Proverbs 14:24

The crown of the wise is their riches: but the foolishness of fools is folly.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) The crown of the wise is their riches.—They adorn and set off the wisdom of the wise, and bring it more prominently into notice; but the “foolishness of fools” remains folly. The rich fool only displays his folly all the more from being set in a conspicuous position.

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 14:24. The crown of the wise is their riches — They are a singular advantage and ornament to them, partly as they make their wisdom more regarded, while the poor man’s wisdom is despised, Ecclesiastes 9:16; and partly as they give a man great opportunity to exercise wisdom or virtue, by laying out his riches in the service of God, to the great good of mankind; which also tends to his own glory and happiness; but the foolishness of fools, &c. — But as for rich fools, their folly is not cured, but made worse and more manifest by their riches. Their riches find them fools, and leave them fools; they are not a crown, but a reproach to them, and an occasion of greater contempt.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:18. Sin is the shame of sinners; but wisdom is the honour of the wise. 19. Even bad men acknowledge the excellency of God's people. 20. Friendship in the world is governed by self-interest. It is good to have God our Friend; he will not desert us. 21. To despise a man for his employment or appearance is a sin. 22. How wisely those consult their own interest, who not only do good, but devise it! 23. Labour of the head, or of the hand, will turn to some good account. But if men's religion runs all out in talk and noise, they will come to nothing. 24. The riches of men of wisdom and piety enlarge their usefulness. 25. An upright man will venture the displeasure of the greatest, to bring truth to light. 26,27. Those who fear the Lord so as to obey and serve him, have a strong ground of confidence, and will be preserved. Let us seek to this Fountain of life, that we may escape the snares of death. 28. Let all that wish well to the kingdom of Christ, do what they can, that many may be added to his church. 29. A mild, patient man is one that learns of Christ, who is Wisdom itself. Unbridled passion is folly made known. 30. An upright, contented, and benevolent mind, tends to health. 31. To oppress the poor is to reproach our Creator. 32. The wicked man has his soul forced from him; he dies in his sins, under the guilt and power of them. But godly men, though they have pain and some dread of death, have the blessed hope, which God, who cannot lie, has given them. 33. Wisdom possesses the heart, and thus regulates the affections and tempers. 34. Piety and holiness always promote industry, sobriety, and honesty. 35. The great King who reigns over heaven and earth, will reward faithful servants who honour his gospel by the proper discharge of the duties of their stations: he despises not the services of the lowest.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

"The crown," i. e., the glory of the wise man constitutes his wealth. He alone is truly rich even as he alone (compare Proverbs 14:18 note) is truly king.

The seeming tautology of the second clause is really its point. Turn "the foolishness of fools" as you will, it comes back to "foolishness" at last.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. (Compare Pr 3:16).

foolishness … folly—Folly remains, or produces folly; it has no benefit.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The crown of the wise is their riches; they are a singular advantage and ornament to them, partly as they make their wisdom more regarded, when the poor man’s wisdom is despised, Ecclesiastes 9:16; and partly as they give a man great opportunity to discover and exercise his wisdom or virtue by laying out his riches to the honour and service of God, and to the great and manifold good of the world; which also highly tends to his own glory and happiness.

But the foolishness of fools is folly; but as for rich fools, for to them the general word is to be restrained from the opposite clause, their folly is not cured, but made worse and more manifest by their riches. Their riches find them fools, and leave them fools; they are not a crown, but a reproach to them, and an occasion of their greater contempt. For the phrase, we have the like in the Hebrew text, 1 Samuel 1:21. The child Samuel was a child. It is an elegant figure called antanaclasis, used in all authors.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The crown of the wise is their riches,.... Riches being used by them to increase and improve their knowledge and wisdom, and for the good of men, are an honour to them, and give them credit and reputation among men of sense and goodness; see Ecclesiastes 7:11;

but the foolishness of fools is folly; mere folly, extreme folly, just the same as it was; riches make them never the wiser; yea, their folly is oftentimes made more manifest through the ill use they make of their riches; spending them in the gratification of their sinful lusts; and making no use of them for their own improvement in knowledge, or for the good of their fellow creatures. The Targum is,

"the glory of fools is their folly;''

and that is no other than their shame, and in which they glory; such fools are wicked men.

Geneva Study Bible

The crown of the wise is their riches: but the foolishness of fools is folly.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

24. The crown of the wise] i.e. the wisdom which is their crown (Proverbs 14:18) is (constitutes) their riches. It is at once an ornament and a thing of price; whereas the folly of fools is, and always remains (only) folly. It is possible, however, to render, with R.V. marg., Their riches is a crown unto the wise, gracing and graced by the wearer; but the folly of fools no wealth can ennoble; it is still only folly.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - The crown of the wise is their riches. This is taken by some ('Speaker's Commentary') to mean the glory of the wise man, the fame and splendour which surround him, constitute his wealth; but it is better to interpret it thus: Riches are an ornament to a wise man; they enhance and set off his wisdom in the eyes of others, enable him to use it to advantage, and are not the snare which they might be because they are employed religiously and profitably for the good of others. Ecclesiastes 7:11, "Wisdom is good together with an inheritance, and profitable to them that see the sun." The Septuagint has, "The crown of the wise is the clever man (πανοῦργος)," for which has been substituted by some editors, in agreement with the present Hebrew text, πλοῦτους αὐτῶν, " their wealth." The Greek translators, according to their reading, denote that one eminently clever man is a glory to the whole body of wise men. But the folly of fools is only folly; that is, even though it were accompanied with riches. Decorate folly as you may, trick it out in gaud and ornament, it is still nothing but folly, and is discerned as such, and that all the more for being made conspicuous. Schultens, followed by Wordsworth, finds a play of words here. The words rendered "fool" and "folly" imply "fatness," like the Greek παχὺς and the Latin crassus, which have also this double meaning. So the sentence reads, "Riches are a crown to the wise; but the abundant fatness of fools is only fatness." The last clause is translated by the LXX., "But the fools' way of life (διατριβὴ) is evil." St. Gregory ('Moral.,' 22:8) comments on this verse thus: "It was these riches of wisdom that Solomon having before his eyes, saith, 'The crown of the wise is their riches.' Which same person, because it is not metals of earth, but understanding, that he calls by the name of riches, thereupon adds by way of a contrary, 'But the foolishness of fools is imprudence.' For if he called earthly riches the crown of the wise. surely he would own the senselessness of fools to be poverty rather than imprudence. But whereas he added, 'the foolishness of fools is imprudence,' he made it plain that he called prudence 'the riches of the wise'" (Oxford tran cf.). Proverbs 14:24

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

24 It is a crown to the wise when they are rich;

     But the folly of fools remains folly.

From Proverbs 12:4, 31; Proverbs 17:6, we see that עטרת חכמים is the predicate. Thus it is the riches of the wise of which it is said that they are a crown or an ornament to them. More than this is said, if with Hitzig we read, after the lxx, ערמם, their prudence, instead of עשׁרם. For then the meaning would be, that the wise need no other crown than that which they have in their prudence. But yet far more appropriately "riches" are called the crown of a wise man when they come to his wisdom; for it is truly thus that riches, when they are possessed along with wisdom, contribute not a little to heighten its influence and power, and not merely because they adorn in their appearance like a crown, or, as we say, surround as with a golden frame, but because they afford a variety of means and occasions for self-manifestation which are denied to the poor. By this interpretation of 24a, 24b comes out also into the light, without our requiring to correct the first אוּלת, or to render it in an unusual sense. The lxx and Syr. translate the first אולת by διατριβή (by a circumlocution), the Targ. by gloria, fame - we know not how they reach this. Schultens in his Com. renders: crassa opulentia elumbium crassities, but in his Animadversiones he combines the first אולת with the Arab. awwale, precedence, which Gesen. approves of. But although the meaning to be thick (properly coalescere) appertains to the verbal stem אול as well as the meaning to be before (Arab. âl, âwila, wâl), yet the Hebr. אוּלת always and everywhere means only folly,

(Note: Ewald's derivation of אויל from און equals אוין, null, vain, is not much better than Heidenheim's from אולי: one who says "perhaps" equals a sceptic, vid., p. 59, note.)

from the fundamental idea crassities (thickness). Hitzig's אוּלת (which denotes the consequence with which the fool invests himself) we do not accept, because this word is Hitzig's own invention. Rather לוית is to be expected: the crown with which fools adorn themselves is folly. But the sentence: the folly of fools is (and remains) folly (Symmachus, Jerome, Venet., Luther), needs the emendation as little as Proverbs 16:22, for, interpreted in connection with 24a, it denotes that while wisdom is adorned and raised up by riches, folly on the other hand remains, even when connected with riches, always the same, without being either thereby veiled or removed - on the contrary, the fool, when he is rich, exhibits his follies always more and more. C. B. Michaelis compares Lucian's simia est simia etiamsi aurea gestet insignia.