Proverbs: Chapter 19

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.Reading advice:Keep noticing how sayings are related, if only loosely.Notice how themes introduced in previous chapters are touched on again and again.Notice the doublets (14:12, 16:25) and near-doublets (19:5, 19:9).Understand the parallelism:Synonymous (19:5); a comparison is being made, or a statement is begin repeated in a different form.Antithetical (19:12); a contrast is being made. Many of the earlier chapters are filled with this type.Synthetic (19:19); an augmentation of the first line -- the second line elaborates, or builds upon, the first.Salient points:"Zeal without knowledge" (v.2)  is alluded to in Romans 10:3. Many proverbs are echoed or quoted in the N.T.Sleep is good, but like honey if overdone the result is counterproductive (v.15). We will get up on time when we have a reason to get up.Kindness to the poor is lending to the Lord (v.17).V.25 LXX reads "When a pestiferous person is being whipped, a fool will become more crafty." The LXX was the O.T. (and the Bible) of Paul and the apostles who preached outside of Palestine.Challenge:Get control of your sleep habits! Follow your system. Eat right. Exercise! Don't watch electronic screens during the half-hour before bedtime.Even then, you may have to push through fatigue. "The world is run by tired me."I love Longfellow's poem: "The heights by great men reached and kept / Were not attained by sudden flight / But they, while their companions slept / Were toiling upward in the night."Next up: Proverbs 20.