Proverbs 19:3

The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) The foolishness of man perverteth his way.—A man’s own self-will (Proverbs 1:7) overturns his way. stops his progress, whether in temporal or spiritual matters, and then, instead of blaming himself, “his heart fretteth against the Lord.” (Comp. Isaiah 8:21; Revelation 16:10-11.)

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

The non-wisdom which, having brought about disasters by its own perverseness, then turns round and "fretteth," i. e., angrily complains against the Providence of God.

Perverteth - Rather, "overturneth," "maketh to fail."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. perverteth … way—turns him back from right (Pr 13:6; Jas 1:13); and he blames God for his failures.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Perverteth his way; either.

1. Enticeth him to sin. Or rather,

2. Crosseth and blasteth his designs and enterprises, and brings losses and miseries upon him. His heart fretteth against the Lord; he ascribes his unhappiness not to his own sin and folly, which is the true cause of it, but to God and his providence, against which he unjustly murmurs.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The foolishness of man perverteth his way,.... The sinfulness of his heart and nature; the folly which is bound up in it causes him to go astray out of the way in which he should go, or makes things go cross with him; so that the ways he takes do not prosper, nor his schemes succeed; but everything goes against him, and he is brought into straits and difficulties;

and his heart fretteth against the Lord; laying all the blame on him; and ascribing his ill success, not to his own sin and folly, but to divine Providence, which works against him; and therefore frets and murmurs at him; and, instead of charging his own ways with folly, charges the ways of God with inequality; see Ezekiel 18:25.

Geneva Study Bible

The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - The foolishness of man perverteth his way; rather, overturns, turns from the right direction and causes a man to fall (Proverbs 13:6). It is his own folly that leads him to his ruin; but he will not see this, and blames the providence of God. And his heart fretteth against the Lord. Septuagint, "He accuseth God in his heart" (comp. Ezekiel 18:25, 29; Ezekiel 33:17, 20). Ecclus 15:11, etc., "Say not thou, It is through the Lord that I foil away; for thou oughtest not to do the things that he hateth. Say not thou, He has caused me to err; for he hath no need of the sinful man," etc. The latter part of this important passage St. Augustine quotes thus: "Item apud Salomonem: Deus ab initio constituit hominem et reliquit eum in manu consilii sui: adjecit ei mandata et praecepta; si voles praecepta servare, servabunt te, et in posterum fidem placitam facere. Apposuit tibi aquam et ignem, ad quod vis porrige manum tuam. Ante hominem bonum et malum, vita et mors, paupertas et honestas a Domino Deo sunt" ('De Per. Just. Hom.,' cap. 19, § 41). And again, "Manifestum est, quod si ad ignem manum mittit, et malum ac mors ei placet, id votuntas hominis operatur; si autem bonum et vitam diligit, non solum voluntas id agit, sed divinitus adjuvatur" ('De Gest. Pelag.,' cap. 3, § 7). Homer, 'Od.,' 1:32, etc. -

"Perverse mankind! whose wills, created free,
Charge all their woes on absolute decree;
All to the dooming gods their guilt translate,
And follies are miscalled the crimes of fate."

(Pope.) Proverbs 19:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

3 The foolishness of a man overturneth his way,

   And his heart is angry against Jahve.

Regarding סלף, vid., at Proverbs 11:3; also the Arab. signification "to go before" proceeds from the root conception pervertere, for first a letting precede, or preceding (e.g., of the paying before the delivery of that which is paid for: salaf, a pre-numbering, and then also: advanced money), consisting in the reversal of the natural order, is meant. The way is here the way of life, the walking: the folly of a man overturns, i.e., destroys, his life's-course; but although he is himself the fabricator of his own ruin, yet the ill-humour (זעף, aestuare, vid., at Psalm 11:6) of his heart turns itself against God, and he blames (lxx essentially correct: αἰτιᾶται) God instead of himself, viz., his own madness, whereby he has turned the grace of God into lasciviousness, cast to the winds the instruction which lay in His providences, and frustrated the will of God desiring his good. A beautiful paraphrase of this parable is found at Sir. 15:11-20; cf. Lamentations 3:39.