CHAPTER XIX

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CRITICAL NOTES.--+1.+ Delitzsch translates the last clause, _"Than one with perverse lips, and so a fool."_ +2. Sinneth,+ literally "goeth astray." Delitzsch reads the last clause, _"He who hasteneth with the legs after it goeth astray."_ +3. Perverteth,+ rather "overtures," "ruins." +5. Speaketh lies,+ rather _"whose breath is lies."_ +6. The prince,+ rather "the noble or generous man." It seems to refer to one of rank, who is also of a benevolent disposition. _"Entreat the favour,"_ literally _"stroke the face."_ +7. He pursueth them,+ &c. This clause is variously rendered. Zöckler reads, _"He seeketh words_ (of friendship), _and there are none;"_ Delitzsch, _"Seeking after words which are vain;"_ Miller, _"As one snatching at words, they come to stand towards him;"_ Maurer and others, _"He pursueth after_ (the fulfilment of the) _words_ (of their past promises to him), _and these_ (promises) _are not_ (made good)." +8. Wisdom.+ Literally _heart._ +9. Speaketh lies,+ _"whose breath is lies."_ +10. Delight.+ Most commentators translate this word _"luxury."_ Miller, however, as will be seen from his comment, retains the reading of the English version. +11. Discretion,+ or _"intelligence."_ +13. Calamity.+ The word so translated is in the plural form, so as to express the continuance of the trouble. +16.+ Miller reads the verse _"He that guards the commandment guards himself; in scattering his ways he dies."_ (See his comment.) Hitzig's rendering of the last clause agrees with Miller's. +18. Let not thy soul spare for his crying.+ The translations of most expositors here differ widely from the Authorised Version. Gortius, Maurer, Delitzsch, Zöckler, etc., read, _"Let not thy soul rise to kill him," "Go not too far to kill him,"_ etc., all understanding the precept to be directed against excessive severity. Cartwright renders it "Let not thy soul spare him, _to his destruction._" +20. Latter end,+ rather _afterwards._ +22. The desire of a man,+ &c. Rather _"A man's delight_ (or glory) _is his beneficence,"_ or _A man's kindness is what makes him desirable_ or, _is a desirable adornment._ +24. In his bosom,+ rather, _in the dish._ This is of course a hyperbolic expression to set forth the inactivity of the slothful man. "Athenæus," says Fausset, "describes (ch. xii. 27) the slothful man as waiting until the roasted and seasoned thrushes fly into his mouth begging to be devoured." +27. Cease my son,+ &c. "That causeth" are not in the original and the instruction spoken of may therefore be evil or good. "Two conceptions are possible: 1. The instruction is that of wisdom itself, and therefore a good wholesome discipline that leads to life; then the words can be only ironical, presenting under the appearance of a discussion from discipline in wisdom a very urgent counsel to hear and receive it (so Ewald, Bertheau, Elster). 2. The instruction is evil and perverted, described in clause 2 as one that causes departure from the words of wisdom. Then the admonition is seriously intended" (Zöckler, in Lange's Commentary). On Zöckler's first interpretation Dr. Aiken remarks, "To call this 'irony' seems to us a misnomer. Cease to hear instruction only to despise it. What can be more direct or literally pertinent?" Delitzsch says, "The proverb is a dissuasive from hypocrisy, a warning against the self-deception of which Jas. i. 22-24 speaks, against heightening one's own condemnation, which is the case of that servant who knows his lord's will and does it not (Luke xii. 47)."

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 1.

THE BETTER PART.

+I. A reference to an unexplained mystery of human life.+ It is here implied, though it is not directly expressed, that the fool who is perverse in his lips--who sets himself in speech and action against the moral law of the universe--is not so poor a man as he who walks in integrity. (We have before had this latter character before us. See Homiletics on chap. xi. 3, page 196.) It seems as strange that power and influence should be so often given to those who know least how to put them to a good use, as it would be to see a parent put a knife into the hand of a child who is incapable of using it, yet it is a sight which meets us on every hand, and a mystery which has presented itself to the minds of thinking men in all ages. Solomon had met with such instances in his day--he had seen the godly and upright walking in the shade and treading the bye-paths of life, while the perverse and foolish man was basking in the sunlight of worldly prosperity in the highways of society.

+II. An assertion, that, notwithstanding contrary appearances, the better portion is with the better man.+ It is not, after all, what a man's portion is, but how he uses it, that makes his life a blessing or a curse. A man who walks in integrity makes the righteous law of his God the rule of his life, and this keeping of the Divine commandments brings with it a reward (Psa. xix. 11) of which the rebellious fool knows nothing. He knows how to use his more limited opportunities and influence to the best advantage--how to put out his small capital so as to obtain the best interest upon it--how to trade with his five talents so as to make them other five, and so he is daily laying up a treasure which is better than all the fame and wealth that belongs to this world, for it is the riches of a righteous character by which he is raised himself to a higher spiritual level, and by which he is able to make the world better than he found it.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Integrity is itself a life, and a whole enjoyment, and better, therefore, than worldly interests which are nothing of the kind. Walking is an eastern figure, and we have failed to substitute it by a western one. A _way_ in the East means a man's total course. _Walking,_ therefore, means his total life or being. _Better is a poor man, etc.,_ refers, therefore, to a man not living in his money, nor indeed, in his horses or in his hounds, not _living in_ his integrity, but _walking_ in it, _i.e.,_ spending his whole time in it, staying in that way; of course, taking his pleasure in it (see verse 22). We have before seen that _speech_ means _whole conduct._ The mouth, in those days, was the great implement of action. It is so still. The commonest labourer bargains out and orders out half his living by his mouth. "Perverse" or "crooked" in speech means speaking (_i.e._ acting) athwart of what we ourselves know in many

## particulars; first, athwart all moral truth; second, athwart deep

personal conviction; third, athwart all personal interest (as our text implies). A Christian talks straight, because he speaks (acts) coincidentally with all of these. A sinner is crooked of lip, because he says what he does not think, and traverses for his lusts all the best principles of his moral nature.--_Miller._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES_ 2 _and_ 3.

IGNORANCE LEADING TO SIN.

+I. The soul of man cannot be absolutely without knowledge.+ There is some knowledge which comes to the soul without any effort on the part of the man, which he has but to live to acquire, just as he has but to open his eyes to see. He is conscious of his own existence--of his personal identity as apart from all the beings and things by which he is surrounded, and of his capability of suffering and enjoyment, of hope and despair. And because of the light within him he cannot be altogether ignorant of the difference between right and wrong, between truth and falsehood. But his necessary knowledge extends to beings and things outside of himself. He knows without any effort much about the men and things which surround him, and the visible things of creation make it impossible that he should be altogether ignorant of the existence of the invisible God and Creator. So the apostle argues in Rom. i. 20.

+II. There is a knowledge which it is good to be without.+ There is a knowledge which human nature in its original dignity and sinlessness did not possess, the absence of this experimental knowledge was an essential element of its blessedness. The ignorance of evil was a blessed ignorance in which man's Creator would have kept him but for his own wilfulness, and the knowledge of which brought him misery. It is the blessedness of the unfallen spirits who have kept their first estate, that although they are conscious of the existence of evil in the universe, they have no experimental knowledge of it, and this ignorance constitutes the blessedness of the ever-blessed God Himself. Those sons of men who, because they are, and ever have been, in perfect health, know nothing experimentally of bodily pain or weakness, find it very good to be without this knowledge, and how much more good it is to be without a knowledge of soul disease and spiritual suffering.

+III. But there is an acquired knowledge which is indispensable to a man's well-being.+ Intellectual knowledge of some kind is necessary to prevent a man from being a shame to himself and a cumberer of the land. The well-being of the community depends upon one man's knowing some one thing that another man does not know; no man can know all things or even many things; no man, however great his knowledge, has enough of it to make him independent of the knowledge of others, but every man ought to have such a thorough knowledge of some facts and truths as to enable him to minister first to some of his own daily needs and to contribute something to the well-being of his fellow creatures. Some men must have theoretical knowledge, and others must know how to reduce theories to practice--the knowledge of the one is useless without the knowledge of the other. It behoves some men to investigate the history of the past, and to use this knowledge they so acquire for the good of the present generation, but while they are doing this it is indispensable that others should acquire a knowledge of things as they are at present, and should utilise their knowledge for the attainment of other ends which are quite as good. But intellectual knowledge of some kind is also necessary for the well-being of the mind itself. Man's mind can no more feed upon itself and be healthy than his body can feed upon itself and live. As the body needs to receive matter into itself to nourish and sustain it, so the mind needs to receive ideas upon which to feed and by which to grow. Without such a reception the intellectual part of a man remains undeveloped, and he is very far from the creature, intellectually considered, that God intended him to be. But there is a kind of knowledge even more needful for man to possess than that which will merely enlarge his mind or promote his temporal well-being. If his existence is to be really blest he must know things which relate to his spiritual well-being--he must be acquainted with the will of God concerning him, both in relation to the life that now is and to that which is to come. It is a calamity to be ignorant of things which fit a man to make the best of the present life, but it is a far greater calamity to be without that knowledge which fits a man for a blessed life beyond death. No man who possesses the revealed Word of God in the Scriptures need be without this most blessed and indispensable knowledge--everyone who thirsts for it may drink of this living water, and every hungry soul may eat of this bread and learn what are the thoughts of God concerning him, and what are the Divine purposes concerning his present and his future (Isa. lv. 1-7). And to be without this knowledge is indeed "not good," for it prevents the soul from recovering its lost and original dignity. A knowledge of the glorious God in the face of Jesus Christ is the means by which we are delivered from the penalty and power of sin, and more than recover the position lost by man's fall. Ignorance here is indeed a fatal ignorance in those who have the knowledge within their reach; it is not good for any human soul to be without this knowledge, and it is most soul-destroying to those who have only to seek it in order to find it.

+IV. Some of the evil consequences which flow from ignorance in general and from ignorance of God in particular.+ 1. _Ignorance leads to hasty action, and consequently often to wrong action._ For, "he that hasteth with his feet sinneth," and "the foolishness of man perverteth his way." In common and every-day life we find that the most ignorant people are the least cautious, and act with the least reflection. Knowledge teaches men to think before they act, for it makes men more alive to the importance of their actions. A child will play with gunpowder with as little hesitation as he would with common dust, but a man would not do so, because he knows what would be the consequences if it ignited. A man who has never been in a coalmine, and who was ignorant of the dangers of fire-damp, would be very likely to descend the shaft and enter hastily into the gloomy passages without first testing the state of the air, but a miner would not do so, because he knows more about the matter. He would advance cautiously, and ascertain what was before him before he ventured far. So people who are ignorant of the mind and will of God as revealed in His Word act without much thought as to the consequences of their actions--they enter upon a road at the impulse of a passing fancy, without asking themselves whither it leads--they decide upon a certain course of action without thought of the consequence. And such a hasting with the feet is always a perversion of a man's way, a wandering from the right path, for a fallen man does not forsake the evil and choose the good by instinct but by effort founded upon reflection. 2. _Spiritual ignorance leads to rebellion against God._ It is only a man who does not know God, who "frets against the Lord." A child because he is ignorant of his father's motives will fret against the wise and kind restrictions which the father places around him. So men wilfully ignorant that whenever God says "Thou shalt not" He is only saying "Do thyself no harm," chafe and fret against His moral laws. They will not set themselves to obtain that knowledge of God which the Gospel reveals and consequently they look at all His commands through a cloud of ignorance which makes them grievous and heavy instead of easy and light. And there are many mysteries connected with God's government that will tend to make men's hearts fretful and discontented if they remain in ignorance of His character. There are many problems in connection with man's present life which he cannot solve--many apparent contradictions, and much which looks like injustice on the part of Him who rules the world, and every soul who does not know God as He is revealed in His Son will, when he thinks on these things, is likely to be led to harbour rebellious thoughts against Him. When we consider the evil which flows from ignorance of God we can better understand how it is that "the knowledge of the Lord" is so often used in Scripture as synonymous with all that can bless and elevate mankind (see Isa. xi. 9, etc.).

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

We should desire first the enlightening of the eyes and then the strengthening of the feet. Hence "Make me to understand the way of Thy precepts," and then, "I will run the way of Thy commandments" (Psa. cxix. 27, 32). He that would sail safely must get a good pilot before good rowers. Swift horses, without a skilful waggoner, endangers more. He that labours for feet before he has eyes, takes a preposterous course; for, of the two the lame is more likely to come to his journey's end than the blind. . . . Hence we see that there is more hope of a vicious person that hath a good understanding, than of an utterly dark and blind soul, though he walks upon zealous feet. . . . _Learn to know God._ "How shall we believe on Him we have not known?" (Rom. x. 14). Knowledge is not so much slighted here, as it will be wished hereafter. The rich man in hell desires to have his brethren taught (Luke xvi. 28). Sure if he were alive again, he would hire them a preacher. "The people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea iv. 6). If we see a proper man cast away at the sessions for a _non legit,_ with pity we conclude he might have been saved, if he could have read. At that general and last assizes, when Christ shall "come in flaming fire," woe be to them that "know not God" (2 Thess. i. 8). For "He will pour out His fury upon the heathen, that know Him not, and upon the families that call not on His name" (Jer. x. 25). . . . In Prov. ix. 18, the new guest at the fatal banquet is described by his ignorance. "He knoweth not" what company is in the house, "that the dead are there." It is the devil's policy, when he would rob and ransack the house of our conscience, like a thief to put out the candle of our knowledge; that we might neither discern his purposes, nor decline his mischiefs. . . . Indeed ignorance may make a sin a less sin, but not no sin. "I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief," says the apostle (1 Tim. i. 13). The sins of them that know are more heinous than the sins of them that know not. But if thou hadst no other sin, thy ignorance is enough to condemn thee, for thou art bound to know. They that will not know the Lord, the Lord will not know them.--_T. Adams._

The most innocent of all faults might seem ignorance. The only sin (when philosophically stated) is ignorance. The "chains" that confine the lost (2 Pet. ii. 4) are "darkness." The charge that overtakes the saved is light (2 Cor. iv. 6). The graces that adorn the Christian all flow from a new intelligence. Our text is literally exact. If the man "has no knowledge," and that of a deep spiritual sort, his "life is no good;" that is, it possesses none, and is itself a horrid evil. And yet the concluding clause largely relieves the difficulty. The man, knowing there was something wrong, ought to pause, and grope about for the light, just as all would in a dark cavern. Instead of that he rushes darkly on. Here, the inspired finger is put upon the precise mistake. We are warned that we are in blindness. Why not hesitate, then, and cast about us? We push on, knowing we are in the dark. This is the photograph of the impenitent. . . . And yet, the wise man says, he ignores this point of wilfulness, and in his heart is angry with the Almighty. He "perverteth," or _subverteth_ "his way," that is, totally _upsets_ and ruins, so that it is no way at all. Nothing could describe more truly the sinner's path, because it does not reach even the ends that he himself relied on. Death arrives, too, to wreck it totally. And though he has resisted the most winning arts to draw him unto Christ, yet, at each sad defeat, "his heart is angry against Jehovah."--_Miller._

Verse 2. Haste, as opposed to sloth, is the energy of Divine grace (Psa. cxix. 60; Luke xix. 6). Here, as opposed to consideration, _acting hastily_ is sin. This impatience is the genuine exercise of self-will, not taking time to inquire; not "waiting for the counsel of the Lord." Godly Joshua offended here (Josh. ix. 14, 15). Saul's impatience cost him his kingdom (1 Sam. xiii. 12). David's _haste_ was the occasion of gross injustice (2 Sam. xvi. 3, 4).--_Bridges._

_Religion a sentiment and a science._ I know of no attack on Christianity more artfully made than that which is attempted when a distinction is attempted to be drawn between religion and theology. . . . Let us see what the value of religion is, when it is separated from theology. We are told that religion is a sentiment, a temper, a state of mind. Theology is a science, a pursuit, a study . . . and it is asserted and insinuated that it may be well with the soul, although it be destitute of spiritual knowledge. . . . But we, who are called Christians, by the very name we bear, imply that more than devotional sentiment is necessary to make a religious man. . . . You must accept Jesus as the only Saviour if you would escape perdition, and how can you accept Him unless you know Him? Nay, further, how can you accept Him unless you know yourself? . . . There are many other things which we ought to know and believe, to our soul's health and comfort; but . . . the soul that is without knowledge of this, the great Christian scheme, the Divine plan of salvation, is only nominally and by courtesy a Christian soul. . . . Except as hearing upon these truths, the religious sentiment is a luxury and nothing more. . . . It is not the theoretical _distinction_ between the sentiment and the science that we censure, but their separation and divorce.--_Dean Hook._

Verse 3. Such was _the foolishness_ of Adam! First he _perverted his way;_ then he charged upon God its bitter fruit. "God, making him upright," made him happy. Had he been ruled by his will, he would have continued so. But, "seeking out his own inventions" (Eccles. vii. 29), he made himself miserable. As the author of his own misery, it was reasonable that he should fret against himself, but such was his pride and baseness, that _his heart fretted against the Lord,_ as if He, and not himself, was responsible (Gen. iii. 6-12). This his first-born, when his own sin had brought "punishment" on him, _fretted,_ as if "it were greater than he could bear" (Ib. iv. 8-13). This has been _the foolishness_ of Adam's children ever since God has linked together moral and penal evil, sin and sorrow. The fool rushes into the sin and most unreasonably _frets_ for the sorrow; as if he could "gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles" (Matt. vii. 16). He charges his crosses, not on his own perverseness, but on the injustice of God (Ezek. xviii. 25). But God is clear from all the blame (James i. 13, 14): He had shown the better; man chooses the worse. He had warned by His Word and by conscience. Man, deaf to the warning, plunges into the misery; and, while "eating the fruit of his own ways," _his heart frets against the Lord._ "It is hard to have passions, and to be punished for indulging them. I could not help it. Why did He not give me grace to avoid it?" (See Jer. vii. 10). Such is the pride and blasphemy of an unhumbled spirit. The malefactor blames the judge for his righteous sentence (Isa. viii. 21, 22; Rev. xvi. 9-11, 21).--_Bridges._

This was the case in Greece as well as in Judea; for Homer observed that "men lay those evils upon the gods, which they have incurred through their own folly and perverseness.". . . This is often the case with regard--1. _To men's health._ By intemperance . . . indolence . . . or too close application to business . . . or unruly passions, they injure their frame . . . and then censure the providence of God. 2. _To their circumstances in life._ . . . Men complain that providence frowns on them . . . when they have chosen a wrong profession, despising the advice of others . . . or when they have brought themselves into straits by their own negligence. 3. _To their relations in life._ They complain of being unequally yoked . . . when they chose by the sight of the eye, or the vanity and lusts of the heart. . . . They complain that their children are undutiful . . . when they have neglected their government. 4. _To their religious concerns._ They complain that they want inward peace when . . . they neglect the appointed means of grace . . . and that God giveth Satan power over them when by neglect they tempt the tempter.--_Job Orton._

For Homiletics on the main thought of verse 4 see on