Loading...
Loading...
188 illustrations
This counsel operates on two levels: first, that our hearts reject the flattering speech of the unfaithful, and second, that we become vessels of good doctrine to benefit others.
An Intellectual Contrast: The intelligent man communicates wisdom; when he speaks, men are enlightened, their minds set to thinking, their spirits refreshed.
Observe the paradox: error displays surprising zeal, while truth often appears passive.
Yet inevitably the accumulating pressure breaches the barrier, and the stream resumes its accustomed course with redoubled force.
While diligent hunters prepare their catch the same evening, this sluggard lacks the will to strip the hide or kindle the fire.
The Husbandman planted a choice vine on a fruitful hill, fenced it carefully, built a watchtower, and hewn a winepress—yet it brought forth wild grapes (*beushim*, worthless fruit) instead of the expected harvest of righteousness.
Elohim has endowed mankind with powers of variation and complexity unmatched in creation, yet this very richness becomes our peril.
First, pride of station: the man in authority becomes "puffed up" with distinction, considering himself a being of higher order than his fellow sinners, looking with disdain upon those below him in society's scale.
Solomon speaks of one "often reproved" yet stubbornly hardening his neck—the ancient metaphor for a beast refusing the yoke of obedience.
Exell's 1887 analysis reveals pride's devastating universality: it spares neither age nor circumstance, neither the healthy nor the diseased, neither public nor private life.
Joseph Exell's Victorian commentary illuminates a profound spiritual reality: the human mind possesses a moral obtuseness toward divine obligation that no natural intellect can overcome.
The three instruments of capture—fear, pit, and snare—represent distinct methods of trapping wild beasts that Isaiah applies to human judgment.
Exell's *Biblical Illustrator* identifies three marks of temptation as she conducts her ministry of ruin.
The wise man offers five devastating consequences of adultery: it impoverishes men, threatens death, debauches the conscience with guilt, ruins reputation with perpetual infamy, and exposes the adulterer to the jealous husband's rage.
Alexander observes, this sin must be abjured both for its destructive effects and as the worst form of pride.
The Prophet compares Israel's transgression to a high wall that begins with a small rent, or breach, in its lower section—a structural weakness that seems manageable at first.
A fear of Elohim for His own sake, and a fear of all things in reference to Him.
Delilah exemplifies this rottenness through calculated treachery masked as love.
The original audience resisted Elohim on two grounds: first, because He permitted His people's captivity in a distant land under oppression; second, because liberation seemed impossible, even beyond God's power to effect.
We hear denunciations of unfaithfulness and immediately agree; yet we fail to recognize ourselves in those very terms.
Tow—the coarse, broken refuse of flax or hemp—becomes the metaphor for those whom sin has hollowed from within.
What does it mean to trust one's heart?
Consider how a false witness operates in a criminal trial.
Men surrender individual conviction and dissolve into the multitude's current, seeking power through collective action.