Notes

on the

Book of Proverbs

By H. A. Ironside

LOIZEAUX BROTHERS

Neptune, New Jersey

First Edition, January 1908

Eleventh Printing, June 1974

PUBLISHED BY LOIZEAUX BROTHERS, Inc.

A Nonprofit Organization, devoted to the Lord’s Work and to the Spread of His Truth

TABLE OF CHAPTERS

Prefatory Note

Introduction

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

PREFATORY NOTE

TO the general reader, the book of Proverbs, with its common-sense epigrams and sententious aphorisms, might seem to be the last portion of Scripture requiring any attempt at elucidation. But it is just because its chapters abound in pithy truisms that the marrow is often lost sight of by those who have been accustomed to hearing or reading them all their lives.

The present work is an attempt to press home upon the heart and conscience, with a view to the increase of every-day godliness, this distinctively practical portion of the word of God.

The “Authorized” Version is used in the text, save where a uniform rendering of certain words seemed conducive to clearness, and where some other translation better expressed the thought of the original. Wherever changes have been made, the reader may rest assured competent authorities have been consulted, the marginal readings of the Englishman’s Hebrew Bible being generally preferred. The poetical arrangement has been used, as more capable of clearly manifesting the contrasts, as well as the parallelisms, so abundant in this great storehouse of practical instruction.

Throughout, an effort has been made to bring to the reader’s attention some Scriptural examples of the proverbial statements. This feature of the work will, it is sincerely hoped, be a means of stimulating the reader to more careful, earnest Bible study.

H. A. Ironside.

August 1, 1907.

INTRODUCTION

THE royal preacher, in the book of Ecclesiastes, after relating so graphically the story of his weary search for happiness “under the sun,” with its disappointing result, leading to the oft-repeated lament, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity and vexation of spirit,” directs those who would escape the devious paths he had himself trodden to the consideration of the collection of proverbs which he had “sought out, and set in order.” The last seven verses of Ecclesiastes form a fitting introduction to the book which in our Bibles immediately precedes it.

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, all is vanity.

And, moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge.

Yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set ...