Simon Patrick on the Proverbs
1683
1. “The Proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;”
This Book contains some notable and very useful sayings of that wise Prince, King Solomon, the son of that devout Prince, King David: by whose special appointment he succeeded him in the government of God's peculiar people Israel, for which (according to David's prayer in Psa. 72, and 1 Kings 3:9) God endued him with an extraordinary degree of understanding.
2. "To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;”
The scope of them is to make a man know what it is to be truly wise, and instruct him how to avoid those errors which men are apt to fall into, or to correct them if he hath been misled and run into them, and to make him understand when good advice is given him, nay, to be able to give it unto others.
3. "To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;”
For they will furnish him with the most excellent notions, and make him capable to understand things of highest concernment: both how to be just and good in all private transactions, and in public trusts and offices, to judge and act according to right and equity, and every other way, to be upright and exactly virtuous.
4. "To give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.”
The most unskillful and incautious persons, may here learn to be circumspect and wary, and they who are childish and inconsiderate get so much knowledge, as to behave themselves with prudence and discretion.
5. "A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:”
As for him that is wise already, he will not lose his labor in reading this Book, which will make him still wiser. And indeed it is principally designed for the improvement of him that is so wise, as to be willing to learn more: who shall both gain a clearer knowledge of what he understands, and also make such additions, that he shall be fit to be a counselor to kings, and govern the affairs of State in the greatest kingdoms.
6. "To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.”
He shall comprehend the most useful maxims, and be able to express them also with the greatest elegance: the weightiest sayings of wise men shall be easy to him, and their most abstruse notions shall not be hidden from him.
7. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
In the first place then, let all, both simple and wise, look upon an awful [reverent] sense of God, a devout affection to Him, and fear to offend Him as the chiefest point, and the very foundation of all wisdom, without which men are but fools, and having no regard to their Creator, will despise the wisest instructions that I can give them.
8. “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:”
Next to God let me advise thee, my son (or whoever thou art that comest to learn of me in this Book) to reverence thy parents. And not only to hearken unto thy father, when he teaches thee to fear God, or tells thee that thou dost amiss, but to let thy mother's commands be a law to thee, especially when she bids thee observe the directions of thy tutors and public instructors, unto whom she commits thee.
9. "For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.”
But value their counsels more than the fairest ornaments thy parents can put upon thy head, or the most precious chains wherewith they can adorn thy neck: for they shall add a far greater grace unto thee, and make thee more acceptable both with God, and with all worthy men.
10. “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.”
There will be those who will make it their business to seduce thee from obedience, but remember, my son, that none can love thee so well as they, and therefore if lewd persons (who have no respect to God, or to their pious parents and instructors) persuade thee to bear them company, by no means yield to their greatest importunities, but flee their society.
11. "If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:”
They may represent perhaps what advantage it will be to thee, to join with them in the breach of the very next commandment, to that of honoring thy father and thy mother, saying, Come along with us to our lurking places, where nobody can see us, and from thence set upon a wealthy traveler, who is to go that way, and take away his life; what though he be innocent, we shall the more easily dispatch him, when he suspects no danger and hath given us no provocation.
12. "Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:”
And though he should have many servants or companions with him to defend him, let not that affright thee, for (they say) we are enough of us to kill them all with ease and in a moment, or to strangle them and bury them alive: so that none shall escape to tell any tales; nor shall they make any noise; nay, it shall not be known what is become of them.
13. "We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:”
The booty shall be great (they say), for we are sure to find vast treasures, and all manner of precious things: enough to enrich us all, and furnish our houses bravely; that we may live splendidly all our days.
14. "Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:”
Come in for a share of it, and thou shalt have as much of it as we, who have been longer at the trade, for we live like friends, among whom all things are common; there is but one purse among us all, in which everyone hath an equal interest.
15. "My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:”
But, my son (or whoever thou art that wilt learn of me) let them not prevail with thee, to go along with them, or to betake thy self to such a course of life, but if thou findest an inclination to it, stop it immediately, and stir not one step in their company, or after their example.
16. "For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.”
For it is not one single murder (or robbery) in which they will engage thee (though the guilt of that is too horrid to venture upon), but they will be always hurrying thee to some new mischief or other, and as soon as one mischief is over, they will be ready for, and make haste to commit another.
17. "Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.”
Flee from their society therefore, now that I have given thee this warning, and be not so foolish and incautious as the silly birds, who use to run into the snare or the net, which they see the fowler lay before their eyes (Ch. 7:23).
18. "And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.”
For as he doth not lay his net in vain, but they are caught therein, so assure thy self these men are setting a trap for themselves, when they lie in wait to take away the lives of others: for they shall not always escape the hand of justice, but at last be taken and suffer, either by a special vengeance of God, or by His ministers, what they have deserved.
19. "So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof”
Such is the fate of him that greedily endeavors to enrich himself by such wicked means. As the bird enticed by a little chass falls into a snare, which it doth not perceive; so he on a sudden loses his life, to satisfy a vain desire of worldly pelf [riches], which then he cannot enjoy.