Proverbschapter 15
33 verses · Solomon and others · 10th to 5th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger calms dispute.
Introduction
Solomon and others, Wisdom and poetry, Proverbs Overview.
This chapter continues the first collection of sayings in Proverbs, headed as the proverbs of Solomon. Its hearers were worshippers who brought sacrifices and families who ate together each evening. The sayings keep returning to two things, the words people speak and the heart the LORD sees. Listen for the contrast between the offering of the wicked and the prayer of the upright. Notice the comparisons that begin with the word better, weighing a simple meal against a costly one. The chapter closes on the fear of the LORD and on humility. Read it as teaching about speech and the inner life.
Context
- Who
- Worshippers who brought sacrifices, and families who ate together every night
- What
- A collection of two-line sayings on gentle and harsh speech, the LORD's knowledge of every heart, the worth of a peaceful home and the value of counsel and humility.
- Where
- The altar of the sanctuary and the table of an ordinary Israelite house.
- When
- The reign of Solomon, about 970 to 931 BC, by the heading at Proverbs 10:1; the collection was copied and arranged later, as Proverbs 25:1 shows for a second one.
- Why
- To teach that the LORD looks at the heart behind every word and offering and that gentle speech, contentment and humility please Him.
Historical context
"The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD" cuts against the assumption of the whole ancient world. Everywhere around Israel, offerings were a transaction: the god was fed and housed, and in return he was expected to perform. This line says the offering can be rejected outright because of the man carrying it, and that "the prayer of the upright is his delight," with no animal mentioned at all.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
"Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith" compares the two ends of the Israelite menu. Ordinary meals were bread, olives, and whatever greens were in season; meat appeared at festivals and for guests. A stall-fed ox was the top of the range, an animal kept in and fattened, killed only for something enormous.
"A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance… he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast" is spoken to people for whom a feast was a rare, dated, remembered event. Saying that a settled heart is like having one every day was a large claim.
"Hell and destruction are before the LORD" uses Sheol, the grave, the place Israel pictured as the deepest and least reachable spot in the universe. If God sees to the bottom of that, the proverb says, he certainly sees the hearts of men.
Significance
The opening line, "a soft answer turneth away wrath", was survival advice in villages where a quarrel between two families could run for a generation and end in blood.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
Running through the chapter is a claim that would have unsettled the first hearers: God is auditing the inside, not the paperwork. The right animal on the altar with the wrong life behind it was worse than nothing.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
No part of this chapter is read in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for Proverbs, and no festival reading.
The corpus joins the chapter to two weekly portions. Under the nineteenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 1:2, and under the twenty-third Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayigash 26. Ki Tisa and Vayigash stand in the site's table of portions. It also carries Midrash Mishlei at 15:1, 15:2 and 15:3, under the seventeenth, eighteenth and twentieth verses.
How it is read
Rashi is the commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. His note on the fifteenth verse touches the Jewish calendar. All the days of the poor are wretched, "Even Sabbaths and festivals, as Samuel said" (Rashi on Proverbs 15:15:1). He adds Samuel's reason, that a change of diet is the beginning of illness.
The dinner of herbs where love is carries several readings in one note. By the plain sense it is better to feed a man little with a friendly face than a fattened ox with an angry one. By the allegory it is the handful offered by the poor man, better than the ox of the sin offering brought by the wicked. By another explanation the herbs are given to a poor man with a friendly countenance (Rashi on Proverbs 15:17:1). The sacrifice of the wicked that the Lord hates he names in three words, Balak and Balaam (Rashi on Proverbs 15:8:1).
The glad heart of the thirteenth verse he reads as God's heart. If a person gladdens God by walking in His ways, God will show him a cheerful face. If a person grieves Him, God shows a breaking spirit, and Rashi supports it from God's grief before the Flood in Genesis 6:6 (Rashi on Proverbs 15:13:1). The house of the righteous is "The Temple that David the Righteous built" (Rashi on Proverbs 15:6:1). The destruction a perverse tongue brings is the east wind, which he traces through Exodus, Jeremiah and the Psalms (Rashi on Proverbs 15:4:1).
The twenty-third verse carries two readings. By the plain sense, a man has joy in a soft and gentle answer, since people love him for it. The Sages read it of those who memorise the Torah. When they say a thing aloud they remember it and rejoice in it (Rashi on Proverbs 15:23:1). The way of the sluggard seems to him fenced with thorns (Rashi on Proverbs 15:19:1).
The corpus carries seven further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. Six stand cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Proverbs 15:1:1, 15:2:1, 15:3:1, 15:5:1, 15:9:1 and 15:12:1, and one at Metzudat David on Proverbs 15:14:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited here rather than quoted. On the first verse, the soft answer, it holds Berakhot 17a:9, Midrash Tehillim 39:1 and Pesikta Rabbati 40:1. On the third it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 9:8 and 9:9. On the fourth it holds Arakhin 15b:16 and 15b:17 with Devarim Rabbah 1:1. On the seventh it holds Midrash Tehillim 1:19, and on the eighth Aggadat Bereshit 6:1 with Midrash Tehillim 102:1 and 17:1.
The poor man's days draw the next run. On the fifteenth verse the corpus holds Bava Batra 145b:9 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Batra 9:4. On the sixteenth it holds two passages of Otzar Midrashim, one from the Midrashim on King Solomon at The Three Wise Sayings 33 and one from the Tractate of Emanations at 1:7. On the seventeenth it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 20:18, and on the nineteenth Pesikta DeRav Kahana 2:2.
The answer and the life carry the rest. On the twenty-third verse the corpus holds Bereshit Rabbah 3:3, and on the twenty-fourth Midrash Lekach Tov, Leviticus 19:2:3 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 28:9:63. On the twenty-fifth it holds Berakhot 58b:1 and Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 9:1:29, and on the twenty-seventh Bava Batra 13b:4 and Chullin 44b:10. On the twenty-ninth it holds Bereshit Rabbah 52:5 and 74:7, on the thirtieth Eikhah Rabbah 1:31, on the thirty-first Aggadat Bereshit 84:1 and Bamidbar Rabbah 13:20, and on the thirty-third Aggadat Bereshit 26:3. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Proverbs 15:4:1 to 15:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Proverbs 15:1:1, 15:2:1, 15:3:1, 15:5:1, 15:9:1 and 15:12:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Proverbs 15:14:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/proverbs/15.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book, with Ki Tisa and Vayigash in its PARASHOT table.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A Soft Answer Turneth Away Wrath
Proverbs 15:1-2
A gentle answer turns away wrath: A soft answer turns wrath rather than merely surviving it, and the proverb credits the gentle word with real power over an angry man. The tongue of the wise uses knowledge with intention, weighing a word before releasing it, while a fool's mouth pours out whatever is inside him.
Proverbs 15:1
“A soft answer turneth away wrath,.... Mild words, gentle expressions, delivered with kindness and tenderness, humility and submission; these will work upon a man's passions, weaken his resentments, and break and scatter the storm of wrath raised in his breast, just breaking forth in a very boisterous and blustering manner; so high winds are sometimes laid by soft showers.”
3 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Proverbs 15:1
“A soft answer turns away wrath, etc. He who humbly receives words of reproach already approaches pardon for the guilt he carried; but he who arrogantly resists reproach, provokes greater wrath from the strict judge.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Proverbspatristic
Proverbs 15:1
"Anger even ruins the prudent: a soft answer turns away anger, but a painful word arouses rage." All things depend on our decision, certainly also to raise anger or to soothe. It is not the Lord who gets angry, but it is in our power to cause his anger or the opposite. And if anger even ruins the prudent, how much more will it ruin those about whom it was said [that] anger destroys the imprudent? And this certainly happens also to the prudent because of some negligence.
John Chrysostom · written before 407 · Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon, Fragment 15:1patristic
Proverbs 15:1
“A soft answer - Gentleness will often disarm the most furious, where positive derangement has not taken place; one angry word will always beget another, for the disposition of one spirit always begets its own likeness in another: thus kindness produces kindness, and rage produces rage. Universal experience confirms this proverb.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The tongue of the wise commends knowledge: Commends pictures knowledge made pleasant by a tongue that knows when to speak. Adam Clarke names the hard part of wise speech: when to speak and when to keep silent, what to say and what to leave unsaid. Even wise counsel can be given foolishly.
Proverbs 15:2
“Useth knowledge aright - Rather, makes knowledge goodly. The power of well-considered speech to commend true wisdom, is contrasted with the pouring (literally as in the margin) forth of folly.”
3 more voices on this verse
Proverbs 15:2
“The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright,.... As the heart of a wise and good man is filled with useful knowledge, civil, moral, spiritual, and evangelical; so he takes care to communicate it, at proper times and seasons, in proper places, and to proper persons; adapting it to their case and circumstances, so as it may be for their comfort, edification, and instruction, and minister grace unto them; which is using knowledge "well", as the word (s) signifies: such an use of it recommends it, and makes it appear beautiful and lovely, decorates and adorns it.”
Proverbs 15:2
“The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, etc. The tongue of the Catholic Fathers adorns the knowledge of divine words, by broadly explaining what the canonical Scripture has placed obscurely or has left written only in a historical manner.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Proverbspatristic
Proverbs 15:2
“Useth knowledge aright - This is very difficult to know: - when to speak, and when to be silent; what to speak, and what to leave unspoken; the manner that is best and most suitable to the occasion, the subject, the circumstances, and the persons. All these are difficulties, often even to the wisest men. Even wise counsel may be foolishly given.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 15:3-4
The eyes of the LORD are in every place: , beholding the evil and the good, a single verse that removes every hidden place. Gill reads it as the ground under every other proverb, since a soft answer and a wholesome tongue both matter because they are watched.
Proverbs 15:3
"In every place the eyes of the Lord behold the good and the evil." And when we are gathered together with the brethren in one place and celebrate divine sacrifices with a priest of God, we ought to be mindful of modesty and discipline and not toss our prayers about at random with uncouth voices and not cast forth with turbulent loquaciousness our petition. Rather, our petition should be commended to God in modesty, because it is our heart, not our voice, that will be heard.
Cyprian · written before 258 · Treatise IV. On the Lord's Prayer 4patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 15:3
“The teaching which began with the fear of the Lord Pro 1:7 would not be complete without this assertion of His omni-present knowledge.”
A soothing tongue is a tree of life: John Gill reads the soothing tongue as a healing tongue, one that calms strife and brings peace between men. The tree of life recalls Eden, and Gill likens such a man's company to paradise. A perverse tongue crushes the spirit it touches.
Proverbs 15:4
“A wholesome tongue--(Compare Margin), pacifying and soothing language. tree of life-- (Pr 3:18; 11:30). perverseness therein--cross, ill-natured language. breach . . . spirit--(compare Isa 65:14, Hebrew), grieves, instead of appeasing.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Proverbs 15:4
“A wholesome tongue is a tree of life,.... A tongue that delivers out salutary instructions, wholesome advice and counsel; a "healing tongue" (w), as it may be rendered, which pacifies contending parties, and heals the divisions between them; to have the benefit of such a man's company and conversation is like being in paradise. Such is the tongue of a Gospel minister, which delivers out the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ; sound speech and doctrines, which cannot be condemned; healing truths to wounded consciences, such as peace, pardon, righteousness, and atonement by the blood of Christ.”
Proverbs 15:4
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life - Here again is an allusion to the paradisiacal tree, עץ חיים ets chaiyim, “the tree of lives.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 15:5-7
A fool rejects his father’s discipline: A fool despises his father's instruction while the man who regards reproof is called prudent, the same choice the book has offered since chapter one. The lips of the wise disperse knowledge freely, scattering it like seed, while the foolish heart keeps nothing worth scattering.
Proverbs 15:5
“Prudence is that quality by which all things are accomplished through skillful industry, in the same way that malice is that quality whereby only evil is perpetrated. Because, therefore, every activity admits prudence and because evils likewise occur in all things, the name of prudence signifies two realities. Whoever uses cleverness and skill for the destruction of others is evil, but one who acts cleverly and shrewdly to avoid the harm that others have in store for him, directly and wisely detecting his own good, possesses a prudence that is worthy of praise.”
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · Homily on the Beginning of Proverbs 11patristic
The house of the righteous has great treasure: Treasure kept in the house stands against trouble carried in with the income. Bede reads the house as the church, standing firm against the rain, winds and rivers of temptation, the storm of Matthew 7:25. The wicked man's gain brings turmoil home.
The lips of the wise spread knowledge: Lips spread what the heart holds, so the saying judges fools by their hearts. Albert Barnes records readings that take the Hebrew word for so as firm, and the Septuagint calls a fool's heart unsteady. He keeps the plain sense of the words.
Proverbs 15:7
“Not so - The word translated “so” is taken by some in its etymological force as “strong,” “firm,” and the passage is rendered “the heart of the fool disperseth (supplied from the first clause) what is weak and unsteady,” i. e., “falsehood and unwisdom.” The Septuagint takes it as an adjective, “the heart of the fool is unstedfast.” The phrase as it stands in the King James Version is, however, of frequent occurrence Gen 48:18; Exo 10:11; Num 12:7.”
Proverbs 15:8-9
The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD: The sacrifice was commanded in Israel's law, yet a wicked man's obedience to the form still offended the God the form was meant to honor. Verse 9 restates the principle in the widest terms: “The LORD detests the way of the wicked, but He loves those who pursue righteousness”.
Proverbs 15:8
“The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination - Even the most sedulous attendance on the ordinances of God, and pert ormance of the ceremonies of religion, is an abomination to the Lord, if the heart be not right with him, and the observance do not flow from a principle of pure devotion. No religious acts will do in place of holiness to the Lord. The prayer of the upright is his delight - What a motive to be upright; and what a motive to the upright to pray! But who is the upright?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 15:8
“God has such a love for upright good people that, though they are not at the expense of a sacrifice (he himself has provided that), their prayer is a delight to him. Praying graces are his own gift, and the work of his own Spirit in them, with which he is well pleased. He not only answers their prayers, but delights in their addresses to him, and in doing them good.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The LORD detests the way of the wicked: Verse 8 judged the worshipper at the altar, and this verse widens to his whole way of life. John Gill reads the way of the wicked as the course his heart devises and delights in, which he leaves only by God's grace. Pursue is a word of steady effort.
Proverbs 15:9
“The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord,.... The way his heart devises, which he chooses and delights in, in which he walks; nor will he leave it, nor can he be diverted from it, but by the powerful grace of God.”
Proverbs 15:10-12
Discipline is harsh for him who leaves the path: “Discipline is harsh for him who leaves the path,” and the one who hates correction is warned plainly that he “will die”. The mocker completes the group by refusing correction outright, for he “does not love to be reproved, nor will he consult the wise”.
Proverbs 15:10
“Of all sinners, reproofs are worst resented by apostates. It is certain that those who will not be reproved will be ruined: He that hates reproof, and hardens his heart against it, is joined to his idols; let him alone. He shall die, and perish for ever, in his sins, since he would not be parted from his sins.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 15:10
“Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way,.... The right way, the way of God; the way of his commandments: the Vulgate Latin version is, "the way of life"; the same with the way of righteousness, which apostates, having known and walked in, turn aside from; see 2Pe 2:15. And such deserve severe correction, the chastisement of a cruel one, correction in wrath and hot displeasure; which, when they have, is very disagreeable to them; they behave under it like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, and yet they are but dealt righteously with.”
Verse 3 put the eyes of the LORD in every place, and this verse carries that sight below the earth. Adam Clarke takes Sheol as the unseen world of the departed and Abaddon as the place of torment, under the Lord's eye and control. The heart has no hiding place.
Proverbs 15:11
“Hell and destruction - שאול ואבדון sheol vaabaddon. Hades, the invisible world, the place of separate spirits till the resurrection: and Abaddon, the place of torment; are ever under the eye and control of the Lord.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 15:11
“Hell and destruction are before the Lord,.... Or "the grave" (a), which is the pit of destruction; where bodies being put, putrefy, and are destroyed by worms: this is known by the Lord, even the grave of everyone from the beginning; the graves of Adam, Abel, Abraham; he knows where their dust lies, and will raise it up again at the last day.”
A mocker does not love to be reproved: The mocker closes the group on correction that opened at verse 10. He avoids the one place reproof would find him. The book met him at 9:8 and 13:1, where a rebuke earns his hatred and goes unheard.
Proverbs 15:13-15
A joyful heart makes a cheerful countenance: “A joyful heart makes a cheerful countenance,” while “sorrow of the heart crushes the spirit”. “A discerning heart seeks knowledge,” while “the mouth of a fool feeds on folly”. “All the days of the oppressed are bad,” yet “a cheerful heart has a continual feast,” the heart outweighing the circumstances.
Proverbs 15:13
“By sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken - Every kind of sorrow worketh death, but that which is the offspring of true repentance. This alone is healthful to the soul. The indulgence of a disposition to sighing tends to destroy life. Every deep sigh throws off a portion of the vital energy.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
A discerning heart seeks knowledge: Both lines speak of appetite, the heart hunting for knowledge and the mouth grazing on folly. Matthew Henry reads the discerning heart as never satisfied with its wisdom, wanting more the more it has. The fool is content with his fodder.
Proverbs 15:14
“A wise man not satisfied with his wisdom, but still seeking the increase of it; the more he has the more he would have: The heart of him that has understanding, rejoices so in the knowledge it has attained to that it is still coveting more, and in the use of the means of knowledge is still labouring for more, growing in grace, and in the knowledge of Christ.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
All the days of the oppressed are bad: Albert Barnes reads the affliction as a troubled and downcast spirit more than hard circumstances, so the cheerful man feasts every day, rich or poor. Anxiety spoils the feast. Barnes ties it to the anxious thought about tomorrow in Matthew 6:34.
Proverbs 15:15
“Afflicted - The affliction meant here is less that of outward circumstances than of a troubled and downcast spirit. Life to the cheerful is as one perpetual banquet, whether he be poor or rich. That which disturbs the feast is anxiety, the taking (anxious) thought” of Mat 6:34.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 15:15
“All the days of the afflicted are evil,.... And some are afflicted all their days, from their youth up; so that not only the days of old age are evil days, in which they have no pleasure, but even the days of their youth; all their days, as Jacob says, "few and evil have the days of the years of my life been", Gen 47:9; because they had been filled up with affliction and trouble of one sort or another.”
Proverbs 15:16-17
Better a little with the fear of the LORD: “Better a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure with turmoil,” a comparison the book repeats in other words. Verse 17 follows: “Better a dish of vegetables where there is love than a fattened ox with hatred,” the plain meal outweighing the feast.
Better a dish of vegetables: Albert Barnes calls the dish of vegetables the meal of the poor and the sparing. The fattened ox belonged to a stately feast, like the fattened calf killed for the returning son in Luke 15:23. Love makes the plainer table the richer one.
Proverbs 15:17
“A dinner of herbs - The meals of the poor and the abstemious. The “stalled ox,” like the “fatted calf” of Luk 15:23, would indicate a stately magnificence.”
Before Honor Goeth Humility
Proverbs 15:18-19
A hot-tempered man stirs up strife: “A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger calms dispute,” the contrast between haste and patience the book has drawn. “The way of the slacker is like a hedge of thorns,” while “the path of the upright is a highway” cleared by diligence.
The way of the slacker is like a hedge of thorns: Albert Barnes sees one road in both lines. For the slacker it is thick with thorns and briers, and for the upright it is a causeway like the king's highway of Isaiah 40:3. The traveller makes the difference.
Proverbs 15:19
“The slothful goes on his journey, and for him the path is thick set with thorns, briars, fences, through which he cannot force his way. For the “righteous” (better, upright), the same path is as the broad raised causeway of the king’s highway. Compare Isa 40:3.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 15:19
In this number are those whom Wisdom calls the "slothful ones," who bestrew their "way" with "thorns"; who think it a moral loss to be anxious about keeping the commandments; who erase from their own minds the Apostolic teaching, and instead of eating the bread of their own honest earning fix on that of others, and make their idleness itself into an art of living. From this number, too, come the Dreamers, who put more faith in the illusions of their dreams than in the Gospel teaching, and style their own phantasies "revelations."
Gregory of Nyssa · written before 395 · On Virginity, Chapter XXIIIpatristic
Proverbs 15:20-21
A wise son brings joy to his father: A wise son makes a glad father, while a foolish man despises his mother, the family portrait the book returns to from its opening chapters. Folly is joy to the man destitute of wisdom, while a man of understanding walks uprightly by a standard folly cannot see.
Proverbs 15:20
To “despise” a mother is to cause her the deepest grief, and is therefore not unfitly contrasted with “making a glad father.”
Folly is joy to one who lacks judgment: Albert Barnes reads the lines as two travellers, each walking where his delight leads him. The empty-hearted man enjoys folly and goes the wrong way, and the man of understanding enjoys wisdom and keeps the right one. Delight sets direction.
Proverbs 15:22-23
Plans fail for lack of counsel: “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed,” a proverb about planning whose advisers are valued for their honesty. “A man takes joy in a fitting reply,” and “how good is a timely word,” named good, its timing counted as part of its worth.
Proverbs 15:22
“But in the multitude of counsellors - See note on Pro 11:13 (note). But רב יועצים rob yoatsim might be translated, chief or master of the council, the prime minister.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Albert Barnes links the verse to the counsel of verse 22, where a fitting reply could settle a question among advisers. He points to the scribe of Mark 12:28, who saw that Jesus had answered well. A timely word turns away anger.
Proverbs 15:23
“Probably, a special reference to debates in council Pro 15:22. They bring before us the special characteristic of the East, the delight in ready, improvised answers, solving difficulties, turning aside anger. Compare the effect on the scribe Mar 12:28.”
The path of life leads upward for the wise: The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath. Gill and Delitzsch hear in it an early statement of the two destinies, offered to the same man. The wise man's whole business, on this reading, is choosing which way he is already walking.
Proverbs 15:24
“The way of life is above to the wise - There is a treble antithesis here: 1. The way of the wise, and that of the fool. 2. The one is above, the other below. 3. The one is of life, the other is of death.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The LORD tears down the house of the proud: “The LORD tears down the house of the proud,” as flattery and folly tear down houses elsewhere in the book. The same verse says “He protects the boundaries of the widow,” the one person in Israel with no one else to defend her boundary line.
Proverbs 15:25
“The widow - Here, as elsewhere Deu 10:18; Psa 68:5, the widow, as the most extreme type of desolation, stands as the representative of a class safer in their poverty under the protection of the Lord, than the proud in the haughtiness of their strength.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 15:25
“The most desolate who have God's aid have more permanent good than the self-reliant sinner (Pr 2:22; 12:7). border--or, "boundary for possessions" (Ps 78:54).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Proverbs 15:26-27
The LORD detests the thoughts of the wicked: “The LORD detests the thoughts of the wicked” before they become words or deeds, so the standard reaches back to the thinking behind speech. The man “greedy for unjust gain brings trouble on his household,” the household closest to him, “but he who hates bribes will live”.
Proverbs 15:26
“If every evil word is an abomination to the Lord your God, how great an abomination must be supposed the evil word of denial and the evil word of publicly proclaiming another god and the evil oath by the fortune of people, something that has no existence.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Exhortation to Martyrdom 7patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 15:26
“Some prefer the margin, and render, words of pleasantness are pure. Gracious words are to God as a pure acceptable offering, the similitude being taken from the Levitical ritual, and the word “pure” in half ceremonial sense (compare Mal 1:11).”
He who is greedy for unjust gain: Albert Barnes applies the bribes to the judge, whose unjust gain came from unjust judgments. The Aramaic Targum reads the first line as gathering the mammon of unrighteousness, and Barnes asks whether Jesus drew on it in Luke 16:9. The greedy man's whole household bears the trouble.
Proverbs 15:27
“Gifts - There is a special application to the office of the judge. The Aramaic Targum paraphrases the first words of this passage as: “he who gathers the mammon of unrighteousness,” using the words with special reference to wealth obtained by unjust judgments. May we infer that Christ’s adoption of that phrase Luk 16:9 had a point of contact with this proverb, through the version then popularly used in the synagogues of Palestine?”
Proverbs 15:28-30
The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer: “The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer,” weighing a reply first, “but the mouth of the wicked blurts out evil”. “The LORD is far from the wicked” in the sense that matters, unwilling to hear them, “but He hears the prayer of the righteous”.
Proverbs 15:28
“The heart of the righteous studieth to answer - His tongue never runs before his wit, he never speaks rashly, and never unadvisedly; because he studies - ponders, his thoughts and his words.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 15:28
“Contrast the “studying” of the wise before he answers and the hasty babbling of the foolish. The teaching of our Lord Mat 10:19 presents us with a different and higher precept, resting upon different conditions.”
The LORD is far from the wicked: Far and near describe favor more than distance, since verse 3 puts the eyes of the LORD in every place. Matthew Henry reads the second line as God drawing near in mercy to those who draw near to him in duty. James 5:16 says the same of prayer.
Proverbs 15:29
“He will draw nigh to those in a way of mercy who draw nigh to him in a way of duty: He hears the prayer of the righteous, accepts it, is well pleased with it, and will grant an answer of peace to it. It is the prayer of a righteous man that avails much, Jam. v. 16 . He is nigh to them, a present help, in all that they call upon him for.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The light of the eyes cheers the heart: The two lines pair what the eye sees with what the ear hears. Bede cites another translation, the eye that sees good things delights the heart, and reads the light as heavenly mysteries the Lord reveals. Both gladden the whole man.
Proverbs 15:31-32
He who listens to life-giving reproof: The ear that hears the reproof of life abides among the wise, correction treated as an entrance ticket rather than an insult. Gill reads the pair as the chapter's own definition of wisdom, not the absence of correction but the willingness to receive it.
Proverbs 15:31
“The reproof of life - i. e., The reproof that leads to, or gives life, rather than that which comes from life and its experience.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 15:31
“The ear that hears the corrections of life, etc. The disciple who obediently listens to the corrections of teachers often progresses to the very seat of honor. Finally, Paul, who humbly submitted to the correction of his Creator, subsequently reached the seat of apostolic dignity.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Proverbspatristic
He who ignores discipline despises himself: Origen of Alexandria applies the line to the impenitent, who hate themselves when they spurn instruction, and he urges every effort to bring them healing. He likens them to men drunk on the darkness of evil. Humility, in the next verse, comes before honor.
Proverbs 15:32
“We are not harsh toward the impenitent. They are wicked to themselves, for those that spurn instruction hate themselves. Yet even in such cases we should seek in every way that healing come to those who are so completely perverted as not even to be conscious of their own ills and drunk with a drunkenness more fatal than that from wine, the drunkenness that comes from the darkness of evil.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · On Prayer 28:7patristic
The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom: “The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom,” and the chapter lands again on the motto that opened the book at 1:7. The second line states the order, “humility comes before honor,” and the honor that follows is a result the wise man never aimed at directly.
Proverbs 15:33
“The fear of the Lord - See note on Pro 1:7. Much is spoken concerning this fear; 1. It is the beginning of wisdom. 2. It is also the beginning of knowledge. 3. It is the instruction of wisdom. Wisdom derives its most important lessons from the fear of God. He who fears God much, is well taught. And before honor is humility - That is, few persons ever arrive at honor who are not humble; and those who from low life have risen to places of trust and confidence, have been remarkable for humility.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, ON PRAYER 28:7.