| Proverbs 4:1
| Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend, that you may know prudence.
| Father. He shews the greatest respect for his parents, ver. 3. (Calmet)
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| Proverbs 4:2
| I will give you a good gift, forsake not my law.
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| Proverbs 4:3
| For I also was my father's son, tender, and as an only son in the sight of my mother:
| As. This is not expressed. (Haydock) --- But Solomon was not the only son of Bethsabee, as St. Luke 3:23. specifies Nathan, his brother. See 2 Kings 12:24. Septuagint have "beloved in," etc.
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| Proverbs 4:4
| And he taught me, and said: Let thy heart receive my words, keep my commandments, and thou shalt live.
| He. Hebrew is masculine. (Calmet) --- As David instructed his son, so the latter teaches all how they may learn wisdom. (Worthington)
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| Proverbs 4:5
| Get wisdom, get prudence: forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth.
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| Proverbs 4:6
| Forsake her not, and she shall keep thee: love her, and she shall preserve thee.
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| Proverbs 4:7
| The beginning of wisdom, get wisdom, and with all thy possession purchase prudence.
| Beginning. The first part of wisdom is to desire it. For nothing hindereth from being just, but that justice is not desired. (St. Augustine, in Psalm 118:20.) (Worthington) --- "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get," etc. (Protestants) (Haydock) --- It is the one thing necessary. (Calmet) --- The pearl, to acquire which we must part with every thing else, if required, Matthew 13:46. (Menochius)
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| Proverbs 4:8
| Take hold on her, and she shall exalt thee: thou shalt be glorified by her, when thou shalt embrace her.
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| Proverbs 4:9
| She shall give to thy head increase of graces, and protect thee with a noble crown.
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| Proverbs 4:10
| Hear, O my son, and receive my words, that years of life may be multiplied to thee.
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| Proverbs 4:11
| I will shew thee the way of wisdom, I will lead thee by the paths of equity:
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| Proverbs 4:12
| Which when thou shalt have entered, thy steps shall not be straitened, and when thou runnest, thou shalt not meet a stumbling-block.
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| Proverbs 4:13
| Take hold on instruction, leave it not: keep it, because it is thy life.
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| Proverbs 4:14
| Be not delighted in the paths of the wicked, neither let the way of evil men please thee.
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| Proverbs 4:15
| Flee from it, pass not by it: go aside, and forsake it.
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| Proverbs 4:16
| For they sleep not, except they have done evil: and their sleep is taken away unless they have made some to fall.
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| Proverbs 4:17
| They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of iniquity.
| Wickedness. Acquired thereby, or they make sin their food, Proverbs 26:6.
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| Proverbs 4:18
| But the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards, and increaseth even to perfect day.
| Day. They are children of light, (John 12:35.) and give edification, always advancing in virtue. (Menochius)
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| Proverbs 4:19
| The way of the wicked is darksome: they know not where they fall.
| Fall. They are unconcerned about sin, and neither avoid it, nor strive to repent. (Calmet)
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| Proverbs 4:20
| My son, hearken to my words, and incline thy ear to my sayings.
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| Proverbs 4:21
| Let them not depart from thy eyes, keep them in the midst of thy heart:
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| Proverbs 4:22
| For they are life to those that find them, and health to all flesh.
| Flesh. All may derive benefit from their consideration. (Haydock)
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| Proverbs 4:23
| With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out from it.
| From it. As the heart is the principal part of the body, so the will is the chief power of the soul, from which good or evil proceeds. (Worthington) --- A clean heart gives life, a corrupt one, death, Matthew 15:11, 19.
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| Proverbs 4:24
| Remove from thee a froward mouth, and let detracting lips be far from thee.
| From thee. Neither detract, nor give any countenance to detractors.
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| Proverbs 4:25
| Let thy eyes look straight on, and let thy eye-lids go before thy steps.
| Steps. Be attentive to thy own affairs, Proverbs 17:24.
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| Proverbs 4:26
| Make straight the path for thy feet, and all thy ways shall be established.
| Straight. Hebrew, "ponder." Examine what thou takest in hand, and walk not at random, Hebrews 12:13.
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| Proverbs 4:27
| Decline not to the right hand, nor to the left: turn away thy foot from evil. For the Lord knoweth the ways that are on the right hand: but those are perverse which are on the left hand. But he will make thy courses straight, he will bring forward thy ways in peace.
| For, etc. What follows in not in Hebrew or the Complutensian (Calmet) Septuagint. But it is in the Roman [Septuagint], etc., (Haydock) and in the new edition of St. Jerome, as it was explained by Ven. Bede. Lyranus and Cajetan reject it. (Calmet)
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