To know - Written to help men to know throughly and practically. Both human wisdom to conduct our affairs in this life, and Divine wisdom. Instruction - The instructions delivered either by God, or men, in order to the attainment of wisdom. To perceive - Which teach a man true understanding.
To receive - Willing to receive the counsels of others. Such as makes men wise and prudent, and to teach just judgments or equity.
Simple - Such as want wisdom. Young man - Who wants both experience and self - government.
Will hear - Is willing to learn. Attain to - The art of governing himself or others.
The fear - Reverence and obedience to God. Beginning - The foundation without which all other knowledge is vain. Fools - That is, wicked men, are so far from attaining true wisdom, that they despise it, and all the means of getting it.
My son - He speaks to his scholars with paternal authority and affection. Of thy mother - Those pious instructions, which thy mother instilled into thee in thy tender years.
In vain - The fowler who spreads, his net in the sight of the bird looseth his labour. But these, are more foolish than the silly birds, and though they are not ignorant of the mischief which these evil courses will bring upon themselves, yet they will not take warning.
Their own blood - The destruction which they design to others, fall upon themselves.
Greedy - That seeks gain by wicked practices.
Wisdom - Having expressed the counsels of wicked men, he now declares the voice of wisdom. By wisdom he understands the wisdom of God revealed to men in his word. And this is said to cry with a loud voice, to intimate God's earnestness in inviting sinners to repentance. Abroad - Or, in the streets or open places. Not in corners, but openly before all the world.
Gates - Where magistrates sit in judgment, and people are assembled. The city - Not only in the gate, but in every part of the city.
Scoffers - That scoff at religion and contemn the word and faithful ministers of God.
My words - By my spirit I will cause you to understand my word.
Called - By my ministers, by my judgments, and by the motions of my spirit and your own conscience.
Your fear - The misery you do or should fear.
Early - With diligence and fervency.
Knowledge - The practical knowledge of God and of their duty.
Eat - They should receive punishment answerable to their sins. Filled - With the fruits of them.
Turning - From God. Destroy - Shall prove the occasion of their ruin, by making them presumptuous, and secure.
Hide - Lay them up in thy heart with care, as men do their choicest treasures.
Criest - To God, the only giver of it.
Seek her - With unwearied diligence and earnest desire and patient expectation.
Path of judgment - Righteous paths, judgment being here put for righteousness. And keeping of paths may be put for keeping them in their paths.
Then - When God in answer to thy desires hath given thee wisdom. Equity - All the parts of thy duty to man, as well as the fear of God.
When - Thou dost truly love wisdom.
Darkness - Of sin.
Crooked - Who swerve from the straight way of God's law, and have windings and turnings, to escape conviction.
Strange woman - From the adulteress or whore.
Forsaketh - Her husband whom she took to be her guide and governor, in her youth. The covenant - The marriage covenant: so called because God is the author of that mutual obligation: and because God is called to be the witness and judge of that solemn promise and covenant.
For - Conversation with her (which was most usual in her own house) is the certain way to death, which it brings many ways, and undoubtedly, without repentance, to God's wrath and the second death.
That - This depends upon ver.11, and is mentioned as another happy fruit of wisdom.
My law - The law of God, which might be called his law, as the gospel is called Paul's gospel, 2Tim 2:8, because delivered by him.
Mercy - Mercy denotes all benignity, charity, and readiness to do good to others: truth or faithfulness respects all those duties which we owe to God or man, which we have special obligation from the rules of justice. Bind them - Like a chain, wherewith persons adorn their necks. Table - In thy mind and heart, in which all God's commands are to be received and engraven.
Understanding - Whereby to know thy duty, and to discern between good and evil. Of God - Grace or favour with God, and that understanding which is good in God's sight.
Trust - Wholly rely upon God's promises and providences. Lean not - Under this one kind of carnal confidence, he understands all other confidence in bodily strength, wealth, or friends.
Navel - To thy body, which is signified by one part of it. Marrow - Which is the nourishment and strength of the bones.
Substance - Lay out thy estate not to please thyself, but to glorify God. First - fruits - Or, with the chief or best; which answers to the first - fruits under the law.
So - This is not the way to diminish thy estate, but rather to increase it.
Despise not - Either by making light of it, or not being duly affected with it; or by accounting it an unnecessary thing: but rather esteem it a privilege and favour from God. Weary - Neither think it tedious or hard, but endure it with patience and chearfulness.
Findeth - Which supposes his diligent searching for it.
Peace - Procure a blessed tranquility in a man's mind and conscience.
A tree - A pledge of everlasting life. He alludes to the tree of life, and intimates, that this is the only restorer of that life which we have lost by sin.
Wisdom - Either by Christ, or by that Divine perfection of wisdom, which is the fountain of wisdom in man.
The depths - That great abyss contained in the bowels of the earth, breaks forth into fountains and rivers.
Eyes - The eyes of thy mind. Constantly and seriously meditate upon them.