The Folly of Wickedness

Proverbs 11

Proverbs 11:¹ Dishonest (deceptive) scales are an abomination to the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ),
But a just weight (Lit. perfect stone) is His delight.

• Reference Daniel 5: King Belshazzar – You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.

Proverbs 11:² When pride comes, then comes shame;
But with the humble is wisdom.

• The sin of men is their pride. The pride of man is his vanity. The vanity of man is emptiness, worthlessness, and futility. An empty man who tries to fill his emptiness without God makes himself bigger, puffed up in pride, and makes himself emptier.
  Pride makes fools of men.

Proverbs 11:³ The integrity of the upright will guide them,
But the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.

Proverbs 11:⁴ Riches do not profit in the day of wrath,
But righteousness delivers from death.

• The tribulation is called “The Day of the Lord’s wrath”.
  • Ezekiel 7:19 ‘They will throw their silver into the streets, And their gold will be like refuse; Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them In the day of the wrath of the Lord; They will not satisfy their souls, Nor fill their stomachs, Because it became their stumbling block of iniquity.

Proverbs 11:⁵ The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way aright (Or make smooth or straight),
But the wicked will fall by his own wickedness.

Proverbs 11:⁶ The righteousness of the upright will deliver them,
But the unfaithful will be caught by their lust.

Proverbs 11:⁷ When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish,
And the hope of the unjust perishes.

Proverbs 11:⁸ The righteous is delivered from trouble,
And it comes to the wicked instead.

• A river is diverted and it leaves one hole, to fill another.
• You can’t dig a hole to fill a hole.

Proverbs 11:⁹ The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor,
But through knowledge the righteous will be delivered.

Proverbs 11:¹⁰ When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices;
And when the wicked perish, there is jubilation.

The area that is now the Forum was just a swampy wetland. It was near the Tiber River, between the seven hills of Rome.

• The Death of Tiberius Caesar. (The Caesar during Jesus’ ministry)
  The people were so much elated at his death, that when they first heard the news, they ran up and down the city, some, crying out “Away with Tiberius to the Tiber;” others exclaiming, “May the earth, the common mother of mankind, and the infernal gods, allow him no abode in death, but amongst the wicked.” Others threatened his body with the hook and the Gemonian stairs (stairs of death), their indignation at his former cruelty being increased by a recent atrocity. It had been provided by an act of the senate, that the execution of condemned criminals should always be deferred until the tenth day after the sentence. Now this fell on the very day when the news of Tiberius’s death arrived, and in consequence of which the unhappy men implored a reprieve, for mercy’s sake; but. as Caius had not yet arrived, and there was no one else to whom application could be made on their behalf, their guards, apprehensive of violating the law, strangled them, and threw them down the Gemonian stairs. This roused the people to a still greater abhorrence of the tyrant’s memory, since his cruelty continued in use even after he was dead. As soon as his corpse was begun to be moved from Misenum, many cried out for its being carried to Atella, and being half burnt there in the amphitheatre. It was, however, brought to Rome, and burnt with the usual ceremony.
  ^{Suetonius: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars; An English Translation, Augmented with the Biographies of Contemporary Statesmen, Orators, Poets, and Other Associates. Suetonius. Publishing Editor. J. Eugene Reed. Alexander Thomson. Philadelphia. Gebbie & Co. 1889.}
• The Gemonian Stairs were a flight of steps located in the ancient city of Rome. Nicknamed the Stairs of Mourning, the stairs are infamous in Roman history as a place of execution.
• The Mamertine Prison, in antiquity the Tullianum, was a prison with a dungeon located in the Comitium in ancient Rome. It is said to have been built in the 7th century BC and was situated on the northeastern slope of the Capitoline Hill, facing the Curia and the imperial fora of Nerva, Vespasian, and Augustus. Located between it and the Tabularium (record house) was a flight of stairs leading to the Arx of the Capitoline known as the Gemonian stairs.
• Saint Paul’s imprisonment in Mamertine Prison is well referenced by his Roman citizenship and decree of execution by Nero. See: II Timothy Chapter 4.
  

Proverbs 11:¹¹ By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted,
But it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.

Proverbs 11:¹² He who is devoid of wisdom (Lit. lacks heart) despises his neighbor,
But a man of understanding holds his peace.

Proverbs 11:¹³ A talebearer reveals secrets,
But he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter.

• To conceal a matter is to use discretion.

Proverbs 11:¹⁴ Where there is no counsel, the people fall;
But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.

Proverbs 11:¹⁵ He who is surety (guaranty) for a stranger will suffer,
But one who hates being surety (those pledging guaranty, lit. those who strike hands) is secure.

Proverbs 11:¹⁶ A gracious woman retains honor,
But ruthless men retain riches.

• To be gracious is to give grace in an appropriate way.

Proverbs 11:¹⁷ The merciful man does good for his own soul,
But he who is cruel troubles his own flesh.

• To be cruel to another is to be cruel to yourself.

Proverbs 11:¹⁸ The wicked man does deceptive work,
But he who sows righteousness will have a sure reward.

Proverbs 11:¹⁹ As righteousness leads to life,
So he who pursues evil pursues it to his own death.

Proverbs 11:²⁰ Those who are of a perverse heart are an abomination to the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ),
But the blameless in their ways are His delight.

Proverbs 11:²¹ Though they join forces (Lit. hand in hand), the wicked will not go unpunished;
But the posterity of the righteous will be delivered.

• Revelation 16:16 And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.

Proverbs 11:²² As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout,
So is a lovely woman who lacks discretion (acts shamefully).

• Discretion: judgment, wisdom, discrimination, sense, or prudence in word and action.
  See Exodus 6:30 (uncircumcised)
• As a waste of beauty, so a waste of gold.

Proverbs 11:²³ The desire of the righteous is only good,
But the expectation of the wicked is wrath.

Proverbs 11:²⁴ There is one who scatters, yet increases more;
And there is one who withholds more than is right,
But it leads to poverty.

• The generous receives, the miser dies one cent at a time.
• To be self absorbed is like having cancer. Your tumor is your hoard and you continuously feed your tumor. It grows and it grows until it destroys its host.

Proverbs 11:²⁵ The generous soul will be made rich,
And he who waters will also be watered himself.

• You cannot out give God.

Proverbs 11:²⁶ The people will curse him who withholds grain,
But blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.

Proverbs 11:²⁷ He who earnestly seeks good finds (Lit. seeks) favor,
But trouble will come to him who seeks evil.

Proverbs 11:²⁸ He who trusts in his riches will fall,
But the righteous will flourish like foliage.

Proverbs 11:²⁹ He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind,
And the fool will be servant to the wise of heart.

Proverbs 11:³⁰ The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
And he who wins souls (Lit. takes, in the sense of brings, cf. 1 Sam. 16:11) is wise.

• Fruit from the Tree of life never rots but drips with wine forever.

Proverbs 11:³¹ If the righteous will be recompensed (rewarded) on the earth,
How much more the ungodly and the sinner.

• Justice comes from both hands, the left and the right.