Proverbs 17:2

“Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife.” The dry morsel, path chârêb, is a piece of dry bread, the plainest food in an Israelite home, and it stands for a meagre table. Beside it is the quietness that goes with it. The word shalvâh comes from a root meaning to be at ease or secure, and it describes a household at rest, free from quarrelling and anxiety.

The other house is full of sacrifices, and strife fills it too. Rîyb means a contest or dispute, a quarrel between people, and once it sits at the table the abundance loses its joy. The verse calls the poorer house ṭôwb, “better”, using the broad Hebrew word for good, so the quiet home with little bread is the better place to live in every way that matters.

Proverbs says the same thing two chapters earlier: “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is” than a fine ox eaten with hatred (Proverbs 15:17). Ecclesiastes prefers a handful with quietness to both hands full of toil (Ecclesiastes 4:6). Behind these sayings stands God’s own call: “Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14). God is the God of peace, and he values peace in families and among his people above any amount of plenty. When Jesus tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33), he sets the same order of what matters most.

In Israel birth set a son’s place. The firstborn usually received a double portion of the family’s wealth and led the household after his father died. Against that background verse 2 is striking: “A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren.”

The servant, ʻebed, is a bondman, and in a household like this one he is often its trusted manager, the steward of its affairs. Abraham’s servant Eliezer of Damascus held that kind of trust (Genesis 15:2–3). This servant is wise. The verb sâkal means to be wise and have understanding, to consider, and also to prosper, so it fits a man whose good sense makes the household thrive. The son is “a son that causeth shame”, from bûwsh, to be ashamed or disappointed. By idleness, immorality or mismanagement he brings disgrace on the family name.

So the servant comes to rule, mâshal, over the son. He also receives a part in the inheritance, nachălâh, among the brothers, and the verb for that, châlaq, means to divide, share or allot. Israel’s law made little provision for adopting a servant as a full heir, and his part may have been less than a son’s portion. It could be wealth, property, or a stewardship that gave him the use and benefit of the estate. Even so, the proverb says plainly that character can outweigh birth when the rightful heir proves a disgrace, because a household’s honour and survival hang on wise and faithful leadership, wherever it comes from.

This is how God weighs people. He looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7), and he honours faithfulness wherever he finds it. In Jesus’ parable the master praises the good and faithful servant and makes him ruler over many things (Matthew 25:21). Proverbs speaks elsewhere of knowing the state of your flocks and herds and caring for a household well (Proverbs 27:23–27), and says that humility goes before honour (Proverbs 15:33). The same pattern reaches into the gospel, where those once outside the family are brought in and share the inheritance. In Christ the line between bond and free gives way (Galatians 3:28), and those who believe become heirs of God together with Christ (Romans 8:17).

“The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.” Israel knew the refiner’s work well. Silver and gold were heated until the pure metal separated from the dross, a craft that took skill and patience. The fining pot, mitsrêph, comes from tsâraph, to refine or purify, and it is the crucible built to stand that heat. The furnace does the same work for gold. Everyone who first heard this proverb could picture both.

The third line turns from the workshop to God. The LORD, Yᵉhôvâh, the covenant name of God, “trieth” the hearts. Bâchan means to test, prove or examine, and it is often used of testing metal to show whether it is genuine. “Hearts” is libbâh, the feminine form of lêb, the heart. In Scripture the heart is the whole inner person, mind, will, conscience and character together. It is the real self, hidden from other people and fully open to God, who looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7) and says through Jeremiah that he searches it (Jeremiah 17:10).

The picture tells us what God’s testing is for. A refiner heats metal to bring out what is pure, and God tries a heart to show what is truly in it and to make it pure. The psalmist thanks God for proving his people as silver is tried (Psalm 66:10). Through Zechariah God promises to bring a remnant through the fire and refine them (Zechariah 13:9), and Peter speaks of our faith tried by fire (1 Peter 1:6–7).

“A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue.” The second line says again what the first says, a common pattern in Hebrew poetry, and together they teach that a person’s character decides what kind of talk he welcomes. The wicked doer is one who does evil, from the verb râʻaʻ, which also means to break. The false lips are lips of ʼâven, a word for nothingness, vanity, trouble and wickedness, so it describes speech that is empty of truth and leads to trouble. Lips and tongue stand for the speech that comes from them.

To give heed and to give ear is to listen closely and take in what is said. The wicked man listens to lies because they serve his purposes and approve what he already wants, and the liar is at home with a tongue that speaks mischief because it matches his own. Inner corruption is drawn to outward corruption, and each strengthens the other. Jesus says that the mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart (Matthew 12:34), and this proverb shows that the ear works the same way. Jeremiah speaks of how deceitful the human heart is (Jeremiah 17:9).

In Israel the spoken word carried great weight. Reputations, the peace of a town and even judgments at the city gate turned on it, so what people chose to believe mattered to everyone. That is why Proverbs tells us to guard the heart above all, since life flows from it (Proverbs 4:23), says that he who walks with wise men will be wise (Proverbs 13:20), and roots all discernment in the fear of the LORD, the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7). The man in Psalm 1:1 is blessed because he keeps out of the counsel of the ungodly. Paul gives the other side: think on whatever is true, honest, just and pure (Philippians 4:8).

“Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker.” To mock, lâʻag, is to deride or laugh at someone in scorn, and Strong’s adds the sense of speaking unintelligibly, as if imitating a foreigner. To reproach, châraph, is to taunt, properly to say sharp things against someone. The proverb joins the two, so the scorn aimed at a poor man lands on God.

The reason is that God made him. Job knew that the God who made him made others too (Job 31:15), and every person, rich or poor, bears the image of God and has worth from him. God has a special care for the needy and defends the oppressed and the stranger (Deuteronomy 10:18). An earlier proverb says it in almost the same words: “He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor” (Proverbs 14:31). Jesus carries this to its height: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40). How we treat people is bound up with how we stand before God.

“Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.” In Israel the family, the bet ‘av or father’s house, was the basic unit of life, work and worship. Many descendants were a sign of a long and fruitful life and of God’s favour, from his promise to make Abraham a great nation (Genesis 12:2) to the psalms that call children an heritage of the LORD (Psalm 127:3) and count it a blessing to see one’s children’s children (Psalm 128:6).

The crown, ʻăṭârâh, is a circlet worn on the head, an ornament of dignity and honour. For an old man, grandchildren are that crown. They show that his life bore fruit, that his family and its values continue, and that God has blessed him. The word for children here and in “children’s children” is bên, the ordinary word for son, which Strong’s ties to building up a family name.

The second line turns the honour the other way. Glory, tiphʼârâh, means beauty, glory or ornament, a state worthy of honour. Children carry their father’s name, and his wisdom, integrity and good standing become their honour too, just as a father’s poor choices could bring shame on them. So fathers bear a weighty charge. Israel’s fathers were to teach God’s words diligently to their children (Deuteronomy 6:6–7), and children were to honour their father and mother (Exodus 20:12). Each generation adorns the other, and the family is bound together by honour flowing both ways.

Each of these sayings finds its fullest meaning in Jesus. He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) who leaves his peace with his disciples (John 14:27), and he lived so humbly that he had nowhere to lay his head (Matthew 8:20). The feasting sacrifices of verse 1 give way to his one offering of himself (Hebrews 10:10), which reconciles us to God and makes peace among believers. He calls the peacemakers blessed (Matthew 5:9), and his church offers up spiritual sacrifices (1 Peter 2:5), ideally in the quietness verse 1 praises.

Verse 2’s wise servant points to him as well. He took the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7), he is the Servant of the LORD in whom God delights (Isaiah 42:1), and God raised him to rule over all things (Ephesians 1:20–22) and appointed him heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2). All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and through him those who were strangers from the covenants of promise (Ephesians 2:12) receive power to become the sons of God (John 1:12).

The LORD who tries the hearts sent his Son to be tried for us, in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1–11) and in Gethsemane (Luke 22:39–46), and he proved pure gold all the way to the cross. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). He cleanses his church to present it to himself holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:25–27), and by his Spirit we are changed into his image from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Against the liars of verse 4 stands the Word made flesh (John 1:14), who exposed the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23:27–28) and is himself “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). God gives a new heart and puts his Spirit within (Ezekiel 36:26–27), so that those who once loved lies walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:8–9).

The Son whom God gave because he loved the world (John 3:16) became poor so that we through his poverty might be rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). He told of the Samaritan who stopped for the beaten man (Luke 10:30–37), he wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41–44), and he commands us to love one another as he has loved us (John 13:34). Verse 6’s honour between father and son is seen most fully in the Son who glorifies the Father (John 17:1) and is the brightness of his glory (Hebrews 1:3).

These proverbs show us a God who cares about the ordinary rooms where life is lived. He sees the table where bread is shared, and he counts the peace around it worth more than a feast. He sees the servant whom no one expected to rise, and he honours wisdom and faithfulness above rank. He tries the hearts, and he does it as a refiner, to bring out what is pure. He hears what we listen to as well as what we say. He has made the poor, and he takes their part as his own, and he will not let cruelty to the suffering go by. And he has bound the generations of a family together, so that grandparents, fathers and children are each other’s honour.

All of this is good news in Christ, who gives the peace verse 1 prizes, who is the faithful Servant and Heir, who was tried and found pure, who is the truth, and who became poor for our sake. The quiet home, the true word and the merciful heart belong to his people as his gifts.