Proverbs 3:3 Let not mercy and truth forsake you: bind them about your neck; write them on the table of your heart: A double metaphor, wherein keeping mercy and truth, or exercising them outwardly, is compared to tying a gold chain about the neck for ornament; and retaining them in the heart is compared to things written in a table-book, that they may not be forgotten. 1. Duties to men are to be made conscience of, as well as duties to God. 2. Mercy and truth should always go together; because both are ornaments to us. Men wear lace on good clothes, so doth mercy adorn truth. Both are profitable unto others. 3. The want of one buries the commendation of the other. 4. Both are together in God, else could we look for no favour from Him. Truth is required in all our dealings with men; but truth must always be tempered and toned with mercy. (Francis Taylor.) Parallel Verses KJV: Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: |
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