Wisdom is that which is gotten by experience, understanding that which is gotten by study, counsel that which is gotten by advice . . . but let all be put in the scales against the Lord, they are but the dust of the balance unto Him. . . . For if wisdom be gotten by experience, He is the Ancient of days; He was ancient when days began. If understanding come by study, He hath all understanding of Himself at once. . . . And the whole world is His common council, and that not to give at all, but to receive counsel from Him.—Jermin.
CHAPTER XXII.
Critical Notes.—1. A good name. Literally “a name.” Loving favour, or “grace,” “goodwill.” 3. Are punished, rather “must suffer injury.” 4. By humility, rather “The end or reward of humility,” etc. Delitzsch reads “The reward of humility is the fear of the Lord,” etc. 5. Shall be, etc. or Let him keep, etc. 6. Train up a child, etc. Miller reads “Hedge in a child upon the mouth of his way;” Delitzsch, “Give to a child instruction according to his way,” i.e., conformably to the nature of youth. 8. The rod of his anger, or as Zöckler, the ”staff of his haughtiness.” 16. Zöckler reads this verse “One oppresseth the poor only to make him rich,” i.e., “the oppression which one practises on a poor man rouses his moral energy, and thus, by means of his tireless industry and his productive labour in his vocation, he works himself out of needy circumstances into actual prosperity.”
Here begins the third main division of the book of Proverbs. (See [Introduction].) Its contents are styled in verse 17 “The words of wise men,” and they differ from the second division in consisting for the most part of much longer sentences, comprising, as a general rule, two verses, but sometimes many more. Zöckler remarks that “there is prevalent everywhere the minutely hortatory, or, in turn, admonitory style, rather than that which is descriptive and announces facts.” Delitzsch and other modern Bible students infer from verse 17 that this portion of the book contains “no inconsiderable number of utterances of wise men of Solomon’s time.“ (See Introduction to the Book of Proverbs, Lange’s Commentary.)
21. Them that send unto thee, rather “them that send thee.” “The senders here,” says Zöckler, “are naturally the parents, who have sent their son to the teacher of wisdom, that he may bring back thence to them real culture of spirit and heart.” 29. Diligent, rather “expert,” “apt.”
Additional [Critical Notes] for Chapter 22 (after verse 16).
main homiletics of verse 1.
Better Than Gold.
The second clause of the proverb explains the meaning of the name in the first clause—it is evidently a good reputation that is gained by uprightness and unselfishness—that loving esteem of others which is the fruit of “looking not only upon their own things, but also upon the things of others” (Phil. ii. 4). Such a name is better than wealth.