Bibelkommentare

He, that being often reproved hardeneth [his] neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck. — As an untamed heifer, that "pulleth away the shoulder," Zechariah 7:11 and detracteth the yoke; or as the creature called monoceros, the unicorn, interimi potest, capi non potest, Solinus. may be slain but not taken; so those that refuse to be reformed, Corriptimur sed non corrigimur. - Augustine. hate to be healed, will not bend, shall surely and severely be broken, certissime citissimeque confringentur, they shall certainly and suddenly be dashed in pieces as a potter’s vessel, that cannot be pieced together again. Isaiah 30:13-14 Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel, Jeremiah 15:12 and shall not the fierce wrath of God shatter and shiver out a silly sinner that will needs stout it out with him, and yet is no more able to stand before him than a glass bottle before a cannon shot? Let Eli’s sons, and such refractories, look for ruin. The prophet fitly compares them to headstrong horses that get the bit into their mouths, run desperately upon the rocks, and so in short time break first their hoofs and then their necks. Queen Elizabeth, in talking with Marshal Biron - whom the French king sent ambassador to her, anno 1601 - sharply accused Essex (who had recently lost his head) of obstinacy, rash counsels, and wilful disdaining to ask pardon, and wished that the French king would rather use mild severity than careless clemency, and cut off the heads of treacherous persons in time, … This might have terrified Biron from those wicked attempts which he was even at this time plotting against his king, had not his mind been besotted. But the power of his approaching fate did so blind him, that within few months after he underwent the same death that Essex did - though nothing so piously and Christianly, as having hardened his neck against wholesome counsel. Cambden’s Elisabeth, fol. 562. Now if men harden their hearts, God will harden his hand, and hasten their destruction, and that without remedy.

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When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

When the righteous are in authority. — Or, Are increased, as Proverbs 28:28 ; See Trapp on " Proverbs 28:28 "

The people mourn. — Heb., Sigh (as the oppressed Israelites in Egypt did) where they dare not speak out. But what a bloody tyrant was Sulla, who put to death Marcus Plaetorius only for sighing at the cruel execution of Marcus Marius! So one Lancelot was burnt in Giles’s fields for pitying the cruel death of a couple of martyrs. Acts and Mon., fol. 1164.

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Whoso loveth wisdom rejoiceth his father: but he that keepeth company with harlots spendeth [his] substance.

Whoso loveth wisdom rejoiceth his father. — See Trapp on " Proverbs 10:1 "

But he that keepeth company with harlots. — See Trapp on " Proverbs 5:9 " Those she sinners, as they call them, are costly creatures, and they that keep them care not what cost they cast away upon them.

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The king by judgment establisheth the land: but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it.

The king by judgment stablisheth the land. — This one piece of Solomon’s politics hath much more good advice in it than all Lypsius’s Beehive, or Machiavel’s Spider web.

But he that receiveth gifts. — Heb., A man of oblations; that is, as some interpret it, a man that sacreligiously meddleth with things dedicated to pious uses, and makes a gain of them to himself. See Proverbs 20:25 .

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man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet.

A man that flattereth his neighbour, … — A smooth boots, as the word Glaber. signifies, a butterspoken man, see Isaiah 3:12 or a divided man, for a flatterer’s tongue is divided from his heart.

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In the transgression of an evil man [there is] a snare: but the righteous doth sing and rejoice.

In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare. — Or, A cord - viz., to strangle his joy with - to check and choke all his comforts. In the midst of his mirth he hath many a secret gripe, and little knows the world where his shoe pincheth him. Every fowl that hath a seemly feather hath not the sweetest flesh, nor doth every tree that bringeth a goodly leaf bear good fruit. Glass giveth a clearer sound than silver, and many things glitter besides gold. The wicked man’s jollity is but the hypocrisy of mirth; it may wet the mouth, but not warm the heart - smooth the brow, but not fill the breast. We may be sure, that as Jezebel had a cold heart under a painted complexion, so many a man’s heart aches and quakes within him when his face counterfeits a smile.

But the righteous sing and rejoice. — Good men only may be glad, and none have any reason to rejoice but they. Hosea 9:1 The Papists have a proverb, Spiritus Calvinianus est spiritus melancholicus, and the mad world are easily persuaded by the devil that there is no comfort in a Christian course - that your precise fellows live a melancholy and monkish kind of life, and have no joy of anything. Herein the devil deals like those inhospitable savages in America, that make great fires, and set forth terrible sights upon their country’s shore, purposely to frighten passengers from landing there. And as those wicked spies brought up an evil report of the land of Canaan, and thereby discouraged the people, so doth the devil and his imps of the purity of religion and power of godliness as uncouth and uncomfortable, when in truth there is no sound comfort without it - no true joy but in it. Though Saul could not be merry without a fiddler, Ahab without Naboth’s vineyard, Haman without Mordecai’s courtesy, yet a righteous man can be merry without all these. Yea, as the lily is fresh, beautiful, and looks pleasantly, though among thorns, so can he amidst troubles. Paul - than whom never any out of hell suffered more - did not only glory in tribulation, but "overabound exceedingly with joy." 2 Corinthians 7:4

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The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: [but] the wicked regardeth not to know [it].

The righteous considereth the cause of the poor. — The cause, not the person of the poor, for that is forbidden in the law. Leviticus 19:15 The great must not be favoured for their might, nor the mean for their misery, but justice, justice must be done to all, as Moses hath it; that is, even law and execution of right - as the oath runs that is given to our judges - without respect of persons. The cause of the poor and needy must come into equal balance with the rich and mighty, lest he be trampled on by those fat bulls of Bashan, to his utter undoing. For a poor man in his house is like a snail in his shell - crush that, and ye kill him.

But the wicked regardeth not to know it. — Unless there were more to be got by it. Felix had soon enough of Paul’s defence, because he expected some bribe from him; but nothing came. How ill-willing was that unjust judge, Luke 18:1-8 either to take knowledge of, or to take course for, the relief of the poor widow! Aperi bursam, apperiam buccam, saith the greedy lawyer. They that cannot lavish money out of the bag are little welcome to these Crumenimulgae, as one calls them - these purse suckers, that will weigh your gold, but not your cause; and if a man put not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him. Micah 3:5

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Scornful men bring a city into a snare: but wise [men] turn away wrath.

Scornful men bring a city into a snare. — The Vulgate render it, Pestilent persons undo a city or a state; as Nahash did the Ammonites, 1 Samuel 11:2 ; 1 Samuel 11:11 and as his son Hanan did much more. 2 Samuel 10:4 ; 2 Samuel 12:31 Mocking is catching, as the pestilence, and no less pernicious to the whole country. Geraldus Cambrensis tells of three Irish kings that, being derided for their rude habits and fashions, rebelled, and set the country in a combustion. And the young King of France, jesting at William the Conqueror’s great belly, whereof he said he lay in at Rouen, so irritated him, as he being recovered of a sickness, entered France in the chiefest time of their fruits, making spoil of all in his way, till he came even to Paris, where this scornful king then was, to show him of his visiting, and from thence marched to the city of Mants, which he utterly sacked and ransacked, razed and harassed. Dan. Chron., 42.

But wise men turn away wrath. — They stand in the gap, and divert the divine displeasure. Psalms 106:23 Ezekiel 13:5 Their persons are in acceptation; God will look upon them, and do much for them, when he is most of all angry with the wicked. Exodus 32:10 ; Exodus 32:14 Job 22:30 Genesis 18:32 Their prayers also are prevalent. Something the Lord will yield thereunto, when most bitterly bent against a people, Matthew 24:20 and when unchangeably resolved upon their ruin, he takes course to silence such; "Pray not for this people." " Sanctum semen statumen terrae " Isaiah 6:13 "The innocent shall deliver the island." Job 22:30

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