SURETY - The “pledge,” or security for payment, which, for example, David was to bring back from his brothers 1 Samuel 17:18. So the word was used in the primitive trade transactions of the early Israelites. In the warnings against this suretyship, in the Book of Proverbs, we may trace the influence... [ Continue Reading ]
Or, “If thou art snared ... if thou art taken,” etc.... [ Continue Reading ]
Better, “Do this now, O my son, and free thyself when thou hast come into thy friend’s house; go, how thyself down (perhaps “stamp with thy foot,” or “hasten”), press hotly upon thy friend. By persuasion, and if need be, by threats, get back the bond which thou hast been entrapped into signing:” The... [ Continue Reading ]
The warning against the wastefulness of the prodigal is followed by a warning as emphatic against the wastefulness of sloth. The point of comparison with the ant is not so much the foresight of the insect as its unwearied activity during the appointed season, rebuking man’s inaction at a special cri... [ Continue Reading ]
The words express the wonder with which the Hebrew observer looked on the phenomena of insect life. “Guide,” better captain, as in Joshua 10:24. The Septuagint introduces here a corresponding reference to the industry of the bee.... [ Continue Reading ]
The similitude is drawn from the two sources of Eastern terror: the “traveler,” i. e., “the thief in the night,” coming suddenly to plunder; the “armed man,” literally “the man of the shield,” the armed robber. The habit of indolence is more fatally destructive than these marauders.... [ Continue Reading ]
A NAUGHTY PERSON - literally, “a man of Belial,” i. e., a worthless man (see the Deuteronomy 13:13 note). This is the portrait of the man who is not to be trusted, whose look and gestures warn against him all who can observe. His speech is tortuous and crafty; his wink tells the accomplice that the... [ Continue Reading ]
The duper and the dupe shall share the same calamity.... [ Continue Reading ]
A new section, but not a new subject. The closing words, “he that soweth discord” (Proverbs 6:19, compare Proverbs 6:14), lead us to identify the sketch as taken from the same character. With the recognized Hebrew form of climax (see Proverbs 30:15, Proverbs 30:18, Proverbs 30:24; Amos 1:1; Amos 2;... [ Continue Reading ]
The thought of Proverbs 3:3 is carried step further. No outward charm, but the law of obedience, shall give safety to the traveler, when he sleeps or when he wakes.... [ Continue Reading ]
Compare Psalms 119:105.... [ Continue Reading ]
EVIL WOMAN - literally, “woman of evil.” In reading what follows, it must be remembered that the warning is against the danger of the sin of the adulterous wife.... [ Continue Reading ]
EYELIDS - Possibly pointing to the Eastern custom of painting the eyes on the outside with _kohl_ so as to give brightness and languishing expression.... [ Continue Reading ]
The two forms of evil bring, each of them, their own penalty. By the one a man is brought to such poverty as to beg for “a piece of bread” (compare 1 Samuel 2:36): by the other and more deadly sin he incurs a peril which may affect his life. The second clause is very abrupt and emphatic in the origi... [ Continue Reading ]