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Proverbs

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These also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out. See also: Proverbs 1:1 1 Kings 4:32 Micah 1:1It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter. See also: Deuteronomy 29:29 Romans 11:33-34 Job 11:7-8As the heavens for height, and the earth for depth, so the hearts of kings are unsearchable. See also: Psalms 103:11 1 Kings 4:29 Isaiah 55:9Take away the dross from the silver, and material comes out for the refiner. See also: 2 Timothy 2:20-21 Proverbs 17:3 Ezekiel 22:18Take away the wicked from the king’s presence, and his throne will be established in righteousness. See also: Psalms 101:7-8 Proverbs 20:8 Proverbs 16:12Don’t exalt yourself in the presence of the king, or claim a place among great men; See also: Proverbs 27:2 Proverbs 25:27 Proverbs 16:19for it is better that it be said to you, “Come up here,” than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince, whom your eyes have seen. See also: Luke 14:7-11 1 Peter 5:5 Luke 18:14Don’t be hasty in bringing charges to court. What will you do in the end when your neighbor shames you? See also: Matthew 5:25 Proverbs 17:14 Proverbs 18:6Debate your case with your neighbor, and don’t betray the confidence of another, See also: Matthew 18:5-17 Proverbs 11:13 Proverbs 20:19lest one who hears it put you to shame, and your bad reputation never depart. A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. See also: Proverbs 15:23 Isaiah 50:4 Ecclesiastes 12:10As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover to an obedient ear. See also: Psalms 141:5 Proverbs 15:31-32 Proverbs 9:8As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to those who send him; for he refreshes the soul of his masters. See also: Proverbs 13:17 Proverbs 25:25 Philippians 2:25-30As clouds and wind without rain, so is he who boasts of gifts deceptively. See also: Proverbs 20:6 Luke 14:11 2 Corinthians 11:13-18By patience a ruler is persuaded. A soft tongue breaks the bone. See also: Ecclesiastes 10:4 Proverbs 15:1 Proverbs 16:14Have you found honey? Eat as much as is sufficient for you, lest you eat too much, and vomit it. See also: Proverbs 25:27 Ephesians 5:18 Proverbs 24:13-14Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor’s house, lest he be weary of you, and hate you. A man who gives false testimony against his neighbor is like a club, a sword, or a sharp arrow. See also: Psalms 57:4 Proverbs 12:18 Jeremiah 9:8Confidence in someone unfaithful in time of trouble is like a bad tooth or a lame foot. See also: Isaiah 36:6 Ezekiel 29:6-7 Job 6:14-20As one who takes away a garment in cold weather, or vinegar on soda, so is one who sings songs to a heavy heart. See also: Romans 12:15 Ecclesiastes 3:4 James 2:15-16If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink; See also: Romans 12:20-21 Matthew 5:44 Proverbs 24:17for you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the LORD will reward you. See also: 2 Samuel 16:12 Matthew 10:13The north wind produces rain; so a backbiting tongue brings an angry face. See also: Proverbs 26:20 2 Corinthians 12:20 Romans 1:30It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop than to share a house with a contentious woman. See also: Proverbs 21:19 Proverbs 21:9 Proverbs 27:15-16Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. See also: Proverbs 15:30 Romans 10:15 Psalms 63:1Like a muddied spring and a polluted well, so is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked. See also: Ezekiel 34:18-19 2 Chronicles 24:21-22 1 Samuel 22:14-18It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it honorable to seek one’s own honor. See also: Proverbs 27:2 John 5:44 Philippians 2:3Like a city that is broken down and without walls is a man whose spirit is without restraint. See also: Proverbs 16:32 Proverbs 22:24 Nehemiah 1:3

See also: Cross references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), derived in part from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Notes · Haydock (1859, public domain)22 notes

Notes in English 19th-century Catholic commentary by Fr. George Leo Haydock, shown as published.

These notes keep the polemics of their time: some speak harshly of the Jewish people or of other Christians. The Church teaches otherwise today. The Jewish people may not be blamed for the death of Christ (Nostra Aetate 4; Catechism 597–598), and Christians of other communities are our brothers and sisters in the Lord (Unitatis Redintegratio 3). Christian unity

Proverbs 25:1

Ver. 1. These. Solomon wrote 3,000, and we have only 915 verses extant. C. ---

The rest perhaps shewed his genius, but were less useful. Tostat. in 3 K. iv. 9.

--- Men. Isaias, Sobna, &c.

C. --- Out of other records, (M.) or "translated" into a language better understood. Carthus.

Bayn.

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Proverbs 25:2

Ver. 2. Speech. The Scriptures will denounce the truth to them, and shew them how to reign with justice. We must adore the mysteries of God; but are allowed to examine the secret designs of princes.

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Proverbs 25:3

Ver. 3. Unsearchable. Their counsellors must not betray their secrets. Tob. xii.

7. The greatest enterprises depend on secrecy.

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Proverbs 25:5

Ver. 5. Justice. The wicked in a kingdom resemble rust on silver. C.

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Proverbs 25:6

Ver. 6. Glorious, or a boaster. H. --- We must not seek the first places. Lu. xiv.

10.

Vive sine invidiâ, mollesque inglorius annos

Exige; amicitias et tibi junge pares. Ovid. Trist. iii. 4.

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Proverbs 25:8

Ver. 8. Not. Sept. "repent when thy friend may reproach thee." H. --- Friend. A word spoken in haste may expose him to ridicule.

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Proverbs 25:9

Ver. 9. Stranger. It sometimes happens that friends fall out; but if either disclose the secret of the other, he will be deemed infamous. C. Jos. con. Ap.

2. --- S. Ambrose says of his brother Satyrus, "though we had all things in common, yet the secret of our friends was not so."

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Proverbs 25:10

Ver. 10. Grace, &c. is no in Heb. Compl. S. Jerom, &c. But it is in the Sept.

"favour and friendship may give liberty; which keep thou for thyself, that thou mayst not be exposed to great shame. But guard thy ways unchangeably." H.

--- Avoid quarrels.

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Proverbs 25:11

Ver. 11. Time, (Symmachus) "on its wheels," (Heb.) flowing smoothly, (C.) or

"according to his two faces, is apples of gold in network of silver. The Scriptures have a double sense. The exterior one leads to that sense which is interior, and more excellent. Maimonid. Parkhurst, p.

366. --- Gold, oranges. --- Beds. On such the kings of Parthia slept, and these metals were very common under Solomon, 3 K. x. 27. Est. i. 6. C. --- Mont.

renders mascioth "transparent cases."

Prot. " pictures of silver."

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Proverbs 25:12

Ver. 12. Bright. Heb. chali cathem, "an ornament of fine gold," (Mont. Prot. H.) may probably denote a collar or ring. The eastern nations wore rings fixed at the top of the ears, and under the nose. Some were so large that they put their meat through them. The Scripture often alludes to these customs, which are so different from ours. Cant. vii. 1.

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Proverbs 25:13

Ver. 13. Harvest. In June and July, when the heat was most intense, people of quality had snow from Libanus to mix with what they drank. Jer. xviii. 14. C.

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Proverbs 25:15

Ver. 15. Hardness. Heb. and Sept. "bones." H.

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Proverbs 25:16

Ver. 16. Up. We must moderate the sensual appetite, (M.) and even the study of wisdom, which is compared to honey. C. xxiv. 13. Rom. xii. 3. Eccle. vii. 17. C.

--- We must not be too familiar, v. 17. Ven. Bede. Cajet.

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Proverbs 25:17

Ver. 17. Having. Heb. "being tired of thee." No man is so perfect, but he will manifest some defect, and become importunate. C.

Nulli te facias nimis sodalem. Mart.

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Proverbs 25:20

Ver. 20. And. Prot. "as he that taketh away a, &c. and as vinegar...to a heavy heart." H. --- The former sentence may be joined with the preceding, as it is improper to deprive a person of his garment, no less than to trust in the faithless; though some would suppose (C.) that this conduct, as well as the mixing of vinegar with nitre, is no less absurd than to attempt to relieve by music those who are extremely afflicted. Eccli. xxii. 6. T. --- But Solomon does not speak of such, but only of those who are "heavy;" and we know that music has wonderful efficacy in relieving them, (1 K. xvi. 17.) in like manner as this mixture serves to cleanse the skin and garments, (Jer.

ii. 22. C.) and to purify the ears, when they are deafish. Pliny xxxi. 10. Vales. lx.

--- As a, &c. is not in Heb. S. Jer. &c. C. --- The Chal. has the latter part, (H.)

"grief tries the heart, as fire does silver. As the worm eats wood, so folly," &c.

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Proverbs 25:22

Ver. 22. Coals of charity; (S. Chrys. in Rom. xii. 20.) or, if he prove obstinate, his punishment will be the greater. Geier. --- The former sense is more received. C.

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Proverbs 25:23

Ver. 23. Rain; (Sym. Prot.) or marginal note, "bringeth forth rain." H. --- But S.

Jerom, who live in the country, knew that this wind was rather dry; and therefore he has abandoned the Sept.

raiseth the clouds." Job xxxvii. 9. Joel ii. 20. Eccli. xviii. 23. The countries north of Palestine were not calculated to produce vapours and rain, which came rather from the south. C. ---

Tongue. If the hearers would shew their displeasure, detractors would soon be reduced to silence.

S. Jer. ad. Rust. S. Bern.

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Proverbs 25:24

Ver. 24. It is. C. xxi. 9. Sixtus V. does not insert this verse here.

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Proverbs 25:25

Ver. 25. Tidings. Heb. and Sept. The Vulg. seems rather to speak of a "good messenger."

Homer said that a good messenger honoured the business most. Pind. Pyth.

viii. C.

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Proverbs 25:26

Ver. 26. Falling into disgrace, or sin, occasions the wicked to exult, as if there were no God or religion. C.

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Proverbs 25:27

Ver. 27. Majesty, viz. of God. For to search into that incomprehensible Majesty, and to pretend to sound the depths of the wisdom of God, is exposing our weak understanding to be blinded with an excess of light and glory, which hit cannot comprehend. Ch. --- When the Church proposes to us any mystery, we have only to believe. Heb. "but it is glorious to sound their glory," and see where the wicked end, that we may not envy them. C. iii. 31. Ps. xxxvi. 7. C. ---

Prot. "so for men to search their own glory, is not glory," but a sin. H. --- "It is not good to eat too much honey," (Chal.) or to sound the glorious words of God and wisdom, or the mysteries of religion.

Sept. "But it is right to reverence glorious speeches," (C.) with esteem and humility. Cat. Græc.

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Proverbs 25:28

Ver. 28. Speaking. He lays himself open to every attack. C. xxix. 11.

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License: Notes by Fr. George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), from the Douay-Rheims Bible with Haydock's commentary (first ed. Thomas Haydock, Manchester/Dublin, 1811–1814; New York: Edward Dunigan & Brother, 1859); New Testament notes compiled with Fr. Benedict Rayment. Public domain. Digital text: "The Haydock Bible", Internet Archive (archive.org/details/TheHaydockBible), uploaded 2011 under the Public Domain Mark. · Credits and licenses

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