Proverbschapter 4
27 verses · Solomon and others · 10th to 5th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
She will set a garland of grace on your head; she will present you with a crown of beauty.”
Introduction
Solomon and others, Wisdom and poetry, Proverbs Overview.
This chapter is one of the father's lessons that open Proverbs, and the book's heading gives it to Solomon. It is the chapter where the teacher tells his sons what his own father once taught him, so the instruction reaches three generations. On the traditional reading that places the father's charge in the house of David. Listen for the call to acquire wisdom whatever it costs, and for the two roads lit in different ways. Notice how the last lesson moves through the parts of the body one after another. Read it as a family handing down its most valuable possession.
Context
- Who
- Sons receiving instruction that is now three generations deep
- What
- Three short lessons in which a father passes on his own father's teaching, contrasts the path of the righteous with the way of the wicked and calls his son to guard his heart.
- Where
- A household in Jerusalem, with pictures drawn from the watch on a city wall and from walking a hillside track by day and by night.
- When
- The reign of Solomon, about 970 to 931 BC, by the heading at Proverbs 1:1; the book reached its final form later, since Proverbs 25:1 names the men of Hezekiah as copyists.
- Why
- To show that wisdom is an inheritance handed down in a family and that a son must guard his inner life, his speech, his eyes and his steps.
Historical context
This chapter quotes a lesson inside a lesson: "I was my father's son… he taught me also, and said unto me." On the traditional reading that is Solomon repeating David's charge to him, which matches the scene in 1 Kings 2 where the dying king tells his son to keep the ways of the LORD. Wisdom in Israel moved down a family line, not through a school building.
Show the rest of the historical context, 2 more paragraphs
"Keep thy heart with all diligence" uses guard-duty language. A walled town posted men at the gate and on the wall through the night in watches, and the verb here is what those men did. In Hebrew thinking the heart is not the seat of feelings but the place where a person decides, so the instruction is to post a sentry on your own will.
The two roads are lit differently on purpose. The path of the just is compared to the light before dawn, which in that country comes up fast and grows until full day. The way of the wicked is "as darkness: they know not at what they stumble", an accurate description of walking a stony hillside track with no moon and no lamp.
Significance
The first hearers were being shown that a family can hand down something more valuable than land. David gave Solomon a throne; the chapter says the words were the real inheritance.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And the closing commands go body part by body part, heart, mouth, eyes, feet, because Israel's teaching never stayed abstract. Wisdom was something you did with your face and your feet, or you did not have it.
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 three weekly portions. Under the tenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Emor 17:1 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Emor 24:1. Under the thirteenth it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Sh'lach 31:1, and under the twenty-third Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Toldot 17. Emor, Sh'lach and Toldot stand in the site's table of portions.
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. The father of the first verse he reads as God, and the speaker of the second as a prophet who speaks as God's agent and is like His mouth (Rashi on Proverbs 4:1:1 and 4:2:1).
The third and fourth verses carry two readings, and Rashi gives both. By the first, which he takes from Rabbi Joseph Kara, Solomon answers a charge. A reader might say he hated people because he warned them against what they desire. So he tells of the father who loved him and chastened him with these words (Rashi on Proverbs 4:3:1 and 4:4:1). By the second, the father is God, who rested His spirit on the prophet. Rashi supports it from 2 Samuel 7:14, where God calls Solomon a son (Rashi on Proverbs 4:4:1).
His note on the beginning of wisdom describes the order of Jewish learning. "At the beginning of your wisdom, learn from others and acquire for yourself the tradition from the mouth of the teacher" (Rashi on Proverbs 4:7:1). Only afterwards does the student concentrate on the reasons by himself and derive one thing from another. The next verse he reads as review. The word means to search wisdom out minutely, like a vintager who goes through the vineyard again for the single grapes (Rashi on Proverbs 4:8:1). Holding fast to discipline is grasping the Torah (Rashi on Proverbs 4:13:1).
The guarding of the heart he reads as a rule for all the commandments. A person guards his heart from whatever the Torah commanded, whether the sin is minor or grave (Rashi on Proverbs 4:23:1). The crooked speech to be put away he reads as conduct. Do nothing for which people will slander you (Rashi on Proverbs 4:24:1). The way of the wicked is dark because the obstacle comes suddenly and they do not know how to beware of it (Rashi on Proverbs 4:19:1).
The corpus carries six further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. Two are further notes of Rashi, at Proverbs 4:10:1 and 4:20:1. Two stand at Metzudat David on Proverbs 4:5:1 and 4:17:1, one at Ibn Ezra on Proverbs 4:11:1, and one at Malbim on Proverbs 4:21:1.
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 it holds Midrash Tehillim 119:2. On the second it holds Avodah Zarah 19b:10 and Avot DeRabbi Natan 39:1. On the third it holds Aggadat Bereshit 5:1, and on the fourth Ein Yaakov, Niddah 3:6 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Vayassa 1:16. On the fifth it holds Berakhot 56b:14 and Jerusalem Talmud Horayot 3:5:9.
The getting of wisdom draws the Talmud. On the seventh verse the corpus holds Megillah 11a:4, and on the eighth Berakhot 48a:5 with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Berakhot 7:4. On the ninth it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 11:6, and on the eleventh Bamidbar Rabbah 11:1 with Shemot Rabbah 30:5. On the twelfth it holds Midrash Tehillim 23:2, and on the fifteenth Ein Yaakov and the Glick Edition, both at Yevamot 2:2.
The two ways carry the rest. On the eighteenth verse the corpus holds Aggadat Bereshit 46:3 and Bamidbar Rabbah 13:5, and on the nineteenth Midrash Tehillim 27:1. On the twentieth it holds Shemot Rabbah 27:9, and on the twenty-second Bamidbar Rabbah 5:8 with Devarim Rabbah 8:4. On the twenty-fifth it holds Megillah 18b:13, on the twenty-sixth Devarim Rabbah 6:2, and on the twenty-seventh Midrash Mishlei 4:5. 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 4:1:1 to 4:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY, and Rashi on Proverbs 4:10:1 and 4:20:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Proverbs 4:5:1 and 4:17:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Proverbs 4:11:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Proverbs 4:21:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/proverbs/4.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 Emor, Sh'lach and Toldot in its PARASHOT table.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
What My Father Taught Me: Get Wisdom, Get Understanding
Proverbs 4:1-4
Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction: The appeal doubles as autobiography: Solomon was once the son taught by his father, and was told, “Let your heart lay hold of my words”. Three generations stand inside these four verses, and the doubling shows that wisdom is received before it can be given.
Proverbs 4:1
“The words “ye children” indicate as usual a new section returning, after the break of Pro 3:27-35, to the old strain of fatherly counsel.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Proverbs 4:1
“We have reason to think that thousands have got more good by Solomon's proverbs than his own son did, to whom they seem to have been dedicated. Let all young people, in the days of their childhood and youth, take pains to get knowledge and grace, for that is their learning age, and then their minds are formed and seasoned.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
For I give you sound teaching: Sound teaching is leqah, a lesson a father received and now gives to his sons. The directive is torah, his teaching given with the weight of law, and Hippolytus of Rome notes that it is called a good gift. Sons who abandon it lose the gift.
Proverbs 4:2
“It must be noted, that he names the law a good gift, on account of the man who takes gifts into his bosom unrighteously. And he forsakes the law who transgresses it; the law, namely, of which he speaks, or which he has kept.”
Hippolytus of Rome · written before 235 · Hippolytus Exegetical Fragmentspatristic
the only child of my mother: Solomon was a tender son to his father and the only child of his mother, though Bathsheba bore four sons by 1 Chronicles 3:5. Only child marks the one most loved. Matthew Henry compares Isaac, the son on whom the covenant rested.
Proverbs 4:3
“Probably the words of Solomon himself, who looks back from his glorious throne and his matured wisdom to the training which was the starting point. The part taken by Bathsheba in 1 Kings 1, no less than the friendship between her and Nathan, indicates that a mother’s training might well have laid the foundation of the king’s future wisdom. Among the Israelites and Egyptians alone, of the nations of the old world, was the son’s reverence for the mother placed side by side with that which he owed to his father.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 4:3
“For I was my father's son,.... Or, "a son to my father" (p); so Solomon was to God, his heavenly Father, 2Sa 7:14; which Jarchi observes, and gives as the sense of this place: but his father David is meant, whose son he was; though he was not his only one, he had others besides him.”
The Targum and the Septuagint make both father and mother the teachers, and John Gill notes that the Hebrew has the singular, the father alone. David's charge at 1 Kings 2:2-4 holds the same words. Life comes by keeping the commands.
Proverbs 4:4
“He taught me also, and said - Open thy heart to receive my instructions - receive them with affection; when heard, retain and practice them; and thou shalt live - the great purpose of thy being brought into the world shall be accomplished in thee.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 4:4
“He taught me also, and said unto me,.... The Targum is, "they taught me,'' his father and his mother; and so the Septuagint version, "who said and taught me;'' and the Arabic version, "they both taught me, and said unto me;'' but in the Hebrew it is singular, and is restrained to the father.”
Proverbs 4:5-9
do not forget my words or turn from them: Wisdom is personified as a bride to be acquired and embraced, exalted so that she in turn exalts the one who holds her fast. The “garland of grace” and “crown of beauty” of verse 9 are court language, fitting a father who instructs a son born to reign.
Proverbs 4:5
“Get wisdom - True religion is essential to thy happiness; never forget its teachings, nor go aside from the path it prescribes.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 4:5
“Almost all bodily excellences alter with age, and while wisdom alone increases all other functions decay. Fasting, sleeping on the ground, moving from place to place, hospitality to travelers, pleading for the poor, perseverance in standing at prayer, the visitation of the sick, manual labor to supply money for almsgiving—all acts, in short, of which the body is the medium decrease with its decay.Now there are young men and men of riper age who, by toil and ardent study, as well as by holiness of life and constant prayer to God, have obtained knowledge.”
Jerome · written before 420 · LETTER 52.3patristic
love her, and she will guard you: Wisdom is pictured as a guard who keeps the one who loves her. Origen of Alexandria notes that Scripture uses the word for the love of desire, the word it usually passes over, to draw souls to Wisdom. Guard in verse 23 is the same verb.
Proverbs 4:6
Therefore, in both these and in many other places, you will find that the divine Scripture avoids the word "love" and inserted "charity" and "affection." Nonetheless, here and there he uses the proper word "love" and invites and stirs up souls to him, as when he speaks in Proverbs about Wisdom: "Fall in love with her and she will save you; embrace her and she will exalt you; honor her that she may embrace you."
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Commentary on the Song of Songs, Prologuepatristic
Wisdom is supreme: Supreme translates reshith, the first or chief thing, the word that opens Genesis 1:1. Adam Clarke reads it as the first principle, to know the true God and what He requires. Acquire is the verb for buying wisdom at whatever cost.
Proverbs 4:7
“Wisdom is the principal thing,.... Or principal, one; the principal of persons and things; the principal of persons, angels or men: Christ is superior to angels, having a more excellent name and nature than they; he is the God, the Creator, and head of them, and is above them in the human nature; he is superior to men, to the greatest of men, he is King of kings and Lord of lords, and to the best of men the saints.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 4:7
“Wisdom is the principal thing - ראשית חכמה reshith chochmah, “wisdom is the principle.” It is the punctum saliens in all religion to know the true God, and what he requires of man, and for what he has made man; and to this must be added, under the Christian dispensation, to know Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, and for what end He was sent, the necessity of his being sent, and the nature of that salvation which he has bought by his own blood.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Prize her, and she will exalt you: Prize her translates a rare verb for lifting up, so the one who exalts Wisdom is exalted. Gregory of Nyssa reads the embrace as marriage to Wisdom, for which a man prepares like a guest wearing the wedding garment of Matthew 22:11. She will honor the one who honors her.
Proverbs 4:8
“If a man is going to carry out the advice of Solomon and take for helpmate and life-companion that true Wisdom of which he says, "Love her, and she shall keep thee," "honour her, that she may embrace thee," then he will prepare himself in a manner worthy of such a love, so as to feast with all the joyous wedding guests in spotless raiment, and not be cast forth, while claiming to sit at that feast, for not having put on the wedding garment.”
Gregory of Nyssa · written before 395 · On Virginity 20patristic
The garland of grace returns from 1:9, where it was the father's teaching worn on the head. John Gill reads the gift as grace upon grace, the increase of grace given to those who hold Wisdom fast. Isaiah 62:3 pictures Zion as a crown in the LORD's hand.
Two Paths: the Dawning Light and the Deep Darkness
Proverbs 4:10-13
the years of your life will be many: The father turns from wisdom's rewards to wisdom's road, promising that “your steps will not be impeded”. Instruction is to be gripped and kept, because “it is your life,” language stronger than the “love her” of 4:6. The unhindered path pictures a life ordered by wisdom.
Proverbs 4:10
“There is only one way of truth, but different paths from different places join it, just like tributaries flowing into a perennial river. So these are really inspired words: "Hear, my son, and accept my words, to have many paths of life. I am teaching you the ways of wisdom, so that its springs may never fail you"—that is, those which spurt from the same soil. He is not merely affirming that there is more than one path of salvation for a single righteous person. He adds that there are plenty of righteous people and plenty of routes for them.”
Clement of Alexandria · written before 215 · The Stromata Book 1patristic
I will lead you on straight paths: The Hebrew puts both verbs in the past, taught and led, so the son is reminded of lessons already given. The way of wisdom is one road, and many straight paths run into it. Verse 12 promises room to run.
Proverbs 4:11
"Venture not into the company of those that are infected with the plague, no, not though thou think thyself guarded with an antidote." 2. If at any time we are inveigled into an evil way, we must hasten out of it. "If, ere thou wast aware, thou didst enter in at the gate, because it was wide, go not on in the way of evil men.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
your steps will not be impeded: Impeded pictures steps hemmed into a narrow place, and stumble pictures a runner's fall. Matthew Henry recalls David at 2 Samuel 24:14, hemmed in by three hard choices. Wisdom gives room to walk and to run.
Proverbs 4:12
“That our steps be not straitened when we go, that we bring not ourselves into such straits as David was in, 2 Sam. xxiv. Those that make God's word their rule shall walk at liberty, and be at ease in themselves.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Hold on to instruction: Charles Spurgeon reads the grip on instruction as faith, which takes hold of what God teaches and keeps a firm grip. The one who guards instruction guards his own life. Deuteronomy 30:20 says the same of the LORD.
Proverbs 4:13
“Take fast hold of instruction,.... Not the law, as Jarchi and Gersom interpret it; but the instruction of wisdom, the doctrine of Christ or the Gospel; see Pro 8:1; which is an instruction into the mind and will of God, concerning the salvation of men; into the grace of God, showing that salvation, in all its branches, is of pure grace; into the person and offices of Christ, and into the business of salvation through him; into the doctrines of peace, pardon, righteousness, and eternal life by him.”
2 more voices on this verse
Proverbs 4:13
“Take fast hold - החזק hachazek, seize it strongly, and keep the hold; and do this as for life. Learn all thou canst, retain what thou hast learnt, and keep the reason continually in view - it is for thy life.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 4:13
“FAITH may be well described as taking hold upon Divine instruction. God has condescended to teach us and it is ours to hear with attention and receive His words. And while we are hearing, faith comes, even that faith which saves the soul. To take "fast hold" is an exhortation which concerns the strength, the reality, the heartiness and the truthfulness of faith—and the more of these the better. If to take hold is good, to take fast hold is better!”
Proverbs 4:14-17
Do not set foot on the path of the wicked: Four short commands pile up, “Avoid it; do not travel on it” and “Turn from it and pass on by,” urging distance over argument. The wicked in view “cannot sleep unless they do evil” and “they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence”.
Proverbs 4:14
“The heterodox are the "wicked," and the transgressors of the law are "evil men," whose "ways"-that is to say, their deeds-he bids us not enter.”
Hippolytus of Rome · written before 235 · Hippolytus Exegetical Fragmentspatristic
Turn from it and pass on by: Avoid it: John Gill notes the Vulgate's flee from it, and joins the verse to Paul's charge at 1 Thessalonians 5:22 to keep from evil. Joseph turned from that path and fled at Genesis 39:12. Distance is the defense.
they cannot sleep unless they do evil: Adam Clarke reads the night as the robber's working hours, when some plunder must be taken before sleep. Micah 2:1 pictures the same men plotting evil on their beds. The sweet sleep promised at 3:24 is kept from the wicked until they make someone fall.
Proverbs 4:16
“For they sleep not, except they have done mischief,.... Or they cannot sleep, as Jarchi and Gersom interpret it. Oftentimes they cannot sleep on their beds for devising mischief, their thoughts are so intensely set on contriving wicked schemes; and when they have so done, they cannot sleep until they have executed them; they are continually restless and uneasy day and night, like the troubled sea, constantly casting up mire and dirt.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 4:16
“Except they have done mischief - The night is their time for spoil and depredation. And they must gain some booty, before they go to rest. This I believe to be the meaning of the passage. I grant, also, that there may be some of so malevolent a disposition that they cannot be easy unless they can injure others, and are put to excessive pain when they perceive any man in prosperity, or receiving a kindness.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the bread of wickedness: Bread of wickedness can mean bread won by crime or wickedness eaten as daily food, and both fit the robbers of verse 16. Wine of violence is drink bought with plunder. Job 15:16 pictures a man who drinks up wrongdoing like water.
Proverbs 4:17
“For they eat the bread of wickedness - By privately stealing. And drink the wine of violence - By highway robbery.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 4:18-19
The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn: The two ways are light and dark. The growing light is the whole course of a godly life, small beginnings ripening toward a noon still ahead. The darkness of the wicked is blindness to their own danger, since a man in full dark cannot see what trips him.
Proverbs 4:18
“But the path of the just - The path of the wicked is gloomy, dark, and dangerous; that of the righteous is open, luminous, and instructive. This verse contains a fine metaphor; it refers to the sun rising above the horizon, and the increasing twilight, till his beams shine full upon the earth.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the darkest gloom: Darkest gloom is afelah, the thick darkness of the ninth plague at Exodus 10:22. Bede sets the verse beside 1 John 2:11, where the one who hates his brother walks in darkness and cannot tell where he is going. The stumble comes unseen.
Proverbs 4:19
“The way of the wicked is as darkness,.... They are in the darkness of sin, ignorance, error, and unbelief; their works are works of darkness; the way in which they are leads to eternal darkness, ruin, and misery, and so must be most uncomfortable and dangerous; they know not at what they stumble; they stumble at the word, which they are ignorant of, and at Christ, whom they have no knowledge of; and through the temptations of Satan and snares of the world, which they are not aware of, nor upon their guard against.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 4:19
“They fall into sin, but are not aware which way the temptation came by which they were overthrown, and therefore know not how to avoid it the next time. They fall into trouble, but never enquire wherefore God contends with them; they consider not that they do evil, nor what will be in the end of it, Ps. lxxxii. This is the way we are directed to shun.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Keep Thy Heart, For Out of It Are the Issues of Life
Proverbs 4:20-23
incline your ear to my sayings: The father returns to plain attention before the chapter's central command: “Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life”. The heart in Hebrew thought is the whole inner man. The springs of life are everything a person does and becomes, flowing out from that source.
Proverbs 4:20
“My son, attend to my words,.... Which go before and which follow after, his doctrines, instructions, cautions, and exhortations; incline thine ear unto my sayings; stoop and bow the ear; listen attentively to what is said, as being of the greatest moment and importance.”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 4:20
“7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. 8 Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. 9 She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
keep them within your heart: The eyes and the heart are the two keepers of the father's words, one watching and one holding. Matthew Henry reads the words as both food and medicine to the soul, like the tree of life at Revelation 22:2. Verse 22 names both gifts.
health to the whole body: Health translates marpe, a word for healing and remedy. Matthew Henry reads the whole body as the whole person, body and soul alike, kept in good condition by the words. A like promise stood at 3:8.
Proverbs 4:22
“We could not live without it; we may by faith live upon it. They are health to all their flesh, to the whole man, both body and soul; they help to keep both in good plight. They are health to all flesh, so the LXX.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Guard your heart with all diligence: Albert Barnes pictures the wells and springs of the East, guarded with all diligence. The heart is such a spring, and whatever taints it taints every stream of life that flows from it. Jesus teaches the same at Mark 7:21.
Proverbs 4:23
“Better, as in the margin, i. e., with more vigilance than men use over anything else. The words that follow carry on the same similitude. The fountains and wells of the East were watched over with special care. The heart is such a fountain, out of it flow the “issues” of life. Shall men let those streams be tainted at the fountain-head?”
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 4:23
“Living thus, let us watch constantly and, as it is written, keep our heart with all watchfulness, for we have terrible and crafty enemies, the wicked demons, and we wrestle against them, as the apostle said: "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness on high." LIFE OF ST.”
Athanasius of Alexandria · written before 373 · Life of St. Anthony 21patristic
Proverbs 4:24-27
Put away deception from your mouth: The instruction narrows from the heart to the body, mouth, eyes and feet, each told to hold a straight course. “Let your eyes look forward” pictures a traveler who keeps from glancing aside at every distraction. “Make a level path for your feet” asks for weighed, deliberate steps.
Proverbs 4:24
“A froward mouth - Beware of hastiness, anger, and rash speeches. And perverse lips - Do not delight in nor acquire the habit of contradicting and gainsaying; and beware of calumniating and backbiting your neighbor.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Proverbs 4:24
“Put away from thee a froward mouth,.... A mouth speaking froward and perverse things; things contrary to right reason, to the law of God, and Gospel of Christ; blasphemies against God or men; every thing that is untrue, unchaste, unjust, foolish, and filthy; all swearing, lying, and everything that is repugnant to truth and justice.”
Proverbs 4:24
“Speech turned from its true purpose, the wandering eye that leads on to evil, action hasty and inconsiderate, are the natural results where we do not “above all keeping keep our heart” Pro 4:23.”
Proverbs 4:24
“Turn it from beholding vanity; let thy eye be single and not divided; let thy intentions be sincere and uniform, and look not asquint at any by-end." We must keep our eye upon our Master, and be careful to approve ourselves to him; keep our eye upon our rule, and conform to that; keep our eye upon our mark, the prize of the high calling, and direct all towards that.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
fix your gaze straight ahead: Cyril of Alexandria applies the verse to doctrine, the eyes held straight ahead on the teaching of Scripture. Hebrews 12:2 fixes the gaze on Jesus. Straight ahead lies the level path of verse 26.
Proverbs 4:25
“It is necessary that, before other things, you have a sound mind within yourselves and that you be mindful of holy Scripture addressing you and saying, "Let your eyes look straight ahead." … To slip away from the rightness of holy doctrines would be nothing else except to sleep in death. We depart from this rightness when we do not follow the divinely inspired Scriptures.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · LETTER 55:3patristic
Make a level path for your feet: Make a level path translates a verb for weighing or leveling, and the Septuagint reads make straight paths for your feet. John Gill notes that Hebrews 12:13 takes up the Septuagint wording. Sure ways follow a level road.
Proverbs 4:26
We remember holy Scripture crying out, "Make straight the path for your feet, and direct your ways." They who honor the straight paths "run toward the goal to the prize of the heavenly calling in Christ." But those who pay no heed to the apostolic and evangelical tradition and honor the newer, useless and truly ridiculous invention of their own mind, let them hear from all, "Pass not beyond the ancient bounds which your fathers have set."
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · LETTER 31:3patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 4:26
“Ponder the path of thy feet,.... Consider well what path it is, whether right or wrong; or weigh it in the balances of thought, as Aben Ezra; or rather in the balances of the word, and see whether it agrees with that or not. The Septuagint version is, "make straight paths for thy feet"; to which the author of the epistle to the Hebrews seems to have respect, Heb 12:13; and let all thy walls be established; so as to walk on steadily, constantly, uniformly, and not be easily moved out of the ways of religion and truth.”
Do not swerve to the right or to the left: Gregory of Nazianzus calls the straight course the King's highway, kept without turning to the right or the left. Israel promised Edom at Numbers 20:17 to keep to that road, and Moses gives the same charge at Deuteronomy 5:32. The feet stay on the way, and evil lies off it.
Proverbs 4:27
“We must really walk on the King's highway and take care not to turn aside from it either to the right hand or to the left, as the Proverbs say. For such is the case with our passions, and such in this matter is the task of the good shepherd, if he is to know properly the souls of his flock, and to guide them according to the methods of a pastoral care which is right and just, and worthy of our true Shepherd.”
Gregory of Nazianzus · written before 390 · In Defense of His Flight, Oration 2:34patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Proverbs 4:27
“The ever-recurring image of the straight road on which no one ever loses his way represents here as elsewhere the onward course through life of the man who seeks and finds wisdom.”
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament 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; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1418: “The Holdfast” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata Book 1; Cyril of Alexandria, LETTER 55:3; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; Gregory of Nazianzus, IN DEFENSE OF HIS FLIGHT, ORATION 2:34; Gregory of Nyssa, ON VIRGINITY 20; Hippolytus of Rome, Hippolytus Exegetical Fragments; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, PROLOGUE.