Proverbs 29:1

He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

XXIX.

(1) Hardeneth his neck.—And will not bear the “easy yoke” of God. (Comp. Matthew 11:29-30.)

Shall suddenly be destroyed.—Literally, shattered, like a potter’s vessel that cannot be mended (Jeremiah 19:11; Isa. xxx 14).

And that without remedy.—For what more can be done for him, if he has despised God’s warnings? (Comp. Hebrews 6:4, sqq.)

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 29:1. He that being often reproved — Who having received frequent reproofs from wise and good men, and perhaps also chastisements from God; hardeneth his neck — Remains incorrigible, and obstinately persists in those sins for which he is reproved and corrected; shall suddenly be destroyed — Is in danger of falling, and that on a sudden, into utter and irreparable ruin.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

29:1 If God wounds, who can heal? The word of God warns all to flee from the wrath to come, to the hope set before us in Jesus Christ. 2. The people have cause to rejoice or mourn, as their rulers are righteous or wicked. 3. Divine wisdom best keeps us from ruinous lusts. 4. The Lord Jesus is the King who will minister true judgment to the people. 5. Flatterers put men off their guard, which betrays them into foolish conduct. 6. Transgressions always end in vexations. Righteous men walk at liberty, and walk in safety. 7. This verse is applicable to compassion for the distress of the poor, and the unfeeling disregard shown by the wicked. 8. The scornful mock at things sacred and serious. Men who promote religion, which is true wisdom, turn away the wrath of God. 9. If a wise man dispute with a conceited wrangler, he will be treated with anger or ridicule; and no good is done. 10. Christ told his disciples that they should be hated of all men. The just, whom the blood-thirsty hate, gladly do any thing for their salvation.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Shall be destroyed - literally, "shall be broken" Proverbs 6:15. Stress is laid on the suddenness in such a case of the long-delayed retribution.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 29

Pr 29:1-27.

1. hardeneth … neck—obstinately refuses counsel (2Ki 17:14; Ne 9:16).

destroyed—literally, "shivered" or "utterly broken to pieces."

without remedy—literally, "without healing" or repairing.The excellency of wisdom, with rules for government, Proverbs 29:1-14. The parents’ duty to correct their children, Proverbs 29:15-17. The misery of them that know not God’s law, Proverbs 29:18. Of anger, pride, thieving, cowardice, and corruption, Proverbs 29:19-26. The godly and wicked an abomination to each other, Proverbs 29:27.

Hardeneth his neck; is incorrigible, and obstinately persists in those sins for which he is reproved.

Without remedy, utterly and irrecoverably.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He that being often reported hardeneth his neck,.... Or "a man of reproofs" (d); either a man that takes upon him to be a censurer and reprover of others, and is often at that work, and yet does those things himself which he censures and reproves in others; and therefore must have an impudent face and a hard heart a seared conscience and a stiff neck; his neck must be an iron sinew and his brow brass: or rather a man that is often reproved by others by parents by ministers of the Gospel, by the Lord himself, by the admonitions of his word and Spirit and by the correcting dispensations of his providence; and yet despises and rejects all counsel and admonition, instruction and reproofs of every kind, and hardens himself against them and shows no manner of regard unto them. The metaphor is taken from oxen, which kick and toss about and will not suffer the yoke to be put upon their necks. Such an one

shall suddenly be destroyed; or "broken" (e); as a potter's vessel is broken to pieces with an iron rod, and can never he put together again; so such persons shall be punished with everlasting destruction, which shall come upon them suddenly, when they are crying Peace to themselves notwithstanding the reproofs of God and men;

and that without remedy; or, "and there is no healing" (f); no cure of their disease, which is obstinate; no pardon of their sins; no recovery of them out of their miserable and undone state and condition; they are irretrievably lost; there is no help for them, having despised advice and instruction; see Proverbs 5:12.

(d) "vir increpationum", Vatablus, Montanus, Mercerus, Gejerus; "vir correptionum", Piscator, Michaelis; "vir redargutionum", Schultens. (e) "conteretur", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, &c. "confringetur", Schultens; so Baynus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius. (f) "et non (erit) sanitas", Pagninus, Montanus, Baynus; "non sit curatio", Junius & Tremellius; "medicina", Piscator.

Geneva Study Bible

He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

1. hardeneth his neck] like an obstinate and refractory ox. The same phrase occurs in Deuteronomy 10:16; 2 Kings 17:14. Comp. the similar phrase, stiff-necked, or hard-necked (the Heb. root being the same) Exodus 32:9; Deuteronomy 9:6; Acts 7:51 (σκληροτράχηλοι); and for other figurative expressions drawn from the use of oxen, Jeremiah 31:18; Acts 26:14.

destroyed] Rather, broken, R.V., as in Proverbs 6:15, A.V.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 1. - He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck; literally, a man of reproofs - one who has had a long experience of rebukes and warnings. Compare "a man of sorrows" (Isaiah 53:3). The hardening of the neck is a metaphor derived from obstinate draught animals who will not submit to the yoke (Deuteronomy 10:16; Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 27:8). Christ calls his yoke easy, and bids his followers to bear it bravely (Matthew 11:29. etc.). The reproofs may arise from the Holy Spirit and the conscience, from the teaching of the past, or from the counsel of friends. The LXX. (as some other Jewish interpreters) takes the expression in the text actively, "A man who reproves (ἐλέγχων) is better than one of stiff neck." Shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy (Proverbs 6:15; Proverbs 15:10). The incorrigible and self-deluding sinners shall come to a fearful and sudden end, though retribution be delayed (comp. Job 34:20; Psalm 2:9; Jeremiah 19:11). And there is no hope in their end; despising all correction, they can have no possibility of restoration. We may refer, as an illustration, to that terrible passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 6:4, etc.), and to the fate of the Jews unto the present day. Septuagint, "For when he is burning suddenly, there is no remedy." Proverbs 29:1

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

A general ethical proverb here follows:

A man often corrected who hardeneth his neck,

Shall suddenly go to ruin without remedy.

Line second equals Proverbs 6:15. The connection אישׁ תּוכחות must make the nearest impression on a reader of the Book of Proverbs that they mean a censurer (reprehender), but which is set aside by what follows, for the genit. after אישׁ is, Proverbs 16:29; Proverbs 26:21; Proverbs 29:10; Proverbs 13:20, the designation of that which proceeds from the subject treated. And since תּוכחות, Psalm 37:15; Job 23:4, denotes counter evidence, and generally rejoinders, thus in the first line a reasoner is designated who lets nothing be said to him, and nothing be shown to him, but contradicts all and every one. Thus e.g., Fleischer: vir qui correptus contradicit et cervicem obdurat. But this interpolated correptus gives involuntary testimony of this, that the nearest lying impression of the 'אישׁ תו suffers a change by מקשׁה ערף: if we read הקשׁה (לב) ערף with 'תו, the latter then designates the correptio, over against which is placed obstinate boldness (Syr., Targ., Jerome, Luther), and 'תו shows itself thus to be gen. objecti, and we have to compare the gen. connection of אישׁ, as at Proverbs 18:23; Proverbs 21:17, or rather at 1 Kings 20:42 and Jeremiah 15:10. But it is unnecessary, with Hitzig, to limit 'תו to divine infliction of punishment, and after Hosea 5:9; Isaiah 37:3, to read תוכחות [punishment], which occurs, Psalm 149:7, in the sense of punishment inflicted by man.

(Note: Vid., Zunz, "Regarding the Idea and the Use of Tokhecha," in Steinschneider's Heb. Bibliographia, entitled המחכיר, 1871, p. 70f.)

Besides, we must think first not of actual punishment, but of chastening, reproving words; and the man to whom are spoken the reproving words is one whose conduct merits more and more severe censure, and continually receives correction from those who are concerned for his welfare. Hitzig regards the first line as a conditional clause: "Is a man of punishment stiff-necked?".... This is syntactically impossible. Only מקשׁה ערף could have such force: a man of punishment, if he.... But why then did not the author rather write the words והוא מקשׁה ערף? Why then could not מקשׁה ערף be a co-ordinated further description of the man? Cf. e.g., Exodus 17:21. The door of penitence, to which earnest, well-meant admonition calls a man, does not always remain open. He who with stiff-necked persistence in sin and in self-delusion sets himself in opposition to all endeavours to save his soul, shall one day suddenly, and without the prospect and possibility of restoration (cf. Jeremiah 19:11), become a wreck. Audi doctrinam si vis vitare ruinam.