:5
A tetrastich in an emblematical form.
Pro_25:4
Take away the dross from the silver. Silver was most extensively used by the Hebrews (see ’Dictionary of the Bible,’ sub voc.), whether obtained from native mines or imported from foreign countries, and the process of separating the ore from the extraneous matters mixed with it was well known (Psa_12:6; Eze_22:20, etc.; see on Pro_17:3). And there shall come forth a vessel for the finer (tsaraph); the goldsmith. The pure silver is ready for the artist s work, who from this material can make a beautiful vessel. Septuagint, “Beat untested silver, and all shall be made entirely pure,” where the allusion is to the process of reducing minerals by lamination.
Pro_25:5
Take away the wicked from before the king. Let the wicked be removed from the presence of the king, as dross is separated from the pure silver (see the same metaphor, Isa_1:25; Jer_6:29, etc.). And his throne shall be established in righteousness (Pro_16:12 : Pro_29:14). The king detects the evil and punishes them; and this confirms his rule and secures the continuance of his dynasty. Thus righteousness triumphs, and wickedness is properly dealt with. Septuagint, “Slay the ungodly from the face of the king, and his throne shall prosper in righteousness.”
Pro_25:6, Pro_25:7
Another proverb (a pentastich) connected with kings and great men.
Pro_25:6
Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king. Do not make display of yourself as though vying with the king in outward circumstances. Septuagint, “Boast not thyself (μὴ ἀλαζονεύον) in the presence of a king.” Stand not in the place of great men. Do not pretend to be the equal of those who occupy high places in the kingdom (Pro_18:16). Septuagint, “And take not your stand (ὑφίστασο) in the places of chieftains.” Says a Latin gnome, “Qui cum fortuna convenit, dives est;” and Ovid wrote well (’Trist.,’ 3.4. 25, etc.)—
“Crede mihi; bene qui latuit, bene vixit; et intra
Fortunam debet quisque manere suam …
Tu quoque formida nimium sublimia semper;
Propositique memor contrahe vela tui.”
Pro_25:7
For better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up hither. It is better for the prince to select you for elevation to a high post; to call you up near his throne. The reference is not necessarily to position at a royal banquet, though the maxim lends itself readily to such application. This warbling against arrogance and presumption was used by our blessed Lord in enforcing a lesson of humility and self-discipline (Luk_14:7, etc ). Septuagint, “For it is better for thee that it should be said, Come up unto me (ἀνάβαινε πρὸς μέ)” (προσανάβηθι ἀνώτερον, Luk_14:7). Than that thou shouldest be put lower in the presence of the prince whom thine eyes have seen. The last words have been variously interpreted: “to whom thou hast come with a request for preferment;” “into whose august presence thou hast been admitted, so as to see his face” (2Sa_14:24); “who knows all about thee, and will thus make thee feel thy humiliation all the more.” But nadib, rendered “prince,” is not the king, but any noble or great man; and what the maxim means is this—that it is wise to save yourself from the mortification of being turned out of a place which you have knowingly usurped. Your own eyes see that he is in the company; you are aware of what is his proper position; you have occupied a post which belongs to another; justly you are removed, and all present witness your humiliation. The moralist knew that the bad spirit of pride was fostered and encouraged by every act of self-assertion; hence the importance of his warning. The Septuagint makes a separate sentence of these last words, “Speak thou of what thine eyes saw,” or, perhaps, like St. Jerome, the Syriac, and Symmachus, attach them to the next verse.
Pro_25:8
A tristich with no parallelism. Go not forth hastily to strive. The idea is either of one entering into litigation with undue haste, or of one hurrying to meet an adversary. St. Jerome, taking in the final words of the previous verse, renders, Quae viderunt oculi tui, ne proferas in jurgio cito, “What thine eyes have seen reveal not hastily in a quarrel.” This is like Pro_25:9 below, and Christ’s injunction, “If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone” (Mat_18:15). Lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof. The Hebrew is elliptical, “Lest by chance (
פֶן) thou do something (bad, humiliating) in the end thereof.” But Delitzsch, Nowack, and others consider the sentence as interrogative (as 1Sa_20:19), and translate, “That it may not be said in the end thereof, What wilt thou do?” Either way, the warning comes to this—Do not enter hastily upon strife of any kind, lest thou be utterly at a loss what to do. When thy neighbour hath put thee to shame, by putting thee in the wrong, gaining his cause, or getting the victory over thee in some way. Septuagint, “Fall not quickly into a contest, lest thou repent at the last.” There is an English proverb, “Anger begins with folly and ends with repentance;” and “Haste is the beginning of wrath, its end is repentance.”
Pro_25:9, Pro_25:10
A tetrastich without parallelism, connected with the preceding maxim.
Pro_25:9
Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself (Mat_18:15; see on Mat_18:8). If you have any quarrel with a neighbour, or are drawn into a controversy with him, deal with him privately in a friendly manner. And discover not a secret to another; rather, the secret of another. Do not bring in a third party, or make use of anything entrusted to you by another person, or of which you have become privately informed, in order to support your cause.
Pro_25:10
Lest he that heareth it put thee to shame; i.e. lest any one, not the offended neighbour only, who hears how treacherous you have been, makes your proceeding known and cries shame upon you. And thine infamy turn not away. The stigma attached to you be never obliterated. Thus Siracides: “Whoso discovereth secrets loseth his credit; and shall never find friend to his mind. Love thy friend, and be faithful unto him: but if thou bewrayest his secrets, follow no more after him. For as a man hath destroyed his enemy; so hast thou lost the love of thy neighbour” (Ecclesiasticus 27:16, etc.; comp. also 22:22). The motive presented in our text is not the highest, being grounded on the fear of shame and disgrace in men’s eyes; but it is a very potent incentive to right action, and the moralist has good reason for employing it. That it does not reach to the height of Christian morality is obvious. The gnome is thus given in the Greek: “When thy friend shall reproach thee, retreat backward, despise him not, lest thy friend reproach thee still; and so thy quarrel and enmity shall not pass away, but shall be to thee like death.” Then the LXX. adds a paragraph, reproduced partly by St. Jerome, “Kindness and friendship set a man free (ἐλευθεροῖ); preserve thou these, that thou become not liable to reproach (ἐπονείδισοτς, exprobabilis); but guard thy ways in a conciliating spirit (εὐσυναλλάκτως).”
Pro_25:11
One of the emblematical distiches in which this collection is rich. A word fitly spoken. עַל־אָפְנָיו may be translated “in due season,” or “upon its wheels” (Venetian, ἐπὶ τῶν τροχῶν αὐτῆς). In the latter case the phrase may mean a word quickly formed, or moving easily, spoken ore rotundo, or a speedy answer. But the metaphor is unusual and inappropriate; and it is best to understand a word spoken under due consideration of time and place. Vulgate, Qui loquitur verbum in tempore suo; Aquila and Theodotion, ἐπὶ ἁρμόζουσιν αὐτῷ, “in circumstances that suit it;” the Septuagint has simply οὕτως. Is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. In these emblematical distichs the words, “is like,” in the Authorized Version, are an insertion. The Hebrew places the two ideas merely in sequence; the object with which some, thing is compared usually coming before, that which is compared with it, as here, “Apples of gold—a word fitly spoken” (so in Pro_25:14, Pro_25:18, Pro_25:19, Pro_25:26, Pro_25:28). There is a doubt about the meaning of the word rendered “pictures,” maskith (see on Pro_18:11). It seems to be used generally in the sense of “image,” “sculpture,” being derived from the verb שָׁכָה, “to see;” from this it comes to signify “ornament,” and here most appropriately is “basket,” and, as some understand, of filagree work. St. Jerome mistakes the word, rendering, in lectis argenteis. The Septuagint has, ἐν ὁρμίσκῳ σαρδίου, “on a necklace of sardius.” “Apples of gold” are apples or other fruits of a golden colour, not made of gold, which would be very costly and heavy; nor would the comparison with artificial fruits be as suitable as that with natural. The “word” is the fruit set off by its circumstances, as the latter’s beauty is enhanced by the grace of the vessel which contains it. The “apple” has been supposed to be the orange (called in late Latin pomum aurantium) or the citron. We may cite here the opinion of a competent traveller: “For my own part,” says Canon Tristram, “I have no hesitation in expressing my conviction that the apricot alone is the ’apple’ of Scripture Everywhere the apricot is common; perhaps it is, with the single exception of the fig, the most abundant fruit of the country. In highlands and lowlands alike, by the shores of the Mediterranean and on the banks of the Jordan, in the nooks of Judea, under the heights of Lebanon, in the recesses of Galilee, and in the glades of Gilead, the apricot flourishes, and yields a crop of prodiscus abundance. Its characteristics meet every condition of the ’tappuach’ of Scripture. ’I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste’ (So Pro_2:3). Near Damascus, and on the banks of the Barada, we have pitched our tents under its shade, and spread our carpets secure from the rays of the sun. ’The smell of thy nose (shall be) like tappuach’ (So Pro_7:8). There can scarcely be a more deliciously perfumed fruit than the apricot; and what fruit can better fit the epithet of Solomon, ’apples of gold in pictures of silver,’ than this golden fruit, as its branches bend under the weight in their setting of bright yet pale foliage?” Imagery similar to that found in this verse occurs in Pro_10:31; Pro_12:14; Pro_13:2; Pro_18:20. There is a famous article on the analogies between flowers and men’s characters in the Spectator, No. 455.
Pro_25:12
Another distich concerning the seasonable word, of the same character as the last. As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold. In this, as in many of the proverbs, the comparison is not expressed, but is merely implied by juxtaposition. Nezem, in Pro_11:22, was a nose ring, here probably an earring is meant; chali, “ornament,” is a trinket or jewel worn suspended on neck or breast. The two, whether worn by one person or more, form a lovely combination, and set off the wearer’s grace and beauty. Vulgate, Inauris aurea et margaritum fulgens, “A golden earring and a brilliant pearl.” Septuagint, “A golden earring a precious sardius also is set.” So is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. The obedient ear receives the precepts of the wise reprover, and wears them as a valued ornament. In Pro_1:9 the instruction of parents is compared to a chaplet on the head and a fair chain on the neck. Septuagint, “A wise word on an obedient ear.”
Pro_25:13
A comparative tristich concerning words. As the cold of snow in the time of harvest. This, of course, does not mean a snowstorm or hailstorm in the time of harvest, which would be anything but a blessing (Pro_26:1; 1Sa_12:17, 1Sa_12:18), but either the distant view of the snow on Hermon or Lebanon, which gave an idea of refreshment in the heat of autumn, or more probably snow used to cool drink in warm weather. This luxury was not unknown in the time of Solomon, who had a summer palace on Lebanon (1Ki_9:19), though it could have been enjoyed by very few, and would not speak to the personal experience of the burgher class, to whom the proverbs seem to have been addressed. Xenophon writes of the use of snow to cool wine (’Memorab.,’ 2.1. 30). Hitzig quotes a passage from the old history of the Crusades, called ’Gesta Dei per Francos,’ which runs thus: “Nix frigidissima a monte Libano defertur, ut vino commixta, tanquam glaciem ipsum frigidum reddat.” So in the present day snow is sold in Damascus bazaars. The LXX; not realizing what harm such an untimely storm might effect, translates, “As a fall (ἔξοδος) of snow in harvest is of use against heat, so a faithful messenger benefits those who sent him.” So is a faithful messenger to them that send him. (For “faithful messenger,” see on Pro_13:17; and for “them that send,” see on Pro_22:21.) The comparison is explained. For he refresheth the soul of his masters. He brings as great refreshment to his masters’ mind as would a drink of snow-cooled water in the burning harvest field.
Pro_25:14
The Hebrew is, Clouds and wind without rain—he that boasteth himself in a gift of falsehood (see on Pro_25:11). The proverb is concerned with promises disappointed. Clouds and wind are generally in the East the precursors of heavy rain, as we read in 1Ki_18:45, “In a little while the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.” After such phenomena, which, according to current meteorological observation, gave every hope of a refreshing shower in the time of summer drought, to see the clouds pass away without affording a single drop of rain is a grievous disappointment. The metaphor is found in the New Testament. St. Jude (Jud_1:12) calls false teachers “clouds without water, carried along by winds.” “A gift of falsehood,” equivalent to “a false gift,” one that deceives, because it is only promised and never given. A man makes a great parade of going to bestow a handsome present, and then sneaks out of it, and gives nothing. Such a one is, as St. Jerome renders, Vir gloriosus, et promissa non complens. The old commentators quote Ovid, ’Heroid.,’ 6.509—
“Mobilis AEsonide, vernaque incertior aura,
Cur tua pollicito pondere verba carent?”
“Deeds are fruits,” says the proverb, “words are but leaves;” and “Vainglory blossoms, but never bears fruit.” Concerning the folly of making stupid beasts, the Bengalee proverb speaks of a pedlar in ginger getting tidings of his ship. The Septuagint is incorrect, “As winds, and clouds, and rains are most evident (
ἐπιφανέστατα), so is he who boasts of a false gift.”
Pro_25:15
By long forbearing; i.e. by patience, calmness that does not break out into passion whatever be the provocation, even, it is implied, in the face of a false and malicious accusation (comp. Pro_14:29). Is a prince persuaded. Katson is rather “an arbiter,” or judge, than “a prince,” and the proverb says that such an officer is led to take a favourable view of an accused person’s case when he sees him calm and composed, ready to explain the matter without any undue heat or irritation, keeping steadily to the point, and not seduced by calumny or misrepresentation to forget himself and lose his temper. Such a bearing presupposes innocence and weighs favourably with the judge. The LXX. makes the gnome apply to monarchs alone, “In long suffering is prosperity unto kings.” A soft tongue breaketh the bone. A soft answer (Pro_15:1), gentle, conciliating words, overcome opposition, and disarm the most determined enemy, and make tender in him that which was hardest and most uncompromising. “Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi, sed saepe cadendo.” Similar proverbs are found elsewhere, though probably in a different sense. Thus in modern Greek, “The tongue has no bones, yet it breaks bones;” in Turkish, “The tongue has no bone, yet it crushes;” again, “One drop of honey,” says the Turk, “catches more bees than a ton of vinegar.”
Pro_25:16
Hast thou found honey? Honey would be found in crevices of rocks, in hollow trees (1Sa_14:27), or in more unlikely situations (Jdg_14:8), and was extensively used as an article of food. All travellers in Palestine note the great abundance of bees therein, and how well it answers to its description as “a land flowing with milk and honey.” Eat so much as is sufficient for thee. The agreeable sweetness of honey might lead the finder to eat too much of it. Against such excess the moralist warns: Lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it. Thus wrote Pindar, ’Nem.,’ 7.51—
Ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἀνάπαυσις ἐν παντὶ γλυκεῖα ἔργῳκόρον δ ἔχει
Καὶ μέλι καὶ τὰ τέρπν ἄνθε Ἀφροδι.σια.
Μηδὲν ἄγαν, Ne quid nimis, is a maxim continually urged by those who wished to teach moderation. Says Homer, ’Iliad,’ 13.636—
“Men are with all things sated—sleep, and love,
Sweet sounds of music, and the joyous dance.”
(Lord Derby.)
Says Horace, ’Sat.,’ 1.1, 106—
“Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines,
Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum?”
The honey is a figure of all that pleases the senses; but the maxim is to be extended beyond physical matters, though referring primarily to such pleasures. The mind may be overloaded as well as the body: only such instruction as can be digested and assimilated is serviceable to the spiritual nature; injudicious cramming produces satiety and disgust. Again, “To ’find honey,’” says St. Gregory (’Moral.,’ 16.8), “is to taste the sweetness of holy intelligence, which is eaten enough of then when our perception, according to the measure of our faculty, is held tight under control. For he is ’filled with honey, and vomits it’ who, in seeking to dive deeper than he has capacity for, loses that too from whence he might have derived nourishment.” And in another place (ibid; 20.18), “The sweetness of spiritual meaning he who seeks to eat beyond what he contains, even what he had eaten he ’vomiteth;’ because, whilst he seeks to make out things above, beyond his powers, even the things that he had made out aright, he forfeits” (Oxford transl.).
Pro_25:17
Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour’s house; literaliy, make thy foot precious, rare; Septuagint, “Bring thy foot sparingly (σπάνιον) into thy friend’s house,” The proverb seems to be loosely connected with the preceding, as urging moderation. Do not pay too frequent visits to your neighbors’ house, or make yourself too much at home there. The Son of Sirach has an utterance on a somewhat similar subject, “Give place, thou stranger, to an honourable man; my brother cometh to be lodged, and I have need of mine house. Those things are grievous to a man of understanding; the upbraiding of house room, and reproaching of the lender” (Ecclesiasticus 29:27, etc.). Lest he be weary of thee, and so hate thee. Such a result might easily arise from too constant intercourse. Cornelius a Lapide quotes from Seneca (’De Benefic,’ 1.15), “Rarum esse oportet quod diu carum velis,” “That should be rare which you would enduringly bear.”
And Martial’s cynical advice—
“Nulli te facias nimis sodalem;
Gaudebis minus, et minus dolebis.”
The same poet (’Epigr.,’ 4.29, 3) writes—
“Rara juvant; primis sic major gratia pomis,
Hibernae pretium sic meruere rosae.”
Pro_25:18
Hebrew, A maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow—a man that beareth false witness against his neighbour (see on Pro_25:11). One who bears false witness against his neighbour prepares for him the instruments of death, such as those mentioned here. “A maul” (mephits), usually a heavy wooden hammer (compare malleus and “mallet”); here a club, or mace, used in battle, ῥόπαλον. There is a kind of climax in the three offensive weapons named—the club bruises, the sword inflicts wounds, the arrow pierces to the heart; and the three may represent the various baneful effects of false testimony, how it bruises reputation, spoils possessions, deprives of life. The second clause is from the Decalogue (Exo_20:16).
Pro_25:19
Hebrew (see on Pro_25:11), A broken tooth, and a foot out of joint—confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble. A faithless man is as little to be relied on in a time of need as a loose or broken tooth, and a foot unsteady or actually dislocated. You cannot bite on the one, you cannot walk on the other; so the perfidious man fails you when most wanted. Septuagint, “The way [ὁδὸς, Vatican, is probably a clerical error for ὀδοὺς, al.] of the wicked, and the foot of the transgressor, shall perish in an evil day.” A Bengal maxim runs, “A loose tooth and a feeble friend are equally bad” (Lane).
Pro_25:20
As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather. The proverb gives three instances of what is wrong, incongruous, or unwise, the first two leading up to the third, which is the pith of the maxim. But them is some doubt about the rendering of the first clause. The Authorized Version has the authority of the Syriac, Aquila, and others, and gives an appropriate sense, the unreasonable proceeding being the laying aside of some of one’s own clothes in cold weather. But the verb here used, עָדָח (adah), may also mean “to adorn,” e.g. with fine garments; hence some expositors understand the incongruity to be the dressing one’s self in gay apparel in winter. But, as Delitzsch remarks, there is no reason why fine clothes should not be warm; and if they are so, there is nothing unreasonable in wearing them. The rendering of our version is probably correct. St. Jerome annexes this line to the preceding verse, as if it confirmed the previous instances of misplaced confidence, Et amittit pallium in die frigoris. “Such a one loses his cloak in a day of frost.” Vinegar upon nitre. Our nitre, or saltpetre, is nitrate of potash, which is not the substance intended by נֶתֶר (nether). The substance signified by this term is a natural alkali, known to the ancients as natron, and composed of carbonate of soda with some other admixture. It was used extensively for washing purposes, and in cookery and bread making. It effervesces with an acid, such as vinegar, and changes its character, becoming a salt, and being rendered useless for all the purposes to which it was applied in its alkaline condition. So he who pours vinegar on natron does a foolish thing, for he spoils a highly useful article, and produces one which is of no service to him. Septuagint, “As vinegar is inexpedient for a wound (ἕλκει), so suffering falling on the body pains the heart.” Schulteus, Ewald, and others, by referring nether to an Arabic source, obtain the meaning “wound,” or “sore,” titus: “As vinegar on a sore.” This gives a most appropriate sense, and might well be adopted if it had sufficient authority. But this is doubtful. Cornelius a Lapide translates the Septuagint rendering, Ὥσπερ ὅξος ἑλκει ἀούμφορον, “Sicut acetum trahit inutile;” and explains that vinegar draws from the soil the nitre which is prejudicial to vegetation, and thus renders ground fertile—a fact in agricultural chemistry not generally known, though Columella vouches for it. A somewhat similar fact, however, is of common experience. Land occasionally becomes what farmers term “sour,” and is thus sterile; if it is then dressed with salt. its fertillity is restored. So is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart. The inconsistency lies in thinking to cheer a sorrowful heart by singing merry songs. “A tale out of season,” says Siracides, “is as music in mourning” (Ecclesiasticus 22:6). The Greeks denoted cruel incongruity by the proverb, Ἐν, πενθοῦσι παίζειν; “Ludere inter maerentes.” As the old hymn says—
“Strains of gladness
Suit not souls with anguish torn.”
The true Christian sympathy teaches to “rejoice with them that rejoice, to weep with them that weep” (Rom_12:15). Plumptre, in the ’Speaker’s Commentary,’ suggests that the effervescence caused by the mixture of acid and alkali is taken as a type of the irritation produced by the inopportune songs. But this is importing a modern view into a paragraph, such as would never have occurred to the writer. The Septuagint, followed partially by Jerome, the Syriac, and the Targum, introduces another proverb not found in the Hebrew, “As a moth in a garment, and a worm in wood, so the sorrow of a man hurts his heart.”
Pro_25:21, Pro_25:22
This famous tetrastrich is reproduced (with the exception of the fourth line) from the Septuagint by St. Paul (Rom_12:20).
Pro_25:21
The traditional hatred of enemies is here strongly repudiated (see Pro_24:17, Pro_24:18, and notes there). Thus Elisha treated the Syrians, introduced blindly into the midst of Samaria, ordering the King of Israel to set bread and water before them, and to send them away unharmed (
2Ki_6:22). “Punish your enemy by benefiting him,” say the Arabs, though they are far from practising the injunction; “Sweet words break the bones;” “Bread and salt humble even a robber,” say the Russians.
Pro_25:22
For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. This expression has been taken in various senses. It has been thought to mean that the forgiveness of the injured person brings to the cheek of the offender the burning blush of shame. But heaping coals on the head cannot naturally be taken to express such an idea. St. Chrysostom and other Fathers consider that Divine vengeance is implied, as in Psa_11:6, “Upon the wicked he shall rain snares; fire and brimstone and burning wind shall be their portion;” and Psa_140:10, “Let burning coals fall upon them.” Of course, in one view, kindness to an evil man only gives him occasion for fresh ingratitude and hatred, and therefore increases God’s wrath against him. But it would be a wicked motive to act this beneficent part only to have the satisfaction of seeing your injurer humbled or punished. And the gnome implies that the sinner is benefited by the clemency shown to him, that the requital of evil by good brings the offender to a better mind, and aids his spiritual life. “Coals of fire” are a metaphor for the penetrating pain of remorse and repentance. The unmerited kindness which he receives forces upon him the consciousness of his ill doing, which is accompanied by the sharp rain of regret. St. Augustine, “Ne dubitaveris figurate dictum … ut intelligas carbones ignis esse urentes poenitentiae gemitus, quibus superbia sanatur ejus, qui dolit se inimicum fuisse hominis, a quo ejus miseriae subvenitur” (’De Doctr. Christ.,’ 3.16). Lesetre quotes St. Francis de Sales, who gives again a different view, “You are not obliged to seek reconciliation with one who has offended you; it may be rather his part to seek you; yet nevertheless go and follow the Saviour’s counsel, prevent him with good, render him good for evil: heap coals of fire on his head and on his heart, which may burn up all ill will and constrain him to love you” (’De l’Am. de Dieu,’ 8.9). And the Lord shall reward thee. This consideration can scarcely be regarded as the chief motive for the liberality enjoined, though it would be present to the kind person’s mind, and be a support and comfort to him in a course of conduct repugnant to the natural man. He would remember the glorious reward promised to godliness by the prophet (Isa_58:8, etc.), and how Saul had expressed his consciousness of David’s magnanimity in sparing his life. “Thou art more righteous than I; for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil … wherefore the Lord reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me this day” (1Sa_24:17,1Sa_24:19 and 1Sa_26:21).
Pro_25:23
The north wind driveth away rain. So St. Jerome (Ventus Aquilo dissipat pluvias), Symmachus, Aben Ezra, and others. The north wind is called by the natives of Palestine “the heavenly,” from the bright effect which it produces in the sky. “By means of the north wind cometh he (the sun) forth as gold” (Job_37:22). But the verb here used (חול) means “to bring forth, produce” (Psa_90:2); hence the Revised Version rightly renders, “The north wind bringeth forth rain.” This is quite true if “north wind” be taken as equivalent to “wind from the dark quarter” (Umbreit), like ζόφος in Greek; and, in fact, the northwest wind in Palestine does bring rain. Septuagint, “The north wind arouseth (ἐξεγείρει) clouds.” So doth an angry countenance a backbiting, tongue. Carrying on the interpretation intended by the Authorized Version, this clause means that an angry leer will check a slanderer and incline him to hold his peace from prudential motives. But with the rendering given above, “bringeth forth,” another explanation is involved, viz. “So does a secret, slandering tongue cause a troubled countenance.” When a man discovers that a secret slanderer is working against him, he shows it by his gloomy and angry look, as the sky is dark with clouds when a storm is threatened. “Countenance” is plural in the Hebrew, denoting, as Hitzig points out, that the calumniator does not affect one person only, but occasions trouble far and wide, destroys friendly relations between many, excites suspicion and enmity in various quarters Septuagint, “An impudent countenance provokes the tongue.”
Pro_25:24
A repetition of Pro_21:9, taken therefore from the Solomonic collection.
Pro_25:25
As cold waters to a thirsty soul. The particle of comparison is not in this first clause in the Hebrew. (For “cold waters,” comp. Jer_18:14.) So is good news from a far country. The nostalgia of an exile, and the craving for tidings of him felt by his friends at home, are like a parching thirst. The relief to the latter, when they receive good news of the wanderer, is as refreshing as a draught of cool water to a fainting, weary man. We do not know that the Hebrews were great travellers in those days; but any communication from a distant country would be very uncertain in arriving at its destination, and would at any rate take a long time in transmission, in most cases there would be nothing to rest upon but vague report, or a message carried by some travelling merchant. There is a somewhat similar proverb found at Pro_25:13 and Pro_15:30. The ancient commentators have seen in this news from a distant country the announcement of Christ’s birth by the angels at Bethlehem, or the preaching of the gospel that tells of the joys of heaven, the land that is very far off (Isa_33:17).
Pro_25:26
Hebrew (see on Pro_25:11), A troubled fountain, and a corrupted spring—a righteous man giving way to the wicked. A good man neglecting to assert himself and to hold his own m the face of sinners, is as useless to society and as harmful to the good cause as a spring that has been defiled by mud stirred up or extraneous matter introduced is unserviceable for drinking and prejudicial to those who use it. The mouth of the righteous should be “a well of life” (Pro_10:11), wholesome, refreshing, helpful; his conduct should be consistent and straightforward, fearless in upholding the right (Isa_51:12, etc.), uncompromising in opposing sin. When such a man, for fear, or favour, or weakness, or weariness, yields to the wicked, compromises principle, no longer makes a stand for truth and purity and virtue, he loses his high character, brings a scandal on religion, and lowers his own spiritual nature. It is this moral cowardice which Christ so sternly rebukes (Mat_10:33), “Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” Some have assumed that the gnome is concerned with a good man’s fall into misfortune owing to the machinations of sinners; but in this case the comparison loses its force; such persecution would not disturb the purity or lower the character of the righteous man; it would rather enhance his good qualities, give occasion for their exercise and development, and therefore could not be described as fouling a pure spring.
Pro_25:27
It is not good to eat much honey. The ill effects of a surfeit of honey have been already mentioned (Pro_25:16); but here the application is different, and occasions some difficulty. The Authorized Version, in order to clear up the obscurity of the text, inserts a negative, So for men to search their own glory is not glory, which seems to be a warning against conceit and self-adulation. This is hardly warranted by the present Hebrew text, which is literally, as Venetian renders, Ἔρευνά τε δόξας αὐτῶν δόξα, “The search of their glory [is] glory.” But who are meant by “their”? No persons are mentioned in the verse to whom the suffix in כְּבוֹרָם can be referred, and it is not improbable that some words have dropped out of the text. At the same time, we might naturally in thought supply “for men” after “it is not good,” such omissions being not uncommon in proverbial sayings; the suffix then would refer to them. Commentators have endeavoured to amend the text by alterations which do not commend themselves. Schultens supposes that the suffix had reference to the Divine law and revelations, and, as כבד may mean both “glory” and “weight,” translates, “Vestigatio gravitatis eorum, gravitas.” Bertheau takes kabod in two different senses, “The searching out of their glory is a burden.” So Delitzsch, by little manipulation of the pointing (כְּבֵרִם) obtains the rendering, “But to search out hard things is an honour.” Taken thus, the maxim says that bodily pleasures sicken and cloy, but diligent study brings honour. This, however, is not satisfactory; it gives a word two different senses in the same clause, and it affords a very feeble contrast. One would naturally expect the proverb to say that the excess, which was deprecated in the first hemistich as regards one department, must be equally rejected in another sphere. This is somewhat the idea given by Jerome, Sic qui scrutator est majestatis opprimetur a gloria. The truth here stated will be explained by translating our text, “The investigation of weighty matters is a weight.” Thus the clauses are shown to be well poised. Honey is good, study is good; but both may be used so as to be prejudicial. Eating may be carried to excess; study may attempt to investigate things too hard or too high. That this is a real danger we know well from the controversies about predestination and elation in time past, and those concerning spiritualism and theurgy in our own day (see Jeremy Taylor, ’Certainty of Salvation,’ 3.176, edit. Hebrews; and ’Holy Living,’ ch. 3, § 5). This is the view taken of the passage by St. Gregory (’Moral,’ 14.32), ’If the sweetness of honey be taken in greater measure than there is occasion for, from the same source whence the palate is gratified, the life of the eater is destroyed.’ The “searching into majesty” is also sweet; but he that seeks to dive into it deeper than the cognizance of human nature admits, finds the mere gloriousness thereof by itself oppresses
him, in that, like honey taken in excess, it bursts the sense of the searcher which is not capable of holding it.” And again (ibid; 20.18), “For the glory of the invisible Creator, which when searched into with moderation lifts us up, being dived into beyond our powers bears us down” (Oxford transl.). (Comp. Deu_29:29; Ecclesiasticus 3:21, etc.) Septuagint, “To eat much honey is not good, but it behoves us to honor glorious sayings.”
Pro_25:28
A proverb like the last, concerned with self-control. In the Hebrew it runs thus (see on Pro_25:11): A city that is broken down without wall—a man on whose spirit is no restraint. “A city broken down” is explained by the next words. “without wall,” and therefore undefended and open to’ the first invader. To such a city is compared the man who puts no restraint on his passions, desires, and affections; he is always in danger of being carried away by them and involved in sin and destruction; he has no defence when temptation assaults him, having lost self-control (comp. Pro_16:32). The old gnomes hold always true—
Θυμοῦ κρατῆσαι κἀπιθυμίας καλόν.
Desire and passion it is good to rule.”
Ταμιεῖον ἀρετῆς ἐστι σωφροσύνη μόνη
“Virtue’s true storehouse is wise self-control.”
A Chinese maxim says. “Who can govern himself is fit to govern the world.” Septuagint, “As a city whose wails are broken down and which is unwalled, so is a man who does aught without counsel.” St. Jerome, by the addition of the words, in loquendo, applies the proverb to intemperance in language, “So is he who is not able to restrain his spirit in speaking.” Commenting on this, St. Gregory (’Moral,’ 7.59) says, “Because it is without the wall of silence, the city of the mind lies open to the darts of the enemy, and when it casts itself forth in words, it exhibits itself exposed to the adversary, and he gets the mastery of it without trouble, in proportion as the soul that he has to overcome combats against its own self by much talking” (Oxford transl.).
HOMILETICS
Pro_25:1
Ancient lore
This superscription gives us a hint of a very interesting historical event of which we have no account elsewhere. It suggests a picture of the days of Hezekiah; we see his scribes busily engaged in ransacking the ancient libraries, and bringing together the long-forgotten sayings of his famous predecessor.
I. A REVIVAL OF RELIGION SHOULD LEAD TO A REVIVAL OF LEARNING. The Renaissance preceded the Reformation, and, because it had no deep spiritual basis, it threatened to degenerate into dilletantism and pedantry. But after the second movement had takes hold of Europe, real, solid learning received a powerful impulse, because men were then in earnest in the search for truth. It would seem that a similar result was produced in the days of Hezekiah. Then there was a religious reformation, and that was followed by a newly awakened interest in the national literature. Of course, this was the more natural among the Jews, because their national genius was religious, and their literature was the vehicle of their religious ideas. The danger of a time of religious excitement is that it shall be accompanied by attenuated knowledge. But the more the religious feelings are roused, the more reason is there that they should be directed by truth. Revival preachers should be studious men if they wish their work not to be perverted into wrong and false courses through ignorance.
II. IT IS WISE TO PROFIT BY THE THOUGHTS OF OTHER MEN. The men of Hezekiah were not above learning from Solomon, who had left a reputation for unparalleled wisdom. But lesser lights have also their claims. It is a mistake to live on one’s own thoughts without guidance or nourishment derived from the thoughts of other men. Private thinking tends to narrowness unless it is enlarged by the reception of a variety of ideas from external sources. The mind will ultimately starve if it is left to feed upon its own Juices. We must judge for ourselves, and only accept what we honestly believe to be true—seek truth, and think out our own convictions. But we shall do those things the better if we also allow that others may have light to give us. Above all, the Christian thinker needs to found his meditations on the Bible. Of the New Testament it may be said, “A Greater than Solomon is here.” If the men of Hezekiah did well to collect the proverbs of Solomon, much more is it desirable to treasure up the sayings of him who spake as never man spoke.
III. WE MAY LEARN LESSONS FROM ANTIQUITY. Nearly three hundred years had passed between the days of Solomon and the time of Hezekiah—a period equal to that which separates us from the great Elizabethan writers; so that Solomon was as far anterior to Hezekiah as the poet Spenser is to our own generation. He belonged to the antique age. Yet the glamour of the great Hezekiah did not blind men to the glory of the greater Solomon. In the splendid achievements of the present day we are threatened with an extinction of antiquity. The nineteenth century, is the new image of gold that has been set up on our Plain of Dura for all men to worship. We shall suffer an irreparable loss, and our mental and spiritual life will be sadly stunted, if we fail to hearken to the teachings of our forefathers. We are not to be the slaves of the past. The new age may have its new truths, as well as its new needs and duties. But what was true in the past cannot cease to be so by simply going out of fashion; for truth is eternal. The very diversity of the ages may instruct us by widening our notions and correcting the follies of prevalent customs. The age of Solomon was very different from that of Hezekiah; yet the wisdom of the royal sage could profit the newer generation.
Pro_25:11
Apples of gold in a framework of silver
This is a picture of Oriental decoration. A gorgeous chamber is richly and elaborately ornamented with the precious metals, by fruit carved in gold being set in dainty work of silver—as brilliant a piece of decoration as can well be imagined. This finely turned metaphor is chosen by the writer in order to give the highest possible praise to “the word fitly spoken.”
I. THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF THE WORD FITLY SPOKEN.

1. It is a word. Here we see an immense value set upon a word. Words have weight to crush, force to drive, sharpness to pierce, brightness to illumine, beauty to delight, consolation to cheer. He is a foolish man who despises words.
2. It may be but one word. We cannot value words by the length of them, nor weigh them by their bulk. Many words may be worthless, while one word is beyond all price—if only it be the right word.
3. It must be a real word. It must not be a mere sound of the lips. A word is an uttered thought. The soul of it is its idea. When that has gone out of it, the empty sound is a dead thing, though it be voluminous and thunderous as the noise of many waters.
4. It needs to be an apt word; i.e.
   (1) true;
   (2) fit to be uttered by the speaker;
   (3) suitable for the hearer;
   (4) adapted to the occasion;
   (5) shaped with point and individual character—a word that will go home and stick.
5. It should be a spoken word. There is a world of difference between living speech and written or printed sentences. The press can never supersede the human voice. We see that the newspaper has not suspended the functions of the political orator; it has only given breadth and. additional enthusiasm to his utterances. The publication of the daily paper has not prevented St. James’s Hall from being crowded nor Hyde Park from being thronged by thousands of eager listeners when some great question is agitating the public mind. It is the same with the pulpit. The vocation of the preacher can never cease while the sympathy of personal presence is a power. In private life a short word goes further than a long letter.
6. It ought to be wisely spoken. Here, too, aptness is needed, to find the right moment and speak in the best manner. Formalism, pomposity, hardness or coldness of manner, may spoil the effect of the most suitable word.
   II. THE SUPREME EXCELLENCE OF THE WORD FITLY SPOKEN.
7. It is rare. Such decoration as is described in the text could not have been often witnessed even amid the “barbaric splendour” of Solomon’s days. It is not often that the best words are spoken. We live in a din of speech; it rains words. But most of the words we hear are neither gold nor silver.
8. It is costly. The ornamentation of gold and silver would be very expensive, first in material, then in artistic skill. It cannot always be truly said that “kind words cost little.” The best words cost time, care, consideration, self-suppression, sympathy. What costs the speaker nothing is likely to be valued by the hearer at the same price.
9. It is beautiful. The metaphor describes what would be regarded as exceedingly lovely in Oriental art. But good words are more beautiful still. Poetry is more lovely than sculpture, for it has more soul and life and thought in it. Words of wisdom and love have the beauty of the graces that inspire them.
10. It is precious. Some costly firings are of little value, for one may squander wealth for what is worthless. But words of truth and goodness are beyond price. How supremely is this true of the words of Christ! How well also does it apply to the wise proclamation of the gospel!
    Pro_25:21, Pro_25:22
    Coals of fire.
    I. THE CHRIST-LIKE DUTY.
11. It is positive. It is more than turning the other cheek to the smiter, or letting the thief of the cloak carry off the coat also. Passive non-resistance is to be surpassed by active kindness. The command is not merely to refrain from acts of vengeance; it is to bestir one’s self in active benevolence for the good of an enemy—to return good for evil.
12. It is difficult. Perhaps this is not so exceedingly difficult as silence under provocation; for nothing seems so hard as to be still when one is wronged. Now, a new channel for the energy of vengeance is provided—to do good to the offender. Still this is very difficult.
13. It is Christ like. We have—what Solomon had not—the great example of Christ; not merely led as a lamb to the slaughter, but also freely giving himself in suffering and death for the salvation of those who persecuted him. If we would be Christians, we must walk in the footsteps of our Master. Here, indeed, is a ease in which the disciple is called upon to deny himself—to deny the natural impulse of revenge—and to take up his cross and follow Christ.
14. It is only possible with Divine grace. We ask for grace to bear our troubles. We should seek further grace to inspire us with more than a forgiving spirit—with active benevolence towards a foe.
    II. ITS MIRACULOUS CONSEQUENCES.
15. Enmity is conquered. This is the last result that worldly men would expect. They would rather suppose that, if they gave their enemy an inch, he would take an ell. But there are two ways of conquering a foe—by coercing him and by destroying his enmity. When one makes a friend out of an old enemy he does most effectually vanquish and utterly destroy his enmity.
16. This results from the rousing of generous sentiments. It goes on the presumption that there are noble sentiments present, if latent, in the breast of an antagonist. The tendency of enmity is to paint our foe with the blackest colours. But he may be no worse than we are. Or, if he be an exceptionally bad man, still he is not a perfect demon. Though a man does wrong, we dare not assume that there is no capacity for better things in him. Now, the heathen method is to address him only on his evil side; but the Christian method—already anticipated in the Old Testament—is to appeal to his higher self. This is God’s way in saving sinners. We deserve wrath and vengeance. But instead of our deserts, God has given us grace and a gospel of salvation. He heaps coals of fire on our heads, and conquers enmity with love. The enemy who is thus treated loses the satisfaction of having provoked his victim. He is chagrined at discovering his own impotence. It is useless to spit malice at a man who is strong and grand enough to give back kindness. Such action reflects on the degradation of the conduct of the enemy. If he has a sense of self-respect, it comes to him as burning coals of shame.
17. This method may be successful in various regions.
    (1) In private quarrels.
    (2) In religious differences. If the sects laboured to help one another, instead of biting and devouring each other, sectarianism would be consumed in the burning coals of Christian love.
    (3) In national quarrels. We have tried the old heathen method of war long enough, and with no good results. It is time we turned to the Christian method of magnanimity.
18. This method receives the approval of God. Besides conquering the foe, it secures God’s favour, which the method of revenge loses.
    Pro_25:25
    Good news from afar country.
    I. THE LITERAL APPLICATION OF THE PROVERB.
19. It may be that a rumour has come that a distant ally is marching to succour a nation in its distress, when it had thought itself forgotten, isolated, and helpless.
20. Or perhaps, when there is famine in the land, the news arrives that “there is corn in Egypt.”
21. Or, again, the nation, like Tyro in antiquity, like Venice and Holland later, like England in the present day, may do business on the great waters. She has possessions in distant lands, and her wealth is entrusted to the sea. As she learns that her enterprises are prospering, she rejoices at the good news from a far country.
22. Another way of applying the proverb is in relation to our kinsfolk across the sea. It would be well if England took more interest in her colonies. Coldness, inconsiderateness, and officialism may do much to alienate our children in the new worlds. If we would be drawn together in closer ties of mutual assistance, we must give more attention to colonial affairs.
23. Those who have relations in distant lands anxiously watch for the post. How refreshing to his widowed mother is the soldier’s cheering letter from a distant land, telling of his safety! how much more so if it breathes winds of love and gratitude, and reveals a heart kept true among sore temptations!
24. Lastly, good news from the mission field is most refreshing for the Churches at home. We should all be the better for taking a wider view of the world, and rejoicing in everything good and hopeful among our fellow men.
    II. THE SYMBOLICAL SUGGESTION OF THIS PROVERB. Such a proverb as that before us cannot but suggest a reference to the good news of which the angels sang at the birth of Christ, and, although we cannot assert that any such idea was in the mind of Solomon, the principle being true in itself, may be applied by us to the Christian gospel.
25. This comes from afar country.
    (1) It comes from heaven. Christ came down from heaven, sent to us by his Father. The highest truth is a revelation. Christianity is a God-given religion. If we had to deal with “cunningly devised fables,” it would not be worth while to pay much attention to the Christian legend. Its great importance rests on its truth as a message from God.
    (2) Heaven is a far country, while we are in our sin. Though God is locally near, spiritually he is far away. The prodigal has strayed into a far country. Yet even there be is not forgotten. God has sent from his distant heavens a message to his wandering children.
26. It is good news.
    (1) It tells of God’s love and mercy.
    (2) It declares Christ’s mission to save—his incarnation, ministry, death, and resurrection.
    (3) It brings to us the offer of free deliverance from all evil and of a heavenly inheritance. The Siberian exile learns from the capital that he is pardoned. The pauper is told that he is heir to untold wealth in a distant land.
    (4) It is of universal application. The good news is for all.
27. It is most refreshing. It is “as cold waters to a thirsty soul.”
    (1) It is much needed. The soul of man naturally thirsts for knowledge of the unseen. A deeper need is that of blessedness in union with God.
    (2) It refreshes. We have not enough truth to clear up all mysteries, but we have enough to invigorate us and cheer us on our way. Not yet the full feast, but refreshing waters on the journey.
    Pro_25:28
    A city that is broken down.
    Elsewhere the wise man has told us that it is greater for a man to get the victory over his own passions than to take a city (Pro_16:32). Now we learn the reverse truth—the shame, misery, and ruin of lack of self-control.
    I. THE LACK OF SELF-CONTROL. We need to see what this condition really is. Every man is permitted, in a large measure, to be his own sovereign. No tyrant can invade the secret sanctuary of his thoughts. His ideas, passions, and will are his own. Moreover, God has given to us freedom of will, so that we can give the rein to our passions or restrain them. The inner man is like a city full of life. We are each called upon to keep order in our own cities, and, if we do not respond to the call, the result will be riotous confusion. There are wild beasts within that must be chained and caged, or they will break loose and ravage the streets—murderous propensities that must be shut in a deep dungeon; ugly and vile tendencies to sin that need to be crushed lest they usurp the control of the life. When the will is not fortified and exercised against these evil things, we suffer from lack of self-control.
    II. THE CONSEQUENCES OF LACK OF SELF-CONTROL. The “city is broken down, and without walls.”
28. Dilapidation. The city falls into ruins; its palaces and temples are wrecked; rain penetrates its broken roofs; the wind blows through the crevices of its ill-kept tenements. There is such a thing as a dilapidated soul. Remains of its former glory may yet be detected, but they only add to the shame of its present condition. By failing to control himself, the foolish man has let his passions tear his very soul to pieces. His character is a wreck.
29. An unprotected condition. The walls have vanished. The city lies open to the invader. Self-control serves as a wall to protect the soul from temptation; when this disappears, the soul’s shelter is lest. Then worse evils follow. Wolves from the forest join with the unclean creatures of the city in wasting the miserable place. It is given over to the enemy. Such is the final condition of one without self-control. He is subject to all sorts of bad foreign influences. In the end he becomes like a city sacked by devils.
    III. THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY OF THE LACK OF SELF-CONTROL.
30. The cause—weak self-indulgence. At first the man might have held himself under; but he commenced to indulge his passions, and now they have the mastery over him. He did not begin by choosing evil; indeed, he has never decidedly chosen it. All he has done has been to permit “sin to reign” in his “mortal body.” This was not the choice of sin, but it was culpable weakness.
31. The remedy—Divine strength. We are all too weak to stand alone; but when we have lost control over ourselves, there is no remedy but in the mighty salvation of Christ. This gives strength for the future, by means of which we may crucify the flesh. If we cannot rule our spirits, we may seek that Christ shall take possession of them and reign within. He will build up the broken wails and restore the ruined dwellings.
    HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
    Pro_25:2-5
    Kings: their attributes and duties
    I. CONTRAST BETWEEN DIVINE AND HUMAN GOVERNMENT. Divine government is a mystery in its principles and its ends. Partial revelation only is given of its method in the Scriptures and in the actual course of the world. Actual relations are one thing, their secret spring another. The former may be known, the latter is veiled from our scrutiny. On the contrary, human government should be founded on principles intelligible to all and commendable to the conscience and reason of all. In the kingdom of God, says Luther, we must not seek to be wise, and wish to know the why and wherefore, but have faith in everything. In the kingdom of the world a governor should know and ask the why and wherefore, and trust in nothing.
    II. THE RESERVE OF RULERS. (Pro_25:3.) If the heart in general is unsearchable, much more must theirs be who have not their own merely, but the secrets of nations in their keeping. The lesson is taught of abstaining from hasty censure of the actions and policy of those in power; the grounds of that policy may be far deeper than anything that meets the eye.
    III. THE DUTY OF DISCERNMENT IN RULERS. (Pro_25:4, Pro_25:5.) As the refiner separates the dross from the silver, which mars its beauty and purity, so should the king exclude from his presence and counsels the profligate and the base. A pure or vicious court has immense influence on the manners and morals of the community. Christ speaks in like manner of gathering out of his kingdom at the day of judgment all offenders and workers of iniquity.
    IV. THE TRUE FOUNDATION OF AUTHORITY. (Pro_25:5.) Not force, but moral power; not might, but right. How often in our time have thrones tottered or the occupant fallen when physical force alone was recognized as the basis of security 1 Justice is imprinted upon the nature of man. And let rulers who would maintain their power ever appeal to reason and to right. He who takes the motto, “Be just and fear not,” for the maxim of his policy lays the only stable foundation of law and government.—J.
    Pro_25:6, Pro_25:7
    A lesson in courtly manners
    Nothing in conduct is unimportant. Fitting and graceful manners are those which become our station in life. Here the relations to our superiors are touched upon.
    I. WE SHOULD KNOW OUR PLACE, AND NOT STEP OUT OF IT. (Pro_25:6.) As the Arabic proverb finely says,” Sit in thy place, and no man can make thee rise.” “All that good manners demand,” says a great writer,” is composure and self-content.” We may add to this “an equal willingness to allow the social claims of others as to rely upon our own.” Self-respect is complemented by deference. We need a ready perception of worth and beauty in our companions. If it is folly to refuse respect to admitted external rank, much more to the native rank of the soul.
    II. WE SHOULD ASSUME THE LOWEST RATHER THAN THE HIGHEST PLACE. (Pro_25:7.) The lesson runs all through life, from the outward to the inward and the spiritual (see Luk_14:8-11). “Comme il faut—’as we must be’—is the Frenchman’s description of good society.” The lesson is mainly against presumption in any and all of its forms, an offence hateful to man and God. To take the lowly place in religion here becomes us, and it leads to exaltation; to grasp at more than our due is to lose all and earn our condemnation. Christianity has a deep relation to manners. There is nothing so beautiful as the code of manners given in the New Testament.
    “How near to good is what is fair!
    Which we no sooner see,
    But with the lines and outward air,
    Our senses taken be.”
    Pro_25:8-10
    Some social pests
    I. THE CONTENTIOUS PERSON. (Pro_25:8.) He is irritable, easily takes offence, is readily provoked, barbs even the playful darts of jest with poison. When the consequences of this ill temper have broken out in full force, its mischief is seen and exposed too late. Beware, then, of “entrance to a quarrel.” The contentious man may make real in the end the enmity of which he only dreams.
    II. MANFUL CONDUCT IN DISPUTES. (Pro_25:9.) If an unavoidable dispute has begun, bear thyself in it with energy, but with honour. It is unmanly and base to employ against one’s opponent the secrets that have been learned from him in some earlier confidential moment. Go first to your adversary, and seek a cordial explanation of the difference, and a lair and honourable settlement. And do not be tempted to mix up foreign matters with it. “Agree with thine adversary quickly.”
    III. THE EVIL OF NOURISHING QUARRELS. (Pro_25:10.) Lawsuits consume time, money, rest, and friends. Worst of all consequences, however, is that in the man’s own mind. He lights a fire in his own bosom and keeps it ever supplied with the fuel of passion, and may turn his heart, and perhaps his home, into a hell.—J.
    Pro_25:11-15
    Similitudes of moral beauty and goodness
    I. THE APT WORD. Compared to “golden apples in silver frames.” Carved work adorning the ceilings of rooms is perhaps alluded to. The beauty of the groined sets off the worth of the object. Just so the good word is set off by the seasonableness of the moment of its utterance (1Pe_4:11). The apt word is “a word upon wheels, not lotted or dragged, but rolling smoothly along like chariot wheels.” Our Lord’s discourses (e.g. on the bread and water of life) sprang naturally out of the course of passing conversation (Joh_4:1-54.; Luk_14:1-35.). So with Patti’s famous discourse on Mars’ Hill (Act_17:1-34).
    II. WISE CENSURE IN THE WILLING EAR IS COMPARED TO A GOLDEN EARRING. (Pro_25:12.) For if all wisdom is precious as pure gold, and beautiful as ornaments m that material, to receive and wear with meekness in the memory and heart such counsels is better than any other decoration. “The wisest princes need not think it any diminution to their greatness or derogation to their sufficiency to rely upon counsel. God himself is not without, but hath made it one of the great names of his blessed Son, ’The Counsellor’” (Bacon). He who willingly gives heed to wise chastisement does a better service to his ears than if he adorned them with the finest gold and with genuine pearls.
    III. A FAITHFUL MESSENGER IS COMPARED TO COOLING SNOW. (Pro_25:13.) In the heat of harvest labour a draught of melted snow from Lebanon is like a “winter in summer” (Xen.,’ Mem.,’ Pro_2:1, 30). A traveller says, “Snow so cold is brought down from Mount Lebanon that, mixed with wine, it renders ice itself cold.” So refreshing is faithfulness in service. The true servant is not to be paid with gold.
    IV. IDLE PRETENSIONS COMPARED TO CLOUDS AND WIND WITHOUT RAIN. (Pro_25:14.) Promise without performance. Let men be what they would seem to be. “What has he done? is the Divine question which searches men and transpierces every false reputation ….Pretension may sit still, but cannot act. Pretension never feigned an act of real greatness. Pretension never wrote an ’Iliad,’ nor drove back Xerxes, nor Christianized the world, nor abolished slavery.”
    V. THE POWER OF PATIENCE. (Pro_25:15.) Time and patience are persuasive; a proverb compares them to an inaudible file. Here patience is viewed as a noiseless hammer, silently crushing resistance. “He who would break through a wall with his hand,” says an old commentator, “will hardly succeed!” But how do gentleness and mildness win their way! “I Paul beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2Co_10:1).—J.
    Pro_25:16-20
    Excesses and errors
    I. WARNING AGAINST SATIETY. (Pro_25:16, Pro_25:17.) The stories of Samson and of Jonathan may be read in illustration of the saying (Jdg_14:8, Jdg_14:9; 1Sa_14:26). Pro_25:27 points the warning against incurring the pain of satiety, “Honey, too, hath satiety,” says Pindar—
    “A surfeit of the sweetest things,
    The deepest loathing to the stomach brings.”
32. We should beware of a too frequent repetition of even innocent pleasures. “If a man will not allow himself leisure to be thirsty, he can never know the true pleasure of drinking.” Self-indulgence far more than suffering unnerves the soul. It may well be asked—How can men bear the ills of life, if its very pleasures fatigue them?
33. A special application of the warning. Do not weary your friends. There should be a sacred reserve of a delicate mutual respect even in the most intimate relations of friendship. To invade a busy privacy, with a view to enjoy a snatch of gossip or secure some paltry convenience, is an offence against the minor morals. Defect in manners is usually owing to want of delicacy of perception. Kindly utterance must rest on the conscientious observance of peat Christian principles; let daily life be evangelized by their all-pervading power. Let us make our “foot precious” to our neighbour by not intruding it too often in his home. Better that our visits should be like angels’, few and far between, than frequent and wearisome as those of a beggar or a dun.
    II. THE TONGUE OF THE FALSE WITNESS. (Pro_25:15.) Compared to destructive weapons (comp. Psa_52:4; Psa_57:4; Psa_64:4; Psa_120:4). “The slanderer wounds three at once—himself, him he speaks of, and him that hears” (Leighton). Not only falsehood, but the perverse and distorted way of telling the truth, comes under this ban. “In the case of the witness against our Lord, the words were true, the evidence false; while they reported the words, they misrepresented the sense; and thus swore a true falsehood, and were truly foresworn (Mat_26:60)” (Bishop Hall).
    III. MISPLACED CONFIDENCE. (Pro_25:19.) Compared to a broken tooth and a disjointed foot. It is a too common experience, and suggests the counsel to select as confidants only good men. “Be continually with a godly man, whom thou knowest to keep the commandments of the Lord, whose mind is according to thy mind, and will sorrow with thee, if thou shalt miscarry; …and above all, pray to the Most High, that he will direct thy way in truth” (Ec 37:12-15). Above all, “let God be true, and every man a liar.”
    IV. INAPT AND UNREASONABLE MIRTH. (Pro_25:20.) It is like the mixture of acid with soda, by which the latter is destroyed; while the combination with oil, etc; produces a useful compound. It is like laying aside a garment in cold weather. Discordant behaviour, the words or the manner out of tune with the occasion, is the fault pointed at. It springs from thoughtlessness and want of sympathy. The Spirit of Christ teaches us to cultivate imagination and sympathy with others. “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.”—J.
    Pro_25:21, Pro_25:22
    Love to our enemy
    I. LOVE DELIGHTS IN ITS OPPORTUNITY. (Pro_25:21.) And to true Christian love there is no opportunity sweeter than the distress of a foe.
    II. LOVE DELIGHTS IN SUPPLYING NEED. It is the opposite of egotism, which clamours for personal satisfaction, and closes the avenues of pity to the distressed.
    III. LOVE IS VICTORIOUS OVER EVIL. (Pro_25:22.) A wholesome pain is excited in the mind of the enemy. He begins to feel regret and remorse. The torch of a love divinely kindled dissolves the barrier of ice between soul and soul. Evil is overcome good.
    IV. LOVE IS SURE OF ITS REWARD. Both present, in conscience; and eternal in the fruits and in the award of God. Not a cup of cold water shall be forgotten.—J.
    Pro_25:23-28
    Moral invectives
    I. AGAINST SLANDER. (Pro_25:23.) Here is a striking picture. Gunning and slanderous habits beget a dark and gloomy expression on the brow; as a homely German proverb says, “He makes a face like three days’ rainy weather.” The countenance, rightly read, is the mirror of the soul. Without the candid soul the brow cannot be clear and open. If we look into the mirror, we may see the condemnation which nature (that is, God) stamps upon our evil and unholy moods.
    II. AGAINST CONTENTIOUSNESS. (Pro_25:24.) Better solitude than the presence of the quarrelsome in the home. A wife is either the husband’s most satisfying delight or the cruetlest thorn in his side.
    III. UNHOLY COWARDICE. (Pro_25:26.) Faint heartedness springs from need of genuine faith. To see the chief struck down in battle dismays the band.
    “He is gone from the mountain,
    he is lost to the forest,
    Like a summer-dried fountain,
    when our need was the sorest!”
    And if the good man is a fountain of help and encouragement by his example, how does the drying up of such a spring—the failure to assert the truth and confront the gainsayer—dismay and paralyze those who look on!
    IV. EXCESS IN SPECULATIVE THOUGHT. (Pro_25:27.) There may be too much of any good thing, even of the pursuit of knowledge. It is too much when it disturbs the health; as a common proverb of the Germans says, “To know everything gives the headache.” It is too much when it disturbs the moral balance and unfits for society. We must know when to leave the heights of speculation and nestle in the lowly vale of faith.
    V. WANT OF SELF-CONTROL. (Pro_25:28.) It is like an undefended city or one in ruins. How weak is it to be able to endure nothing, to deem it a mark of strength to resist every provocation and injury! Let us learn, after Christ’s example, to be abused without being angry; to give soft words and hard arguments; and to cultivate self-control in matters of small moment, in preparation for those of greater. For “if we have run with the footmen, and they have wearied us, how shall we contend with horses?”—J.
    Pro_25:25
    Good news from abroad
    I. IT IS REFRESHING AND EVER WELCOME. This needs no illustration. Absence and distance raise a thousand fears in the fancy. Division and space from loved ones chill the heart. The arrival of good tidings bridges over great gulfs in thought.
    II. IT IS A PARABLE OF THE SPIRITUAL SPHERE. God has sent us good news from what, in our sins and ignorance, seems a far country. We have friends there. There is a real link between us. We are really near. There is the prospect of a final reunion.—J.
    HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
    Pro_25:2
    God’s glory in concealing
    A contrast is here drawn between the glory of God and the honour of man, especially of one class of men—the order of kings.
    I. THE HONOUR OF MAN IN INVESTIGATING.
34. The honour of royalty. This is “to search out a matter.” The king is acting in a way that honours him when
    (1) he searches human nature and knows all that he can learn about mankind, all, therefore, that he can know about his subjects;
    (2) he acquaints himself with the character, the disposition, the career, of those immediately about him, in whom he trusts, on whom he leans;
    (3) he investigates different affairs as they arise, probing and sifting most carefully, not satisfied until he has searched the whole thing through. It becomes a king to make the most complete and patient investigation into all national affairs.
35. The honour of mankind generally. This is to “search out” and become practically familiar with
    (1) all the resources this earth will yield us for our use and our enlargement;
    (2) the physical, mental, moral, and spiritual necessities of those around us;
    (3) what is the true way to supply their need. This is that which most honours the disciples of that Son of man who came to minister and to redeem.
    II. THE GLORY OF GOD IN CONCEALING. The thought of the writer is obscure. We shall certainly get into the track of it if we consider the three truths:
36. That God has no need to investigate. “All things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do;” all the dark places of the earth, the hearts of men, the most abstruse problems which are so perplexing in our sight.
37. That he himself is the Inscrutable One. “His thoughts are very deep,” his “ways past finding out.”
38. That it is necessary for him to conceal in order that he may truly bless; that he knows more than he can wisely reveal at once. Parents readily understand this, for they have frequently, constantly, to keep some truths our. of sight, ready for a later day and fuller powers; also to decline to reveal, and to leave their children to find out by their own patience and ingenuity. This is very frequently the case with our heavenly Father. For our own sake he half reveals to us and half conceals from us
    (1) the way to become materially enriched, leaving us to find out what we need to know about agriculture and the stores of wealth that are far below the surface;
    (2) the way to be mentally enlarged and established;
    (3) the way to moral and spiritual good. God l,as designedly and for our ultimate benefit and blessing left much to be searched for and brought out of the Bible—his providential dealings with us, our future, both here and hereafter. It is the glory of man that he can discover and reveal what his fellow men are unable to make out. It is the glory of God that he cannot make known to us all that is present to his eye, or such revelation of present good and future blessedness would injure us; that he must hide from us a part of his infinite wisdom, some of his inexhaustible stores, and leave us to search and ascertain, that by our searching we may be “lifted up and strengthened.”—C.
    Pro_25:6, Pro_25:7
    Modesty and self-assertion
    Some amount of self-assertion is no doubt necessary for honourable success and fruitful achievement. But nothing is more common than for this quality to go beyond its true limit and become distasteful and even offensive both to God and man. What Solomon here deprecates, our Lord also condemns; what he honours, the Divine Teacher also prefers (see Luk_14:9).
    I. THE DANGER OF SELF-ASSERTION. Its temptation is to assume such proportions that
    (1) it becomes immodesty, and this is a positive evil, a blemish in character, and a blot upon the life; and
    (2) it defeats its own ends, for it provokes antagonism and is discomfited and dishonoured. Every one is pleased when the presumptuous man is humiliated.
    II. THE PREFERENCE OF MODESTY.
39. It is frequently successful. Modesty commends us to the good; we secure their good will; they are inclined to help us and to further our desires; they promote our prosperity. Every one is gratified when the man who “does not think more highly of himself than he ought to think” is the object of esteem, and takes the place of honour.
40. It is always beautiful. It is quite possible that, as a matter of worldly policy, modesty may not “answer.” It may be, it will often happen, that a strong complacency and vigorous self-assertion will pass it in the race of life. Yet is it the fitting, the becoming, the beautiful thing. It is an adornment of the soul (see 1Pe_3:3). It makes the other virtues and graces which are possessed to shine with peculiar lustre. It gives attractiveness to Christian character and lends a sweetness and influence which nothing else could confer. To be lowly minded is a far better portion than to have the gains and honours which an ugly assertiveness may command (see homily on Luk_14:7-11).—C,
    Pro_25:8, Pro_25:9
    The wise way of settlement
    We look at—
    I. THE INEVITABLENESS OF DISPUTES. It is quite impossible that, with our present complication of interests—individual, domestic, social, civic, national—differences and difficulties should not arise amongst us. There must be a conflict of opinion, a clash of wishes and purposes, the divergence which may issue in dissension. What reason would teach us to anticipate experience shows us to exist.
    II. THE TEMPTATION OF THE HASTY. This is to enter at once upon strife; to “carry it to the court,” to “enter an action,” to make a serious charge; or (in the case of a community) to take such hostile action as threatens, if it does not end in, war. The folly of this procedure is seen in the considerations:
41. That it interposes an insurmountable barrier between ourselves and our neighbours; we shall never again live in perfect amity with the man with whom we have thus strives; we are sowing seeds of bitterness and discord which wilt bear fruit all our days.
42. That we are likely enough to be discomfited and ashamed.
    (1) Those who judge “hastily” are usually in the wrong,
    (2) No man is a wise and good judge in his own cause; to every man that which makes for himself seems stronger, and that which makes for his opponent seems weaker, than it appears to a disinterested observer.
    (3) Whether a case will prosper or not at law depends on several uncertainties; and even if we have a righteous cause we may be entirely defeated—a brilliant advocate against us will easily “make the worse appear the better cause.”
    (4) The issue may be such that we shall be impoverished and ashamed. And that which will aggravate our misery will be that we have so foolishly neglected—
    III. THE WAY OF THE WISE. To go at once to the offender and to state our complaint to him. This is in every way right and wise.
43. It is the way of manliness and honour. To talk to a third person about it is more easy and pleasant “to the flesh,” but it is not the straightforward and manly course.
44. It is the way that is becoming. It is not the fitting thing to disclose our secrets to another; personal and domestic and ecclesiastical contentious are hidden by the wise and the worthy rather than made known to the world.
45. It is the way of peace; for, in the majority of cases, a very little explanation or a very simple apology at the beginning will set everything right.
46. It is the distinctly Christian way (Mat_5:25, Mat_5:26; Mat_18:15).—C.
    Pro_25:11
    Welcome words
    But what are—
    I. THE WORDS THAT ARE WELCOME. They are:
47. Words that travel; “words upon wheels” (literally). They are words that do not “fall to the ground like water which cannot be gathered up again;” but words which are not allowed “to fall to the ground,” which pass from lip to lip, from soul to soul, from land to land, from age to age.
48. Words that are level with our human understanding; which do not require special learning, or profundity, or experience to be appreciated, but which make their appeal to the common intelligence of mankind.
49. Words that meet our spiritual necessities; that direct us in doubt, that comfort us in sorrow, that strengthen us in weakness, that nerve us in duty, that calm us in excitement, that sustain us in disappointment, that give us hope in death.
    II. THEIR COMMENDATION. They are like golden apples in silver caskets; i.e. they are things that excite our admiration and bring us refreshment. We do well to admire the true and wise word; the saying or the proverb, the terse, sagacious utterance which holds a little world of wisdom in its sentences, is a thing to be admired by us all. The man who first launches it is a benefactor of his people. And we do still better to appropriate and employ it; to find refreshment and even nourishment in it. Many a wise word has given needed strength to a human soul in the very crisis of its destiny.
    III. THEIR CULTIVATION. How shall we learn to speak these “words upon wheels”—these fitting, wholesome, strengthening words? They come:
50. From a true heart; a heart that is true and loyal to its God and Saviour. First of all we must be right with him; only from a pure fountain will come the healing stream.
51. From a kind heart. It is love, pity, sympathy, that will prompt the right utterance. Where the learned deliverance or the brilliant bon-mot would entirely fail, the simple utterance of affection will do the truest work, will hit the mark in the very centre. Love is the best interpreter and the ablest spokesman as we make the pilgrimage and bear the burdens of our life.
52. From a thoughtful spirit. It is not the superficial talker, that discourses upon every possible topic, but rather the man who thinks, who ponders and weighs what he knows and sees, who tries to look into things, and who takes the trouble to look back and to look onward,—it is he who has something to say which it will be worth our while to listen to.
53. From practised lips. We do not acquire this sacred art of wise and helpful speech in a day or in a year; it is the happy and exquisite product of patient effort, it is a growth, it is a holy and beneficent habit, it is a thing to be cultivated; we may begin poorly enough, but by earnest eudeavour we shall succeed if we will only “continue in well doing.”—C.
    Pro_25:16, Pro_25:27
    The wisdom of moderation
    We can only eat a small quantity of honey; it we go beyond the limit we find out our mistake. Of this, as of all very sweet things, the words of the great dramatist are true, that “a little more than enough is by much too much.” This is particularly applicable to that to which it is here referred.
    I. SELF-PRAISE. We may go a little way in that direction, but not far. If we transgress the narrow bounds allowed, we shall soon find that we have done ourselves harm in the estimation of our neighbour. And even to talk, without praise, of ourselves is a habit to be held well in check, or it will run into an offensive and injurious egotism (see homily on Pro_17:2).
    II. SELF-EXAMINATION. TO “search out our own glory” is not glorious, but rather inglorious. It is allowable enough for a man sometimes to recall what he has been to others, and what he has done for others; but he may not practise this beyond a very circumscribed limit. To hold up his own achievements before his own eyes is to beget a very perilous complacency; to find them out for other people’s edification is quite as dangerous. And, on the other hand, for men to be searching their hearts or their lives to discover what is evil in them, to be instituting a constant examination of their souls to ascertain whereabouts they stand,—this is open to grave mistake, and may soon become unwise and hurtful. Self-examination is very good up to a certain point; beyond that point it becomes morbid and is a serious mistake.
    III. BODILY EXERCISE AND INDULGENCE. This is very pleasant and (the latter) very “sweet,” like the eating of honey. And to go some way in both of these is good and wise. But let the athlete beware lest his very love of bodily exercise betrays him into excesses which undermine his strength and bring on premature decline and death. And as to bodily indulgence, let us be often reminding ourselves that only in the cup of strict moderation—whatever that cup may be—is real pleasure or lasting health to be found. All excess here is as foolish as it is sinful.
    IV. SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT. Can we have too much of this? Undoubtedly we can. Those who are perpetually partaking of one particular kind of religious nourishment, however good that may be in its way and measure, are over-eating of one kind of food, and they will suffer for so doing. They will not grow as God meant them to grow, proportionately and symmetrically; there will be a lopsidedness about their mind or character which is very noticeable and very ugly. Whether it be the contemplative, or the poetical, or the speculative, or the evangelistic, or the didactic, or any other side of truth in which men surfeit their souls, they make a mistake in so doing. They should understand that Divine truth has many sides and aspects, that there is not any one of them that constitutes wisdom or is sufficient to fill the mind and build up the character of a man. Our wisdom is to partake of the various dishes which are on the table our bountiful Host has provided for us; for as the body is the better for eating of many “meats,” so is the soul all the stronger and all the fairer for partaking in moderation of all the various sources of spiritual nutrition that are within its reach.—C.
    Pro_25:20, Pro_25:25
    The inopportune and the acceptable
    “A man that hath friends must show himself friendly” (Pro_18:24). And if we would do this we must be careful to choose our time for speaking the truth to our friends, and must study to do not only the right but the appropriate thing. We must—
    I. ABSTAIN FROM THE INOPPORTUNE. (Pro_25:20.) It should require but a very humble share of delicacy to understand that what is very valuable at one time is altogether misplaced and unpalatable at another. We should carefully abstain from:
54. All merriment in the presence of great sorrow. By indulgence in it then we only add fuel to the fire of grief.
55. The discussion of business or the proposals of pleasure in the presence of earnest spiritual solicitude. When men are profoundly anxious about their relations with God, they do not want us to harass and burden them with talk about temporal affairs or about social entertainments; these are good in their time, but not at such a time as that.
56. Entering into the affairs of life in the presence of the dying. Those who stand very near indeed to the future world do not want to be vexed with matters which they are leaving behind for ever. Similarly, it is a mistake to be always or even often discussing death and the future with those who, while not unready for either, are charged with the duties and responsibilities of active life.
57. An urgent insistance upon spiritual obligations in presence of acute bodily suffering or severe destitution. The Christian course, in such a case, is to call in the doctor or the baker.
    II. CULTIVATE THE ACCEPTABLE. (Pro_25:25.) How acceptable to the human heart is:
58. Good news from our friends and kindred when afar off from us. It is worth while to take much trouble, to a put ourselves quite out of our way,” in order to convey this; it is one of the friendliest of friendly acts.
59. Society in loneliness; the kindly visit paid to the solitary, a conversation (however brief and simple) with those whose hearth is uncheered by companionship.
60. Encouragement in depression. The heart often aches and hungers for a word of cheer, and one very short sentence may lift it up from depths of disappointment and depression into the bracing air of hopefulness and determination.
61. Sympathy in sorrow. Grief does not crave many or fine words; it asks for genuine sympathy—the “feeling with” it; if it has this, it will gratefully accept any simplest utterance in word or deed, and will be comforted and strengthened by it. Real sympathy is always the acceptable thing.
62. Guidance in perplexity. When we do not know which way to turn, then the brief word of direction from one who has “gone that way before us” is valuable indeed. There is no kinder friend than the true and faithful guide. If we would take our part well and be to our brethren all that it is in our power to become, we must study to do the congenial and acceptable thing. The man who has acquired this art is worthy of our admiration and our love; we are sure that he will not go without our Master’s commendation; for is it not he who is feeding the hungry, and giving the thirsty to drink? is it not he who is clothing the naked and healing the sick? While we do these two things, should we not also—
    III. BE PREPARED FOR EVERY POSSIBLE CONDITION? We may be sure that uncongenial and congenial things will be said to us, timely and untimely attitudes will be taken toward us; some men will aggravate and others will heal our spirits. The wise man will see to it that he is
    (1) rooted in those principles which never change but always sustain;
    (2) has his strength in the One “with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning.”—C.
    Pro_25:21
    The true triumph
    (See homily on Pro_24:17, Pro_24:18, Pro_24:29.) To the truth on this subject there affirmed, may be added the consideration that to return good for evil is the true triumph; for—
    I. TO BE AVENGED IS REALLY UNSATISFACTORY. It is, indeed, to have a momentary gratification. But of what character is this satisfaction? Is it not one that we share with the wild beast, with the savage, nay, even with the fiend? Is it one that we can approve in our calmer hour, that we can look back upon with any thankfulness or pure delight? In fact, it is to be really and inwardly defeated; for we then give way to a malevolent passion—we are “overcome of evil” instead of overcoming it. We allow thoughts to enter our mind and feelings to harbour in our heart of which, in worthier moments, we are utterly ashamed.
    II. TO ACT MAGNANIMOUSLY IS THE VICTORIOUS THING.
63. It is to gain a very real victory over our self, over our lower passions.
64. It is to win our enemy. To make him suffer, to wound him, to damage his reputation, to cause him serious loss and injury,—that is a very poor thing indeed to do. Anyone is, in a moral sense, equal to that; mere malevolence can do that and can be at home in the act of doing it. But to win an enemy, to turn his hatred into love, his contempt into esteem, his cruelty into kindness, his hostility into friendship,—that is to triumph over him indeed, it is to “heap coals of fire upon his head.”
    III. TO ACT MAGNANIMOUSLY IS TO ACT DIVINELY. For it is:
65. To carry out Divine commandment (text; Mat_5:43-48; Rom_12:14, Rom_12:19, Rom_12:21).
66. To act as the Divine Father does, and as Jesus Christ did when he was with us (Mat_5:45; Luk_23:24).
67. To receive a Divine reward (text). God will bestow a bountiful, spiritual blessing on those who thus resolutely keep his word, gain dominion over themselves, bless their neighbour, and follow in the footsteps of their Lord.—C.
    Pro_25:26
    (See homily on Pro_26:1.)—C.
    Pro_25:28
    (See homily on Pro_16:32.)—C.

Proverbs 25:16
I. The Bible does not prohibit pleasure. What the Bible forbids is excess in the use of pleasure, untimely pleasures, and pleasures that arise from sin or that lead to sin.
II. In prohibiting such pleasures, the Bible proceeds upon a principle of benevolence.
III. The principle is benevolent because it accords with the constitution of our nature. There is a point at which pleasure becomes pain. It is the law of our being that if pleasure is to remain pleasure, it must be enjoyed moderately and intermittently.
Parker, City Temple vol i., p. 11.

I. I hold that pleasure is a necessity of our nature, that we are made to enjoy, and that the goodness of God, which hath made our complex constitution, our many-sided manhood, so marvellously capable of pleasure, hath made bountiful provision for full satisfaction and delight, In all true physical delights, then, the Christian finds honey; and to him the good God says, “Hast thou found honey? Eat it.”
II. But man’s physical being is only a portion of his noble and superior constitution. As with the physical, so with the intellectual, the Christian’s capability runs on all fours with that of the unbeliever in the direction of any mental honey of pleasure and delight that can be found; and the royalty of mind is at least as kingly and imperial when it bends before the crowned Christ as when reason binds the lordly symbol round its own presumptuous brow.
III. There is the moral and spiritual man, whose existence cannot be ignored. Nobody will dispute that there is honey in doing right, that there is pleasure in goodness and truth, and that, unless the conscience is utterly dead, there is a bitterness in doing wrong. There is nothing in religion that can deprive us of all the real enjoyment, the true pleasure, the satisfying honey, the rational delights, which are possible to anybody in all God’s wide world.
J. Jackson Wray, Light from the Old Lamp, p. 171.
References: Pro_25:17.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. vi., p. 59. Pro_25:21, Pro_25:22.—New Manual of Sunday-school Addresses, p. 35; W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 323. Pro_25:23.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii, p. 41.

Proverbs 25:25
I. Heaven is the “far country” to us poor children of the earth today. (1) It is a far country possibly as measured by distance. (2) It is a far country more especially from the fact that it is far away beyond our comprehension. Even the aid of revelation does but give us dim glimpses of its distant splendours, does but cast a faint aurora glow on the far horizon; and that is for the most part dashed and dimmed by the fogs of time and sense. (3) Heaven is a far country because we are by nature so disqualified from inhabiting it. The distance is measured by the unfitness of the case.
II. From this far country good news has come. (1) We delight to hear from a far country when it contains those who are near and dear to us. In the far country of which I speak, there is not one of us that has not interests of this kind: parents, partners, families, friends, all housed and homed, all settled and thrifty, all dwelling in this far, far country beyond the sea. (2) News from a far country is profoundly interesting and acceptable if it be a country in which we intend to live by-and-bye. You are all intending to emigrate to heaven. Surely, then, news of this far country, brought to you from the far country direct, should be to you as cold waters to a thirsty soul.
J. Jackson Wray, Light from the Old Lamp, p. 127.
References: Pro_25:25.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 401; Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 190; Homiletic Magazine, vol. viii., p. 14. Pro_25:27.—W. H. Jackson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxii., p. 179. Pro_26:1-11.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. iii., p. 185. Pro_26:4, Pro_26:5.—J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 461. Pro_26:11.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 328. Pro_26:12-28.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. iii., p. 198.

Proverbs 25:1
These. Solomon wrote 3,000, and we have only 915 verses extant. (Calmet) — The rest perhaps shewed his genius, but were less useful. (Tostat. in 3 Kings 4:9) — Men. Isaias, Sobna, &c. (Calmet) — Out of other records, (Menochius) or “translated” into a language better understood. (Denis the Carthusian) (Bayn.)

Proverbs 25:2
Speech. The Scriptures will denounce the truth to them, and shew them how to reign with justice. We must adore the mysteries of God; but are allowed to examine the secret designs of princes.

Proverbs 25:3
Unsearchable. Their counsellors must not betray their secrets, Tob_12:7 The greatest enterprises depend on secrecy.

Proverbs 25:5
Justice. The wicked in a kingdom resemble rust on silver. (Calmet)

Proverbs 25:6
Glorious, or a boaster. (Haydock) — We must not seek the first places, Luk_14:10        Vive sine invidia, mollesque inglorius annos
        Exige; amicitias et tibi junge pares. (Ovid, Trist. 3:4)

Proverbs 25:8
Not. Septuagint, “repent when thy friend may reproach thee.” (Haydock) — Friend. A word spoken in haste may expose him to ridicule.

Proverbs 25:9
Stranger. It sometimes happens that friends fall out; but if either disclose the secret of the other, he will be deemed infamous. (Calmet) (Josephus, contra Apion 2.) — St. Ambrose says of his brother Satyrus, “though we had all things in common, yet the secret of our friends was not so.”

Proverbs 25:10
Grace, &c., is no in Hebrew, Complutensian, St. Jerome, &c. But it is in the Septuagint, “favour and friendship may give liberty; which keep thou for thyself, that thou mayst not be exposed to great shame. But guard thy ways unchangeably.” (Haydock) — Avoid quarrels.

Proverbs 25:11
Time, (Symmachus) “on its wheels,” (Hebrew) flowing smoothly, (Calmet) or “according to his two faces, is apples of gold in network of silver. The Scriptures have a double sense. The exterior one leads to that sense which is interior, and more excellent. (Maimonides) (Parkhurst, p. 366.) — Gold, oranges. — Beds. On such the kings of Parthia slept, and these metals were very common under Solomon, 3 Kings 10:27, and Est_1:6 (Calmet) — Montanus renders mascioth “transparent cases.” Protestants, “pictures of silver.”

Proverbs 25:12
Bright. Hebrew chali cathem, “an ornament of fine gold,” (Montanus; Protestants; Haydock) may probably denote a collar or ring. The eastern nations wore rings fixed at the top of the ears, and under the nose. Some were so large that they put their meat through them. The Scripture often alludes to these customs, which are so different from ours. (Son_7:1)

Proverbs 25:13
Harvest. In June and July, when the heat was most intense, people of quality had snow from Libanus to mix with what they drank, Jer_18:14 (Calmet)

Proverbs 25:15
Hardness. Hebrew and Septuagint, “bones.” (Haydock)

Proverbs 25:16
Up. We must moderate the sensual appetite, (Menochius) and even the study of wisdom, which is compared to honey, chap. 24:13, Rom_12:3, and Ecc_7:17 (Calmet) — We must not be too familiar, ver. 17. (Ven. Bede) (Cajetan)

Proverbs 25:17
Having. Hebrew, “being tired of thee.” No man is so perfect, but he will manifest some defect, and become importunate. (Calmet)        Nulli te facias nimis sodalem. (Martial)

Proverbs 25:20
And. Protestants, “as he that taketh away a, &c., and as vinegar….to a heavy heart.” (Haydock) — The former sentence may be joined with the preceding, as it is improper to deprive a person of his garment, no less than to trust in the faithless; though some would suppose (Calmet) that this conduct, as well as the mixing of vinegar with nitre, is no less absurd than to attempt to relieve by music those who are extremely afflicted, Sir_22:6 (Tirinus) — But Solomon does not speak of such, but only of those who are “heavy;” and we know that music has wonderful efficacy in relieving them, (1Ki_16:17) in like manner as this mixture serves to cleanse the skin and garments, (Jer_2:22; Calmet) and to purify the ears, when they are deafish. (Pliny, [Natural History?] 31:10; Vales. lx.) — As a, &c., is not in Hebrew, St. Jerome, &c. (Calmet) — The Chaldean has the latter part, (Haydock) “grief tries the heart, as fire does silver. As the worm eats wood, so folly,” &c. (Calmet)

Proverbs 25:22
Coals of charity; (St. Chrysostom in Rom_12:20) or, if he prove obstinate, his punishment will be the greater. (Geier.) — The former sense is more received. (Calmet)

Proverbs 25:23
Rain; (Symmachus; Protestants) or marginal note, “bringeth forth rain.” (Haydock) — But St. Jerome, who live in the country, knew that this wind was rather dry; and therefore he has abandoned the Septuagint, raiseth the clouds,” Job_37:9, Joe_2:20, and Sir_18:23 The countries north of Palestine were not calculated to produce vapours and rain, which came rather from the south. (Calmet) — Tongue. If the hearers would shew their displeasure, detractors would soon be reduced to silence. (St. Jerome, ad. Rust.) (St. Bernard)

Proverbs 25:24
It is. Chap. 21:9 Sixtus V does not insert this verse here.

Proverbs 25:25
Tidings. Hebrew and Septuagint. The Vulgate seems rather to speak of a “good messenger.” Homer said that a good messenger honoured the business most. (Pindar, Pyth. viii.) (Calmet)

Proverbs 25:26
Falling into disgrace, or sin, occasions the wicked to exult, as if there were no God or religion. (Calmet)

Proverbs 25:27
Majesty, viz., of God. For to search into that incomprehensible Majesty, and to pretend to sound the depths of the wisdom of God, is exposing our weak understanding to be blinded with an excess of light and glory, which hit cannot comprehend. (Challoner) — When the Church proposes to us any mystery, we have only to believe. Hebrew, “but it is glorious to sound their glory,” and see where the wicked end, that we may not envy them, chap. 3:31, and Psa_36:7 (Calmet) — Protestants, “so for men to search their own glory, is not glory,” but a sin. (Haydock) — “It is not good to eat too much honey,” (Chaldean) or to sound the glorious words of God and wisdom, or the mysteries of religion. Septuagint, “But it is right to reverence glorious speeches,” (Calmet) with esteem and humility. (Cat. Græc.)

Proverbs 25:28
Speaking. He lays himself open to every attack, chap. 29:11

Proverbs 25:2
Deu_29:29

Proverbs 25:3
Rom_11:33

Proverbs 25:7
Luk_14:7-11

Proverbs 25:8
Pro_17:14, Luk_14:31-32

Proverbs 25:9
Pro_11:13

Proverbs 25:11
Pro_16:24

Proverbs 25:13
Pro_10:26; Pro_13:17

Proverbs 25:14
Jer_5:13, Mic_2:11

Proverbs 25:15
Pro_15:1, Ecc_10:4

Proverbs 25:18
Pro_12:18

Proverbs 25:22
(1796) By showing kindness to an enemy will shame him and bring blessing to the giving person, (Mat_5:44, Rom_12:20).

Proverbs 25:24
Pro_21:9

Proverbs 25:25
Rom_10:18

Proverbs 25:27
Pro_25:16, Pro_27:2

Proverbs 25:28
Pro_16:32

Proverbs 25:1

Transcribed Proverbs of Solomon

Here begins a new section of the book: Proverbs 25-29. It contains additional proverbs of Solomon transcribed by the men of King Hezekiah (715-687/686 B.C.). These men lived about 270 years after Solomon’s death. Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs (1Kg_4:32 ). Some of these have been recorded in the previous chapters in God’s Word. Now follows some more proverbs from that same stock. These were transcribed by “the men of Hezekiah” and also included in God’s Word.

They are not new proverbs. They were already there in the time of Solomon, the time when the kingdom existed in glory. Hezekiah was one of the last kings of Judah, the two tribes realm. In his days, the ten tribes realm was carried away by the Assyrians. Not long after, the two tribes realm would also be carried away, by Nebuchadnezzar. This means that Hezekiah lived in an end time.

He was a God-fearing king for whom the Word of God had authority again. As a result, God gave a revival in His people through him. The “proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, transcribed”, are additional evidence of this. It shows us that it is important for us, who also live in an end time world, to acknowledge the authority of God’s Word and apply that ‘ancient’ Word in our life. We do not have an interest in ‘new truths’. In an end time, it is about returning to “what was from the beginning” (1Jn_1:1 ), that we ask for “the ancient paths, where the good way is”, so that we may walk them (Jer_6:16 ).

The truths entrusted to the church are already 2,000 years old, but they are as relevant today as they were then. It is not about new truths, but a renewed experience of old truths. It is a good service to the church when writings are published that have long gone unnoticed, but which turn out to be of current content.

Proverbs 25:2-7

Kings and Those Who Are With Them

The men of Hezekiah, under the guidance of God’s Spirit, begin with a number of proverbs about kings. Above all, they begin by presenting the exaltedness of God above all earthly kings. Pro_25:2 emphasizes a contrast between God and kings. It is the magnificent nature of God “to conceal a matter”. If God does not explain His government of the universe and His purposes and actions to man, it is His glory, His majesty, His sovereignty. He does not have to account to man for any plan or any action.

The most powerful people on earth, kings, are a great contrast to Him. God does not have to find out anything, He knows everything, but it is the glory of kings to search out, to discover, expose things (cf. Deu_29:29 ; Rom_11:33-34 ). As much as possible, kings should search out everything. They should also make things open and understandable to their subjects, especially when it is about judicial matters.

Kings rule as God’s representatives. They must try to make His will visible in human affairs. Therefore, they must ask God to reveal His will, that He make known the mystery of His will in the situation at hand. The subjects of a king are in awe of him and honor him when he diligently searches out a matter and does not make his decisions based on a superficial knowledge of a matter.

We can apply this to us as believers. We too are kings (Rev_1:6 Rev_5:10 ). It is a work of royal dignity, an honor and a challenge, to fathom what God has hidden in Scripture. He wants to reveal mysteries. However, they can only be discovered and understood by spiritually minded believers, that is, believers who are led by God’s Spirit, for to them the Spirit can reveal hidden things (1Co_2:10-12 ).

While a king must make judicial matters especially clear to the people (Pro_25:2 ), there are many things he keeps hidden in his heart (Pro_25:3 ). He occupies a position where he does not have to account for everything he does or does not do. The comparison with the heavens being high and the earth being deep shows the nature of the king. He must be wise, inventive and unsearchable, always staying one step ahead of everyone to maintain a firm grip on power.

Man must recognize that “the heavens for height and the earth for depth” are unsearchable (cf. Jer_31:37 ). What they contain is far beyond the comprehension of all researchers. So it is with “the heart of kings”: it is unsearchable to another. And certainly the heart of the believer is unsearchable to the unbeliever (1Co_2:15 ). Only God knows the heart of every person fully (Jer_17:9-10 ).

Pro_25:4 is an illustration to clarify Pro_25:5 . Pro_25:4 means that after the dross is removed, the blacksmith can produce a pure silver work of art. This is applied in Pro_25:5 to the removal of a wicked person from the presence of a king, establishing his throne in righteousness. A king may have great ideals for his government and his conduct may be blameless, but it is of no avail if he is surrounded by unscrupulous courtiers who deceive him. When these are got rid of, the government consists only of righteous counselors and the government will be established in righteousness.

It is about getting rid of what would make the firmness of the throne impossible. As dross is separated from silver, so bad people must be removed for a king’s government to be righteous (Pro_17:3 Pro_20:8 ; Mal_3:3 ). It is not enough for a ruler to be righteous; his associates must also be upright people for his government to be good. King Solomon had to judge several evildoers before he could sit on the throne in safety and peace (1Kg_2:23-25 1Kg_2:29-34 1Kg_2:41-46 ).

It can be applied to the heart of man. Who sits there on the throne? If sin and iniquity are present in it, they must be judged. Then it is possible to live a life subject to the authority of the Lord Jesus.

The same principle is true regarding the coming kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. When He returns to earth in triumph, in power and majesty, the wicked will be exterminated and all transgressors eradicated from the land. This judgment heralds the great day of the Lord (2Th_1:3-12 2Th_2:1-12 ; Rev_19:11-21 ).

Pro_25:6-7 also belong together. It is wiser to wait to be promoted than to risk being demoted because of self-promotion. It is an overestimation of one’s own importance. “Claim” (Pro_25:6 ) means ‘to behave presumptuously’. Pro_25:7 indicates the motive for the warning given in the previous verse: someone reckons himself to the “great men”.

The lesson is simple. Commending oneself in court, “in the presence of the prince”, carries the risk of public humiliation. In contrast, it will be an honor for someone if everyone in the courtroom hears his promotion from the mouth of the prince himself. This lesson is also taught in Luke 14 (Luk_14:8-11 ).

Here it may concern a recommendation of oneself, putting oneself forward as the most suitable candidate for a post near the king, for example as one of his counselors (cf. Mat_20:20-29 ). A person may feel of himself that he belongs “in the place of great men”. This self-aggrandizement can end in public humiliation. “the prince, whom your eyes have seen” may be a distinguished person who comes later than the one addressed, entitled to the place that the latter had already taken of his own accord.

Proverbs 25:8-10

Advice for Arguing Your Case

One should not be eager to argue his case, lest he be publicly humiliated (Pro_25:8 ). You may have seen or heard something, of which you think it is a reason to hastily argue a case, but remember that it is risky to do so. For if it turns out that you have misjudged, you will be openly humiliated by the person who has been accused by you. It may even lead to your bankruptcy.

It is a warning to be careful about arguing a case without sufficient evidence. It may happen that someone sues another person to gain financially. He then reveals details of something the other person is alleged to have done. However, if it turns out that it is not true, or if the evidence is too flimsy, he will himself be made to look like a fool and pay the costs of the trial. There have been many such scandal trials.

If a person has a case with another, the best thing that can happen is to keep it in private (Pro_25:9 ; Mat_18:15 ). This prevents public humiliation. The idea is that a person will be shamed and forever have a bad reputation if he reveals to others in an argument with his neighbor what has been entrusted to him in secret (Pro_25:10 ). There will never be success in an argument if that success comes at the expense of someone’s integrity or pain. Therefore, never reveal secrets in an argument for the purpose to cleanse yourself from blame.

Proverbs 25:11-14

Precious Words and Empty Words

Pro_25:11 is about the immense value and incomparable beauty of “a word spoken in right circumstances”. The phrase translated “in right circumstances” is literally “on its wheels”, that is, a word that moves forward unforced as smoothly rolling wheels move forward. It is timely and exactly applicable to the person and the circumstances in which he or she finds himself or herself. It is about just “a word”, not a long speech (cf. 1Co_14:19 ). Such a word is like “apples of gold”, like healthy fruit having the value of Divine glory, represented in gold, while being served in the sense of reconciliation obtained, represented in silver.

“Apple of gold in settings of silver” are valuable words spoken in a pleasant atmosphere. This applies above all to the Word of God, to all that God has spoken. The Lord Jesus spoke to Nicodemus the words he needed at that moment (Joh_3:1-11 ). Likewise, the Lord spoke to the Samaritan woman and to Zacchaeus. To the Pharisees and scribes, too, He spoke words they needed. He spoke not what they liked to hear, but what was for their benefit. We may imitate Him in this.

In connection with Pro_25:11 , in Pro_25:12 it is about “a wise reprover”, one who knows how to speak the right word at the right time in the right way to the right person. When such a person speaks a word “to a listening ear”, it is like “an earring of gold and an ornament [or: a necklace] of fine gold”. A wise reproof that is well received is of lasting value. A listening ear not only recognizes the wisdom of the reprover, but also sees great beauty in it, like that of jewelry for ear and neck.

The jewelry symbolizes that a listening ear radiates the glory of God (gold). God is glorified in it. A listening ear not only hears instruction, but is obedient to it. It also bows to it, the neck bows under it. There is no stubbornness. When the neck bows, it is girded with an ornament [or: necklace] “of fine gold”. The verse is the ideal combination of a wise father or teacher and a willing son or student. Job’s friends were not wise reprovers. Nor did Job have a listening ear for them.

Pro_25:13 describes the effect of valuable words for the senders of “a faithful messenger”. A faithful messenger is one who transmits the words of his senders exactly as he received them from them for the person to whom he is sent. To the senders, such a messenger is like “the cold of snow in the time of harvest”. During the harvest, there is hard work to be done. Then a coolness is most welcome. A faithful messenger provides “the soul of his masters” with such a coolness or refreshment if he has faithfully fulfilled his mission. Faithfulness always refreshes, is always invigorating.

Christ was the faithful Messenger of God. Paul was such a faithful messenger of God (1Co_4:1-2 ). If we become servants or messengers of Christ (2Co_5:20 ), our faithfulness will be a refreshing to our Master (Mat_25:21 Mat_25:23 ).

The promises of a braggart are hollow and empty (Pro_25:14 ). The illustration here is that the expectation that rain will come is raised when we see clouds and wind. When rain does not come, clouds and wind do get our attention, but they disappoint our expectation because they are deceptive. With this the wise person compares the talker who brags about gifts in order to give them. But the promise is deceitful; he gives nothing, for he has nothing. His mouth is bigger than his hand.

The lesson is not to expect anything from people who promise something with puffed-up language. We also see these false promises in certain circles who boast that with them, for example, you can get healing from a disease, or deliverance from your depression, or success in your business. Jude in his letter applies this to false teachers in the church when he speaks of “clouds without water, carried along by winds” (Jud_1:11-13 ). It also applies to ourselves when we promise someone to do something and we don’t do it. We raise an expectation by our promise, but are like clouds and wind without rain.

Proverbs 25:15

The Power of Forbearance and of a Soft Tongue

With patience and gentle words, insurmountable opposition can be overcome (cf. Luk_18:1-8 ). A request made to a ruler with patient persistence and in gentle words certainly has a chance of success. The key is not to use physical or verbal force, but to proceed in the power of the Spirit: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit” (Zec_4:6 ; cf. 2Ti_2:24-25 ).

That a soft tongue can break bones means that through soft speaking hard opposition can be broken down. The verse is a recommendation of reconciling and persuasive advocacy that finally triumphs over the most determined rebellion. “A gentle word turns away wrath” (Pro_15:1 ). This is an important advice in conversations between husband and wife and parents and children and in every other relationship we have.

Proverbs 25:16-17

Advice to Be Moderate

One must know, even in the enjoyment of what one likes, to remain in moderation (Pro_25:16 ). Excess harms. Moderation (“[only] what you need”) is necessary in the pleasures that life offers. When there is moderation, something can truly be enjoyed. Jonathan found “honey” (1Sa_14:25-30 ). He enjoyed it. It enlightened his eyes and gave him new strength to continue his way.

To us applies: “All things are lawful for me” (1Co_6:12 ). Thereby we must remember that something else follows: “But I will not be mastered by anything”. Eating honey is a picture of enjoying the natural relationships in marriage and family. These are God-given and therefore good. These may be enjoyed by us, but if they take on too great a place and push our service to God into the background, we become spiritually ill.

Even in visiting a neighbor or family member, one must know how to remain moderate (Pro_25:17 ). Here again, excess damages. Pro_25:16 and Pro_25:17 are similar in their words and ideas. Both verses advise moderation, one in eating honey, the other in visiting someone. Pro_25:16 is about ‘too much honey’, Pro_25:17 is about ‘too much of you’.

The instruction “let your foot rarely be in” is literally “make your foot something rare for”. It must be precious to the neighbor or family member that you come. Something that is rare is also precious. The motivation for the warning is that abuse of familiarity will make that someone gets bored and hatred will arise. A Dutch saying applies here: Visit and fish remain fresh for three days.

If we want too much of something good, it can cause our relationship with God to be replaced by that good, causing the good to become something wrong. We may think we have a gift to serve someone and visit him often to exercise our gift. However, what we must realize is that he does not need our presence, but that of the Lord. We must give him as much help as he needs to end up with the Lord.

Proverbs 25:18-20

False Witness, False Confidence, False Comfort

“False witness” works death in society (Pro_25:18 ). Those who bear false witness are compared to “a club and a sword and a sharp arrow”, all deadly weapons. The club crushes, the sword chops, and the sharp arrow pierces. A false witness can cause the death of innocent people by his false words (cf. Pro_12:18 ; Psa_57:4 Psa_120:3-4 ). That not just one, but as many as three of these weapons are mentioned does make clear the seriousness of the evil of bearing false witness against one’s neighbor (Exo_20:16 ; Deu_5:20 ).

“A bad tooth and an unsteady foot” are both unfit to do anything (Pro_25:19 ). Chewing on a bad tooth and walking on an unsteady foot are both painful actions that keep you from eating in one case and walking in the other. The same effect has “confidence in a faithless man in time of trouble”. When things get really tough and we get tight in society or in the church, one of the greatest disappointments is that you have put your trust in a faithless man.

When this happens to us, we may remember that God is faithful though: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psa_46:1 Psa_91:15 ).

Irresponsible, insensitive attempts to cheer up people who are grieving only make the grief worse (Pro_25:20 ). These are not words spoken at the right time (Pro_25:11 ). The wise compares such a person to one who takes off a garment on a cold day. He makes him stand in the cold. That is quite different from giving him extra warmth in the cold. He is totally insensitive to what the other person needs.

The second comparison is doing vinegar on soda. A non-desirable chemical reaction occurs. It fizzes, there is activity, but only empty dross is produced. Vinegar and soda cannot be combined. If this does happen, both become unusable.

We must be vigilant and sensitive with regard to the emotional distress in which people may find themselves. We must develop this sensitivity to others, otherwise we will give them a ‘cold shower’ instead of a ‘hot bath’ of compassion. There is no ‘chemistry’ between someone who sings joyful songs and someone who has a troubles heart (cf. Psa_137:1-3 ). Paul holds out the following to us: “Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep” (Rom_12:15 ).

Proverbs 25:21-22

To Embarrass an Enemy

God wants us to treat someone who hates us kindly. By treating our hater the opposite of the way he treats us, we are acting in accordance with Who God is (Pro_25:21 ). This is how He acts with man and this is how He acted with us when we did not know Him. He wants us to give our hater the most basic necessities of life, “food to eat” and “water”, when he needs them. We see a wonderful illustration of this in Elisha’s treatment of the king of Syria (2Kg_6:18-23 ).

The word “for” with which Pro_25:22 begins indicates the reason why we should act as stated in the previous verse. By doing good to someone who hates us instead of repaying the evil he does to us with evil, we “will heap burning coals on his head”. The purpose of heaping burning coals on someone is not to consume him, but to melt him. The picture of the “burning coals” represents remorse of conscience, which arises more easily through kindness than through violence. These glowing coals cause the sharp pain of repentance through regret over the hatred that animated him (Pro_18:19 Pro_20:22 Pro_24:17 ; 1Sa_24:18-20 ). Paul quotes these verses in Romans 12 (Rom_12:20 ).

God attaches to this action the promise of reward in the sense of compensation. We give something away, it costs us something, and that to our enemy. As a result, however, we do not become poorer, but much richer. God does not forget that we have done this and will compensate. If we act with our enemies as God does with His enemies, it is pleasing to Him. What we invest in that, He will reward. The Lord Jesus has set the example.

Proverbs 25:23-24

A Backbiting Tongue and a Contentious Woman

A “backbiting tongue” is a covert tongue, a tongue of a hidden place. It is talking behind someone’s back, slandering him and speaking ill of him. Sooner or later the person about whom it concerns finds out. With him and his family, it will bring anger to their faces, just as the north wind brings rain. In Israel it is not customary for the north wind to bring forth rain; the west wind does. If it does, it is not pleasant. In the same way, a backbiting tongue works. It may speak slimy words, but instead of smiling it brings forth “an angry countenance”.

The backbiting tongue of Pro_25:23 is changed in Pro_25:24 to the sharp tongue of “a contentious woman”. The repetition of this verse (Pro_21:9 ) deepens its significance. Contentious means arguing about every possible thing to be done and decisions to be made. She does not accept that the husband is the head of the family. It is a proverb that is more of a sigh and implies advice.

It does not mean that the husband will withdraw from the home and live alone because he is tired of the contention. It is a warning to anyone who has yet to begin a marriage. It is better to live in peaceful solitude and simplicity than in a spacious house in the company of someone with whom you share house and home, but who constantly contends. Therefore, reflect before you begin and choose a God-fearing wife.

Proverbs 25:25-26

What Does and What Does Not Quench Thirst

“Good news” that comes from afar and has been long awaited has the same effect as “cold water” has “on a weary soul” (Pro_25:25 ). Good news refreshes and invigorates one who yearns for news of a loved one who has left for a distant land. When the means of communication we have today were not available, it took time for news to arrive for those left behind (cf. Gen_45:27 ; 1Th_3:5-8 ). The time aspect does not play such a big role now, but a good message that reaches us through modern media within a second of being sent has the same effect for a loved one. A good message changes the life.

We can also apply the good news from a distant land to the gospel. The word “gospel” literally means “good news”. The gospel has come to us from a far country, heaven. The shepherds experienced this when a messenger from heaven said to them: “I bring you good news [literally: evangelize] … for today … there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luk_2:10-11 ). In the gospel, the water of life is offered to everyone who is thirsty. Those who are thirsty may drink from it free of charge (Rev_22:17 ).

The Lord Jesus says to the weary soul: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Mat_11:28 ). Those who are weary by life and weighed down by the burden of their sins can find rest and refreshment with Him. The gospel is the greatest thirst quencher and transformer of life. It is an exhortation to pass on the good news to every weary soul.

Opposite the cold, refreshing water is “a trampled spring”, for example, because animals have run through it (cf. Eze_34:18 ), and “a polluted well”, for example, because something dead has fallen into it (Pro_25:26 ). They are a disaster scenario for the easterner traveling through the hot wilderness. When he comes to such a spring or well tired and thirsty, he sees to his dismay that he cannot drink the water from that spring that he so needs. Not only does it taste foul, but it is often poisoned, making drinking from it harmful to the body and ultimately fatal.

The wise Solomon uses this picture to describe a righteous person who, in the presence of a wicked one, loses his steadfastness in faith through fear or favor. This is as discouraging as finding a polluted well where you are eager to quench your thirst. Lot was such a righteous one (2Pe_2:7 ) who gave way before the eyes of a wicked one. He was in Sodom. That was a trampled spring and a polluted well from which he had drunk so much that he himself had become such a trampled spring and polluted well (Gen_19:4-23 Gen_19:30-38 ). He could not be a refreshment to others. What was his way of life with Lot also occurred with Jacob as an incident, in an encounter with his wicked brother Esau (Gen_33:3 ).

The above applies today to Christians who merge into the world. They are supposed to be a source of life for others, but they live a worldly life. What they have to say comes from a trampled spring and a polluted well. They are unable to refresh others. When they get into trouble, they falter, while the wicked see it. They are an anti-witness. It can happen to people who go into politics, go into business or go to college. They come into contact with all kinds of wrong things or teachings, for example, the theory of evolution. If they are influenced by that, they become like “Good news” that comes from afar and has been long awaited has the same effect as “cold water” has “on a weary soul” (Pro_25:25 ). Good news refreshes and invigorates one who yearns for news of a loved one who has left for a distant land. When the means of communication we have today were not available, it took time for news to arrive for those left behind (cf. Gen_45:27 ; 1Th_3:5-8 ). The time aspect does not play such a big role now, but a good message that reaches us through modern media within a second of being sent has the same effect for a loved one. A good message changes the life.

We can also apply the good news from a distant land to the gospel. The word ‘gospel’ literally means “good news”. The gospel has come to us from a far country, heaven. The shepherds experienced this when a messenger from heaven said to them: “I bring you good news [literally: evangelize] … For today there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luk_2:10-11 ). In the gospel, the water of life is offered to everyone who is thirsty. Those who are thirsty may drink from it free of charge (Rev_22:17 ).

The Lord Jesus says to the weary soul: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Mat_11:28 ). Those who are weary by life and weighed down by the burden of their sins can find rest and refreshment with Him. The gospel is the greatest thirst quencher and transformer of life. It is an exhortation to pass on the good news to every weary soul.

Opposite the cold, refreshing water is “a trampled spring”, for example, because animals have run through it (cf. Eze_34:18 ), and “a polluted well”, for example, because something dead has fallen into it (Pro_25:26 ). They are a disaster scenario for the easterner traveling through the hot wilderness. When he comes to such a spring or well tired and thirsty, he sees to his dismay that he cannot drink the water from that spring that he so needs. Not only does it taste foul, but it is often poisoned, making drinking from it harmful to the body and ultimately fatal.

The wise Solomon uses this picture to describe a righteous person who, in the presence of a wicked one, loses his steadfastness in faith through fear or favor. This is as discouraging as finding a polluted well where you are eager to quench your thirst. Lot was such a righteous one (2Pe_2:7 ) who gave way before the eyes of a wicked one. He was in Sodom. That was a trampled spring and a polluted well from which he had drunk so much that he himself had become such a trampled spring and polluted well (Gen_19:4-23 Gen_19:30-38 ). He could not be a refreshment to others. What was his way of life with Lot also occurred with Jacob as an incident, in an encounter with his wicked brother Esau (Gen_33:3 ).

The above applies today to Christians who merge into the world. They are supposed to be a source of life for others, but they live a worldly life. What they have to say comes from a trampled spring and a polluted well. They are unable to refresh others. When they get into trouble, they falter, while the wicked see it. They are an anti-witness. It can happen to people who go into politics, go into business or go to college. They come into contact with all kinds of wrong things or teachings, for example, the theory of evolution. If they are influenced by that, they become like a trampled spring and a polluted well.

Proverbs 25:27

What Determines One’s Own Glory

Eating much of what may be eaten in itself (Pro_24:13 ), is not good. The emphasis is not on the goodness of it, but on the not-goodness of it. Honey represents the sweetness of good earthly things. We may enjoy that while thanking God for it (1Ti_4:4-5 ). But there is also a danger in it. That danger is that we may search out our own glory in it. This is evident from the second line of verse.

If anyone brought a grain offering, he was not allowed to prepare it with honey (Lev_2:11 ). The grain offering is a picture of the Lord Jesus in His perfect life. In His life, He never let Himself be guided by the natural relationships that He too had. His mother could not make Him depart from the way His Father wanted Him to go, yet He always maintained due respect for His mother (Luk_2:48-51 ). In our serving God, it should be the same.

“Eating much honey” seems to be about searching out one’s own glory in the natural things such as family, work, position. However, our glory should be in “examining weighty things”, as the second line of verse is translated in the Dutch translation I use. It is not about our glory in relationships, but about gaining understanding of the important things God has prepared for us based on the work of His Son. Examining weighty things focuses attention not on ourselves, but on God and His will with and for us. Then we examine His Word, of which it is written that it is “sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb” (Psa_19:10 ).

Proverbs 25:28

Lack of Self-Control

“A city that is broken into [and] without walls” is completely unprotected. Any malicious person can just walk in and carry out his evil intentions. He can also choose his victims with care, for there is no one to prevent him from doing so. “A man who has no control over his spirit” is “[like] a city that is broken into [and] without walls”; it is someone who cannot control himself. As soon as there is something he does not like, he lets himself go. As soon as there is something he wants, he lets himself go too. He is uninhibited in his actions. This makes him a very easy prey for (spiritual) enemies who are out to destroy him. Without realizing it, his person is taken possession of by powers stronger than he is.

In this life-threatening situation, a change for the better can only come when the Holy Spirit takes control of a person’s spirit. For that he must repent and put his life under the authority of Christ. Then the Holy Spirit can work in him and give him the power to control his spirit, that is, control himself (Gal_5:22-23 ).

Proverbs 25:1-5
With this chapter begins the fourth main division of this book, consisting, as its introductory words inform us, of sayings and perhaps writings of Solomon, which were placed together in their present form by men appointed to the work by King Hezekiah. Zöckler remarks that “while the first and larger section of the book purports to be essentially a book for youth, this is evidently a book for the people, a treasury of proverbial wisdom for kings and subjects—as is indicated by the first introductory proverb.… Whether as the source from which the transfer or compilation of the following proverbs was made, we are to think simply of one book or of several books, so that the transfer would be the purely literary labour of excerpting, a transcribing or collecting by copying; or whether we have to consider as the source simply the oral transmission of ancient proverbs of wise men by the mouth of the people, must remain doubtful. It is, perhaps, most probable that both the written and the oral tradition were alike sifted for the objects of the collection.” (Zöckler, in Lange’s Commentary.)
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_25:1. Copied out, rather “collected.” See the remarks above.
Pro_25:2. Honour, rather “glory,” as in the first clause.
Pro_25:3. The word is should be omitted; unsearchable applies equally to the three subjects of the sentence.
Pro_25:4. The finer, rather the “founder,” or “goldsmith.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH. Pro_25:1-3
GOD’S MYSTERIES AND MAN’S RESEARCH
I. There is much connected with God’s nature and with His government that will never be revealed to man in his present state. This is in accordance with the greatness of God and the littleness of man in comparison with him. There are many things connected with God which man in his present state could not comprehend, and there are others which he might comprehend, but of which it is better he should remain in ignorance. The parent conceals many things from a child because the concealment is more consistent with a wise training than the revelation of them would be. Some of them the child could not understand, and others it is better that he should not know until he attains to riper years. When he has become a man he will admire the wisdom of his parent in thus withholding from him what he did. God, as the infinitely wise Parent and Trainer of human creatures, often doubtless conceals much from us from similar reasons, and we shall one day see that the concealment was to the glory of His gracious character. When a physician is called to treat a man whose life is hanging upon a thread, he is not expected to enter into an explanation of the nature of the remedies he uses or to give a reason for all the treatment he prescribes. Such an explanation would be unworthy of the dignity of his profession and hurtful to his patient. Concealment is often an essential and necessary part of his plan, and when the sick man is restored to health he acknowledges that it was to the glory of his healer that he kept him for a time in ignorance. God is the great Physician and Healer of human souls, and it would neither befit His majesty nor further His purposes of mercy to reveal the reasons of all He does to His fallen creatures. When they have attained to perfect moral health they will give glory to Him for all that He concealed as well as for all that He revealed.
II. But there is much that is hidden that will be revealed to the diligent seeker. If it is God’s prerogative and a part of His divine plan to conceal much from man, it is His purpose and desire to reveal much to him if he will only seek after it. How many of God’s operations in nature are full of mystery to one who only looks upon the surface of things, but how far diligent and earnest searchers have penetrated into the secret workings of the Divine wisdom in this direction. Although there is much hidden from them, still there is much that was once a mystery that is now made plain. And it is doubtless the same also in relation to God’s working in higher regions—in His dealings in providence and in His plan of redemption. Although there is much here that must remain a mystery to the human mind, he who diligently and reverently seeks to know the mind and purpose of God in relation to these things will not lose his reward.
III. While then, it is God’s prerogative to determine what He will reveal to man it is man’s glory and duty to be ever seeking to know more of God’s ways and works. The third verse seems to institute a comparison between the Divine and human rulers. These latter have their state secrets—sometimes for arbitrary purposes and in other cases from necessity they conceal their plans until their ends are accomplished. If the government is a despotic one this secrecy is to be feared and deprecated; if, on the other hand, the ruler or rulers are merciful and just their subjects may safely trust them when their plans of action are for a time hidden. But however it may be with human kings, there is no questioning the right of the King of Kings to hide what He pleases from His creatures, and no reason for His creatures to doubt either His wisdom or His love in so doing. But man has a duty to perform in relation to this concealment. His Maker and his Ruler does not desire to see him sit down in indolent indifference, making no effort to penetrate the secrets of the world around him, or to apprehend in some degree some of the deep things of God’s “unsearchable dealings.” (Rom_11:33). The veil seems to have been cast over some of these problems for the very purpose of stimulating man to search and to test the depth of his interest in them. While, then, the pursuit of knowledge of any kind is good, there is none so elevating, none that brings so rich a reward, and none that man is so bound to follow after, as the knowledge of God in His works of creation, and providence, and redemption. Solomon, as the greatest monarch of his day, counted this his first duty and his highest glory, and there have been many uncrowned kings in all ages of the world who have set this before them as the aim and end of their life, and in so doing have set a diadem upon their own brows and have won the homage and love of multitudes of their race.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_25:1-2. It was a good saying of a pious divine, “Lord preserve us from a comprehensible God.” It is our duty to venerate and wonder, and not to pry with curious eyes into the secrets of God. The history of the fall is an everlasting warning to the sons of Adam to prefer the tree of life to the tree of knowledge.—Lawson. 1. Taking it in contrast with the latter part of the verse—“but the honour of kings is to search out a matter,”—there is implied the idea that the Divine knowledge is universal, perfect, and free from everything of the nature of inquiry, investigation, effort, in the acquisition. His acquaintance with all things is, in the strictest sense, intuitive, and, in the strictest sense, complete. He requires no “searching out” in order to discover anything; nor is it possible to make any addition to His knowledge. The past, the present, and the future are alike before His all-comprehensive mind. He sees all the present. He remembers all the past. He foresees all the future. His knowledge is “light without any darkness at all;” and it is light that is equally clear through the immensity of the universe, and through all time and all eternity! 2. The language implies God’s entire independence and supremacy, as a part of His glory. He “giveth not account of any of his matters,” further than, in sovereignty, He sees meet to do. He conceals when He pleases. He discloses when He pleases:—“Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor?” and who can demand the disclosure of any one of the secrets of the infinite and independent Mind? 3. The impenetrable depth of His counsels is a part of God’s glory. His “judgments are a great deep.” What line of created wisdom can fathom them?—“Not angels, that stand round his throne,
Can search His secret will!”
“Canst thou, by searching, find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is high as heaven; what can’st thou do? deeper than hell; what can’st thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.” “O the depth of the riches, and wisdom, and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” This is fitted to inspire us, His intelligent creatures, with “reverence and godly fear.” In the sovereign secresy, the unapproachable reservation, the unfathomable mysteriousness of the Divine counsels—in the very requirement that we humbly how, in adoring submission, where we cannot comprehend, without asking a question, or urging a further disclosure:—in all this, there is something that gives the Creator His proper place. There is in it a sacredness, an awfulness, that makes us feel, as we ought to do, our infinite distance. This is God’s glory.—Wardlaw.
Pro_25:3. There is no searching the height or the depth of the King’s heart, any more than the height of heaven, or the depth of the earth, (which in those unastronomic days meant blankly not at all). Give God a universe to rule; and what He must do in that great compass, as a King, is quite unsearchable.—Miller.
For Homiletics of Pro_25:4-5 see on chap. Pro_20:26; Pro_20:28, page 596.

Proverbs 25:6-7
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_25:6. Put not forth, literally “bring not thy glory to view, do not display thyself.”
Pro_25:7. Whom thine eyes have seen. There is some difference of opinion as to the person to whom this sentence refers. Fleischer understands it as referring to the king, and to the additional humiliation felt when it comes upon one who has pressed so far forward that he can be perceived by the king. Delitzsch refers it not specially to the king, but to “any distinguished personage whose place he who has pressed forward has taken up, and from which he must now withdraw when the right possessor of it comes and lays claim to his place.… Thine eyes have seen him in the company, and thou canst say to thyself, this place belongs to him, according to his rank, and not to thee; the humiliation which thou endurest is thus well deserved, because, with eyes to see, thou wert so blind.” (Delitzsch).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_25:6-7
SELF-PROMOTION
I. A wise man will let others judge of his qualifications for a high place or position. Men who consult their happiness and reputation are not so anxious to rise in the world as they are to qualify themselves for rising. A wise man knows well that it is not merely the position he occupies which raises him in the estimation of others, but the ability which he shows to fill the post, and the fitness which men recognise as existing between him and his high place. He has no desire to step into a position which he could not fill with some credit to himself and advantage to others, knowing well that he would then be like the jackdaw in the peacock’s borrowed plumes, an object of derision to all beholders. He would rather occupy a low place with abilities to fill a higher, than be in one which was above his abilities, and he therefore gladly leaves the question of his social advancement in the hands of others.
II. Self-promotion is not likely to result in satisfaction to the only actor in the transaction. 1. It is generally short-lived. If a man is really fit for advancement, some one or some number of people are generally to be found to say to him, “Friend, go up higher.” The interests of men in general, are concerned in having the best men in the foremost places; and such men, in the end, are generally placed in them by common consent. But when a man without this call steps into a place of honour, it is very common for others to resent his self-conceit, and to call upon him to give place to a more worthy person. And so his self-constituted triumph is soon over. 2. It often ends in humiliation. It is hard to be obliged to take a lower place under any circumstances, but when we are thus retracing steps which our self-esteem alone prompted us to take, the chagrin is great indeed. And as the ascent in such a case is generally made before the eyes of many onlookers, so the descent will be equally public, and this adds much to the disappointment and the shame.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Ambition is to the mind what the cap is to the falcon, it first blinds us, and then compels us to lower by reason of our blindness.—E. Cook.
Now, it is not a little said in praise of him to whom it is said, “Come up higher.” For, first, it showeth his modest humility, which is the praise of all other virtues. Secondly, it showeth the worth of his quality, which deserveth advancement. Thirdly, it showeth that to be due unto him which is bestowed upon him. On the other side, it is not a little reproach unto him that is put lower. For, first, his pride is objected to him; the overthrow of all that is praiseworthy. Secondly, his unworthiness is rejected with an upbraiding of it. Thirdly, the due punishment of being placed lower is justly inflicted.… And as if he were one unworthy for the prince to look upon, it is not said, by whom thou art seen, but whom thine eyes have seen, as noting also the proud presumption of the unworthy intruder. Jermin.

Proverbs 25:8-11
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_25:8. Lest thou know not, etc. As will be seen from the italics in the English version, this sentence is very elliptical. Zöckler reads, “lest (it be said to thee) what wilt thou do,” etc. Delitzsch, “That it may not be said,” etc. Miller, “Lest what thou doest, in its after consequence, be thy neighbour putting thee to shame.”
Pro_25:9. A secret to another. Rather “The secret of another”
Pro_25:11. Pictures of silver. Literally “sculpture,” or “figures” of silver. Delitzsch translates “salvers,” Zöckler “framework.” Stuart says, “The idea is that of a garment of precious stuff, on which is embroidered golden apples among picture-work of silver. Costly and precious was such a garment held to be; for, besides the ornaments upon it, the material itself was of high value.” Fitly spoken. Literally “in, or upon its time.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH. Pro_25:8-11
TWO WAYS OF TREATING AN ENEMY
It is undoubtedly lawful, and sometimes indispensable, that a man who has been wronged by another should seek redress from the offending person. These verses seem no refer to an injury done to character and reputation, and seeing that these are a man’s most precious possessions, he has certainly as much right to seek restitution from him who has sought to rob him of this wealth, as he has to try and capture the thief who has stolen his money or his plate, and make him give back his unlawful gain. Solomon does not condemn all interference with a neighbour who puts us “to shame,” but sets before us two opposite courses of action, either of which may be taken in such a case. He gives the consequences of both.
I. There is the way of inconsiderate passion. This is a bad way, because—1. It may lead us to overstep the bounds of right and justice. A man under the power of anger has no ear open to the counsels of reason and prudence, and under such an influence he will very likely become as great an offender against his neighbour as his neighbour was against him. He in his turn may become a slanderer and a betrayer of secrets (Pro_25:9), and so lose all hold on his opponent; and even be put to shame by the very person whom he intended to bring to shame. He is like a blindfolded man who rushes hastily down a steep path without considering what will be the end of so mad an Acts 2. It is the least likely way to convince the offender of his fault. Words of angry recrimination, or deeds which savour of the spirit of revenge, will almost certainly make an enemy tenfold more of an enemy. If he disliked us before without any reason, his dislike will now have some foundation to rest upon, and the gulf of separation will be widened instead of bridged over. The end to be aimed at when a brother man has trespassed against us is clearly defined by Christ. We are to try to “gain our brother” (Mat_18:15), that is, we are to try and win his esteem and love. This can never be done if we “go forth hastily to strive.” But—
II. There is the way of personal and wise remonstrance. 1. The complaint of our wrongs is to be made first to the person offending. Here the teaching of the wise man and the “greater than Solomon” are identical. “If thy brother trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.” (Mat_18:15.) To speak of it to a third person is to expose our neighbour unnecessarily, and, perhaps, to blacken his character far beyond his deserts. For, although we may give a plain unvarnished tale of his offence, he to whom we give it may colour it when he repeats it to another, and so what was but a molehill at the first may grow into a mountain before long. But if we go directly to the transgressor himself, we make it plain to him that we have no desire to make him suffer for his offence, and only ask him to deal with us in the same spirit of brotherly love in which we deal with him. Our willingness to cover his fault will go a long way towards persuading him to confess and forsake it. 2. We are to reason and persuade rather than to upbraid. The discourse is to take the form of a calm debate. We are to ask for the grounds of his attack upon us, and not be too proud to enter into explanations of any act that he may have misconstrued. We are to try and convince him of the harm he will do to himself if he persist in trying to injure another, and we are to seek to clothe all our arguments and entreaties in language which is the least likely to offend and most calculated to win. Such words are compared by Solomon to a beautiful work of art which is precious and admirable not only for the skill displayed in the workmanship, but for the costly nature of the material out of which it is fashioned. (See CRITICAL NOTES on Pro_25:11.) It may be a robe of costly material embroidered with gold and silver, or it may be a basket of wrought silver holding fruits of gold, but whatever the exact form of the production, it reveals skilful design on the part of the artist, and bears witness to his painstaking skill. A carefully framed appeal to lay before an offending brother is a work of art in a higher sphere—it calls forth all the tact and wisdom that we possess to fashion such a garment—to carve such a piece of work, but it is worth all the labour and pains that can be spent upon it, and will bring to its author the goodwill of others and the approval of his own conscience.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_25:8. For the sake of illustration, to suppose two or three varieties of this result:—1. The hasty man meets his supposed adversary,—some word or act of whom has just reached him. He is all full of the fuming pride of offended self-consequence; very big; very wrathful. In this spirit he makes his charge; and finds it is a mere idle unfounded rumour that has come to his ears; that there is actually nothing in it; that nothing of the kind has ever been either said or done; that there is no ground whatever for all his excitement and transport!—How foolish he looks, when his imagined enemy, against whom he has been breathing out the vehemence of passion, all collected and cool, stands wondering at his agitation,—unable to divine what has come over him!—And how is he laughed at for having stirred himself up to all this heat and hurry,—all this violence of emotion—for nothing!—2. It turns out that in the cause between him and his neighbour, which he has so hastily taken up, he is in the wrong—that, after all his froth and bluster, truth and justice are clearly on the other side, with all the solid and satisfactory argument; while on his there is little or nothing beyond the noisy and vehement protestations of self-sufficiency, and he is quite unable to withstand the proofs against him—the verdict of all impartial persons being in favour of his opponent. In this case, he must either, after having his pride keenly mortified, cool down, and own himself in the wrong—which is the best thing he can do, but far from easy to a man of his temper; or the more he is overpowered by evidence of facts and by sound argument, the more must the sense of conscious defeat, and consequent feeling of inferiority, inflame him to rage; by which he will only render himself the more ridiculous, and give cause of more lasting mortification and shame. 3. The same things are true of a controversial dispute on any subject. Generally speaking, the hastiest and most self-confident is the most likely to fail. Such confidence very often accompanies partial information and superficial and one-sided views. The petulant, consequential disputant “
goes forth hastily to strive,” in the full assurance that his arguments are such as cannot be resisted, and in the full flush of anticipated triumph—of victory before the battle. But objections meet him, of which he had never thought. Arguments are arrayed and urged on the opposite side, such as had never occurred to his own mind, and such, therefore, as he did not at all expect, and cannot refute.… He is abashed, confounded, stupified.—Wardlaw.
It is he that liveth in peace that doth enjoy himself. It is he that is at home, and findeth the comfort of what God hath bestowed upon him. He that falleth into strife goeth from his rest and contentment, goeth forth from himself, so that he is hardly himself while the strife continues.… Therefore let not strife be a thing into which thou art carried of thine own accord; but either let thine adversary drive thee into it, or else let necessity or some good reason either draw thee or force thee.—Jermin.
Pro_25:11. The beauty of the texture sets off the fruit with additional charms. So does a lovely medium enhance the attractiveness of truth. “The preacher should strive to find out acceptable words”—words fitly spoken—giving to each their proper meat—and that “in due season,” suited to their ages and difference of temperament. “How forcible are right words!” (Job_6:25.) Our Lord witnessed of Himself, as “gifted with the tongue of the learned, that He might know how to speak the word in season” (Isa_50:4)—a word upon the wheels—not forced or dragged, but rolling smoothly along, like the chariot-wheels. His discourses on the living water and the bread of life arose naturally out of the conversation, and therefore were full of arresting application. Paul powerfully charged superstition on the Athenians by an inscription on their own altar; and strengthened his reasoning by quoting from one of their own poets. (Act_17:22-28.) To a corrupt and profligate judge he preached “righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.” (Act_24:25.)—Bridges.
That words may deserve this character, they must be the words of truth; for falsehood and error are on no occasion fit to be spoken. And therefore Job reproves his friends for endeavouring, by false doctrine, to comfort him, and direct his exercise in the time of his distress. But words may be true and yet unfitly spoken, for although nothing is to be spoken but truth, yet truth is not always to be spoken. Doeg the Edomite was guilty of murder before he killed the priests of the Lord, by telling the enraged tyrant that David had received bread and asword from Ahimelech. Jonathan was a man of a very opposite spirit, and discovered it by the seasonable mention he made to his father of David’s exploit in slaying Goliath. By putting Saul in mind of this noble action, he disarmed for a time his angry resentments.—Lawson.

Proverbs 25:12-13
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_25:12. An obedient ear. Literally “an ear that heareth.”
Pro_25:13. The cold of snow, etc. “The coolness of snow is not that of a fall of snow, which in the time of harvest would be a calamity, but of drink cooled with snow, which was brought from Lebanon, or elsewhere, from the clefts of the rocks; the peasants of Damascus store up the winter’s snow in a cleft of the mountain, and convey it in the warm months to Damascus and the coast towns.” (Delitzsch.)
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_25:12
GIVING AND TAKING
I. To give reproof effectually needs—1. A character which deserves respect. An iron pin when cold may by the exercise of much strength and the expenditure of much time be driven through a plate of iron, but if it be red hot, it goes through it with speed and ease. A blunt axe may fell a tree, but if it has a good edge the work is done far more quickly and effectually. So a very faulty man may obtain a hearing when he reproves, and his reproofs may do good, but the same reproof from the lips of one who possesses a high moral character will be far more likely to reach the conscience of the listener and lead him to repentance. 2. A knowledge of the character and disposition of him whom he reproves. It is indispensable that the physician who ministers a powerful drug to a patient, or who subjects him to a critical operation, should first know something about his bodily constitution, should ascertain if there is tendency to disease which his treatment might strengthen, or exceptional weakness of any organ which would make it unable to bear the strain he is about to put upon it. If he do not make some preliminary investigation on these matters he may be developing an evil as great as the one he seeks to eradicate. A reprover should remember that all men are not alike in their temperament and moral development, and that consequently what would do real good to one transgressor would only harden another, and that, therefore, there must be acquaintance with the patient before the medicine is administered. 3. A sincere desire to benefit the offender. He who reproves without a real feeling of pity and a wish to help him whom he reproves will find that his words will do about as much good as water does to a rock when it falls upon it. It may drop day and night for years, but the rock is rock still—no moisture penetrates it and no verdure clothes it. So reproof that is not dictated by love will never reach the heart, and no fruits of repentance will result from fault-finding for its own sake. 4. A due regard to a fitting time and place. He must not rebuke his child when he is suffering pain, or charge home a fault upon the father of a family before his children. We are not likely to reform a drunkard by upbraiding him when he is under the influence of drink, or to convince a proud man that he is wrong by putting him to shame before others. A wise reprover will not only see to it that his medicine is suited to his patient, but will consider when it is most fitting to administer it.
II. To take reproof meekly— 1. Reveals a man under the control of reason. It is only the delirious patient or the child who angrily resists the surgeon’s knife, and looks no further than the present pain. A reasonable man may cry out under the operation, but he knows that his future health depends upon it, and he therefore submits patiently, although he suffers acutely. If a man looks at reproof in the same light, he will receive it in the same spirit, and give a convincing proof that he is not ruled by passion but by reason. 2. Reveals a man governed by true self-love. Love for our own true interests prompts us to welcome every hand stretched out to help us, and every means afforded us of becoming better and wiser. A wise reprover is a true friend, and he who does not recognise him as such shows that his own advancement is not the aim of his life and the object of his desire. But no greater proof of a sincere regard for our own moral and spiritual growth can be given than that of lending an obedient ear to a wise reproof.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The wise reprover or instructor, who lovingly and seasonably telleth his neighbour of his fault or duty, may fitly be likened unto a jewel of pearl; for he lighteneth and enricheth him that is instructed with knowledge and the gifts of God’s Holy Spirit. The attentive and obedient hearer who desires to increase in learning, and who receiveth the word of God with meekness, may also be aptly resembled to a golden earring; for he is transformed from glory to glory, by the ministry and instruction of the prudent and learned teacher.—Muffett.
When a reproof is both administered in wisdom and received in humility and in good part,—then there is a union of two equal rarities. A reproof well-administered is rare; and not less so is a reproof well taken. We may remark, however, that the rareness of the latter arises, to no small extent, out of the rareness of the former. It is because reproof is so seldom wellgiven, that it is so seldon well-taken.—Wardlaw.
An earring is fastened to the ear, and that it may be fastened, it pierceth the ear, and being so fastened, it is an ornament to the whole face; so like-wise is a reproof upon an obedient ear. First, it pierceth it, and is received willingly into it; secondly, it is fastened upon it, so that it stays with it; thirdly, it is an ornament to his whole life, which is thereby reformed.—Jermin.
For Homiletics on the subject of Pro_25:13, see on chap. Pro_13:17, page 321.

Proverbs 25:14
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_25:14. A false gift. This gift is generally understood to be one bestowed by the boaster, but which is worth nothing, or the mere promise of a gift which is never fulfilled.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_25:14
CLOUDS WITHOUT RAIN
I. Those who promise and do not perform are wantonly cruel. To raise expectations without fulfilling them is one of the greatest unkindnesses of which men can be guilty. For however sorely the gift or the service desired may be needed, if the needy brother has never had any hope of possessing it, his sense of loss is not nearly so keen as it is if, depending on the word of another, he has felt as if the coveted good was almost in his grasp. The thirsty traveller in the desert feels his thirst more terribly after the deceitful mirage has led him to believe that a refreshing lake is just within his reach. He thinks he sees the sparkling water but a few paces distant, and is already in fancy drinking his fill when all his hopes are destroyed by the vanishing of the deception, and he is in a far worse condition than he was before its appearance. There are many men who are as deceitful and as disappointing as the mirage of the desert. Their large promises awaken bright hopes in the breast of some wayfarer on the journey of life, and he looks forward with confident joy to the time when he shall possess the promised gift. But his heart is gradually made sick by the deferred hope (chap. Pro_13:12) until at last he becomes aware that he has been cruelly deceived, and finds himself a far more wretched man than he was before the promise was made to him.
II. As a rule he who promises most will perform the least. Those who bestow most upon others are those who do not spend much time in talking about what they will do. Sometimes a heavy cloud is seen in the heavens, which seems as if it would every moment fall in refreshing showers. But a few drops only fall on the parched earth, and while the husbandman is looking with confident expectancy it vanishes from his sight. On another day a cloud which seems to promise far less falls in abundance upon the thirsty land. This is not the rule in nature, but it is in relation to the promises and performances of men. The loud boaster is well-nigh certain to be a cloud without rain, and should therefore never be relied upon, and the greatest givers are generally those who promise least.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
This verse may be understood, either of God’s gift to man, or man’s gift to God, or else of man to any other man. For many there are who boast of those gifts which God never bestowed on them; and though God be infinite in His bounty, yet by their lying do make Him more bountiful than He is. Many there are who boast of their gifts to God, either in regard of the church or the poor, whereas His church or His poor have them as little as God Himself needs them. Many boast of their kind gifts to others, whereas their not performing them makes them more unkind than if they never had promised.… Their false gifts are as the clouds, and their boasting as the winds. Their false gifts do lift them up, as the clouds are; their great boasting maketh a great noise as the wind doth. The winds drive the clouds and scatter them; so doth their boasting spread abroad the fame of their false gifts; and as the clouds without rain darken the heavens without watering the earth; as the dry wind troubleth the air without refreshing the ground; so these boasters even darken the heaven with their naughtiness, and trouble the earth with their brags, but satisfy none with their deeds.—Jermin.

Proverbs 25:15
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_25:15. Prince. Rather “Judge”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_25:15
FORBEARANCE AND PERSUASIVENESS
I. Patience without speech is an overcoming power. The strongest smith will find a piece of cold iron too much for him—if he attempt to bend or break it he will be met with a resistance which he cannot overcome. But he places the apparently unconquerable bar upon the coals, and by degrees it seems to assume altogether another nature, and is ready to be fashioned to any shape or form. He gets this victory by waiting, and he finds it a far more effectual method than attempting to subdue the metal by physical force. Forbearance will sometimes do as much for the stubborn human will as the fire does for the iron. Many men who cannot be threatened into compliance with our wishes, may be overcome by patient kindness. A prince may be here put by Solomon as a type of all men in authority and high position, who by reason of their position are less under the power of others and consequently are less likely to yield to any other force than persuasion. With such men high-handed dealing and efforts to intimidate generally provoke a more stubborn resistance.
II. Patience seconded by gentle speech is doubly powerful. The smith’s work is not done when by waiting he has given time for the iron to become soft and impressible; he must then bring his skill and activity to bear upon it and so mould it to his will. So after long forbearance there must be wise and persuasive speech to finish the work. The long-suffering patience, perhaps under trial and provocation, has softened the hard heart or the stubborn will, and now the gentle words are listened to and have their full weight. But this would not have been the case if patience without speech had not gone first to make way for them.
III. Those who conquer by forbearance in deed and gentleness in word walk in the Divine footsteps. In the dealings of God with the human race, no attribute of His character is more manifest than “the riches of His forbearance and long suffering” (Rom_2:4), and it is by this that He “leads men to repentance.” “Instead of coming down upon man by storm,” says Dr. Bushnell, “in a manner of direct onset to carry his submission by storm, God lays gentle siege to him, waiting for his willing assent and choice.… To redress an injury by gentleness, and tame his adversary’s will by the circuitous approach of forbearance and a siege of true suggestion is not the manner of men, only of God.” It is not, alas! the manner of men in general, but all those who call Him Master try to imitate Him in this as in all other of His perfections that can be imitated by finite and imperfect creatures.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The soft member breaking the hard bone may seem to be a paradox. But it is a fine illustration of the power of gentleness above hardness and irritation. Apply it to those who are set against the truth. Many a stout heart has been won by a forbearing, yet uncompromising, accommodation to prejudice. In reproof Jehovah showed what He could do in “the strong wind and the earthquake.” But His effective rebuke was in the “still small voice;” without upbraiding; sharp, yet tender, (1Ki_19:11-13.) So powerful is the energy of gentleness! Indeed, “among all the graces that adorn the Christian soul, like so many jewels of various colours and lustres, against the day of her espousals to the Lamb of God, there is not one more brilliant than that of patience.”

Proverbs 25:16
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_25:16. Filled. Rather “Surfeited.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_25:16
USE AND ABUSE
I. The good gifts of God are to be enjoyed by men. “Every creature of God is good,” says the apostle, “and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving” (1Ti_4:4). God has filled the world with gifts to minister pleasure to the bodily senses as well as to the spiritual aspirations, and the first are given to us “richly to enjoy” (1Ti_6:17), as much as the last. Our Great and Beneficent Father, has not omitted to provide even for the gratification of our palate, but has furnished us with an almost infinite variety of natural productions, pleasant to the taste. His kindness in this matter is not to be overlooked, and these good gifts are not to be treated as though they were beneath our grateful appreciation. The asceticism which refuses to partake of them is not in accordance with the spirit of either the Old or New Testament.
II. There is no material and temporal good which cannot be misused by man. Honey may here stand for any or all the lower sweets of life—for every blessing which is not of a purely spiritual nature—and the greatest temptation to misuse of these lies in the direction of over-use—of indulging in them to the neglect of other and more precious good, and so to the injury of the higher nature. Honey is a delicious article of food, and wholesome and nutritious to a certain extent, but if a man attempted to live upon it to the exclusion of plainer fare he would find that his bodily health would suffer. In like manner is there danger to spiritual health from an undue indulgence of even the gifts of God, which minister only or chiefly to the senses, or which belong to this life alone.
III. The misuse of what is good in itself puts an end to all real enjoyment of it. If a man eats immoderately of honey it soon ceases to be pleasant to his taste, and the very sweetness that at first attracted him produces loathing. The same nausea of spirit follows immoderate indulgence in any merely temporal or material good—that which, used lawfully, would always afford true and real enjoyment, cloys upon the man who abuses it by over-use.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The figure varies. In a former sentence we are commanded to eat honey because it is good (chap. Pro_24:13), and that was very carefully explained. It meant that piety was itself good, and we were to taste and see (Psa_34:8) that before we could be Christians. But now the figure varies. There is a sweetness of eternal hope, even when we have not got down to the sweetness of a saving piety. We are to put on the helmet of hope. So the Apostle tells us (1Th_5:8). But Solomon cautions us that we are to put on no more than is “sufficient.” We are eating more than enough honey when we have no right to eat any, and so we may be eating too much when we ought to be getting more. There is such a thing as having more hope than evidence. And if a man has too much confident hope of heaven for the amount he has of piety, there certainly is a case of eating more than is sufficient.… Blessed is the man that has “found honey.” Let him eat so much as is sufficient for him in this dismal pilgrimage. But, when he is once refreshed like Jonathan, let him sound for an advance.—Miller.

Proverbs 25:17-18
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_25:17. Withhold. Rather “Make rare.”
Pro_25:18. A maul. An instrument or weapon shod with iron, probably a war-club.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_25:17
OBTRUSIVENESS
I. We may by indiscretion close a door which we have ourselves opened. There are many things which are pleasant and welcome occasionally, which become not only unwelcome, but annoying, if we have too much of them. We do not desire to hear the sweetest song every day and all the day long—that which is refreshing and delightful now and then becomes wearisome if constantly repeated. We must apply this rule to ourselves in relation to our fellow-men. While we rejoice to feel that there are those who love us so well as to desire our presence upon all occasions, we must remember that most of our acquaintances will not set so high a value upon us, and that to be seen too often where we should be welcome if seen but seldom, is by our own act to shut our neighbour’s door upon us.
II. Our neighbour’s objection to our constant visits may arise from no unkindly feeling. Men who have work to do in the world cannot give all their time, or much of it, to the entertainment of visitors. There are those who, living to no purpose themselves, forget that others feel themselves accountable to God for the use they make of their lives, and such idle people often sorely vex and hinder their busy neighbours by their thoughtless and unseasonable visits. The man who enters a house and takes from a diamond necklace one precious stone after another until he has taken the whole, is doubtless no friend, but a thief and a robber, and is punishable by the law of the land; but the man who enters his neighbour’s house and robs him of hour after hour, steals property which probably cannot be redeemed, or redeemed only by encroaching upon the hours which ought to be given to rest. So that such a thoughtless intruder steals not only his neighbour’s time, but indirectly his health and power to work. Surely such pests of society ought not to have the name of
friend bestowed upon them, but deserve to be branded with a name more befitting their character, and more in accordance with their actions.
For Homiletics of Pro_25:18, see on chap. Pro_12:18, page 274.

Proverbs 25:19-20
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_25:19. Foot out of joint. Rather “An unsteady foot.”
Pro_25:20. Nitre. “Not the substance we now understand by nitre—i.e., nitrate of potassa (saltpetre), but the natron or native carbonate of soda of modern chemistry.” (Smith’s Dictionary.) The combination of the acid and alkali would, of course, produce effervescence.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_25:19-20
MISPLACED CONFIDENCE AND UNSEASONABLE SONGS
The day of adversity is, as we saw on chap. Pro_24:10, a testing time for the man who is the subject of the calamity, and it is also a season in which he tests the worth of those who have called themselves his friends in the time of his prosperity. These verses deal with two varieties among many who intensify his affliction and deepen his grief, instead of bringing him help and comfort. There is—
I. The faithless friend. This phrase is a contradictory one, but it is used for want of a better. The word friend, in its highest and best sense, denotes one who is worthy of trust and who never fails in the hour of trial. But there are many who assume the name who are unworthy of it, and whose failure when they are most needed is one of the most bitter drops in the cup of calamity. If the cable breaks in a calm sea the vessel and the crew may escape serious injury; but if it gives way amid storm and tempest, the consequences are most disastrous. It is hard to find a professed friend failing us when we are sailing in calm waters, but it may then be borne without entirely crushing the spirit. But when such a discovery is first made in the day of trouble, it is enough to break the stoutest heart.
II. The undiscerning friend. There are many real friends who lack the ability to discern how best to help the sorrowful and heavy hearted. They sing a song with the intention of giving cheer when tears, or at least silence, would be far more acceptable to the wounded spirit. Songs of gladness, such as are doubtless here intended, fit the spirit when it is walking in the sunlight, but they aggravate the suffering of those who are in darkness of soul. He who aspires to the name of friend must learn to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those that weep.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_25:19. The greatest disaster, in proportion to the number of men engaged, that befel our arms in the Eastern insurrection, was the direct result of confidence in an unfaithful man. At Arrah-on-the-Ganges three or four hundred soldiers were sent to attack a body of the rebels, and relieve some British residents who were in danger there. A native was employed to ascertain the position of the enemy. In consequence of his report, the men left the river and made a night march into the interior. The messenger was false. The little army fell into an ambush prepared for them in the jungle. Two-thirds of their number were shot down in the dark by unseen foes. The remnant escaped to their ship when the day dawned. As they lay in that fatal valley getting their wounds in the dark, and helplessly wishing for the day, how exquisitely bitter must have been the reflection that a too ready trust in a faithless man had wrought them all this woe.—Arnot.
The God of nature hath placed the teeth in two jaws, that the one may be helpful to the other; and he hath supported man with two feet, that the one may be a succour to the other. From hence, to teach us the help and support which one man ought to yield to another. It is by means of this mutual support in the feet that we pass over the blocks that lie in our way; for while the one foot is lifted up to step over them, the other bears up the body. It is the mutual help of the jaws, and by their meeting together, that we break hard things and make them fit nourishment for us. In like manner, therefore, when a block lies in the way of anyone, another should be ready to support him until he get over it. When a hard distress lieth upon anyone, another should be ready to help him for the better breaking through it. But in this point too many are like a broken tooth, and he that looketh to meet with them for help in his distress, findeth them not to answer his expectation … and too many are like a foot out of joint, and he that thinketh to rest upon them in time of need, is sure to fall by them.—Jermin.
Pro_25:20. He that taketh away a garment from another may think to ease his burden, but it being done in cold weather, it addeth to his coldness; he that putteth vinegar upon nitre may think only to break the hardness of it, but he dissolveth it. In like manner he that singeth songs to a heavy heart may think to ease the burden of sorrow, may think to break the hardness of grief, but such is the force of the sad contraposition, such is the power of the contrariety between singing and sorrow of heart, that the ease of one’s heart being able to sing, increaseth the weight of the other’s trouble that he cannot do so.—Jermin.

Proverbs 25:21-22
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_25:21-22
A BLESSED RECOMPENSE
I. A recompense which is difficult. No one can affirm that it is an easy thing to minister help and comfort to one who has done us an injury, but it is more difficult in some cases than in others. Men are not bound to us by equal ties: some are merely related to us because they partake of the same common humanity; others are our kinsmen according to the flesh; while others stand in an even nearer relation, and are brothers in a spiritual sense, being partakers with us of what is called in Scripture language the new birth. According to Christ’s teaching this is the nearest and closest bond which can unite men, and yet it cannot be denied that we sometimes have to exercise the grace of forgiveness even towards these brethren. But the motive power which prompts us to return good for evil is certainly stronger in this latter case than in the others, or at least it ought to be so. For when we reflect that the brother who has wronged us stands in the same relation to Christ as we do ourselves, it ought not to be at all difficult for us to feed him when hungry, or in any other way in our power to minister to his needs. There will also in most men be found more or less natural promptings to succour an enemy who is related to them by ties of blood—the nearer the natural relationship the more easy will it be, as a rule, to comply with the command given by the Wise Man. But the greatest difficulty will be found in obeying it when the enemy is one who is altogether unlike us in character, and who is only related to us in the broad and universal sense of being human. To be active and earnest in our endeavours to relieve the necessities of such an one needs often much Divine help, but it is demanded of us by Him who died for a world at enmity with Him.
II. A retaliation which is blessed in its results. We understand with Zöckler, the figure here used to “describe the deep pangs of repentance which one produces within his enemy by rewarding his hatred with benefits.” This is a result most desirable and blessed for him who has been the offender. For it is the only road by which he can regain peace of mind and self-respect, as well as the esteem of all right-minded people. This restoration of an erring brother would in itself be a great reward to a good man, but it is not, according to Solomon, the only one which is accorded to him who thus recompenses good for evil. A special reward for the special act is promised by Jehovah. There is one which is the outcome of the laws by which He governs men. If a traveller in a cold region finds a fellow traveller lying benumbed and forsaken by the roadside, and does what he can to raise and restore him, the effort makes his own blood circulate more quickly, and his own frame glow with warmth. This is the outcome of a natural law of God, and there is a spiritual one akin to it. For whenever an effort is made to raise and restore one who has morally fallen, he who makes the effort feels a reflex glow of moral life and health in his own spirit. This is the certain effect which must follow every act of goodwill towards an enemy, as surely as the shadow follows the substance. But there are probably other rewards of an external nature—many blessings that come to a good man’s life may be direct and special gifts from His Father above for deeds which, like the one now under consideration, are especially pleasing to Him.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
We may profess our goodwill towards our enemy, that we forgive and pray for him from our heart. But unless we are ready with the practical exercise of sympathy, we are only the victims of our own moral delusion.—Bridges.
It is action, not affection, that is here spoken of—not the disposition of the heart, but the deeds of the hand; and if it be a more practicable thing that we should compel ourselves to right bodily performances than call up right mental propensities, this may alleviate somewhat our dread of these precepts, as if they were wholly unmanageable or incompetent to humanity. Before, then, taking cognisance of what should be the inward temper of Christians towards those who maltreat or oppress them, we would bid you remark that the outward conduct towards them is that which forms the literal subject-matter of the commandments here given. The disciples are in this place told that … hard as it may be under their cruel provocations to keep unruffled minds and to feel peaceably, they, as much as in them lies, are to live peaceably … while it may not be the tendency of nature so to desire, our bidden obligation is so to do, for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.—Chalmers on Rom_12:20.
Now, we know that if a coal or two of fire be laid on the hearth of the chimney below, he that is cold cannot be wholly warmed, or receive much good thereby; but if one basketful be poured on the fire after another, so that the coals are heaped up to the mantel-tree, or are as high as his head that fain would warm him, then he waxeth thoroughly hot and beginneth even to burn. It seemeth then that by this borrowed speech is meant, that if a man shall be very bountiful even unto his enemy, and heap upon him one good turn after another, this will cause his affection, which before was cold, to burn within him. Thus dealt David with Saul, who spared his life when he might have slain him, and only cut off a piece of his coat when he might have cut off his head.—
Muffett.
I take for granted, what I believe to be the truth, that the words “for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head,” have reference, not to the fires of Divine vengeance, but to the influence of kindly treatment melting down the enemy to conciliation, as fuel heaped on the ore fuses it from its hardness, and sends it forth in liquid streams, to take the features and impress of the mould.—A certain prince, on leading his generals and his army against an advancing host of invaders, declared his resolution not to leave a single enemy alive. He sent an embassy to treat with them. He made proposals such as subdued and attached them, and rendered them valuable allies. On astonishment being expressed that he should have thus failed in his determination and promise, his ready reply was—“I have not failed: I have kept my word. I engaged not to leave a living enemy; nor have I. They are enemies no longer—they are friends.” He had “heaped coals of fire on their head.”—Wardlaw.
For hunger and thirst are common enemies, both to thee and him. And therefore, as where a common enemy invadeth, particular enmity is laid aside, and all join there to help and withstand him; so here lend a hand to resist these common enemies, which though now have seized on thine enemy may quickly sieze on thee. Besides he is hungry as a man, he thirsteth as a man—not as an enemy—and therefore as a man give him bread to eat, give him water to drink. This may also quench the hunger of his enmity, and satisfy also the hunger of his hatred.—Jermin.
If anyone desires to try this work, he must bring to it at least these two qualifications, modesty and patience. If he proceed ostentatiously, with an air of superiority and a consciousness of his own virtue, he will never make one step of progress. The subject will day by day grow harder in his hands. But even though the successive acts of kindness should be genuine, the operator must lay his account with a tedious process and many disappointments.… The miner does not think that his coals of fire are wasted, although he has been throwing them on for several successive hours, and the stones show no symptoms of dissolving. He knows that each portion of the burning fuel is contributing to the result, and that the flow will be sudden and complete at last. Let him go and do likewise who aspires to win a brother by the subduing power of self-sacrificing love.—Arnot.

Proverbs 25:23-24
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_25:23. Driveth away. Rather “Brings forward the rain-clouds.” Most modern commentators adopt this rendering of the verb, and read the latter phrase to suit the metaphor—“So a secret or slanderous tongue, a troubled countenance.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_25:23
THE WAY TO TREAT A BACKBITER
It will be seen from a reference to the CRITICAL NOTES, that nearly all modern commentators render this verse quite differently from the common version, and so reverse the meaning. It will, however, bear the common rendering. “I confess,” says Wardlaw, “that if the word will bear it at all, our version seems decidedly preferable. There is something tame, commonplace, and of little practical consequence—hardly worth forming the subject of a proverb—in saying that as the north wind brings rain, ‘a backbiting tongue’ brings anger. But the verse as it stands in our translation inculcates a most important lesson.” We therefore take the proverb as we find it in our Bible, as setting forth—
I. An unrighteous action producing a righteous emotion. We have before had brought before us in this book the peculiar iniquity of backbiting and its evil results (see page 274). The special unrighteousness of the act lies, of course, in the fact that the person who is the subject of it, being absent and ignorant of the charge brought against him, has no opportunity of defending himself. A feeling of indignation against such an act, and an expression of it in the countenance, is therefore demanded from every lover of truth and justice. He who will calmly listen to a tale of slander and show no tokens of disapproval, makes himself a partaker of the sin. But it is impossible for a righteous man to act thus. When a putrid body is presented to our bodily senses, if we are healthy men we experience a feeling of revulsion which we cannot conceal. And so if a man is morally healthy he must experience and reveal a strong dislike to the backbiting tongue.
II. The unrighteous action overpowered by the righteous emotion. When the heavy rain-clouds which overspread the sky are dispersed and driven away by the wind, they show themselves to be the weaker of the two contending forces. And so when the backbiting tongue is silenced by the look of righteous indignation, it gives proof that, however strong the workings of evil are, the power of goodness is stronger. Those who set their faces against this or any other vice, may always draw encouragement from the fact that there is a reprover within the breast of the wrong-doer, which in spite of all efforts to stifle it, seconds the reprover from without—wherever the conscience is at all awake, it says Amen to a faithful rebuke, whether administered by word or look. And so it is that a countenance upon which is written righteous anger is so potent a check to a backbiting tongue.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
It is a great encouragement to talebearers, to observe that their wicked stories are heard with attention. If a man looks upon them with a cheerful countenance, and listens to their tales, and makes them welcome to his table, they naturally conclude that the person to whom they speak has as bad a heart as themselves, and they will not fail to bring him new stories of the like kind, as soon as they have got an opportunity to learn or to make them. But if the receiver of stolen goods is a sharer with the thief in his guilt, and if any man that encourages another in evil partakes in his sin, then he that hears the backbiter with complacency is little better than himself, and would probably follow the same trade if he had the same talents for it. We cannot, therefore, clear ourselves from the sin of backbiting, unless we refuse to receive a bad report of our neighbour, and testify our displeasure, by all proper methods, at the base conduct of the assassins that would murder in the dark the good-name of their fellow-creatures. When the murderers of Isbosheth brought their master’s head to David, judging from their own disposition that it would be an acceptable present to him, he treated them in such a manner that no man ever sent another present of the like kind to him.—Lawson.
There is a place for anger as well as for love. As in nature, a gloomy tempest serves some beneficial purposes for which calm sunshine has no faculty; so in morals, a frown on an honest man’s brow is in its own place, as needful and useful as the sweetest smile that kindness ever kindled on the human countenance … We don’t want a fretful passionate man; and if we did, we could find one without searching long or going far. We want neither a man of wrath nor a man of indiscriminating, unvarying softness. We want something with two sides; that is, a solid real character. Let us have a man who loves good and hates evil, and who, in place and time convenient, can make either emotion manifest upon his countenance. The frown of anger is the shade that lies under love and brings out its beauty.—Arnot.
For Homiletics on Pro_25:24, see on chap. Pro_21:9, page 613.

Proverbs 25:25
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_25:25
COLD WATER AND GOOD NEWS
I. Two blessings often ardently longed for. In these days of travel, many more can enter into the spirit of this analogy than in the days of Solomon—the comparative ease by which men can reach the most distant lands, and which in one aspect brings all places and people so much nearer together than in ancient times, is on the other hand the cause of far more separation between those who are bound together by tender ties, and fills far more hearts with an anxious longing for tidings from far countries. No more apt illustration could be used to picture such a condition of spirit than that of thirst; for as it, if of long duration, prostrates the frame and renders every other blessing of life incapable of affording any comfort, so often does a long delay of tidings concerning those most dear paralyse all the energies of the soul, and render it unable to gain comfort from any other source. The wife whose husband has been long fighting for his country on the distant battle-field, or the father whose son has been for years seeking his fortune in some far-off land, turn often with distaste from all the comforts and interests which surround them, and would willingly sacrifice many near blessings in exchange for cheering news from those beyond the seas. They are like the traveller in the desert, whose gold cannot allay his consuming thirst, and who would willingly give a bag of pearls for a cup of cold water.
II. Two blessings bringing like results. Hagar and her son wandered in the desert till the water was spent in the bottle, and then mother and son gave up all for lost and lay down to die. We may take it for granted that neither the youth nor his mother were easily overcome or quickly daunted, but thirst and its attendant evils would soon have slain them as certainly as a band of desert robbers. But when God showed to Hagar the well, and they had drank of its waters, it was as though a new life had entered into them, and hope and energy returned. This is a type of what has happened to many a heart-sick soul since those days. Jacob was going down to his grave still mourning for the son lost so many years ago, and life, we may well believe, had lost its interest for him when his sons brought the astonishing tidings, “Joseph is yet alive, and is governor over all the land of Egypt.” And the old man renewed his youth, and, so to speak, began to live again, so life-restoring often to a thirsty soul are good news from a far country.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
A far-off land sends specially good news because we faint the more, and long the harder, for the very reason that it is so distant. They come more seldom. And our relations with far-off lands are weightier and more critical than those beside us. So much for the secular significance. But oh! the spiritual! The righteous scarcely are saved. (1Pe_4:18). We are in a wilderness. (Rev_12:6; Rev_12:14). Our enemies are legion. (Eph_6:12). We run the gauntlet with daily foes, (Eph_5:16); and that with daily changes in their attempts to trip us. (Pro_5:6). The sinner, wherever he may be met, is faint with fatigue. Our Saviour knew this when He shaped His appeal “Come unto me, all ye that labour, etc. (Mat_11:28). Now, high over all other modes of comfort is the “good news from a far-off land.” All right there, come anything! A man’s life may have been a perfect failure, quoad the opinion of the world; but if he have Heaven it has been the very best—there has not been an hour of it that has not been “marshalled by a Divine tactic,” the best for the man and the best for his part in the war.—Miller.
We shall especially apply the subject—to heaven—good news from heaven. There are several things that make good news from a far country as grateful as “cold waters to a thirsty soul.” I. If the country reported is altogether unlike our own. The human mind is always interested in what is novel and romantic—strangeness has a strange fascination for the soul. What charms have the reports of Captain Cook, Moffatt, Livingstone, for all minds.… II. If the country reported has conferred an immense benefit on us. Supposing that we had once been in a state of abject slavery, and that the far country reported to us had effected our emancipation and guaranteed our liberty, with what interest should we listen to everything about it—the act that served us would invest all the incidents connected with this history with a special charm.… III. If the country reported contained any that are dear to us. New Zealand, Vancouver’s Island, and many other countries, are extremely interesting to many families in this land, on account of the friends they have living in them.… IV. If the country reported is a scene in which we expect to live ourselves. With what interest does the emigrant listen to everything referring to that land whither he is about wending his way, and which he is adopting as his home. Heaven as a far country pre-eminently meets all these conditions of interest. There is the Novel … How unlike that country is ours. Here is a sphere for the play of the romantic. There is the Benefactor. What benefits that far country has conferred on us! Thence we have received Christ the Redeemer of the World, and the Blessed Spirit of wisdom, purity, and love. There are our Friends. How many of those whom we have known and loved are there. How many such are going there every day. Some of us have more friends in heaven than on earth. There we expect to live. There we expect an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.—Dr. David Thomas.

Proverbs 25:26
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_25:26. Falling down—i.e., “yielding” or “wavering.” Corrupt. Rather “Ruined.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_25:26
THE EVIL RESULT OF MORAL COWARDICE
I. There can never be a good reason why a good man should waver or bow down before a bad man. Many reasons often exist why one bad man should fear another bad man, they are both on the wrong side, both arrayed againt the moral order of the universe, and therefore are on the weakest side, and cannot count upon the support of any superior and all-powerful force. Neither of them has conscience or God upon his side; each one has to fight his battle on his own charges, and can with no confidence foretell the result. But the want of firmness on the part of a righteous man in the presence of wickedness—even when that wickedness is allied with all the power that it can arrogate to itself—is contrary to reason. For as surely as light must defeat the darkness, so surely must right in the end prove itself victorious over wrong. A good man has the whole force of the moral universe upon his side, and is assured both by experience and by Divine promise that if he holds fast to the end he shall be more than conqueror.
II. The wavering of such a man pollutes the very sources of social morality. Unreasonable although it is, yet it is not out of the range of human experience. “The best men are but men at the best” says an old writer, and in times of great trial they often give evidence that it is so. Good and noble men have sometimes trembled and given way before the terrors of the stake, and far less terrible suffering has often sufficed to shake the constancy of true men who were less courageous. But whenever such a fall takes place it is a heavy blow to the cause of right and truth upon the earth. A good man is like a fountain of pure and living water. He is a source of moral life and health in the circle in which he moves; even if he does not put forth any direct or special effort for the advancement of morality, his life will as certainly have an influence for good as the lighted candle will illumine the darkness around it. But if he shows himself a coward when exposed to loss or danger for the sake of right, it will do as much harm to the moral health of the community in which he lives as would be done to its bodily health if the stream from which its members drink were polluted at the fountain head. The mischief done in each case may not show itself by any startling results. The poison in the water may not kill, but only lower the standard of health in those who partake of it, and so a moral fall in a good man may not lead other men to open apostacy from the right path, but it may make the walk of many unsteady. Christ tells His disciples this same truth when He calls them the “salt of the earth,” and asks “if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted” (Mat_5:13). In other words, the good are the conservators of the moral purity of the world, and if any one among them ceases to sustain this character he is not only a loser himself but a source of loss to others.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Lord Bacon gives this proverb political application: “It teaches that an unjust and scandalous judgment in any conspicuous and weighty cause is, above all things, to be avoided in the State;” and in his Essay (56) of Judicature, he says: “One foul sentence doth more hurt than many foul examples; for these do but corrupt the stream, the other corrupteth the fountain”—Tr. of Lange’s Commentary.
Eastern fountain and springs (where the rains are only periodical, and at long intervals) are of no common price. The injury of corrupting them is proportionate. The well is therefore a blessing or a curse, according to the purity or impurity of the waters. A righteous man in his proper character is “a well of life, a blessing in the midst of the land.” But if he fall down before the wicked by his inconsistent profession, the blessing becomes a curse, the fountain is troubled, and the spring corrupt. What a degradation was it to Abraham to fall down under the rebuke of an heathen king; to Peter, to yield to a servant maid in denying his Lord! How did David’s sin trouble the fountain, both to his family and his people! How did the idolatry of his wise son corrupt the spring through successive generations!
When a minister of Christ apostatises from the faith (and mournfully frequent have been such spectacles) or compromises his principles from the fear of man, the springs and fountains of truth are fearfully corrupted. When a servant of God, of standing and influence, crouches and falls down under the wicked, the transparency of his profession is grievously tarnished. Satan thus makes more effective use of God’s people than of his own—Bridges.

Proverbs 25:27
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_25:27. The last phrase in this verse is variously rendered. The words is not are not in the Hebrew. Stuart reads, “Searching after one’s own glory is burdensome”—i.e., Honour, like honey, is good only when sought in moderation. Zöckler renders “To search out the difficulty, brings difficulty”—i.e., “Too strenuous occupation of the mind with difficult things is injurious.” Delitzsch translates:—“But, as an inquirer, to enter on what is difficult, is honour”—i.e., To overdo oneself in eating honey is not good, but the searching into difficult things is nothing less than an eating of honey, but an honour. The word translated glory is literally weight, and is often used to mean excellence and honour. But it will bear the opposite meaning of a burden or difficulty.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_25:27
TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING
For Homiletics on the first clause of this verse, see on Pro_25:16, page 703. A reference to the CRITICAL NOTES will show that, owing partly to its elliptical form, the rendering of the second clause has been much disputed. The reading found in our version is, however, quite admissible on the principles of Hebrew interpretation, and accords well with the first clause. The analogy teaches—
I. That a desire for the good opinion of others is right and salutary. As honey is not only a pleasant but a wholesome article of food, so the wish to stand well with our fellow-men is a God-implanted feeling which is very beneficial both to the individual man and to society as a whole. He is a churlish being who does not care what other people think about him, who sets at nought their esteem or their blame, while a right regard to their judgment of us insensibly produces a beneficial influence upon our conduct and temper.
II. But it is a desire which must not rule our life. Just as honey must not be substituted for plainer food, or made the staple article of diet, so a desire for the good opinion of others must not be put before higher motives—must not be made the ruling principle of life. This proverb may be linked with the preceding one to some extent, for the lack of firmness which good men sometimes display in the society and under the influence of worse men than themselves is often due to a desire not to lose their good opinion—not to be thought obstinate, or morose, or conceited. But when any question of right or wrong is at stake the approval or disapproval even of those whose goodwill is most precious to us must be cast aside.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
There is such a thing as vain glory. There is such a thing as a person’s indulging an insatiable appetite for applause and honour. There is such a thing as “searching it out,” looking ever after it, eager to get it, and touchily jealous of every omission to bestow it and every deficiency in its amount; exploring for it in every possible direction; listening with an ear on the alert to catch every breathing of adulation; fishing for praise; throwing out hints to draw it forth; eulogising others, to tempt a return; saying things in disparagement of oneself, for the sake of having them contradicted—things which, said by another, would stir the hottest of his blood. The temper of mind may be put in exercise, in regard to greater and to smaller matters. It may assume the form of a proud ambition, or of a weak-minded vanity. But in either case it may with truth be said that “it is not glory.” A man’s honour should rather come to him, than be eagerly solicited and searched for. It should not be made his object.—Wardlaw.

Proverbs 25:28
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_25:28
A DEFENCELESS CITY
The other side of this picture is given in chap. Pro_16:32. (See page 497.)
I. Such a city as is here described proclaims the lack of a wise and powerful governor within. The walls and buildings of a city are constantly exposed to influences which promote decay, even if no hostile military force attacks them. The everyday exposure to storm and sun and rain will have a tendency to make the mortar crumble, and the bricks or stones to become loose and fall away. Hence, if a wise man governs a city he will make it a part of his constant duty to watch for the first signs of weakness, and if he has the authority which his position ought to put into his hand, he will cause each breach to be repaired as soon as it is discovered. And when we see a city whose walls are in a perfect condition—where there are no fallen stones and no crumbling mortar—we feel at once that there is rule and authority residing there. But “a city broken down and without walls” tells plainly the opposite story. Now every human spirit in this fallen world is exposed daily, and sometimes hourly, to influences which tend to irritate and vex it, and so to destroy its means of defence against temptation, and lower its dignity and mar its moral beauty. And if a man yields himself up to these influences, and allows them to hold undisputed sway over his life, he proclaims himself to be without those essential elements to his welfare and happiness—wisdom to see his danger, and power to guard it.
II. Such a city gives an invitation to the invader without. If a fortress is known to be well fortified, if there is no weak or unguarded point, an enemy will not hastily try to take possession of it. Its strength will oftentimes be its security against attack. But if its fallen towers and tottering defences tell of weakness and anarchy within, its condition will tempt the foe to enter. So if a man gives evidence that he has no control over his passions, both evil men and evil spirits will mark him for their prey, and will make it their business to lead him from one sin to another—to make him not only a negative but a positive transgressor. Such an one, in the language of Paul, “gives place to the devil” (Eph_4:27.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
To come to particulars; if any be angry or given to wrath, will he not quickly be led captive to revile and to commit murder? If the affection of covetousness possess any, will he not easily be drawn to deceive and steal? The like is to be said of all the passions of the mind, which, if a man cannot bridle or govern, they will carry him headlong with violence into all mischief and misery, as wild and fierce horses oftentimes run away with an unguided coach or waggon—Muffett.

Proverbs 25:2
It is the glory of God to conceal a thing.
The glory of God in concealing
If God were to conceal everything from our view, it would be impossible that any glory could result to Him from the sentiments and actions of His creatures. It is by a partial communication of Himself that He has, in the highest degree, consulted His honour and manifested His wisdom. A temperature of mingled light and obscurity, a combination of discovery and concealment, is calculated to produce the most suitable impressions of the Divine excellence on the minds of fallen creatures.
I. The Divine being is accustomed to conceal much. Specify some instances.

1. In relation to His own nature, and the manner of His existence. His essence is altogether hidden from the most profound investigation, the most laborious research, the most subtle penetration, of His creatures. We ascribe to Him attributes and virtues; but how He exists, in an essential and eternal nature of His own, no man can know. His perfections are impressed on the works of nature, but in such a manner that we learn them only by inference.
2. In relation to the structure and constitution of His works. The scenes of nature lie open to our view. But the mysteries of nature, with regard to the essences of things, and indeed to a multitude of subtle operations, are kept in a kind of sacred reserve, and elude the utmost efforts of philosophy to surprise them in their concealments, and bring them to light. Those that have devoted themselves to an investigation of the laws of nature perceive that the meanest work of God is inexhaustible; contains secrets which the wisdom of man will never be able to penetrate.
3. In the dispensations of His providence. By which is meant that series of actions which the Divine Being is continually carrying on in the government of the world which He has made. There exists such a decided connection between well-doing and happiness on the one hand, and between wickedness and misery on the other, as sufficiently to show, even independently of revelation, that the Divine Being is the patron of rectitude and the enemy of vice. But the natural course of things is frequently interrupted and suspended by incidental causes; so that particular exceptions are continually occurring to the ordinary rule. God conceals the design for which many events are permitted to take place. And He is accustomed to throw much obscurity over the future. The most important events of human life, on which our happiness greatly depends, are, for the most part, concealed from our view.
4. In the economy of grace and redemption. The revelation contained in the Scriptures extends only to facts, not to the theory of those facts, or their original causes. The most important truths are communicated in a dogmatic, not a theoretic, manner.
   II. The Divine Being promotes His glory, by such a temperature of light and shade as that which distinguishes all His discoveries of Himself, and His dispensations towards His creatures.
5. The concealment of things tends to glorify Him, as it is, in part, the necessary consequence of His infinite superiority to all finite beings in wisdom and understanding. His purposes and designs cannot be adequately scanned by the wisdom of men.
6. It evinces His entire independence of the wisdom, counsel, or co-operation of any or all of His creatures. He may, with infinite safety and propriety, retire within Himself, into the secret recesses of His own essence.
7. Such a degree of obscurity as attends the partial manifestation of the Divine will, the progressive development of the Divine purposes, is eminently adapted to the state, exigency, and condition of men. The prophetic parts of Scripture are proverbially obscure. By not explaining His doings, God trains us to submission, and cultures humility and vigilance, while at the same time exciting to diligence and exertion. While there are many things which God conceals, and thereby advances His glory, He has made manifest all that it is essential for man to know. And among the things fully revealed is the placability of God, His readiness to receive the chief of sinners who repent of their sins and believe the gospel. (Robert Hall, M.A.)

God glorified by mystery
In our dealing with our fellow-men we resent reserve, secrecy, isolation, almost as sharply as though they were moral transgressions. We are attracted by frankness. The best hated men the world has had in it have always been men of silence. Mystery is one of the arts of crafty ambition, for the silly world is generally ready to accept silence for wisdom. Men cultivate the habit of concealment, so that they may pass themselves off for better than they really are. But reserve is not always ignoble. Strong, and noble, and unselfish qualities sometimes determine a man’s silence. The welfare of an empire may sometimes turn upon the power a statesman has of keeping the counsel of a department. There are reservations in the knowledge that God has given us of His own nature, purpose, and government; but these reservations always rest upon motives that are pure, noble, and holy, and are identified with the highest glory of the Divine character. No mystery is meant to alienate us from God, but to attach us in closer bonds. It is needless to define the area of mystery, if indeed that were possible. It starts in God, and covers the last outlying atom of His dominion.

1. There are mysteries in the Divine nature and government that bear direct witness to the glory of God’s person. The silence He maintains is a sign of His self-sufficiency. As a matter of privilege, God may permit us to enter into sympathy and co-operation with Himself and His work. But He does not need our help, and by the stern reserve in His revelations He asserts the separateness and the sufficiency of His own mighty power. If He employ us at all, it is for our good. His power is separate, sufficient, solitary. God conceals many things, to remind us of the gulf that separates the glory of His nature from the dimness of all finite natures. Man is destined to more exalted and intimate communion with his Maker than any other being in the universe, and yet there are limitations upon his privilege necessitated by the very supremacy of God. There are secrets we cannot enter, counsels we cannot share, age-long problems, the solution of which we are not permitted to see. God conceals many things, so that throughout the successive stages of our destiny He may bring into our contemplation of His nature and works elements of inexhaustible freshness. Reservations that are determined by motives of this type have an intimate relation to the glory of the Divine name. The revelations of the life to come will be gradual and progressive. If God’s revelation were a revelation of exhaustive fulness, a revelation with no reserved questions in it, the very enchantment of God’s nature would be gone.
2. God is glorified by mystery, because mystery has its place in the discipline and exaltation of human character. The veiled truth sometimes calls out a higher faith, a more chastened resignation, a more childlike obedience in God’s people, than the truth that is unveiled. God conceals many things, so that He may be magnified through His people’s trust in darkness and uncertainty. No genuine spirit of trust can spring up in ignorance. In God’s dealings with us, profound silence and ringing oracle, the hidden and the revealed, the mystery and the defined truth, alway alternate with each other. It is “the glory of God to conceal a thing,” because by the very shadows in which He hides it we are cast with a more pathetic dependence upon His sympathy and care, and come into truer and more childlike contact with His spirit. God conceals many things, so that He may protect us from needless pain and fear, and magnify His own gentleness. Many a thing must be hidden from a child, and the more sensitive he is, the stricter must be the concealment. God conceals some things from us to excite us to nobler and more strenuous endeavour in our search after the truth. There are truths that we shall come to know through our own thought and struggle, and deepening spirituality of life, temporary mysteries that it is best for us to know through conflict, experience, sustained contemplation. God hides many things from the world, so that He may have secrets with the custody of which He can honour His own chosen servants. And He conceals some things from us, so that He may impress us with the solemnities of the unknown. God never conceals what may be necessary to furnish His people for the work and service of life. Let the revelation inspire your faith, and let the mystery awaken your awe. (Thomas G. Selby.)

The glory of God and the honour of kings
I. The meaning of the passage is supposed to be that God conceals much, and that it is His glory to do so. There is a truth in this. We often try to find out God. God is the profoundest mystery in the universe, and yet all is mystery without Him. No creature knows God. There is much concealed in nature. It is not wonderful that there should be much in God’s providential procedure that is concealed from us. God’s ways are not our ways. If He has not given us light, it is better for us to be in darkness.
II. The great principle contained in the text. The text is a whole. One part must be taken with reference to the other. The wise man says it is the glory of God to do that which is not the glory of kings to do. Government is necessary to the very existence of society. There can be no government without law. It is the glory of all governments to frame wise and salutary laws for the well-being and true happiness of society, to guard these by sanctions, and by all the majesty of power. Governments do not originate that which is moral in law. They do not create the distinctions between right and wrong, good and evil. Magistrates are the representatives of law. They are to see that it is respected and maintained, and they are to punish law-breakers; if not, it is because offenders baffle pursuit, and hide themselves. If kings do not search out a matter, it is because they are indifferent to the conduct of their subjects, and care not whether they are virtuous or vicious; and then the hour of revolution is at hand; the kingdom will fall. The glory of God is the very opposite to the honour of kings. God is a law-giver. His will is the law of all morals. His being is the foundation of all law. And yet He has made provision for pardoning men. He hides, He conceals their sins. He does this by an atonement. It is the glory of God to save men by the death of Christ, because by saving them thus He may magnify His own law, and honour His own government. Governments have no gospel for criminals. God forgives sins. (
H. J. Bevis.)

Man’s knowledge suited to his circumstances
You know as much as is good for you, for it is with the mind as with the senses. A greater degree of hearing would incommode us; and a nicer degree of seeing would terrify us. If our eyes could see things microscopically, we should be afraid to move. Thus our knowledge is suited to our situation and circumstances. Were we informed more fully beforehand of the good things prepared for us by Providence, from that moment we should cease to enjoy the good we possess, become indifferent to present duties, and be filled with restless impatience. Or suppose the things foreknown were gloomy and adverse; what dismay and despondency would be the consequence of the discovery; and how many times should we suffer in imagination what we now only endure once in reality! Who would wish to draw back a veil which saves them from so many disquietudes? If some of you had formerly known the troubles through which you have since waded, you would have fainted under the prospect. But what we know not now we shall know hereafter. (H. G. Salter.)

The concealed processes of Providence
Machinery boxed in goes round and accomplishes its work as well as if it were all exposed to view. At one extremity the raw material goes in, and at another the manufactured article comes out. This is all that the visitor sees. For once, and to instruct a stranger, the master may take the covering off, and lay bare the intricate accumulation of cylinders and wheels; but soon he shuts the door again. Thus has the Author of salvation in the case of some opened up in the processes of His providence, which are usually conducted in secret. (W. Arnot, D.D.)

Proverbs 25:4-5
Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer.
Purifying fires
No text in Scripture brings out with equal distinctness the higher office of affliction, i.e.,, to develop in us preparation for a true usefulness. The object of furnace fires is not to melt the precious metal, or even to release the dross, but to make the metal ready for the purposes of manufacture. Not the silver ingot, however, but the silver vessel, is the object of the assayer. When God tries His children, it is not simply that they shall “come forth as gold,” glorious as is purity of character, but that they may be both ready to be shaped for His purposes and capable of being used to fulfil His will. Paul seems to refer to this proverb in 2Ti_2:19-21, the only other passage in which the same truth is taught by the same figure. (Homiletic Review.)

Take away the wicked from before the king.
The removal of wicked men from influential positions
This shows that the vigorous endeavour of a prince to suppress vice, and reform the manners of his people is the most effectual way to support his government.
I. What the duty of magistrates is. To “take away the wicked”; to use their power for the terror of evil works and evil-workers, to banish those from the court who are vicious and profane, and to frighten them, and restrain them from spreading the infection of their wickedness among the people. Wicked people are the dross of a nation.
II. The advantage of doing this duty.

1. It will be the bettering of their subjects. They shall be made like silver refined; fit to be made vessels of honour.
2. It will be the settling of the prince. “His throne shall be established in this righteousness,” for God will bless his government, the people will be pliable to it, and so it will become durable. (Matthew Henry.)

Proverbs 25:8-10
Go not forth hastily to strive.

The worst and best ways of treating social dissensions
The social dissensions that are rife in our world are incontestable proofs that humanity has fallen from its normal condition. There is society in heaven, but no social differences or strifes. The text indicates the best and the worst way of treating such dissensions.
I. The worst way. “Go not forth hastily to strive.”

1. Precipitant strife is bad in itself. Men should never be hasty in yielding to a passion. They should make the passion, however strong and tumultuous for the moment, the subject of thought, and by thought should subdue, purify, and direct it.
2. Precipitant strife exposes to shame. “Lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbour hath put thee to shame.”
   II. The best way. “Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself,” etc. The direction here seems to imply three things—
3. That an interview is to be obtained at once with the offender. “Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself.”
4. That an interview is to be obtained in order to talk the offence over. “Debate thy cause.”
5. That the offence must be thus debated before the secret is divulged to another. “Discover not a secret to another.”
6. That should the secret be divulged to another the pacific objects of the interview might be nullified. “Lest he that heareth it,” etc. (Homilist.)

Proverbs 25:11
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
The lessons of the orange-tree
“Apples of gold” is a poetic name for the orange in more than one Eastern tongue. “Pictures of silver” may be a figure for the creamy-white blossoms of the orange-tree. No one who has seen orange-trees in full blossom and full bearing can have failed to notice how the beauty of the golden fruit is set off by its framework of white fragrant blossoms. “Fitly spoken” is in the margin “a word spoken in season”—a timely, opportune word. Delitzsch renders, “according to circumstances,” by which is meant a good word adapted to time and audience and to all the conditions of the time. Most of us can remember some word spoken in the very nick of time and so happily adapted to our conditions at the moment that it largely influenced our whole subsequent career. But perhaps the meaning is a word which was the fittest, the most perfect and beautiful expression of the thought which had to be uttered. “A word spoken on its wheels.” Every kind of thought has its appropriate expression in language. What the wise man bids us admire is those weighty and happy sentences which embody a noble thought in words of answering nobleness.

1. This is the first lesson of the orange-tree—that a happy, a fair and noble utterance of a wise thought gives it a new charm, a new and victorious energy. Distinction of style is almost as potent—if indeed it is not even more potent—on the life and fame of a book as depth or originality of thought.
2. All force becomes most forcible when it is smoothly and easily exerted. It is not effort, strain, violence which tell in action any more than in language, but gentleness, calmness, a gracious mastery and smiling ease. The wiser you are the less passionate, the less vehement, the less overbearing you will be. Great forces are calm and gentle because they are irresistible. Calmness, composure, gentleness are signs of strength.
3. Religion is most potent when it is clothed with grace. A genial and friendly godliness is like the ruddy fruit of the orange-tree encircled and set off by its wealth of white, odorous blooms. There was much that was admirable in the Puritan conception of religion; but though its heart was sound its face wore a frown. And in many of us religion still wears a sour and forbidding face. Some there are who still suspect beauty, culture, scholarship, mirth, and even devotion to God and man, if it take any form other than that which they approve and prefer. Such people do not render religion attractive. Let us learn the lesson of the orange-tree, and the greatest lesson of all—the lesson of charity. (Samuel Cox, D.D.)

Apples of gold in pictures of silver
The term translated “fitly” is a very curious one in the original Hebrew. It signifies “wheels,” and the marginal reading is “a word spoken on his wheels,” which means a word that rolled smoothly and pleasantly from the lips of the speaker to the ears of the hearer. In ancient times the carts had no wheels, and most things were carried on horseback. There were no roads, and the carts were put on long shafts, the two ends of which rested on the ground, and were dragged along by the horse with great difficulty, making deep ruts in the ground. The first wheels that were used in our country were very clumsy and rough. Modern wheels are light, and turn easily. The wise man says that each of your words should be like a vehicle on easy-going wheels, so smooth and courteous that it would produce no jar or shock to either speaker or hearer; not hurt by any harshness or roughness, or leave a painful rut behind in the memory. People in the East are remarkable for the grace and courtesy of their speech. They carry this sometimes too far, and are guilty of insincerity and exaggeration. We are apt to err in the other direction, and make our speech too rough and harsh, fancying that we cannot be true and sincere if we are polite. We are not so careful of our words as we ought to be. The text directs our thoughts to the surpassing excellence of gentle and kindly speech. Cultivated society is so pleasant to live in, because the people who move in it have learned to control their tempers, are polite and forbearing to each other, and do not say things that grate upon the feelings and leave a sting behind. But while good society gives an outward and artificial politeness, the religion of the meek and lowly Jesus gives true inward refinement and civility. It enables us to be truly considerate, bearing with the failings of some, overlooking the weaknesses of others, and having a good word to say of every one. It puts a wheel on every one of your words, so that it may glide smoothly. There are persons who grudge to say a word of praise to others, however deserving. Frankly praise what is worthy of praise, and your words will be sweet and pleasant to yourselves as well as to others. There is a temptation to be clever and say smart things, and to use words of sareasm or ridicule at the expense of those who are not so quick-witted as yourselves. Be very careful in finding fault with people, lest you should make the offender an enemy. In the text “apples” probably should be “oranges,” and this fruit gives a more suggestive figure. The flowers and fruit may be found together on the orange-tree throughout the whole year. The leaves are evergreen and of a cheerful, glossy green, and the flowers of a brilliant white, with a most delicious scent. So is the exceeding comeliness of a wise and gentle employment of your words. A word fitly spoken can administer an all-round delight in the same way. We speak about the language of flowers and of flowery language. It would be well if there was more of this attractiveness in our speech. The old Athenian laws required that a newly-married couple, when they were alone, should first eat a quince together, in token, as this fruit was the symbol of good-will, that their conversation should be mutually pleasant. And so your religion requires, in all your intercourse with one another, that you should first eat the quince of good-will, and be careful in choosing smooth words that have no sharp edges to cut and wound, that roll easily and pleasantly on wheels without making any jars or ruts. Over against all apples of discord that cause alienation and strife and misfortune set the golden apples of gentle, kind, considerate words that will win all hearts around you and sweeten the air and smooth all the rough things of the world. (
Hugh Macmillan, D.D.)

The excellency of fitly-spoken words
The comparison here has undoubtedly an allusion to some old domestic ornament. “The idea,” says Stuart, “is that of a garment of precious stuff, on which are embroidered golden apples among picture work of silver. Costly and precious was such a garment held to be: for besides the ornaments upon it, the material itself was of high value.” Others think that the allusion is to a kind of table ornament, constructed of a silver basket of delicate lattice-work, containing gold in the form of apples. The basket would, of course, be so constructed as to show off with advantage its precious treasure, the apple of gold. The ancient Easterns were men of taste and men of art; they loved the beautiful, and they had their ornaments: and some of their ornaments were as exquisitely constructed as those of any scenes or times.
I. Words fitly spoken must be words fitted to exhibit the truth to the best advantage. They must be to the truth what the basket was to the apples of gold—an instrument for showing them off to the best advantage. There are words that hide the truth; they are so profuse and luxuriant that they bury the priceless flower in their wilderness. There are words that disgrace the truth; they are ill-chosen, mean, suggestive of low and degrading associations.
II. Words fitly spoken must be words adapted to the mental mood of the hearer.

1. Different men have different mental moods. Some are naturally sombre, imaginative, and practical; others are gay, poetic, and speculative. Words fitly spoken must be adapted to each particular mood: the form in which truth would suit one mood would be inapt to another.
2. The same man has different moods at different times. Circumstances modify the condition of the soul. Hence “a word fitly spoken” must be a word presenting truth adapted to the soul in its existing mood. It must be a word in due season.
   III. Words fitly spoken should be words spoken in the right spirit.
   IV. Naturally-flowing words. “Spoken upon his wheels.” Not forced or dragged words. Let us all endeavour to use the right words in the family, in the market, in the schools, in the debate, in the pulpit, on the platform, and in the press. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

Apples of gold
Things of rare worth and beauty are words “fitly spoken,” words that fit the case and match the opportunity. The human voice can do what nothing else can. Of some men’s words we are sure that they are “apples of gold.” Such are the words of the prophets who come with messages of hope and warning. Among words of truth and beauty are—

1. Words of comfort. We have no distance to go to find a human life that needs a consoling word. On the next foot of land to yours stands a man who craves for comfort. There are times in life when the word of instruction would be an injury and the elaborated argument a great hurt, as neither would minister to the mind diseased; but simple, earnest, heartfelt words, born of sympathy, are veritable “apples of gold.”
2. Words of counsel. These are not always welcome. Our independent spirit will not permit us to invite or accept them. Yet many a man traces the turning-point of his career to the time when he acted on some word of good counsel. The word of experience is often the word wanted.
3. Words of encouragement. The world will never know what it owes to those people who have encouraged others. To encourage a man is to help him to turn some of the possibilities within him into actual achievements. Let us give God thanks for all those winsome servants of His who walk their appointed ways across His world, speaking as they go the encouraging word. (Albert J. Shorthouse.)

Words on wheels
A wonderful deal of good often comes from what Solomon calls “a word fitly spoken.” The Hebrew for “fitly spoken” here means “set on wheels.” All our words are set on wheels. If they are good words, they are wheeling on for good. If they are evil words, they go wheeling on for evil. Remember this.
A word fitly spoken
A certain Baptist merchant of Richmond became seriously embarrassed in his business. The report went out that he had failed, and caused much painful surprise. A few days after the suspension of his business Dr. Jeter, in passing down the aisle of the church one Sunday morning, met him. He grasped him by the hand with unwonted warmth, and said, “ How are you, brother? I have heard fine news about you.” Just about that time the sad brother was feeling that all the news concerning him was of the worst sort. With mingled surprise and curiosity he asked the doctor what he had heard. “Why, I heard that you had failed in business, and failed honestly. It is nothing to lose your money if you have been able to retain your integrity.” The kind word went far to reconcile the brother to his misfortunes. He did “fail honestly,” and not long after started again, and rose to high prosperity. (From “Life of Dr. Jeter.”)

Proverbs 25:13
As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him.
The value of a good messenger to his employers
It is not necessary to imagine that Solomon here indicates the occurrence in Judea of snow in the time of harvest. It is very improbable that a snowstorm ever happened in that country during that period. The ancients in the East did as we do, preserve the ice and snow of winter in order to cool our summer beverages. A cold draught on a hot summer’s day was there, as here, most refreshing. What such a beverage was to the thirsty man in the heat of a tropical summer, is a faithful messenger to the soul of his master. Our subject is the value of a good messenger to his employer.
I. His character is refreshing to his master. What more pleasing to an employer than the development of fidelity in his servants? To see them faithful, not only to their engagements, but faithful to moral truth and to God. Even the Eternal Master of us all is pleased with the fidelity of His servants.
II. His influence is refreshing to his master.

1. His service will be likely to inspire his master with confidence in him. He calmly relies upon his representative.
2. His service will be likely to awaken general respect for his master. A “faithful messenger” can scareely fail to bring honour to his master. (Homilist.)

Proverbs 25:15
By long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone.
The power of gentleness
In the government of our words, mildness, or meekness, is specially commendable. The right disposition includes meekness, gentleness, courteousness, kindness. These are the virtues of a soft tongue. The opposites are hardness, roughness, sharpness, bitterness, clamour, brawling. By the term “breaking” is meant persuading, pacifying, convincing, appeasing, prevailing with. A meek and gentle way of discourse is the most effectual means to overcome the fiercest passions and most obdurate, cruel dispositions. A calm and gentle way in vindicating ourselves is the most effectual means to work confusion in such as would calumniate and reproach us. This truth may be confirmed by two considerations.

1. The nature of these fierce passions and this obduracy or hardness of temper, which are increased by opposition, and consequently must be abated by gentleness and yielding.
2. From the nature of lenity and gentleness, whose property it is to insinuate itself into the hardest things. It is compared with oil. How does this doctrine consist with the imprecations of Scripture? Explain that some of them, though pronounced optatively, are to be understood declaratively, as descriptive of the true state and condition of such parties. Those who used these imprecations were inspired for a particular purpose. They spoke in their zeal for God. It may be right to wish evil to come to persons for the sake of its disciplinary mission. How does this doctrine consist with the severe imprecations of Scripture? Our Saviour called the Pharisees “vipers,” Herod a “fox.” The apostle calls some people “dogs.” To this it may be said, those who have an extraordinary power of discerning may use such hard terms. And those in public stations may thus severely chide and reprehend. How does this doctrine consist with the duties of zeal and reproving, which sometimes must be done with severity? A man may sometimes sin in not being angry. True “meekness of wisdom” directs a, man how to order his zeal and rebukes. Learn—
3. That if soft words be of such a prevailing efficacy, soft and gentle actions must be so too.
4. The folly and sinfulness of hard speeches, whereby others may be provoked to anger and offence.
5. The lawfulness and fitness of giving men the reverence and honour due to their proper titles.
6. Bitter and provoking words are unmanly, as being against the rules of morality and very un-Christian, as being against the precepts of the gospel. (Bp. John Wilkins.)

The manifestation and mightiness of moral power
There are three kinds of power—material, mental, and moral.
I. The manifestation of moral power. The words indicate a threefold manifestation.

1. Stillness. “By long forbearing is a prince persuaded.” Forbearance implies calm endurance—a patience like that which the Great Heavenly Exemplar exhibited under insults and persecutions.
2. Speech. “A soft tongue breaketh the bone.” “A soft tongue” not a simpering tongue, not a silly tongue, not a sycophantic tongue, but the “soft tongue” of tender love and forbearing kindness. Such a tongue is might: it “breaketh the bone.” This somewhat paradoxical expression expresses the amazing power of kind words; they break the bone, the ossified heart of the enemy. Another manifestation of power here is—
3. Service. “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink,” etc. “In the smelting of metals,” says Arnot, “whether on a large or small scale, it is necessary that the burning coals should be above the ore as well as beneath it. The melting fuel and the rude stones to be melted are mingled together and brought into contact, particle by particle, throughout the mass. It is thus that the resistance of the stubborn material is overcome, and the precious separated from the vile.” There are but few hearts so obdurate as not to melt under the fires of love that blaze over and under them. These words direct our attention to—
   II. The mightiness of moral power.
4. Persuading. “By long forbearing is a prince persuaded.” Thus David brought down Saul (1Sa_24:8-20; 1Sa_26:3-20).
5. Breaking. “A soft tongue breaketh the bone.” Loving words can mollify the roughest natures. Gideon, with a kind word, pacified the Ephraimites, and Abigail turned David’s wrath away.
6. Melting. “Thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” “The Americans have a tract on this subject, entitled, ‘The Man who Killed his Neighbours.’ It contains, in the form of a narrative, many useful, practical suggestions on the art of overcoming evil with good. It is with kindness—modest, thoughtful, generous, persevering, unwearied kindness—that the benevolent countryman killed his churlish neighbour: and it is only the old evil man that he kills, leaving the new man to lead a very different life in the same village, after the dross has been purged away.” How sublimely elevated is the moral legislation of the Bible! (D. Thomas, D.D.)

The power of Christian kindness
There is a tremendous power in a kind word.

1. Kindness as a means of defence. Have you ever known acerbity and acrimonious dispute settle a quarrel? I have seen men moving amid the annoyances, and vexations, and assaults of life in such calm Christian deliberation that all the buzzing around about their soul amounted to nothing. They conquered them, and, above all, conquered themselves.
2. Kindness as a means of usefulness. In all communities you find sceptical men. How shall you capture them for God? Sharp argument and sareastic retort never yet won a single soul from scepticism to the Christian religion. When such are brought in, it is through the charm of some genial soul, and not by argument at all. Men are not saved through the head; they are saved through the heart. The same thing is true in the reclamation of the openly vicious. Was ever a drunkard saved through the caricature of a drunkard? You can never drive man, woman, or child into the kingdom of God. (T. De Witt Talmage, D.D.)

Proverbs 25:16
Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it..
Religion and pleasure
It is a mistaken notion that religion is a melancholy business, and the enemy of pleasure. Christianity is supposed to be synonymous with inanity, and to impose a weariness alike on flesh and spirit that stifles the freedom, represses the elasticity, and dulls the brightness which are the natural and precious heritage of youth. But this is as false as the devil who coined it. I stand here as the messenger of God, as the champion of pleasure, the advocate of hilarity, the apostle of enjoyment, the prophet of light-heartedness. Pleasure is a necessity of our nature. The goodness of God has made bountiful provision for full satisfaction and delight. The body is endowed with senses capable of exquisite sensations of delight. When you talk of the melancholy of religion you become the Pharisaic boaster, and not
I. You thank your God that you are not as other men. If the intellect seeks pleasure in the study of the physical universe, does the Christian philosopher discover less to charm his mind than do his scientific comrades of less assured belief? But ours is a triple manhood. There is the moral and spiritual man. Surely there is honey in doing right; there is pleasure in goodness and truth. As to the honey of life to be found in a good conscience, in doing right, in walking uprightly, according to the universally recognised laws of morality, surely the Christian has a better chance than the ordinary man. What does religion allow, or rather enjoin, in the way of pleasant recreations?

1. They must do me no harm; neither enfeeble my body, rob my brain of its vital energy, or disturb my inward sense of right.
2. They must recreate my body; brace it up, and leave me readier for after-service.
3. They must refresh my mind; not make it sluggish, heavy, depressed, and ill at ease.
4. They must cheer my heart—in their present influence, in their results, and in their memory. (J. Jackson Wray.)

The use of honey

1. The Bible does not prohibit pleasure. It does not say to the man who has found honey, “Eat it not!” but “Eat so much as is sufficient for thee.” What the Bible forbids is excess.
2. In prohibiting such pleasures, the Bible proceeds upon a principle of benevolence. “Eat no more than is sufficient for thee!” Why? Not because pleasure is grudged, but because pain is deprecated.
3. The principle upon which the Bible proceeds in this matter is a benevolent one, because it accords with the constitution of our nature. There is a point at which pleasure becomes pain. It is the law of our being, that if pleasure is to remain pleasure, it must be enjoyed moderately and intermittently. (Homiletic Review.)

Pleasure
I. The permission.

1. Pleasure is a necessity of our nature.
   (1) A necessity of its complex constitution. We are made to enjoy. We have capacity for
   (a) Animal pleasure;
   (b) intellectual pleasure;
   (c) moral pleasure;
   (d) religious pleasure;
   (e) social pleasure.
   (2) A necessity of its instinctive desires. We have an intense craving for enjoyment. “Who will show us any good?” This yearning for enjoyment, found alike amid the refinements of civilisation as amid the rudeness of barbarism, alike in the mansion of the rich as in the cottage of the poor, alike by the learned philosopher as by the illiterate peasant.
   (3) A necessity of its perfect development.
2. Pleasure is a possibility of our condition. God, the all-wise and all-kind, has not only made us for pleasure and given us a strong desire for it, but has also bountifully surrounded us with its sources.
   (1) For the animal faculties. There is light for the eye, music for the ear, fragrance for the smell.
   (2) For the intellectual. The universe is a problem for our study.
   (3) For the moral. The true and good are around us, in the character of God, the actions of the good, etc.
   (4) For the religious. God in Christ is revealed as the Object of worship.
   (5) For the social. There is society, with its varied life.
3. Pleasure is an element of our religion. Christianity is not a morbid, ascetic system. “Rejoice in the Lord alway.”
   II. The limitation: “Eat so much as is sufficient for thee.” Pleasure is not to be indulged indiscriminately and unlimitedly. We must indulge in such pleasures only as are—
4. Dignified in their nature. We must remember the spirituality of our nature and the immortality of our being. We are not animals. Let us not make the mistake of the rich fool. We are made in God’s image, and are capable of high and noble joys.
5. Beneficial in their influence. Pleasure must not be sought and indulged in on its own account, but as a means toward the attainment of a higher end. The objects of pleasure are—to recreate the body; to refresh the mind; to cheer the heart; to fit us for the work of life.
6. Christian in their sanction.
7. Proportionate in their degree. Pleasure must not be the end of life. It must not be pastime. Time is too valuable to be frittered away. (Thomas Baron.)

The world’s honey
I. The world has its honey.

1. It has a gastric honey. What pleasures can be derived from a participation in the precious fruits of the earth!
2. It has a gregarious honey. How great the pleasure men have in mingling with their kind, merely as social animals; the pleasure of mates, parents, children.
3. It has a secular honey. Pursuit, accumulation, and use of wealth.
4. It has aesthetic honey. The beautiful in nature, art, music.
5. It has intellectual honey. Inquiry into, and discovery of, the Divine ideas that underlie all the forms, and ring through all the sounds of nature.
   II. The world’s honey may be abused.
6. Some eat too much of the gastric honey, and become gourmands, epicures, voluptuaries.
7. Some eat too much of the gregarious honey, and become profligate debauchees, bloated animals.
8. Some eat too much of the secular honey, and become wretched misers, haunted with a thousand suspicions.
9. Some eat too much of the aesthetic honey, and grow indifferent to everything but what they consider the beautiful and harmonious.
10. Some eat too much of the intellectual honey, and they have no life but in that of observatories, laboratories, and libraries.
    III. The world’s honey abused produces nausea. Over-indulgence in any worldly pleasure issues in a moral sickness and disgust. There is what the French call the ennui that comes out of it—“that awful yawn,” says Byron, “which sleep cannot abate.” The intemperate use of this honey often makes life an intolerable burden. Conclusion: Take care how you use the world. You may have too much of a good thing. There is a honey, thank God! of which you cannot take too much, which will never surfeit or sicken—that is, the honey of spiritual enjoyment; the enjoyment of studying, imitating, worshipping Him in whose presence there is fulness of joy, etc. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

Proverbs 25:17-20
Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour’s house.
Bad neighbours
Here are four kinds.
I. The intrusive. It is pleasant to be visited by a neighbour whose interest is genuine. Two evils accrue to those neighbours whose visits are intrusive.

1. They become tiresome. There is nothing fresh about them.
2. They become disliked. The natural consequence of irksomeness. Be not too intimate with any. Livy remarks “that the perfection of good behaviour is for a man to retain his dignity without intruding on the liberty of another.” Another bad neighbour here indicated is—
   II. The slanderous. “A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow.”
3. A maul. This old English word, which is now obsolete, signifies a hammer or a club, an implement used in the rough warfare of fighting men in old times.
4. A sword. Another deadly implement, that by which millions of men have been cut down in all ages.
5. A sharp arrow. Another weapon of destruction. A slanderous neighbour is as mischievous as any or all of these murderous weapons. He knocks, he cuts, he pierces; he destroys you by his tongue. Not your body, but your plans, your prosperity, your reputation, your happiness. Another bad neighbour here indicated is—
   III. The faithless. “Confidence in an unfaithful man, in time of trouble, is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.”
6. That the unfaithful man fails. Like the “broken tooth” and the “foot out of joint,” he fails to fulfil what is required of him. Just when you want to eat, you find that the tooth is broken and useless; just when you rise to walk, you find that your foot is out of joint. Just so with the faithless man. All his old promises of friendship prove to be lies, nothing less.
7. The unfaithful man pains you. In the use of the broken tooth and the disjointed foot when you try them, there is not only disappointment, but torture. Such is the mental distress which is caused by the failure of confidence, in proportion to the degree in which you had cherished it. Especially is this felt “in time of trouble,” when help is so particularly needed. To trust and be deceived is at any time a bitter trial.
   IV. The injudicious. “As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.” When you are in trouble there are neighbours whose attempt to comfort you is as absurd and as ineffective as the taking away from a man his garment in cold weather, and as giving to a thirsty man vinegar upon nitre to drink.
8. The injudicious comforter is one who presents incongruous subjects. Sometimes he will talk on worldly subjects, subjects of gain, fashion, and amusement, when the distressed mind is sorely agitated with serious thoughts.
9. The injudicious comforter is one who presents proper subjects in an incongruous spirit. He talks of the right things, but talks of them with a spirit unsympathetic, sometimes undevout, canting, cold, and dogmatic. Such a man’s comfort is indeed vinegar on nitre, conflicting, irritating, and painful. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

Proverbs 25:19
Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.
Man trusting in man
This is sometimes a great evil. To trust in man and disregard God, or to repose in man the confidence that rightly belongs to God alone, is sinful and ruinous. But in some respects it is natural and right to trust our fellow-men. We are social beings. There can be no friendship without trust. It is right to trust our friends—

1. For sympathy in joy or sorrow.
2. For help in time of need.
3. For honourable fidelity in all confidences.
   I. The test of man as an object of trust. The “time of trouble” tests the faithfulness of those in whom we confide. Prosperity brings friends; adversity tests them. Three kinds of trouble test man as an object of trust—
4. Trouble in our circumstances, or loss and poverty.
5. Trouble in our reputation, or misrepresentation and slander.
6. Trouble in our character, or sin. For a truly Christian man may fall into grievous sin.
   II. The failure of man as an object of trust.
7. The unfaithful man in time of trial fails those who trust him.
8. The failure of the unfaithful man in time of trial is painful to those who trust him. The attempt to use the broken tooth or dislocated joint causes suffering. Some of the keenest anguish of human souls is caused by the failure of those in whom they trusted.
   Learn—
   (1) To be faithful to every trust reposed in us.
   (2) To be careful in whom we repose confidence.
   (3) To prize those whose trustworthiness we have proved.
   (4) To place our supreme trust in God. (William Jones.)

Proverbs 25:23
The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.
Righteous anger
The marginal reading, which is, “The north wind bringeth forth rain: so doth a backbiting tongue an angry countenance,” gives quite the opposite sense. In Arabia the north wind blew over a long tract of dry land, and therefore usually brought dry weather (Job_27:21); but in Judea the north wind, including all the winds between the north and north-west, blew from the Mediterranean Sea, and therefore commonly brought rain. Accepting the marginal version, the idea is, that as the north wind brings forth rain, a backbiting tongue brings forth an angry countenance. But our version, which we think equally faithful to the original, gives an idea equally good and important; it is, that an expression of displeasure in the listener will silence the tongue of the backbiter. The anger referred to here is a righteous anger; its object is legitimate, its expression is natural, its influence is useful.
I. Its object is legitimate. It is directed against “a backbiting tongue.” A backbiter is a clandestine traducer of character. His speech goes to damage another’s reputation behind his back. He does it sometimes by telling truth as well as falsehood. A man need not tell lies to be a backbiter; he can do it by parading damaging facts, and such damaging facts may be found in the chapters of every man’s life. He does it sometimes un-maliciously. He may be prompted by vanity; he may disparage another in order to set himself off to better advantage. He may do it from greed: his object may be to rob the subject of his talk of some share of his patronage and support.
II. Its expression is natural. “An angry countenance.” The countenance is a fuller, more faithful, and forceful revealer of the soul than the tongue. An admiring look has often won hearts which no words could enlist. A courageous look in the leaders of campaigns wakes the invincible in battalions. A reproving look has broken hearts, as Christ’s broke the heart of Peter. An angry look, not a mere peevish, petulant look, but a look of right down honest anger, directed to a backbiter, would send him in mute confusion from your presence.
III. Its influence is useful. “The north wind driveth away rain, so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.” (Homilist.)

Proverbs 25:25
As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.
Good news from a far country
We live in a little world. It is simply that we are a part of it that it seems to us so great. By the multiplying of our interests in these days of change and travel, there is many a far country from which good news comes to us as cold waters to a thirsty soul. Think of that far country, heaven, and the soul’s yearning for good news thence. Every righteous thought, every pure, simple, generous purpose, every lowly resolve, every warning, of conscience within condemning wrong, every conception that seems to be wooing to holiness and sincerity, is a message from that far country. Well is it when they come to thirsting souls. There are many difficulties about a revelation from God. If we should be compelled to let miracles go, how simple is righteousness, how plain is love, how clear is purity! Who shall say that there are no messages from the far country? There may be uncertainties about many things, but there cannot be uncertainties here. It must be right that I love right, that I do right. God cares for His child—cares that its life shall be right and true and holy; that its sins shall be blotted out. All revelation is not in the Bible. It is rather a record of a revelation. Such records, too, are elsewhere. I lift my eyes to the nightly heaven, and the record is there. I look upon the new-born spring, and the record is there. I look into the heart of a little child, and the record is there What is the sum of all revelations; what is the revelation? Just Christ, the dear Saviour—His compassions, His infinite redemption, the great message; He Himself the living Message-bearer from the far country. All other good news is gathered about this. We cannot separate redeeming love from any other gift of our Father’s care. Common news from a far country will often, in this world of change, cheer you and me. We live in a world of separations and farewells. Our paths, with most of us, are together only for a little while. Countries far apart separate the members of the one family of God. But nowhere can they be where God is not. And members of the one family shall cheer each other’s heart with news from a far country. The news shall tell how God is leading all by different paths, the right way for each, to the one city of habitation. (T. Gasquoine, B.A.)

Tidings from a far country
Our interest in tidings from a far country may be based on many considerations.

1. We may be interested in the novelty and the strangeness of the information which reaches us about a foreign country, and the more so if any of our friends have been engaged in the exploration—e.g., Columbus returning from America, or Captain Cook from the South Seas.
2. If we have received any great possessions from that country: as Solomon hearing about India and China, when his merchants returned with gold, etc., from that country.
3. If any great stranger or dear friend has come from it—e.g., Solomon, hearing about Sheba or Egypt; or the English about Sardinia, when the king came over.
4. If any of our friends are there now—e.g., as news from Australia, America, or any other country, where we have friends. If it be good news, how it revives and cheers us! Perhaps our friends are doing business for us successfully. (The Congregational Pulpit.)

Good news from a far country
The traveller on a hot summer’s day, parehed with thirst, can easily understand the allusion, “cold waters to a thirsty soul.” They are cooling, refreshing, and invigorating, and enable him to pursue his journey with “strength renewed.” Not unfrequently they have been the means of saving life—e.g., Hagar in the wilderness (Gen_21:14-20); Samson after slaying the Philistines (Jdg_15:18-19). But the comparison is with good news. Who does not love to hear good news? How exhilarating the news brought to old Jacob respecting his son Joseph (Gen_45:16-21); how joyful the tidings brought by messengers relating to the restoration of the Jews (Isa_52:7); how jubilant the feelings of the apostle, when bound at Rome, on hearing favourable reports of the Colossian and Philippian converts! He again “thanked God and took courage.”

1. The first piece of good news is this, that the treaty of peace has been signed. “Unto you is born a Saviour.”
2. So fascinating is that country that there will be no fear of disappointment when we visit it, no wanting to return again on earth.
3. That country has very great attractions. It is—
   (1) A land of plenty. Failure and starvation, known, alas! often bitterly here.
   (2) A land of perfection. Failure of ideals here.
   (3) A land of victory.
   (4) A land of friendships. (G. P. Story.)

Good news
I. What this good news is. It is an assurance of the most stupendous and amazing love of the greatest of all Beings.

1. It consists in pardon and peace.
2. It is the means of conveying everlasting joy.
3. It is the revelation of God to the soul.
4. It is the knowledge of sin atoned for; of the law fulfilled; of Satan conquered; of death vanquished; and of heaven opened.
   II. This glorious news informs us of the stupendous way whereby this blessed intelligence is conveyed. It is conveyed through Christ as the author of salvation.
   III. We must first become acquainted with the person sending, and country from whence, as well as the communication sent, before we shall esteem it as good news.
5. The Spirit of God must open and shine into our minds.
6. He must subdue our worldly affections.
7. He must conquer our stubborn wills.
8. And daily read this good news to our souls. (T. B. Baker.)

Echoes from afar

1. It is a far country, possibly, as measured by distance, this heaven that we talk about. I prefer to believe that the dwelling-place of Deity is near at hand, that the sainted dead are separated from us only by the thick, dense, fleshly veil which envelops our free soul, so that we can neither feel, nor hear, nor see. Heaven lies near to the habitations of the just.
2. But heaven is a “far country,” as being far away beyond our comprehension. It is so utterly far beyond our experience, so surpasses our comprehension, so outstrips our thought and conception, that even the aid of revelation does give us dim glimpses of the distant splendours.
3. Heaven is a “far country,” because we are by nature so disqualified from inhabiting it. We speak of the fall of man, and this is the measure of it—a fall from paradise to perdition—a fall that only power Divine can span. From this” far country” good news has come. News from a far country is interesting to us, if it is from a strange land, unlike our own. If we have those who are near and dear to us dwelling in it. If we hope, or intend, to live in it by and by. Good news has come from this far country, the best and most glorious news that can fall on mortal ear. Angels have brought it. Jesus has brought it. The Holy Spirit has brought it. Holy men, moved by Him, have written and spoken it. Subtle, gracious, secret good news is brought from the far country still. (J. Jackson Wray.)

Proverbs 25:27
It is not good to eat much honey.
Natural desires running too far
Man is a creature of manifold desires. These desires may be divided into two grand classes—

1. Those that can never go too far. Such are the desires for knowledge, holiness, assimilation to God.
2. Those that often run too far. Such are the desires for wealth; the desire for power, which often runs into tyranny; the desire for pleasure, which often runs into licentiousness. Here is running too far—
   I. The desire for animal pleasure. “It is not good to eat much honey.” It is not good for the body. It is not good for the intellect. The rise of the animal is the fall of the mental. It is not good for the soul. The pampering of the senses is the death of the soul. “It is not good to eat much honey.” Here we have running too far—
   II. The desire for human praise. “ So for men to search their own glory is not glory.” The word “not” which is here in italics, is not in the original; it has been supplied by our translators. In doing so they have evidently expressed the idea intended. A desire for the praise of our fellow-men is natural, innocent, and useful. It is very true that the praise of corrupt society is seldom of much worth, and often indeed contemptible. There are men whose desire for human praise becomes a passion; popularity is the god at whose shrine they are always paying their devotions. Be master of your desires. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

Pleasure and glory
The ordinary mind consents to this statement unwillingly. There is a natural reluctance to stop short in the pursuit of enjoyment. What glory can there be in getting a man to limit his own glory?
I. Our best interests are not served by living chiefly on earthly pleasures. Our highest being cannot be nourished by giving the chief place to earthly distinction and attainments. Life is not intended to be made up entirely of bank holidays and national festivals. Observe the point of emphasis in this verse. “It is not good to eat much honey.” A little is all very well. The question of recreation and amusement resolves itself into a question about the desires and impulses which are allowed to rule men’s lives. Let a man understand his true position He is face to face with a long history of good and evil principles working on the one hand sublimity, and on the other disaster, in the lives of millions. He has to take his place—carefully discovering his right place—in a world that is darkened by the shadow of the crime and ignorance of ages, and torn to the heart’s depth by the cruel wails of passion, and avarice, and remorse.
II. God has something better for us to do, and something nobler for us to enjoy. He has called to us to seek the knowledge of Himself; to grow up into this knowledge of Himself; and to use the knowledge of Him, as it comes to us, for the benefit of the world. Learn to think soberly and proportionately of all the pleasures and distinctions of this life; ever having “respect unto the recompense of the reward.” (W. H. Jackson.)

Proverbs 25:28
He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, and without walls.
Self-government essential to wisdom
Here is shown the ruinous condition of the person who has no rule over his own spirit. What can concern a man more than the art of self-government? It is inexcusable for a man to be a stranger to himself, and not to know how to make the best of his own natural powers and affections.
I. What is it to have rule over our own spirits We ought to consider the entire constitution of our minds. There is something in the spirit which has a right to dominion, as being in its nature superior; there are other parts which hold an inferior place, and ought to be in subjection. There is conscience, a sense of duty and sin, and of moral good and evil; a necessary self approbation arising from the one, and reproach and condemnation from the other. And there are propensities in our minds arising on particular occasions of life. These have been conquered, and may be.
II. Where is the proper authority lodged? Some things are necessary effects of laws of nature, and in relation to them man has no rule. A man can inquire and deliberate. The active powers may be suspended while we deliberate. To have rule over our own spirits is to keep the passions under an exact discipline. And there are natural desires in men of very unequal moment which often rise to passions. The true end of self-government is that the superior powers of the mind may be preserved in their due exercise. (J. Abernethy, M.A.)

The diversity of men’s natural tempers
The spirit sometimes means a temper, disposition, or turn of mind, in general: thus we read of “an haughty spirit” and of “an humble spirit.” This is, perhaps, the meaning of the expression in my text: by him that hath no rule over his own spirit may be meant the person who hath no government of his passions. But the expression may, without any impropriety, be taken for a man’s particular temper or predominant turn of mind. God delights in variety throughout all His works. The same God is the Father of our spirits; and He has formed them also with considerable variety. All matter has the same essential properties; yet the forms into which God has moulded it, and the purposes to which He has applied the several parts of it, are infinitely different. In like manner the souls of all men are indued with the same faculties; but from the degrees in which they possess these faculties, and from the proportions in which they are combined, there results an endless diversity of characters in the human species. When the malevolent passions have a tendency to predominate in the soul, they occasion all those diversities of temper to which we apply the epithets sour, sullen, morose, severe, captious, peevish, passionate, ill-humoured, and the like. On the contrary, the prevalence of the benevolent affections of the heart produces a great variety of tempers, some of which we term the sweet, the gentle, the mild, the soft, the courteous, the tender, the sympathising, the affectionate, the generous. We may observe further that very great diversities of temper may proceed from the same passion, only by its being predominant in different manners. The passionate temper and the peevish are extremely different; yet they both proceed from the predominance of the very same principle—sudden anger. Deliberate anger produces in those who have a propensity to it many distinctions of temper unlike to both these. It may be remarked likewise that some tempers proceed from the weakness of a particular disposition more properly than from a predominance of the contrary. Courage, so far as it is constitutional, proceeds merely from the absence of fear. Impudence is not the prevalence of any positive affection, but only the want of shame. A want or a relative weakness in any one of the numerous parts of a clock affects the soundness of the whole machine. The several passions and affections are, in different men, combined in an infinite variety of ways, and every particular combination of them produces a distinct temper. Perhaps every temper, when it is analysed, will be found not to arise from the prevalence of a single affection, but to derive its form in some degree from the union of several. Thus in a compounded colour different ingredients are mixed, and may be observed on attention, though one be so much predominant as to give it its common denomination. But it is not only by the prevalence of some of them in comparison with the rest that the passions produce diversities of temper among mankind: the general tone also of all the passions occasions a suitable peculiarity. A musical instrument acquires different tones by having all its strings wound up to different keys. The passions of different persons are as it were wound up to a variety of keys, and thence their souls derive distinct tones of temper. Though the passions be the most immediate causes of the varieties of temper, and though on that account they required our principal notice in explaining these varieties, yet it must be observed that some peculiarities of temper are occasioned almost wholly by the form of the intellectual powers. When the understanding is clear and decisive it lays the foundation of a firm and determined temper; an inability to form a clear opinion produces fickleness and inconsistency. The same temper may, in different men, proceed from different causes. The source of fickleness and inconstancy is sometimes weakness of judgment; sometimes timidity; and sometimes the keenness of all the passions, hurrying a man continually into new pursuits according as they happen to be excited in their turns. A temper of rashness may proceed from an improvident judgment, from the absence of fear and caution, or from the violence of any passion. As similar tempers may proceed from dissimilar causes, so even opposite tempers may proceed from the same cause. The sceptical temper and the credulous may ultimately be resolved into the same imbecility of understanding, an inability of clearly discerning the real force of evidence. This inability likewise gives rise to an obstinate temper in some, to a wavering temper in others: one is immovable in all his designs, because he is incapable of discerning the strength of those reasons which should persuade him to alter them; another is fickle in them all, because he cannot see the weakness of the reasons which are produced against them. Such are the general causes of the diversity of tempers among mankind. As no two plants are exactly alike, as no two human faces are absolutely undistinguishable, so no two tempers are perfectly the same. Every man has “his own spirit,” his peculiar temper, by which he differs from every other man.

1. Each of us should study to know his own particular temper. The knowledge of our natural temper is one important part of the knowledge of ourselves.
2. A proper sense of the endless variety of tempers in the human species would lead us to make greater allowance for the sentiments and conduct of others than we often do.
3. The amazing diversity of tempers in the human species is a striking instance of the contrivance and wisdom of the God who made us. Variety, combined with uniformity, may be considered as the very characteristic of design; a perfect combination of them is an indication of perfect wisdom. (Alex. Gerard, D.D.)

The necessity of governing the natural temper
Is it, then, needful to evince the necessity of a man governing his own temper? Every man acknowledges that all others ought to govern their tempers, and complains of them when they do not. That we may perceive how much it is the duty of every one of us to govern his own temper, let us attend to the ill effects of neglecting to govern it. They are pointed out by an expressive figure in the text: “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls”; he has no security against abandoning himself to every vice. Need I point out minutely the vices to which the indulgence of a contracted and selfish temper naturally leads? The selfish affections are various; they turn to different objects; but it requires the strictest government to prevent a temper founded on the prevalence of any of them from degenerating into the correspondent vice, ambition, or vanity, or avarice, or sensuality, and the love of pleasure. It is still less necessary to enter into a long detail of the detestable vices which spring from a temper founded in a propensity to any of the malevolent passions. They lead to vices which spread misery through society, and which overwhelm the person himself with greater misery than he brings upon those around him. Habitual peevishness, producing fretfulness on every, the slightest, occasion, putting one out of humour with every person and every thing, creating incessant uneasiness to those who are connected with him, eating out the enjoyment of life, is the natural effect of a temper founded on a propensity to anger, though accompanied with the weakest tone of passion. In whatever way our temper most disposes the several passions and affections to exert themselves, it will, without regulation, prove the source of peculiar vices. When the propensity to desire renders the temper keen and eager, if we lay it under no restraint, it must engage us in trifling and vicious pursuits; in respect of the object of our pursuit, whether pleasure, profit, or power, it must render us craving and insatiable, ever unsatisfied with what we have obtained, wishing and plotting for more; and in respect of the means of prosecution, it must render us impetuous and violent, regardless of the bounds of right, impatient of every delay and opposition. Is the opposite propensity to aversion indulged? Everything wears a gloomy aspect, and is viewed on its darkest side: we act as if we were resolved never to be pleased; we search for occasions of disgust, regret, and uneasiness, and we find them in every object; every gentle affection is banished from the breast; discontent, fretfulness, and ill-humour become habitual. The same temper, it may be further observed, will lead a man, with equal readiness, into opposite vices in opposite situations. The same littleness of mind renders a man insolent in prosperity and abject in adversity. That vice, be it what it will, to which our particular temper directly leads us, is an enemy already advanced to the gates of the heart; and if it finds the heart “like a city without walls,” it enters at its pleasure; we can make no resistance. But this is very far from being the whole effect of our neglecting to govern our natural temper: the man who ruleth not his spirit does not merely become enslaved to one vice; in consequence of this he is open to every vice. Every ruling sin will require from the man who lives in the indulgence of it the commission of many others for its support, for its gratification, or for disguising and concealing it. But it deserves to be particularly remarked that as soon as the misgovernment of natural temper has subjected a man to one ruling vice, he is no longer proof against even such vices as are in themselves most opposite to that very temper. Every one’s observation will supply him with instances of persons who, being engaged in one vicious course, have by it been led into sins most contrary to their nature; with instances of the soft and gentle being brought to act with cruelty; of the benevolent and kind-hearted labouring to bring ruin upon those who happened to stand in the way of some unlawful project; of the generous, in the prosecution of some bad design, stooping to the most sordid actions; of the candid and open betrayed into schemes of artifice, dissimulation, and falsehood; of the timid rushing forward into the most dangerous crimes. Thus the man who abandons himself to that one vice which arises from the corruption of his natural temper is from that moment in danger of every sin. Every predominant vice requires as great a number of other vices to be subservient to it in the course of a wicked life as the ministers whom any tyrant can stand in need of to be the instruments of his cruelty, rapacity, and lusts. By being “like a city without walls,” destitute of defence against any sin, he becomes “like a city broken down,” reduced to ruins, desolated, uninhabited, and uninhabitable. Can you think without terror of the accumulated guilt of all these vices, and of the punishment to which they must expose you? Possessed and actuated by these emotions, be roused to every exertion for removing the faulty propensity of your nature. While you neglect to govern your natural temper, all your endeavours to avoid or to mortify the vices which spring from it will be but like lopping off a few twigs, which the vigour of the root will enable quickly to grow again, perhaps stronger and more luxuriant than before: it is only by setting yourselves at once to govern it, to rectify all its perversities, that you can lay the axe to the root of the tree, and effectually kill all the branches. (Alex. Gerard, D.D.)

The manner of governing the natural temper
To extirpate one’s natural temper is impossible. It is a distinguishing character, impressed on every soul by the hand of the Almighty, which the power of man can no more erase than it can efface the distinctive characters of the several kinds of plants and animals, and reduce them all to one kind. If it were possible for a man to destroy his peculiar temper, it would not be necessary; it would be even pernicious. Among all the varieties of temper which men possess there is not one inconsistent with virtue, there is not one which duty requires us to endeavour to extirpate. But though it be neither possible nor necessary to extirpate the natural temper, it is both possible and necessary to govern it. We every day meet with persons who, from good breeding, or from prudence, can disguise their temper and keep it from showing itself, not on one occasion, but on many occasions and through a long course of time; could not, then, better principles enable them to correct it? A physiognomist pretended to discover by his art that the great Athenian philosopher Socrates was addicted to vices so opposite to his whole conduct and character, that all who knew him were disposed to ridicule the pretensions of the physiognomist as absurd; but, to their astonishment, Socrates declared that he was, by his constitutional bias, prone to all the vices which had been imputed to him, and that it was only by philosophy that he had got the better of them. Would it not be shameful if many Christians could not make a similar declaration?

1. The first object of a man’s care, in ruling his own spirit, is to refrain his natural bias, so that it may not become vicious, or lead him into sin. Every passion and affection is weak and pliable in the moment of its birth. Had we always recollection enough to observe, and resolution enough to check its first tendency to irregularity, our victory over it would be easy. But if we let slip this favourable moment, it will soon be able to carry us wherever it pleases. If, therefore, we would refrain our predominant passion, we must be at the greatest pains to avoid the objects, the opinions, the imaginations, which are favourable to its growth. In order to restrain our ruling passion it will often be necessary studiously to turn our attention to such objects, and to accustom ourselves to such actions as are most contradictory to it. When a twig has long been bent one way it cannot be made straight without being for some time bent the contrary way. The vices to which the natural temper gives us a propensity are those which we shall find the greatest difficulty in conquering, and which, after many defeats, will most frequently revolt. The last vices which a good man is able to subdue are his constitutional vices.
2. It implies that every man render his temper subservient to the practice of virtue and holiness. As every natural temper, even the most amiable, may degenerate into vice, so, on the contrary, every temper, even that which becomes most disagreeable by the smallest corruption of it, may be made to contribute to the virtue of the heart. Some turns of temper are naturally and strongly allied to virtue. All the tempers which are founded in a predominance of the kind affections are directly favourable to the love of mankind, to all the important virtues of benevolence and charity, and render the practice of every social duty easy and pleasant; or that they introduce a habit of soul congruous to the love of God, as well as to that inward serenity which characterises every grace, and renders it doubly amiable. Other turns of temper are, as it were, neutral between virtue and vice: in perceiving how these may be rendered serviceable to virtue there is little difficulty. The keen and eager temper in which desire is the chief ingredient, when directed to holiness as its object, will render a man spirited in the practice of it, and susceptible of a strong impulse from its joys and rewards. The contrary temper in which aversion prevails, tends to cherish a deep abhorrence of sin, which is one of the strongest securities against the indulgence of it. Both these tempers may become equally conducive to holiness by prompting us, the one to avoid evil, the other to do good. A high tone of passion, a sensibility, ardour, or activity of spirit, prepares the soul for entering into the raptures of devotion, for feeling the fervours of godly zeal, for showing eminent alacrity in every duty. A temper opposite to this may be improved into a settled composure and calm equability in the love and practice of holiness. It is more needful to observe, because it is not so obvious, that even those turns of temper which are most nearly allied to vice, and which are with the greatest difficulty kept from running into it, may notwithstanding be rendered subservient to virtue. Pride, for instance, may be improved into true dignity of character, into a noble and habitual disdain of every thought and action that is mean or base. An ambitious temper needs only to be fixed upon its properest objects in order to animate us in the indefatigable pursuits of that genuine honour which results from the approbation of God and from the glories of heaven, and which will be bestowed only on the righteous, and in proportion to their righteousness. A temper which, by being neglected, would become blameably selfish and contracted, will, by being governed, become eminently conducive to prudence, and an incitement to diligence in that course of holiness which is our real wisdom and our best interest. Even that temper in which the malevolent affections tend to preponderate, the sour, the morose, the irascible, may be rendered subservient to our virtue and improvement: if it be curbed so strongly as not to lead us to hurt others, or to wish for their hurt, it will exert itself in a keen indignation against vice, a rigorous purity of heart, a blameless severity of manners; and it will make us inaccessible to many temptations which have great power over soft and gentle and social minds.
3. We ought not only to render our peculiar temper subservient to virtue, but also to incorporate it with all our virtues. All the good men whose lives the Scripture has recorded display different forms of holiness derived from their dissimilar tempers. Job is characterised by patience; Moses by meekness; David is high-spirited, his devotion is fervent, his virtues are all heroic; John and Paul are both warm, fervent, and affectionate, but the warmth of the former is sweet and gentle, that of the latter bold and enterprising. As every man thus derives from nature a distinct personal character, he ought to adhere to it, and to preserve its peculiar decorum. He can preserve it only by maintaining his own natural temper so far as it is innocent, and acting always in conformity to it. To conclude: If we would rule our own spirit, if we would govern our natural temper, let us restrain it from degenerating into vice, or leading us into sin. The means of governing our peculiar temper are the same with the means of performing every other duty, resolution, congruous exercises, watchfulness and prayer. But all these means we must in this case employ with peculiar care and diligence, because it is a matter of peculiar difficulty to control and regulate our predominant disposition. Its importance is, however, in proportion to its difficulty. If we can effectually accomplish this, it will render it the easier to subdue all our other irregular passions. They act in subordination to it, and derive a great part of their strength from it; and to subdue it is like cutting off the general who was the spirit of the battle, and on whose fall the army breaks and takes to flight. (Alex. Gerard, D.D.)

Self-government
No man can be said to have attained complete rule over his own spirit who has not under his habitual control the tenor of his thoughts, the language of his lips, and motions of lust and appetite, and the energy of his passion. This shows you at once the extent, and the division of our subject.
I. The government of the thoughts. After all that has been written on the subject of self-command, the regulation of the thoughts has seldom drawn the attention of moralists. On the authority of silly maxims like these, that thought is free as air, that no one can help what he thinks, innumerable hours are wasted in idle reveries without the suspicion of blame. The time which we fondly supposed to be merely wasted in doing nothing may have been easily employed in mischievous imaginations, and thus what was considered as lost simply is found to be abused. When we reflect also that every licentious principle, every criminal project, and every atrocious deed is the fruit of a distempered fancy, whose rovings were originally unchecked till thoughts grew into desires, desires ripened into resolves, and resolves terminated in execution, well may we tremble at discovering how feeble is the control over our imaginations which we have hitherto acquired. We do not say that Caesar, brooding over his schemes of ambition in his tent, was as guilty as Caesar passing the Rubicon and turning his arms against his country; but we do say that licentiousness of thought ever precedes licentiousness of conduct; and that many a crime which stains human nature was generated in the retirement of the closet, in the hours of idle and listless thought, perhaps over the pages of a poisonous book, or during the contemplation of a licentious picture.
II. The government of the tongue. “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man.” This will not appear an extravagant assertion when we consider how numerous are the vices in which this little member takes an active part. If we consider these vices of the tongue in the order of their enormity, we shall see how easily one generates another. Talkativeness, the venial offspring of a lively, not to say an unrestrained, fancy, hardly rises to a fault till it is found that he “who talks incessantly must often talk foolishly, and that the prattle of a vain and itching tongue degenerates rapidly into that foolish talking and jesting which, as an apostle says, are not convenient. If for every idle, unprofitable, false or calumniating word which men shall speak they shall give an account in the day of judgment, what account shall those men render whose conversation first polluted the pure ear of childhood, first soiled the chastity and whiteness of the young imagination, whose habitual oaths first taught the child to pronounce the name of God without reverence, or to imprecate curses on his mates with all the thoughtlessness of youth, but with all the passion and boldness of manhood?
III. The government of the animal appetites. “Dearly beloved, I beseech you, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” For how humiliating is the consideration, enough, indeed, to make us weep with shame, that man, the noblest work of God on earth, the lord of this lower world, that this noble creature should suffer himself to fall into the hands of the grovelling mob of appetites, and to be fettered by base lusts which ought to be his slaves—that this ethereal spirit should be wasted in the service of sensuality, and this intelligence, capable of mounting to heaven, be sunk and buried in the slime and pollution of gross and brutal pleasures!
IV. The government of the passions. Not to be in a passion is generally the amount of the notion which the world entertains of self-command. In the broad scheme of gospel ethics, the opposite to anger is meekness; and meekness is no narrow or superficial virtue. The meek man of the gospel is the very reverse of those who act the most bustling and noisy part on the theatre of human life. He finds himself in a world where he will be oftener called to suffer than to act. He is not ambitious, because he sees little here worth ambition. Humility is the gentle and secret stream which runs through his life and waters all his virtues. To the government of the passions the principal prerequisite is the restriction of the desires; therefore, as he expects little from the world he will not often quarrel with it for the treatment he receives. (J. S. Buckminster.)

Self-control
I. What is meant by not having rule over our own spirit?

1. Intemperance of feeling, especially angry feeling.
2. Extravagance of speech.
3. Rashness of conduct.
4. Hence the formation of pernicious habits.
   II. The evil of lacking self-control. It destroys the walls of our city, and exposes us—
5. To the inroads of sin; and is itself sin.
6. To insult and dishonour.
7. To the machinations of foes.
8. To utter destitution and ruin.
   III. The means of promoting self-control.
9. Habitual efforts of the will.
10. Avoidance of temptation.
11. Prayerful dependence on God’s Spirit.
12. A serious and thoughtful habit of mind.
    IV. Reasons and encouragements.
13. Self-control is an essential part of our salvation.
14. The example of God’s forbearance.
15. The example of Christ’s meekness.
16. Its connection with our usefulness.
17. Self-control gives real increase of power.
    V. Applications.
18. To the Christians in their family and friendly intercourse.
19. To Christians in Church deliberation and action.
20. To Christians in secular business and general intercourse with the world. In conclusion, distinguish between self-control and apathy; and show its consistency with being zealously affected in a good cause. (The Congregational Pulpit.).

Proverbs 25:1
V. Fourth Collection of Proverbs. Chaps. 25–29

1. The Title. See Introd., ch. iii. p. 24.
   This Title is interesting as affording a proof that a revival of literary activity accompanied the revival of religion and of national prosperity which marked the reign of Hezekiah. Hezekiah himself was a poet of no mean order (Isa_38:9 ff.); and “the men of Hezekiah” were doubtless a body of scribes engaged under the direction of the king in literary labours. But beside this, this brief title is one of those “fragments of history,” which, as Professor Sayce has shown, “have been illuminated by the progress of oriental research,” and “the importance and true significance of which can now be realised for the first time.” This Title points, he thinks, to the existence of a royal library in Jerusalem, into which these proverbs, never before edited, were now gathered and “copied out,” and similar to the libraries which are now known to have existed in the cities of Babylonia and Assyria. “The vassalage of Judah to the king of Assyria in the reign of Ahaz had necessarily led to the introduction of Assyrian culture into Jerusalem. Ahaz himself had led the way. In the court of the palace he had erected a sundial, a copy of the gnomons which had been used for centuries in the civilised kingdoms of the Euphrates and the Tigris. But the erection of the sundial was not the only sign of Assyrian influence. The most striking feature of Assyrian and Babylonian culture was the libraries, where scribes were kept constantly employed, not only in writing and compiling new books, but in copying and re-editing older ones. The ‘men of Hezekiah’ who ‘copied out’ the proverbs of Solomon performed duties exactly similar to the royal scribes in Nineveh.” (The Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the Monuments, pp. 475, 476, 4th edition.)
   copied out] ἐξεγράψαντο, LXX.; transtulerunt, Vulg.

Proverbs 25:2
conceal … search out] “To God it brings glory and admiration, that in governing the universe He follows out His own, and that a secret, counsel. To kings it is a source of glory to search out by their sagacity the difficult questions which belong to their office as kings, especially to the administration of justice in doubtful cases, so as diligently to enquire into the matters which are brought before them.”—Rosenm.

Proverbs 25:3
Besides his glory in contrast, the king has a glory in resemblance to Almighty God, whose vicegerent he is. He too has something to conceal.

Proverbs 25:4
a vessel for the finer] Such pure metal as the refiner, who has with that very object taken away the dross, can make into a goodly vessel or vase. Egredietur vas purissimum, Vulg.

Proverbs 25:6
Put not forth thyself] Better, Put not thyself forward, R.V.; Heb., Glorify not thyself; μὴ ἀλαζονεύου, LXX.; ne gloriosus appareas, Vulg.

Proverbs 25:7
Come up hither] Comp. Luk_14:8-10, and Introd. p. 33.
whom thine eyes have seen] This aggravates the disgrace: you have pressed presumptuously into the inner circle, so as to stand face to face with the prince, and there “in his presence” shalt thou be humiliated.

Proverbs 25:8
thou know not] These words are also inserted in R.V. text, with the alternative in the margin, Lest it be said in the end thereof, What wilt thou do? when &c. The Heb. as it stands is forcible in its abruptness: Lest—what wilt thou do in the end thereof? &c.

Proverbs 25:8-10
The admonition in these verses is general: Be not of a contentious spirit; plunge not hastily into quarrels (comp. the use of the same word “strive,” Gen_26:20; Exo_21:18; Deu_33:8). But there is a special and perhaps primary reference to going to law (obs. thy cause, Pro_25:9, the same Heb. word as in Exo_23:2-3). The passage will then nearly resemble our Lord’s teaching: so far from “going forth hastily to strive,” “agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him”; show a placable disposition, and instead of seeking the publicity of the law-court, “debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself.” And do this from a consideration of what litigation persisted in may involve: lest thou know not what to do,” &c.; “lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge,” &c. Mat_5:25-26.

Proverbs 25:9
a secret to] Rather, the secret of, A.V. marg. and R.V.
The warning would seem to be against being betrayed by a litigious spirit into dishonourable conduct, and incurring the indelible shame of betraying confidence through eagerness to win your suit.

Proverbs 25:10
put thee to shame] Or, revile thee, R.V.; ὀνειδίσῃ, LXX.; insultet, Vulg.

Proverbs 25:11
fitly] Lit. upon its wheels, i.e. smoothly and without hesitation.
Others render, at its (proper) times, i.e. seasonably, perhaps from the idea of times or seasons “revolving,” or “rolling round.” In tempore suo, Vulg. Comp. Pro_15:23.
apples of gold] Either golden-coloured fruit, such as oranges or quinces (χρυσόμηλα, Plin.; aurea mala, Virg. Ecl. iii. 71), or fruit gilded or made of gold, as part of the artistic ornament.
pictures] Rather, baskets of silver network or filigree work, through and in contrast with which the golden fruit was shown to advantage. In lectis argenteis, Vulg. The LXX. has ἐν ὁρμίσκῳ σάρδιου, in a necklace of sardius, evidently regarding the whole ornament, including its apples, or bosses, of gold as the work of the artificer.
The imagery of the proverb accords with the growth of art and luxury in the reign of Solomon, though the Hebrews were familiar from the days of Egypt (Exo_3:22), and earlier (Gen_24:22), with ornaments of gold and silver.
“The proverb may well be thought of as having had its origin in some kingly gift to the son of David, the work of Tyrian artists, like Hiram and his fellows. Others, as they gazed on the precious metals and the cunning work, far beyond the skill of their own countrymen, might highly admire, but the wise king saw in the costly rarity a parable of something higher. A word well set upon the wheels of speech excelled it. It is singular that ornamentation of this kind in the precious metals was known even as late as the middle ages, as œuvre de Salomon.” Dean Plumptre, Speaker’s Comm.

Proverbs 25:12
earring] Or, nose-ring, R.V. marg. See Pro_11:22, note.

Proverbs 25:13
the cold of snow] Rosenmuller, quoted and approved by Maurer, explains this, not of snow falling in harvest, which would be rather an emblem of disaster (Pro_26:1), but of snow mixed with wine or other beverage to cool it. He refers to Xenophon (Mem. ii. 1. 30), and Pliny (H. N. 19. 4) in proof that this method of cooling was practised by the ancients. It is possible that such luxury may have been enjoyed by Solomon in his summer palace of Lebanon; but the cold of snow may simply be instanced as the greatest conceivable refreshment in the sultry harvest-field.
In Pro_10:26 we have a companion proverb by way of contrast.

Proverbs 25:14
Lit.,
Clouds and wind and no rain;
A man who boasts himself of a gift of falsehood.
The rising wind and gathering clouds (1Ki_18:45) which, un-accompanied by rain, disappoint the expectation of the thirsty earth are an apt emblem of a man who promises much and performs nothing.
The Vulg. is true to the original, and forcible:
Nubes et ventus et pluviae non sequentes,
Vir gloriosus et promissa non complens.

Proverbs 25:15
We have an illustration of this proverb in the effect of the “long forbearing” of David during his persecution by Saul, and of his “soft tongue” at Engedi (1 Samuel 24), and in the wilderness of Ziph (Ib. Pro_26:7 ff.): “And it came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept: “Return, my son David; for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day.”

Proverbs 25:17
Withdraw thy foot] So Vulg., subtrahe pedem tuum. Lit. make rare thy foot. The R.V. adopts the marginal reading of A.V., Let thy foot be seldom in. σπάνιον εἴσαγε σὸν πόδα πρὸς σεαυτοῦ φίλον, LXX.

Proverbs 25:18
a maul] “i.e. a hammer, a variation of mall, from malleus … The Hebrew and English alike occur in Pro_25:18 only. But a derivative from the same root, and differing only slightly in form, is found in Jer_51:20, and is there translated by ‘battle-axe’ (or maul, R.V. marg.)—how incorrectly is shown by the constant repetition of the verb derived from the same root in the next three verses, and there uniformly rendered ‘break in pieces’ … There is no doubt that some heavy warlike instrument, a mace or club, is alluded to; probably such as that which is said to have suggested the name of Charles Martel.… A similar word is found once again in the original of Eze_9:2=‘weapon of smashing’ (A.V. and R.V. text, ‘slaughter-weapon).’ The sequel shows how terrible was the destruction such weapons could effect.”—Smith’s Dict. of Bible, Art. Maul. See note in this Series on Jer_51:20.
It is difficult to see why in this and the following verse (though not in Pro_25:14, or Pro_25:26,) R.V. should have followed A.V. in inverting the order of the two clauses in the Hebrew.

Proverbs 25:20
taketh away] Better, taketh off.
nitre] The Heb. word nether, occurs only here and in Jer_2:22, where see note in this Series. The substance meant is not saltpetre, which is now what we understand by nitre, but native carbonate of soda, which was found, as Pliny tells us, in the Soda Lakes of Egypt (Smith’s Dict. of Bible, Art. nitre). The untimeliness of singing songs to a heavy heart is illustrated by the first comparison. It is doing exactly the opposite of that which the circumstances demand. It is like taking off a garment just when one ought to put it on. The second comparison teaches vividly that the action which is thus untimely is also irritating when it ought to be soothing, and hurtful when it ought to be helpful. It is like “vinegar on nitre,” like acid on soda, which produces effervescence, calling into active exercise the natural antipathies of the substances, and destroying the virtue of the soda.

Proverbs 25:22
heap coals of fire upon his head] i.e. take the most effectual vengeance upon him. It is best to take the expression both here, and in the Epistle to the Romans, where it is quoted, in the simplest sense of taking vengeance, expressed by a familiar figure (Psa_120:4; Psa_140:10), without carrying out the figure into any idea of the effect upon your enemy, whether for good or for evil, of your conduct: q.d. your natural desire is to be avenged, let this ‘feeding him’ and ‘giving him drink’ be the effective form of vengeance which you adopt. And as an incentive remember that in doing him good you will bring a blessing upon yourself: “the Lord shall reward thee.” The proverb thus belongs by anticipation to the highest sphere of moral teaching, Mat_5:44; Rom_12:20.

Proverbs 25:23
driveth away] Rather, bringeth forth, A.V. marg., R.V. text. The rendering of A.V. text follows the Vulg., dissipat pluvias, and is apparently supported by Job_37:22 : “Fair weather,” or “golden brightness, cometh out of the north,” a phenomenon which is there attributed to the action of the wind blowing from that quarter (see Pro_25:21 and note in this Series). But by “north” may perhaps here be meant “north-west.” (“Intelligendus ille ventus qui inter aquilonem et occasum flat, Thrascias sive Caurus, qui a Seneca in Hippol. 25:1130 imbrifer dicitur,” Rosenm.) The comparison thus becomes clear and forcible: The north wind bringeth forth rain. The secret action of the wind covers the heaven with clouds, so doth (adopting R.V. in preference to A.V.) a backbiting tongue an angry countenance; its secret malignity is sure to be discovered and to clothe the countenance of its victim with dark anger.

Proverbs 25:24
See Pro_21:9, and note.

Proverbs 25:25
As cold waters, &c.] Comp.
“quale per æstum
Dulcis aquæ saliente sitim restinguere rivo.”
Virg. Ecl. 25:46, 47.
good news, &c.] Comp. Pro_15:30, and for illustration, “The heart of Jacob their father revived,” when he heard the good news from a far country, “Joseph is yet alive.” Gen_45:25; Gen_45:27. This proverb again admits of the highest reference.

Proverbs 25:26
falling down] Better, with R.V., that giveth way, or (marg.) is moved. To see a righteous man moved from his stedfastness through fear or favour in the presence of the wicked is as disheartening, as to find the stream turbid and defiled, at which you were longing to quench your thirst.
Lord Bacon, quoted by Lange, gives the proverb a judicial application: “This proverb teaches that an unjust and scandalous judgement in any conspicuous and weighty cause is above all things to be avoided in the State.” And again, “One foul sentence doeth more hurt than many foul examples; for these do but corrupt the stream, the other corrupteth the fountain.”
troubled] Lit. trampled, i.e. fouled by the feet. Comp. Eze_34:18, where the same Heb. word is used of water, with the addition of “with your feet.”
corrupt] Better, corrupted, R.V.

Proverbs 25:27
is not glory] The words is not are not in the Heb., but are supplied both in A.V. and R.V. text. The R.V. marg. has, “But for men to search out their own glory is glory. The Hebrew text is obscure.”
It would seem as though the author of the proverb threw down in the second clause the terms of the comparison and left us to adjust them: “so is it with searching out your own glory, and glory”; q.d. Glory, like honey, is a good thing, but to be too much engrossed with your own share of the one is like eating too much of the other.

Proverbs 25:28
In this verse again, both A.V. and R.V. change without apparent reason the order of the clauses in the Hebrew.

Proverbs 25:1-28
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 25:1-28
Proverbs 25 – Hezekiah’s Collection of Solomon’s Proverbs
A. Wisdom before kings and judges.

1. (1) Hezekiah’s collection of Solomon’s proverbs.
   These also are proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied:
   a. These are the proverbs of Solomon: This collection of proverbs is from 25:1 through 29:27, making up five chapters of the book of Proverbs. These also were written by Solomon yet collected under the supervision of Hezekiah king of Judah – some 270 years after Solomon’s death.
   i. 1Ki_4:32 tells us that Solomon spoke three thousand proverbs. Even with Hezekiah’s addition, not all of them are contained in the Book of Proverbs.
   b. Which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied: King Hezekiah of Judah reigned over a time of national spiritual revival. He added these chapters to the previous collection of proverbs, having found these yet-to-be-published proverbs of Solomon.
   i. The men of Hezekiah: “Certain persons appointed by Hezekiah for that work, whether prophets, as Isaiah, Hosea, or Micah, who lived in his days, or some others, it is neither evident nor material.” (Poole)
2. (2-5) The wisdom of kings.
   It is the glory of God to conceal a matter,
   But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.
   As the heavens for height and the earth for depth,
   So the heart of kings is unsearchable.
   Take away the dross from silver,
   And it will go to the silversmith for jewelry.
   Take away the wicked from before the king,
   And his throne will be established in righteousness.
   a. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter: There are many mysteries in the universe, both material and spiritual mysteries. There are many things God has concealed, and this is one expression of His glory. It is one of God’s ways to say, “You are amazed by what you see; yet what you don’t see, what I have concealed, is even greater.”
   i. “Those unsearchable secrets of his – such as are the union of the three persons into one nature, and of two natures into one person, his wonderful decrees, and the no less wonderful execution thereof, etc. – these make exceeding much to the glory of his infinite wisdom and surpassing greatness.” (Trapp)
   ii. “I know not, however, that there are not matters in the Book of God that will not be fully opened till mortality is swallowed up of life. For here we see through a glass darkly; but there, face to face: here we know in part; but there we shall know as we also are known.” (Clarke)
   b. The glory of kings is to search out a matter: It is the glory of great men (kings) to search out what God has concealed. This speaks to our pursuit of God’s mysteries in the spiritual world, but perhaps even more so to God’s mysteries in the material world. When men and women seek out scientific knowledge, trying to understand the mystery and brilliance of what God has concealed in His creation, they express an aspect of the glory of humanity, even the glory of kings. Therefore, we say to the scientist, search on, and do so with all your strength.
   i. In all their searching, the scientist should still keep this humble remembrance: It is the glory of God to conceal a matter. “What I see amazes me, but God has concealed even greater treasures of knowledge and wisdom in His creation (Rom_1:19-20). I must not arrogantly think that I can figure it all out.” As G. Campbell Morgan wrote, “That is the principle of all the triumphs of scientific investigations; and it is the deepest secret of all advance in spiritual strength.”
   ii. “It is suggestive that those scribes put this Proverb first…had not all this resulted from the fact that they had been under the rule of a king whose supreme glory had been that of searching out the secrets of wisdom in the fear of Jehovah?” (Morgan)
   iii. “Verse 2 appears to be an intentional tribute to Solomon and Hezekiah as scholar-kings. This proverb comes from a time when academic inquiry and governmental power were closely linked; in the modern world they are more separated.” (Garrett)
   c. So the heart of kings is unsearchable: While it is part of the glory of kings to search out a matter, one thing every man has trouble searching is his own heart, and we have trouble searching the hearts of others. Such knowledge can be so far above us, like the heavens above the earth. Yet, God knows the heart (Rom_8:27, 1Co_2:10).
   i. As the heavens for height and the earth for depth: “As the sky extends to apparently limitless heights above the surface of the earth, with reference to depth emphasizes the apparently limitless extent of the earth far below humankind’s feet.” (Waltke)
   ii. The heart of kings is unsearchable: “The king’s decisions are beyond the knowledge of the people…many things cannot be made known, being ‘unsearchable’ because, perhaps, of his superior wisdom, his caprice, or the necessity of maintaining confidentiality.” (Ross)
   d. Take away the wicked man from before the king: Like dross should be removed from silver, so wicked counselors and associates should be removed from the presence of kings and rulers. Then will their leadership (throne) be established in righteousness.
   i. “You cannot have a pure silver vessel till you have purified the silver; and no nation can have a king a public blessing till the wicked-all bad counsellors, wicked and interested ministers, and sycophants-are banished from the court and cabinet.” (Clarke)
3. (6-7) Conduct before kings.
   Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king,
   And do not stand in the place of the great;
   For it is better that he say to you,
   “Come up here,”
   Than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince,
   Whom your eyes have seen.
   a. Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king: We should always avoid self-exaltation. Even as we should humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord (Jas_4:10), we should also humble ourselves before others.
   i. “Loving to be preeminent is the bane of godliness in the church. Let each of us set about the work of throwing down our high tower of conceit.” (Bridges)
   b. Come up here: When a man or a woman properly humbles themselves before God and kings, they may be invited to a higher place. This is much better than arrogantly setting ourselves high and then being put lower in the presence of the prince. Jesus gave much the same lesson in Luk_14:8-11, concluding with the thought: For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luk_14:11).
   i. In the presence of the prince: “Now, if before an earthly prince men should carry themselves thus modestly and humbly, how much more before the King of heaven! And if among guests at a feast, how much more among the saints and angels in the holy assemblies!” (Trapp)
4. (8-10) Wisdom in avoiding court.
   Do not go hastily to court;
   For what will you do in the end,
   When your neighbor has put you to shame?
   Debate your case with your neighbor,
   And do not disclose the secret to another;
   Lest he who hears it expose your shame,
   And your reputation be ruined.
   a. Do not go hastily to court: Sometimes the court of law is necessary, but we should never go hastily to court. If it is possible to resolve a dispute any other way, we should do it that other way. This was Paul’s later teaching to the Corinthian church (1Co_6:1-8).
   i. “After squandering your money away upon lawyers, both they and the judge will at last leave it to be settled by twelve of your fellow citizens! O the folly of going to law! O the blindness of men, and the rapacity of unprincipled lawyers!” (Clarke)
   ii. “Jesus gave a similar teaching in Luk_12:57-59.” (Garrett)
   b. When your neighbor has put you to shame: This is another strong reason why one should avoid court – you might lose and be putto shame. Many people who go to court have an unrealistic confidence that they will win.
   c. Debate your case with your neighbor: Solomon’s wise advice is to settle it out of court. If you can debate your case outside the court, do it there. The debate may expose a secret that would be to your shame in open court and from that your reputation be ruined.
   i. “To run to the law or to the neighbours is usually to run away from the duty of personal relationship—see Christ’s clinching comment in Mat_18:15 b.” (Kidner)
   ii. “One should not smear another’s name to clear his own or a defendant’s.” (Waltke)
   iii. Adam Clarke could not help but add this: “On this subject I cannot but give the following extract from Sir John Hawkins”s Life of Dr. Johnson, which he quotes from Mr. Selwin, of London: ‘A man who deliberates about going to law should have, 1. A good cause; 2. A good purse; 3. A good skilful attorney; 4. Good evidence; 5. Good able counsel; 6. A good upright Judges 7. A good intelligent jury; and with all these on his side, if he have not, 8. Good luck, it is odds but he miscarries in his suit.’”
   The remaining of Proverbs 25 contains one or two verse proverbs that will be considered individually.
   Pro_25:11-12
   A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold
   In settings of silver.
   Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold
   Is a wise rebuker to an obedient ear.
   a. A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold: There is something special and powerful about a word fitly spoken. The right word at the right time has power to heal and strengthen, to guide and rescue. It is like an apple made of gold set on a beautiful silver platter.
   i. A word fitly spoken: “Hebrew, Spoken upon his wheels – that is, rightly ordered and circumstantiated, spoken with a grace, and in due place. It is an excellent skill to be able to time a word, [Isa_50:4] to set it upon the wheels, as here. How ‘good’ are such words!” (Trapp)
   b. Is a wise rebuker to an obedient ear: The word fitly spoken may also be a rebuke. When the one who is a wise rebuker meets an obedient ear, it is like beautiful jewelry (an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold).
   Pro_25:13
   Like the cold of snow in time of harvest
   Is a faithful messenger to those who send him,
   For he refreshes the soul of his masters.
   a. Like the cold of snow in time of harvest: This speaks of a cold drink, cooled by
   the cold of snow, given to a hardworking man in time of harvest. The refreshing, invigorating nature of that cold drink illustrates the blessing of a faithful messenger to those who send him. The faithful messenger is beloved by the one who sends the message. God wants His people to be faithful messengers of His gospel and work.
   i. In the Apocrypha there is a description of a man who died from heat stroke during time of harvest (Jdt_8:2-3).
   ii. “Probably the reference is to drink cooled with snow. During the hot summers, laborers brought snow and ice from the high mountains and stored them in snow houses or snow caves; they were transported, for example, insulated by jute.” (Waltke)
   iii. “Verse 13 does not mean that it snows at harvest time—that would be an unmitigated disaster. It refers to bringing down snow from the mountains during the heat of harvest and the refreshment that gives to workers.” (Garrett)
   b. He refreshes the soul of his masters: The sender of the message is refreshed and comforted knowing that the message is being faithfully delivered. So, God is pleased with His faithful messengers today.
   i. “The apostle Paul often acknowledged this refreshment to his anxious spirit when he was burdened with all the care of the churches (1Co_16:17-18; Php_2:25-30; 1Th_3:1-7).” (Bridges)
   Pro_25:14
   Whoever falsely boasts of giving
   Is like clouds and wind without rain.
   a. Whoever falsely boasts of giving: There are some who give nothing but want to be known as people who give; others give small gifts and want to be known as those who give great gifts (such as Ananias and Sapphira in Act_5:1-11). They want the reputation of generosity without actually being generous.
   i. “The lesson, of course, is not to make false promises.” (Ross)
   b. Is like clouds and wind without rain: When the clouds and wind of a storm come, we expect life-giving rain. When the clouds and wind are without rain, it is a disappointment – just like he who falsely boasts of giving.
   i. The short New Testament letter of Jude used this figure to describe dangerous, unproductive people (Jud_1:12).
   Pro_25:15
   By long forbearance a ruler is persuaded,
   And a gentle tongue breaks a bone.
   a. By long forbearance a ruler is persuaded: Our self-control and patience can persuade great men to our cause, even a ruler. William Wilberforce persuaded the leaders of the British Empire to outlaw slavery through long forbearance and dedication to his righteous cause.
   b. A gentle tongue breaks a bone: The patient, gentle words of a wise man or woman can have a great impact over a long period of time. Such words can have bone-breaking power.
   i. “The gentle tongue breaking a bone might seem to be a paradox. But it is a fine illustration of the power of gentleness above hardness and irritation.” (Bridges)
   Pro_25:16
   Have you found honey?
   Eat only as much as you need,
   Lest you be filled with it and vomit.
   a. Eat only as much as you need: If someone has found honey – something good and wonderful to find – the honey should be enjoyed, but one should eat only as much as you need.
   b. Lest you be filled with it and vomit: If something good (honey) is eaten beyond what one needs, if we fill ourselves with it, then it may cause an unpleasant reaction (vomit) and we lose the good thing we thought we gained. Overindulgence in good things is harmful and counterproductive.
   i. “Since Eden, man has wanted the last ounce out of life, as though beyond God’s ‘enough’ lay ecstasy, not nausea.” (Kidner)
   ii. “By honey he understands, not only all delicious meats, but all present and worldly delights, which we are here taught to use with moderation. Honey excessively taken disposeth a man to vomiting.” (Poole)
   Pro_25:17
   Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house,
   Lest he become weary of you and hate you.
   a. Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house: It is expected that neighbors would visit neighbors, but such hospitality should not be abused.
   i. “Blessed be God, there is no need of this caution and reserve in our approach to him. Once acquainted with the way of access, there is no wall of separation. Our earthly friend may be pressed too far; kindness may be worn out by frequent use. But never can we come to our heavenly Friend unseasonably.” (Bridges)
   b. Lest he become weary of you and hate you: The wise man or woman will be sensitive to the sense that a neighbor may become weary of their presence. Since good neighborly relationships make life much better, this is an important principle of wisdom.
   i. “Friendship ripens through discreet sensitivity not to intrude on privacy and to allow space to be a person in his own right, not through self-enjoyment, impetuosity, or imposition. Without that discretion, instead of enriching life, friendship takes away from it.” (Waltke)
   ii. “At first thou mayest be Oreach, as the Hebrew proverb hath it, i.e., welcome as a traveller that stays for a day. At length thou wilt be Toveach, a charge, a burden. And lastly, by long tarrying, thou shalt be Boreach, an outcast, hunted out of the house that thou hast so immodestly haunted.” (Trapp)
   Pro_25:18-19
   A man who bears false witness against his neighbor
   Is like a club, a sword, and a sharp arrow.
   Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble
   Is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint.
   a. A man who bears false witness against his neighbor: Many proverbs speak against the man who bears false witness. This liar, whether in the court of law or common conversation, does great damage. He is like a club, a sword, and a sharp arrow. It is not a small sin to bear false witness against a neighbor.
   i. The man who bears false witness “Is as cruel and pernicious to him as any instrument of death. The design of the proverb is to show the wickedness of slander, and that a false witness is in some respect as bad as a murderer.” (Poole)
   ii. “For in-close battle he used the war club (or mace), for less close but still hand to hand fighting the sword (or dagger or scimitar, see Pro_5:4) and for long distance fighting the bow and arrow.” (Waltke)
   iii. “Lo, here the mischief of an evil tongue, thin, broad, and long, like a sword to let out the life blood of the poor innocent – nay, to destroy his soul too, as seducers do that bear false witness.” (Trapp)
   iv. “The tongue wounds four people at one stroke. The person harms himself, the object of his attack, anyone who listens to his words, and the name of God. Flee from this deadly disease.” (Bridges)
   b. Like a bad took and a foot out of joint: These two proverbs are connected because the man who bears false witness is often also the unfaithful man in time of trouble. In one aspect he brings pain, in the other aspect he is a pain. The unfaithful man is useless and like a persistent, debilitating pain.
   Pro_25:20
   Like one who takes away a garment in cold weather,
   And like vinegar on soda,
   Is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.
   a. Like one who takes away a garment in cold weather: Some people and their actions are especially troublesome. They bring discomfort (like leaving one without a garment in cold weather) and constant agitation (like vinegar on soda).
   i. Like vinegar on soda: “To pour acid on this alkali is ‘first of all to make it effervesce, and, secondly, to destroy its specific qualities’.” (Martin, cited in Kidner)
   b. Is one who sings songs to a heavy heart: The one who treats the heavy heart without sensitivity brings discomfort and the irritation of agitation. If songs are sung to a heavy heart, they should be sung in a minor key.
   i. “The proverb indicates the impropriety of making merry in the presence of sorrow. It is wrong in method and serves to increase distress rather than to soothe it.” (Morgan)
   Pro_25:21-22
   If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat;
   And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;
   For so you will heap coals of fire on his head,
   And the Lord will reward you.
   a. If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat: The Bible commands us to have giving-love and care even to our enemy. Human nature would tell us to hate our enemy, but the Bible tells us to love our enemies and to do it practically (Mat_5:44-47).
   i. “The implication that one should refrain from extracting vengeance is obvious. Paul quoted this proverb in his discussion of ‘love’ in Rom_12:9-21.” (Garrett)
   b. For so you will heap coals of fire on his head: Commentators debate if this is a good thing or a harsh thing; if this is something good in the eyes of your enemy or not. Most likely it refers to a burning conviction that our kindness places on our enemy. Or, some think it refers to the practice of lending coals from a fire to help a neighbor start his or her own – an appreciated act of kindness. Either way, we can destroy our enemy by making him our friend, and the Lord will reward you.
   i. “Not to consume, but to melt him into kindness; a metaphor taken from smelting metallic ores.” (Clarke)
   ii. “Most commentators agree with Augustine and Jerome that the ‘coals of fire’ refers to ‘burning pangs of shame’ which a man will feel when good is returned for evil, his shame producing remorse and contrition.” (Waltke)
   iii. “By heaping courtesies upon him, thou shalt win him over to thyself…. In doing some good to our enemies, we do most to ourselves.” (Trapp)
   iv. “Do you think that others have wronged you? Pity them pray for them; seek them out; show them their fault, humbly and meekly; wash their feet; take the mote out of their eye; seek to restore them in a spirit of meekness, remembering that you may be tempted; heap coals of loving-kindness on their heads; bring them if possible into such a broken and tender frame of mind, that they may seek forgiveness at your hand and God”s. If you cannot act thus with all the emotion you would feel, do it because it is right, and the emotion will inevitably follow.” (Meyer)
   Pro_25:23
   The north wind brings forth rain,
   And a backbiting tongue an angry countenance.
   a. The north wind brings forth rain: Solomon mentioned this as an example of cause and effect. The
   north wind blows, and it brings forth rain.
   b. A backbiting tongue an angry countenance: Those who speak ill of others with a backbiting tongue will provoke an angry countenance in others. This is a matter of cause and effect, just like the north wind bringing forth rain.
   Pro_25:24
   It is better to dwell in a corner of a housetop,
   Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.
   a. Better to dwell in the corner of a housetop: The corner of a housetop is not a great place to live. It is small, confined, and exposed to the elements because it is on the roof. Yet in some circumstances, the corner of a housetop is a betterplace to live.
   i. “Hostile speech from the wife is as unexpected and unwelcome as the rain from the north wind and as from a sly tongue. Moreover, there may be a figurative connection between the north wind and exposure on the corner of the roof.” (Waltke)
   b. Than in a house shared with a contentious woman: To have the whole house but live in constant conflict with a contentious woman is misery. The same principle would be true of the contentiousman. One would be betteroff in a humbler living situation and have peace in the home. For emphasis, this proverb is repeated from Pro_21:9.
   i. “Christian woman, do not think these proverbs are unworthy of your attention. Be sure you do not fit the description of this dreadful picture. And surely the repeated exhibition strongly inculcates the cultivation of the opposite graces, the absence of which clouds the female character in painful deformity.” (Bridges)
   Pro_25:25
   As cold water to a weary soul,
   So is good news from a far country.
   a. As cold water to a weary soul: When a person is weary, a gift of cold water is greatly refreshing. Soul in this proverb is used in the same sense as most other proverbs, as a reference to the whole person and life, not only the inner spiritual aspect of a person.
   i. “Water could be cooled in porous containers made out of clay, for they were able to keep its content at a temperature at least five degrees below that of the storage place.” (Meinhold, cited in Waltke)
   b. So is good news from a far country: When we receive good news, especially from a far country, it brings great and life-giving refreshment. This applies to good news of many types, not the least is the gospel, that good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ to rescue all who put their trust in Him.
   i. The fact that someone travels from a far country to deliver good and important news makes the news all the more important. Many are willing to listen to the good news of Jesus Christ from someone who comes from a distance, just because the trouble they went to in bringing the message adds to its importance.
   ii. “In the Biblical world news traveled agonizingly slow and was delivered with great difficulty, so that extending the distance to a far off land heightens the refreshment.” (Waltke)
   Pro_25:26
   A righteous man who falters before the wicked
   Is like a murky spring and a polluted well.
   a. A righteous man who falters before the wicked: Sometimes it is true that a righteous man stumbles and falters. This is always sad, but even more so when it happens before the wicked, in the view of those who reject God and His wisdom.
   i. “What a blemish was it for Abraham to fall under the reproof of Abimelech! for Samson to be taken by the Philistines in a whorehouse! for Josiah to be minded of his duty by Pharaoh Necho! for Peter to be drawn by a silly wench to deny his master!” (Trapp)
   ii. “The gross wickedness of the ungodly passes in silence. But Satan makes the neighborhood ring with the failings of those who profess to be Christians.” (Bridges)
   b. Is like a murky spring and polluted well: Instead of the clarity and life-giving property of clean, clear water, a compromised life is like a dirty pool. It gives no life, no clarity, no refreshment, and no help.
   i. “His despicable compromise disappoints, deprives and imperils the many who have learned to rely on him for their spiritual life.” (Waltke)
   ii. “For a thirsty traveler expecting relief, the effect of coming upon a polluted well is disbelief and disappointment, and it serves as an apt metaphor for the profound disillusionment one feels when the righteous yield to evil.” (Garrett)
   Pro_25:27
   It is not good to eat much honey;
   So to seek one’s own glory is not glory.
   a. It is not good to each much honey: Honey is an example of one of God’s great gifts. In the world of Solomon’s day sweets were rare and nothing was sweeter than honey. Yet, overindulgence in even a good gift like honey is not good. Self-control must be practiced even with good things.
   b. So to seek one’s own glory is not glory: Glory can be a good thing, and it is part of God’s promise to the believer (Rom_8:18). Yet to seek one’s own glory is not good; it is not glory at all. We should seek God’s glory and not worry about our own glory.
   i. “Much honey produces nausea. So eventually does self-glorification.” (Morgan)
   Pro_25:28
   Whoever has no rule over his own spirit
   Is like a city broken down, without walls.
   a. Whoever has no rule over his own spirit: There are many who have so little self-control that it can be said that they have no rule over their own spirit. The world, the flesh, or the devil rule over such people, and not the spirit of self-control that is part of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal_5:22-23).
   b. Is like a city broken down, without walls: A city broken down, a city without walls has no defense and is vulnerable to every attack. It has no security, stability, and can protect nothing really valuable. This shows some of the terrible cost of having no rule overone’s own spirit.
   i. “Certainly the noblest conquests are gained or lost over ourselves. The first outbreak of anger resulted in murder. A king’s lack of watchfulness about lust resulted in adultery.” (Bridges)

Proverbs 25:1
CONTENTS
Here are similar proverbs to what were given before; but as the title of them observes that they were copied by the men of Hezekiah, they are particularly marked from those we have already gone through.
Pro_25:1 These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.
Some have thought that those Proverbs here recorded, were copied from among the three thousand which is noted, 1Ki_4:32. Some have supposed that what is said, 2Ch_29:3, hath a reference to this business. And others have concluded, that those who copied out these proverbs of Solomon, were the Prophets, who lived about the times of the Kings, Hosea, Isaiah, or Micah. But it is enough for us that the Proverbs themselves are Solomon’s, and carry with them marks of inspiration.

Proverbs 25:2
It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.
God’s glory is manifested to the poor sinner in secret, when he speaks to him by his Holy Spirit, and makes him visits, like Jacob’s at Bethel. And those, who are made by him Kings and Priests to God and the Father, should delight to spread abroad his glory. Psa_66:16.

Proverbs 25:3-5
The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable. Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer. Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness.
Such is the love of Christ, unmeasurable! Eph_3:16-19, When the Holy Ghost hath taken away by regeneration, the dross of our fallen nature, and new formed us in Christ Jesus, then as gold and silver from the furnace, we are brought forth as vessels of honor for the master’s use. Mal_3:3; 2Ti_2:20-21.

Proverbs 25:6-7
Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great men: For better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up hither; than that thou shouldest be put lower in the presence of the prince whom thine eyes have seen.
Our Lord hath sweetly set forth this grace of humbleness. Luk_14:7-11

Proverbs 25:8-12
Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbour hath put thee to shame. Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself; and discover not a secret to another: Lest he that heareth it put thee to shame, and thine infamy turn not away. A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.
This is an elegant figure to represent the golden fruit of the gospel set forth by the word of the Spirit. And who is the wise Reprover but the Holy Ghost himself? Joh_16:7-8.

Proverbs 25:13
As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him: for he refresheth the soul of his masters.
Who is this Messenger, this Interpreter, one among a thousand, but the same Almighty Spirit? Job_33:23. Oh! how refreshing his doctrine! how grateful his influences! Blessed Lord! be thou the faithful witness in my soul of Jesus!

Proverbs 25:14-16
Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain. By long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone. Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.
This last verse I beg the Reader to observe, is put in the form of a question. Hast thou found honey? If we accept it naturally in reference to the body, of eating the things, which perish in using; what follows may be taken literally. But if we take it spiritually, who can have too much of Christ, the honey found in scripture? We shall best explain this scripture in this sense by another: I charge ye, 0 daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him that I am sick of love. Son_5:8. As if she had said, I love Christ so much that I am overpowered with my love of him. It hath induced a sickness of soul to long after him more and more. Sweet thought of Jesus this! And which those who have found Christ the very honey and the honey-comb of the soul, sometimes, I hope, know what it is to feel it.

Proverbs 25:17-22
Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour’s house; lest he be weary of thee, and so hate thee. A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow. Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint. As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart. If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.
The Apostle hath quoted these last verses with a peculiar reference to the blessed effects of grace in the heart. Rom_12:19-21 And what should a child of God, who hath tasted of the preciousness of Jesus, do to an enemy? Surely melt him down with coals of the fire of love, in recompensing good for evil. Is not Jesus here peculiarly pointed at? Did he not do all this, and ten thousand times more to us his enemies, when our souls were famished, and an everlasting unsatisfied state of thirst must have been endured, had not he quenched it? Precious, precious Jesus! thou didst indeed give us bread to eat, and water to drink, even the bread of life, and the water of life: yea, thine own body and blood! And how hath Jehovah rewarded thee with the felicity of having redeemed thy people?

Proverbs 25:23-25
The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue. It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman and in a wide house. As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.
Were there ever such tidings proclaimed as the tidings of salvation? And what waters to a thirsty soul, can equal the gratification of the souls thirst, when satisfied with redemption in Christ’s blood. News indeed from a far country, for it comes from heaven to earth, and from God to man. Angels posted down to proclaim it; and Jesus came and confirmed it by his blood: blessings on his name!

Proverbs 25:26-28
A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring. It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory. He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.
All these are very plain scriptures, explained upon the same gospel principles; and where the Spirit of Christ is not, they are none of his. Rom_8:9.

Proverbs 25:28
REFLECTIONS
READER! many very blessed reflections will be found folded up in the bosom of this chapter, and which I pray the Holy Ghost to open and explain to you and to me. And among the many, that of the eating of the honey comb inducing sickness is not the least. If the blessed Spirit be the faithful Messenger to our souls herein, I hope and trust that we shall both be refreshed in the view, as from the snow of Lebanon in the time of harvest, or the cold flowing waters that come from another place.
And what sickness like the sickness of the soul, when from having seen Christ as necessary, and having had such views of him as induce those longings and desires after him, which nothing short of himself can satisfy: the whole heart is sick, and every faculty faint until Christ be enjoyed. Precious Lord! give me this sickness, which is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby. Give me so to long for thee; so passionately to desire thee; that like the church I may cry out, Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love. Let my soul seek after thee as for hidden treasure; follow hard after thee in ordinances; set thee as a seal upon my heart, as a seal upon my arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave: may I delight to hear thy name, sweeter than all the melody of music to my ear, or the fragrancy of ointment to the smell. And never; never, give over, until such renewed manifestations of my Lord be made to my heart, that under the impression of thy soul-reviving presence, I can cry out, It is the voice of my beloved: behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills. And oh! do thou haste, my beloved, and come, for hope deferred maketh the heart sick; and when the desire cometh it is indeed a tree of life. Yes! blessed Jesus, ere long thou wilt come, and we shall part no more. I shall arrive, borne by thee on eagle’s wings, to that blessed climate where the inhabitant shall no longer say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity. Amen.