22 The blessing of Jehovah, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow to it.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust; from the dung-hill he lifteth up the needy, To set [him] among nobles, among the nobles of his people.
Shall not all these take up a proverb about him, and a taunting riddle against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? -- and to him that loadeth himself with pledges! Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and they awake up that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them? Because thou hast plundered many nations, all the rest of the peoples shall plunder thee; because of men's blood, and for the violence [done] to the land, to the city, and all that dwell therein. Woe to him that getteth iniquitous gain to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the grasp of evil! Thou hast devised shame to thy house, by cutting off many peoples, and hast sinned against thine own soul. For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by unrighteousness!
Go to now, ye rich, weep, howling over your miseries that [are] coming upon [you]. Your wealth is become rotten, and your garments moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is eaten away, and their canker shall be for a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have heaped up treasure in [the] last days. Behold, the wages of your labourers, who have harvested your fields, wrongfully kept back by you, cry, and the cries of those that have reaped are entered into the ears of [the] Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived luxuriously on the earth and indulged yourselves; ye have nourished your hearts [as] in a day of slaughter;
For what is the hope of the ungodly, when [God] cutteth him off, when +God taketh away his soul? Will ùGod hear his cry when distress cometh upon him? Doth he delight himself in the Almighty? will he at all times call upon +God? I will teach you concerning the hand of ùGod; what is with the Almighty will I not conceal. Behold, ye yourselves have all seen [it]; and why are ye thus altogether vain? This is the portion of the wicked man with ùGod, and the heritage of the violent, which they receive from the Almighty: -- If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword, and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread; Those that remain of him shall be buried by death, and his widows shall not weep. Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay; He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on; and the innocent shall divide the silver. He buildeth his house as the moth, and as a booth that a keeper maketh. He lieth down rich, but will do so no more; he openeth his eyes, and he is not. Terrors overtake him like waters; a whirlwind stealeth him away in the night. The east wind carrieth him away and he is gone; and as a storm it hurleth him out of his place. And [God] shall cast upon him and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand. [Men] shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.
And he said to him, Did not my heart go, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and bondmen, and bondwomen? But the leprosy of Naaman shall fasten upon thee, and upon thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence leprous, as snow.
Jehovah maketh poor, and maketh rich, he bringeth low, also he lifteth up: He raiseth up the poor out of the dust; from the dung-hill he lifteth up the needy, To set [him] among nobles; and he maketh them inherit a throne of glory; For the pillars of the earth are Jehovah's, and he hath set the world upon them.
But the children of Israel committed unfaithfulness in that which had been brought under the curse: Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing; and the anger of Jehovah was kindled against the children of Israel. And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, Go up and spy out the country. And the men went up and spied out Ai. And they returned to Joshua, and said to him, Let not all the people go up; let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; make not all the people to toil thither, for they are few. And there went up thither of the people about three thousand men, but they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty-six men; and they pursued them from before the gate to Shebarim, and smote them on the descent. Then the hearts of the people melted, and became as water. And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of Jehovah until the evening, he and the elders of Israel, and threw dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, Lord Jehovah, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over the Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh that we had been content and had remained beyond the Jordan! Ah Lord! what shall I say after Israel have turned their backs before their enemies? When the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear [of it], they will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. And what wilt thou do unto thy great name? And Jehovah said to Joshua, Rise up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them, and they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it among their stuff. And the children of Israel shall not be able to stand before their enemies: they shall turn their backs before their enemies, for they have made themselves accursed. I will no more be with you, except ye destroy the accursed thing from your midst. Rise up, hallow the people, and say, Hallow yourselves for to-morrow; for thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, Israel: thou shalt not be able to stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from your midst. And ye shall be brought near in the morning according to your tribes; and it shall be, that the tribe which Jehovah taketh shall come forward by families, and the family which Jehovah taketh shall come forward by households; and the household which Jehovah taketh shall come forward man by man. And it shall be, that he who is taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he hath, because he hath transgressed the covenant of Jehovah, and because he hath wrought wickedness in Israel. And Joshua rose early in the morning, and caused Israel to come forward by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. And he caused the families of Judah to come forward, and he took the family of the Zarhites. And he caused the family of the Zarhites to come forward man by man, and Zabdi was taken. And he caused his household to come forward man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken. And Joshua said to Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to Jehovah the God of Israel, and make confession to him: tell me now what thou hast done, keep it not back from me. And Achan answered Joshua and said, Indeed I have sinned against Jehovah the God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. I saw among the spoils a beautiful mantle of Shinar, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a golden bar of fifty shekels weight, and I coveted them and took them; and behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it. And Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it. And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before Jehovah. Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the mantle, and the bar of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them up into the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, How hast thou troubled us! Jehovah will trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire, and stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones, [which is there] to this day. And Jehovah turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore the name of that place was called, The Valley of Achor, to this day.
-- and thou say in thy heart, My power and the might of my hand has procured me this wealth. But thou shalt remember Jehovah thy God, that it is he who giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swore unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Proverbs 10
Commentary on Proverbs 10 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 10
Hitherto we have been in the porch or preface to the proverbs, here they begin. They are short but weighty sentences; most of them are distichs, two sentences in one verse, illustrating each other; but it is seldom that there is any coherence between the verses, much less any thread of discourse, and therefore in these chapters we need not attempt to reduce the contents to their proper heads, the several sentences will appear best in their own places. The scope of them all is to set before us good and evil, the blessing and the curse. Many of the proverbs in this chapter relate to the good government of the tongue, without which men's religion is vain.
Pro 10:1
Solomon, speaking to us as unto children, observes here how much the comfort of parents, natural, political, and ecclesiastical, depends upon the good behaviour of those under their charge, as a reason,
Pro 10:2-3
These two verses speak to the same purport, and the latter may be the reason of the former.
Pro 10:4
We are here told,
Pro 10:5
Here is,
Pro 10:6
Here is,
Pro 10:7
Both the just and the wicked, when their days are fulfilled, must die. Between their bodies in the grave thee is no visible difference; between the souls of the one and the other, in the world of spirits, thee is a vast difference, and so there is, or ought to be, between their memories, which survive them.
Pro 10:8
Here is,
Pro 10:9
We are here told, and we may depend upon it,
Pro 10:10
Mischief is here said to attend,
Pro 10:11
See here,
Pro 10:12
Here is,
Pro 10:13
Observe,
Pro 10:14
Observe,
Pro 10:15
This may be taken two ways:-
Pro 10:16
Solomon here confirms what his father had said (Ps. 37:16), A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked.
Pro 10:17
See here,
Pro 10:18
Observe here, Malice is folly and wickedness.
Pro 10:19
We are here admonished concerning the government of the tongue, that necessary duty of a Christian.
Pro 10:20-21
We are here taught how to value men, not by their wealth and preferment in the world, but by their virtue.
Pro 10:22
Worldly wealth is that which most men have their hearts very much upon, but they generally mistake both in the nature of the thing they desire and in the way by which they hope to obtain it; we are therefore told here,
Pro 10:23
Here is,
Pro 10:24-25
It is here said, and said again, to the righteous, that it shall be well with them, and to the wicked, Woe to them; and these are set the one over against the other, for their mutual illustration.
Pro 10:26
Observe,
Pro 10:27-28
Observe,
Pro 10:29-30
These two verses are to the same purport with those next before, intimating the happiness of the godly and the misery of the wicked; it is necessary that this be inculcated upon us, so loth are we to believe and consider it.
Pro 10:31-32
Here, as before, men are judged of, and, accordingly, are justified or condemned, by their words, Mt. 12:37.