For wisdom [is] a defence, [and] money [is] a defence: but the excellency of knowledge [is, that] wisdom giveth life to them that have it.
Ver. 12. For wisdom is a defence, and money, &c.] Heb., A shadow; viz., to those that have seen the sun (as in the former verse), and are scorched with the heat of it - that are under the miseries and molestations of life. Wisdom in this case is a wall of defenee and a well of life. Money also is a thorn hedge, of very good use, Job 1:10 so it be set without the affections, and get not into the heart, as the Pharisees' ενοντα did. Luk 11:41 Their riches were got within them, and, by choking the seed, kept wisdom out.
Wisdom giveth life to them that have it.] For "God is both a sun and a shield," or shadow. "He will give grace and glory." Psa 84:11 Life in any sense is a sweet mercy, but the life of "grace and of glory" may well challenge the precellency. No marvel, therefore, though wisdom bear away the bell from wealth, which, as it serves only to the uses of life natural, so, being misused, it "drowns many a soul in perdition and destruction," 1Ti 6:9 and proves "the root of all evil"; 1Ti 6:10 yea, it taketh away the life of the owner thereof. Pro 1:19 See Trapp on " Pro 1:19 " It is confessed that wealth sometimes giveth life to them that have it, as it did to those ten Jews that had treasures in the field, Jer 41:8 and doth to those condemned men that can take a lease of their lives. But Nabal's wealth had undone him, if Abigail's wisdom had not interposed. And in the other life money bears no mastery. Adam had it not in paradise, and in heaven there is no need of it.