American Standard Version Proverbs 19

Proverbs 19:1-29
EXPOSITION
Pro_19:1
Better is the poor that walkth in his integrity. The word for “poor” is, here and in Pro_19:7, Pro_19:22, rash, which signifies “poor” in opposition to “rich.” In the present reading of the second clause, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool, there seems to be a failure in antithesis, unless we can understand the fool as a rich fool. This, the repetition of the maxim in Pro_28:6 (“Than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich”), would lead one to admit. The Vulgate accordingly has, Quam dives torquem labia sua, et insipiens, “Than a rich man who is of perverse lips and a fool.” With this the Syriac partly agrees. So that, if we take this reading, the moralist says that the poor man who lives a guileless, innocent life, content with his lot, and using no wrong means to improve his fortunes, is happier and better than the rich man who is hypocritical in his words and deceives others, and has won his wealth by such means, thus proving himself to be a fool, a morally bad man. But if we content ourselves with the Hebrew text, we must find the antithesis in the simple, pious, poor man, contrasted with the arrogant rich man, who sneers at his poor neighbour as an inferior creature. The writer would seem to insinuate that there is a natural connection between poverty and integrity of life on the one hand, and wealth and folly on the other. He would assent to the sweeping assertion, Omnis dives ant iniquus aut iniqui heres, “Every rich man is either a rascal or a rascal’s heir.”
Pro_19:2
Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good. “Also” (gam), Wordsworth would render “even,” “even the soul, i.e. life itself, without knowledge is not a blessing;” it is βίπς οὐ βιωτός. At first sight it looks as if some verse, to which this one was appended, had fallen out; but there is no trace in the versions of any such loss. We have had a verse beginning in the same manner (Pro_17:26), and here it seems to emphasize what follows—folly is bad, so is ignorance, when the soul lacks knowledge, i.e. when a man does not know what to do, how to act in the circumstances of his life, has in fact no practical wisdom. Other things “not good” are named in Pro_18:5; Pro_20:23; Pro_24:23. And he that hasteth with his feet sinneth; misseth his way. Delitzsch confines the meaning of this hemistich to the undisciplined pursuit of knowledge: “He who hasteneth with the legs after it goeth astray,” because he is neither intellectually nor morally clear as to his path or object. But the gnome is better taken in a more general sense. The ignorant man, who acts hastily without due deliberation, is sure to make grave mistakes, and to come to misfortune. Haste is opposed to knowledge, because the latter involves prudence and circumspection, while the former blunders on hurriedly, not seeing whither actions lead. We all have occasion to note the proverbs, Festina lente; “More haste, less speed.” The history of Fabius, who, as Ennius said,
“Unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem,”
shows the value of deliberation and caution. The Greeks recognized this—
Προπέτεια πολλοῖς ἐστὶν αἰτία κακῶν.
“Rash haste is cause of evil unto many.”
Erasmus, in his ’Adagia,’ has a long article commenting on Festinatio praepropera. The Arabs say,” Patience is the key of joy, but haste is the key of sorrow.” God is patient because he is eternal.
Pro_19:3
The foolishness of man perverteth his way; rather, overturns, turns from the right direction and causes a man to fall (Pro_13:6). It is his own folly that leads him to his ruin; but he will not see this, and blames the providence of God. And his heart fretteth against the Lord. Septuagint, “He accuseth God in his heart” (comp. Eze_18:25, Eze_18:29; Eze_33:17, Eze_33:20). Ec Pro_15:11, etc; “Say not thou, It is through the Lord that I foil away; for thou oughtest not to do the things that he hateth. Say not thou, He has caused me to err; for he hath no need of the sinful man,” etc. The latter part of this important passage St. Augustine quotes thus: “Item apud Salomonem: Deus ab initio constituit hominem et reliquit eum in manu consilii sui: adjecit ei mandata et praecepta; si voles praecepta servare, servabunt te, et in posterum fidem placitam facere. Apposuit tibi aquam et ignem, ad quod vis porrige manum tuam. Ante hominem bonum et malum, vita et mors, paupertas et honestas a Domino Deo sunt”. And again, “Manifestum est, quod si ad ignem manum mittit, et malum ac mors ei placet, id votuntas hominis operatur; si autem bonum et vitam diligit, non solum voluntas id agit, sed divinitus adjuvatur”. Homer, ’Od.,’ 1.32, etc.—
“Perverse mankind! whose wills, created free,
Charge all their woes on absolute decree;
All to the dooming gods their guilt translate,
And follies are miscalled the crimes of fate.”
(Pope.)
Pro_19:4
Wealth maketh many friends (Pro_19:6, Pro_19:7; Pro_14:20). A Greek gnome expresses the same truth—
Ἐὰν δ ἔχωμεν χρήμαθ ἕξομεν φίλους.
The poor is separated from his neighbour. But it is better to make the act of separation emanate from the friend (as the Hebrew allows), and to render, with the Revised Version, The friend of the poor separateth himself from him. The word for “poor” is here dal, which means “feeble,” “languid;” so Pro_19:17; and the came word (rea), “friend” or “neighbor,” is used in both clauses. The idea of man’s selfishness is carried on in Pro_19:6 and Pro_19:7. The Law of Moses had tried to counteract it (Deu_15:7, etc.), but it was Christianity that introduced the practical realization of the law of love, and the honouring of the poor as members of Christ. Septuagint, “But the poor is deserted even by his whilom friend.”
Pro_19:5
This verse is repeated below (Pro_19:9). It comes in awkwardly here, interrupting the connection which subsists between Pro_19:4 and Pro_19:6. Its right place is doubtless where it occurs below. The Law not only strictly forbade false witness (Exo_20:16; Exo_23:1), but it enacted severe penalties against offenders in this particular (Deu_19:16, etc.); the lex talionis was to be enforced against them, they were to receive no pity: “Life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” He that speaketh lies shall not escape. The Septuagint confines the notion of this clause to false accusers, Ὁ δὲ ἐγκαλῶν ἀδίκως, “He who maketh an unjust charge shall not escape,” which renders the two clauses almost synonymous. We make a distinction between the members by seeing in the former a denunciation against a false witness in a suit, and in the second a more sweeping menace against any one, whether accuser, slanderer, sycophant, who by lying injures a neighbour. The History of Susanna is brought forward in confirmation of the well deserved fate of false accusers.
Ψευδὴς διαβολὴ τὸν βίον λυμαίνεται.
“A slander is an outrage on man’s life.”
Pro_19:6
Many will intreat the favour of the prince; Literally, will stroke the face of the prince, of the liberal and powerful man, in expectation of receiving some benefit from him (Pro_29:26; Job_11:19). Every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts (see on Pro_17:8). The LXX; reading כָל־הְרֵעַ for בָל־הָּרֵעַ, renders, “Every bad man is a reproach to a man,” which may mean that a sordid, evil man brings only disgrace on himself; or that, while many truckle to and try to win the interest of a prince, bad courtiers bring on him not glory, but infamy and shame.
Pro_19:7
This is one of the few tristichs in the book, and probably contains the mutilated remains of two distichs. The third line, corrected by the Septuagint, which has an addition here, runs into two clauses (Cheyne). All the brethren of the poor do hate him. Even his own brothers, children of the same parents, hate and shun a poor man (Pro_14:20). Much more do his friends go far from him. There should be no interrogation. We have the expression (aph-ki) in Pro_11:31; Pro_15:11, etc. Euripides, ’Medea,’ 561—
Πένητα φεύγει πᾶς τις ἐκποδὼν φίλος.
“Each single friend far from the poor man flies.”
Septuagint. “Every one who hateth a poor brother will be also far from friendship.” Then follows an addition not found m the Hebrew, “Good thought draweth nigh to those who know it, and a prudent man will find it. He who doeth much evil brings malice to perfection (τελεσιουργεῖ κακίαν); and he who rouses words to anger shall not be safe.” He pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him; or, they are gone. He makes a pathetic appeal to his quondam friends, but they hearken not to him. But the sense is rather, “He pursueth after, craves for, words of kindness or promises of help, and there is naught, or he gets words only and no material aid.”
Wordsworth quotes Catullus, ’Carm.,’ 38.5—
“Quem tu, quod minimum facillimumque est,
Qua solatus es adlocutione?
Irascor tibi. Sic meos amores?”
Vulgate, Qui tantum verba sectatur, nihil habebit, “He who pursues words only shall have naught.” The Hebrew is literally, “Seeking words, they are not” This is according to the Khetib; the Keri, instead of the negation לא, reads לו, which makes the clause signify, “He who pursues words, they are to him;” i.e. he gets words and nothing else. Delitzsch and others, supplying the lost member from the Septuagint, read the third line thus: “He that hath many friends, or the friend of every one, is requited with evil; and he that seeketh (fair) speeches shall not be delivered.” Cheyne also makes a distich of this line, taking the Septuagint as representing the original reading, “He that does much evil perfects mischief: He that provokes with words shall not escape.” That something has fallen out of the Hebrew text is evident; it seems that there are no examples of tristichs in this part of our book, though they are not unknown in the first and third divisions. The Vulgate surmounts the difficulty by connecting this third line with the following verse, which thus is made to form the antithesis,
Qui tantum verba sectatur, nihil habebit; Qui autem possessor est mentis, diligit animam suam, et custos prudentiae inveniet bona.”
Pro_19:8
He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul. “Wisdom” is, in the Hebrew, leb. “heart;” it is a matter, not of intellect only. but of will and affections (see on Pro_15:32). Septuagint, ἀγαπᾷ ἑαυτόν, “loveth himself.” The contrary, “hateth his own soul,” occurs in Pro_29:24. By striving to obtain wisdom a man shows that he has regard for the welfare of his soul and body. Hence St. Thomas Aquinas (’Sum. Theol.,’ 1.2, qu. 25, art. 7, quoted by Corn. a Lapide) takes occasion to demonstrate that only good men are really lovers of themselves, while evil men are practically self-haters, proving his position by a reference to Arislotle’s numeration of the characteristics of friendship, which the former exhibit, and none of which the latter can possess (’Eth. Nic.,’ 9.4). He that keepeth understanding shall find good (Pro_16:20). A man must not only strive hard and use all available means to get wisdom and prudence, he must guard them like a precious treasure, not lose them for want of care or let them lie useless; and then he will find that they bring with themselves innumerable benefits.
Pro_19:9
A repetition of Pro_19:5, except that shall perish is substituted for “shall not escape.” Septuagint, “And whosoever shall kindle mischief shall perish by it.” The Greek translators have rendered the special reference in the original to slanderers and liars by a general term, and introduced the notion of Divine retribution, which is not definitely expressed in the Hebrew.
Pro_19:10
Delight is not seemly for a fool (comp. Pro_17:7; Pro_26:1). Taanug, rendered “delight,” implies other delicate living, luxury; τρυφή, Septuagint. Such a life is ruin to a fool. who knows not how to use it properly; it confirms him in his foolish, sinful ways. A man needs religion and reason to enable him to bear prosperity advantageously, and these the fool lacks. “Secundae res,” remarks Sallust (’Catil.,’ 11), “sapientium animos fatigant,” “Even wise men are wearied and harassed by prosperity,” much more must such good fortune try those who have no practical wisdom to guide and control their enjoyment. Vatablus explains the clause to mean that it is impossible for a fool, a sinner, to enjoy peace of conscience, which alone is true delight. But looking to the next clause, we see that the moralist is thinking primarily of the elevation of a slave to a high position, and his arrogance in consequence thereof. Much less for a servant to have rule over princes. By the unwise favouritism of a potentate, a slave of lowly birth might be raised to eminence and set above the nobles and princes of the land. The writer of Ecclesiastes gives his experience in this matter: “I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth” (Ecc_10:7). The same anomaly is mentioned with censure (Pro_30:22 and Ecc_11:5). What is the behaviour of unworthy persons thus suddenly raised to high position has formed the subject of many a satire. It is the old story of the “beggar on horseback.” A German proverb declares, “Kein Scheermesser scharfer schiest, als wenn der Bauer zu Herrn wird.” Claud; ’In Eutrop.,’ 181, etc.
“Asperius nihil est humili, quum surgit in altum;
Cuncta ferit, dum cuncta timet; desaevit in omnes,
Ut se posse putent; nec bellua tetrior ulla
Quam servi rabies in libera colla furentis.”
As an example of a different disposition, Cornelius a Lapide refers to the history of Agathocles. Tyrant of Syracuse, who rose from the humble occupation of a potter to a position of vast power, and, to remind himself of his lowly origin, used to dine off mean earthenware. Ausonius thus alludes to this humility (’Epigr.,’ 8.)—
“Fama est fictilibus coenasse Agathoclea regem,
Atque abacum Samio saepe onerasse luto;
Fercula gemmatis cum poneret horrida vasis,
Et misceret opes pauperiemque simul.
Quaerenti causam, respondit: Rex ego qui sum
Sicaniae, figulo sum genitore satus
Fortunam reverenter habe, quicunque repente
Dives ab exili progrediere loco.”
Pro_19:11
The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; maketh him slow to anger. “A merciful man is long suffering,” Septuagint; “The teaching of a man is known by patience,” Vulgate. (See Pro_14:17, Pro_14:29.) The Greek moralist gives the advice—
Νίκησον ὀργὴν τῷ λογίζεσθαι καλῶς
“Thine anger quell by reason’s timely aid.”
The contrary disposition betokens folly (Pro_14:17). It is his glory to pus over a transgression. It is a real triumph and glory for man to forgive and to take no notice of injuries offered him. Thus in his poor way he imitates Almighty God. Here it is discretion or prudence that makes a man patient and forgiving; elsewhere the same effect is attributed to love (Pro_10:12; Pro_17:9). The Septuagint Version is hard to understand: Τὸ δὲ καύχημα αὐτοῦ ἐπέρχεται παρανόμοις, “And his glorying cometh on the transgressors;” but, taken in connection with the former hemistich, it seems to mean that the patient man’s endurance of the contradictions of sinners is no reproach or disgrace to him, but redounds to his credit and virtue. “Vincit qui patitur,” “He conquers who endures.”
Pro_19:12
The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion, which inspires terror, as preluding danger and death. The same idea occurs in Pro_20:2 (comp. Amo_3:4, Amo_3:8). The Assyrian monuments have made us familiar with the lion as a type of royalty; and the famous throne of Solomon was ornamented with figures of lions on each of its six steps (1Ki_10:19, etc.). Thus St. Paul. alluding to the Roman emperor, says (2Ti_4:17), “I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.” “The lion is dead,” announced Marsyas to Agrippa, on the decease of Tiberius (Josephus, ’Ant.,’ 18.6, 10). The mondist here gives a monition to kings to repress their wrath and not to let it rage uncontrolled, and a warning to subjects not to offend their ruler, lest he tear them to pieces like a savage beast, which an Eastern despot had full power to do. But his favour is as dew upon the grass. In Pro_16:15 the king’s favour was compared to a cloud of the latter rain; here it is likened to the dew (comp. Psa_72:6). We hardly understand in England the real bearing of this comparison. “The secret of the luxuriant fertility of many parts of Palestine,” says Dr. Geikie (’Holy Land and Bible,’ 1.72, etc.), “lies in the rich supply of moisture afforded by the seawinds which blow inland each night, and water the face of the whole land. There is no dew, properly so called in Palestine, for there is no moisture in the hot summer air to be chilled into dewdrops by the coolness of the night, as in a climate like ours. From May till October rain is unknown, the sun shining with unclouded brightness day after day. The heat becomes intense, the ground hard; and vegetation would perish but for the moist west winds that come each night from the sea. The bright skies cause the heat of the day to radiate very quickly into space, so that the nights are as cold as the day is the reverse ….To this coldness of the night air the indispensable watering of all plant life is due. The winds, loaded with moisture, are robbed of it as they pass over the land, the cold air condensing it into drops of water, which fall in a gracious rain of mist on every thirsty blade. In the morning the fog thus created rests like a sea over the plains, and far up the sides of the hills, which raise their heads above it like so many islands The amount of moisture thus poured on the thirsty vegetation during the night is very great. Dew seemed to the Israelites a mysterious gift of Heaven, as indeed it is. That the skies should be stayed from yielding it was a special sign of Divine wrath, and there could be no more gracious conception of a loving farewell address to his people than where Moses tells them that his speech should distil as the dew. The favour of an Oriental monarch could not be more boneficially conceived than by saying that, while his wrath is like the roaring of a lion, his favour is as the dew upon the grass.” רצוֹן (ration), “favour,” is translated by the Septuagint, τὸ ἱλαρόν, and by the Vulgate, hilaritas, “cheerfulness” (as in Pro_18:22), which gives the notion of a smiling, serene, benevolent countenance as contrasted with the angry, lowering look of displeased monarch.
Pro_19:13
With the first clause we may compare Pro_10:1; Pro_15:20; Pro_17:21, Pro_17:25. Calamity in the Hebrew is in the plural number (contritiones, Pagn.), as if to mark the many and continued sorrows which a bad son brings upon his father, how he causes evil after evil to harass and distress him. The contentions of a wife are a continual dropping (comp. Pro_27:15). The flat roofs of Eastern houses, formed of planks loosely joined and covered with a coating of clay or plaster, were always subject to leakage in heavy rains. The irritating altercations and bickering of a cross-grained wife are compared to the continuous drip of water through an imperfectly constructed roof. Tecta jugiter perstillantia, as the Vulgate has it. The Scotch say, “A leaky house and a scolding wife are two bad companions.” The two clauses of the verse are coordinate, expressing two facts that render home life miserable and unendurable, viz. the misbehaviour of a son and the ill temper of a wife. The Septuagint, following a different reading, has, “Nor are offerings from a harlot’s hire pure,” which is an allusion to Deu_23:18.
Pro_19:14
House and riches are an inheritance of (from) fathers. Any man, worthy or not, may inherit property from progenitors; any man may bargain for a wife, or give a dowry to his son to further his matrimonial prospects. But a prudent wife is from the Lord. She is a special gift of God, a proof of his gracious care for his servants (see on Pro_18:22). Septuagint, Παρὰ δὲ Κυρίου ἀρμόζεται γυνὴ ἀνδρί, “It is by the Lord that a man is matched with a woman.” There is a special providence that watches over wedlock; as we say, “Marriages are made in heaven.” But marriages of convenience, marriages made in consideration of worldly means, are a mere earthly arrangement, and claim no particular grace.
Pro_19:15
Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; “causes deep sleep to fall upon a man” (comp. Pro_6:9; Pro_13:4). The word for “sleep” (תַרדֵמָה, tardemah) is that used for the supernatural sleep of Adam when Eve was formed (Gen_2:21), and implies pro. found insensibility. Aquila and Symmachus render it, ἔκστασιν, “trance.” Slothfulness enervates a man, renders him as useless for labour as if he were actually asleep in his bed; it also enfeebles the mind, corrupts the higher faculties, converts a rational being into a witless animal. Otium est vivi hominis sepultura, “Idleness is a living man’s tomb.” An idle soul shall suffer hunger. We have many gnomes to this effect (see Pro_10:4; Pro_12:24; Pro_20:13; Pro_23:21). The LXX. has introduced something of this verse at Pro_18:8, and here render, Δειλία κατέχει ἀνδρόγυνον, “Cowardice holdeth fast the effeminate, and the soul of the idle shall hunger.” “Sloth,” as the proverb says, “is the mother of poverty.”
Pro_19:16
Keepeth his own soul. Obedience to God’s commandments preserves a man’s natural and spiritual life (comp. Pro_13:13; Pro_16:17). So we read in Ecc_8:5, “Whoso keepeth the commandment (mitsvah, as here) shall feel no evil thing.” He that despiseth his ways shall die. He that cares nothing what he does, whether his life pleases God or not, shall perish. Ἀπολεῖται, Septuagint; mortificabitur, Vulgate. The result is understood differently. The Khetib reads, יוּמַת (iumath), “shall be punished with death” according to the penalties enacted in the Mosaic Law. The Keri reads, יָמוּת (iamuth), “shall die,” as in Pro_15:10; and this seems more in agreement with what we find elsewhere in the book, as in Pro_10:21; Pro_23:13. This insensate carelessness leads to ruin, whether its punishment be undertaken by outraged law. or whether it be left to the Divine retribution.
Pro_19:17
He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord. English Church people are familiar with this distich, as being one of the sentences of Scripture read at the Offertory. The word for “poor” is here dal, “feeble” (see on Pro_19:1 and Pro_19:4). It is a beautiful thought that by showing mercy and pity we are, as it were, making God our debtor; and the truth is wonderfully advanced by Christ, who pronounces (Mat_25:40), “Inasmuch as ye have done it mite one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (see on Pro_11:24; Pro_28:27). St. Chrysostom (’Horn.,’ 15, on 1Co_5:1-13), “To the more imperfect this is what we may say, Give of what you have unto the needy. Increase your substance. For, saith he, ’He that giveth unto the poor lendeth unto God.’ But if you are in a hurry, and wait not for the time of retribution, think of those who lend money to men; for not even these desire to get their interest immediately; but they are anxious that the principal should remain a good long while in the hands of the borrower, provided only the repayment be secure, and they have no mistrust of the borrower. Let this be done, then, in the present case also. Leave them with God, that he may pay thee thy wages manifold. Seek not to have the whole here; for if you recover it all here, how will you receive it back there? And it is on this account that God stores them up there, inasmuch as this present life is full of decay. But he gives even here also; for, ’Seek ye,’ saith he, ’the kingdom of heaven, and all these things shall be added unto you.’ Well, then, let us look towards that kingdom, and not be in a hurry for the repayment of the whole, lest we diminish our recompense. But let us wait for the fit season. For the interest in these cases is not of that kind, but is such as is meet to be given by God. This, then, having collected together in great abundance, so let us depart hence, that we may obtain beth the present and the future blessings” (Oxford transl.). That which he hath given will he pay him again; Vicissitudinem suam reddet ei, Vulgate, “According to his gift will he recompense him.” גִּמוּל (gemul), “good deed” (Pro_12:14, where it is rendered “recompense”). Ecclesiasticus 32:10 (35), etc; “Give unto the Most High according as he hath enriched thee; and as thou hast gotten give with a cheerful eye. For the Lord recompenseth, and will give thee seven times as much.” There are proverbs rife in other lands to the same effect. The Turk says, “What you give in charity in this world you take with you after death. Do good, and throw it into the sea if the fish does not know it, God does.” And the Russian, “Throw bread and salt behind you, you get them before you” (Lane).
Pro_19:18
Chasten thy son while there is hope; or. seeing that there is hope. Being still young and impressionable, and not confirmed in bad habits, he may be reformed by judicious chastisement. The same expression occurs in Job_11:18; Jer_31:16. “For so he shall be well hoped of” (εὔελπις), Septuagint (comp. Pro_23:13). And let not thy soul spare for his crying. “It is better,” says a German apothegm, “that the child weep than the father.” But the rendering of the Authorized Version is not well established, and this second clause is intended to inculcate moderation in punishment. Vulgate, Ad interfectionem autem ejus ne ponas animam tuam; Revised Version. Set not thine heart on his destruction. Chastise him duty and sufficiently, but not so heavily as to occasion his death, which a father had no right to do. The Law enjoined the parents who had an incorrigibly bad son to bring him before the judge or the eiders, who alone had the power of life and death, and might in certain cases order the offender to be stoned (Deu_21:18, etc.). Christianity recommended moderation in punishment (see Eph_6:4; Col_3:21). Septuagint, “Be not excited in the mind to despiteful treatment (εἰς ὕβριν);” i.e. be not led away by passion to unseemly acts or words, but reprove with gentleness, while you are firm and uncompromising in denouncing evil. This is much the same advice as that given by the apostle in the passages just cited.
Pro_19:19
Some connect this verse with the preceding, as though it signified, “If you are too severe in chastising your son, you will suffer for it.” But there is no connecting particle in the Hebrew, and the statement seems to be of a general nature. A man of great wrath; literally, rough in anger; Vulgate, impatiens; Septuagint, κακόφρων ἀνήρ. Such a one shall suffer punishment; shall bear the penalty which his want of self-control brings upon him. For if thou deliver him, yet must thou do it again. You cannot save him from the consequences of his intemperance; you may do so once and again, but while his disposition is unchanged, all your efforts will be useless, and the help which you have given him will only make him think that he may continue to indulge his anger with impunity, or, it may be, he will vent his impatience on his deliverer.
Βλάπτει τὸν ἄνδρα θυμὸς εἰς ὀργὴν πεσών
“Anger,” says an adage, “is like a ruin, which breaks itself upon what it falls.” Septuagint, “If he destroy (ἐὰν δὲ λοιμεύηται), he shall add even his life;” if by his anger he inflict loss or damage on his neighbour, he shall pay for it in his own person; Vulgate, Et cum rapuerit, aliud apponet. Another interpretation of the passage, but not so suitable, is this: “If thou seek to save the sufferer (e.g. by soothing the angry man), thou wilt only the more excite him (the wrathful): therefore do not intermeddle in quarrels of other persons.”
Pro_19:20
(Comp. Pro_8:10; Pro_12:15.) The Septuagint directs the maxim to children, “Hear, O son, the instruction of thy father.” That thou mayest be wise in thy latter end. Wisdom gathered and digested in youth is seen in the prudence and intelligence of manhood and old age. Job_8:7, “Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.” Ecclesiasticus 25:6, “O how comely is the wisdom of old men, and understanding and counsel to men of honour! Much experience is the crown of old men, and the fear of God is their glory.” “Wer nicht horen will,” say the Germans, “muss fuhlen,” “He that will not hear must feel.” Among Pythagoras’s golden words we read—
Βουλεύου δὲ πρὸ ἔργου ὅπως μὴ μῶρα τέληται.
“Before thou doest aught, deliberate,
Lest folly thee befall.”
Pro_19:21
The immutability of the counsel of God is contrasted with the shifting, fluctuating purposes of man (comp. Pro_16:1, Pro_16:9; Num_23:19; Mal_3:6). Aben Ezra connects this verse with the preceding, as though it gave the reason for the advice contained therein. But it is most natural to take the maxim in a general sense, as above Wis. 9:14, “The thoughts of mortal men are miserable, and our devices are but uncertain.” The counsel of the Lord, that shall stand; permanebit, Vulgate; εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα μενεῖ, “shall abide forever,” Septuagint (Psa_33:11).
Pro_19:22
The desire of a man is his kind. nose. The Revised Version rather paraphrases the clause, The desire of a man is the measure of his kindness; i.e. the wish and intention to do good is that which gives its real value to an act. The word for “kindness” is chesed, “mercy;” and, looking to the context, we see the meaning of the maxim to be that a poor man’s desire of aiding a distressed neighbour, even if he is unable to carry out his intention, is taken for the act of mercy. “The desire of a man” may signify a man’s desirableness, that which makes him to be desired or loved; this is found in his liberality. But the former explanation is most suitable. Septuagint, “Mercifulness is a gain unto a man,” which is like Pro_19:17; Vulgate, Homo indigens misericors est, taking a man’s desire as evidenceing his need and poverty, and introducing the idea that the experience of misery conduces to pity, as says Dido (Virgil, ’AEn.,’ 1.630)—
“Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco.”
A poor man is better than a liar. A poor man who gives to one in distress his sympathy and good wishes, even if he can afford no substantial aid, is better than a rich man who promises much and does nothing, or who falsely professes that he is unable to help (comp.
Pro_3:27, Pro_3:28). Septuagint, “A poor righteous man is better than a rich liar.” A Buddhist maxim says, “Like a beautiful flower, full of colours, but without scent, are the fine but fruitless words of him who does not act accordingly” (Max Muller).
Pro_19:23
The fear of the Lord tendeth to life (Pro_14:27). True religion, obedience to God’s commandments, was, under a temporal dispensation, rewarded by a long and happy life in this world, an adumbration of the blessedness that awaits the righteous in the world to come. And he that hath it shall abide satisfied. The subject passes from “the fear” to its possessor. Perhaps better, and satisfied he shall pass the night, which is the usual sense of לוּן (lun), the verb here translated “abide” (so Pro_15:31). God will satisfy the good man’s hunger, so that he lays him down in peace and takes his rest (comp. Pro_10:3). Vulgate, In plenitudine commorabitur, “He shall dwell in abundance.” He shall not be visited with evil, according to the, promises (Le Pro_26:6 : Deu_11:15, etc.). Under our present dispensation Christians expect not immunity from care and trouble, but have hope of protection and grace sufficient for the occasion, and conducive to edification and advance in holiness. The LXX. translates thus: “The fear of the Lord is unto life for a man; but he that is without fear (ὁ δὲ ἄφοβος) shall sojourn in places where knowledge is not seen;” i.e. shall go from bad to worse, till he ends in society where Divine knowledge is wholly absent, and lives without God in the world. The Greek interpreters read דּע (dea), “knowledge,” instead of רע (ra), “evil.”
Pro_19:24
A slothful man hideth him hand in his bosom; Revised Version, the sluggard burieth his hand in the disk. The word tsallachath, translated “bosom” here and in the parallel passage, Pro_26:15 (where see note), is rightly rendered “dish” (2Ki_21:13). At an Oriental meal the guests sit round a table, on which is placed a dish containing the food, from which every one helps himself with his fingers, knives, spoons, and forks being never used (comp. Rth_2:14; Mat_26:23). Sometimes the holt himself helps a guest whom ha wishes to honour (comp. Joh_13:26). And will not so much as bring it to him mouth again He finds it too great an exertion to feed himself, an hyperbolical way of denoting the gross laziness which recoils from the slightest labour, and will not take the least trouble to win its livelihood. An Arabic proverb says, “He dies of hunger under the date tree.” Septuagint, “He who unjustly hideth his hands in his bosom will not even apply them to his mouth;” i.e. he who will not work will never feed himself.
Pro_19:25
Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware; will learn prudence, Revised Verson (comp. Pro_21:11; and see note on Pro_1:22). The scorner is hardened to all reproof, and is beyond all hope of being reformed by punishment; in his case it is retribution for outraged virtue that is sought in the penalty which he is made to pay. Τιμωρία, not κόλασις—retributive, not corrective punishment. Seeing this, the simple, who is not yet confirmed in evil, and is still open to better influences, may be led to take warning and amend his life. So St. Paul enjoins Timothy, “Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear” (1Ti_5:20). There is the trite adage—
“Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum.”
“Happy they
Who from their neighbours’ perils caution learn.”
Septuagint, “When a pestilent fellow is chastised, a fool will be cleverer (πανουργότερος) So Vulgate, Pestilente flagellato stultus sapientior erit. Reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand, knowledge. The scorner does not profit by severe punishment, but the intelligent man is improved by censure, and admonition (comp. Pro_13:1; Pro_15:12). Says the adage, “Sapientem nutu, stultum fuste (corripe),” “A nod for the wise, a stick for the fool.”
Verses 19:26-22:16
Fourth section of this collection.
Pro_19:26
He that wasteth his father. The verb shadad, used here and in Pro_24:15, may be taken in the sense of “to spoil,” “to deprive of property;” but it is better to adopt a more general application, and to assign to it the meaning of “to maltreat,” whether in person or property. Chaseth away his mother; by his shameless and evil life makes it impossible for her to continue under the same roof with him; or, it may be, so dissipates his parents’ means that they are driven from their home. A son that causeth shame, and bringeth reproach (comp. Pro_10:5; Pro_13:5; Pro_17:2).
Pro_19:27
Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge. This version fairly represents the terse original, if musar, “instruction,” be taken in a bad sense, like the “profane and vain babblings and oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so called,” censured by St. Paul (1Ti_6:20). But as musar is used in a good sense throughout this book, it is better to regard the injunction as warning against listening to wise teaching with no intention of profiting by it: “Cease to hear instruction in order to err,” etc.; i.e. if you are only going to continue your evil doings. You will only increase your guilt by knowing tile way of righteousness perfectly, while you refuse to walk therein. The Vulgate inserts a negation, “Cease not to hear doctrine, and be not ignorant of the war, is of knowledge;” Septuagint, “A son who fails to keep the instruction of his father will meditate evil sayings.” Solomon’s son Rehoboam greatly needed the admonition contained in this verse.
Pro_19:28
An ungodly (worthless) witness scorneth judgment; derides the Law which denounces perjury and compels a witness to speak truth (Exo_20:16; Le Exo_5:1), and, as is implied he bears false testimony, thus proving himself “a witness of Belial,” according to the Hebrew term. Septuagint, “He who becometh security for a foolish child outrages judgment.” The mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity; swallows it eagerly as a toothsome morsel (Pro_18:8). So we have in Job_15:16,”A man that drinketh iniquity like water” (see on Pro_26:6). Such a man will lie and slander with the utmost pleasure, living and battening on wickedness. Septuagint, “The mouth of the impious drinketh judgments (κρίσεις),” i.e. boldly transgresses the Law.
Pro_19:29
Judgments are prepared for scorners (see on Pro_19:25). The judgments here are those inflicted by the providence of God, as in Pro_3:34. Scorners may deride and affect to scorn the judgments of God and man, but they are warned that retribution awaits them. And stripes for the back of fools; Vulgate, Et mallei percutientes stultorum corporibus (comp. Pro_10:13 : Pro_26:3). We had the word here rendered “stripes” (מַהַלוּמוֹת, mahalumoth) in Pro_18:6. The certainty of punishment in the case of transgressors is a truth often insisted on even by heathens. Examples will occur to all readers, from the old Greek oracle, Οὐδεὶς ἀνθρώπων ἀδικῶν τίσιν οὐκ ἀποτίσει, to Horace’s “Raro antecedentem scelestum,” etc. (See on Pro_20:30, where, however, the punishment is of human infliction.)
HOMILETICS
Pro_19:1
Poverty and integrity
I. IT IS POSSIBLE FOR POVERTY TO BE FOUND WITH INTEGRITY. We do not always see integrity leading to wealth. Circumstances may not open up an opportunity for attaining worldly prosperity. Illicit “short cuts” to riches may be within the reach of a person who refuses to use them on grounds of principle. A man may be honest and yet incapable, or he may refuse to pursue his own advantage, preferring to devote his energies to some higher end. No one has a right to suppose that God will interfere to heap up riches for him on account of his integrity. He may be upright, and yet it may phase God that he shall also be poor.
II. IT IS POSSIBLE FOR INTEGRITY TO BE FOUND WITH POVERTY. We now approach the subject from the opposite side. Here we first see the poverty, and we then find. that there is no reason why the character should be low because the outside circumstances are reduced. There is no more vulgar or false snobbishness than that which treats poverty as a vice, and assumes that a shady character must be expected with shabby clothes. We sometimes hear the expression, “Poor but honest,” as though there were any natural antithesis between the two adjectives! It would be quite as just to think of an antithesis between wealth and uprightness. But experience shows that no one section of society holds a monopoly of virtue.
III. WHEN INTEGRITY AND POVERTY ARE FOUND TOGETHER, THE ONE IS A CONSOLATION FOR THE OTHER. It may be said that a hungry man cannot feed upon his honesty. But when pressing wants are supplied, it is possible to endure a considerable amount; of hardship if a person is conscious of being upright and true. The sturdy independence of the honest man wilt lift him out of the shame of penury. If he feels that he is walking in the path of duty, he will have a source of strength and inward peace that no wealth can bestow. The gold of goodness is better than the guineas of hoarded wealth.
IV. INTEGRITY WITH ANY EXTERNAL DISADVANTAGES IS BETTER THAN CORRUPTION OF CHARACTER WITH ALL POSSIBLE WORLDLY PROFIT. Here is the point of the subject. It is not affirmed that poverty is good in itself—the natural instincts of man lead him, endeavour to escape from it as an evil It is not even asserted that it is right for upright men to be poor, for surely cue would desire that the power of wealth should be in the hands of those people who would use it most justly. But when we have to compare integrity joined to the disadvantages of poverty with an unworthy character in no matter what circumstances, the infinite superiority of metal to material worth should lead us to prefer the former. In higher regions, the Christian character is itself a source of blessedness, whatever be the condition of the outer life. Character and conduct are the essentials of life; all other things are but the accidents.
Pro_19:3
Fretting against the Lord
This is a condition of inward rebellion, or at best of grieving over the will of God instead of submitting to it in silence if it is not yet within our power to embrace it with affection. Consider this condition in its various relations.
I. IT IS POSSIBLE. It might be supposed that, however one fretted against his circumstances, he would not carry his complainings hack to God. But Moses told the Israelites that when they murmured against him they were really murmuring against God (Exo_16:8). If we resist God’s ordinances we resist God himself. He who fires on the meanest sentry is really making war on that sentry’s sovereign. We may not intend to act the proud part of Milton’s Satan, and wage war against Heaven. Overt blasphemy and rank rebellion may be far from our thoughts. Yet complaints of our lot and resistance to Providence have the same essential character. We may even try to confine our rebellious thoughts to our own breasts, and simply fret inwardly. But to God, who reads hearts and dwells within, this is real opposition.
II. IT SPRINGS FROM VARIOUS SOURCES.

1. Trouble. It is easy for Dives to talk of submission to Providence; the difficulty is with Lazarus. Job in prosperity offers glad sacrifices without constraint: will Job in adversity “curse God and die”?
2. self-will. We naturally desire to follow the way of our own choice, and when that is crossed by God’s will we are tempted to fret, as the stream frets itself against an obstruction, though it may have been flowing silently and placidly so long as it had a free course. It is just this crossing, of wills that is the test of obedience, which is easy so long as we are required only to follow the path of our own inclinations. But that cannot be always allowed.
3. Sin. Direct sinfulness resists God’s will of set purpose, just because it is his will. The evil heart will fret against God in all things.
   III. IT IS FOOLISH. “The foolishness of man” is at the root of this mistake.
4. We do not know what is best. It is but foolish for the fractious shim to fret against his father’s commands, for be is not yet able to judge as his father judges. All rebellion against God implies that the soul is in a position to determine questions that lie in the dark, and which only he who is resisted can answer.
5. We cannot succeed in rebellion. The poor heart that frets itself against God can but wear itself out, like the wave that breaks on the rock it can never shake. How foolish to raise our will in opposition to the Almighty!
   IV. IT IS CULPABLE. We must never forget that “foolishness” in the Bible stands for a defect that is more moral than intellectual. It is next door to perversity. This fretting of the heart against the Lord is foolish in the biblical sense; it is sinful.
6. He is our Master. It is our duty to obey him, whether we like it or not. When we resist ordinances of man we may be fighting for rights of liberty. But we have no liberty to claim against the Lord of all.
7. He is our Father. This murmuring against him is a sign of domestic ingratitude. Impatience under the rod is even sinful, for we know that it can only smite in love.
   V. IT IS DANGEROUS.
8. It means present unrest. There is peace of soul in submission; to rebel is to be plunged into turmoil and distress.
9. It leads to future ruin. The foolishness of man not only “perverteth his way,” but, as the phrase may be better rendered, “hurls his way headlong, to destruction.” It is like the avalanche that sweeps the mountain path, and carries all on it to an awful death.
   Pro_19:11
   Deferred anger
   I. DEFERRED ANGER IS SAVED FROM FATAL ERROR. “Anger,” says the familiar Latin proverb, “is a short madness.” While it lasts a man loses full control of himself. Then he utters strong, hot words without weighing the meaning of them or considering how they may strike their object. He is tempted to hit out wildly, and to do far more mischief than he would ever approve of in calmer moments. The words and deeds of anger are but momentary; yet their fatal effects are irrevocable. These effects endure and work harm long after the fierce flame of passion out of which they sprang has died down into grey ashes of remorse. Inasmuch as it is not possible to reason calmly when under a fit of anger, the only safe expedient is to hold back and wait for a more suitable occasion of speaking and acting.
   II. DEFERRED ANGER WILL MOST PROBABLY BURN ITSELF OUT. Anger is like
   “A full-hot horse, who, being allow’d his way,
   Self-mettle tires him.”
   (Shakespeare.)
   It is of the nature of anger to be more fierce than the occasion demands. Therefore it is to be expected that time for reflection will moderate it. Now, if it is modified by lime, its earlier excess is demonstrated, and it is made evident that delay saved us from disaster. For it is not simply the case that we tire of anger, that we have not energy enough to be perpetually angry, that well earned wrath expires of its own feebleness. The fact is we are all tempted to show needless auger against those who in any way injure us. Time may reveal unexpected excuses for their conduct, or lead us to see the better way of forgiveness. We do but need an opportunity to go into our chamber, and shut to the door, and pray to our Father in secret, to discover how wrong and foolish and dangerous our hasty wrath was, and to learn the wisdom of meekness and patience.
   III. DEFERRED ANGER MAY YET BE EXERCISED. There are circumstances under which we should do well to be angry; for, as Thomas Fuller says, “Anger is one of the sinews of the soul.” Christ was “moved with indignation” when his disciples forbad the mothers of Israel to bring their children to him (Mar_10:14), and he showed great anger against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. It is not right that we should witness cruel injustice and oppression with equanimity. It may reveal a culpable weakness, cowardice, or selfishness in us for sights of wrong doing not to move us to anger. But such anger as is earned and needed by justice can bear to be reflected on. Even with this justifiable wrath haste may lead to disaster. Thus the violent explosion of popular indignation that follows the discovery of some foul crime or some grievous wrong is in great danger of falling into fatal blunders; sometimes it makes a victim of an innocent person, simply for want of consideration. There is no excuse for “lynch law.” “The courts are open,” and calm investigation and orderly methods will not lessen the equity of the punishment they deliberately bring on an offender. Justice is not to behave like a ravenous beast raging for its prey. There is room for calmness and reflection in connection with those great waves of popular indignation that periodically sweep over the surface of society. When the anger has been wisely deferred, and yet has been ultimately justified, its outburst is the more terrible; it is the flowing out of wrath “treasured up against the day of wrath.” Dryden says—
   “Beware the fury of a patient man.”
   Pro_19:16
   Soul keeping
   The “Power that makes for righteousness,” though not impersonal, as Mr. Matthew Arnold assumed, is nevertheless active as by a constant law. It is so ordered in nature and providence that goodness preserves life, and badness tends to ruin and death. Let us endeavour to see how the process is worked out.
   I. THE GREAT RESULT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IS SOUL KEEPING.
10. It may not be wealth. We cannot assume that goodness tends to riches. Keeping the commandments does not always result in a man’s making his fortune. Christ was a poor man.
11. It may not be earthly happiness. Other things being , a clear conscience should bring peace and inward joy. But there are troubles that fall upon us independently of our conduct. There are distresses that come directly from doing right. Christ was a “Man of sorrows.”
12. It may not be long life on earth. No doubt this was expected in Old Testament times, for then but dim notions of any existence beyond the grave ever entered the minds of men. On the whole, no doubt, goodness tends to health of body and mind. Still, very good people may die young. Christ died at thirty-three years of age.
13. It will be the real preservation of the soul. The true life will be safe. The self will abide. Now, all our being really resides in our personal self. If this continues in safety, we have the highest personal security. But if not, all other gain is but a mockery; for “what is a man profited if he should gain the whole world, and lose his own soul—his life, himself?” (Mat_16:26).
    II. RIGHTEOUSNESS LEADS TO SOUL KEEPING BY NATURAL LAWS. It is a matter of Divine ordering that obedience should be followed by life, disobedience by death. This was seen in the trial of Adam (Gen_3:3). It lies at the root of the great sanctions of the Mosaic Law (Eze_3:18). He who gave the commandments also gives life. Our life is in the hand of oar Lawgiver. It is in his power to withhold the life if we break the law. But we may look more closely into this princess. God’s commandments are not arbitrary. They follow the natural lines of spiritual health. His prohibitions are really the warnings against the course that leads naturally and inevitably to death. Goodness is itself vitality, and badness has a deadening effect on the soul. The faculties are quickened by use in the service of what is right, and they are dwarfed, perverted, paralyzed, and finally killed by reckless, lawless conduct. The profligate is a suicide.
    III. CHRISTIANITY HELPS US TO TRUE SOUL KEEPING BY LEADING US TO RIGHTEOUSNESS. We find ourselves in the unhappy condition of those who have not kept the commandments. Therefore we are in danger of death. We have “despised our ways.” The law and the promise are not addressed to us as to new beings; but they meet us in our sin and on our road to ruin. Therefore, if there were no gospel, there would be no hope. Hence the need of a Saviour. But when we enter the realm of Christian truth we cannot turn our backs on the principles of the older economy. We cannot regard them as the laws of another planet, out of the reach of which we have escaped. They are eternal truths, and we are still within their range. Christ helps us, not by teaching us to despise moral considerations as though they were irrelevant to those who had entered into the covenant of grace, but by giving us his own righteousness to be
    in us as well as on us. He puts us in the way of obedience, while he cancels the consequences of the old disobedience. Thus he saves our souls by helping us to preserve them in a new fidelity to the ancient, eternal right.
    Pro_19:17
    Lending into the Lord
    I. IN WHAT LENDING TO THE LORD CONSISTS. It is having pity upon the poor. This is more than almsgiving. Doles of charity may be given to the needy from very mixed motives, Inasmuch as “the Lord looketh at the heart,” the thoughts and feelings that prompt our charity are of primary importance with him. In the same way, also, sympathy is prized by our suffering brethren on its own account, and the gifts that are flung from an unfeeling hand bring little comfort to the miserable. Therefore, both for God’s sake and for the sake of our suffering brethren, the first requirement is to cultivate a spirit of sympathy with the helpless. When this spirit is attainted, the application of practical remedies will require thought. It is easy to toss a sixpence to a beggar, but the inconsiderate act may work more harm than good. True sympathy will lead us to inquire into the unfortunate man’s circumstances, and to see whether there may not be some wiser way of helping him. This is one of the most pressing problems of our complicated condition of society. It is not so easy to be wisely helpful to the poor as it was in the simpler circumstances of ancient times. A true Christian sympathy must lead us to study the deep, dark problem of poverty. How can the lowest classes be permanently raised? How can they be really saved? How can we help people to help themselves?
    II. HOW THIS COMES TO BE LENDING TO THE LORD. In the olden times people thought to offer to God in material, visible sacrifices by slaying animals on the altar. Now money and service given to a Christian Church and to directly missionary agencies for spreading the kingdom of heaven, and so glorifying God, are regarded as devoted to God. Thus we are to see that we can serve him by ministering directly to the well being of our fellow men.
14. Men are God’s children. He who helps the child pleases the father.
15. God has pity on the suffering. Therefore for us to have pity is to be like God, and so to please him; it is to do his will, to do the thing he would have us do, and so to render him service.
16. This is within our reach. The difficulty is to see how we can do anything to help the Almighty, or give anything to enrich the Owner of all things. The cattle upon a thousand hills are his. But the poor we have always with us. Inasmuch as we do a kindness to one of the least of these, Christ’s brethren, we do it unto him (Mat_25:40). All real love to man is also love to God. The noblest liturgy is the ministry of human charity. “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (Jas_1:27).
    III. WHY THIS IS ONLY LENDING TO THE LORD. It is returned to the giver. Such a thought seems to lower the tone of the subject. To give, hoping for no return, is Christ’s method, and this lifts us to a higher level. Love asks for no payment. The pity that calculates its recompense is a false and selfish sentiment. Assuredly we must learn to love for love’s sake, and to pity because we are moved with compassion, irrespective of returns.
17. Yet the fact that there is a return remains. It may be well for selfish men who refrain from showing sympathy for the needy to reflect on this. Their selfishness is short-sighted.
18. The return is spiritual. We are not to look for our money back again. That would involve no real giving. The return is different in kind. It is of a higher character, and comes in peace of soul, in enlargement of affection, in the satisfaction of seeing good results flowing from our sympathy.
    Pro_19:18
    Timely chastisement
    I. CHASTISEMENT SHOULD BE TIMELY. “Prevention is better than cure.” It we wait till the weeds run to seed it is in vain for us to pull them up—they will have sown another and larger crop. The lion’s cub may be caught and caged; the full-grown beast is dangerous to approach, and out of our power. Consider some practical applications of these truths.
19. They show us the importance of early home training. The first seeds are sown at home. If an evil disposition reveals itself there, it should be checked before it develops into a fatal habit. Foolishly fond parents laugh at exhibitions of bad temper and other faults in very young children, amused at the quaintness and pitying the helplessness of these miniature sins. But surely a wiser course would be to nip the evil in the bud.
20. They enhance the value of Sunday school work. Five million children were under Sunday school teaching in England during the year 1888. The great mass of the population passes through this instruction. Surely more should be made of the golden opportunity thus afforded of giving a right course to the lives of the people. Most working men will not go to church. But they will permit their children to attend Sunday school. We have the working classes with us in their childhood.
21. They point to an enlargement of the agency of industrial schools. Already juvenile crime has been reduced by one-half—this is one of the most cheering signs of the times. But still there are multitudes of children who breathe an atmosphere of crime from their cradles. There is no more Christian work than the effort to save these victims of the vices of their parents. The juvenile offender should be an object of peculiar solicitude to one who has the well being of society at heart.
    II. CHASTISEMENT SHOULD BE HOPEFUL. There is hope for all in their youth. We may not be able to recover the degraded, besotted wrecks of humanity in their more advanced years. But the children are amenable to saving influences, and the treatment of them should be inspired with a belief that they may be trained. Directly any parent or teacher despairs of a child he proves himself no longer competent to have the charge of him. Reading the second clause of the verse in the language of the Revisers, we are warned against vindictive chastisement: “And set not thy heart on his destruction.” The old notion of punishment was purely retributive; the newer notion of it is more disciplinary. We want fewer prisons and more reformatories. But for encouragement in such efforts we must have grounds of hope. Observe some of these.
22. The elasticity of youth. The young are capable of great changes and of large development.
23. The Divine direction. The providence of God overruling our attempts at correction is needed to bring them to a successful issue. But we have a right to look for this end, for God desires the salvation and recovery of his children.
24. The power of love. We can never correct to good purpose unless we do so from motives of love. When these motives are felt they cannot but make themselves effective in the end. Thou, though the chastisement may have been resented at first, the good purpose that instigated it will be ultimately recognized, and may rouse the better nature of the wrong doer,
    HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
    Pro_19:1-7
    The lowly and gentle life
    He who is truly humble before his God will be sweet, kind, and peaceable in his relations to men.
    I. THE ATTRIBUTES OF THIS LIFE. (Pro_19:1-3.)
25. It is the life of innocence, in the seeking to have a conscience “void of offence toward God and toward men.” This makes poverty rich and privation blessed, for the kingdom of heaven is for such. The consciousness of being dear to God is the true wealth of the soul; the sense of being alienated from him darkens and distresses even amidst wealth and luxury. In addition to this, let us recollect the paradox of the apostle, “Poor, yet making many rich.” It is such lives that have indeed enriched the world.
26. It is the life of thoughtfulness.
27. It is the life of content.
    II. ITS TRIALS AND CONSOLATIONS.
28. It often incurs the coldness of the world (Pro_19:4). A man who goes down in the scale of wealth finds, in the same degree, the circle of ordinary acquaintances shrink.
29. But there is consolation—a sweetness even in the heart of this bitter experience, for the soul is thrown the more entirely upon God. When friends, when even father and mother forsake, the Lord takes up. Deus meus et omnia! We are naturally prone to rely more upon man than upon God; and have to rewrite upon our memories the old biblical maxim, “Put not your trust in man.” Poverty may separate us from so called friends, but “who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
    III. THE REPULSIVE CONTRAST TO THIS LIFE. A victim of vice and moral poverty amidst outward wealth.
30. Folly and untruth. (Pro_19:1.) The words and the thoughts are interchangeable. The godless, selfish rich man’s life is a living lie. The outward parts of Dives and Lazarus are in the sight of Heaven reversed.
31. Thoughtless rashness. (Pro_19:2.) The “making haste to be rich,” so strong a passion of our day, may be chiefly thought of. But any excessive eagerness of ambitious desire, or sensual pleasure which blinds the soul to thought, and indisposes for serious reflection, comes under this head. But the unreflective life is neither safe nor happy. It is to such thoughtless ones the solemn warning comes, “Thou fool! thy soul shall be required of thee.”
32. Murmuring discontent. (Pro_19:3.) The source of the vicious kind of discontent is a conscience at war with itself, and perversely mistaking the true nature of the satisfaction it needs. The “Divine discontent” which springs from the sense of our inward poverty carries in it the seed of its own satisfaction. It is the blessed hunger and thirst which shall be fed.
33. False social relations. (Pro_19:4.) Of the friends made by riches it is true that “riches harm them, not the man” (Bishop Hall). And the great man lives amidst illusions; and, in moments of insight, doubts whether among the obsequious crowd there be a heart he can claim as his own. In such an atmosphere, false witness and lies, in all their forms of scandal, slander, destruction, spring up (
    Pro_19:5). It is a hollow life, and the fires of judgment murmur beneath it. Yet the fulsome flattery which rises like a cloud of incense before the rich man, and the throng of easily bought “friends,” still hide from him the true state of the case. Well may Divine Wisdom warn of the difficulty which attends the rich man’s entrance into the kingdom. Here there are great lessons on compensation. God hath set the one thing over against the other, to the end that we should seek nothing after him (Ecc_7:14). The gentle and humble poor may convert their poverty into the fine gold of the spirit; while the rich man too dearly buys “position” at the expense of the soul.—J.
    Pro_19:8-17
    Maxims of intelligence
    I. THE WORTH OF INTELLIGENCE.
34. It is self-conservative (Pro_19:8). We all love our own soul or life in any healthy state of body and mind. We all want to live as long as possible. It is natural to desire to live again beyond the grave. Then let us understand that there is no way to these ends except that of intelligence, in the highest and in every sense.
35. It is the source of happiness. (Pro_19:8.) The truth is very general and abstract, like the truth of the whole of these proverbs. It does not amount to this—that good sense will in every case procure happiness, but that there is no true happiness without it.
    II. SOME MAXIMS OF INTELLIGENCE.
36. The sorrow that falsehood brings. (Pro_19:9.) It is certain. Many a lie is not immediately found out in the ordinary sense of these words; but it is always found in the man’s mind. It vitiates the intelligence, undermines the moral strength. The rest must follow in its time—somewhere, somehow.
37. Vanity stands in its own light. (Pro_19:10.) Those who have given way to over weening self-esteem and arrogance of temper—like Rehoboam, or like Alexander the Great, or Napoleon—become only the more conceited and presumptuous in success. The opposite of vanity is not grovelling self-disparagement, but the sense which teaches us to know our place.
38. The prudence of toleration and of conciliation. (Pro_19:11, Pro_19:12.) Socrates was a noble example of these virtues in the heathen world. We who have “learned Christ” should not at least fall behind him. To bear our wrongs with patience is the lower degree of this virtue. Positively to “overcome evil with good” stands higher. Highest of all is the Divine art to turn persecutors into friends (1Pe_2:19; Mat_5:44, sqq.).
39. The arcana of domestic life. (Pro_19:13, Pro_19:14.)
    (1) The foolish son. “Many are the miseries of a man’s life, but none like that which cometh from him who should be the stay of his life.” “Write this man childless” would have been a boon in comparison.
    (2) The tiresome spouse. Wearing the heart that is firm as stone by her continual contentions.
    (3) The kind and good wife. No gift so clearly shows the tender providence of God.
40. The inevitable fate of idleness. (Pro_19:15.)
    (1) It produces a lethargy in the soul. (Pro_6:9, Pro_6:10.) The faculties that are not used become benumbed and effete.
    (2) Thus it leads to want. Although these are general maxims of a highly abstract character, still how true on the whole—if not without exception—they are to life! “He that will not work, neither let him eat.”
41. The wisdom of attention to God’s commands. (Pro_19:16.)
    (1) To every man his soul is dear; i.e. his life is sweet.
    (2) The great secret, in the lower sense of self-preservation, in the higher of salvation, is obedience to law.
    (3) Inattention is the chief source of calamity. In the lower relation it is so. The careless crossing of the road, the unsteady foot on the mountain-side seems to be punished instantly and terribly. And this is the type of the truth in higher aspects.
42. The reward of pity and benevolence. (Pro_19:17.) Sir Thomas More used to say there was more rhetoric in this sentence than in a whole library. God looks upon the poor as his own, and satisfies the debts they cannot pay. In spending upon the poor the good man serves God in his designs with reference to men.—J.
    Pro_19:18-21
    The true prudence
    I. IN THE PARENTAL RELATION. (Pro_19:18.)
43. The necessity of discipline. The exuberance of youth needs the hand of the pruner; the wildness of the colt must be early tamed, or never. Weak indulgence is the worst unkindness to children.
44. The unwisdom of excessive severity. Cruelty is not discipline; too great sharpness is as bed as the other extreme. Children are thus made base, induced to take up with bad company, and to surfeit and run to excess when they become their own masters.
    II. IS THE RELATION OF SELF-GOVERNMENT.
45. The folly and injuriousness of passion. (Pro_19:19.) Not only in the harmful deeds and words it may produce towards others, but in the havoc it produces in one’s own bosom. How fine the saying of Plato to his slave, “I would beat thee, but that I am angry”! “Learn of him who is meek and lowly of heart.”
46. The wisdom of a teachable spirit. (Pro_19:20.) Never to be above listening to proffered advice from others, and to find in every humiliation and every failure an admonition from the Father of spirits,—this is life wisdom. And thus a store is being laid up against the time to come, that we may lay hold on eternal life.
    III. PRUDENCE BUT A FINITE WISDOM. (Pro_19:21.) God is our best Counsellor; without him our prudence avails not, and along with all prudence there must be the recognition of his overruling, all-controlling wisdom. To begin with God is the true secret of success in every enterprise. May he prevent, or go before, us in all our doings!—J.
    Pro_19:22-29
    Mixed maxims of life-wisdom
    I. HUMAN KINDNESS. (Pro_19:22.) There is no purer delight than in the feelings of love and the practical exercise of universal kindness. If the mere pleasure of the selfish and the benevolent life be the criterion, without question the latter has the advantage.
    II. TRUTHFULNESS. (Pro_19:22, Pro_19:28.) So the honest poor outweighs the rich or successful liar in intrinsic happiness as well as in repute. The worthless witness is pest to society, an abomination to God.
    III. PIETY. (Pro_19:23.) It is a living principle in every sense of the word—hath the promise of life in both worlds. It provides for the soul satisfaction, rest, the consciousness of present and eternal security.
    IV. IDLENESS. (Pro_19:24.) Exposed by a vivid picture of the idle man’s attitude. It reminds one of the saying concerning a certain distinguished writer’s idleness, that were he walking through an orchard where the fruit brushed against his mouth, he would be too idle to open it to bite a morsel. No moral good can be ours without seeking.
    V. SCOFFING FOLLY CONTRASTED WITH SIMPLICITY AND SENSE. (Pro_19:25, Pro_19:29.) He that places himself above instruction ends by bringing himself beneath contempt. Scorn for good has, like every sin, its own determined punishment. And “God strikes some that he may warn all.”
    VI. FILIAL IMPIETY. (Pro_19:26, Pro_19:27.) The shame and sorrow that it brings to parents is constantly insisted on as a lesson and a warning to the latter. If these bitter experiences are to be avoided, let children be timely trained to obedience, respect, and reverence for God. God’s Word is the true rule and guide of life, and he who departs from it is a corrupt and seductive teacher.—J.
    HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
    Pro_19:2
    The evil of ignorance
    Manifold are the evils of ignorance. All evil of all kinds has been resolved into error; but, if we do not go so far as this, we may truly say—
    I. THAT IGNORANCE OF GOD IS FATAL. “This is life eternal, to know God;” and if the knowledge of God is life, what must the ignorance of him be? History and observation only too fully assure us what it is: it is spiritual and moral death; the departure of the soul from all that enlightens and elevates, and its sinking down into grovelling and debasing superstitions. To be without the knowledge of God is simply fatal to the soul of man.
    II. THAT IGNORANCE OF OUR HUMAN NATURE IS PERILOUS.
47. Not to know its nobler possibilities is to be without the needful incentive to lofty aspiration and strenuous endeavour.
48. Not to know its weaknesses and its possibilities of evil is to go forward into the midst of bristling dangers, unarmed and undefended.
    III. THAT IGNORANCE OF THE WORLD (OF MEN AND THINGS) IS HIGHLY UNDESIRABLE.
49. To study, and thus to be acquainted with nature as God has fashioned it, to be familiar with the ways and with the arts and sciences of man,—is to be braced and strengthened in mind, is to be far better able to understand and to apply the truth of God as revealed in his Word.
50. To be ignorant of all this is to be correspondingly weak and incapable. Knowledge is power, and ignorance is weakness, in every direction. To go on our way through the world, failing to acquire the grasp of fact and truth which intelligent observation and patient study would secure,—this is to leave untouched one large part of the heritage which our heavenly Father is offering to us. There is one particular consequence of ignorance which the wise man specifies; for he reminds us—
    IV. THAT PRECIPITANCY IN WORD AND DEED IS POSITIVELY GUILTY. “He that hasteth with his feet sinneth.” An unwise and hurtful precipitancy is the natural accompaniment of ignorance. The man who knows only a very little, does not know when he has heard only one-half of all that can be learnt; hence he decides and speaks and acts off hand, without waiting for additional, complementary, or qualifying particulars. And hence he judges falsely and unjustly; hence he act, s unrighteously and foolishly, and often cruelly; he takes steps which he has laboriously and ignominiously to retrace; he does harm to the very cause which he is most anxious to help. It is the man of wide knowledge and expanded view, it is the large-minded and well informed soul, that bears the best testimony, that does the worthiest and most enduring work, that lives the largest and most enviable life.—C.
    Pro_19:3
    Disquietude and complaint
    We have—
    I. GOD’S RIGHTEOUS WAY. The way in which God intended man to walk was that way of wisdom, all of whose paths are peace. This divinely appointed way is that of holy service. Man, like every other being above him, and every other creature below him in the universe, was created to serve. We were created to serve our God and out kind; and in this double service we should find our rest and our heritage. This, which is God’s way, should have been our way also.
    II. MAN’S PERVERTED WAY. Man, in his sin and his folly, has “perverted his way;” he has attempted another path, a short cut to happiness and success. He has turned out of the high road of holy service into the by-path of selfishness; he has sought his satisfaction and his portion in following his own will, in giving himself up to worldly ambitions, in indulging in unholy pleasure, in living for mere enjoyment, in making himself the master, and his own good the end and aim of his life.
    III. HIS CONSEQUENT DISQUIETUDE. When anything is in its wrong place, there is certain to be unrest. If in the mechanism of the human body, or in the machinery of an engine, or in the working of some organization, anything (or anyone) is misplaced, disorder and disquietude invariably ensue. And when man puts his will above or against that of his Divine Creator, that of his heavenly Father, there is a displacement and reversal such as may well bring about disturbance. And it does. It is hardly saying too much to say that all the violence, disease, strife, misery, poverty, death, we see around us arise from this disastrous perversion—from man trying to turn God’s way of blessedness into his own way. Man’s method has been utterly wrong and mistaken, and the penalty of his folly is heartache, wretchedness, ruin.
    IV. HIS VAIN AND GUILTY COMPLAINT. He “fretteth against the Lord.” Instead of smiting himself, he complains of God. He falls to see that the source of his unrest is in his own heart; he ascribes it to his circumstances, and he imputes these to his Creator. So, either secretly or openly, he complains of God; he thinks, and perhaps says, that God has dealt hardly with him, has denied to him what he has given to others; in the dark depths of his soul is a guilty rebelliousness.
    V. THE ONE WAY OF REST. This is to return unto the Lord in free and full submission.
51. To recognize God’s righteous claim upon us, as our Creator, Preserver, Redeemer.
52. To acknowledge to ourselves and to confess to him that we have guiltily withheld ourselves from him, and sinfully complained of his holy will.
53. To ask his mercy in Jesus Christ our Saviour, and offer our hearts to himself and our lives to his service. This is the one way of rest and joy; it is “the path of life.”—C.
    Pro_19:8, Pro_19:16
    Making the most of ourself and our life
    How shall we most truly “love our own soul” but by making all we can make of the nature and the life God has entrusted to our care! And how shall we do this? Surely by “getting wisdom” and “keeping understanding.” To look at the subject negatively and, beginning at the bottom, to take an upward path, we remark—
    I. THAT CONTEMPTUOUS CARELESSNESS MEANS CERTAIN RUIN. “He that despiseth his ways shall die.” The man who never pauses to consider what he can accomplish, how he shall spend his days and his powers, but who goes aimlessly onward, letting youth and manhood pass without any serious thought at all, and content to snatch the enjoyment of the passing hour,—is a man of folly, and he can expect nothing, as he certainly will find nothing, hut the most meagre portion and a very speedy end of everything. He sows to the flesh, and of the flesh he reaps corruption. To “despise our way” in this fashion is to forfeit our inheritance and come to utter destitution. Moving higher up, but still failing to reach the right standard, we remark—
    II. THAT ANY COUNSEL WHICH IS NOT OF GOD WILL PROVE DISAPPOINTING. There is much cleverness and keenness that is not wisdom; there is much concern about ourself and our future which is not a true “love for our own soul.” There are many counsellors who will advise us to seek certain pleasures, or to aim at certain honours, or to climb to a certain position, or to seek entrance into some particular society, or to secure a certain treasure,—and it will be well with us. But any counsel which fall, short of telling us the will of God, which leaves untold the wisdom which is from above, will certainly prove to be unsound. A point will come in our experience where it will break down. It will not meet the deeper necessities of our nature nor the darker passages of our life. We must take higher ground—that on which we see—
    III. THAT DIVINE WISDOM WILL LEAD US TO TRUE AND LASTING BLESSEDNESS. “The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding” (Job_28:28; see Pro_1:7; Pro_9:10). And surely:
54. To know God is, in itself, a real and a great blessing (Jer_9:24). To know God as he is revealed in Jesus Christ is to be enriched in the most precious and valuable knowledge; it is “to be wiser than the ancients;” it is to have that in our mind which is of more intrinsic worth than all that men can put into their pockets.
55. To know God in Jesus Christ is to have rest of heart (Mat_11:28, Mat_11:29). Those who love themselves will surely care for spiritual rest—for a peace which no favouring circumstances can confer.
56. To learn of Christ and keep his commandments is to be preserved in moral and spiritual integrity; he that “keepeth the commandments” by consulting the will of Christ will certainly “keep his own soul” from all that stains and slays a human spirit and a human life—from impurity, insobriety, untruthfulness, dishonesty, profanity, selfishness; he will “keep his soul” in the love of God, in the light of his countenance, under his guardian care. To remain loyal to the wisdom of God (to “keep understanding”) is to find every good that is open to us. It is to move along that path which is evermore ascending; which conducts to the loftier heights of moral excellency, of exalted spiritual joy, of holy and noble service; which leads to the very gates of heaven and the near presence of God.—C.
    Pro_19:17
    (see also Pro_10:14, Pro_10:31; Pro_17:5)
    Valuable kindness
    We gather—
    I. THAT HAUGHTY UNKINDNESS IS A HEINOUS SIN. To mock the poor or to oppress the poor is to reproach our Maker. For he that made us made them; and, in many instances, made them to be as they are. The Son of man himself was poor, having nowhere to lay his head; and although it is true that poverty is very often the consequence and penalty of sin, yet, on the other hand, it is often
    (1) the accompaniment of virtue and piety; and
    (2) frequently it has been the penalty of faithfulness to conviction, and therefore the sign of peculiar worth.
    To treat with disdain a condition which God himself has associated with piety and even with nobility of character is to mock our Maker. And to oppress such is to he guilty of a flagrant sin; it is to take advantage of weakness in order to do a neighbour wrong; this is to add meanness to cruelty and injustice. It is, moreover, to do that which our Lord has told us he will consider to be directed against himself (Mat_25:42, Mat_25:43).
    II. THAT PRACTICAL PITIFULNESS IS A MUCH REWARDED VIRTUE,
57. It is accepted by our Divine Lord as a service rendered to himself (text; Mat_25:35, Mat_25:36). How gladly would we minister to Jesus Christ were we to recognize in some weary and troubled neighbour none other than the Redeemer himself clothed in human form again! But we need not long for such an opportunity; nor need we wait for it. It is ours. We have but to show practical kindness to “one of the least” of his brethren, and we show it unto him, the Lord himself (Mat_25:40). And what we do shall be rendered unto us again; i.e. we shall receive in return from our Father that which will fully compensate us. Our reward will include not only this gracious acceptance, but:
58. We shall earn the gratitude of thankful hearts; and if (as is likely enough) we go sometimes unblessed of man, yet at other times we shall not want the cordial, loving, prayerful gratitude of a human heart; and what better treasure could we hold than that?
59. God will bless us in our own hearts forevery kindness we render. He has so made our spirits that they are affected for good or evil by everything we do. Each thought, each deed, leaves us other than we were; stronger, wiser, worthier, or else weaker, less wise, less excellent, than before. Our character is the final result of everything that we have ever done, both in mind and in the flesh. So that each gracious word we speak, each kindly service we render to any one in need, is one more stroke of the chisel which is carving a beautiful character, fair in the sight of God himself.
60. We gain the present favour of our Divine Lord, and may look for his strong succour in our own time of need.
61. We shall receive his word of honour in the day “when every man shall have praise of God” (1Co_4:5).—C.
    Pro_19:18
    (See homily on Pro_13:24.)—C.
    Pro_19:20
    Ready at the end
    The wise man always shows his wisdom by looking well before him. It is the sure mark of a fool to content himself with the immediate present. We do not wonder that proverbs should deal much with the future. “Passion and Patience” is the picture which is always being exhibited before the eyes of men.
    I. THE NEED OF READINESS AT THE END. “How shall we enjoy the present time?” asks one; “How shall we make ready for the end?” asks another and a wiser soul. The question presents itself to the youth, as he looks forward to the end of the term and the coming of the examination or the writing of the report; to the young man—the apprentice, the articled clerk, the student—as he considers how he shall go through his trial hour and be prepared for his business or profession; to the man in middle life, as he foresees the time coming when he can no longer do as he is doing now, and must have something to fall back upon in his declining days; to the
    man in later life, as he is compelled to feel that his powers are fast failing, and that the hour is not distant when he will stand on the very verge of life and confront the long and solemn future. It should also be present in the mind of those who are soon to go forth into the sterner conflict of life, to meet alone, away from home influences, the serious and strong temptations of an evil world. Whatever the stage through which we are now passing, it moves towards its close—an end which is sure to open out into something beyond, and, most likely, something more important, weighted with graver responsibilities and leading to larger issues. Are we so living, the wise will ask, that we shall be ready for that end when it comes?
    II. THE CONSEQUENT NEED TO LEARN OF GOD. “Hear counsel,” etc.
62. There is much need to learn of men—from our parents, from our teachers, from every form of instructive literature, from all that the experiences of men, as we watch their life, are saying to us. Whoso would be wise at the end of his career should have an open mind that everyone and everything may teach him. Lessons are to be learnt from every event, however simple and humble it may be. The wide world is the school which the wise will never “leave.”
63. There is much more need to learn of God, to learn of Christ. For:
    (1) He can speak authoritatively, as man cannot.
    (2) He gives us wisdom unmingled with error, as man does not.
    (3) He can tell us how to find his Divine favour and how to reach his nearer presence, as no man can.
    Let us learn of Christ and be wise.—C.
    Pro_19:21
    The mind of man and the mind of God
    Here is a contrast which we do well to consider. Between our human spiritual nature and that of the Divine Spirit it is possible to find resemblances and contrasts. Both are interesting and instructive.
    I. THE THOUGHTS OF MAN’S MIND. We know how fugitive these are; how they come and go like the flash of the lightning; and even those which linger are but short-lived, they soon give place to others. Even those thoughts which become “fixed,” which settle down into plans and purposes, have but a brief tenure in our brain; they, too, pass away and make room for others in their turn. Our thoughts are:
64. Fluctuating and therefore many. We care for one pleasure, we pursue one object now; but in a few weeks, or even days, we may weary of the one, we may be compelled to turn our attention from the other.
65. Feeble and therefore many. We propose and adopt one method, but it fails; and then we try another, and that fails; then we resort to a third, which also fails. We pass from thought to thought, from plan to plan; our very feebleness accounting for the manifoldness of our devices.
66. False and therefore many. We hold certain theories today; tomorrow they will be exploded, and we shall entertain another; before long that will yield to a third.
67. Sinful and therefore many. Nothing that is wrong can last; it must be dethroned, because it is evil, immoral, guilty.
68. Selfish and therefore many. We are concerning ourselves supremely about our own affairs or those of our family; but these are passing interests, changing with the flitting hours.
    II. THE THOUGHTS WHICH ARE IN THE MIND OF GOD. His counsel stands (text). “The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations” (Psa_33:11). God’s purpose holds from age to age. For:
69. He rules in righteousness. He is governing the world by Divine and unchanging principles. “With him is no variableness,” because he ever loves what is righteous and hates what is unholy and impure and unkind. He cannot change his course, because he cannot change his character.
70. He is working out one great beneficent conclusion. He is redeeming a lost world, reconciling it unto himself, uprooting the multiform sources of wrong and wretchedness, establishing the blessed kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of heaven on the earth.
71. He has ample time and power at his command; he has no need to change his plan, to resort to “devices.”
    “His eternal thought moves on
    His undisturbed affairs;”
    and is working out a glorious consummation which nothing shall avail to avert.
72. His perfect wisdom makes quite unnecessary the adoption of any other course than that which he is employing.
    (1) Steadfastness is one sign of wisdom. If we see a man or a Church perpetually changing its methods, we may be sure that it is weak.
    (2) Let us make God’s great and holy purpose ours;
    (a) for it is that with which our eternal interest is bound up;
    (b) it is certain to be victorious.
73. Let us work on for our Lord and with him, in the calmness that becomes those who are confident of ultimate success.—C.
    Pro_19:23
    The praise of piety
    What could he said more than is said here in praise of piety? What more or better could anything do for us than—
    I. ENSURE OUR SAFETY. So that we shall not be visited with evil. But is not the good man visited with evil? Do not his crops fail, his vessels sink, his shares fall, his difficulties gather, his children die? Does not his health decline, his hope depart, his life lessen? Yes; but:
74. From the worst evils his piety secures him. The “fear of the Lord,” that Holy One before whom he stands and with whom he walks, keeps him from folly, from fraud, from vice, from moral contamination, from that “death in life” which is the thing to be dreaded and avoided.
75. And the troubles and sorrows which do assail him lose all their bitterness as they wear the aspect of a heavenly Father’s discipline, who, in all that he sends or suffers, is seeking the truest and the lasting well being of his children. The man who is living in the fear of God, and in the love of Jesus Christ, may go on his homeward way with no anxiety in his heart, for he has the promise of his Saviour that all things shall work together for good—those things that are the least pleasant as well as those that are the most inviting.
    II. SATISFY OUR SOUL. “Shall abide satisfied.” Certainly it is only the man of real piety of whom this word can be used. Discontent is the mark which “the world and the things which are in the world” leave on the countenance and write on the heart of man. Nothing that is less than the Divine gives rest to the human spirit. Mirth, enjoyment, temporary happiness, may be commanded, but not abiding satisfaction. That, however, is found in the devoted service of a Divine Redeemer. Let a man yield himself, his whole powers and all his life, to the Saviour who 1oved him unto death, and in following and serving him he will “find rest unto his soul.” Not half-hearted but whole-hearted service brings the joy which no accident can remove and which time does not efface or even lessen. The secret of lifelong blessedness is found, not in the assertion of an impossible freedom from obligation, but in an open, practicable, elevating service of the living God, our Divine Saviour.
    III. CONSTITUTE OUR LIFE AND CONDUCT TO A STILL HIGHER FORM OF IT. “The fear of the Lord tendeth to life.” It is not merely that a regard for God’s will conduces to health and leads to long life (Psa_91:16); it is not only that it tends to secure to its possessor an honourable and estimable life among men. It is much more than this; it is that it constitutes human life. “This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God.” For man to live in ignorance or in forgetfulness of his Divine Father is to miss or to lose his life while he has it (or seems to have it). On the other hand, to live a life of reverence, of trustfulness in God, of love to him, of filial obedience and submission, of cheerful and devoted cooperation with him in the great redemptive work he is outworking, to be attaining more and more to his own spiritual likeness,—this is life itself, life in its excellency, its fulness, its beauty. Moreover, it itself, with all its worth, is but the prelude of that which is to come. It is the “fair beginning” of that which shall realize a glorious consummation a little further on. With all that hinders and hampers taken away, and with all that facilitates and enlarges bestowed upon us, we enter upon the nobler life beyond, which we have no language to describe because we have no faculty that can conceive its blessedness or its glory.
76. Let the perils of human life point to a Divine Refuge.
77. Let the weariness of earthly good lend to the Divine Source of rest and joy.
78. In the midst of the deathfulness of sin, lay hold on eternal life.—C.

Proverbs 19:2
The evils of ignorance compared with the evils of blindness.
I. To be blind is, first, to be destitute of the pleasure of the enjoyment of light, and to be afflicted with the pain of darkness. What sunlight and the want of it are to the body, such are knowledge and the want of it to the mind.
II. Just as the blind man is insensible to the beauties of colour and form, and has no share in the pleasures which others derive from the sight of the rainbow, for instance, or the starry firmament, or the flowery meadow, or the smiling infant; so is the ignorant man insensible to the beauties of knowledge, and has no share in that refined pleasure which the man of science and cultivated taste enjoys.
III. A blind man can be but partially employed in business; he is liable to be imposed on; he lives in a state of almost continual apprehension, imagining danger at every sound; and when his alarm is just, he knows not how to escape; though he be put in the right way, he stumbles on the stones, or falls into the ditch, or over the precipice, and is destroyed. An ignorant man is in danger of all this and much more.
IV. Blindness disqualifies a man for giving counsel and direction to others. “If the blind lead the blind, they will both fall into the ditch.” So correctly graphic are these words, when applied metaphorically, that it was in relation to the evils of ignorance they were originally used by our Lord. Especially let the pious man reflect how ignorance disqualifies him for pleading the cause of God; let the patriot reflect how it disqualifies him for benefiting his country; let the philanthropist reflect how it disqualifies him for advancing the interests of humanity.
V. The counsel of all wisdom is that we first acquire for ourselves, and that, professing to be benevolent men, we communicate to others that knowledge which is necessary for our own and their well-being for eternity; which will enable us and them to lay up treasure for the heavenly kingdom; that knowledge of God, His Son, that science of salvation, without which all other scholarship and all other science are the emptiest vanity.
W. Anderson, Discourses, p. 280.
References: Pro_19:2.—J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. i., p. 1. Pro_19:3.—W. Jay, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 85. Pro_19:4-15.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. ii., p. 228. Pro_19:11-19.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 142.

Proverbs 19:21
The text plainly implies a great disconformity—a want of coalescence between the designs of man and God; an estranged spirit of design on the part of man. And the case actually is so in the world. Many of the designs in men’s hearts are formed independently of God; many in contrariety to Him.
I. Independently of Him. In what proportion of men’s internal devisings may we conjecture that there is any real acknowledgment of God? One in ten? One in twenty? In beginning to entertain the design, there is no question made, Will this be approved by Him? The whole devising and prosecution are in a spirit just as if there were no such thing as providence to aid or defeat.
II. But even this is not the worst: man’s heart entertains many devices in contrariety to God. It can cherish “devices” which must sometimes involve a rebellious emotion of displeasure, almost resentment, that there is a Sovereign Lord, whose counsel shall stand.
III. In adverting to these devices we may observe that the counsel of the Lord is sometimes not to prevent the design taking effect in the first instance. He shows that He can let men bring their iniquitous purposes into effect, and then seize that very effect,—reverse its principle of agency and make it produce immense unintended good.
IV. How important is it, that all the designs of the heart should, in principle, be conformed to the spirit of God’s unalterable counsel; that in all our projects we should be conscientiously and solicitously aiming at a general conformity to His will.
J. Foster, Lectures, 2nd series, p. 300.
References: Pro_19:21-29.—R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. ii., p. 254. Pro_19:22.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 147. Pro_20:1.—Ibid., p. 152; R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs, vol. ii., p. 268. Pro_20:4.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 164; T. Champness, Little Foxes, p. 60; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. 1., p. 224. Pro_20:5, Pro_20:6.—W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven, 2nd series, p. 170.

Proverbs 19:1
Rich, is not in Hebrew, Septuagint, Complutensian, or St. Jerome. (Calmet) — But as there is not antithesis between a poor man and a fool, it ought to be inserted, as it is in the Syriac, which reads, “than he who is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.” The Manuscript 2 confirms “ways.” (Kennicott)

Proverbs 19:2
Soul. Wholesome and spiritual. Hebrew, “the soul or life is not good.” — Stumble. “The more I make haste, the less I advance,” said Plato; (Republic 7.) and Augustus often repeated; Sat cito, si sat bene. (Suetonius)

Proverbs 19:3
Fretteth. Literally, “burneth.” Septuagint, “blameth.” Hebrew, “his heart rageth against the Lord.” (Haydock) — Thus Adam tacitly laid the blame on him, as all those who excuse themselves on account of their temper, habits, stars, the violence of temptation, &c. (Calmet)

Proverbs 19:7
Only. Hebrew has lo, and the margin lu, with the Vulgate. (Calmet) — The former word intimates that the words have no solidity, and the latter that they shall be his only portion who is so foolish as to trust in them. Sequens dicta non ispa; (Montanus) or ei ipsa, if we follow the margin. (Haydock)

Proverbs 19:8
Mind. Hebrew, “heart,” intelligence, chap. 15:32 — Loveth. This does not contradict the gospel; (Joh_12:25) as those who refrain from what the soul would crave to its own detriment, truly love it.

Proverbs 19:10
Fool. He would eat them, so as to prejudice his health. — Princes. Chap. 30:21 Such are commonly insolent, and should attend to Ausonius. Fortunam reverenter habe.

Proverbs 19:11
Wrongs. The wise man is not vindictive or punctilious.

Proverbs 19:12
Anger. Is not their dominion enough? Having none to admonish them, they do not perceive their excesses.

Proverbs 19:13
Through. It cannot be endured long. (Calmet) — Dos est uxoria lites. (Ovid, Art. 1.) — “Quarrels are a wife’s dowry.”

Proverbs 19:14
Properly. Septuagint, “fitted by.” (Haydock) — Hence the Fathers dissuade marrying with infidels. (St. Ambrose in Luke xvi.) — All good comes from God.

Proverbs 19:15
Hunger. Both temporal and eternal. (Calmet) — Non progredi, regredi est. St. Bernard says, “Not to advance, is to go back.”

Proverbs 19:16
Neglecteth. Hebrew, “contemneth.” In the law of Moses, many transgressions are punished with death, but here that of the soul is meant. (Calmet)

Proverbs 19:17
Lendeth. To receive interest, fœneratur. (Haydock) — Such usury is lawful, and God will abundantly reward acts of mercy. (Calmet) — He engages his word for the poor. (St. Augustine in Psalm xxxvi.)

Proverbs 19:18
Killing. Protestants, “crying;” or by his complaint be not deterred. (Haydock) — Chaldean agrees with us. The law permitted parents to sell their children, and to have them stoned to death, if they declared them disobedient, (Deu_21:18; Calmet) and riotous, ver. 20. Timely chastisement may prevent such extremities. (Haydock) — St. Paul dissuades unnecessary severity, Col_3:21

Proverbs 19:19
Thing. A child neglected will continue to steal, or to offend; (Calmet) while too much harshness will do no good, but tend to the damage of all parties. (Haydock) — Anger is productive of the worst effects.

Proverbs 19:21
Firm. Ignorance and weakness cause men to change.

Proverbs 19:22
Merciful. Heb_2:17 Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco. (Virgil, Æneid 4.) — Hebrew, “the desire of a man is his mercy,” (Montanus; Haydock) or “shame,” (R. Levi) as it leads to sin, Gen_6:5 All wish to be esteemed merciful. — Man of quality. Hebrew meish, “prœ viro.” (Montanus) — “Rich man.” (Septuagint) (Haydock)

Proverbs 19:23
Life. Both temporal and eternal, chap. 10:27 (Calmet) — With evil. Literally, “the worst,” pessima. (Haydock) — Sixtus V, “by the most wicked one.” The devil shall have no power over him.

Proverbs 19:24
Arm-pit. Or Hebrew tsallachath, “in the pot,” out of which he eats; which shews his negligence. — Mouth, to eat. This hyperbole indicates that he is too lazy to take the necessary sustenance, chap. 26:15 (Calmet) — Septuagint, “in his breast unjustly. Neither will he bring them to his mouth.” (Haydock) — He will bestow nothing, and shall reap no benefit from his avarice. (St. Bernard) — He will not practise what he teaches. (St. Gregory, Mor. 12:10)

Proverbs 19:25
Wicked. Hebrew, “scoffer.” Chastisements have always some good effect either on the sufferer, or on the spectators, who will be cautioned not to imitate what is wrong.

Proverbs 19:26
Infamous. Hebrew, “a son of confusion and reproach;” a spendthrift.

Proverbs 19:27
Not. Hebrew seems to say the reverse. (Calmet) — But we may read it with an interrogation. “Wilt thou cease?” &c. Or the instruction here meant is of a dangerous nature. Protestants, “that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.” Septuagint, “a son who neglects to keep the instruction of his father, shall muse on bad sayings.” (Haydock)

Proverbs 19:29
Hammers, (Symmachus) “punishments.” (Septuagint) See Jdg_5:25 (Calmet)

Proverbs 19:2
Pro_29:20

Proverbs 19:5
Pro_19:9; Pro_21:28, Exo_23:1

Proverbs 19:9
Deu_19:16-19, Pro_19:5

Proverbs 19:11
(1786) Discernment is a great gift to know when to pursue a matter and when not to. If one does not have the gift of discernment then it is prudent to get advice from those who do (Pro_11:14, Pro_15:22).

Proverbs 19:13
Pro_21:9; Pro_21:19; Pro_27:15

Proverbs 19:14
Pro_31:30

Proverbs 19:15
Pro_6:9-11; Pro_24:33-34

Proverbs 19:16
Deu_30:15-20

Proverbs 19:17
Pro_14:31, Mat_25:40

Proverbs 19:18
Pro_13:24; Pro_22:6; Pro_29:17

Proverbs 19:20
Pro_4:1, Pro_12:15

Proverbs 19:21
Pro_16:9

Proverbs 19:23
Pro_14:27

Proverbs 19:26
Pro_28:24, Deu_21:18-21

Proverbs 19:28
Job_20:12-13

Proverbs 19:29
Pro_26:3, Pro_10:13, Pro_18:6

Proverbs 19:1-3

The Poor and the Fool

The contrast in Pro_19:1 is that between “a poor man … in his integrity” and “he who is perverse in speech and is a fool”. Because of the contrast with the poor man, we can think of the fool as someone who is rich. The poor is not under the punishment of God because he is poor and the rich is not under the blessing of God because he is rich. Here the appearance is misleading. Wealth itself is not condemned. What matters is where we got it and what we do with it.

The contrast is about inner worth and outer appearance. He who seems to have everything is the fool, while he who seems to have everything against him walks in his integrity and is therefore better off than the rich fool. Personal integrity, even with poverty, is far better than foolish wrongness.

It all depends on one’s relationship with God. The poor person who goes his way in integrity can go that way because he goes his way with God. Therefore, in reality, he is rich. He who is perverse in speech speaks things that show that he has no relationship with God. Added to this is the fact that he is a fool, which means that he also does not want a relationship with God at all. The path he takes without God ends in death.

The word “also” with which Pro_19:2 begins indicates that Pro_19:2 is connected to Pro_19:1 . A person who is diligent “without knowledge” is the fool of Pro_19:1 . Unwise and thoughtless action leads to failure. It manifests itself in one “who hurries his footsteps”, one who hastily sets out on a path to fulfill a desire. It characterizes the man who wants quick results and as much profit as possible. People who spontaneously go off on something take the wrong path and miss the mark (the word “sin” literally means “to miss the goal”). Saul was such a person (1Sa_13:11-14 ). There can even be diligence for God, yet without understanding (Rom_10:1-4 ).

This proverb reminds us that we must know the time and direction for action, otherwise diligent effort will be a futile and even wrong activity. Someone “without knowledge” places his feet on a way of sin. Diligence is good if it is for the good (Gal_4:18 ), but it requires the knowledge of God and His will. Therefore, our diligence will have to come from fellowship with God through which we know His will. Then we will go our way in peace and at the same time with diligence. As a result, the goal will not be missed, but achieved and God will be glorified.

Being without knowledge or understanding is something that characterizes especially young people who do not engage with God’s Word. They therefore lack the necessary discernment to know the value of that to which they indulge. It is only through the study of God’s Word that they – and, of course, older people as well – gain that discernment. There is no excuse for being without knowledge. We have the entire Word of God at our disposal. It is the only reliable, unchanging source of knowledge and accessible to all who want to learn.

A fool, who is without knowledge (Pro_19:2 ), twists his own way making his life a ruin (Pro_19:3 ). And then he blames God for that too. Through his own foolishness he has twisted his way, he has given it a twist that has caused him to walk in the wrong direction. It is a path away from God. For the misery he encounters on that way, he holds God responsible. He is even furious with Him for allowing that to happen to him.

This attitude has characterized man since the Fall. When Adam twisted his way and sinned, he blamed God. It was because of the wife God had given him that things had gone wrong (Gen_3:12 ). We hear and see this today in all kinds of variations in all those situations where people do not want to be held accountable. Always it is someone else’s fault.

Man does not want to give God control over his life. When he makes good decisions that turn out well, he praises himself. If he makes bad decisions with a bad outcome, God is blamed (cf. Eze_18:25 ). There is no putting his own house in order. God is not thanked that in His goodness He gives sunshine and rain and fruitful times (Mat_5:45 ; Act_14:17 ). But when He brings terrible plagues upon the world that man has brought upon himself, men blaspheme the God of heaven without repenting of their evil works (Rev_16:9-11 Rev_16:21 ).

Proverbs 19:4

Wealth and Friends

This verse is again an observation without drawing a conclusion. That conclusion is left to the reader. It is about the unreliability of a friendship based on possession. Like love, friendship does not deserve that designation if it is only about the possible benefit that love or friendship can bring. If we love money ourselves, it reaps nothing in others but love for the money we have. People run after the rich hoping to get something.

But when the rich person has become poor, his friends disappear. They abandon him, because there is nothing more to get from him. A separation even takes place, because imagine if the poor were to ask something of you. It is better, therefore, to keep a wide distance from him. But the poor person who knows the Lord Jesus may know that he can never and will never be separated from Him (Rom_8:38-39 ; cf. Psa_40:17 ).

Proverbs 19:5

A False Witness and He Who Tells Lies

“A false witness” will be punished (Deu_19:16-21 ); there is no question about that. The same goes for him “who tells lies”. A false witness speaks lies in public. Telling lies is more reminiscent of telling lies in general conversation in the private sphere. A false witness and he who tells lies are on the same level and receive the same judgment.

The saying is general because sometimes a perjury is not punished because it is not discovered, or because the judges are corrupt. We must therefore see this verse in the light of God. He does not hold innocent and will not let any guilty person escape.

Proverbs 19:6-7

Wealth Is Attractive, Poverty Repulsive

People seek the friendship of influential people in order to benefit (Pro_19:6 ). To do so, they seek to gain favor with them (Psa_45:12 ; cf. Jud_1:16 ). To “seek the favor” is literally “to caress the face” or “to soften the face”. The considerable are valued because of their possessions, not because of their qualities.

Likewise, one who is generous may be assured of having numerous friends. Generosity need not have a negative meaning here. One who is generous attracts people. Everyone wants to belong to his friends. It shows that man is an egoist, someone who is only after his own benefit. If there is something to gain that makes his life a little easier, he is the first to go. This is also how it works in business and politics.

That he wants only what makes his life more pleasant is evident in his rejection of God as the great Giver. God gave His Son as a free gift of His grace. But man does not want that Gift, because that means condemning himself as selfish. It puts an end to living for oneself.

People shun those who are poor (Pro_19:7 ). The thought of “hating”, in the sense of rejecting, indicates that family members and superficial friends will leave the poor man because he can no longer do anything for them. We also see this with the Lord Jesus. His earthly family, the Jews, hated Him.

When your luck runs out, even your family shuns you. Your friends wish you to perish. You can shout all you want, but they don’t listen. When they see you coming, they look the other way and pretend not to see you, because it is ‘out of sight, out of mind’.

Proverbs 19:8

To Love His Own Soul and Find Good

“He who gets wisdom”, is one who has made an effort, has committed himself to it. He thereby proves that he loves his soul, his life. It means that he wants to know God’s will for his life. Thereby he proves to himself a great benefit. He who gets wisdom comes to the point where he does not love his life to death (Rev_12:11 ). Indeed, loving his life does not refer to the earthly life, but to the life he received from God to live for Him.

It does not stop there. After getting comes keeping what has been gotten. This proves understanding of what is really important. The result is that he finds “good”. The good is the good life, living with and for Christ. The good is the knowledge of God’s will for his life and that is that it will be conformed to Christ, that He will become visible in his life. In this, wisdom and understanding come into their own.

Proverbs 19:9

A False Witness and He Who Tells Lies

This proverb is almost word for word the same as Pro_19:5 . Pro_19:5 still sounds more or less as a warning, he “will not escape”, but here it is clearly stated that he “will perish”. The transgression of the ninth commandment establishes his guilt and God’s judgment. Being a false witness and telling lies go against all that God is. He is “righteous and upright”, “the faithful and true Witness”, the “God who cannot lie” (Deu_32:4 ; Rev_3:14 ; Tit_1:2 ).

Proverbs 19:10

What Is Not Fitting

There are plenty of fools who live in luxury. That at the same time makes clear the truth of this proverb. A fool always indulges in luxury. It needs wisdom to deal in the right way with luxury. The fool lacks wisdom. That luxury can consist of possession but also of position. He misuses both. He behaves boorishly and insensitively, making himself hated and mocked.

Even worse than a fool who possesses luxury is a servant who gains power (cf. Ecc_10:7 ). There are servants who have ruled because they were faithful. Think of Joseph and Daniel. It must be about an unfaithful servant here. The servant here is possibly one who hired himself out to pay a debt. He has fallen into debt through foolishness. If he cannot manage his own property, how will he be able to properly exercise a ruling function over those who can.

In today’s world there are also many people who are in great debt and yet think they can have a ruling function. The same is true in the church. A person who cannot manage his own house cannot have a governing function in God’s house, the church of the living God. Such a function would be inappropriate (
1Ti_3:5 ).

Proverbs 19:11

Patience and Forgiveness

One who is wronged and then gives his feelings free rein will ignite in wrath and give a vehement reaction. But if his discretion, in the sense of spiritual understanding, prevails, he will be “slow to anger”. This is possible only when. there is fellowship with God. This allows him to heed the word: “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath [of God], for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord” (Rom_12:19 ).

He is then able “to overlook a transgression”. This goes further than in a forgiving mood just once not blaming someone for something. It is also the ability not to attribute insults and not to allow an afterglow of hurt to linger even when the words have inflicted a wound.

Such an attitude is not appreciated in the world but is highly valued by God. This proverb is perfectly true of God (cf. Mic_7:18 ). He is slow to anger and it is His glory to overlook a transgression. This He can do because of the work of His Son, with respect to Whom He did not slow down His anger and did not overlook the transgression when He made Him sin.

Proverbs 19:12

The Wrath and the Favor of a King

We have a wonderful, pictorial contrast here. On the one hand, the “roaring of a lion” that terrifies all who hear it, and on the other hand, the “dew on the grass” that descends inaudibly, that invigorates and can be trampled on just like that. We see these two manifestations in a king. His wrath inspires great terror (Rev_10:3 ), while his favor is beneficence (Psa_72:6 ).

A king has the power to terrify or to invigorate and refresh. He can look menacing but also friendly. This proverb advises the king’s subjects not to do things that make him wrathful, for then they will not fare well. However, they may count on his favor if they serve him in faithfulness.

We can apply this verse, like the previous verse, to God and Christ. Christ is the Lion from the tribe of Judah. We must fear His wrath if we oppose Him, but we may be assured of His refreshing esteem if we serve Him in faithfulness.

Proverbs 19:13-15

Domestic Misery and Domestic Happiness

“A foolish son” and “the contentions of a wife” are two problems that cause chaos in a family (Pro_19:13 ). “A foolish son” deprives his father of all pleasure by his licentiousness, laziness, self-conceitedness, pride, willful attitude. The word “destruction” is plural, indicating that such a son inflicts grief upon grief upon his father. He is a chain of destructions for his father, under which, of course, his mother will also suffer.

A wife who quarrels does the same thing as the son, for she too by her quarrels makes the house uninhabitable. The house that should be an oasis of peace is full of envy and strife. One quarrel follows another, just as drops of water follow each other steadily, always going on and on. When it starts dripping through the roof, you don’t know where the leak is. As long as the leak is not found and then plugged, the water does its rotting work in the hidden. This is how it is sometimes with a wife’s quarreling. You neither know where it comes from nor how to solve it.

It may be that in this case it is known where the quarreling is coming from, and that is the son’s behavior. When a son, or a child, behaves outrageously, it can be a divisive factor in the marriage. This happens when the wife starts blaming her husband (in practice, it can be the other way around). Fortunately, it can also be the case that the worry for a child makes husband and wife a closer unity. This will be so if they continually bring the child to the Lord in prayer as a common concern.

Obtaining “house and property” is a matter of inheritance (Pro_19:14 ). An inheritance passes from father to son. It is a consequence of being a member of a particular family. It is very different with obtaining “a prudent wife”. There is no family relationship there. When someone obtains “a prudent wife”, it is a special gift from God. The contrast is, on the one hand, wealth that can be acquired from a father and, on the other hand, a prudent wife which is a gift from the LORD.

“Laziness” is another cause that brings misery on others and not just on the lazy person himself (Pro_19:15 ). This proverb is meant to deter laziness. Laziness means a person is completely inactive. “A deep sleep” (cf. Gen_2:21 ) is a state of unconsciousness. Time passes without the lazy person having the slightest awareness of it.

He who is lazy wastes time necessary to take care of himself and his family. The family in which the husband and father does not provide safety due to laziness because he does not provide income is a miserable family. There is hunger, but there is nothing to satisfy the hunger with. A lazy person is a poor steward of a precious gift from God: time. Laziness is the coffin of a living.

Proverbs 19:16

To Keep One’s Soul or Die

“The commandment” at issue here is the commandment of God, for God’s commandment is for life. Obedience to the commandment of God is a protection of life. It also involves obedience to the commandments of a father, for he represents God on earth. The same applies to the commandments of the government. Those who do not keep them, despise his ways and “will die”.

When a person decides for himself how he wants to live, he thereby expresses contempt for what God has commanded. With what God has said about his ways, about his way of life and the choices he makes, he wants nothing to do with it. He thinks he is on the way of life, but he is on the way of death. To be careless of conduct means to disregard God’s commands for his conduct. He will find that at the end of his self-willed way of living s death awaits.

Proverbs 19:17

Who Is Gracious to a Poor Will Be Rewarded

When someone “is gracious to a poor man”, it is a form of lending to the LORD (cf. Mat_25:40 ). Money given away to a poor person is not lost. God sees it as a loan to Him; it is seen by Him as being “gracious”. He will repay the loan, the “good deed” abundantly. Those who take care of the poor thereby demonstrate a characteristic of God, Who is a gracious, compassionate God (Psa_116:5 ; Isa_49:10 Isa_54:10 ).

The presence of the poor among God’s people is a test for the rich (Deu_15:7-11 ). Our response to their presence shows whether there is faith or not (Jas_2:14-17 ). Those who take care of the poor are doing a “good deed”, an act called “your righteousness” by the Lord Jesus (Mat_6:1-4 ). The Lord adds that this should not be done in front of people’s eyes, not even in order to make oneself feel good, but that it should be done “in secret”. Those who give in this way receive from Him the promise: “And your Father Who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” God blesses the generosity of one of His own with His generosity.

The promise of a reward does not necessarily mean a repayment of what has been given. If it were that alone, it could be seen as the repayment of a favor. It is about a reward that expresses appreciation. When God rewards something, it is much more than repaying what has been given. He will give the compassionate person a deeper sense of the richness of life with Him. No amount of money or gold can compete with this.

Proverbs 19:18-20

Discipline and Accept Discipline

Teaching obedience is a command (Pro_19:18 ). It is at the same time a powerful warning against parental passivity. There is a time to teach children obedience. That time begins as soon as it is clear that a child is acquiring a sense of right and wrong, and that is the case from an early age.

When it is clear that a child is not listening to a command from the parents, the child must learn to obey (Gen_18:19 ). This can take a lot of patience. It can sometimes get so bad that a parent loses patience and even his mind. Hence the warning not to let the thought arise of desiring to kill him or making decisions that would result in his death.

“Do not desire his death”, can mean to discipline him so much that he dies. Another meaning is also possible. Which is not to discipline him at all, so that he becomes a fool, goes on the bad path and, because of his bad behavior, finds death. He who does not discipline his child kills him, because then he continues to follow the path that leads to death. Withholding his punishment from him now will put him on the path to a much more severe and eternal punishment. Indulgence works his downfall. False indulgence is real cruelty.

Eli did not teach his sons obedience. As a result, they became fools and succumbed to their folly (1Sa_3:12-13 ). Similarly, David did not rebuke his son Adonijah, causing him to become a fool and die an untimely death (1Kg_1:6 1Kg_2:24 ).

There are cases where it no longer makes sense to teach someone obedience (Pro_19:19 ). All hope of correction must be given up. This is the case when someone is so angry that he is out of control. Someone who cannot be appeased must experience the consequences of his folly for himself. Whoever wants to help him will never get rid of him, because he will never learn his lesson.

A hot-tempered person will constantly be in trouble. Only repentance and the Holy Spirit can give a change. Christ is the Only One who can save from such behavior. The Son makes free (Joh_8:36 ).

Pro_19:20 links to the two previous verses. By listening to “counsel” and accepting “discipline”, a person “may be wise”. There will be maturity through all the discipline that has been exercised and all the teaching that has been given. Then there will be steadfast perseverance on the path of life the rest of his days.

Proverbs 19:21-23

Counsel, Kindness and Life

Making “many plans” is allowed, but in doing so it is good to submit ourselves to “the counsel of the LORD”, or the purpose of God (Pro_19:21 ; Jas_4:13-15 ). Man must always remember that he is man and that God is Who He is. Man is extremely limited in what he can devise and even more so in what he can carry out. God, on the other hand, is infinite in understanding and ability. Not what man devises, but what God determines, that happens (
Lam_3:37 ; Psa_33:10-11 ; Isa_46:10 ). Similarly, Paul planned, but God directed otherwise (Rom_15:22-32 ).

Every person desires to have another treat him with “kindness” (Pro_19:22 ). Every person finds it pleasant to hear kind words, words that show lovingkindness, that is, words of kindness. They are edifying, encouraging words, in which there is no mendacity. They are not spoken to flatter.

In “a liar” kindness is lacking. He can pretend to be merciful by promising all kinds of things and giving the impression that he is full of kindness, but that is hypocrisy and deception. Behind his words are dishonest motives. It is better to deal with a poor person, from whom you cannot expect anything he could give, but from whom kindness radiates, than with such a liar.

Reverence for the LORD brings a life of contentment and security (Pro_19:23 ). He who fears the LORD suffers no want and fears no danger. God gives a quality of life that cannot be disturbed by evil. The God-fearing goes to bed without hunger and sleeps peacefully, without fear of anything evil that might come upon him.

The life attached to the fear of the LORD is not the life that man lives by nature, but the life in connection with Him. That life is enjoyed in its fullness only when the believer is with Him. But even here on earth already, this life cannot be affected by anything, because it is an inner, spiritual life. It is the life from God. That life knows no lack and no fear. The Lord Jesus therefore says that we need not fear “those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul” (Mat_10:28 ).

The true life referred to here is not found in wealth or in health, nor in a good marriage or a fine family, but in Christ alone. This is what we must tell our children and hold up to them and live out before them. Of the evil that may afflict us, we know that God causes it to work together for good (Rom_8:28 ; Psa_91:9-10 ).

Proverbs 19:24

Even Too Lazy to Eat

“A sluggard” is so lazy that he cannot bring his hand with which he has dipped the piece of bread in the dish of dipping sauce “back to his mouth”. The actions described have tired him so much that before he can even start chewing he has fallen asleep again. It is a laughable description of a sluggard. This depiction should serve to not wanting to be a sloth and to prevent the ridicule associated with it.

In the spiritual application, we see that there are those who do not bother to take even the most basic step to get out of their sinful misery. Salvation is offered to them in the gospel and is within reach, but they do not stretch out their hand to grasp the thrown rescue buoy.

Proverbs 19:25

Discipline Makes Others Shrewd

There are three types of people in this verse: “a scoffer”, the “naive” and “one who has understanding”. They show who they are by their response to discipline. The scoffer does not allow himself to be corrected by any discipline. Its purpose does not penetrate him because he shuts himself off from it.

The naive is someone without knowledge, a simpleton, an empty head. He is not yet as hardened as the scoffer. It may dawn on him that the discipline that comes upon the scoffer is a warning to him. If that penetrates, he will become shrewd and recognize what awaits him if he continues on the path of foolishness and becomes a scoffer (cf. Deu_19:20 ).

One who has understanding does not need strokes. He has sufficient spiritual maturity to be able to distinguish between right and wrong. If he does something that needs correction, he can be reproved with words. Those words may also be painful, but he will listen to them and “gain knowledge” about what he has done or said that was not right and must be corrected.

Proverbs 19:26-27

A Son Who Acts Shamefully

It seems in Pro_19:26 to be about a situation where the father and mother are dependent on the son and that this son abuses the situation to his own advantage. A sharp judgment is passed on this. It should deter children from misbehaving in this way toward their elderly parents.

This goes beyond mere disobedience to parents. Disobedience is bad enough in itself. It is a violation of the commandment to honor father and mother (Exo_20:12 ). But here it is the abandonment of the natural love a child should have for his parents. He is going against the most basic laws of nature. The son described here not only fails to do what is commanded, but he treats his parents with contempt. God lets the Levites say of this: “Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother!” (Deu_27:16 ). This son not only disobeys his parents, but exploits them.

This is increasingly common in an increasingly cold social climate. It was, as evidenced by what Solomon says here, already happening then, and it is very current today. Children are verbally or physically abusing their parents in an increasing number of cases with the intention of enriching themselves rather than caring for them (cf. Mat_15:4-7 ). A Dutch newspaper headline reported: ‘Exploitation of elderly by own children – underestimated form of elder abuse’ (Reformed Newspaper, 15-06-2015).

A son can steal from his father. He can make life so unbearable for his mother that she leaves home. He makes ashamed because he acts disgracefully. It is a special bitterness for parents when a son acts this way. This is how Israel behaved toward God (Isa_1:2-3 ).

There is a certain irony in the proverb of Pro_19:27 . What the father says to his son is not an advice not to listen. The father only wants to make it clear that there is no point for his son to listen to his instruction if he is not willing to act accordingly anyway. Let his son stop listening to the instruction if he intends to stray “from the words of knowledge” anyway.

The discipline consists of words of knowledge, which are words with the knowledge of God’s will for his life. By listening to these and obeying them, the son will walk the right path. The way the father approaches his son here confronts the son with his responsibility. Does he want to take a different path than the one presented to him in the words of knowledge? Then let him stop listening to discipline. Hopefully, this approach will lead the son to listen carefully and not stray.

Proverbs 19:28-29

Scoffers and Iniquity

“A rascally witness” (Pro_19:28 ) is literally “a witness of Belial”. He is inspired by satan. He is one who deliberately distorts the facts. That he “makes a mockery of justice” means that he twists justice with the greatest of ease. Justice is meant to keep people from sin, but a rascally witness does not care about that. For him, a concept like “justice” is something to be ridiculed. He does not care about God as Judge, but defies Him by his outright contempt of justice.

While there is contempt for justice, iniquity is feasted upon; it is even spread or, as it can also be translated, swallowed. The wicked are like hungry wolves that shamelessly swallow iniquity as if it were the greatest delicacy. Iniquity is a true delight for the mouths of the wicked. They chew on lying words and then utter them. That is where they get all their life energy from.

What characterizes the wicked characterizes our fallen nature. Our fallen nature not only makes us susceptible to receiving lies, but makes us enjoy them.

God has prepared “judgments” for the persistent “scoffers” (Pro_19:29 ). They scoff at holy things. Their scoffing will be publicly judged in the punitive judgments that God brings on them according to His purpose, from which they will not be able to escape. The “blows for the back of fools” are also prepared and will inevitably strike them.

Proverbs 19:1
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_19:1. Delitzsch translates the last clause, “Than one with perverse lips, and so a fool.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_19:1
I. A reference to an unexplained mystery of human life. It is here implied, though it is not directly expressed, that the fool who is perverse in his lips—who sets himself in speech and action against the moral law of the universe—is not so poor a man as he who walks in integrity. (We have before had this latter character before us. See Homiletics on chap. Pro_11:3, page 196.) It seems as strange that power and influence should be so often given to those who know least how to put them to a good use, as it would be to see a parent put a knife into the hand of a child who was incapable of using it, yet it is a sight which meets us on every hand, and a mystery which has presented itself to the minds of thinking men in all ages. Solomon had met with such instances in his day—he had seen the godly and upright walking in the shade and treading the bye-paths of life, while the perverse and foolish man was basking in the sunlight of worldly prosperity in the highways of society.
II. An assertion, that, notwithstanding contrary appearances, the better portion is with the better man. It is not, after all, what a man’s portion is, but how he uses it, that makes his life a blessing or a curse. A man who walks in integrity makes the righteous law of his God the rule of his life, and this keeping of the Divine commandments brings with it a reward (Psa_19:11) of which the rebellious fool knows nothing. He knows how to use his more limited opportunities and influence to the best advantage—how to put out his small capital so as to obtain the best interest upon it—how to trade with his five talents so as to make them other five, and so he is daily laying up a treasure which is better than all the fame and wealth that belongs to this world, for it is the riches of a righteous character by which he is raised himself to a higher spiritual level, and by which he is able to make the world better than he found it.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Integrity is itself a life, and a whole enjoyment, and better, therefore, than worldly interests which are nothing of the kind. Walking is an eastern figure, and we have failed to substitute it by a western one. A way in the East means a man’s total course. Walking, therefore, means his total life or being. Better is a poor man, etc., refers, therefore, to a man not living in his money, nor indeed, in his horses or in his hounds, not living in his integrity, but walking in it, i.e., spending his whole time in it, staying in that way; of course, taking his pleasure in it (see Pro_19:22.) We have before seen that speech means whole conduct. The mouth, in those days, was the great implement of action. It is so still. The commonest labourer bargains out and orders out half his living by his mouth. “Perverse” or “crooked” in speech means speaking (i.e. acting) athwart of what we ourselves know in many particulars; first, athwart all moral truth; second, athwart deep personal conviction; third, athwart all personal interest (as our text implies.) A Christian talks straight, because he speaks (acts) coincidently with all of these. A sinner is crooked of lip, because he says what he does not think, and traverses for his lusts all the best principles of his moral nature.—Miller.

Proverbs 19:2-4
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_19:2. Sinneth, literally “goeth astray.” Delitzsch reads the last clause, “He who hasteneth with the legs after it goeth astray.”
Pro_19:3. Perverteth, rather “overtures,” “ruins.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_19:2-3
IGNORANCE LEADING TO SIN
I. The soul of man cannot be absolutely without knowledge. There is some knowledge which comes to the soul without any effort on the part of the man, which he has but to live to acquire, just as he has but to open his eyes to see. He is conscious of his own existence—of his personal identity as apart from all the beings and things by which he is surrounded, and of his capability of suffering and enjoyment, of hope and despair. And because of the light within him he cannot be altogether ignorant of the difference between right and wrong, between truth and falsehood. But his necessary knowledge extends to beings and things outside of himself. He knows without any effort much about the men and things which surround him, and the visible things of creation make it impossible that he should be altogether ignorant of the existence of the invisible God and Creator. So the apostle argues in Rom_1:20.
II. There is a knowledge which it is good to be without. There is a knowledge which human nature in its original dignity and sinlessness did not possess, the absence of this experimental knowledge was an essential element of its blessedness. The ignorance of evil was a blessed ignorance in which man’s Creator would have kept him but for his own wilfulness, and the knowledge of which brought him misery. It is the blessedness of the unfallen spirits who have kept their first estate, that although they are conscious of the existence of evil in the universe, they have no experimental knowledge of it, and this ignorance constitutes the blessedness of the ever-blessed God Himself. Those sons of men who, because they are, and ever have been, in perfect health, know nothing experimentally of bodily pain or weakness, find it very good to be without this knowledge, and how much more good is it to be without a knowledge of soul disease and spiritual suffering.
III. But there is an acquired knowledge which is indispensable to a man’s well-being. Intellectual knowledge of some kind is necessary to prevent a man from being a shame to himself and a cumberer of the land. The well-being of the community depends upon one man’s knowing some one thing that another man does not know; no man can know all things or even many things; no man, however great his knowledge, has enough of it to make him independent of the knowledge of others, but every man ought to have such a thorough knowledge of some facts and truths as to enable him to minister first to some of his own daily needs and to contribute something to the well-being of his fellow creatures. Some men must have theoretical knowledge, and others must know how to reduce theories to practice—the knowledge of the one is useless without the knowledge of the other. It behoves some men to investigate the history of the past, and to use the knowledge they so acquire for the good of the present generation, but while they are doing this it is indispensable that others should acquire a knowledge of things as they are at present, and should utilise their knowledge for the attainment of other ends which are quite as good. But intellectual knowledge of some kind is also necessary for the well-being of the mind itself. Man’s mind can no more feed upon itself and be healthy than his body can feed upon itself and live. As the body needs to receive matter into itself to nourish and sustain it, so the mind needs to receive ideas upon which to feed and by which to grow. Without such a reception the intellectual part of a man remains undeveloped, and he is very far from the creature, intellectually considered, that God intended him to be. But there is a kind of knowledge even more needful for man to possess than that which will merely enlarge his mind or promote his temporal well-being. If his existence is to be really blest he must know things which relate to his spiritual well-being—he must be acquainted with the will of God concerning him, both in relation to the life that now is and to that which is to come. It is a calamity to be ignorant of things which fit a man to make the best of the present life, but it is a far greater calamity to be without that knowledge which fits a man for a blessed life beyond death. No man who possesses the revealed Word of God in the Scriptures need be without this most blessed and indispensable knowledge—everyone who thirsts for it may drink of this living water, and every hungry soul may eat of this bread and learn what are the thoughts of God concerning him, and what are the Divine purposes concerning his present and his future (Isa_55:1-7). And to be without this knowledge is indeed “not good,” for it prevents the soul from recovering its lost and original dignity. A knowledge of the glorious God in the face of Jesus Christ is the means by which we are delivered from the penalty and power of sin, and more than recover the position lost by man’s fall. Ignorance here is indeed a fatal ignorance in those who have the knowledge within their reach; it is not good for any human soul to be without this knowledge, and it is most soul-destroying to those who have only to seek it in order to find it.
IV. Some of the evil consequences which flow from ignorance in general and from ignorance of God in particular. 1. Ignorance leads to hasty action, and consequently often to wrong action. For “he that hasteth with his feet sinneth,” and “the foolishness of man perverteth his way.” In common and every-day life we find that the most ignorant people are the least cautious, and act with the least reflection. Knowledge teaches men to think before they act, for it makes men more alive to the importance of their actions. A child will play with gunpowder with as little hesitation as he would with common dust, but a man would not do so, because he knows what would be the consequence if it ignited. A man who had never been in a coalmine, and who was ignorant of the dangers of fire-damp, would be very likely to descend the shaft and enter hastily into the gloomy passages without first testing the state of the air, but a miner would not do so, because he knows more about the matter. He would advance cautiously, and ascertain what was before him before he ventured far. So people who are ignorant of the mind and will of God as revealed in His word act without much thought as to the consequences of their actions—they enter upon a road at the impulse of a passing fancy, without asking themselves whither it leads—they decide upon a certain course of action without thought of the consequences. And such hasting with the feet is always a perversion of a man’s way, a wandering from the right path, for a fallen man does not forsake the evil and choose the good by instinct but by effort founded upon reflection. 2.
Spiritual ignorance leads to rebellion against God. It is only a man who does not know God, who “frets against the Lord.” A child because he is ignorant of his father’s motives will fret against the wise and kind restrictions which that father places around him. So men wilfully ignorant that whenever God says “Thou shalt not” He is only saying “Do thyself no harm,” chafe and fret against His moral laws. They will not set themselves to obtain that knowledge of God which the gospel reveals and consequently they look at all His commands through a cloud of ignorance which makes them grievous and heavy instead of easy and light. And there are many mysteries connected with God’s government that will tend to make men’s hearts fretful and discontented if they remain in ignorance of His character. There are many problems in connection with man’s present life which he cannot solve—many apparent contradictions, and much which looks like injustice on the part of Him who rules the world, and every soul who does not know God as He is revealed in His Son will, when he thinks on these things, is likely to be led to harbour rebellious thoughts against Him. When we consider the evil which flows from ignorance of God we can better understand how it is that “the knowledge of the Lord” is so often used in Scripture as synonymous with all that can bless and elevate mankind (see Isa_11:9, etc.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
We should desire first the enlightening of the eyes and then the strengthening of the feet. Hence “Make me to understand the way of Thy precepts,” and then, “I will run the way of Thy commandments” (Psa_119:27; Psa_119:32). He that would sail safely must get a good pilot before good rowers. Swift horses, without a skilful waggoner, endangers more. He that labours for feet before he has eyes, takes a preposterous course; for, of the two the lame is more likely to come to his journey’s end than the blind.… Hence we see that there is more hope of a vicious person that hath a good understanding, than of an utterly dark and blind soul, though he walks upon zealous feet.… Learn to know God. “How shall we believe on Him we have not known?” (Rom_10:14). Knowledge is not so much slighted here, as it will be wished hereafter. The rich man in hell desires to have his brethren taught (Luk_16:28). Sure if he were alive again, he would hire them a preacher. “The people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” (Hos_4:6). If we see a proper man cast away at the sessions for a non legit, with pity we conclude he might have been saved, if he could have read. At that general and last assizes, when Christ shall “come in flaming fire,” woe be to them that “know not God” (2Th_1:8). For “He will pour out His fury upon the heathen, that know Him not, and upon the families that call not on His name” (Jer_10:25).… In Pro_9:18, the new guest at the fatal banquet is described by his ignorance. “He knoweth not” what company is in the house, “that the dead are there.” It is the devil’s policy, when he would rob and ransack the house of our conscience, like a thief to put out the candle of our knowledge; that we might neither discern his purposes, nor decline his mischiefs.… Indeed ignorance may make a sin a less sin, but not no sin. “I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief,” says the apostle (1Ti_1:13). The sins of them that know are more henious than the sins of them that know not. But if thou hadst no other sin, thy ignorance is enough to condemn thee, for thou art bound to know. They that will not know the Lord, the Lord will not know them.—T. Adams.
The most innocent of all faults might seem ignorance. The only sin (when philosophically stated) is ignorance. The “chains” that confine the lost (2Pe_2:4) are “darkness.” The change that overtakes the saved is light (2Co_4:6). The graces that adorn the Christian all flow from a new intelligence. Our text is literally exact. If the man “has no knowledge,” and that of a deep spiritual sort, his “life is no good;” that is, it possesses none, and is itself a horrid evil. And yet the concluding clause largely relieves the difficulty. The man, knowing there was something wrong, ought to pause, and grope about for the light, just as all would in a dark cavern. Instead of that he rushes darkly on. Here, the inspired finger is put upon the precise mistake. We are warned that we are in blindness. Why not hesitate, then, and cast about us? We push on, knowing we are in the dark. This is the photograph of the impenitent … And yet, the wise man says, he ignores this point of wilfulness, and in his heart is angry with the Almighty. He “perverteth,” or subverteth “his way,” that is, totally upsets and ruins, so that it is no way at all. Nothing could describe more truly the sinner’s path, because it does not reach even the ends that he himself relied on. Death arrives, too, to wreck it totally. And though he has resisted the most winning arts to draw him unto Christ, yet, at each sad defeat, “his heart is angry against Jehovah.”—Miller.
Pro_19:2. Haste, as opposed to sloth, is the energy of Divine grace (Psa_119:60; Luk_19:6). Here, as opposed to consideration, acting hastily is sin. This impatience is the genuine exercise of self-will, not taking time to inquire; not “waiting for the counsel of the Lord.” Godly Joshua offended here (Jos_9:14-15). Saul’s impatience cost him his kingdom (1Sa_13:12). David’s haste was the occasion of gross injustice (2Sa_16:3-4).—Bridges.
Religion a sentiment and a science. I know of no attack on Christianity more artfully made than that which is attempted when a distinction is attempted to be drawn between religion and theology.… Let us see what the value of religion is, when it is separated from theology. We are told that religion is a sentiment, a temper, a state of mind. Theology is a science, a pursuit, a study.… and it is asserted or insinuated that it may be well with the soul, although it be destitute of spiritual knowledge.… But we, who are called Christians, by the very name we bear, imply that more than devotional sentiment is necessary to make a religious man … You must accept Jesus as the only Saviour if you would escape perdition, and how can you accept Him unless you know Him? Nay, further, how can you accept Him unless you know yourself?… There are many other things which we ought to know and believe, to our soul’s health and comfort; but … the soul that is without knowledge of this, the great Christian scheme, the Divine plan of salvation, is only nominally and by courtesy a Christian soul … Except as bearing upon these truths, the religious sentiment is a luxury and nothing more … It is not the theoretical distinction between the sentiment and the science that we censure, but their separation and divorce.—Dean Hook.
Pro_19:3. Such was the foolishness of Adam! First he perverted his way; then he charged upon God its bitter fruit. “God, making him upright,” made him happy. Had he been ruled by his will, he would have continued so. But, “seeking out his own inventions” (Ecc_7:29), he made himself miserable. As the author of his own misery, it was reasonable that he should fret against himself, but such was his pride and baseness, that his heart fretted against the Lord, as if he, not himself, was responsible (Gen_3:6-12). Thus his first-born, when his own sin had brought “punishment” on him, fretted, as if “it were greater than he could bear.” (Ib. Pro_4:8-13). This has been the foolishness of Adam’s children ever since. God has linked together moral and penal evil, sin and sorrow. The fool rushes into the sin, and most unreasonably frets for the sorrow; as if he could “gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles.” (Mat_7:16). He charges his crosses, not on his own perverseness, but on the injustice of God. (Eze_18:25). But God is clear from all the blame (Jas_1:13-14): He had shown the better; man chooses the worse. He had warned by his word and by conscience. Man, deaf to the warning, plunges into the misery; and, while “eating the fruit of his own ways,” his heart frets against the Lord. “It is hard to have passions, and to be punished for indulging them. I could not help it. Why did he not give me grace to avoid it?” (See Jer_7:10). Such is the pride and blasphemy of an unhumbled spirit. The malefactor blames the judge for his righteous sentence. (Isa_8:21-22; Rev_16:9-11; Rev_16:21).—Bridges.
This was the case in Greece as well as in Judea; for Homer observed that “men lay those evils upon the gods, which they have incurred through their own folly and perverseness.” … This is often the case with regard—1. To men’s health. By intemperance … indolence … or too close application to business … or unruly passions, they injure their frame … and then censure the providence of God. 2. To their circumstances in life.… Men complain that providence frowns on them … when they have chosen a wrong profession, despising the advice of others … or when they have brought themselves into straits by their own negligence. 3. To their relations in life. They complain of being unequally yoked … when they chose by the sight of the eye, or the vanity and lusts of the heart.… They complain that their children are undutiful … when they have neglected their government. 4. To their religious concerns. They complain that they want inward peace when … they neglect the appointed means of grace … and that God giveth Satan power over them when by neglect they tempt the tempter.—Job Orton.
For Homiletics on the main thought of Pro_19:4 see on chapter Pro_14:20, page 370.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENT
They are friends to the wealth, not the wealthy. They regard not qualis sis, but quantus—not how good thou art, but how great.… These flatter a rich man, as we feed beasts, till he be fat, and then fall on him.… These friends love not thy soul’s good, but thy body’s goods.—T. Adams.

Proverbs 19:5-9
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_19:5. Speaketh lies, rather “whose breath is lies.”
Pro_19:6. The prince, rather “the noble or generous man.” It seems to refer to one of rank, who is also of a benevolent disposition. “
Entreat the favour,” literally “stroke the face.”
Pro_19:7. He pursueth them, &c. This clause is variously rendered. Zockler reads, “He seeketh words (of friendship), and there are none;” Delitzsch, “Seeking after words which are vain;” Miller, “As one snatching at words, they come to stand towards him;” Maurer and others, “He pursueth after (the fulfilment of the) words (of their past promises to him), and these (promises) are not (made good).
Pro_19:8. Wisdom. Literally heart.
Pro_19:9. Speaketh lies, “whose breath is lies.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_19:5; Pro_19:9
THE END OF A FALSE TONGUE
We have before had proverbs dealing with the evil of lying (see Homiletics on chap. Pro_12:17-19, Pro_14:25, pages 274 and 379), and the constant recurrence of the subject, together with the repetition of the verses here, shows us the vast importance which the inspired writer attached to truth, and the many and great evils which flow from a disregard of it. Again and again he holds up the liar to view as a monster of iniquity, and seeks, both by the threatening of the retribution which awaits it and by the misery which it causes to others, to deter men from yielding to this sin. If we consider what mischief a false man can do, we shall not be surprised at the prominence which the wise man gives to this subject (see page 274). But the most dangerous element of the lying tongue is the fact that in nine cases out of ten no human tribunal can bring to justice, and perhaps few human tribunals would care to do so. “The world,” says Dr. David Thomas (“Practical Philosopher,” page 414) “abounds in falsehood. Lies swarm in every department of life. They are in the market, on the hustings, in courts of justice, in the senate house, in the sanctuaries of religion; and they crowd the very pages of modern literature. They infest the social atmosphere. Men on all hands live in fiction and by fiction.” If we allow that this picture is a true one, and, alas! we can cannot deny that it is, we can see that the evil is one with which no human hand can deal. A tiger may come down from a neighbouring forest and enter the city, and spread terror and dismay all round, and even kill a dozen of its inhabitants. But he is a tangible creature, he can be faced and attacked with weapons which can pierce his skin and make him powerless to do any further mischief. But into the same city may enter upon the summer wind impalpable particles of matter charged with a poison which may slay not ten men but ten thousand, and no weapon that has ever been forged by human hand can slay these destroyers. The plague will keep numbering its victims until the poison has spent itself or until a pure and healthful breeze scatters the deadly atmosphere. So with lying in comparison with more palpable and gross crimes. The thief can be caught and imprisoned, the murderer is generally traced and hanged; but the sin of lying so permeates the whole social atmosphere that nothing but the diffusion of heavenly truth can rid the world of the poison. But the liar, however he escapes some forms of retribution, “shall not go unpunished.” 1. He shall be self-punished. His own conscience will be his judge and executioner in one. The fear of discovery here will generally haunt him as a shadow does the substance, but if this ghost is laid there will be times, however hardened he may be, when that witness for truth that is within him will scourge him in the present and fill him with forebodings concerning the future. 2. Men will punish him, by not believing him when he speaks the truth. In proportion as a man’s veracity is doubted will be the suspicion with which his word is received. He may tell the truth on two occasions out of three, but if his falsehood on the third is found out, his truth-telling on the first and second will not avail him much. It is a terrible thing to live always in an atmosphere of distrust, but it is one of the punishments of a liar. 3. God will punish him after he leaves this world. Concerning him and some other great transgressors it is written that—“they shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death (Rev_21:8). Whatever may be the precise meaning of these terrible words, we know that they were spoken by one whose every word was “true and faithful” (see Pro_19:5 of the same chapter), and they are but an intensified form of the last clause of our texts—“He that speaketh lies shall perish.”
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Falsehood is fire in stubble. It likewise turns all around it into its own substance for a moment—one crackling, blazing moment, and then dies. And all its contents are scattered in the wind without place or evidence of their existence, as viewless as the wind which scatters them.—Coleridge.
“He whose breath is lies shall be lost.” Breath means the inborn and natural impulse. The root of the verb translated “shall perish” means to lose oneself by wandering about. The cognate Arabic means to flee away wild in the desert. The spirit, therefore, that habitually breathes out falsities, and so acts constitutionally athwart of what is true, is best described by keeping to the original; that is, instead of perishing in the broader and vaguer way, he wanders off and is lost in the wilderness of his own deceptions.—Miller.
The thief doth only send one to the devil; the adulterer, two; the slanderer hurteth three—himself, the person of whom, the person to whom he tells the lie.—T. Adams.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_19:6-7
TWO PROOFS OF HUMAN SELFISHNESS
I. The servile regard which men pay to rank and wealth. A prince is a man in whose hand there is power to advance the material interests of other men, and this makes him a loadstone to the godless man whatever his character may be. As the magnet will attract all the steel dust within its reach, so the prince is a magnet which attracts all the self-seeking and the worldly who can by any possibility obtain any favour from him. To gain that favour they will fawn upon him and flatter him, and will stoop even to become suppliants at his feet. Let him be one of the most contemptible of human creatures, there will not be wanting those who may be in many respects his superiors who will serve him from hope of advancing their own interests. We know that this is not universally the case—that there have been noble men in all ages who would scorn to entreat the favour of any man, simply because he was a man of power; but Solomon here speaks of the rule and not of the exception, and the fact that it is so testifies to the self-seeking which is the characteristic of men in general.
II. The treatment which the poor man often receives from his more wealthy kinsfolk. The proverb implies that those who hate him and pass him by with disdain are richer than himself, and therefore not only bound to pity his poverty but able to lighten his burden. But the same selfishness which draws men to the rich causes them to shun the poor in general, and especially their poor relations, for they feel conscious that these latter have a stronger claim upon them than those who are not so related. And even if the poor man does not need the help of his richer brethren he will often find himself unrecognised by them, simply because he occupies a lower social station. He has nothing to give them in the way of material good—his favour is worth nothing in the way of promoting their worldly interests—the very fact that he is poor and yet is more or less nearly connected by family ties is supposed to dim the lustre of their greatness, and they therefore cherish towards him a positive dislike which they manifest by avoiding his society as much as possible, and by receiving all his advances towards friendship with coolness and disdain. If we had no other proof of the depth to which man has fallen since God created him in His own image, the regard which men pay, not to what a man is, but to what he has, would be one sad enough (See also Homiletics on chap. Pro_14:20, page 370).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Princes need not pride themselves in the homage that is paid to them, for their favour is sought by men, not so much out of regard to their persons, as from a regard to their power. Kindness and liberality have a greater influence for gaining the hearts of men, than dignity of station. There are many that seek the ruler’s favour, but every man loves him that is generous. When power and generosity meet in the same person, he becomes an object of universal esteem, like Marcus Antoninus, who was lamented by every man when he was dead, as if the glory of the Roman empire had died with him.
How inexcusable are we, if we do not love God with all our hearts. His gifts to us are past number, and all the gifts of men to us are the fruits of His bounty, conveyed by the ministry of those whose hearts are disposed by His providence to kindness. “I have seen thy face,” said Jacob to Esau, “as the face of God.” His brother’s favour he knew to be a fruit of the mercy of Him with whom he spake and prevailed at Bethel.—Lawson.
For Homiletics on Pro_19:8-9 see Pro_19:2; Pro_19:5 of this chapter, also on chapters Pro_8:36 and Pro_9:12, pages 122 and 128.

Proverbs 19:10
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_19:10 Delight. Most commentators translate this word “luxury.” Miller, however, as will be seen from his comment, retains the reading of the English version.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_19:10
I. Where there is wealth or exalted station there ought to be correspondent qualifications. (For the real signification of the word translated delight see CRITICAL NOTES.) If a man is rich he ought to be wise, and if he is powerful he ought to have been instructed how to use his power well. A fool is useless in any condition of life, but a fool who is the possessor of a fortune is a power for evil. We must understand the word servant here to mean an ignorant and incapable man—one who, though able to serve, has no ability to rule. A man may be very well fitted to perform the duties of a common seaman, but if he is ignorant of the laws of navigation it would be a great misfortune for both himself and the rest of the crew if he were to be appointed to the captain’s post. If he had remained before the mast he might have done good service, but when he is promoted to a higher rank he is only an instrument of mischief. Of the two incongruities dealt with in the proverb this last is the most fruitful of evil. It is a lamentable thing when great riches come into the possession of a fool who does not know how to use his wealth either for his own or his neighbour’s good, and it may be productive of positive harm both to himself and others. Instances are not at all uncommon, and most men have met with them, in which a man in a very humble station, and destitute of true and spiritual wisdom, inherits suddenly a large fortune. In the majority of such cases the inheritance is a curse rather than a blessing, for the inheritor has no idea how to use it so as to promote his own real welfare. His higher nature has never been developed, consequently he has no spiritual or intellectual desires to gratify, and all he can do with his wealth is to minister to his appetites and gratify his passions, which he often does in a most unseemly way, and to an extent which makes him a worse man when he is rich than he was when he was poor. But this misuse of wealth is not so great a misfortune as the misuse of power. The evil effects of the first will be confined within comparatively narrow limits, but those of the latter are widespread. When a man is neither a prince by birth or by nature, and yet is in a position which gives him power over men who are either or both, there is a great disproportion in the moral fitness of things which generally brings much social and national trouble. For if a man’s only title to rule is that of birth, it is better for those whom he rules than if he had none at all. If he is an incapable man himself he may be the descendant of greater men, and those under him may be able to submit to him for what he represents, although they cannot reverence him for what he is. But when he has not even this small claim on their obedience, the unseemliness is so great that national anarchy, and consequently much individual suffering, is the almost certain result.
II. Either of these incongruities present a deep mystery in the Divine government. When we consider what a great power for good as well as for evil is wrapped up in wealth, the providence appears to us dark which often gives it to the moral fool and leaves the wise man destitute. But when we find a weak man apparently holding in his hands the destinies of many stronger and nobler men—a “servant” ruling over “princes”—the providence seems darker still. But there are two sources whence we can draw comfort. We can look forward to that “time of restitution of all things” (Act_3:21) when all these manifest inconsistencies shall be done away with, and we can assure ourselves that “things are not what they seem”—that the wisdom of the wise man is a greater power for good than the wealth of the rich, and that, after all, the choice of the ruler is in the hand of those whom he rules, and that if the latter are “princes” they will not long suffer themselves to be ruled by one who is “a servant.”
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS

1. In its secular form this truth is obvious. 2. In its higher but intermediate form, it means that an ungodly sinner, here called “a stupid man,” on his way to death and judgment, is so shockingly off in all interests of his being, that “delight” is a mockery; it is anything but suited to his state. And to have him stand, as he often does, superior to Christians, overawing Christian life, and repressing Christian eminence of character, is indeed a servant ruling a prince; and it is as good an instance as could be met, of something that does not suit, or as the original has it, does not sit well. 3. But Solomon would carry it a story higher. He means to continue his pursuit of the impenitent. He means to tell them that their delight, in itself considered, would not sit well; that to reward a fool would bring dishonour upon government; and to release the outlaw from his bonds would really be to elect the slave to a post higher than the “princes.”—Miller.
   With all the preference here expressed for virtuous poverty, the seemliness of rank, and the violence done by the upstart rule of the lower over the higher, are not overlooked.—Chalmers.
   Abundance of wealth, dainty fare, and pastime or recreation, is not meet for a vain and wicked person. For, first of all, He rather deserveth correction than recreation; secondly, He abuseth all his delights and possessions to his own hurt, being drunken with his vanities; last of all, He is so puffed up and corrupted by prosperity, that he oppresseth his neighbours.… But if a light vanity beseem not a vain person, then authority, which carrieth with it a weight of glory, less beseemeth a vile person, who is of a servile disposition and condition, especially that rule which is exercised over noble personages.—Muffet.
   Judge, then, how horrible it is that men should set the devil or his two angels, the world and the flesh, on the throne, while they place God on the footstool; or that in this commonwealth of man, reason, which is the queen or princess over the better powers and graces of the soul, should stoop to so base a slave as sensual lust.—T. Adams.
   The reason is, because a wise man is master of his delight, a fool is servant unto it. And delight never doth well but where it is commanded, never doth so ill as where it is commander.… The command of delight is like the ruling of a servant over princes; and as he is foolish in ruling, so it is the quality of a fool to give the ruling of his heart unto delight.—Jermin.

Proverbs 19:11-12
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_19:11. Discretion, or “intelligence.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_19:11-12
TWO KINGS
I. The man who exercises despotic power over the destinies of his fellow creatures. The similitudes by which Solomon describes the power that is sometimes lodged in a kingly hand are very strong, and were more true in his day than they are in ours. The wrath of a despot is like the roaring of a lion because it is an indication of the destructive power that lies behind it. That roar is not an empty sound, for everyone who hears it knows that the savage beast can do more than roar—that he can tear in pieces the unfortunate victim of his wrath. If he could only roar men would listen unmoved, but they tremble because they know that his anger can find an outlet in a more terrible manner. There are men whose wrath, although it is fierce, does not fill its objects with any alarm—they know that the man’s anger can only find an outlet in words and that he is impotent to do them harm. But there are those whose anger can work terrible evil to its victims, and who have such forces at their command that a man may well fear to incur their wrath. There have been despots in the world to incur whose displeasure was like awaking the fury of a wild beast, and whose manner of repaying those who had offended them was more brutal than human. But men in such a position have as much power to bless as to curse. If they choose to exercise their prerogative in a kindly manner they can exercise an influence as reviving and as cheering as that of “the dew upon the grass.” Such an one can elevate his subjects both socially and morally by the enactment of wise laws, and in this sense can make a wilderness rejoice and blossom as the rose. Perhaps, however, the proverb more directly refers to the power of the king to exalt and promote his favourites—those who either by chance or by devotion to his interests become objects of his especial regard. If such men are poor the king’s favour can effect as great a transformation in their circumstances as the dew will upon a field scorched by the sun, and so long as that favour continues they are as continually and as liberally nourished as the grass is watered by the daily dew.
II. The man who can curb his anger and pardon an offence. Solomon was a king whose power was not inaptly described by the twelfth verse, but he had too much spiritual enlightenment to conceive that there was any true glory in it alone. He gives the palm to the man who can “rule his spirit,” and who can “pass over a transgression,” especially if that man has great power in his hand to visit the offender with punishment. If it is the glory of a man with limited influence to pardon an offender, it is much more glorious for a king to do so, because his wrath is able to exercise itself without being called to an account. This thought may be applied to the King of kings, to the Omnipotent Ruler of the universe. When Moses besought Him to show him His glory “He said, I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee,” and that name was, “The Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” (Exo_33:19; Exo_34:6.) For Homiletics on the same subject see on chap. Pro_14:29, page 386, and on chap. Pro_16:32, page 497.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
If men, as they grow more sensible, forgive easier, and it is their honour or glory to “pass over an offence,” the implication is that thus it must be with the All-Wise. Complaint is foolish, for eternity will reveal that the Almighty took no pleasure in punishing us. “The commonest man,” literally “a man,” but a man under the title which, all through this book, as in Isa_2:9, distinguishes itself from another title, which means a man of the better sort. This gives two points of heightened emphasis:—First, even the commonest man thinks it well to forgive. How much more the Almighty! And, second, even the commonest man, when intelligent, forgives the easier: how much more the Great Intelligence? He who best understands His honour would not be likely to inflict punishment, unless where it was impossible that there should be a final escape (Pro_19:5).—Miller.
The monarch of the forest is a just comparison to the monarch of the land. “The lion hath roared; who will not fear?” The rocks and hills echo the terrific cry. The whole race of the animals of the forest are driven to flight, or petrified to the spot. Such is the king’s wrath in a land of despotism; reigning without law, above law, his will his only law; an awful picture of cruelty, tyranny, and caprice! Unlimited power is too much for proud human nature to bear, except with special grace from above.—Bridges.
Discretion is a buckler made of a cold, hard, smooth metal, and that which giveth the true temper to the metal is delay. For in all the ways of discretion delay holdeth it by the hand, it judgeth not without delay, it worketh not without delay, it is not angry without delay. The fiery darts that are thrown against it kindle not this metal hastily, the strokes of wrong and injury bruise not this metal easily; the apprehensions of a moved spirit fasten not easily upon it, the fury that assaulteth it slips off by a mild smoothess from it.—Jermin.
The only legitimate anger is a holy emotion directed against an unholy thing. Sin, and not our neighbour, must be its object. Zeal for righteousness, and not our own pride, must be its distinguishing character. The exercise of anger, although not necessarily sinful, is exceedingly difficult and dangerous.… Thus it comes about, that although anger be not in its own nature and in all cases sinful, the best practical rule of life is to represss it, as if it were. The holy might use it against sin in the world, if the holy were here, but it seems too sharp a weapon for our handling … The best practical rule for the treatment of anger against persons is to defer it. Its nature presses for instant vengeance, and the appetite should be starved. A wise man may indeed experience the heat, but he will do nothing till he cools again. When your clothes outside are on fire you wrap yourself in a blanket, if you can, and so smother the flame; in like manner, when your heart within has caught the fire of anger, your first business is to get the flame extinguished.… To pass over a transgression is a man’s “glory” … This is a note in unison with the Sermon on the Mount, and therefore at variance with most of our modern codes of honour. It has often been remarked that the Bible proves itself Divine by the knowlege of man which it displays; but perhaps its opposition to the main currents of a human heart are as clear a mark of its heavenly origin as its discovery of what these currents are.—
Arnot.

Proverbs 19:13-15
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_19:13. Calamity. The word so translated is in the plural form, so as to express the continuance of the trouble.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_19:13-14; Pro_19:18
DOMESTIC SORROW AND HOW TO AVOID IT
I. Two fruitful sources of sorrow. There are many fountains whence flow waters which sadly embitter the lives of men, but there is none outside of personal character which can more entirely darken their days than either of those mentioned in the thirteenth verse. To be either the father of a foolish son or the husband of a contentious wife is sorrow indeed. The first clause of this proverb is nearly the same as that in chap. Pro_10:1, for Homiletics on which see page 137. The contentious wife is here compared to a “continual dropping,” because although the discomfort would not be great if it was only occasional, its perpetual existence makes life wretched. A drop of water falling upon a man’s head is a very trifling matter, but one of the most dreaded tortures of the Spanish inquisition was that in which a man was placed in such a position that a single drop was constantly descending upon his head. Hour after hour, day after day, and night after night, the drops followed one another in regular and unbroken succession until the poor wretch first lost reason and then life. It is much harder to bear a burden which is never lifted from the shoulders than to carry one which is much heavier for a short time and for a very limited distance. So it is easier for a man to rise above trials which, although they may be almost overwhelming for a time, last but through a comparatively very short portion of his life. But the trial of a contentious wife is unceasing so long as the marriage bond continues, and it is this that makes it so greatly to be dreaded.
II. Means suggested whereby these sources of sorrow may be avoided. If so much depends upon our family relationships—if the character of wife and child have so much to do with our weal and woe—it becomes a most momentous question how to act so as to secure a prudent wife in the first place, and then to avoid the calamity of a foolish son. It must be remembered that the first is purely a matter of choice. A man’s “house and riches” may be “the inheritance of fathers,” his social position may depend upon his parents, but his wife depends upon his own choice, and as “a prudent wife is from the Lord,” if he seeks the guidance of Him who is alone the infallible reader of character, instead of following the leadings of his fancy or consulting his worldly interests, he may with confidence expect to avoid the curse and secure the blessing. The other relationship is not one of choice. Our children are sent to us by the hand of God, and we have no more voice in determining their dispositions and mental constitutions than we have the colour of their hair, or any other bodily characteristic. But of two things we are certain. 1. That they will need a training which will not be always pleasant to them. Where there is disease in the body a cure cannot often be effected without a resort to unpleasant—often to painful—measures. It is not pleasant to a surgeon to use the knife, but it is often indispensable to his patient’s recovery to health. And both experience and revelation testify to the fact that our children come into the world with a moral taint upon them—that they have a tendency to go the wrong way—that, in the words of the Psalmist (Psa_51:5) they are “shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin.” If a parent desires to avoid the calamity of a foolish son he must early recognise the truth that his child will not become morally wise unless he “chasten” him, unless he subject him to a system of moral training, unless he make him feel that punishment must follow sin. This will be as painful sometimes to the parent as to the child; the crying of the son will hurt the father more than the rod will hurt the child, but the end to be attained by present suffering must be borne in mind, and must nerve the heart and hand of him whose duty it is to administer chastisement. (On this subject see also Homiletics on chap. Pro_13:24, page 334). 2. That there is reason to hope that children, if rightly trained, will be a joy and not a sorrow. There is hope. When a river has but just left its source among the hills, and the current is feeble, its progress can be stopped with ease; but when it has flowed on for a few miles and there is depth of water enough to float a fleet, it is almost impossible to stop its onward course. So, when the power of evil in the human soul is in its infancy, it is a much more easy task to restrain it than when it has acquired strength by years of uncontrolled dominion. When the young oak is but a few inches above the ground, the hand of the woodman can bend the slender stem as he pleases; but when it has grown for half a century he is powerless to turn it from the direction which it has taken. So a child’s will is pliable to the wise training of the parent, and if the education of the moral nature be begun early, there is every reason to hope that it will acquire strength to overcome both sin within and without, and that a righteous manhood will in the future more than repay both him whose duty it is to chasten, and him upon whom the chastisement must fall.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_19:13-14. “A prudent wife” is not to be got by an imprudent mode of choice. The gift must be sought “from the Lord.” But this does not mean that the Lord is supernaturally to point out the individual. Our own discretion must be put in exercise, along with prayer for the divine superintendence and direction, so as to bring about a happy result. And then the precious gift should be owned, and the all-bountiful Giver praised for his goodness in bestowing it.—Wardlaw.
“Every good gift is from the Lord” (Jas_1:17) only, some in the ordinary course, others more directly from Him. Houses and riches, though His gifts, come by descent. They are the inheritance of fathers. The heir is known, and in the course of events he takes possession of his estate. But the prudent wife is wholly unconnected with the man. There has been no previous bond of relation. She is often brought from a distance. “The Lord brought her to the man” by His special Providence, and therefore as His special gift.—Bridges.
Pro_19:18. The great force of the rule is its timely application—while there is hope. For hopeless the case may be, if the remedy be delayed. The cure of the evil must be commenced in infancy. Not a moment is to be lost. “Betimes” (chap. Pro_13:24; Pro_22:15)—is the season when the good can be effected with the most ease, and the fewest strokes. The lesson of obedience should be learnt at the first dawn. One decided struggle and victory in very early life, may, under God, do much towards settling the point at once and to the end. On the other hand, sharp chastening may fail later to accomplish, what a slight rebuke in the early course might have wrought.—Bridges.
You are here taught further, that firmness must be in union with affection in applying the rod. The words seem to express a harsh, yet it is an important and most salutary lesson:—“let not thy soul spare for his crying.” The words do not mean, that you should not feel, very far from that. It was the knowledge that feeling was unavoidable, and that the strength and tenderness of it was ever apt to tempt parents to relent and desist, and leave their end unaccomplished,—that made it necessary to warn against too ready a yielding to this natural inclination. The child may cry, and cry bitterly, previously to the correction; but, when you have reason to think the crying is for the rod rather than for the fault, and that, but for the threatened chastisement, the heart would probably have been unmoved, and the eyes dry;—then you must not allow yourselves to be so unmanned by his tears, as to suspend your purpose, and decline its infliction. If a child perceives this (and soon are children sharp enough to find it out) he has discovered the way to move you next time; and will have recourse to it accordingly.—Wardlaw.
On the subject of Pro_19:15 see Homiletics on chap. Pro_6:9-10, page 79.

Proverbs 19:16
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_19:16. Miller reads this verse “He that guards the commandment guards himself; in scattering his ways he dies.” (See his comment.) Hitzig’s rendering of the last clause agrees with Miller’s.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_19:16
A DOUBLE KEEPING
I. A keeping of the Divine commandments. What is it to “keep the commandment?” Dr. Miller translates this verb to guard or watch. Taken in this sense therefore the proverb implies that there is need—1. To lay up God’s law in our hearts. It is to be our constant aim to know the will of God—the words which He has spoken, the commands which He has given, are to be constantly kept in remembrance and made the principal subject of our thoughts. We are to tread in the footsteps of the man described in the first Psalm, whose “delight is in the law of the Lord” and who “meditates” upon it “day and night. But the word as it is commonly understood implies—2. To translate God’s law into life, It is one thing to know the will of God, it is another thing to do it. Knowledge must come before obedience, but knowledge alone will not save the soul from death.
II. A keeping of the human soul. There is but one way to guard the human soul from the dangers to which it is exposed, and that is by complying with the demands of the God who can alone give spiritual life. He commands us to yield ourselves unreservedly to his guidance, to accept his method of being made right in relation to His law, to fight against the evil tendencies of our fallen nature, and to seek His help to overcome them. In doing this He has promised that we shall find that emancipation from the bondage of sin, that awakening of spiritual faculties, and that sense of His favour which alone is the life of the soul. We have before dwelt upon proverbs which embody truths similar to those contained in this verse. (See on chap.
Pro_11:3, page 195; chap. Pro_10:8, page 151; chap. Pro_13:6; Pro_13:13-14, pages 299, 312, 313; chap. Pro_16:17, page 479.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Keep means to retain. Guard means to watch. The root of the present word means to bristle, then to watch close, either from the bristling of spears, or from a sharp stave. There is a philosophy in these words, … viz., that conscience is vagrant. We have to watch. Like the mind itself, it is hard to hold it to the point. Attention is our whole voluntary work. And, to a most amazing degree, the Scriptures are framed upon this idea. We are to remember now our Creator (Ecc_12:1). We are to remember the Sabbath day (Exo_20:8). We are to “observe to do,” etc. (this very word guard). See Deu_5:1; Deu_5:32, et passim. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed (this same word guarding) thereto according to Thy word” (Psa_119:9). “Guards himself” (the same word). (See CRITICAL NOTES.) This is an iron link of sequence which no Anti-Calvinistic thought can shake. He who stands sentry over the “commandment” stands sentry over himself; literally “his soul.” There is no helplessness in man other than that tardema, or deep sleep (Pro_19:15) which “sloth” wilfully casts him into, and which a voluntary slothfulness perpetually increases and maintains.” The fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are aliens.” The proverb advances upon this in the second clause. What more voluntary than a man’s “way?” It has a voluntary goal, it has a daily journeying, and it includes all that is voluntary. Seize a man at any moment. All that he is upon is part of his life’s travel. Now, a Christian has but one way. So far forth as he is a Christian, he has but one end, and one path for reaching it. There is a beautiful unitariness in his journeying. It is a habit of Scripture to turn attention to the scattered life of the lost. They have no one end. “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light,” says the Saviour (Mat_6:23). Thou “hast scattered thy ways to the strangers,” says Jeremiah (Pro_3:13); this same expression. “Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way” (Jer_2:36). Despiseth (English version) suits the lexicon and suits the sense, for certainly the lost man has less respect for his way and life than the pardoned believer; but “scattering” is equally legitimate and common; more strengthened by analogy, and more in keeping with the first clause, where the verb to guard stands more opposed to vagrant and distraught ideas. “Dies;” see Job_5:2. Corruption is seated in the soul, but not out of reach by any means. A man can increase it. What we do outside kills inwardly. A man’s counting-house might seem to have little to do with the state of his soul, but it is shaping it all the time. If he scatters his ways he is killing his soul, and what we are to remark is, that there is an ipso actu condition of the effect (as in chap. Pro_11:19) which is expressed in the Hebrew. The vagrancy of a morning’s worldliness is that much more death, as punctually administered as any of the chemistries of nature. The form is participial. It is “in scattering,” or “as scattering,” his ways that “he dies.”—Miller.

Proverbs 19:17
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_19:17
THE BEST INVESTMENT
I. A God-like disposition. To “pity the poor and to show that we do so by ministering to their necessities (for this is implied in the proverb) is to be like God. We have before seen how He identifies Himself with them, and how severe is the condemnation which He passes upon those who wrong them. (See Homiletics and Comments upon chap. Pro_14:31, page 390, and upon chap. Pro_17:5, page 504). God is a Being of compassion—the gospel of salvation is a testimony to the pitifulness of His nature. He has remembered man in his low estate and in his condition of spiritual poverty, and out of the “riches of His grace” (Eph_1:7) He has supplied his need. But he has not only an eye for the spiritual necessities of His creatures, but for those also which belong exclusively to their bodily nature. God manifest in flesh had compassion upon the multitude because “they had nothing to eat” (Mat_15:32), and the same pitiful heart is still moved with a like emotion when He looks into the haunts of poverty and sees men and women and little children without the necessaries of life, or toiling hard and long for a pittance that is only just enough to keep them from starvation. The man therefore who “has pity on the poor” manifests a disposition akin to that of his Father in heaven.
II. A most reliable debtor. God incarnate fed the hungry by miracle, but now that He has left the earth for a season He entrusts the duty to human hands. He does not now rain down bread from heaven to feed even his spiritual Israel, but He expects those of His children to whom He has given more than enough of this world’s good things to do it for Him, and looks upon the act as a loan to Himself. 1. That this investment will be a profitable one is certain, from the character of God. When men entrust others with their money, they have especial regard to the character of those whom they make their debtor. This forms the chief and most reliable security that a man can have that he will receive it again. God’s character is pre-eminently good—so good that His word is more than the bond of the most trustworthy human creature, and none in heaven or earth or hell will ever be able to say that He has not paid them what was their due. 2. The wealth of God is a guarantee that He will repay with interest. A man who is generous by nature, and possessed of abundant means, will not only faithfully repay a loan but, if his debtor is a needy man, will feel a pleasure in adding to it a large interest, or will press him to accept some extra token of his esteem. God is the great and bountiful proprietor of all the resources of the universe, whether spiritual or material, and He loves to give abundantly. He has been always giving out of His fulness since there has been a creature upon whom to lavish His gifts, and He delights to see His children give, like Himself, generously and ungrudgingly. And, seeing he takes upon Himself to repay what is given to the poor, His generosity and His wealth are sureties that the interest for the loan will be very ample. His children may have to wait long for it, but the longer they wait the greater the accumulation of interest. They may receive a partial repayment in material good, but the great recompense will be at the “resurrection of the just” (Luk_14:14) on that day when the King shall say unto them, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was an hungered and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in; naked and ye clothed me” (Mat_25:34; Mat_25:36).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
When Alexander set forward upon his great exploits before he went from Macedonia, he divided among his captains and friends all that he had; for which, when one of his friends reproved him, saying that he was prodigal, for that he had reserved nothing for himself, the answer which Alexander gave was this: that he had reserved much unto himself, namely, hope of the monarchy of the world, which by the valour and help of those his captains and nobles he hoped to obtain. And thus, surely, he that giveth to the poor may seem to be prodigal, yet, in respect of the hope that he hath of profit, he is frugal-wise; neither is his hope such as Alexander’s was, which depended on the uncertainty of war, but such as is grounded upon the certainty of God’s word.—Spencer.
The Lord will not only pay for the poor man, but requite him that gave alms, with usury, returning great gifts for small. Give, then, thine house, and receive heaven; give transitory goods, and receive a durable substance; give a cup of cold water and receive God’s kingdom … If our rich friend should say unto us, lay out so much money for me, I will repay it, we would willingly and readily do it. Seeing, then, our best friend, yea, our king, the King of kings, biddeth us give to the poor, promising that He will see us answered for that we give, shall we not bestow alms at His motion and for His sake?—Muffet.
The off-hand sense is no doubt correct, and, as a worldly maxim, often the munificent are rewarded in this world.… But we are not to suppose the generous to suffer, and the saint might lose by being paid in money. The saint might need the chastisement of pecuniary distress. We are not to suppose, therefore, this sense to be the grand one. But the meaning is that obedience, if it be spiritual, is a positive thing; that it involves large and generous sacrifices; that it is to “visit the fatherless” (Jas_1:27); and to feed the hungry (Mat_25:35); and that, in the grandest sense, he that does these things “makes a borrower of Jehovah;” and that the transaction, under the grand head of guarding his own soul (Pro_19:16), will pay him better than any less positive and more mystic species of obedience.… It may be fancy, but causing to borrow seems to be more expressive than (as an equivalent) to lend (E.V.). We can make God borrow of us at any time among the widows and the orphans (Mat_25:40; Jer_49:11).—Miller.

Proverbs 19:18
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_19:13. Calamity. The word so translated is in the plural form, so as to express the continuance of the trouble.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_19:13-14; Pro_19:18
DOMESTIC SORROW AND HOW TO AVOID IT
I. Two fruitful sources of sorrow. There are many fountains whence flow waters which sadly embitter the lives of men, but there is none outside of personal character which can more entirely darken their days than either of those mentioned in the thirteenth verse. To be either the father of a foolish son or the husband of a contentious wife is sorrow indeed. The first clause of this proverb is nearly the same as that in chap. Pro_10:1, for Homiletics on which see page 137. The contentious wife is here compared to a “
continual dropping,” because although the discomfort would not be great if it was only occasional, its perpetual existence makes life wretched. A drop of water falling upon a man’s head is a very trifling matter, but one of the most dreaded tortures of the Spanish inquisition was that in which a man was placed in such a position that a single drop was constantly descending upon his head. Hour after hour, day after day, and night after night, the drops followed one another in regular and unbroken succession until the poor wretch first lost reason and then life. It is much harder to bear a burden which is never lifted from the shoulders than to carry one which is much heavier for a short time and for a very limited distance. So it is easier for a man to rise above trials which, although they may be almost overwhelming for a time, last but through a comparatively very short portion of his life. But the trial of a contentious wife is unceasing so long as the marriage bond continues, and it is this that makes it so greatly to be dreaded.
II. Means suggested whereby these sources of sorrow may be avoided. If so much depends upon our family relationships—if the character of wife and child have so much to do with our weal and woe—it becomes a most momentous question how to act so as to secure a prudent wife in the first place, and then to avoid the calamity of a foolish son. It must be remembered that the first is purely a matter of choice. A man’s “house and riches” may be “the inheritance of fathers,” his social position may depend upon his parents, but his wife depends upon his own choice, and as “a prudent wife is from the Lord,” if he seeks the guidance of Him who is alone the infallible reader of character, instead of following the leadings of his fancy or consulting his worldly interests, he may with confidence expect to avoid the curse and secure the blessing. The other relationship is not one of choice. Our children are sent to us by the hand of God, and we have no more voice in determining their dispositions and mental constitutions than we have the colour of their hair, or any other bodily characteristic. But of two things we are certain. 1. That they will need a training which will not be always pleasant to them. Where there is disease in the body a cure cannot often be effected without a resort to unpleasant—often to painful—measures. It is not pleasant to a surgeon to use the knife, but it is often indispensable to his patient’s recovery to health. And both experience and revelation testify to the fact that our children come into the world with a moral taint upon them—that they have a tendency to go the wrong way—that, in the words of the Psalmist (Psa_51:5) they are “shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin.” If a parent desires to avoid the calamity of a foolish son he must early recognise the truth that his child will not become morally wise unless he “chasten” him, unless he subject him to a system of moral training, unless he make him feel that punishment must follow sin. This will be as painful sometimes to the parent as to the child; the crying of the son will hurt the father more than the rod will hurt the child, but the end to be attained by present suffering must be borne in mind, and must nerve the heart and hand of him whose duty it is to administer chastisement. (On this subject see also Homiletics on chap. Pro_13:24, page 334). 2. That there is reason to hope that children, if rightly trained, will be a joy and not a sorrow. There is hope. When a river has but just left its source among the hills, and the current is feeble, its progress can be stopped with ease; but when it has flowed on for a few miles and there is depth of water enough to float a fleet, it is almost impossible to stop its onward course. So, when the power of evil in the human soul is in its infancy, it is a much more easy task to restrain it than when it has acquired strength by years of uncontrolled dominion. When the young oak is but a few inches above the ground, the hand of the woodman can bend the slender stem as he pleases; but when it has grown for half a century he is powerless to turn it from the direction which it has taken. So a child’s will is pliable to the wise training of the parent, and if the education of the moral nature be begun early, there is every reason to hope that it will acquire strength to overcome both sin within and without, and that a righteous manhood will in the future more than repay both him whose duty it is to chasten, and him upon whom the chastisement must fall.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_19:13-14. “A prudent wife” is not to be got by an imprudent mode of choice. The gift must be sought “from the Lord.” But this does not mean that the Lord is supernaturally to point out the individual. Our own discretion must be put in exercise, along with prayer for the divine superintendence and direction, so as to bring about a happy result. And then the precious gift should be owned, and the all-bountiful Giver praised for his goodness in bestowing it.—Wardlaw.
“Every good gift is from the Lord” (Jas_1:17) only, some in the ordinary course, others more directly from Him. Houses and riches, though His gifts, come by descent. They are the inheritance of fathers. The heir is known, and in the course of events he takes possession of his estate. But the prudent wife is wholly unconnected with the man. There has been no previous bond of relation. She is often brought from a distance. “The Lord brought her to the man” by His special Providence, and therefore as His special gift.—Bridges.
Pro_19:18. The great force of the rule is its timely application—while there is hope. For hopeless the case may be, if the remedy be delayed. The cure of the evil must be commenced in infancy. Not a moment is to be lost. “Betimes” (chap. Pro_13:24; Pro_22:15)—is the season when the good can be effected with the most ease, and the fewest strokes. The lesson of obedience should be learnt at the first dawn. One decided struggle and victory in very early life, may, under God, do much towards settling the point at once and to the end. On the other hand, sharp chastening may fail later to accomplish, what a slight rebuke in the early course might have wrought.—Bridges.
You are here taught further, that firmness must be in union with affection in applying the rod. The words seem to express a harsh, yet it is an important and most salutary lesson:—“let not thy soul spare for his crying.” The words do not mean, that you should not feel, very far from that. It was the knowledge that feeling was unavoidable, and that the strength and tenderness of it was ever apt to tempt parents to relent and desist, and leave their end unaccomplished,—that made it necessary to warn against too ready a yielding to this natural inclination. The child may cry, and cry bitterly, previously to the correction; but, when you have reason to think the crying is for the rod rather than for the fault, and that, but for the threatened chastisement, the heart would probably have been unmoved, and the eyes dry;—then you must not allow yourselves to be so unmanned by his tears, as to suspend your purpose, and decline its infliction. If a child perceives this (and soon are children sharp enough to find it out) he has discovered the way to move you next time; and will have recourse to it accordingly.—Wardlaw.
On the subject of Pro_19:15 see Homiletics on chap. Pro_6:9-10, page 79.

Proverbs 19:18-20
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_19:18. Let not thy soul spare for his crying. The translations of most expositors here differ widely from the authorised version. Grotius, Maurer, Delitzsch, Zöckler, etc., read, “Let not thy soul rise to kill him,” “Go not too far to kill him,” etc., all understanding the precept to be directed against excessive severity. Cartwright renders it “Let not thy soul spare him, to his destruction.”
Pro_19:20. Latter end, rather afterwards.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Pro_19:18-20
RELATIVE DUTIES
We have before considered Pro_19:18 in connection with Pro_19:13-14. A reference to the CRITICAL NOTES will, however, show that there is an interpretation of the last clause which was not treated there. Pro_19:19-20, regarded separately, embody thoughts and precepts which we have had before. (See Homiletics on chap. Pro_14:17; Pro_14:29, pages 363, 386, and on chap. Pro_12:15, page 271.) But these verses, taken in conjunction with the other interpretation of the last clause of Pro_19:18, may be regarded as giving valuable advice both to those who have to enforce discipline and administer chastisement, and to those who have to endure them.
I. Counsel for parents. The reasonableness and necessity of chastisement has been considered before, but the additional thought which the other rendering of Pro_19:18 makes prominent is, that it must be administered from a sense of duty, and dictated by love. Parents are far too apt to punish their children, not because they have sinned against God, but because they have offended them,—and when this is the case, the anger manifested deprives the correction of its salutary effect. “When the rod is used,” says Wardlaw,—and the words may be applied to any form of parental chastisement,—“the end in view should be, purely and exclusively, the benefit of the child; not the gratification of any resentful passion on the part of the parent. Should the latter be apparent to the child, the effect is lost, and worse than lost; for, instead of the sentiment of grief and melting tenderness, there will be engendered a feeling of sullen hostility, … if not, even, of angry scorn, towards him who has manifested selfish passion rather than parental love.” The parent must regard himself as God’s representative, and must act, not as for himself, but for the Divine Master and Father of both parent and child. If this is done, there will be none of that “provocation to wrath” or “discouragement,” against which Paul puts Christians on their guard (
Col_3:21; Eph_6:4), and there will be good ground to hope that the chastisement will bring profit.
II. Counsel for children. The reasoning here is akin to that used by the Apostle in the twelfth of Hebrews. It is admitted by him (Pro_19:11-12) that “no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous;” nevertheless, those who have to endure it are exhorted to accept it with submission because of the precious after-yield—they are counselled to give themselves up to the Divine pruner and suffer Him to work His will upon them now, in consideration of the “peaceable fruits of righteousness” which will be the result in the days of harvest. So Solomon argues here. He does not deny that “counsel” and “instruction,” or rather discipline, may often be unpalatable and irksome, but he holds up the wisdom that may be gained by them as an incentive to induce the young to “hear” and to “receive” them—he “reaches a hand through time,” and “fetches the far-off interest” of what at present seems grievous in order to give effect to his exhortations. The actions of men in the present are mainly determined by the amount of consideration they give to the future. There are men who live wholly in the present hour—who gratify the fancy or follow the passion of to-day without giving a thought of the needs of to-morrow, or of the penalty that they may then have to pay for their folly. Others look ahead a little farther—they fashion the actions of to-day with a due regard to the interests of their whole future earthly life, but they bestow no thought upon the infinite “afterward” that is to succeed it. The proverb counsels both the young and the old to bring this long to-morrow into the plans of to-day, and to let the remembrance of it open the ear to the words of Divine wisdom by whomsoever they are spoken, and bend the will to receive the “chastening of the Lord,” whether it come in the form of parental discipline or in a sterner garb.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_19:18-19. “Being in great wrath, remit the punishment; but if thou let him escape, yet apply (or add) chastisement again. (So Muffet renders Pro_19:19.) When thou are in thy mood, or burnest with fiery anger and displeasure, let pass for that time the correcting of thy child, lest thou passest measure therein, or mayest chance to give him some deadly blow. Nevertheless, if for that time or for that fault thou let him go free, yet let him not always go uncorrected; but when thou art more calm, according as he offereth occasion, correct him again.—Muffet.
Do not venom discipline by naked animosity. This is the human aspect. But now for the fine model of Jehovah. “He does not afflict willingly” (Lam_3:33). He follows this maxim: “Discipline thy son, because there is now hope.” But Solomon wishes plainly to declare that to kill him He does not lift up His soul. “He taketh no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but that all should turn and live” (Eze_33:11). It is evidently these great timbers of thought that Solomon is eyeing at the bottom of his structure. He is settling them along in place. Secularly, they may have but little connection; spiritually, they are all morticed close.—Miller.

Proverbs 19:21
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_19:21
MANY PLANS WORKING TO ONE END
This proverb suggests—
I. The ignorance and sinfulness of man, the infinite knowledge and goodness of God. Man is a creature of many devices; he is changeable in his purposes and plans because he is so ignorant concerning their issue. He cannot foretel with any certainty whether the event will be according to his desire, or, if it should be so, whether it will bring him satisfaction. Hence the purpose of to-day is not the purpose of next year—the plans of his youth are different from those of his riper years. But God is the same in His purposes yesterday, to-day, and for ever, because He can “declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done” (Isa_46:10). A man’s devices change in proportion as his feelings and desires vary; and these are changeable in proportion as he lacks perfection in his moral nature. But a Being of infinite goodness is not subject to these changing moods and desires: and His plans are like His character, always the same.
II. The attitude which men ought to take in relation to this truth. It is obvious that the counsel of God must stand, and that it deserves to stand before all the devices of men. If, therefore, men would have their devices stand they must learn to square them by the counsel of God. A child will have its own way when it has learned to conform its will to the will of its parent. And if a man would have his “heart’s desire,” he must so “delight in God” (Psa_37:4) that what pleases God pleases him also. For other Homiletics on this subject see on chap. Pro_16:1; Pro_16:9, pp. 451, 468.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The great collective whole of the “devices” of all hearts constitutes the grand complex scheme of the human race for their happiness. Respecting the object of every device, God has His design. There is in the world a want of coalescence between the designs of man and God—an estranged spirit of design on the part of man. God’s design is fixed and paramount.—J. Foster.
A man of the better sort. This is simply one of the names for man. We do not always translate it one of the better sort. But it is rarely chosen listlessly. Here it creates an emphasis. The most imposing “schemes” belong to the intelligent and great. The world is full of them. How foolish to build them up! Jehovah advises a whole new behaviour for His creatures. How mad to scheme away from it.—Miller.

Proverbs 19:22-24
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_19:22. The desire of a man, &c. Rather “A man’s delight (or glory) is his beneficence, or A man’s kindness is what makes him desirable, or is a desirable adornment.
Pro_19:24. In his bosom, rather, in the dish. This is of course a hyperbolic expression to set forth the inactivity of the slothful man. “Athenæns,” says Fausset, “describes (Pro_6:14) the slothful man as waiting until the roasted and seasoned thrushes fly into his mouth begging to be devoured.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_19:22
POVERTY OF HEART AND POVERTY OF CIRCUMSTANCE
If we read the first clause of this proverb as it stands in our translation it sets forth—
I. The true measure of a man’s benevolence. It is not to be measured by the amount of money that he expends upon his fellow-creatures, but upon his desire to benefit them. His desire to help them may be very strong, and yet his circumstances may be such that he has little more than sympathy to give. “The heart may be full,” says Wardlaw, “when the hand is empty.” And many deeds of charity that earn for men the title of benevolent are not really performed from motives of goodwill to others but from selfish or vainglorious ends. If we take the reading given in the CRITICAL NOTES it teaches rather the truth—
II. That small deeds of kindness are far preferable to large professions of it. The liar of the second clause is evidently one who has it in his power largely to help others, and whose promises are in proportion to his power. But they are promises only. He does not hesitate by false words to raise hopes which he never intends to fulfil, and thus becomes like the deceitful mirage of the desert, which, after cheating the traveller with delusive hopes of water, disappears, and leaves him more despairing than before. On the other hand, the poor man is evidently one whose words never go beyond his deeds, and whose deeds, if not great, are up to his ability, and are so constantly performed and so evidently the outcome of real sympathy that they are like the little rill which follows the wayfarer all through his journey, and which, although it can give but a little water at a time, is always at hand with that little.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
But let it be observed and remembered—“the desires of a man are not his kindness,” when he has the ability to be practically kind, and confines himself to desires. No. In that case, there is the clearest of all evidence that the desire is not sincere; mere profession, without reality—“love in word”—which is only another phrase for no love at all. While, therefore, there are cases in which we cheerfully, according to a common phrase, “take the will for the deed,” Knowing that there is a want of ability to do what the heart wishes; there are other cases in which we demand the deed as the only proof of the will—the gift as the only evidence of the charity.—Wardlaw.
The imperial standard of weights and measures has been sent by the King into the market place of human life, where men are busy cheating themselves and each other. Many of these merchantmen, guided by a false standard, have been all their days accustomed to call evil good and good evil. When the balance is set up by royal authority, and the proclamation issued that all transactions must be tested thereby, swindlers are dismayed, and honest men are glad. Such is the word of truth when it touches the transactions of men.… There is a most refreshing simplicity in the language of Scripture upon these points. This word speaks with authority. It is not tainted with the usual adulation of riches. A dishonest man is called a liar, however high his position may be in the city. And the honest poor gets his patent of nobility from the Sovereign’s hand. The honest rich are fully as much interested in reform in this matter as the honest poor. Make this short proverb the keynote of our commercial system, and epidemic panics will disappear.… After each catastrophe people go about shaking their heads and wringing their hands, asking, What will become of us? What shall we do? We venture to propose an answer to the inquiry. From the Bible first engrave on your hearts, then translate in your lives, and last emblazon aloft on the pediment of your trade temple this short and simple legend: “A poor man is better than a liar.”
For Homiletics on the subject of Pro_19:23 see on chapter Pro_10:27; Pro_14:26, and Pro_18:10, pages 179 and 542. Pro_19:24 will be treated in chap. Pro_26:13-15. For the subject of Pro_19:25; Pro_19:29 see chap. Pro_17:10, page 509.

Proverbs 19:26-28
CRITICAL NOTES
Pro_19:27. Cease my son, &c. “That causeth” are not in the original and the instruction spoken of may therefore be evil or good. “Two conceptions are possible: 1. The instruction is that of wisdom itself, and therefore a good wholesome discipline that leads to life; then the words can be only ironical, presenting under the appearance of a dissuasion from discipline in wisdom a very urgent counsel to hear and receive it (so Ewald, Bertheau, Elster). 2. The instruction is evil and perverted, described in clause 2 as one that causes departure from the words of wisdom. Then the admonition is seriously intended” (Zöckler, in Lange’s Commentary). On Zöckler’s first interpretation Dr. Aiken remarks, “To call this ‘irony’ seems to us a misnomer. Cease to hear instruction only to despise it. What can be more direct or literally pertinent?” Delitzsch says, “The proverb is a dissuasive from hypocrisy, a warning against the self-deception of which Jas_1:22-24 speaks, against heightening one’s own condemnation, which is the case of that servant who knows his lord’s will and does it not (Luk_12:47.)”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_19:26-28
POSSIBILITIES OF HUMAN DEPRAVITY
I. The tenderest admonitions and the most solemn warnings sometimes fail to influence for good. Sometimes the most loving parental care seems utterly wasted upon an ungrateful child, and the more constant and tender the words of admonition the farther does he depart from the way in which he ought to go. There is many a man so in love with sin that he may be said to “devour iniquity” (Pro_19:28); and when this fatal appetite has taken possession of the soul all appeals to his better nature, and even to his own self-love, are vain.
II. When men are so hardened there is no depth of iniquity to which they may not sink. He who scoffs at all threats of retribution, both in this life and in that which is to come, has broken through all barriers of restraint, and will be capable of outraging all the tender ties of human relationship, even to the extent of bringing his parents to disgrace and shame. The most hardened sinners in the universe of God are not found in heathen lands, or among the ignorant at home, but they are those who, having heard instruction, have “erred from the words of knowledge.” Each day that they resist the good influence brought to bear upon them they increase their moral insensibility, and their final condemnation (Pro_19:29). Hence the admonition of Pro_19:27. (See CRITICAL NOTES.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_19:26. This were an admirable text for young men entering upon life and still at the expense of their parents. It is a great enormity either to waste the property of their father while he is alive, or after they have succeeded to expel the widowed mother from the premises.—Chalmers.
Pro_19:27. It is so proper and natural for a son to hear instruction, that the hearing instruction maketh to be a son.… But if thou hear instruction, hear it not—not to be the better for it. Instruction speaketh to keep thee from erring; do not thou hear it to err: instruction putteth into thee the words of knowledge; do not thou put them out by erring from them, by not following them.… Cease thus to hear, but hear still. For by hearing at length thine error may be corrected; whereas, if thou hear not, thou dost not only err, but deprivest thyself of the means that reduce thee from erring.—Jermin.

Proverbs 19:2
Also that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good.
The advantages of knowledge to the lower classes
I. The utility of knowledge in general. The extent to which we have the faculty of acquiring knowledge forms the most obvious distinction of our species. As the power of acquiring knowledge is to be ascribed to reason, so the attainment of it mightily strengthens and improves it, and thereby enables it to enrich itself with further acquisitions. Knowledge, in general, expands the mind, exalts the faculties, refines the taste of pleasure, and opens numerous sources of intellectual enjoyment. The moral good of the acquisition of knowledge is chiefly this, that by multiplying the mental resources it has a tendency to exalt the character, and, in some measure, to correct and subdue the taste for gross sensuality. Some think that the instruction of the lower classes will make them dissatisfied with their station in life; and by impairing the habits of subordination, endanger the tranquillity of the state. But, in truth, nothing renders legitimate governments so insecure as extreme ignorance in the people. The true prop of good government is the opinion, the perception, on the part of the subject, of benefits resulting from it. Nothing can produce or maintain that opinion but knowledge. Of tyrannical and unlawful governments, indeed, the support is fear, to which ignorance is as congenial as it is abhorrent from the genius of a free people. Ignorance gives a sort of eternity to prejudice, and perpetuity to error.
II. The utility of religious knowledge in particular. Religion, on account of its intimate relation to a future state, is every man’s proper business, and should be his chief care. The primary truths of religion are of such daily use and necessity, that they form, not the materials of mental luxury, so properly as the food of the mind. Two considerations may suffice to evince the indispensable necessity of Scriptural knowledge.

1. The Scriptures contain an authentic discovery of the way of salvation.
2. Scriptural knowledge is of inestimable value on account of its supplying an infallible rule of life. Of an accountable creature, duty is the concern of every moment, since he is every moment pleasing or displeasing God. Hence the indispensable necessity, to every description of persons, of sound religious instruction, and of an intimate acquaintance with the Scriptures as its genuine source. (R. Hall, M. A.)

Evils of popular ignorance
I. The evils of ignorance. The faculties of reason, and judgment, and moral determination, must ever distinguish man from “the beast that perisheth,” must for ever constitute the true dignity of human nature; but then faculties and powers are of little value in themselves, and if they be not cultivated and developed, and directed to some specific end. Instruction is to man what culture is to plants. When he is deprived of its aid, his powers will either lie wholly dormant, or that which they bring forth, like the productions of the uncultivated plant, will be wild and worthless. Ignorance “is not good” for man, in regard of his social advancement. To the improvement of the mind all nations owe whatever of social blessing they enjoy. The comforts and conveniences of life, the useful and productive arts, the blessings of law and order and good government, are all derived to us from an elevated condition of the national intelligence. Ignorance may be considered as negative of everything that is good and useful: it is the night of a nation’s life, during which it can neither work for itself nor for others. Of all despotisms, the despotism of ignorance is the most tyrannical; its will is the only law it recognises, and it hates the light of reason as the night-bird dreads the sun. Ignorance “is not good” for the cause of national morality and virtue. Virtue can no more exist without a certain amount of knowledge than an animal can exist without life. In proportion as ignorance prevails morality will be destroyed. Ignorance “is not good” for a man’s individual happiness. Ignorance is a state in which all the finer feelings of the human soul are locked up, and the subject of it is deprived of some of the purest forms of moral happiness and enjoyment. Right knowledge tends to promote a man’s happiness, even with regard to the present state. Such knowledge will be found to have an ulterior effect upon a man’s character; it will awaken within him many pure and elevating emotions.
II. The nature and objects of true knowledge. It may be questioned whether the term education is understood in the plain, broad, comprehensive sense in which Hooker defined it, by whom it was made to comprehend the cultivation of all the moral, spiritual, immortal powers of man. The knowledge that “it is not good” for the soul to be without, includes a knowledge of Holy Scripture. Through this knowledge we get knowledge of other things—ourselves, redemption, sanctification. Without this knowledge a man cannot be moral, cannot be happy, cannot have peace in this life, cannot have hope for the life to come. “It is not good” that a man should be without knowing what are those remedial agencies which have been provided of God for lifting up his soul from its condition of degradation, and preparing it for endless happiness in the presence of his God. (Daniel Moore, M. A.)

The importance of knowledge
Man alone of all the creatures in this lower world is possessed of a rational, intelligent, and immortal soul. Whilst other creatures are made to look down upon the ground, man stands erect, with his lofty countenance looking up to the heavens. He can look abroad on the face of the earth, and understand, in some degree, and admire the wisdom and power and goodness manifested in the works of the great Creator. He has analysed the elements of air and water, and can even make them of their component gases. He can explore the trackless ocean, ride in safety on its swelling billows, and cut his liquid way to the most distant regions of the world. Man can acquire a knowledge of foreign languages, and thus converse with men of other climes and kindreds and tongues. Moreover, by means of written or printed characters, he can spread his thoughts around him yet wider and wider, and even after he has sunk into the grave he can thus mould the minds of generations to come. If, then, the mind of man be capable of such great things, and can exert such a mighty influence, we should take good care that, by affording it Christian knowledge and a religious training, it be rightly informed and properly directed. Thus science and devotion would walk hand in hand together, and lead on our youthful progeny to the knowledge of the true God, and of the duties which they owe to Him and to one another. “That the soul be without knowledge, it is not good,” is manifest from the consideration that without the knowledge of some useful art or science or business, man, ordinarily speaking, cannot procure the means of support, or fulfil the duties of his station in life. Moreover, that it is not good for the soul to be without knowledge may be inferred from the consideration that the faculties of the mind, on the one hand, are suited to the reception and pursuit of knowledge, and are strengthened and improved when they are so employed; whilst, on the other hand, the whole economy of nature is such as to invite us to examine and admire it. But doubtless the knowledge spoken of in the text relates principally to Divine things. What is the light of science apart from the light of Christ? Now, that the soul be without this knowledge, it is not good—
I. With regard to the individual himself.

1. It is not good, because such a state is unhappy and unprofitable. “He that is wise may be profitable unto himself.” But how unprofitable is the state of a child growing up without the knowledge of what is necessary to his welfare both in time and through eternity!
2. Such a state is not good, because it is not a safe one. In what an awfully insecure state is the soul that is without the knowledge of God! Any moment the thread of life may be cut asunder, and then shall his desire and expectation perish!
   II. In regard to others.
3. In regard to God and His work. It is true that “our goodness extendeth not to Him.” Our knowledge cannot augment His infinite stores of knowledge. Neither does He need our services. They cannot profit Him, nor add to His perfection and blessedness. But still, in a lower sense, God may be said to need the instruments or agents which He is pleased to make use of in accomplishing His designs. It is manifest that without the knowledge of which I am speaking we cannot be fit instruments in the hands of God for performing His work, for establishing and extending His kingdom through the world.
4. It is not good in regard to our fellow-men. How should he who is without knowledge fulfil the relative and social duties of life, giving to each his due, and benefiting all within his sphere of action? (T. H. Terry, B. A.)

Ignorance is not good
I. Man is possessed of an immortal principle which, once called into existence, is by its very constitution coeval with its maker. Man has a soul. God has provided for the supply of the soul as well as of the body. The mental aliment is knowledge.
II. Prove in what respect it is not good that the soul be without knowledge. The knowledge meant is—

1. The knowledge of God as revealed in His Word.
2. A knowledge of Christ crucified.
3. The knowledge of ourselves as fallen moral beings.
4. The knowledge of our threefold duty to God, to our neighbour, and to ourselves.
   (1) It is not good for a man’s self, whether we consider him as a solitary or a social being.
   (2) It is not good for others. Man, as even heathen moralists maintain, was made for his fellow-creatures as well as for himself. As causes produce effects, so ignorance produces rudeness, incivility, insubordination, and, too frequently, cunning, dishonesty, cruelty, sensuality, and every evil work. It cannot be good for others that they should be left without knowledge. (
   J. W. Niblock, D. D.)

The benefit of religious knowledge
There are things which we can and things which we cannot know. God hath set a limit to man’s capacity of knowing, as to his faculty of hearing and seeing. There are things hid altogether from mortal ken. Still are there unhallowed longings after the fruit of the tree of knowledge. All that we may know let us set ourselves with energy to acquire. The benefits of knowledge may be traced in the progress of civilisation. It is knowledge which makes the difference between the refined Chinaman and the brutalised Kaffir.

1. If the soul be left without knowledge, it will be unable to detect the false maxims of the world, and of course to avoid the consequences to which they lead.
2. It is not good that the soul be without knowledge, lest we should be contaminated with the noxious errors on religious subjects which prevail so extensively amongst us in the present day.
3. Let the Christian remember that he must not be content with his present attainments. (Albert Bibby, M. A.)

The soul without knowledge
Other translations of this verse are, “It is not good for the soul to be without caution, for he that hasteth with his feet sinneth”; or “Quickness of action, without prudence of spirit, is not good, for he that hasteth with his feet sinneth”; or “Fervent zeal without prudence is not good,” etc.; or “Ignorance of one’s self is not good,” etc. There does not appear the least necessity for any alteration of the received version.
I. That ignorance is not good for the soul. “The soul without knowledge is not good.” This will appear if we consider three things.

1. That an ignorant soul is exceedingly confined. The mind cannot range beyond what it knows. The more limited its information, the narrower is the scene of its activities. The man of enlarged scientific information has a range over vast continents, whereas the ignorant man is confined within the cell of his senses. Our souls get scope by exploring the unknown. “Knowledge,” says Shakespeare, “is the wing on which we fly to heaven.”
2. That an ignorant soul is exceedingly benighted. The contracted sphere in which it lives is only lighted with the rushlight of a few crude thoughts. Knowledge is light. The accession of every true idea is a planting of a new star in the mental heavens. The more knowledge, the brighter will sparkle the sky of your being.
3. That an ignorant soul is exceedingly feeble. Exercise and food are as essential to the power of the mind as they are to the power of the body. Knowledge is at once the incentive to exercise it and the aliment to strengthen. “Ignorance,” says Johnson, “is mere privation by which nothing can be produced; it is a vacuity in which the soul sits motionless and torpid for want of attraction. And, without knowing why, we always rejoice when we learn, and grieve when we forget.” Truly the soul without knowledge is not good. Of what good are limbs without the power of exercise; what good are eyes without light?
   II. Ignorance is perilous to the soul. Ignorance is more than a negative evil, it is a positive curse. The text teaches that ignorance—
4. Exposes to sinful haste. “He that hasteth with his feet sinneth.” Men without knowledge are ever in danger of acting incautiously, acting with a reckless haste. As a rule the more ignorant a man is the more hasty he is in his conclusions and steps of conduct. The less informed the mind is the more rapid and reckless in its generalisation. Impulse, not intelligence, is the helmsman of the ignorant soul.
5. It exposes to a perversity of conduct. The foolishness of man perverteth his way. What is foolishness but ignorance? Ignorant men are terribly liable to perversity of conduct in every relation of life, and especially in relation to the great God. The murderers of Christ were ignorant. Paul says, had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
6. It exposes to impiety of feeling. Ignorant men are ever disposed to find fault with God. Ignorance is peevish. It is always fretting. Learn that a nation of ignorant souls is not only a nation of worthless men, but a nation liable to the commission of terrible mistakes and crimes. Men should get knowledge for the sake of becoming useful. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The evil of ignorance
I. A case supposed. “A soul without knowledge.” This is not to be understood absolutely. All knowledge is not blessing, nor all ignorance misfortune. The knowledge specified in the text may imply—

1. A knowledge of the works of God in creation. God is known by His works. Their vast magnitude serves to display His power. Their amazing extent shadows forth His immensity. The admirable harmony that prevails among them evidences His wisdom. And the ample provision made for all creatures exhibits His goodness.
2. A knowledge of our particular calling, trade, or profession. No man is obliged to know everything, but every man ought to know what he professes to know.
3. A knowledge of the will of God, as revealed in the Bible. This revelation is so plain that he may run that readeth it; so ample as to embrace the whole of our duty; so repeated that we have precept upon precept; so circumstantial as to mark every description of character, and identify every variety of situation; so impartial as to know no distinction between the monarch and the beggar; and so full and perfect that nothing can be added to it. Our knowledge of the will of God should be Scriptural, spiritual, experimental, and practical.
   II. An affirmation made concerning it. “It is not good.”
4. It is not good, as it does not harmonise with the original purpose of God in the formation of man.
5. It is not good, as it is not commendable.
6. As it is not beneficial.
7. As it is not comfortable.
8. As it is not safe. From this subject let us learn{l) What gratitude is due to God, who hath afforded us such facilities for the acquisition of knowledge.
   (2) How diligently we should use the means with which God hath favoured us for augmenting our stock of knowledge.
   (3) Let us commiserate the circumstances of those who are destitute of the means of information. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)

The evil tendency of education not based on religion
What is meant by knowledge? An acquaintance with those truths the perception and practice of which will duly qualify us both for our present and future state of existence. To this end we should know ourselves, our capacities, our duties, our particular business or vocation in life; the state of things in which we are placed, the character of mankind in general, and the nature of our social and civil relations. We should know also the revealed character of God; the position in which we stand to Him, the nature of His transactions with the human race, our present condition and future destiny. The matter and extent of knowledge is almost infinite. Exhibiting, as the mind does, a most varied scale of intellectual strength, a corresponding variety in the measure of knowledge is the necessary consequence. Considerations for confirming and illustrating the truth that for the soul to be without knowledge is not good:

1. The human mind is evidently framed for the acquisition of knowledge.
2. A certain degree of knowledge is absolutely necessary to enable men duly to perform their parts in life.
3. Knowledge tends to increase the influence and usefulness of its possessor.
4. It tends to increase the pleasures of life, by opening new sources of innocent enjoyment. If we would give men an education suitable to their character and destinies, we must attend to the cultivation of the heart as well as that of the head. We must make religion a prominent feature in our systems of instruction. Without religion, worldly knowledge, by stimulating the pride and pravity of a corrupt heart, may do much injury. When the foundation of morality and religion is firmly laid, we may proceed with safety to erect the superstructure of human science and general knowledge. But while education may teach men their duty, it cannot enable them to perform it. Religion alone can do that. He who would establish a system of education without making religion the basis of it, is like a man who builds his house upon the sand. He will find the corruptions of human nature too strong for his intellectual barrier. There is no more effectual method of checking the progress of socialism and infidelity than a system of sound, solid, and religious education. Then educate the rising generation, but do so in a sound and Scriptural manner. (E. B. Were, M. A.)

Knowledge essential to man’s welfare
In what senses does the writer affirm the text?

1. In the personal sense. To man as an individual. Knowledge gives him mental occupation.
2. In a domestic sense. The family circle, or household, is the first and simplest form of society. It is necessary to its well-being that a legitimate authority and a due subordination should exist in it. The duties of a parent cannot be performed without the advantages of knowledge.
3. In a social sense. In reference to the proper discharge of our duties towards friends and neighbours, superiors and inferiors.
4. In a political sense. If we desire to make a man a good member of the state, we must instruct him in the principles on which political society is formed, and by which alone can exist. We must teach him the grounds of moral obligation. And what are those grounds but the truths of religion? (Geo. Gibbon, M. A.)

Proverbs 19:3
The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the Lord.
The folly and sin of men in perverting their own way, and then fretting against God
Men are apt to charge all the afflictions which befall them upon God, whereas they bring most of them upon themselves. God is no further accessory to them than as, in the nature of things, and in the course of His wise providence, He hath established a connection between folly and suffering, between sin and misery. Homer observes that “men lay those evils upon the gods which they have incurred through their own folly and perverseness.” “The foolishness of man” signifies his want of thought and reflection; his indiscretion and rashness. It “perverts his way,” leads him aside from the path of wisdom and prudence, safety and happiness; by this means he brings himself into trouble, is reduced to necessity, perplexed with difficulties, or oppressed with sorrow. Then he committeth this grand error after all the rest, that “his heart fretteth against the Lord.” He is vexed, not at himself, but at Providence. “Fretteth” expresses the commotion and uneasiness there is in a discontented, ungoverned mind.
I. The general principle on which men act in this case is right and just. When they fret against the Lord they suppose that there is a God, and that He observes and interests Himself in the affairs of His creatures; and that it is a considerable part of His providential government to try, exercise, and promote the virtues of His rational creatures by the discipline of affliction.
II. The conclusion they draw is generally wrong, and their charge upon the providence of God groundless and unjust.

1. It is often the case with regard to men’s health. Many complain that God denies them the health and spirits which He has given to others. But health very largely, and very directly, depends on men’s management of themselves, by indulgence, fretfulness, inactivity, too close application to business, etc.
2. With regard to their circumstances in life. We see men impoverished and reduced to straits and difficulties. They complain that God brings them into straits, and embarrasses their circumstances. But most persons are really in straits through their own negligence, carelessness, or extravagance. Many are ruined in this world by an indolent temper. Cardinal de Retz used to say that “misfortune was only another word for imprudence.”
3. With regard to their relations in life. How many unhappy marriages there are! But they are almost always the consequence of foolish and wilful choices. Many complain that their children are idle, disobedient, and undutiful. But this is generally the result of parental inefficiency in training or in example.
4. With regard to men’s minds and their religious concerns. Many who make a profession of religion are uneasy and fretful, without any external cause; but this is usually owing to their own negligence or self-willedness.
   III. The folly and wickedness of such conduct. It is very absurd, for in most of these cases they have no one to blame but themselves. It likewise proceeds from ignorance of themselves. Fretfulness only tends to aggravate our afflictions and to hurt our minds. It may provoke God to bring upon us some heavier affliction. Application:
5. How much prudence, caution, and foresight are necessary for those who are setting out in life!
6. What a great and mischievous evil pride is!
7. Inquire to what your afflictions are owing.
8. Guard against the great sin of fretting against the Lord. (J. Orton.)

Man’s sorrows the result of his sins
I. Illustrate the proverb.

1. As regards health.
2. As regards worldly substance.
3. As regards the vexations of domestic life.
4. From the state of the mind.
5. From the world in which we reside.
   II. Instructions derivable from the proverb.
6. It instructs us with regard to sin.
7. It shows the inefficacy of mere suffering to bring a man to a proper state of thinking and feeling.
8. The disposition of the mind under sanctified affliction.
9. The reality of a moral providence.
10. Learn to look to God for His grace and guidance. (W. Jay.)

The misfortunes of men chargeable on themselves
I. Consider the external condition of man. He is placed in a world where he has by no means the disposal of the events that happen. Calamities befall us, which are directly the Divine dealing. But a multitude of evils beset us which are due to our own negligences or imprudences. Men seek to ascribe their disappointments to any cause rather than to their own misconduct, and when they can devise no other cause they lay them to the charge of Providence. They are doubly unjust towards God. When we look abroad we see more proofs of the truth of this assertion. We see great societies of men torn in pieces by intestine dissensions, tumults, and civil commotions. But did man control his passions, and form his conduct according to the dictates of wisdom, humanity, and virtue, the earth would no longer be desolated by wars and cruelties.
II. Consider the internal state of man. So far as this inward disquietude arises from the stings of conscience and the horrors of guilt, there can be no doubt of its being self-created misery, which it is impossible to impute to Heaven. But how much poison man himself infuses into the most prosperous conditions by peevishness and restlessness, by impatience and low spirits, etc. Unattainable objects pursued, intemperate passions nourished, vicious pleasures and desires indulged, God and God’s holy laws forgotten—these are the great scourges of the world; the great causes of the life of man being so embroiled and unhappy.

1. Let us be taught to look upon sin as the source of all our miseries.
2. The reality of a Divine government exercised over the world.
3. The injustice of our charging Providence with a promiscuous and unequal distribution of its favours among the good and the bad.
4. The necessity of looking up to God for direction and aid in the conduct of life. Let us hold fast the persuasion of these fundamental truths—that, in all His dispensations, God is just and good; that the cause of all the troubles we suffer is in ourselves, not in Him; that virtue is the surest guide to a happy life; and that he who forsakes this guide enters upon the path of death. (H. Blair, D. D.)

Fretting against God a frequent sin
Men are oftener guilty of this sin than they imagine. Our hearts fret against the Lord by fretting at the ministers and instruments of His providence; and therefore, when the people murmured against Moses in the wilderness, he tells them that their murmuring was not against him and his brother Aaron, but against the Lord. Instead of fretting, it is our duty to accept of the punishment of our iniquity, and to bless God that matters are not so bad with us as we deserve. If our troubles come upon us without any particular reason from our own conduct, yet reflections upon God would be very unjust. Job’s troubles were extremely grievous, and as they came upon him without cause in himself, he was made to acknowledge his great folly in reflecting upon God for his distresses. (G. Lawson, D. D.)

The untoward incidents of life must not be charged against God
Let us not charge God overhastily with the untoward incidents of life. In the main we are the manufacturers of our own life-material. If you give the weaver none but dark threads he can only fashion a sombre pattern. (J. Halsey.)

Life regarded as a wrong
George Eliot once said to a friend, with deep solemnity, that she regarded it as a wrong and misery that she had ever been born. (Oscar Browning.)

Proverbs 19:4
Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour.
The rich and the poor
Nothing upon earth is so powerful as money. It is a force before which everything bows. Wealth is such a mighty power, that one possessing it does not feel his dependence as other men do. Being more easily spoiled than other men, his salvation is more difficult. This accounts for everything the gospel has to say about rich men. In speaking of wealth, we are very apt to make the mistake of supposing that only very rich men are wealthy. The Bible accounts that man wealthy who, free from debt, has anything left after making provision for actual necessities of life. Poverty is isolation. When we become poor we become lonely. Either friends withdraw from us or we with- draw from them. When one gets really poor he is pretty much left by his brethren. They may not mean to shun him, but they let him pretty severely alone. The poor are the material we Christians are to work upon. To these we are to let our light shine. It is our holiest work to stop this separation of the poor from his neighbours. The poor are here by Divine intention. The poor help to save our souls. We are not to relieve them only; we are to help them. Giving is not enough to fulfil our Christian duty towards them. Helping the poor to help themselves is the most Christlike thing you can do. Machinery in religious life is to be avoided. It is of use only as it helps to concentrate energy. (G. R. Van de Water.)

Poverty, riches, and social selfishness
I. The trials of poverty.

1. Degradation. “The poor useth entreaties.” To beg of a fellow-man is a degradation; it is that from which our manhood revolts. “The poor useth entreaties.” They have to mortify the natural independence of their spirit. They are subjected to—
2. Insolent treatment. “The rich answereth roughly.”
3. Social desertion. “The poor is separated from his neighbour.” Who in this selfish world will make friends with the poor, however superior in intellect or excellent in character? When the wealthy man with his large circle of friends becomes poor the poles of his magnet are reversed, and his old friends feel the repulsion.
   II. The temptations of wealth.
4. Upon the mind of its possessor. It tends to promote haughtiness and insolence. “The rich answereth roughly.” The temptation of wealth is revealed—
5. Upon the mind of the wealthy man’s circle. “Wealth maketh many friends.”
   III. The selfishness of society. “Every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts.” (Homilist.)

Friendship of the world
When I see leaves drop from their trees in the beginning of autumn, just such, think I, is the friendship of the world; just such are the comforts and joys of this life. While the sap of maintenance lasts my friends will swarm in abundance, my joys and comforts will abide with me; but when the sap ceases, the spring which supplies them fails; in the winter of my need they leave me naked. (H. G. Salter.)

Friends sought far money
In Dr. Guthrie’s “Autobiography” there is a good illustration of the unhappy state of cynicism into which the rich are prone to fall. There he relates how, in a winter of extraordinary severity, he made an appeal to a lady who had succeeded to a prodigious fortune, on behalf of the starving poor of his parish. In doing so he had no very sanguine hope of success. On being ushered into her room, she turned round, and showing her thin, spare figure, and a face that looked as if it had been cut out of mahogany, grinned and said, “I am sorry to see ye. What do you want? I suppose you are here seeking siller.” “The very thing I am here for,” was the Doctor’s frank reply. Her next remark demonstrated how little power her riches had of conferring happiness; and with all her wealth of flatterers, what a poor, lonely, desolate, miserable creature this possessor of more than a million sterling was. “Ah,” she said, “there is nobody comes to see me or seek me; but it’s the money, the money they are after.” We are glad to be able to relate that this rich old lady gave to Dr. Guthrie fifty pounds for the poor—an act which we hope shed a gleam of sunshine into her dark life.

Proverbs 19:5
A false witness shall not be unpunished.
The woe of the untruthful
The man who gives wrong evidence. The man of untruthfulness in common conversation. Such men are always punished in one way or another. Nothing is more frequently inculcated in Holy Scripture than the practice of truth, justice, and righteousness. The commandments of God are called “truth,” because in keeping of them lie our truest advantages and everlasting comforts. All kinds of fraud and deception are abominable in the sight of God, and inconsistent with the ordering of any civil government. For—

1. Fraud in commerce and dealing is but a species of robbery.
2. Haughtiness of spirit unfits a man for those offices of meekness, courtesy, and humanity which make society agreeable and easy.
3. No less unsociable is a tongue addicted to calumny, talebearing, and detraction. It is impossible for men of these dispositions not to meet with their punishment in their own mischievous ways. The law of Moses requires the judge who discovers any man bearing false witness against another to inflict the same pains upon him as the accused should have suffered had the allegations proved true. Among the Athenians an action lay, not only against a false witness, but also against the party who produced him. The punishment of false witness among the Old Romans was to cast the criminal headlong from the top of the Tarpeian rock. Later false witnesses were branded with the letter K. By our own statute law the false witness is to be imprisoned for six months and fined twenty pounds. This is a short specimen of such human penalties as have been awarded to false witnesses, considered as pests of mankind and enemies of the laws and governments of the respective communities to which they belong. Yet if such receive no correction from the hand of man, they cannot hope to escape the wrath of God. (W. Reading, M. A.)

Proverbs 19:7
He pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him.
Coercing men of ill principles
This verse prescribes a different method of proceeding against known offenders, according to their different characters. The scorner, who makes a jest of everything sacred, and professes an open contempt of religion, is to be treated with great severity. As to sinners who have not resolved to shut their eyes against the light of truth, we are directed to apply ourselves to them in a more easy, gentle, and humane method of reproof.
I. The reasonableness of employing the secular arm against the scorner. A sense of religion is the great basis upon which all government stands. The scorner is, therefore, an enemy to the state. The scorner who laughs at the very name and pretence of conscience itself has no claim on the toleration of the state.
II. The obligations we are under to the duty of fraternal reproof.

1. The obligation of a just concern for the honour and interests of religion. The sins and impieties of men bring a scandal and discredit upon religion. To admonish and reprove them for such sins and impieties is a proper means to prevent that scandal and promote the interests of religion. This is one of the methods which the wisdom of God Himself has appointed in order to reclaim sinners from the evil of their ways. As the wisdom of God has directed this method, societies have been formed by men to concert how it may be most effectually pursued.
2. From the charity we owe to our neighbour. It is to a good man one of the greatest pleasures of this life to do good; then what an exceeding pleasure it must be to be instrumental in recovering a lost soul.
   (1) Great tenderness and compassion must be used, to give our reproof the greater force and efficacy.
   (2) Our reproofs must be modest, and free from all hypocritical ostentations.
   (3) Avoid exposing the offender as much as the rule of charity will admit.
   (4) Do not give admonitions to superiors the air of reproof.
   (5) Take care that reproof is seasonable.
   If this be a duty of so great a nicety, we ought not rashly and unadvisedly to take it in hand, but to consider well whether we be in any good measure qualified for it. Those who find themselves really qualified for it ought not to be discouraged from performing it, though it sometimes expose them to inconvenience or make them incur the odium of those with whom they take so unacceptable a freedom. Let us resolve to discharge a good conscience, and leave the consequences of doing our duty to the disposal of God. (R. Fiddes, D. D.)

Proverbs 19:8
He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul
On getting and keeping wisdom
The way of getting this wisdom is to be sensible of our need of it; to trust in Him to whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge belong, for the communication of it; and to be diligent in the use of the means which He hath appointed, and will bless, for conveying it to us.
We must not only get, but keep, this precious treasure, retaining it in our hearts, showing it forth in all our behaviour, and refusing to part with it on any account. (George Lawson, D. D.)

Proverbs 19:11
The discretion of a man deferreth his anger.
Anger
If any vice is often reproved in the Word of God, you may be assured it springs prolific in the life of man. In this book of morals anger is a frequently recurring theme. Anger cannot be cast wholly out of man in the present state. On some occasions we do well to be angry. But the only legitimate anger is a holy emotion directed against an unholy thing. Sin, and not our neighbour, must be its object; zeal for righteousness, and not our own pride, must be its distinguishing character. Although anger be not in its own nature and in all cases sinful, the best practical rule of life is to repress it, as if it were. As usual in these laws of God’s kingdom, suffering springs from the sin, as the plant from the seed. The man of great wrath will suffer, although no human tribunal take cognisance of his case. A man of great wrath is a man of little happiness. The two main elements of happiness are wanting; for he is seldom at peace with his neighbour or himself. There is an ingredient in the retribution still more immediate and direct. The emotion of anger in the mind instantly and violently affects the body in the most vital parts of its organisation. When the spirit in man is agitated by anger it sets the life-blood flowing too fast for the safety of its tender channels. The best practical specific for the treatment of anger against persons is to defer it. Its nature presses for instant vengeance, and the appetite should be starved. “To pass over a transgression” is a man’s “glory.” “Looking unto Jesus” is, after all, the grand specific for anger in both its aspects, as a sin and as a suffering. Its dangerous and tormenting fire, when it is kindled in a human breast, may be extinguished best by letting in upon it the love wherewith He loved us. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

Discretion
This is, strictly speaking, not a moral but an intellectual power. It is simply discernment; discernment and discretion are radically the same words, though east into different forms. Discernment is the ability to distinguish between things. A discreet man is a man who sees what is to his own interest, and acts accordingly. A man’s discretion leads him to discern the men whom he may trust, as distinct from the men whom it is not safe to trust. A man’s discretion is of immense service to him in the conduct of life; and if a man have little or no discretion he comes off very badly: he makes many blunders, sustains many losses, gets into many troubles, which a discreet man entirely escapes. Discretion is the main secret of secular success. But discretion can do some very questionable things. It is great in concealing facts. It is not a very noble property. A man’s discretion nurses many old grudges, watching for the right occasion to pay them off. Discretion has a side of cunning and craft, and links with long-deferred anger and revenge. (Hugh Stowell Brown.)

Anger
If you will always be ready to go off like a loaded gun even by an accident, depend on it you will get into difficulty. (Scientific Illustrations.)

Anger controlled and uncontrolled
Anger is an affection inherent in our nature. It is, therefore, not wrong in itself; it is wrong only when it is directed to wrong objects, or to right objects in a wrong degree of amount and duration. Anger in itself is as holy a passion as love. Indeed, in its legitimate form it is but a development of love. Love indignant with that which is opposed to the cause of right and happiness. Albeit, like every affection of our nature, it is often sadly perverted, it not unfrequently becomes malignant and furious.
I. Controlled. “The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.” The wise man is liable to the passion, and circumstances in his life occur to evoke it. Instead of acting under its impulse, he waits until its fires cool. It is said of Julius Caesar that when provoked he used to repeat the whole Roman alphabet before he suffered himself to speak; and Plato once said to his servant, “I would beat thee but I am angry.” It is noble to see a man holding a calm mastery over the billows of his own passions, bidding them to go so far and no farther. He who governs himself is a true king. We have anger here—
II. Uncontrolled. The text suggests two remarks in relation to uncontrolled anger.

1. It is sometimes terrible. “The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion.” It is a lamentable fact that kings have shown less command over their evil tempers than have the ordinary run of mankind. Their temper, it is implied, affects the nation. Their anger terrifies the people like the “roar of a lion”; their favour is as refreshing and blessed as the “dew upon the grass.”
2. It is always self-injurious. “A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment; for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again.” Violent passions ever inflict their own punishment upon their unhappy subjects. They injure the body. It sets the blood flowing too quickly for its narrow channels. But it injures the soul in a variety of ways. Well does Pope say, “To be angry is to revenge others’ faults upon ourselves.” Anger is misery. Dr. Arnold, when at Laleham, once lost all patience with a dull scholar, when the pupil looked up in his face, and said, “Why do you speak angrily, sir? Indeed I am doing the best I can.” Years after he used to tell the story to his children, and say, “I never felt so ashamed of myself in my life. That look and that speech I have never forgotten.” (
   Homilist.)

Proverbs 19:14
And a prudent wife is from the Lord.
Divine direction needed in the choice of a wife
In the choice of a wife, first of all seek Divine direction. About thirty-five years ago, when Martin Farquhar Tupper urged men to prayer before they decided upon matrimonial association, people laughed. And some of them have lived to laugh on the other side of their mouths. The need of Divine direction I argue from the fact that so many men, and some of them strong and wise, have wrecked their lives at this juncture. Witness Samson and the woman of Timnath. Witness Socrates, pecked of the historical Xantippe. Witness Ananias, a liar, who might perhaps have been cured by a truthful spouse, yet marrying as great a liar as himself—Sapphira. Witness John Wesley, one of the best men that ever lived, united to one of the most miserable women, who sat in City Road Chapel making mouths at him while he preached. Witness the once connubial wretchedness of John Ruskin, the great art essayist, and Frederick W. Robertson the great preacher. On this sea of matrimony, where so many have been wrecked, am I not right in advising Divine pilotage? Especially is devout supplication needed because of the fact that society is so full of artificialities that men are deceived as to whom they are marrying, and no one but the Lord knows. After the dressmaker, and the milliner, and the jeweller, and the hair-adjuster, and the dancing-master, and the cosmetic art have completed their work, how is an unsophisticated man to decipher the physiological hieroglyphics, and make accurate judgment of who it is to whom he offers hand and heart? That is what makes so many recreant husbands. They make an honourable marriage contract, but the goods delivered are so different from the sample by which they bargained. They were simply swindled. They mistook Jezebel for Longfellow’s Evangeline, and Lucretia Borgia for Martha Washington. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Proverbs 19:15
Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger.
Idlers and idleness
In the big, busy city, the one who seems out of touch with it is the idler. He who has no other business than the wretched one of killing time has no portion, right, or memorial in it; nor has he any right or portion in the age which we are serving. There is the rich idler, who lives to amuse himself. Such provide the demoralising element in our society. They lead the fashion in vice and frivolity. There is the poor idler. There are some who “for the sake of equalising poverty and wealth would really equalise indolence and industry.” In our great towns, more than half of our poverty is the result, direct or indirect, of that slothfulness which casts into a deep sleep. There is a hereditary pauperism. There is the poverty of recklessness and thoughtlessness and thriftlessness. A third type of idler is the idle-souled. Busy enough with earth, such have no business with heaven, no business with love, no business even with the ideals of duty. Leisure is very different from idleness. There is no leisure at all when the life is spent in idleness. It is the interval between work and work that gives the helpful leisure. Leisure is good, idleness is bad. Above all things, avoid heart indolence, moral and spiritual indolence, the indolence of the soul. (J. Marshall Lang, D. D.)

Proverbs 19:16
But he that despiseth his ways shall die.
The folly of despising our own ways
I. The sinner’s fall and ruin. “He shall die.” There is a death that is common to all mankind. That is the general effect of sin. But there is a death which is the particular lot of impenitent sinners. This is—

1. A spiritual death, which is, being cut off from all communion with God.
2. An eternal death. This is but the perfection of the former. This second death is a real thing, and a fearful thing, and it is very near to all who are going on still in their trespasses.
   II. The sinner’s fault and folly which brings him to this ruin. “Despising his own ways.” When may we be said to despise our own ways? When we are altogether unconcerned about the end of our ways. When we are indifferent about the rule of our ways, and the measures by which we govern ourselves in them. Those certainly despise their ways who walk at all adventures, and live at large when they should walk circumspectly and live by rule. God has given us the Scriptures to be the guide of our way. He has appointed conscience to be a monitor to us concerning our way. When we are wavering and unsettled in the course and tenor of our ways, then we despise them. If we do not apply ourselves to God in our ways, and acknowledge Him, we despise our own soul. When we are careless of our past ways and take not the account we ought to take of them. When we are heedless and inconsiderate as to the way that is before us, and walk at all adventures. If we are in no care to avoid sin, or to do our duty.
   III. The foolishness and danger of despising our own ways.
3. The God of heaven observes and takes particular notice of all our ways.
4. Satan seeks to pervert our ways.
5. Many eyes are on us that are witnesses to our ways.
6. According as our ways are now, it is likely to be ill or well with us to eternity.
   Application:
7. Caution not to be rigid and severe in our censures of other people’s ways.
8. Let it charge us to look well to our own ways.
   Be strict in your inquiries concerning your present ways. Be impartial in your reflections upon your past ways. Be very circumspect and considerate as to the particular paths that are before you. (Matthew Henry.)

Proverbs 19:17
He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord.
Christian pity for the Christian poor
I. The great stress which the Scriptures lay upon pity for the poor. That man must be a cursory reader of the Bible who does not see that it pervades the Bible. The old dispensation is full of it. In the new dispensation it is brought out still more prominently.
II. Why is so great a mass of the Lord’s people found among the poor? If wealth would have been their blessing, wealth they would have had. God would have this manifested by them—that He considers these things in themselves as nothing. Some part of the mystery is to answer Satan’s accusations. And it is for the trial of the grace that is in His people.
III. The motives urging a good man to show pity to the poor. He “lendeth to the Lord.” Here is a payment spoken of. The Lord is a bounteous giver. (J. H. Evans.)

The deserving poor
We are told that the poor shall never cease out of the land. Paley defines a poor man as he, of whatever rank, whose expenses exceed his resources. It is very clear from this that there may be poverty which has no claim to our commiseration and charity.
I. Man’s duty towards the deserving poor. “He that hath pity on the poor.” Two things are implied concerning this pity.

1. It must be practical. The text speaks of it as lending to the Lord. It is pity, therefore, that gives, that does something to relieve distress. The pity that goes off in sentimental sighs, or goes no farther than words, saying, “Depart in peace, be warmed, be filled,” is not true pity—the pity that God demands for the poor.
2. It must be genuine. The words imply that the pity is “accepted of the Lord.” He takes it as a loan; therefore it must be genuine. The service rendered is from right principles. There is a large amount of charity shown to the poor which is inspired by motives abhorrent to Omniscient Purity.
   II. God’s interest in the deserving poor. God’s interest in the poor is shown in three ways.
3. In the obligation that is imposed on the rich to help them. He denounces all neglect and cruelty of the poor. “Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness and his chamber by wrong, that useth his neighbour’s service without wages.” Again, “Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker.” He inculcates practical sympathy for the poor (Exo_22:21-22; Exo_23:9; Lev_19:33; Lev_25:35; Deu_10:19; Deu_24:19; Pro_22:22; Isa_1:17-23).
4. In the earthly condition into which He sent His Son.
5. In the class from which He selected His servants.
   III. The Divine acknowledgment of service to the poor. “And that which he hath given will He pay him again.” Every gift of genuine piety to the poor is a loan to the Lord, and a loan that shall be paid.
6. It is often amply repaid in this world (Deu_16:17-20; 2Co_9:6-8).
7. It will be acknowledged in the day of judgment. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Lending to the Lord
We are to give to the poor out of pity. Not to be seen and applauded, much less to get influence over them; but out of pure sympathy and compassion we must give them help. We must not expect to get anything back from the poor, not even gratitude; but we should regard what we have done as a loan to the Lord. He undertakes the obligation, and if we look to Him in the matter we must not look to the second party. What an honour the Lord bestows upon us when He condescends to borrow of us! That merchant is greatly favoured who has the Lord on his books. It would seem a pity to have such a name down for a paltry pittance; let us make it a heavy amount. The next needy man that comes this way, let us help him. As for repayment, we can hardly think of it, and yet here is the Lord’s note of hand. Blessed be His name, His promise to pay is better than gold and silver. Are we running a little short through the depression of the times? We may venture humbly to present this bill at the Bank of Faith. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

For long credit
A wealthy but niggardly gentleman was waited on by the advocates of a charitable institution, for which they solicited his aid, reminding him of the Divine declaration, “He that hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will He pay him again.” To this he replied, “The security, no doubt, is good, and the interest liberal; but I cannot give such long credit.” Poor rich man! the day of payment was much nearer than he anticipated. Not a fortnight had elapsed from his refusing to honour this claim of God upon his substance before he received a summons with which he could not refuse to comply. He was dead.
The best loan
(to the young):—Pity is the feeling of sorrow we find in our hearts when we see a person in trouble or distress. There are two kinds of pity, a wrong and a right. The wrong kind of pity makes people feel without making them do or give. The right kind makes people do or give, as well as feel. What we do for, or give to the poor, God regards as done or given to Himself. What we lend to another we call a loan. There are many different kinds of loans, but that which is lent to the Lord is the best loan.
I. Because He receives the smallest sums.
II. Because it is so safe.
III. Because He pays good interest. (R. Newton, D. D.)

Argument for charity
This is an argument for charity of wonderful force. No pagan moralist could ever produce a motive for any social duty equal to this. It is sufficient to open the closest fist, and to enlarge the most selfish heart. Can we lose anything by lending it to the Lord? God will be sure to repay what is given to the poor at His command with great increase. The greatest usurer on earth cannot make so much of his money as the man that gives to the poor. (George Lawson, D. D.)

Proverbs 19:20
Hear counsel and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.
Instruction and counsel placed before the young
I. The advice given. These two things in the text will be found to imply all that is valuable in principle and all that is useful in practice. What is here meant is not the history of the world, the instructions of science, or the general field of literature; but the principles and instructions of religion. The Word of God discovers evidences of the fact that there must be such a being as God. It gives instruction concerning the government of God and concerning man. What is the distinction between counsel and instruction? Instruction consists in the communication of right principles; counsel in the advice by which you may apply these principles practically.
II. Look to the end to be obtained by receiving the instruction, and hearing the counsel. The benefit here stated—wisdom in the latter end—is a benefit of the greatest importance; it delivers you from the disgrace of sin, of growing up a foolish old man in the midst of so many opportunities of acquiring the blessings of instruction. (J. Burnet.)

Proverbs 19:21
There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.
Devices and counsel
It being impossible for us to know God absolutely, the highest degree of knowledge we can hope to attain unto is by way of comparison with ourselves and other creatures. But because we fail in right knowledge of ourselves, we fail also in right knowledge of God. We think God is altogether such an one as ourselves, and yet we do not know what we ourselves are. The subject introduced by this text is, the difference between the devices of a man and the counsel of the Lord.
I. The differences.

1. In the names. Devices, imaginations, fancies, chimaeras, “castles in the air.” The vanity of men’s fancies is seen in our ordinary dreams. The name of devices is too high an appellation to bestow upon our vain imaginations, if we knew a worse; so the name of counsel is too low to bestow upon God Almighty’s eternal purpose, if we knew a better.
2. In the number. Ours are devices—in the plural; His but one—counsel in the singular. Men’s purposes are various and changeable. It is the honour of God that His counsel is but one, and unchangeable. The immutability of His counsel. With God there is no after-counsel, to correct the errors of the former.
3. The efficacy. Seen in their different manner of existing. The devices of man are in his heart, but he cannot make them stand. The counsel of the Lord “shall stand”; nothing can hinder it from having its intended effect. The foundation of God standeth firm.
   II. The reasons for these differences.
4. God is the prima causa, the sovereign agent, and first mover in every motion and inclination of the creature. God so orders the vain things of man’s devices by His overruling providence as to make them subservient to His everlasting counsels.
5. God’s eternity. Man is but of yesterday, and his thoughts casual. As himself is mutable, fickle, and uncertain, so are the things he hath to do with subject to contingencies and variations. But the nature of the Godhead is not subject to mutability. All change is either for the better or for the worse, but God cannot change for the better, because He is already best; nor for the worse, for then He should cease to be best.
6. The wisdom of God. Besides their natural ignorance, through precipitancy, misinformation, prejudice, partial affections, and other causes, they are subject to very many mistakes and aberrations. God alone is wise. He will not deceive, being of infinite goodness; He cannot be deceived by any, being of infinite wisdom. There is no room for second thoughts or after-counsels.
7. The power of God. It is not in the power of man to remove those obstacles which prevent his accomplishing his devices, but the power of God has no bars or bounds other than those of His own will.
   III. The inferences.
8. Learn not to trust too much to our own wit; neither to lean to our own understandings; nor to please ourselves over-much in the vain devices, imaginations, fancies, and dreams of our own hearts.
9. However judgment may begin at the house of God, most certain it is that it shall not end there.
10. This is a comfortable consideration to all those that with patience and cheerfulness suffer for the testimony of God, or a good conscience, and in a good cause, under the insolences of proud and powerful persecutors. God can curb and restrain their malice, when they have devised wicked devices.
11. It is well for us, and our bounden duty, to submit to such sufferings as God shall call us to. Give up thyself faithfully to follow the good counsel of God in His revealed will; and then give up thy desires entirely, to be disposed by His wise counsel in His secret will; and He shall undoubtedly give thee thy heart’s desire. If we submit our wills to His, both in doing and suffering, doubtless we cannot finally miscarry. He will consult nothing but for our good; and what He hath consulted must “stand.” (Bp. Sanderson.)

Man’s devices and God’s counsel
;—A “man’s heart” is a little world, full of scheming and business. Let a man have a full inspection of his heart, its “devices,” its schemes, its designs, in their succession. Notice the variety in the kinds of devices, and in men’s temper and manner in respect to them. Some men are very communicative of their heart’s devices; others are close, reserved, dark. Suppose that all the devices of all men could be brought out, in full manifestation, then you would have human nature displayed in its real quality. What manner of spectacle would it be! Suppose that all these devices could be accomplished. What a world you have then! One man’s devices cannot be accomplished compatibly with the accomplishments of another’s. The great collective whole of the “devices” of all hearts constitutes the grand complex scheme of the human race for their happiness. To every device of all hearts, God’s “counsel,” His design, exists parallel, whether in coincidence or in opposition. In other words, respecting the object of every device, He has His design. The text implies a great disconformity—a want of coalescence between the designs of man and God; an estranged spirit of design on the part of man.
I. The designs of men’s hearts are formed independently of God. In what proportion of men’s internal devisings may we conjecture that there is any real acknowledgment of God? Man’s devising and prosecuting are in such a spirit as if there were no such thing as Providence to aid or defeat. It is deplorable to see dependent, frail, short-sighted creatures confidently taking on themselves the counsel, execution, and hazard of their schemes for being happy, in the very presence, and as in contempt, of the all-wise and almighty Director.
II. Man’s heart entertains many devices in contrariety to God. It can cherish devices which involve a rebellious emotion of displeasure, almost resentment, that there is a Sovereign Lord, whose “counsel shall stand.” There is one other Mind, which has the knowledge and command of all things, a fixed design, respecting them all, paramount to all designs and devices. The counsel of the Lord sometimes is, not to prevent man’s designs taking effect in the first instance. He can let men bring their iniquitous purposes into effect, and then seize that very effect, reverse its principle of agency, and make it produce immense, unintended good. But in other cases God directly frustrates them. Some devise to oppose religion; others to baffle the practical measures taken for promoting religion; others strive to get rid of the strictness of the laws of God. There are also many projects for temporal gomod, ade in a right spirit, which nevertheless are disappointed and fail, so that we have humbly and complacently to repose in the determination of our God as to what is best. (John Foster.)

The decrees of God, or impressive impressions
The Westminster divines say, “The decrees of God are His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of His will, whereby for His own glory He hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.” This embraces three propositions.
I. There are decrees of God. God must have formed a plan by which to conduct all His operations. God knows the arrangements upon the accomplishment of which He has determined. The word “decree” is of the same meaning as the word “determine.”
II. The decrees of God are all involved in one eternal purpose. All the future, and everything included in all the future, is at once and for ever before the glance of His eye.
III. The decrees of God were all formed according to the counsel of His will. Who can comprehend all that the counsel of His will embraced as to things decreed to exist?
IV. The decrees of God take effect in everything that comes to pass. This has its illustration in—

1. God’s works of creation.
2. God’s works of providence.
3. God’s works of grace.
   Objections to this explanation of the decrees of God may be taken.
   (1) Some say that this doctrine annihilates man’s responsibility.
   (2) Some say, “Then if we are to be saved, we shall be saved; and if to be lost, lost.”
   But this is a gross perversion of gospel truth. The means, through the appointed use of which eternal life may be obtained, should be diligently and unweariedly cultivated. (Thomas Adam.)

The devices of man and the counsel of God
Two parts in this text—the proposition and the qualification.
I. The proposition.

1. The property mentioned. “Many devices”; by which we may understand “conceits” or “contrivances.” Man by nature is very apt and prone to these, whether in matter of apprehension or resolution. Reference here is specially to vain and foolish, or wicked and sinful, devices, which man easily frames, since he voluntarily and wilfully forsook the counsel of God. The variety of man’s devices from the impetuousness and unsatiableness which is commonly in men’s desires; from the levity and inconstancy which is upon men’s souls; from a variety of lusts, and corrupt and inordinate principles, with which the heart of man is cumbered.
2. The subject of this property, man, and precisely, the heart of man. Devices seem to belong to the head rather than to the heart. The heart is here put for the whole mind and soul. The devices are in the heart originally, as the spring and fountain of all. Men’s opinions and conceits take their rise first from their heart.
   II. The qualification.
3. The simple assertion. The counsel of God may be the Word and truth of God, or the purpose and decree of God.
4. The additional opposition or correction of it. “Nevertheless.” Here is the consistence of God’s counsels with man’s. Though man has his devices, God will have His. Because man has his devices, therefore God the Father has His. His counsel is even promoted by man’s devices. (T. Horton, D. D.)

Man’s devices and God’s overrulings
I. Men projecting. They keep their designs to themselves, but they cannot hide them from God. There are devices against God’s counsels, without His counsels, and unlike His counsels. Men are wavering in their devices, and often absurd and unjust; but God’s counsels are wise and holy, steady and uniform.
II. God overruling. His counsel often breaks men’s measures, and baffles their devices; but their devices cannot in the least alter His counsel, nor disturb the proceedings of it, nor put Him upon new counsels. What a check does this put on designing men, who think they can outwit all mankind! There is a.God in heaven who laughs at them! (Psa_2:4). (Matthew Henry.)

Human devices
I. The devices of men’s hearts. The heart of man is a little world of scheming, and planning, and business. We are always devising.
II. The vanity of these devices. Our safety consists in their being kept in. They could not be suffered to come forth but at the expense of the ruin of the world. They cannot all be accomplished, because they oppose each other.
III. The counsel of the Lord overruling these devices. Amidst all these various devices, there is one mighty will going on. All human devices serve God’s counsel. Therefore we should seek to have our devices in principle compatible with God’s counsel. (The Evangelist.)

The mind of man and the mind of God
I. The mind of man has many devices; the mind of God has but one counsel.
II. The mind of man is subordinate, the mind of God supreme.

1. This is a fact well attested by history.
2. This is a fact that reveals the greatness of God.
   III. The mind of man is changeable, the mind of God unalterable. Lessons:
3. The inevitable fall of all that is opposed to the will of God.
4. The inevitable fulfilment of all God’s promises. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Proverbs 19:22
The desire of a man is his kindness: and a poor man is better than a liar.
Circumstances or character
The imperial standard of weights and measures has been sent by the King into the market-place of human life, where men are busy cheating themselves and each other. Public opinion greatly needs to be elevated and rectified in its judgments of men and things. Society is like a house after an earthquake. Everything is squeezed out of its place. A standard has been set up in the market-place to measure the pretences of men withal, and those who will not employ it, must take the consequences. According to that standard “a poor man is better than a liar”; if, in the face of that sure index, you despise an honest man because he is poor, and give your confidence to the substance or semblance of wealth, without respect to righteousness, you deserve no pity when the inevitable retribution comes. Error in this matter is not confined to any rank. “Do not cheat” is a needful and useful injunction in our day; and “Do not be cheated” is another. The trade of the swindler would fail if the raw material were not plentiful, and easily wrought. If the community would cease to value a man by the appearance of his wealth, and judge him according to the standard of the Scriptures, there would be fewer prodigies of dishonesty among us. In the Scriptures a dishonest man is called a liar, however high his position may be in the city. And the honest poor gets his patent of nobility from the Sovereign’s hand. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

The desire of kindness
In the Revised Version this sentence reads, “The desire of a man is the measure of his kindness.” The Divine rule of weights and measures is the only true one in the sphere of man’s duties and obligations. But a principle, however good, must not be strained. A man’s kindness is in his heart, not in the measure of the gifts themselves. The hand may be liberal, whilst the heart is illiberal. A desire to do good is a Divine emanation. A desire must be content to go as far as it can, and to do as much as it can. When that limit is reached, we must not be ashamed of doing so little. The desire to be kind is worth cherishing, because it does not always survive the changes in our circumstances. The desire often diminishes in exact proportion to the increase of means and opportunities for doing good. Where our desire to be kind fails through incapacity to do more, God will add what is necessary. The desire to be kind sometimes needs educating. It is not so large as it should be, because it is narrowed by ignorance or want of thought about the responsibilities of wealth. When will men study as earnestly how to use what they have got together as they studied and toiled to get it together? (Thomas Wilde.)

Proverbs 19:23
The fear of the Lord tendeth to life.
The happy life
Godliness has “the promise of the life that now is.” It might have been otherwise. Infinite Benevolence would have His saints to be happy. As God is the source of all happiness in heaven, so all contact with God brings happiness here.
I. The fear of the Lord. Not that dread of God that is in a sense innate in every unconverted and unregenerate soul, nor that dread which comes into the heart of man when the Holy Spirit opens up the law of God to him, nor the dread that comes into the heart of an unfaithful and backsliding Christian. This is the fear of a child, wrought in the soul by the Spirit. This fear comes from a view of Jesus, from a sight of God in Christ.
II. Great blessings connected with this fear.

1. This fear tendeth to life; that is, to prolong life, and that a true life.
2. He that hath it shall abide satisfied. There is some satisfaction in lower things, but not abiding satisfaction. Everything connected with the service of God has an unutterable blessing in it.
3. He shall not be visited with evil. Though there may come to him a thousand things that seem only evil, not one real evil shall befall him. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)

The blessedness of the fear of the Lord
Life, satisfaction, freedom from evil! What more can be wanted? And what is there that can bring all this, except the one thing which is mentioned in the text—the fear of the Lord? Oh, why, then, are other things so eagerly sought, and this one thing so lamentably neglected? “The fear of the Lord” often stands in Scripture for the whole of true religion; just as we find “the love of God” or the “keeping of His commandments” put for the same thing. “The fear of the Lord” is that disposition of grace given by His own Spirit to His children whereby they regard Him, their heavenly Father, with a holy awe and reverence and filial dread of offending Him. Of the wicked it is said that “there is no fear of God before his eyes.” He lives, he acts, he speaks, he meditates evil, as if there were no God observing and taking account of his every thought and word and deed.
I. “the fear of the Lord tendeth to life.” The fear of the Lord, in many cases, “prolongeth days” even in this world. For while “the wicked and the sinner” often, through his own transgressions and excesses, shortens his life, and perhaps does not “live out half his days,” the fear of the Lord frequently, through His blessing, brings health and long life. It does so partly through the temperance and weft-regulated habits to which it leads, and partly through the peace, contentment, and happiness which it causes to the mind, and which are better than medicine for the health of the body.
II. But now let us observe the next thing which is said in connection with the fear of the Lord: “He that hath it shall abide satisfied”; not only shall be, but shall abide, satisfied. Satisfaction, thorough, abiding satisfaction—is not this the thing which every soul of man desires above all the things that can be named? Riches, honour, power, pleasure, all the so-called goods of earth—are these things desired, even by the most worldly, for their own sake? or are they not coveted rather for the sake of the satisfaction which it is secretly thought they will furnish? But do they, can they furnish satisfaction? Alas! how often do the choicest and most valued earthly prizes wither and crumble in the grasp of those who have attained them! And here we are led to look into the nature and reasons of the abiding satisfaction enjoyed by him that hath the fear of the Lord. Such a person is united to God through Christ. And this being his happy case, he has God in Christ as his “portion” and “exceeding great reward.” And who or what can satisfy as God can? God, the infinite and eternal God, has pleasures, comforts, satisfactions, joys, with which He can so fill the soul as to give it the most perfect and overflowing contentment and happiness, and that for ever and ever. It is true that the complete and absolute perfection of this contentment and happiness cannot be enjoyed in this world of sin and trouble; but still it is equally true that, even here, great and blessed, albeit imperfect and partial, foretastes may be enjoyed of what will be perfect and complete hereafter.
III. “He that hath it shall not be visited with evil.” What a blessed and cheering promise, in a world like ours, which is so full of evil! But what are we to understand by this promise? Have not the chosen of God, in multitudes of cases, appeared to inherit even a more than ordinary share of trouble and calamity? Certainly, God has often wrought out wonderful deliverances from such outward evil for His chosen; and every one of them would, doubtless, freely acknowledge that he has never been visited with such things as often or as severely as his sins have deserved. But, on the other hand, it is also undeniable that painful losses, cutting griefs, and sore temptations have visited God’s children more or less from the beginning, and at times with remarkable severity. And were not these things “evil”? No, never were any of them really evil to a single one of the true children of God, who feared His name. Though evil in their own nature, they were not evil to them. Even the most trying and painful things work through God’s grace for great good in forming the soul to faith and patience, and unworldliness, and humble waiting upon God; so that affliction is made a school of training and most blessed discipline for heaven. “It is good for me that I have been afflicted.” Yes, there shall no evil happen to the just, no evil that shall hurt his spiritual and eternal interests, no evil which he will think of pronouncing such when he has once quitted this world, where evil is so commonly called good, good evil; and, when he finds himself in that happy state of existence, in which he will no longer “see through a glass darkly,” but with clear, full, and perfect vision. (C. R. Hay, M. A.)

The fruits of personal religion
I. Vitality. “It tendeth to life.”

1. It is conducive to bodily life.
2. It is conducive to intellectual life. Love to God stimulates the intellect to study God and His works.
3. It is conducive to spiritual life. “This is life eternal, to know Thee,” etc.
   II. Satisfaction. “Shall abide satisfied.”
4. It pacifies the conscience.
5. It reconciles to providence. “Not My will, but Thine be done.”
   III. Safety. “He shall not be visited with evil.” He may have sufferings, but sufferings in his case will not be evils; they will be blessings in disguise. His light afflictions will work out a far more exceeding and eternal glory. (Homilist.)

Proverbs 19:24
A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom.
A protest against laziness
Most critics substitute the word “dish” for “bosom” here: “A slothful man hideth his hand in his dish.” This certainly makes the description of the lazy man more graphic. His repast is provided for him; it is spread before him, but he is too lazy to take it: he drops his hand in the dish. This laziness may be seen in different departments of life.
I. In worldly concerns.
II. In intellectual matters. The “dish” of knowledge is laid before a lazy man; he has books, leisure, money, everything in fact to enable him to enrich his mind with knowledge, and train his faculties for distinguished work in the realm of science, but he is too lazy. His mind becomes enfeebled and diseased for the want of exercise. It may be seen—
III. In spiritual interests. Gospel provisions are laid before the lazy man. There are the “unsearchable riches of Christ”; but he is too indolent to make any exertion to participate in the heavenly blessings. (David Thomas, D. D.)

Proverbs 19:25
Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware.
Man chastising the wrong
I. Wrong may exist in very different characters. There are three characters mentioned in the passage.

1. “The scorner.” The scorner is a character made up of pride, irreverence, and cruelty. He mocks at sin; he scoffs at religion. He looks with a haughty contempt upon those opinions that agree not with his own.
2. “The simple.” The simple man is he who is more or less unsophisticated in mind, and untainted by crime. One who is inexperienced, unsuspicious, too confiding, and impressible.
3. “One that understandeth knowledge.” This is a character whom Solomon represents in other places as the just man, the wise man, the prudent man—expressions which with him mean personal religion. These three characters, therefore, may comprise the man against religion, the man without religion, and the man with religion. The “scorner” is thoroughly wrong. The “simple” is potentially wrong. He that “hath understanding” is occasionally wrong, or he would not require “reproof.” It is implied—
   II. That wrong in all characters should be chastised. “Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware; and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge.” It is not only the duty of rulers to punish crime, but it is the duty of every honest man to inflict chastisement upon wrong wherever it is seen. The withdrawal of patronage, separation from the offender’s society, social ostracism, the administration of reproof, and the expression of displeasure, are amongst the means by which an honest man, even in his private capacity, can chastise the wrong.
   III. That the kind of chastisement should be according to character. “The scorner” is to be smitten. “Smite a scorner.” The man of “understanding” is to be reproved. Reproof to an inveterate scorner would be useless.
   IV. That the effects of the chastisement will vary according to the character.
4. The chastisement inflicted upon the scorner will be rather a benefit to others than himself. “Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware.” Severity towards the incorrigible may act as a warning to others.
5. The chastisement inflicted on the man of understanding is of service to himself. He takes it in good part. Wrong exists everywhere around us. Evil meets us in almost every man we meet. It is for us to set ourselves in strong opposition to it wherever it appears. (David Thomas, D. D.)

Proverbs 19:27
Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.
Temptation to perilous listening
By the “words of knowledge” understand the principles and dictates of virtue and religion. The wise man’s advice amounts to this—That we should be careful to guard against the arts and insinuations of such as set up for teachers of infidelity and irreligion.
I. The several temptations which men lie under to listen to such instructors. It is one step toward security to see the dangers we are exposed to. Since the fears and apprehensions of guilt are such strong motives to infidelity, the innocence of the heart is absolutely necessary to preserve the freedom of the mind. In the most unhappy circumstances of sin and guilt, religion opens to us a much safer and more certain retreat than infidelity can possibly afford. Vice is not the only root from which infidelity springs. Reason itself is betrayed by the vanity of our hearts, and sinks under the pride and affectation of knowledge. All kinds of laudable ambition grow to be vicious and despicable when, instead of pursuing the real good which is their true object, they seek only to make a show of an appearance of it. Thus it is that ambition for virtue produces hypocrisy; ambition for courage, boastings and unreasonable resentments; ambition for learning and knowledge, pedantry and paradoxes. Another sort of temptation is a kind of false shame, which often, in young people especially, prevails over the fear of God and the sense of religion. When religion suffers under the hard names of ignorance and superstition, they grow ashamed of their profession, and by degrees harden into denying God.
II. The danger that lies in listening to these instructors. Here only speak to such as have not yet made shipwreck of reason and conscience. It is an unpardonable folly and inexcusable perverseness for men to forsake religion out of vanity and ostentation; as if irreligion were a mark of honour and a noble distinction from the rest of mankind. We must answer for the vanity of our reasoning as well as for the vanity of our actions. If the punishments of another life be, what we have too much reason to fear they will be, what words can then express the folly of sin? Consider, therefore, with yourselves, that when you judge of religion, something more depends upon your choice than the credit of your judgment or the opinion of the world. Religion is so serious a thing as to deserve your coolest thoughts, and it is not fit to be determined in your hours of gaiety and leisure, or in the accidental conversation of public places. Trust yourself with yourself; retreat from the influence of dissolute companions, and take the advice of the psalmist, “Commune with your own heart.” (T. Sherlock, D. D.)

Avoid false books and teachers
The enemies of religion now say that every man in search of truth ought to put himself in a way to hear both sides. Lay it down as a general rule that men ought not to read those books or hear those preachers that inculcate gross errors, i.e., essential errors. The popular pretence that men must hear both sides is an insidious attack on the Bible, a covered insinuation that the Bible is insufficient to enlighten. Every one should early settle his belief in the leading doctrines of the gospel. Why need such an one expose himself to the infection of error. Men are naturally so averse to the truth that it is infinitely dangerous for those not fully confirmed in it to expose themselves to the contagion of error. They ought not to presume so much on their own stability. Men cannot parley with error and be safe. And if the man himself is safe, he ought to consider the injury he may do to others by encouraging the promulgation of dangerous errors. The encouragement of erroneous teachers and books is conspiring against God. Popularly it is said that truth will recommend itself to every man’s conscience, and none can be injured by seeing it compared with error. In answer, it may be said—

1. This is founded on a principle which men would not admit in any other case.
2. The objection would be less deceptive if in matters of religion men were more inclined to truth than to error.
3. The retailers of false doctrine do not state things candidly.
4. The antidote to error does not always go along with the error itself.
5. Facts speak decisively against the encouragement of false books and teachers, under the pretence mentioned in the objection.
   Apply—
6. To those who profess to be the friends of God and established in the truth. Do not encourage the promulgation of known errors.
7. To such as are not established in religious opinions. Get established without delay. Error in every form is couching to make you his prey. Beware of an indiscreet desire to read every new book and to hear every new preacher. (E. D. Griffin, D. D.)

A protest against the immoral
Socrates often frequented the theatre, which brought a great many thither out of a desire to see him. On which occasion it is recorded of him that he sometimes stood to make himself the more conspicuous, and to satisfy the curiosity of the beholders. He was one day present at the first representation of a tragedy of Euripides, who was his intimate friend, and whom he is said to have assisted in several of his plays. In the midst of the tragedy, which had met with very great success, there chanced to be a line that seemed to encourage vice and immorality. This was no sooner spoken, but Socrates rose from his seat, and without any regard to his affection for his friend or to the success of the play, showed himself displeased at what was said, and walked out of the assembly. (The Tatler.).

Proverbs 19:1
a fool] We are left to read in the word rich, from the contrast implied by the parallelism: upright poverty is better than perverse folly, by whatever advantages of wealth, of birth, or of rank, it may be accompanied. The proverb recurs, with variations, Pro_28:6.

Proverbs 19:2
that the soul be without knowledge] If with R.V. text we retain this rendering, we may well recognise in the rendering of R.V. marg. a true explanation of the proverb:
“Desire without knowledge is not good;
And he that hasteth with his feet misseth his way.”
“The soul,” however fervently and however rightly it desires, needs knowledge to bring its desires to good effect. “Holy desires” must be directed by “good counsels,” if they are to issue in “just works.” And to start hastily on our path, whether material or moral, without such knowledge and counsel, is to miss our way; to wander, or to sin.
sinneth] Lit. misseth the mark. Comp. Jdg_20:16.

Proverbs 19:4
maketh] Rather, addeth; προστίθησι, LXX.; addunt (divitiζ), Vulg.; the contrast being between the new friends gained by wealth, and the existing friend (R.V.) lost by poverty, ὁ δὲ πτωχὸς καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὑπάρχοντος φίλου λείπεται, LXX.; A paupere autem et hi, quos habuit, separantur, Vulg.

Proverbs 19:5
speaketh] Lit. breatheth out; and so in Pro_19:9 below.

Proverbs 19:6
prince] It is better to preserve the parallelism, and to render the Heb. word in its primary sense of princely disposition, the liberal man, R.V. text, than with A.V. and R.V. marg., of princely rank. The same word is rendered liberal, Isa_32:5; Isa_32:8. Comp. Keble’s version of it in Psa_51:12 (Sixth Sun. after Trinity):
“The princely heart of innocence.”

Proverbs 19:7
pursueth them with words] sc. of persuasion and entreaty. The R.V. marg. renders, He pursueth after words which are nought, i.e. after the fair but false promises of his friends.
wanting to him] Rather, are gone, R.V., desert him in his time of need.
The fact that this is the only example in this division of the Book of a proverb, which is a tristich, or consists of three clauses, leaves little doubt that the last clause of this verse properly belongs to another proverb, of which one member has fallen out of our present text. This conclusion is in some measure confirmed by the appearance in the LXX. of two complete distichs, though the whole verse is there confused and apparently corrupt, and does not help to the restoration of the original Heb. text.

Proverbs 19:8
wisdom] Heb., a heart. Comp. Pro_7:7, Pro_9:4; Job_12:3; Job_34:10; in all which places the Heb. word rendered understanding is the same as here.

Proverbs 19:9
shall perish] We have, shall not escape, in the otherwise identical proverb of Pro_19:5 above.

Proverbs 19:10
delight] Rather, luxury, or delicate living, R.V. οὐ συμφέρει ἄφρονι τρυφὴ, LXX. Comp. οἱ ἐν τρυφῇ ὑπάρχοντες ἐν τοῖς βασιλείοις εἰσίν, Luk_7:25; as “a servant” would be if he had “rule over princes.”
On this second clause Dean Plumptre (Speaker’s Comm.) quotes Claudian in Eutrop. 1. 183:
“nec bellua tetrior ulla est,
Quam servi rabies in libera colla furentis.”

Proverbs 19:11
deferreth his anger] maketh him slow to anger, R.V.; ἐλεήμων ἀνὴρ μακροθυμεῖ, LXX. Comp. Isa_48:9, where the Heb. phrase is the same as here. The cognate Heb. phrase “slow to anger,” occurs frequently, e.g. Psa_103:8. Comp. Jas_1:19-20.

Proverbs 19:12
as dew upon the grass] Comp. Pro_16:15; Psa_72:6.

Proverbs 19:13
continual] Lit. thrusting, where one drop follows so closely upon another as to thrust it forward. “In quo gutta guttam trudit,” Maur.; “Tecta jugiter perstillantia litigiosa mulier,” Vulg. Comp. Pro_27:15.

Proverbs 19:14
the inheritance of] Rather, an inheritance from (R.V.); i.e. derived from.
And] Rather, But.
οἶκον καὶ ὕπαρξιν μερίζουσι πατέρες παισὶ, παρὰ δὲ κυρίου ἁρμόζεται γυνὴ ἀνδρί, LXX. Domus et divitiζ dantur a parentibus; a Domino autem proprie uxor prudens, Vulg. Comp. Pro_18:22; Gen_24:12-14.

Proverbs 19:16
despiseth] i.e. pays no heed to them (is careless of, R.V.; negligit, Vulg.), through a contemptuous disregard of “the commandment” which should regulate them. Similarly for despise not, A. V., we have regard not lightly, R.V. in Heb_12:5. Contrast Pro_16:17.

Proverbs 19:17
that which he hath given] Better, his deed, A.V. marg.; or his good deed, R.V. Comp. Mat_25:34-40.

Proverbs 19:18
while] R.V. seeing: i.e. for if done now it will not be too late.
let not thy soul spare for his crying] Rather, set not thy heart on his destruction, R.V.; lit. on causing him to die. This might mean, let not thy passionate and excessive correction kill or injure him; as LXX., Vulg. and Maurer (sed cave occidas inter castigandum), and Coverdale, “but let not thy soul be moved to slay him”; but it is better to understand it of the result of withholding correction: be not bent by thy foolish indulgence on ruining him. So A.V. marg., “Let not thy soul spare to his destruction, or to cause him to die.” Comp. 1Ki_2:6; and Sir_30:1.

Proverbs 19:19
do it again] Because, if you deliver him by paying for him or otherwise ridding him of the “penalty” which his passionate action has brought upon him, his unbridled temper is sure to bring him into trouble again, and so you had better let things take their course.

Proverbs 19:22
is his kindness] The R.V. renders, is the measure of his kindness, in order to make the meaning clearer. The “kindness,” or “benevolence” of a man is to be measured, not by what he does, but by what he desires to do (2Co_8:12).
a liar] A poor man who would help but cannot is better than one whose circumstances or promises warrant expectations which are not fulfilled.
The proverb holds together better and is more forcible thus than if rendered, with R.V. marg., that which maketh a man to be desired is his kindness.

Proverbs 19:24
hideth his hand in his bosom] Rather, burieth his hand in the dish (R.V.), after the Oriental fashion of eating. See Pro_26:15, where this clause occurs again. Comp. Mat_26:23. The Heb. word is rendered dish, 2Ki_21:13; and (in a slightly different form) cruse (A.V. and R.V.) in 2Ki_2:20; pan, 2Ch_35:13. “It was probably a flat metal saucer of the form still common in the East,” Smith’s Dict. of Bible, Art. cruse.

Proverbs 19:25
beware] or, learn prudence, R.V.
There is a triple contrast in the proverb, between the persons to be dealt with and between both the manner and the result of dealing with them. The scorner, or hardened scoffer (λοιμός, LXX.; pestilens, Vulg.; Pro_1:22; Psa_1:1, and notes there in this Series), must be smitten, punished with severity (μαστιγουμένου, LXX.; flagellato, Vulg.), but not with any hope of his amendment, but only “that others admonished by his example may be the more afraid to offend.” But if one that hath understanding errs, he only needs to be reproved (ἐὰν δὲ ἐλέγχῃς, LXX.; si corripueris, Vulg.) to make him know better.

Proverbs 19:26
wasteth] Rather, violently entreateth, R.V. marg.

Proverbs 19:27
That causeth to err] The Heb. is simply, Cease to hear instruction to err. This may mean either, with A.V., Do not listen to instruction which if you follow it will lead you astray; or better, with R.V., Do not listen to (good) instruction, only to neglect it, and err in spite of it. Comp. Jas_1:22; Mat_7:26-27.

Proverbs 19:28
ungodly] Rather, worthless. See Pro_6:12, note.

Proverbs 19:1-29
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 19:1-29
Proverbs 19 – Fools and Family Life
Pro_19:1
Better is the poor who walks in his integrity
Than one who is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.
a. Better is the poor who walks in his integrity: Previous proverbs have been critical of the poor, but here Solomon recognized that not all poverty is caused by moral failure or weakness. There are definitely poor people who walk in their integrity.
i. “Often men put under their feet those whom God carries in his heart. Man honors the perverse for their riches and despises the poor because of their poverty.” (Bridges)
b. Than one who is perverse in his lips, and is a fool: The Book of Proverbs is honest about the disadvantages of poverty. Yet it also recognizes that being pooris in no way the worst thing a person can be. It is far worse to be a fool who speaks twisted, perverse things.
i. “Once again a proverb correlates poverty with piety and wealth with impiety. The poor may be miserable for the moment, but the unethical rich are miserable for eternity. Thus the proverb teaches the pilgrim to walk by faith, not by sight.” (Waltke)
Pro_19:2
Also it is not good for a soul to be without knowledge,
And he sins who hastens with his feet.
a. It is not good for a soul to be without knowledge: When a person (a soul) has no wisdom (is without knowledge), it is never good. It may be common, but it is not good.
b. And he who sins hastens with his feet: Solomon listed a second thing that was not good – the one who rushes toward sin (hastens with his feet). On this side of eternity, we will also struggle with sin, but we don’t have to run towards it. We should be those who battle against sin, not run towards it.
Pro_19:3
The foolishness of a man twists his way,
And his heart frets against the Lord.
a. The foolishness of a man twists his way: it is true that a fool is foolish because they are twisted, crooked. Yet it also true that the foolish man finds his way more and more twisted. Foolishness leads to more twistedness.
b. His heart frets against the Lord: God intended us to be at peace with Him, but because of rebellion (both inherited and chosen), we are in many ways against the Lord. The foolish man or woman has no peace in God; their heart frets against the Lord. They are angry and perhaps bitter against God for their twisted way.
i. “Fools will try to blame God when they ruin their lives…The fool is not willing to accept failure as his own. Of course, to blame God is also folly.” (Ross)
ii. “Such is the pride and blasphemy of a proud spirit. The criminal blames the judge for his righteous sentence.” (Bridges)
Pro_19:4
Wealth makes many friends,
But the poor is separated from his friend.
a. Wealth makes many friends: When a person is wealthy, it draws many people to them in friendship. Yet these friendships may not be sincere or meaningful.
i. “Although a crowd, each one forms the friendship out of what he can gain, not for what he can give. The proverb anticipates the Lord’s teaching to use of money to win friends and an eternal reward in the kingdom of God (Luk_18:1-9).” (Waltke)
b. The poor is separated from his friend: The wealthy man has advantages and draws many friends, but the poor man does not have these advantages. Their would-be friends find it easy to separate from them.
Pro_19:5
A false witness will not go unpunished,
And he who speaks lies will not escape.
a. A false witness will not go unpunished: The first idea in this proverb is probably that of the law court, and in the court, it is essential that the false witness be punished. Justice depends upon it. This principle extends beyond the court of law into our daily life. God loves the truth and wants us to speak the truth.
b. He who speaks lies will not escape: Among men, sometimes the false witness and liars escape the discovery and penalty of their sin. With God, he who speaks lies will not escape. Jesus said our every word would be held to account (Mat_12:36).
i. “This is a statement made in faith, for perjurers may escape human justice. Even the stern law of Deu_19:18-21 availed nothing for Naboth—or for Jesus.” (Kidner)
Pro_19:6
Many entreat the favor of the nobility,
And every man is a friend to one who gives gifts.
a. Many entreat the favor of the nobility: When someone is of high status and importance (of the nobility), many people want their favor. There are advantages in having the favor of influential people.
b. Every man is a friend to the one who gives gifts: Many people who offer friendship do so out of selfish motives. They want the benefit of the favor of the nobility and the gifts that others may offer.
Pro_19:7
All the brothers of the poor hate him;
How much more do his friends go far from him!
He may pursue them with words, yet they abandon him.
a. All the brothers of the poor hate him: To be poor is often to be rejected by men, even by brothers and friends. What a contrast to Jesus, who Himself became poor (2Co_8:9) to draw near to us in our poverty and need.
b. He may pursue them with words, yet they abandon him: By nature, people run from the poor person, even when he tries to persuade and pursue them with words. In contrast, God pursues the poor and needy.
Pro_19:8
He who gets wisdom loves his own soul;
He who keeps understanding will find good.
a. He who gets wisdom loves his own soul: The possession and pursuit of wisdom is so good and helpful to us that we can and should get wisdom simply out of self-interest. In so doing we love our own soul, our own life.
i. Loves his own soul:“Or loveth himself, because he procures great good to his soul, or to himself, as it follows; as sinners, on the contrary, are said to hate their souls, Pro_29:24, because they bring mischief upon them.” (Poole)
b. He who keeps understanding will find good: Wisdom isn’t just something to get; it is also something to keep. We find good when we keepunderstanding.
Pro_19:9
A false witness will not go unpunished,
And he who speaks lies shall perish.
a. A false witness will not go unpunished: The words and sense of this proverb were previously presented in Pro_19:5. The repetition reminds us that this is an important principle. In the law court and in daily life, God wants us to be people of the truth and so He promised that a false witness will not go unpunished.
b. He who speaks lies shall perish: This speaks to the certainty of God’s justice towards those who lie. Rev_21:8 warns that liars are among those who will have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
Pro_19:10
Luxury is not fitting for a fool,
Much less for a servant to rule over princes.
a. Luxury is not fitting for a fool: The sense is that there are some wisdom-rejecting fools who enjoy luxury, but it doesn’t seem right. It isn’t fitting for a fool to live in luxury.
b. Much less for a servant to rule over princes: Solomon spoke according to the wisdom of the natural man, which places great trust in nobility and family lineage. This is one of the proverbs that the gospel and the new covenant turn on its head, where those who would be great should be as servants and not as princes (Mat_20:26; Mat_23:11).
i. “The slave, who is incompetent both by disposition and training, will be drunk from the feeling of power and his rulership will develop into unbearable despotism. The consequences for the community are only incompetence, mismanagement, abuse of power, corruption, injustice; in brief, social chaos (cf. Ecc_10:5-7).” (Waltke)
ii. “The slave has the same rational power as his sovereign. But lesser habits of mind make him unfit to rule. There are, however, exceptions to this, as in the case of Joseph.” (Bridges)
Pro_19:11
The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger,
And his glory is to overlook a transgression.
a. The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger: It isn’t necessarily weakness or lack of courage that makes a man slow to anger. It may be wisdom, here described as discretion.
b. His glory is to overlook a transgression: A wise man or woman knows that they have been forgiven much, and this shapes how they deal with others. They don’t act as if they must hold everyone accountable for every transgression but know when to overlook a transgression.
i. “The virtue which is indicated here is more than a forgiving temper; it includes also the ability to shrug off insults and the absence of a brooding hypersensitivity.” (McKane, cited in Ross)
ii. “The manlier any man is, the milder and readier to pass by an offence. This shows that he hath much of God in him (if he do it from a right principle), who bears with our evil manners, and forgives our trespasses, beseeching us to be reconciled.” (Trapp)
Pro_19:12
The king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion,
But his favor is like dew on the grass.
a. The king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion: The roar of a lionis terrifying in itself, even without the understanding that destruction will swiftly follow. The same is true for the wrath of a king or any other influential person. It is much truer regarding the wrath of God or the wrath of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Rev_5:5).
i. “Hebrew, Of a young lion, which, being in his prime, roars more terribly; sets up his roar with such a force that he amazeth the other creatures whom he hunteth, so that, though far swifter of foot than the lion, they have no power to fly from him.” (Trapp)
ii. “There is nothing more dreadful than the roaring of this tyrant of the forest. At the sound of it all other animals tremble, flee away, and hide themselves. The king who is above law, and rules without law, and whose will is his own law, is like the lion.” (Clarke)
b. His favor is like the dew on the grass: This means the king’s favor is refreshing and life-giving; it also means that it is fleeting, as the dew on the grass. The favor of God is certainly refreshing and life-giving, but it is not fleeting, as if God were an impossible-to-please tyrant.
i. “Dew, which in the climatic conditions of Palestine was essential to the survival of vegetation in the hot, dry summer, is a gift from God.” (Waltke)
ii. “This proverb would advise the king’s subjects to use tact and the king to cultivate kindness.” (Ross)
Pro_19:13
A foolish son is the ruin of his father,
And the contentions of a wife are a continual dripping.
a. A foolish son is the ruin of his father: It is grieving to any parent to have a foolish son or daughter. This may run from grief to ruinas the grief destroys the father’s health and life, or as the father ruins himself to rescue the foolish son.
b. The contentions of a wife are a continual dripping: This proverb of sympathy for a man’s problems as a father now looks at a man’s potential problem as a husband. A wife who often contends (fights, argues) with her husband is like a continual dripping in at least three ways.

• It is an always-present annoyance and trouble.
• It wastes and destroys, eroding good and valuable things.
• It points to some underlying, more basic problem.
  i. “The man who has got such a wife is like a tenant who has got a cottage with a bad roof, through every part of which the rain either drops or pours. He can neither sit, stand, work, nor sleep, without being exposed to these droppings. God help the man who is in such a case, with house or wife!” (Clarke)
  ii. “Like as a man that hath met with hard usage abroad thinks to mend himself at home, but is no sooner sat down there but the rain, dropping through the roof upon his head, drives him out of doors again. Such is the case of him that hath a contentious wife – a far greater cross than that of ungracious children, which yet are the father’s calamities and heart breaks.” (Trapp)
  iii. “Delitzsch passes on an Arab proverb told him…‘Three things make a house intolerable: tak (the leaking through of rain), nak (a wife’s nagging) and bak (bugs).’” (Kidner)
  Pro_19:14
  Houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers,
  But a prudent wife is from the Lord.
  a. Houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers: There are good things a man may receive as an inheritance, including material things such as houses and riches. A man is blessed to have such things.
  b. A prudent wife is from the Lord: A gift beyond the inheritance one may receive from fathers is this gift from God – a prudent wife. A wife of wisdom, self-control, and appropriate living is a greater gift than houses and riches. A wife who is notprudent may waste whatever wealth a man has. Every man with a prudent, wise wife should give thanks to the Lord.
  i. From the Lord: “Nature makes a woman, election a wife; but to be prudent, wise, and virtuous is of the Lord. A good wife was one of the first real and royal gifts bestowed on Adam.” (Trapp)
  ii. “Thus the proverb instructs the disciple to look to God (Pro_15:8; Pro_15:29; Pro_16:3; cf. Gen_24:14) and find his favor through wisdom to obtain from him a competent wife (Pro_8:35; Pro_18:22)…. As a result, when a man has a competent wife, he praises God, not himself.” (Waltke)
  iii. “The verse does not answer questions about unhappy marriages or bad wives; rather, it simply affirms that when a marriage turns out well, one should credit God.” (Ross)
  Pro_19:15
  Laziness casts one into a deep sleep,
  And an idle person will suffer hunger.
  a. Laziness casts one into a deep sleep: There are many problems with laziness, and one of them is that it leads to more laziness, sending the lazy man into a deep sleep. There is no work to be done from a deep sleep.
  i. “Laziness plunges him into a state of being so deep in sleep that he is totally unconscious of his situation. Unaware of his tragic situation and unable to arouse himself, the sluggard neglects his source of income and so hungers. His fate is similar to that of drunkards and the gluttons (Pro_23:21).” (Waltke)
  b. An idle person will suffer hunger: There is a great price to be paid from laziness, one of those prices is the hunger one suffers as one’s needs are not met through hard work. The lazy man or woman puts themselves in a trap of sleep and hunger.
  Pro_19:16
  He who keeps the commandment keeps his soul,
  But he who is careless of his ways will die.
  a. He who keeps the commandment keeps his soul: Obedience to the word and commandment of God is of real, practical benefit. Obedience guards and keeps the life, the soul of the wise man or woman who lives according to God’s word.
  b. He who is careless of his ways will die: To abandon wisdom and live careless in our ways is to invite death. God gave His commandment to give us life and to keep us from death.
  Pro_19:17
  He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord,
  And He will pay back what he has given.
  a. He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord: When we give to the poor (expressing our love and pity towards them), we aren’t wasting our money. It is like lending money to the Lord Himself.
  i. “Their just and gracious Creator takes it upon himself to assume their indebtedness and so he will repay the lender in full.” (Waltke)
  b. He will pay back what he has given: God will never be in debt to any man. He will never be in a position where He owes anything as a matter of debt. Therefore, to lend to the Lord is to ensure blessing in return. God will certainly pay back what we give in compassion to the poor. God promises that we will never be the loser for generous and compassionate giving.
  i. “God will never be in your debt. He is exact and punctilious in His repayment. No man ever dared to do His bidding in respect to any case of need, and found himself the poorer…. Was not Ruth”s love to Naomi well compensated?” (Meyer)
  ii. “O what a word is this! God makes himself debtor for every thing that is given to the poor! Who would not advance much upon such credit? God will pay it again. And in no case has he ever forfeited his word.” (Clarke)
  iii. “This promise of reward does not necessarily signify that he will get his money back; the rewards in Proverbs involve life and prosperity in general.” (Ross)
  Pro_19:18
  Chasten your son while there is hope,
  And do not set your heart on his destruction.
  a. Chasten your son while there is hope: There is not an endless window of opportunity to chasten and wisely discipline our children. Age and circumstances limit the opportunity for effective training, so it must be done while there is hope. There may come the time when you wish you had done much more to chasten your son or daughter.
  i. “It is far better that the child should cry under healthy correction than that parents should later cry under the bitter fruit to themselves and their children of neglected discipline.” (Bridges)
  b. Do not set your heart on his destruction: To fail to chasten your son in the opportune season is to actually work for his destruction. Many parents bring much destruction to their children through neglect, not outright abuse.
  i. “Psychologically healthy parents do not consciously desire to kill their children. But if they do not employ the God-given means of verbal reproof to prevent acts of folly and corporal punishment to prevent their repetition, they are in fact unwittingly party to the worst punishment, his death.” (Waltke)
  Pro_19:19
  A man of great wrath will suffer punishment;
  For if you rescue him, you will have to do it again.
  a. A man of great wrath will suffer punishment: Out of control anger brings many problems and costs. Among the fruit of the spirit is self-control (Gal_5:23), and wisdom does not lead a person to be of great wrath.
  i. “He punishes himself. Wounded pride and resentment leave the wretched criminal brooding in his room. He suffers an intolerable burden of self-inflicted punishment.” (Bridges)
  b. For if you rescue him, you will have to do it again: The person who can’t control their anger will run into trouble again and again. To rescue them once isn’t enough, because the problem is more in them than in the circumstances that they blame for their anger. It is better for them to face the consequences of their action and hope they learn something from it.
  i. “An ungovernable temper will repeatedly land its owner in fresh trouble.” (Kidner)
  Pro_19:20
  Listen to counsel and receive instruction,
  That you may be wise in your latter days.
  a. Listen to counsel and receive instruction: One of the first marks of wisdom is the readiness to receive more wisdom. A teachable person, one who will listen to counsel and receive instruction, has already made much progress on the path of wisdom.
  b. That you may be wise in your latter days: The bad effects of the foolish rejection of wisdom may not be seen for many years. Yet in the latter days of a man or woman’s life, it will be clear whether or not they learned wisdom’s lessons and if they did listen to counsel. If you want to be wise later in life, start now.
  Pro_19:21
  There are many plans in a man’s heart,
  Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand.
  a. There are many plans in a man’s heart: It is in the nature of men (and women) to plan and prepare for the future. Some of the plans may be wise and some may be foolish, but there are many plans in a man’s heart.
  b. Nevertheless, the Lord’s counsel – that will stand: Man makes his plans, and he should. Yet every plan should be made with an appreciation of God’s overall wisdom, work, and will.
  i. James would later explain this principle this way: Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” (Jas_4:13-15)
  ii. “This is a perfectly self evident assertion, but, as such, important as to warrant a pause in reading it. The one thing in the heart that may be depended upon is the counsel or guidance of Jehovah.” (Morgan)
  Pro_19:22
  What is desired in a man is kindness,
  And a poor man is better than a liar.
  a. What is desired in a man is kindness: It is not that kindness is the highest or only virtue for the people of God. Yet, in many ways, it is the one most
  desired by others, especially in a modern world.
  b. A poor man is better than a liar: This proverb shows that kindness, though valuable, is not the only virtue. To be a man or woman of truth – to not be a liar – is also of great value. This proverb reminds us that though we should pursue and value kindness, we should not treat it as the only valued virtue among God’s people.
  Pro_19:23
  The fear of the Lord leads to life,
  And he who has it will abide in satisfaction;
  He will not be visited with evil.
  a. The fear of the Lord leads to life: Since the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, it wonderfully leads to life. If we want life, we should begin with this honor, reverent awe and submission to God.
  b. He who has it will abide in satisfaction: When we have, and walk in, the fear of the Lord, it leads to a life of satisfaction. The world, the flesh, and the devil want to convince us that a life founded on fear of the Lord leads to misery, but the opposite is true. It brings satisfaction and keeps us from a future of evil.
  i. Will not be visited with evil: “When one lives a life of piety, the Lord provides a quality of life that cannot be disrupted by such evil.” (Ross)
  Pro_19:24
  A lazy man buries his hand in the bowl,
  And will not so much as bring it to his mouth again.
  a. A lazy man buries his hand in the bowl: Solomon pictured a lazy man sitting at his food, with his hand buried in his bowl of food.
  i. “This humorous portrayal is certainly an exaggeration. It probably was meant more widely for anyone who starts a project but lacks the energy to complete it.” (Ross)
  ii. In the bowl: “The same word in 2Ki_21:13 leaves no doubt of its meaning. The scene is thus a meal, and the example comically extreme.” (Kidner)
  b. And will not so much as bring it to his mouth again: In this humorous, exaggerated picture, the lazy man has so little energy and initiative that he won’t even bring his hand from the bowl to his mouth. This exaggerated picture establishes a principle made elsewhere in proverbs: the lazy man will go hungry.
  i. Will not so much as bring it to his mouth again: “To wit, to feed himself; he expects that the meat should drop into his mouth.” (Poole)
  ii. “Is it possible to find anywhere a more graphic or sarcastic description of absolute laziness?” (Morgan)
  Pro_19:25
  Strike a scoffer, and the simple will become wary;
  Rebuke one who has understanding, and he will discern knowledge.
  a. Strike a scoffer, and the simple will become wary: When a determined fool and opponent of wisdom (a scoffer) is punished, others will learn. The more innocent fool (the simple) may learn from this.
  i. “Smite him never so much, there is no beating any wit into him. Pharaoh was not a button the better for all that he suffered; but Jethro, taking notice of God’s heavy hand upon Pharaoh, and likewise upon the Amalekites, was thereby converted, and became a proselyte, as Rabbi Solomon noteth upon this text.” (Trapp)
  b. Rebuke one who has understanding: The rebuke of the scoffer seems to do the scoffer no good, though it may benefit the simple. Yet when someone who values wisdom (one who has understanding) is corrected, he learns. He grows in his ability to discern knowledge.
  i. “Here are three varieties of mind: closed [scoffer]…empty (the simple—he must be startled into attention), and open [understanding] (…he accepts even a painful truth).” (Kidner)
  Pro_19:26
  He who mistreats his father and chases away his mother
  Is a son who causes shame and brings reproach.
  a. He who mistreats his father and chases away his mother: The Bible commands honor your father and your mother (Exo_20:12). This proverb considers the person who does the opposite of Exo_20:12.
  i. “When the father and his household lies in ruin, the mother (see Pro_1:8) is left in a tragic situation without the provision and protection and of her husband. By ruining his father, the imbecile (cf. Pro_17:2) leaves his mother as good as a defenseless widow.” (Waltke)
  b. Is a son who causes shame and brings reproach: One cannot disobey God and the standards of human society without paying a price. One price to be paid from the mistreatment of parents is to bring shame and reproach upon one’s self.
  Pro_19:27
  Cease listening to instruction, my son,
  And you will stray from the words of knowledge.
  a. Cease listening to instruction, my son: Solomon continued to give wisdom to his children, and here warned of the danger of ceasing to listen to instruction, to wisdom.
  b. And you will stray from the words of knowledge: This shows us that attention and effort must be given to remain on the path of wisdom. If one does cease listening to instruction, then they will stray from the words of knowledge. One must set themselves on the path of wisdom and, with God’s help, determine that they will stay upon in.
  i. “The meaning here is that it is better not to learn than to learn to refuse to obey.” (Morgan)
  ii. “Without constant attention to wisdom depraved human beings unconsciously stray from it. Even Solomon, ancient Israel’s paragon of wisdom, strayed when he ceased listening to his own proverbs.” (Waltke)
  Pro_19:28
  A disreputable witness scorns justice,
  And the mouth of the wicked devours iniquity.
  a. A disreputable witness scorns justice: The witness who is not committed to truth doesn’t care about the workings of justice. Great harm comes upon society and its legal system when there is not care and promotion of the truth and the disreputable witness is not punished.
  i. “The perjurers in the lawsuit against Naboth are called beliyyaal (1Ki_21:10; 1Ki_21:13), a story that illustrates the lying witnesses’ lethal power.” (Waltke)
  b. The mouth of the wicked devours iniquity: The words of the wicked (coming from the mouth) love iniquity so much that they devour it, as a hungry man devours food. This is the kind of person who scorns justice and tears down society.
  Pro_19:29
  Judgments are prepared for scoffers,
  And beatings for the backs of fools.
  a. Judgments are prepared for scoffers: Those who reject wisdom with hostility (scoffers) will not escape penalty. Judgments are prepared for them.
  i. Are prepared for: “For these scorners (that promise themselves impunity) are judgments, not one, but many, not appointed only, but prepared long since, and now ready to be executed.” (Trapp)
  b. Beatings for the backs of fools: Those who disregard wisdom, bound in their folly (fools) will also have their penalty. Correction will come to them in its appointed way, and sadly – the correction will do little good for them.
  i. “Profane and wicked men expose themselves to the punishments denounced against such by just laws. Avoid, therefore, both their company and their end.” (Clarke)

Proverbs 19:1-9
Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool. Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth. The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD. Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour. A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape. Many will intreat the favour of the prince: and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts. All the brethren of the poor do hate him: how much more do his friends go far from him? he pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him. He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul: he that keepeth understanding shall find good. A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish.
I pause over this last verse particularly, to remark to the Reader that there must be somewhat more than of ordinary importance in it, it being the repetition of the same sentiment as was just before delivered, only with stronger marks of the awful sin of which it treats. Both the Writer and the Reader may well pause over these solemn expressions, and consider the very solemn meaning. A false witness is the very reverse of Christ, the faithful and true witness. Rev_1:5. And therefore it may serve to shew what an awful state those men are in, who are found witnessing to lies, to anything, and everything, in a way of religion, short of Christ and his salvation. The Holy Ghost witnesseth wholly of Jesus. He shall testify of me, saith Christ. Joh_15:26. And how doth he do this? He shews to the sinner the evil of his way, he testifieth that Christ only can deliver the soul from going down to the pit; he points to the blood and righteousness of Jesus as the only possible means of salvation, and he sets to his seal in the heart of the regenerate, that there is salvation in no other; neither is there any other name under heaven, given among men, whereby they must be saved. Act_4:12. And what then must those be but false witnesses, that would direct a sinner to any other Saviour; or would tempt the heart to believe that partly in ourselves and partly in Christ we are to seek acceptance? Lord! in compassion to perishing sinners, send forth faithful men to be witnesses for God and his Christ. Jer_3:15.

Proverbs 19:10-12
Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes. The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression. The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour is as dew upon the grass.
Of what king doth the scriptures here speak but of Jesus? Of his wrath we have a striking account, Psa_2:12. And both the wrath of the Lamb, and the lion of the tribe of Judah, are characters under which Jesus is spoken of. Rev_5:5-6 See a most striking description. Rev_6:12-17.

Proverbs 19:13-29
A foolish son is the calamity of his father: and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping. House and riches are the inheritance of fathers: and a prudent wife is from the LORD. Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger. He that keepeth the commandment keepeth his own soul; but he that despiseth his ways shall die. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again. Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying. A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again. Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end. There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand. The desire of a man is his kindness: and a poor man is better than a liar. The fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil. A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again. Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware: and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge. He that wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother, is a son that causeth shame, and bringeth reproach. Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge. An ungodly witness scorneth judgment: and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity. Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.
I do not wish to swell the commentary for the reasons before given. And indeed if the Reader be under divine teaching, this will supersede all observations of mine. But I hope he will find in all these verses, more or less, somewhat to lead his mind to Christ, and in Christ to find the truest application.

Proverbs 19:29
REFLECTIONS
I TAKE occasion from what this chapter hath suggested of a false witness, to admonish the Reader, while I pray for grace to receive at the same time in my own heart, the full admonition; to be always upon our watch-tower for the faithful and true Witness concerning Jesus; even God the Holy Ghost, who is to bring all things to our remembrance, whatsoever Christ hath taught us.
And Reader! it is most blessed and refreshing to a seeking soul to mark the footsteps of his coming. For he comes to us in the Son’s name from the Father, to propose to us, not in proverbs only, but in the plain words of God, the gracious proclamation of pardon, mercy, and peace in the blood of the cross. He not only proposeth to us these mercies, but he disposeth the heart to receive what he brings. He not only shews us the loveliness and suitableness of the Saviour; but he inclineth the soul to see and feel the want of him, and to seek salvation in his blood. And when by his grace he hath powerfully pleaded in our conscience for Christ, and against ourselves; in shewing how gracious Jesus is, and how unworthy we are; how very suited he is to us, and how suited we are to him; he puts a cry into our hearts in leading us to the throne of grace, where we may find mercy and grace to help in every time of need. Reader! do suffer me to ask you, hath the Holy Ghost thus witnessed in your heart? Oh! for grace not to grieve the Holy Spirit of the Lord, whereby souls are sealed unto the day of redemption. Lord! grant that my soul may have this faithful Teacher witnessing with my spirit that I am a child of God. Keep me, Lord, from every false witness, convinced that this chapter twice hath marked it down, that the end of it is death.