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Proverbs 21

Proverbs 21

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

Proverbs 21 2017-09-07T00:03:41+06:00 Peter Leithart

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PROVERBS 21:20

The verse could be translated, more woodenly, as “Stores desired and oil in the habitation of the wise; but the foolish Adam swallows it.” The verse contrasts the conduct of the wise and of the foolish, and the basic contrast is between the wise man who has things stored in his house and the fool who does not.

“Stores” can refer to anything that has been gathered up and saved, and especially refers to stores of gold, silver, and other precious things, especially in a king’s palace or the temple. Yahweh has His own “stores” (rain in Deuteronomy 28:12; perhaps vengeance in Deuteronomy 32:24). The wise man has good things in his house, saved and stored away. The combination of “stores” and “oil” might point to an analogy between the house of the wise man and the house of Yahweh, which has a “treasury” and is also an anointed, consecrated place. The wise man’s house is full of good things, precious things, desirable things, and is also a house of lights. Oil is often a sign of joy, fullness, fatness, and the wise man’s house is fat and healthy. The fact that the wise man has stored things away means that he has something to give, to pass on as inheritance.

The fool, by contrast, is lacking. His stores and his oil are depleted because of his appetite. He “swallows” them, insatiable as the grave (Proverbs 1:12 ). Elsewhere Solomon says that the fool not only swallows his precious things and oil, but swallows himself (Ecclesiastes 10:12 ). The fool lacks the self control and foresight to store things for later.

The word for “man” in this verse is the Hebrew adam , and the hint of Genesis 2-3 places the whole verse in a redemptive-historical framework. Adam was the original fool. Given a habitation of desirable stores and oil, he “swallowed” up his inheritance; he lacked restraint, foresight, and self-control, and ate up what he should have saved for later. There is another Adam, though, a wise Adam, who has precious stores and oil, an Adam in whom all good things are found, who anoints us with the oil of His Spirit, whose habitation is a place of rich treasure, whose house is a light on a lampstand and a city on a hill.

PROVERBS 21:21

This verse can be translated, “Whoever chases righteousness and loyalty finds life, righteousness, and honor.” The verb “pursue” is translated as “follow after” in the KJV, but that is too weak. The Hebrew word can mean “persecute” (Deuteronomy 30:7, KJV) or “chase” (Leviticus 26:36; Deuteronomy 1:44 ) and has an aggressive connotation even when it doesn’t mean “persecute.” It is often used in military contexts. Solomon doesn’t picture a lazy walk, but a pursuit, a relentless chasing of righteousness; he has said similar things about the pursuit of wisdom, which requires aggressive, relentless searching.

“Righteousness” and “loyalty” might be translated “justice and mercy” and those terms do capture the combination of qualities in the Hebrew terms. Righteousness means doing what is right, keeping Yahweh’s law. But it also has to do with the pursuit of justice in society. The Hebrew zedakah is not, however, “strict justice” in our Western, Roman sense of the term. Yahweh does “righteousness” when He delivers Israel from her enemies and brings her out of exile.

“Loyalty” translates hesed , traditionally translated as “lovingkindness.” The word is a central term in covenantal arrangements; hesed is what is expected of each party in a covenant. They are to keep the terms of the covenant, but more fundamentally they are to show personal loyalty to the covenant partner. Loyalty is, we might say, a feudal term, the service of fealty that the vassal owes to his master and the corresponding protection and provision that the master owes the vassal. Solomon is describing a man who chases righteousness, who pursues loyalty to Yahweh and to others relentlessly, a man who hungers and thirsts to do right and to see righteousness established on earth.

Jesus promises that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled, and Solomon makes the same promise. Those who chase righteousness find righteousness. But along the way of finding righteousness, Solomon says that the man who chases righteousness and loyalty will find life and glory as well. The way of righteousness and loyalty is the way to abundant life, and also the way to glory.

Ultimately, the way of righteousness is the way to eternal life and glory. This is not a kind of OT “works righteousness.” Paul says exactly the same thing: “But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who “will render to each one according to his deeds” eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God” (Romans 2:5-11).

PROVERBS 21:22
This proverb can be translated, “A city of mighty-men ascends the wise, and he causes-to-sink the strength of security.” In Hebrew, the word order is chiastic:

A. City

B. Mighty men

C. Ascends

D. The wise

C’. Causes-to-sink.

B’. Strength.

A’. Security

The wise man is at the center of the structure, the hinge, and the wise man is specifically nestled between contrasting verbs – a verb that means “going up” and the hiphil form of a verb that means to “go down” or “sink.” No matter how high the mighty is able to build his walls, the wise ascends higher, and therefore can take the city. And the wise man causes the strength of the mighty to descend. Yahweh is supremely wise, and can ascend beyond any walls that the mighty might erect to keep Him away; Yahweh is supremely wise, and brings down the strength in which the mighty trust. Through Yahweh, David says He can “leap a wall,” a picture not only of physical prowess but if the prowess of wisdom, which is always superior prowess. Jesus, Yahweh and the greater David, leaps walls, ascends higher than the cities of the mighty, brings down the strong.

The main contrast in this verse is obviously the contrast between the power of physical strength, the power of civic organization, the power of defensive military structures, the power that provides national and personal security – between all that and the power of the wise. Wisdom is stronger than strength, the wise man mightier than the mighty man, the “hero” of “warrior” (Heb. gibbor ). The Greeks knew this: Odysseus is ultimately stronger than Achilles; Odysseus with his cunning wins the city and gets home. Achilles dies before the city can be taken. The US has the most sophisticated and extensive military in human history, but the satanic cunning of a dozen terrorists broke through our defenses and took down the twin towers.

Wisdom is a woman, and behind the contrast of military might and wisdom is a contrast of masculine and feminine strength. The latter is more powerful, Solomon says. Think about this in sheer military terms: Who is more powerful, the athletic young Navy Seal, or the white-haired general who sends him on his mission? Even men become most powerful when they become most feminine, that is, when they exercise power by words and wisdom rather than by muscle. The church is a bride as well, and filled with the Sophia of Jesus, she is victorious overcomes cities of the mighty.

PROVERBS 21:23

This verse can be translated as, “Whoever guards his mouth and his tongue guards from troubles his soul.” There are two types of guarding going on here. The one is intentional and evident, the guarding of the mouth and tongue. The second is implicit, a guarding that results from the first guarding. If you guard your mouth and tongue, then you are guarded from troubles.

Solomon is no doubt speaking about speech, as he often does in the Proverbs. But the specific wording suggests something more general. He does not say that we should “guard our words,” though that is part of his meaning. He says that we should guard mouth and tongue. The immediate picture that comes to mind is standing guard to prevent things from getting into the mouth and from touching the tongue. That seems to be part of what Solomon is getting at. This is not a “taste not, touch not” kind of guarding. It involving guarding what Jim Jordan calls the “gateways” of the body – the mouth, the eyes, the ears. In order to guard our words, we need first to guard what comes into us, what we eat and swallow.

When we think about what Solomon says with regard to words, we are met with another interesting twist in the imagery. Shamar means “guard,” guarding against attacks and intrusions of an enemy. If we are guarding our mouths and tongues by watching our words, we are guarding from some enemy that is coming from within. Out of the heart the mouth speaks, and since our hearts are slippery and often wicked, we have to stand guard at the mouth-doorway to prevent that poison from getting out.

The result of guarding our mouths and tongues is that we also guard our “souls” from damage and distress. This could mean a couple of things. First, if we take “soul” in the sense of “life,” it could mean that by guarding what we say, we are preventing conflicts and arguments that disrupt life, ruin joy, and make us less productive. When we don’t watch what we say, we have to spend a lot of our time and energy trying to explain or explain away our misstatements and a lot of time trying to smooth out the conflicts that we cause. Second, if we take “soul” in the sense of our inner life specifically, then Solomon is saying that what goes out of our mouths and the breath we articulate and shape with our tongues double back and affect our souls. We can’t speak wickedly – harsh words, lying, gossip, cutting words – and think it’s just “out there.” It affects our souls, damages our souls, and causes distress of soul. Jesus says that we will be judged by our words, and so if we do not guard our mouths and tongues, our souls stand in danger of suffering the ultimate distress.

Bible - OT - Proverbs

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