Proverbs 10

Notes

Ver. 1. It is a great comfort to parents to see their children profiting by their instructions and examples, and growing up in wisdom, piety, and virtue. But it is a grief and burden to them when they are foolish, stubborn, and profligate. 2. Ill-gotten riches afford no solid comfort in life, but draw on a wasting or poisoning curse: but Jesus' glorious love, and a holy, just, and merciful conduct, procure safety and deliverance from the greatest dangers. 3. The Lord, who has all fulness in his hand, will always grant necessary supplies, for both soul and body, to them who are justified in Christ and live in a just and merciful manner. But he will deprive the wicked of their ill-gotten possessions by some stroke of his providence, or remove them from it by death. 4. Negligence and sloth, and even fraudulent methods of gain, bring men to poverty; but active diligence tends to enrich men both in temporals and spirituals. 5. To seize upon and improve opportunities of obtaining spiritual or temporal things, particularly in the time of youth, is a mark of true wisdom: but he that slothfully neglects them, brings misery and shame upon himself and his parents. 6. The justified in Christ are, to their everlasting honour and safety, blessed in him with all the blessings of time and eternity: and outward blessings often attend the just and merciful on earth. But their own iniquity shall violently overwhelm and confound those who wickedly defraud and oppress their neighbours. 7. The pious and virtuous shall, at least after death, be remembered with honour and praise, men blessing God for their good example and useful conversation; but wicked livers shall either be forgotten or remembered with abhorrence. 8. They who are truly wise will thankfully receive and practise laws from God or good advices from men: but self-conceited persons, who will not learn of others, but love to hear themselves talk, shall bring themselves into contempt, sin, and misery: nay, into hell. 9. He who in dealing with God and men walks in candour, simplicity, and godly sincerity, is safe under the divine protection in his way to eternal life, and avoids manifold miseries and snares in this world; but he who indulges himself in hypocrisy towards God, and in inconstancy and deceit towards men, shall be detected and made a public reproach. 10. He who under pretence of kindness betrays his neighbour, and by signs mocks him or tempts others to injure him, is a common grievance, and shall at last become miserable; but a noisy and perpetual talker ruins himself by his words, and deserves to be beaten for his impertinence. 11. Good discourse always tends to the profit, comfort, and refreshment of those that receive it; but wicked men, to their own ruin, pour forth virulent and mischievous language; or, if their language be fair, it but conceals the mischief which they intend to effect when opportunity serves. 12. Where there is hatred in the heart, almost everything, however innocent, will be used to raise quarrels or disturbances: but love overlooks affronts and injuries, pacifies the mind of the injured, and composes contentions for which too much ground had been given. 13. Where wisdom abounds in the heart, the discourse of the lips will be sensible and edifying; but nothing but sore afflictions here, or the torments of hell hereafter, can bring obstinate fools to any serious reflection. 14. They who know the value of true wisdom labour to enlarge their knowledge, and to keep it up till they have proper opportunities for using it: but fools rashly blab out what tends to their own or others' ruin. 15. Riches make men confident and secure, and even protect them against manifold injuries in this world; whereas poverty depresses men's spirits, and exposes them to injury and abuse. 16. The industry of the righteous in outward things issues in the comfortable maintenance of himself and others; and his care for his soul issues in life spiritual and eternal: but whatever a wicked man has by inheritance, or by his own acquirement, hardens him in sin, and is abused to gratify his sinful lusts. 17. He is in the way to eternal life who receives, lays up in his heart, and practises the instructions of God's Word, and readily regards advices, and even reproofs, given him by others: but he who neglects to give reproof, encourages men in their mistakes; and he who refuses to take and improve instructions and reproofs, obstinately rushes upon his own destruction. 18. He who conceals his hatred by great professions of friendship before one's face, and he who artfully vents slander behind one's back, is, with all his cunning, an impious fool in God's reckoning, and his wickedness shall be publicly exposed. 19. Even in much speaking there are ordinarily to be found words idle or wicked. It is therefore prudent to be sparing in our words, and to consider well both when, and where, and what, and how we speak. 20, 21. Prudent and pious discourse is pure and substantial: it edifies, instructs, and nourishes the hearers: but the heart of the wicked, being only evil, and that continually, is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; nothing good can proceed from it; but they persist and perish in the devices of their own foolishness, neither knowing nor caring to know the way of life and peace. 22. It is not men's anxious labour and care that make them rich, either in temporal or spiritual things; but the blessing of God upon their lawful endeavours confers riches, and enables to enjoy them comfortably, without pressure of guilt, tormenting fear, or perplexing care. 23. Senseless sinners take pleasure in, and make a jest of, the most horrid impieties they can commit: but they that are wise carefully avoid mischief, and all sporting with it or delighting in it. 24. The miseries which wicked men fear under the awakenings of conscience shall come upon them; and whatever blessings the righteous desire and pray for, shall be granted them in due season. 25. However the wicked may bluster for a while, and threaten to overthrow everthing that stands in their way, they quickly and terribly ruin themselves and rush into misery: but the righteous, being built on Christ the Rock of Ages, and fixed in piety and virtue, stand fast forever. No storm can shake their confidence, or deprive them of their durable and immovable felicity. 26. As vinegar sets the teeth on edge, and smoke is vexatious to the eyes, so sluggish, negligent, and dilatory persons vex and provoke them who send or employ them in any important business. 27. A religious observance of God's laws, and preserving of our body in temperance, soberness, and chastity, tends to prolong our life: but wickedness of itself, and by God's righteous judgments on account of it, brings on diseases, and hastens the sinner to his grave and to hell. 28. The hope of the godly, founded on Jesus' promise and blood, brings delight and satisfaction to the soul, and issues in everlasting felicity; but the hope of the wicked shall issue in disappointment and eternal misery. 29. Upright walking in Christ, and the exercising of piety and virtue, increase a person's strength for duty and courage in it: but the workers of iniquity shall be plagued with terrors and overwhelmed in misery. 30. Nothing so establishes persons or families in a relation to Christ as their righteousness, and a course of piety, justice, and mercy: but the wicked, however successful they may be for a time, shall never be able to fix themselves in their prosperity, but be rooted out from the enjoyment of it. 31. The godly, out of the good treasure of their heart, bring forth good discourse, which tends to make the hearers wise unto salvation: but he that uses his tongue to abuse, cozen, or raise dissension, or to blaspheme God and spread error, shall, in the end, have it silenced in hell. 32. The righteous know, and accustom themselves to speak things truly useful and edifying; but the wicked abandon their lips to falsehood, flattery, fraud, and calumny, or such like subtle but detestable arts of doing mischief.

Ver. 1. This is the commencement of the second great division of the book. It is different in structure from the first division. The latter is made up of parables and proverbs of considerable length; while the former consists wholly of brief, pointed sentences, each of which consists generally of two antithetical members, embodying one idea. Most of them are figurative, being based on some comparison, both in language and in idea. It is probable that, though all these proverbial sayings were at one time or another uttered by Solomon, yet most of them were of much older date. His diligent study had made him familiar with the wisdom of the ancients, and his powerful memory retained it. In the end he either wrote the proverbs out himself under divine guidance, or he employed others to do so. Most of these proverbs are examples of antithetic parallelism, the second clause containing the contrast to the first. Each verse is, as a rule, complete in itself, and embodies a perfectly intelligible sentiment. There is in each a truth clearly and sharply enunciated, and a lesson which is almost forced upon the heart. P.

Ver. 6. For the original meaning of blessing, see note on Ge. 1. 22, 28. And such blessings, spiritual, 'the just,' the justified by faith, enjoy in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Ep. 1. 3—even the blessings of the election of grace, the adoption of children, the pardon of sin, acceptance in the Beloved, inseparable union with their exalted Head, the revelation of grace, and the eternal inheritance of unfading glory. C.

Ver. 12. Hatred stirs up strifes that are at rest; but love covers them over, so that they sleep and are not remembered. And it is not to small or few offences that this gentle office is extended: love covereth all, even the 'multitude of sins,' 1 Co. 13. 7. C.

Ver. 15. Wealth. Not the wealth of money, for that, by tempting cupidity, is often the cause of ruin; but the wealth of faith, of good works, 1 Ti. 6. 18; Ja. 2. 5, and spiritual wisdom, ver. 14. These constitute the 'strong city' of the rich believer, in which the poverty here described has neither lot, inheritance, nor defence. C.

Ver. 21. This is true, naturally and spiritually. A little instruction in mechanics and agriculture may almost miraculously multiply the food of a country; while the words of truth and comfort revive and feed the souls of perishing thousands with the bread that endureth unto eternal life. C.

Ver. 22. No sorrow in remembering how it was got, no sorrow in estimating how much has been lost, no sorrow in contemplating how much is endangered, no sorrow in anticipating how lavishly it may be spent, and no sorrow in watching and protecting it from the covetous, the deceitful, or the violent. C.

Ver. 29. The way of the Lord is Jesus manifested in prophecy, in types, in flesh, or by the Spirit; and he is strength to the faith, patience, and zeal of the upright—the men who stand upright, because they stand in a Redeemer's righteousness. C.