Proverbs 8:4

Pro 8:4 Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice [is] to the sons of man.

Ver. 4. Unto you, O men, I call.] O viri praestantes, - so some render it, O ye eminent men, whether for greatness of birth, wealth, or learning. The Pharisees and philosophers, for their learning, are called the "princes of this world." {1Co 2:8} Sed sapientes sapienter in infernum descendunt, saith one; et potentes potenter torguebuntur, saith another. But "the world by wisdom knows not God"; {1Co 1:21} and "not many wise men, not many mighty, not many noble are called." {Pro 8:26} And yet they shall not want for calling, if that would do it, for "unto you, O mighty men, I call." Sed surdo plerunque fabulam, but all to little purpose, for the most part. They that lay their heads upon down pillows cannot so easily hear noises. Courts and great places prove ill air for zeal. Divitibus ideo pietas deest, quia nihil deest. Rich men’s wealth proves a hindrance to their happiness.

And my voice is to the sons of men,] i.e., To the meaner sort of people. See Psa 49:2. These usually, like little fishes, bite more than bigger. The poor are evangelized, {a} saith our Saviour. Smyrna was the poorest, but best of the seven churches. Certain it is, that many of the meaner sort hold that they are not bound to look after Scripture matters, but that it is for rich men and scholars only to do so. We have nothing, say they, to live by but these hands. How can day labourers and poor craftsmen attend to such things? {b} The baser sort of people in Switzerland do always break the Sabbath, saying that it is only for gentlemen to keep that day. See Jer 5:4 Joh 7:49. But Paul, a poor tent maker, could say, "Our conversation is in heaven"; and God’s people are "afflicted and poor," yet "they trust in the name of the Lord." {Zep 3:12} Who ever richer than Adam in Paradise? poorer than Job on the dunghill? Yet in Paradise Satan foiled Adam, on the dunghill Job foiled Satan. Think not that poverty can excuse from duty. Poor men also must listen to wisdom’s voice, or it will be worse with them; there is yet but a beginning of their sorrows.

{a} ευαγγελιζονται.

{b} "πως δυνησομαι χειροτεχνης ων και πενης φιλοσοφειν." - Chrysost, Hom. 22, ad Pop. Antioch.

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_8:4

Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.

God revealed in the universe and in humanity

The truth, which can guide us to perfection and to happiness, is teaching us always and everywhere. God surrounds us constantly with His instruction. The universal presence of Truth is the subject before us. Wisdom is omnipresent. The greatest truths meet us at every turn. God is on every side, not only by His essential invisible presence, but by His manifestations of power and perfection. We fail to see Him, not from want of light, but from want of spiritual vision. In saying that the great truths of religion are shining all about and within us, I am not questioning the worth of the Christian revelation. The Christian religion concentrates the truth diffused through the universe, and pours it upon the mind with solar lustre. We cannot find language to express the worth of the illumination given through Jesus Christ. But He intends, not that we should hear His voice alone, but that we should open our ears to the countless voices of wisdom, virtue, and piety, which now in whispers, now in thunders, issue from the whole of nature and of life.

I. The voice of wisdom. That is of moral and religious truth speaks to us from the universe. Nature everywhere testifies to the infinity of its Author. It proclaims a perfection illimitable, unsearchable, transcending all thought and utterance. There is an impenetrable mystery in every action and force of the universe that envelops our daily existence with wonder, and makes sublime the familiar processes of the commonest arts. How astonishingly does nature differ in her modes of production from the works of human skill. In nature, vibrating with motion, where is the moving-energy? What and whence is that principle called life--life, that awful power, so endlessly various in the forms it assumes--life that fills earth, air, and sea with motion, growth, activity, and joy--life that enlivens us--what is it? An infinite universe is each moment opened to our view. And this universe is the sign and symbol of infinite power, intelligence, purity, bliss, and love. It is a pledge from the living God of boundless and endless communications of happiness, truth, and virtue. A spiritual voice pervades the universe, which is all the more eloquent because it is spiritual, because it is the voice in which the All-Wise speaks to all intelligences.

II. The voice of wisdom utters itself from the world of moral and intelligent beings, the humanity of which we each form a part. This topic is immense, for the book of human nature has no end. New pages are added to it every day through successive generations. Take one great lesson, which all history attests--that there is in human nature an element truly Divine, and worthy of all reverence; that the Infinite which is mirrored in the outward universe is yet more brightly imaged in the inward spiritual world or, in other words, that man has powers and principles, predicting a destiny to which no bounds can be prescribed, which are full of mystery, and even more incomprehensible than those revealed through the material creation.

1. They who disparage human nature do so from ignorance of one of the highest offices of wisdom. The chief work of Wisdom consists in the interpretation of signs. The great aim is to discern what the visible present signifies, what it foreshows, what is to spring from it, what is wrapped up in it as a germ. This actual world may be defined as a world of signs. What we see is but the sign of what is unseen. In life an event is the prophetic sign and forerunner of other coming events. Of human nature we hardly know anything but signs. It has merely begun its development.

2. In estimating human nature most men rest in a half-wisdom, which is worse than ignorance. They who speak most contemptuously of man tell the truth, but only half the truth. Amidst the passions and selfishness of men the wise see another element--a Divine element, a spiritual principle. Half-wisdom is the root of the most fatal prejudice. Man, with all his errors, is a wonderful being, endowed with incomprehensible grandeur, worthy of his own incessant vigilance and care, worthy to be visited with infinite love from heaven. The Infinite is imaged in him more visibly than in the outward universe. This truth is the central principle of Christianity. What is the testimony of human life to the Divine in man? Take the moral principle. What is so common as the idea of right? The whole of human life is a recognition in some way or other of moral distinctions. And no nation has existed, in any age, that has not caught a glimpse at least of the great principles of right and wrong. The right is higher altogether in its essential quality than the profitable, the agreeable, the graceful. It is that which must be done though all other things be left undone, that which must be gained though all else be lost. Every human being is capable of rectitude. The power of resisting evil exists in every man, whether he will exercise it or not. The principle of right in the human heart reveals duty to the individual. Here, then, we learn the greatness of human nature. This moral principle--the supreme law in man--is the law of the universe. Then man and the highest beings are essentially of one order. It is a joyful confirmation of faith thus to find in the human soul plain signatures of a Divine principle, to find faculties allied to the attributes of God, faculties beginning to unfold into Gods image, and presages of an immortal life. And such views of human nature will transform our modes of relationship, communication, and association with our fellow-beings. They will exalt us into a new social life. They will transform our fellowship with God. How little we know ourselves! How unjust are we to ourselves! We need a new revelation--not of heaven or hell--but of the Spirit within ourselves. (W. E. Channing, D. D.)

The voice of Divine Wisdom

I. It is a voice striving for the ear of all.

II. It is a voice worthy of the ear of all.

1. Her communications are perfect.

2. They are intelligible.

3. Precious.

4. Exhaustless.

5. Rectifying.

6. Original. What Divine Wisdom gives is undeniably uuborrowed. (Homilist.)

Christ calling to men

There are two suitors for the heart of man. The one suggests the pleasures of sense, the other the delights of religion. The earthly suitor is the world, the heavenly suitor is Christ.

I. The speaker.

II. The object he has in view. Our salvation: our temporal and eternal happiness.

III. The persons to whom he speaks. Not to fallen angels, but to the sons of men. He utters His voice in every possible variety of place, if so be that by any means He might save some. The self-destruction of the impenitent. (Charles Clayton, M. A.)

The matter of Wisdoms speech

Her exhortation. Her commendation.

I. Gods especial care is for men.

1. Because there is no creature upon earth more to be wondered at than man.

2. Because God hath made him more capable of instruction than other creatures.

3. Because man is most capable of getting good by instruction.

4. Because God sent His Son into the world to become man for the good of man.

II. God looks that man should learn.

1. God takes great pains with him.

2. God is at great cost with him.

III. All sorts of men may be taught by wisdoms voice.

1. There is a capacity left in mean men.

2. Common gifts of illumination are bestowed on mean men, as well as great ones.

It reproves great men if they are ignorant; and men of meaner rank cannot be excused if they are ignorant. (Francis Taylor, B. D.)

Wisdom offered to the sons of men

Wisdom shows herself to be truly wise by recognising the different capacities and qualities of men: Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man. Children who are at school are accustomed to distinguish between viri and homines--between the strong and the weak. Unto you, O men, I call--strong, virile, massive--and my voice is to the sons of man--the lesser, the weaker, the more limited in capacity, but men still--and I will accommodate my speech to the capacity of every one, for I have come to bring the world to the temple of understanding. Then there is further discrimination; we read of the simple and of the fools. Simple is a word which, as we have often seen, has been abused. There ought to be few lovelier words than simple--without fold, or duplicity, or complexity, or involution: such ought to be the meaning of simple and simplicity. Wisdom comes to fools, and says she will work miracles. Could a man say, I am too far gone for Wisdom to make anything of me, he would by his very confession prove that he was still within the range of salvation. To know ones self diseased is half the cure: to know ones self to be ignorant is to have taken several steps on the way to the sanctuary of wisdom. This might be Christ speaking; yea, there are men who have not hesitated to say that by Wisdom in this chapter is meant the Wisdom of God in history, the Loges, the eternal Son of God. Certainly, the wisdom of this chapter seems to follow the very course which Jesus Christ Himself pursued: He will call all men to Himself--the simple, and the foolish, and the far away; He will make room for all. A wonderful house is Gods house in that way, so flexible, so expansive; there is always room for the man who is not yet in. So Wisdom will have men, and sons of man; simple men, foolish men. By this universality of the offer judge the Divinity of the origin. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The universal call of the gospel

I. The call of the text to spiritual duty is addressed to all men.

II. Calls and invitations serve the following important purposes.

1. They show us our duty and obligation.

2. They show the connection betwixt the state to which we are called and the enjoyment of the blessing promised.

3. They point out and hold before us what must be accomplished in us, if ever we be saved.

4. They are intended to shut us up to the faith now revealed.

5. They are designed to show us what we ought to pray for.

6. They are to shut us out of all so-called neutral ground in spiritual things. (John Bonar.)

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

CRITICAL NOTES.—

Pro_8:5. Wisdom. This is a different word from the one used in Pro_8:1, and may be translated “subtilty,” or “prudence,” and though it is here used in a good sense, may, when the context requires it, be translated “artful cunning.”

Pro_8:6. Excellent, literally “princely,” generally rendered “plain,” “evident,” “obvious.”

Pro_8:7. Mouth, lit. “palate.” Speak, literally, “meditate;” the word originally meant “mutter,” and grew to mean “meditate,” because what a man meditates deeply he generally mutters about (Miller).

Pro_8:8. Froward, literally, “distorted,” or “crooked.”

Pro_8:9. “Right to the man of understanding, and plain to them that have attained knowledge” (Zöckler). “To the men of understanding they are all to the point” (Delitzsch).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH—Pro_8:4-9

GOD’S SPEECH MEETING MAN’S NEED

I. Divine Wisdom has spoken because God’s silence would be human death. When a man is lying in prison awaiting the execution of the extreme penalty of the law, after he has petitioned the monarch for a reprieve, the silence of the monarch is a permission that the sentence is to be carried out. His silence is a death-knell to the criminal who has asked for pardon. It is an anticipation of the steel of the executioner, of the rope of the hangman. He longs for the word that would bring pardon. There is death in the silence. In the history of men’s lives there are many other instances when the silence of those whom they desire to speak embitters their life. There are many who keep silence whose speech would fall upon the heart of those who long for it, as the dew and gentle rain falls upon the parched earth. A word or a letter would be like a new lease of life, but the silence brings a sorrow which is akin to death, which perchance is the death of all that makes life to be desired. A parent who has no word from his absent son goes down in sorrow to the grave. Jacob was thus going down mourning when the words of Joseph reached him. Then “his spirit revived” (Gen_45:27), and the aged, sorrowful patriarch renewed his youth. The life of man—all that is worth calling life—depends upon God’s breaking the silence between earth and heaven. His silence is that which is most dreaded by those who have heard his voice. Hence their prayer is, “Be not silent unto me; lest, if Thou be silent unto me, I become like them that go down into the pit (Psa_28:1). If man had been left without any communication from God, he must have remained spiritually dead throughout his term of probation. For he is by nature what is called in Scripture, “carnally-minded,” which “is death” (Rom_8:5). Every man, if left to himself, forms habits of thinking and of acting that cause him “to be tied and bound with the chain of his sins.” And if God had not spoken he must have remained in this condition, which is spiritual death. Therefore, God has broken this silence with an “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead” (Eph_5:14). The nations were walking in the darkness and the shadow of death when the “light shined” upon them (Luk_1:79), in the person of Him who is the Word and the Wisdom of God, who, Himself, declared “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life;” “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (Joh_6:63; Joh_10:10).

II. Human nature needs the voice of Divine Wisdom because the soul cannot rest upon uncertainties (Pro_8:6-8). If a man is in the dark upon any subject, he is in a condition of unrest; there is a desire within him to rise from the state of probability to one of certainty. If a boy works a sum and does not know how to prove that it is right, he does not feel that satisfaction at having completed his task that he would do if he could demonstrate that the answer was correct. After all his labour he has only arrived at a may-be. So the result of all efforts of man’s unaided reasonings concerning himself and his destiny was but a sum unproved. There was no certainty after ages of laborious conjecture. There might be a future life and immortality, but it could not be positively affirmed. Although the sum might be right there was a possibility that it was wrong. The world by wisdom arrived at no certain conclusions in relation to the Divine character and the chief end of man, and uttered but an uncertain sound on the life beyond the grave. “How can man be just with God?” “If a man die shall he live again?” were never fully and triumphantly answered until the Incarnate Word stood by His own empty grave and said, “I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God” (Joh_20:17). He brought “rest” to the weary and heavy laden (Mat_11:28), because His words were truth, and plainness, and certainty (see Pro_8:6-8); before they had been only error, or obscurity, or conjecture.

III. The wisdom of God is appreciated by those who have realised its adaptation to human needs. (Pro_8:9.) There is a twofold knowledge, or “understanding,” of Divine truth, as there is of much else with which we are acquainted. There is an acquaintance with the general facts of Divine revelation—a theoretical understanding of its suitableness to the needs of men, and there is a knowledge which arises from an experience of its adaptation to our personal need—a practical understanding which springs from having received a personal benefit. The chemist knows that a certain drug possesses qualities adapted to cure a particular malady, but if he comes to experience its efficacy in the cure of the disease in his own body, he has a knowledge which far surpasses the merely theoretical. It is then “plain” to him from an experimental understanding. The wisdom of God in the abstract, or in the personal Logos, is allowed by many to be adapted to the spiritual needs of the human race. They see the philosophy of the plan of salvation in the general, but its wonderful adaptation and “rightness” is only fully revealed when they have “found” the “knowledge” by an experimental reception of Christ into their own hearts. To him that thus “understands” all is “plain.”

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS

Pro_8:4. Christ offers Himself as a Saviour to all the human race.

I. The most awakening truth in all the Bible. It is commonly thought that preaching the holy law is the most awakening truth in the Bible, and, indeed, I believe this is the most ordinary means which God makes use of. And yet to me there is something far more awakening in the sight of a Divine Saviour freely offering Himself to eyery one of the human race.… Does it not show that all men are lost—that a dreadful hell is before them? Would the Saviour call so loud and so long if there was no hell?

II. The most comforting truth in the Bible. If there were no other text in the whole Bible to encourage sinners to come freely to Christ, this one alone might persuade them. Christ speaks to the human race. Instead of writing down every name He puts all together in one word, which includes every man, woman, and child.

III. The most condemning truth in all the Bible. If Christ be freely offered to all men, then it is plain that those who live and die without accepting Christ shall meet with the doom of those who refuse the Son of God.—McCheyne.

They are called to repentance, they are called to the remission of their sins; they may and must repent, and they, by repentance, are sure of pardon for all their sins. The good angels have not sinned, the bad angels cannot repent; it is man that hath done the one, it is man that must do the other.—Jermin.

“O men.” Some render it, “O ye eminent men” (see Critical Notes), whether for greatness of birth, wealth, or learning. But “the world by wisdom knows not God” (1Co_1:21); and “not many wise men, not many mighty, not many noble, are called” (Pro_8:26). And yet they shall not want for calling, if that would do it. But all to little purpose, for most part. They that lay their heads upon down pillows cannot so easily hear noises. “The sons of men,” i.e., to the meaner sort of people. These, usually, like little fishes, bite more than bigger. “The poor are gospelised,” saith our Saviour. Smyrna was the poorest, but the best of the seven churches.—Trapp.

Several ways whereby God addresses Himself to man. How different the method which God uses towards the rational from that which He uses toward the material world. In the world of matter God has not only fixed and prescribed certain laws according to which the course of nature shall proceed, but He is Himself the sole and immediate executor of those laws.… It is to Himself that He has set those laws, and it is by Himself that they are executed. But He does not deal so with the world of spirits. He does not here execute the laws of love, as He does there the laws of motion. He contents Himself to prescribe laws, to make rational applications, to speak to spirits. He speaks to them because they are rational, and can understand what He says, and He does but speak to them because they are free. And this He does in several ways.

1. By the natural and necessary order and connection of things. God, as being the Author of nature, is also the author of that connection that results from it between some actions and that good and evil that follows upon them, and which must therefore not be considered as mere natural consequences, but as a kind of rewards and punishments annexed to them by the Supreme Lawgiver, God having declared by them, as by a natural sanction, that ’tis His will and pleasure that those actions which are attended with good consequences should be done, and that those which are attended with evil consequences should be avoided. Not that the law has its obligation from the sanction, but these natural sanctions are signs and declarations of the will of God.

2. By sensible pleasure and pain. A thing which everybody feels, but which few reflect upon, yet there is a voice of God in it. For does not God, by the frequent and daily return of these impressions, continually put us in mind of the nature and capacity of our souls, that we are thinking beings, and beings capable of happiness and misery, which because we actually feel in several degrees, and in several kinds, we may justly think ourselves capable of in more, though how far, and in what variety, it be past our comprehension exactly to define.

3. By that inward joy which attends the good, and by that inward trouble and uneasiness which attends the bad state of the soul. This is a matter of universal experience. It is God that raiseth this pleasure or this pain in us, and that thus differently rewards or punishes the souls of men, and thus, out of His infinite love, is pleased to do the office of a private monitor to every particular man, by smiling upon him when he does well, and by frowning upon him when he does ill, that so he may have a mark to discern, and an encouragement to do his duty.—John Norris.

Pro_8:5. A man may be acutely shrewd and yet be a fool, and that in the very highest sense. Nor is this a mere mystic sense. He must be a fool actually, and of the very plainest kind, who gives the whole labour of a life, for example, to increase his eternal agonies.—Miller.

The heart is frequently used, simply for the mind or seat of intellect as well as for the affections; so that “an understanding heart” might mean nothing different from an intelligent mind. At the same time, since the state of the heart affects to such a degree the exercise of the judgment, “an understanding heart” may signify a heart freed from the influence of those corrupt affections and passions by which the understanding is perverted, and its vision marred and destroyed.—Wardlaw.

Pro_8:6. The discoveries of Wisdom relate to things of the highest possible excellence; such as the existence, character, works, and ways of God; the soul; eternity; the way of salvation—the means of eternal life. And they are, on all subjects, “right.” They could not, indeed, be excellent themselves, how excellent soever in dignity and importance the subjects to which they related, unless they were “right.” But all her instructions are so. They are true in what regards doctrine, and “holy, just, and good” in what regards conduct or duty. There is truth without any mixture of error, and rectitude without any alloy of evil.—Wardlaw.

Right for each man’s purposes and occasions. The Scriptures are so penned that every man may think they speak of him and his affairs. In all God’s commands there is so much rectitude and good reason, could we but see it, that if God did not command them, yet it were our best way to practise them.—Trapp.

The teaching is not trifling, though addressed to triflers. “Right things”—things which are calculated to correct your false notions, and set straight your crooked ways.—Adam Clarke.

Pro_8:9. If aught in God’s Word does not seem to us right, it is because we, so far, have not found true knowledge. “To those who have bloodshot eyes, white seems red (Lyra). He who would have the sealed book opened to him must ask it of the Lamb who opens the book (Rev_5:4-9.—Fausset.

The first part of this verse wears very much the aspect of a truism. But it is not said, “They are plain to him that understandeth them;” but simply to him that “understandeth.” It seems to signify, who has the understanding necessary to the apprehension of Divine truth—spiritual discernment. “He who is spiritual discerneth all things.” “They are all plain” to him who thus understandeth. It may further be observed, how very much depends, in the prosecution of any science, for correct and easy apprehension of its progressive development to the mind, on the clear comprehension of its elementary principles. The very clearest and plainest demonstrations, in any department of philosophy, will fail to be followed and to carry conviction—will leave the mind only in wonder and bewildering confusion, unless there is a full and correct acquaintance with principles or elements, or a willingness to apply the mind to its attainment. So in Divine science. There are, in regard to the discoveries of the Divine Word, certain primary principles, which all who are taught of God know, and which they hold as principles of explanation for all that that Word reveals, They who are thus “taught of God,” perceive with increasing fulness the truth, the rectitude, the unalloyed excellence of all the dictates of Divine wisdom. All is “plain”—all “right.” The darkness that brooded over the mind is dissipated. They “have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things” (1Jn_2:20).—Wardlaw.

When a man gets the knowledge of himself, then he sees all the threatenings of God to be right. When he obtains the knowledge of God in Christ, then he finds that all the promises of God are right—yea and amen.—Adam Clarke.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now begins the discourse. The exordium summons general attention to it with the emphasis of its absolute truth:

4 "To you, ye men, is my discourse addressed,

And my call is to the children of men!

5 Apprehend, O ye simple ones, what wisdom is;

And, ye fools what understanding is.

6 Hear, for I will speak princely things,

And the opening of my lips is upright.

7 For my mouth uttereth truth,

And a wicked thing is an abomination to my lips.

8 The utterances of my mouth are in rectitude,

There is nothing crooked or perverse in them.

9 To the men of understanding they are all to the point,

And plain to those who have attained knowledge."

Hitzig rejects this section, Pro 8:4-12, as he does several others in chap. 8 and 9, as spurious. But if this preamble, which reminds us of Elihu, is not according to every one's taste, yet in respect of the circle of conception and thought, as well as of the varying development of certain fundamental thoughts, it is altogether after the manner of the poet. The terminology is one that is strange to us; the translation of it is therefore difficult; that which is given above strives at least not to be so bad as to bring discredit on the poet. The tautology and flatness of Pro 8:4 disappears when one understands אישׁים and בּני אדם like the Attic ἄνδρες and ἄνθρωποι; vid., under Isa 2:9; Isa 53:3 (where אישׁים, as here and Psa 141:4, is equivalent to בּני אישׁ, Psa 49:3; Psa 4:3). Wisdom turns herself with her discourses to high and low, to persons of standing and to the proletariat. The verbal clause 4a interchanges with a noun clause 4b, as frequently a preposition with its noun (e.g., Pro 8:8) completes the whole predicate of a semistich (Fl.).

Pro 8:5

Regarding ארמה, calliditas, in a good sense, vid., at Pro 1:4; regarding פּתאים, those who are easily susceptible of good or bad, according to the influence that is brought to bear upon them, vid., also Pro 1:4; and regarding כּסילים, the intellectually heavy, dull persons in whom the flesh burdens the mind, vid., at Pro 1:22. לב is parallel with ערמה, for the heart (according to its Semitic etymon, that which remains fast, like a kernel, the central-point) is used for the understanding of which it is the seat (Psychol. p. 249), or heartedness = intelligence (cf. חסר־לב, Pro 6:32 = ἄνους or ἄλογος). We take ערמה and לב as objective, as we have translated: that which is in both, and in which they consist. Thus הבּין, which is a favourite word with this author, has both times the simple transitive meaning of the gain of understanding into the nature and worth of both; and we neither need to interpret the second הבינוּ in the double transitive meaning, "to bring to understanding," nor, with Hitzig, to change in into הכינוּ

(Note: Vid., the Hebr. Zeitschrift, החלוץ, 1856, p. 112.) direct, i.e., applicate.

Pro 8:6

That to which Wisdom invites, her discourse makes practicable, for she speaks of נגידים. Hitzig interprets this word by conspicua, manifest truths, which the Graec. Venet. understands to be ἐναντία, after Kimchi's interpretation: truths which one makes an aim and object (נגד) on account of their worth. Frst, however, says that נגיד, from נגד, Arab. najad, means to be elevated, exalted, and thereby visible (whence also הגּיד, to bring to light, to bring forward); and that by נגידים, as the plur. of this נגיד, is to be understood princeps in the sense of principalia, or πραεσταντια (lxx σεμνά; Theodot. ἡγεμονικά; Jerome, de rebus magnis) (cf. νόμος βασιλικός of the law of love, which surpasses the other laws, as kings do their subjects), which is supported by the similar expression, Pro 22:20. But that we do not need to interpret נגידים as abstr., like מישׁרים, and as the acc. adverb.: in noble ways, because in that case it ought to be נגידות (Berth.), is shown by Pro 22:20, and also Pro 16:13; cf. on this neuter use of the masc., Ewald, 172a. "The opening of my lips (i.e., this, that they open themselves, not: that which they disclose, lay open) is upright" is to be regarded as metonymia antecedentis pro conseq.: that which I announce is...; or also as a poetic attribution, which attributes to a subject that which is produced by it (cf. Pro 3:17): my discourse bearing itself right, brings to light (Fl.). Pro 23:16, cf. 31, is parallel both in the words and the subject; מישׁרים, that which is in accordance with fact and with rectitude, uprightness (vid., at Pro 1:3), is a word common to the introduction (chap. 1-9), and to the first appendix to the first series of Solomonic Proverbs (Prov 22:17-24:22), with the Canticles. In Sol 5:16, also, as where (cf. Pro 5:3; Job 6:30), the word palate [Gaumen] is used as the organ of speech.

Pro 8:7

כּי continues the reason (begun in Pro 8:6) for the Hearken! (cf. Pro 1:15-17; Pro 4:16.); so that this second reason is co-ordinated with the first (Fl.). Regarding אמת, vid., at Pro 3:3; הגה, here of the palate (cf. Psa 37:30), as in Pro 15:28 of the heart, has not hitherto occurred. It signifies quiet inward meditation, as well as also (but only poetically) discourses going forth from it (vid., at Psa 1:2). The contrary of truth, i.e., moral truth, is רשׁע, wickedness in words and principles - a segolate, which retains its Segol also in pausa, with the single exception of Ecc 3:16.

Pro 8:8-9

The בּ of בּצדק is that of the close connection of a quality with an action or matter, which forms with a substantive adverbia as well as virtual adjectiva, as here: cum rectitudine (conjuncta i. e. vera) sunt omnia dicta oris mei (Fl.); it is the ב of the distinctive attribute (Hitzig), certainly related to the ב essentiae (Pro 3:26, according to which Schultens and Bertheau explain), which is connected with the abstract conception (e.g., Psa 33:4), but also admits the article designating the gender (vid., at Psa 29:4). The opposite of צדק (here in the sense of veracitas, which it means in Arab.) is נפתּל ועקּשׁ, dolosum ac perversum. עקּשׁ (cf. Gesen. 84, 9) is that which is violently bent and twisted, i.e., estranged from the truth, which is, so to speak, parodied or caricatured. Related to it in meaning, but proceeding from a somewhat different idea, is נפתל. פּתל, used primarily of threads, cords, ropes, and the like, means to twist them, to twine them over and into one another, whence פּתיל, a line or string made of several intertwisted threads (cf. Arab. ftı̂lt, a wick of a candle or lamp); Niph., to be twisted, specifically luctari, of the twisting of the limbs, and figuratively to bend and twist oneself, like the crafty (versutus) liars and deceivers, of words and thoughts which do not directly go forth, but by the crafty twistings of truth and rectitude, opp. ישׁר, נכון (Fl.). There is nothing of deception of error in the utterances of wisdom; much rather they are all נכצים, straight out from her (cf. Isa 57:2), going directly out, and without circumlocution directed to the right end for the intelligent, the knowing (cf. Neh 10:29); and ישׁרים, straight or even, giving no occasion to stumble, removing the danger of erring for those who have obtained knowledge, i.e., of good and evil, and thus the ability of distinguishing between them (Gesen. 134, 1) - briefly, for those who know how to estimate them.

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.)

Verse 4. Unto you, O men] אישים ishim, men of wealth and power, will I call; and not to you alone, for my voice is אל בני אדם al beney Adam, "to all the descendants of Adam;" to the whole human race. As Jesus Christ tasted death for every man, so the Gospel proclaims salvation to all: to YOU - to every individual, my voice is addressed. Thou hast sinned; and thou must perish, if not saved by grace.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(4) O men—i.e., “great ones;” “sons of man” are those of inferior rank; comp. the Hebrew of Isa_2:9, where the same words are translated “great man,” and “mean man.” Comp. the generality of the invitation of Psa_49:2.

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

Unto you, O men, I call,.... Not angels, the fallen angels; for, as they had nothing to do with Christ, he had nothing to do with them, or say unto them, Mat 8:29; nor the brutes, irrational creatures; for, though the Gospel is to be preached to every creature, yet only to rational ones, Mar 16:15, "men", whom God has loved and Christ has redeemed; these are by the Gospel called, and called effectually. There are some men indeed who are only externally called; but there are others who are also called with an holy calling, of which See Gill on Pro 1:24. Some think men of eminence are here meant, as rich men, so Aben Ezra; or men of wisdom and knowledge, such as the Scribes and Pharisees, and learned doctors among the Jews; but it rather seems to design men indefinitely, of whatsoever rank or order, state or condition;

and my voice is to the sons of men; which some interpret of the poor, as Aben Ezra; or those who are more illiterate, or the common people; so that high and low, rich and poor, have the Gospel preached unto them; but the phrase seems to intend the same as before, the same thing is said in different words.

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

Men ... sons of man - The two words are used, which, like viri and homines, describe the higher and the lower, the stronger and the weaker. Compare the Psa 49:2 note.

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

To all men without exception, even to the meanest, who are thus called, Psa 49:2.

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

Vers. 4-11. She summons various classes of persons to attend to her, showing how trustworthy she is, and how precious her instruction.

Unto you, O men, I call. "Men," ishim ( equivalent to andrev , viri, men in the highest sense, who have some wisdom and experience, but need further enlightenment. (Isa_53:3 Psa_141:4) The sons of man; yneB, "children of Adam;" equivalent to anyrwpoi , homines, the general kind of men, who are taken up with material interests. St. Gregory notes ("Moral," 27:6) that persons (heroines) of perfect life are in Scripture sometimes called "men" (viri). And again, "Scripture is wont to call those persons "men" who follow the ways of the Lord with firm and steady steps. Whence Wisdom says in the Proverbs, "Unto you, O men, I call." As if she were saying openly, "I do not speak to women, but to men; because they who are of an unstable mind cannot at all understand my words ("Moral.," 28:12, Oxford transl.).

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

O men - To all men without exception.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

General Information:

Wisdom speaks to the people in verses 4-36.

my voice is for the sons of mankind

Here "voice" represents the words that are spoken. AT: "my words are for the sons of mankind" (See: Metonymy)

the sons of mankind

This is metonymy representing all human beings. AT: "all people" (See: Metonymy)

naive

inexperienced or immature

learn wisdom

The abstract word "wisdom' refers to what a wise person believes and to the way in which he acts. AT: "learn how a wise person acts" or "learn what it means to be wise" (See: Abstract Nouns)

you must get an understanding mind

"you must begin to understand things with your mind"

translationWords

son

know

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.