Bible Commentaries
Go deeper in Scripture
Browse trusted public-domain commentary alongside DiscipleDeck Bible study. References inside each commentary open Bible previews in place.
3,811 commentary entries
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible
Advantages of the Righteous
ADVANTAGES OF THE RIGHTEOUS. It is not only promised that God will guide the upright, and threatened that he will destroy the transgressors, but, that we may be the more fully assured of both, it is here represented as…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:4
Note, 1. The day of death will be a day of wrath. It is a messenger of God's wrath; therefore when Moses had meditated on man's mortality he takes occasion thence to admire the power of God's anger, Psalm 110:11. It is…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:5-6
These two verses are, in effect, the same, and both to the same purport with Proverbs 11:3. For the truths are here of such certainty and weight that they cannot be too often inculcated. Let us govern ourselves by these…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:7
Note, 1. Even wicked men, while they live, may keep up a confident expectation of a happiness when they die, or at least a happiness in this world. The hypocrite has his hope, in which he wraps himself as the spider in…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:8
As always in death, so sometimes in life, the righteous are remarkably favoured and the wicked crossed. 1. Good people are helped out of the distresses which they thought themselves lost in, and their feet are set in a…
Common Truths
COMMON TRUTHS. Here is, 1. Hypocrisy designing ill. It is not only the murderer with his sword, but the hypocrite with his mouth, that destroys his neighbour, decoying him into sin, or into mischief, by the specious pre…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:10-11
It is here observed, I. That good men are generally well-beloved by their neighbours, but nobody cares for wicked people. 1. It is true there are some few that are enemies to the righteous, that are prejudiced against G…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:12-13
I. Silence is here recommended as an instance of true friendship, and a preservative of it, and therefore an evidence, 1. Of wisdom: A man of understanding, that has rule over his own spirit, if he be provoked, holds hi…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:14
Here is, 1. The bad omen of a kingdom's ruin: Where no counsel is, no consultation at all, but every thing done rashly, or no prudent consultation for the common good, but only caballing for parties and divided interest…
The Rewards of Righteousness
THE REWARDS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. Here we are taught, 1. In general, that we may not use our estates as we will (he that gave them to us has reserved to himself a power to direct us how we shall use them, for they are not o…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:16
Here, 1. It is allowed that strong men retain riches, that those who bustle in the world, who are men of spirit and interest, and are able to make their part good against all who stand in their way, are likely to keep w…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:17
It is a common principle, Every one for himself. Proximus egomet mihi—None so near to me as myself. Now, if this be rightly understood, it will be a reason for the cherishing of gracious dispositions in ourselves and th…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:18
Note, 1. Sinners put a most fatal cheat upon themselves: The wicked works a deceitful work, builds himself a house upon the sand, which will deceive him when the storm comes, promises himself that by his sin which he wi…
Weighty Sayings
It is here shown that righteousness, not only by the divine judgment, will end in life, and wickedness in death, but that righteousness, in its own nature, has a direct tendency to life and wickedness to death. 1. True…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:21
Observe, 1. That confederacies in sin shall certainly be broken, and shall not avail to protect the sinners: Though hand join in hand, though there are many that concur by their practice to keep wickedness in countenanc…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:22
By discretion here we must understand religion and grace, a true taste and relish (so the word signifies) of the honours and pleasures that attend an unspotted virtue; so that a woman without discretion is a woman of a…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:23
This tells us what the desire and expectation of the righteous and of the wicked are and how they will prove, what they would have and what they shall have. 1. The righteous would have good, only good; all they desire i…
The Praise of Liberality
THE PRAISE OF LIBERALITY. Note, 1. It is possible a man may grow rich by prudently spending what he has, may scatter in works of piety, charity, and generosity, and yet may increase; nay, by that means may increase, as…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:25
So backward we are to works of charity, and so ready to think that giving undoes us, that we need to have it very much pressed upon us how much it is for our own advantage to do good to others, as before, Proverbs 11:17…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:26
See here, 1. What use we are to make of the gifts of God's bounty; we must not hoard them up merely for our own advantage, that we may be enriched by them, but we must bring them forth for the benefit of others, that th…
The Folly and Misery of Sinners
THE FOLLY AND MISERY OF SINNERS. Observe, 1. Those that are industrious to do good in the world get themselves beloved both with God and man: He that rises early to that which is good (so the word is), that seeks opport…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:28
Observe, 1. Our riches will fail us when we are in the greatest need: He that trusts in them, as if they would secure him the favour of God and be his protection and portion, shall fall, as a man who lays his weight on…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:29
Two extremes in the management of family-affairs are here condemned and the ill consequences of them foretold:—1. Carefulness and carnal policy, on the one hand. There are those that by their extreme earnestness in purs…
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 11:30
This shows what great blessings good men are, especially those that are eminently wise, to the places where they live, and therefore how much to be valued. 1. The righteous are as trees of life; the fruits of their piet…