Verse 12
It is an abomination to kings, etc. - In all these verses the wise man refers to monarchical government rightly administered. And the proverbs on this subject are all plain.
Verse 16
How much better - to get wisdom than gold? - Who believes this, though spoken by the wisest of men, under Divine inspiration?
Verse 17
The highway of the upright - The upright man is ever departing from evil; this is his common road: and by keeping on in this way, his soul is preserved.
Verse 18
Pride goeth before destruction - Here pride is personified: it walks along, and has destruction in its train.
And a haughty spirit before a fall - Another personification. A haughty spirit marches on, and ruin comes after.
In this verse we find the following Masoretic note in most Hebrew Bibles. חצי הספר chatsi hassepher: "the middle of the book." This verse is the middle verse; and the first clause makes the middle of the words of the book of Proverbs.
Verse 22
Understanding is a well-spring of life - מקור חיים mekor chaiyim; another allusion to the artery that carries the blood from the heart to distribute it to all the extremities of the body.
Verse 23
The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth - He has a wise heart; he speaks as it dictates; and therefore his speeches are all speeches of wisdom.
Verse 24
Pleasant words are as a honey-comb - The honey of which is sweeter than that which has been expressed from it, and has a much finer flavour before it has come in contact with the atmospheric air.
Verse 25
There is a way that seemeth right - This whole verse is precisely the same as that [Pro 14:12].
Verse 26
He that laboureth - No thanks to a man for his labor and industry; if he do not work he must starve.
Verse 27
An ungodly man diggeth up evil - How will the following suit?
Effodiuntur opes irritamenta malorum "Wealth, the incitement to all evil, is digged up out the earth."
A wicked man labors as much to bring about an evil purpose, as the quarryman does to dig up stones.
In his lips - a burning fire - His words are as inflammable, in producing strife and contention among his neighbors, as fire is in igniting dry stubble.
Verse 30
He shutteth his eyes to devise, etc. - He meditates deeply upon ways and means to commit sin. He shuts his eyes that he may shut out all other ideas, that his whole soul may be in this.
Verse 31
The hoary head is a crown of glory - The latter part of the verse is very well added, for many a sinner has a hoary head.
Verse 32
He that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city - It is much easier to subdue an enemy without than one within. There have been many kings who had conquered nations, and yet were slaves to their own passions. Alexander, who conquered the world, was a slave to intemperate anger, and in a fit of it slew Clytus, the best and most intimate of all his friends, and one whom he loved beyond all others.
The spirit of this maxim is so self-evident, that most nations have formed similar proverbs. The classical reader will remember the following in Hor., Odar. lib. ii., Od. 2: -
Latius regnes, avidum domando
Spiritum, quam si Libyam remotis
Gadibus jungas, et uterque Poenus
Serviat uni. "By virtue's precepts to control
The furious passions of the soul,
Is over wider realms to reign,
Unenvied monarch, than if Spain\\
You could to distant Libya join,
And both the Carthages were thine."
Francis.
And the following from Ovid is not less striking: -
Fortior est qui se, quam qui fortissima vincit
Moenia, nec virtus altius ire potest. "He is more of a hero who has conquered himself, than he who has taken the best fortfied city."
Beyond this self-conquest the highest courage can not extend; nor did their philosophy teach any thing more sublime.