Proverbs 4:1

4:1-13 We must look upon our teachers as our fathers: though instruction carry in it reproof and correction, bid it welcome. Solomon's parents loved him, therefore taught him. Wise and godly men, in every age of the world, and rank in society, agree that true wisdom consists in obedience, and is united to happiness. Get wisdom, take pains for it. Get the rule over thy corruptions; take more pains to get this than the wealth of this world. An interest in Christ's salvation is necessary. This wisdom is the one thing needful. A soul without true wisdom and grace is a dead soul. How poor, contemptible, and wretched are those, who, with all their wealth and power, die without getting understanding, without Christ, without hope, and without God! Let us give heed to the sayings of Him who has the words of eternal life. Thus our path will be plain before us: by taking, and keeping fast hold of instruction, we shall avoid being straitened or stumbling.

Proverbs 4:1-3 . Hear, &c., the instruction of a father — Of me, who have paternal authority over you, and great affection for you. For I give you, good doctrine — Not vain or foolish, much less false or pernicious counsels, but such as are true and profitable. Forsake ye not my law — God’s law or commands delivered to you by my mouth. For I was my father’s son — In a special sense, his best beloved son, and designed to be his successor on the throne; tender and only beloved, &c. — Young and tender in years, and capable of any impressions, and tenderly educated. Houbigant renders the verse, For I was the principal son of my father, the only beloved of my mother. These circumstances are mentioned to show the necessity and great benefit of wholesome instruction, which his royal parents would not neglect, no, not in his tender years; and thereby to prepare and excite his hearers or readers, by his example, to receive instruction.

Seventh Address. Chap. Proverbs 4:1-9 Resuming, after the parenthesis ( Proverbs 3:27-35 ) the style and tone of fatherly address of the preceding sections, the Teacher commends Wisdom to his scholars as his children, by the example of his own early education. Mr Horton happily remarks, “This chapter begins with a charming little piece of autobiography,” and quotes Wordsworth’s words, “Wisdom doth live with children round her knees.”

CHAPTER 4 Pr 4:1-27. To an earnest call for attention to his teachings, the writer adds a commendation of wisdom, preceded and enforced by the counsels of his father and teacher. To this he adds a caution (against the devices of the wicked), and a series of exhortations to docility, integrity, and uprightness. 1, 2. (Compare Pr 1:8). to know—in order to know. doctrine—the matter of learning (Pr 1:5), such as he had received (La 3:1).Solomon showeth the excellency of his doctrine, Proverbs 4:1-4. His counsel to get wisdom, Proverbs 4:5,6, and understanding, Proverbs 4:7. The honour which cometh thereby, Proverbs 4:8,9. The good effects of it, Proverbs 4:10-12. He dehorts from the paths of the wicked, by the evil consequences thereof, Proverbs 4:13-19; and exhorteth to keep several precepts for the better government of himself, Proverbs 4:20; concerning his eyes, Proverbs 4:21,22, his heart, Proverbs 4:23, his mouth, Proverbs 4:24, and his feet, Proverbs 4:25-27. Of a father; of me your teacher, who have paternal authority over you, and affection to you.

Verses 1-27. - 7. Seventh admonitory discourse. We here enter upon the second group of admonitory discourses, as is indicated by the opening address, "my children," and which occurs again in Proverbs 5:7 and Proverbs 7:24. This group extends to the end of ch. 7. Its prevailing tone is that of warning rather than of positive exhortations, which have been the rule hitherto. The general aim of the discourse before us, as of those preceding, is to exalt Wisdom, to exhibit her as a subject worthy of all earnest endeavour and sacrifice, but it is noticeable that the teacher introduces a fresh feature into his teaching or mode of instruction, in order to procure attention to, and acceptance of, his precepts on the part of his hearers. He has already spoken in his own name and with his own authority; he has brought forward Wisdom personified as making her appeal; he now adduces the authority of his own father's advice to himself. But as the mode of emphasizing his admonitions varies, so Wisdom is many-sided, and the aspect under which she is now presented seems to be especially that of discipline and obedience.

The keynote of the discourse seems to be struck in the word "instruction," i.e. discipline, in the original, musar , thus recalling the admonition in Proverbs 1:8 , "My son, hear the instruction of thy father." Bohlius, in his 'Ethica Sacra,' disp. 6. p. 65, sqq. , assigns "discipline" ( musar ) to this chapter; and Melancthon describes the admonitions of the chapter before us as "adhortationes ad studium obedientiae." Discipline rising into obedience seems to be the predominant thought to which all others are made subordinate. The discourse is an enlargement or amplification of this aspect of Wisdom. In structure the discourse consists mainly of the father's advice (vers. 4-19), preceded and followed by the teacher's own admonitions in vers. 1-3 and 20-27. The chief topics touched upon are (1) the supreme importance of Wisdom as being "the principal thing" to be obtained before everything else (vers. 7-9); (2) the two ways that lie open to the choice of youth, distinguished respectively as the way of light and the way of darkness (vers. 14-19); and (3) the guarding of the heart with all diligence, as being the seat of conscience and the fountain of life in its moral sense (vers. 23-27). The first part of the discourse is characterized by exhortations accompanied by promises; the latter part takes the form of warning, and warning of an alarming nature.