24 Turn aside from thee a froward mouth, And perverse lips put far from thee,
If any one doth think to be religious among you, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, of this one vain `is' the religion;
In righteousness `are' all the sayings of my mouth, Nothing in them is froward and perverse.
Wherefore, putting away the lying, speak truth each with his neighbour, because we are members one of another; be angry and do not sin; let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil; whoso is stealing let him no more steal, but rather let him labour, working the thing that is good with the hands, that he may have to impart to him having need. Let no corrupt word out of your mouth go forth, but what is good unto the needful building up, that it may give grace to the hearers; and make not sorrowful the Holy Spirit of God, in which ye were sealed to a day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with all malice,
wherefore having put aside all filthiness and superabundance of evil, in meekness be receiving the engrafted word, that is able to save your souls;
Having put aside, then, all evil, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envyings, and all evil speakings,
A man of worthlessness, a man of iniquity, Walking `with' perverseness of mouth,
The fear of Jehovah `is' to hate evil; Pride, and arrogance, and an evil way, And a froward mouth, I have hated.
Cast from off you all your transgressions, By which ye have transgressed, And make to you a new heart, and a new spirit, And why do ye die, O house of Israel?
but now put off, even ye, the whole -- anger, wrath, malice, evil-speaking, filthy talking -- out of your mouth.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Proverbs 4
Commentary on Proverbs 4 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 4
When the things of God are to be taught precept must be upon precept, and line upon line, not only because the things themselves are of great worth and weight, but because men's minds, at the best, are unapt to admit them and commonly prejudiced against them; and therefore Solomon, in this chapter, with a great variety of expression and a pleasant powerful flood of divine eloquence, inculcates the same things that he had pressed upon us in the foregoing chapters. Here is,
So plainly, so pressingly, is the case laid before us, that we shall be for ever inexcusable if we perish in our folly.
Pro 4:1-13
Here we have,
Pro 4:14-19
Some make David's instructions to Solomon, which began v. 4, to continue to the end of the chapter; nay, some continue them to the end of the ninth chapter; but it is more probable that Solomon begins here again, if not sooner. In these verses, having exhorted us to walk in the paths of wisdom, he cautions us against the path of the wicked.
Pro 4:20-27
Solomon, having warned us not to do evil, here teaches us how to do well. It is not enough for us to shun the occasions of sin, but we must study the methods of duty.