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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Proverbs 10:6 - 10:6
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Blessings are upon the head of the just; all sorts of blessings are wished to them by men, and conferred upon them by God. He saith, upon their head, either to show that these blessings come from above; and that openly, in the sight of the world, so that he can confidently speak of them to God’s praise, and to his own comfort and honour; or because blessings were commonly pronounced by men with this ceremony, by laying their hands upon the head of the party blessed.
Violence covereth the mouth of the wicked; violence (either,
1. Their own violence or injustice, which may be here put for the fruit or punishment of it, as iniquity is oft put for the punishment of iniquity. Or,
2. Violence, or the violent, and injurious, and mischievous practices of others against them, deserved by their own violence committed against others, and inflicted upon them by the curse and righteous judgment of God) shall cover the mouth of the wicked, i.e. shall fall upon them. This phrase of covering their mouth is used, either,
1. With allusion to the ancient custom of covering the mouths and faces of condemned malefactors; of which see Est_7:8 Job_9:24. Or,
2. To signify that the curse and judgment of God upon them should be so manifestly just, that their mouths should be stopped, and they not be able to speak a word against God, or for themselves. Or,
3. To intimate that God’s judgment upon them should be public and evident to all that behold them, as any covering put upon a man’s mouth or face is, as for the same reason the blessings of the just were said to be upon their heads. And the mouth may be put for the face or countenance, by a synecdoche. But this clause is otherwise rendered by divers learned interpreters, the mouth of the wicked covereth (i.e. concealeth or smothereth within itself, and doth not utter that) violence or injury, which he meditateth in his heart, and designeth to do to others, and therefore shall be accursed and miserable. But this suits not so well with the former clause, wherein the blessings of the just are not meant actively, of those blessings which they wish or give to others, but passively, of those blessings which others wish or give to them; and consequently this violence is not understood of that which they do to others, but of that which is done to them by others.