The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 43

Vere. 20-33.- Warning cry of Wisdom. In dramatic style, Wisdom is presentiated, personified, endued with visible and audible attributes. As contempt for religion bas been animadverted upon, so now contempt for Wisdom calls for rebuke. The motto ( ver. 7) is .still in the preacher's mind. I. TnE ORY OF WISDOM IS PUBLIO AND CLEAR. In the street, "where merchants most do congregate," and in all places of general resort, the cry is heard. Hers is no esoteric doctrine; it is popularly exoteric, it is for all. She has no concealments. She is not ashamed of her message. She seeks the weal of each and of all. Like her Divine embodiment, she is the Friend of the simple and the meek, yea, of the fools and the sinners (Matt. x. 27; L.uke xiv. 21). It is a voice to be heard above the mingled sounds of these thronged centres. The state of the markets and of the weather, passing events, the gossip of the hour; news of success and of failure, all have a moral meaning, run up into moral calculations, may be reduced to expressions of moral law. II. HER TONE. 1. It is commanding and superior. She appeals to different classes of the frivolous, the free-thinking, the scoffers of the time. The times of Solomon, as pointed out by Delitzscb, were times of widespread worldliness and religious indiffer- ence. The lezim, or "scorners," must have been a numerous class.. They scoffed at sacred things, laid claim to superior sense (eh. xiv. 6), were contentious and full of debate (eh. xxii. 10). They avoided the chakanim, or "wise men," and hence received the name of scoffers or mockers. They were like our modem free-thinkers, and have left their clear traces on the biblical page. The "wise men" were a kind of practical philosophers, not a professional class, but belonging to different callings. Religion and worship have never been exempt from criticism, have in every age been exposed to that "ridicule which is the test of truth." In these conflicts the tone of truth is ever commanding, conscious of authority, calm; that of the scoffer irritable and wanting in weight. ·wisdom is commandiog, because she holds the conscience. She bandies no arguments with the scoffer, who will only find in them fuel for his contentious spirit; she aims directly at the conscience, accuses and judges the perverted heart. " Tum at my denunciation" from your evil ways I "I will cause my Spirit to stream forth upon you." 2. Her tone is hortatory and promising. The Spirit of wisdom is com- pared. to a mighty, forth-bubbling, never-exhausted fountain. So Christ cried in the last great day of the feast in Jerusalem," If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." (1) There is a rich fulness in having wisdom, in contrast to which are the <lry negations which are all the scoffer has to offer. (2) It is a refreshing and a strengthening supply. It is not pedantry, the wisdom of words, nor abstract science of logic and metaphysics, but vital truth, the knowledge of facts and laws of the inner and outer world, which we need for everyday consumption, for the life of the mind. (3) ltM impartation is conditioned by the will of the recipient. There must be the turning aud the seeking, that there may be the finding and tbe enjoying of it; the opening of tho mouth before it can be filled. 3. Her tone is threatening and prophetic of retribu- tion. 'l'he day of grace is now conceived as past, the hour gone that will not return. She ha~ called, has stretched out .the hand, in token of pleading for attention, has lavished both counsel and rebuke; but has been responded to by sullen refusal, averted looks, scornful depreciation, obstinate resistance. This relation of forbearance and good will has been strained to the last degree; in the law of things it must be succeeded by a reaction. The places will be reversed. The scoffer will be the scoffed; the mocker will afford material for mirth. And here the pictures accumulate their dread impression on the imagination; the tempest and the tempest-whirlwind answer in nature to the calamity and the horror, the anguish and constraint, of the faithless soul. All moral teaching carries in it a twofold prophetic element;. a prophecy of penal retribution and a pro- phecy of blessed recompense. Retribution is the logical couseq ueace of certain acts; nnd it involves a correspondence. The relation which has been wrongly denied comes in the end to be affirmed; aud that which was affirmed, to be in the end denied. 'fhe manneF of the sin foretells the manner of the penalty. Those who turned from pleading Wisdom, plead in the end with her in vain; seeking her now with zeal ("early"), their  28 'l'HE PROVERBS. tan:. I, 1-33.