[286]Prov. xviii. 6, 7.[287]Prov. xii. 13.[288]Prov. xiv. 3.[289]Prov. xv. 23.[290]Prov. xxi. 23.[291]Prov. xxi. 28.[292]Prov. xvii. 20.[293]Prov. xviii. 4.[294]Prov. xxii. 11.[295]Prov. xxii. 18.[296]Prov. xix. 1, 22.[297]Prov. xxiii. 16.[298]Prov. xii. 16.[299]Prov. xxix. 11.[300]Prov. xix. 7. All the Proverbs in this selection are in the form of a distich. This affords a fair presumption that this verse with its three clauses is mutilated; and the presumption is confirmed by the fact that the third clause adds nothing of value, even if it be intelligible at all, to the sense. There is good reason, therefore, for believing that this third clause is the half of a distich which has not been preserved in its integrity; all the more because the LXX. have a complete proverb which runs thus: ὁ πολλὰ κακοποιῶν τελεσιουργεῖ κακίαν, ὃς δὲ ἐρεθίζει λόγους οὐ σωθήσεται. "He that does much evil is a craftsman of iniquity, and he that uses provoking words shall not escape." Perhaps in the Hebrew text which was before the Greek translators מְנַדֵּף appeared instead of מְרַדֵּף, and לֹא הָיָה instead of לֹא־הֵמָּה.[301]Prov. xxvi. 21.[302]Prov. xxx. 32, 33.[303]Prov. xii. 18.[304]Prov. xii. 17.[305]Prov. xix. 28.[306]Prov. xix. 5, rep. ver. 9.[307]Prov. xxi. 28.[308]Prov. xxv. 18.[309]Prov. xxvi. 23-28.[310]Prov. xiii. 5.[311]Prov. xii. 19.[312]Prov. xii. 22.[313]Prov. xx. 17.[314]Prov. xxvi. 2.[315]Prov. xxviii. 23.[316]Prov. xxix. 5.[317]Prov. xi. 13 and xx. 19; xxv. 2, 23.Cf."Whoso discovereth secrets loseth his credit and shall never find friend to his mind" (Eccles. xxvii. 16).[318]Prov. xviii. 8, rep. xxvi. 22.[319]Prov. xvi. 28.[320]Prov. xxvi. 20.[321]Prov. xvii. 9.[322]Prov. xi. 9.[323]Prov. xii. 6.[324]Prov. xv. 28.[325]Prov. xvi. 28.[326]Prov. xxvi. 18, 19.[327]Prov. xviii. 13.[328]Prov. xxix. 20.[329]Prov. xxiii. 9.[330]Prov. x. 19.[331]Prov. xiii. 3, 16.[332]Prov. xiv. 23.[333]Prov. xiv. 33.[334]Prov. xiv. 7. There is a quaint and pertinent passage in Lyly's Euphues:—"We may see the cunning and curious work of Nature, which hath barred and hedged nothing in so strongly as the tongue, with two rowes of teeth, and therewith two lips, besides she hath placed it farre from the heart, that it should not utter that which the heart had conceived; this also should cause us to be silent, seeinge those that use much talke, though they speake truly, are never beleeved."[335]Prov. xv. 2.[336]Prov. xviii. 2.[337]Prov. xii. 18.[338]Eccl. x. 4.[339]Prov. xv. 4. מַרְפֵּא is best rendered here and in Eccl. x. 4 by "gentleness." It is just that quality of humility and submission and tranquillity which our Lord blessed as meekness.[340]Prov. xv. 1.[341]Prov. xv. 26.[342]Prov. xvi. 24.[343]Prov. xii. 25.[344]Prov. xv. 23.[345]Prov. xxv. 20.[346]Prov. xxv. 11.[347]Cf.Eccles. xx. 20: "A wise sentence shall be rejected when it cometh out of a fool's mouth, for he will not speak it in due season."[348]Prov. xxv. 12.[349]Prov. xxviii. 23.[350]Prov. xv. 7.[351]Prov. xvi. 21.[352]Prov. xvi. 23.[353]Prov. xx. 15.[354]Prov. xv. 28.[355]Prov. xxiv. 26.[356]Prov. xi. 9.[357]Prov. xii. 6.[358]Prov. xiv. 3.[359]Prov. xiv. 5, 25.[360]Prov. xxxi. 8, 9.[361]Note the intimate connection between conduct and speech in such a proverb as xvii. 4. When we do evil we are always ready to listen to evil talk, when we talk deceitfully we are preparing to go on to worse deeds of evil, to listen to tongues of destruction. Note, too, how in xii. 5 the thoughts and the counsels of the heart come before the words and the mouth in v. 6.[362]Prov. xi. 12.[363]Prov. xvii. 27.[364]Prov. xvii. 28.Cf.the old Norse proverb:—"An unwise man when he comes among the peopleHad best be silent: no one knowsThat he nothing knows unless he talks too much."[365]Prov. xxiv. 7.[366]Prov. xiv. 15.[367]James i. 26.[368]Prov. xvi. 1.[369]Prov. xxi. 10.[370]Prov. xxv. 14.[371]Prov. xvi. 18, 19.[372]Prov. xviii. 12.[373]Prov. xxvii. 2.[374]Prov. xxi. 24.[375]Prov. xxix. 23.[376]Prov. xxvi. 12.[377]Prov. xiii. 1; xv. 20.[378]Prov. x. 17.[379]Prov. xii. 1.[380]Prov. xv. 8.[381]Prov. xv. 32.[382]Prov. xiii. 13 should be translated: "Whoso despiseth the word (sc.of warning and rebuke) shall be under a pledge to it (i.e.he has contracted an obligation to the word by hearing it, and in case of disobedience will have to redeem this implicit pledge by suffering and remorse), but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded."[383]Prov. xiii. 17.[384]Prov. xvii. 10.[385]Prov. xxvii. 5.[386]Prov. xxviii. 23.[387]Prov. xxvii. 21: "The fining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, and a man for the mouth of his praise." This somewhat obscure aphorism is most simply explained thus:—A man should make his conscience a kind of furnace, in which he tries all the laudatory things which are said of him, accepting only the refined and pure metal which results from such a test, and rejecting the dross. This is simpler than, with Delitzsch, to explain, "a man is tested by the praise which is bestowed upon him as silver and gold are tested in the fire."[388]Prov. xiii. 10.[389]Prov. xxviii. 26.[390]Prov. xi. 2.[391]Prov. xii. 15b.[392]Prov. xvi. 20.[393]Prov. xv. 31, 33.[394]Prov. xvii. 2.[395]This is an addition of the LXX. to xiii. 13, and may represent an original Hebrew text. For the idea cp. Eccles. x. 25, "Unto the servant that is wise shall they that are free do service."[396]Prov. xiii. 10.[397]Prov. xvii. 19.[398]Prov. xiv. 3.[399]Prov. xiv. 16.[400]Prov. xvi. 5.[401]Prov. xv. 25.[402]Prov. xxi. 29.[403]Prov. xxi. 4.[404]Prov. xxii. 4. The probable rendering is, "The outcome of humility is the fear of the Lord, riches, honour, and life."[405]Prov. xvi. 20.[406]Prov. xviii. 12.[407]The answer of the saint was very characteristic. Could he really believe that he was so vile as he said, when he compared himself with others who were obviously worse? "Ah," he said, "it is when I recount all God's exceptional mercies to me that I seem to myself the worst of men, for others have not had such favours at His hands."[408]Prov. xiii. 19.[409]Prov. xiii. 12.[410]Prov. xiii. 12.[411]Prov. xvii. 22.[412]Prov. xviii. 14.[413]Prov. xiv. 13.[414]Prov. xv. 13.[415]Prov. xv. 15b.[416]Prov. xvii. 22.[417]Prov. xv. 15.[418]Prov. xv. 30.[419]Prov. xxiv. 12, marginal reading.[420]Prov. xx. 12.[421]Prov. xv. 3.[422]Prov. xv. 11.[423]Prov. xvi. 2, rep. xxi. 2.[424]Prov. xx. 27.[425]Prov. xx. 24.[426]Prov. xii. 5.[427]Prov. xix. 22.[428]Prov. xvii. 3.[429]Prov. xx. 9.[430]Prov. xvi. 4. This strange saying, interpreted in the light of the Gospel, cannot mean that wicked people are actually made in order to exhibit the righteousness and judgment of God in their punishment on the day of wrath, though that was probably the thought in the mind of the writer. But it reminds us of the truth that every human being is a direct concern of the Maker, who has His own wise purpose to fulfil in even the most inconsiderable and apparently abortive life.[431]Prov. xxix. 22.[432]Prov. xxix. 8.[433]Prov. xxvi. 21.[434]Prov. xxii. 24.[435]Prov. xvii. 12.[436]Prov. xiv. 17, 29.[437]Prov. xix. 11. "When Lanfranc was prior of Bec he ventured to oppose Duke William's Flemish marriage. In a wild burst of wrath William bade his men burn a manor house of Bec and drive out Lanfranc from Norman ground. He came to see the work done, and found Lanfranc hobbling on a lame horse towards the frontier. He angrily bad him hasten, and Lanfranc replied by a cool promise to go faster out of his land if he would give him a better steed. 'You are the first criminal that ever asked gifts from his judge,' retorted William, but a burst of laughter told that the wrath had gone, and William and Lanfranc drew together again."—Green'sConquest of England, p. 551.[438]Prov. xvii. 27.[439]This word הִתְנַּלָּע, which only occurs here (xx. 3) and in xvii. 14 and xviii. 1, would seem from the cognate root in Arab. and Syr. to mean "setting the teeth together," which is a much more vivid and specific idea than quarrelling.[440]Prov. xx. 3.[441]Prov. xxix. 11.[442]Prov. xxv. 28.[443]Prov. xix. 19.[444]Prov. xxv. 8.[445]Prov. xxv. 9.[446]Prov. xvii. 14.Seenote4, p. 205.[447]Prov. xvi. 32.[448]Prov. x. 12.[449]1 Peter iv. 8.[450]James v. 20.[451]1 Cor. xiii. 4.[452]This meaning of מַרְפֶּא, as was observed in Lecture XII., p.172, seems to yield the best sense in these two passages (cp. xii. 18; xiii. 17), as in Eccl. x. 4, "gentleness allayeth great offences," which is a good commentary on our text.[453]Prov. xiv. 30.[454]Prov. xv. 4.[455]Prov. xx. 22.[456]Missionary Review of the World, Feb. 1889, p. 143.[457]Prov. xv. 33.[458]Prov. xvi. 1.[459]Prov. xvi. 2.[460]Prov. xvi. 3.[461]Prov. xvi. 4.Seenote, p. 201.[462]Prov. xvi. 5.[463]Prov. xvi. 6.[464]Prov. xvi. 7.[465]Prov. xvi. 9.Cf.Prov. xix. 21: "There are many devices in a man's heart; but the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand."[466]Prov. xvi. 20.[467]Prov. xviii. 18. John Paton, the missionary to the New Hebrides, uncertain whether to go back to Scotland and plead for more missionaries, and receiving no light from human counsel, says, "After many prayers and wrestlings and tears, I went alone before the Lord, and on my knees cast lots with a solemn appeal to God, and the answer came 'Go home.' In my heart I believe that ... the Lord condescended to decide for me the path of duty, otherwise unknown; and I believe it the more truly now, in view of the aftercome of thirty years of service to Christ that flowed out of the steps then deliberately and devoutly taken." See theAutobiography, Second Part (Hodder and Stoughton, 1889).[468]Prov. xvi. 33.[469]Deut. xxv. 13-16.[470]Lev. xix. 33, 36.[471]Eccles. vii. 15.[472]Isa. xxviii. 23-29.[473]It seems impossible that a general and perfect morality in business can ever be attained apart from this apprehension of an Omniscient Mind weighing and judging, as well as accurately observing, everything done even in secret. In mediæval Europe, when this faith was practically unquestioned, there was a certain honesty and sincerity in handicrafts and in general dealing, until the Church made the fatal blunder of granting indulgences for men's peccadilloes, and professing to exonerate them from the consequences of the truth which she herself in theory held.[474]Prov. xvi. 6.[475]Prov. xviii. 24. This sense is obtained by what appears a necessary change in the text; we must read יֵשׁ for אִישׁ. A similar error occurs 2 Sam. xiv. 19 and Micah vi. 10.[476]Prov. xxvii. 14.[477]Prov. xxvii. 19.[478]"Sorrows by being communicated grow less and joys greater."—Bacon.[479]Prov. xxvii. 17.[480]Prov. xxvii. 6.[481]Prov. xxvii. 9.[482]"Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur."—Cicero.[483]Prov. xxvii. 10.[484]Prov. xviii. 24.[485]Prov. xviii. 19.[486]2 Chron. xx. 7.[487]Exod. xxxiii. 11.[488]John xv. 14.[489]Prov. xxvii. 14.[490]See note on הִתְּנַּלָּע in Lecture XV., p.205.[491]III. King Henry VI., Act v., Sc. 6.[492]ἢ θεὸς ἢ θήριον.[493]Prov. xxvii. 8.[494]Prov. xxvii. 10.[495]Prov. xxv. 17.[496]Eccles. xv. 11-20.[497]James i. 13-15.[498]Prov. xix. 2.[499]Prov. xii. 15.[500]Prov. xv. 22.[501]Prov. xix. 20.[502]Prov. xi. 14.[503]Prov. xx. 18.[504]Prov. xxiv. 5, 6.[505]Prov. xx. 5.[506]Prov. xix. 21.[507]Prov. xix. 23.[508]Prov. xix. 16.[509]Prov. xix. 8.[510]Prov. xix. 27.[511]Prov. xiii. 13.[512]Prov. xix. 29.[513]Prov. xxi. 30.[514]Prov. xxi. 31.[515]Prov. xvii. 11.[516]Prov. xix. 20.[517]Prov. xxvi. 14.[518]Prov. xxiv. 34.[519]Prov. xix. 24.[520]Prov. xxvi. 15.[521]Prov. xxvi. 13.[522]Prov. xxii. 13.[523]Prov. xxvi. 16.[524]Prov. xv. 19.[525]Prov. xx. 13.[526]Prov. xix. 15.[527]Prov. xii. 27.[528]Prov. xvi. 26.[529]Prov. xxi. 25.[530]Prov. xviii. 9.[531]Prov. xii. 11.[532]Prov. xxviii. 19.[533]Prov. xiv. 4.[534]Prov. xxviii. 19.[535]Prov. xxiv. 30-34.[536]Prov. xxvii. 23-27.[537]Prov. xiii. 4.[538]Prov. xxi. 5.[539]Prov. xxi. 20.[540]Prov. xxii. 29.[541]Prov. xii. 24.[542]Prov. xii. 27.[543]Prov. xxxi. 27.[544]Prov. xxi. 17.[545]Prov. xxxi. 6, 7.[546]Prov. xxxi. 4, 5.[547]Prov. xx. 1.[548]The difficulty of the word חַכְלִלוּת, which means "dimming," is that in the only other place where it occurs (Gen. xlix. 12: "His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk") the redness is evidently regarded as an advantageous attribute. But perhaps the explanation is to be sought in the fact that the immediate effect of wine upon the eye is to darken it in one sense, and the ultimate effect is to darken it in another. In the first moment of excitement the pupil of the drinker's eye dilates and flashes with a darkling fire; but it is not long before the eye becomes heavy, dim, watery, and maudlin. It is in this last sense that we must understand the word here.[549]Prov. xxiii. 33. זָרות must, as in xxii. 14, be rendered "strange women" (Bertheau). The alternative rendering, "the strange, or the rare" (Nowack) is logically inadmissible, because the verse is obviously describing the moral effects of drink, and no one can say that to see strange or rare visions is a moral effect to be specially deprecated.[550]"The primary discomforts of an act of drunkenness," says Dr. G. W. Balfour, "are readily removed for the time by a repetition of the cause. Thus what has been an act may readily become a habit, all the more readily that each repetition more and more enfeebles both the will and the judgment."—Art. "Drunkenness" inEncycl. Brit.[551]2 Tim. iii. 4—φιλήδονοι μᾶλλον ἢ φιλόθεοι, pleasure-loving rather than God-loving; which means, not that men place pleasure before them consciously as a substitute for God, but only that the instinctive desire of pleasure has not been mastered by the love of God.[552]Prov. x. 15.[553]Prov. xxiii. 10, 11.[554]Prov. xv. 25.[555]Prov. xiv. 31.[556]Prov. xvii. 5.[557]Prov. xix. 17.[558]Prov. xix. 13.[559]Prov. xxii. 2.[560]
[286]Prov. xviii. 6, 7.
[287]Prov. xii. 13.
[288]Prov. xiv. 3.
[289]Prov. xv. 23.
[290]Prov. xxi. 23.
[291]Prov. xxi. 28.
[292]Prov. xvii. 20.
[293]Prov. xviii. 4.
[294]Prov. xxii. 11.
[295]Prov. xxii. 18.
[296]Prov. xix. 1, 22.
[297]Prov. xxiii. 16.
[298]Prov. xii. 16.
[299]Prov. xxix. 11.
[300]Prov. xix. 7. All the Proverbs in this selection are in the form of a distich. This affords a fair presumption that this verse with its three clauses is mutilated; and the presumption is confirmed by the fact that the third clause adds nothing of value, even if it be intelligible at all, to the sense. There is good reason, therefore, for believing that this third clause is the half of a distich which has not been preserved in its integrity; all the more because the LXX. have a complete proverb which runs thus: ὁ πολλὰ κακοποιῶν τελεσιουργεῖ κακίαν, ὃς δὲ ἐρεθίζει λόγους οὐ σωθήσεται. "He that does much evil is a craftsman of iniquity, and he that uses provoking words shall not escape." Perhaps in the Hebrew text which was before the Greek translators מְנַדֵּף appeared instead of מְרַדֵּף, and לֹא הָיָה instead of לֹא־הֵמָּה.
[301]Prov. xxvi. 21.
[302]Prov. xxx. 32, 33.
[303]Prov. xii. 18.
[304]Prov. xii. 17.
[305]Prov. xix. 28.
[306]Prov. xix. 5, rep. ver. 9.
[307]Prov. xxi. 28.
[308]Prov. xxv. 18.
[309]Prov. xxvi. 23-28.
[310]Prov. xiii. 5.
[311]Prov. xii. 19.
[312]Prov. xii. 22.
[313]Prov. xx. 17.
[314]Prov. xxvi. 2.
[315]Prov. xxviii. 23.
[316]Prov. xxix. 5.
[317]Prov. xi. 13 and xx. 19; xxv. 2, 23.Cf."Whoso discovereth secrets loseth his credit and shall never find friend to his mind" (Eccles. xxvii. 16).
[318]Prov. xviii. 8, rep. xxvi. 22.
[319]Prov. xvi. 28.
[320]Prov. xxvi. 20.
[321]Prov. xvii. 9.
[322]Prov. xi. 9.
[323]Prov. xii. 6.
[324]Prov. xv. 28.
[325]Prov. xvi. 28.
[326]Prov. xxvi. 18, 19.
[327]Prov. xviii. 13.
[328]Prov. xxix. 20.
[329]Prov. xxiii. 9.
[330]Prov. x. 19.
[331]Prov. xiii. 3, 16.
[332]Prov. xiv. 23.
[333]Prov. xiv. 33.
[334]Prov. xiv. 7. There is a quaint and pertinent passage in Lyly's Euphues:—"We may see the cunning and curious work of Nature, which hath barred and hedged nothing in so strongly as the tongue, with two rowes of teeth, and therewith two lips, besides she hath placed it farre from the heart, that it should not utter that which the heart had conceived; this also should cause us to be silent, seeinge those that use much talke, though they speake truly, are never beleeved."
[335]Prov. xv. 2.
[336]Prov. xviii. 2.
[337]Prov. xii. 18.
[338]Eccl. x. 4.
[339]Prov. xv. 4. מַרְפֵּא is best rendered here and in Eccl. x. 4 by "gentleness." It is just that quality of humility and submission and tranquillity which our Lord blessed as meekness.
[340]Prov. xv. 1.
[341]Prov. xv. 26.
[342]Prov. xvi. 24.
[343]Prov. xii. 25.
[344]Prov. xv. 23.
[345]Prov. xxv. 20.
[346]Prov. xxv. 11.
[347]Cf.Eccles. xx. 20: "A wise sentence shall be rejected when it cometh out of a fool's mouth, for he will not speak it in due season."
[348]Prov. xxv. 12.
[349]Prov. xxviii. 23.
[350]Prov. xv. 7.
[351]Prov. xvi. 21.
[352]Prov. xvi. 23.
[353]Prov. xx. 15.
[354]Prov. xv. 28.
[355]Prov. xxiv. 26.
[356]Prov. xi. 9.
[357]Prov. xii. 6.
[358]Prov. xiv. 3.
[359]Prov. xiv. 5, 25.
[360]Prov. xxxi. 8, 9.
[361]Note the intimate connection between conduct and speech in such a proverb as xvii. 4. When we do evil we are always ready to listen to evil talk, when we talk deceitfully we are preparing to go on to worse deeds of evil, to listen to tongues of destruction. Note, too, how in xii. 5 the thoughts and the counsels of the heart come before the words and the mouth in v. 6.
[362]Prov. xi. 12.
[363]Prov. xvii. 27.
[364]Prov. xvii. 28.Cf.the old Norse proverb:—
"An unwise man when he comes among the peopleHad best be silent: no one knowsThat he nothing knows unless he talks too much."
"An unwise man when he comes among the peopleHad best be silent: no one knowsThat he nothing knows unless he talks too much."
[365]Prov. xxiv. 7.
[366]Prov. xiv. 15.
[367]James i. 26.
[368]Prov. xvi. 1.
[369]Prov. xxi. 10.
[370]Prov. xxv. 14.
[371]Prov. xvi. 18, 19.
[372]Prov. xviii. 12.
[373]Prov. xxvii. 2.
[374]Prov. xxi. 24.
[375]Prov. xxix. 23.
[376]Prov. xxvi. 12.
[377]Prov. xiii. 1; xv. 20.
[378]Prov. x. 17.
[379]Prov. xii. 1.
[380]Prov. xv. 8.
[381]Prov. xv. 32.
[382]Prov. xiii. 13 should be translated: "Whoso despiseth the word (sc.of warning and rebuke) shall be under a pledge to it (i.e.he has contracted an obligation to the word by hearing it, and in case of disobedience will have to redeem this implicit pledge by suffering and remorse), but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded."
[383]Prov. xiii. 17.
[384]Prov. xvii. 10.
[385]Prov. xxvii. 5.
[386]Prov. xxviii. 23.
[387]Prov. xxvii. 21: "The fining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, and a man for the mouth of his praise." This somewhat obscure aphorism is most simply explained thus:—A man should make his conscience a kind of furnace, in which he tries all the laudatory things which are said of him, accepting only the refined and pure metal which results from such a test, and rejecting the dross. This is simpler than, with Delitzsch, to explain, "a man is tested by the praise which is bestowed upon him as silver and gold are tested in the fire."
[388]Prov. xiii. 10.
[389]Prov. xxviii. 26.
[390]Prov. xi. 2.
[391]Prov. xii. 15b.
[392]Prov. xvi. 20.
[393]Prov. xv. 31, 33.
[394]Prov. xvii. 2.
[395]This is an addition of the LXX. to xiii. 13, and may represent an original Hebrew text. For the idea cp. Eccles. x. 25, "Unto the servant that is wise shall they that are free do service."
[396]Prov. xiii. 10.
[397]Prov. xvii. 19.
[398]Prov. xiv. 3.
[399]Prov. xiv. 16.
[400]Prov. xvi. 5.
[401]Prov. xv. 25.
[402]Prov. xxi. 29.
[403]Prov. xxi. 4.
[404]Prov. xxii. 4. The probable rendering is, "The outcome of humility is the fear of the Lord, riches, honour, and life."
[405]Prov. xvi. 20.
[406]Prov. xviii. 12.
[407]The answer of the saint was very characteristic. Could he really believe that he was so vile as he said, when he compared himself with others who were obviously worse? "Ah," he said, "it is when I recount all God's exceptional mercies to me that I seem to myself the worst of men, for others have not had such favours at His hands."
[408]Prov. xiii. 19.
[409]Prov. xiii. 12.
[410]Prov. xiii. 12.
[411]Prov. xvii. 22.
[412]Prov. xviii. 14.
[413]Prov. xiv. 13.
[414]Prov. xv. 13.
[415]Prov. xv. 15b.
[416]Prov. xvii. 22.
[417]Prov. xv. 15.
[418]Prov. xv. 30.
[419]Prov. xxiv. 12, marginal reading.
[420]Prov. xx. 12.
[421]Prov. xv. 3.
[422]Prov. xv. 11.
[423]Prov. xvi. 2, rep. xxi. 2.
[424]Prov. xx. 27.
[425]Prov. xx. 24.
[426]Prov. xii. 5.
[427]Prov. xix. 22.
[428]Prov. xvii. 3.
[429]Prov. xx. 9.
[430]Prov. xvi. 4. This strange saying, interpreted in the light of the Gospel, cannot mean that wicked people are actually made in order to exhibit the righteousness and judgment of God in their punishment on the day of wrath, though that was probably the thought in the mind of the writer. But it reminds us of the truth that every human being is a direct concern of the Maker, who has His own wise purpose to fulfil in even the most inconsiderable and apparently abortive life.
[431]Prov. xxix. 22.
[432]Prov. xxix. 8.
[433]Prov. xxvi. 21.
[434]Prov. xxii. 24.
[435]Prov. xvii. 12.
[436]Prov. xiv. 17, 29.
[437]Prov. xix. 11. "When Lanfranc was prior of Bec he ventured to oppose Duke William's Flemish marriage. In a wild burst of wrath William bade his men burn a manor house of Bec and drive out Lanfranc from Norman ground. He came to see the work done, and found Lanfranc hobbling on a lame horse towards the frontier. He angrily bad him hasten, and Lanfranc replied by a cool promise to go faster out of his land if he would give him a better steed. 'You are the first criminal that ever asked gifts from his judge,' retorted William, but a burst of laughter told that the wrath had gone, and William and Lanfranc drew together again."—Green'sConquest of England, p. 551.
[438]Prov. xvii. 27.
[439]This word הִתְנַּלָּע, which only occurs here (xx. 3) and in xvii. 14 and xviii. 1, would seem from the cognate root in Arab. and Syr. to mean "setting the teeth together," which is a much more vivid and specific idea than quarrelling.
[440]Prov. xx. 3.
[441]Prov. xxix. 11.
[442]Prov. xxv. 28.
[443]Prov. xix. 19.
[444]Prov. xxv. 8.
[445]Prov. xxv. 9.
[446]Prov. xvii. 14.Seenote4, p. 205.
[447]Prov. xvi. 32.
[448]Prov. x. 12.
[449]1 Peter iv. 8.
[450]James v. 20.
[451]1 Cor. xiii. 4.
[452]This meaning of מַרְפֶּא, as was observed in Lecture XII., p.172, seems to yield the best sense in these two passages (cp. xii. 18; xiii. 17), as in Eccl. x. 4, "gentleness allayeth great offences," which is a good commentary on our text.
[453]Prov. xiv. 30.
[454]Prov. xv. 4.
[455]Prov. xx. 22.
[456]Missionary Review of the World, Feb. 1889, p. 143.
[457]Prov. xv. 33.
[458]Prov. xvi. 1.
[459]Prov. xvi. 2.
[460]Prov. xvi. 3.
[461]Prov. xvi. 4.Seenote, p. 201.
[462]Prov. xvi. 5.
[463]Prov. xvi. 6.
[464]Prov. xvi. 7.
[465]Prov. xvi. 9.Cf.Prov. xix. 21: "There are many devices in a man's heart; but the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand."
[466]Prov. xvi. 20.
[467]Prov. xviii. 18. John Paton, the missionary to the New Hebrides, uncertain whether to go back to Scotland and plead for more missionaries, and receiving no light from human counsel, says, "After many prayers and wrestlings and tears, I went alone before the Lord, and on my knees cast lots with a solemn appeal to God, and the answer came 'Go home.' In my heart I believe that ... the Lord condescended to decide for me the path of duty, otherwise unknown; and I believe it the more truly now, in view of the aftercome of thirty years of service to Christ that flowed out of the steps then deliberately and devoutly taken." See theAutobiography, Second Part (Hodder and Stoughton, 1889).
[468]Prov. xvi. 33.
[469]Deut. xxv. 13-16.
[470]Lev. xix. 33, 36.
[471]Eccles. vii. 15.
[472]Isa. xxviii. 23-29.
[473]It seems impossible that a general and perfect morality in business can ever be attained apart from this apprehension of an Omniscient Mind weighing and judging, as well as accurately observing, everything done even in secret. In mediæval Europe, when this faith was practically unquestioned, there was a certain honesty and sincerity in handicrafts and in general dealing, until the Church made the fatal blunder of granting indulgences for men's peccadilloes, and professing to exonerate them from the consequences of the truth which she herself in theory held.
[474]Prov. xvi. 6.
[475]Prov. xviii. 24. This sense is obtained by what appears a necessary change in the text; we must read יֵשׁ for אִישׁ. A similar error occurs 2 Sam. xiv. 19 and Micah vi. 10.
[476]Prov. xxvii. 14.
[477]Prov. xxvii. 19.
[478]"Sorrows by being communicated grow less and joys greater."—Bacon.
[479]Prov. xxvii. 17.
[480]Prov. xxvii. 6.
[481]Prov. xxvii. 9.
[482]"Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur."—Cicero.
[483]Prov. xxvii. 10.
[484]Prov. xviii. 24.
[485]Prov. xviii. 19.
[486]2 Chron. xx. 7.
[487]Exod. xxxiii. 11.
[488]John xv. 14.
[489]Prov. xxvii. 14.
[490]See note on הִתְּנַּלָּע in Lecture XV., p.205.
[491]III. King Henry VI., Act v., Sc. 6.
[492]ἢ θεὸς ἢ θήριον.
[493]Prov. xxvii. 8.
[494]Prov. xxvii. 10.
[495]Prov. xxv. 17.
[496]Eccles. xv. 11-20.
[497]James i. 13-15.
[498]Prov. xix. 2.
[499]Prov. xii. 15.
[500]Prov. xv. 22.
[501]Prov. xix. 20.
[502]Prov. xi. 14.
[503]Prov. xx. 18.
[504]Prov. xxiv. 5, 6.
[505]Prov. xx. 5.
[506]Prov. xix. 21.
[507]Prov. xix. 23.
[508]Prov. xix. 16.
[509]Prov. xix. 8.
[510]Prov. xix. 27.
[511]Prov. xiii. 13.
[512]Prov. xix. 29.
[513]Prov. xxi. 30.
[514]Prov. xxi. 31.
[515]Prov. xvii. 11.
[516]Prov. xix. 20.
[517]Prov. xxvi. 14.
[518]Prov. xxiv. 34.
[519]Prov. xix. 24.
[520]Prov. xxvi. 15.
[521]Prov. xxvi. 13.
[522]Prov. xxii. 13.
[523]Prov. xxvi. 16.
[524]Prov. xv. 19.
[525]Prov. xx. 13.
[526]Prov. xix. 15.
[527]Prov. xii. 27.
[528]Prov. xvi. 26.
[529]Prov. xxi. 25.
[530]Prov. xviii. 9.
[531]Prov. xii. 11.
[532]Prov. xxviii. 19.
[533]Prov. xiv. 4.
[534]Prov. xxviii. 19.
[535]Prov. xxiv. 30-34.
[536]Prov. xxvii. 23-27.
[537]Prov. xiii. 4.
[538]Prov. xxi. 5.
[539]Prov. xxi. 20.
[540]Prov. xxii. 29.
[541]Prov. xii. 24.
[542]Prov. xii. 27.
[543]Prov. xxxi. 27.
[544]Prov. xxi. 17.
[545]Prov. xxxi. 6, 7.
[546]Prov. xxxi. 4, 5.
[547]Prov. xx. 1.
[548]The difficulty of the word חַכְלִלוּת, which means "dimming," is that in the only other place where it occurs (Gen. xlix. 12: "His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk") the redness is evidently regarded as an advantageous attribute. But perhaps the explanation is to be sought in the fact that the immediate effect of wine upon the eye is to darken it in one sense, and the ultimate effect is to darken it in another. In the first moment of excitement the pupil of the drinker's eye dilates and flashes with a darkling fire; but it is not long before the eye becomes heavy, dim, watery, and maudlin. It is in this last sense that we must understand the word here.
[549]Prov. xxiii. 33. זָרות must, as in xxii. 14, be rendered "strange women" (Bertheau). The alternative rendering, "the strange, or the rare" (Nowack) is logically inadmissible, because the verse is obviously describing the moral effects of drink, and no one can say that to see strange or rare visions is a moral effect to be specially deprecated.
[550]"The primary discomforts of an act of drunkenness," says Dr. G. W. Balfour, "are readily removed for the time by a repetition of the cause. Thus what has been an act may readily become a habit, all the more readily that each repetition more and more enfeebles both the will and the judgment."—Art. "Drunkenness" inEncycl. Brit.
[551]2 Tim. iii. 4—φιλήδονοι μᾶλλον ἢ φιλόθεοι, pleasure-loving rather than God-loving; which means, not that men place pleasure before them consciously as a substitute for God, but only that the instinctive desire of pleasure has not been mastered by the love of God.
[552]Prov. x. 15.
[553]Prov. xxiii. 10, 11.
[554]Prov. xv. 25.
[555]Prov. xiv. 31.
[556]Prov. xvii. 5.
[557]Prov. xix. 17.
[558]Prov. xix. 13.
[559]Prov. xxii. 2.
[560]