SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:7
¶ El principio del conocimiento es el temor del SEŃOR; los locos despreciaron la sabiduría y el castigo.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Proverbs 1:7
Verse 7. The fear of the Lord ] In the preceding verses Solomon shows the advantage of acting according to the dictates of wisdom; in the following verses he shows the danger of acting contrary to them. The fear of the Lord signifies that religious reverence which every intelligent being owes to his Creator; and is often used to express the whole of religion, as we have frequently had occasion to remark in different places. But what is religion? The love of God, and the love of man; the former producing all obedience to the Divine will; the latter, every act of benevolence to one's fellows. The love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit produces the deepest religious reverence, genuine piety, and cheerful obedience. To love one's neighbour as himself is the second great commandment; and as love worketh no ill to one's neighbour, therefore it is said to be the fulfilling of the law. Without love, there is no obedience; without reverence, there is neither caution, consistent conduct, nor perseverance in righteousness. This fear or religious reverence is said to be the beginning of knowledge; tyŤar reshith, the principle, the first moving influence, begotten in a tender conscience by the Spirit of God. No man can ever become truly wise, who does not begin with God, the fountain of knowledge; and he whose mind is influenced by the fear and love of God will learn more in a month than others will in a year.
Fools despise ] µylywa evilim, evil men. Men of bad hearts, bad heads, and bad ways.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 7. The fear of the Lord [is] the beginning of knowledge , etc.] Here properly the book begins, and this is the first of the proverbs, and an excellent one; it is such an one as is not to be found in all the writings of the Heathens. By “the fear of the Lord” is not meant a servile fear, a fear of punishment, of hell, wrath, and damnation, which is the effect of the first work of the law upon the conscience; but a filial fear, and supposes knowledge of God as a father, of his love and grace in Christ, particularly of his forgiving love, from whence it arises, ( <19D004> Psalm 130:4 Hosea 3:5); it is a holy, humble, fiducial fear of God; a reverential affection for him, and devotion to him; it includes the whole of religious worship, both internal and external; all that is contained in the first table of the law, and the manner of performing it, and principle of acting: this is the first of all sciences to be learned, and it is the principal one; it is the basis and foundation of all the rest, on which they depend; and it is the head, the fountain, the root an source, from whence they spring; and unless a man knows God, knows God in Christ, and worships him in his fear, in spirit and in truth, according to his revealed will, he knows nothing as he ought to know; and all his knowledge will be of no avail and profit to him; this is the first and chief thing in spiritual and evangelical knowledge, and without which all natural knowledge will signify nothing; (see Job 28:28 <19B110> Psalm 111:10); [but] fools despise wisdom and instruction ; the same with “knowledge” before; they do not desire the knowledge of God, and of his ways and worship, but despise it, make no account of it, but treat it with contempt; especially the knowledge of God in Christ, in which lies the highest wisdom, for this is “life eternal”, ( John 17:3); they despise Christ “the Wisdom of God”, and the Gospel, and the truths of it, which are “the hidden wisdom” of God; and all “instruction” into it, and the means of it; they despise the Scriptures, which are able to make a man “wise unto salvation”; and the ministry of the word, and the ministers of it: such sort of “discipline” was this, as the word signifies, they dislike and abhor; and especially “correction” or “chastisement” f14 , which is also the sense of it; suffering reproach and affliction for the sake of wisdom, a profession of Christ and his Gospel; and they are fools with a witness that despise all this; such fools are atheists, deists, and all profane and wicked men. The Septuagint render it, “the ungodly”; and such sort of men are all along meant by “fools” in this book.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 7-9 - Fools are persons who have no true wisdom, who follow their ow devices, without regard to reason, or reverence for God. Children ar reasonable creatures, and when we tell them what they must do, we mus tell them why. But they are corrupt and wilful, therefore with the instruction there is need of a law. Let Divine truths and commands be to us most honourable; let us value them, and then they shall be so to us.
Original Hebrew
יראת 3374 יהוה 3068 ראשׁית 7225 דעת 1847 חכמה 2451 ומוסר 4148 אוילים 191 בזו׃ 936
