---
title: "Clarke"
description: "Verse Proverbs 20:1. Wine is a mocker — It deceives by its fragrance, intoxicates by its strength, and renders the intoxicated ridiculous. Strong drink —"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/proverbs/20"
---

Verse [Proverbs 20:1](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/1). ***Wine*****is*****a mocker*** — It *deceives* by its *fragrance,* *intoxicates* by its *strength*, and renders the intoxicated *ridiculous*.
***Strong drink*** — שכר *shechar*, any strong fermented liquor, whether of the *vine, date*, or *palm* species.

Verse [Proverbs 20:2](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/2). ***The fear of a king*** — Almost the same with [Proverbs 19:12](../../../kjv/proverbs/19/12), which see.

Verse [Proverbs 20:3](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/3). **It is*****an honour for a man*** — The same sentiment as [Proverbs 19:11](../../../kjv/proverbs/19/11).

Verse [Proverbs 20:4](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/4). ***The sluggard will not plough*** — For other parts of this character, see the preceding chapter. It is seldom that there is a *season* of very cold weather in Palestine; very cold *days* sometimes occur, with wind, rain, and sleet. They begin their ploughing in the latter end of *September*, and sow their early wheat by the middle of *October*. And this is often the case in England itself. The meaning of the proverb is: the slothful man, under the pretence of unfavourable weather, neglects cultivating his land till the proper time is elapsed.

Verse [Proverbs 20:5](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/5). ***Counsel in the heart of man*** — Men of the deepest and most comprehensive minds are rarely apt, unsolicited, to join in any discourse, in which they might appear even to the greatest advantage; but a *man* of *understanding* will *elicit* this, by questions framed for the purpose, and thus *pump* up the salubrious waters from the deep and capacious well. The metaphor is fine and expressive.

Verse [Proverbs 20:6](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/6). ***Most men will proclaim*** — *Many men merciful ben clepid: a* *feithful man forsoth, who schal finde?*- Old MS. Bible.

Verse [Proverbs 20:8](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/8). ***A king that sitteth in the throne of judgment*** — Kings should see to the administration of the *laws*, as well as of the *state transactions*, of their kingdom. In the British constitution there is a *court* for the *king*, called the *King's* *Bench*, where he *should* sit, and where he is always *supposed* to be sitting. The *eyes* - the *presence*, of the monarch in such a place, *scatter* evil - he sees into the case himself, and gives right judgment, for he can have no *self-interest*. Corrupt judges, and falsifying counsellors, cannot stand before him; and the *villain* is too deeply struck with the *majesty* and state of the monarch, to *face out* iniquity before him.

Verse [Proverbs 20:9](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/9). ***Who can say, I have made my heart clean*** — No man. But thousands can testify that the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed them from all unrighteousness. And he is *pure from his sin*, who is justified freely through the redemption that is in Jesus.

Verse [Proverbs 20:10](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/10). ***Divers weights and divers measures*** — *A peise and a* *peise;*- Old MS. Bible: from the French *pois*, weight. Hebrew: "A stone and a stone; an ephah and an ephah." One the *standard*, the other *below* it; one to *buy* with, the other to *sell* by.

Verse [Proverbs 20:11](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/11). ***Even a child is known by his doings*** — That is, in general terms, the *effect* shows the nature of the cause. "A childe is known by his conversation," says *Coverdale*. A child is easily detected when he has done evil; he immediately begins to excuse and vindicate himself, and profess his innocence, almost before accusation takes place. Some think the words should be understood, *every child will dissemble*; this amounts nearly to the meaning given above, But probably the principal this intended by the wise man is, that we may easily learn from the *child* what the *man* will be. In general, they give indications of those *trades* and *callings* for which they are adapted by nature. And, on the whole, we cannot go by a surer guide in preparing our children for future life, than by observing their early propensities. The future *engineer* is seen in the little *handicraftsman* of two years old. Many children are crossed in these early propensities to a particular calling, to *their* great prejudice, and the loss of their parents, as they seldom settle at, or succeed in, the business to which they are tied, and to which nature has given them no tendency. These infantine predilections to particular callings, we should consider as indications of Divine Providence, and its calling of them to that work for which they are peculiarly fitted.

Verse [Proverbs 20:12](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/12). ***The hearing ear and the seeing eye*** — Every *good* we possess comes from God; and we should neither use our *eyes*, nor our *ears*, nor *any thing* we possess, but in strict subserviency to his will.

Verse [Proverbs 20:13](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/13). ***Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty*** — Sleep, indescribable in its nature, is an indescribable *blessing*; but how often is it turned into a *curse*! It is like *food*; a certain measure of it restores and invigorates exhausted nature; more than *that* oppresses and destroys life. A lover of sleep is a paltry, insignificant character.

Verse [Proverbs 20:14](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/14). **It is*****naught*****, it is*****naught, saith the buyer*** — How apt are men to decry the goods they wish to purchase, in order that they may get them at a *cheaper rate*; and, when they have made their bargain and carried it *off, boast* to others at how much *less* than its *value* they have obtained it! Are such honest men? Is such knavery actionable? Can such be punished only in *another* world? St. Augustine tells us a pleasant story on this subject: A certain mountebank published, in the full theatre, that at the next entertainment he would *show to every man present what was in his* *heart*. The time came, and the concourse was immense; all waited, with deathlike silence, to hear what he would say to each. He stood up, and in a single sentence redeemed his pledge: -
VILI vultis EMERE, et CARO VENDERE.

You all wish to BUY CHEAP, and SELL DEAR." He was applauded; for every one felt it to be a description of his own heart, and was satisfied that all others were similar. "In quo dicto levissimi scenici omnes tamen conscientias invenerunt suas.'-DE TRINITATE, lib. xiii., c. 3; OPER. vol. vii., col. 930.

Verse [Proverbs 20:15](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/15). ***There is gold*** — *Gold* is valuable, *silver* is valuable, and so are *jewels*; but the *teachings* of *sound knowledge* are more valuable than all.

Verse [Proverbs 20:16](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/16). ***Take his garment that is surety*****for*****a stranger*** — I suppose the meaning to be, If a stranger or unknown person become surety in a case, greater caution should be used, and such security taken from this *stranger* as would prevent him from running away from his engagements.

Verse [Proverbs 20:17](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/17). ***Bread of deceit*****is*****sweet*** — Property acquired by *falsehood, speculation*, c., without labour, is pleasant to the unprincipled, slothful man but there is a *curse* in it, and the issue will prove it.

Verse [Proverbs 20:18](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/18). ***With good advice make war,*** — Perhaps there is not a precept in this whole book so little regarded as this. Most of the *wars* that are undertaken are wars of injustice, ambition, aggrandizement, and caprice, which can have had no previous *good* *counsel*. A minister, who is perhaps neither a *good* nor a *great* man, counsels his king to make war; the *cabinet* must be brought into it, and a *sufficient number* out of the states of the kingdom gained over to support it. By and by, what was begun through *caprice* must be maintained through *necessity*. Places must be created, and offices must be filled with needy dependents, whose interest it may be to *protract the war*, till they get enough to pay their debts, and secure independence for life. And for these most important ends the blood of the country is spilled, and the treasures of the people exhausted! I have met with a fact precisely of this kind under the reign of Louis XIV.

Verse [Proverbs 20:20](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/20). ***Whoso curseth his father*** — Such persons were put to death under the law; see [Exodus 21:17](../../../kjv/exodus/21/17); [Leviticus 20:9](../../../kjv/leviticus/20/9), and here it is said, Their *lamp shall be put out*-they shall have no *posterity*; God shall cut them off both *root* and *branch*.

Verse [Proverbs 20:21](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/21). ***An inheritance - gotten hastily*** — Gotten by *speculation*; by *lucky hits*; not in the fair *progressive* way of *traffic*, in which money has its *natural increase*. All such inheritances are short-lived; God's blessing is not in them, because they are not the produce of *industry*; and they lead to *idleness, pride, fraud*, and *knavery*. A speculation in trade is a public nuisance and curse. How many honest men have been ruined by such!

Verse [Proverbs 20:22](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/22). ***I will recompense evil*** — Wait on the Lord; judgment is his, and his judgments are sure. In the mean time pray for the conversion of your enemy.

Verse [Proverbs 20:24](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/24). ***Man's goings*****are*****of the Lord*** — He, by his providence, governs all the great concerns of the world. Man often traverses these operations; but he does it to his own damage. An old writer quaintly says: "They who will carve for themselves shall cut their fingers."

Verse [Proverbs 20:25](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/25). **Who*****devoureth*****that which is*****holy*** — It is a sin to take that which belongs to *God*, his *worship*, or his *work*, and devote it to one's own use.
***And after vows to make inquiry.*** — That is, if a man be *inwardly* making a *rash vow*, the fitness or unfitness, the necessity, expediency, and propriety of the thing should be first carefully considered. But how foolish to make the vow first, and afterwards to inquire whether it was right in the sight of God to do it! This equally condemns all rash and inconsiderate conduct. My old MS. Bible translates, *Falling is of men often to vowen to seyntis, and* *after, the vouw is agen brawen*. Is it possible that *Wiclif* could have translated this verse thus? as it strongly countenances *vows* *to* and *invocations of saints*.

Verse [Proverbs 20:26](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/26). ***Bringeth the wheel over them.*** — He threshes them in his anger, as the *wheel does the grain on the threshing-floor*. Every one knows that grain was separated from its husks, in Palestine, by the feet of the oxen trampling among the sheaves, or bringing a rough-shod wheel over them. Asiatic kings often threshed their people, to bring out their property; but this is not what is intended here.

Verse [Proverbs 20:27](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/27). ***The spirit of man*****is*****the candle of the Lord*** — God has given to every man a *mind*, which *he so enlightens by his own* *Spirit*, that the man knows how to distinguish good from evil; and *conscience*, which springs from this, searches the inmost recesses of the soul.

Verse [Proverbs 20:28](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/28). ***Mercy and truth preserve the king*** — These are the brightest jewels in the royal crown; and those kings who are most governed by them have the stablest government.

Verse [Proverbs 20:29](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/29). ***The glory of young men*****is*****their strength*** — Scarcely any young man affects to be wise, learned, c. but all delight to *show their strength* and to be *reputed strong*. *Agility*, one evidence of strength, their particularly *affect*; and hence their various trials of strength and fleetness in public exercises.
***And the beauty of old men*****is*****the gray head.*** — They no longer affect *strength* and *agility*, but they affect *wisdom, experience,* *prudent counsels*, &c., and are fond of being *reputed wise*, and of having respect paid to their *understanding* and *experience*.

Verse [Proverbs 20:30](../../../kjv/proverbs/20/30). ***The blueness of a wound*** — חברות *chabburoth*, from חבר *chabar*, to *unite*, to *join together*. Does it not refer to the cicatrice of a wound when, in its healing, the two lips are brought *together*? By this union the wound is *healed*; and by the previous discharge the lace-rated ends of fibres and blood-vessels are purged away. So *stripes*, though they hurt for the time, become the means of *correcting* and *discharging* the *moral evil* of the inmost soul, the vice of the *heart*, the *easily-besetting sin*.
In this chapter, verses *fourteen* to *nineteen*, inclusive, are wanting in the *Septuagint* and *Arabic*; and the *tenth, eleventh,* *twelfth*, and *thirteenth*, come in after the *twenty-second*. It is difficult to account for these variations, unless they were occasioned by the change of leaves in MSS.

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