Proverbs 29:23

29:19. Here is an unprofitable, slothful, wicked servant; one that serves not from conscience, or love, but from fear. 20. When a man is self-conceited, rash, and given to wrangling, there is more hope of the ignorant and profligate. 21. Good usage to a servant does not mean indulgence, which would ruin even a child. The body is a servant to the soul; those that humour it, and are over-tender of it, will find it forget its place. 22. An angry, passionate disposition makes men provoking to one another, and provoking to God. 23. Only those who humble themselves shall be exalted and established. 24. The receiver is as bad as the thief. 25. Many are ashamed to own Christ now; and he will not own them in the day of judgment. But he that trusts in the Lord will be saved from this snare.

A man's pride shall bring him low,.... As the pride of Adam, in affecting to be as gods, knowing good and evil; he lost the image of God; was brought into a state of darkness and ignorance, into debt and to a dunghill, to beggary and rags; filled with loathsome diseases, and left in thraldom and bondage to sin and Satan; and so all his posterity were brought into the same low estate. This might be exemplified in particular persons, in Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Herod, and others; and, as will be in that monster of pride, the man of sin and antichrist; who will be humbled and brought low in the midst of his pride and boasting, Revelation 18:7 ; but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit; not who are humble in appearance only, or merely in words, having a show of humility, a voluntary and affected one; but really in their hearts; whose spirits are humble and contrite; who are so in spiritual things, and are made so by the Spirit of God: they are such who are truly sensible of sin; of their folly, and want of spiritual knowledge; of their impotence, and weakness to do anything that is spiritually good; of their spiritual poverty, and want of righteousness; who see that salvation is all of grace; and that whatever they have is owing to the grace of God; that they are deficient in all their duties, and these insufficient to justify them before God; who submit to the righteousness of Christ, and give all the glory of salvation to the grace of God.

These, as they are honourable, being clothed with humility, which is itself an ornament of great price; so they are honoured with more grace from the Lord; they are beautified with the garments of salvation; they have the honour to have the spiritual and gracious presence of God, and fellowship with him, who dwells with such as are of an humble spirit: these are the meek and lowly, that shall inherit the new earth, and reign as kings with Christ in it; and the poor in spirit, to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs: and this honour is durable, they shall always abide in it; the grace they have, which makes them glorious, springs up unto eternal life; and the glory they shall have is an eternal weight of glory, a crown of glory that fadeth not away: for so the words may be rendered, "the humble in spirit shall lay hold on glory" (z) or "honour"; possess it and enjoy it: or rather "shall retain" (a) it; shall hold it fast, as the word is translated in Proverbs 3:18; The sum of the proverb, in both parts, is the same with the words of Christ, often used by him, Matthew 23:12. (z) "assequetur gloriam", Montanus; "potietur gloria", Vatablus. (a) "Tenebit honorem", Piscator; "tenebit gloriam", Mercerus, Cocceius, Michaelis; "apprehendit gloriam", Shultens.

Proverbs 29:23. A man’s pride shall bring him low — Because both God and men conspire against him; but honour shall uphold the humble — Or, as others render it, without any difference in the sense, the humble in spirit shall hold their honour, shall be honoured by God and men. Thus honour, like a shadow, flees from them that pursue it, and follows them who flee from it.

23 . honour shall uphold , &c.] Rather, He that is lowly in spirit shall obtain honour. Lowly is better than humble (A.V.) in the second clause, because the Heb. word is from the same root as the word bring low , in the first clause. It is substantially the same proverb as that used more than once by our Lord: Every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Luke 14:11 ; Luke 18:14 .

Shall bring him low, because both God and man conspire against him, and abhor him. Honour shall uphold the humble in spirit; or, as others render it, without any difference in the sense, the humble in spirit shall hold their honour, shall be honoured by God and men. Thus honour, like a shadow, flees from them that pursue it, and follows them who flee from it.

Verse 23. - A man's pride shall bring him low. The same thought is found in Proverbs 15:33 ; Proverbs 16:18 ; Proverbs 25:6 , etc.; Luke 14:11 . Honour shall uphold the humble in spirit; better, as the Revised Version, he that is of a lowly spirit shall obtain honour (comp. Proverbs 11:16 ; Isaiah 57:15 ). The humble man does not seek honour, but by his life and action unconsciously attains it (comp. Job 22:29 ). Septuagint, "Haughtiness brings a man low, but the lowly-minded the Lord upholdeth with glory." Proverbs 29:23

Proverbs 29:23 passes from anger to haughtiness: A man's pride will bring him low; But the lowly attaineth to honour. Thus we translate תּתמך כּבוד (Lat. honorem obtinet) in accord with Proverbs 11:16, and שׁפל־רוּח with Proverbs 16:19, where, however, שׁפל is not adj. as here, but inf. The haughty man obscures the honour which he has by this, that he boasts immeasurably of it, and aspires yet more after it; the lowly man, on the other hand, obtains honour without his seeking it, honour before God and before men, which would be of no worth were it not connected with the honour before God. The lxx: τοὺς δὲ ταπεινόφρονας ἐπείδει δόξῃ κύριους. This κύριους is indeed not contrary to the sense, but it is opposed to the style. Why the 24th verse should now follow is, as regards the contents and the expression, hard to say; but one observes that Proverbs 29:22-27 follow each other, beginning with the successive letters of the alphabet א (ב), ג, ח, ח, ר, ת (ת).