Proverbs 1 · The Lantern

The wise sayings of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.

The proverb, according to barbarian philosophy, is called a mode of prophecy, and the parable is so called, and the enigma in addition.

A proverb is a saying such as, "War is pleasant to the inexperienced," or "A drop constantly falling hollows a stone." The name proverb derived from the fact that once roads were marked off with no signs. Now there are signs, which are called miliaria (milestones) by the Romans, while they were just called signs before.

The Parables of Solomon, etc. The Greek word Parables is translated as Similitudes in Latin; Solomon named this book so that we might understand its contents more deeply and not just according to the letter, in which he signifies that the Lord would sometimes speak to the crowds in parables.

To have knowledge of wise teaching; to be clear about the words of reason:

"To know wisdom and instruction." He who knows the wisdom of God, receives from Him also instruction, and learns by it the mysteries of the Word; and they who know the true heavenly wisdom will easily understand the words of these mysteries.

The purpose for which the royal Father gave to the royal Son his judgment and his justice is sufficiently shown when he says, "To judge your people in justice," that is, for the purpose of judging your people. Such an idiom is found in … the Proverbs of Solomon, for the purpose of knowing wisdom and discipline.

To know wisdom, etc. To know wisdom and discipline is to understand how to believe rightly, how one ought to live, to have truly learned where to direct the intention of the heart, and to know what is fitting to do. When it adds:

To be trained in the ways of wisdom, in righteousness and judging truly and straight behaviour:

Those concepts which are expressed by the Holy Spirit in parables through their counterpart of speech become quite clear when one brings them before God with a faithful heart. For they understand the true righteousness which was announced by Christ.

To confess that we are imperfect, and have not yet apprehended, nor yet obtained, this is true wisdom in man: know thyself to be imperfect; and, if I may so speak, the perfection of all who are righteous, so long as they are in the flesh, is imperfect.

Justice, and judgment, etc. Justice is in those things we do well according to the rule of truth; judgment, in those things we act with right discernment with our neighbors. Equity is in that action wherein with sincere intention we strive to please God alone in the things we rightly do or judge.

To make the simple-minded sharp, and to give the young man knowledge, and serious purpose:

(The wise man, hearing, will get greater learning, and the acts of the man of good sense will be wisely guided:)

He who accepts the doctrines of wisdom, sometimes, in addition to the first doctrines because of which he is already wise, takes up second doctrines in reference to which he was not formerly wise, and [then] he will be wiser, just as also it is said, "For when a wise man has heard these things, he will be wiser."

There are indeed many who know how so to control their outward advancement as by no means to fall inwardly thereby. Whence it is written, "God casteth not away the mighty, seeing that He also Himself is mighty." And it is said through Solomon, "A man of understanding shall possess governments." But to me these things are difficult, since they are also exceedingly burdensome; an…

"The wise man hearing shall be wiser, and the one who understands shall possess counsels." In the second word Solomon shows that it is useful to hear the word of God; and the reason is that in the hearing of the word of God both he who understands profits, and likewise he who does not understand: therefore both the wise and the simple ought to go to hear the word of God.

To get the sense of wise sayings and secrets, and of the words of the wise and their dark sayings.

We must observe that not every time something is named "darkness" is it taken in a bad sense; there are times when it has also been used in a good sense. It is because the heterodox did not make this distinction that they accepted the most irreverent doctrines concerning the Creator and withdrew from him and abandoned themselves to the fictions of myths.

[Daniel 2:22] "It is He who reveals deep and hidden things, and He knows what is placed in the darkness, and with Him is the light." A man to whom God makes profound revelations and who can say, "O the depth of the riches of the knowledge and wisdom of God!" (Romans 11:33), he it is who by the indwelling Spirit probes even into the deep things of God, and digs the deepest of we…

He will comprehend a proverb and a parable, etc. This humility was given to the disciples by the wisdom that taught them in the flesh so that they could understand both its parables, which the crowds could not comprehend, and the enigmas of the prophets and the law, that is, the obscure sayings that they would spiritually perceive and elucidate for their listeners.

The fear of the Lord is the start of knowledge: but the foolish have no use for wisdom and teaching.

There are things practiced in a vulgar style by some people, such as control over pleasures. For as among the heathen there are those who, from the impossibility of obtaining what one sees and from fear of men, and also for the sake of greater pleasures, abstain from the delights before them, so also, in the case of faith, some practice self-restraint, either out of regard to t…

You should regulate your life and conduct by the commandments of God, which we have received to enable us to lead a good life, beginning with a religious fear, for "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," whereby human pride is broken down and weakened.

Fools despise wisdom and discipline. It has been said of the wise man that he will become wiser upon hearing the word, and the one who understands will learn to rightly govern his actions. In contrast, it is said of fools that they do not only fail to attain the wisdom of right doctrine and the discipline of pure conduct but also despise knowing it.

My son, give ear to the training of your father, and do not give up the teaching of your mother:

For they will be a crown of grace for your head, and chain-ornaments about your neck.

My son, if sinners would take you out of the right way, do not go with them.

If they say, Come with us; let us make designs against the good, waiting secretly for the upright, without cause;

These things he understands of the people of the Jews, and their guilt in the blood of Christ; for they thought that He had His conversation (citizenship) on earth only.

There is one text in Proverbs so far from being obscure that its relationship to Christ and his possession, the church, can be grasped without any such trouble. Wicked men are speaking: "Let us unjustly hide away in the earth the just man, let us swallow him up alive like hell.

"Let us lay in wait for the innocent without cause." They did this when they said: "Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?" (Mark 12) and countless other similar things. Truly he was innocent, who did no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. Truly they laid traps for him in vain, by whom they were not harmed, but from whom they had experienced many benefits.

Let us overcome them living, like the underworld, and in their strength, as those who go down to death;

Goods of great price will be ours, our houses will be full of wealth;

Take your chance with us, and we will all have one money-bag:

My son, do not go with them; keep your feet from their ways:

For their feet are running after evil, and they are quick to take a man's life.

Truly, to no purpose is the net stretched out before the eyes of the bird:

Now, the Scripture saith, "Not unjustly are nets spread out for birds." This means that the man perishes justly, who, having a knowledge of the way of righteousness, rushes off into the way of darkness.

If then nets are not wrongfully stretched for birds, as it is said in Proverbs, but God justly leads men into the snare, as it is said, "You led us into the snare," and if not even a sparrow, cheapest of birds, falls into the snare without the will of the Father (its fall into the snare being due to its failure to use properly the power of its wings given to it to soar), let us…

"Surely in vain the net is spread," etc. Truly the snare of persecution or death is spread in vain for the elect, who have the wings of hope and charity and other virtues, by which they desire heavenly things while they live, so that they may deserve to reach them after death.

And they are secretly waiting for their blood and making ready destruction for themselves.

Such is the fate of everyone who goes in search of profit; it takes away the life of its owners.

Wisdom is crying out in the street; her voice is loud in the open places;

It is written: "Wisdom is made known in death," that is to say, the life of the wise man is praised at the end of his life.

Wisdom preaches in the streets, etc. The Wisdom of God, indeed, is Christ, who, having lived in the world, revealed the mysteries of His divinity to a few and instructed them not to preach that He was Jesus Christ before His passion and resurrection, lest they tell anyone the glory they saw on the mount; and then, He showed His Majesty's power more by works than by words, fulfi…

This wisdom has been made manifest, hence "wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the open squares she raises her voice." And yet we do not find her, resembling the unlettered man who owns a book and has no concern for it. And so with us: the Scriptures were given to us in Greek, in the vernacular and in Hebrew, and yet they are unknown as a source.

Her words are sounding in the meeting-places, and in the doorways of the town:

How long, you simple ones, will foolish things be dear to you? and pride a delight to the haters of authority? how long will the foolish go on hating knowledge?

Be turned again by my sharp words: see, I will send the flow of my spirit on you, and make my words clear to you.

So, then, let us obey his most holy and glorious name and escape the threats which wisdom has predicted against the disobedient. In that way we shall live in peace, having our confidence in his most holy and majestic name. Accept our advice, and you will never regret it.

For where at all have they found in divine Scripture, or from whom have they heard, that there is another Word and another wisdom besides this Son, that they should frame to themselves such a doctrine?

Behold, I will pour out my Spirit to you, etc. If you still, he says, neglect to convert, I will bring upon you the vengeance you have deserved, and I will show that the words I have predicted about your destruction are true. Indeed, he names his spirit the power of vengeance, about which Moses said: You sent your spirit, and the sea covered them (Exodus XV).

Because your ears were shut to my voice; no one gave attention to my out-stretched hand;

And these, if anyone should meditate upon them in the law of the Lord day and night, and if anyone, like the just man whose mouth meditates the wisdom of the Lord, shall be able to investigate them more diligently, he will also be able to find them — provided nevertheless that he has sought rightly, and, seeking, has knocked at the door of wisdom, asking of God that it may be o…

For this is why the Lord says through Solomon: "I called, and you refused; I stretched out my hand, and there was no one who paid attention; you despised all my counsel, and neglected my reproofs. I also will laugh at your destruction, and will mock when what you feared comes upon you.

Against those who speak against the counsels of God, it is said in Proverbs: 'I have called and you refused; you have despised all my counsel and neglected my reproofs; therefore I will laugh at your destruction.' A dog, when it lies in the straw and does not wish to eat, does not permit another to eat.

You were not controlled by my guiding, and would have nothing to do with my sharp words:

So in the day of your trouble I will be laughing; I will make sport of your fear;

When your fear comes on you like a storm, and your trouble like a rushing wind; when pain and sorrow come on you.

Then I will give no answer to their cries; searching for me early, they will not see me:

What is it then which Scripture says in many places: "They shall call, and I will not hear them"? Yet surely you are merciful to all who call upon you.... Some call, yet call not upon him of whom it is said, "They have not called upon God." They call, but not on God. You call upon whatever you love: you call upon whatever you draw to yourself, whatever you wish to come to you.

"But I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper." Behold, he calls through himself, he calls through angels, he calls through the fathers, he calls through the prophets, he calls through the apostles, he calls through pastors, he calls also through us, he often calls through miracles, he often calls through scourges, he sometimes calls through th…

For they were haters of knowledge, and did not give their hearts to the fear of the Lord:

They had no desire for my teaching, and my words of protest were as nothing to them.

So the fruit of their way will be their food, and with the designs of their hearts they will be made full.

For the turning back of the simple from teaching will be the cause of their death, and the peace of the foolish will be their destruction.

But whoever gives ear to me will take his rest safely, living in peace without fear of evil.

Proverbs1