Proverbs 15:25

The LORD will destroy the house of the proud: but he will establish the border of the widow.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) The proud—who trust in their own strength; while He will “establish the border,” or landmark, of the helpless widow, who has none to cry to but Him. The frequently threatened punishment against one who removes his neighbour’s landmark, shews the offence to have been a common form of oppression. (Comp. Deuteronomy 19:14; Deuteronomy 27:17; Proverbs 22:28; Job 24:2; Hosea 5:10.)

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 15:25. The Lord will destroy the house of the proud — Of the most mighty oppressors, who suppose themselves to be immoveably fixed; or the family of haughty men, who, forgetting him, trample upon their inferiors; but he will establish the border of the widow — The estate, the border being often used for the land within the borders: he will preserve her in her right, who hath no helper, even though such insolent and powerful persons invade it. Trust not, therefore, in riches and power, but in the great Lord of the world, who possesses and disposes of all things.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:25. Pride is the ruin of multitudes. But those who are in affliction God will support. 26. The thoughts of wicked men offend Him who knows the heart. 27. The covetous man lets none of his family have rest or enjoyment. And greediness of gain often tempts to projects that bring ruin. 28. A good man is proved to be a wise man by this; he governs his tongue well.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The widow - Here, as elsewhere Deuteronomy 10:18; Psalm 68:5, the widow, as the most extreme type of desolation, stands as the representative of a class safer in their poverty under the protection of the Lord, than the proud in the haughtiness of their strength.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. The most desolate who have God's aid have more permanent good than the self-reliant sinner (Pr 2:22; 12:7).

border—or, "boundary for possessions" (Ps 78:54).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Of the proud; of the most mighty oppressors, who conceit themselves to be unmovably fixed.

The border; either,

1. The estate, the border being oft used for the land within the borders, as Psalm 105:31,33, and elsewhere. Or,

2. The border by which lands were then bounded and distinguished, which those proud persons endeavoured to remove contrary to God’s law, Deu 19:14 27:17.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Lord will destroy the house of the proud,.... To whom he has the utmost aversion; he sets himself against them and resists them, and will not only destroy them, but their stately houses too, which their have fancied shall continue for ever; and also their families, their children and posterity; these shall be as stubble, and shall be burnt up in his wrath, and neither root nor branch left. Moreover, the man of sin, the son of perdition, may be more especially intended, that exalts himself above all that is called God, with all the sons of pride supported by him; his house, which is the house of the foolish and adulterous woman, the idolatrous church of Rome, shall be rooted up; the city of Rome, the seat of the beast itself, where his house or palace is, shall be destroyed, and all that belong unto him, even all they that have destroyed the earth, Revelation 11:18;

but he will establish the border of the widow; whose advocate, judge, and defender he is; when men, rich, proud, and oppressive, attempt to remove the landmark of the widow's border, and so lessen her land and enlarge their own, God will not suffer it to be done, but will establish it in its place; that is, such who are weak and helpless, as widows are, and cannot defend themselves and their property, he will protect them and secure it for them. So the church of Christ, during the reign of antichrist, being obliged to flee into the wilderness, looks like a widow deprived of her husband, and has but "little strength" to support and defend herself, as is said of the church of Philadelphia, Revelation 3:8; yet the Lord will secure and preserve her, and firmly settle and establish her, yea, enlarge her borders, and make them of pleasant stones; spread the kingdom of Christ from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. Frequent mention is made of the establishing of the church in the latter day, Psalm 48:8, Isaiah 2:2.

Geneva Study Bible

The LORD will destroy the house of the proud: but he will establish the border of the widow.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. destroy] Rather, root up, R.V., in contrast with establish in the next clause.

widow] As typical of the humble and poor. Comp. Psalm 68:5, and for the sentiment 1 Peter 5:5.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - The Lord will destroy the house of the proud (ch. 12:7; 14:11; 16:18). The proud, self-confident man, with his family and household and wealth, shall be rooted up. The heathen saw how retribution overtook the arrogant. Thus Euripides says ('Heracl.,' 387) -

Τῶν φρονημάτων
Ὁ Ζεὺς κολαστὴς τῶν ἄγαν ὑπερφρόνων

"Zeus, the chastiser of too haughty thoughts." But he will establish the border of the widow. He will take the widow under his protection, and see that her landmark is not removed, and that her little portion is secured to her. The widow is taken as the type of weakness and desolation, as often in Scripture (comp. Deuteronomy 10:18; Psalm 146:9). In a country where property was defined by landmarks - stones or some such objects - nothing was easier than to remove these altogether, or to alter their position. That this was a common form of fraud and oppression we gather from the stringency of the enactments against the offence (see Deuteronomy 19:14; Deuteronomy 27:17; and comp. Job 24:2; Proverbs 22:28). In the Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions which have been preserved, there are many invoking curses, curious and multifarious, against the disturbers of boundaries. Such marks were considered sacred and inviolable by the Greeks and Romans (see Plato, 'De Leg.,' 8:842, 843; Ovid, 'Fast.,' 2:639, etc.). Proverbs 15:25

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

25 The house of the proud Jahve rooteth out,

     And He establisheth the landmark of the widow.

The power unnamed in יסּחוּ, Proverbs 2:22 (cf. Proverbs 14:11), is here named יסּח יהוה (thus to be pointed with Mercha and Pasek following). יצּב is the abbreviated fut. form which the elevated style, e.g., Deuteronomy 32:8, uses also as indic. - a syntactical circumstance which renders Hitzig's correction ויּצּב superfluous. It is the border of the land-possession of the widows, removed by the גּאים (lxx ὑβριστῶν), that is here meant. The possession of land in Israel was secured by severe punishment inflicted in him who removed the "landmark" (Deuteronomy 19:14; Deuteronomy 27:17), and the Chokma (Proverbs 22:28; Proverbs 24:2) as well as the prophets (e.g., Hosea 5:10) inculcate the inviolability of the borders of the possession, as the guardian of which Jahve here Himself appears.