Proverbs 31

Notes

Ver. 1. Of Lemuel nothing more is known than what is here recorded: and where there is nothing certain, conjecture is of no service. The word signifies 'God with them;' and if rulers did but know and always feel by whom, and for whom, and to whom they reign, it would ever be the best description of that high office to which 'the powers that be are ordained of God.' C.

Ver. 22. Silk. Rather, linen. It is doubtful if silk was known in Western Asia till long after the time of Christ. C.

Ver. 26. This passage is a beautiful description of a good wife, given of the Lord; but its real excellency lies in being an emblem of the church, opening 'her mouth with wisdom,' and knowing nothing by her ministers but 'Jesus Christ and him crucified.' C.

Reflections.—What blessings might mothers be to families, churches, and nations, would they but carefully educate their children! And it is unnatural and irreligious when they do otherwise. When princes are given to whoredom and drunkenness, and regardless of the poor or of the exact administration of justice, they are but a plague to the nation which they govern. With great care and circumspection ought all, especially such as bear rule in church or state, to make choice of their yokefellows in marriage. And it is a great blessing to themselves, and all their connections, if Providence direct them aright. But it is absurd and ruinous when wealth, beauty, or parentage are preferred to real virtue and religion, in the choice of wives or husbands. What a scandal to human nature is it when wives become the plague, the reproach of families! or when such as are virtuous and prudent are abused by husbands, unfaithful, drunken, imperious, cruel, outrageous, or churlish!—But infinite is the mercy that God, by his grace, has formed all who accept Christ into a living church, which, as the spouse of his Son, are made to answer this amiable and glorious description.

Concluding Remarks on the Book of Proverbs.

Solomon, we are told (1 Ki. 4. 32), composed no less than three thousand proverbs. As we count them, in modern verses, this collection does not contain so many. The conclusion therefore is, that many have been allowed to pass into oblivion, and that we possess but a part. If it be so, this is in no way to be wondered at in the case of Solomon, since we are told (John 20. 30) that, even in the case of 'a greater than Solomon,' 'many other miracles' are stated to have been wrought, which were not specifically recorded by the evangelist. Next to the book of Psalms, the Proverbs of Solomon are most frequently quoted in the New Testament; and that, be it well observed, not merely as a treasury of moral precepts, but as a direct revelation of Jesus as the wisdom of God and the power of God.

If considered merely as a collection of moral precepts for the regulation of fathers, mothers, children, and servants in families—or of kings, magistrates, and subjects in states—it contains more true practical wisdom than all the philosophers of Greece Rome, and more modern times, have ever been able to produce. Nor can there be any question that the ancient and most distinguished philosophers of Greece borrowed the principles of their moral doctrines from these proverbs; and have, in two respects, surpassed the modern deistical moralists; first, in the superiority of their moral code; and, secondly, in the honesty wherewith they acknowledged the source from which they were borrowed.

The book of Proverbs seems naturally divisible into five parts:—1. The first nine chapters containing various instructions and excitements to the study of the true wisdom—the knowledge of Jesus Christ, 'the wisdom of God, and the power of God.' 2. From x.-xxii. 16, which contains what is properly called the Proverbs. 3. From xxii. 17-xxv. inclusive, containing paternal instructions, speaking as unto children. 4. Extends from xxv.-xxix. inclusive, consisting of detached moral precepts, and is distinguished by having been 'copied out' by 'the men of Hezekiah.' 5. Includes xxx. xxxi.; the former containing the prayer and instructions of Agur to Ithiel and Ucal: the other addressed to Lemuel by his mother.

The whole, if considered as a mere literary and philosophical monument of the Hebrews, in the days of their prosperity, would place them as far above 'Greek and Roman glory,' as the sun, in his brightness, is above a flickering and 'sickly taper;' while, independent of all external evidences, the height, the depth, and immaculate purity of their morals, present an internal illustration of their divine origin, which no candid mind can possibly resist.—C.