Proverbs 13:1-6

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:03 am by Peter Leithart

Proverbs 13:1-6 2017-09-07T00:03:42+06:00 Peter Leithart

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INTRODUCTION
Waltke proposes the following structure for chapter 13. 13:1 is an introductory verse that picks up on the exhortations of the prologue to listen to the father’s instruction. There is a multiple inclusion around the chapter. The “discipline” of v. 1 is taken up in v. 24, and the terms “eat” and “soul” (nephesh, translated as “desire” or “appetite”) are found in both verses 2 and 25. (13:25a reads, more literally than the NASB, “the righteous eats to the satisfaction of his soul.”) The theme of the chapter is evident in v 2, which promises “good” to the one who is wise, and particularly to the one who speaks wisely. The chapter also moves from an exhortation to sons to accept the discipline and instruction of fathers, to an exhortation to fathers to make sure that they discipline their sons.

Within this frame, Waltke suggests there are four sections:

Verses 2-6: Speech
Verses 7-11: wealth
Verses 12-19: desires satisfied
Verses 20-25: eternal destiny

Throughout, as always, Proverbs is presenting a character portrait of the ideal Son and the ideal Father, revealed in the life and work of Jesus. Jesus is the wise Son who accepts His father’s disciples and does not mock, but suffers mockery; He feeds others with His words; He guards His life; He hates falsehood; He submits willingly to the disciplining rod of His Father, and learns obedience through suffering; His soul is satisfied with the reward, the good, that His Father gives. From a NT angle, Solomon is exhorting fathers and sons to live out the divine life of the Father and Son on earth.

PROVERBS 13:1
The substance of 13:1 is familiar from earlier introductory exhortations (10:1; 12:1), but a couple of observations are in order. First, although not explicit, the comparison implies that the wise son accepts discipline by listening to his father. The fact that the negative in 13:1b portrays the scoffer as one with closed ears suggests that the wise son is one who has open ears to hear the father’s words (cf. Deut 6:4-6; Ps 40). Discipline also comes in the form of corporal punishment (v. 24), but in verse 1 the main form of discipline seems to be verbal correction.

Second, the one who refuses to listen is identified as a “scoffer,” a recurring character in Proverbs, and one worth pausing over for a moment. Wisdom warns early on that the scoffer is destined for pain (9:12). Even when he seeks for wisdom, he cannot find it (14:6). Blows on the scoffer don’t affect him, though they may instruct someone who is toying with a career as a scoffer (19:25; 21:11). Wine is described as a mocker, not only because it makes a fool of the drunkard but because it emboldens the drunkard to become a scoffer (20:1). The scoffer is proud, full of his own wisdom; his eyes are haughty, as he trusts in his own discernment and judgment and mocks everyone else’s discernment (21:4). This pride makes it impossible for him to be taught; what can someone learn if he already knows it all? “Proud” is another name for “Scoffer” (21:24). The scoffer causes disorder and strife in whatever group he enters, and the only sure way to restore calm is to expel him (22:10). He is associated with the schemer, someone who is always plotting evil against others, and his scoffing makes him abominable not only to God but to other men (24:10). Mockers are destructive, their mockery is a verbal flame that burns civic life and fuels destructive anger (29:8).

Individual mockers are bad enough, but we live in a culture of mockery, a culture infused with cynicism and scoffing, a culture in which mockers make seven-figure salaries, become film and TV stars, with a platform to spread mockery throughout the culture. In Scripture, there is a righteous sort of mockery – the mockery of Elijah on Carmel, or Isaiah against the idols of Judah – but that’s not the kind of mockery that fills our culture. Contemporary mockery goes all the way down; nothing is sacred, except the mocker’s own superiority to all the benighted souls around him.

PROVERBS 13:2-6
Waltke suggests that this section has to do with speech. It begins with a comment about the fruit of one’s mouth (v. 2), moves to a warning about guarding the mouth (v. 3), and reminds us that the righteous man hates falsehood and loves truth (v. 5). In the middle of this section, Solomon contrasts the frustration of the sluggard to the fatness of the diligent. This doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the surrounding sections on speech, but this is a device we’ve seen before. Solomon knows that language is intertwined throughout human life, and is central to all spheres of human activity. And he depicts the pervasiveness of speech by placing his proverbs about speech in various contexts, or (as here) by placing proverbs about other things into contexts that are concentrating attention on speech.

The contrast between the two lines of verse 2 is not exact. Solomon contrasts not the righteous mouth to the wicked mouth, but the righteous mouth with wicked desire, the wicked “soul.” Mouth and soul are closely linked in Scripture in a variety of ways. The soul is primarily the seat not of thought but of desire in Scripture, and Jesus made it clear that it is out of the desires of our hearts that the mouth speaks. Further, the desires of the soul are what drive a man to seek food for his mouth, synechdoche for all that a man desires to “eat” or possess. The fruit of a man’s mouth, the words that he speaks, both express the desires of his heart and also aim to gain the desires of his heart.

A man who speaks good words is producing fruit, producing food that is not only life-giving but pleasant, sweet, desirable. It is certainly the case that a man whose words drip like honey is delighting and strengthening others, giving them “good,” but it is also the case that the man whose mouth produces fruit eats good himself. His own words come back to feed him, either because he is learning by speaking or because the people he benefits by his words bring good to him. The soul of the treacherous, however, is violence, desires violence. Again, there is a link between soul and speech: The violent soul of the treacherous produces violent words, and his words aim to achieve his wicked desires, which often involve violence. If we press the speech-food link from the first to the second line, we get something like this: The wise man speaks words that are nourishing and pleasant, and thus eats good; the treacherous man speaks words that arise from and tend toward violence, and thus his speech betrays him as a cannibal or a beast seeking prey.

Verse 2 describes the positive good of speaking well; verse 3 describes the benefits of not speaking evil words. The body is a house, a temple, and must be guarded at all its doorways. Frequently, Scripture describes this in terms of guarding against intruders – setting a guard over our eyes and ears. But here Solomon speaks of keeping close track of what goes out from the house of the body, from the desires of the soul. What comes in can cause ruin in the heart; what goes out can cause ruin in the world outside. The life that the diligent guardian saves may be a literal life: Loose lips do sometimes literally sink ships. But it is also guarding the peace and prosperity of life. Think of how life is damaged by a careless word to a wife or husband, an unthinkingly flirtatious response to a co-worker, a harsh rebuke to a child. If you want life to go well, there is much that you feel and desire that you cannot speak.

By contrast, the one who opens his lips wide will come to ruin. He will damage others, and that damage to others will turn around to harm him. Waltke calls attention to the use of th

e same verb “open wide” in Ezek 16:25, where it refers to a lascivious woman who spreads her legs to every man who passes. There may thus be some suggestion in Proverbs 13 that the wide-mouthed man’s speech is full of sexual suggestion, or that he is like a prostitute who has no discrimination over what he says to whom.

Verse 4 is connected to the context by the use of the word “soul.” This verse uses the word twice, and the same word is used in verses 2-3. The contrast of the verse in itself is clear: The lazy man has nothing but desires, and ends with nothing but desires. He does not give shape to his desires in diligent, thoughtful action, and so he dreams of things that he will never achieve or gain. By contrast, those who are diligent will find their desires satisfied, more abundantly than they imagine. In the context, however, this verse about diligence and laziness is connected to the issue of good and violent speech, guarding and opening the mouth. A sluggard has desires that are never formed into words that will allow him to eat the good (cf. v. 2). The diligence of the diligent is evident not only in his works but in his words.

Verse 5 is a general statement, expressed in the “moral” categories of righteousness and wickedness. The righteous man hates and opposes falsehood. This of course has direct reference to speech, but in Scripture false and true are broader concepts. To be true is to be faithful, and to be false is to be disloyal and unfaithful. The righteous man hates falsehood in every form. The reward implicitly promised in verse 5 is that the righteous man will escape shameful behavior. Shame in Scripture has to do with public disgrace, reputation, a good name; but is also connotes defeat. The righteous man who hates and opposes falsehood will not act in ways that will bring public defeat. His righteousness will guard him from that, as verse 6 goes on to say. True righteousness, not a showy hypocritical righteousness, will guard the blameless. If he is accused, the falsehood of the accusations will become evident and he will ultimately be vindicated in the final judgment. But the wickedness of a sinner finds him out, trips him up, causes a crashing fall.

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