CHAPTER XVIII.
CRITICAL NOTES.--+1. Through desire, etc.+ The readings and expositions of this verse are many. Zöckler translates, _"He that separateth himself seeketh his own pleasure, against all counsel doth he rush on,"_ and the renderings of Stuart, Miller, and Delitzsch are substantially the same, except that Delitzsch translates the latter clause--_"against all that is beneficial he shows his teeth."_ Other readings are _"A self-conceited fool seeks to gratify his fancy and intermingleth himself with all things" (Schultens); "He who has separated himself agitates questions as his desire prompts, and breaks his teeth on every hard point" (Schulz); "He seeks occasion, who desires to separate himself from his friends" (Hodgson)._ Others read as in the Authorised Version. (See Comments.) +3. Ignominy,+ rather, _"shameful deeds."_ +4.+ The last clause of this verse may be divided into two smaller ones and placed in apposition, thus: _"a babbling brook,"--a fountain of wisdom._ Fausset remarks that the Hebrew word used for _man_ is _ish,_ a _good_ man, not _adam,_ the general term for man. +6. Calleth for.+ Stuart understands this in the sense of _"to deserve."_ +8. Wounds.+ The word so translated occurs only here and in chap. xxvi. 22, and will bear very different renderings. Some translate it _words of sport_ (Stuart and Zöckler); others, with Delitzsch, _dainty morsels;_ others, _"whispers, soft breezes."_ +9. Waster,+ or _destroyer._ +10. Safe,+ or _lifted high._ +14. Infirmity,+ _i.e.,_ sickness, disease of body. As in similar verses, Miller translates +"a wounded spirit;"+ _a spirit of upbraiding._ Here again, as in verse 4, the Hebrew word _ish_ is used for man. +16. A man's gifts.+ "Hebrew, _adam,_ the gift of a _man,_ however humble and low" _(Fausset)_. +19. "Is harder to be won;"+ these words are not in the original, but have been inserted to supply the sense. Some translators read _"a brother offended resisteth more than a strong city."_ Miller reads, _"When a brother is revolted away, it is from a city of strength."_ +20. Satisfied.+ "If this word is taken in a good sense the _fruit_ must be good; but it may be ironical, meaning false or malignant words will find ample retribution. Perhaps the next verse helps us determine the meaning" _(Stuart)_. +21. They that love it,+ _i.e.,_ "make it a special object of gratification" _(Stuart)_ +24.+ The first clause of this verse should be "A man of many friends will prove himself base, or is so to his own destruction," _i.e.,_ he who professes to regard everybody as his friend will, in so doing, involve himself in trouble.
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSES_ 1 _and_ 2.
Reference to the Critical Notes and to the Comments will show the widely different translations and expositions given to the first verse. We follow the Authorised Version.
SOLITUDE.
+I. Solitude is indispensable to the attainment of wisdom.+ If a tree is to become well-proportioned--if it is to spread out its branches on every side so that its girth is to be proportioned to its height, it must have space--a degree of separation is indispensable to its perfect development. It must be free to stretch out its roots and shoots on every side, and to appropriate to itself those elements in the earth and in the atmosphere which will make it strong and vigorous. So if a man is to be a wise man, if his mental and spiritual capabilities are to be developed as his Creator intended they should be, he must at times separate himself--a certain amount of solitude is indispensable. If he would grow wise in the mysteries of the natural world he must oftentimes shut himself away from the haunts of men, and ponder the manifold phenomena which creation presents to him, and endeavour to unravel her secrets. If he desires to become wise by acquaintance with the thoughts and deeds of the great and mighty men of past ages he must withdraw himself at certain seasons from the society of his fellow-men, and give himself up to study and reflection. And if he desire to acquire what, after all, can alone make him a truly wise man--an acquaintance with himself and with God--he must have seasons of separation in which to listen to the voice of his own heart and to the voice of his Maker. A man, when he is alone, is more likely to see things as they really are; he is less under the influence of the seen and temporal than when he is in the market, or on the crowded highway, and consequently things unseen and eternal have a more powerful influence over him at such a season. No man can be wise unless he has some self-knowledge, and no man can subject himself to much inspection while in company, hence the advice of George Herbert--
"By all means use sometimes to be alone; Salute thyself; see what thy soul doth wear; Dare to look in thy chest, for 'tis thine own, And tumble up and down what thou find'st there. Who cannot rest till he good fellows find, He breaks up house, turns out of doors his mind."
and it is equally true that no man is possessed of true wisdom who has not some knowledge of God as He has revealed Himself in the written Word, and solitude is very favourable to a growth in Divine knowledge. Men can gain much, even of the highest wisdom, from intercourse with their fellow-men, but all human guides are fallible and all human teaching is imperfect--there must be seasons when a man "separates himself" from them all and stands face to face with the fountain of all truth, if he would "intermeddle" with pure wisdom.
+II. Those who are truly wise seek wisdom for its own sake.+ Many men seek secular knowledge for the sole purpose of acquiring fame by the acquisition. Some men spend days of solitude in patient investigation for no other purpose than to make a name for themselves. Some men even profess to be seekers after true and spiritual wisdom, when they are only striving to gratify some unworthy ambition. Such a man seems to be pourtrayed in the second verse as the "fool who hath no delight in understanding but that his heart may discover itself." (If he seeks knowledge at all, it is neither for its own sake nor for the purposes of fitting him for usefulness, but solely for the ends of self-display--_Wardlaw._) (He "hath no delight" in knowledge, "but in the displaying of his own thoughts."--_Hodgson._) But the true lover of wisdom is impelled to seek from the love of truth--from the desire which possesses his soul to "intermeddle with knowledge." When Sir Isaac Newton gave himself up to the pursuit of scientific truth, he "separated himself" simply from a "desire" to _know,_ and without the remotest desire or expectation of his present world-wide fame. And if it is so with every true lover of merely intellectual wisdom, it is pre-eminently so with the man who seeks spiritual wisdom. He is impelled to the search simply by a desire which is born of his appreciation of its worth--by a knowledge of its power to bless his life.
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
A certain degree of solitude seems necessary to the full growth and spread of the highest mind; and therefore must a very extensive intercourse with men stifle many a holy germ, and scare away the gods, who shun the restless tumult of noisy companies, and the discussion of petty interests.--_Novalis._
Desire is the chariot-wheel of the soul, the spring of energy and delight. The man of business or science if filled with his great object; and _through desire he separates himself_ from all lets and hindrances, that he may _intermeddle with_ its whole range. "This one thing"--saith the man of God--"I do" (Philip. iii. 13). This one thing is everything with him. _He separates himself_ from all outward hindrances, vain company, trifling amusements or studies, needless engagements, that he may _seek and intermeddle with all wisdom._ John _separated himself_ in the wilderness, Paul in Arabia, our blessed Lord in frequent retirement, in order to greater concentration in their momentous work. Deeply does the Christian minister feel the responsibility of this holy _separation,_ that he may "give himself wholly to" his office (1 Tim. iv. 15; 2 Tim. ii. 4). Without it--Christian--thy soul can never prosper. How canst thou _intermeddle with the great wisdom_ of knowing thyself, if thy whole mind be full of the world's chaff and vanity? There must be a withdrawal, to "commune with thine own heart" and to ask the questions--"Where art thou? What doest thou here?" Much is there to be inquired into and pondered. Everything here calls for our deepest, closest thoughts. We must walk with God in secret, or the enemy will walk with us, and our souls will die. "Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee" (Ezek. iii. 22). "When thou wast under the fig-tree I saw thee" (John i. 48). Deal much in secrecy, if thou wouldst know "the secret of the Lord." Like thy Divine Master, thou wilt never be less alone than when alone (Ib. xvi. 32). There is much to be wrought, gained, and enjoyed. Thy most spiritual knowledge, thy richest experience will be found here. And then, when we look around us into the infinitely extended field of the Revelation of God, what a world of heavenly _wisdom is there to intermeddle with!_ In the hurry of this world's atmosphere how little can we apprehend it! And yet such is the field of wonder, that the contemplation of a single point overwhelmed the Apostle with adoring astonishment (Rom. xi. 33). Here are "things, which even the angels desire to look into" (1 Pet. i. 12). The redeemed will be employed throughout eternity in this delighted searching; exploring "the breadth, the length, and depth, and height," until they be "filled with all the fulness of God" (Eph. iii. 18, 19). Surely then if we have any _desire,_ we shall _separate ourselves_ from the cloudy atmosphere around us, that we may have fellowship with these happy investigators of the Divine mysteries.--_Bridges._
The _separated one_ here is the impenitent. _"The aims of a man left to himself"_ is really a translation of but two words, meaning _a separated one seeks. "At the dictate of desire"_ is but one noun with a preceding particle, meaning _after,_ or _according to._ The noun means a _longing._ The sentence means that when a man gets separated from his place in the universe he _seeks,_ or _has a pursuit,_ after his present bent or longing. The word translated _wisdom_ in the second clause is derived from a verb that means to _be_ or _stand_ with some stability (see comment on chap. ii. 7), yielding the sense the lost man sits careless to what is _"stable."_ He does not regard it. He strikes for what he desires. A pretty thing for him to cavil! since _"against everything stable he just lets himself roll."_. . . The whole meaning is that the lost man is in high chase under the spur of appetite, and ruthlessly bears down _everything stable.--Miller._
_"Through desire"_ (through self-willed and self-seeking desire of wisdom)--_"wisdom,"_ Heb. _tushigyah,_ lit. all that is solid and stable: subsistence, essence, existence. The Pharisees were such; from the Hebrew, _pharash,_ to separate. They trusted in themselves, and in their own wisdom, despising others (Luke xviii. 9, xvi. 15; Jude 19). All heresy has more or less originated in the self-conceit which leads men to separate themselves from the congregation of the Lord (Ezek. xiv. 7; Hosea ix. 10; Heb x. 25). The two evils censured are (1) that of those who think they are born for themselves, and that others ought to be ministers of their self-seeking desires; (2) that of those who intermeddle with what does not concern them. The motive is through (his own) _"desire"_ of being esteemed singularly learned, as verse 2 shows, not from sincere "delight in understanding." His aim is singularity, through self-seeking desire (Psa. x. 3; cxii. 10) of raising himself to a separate elevation from the common crowd, and of being thought versed in all that can be known: so "he intermeddleth with all wisdom." His restless appetite for making himself peculiar and separate from others is marked by the indefinite verb "seeketh," it not being added what he seeketh, for he hardly knows himself what.--_Fausset._
If we have to decide between the two interpretations, one blaming and the other commending the life of isolation, the answer must be that the former is more in harmony with the broad, genial temper of the Book of Proverbs.--_Plumptre._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 3.
This verse also, as will be seen from a reference to the Critical Notes, and also from the Comments, is susceptible of several interpretations. We think it treats of--
THE SHORT-LIVED PROSPERITY OF EVIL MEN.
+I. Wicked men do come into places of power and influence.+ This fact has often tried the faith of righteous men. Asaph's _"steps had well-nigh slipped"_ when he saw _"the prosperity of the wicked"_--that _"violence covered them as a garment,"_ and that they _"set their mouth against the heavens;"_ and yet that _"their strength was firm,"_ and _"they had more than heart could wish"_ (Psa. lxxiii. 2-8). The tiller of the soil knows from experience that the useless weeds and noxious plants often seem to absorb all the nutriment from the earth, and so make it well-nigh impossible for the useful herb and sweet-scented flower to grow in the same field or garden. And moral weeds seem to have a like capability of utilising everything that comes in their way to their own advancement--the unrighteous man makes a fortune, or a position, or a name for himself, while his godly neighbour is struggling for a bare subsistence. In the field of the world, the tares grow as well as the wheat (Matt. xiii. 26), and often they seem for a time to be more flourishing. Ahab and Jezebel dwell in Samaria, and Elijah is compelled to flee into the desert. Herod feasts in the palace, while John the Baptist is beheaded in the dungeon.
+II. Contempt and reproach are their final portion.+ Their day of power is short-lived. David has recorded as his experience that he had _"seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree"_--but he _"passed by, and lo, he was not"_ (Psa. xxxvii. 35). And however their success may dazzle men's eyes and warp their judgment for a season, contempt is their portion at last. They are often held in contempt even while living, and the reproaches of those who have been made to suffer by them are heaped upon their heads. Many of those who fawned upon them and flattered them while they were prospering will be most ready to scorn and upbraid them, if the day of their retribution arrives before they quit this world. And if they keep their power and influence throughout the term of their human probation, their names will be contemned by posterity, and in the day when "everyone receives the things done in his body" (2 Cor. v. 10), they shall _"awake to shame and everlasting contempt"_ (Dan. xii. 2).
_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._
When a _"wicked"_ man enters upon the stage, that creature, the most degraded of the universe, and who has the least right to show any _contempt,_ is the _very_ person to be the most _contemptuous;_ and the mortal who is himself most _disgraced,_ shows the readiest mind to cry shame upon and to _reproach_ and that even the Most High. Doubtless there is secular truth in all this. The _disgraced_ citizen is often the most _reproachful.--Miller._
I. They bring "contempt," not to themselves only, but to the places they fill, and the societies to which they become united--to themselves, for the unworthy manner in which they fulfil the duties of the trust they have assumed, or have had committed to them; and to their places and societies, with which their names are associated. They entail _"ignominy and reproach"_ upon all they have to do with. And in no case is this more true, than with regard to offences in the Church. O what an amount of scorn and reproach has been brought upon the sacred office of the ministry by the intrusion, under numberless pretexts, and from numberless causes, of wicked, worldly, ungodly men into its holy function! How full is Church history of this deplorable evil!--and how many infidels and scorners has Church history by this means produced. Thus it was under the old dispensation. The wickedness of the sons of Eli made men "abhor the offering of the Lord." And thus it is still. Of the "false teachers" who should arise in the latter days, it is said--"by reason of them the way of truth shall be evil-spoken of." From few other sources, if from any, has there proceeded a greater profusion of unmerited "reproach" of the name and doctrine and kingdom of the Lord; or has "the chair of the scorner" drawn a greater number and variety of its sarcastic sneers and bitter revilings. II. The phrase may mean--"When the wicked cometh" into _intimacy, companionship, familiarity,_ "then cometh contempt."--He who admits the wicked to his intimacy--makes him his associate--must share the infamy of his ill-chosen companion. Many a time too has _this_ been exemplified.--_Wardlaw._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 4.
A GOOD MAN'S MOUTH.
We must understand Solomon here to refer to a good man--to a man whose words are in harmony with the mind of God. Of such a man it may be said that his words are as deep waters and as a living spring.
+I. Because his soul is in communication with an exhaustless source of spiritual life and wisdom.+ Rivers and wells that are fed from the mountain recesses which are filled with eternal snows never dry up--they are fed from a source that is never exhausted. So long as the lasting hills remain, and the present natural laws govern the world they must give forth every day abundant streams. A communication has been established between the soul of a good man and the living God--he holds constant communion with a source of spiritual life which can never fail, and consequently he can never be at a loss for subjects upon which to discourse--his mind is always filled with new thoughts of God, and new hopes of heaven upon which to meditate himself and which he can communicate to others.
+II. Because that which flows from his lips is beneficial and refreshing to others.+ The waters in a shallow and stagnant pond give little or no refreshment to the thirsty traveller; they may even be the means of imparting disease to those who drink of them, or who live near them. But the water from a well, or from a deep and flowing stream, is generally pure and wholesome to the taste, and refreshing to the land through which it flows. And so it is with the speech of a godly man. Very mighty are the influence of words for good or for