Proverbs 19:10

Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) Delight is not seemly for a fool.—He is ruined by prosperity and luxury: much more is a slave unfit to rule over princes. The writer has in his mind the case of an emancipated slave being raised to high place by court favour, and then insolently trampling on those who were once far above him. (Comp. Proverbs 30:22; Ecclesiastes 10:6-7.)

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 19:10. Delight is not seemly for a fool — To live in affluence, pleasure, and outward glory, doth not become him, nor suit with him; because prosperity corrupts even wise men, and makes fools mad; and because it gives him more opportunity to discover his folly, and to do mischief both to himself and others. He implies that a rod, or punishment, is fitter for him than pleasure; much less for a servant — For one who has been a slave, or who is in a servile condition, and of a servile disposition, not much differing from a fool; or who is a servant to his lusts, and wholly unfit to rule other men; to have rule over princes — Over men of better quality than himself: for servants are commonly ignorant; and when they are advanced, they grow insolent, presumptuous, and intolerable.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:3. Men run into troubles by their own folly, and then fret at the appointments of God. 4. Here we may see how strong is men's love of money. 5. Those that tell lies in discourse, are in a fair way to be guilty of bearing false-witness. 6. We are without excuse if we do not love God with all our hearts. His gifts to us are past number, and all the gifts of men to us are fruits of his bounty. 7. Christ was left by all his disciples; but the Father was with him. It encourages our faith that he had so large an experience of the sorrows of poverty. 8. Those only love their souls aright that get true wisdom. 9. Lying is a damning, destroying sin. 10. A man that has not wisdom and grace, has no right or title to true joy. It is very unseemly for one who is a servant to sin, to oppress God's free-men.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

"Delight," high unrestrained enjoyment, is to the "fool" who lacks wisdom but a temptation and a snare. The second clause carries the thought on to what the despotism of Eastern monarchies often presented, the objectionable rule of some favored slave, it might be, of alien birth, over the princes and nobles of the land.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. (Compare Pr 17:7). The fool is incapable of properly using pleasure as knowledge, yet for him to have it is less incongruous than the undue elevation of servants. Let each abide in his calling (1Co 7:20).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Delight, to live in pleasure, and plenty, and outward glory,

is not seemly for a fool; it doth not become him, nor suit with him; partly because prosperity corrupts even wise men, and makes fools mad; and partly because it gives him more opportunity to discover his folly, and to do mischief both to himself and others. He implies that a rod or punishment is fitter for him than pleasure, as is noted, Proverbs 10:13 26:3.

A servant; who is of a servile condition and disposition, not much differing from a fool; who is a servant to his lusts, and wholly unfit to rule other men.

Over princes, i.e. over men of better quality than himself; for servants are commonly ignorant, and when they are advanced, they grow insolent, and presumptuous, and intolerable.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Delight is not seemly for a fool,.... Such an one as Nabal, whose name and nature were alike; and whose prosperity ill became him, and the mirth and delight he had in it, 1 Samuel 25:25; for, as the wise man elsewhere says, "the prosperity of fools shall destroy them", Proverbs 1:26; they do not know how to make a right use of their prosperity; nor to moderate their enjoyments, pleasures, and delights. Some understand this of spiritual delight in the Lord; in his ways and ordinances, which wicked men are strangers to: and a very uncomely thing it is for such persons to talk of spiritual joy and delight, and of their communion with God, when they live in sin;

much less for a servant to have rule over princes; this was a sight which Solomon had seen, but was very disagreeable to him; and was one of the four things the earth cannot bear; the insolence of a servant, when he becomes master over his superiors, is intolerable; see Proverbs 30:22. It may be spiritually applied to such who are servants of sin; to whose sensual appetites and carnal affections the more noble and princely powers of the soul, the understanding and mind, become subject; which is very improper and unseemly.

Geneva Study Bible

{c} Delight is not proper for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes.

(c) The free use of things are not to be permitted to him who cannot use them correctly.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. delight] Rather, luxury, or delicate living, R.V. οὐ συμφέρει ἄφρονι τρυφὴ, LXX. Comp. οἱ ἐν τρυφῇ ὑπάρχοντες ἐν τοῖς βασιλείοις εἰσίν, Luke 7:25; as “a servant” would be if he had “rule over princes.”

On this second clause Dean Plumptre (Speaker’s Comm.) quotes Claudian in Eutrop. 1. 183:

“nec bellua tetrior ulla est,

Quam servi rabies in libera colla furentis.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - Delight is not seemly for a fool (comp. Proverbs 17:7; Proverbs 26:1). Taanug, rendered "delight," implies other delicate living, luxury; τρυφή, Septuagint. Such a life is ruin to a fool. who knows not how to use it properly; it confirms him in his foolish, sinful ways. A man needs religion and reason to enable him to bear prosperity advantageously, and these the fool lacks. "Secundae res," remarks Sallust ('Catil.,' 11), "sapientium animos fatigant," "Even wise men are wearied and harassed by prosperity," much more must such good fortune try those who have no practical wisdom to guide and control their enjoyment. Vatablus explains the clause to mean that it is impossible for a fool, a sinner, to enjoy peace of conscience, which alone is true delight. But looking to the next clause, we see that the moralist is thinking primarily of the elevation of a slave to a high position, and his arrogance in consequence thereof. Much less for a servant to have rule over princes. By the unwise favouritism of a potentate, a slave of lowly birth might be raised to eminence and set above the nobles and princes of the land. The writer of Ecclesiastes gives his experience in this matter: "I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth" (Ecclesiastes 10:7). The same anomaly is mentioned with censure (Proverbs 30:22 and Ecclus. 11:5). What is the behaviour of unworthy persons thus suddenly raised to high position has formed the subject of many a satire. It is the old story of the "beggar on horseback." A German proverb declares, "Kein Scheermesser scharfer schiest, als wenn der Bauer zu Herrn wird." Claud., 'In Eutrop.,' 181, etc.

"Asperius nihil est humili, quum surgit in altum;
Cuncta ferit, dum cuncta timet; desaevit in omnes,
Ut se posse putent; nec bellua tetrior ulla
Quam servi rabies in libera colla furentis." As an example of a different disposition, Cornelius a Lapide refers to the history of Agathocles. Tyrant of Syracuse, who rose from the humble occupation of a potter to a position of vast power, and, to remind himself of his lowly origin, used to dine off mean earthenware. Ausonius thus alludes to this humility ('Epigr.,' 8.) -

"Fama est fictilibus coenasse Agathoclea regem,
Atque abacum Samio saepe onerasse luto;
Fercula gemmatis cum poneret horrida vasis,
Et misceret opes pauperiemque simul.

Quaerenti causam, respondit: Rex ego qui sum
Sicaniae, figulo sum genitore satus
Fortunam reverenter habe, quicunque repente
Dives ab exili progrediere loco." Proverbs 19:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

10 Luxury becometh not a fool;

     How much less a servant to rule over princes.

Thus also with לא נאוה (3 p. Pil. non decet, cf. the adj. Proverbs 26:1) Proverbs 17:7 begins. אף כּי rises here, as at Proverbs 19:7, a minori ad majus: how much more is it unbecoming equals how much less is it seemly. The contrast in the last case is, however, more rugged, and the expression harsher. "A fool cannot bear luxury: he becomes by it yet more foolish; one who was previously a humble slave, but who has attained by good fortune a place of prominence and power, from being something good, becomes at once something bad: an insolent sceleratus" (Fl.). Agur, xxx. 22f., describes such a homo novus as an unbearable calamity; and the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes, written in the time of the Persian domination, speaks, Ecclesiastes 10:7, of such. The lxx translates, καὶ ἐὰν οἰκέτης ἄρξηται μεθ ̓ ὕβρεως δυναστεύειν, rendering the phrase כּשׂרים by μεθ ̓ ὕβρεως, but all other translators had בּשׂרים before them.