12"My son, if thy heart be wise, My heart will be glad, even mine: Yea, my heart will rejoice, When thy lips speak right things."We have here a tender and beautiful expression of a father's devout and earnest ambition for his son, and a statement of what joy and happiness a truly upright son will bring to his father. read more
13"Let not thy heart envy sinners; But be thou in the fear of Jehovah all the day long: For surely there is a reward; And thy hope shall not be cut off."Concerning the blessed hope of holy religious faith, mortals need all the encouragement they can find; and here the sacred text thunders the message, "Surely there is a reward." The hope of heaven is a reality. Christ said, "In my Father's house, there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you." (John 14:2). This being true,... read more
14"Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And guide thy heart in the way. Be not among winebibbers, Among gluttonous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags."This word of the wise warns against drunkenness, gluttony and sloth (drowsiness). It is significant that the Bible condemns drinking wine; but when the translators and commentators get through with this, the condemnation always prohibits "drinking wine to excess" ... or... read more
15"Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, And despise not thy mother when she is old. Buy the truth, and sell it not; Yea, wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.""The first verse here refers to heeding the instructions of father and mother, rather than honoring them."[7] A number of scholars have tried to rearrange the order of the verses in this chapter, but without success. What is written here makes just as much sense in our present arrangement as in any other.The words "buy the... read more
16"The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; And he that begetteth a wise child will have joy of him. Let thy father and thy mother be glad, And let her that bare thee rejoice."Nothing can approach the fulfillment and joy that come to godly parents when their children after them walk in the right way. Thus, when Proverbs 23:25 pleads for the hearer to "allow" (let) his parents rejoice, it is an exhortation for him to love and obey the Word of God. "What a blessed thing is righteousness!... read more
17"My son, give me thy heart: Let thine eyes delight in my ways. For a harlot is a deep ditch; And a foreign woman is a narrow pit. Yea, she lieth in wait as a robber, And increaseth the treacherous among men.""In Proverbs 23:27, the two lines introduce the two classes of unchaste women, the harlot and the adulteress; but the same destructive character is ascribed to both."[9] Although Toy and others dispute it, we feel that Deane is correct in making Wisdom personified the speaker in Proverbs... read more
18"Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? Who hath complaining? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; They that go to seek out mixed wine."Proverbs 23:29-35 are a song on the subject of drunkenness. All seven verses are included in this 18th `Word' of the wise men. Taken as a unit, the passage says, "Liquor is poison; don't touch it."The Anchor Bible catches the spirit of these verses perfectly: "Who groans "Alas"? Who cries,... read more
"Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, When it sparkleth in the cup. When it goeth down smoothly: At the last it biteth like a serpent, And stingeth like an adder."The very nature of alcohol is a strong argument against the drinking of any of it. The burning liquors of the present day are far more deadly and dangerous than were those of antiquity. "Social drinking easily turns into alcoholism; why then should people practice that which so rapidly enslaves hundreds of thousands"?[14]... read more
"Thine eyes shall behold strange things, And thy heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, Or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, thou shalt say, and I was not hurt; They have beaten me, and I felt it not: When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again."What we have here is a description of an alcoholic. His craving for alcohol dominates every other appetite. That line about lying on the top of a mast suggests... read more
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Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Proverbs 23:13
11"Withhold not correction from the child; And, if thou beat him with the rod, he will not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, And shall deliver his soul from Sheol."If there had been any doubt about God's commanding his followers to discipline their sons and daughters, this passage would have removed it. The two verses here are parallel; and that clarifies the meaning of Proverbs 23:13. At first glance, it might seem that the parent is to beat his son within in an inch of death; but, "This... read more