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Proverbs 27:1-4

Proverbs 27:1-4

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

Proverbs 27:1-4 2017-09-07T00:03:39+06:00 Peter Leithart

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PROVERBS 27:1

Like James (4:13-17), Solomon teaches us that we don’t have control over the future. We are creatures, living in sequence from moment to moment. The past leaves its imprint in our memories and in the artifacts that surround us – books and buildings, roads and institutions. But we don’t live in the past, we can’t recover the past, we can’t change what’s done. The future is also with us by anticipation, in our planning, in our hopes and aspirations. Much of what we do is rooted in a future hoped for or feared, but we can’t determine the outcome of the future and we don’t live in the future.

James explained our inability to control the future by saying that we are “vapor,” using Solomon’s favorite word from Ecclesiastes. Proverbs 27:1 doesn’t use that word (it is used only at 21:6 in Proverbs, talking about the transience of wealth), but Solomon is making the same point. 27:1 is one sign that Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are not fundamentally at odds with each other. Both assume that Yahweh, not we, control the world.

Let’s look at how Proverbs 27:1 makes this point.

The verb translated as “boast” is hallal , which in some forms and many contexts means “to praise” (Genesis 12:15; 2 Samuel 22:4; 1 Chronicles 16:4; Psalm 22:22-23; 35:18). The word appears to come from a word group having to do with clarity, brightness, and light, and in some aspects it means “to make bright” (Job 31:26; 41:10; Isaiah 13:10). To praise someone is to bestow honor or glory on him, or to acknowledge the honor or glory he possesses. To praise is to brighten, to acknowledge the brightness of the one who is praised.

The form used in Proverbs 27:1 is a reflexive form, “praise oneself” or to “glory in oneself.” The one who boasts shines his own light and tries to enhance his own glory. Glorying-oneself is not inherently wrong; seeking glory is what humans are made for (Romans 2). Many passages that use this form of the verb use it with a prepositional phrase beginning with “in,” so that the reflexive glorying is not strictly reflexive – glorying-oneself in something means enjoying a derived glory. Psalms and prophetic passages speak of “boasting” in Yahweh, using this same form of the verb (Psalm 34:3; 44:8; 64:11; 105:3; 106:5). Glorying in anything else, however, is condemned – in one’s own desires (Psalm 10:3), in riches (Psalm 49:6), in evil (Psalm 52:1), in idols (Psalm 97:7), in wisdom or power (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

What does it mean to “glorify-oneself in the day of tomorrow”? Given the way the verb functions elsewhere, the idea would be that one seeks a glory for oneself that is derived from future achievements or events. James gives a specific example: A man who glorifies himself because of riches that he expects or hopes to gain in a future transaction is glorifying himself, shining himself up, brightening his own reputation and name, based on something that has not yet happened. A soldier who pins on the Purple Heart the day before the battle, a basketball player who is wondering where to put the MVP trophy before he begins the series, a student who is planning how to use his scholarship money when he should be studying for a test – these are all glorifying themselves in the day of tomorrow. Tomorrow will be bright, and we can bathe today in the brightness of tomorrow.

Solomon gives a reason to avoid such boasting: We don’t know what’s coming. Because we’re ignorant of the future, we can’t glory in it. More specifically, Solomon says that we can’t know what the day will “bring forth.” He uses a birth image – bring forth is often “give birth” (Genesis 3:16; 4:1-2, 17). Sometimes the verb refers to the mother’s bearing of a child, but the verb is flexible enough to describe the father’s role as well (Genesis 5:4; 10:8, 13). Whether the image is paternal or maternal, though, it is clear that Solomon considers days to be productive rather than inert. Days give birth to, or father, new things, unexpected things, surprising and unanticipated children. Since we don’t know whether the child of tomorrow will be a friend or enemy, light or darkness, we can’t rely on tomorrow to give us glory. It might instead bring shame.

Two qualifications are essential here. First, a practical one: We are all and always leaning toward the future. Human beings who give up planning, hoping, fearing, anticipating tomorrow have ceased to be fully human. Solomon is not, I think, telling us that our ignorance about the future means we should simply ignore it. He’s telling us to remember our ignorance as we think about and act toward the future. Thus, for instance: Remember your ignorance when you’re excited about the possibilities of a new job, your wedding day, a new child; and remember your ignorance when you are fearful of that same new job, etc – you don’t know what kind of unexpected good might come.

Second, a theological one: In the old covenant as in the new, glory is future glory. Israel hoped for restoration from exile, exaltation over all the nations of the earth, the light shining in a new dawn. We hope for the nations to turn to the Lord, for Jesus’ coming to put everything right, for the resurrection. Our glory now, our boasting, is in the “day of tomorrow,” ultimately the day of tomorrow. This doesn’t, however, conflict with Solomon’s warning not to boast about tomorrow, for a couple of reasons. This is mainly because boasting about the tomorrow of Jesus is boasting about Jesus, not about ourselves; it is a form of boasting in the Lord. Plus, boasting about tomorrow in this sense is not boasting in ignorance. We know, in some essentials, what the “day of tomorrow” will bring forth; because of the Son and Spirit we know what kind of children Mother Future will bear. And we glory now, are brightened now, boast now, in that future.

PROVERBS 27:2

Verse 2 again uses the verb hallal , though in a different aspect. Solomon urges us to allow others to praise us, rather than praising ourselves with our own mouths and lips. As we saw in our examination of verse 1, even “self-glorying” is in a sense reflective as much as it is reflexive; it depends on something (wealth, power, wisdom, God) outside of us, in the light of whose glory we bathe. Glory is always and radically a social reality; in its root, it’s the mutual glory and praise of Father, Son and Spirit.

But Solomon doesn’t just say that “another” should offer us praise, but that praise should be given by “strangers” and “aliens.” He uses two words in parallel here, both of which have a more radical sense than simply “other.” My wife is “other,” but she’s not a “stranger.” The first word, zor , refers to alien gods (Deuteronomy 32:11; Psalm 44:21; 81:10), those who are “strangers” to the sanctuary (Exodus 30:33), alien fire (Leviticus 10:1). The second word, nakriy , tends to have a more ethnic/national connotation, referring to foreign lands (Exodus 2:22; 18:3), peoples (Exodus 21:8; Deuteronomy 14:21; 17:15). Ruth is a “foreigner” (2:10), and Solomon marries “foreign” wives (1 Kings 11:8). Thus, Solomon is not simply saying that we should let our friends and relatives praise us, rather than praising ourselves. He’s saying that praise should arise from strangers and foreigners, outsiders rather than insiders.

This context suggests that “mouth” and “lip” have a collective sense. They don’t merely refer to the literal lips and mouths by which each individual speaks, but to the “lip” and “mouth” of a particular community. Solomon is saying what Jesus says in the sermon on the mount: Even hypocrites greet, and are greeted by; love, and are loved by; praise, and are praised by their friends. A community of mutual praise is not what we aspire to.

How do strangers, aliens, foreigners, and outsiders come to praise us? Yahweh gives us the example. He gains praise from among the nations by delivering Israel in the exodus, by the demonstration of His power and love for His people. He gains praise from the nations because of the wisdom of His laws. Ultimately, God gains praise and glory from strangers by giving His Son for them, even while they are enemies. Christians should be known by their love for one another, their truthfulness and courage, their outrage at injustice and their passion for justice. Christians win the praise of foreigners when we are ministering to one another, and to foreigners.

Solomon gives here a small glimpse of the climax of all history. In the end, Jesus will be praised by every mouth and by all lips, as He gathers a people from the foreigners and strangers.

PROVERBS 27:3

Verse 3 may be translated as “Heaviness of a stone and weight of the sand and provocation of a fool weightier than both of them.” That awkwardly literal translation brings out the fact that the sentence has no verb and works with a list of three similar things with similar qualities. The three things are stone, sand, and fool; the three parallel qualities are heaviness/glory, weight, and provocation/irritation. These are all, in the end, compared with regard to “heaviness”; the proverb returns to a form of the word for “glory” or “heaviness” ( kobed )in the second line. That is, stones and sand are heavy, a burden, but a fool is heavier than either.

What is the point of comparison here? What kind of “heaviness” is being compared to the “provocation” of a fool? The word “stone” can refer to precious stones, to plummet stones used for building, to cornerstones of a building, to stones used in weighing out goods in the marketplace. It doesn’t necessarily refer to a large stone, but in this context appears to refer to something heavy, difficult to bear. The word translated as “weight” above is used only here in the Hebrew Bible, and so the exact connotations are difficult to determine. The idea is that there is a sufficient amount of sand to become a burden to carry, move, or transport.

Stones and sand often describe specific kinds of people. The precious stones on the breastplate of the High Priest bore the names of the tribes of Israel, and Jesus Himself is both the stone that smashes the image of Nebuchadnezzar and the cornerstone of a new temple, a new dwelling of God. Men are made of earth, and when that earth is heated, smelted, burnished, polished, it becomes a precious stone. A stone thus may have weight both in the literal sense and also in the sense of “glory.” When the Lord brought Israel from Egypt, He bore the stones of His people, the heaviness and glory of them.

Sand also represents people. Sand symbolizes the gathering of multitudes of people, or the spread of people along the seashore. In almost every use of the word “sand” in the Old Testament, it refers not to literal sand but to the abundant sand that Israel will become or to the abundant sand that Israel’s enemies already are. When Yahweh brought Israel from Egypt, He carried the weight of the sand of Israel on His shoulders, to deposit them along the shore of nations.

Given these symbolic connections between earth, sand, stones, and people, the parallel in verse 3 makes sense in the context of biblical imagery. A fool is like a heavy stone or a pile of sand in the sense that a fool is hard to carry. There is perhaps an inverted pun on the term “heavy” – the fool’s provocation is heavier than all, that is, the fool shines “glorious” in his provocations.

This has redemptive-historical dimensions as well. Yahweh bore not only stones and sand from Egypt, but also the heaviness and provocation of fools, a foolish nation that would not listen to Him. The word for “provocation” appears in several passages of the OT describing the way that Israel irritated Yahweh with her disobedience, driving Him to wrathful outbursts against them (Deuteronomy 32:19; 1 Kings 15:30; 21:22; 2 Kings 23:26; Psalm 85:4). Sometimes, the reaction to provocation is more grief than anger (Psalm 31:9; Ecclesiastes 1:18), but the two are not entirely separable. Yahweh responds with both grief and anger at His foolish people.

Yet, in the end, the notion of “glory” returns. Stones are heavy and can be glorious; the sand of an infinite seashore would be a burden to carry, but it is glorious as well. So too, bearing the fool’s provocation is glorious. Yahweh shows His glory in disciplining foolish Israel, but also in bearing and bearing with them. We are called to the same – to fulfill the law of Christ, and manifest the weighty glory of Christ, by bearing one another’s burdens.

PROVERBS 27:4

The imagery of the first line of verse 4 connects the outburst of anger to a flood of water. Anger is like a fire that burns everything in its path; it is like a flood that t
ears down trees and houses as it rages along. As the proverb continues into the second line, it is clear that wrath and anger leave virtually no one standing. Elsewhere the OT makes use of the “flood of anger” imagery (Isaiah 54:8), and the flood is also used to describe the overflowing armies that invade and destroy Israel when Yahweh is angry (Daniel 11:22; Nahum 1:8).

The Proverb says that jealousy is even more thoroughly destructive than anger and wrath. Apparently, anger and wrath leave a few standing, but “who can stand before jealousy”? Given the negative connotations of the English word “jealousy” (and even more the KJV translation as “envy”), we naturally surmise that jealousy is being described as something even worse than anger and wrath. Once we remember that Yahweh expresses wrath and anger, and that His very name is “jealous” (Exodus 34:14; cf. Ezekiel 39:25), we are brought up short. Maybe jealousy here means something more positive.

Jealousy refers to zeal (2 Kings 10:16; Isaiah 9:6; 26:11) that comes from love (cf. the connection of love and jealous vengeance in Proverbs 6:34). Jealousy assumes possession of something or someone, and is the instinct to protect that possession from assault. A husband and wife mutually possess one another, and are rightly jealous to protect the exclusive character of that possession. A man is properly jealous of his house and goods, and protects them from intruders, just as Yahweh protects His house and things from unauthorized strangers. Yahweh possesses Israel, and is jealous for her attention.

Jealousy, the proverb tells us, is a more powerful force than anger or wrath. Anger is a flood, but some people survive floods. But jealousy is more powerful. This is in part a warning, like Proverbs 6:34, about the dangers of infringing on the “sacred spaces” of another’s wife, goods, home, possessions. But it is also one way of stating the theme of the Song of Songs – “love is stronger than death.”

Ultimately, the Jealous One is Yahweh Himself. And who can stand before Him?

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