Proverbs 12:1-3 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Proverbs 12:1

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... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Proverbs 12:2

Note, 1. We are really as we are with God. Those are happy, truly happy, for ever happy, that obtain favour of the Lord, though the world frown upon them, and they find little favour with men; for in God's favour is life, and that is the fountain of all good. On the other hand those are miserable whom he condemns, however men may applaud them, and cry them up; whom he condemns he condemns to the second death. 2. We are with God as we are with men, as we have our conversation in this world. Our... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Proverbs 12:3

Note, 1. Though men may advance themselves by sinful arts, they cannot by such arts settle and secure themselves; though they may get large estates they cannot get such as will abide: A man shall not be established by wickedness; it may set him in high places, but they are slippery places, Ps. 73:18. That prosperity which is raised by sin is built on the sand, and so it will soon appear. 2. Though good men may have but little of the world, yet that little will last, and what is honestly got... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Proverbs 12:1

Whose loveth instruction loveth knowledge ,.... That loves the instruction of Wisdom, or Christ, Proverbs 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... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Proverbs 12:2

A good man obtaineth favour of the Lord ,.... One that is made so by the grace of God, for no man is so naturally; there is none good, nor does good, no, not one, until some good thing is put into him, or the good work of grace is begun in him. And such a man obtains favour or good will from the Lord; that is, as Gersom explains it, what he himself wills, for the will of God is his will; or rather the good will of God, his grace, and layout; fresh manifestations and discoveries of which he... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Proverbs 12:3

A man shall not be established by wickedness ,.... Not any man, though he may be established in his wickedness, so as not to be rooted out of it; yet he cannot be so established by it as not to be removed from a prosperous state and condition into an unhappy and distressed one; he may seem to be in a firm and settled state of prosperity, amidst all his wickedness; be like a green bay tree, spreading itself, and seemingly immovable, when on a sudden it is blown down and rooted up, and is no... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Proverbs 12:1

Whoso loveth instruction - מוסר musar , discipline or correction, loves knowledge; for correction is the way to knowledge. But he that hateth reproof is brutish - בער baar , he is a bear; and expects no more benefit from correction than the ox does from the goad. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Proverbs 12:2

A good man obtaineth favor - First, it is God who makes him good; for every child of Adam is bad till the grace of God changes his heart. Secondly, while he walks in the path of obedience he increases in goodness, and consequently in the favor of the Lord. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Proverbs 12:3

A man shall not be established by wickedness - Evil is always variable: it has no fixed principle, except the root that is in the human heart; and even that is ever assuming new forms. Nothing is permanent but goodness; and that is unchangeable, because it comes from God. The produce of goodness is permanent, because it has God's blessing in it: the fruit of wickedness, or the property procured by wickedness, is transitory, because it has God's curse in it. The righteous has his root in God;... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 12:1

Instruction ; correction, discipline, which shows a man his faults, gives him a lowly opinion of himself, and opens his mind to receive knowledge, especially the knowledge of himself and of all moral obligations. Is brutish; is as insensible to higher aspirations, to regret for the past or hope of amendment, as a brute beast (comp. Proverbs 30:2 ). On this point St. Augustine is quoted: " Quicumque corripi non vis, ex eo sane corripiendus es quia corripi non vis. Non vis enim tua... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Proverbs 12:1

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Proverbs 12:2

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Proverbs 12:3

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Proverbs 12:1

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Proverbs 12:2

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Proverbs 12:3

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Proverbs 12:1

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Proverbs 12:2

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Proverbs 12:3

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 12:1

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