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Selected Verse: Proverbs 3:27 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Pr 3:27 |
King James |
Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. |
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] |
Promptly fulfil all obligations both of justice and charity (compare Jam 2:15-16). |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
A marked change in style. The continuous exhortation is replaced by a series of maxims.
From them to whom it is due - literally, as in the margin. The precept expresses the great Scriptural thought that the so-called possession of wealth is but a stewardship; that the true owners of what we call our own are those to whom, with it, we may do good. Not to relieve them is a breach of trust.
Pro 3:28
Procrastination is especially fatal to the giving impulse. The Septuagint adds the caution: "for thou knowest not what the morrow will bring forth."
Pro 3:29
Securely - i. e., "With full trust," without care or suspicion. Compare Jdg 18:7, Jdg 18:27.
Pro 3:31
A protest against the tendency to worship success, to think the lot of the "man of violence" enviable, and therefore to be chosen.
Pro 3:32
The true nature of such success. That which people admire is an abomination to Yahweh. His "secret," i. e., His close, intimate communion as of "friend with friend," is with the righteous.
Pro 3:33
The thought, like that which appears in Zac 5:3-4, and pervades the tragedies of Greek drama, is of a curse, an Ate, dwelling in a house from generation to generation, the source of ever-recurring woes. There is, possibly, a contrast between the "house" or "palace" of the rich oppressor and the lowly shepherd's hut, the "sheep-cote" Sa2 7:8 ennobled only by its upright inhabitants.
Pro 3:34
Surely - Better, If he scorneth the scorners, i. e., Divine scorn of evil is the complement, and, as it were, the condition, of divine bounty to the lowly (compare the marginal reference and the Pro 1:26 note).
Pro 3:35
The margin conveys the thought that "fools" glory in that which is indeed their shame. Others take the clause as meaning "every fool takes up shame," i. e., gains nothing but that. |
Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
The first illustration of neighbourly love which is recommended, is readiness to serve:
27 Refuse no manner of good to him to whom it is due
When it is in thy power to do it.
28 Say not to thy neighbour, "Go, and come again,
To-morrow I will give it," whilst yet thou hast it.
Regarding the intensive plur. בּעליו with a sing. meaning, see under Pro 1:19. The form of expression without the suffix is not בּעלי but בּעל טוב; and this denotes here, not him who does good (בעל as Arab. dhw or ṣaḥab), but him to whom the good deed is done (cf. Pro 17:8), i.e., as here, him who is worthy of it (בעל as Arab. âhl), him who is the man for it (Jewish interp.: מי שׁהוא ראוי לו). We must refuse nothing good (nothing either legally or morally good) to him who has a right to it (מנע מן as Job 22:7; Job 31:16),
(Note: Accentuate אל־תמנע טוב, not אל־תמנע־טוב. The doubling of the Makkeph is purposeless, and, on the contrary, the separating of טוב from מבעליו by the Dechi (the separating accent subordinate to Athnach) is proper. It is thus in the best MSS.)
if we are in a condition to do him this good. The phrase ישׁ־לאל ידי, Gen 31:29, and frequently, signifies: it is belonging to (practicable) the power of my hand, i.e., I have the power and the means of doing it. As זד signifies the haughty, insolent, but may be also used in the neuter of insolent conduct (vid., Psa 19:14), so אל signifies the strong, but also (although only in this phrase) strength. The Keri rejects the plur. ידיך, because elsewhere the hand always follows לאל in the singular. But it rejects the plur. לרעיך (Pro 3:28) because the address following is directed to one person. Neither of these emendations was necessary. The usage of the language permits exceptions, notwithstanding the usus tyrannus, and the plur. לרעיך may be interpreted distributively: to thy fellows, it may be this one or that one. Hitzig also regards לרעיך as a singular; but the masc. of רעיה, the ground-form of which is certainly ra‛j, is רעה, or shorter, רע. לך ושׁוּב does not mean: forth! go home again! but: go, and come again. שׁוּב, to come again, to return to something, to seek it once more.
(Note: Thus also (Arab.) raj' is used in Thaalebi's Confidential Companion, p. 24, line 3, of Flgel's ed. Admission was prevented to one Haschmid, then angry he sought it once more; he was again rejected, then he sought it not again (Arab. flm yraj'), but says, etc. Flgel has misunderstood the passage. Fleischer explains raj', with reference to Pro 3:28, by revenir la charge.)
The ו of ישׁו אתּך is, as 29b, the conditional: quum sit penes te, sc. quod ei des. "To-morrow shall I give" is less a promise than a delay and putting off, because it is difficult for him to alienate himself from him who makes the request. This holding fast by one's own is unamiable selfishness; this putting off in the fulfilment of one's duty is a sin of omission - οὐ γὰρ οἶδας, as the lxx adds, τὶ τέξεται ἡ ἐπιοῦσα. |
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
With - hold not - Do not deny it, but readily and chearfuly impart it. Good - Any thing which is good, either counsel, comfort, reproof, or the good things of the present life. Due - That is, to all men, by that great and sovereign law of love. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Withhold not good from them to whom it is due - מבעליו mibbealaiv, from the lords of it. But who are they? The poor. And what art thou, O rich man? Why, thou art a steward, to whom God has given substance that thou mayest divide with the poor. They are the right owners of every farthing thou hast to spare from thy own support, and that of thy family; and God has given the surplus for their sakes. Dost thou, by hoarding up this treasure, deprive the right owners of their property? If this were a civil case, the law would take thee by the throat, and lay thee up in prison; but it is a case in which God alone judges. And what will he do to thee? Hear! "He shall have judgment without mercy, who hath showed no mercy;" Jam 2:13. Read, feel, tremble, and act justly. |
15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
35 The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.
26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
34 Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly.
8 Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel:
3 Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.
4 I will bring it forth, saith the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.
33 The curse of the LORD is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just.
32 For the froward is abomination to the LORD: but his secret is with the righteous.
31 Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.
27 And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure: and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire.
7 Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people that were therein, how they dwelt careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure; and there was no magistrate in the land, that might put them to shame in any thing; and they were far from the Zidonians, and had no business with any man.
29 Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee.
28 Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.
28 Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.
28 Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.
14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
29 It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.
16 If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;
7 Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.
8 A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth.
19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.