Bridges on Proverbs 2:1-6
 
 
Charles Bridges on Proverbs 2:1-6
 
 1-6 
 7-9 
 10-11 
 12-15 
 16-19 
 20-22 
 

1.  ¶ My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; 2. So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; 3. Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; {liftest...: Heb. givest thy voice} 4. If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; 5. Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. 6. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
 
Wisdom, having solemnly warned rebellious scorners, now instructs her dutiful children. The dark question long before asked — “Where shall wisdom be found?” (Job 28:12, 20, 21) — is now answered. It is here set before us, as the fear and knowledge of God (Verse 5); a principle of practical godliness (Verses 7-9); a preservation from besetting temptations (Verses 10-19); and a guide into the right and safe path. (Verse 20.) Hence follow the security of its scholars (Verse 21), and the certain ruin of its ungodly despisers. (Verse 22.)
The rules for its attainment are such as the simplest comprehension can apply. Carefully pondered, and diligently improved, they will furnish a key for the understanding of the whole word of God. Let us examine them more distinctly.
Receive my words — Let them be “the seed cast into the ground of an honest and good heart” (Luke 8:15) — a heart prepared of God. (Chapter 16:1.) Read the book of God as one who “sat at the feet of Jesus, and heard his word.” (Luke 10:39.) Like the Bereans, “receive it with all readiness” (Acts 17:11); like the Thessalonians, with reverential faith, acknowledging its supreme authority (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Hide my commandments with thee. Carry them about with thee as thy choicest treasure for greater security (Colossians 3:16, with Matthew 13:44); as thy furniture always at hand for present use. (Chapter 4:20, 21; 7:3. Job 22:22.) Let the heart be the hiding-place for the treasure. (Luke 2:19, 51. Psalm 119:11.) Satan can never snatch it thence.
But there must be an active, practical habit of attention. Yet to incline the ear, and apply the heart — “who is sufficient for these things?” Oh! my God! Let it be thine own work on me — in me. Thou alone canst do it. Let it be with me, as with thy Beloved Son — “Waken my ear morning by morning to hear as the learned.” (Isaiah 50:4.) So let me under thy grace “incline mine ear, and hear, that my soul may live.” (Ibid. 55:3.)
Without this spirit of prayer — there may be attention and earnestness; yet not one spiritual impression upon the conscience; not one ray of Divine light in the soul. Earthly wisdom is gained by study; heavenly wisdom by prayer. Study may form a Biblical scholar; prayer puts the heart under a heavenly tutorage, and therefore forms the wise and spiritual Christian. The word first comes into the ears; then it enters into the heart; there it is safely hid; thence rises the cry — the lifting up of the voice. Thus, “the entrance of thy word giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple.” (Psalm 119:130.) God keeps the key of the treasure-house in his own hand. “For this he will be enquired of” (Ezekiel 36:37) to open it unto thee. We look for no other inspiration than Divine grace to make his word clear and impressive. Every verse read and meditated on furnishes material for prayer. Every text prayed over opens a mine of “unsearchable riches,” with a light from above, more clear and full than the most intelligent exposition. David (Psalm 119:18 &c.) and his wise son (1 Kings 3:9-12) sought this learning upon their knees; and the most matured Christian will continue to the end to lift up his voice for a more enlarged knowledge of God. (Ephesians 1:17, 18.)
But prayer must not stand in the stead of diligence. Let it rather give energy to it. The miner's indefatigable pains; his invincible resolution; his untiring perseverance; seeking, yea, searching for hid treasures, — such must be our searching into the sacred storehouse. To read, instead of “searching the Scriptures,” is only to skim the surface, and gather up a few superficial notions. The rule of success is — Dig up and down the field; and if the search be discouraging, dig again. The patient industry of perusal and re-perusal will open the embosomed treasure. “Surely there is a vein for the silver.” (Job 28:1.) Yet what miner would be content with the first ore? Would he not search deeper and deeper, until he has possessed himself of the whole; not satisfied with taking away much, but determined to leave nothing? Thus let us daily explore “the length, and the breadth, and the depth” of our boundless stores, until we be “filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:18, 19.)
This habit of living in the element of Scripture is invaluable. To be filled from this Divine treasury; to have large portions of the word daily passing through the mind; gives us a firmer grasp, and a more suitable and diversified application of it. Yet this profit can only be fully reaped in retirement. We may read the Scriptures in company. But to search them, we must be alone with God. Here we learn to apply ourselves wholly to the word, and the word wholly to us. This enriching study gives a purer vein of sound judgment. The mere reader often scarcely knows where to begin, and he performs the routine without any definite object. His knowledge therefore must be scanty and ineffective. Nor is the neglect of this habit less hurtful to the Church. All fundamental errors and heresies in the Church may be traced to this source — “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures.” (Matthew 22:29.) They are mostly based on partial or disjointed statements of truth. Truth separated from truth becomes error. But the mind prayerfully occupied in the search of Divine truth — crying and lifting up the voice — will never fail to discern the two great principles of godliness — The fear and knowledge of God. There is no peradventure nor disappointment in this search — Then shalt thou understand. The LORD giveth wisdom; it cometh out of his mouth. None shall search in vain. (Job 32:8. Isaiah 48:17; 54:13. James 1:5, 17. Compare Genesis 41:38, 39. Exodus 4:12. Daniel 1:17.) Never has apostasy from the faith been connected with a prayerful and diligent study of the word of God.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Job 28:12, 20, 21
12 But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? 20 ¶ Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? 21 Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air. {air: or, heaven}
 
 
Proverbs 2:5
5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
 
 
Proverbs 2:7-9
7 He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. 8 He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. 9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
 
 
Proverbs 2:10-19
10 ¶ When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; 11 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: 12 To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things; 13 Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; 14 Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked; 15 Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths: 16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words; 17 Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. 18 For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. 19 None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
 
 
Proverbs 2:20
20 That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
 
 
Proverbs 2:21
21 For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain
 
 
Proverbs 2:22
22 But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it. {rooted: or, plucked up}
 
 
Luke 8:15
15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
 
 
Proverbs 16:1
1 ¶ The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD. {preparations: or, disposings}
 
 
Luke 10:39
39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.
 
 
Acts 17:11
11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
 
 
1 Thessalonians 2:13
13 ¶ For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
 
 
Colossians 3:16
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
 
with
Matthew 13:44
44 ¶ Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
 
 
Proverbs 4:20, 21
20 ¶ My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. 21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
 
Proverbs 7:3
3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.
 
Job 22:22
22 Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.
 
 
Luke 2:19, 51
19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. 51 And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
 
Psalm 119:11
11 ¶ Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
 
 
Isaiah 50:4
4 ¶ The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.
 
 
Isaiah 55:3
3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
 
 
Psalm 119:130
¶ The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple
 
 
Ezekiel 36:37
Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.
 
 
Psalm 119:18 &c.
18 ¶ Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold Wondrous things out of thy law. 19 ¶ I am a sojourner in the earth: Hide not thy commandments from me. 20 ¶ My soul breaketh for the longing That it hath unto thine ordinances at all times. 26 ¶ I declared my ways, and thou answeredst me: Teach me thy statutes. 27 Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: So shall I meditate on thy wondrous works. 29 Remove from me the way of falsehood; And grant me thy law graciously. 32 I will run the way of thy commandments, When thou shalt enlarge my heart. 33 ¶ HE. Teach me, O Jehovah, the way of thy statutes; And I shall keep it unto the end. 34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; Yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. 35 ¶ Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; For therein do I delight. 36 Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, And not to covetousness. 40 ¶ Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: Quicken me in thy righteousness. 43 ¶ And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; For I have hoped in thine ordinances. 64 ¶ The earth, O Jehovah, is full of thy lovingkindness: Teach me thy statutes. 66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge; For I have believed in thy commandments. 68 ¶ Thou art good, and doest good; Teach me thy statutes. 73 ¶ YODH. Thy hands have made me and {1} fashioned me: Give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments. {1) Or established} 80 ¶ Let my heart be perfect in thy statutes, That I be not put to shame. etc.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1 Kings 3:9-12
9 Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? {understanding: Heb. hearing} 10 And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. 11 And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment; {long life: Heb. many days} {discern: Heb. hear} 12 Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.
 
 
Ephesians 1:17, 18
17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: {in...: or, for the acknowledgement} 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
 
 
Job 28:1
1 ¶ Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it. {vein: or, mine}
 
 
Ephesians 3:18, 19
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
 
 
Matthew 22:29
29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
 
 
Job 32:8
8 But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
 
Isaiah 48:17
17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
 
Isaiah 54:13
13 And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
 
James 1:5, 17
5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
 
Compare
Genesis 41:38, 39
38 And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? 39 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art:
 
Exodus 4:12
12 Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.
 
Daniel 1:17
17 ¶ As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. {Daniel...: or, he made Daniel understand}
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Footnote:
Chapter 22:17; 23:12. The Emperor Constantine stood hours to hear the word; replying, when asked to sit, ‘that he thought it wicked to give negligent ears, when the truth handled was spoken of God.’ — (Euseb. De Vita Constant. Lib. 4.) Foxe records of Edward VI. ‘That never was he present at any sermon commonly, but would excerp them, or note them with his own hand.’ — Vol. V.700. Yet Bishop Hooper thought, that his royal master's love for the preached word needed to be quickened. — Sermon 7th on Jonas.
 

 
Proverbs 22:17
17 ¶ Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge.
 
Proverbs 23:12
12 ¶ Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge
 
 
Footnote:
Chapter 20:12. “Thou giving me the ear, I have heard, as thou wouldest thy word to be heard.” — Jerome on Habakkuk 3:2.
 

 
Proverbs 20:12
12 ¶ The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them.
 
Habakkuk 3:2
2 O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. {speech: Heb. report, or, hearing} {revive: or, preserve alive}
 
 
Footnote:
On one side is Luther's inestimable axiom — ‘Bene orasse est bene studuisse.’ On the other side is the balance of the old proverb — ‘Ora et labora.’ Compare Matthew 11:12. ‘We are all,’ says the heavenly Leighton, ‘too little in the humble seeking and begging this Divine knowledge; and that is the cause why we are so shallow and small proficients. “If thou cry, and lift up thy voice for understanding, search for it as for hid treasures;” sit down upon thy knees, and dig for it. That is the best posture, to fall right upon thy golden vein, and go deepest to know the mind of God, in searching the Scriptures, to be directed and regulated in his ways; to be made skillful in ways of honouring him, and doing him service. This neither man nor angels can teach him, but God alone.’ — Sermon on Psalm 107:43.
 

 
Matthew 11:12
12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. {suffereth...: or, is gotten by force, and they that thrust men}
 
Psalm 107:43
43 Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.
 
 
Footnote:
‘Viscera terrae extrahimus, ut digito gestiatur gemma, quam petimus. Quot manus afferuntur, ut unus niteat articulus! Simili studio, industria, constantia, Sapientiae inquisitioni incumbendum erat.’ — Plin. lib. ii. c. 65.
 
 
Footnote:
Compare John 5:39. Greek — a similar allusion to the miner's toil. ‘I can speak it by experience’ — said a wise man — ‘that there is little good to be gotten by reading the Bible cursorily and carelessly. But do it daily and diligently, with attention and affection; and you shall find such efficacy, as is to be found in no other book that can be named.’ — Erasmus's Preface to Luke. Peter Martyr gives the same testimony, Epist. Dedic. To Comment. On Rom. The following relic of our renowned Elizabeth will be read both with interest and profit. It was written on a blank leaf of a black-letter edition of St. Paul's Epistles, which she used during her lonely imprisonment at Woodstock. The volume itself, curiously embroidered by her own hand, is preserved in the Bodleian: — ‘August. I walk many times into the pleasant fields of the Holy Scriptures, where I pluck up the goodlisome herbs of sentences by pruning, eat them by reading, chew them by musing, and lay them up at length in the high seat of memorie, by gathering them together, that so, having tasted their sweetness, I may the less perceive the bitterness of this miserable life.’ — Miss Strickland's Queens of England, vi. 113.
 

 
Greek Text:
 
Young's Literal Translation:
39 `Ye search the Writings, because ye think in them to have life age-during, and these are they that are testifying concerning me;
 
Green's Literal Translation:
39 You search the Scriptures, for you think in them you have everlasting life. And they are the ones witnessing concerning Me.
 
American Standard Version:
39 {1} Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me; {1) Or Search the scriptures}
 
King James Version:
39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.