The Ways Of The Fool (Proverbs 17:16-23).
The main emphasis in this subsection is on the ways of the fool (Proverbs 17:16; Proverbs 17:21), the man void of mind (heart) (Proverbs 17:16; Proverbs 17:18; Proverbs 17:20), the unrighteous man (Proverbs 17:23). He thinks he can buy wisdom, but cannot for he has no mind for it (Proverbs 17:16); because he is void of mind he becomes a surety, putting himself in danger of ruin (Proverbs 17:18); he loves transgression bringing strife on himself (Proverbs 17:19 a); he exalts himself above his neighbours (Proverbs 17:19 b): he has a wayward mind and perverse tongue which bring bad consequences (Proverbs 17:20); he brings distress on his family (Proverbs 17:21); and he perverts justice for a secret bribe (Proverbs 17:23).
One of his follies is that he falls for quick fixes. He thinks he can obtain wisdom without effort (Proverbs 17:16); and he thinks he can become wealthy without effort (Proverbs 17:18; Proverbs 17:23).
In contrast is the wise man who has companions in adversity (Proverbs 17:17) and is therefore cheerful of heart, something which is a good medicine and therefore sustains him in adversity (Proverbs 17:22).
The subsection is presented chiastically:
A Why is there a PAYMENT in the hand of a FOOL to buy wisdom, seeing he has no MIND (heart) for it? (Proverbs 17:16)'
B A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity (Proverbs 17:17).
C A man void of understanding MIND (heart) strikes hands, and becomes surety in the presence of his neighbour (Proverbs 17:18).
D He loves transgression who loves strife, he who raises high his gate seeks destruction (Proverbs 17:19).
D He who has a wayward MIND (heart) finds no good, and he who has a perverse tongue falls into mischief (Proverbs 17:20).
C He who begets a FOOL does it to his sorrow, and the father of a fool has no joy (Proverbs 17:21).
B A cheerful HEART is a good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones (Proverbs 17:22).
A A wicked man receives a BRIBE out of the bosom, to pervert the ways of justice (Proverbs 17:23).
Note that in A the fool thinks that he can buy wisdom for a payment without effort, and in the parallel he himself (as the unrighteous) can be bought with a secret payment to commit folly. In B a loving friend and a brother are a support in adversity, and in the parallel a cheerful heart is a good medicine. In C a man without understanding (and therefore a fool) puts himself in danger of being sold off as a bondsman, and in the parallel he brings sorrow and distress on his father (who will watch his fall and have to redeem him). Centrally in D the one who loves transgression brings strife on himself, whilst in the parallel the one with a wayward heart and perverse tongue finds no good and falls into mischief.
‘Why is there a payment in the hand of a fool to buy (obtain) wisdom,
Seeing he has no mind (heart) for it?'
In Proverbs 17:8 the fool thought that by using bribes he could obtain anything that he wanted. But here he learns how wrong he was. He comes along payment in hand to obtain wisdom, but he is unable to do so. For however much wealth he has he could not obtain wisdom, because the obtaining of wisdom requires a receptive heart. As Jesus said to Peter, ‘flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but My Father Who is in Heaven' (Matthew 16:17). The problem that the people of Isaiah's day had was not that they had no wealth, it was that their eyes were blinded and their hearts were hardened (Isaiah 6:18). And the problem that the fool has here is that any attempts to use wealth in order to buy wisdom would be useless, because his heart and mind had no desire for it.
We could paraphrase this as, ‘what is the point of a fool having wealth with which to buy wisdom when he is so spiritually blind that it can do him no good?' To put it another way, the fool does not deserve wealth because he will always use it in order to obtain the wrong things. Such waste is illustrated in Proverbs 5:10 where the young man who went with the seductress lost all his money to her wayward friends.
Note that this fool had wealth in his hand, but was unable to obtain the true wealth because his heart was closed to it. He was like the people spoken of by Isaiah, ‘why do you spend your money for that which is not (spiritual) food, and your labour for that which does not satisfy? -- bend your ear and come to me, hear that your inner man might live ---' (Isaiah 55:2-3). What was required was not to spend money, but to hear and respond. But the fool would not bend his ear, nor would he truly seek wisdom (otherwise he would not have been a fool). If he wanted wisdom at all it was on easy terms. And indeed, a fool can be conned into buying quick-fix wisdom, even though he has no heart or mind for it, but it will not do him any good.
Solomon had earlier told his ‘son' to ‘buy/obtain wisdom' in Proverbs 1:5; Proverbs 4:5-7, but there it was by hearing God's words and commandments. By that means he would obtain what was better than silver and more valuable than gold (Proverbs 3:13-14; Proverbs 8:10-11). It was, in fact, far too valuable to be obtainable by simply making a payment.
But let us not be mistaken. There are many ‘fools' in our own day who think that they can obtain wisdom by expending money, for they do not distinguish between wisdom and knowledge. Outwardly they can learn all about God, but it does not bring them any closer to Him. For the things of God are spiritually discerned (John 6:63; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16), and only open to those who seek with a true heart. Payments can close men's minds (Proverbs 17:23), but they cannot open them.
‘A friend (harea) loves at all times,
And a brother is born for adversity.'
Another thing that money cannot buy is true friends. The wealthy man will always have his hangers-on (Proverbs 14:20; Proverbs 18:24 a; Proverbs 19:4; Proverbs 19:6) but he will not find them reliable when he really needs them. However, a true friend loves ‘at all times' (this comes first in the Hebrew for emphasis). He loves when times are good, and he loves when times are hard. And a true brother (one who is not so much a blood relative but one who acts as a true brother should) is ‘born for adversity', in other words is there when he is needed and things have become difficult. These are friends who ‘stick closer than a brother' (Proverbs 18:24 b).
It is not likely that this is intended to indicate that a true friend is better than a brother by birth, in that one is there at all times but the other only appears at times of adversity, even though there may be truth in that. For a brother may be close all the time, and some brothers would not be bothered anyway. If anything we could read it is as meaning that when things are really difficult only a brother can be relied on. But it is probably best to see it as signifying that a true friend and a true brother are those who are equally reliable when they are needed. For they come with a cheerful heart (a ready willingness) as good medicine to their friend (Proverbs 17:22).
‘A man void of understanding strikes hands,
And becomes surety in the presence of his neighbour (harea).'
The same word is used for neighbour here as was used for friend in Proverbs 17:17, thus linking the two proverbs together. But the thought is very different. It is NOT that the man who acts as surety is a true friend, for he is depicted as a ‘man void of heart/mind/understanding', and as acting, not on behalf of his neighbour but in the presence of his neighbour. The point is more that he should not have involved his neighbour as a witness to the transaction. For to Solomon, acting as a surety was the act of a naive man who was heading for disaster (see Proverbs 6:1-5), and it may be that it even involved his neighbour in some measure of liability.
Whilst the details of the transaction is not clear, what is clear is that the surety was gambling his future, probably for the sake of a commission (just as he thought he could obtain wisdom without effort, so does he think that he can become wealthy without effort). If the loan was called in he could lose everything and find himself sold of as a bond-slave in order to pay off as much of the debt as possible. This would be a great grief to his father (Proverbs 17:21), not only because his father would not like to see him sold off as a bond-slave, but also because it would then be his duty, if at all possible, to redeem him, thus depleting the family finances.
‘He loves transgression who loves strife,
He who raises high his gate seeks destruction.'
Note the move forward. In Proverbs 17:16 the fool thought that he could buy wisdom and make himself wise. But he had no ‘heart' for it. In Proverbs 17:18 he proved himself to be a man without ‘understanding/heart', a fool, because he acts as surety outside the family. Now he reveals that he is a rebel at heart (the word for ‘transgression' also means ‘rebellion') and ‘loves strife' (in contrast to the righteous who love their friends (Proverbs 17:17)). In Proverbs 17:20 he will reveal that he has a wayward ‘heart' and a perverse tongue that produce no good.
‘Loving transgression/rebellion' and ‘loving strife' are seen as the same thing. The one who loves the one will love the other. He is thus either a sower of discord (abominated by YHWH - Proverbs 6:19), having a perverse tongue, or an open rebel, having a wayward heart (Proverbs 17:20). And this last would be supported by the fact that he ‘raises high his gate'. He wants his gate to be higher than that of his neighbours, and even possibly above the Temple, thus expressing his superiority and strength against both God and his neighbours. But by so challenging God and by so challenging others he is inviting destruction. All who raise themselves above their neighbours are there to be shot at. And as a consequence he is seeking destruction, both by God and his neighbours. So he started by trying to get wisdom on the cheap, and ends up in destruction. Such is the lot of the fool.
We can compare him with Shebna who built his tomb high above the others, and would as a consequence be brought down (Isaiah 22:15-19), or Haman who set himself above others, had a wayward heart and a perverse tongue in his behaviour towards Mordecai, and as a consequence perished (Esther 3:1 to Esther 8:1).
‘He who has a wayward heart finds no good,
And he who has a perverse tongue falls into mischief.
In a verse parallel to Proverbs 17:19 we learn that the one who loves transgression does so because he has a wayward heart. He had had no heart for wisdom (Proverbs 17:16), and this is therefore not surprising. It is what we would expect. And the consequence is that he ‘finds no good'. Nothing good comes from his life, only evil (non-good). And as a result he finds no good for himself. His wayward heart has led him into wayward activity. ‘Finding good' is limited to the righteous (Proverbs 11:23).
In the same way the one who has a perverse tongue ‘falls into mischief', not so much because of what he does, but because of what he says. He is a rabble-rouser. He stirs up trouble in others. And he brings trouble on himself. See Proverbs 1:11-14; Proverbs 2:12; Proverbs 2:14; Proverbs 8:13; Proverbs 10:31-32.
‘He who begets a fool does it to his sorrow,
And the father of a fool has no joy.'
We can now understand why a fool's natural father has begotten him ‘to his sorrow', and why he ‘has no joy'. He sees his son chasing pseudo-wisdom. He sees him ruined by acting as a surety, and is himself called on to step in, to the depletion of the family wealth. And he sees him involving himself in rebellion and causing dissension. He can have no doubt where it will all lead. When his son is a fool a father's lot is not a happy one.
‘A cheerful heart is a good medicine,
But a broken spirit dries up the bones.'
In contrast to the non-joy of the father, and in line with his deep sorrow, we have a proverb concerning joy and sorrow. The righteous man is to cultivate a cheerful heart, cheerful because he looks to YHWH and His wisdom (Proverbs 3:13; Proverbs 3:18; Proverbs 16:20). And this will be a good medicine for him (Proverbs 12:25; Proverbs 18:14), because it will enable him to overcome the downturns in life, and will be good medicine for others because he will be able to support his friends and brothers when they face adversity (Proverbs 17:17).
In contrast is the broken spirit of the man who does not trust in YHWH. When things go wrong (like an errant son, or some catastrophe in life) his broken spirit dries him up inside. He becomes listless and loses any zest for life (Proverbs 18:14). How important it is that we find our joy in God, so that when trouble comes we have a refuge (Proverbs 18:10) and a sustainer. For the way to ensure ‘healthy bones' is to fear YHWH and depart from evil (Proverbs 3:7-8).
‘A wicked man receives a bribe out of the bosom,
To pervert the ways of justice.'
The subsection ends with this proverb concerning the perverting of justice as a consequence of the receipt of secret bribes, something which undermines the very fabric of society. The ‘unrighteous (wicked) man' is the equivalent of the fool in his folly. Being unable to buy wisdom (Proverbs 17:16), the unrighteous man (the wicked, the fool, the worthless man) is himself bought. Unable to obtain wisdom without effort, he determines to obtain wealth without effort. He falls back on opening himself to receiving secret bribes, bribes ‘out of the bosom', which refers to a fold in a man's cloak which was similar to a pocket. The picture is vivid as we see the briber take gold from his secret pocket and slip it to the judge or the false witness. Both are confident that no one will see. But because they are both fools they forget that YHWH can see, and declares His woes upon them (Isaiah 5:23). The horror with which such injustice was viewed by the generality of people comes out in Proverbs 24:24.
This man illustrates much of the subsection. He is the opposite of the friend who loves at all times (Proverbs 17:17), and is similar in motive to the man who acts as a surety for payment (Proverbs 17:18), he wants quick silver and gold to his own destruction. He has a wayward heart and a perverse tongue (Proverbs 17:20), and he is a grief to his godly father (Proverbs 17:21). Here, unlike in Proverbs 17:8, the bribe is specifically related to justice. He receives a secret bribe so that he will pervert the ways of justice, either because he is a judge in a position to influence the decision, who twists the facts of a case in order to benefit his briber, or because he is a false witness testifying falsely against the innocent. Either way he has a perverse tongue (Proverbs 17:20). Such men are an abomination to YHWH (Proverbs 6:19), for what they do is not hidden from Him (Proverbs 15:11; Proverbs 16:2; Proverbs 17:3). Evil behaviour like this came to its head in the so-called trials of Jesus. There too there were false witnesses and perverted judgments. It is no wonder that Jerusalem was destroyed.