Proverbs 19
Integrity vs. Foolishness 1–3
The Deceitfulness of Wealth and Friends 4–9
Character and Authority 10–15
Discipline, Generosity, and Obedience 16–19
Counsel and Divine Sovereignty 20–24
Dealing with Fools and Scorners 25–29
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Proverbs 19
Verse 1
walketh in his integrity — The verse sets the walk against the lips: the poor man’s integrity (tom, completeness) is weighed against the one ‘perverse in his lips’ who ‘is a fool’. Prov 28:6 gives the same comparison with riches in view: ‘Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.’
Verse 2
that the soul be without knowledge — ‘Soul’ is nephesh, the whole person, who is ‘not good’ without knowledge. ‘Sinneth’ is chata, to miss, so the hurried foot misses its way. Prov 21:5 says of ‘every one that is hasty’ that it is ‘only to want’, and Hosea 4:6 says ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge’.
Verse 3
perverteth his way — Calaph, to wrench or twist, is the verb of ‘wickedness overthroweth the sinner’ (Prov 13:6) and ‘God overthroweth the wicked’ (Prov 21:12). Folly twists the man’s way, and his heart then ‘fretteth’ (za’ap, to boil up in anger; Uzziah is ‘wroth’ in 2 Chr 26:19) against the LORD.
Verse 5
shall not be unpunished — Literally ‘shall not be held innocent’, the verb of ‘the LORD will not hold him guiltless’ (Ex 20:7). ‘Speaketh lies’ is yapiach kezavim, one who breathes out lies, as in Prov 6:19 and 14:25. The law sets the penalty: ‘Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother’ (Deut 19:19). Verse 9 repeats the line.
Verse 7
do hate him — The verb is the one in ‘The poor is hated even of his own neighbour’ (Prov 14:20). Here the ‘brethren’ hate and the ‘friends’ (merea) ‘go far’ (rachaq), as in Job 19:13, ‘He hath put my brethren far from me’. The last line shows the poor man pursuing them with words, and they are ‘wanting to him’, with nothing to give.
Verse 8
getteth wisdom — The Hebrew word rendered ‘wisdom’ is lev, heart, so literally he ‘getteth a heart’. Qanah, to get, is the verb of ‘Get wisdom, get understanding’ (Prov 4:5). To love one’s own soul (nephesh) is to guard it; the opposite is in Prov 8:36, ‘he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul’.
Verse 11
pass over a transgression — Abar is to cross over, and pesha, transgression, is rebellion; the two stand together of God in ‘passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage’ (Mic 7:18). ‘Deferreth his anger’ is literally ‘lengthens his nose’ (arak aph), the idea of ‘slow to wrath’ in Prov 14:29. ‘Glory’ is tiph’arah, adornment.
Verse 12
as the roaring of a lion — Naham, roaring, is the word in ‘The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion’ (Prov 20:2). His ‘favour’ is ratson, as in Prov 14:9, and is ‘as dew upon the grass’, the image of Hos 14:5, ‘I will be as the dew unto Israel’. Prov 16:15 gives the pair again: ‘his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain.’
Verse 14
a prudent wife is from the LORD — ‘House and riches’ pass down as an inheritance (nachalah) from fathers, but a maskeleth, a wife of understanding, comes from the LORD: ‘Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD’ (Prov 18:22). Isaac’s wife was given so: ‘The thing proceedeth from the LORD’ (Gen 24:50).
Verse 16
keepeth the commandment keepeth his own soul — One verb, shamar, to guard, stands twice: guarding the commandment (mitsvah) is guarding oneself, as in ‘keep thy soul diligently’ (Deut 4:9). ‘Despiseth’ is bazah, as in Prov 14:2. Christ answered the lawyer on the same ground: ‘this do, and thou shalt live’ (Luke 10:28).
Verse 17
lendeth unto the LORD — Lavah is to join, hence to lend. He that ‘hath pity’ (chanan, the verb of ‘hath mercy’ in Prov 14:21) has the LORD as his debtor, and ‘that which he hath given’ (gemul, a deed) ‘will he pay him again’. Heb 6:10 says ‘God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love’.
Verse 18
while there is hope — Tiqvah is hope, literally a cord, the word for the ‘line of scarlet thread’ in Josh 2:18. ‘Chasten’ (yasar) is correction. The last word of the line comes from the verb muth, to die, though the KJV renders it ‘crying’; Prov 23:14 says of the rod that it ‘shalt deliver his soul from hell’.
Verse 21
the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand — ‘Devices’ (machashavah) are the plans of the heart. Etsah, counsel, is the word of ‘The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever’ (Ps 33:11), where the LORD ‘maketh the devices of the people of none effect’. Prov 16:9: ‘A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.’
Verse 22
is his kindness — ‘Desire’ (ta’avah) is longing, and ‘kindness’ is chesed, the word rendered ‘mercy’ in ‘his mercy endureth for ever’ (Ps 136:1). The ‘liar’ is kazab, the word for ‘lies’ in vv.5 and 9: as in v.1, a poor man is set above one whose word cannot be trusted.
Verse 23
tendeth to life — The fear of the LORD ‘is a fountain of life’ (Prov 14:27). ‘Abide’ is lun, to lodge for the night, the verb of ‘shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty’ (Ps 91:1); the one who has this fear lodges satisfied and is not ‘visited’ (paqad) with evil.
Verse 24
hideth his hand in his bosom — The word for ‘bosom’, tsallachath, is a ‘dish’ in 2 Kings 21:13 (‘as a man wipeth a dish’), so the hand may be hidden in the dish. Prov 26:15 repeats the picture: ‘it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth’. ‘Slothful’ is atsel, the sluggard.
Verse 25
Smite a scorner — The luts is the mocker of Prov 14:9. The simple ‘will beware’ (aram, to grow shrewd): ‘When the scorner is punished, the simple is made wise’ (Prov 21:11). The second line uses bin, to understand, twice, for the man who needs only a reproof: ‘rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee’ (Prov 9:8).
Verse 27
Cease, my son, to hear — Chadal is to leave off. The ‘instruction’ (musar) meant is the kind that ‘causeth to err’ (shagah, to stray, as in ‘he shall go astray’, Prov 5:23) from ‘the words of knowledge’, which the father elsewhere tells him to hear (Prov 23:12). Christ says, ‘Take heed what ye hear’ (Mark 4:24).
Verse 29
Judgments are prepared — Shefatim are sentences carried out, and ‘prepared’ (kun) means set firm and ready. ‘Stripes for the back of fools’ is the same line as ‘a rod for the fool’s back’ (Prov 26:3) and ‘a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding’ (Prov 10:13). The ‘scorners’ are the luts of v.25.