Proverbs 19:10

Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes. DELIGHT IS NOT SEEMLY FOR A FOOL. A life of luxurious delights sometimes makes wise men into fools; but it makes fools into madmen, to their own destruction. Recreation and pleasure are seemly for a wise man, as a temporary relaxation; but a "rod" of correction is what is most seemly for a fool (; ). "Delight" would be prejudicial alike to the sinful fool himself, and to others who might be tempted by his seeming enjoyment to follow his bad ways. MUCH LESS FOR A SERVANT (FOR ONE WHO IS ESSENTIALLY A MEAN SLAVE IN CHARACTER) TO HAVE RULE OVER PRINCES - over those who in nobility of mind, experience, and sagacity are essentially princes, though depressed by the acc...

Verse Proverbs 19:10. _DELIGHT IS NOT SEEMLY FOR A FOOL_] תענוג _taanug_, splendid or luxurious living, rank, equipage, c. These sit ill on a _fool_, though he be by birth a _lord_. _FOR A SERVANT TO HAVE RULE OVER PRINCES._] I pity the king who delivers himself into the hands of his own ministers. Such a one loses his character, and cannot be respected by his subjects, or rather _their_ subjects. But it is still worse when a person of mean extraction is raised to the throne, or to any _place of power_ he is generally cruel and tyrannical....

“Delight,” high unrestrained enjoyment, is to the “fool” who lacks wisdom but a temptation and a snare. The second clause carries the thought on to what the despotism of Eastern monarchies often presented, the objectionable rule of some favored slave, it might be, of alien birth, over the princes and nobles of the land....

EXPOSITION PROVERBS 19:1 BETTER IS THE POOR THAT WALKTH IN HIS INTEGRITY. The word for "poor" is, here and in Proverbs 19:7, Proverbs 19:22, _rash, _which signifies "poor" in opposition to "rich." In the present reading of the second clause, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool, there seems to be a failure in antithesis, unless we can understand the fool as a rich fool. This, the repetition of the maxim in Proverbs 28:6 ("Than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich"), would lead one to admit. The Vulgate accordingly has, Quam dives torquem

DELIGHT IS NOT SEEMLY FOR A FOOL,.... Such an one as Nabal, whose name and nature were alike; and whose prosperity ill became him, and the mirth and delight he had in it, 1 Samuel 25:25; for, as the wise man elsewhere says, "the prosperity of fools shall destroy them", Proverbs 1:26; they do not know how to make a right use of their prosperity; nor to moderate their enjoyments, pleasures, and delights. Some understand this of spiritual delight in the Lord; in his ways and ordinances, which wicked men are strangers to: and a very uncomely thing it is for such persons to talk of spiritual joy and delight, and of their communion with God, when they live in sin; MUCH LESS FOR A SERVANT TO HAVE RULE OVER PRINCES; this was a sight which Solomon had seen, but was very disagreeable to him; a

CHAPTER 19:1-19 FURTHER PROVERBS ON PERSONAL INSTRUCTION One may be poor, but walking in integrity, he is far ahead of him who is perverse in his lips and is a fool. Then we find proverbs about fretting against the Lord; warning against false witness and speaking lies and other matters. We call special attention to Proverbs 19:12 . _ The King's wrath is as the roaring of a lion._ But his favour is as dew upon the grass. It may be applied to Him who is The Lamb of God and also the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Some day He will roar in His displeasure and manifest the wrath, so well deserved by the world. But even then His grace will be revealed, for in wrath He will remember mercy, the mercy promised to Israel. “I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth its roots as Lebanon”...

PROVERBS 19. A shrewd turn of sarcasm in Proverbs 19:3 suggests the attitude of practical wisdom towards that questioning of the moral government of the world which we find in Job. PROVERBS 19:1. FOOL: read rich, as in Proverbs 28:6. Proverbs 19:2 a. Both RV and RVm are unsound grammatically. The lit. rendering shows that the clause is defective, Also without knowledge of the soul. is not good. Some verb expressing action is required. Proverbs 19:2 b. sinneth: read _mg._ The idea is more haste less speed.

DELIGHT. Luxury....

_delight_ Rather, LUXURY, or DELICATE LIVING, R.V. οὐ συμφέρει ἄφρονι τρυφὴ, LXX. Comp. οἱ ἐν τρυφῇ ὑπάρχοντες ἐν τοῖς βασιλείοις εἰσίν, Luke 7:25; as "a servant" would be if he had "rule over princes." On this second clause Dean Plumptre (_Speaker's Comm_.) quotes Claudian in _Eutrop_. 1. 183: "nec bellua tetrior ulla est, Quam servi rabies in libera colla furentis....

CHAPTER 19 TEXT Proverbs 19:1-10 1. Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity Than he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool. 2. Also, that the soul be without knowledge is not good; And he that hasteth with his feet sinneth. 3. The foolishness of man subverteth his way; And his heart fretteth against Jehovah. 4. Wealth addeth many friends; But the poor is separated from his friend. 5. A false witness shall not be unpunished; And he that uttereth lies shall not escape. 6. Many will entreat the favor of the liberal man; And every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts. 7. All the brethren of the poor do hate him: How much more do his friends go far from him! 8. He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul: He that keepeth under