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Here are two things which are more valuable and which we should covet more than great riches: - 1. To be well spoken of: A name (that is, a good name, a name for good things with God and good people) is rather to be chosen than great riches; that is, we should be more careful to do that by which we may get and keep a good name than that by which we may raise and increase a great estate. Great riches bring great cares with them, expose men to danger, and add no real value to a man. A fool and a knave may have great riches, but a good name makes a man easy and safe, supposes a man wise and honest, redounds to the glory of God, and gives a man a greater opportunity of doing good. By great riches we may relieve the bodily wants of others, but by a good name we may recommend religion to them. 2. To be well beloved, to have an interest in the esteem and affections of all about us; this is better than silver and gold. Christ has neither silver nor gold, but he grew in favour with God and man, Luk 2:52. This should teach us to look with a holy contempt upon the wealth of this world, not to set our hearts upon that, but with all possible care to think of those things that are lovely and of good report, Phi 4:8.

Here is, 1. The special care God takes to preserve knowledge, that is, to keep up religion in the world by keeping up among men the knowledge of himself and of good and evil, notwithstanding the corruption of mankind, and the artifices of Satan to blind men's minds and keep them in ignorance. It is a wonderful instance of the power and goodness of the eyes of the Lord, that is, his watchful providence. He preserves men of knowledge, wise and good men (Ch2 16:9), particularly faithful witnesses, who speak what they know; God protects such, and prospers their counsels. He does by his grace preserve knowledge in such, secures his own work and interest in them. See Pro 2:7, Pro 2:8. 2. The just vengeance God takes on those that speak and act against knowledge and against the interests of knowledge and religion in the world: He overthrows the words of the transgressor, and preserves knowledge in spite of him. He defeats all the counsels and designs of false and treacherous men, and turns them to their own confusion.

A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches,.... The word "good" is not in the text, but is rightly supplied, as it is by the Targum, Septuagint, and Vulgate Latin versions; for it is not any name that is more eligible than riches; nor is it a need name among any sort of persons; for to have a good name with some turns to a man's reproach rather than to his credit; but a good name among good men, a name in the house of God, which is better than sons and daughters; a new name, the name of the children of God, which no man knoweth but he that receiveth it; this is to be preferred to a multitude of riches: it is not to be procured by them, and is where they are not, or are lost, but this continues; see Ecc 7:1; and loving favour rather them silver and gold; favour with God and man, especially with God, whose loving kindness is better than life, and all the enjoyments of it: or, as it may be rendered, "grace is better than silver and gold" (p); the grace of God through Christ, the grace of Christ, in whom all fulness of it dwells, the grace of the Spirit of Christ; faith is more precious than gold that perisheth; and if a man would give all the substance of his house for love it would be contemned; the Spirit and his grace are not to be purchased for money. (p) "gratia melior", Munster, Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Michaelis; so Schultens.

The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge,.... That is, the providence of God, whose eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth; these preserve the knowledge of himself, even among the Heathens in some measure; for what may be known of God is manifest in them, and showed to them: more particularly his providence has preserved the Scriptures, the means of knowledge, which men would have destroyed; and preserves men of knowledge, as Aben Ezra interprets it, the ministers of the word, the stars he holds in his right hand; and he preserves spiritual and experimental knowledge in the hearts of his people, and causes it to increase; and continues his Gospel and a Gospel ministry in the world, till they all come to the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God. Or his eyes observe, look unto with delight and pleasure, knowledge and men of knowledge, that know him, and do his will; and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor; the perfidious, treacherous man; the false teacher, that corrupts the word of God, and handles it deceitfully: the doctrines of such he overthrows, and confutes, and brings to nothing, by his Spirit in his faithful ministers; and causes truth to prevail, and all iniquity to stop its mouth: particularly the words and doctrines of the great transgressor, the lawless and wicked one, the man of sin, antichrist; these have been exposed and overthrown already, and will be more and more so in God's due time.

"The eyes of the Lord keep knowledge," etc. The divine inspection always keeps in the Church the knowledge of the truth which it taught; the words of heretics, indeed all speech contrary to piety and justice, because it is not preserved by the ruling Lord, is subverted along with its author.

(Pro. 22:1-29) A good name-- (Job 30:8, Hebrew); "good" is supplied here from Ecc 7:1. loving favour--kind regard, that is, of the wise and good.

preserve--or guard. knowledge--its principles and possessors. overthroweth--utterly confounds and destroys the wicked.

12 The eyes of Jahve preserve knowledge; So he frustrateth the words of the false. The phrase "to preserve knowledge" is found at Pro 5:2; there, in the sense of to keep, retain; here, of protecting, guarding; for it cannot possibly be said that the eyes of God keep themselves by the rule of knowledge, and thus preserve knowledge; this predicate is not in accord with the eyes, and is, as used of God, even inappropriate. On the other hand, after "to preserve," in the sense of watching, guarding a concrete object is to be expected, cf. Isa 26:3. We need not thus with Ewald supply יודע; the ancients are right that דעת, knowledge, stands metonymically for אישׁ (Meri), or אנשׁי (Aben Ezra), or יודעי דעת (Arama); Schultens rightly: Cognitio veritatis ac virtutis practica fertur ad homines eam colentes ac praestantes. Where knowledge of the true and the good exists, there does it stand under the protection of God. 12b shows how that is meant, for there the perf. is continued in the second consec. modus (fut. consec.): there is thus protection against the assaults of enemies who oppose the knowledge which they hate, and seek to triumph over it, and to suppress it by their crooked policy. But God stands on the side of knowledge and protects it, and consequently makes vain the words (the outspoken resolutions) of the deceitful. Regarding סלף (סלף), vid., Pro 11:3 and Pro 19:3. The meaning of סלּף דּברי is here essentially different from that in Exo 23:8; Deu 16:19 : he perverteth their words, for he giveth them a bearing that is false, i.e., not leading to the end. Hitzig reads רעות [wickedness] for דעת, which Zckler is inclined to favour: God keeps the evil which is done in His eyes, and hinders its success; but "to observe wickedness" is an ambiguous, untenable expression; the only passage that can be quoted in favour of this "to observe" is Job 7:20. The word דעת, handed down without variation, is much rather justified.