Bible Commentaries
Proverbs 24

Verses 1-21

Proverbs 24:7 a. Lit. “ Wisdom is corals to the fool.” RV involves a change m the text, which gives perhaps the best sense that can be made of an obviously corrupt stanza.

Proverbs 24:9 . thought: the word means “ plan” or “ device,” and is used in both a good and a bad sense in Pr. Here the meaning is that sin is the kind of plan which folly engages in, “ sin is folly’ s plan.”

Proverbs 24:10 . An incomplete aphorism. As it stands its probable meaning is, “ If thou art slack, thy strength will be narrow ( i.e. restricted) in the day of trouble.”

Proverbs 24:11 f. The Heb. is not unambiguous and shows some disorder, but probably the two verses deal with the same subject, and form one aphorism exhorting to the deliverance of those doomed to die. It would appear, therefore, to be addressed to some one in power or official position, and to relate to some time of political oppression such as the Maccabean period.

Proverbs 24:13 f. In praise of Wisdom. An incomplete quatrain with a line added from Proverbs 23:18, obviously out of place here.

Proverbs 24:20 . reward is lit. “ end” ( cf. Proverbs 23:18, mg.) , perhaps participation in the future Messianic kingdom.

Proverbs 24:20 b. cf. Proverbs 13:9, Proverbs 20:20.

Proverbs 24:21 f. This quatrain may be interpreted in two ways, according to the sense put on the pronouns in Proverbs 24:22. ( a) Fear God and the king, and do not meddle (lit. mix thyself) with revolutionaries, for their calamity is sudden, etc. ( b) Fear God and the king, and do not disobey either of them, for the calamity they inflict is sudden, etc.

Verses 23-34

Second Division, Proverbs 24:23-34 .

This section constitutes the second division of the Sayings of the Wise, as Proverbs 24:23 a indicates. It contains a short collection of sayings varying in form and character, resembling in the main those of Proverbs 22:17 to Proverbs 24:22. The greater part ( Proverbs 24:30-34) is a vivid description of the effects of slothfulness, which may be compared with the passage on the drunkard in Proverbs 23:29-35. Possibly both belonged to a collection containing, after the manner of Theophrastus, similar characterizations of different vices. For Proverbs 24:33 f; cf. Proverbs 6:10 f.