Proverbs 21:17

He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich. HE THAT LOVETH WINE AND OIL - i:e., unguents used to anoint the person at banquets (Ecclesiastes 9:7). To use these is lawful, to 'love' them is inconsistent with the love God, which alone maketh truly "rich" (; )....

Verse Proverbs 21:17. _HE THAT LOVETH PLEASURE_] That follows gaming, fowling, hunting, coursing, c., when he should be attending to the culture of the fields, _shall be a poor man_ and, I may safely add, shall be so deservedly poor, as to have none to pity him....

WINE AND OIL - i. e., The costly adjuncts of a princely banquet. The price of oil or precious unguent was about equal to the 300 days’ wages of a field laborer Matthew 20:2. Indulgence in such a luxury would thus become the type of all extravagance and excess....

EXPOSITION PROVERBS 21:1 THE KING'S HEART IS IN THE HAND OF THE LORD, AS THE RIVERS OF WATER. We are to think of the little channels used for irrigation. As these are altogether under the gardener's control, so the heart of the king, who might seem to have no superior, is directed by God. HE TURNETH IT WHITHERSOEVER HE WILL. By hidden influences and providential arrangements God disposes the monarch to order his government so as to carry out his designs, to spread around joy and plenty. The system of irrigation signified in this passage is still to be seen in Eastern lands. "Flower beds and gardens of herbs are always made at a little lower level than the surrounding ground, and are divided into small squares, a slight edging of earth banking the whole round on each side. Water is then let in, and floods the entire sur

HE THAT LOVETH PLEASURE [SHALL BE] A POOR MAN,.... Or "sport" c and pastime, music and dancing, cards and dice, hunting and hawking, and other sensual gratifications; a man that indulges himself in these things, and spends his time and his money in such a way, is very likely to be a poor man, and generally is so in the issue; HE THAT LOVETH WINE AND OIL SHALL NOT BE RICH; that is, that loves them immoderately; otherwise in moderation they may be both loved and used; "wine" and "oil" are put for high living, luxurious feasts, costly entertainments; which being so, and continually made, will not suffer a man to be rich. The sense is, that an epicure, one that makes a god of his belly, that is both a winebibber and a glutton, that indulges to rich eating and drinking, in course lessens his substance, and leaves little for his heir: and this holds good with respect to spiritual as to tempor...

CHAPTER 21 PERSONAL INSTRUCTIONS AS TO LIFE AND CONDUCT In the proverbs of this chapter the Lord is mentioned five times. “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will” Proverbs 21:1). The rivers of water are “water-courses,” the irrigation system known to the ancients, opening and shutting sluices directed the flow of the waters. Thus the Lord governs the king's heart as He directs the affairs of men. The Lord pondereth the hearts Proverbs 21:2). The same truth is stated in Proverbs 16:2; self-justification suits the natural man but the Lord testeth all hearts. How well it is to remember in all our conduct, that truth, so comforting to the believer, expr

PROVERBS 21:1. WATERCOURSES: not the natural brooks and wadys of Palestine, but the artificial irrigation canals of Egypt or Babylonia, which could be diverted in any direction at will. Proverbs 21:4. Apparently two unconnected lines belonging to different couplets. A connexion can be established only by forced exegesis. The Heb. is lit. lofty of look and arrogant of heart, the tillage of the wicked is sin. RV lamp for tillage depends on a different pointing, but does not improve the sense. Proverbs 21:6. Lit. The getting of treasures by a lying tongue (is) a driven breath, seekers of death. RV clearly inserts more than the text warrants to make sense of...

POOR. destitute. Heb _heser._ See note on Proverbs 6:11. WINE. Hebrew. _yayin._ App-27....

_wine and oil_ "The costly adjuncts of a princely banquet. Among these the oil, or precious unguent, was always most conspicuous (Psalms 23:5; Psalms 45:7, and especially Wis 2:7). And when we consider its price, the 300 _denarii_of John 12:5, the 300 days" wages of a field labourer, (Matthew 20:2), we can well understand how indulgence in such a luxury would become the type of all extravagance and excess." _Speaker's Comm. ad loc_....

HE THAT LOVETH WINE AND OIL— Dr. Pococke, in describing his journey to Jerusalem, after his landing at Joppa, tells us, that he was conveyed to an encampment of Arabs, who entertained him as well as they could, making him cakes, and bringing him fine oil, in which _they usually dip their bread._ When he says _usually,_ he means, I presume, when they are more elegantly regaled; for the eastern people often make use of bread with nothing more than salt, or some such trifling addition, such as summer savory, dried and powdered, which, mixed with salt, is eaten by many of the people of Aleppo as a seasoning to their bread, according to the account of Dr. Russell. The Septuagint translation of Job 6:6 seems to refer to the same practice, when it renders the first part of that verse, _Will bread be eaten without salt?_ It is to the same sort of frugality also, I suppose, that Solomon refers, w...