Proverbs9chapter 9

Proverbs 9:1

“Wisdom hath builded her house,.... Or "Wisdoms": of which see Pro 1:20; Christ, the Wisdom of God, is meant, in whom and from whom all wisdom is. Various are the opinions concerning this house built by him. Some take it to be the whole circle of sciences, and the seven pillars to be the seven liberal ones, as Aben Ezra; though rather, as others, it may design the schools of the prophets, in which young men were trained up in the knowledge of divine and spiritual things.”

Proverbs 9:1

“A parable full of beauty, and interesting in its parallelism to the parables of our Lord Mat 22:3-4; Luk 14:16. Seven pillars - The number is chosen as indicating completeness and perfection. God revealing Himself in nature, resting in His work, entering into covenant with human beings - these were the ideas conveyed by it.”

Proverbs 9:1

“The church is Wisdom's house, to which she invites her guests, supported by the power and promise of God, as by seven pillars. Probably, Solomon refers to the temple which he himself had lately built for the service of religion, and to which he would persuade people to resort, both to worship God and to receive the instructions of Wisdom.”

Proverbs 9:1

“God the Word is this Wisdom, to whom the Father has committed all judgment. He who, in the chapter before, showed his grandeur and glory as the Creator of the world, here shows his grace and goodness as the Redeemer of it. The word is plural, Wisdoms; for in Christ are hid treasures of wisdom, and in his undertaking appears the manifold wisdom of God in a mystery.”

Proverbs 9:2

“She hath killed her beasts,.... Or, "her sacrifice" (d): a crucified Christ, the principal of the provisions in Wisdom's house, or the church of Christ. The death of Christ was prefigured by the slaying of beasts for sacrifice under the old law; was foretold in prophecy, and is expressed by "killing" him in the New Testament; and which shows his death not to be natural, but violent.”

Proverbs 9:3

“Wisdom and the “foolish woman” Pro 9:13 speak from the same places and to the same class - the simple, undecided, wavering, standing at the diverging point of the two paths that lead to life or death.”

Proverbs 9:3

“Our Lord Jesus was himself the publisher of his own gospel; when he had sent forth his disciples he followed them to confirm what they said; nay, it began to be spoken by the Lord, Heb. ii. He stood, and cried, Come unto me. We see who invited; now let us observe, (1.) To whom the invitation is given: Whoso is simple and wants understanding,”

Proverbs 9:4

“Whoso is simple - Let the young, heedless, and giddy attend to my teaching. Him that wanteth understanding - Literally, he that wanteth a heart; who is without couraye, is feeble and fickle, and easily drawn aside from the holy commandment.”

Proverbs 9:4

“Our Saviour came, not to call the righteous, but sinners, not the wise in their own eyes, who say they see ( John ix. 41 ), but the simple, those who are sensible of their simplicity and ashamed of it, and him that is willing to become a fool, that he may be wise, 1 Cor. iii. (2.) What the invitation is. [1.] We are invited to Wisdom's house: Turn in hither.”

Proverbs 9:5

“But do you want to eat, do you want to drink? Come to the banquet of wisdom which invites everyone with great preaching, saying: Come and eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mixed for you. Do songs delight and soothe the feasting? Listen to the exhorter, listen to the Church singing, not only in songs, but also in the Song of Songs: Eat, my friends, and drink, and be intoxicated, my dears. But this drunkenness makes the sober; this drunkenness is of grace, not of intoxication. It generates joy, not stumbling.”

Proverbs 9:7

“Do not rebuke a scoffer, etc. It is not to be feared that a scoffer, when rebuked, will insult you; but rather this should be foreseen, that, drawn to hatred, he may become worse: and therefore, you must sometimes cease from his correction for the …”

Proverbs 9:7

“These verses seem somewhat to interrupt the continuity of the invitation which Wisdom utters. The order of thought is, however, this: “I speak to you, the simple, the open ones, for you have yet ears to hear: but from the scorner or evil doer, as such, I turn away.” The words are illustrated by Mat 13:11 ff.”

Proverbs 9:7

“Wisdom not only supplies right but forbids wrong principles. 7, 8. shame--(Compare Pr 3:35). a blot--or, "stain on character." Both terms denote the evil done by others to one whose faithfulness secures a wise man's love.”

Proverbs 9:8

“Let us always admonish each other in charity. As often as any one of us sins, let us willingly and patiently accept the reproof of a neighbor or a friend, because of what is said: "Reprove a wise man, and he will love you; rebuke …”

Proverbs 9:8

“Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee,.... For wicked men are apt to hate those that publicly rebuke them, Amo 5:10. Hence minister's of the word are of all men most hated; though this also should be bore with, could it be thought, or there was any reason to believe, that the reproof would be of any service.”

Proverbs 9:9

“Give instruction to a wise man,.... In the Hebrew text it is only "give to a wise man"; give him reproof, correction, chastisement, doctrine, or instruction, be it what it will, he will be the better for it.”

Proverbs 9:9

“Give to a wise man (so it is in the original), give him advice, give him reproof, give him comfort, and he will be yet wiser; give him occasion (so the LXX.), occasion to show his wisdom, and he will show it, and the acts of wisdom will strengthen the habits. The instructions she gives to those that are invited, which her maidens must inculcate upon them.”

Proverbs 9:10

“Discipline is an index to doctrine. [The heretics] say that God is not to be feared. So everything is free to them and unrestrained. But where is God not feared, except where he is not present? Where God is not present, there is no truth either; and where there is no truth, discipline like theirs is natural. But where God is present, there is the fear of God, there are decent seriousness, vigilant care and anxious solicitude, well-tested selection, well-weighed communion and deserved promotion, religious obedience, devoted service, modest appearance, a united church, and all things godly.”

Proverbs 9:10

“The fear of the Lord - See on Pro 1:7 (note). The knowledge of the holy; קדשים kedoshim, of the holy ones: Sanctorum, of the saints - Vulgate. boulh agiwn, the counsel of the holy persons.”

Proverbs 9:11

“For by me thy days shall be multiplied,.... These are the words of Wisdom, and contain a reason and argument why her call and advice in the preceding verses should be listened unto, since she gives long life to her followers. She is a tree of life unto them, the author and giver of spiritual and eternal life; by means of her bread and her wine spiritual life is maintained, promoted, and preserved; and length of days, for ever and ever, is the gift of her right hand; see Pro 3:”

Proverbs 9:11

For by me thy days shall be multiplied - Vice shortens human life, by a necessity of consequence: and by the same, righteousness lengthens it. There is a long addition here in the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate: “He who trusts in falsity feeds on the winds; and is like him who chases the fowls of heaven. He forsakes the way of his own vineyard, and errs from the paths of his own inheritance. He enters also into lonely and desert places, and into a land abandoned to thirst; and his hands collect that which yieldeth no fruit.”

Proverbs 9:12

“Observe that the wise man must be useful to many; so that he who is useful only to himself cannot be wise. For great is the condemnation of wisdom if she reserves her power simply for the one possessing her. But as poison is not injurious to another body, but only to that one which takes it, so also the man who turns out wicked will injure himself, and not another. For no man of real virtue is injured by a wicked man.”

Proverbs 9:13

“A foolish woman is clamorous,.... Some by this woman understand folly itself, as opposed to wisdom; others blind reason, ignorant of divine things; others carnal sensual pleasure, which entices and draws men to that which is evil; others heresy and superstition; others the old serpent, the devil; she seems to be the same with the strange woman and harlot before described, Pro 2:16, &c. and being set in direct opposition to Wisdom, or Christ, seems to design antichrist, who is described in the book of the Revelation as the great whore; and all the characters here agree with the same.”

Proverbs 9:13

“The picture of the harlot as the representative of the sensual life, the Folly between which and Wisdom the young man has to make his choice (Pro 9:3 note). “Simple,” in the worst sense, as open to all forms of evil. “Knoweth nothing,” ignorant with the ignorance which is willful and reckless.”

Proverbs 9:14

“For she sitteth at the door of her house - Her conduct here marks at once her folly, impudence, and poverty. See above on Pro 7:6 (note), etc., where the reader will find a similar character.”

Proverbs 9:14

"Do not all persons of rank and figure in the world" (says she) "give themselves a greater liberty than the strict laws of virtue allow; and why shouldst thou humble thyself so far as to be cramped by them?" Thus the tempter affects to seem both kind and great. Who are the tempted--young people who have been well educated; these she will triumph most in being the ruin of.

Proverbs 9:15

“This is the method of the stage (which is too close an exposition of this paragraph), where the sober young man, that has been virtuously educated, is the fool in the play, and the plot is to make him seven times more a child of hell than his profane companions, under colour of polishing and refining him, and setting him up for a wit and a beau.”

Proverbs 9:16

“Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither - Folly or pleasure here personified, uses the very same expressions as employed by Wisdom, Pro 9:4. Wisdom says, “Let the simple turn in to me.” No, says Folly, “Let the simple turn in to me.” If he turn in to Wisdom, his folly shall be taken away and he shall become wise; if he turn in to Foliy, his darkness will be thickened, and his folly will remain. Wisdom sets up her school to instruct the ignorant: Folly sets her school up next door, to defeat the designs of Wisdom.”

Proverbs 9:17

"The foolish and bold woman comes to want bread." What bread? Surely that bread which comes down from heaven. And he immediately adds, "The earth-born perish in her house, rush into the depths of hell." Who are the earth-born that perish in her house? They of course who follow the first Adam, who is of the earth, and not the second, who is from heaven.

Proverbs 9:17

“Stolen waters are sweet,.... Wells and fountains of waters in those hot countries were very valuable, and were the property of particular persons; about which there were sometimes great strife and contention; and they were sometimes sealed and kept from the use of others; see Gen 26:18; now waters got by stealth from such wells and fountains were sweeter than their own, or what might be had in common and without difficulty, to which the proverb alludes.”

Proverbs 9:17

“The besetting sin of all times and countries, the one great proof of the inherent corruption of man’s nature. Pleasures are attractive because they are forbidden (compare Rom 7:7).”

Proverbs 9:18

“But he knoweth not that the dead are there - See on Pro 2:18 (note). He does not know that it was in this way the first apostates from God and truth walked. רפאים rephaim; gigantev, the Giants - Septuagint. The sons of men, the earth-born, to distinguish them from the sons of God, those who were born from above.”

Proverbs 9:18

“He that so far wants understanding as to be drawn aside by these enticements is led on, ignorantly, to his own inevitable ruin: He knows not, will not believe, does not consider, the tempter will not let him know, that the dead are there, that those who live in pleasure are dead while they live, dead in trespasses and sins.”