CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 19:27. Cease my son, &c. “That causeth” are not in the original and the instruction spoken of may therefore be evil or good. “Two conceptions are possible:
1. The instruction is that of wisdom itself, and therefore a good wholesome discipline that leads to life; then the words can be only ironical, presenting under the appearance of a dissuasion from discipline in wisdom a very urgent counsel to hear and receive it (so Ewald, Bertheau, Elster).
2. The instruction is evil and perverted, described in clause 2 as one that causes departure from the words of wisdom. Then the admonition is seriously intended” (Zöckler, in Lange’s Commentary). On Zöckler’s first interpretation Dr. Aiken remarks, “To call this ‘irony’ seems to us a misnomer. Cease to hear instruction only to despise it. What can be more direct or literally pertinent?” Delitzsch says, “The proverb is a dissuasive from hypocrisy, a warning against the self-deception of which James 1:22-24 speaks, against heightening one’s own condemnation, which is the case of that servant who knows his lord’s will and does it not (Luke 12:47.)”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 19:26-28
POSSIBILITIES OF HUMAN DEPRAVITY
I. The tenderest admonitions and the most solemn warnings sometimes fail to influence for good. Sometimes the most loving parental care seems utterly wasted upon an ungrateful child, and the more constant and tender the words of admonition the farther does he depart from the way in which he ought to go. There is many a man so in love with sin that he may be said to “devour iniquity” (Proverbs 19:28); and when this fatal appetite has taken possession of the soul all appeals to his better nature, and even to his own self-love, are vain.
II. When men are so hardened there is no depth of iniquity to which they may not sink. He who scoffs at all threats of retribution, both in this life and in that which is to come, has broken through all barriers of restraint, and will be capable of outraging all the tender ties of human relationship, even to the extent of bringing his parents to disgrace and shame. The most hardened sinners in the universe of God are not found in heathen lands, or among the ignorant at home, but they are those who, having heard instruction, have “erred from the words of knowledge.” Each day that they resist the good influence brought to bear upon them they increase their moral insensibility, and their final condemnation (Proverbs 19:29). Hence the admonition of Proverbs 19:27. (See Critical Notes.)
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Proverbs 19:26. This were an admirable text for young men entering upon life and still at the expense of their parents. It is a great enormity either to waste the property of their father while he is alive, or after they have succeeded to expel the widowed mother from the premises.—Chalmers.
Proverbs 19:27. It is so proper and natural for a son to hear instruction, that the hearing instruction maketh to be a son.… But if thou hear instruction, hear it not—not to be the better for it. Instruction speaketh to keep thee from erring; do not thou hear it to err: instruction putteth into thee the words of knowledge; do not thou put them out by erring from them, by not following them.… Cease thus to hear, but hear still. For by hearing at length thine error may be corrected; whereas, if thou hear not, thou dost not only err, but deprivest thyself of the means that reduce thee from erring.—Jermin.