Proverbs 30 Wise Sayings - # 2-5 (Proverbs 22.22-28

COLLECTION 3: The Thirty Sayings of the Wise (22.17-24)

A. Prologue: (22.17-21) [# 1]

B. B. Section A: A Decalogue of sayings about Wealth (22.22-23.11) [#'s 2-11]
C. Section B: An Obedient Son (23.22-24.2) [#'s 12-20]
D. Section C: Trying Times (#'s 24.3-22)

     1. Strength in Distress (24.3-12) [#'s 21-25]
     2. Prohibitions against Involvement with the Wicked (24.13-22) [#'s 26-30]

#2/22.22-23 Avoid Persecuting

#3/22.24-25 Avoid Hotheads

#4/22.26-27 Avoid Pledges

#5/22.28 Sacred Landmarks

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# 6/22.29 Seek  Excellence

# 7/23.1-3 Ruler’s Meal (Moderation)

# 8/23.4-5 Fleeting Riches

# 9/23.6-8 Misers Meal

#10/23.9 Fools Despise

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#11/23.10-11 Poor’s Redeemer

SAYING NUMBER TWO: Avoid Persecuting - 22.22-23
Robbing or oppressing the poor is easy because they are defenseless. But this makes the crime tempting as well as contemptible. What is envisioned may be in bounds legally (just) but out of bounds morally.  --NET Bible Study Notes

 22.22 Nor  
Do not rob                  oppress      
the poor                     the afflicted
because he is poor,     at the gate;
poor... referring to one of the lower classes in Israel (cf. II Kgs 24:14; 25:12). In dāl the idea of physical (material) deprivation predominates.   —http://tulsabible.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-poor-among-us-130127pmtbc.html

weak.  Hebrew dal, a man who is defenseless through poverty or physical disability (Daath Mikra).  --A Cohen in Soncino Books of the Bible

This root connotes lowness as a state or a goal. It occurs sixty-two times. Used metaphorically, the verb describes a state of deprivation which in its extremity issues in a cry to God.  --Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament

oppress... (Piel) to crush

afflicted... (ʿānî) poor, afflicted. The ʿānî, although frequently in synonymous parallelism with ʾebyôn and dal, differs from both in that it connotes some kind of disability or distress. In Deut 24:14–15 the hired servant is described as ʾebyôn and ʿānî. Israel is told not to oppress their hired servant by withholding the wages due him because he is ʿānî. Furthermore, if he is oppressed he may call on God his defender. We see that financially the ʿānî lives from day to day, and that socially he is defenseless and subject to oppression.  --Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament

the gate... Heb “in the gate” (so KJV); NAB, NASB, NRSV “at the gate.” The “gate” of the city was the center of activity, the place of business as well as the place for settling legal disputes. The language of the next verse suggests a legal setting, so “court” is an appropriate translation here.  --NET Bible Translation Notes

Four Hebrew words for "poor."

 

22.23                               
For the LORD                                 And
will plead their cause,                  plunder the soul of those who plunder them.  

plead... The construction uses the verb יָרִיב (yariv) with its cognate accusative. It can mean “to strive,” but here it probably means “to argue a case, plead a case” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV). How the Lord will do this is not specified – either through righteous people or by direct intervention.  --NET Bible Translation Notes

plunder...קָבַע   qava’, “to rob; to spoil; to plunder”) is used here in both places to reflect the principle of talionic* justice. What the oppressors did to the poor will be turned back on them by the Lord.  --NET Bible Translation Notes    
*1.  The principle that punishment should be equivalent or identical to the offense committed.  --http://www.thefreedictionary.com/talion

The verb is used again only in Mal. 3.8ff.  --A Cohen in Soncino Books of the Bible  (Will a man rob God?  Yet you have robbed Me!)

"Robbers" deceive themselves if they think the poor have no protector."  --Waltke in NICOT

-> The Priests teaching the Law:  Exodus 22

²² "You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child.  ²³ If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry;  ²⁴ and My wrath will become hot, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.   

-> The Prophets with a warning and rebuke  Isaiah 10.1-3

¹ "Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, Who write misfortune, Which they have prescribed   ² To rob the needy of justice, And to take what is right from the poor of My people, That widows may be their prey, And that they may rob the fatherless.   ³ What will you do in the day of punishment, And in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help?...

APPLICATIONS:

1. Power is a loan from God.  Those with power must use it for God’s honor.  Are we protectors or predators?

2. We need to move from the idea that legal = morally right.  Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.  (We should also probably move from teaching our children to have a primary motivation of being fearful of the police and being arrested.)

3. The fear of the Lord is the awareness that God is watching, weighing, and rewarding all that I do, say, and think.

SAYING NUMBER THREE: Avoid Hotheads - 22.24-25
...the point is that one should be careful about choosing friends because they inevitable affect
Make no friendship with an angry man,
And with a furious man do not go,
Lest you learn his ways
And set a snare for your soul.

friendship...  (rāʿâ), associate with, be a friend of.  --Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament

angry... Heb. 'aph 1. nostril, nose, face; 2. anger  --BLB

By the act of breathing, emotions can be expressed. Perhaps it was observed that the nose dilates in anger. God is said to be “ʾerek ʾappayim” (lit. “long of anger,” i.e. long before getting angry)  --NET Bible Translation Notes
lit: at master, possessor of a nose whose physical characteristics express anger"; cf. 14:17; 15:1), whose judgment is clouded by irrational thought and who loses all sense of proportion, acts impetuously... --Waltke in NICOT

furious...  1. heat (fever, venom, poison (fig.)  2. burning anger, rage  --BLB

learn...  The verb פֶּן־תֶּאֱלַף (pen-te’elaf) is translated “lest you learn.” The idea is more precisely “become familiar with his ways.” The construction indicates that if one associates with such people he will become like them (cf. TEV “you might learn their habits”). --NET Bible Translation Notes
snare...  yāqōš and its derivatives occur forty times. It refers to setting a trap to catch some prey, but more frequently in a metaphorical sense of entrapping people. -- Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament
              the LORD... has built in the hothead's ways his own self-destruction (cf. 1:16; 29:6) --Waltke in NICOT

APPLICATIONS:

1. This highlights the importance of good friends. (Birds of a feather flock together.)  Look for friends like what you want to be.  Understand and teach the difference between a friend (2 Cor. 6.14-15) and an acquaintance 1 Cor. 5.9-13). 
2. Help surround your children with positive influences (children and adults).  Talk to your children about their friends.  You should make it your business to know who their friends are.  (Who did you eat lunch with?  Who did you play with?  Give them space to talk (even if you don’t like what you hear) and listen to them.) 

SAYING NUMBER FOUR: Avoid Pledges - 22.27-28Do not be one of those who shakes hands in a pledge,
One of those who is surety for debts;If you have nothing with which to pay,
Why should he take away your bed from under you? 

 

shakes hands in a pledge... 

(tāqaʿ) blow, clap, strike, sound.  The verb bears three distinct but related meanings: (1) “thrust, pound”; (2) “blow (a horn)”; (3) “clap (hands).”   ...striking hands with someone else (serving a function similar to our handshake) signified pledging oneself as a collateral in a business arrangement (Job 17:3; Prov 6:1; 11:15; 17:18; 22:26).  --Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament
If you have nothing...  future financial reversals may expose him to losing everything he owns. --Waltke in NICOT  Cf. James 3:13-17 

bed...   The “bed” may be a metonymy of adjunct , meaning the garment that covers the bed (e.g., Exod 22:26). At any rate, it represents the individual’s last possession (like the English expression “the shirt off his back”).  --NET Bible Translation Notes
A harsh creditor might ignore the humane regulations of Deut. xxiv.10ff., which, legally apply only to the debtor, not the guarantor (Ibn Nachmiash). --A Cohen in Soncino Books of the Bible
Deut. 24.10ff  ¹⁰  "When you lend your brother anything, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge.   ¹¹  You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge out to you.   ¹²  And if the man is poor, you shall not keep his pledge overnight.   ¹³  You shall in any case return the pledge to him again when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his own garment and bless you; and it shall be righteousness to you before the Lord your God.

APPLICATIONS:

1. How do we teach our children to be compassionate and wise?
2. How do we balance trusting the Lord and being presumptuous?  James 3:13-17 
3. How do we balance the welfare of our families and priotites with giving from our need?