Proverbs 20:30

The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly. THE BLUENESS OF A WOUND (SEVERE CHASTISEMENT, OF WHICH BLUENESS OF A WOUND IS THE SIGN) CLEANSETH AWAY EVIL: SO DO STRIPES THE INWARD PARTS OF THE BELLY. The "evil" lies deep in "the inward parts of the belly;" therefore "stripes" are needed, which are so severe as to produce livid marks of wounds (cf. ). To be "chastened of the Lord" saves one from being "condemned with the world" (). Manasseh's Babylonian "fetters" were the instruments of saving him from the "everlasting chains" (; 2 Chronicles 33:11). Pain is often the rem...

Verse Proverbs 20:30. _THE BLUENESS OF A WOUND_] חברות _chabburoth_, from חבר _chabar_, to _unite_, to _join together_. Does it not refer to the cicatrice of a wound when, in its healing, the two lips are brought _together_? By this union the wound is _healed_; and by the previous discharge the lace-rated ends of fibres and blood-vessels are purged away. So _stripes_, though they hurt for the time, become the means of _correcting_ and _discharging_ the _moral evil_ of the inmost soul, the vice of the _heart_, the _easily-besetting sin_. In this chapter, verses _fourteen_ to _nineteen_, inclusive, are wanting in the _Septuagint_ and _Arabic_; and the _tenth, eleventh,_ _twelfth_, and _thirteenth_, come in after the _twenty-second_. It is difficult to account for these

Better, The blueness of a wound is a cleansing of evil, so are the stripes that go down to the inward parts of the belly. The open sores of wounds left by the scourge, unclean and foul as they seem, are yet a cleansing, purifying process for evil; so also are the stripes that reach the inward parts of the belly, i. e., the sharp reproofs, the stings of conscience, which penetrate where no scourge can reach, into the inner life of man. Chastisement, whatever be its nature, must be real; the scourge must leave its mark, the reproof must go deep....

EXPOSITION PROVERBS 20:1 WINE IS A MOCKER; or, scorner, the word (_luts_) being taken up from the last chapter. The liquor is, as it were, personified, as doing what men do under its influence. Thus inebriated persons scoff at what is holy, reject reproof, ridicule all that is serious. Septuagint, Ἀκόλαστον οἶνος, "Wine is an undisciplined thing;" Vulgate, _Luxuriosa res, vinum. _STRONG DRINK IS RAGING; a brawler, Revised Version. _Shekar, _σίκερα (Luke 1:15), is most frequently employed of any intoxicating drink not made from grapes, _e.g. _palm wine, mead, etc. The inordinate use of this renders men noisy and boisterous, no longer masters of themselves or restrained by the laws of morality or decency. Septu

THE BLUENESS OF A WOUND CLEANSETH AWAY EVIL,.... Rubs it off and scours it away, as the word m signifies, or is a clearing and rubbing it off; some men must be beaten black and blue, or must have very sore correction, before they can be reclaimed and reformed from their evil ways; so some interpret it of the evil man n: sanctified afflictions to God's people are the means of purging away their iniquities, their dross, and their sin; but there is nothing so effectually cleanses from sin as the blood of Jesus, or heals or cures of it as his blue wounds and stripes; see Isaiah 27:9; SO [DO] STRIPES THE INWARD PART OF THE BELLY; or heart and conscience; by means of corrections and chastisement men are brought to an inward sense of sin; they are shown their transgressions wherein they have exceeded, and are commanded to return from iniquity,...

CHAPTER 20 PROVERBS AS TO PERSONAL CONDUCT Proverbs of warning and instructions as to personal conduct are found mostly in this chapter; a number of them are of special interest if applied to Solomon. The first one is concerning wine and strong drink. As the use of wine among the people of Israel was legitimate the warning is against intemperance Deuteronomy 14:26). The Bible gives many illustrations of the truth of this proverb-warning. We may think of Noah, Lot, Nabal, Ben-hadad, Belshazzar and others. From all the good things we select the following. In Proverbs 20:3 is instruction which makes for peace. It is the fool who meddles and thus produces strife, but it is an honor for man to cease from strife. In...

PROVERBS 20. We have still further traces in Proverbs 20:9; Proverbs 20:24 of the sceptical spirit and the obstinate questionings of self characteristic of the later Greek period of Jewish thought. PROVERBS 20:6 A. RV is strained and the Heb. is difficult. Read (_cf._ Syr. and Lat.) Many a man is called kind. Proverbs 20:8. winnoweth (_mg._) is more literal than RV, and conveys better the idea of personal scrutiny (_cf._ the ideal king in Psalms 72 and Isaiah 11). Proverbs 20:9. For the growi

CLEANSETH AWAY. is cleansing. Supply the Ellipsis (App-6), "[though it be] an evil". EVIL. Hebrew. _ra'a'._ App-44. BELLY. Supply the Ellipsis from preceding clause, "[though they be an evil]...

_the blueness of a wound_ Lit. STRIPES OF (such as to cause) A WOUND. Render, with R.V., STRIPES THAT WOUND CLEANSE AWAY EVIL: AND STROKES REACH THE INNERMOST PARTS OF THE BELLY. The expression, _the blueness of a wound_, is taken probably from the _livor vulneris_of the Vulgate, and indicates a blow so severe as to leave a blue, livid wound or weal behind it....

THE BLUENESS OF A WOUND— This is a very obscure passage. I think, says Dr. Grey, Le Clerc's interpretation the best I have met with; that a wicked man, who has received due correction for his crimes, will be cured of them, or will not so easily fall into the like again; and that though _stripes_ chiefly affect the body, yet they have likewise an effect on (_the chambers of the belly_) the inward recesses of the mind; restraining the offender by the fear of punishment. That this is the meaning of the Hebrew words בטן חדרי _chadrei baten,_ rendered _The chambers of the belly,_ appears from that elegant comparison of the conscience, or spirit of a man, Proverbs 20:27 to a light within him, searching out and discovering his most secret thoughts....