Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Proverbs 1:20 - 1:33

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Proverbs 1:20 - 1:33


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The Invitation of Wisdom

v. 20. Wisdom
, the essence of divine knowledge and true understanding, as set forth throughout the Book of Proverbs, crieth without, on the street, in public places, not ashamed of her teaching, but openly seeking the welfare of all; she uttereth her voice in the streets, on the principal thoroughfares;

v. 21. she crieth in the chief place of concourse
, where there are crowds of people in noisy surging, in the openings of the gates, where market was held in Oriental cities, which served as their public square; in the city, on the inner side of the gates, she uttereth her words, saying,

v. 22. How long, ye simple ones
, inexperienced and ingenuous people, easily influenced by temptation, will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning, their open denial and rejection of the truth, and fools, who consider themselves above instruction, hate knowledge?

v. 23. Turn you at my reproof
, from the evil and perverse way which they were then following. Behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, in abundant fullness and refreshing power; I will make known my words unto you, for the Spirit of the Lord is given in and through His Word. There is a pause here, as though wisdom were waiting for the simple, the scorners, and the fools to accept her invitation. But no answer being forthcoming, a stern rebuke is added.

v. 24. Because I have called, and ye refused
, paying no attention to the kind invitation; I have stretched out My hand, in a gesture of eager beseeching, and no man regarded;

v. 25. but ye have set at naught all My counsel
, refusing to make use of it and to follow it, and would none of My reproof, absolutely declining to consider it,

v. 26. I also will laugh at your calamity
, in holy mockery at their distress; I will mock when your fear cometh, when terror would overwhelm. them;

v. 27. when your fear cometh as desolation
, like a tempest sweeping every thing before it, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you, their oppressing and cramping effect being the result of men's refusing to accept the precepts of true wisdom.

v. 28. Then shall they call upon Me
, praying for wisdom to meet the emergency in which they would find themselves, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, with the rising of the dawn, with great diligence, but they shall not find Me, Cf Amo_8:11-13.

v. 29. For that they hated knowledge
, when it was offered to them, and did not choose the fear of the Lord, the basis and source of all true wisdom;

v. 0. they would none of My counsel
, did not yield to its kind insistence; they despised all My reproof,

v. 31. therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way
, experiencing the evil consequences of their foolish and wicked action, and be filled with their own devices, get their fill of their evil planning even to the point where it sickens them.

v. 32. For the turning away of the simple
, when they turned away from discipline and forsook wisdom, shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools, their carnal security, their idle, easy rest, which renders them too proud to seek understanding, shall destroy them; for a man's rejection on the part of God is the consequence either of his rejection of the Word or his indifference to its teaching.

v. 33. But whoso hearkeneth unto Me
, yielding a glad obedience, shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil, at ease and without fear in the midst of dangers threatening on all sides. Such is the quiet security of the believers, since it is grounded, not in their own wisdom and understanding, but in the eternal wisdom of God, the everlasting Word.