CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 19:5. Speaketh lies, rather “whose breath is lies.”
Proverbs 19:6. The prince, rather “the noble or generous man.” It seems to refer to one of rank, who is also of a benevolent disposition. “Entreat the favour,” literally “stroke the face.”
Proverbs 19:7. He pursueth them, &c. This clause is variously rendered. Zockler reads, “He seeketh words (of friendship), and there are none;” Delitzsch, “Seeking after words which are vain;” Miller, “As one snatching at words, they come to stand towards him;” Maurer and others, “He pursueth after (the fulfilment of the) words (of their past promises to him), and these (promises) are not (made good).
Proverbs 19:8. Wisdom. Literally heart.
Proverbs 19:9. Speaketh lies, “whose breath is lies.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 19:5; Proverbs 19:9
THE END OF A FALSE TONGUE
We have before had proverbs dealing with the evil of lying (see Homiletics on chap. Proverbs 12:17-19, Proverbs 14:25, pages 274 and 379), and the constant recurrence of the subject, together with the repetition of the verses here, shows us the vast importance which the inspired writer attached to truth, and the many and great evils which flow from a disregard of it. Again and again he holds up the liar to view as a monster of iniquity, and seeks, both by the threatening of the retribution which awaits it and by the misery which it causes to others, to deter men from yielding to this sin. If we consider what mischief a false man can do, we shall not be surprised at the prominence which the wise man gives to this subject (see page 274). But the most dangerous element of the lying tongue is the fact that in nine cases out of ten no human tribunal can bring to justice, and perhaps few human tribunals would care to do so. “The world,” says Dr. David Thomas (“Practical Philosopher,” page 414) “abounds in falsehood. Lies swarm in every department of life. They are in the market, on the hustings, in courts of justice, in the senate house, in the sanctuaries of religion; and they crowd the very pages of modern literature. They infest the social atmosphere. Men on all hands live in fiction and by fiction.” If we allow that this picture is a true one, and, alas! we can cannot deny that it is, we can see that the evil is one with which no human hand can deal. A tiger may come down from a neighbouring forest and enter the city, and spread terror and dismay all round, and even kill a dozen of its inhabitants. But he is a tangible creature, he can be faced and attacked with weapons which can pierce his skin and make him powerless to do any further mischief. But into the same city may enter upon the summer wind impalpable particles of matter charged with a poison which may slay not ten men but ten thousand, and no weapon that has ever been forged by human hand can slay these destroyers. The plague will keep numbering its victims until the poison has spent itself or until a pure and healthful breeze scatters the deadly atmosphere. So with lying in comparison with more palpable and gross crimes. The thief can be caught and imprisoned, the murderer is generally traced and hanged; but the sin of lying so permeates the whole social atmosphere that nothing but the diffusion of heavenly truth can rid the world of the poison. But the liar, however he escapes some forms of retribution, “shall not go unpunished.”
1. He shall be self-punished. His own conscience will be his judge and executioner in one. The fear of discovery here will generally haunt him as a shadow does the substance, but if this ghost is laid there will be times, however hardened he may be, when that witness for truth that is within him will scourge him in the present and fill him with forebodings concerning the future.
2. Men will punish him, by not believing him when he speaks the truth. In proportion as a man’s veracity is doubted will be the suspicion with which his word is received. He may tell the truth on two occasions out of three, but if his falsehood on the third is found out, his truth-telling on the first and second will not avail him much. It is a terrible thing to live always in an atmosphere of distrust, but it is one of the punishments of a liar.
3. God will punish him after he leaves this world. Concerning him and some other great transgressors it is written that—“they shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death (Revelation 21:8). Whatever may be the precise meaning of these terrible words, we know that they were spoken by one whose every word was “true and faithful” (see Proverbs 19:5 of the same chapter), and they are but an intensified form of the last clause of our texts—“He that speaketh lies shall perish.”
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Falsehood is fire in stubble. It likewise turns all around it into its own substance for a moment—one crackling, blazing moment, and then dies. And all its contents are scattered in the wind without place or evidence of their existence, as viewless as the wind which scatters them.—Coleridge.
“He whose breath is lies shall be lost.” Breath means the inborn and natural impulse. The root of the verb translated “shall perish” means to lose oneself by wandering about. The cognate Arabic means to flee away wild in the desert. The spirit, therefore, that habitually breathes out falsities, and so acts constitutionally athwart of what is true, is best described by keeping to the original; that is, instead of perishing in the broader and vaguer way, he wanders off and is lost in the wilderness of his own deceptions.—Miller.
The thief doth only send one to the devil; the adulterer, two; the slanderer hurteth three—himself, the person of whom, the person to whom he tells the lie.—T. Adams.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 19:6-7
TWO PROOFS OF HUMAN SELFISHNESS
I. The servile regard which men pay to rank and wealth. A prince is a man in whose hand there is power to advance the material interests of other men, and this makes him a loadstone to the godless man whatever his character may be. As the magnet will attract all the steel dust within its reach, so the prince is a magnet which attracts all the self-seeking and the worldly who can by any possibility obtain any favour from him. To gain that favour they will fawn upon him and flatter him, and will stoop even to become suppliants at his feet. Let him be one of the most contemptible of human creatures, there will not be wanting those who may be in many respects his superiors who will serve him from hope of advancing their own interests. We know that this is not universally the case—that there have been noble men in all ages who would scorn to entreat the favour of any man, simply because he was a man of power; but Solomon here speaks of the rule and not of the exception, and the fact that it is so testifies to the self-seeking which is the characteristic of men in general.
II. The treatment which the poor man often receives from his more wealthy kinsfolk. The proverb implies that those who hate him and pass him by with disdain are richer than himself, and therefore not only bound to pity his poverty but able to lighten his burden. But the same selfishness which draws men to the rich causes them to shun the poor in general, and especially their poor relations, for they feel conscious that these latter have a stronger claim upon them than those who are not so related. And even if the poor man does not need the help of his richer brethren he will often find himself unrecognised by them, simply because he occupies a lower social station. He has nothing to give them in the way of material good—his favour is worth nothing in the way of promoting their worldly interests—the very fact that he is poor and yet is more or less nearly connected by family ties is supposed to dim the lustre of their greatness, and they therefore cherish towards him a positive dislike which they manifest by avoiding his society as much as possible, and by receiving all his advances towards friendship with coolness and disdain. If we had no other proof of the depth to which man has fallen since God created him in His own image, the regard which men pay, not to what a man is, but to what he has, would be one sad enough (See also Homiletics on chap. Proverbs 14:20, page 370).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Princes need not pride themselves in the homage that is paid to them, for their favour is sought by men, not so much out of regard to their persons, as from a regard to their power. Kindness and liberality have a greater influence for gaining the hearts of men, than dignity of station. There are many that seek the ruler’s favour, but every man loves him that is generous. When power and generosity meet in the same person, he becomes an object of universal esteem, like Marcus Antoninus, who was lamented by every man when he was dead, as if the glory of the Roman empire had died with him.
How inexcusable are we, if we do not love God with all our hearts. His gifts to us are past number, and all the gifts of men to us are the fruits of His bounty, conveyed by the ministry of those whose hearts are disposed by His providence to kindness. “I have seen thy face,” said Jacob to Esau, “as the face of God.” His brother’s favour he knew to be a fruit of the mercy of Him with whom he spake and prevailed at Bethel.—Lawson.
For Homiletics on Proverbs 19:8-9 see Proverbs 19:2; Proverbs 19:5 of this chapter, also on Chapter s Proverbs 8:36 and Proverbs 9:12, pages 122 and 128.