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287 illustrations — Lessons from history, biography, and world events
The rich man perverse in his ways lacks this wisdom entirely.
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Thomson, D.D., witnessed in nineteenth-century Sidon diggers consumed by frenzy at the discovery of a single coin.
The word carries an evil connotation—recalling the serpent's cunning in Genesis 3—yet here Solomon redeems it to mean discernment rather than deception.
The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom.—Piety a peculiar ornament to the aged. I. Who may properly be called old people? Old and young are relative terms admitting different significations. Children always think their parents are old. Those who...
Elohim has endowed mankind with powers of variation and complexity unmatched in creation, yet this very richness becomes our peril.
This is no superficial cleanliness but a composition free from wrong admixture.
When a wild, offensive tree grows in a garden and the gardener cuts its top, if it sends forth sprouts as bad as before, he digs up the root itself.
Exell's Victorian commentary examines this through the lens of labour justice, tracing how Elohim transformed Adam's punishment into humanity's greatest dignity.
He stands at the dim verge of existence, a beacon light to all who live without Elohim.
Every person becomes his brother's keeper within this divine arrangement.
They have beaten me and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. (Proverbs 20:35) Joseph S. Exell's 1887 illustration draws a striking parallel between surgical anaesthesia and moral corruption. Just as modern medicine...
Exell's *Biblical Illustrator* (1887) distinguishes these opposing spirits: the proud man esteems himself better than others; the humble man esteems others better than himself.
First, by way of excellency: wisdom itself surpasses the fairest woman in the world in beauty and worth.
The wisest person must contemplate two humbling truths: his knowledge against what remains unknown, and his knowledge against what he ought to have learned.
His visible success tempts observers: he accumulates wealth, rises to honor, and achieves power through cruelty.
This creature of supreme power teaches four vital lessons, as expounded by R.
Elohim ordained that man should labour—not as punishment, but as partnership with the Divine Husbandman in cultivating the field of life.
"Pictures of silver" refers to the creamy-white flowers that frame the golden harvest.
Solomon's image cuts sharply: when we bite down on what we believed was solid, we suffer.
First, Elohim has appointed that a portion of happiness accrues to the righteous in this present world, while the misery wages of sin fall yet more abundantly upon the wicked.
This truth presents two terrible events in human history.
The seeds of alteration are everywhere sown, yet by strange deception, each man believes himself exempt from this universal law.
An Intellectual Contrast: The intelligent man communicates wisdom; when he speaks, men are enlightened, their minds set to thinking, their spirits refreshed.
The Wisdom writer distinguishes between antagonism as an inherent principle—designed by Elohim to position us against evil and the enemies of God—and antagonism as mere destructive habit.