Proverbs 9:4

Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) Whoso is simple . . . as for him that wanteth understanding.—So God does not call many “wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble” (1Corinthians 1:26); but chooses the “foolish,” “weak,” and “base,” whom man might overlook; not being willing that any should perish (2Peter 3:9), especially His “little ones” (Matthew 18:14). who are liable to fall through their inexperience and want of judgment.

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 9:4-6. Whoso is simple — Ignorant, weak, and liable to be deceived, but willing to learn; let him turn in hither — For there is no man so ignorant but he is welcome to come and receive instruction. By this manner of speaking, Wisdom shows that she rejects those scholars who are proud and self-conceited. As for him that wanteth understanding — Hebrew, that wanteth a heart, which is put for understanding, Jeremiah 5:21; Hosea 7:11, and elsewhere. She saith to him, Come, eat of my bread — Partake of the provision which I have made; my nourishing and strengthening instructions; and drink of the wine which I have mingled — Receive my refreshing and invigorating comforts. Forsake the foolish — The ignorant and wicked; shun their company and their practices; converse not with them; conform not to their ways; have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, or with those that do such works. The first step toward virtue is to shun vice, and therefore to avoid the company of the vicious. And live — Arise from the dead and live indeed; not a mere animal life, such as brutes live, but now at length live the life of men, the life of Christians. Live a spiritual life, in union with God, and you shall live an eternal life in the enjoyment of him. And go in the way of understanding — Govern thyself by the rules of religion and right reason. It is not enough to forsake the foolish, but we must unite ourselves with those that walk in wisdom, and walk in the same spirit, and the same steps.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:1-12 Christ has prepared ordinances to which his people are admitted, and by which nourishment is given here to those that believe in him, as well as mansions in heaven hereafter. The ministers of the gospel go forth to invite the guests. The call is general, and shuts out none that do not shut out themselves. Our Saviour came, not to call the righteous, but sinners; not the wise in their own eyes, who say they see. We must keep from the company and foolish pleasures of the ungodly, or we never can enjoy the pleasures of a holy life. It is vain to seek the company of wicked men in the hope of doing them good; we are far more likely to be corrupted by them. It is not enough to forsake the foolish, we must join those that walk in wisdom. There is no true wisdom but in the way of religion, no true life but in the end of that way. Here is the happiness of those that embrace it. A man cannot be profitable to God; it is for our own good. Observe the shame and ruin of those who slight it. God is not the Author of sin: and Satan can only tempt, he cannot force. Thou shalt bear the loss of that which thou scornest: it will add to thy condemnation.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wisdom and the "foolish woman" Proverbs 9:13 speak from the same places and to the same class - the simple, undecided, wavering, standing at the diverging point of the two paths that lead to life or death.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4-6. (Compare Pr 1:4; 6:32). Wisdom not only supplies right but forbids wrong principles.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Simple; ignorant, and weak, and subject to delusion, and willing to learn; to show that wisdom rejects those scholars who are proud and self-conceited.

Understanding, Heb. heart, which signifies understanding, Jeremiah 5:21 Hosea 7:11.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither,.... Into Wisdom's house, so well built and furnished; the church of Christ, as a house of instruction; a school, where such who are "simple", weak, and foolish, may learn. Here are many instructors; saints instruct one another; ministers of the word are teachers; yea, Father, Son, and Spirit, here teach and instruct, and none teach like them. Here many lessons are to be learned concerning themselves, concerning Christ, and concerning their duty to God and men; all sorts of persons may learn here, such who know ever so much or ever so little. Or let him turn in here, as into an inn, into which passengers or travellers turn for accommodations; see Proverbs 9:15. The saints are travellers here, at a distance from their Father's house, and need refreshment by the way; the church of God is an inn of good accommodations; here is room enough to entertain them; here are good lodgings for rest and safety, and good provisions, and all of free cost. And now these are the words of Wisdom, or Christ, either in person, or by his maidens, his ministers, inviting such who are "simple" to turn in hither, and partake of the provisions in it; that is, not such who are quite stupid and insensible, sottish, incorrigible, and irreclaimable; but who are sensible of their folly and simplicity; who are but of weak capacities, apt to be credulous, and so easily imposed upon and deceived;

as for him that wanteth understanding; not the natural faculty of the understanding, nor an understanding of things natural and civil; but of things spiritual and evangelical, as of the grace of God; of salvation by Christ; of the work of the Spirit; of themselves and their state; of the Gospel, and the mysteries of it; and who are sensible of their ignorance and want of understanding; which is the first thing the Spirit of God convinces men of; or who are so in comparison of others, are weak in knowledge and experience. Now these Christ does not despise, but invites them into his house for instruction; and where can they be better? and who so fit and proper to be here, and be with Wisdom, than such as these?

she saith to him: as follows.

Geneva Study Bible

Whoever is {e} simple, let him turn in here: as for him that lacketh understanding, she saith to him,

(e) He who knows his own ignorance, and is void of malice.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 4-12. - Here follows the invitation of Wisdom, urging the attendance of guests at the sumptuous banquet which she has prepared (comp. Revelation 19:9). Verse 4. - Whose is simple, lot him turn in hither. This is a direct address to the imprudent and inexperienced (see on Proverbs 7:7), calling them to turn aside from the way on which they are going, and to come to her. Vulgate, si quis est parvulus veniat ad me, which reminds one of Christ's tender words, "It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish" (Matthew 18:14). As for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him what follows (so ver. 16). Wisdom's own speech is interrupted, and the writer himself introduces this little clause. She calls on the simple and the unwise, both as necessarily needing her teaching, and not yet inveterate in evil, nor wilfully opposed to better guidance. "The world by wisdom knew not God" and he "hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen" (1 Corinthians 1:21, 26, etc.; comp. Matthew 11:25). Proverbs 9:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Now follows the street-sermon of Wisdom inviting to her banquet:

4 Who is simple? let him come hither!"

   Whoso wanteth understanding, to him she saith:

5 "Come, eat of my bread,

   And drink of the wine which I have mingled!

6 Cease, ye simple, and live,

   And walk straight on in the way of understanding."

The question מי פּתי (thus with Munach, not with Makkeph, it is to be written here and at Proverbs 9:16; vid., Baer's Torath Emeth, p. 40), quis est imperitus, is, as Psalm 25:12, only a more animated expression for quisquis est. The retiring into the background of the נערות (servants), and the immediate appearance of Wisdom herself, together with the interruption, as was to be expected, of her connected discourses by the אמרה לּו, are signs that the pure execution of the allegorical representation is her at an end. Hitzig seeks, by the rejection of Proverbs 9:4, Proverbs 9:5, Proverbs 9:7-10, to bring in a logical sequence; but these interpolations which he cuts out are yet far more inconceivable than the proverbial discourses in the mouth of Wisdom, abandoning the figure of a banquet, which besides are wholly in the spirit of the author of this book. That Folly invites to her, Proverbs 9:16, in the same words as are used by Wisdom, Proverbs 9:4, is not strange; both address themselves to the simple (vid., on פּתי at Proverbs 1:4) and those devoid of understanding (as the youth, Proverbs 7:7), and seek to bring to their side those who are accessible to evil as to good, and do not dully distinguish between them, which the emulating devertat huc of both imports. The fourth verse points partly backwards, and partly forwards; 4a has its introduction in the תקרא of Proverbs 9:3; on the contrary, 4b is itself the introduction of what follows. The setting forth of the nom. absolutus חסר־לב is conditioned by the form of 4a; the מי (cf. 4a) is continued (in 4b) without its needing to be supplied: excors ( equals si quis est excors) dicit ei (not dixit, because syntactically subordinating itself to the תקרא). It is a nominal clause, whose virtual predicate (the devoid of understanding is thus and thus addressed by her) as in Proverbs 9:16.