Verse 35. They shall be promoted, indeed, but their exaltation shall be like that of Haman, who was exalted when he was hung upon a gallows fifty cubits high.—Lawson.
This last contrast carries us forward to the coming day when all shall “discern” in the full delight of eternity (Mal. iii. 18). The wise—the heirs of glory—are identified with the lowly (verse 34)—the heirs of grace. Self-knowledge—the principle of lowliness—is the very substance of wisdom. Their inheritance also is one—grace and glory (Psa. lxxxiv. 11). For what higher glory can there be than the grace which hath redeemed a worm of the earth and made him a king and priest unto God?—Bridges.
Humility is both a grace and a vessel to receive grace.—Trapp.
CHAPTER IV.
Critical Notes.—2. Doctrine, Literally something received, handed over; the author so describes it because he received it from his father. The Septuagint and the Vulgate translate by donum, “a gift.” 3. Tender and only, “dearly-beloved”—not that Solomon was Bathsheba’s only son (1 Chron. iii. 5). 5. Get, Heb. “acquire or buy”—spare no cost. The repetition of the verb makes the injunction more imperative. Forget is a word in Hebrew that takes the preposition from. In the idea of forgetting there is naturally involved that of turning aside or away from the object to be remembered. 6. Miller translates the last clause: “Love her, and she shall stand sentry over thee.” 7. The first clause of this verse contains only four words, viz.: Beginning, or “principal thing;” Wisdom; get wisdom. Its terseness has led to various translations. Hitzig and others read: “The highest thing is wisdom.” Miller translates: “As the height of wisdom, get wisdom.” Delitzsch—The beginning of wisdom is: “Get wisdom.” With, not to be taken in the sense of “in connection with,” but “by means of,” or “at the price of.” 8. Exalt or “esteem.” 9. Last clause, or “she shall compass thee with a crown of glory.” 10. As is all other instances (see Notes on Chap. [iii. 2]), Miller translates the promise: “And they shall grow greater to thee through years of life.” 14. Go not. The Heb. is literally “to go straightforward;” also, “to pronounce happy.” 15. Avoid, “Let it go,” “reject it.” Turn from it, i.e., even if thou hast entered, turn back. 16. Miller here reads: “For the mere reason that they sleep not, rest assured they do mischief; and that their sleep is stolen, rest assured they occasion stumbling:” and understands it to mean that the more sleepless the industrious impenitent, the faster he is carrying everything to eternal ruin. But all other commentators of importance read as in the English version. 18. Shining light, Lit. “the light of dawn that grows and brightens even to the establishment of the day.” 19. Darkness, “thick darkness,” the gloom of midnight. 22. Health, or “healing.” 23. “Above all other watching, keep thy heart,” some read: “Keep thy heart with all (kinds of) keeping.” Issues—“currents,” “outgoings.” 24. Froward mouth, Lit., “distortion,” “crookedness.” 26. Ponder, “make level, or straight.”
Note on Verse 20.—There is an aspect of sameness in these beginnings. But they are beginnings. One of the characteristics of Scripture is a division, like Childe Harold into cantos, or separate sonnets. They are most conspicuous in the prophet Isaiah; and, like grapes upon a bunch, each wrapped in its individual rind, but all clustered on a common stem. If we ventured a conjecture, it would be that this suited the Israelitish worship. The synagogue would take one of these cantos and use it for the day. They were of irregular length, but that would allow variety. They have some repetitions, but so have missals and breviaries, that allow of choice on different occasions. There was an aim to provide most of the points for recitation on each occasion. What for one reading would seem very same, for many readings would seem wonderfully diversified.—Miller.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses 1–4.
The Reciprocal Duties of Parents and Children.
I. Parental Duty. “He taught me.” Solomon, and all children, have many claims upon their parents to receive from them instruction in the revelation of God. 1. Parents are responsible for the existence of their children. They are the instrumental cause of their child’s being in the world, and his being in that state of probation upon which hang such “infinite possibilities.” 2. The child is so absolutely ignorant of the life into which he comes. Unavoidable ignorance has always a claim upon knowledge, and the claim is assuredly increased in proportion as those who know and those who do not know are related to each other by a divinely constituted bond. “I am a stranger in the earth” is the claim which every child puts in as a reason why he should be instructed and taught in a way which he should go. “Hide not God’s commandments from me” is the appeal which the child’s ignorance makes to those who have had some experience in the world. 3. Children claim instruction because of their future relationship to others. The neglect of a child’s education is a sin against more than himself. He will come, in his turn, to influence others. Upon his character will depend, in a great degree, the characters and eternal destinies of many in generations yet to come. 4. Children have a claim upon their parents because they belong to God. If a proprietor of land hands over to the cultivator a piece of virgin soil, he does not relinquish his own claim thereby—he demands that his property shall be restored to him increased in value by being brought under cultivation. The child is given to its parent by God in its undeveloped moral condition, but God retains His own inheritance in the gift. He looks for nurture, for cultivation; He demands from the parent such a fulfilment of parental duties as will ensure to Him that His gift shall grow of more and more worth in the moral universe. A day of reckoning on this matter will assuredly come. Solomon recognises the claim which children have upon their parents by recording his own parents’ conduct in relation to himself and by giving us an example of his own method of instructing his children.