Proverbs 1:24

Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) Because I have called.—Wisdom’s call having been rejected, she now changes her tone from “mercy” to “judgment” (Psalm 101:1). (Comp. Romans 10:21 : “All day long I have stretched forth my hands,” &c.)

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 1:24-28. Because I have called, &c. — By my ministers, my judgments, the motions of my Spirit, and your own consciences; and ye refused — To obey my call; I have stretched out my hand — Offering mercy and grace to you, and earnestly inviting you to accept of them; and no man regarded — Few or none complied with my will, and accepted my offers. But ye have set at naught all my counsel — Have despised or made void my design of doing you good, and have disregarded my commands, counsels, and exhortations; I also will laugh at your calamity — As you have scoffed at me and my ways, so I will not pity and relieve you, when sickness, pain, and death assault you, as they soon will do; I will mock when your fear cometh — The misery which you do or should fear. When your fear cometh as desolation — As the sword, or some desolating judgment, which quickly overruns a whole country; and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind — Which instantly spreads itself from place to place with great and irresistible violence, sweeping all before it, and making terrible destruction; when distress, outwardly, and anguish, inwardly, cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me — When it is too late, and would gladly be beholden to me for that mercy, which they now reject and make light of; but I will not answer — Because when I called they would not answer me: all the answer then will be, Depart from me, I know you not. This has been the case of some, even in this life, as of Saul, whom God answered not by Urim, or by prophets; but ordinarily, while there is life there is room for prayer, and hope of being answered; and therefore this must chiefly refer to the inexorable justice of the last judgment. Then those that slighted God will seek him early, that is, earnestly, and without delay, but in vain; they shall not find him, because they did not seek him when he might be found, Isaiah 55:6. The rich man, in torment, begged in vain for a drop of water to cool his tongue; and much more would he have been denied if he had begged to be released out of the infernal prison.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:20-33 Solomon, having showed how dangerous it is to hearken to the temptations of Satan, here declares how dangerous it is not to hearken to the calls of God. Christ himself is Wisdom, is Wisdoms. Three sorts of persons are here called by Him: 1. Simple ones. Sinners are fond of their simple notions of good and evil, their simple prejudices against the ways of God, and flatter themselves in their wickedness. 2. Scorners. Proud, jovial people, that make a jest of every thing. Scoffers at religion, that run down every thing sacred and serious. 3. Fools. Those are the worst of fools that hate to be taught, and have a rooted dislike to serious godliness. The precept is plain; Turn you at my reproof. We do not make a right use of reproofs, if we do not turn from evil to that which is good. The promises are very encouraging. Men cannot turn by any power of their own; but God answers, Behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you. Special grace is needful to sincere conversion. But that grace shall never be denied to any who seek it. The love of Christ, and the promises mingled with his reproofs, surely should have the attention of every one. It may well be asked, how long men mean to proceed in such a perilous path, when the uncertainty of life and the consequences of dying without Christ are considered? Now sinners live at ease, and set sorrow at defiance; but their calamity will come. Now God is ready to hear their prayers; but then they shall cry in vain. Are we yet despisers of wisdom? Let us hearken diligently, and obey the Lord Jesus, that we may enjoy peace of conscience and confidence in God; be free from evil, in life, in death, and for ever.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The threats and warnings of Wisdom are also foreshadowings of the teaching of Jesus. There will come a time when "too late" shall be written on all efforts, on all remorse. Compare Matthew 25:10, Matthew 25:30.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. stretched … hand—Earnestness, especially in beseeching, is denoted by the figure (compare Job 11:13; Ps 68:31; 88:9).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I have called, by my ministers, and by my judgments upon you or others, and by the motions of my Spirit and your own consciences. Stretched out my hand; offering grace and mercy to you, and earnestly inviting you to accept of it. Lest through your deafness or distance from me you should not hear, I have beckoned to you with my hand, which this phrase signifies, Isaiah 13:2 65:2.

No man regarded; few or none complied with it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Because I have called, and ye refused,.... This is to be understood not of the internal call of Wisdom, or Christ, which is by the special grace of his Spirit; is according to an eternal purpose, the fruit of everlasting love, peculiar to God's elect, and by a divine power; and is also a call to special blessings of grace, and to eternal glory; and which is always effectual, unchangeable, and irreversible, and can never be refused, rejected, and resisted, so as to become void and of no effect: but of the external call by the word, to the natural duties of religion, and to an attendance on the means of grace; which may be where no election goes before, no sanctification attends, nor salvation follows, Matthew 20:16; and this may be refused and rejected, as it often is; as when men, notwithstanding that call, do not attend on the ministry of the word, or, if they do, it is in a negligent careless way; or, they show an aversion to it, despise, contradict, and blaspheme it, as the Jews did, who were the persons first called to hear it; see Matthew 22:2;

I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; this is a gesture of persons calling to others, as orators and preachers, requiring silence and attention; and when eager and fervent, and importunate in their discourses; it is attributed to Christ, Isaiah 65:2; but, notwithstanding all Wisdom's eagerness, zeal, warmth, and importunity, expressed by words and gestures, it was all disregarded; no attention was given to it, which is here complained of.

Geneva Study Bible

Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

24. The abruptness of the transition from gracious invitation to awful threatening has led to the suggestion that a pause is to be introduced between the two divisions (Proverbs 1:20-33) of this appeal of Wisdom. But, as Maurer points out, Proverbs 1:22 (How long!) shews, as do these Proverbs 1:24-25, that this is rather the last appeal of Wisdom than the first. She has already “all day long stretched forth her hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people” (Isaiah 65:2; Romans 10:21). This is indicated by the LXX. by the tense used, ἐκάλουν, ἐξέτεινον. The rejection of her overtures has been persistent and scornful; and now by the very abruptness and sternness of her address she makes a last effort to awaken and rescue.

“Save, Lord, by love or fear.”

Comp. Luke 13:24-28.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - Because I have called, and ye refused. A pause may be imagined, and seems to be implied, between this and the preceding verses (22 and 23), when the address passes into a new phase - from that of invitation and promise to that of judgment and stern denunciation (vers. 24-27). In the subsection the antecedent clauses are vers. 24, 25, introduced by the conjunction "because" (יַעַן, yaan; quia, Vulgate), which expresses the reason or cause for the conclusion in vers. 26 and 27, introduced by "I also," to which the "because" answers. A similar grammatical construction and judgment is to be found in Isaiah: "I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I Spake, they did not hear" (Isaiah 66:4; see also Jeremiah 7:13). Refused; i.e. refused to hearken, as signified in the LXX. ὑπακούσατε. I have stretched out my hand. A forensic gesture to arrest attention. The expression is equivalent to "I have spread out my hands" (Isaiah 65:2); cf. "Then Paul stretched forth the hand (ἐκτείνας τὴν χεῖρα)" (Acts 26:1). Regarded (מַקְשִׁיב, mak'shiv). The original idea of the verb קַשַׁב (kashav), used here, is that of erecting or pricking up the ear, like the Latin arrigere, sc. aures, in Plaut., 'Rud.,' 5, 2, 6; and cf. "arrectisque auribus adstant" (Virgil, 'AEneid,' 1:153). Proverbs 1:24

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The address of Wisdom now takes another course. Between Proverbs 1:23 and Proverbs 1:24 there is a pause, as between Isaiah 1:20 and Isaiah 1:21. In vain Wisdom expects that her complaints and enticements will be heard. Therefore she turns her call to repentance into a discourse announcing judgment.

24 Because I have called, and ye refused;

     Stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

25 And ye have rejected all my counsel

     And to my reproof have not yielded:

26 Therefore will I also laugh at your calamity,

     Will mock when your terror cometh;

27 When like a storm your terror cometh,

     And your destruction swept on like a whirlwind;

     When distress and anguish cometh upon you.

Commencing with יען (which, like מען, from ענה, to oppose, denotes the intention, but more the fundamental reason or the cause than, as למען, the motive or object), the clause, connected with גּם־אני, ego vicissim, turns to the conclusion. As here יען קראתי (as the word of Jahve) are connected by גּם־אני to the expression of the talio in Isaiah 66:4, so also מאם, with its contrast אבה, Isaiah 1:19. The construction quoniam vocavi et renuistis for quoniam quum vocarem renuistis (cf. Isaiah 12:1) is the common diffuse (zerstreute) Semitic, the paratactic instead of the periodizing style. The stretching out of the hand is, like the "spreading out" in Isaiah 65:2, significant of striving to beckon to the wandering, and to bring them near. Regarding הקשׁיב, viz., אזנו, to make the ear still (R. קש), arrigere, incorrectly explained by Schultens, after the Arab ḳashab, polire, by aurem purgare, vid., Isaiah, p. 257, note.