20 Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler,
and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.1
2 The terror of a king is like the growling of a lion;
whoever provokes him to anger forfeits his life.
3 It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife,
but every fool will be quarreling.
4 The sluggard does not plow in the autumn;
he will seek at harvest and have nothing.
5 The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water,
but a man of understanding will draw it out.
6 Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love,
but a faithful man who can find?
7 The righteous who walks in his integrity—
blessed are his children after him!
8 A king who sits on the throne of judgment
winnows all evil with his eyes.
9 Who can say, “I have made my heart pure;
I am clean from my sin”?
10 Unequal2 weights and unequal measures
are both alike an abomination to the Lord.
11 Even a child makes himself known by his acts,
by whether his conduct is pure and upright.3
12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye,
the Lord has made them both.
13 Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty;
open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.
14 “Bad, bad,” says the buyer,
but when he goes away, then he boasts.
15 There is gold and abundance of costly stones,
but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.
16 Take a man’s garment when he has put up security for a stranger,
and hold it in pledge when he puts up security for foreigners.4
17 Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man,
but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel.
18 Plans are established by counsel;
by wise guidance wage war.
19 Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets;
therefore do not associate with a simple babbler.5
20 If one curses his father or his mother,
his lamp will be put out in utter darkness.
21 An inheritance gained hastily in the beginning
will not be blessed in the end.
22 Do not say, “I will repay evil”;
wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.
23 Unequal weights are an abomination to the Lord,
and false scales are not good.
24 A man’s steps are from the Lord;
how then can man understand his way?
25 It is a snare to say rashly, “It is holy,”
and to reflect only after making vows.
26 A wise king winnows the wicked
and drives the wheel over them.
27 The spirit6 of man is the lamp of the Lord,
searching all his innermost parts.
28 Steadfast love and faithfulness preserve the king,
and by steadfast love his throne is upheld.
29 The glory of young men is their strength,
but the splendor of old men is their gray hair.
30 Blows that wound cleanse away evil;
strokes make clean the innermost parts.
Section Overview
This is another chapter with only the faintest signs of literary structure. One possible exception is a pattern of repeating themes at the beginning and end of the chapter (themes that also appear in chapters 19; 21). This pattern can be seen in the outline below. In terms of thematic content Proverbs 20 has several groups of sayings concerned with justice, with human hearts and plans over against the sovereignty of God, and with virtues and vices of the young and old.
Section Outline
Any attempt to create an outline for this chapter is bound to overlook parallels and repeating themes or to see too much that is not there. The columns below display some of the obvious patterns; some are more obvious than others.
TABLE 2.9: Pattern of Repeating Themes in Proverbs 20
|
Theme |
20:1–15 |
20:16–30 |
|
Wisdom |
v. 1 |
vv. 19, 26 |
|
The king and terror |
vv. 2, 8 |
vv. 20, 26 |
|
Honor/reputation |
v. 3 |
v. 29 |
|
Sloth |
vv. 4, 13 |
|
|
Sight, light, and darkness |
vv. 8, 12, 13 |
vv. 20, 27 |
|
Parents/children/blessing |
vv. 7, 11 |
vv. 20, 21 |
|
Inner deliberation |
vv. 5, 6, 9 |
vv. 18, 20, 24, 27, 30 |
|
Steadfast love |
v. 6 |
v. 28 (2x) |
|
Market |
vv. 10, 14 |
vv. 15, 16, 17, 23 |
Response
Truth, Falsehood, and the Life of the Community
The main goal of Proverbs is to steer our lives wisely through the challenges of life. It is a practical book. And yet, contrary to modern instincts, the practical life is also always a deeply religious life.
In chapter 20 the word “abomination” appears twice. In the rest of the OT the word’s root occurs both as a noun and as a verb and is found throughout the Law, Poetry, and Prophets. In short, “abomination” expresses God’s (or a human’s) righteous displeasure, something close to hateful repugnance. The noun form found in Proverbs is found also often in Deuteronomy, where God’s seething displeasure is leveled against idolatry and the worship of the nations surrounding Israel (e.g., Deut. 7:25; 12:31; 17:1; 18:12; etc.; cf. Prov. 15:8–9). God hates false religion in the most serious way.
In Proverbs, where the term occurs twenty-one times, the primary object of God’s hatred is false dealings between his children. God is particularly concerned with greedy manipulation by kings and by ordinary people when dealing with money and property (6:16–19; 11:1, 20; 12:22; 17:15; 29:27). The list of numbered things in chapter 6 that are abominable to Yahweh singles out the vice of deception several times: “lying tongue,” “wicked plans,” and “a false witness who breathes out lies” (6:17–19).
It is little wonder that the devil is called the “father of lies.” The course of our world takes its most dramatic downward turn after the planting of lies in the first human community in Genesis. Such falsehoods continue to disrupt peace and harmony within every stratum of society: spouses and neighbors, humans and creation, and creatures and their God.149
Oliver O’Donovan points out that truth and falsehood are not objects—that is, bare statements about things—but social interactions and ways of communication that have truthfulness or falsity.150 When Jesus comes to us as “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), he comes not as an academic object but as the divine source of truth, love, and honesty that nurtures and builds the community and restores the brokenness of our relationship with God. We can see this at work in Pilate’s famous question, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). Pilate is rejecting not simply an abstract idea called “truth” but a faithful way of relating to the world and to God. And his skeptical approach to life bears lethal fruits in the courts of Roman justice. Proverbs describes this kind of justice as an “abomination to Yahweh.” In sum, our religious devotion to the Truth springs to life in truthfulness in the life of our homes, churches, communities, courtrooms, and markets (cf. James 1:17–18).
The Certainty of Death
Memento mori. This is old Latin saying means “Remember you will die,” that aging and death are inevitable.
Proverbs 20:29 gazes down the course of human life and celebrates the “glory of young men” and the “splendor of old men” (cf. 16:31). Such praise offers us a peek into the Bible’s theology of age. The same theology is voiced in the psalmist’s words,
I have been young, and now am old,
yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
or his children begging for bread. (Ps. 37:25)
There is a confident perspective here that is gained in the final stages of life—something simply unavailable to the young. Yet there is an equal glory in the strength and vigor of our youth.
Ephraim Radner helpfully introduces us to the church’s rich theology of the stages of life, much of it arising in the thought of Augustine. These stages are what Radner calls “wisdom’s arc”: infancy, childhood, adolescence, young adult, maturity, old age, and death, which leads to eternity. Life should be paced and lived according to one’s stage in life and not as a fast rush that remains blind to one’s own mortality.151
And yet, we have in many ways experienced a flattening out of age in our day. Parents, while exercising less authority over their children, hover over them as if they were in elderly care. More and more young people seek jobs that resemble retirement, while others are CEOs in early adulthood. Partly for financial reasons, an increasing number of people in their later years are forced to labor like young people. It is also in vogue for everyone to be addressed by first names, dropping honorary distinctions like professor, sir, or ma’am while challenging anything that asserts itself as power or authority. And we are ethically and politically confused about age. We can have sex, choose our identity, and get an abortion before we can vote, drive a car, or drink alcohol.
When we turn to Scripture we find there are gifts and “glories” for each stage of life, such that differences in age should be honored and received with gratitude, not resentment or ambivalence. John, for example, specifically singles out advice for “little children,” fathers,” and “young men” (1 John 2:12–14). And in John’s Gospel Jesus reminds Peter that he will reach an age when others will have to care for him (John 21:18). Each generation has unique gifts it is able to share with the community. It is important for the church to recover the biblical language and perspectives on age.
First, Proverbs primarily addresses young adults. This is when habits are learned and paths in life chosen under the tutelage of parents and elders. In Ecclesiastes the Preacher, presumably an elder, warns us to “remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come.” (Eccles. 12:1). Or, one could say, do not start feeding your doubts early in life; doing so will only make it harder to retain your faith when you become older.
Second, the young adults are addressed as they enter into middle life—the longest stage of life, without a clear “glory” to its name. The midlife crisis is no fiction; there are fewer rites of passage as this stage progresses (e.g., graduation, marriage, children) and a growing awareness of one’s frailty and mortality. It is in this stage that we are prone to drift and lose our sense of identity, purpose, and responsibility—a stage in which divorce, depression, and suicide often increase.
Proverbs 20:29 speaks into the lives of young men and women in the time of strength to commit themselves to hard work and to a study of wisdom that will sustain them into the glory of old age (such distinction is by no means guaranteed). We should not dread the middle years but expect them as we would when preparing for a long winter. Hippocrates once said, “Life is short, but art is long.”152 Psalm 90 makes the same point, reminding us of our mortality and short lifespan while also calling us to “art,” or “wisdom,” which is essentially the meaning of Hippocrates’ term techne. This relatively long span in life should be spent learning about God’s world, practicing moral virtues, seeking justice, and drawing on the sages in our culture just as we invest in younger generations behind us.
Third, life should consistently be oriented to the acquisition of wisdom, the inevitability of death, and the hope of life in eternity (Ps. 90:9–17). We were made mortal and sentenced to relatively short lives in the fall in the garden of Eden: there is “a time to be born, and a time to die” (Eccles. 3:2). This means that we cannot “have it all” in this world, nor should we. The author of Psalm 37 may anticipate the range of questions and desires that face the young as they look down the path of life (Ps. 37:25). The psalm goes on to encourage the young person to “wait for the Lord and keep his way” (Ps. 37:34). In the span of life the wise person grounds life in future hope. Radner describes our place in the economy of God’s creation “to begin in crying and to end in the silence of worship and praise.”153
When we turn to the NT, we find Luke giving us a picture of Jesus in his development from childhood to maturity. Twice Luke tells us that Jesus grew in wisdom and grace in the sight of God and community (Luke 2:40, 52; cf. Luke 1:80). It is no small thing that crucial development occurs as a child in the synagogue—in the community of elders, the presence of God, and the story of Israel’s faith. Jesus displays the wisdom of growing in faith from childhood and learning to walk toward his inevitable death on behalf of the world.Proverbs 20
Proverbs 21