Proverbios 12:12 Comentario

We are here taught to try whether we have grace or no by enquiring how we stand affected to the means of grace. 1. Those that have grace and love it will delight in all the instructions that are given them by way of counsel; admonition, or reproof, by the word or providence of God; they will value a good education, and think it not a hardship, but a happiness, to be under a strict and prudent discipline. Those that love a faithful ministry, that value it, and sit under it with pleasure, make it to appear that they love knowledge. 2. Those show themselves not only void of grace, but void of common sense, that take it as an affront to be told of their faults, and an imposition upon their liberty to be put in mind of their duty: He that hates reproof is not only foolish, but brutish, like the horse and the mule that have no understanding, or the ox that kicks against the goad. Those that desire to live in loose families and societies, where they may be under no check, that stifle the convictions of their own consciences, and count those their enemies that tell them the truth, are the brutish here meant.

See here, 1. What is the care and aim of a wicked man; he would do mischief: He desires the net of evil men. "Oh that I were but as cunning as such a man, to make a hand of those I deal with, that I had but his art of over-reaching, that I could but take my revenge on one I have spite to as effectually as he can!" He desires the strong-hold, or fortress, of evil men (so some read it), to act securely in doing mischief, that it may not turn upon him. 2. What is the care and aim of a good man: His root yields fruit, and is his strength and stability, and that is it that he desires, to do good and to be fixed and confirmed in doing good. The wicked desires only a net wherewith to fish for himself; the righteous desires to yield fruit for the benefit of others and God's glory, Rom 14:6.

Whose loveth instruction loveth knowledge,.... That loves the instruction of Wisdom, or Christ, Pro 4:13; the means of instruction, the Scriptures, which are profitable for instruction in righteousness, and are written for our learning; the Gospel, which instructs into the person, office, and grace of Christ; the ministers of the word, who are so many instructors in Christ; and even the rod of afflictions, by which men are taught their duty, and the will of God: and these are to be loved; and he that loves them clearly shows that he loves knowledge; since the means of instruction, making use of them, and getting instruction by them, are attended with labour, trouble, and difficulty; which a man would not choose, had he not a love unto and a desire after knowledge, and an increase of it; as the knowledge of God, of Christ, and of his truths. Aben Ezra inverts the words; "he that loves knowledge loves instruction;'' but the sense is much the same; but he that hateth reproof is brutish; or a "beast" (k): as the man that is willing to be instructed, in order to gain knowledge, shows himself to be a wise and understanding man; so he that hates the reproof the word of God gives, or the ministers of it, or God by them, appears to be no better than a brute, than the horse or mule that want understanding: so the man of sin hates the Scriptures, the Gospel, and the ministers of it, and the reproofs and convictions they give of his idolatry, superstition, and will worship; nor does he care that his doctrines and practices should be brought to this test, or that the people should have knowledge of them; but keeps them from them, and sets up his own infallibility as the rule of judgment; and it is one character of his followers, that they "receive not the love of the truth", Th2 2:10; and both he and they are represented by a beast, Rev 13:1; and are more brutish than any man; see Pro 5:11. (k) "instar bruti indocilis est", Michaelis.

The wicked desireth the net of evil men,.... To be master of all the wicked arts and methods evil men use to ensnare and oppress others; to get them and their substance into their hands; or "desireth the evil net", as the Targum; the evil net of antichrist, which he lays for the poor, whom he draws into it and catches them; see Psa 10:9. Jarchi understands it of "hunting" (t) and of wicked men desiring to be fed and nourished with what evil men get by hunting; compare with this Eze 13:18. Some render it the "fortress" or "strong hold" (u) of evil men, in which they fortify and secure themselves to do mischief to others, and to prevent any besieging them, so Gersom; and this is what all wicked men are desirous of; but the root of the righteous yieldeth fruit; or "shall give" (w) that; that security and protection from real evil and mischief which the wicked cannot obtain; or he, that is, God, "shall give the righteous root" (x), firmly fix them that they shall not be moved; or as we supply it, and so Aben Ezra, "yieldeth fruit", much more desirable than the net of evil men the wicked covet: righteous men are compared to trees, they are called "trees of righteousness", Isa 61:3; these have a root in the love of God, in the person of Christ, and in the grace of the Spirit, and this root yieldeth fruit; the love of God is the root and source of all good things, of all the blessings of grace, of the fruit of grace, faith, hope, and love, and of evangelical obedience; the person of Christ is the source of all spiritual blessings, of salvation and eternal life; the righteous have their being in him as a root; they are bore by him, have all their life, grace, holiness, fruitfulness, and perseverance therein, from him; and the grace of the Spirit in the heart, which is the root of the matter, the hidden man of the heart, from hence are fruits meet for faith and repentance, and good works, which are both pleasant and profitable. The Targum is, "the root of the righteous shall remain, or be established;'' see Pro 12:3. (t) "venationem", Munster, Schultens; "venatum", Tigurine version. (u) "Praesidium", Mercerus, Junius & Tremelllus, Piscator. (w) "dabit", Pagninus, Montanus, Baynus, Mercerus. (x) "Radicem justorum dabit Deus", Gejerus, Michaelis.

The desire of the impious is a monument to the worst. The impious desires to imitate preceding evildoers, and to speak of their life and deeds. Certainly, the desire of the impious is a monument to the worst, because all his desire tends, although he himself is unaware, to be enclosed with the unjust who preceded him in the prison of eternal death. However, because such people meet the end they least foresee, it says contrary about the good:

But the root of the righteous will prosper. Because the faith and charity of the elect, by which they are rooted in Christ, do not deceive them, but always growing towards perfection, they will receive more than they knew to hope for in the future.

(Pro. 12:1-28) loveth knowledge--as the fruit of instruction or training (Pro 1:2). hateth reproof-- (Pro 10:17). brutish--stupid, regardless of his own welfare (Psa 49:10; Psa 73:22).

the wicked . . . evil--They love the crafty arts of deception. the root . . . fruit--their own resources supply them; or, it may be rendered: "He (God) giveth, or, sets (Eze 17:22) the root of the righteous," and hence it is firm: or, the verb is impersonal; "As to the root . . . it is firm" (Pro 17:19).

12 The godless lusteth after the spoil of evil-doers; But the root of the righteous shoots forth. This translation is at the same time an explanation, and agrees with Fleischer's "the godless strives by unrighteous gain like the wicked (Pro 4:14) to enrich himself, namely, as must be understood from the antithetic members of the parallelism, in vain, without thereby making progress and gaining anything certain. The preterite, as Pro 11:2, Pro 11:8, etc., places the general true proposition as a separate historic principle derived from experience. In 12b יתּן stands elliptically or pregnantly: edet, scil. quod radix edere solet, sobolem stirpis, ramorum, etc., as in the Arab. natan and ânatan are specially used without an obj. of the spontaneousness of an odour." מצוד (from צוּד, to spy, to hunt) is elsewhere the instrument of the hunt (a net), here the object and end of it. If the words had been מצוּדי רעים, then we would explain after מלאכי רעים, Psa 78:49 (vid., comm. on), and אושׁת רע, Pro 6:24; but in the difference of number, רעים will not be the qualitative but the subjective personal genitive: capturam qualem mali captant. Ewald, who understands ריקים, 11b, of good-for-nothing-fellows, interprets רעים here, on the contrary, as neuter (172b): the desire of the wicked is an evil net, i.e., wherein he catches all manner of evil for himself. The lxx has here two proverbs, in which מצוד occurs in the plur. and in the sense of ὀχυρώματα; 12b of the Hebr. text is rendered: αἱ δὲ ῥίζαι τῶν εὐσεβῶν ἐν ὀχρυώμασι, which Schleusner explains immotae erunt. The Hebr. text can gain nothing from this variation. That the lxx read ושׁרשׁ צדיקים איתן is not probable, since they nowhere thus translate איתן. But Reiske and Ziegler have, like Ewald and Hitzig, combined יתּן of this proverb with יתן from איתן (Arab. wâtin), firmum, perennem esse. Hitzig translates the distich, after emending the text of 12a by the help of the lxx and the Arab.: the refuge of the wicked is crumbling clay, but the root of the righteous endures (יתן from יתן). Bttcher also reads חמר instead of חמד, and translates (vid., p. 192, l. 11): the refuge of the wicked is miry clay, but the root of the righteous holdeth fast (יתן = Arab. wâtin). But this derivation of a verb יתן is not necessary. The Graec. Venet. rightly, ῥίζα δὲ δικαίων δώσει. The obj. is self-evident. Rashi reads מה שהוא ראוי ליתן והוא הפרי. So also Schultens. The root giveth, is equivalent to, it is productive in bringing forth that which lies in its nature. That the root of the righteous endures (Targ. נתקיּם) is otherwise expressed, Pro 12:3.