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Selected Verse: Proverbs 3:16 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Pr 3:16 |
King James |
Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
| Wisdom personified as bringing the best blessings (compare Mat 6:33; Ti1 4:8). |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
That wisdom is of such incomparable value is here confirmed:
16 Length of days is in her right hand;
In her left, riches and honour.
17 Her ways are pleasant ways,
And all her paths are peace.
18 A tree of life is she to those that lay hold upon her,
And he who always holdeth her fast is blessed.
As in the right hand of Jahve, according to Psa 16:11, are pleasures for evermore, so Wisdom holds in her right hand "length of days," viz., of the days of life, thus life, the blessing of blessings; in her left, riches and honour (Pro 8:18), the two good things which, it is true, do not condition life, but, received from Wisdom, and thus wisely, elevate the happiness of life-in the right hand is the chief good, in the left the προσθήκη, Mat 6:33. Didymus: Per sapientiae dextram divinarum rerum cognitio, ex qua immortalitatis vita oritur, significatur; per sinistram autem rerum humanarum notitia, ex qua gloria opumque abundantia nascitur. The lxx, as between 15a and 15b, so also here after Pro 3:16, interpolate two lines: "From her mouth proceedeth righteousness; justice and mercy she bears upon her tongue," - perhaps translated from the Hebr., but certainly added by a reader.
Pro 3:17
דּרכי־נעם are ways on which one obtains what is agreeable to the inner and the outer man, and which it does good to enjoy. The parallel שׁלום is not a genitive to נתיבות to be supplied; that paths of Wisdom are themselves שׁלום, for she brings well-being on all sides and deep inwards satisfaction (peace). In regard to נתיבה, via eminens, elata, Schultens is right (vid., under Pro 1:15);
(Note: The root is not תב, to grope, but נת; whence Arab. natt, to bubble up, natâ, to raise oneself, to swell up, etc.)
נתיבותיה has Munach, and instead of the Metheg, Tarcha, vid., under Pro 1:31. The figure of the tree of life the fruit of which brings immortality, is, as Pro 11:30; Pro 15:4 (cf. Pro 13:12), Rev 2:7, taken from the history of paradise in the Book of Genesis. The old ecclesiastical saying, Lignum vitae crux Christi, accommodates itself in a certain measure, through Mat 11:19; Luk 11:49, with this passage of the Book of Proverbs. החזיק ב means to fasten upon anything, more fully expressed in Gen 21:18, to bind the hand firm with anything, to seize it firmly. They who give themselves to Wisdom, come to experience that she is a tree of life whose fruit contains and communicates strength of life, and whoever always keeps fast hold of Wisdom is blessed, i.e., to be pronounced happy (Psa 41:3, vid., under Psa 137:8). The predicate מאשּׁר, blessed, refers to each one of the תּמכיה, those who hold her, cf. Pro 27:16; Num 24:9. It is the so-called distributive singular of the predicate, which is freely used particularly in those cases where the plur. of the subject is a participle (vid., under Pro 3:35). |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Length of days is in her right hand - A wicked man shortens his days by excesses; a righteous man prolongs his by temperance.
In her left hand riches and honor - That is, her hands are full of the choicest benefits. There is nothing to be understood here by the right hand in preference to the left. |
8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
35 The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.
9 He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion: who shall stir him up? Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee.
16 Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind, and the ointment of his right hand, which bewrayeth itself.
8 O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.
3 The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.
18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.
49 Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
19 The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.
7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.
4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.
30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.
31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
15 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:
17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
16 Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
18 Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness.
11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.