Bible Commentaries

Verses 1-7. - These are specially religions maxims, and they all contain the name Jehovah. Verse 1. - The Authorized Version makes one sentence of this verse without any contrast or antithesis. This is plainly wrong, there being intended a contrast between the thought of the heart and the well ordered speech. It is better translated, The plans of the heart are man's: but the answer of the tongue is from Jehovah. Men make plans, arrange speeches, muster arguments, in the mind; but to put these into proper, persuasive words is a gift of God. "Our sufficiency is of God" (2 Corinthians 3:5). In the case of Balaam, God overruled the wishes and intentions of the prophet, and constrained him to give utterance to something very different from his original mental conceptions. But the present sentence attributes the outward expression of what the mind has conceived in every case unto the help of God (comp. vers. 9, 33; Proverbs 15:23). Christ enjoined his disciples to trust to momentary inspiration in their apologies or defences before unbelievers (Matthew 10:19). This verse is omitted in the Septuagint.

Verse 2. - All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes (Proverbs 21:2). He may deceive himself, and be blind to his own faults, or be following an ill-informed and ill-regulated conscience (Proverbs 12:15; Proverbs 14:12), yet this is no excuse in God's eyes. The Lord weigheth the spirits. Not the "ways," the outward life and actions only, but motives, intentions, dispositions (Hebrews 4:12). He too knows our secret faults, unsuspected by others, and perhaps by ourselves (Psalm 19:12). The Septuagint has here, "All the works of the humble are manifest before God, but the impious shall perish in an evil day." The next verse is omitted in the Greek; and the other clauses up to ver. 8 are dislocated.

Verse 3. - Commit thy works unto the Lord. "Commit" (gol) is literally "roll" (κύλισον, Theodotion), as in Psalm 22:8 and Psalm 37:5; and the injunction means, "Transfer thy burden to the Lord, cast upon him all that thou hast to do; do all as in his sight, and as an act of duty to him." Thus Tobit says to his son, "Bless the Lord thy God alway, and desire of him that thy ways may be directed, and that all thy paths and counsels may prosper" (Tobit 4:19). The Vulgate, using a different punctuation (gal), renders, "Reveal to the Lord thy works?' As a child opens its heart to a tender parent, so do thou show to God thy desires and intentions, trusting to his care and providence. And thy thoughts shall be established. The plans and deliberations out of which the "works" sprang shall meet with a happy fulfilment, because they are undertaken according to the will of God, and directed to the end by his guidance (comp. Proverbs 19:21; Psalm 90:17; 1 Corinthians 3:9). This verse is not in the Septuagint.

Verse 4. - The Lord hath made all things for himself. So the Vulgate, propter semetipsum; and Origen ('Praef. in Job'), δἰ ἑαυτόν. That is, God hath made everything for his own purpose, to answer the design which he hath intended from all eternity (Revelation 4:11). But this translation is not in accordance with the present reading, לַמַּעַנֵהוּ, which means rather "for its own end," for its own proper use. Everything in God's design has its own end and object and reason for being where it is and such as it is; everything exhibits his goodness and wisdom, and tends to his glory. Septuagint, "All the works of the Lord are with righteousness." Yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. This clause has been perverted to support the terrible doctrine of reprobation - that God, whose will must be always efficacious, has willed the damnation of some; whereas we are taught that God's will is that "all men should be saved, and come unto the knowledge of the truth," and that "God sent his Son not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved" (1 Timothy 2:4; John 3:17; comp. Ezekiel 33:11). Man, having freewill, can reject this gracious purpose of God, and render the means of salvation nugatory; but this does not make God the cause of man's destruction, but man himself. In saying that God "made the wicked," the writer does not mean that God made him as such, but made him as he made all other things, giving him powers and capacities which he might have used to good, but which, as a fact, he uses to evil. It will be useful here to quote the wise words of St. Gregory ('Moral.,' 6:33), "The Just and Merciful One, as he disposes the deeds of mortals, vouchsafes some things in mercy, and permits other things in anger; and the things which he permits he so bears with that he turns them to the account of his purpose. And hence it is brought to pass in a marvellous way that even that which is done without t,e will of God is not contrary to the will of God. For while evil deeds are converted to a good use, the very things that oppose his design render service to his design." The day of evil is the hour of punishment (Isaiah 10:3; Job 21:30), which by a moral law will inevitably fall upon the sinner. God makes man's wickedness subserve his purposes and manifest his glory, as we see in the case of Pharaoh (Exodus 9:16), and the crucifixion of our blessed Lord (Acts 2:23; comp. Romans 9:22). It is a phase of God's moral government that an evil day should be appointed for transgressors, and it is from foreknowledge of their deserts that their punishment is prepared. The perplexing question, why God allows men to come into the world whom he knows will meet with perdition, is not handled here. Septuagint, "But the impious is kept for an evil day." Cato, 'Dist.,' 2:8 -

"Nolo putes pravos homines peccata lucrari: Temporibus peccata latent, sed tempore patent."

Verse 5. - (For the first member, see Proverbs 6:17; Proverbs 8:13.) Says the maxim -

Ἀλαζονείας οὔ τις ἐκφεύγει δίκην

"Pride hath its certain punishment." We read in the Talmud, "Of every proud man God says, He and I cannot live in the world together." A mediaeval jingle runs -

"Hoc retine verbum, frangit Deus omne superbum." Septuagint, "Impure in the sight of God is every high-hearted man (ὑψηλοκάρδιος)." The second member is found in Proverbs 11:21, and must be taken as a form of adjuration. Septuagint, "Putting hands on hand unjustly, he shall not be innocent;" i.e. one who acts violently and unjustly shall be held guilty - which seems a trite truism. Many commentators interpret the clause as if it meant that the cooperation and combination of sinners in evil practices will not save them from retribution. But hand clasping hand in token of completing a bargain or alliance is scarcely an early Oriental custom. There is an analogous saying in Greek which implies mutual assistance -

Ξεὶρ χεῖρα νίπτει δακτυλός τε δάκτυλον

"Hand washes hand, and finger finger." The LXX. has here two distiches, the first of which occurs in the Vulgate, but the second is not found there. Neither appears in our present Hebrew text. "The beginning of the good way is to do what is just; this is more acceptable to God than to sacrifice sacrifices. He who seeketh the Lord shall find knowledge with righteousness; and they who seek him rightly alkali find peace."

Verse 6. - By mercy and truth iniquity is purged; atoned for. The combination "mercy and truth" occurs in Proverbs 3:3 (where see note), and intimates love to God and man, and faithfulness in keeping promises and truth and justice in all dealings. It is by the exercise of those graces, not by mere external rites, that God is propitiated (see on Proverbs 10:2). A kind of expiatory value is assigned to these virtues, which, indeed, must not be pressed too closely, but should be examined by the light of such passages in the New Testament as Luke 11:41; Acts 10:4. Of course, such graces show themselves only in one who is really devout and God fearing; they are the fruits of a heart at peace with God and man, and react on the character and conduct. The LXX., which places this distich after ver. 27 of ch. 15, translates, "By alms and faithfulness (πίστεσιν) sins are cleansed," confining the term "mercy" to one special form, as in one reading of Matthew 6. l, "Take heed that ye do not your righteousness [al. alms] before men." By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. The practice of true religion, of course, involves abstinence from sin; and this seems so unnecessary a truth to be formally stated that some take the "evil" named to be physical, not moral evil; calamity, not transgression. But the two clauses are coordinate, and present two aspects of the same truth. The first intimates how sin is to be expiated, the second how it is to be avoided. The morally good man meets with pardon and acceptance, and he who fears God is delivered from evil. So we pray, in the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our trespasses, and deliver us from evil." Septuagint, "By the fear of the Lord every one declineth from evil" (comp. Proverbs 14:27).

Verse 7. - When a man's ways please the Lord, which they can do only when they are religious, just, and charitable. He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him; to submit themselves. Experience proves that nothing succeeds like success. Where a man is prosperous and things go well with him, even ill-wishers are content to east away or to dissemble their dislike, and to live at peace with him. Thus Abimelech King of Gerar fawned upon Isaac because he saw that the Lord was with him (Genesis 26:27, etc.). This is the worldly side of the maxim. It has a higher aspect, and intimates the far reaching influence of goodness - how it disarms opposition, arouses reverence and love, gives no occasion for disputes, and spreads around an atmosphere of peace. To the Jews the maxim was taught by external circumstances. While they were doing the will of the Lord, their land was to be preserved from hostile attack (Exodus 34:24; 2 Chronicles 17:10). And Christians learn that it is only when they obey and fear God that they can overcome the assaults of the enemies of their soul - the devil, the world, and the flesh Talmud, "He who is agreeable to God is equally agreeable to men."

Verse 8. - Better is a little with righteousness (Proverbs 15:16; Psalm 37:16). "Righteousness" may mean here a holy life or just dealing; as without right, or, with injustice, in the second clause, may refer either generally wickedness, or specially to fraud and oppression (Jeremiah 22:13). Says Theognis -

Βούλεο δ εὐσεβέων ὀλίγοις σὺν χρήμασιν οἰκεῖν Η πλουτεῖν ἀδίκως χρήματα πασάμενος.

"Wish thou with scanty means pious to live, Rather than rich with large, ill-gotten wealth." Another maxim says to the same effect -

Λεπτῶς καλῶς ζῇν κρεῖσσον η} λαμπρῶς κακῶς. Septuagint, "Better is small getting (λῆψις) with righteousness, than great revenues with iniquity" (see on Proverbs 15:29).