Proverbschapter 22
29 verses · Solomon and others · 10th to 5th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
A generous man will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.
Introduction
Solomon and others, Wisdom and poetry, Proverbs Overview.
This chapter stands at a seam in the book. Its first sixteen verses close the long collection of Solomon's sayings, and at verse 17 a new heading opens the words of the wise, longer instructions for a young man bound for royal service. The first hearers were landholders, parents and young courtiers learning how to serve before kings. Listen for the change of voice at the seam, where single sayings give way to a teacher speaking directly to his student. The chapter asks the hearer to protect the poor, respect his neighbour's land and guard his own name.
Context
- Who
- Landholders, parents, and young men being groomed to serve before kings
- What
- The last sayings of Solomon's long collection, then the opening of the sayings of the wise at verse 17.
- Where
- The hill country fields of Israel with their boundary stones, and the household of a young man trained for royal service.
- When
- Solomon's reign, about 970 to 931 BC, for verses 1 to 16; the sayings of the wise from verse 17 carry no date of their own.
- Why
- To teach the worth of a good name, fair dealing with the poor and the early training of the young, and to prepare a young man to serve with his trust in the LORD.
Historical context
"Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set." Fields were marked by stones set at the corners and along the boundary, and there was no central land registry to appeal to. Quietly shifting a stone a few paces each ploughing season stole a neighbour's ground without anyone seeing it happen. The Law put a formal curse on the man who did it, which shows how common and how hard to prosecute it was.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
"Train up a child in the way he should go" uses a verb tied to dedicating or starting something, putting a child on the road early, at the age when the household, not a school, did the teaching. Children learned by working beside their parents from the time they could carry a jar.
At verse 17 the book shifts again. A new heading introduces "the words of the wise," a set of about thirty sayings addressed to a young man in royal service. This section runs closely parallel, in order, in imagery, and sometimes in wording, to the Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope, which also has thirty chapters. Which way the borrowing ran is genuinely disputed: many argue Israel drew on the older Egyptian text, others that both drew on a common stock of court wisdom. Either way Scripture is doing openly what it says wisdom does, recognising truth wherever it is found and putting it under the fear of the LORD, which is the frame Amenemope does not have.
"Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings" describes a real career path. Solomon's expanded administration needed scribes, stewards, and provincial officers, and a capable young man from an ordinary family could rise into it.
Significance
"The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all" was a levelling line in a society where the gap was widening fast under a wealthy monarchy.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And the warnings that follow, do not rob the poor because he is poor, do not move the landmark, assume that the people most able to take advantage are exactly the ones being taught here.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
No public reading in the synagogue is drawn from this chapter. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts was probed for this lane over Proverbs 16 to 31. It printed parashot total 0, haftarah uses total 0 and 0 chapters with a synagogue reading. It printed null for a festival reading of the book. The same probe printed 54 weekly portions and 6 festival readings in the table as a whole. The corpus ties no custom of the home or the synagogue to this chapter, so this part records the absence.
The chapter is met in the study of the Midrash and the Talmud instead. The corpus links it to nineteen collections. The two it cites most often here are Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition) and Bamidbar Rabbah.
How it is read
Rashi is quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Every quotation is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern. At the twentieth verse Rashi's translation renders the question as "Have I not written to you thirds". He reads the thirds as the three parts of the Hebrew Bible: "The Torah, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa" (Rashi on Proverbs 22:20:1). At the seventeenth verse the book turns to the words of the wise, and Rashi reads it as a call "to learn the Torah from a sage of any stature" (Rashi on Proverbs 22:17:1). The book dossier this site carries records that 22:17 is the first of two headings that credit only the wise.
On training a child he gives the plain rule. What a child is taught stays with him "either for good or bad, even when he grows old, he will not turn away from it" (Rashi on Proverbs 22:6:1). On humility he gives two readings, and the second sets it first among the virtues: "Humility is the main attribute, and fear is secondary to it" (Rashi on Proverbs 22:4:1).
The rich and the poor who meet of the second verse are read as a warning to the rich man who answers the poor harshly. God can make them new, "this one poor and this one rich" (Rashi on Proverbs 22:2:1). The lazy man's lion becomes an excuse from the study hall: "How will I go out to learn Torah?" (Rashi on Proverbs 22:13:1). The trust of the nineteenth verse answers a working man's worry directly. He should not say, "How will I be idle from my work, and how will I earn a livelihood?" (Rashi on Proverbs 22:19:1).
The corpus carries three further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They are cited by ref alone: Ibn Ezra on Proverbs 22:9:1 and 22:12:1 and Metzudat David on Proverbs 22:15:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty filed as Midrash and ten as Talmud, and the text of none, so each is cited here by its ref and never quoted or paraphrased. At verse 1 it holds Midrash Mishlei 22:1, with Midrash Tanchuma, Vayakhel 1:2. At verse 2 it holds Ein Yaakov, Temurah 2:5, with Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Amalek 4:34. At verse 3 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 47:2 and Bamidbar Rabbah 10:13. At verse 4 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 24:2, with Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 1:3:11. At verse 5 it holds Avodah Zarah 3b:17 and Bava Batra 144b:6. At verse 6 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 72:1, with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Kiddushin 1:6. At verse 7 it holds Bava Batra 10a:15 and Bava Batra 171b:10. At verse 9 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 21:15, with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Nedarim 4:2. At verse 10 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 41:8, with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yevamot 6:12. At verse 11 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 15:23, with Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Beha'alotcha 26:1. At verse 12 it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Bereshit 5:5. At verse 13 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 39:2 and Devarim Rabbah 8:6. At verse 14 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 2:23, with Ein Yaakov, Shabbat 2:30. At verse 15 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 14:6 and Bamidbar Rabbah 14:7. At verse 16 it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Chayei Sarah 3. At verse 17 it holds Chagigah 15b:7, with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Khagigah 2:26. At verse 18 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 23:6, with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Eiruvin 5:6. At verse 20 it holds Eikhah Rabbah 3:1, with Ein Yaakov, Megillah 1:10. At verse 21 it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Bo 2:2. At verses 22 to 23 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 38:2. At verse 23 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 1:9. At verse 27 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 2:17. At verse 28 it holds Jerusalem Talmud Peah 5:5:1. At verse 29 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 14:1. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and it is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Proverbs 22:1:1 to 22:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Proverbs 22:9:1 and 22:12:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Proverbs 22:15:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/proverbs/22.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; The book dossier, src/components/book/dossier-content/proverbs.ts, for the headings and the shape of the book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A Good Name, and the Child Trained in the Way He Should Go
Proverbs 22:1-2
A good name is more desirable: The chapter opens by valuing a reputation earned by character over wealth, "A good name is more desirable than great riches." The rich and the poor have this in common, that "The LORD is Maker of them all," which levels the two at their root.
Proverbs 22:1
“A good name is more excellent than money, and good favor is better than heaps of silver. Faith itself redounds to itself, sufficiently rich and more than rich in its possession. There is nothing which is not the possession of the wise person except what is contrary to virtue, and wherever he goes he finds all things to be his. The whole world is his possession, since he uses it all as his own.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · LETTER 15patristic
The LORD is Maker of them all: Bede reads the shared Maker as a guard against two faults, scorn of the poor and contempt of the rich. Each bears the work of God. Adam Clarke adds that in God's order the rich and the poor live side by side and help each other.
Proverbs 22:2
“The rich and poor meet together - עשיר ashir the opulent, whether in money, land, or property; רש rash, the man that is destitute of these, and lives by his labor, whether a handicraftsman, or one that tills the ground. In the order of God, the rich and the poor live together, and are mutually helpful to each other.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 22:3-5
The prudent see danger and take cover: r, but the simple keep going and suffer the consequences." Humility and the fear of the LORD bring "wealth and honor and life." Thorns and snares lie on the path of the perverse, and he who guards his soul stays far from them.
Proverbs 22:3
“A prudent man foreseeth the evil - God in mercy has denied man the knowledge of futurity; but in its place he has given him hope and prudence. By hope he is continually expecting and anticipating good; by prudence he derives and employs means to secure it. His experience shows him that there are many natural evils in a current state, the course of which he can neither stem nor divert: prudence shows him beforehand the means he may use to step out of their way, and hide himself.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The rewards of humility: John Gill reports a second way of reading the line, with the fear of the LORD as the reward that humility receives. The Targum takes it so. On that reading the humble man is blessed with the fear of the LORD itself, beside the wealth and honor and life.
Proverbs 22:4
“By humility and the fear of the Lord,.... Some render it, "the reward of humility, which is the fear of the Lord" (r); so the Targum; an humble man is blessed with it.”
Thorns and snares lie on the path: The thorns and snares return to the picture of verse 3, where the prudent see danger and take cover. Guarding the soul means keeping distance. The perverse walk a road that wounds and traps them, and the careful man stays clear of it.
Proverbs 22:5
“Thorns and snares - Various difficulties, trials, and sufferings.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Train up a child in the way: Some read it as God's guarantee attached to faithful upbringing, and others as observed wisdom stating the ordinary tendency of things, since Scripture records exceptions. Both agree on its plain force, that the way a child is directed young shapes the way he is inclined to go.
Proverbs 22:6
“Thus, here also it calls him a new child who was reborn through the washing of regeneration and educated and made childlike, who is made fit for the kingdom of heaven through this process in the same way. The book of Proverbs, therefore, provides training which imparts perception and understanding to the recently born child who is hungry for rational and genuine milk: a perception of present realities but an understanding of future realities.”
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · Homily on the Beginning of Proverbs 13patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 22:6
“Train up a child in the way he should go - The Hebrew of this clause is curious: חנך לנער על פי דרכו chanoch lannaar al pi darco, “Initiate the child at the opening (the mouth) of his path.” When he comes to the opening of the way of life, being able to walk alone, and to choose; stop at this entrance, and begin a series of instructions, how he is to conduct himself in every step he takes.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 22:7-9
The rich rule over the poor: r, and the borrower is slave to the lender," debt itself a form of servitude. He who sows injustice will reap disaster. A generous man who shares his bread with the poor "will be blessed," the opposite of the exploitation verse 7 describes.
Proverbs 22:7
“The rich ruieth over the poor - So it is in the order of God, and may be a blessing to both.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
He who sows injustice will reap disaster: Injustice is sown like seed, and disaster is its crop. The rod of his fury is the power the unjust man uses against others. That rod is destroyed, and the harvest turns on the one who sowed it.
Proverbs 22:8
“He that soweth iniquity - The crop must be according to the seed. If a man sow thistle seed, is it likely he shall reap wheat? If he sow to the flesh, shall he not of the flesh reap destruction?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 22:8
“The rod of his anger - That with which he smites others (compare Isa 14:6). The King James Version describes the final impotence of the wrath of the wicked.”
A generous man will be blessed: Adam Clarke reads the generous man as one whose heart looks out through his eye for anyone in want. The merciful heart is blessed even when the hand has little. Bede hears the verse again in the Judge's welcome to the merciful at the last judgment.
Proverbs 22:9
“A bountiful eye - One that disposes him to help all that he sees to be in want; the bountiful eye means the bountiful heart; for the heart looks through the eye. The merciful heart, even when the hand has little or nothing to give, shall be blessed of the Lord.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 22:10-12
Drive out the mocker, and conflict: t will depart," so strife has a cause that can be removed. He who loves a pure heart and gracious lips "will have the king for a friend." "The LORD’s eyes keep watch over knowledge," and He frustrates the words of the faithless.
Proverbs 22:10
If some persist in their disobedience, finding fault in secret and not openly stating their grievance, thus becoming the cause of quarreling in the community and undermining the authority of the commands given, they should be dismissed from the community as teachers of disobedience and rebellion. For the Scripture says, "Cast out the scoffer from the council, and contention shall go out with him" and also, "Put away the evil one from yourselves, for a little leaven corrupts the whole lump."
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · The Long Rules 47patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 22:10
“Cast out the scorner,.... That makes a mock at sin, a jest at religion, and scoffs at all good men, and everything serious and spiritual; cast such an one out of all company and conversation; out of the family, as mocking Ishmael was cast out of Abraham's family; and out of the church, and all religious societies.”
He who loves a pure heart: Bede lifts the king of this verse to God himself, the King and Creator. The verse joins the inward heart and the outward speech. Bede applies it to the preacher whose words come from a pure heart, and he counts such a man among the friends of God.
The LORD’s eyes keep watch over knowledge: Adam Clarke takes the LORD's watch over knowledge as providence, seen in the keeping of the sacred writings and of many ancient authors. The second line shows the same eyes at work in judgment. True knowledge is kept, and faithless words are frustrated.
Proverbs 22:12
“The eyes of the Lord - (the Divine providence) preserve knowledge - This providence has been wonderfully manifested in preserving the sacred oracles, and in preserving many ancient authors, which have been of great use to the civil interests of man.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 22:13-14
The slacker says: there is a lion outside and he will be slain in the streets, excuse-making. "The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit," a real danger after the invented one. The one who "is under the wrath of the LORD will fall into it."
Proverbs 22:13
“The point of the satire is the ingenuity with which the slothful man devises the most improbable alarms. He hears that “there is a lion without,” i. e., in the broad open country; he is afraid of being slain in the very streets of the city.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 22:13
“THIS slothful man seems to cherish that one dread of his about lions as if it were his favorite aversion and he felt it to be too much trouble to invent another excuse. Perhaps he hugs it to his soul all the more because it is a home-born fear, conjured up by his own imagination, and as mothers are said to love their weakest children best, so is he fondest of this most imbecile of excuses! At any rate, it serves him for a passable excuse for laziness, and that is what he wants.”
The mouth of an adulteress: Matthew Henry reads the second line as the wrath of the LORD already at work. God withdraws his restraining grace, and the man falls into the deep pit as the punishment of other sins. Adam Clarke compares 23:27, where the same pit appears.
Proverbs 22:14
“Dread them; have nothing to do with them; for, 1. Those who abandon themselves to that sin give proof that they are abandoned of God: it is a deep pit, which those fall into that are abhorred of the Lord, who leaves them to themselves to enter into that temptation, and takes off the bridle of his restraining grace, to punish them for other sins.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Proverbs 22:14
“The mouth of one speaking ill is a great pit, a steep precipice for the innocent, but steeper for one of ill will. An innocent person, though easily credulous, falls quickly, but when he has fallen rises again. The slanderer is thrown headlong by his own acts, from which he will never emerge or escape.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · LETTER 15patristic
Proverbs 22:14
“The mouth of strange women is a deep pit - In Pro 23:27, he says, A whore is a Deep Ditch:, oud a strange woman is a Narrow Pit. The allusions in these three places are too plain to be misunderstood. Virgil’s hell has been adduced in illustration: - - Sate sanguine Divum, Tros Anchisiade, facilis decensus Averni; Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis: Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras, Hoc Opus, hic Labor est. Pauci quos aequus amavit Jupiter, aut ardens evexit ad aethera virtus, Dis geniti potuere. Virg.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 22:15-16
Foolishness is bound up in the heart: t of a child," the reason the training of verse 6 is needed at all. The rod of discipline drives it far from him. Oppressing the poor to enrich oneself or giving gifts to the rich "will surely lead to poverty."
Oppressing the poor to enrich oneself: The verse names two roads to gain, oppressing the poor and giving gifts to the rich. Both surely lead to poverty. John Gill marks this verse as the close of the book's second part, with a new section opening at verse 17.
Proverbs 22:16
“He that oppresseth the poor - He who, in order to obtain the favor of the rich and great, either robs or cheats the poor, to make those men presents; or gives in presents to them, for the sake of honor and reputation, what he should have given to the poor, shall surely come to want.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 22:16
“Better, He who oppresses the poor for his own profit gives. (i. e., will, in the common course of things, be compelled to give) to a rich man, and that only to his own loss. Ill-gotten gains do not prosper, and only expose the oppressor to extortion and violence in his turn.”
The Words of the Wise Begin: Excellent Things Written for Thee
Proverbs 22:17-21
Incline your ear and hear the words: s of the wise" opens the book's third named section, after 1:1 and 10:1. Part of the section runs close to an Egyptian text, the Instruction of Amenemope. The traditional position holds these sayings as inspired wisdom in their own right.
Proverbs 22:17
“This is the commencement of a new and entirely distinct section, opening, after the fashion of Pro 3:1, Pro 3:21; Pro 4:1; Pro 7:1; with a general exhortation Pro 22:17-21 and passing on to special precepts. The “words of the wise” may be a title to the section: compare Pro 24:23. The general characteristics of this section appear to be (1) a less close attention to the laws of parallelism, and (2) a tendency to longer and more complicated sentences. Compare the Introduction to Proverbs.”
keep them within you: Keeping the words is pleasing to the one who keeps them. Matthew Henry compares them to a master's lessons to his scholar, given wholly for the scholar's good. Kept within you and constantly on your lips, the words of the wise serve the hearer.
Proverbs 22:18
“The advantage designed us by them. The excellent things which God has written to us are not like the commands which the master gives his servant, which are all intended for the benefit of the master, but like those which the master gives his scholar, which are all intended for the benefit of the scholar.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
your trust may be in the LORD: Verse 19 gives the purpose of the whole section of sayings, trust in the LORD. John Gill reads the words of the wise as the means by which faith first begins and is then increased and made firm. The pointed yes, you makes the lesson personal.
Proverbs 22:19
“That thy trust may be in the Lord,.... By means of the words of the wise, or doctrines of the Gospel, faith in Christ is first had; men are directed and encouraged hereby to believe in him; and by the same means faith is increased, confirmed, and established.”
thirty sayings about counsel and knowledge: Readers render the phrase thirty sayings in several ways. John Gill reports three things and a threefold way, and Albert Barnes gives excellent things or, from another reading, long ago. Origen took the threefold sense as a charge to keep these written sayings of counsel and knowledge in the heart.
Proverbs 22:20
“Solomon counsels that what we read "be transcribed in the heart in a threefold manner." I shall make known to your ears that which occurs to my mind, even beyond the things that we have said, and you yourself [should] do what is written: "Let one speak and the rest judge." Therefore, as I speak what I perceive, you consider and judge if it is correct or not correct.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Homilies on Joshua 21patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 22:20
“Have not I written to thee excellent things,.... In the Scriptures. Some render it, "three things" (c); and think that Solomon refers to the three divisions of the Scriptures among the Jews, the law, the prophets, and holy writings; so Jarchi; but some of those writings then were not: or to the three books wrote by him; the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. Others render it, "in a threefold way" (d), as the Targum and several versions; that is, in various ways, in different forms and styles, in order the better to inform and instruct.”
to show you true and reliable words: The learner is pictured as a messenger who must carry a sound answer back to those who sent him. Albert Barnes sets the verse beside 10:26. A man who has learned the certainty of true words keeps that truth in whatever others commit to him.
Proverbs 22:21
“To them that send unto thee - Better as in the margin; compare Pro 10:26. The man who has learned the certainty of the words of truth will learn to observe it in all that men commit to him.”
Proverbs 22:22-23
Do not rob a poor man because: e he is poor, and do not crush the afflicted at the gate" names the two easiest targets. The warning comes with a promise, for "the LORD will take up their case" as their advocate and "will plunder those who rob them."
Proverbs 22:22
“Neither oppress the afflicted in the gate - In judgment let the poor have a fair hearing; and let him not be borne down because he is poor. The reader has often seen that courts of justice were held at the gates of cities in the East.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 22:22
“The aggravations of the sin. If their inability, by reason of their poverty, to right themselves, embolden us to rob them, it is so much the worse; this is robbing the poor because he is poor; this is not only a base and cowardly thing, to take advantage against a man because he is helpless, but it is unnatural, and proves men worse than beasts.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the LORD will take up their case: This verse gives the reason for the warning of verse 22. The poor who have no one to stand for them at the gate have the LORD as their advocate. The one who robs them is robbed in turn, and the penalty matches the crime.
Proverbs 22:23
“For the Lord will plead their cause - Wo therefore to them that oppress them, for they will have God, not the poor, to deal with.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 22:24-27
Do not make friends with an angry man: The warning against making friends with an angry or hot-tempered man concerns chosen company, and the danger is contagion. Giving pledges and putting up security for debts repeats the book's recurring warning. The consequence is plain, the debtor's last possession seized for a debt he never ran up himself.
Proverbs 22:24
A secluded and remote habitation also contributes to the removal of distraction from the soul. Living among those who are unscrupulous and disdainful in their attitude toward an exact observance of the commandments is dangerous, as is shown by the following words of Solomon: "Do not be a friend to an angry man, and do not walk with a furious man, lest perhaps you learn his ways and take snares unto your soul."
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · The Long Rules 5patristic
you may learn his ways: The danger in the angry man's company is imitation. John Gill notes that evil ways are learned quickly, and he points to Israel learning the works of the nations among whom they were mingled. The snare is a temper caught from a friend.
Do not be one who gives pledges: Putting up security for another man's debts is a warning the book gives more than once. The pledge makes one man answer for a debt that another ran up. Verse 27 shows how far that loss can reach.
Proverbs 22:26
“That strike hands - See on Pro 6:1 (note); Pro 11:15 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 22:26
“Strike hands - i. e., Bind themselves as surety for what another owes (compare the margin reference).”
why should your bed be taken: Albert Barnes identifies the one who takes the bed as the creditor who holds the pledge. Seizing a debtor's goods for payment seems to have become common in his reading, though Exodus 22:27 forbade it. The guarantor who cannot pay loses even his bed.
Proverbs 22:28-29
Do not move an ancient boundary stone: , a rule that protects inherited land under the law of Deuteronomy 19:14 and 27:17. The chapter closes on skilled and faithful work, for "He will be stationed in the presence of kings" and "will not stand before obscure men."
Proverbs 22:28
“Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set. Or, "the ancient border" or "boundary" (n); by which lands, estates, and inheritances, were marked, bounded, and distinguished; set by ancestors in agreement with their neighbours; which to remove was contrary to a law, and a curse is denounced upon those that did it, Deu 19:14; and was always reckoned a very heinous crime in early times; See Gill on Job 24:2. This was so sacred a thing among the Romans, that they had a deity which presided over those bounds, and had its name from them.”
2 more voices on this verse
Proverbs 22:28
We do not permit the faith or the symbol of the faith defined by our holy fathers assembled in their day in Nicea to be shaken by anyone, and we do not trust ourselves or others to change a word of what was laid down there, or to depart from a single syllable of it. For we remember the one who said, "Do not alter the everlasting boundaries which your fathers set."
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Letter to John of Antioch 39:7patristic
Proverbs 22:28
“Remove not the ancient landmark - Do not take the advantage, in ploughing or breaking up a field contiguous to that of thy neighbor, to set the dividing stones farther into his field that thou mayest enlarge thy own. Take not what is not thy own in any case. Let all ancient divisions, and the usages connected with them, be held sacred.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
a man skilled in his work?: Skill in work carries a man into the presence of kings. Albert Barnes reads the verse as a word about gifts. A quick and ready mind is meant to lead to high office, and it belongs to tasks greater than the obscure can do.
Proverbs 22:29
“The gift of a quick and ready intellect is to lead to high office, it is not to be wasted on a work to which the obscure are adequate.”
Keep studying
Studies7
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; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 21.