Ver. 1. Every wise woman buildeth her own house.] Quaevis pia perita. Every holy and handy woman buildeth her house; not only by bearing and breeding up children, as Rachel and Leah builded the house of Israel, (Ruth 4:11) but by a prudent and provident preventing of losses and dangers, as Abigail; as also by a careful planning, and putting everything to the best: like as a carpenter that is to build a house, lays the plan and platform of it first in his brain, forecasts in his mind how everything shall be, and then so orders his stuff, that nothing be cut to waste. Lo, such is the guise of the good housewife. As the husband is as the head from whom all the sinews do flow, so she is as the hands into which they flow, and enable them to do their office. But the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.] With both hands earnestly: she undoes the family whereof she is the calamity, be she never so witty, if with it she be not religious and thrifty, heedy and handy. Be the husband never so frugal, if the wife be idle, or lavish, or proud, or given to gadding and gossipping, &c., he doth but draw water with a sieve, or seek to pull a loaded cart through a sandy way without the help of a horse; it little boots him to bestir himself, for he puts his gets “into a bag with holes.” (Haggai 1:6) He “labours in the very fire,” (Habakkuk 2:13) as Cowper, bishop of Lincoln, did, whose wife burnt all his notes that he had been eight years in gathering, lest he should kill himself with too much study (for she had much ado to get him to his meals), so that he was forced to fall to work again, and was eight years in gathering the same notes wherewith he composed his dictionary, that useful book. How much happier in a wife was that learned Gul. Budaeus. Coniux mea, saith he, sic mihi morem gerit, ut non tractet negligentius libros meos quam liberos, &c. My wife seeing me bookish, is no less diligent about my books, than about my barns, whom she breeds up with singular care and tenderness. How well might he have done, having such a learned helper, as a countryman of his did, of whom Thuanus reporteth, quod singulis annis singulos libros et liberos, reip. dederit: That he set forth every year a book and a child, a book and a child! But this by the way only. Sicut ut ligno vermis, ita perdit virum suum mulier malefica. -Hier. Young’s Benefit of Affliction. Andreas Tiraquellius.
Ver. 2. He that walketh in his uprightness, feareth the Lord.] He is “in the fear of the Lord all day long”; (Proverbs 23:17) he walketh “in the fear of the Lord, and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost.” (Acts 9:31) “The fear of the Lord is upon him,” so that he “takes heed and does it”; (2 Chronicles 19:7) for he knows “it shall be well with them that fear God, that fear before him.” (Ecclesiastes 8:12) God’s “covenant was with Levi of life and peace, for the fear wherewith he feared God, and was afraid before his name.” Hence “the law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with God in peace and equity, and did turn many from iniquity.” (Malachi 2:5,6) He that truly fears God, is like unto Cato, of whom it is said, that he was homo virluti simillimus, and that he never did well that he might appear to do so, sed quia aliter facere non potuit, but because he could not do otherwise. But he that is perverse in his ways, despiseth him.] Sets him aside, departs from his fear, dares to do that before him that he would be loath to do before a grave person. Thus David “despised God,” when he defiled his neighbour’s wife. (2 Samuel 12:9) Not but that even then he had God for his chief end; but he erred in the way, thinking he might fulfil his lust, and keep his God too (he would not forego God upon any terms), as Solomon thought to retain his wisdom, and yet to pursue his pleasures. Hence his partial and temporary apostasy—as the word here rendered “perverse” importeth; his warping and writhing from the way of righteousness—as the Septuagint here interpret it—which was, interpretative, a “despising” of God, a saying, “He seeth it not.” (Psalms 10:11) σκολιαζων tortuose incedens.
Ver. 3. In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride.] Wherewith he beats others, and lays about him like a madman, or rather like a mad dog he bites all he meets, and barks against God himself; till he procure the hate of God and men, and smart for his petulance, being beaten at length with his own rod, as the lion beats himself with his own tail. But the lips of the wise shall preserve them.] From the aspersion of false and foolish tongues. Their good names are oiled, so that evil reports will not stick to them. Dirt will stick upon a mud wall, not so upon marble. Or if they lie under some undeserved reproach for a season, either by a real or verbal apology they wade out of it, as the eclipsed moon by keeping her motion wades out of the shadow and recovers her splendour. (Isaiah 54:17)