Proverbs 19:20

19:19. The spared and spoiled child is likely to become a man of great wrath. 20. Those that would be wise in their latter end, must be taught and ruled when young. 21. What should we desire, but that all our purposes may agree with God's holy will? 22. It is far better to have a heart to do good, and want ability for it, than to have ability for it, and want a heart to it. 23. Those that live in the fear of God, shall get safety, satisfaction, and true and complete happiness. 24. Indolence, when indulged, so grows upon people, that they have no heart to do the most needful things for themselves. 25. A gentle rebuke goes farthest with a man of understanding. 26. The young man who wastes his father's substance, or makes his aged mother destitute, is hateful, and will come to disgrace.

Hear counsel, and receive instruction,.... Of parents, masters, and ministers; especially the counsel and instruction of Wisdom, of Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God, the wonderful Counsellor; and of his Gospel and of the Scriptures, which are able to make a man wise unto salvation; that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end; in the latter end of life, at death; that then it may appear a man has been so wise as to be concerned for a future state, for the good of his soul in another world; by listening to the counsel and instruction of Christ, in his word; by looking to him, and believing in him, for life and salvation; by leaning and living upon him; and committing the affairs of his soul, and the salvation of it, to him.

Proverbs 19:20 . Hear counsel, &c. — Be willing to be taught and ruled; to be advised and reproved, when thou art young; that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end — Before thy death come. Which he adds, not exclusively, as if a man ought not to be wise before, but emphatically, to show that how foolishly soever he may have spent his former and younger years, it highly and especially concerns him to be wise before it is too late, or before death comes.

Verse 20. - (Comp. Proverbs 8:10 ; Proverbs 12:15 .) The Septuagint directs the maxim to children, "Hear, O son, the instruction of thy father." That thou mayest be wise in thy latter end. Wisdom gathered and digested in youth is seen in the prudence and intelligence of manhood and old age. Job 8:7 , "Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase." Ecclesiastes 25:6, "O how comely is the wisdom of old men, and understanding and counsel to men of honour! Much experience is the crown of old men, and the fear of God is their glory." "Wer nicht horen will," say the Germans, "muss fuhlen," "He that will not hear must feel." Among Pythagoras's golden words we read - Βουλεύου δὲ πρὸ ἔργου ὅπως μὴ μῶρα τέληται . "Before thou doest aught, deliberate,Lest folly thee befall." Proverbs 19:20

20 Hearken to counsel, and receive instruction, That thou mayest become wise afterwards. The rule of morals, Proverbs 12:15, receives here the paraenetic tone which is the keynote of the introduction chap. 1-9. Lwenstein translates: that thou mayest finally become wise. But בּאחריתך corresponds rather to our "hinfort" [posthac] than to "endlich" [finally]. He to whom the warning is directed must break with the self-willed, undisciplined ראשׁית beginning of his life, and for the future (τὸν ἐπίλοιπον ἐν σαρκὶ χρόνον, 1 Peter 4:2) become wise. The relative contrast between the two periods of life is the same as at Job 8:7.

Though he has frequently felt hunger, yet he is regardless that his continual slothfulness must necessarily plunge him into more sufferings. PROVERBS 19: 16 He who keeps the commandment keeps his soul, but he who is contemptuous in his ways shall die. PROVERBS 19: 17 He who has pity on the poor lends to the LORD; he will reward him. Verse 17 Lendeth unto the Lord - O what a word is this! God makes himself debtor for every thing that is given to the poor! Who would not advance much upon such credit? God will pay it again. And in no case has he ever forfeited his word. PROVERBS 19: 18 Discipline your son, for there is hope; don’t be a willing party to his death. Verse 18 Let not thy soul spare for his crying - This is a hard precept for a parent. Nothing affects the heart of a parent so much as a child's cries and tears. But it is better that the child may be caused to cry, when the correction may be healthful to his soul, than that the parent should cry afterwards, when the child is grown to man's estate, and his evil habits are sealed for life. PROVERBS 19: 19 A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty, for if you rescue him, you must do it again. Verse 19 A man of great wrath - He who is of an irritable, fiery disposition, will necessarily get himself into many broils; and he that is surety for him once is likely to be called on again and again for the same friendly office. PROVERBS 19: 20 Listen to counsel and receive instruction, that you may be wise in your latter end.

[Reformed Biblical] For a while they yield alternately to their conscience and their corruptions. They are touched a moment under the convictions of the word, or the corrections of the rod. Yet the want of steadiness and consistency soon sweeps all away into "worse" hardness than before. (2 Pet. ii. 20-22.) They are “carried away unto their idols, even as they were led” (1 Cor. xii. 2); amid, slaves of their wills, their lusts, their fancies, they know not, they care not to know, "that for all these things God will call them to judgment." 5 Young people—"Ponder the path of your feet." Look to it well at every step, that " your ways may be established" (Chap. iv. 26) in converting grace, the only security for Christian stedfastness. (2 Pet. iii. 17, 18.) Keep the conscience tender, the Divine rule before your eyes, and the promise in the heart. Cherish a pliable spirit for your Father's guidance. How solemn the warning— He that despiseth his ways shall die! Sinner! would that thou wouldest ponder this death! It is no creation of a distempered fancy. It is the death, which sin bringeth forth to perfection. (Jam. i. 14, 15.) It is the harvest from that seed. (Gal. vi. 7, 8.) It is the death such as a soul can die—an eternal reality of infinite, unchangeable misery; the extinction, not of thy being (that were a boon indeed !) but of thy happiness