Ver. 1. Whoso loveth instruction, loveth knowledge.] Here is showed, that adversity is the best university, saith an interpreter. Schola crucis, schola lucis. Corrections of instruction are the way of life. Men commonly beat and bruise their links, before they light them, to make them burn the brighter. God first humbles whom he means to illuminate; as Gideon took thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he “taught the men of Succoth.” (Judges 8:16) [See Trapp on “Re 3:19”] Mr Ascham was a good schoolmaster to Queen Elizabeth, but affliction was a better, as one well observeth. That verse was much in her mouth— “ Non ignara mali miseris suceurrere disco. ’’— Virgil. But he that hateth reproof.] Whether it be by the rebukes of men, or the rod of God, he is brutish: tardus est, he is fallen below the stirrup of reason, he is a beast in man’s shape; nothing is more irrational than irreligion. That sapless fellow Nabal would hear nothing; there was no talking to him, no dealing with him; but as the horse and mule that have no understanding. (Psalms 32:9) Basil complains of the Western churches, that they were grown so proud, ut quid verum sit neque sciant, neque sustineant discere, that they neither knew what was truth, nor would be taught better. Such are near to ruin, and that without remedy. (Proverbs 29:1) [See Trapp on “Pr 29:1”] Vexatio dat intellectum. Epist. ad Evagr.
Ver. 2. A good man obtaineth favour of the Lord.] Or, “Hath what he will of God”; id quod vult a Domino impetrat; quia eius voluntas est ipsissima Dei voluntas, nec aliud vult. Thus Mercer out of Rabbi Levi. Thus it is written of Luther, that by his prayers he could prevail with God at his pleasure. When great gifts were offered him, he refused them with this brave speech, Valde protestatus sum me nolle sic satiari a Deo: -I solemnly protested to God, that I would not be put off with these low things. And on a time praying for the recovery of a godly useful man, among other passages, he let fall this transcendent rapture of a daring faith, Fiat mea voluntas, “Let my will be done”; and then falls off sweetly, Mea voluntas, Domine, quia tua; ” My will, Lord, because thy will!” Here was a good man, here was a blessed man; according to that rule, Beatus est qui habet quicquid vult, et nihil male vult; - Blessed is he that hath what he will, and wills nothing but what he should. But a man of wicked devices.] Such as no good man is; he doth not plot or plough mischief; he doth not cater and “make provision for the flesh”; (Romans 13:14) there is no “way of wickedness” (Psalms 139:24) found in him; the peace is not broken between God and him, because his mind never yields to sin, (Romans 7:25) he “walks not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, therefore no condemnation.” (Romans 8:1) If an evil thought haunt his heart, as again it befalls, it is the device of the man, he is not the man of such devices. The wicked, on the contrary, is wholly made up of sinful thoughts and purposes, and is in the midst of them; therefore God will call him to a heavy reckoning. See Jeremiah 6:19 Re 2:23.
Ver. 3. A man shall not be established by wickedness.] For he lays his foundation upon firework, and brimstone is scattered upon his house top: if the fire of God from heaven but flash upon it, it will be all a flame immediately. He walks all day upon a mine of gunpowder; and hath God with his armies ready to run upon the thickest bosses of his buckler, and to hurl him to hell. How can this man be sure of anything? Cain built cities, but could not rest in them. Ahab begat seventy sons, but not one successor in the kingdom. Phocas having built a mighty wall, heard from heaven: “Though thy walls were as high as heaven, sin is under it, and will subvert it.” Ασταφμητον το κακον. Sin hath no settledness. But the root of the righteous shall not be moved.] For though shaken with winds, yet they are rooted as trees; like a ship at anchor, they wag up and down, yet remove not. “God is my rock, I shall not be greatly moved.” (Psalms 62:2) Nay, “I shall not be moved at all.” (Proverbs 12:6) “The gates of hell cannot do it.” (Matthew 16:18) “None can pluck them out of God’s hands,” (John 10:28) for he “hath laid help upon one that is mighty.” (Psalms 89:19) εαν υφοις τα ταιχη εως ουρανου ενδον το κακον, ευαλωτος η πολις.
Ver. 4. A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband.] Heb., A valiant woman; an able housewife, such as Bathsheba commends to her son, (Proverbs 31:10-31) and as Paul describes. (Titus 2:4,5) She is said to be a crown to her husband—not a ring for his finger, or a chain of gold for his neck, but a crown or garland for his head, a chief and choice ornament, as Sarah was to Abraham, as Livia to Augustus, as Placilla to Theodosius, as Nazianzen’s mother to her husband. Is as rottenness in his bones.] Not a disgrace only to him, but a disease, and such a disease, as is far worse than a quartan ague: for there be two good days for one bad; but here a continual pain, and hardly curable. The wise man here expresseth the mischief of an evil wife, by a very apt similitude. And that of Jerome is not much behind it, Sicut in ligno vermis, ita perdit virum suum uxor malefica. As the worm eats into the heart of the tree, and destroys it, so doth a haughty wife her husband. All evils, as elements, are most troublesome, when out of their proper place, as impiety in professors, injustice in judges, dishonour and discomfort in a wife, &c. ου συνεργος μονον αλλα και αρχηγος εγενετο. Naz.