Bible Commentaries

The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son [is] the heaviness of his mother.

The Proverbs. — Properly so called. See Proverbs 1:1 . For the nine former chapters are a kind of common places, or continued discourses premised as a preface to these ensuing wise and grave sentences, tending much to the information of the mind and reformation of the manners, and containing things profitable for all sorts of people. They are not unfitly compared by a divine to a bag full of sweet and fragrant spices, which shuffled or shaken together, or taken single, yield a sweet odour; or to stars in the firmament, each in itself glorious and independent of another, yet all receive their light from the sun.

A wise son maketh a glad father. — Children are certain cares, but uncertain comforts. φροντιδες μεγδλαι, ελπιδες αδηλοι . - Plut. Every son should be an Abner, that is, his father’s light; and every daughter an Abigail, her father’s joy. Eve promised herself much in her Cain, and David did the like in his Absalom. Sed, fallitur augurio spes bona saepe suo, - they were both deceived. Samuel succeeds Eli in his cross, as well as his place, though not in his sin; and had cause enough to call his untoward children, as Augustus did, tres vomicas, tria carcinomata, - so many ulcerous sores, mattery imposthumes. A purulent swelling or cyst in any part of the body; an abscess. Virtue is not as lands, inheritable. All that is traduced with the seed is either evil, or not good. Let parents labour to mend by education what they have marred by propagation; and when they have done all, pray "God persuade Japhet," lest else they be put to wish one day, as Augustus did, Oh that I had never married, or never had children! Sueton, cap. 6. And let children cheer up their parents, as Joseph, Samuel, and Solomon did; and as Epaminondas, who was wont to say, Se longe maximum suarum laudum fructum capere quod earum spectatores haberet parentes, Corn. Nepos. - that he joyed in nothing more than that his parents were yet alive, to take comfort in his brave achievements; for otherwise God will take them in hand, as he did Abimelech, to whom he "rendered the wickedness done to his father"; Judges 9:5 and as he did Absalom, whom he trussed up in the height of his rebellious practices with his own immediate hand; or else he will punish them in and by their posterity, which shall either be none (Proverbs 20:20 , compared with 2 Samuel 14:7 ), or worse than none; as he who, when his aggrieved father complained that never man had so undutiful a child as he had, Yes, said his son (with less grace than truth), my grandfather had. Mr Fuller’s Holy State.

The heaviness of his mother. — The mother is mentioned (though the father haply as heavy) first, as most faulted if her children miscarry; Proverbs 24:15 next, as most slighted by them; Proverbs 15:20 and lastly, as most impatient of such an affliction. Rebekah was weary of her life by reason of the daughters of Heth brought in to her by Esau. Genesis 27:46 If they lie idle at home, mothers have the misery of it; if they do worse abroad, the worst is made of it to the mother at home by fame, that loud liar.

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Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death.

Treasures of wickedness. — Our Saviour calls it "Mammon of iniquity," Luke 16:9 that next odious name to the devil. Most men’s care is how to grasp and get wealth for their children - rem rem, quocunque modo rem. Virtus post nummos, … But what saith a grave author? Mr Bolton. "Better leave thy child a wallet to beg from door to door, than a cursed hoard of evil gotten goods." There is for the most part lucrura in arca, damnum in conscientia, Augustine. - gain in the purse, but loss in the conscience.

But righteousness delivereth from death. — Piety, though poor, delivereth from the second death, and from the first too, as to the evil of it. For as Christ took away the guilt of sin, not sin itself, so he hath taken away, not death, but the sting of death from all believers, making it to such of a curse a blessing; of a punishment, a benefit; of a trap door to hell, a portal to heaven; a postern to let out temporal life, but a street door to let in eternal life.

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The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.

The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous. — That refuseth to enrich himself by evil arts, and to rise by wicked principles. For it might be objected, If I strain not my conscience, I may starve for it. Fear not that, saith the wise man; faith fears not famine. Necessaries thou shall be sure of; Psalms 37:25-26 ; Psalms 34:15 superfluities thou art not to stand upon τροφην ου τρυφην: σκηπασματα ου κοσμηματα . 1 Timothy 6:8 The Hebrews by "righteousness" in the former verse understand alms deeds, as Daniel 4:24 ; Daniel 4:27 See Trapp on " Matthew 7:1 " and so the sense here may be. The righteous, though he give much to the poor, shall be never the poorer, since not getting, but giving, is the way to thrive. See my "Common Place of Alms."

But he casteth away the substance of the wicked. — For either they lose it, or live beside it, and are little the better for it. "He that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and in his end be a fool." Jeremiah 17:11 God will make a poor fool of him quickly. Quo mihi divitias queis non conceditur uti? And the like may be said of the illiberal and tenacious person. See Trapp on " Proverbs 3:27 " Niggards fear to lose their wealth by giving, but fear not to lose their wealth, and souls, and all, by keeping it.

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He becometh poor that dealeth [with] a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.

He becometh poor. — Lest any should say, If God do all, we need do the less. Doing you must be, saith the wise man, or else the beggar will catch you by the back. Labour also you must with your hands, "working the thing that is good, that ye may have to give to him that needeth." Ephesians 4:28

But the hand of the diligent. — Or, Of the nimble; that do motitare, saith Kimchi, are active and agile; that will lose nothing for looking after, but take care of smallest matters that all go right, being frugal and parsimonious of time, husbanding the opportunity of thriving and plenty. How did Boaz follow the business himself. How were his eyes in every corner, on the servants, and on the reapers, yea, on the gleaners too. He doth even lodge in the midst of his husbandry, Ruth 2:4-14 ; Ruth 3:7 ; Ruth 3:14 as knowing well the truth of that proverbial sentence, Procul a villa sua dissitus iactura vicinus, Columel. - He that is far from his business, is not far from loss.

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He that gathereth in summer [is] a wise son: [but] he that sleepeth in harvest [is] a son that causeth shame.

He that gathereth in summer. — A well chosen season is the greatest advantage of any action, which, as it is seldom found in haste, so it is too often lost in delay. The men of Issachar were in great account with David, because "they had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do," and when to do it; 1 Chronicles 12:32 so are they in great account with God for their wisdom who observe and use the season of well doing.

But he that sleepeth in harvest, — i.e., That lets slip his opportunity; as Plutarch writes of Hannibal, that when he could have taken Rome he would not, when he would he could not. And as it is told of Charles, king of Sicily and Jerusalem, that he was called Carolus Cuncator, Charles the Lingerer, not (in the sense as Fabius) because he stayed till opportunity came, but because he stayed till opportunity was lost.

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Blessings [are] upon the head of the just: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.

Blessings are upon the head. — Plentifully and conspicuously; they shall abound with blessings. Proverbs 28:20 As the fear of the Lord is not only in them, but upon them, 2 Chronicles 19:7 so blessings of all sorts, a confluence of all spiritual and temporal comforts and contentments, shall be not only with them, but upon them, so that nothing shall hinder it. See Galatians 6:16 . They are blessed, and they shall be blessed, Genesis 27:33 neither shall any roaring or repining Esau be able to reverse it.

But violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. — They shall be certainly shamed, condemned, executed, as Haman, whose face they covered, Esther 7:8 and shortly after strangled; and as Sir Gervaise Ellowayes, lieutenant of the Tower, hanged on Tower Hill for poisoning Sir Thomas Overbury, his prisoner. This Sir Gervaise being on the gallows, freely confessed that he had oft, in his playing at cards and dice, wished that he might be hanged if it were not so and so, and therefore confessed it was just upon him.

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The memory of the just [is] blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.

The memory of the just is blessed. — "Demetrius had a good report of the truth." 3 John 1:12 In the Hebrew tongue the same word signifieth "a good name," and "a blessing." This is one of those blessings mentioned in Proverbs 10:6 , that shall be heaped upon holy men. "Holy and reverend is his name." Psalms 111:9 How comes God’s name to be "reverend," but by being "holy?" Be good, and do good, so shall thy name be heir to thy life; yea, when thou art laid in thy grave, thy stock remains, goes forward, and shall do till the day of doom.

But the name of the wicked shall rot. — And stink as putrefied flesh. Hypocrites then must be detected, though they carry it never so clearly; how else shall they be detested, and stink above ground Simon Magus so handled the matter, that Philip mistook him for a believer, and baptized him; but Peter soon smelt him out, and laid him open in his colours. "He that perverteth his ways shall be known"; Proverbs 10:9 "The Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity," for all their cunning contrivances. Psalms 125:5

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The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall.

The wise in heart shall receive commandment, — i.e., Submit to God’s holy word without replies and cavils. This is check to the brave gallants of our age, which exercise their ripe heads and fresh wits in wrestling with the truth of God, and take it for a glory to give it a foil. The Athenians encountered with Paul, and had argument for argument against him, that Christ was not the Saviour of the world, that he was not risen from the dead, … This shewed they were not wise in heart, though reckoned chief among the world’s wizards.

But a prating fool shall fall. — Or, Be beaten. Such a fool was Diotrephes, who prated or trifled φλυαρει , 3 John 1:10 against St John with malicious words, and might have been therefore surnamed Nugax, as Rodulphus, that succeeded Anselm in the see of Canterbury, was. Godwin’s Catal.

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