Proverbs 8:33

Pro 8:33 Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.

Ver. 33. Hear instruction, and be wise.] This way wisdom enters into the soul. Hear, therefore, for else there is no hope; hear, howsoever. Augustine, coming to Ambrose to have his ears tickled, had his heart touched.

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_8:33

Hear instruction, and be wise.

Motives for hearing sermons

Contempt of Gods Sabbaths and disregard of ministerial instruction are melancholy characteristics of the age in which we live.

I. The tendency of preaching and meaning the word to promote our best interest. This tendency is sufficient to enforce the duty recommended in my text. The sacred oracles are profitable. The doctrines revealed in them are not doubtful speculations, or light and trivial matters, but truths of infallible certainty, of the most sublime and excellent nature, and, to us men, of infinite importance. The learned as well as illiterate need to go to church on their own account. None, in this imperfect state, arrive at such extent and exactness of Christian knowledge as to need no further assistance for knowing more. For wise reasons the Bible was not written in a systematic form. In searching the Scriptures we need to use the fittest and most effectual means in our power. What can be better suited to assist us in the attainment of religious knowledge than the discourses of those who have not only made it their chief business to study the sacred oracles, but who, by cultivating their rational powers, have acquired a facility of forming distinct conceptions of things, and of expressing those conceptions with plainness and propriety? And knowledge, however extensive, if it hath no suitable influence on mens hearts and lives, will profit them nothing. Therefore men need a faithful monitor, to awaken in us a practical sense of danger and of duty. So sensible was Julian the apostate how wise an institution preaching was for promoting the knowledge and practice of religion, that he appointed men to preach moral philosophy, and to harangue, publicly, in defence of heathenism.

II. Hearing the Word of God is enjoined by express Divine authority. In the Old Testament dispensation (Deu_24:8; Ecc_12:9-11; Neh_8:7-11; Hag_2:11; Mal_2:7) synagogue worship had to be regularly attended. New Testament injunctions are Eph_4:11-13; 1Ti_4:16; 2Ti_2:15; 2Ti_4:2; Tit_1:9; Tit_2:1; Tit_2:7-8.

III. The dreadful threatenings denounced and executed against those who refuse to hear Gods Word. Such as Pro_1:24-31; Pro_21:16; Pro_28:9; Mat_10:14; Heb_2:2-3; Heb_10:28-29; Heb_12:25. On the other hand, God hath promised His special presence and blessing to the faithful preaching, and conscientious hearing of His Word. To support and strengthen our hopes let us review former accomplishments of these exceeding great and precious promises. In how miraculous a manner hath the Word of God often triumphed over the greatest opposition. (J. Erskine, D. D.)

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

Hear instruction,.... The instruction of wisdom, the Gospel of Christ; which instructs men in things relating to God the Father; as that he is the God and Father of his people, the God of all grace, the giver and sender of Christ, and all good things by him; in things respecting Christ, his person, office, grace, and righteousness; in things that appertain to the Spirit of God, his deity, personality, and operations of grace on the souls of men; in the knowledge of themselves, their impurity, impotence, and unrighteousness; and in the way of salvation by Jesus Christ, and therefore to be hearkened to;

and be wise; this is the way to be wise to that which is good, both as to the knowledge and practice of it; to be wise unto salvation, and with respect to everlasting things and a future state; and the Gospel instruction teaches men to behave wisely, to walk in wisdom towards them that are without;

and refuse it not; for this is not to be wise, but to act the part of fools; and such as do so despise their own souls, show that they have no care of them, or concern for their eternal welfare, Pro 1:7; for, if this is rejected, there is no escaping eternal damnation, Heb 2:3.

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

Or, do not make it void or unprofitable to you by your own sloth or wilfulness.

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

Be wise. This will be the effect of attending to the injunction, Hear instruction. (see on Pro_3:4) The Vatican text of the Septuagint omits this verse; it is added in the Alexandrian and Sin.

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

The summons 32a, and its reason 32b, are repeated in these verses which follow:

33 "Hear instruction, and be wise,

And withdraw not.

34 Blessed is the man who hears me,

Watching daily at my gates,

Waiting at the posts of my doors!

35 For whosoever findeth me has found life,

And has obtained favour from Jahve;

36 And whosoever misseth me doeth wrong to himself;

All they who hate me love death."

The imper. וחכמוּ, 33a (et sapite), is to be judged after Pro 4:4, וחיה, cf. the Chethı̂b, Pro 13:20; one sees this from the words ואל־תּפרעוּ which follow, to which, after Pro 15:32, as at Pro 4:13, to אל־תּרף, מוּסר is to be placed as object: and throw not to the winds (ne missam faciatis; vid., regarding פרע at Pro 1:25), viz., instruction (disciplinam).

Pro 8:34

The אשׁרי here following שׁמעוּ is related to it as assigning a motive, like the ואשׁרי (Pro 8:32) following שׁמעו; according to the Masora, we have to write אשׁרי with Mercha, and on the first syllable Gaja (vid., Baer's Torath Emeth, pp. 26, 29; cf. under Psa 1:1). לשׁקד signifies to watch, not in the sense of ad vigilandum, but vigilando, as Isa 5:22; Isa 30:1; Ewald, 380d. In contradistinction to העיר and הקיץ, which denote watching as the consequence of wakefulness or an interruption of sleep, שׁקד signifies watching as a condition, and that as one which a person willingly maintains (Psychol. p. 275), the intentional watching (cf. Arab. shaḳidha, to fix penetrating eyes upon anything), with על of the place and object and aim (Jer 5:6; cf. העיר על, Job 8:6). The plurals דּלתות (fores, as חמות, Jer 1:18, maenia) and פתחים are amplifying plurs. of extension, suggesting the idea of a palace or temple; מזוּזת (postes portae, in quibus cardines ejus moventur, from זוּז, to move hither and thither) is intended to indicate that he to whom the discourse refers holds himself in closest nearness to the entrance, that he might not miss the moment when it is opened, or when she who dwells there presents herself to view. "The figure is derived from the service of a court: Wisdom is honoured by her disciples, as a queen or high patroness; cf. Samachschari's Golden Necklaces, Pr. 35: Blessed is the man who knocks only at God's door, and who departs not a nail's breadth from God's threshold" (Fl.).

Pro 8:35

This verse gives the reason for pronouncing those happy who honour Wisdom. The Chethı̂b is כי מצאי מצאי חיּים, but the passing over into the sing. 35b is harsh and objectionable; the Kerı̂ rightly regards the second מצאי as a mistaken repetition of the first, and substitutes כי מצאי מצא חיים, with which the וחטאי (Pro 8:36) of the antithesis agrees. Regarding מצאי, for which, less accurately, מצאי (only with the Dech without Metheg) is generally written, vid., Accentuationssystem, vii. 2. הפיק, to get out = reach, exchanged with מצא, Pro 3:13 (vid., there); according to its etymon, it is connected with מן, of him from or by whom one has reached anything; here, as Pro 12:2; Pro 18:22, God's favour, favorem a Jova impetravit.

Pro 8:36

חטאי may, it is true, mean "my sinning one = he who sins against me (חטא לי)," as קמי is frequently equivalent to קמים עלי; but the contrast of מצאי places it beyond a doubt that חטא stands here in its oldest signification: to miss something after which one runs (Pro 19:2), seeks (Job 5:24), at which one shoots (Hiph. Jdg 20:16), etc., id non attingere quod petitur, Arab. âkhṭa, to miss, opposite to âṣab, to hit (Fl.). Just because it is the idea of missing, which, ethically applied, passes over into that of sin and guilt (of fault, mistake, false step, "Fehls, Fehlers, Fehltritts"), חטא can stand not only with the accusative of the subject in regard to which one errs, Lev 5:16, but also with the accusative of the subject which one forfeits, i.e., misses and loses, Pro 20:2, cf. Hab 2:10; so that not only מאס נפשׁו, Pro 15:32 (animam suam nihili facit), but also חוטא נפשׁו, Pro 20:2 (animam suam pessumdat), is synonymous with חמס נפשׁו (animae suae h. e. sibi ipsi injuriam facit). Whoever misses Wisdom by taking some other way than that which leads to her, acts suicidally: all they who wilfully hate (Piel) wisdom love death, for wisdom is the tree of life, Pro 3:18; wisdom and life are one, 35a, as the Incarnate Wisdom saith, Joh 8:51, "If a man keep my sayings, he shall never see death." In the Logos, Wisdom has her self-existence; in Him she has her personification, her justification, and her truth.

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.)

and do not put it to naught Heb. תפרעו, and do not put my discipline to naught.

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.