Proverbs 11:2 [When] pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly [is] wisdom.
Ver. 2. When pride cometh.] Where pride is in the saddle, shame is on the crupper, tanquam Nemesis a tergo. He is a "proud fool," saith our English proverb. Proud persons, while they leave their standing and would rise above the top of their places, fail of their footing, and fall to the bottom.
But with the lowly is wisdom.] Which maketh the face to shine. Pride proceeds from folly, and procures contempt. But "God gives grace to the humble"; Jam 4:6 that is, as some sense it, good repute and report among men. Who am I? saith Moses; and yet who fitter than he to go to Pharaoh? He refused to be Pharaoh's daughter's son; he was afterwards called to be Pharaoh's god. Exo 7:1 Aben Ezra observes, that the word here rendered "lowly," signifies "bashful," "shame faced," Qui prae verecundia sese abdunt, that thrust not themselves into observation. The hmnble man, were it not that the fragrant smell of his many virtues betrays him to the world, would choose to live and die in his self-contenting secrecy. Hence humility is by Bernard compared to the violet, which grows low to the ground, and hangs the head downward, and, besides, hides itself with its own leaves.