American Standard Version Proverbs 30

Proverbs 29:1-27
EXPOSITION
This chapter reinforces many precept given previously.
Pro_29:1
He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck; literally, a man of reproofs—one who has had a long experience of rebukes and warnings. Compare “a man of sorrows” (Isa_53:3). The hardening of the neck is a metaphor derived from obstinate draught animals who will not submit to the yoke (Deu_10:16; Jer_2:20; Jer_27:8). Christ calls his yoke easy, and bids his followers to bear it bravely (Mat_11:29. etc.). The reproofs may arise from the Holy Spirit and the conscience, from the teaching of the past, or from the counsel of friends. The LXX. (as some other Jewish interpreters) takes the expression in the text actively, “A man who reproves (ἐλέγχων) is better than one of stiff neck.” Shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy (Pro_6:15; Pro_15:10). The incorrigible and self-deluding sinners shall come to a fearful and sudden end, though retribution be delayed (comp. Job_34:20; Psa_2:9; Jer_19:11). And there is no hope in their end; despising all correction, they can have no possibility of restoration. We may refer, as an illustration, to that terrible passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb_6:4, etc.), and to the fate of the Jews unto the present day. Septuagint, “For when he is burning suddenly, there is no remedy.”
Pro_29:2
When the righteous are in authority; rather, as in Pro_28:28, when the righteous are increased; Vulgate, in multiplicatione justorum. When sinners are put away, and the righteous are in the majority. Septuagint, “when the just are commended.” When good men give the tone to society and conduct all affairs according to their own high standard, the peoople rejoice; there is general happiness; prosperity abounds, and voices ring cheerfully (Pro_11:10; Pro_28:12). When the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn; they suffer violence and injustice, and have bitter cause for complaint and lamentation. This proverb is not applicable to the age of Solomon.
Pro_29:3
The first hemistich is a variation of Pro_10:1-32. I (where see note). Keepeth company with; literally, feedeth, as Pro_28:7. Harlots (see on Pro_6:26). Such vice leads to the wasting of substance (Luk_15:13), and the great sorrow of the parent. Septuagint, “But he that pastureth (ποιμαίνει) harlots shall waste wealth.”
Pro_29:4
Many of the proverbs in this chapter seem to suit the time of Jeroboam II. (see on Pro_28:3). The king by judgment establisheth the land. The king, the fountain of justice, by his equitable government brings his country into a healthy and settled condition. In the security of the throne the land and people participate. He that receiveth gifts overthroweth it. The expression, אִישׁ תְּרוּמוֹת (ish terumoth), “man of offerings,” “man of gifts,” is ambiguous: it may mean “the taker of bribes,” the unrighteous ruler who sells justice (Pro_15:27), or it may signify “the imposer of taxes” (Eze_45:13, etc.) or forced benevolences. Aquila and Theodotion have ἀνὴρ ἀφαιρεμάτων, “man of heave offerings,” and Wordsworth regards him as a man who claims and receives gifts, as if he were a deity on earth. Whichever sense we give to the phrase, the contrast lies between the inflexibly upright ruler and the iniquitous or extortionate prince. The Septuagint gives παράνομος, “a transgressor;” Vulgate, vir avarus.
Pro_29:5
A man that flattereth his neighbour; says only what is agreeable, applauds his words and actions indiscriminately, and makes him think too well of himself he is no true friend (see Pro_28:23). Spreadeth a net for his feet; his stops (Pro_26:28; Job_18:8, etc.). If a man listens to such flattering words, and is influenced by them, he works his own ruin; self-deceived, he knows not his real condition, and accordingly makes grievous disaster of his life. The LXX. gives a different turn to the sentence, “He that prepareth a net before his friend entangles his own feet therein” (comp. Pro_26:27; Pro_28:10).
Pro_29:6
In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare (Pro_12:13). The snare is that the sinner is caught and held fast by his sin, and cannot escape, as he knows nothing of repentance, and has no will to cast off evil habits (Pro_24:16). (For “snare,” comp. Pro_18:7; Pro_20:25; Pro_22:25.) Septuagint, “For a man sinning there lies a great snare.” But the righteous doth sing and rejoice. The antithesis is not very obvious. It may mean that the good man has a conscience at peace, is free from the snare of sin, and therefore is glad; or that, in spite of a momentary fall, though he has transgressed, he knows that God forgives him on his repentance, and this makes him happy; or, generally that he rejoices in the happy life which his virtue procures for him here and hereafter (Mat_5:12). In the original “sing” represents the sudden outburst of joy, “rejoice” the continued state of happiness. “The righteous shall be in joy and gladness (ἐν χαρᾷ καὶ ἐν εὐφροσύνῃ),” Septuagint.
Pro_29:7
Considereth the cause; recognizes the claims, and, as the word din implies, supports them at the seat of judgment (comp. Job_29:12, Job_29:16; Psa_82:3, etc.). Septuagint, “A righteous man knows how to judge for the poor.” The wicked regardeth not to know it. This is a clumsy translation; it means, pays no attention so as to become fully acquainted with its details and bearings. But the words signify rather, as in the Revised Version margin, “understandeth not knowledge” (Pro_19:25; Pro_28:5), has no knowledge which would lead him to enter into the poor man’s case, and to sympathize with him in his distress; the claims of the feeble to recognition and relief at his hands are utterly unknown and disregarded. He can daily look on Lazarus at his gate, and find no call for his pity and charity; he can see the wounded traveller in the road, and pass by on the other side. The LXX. offers two translations of the latter clause, reading the second time דשׁ instead of רשׁע, and thereby not improving the sense: “But the ungodly understand. eth not knowledge, and the poor man hath not an understanding mind.”
Pro_29:8
Scornful men bring a airy into a snare. “Men of derision” (Isa_28:14) are those who despise and scoff at all things great and high, whether sacred or profane (see on Pro_1:22). These are the persons who raise rebellion in a country and excite opposition to constituted authority. The rendering of יָפִיתיּ, “bring into a snare,” as in the Authorized Version, is supported by some of the Jewish versions and commentaries; but the more correct rendering is “blow into a blaze, inflame,” as the Revised Version (comp. Job_20:26; Eze_22:20, Eze_22:21). These scorners excite the populace to acts of fury, when all respect for piety and virtue is lost; they fan the passions of the fickle people, and lead them to civil discord and dangerous excesses (comp. Pro_22:10). Septuagint, “Lawless men burn up a city.” But wise men turn away wrath; by their prudent counsels allay the angry passions roused by those evil men (see Pro_29:11 and Pro_15:1, Pro_15:18).
Pro_29:9
If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man—if a wise man has a controversy, either legal or social, with a wicked fool—whether he rage (is angry) or laugh, there is no rest. It is a question whether the wise man or the fool is the subject of this clause. St. Jerome makes the former the subject, Vir sapiens, si cum stulto contenderit, sive irascatur, sive rideat, non inveniet requiem. It matters not how the wise man treats the fool; he may be stern and angry, he may be gentle and good tempered, yet the fool will be none the better, will not be reformed, will not cease from his folly, will carry on his cavilling contention. Hitzig, Delitzsch, and others, deeming that the rage and the laughter are not becoming to the character of the wise man, take the fool as the subject; so that the sense is, that after all has been said, the fool only falls into a passion or laughs at the matter, argument is wasted upon him, and the controversy is never settled. This seems to be the best interpretation, and is somewhat supported by the Septuagint, “A wise man shall judge the nations, but a worthless man, being angry, laughs and fears not [καταγελᾶται καὶ οὐ καταπτήσσει, which may also mean, ’is derided and terrifies no one’].” Wordsworth notes that the irreligious fool is won neither by the austere preaching of John the Baptist nor by the mild teaching of Christ, but rejects both (Mat_11:16-19).
Pro_29:10
The bloodthirsty hate the upright; him that is perfect, Revised Version; ὅσιον, Septuagint. His life is a tacit reproach to men of blood, robbers, murderers, and such like sinners, as is finely expressed in the Book of Wisdom Pro_2:12, etc.. But the just seek his soul. The explanation of this hemistich is doubtful. The following interpretations have been offered:
(1) The just seek the soul of the upright to deliver him from death temporal and spiritual (comp. Pro_12:6; Psa_142:4).
(2) The just seek the murderer’s life, take vengeance on him (comp. Psa_63:9, Psa_63:10).
(3) “As for the just, they (the murderers) attempt his life,” where the change of subject, though by no means unparalleled, is awkward (comp. Psa_37:14). The second explanation makes the righteous the executioners of vengeance on the delinquents, which does not seem to be the idea intended, and there is no confirmation of it in our book. The interpretation first given has against it the fact that the phrase, “to seek the soul,” is used of attempts against the life, not of preserving it. But this is not fatal; and the above seems to be the most likely explanation offered, and gives a good antithesis. Men of blood hate a virtuous man, and try to destroy him; the righteous love him, and do their utmost to defend and keep him safe. If this interpretation is rejected, the third explanation is allowable, the casus pendens—”the just, they seek his life”—may be compared with Gen_26:15; Deu_2:23. Septuagint, “But the upright will seek (
ἐκζητήσουσι) his life.”
Pro_29:11
A fool uttereth all his mind; his spirit; רוּחוֹ, i.e. “his anger;” θυμόν, Septuagint (comp. Pro_16:32). The wording of the second hemistich confirms this rendering. A fool pours out his wrath, restrained by no consideration. It is a wise maxim that says, “Command your temper, lest it command you;” and again, “When passion enters in at the foregate, wisdom goes out at the postern.” So we have the word attributed to Evenus Parius—
Πολλάκις ἀνθρώπων ὀργὴ νόον ἐξεκάλυψε
Κρυπτόμενον μανίας πουλὺ χερειότερον.
“Wrath often hath revealed man’s hidden mind,
Than madness more pernicious.”
A wise man keepeth it in till afterwards. This clause is capable of more than one explanation. The Authorized Version says that the wise man restrains his own anger till he can give it proper vent. The term בְּאָחוֹר occurs nowhere else, and is rendered “at last,” “finally,” and by Delitzsch, “within,” i.e. in his heart. The verb rendered “keepeth in” (shabach) is rather “to calm,” “to hush,” as in Psa_65:7; Psa_89:10, “Which stilleth the noise of the seas.” So we have the meaning: The wise man calms the auger within him; according to the proverb, Irae dilatio, mentis pacatio. Or the anger calmed may be that of the fool: The wise man appeases it after it has been exhibited; he knows how to apply soothing remedies to the angry man, and in the end renders him calm and amenable to reason. This seems the most suitable explanation. Septuagint, “A wise man husbands it (ταμιεύεται) in part.”
Pro_29:12
All his servants are wicked. The ruler is willing to be deceived, and does not care to hear the truth, so his servants flatter and lie to him, and the whole atmosphere is charged with unreality and deceit. Qualis rex, talis grex. Ecc_10:2, “As the judge of the people is himself, so are his officers; and what manner of man the ruler of the city is, such are all that dwell therein.” Claudian, ’IV. Cons. Hon.,’ 299—
“Componitur orbis
Regis ad exemplum: nec sic inflectere sensus
Humanos edicta valent, ut vita regentis.
Mobile mutatur semper cum principe vulgus.”
“By the king’s precedent
The world is ordered; and men’s minds are moved
Less by stern edicts than their ruler’s life.
The fickle crowd aye by the prince is swayed.”
Cicero, ’De Leg.,’ 3.13, “Ut enim cupiditatibus principum et vitiis iufici solet tota civitas, sic emendari et corrigi continentia.” And ibid; 14, “Quo perniciosius de republica merentur vitiosi principes, quod non solum vitia concipiunt ipsi, sod ea infundunt in civitatem; neque solum obsunt, ipsi quod corrumpuntur, sed etiam quod corrumpunt, plusque exemplo, quam peccato, nocent.”
Pro_29:13
A variation of Pro_22:2. The deceitful man. This makes no contrast with the poor. “The man of oppressions” (tekakim) is the usurer, from whom the poor suffer most wrong and cruelty. The needy man and the rich lender are thrown together in social life. St. Jerome calls them pauper et creditor. Septuagint, “When the creditor and debtor meet together, the Lord maketh inspection (ἐπσκοπὴν) of both.” The Lord lighteneth both their eyes. Both rich and poor, the oppressor and the oppressed, owe their light and life to God; he makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good; he sends rain on the just and the unjust; he is the Father, Ruler, and Judge of all. Here is comfort for the poor, that he has a tender Father who watches over him; here is a warning for the rich, that he will have to give an account of his stewardship. The former proverb spoke only generally of God being the Maker of both (comp. Psa_13:1-6 :8; Ecc_11:7).
Pro_29:14
The king that faithfully judgeth the poor (comp. Pro_16:12; Pro_20:28; Pro_25:5). Inflexible fidelity to duty is intended—that perfect impartiality, which dispenses justice alike to rich and poor, uninfluenced By personal or social considerations. His throne shall be established forever. Being founded on righteousness, it shall pass on to his descendants for many generations (comp. Jer_22:3, etc.). The LXX; pointing differently, have, “His throne shall be established for a testimony” (lahed, instead of lahad).
Pro_29:15
The rod and reproof give wisdom to the young. The former denotes bodily correction, what we call corporal punishment; the latter, discipline in words, rebuke administered when any moral fault is noticed. The idea here enunciated is very common in this book (see Pro_10:1, Pro_10:13; Pro_13:24; Pro_23:13). But a child loft to himself bringeth his mother to shame. The verb translated “left” (שָׁלַח, shalach) is used in Job_39:5 of the wild ass left to wander free where it wills. A child allowed to do as he likes, undisciplined—spoiled, as we call it—is a shame to his mother, whose weakness has led to this want of restraint, fond love degenerating into over-indulgence (comp. Pro_17:21; Pro_28:7). Septuagint, “A son that goeth astray shameth his parents.”
Pro_29:16
When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth. The verb rabah is used in both parts of the sentence, and should have been so translated, When the wicked increase, transgression increaseth. Septuagint, “When the godless are many, sins become many.” Where the wicked get the upper hand in a community, their evil example is copied, and a lowering of moral tone and a general laxity in conduct prevail (see on Pro_29:12 : comp. also Pro_29:2; Pro_28:12, Pro_28:28). But the righteous shall see their fall. Retribution shall overtake them, and God’s justice shall be vindicated. This the righteous shall witness, and shall rejoice in the vengeance, when his eye shall see its desire upon his enemies (Psa_54:7; see also Psa_37:34; Psa_73:17, etc.). Septuagint (punctuating differently), “But when they (the godless) fall, the righteous become fearful (κατάφοβοι);” they are awestruck at the sudden and grievous fall of sinners.
Pro_29:17
Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest (Pro_19:18); Septuagint, ἀναπαύσει σε. He will be no longer a source of care and disquiet to you. Delight (maadanim); properly, dainty dishes, and then any great and special pleasure (comp. Ec Pro_30:1-12). Septuagint, “He shall give ornament (κόσμον) to thy soul.” This verse and the following are presented by the Greek version in a mutilated form after Pro_28:17 (where see note).
Pro_29:18
Where there is no vision, the people perish; rather, cast off restraint, become ungovernable, cannot be reined in (Exo_32:22, Exo_32:25). “Vision” (chazon), prophecy in its widest sense, denotes the revelation of God’s will made through agents, which directed the course of events, and was intended to be coordinate with the supreme secular authority. The prophets were the instructors of the people in Divine things, standing witnesses of the truth and power of religion, teaching a higher than mere human morality. The fatal effect of the absence of such revelation of God’s will is stated to be confusion, disorder, and rebellion; the people, uncontrolled, fall into grievous excesses, which nothing hut high principles can restrain. We note the licence of Eli’s time, when there was no open vision (1Sa_3:1-21.); in Asa’s days, when Israel had long been without a teaching priest (2Ch_15:3); and when the impious Ahaz “made Judah naked” (2Ch_28:19); or when the people were destroyed by reason of lack of knowledge of Divine things (Hos_4:6). Thus the importance of prophecy in regulating the life and religion of the people is fully acknowledged by the writer, in whose time, doubtless, the prophetical office was in full exercise: but this seems to be the only passage in the book where such teaching is directly mentioned; the instructors and preceptors elsewhere introduced as disseminating the principles of the chochmah being parents, or tutors, or professors, not inspired prophets. But he that keepeth the Law, happy is he! “The Law” (torah) is not merely the written Mosaic Law, but the announcement of God’s will by the mouth of his representatives; and the thought is, not the blessedness of those who in a time of anarchy and irreligion keep to the authorized enactments of the Sinaitic legislation, but a contrast between the lawlessness and ruin of a people uninfluenced by religious guidance, and the happy state of those who obey alike the voice of God, whether conveyed in written statutes or by the teaching of living prophets. (For “happy is he,” comp. Pro_14:21; Pro_16:20.) Septuagint, “There shall be no interpreter (ἐξηγητὴς) to a sinful nation, but he that keepeth the Law is most blessed.”
Pro_29:19
A servant will not be corrected by words. Mere words will not suffice to teach a slave, any more than a child, true, practical wisdom. He needs severer measures, even the correction of personal discipline. Septuagint, “By words a stubborn (σκληρὸς) slave will not be instructed.” The next clause gives an explanation of this necessity. For though he understand he will not answer. The answer is not merely the verbal response to a command, as, “I go, sir;” but it implies obedience in action. The reluctant slave thoroughly understands the order given, but he pays no heed to it, will not trouble himself to execute it, and therefore must meet with stern treatment (comp. Pro_29:15; Pro_23:13, etc.; Pro_26:3). “That servant which knew his Lord’s will, and made not ready, nor did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes” (Luk_12:47). Septuagint, “For even if he understand, he will not obey.”
Pro_29:20
Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? (comp. Pro_26:12); Vulgate, velocem ad loquendum; Septuagint, ταχὺν ἐν λόγοις. Jas_1:19,” Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak.” “A talkative (γλωσσώδης) man is dangerous in his city; and he that is rash (προπετὴς) in his words shall be hated” (Ecc_9:18). We might also translate, “hasty in his matters,” “hasty in business,” and the gnome would be equally true (see note on Pro_19:2). There is more hope era fool than of him. The dull, stupid man (kesil) may be instructed and guided and made to listen to reason; the hasty and ill-advised speaker consults no one, takes no thought before he speaks, nor reflects on the effect of his words; such a man it is almost impossible to reform (see
Jas_3:5, etc.). “Every one that speaks,” says St. Gregory, “while he waits for his hearer’s sentence upon his words, is as it were subjected to the judgment of him by whom he is heard. Accordingly, he that fears to be condemned in respect of his words ought first to put to the test that which he delivers—that there may be a kind of impartial and sober umpire sitting between the hear and tongue, weighing with exactness whether the heart presents right words, which the tongue taking up with advantage may bring forward for the heater’s judgment” (’Moral.,’ 8:5, Oxford transl.).
Pro_29:21
He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child. The verb panak, which is not found elsewhere in the Old Testament, is rightly here translated as in the Vulgate, qui delicate nutrit. It refers to the spoiling a person by over-refinement, luxury, and pampering—a treatment peculiarly unsuitable in the case of a bond servant, and one which makes such forgetful of his dependent position. Septuagint, “He that liveth wantonly (κατασπαταλᾷ) from childhood shall be a servant.” Shall have him become his son at the length; i.e. at length, like “at the last,” equivalent to “at last” (Pro_5:11). The word rendered “son” (מַנוֹן, manon) is of doubtful meaning, and has been variously understood or misunderstood by interpreters. Septuagint, “And in the end shall have pain (ὀδυνηθήσεται) over himself;” Symmachus, “shall have murmuring (ἔστα γογγυσμός);” Vulgate, Postea sentiet eum contumacem. Ewald translates “ungrateful;” Delitzsch, “place of increase,” i.e. a household of pampered scapegraces; but one does not see how the disaster can be called a place or a house. It seems safest in this uncertainty to adopt the Jewish interpretation of “progeny:” “he will be as a son.” The pampered servant will end by claiming the privileges of a son, and perhaps ousting the legitimate children from their inheritance (comp. Pro_17:2; and the ease of Ziba and Mephibosheth, 2Sa_16:4). “Fodder, a stick, and burdens are for the ass; and bread, correction, and work for a servant. If thou set thy servant to labour, thou shalt find rest; but if thou let him go idle, he will seek liberty” (Ecclesiasticus 33:24, etc.). Spiritual writers have applied this proverb to the pampering of the flesh, which ought to be under the control of its master, the spirit, but which, if gratified and unrestrained, gets the upper hand, and, like a spoiled servant, dictates to its lord.
Pro_29:22
An angry man stirreth up strife. This is a variation of Pro_15:18 and Pro_28:25 (which see). A furious man aboundeth in transgression. “A furious man” is a passionate person, who gives way to violent fits of anger (Pro_22:24). Such a man both makes enemies by his conduct and falls into manifold excesses of word and action while under the influence of his wrath. “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” (Jas_1:20). The Greek gnome says—
Ὀργὴ δὲ πολλὰ δρᾷν ἀναγκάζει κακά
And again—
Πόλλ ἔστιν ὀργῆς ἐξ ἀπαιδεύτου κακά
“Unchastened anger leads to many ills.”
Septuagint, “A passionate man diggeth up sin”—a forcible expression, which is not unusual in reference to quarrels.
Pro_29:23
A man’s pride shall bring him low. The same thought is found in Pro_15:33; Pro_16:18; Pro_25:6, etc.; Luk_14:11. Honour shall uphold the humble in spirit; better, as the Revised Version, he that is of a lowly spirit shall obtain honour (comp. Pro_11:16; Isa_57:15). The humble man does not seek honour, but by his life and action unconsciously attains it (comp. Job_22:29). Septuagint, “Haughtiness brings a man low, but the lowly-minded the Lord upholdeth with glory.”
Pro_29:24
Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul. The accomplice of a thief puts his own safety in danger. This is explained by what follows: He heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not; better, he heareth the adjuration, and telleth not. This refers to the course of proceeding defined by Le Pro_5:1, and intimated in Jdg_17:2. When a theft was committed, the person wronged or the judge pronounced an imprecation on the thief and on any one who was privy to the crime, and refrained from giving information; a witness who saw and knew of it, and was silent under this formal adjuration, has to bear his iniquity; he is not only an accomplice of a criminal, he is also a perjurer; one sin leads to another. Some commentators explain the first hemistich as referring only to the crime of receiving or using stolen goods, by which a man commits a crime and exposes himself to punishment; but it is best taken, as above, in connection with the second clause, and as elucidated thereby.
Pro_29:25
The fear of man bringeth a snare. He who, through fear of what man may do to him, think or say of him, does what he knows to be wrong, lets his moral cowardice lead him into sin, leaves duty undone,—such a man gets no real good from his weakness, outrages conscience, displeases God. See our Lord’s words. Whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe (Pro_18:10). Such trust carries a man safe through all dangers; fearing to offend God, living as always under his eye, he feels Divine protection, and knows that whatever happens is for the best. The LXX. joins this to the preceding verse, thus: “He who shareth with a thief hateth his own soul; and if, when an oath is offered, they who hear it give, no information, they fearing and reverencing men, are overthrown, but he that trusteth in the Lord shall rejoice.” They add another rendering of the last verse, “Ungodliness causeth a man to stumble, but he who trusts in the Lord (ἐπὶ τῷ δεσπότῃ 2Pe_2:1) shall be saved.” Δεσπότης is used for Jehovah in the New Testament, e.g. Luk_2:29; Act_4:24.
Pro_29:26
Many seek the ruler’s favour; literally, the countenance of the ruler. A variation of Pro_19:6. There are numbers who are always trying, by means fair or surreptitious, to curry favour with a great man who has anything to bestow (comp. lKi Pro_10:24; Psa_45:12). But every man’s judgment cometh from the Lord. The real and only reliable judgment comes, not from an earthly prince, but from the Lord, whose approval or disapproval is final and indisputable. Therefore one should seek to please him rather than any man, however great and powerful.
Pro_29:27
An unjust man is an abomination to the just. This great moral contrast, marked and universal, is a fitting close of the book. The word “abomination” (toebah) occurs more than twenty times in the Proverbs; it is appropriate here because the good man looks upon the sinner as the enemy of God, as the psalmist says, “Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them thine enemies” (Psa_139:21, etc.). He that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked; because he is a standing reproach to him, and by every tone and look and action seems to express his condemnation. Septuagint, “A direct way is an abomination to the lawless.” The Vulgate ends the chapter with a paragraph which is found in some manuscripts of the Septuagint after Pro_24:22 (where see note), Verbum custodiens filius extra perditionem erit.
HOMILETICS
Pro_29:1
Hardened under reproof
I. REPROOF MAY RE REJECTED. It is not violent and compulsory correction. We have free wills, and God does not destroy our wills in order to reform our conduct, for he only delights in voluntary obedience; but he sends warnings and chastises us as his children. This treatment should lead to repentance. Still, it is addressed to our reason, our conscience, our affections. Pharaoh repeatedly rejected Divine reproofs, when he refused to let the Hebrews go after each successive plague was removed. The Israelites in the wilderness murmured and rebelled again and again, in spite of continuous mercies and numerous sharp rebukes. God is often warning his children now. The faithful preaching of his truth is a rebuke to the thoughtless and the sinful. The interior voice of conscience utters its own solemn Divine reproof. If we sin heedlessly, we do not sin unwarned. The rejection of the reproof is no sign of its weakness or insufficiency. Even the warning words of Christ failed to arrest the wilful people of Jerusalem in their headlong race to destruction (Mat_23:37).
II. REPROOF IS REJECTED BY STUBBORN SELF-WILL. The neck is hardened. The obstinate man is like a horse that will not obey the reins; like one that has taken the bit into its teeth and will rush on in its own wild course.

1. This implies determination. One who was unreproved might plead ignorance or forgetfulness. Such an excuse cannot be put forward by the man who has been often reproved. His disregarded warnings will rise up in the judgment to condemn him. Meanwhile his continiuous refusal to give heed to them is a sure sign of deliberate sinfulness.
2. This also implies hardness of heart. It is the hard heart that makes the neck hard. The stiff-necked generation is a stony-hearted generation. The repeated rejection of reproof tends to harden the heart more and more. The ear grows deaf to the often-neglected alarum.
   III. REPROOF, WHEN REJECTED, IS FOLLOWED BY RUIN. The reproof is a warning. Its very sternness is inspired by love, because it is intended to guard the foolish soul against impending danger. But after this has been heard unheeded there can be no escape.
3. There is no excuse. The warning has been uttered. Everything possible has been done to arrest the downward career of the stubborn reprobate.
4. There is double guilt. The rejection of the reproof is an additional sin—an insult to the Divine righteousness and love.
5. There can be no hope of escape. The destruction may be sudden, after its long delay, and “that without remedy.”
   IV. REPROOF, WHEN HEEDED, LEADS TO RESTORATION.
6. It contains hope. For if there were no way of escape open the language of reproof would be wasted. In that case it would come too late, and might as well be spared. The sternest reproof is a call to repentance, and this call points to a restoration.
7. It prepares for the gospel. John the Baptist makes straight the way for Christ. After we have humbly submitted to reproof, we shall hear the joyous message of the gospel.
   Pro_29:2
   The religion of politics
   I. RELIGION IS CONCERNED WITH POLITICS. Too often the two spheres are kept disastrously distinct. On the one hand, it is pretended that the sacred character of religion would be desecrated by its being dragged into the political arena; and on the other hand, the claim of religion to have a voice in public affairs is set down to the ambition and tyranny of priestcraft. Now, it is not to be supposed that purely religious subjects should be obtruded on the uncongenial platform of a public meeting. Very possibly they would be resented; we are not to cast pearl before swine. Moreover, there is a time for everything. But religion claims to influence politics, to be a leading factor in public movements, to hold the standard by which all political actions are to be judged. It must do this if it is to carry out its mission of leavening the whole lump. It should leave no region of life untouched; commerce, literature, art, science, recreation, society, and politics must all come under its influence. For religion to withdraw from politics is to hand that important region of life over to the devil. We find that the Bible has much to say on the conduct of public affairs.
   II. THE WELFARE OF A PEOPLE IS LARGELY DETERMINED BY THE MORAL CHARACTER OF THE GOVERNMENT.
8. The principal influence of religion on politics must be moral. In public life nice distinctions of creed, fine varieties of abstract dogma, and academic discussions of theoretical divinity are brushed aside as mere cobwebs compared to the serious, practical, present day questions that are at stake. But the moral influence of religion does not belong to any of these categories. That influence is direct, practical, and real. The religion of politics is the morality of public life viewed in the light of God.
9. The moral character of public affairs is of vital interest to the people. States are ruined by immoral government. Bad passions stir up needless strife. Wicked greed, jealousy, or revenge are at the root of most wars. A government of a high moral character would have found a means of keeping the peace, where one of lower tone has plunged the nation into all the horrors of war. The right and peaceable relation of class to class within the community can only be preserved when justice and humanity are observed in the conduct of public affairs.
   III. IT IS THE DUTY OF CHRISTIAN MEN TO SEE THAT THE RIGHTEOUS ARE IN AUTHORITY.
10. In a system of popular government all who have a voice should make that voice heard. It is a distinct dereliction of duty for any Christian man to withdraw from all influence in public life. It may be urged that the tone of that life is worldly. If so there is the more reason why unworldly men should enter it in order to give it a higher character. The Christian is not a recluse. He is called to be the salt of the earth, to season all society with wholesome thought and action. It is unfair to leave the burden of public affairs to others, and then to profit by their labours; and yet this is what is done by those people who are too devout to assist in the making of good laws, but by no means too devout to avail themselves of those laws when they are made.
11. Religion will best influence politics by good men being at the head of affairs. Good men will make good measures. It is therefore necessary to select men of high character for parliament and also for municipal offices.
    Pro_29:8
    Scornful men
    The evil of a contemptuous treatment of life and duty is to be seen in many relations. Let us consider some of them.
    I. SCORN FOR THE PEOPLE. This was the temper of the old monarchical and aristocratic systems. The mischief of it was seen in the explosion of the French Revolution. The “dim multitude” cannot be treated as so much chaff of the threshing floor. The nation is the people. The first interest of the nation is the welfare of the great bulk of the population, not the luxury of what is regarded as “the cream of society”
    II. SCORN FOR THE POOR. This was the attitude of the wealthy Jews in ancient Israel, which called forth stern rebukes from the prophets of God (e.g. Amo_6:3-6); and the same fault was detected in the Christian Church by St. James (Jas_2:1-3). The indifference which too many of the prosperous feel for their hard-pressed, suffering brethren is one of the most dangerous symptoms of society. It lies at the root of socialism.
    III. SCORN FOR INJUSTICE. In some cases there is worse than poverty; there is Positive wrong doing. The powerful oppress the weak. Strong masters hold down miserable slaves. This evil condition was a perpetual cause of danger to Rome in its most prosperous age. It is seen in the “sweating system” in England today.
    IV. SCORN FOR DANGER. Misery and injustice are sources of danger. But other and direct dangers may menace a country. The scorn of pride will be no security against those dangers. We shall not be protected by staging, “Rule, Britannia,” or by shouting, “Britons never shall be slaves.”
    V. SCORN FOR WICKEDNESS. The greatest danger of the state is not in poverty at home; nor is it in war from abroad. It lies in the moral corruption of the people. Wholesale debauchery, widespread drunkenness, a perfect epidemic of gambling, profligacy, dishonesty,—these are the cankers that eat out the vital strength of a nation. Indifference to such evils is contempt for moral law.
    VI. SCORN FOR RELIGION. In the race for wealth, in the dance of pleasure, in the mad orgy of worldly engagement, multitudes treat the claims of religion with scorn. Others, in their misery and despair, refuse to believe that any help or hope can come to them from heaven. This scornful attitude towards the first duties and the highest interests of life must be fraught with fatal consequences. Meanwhile the scornful attitude entirely excludes the beginnings of better things, Humility and repentance are impossible so long as this defiant mood is cherished.
    Pro_29:18
    No vision?
    The revelation of ancient prophecy was not continuous and uninterrupted, but it came in flashes, between which there were intervals of darkness. Sometimes those intervals were long and most distressing to a people that had learnt to draw its chief lessons from Divine oracles. Such a time was experienced in the days of Eli, for “the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no open vision” (1Sa_3:1); and another and longer period was that of the “four centuries of silence” between the closing of the Old Testament and the opening of the New Testament.
    I. MEN NEED A HEAVENLY VISION. This requirement was recognized in Israel on especial grounds, because the people felt themselves to be a divinely directed nation, with God for their King and Leader. The fading away of the prophet’s vision would be like the vanishing of the pillar of cloud and fire in the wilderness; a necessary guidance would be lost. But heavenly visions are not less needed by all men.
12. Men need to know heavenly truth.
    (1) In order to do the will of God. The servant must know his master’s will if he is to do his duty. Earthly knowledge is not enough. Heavenly messages are wanted, or the duty to God will be neglected.
    (2) For the saving of a man’s own soul. We are not merely earthly animals. We are naturally related to heaven. To be starved of heavenly truth is to be left to perish in earthly mindedness.
13. Men cannot discover heavenly truth. It must be revealed. Without a vision from God the world is in spiritual darkness.
    II. MEN CAN HAVE A HEAVENLY VISION. God has not left his people to grope in a gross Cimmerian darkness. Light hass fallen from heaven on earth.
14. This is given in the Bible. That record of old revelation enshrines a perpetual vision of God for all who have eyes to behold it. Therefore it is the duty of Christian people
    (1) to study the Scriptures,
    (2) to circulate them throughout the world, and
    (3) to teach and expound them to children and the ignorant.
15. This is enjoyed in personal experience. Every man can have his own vision, nay, must have it if he would really see truth. It is not to be supposed that everybody can he a Daniel or an Ezekiel, can behold Isaiah’s wonderful vision of God (Isa_6:1-13) or St. John’s glorious apocalypse of the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev_21:1-27). Much less is each man to look for his own separate gospel, and to feel called upon to write his own newer Testament. But in the understanding and appreciation of truth we must each see it for ourselves by the aid of a Divine inspiration. This was predicted by Joel of the new dispensation (Joe_2:25), and claimed by St. Peter (Act_2:16-21).
    III. MEN MAY LOSE THEIR HEAVENLY VISION. God is not capricious. If the Divine voice is silent, this must be because there are no obedient ears to receive it. The vision is only withdrawn when the eyes of men are so blinded by sin and worldliness that they cannot behold it. Then God may send a famine of the Word of truth (Amo_8:11). It is a fearful thing to be incapable of seeing the truth of God or hearing his voice. But this condition is dependent on our own conduct. We blind our eyes against the light of heaven when we plunge into the mire of sin. We need to pray, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law” (Psa_119:18). Christ came to open blind eyes (Luk_4:18), and to give new visions of God’s truth (Joh_18:37).
    Pro_29:25
    The fear of man
    I. THE FEAR.
16. In what it consists. This fear is a dread of the disfavour of man, and its hurtful results. It may take various forms.
    (1) Fear of human authority. Thus, in days of persecution, the weak shrink from martyrdom. Wrongs are often permitted for fear of the consequences of agitating against them.
    (2) Fear of the great. Some men have an awe of mere rank and station. They bow obsequiously before riches; they dread to oppose important personages.
    (3) Fear of society. “Mrs. Grundy” is regarded with awe. It is thought to be a dreadful thing to be out of the fashion. Social impropriety, in the eyes of the fastidious, is regarded as worse than moral delinquency.
    (4) Fear of the multitude. This is the new fear of man peculiarly mischievous in our democratic age. There is a danger lest men should concede to popular clamour what they do not believe to be good or right.
    (5) Fear of those we love. Perhaps this is the most difficult fear to resist (but see Mat_10:37).
17. How it originates.
    (1) In cowardice. This is an unworthy fear. It is selfish and immoral. It springs from too much regard for our own feelings, and too little reference for duty.
    (2) In godlessness. Man takes the place of God. The mob is deified. Human action is treated as supreme.
    II. ITS SNARE.
18. The deception of it.
    (1) In regard to duty. Fear takes the place of conscience. It blinds us to the sense of right and wrong, blurring the great outlines of morality. Instead of asking, “What is right?” a person who is haunted by this shameful fear only inquires, “What is safe?” Now, there is no more self-deluded mortal than the man who is only sure of being “safe.” When he folds his arms in smug complacency, he is really “in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity.”
    (2) In regard to danger. Subservience to the opinion of other people can never afford real security. It is but a shallow and tricky device. We can never please all men, and in attempting to escape the wrath of one party we rouse that of another. If, however, the sleek time server were clever enough to propitiate all human enmity, he would have left himself exposed to the far more terrible wrath of Heaven.
19. The fatality of it. This fear brings a snare. It entraps its unwary victim. When once the craven-hearted man is caught in the meshes of worldly fears, he finds it vain to struggle for liberty. This fear creates a miserable bondage. No serf under the old feudal system was more bound to his lord than the poor slave of public opinion is to his hydra-headed master. This wretched fear of man is fatal to all true manliness. It will make shipwreck of the most honourable career. The only needful fear is fear of doing wrong, fear of the devil (Mat_10:28).
    III. ITS ANTIDOTE. We are to find a refuge from the ensnaring fear of man by putting our trust in the Lord. God is mightier than the whole world. A howling mob hounding its victims to death cannot shake the confidence of one who has made the Lord his Refuge. Trust in God saved Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from cowardice when threatened by cruel Nebuchadnezzar and cast into the burning fiery furnace. Christ was calm and fearless before all his foes, fortified by the prayers of Gethsemane. We need to rise into a higher atmosphere above all the mists of popular opinion. Men may frown and rage, or laugh and ridicule; but he who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty (Psa_91:1).
    “Earth may be darkness; Heaven will give thee Light.”
    Pro_29:26
    The supreme Arbiter. I. IT IS A COMMON MISTAKE TO ASCRIBE TO MAN THE INFLUENCE WHICH BELONGS ONLY TO GOD. In the previous verse we have been warned against falling into the snare of the fear of man, and encouraged to find our safety in trust in God. A similar contrast is again presented to us, but from the opposite side. We are tempted to flatter the great in order to win their favour; but we are now reminded that our destiny does not lie in their hands, but in the hands of One who is supreme in judgment, though his rule is too often ignored by us. Helena, in ’All’s Well that ends Well,’ says—
    “It is not so with him that all things knows,
    As ’tis with us that square our guess by shows;
    But most it is presumption in us when
    The help of Heaven we count the act of men.”
20. This common mistake arises partly from the fact that the human influence is visible, while that of God is unseen. The molehill at our feet thus seems to be more important than the mountain that bounds our horizon but is wrapped in mist.
21. It is also caused by the further fact that much of God’s judgment is postponed. We do not yet experience the full effect of the Divine arbitrament.
    II. GOD’S JUDGMENT WILL BE EXPERIENCED BY EVERY MAN. He is not only the Arbiter of the fate of those who call in his aid; he is the “Judge of all the earth” (Gen_18:25). Abraham recognized the fact that God was the Judge of Sodom and Gomorrah, though no doubt the wicked cities of the plain utterly repudiated his authority. The godless will be judged by God. Those men who do not choose to put their case in the hands of God will nevertheless receive their sentence from him.
    III. IT IS GOOD NEWS FOR THE WORLD THAT GOD IS THE SUPREME ARBITER. This is not set before us as a truth of terror. On the contrary, it is declared as a great consolation among the ills of life.
22. God is just. He is perfectly fair, utterly impartial. no Respecter of persons. Rich and poor stand on equal grounds before his judgment seat.
23. God is wise. The most acute human judge may be deceived. But he that searcheth the heart knows all facts about all men. His judgment must be based on truth.
24. God is strong. He is able to execute his sentence. When he declares what is right, he will also establish his judgment.
    IV. IT IS WELL FOR MEN TO ACKNOWLEDGE GOD AS THEIR ARBITER. We shall all have to submit to his judgment in the end. It would be wise for us to acknowledge his rule throughout life. Surely it is most fatally foolish to labour for the favour even of the most influential men, if this involves disregarding the thoughts and will of God. The verdict of the lower court will be overridden by the judgment of the higher court. Therefore what is most incumbent on all men is to see that they are right and straight in the eyes of the One supreme Judge. By sin, as we must acknowledge, we are all wrong in his eyes. Therefore no human favour can save us till we have been put right and justified through the grace at Christ.
    HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
    Pro_29:1-7
    Private morality and the public weal
    I. TRUTHS OF PERSONAL CONDUCT.
25. The obstinate offender and his doom. (Pro_29:1.) The repeated complaint against Israel was that they were a “stiff-necked people.” Self-willed, haughty, persistent, defying rebuke and chastisement, is the habit described. It invites judgment. “When lesser warnings will not serve, God looks into his quiver for deadly arrows.” They who will not bend before the gentle persuasions of God’s Holy Spirit must feel the rod. Men may make themselves outlaws from the kingdom of God.
26. Wisdom and virtue inseparable in conduct. (Pro_29:3.) So much so that the same word may occasionally do duty for either notion. Thus the French mean by one who is “sage” one who is chaste and virtuous. The effects are alike. Joy is given to parents by the sage conduct of children; and vice is seen to be folly by the waste and want it brings in its train (comp. Pro_6:26; Pro_10:1; Pro_28:7).
27. The dishonesty of flattery. (Pro_29:5.) It may be designed to deceive, and is then coloured with the darkest hue of treachery. Or it may be undesigned in its effects. But in either case, the web of flattering lies becomes a snare in which the neighbour stumbles to his fall (comp. Pro_26:24, Pro_26:25, Pro_26:28). The kiss of the flatterer is more deadly than the hate of a foe. “When we are most praised for our discernment, we are apt to act most foolishly; for praise tends to cloud the understanding and pervert the judgment.”
28. Delusive and genuine joy. (Pro_29:6.) The serpent is concealed amidst the roses of illicit pleasures; a canker is at the core of the forbidden fruit. A “shadow darkens the ruby of the cup, and dims the splendour of the scene.” But ever there is a song in the ways of God. See the example of Patti and Silas even in prison (Act_16:25). “Always there are evil days in the world; always good days in the Lord”.
    II. THE INFLUENCE OF PERSONAL GOODNESS ON SOCIAL AND PUBLIC WEAL.
29. The general happiness is dependent on the conduct of individuals. (Pro_29:2; comp. Pro_28:12, Pro_28:28.) For society is a collection of individuals. “It is no peculiar conceit, but a matter of sound consequence, that all duties are by so much the better performed, by how much the men are more religious from whose abilities the same proceed. For if the course of political affairs cannot in any good sort go forward without fit instruments, and that which fitteth them be their virtues, let polity acknowledge itself indebted to religion, godliness being the chiefest, top, and well-spring of all true virtue, even as God is of all good things.” “Religion, unfeignedly lived, perfecteth man’s abilities unto all kinds of virtuous services in the commonwealth” (Hooker, ’Eccl. Pol.,’ Ecc_5:1).
30. The effect of just administration and of bribery. (Pro_29:4.) The best laws are of no avail if badly administered. God’s throne is founded on justice (Psa_89:14). And this only can be the foundation of national stable polity and of the common weal “We will sell justice to none,” says the Magna Charta. The theocracy was overthrown in the time of Samuel by the corruption of his sons. The just administration of David “bore up the pillars” of the land (2Sa_8:15). The greed of Jehoiakim again shook the kingdom to its foundations (Jer_22:18-19). Righteousness alone exalteth a nation.
31. Justice to the poor. (Pro_29:7.) The good man enters into the feelings of others, and makes the lot of the oppressed, in sympathy and imagination, his own. The evil and hard-hearted man, looking at life only from the outside, treats the poor as dumb driven cattle, and easily becomes the tyrant and the oppressor. Peculiarly, sympathy, consideration, compassion for the lowly and the poor, have been infused into the conscience of the world, and made “current coin” by the example and spirit of the Redeemer.—J.
    Pro_29:8-11
    Dishonourable passions
    Such is the designation given by St. Paul (see Revised Version of the New Testament,
    Rom_1:26, etc.) to the various workings of the evil leaven in the soul. Here is a description of some of these “lusts.”
    I. SCOFFING. (Pro_29:8.) Set on fire of hell, it inflames others, disturbs the peace of communities, produces failures and tumults in public life. But wisdom calms, and turns all things to the best. The scoffer, the malevolent critic of existing institutions, is a public pest; the judicious man, a public blessing. The one raises tumults, the other quells them.
    II. CONTENTIOUSNESS. (Pro_29:9.) It delights in dispute for dispute’s sake. The man of this vice does not want to elicit truth, but to find fuel for his passion. Alternating between rage and ridicule, he uses words merely as weapons of offence and defence. Egotism is at the root of all his activity.
    III. THE SANGUINARY TEMPER. (Pro_29:10.) All hatred to the truth involves hatred to the truth speaker and the truth doer. Here lies the secret of all persecution and of all judicial murders. But in ourselves, whenever we detect the rising of resentment against him who exposes our faults or fallacies, we may find something of the dark temper of him “who was of the wicked one, and slew his brother” (1Jn_3:12).
    IV. WANT OF SELF-CONTROL. (Pro_29:11.) The impetuous, unbridled temper, which explodes with wrath at the smallest provocation, or with ill-considered opinions. He is wise who knows when to hold his peace. We are not always to speak all we feel or think, but when we do speak should ever think what we say. We must remember that “there is a time to speak, and a time to keep silence.”—J.
    Pro_29:12-17
    Government in truth and equity
    I. THERE MUST BE THE FORCE OF EXAMPLE. (Pro_29:12.) Especially in regard to truthfulness. Nothing is more easily caught than an example of untruthfulness, evasion, hypocrisy. Servants’ manners reflect their masters’ characters. The more conspicuous the station, the further the influence of the example extends.
    II. THERE MUST BE RESPECT TO THE RULER AND JUDGE OF ALL. (Pro_29:13.) He is no Respecter of persons; but he is the Protector of all, and the Judge between man and man. The distinctions of ruler and subject, of rank and rank, of class and class, are temporary; the common relation of all to God is spiritual and eternal.
    III. THERE MUST BE REGARD TO THE LOWLY. (Pro_29:14.) Must not the test of every government be at last this—What did it accomplish for the poor, for the burdened, for the slave and the oppressed? “Glorious” wars and additions of territory can never compensate for injustice at home; the renown of arms for a people’s misery. The throne that is not propped by bayonets, but built upon a people’s gratitude and loyalty, may defy the storms of revolution.
    IV. DOMESTIC GOVERNMENT TEACHES THE SAME TRUTHS ON A SMALLER SCALE. (Pro_29:15-17.)
32. There is the same need of firmness and discipline. Absolute liberty is licence. All our freedom is bounded by necessity. The good of the whole demands fixed law; and this must be observed in the household as in the body politic. A weakness in the administration of acknowledged law is fatal to the purity of the home, to the welfare of nations. Evil doers must be kept down; if their character cannot be changed, their power to work mischief must be taken from them by the unflinching administration of law. And lastly, firmness, so far from alienating, really wins the good will, the respect, and obedience of subjects in the petty commonwealth of home and in the larger sphere of the state.—J.
    Pro_29:18-23
    Fatal defects in the social state
    I. THE WANT OF COMMANDING RELIGIOUS TEACHING. The great prophets of Israel were the great instructors of the people. They declared Jehovah’s living oracles; they made clear the eternal principles of the moral law; they forecast what must be the future under moral conditions. The Christian preacher has succeeded to the office of the Jewish prophet. Woe to the nation if the supply of preachers ceases! if, sunk in material interests, they are allowed to forget that the “Word of the Lord” lives and endures, and obedience to it must be the foundation of all private blessing, all public prosperity!
    II. THE WANT OF FIRM POLICY AND CONDUCT. (Pro_29:19.) There always will be a class more or less of “slaves,” who must be governed, not by mere rhetoric or the appeal to feeling, but by the knowledge that words will be backed by deeds. God means what he says. The laws of nature are no mere abstract statements of truth; they are stern and solemn facts, which cannot be defied with impunity. And the lawless must understand that what ought to be shall be.
    III. THE WANT OF CALM DELIBERATION. (Pro_29:20.) Whether in private or in public life, this too may he a ruinous defect. Thus rash enterprises are begun, hostilities break out without warning, a lifelong alienation or the misery of a generation may spring from the passion or the pique of the moment.
    IV. WANT OF DUE SEVERITY IN DISCIPLINE. (Pro_29:21.) The exegesis of the verse certainly points to this meaning. Men are stung by the ingratitude or contumacy of those whom they had weakly petted, and whose faults they had nourished by their smiles. But human nature will only respond to just and true treatment; and injurious kindness will reap a thorny crop of ingratitude.
    V. WANT OF SELF-CONTROL AND OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE. (Pro_29:22, Pro_29:23.) (For the first, see Pro_15:18; Pro_28:25.) Wrath is the very hot bed of transgression and every “evil work.” And self-esteem is a neighbour vice. So near are extremes in life: the moment we are highest in our own imagination we are really lowest in power, in position, in prospect. “He that would build lastingly must lay his foundation low. As man falls by pride, he recovers by humility.” And the more God honours men, the more they should humble themselves.—J.
    Pro_29:24-27
    Prevalence in alliance with religion
    I. PRUDENCE AND RELIGION ARE EVER IN HARMONY. There can be no divorce between them. We are not placed between cross lights here. What intelligent regard to self prescribes, God’s Law commands. Approach the facts of life from these two opposite sides, travel by either of these two paths, they meet at last in duty, in safety, in peace, and salvation.
    II. SOME EXAMPLES OF THIS HARMONY.
33. All dishonesty or complicity with it is self-destructive. (Pro_29:24.) Enlightened experience says so, and stamps itself in the clear dictum, “Honesty is the best policy.” God’s Word says so, and here and in a thousand similar declarations and warnings pronounces a curse upon the sin.
34. Fear of man is perilous; confidence in the Eternal is safety. (Pro_29:25.) Experience again ratifies this. The coward dies a thousand deaths; the brave, but once. The feeble-hearted daily miss opportunities; the brave create them. Moral cowardice springs from want of inner conviction of the might of truth; moral strength, from the inner certainty that nothing but truth is victorious. Positive revelation here again fortifies the hints of common knowledge.
35. The vanity of honour from others; the true honour that comes from God. (Pro_29:26.) What bitter things have been written down in the experience of men of the world concerning the favour of the great, and the folly of courting it and depending upon it! and how does the same lesson echo back from the page of Holy Writ! Act well your part in Jehovah’s sight; seek the honour that cometh from him only;—how common and Divine wisdom effect ajuncture once more!
36. Eternal antipathies. (Pro_29:27.) What experience teaches us in one form, that fellowship must be founded on sympathy, that tastes must be respected, that deep, undefinable feelings attract us to or repel us from others, God’s Word again confirms: “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.” Acquaintance is mere collocation of persons; friendship and Christian communism are the eternal affinity of souls in God.—J.
    HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
    Pro_29:1
    The doom of obduracy
    There are four stages which conduct to spiritual ruin.
    I. HUMAN DISLOYALTY. Man is found (or finds himself) at enmity with God; he does not reverence, love, honour, serve, him. He owes everything to his Maker and Preserver and generous Benefactor; but he has not paid his great debt, and now he is estranged in spirit, and his life is one of disloyalty and rebellion.
    II. DIVINE SUMMONS TO RETURN. God is saying, “Return unto me, and I will return unto you;” “Let the wicked forsake his way … and let him return unto the Lord.” By many messengers, in many voices, God calls us to repentance and reconciliation.
    III. HUMAN RECUSANCY. God calls, but men will not hearken or they will not heed. They either
    (1) deliberately decline to listen; or they
    (2) do listen without being seriously impressed; or they
    (3) are impressed without coming to any right and wise decision; they linger and delay; they continually postpone; and every new procrastination makes indecision easier and delay more dangerous.
    IV. DIVINE PATIENCE. God “bears long” with men. We see his merciful and wonderful patience when we look at:
37. The time during which he continues to them preservation and privilege. Through childhood and youth, through manhood and the days of decline, up to extreme old age, God continues to men his sustaining and preserving power, and all the fulness of Christian privilege; though all the while they are abusing his gift of life by retaining it for their own personal enjoyment, and his gift of opportunity by slighting, or despairing, or misusing it.
38. The various means he employs in order to reach and restore us.
    (1) God invites men, through his Word, and through the Christian ministry, and by the voices of the home and of human friendship.
    (2) He commands; he requires that all men should repent and believe.
    (3) He warns.
    (4) He reproves; he often reproves. “He that is often reproved;” and very commonly a disloyal heart is often rebuked of God. Time after time he receives the admonition of his fellows, or he suffers the penalty of his guilt. God makes him to understand that “the way of transgressors is hard;” the merciful hand of the Divine Father interposes many obstacles in the way of his children’s ruin, that they may be stopped and may be led to return on their way. But sin does its fatal work of indurating the heart, of paralyzing the conscience, of blinding the eyes of the children of men; and the man who is “often rebuked” only “hardens his neck,” and then comes the end—
    V. SUDDEN AND IRREMEDIABLE RUIN.
39. Sometimes (perhaps frequently, in the case of those who are guilty of flagrant sin) the day of probation ends with startling suddenness: “They are brought into desolation in a moment.” Death comes down upon them without any warning. In the full flow of iniquity their soul is that very night required of them, and they pass from guilt to judgment.
40. Commonly, the end comes without expectation, and so without preparation. Men are going on with the engagements and the indulgences of life; and they are expecting to go on indefinitely. Then comes the serious illness, the sick chamber, the medical attendant, the anxious inquiry, the unfavourable response, the solemn communication and the distressed and agitated soul has to say, “My hour is come, and I am not ready for its coming.”—C.
    Pro_29:2
    (See homily on Pro_11:10)—C.
    Pro_29:5
    (See homily on Pro_27:5, Pro_27:6.)—C.
    Pro_29:7
    (See homily on Pro_19:17.)—C.
    Pro_29:8-10
    The senselessness of scorn, etc
    Here is a triplet of truths we may gather from these three texts.
    I. THE SENSELESSNESS OF SCORN. (Pro_29:8.) To be of a scornful spirit, to bestow scornful looks, to use scornful language,—this is gross folly.
41. It is utterly unbecoming. Not one of us is so removed above his fellows as to be entitled to treat with entire disregard what they may have to say or what they propose to do.
42. The wisest men, and even the Wise One himself, think well to listen to what the humblest can suggest.
43. It leads to a blind opposition to true wisdom; for often wisdom is found with those in whom no one expects to discover it; even as the scornful Greek and the proud Roman found it in the despised teachers from Judaea.
44. It ends disastrously. It “brings a city into a snare,” “sets a city in a flame.” It refuses to consider the serious danger that is threatened, or it provokes to uncontrollable anger by its disdainfulness; and the end is discord, confusion, strife.
45. It deliberately neglects the one way of peace. A wise man who does not refuse to listen and to learn, who prefers to treat neighbours and even enemies with the respect that is their due, “turns away wrath,” and saves the city from the flame. Scorn is thus a senseless thing in every light.
    II. THE USELESSNESS OF CONTENTION. (Pro_29:9.) We are not to understand that it is a vain or foolish thing to endeavour
    (1) to enlighten the ignorant, or
    (2) to convince the mistaken. Where there is an honest and loyal spirit, it may be of great service to do this. What is useless is
    (3) to debate with the contentious. Nothing comes of it but the clatter of the tongue and the triumph of the complacent “fool.” He may rage or he may laugh; he may passionately declaim or he may indulge in banter and in badinage, but he does not seek, and he will not find, the truth. He is no nearer to wisdom at the end than he was at the beginning. Time is wasted; the heart of the wise is disappointed; the way ward man is confirmed in his folly;—let him alone.
    III. THE AIM OF THE UPRIGHT. This is twofold.
46. Peace. The wise man, who is the upright man, “turns away wrath;” and he objects to a contest with the contentious, because “there is no rest.” Those in whom is the Spirit of Christ are always setting this before them as a goal to be reached; they speak and act as those that “make for peace.” They feel that everything which can be should be avoided that makes for dissension and strife; they are the peacemakers, and theirs is the blessing of the children of God (Mat_5:9).
47. Life. They (the upright) “seek the soul,” or the life, of the man whom the bloodthirsty hate (Pro_29:10). To “seek the soul” or the life of men is the characteristic of the good.
    (1) They care, in thought and deed, for the preservation and the protection of human life; they seek the removal of all that threatens it.
    (2) They care much for all that enlarges and ennobles human life—education, morality, sound discipline.
    (3) They care most of all for that one thing which crowns human life, and may be said to constitute it—the return of the soul to God and its life in him. In this deepest and truest sense they “seek his soul;” for they are regarding and pursuing its spiritual and eternal welfare.—C.
    Pro_29:11
    (and see Pro_12:16; Pro_14:33)
    The time to be silent
    There is a time to keep silence as well as a time to speak (see Ecc_3:7). According to our individual temperament we need the one injunction or the other. There are few, however, of either sex or of any disposition who do not need to be urged to guard the door of the lip. This is one of those things in which we all offend in our time and in our way. Impatience most frequently leads to transgression; but there are other provocations—there are other occasions when the warning word is wanted. We should carefully command our tongue when there is in our mind—
    I. THE IDEA OF ACHIEVEMENT. It is unwise to talk of what we are going to do as soon as it occurs to us to act. We may think ourselves capable or our circumstances favourable when, on further consideration or inquiry, we find that we are not equal to the task or that our position makes it impossible to us. We should think before we undertake.
    II. THE THOUGHT OF IGNORANCE. Nothing but harm can come of counsel given in ignorance of any case before us. Either we persuade our friends and colleagues to take action which is unwise and will prove to be injurious and possibly disastrous; or we are at once corrected by those who know better, and we are ashamed. Do not go to the council without learning the facts and understanding the matter, or else wait well and learn patiently before you speak at all.
    III. THE FEELING OF RESENTMENT. “A fool uttereth all his anger, but a wise man keepeth it back and stilleth it” (Revised Version; Pro_12:16). Nothing more distinctly marks the presence of wisdom or folly than the habit of speaking quickly or restraining speech under provocation. It is an unfailing criterion. The reasons for silence at such a time are obvious enough, and they should be strong enough.
48. Hasty speech is
    (1) very likely indeed to be incorrect, imperfect, if not wholly wrong, for our judgment is sure to be disturbed and unhinged when our spirit is wounded;
    (2) most likely to provoke our opponent to feel strongly and to strike severely, and thus the flood gates of strife are opened;
    (3) unworthy of the wise and strong, lowering in the eyes of our best friends and in our own regard;
    (4) condemned of God (Jas_1:19, Jas_1:20).
49. Conscientious silence under provocation is
    (1) an admirable victory over our lower nature (Pro_16:32);
    (2) the way of peace in the council, in the home, in the Church;
    (3) the path in which we follow Christ our Lord, and gain his Divine approval (Mat_27:12; Mat_6:9).—C.
    Pro_29:13
    (See homily on Pro_22:2.)—C.
    Pro_29:15-17
    (See homily on Pro_13:24.)—C.
    Pro_29:18
    Spiritual ignorance and obedience. (See also homily on Pro_19:2.) Two things are clear:
50. That God has provided us with many sources of knowledge. We have, for materials to work with, a very complex and richly endowed nature; and we have, for materials to work upon,
    (1) that same nature of ours with all its instincts, impulses, desires, hopes;
    (2) the great visible system around us into which we can constantly be looking, and of which we might be expected to learn much;
    (3) human life, and the providence of God as manifested therein.
51. That these sources of wisdom, which are constant and common to our race, prove to be lamentably insufficient. Man, under the dominion and depression of sin, cannot read aright the lessons which his own nature, the visible universe, and the providence of God are fitted and intended to teach him. He shows himself utterly incapable; he is completely false in his ideas, and pitiably wrong in his course of action. Hence we come to the conclusion of the text—
    I. THE LAMENTABLE RESULT OF SPIRITUAL IGNORANCE. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Where there is no special Divine revelation, supplementing the knowledge and correcting the ignorance of the unenlightened, there is a “perishing” or a “nakedness” in the land. The sad and miserable result, as all lands and all ages testify, is:
52. Literal, physical death. Without the knowledge of God, and in the absence of the control which the knowledge of his will can supply,
    (1) there is strife, violence, war, and of this death is the continual fruit;
    (2) there is vice, and this, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
53. Loss of character. Not only of that which is sometimes understood by character, viz. reputation, but also of character itself. Where God’s Word and will are unknown, there is such a deplorable descent into the erroneous and the immoral, that both of these go down and perish.
54. Absence of spiritual life. The life of our life is in God, and not only in his kindness to us, but in our knowledge of him. To be in utter ignorance of him, to have lost all belief in him, to be spending our days in spiritual separation from him,—is not this to be so destitute of all that beautifies and brightens, of all that enlarges and ennobles, human life, as to be “dead while we live”? So thought and taught the great Teacher and his great apostle (Luk_9:60; Joh_5:24; 1Ti_5:6). It is not merely that there is a sad exclusion, at the end, from the heavenly kingdom; it is that spiritual ignorance of God constitutes death, and they who are living without God, and becoming more and more alienated from and unlike to him, are perishing “day by day.”
    II. THE BLESSEDNESS OF OBEDIENCE. “He that keepeth the Law,” etc. Happy is the man who walks in the fear of God, in the love and the service of Jesus Christ; for
55. He is walking in the path where all the worst evils cannot harm him; he is defended from “the evil which is in the world;” he is upheld in his purity and his integrity.
56. He is living a life which will command the esteem and win the love of the wise and the worthy.
57. He abides under the wing of a heavenly Father’s favour; he is enjoying the friendship of a Divine Saviour.
58. He is expending his powers in the conscious, the happy service of him “whose he is,” and in whose service is true and lasting freedom.
59. He is exerting a benignant influence in every circle in which he moves.
60. He is travelling homewards.—C.
    Pro_29:20, Pro_29:22
    (See homily on Pro_29:11.)—C.
    Pro_29:23
    (See homily on Pro_16:18.)—C.
    Pro_29:25, Pro_29:26
    Two temptations and two resources
    As responsible human souls, we find ourselves exposed to two dangers, and we have two sources of refuge and strength of a very similar character.
    I. TWO TEMPTATIONS.
61. To be unduly affected by the fear of man’s displeasure. “The fear of man,” etc. Now, the fear of man:
    (1) May be dutiful. It is the duty of children to have a reverential regard for their parents, and to shun most carefully their disapproval. There is a “fear” appropriate to servants (Eph_6:5). We should fear to dissatisfy those who have a right to our faithful service.
    (2) May be desirable. We should, as wise co-workers with God, fear to do that which, instead of conciliating, will disaffect those whom we want to win to righteousness and wisdom. But the tear of which Solomon writes
    (3) is dishonourable and dangerous. It is a fear which is born of cowardice, a slavish disinclination to encounter the anger or the opposition of those who are in the wrong. It is an undue concern about the action of those who may claim a right, but who cannot sustain it, to keep us back from duty or to compel us to some unworthiness.
    By this unmanly and unholy fear we may be
    (1) prevented from entering the kingdom or the Church of Christ;
    (2) deterred from speaking his truth with fulness and faithfulness;
    (3) hindered from bearing the testimony we should otherwise offer against some evil course;
    (4) led into actual and even active fellowship with wrong, Then, indeed, our fear is “a snare,” and it betrays us into sin.
62. To be unduly impelled by a desire for man’s favour. “Many seek the ruler’s favour.” There is, of course, nothing wrong in seeking the interest of the powerful. It is simple wisdom, on the part of those who are struggling and rising, to do that. But it may easily be and often is overdone. Our Lord used very decisive language on this subject (Joh_5:44). When
    (1) the desire is excessive;
    (2) language is used or action is taken which is untruthful or dishonest, or which makes a man fall in his own regard;
    (3) there is so much solicitude that a man loses self-reliance as well as self-respect, and forgets the help which is to be had from above;—then “seeking the ruler’s favour” is a mistake, and even more and worse than that.
    II. TWO SOURCES OF STRENGTH.
63. A sense of Divine approval. “Every man’s judgment eometh from the Lord.” Why be troubled about man’s condemnation so long as we have his acquittal? Let Judas complain, if Jesus excuses and commends (Joh_12:1-8). Let the critics pass their sentence; it is a small thing to a man who is living under an abiding sense that “he that judgeth him is the Lord” (1Co_4:3, 1Co_4:4; Rom_2:29).
    “Men heed thee, love thee, praise thee not;
    The Master praises;—what are men?”
    And it is not only the present judgment and acceptance of God to which we have recourse, but his future judgment also, and the commendation he will pass upon our fidelity (see Rom_14:10-13; 1Co_4:5).
64. A hope of Divine succour. “Whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.” Again and again, in the Old and New Testaments, by psalmists and prophets and apostles, as well as by our Lord himself, we are invited and exhorted to “put our trust in the Lord;” and we are assured that, so doing, we shall not be ashamed. If God does not deliver us from our enemies, and from the trouble riley occasion us, he will certainly deliver us in our adversity; he will give us strength to endure, grace to submit, courage to bear and brave the worst, sanctity of spirit as the result; he will turn the well of our affliction into a fountain of spritual blessing.—C.
    Pro_29:27
    How to hate the wicked
    There is a hatred we have to endure, and there is also a hatred which we have to cherish. The question of any difficulty is—What is the feeling we should cultivate in our hearts towards the guilty? We may glance at—
    I. THE HATRED OF US BY THE WICKED. “He that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.”
65. This is a well-verified fact, attested by Scripture, by history, by observation, probably by experience.
66. Its explanation is at hand.
    (1) Wicked men are utterly out of sympathy with the righteous. Their tastes, inclinations, habits, are all at variance with those of the good and pure.
    (2) The upright are obliged to condemn them, either in private or in public.
    (3) The life of the one is a standing reflection upon the conduct of the other.
67. There is one right way to meet it; viz.
    (1) to endure it as Jesus Christ endured it (Heb_12:3; 1Pe_2:23), and as seeing the invisible but present and approving Lord (Heb_11:27);
    (2) to make an honest effort to remove it by winning those who indulge it. But the more difficult question is how we are to bear ourselves toward those whose conduct we reprobate, whose character we detest, whose persons we are not willing to admit into our homes. How shall we order—
    II. OUR HATRED OF THE WICKED? That there is a very strong feeling against the wrong doer in the minds of the holy is obvious enough. It is a fact that “an unjust man is an abomination to the just.” “Do not I hate them that hate thee?… I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies,” said David (Psa_139:21, Psa_139:22). Jesus Christ “looked round about on them with anger” (Mar_3:5). God is “angry with the wicked every day” (Psa_7:11). He “hateth all the workers of iniquity” (Psa_5:5). Our feeling, therefore, is the reflection of that which is in the heart of the Holy One himself. Of what elements should it be composed?
68. One element that should be absent. There should be no trace of personal ill will, of a desire for the suffering of the man himself; for the soul of the sinful we should wish well, and we fall into a mistake, if not into a sin, when we allow ourselves to find a pleasure in witnessing or in dwelling upon the humiliation or the sorrow of the wicked. We ought only to wish for that as a means of their purification and recovery.
69. The elements that should be present.
    (1) Pure resentment, such as God feels, such as our Lord felt when he lived amongst us (see Mat_23:1-39),—a feeling of strong reprobation, which we are obliged to direct against them as the doers of unrighteousness.
    (2) Faithful but measured condemnation. There is, in this view, a time to speak as well as a time to keep silence; and both publicly and privately it behoves us to blame the blameworthy, cud even to denounce the shamefully unjust or cruel. But here we are bound to take care that we are well acquainted with the matter on which we speak, and that our judgment is an impartial one.
    (3) Fearless and unflinching opposition. We must actively and steadfastly oppose ourselves to the iniquitous, and do our best to bring their purposes to the ground.
    (4) Sincere and practical compassion. With all this that is adverse, we may and should conjoin such pity as our Divine Saviour has felt for ourselves, and such honest and earnest endeavour to win them to the truth and to the practice of righteousness as he put forth when he came to redeem us from sin and to raise us to the likeness and restore us to the kingdom of God.—C.

Proverbs 29:18
I. If we did not belong to two worlds—that is, if we had not two very distinct natures—we should of course be utterly insusceptible to the vision of a higher, purer world than this. But because the physical man enshrines an inner man, the world of spirits can just as clearly be demonstrated to us as this world is demonstrated to our senses. Whether the opening up of communication between our spirit and the spirit-world will be during our earth life remains with God. But it is a fixed law and rule with Him, in order to keep faith alive on the earth, that some in every age shall not taste death until they have seen the glory of God and the forms of the immortals.
II. There ought never to be an age without visions. If there be no open vision, then there is no direct testimony of the existence of God, or of the soul, or of a future life. A materialistic age, an age that sees no vision, but is entirely absorbed by material thoughts and in the pursuit of material good, may be a prosperous, flourishing world-age; but souls are ignored and given over to perish.
III. Reasoning from the conduct and method of God in all ages, we are driven to the conclusion that it is most reasonable to look for visions in our own day. No new age ever did, or ever can, dawn which is not inaugurated, however privately and secretly, 6y a new communication from God to man. Therefore we may be sure that to certain men and women in our own century the heavens have been as literally opened as they ever were to an Ezekiel, a Paul, or a John. In the age of no faith, Heaven breaks silence, and “the Son of man cometh.” Therefore is it that here and there in our valley of dry bones there stands a man who is announcing the new faith with majestic authority and the earnestness of realisation.
J. Pulsford, Our Deathless Hope, p. 157.
Reference: Pro_29:19-27.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. iii., p. 306.

Proverbs 29:25
This has been proved to be true: (1) in the profession of Christianity; (2) in protesting against personal and social evils; (3) in attempting service on behalf of Christ; (4) in the proposition of new lines of thought. The fear of man produces three effects upon the sufferer: (1) loss of self-control; (2) modification of emphasis; (3) deepening of selfishness.
Parker, City Temple, vol. i., p. 62.
References: Pro_29:25.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 198; W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 366. Pro_30:1-6.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. iii., p. 318. Pro_30:1-9.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 379. Pro_30:4.—A. Fletcher, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 113. Pro_30:7-9.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 247. Pro_30:7-12.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. iii., p. 333. Pro_30:8.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 165. Pro_30:13-20.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. iii., p. 345. Pro_30:20.—S. Cox, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. vi., p. 256. Pro_30:21-33.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, p. 354.

Proverbs 29:8
Corrupt. Hebrew, “scoffers,” who provoke both God and men.

Proverbs 29:9
Rest; or bring him to hear reason. (Calmet) — Septuagint, “a wise man shall rule nations; but the wicked being angry, is laughed at, and does not frighten.”

Proverbs 29:10
Soul. they wish to protect the upright, Psalm cxli. 5.

Proverbs 29:13
Enlightener. Septuagint, “visitor,” with punishment, as they seem to speak of palliated usury, which cannot escape God. See chap. 22:2

Proverbs 29:18
Prophecy, by the urim, or by the mouth of prophets, who were in great power and estimation, 3 Kings 1:24, and 12:23, and 2Ch_25:6; 2Ch_28:8 (Calmet) — Septuagint, “There shall be none to explain the law to the impious nation.” (Haydock) — When pastors are wanting, all goes to ruin, 1Co_11:4 (Ven. Bede) (Calmet)

Proverbs 29:20
Amendment. St. Jerome (as Evag.) says, after Thucydides: “Ignorance produces confidence, and learning fear.”

Proverbs 29:24
Soul, and exposeth himself to death, though this was only inflicted for stealing a man, Exo_21:16 The night-thief might also be killed in the fact, Exo_22:2 But if the person who had stolen denied it on oath, he was put to death for perjury, Lev_5:1

Proverbs 29:25
Fall. Human respects will not long preserve him from sin. (Calmet) — Septuagint have a double version: “Those who fear and are ashamed of men, shall be thrown down. But he who confideth in the Lord, shall rejoice. Impiety overturneth man, while he who trusteth in the Lord shall be saved.” (Grabe) (Haydock)

Proverbs 29:1
Exo_32:9

Proverbs 29:7
Pro_31:8-9

Proverbs 29:14
2Sa_12:1-6, 2Sa_7:11-13

Proverbs 29:15
Pro_13:14; Pro_22:15

Proverbs 29:20
Proverbs 26; Proverbs 12

Proverbs 29:22
Pro_14:17

Proverbs 29:25
Pro_18:10; Pro_28:25

Proverbs 29:1

Who Hardens His Neck Will Suddenly Be Broken

This verse is a warning against persisting in sin and ignoring “much reproof” to repent. The reproofs can be given by parents, for example, or by the government. God can also use a particular event for it, such as an accident. Through all these reproofs, He wants to appeal to the conscience. We clearly see here the patience of God. He does not judge all at once, but calls for repentance. Every reproof He sends is a call.

But he “who hardens [his] neck”, who time after time does not listen, and resists the reproofs, or concludes that all is not so bad, “will suddenly be broken beyond remedy”. The phrase “hardens [his] neck” brings to mind an ox that will not bend its neck under a yoke. Applied to a human being, it represents someone who, despite numerous attempts to get him to do so, refuses to do what is in his own best interest. Then a condition enters that no remedy is possible (cf. 2Ch_36:16 ).

The verse also contains the serious message for the sinner that the time to repent is limited. “Behold, now is “the acceptable time”, behold, now is “the day of the salvation”“ (2Co_6:2 ). God’s patience is great, repentance is still possible now, but it will stop sometime and then it will be forever too late. There will be no second chance.

Proverbs 29:2

A Happy or a Sighing People

“When the righteous increase”, that is, when they take control of the administration of the country and rule it, “the people rejoice” at the beneficent government being exercised. Just laws are enacted and injustice is punished. The wicked are judged and can no longer exercise their pernicious influence. The government of Solomon was such a beneficent government that gave joy to the people (1Kg_4:20 ).

The contrast, indicated by the word “but”, with a wicked ruler is great. Such a ruler rules like a tyrant. He oppresses and exploits the people, especially the God-fearing part of them. Wickedness is rewarded and promoted. Injustice prevails because God and His will are not taken into account. There is no joy among the people, but groaning because of the misery.

The happiness or unhappiness of the people depends on the ruler. So it is in a man’s life. If he lives in keeping with the will of God according to righteous principles, he lives a happy and thankful life. This is the privilege of the believer. If a man lives according to wicked principles, he is groaning under the enormous burden of his sins that weighs on him. He can be delivered from this by surrendering himself to the Lord Jesus.

Proverbs 29:3

Rejoicing the Father or Wasting Wealth

This verse is about Divine wisdom, but as an object of love. This is not primarily about guidance in life through wisdom, but rather the attitude of the heart toward wisdom. That attitude is one of love. When a father sees this in his son, he is glad. He sees that his teaching not only has an effect in the practice of his life, but his love goes out to it.

In the second line of verse follows the contrast, indicated by the word “but”. The contrast with the love of wisdom here is keeping company with harlots, and not, as we might expect, keeping company with fools. After all, the contrast is usually that between the wise and the fool. But here it is about love. Associating with harlots is experiencing a surrogate love, a false love. However, you gain nothing and lose everything; your entire wealth is wasted (cf. Luk_15:30 ).

One of the earliest lessons a child must learn is to keep far away from harlots. Today this is especially true of pornography. The warnings against it have been discussed at length in the first part of this book, Proverbs 1-9. Here we see that we must instill in our children a love of wisdom. That will keep them from keeping company with harlots and pornography because it could cause them to lose their wealth and even their life.

Proverbs 29:4

Sustain or Tear Down a Land

“The king” who upholds “justice” “gives stability to the land”. By enacting and enforcing just laws, a king assures his subjects of peace and prosperity. In this way, he also ensures the safety of their possessions. God is the King Who, through the justice exercised by Solomon, gives stability to Israel forever (2Ch_9:8 ). Living in a land with such a king is a feast for all subjects, for all enjoy the privilege of it. The Lord Jesus will be that King in the kingdom of peace.

A king who takes bribes overthrows the land. Discontentment and poverty ensue. No one is happy anymore. Togetherness disappears. The land is torn apart and broken down.

Proverbs 29:5-6

Snares

Flattery is like a net to catch an animal with (Pro_29:5 ). Flattery is manipulation, for the purpose is to use that person for one’s own purposes and not to praise him. The “neighbor” who is flattered may thereby become enchanted and fall unnoticed into the flatterer’s power. Thus he has become caught in the net that “a man” has spread “for his steps” and the flatterer has succeeded in his purpose.

The verse is about the flatterer, not about the one who is flattered, but is of course a clear warning not to be bewitched by flattery. Flattery is a hypocritical compliment. When we are flattered, it awakens the latent pride within us. Caressed vanity contributes to believing what the flatterer says. Flattery is literally “to make someone soft”. The saying “smearing someone with butter”, with the intention of eating him, does tie in with this.

“An evil man” is ensnared in his own transgression (Pro_29:6 ). His transgression is a snare from which he cannot free himself. Because he is an evil man, the transgression is not an incident, but a frequent occurrence. He cannot do otherwise; it is in him, in his evil nature, to which he holds on and by which he is held.

Unlike an evil man, “the righteous sings and rejoices” in the security and peace he enjoys. A righteous has no fear of a snare and can sing and rejoice. He is overjoyed and is at full liberty to express his joy over what God has given and will give him. The righteous has his source of joy in God.

Proverbs 29:7

Taking Cognizance of the Trial of the Poor

“The rightful” here is a judge. A righteous judge wants to know why lawsuits are brought against the poor. The poor concern him because they concern God. Therefore, he examines their case. The poor should also be close to our heart. Paul gives us an example in this (Gal_2:10 ).

The wicked have no understanding of the poor, nor does he want to engage in them at all, because he has no interest in them. He does not care about the injustice done to the poor. On the contrary, he participates in it, for he is only after his own benefit.

Proverbs 29:8-11

Raging Fools Against Quiet Sages

By “scorners” (Pro_29:8 ) we can think of corrupt leaders of the city (cf. Isa_28:14 ). They scoff at law and justice. They do not consult and they govern the city at their own whim. Promises they do not keep and they scoff at service to God. This disrupts society and sets a city aflame spiritually. The fire of rebellion and division breaks out and there is no one to quench it. They fuel the fire; they stir up strife. Scorners are a pest to society.

The second line of verse, which begins with “but”, indicating that a contrast follows, states what “wise men” do. They do not stir up strife, but bring peace and harmony to society. By the peace they bring, they turn away the anger of God and men. We find an example in history of the rebellion of Sheba who takes refuge in a city. There is a wise woman there who prevents the destruction of the city (2Sa_20:14-22 ).

It is a waste of time to try to settle a dispute with a fool (Pro_29:9 ). There is no chance that a fool can reasonably pursue a lawsuit. You can expect two responses from him, which really do not contribute to the resolution of the dispute. One reaction is that he rages; he puts on big eyes of surprise and starts swearing. The other reaction is that he begins to roar with laughter because he finds the case brought against him so ridiculous.

A fool follows his emotions and not his reason. He does not think, but immediately gives vent to the emotion that comes to him, whatever it may be. Sometimes he gets agitated, other times he laughs everything away. But he does not put things to rest. He lacks the intellect for that.

Men of bloodshed mean men who have the deep desire to kill someone (Pro_29:10 ). The hatred of “men of bloodshed” is directed against “the blameless”. We see this with Cain, who was such a man of bloodshed who hated the blameless. He murdered his pious brother (Gen_4:5-8 ; 1Jn_3:12-13 ). Men of bloodshed cannot tolerate the pious. The darkness cannot tolerate the light but hates it. That is why the religious leaders killed the Lord Jesus.

The “upright” are opposed to the men of bloodshed, which we see from the word “but” at the beginning of the second line of verse. They do not seek to take anyone’s life, but they seek the salvation of others, even as here of the man of bloodshed. The Lord Jesus taught us to do good to those who hate us (Luk_6:27 ), that they may come to repentance.

“A fool” is a slave to his thought life and feelings (Pro_29:11 ). He has no control over them, but is controlled and lived by them. His mind is an open vessel into which everything enters without any filtering and from which everything also goes out without any filtering. He knows no brake. When he gets excited about something, he lets it be clearly heard. Unsolicited he gives his opinion about anything and everything, while he imagines that he knows what he is talking about. His lack of self-control leads him to utter the utmost nonsense, without being aware of it himself.

“A wise man” does not let his impulses control him. He keeps his temper, he holds it back. Therefore he does not blurt out everything he thinks, but waits for the right moment. The self-control he possesses does not come from himself, but from Spirit. The fool does not have a Spirit-led life, the wise does.

Proverbs 29:12

A Bad Example Makes Bad Followers

“If a ruler pays attention to falsehood”, he comes to misjudgment and makes wrong decisions. Falsehood is told to those who like to hear it. Such a ruler shows that he is not guided by God’s statutes and does not inquire after His will.

By so paying “attention to falsehood” as if it were the truth, he encourages those around him to be “wicked” and to deal with the truth. David was not such a ruler. He says: “He who speaks falsehood shall not maintain his position before me” (Psa_101:7 ).

The influence of a ruler’s character on the people is great. People in a position of authority, such as rulers and parents, whether they like it or not, are role models for those under their authority.

Proverbs 29:13

The LORD Gives Light to the Eyes

Regardless of a person’s social status or the circumstances in which he lives, every person receives his life from God. Light in the eyes means that God gives the light of life (Job_33:30 ; Psa_13:3 ). Light in the eyes also means that God gives the ability to perceive. This is not about seeing with the natural eyes, but with the spiritual eyes.

Both the poor man and the oppressor or the rich are given light to assess their situation. God gives indiscriminately. The question is what each does with the light given to him. The poor man can see that he is rich in God and may glory in his high position before God (Jas_1:9 ). The rich oppressor can see that he should not glory of his riches and their misuse, but should realize that he is poor before God if he abuses his riches to oppress the poor (Jas_1:10 Jas_5:1-6 ).

Proverbs 29:14

Truth Establishes the Throne Forever

“If a king judges… with truth”, he will be especially concerned that justice be done to “the poor”. It shows his high character when it appears that he is especially attentive to the truth in relation to the socially weak. He does justice to all, but especially to the poor. By God, the throne of a king who rules in this way will be “established forever”.

The Lord Jesus is the only King to Whom this fully applies. He will in truth do justice to the poor by letting them enter the kingdom of peace. His throne will be established forever (Dan_2:44 ).

Proverbs 29:15-17

Good Upbringing and the Lack of It

Pro_29:15 is among the proverbs that urge discipline in education with a clear motivation (Pro_10:13 Pro_13:24 Pro_22:8 Pro_22:15 Pro_23:13-14 Pro_26:3 ). Discipline causes the child to become wise. Wisdom is not hereditary. Both physical discipline (“the rod”) and spiritual discipline (“reproof”) “give wisdom”, that is, they contribute to giving wisdom. When the child listens to discipline (cf. Mic_6:9 ), he learns to make good choices in life.

He who withholds discipline from his child leaves him to himself. A child left to himself can do what he wants and get what he desires. It also means that he is left to the rule of his sinful nature, an apostate will, an evil world and the devil. Without guidance and correction, he is going to live a life that “brings shame to his mother”.

That it says here that the mother is shamed is probably because she has put most of the time into the education. She is also much more sensitive to the suffering that the child inflicts on himself. This does not mean that the father is not shamed, nor that he has nothing to do with the education. The father may well be the main cause of the child’s wrong choices, because he never acted with rod and reproof. Adonijah was a young man who got his own way, for his father David “had never crossed him at any time by asking, “Why have you done so?”“ (1Kg_1:6 ).

Pro_29:16 is between two verses dealing with education. We can therefore see in this verse a description of the consequences of lack of proper education. Lax education is the main cause of social disasters. We see this in the world. Parental authority disappears, with the result that “the wicked increase”, so that “transgression increases” (cf. Hos_4:7 ).

The righteous suffer from that situation. They suffer by seeing lawless deeds, as Lot suffered (2Pe_2:7-8 ), and they suffer by what the wicked say to them and do to them. But no matter how numerous the wicked and their transgressions become, the righteous will prevail. God will cause the wicked to fall and the righteous to see their fall, rejoicing in “a God Who judges on earth!” (Psa_58:10-11 Psa_37:34 ).

A child who has learned to obey will give his parents rest (Pro_29:17 ). And not just the parents, but the entire environment. This is another encouragement for parents to discipline their children. It is about instilling obedience (Pro_19:18 ). This gives the parents inner comfort and outward delight in living together.

The parent who does not instill obedience in his child because discipline hurts him himself and he wants to avoid that pain will later feel the pain of negligence incessantly. Numerous sleepless nights are the result because the child has ended up in the gutter or in prison. It is a constant source of worry and anxiety. There is no comfort in the heart and no delight for the soul. We should not blame those parents harshly, but pray for them and their children.

Proverbs 29:18

No Vision – Keeping the Law

This verse refers to two forms of Divine revelation: a “vision” and “the law”. A vision is a message from God that He gives a prophet to pass on to His people (Hos_12:11 ). We find numerous examples of it in the Old Testament. The prophets Daniel, Amos and Zechariah, to name a few, had several visions. But in the days of Eli “visions were infrequent” (1Sa_3:1 ). That was in the days of the judges, when “every man did what was right in his own eyes” (Jdg_17:6 Jdg_21:25 ). The people were “unrestrained”, they had cast off the restraint of God (cf. 2Ch_15:3 ).

This is also the case in the once Christian Western countries in which we live. People are becoming increasingly detached from God because they reject God’s Word and are also kept from God by liberal theologians (cf. 2Ch_28:19 ). Depravity and violence are increasing hand over hand.

When the people as a whole are disconnected, it comes down to personal faithfulness. That is the message of the second line of verse. Although Divine revelation is missing from the prophets, it is possible to keep the law. Those who do so are praised “happy”.

When everything is in decay, God’s Word remains for the faithful individual the guide for his walk. God appreciates and rewards it when His Word is followed as a guide. Such faithful believers, who have been taught by wise men and have accepted that teaching, by their walk of life in obedience to God’s Word call unfaithful members of God’s people to return to obedience to God’s Word.

Proverbs 29:19-21

Relationship Between Employer and Employee

It is not enough to instruct a slave to be obedient by words alone (Pro_29:19 ). There is no perfectly obedient slave. That was only the Lord Jesus. A slave, or employee, must learn to obey because he is naturally disobedient. A disobedience must be punished not only with words, but also with other, palpable, means of discipline. We can think of being denied food for punishment or temporarily deprived of certain privileges he enjoyed.

If no palpable discipline is applied, the slave will simply go his own way. The master, or employer, can talk and command all he wants, but he does not respond. He does hear and understand what is asked, but he simply does not do it because he does not feel like it.

Teaching obedience is important in the family (Pro_29:17 ) and in society. One must obey the authority of parents, the employer, the government, and above all, God. Those who do not learn to obey in earthly relationships will not bow to God either, with the dramatic result of eternal judgment.

The Christian is a slave of Christ and as such must be taught obedience. In the Word of God he hears what Christ asks of him. The Christian is not always obedient to what Christ says. Then He disciplines him out of love (cf. Rev_3:19 ). By this He leads him to do what He has commanded.

Since Pro_29:20 is between two verses dealing with slaves, perhaps we can connect this verse primarily with them, without ruling out a broader application. One who speaks only to his slave, but receives no response (Pro_29:19 ), loses his patience and is “hasty in his words”. This applies to all interpersonal relations.

Those who respond out of irritation react impulsively, thoughtlessly. It is not about an incident, but about a habit. Someone who talks alone sees in it his strength, while he is blind to the fact that it is his sin. If he is not listened to, he will speak more words. He is sure of his business, does not think, does not deliberate and is uncorrectable. The warning is that we should be slow to speak (Jas_1:19 ; Ecc_5:1 ).

It is better to deal with a fool than a hasty, fast talker. There is “more hope” that something meaningful will come out of a fool than out of a hasty, fast talker. That does indicate what a hopeless case the hasty, fast talker is. He has no time to listen. A fool does lack wisdom, but sometimes he still takes the time to listen to what is being said.

As in Pro_29:19 , in Pro_29:21 the fault lies with the master. Here the master’s fault is that he pampers his slave. By doing so, he makes him feel not like a slave, but a family member. One would expect the slave to thank him for that, but the opposite is true. The master “will in the end find” the slave “to be a son” has the meaning that the slave will “ultimately be ungrateful” to him, as it is translated in the Dutch translation I use. By indulging his slave, he creates certain expectations in him, perhaps that he will share in the inheritance. If that then does not happen, he will be ungrateful.

Such unfounded expectations are the result of skewed relationships. The master is responsible for this. He must ensure that the master-slave (employer-employee) relationship is properly respected. The master must tell the employee what to do. This has nothing to do with domination, but with recognizing authority relationships established by God.

Proverbs 29:22-23

Anger, Hot-Temper and Pride Against Humility

Wherever “an angry man” comes, strife stirs up (Pro_29:22 ). He arouses it; he provokes it by his unfounded anger. He is not just temporarily angry, but anger reigns over him. Whether he is in the family, at work or anywhere else, everywhere he is present as “an angry man”.

His attitude evokes resistance. His environment does not accept this and arguments arise. In his hot-temper he does not occasionally slip up, but he commits a succession of transgressions. Anyone who comes near him is snarled at and treated unfairly. Thus he accumulates his transgressions.

A person who is hot-tempered is subject to his emotions and lusts. He is an egoist and is out for self-preservation. For another he does not care. The inevitable result is that he “abounds in transgression”, both against his neighbor and against God.

An angry man (Pro_29:22 ) is also a prideful man (Pro_29:23 ). Anger is an attribute of God that He exercises in a perfectly just way (Joh_3:36 ; Rom_1:18 ). One who is willfully angry believes he is above others and above any criticism. In so doing, he takes the place of God. God “will bring him low”. He will certainly do so in judgment, but it is also already happening on earth. A prideful man is regularly humbled by his surroundings.

Against the angry, temperamental, haughty man is “a humble spirit”. This is not someone in just a humble attitude, but someone who is inwardly humble. With him it is not about his own honor, but the honor of God. Therefore, he is honored by God (1Sa_2:30 ). A person with a humble spirit obtains honor from God. That honor is that God comes to dwell with him and gives him the fullness of life with Him (Isa_57:15 ).

Humility is not false modesty, but recognizing that everything we are, do or get is due to the goodness of God. The humble spirit is in God’s presence.

Proverbs 29:24

Who Shares With a Thief Hates His Own Life

“He who is a partner with a thief” is his accomplice. He who partners with a thief “hates his own life”. Hating himself is the opposite of loving himself. He finds himself in a situation that ruins his life. When the thief and he are caught, he must testify against the thief and against himself. The judge interrogates him under oath, which he indicates by uttering the oath (Lev_5:1 ).

But the accomplice remains silent, because he is afraid of the thief’s vengeance and he is also afraid of being condemned by the judge. Therefore, he does not disclose, he does not testify, but tells nothing and remains silent. This makes him guilty of two sins: his helping the thief and his refusal to testify.

He who is friends with criminals can easily be tempted to join in, without bearing the main responsibility. Going along with criminals and sharing in their loot means you hate your life. You risk your life for a little distraction, excitement, possession. Then you really are acting very stupid and short-sighted.

Proverbs 29:25-26

Fear of Man or Relying on the LORD

There are two contrasts in Pro_29:25 . One contrast is between one who is led by “fear of man” and “those who rely on the LORD”. The other contrast draws the consequences of the first contrast. Fear of man leads a person into “a trap” while relying on God leads to “a safe fortress”.

Fear of man means tuning your life to what other people say. People’s opinions dominate and control your life. Your behavior is determined by the environment you want to befriend. It hinders you from being yourself or speaking the truth or doing what God wants. Fear of man functions as a trap, depriving a person of all freedom to make choices independently with the Lord. The thought of what others would think determines decisions. It makes a person a prisoner of people’s opinions by controlling or limiting his actions by people he fears.

It is far better to rely on the LORD, because then you are safe, unreachable high. You are above what people think of your choice. Those who rely on God make choices that please Him. No man can change or influence that. God preserves everyone who relies on Him from the danger of people’s opinions.

The choice is between a life ruled by what others think and Who God is and what He has promised. The first is a life in bondage, a trap. The second is a life in freedom and security. Fear leads us into a trap, reliance brings us into safety and exaltation.

Fear of man led Abraham to deny his relationship with Sarah (Gen_12:11-13 Gen_20:2 ) and led Peter to deny his Lord (Mat_26:69-74 ). Paul was free from fear of man because he did not want to please men but God and because he did not want to be a slave of men but of Christ (Gal_1:10 ). It is one of the greatest evils for preachers to obfuscate the truth out of fear of men. It is acting out of the thought: what will people say about it, and not: what does the Lord say about it.

One form of fear of man (Pro_29:25 ) is seeking “the favor of a ruler” (Pro_29:26 ), to get his due. It can end up with that ruler emerging as a “trap”. People cannot give the right, but God can. He gives someone the right that he is entitled to. Therefore, relying on Him is far better than fearing man or seeking his favor, no matter how distinguished he may be or what resources he may have at his disposal.

Proverbs 29:27

To Be Unjust or Upright

This verse is the last proverb of Solomon. We can say that it is a kind of summary of all the teaching of the book. Here “the righteous” and “the wicked” are contrasted. But not only that. Here two completely different lifestyles and mindsets are presented and how they react to each other.

The righteous and the wicked abhor each other’s lifestyle. They cannot appreciate and tolerate each other. This is because of their opposite convictions. The righteous abhor “an unjust man” and the wicked abhors him “who is upright in the way”. Solomon uses the strong expression “abominable”.

There is abhorrence in both, yet there is a difference. The righteous abhor the unjust actions but not the unjust man himself, while the wicked hate the person. The wicked feel condemned by the righteous, while the other way around is not. The abhorrence of the righteous has its origin in their fellowship with God (Psa_139:21-22 ). The abhorrence of the wicked has its origin in himself.

There are only two kinds of people in the world since the Fall: the seed of the serpent, which is the wicked, and the seed of the woman, which is Christ and all who believe in Him, the righteous. The world can talk about “tolerance” that everything should be allowed, but at the deepest level, the world is wicked and full of hatred against the righteous.

The righteous and the wicked live in the same world and do some things exactly the same. For example, they both eat and drink to stay physically alive, they both live in houses, they both have families and friends, and they both go to work by car. But there the comparison ends, because they are driven by completely different motives and judge life and what goes with it from a completely different background. One views everything with the eyes of God, the other views it with the eyes of the devil.

Proverbs 29:1-5
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_29:4. He that receiveth gifts. Zöckler translates this, “a man of taxes.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_29:1
REPROOF AND DESTRUCTION
I. An act of benevolence which is often resented. When a child is reproved, and if need be chastised, for playing with the fire or neglecting its lessons, all reasonable people see that it is a kind act, and the child itself, when it has grown wiser, acknowledges that the reproof, even if it took the form of punishment, was an act of true benevolence, for it has saved him from bodily suffering or from intellectual loss. But it is probable that at the time the reproof was administered it was received with resentment, and the parent or friend who administered it was looked upon as an enemy. And it is so generally with men in relation to the reproofs of God, whether they come direct in the shape of providential chastisements or indirectly in the rebukes of His servants. God can have but one aim in reproving His creatures, and that is to save them from the pain which follows sin, and to increase their capabilities of happiness by bringing them under His Divine training. But this effort of God is often resisted, and man in the act of resistance is here and elsewhere likened to the ox which refuses to obey his master. He “hardens his neck” against the yoke of Divine reproof. Repentant Ephraim acknowledges that under Divine chastisement he was “as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke” (Jer_31:18); he resisted the efforts of his God to bring him into subjection to His wise rule, and into harmony with His benevolent purposes concerning him. The ox who does nothing but browse is living the lowest form of life which a brute can live—he eats, and sleeps, and fattens for the knife. But if his master leads him from his pasture, and harnesses him to the plough, he thereby makes him a co-worker with himself; the beast now helps to raise the corn which not only feeds himself, but feeds men also, and thus, by coming under the yoke, he becomes a more useful and valuable creature. But as he is only a brute, he is not to be blamed if he prefers the lower life to the higher. As it is with the ox and his master, so it is with the sinner and God. The godless man is content to live upon a level with the lowest level of brute life—to satisfy his bodily appetites, to eat and drink, and die and leave undeveloped all his capacities for spiritual growth and blessedness. But God would make him a co-worker with Himself in lifting him to a higher level and in making him a more useful and blessed creature. But men often resist this benevolent intention, and resent this check upon their self-will.
II. The resistance to many acts of benevolence bringing one act of judgment. It must at last be decided whose will is to be the law of the universe—that of rebellious men or that of the Holy God; and though the Divine longsuffering is so exceedingly great, He must, in the interests of His creatures, assert His right to their obedience. This He did in the case of His chosen people—after centuries of resisted reproof sudden and irremediable destruction came upon the nation, and those who, like the Jews, will not come under the yoke of God, must sooner or later feel His rod. If they will not be His children they must be treated as rebellious subjects. On this subject see also on chap. Pro_6:15, page 82.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Such was the destruction of the old world, and of the cities of the plain, long hardened against the forbearance of God. Pharaoh grew more stubborn under the rod, and rushed madly upon his sudden ruin. Eli’s sons “hearkened not unto the voice of their father, and in one day died both of them.” Ahab, often reproved by the godly prophet, hardened his neck, and “the bow, drawn at a venture,” received its commission. How must Judas have steeled his heart against his Master’s reproof! Onward he rushed, “that he might go to his own place.”—Bridges.
Sins repeated and reiterated are much greater than sins once committed … As in numbers, one in the first place stands but for a single one, in the second place ten, in the third place for a hundred, so here, each repetition is a great aggravation. It is one thing to fall into the water, another thing to lie there; it is the latter that drowns men.—Swinnock.
On the subject of Pro_29:2, see on chap. Pro_11:10, page 206. On Pro_29:3, see on chap. Pro_10:1, page 137, and chap. Pro_5:1-20, page 68. The subject of Pro_29:4 has been treated on page 472, in the homiletics on chap. Pro_16:10-15, and that of Pro_29:5 in the homiletics on chap. Pro_26:23-28, page 721.

Proverbs 29:6-7
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_29:7. Considereth. Literally knoweth. Zöckler and Delitzsch translate the latter clause, “the godless discern, or understand not, knowledge.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_29:6
A SNARE AND A SONG
I. Sin deceives men. If a man digs a pit for the purpose of entrapping a victim, his great aim is to make the path over it as inviting as possible, and entirely to hide from sight the snare which he has laid, for, as Solomon tells us elsewhere, “Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.” (Chap. Pro_1:17.) So when the great deceiver of men tries to lead them into sin, he makes the way of transgression look very inviting, and persuades his victim that some great gain is to be gotten by the sin. He hides from view the pit of misery which lies at the end of every path of disobedience to God. He did not let Adam and Eve see beforehand the bitter consequences of breaking the Divine command or he would not have succeeded in accomplishing their downfall. And be does not let the young man whom he persuades to rob his master see the felon’s cell beyond, or his persuasions would be ineffectual. His great aim is to make men believe there is security where there is danger—a solid rock where there is a yawning pit—probable gain where there is certain loss. Seeing that sin is against the sinner’s own interests, and that there is in every man an instinct of self-preservation, we must conclude that if transgressors were not ensnared, Satan could take the captive in no other way.
II. Righteousness gladdens men. God, who is the Fountain and Source of all the joy in the universe, made man for happiness. This is the portion which He intended all His creatures to possess, and which they forfeit by their own act and deed. Before sin entered our world, song was man’s natural employment—it was as natural for him to rejoice in God’s love as it was to breathe God’s air. And in proportion as sin is banished from the human soul, and the right relation between it and God is re-established, joy and gladness re-enter the heart. The indissoluble connection which is found everywhere between righteousness of life and peace of mind is a revelation of the character of the Being who sits upon the throne of the universe, and although the song of the righteous in this world is not an unbroken one, and they have sorrow as well as joy, they are hastening to a world where “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.” (Rev_21:4.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Or, a cord, viz., to strangle his joy with—to check and choke all his comforts. In the midst of his mirth he hath many a secret gripe, and little knows the world where the shoe pinches him. Every fowl that hath a seemly feather hath not the sweetest flesh, nor doth every tree that bringeth a goodly leaf bear good fruit. Glass giveth a clearer sound than silver, and many things glitter besides gold. The wicked man’s jollity may wet the mouth, but not warm the heart—smooth the brow, but not fill the breast … But though Saul could not be merry without a fiddler, Ahab without Naboth’s vineyard, Haman without Mordecai’s courtesy, yet a righteous man can be merry without all these.—Trapp.
For Homiletics of Pro_29:7 see on chap. Pro_14:31, page 389, and chap. Pro_24:11-12, page 680.

Proverbs 29:8-9
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_29:8. Bring a city, etc., literally, “set a city on fire.”
Pro_29:9. The second clause should rather be “he rageth and laugheth (i.e., the fool), and there is no rest.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_29:8
THE CITIZEN’S ENEMY AND THE CITIZEN’S FRIEND
I. A scornful man is a social calamity. A scorner is a man who has a great opinion of his own wisdom and ability, and a very low one of all who oppose him. From his self-constructed elevation he looks down upon those who refuse to obey him, and counts them his inferiors simply because they do so. This is a perilous course to pursue even when only individual interests are at stake, but when the scornful man holds the welfare of others in his hand, the disastrous effects of his conduct are more widely spread. When he is the only person who suffers from over-estimating himself and underrating the strength of his opponents the issue is hardly to be regretted, but Solomon here has in his mind a public man who brings ruin upon many besides himself by his proud disdain of their foes, and by his refusal to recognise a common danger. Goliath was such a man. As the representative and champion of the Philistines he over-estimated the value of his physical strength, and set too low an estimate upon the unseen power arrayed against him, and his scorn of his enemies brought a great calamity upon his nation. A scornful man brings the heaviest calamity upon a people when he scoffs at the power of God and persuades his followers to set at nought His demands and threatenings. This was the great crime of many of Solomon’s successors to the throne, and of the false prophets of Judah and Israel, and hence the sentence passed upon them and upon those who listened to them: “Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, we have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we in agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: Therefore thus saith the Lord God … Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuges of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place,” etc. (
Isa_28:14-22.)
II. A wise man is a social blessing. We have before seen (see on chap. Pro_14:16, page 364) that it is one of the characteristics of a wise man that he recognises the presence of moral danger in relation to himself, and the same may be said concerning danger of every kind, not only as regards himself, but others also. The recognition of danger is quite distinct from the fear of it; indeed those who are most quick to discern it have generally the most courage to meet it and the most wisdom to avert it. Scornful men generally have nothing but scorn wherewith to meet a foe, but the man who is truly wise can afford to acknowledge the strength of his enemies because he is fully prepared to meet them. If he seek to turn away the wrath of man by persuasion, he will be able to back his persuasion by wise reasoning, and if he strive to avert the wrath of God he will endeavour to bring those for whom he intercedes to such a state of mind as will render them fit to appreciate Divine pardon. But if he cannot do this his own character will give effect to his prayers, and as in the case of Moses and the children of Israel, God will spare many sinners for the sake of one righteous man.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Surely it was wisdom in the king and people of Nineveh, instead of bringing their city into a snare by scornful rebellion, to avert by timely humiliation the impending destruction. (Jon_3:5-10.) Let the people be gathered; let the ministers of the Lord gird themselves to their work of weeping and accepted pleaders for the land. (Joe_2:17.) Surely “except the Lord of Hosts had left us a very small remnant” of these powerful intercessors, “we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” (Isa_1:9.) Praised be God! The voice is yet heard—“Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it.” (Isa_65:8.) The salt of the earth preserves it from corruption. (Mat_5:13.) Shall not we, then, honour these wise men with reverential gratitude—“My father—my father! the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof?” … Moses—Exo_32:10-14; Deu_9:8-20; Psa_106:23; Aaron—Num_16:48; Phinehas Pro_25:11; Psa_106:30. Elijah—1Ki_18:42-45; Jas_5:16; Jas_5:18; Jer_18:20; Dan_9:3-20; Amo_7:1-6. The righteous remnant—Isa_1:9; Isa_6:13. Comp. Gen_18:32; Job_22:30; Jer_5:1; Eze_22:30-31. Contrast Pro_13:5.—Bridges.
For Homiletics on the subject of Pro_29:9, see on chaps. Pro_23:9, and Pro_26:3-11, pages 665 and 716.

Proverbs 29:10-11
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_29:10. Delitzsch translates this verse:—“Men of blood hate the guiltless and the upright; they seek his soul.”
Pro_29:11. His mind. Rather his wrath. Keepeth it till afterward. Rather restraineth it, keeps it in the background.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_29:10
SOUL-SEEKERS AND SOUL-HATERS
I. A proof of the unnatural condition of the human family. When we look at a human body we see that every limb and organism belonging to it ministers to the well-being of the whole frame, and thus to the comfort of the living soul that inhabits it. This we recognise to be a natural and fitting state of things—just what we should have expected to find before experience. If in any human body we at any time see the hand inflicting injury upon the head, or any one member causing discomfort to another, we conclude, and with reason, that some disturbance of the natural condition has taken place—that there is physical disease in some bodily organism, or moral disease in the spirit that animates the body. So our human instincts and our reason force us to the conclusion that the natural relation of the members of the great body of humanity is one in which “each for all and all for each” should be the rule of action. That it is not so, can but strike all thinking men and women as a terrible incongruity. That most men not merely regard their human brethren with indifference, but that many actually hate and seek to injure their fellow-creatures is surely an evidence that some fatal moral distemper has laid hold of the race. And the evidence becomes stronger when we consider the truth of the first assertion in the proverb—that not only do bloodthirsty men seek to injure other men in general, but that the objects of their especial malignity are the upright—those who have given them no provocation, but whose desire and aim is to bless their human brothers and sisters.
II. An example in renewed men of what human brotherhood ought to be. Notwithstanding the great amount of self-seeking and enmity that is found in the world, there always has been found a small minority who have been seekers of the good of others, and in whom love to their human brethren has been the keynote of existence. And this love has been felt, and this seeking has been active, in behalf of those who hated them, and sought to do them ill. All such members of the human family are doing their part towards restoring men to the condition of peace and goodwill in which their Creator intended them to live, and help us to form some idea of what earth would have been if sin had never entered it. It is true they would then have had no opportunity of loving their enemies, and of doing good to those who hate them, but the love which “seeketh not her own” would have found free scope for her activities in going out towards those animated by the same spirit of love and would never have had to sorrow over efforts to seek and save that have been apparently fruitless. All just men who are seekers of the well-being of others, and especially those who seek the good of their enemies, are followers of that Just One who was hated by the bloodthirsty of His day, and who sought their souls while they sought His life. The history of the martyr Church in all ages has been the history of the “bloodthirsty hating the upright,” and of the just treading in the footsteps of their Divine Master, and “seeking the souls” of their persecutors.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
These words may mean—and probably do mean—that the upright, in opposition to the blood-thirsty by whom the just is hated, “seek his soul,”—that is, the soul or life of the object of the hatred—of the just or the upright. Of the Lord Himself it is said—“He loveth the righteous.” And in this all His people resemble Him. It is one of their characteristic distinctions. They pray for the upright, and endeavour, by all means in their power, to preserve them from the deadly machinations of their persecutors. The amount of love required of God’s people towards God’s people is that they be ready to “lay down their lives for the brethren.” And if “for the brethren”—how much more for THE JUST ONE. Wardlaw.
The just seek his soul. As Paul did of his countrymen the Jews, of whom five times he received forty stripes save one (2Co_11:24); as the disciples did of those spiteful Pharisees that had causelessly accused them (Mat_15:2-12); as that martyr Master Saunders did: “My lord,” said he to Bishop Bonner, “you seek my blood, and you shall have it. I pray God you may be so baptized in it as hereafter you may loathe blood-sucking, and so become a better man.”—Trapp.
On the subject of Pro_29:11 see on chap. Pro_10:19-21, page 168.

Proverbs 29:12-15
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_29:13. The deceitful. Rather “the usurer.” A man of usury is only a more concrete expression for a rich man, and this is the corresponding term in chap. Pro_22:2 (Zöckler).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_29:12
A MORAL CANCER IN A KING’S COURT
I. A man in authority should be a discerner of character. The man whose bodily sight is defective is not fit to be entrusted with the destinies of others in any case in which clear vision is needed. A purblind seaman would not be the man to stand upon the bridge of a vessel and direct its movements, nor would a general unable to distinguish friends from foes be a safe person to whom to entrust the guidance of an army in the field. And a man is manifestly in the wrong place if he is a ruler over others and is not a discerner of character.
II. A man in authority should be the possessor of a character. A ruler may be a good man himself and yet be imposed upon by others, but as a rule a lover of truth is a discerner of truth, and an honest man will detect the false ring of the liar’s words. But if a man is himself a liar, he will instinctively shrink from contact with true men, and true men will not care to hold intercourse with him, or to serve him, and so he must necessarily gather round him servants who are like himself. Such processes of attraction and repulsion are always going on in the world, in all departments of government, in the family, in the factory, and in the court. The servants are generally what the master is, and the courtiers reflect the character of the monarch.
III. It is therefore indispensable to the moral purity of any community that its head be first a good man and then an able man. Moral excellence is before all other things needful, but it is not the only thing needful. A good man is not always a keen discerner of character, although his goodness will strengthen his power of discernment, but he who rules men should possess in an uncommon degree the power of reading them as well as that of setting them a good example in his own life.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
He that carrieth Satan in his ear is no less blameworthy than he which carrieth him in his tongue. Untruths are cherished and fostered, as it were, by those who are too light of belief. But this credulity is especially to be shunned by rulers in church, commonwealth, or private families; for all the inferiors commonly follow the example of the superiors.… It may indeed sometimes fall out that an Obadiah may lurk in Ahab’s court, but this is rare, and commonly the sway goeth another way. Who were Saul’s courtiers but Doeg and such backbiters?—Muffett.
How wise was David’s determination—both as the sovereign of his people and the ruler of his house—to discountenance lies, and uphold the cause of faithful men! (Psa_101:2-7.—Bridges.
It is natural, when we think of Solomon’s own situation as king of Israel, to expect to find some of his maxims of proverbial wisdom bearing special reference to the character and conduct of men in power. And so it is. When, moreover, we think of the wisdom with which, at the outset of his reign, and at his own earnest request, he was divinely endowed, we as naturally anticipate a correspondence between the maxims and the character. Nor are we disappointed. The maxims are not those of the selfishness of power,—not those of arbitrary despotism or the sovereignty of royal will; nor are they those of an artful, intriguing, Machiavelian policy. They are sound and liberal, and based on the great principle of the public good being the end of all government—the principle that kings reign, not for themselves, but for their people; while, in all their administration, they ought to be swayed and regulated by the laws of an authority higher than their own, by a regard to the will of God as their rule, and the glory of God, to which all else must ever be subordinate, as their supreme aim. But we must not forget, that the Book of Proverbs forms part of the canon of inspired Scripture; that it does not contain, therefore, the mere dictates of human wisdom, how extraordinary soever that wisdom was; that “a greater than Solomon is here.”—Wardlaw.
The reigns of those princes who gave an easy belief to accusations, are stained with the most atrocious crimes. Tiberius Cæsar put to death the greater number of his own privy councillors, by giving ear to lies, and encouraging his servants to be wicked; and it is probable that the worst action that ever was committed since the fall of Adam, the murder of the Prince of Life, was occasioned by Pilate’s wicked and cowardly regard to the temper of that tyrant, and his fear of being accused as an encourager of treason, if he had suffered our Lord to escape.—Lawson.
Rulers are the looking-glasses according to which most men dress themselves. Their sins do much hurt, as by imputation (2 Samuel 24.)—the prince sinned, the people suffered—so by imitation; for man is a creature apt to imitate, and is more led by his eyes than his ears.… Height of place ever adds two wings to sin, example, and scandal, whereby it soars higher and flies much further.—Trapp.
The subject of Pro_29:13 is the same as that of chap. Pro_22:22, page 636. The deceitful man should be “the man of usury, money-lender,” meaning simply the “rich man.” (Zöckler.) For subjects of Pro_29:14-15, see on chapter Pro_16:10-15, page 472, and Pro_13:24, page 335, also on chap. Pro_19:13-18, page 573.

Proverbs 29:16-17
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_29:16
VICTORY NOT WITH THE MAJORITY
I. There is no necessary connection between numbers and righteousness. Weeds grow faster than wheat, and are much more abundant than the grain. But the simple fact that there are more weeds than there is corn does not alter the character of either. In the same field it may happen that there is more to bind for fuel than for food—that the tares far outnumber the ears of wheat—and in this case the worth is on the side of the smaller quantity. So is it in the moral field of the world. It is a startling fact that under the government of God the wicked are permitted to multiply—that when a man sets himself in opposition to his Maker, he is not at once removed from the earth, but is permitted to live and use his life to make other men wicked like himself. We may sometimes be inclined to ask with the patriarch, “Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power” (Job_21:7), and the question may be difficult for us to answer: but this we must never forget, that neither with man nor with God is there any necessary connection between quantity and quality, between worth and abundance.
II. Neither are numbers any guarantee of victory. The greatness of a tree and the number of its branches do not make it certain that it will outlive the storm—on the contrary, its great bulk and height are often the causes of its fall. When the wicked multiply, and so increase transgression, they sometimes lose sight of their personal sin and danger in the sin and danger of the multitude, and persuade themselves that there is safety in numbers. But the very opposite is the case. Men grow more bold in transgression in proportion as they are surrounded with other transgressors, and venture to do deeds of wickedness when in company with others that they would fear to commit alone. And so the multiplication of the wicked, as it increases transgression, is the means of hastening their fall instead of retarding it. It was “when men began to multiply upon the face of the earth” (Gen_6:1) that their wickedness became so great as to compel God to destroy them by a flood. It was the combination of the entire Jewish nation that enabled them to commit the crime of crucifying the Lord of Glory, but it was this “increase of transgression” that led to their final fall.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Combination emboldens in sin. (Isa_41:7.) Each particle of the mass is corrupt. The mass therefore of itself ferments with evil. Hence the prevalence of infidelity in our densely crowded districts above the more thinly populated villages. There is the same evil in individual hearts, but not the same fermentation of evil.—Bridges.
The reference is, in all probability, to the influence of wicked rulers in promoting the increase of wickedness in the community, which requires not either illustration or proof.—“But the righteous shall see their fall.”—Their fall, that is, from power and authority. It is not the final fall—the perdition of the wicked, that is intended. In that the righteous have no pleasure. Herein they resemble God; are of one mind and heart with Him. He says, and confirms it by His oath—“As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” In the execution of the sentence against them, God glorifies Himself; and the righteous solemnly acquiesce, acknowledging and celebrating the justice of the divine administration:—“Even so, Lord God, Almighty, for true and righteous are Thy judgments!” But pleasure in witnessing the execution of the sentence, we cannot, we must not, for a moment, imagine them to have.—Wardlaw.
Cyrillus Alexandrinus tells us, when man was alone upon the earth there was then no such matter as sinning.… Much company in sin ever makes more, it being the weakness of man’s understanding to fear little hurt and danger, where many run into it, and it being the nature of wickedness to take strength from a multitude, as not fearing then to be opposed or resisted.—Jermin.
For Homiletics on the subject of Pro_29:17, see on chap. Pro_19:18, page 573.

Proverbs 29:18
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_29:18. Vision. Rather “Revelation.” “The word denotes prophetic prediction, the revelation of God by His seers (1Sa_9:9); the chief function of these consisted in their watching over the vigorous fulfilling of the law, or in the enforcement of the claims of the law (Zöckler).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_29:18
DIVINE REVELATION AND HUMAN OBEDIENCE
I. The human soul needs what it cannot produce. If the flower is to attain to its development of beauty and colour it must have the sunlight and the rain from without itself—it needs what it has no power to produce. The husbandman and all mankind need a harvest, but they have no power within themselves to supply their need; although they can plough, and plant, and sow, they cannot give the quickening rays of light and heat which alone can make the seed to live and grow. The entire human race has spiritual needs which it cannot supply, and capabilities which must be developed by influences outside and above itself. It needs a knowledge of God’s nature, and will, and purposes, if it is to grow in moral stature, and blossom and ripen into moral beauty and fruitfulness, but no human intellect or heart can acquire this knowledge by its own unaided efforts. If the human soul is to grow in goodness it must know God, and if it is to know Him, God must reveal Himself.
II. God by revelation has supplied man’s need. This supply man had a right to look for and expect. He had a right to look to the Creator of his bodily appetites and needs for the supplies that are necessary to his physical life and well-being, and he does not look in vain. God has given the “earth to the children of men” (Psa_115:16), and every year He causes it to bring forth and bud, not only giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, but an abundance of luxuries for his enjoyment. It is most natural and reasonable to look to the Giver of all these good things for the body, and expect from Him the supply of the deeper needs of the soul. We do not think a human parent does his duty to his child if he only feeds and clothes him and makes no effort to enlighten his mind and satisfy his heart. And surely the Great Father of the universe would not be worthy of His name if He dealt so with the children of whose bodies and souls He is the Author. But He has not left us thus unprovided for, but “at sundry times and in divers manners He has spoken unto men” (Heb_1:1), telling them enough of Himself and of themselves to satisfy their spiritual cravings, and to elevate their spiritual nature.
III. It follows that gratitude and self-love should prompt men to listen to God, and to obey Him. If the foregoing assertions are true, it follows that man must give heed to the revelation of God, or sustain permanent and irretrievable loss. As he cannot reject the Divine provision for the body without bodily death, so he cannot refuse attention to God’s provision for his soul without spiritual ruin—without causing to perish all those powers and faculties of his highest nature the exercise of which make existence worth having. Self-love, therefore, should prompt a man to “keep the law,” and if he do not listen to its voice he has only himself to blame for missing real happiness. If a man is starving, his best friend can do no more than supply his need, he must eat the food set before him; and when God has offered to the children of men that wine and milk which will satisfy the soul, and cause it to grow, He has done all that even a God can do. (
Isa_55:1-2.) Man is a self-murderer if he refuse it.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
He doth not say they may perish, but they do perish; or they are in danger of perishing, but they do certainly perish where there is no serious, conscientious, faithful, powerful preaching.… There men perish temporarily; when vision, when preaching ceased among the Jews, oh, the dreadful calamities and miseries that came upon the people!… There men perish totally: both the bodies and the souls of men perish where serious conscientious preaching fails (Hos_4:6); “My people are destroyed for want of knowledge.” … The Papists say that ignorance is the mother of devotion; but this text tells us that it is the mother of destruction.—Brooks.
This is only a hypothetical case, for there are no such “people.” Nevertheless there is such a principle. Just in proportion as men do not know they will not be punished. Paul and Solomon are in full accord. “They that sin without law shall also perish without law; but they that sin in the law shall be judged by the law.” (Rom_2:12.) These Proverbs elsewhere have taught the same doctrine (chap. Pro_8:36). Men might all perish, but some less terribly, from a difference of light. All men have some light (Rom_1:20); and that which they actually have is all that they shall answer for in the day of final account. Still there is a form of ignorance that will exactly proportion our guilt. It is ghostly ignorance, or the absence of spiritual knowledge. Perhaps I may still say that a man is punished for what he has, and not for what he has not. A man who knows of this ignorance, and has light enough to know his need of light, has enough to give account for in that without being supposed to suffer for a profound negation. Be this as it may, there is such an ignorance. It exactly grades our sins. It is the measure of our depravity, The profounder it sinks we sink. No man need sink or perish. There is a remedy. “The word is nigh” (us.)—Miller.

Proverbs 29:19-23
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_29:19. Doth not answer. Rather “there is not an answer,” that is in action, by obedience. Delitzsch translates “does not conform thereto”
Pro_29:21. A son, etc. There are many different translations of this verse, but the general verdict of scholars seems to favour the English rendering. Luther translates the verse, “If a servant is tenderly treated from youth up, he will accordingly become a squire”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_29:19; Pro_29:21
MASTERS AND SERVANTS
I. Human servants generally need correction. The relation of master and servant is generally, though not always, founded upon some superiority on the one side and inferiority on the other. Where there is any right adjustment of social relations, those who serve are those who lack knowledge of some kind which those who rule are able to impart, and hence arises the necessity of correction on the part of the master and of submission on that of the servant. It is undeniable that there are many inversions of this ideal moral order, but the proverb can only refer to what ought to be, and what often, though not always, is the case.
II. The means of correction ought to be moral means. A servant is a moral and intelligent agent, and not a machine or a brute, and he can and ought to appreciate appeals to his reason and conscience. A wise and humane rider will use his voice to his steed in preference to the whip or the spur, and generally finds it effectual. And words of reproof and encouragement are probably the only successful means of dealing with human nature in this relationship. If these fail, no others will avail, and all benefit from the connection will cease.
III. Therefore human masters need much wisdom. If they are over-indulgent the servant may take undue advantage and claim privileges to which he has no right (Pro_29:21). In the present constitution of things in this world, and probably throughout the universe, there are inequalities of position and rank which no wise man can ignore, and it is kind and wise to those beneath us to maintain these differences and distinctions. But to maintain them without haughtiness, and with that consideration and sympathy which ought to mark all our intercourse with our fellow-creatures, needs much wisdom on the part of superiors. Dr. David Thomas suggests another, and perhaps a pleasanter application of this proverb. “There is another side,” he says, “to the kindness of a master towards is servant, that is, the making of the servant feel towards him all the sympathy and interest of a son.… He who can make his servant feel towards him as a loving, faithful, and dutiful child, will reap the greatest comfort and advantage from his service.” But this happy result can only be brought about where the master is truly wise as well as kind.
For Homiletics on Pro_29:20; Pro_29:22, see on chap. Pro_14:17; Pro_14:29, pages 363 and 386. On Pro_29:23, see on chap. Pro_11:2, page 192, and Pro_16:18, page 482.

Proverbs 29:24
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_29:24. He heareth cursing. Rather the curse, i.e., according to Zöckler, “the curse which according to the law (Lev_5:1. sq.) marks a theft as an offence demanding a heavy penalty.” Delitzsch translates “he heareth the oath,” and explains it “as that of the judge who adjures the partner of the thief by God to tell the truth.” (See also Lev_5:1).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_29:24
CRIMINAL PARTNERSHIP
I. Partnerships are self-revealing. That proverb is an old and true one—“Tell me what company you keep, and I will tell you what you are.” A man seeks the society and shares the pursuits of those who are likeminded with himself; if he chooses the fellowship of the good it shows that there is something in his character that has an affinity to theirs, and if he willingly associates himself with bad men, he proclaims himself to be a bad man. Good men do not “walk in the counsel of the ungodly,” or “sit in the seat of the scornful”—men who are found in such places must be counted among the ungodly and scornful, although they may be negative rather than positive sinners.
II. Criminal partnerships are self-destroying. As we have seen, partners with criminals are criminals themselves in spirit if not in actual deed, and must therefore meet with the doom of the transgressor. Probably the proverb is directed against those who shelter themselves under the idea that those who do not commit the crime themselves, but only consent to it beforehand, or conceal it afterwards, are not so very guilty; but this is nowhere the teaching of Scripture, nor is it the verdict of the human conscience.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
A partnership life is becoming more and more common and necessary in our commercial England. Great undertakings can only be carried out by companies. Modern legislation has greatly encouraged these combinations, by limiting the monetary liability of its members. Hence, joint-stock companies are multitudinous and multiplying. Such companies are often, perhaps generally, projected and managed by selfish, needy, and unprincipled speculators; and honest men are often tempted by the glowing promises of their lying programmes to become their adherents, and they soon find themselves in the unfortunate position referred to in the text.—Dr. David Thomas.
The receiver and resetter is at least as guilty as the thief. I say at least; for in one obvious respect he is worse. His is a general trade, which gives encouragement to many thieves, by holding out to them the means of disposing of their stolen property and evading the law. He is thus, in fact, a partaker in the guilt of all. One thief cannot set up and maintain a resetter; but one resetter may keep at their nefarious trade many thieves.—Wardlaw.
This is a warning under the eighth commandment. Do we realise the same solemnity of obligation as under the first? Many professors attach a degree of secularity to a detailed application of the duties of the second table. But both stand on the same authority. The transgressions of both are registered in the same book. The place in the decalogue cannot be of moment, if it be but there with the imprimatur—“I am the Lord thy God.”—Bridges.
It is the cursed policy of Satan, that he strives to join men in wickedness. In drunkenness there must be a good fellow; in wantonness there must be a corrival; in bloody duels there must be a second; in theft there must be a partner, yoking men together to draw upon themselves the heavy burden of God’s displeasure.… Wherefore, although it may be a love unto the things stolen, or else a love unto the stealer, which maketh others to join with him, certainly he showeth little love to God’s law, certainly he proveth great hatred, which he has to his own soul. For while he joineth with another in stealing some worldly goods, he joineth with Satan in stealing his own soul from himself. And whatsoever fear he may have of some curse which the other hath laid upon him, if that he doth reveal it, he hath much more cause to feel the curse of God’s wrath, if he doth conceal it. He hath but heard the one, he shall feel the other.—Jermin.

Proverbs 29:25-26
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_29:25-26
SAFETY FROM A SNARE
I. Men fear and hope too much from their fellow men. This fear and this hope are very active agents in this world, influencing men often to abstain from what they know to be right, and inducing them to do deeds of evil. Good men have often staggered and sometimes fallen before this fear and have been misled by this false hope, and both the hope and the fear are intensified when the object of them belongs to the ranks of the conventually great—when the man whom they desire to propitiate is a “ruler” among his fellows. Such a man sometimes has the power to injure those who displease him, and has also much that he can bestow upon those who seek his favour; but the weight of his displeasure and the worth of his gifts are generally estimated far too highly by his inferiors in rank, and when this is the case they are snares which lead to sin.
II. Trust in God is the only escape from the fear that will mislead, and the hope that will disappoint. The many and great contrasts, not only between the favour of God and the favour of man, but between all that is connected with the seeking and the bestowal, will lead every wise man to forsake the pursuit of the less for the greater. 1. The favour of an earthly ruler is often obtained only by the exercise of great skill on the part of the seeker. When the woman of Tekoa desired to obtain from David the forgiveness of Absalom, what ingenuity on her part was necessary in order to gain the monarch’s ear and goodwill. She had to study how to put the case before him in the best light, and to enact a little drama before his eyes in order to enlist his attention and soften his heart. And yet she was pleading with a tender-hearted father for his own son. How different is it when we plead for the mercy of God either for ourselves or others. The simplest statement of the case is sufficient; no schemes or plans of any kind are necessary to win the ear of Him who is always waiting to be gracious. 2. Success with an earthly ruler is often quite unconnected with the merit or demerit of the pleader. It often happens that the most worthless characters obtain the greatest favours, even if the ruler himself be a fairly impartial man, because they have more friends at court than a deserving man. In the case just mentioned, Absalom, a thoroughly bad man, was able to command the services of a person who was probably more fitted to gain the desired end than any person in the kingdom. If there had been a banished subject who really merited a free pardon from the king, he would probably not have been able to command the services of so successful a pleader as the woman of Tekoa. But the case is altogether different with Him who doth not “judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears.” (Isa_11:3.) The “judgment which cometh from the Lord” is founded on the strictest impartiality, and depends upon nothing but the character and needs of the suitor. If we add to these drawbacks the uncertain good which may be contained in the “favour of a ruler” even after it is obtained, we may well wonder that it is as true now as in Solomon’s days that the “many” seek it, and only the few trust their earthly and their spiritual interests with their God. How many of the few who are not disappointed of the favour of great men are disappointed in it, and find it a poor and unsatisfying portion after all; but the testimony of all those who seek the higher good is “In Thy favour is life, and Thy loving-kindness is better than life.” (Psa_63:3.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
To those who look out upon society from the standpoint of trust in God, the greatest magnates of the world will appear only as grasshoppers.… He who can say, “Surely my judgment is with the Lord,” will stand before his race with undaunted heroism, and before his God with devotion. Conscious dependence on the Almighty is the spirit of independence towards men.—Dr. David Thomas.
The fear of man leads you into a snare, and will the fear of God make you safe? No; if the character of the affection remain the same, you will gain nothing by a change of object. If you simply turn round and fear God as you feared man you have not thereby escaped. The fear of the greater Being is the greater fear. The weight presses in the same direction, and it is heavier by all the difference between the finite and the infinite.… It is not a transference of fear from man to God that can make the sinner safe. The kind of affection must be changed, as well as its object. Safety lies not in terror, but in trust. Hope leads to holiness. He who is made nigh to God by the death of His Son stands high above the wretched snares that entangled his feet when he feared men. The sovereign’s son is safe from the temptation to commit petty theft.… When you know in whom you have believed, and feel that any step in life’s journey hereafter may be the step into heaven, the fear of this man and the favour of that will exert no sensible influence in leading you to the right hand or to the left.—Arnot.
Albeit faith, when it is in the heart, quelleth and killeth distrustful fear, and is therefore fitly opposed to it in this sacred sentence; yet in the very best sense it fights sore against faith when it is upon its own dunghill. I mean in a sensible danger. Nature’s retraction of itself from a visible fear, may cause the pulse of a Christian that beats truly and strongly in the main point—the state of the soul—to intermit and falter at such a time, as we see in the examples of Abraham, Isaac, David, Peter, and others.… The chameleon is said to be the most fearful of all creatures, and doth therefore turn himself into so many colours to avoid danger, which yet will not be. God equally hateth the timorous and the treacherous. “Fearful” men are the first in that black roll. (Rev_21:8.)—Trapp.
There is a higher step to be taken before we can well step so high; there is the favour of God to be procured before that the favour of the ruler can well be obtained. For kings are but God’s kingdoms; as they reign over their people, so He reigneth over them; as they sit on the throne of their kingdom, so He sitteth on the throne of their hearts, and by a distributive justice dispenseth the judgment of his and their favours according as it seemeth good to His eternal wisdom. The favour therefore of thy ruler is worth thy seeking for; but first seek and get God’s favour, if thou wilt get and enjoy the other to thy happiness. And when thou hast gotten it, remember that it was God’s hand which directed the king’s hand to reach it forth unto thee. For it is too commonly seen, as one speaketh, “Then doth God especially slip out of the minds of men, when they enjoy His benefits and favours.”—Jermin.
For Homiletics on Pro_29:27, see on chap. Pro_28:4

Proverbs 29:1
He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck.
The doom of the incorrigible sinner
This proverb may be accommodated to all the affairs of life. In whatever course a man blunders on, headstrong and regardless of advice and admonition, it will ruin him at last, as far as the matter is capable of working his ruin. But here principal reference is to religion. Often reproved—this is undoubtedly our character. Reproved by men from all quarters. The Word of God has reproved us. God has reproved us by His providence in private and public calamities. God has reproved us more immediately by His Spirit. We have also been our own monitors. Conscience has often pronounced our doom. Even the irrational creatures and infernal spirits may have been our monitors. Solomon assumes that a man may be often reproved, and yet harden his neck; that is, obstinately refuse submission and reformation. Nothing but a sullen and senseless beast can represent the stupid, unreasonable conduct of that man who hardens himself in sin, against the strongest dissuasion and reproofs from God and His creatures. The stiff neck that will not bend to the yoke of obedience must be broken, and its own stiffness renders it the more easily broken. It may harden itself into insensibility under reproof, but it cannot harden itself into insensibility under Divine judgments. He shall be suddenly destroyed. Sudden ruin is aggravated because it strikes a man into a consternation. There is dreadful reason to fear that you will always continue in your present condition if you persist in being proof against all admonition. (S. Davies, M.A.)

The duty of reprovers and persons reproved
The verse may be read, “He that reproveth another, and hardeneth his own neck.” The Hebrew is, “A man of reproofs, that hardens his own neck.”

1. Such a reprover of sin does it against his office. The office of a reprover binds him to be blameless.
2. Such a reprover can never reprove to a right end. It is not because he hates sin; if he did he would put it away from himself.
3. Such a reprover can never do it in a right manner. As long as a man has a beam in his own eye he cannot rightly deal with the mote in his brother’s.
4. Such a reprover is a hypocrite.
5. Such a reprover is inexcusable. His reproving another man’s sin makes himself inexcusable of his own.
6. Such a reprover is an absurd and impudent person. Such a man both wrongs his own soul and dishonours God. But the verse may be read, “He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck.” Hebrew is, “Hardens his own neck.” A “man of reproofs” equals a man often reproved. The Lord does not destroy a man nakedly, but upon consideration of sin. What a great sin it is, what a great ill it is, for man to sin against his reproofs.
   The greatness of the ill is set down in two ways.
7. By the great sinfulness of the thing. It is called the hardening of a man’s own neck.
8. By the greatness of the punishment that God inflicts upon this sin. When God reproves a man of sin, the reproof primarily comes out of love. The end of reproof is to bring a man to good, to reduce him into a right way, to convert a man, and save his soul. There is no reason in the world why reproof should be taken otherwise than with all willingness and thankfulness and cheerfulness. First use of this: See here what an infinite punishment God is bringing upon a kingdom when He is taking away reprovers from them.
   The second use makes against those that despise the reproof of the wise. “Ye despise not men, but God.” The Lord proportions punishments to men’s sins.
9. Because hereby man’s punishment appears to be so much the more equal and worthy.
10. Because this stops a man’s mouth; it convinceth s man’s conscience.
11. All the standers-by see the equity of it. Consider and see how God proportions punishments to sins in kind, quantity, quality, time, and place. (William Fenner.)

The certain doom of the impenitent
I. The true idea of reproof. Whatever is calculated in its own nature or relations to arrest the attention of the mind, and call men to see their neglect of duty, or the obligation they owe to God, involves the true idea of reproof.
II. The ways in which God administers reproof. God exercises a universal providence. By judgments God ofttimes administers reproof. The Holy Spirit reproves by convincing the sinner of his sins and producing in his mind visitations of remorse.
III. The design of reproof. To effect a reformation. He means to secure this end by forbearance. When He finds that will not do, then He uses the rod.
IV. The meaning of hardening the neck. The figure is that of a bullock working with a yoke upon his neck. The neck becomes callous with the pressure of the yoke. Men are represented as pushing against God’s providence, and thus making their necks hard. The conscience of the sinner becomes quite callous under reproof if he does not yield to it.
V. The meaning of being suddenly destroyed. Opposition and destruction will always go together. The conscience becomes so stupefied that men lose the sense of danger. The danger of men is great, just in proportion as they cease to be affected by a sense of it; when men feel the most secure, if they are living in sin, then destruction is most certain; and when it comes it will be sudden, because they do not expect it at all. This is not arbitrary on the part of God; it is a natural consequence of the sinner’s conduct. (C. G. Finney.)

Hardening perilous
I. A case supposed.

1. You have often been reproved by kind and judicious parents.
2. Or by some faithful friend who has seen your tendency to evil, and has stepped in to prevent the destruction which he saw was on its way.
3. A still larger class among us God has counselled and reproved by His ministering servants.
4. Many have been reproved by afflictions of various kinds.
   II. The severe judgment here denounced. The threat of the text is only against those who persevere in iniquity amidst all their religious privileges, who will not be warned nor instructed, who reject all advice and admonition, all offers of grace and mercy. Reflect on the suddenness, the greatness, and the eternity of the destruction which awaits impenitent offenders. But we only preach destruction that we may make you feel your need of salvation; and then, when we have awakened your fears, how gladly do we point you to the refuge and the remedy. (S. Bridge, M.A.)

A solemn warning
I. God’s lingering long-suffering. He reproves. Why? That we may turn and live. He reproves often. Why? Because “He is not willing that any should perish.”
II. Man’s insane infatuation. “Hardeneth his neck.” Too many “reject the Word of the Lord.”

1. How terrible the power of sin!
2. How deceitful the heart of man!
3. How inexcusable and suicidal the sinner!
   III. The terrirle threatening. God’s long-suffering will not always last.
4. “The sinner shall be destroyed; his destruction is certain.”
5. Be destroyed; his destruction fearful.
6. Shall suddenly; we know not what a day may bring forth.
   IV. The awful appendix. “And that without remedy.” There is a remedy here and now, however sinful we have been, but there will be none hereafter. (David Jamison, B.A.)

Often reproved
I. The character implied.
II. The reproof given. “Often reproved.”
III. The reproof rejected. “Hardeneth his neck.” Setteth himself against taking the reproof, as a stubborn ox against taking the yoke. Indifferent to it. Laughs at it. Becomes worse. Obstinate in doing evil and in resisting good. “Mind your own business.” “I am my own master.” Throws off all restraint. Becomes sceptical, perhaps atheistic; scorns at religion and religious people.
IV. The punishment threatened. “Shall suddenly,” etc. He shall be cut off from hope; from friends; from honour; from happiness; from all his desirable possessions—suddenly; prematurely cut off; unexpectedly: apoplexy; disaster in travelling, etc. Irretrievable; eternal. Conclusion:

1. A limit to God’s long-suffering.
2. To live against Divine reproofs is perilous.
3. Divine reproofs are Divine mercies.
4. Exhort sinners. (John Bate.)

Proverbs 29:2
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice.
The happiness of the people
Man is, for the most part, equally unhappy when subjected, without redress, to the passions of another, or left, without control, to the dominion of his own. Government is necessary to the safety of particular men and the happiness of society. The people cannot rejoice except the righteous are in authority.
I. The duty of those in authority to promote the happiness of the people. No man is born merely for his own sake, to consult his own advantage or pleasure, and unconnected with the good of others. This is more evidently true of those who are exalted into high rank, dignified with honours, and vested with authority. He who wears the honours and receives the revenues of an exalted station, without attending to the duties of his post, is, in a very high degree, criminal, both in the eye of God and man.
II. By what means the happiness of the people may be most effectually promoted. The only uniform and perpetual cause of public happiness is public virtue. Without virtue nothing can be securely possessed or properly enjoyed. In a country like ours the great demand is for the security of property, the confirmation of liberty, and the extension of commerce. If riches and liberty could make us happy, it would remain to be considered how riches and liberty can be secured. Human laws must be limited in their effects. The deficiencies in civil life can be supplied only by religion. The first duty of a governor is therefore to diffuse through the community a spirit of religion. To this end it is necessary that the external order of religion be diligently maintained, that the solemnities of worship be duly observed, and a proper reverence preserved for the times and places appropriated to piety. And governors must co-operate with their laws by their own examples.
III. How the people are to assist and further the endeavours of their governors. Nations cannot be governed but by their own consent. The first duty of subjects is obedience to the laws. No man thinks laws unnecessary for others; and no man, if he considers his own inherent frailty, can justly think them unnecessary for himself. Even the errors and deficiencies of authority must be treated with respect. All institutions are defective by their nature, and all rulers have their imperfections, like other men. As government is difficult to be administered, so it is difficult to be understood; and where very few have capacity to judge, very few have a right to censure. The laws will be easily obeyed by him who adds to human sanctions the obligations of conscience; and he will not easily be disposed to censure his superiors whom religion has made acquainted with his own failings. (John Taylor.)

A righteous government
I. Some of the chief advantages that people enjoy under a righteous government.

1. The laws are duly executed. This keeps all the springs of the body politic in their right tone, and gives life and vigour to their motion.
2. True merit finds protection and encouragement under it. This enlivens people’s spirits and makes them study to be serviceable upon a right principle.
3. Such a government appears abroad with weight and authority. Righteousness exalteth a nation and spreads its fame and reputation in countries far remote.
4. Such a government is attended with the blessing of God.
   II. How ought people to express their joy when the righteous are in authority?
5. By a ready and cheerful obedience to authority.
6. By grateful acknowledgments to God for so great a blessing.
7. The people should express their joy by their gratitude to such rulers. (Bp. John Hough.)

Proverbs 29:5
A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet.
Flattery
.
I. What flattery is. The nature and property of it is to put on all forms and shapes, according to the exigence of the occasion. He that would paint flattery must draw a picture of all colours, and frame a universal face, indifferent to any particular aspect whatever. It shows itself—

1. In concealing or dissembling of the defects and vices of any person. It will pretend not to see faults, and if it does, it will be sure not to reprove them. All people are not called to reprove others.
   (1) Who are they that are concerned to speak in this case? Such as are entrusted with the government of others. Those who are entrusted with the guidance and direction of others. Those that profess friendship.
   (2) In what spirit are these reprehensions to be managed? Let the reproof, if possible, be given in secret. Let it be managed with due respect to and distinction of the condition of the person that is to be reproved. Let him that reproves a vice do it with words of meekness and consideration; without superciliousness or spiritual arrogance. A reproof should not be continued or repeated after amendment of that which occasioned the reproof.
2. In praising or defending the defects or vices of any person. If to persuade men out of the acknowledgment of the evil and unlawfulness of their actions be flattery, then none are so deeply chargeable with flattery as these two sorts of men—such as, upon principles of enthusiasm, assure persons of eminence and high place that those transgressions of the Divine law are allowable in them that are absolutely prohibited and condemned in others, and the Roman casuists, who have made it their greatest study to put a new face upon sin. This kind of flattery is of very easy effect, by reason of the nature of man, and the nature of vice itself. From these two considerations we may easily gather how open the hearts of most men lie, to drink in the fawning suggestions of any sycophant that shall endeavour to relieve their disturbed consciences by gilding their villainies with the name of virtues.
3. In imitating any one’s defects or vices. Actions are much more considerable than words or discourses. To any generous and free spirit it is really a very nauseous and fulsome thing to see some prostitute their tongues and their judgments, by saying as others say, commending what they commend, and framing themselves to any absurd gesture or motion that they observe in them. Every kind of imitation speaks the person that imitates him inferior to whom he imitates, as the copy is to the original.
4. An overvaluing those virtues and perfections that are really laudable in any person. This is more modest and tolerable, there being some groundwork of desert.
   II. The grounds and occasions of flattery.
5. Greatness of place and condition. Men consider the great danger of speaking freely to great persons what they are not willing to hear. It may enrage, and make them mortal enemies.
6. An angry, passionate disposition This also frights and deters men from doing the orifice of friends, in a faithful reprehension.
7. A proud and vainglorious disposition. To tell a proud person of his faults is to tell infallibility that it is in an error, and to spy out something amiss in perfection.
   III. The ends and designs of it on his part that flatters. Every flatterer is actuated and influenced by these two grand purposes—to serve himself, and to undermine him whom he flatters, and thereby to effect his ruin. For he deceives him, and grossly abuses and perverts his judgment, which should be the guide and director of all his actions. He that is thoroughly deceived is in the very next disposition to be ruined; for cast but a mist before a man’s eyes, and whither may you not lead him? And he undermines, and perhaps in the issue ruins, him whom he flatters, by bringing him to shame and a general contempt. Moreover, by his flattery and its consequences, he renders his recovery and amendment impossible. Every fault in a man shuts the door upon virtue, but flattery is the thing that seals it. (R. South.)

The tendency of flattery
In this verse Solomon does not refer solely to the intention of the flatterer; he refers also to the tendency of the flattery. The latter may be far from harmless, even although to a greater degree the former may. Injury may be done, and many a time is done, when no harm is meant to the party, and when there is no interest of our own to serve. And there is no little guilt on the part of those who, seeing vanity to be a man’s failing, set themselves on purpose to feed it, pouring into the ear, merely in the way of an amusing experiment, every description of fulsome adulation, trying how much and in what variety it will be taken in. (R. Wardlaw, D.D.)

Flattery
The weakness of the human heart exposeth it to innumerable dangers. Constant attention is necessary to preserve it secure, because it is often assailed on the most unsuspected side. The conceit and vanity, which all men have in some degree, renders truth itself often dangerous. It is the prerogative of God alone to receive praise without danger. He hears, and is pleased to hear, the endless hymns of His angels. He hears the voice of praise ascending from all nature: the infinite variety of beings celebrating Him as the great, the just, the merciful God. He receives those truths without prejudice to His holiness; because, being in Himself essentially holy and true, these attributes can never jar, nor harm each other. It is far otherwise with us: unstable ourselves as water, our very virtues partake of this instability; whence ariseth the necessity of our suspecting everything that flatters us, because there is nothing in general more seductive and deceitful; and of all delusions, there is none more shameful and pernicious than that which, by the suggestions of self-love, makes us take falsehood for truth, and think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. People tell us what we ought to be rather than what we are, and we, by a pitiable blindness of running into the snare that is spread for us, believe ourselves to be indeed what adulation represents us. In this manner it often happens that a man who is naturally modest, and who would be humble if he knew himself, intoxicated with this vain incense, thinks himself possessed of merits which he never possessed; thanks God for graces which God never gave him; acknowledgeth the reception of talents which he never received; ascribes to himself successes which he never had; and enjoys himself secretly, while he is openly despised. Some learned men have very plausibly ascribed the origin of those idolatrous superstitions that prevailed so long in the world to that inclination which men have of believing what is advantageous, however incredible it may really be. Certain men were told that they were gods; and, by often hearing this told them, they became accustomed to be honoured and treated as gods. Those who first held that language to them knew very well that it was false; yet, from a spirit of flattery, they performed every action that they would otherwise have done from a spirit of sincerity had they been convinced that what they spoke was true. We dare not say that this error is entirely destroyed even by Christianity: vestiges of it remain everywhere, and a species of idolatry is established by the custom of the world. We tell the rich and the great no more that they are gods, but we tell them that they are not as other men are; that they want those weaknesses which others have, and possess those qualities which others want: we separate them so from the rest of mankind that, forgetting what they are, they think themselves gods; not considering that their admirers are interested persons, determined to please them, or rather determined to deceive them. Nor may we confine ourselves to the great and powerful ones of the world to justify this observation: the idolatry I speak of reigns equally in the lower conditions, and produceth there proportionable effects. Thus a woman is idolised by interested and designing men, till she knows herself no more; and, though marked with a thousand faults and imperfections, yet thinks of correcting none of them; believing herself a subject every way accomplished, the joy and admiration of the whole world, because such phrases are constantly employed for her seduction and ruin. The contradiction is, that in the midst of all this, those men, so vain and so passionate for glory, never cease to protest that the thing they abhor most is to be deceived; in the meantime they wish to be praised, flattered, and admired, as if flattery and delusion could possibly be separated. What resolution, then, can we take to avoid these errors? We must resolve to distrust even truth, when it seems to flatter us; because there is no appearance of truth which approacheth so near to falsehood, and consequently, there is none so much exposed to the dangers of falsehood. Jesus Christ Himself, who, according to the Scripture, was the firm and immovable Rock, to whom the praises of the universe were due, as the tribute of His supreme grandeur and adorable perfections, yet while on earth would not suffer those truths which made for His honour and glory. He wrought wonders; He cured the blind and the deaf; He raised the dead; yet when the people began to celebrate His name for this, and to cry that He was the prophet of God, He enjoined them silence, and seemed upon the whole extremely impatient of applause. (
A. Macdonald.)

Flattery a web
I. Variously wrought. Woven of many threads, and of various hues. Some are coarse as a rope, others as fine as a gossamer web; all are suited to the character of the prey to be caught.
II. Widely spread. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

Proverbs 29:8
Scornful men bring a city into a snare.
The snares of the metropolis
As residents in London we ask, Is there as much wickedness here as in other great cities? Are there snares and temptations of a peculiar character, and highly dangerous to the rising youth of the age?

1. One of the snares is the spirit of the world—the spirit of competition and a low tone of moral feeling.
2. Irreligious habits.
3. Irreligious associates; such as the young man who is not conscientious in the discharge of his ordinary duties; the young man who is devoted to pleasure.
4. Late hours. This leads to neglect of prayer. And the late hour is the hour of sin.
5. Lewd women. This snare involves great moral debasement, the prostration of all intellectual power, and the annihilation of all benevolent and elevated feeling. And to this specific form other vices will adhere. (R. Ainslie.)

Proverbs 29:15
The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.
A neglected education, the parent’s dishonour
I. Look at the child left to himself. That is, without reproof, and that grave advice which gives wisdom. The original term is applied to the unbridled impetuosity of an animal. The child, if not held in by the bit and bridle of a religious education—if left to the impetuosity of his own passions—will be ruined. Appeal to the nature of things. What is there left to itself that comes to any good? What is land without inclosure and cultivation? Appeal to experience as to the effect of a neglected education. Who are the pests of society? Appeal to Scripture.
II. The effect of this neglect. Look at the parent. “Bringeth his mother to shame.” This is only one result. Other things follow. Ruin to the child’s principles. All the consequences of his conduct to a neighbourhood. Tendencies to sap the foundations of morality and justice between man and man. In all this there seems to be a remarkable feature of the retributive justice of God in His moral government. The education of children in the fear of God is one of the first and self-evident duties, the foundation of all moral good. But it is implied that a child carefully trained for God and religion shall not bring his mother to shame.
III. The motives flowing from these considerations.

1. Enforce this duty on our own hearts.
2. See it in reference to the children of the poor.
3. The need of guarding children against the evil influence of the press. Show what religion you possess by your endeavours to educate your children religiously. (Daniel Wilson, M.A.)

A child neglected, a parent’s disgrace
I. The affecting object: “A child left to himself.” Allusion is probably intended to the natural impetuosity of a horse.

1. A child left without religious instruction. Parents are enjoined to “train up a child in the way he should go”: not the way he would go. Education must have its foundation in Scripture. The spirit of the age requires that parental instructions should be of a decidedly Scriptural character. The work of instilling Divine truth must be commenced early. Train them to early habits of industry, to diligent reading of the Scriptures, and to constant prayer.
2. A child left without fervent prayer. Do you know the way to a throne of grace, and can you forget the child of your affections? If you do not pray for him it is not likely that you will pray with him.
3. A child left without a good example. Children understand actions better than words. The parent who, by his ungodly example, betrays the confidence of his child by leading him in the way of sin when he should guide him in the paths of piety and peace is guilty of a species of cruelty difficult to be described.
4. A child left to himself is one without salutary restraint. Instruction should be enforced by authority. If you lose your influence, the child will assume it and rule you, when you should govern him. In compelling obedience the happy medium should be observed between too much harshness on the one hand and too great laxity on the other. Eli does not appear to have failed either in instruction or example, but he is censured for withholding restraint. Let there be energy of character, efficient discipline, the tenderness of love blended with firmness of decision, and there will seldom be a necessity for adopting any painful or severe measures.
   II. The parent’s disgrace. The duties and responsibilities of parents are mutual. It must, however, be admitted that a mother’s influence is more powerful, her appeals more touching, her access to the heart more easy. But how many parents have passed days of sorrow and nights of sleeplessness in consequence of the misconduct of their offspring! Much of your future happiness is in the hands of your children. Look at the nature of things. A field without cultivation would speedily be overgrown by noxious weeds. Appeal to experience. Who are the Sabbath-breakers, the drunkards, the lawless and disobedient, the scoffers at Divine things? Are they not the persons who, in their childhood and youth, were left to themselves? Examine facts. David was brought to shame by Absalom and Adonijah. Hophni and Phineas brought Eli to shame.
5. A word of expostulation. You are leaving your children to themselves because you have never felt the value of your own soul. Think of your own comfort. Think of your country’s welfare. Think of the approbation of heaven.
6. A word of exhortation. Your danger is great. Repent and believe the gospel.
7. A word of encouragement. The Christian parent has much to animate him in the conscientious discharge of his duty. All the promises of God, the experience of the past, and the hope of the future encourage his affectionate endeavours to train up his children in the fear of the Lord. He must not; however, expect harvest in spring. (James Cottle, B.A.)

The importance of early discipline
If we have conscientiously performed any particular duty, no failure in the object to which it has been directed can inflict disgrace. We may do our part, and do it well, but we cannot command success by our best contrivances and our utmost diligence. It is not every child who is trained up in the way he should go that walks in that way. In such cases, deplorable as they are, no disgrace attaches to the parent, the instructor, the guardian. It is when the duty imposed by God and enforced by natural feelings has been neglected that the ignorant, the vicious, or the worldly character becomes the just reproach upon those to whom it is in that case justly to be ascribed. “A child left to himself.” How many ideas of compassion are suggested by these words! A child, however carefully nourished and guarded, left to himself in regard to his soul, his intellect, his tempers, habits, and character, is no uncommon case. A child left to himself is a child untaught. For them to be grounded in the languages, informed in history, and embellished with every usual branch of knowledge and accomplishment is not enough. To know God alone is life eternal. Too often children are practically left to themselves to gather their notions of religion from the opinions around them and the current literature of the day. They ought to have been trained from childhood to know the Holy Scriptures; they should have been taught their ruined state, the love of God in the gift of His Son, and the love of Christ in giving Himself to the death upon the Cross. The child untaught is often undisciplined and unrestrained. The twig which might have been bent becomes firm as the gnarled oak. Habits of self-will, habits of self-gratification, habits of idleness perhaps, prepare for everything that is bad. When a child has been thus left to himself what can be expected but vice, want of honourable principle, a character passionate, headstrong, reckless? It cannot be a surprise that, in such a case, disgrace is thrown back upon the parents. The parent and the child are allied as long as recollection can associate them, and honour or dishonour they reflect, and cannot but reflect, upon each other. If parents neglect the soil and suffer it to be overrun with weeds what can they expect to be the harvest? The shame and discredit that come will be shared by both parents, but the feeling is fastened upon the heart of the mother in a manner and degree which are peculiarly severe. This is partly the case because so much depends on a mother’s care, and partly because of the keener sensibilities of her sex. To the mother her domestic scene is the whole world. The shame which comes upon her as the punishment of neglected duty gathers intensity by its perpetual concentration of the reflection. Let me urge upon you as parents to encounter your arduous and responsible duty with the firm resolve that you will, heaven’s grace assisting you, vigorously discharge it. They are beings to eternity, and for eternity it is your duty to prepare them. (T. Kennion, M.A.)

Leaving children to themselves
“Left to himself” means “left alone, with nobody to mind him and take notice of what he does.” This, however, does not seem to have been the meaning of the author of the proverb. Hebrew writers, in their poetry, would sometimes bring two thoughts together, meaning nearly the same, only expressed in different words. Sometimes they would bring two thoughts together, the meaning of which is exactly opposite. This is the thing we have in the text before us. The words “rod and reproof” are intended to be opposite to the words “a child left to himself.” A mother may have her child almost always with her and yet be “leaving him to himself.” A child is “left to himself” whenever he is allowed to do as he likes, whenever his character is not watched over, and his evil inclinations checked. It is the spoilt child who brings his mother to shame. The mother is specially mentioned because she has the first and the most direct and constant influence on the child. And when children are allowed to do as they like it is usually from a weak fondness and over-indulgence on the mother’s part rather than on the father’s. In all reproof of the faults of children the object aimed at is not merely to guide them aright at the present time, but also to make them able to guide themselves aright when they shall have become older, correct their own faults, and restrain their own inclination to what is evil. A self-willed child “brings his mother to shame,” because the remarks of her acquaintance on his character and conduct never fail to reach her ears. In nine cases out of ten, shameful conduct on the part of a man signifies shameful carelessness on the part of that man’s mother when he was a child and subject to her authority and influence. The children who are sure to honour their mother when they grow up are those who in childhood were kept in their proper place, whose waywardness and inclination to what is evil were kept in check with the greatest kindness indeed, but still with the greatest firmness. Children thus trained have something to be grateful for. One cannot but believe that the grace of God often reclaims in after-years, and restores to what they should have been, many of those whose character seemed deeply injured and likely to be ruined by the mistaken treatment of a parent in childhood. But must it not sometimes be the case that the grace of God does not reclaim them? For our wills are free. It should be borne in mind that a father and a mother constantly differ much from each other in character and in their ideas of their duty towards their children, and so the one may in part correct the mischievous influence of the other. And the evil influence of home is, happily, often corrected by the beneficial influence of school discipline. (
W. H. Nauben, M.A.)

Left to himself

1. Left to himself, he will not fully know right or wrong.
2. Left to himself, he will grow proud and self-confident.
3. Left to himself, he will take up with bad companions.
4. Left to himself, he will think more about his pleasures than his duties.
5. Left to himself, childish follies will develop into man’s vices. (Robert Tuck, B.A.)

A child left to himself
Thelwall thought it very unfair to influence a child’s mind by inculcating any opinions before it should have come to years of discretion and be able to choose for itself. I showed him my garden, and told him it was my botanical garden. “How so?” said he; “it is covered with weeds.” “Oh,” I replied, “that is only because it has not yet come to its age of discretion and choice. The weeds, you see, have taken the liberty to grow, and I thought it unfair in me to prejudice the soil towards roses and strawberries.” (Coleridge’s Table Talk.)

Children impressed by gentle rule
It is a great mistake to suppose that what will make a child stare or tremble impresses more authority. The violent emphasis, the hard, stormy voice, the menacing air only weakens authority; it commands a good thing as if it were only a bad, and fit to be no way impressed, save by some stress of assumption. Let the command be always given quietly, as if it had some right in itself and could utter itself to the conscience by some emphasis of its own. Is it not well understood that a bawling and violent teamster has no real government of his team? Is it not practically seen that a skilful commander of one of those huge floating cities, moved by steam on our American waters, manages and works every motion by the waving of a hand, or by signs that pass in silence—issuing no order at all, save in the gentlest undertone of voice? So when there is, or is to be, a real order and law in the house, it will come of no hard and boisterous or fretful and termagent way of commandment. Gentleness will speak the word of firmness, and firmness will be clothed in the airs of true gentleness. (H. Bushnell.)

Proverbs 29:18
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
The improvement of the ministry of the Word
What makes a people very unhappy with respect to the concerns of their souls? The want of vision puts a people in very unhappy circumstances. By vision is understood prophecy. By prophecy is meant the preaching, expounding, and applying the Word of God. Doctrine: Though the want of the ministry of the Word makes a people very unhappy, yet it is not the having of it, but the right improving of it that makes them happy.
I. Deplorable is the case of those who are deprived of the ministry of the Word. What makes the case so deplorable? The original word means, the people are naked, they are left in a bare condition (Exo_22:25). They are stripped of their ornaments, to their shame. They are stripped of their armour, left naked in the midst of danger. They are stripped of the means of their defence. Hence they are exposed in a special manner to the subtlety and violence of their spiritual enemies, without the ordinary means of help. Where there is no vision the people go backward. They leave their first love, their first ways in religion; they fall into a spiritual decay and apostasy. The people are drawn away: from their God and from their duty. The people are idle—they give over their work. The people perish—die for lack of instruction; are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
II. The mere having the ministry of the Word is not sufficient to make a people happy. The people may have it, and yet get no saving benefit from it. Outward privileges make no man a happy man. The mere having the Word will aggravate the condemnation of those that have it and walk not answerably to it.
III. A right improvement of the mercy of the Word will make a happy people. This improvement consists in two things—

1. Faith in Jesus Christ.
2. Holiness of life.
   This improvement will make happy souls here and hereafter. Here, in peace with God, pardon of sin, all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; and hereafter in eternal salvation. It bids fair for prosperity in earthly things. It gives happiness under the crosses and trials of this world. It puts a happiness into the relations in which we stand. Directions for improving the ministry of the Word:
3. Pray much for a real benefit from ordinances.
4. Diligently attend upon ordinances.
5. Meditate upon what you hear, and converse with one another about it.
6. Set yourselves humbly to obey the truths delivered from the Lord’s Word, embracing them by faith.
7. Put your hand to the Lord’s work in your several stations in your families and among those with whom you converse, to prosecute the great ends of the gospel. (T. Boston, D D.)

The vitality of vision
I. Where there is no vision of the present working of Christ in the world, charity and hope fade. The progress of the age is Christ’s work. Beneficial operations of all kinds are His present-day miracles. The sympathy of the age, its mission, its humanity, its sacrifice, its enthusiasm for progress, is Christ’s doing. Let us see Him in the past and in the present. Then we shall have a nobler faith, a larger charity, and a radiant hopefulness.
II. Where there is no vision of the Divine Fatherhood, devotion decays. Our devotional life accords with the conception of God we hold up to our attention. If we think of God as stern, arbitrary, partial, we cannot experience love, worship, trust, sacrifice. The human heart is constituted to love only the lovable; to worship only the perfect and benevolent; to trust only the just and true.
III. Where there is no vision of Divine providence, practical energy declines. Give up the idea of a Supreme Mind caring for all, and life is not Worth living. Let the vision of the all-embracing providence of God be clear, and life will be transfigured. All Christian workers are thus sustained. Failure, loss, rejection, may be the record on the visible side; but faith sees on the unseen side an all-comprehending spiritual kingdom, and says, “All things work together for good.”
IV. Where there is no vision of truth and fact, knowledge decays. As tradition and conservation prevail truth becomes a dead carcase. The hour for revival, for reform, is come, and the minds that see the truth lead the new movement. The dreams of seers renew the life of the world’s thought.
V. Where there is no vision of the possibilities of human nature, sympathy decays. Man has instinctively recognised his fellow as spiritual, as free, as immortal, as possessing unlimited capacities of progress, and as the object, consequently, of intense interest and of unlimited love. The vision of that ideal of man is the inspiration of all philanthropy.
VI. Where there is no vision of duty, holiness declines. Man is the subject of relations. The highest relation he maintains is to Christ. His life-care is the duty he owes to Christ. As we have that vision before us, we shall ennoble all we do. VII. The vision of heaven saves hope from perishing. The inspiration of all progress is hope. The most fruitful hope we can cherish is the perfection of mankind in the celestial life in fellowship with Christ. Such a vision ennobles, sanctifies, vitalises, lights up the present with heavenly radiance, and makes death the gate of life. (T. Matthews.)

Divine vision essential to human salvation
I. True vision is a revelation from God. A communication not furnished by nature; not the product of human intellect, or imagination, or fancy; not the “tradition of the elders,” however venerable; but a special unfolding of the Divine nature and government, adapted to the moral exigencies of the race. Such a communication is possible. Such is probable—

1. From conflicting indications of the Divine character furnished by nature.
2. The universally felt moral necessities of man. Such is actually accomplished, as the whole body of Christian evidence attests.
   II. There many places where, as yet, this vision is not. Where it is not known. Where it is not published. Where it is not believed.
   III. Where it is not, the people perish.
3. It alone reveals a Saviour and a salvation adapted to man.
4. It alone is associated with spiritual power to deliver man from the bondage, and misery, and guilt, and doom, of sin. The vision of God is to them that possess it a most precious thing. They who possess it not ought to be the objects of the deepest compassion. They who do possess it are bound, by every consideration of gratitude and pity, to send it to those who do not. (J. M. Jarvie.)

Divine revelation
The text presents two facts concerning redemptive revelation.
I. Its absence is a great calamity. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” The word “perish” has been variously rendered: some read “will apostatise,” others “are made naked,” others “are dispersed,” others “are become disorderly.” All renderings agree in expressing the idea of calamity, and truly is it not a sad calamity to be deprived of the Bible?
II. Its regulative experience is a great blessing. “He that keepeth the law, happy is he.” This “vision” is not an abstraction or a speculative system—it is a “law”; it comes with Divine authority; it demands obedience; it is not the mere subject for a creed, but the code for a life; its aim is to regulate all the movements of the soul. It is only those who are ruled by it who are made happy, those who have it and are not controlled by it will as assuredly perish. It is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law. Who is the happy man? Not the man who has the “vision” and does not study it, nor the man who studies it and never reduces it to practice: it is the man who translates the “vision” into his life. “He that keepeth the law, happy is he.” There is no heaven for man but in obedience to God. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

The soul perishing for lack of vision
The vision here is acquaintance with God and the things of the invisible world. Vision became almost synonymous with revelation Where there is no Bible, there can be no vision. To talk of preparing a nation for the reception of the Bible, by first of all civilising that nation is to betray ignorance of what has produced the degeneracy of humanity, and mistrust of the engine which God has placed in our hands. The civilisation must and will follow the reception of the Bible. Notice the marginal rendering, “the people is made naked.” The people is stripped, the people has no clothing in which to appear before God, if you take away revelation. They may attempt a righteousness of their own, and think to cover themselves with a covering which their own hands have woven. But the text is most emphatic in denouncing such schemes and hopes. We must put on Christ, and be clothed with His righteousness. If we would make s right and full use of the disclosures and statements of our Bible, we must, it would seem, have the things of redemption and futurity presented with the same distinctness and vividness to the internal organs, as the things of the world are to the external. This is the great triumph of spirit over matter. Speak to those whose religion is more than nominal, who do behold Christ with the eye of the soul. We account for much of that slow progress in piety, which you both observe in others and lament in yourselves, on the principle that you are but seldom occupied with contemplations of the invisible world. Let us not be wanting in diligence in using the telescope that has been entrusted to us to aid us in seeing the unseen. (
H. Melvill, B.D.)

No vision
The question suggested by the text is, Can we see? Were we made to see? Is all else related by law of adaptation to man on this earth save God Himself who made the earth and man? It is vision that decides our scale in this world, and our honour and glory in the world to come. For “ages men have believed that they were made to see and know God in His works and in His Word; that we have not only eyes, but objects; that we can hold intercourse with God—love Him, trust Him, and pray to Him. The peril of our age is no new peril. Materialism is as old as Sadducean Judaism. This is the great vital difference in men—vision. This it is that decides their principles, their ethics, their characters.
I. Materialistic ideas of life blind us to the true vision. We are in a world of material things. But we, Christians, build temples to the invisible Lord. We seek and we worship a Saviour whom, not having seen, we love. We judge morality to be more than utility. We walk by faith, not by sight. There is no true vision without the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.
II. Christ is the revealer of life and immortality. These words contain two distinct truths. Life is the spiritual view of all things. Immortality is life in Christ beyond the grave.
III. Character is decided by our visions of truth. The right life comes from the right thought. If my life is to be redeemed and moulded by Divine influences, then my vision is all in all to me.
IV. Perishing is seen in this present life. Men do perish! Compared with what you might be, you are now perishing. Woe to that nation that has no eye to see the face of God in Christ! (W. M. Statham.)

The beneficent influence of heavenly visions
Man has spiritual wants as well as bodily wants, and he must have spiritual things to satisfy them. Temporal and visible things meet and satisfy all the wants of the body, but the soul must receive its sustenance from the invisible and the eternal. The spiritual world is a fact to the senses of the soul as truly as the material world is a fact to the bodily senses. Visions are as necessary for the soul as food for the body, and so heavenly visions were not God’s gifts to one nation and for a limited time, but are to all countries and for all times. Godly men in our days are having visions exactly in the same sense as the seers and prophets of old; the difference is in degree, not in kind. But a distinction must be made between the seer in the highest sense and seers in a general sense. God inspires and gives special visions to a chosen few in different ages and countries. Note the powers of inward vision to which we give the names of insight and intuition—insight into human character, intuition of Divine principles—clear knowledge of what man is and how God will act. The original meaning of the word “saw,” is to cleave, or split; then to see into, to see through, to get down beneath the surface of things and discover their real nature. What characterises the bulk of Hebrew visions is “penetrativeness.” All the seers of the world are hard workers, and are active in their visions. Sometimes the seer does valuable service to the world by rediscovering some great revealed truth which had been hidden by the accretion of ages of erroneous human ideas and creeds. Luther was such an one. And we are to thank Heaven for seers like Carlyle, Ruskin, Beecher, Browning, and Tennyson, who fearlessly cleave old customs, shams, conventionalisms, dogmas, and creeds, and proclaim to the world, like the prophets of old, eternal and unchangeable truths. Note the mighty influence of heavenly visions on the world. What would have been the moral condition of the world if God had given no visions to holy and inspired men?
I. The restraining power of visions. In the days of Samuel there was “no open vision.” God mercifully raised him up, and gave him visions to enable him to check and restrain the ungodliness of his age. Our great want is more men of visions as political and social reformers and preachers.
II. The sustaining power of visions. Men are sure to perish socially and spiritually if God does not mercifully grant them visions.
III. The ennobling influence of visions upon men’s characters. The tendency of God’s visions to men is to purify their thoughts, to elevate their spirits, to ennoble their characters. The objective in the visions gradually becomes subjective, as a part of the character. But you are not to expect these heavenly visions by sleeping and dreaming, but by holy meditation, fervent prayer, and strenuous effort to live the life of the Son of God.
IV. The blessedness of obedience to the heavenly visions. If we would know the highest joy of visions, we must obey them. (Z. Mather.)

Ideals
Man talks to God; that is prayer. God talks with man; that is inspiration. According to the sensational philosophy there is no vision, there is no invisible world, or at least we cannot know it directly and immediately. This takes all the glory out of life. Take out from man the power of perceiving the invisible and the eternal, and all life loses its life. God is no longer a Divine reality. He is only an opinion. The same philosophy which robs the universe of its God robs man of his soul. This philosophy is equally fatal to morals. There are no longer any great, eternal, immutable laws. Take vision out of religion, what have you left? You had a Church of Christ, now you have a Society of Ethical Culture.
I. Ideals are realities. What we call ideals are not conceptions we have created; they are realities we have discovered. The great laws of nature are not created by the scientists. They only formulate and express the laws of nature. The laws of harmony are eternal; and when the musician finds a new harmony, he finds what was before. In the ethical realm, the great laws of righteousness are not created; they are eternal. Moses did not make them, he only found forms in which to state them. God is not a thesis, an opinion, a theory, a supposition, created to account for phenomena; He is the great underlying reality of which all phenomena are the manifestation.
II. Imagination is seeing. Science owes its progress to this power of vision. All the greatest men of science first saw dimly and imperfectly the invisible realities, then followed, tested, and tried their visions, and proved the reality of them. The great seers and prophets of all time have not been men who have created thoughts to inspire us; they have been men with eyes that saw, and they have helped also to see.
III. Ideals being realities, and imagination seeing, scepticism is ignorance. By scepticism is meant the doubt that scoffs at the invisible and eternal, not the mere questioning of a particular dogma. We are not to measure the truth by our capacity to see, but our capacity to see by the truth. The world needs nothing so much as men who will carry the spirit of vision into every phase of life. There are two classes of men in this world—drudges and dreamers. The man who works without vision, who is not lifted up by his thoughts out of mere material things, he is a drudge. (Lyman Abbott.)

Proverbs 29:20
Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words?
Impetuosity of temper
The Adige at Verona appears to be a river quite broad and deep enough for navigation, but its current is so rapid as to make it quite unserviceable. Many men are so rash and impetuous, and at the same time so suddenly angry and excited, that their otherwise most valuable abilities are rendered useless for any good purpose. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Proverbs 29:23
A man’s pride shall bring him low.
On pride
Pride, though it implies an assumption of superiority, has a manifest tendency to degradation.

1. A man’s pride will bring him low because it subjects him to the imputation of folly. There is no condition of life that can warrant the indulgence of this sinful and corrupt passion. The maxims of human policy teach us that in proportion to the trust must be the responsibility. The uncertainty and imperfection of every blessing which this world affords should alone be sufficient to prevent that silly exaltation of the mind which constitutes pride. Neither abundance of riches nor superior endowments of the mind are a sufficient justification for pride. Neither the acquisition of fame, the flatteries of self-love, nor the consciousness of distinguished merit, should swell the heart with arrogance or pride. The truest characteristics of superior greatness and superior wisdom are modesty and humility; modesty freed from false shame, and humility without affectation or abasement. If these motives are insufficient to warrant the indulgence of pride, much less ought it to arise from the casual distinction of rank in the different orders of men. Pride is not confined to any particular rank or station. From whatever cause it proceeds, it always betokens weakness, folly, and corruption.
2. The various evils, and the general depravity which it produces. The text is often verified as “pride produces poverty.” More persons have sunk into poverty from this cause than from any other. From indulging in a thousand idle expenses, in order to support a kind of pompous vanity, the proud man can seldom spare a charitable mite “to give to him that needeth.” Pride is also the source of continual mortification. The petty vexations of pride that are compounded with every vain, selfish, and malignant passion have no claim to our indulgence. Pride is more productive of quarrels, bitterness, and strife than anything else. This base and selfish passion always creates, and always keeps alive, a watchful and incessant jealousy of power. Hence the mildest exhortation and the most friendly remonstrance is often converted into the bitterness of accusation or the insolence of reproach. This odious vice is seen at its worst in the awful end of the suicide. The dreadful act of self-destruction is often committed in the evil moment of wounded pride or mortified ambition. The proud man sits on an imaginary eminence of his own creation, and propagates servility or wretchedness all around him. In a mind thus bewildered and deceived the first principle of improvement is wanting. He who is not conscious of any defect can have no sufficient motive for amendment. Pride never appears so sinful and offensive as when we consider man in relation to his Maker. Then we perceive it destroying the efficacy and poisoning the very source of all those virtues which he is chiefly bound to practise. The proud man is in reality always degraded in proportion as he thinks himself exalted. (
   J. Hewlett, B.D.)

Honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.
Honour
This word means “nobleness of mind.” It is a natural instinct of human nature to be trustful, especially when a man’s honour is at stake; but there has been so much deception as to make almost everybody doubt everybody else. Every representation we make should be the truth; a deception is never excusable.

1. Honour is an acquired nature. The germ of honour is born in us, but every child has to be taught by example and precept to cultivate it. We sometimes cram our children too much with catechism, and omit to cultivate their honour. There is as much religion in being honourable as in being prayerful.
2. Honour should become an essential part of our nature. It is only the ignorant and the foolish who can be tickled by a title or a name. Let us seek to have honour in our nature. Honour should grow in us and become an essential part of our nature. Uncommon honour should be the common practice of everybody.
3. Honour should be the principle of all our transactions. Whether you gain by it or not, be honourable. Let your honour be as true in the dark as in the light.
4. In honour prefer one another. Do not gibe at a friend or detract from an enemy. If you can praise one another, do so, but never throw mud at anybody. If you really know that a man or woman is doing wrong, be honourable enough to tell them so, and not so mean as to talk of it behind their backs. Be honourable in all your sayings and in all your doings, so that this world, through you, may become a more joyous dwelling-place. (W. Birch.)

Proverbs 29:25
The fear of man bringeth a snare.
The mischiefs of slavish complaisance and cowardice
Every passion of the soul may be of use to us, but is capable also, by being perverted, of causing much vexation and misery to ourselves and injury to our fellow-creatures. Year, while it proceeds from right principles, and is proportioned to the weight and moment of the evils about which it is conversant, must serve the most beneficial purposes, as it warns us where our greatest danger lies, and strongly prompts us to avoid it. But the case is quite otherwise when it forms imaginary dangers and alarms with false terrors. Then our fears turn us aside from our duty, and in avoiding trifling evils we run ourselves into greater.
I. What is the fear of man? A reverence of human authority and customs, and a dread of the censure and reproaches of our fellow-creatures.

1. There is a reverence due to human authority in all points that do not exceed the just bounds of it, and the paying this regard is absolutely necessary to hold the frame of civil societies together. The ends of society cannot be secured but by mutual condescension and respect, and the compliance and submission of the minor part, in things lawful.
2. A man ought to be afraid of censure and reproach being fixed upon him, and anxious to deliver and clear himself from it. Men must be of a temper quite stupid if they have no fear at all of public reproach and infamy, and must lose a very powerful restraint from mean, ungenerous, and disgraceful practices.
3. We are guilty of the utmost rashness and folly if we expose ourselves to the resentments of our fellow-men unnecessarily. And a dread of those punishments which the civil magistrate inflicts is not only lawful, but necessary. Thus far, then, the fear of man may be defended and justified.
   II. In what sense. It bringeth a snare. It throws temptations in men’s way which are likely to prevail so far as to destroy all improvements in true wisdom and virtue.
4. Suppose a man, under the influence of this slavish principle, engages in search after truth, what proficiency is it possible for him to make? In order to making improvements in Divine knowledge it is absolutely necessary that the mind be free, calm, and unruffled, under no restraint or terror. There must be no corrupt passion to darken the understanding, nor private interest to mislead and pervert it.
5. It is as great an absurdity to expect that one who is dispirited by worldly fears should be a confessor and martyr for true religion as that a coward should be brave and valiant. Slavish fear of man leads men even to revile and banter the truth.
6. This fear will have the same malignant influence upon our morals as upon our faith. When it rises to such a height as to overrule the dictates of natural conscience, and entirely to destroy the strength and constancy of our minds, we are an easy prey to every temptation, and lie open to the most desperate and abandoned wickedness. If it be our ultimate view to secure the countenance and favour of persons in authority and avoid their displeasure, this likewise will subject us to many snares and inconveniences.
   III. Offer some remedies against this fear of man.
7. Maintain and improve in our minds a strong sense of the necessary difference between good and evil.
8. Add a becoming sense of the dignity of our nature.
9. Trust in God, as advised in the latter part of the text.
10. Cultivate a supreme reverence for God. These two—fear of man and fear of God—are absolutely inconsistent, and cannot subsist together. (James Foster.)

The fear of man
This is a deadly foe to a godly, consistent life. It stops many a one on the very threshold of the kingdom. It turns back many who seemed to run well.

1. The fear of man often leads to downright, positive sin.
2. The fear of man keeps many a lad from decision for Christ. (G. Everard, M.A.)

The fear of man
I. Our great danger.

1. For the fear of man is more general than we are aware of.
2. To all who yield to its influence it brings a fatal snare.
   II. Its proper and only effectual antidote. Regard for God Himself. We should trust Him for support, happiness, recompense. Improvement:
3. A word of caution.
4. Of encouragement. (S. Simeon, M.A.)

Whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.
How to be safe
I. There is safety nowhere except in the care of God, for in His hands alone are sources of safety.
II. God can make safe only those who trust Him fully.
III. Complete trust can exist only between parties in accord and in the confidence of each other.
IV. In order to trust in the Lord two things are essential.

1. We must confidently believe that God is able, willing, and ready to care for us.
2. That we are worthy of His care.
   V. To be safe we must be at one with God.
   VI. Outside of God’s protection are danger, darkness, Death—eternal. (Homiletic Review.).

Proverbs 29:1
hardeneth his neck] like an obstinate and refractory ox. The same phrase occurs in Deu_10:16; 2Ki_17:14. Comp. the similar phrase, stiff-necked, or hard-necked (the Heb. root being the same) Exo_32:9; Deu_9:6; Act_7:51 (σκληροτράχηλοι); and for other figurative expressions drawn from the use of oxen, Jer_31:18; Act_26:14.
destroyed] Rather, broken, R.V., as in Pro_6:15, A.V.

Proverbs 29:2
in authority] This rendering is supported by the parallelism, but it is relegated to the margin in R.V. The rendering, increased, R.V. text, A.V. marg., gives the more usual meaning of the Heb. word, See Pro_28:28, and Pro_29:16 below.
the wicked] Or, a wicked man, R.V. The word is singular, but may be taken with A.V. collectively, ἀρχόντων δὲ ἀσεβῶν, LXX.; cum impii sumserint principatum, Vulg.

Proverbs 29:3
wisdom] regarded, as the second clause of the verse shews, as leading to purity of life. Comp. Pro_2:10; Pro_2:16.
spendeth] Rather, wasteth, R.V. ἀπολεῖ, LXX. Comp. διεσκόρπισε τὴν οὐσίαν αὐτοῦ … ὁ καταφαγών σου τὸν βίον μετὰ τῶν πορνῶν, Luk_15:13; Luk_15:30.

Proverbs 29:4
receiveth] The R.V., exacteth, is scarcely an improvement, for it is enough to “overthrow the land” that the king be open to receive gifts. The Heb., a man of offerings, will bear either sense. The rendering of R.V. marg., that imposeth tribute, sacrifices the contrast in the two members of the proverb, between the impartial administration of justice and the venality and corruption which are the curse of Oriental courts.

Proverbs 29:6
a snare] in which, though perhaps he laid it for others (Psa_9:15-16), he himself shall be taken, and so have sorrow, in contrast to the “joy and singing” of the righteous.

Proverbs 29:7
the cause] the judicial cause in a court of law. Comp. Deu_17:8, where the same Heb. word is rendered plea.
regardeth not] Or, hath not understanding, R.V. Either does not take the trouble, as the righteous does, to look into the case; or, has not the moral perception to grasp its bearings.

Proverbs 29:8
bring a city into a snare] Rather, set a city on fire, A. V. marg., or, in a flame, R.V.; ἐξέκαυσαν, LXX. Comp. Pro_20:10; Pro_26:21; and, for an illustration of the proverb, the story of Sheba the son of Bichri and the wise woman, 2 Samuel 20.

Proverbs 29:9
whether he rage &c.] This makes the fool the subject, as is more clearly brought out in R.V. marg., He rageth and laugheth and there is no rest. In R.V. text, however, the wise man is made the subject, whether he be angry or laugh, whether he seeks to bring the controversy to an end by severity or by banter, he will fail. There is no coming to terms with a fool, either by threats or by persuasion.

Proverbs 29:10
seek] i.e. care for, as R.V. marg. Comp. Psa_142:4 [Hebrews 5], where however the Hebrew word, seek, is not the same as here. It is more in accordance with the use of the phrase to seek the life, to render, with R.V. text,
The bloodthirsty hate him that is perfect:
And as for the upright they seek his life.
The LXX. however has: οἱ δὲ εὐθεῖς εὐθεῖς ἐκζητήσουσι ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ; and the Vulg. justi autem quζrunt animam ejus.

Proverbs 29:11
mind] Lit. spirit; i.e. passion, or anger, R.V., θυμόν, LXX. keepeth it in till afterwards] Rather, keepeth it back and stilleth it, R.V.; ταμιεύεται κατὰ μέρος, LXX.

Proverbs 29:12
Comp.
“As is the judge of his people, so are his ministers;
And as is the ruler of the city, such are all they that dwell therein.”
Sir_10:2.

Proverbs 29:13
deceitful man] Rather, oppressor. The rendering usurer, A.V. marg., which follows the LXX. δανειστής, and Vulg. creditor, restricts the reference to one form of oppression.
lighteneth both their eyes] i.e. with the light of life, Psa_13:3 [Hebrews 4]. Comp. “He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good,” Mat_5:45; and see ch. Pro_22:2.

Proverbs 29:15
left to himself] Comp. 1Ki_1:6.

Proverbs 29:16
are multiplied] “Or, are in authority,” R.V. marg. See Pro_29:2, note.
shall see] shall look upon, R.V., with thoughtful satisfaction. Comp. Psa_37:34; Psa_112:8.

Proverbs 29:18
vision … law] “The vision is the actual contact between God and the human spirit, which is the necessary condition of any direct revelation; the law is the recorded result of such a revelation, either passed from mouth to mouth by tradition or written permanently in a book. We may then a little amplify the proverb for the sake of exposition: ‘Where there is no living revelation, no perceived contact between man and God, there the bonds which hold society together are relaxed and broken; but he that holds by the revelation that has been given, obeying the law, so far as it has been presented to him, happy is he.’ ” Horton.
It was this keeping the law, as they had received it, which was enjoined upon the Jews by the last of their prophets, in view of the coming centuries during which there should be no vision. Mal_4:4.
perish] Rather, break loose, as the same word is rendered in Exo_32:25, R.V.; where, as here in the marg., A.V. has, is made naked. In this place R.V. renders, suitably enough, cast off restraint; but it seems desirable to adopt the same rendering in both places, because the historical incident affords a good and possibly an intended illustration of the proverb.

Proverbs 29:19
words] He needs sterner measures.
answer] i.e. respond in work and action: give heed, R.V.; οὐχ ὑπακούσεται, LXX. The Vulg. appears to understand it, as do some commentators, literally—he will not even deign to answer you—quia quod dicis intelligit, et respondere contemnit.

Proverbs 29:20
Comp. Jas_1:26.

Proverbs 29:21
his son] The meaning of the word which occurs only here is doubtful (see R.V. marg.), but this is the most probable rendering of it. The Vulg., as referred to in R.V. marg., has sentiet eum contumacem, shall have him become refractory. The LXX. give the proverb differently: “He that lives delicately from his youth shall be a servant, and shall be grieved with himself (ὀδυνηθήσεται ἐφʼ ἑαυτῷ) at the last.”

Proverbs 29:22
furious] Rather, wrathful, R.V. Comp. Pro_15:18; Pro_28:25.

Proverbs 29:23
honour shall uphold, &c.] Rather, He that is lowly in spirit shall obtain honour. Lowly is better than humble (A.V.) in the second clause, because the Heb. word is from the same root as the word bring low, in the first clause.
It is substantially the same proverb as that used more than once by our Lord:
Every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled;
And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Luk_14:11; Luk_18:14.

Proverbs 29:24
cursing] Rather, the adjuration, sc. of the judge (Lev_5:1), or of the owner of the lost property (Jdg_17:2), who puts him on his oath to divulge if he has knowledge of the theft.
bewrayeth] Rather, uttereth, as the same Heb. word is rendered both in A.V. and R.V. in Lev_5:1.

Proverbs 29:25
shall be safe] “Heb. shall be set on high” (marg. of A.V. and R.V.), as on an inaccessible rock, or in an impregnable fortress. Comp. Pro_18:10.

Proverbs 29:27
the just] Rather, the righteous, R.V.

Proverbs 29:1-27
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 29:1-27
Proverbs 29 – Rulers, Servants, and the Fear of Man
Pro_29:1
He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck,
Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.
a. He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck: As in many places in the Bible, the hard neck is used as a figure of speech to speak of the stubborn attitude that resists and disobeys God. This proverb speaks about the man who is often rebuked but doesn’t listen to the rebuke; instead he hardens his neck.
i. “The opposite of the stiff neck would be a bending neck, i.e., submission.” (Ross)
b. Will suddenly be destroyed: This stubborn, rebellious man continues in his disobedience for a long time, until he is suddenly…destroyed – and there will be no hope for him (that without remedy). This describes the kind of person who thinks little of God’s merciful patience and assumes judgment will never come for his continual rejection of wisdom and stubborn heart against God.
i. “When the door of opportunity to repent finally shuts, probably at death, the incorrigible fool is beyond all hope of a cure.” (Waltke)
Pro_29:2
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice;
But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.
a. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: It is to the benefit of the community or nation when the righteous are in authority. This shows that when the righteous govern, it should be for the benefit of the entire community, not only their own interests.
b. When a wicked man rules, the people groan: The community or the nation suffers when the wicked rule. Lawlessness increases and freedoms diminish. The rule of the wicked is bad for both the righteous and the wicked in the community or nation.
i. The people groan: “Both for the oppressions and mischiefs which they feel, and for the dreadful judgments of God which they justly fear.” (Poole)
ii. “The sentiment of this proverb often recurs. On the surface it hardly appears to be true. To observe long issues is to be convinced of the absolute accuracy of the sentiment.” (Morgan)
Pro_29:3
Whoever loves wisdom makes his father rejoice,
But a companion of harlots wastes his wealth.
a. Whoever loves wisdom makes his father rejoice: Children of any age bring happiness to their parents when they love and live wisdom. It gives the parents a justified pride in their children and gives peace about their children’s future.
b. A companion of harlots wastes his wealth: This is one example of a foolish life, someone who chooses harlots and others of low character as their companions. This fool wastes his wealth on the harlots and other similar interests, showing they are the opposite of the one who loves wisdom.
i. Comparing the first line of this proverb to the second line, Ross observed: “it would break a father’s heart to see his son become a pauper through vice.”
ii. Adam Clarke asked a simple question in regard to Pro_29:3 : “Has there ever been a single case to the contrary?”
Pro_29:4
The king establishes the land by justice,
But he who receives bribes overthrows it.
a. The king establishes the land by justice: A nation can only expect strength and progress when it is ruled with justice. When a community or nation sees evildoers punished and restrained, fairness in the legal system, and agreements honored, there will be justice and a foundation for growth and blessing.
b. He who receives bribes overthrows it: There are many ways that justice can be abused, but this is one of the worst ways. Bribes destroy the foundations of fairness and equality before the law. It means that the rich and devious prosper.
i. “The best laws are of little use when they are badly administered. Partiality and injustice make them null and void. And yet it requires great integrity and moral courage to withstand the temptations of worldly policy and self-interest.” (Bridges)
ii. “This was notoriously the case in this kingdom, before the passing of the Magna Charta, or great charter of liberties…. I have met with cases in our ancient records where, in order to get his right, a man was obliged almost to ruin himself in presents to the king, queen, and their favourites, to get the case decided in his favour.” (Clarke)
iii. The Puritan commentator John Trapp wrote of Pro_29:4 : “This one piece of Solomon’s politics hath much more good advice in it than all Lypsius’s Beehive, or Machiavel’s Spider web.”
Pro_29:5
A man who flatters his neighbor
Spreads a net for his feet.
a. A man who flatters his neighbor: In this sense, to flatter is to excessively praise or give attention to a neighbor with the hope of gaining influence or status.
i. A man who flatters his neighbor: “A smooth boots, as the word signifies, a butterspoken man, {see Isaiah 55:21} or a divided man, for a flatterer’s tongue is divided from his heart.” (Trapp)
b. Spreads a net for his feet: Such flattery is a trap. It is a trap that the wise man knows how to avoid, and that catches the fool.
i. “Beware of a flatterer; he does not flatter merely to please you, but to deceive you and profit himself.” (Clarke)
ii. “Oh, it is a cruel thing to flatter. The soul is often more exhausted and injured by disentangling itself from these nets than by the hottest contest with principalities and powers.” (Bridges)
Pro_29:6
By transgression an evil man is snared,
But the righteous sings and rejoices.
a. By transgression an evil man is snared: A man may be evil in his character, yet it is his actual acts of transgression that ruin him. Most evil men think they are celebrating life and freedom through their transgression, but it will be a trap and a snare to them.
i. “The wicked man’s jollity is but the hypocrisy of mirth; it may wet the mouth, but not warm the heart – smooth the brow, but not fill the breast. We may be sure, that as Jezebel had a cold heart under a painted complexion, so many a man’s heart aches and quakes within him when his face counterfeits a smile.” (Trapp)
b. The righteous sings and rejoices: If transgression belongs to the evil man, then singing and rejoicing belong to the righteous. The singing and rejoicing are an expression of what is inside them, just as much as the transgression is an expression of what is inside the evil man.
i. “Knox supplies the implicit comparison: ‘innocence goes singing and rejoicing on its way.’” (Kidner)
Pro_29:7
The righteous considers the cause of the poor,
But the wicked does not understand such knowledge.
a. The righteous considers the cause of the poor: One mark of the righteous man or woman is that they care for the poor. It is more than the response of feelings of pity; he considers the cause of the poor. It is thoughtful compassion in action.
b. The wicked does not understand such knowledge: Those who are wicked, rebellious against God and His wisdom, can’t even understand such compassion. Since it doesn’t directly serve their self-interest, they can’t understand it.
i. “His ignorance and lack of understanding is not an intellectual defect but the expression of an evil perversion.” (Waltke)
Pro_29:8
Scoffers set a city aflame,
But wise men turn away wrath.
a. Scoffers set a city aflame: In the family of fools, the scoffers are some of the worst offenders. They are so settled in their combative, cynical rejection of God and His wisdom that they may bring the judgment of God and fury of man against their own city.
i. “Mocking is catching [contagious], as the pestilence, and no less pernicious to the whole country.” (Trapp)
ii. “Such scoffers make dangerous situations worse, whereas the wise calm things down and ensure peace in the community. See the account of the rebellion of Sheba the son of Bicri and how the wise woman averted disaster (2 Samuel 20).” (Ross)
b. Wise men turn away wrath: The opposite of the scoffer is the wise man. Collectively, wise men have the understanding, character, and righteousness that may turn away God’s wrath.
i. G. Campbell Morgan said that Pro_29:8 was “A fine motto for engraving on the walls of the Foreign Office of any nation.”
Pro_29:9
If a wise man contends with a foolish man,
Whether the fool rages or laughs, there is no peace.
a. If a wise man contends with a foolish man: Solomon considered some kind of argument or dispute between the wise and the foolish, likely set in a court of law. Since the two have different foundations and principles for living, it isn’t a surprise that they would contend with each other.
i. “The setting of v. 9 is the court, in which the recklessness of the fool is given full vent.” (Garrett)
b. Whether the fool rages or laughs, there is no peace: When two such different people contend, normally there will be no peace. The fool will respond with either anger or mocking, but neither will lead to peace. This should teach the wise man to be cautious about contending with the foolish man.
i. There is no peace: “No end or fruit of the debate, the fool will not be satisfied nor convinced.” (Poole)
Pro_29:10
The bloodthirsty hate the blameless,
But the upright seek his well-being.
a. The bloodthirsty hate the blameless: There is a fundamental opposition between the bloodthirsty and the blameless. Those given to violence and brutality (the bloodthirsty) simply hate the blameless, both because the life and message of the blameless convicts the bloodthirsty and because the bloodthirsty hate all the blameless stand for.
i. John Trapp thought of some examples of the bloodthirsty in history: “Charles IX of France, author of the Parisian Massacre, looking upon the dead carcase of the admiral, that stank by being long kept unburied, uttered this most stinking speech: Quam suaviter olet cadaver inimiei! – How sweet is the smell of an enemy’s carcase! And the queen mother of Scotland, beholding the dead bodies of her Protestant subjects, whom she had slain in battle, said that she never saw a finer piece of tapestry in all her life.”
b. The upright seek his well-being: The upright men or women seek and care for the well-being of the blameless. This is a great contrast to the
bloodthirsty.
Pro_29:11
A fool vents all his feelings,
But a wise man holds them back.
a. A fool vents all his feelings: It is the nature of a fool to think that everyone is interested in all his feelings and that he has some obligation to inflict all his feelings on others. This is a foolish offense to self-respect, self-restraint, and courtesy towards others.
b. A wise man holds them back: The wise man knows that there is a time and place to vent one’s feelings, but one should never imitate the fool in exposing all his feelings.
i. Holds them back: “The verb (used in Psa_89:9 of the stilling of a storm) speaks of anger overcome, not merely checked.” (Kidner)
ii. “Or, In an inner room, in the bottom and bosom of his mind, till he see a fit season; as knowing well that all truths are not fit for all times, but discretion must be used.” (Trapp)
Pro_29:12
If a ruler pays attention to lies,
All his servants become wicked.
a. If a ruler pays attention to lies: Anyone in authority will have many who want to use his or her power and position for their own advancement. Some of those may use lies to influence, frighten, manipulate, or simply deceive that ruler. The wise ruler pays no attention to lies.
i. “A king, a president, or any chief executive officer must set a high standard and rigorously maintain it or face the consequences of corruption running rampant in his administration.” (Garrett)
b. All his servants become wicked: When the servants see that the ruler can be influenced by lies, it encourages them to lie. Deception is rewarded and telling the truth is discouraged. The atmosphere around that ruler and his servants becomes poisonous and incompetent.
i. Become wicked: “Partly because he chooseth only such for his service; and partly because they are either corrupted by his example, or engaged by their place and interest to please him, and comply with his base lusts.” (Poole)
ii. “Courtiers adjust themselves to the prince—when they see that deception and court flattery win the day, they learn how the game is played.” (Ross)
Pro_29:13
The poor man and the oppressor have this in common:
The Lord gives light to the eyes of both.
a. The poor man and the oppressor have this in common: It is difficult to think of two greater contrasts than the poor man and the oppressor. Despite their great differences, they have something in common.
b. The Lord gives light to the eyes of both: God gives some kind of light, some kind of revelation in creation and conscience, to every person (Rom_1:19-21). One may obey or reject God’s message in that light, but God gives light to the eyes of both.
i. “That is to say, all intelligence is a divine gift, whether it be used in righteousness or in wickedness. Sin is always the prostitution of a God-given power to base purposes.” (Morgan)
Pro_29:14
The king who judges the poor with truth,
His throne will be established forever.
a. The king who judges the poor with truth: Part of the responsibility of a king or any leader is to make judgments, and sometimes those regarding the poorand disadvantaged. That king or leader must be careful to not show partiality against (or for) the poor, but to make judgment according to truth.
b. His throne will be established forever: That king who refuses to show partiality and judges the poor according to truth can expect to have a long reign. Their reign will be blessed by God and received by the people.
i. “The poor are no less created in the image of God than the rich, and they have God as their avenger should the rich fail in their duty. For this reason the security of a king’s reign depends on equitably dispensing justice.” (Garrett)
ii. John Trapp thought of how this pointed to the throne of Jesus Messiah, established forever: “Lo, such a prince shall sit firm upon his throne; his kingdom shall be bound to him with chains of adamant, as Dionysius dreamt that his was; he shall have the hearts of his subjects, which is the best life-guard, and God for his protection; for he is professedly the poor man’s patron, [Psa_9:18-19] and makes heavy complaints of those that wrong them. [Isa_3:13-15; Isa_10:1-3; Amo_5:11-12; Amo_8:4-6; Zep_3:12].”
Pro_29:15
The rod and rebuke give wisdom,
But a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.
a. The rod and rebuke give wisdom: We learn through correction. Jesus Himself learned through suffering (Heb_5:8) so we should not despise God’s use of either the rod or the rebuke. No one is above learning through discipline.
i. “Discipline is the order of God’s government. Parents are his dispensers of it to their children. Let correction be first tried, and if it succeeds, let the rod be spared. If not, let the rod do its work.” (Bridges)
b. A child left to himself brings shame to his mother: The principle of the first line of this proverb is especially true regarding children. Children who are never trained with loving correction often bring shame to their parents.
i. “His mother, and father too; but he names only the mother, either because her indulgence oft spoils the child, or because children commonly stand in least awe of their mothers, and abuse the weakness of their sex, and tenderness of their natures.” (Poole)
Pro_29:16
When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increases;
But the righteous will see their fall.
a. When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increases: There is something of a multiplication effect in the advance of wickedness. In some way, when the number of wicked people is doubled, then it seems transgression increases four or five times over.
b. The righteous will see their fall: This is welcome assurance when it seems that transgression increases. The righteous must not despair; God is still in control. Though the wicked are multiplied, God will not allow them to triumph in the end and they will fall.
i. “The faithful Christian minister, conscious of his inability to stem the ever-flowing torrent of iniquity, would sink in despair but for the assured confidence that he is on the conquering side, that his cause, being the cause of his Lord, must eventually prevail.” (Bridges)
Pro_29:17
Correct your son, and he will give you rest;
Yes, he will give delight to your soul.
a. Correct your son, and he will give you rest: Many proverbs speak of the importance of correcting and training our children. If we leave them to themselves, to their peers, or to the culture around them and fail to correct them, they will be an ongoing source of trouble and strife, giving us no rest.
b. Yes, he will give delight to your soul: Every parent wants this delight of soul. There is a sense in which God appeals to our own self-interest. If you won’t correct your son because it is good for him, then do it because it is good for you!
Pro_29:18
Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint;
But happy is he who keeps the law.
a. Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint: The revelation in mind here is not the spontaneous word from a purported prophet. It is God’s great revelation, His revealed word through the Hebrew prophets and later the apostles and prophets who gave us the New Testament. When God’s word is unavailable or rejected, the people cast off restraint. They no longer have a standard greater than their own feelings or current opinions.
i. Other translations (such as the King James Version) express this in these words: where there is no vision, the people perish. This has often been taken to say, “Where there is no visionary leadership, people and enterprises fail.” That is often a true principle, but not what Solomon wrote here. There is little doubt that the Hebrew word hazon means “God’s revelation,” and not “visionary leadership.” “In sum, hazon refers here to the sage’s inspired revelation of wisdom.” (Waltke)
ii. “The word hazon refers to divine communication to prophets (as in 1Sa_3:1) and not to individual goals that are formed.” (Ross)
iii. Revelation: “…is to be taken in its exact sense of the revelation a prophet receives.” (Kidner)
iv. “Where Divine revelation, and the faithful preaching of the sacred testimonies, are neither reverenced nor attended, the ruin of that land is at no great distance.” (Clarke)
v. “No greater calamity, therefore, can there be than the removal of the revelation…. Where revelation is withdrawn from a church, the people perish in ignorance and delusion.” (Bridges)
b. The people cast off restraint: This principle was lived out in Israel’s history. Jdg_17:6; Jdg_21:25, and 1Sa_3:1 all describe such times when God’s word was abandoned, and the people lived with no restraint.
i. Cast off restraint: “Or, is made naked; stripped of their best ornaments, God’s favour and protection, as this word is taken, Exo_32:25.” (Poole)
c. Happy is he who keeps the law: In contrast, there is happiness and contentment for the one who keeps the law. In this sense, the Bible is something like a guide given to us by our owner and creator, telling us how to live a wise and blessed life. It is within restraint, but not in an oppressive sense. Only a fool thinks that all restraint is oppressive.
i. He who keeps the law: “Although the want of God’s word be sufficient for men’s destruction, yet the having, and hearing, or reading of it is not sufficient for their salvation, except they also keep or obey it.” (Poole)
Pro_29:19
A servant will not be corrected by mere words;
For though he understands, he will not respond.
a. A servant will not be corrected by mere words: The idea is not of someone who has an honorable, servant-like heart. The idea is of someone of menial service who has a slave-like mentality that can’t be lifted above his or her present misery. That person is unlikely to be corrected by mere words. Tough life experience and discipline will be more likely to teach them.
i. “In this democratic age the idea that one should have this kind of authority over someone is perhaps offensive, but in any age workers can become undisciplined and unreliable if some kind of authority and discipline procedure is not established.” (Garrett)
ii. “The verse is probably a general observation on the times; doubtless there were slaves who did better (e.g., Joseph in Egypt; Daniel in Babylon).” (Ross)
b. Though he understands, he will not respond: This shows that the problem with such a one is not mental or intellectual. He understands well enough; the problem is that he will not respond. It will take more than words to get him or her to respond and learn wisdom.
i. Will not respond: “Either by words, expressing his readiness; or by deeds, speedily and cheerfully performing thy commands; but will neglect his duty, pretending that he did not hear or understand thee.” (Poole)
Pro_29:20
Do you see a man hasty in his words?
There is more hope for a fool than for him.
a. Do you see a man hasty in his words? Proverbs often teaches us that a mark of a fool is that they don’t have control over what they say. They are hasty in their words.
b. There is more hope for a fool than for him: To Solomon, the man hasty in his words was a special kind of a fool, a super-fool. Lacking wisdom, his impulsive speech sets him beyond the hope of even the normal fool.
Pro_29:21
He who pampers his servant from childhood
Will have him as a son in the end.
a. He who pampers his servant from childhood: The idea is of a man who is overly soft and generous towards his servant. He worries too much about making life easy and pleasant for his servant.
i. “A master that would be, as he ought, both loved and feared by his servants, must see to two things: – (1.) The well-choosing; and (2.) The well using of them.” (Trapp)
b. Will have him as a son in the end: This isn’t always in a good sense. The one who pampers his servant will make the servant so attached to him that he will end up with another obligation and another person who expects an inheritance.
i. “This is a simple statement of a fact. Whether it be one of blessing or of evil depends on the Christian”s servant. An evil servant treated well assumes the position of a son in arrogance. A good servant treated well assumes the position of a son in devotion.” (Morgan)
ii. “Such persons are generally forgetful of their obligations, assume the rights and privileges of children, and are seldom good for any thing.” (Clarke)
iii. There is some dispute about the word here translated a son. Ross had an alternative idea: “The proverb says that if someone pampers his servant from youth, in the end (of this procedure) he will have ‘grief’ (manon).”
Pro_29:22
An angry man stirs up strife,
And a furious man abounds in transgression.
a. An angry man stirs up strife: It is in the nature of the angry man to spread his strife to others. With peace lacking in his own soul, it’s easy to put his inner strife upon others.
i. “‘Anger’ describes his outward visage of snorting nostrils, and ‘wrath’ [furious], his inner heat of boiling emotions of resentment.” (Waltke)
b. A furious man abounds in transgression: When the angry or furious man spreads his strife, it makes transgression abound. Sin abounds and the atmosphere is marked by a lack of self-control.
i. “His furious spirit is always carrying him into extremes, and each of these is a transgression.” (Clarke)
Pro_29:23
A man’s pride will bring him low,
But the humble in spirit will retain honor.
a. A man’s pride will bring him low: Because God resists the proud (Jas_4:6 and 1Pe_5:5), pride will naturally bring a man low. Like Satan, the one who hoped to rise higher through his pride will fall (Isa_14:13-15).
i. Waltke points out that the Hebrew word translated “‘Pride’ derives from a root meaning ‘to be high’ and so constitutes a precise antithetical parallel of ‘lowly.’”
b. The humble in spirit will retain honor: Just as much as God resists the proud, He also gives grace to the humble (again, Jas_4:6 and 1Pe_5:5). God’s gracious blessing to the humble in spirit means they will gain and retain honor.
i. “Thus honour, like a shadow, flees from them that pursue it, and follows them who flee from it.” (Poole)
Pro_29:24
Whoever is a partner with a thief hates his own life;
He swears to tell the truth, but reveals nothing.
a. Whoever is a partner with a thief hates his own life: To partner with a thief is to reject wisdom and embrace folly. The one who steals from others will steal from you, and perhaps with violence threatening your own life.
i. “The law makes no distinction between the thief and the accomplice. Consenting to sin, receiving the stolen goods, involves us in the guilt and punishment.” (Bridges)
ii. “Paradoxically, the partner joined the thief to satisfy the greed of his swollen appetites, but instead he loses that very life with its drives and appetites.” (Waltke)
b. He swears to tell the truth, but reveals nothing: The partner to the thief is the kind of man who will repeatedly vow to tell the truth, but reveals nothing about his partner’s criminal activity. He places loyalty to his friend above his loyalty to God.
i. “The call to testify is actually a curse pronounced on anyone who will not testify. This proverb, using the same word for oath or curse, describes someone who has befriended a thief, becomes aware of his wrongdoing, but remains silent when he hears a call to come forward and give evidence. He has brought a curse down on his own head.” (Garrett)
Pro_29:25-26
The fear of man brings a snare,
But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.
Many seek the ruler’s favor,
But justice for man comes from the Lord.
a. The fear of man brings a snare: Many people of good heart but not enough courage live in bondage to the fear of man. They worry far too much about what people think, instead of first being concerned about what God and wisdom say, and what integrity would lead them to do. This is a snare that traps many people.
i. “The ‘fear of man’ describes any situation in which one is anxious about not offending another person. For example, someone might be afraid to oppose the unethical actions of a superior out of fear of losing a job. This verse tells the reader to do what is right and trust the outcome to Yahweh.” (Garrett)
ii. “And therefore they do not ask, ‘What should I do?’ but ‘What will my friends think of me?’ They cannot brave the finger of scorn…. Oh, for deliverance from this principle of bondage.” (Bridges)
iii. The fear of man: Saul, Aaron, and Peter are examples of men who were stained by the fear of man. “How often has this led weak men, though sincere in their general character, to deny their God, and abjure his people!” (Clarke)
iv. “It was the fear of man that caused Pilate’s name to become infamous in the history of the world and of the Church of God, and it will be infamous to all eternity. The fear of man led him to slay the Savior; take care that it does not lead you to do something of the same kind.” (Spurgeon)
v. “Why, I have known some who were afraid even to give away a tract; they were as much alarmed as though they had to put their hand into a tiger’s mouth.” (Spurgeon)
vi. “There is one sin which I believe I have never committed; I think that I have never been afraid of any of you, and I hope, by the grace of God, that I never shall be. If I dare not speak the truth upon all points, and dare not rebuke sin, what is the good of me to you? Yet I have heard sermons which seemed to me to have been made to the order of the congregation. But honest hearers want honest preaching; and if they find that the preachers message comes home to them, they thank God that it is so.” (Spurgeon)
b. But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe: The contrast to the fear of man is he who trusts in the Lord. That person will be in the safest place imaginable – safe in the care of a loving, powerful God.
i. “Release from such bondage comes when people put their faith in the Lord alone. See Pro_10:27; Pro_12:2; and the example of the apostles in Act_5:29.” (Ross)
ii. “It is not, ‘He that trusteth in himself;’ not, ‘He that trusteth in a priest;’ not, ‘He that performs good works, and trusts in them,’ but, ‘whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.’ The man who is trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus may not always be happy, but he is safe; he may not always be singing, but he is safe; he may not always have the joy of full assurance, but he is safe. He may sometimes be distressed, but, he is always safe; he may sometimes question his interest in Christ, but he is always safe.” (Spurgeon)
c. Many seek the ruler’s favor: This is presented as a simple fact. There are many who long for the benefit that a ruler may give them. This relates to the fear of man mentioned in the previous verse; those who depend on the ruler’s favor for their security and prosperity must fear and seek the ruler’s favor.
d. But justice for man comes from the Lord: When we depend upon man for our justice, our security, or our prosperity, we will be disappointed. Such justice and its benefits come from the Lord, not primarily through even the mightiest ruler. If the ruler does give out justice, he does it as God’s agent.
i. “Verse 26 does not forbid seeking relief from injustice through the legal system, but it does state that one should place more faith in Yahweh than in human institutions.” (Garrett)
Pro_29:27
An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous,
And he who is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked.
a. An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous: An unjust man does not please those among God’s righteous. They share God’s regard of the wicked, seeing them as an abomination for their sins against God and man.
i. “Who yet hates, non virum sed vitium, not the person of a wicked man, but his sin – as the physician hates the disease, but loves the patient, and strives to recover him – he abhors that which is evil, perfectly hates it.” (Trapp)
b. He who is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked: It works both ways. The upright man or woman is seen as an abomination to the wicked. Their righteous life is an unwelcome rebuke to the wicked.
i. “A statement of the necessary and abiding antipathy between righteousness and unrighteousness.” (Morgan)
ii. “Here is the oldest, the most rooted, the most universal quarrel in the world. It was the first fruit of the Fall (Gen_3:15). It has continued ever since and will last to the end of the world.” (Bridges)
iii. “This proverb…serves as an apt summation of the whole Hezekiah text. Righteousness and immorality are mutually exclusive. One must follow one path or the other (Jer_6:16).” (Garrett)

Proverbs 29:1
CONTENTS
Here are many like words to the former, by way of proverbs in this Chapter to the same purport as before, in holding forth the mysteries of the kingdom.
Pro_29:1-4 He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. Whoso loveth wisdom rejoiceth his father: but he that keepeth company with harlots spendeth his substance. The king by judgment establisheth the land: but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it.
By the king here spoken of, must be meant the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the king uniformly intended through all the scriptures, whose government is in righteousness, and who will minister true judgment unto the people. He is Jehovah’s king, and so revealed. Psa_2:6; Psa 20; Psa 21.

Proverbs 29:5-13
A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet. In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare: but the righteous doth sing and rejoice. The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it. Scornful men bring a city into a snare: but wise men turn away wrath. If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest. The bloodthirsty hate the upright: but the just seek his soul. A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards. If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked. The poor and the deceitful man meet together: the LORD lighteneth both their eyes.
This last verse contains an abundance of gospel truths. When the Holy Ghost shines in upon the soul of the sinner, grace breaks through all the darkness of the mind. The poor in spirit, and the deceitful heart of the proud sinner; both are made equal debtors to the rich, free, and sovereign grace of God. Herein, in an eminent point of view, is that scripture fulfilled, which saith, God is no respecter of persons. For in the redemption by Christ, it is not that one sinner merits more than another sinner, in being made the distinguished object of such an unspeakable mercy: but that God’s rich grace may be magnified. It is not a respect to our person, but a respect to the everlasting covenant of God in Christ. Rom_9:16-21.

Proverbs 29:14-18
The king that faithfully judgeth the poor, his throne shall be established forever. The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth: but the righteous shall see their fall. Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul. Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
I pause over this last verse, to remark, that by the people perishing where there is no vision, cannot be meant that the people of God perish everlastingly: for Jesus hath said, that they, shall not perish; neither shall any pluck them out of his hand. Joh_10:28. But even the people of God may perish temporally: and if they follow blind leaders, and are found sitting under a carnal ministry; here the lack of knowledge must, and will induce great leanness of soul: therefore they may be truly said to perish for the want of soul-enriching supports, arising from the open vision of the word, and secret manifestation, through the ministry of the word and ordinances of Jesus and his graces. Reader! think here from how inexpressibly valuable must it be to have a soul-strengthening fulness of ordinances; and a faithful ministry of the word to sit under, where Jesus hath promised his presence. Mat_18:20.

Proverbs 29:19-27
A servant will not be corrected by words: for though he understand he will not answer. Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him. He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child shall have him become his son at the length. An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression. A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit. Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul: he heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not. The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe. Many seek the ruler’s favour; but every man’s judgment cometh from the LORD. An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.
It is blessed to mark, both in the entrance, the progress, and the issue of things, the mighty difference between him that serveth. the Lord, and him that serveth him not. The Prophet did not, without sufficient cause, deliver that most decided sentence: Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him. Isa_3:10-11.

Proverbs 29:27
REFLECTIONS
READER! there is an abundance of matter for raising many profitable reflections in the perusal of this chapter; but I beg particularly to call your attention to that solemn verse contained in it, which in itself forms a volume. Where there is no vision, the people perish. The most faithful ministers of Jesus have to lament the little success of their labors in the present day: and when they look round and take a leisurely survey, of the languishing state of Zion, much cause have they to weep, between the porch and the altar, and to besiege the mercy-seat, night and day, with the cry: Spare thy people, 0 Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach. But what an awful view doth it afford in the consciousness that in many paces of this our guilty land, There is no vision! Oh! for the Lord to send forth faithful men, anxious to win souls to Christ! And oh! for the Lord Jesus to come himself in every place whithersoever he sends his word by faithful Pastors, after his own heart, that shall feed his people in true understanding and knowledge. Reader! where, and under what open vision, do you sit? That gospel, which holds forth Jesus in the glories of his person, and in the completeness of his salvation – which humbles the sinner, and exalts the Saviour – which, by laying the creature low, makes Jesus precious; and tends to promote holiness in the life and conversation, in shewing all our springs to be in him: these are precious truths to keep the soul alive, and to prevent leanness and perishing. Reader! may it be your portion, and mine, to be thus strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus.