Proverbs 19:10

Delight is not seemly for a fool,.... Such an one as Nabal, whose name and nature were alike; and whose prosperity ill became him, and the mirth and delight he had in it, 1 Samuel 25:25; for, as the

Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes. Delight is not seemly for a fool.

Delight, to live in pleasure, and plenty, and outward glory, is not seemly for a fool; it doth not become him, nor suit with him; partly because prosperity corrupts even wise men, and makes fools mad; and partly because it gives him more opportunity to discover his folly, and to do mischief both to himself and others. He implies that a rod or punishment is fitter for him than pleasure, as is noted, 26:3. A servant; who is of a servile condition and disposition, not much differing from a fool; who is a servant to his lusts, and wholly unfit to rule other men. Over princes, i.e. over men of better quality than himself; for servants are commonly ignorant, and when they are advanced, they grow insolent, and presumptuous, and intolerable.

Proverbs 19:10 Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes.Ver. 10. Delight is not seemly for a fool.] Dignitas in indigno est ornamentum in luto, saith Salvian. Health, wealth, nobility, beauty, honour, and the like, are ill bestowed upon a wicked man, who will abuse them all to his own and other men’ s undoing. The wisest have enough to do to manage these outward good things. What may we hen expect from fools? If they make wise men fools, they will make fools mad men. Much less for a servant to rule over princes.] As Abimelech, that bramble, did over the cedars of Lebanon; as Tobiah, the servant, the Ammonite, sought to do over Nehemiah and the princes of Judah; as the servants of the Emperor Claudius did over him and the whole State, which occasioned that verse to be pronounced on the theatre - ‘Aφορητοςεστινευτυχωνμαστιγιας.’ As Becket and Wolsey affected to do in their generations; and as the bridge maker of Rome, who styles himself servus servorum, a servant of servants, and yet acts as a dominus dominantium et rex regum, lord of lords, and king of kings. Round about the Pope’ s coins are these words stamped, "That nation that will not serve thee shall be rooted out." His janissaries, also, the Jesuits, are as a most agile sharp sword, whose blade is sheathed at pleasure in the bowels of every commonwealth, but the handle reacheth to Rome and Spain. This made that most valiant and puissant prince, Henry IV of France, when he was persuaded by one to banish the Jesuits, say, "Give me then security for my life." Secundae res etiam sapientum animos fatigant; quanto magis insolescent stulti rerum successu prospero? - Salust.

(10) Delight is not seemly for a fool.—He is ruined by prosperity and luxury: much more is a slave unfit to rule over princes. The writer has in his mind the case of an emancipated slave being raised to high place by court favour, and then insolently trampling on those who were once far above him. (Comp. Proverbs 30:22; Ecclesiastes 10:6-7.)

Verse 10. Delight is not seemly for a fool] תענוג taanug, splendid or luxurious living, rank, equipage, c. These sit ill on a fool, though he be by birth a lord. For a servant to have rule over princes.] I pity the king who delivers himself into the hands of his own ministers. Such a one loses his character, and cannot be respected by his subjects, or rather their subjects. But it is still worse when a person of mean extraction is raised to the throne, or to any place of power he is generally cruel and tyrannical.

10. delight] Rather, luxury, or delicate living, R.V. οὐσυμφέρειἄφρονιτρυφὴ, LXX. Comp. οἱἐντρυφῇὑπάρχοντεςἐντοῖςβασιλείοιςεἰσίν, Luke 7:25; as “a servant” would be if he had “rule over princes.” On this second clause Dean Plumptre (Speaker’s Comm.) quotes Claudian in Eutrop. 1. 183: “nec bellua tetrior ulla est, Quam servi rabies in libera colla furentis.”

“Delight,” high unrestrained enjoyment, is to the “fool” who lacks wisdom but a temptation and a snare.

10. Delight — That kind of enjoyment which proceeds from delicate or luxurious living. Is not seemly — Not suitable, does not sit well on a fool; a figure supposed to be taken from the fitting of a garment.