Proverbs 22:4

Pro 22:4 By humility [and] the fear of the LORD [are] riches, and honour, and life.

Ver. 4. By humility and the fear of the Lord.] Heb., The heel of humility, &c. The humble heart that lies low, and "hearkens what God the Lord will say unto it," that follows him trembling, as the people followed Saul, {1Sa 13:7} shall have hard at the heels of it riches - a sufficiency, if not a superfluity - and honour, which is to be chosen before riches, {Pro 22:1} {See Trapp on "Pro 22:1"} and life, above the danger of those thorns and snares mentioned in the next verse; not life present only, but "length of days for ever and ever." {Psa 21:4} Oh the μυριομακαριοτης, the heaped up happiness of a man that humbles and trembles before the Lord! He that doth the former, cannot but do the latter. Hence that close connection of these two graces in this text, "By humility, the fear of the Lord"; so the original runs without the grammatical copulative and, to show that they go always together - yea, the one is as it were predicated upon the other. Neither want they their reward - "riches," "hohour," "life." What things be these? Who would not turn spiritual purchaser?

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Pro_22:4

By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honour, and life.

Humility recommended

Every being pursues its own perfection, and would fain be satisfied in all the capacities it understands, and in all the importunate appetites it feels. God draws us insensibly to virtue and obedience, by annexing those good things which we all perceive, admire, and prosecute to the practice of those moral duties which are equally our happiness, but not so easily discerned. The text encourages humility, from the consideration of the great advantages we may reasonably expect from the practice of it, even all that is good and desirable in this present world--both riches, and honour, and life.

I. A duty recommended. Humility, with the fear of the Lord. The definition, nature, and principles of humility in general. Humility is a habit or temper of mind, proceeding from a principle of religion, which subdues all lofty, false opinions of ones self, and disposes a man to cheerful acquiescence in all estates and conditions of life that God shall place him in. It is a habit of mind, a frame or temper of soul; for a virtue cannot be defined by single actions. It is such a habit of soul as must be framed and wrought by a principle of religion or the fear of God. Nothing can be a virtue in us that we have not chosen. Mere depression of mind is not humility. Christian humility consists in a modest, just opinion of ourselves, and a cheerful submission to the will of God.

II. The several parts and exercises of the duty so defined. The principal exercises of humility are--

1. In our desires and aims.

2. In our looks and gestures.

3. In our garb and habit. But principally--

4. In our conversation with our acquaintance, friends, and equals; with our superiors; with our inferiors.

III. The rewards proposed to persuade and encourage the practice of it.

1. Riches, and honour, and life are real blessings, and the proper matter of reward.

2. Humility, with the fear of the Lord, will certainly procure them. They that seek God may expect to attain these rewards, by a natural power and efficacy in the virtue itself. By an efficacy moral, there is something in the practice of humility that disposes kindly to all those several ends. By an efficacy Divine and spiritual, the blessing of God will assist and forward the designs of the humble, and so dispose and order second causes that they shall live in plenty, peace, and honour, to a good old age. Set the example of our blessed Saviour before your eyes, who humbled Himself to death upon the Cross for us. (J. Lambe.)

Humility, with fear

These two are naturally associated. They are indeed inseparable. Lowliness of spirit is an indispensable characteristic of a religious life. It is in the valley of humiliation that the sinner first meets with God, and comes into a state of reconciliation with Him. The spirit of pride cannot dwell in the same heart with the fear of the Lord. (R. Wardlaw, D.D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Pro 22:4. By humility — Hebrew, עקב ענוה, because of humility; or, as some render the expression, the reward of humility, that reward which God has graciously promised, and will confer on humility, which is a grace of great price in his eyes, Isa 57:15; Jas 4:6; and the fear of the Lord — By which he distinguishes true and Christian humility from counterfeit and merely moral humility: for the former arises from a deep sense of God’s greatness, purity, and perfection, compared with our meanness, impurity, and manifold imperfections, whereas this latter is quite of another nature, and proceeds from other sources; are riches, and honour, and life — The comforts of this life, and the happiness of the next, both which are promised to godliness: see on Pro 15:33.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22:4 Fear of the Lord (see 1:7; 9:10) goes hand in hand with humility. A humble person knows that he is not the center of the universe. Humility is more valuable than wealth (16:19; see also 11:2; 15:33; 18:12).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

See here, 1. Wherein religion does very much consist - in humility and the fear of the Lord; that is, walking humbly with God. We must so reverence God's majesty and authority as to submit with all humility to the commands of his word and the disposals of his providence. We must have such low thoughts of ourselves as to behave humbly towards God and man. Where the fear of God is there will be humility. 2. What is to be gotten by it - riches, and honour, and comfort, and long life, in this world, as far as God sees good, at least spiritual riches and honour in the favour of God, and the promises and privileges of the covenant of grace, and eternal life at last.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

humility and the fear of the Lord--are in apposition; one produces the other. On the results, compare Pro 3:16; Pro 8:18.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(4) By humility and the fear of the Lord.—Rather, by (or, the reward of) humility is the fear of the Lord. He guides the humble and teaches them His fear. (Comp. Psa_25:9.)

Honour, and life.—Comp. Pro_21:21.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. By humility &c.] Rather, The reward of humility and (or, even) of the fear of the Lord. The copula and is dispensed with in the Heb. because of the similarity, amounting almost to identity, of humility and the fear of Jehovah. Comp. Mat_5:3; Mat_5:5.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By humility and the fear of the Lord,.... Some render it, "the reward of humility, which is the fear of the Lord" (r); so the Targum; an humble man is blessed with it. Jarchi's note is,

"because of humility, the fear of the Lord comes;''

humility leads on to the fear of the Lord; he that behaves humbly towards man comes at length to fear the Lord, and be truly religious: though these are rather to be considered as the graces of the Spirit of God, which go together where there is one, there is the other; he that is humbled under a sense of sin, and his own unworthiness, fears the Lord; and he that fears the Lord, and his goodness, will walk humbly before him; they both flow from the grace of God, are very ornamental, and attended with the following happy consequences;

are riches, and honour, and life; spiritual riches, the riches of grace and glory; honour with God and men now, and everlasting life in the world to come.

(r) "praemium mansuetudinis, quae est reverentia Jehovae", Schultens; "merces humilitatis timor Domini", Baynus; "praemium humilitatis est timor Domini": Tigurine version; so Vatablus, Mercerus, Cocceius.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Better, (compare the margin) The reward of humility (is) the fear of the Lord, “riches, and honor, and life.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Fruit. Literally, "the end of modesty, (Haydock) or moderation, which must accompany every virtue.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

By humility; or, because of humility; or, as many others render it, the reward of humility; that reward which God hath graciously promised and will give to humility; which is a grace of great price in God’s eyes. See Isa 57:15; Jam 4:6.

The fear of the Lord; by which he distinguisheth true and Christian humility from counterfeit and moral humility, because that ariseth from a deep sense of God’s greatness, and purity, and perfection, compared with our meanness, and filthiness and manifold imperfections, whereas this is quite of another nature, and from other grounds.

Life; the comforts of this life, and the happiness of the next, both which are promised to godliness, 1Th 4:8.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

4. By humility — On account of; or, as the reward of, “humility.”

The fear of the Lord — There is no conjunction between these two phrases, and some think that the latter stands in apposition to the former, and is explanatory of it — religious humility, or humble piety — those lowly views of one’s self which reverence for Jehovah inspires. The usual promises of the old dispensation are extended to this humble piety. Under the new we have “better promises,” or the old ones exalted to a nobler meaning. Compare Mat_5:3; Mat_18:4; Mat_20:20; Mat_23:12; Luk_14:11; Psa_51:17; Pro_15:33; Pro_16:19; Pro_29:23; Isa_57:15; Isa_66:2; Job_22:29; 1Pe_5:5; Jas_4:6.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By humility and the fear of the Lord, etc. This does not seem to be the best rendering of the original. The word rendered "by" (bqe ekeb), "in reward of," is also taken as the subject of the sentence: "The reward of humility "and," or, "which is the fear of God, is riches," etc. There is no copulative in the clause, and a similar asyndeton occurs in ver. 5; so there is no reason why we should not regard the clause in this way. Thus Revised Version, Nowack, and others. But Delitzsch makes the first hemistich a concluded sentence, which the second member carries on thus: "The reward of humility is the fear of the Lord; it the reward of humility is at the same time riches," etc. Vulgate, Finis modestiae timor Domini, divitiae et gloria et vita; Septuagint, "The generation (genea ) of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and wealth," etc. It is preferable to translate as above, taking the two expressed virtues as appositional, thus: "The reward of humility, the fear of the Lord." Humility brings with it true religion, which is expressed by "the fear of the Lord." The feeling of dependence, the lowly opinion of self, the surrender of the will, the conviction of sin, all effects which are connected with humility, may well be represented by this term, "the fear of God," which, in another aspect, is itself the source of every virtue and every blessing; it is riches, and honour, and life. These are God"s gifts, the guerdon of faithful service. (see notes on Pro_3:16 and Pro_21:21; and comp. Pro_8:18) The Easterns have a pretty maxim, "The bending of the humble is the graceful droop of the branches laden with fruit." And again, "Fruitful trees bend down; the wise stoop; a dry stick and a fool can be broken, not bent" (Lane).

Two graces, and their reward.

I TWO GRACES.

1. The social grace. "Humility." This is becoming in all men, but it is especially seemly where its attainment is most difficult; e.g. among the high in station, the wealthy, the famous, the gifted, the popular. It is as difficult for the demagogue to be humble as for the lord perhaps more difficult, for the former is more conscious of his own powers, and more recently lifted above his fellows. Humility is difficult to acquire, because it is so essentially different from mere weakness and self-effacement. It is seen best in the strongest and most pronounced natures. There is no virtue in failing back from one"s highest aims in order to escape notice. The grace of humility is discovered in an earnest effort to press forward energetically, without a thought of self or a care for the admiration of the world.

2. The religious grace. "The fear of the Lord" Pride excludes true religion. In the childlike spirit of humble dependence we are open to the influence of Heaven. Thus the one grace is linked to the other, Now, the whole of the Old Testament conception of religion is summed up in "the fear of the Lord not because there was no room in it for any emotion but terror, but because the root of the ancient faith was reverence. This is the root of all religion. It maybe so richly mingled with love as we come to discern the Fatherhood of God, that its more dread features are utterly lost. Yet love without reverence would not be a religious emotion, or, at all events, not one suited for God as he is revealed to us in the Bible. The Greeks seemed to dispense with the fear of God in their light, gay religion; but they also dispensed with conscience. A feeling of sin and a perception of the holiness of God must lay a deep foundation of awe beneath the most happy and trustful religious experience.

II A THREEFOLD REWARD.

1. Riches. This is the lowest aspect of the reward. It is in the spirit of the Proverbs, which calls especial attention to the secular consequences of good and ill. We know that the humble and good are often poor and oppressed. But there is a tendency for quiet self-renunciation to be recognized and rewarded. The meek are to be blessed with the inheritance of the earth. (Mat_5:5) When full justice is done, the best men will receive the best things in this world as well as the life of that to come. At present we wait for the accomplishment of this social rectification.

2. Honour. The humble who do not seek honour shall have it, while the proud are cast down in shame. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Men delight to honour self-forgetful merit. But the highest honour comes from God, who discerns the heart, puts down the proud, and exalts them of low degree.

3. Life. Whether this is given in the Hebrew manner in old age or not, Christ has taught us to see his true eternal life as the greatest blessing for his people. The humility in which a man loses his life is the very means of finding the true life; the reverence of religion leads us from the shallow frivolity of earth to the deep life of God.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4 The reward of humility is the fear of Jahve,

Is riches, and honour, and life.

As ענוה־צדק, Psa 45:5, is understood of the two virtues, meekness and righteousness, so here the three Gttingen divines (Ewald, Bertheau, and Elster), as also Dunasch, see in 'ענוה יראת ה an asyndeton; the poet would then have omitted vav, because instead of the copulative connection he preferred the appositional (Schultens: praemium mansuetudinis quae est reverentia Jehovae) or the permutative (the reward of humility; more accurately expressed: the fear of God). It is in favour of this interpretation that the verse following (Pro 22:5) also shows an asyndeton. Luther otherwise: where one abides in the fear of the Lord; and Oetinger: the reward of humility, endurance, calmness in the fear of the Lord, is...; Fleischer also interprets 'יראת ה as Pro 21:4, חטאת (lucerna impiroum vitiosa), as the accus. of the nearer definition. But then is the nearest-lying construction: the reward of humility is the fear of God, as all old interpreters understand 4a (e.g., Symmachus, ὕστερον πραΰ́τητος φόβος κυρίου), a thought so incomprehensible, that one must adopt one or other of these expedients? On the one side, we may indeed say that the fear of God brings humility with it; but, on the other hand, it is just as conformable to experience that the fear of God is a consequence of humility; for actually to subordinate oneself to God, and to give honour to Him alone, one must have broken his self-will, and come to the knowledge of himself in his dependence, nothingness, and sin; and one consequence by which humility is rewarded, may be called the fear of God, because it is the root of all wisdom, or as is here said (cf. Pro 3:16; Pro 8:18), because riches, and honour, and life are in its train. Thus 4a is a concluded sentence, which in 4b is so continued, that from 4a the predicate is to be continued: the reward of humility is the fear of God; it is at the same time riches... Hitzig conjectures 'ראוּת ה, the beholding Jahve; but the visio Dei (beatifica) is not a dogmatic idea thus expressed in the O.T. עקב denotes what follows a thing, from עקב, to tread on the heels (Fleischer); for עקב (Arab. 'aḳib) is the heels, as the incurvation of the foot; and עקב, the consequence (cf. Arab. 'aḳb, 'ukb, posteritas), is mediated through the v. denom. עקב, to tread on the heels, to follow on the heels (cf. denominatives, such as Arab. batn, zahr, 'ân, עין, to strike the body, the back, the eye).

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Who then will say — "It is vain to serve God"? (Mal 3:14 .) Riches, honor, and life to enjoy them — all this accumulation and completeness of happiness belong to his service. But observe the two marks of his ways, humility and the fear of the LORD. Humility is not the mere meekness of modestly. (1Sa 10:22 .) This, though a lovely temper, is not a Christian grace. Nor is it the servility of the hypocrite for his own selfish ends;†1 or the temporary conviction of external humiliation.†2 We may easily distinguish the genuine principle by its accompaniment — the fear of the LORD — that blessed holy reverence, which none but his children feel, and which, while it represses presumption, establishes humility. A just apprehension of God will always lay us in the lowest dust before him. The contrasted sight of his majesty with our meanness, of his holiness with our defilement, constrained the cry from one — "Behold! I am vile; I abhor myself"†3 — from another — "Woe is me, for I am undone!"†4 Then humility is the truest glory. The most humble is the most triumphant Christian. Depressed indeed he may be; yet is he highly exalted. Riches are his, both of grace and of glory. None can deprive him of them.†5 Honor is his — the true fruit,†6 the gracious reward,†7 of humility — high and glorious; the title and present privilege of a child of God, "as heir of God, and joint-heir with Christ."†8 Life is his†9 — lives, every kind of life, not natural only, but spiritual and eternal; life with the Father and the Son, now "hid with Christ in God; and when Christ, who is our life, shall appear," then to be manifested in all its fullness of everlasting joy. (Col 3:3-4 .) Shall we look then beyond the narrow limit of time, and search what is the character of the heirs of glory? He "will beautify the meek with salvation." "Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of God."†10 How glorious is the end of this lowly path of humility and godly fear!

Footnotes:

†1 2Sa 15:5 .

†2 1Ki 21:27 .

†3 Job 40:4; Job 43:5-6 .

†4 Isa 6:5.

†5 Pro 8:18.

†6 Pro 15:33; Pro 18:12 .

†7 Luk 18:13-14.

†8 Rom 8:17.

†9 Proverbs 19:23. Psa 22:26 . Compare Sir 1:11-12, Sir 1:18 ; Sir 2:8-9 ; Sir 40:26-27 .

†10 Psalm 149:4; Mat 5:3 .

Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs (1846) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

fear

(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

v. 4. By humility and the fear of the Lord, coming to men as a result of these virtues, are riches and honor and life, for outward prosperity, the respect of men, and inner growth are the rewards given to believers by the Lord.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In the wake of humility Because of humility, fear of the Lord comes. Another explanation: Humility is the main attribute, and fear is secondary to it and a “heel” to it, a mat for its feet.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.