नीतिवचन 3:23 टीका

This chapter is one of the most excellent in all this book, both for argument to persuade us to be religious and for directions therein. I. We must be constant to our duty because that is the way to be happy (Pro 3:1-4). II. We must live a life of dependence upon God because that is the way to be safe (Pro 3:5). III. We must keep up the fear of God because that is the way to be healthful (Pro 3:7, Pro 3:8). IV. We must serve God with our estates because that is the way to be rich (Pro 3:9, Pro 3:10). V. We must hear afflictions well because that is the way to get good by them (Pro 3:11, Pro 3:12). VI. We must take pains to obtain wisdom because that is the way to gain her, and to gain by her (Pro 3:13-20). VII. We must always govern ourselves by the rules of wisdom, of right reason and religion, because that is the way to be always easy (Pro 3:21-26). VIII. We must do all the good we can, and no hurt, to our neighbours, because according as men are just or unjust, charitable or uncharitable, humble or haughty, accordingly they shall receive of God (Pro 3:27-35). From all this it appears what a tendency religion has to make men both blessed and blessings.

INTRODUCTION TO PROVERBS 3 In this chapter, Wisdom, or Christ, delivers out some fresh lessons and instructions to his children; as not to forget his doctrine, but heartily attend to his precepts and ordinances, seeing these are the means of lengthening out their days, and of enjoying peace, Pro 3:1; as well as had the promise of the mercy and truth of God, and the continuance of them, annexed to them; and therefore are exhorted to keep close to them, and show the greatest value and affection for them, which was the way to find favour with, and to be taken notice of by, God and man, Pro 3:3; and then he proceeds to exhort them to a hearty trust in the Lord, without dependence on themselves; and to seek direction from him in every step they took, which they might expect to have, Pro 3:5; to humility and the fear of God, and fleeing from evil, which they would find would much contribute to their health, Pro 3:7; to liberality in supporting the worship of God, and the interest of religion, which would turn to account and profit to them, Pro 3:9; to patience in bearing the chastisement of the Lord, as coming from a loving father, Pro 3:11; then follows a commendation of wisdom, and the happiness of the man possessed of it is declared, Pro 3:13; from the profit, preciousness, pleasure, and usefulness of it, Pro 3:14; and from its concern in the works of creation and providence, Pro 3:19; and from that comfort, honour, safety, and security, which come by the doctrines and instructions of Wisdom, and a steady regard to them, Pro 3:21; and the chapter is concluded with exhortations to beneficence, charity, concord, and peace with neighbours, Pro 3:27; and to shun the ways of wicked men, urged from the different state and condition of wicked men and fools, and of the just, the lowly, and wise, Pro 3:31.

Then shall thou walk in thy way safely,.... In the way of thy duty and business, without fear of any enemy; having in sight the Captain of salvation gone before, and walking in such ways of pleasantness and peace as Wisdom's are; and having such a lamp to the feet, and such a light unto the paths, as the Gospel and its doctrines be; and thy foot shall not stumble; at the word and the truths of it, as some men do, being thereunto appointed; and at Christ, the stumbling stone laid in Zion, particularly at his justifying righteousness; see Pe1 2:8.

Before the Lord’s coming, philosophy was an essential guide to righteousness for the Greeks. At the present time, it is a useful guide toward reverence for God. It is a kind of preliminary education for those who are trying to gather faith through demonstration. “Your foot will not stumble,” says Scripture, if you attribute good things, whether Greek or Christian, to Providence. God is responsible for all good things: of some directly, like the blessings of the Old and New Covenants, of others indirectly, like the riches of philosophy. Perhaps philosophy too was a direct gift of God to the Greeks before the Lord extended his appeal to the Greeks. For philosophy was to the Greek world what the Law was to the Hebrews, a tutor escorting them to Christ. So philosophy is a preparatory process; it opens the road for the person whom Christ brings to his final goal.

Then you will walk confidently in your way. We walk confidently in our way when, trusting in the grace of God, we undertake progress in our good conversation. Therefore, if we humbly submit to His commands, and taste the sweetness of heavenly love with the palate of our mind, we will always obtain an increase in good works. Moreover, with His help, we are defended in temptations so that we do not falter. For this is what follows: “And your foot will not stumble. For all things work together for good to those who love God.”

The study of truth commended. God must be feared, honored, and trusted, and filial submission, under chastisement, exhibited. The excellence of wisdom urged and illustrated by its place in the divine counsels. Piety enforced by a contrast of the destiny of the righteous and the wicked. (Pro. 3:1-35) law [and] commandments--all divine instructions (see on Psa 119:1 and Psa 119:4). let thine heart keep--or sincerely observe (Pro 4:13; Pro 5:2).

But more than this, wisdom makes its possessor in all situations of life confident in God: 23 Then shalt thou go thy way with confidence, And thy foot shall not stumble. 24 When thou liest down, thou are not afraid, But thou layest thyself down and hast sweet sleep. 25 Thou needest not be afraid of sudden alarm, Nor for the storm of the wicked when it breaketh forth. 26 For Jahve will be thy confidence And keep thy foot from the snare. The לבטח (cf. our "bei guter Laune" = in good cheer), with ל of the condition, is of the same meaning as the conditional adverbial accusative בּטח, Pro 10:9; Pro 1:33. Pro 3:23 the lxx translate ὁ δὲ πούς σου οὐ μὴ προσκόψῃ, while, on the contrary, at Psa 91:12 they make the person the subject (μήποτε προσκόψῃς τὸν κ.τ.λ.); here also we retain more surely the subject from 23a, especially since for the intrans. of נגף (to smite, to push) a Hithpa. התנגּף is used Jer 13:16. In Pro 3:24 there is the echo of Job 11:18, and in Pro 3:25 of Job 5:21. Pro 3:24 is altogether the same as Job 5:24 : et decumbes et suavis erit somnus tuus = si decubueris, suavis erit. The hypothetic perf., according to the sense, is both there and at Job 11:18 (cf. Jer 20:9) oxytoned as perf. consec. Similar examples are Pro 6:22; Gen 33:13; Sa1 25:31, cf. Ewald, 357a. ערבה (of sleep as Jer 31:26) is from ערב, which in Hebr. is used of pleasing impressions, as the Arab. ‛ariba of a lively, free disposition. שׁנה, somnus (nom. actionis from ישׁן, with the ground-form sina preserved in the Arab. lidat, vid., Job, p. 284, note), agrees in inflexion with שׁנה, annus. אל, Pro 3:25, denies, like Psa 121:3, with emphasis: be afraid only not = thou hast altogether nothing to fear. Schultens rightly says: Subest species prohibitionis et tanquam abominationis, ne tale quicquam vel in suspicionem veniat in mentemve cogitando admittatur. פּחד here means terror, as Pro 1:26., the terrific object; פּתאם (with the accus. om) is the virtual genitive, as Pro 26:2 חנּם (with accus. am). Regarding שׁאה, see under Pro 1:27. The genitive רשׁעים may be, after Psa 37:18, the genit. subjecti, but still it lies nearer to say that he who chooses the wisdom of God as his guiding star has no ground to fear punishment as transgressors have reason to fear it; the שׁאה is meant which wisdom threatens against transgressors, Pro 1:27. He needs have no fear of it, for wisdom is a gift of God, and binds him who receives it to the giver: Jahve becomes and is henceforth his confidence. Regarding ב essentiae, which expresses the closest connection of the subject with the predicate which it introduces, see under Psa 35:2. As here, so also at Exo 18:4; Psa 118:7; Psa 146:6, the predicate is a noun with a pronominal suffix. כּסל is, as at Psa 78:7; Job 31:24, cognate to מבטה and מקוה, (Note: According to Malbim, תּקוה is the expectation of good, and כּסל, confidence in the presence of evil.) the object and ground of confidence. That the word in other connections may mean also fool-hardiness, Psa 49:14, and folly, Ecc 7:25 (cf. regarding כּסיל, which in Arab. as belı̂d denotes the dull, in Hebr. fools, see under Pro 1:22), it follows that it proceeds from the fundamental conception of fulness of flesh and of fat, whence arise the conceptions of dulness and slothfulness, as well as of confidence, whether confidence in self or in God (see Schultens l.c., and Wnsche's Hosea, p. 207f.). לכד is taking, catching, as in a net or trap or pit, from לכד, to catch (cf. Arab. lakida, to fasten, III, IV to hold fast); another root-meaning, in which Arab. lak connects itself with nak, nk, to strike, to assail (whence al-lakdat, the assault against the enemy, Deutsch. Morgenl. Zeitsch. xxii. 140), is foreign to the Hebr. Regarding the מן of מלכד, Fleischer remarks: "The מן after the verbs of guarding, preserving, like שׁמר and נצר, properly expresses that one by those means holds or seeks to hold a person or thing back from something, like the Lat. defendere, tueri aliquem ab hostibus, a perculo." (Note: Hitzig rejects Pro 3:22-26 as a later interpolation. And why? Because chap. 3, which he regards as a complete discourse, consists of twice ten verses beginning with בּני. In addition to this symmetry other reasons easily reveal themselves to his penetration. But the discourses contained in chap. 1-9 do not all begin with בני (vid., Pro 1:20); and when it stands in the beginning of the discourse, it is not always the first word (vid., Pro 1:8); and when it occurs as the first word or in the first line, it does not always commence a new discourse (vid., Pro 1:15 in the middle of the first, Pro 3:11 in the middle of the fourth); and, moreover, the Hebr. poetry and oratory does not reckon according to verses terminated by Soph Pasuk, which are always accented distichs, but they in reality frequently consist of three or more lines. The rejected verses are in nothing unlike those that remain, and which are undisputed; they show the same structure of stichs, consisting for the most part of three, but sometimes also only of two words (cf. Pro 3:22 with Pro 1:9, Pro 1:10), the same breadth in the course of the thoughts, and the same accord with Job and Deuteronomy.)