Notes on Proverbs 10:5

Tomorrow evening, Lord willing, I will be teaching for the Wednesday night prayer meeting at Kosmosdale Baptist Church. I plan to teach from Proverbs 10:5. Below is my translation of this text and my study notes.

Translation

He who gathers in the summer is a prudent son; he who sleeps in the harvest is a shameful son.

The “5 Ws”

Who: 1.The prudent son; 2. The shameful son; 3. [Implied: the son’s parents].

What: 1.Gathering; 2. Sleeping

Where: The harvest field.

When: 1 In the summer; 2. In the harvest.

Why: [In context, due to either wisdom or foolishness.]

How: [In context, due to either fearing the LORD and heeding Wisdom’s call, or rejecting the LORD and Wisdom.]

So what? The reputation of the son and, by extension, his parents is at stake, the blessed livelihood of the son is at stake, and ultimately the life of the son is at stake.

Christological consideration- Jn. 5:39 and Lk. 24:27 hermeneutic

Jesus is the ultimate wise Son. It is only through the work of Christ that we can live for the LORD and His Wisdom. Each of us need Christ, as we have been guilty of shameful, foolish activities.

II Tim. 3:16 hermeneutic

Teaching: This passage teaches us to be prudent, rather than shameful.

Rebuking: This passage offers a sharp rebuke for the lazy.

Correcting: This passage corrects us who tend toward procrastination.

Training in righteousness: This passage trains us, in a concrete way, to fear the LORD and heed Wisdom’s call.

Interpretive questions

Grammatical: How do the participles and Hiphil and Niphal stems function in this verse?

Historical: I’m not sure about the timing of the work involved. Would farmers normally have begun their work in the summer, or is the prudent son actually beginning the work earlier than usual?

Commentaries


Reformation Study Bible: [10:5 is associated with 10:4.] "'Prudent son.' Family relationships and obligations are primary concerns in wisdom literature."

MacArthur Study Bible: Cf. 6:6-11; 13:4... 24:30-34... The timing necessary in agriculture can be applied to the general laying hold of life's opportunities.

NET Bible: "The term [prudent] refers to a wise and so successful person. He seizes the opportunity, knowing the importance of the season. The term 'sleeps' is figurative, an implied comparison that has become idiomatic (like the contemporary English expression 'asleep on the job'). It means that this individual is lazy or oblivious to the needs of the hour."

Biblical Theology


James Hamilton, God's Glory in Salvation Through Judgment (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 296. "Yahweh's justice will be a comfort and a refuge to those who embrace the wisdom mercifully revealed in Proverbs. But that same justice guarantees the destruction of those who refuse the mercy offered in wisdom's call. Yahweh sets his character on display in people's lives as he renders to them according to their works. This can be seen in how wise sons and foolish sons respond to their parents (Prov. 10:1,5), how the wicked and the righteous accumulate wealth (10:2,4)," etc.