Proverbs 3:9

Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 3:9-10. Honour the Lord with thy substance — Lay out thy estate, not to please thyself, but to glorify God; and with the first-fruits of all thy increase — Or, with the chief, or best; which answers to the first-fruits under the law. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty — This is not the way to diminish thy estate, as covetous and profane persons allege, but rather to increase it.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:7-12 There is not a greater enemy to the fear of the Lord in the heart, than self-conceit of our own wisdom. The prudence and sobriety which religion teaches, tend not only to the health of the soul, but to the health of the body. Worldly wealth is but poor substance, yet, such as it is, we must honour God with it; and those that do good with what they have, shall have more to do more good with. Should the Lord visit us with trials and sickness, let us not forget that the exhortation speaks to us as to children, for our good. We must not faint under an affliction, be it ever so heavy and long, not be driven to despair, or use wrong means for relief. The father corrects the son whom he loves, because he loves him, and desires that he may be wise and good. Afflictions are so far from doing God's children any hurt, that, by the grace of God, they promote their holiness.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

"Substance" points to capital, "increase" to revenue. The Septuagint as if to guard against ill-gotten gains being offered as an atonement for the ill-getting, inserts the quaifying words, "honor the Lord from thy righteous labors."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9, 10. (Compare Pr 11:25; Ex 23:19; De 18:4; Isa 32:8; 2Co 9:13).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

With thy substance; or, with thy riches. Lay out thy estate not only to please and advance thyself or family, but also to glorify God; which is done by the payment of all those offerings and dues which God hath required; by giving according to thy abilities whatsoever is necessary for the support and advancement of God’s worship and service in the world; by free and liberal contributions to those whom God hath made his deputies, and, as I may say, the receivers of his rents, to wit, faithful ministers and good Christians, and all others who need and require thy help. The performance of these duties is here called an honouring of God, partly because that word is sometimes used for giving of gifts, as 1 Timothy 5:17, and elsewhere; and partly because it is, a testimony of our respects to God, of our obedience to him as our sovereign Lord, and that in hard and costly duties, of our thankfulness to him as our chief Benefactor and Donor of all that we have, and of our belief of his promises made to the faithful practisers of this duty; which if they were believed, the most covetous persons would be the most charitable.

With the first-fruits; or, with the chief, or best, or first, which answers to the first-fruits under the law.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Honour the Lord with thy substance,.... Or, "out of thy substance" (n); for as it should be a man's own that he gives, and not another's, and therefore called "thy substance"; or, as the Septuagint version, "out of thy just labours", what is righteously and lawfully gotten, and not by fraud and oppression; so it is only a part of it, and not all, that is required; what in proportion to his substance can be prudently spared, and is sufficient and suitable to the call in Providence. A man's "substance" are his wealth and riches; his "mammon", as the Targum; which, in comparison of heavenly things, indeed have no substance in them: yet these are worldly substance, and of account; and as with these God has honoured men, they should honour him with them again, by giving to the poor, especially his poor saints; for as an oppressing of them is a reproaching of him, so having mercy on them is honouring him, Proverbs 14:31; and especially by contributing to the support of his worship, the keeping up the interest and credit of religion, and for the spread of the Gospel; and chiefly by communicating to the ministers of it, giving them the "double honour" which is due to them, and which, when given them, the Lord takes as done to himself, as an honouring him, 1 Timothy 5:17;

and with the firstfruits of all thine increase; or, "out of the chief of all thine increase" (o); God must have the best, and in the first place. The allusion is either to the maintenance of the priests and Levites under the law, and the manner of doing it; which, among other things, was out of the annual produce of the earth, and the firstfruits of it; and may respect the comfortable support of Gospel ministers under the present dispensation; see 1 Corinthians 9:13; or to the firstfruits of every kind offered to the Lord, and to the feast kept sacred to him at the ingathering the fruits of the earth, Leviticus 23:10; and even among the Heathens formerly were something of the same kind. Aristotle says (p) the ancient sacrifices and assemblies were instituted as firstfruits, after the gathering of the fruits, at which time especially they ceased from working.

(n) "e substantia tua", Montanus; "de substantia tua", Baynus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "de divitiis tuis", Mercerus, Gejerus; "de opibus tuis", Tigurine version, Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens. (o) "de praecipuo totius proventus tui", Junius & Tremellius. (p) Ethic. l. 8. c. 11.

Geneva Study Bible

{f} Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:

(f) As was commanded in the law, Ex 23:19, De 26:2 and by this they acknowledged that God was the giver of all things, and that they were ready to bestow all at his commandment.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. substance … increase] Perhaps (as Speaker’s Comm.) capital, and revenue. It is interesting that (as there pointed out) the LXX. qualify both words, by restricting them to “righteous,” well-gotten wealth: ἀπὸ σῶν δικαίων πόνων … ἀπὸ σῶν καρπῶν δικαιοσύνης. Restitution is the true consecration of unrighteous gain, Luke 19:8.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - Honour the Lord with thy substance, etc. An exhortation to self-sacrificing devotion by the appropriation and use of wealth to the service of Jehovah. With thy substance (mehonehka); Vulgate, de tua substantia; LXX., ἀπὸ σῶν δικαίων πόνων. Hon, properly "lightness," is "opulence," "wealth," as in Proverbs 1:13. The min in composition with hon is not partitive, as Delitzsch and Berthean take it, but signifies "with" or "by means of," as in Psalm 38:7; Isaiah 58:12; Ezekiel 28:18; Obadiah 1:9. The insertion of δικαίος by the LXX. limits the wealth to that which is justly acquired, and so guards against the erroneous idea that God is honoured by the appropriation to his use of unlawful wealth or gain (Plumptre). The Israelites "honoured Jehovah with their substance" when they contributed towards the erection of the tabernacle in the wilderness, and later when they assisted in the preparations for the building of the temple, and in the payment of tithes. The injunction may undoubtedly refer to tithes, and is in accordance with the requirement of the Mosaic Law on that and other points as to oblations, free will offerings, etc.; but it has a wider bearing and contemplates the use of wealth for all pious and charitable purposes (see Proverbs 14:31). The word maaser, "tithe," does not occur in the Proverbs. With the firstfruits (mere-shith); Vulgate, de primitiis. So Targum Jonathan, Syriac, and Arabic. The law of the firstfruits is found in Exodus 22:29; Exodus 23:19; Exodus 34:20; Leviticus 23:10; Numbers 18:12: Deuteronomy 18:4; Deuteronomy 26:1-3. The firstfruits were presented by every Israelite to the priests, in token of gratitude and humble thankfulness to Jehovah, and consisted of the produce of the land in its natural state, or prepared for human food (Maclear, 'Old Test. Hist.,' bk. 4, c. 3, a). The "firstfruits" also carried with it the idea of the best. The custom of offering the firstfruits of the field and other revenues as a religious obligation was observed by ancient pagan nations (see Diod. Sic., 1:14; Plut., 'De Iside,' p. 377; Pliny, 'Hist. Nat.,' 18:2 (Zockler). Some of the ancient commentators find in this verse an argument for the support of the ministry. It is well known that the priests "lived of the sacrifice," and were "partakers of the altar," and as their support by these means tended to the maintenance of Divine worship, so those who supported them were in the highest degree "honoring God." The injunctions also show that the honouring of God does not consist simply of lip service, of humility and confidence in him, but also of external worship, and in corporeal things. They are not peculiar to Israel, but are binding on all. They oppose all selfish use of God's temporal gifts, and lead to the thought that, in obeying them, we are only giving back to God what are his own. "The silver and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts" (Haggai 2:28).

"We give thee but thine own,
Whate'er the gift may be;
All that we have is thine shine,
A trust, O Lord, from thee."

(Day's 'Psalter.') Proverbs 3:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

9 Honour Jahve with thy wealth,

   And with the first-fruits of all thine increase:

10 Then shall thy barns be filled with plenty,

   And thy vats overflow with must.

It may surprise us that the Chokma, being separated from the ceremonial law, here commends the giving of tithes. But in the first place, the consciousness of the duty of giving tithes is older than the Mosaic law, Genesis 28:22; in this case, the giving of tithes is here a general ethical expression. עשּׂר and מעשׂר do not occur in the Book of Proverbs; in the post-biblical phraseology the tithes are called חלק הגּבהּ, the portion of the Most High. כּבּד, as the Arab. waḳḳra, to make heavy, then to regard and deal with as weighty and solemn (opp. קלּל, to regard and treat as light, from קלל equals Arab. hân, to be light). הון, properly lightness in the sense of aisance, opulency, forms with כּבּד an oxymoron (fac Jovam gravem de levitate tua), but one aimed at by the author neither at Proverbs 1:13 nor here. מן (in מהונך and 'מר, Proverbs 3:9) is in both cases partitive, as in the law of the Levitical tenths, Leviticus 27:30, and of the Challa (heave-offering of dough), Numbers 15:21, where also ראשׁית (in Hebrews 7:4, ἀκροθίνια) occurs in a similar sense, cf. Numbers 18:12 (in the law of the Theruma or wave-offering of the priests), as also תּבוּאה in the law of the second tenths, Deuteronomy 14:22, cf. Numbers 18:30 (in the law of the tenths of the priests).