... to give subtlety to the simple, to the young
man knowledge and discretion— ...
Proverbs 1:4, Modern English Version (MEV)
In Clarke's Commentary we find:
“To give subtilty to the simple — The word simple, from simplex, compounded of
sine, without, and plica, a fold, properly signifies plain and honest, one that
has no by-ends in view, who is what he appears to be; and is opposed to
complex, from complico, to fold together, to make one rope or cord out of many
strands; but because honesty and plain dealing are so rare in the world, and
none but the truly religious man will practice them, farther than the fear of
the law obliges him, hence simple has sunk into a state of progressive deterioration.
At first, it signified, as above, without fold, unmixed, uncompounded: this was
its radical meaning. Then, as applied to men, it signified innocent, harmless,
without disguise; but, as such persons were rather an unfashionable sort of
people, it sunk in its meaning to homely, homespun, mean, ordinary. And, as
worldly men, who were seeking their portion in this life, and had little to do
with religion, supposed that wisdom, wit, and understanding, were given to men
that they might make the best of them in reference to the things of this life,
the word sunk still lower in its meaning, and signified silly, foolish; and
there, to the dishonour of our language and morals, it stands! I have taken
those acceptations which I have marked in Italics out of the first dictionary
that came to hand - Martin's; but if I had gone to Johnson, I might have added
to SILLY, not wise, not cunning. Simplicity, that meant at first, as MARTIN
defines it, openness, plain dealing, downright honesty, is now degraded to
weakness, silliness, foolishness. And these terms will continue thus degraded,
till downright honesty and plain dealing get again into vogue. There are two
Hebrew words generally supposed to come from the same root, which in our common
version are rendered the simple, פתאים pethaim, and פתים or פתיים pethayim; the
former comes from פתא patha, to be rash,
hasty; the latter, from פתה pathah, to draw aside, seduce, entice. It is the first of these words
which is used here, and may be applied to youth; the inconsiderate, the unwary,
who, for want of knowledge and experience, act precipitately. Hence the Vulgate
renders it parvulis, little ones, young children, or little children, as my old
MS.; or very babes, as Coverdale. The Septuagint renders it ακακοις, those that
are without evil; and the versions in general understand it of those who are
young, giddy, and inexperienced.
“To the young man — נער naar is frequently used to signify such as are in the state of
adolescence, grown up boys, very well translated in my old MS. yunge fulwaxen;
what we would now call the grown up lads. These, as being giddy and
inexperienced, stand in especial need of lessons of wisdom and discretion. The
Hebrew for discretion, מזמה mezimmah, is taken both in a good and bad sense, as זם zam, its root, signifies to devise or imagine;
for the device may be either mischief, or the contrivance of some good purpose.”
Clarke, Adam. "Commentary on Proverbs
1:4". "The Adam Clarke Commentary".
As we will see going forward, Proverbs is
primarily directed at the younger generation. It is a formative time when it
comes to learning, always has been and always will be. Experience is a great
teacher, but learning by experience is a years long process. So, as every older
generation has always done, experience attempts to teach the inexperienced, a
process that results in wildly varying degrees of success.
