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Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
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Commentary & Explanation
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Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
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CHAPTER 7
Wisdom giveth life to them that have it—All men are sinners—God hath made man
upright.
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1 A GOOD aname is better than precious ointment;
and the day of death than the day of one's birth.
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1a
Prov. 22:1
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2 ¶ It is better to go to the house of
amourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of
all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.
3 Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the
asadness of the countenance the heart is made better.
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
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2a
TG
Mourning
2a
2 Cor. 7:10
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5 It is better to hear the arebuke of the wise,
than for a man to hear the song of fools.
6 For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the
alaughter of the fool: this also is bvanity.
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5a
TG
Reproof
6a
TG
Laughter;
TG
Levity
b
TG
Vanity
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7 ¶ Surely oppression maketh a wise man amad; and
a gift destroyeth the heart.
8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof:
and the apatient in spirit is better than the proud in
spirit.
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7a
OR a fool (foolish)
8a
TG
Patience
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9 Be not ahasty in thy spirit to be
bangry: for canger resteth in the bosom of fools.
10 Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.
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9a
TG
Rashness
b
Prov. 29:22 (21-23)
c
TG
Anger
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11 ¶ Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun.
12 For awisdom is a
bdefence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of
knowledge is, that wisdom giveth clife to them that have
ita.
13 Consider the work of God: for who can make that
astraight, which he hath made crooked?
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12a wisdom giveth life to them that have it There
are two ways to read this. The first is that 'wisdom giveth life to them that have wisdom.' But
that is not totally true, for the case in point with Solomon is that despite his great wisdom
he had come to feel that the possession of it was but vanity with no eternal value itself after
death. But that was Solomon's later opinion after he himself had fallen into the darkness of a
sinful nature in his older age. Read the second way it seem to convey a further truth concerning
wisdom and that is, 'Wisdom giveth life to them that have life.' That is they who have gained
the hope of eternal life in and through the Lord, even Jesus Christ. Solomon had lost that hope
in his darkened sinful interpretaions of his later life. Despite his great attainment to the
principles of wisdom, without the 'light of truth' of Jesus Christ, which is intelligence of
the atonement and eventual salvation and exaltation of man beyond the grave of death which the
man of sin doth suffer, there is the eternal fact of immortality and that greater existence
which the 'light of truth' doth magnify man into being able to become even as God and Jesus
Christ are one in that greater intelligence so man may also become one with them. And that is
the glory of God, Intelligence.
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12a
D&C 6:7
b
HEB shade; i.e., a protection
c
Prov. 3:18 (13-19)
13a
Eccl. 1:15
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14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of
aadversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the
end that man should find nothing after him.
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14a
TG
Adversity
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15 All things have I seen in the days of my
avanity: there is a bjust man that perisheth in his
righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his
wickedness.
16 Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?
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15a
TG
Vanity
b
Eccl. 8:14
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17 Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?
18 It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this; yea, also
from this withdraw not thine hand: for he that afeareth God shall come forth
of them all.
19 aWisdom bstrengtheneth the wise
more than ten mighty men which are in the city.
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18a
OR reveres God
19a
Prov. 21:22;
Eccl. 9:16-18;
D&C 52:17
b
Prov. 24:5
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20 For there is not a ajust man upon earth,
that doeth good, and bsinneth not.
21 Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee:
22 For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others.
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20a
D&C 33:4
b
TG
Sin
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23 ¶ All this have I proved by wisdom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me.
24 That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?
25 I applied mine aheart to know, and to search, and
to seek out bwisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the
wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:
26 And I find more abitter than death the
bwoman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as
bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the csinner shall be
dtaken by her.
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25a
Eccl. 1:17;
Mosiah 12:27
b
D&C 42:68
26a
Prov. 5:4
b
TG
Woman
c
1 Ne. 22:15-17
d
Prov. 2:19
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27 Behold, this have I found, saith the apreacher,
counting one by one, to find out the account:
28 Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.
29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but
they have sought out many
ainventionsa.
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29a they have sought out many inventions Bishop
Eusebius of Ceasarea in his Ecclesiastical History of the Church points out that one of his
primary purposes is to disclose the 'innovations' of their own minds to which men had taken the
truths of the gospel into being. This seems to be the same such comment here. Not that inventions
of the world are bad, for many do come of much good, but those type of 'inventions' I do not
think that this is speaking of. Rather, like Eusebius, it seems that they are being particularly
spoken of as such as the 'innovations of the mind' to which men have sought to change according
to their own whims and desires, the truths of God to be outside the reality of what they truly
are. For it doth seem to please the human mind to conform such of God to meet their personal
perspectives of what they would make such to be rather than what it truly is and the inconvience
that it places upon the carnal human nature to have to conform itself to the ultimate truths of
God. And thus the world is filled with such corruptions of truth into the falsehoods of the
human mind and its theories and such which it subjects the light of truth into being.
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27a
Eccl. 1:1
29a
OR devices, arts
IE innovations of the mind
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