1 My son, keep my teaching in your memory, and my rules in your heart:
Get wisdom, get true knowledge; keep it in memory, do not be turned away from the words of my mouth.
My son, give ear to the training of your father, and do not give up the teaching of your mother:
He who has my laws and keeps them, he it is who has love for me: and he who has love for me will be loved by my Father, and I will have love for him and will let myself be seen clearly by him. Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, How is it that you will let yourself be seen clearly by us and not by the world? Jesus said to him in answer, If anyone has love for me, he will keep my words: and he will be dear to my Father; and we will come to him and make our living-place with him. He who has no love for me does not keep my words; and the word which you are hearing is not my word but the Father's who sent me.
In giving you orders today to have love for the Lord your God, to go in his ways and keep his laws and his orders and his decisions, so that you may have life and be increased, and that the blessing of the Lord your God may be with you in the land where you are going, the land of your heritage. But if your heart is turned away and your ear is shut, and you go after those who would make you servants and worshippers of other gods: I give witness against you this day that destruction will certainly be your fate, and your days will be cut short in the land where you are going, the land of your heritage on the other side of Jordan. Let heaven and earth be my witnesses against you this day that I have put before you life and death, a blessing and a curse: so take life for yourselves and for your seed: In loving the Lord your God, hearing his voice and being true to him: for he is your life and by him will your days be long: so that you may go on living in the land which the Lord gave by an oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
I will ever keep your orders in mind; for in them I have life.
And so that I may take delight in your teachings, to which I have given my love. And so that my hands may be stretched out to you; and I will give thought to your rules.
I have kept your sayings secretly in my heart, so that I might do no sin against you.
Take care to keep all the orders which I give you today, so that you may have life and be increased and go in and take as a heritage the land which the Lord, by his oath to your fathers, undertook to give you.
Keep these words, which I say to you this day, deep in your hearts; Teaching them to your children with all care, talking of them when you are at rest in your house or walking by the way, when you go to sleep and when you get up. Let them be fixed as a sign on your hand, and marked on your brow; Have them lettered on the pillars of your houses and over the doors of your towns.
Only take care, and keep watch on your soul, for fear that the things which your eyes have seen go from your memory and from your heart all the days of your life; but let the knowledge of them be given to your children and to your children's children;
Destruction has overtaken my people because they have no knowledge; because you have given up knowledge, I will give you up, so that you will be no priest to me, because you have not kept in mind the law of your God, I will not keep your children in my memory.
I have gone out of the way like a wandering sheep; make search for your servant; for I keep your teachings ever in mind.
<RESH> O see my trouble, and be my saviour; for I keep your law in my mind,
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Proverbs 3
Commentary on Proverbs 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 3
This chapter is one of the most excellent in all this book, both for argument to persuade us to be religious and for directions therein.
From all this it appears what a tendency religion has to make men both blessed and blessings.
Pro 3:1-6
We are here taught to live a life of communion with God; and without controversy great is this mystery of godliness, and of great consequence to us, and, as is here shown, will be of unspeakable advantage.
Pro 3:7-12
We have here before us three exhortations, each of them enforced with a good reason:-
Pro 3:13-20
Solomon had pressed us earnestly to seek diligently for wisdom (ch. 2:1, etc.), and had assured us that we should succeed in our sincere and constant pursuits. But the question is, What shall we get by it when we have found it? Prospect of advantage is the spring and spur of industry; he therefore shows us how much it will be to our profit, laying this down for an unquestionable truth, Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, that true wisdom which consists in the knowledge and love of God, and an entire conformity to all the intentions of his truths, providences, and laws. Now observe,
Pro 3:21-26
Solomon, having pronounced those happy who not only lay hold on wisdom, but retain her, here exhorts us therefore to retain her, assuring us that we ourselves shall have the comfort of doing so.
Pro 3:27-35
True wisdom consists in the due discharge of our duty towards man, as well as towards God, in honesty as well as piety, and therefore we have here divers excellent precepts of wisdom which relate to our neighbour.