The hoary head [is] a crown of glory, [if] it be found in the way of righteousness.
Ver. 31. The hoary head is a crown of glory.] Old age and honour are of great affinity in the Greek tongue. a God gave order that the aged should be honoured. Lev 19:32 See Trapp on " Lev 19:32 "
“ Credebant hoc grande nefas, et morro piandum,
Si iuvenis vetulo non assurrexerat. ”
- Juvenal, sat. 13.
There is a certain plant (which our herbalists call herbam impiam, or wicked cudweed) b whose younger branches still yield flowers to overtop the elder. Such weeds grow too rife abroad. It is an ill soil that produceth them.
If it be found in the way of righteousness.] Canities tunc venerabilis est, quando ea gerit quae canitiem decent, &c., saith old Chrysostom. c Hoariness is then only honourable when it doth such things as become such an age; else it is mucor potius quam canities, rather filthy mouldiness than venerable hoar headedness. Manna, the longer it was kept against the command of God, the more it stank. What can be more odious than an old goat, an old fornicator? &c. What more ridiculous than puer centum annorum, a child, of fourscore or a hundred years old? Turpis et ridieulosa res est elementarius senex, saith Seneca. d An A B C old man is a shameful sight. Nectarius, that succeeded Nazianzen at Antioch, had little else to commend him to the place but a goodly gray beard and a graceful countenance. e Whereas of Abraham it is reported that he went to his grave in a good old age, or, as the Hebrew hath it, with a good gray head. Pluck out the gray hairs of virtue, and the gray head cannot shine with any great glory.
a Cognata sunt, γηρας et γερας, ut ηθος et εθος .
b The common name for the genus Gnaphalium of composite plants, having chaffy scales surrounding the flower heads; originally proper to G. sylvaticum; extended to other plants, of allied genera, or similar appearance.
c In Epist. ad Heb., ser. 7. Arsatius succeeded Chrysostom, being an old dotal of eighty years, " quem pisces facundia ranae agilitate superabant. "
d Sen. Epist. 62, ad Lucil.
e Veneranda canities, et vultus sacerdote dignus - Baron.