Proverbs
Proverbs 4
Commentary
No commentary on this chapter yet.
What others are saying
4 commentators · 59 notes on this chapter
Matthew Henry3
Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.
Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.
Here we have, I. The invitation which Solomon gives to his children to come and receive instruction from him (Pro 4:1, Pro 4:2): Hear, you children, the instruction of a father. That is, 1. "Let my own children, in the first place, receive and give good heed…
Some make David's instructions to Solomon, which began Pro 4:4, to continue to the end of the chapter; nay, some continue them to the end of the ninth chapter; but it is more probable that Solomon begins here again, if not sooner. In these verses, having…
Solomon, having warned us not to do evil, here teaches us how to do well. It is not enough for us to shun the occasions of sin, but we must study the methods of duty. I. We must have a continual regard to the word of God and endeavour that it may be always…
John Gill27
The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.
Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.
Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father,.... Either of God their father, as Gersom interprets it; or rather of Solomon their father: and so he recommends his instruction from the relation he stood in to them; for, since he was their father, he would…
For I give you good doctrine,.... Whose author, matter, use, and tendency, are good, and therefore should be received; so the Gospel is called, 1 Timothy 4:6; and no other is here meant: it is the doctrine concerning Wisdom or Christ, as the following verses…
For I was my father's son,.... Or, "a son to my father" (p); so Solomon was to God, his heavenly Father, 2 Samuel 7:14; which Jarchi observes, and gives as the sense of this place: but his father David is meant, whose son he was; though he was not his only…
Keil & Delitzsch9
The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.
Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.
He now confirms and explains the command to duty which he has placed at the beginning of the whole (Pro 1:8). This he does by his own example, for he relates from the history of his own youth, to the circle of disciples by whom he sees himself surrounded…
The exhortation of the father now specializes itself: 5 Get wisdom, get understanding; Forget not and turn not from the words of my mouth. 6 Forsake her not, so shall she preserve thee; Love her, so shall she keep thee. Wisdom and understanding are (5a)…
Referring to Pro 4:5, the father further explains that wisdom begins with the striving after it, and that this striving is itself its fundamental beginning: 7 The beginning of wisdom is "Get wisdom," And with [um, at the price of] all thou hast gotten get…
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown20
The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.
Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.
father's son--emphatic, a son specially regarded, and so called tender, as an object of special care (compare Ch1 22:7; Ch1 29:1); an idea further expressed by only beloved--or, "as an only son" (Gen 22:2), though he had brothers (see on Ch1 3:5).
He taught--or directed me. retain--as well as receive. keep . . . and live--observe, that you may live (Pro 7:2).
Get--as a possession not to be given up. neither decline--that is, from obeying my word.
World English Bible — Public domain