Chapter XXI (1)

CRITICAL NOTES.--+1. Rivers of water.+ Rather _streams,_ the allusion being to the watercourses, which in hot countries intersect fields and gardens for the purpose of irrigation, in which the water is entirely under the control of the husbandman. +2. Pondereth,+ rather _weigheth,_ as in chap. xvi. 2. It is the same verb as that used in 1 Sam. ii. 3 and Isa. xl. 12, 13. +4. The ploughing.+ This word is by most modern commentators translated, as in the marginal references, _light._ It is likewise so rendered in the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and in Luther's version. Ewald, Elster, Wordsworth, and others, translate as in the English version. The Hebrew words are very similar. Those who adopt the former rendering understand the word to stand in apposition to the _high look_ and the _proud heart_ of the first clause (literally, _"To be lofty of eyes, and to be swollen of heart"_), and regard it as a figurative representation of the spirit of the wicked man. Ewald and others refer the _ploughing of the wicked_ to the "very first-fruits of a man's activity." +5. Thoughts,+ rather the _counsels,_ the _calculatings._ +6. Vanity tossed to and fro.+ Rather _a fleeting breath._ The Hebrew word _hebel,_ here translated vanity, means _vapour._ +7. Robbery,+ or _violence, rapacity._ +8.+ Zöckler translates the first clause of this verse, _"Crooked is the way of the guilty man."_ Fausset remarks that the Hebrew word _ish_ (man) expresses a man once _good;_ froward implies his perversity, by having left the good way. +Right,+ _i.e., direct, straightforward._ +9. Wide house.+ Literally _house of companionship, i.e.,_ to share the house with her. +11. Instructed.+ Zöckler translates this _"prospereth,"_ and understands the simple to be the subject of both clauses of the verse. +12.+ The words _man_ and _God_ are both supplied by the translators. The verse should be _"The righteous considereth the house of the wicked_ (and) _overthroweth,"_ etc. Some understand it, therefore, to mean "The righteous man gives instruction to the house of the wicked to turn them away from evil." But Stuart remarks that the verb of the second clause is a very strong word, _to precipitate, to cast down headlong,_ and refers the righteous (one) of the first clause to God. This is Zöckler's rendering also. +15. Shall be.+ These words are not in the original, and destroy the sense, which is that justice is joy to the good, and destruction to the bad. Luther renders, "It is a joy to the just to do what is right; but to the wicked a terror." +24. Proud wrath,+ literally _"wrath of pride"_ or _overflowings of haughtiness._ +27. With a wicked mind,+ literally, _"for iniquity,"_ and may refer to a desire to cloak a sinful purpose by an outward show of piety, or an attempt to expiate a sinful act by an outward atonement. Miller reads for +"how much more"+ _"because also."_ +28. Constantly,+ rather _for ever._ Stuart understands the verse to mean "that the sincere listener to the Divine commands will ever be at liberty to speak, and find confidence put in what he says." +29. Hardeneth his face,+ or "putteth on a bold countenance." +Directeth,+ or _"considereth,"_ or _"establisheth."_

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 1.

THE KING OF KINGS.

+I. Kings are more entirely in the hand of God than subjects are in the hands of kings.+ The king of the days of Solomon was, as some Oriental rulers are now, an absolute monarch. In the case of Solomon himself, his will was law, and in his hand was the power of life and death (see 1 Kings iii. 24, 25). Of Nebuchadnezzar it is said, _"Whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive; whom he would he set up, and whom he would he put down"_ (Dan. v. 19). It is to such a king that the proverb refers--to one who called no man or any number of men master, but upon whose single will apparently depended the destiny of millions. Yet he was not the independent being that he appeared, neither were his subjects so dependent upon his will as they appeared to be. The most abject slave in his dominions was less under his control than he was under the control of Him by whom _"kings reign"_ and _"princes rule"_ (chap. viii. 15, 16). The gardener whose ground is intersected by water-channels finds it a very easy task to turn the stream in the direction he desires; the soil yields to his touch, and forthwith the water flows whithersoever he wills. But the moist earth is not so easily moulded by the hand of man, as the heart of the proudest monarch is subdued to obedience by his Maker; and the water is not more entirely subject to the will of the husbandman than is the will of the most stubborn despot to the will of Jehovah.

+II. The power which God exercises over kings extends into a region where no earthly ruler can penetrate.+ The _heart_ of the king is in the hand of Jehovah. This is more than the most absolute monarch can boast concerning his meanest subject. Nebuchadnezzar could issue his decree, but whoso did not fall down before his golden image should be cast into the fiery furnace, but he could not move the steadfast determination of the Hebrew youths to acknowledge no god but the God of Israel. His will could determine what should be done to their bodies, but all his threatenings could not reach their hearts. But God rules the spirit of a man in that He has access to his innermost thoughts and feelings, and can thus touch the spring of all his actions, and thus bring him to do His will, even when he seems to be doing only his own.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Could anything be more bold? Mark the compass--first, of _subject,_ the whole _stream_ as the gardener turns it; second, of object, _"whithersoever"_ or anything He pleases; and third, of _sovereignty;_ its pleasing Him, that being the only test. The _"king"_ may be Cæsar. His lip may make new geographies (ch. xvi. 10). His _"heart"_ may change the history of all things. And yet, like a vineyard's channels diverted by a child, the Pharaoh's heart is in the fingers of the Most High. . . . _Upon_ whatsoever. Not toward anything. A stream may be turned in a new direction to get rid of it. God has no such streams. It is turned on something. For God has an end to answer when He rules even the vilest of fiends.--_Miller._

Whether, in the second line, the pleasant refreshing influence of the rivulets, dispensing blessing and increase, comes into account as a point of the comparison, is uncertain (comp. Isa. xxxii. 2); this, however, is not improbable, inasmuch as the heart of a king may in fact become in an eminent degree a fountain of blessing for many thousands, and, according to God's design, ought to be so. See chap. xvi. 15.--_Lange's Commentary._

For Homiletics on verse 2 see on chap. xvi. 2, page 454.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 3.

THE MORE ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE.

+I. The sacrifices of the Mosaic law were acceptable to God as ceremonial signs.+ They were instituted by God, and therefore He expected them to be offered, and was displeased when His commands concerning them were disregarded. But they were but the means to an end, and if they did not lead to that end they were worthless in His sight. They were intended to awaken a sense of sin, and to be accompanied by observance of higher precepts and by obedience to more enduring laws. It availed nothing for a man to offer his bullock or his goat unless he laid his will upon the altar at the same time--no sin-offering could be acceptable to God unless the sin was put away, and no meat-offering could be regarded with favour if the heart of the offeror was without love to his neighbour and his life was marked by acts of injustice to him. It was of no avail to come before the Lord with _"thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil,"_ unless the higher requirement was fulfilled--_to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God_ (Micah vi. 7, 8).

+II. The doing of justice and judgment is more acceptable to God because it is a moral reality.+ To love our neighbour as ourself is in itself good,--it is a moral attribute, an element of character, a part of the man himself. It is an expression of love to God and obedience to His commands which can be made anywhere and at all times, for to do justice and judgment is the law of the moral universe, and belongs to heaven as much as to earth. It is to do what God has been doing from all eternity, for it is written that they _"are the habitation of His throne"_ (Psa. lxxxix. 14). All other offerings without these are _"vain oblations,"_ and even _"an abomination"_ (Isa. i. 13) unto Him who owns _"every beast of the forest and the cattle upon a thousand hills"_ (Psa. l. 10). To expect a holy and spiritual Being to accept anything less than a moral reality is to expect Him to be satisfied with less than would often content a fellow-creature.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

_Sacrifice;_ literally, _slaughter._ But with slender exceptions, the slaughter is a slaughter for sacrifice. . . . He did not love the slaughtering of His Son upon the cross. He did not love the slaughtering of beasts year by year continually. On the contrary, He does love righteousness, and, therefore, He does love, in the severities that men impugn, that very element of right which is the attribute that they would bring into the question. Doing righteousness Himself, He prefers the right-doing of His creatures to any form of sacrifice or possible service they can ever render.--_Miller._

"Sacrifice" at best is only circumstantially good--rectitude is essentially so. Sacrifice, at best, is only the means and expression of good; rectitude is goodness itself. God accepts the moral without the ceremonial, but never the ceremonial without the moral. The universe can exist without the ceremonial, but not without the moral.--_David Thomas._

This maxim of the Proverbs was a bold saying then--it is a bold saying still; but it well unites the wisdom of Solomon with that of his father in the 51st Psalm, and with the inspiration of the later prophets.--_Stanley._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 4.

THE PLOUGHING OF THE WICKED.

+I. The high look and the proud heart indicate a man wrong at the foundation of his character.+ They show that he has not yet learned the alphabet of true godliness--that he has not yet begin to know his guilt and his weakness. He is ignorant of the depravity of his moral nature--of the capabilities of wrong that lie hidden within him, undeveloped now, it may be, but ready to assert their presence when the temptation presents itself. The man who has been born blind is entirely ignorant of the outline even of his own features, but he does not form a conception which is farther removed from the reality than a spiritually unenlightened man does of the real features of his moral character. The proud man by his pride proclaims his moral blindness--his high look is a sure indication that the light within him is darkness--that he has never seen himself as he really is. Hence it follows that he is wrong at the very core and centre of his moral being; where pride holds her throne there is no room for God, there is no confession of sin, and no yielding to Divine guidance.

+II. While the heart is wrong the whole life will be wrong.+ This truth is expressed in the proverb, however we translate the verb in the second clause (See Critical Notes). Things that are not wrong in themselves become wrong if done from a sinful motive. A man may plough a field, and in itself the action may be neither good nor bad, but if he plough in order to sow a crop of thistles the action is a criminal one. A man may be diligent and painstaking in his business, and his diligence may in itself seem commendable, but if he exercises it only to gain money for sinful ends his very buying and selling becomes sin. And if we translate the word _"light,"_ and understand it to signify _prosperity,_ the truth taught is very much the same. While a man's pride keeps him at a moral distance from God, no matter how successful he may be, the taint and curse of unpardoned sin is upon all his gains and possessions.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Holy intention is to the actions of a man that which the soul is to the body, or form to its matter, or the root to the tree, or the sun to the world, or the fountain to the river, or the base to a pillar. Without these the body is a dead trunk, the matter is sluggish, the tree is a block, the world is darkness, the river is quickly dry, the pillar rushes into flatness and ruin, and the action is sinful, or unprofitable and vain.--_Jeremy Taylor._

The evil spirit called sin may be trained up to politeness, and made to be genteel sin; it may be elegant, cultivated sin; it may be very exclusive and fashionable sin; it may be industrious, thrifty sin; it may be a great political manager, a great inventor; it may be learned, scientific, eloquent, highly-poetic sin! Still it is sin, and, being that, has in fact the same radical and fundamental quality that, in its ranker and less restrained conditions, produces all the most hideous and revolting crimes of the world.--_Bushnell._

All thine actions while unregenerate--whether inward or outward, whether worldly or religious--are all sinful and cursed. Like the leper under the law, thou taintest whatever thou touchest, and makest it unclean. . . . Thy calling is not without its corruption . . . nay, thy very religious exercises are sinful. . . . Thine incense stinks of the hand that offered it. . . . The vessel of thy heart is not clean, and God will not taste of the liquor which cometh out of it. Because thy person is not accepted, thy performances are all rejected. "Thou art in the flesh, and therefore canst not please God" (Rom. viii. 8).--_Swinnock._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES_ 5, 7, _and_ 17.

THE ROADS TO WEALTH.

+I. The most likely road to lead to wealth.+ 1. _Thoughtful diligence as opposed to thoughtless haste._ We have before considered the necessity of thought before action (see on chap. xx. 18), and the same idea is conveyed in the use of the first noun here (see Critical Notes). But although it is wise and necessary to think before we act, thinking must only be preparatory to action, and must not take its place. It is good for a man to make a good plan of his house before he begins to build; but a house on paper only will not shelter him from the winter storms. It is advisable for the captain to study his chart well before he embarks upon his voyage, but if he does no more he will never reach the desired port. So it is good for a man to take counsel with himself and others before he sets out upon the voyage of commercial life--before he begins to build for a competency or a fortune; but after the thought and with the thought there must be action, and there must be painstaking and persevering action. He must not be all eagerness to-day and indifference to-morrow--he must not work hard this week and neglect his business next week;--such a man may get rich by a mere chance speculation or by a dishonest act, but, apart from all higher considerations, it is not the best road, because it is not the most likely road. No doubt there are men who have made their fortune by short cuts--by what is called luck, or by craft and robbery--but these are the exceptions, and the way of diligent perseverance is the one by which riches are generally gotten. 2. _Self-denial as opposed to self-indulgence._ "He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man; he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich" (ver. 17). He who spends in self-indulgence as fast as he earns will be always poor. The lover of pleasure and luxury will not be a lover of hard work, and as we have just seen, it is that alone by which most men grow rich. And the extravagant and idle man will not be very likely to keep within his means, and to confine himself to honest ways of making money. And both these roads are roads which lead in the end to ruin. It is not likely that Solomon here refers to any poverty except material poverty. But it is also true that no man whose heart is set upon the gratification of his own selfish desires--whose life is one of self-indulgent ease--can ever be rich in the only true and lasting riches. He must always be in poverty as to character, as to intellectual wealth, and as to the gratitude and respect of those whom he might bless with his riches. _"If, therefore, ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's_ (or another's), _who shall give you that which is your own?"_ (Luke xvi. 11, 12). He is a poor man who has nothing but what he must leave behind him when he leaves the world. The greatest millionaire has nothing he can call his own if he has not a godly character.

+II. The only blessed road to wealth, viz., the way of truth as opposed to lying, the way of honesty as opposed to dishonesty.+ We need not consider these sins separately, for they are inseparable in human character and conduct. The liar is a thief, for by his tongue he cheats men of their rights, and the thief lies in action as well as in word. Solomon does not say that thieves and liars shall not grow rich. As a matter of fact they often do, and leave far behind them in their race those who are plodding slowly on in the path of honest diligence. But he looks to the end of such a way of making money, and of these who so make it. It often vanishes like a vapour (see Critical Notes), while the man who made it still lives. One falsehood leads to another, and a little dishonesty bringing success leads to another and another, each one on a larger scale, until the bubble becomes too thin, and it bursts and all is gone. But if the rogue keeps his fortune till the last--if he meets death a rich man, and is buried with all the pomp of wealth,--retribution awaits him before the tribunal of a righteous God. He sought death and destruction while he lived, and he found it ever here;--destruction of character and spiritual death, and he who here "refused to do judgment" goes to meet his judge a morally self-ruined man--one whose spiritual deathblow has been dealt by his own hand. (On this subject see also Homiletics on chap. xiii. 11, page 306.)

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Verse 5. Haste may have much of diligence in the temperament. But as indolence is its defect, this is its excess, its undisciplined impulse. The hand too often goes before, and acts without the judgment. Hence our English philosopher wisely counsels us--"not to measure dispatch by the times of sitting, but by the advancement of the business." A wise man had it for a bye-word, when he saw men hasten to a conclusion--"Stay a little that we may make an end the sooner." To choose time is to save time, and an unreasonable motion is but "beating the air." The heavenly race is not to be run by so many heats, but by a steady course. "Run," not with haste or speed, but "with patience the race set before us" (Heb. xii. 1). The seed springing up in haste withered (Matt. xiii. 20, 21).--_Bridges._

Verse 6. They _seek_ death because they not only walk in the way of it, but run and fly with post haste as if they were afraid they should come too late or that hell would be full before they got thither. Thus Balaam's ass never carries him fast enough after the wages of wickedness. Set but a wedge of gold before Achan, and Joshua that could stop the sun in his course, cannot stay him from fingering of it. Judas, in selling his Master, what he doth, doth quickly.--_Trapp._

_Treasures;_ literally stores; from a root to shut up. _"Tongue;"_ standing for all instruments of labour (see comment on chap. xii. 6). _"Lying;"_ not telling lies in the worldly sense, for, so put, decent sinners would miss the signification, but _lying_ in that high sense in which the most honest worldling may fill the portrait. _"Tongue;"_ just coincident with fact, is of the haste of the last verse; that untrue uttering of thought against conviction in one's self, and, therefore, hardly to be dreamed of and spared by the Most High. Stores got by this lying career of business may seem solid, because they may be whole blocks of granite in some fire-proof square mile of street; and yet as to their possession the wise man employs a singularly intensive figure. They are _driven breath!_ Surely he will pause at that! But no! They are driven breath as of man chasing after death! . . . The meaning is, that the hot breath of a man rushing to his doom is like the money made by the deceived impenitent. First, it is utterly perishable; second, it betokens the speed; and third, the voluntary rush to get himself to ruin.--_Miller._

And forget not what the "lying tongue" includes--that he is chargeable with the evil who pretends, in any way, to be what he is not, to have what he has not, not to have what he has, to have said what he has not said, or to have done what he has not done, or not to have said and done what he has said and done; who tries to gain an end by any word, or act, or look, or even by silence and concealment designed to convey a false impression--by any means whatever not in harmony with honest truth--with "simplicity and godly sincerity." This, says Solomon, "is vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death." It is a "vanity;" inasmuch as it involves both folly and sin--the folly being made evident in ultimate detection, exposure, shame, and loss--loss of character, loss of confidence, and many a time loss of even what the falsehood had acquired. It is "tossed to and fro." Men learn it from one another. The man who has been imposed upon retaliates--he has no satisfaction until he has succeeded in duping him by whom he has himself been taken in, in practising on him an equal or a better trick. It is practised with little thought--with the vanity of a light and inconsiderate mind--and laughed at, in many instances, when it proves successful, instead of engendering remorse. Success produces a hundred imitators: and the cheats and the dupes are successively reversed, the dupe becoming in his turn the cheat, and the cheat the dupe.--_Wardlaw._

Verse 17. Self-indulgence is not human happiness; it is a delirium, not a delight. It is a mere titillation of the dying nerves, not a Divine thrill of our imperishable sensibilities and powers. Its music is the notes of a maniac, not the strains of a seraph.--_David Thomas._

He may be rich secularly. For here is a proverb that on earth has but a partial verity. But now, spiritually it is as settled as the heavens. "He that loveth his life shall lose it" (John xii. 25). A man cannot scale heaven for its "wine." Unless a man gets higher objects than himself, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And, therefore, it is literally true that the wealth that the soul attains is never made by the very most feverish desire to escape, or by the very most impassioned thirst for the mere joy of heaven. "Man;" the higher name for man. He may be ever so skilful. . . . "Loving;" not, if it loves, but because it loves. It is no harm to love happiness; but it cannot be in loving it, or because we love it, that we can create everlasting riches.--_Miller._

Strange as it may seem, the way to enjoy pleasure is not to love it; to live above it; to "rejoice as though we rejoiced not; to use the world, as not abusing it" (1 Cor. vii. 30, 31); never pursuing it as our portion, or as making the happiness of an immortal being. The man who gives his whole heart and time to the love of pleasure, and sacrifices to it all his prudence and foresight, is surely on the highroad to poverty. On the same road is he that loveth wine, under the power of a "mocking delusion." He that loveth oil--one of the most precious fruits of Canaan--may find, that "those who could not live without dainties came to want necessaries."--_Bridges._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 8.

TWO WAYS.

+I. The way of fallen man.+ It is a froward or refractory way in relation to God. When we look at man's ways and compare them with the ways of all the creatures below him and inferior to him, we note a remarkable contrast. The sun, which was created to give him light and heat, never turns aside from its ordained path, and the moon never forsakes her orbit, with the rest of the heavenly bodies, continue in the way ordained for them at the creation, and impress us with a sense of order, and regularity, and obedience. And the living creatures beneath man remain true to their instincts, and manifestly fulfil their destinies in ministering to the wants of the human race. But when we come to man we come to a law-breaking, perverse creature--to a being who resists the law of God as written in his conscience, and the commands of God as given in revelation, and the very pleadings of _self-love_ which often urge him to submission. The way of the Hebrew people under special Divine tuition is a specimen of the frowardness of all men in their natural condition, which is indeed a most _unnatural_ condition, seeing that it is out of harmony with all the rest of creation. Delivered from bondage by miracle and fed and guided by the same miraculous love and power for nearly half a century, and again and again after their settlement in Canaan delivered from the consequences of their disobedience by the same mighty hand, the testimony against them was, _"Ephraim is joined unto idols, let him alone"_ (Hosea iv. 15). Neither appeals to their conscience or their reason, or even to their own self-interest, nor promises nor threatenings, could induce them to choose God's way in preference to their own, and when He appeared among them in flesh, and after He had risen from the grave and the full meaning of His incarnation and death was unfolded to them by His apostles, they still perversely chose to go about _"to establish their own righteousness"_ rather than _"submit themselves unto the righteousness of God"_ (Rom. x. 3). And man in general is as froward, as perverse, as was this froward people. Though their reason, and conscience, and self-love are all on the side of God's way they persist in walking in their own.

+II. The way of renewed man.+ It is a _direct_ or _straight_ way (see Critical Notes), because it is an obedient way. No man but a godly man keeps in one undeviating course, for none but he has but one aim and goal. The unrenewed man may be swayed by passion to-day, and by worldly interest to-morrow; but with him who has been born to a new and higher life one principle lies behind all his actions; and whatever his secondary plans and purposes, they are all subordinated to the one ruling law--the Will of God. His work--whatever it may be--whether that of the judge upon the bench, the minister in the pulpit, the tradesman behind the counter, or the sailor at the mast-head, has one end and aim above all others, viz., to glorify God; and this gives to it a directness and straightforwardness which is not an element in the walk and work of the ungodly. See also on chap. x. 9, 10, page 153, and on chap. xi. 3, page 195.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

No one is such a stranger in any land as man is in the land of righteousness; neither is any stranger so ignorant of his way, as man is of the way of virtue. Wherefore, man and purity are rightly opposed in our translation. For what is more froward, more impure, than man's way is? And he that is pure, how little _man_ must he have in him. How must he put off _man_ to put on purity. Wherefore, if in the whole way of man there be a right work, it is not the work of man, as he is man, but the grace of God.--_Jermin._

It is too natural for us to think that, if we are no worse than the generality of our neighbours, we are safe. But Solomon and Paul teach us, that, to walk as man, is not to walk like saints (1 Cor. iii. 3). Whilst we are following the course of this world, we are walking in the broad road that leadeth to destruction, and not in the narrow way that leadeth unto life.--_Lawson._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES_ 9 _and_ 19.

AN ANGRY WOMAN.

+I. No social discomfort is to be compared to that of an ill-tempered wife.+ A corner of the housetop would be exposed to the rain and to the storm, both of which, in Eastern countries, are generally of a violent character; and although it is not uncommon for Orientals sometimes to pass the night there, it would be most undesirable to be obligated at all seasons, and under all circumstances, to have no other place of refuge. He who had to dwell there would at one time be subjected to the intense heat of the mid-day sun, and at another would be chilled by the midnight air. Neither is the wilderness a pleasant place of abode. In addition to all the drawbacks of the housetop arising from exposure to the weather, a wilderness is a place of dreary solitude, and often of danger from wild beasts and lawless men. But it is better to dwell in either of these places than with a brawling or even with an angry woman. 1. _Because one might enjoy intervals of repose._ The rain would not always descend, neither would the storm-wind be always blowing; the sun would sometimes give forth only an agreeable warmth, and the night-wind bring only a refreshing coolness. Even in the wilderness the solitude would sometimes be enjoyable, and life there would not always be in peril. But the woman pictured here is one whose ill-temper is always ruling her and casting gloom over the home, and when there is no storm of passion actually raging there is one brewing and ready to burst forth. The unhappy partner of her life can never look forward to an hour of ease, for the lulls in the storm are but momentary, and the rifts in the clouds obscured again immediately. 2. _Because, whatever may be the discomforts of a housetop or wilderness dwelling, they may leave the soul at rest._ They can but reach the body, and the mind may be so absolutely calm or absorbed in thought as to be almost unconscious of what is passing without. To some men solitude has such charms that they are willing to forego many bodily comforts in order to obtain it. There have been and are those whose own thoughts are the only company they desire, and who would gladly brave the drawbacks of the housetop or the wilderness, if by so doing they could be left undisturbed to indulge their own speculations, or pursue their meditations. But the sharp tongue of a contentious woman leaves no corner of the soul undisturbed. It is vain for the subject of it to seek refuge in reflection upon more agreeable topics, to endeavour to banish the actual present by calling up images of the future, or of unseen though distant realities. All the powers of the mind are paralyzed by such an incubus, and the soul cannot wing its flight into pleasant regions, as it can do sometimes when the suffering only touches the outer man.

+II. External good fortune is no proof against this domestic curse.+ The _"wide house"_ or the _"house of companionship,"_ suggests a goodly mansion--a dwelling which might be the centre of social gatherings, and whose owner is able to indulge in hospitality on a large scale. It calls up before us not the top-story garret of the very poor, or even the narrow dwelling of a struggling man, where the fight for bread, and the effort to make both ends meet, may have something to do with spoiling the temper of the housewife. But the angry and contentious woman is not confined to these abodes--Solomon almost seems to speak here from experience, but even if he did not, we know that even palace walls cannot keep out the curse, and that there is often such a skeleton at the must sumptuous feast.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

The family is sometimes a fierce fire. It comprehends the greatest portion of our world. It is to us the most interesting, and therefore is capable of becoming the most trying portion.--_Cecil._

Everyone has known some pair chained together by human laws where the heart's union has either never existed or been rent asunder. Two ships at sea are bound together by strong, short chains. As long as the sea remains perfectly calm all may be well with both; though they do each other no good, they may not inflict much evil. But the sea never rests long, and seldom rests at all. Woe to these two ships when the waves begin to roll. There are two conditions in which they might be safe. If they were either brought more closely together, or more widely separated, it might yet be well with them. If they were from stern to stern riveted into one, or if the chain were broken and the two left to follow independently their several courses, there would be no further cause of anxiety on their account. If they are so united that they shall move as one body, they are safe; if they move far apart, they are safe. The worst possible position is to be chained together, and yet have separate and independent motion in the waves. They will rasp each other's sides off, and tear open each other's heart, and go down together.--_Arnot._

Better to retire into a corner of the housetop than to quit the house and go into bad company for diversion, as many who, like Adam, make their wife's sin the excuse of their own.--_Henry._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 10.

THE DESIRE OF THE WICKED.

On "the desire of the wicked" see on chap. xi. 5, 6, page 199. Concerning that desire it is here affirmed--

+That it overmasters and destroys all natural feelings of compassion.+ The Bible teaches us that in the estimation of God he is our neighbour who, as one of the same great human family, stands upon the same level with us,--the child of the same God and heir to the same inheritance of sorrow and death. As such he has a claim upon our consideration and goodwill at all times, and sometimes he stands in need of our sympathy and help. Now there are spiritual desires and inclinations to which we are bound to subordinate some claims of human kinship. The relation of a disciple of Christ to his Master is so far above all human ties that they sink into apparent insignificance beside it, but this relationship has not the effect of lessening man's concern for the welfare of his brother, but of increasing it tenfold. But here is subjection to a principle as much below nature as the other is above it--evil instead of good is the aim of the life, and in proportion as it rules and reigns it drags a man below the level of even ordinary human nature and leads him to so earnest a pursuit of his own wicked devices that he has no time to pause to consider the claims of others.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

_"Evil."_ All kinds of it. He rejoices in iniquity (1 Cor. xiii. 6); he rejoices in calamity (chap. xvii. 5); he desires nothing but evil (chap. xvii. 11). Blessed be God, if a soul desires anything but _evil, i.e.,_ desires it truly (see James iv. 2), that soul is saved. As to the second clause, there may be a bending over earthly distress, but real _favour_ to his _neighbour_ the lost man never shows. "The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel" (chap. xii. 10).--_Miller._

And here lies the difference between the godly and the wicked; not that the one is pure from evil and the other commits it, but that the one does it from constraint, the other from delight. The one testifies--"What I hate"--the other--What my soul desireth--"that do I." As the fruit of this native cherished principle, self to the wicked is both his god and his object.--_Bridges._

He views "his neighbour" in no other light than as, on the one hand, the means of thwarting, or, on the other, the instrument of promoting his own ends. Can he gain anything by him? he will flatter and cajole him and do everything to win his favour, and secure his services. Does his "neighbour's" interest, reputation, personal and family comforts, connections, or even life itself, stand in the way of the attainment of his wishes?--he is ready to sacrifice all to his idol.--_Wardlaw._

It is the common maxim of the schools, that, seeing the nature of the good is the nature of that which is desirable, it is impossible that evil, as it is so, should be desired. But then the schools do add also, that the will may desire anything, it is not required that it be good in the truth of the thing, but that it be apprehended as if it were good. And thus it is that the soul of the wicked desireth evil, because that he apprehendeth the good, either of some pleasure of profit, or some contentment in it.--_Jermin._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 11.

INSTRUCTION FOR THOSE WHO NEED IT.

+I. An inevitable event in the history of the scorner.+ It is here taken for granted that he will be punished--that he who sets at nought the _"counsel,"_ and will have none of the _"reproof"_ of wisdom, will have his day of reckoning. The _"day of his calamity"_ and _"fear"_ will come (chap. i. 27). Throughout this book, as throughout all the inspired writings, sin and punishment are linked as cause and effect. There is punishment in the constantly increasing dominion of evil in the soul, and there is punishment in the stings of conscience; but there is also punishment by the direct interposition of God, and it is to this that the proverb evidently points.

+II. One of the fruits of wisdom.+ He who is wise will be instructed. Having used what he has, he will in accordance with the Divine law receive more. To _"him that hath shall be given"_ (Mark iv. 25). He who by a wise use of five talents has gained other five, shall have his store increased still more. This is likewise a foundation principle of this book, that the wise are those who are willing to be instructed, and that to those who desire instruction it will not be wanting. The special point of the verse is in the fact--

+III. That the punishment of evil men, and the soul-advancement of the good, have a work to do outside the men themselves.+ When the scorner receives punishment others receive instruction. This is one of its objects. A good ruler, as we have before seen (chap. xx. 26), is bound to distinguish between the righteous and the wicked for many reasons, and for this reason among others, that the punishment of one offender may prevent others from committing a like offence. Men often learn by example what they would not learn by precept--the inexperienced are often more deeply impressed by one instance of retributive justice than they would be by many admonitions in word. This is, as we know from God's Word, one end of His visitations. _"For this cause,"_ said God to Pharaoh, _"have I raised thee up, for to show in thee My power, and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth"_ (Exod. ix. 16). There are vessels belonging to our navy which are past repair, and are therefore unfit for sea. Yet they are retained as light-ships along the coast, and are useful in preventing better ships from going to pieces on the rocks. Pharaoh had long scorned the commands and the judgments of Jehovah, and his own doom was fast hastening on. But he would still serve as a beacon-light to save others--by his punishment the simple would be made wise. But there is the other and brighter side of the picture. The inexperienced are allured to goodness by the advancement of the good, as well as deterred from evil by the downfall of the wicked. When the simple sees the wise man in the attitude of a learner--when he finds that the wiser he is the more he desires instruction; and when he marks the effect of his humility and earnestness in his growth in all that is calculated to win him respect and to afford him real satisfaction, he "receives knowledge" by "the instruction of the wise" as well as by the "punishment of the scorner."

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

A respectful sinner; how is he a scorner? The Holy Ghost plainly intends just the shock that such words occasion. If a man hears that he should repent, and knows the reasons, and among the reasons are facts like hell, and calls like Christ's, and scenes like death, with all the realities of an eternal judgment, is there any spoken scorn that can be thought of as more scornful than the acted scorn of not repenting? "The simple becomes wise," _i.e.,_ the subject or the witness of the punishment, just as it may happen. . . . Punishment never wastes. The wicked may be thrust lower by his evil (chap. xiv. 32), but some saint receives the lesson. This principle reaches through the system. The philosophy of hell is its good-doing through all the universe.--_Miller._

It is a stroke easily taken which another feels, the receiver only fears, and it is a blow haply given which, striking one, reacheth two; the scorner to his reward, the simple to his amendment. . . . Let it therefore be a sharp punishment which is inflicted; _smite a scorner,_ for such it is that the scorner deserveth, and it will work upon the simple, though not by the touch of the punishment yet by the virtue of it. And when wisdom hath once subdued him by fear, then will it lead him on to hear the wise, and by attention to receive knowledge.--_Jermin._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 12.

GOD'S SURVEILLANCE OF THE WICKED.

We follow here the rendering now generally given of this verse. (See Critical Notes.)

+I. We have a reference to a mystery in the government of God.+ It is mysterious that the wicked are permitted to live _at large_--to pursue their plans and carry on their iniquitous work. Under human governors, men who break the laws of the State and endanger life and property are not allowed to have liberty. If they are permitted to live, they live under restraint--their activities are confined within narrow limits, and so their power to do mischief is taken from them. The prisons scattered throughout our land declare that our rulers only permit those who break our laws to have a very narrow sphere of action; they live where all their freedom is taken from them, and where their rule of life is not their own but that of others. But God allows those who break His laws a larger amount of freedom--He permits them to mingle freely with righteous men, and to exercise their influence upon the world, and to carry out designs which are often in defiance of His commands. This has often perplexed the good in the world, and they have again and again asked the question, _"Wherefore do the wicked live--become old; yea, are mighty in power?"_ (Job xxi. 7).

+II. The wicked living thus at large have God for a sentinel.+ There are many men living at large who are known to be dangerous characters--who, although they do not come within the reach of the law, are known to cherish feelings and intentions which are antagonistic to it. Such people need a more vigilant supervision than those in the prison cells, just because their freedom is greater. An ordinary man can watch a criminal who is secure in a prison, but much greater watchfulness and skill is needed to supervise the actions of one at liberty. Every house of the wicked contains a lawbreaker at liberty, and often one house contains many such who have a large amount of freedom in the execution of their wicked designs. God is the only Being capable of being the sentinel over such a house. They need one who knows the heart as only God knows it--one who sees all their plans before they become actions. They need a sleepless sentinel--one who can be awake at all hours, and so can never be taken by surprise. And this they have in God. None enters or departs from the house of the wicked, and no plot is concocted within it that is not marked by this ever-wakeful sentinel. The wicked have what it is indispensable they should have--an omniscient and omnipresent eye ever upon them.

+III. After the watch has been kept for a given time, the house is marked for falling.+ We know why God gives such men freedom, for He has told us. It is that they shall have opportunities of repentance--that _they "shall turn from their way and live"_ (Ezek. xxxiii. 11). He spares the house of the godless, for the same reason that the vine-dresser desired that the fruitless fig-tree should be spared (Luke xii. 6-9). He gives men time to bring forth fruits of holiness, to their own profit and to His glory. So He considered the house of the sinners, before the flood. His _"longsuffering waited while the ark was a preparing"_ (1 Pet. iii. 20) for some tokens of a change of disposition towards Himself, and consequently towards His laws. But none came, and so the day came when the flood came, and swept away both the houses and their inhabitants. So He considered the house of the Jewish nation, after the death of Christ. In the days of John the Baptist, the _"axe was laid unto the root of the tree"_ (Matt. iii. 10), but the hand was not lifted to strike, until the rejection of the Messiah, and of the ministry of His apostles, had proved that there was no hope of a moral change. The wicked shall be overthrown, but God _considereth their house_ long before He gives the final blow.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

(It will be seen that these read the verse as in our version.)

The punishment of the wicked reads a lesson not only of love and trembling, but of wise consideration. Yet many are the perplexing mysteries of Providence. The righteous man does not always see with his right eyes. The prosperity of the wicked staggers his faith, excites his envy, and induces hard thoughts of God (Ps. lxxiii. 2-14). But when he looks with the eye of faith, he sees far beyond the dazzling glory of the present moment. He wisely considereth their house; not its external splendour and appurtenances, but how it will end. He justifies God, and puts himself to shame (_Ib._ verses 16-22). "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. xviii. 25). Here we rest, until He shall "arise, and plead His own cause," and "with the breath of His mouth, and the brightness of His coming, destroy" the very existence of evil. Meanwhile, where the superficial eye sees nothing but confusion, let the righteous man wisely consider lessons of deep and practical profit. The shortness of the prosperity, and the certainty of the overthrow, of the wicked; the assurance of a day of recompense; the contrast of the substance of the godly for time and for eternity--these are the apprehensions of faith. Do they not marvellously set out the perfections of God, and call to each of His children--"My son, give glory to God?"--_Bridges._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 13.

THE CRY OF THE POOR.

+I. The cry of the poor may always be heard.+ _"The poor,"_ said the Saviour, _"ye have always with you"_ (John xii. 8), and so long as sin is in the world it must be so. There are many who sickness and bereavement makes poor, and many who are in need because of the sin of others, besides those who have been brought to poverty by their own wrong-doings. And from all these creatures of need there comes a cry--a direct appeal, it may be, for help, or the voice of lamentation because of their distress. This cry may be around us even when no appeal comes from the lip, and when no word of complaint is uttered. The wrongs of the oppressed and the miseries of the needy cry still when there is no speech nor language, and when no voice is heard.

+II. No human creature can afford to stop his ears to this cry.+ Not one of the millions who walk the earth can reckon upon being always independent of the pity and help of his fellow-creatures. He may be almost certain that he will not be so. He is not sure, however rich he is now, that he may not have to cry for bread, or he may have to cry for help in sickness or for sympathy in sorrow. It is quite certain that he will at some period of his existence cry to God for mercy. If, therefore, he is deaf to the cry of those whose distress he can relieve, he is as unwise as the servant of whom our Lord speaks in His parable, who refused to have compassion on his fellow-servant to the amount of a hundred pence, while he himself stood in need of the forgiveness of a far heavier debt (Matt. xvii. 23, 35). He who stops his own ears at the cry of the poor stops the ears of God against His own, for in the day when the favour of the King of the universe will be more precious than the wealth of ten thousand worlds, the charge will be brought against him, _"I was an hungered and ye gave Me no meat; I was thirsty and ye gave Me no drink,"_ etc. (Matt. xxv. 42).

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

When we have reason to complain that we cry and shout, but God shutteth our prayer, let us consider our ways; perhaps we have shut our ears on some occasions against the cries of the poor. This was one reason why God accepted not the prayers and fasts of those people whom Isaiah speaks of in the fiftieth chapter of his book.--_Lawson._

Did a rich man know for certain, that himself should be a beggar before he died, it would make him give to the poor when they cried, that others might give to him when he cried. Now the wise man here assureth every hard churl, that although now he be never so rich, yet shall he be a beggar. . . . The cries of the poor are but God's proclamation, whereby He publisheth His pleasure for the relieving of them. It is God therefore Himself that is not heard when they are denied; it is God that is not heard in His command, as well as the poor in his necessity. And, therefore, being made deaf as it were with the loudness of His own crying, He doth not hear the uncharitable when they cry unto him.--_Jermin._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 14.

THE PACIFICATION OF ANGER.