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Selected Verse: Proverbs 20:18 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Pr 20:18 |
King James |
Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war. |
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] |
(Compare Pro 15:22). Be careful and considerate in important plans. |
Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
18 Plans are established by counsel,
And with prudent government make war.
From the conception of a thought, practically influencing the formation of our own life and the life of the community, to its accomplishment there is always a long way which does not lead to the end unless one goes forward with counsel and strength combined, and considers all means and eventualities. The Niph. of כּוּן means, in a passive sense: to be accomplished or realized (Psa 141:2). The clause 18a is true for times of war as well as for times of peace; war is disastrous, unless it is directed with strategic skill (vid., regarding תּחבּות, Pro 1:5). Grotius compares the proverb, Γνῶμαι πλέον δρατοῦσιν ἢ σθένος χειρῶν. In Pro 24:6, the necessity of counsel is also referred to the case of war. Ewald would read [the infin.] עשׂה, or עשׂה: with management it is that one carries on war. But why? Because to him the challenge to carry on war appears to be contrary to the spirit of proverbial poetry. But the author of the proverb does certainly mean: if thou hast to carry on war, carry it on with the skill of a general; and the imper. is protected by Pro 24:6 against that infin., which is, besides, stylistically incongruous. |
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
Established - The way to bring our purposes to good effect is to manage them with serious consideration. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
With good advice make war, - Perhaps there is not a precept in this whole book so little regarded as this. Most of the wars that are undertaken are wars of injustice, ambition, aggrandizement, and caprice, which can have had no previous good counsel. A minister, who is perhaps neither a good nor a great man, counsels his king to make war; the cabinet must be brought into it, and a sufficient number out of the states of the kingdom gained over to support it. By and by, what was begun through caprice must be maintained through necessity. Places must be created, and offices must be filled with needy dependents, whose interest it may be to protract the war, till they get enough to pay their debts, and secure independence for life. And for these most important ends the blood of the country is spilled, and the treasures of the people exhausted! I have met with a fact precisely of this kind under the reign of Louis XIV. |
22 Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.
6 For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.
6 For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.
5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.