Proverbs xviii.

Notes & Commentary:

Ver. 1. Reproach. True friendship resembles charity, and bears all things, 1 Corinthians xiii. 4. Hebrew now reads Thave, "desire;" instead of Thuane, occasion, or "pretext," which must have been in the copies of the Septuagint and Vulgate. (Calmet) --- Protestants, "through desire, a man having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom." The solitary seeks heaven. (Haydock)

Ver. 2. Heart. Conformable to his passions. (Calmet) --- Hebrew, "unless to lay open his heart." He wishes to appear wise, and to justify his wicked designs. (Haydock)

Ver. 3. Contemneth both God and man, Luke xviii. 4. Hebrew, "is contemned" in his turn. (Calmet) --- He is like a man abandoned by the physician. (Op. Imp. in Matt. Hom. 40.)

Ver. 4. Man, who is just and wise. His advice deserves attention, chap. xx. 5.

Ver. 6. Quarrels. Hebrew, "blows." Septuagint, "death;" (ver. 7.) which are the usual consequences of quarrels.

Ver. 8. Tongued. Hebrew, "calumniator." He pretends to wish well to those of whom he speaks, or else to guard the company against deceit. (Calmet) --- "If the devil be upon the detractor's tongue, he is in the ears of those who pay attention to him." (St. Francis de Sales) --- Fear, &c., is in the Septuagint, above. The Vulgate retains both this and the new version of St. Jerome.

Ver. 9. Brother. Like him, as both end in poverty, chap. x. 4., and xii. 11.

Ver. 10. Name. Essence, or protection of God. The rich depends on his own wealth.

Ver. 13. Heareth the end of the question, chap. i. 5.

Ver. 14. Infirmity of the flesh, Matthew xxvi. 41. --- That is. Theodotion, "is wounded, who shall support?"

Ver. 16. Princes. He easily finds access by showing submission. (Calmet)

Placatur donis Jupiter ipse suis. (Ovid)

Ver. 17. Him. To see that he act with sincerity.

Ver. 18. Lot. Chap. xvi. 33. Septuagint, "silence." (Calmet) --- But Grabe substitutes "lot." (Haydock)

Ver. 19. Judgments of many are more deserving of credit. Hebrew, "a brother offended, is like a strong place, and their quarrels," &c. They are not easily reconciled. Civil wars are most terrible. (Calmet)

Ver. 20. Satisfied. Those who are guarded in their words get employment. (Haydock) (Chap. xii. 14.)

Ver. 21. Love it, and speak well or ill, shall receive accordingly, Matthew xii. 37.

Ver. 22. Good wife. Good is not in Hebrew, but should be understood, as it is expressed in the Complutensian (Calmet) and Alexandrian Septuagint. (Haydock) --- He that, &c., occurs not in Hebrew, Sixtus V, &c. But it is found in Septuagint and Arabic. The Syriac omits the last sentence. --- Wicked. St. Augustine had frequently asserted that a divorce was only of counsel: but this he retracted, when he reflected on this text. (Retractions i. 19.) --- The Hebrews, Athenians, and Romans, followed the same practice with adulteresses. (Selden, Ux. iii. 16.; Dem. in Neæram, &c.) --- Hermas (past. i. 4.) prescribes that the penitent shall be received again, but not often. In case of divorce, the fathers still permit not a second marriage, that the parties may be reconciled. They enjoin the husband to put away only such as are incorrigible. (St. Augustine, Adul. ii. 3.) (Calmet)

Ver. 24. Brother. The ties of nature are not so strong as those of friendship. (Calmet) --- Hebrew, "a man that hath friends must shew himself friendly; and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." (Protestants) (Haydock) --- Ut ameris ama. (Martial)