Leithart
INTRODUCTION
This section divides into two subsections, verses 16-20 and 21-28. The first section, Waltke points out, hangs together with several repeated words or phrases. The use of the word “fool” introduces the section (as at vv. 10, 21), and the phrase “one who loves” appears in verses 17 and 19. This phrase marks out verses 17-8 and 19-20 as two proverbial pairs in which the second qualifies the first. Waltke also sees a repeated emphasis on the “neighbor” or “friend” (v. 17), and he notes the repetition of the word “heart” in verses 16, 18, 20 (the translation of the NASB suppresses this connection, translating the word twice as “sense” and once as “mind”).
Verses 21-28 subdivides into two sections, verses 21-25 and verses 26-28. The first section, Waltke observes, is surrounded by a chiastic inclusio: “bear” and “father” in verse 21 is answered by “father” and “bear” in verse 25. By taking vv. 21-22 as a pair, Waltke says that each of the Proverbs in this section uses the word “fool” except verse 23. Verses 26-28 takes up the theme of injustice that is found in verse 23, and the section concludes with two verses that deal with the wise man’s response to the vexations of the fool.
At verse 21, Solomon begins talking in terms of two types of sons – the wise and the foolish. By introducing the theme of sonship and fatherhood here, Solomon’s proverbs point beyond earthly wisdom to the wisdom of the heavenly Father, which is expressed and embodied in his Wise Son, Jesus.
VERSE 16
The NASB translation needs to be modified somewhat. In Hebrew, the opening question includes a particle (ZEH) that intensifies the interrogative; Waltke renders it “Why in the world,” expressing surprised exasperation at the fool’s conduct. The last clause should be rendered, “to buy wisdom and there is no heart.”
The picture is that the fool comes to the wise man with a tuition check, hoping that he can purchase wisdom the way he can purchase food or clothing from the market. He appears to be sacrificing to gain wisdom here – he’s willing to put his money where his mouth is, after all. But he lacks the central requirement for wisdom, which is a heart inclined to wisdom. Solomon puts this dramatically: “there is no heart.” His heart is so far from fearing Yahweh that it’s as if he had no heart at all. This proverb again states the paradox of wisdom: To gain wisdom, we need to have a heart already inclined to wisdom, and this is a gift from God.
What makes this proverb particularly intriguing is that Solomon has already encouraged his son to “buy wisdom,” using the same verb as is used in 17:16 (4:4-7; 23:23). If Solomon encourages the “purchase” of wisdom, why is he now mocking the fool who comes with money in hand to buy it? The answer, in part, has to do with Solomon’s use of language. He exhorts his readers to “buy wisdom” but he is using an economic metaphor to describe the pursuit of a wisdom that cannot literally be bought. The fool takes the exhortation literally, empties his piggy bank, and comes to the wise man asking for the wisdom that he has for sale. Folly is literalism, literalism is folly. Wisdom is in part the ability to unravel the knots and riddles of symbolic and figurative language.
VERSES 17-18
Does verse 17 compare the friend and brother (both help in adversity) or contrast them (the friend is there all the time, the brother is there only in emergencies)? If the latter, then the verse is contrasting the strength of blood and kin ties to the strength of ties of friendship that are not based on blood. In the light of the New Testament, there doesn’t seem to be much reason to distinguish: All believers are brothers in the elder Brother Jesus, and all are friends because we are friends of King Jesus.
Practically, the verse emphasizes the character of love, friendship, true brotherhood. True love isn’t only for good times, but at all times. And true brotherhood is not only for the prosperous times, but for times of adversity. It is comparatively easy to love when the object of your love is healthy, wealthy, prosperous, and easy to get along with. When a friend gets sick and irritable and poor, we are more apt to be repulsed by him. But this kind of fair-weather love is not true love. God loved us when we were repulsive in our sins, and drew near to us as brother and friend to deliver us. Adversity is the test of true love and true brotherhood. Obviously, one application of this is in marriage. In our marriage vows, we promise to love at all times, in sickness and health, in joy and sorrow, to be brother and sister to one another in all adversity. And in joining with the saints in church, we are making a similar commitment to help and serve one another in all times and circumstances.
Verse 18 provides a neat balance to the previous verse. Friendship and brotherhood are for good times and bad, but the next proverb warns us about the folly of pledging for one’s neighbor. The scenario is this: A man, Larry, takes a loan from another, Barry. As a way of guaranteeing that he will pay the loan back, Barry asks Larry to give him something valuable as collateral – this is the “pledge” or “surety” of which the proverb speaks. But in Proverbs, a third man, Harry, provides the pledge to Barry on Larry’s behalf. Thus, if Larry fails to repay the loan, Harry loses whatever he pledges; Larry gets off rather scot-free, since he didn’t put up anything anyway, and in the meantime he’s had use of Barry’s money. The Proverbs repeated warns against this (6:1; 11:15; 22:26), and we can understand why: Harry is putting his own property at risk, but has little control over whether he ever gets it back, since the repayment has to come from Larry. Harry is likely Larry’s friend, at least at the beginning; but putting up a pledge for his friend puts the friendship at risk, as well as Harry’s money.
But the Proverb doesn’t condemn this practice for its imprudence, or say that a person who puts up a pledge for a neighbor risks losing that pledge. Instead, it says that anyone who takes responsibility for a neighbor’s debt shows a lack of “heart,” just as much as the fool who tries to buy wisdom. How so? How is this a lack of “heart”? The key to understanding this is to realize that lack of heart means lack of a rightly-inclined heart, the lack of a heart that fears God. That’s what the fool lacks when he tries literally to purchase wisdom. And a man who “shakes hands” and becomes surety for his neighbor is also showing that he doesn’t have a rightly inclined heart. The reason, I think, is that the man who stands surety for a neighbor is presuming on the future. He is saying, in James’s words, “tomorrow I will go here and there and do this and that,” and he commits himself to a particular future by pledging to pay something. But he has no control of the future, and cannot know if he is going to be able to make good on the promise that he makes. Becoming surety for a neighbor implies an ability to control the future that we simply don’t possess. A heart that fears the Lord knows its limitations.
This also explains why the Bible speaks of God making “pledges” and putting up security, even pledging to fulfill something on behalf of His friends. He can control the future, and thus can ensure that He will make good on His pledge. As Gary North says, “The most important model of the pledge is God’s promise. By means of a pledge, He places His reputation on the line. If He fails to fulfill His pledge, He loses His
reputation. He loses His judicial status as God. This, of course, cannot be; this is why God fulfills His verbal pledges. He has too much at stake not to.”
VERSES 19-20
As Waltke points out, verses 17-19 move from the good friend, to the foolish friend, to the evil friend or neighbor. Solomon repeats the phrase “one who loves” to underscore the contrast between the friend who is ready to aid in adversity and the man whose life is a life of sin and strife. Verse 19a emphasizes the connection between sin and strife. The particular word for sin connotes “rebellion” or “revolt,” and also implies a violation or transgression of boundaries. Those who love sin, who love to violate boundaries and rules, also are in love with strife. Transgressions regularly lead to strife: Transgression of property boundaries creates strife among neighbors; transgression of marital boundaries creates strife between man and man, and between husband and wife; transgression of the rules and regulations laid down by authorities leads to conflict with those who enforce the law.
The proverb not only points to this inner connection between transgression and strife but also points to the fact that both express a perverse sort of “love.” Rebels don’t sin inadvertently or accidentally; they love their sin. And those who love sin also are addicted to the strife that follows it. If you want to get a sense of what life is like among those who are love strife, check out theological discussions on the web: They provide a perfect laboratory specimen of the love of strife.
Verse 19b is a little difficult to understand, but Waltke suggests that “raising up the door” refers to someone who tries to elevate his house above those of his neighbors. Raising the door of a house is a figure of competitive envy, the kind of competitive envy that keeps our consumer culture, with all its conspicuous competitive consumption, humming along. Our neighbor gets a grill, and we need a bigger one: We are “raising the door” on our house. Solomon says that this kind of competitive building is destructive. More strongly, this kind of competitive envy and construction actively “seeks destruction.” It seeks the destruction of the neighbor; when I show my neighbor my sleek new super-grill I want him to cower in abject humiliation. But the proverb doesn’t tell us who is destroyed, only that destruction follows. The implication is that the one who raises his door high will himself be destroyed. Because pride comes before a fall, and envy is one form that pride takes.
Verse 20 again uses the word “heart” to describe the fool or the wicked man. 20a is epistemologically interesting. God created the world good; we are surrounded by good gifts of a kind Creator who is Goodness Himself, the source of all good. But many people find no good in their lives. They look at the world and find only evil, only frustration, only pain. Why? Not because God’s gifts aren’t good, but because they have a corrupt heart, because they don’t have a heart that fears God. The heart that fears God (as another proverb says) has a continual feast, since the person with such a heart finds himself surrounded by God’s goodness and beauty. If we find ourselves hemmed in on every side, if we find no good in the world, the problem is not in the world but in us – in our “twisted” hearts. The person with a rightly inclined heart, a heart that fears the Lord, echoes God’s pronouncement: “All is very good.”
As the heart is, so the mouth speaks. From twisted hearts come perverted words. And perverted words have effects just as devastating as the effects of a twisted heart. It leads into evil. By “perverse language,” Solomon refers to lies, slanders, gossip, whispered conspiracies, seductions to evil. All of these are preparations for a fall.
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