God has made this Book of Proverbs a wonderful guide for the young believer, and the old believer too, on the pathway of life.
In connection with verse 1, turn to Luke 12:16-21, where we find a contented farmer boasting to himself of tomorrow, a morrow that did not dawn for him. When the sun rose the next day he was gone where time is not reckoned. How solemn, and how unexpected, that call to another world for which he had not made preparation!
Luke 17:28-29 also gives a picture of some to whom "tomorrow" meant just another day like today. The people of Sodom bought, sold, planted and builded, counting on many tomorrows; but the dawn of the day when Lot went out of Sodom was shortly followed by unsparing, devouring judgment, and they and all that they labored for disappeared in it.
James 4:13-16 addresses a word about "tomorrow" to believers.
Verse 2 is a companion passage to verse 1. Boasting of tomorrow is often linked with self-confidence and self-praise. (Compare 2 Cor. 10:17, 18; Galatians 6:3; Luke 14:11).
In verses 3 and 4 four of the fruits of man's corrupt nature, as it was then and is yet, are brought together:—the heavy vexation of a fool, cruel fury, outrageous anger, and jealousy. Centuries have rolled by; empires have risen, flourished and decayed; fashions have changed; education has increased, etc., etc., but man at heart is still a slave of Satan and of his own lusts as he has been ever since the fall (Genesis 3; Romans 1:18-32). In amazing condescension God has come down to man who has no strength to help himself. (See Romans 5:6; John 3:14-16).
Verses 5 and 6 go together; open rebuke is better than hidden love; faithful are the wounds of one who loves, but the kisses of an enemy are profuse.
"Whom the Lord loves He chastens: and scourges every son whom He receives." Hebrews 12:6. His is perfect love. See Matt. 16:23; Mark 16:14; Luke 24:25; John 14:9 for instances of the Lord's correcting those He loved, faithfully but in tender love.
We bless God for His active love for us, and when in eternity we review each his own path here below, we shall understand better than we have here, how there was love behind each trial, connected with each sorrow. Let us beware lest we murmur or rebel against the circumstances, sometimes hard to understand, which befall us, remembering that
"A Father's heart will never cause His child a needless tear."
Verse 12 repeats the important warning given in chapter 22:3.
Verse 13 is another reminder that one should not become surety for a stranger.
Verse 16 may be read, "Whosoever will restrain her, restraineth the wind and his right hand encountereth oil."
"Hell" in verse 20 is a mistranslation, and should be read "Sheol," corresponding to the Greek word "Hades" in the New Testament, which has also been mistakenly translated "hell," but refers to the unseen state in which the dead are. (See Luke 16:23; Psalm 16:10; Revelation 1:18, and 20:13, none of which refer to the place of eternal punishment called the lake of fire in Revelation 19:20 and 20:10, 14, 15). All who have died in faith are with Christ (see Philippians 1:21-23).
"Destruction" in verse 20 of our chapter is not annihilation, and never means that in the Scriptures; here it appears to refer to the body as coming to decay when death occurs.
Verse 21, closing part, should be read "so let a man be to the mouth that praiseth him." The silver must be tried in the fining pot and the gold in the furnace until at length the dross and everything worthless is purged away. (See John 15:2.) It is that which cheers and encourages the tried saint of God.