Proverbs 29:8 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Proverbs 29:8

Comments

The scornful men under consideration are evidently inside the city. The picture is either of a city that has been stirred up by internal dissention, or more likely some within it have brought hostility from outside against the city which puts all the inhabitants in danger. The behaviour of certain individuals in the city has been so provocative that enemies have been stirred to take action. What is it that has caused this strong reaction? It is scorn, scoffing, an arrogant display of contempt, mocking, and derision which creates maximum offence. Perhaps the city is in rebellion and has decided to refuse to pay any further taxes to its rightful lord. Because it trusts in its defences it thinks it is safe to mock any attempt to regain control over it, but it has overestimated it impregnability and the result is that it is now besieged and slowly being starved to death. The snare has come upon it and noose is being tightened. The KJV rendering ‘bring … into a snare’ is an interpretation, since the Hebrew is literally, ‘blow’, ‘puff’, and is understood by many translations to mean inflame, as you would blow on a fire to increase the flames. But here is another city where there lives a wise man. Let us say that the city is in very similar circumstances to the first, but now there is a difference. The wise man goes to the elders of the city and he speaks modestly and honestly and convincingly to them about the right course of action, and they listen to him. A great mistake has been made by some proud person in the city, who has indeed taunted those who were stronger than him, because he was led astray by arrogance and over-estimated his power. But the wise man or the wise woman says, ‘Let not the whole city suffer for the sake of the one fool within it. Let us parley with the enemy and let the fool be yielded up to them in order that the whole city does not suffer, but can be released from the snare, and the siege lifted.’ And the elders of the city listen and the one who caused trouble is handed over to the captain of the besieging army, and his anger is pacified.

Application

Scorn is incendiary in its effects, bringing the whole community to be at war with itself or with those outside. At every point, instead of choosing peace it chooses confrontation and provocation. It does not know how to give way to another, how to give a soft answer, or how to conciliate someone who is in danger of being offended; it does not have any of these skills. It seems not to care how much hostilities escalate so long as it defends its own rights, wins the argument, and justifies itself. It is the opposite of a peacemaker. Within the church of God the scorner is a divisive influence. It is essential that if God’s people see this characteristic surfacing from their old nature, that they urgently put it to death, for it will certainly otherwise be a snare that spreads to destroy all fellowship and love.

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Proverbs 29:8 Commentary and Bible Study