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2 lines
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<p>This verse is the title of this latter collection of Solomon’s proverbs, for he <i>sought out and set in order many proverbs</i>, that by them he might be still <i>teaching the people knowledge</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Eccl.12.9" href="/passage/?search=Eccl.12.9">Eccl. 12:9</a>. Observe, 1. The proverbs were Solomon’s, who was divinely inspired to deliver, for the use of the church, these wise and weighty sentences; we have had many, but still there are more. Yet herein Christ is greater than Solomon, for if we had all upon record that Christ said, and did, that was instructive, <i>the world could not contain the books that would be written</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="John.21.25" href="/passage/?search=John.21.25">John 21:25</a>. 2. The publishers were Hezekiah’s servants, who, it is likely, herein acted as his servants, being appointed by him to do this good service to the church, among other good offices that he did <i>in the law and in the commandments</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="2Chr.31.21" href="/passage/?search=2Chr.31.21">2 Chron. 31:21</a>. Whether he employed the prophets in this work, as Isaiah, Hosea, or Micah, who lived in his time, or some that were trained up in the schools of the prophets, or some of the priests and Levites, to whom we find him giving a charge concerning divine things (<a class="bibleref" title="2Chr.29.4" href="/passage/?search=2Chr.29.4">2 Chron. 29:4</a>), or (as the Jews think) his princes and ministers of state, who were more properly called his <i>servants</i>, is not certain; if the work was done by Eliakim, and Joah, and Shebna, it was no diminution to their character. They copied out these proverbs from the records of Solomon’s reign, and published them as an appendix to the former edition of this book. It may be a piece of very good service to the church to publish other man’s works that have lain hidden in obscurity, perhaps a great while. Some think they culled these out of the 3000 proverbs which Solomon spoke (<a class="bibleref" title="1Kgs.4.32" href="/passage/?search=1Kgs.4.32">1 Kgs. 4:32</a>), leaving out those that were physical, and that pertained to natural philosophy, and preserving such only as were divine and moral; and in this collection some observe that special regard was had to those observations which concern kings and their administration.</p>
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