◄ Proverbs 29:3 ►
A man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father, but a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth.
Study Bible
A man who loves wisdom
The Hebrew word for "wisdom" here is "חָכְמָה" (chokmah), which encompasses not only knowledge but also the skillful application of knowledge in daily life. In the ancient Near Eastern context, wisdom was highly valued as a divine gift that guided moral and ethical living. The phrase suggests that a man who earnestly seeks and cherishes wisdom is not only enriching his own life but also honoring his family, particularly his father. This reflects the biblical principle that wisdom is foundational to a life that pleases God and benefits others.

brings joy to his father
The joy mentioned here is profound, rooted in the Hebrew word "שִׂמְחָה" (simchah), which implies a deep, abiding gladness. In the patriarchal society of ancient Israel, a father's joy was often tied to the success and righteousness of his children. A son who pursues wisdom is seen as a source of pride and fulfillment for his father, as he embodies the values and teachings imparted to him. This joy is not merely emotional but is also a testament to the father's legacy and the continuation of a godly lineage.

but a companion of prostitutes
The term "companion" is derived from the Hebrew "רֵעַ" (rea), meaning friend or associate. This phrase warns against forming close associations with those who engage in immoral behavior, specifically prostitution, which was condemned in Israelite society. The reference to "prostitutes" highlights a lifestyle of indulgence and moral compromise, contrasting sharply with the pursuit of wisdom. This serves as a cautionary tale about the company one keeps and the potential for negative influences to lead one astray.

squanders his wealth
The Hebrew word for "squanders" is "זָרָה" (zarah), which conveys the idea of scattering or wasting resources. This phrase illustrates the inevitable consequence of a life lived without wisdom and restraint. In biblical times, wealth was not only a measure of material prosperity but also a symbol of God's blessing and provision. To squander one's wealth is to disregard the stewardship entrusted by God, leading to ruin and shame. This serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of wise and prudent living, aligning one's actions with God's will to ensure lasting prosperity and honor.

Persons / Places / Events
1. The Wise Son
Represents an individual who seeks and values wisdom, bringing joy and honor to his family, particularly his father.

2. The Father
Symbolizes the family and community that benefits from the wise actions and decisions of the son.

3. The Companion of Prostitutes
Represents someone who engages in foolish and immoral behavior, leading to personal and financial ruin.

4. Prostitutes
In this context, they symbolize temptations and distractions that lead one away from wisdom and righteousness.

5. Wealth
Not just material wealth, but also spiritual and relational wealth that can be squandered through foolish living.
Teaching Points
Value of Wisdom
Emphasize the importance of seeking wisdom as a means to bring joy and honor to one's family and community.

Consequences of Foolishness
Highlight the dangers of engaging in immoral behavior and the potential for financial and spiritual ruin.

Parental Joy
Discuss the impact of a child's wise choices on their parents and the broader community.

Guarding Against Temptation
Encourage vigilance in avoiding temptations that lead away from a life of wisdom and righteousness.

Stewardship of Wealth
Teach the importance of managing both material and spiritual wealth wisely, avoiding wasteful and sinful behaviors.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the pursuit of wisdom bring joy to one's family, and what practical steps can you take to grow in wisdom?

2. In what ways can engaging in immoral behavior, like the companionship of prostitutes, lead to the squandering of wealth?

3. Reflect on a time when a wise decision brought joy to your family or community. What can you learn from that experience?

4. How can the account of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 inform our understanding of Proverbs 29:3?

5. What strategies can you implement to guard against temptations that lead away from wisdom and righteousness?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Proverbs 10:1
This verse also highlights the joy a wise son brings to his father, reinforcing the theme of wisdom leading to familial joy.

Luke 15:11-32
The Parable of the Prodigal Son illustrates the consequences of squandering wealth on reckless living, similar to the warning in Proverbs 29:3.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20
Paul warns against sexual immorality, emphasizing the importance of honoring God with our bodies, which aligns with avoiding the companionship of prostitutes.

Ecclesiastes 7:12
This verse speaks to wisdom as a form of protection, much like money, but with greater benefits, highlighting the value of wisdom over material wealth.
Sermons
Private Morality and the Public WealE. Johnson Proverbs 29:1-7
People
Solomon
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Brings, Companion, Company, Destroyeth, Friend, Glad, Goes, Harlots, Joy, Keepeth, Keeps, Loose, Lover, Loves, Loveth, Loving, Makes, Prostitutes, Rejoiceth, Spendeth, Squanders, Substance, Waster, Wastes, Wasteth, Wealth, Wisdom, Women
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Proverbs 29:3

     5668   children, responsibilities to parents
     5685   fathers, responsibilities
     5856   extravagance
     5967   thrift
     5979   waste
     6239   prostitution

Proverbs 29:2-3

     5481   proverb

Library
An Obscured vision
(Preached at the opening of the Winona Lake Bible Conference.) TEXT: "Where there is no vision, the people perish."--Proverbs 29:18. It is not altogether an easy matter to secure a text for such an occasion as this; not because the texts are so few in number but rather because they are so many, for one has only to turn over the pages of the Bible in the most casual way to find them facing him at every reading. Feeling the need of advice for such a time as this, I asked a number of my friends who …
J. Wilbur Chapman—And Judas Iscariot

Two Ancient Proverbs
A Sermon (No. 3080) Published on Thursday, February 20th, 1908. Delivered by C.H. Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington on Lord's Day evening, March 29th, 1874. "The fear of man bringeth a snare; but whoso puteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." --Proverbs 29:25. We have two ancient proverbs here; each of them is true as a separate proverb, and they are equally true when linked together. The independent proposition, that the fear of man bringeth a snare, is a truth which experience …
C.H. Spurgeon—Sermons on Proverbs

The Baptismal Covenant Can be Kept Unbroken. Aim and Responsibility of Parents.
We have gone "to the Law and to the Testimony" to find out what the nature and benefits of Baptism are. We have gathered out of the Word all the principal passages bearing on this subject. We have grouped them together, and studied them side by side. We have noticed that their sense is uniform, clear, and strong. Unless we are willing to throw aside all sound principles of interpretation, we can extract from the words of inspiration only one meaning, and that is that the baptized child is, by virtue …
G. H. Gerberding—The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church

But Sometimes a Peril to Eternal Salvation Itself is Put Forth against Us...
40. But sometimes a peril to eternal salvation itself is put forth against us; [2466] which peril, they cry out, we by telling a lie, if otherwise it cannot be, must ward off. As, for instance, if a person who is to be baptized be in the power of impious and infidel men, and cannot be got at that he may be washed with the laver of regeneration, but by deceiving his keepers with a lie. From this most invidious cry, by which we are compelled, not for a man's wealth or honors in this world which are …
St. Augustine—Against Lying

Little Sarah Howley.
MISS SARAH HOWLEY, when she was between eight and nine years old, was carried by her friends to hear a sermon, where the minister preached upon Matt. xi, 30, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light;" in the applying of which scripture the child was mightily awakened, and made deeply sensible of the condition of her soul, and her need of Christ: she wept bitterly to think what a case she was in; went home, retired into a chamber, and upon her knees she wept and cried to the Lord as well as she could, …
John Wesley—Stories of Boys and Girls Who Loved the Saviour

For, Concerning False Witness, which is Set Down in the Ten Commands of The...
36. For, concerning false witness, which is set down in the ten commands of the Law, it can indeed in no wise be contended that love of truth may at heart be preserved, and false witness brought forth to him unto whom the witness is borne. For, when it is said to God only, then it is only in the heart that the truth is to be embraced: but when it is said to man, then must we with the mouth also of the body bring forth truth, because man is not an inspector of the heart. But then, touching the witness …
St. Augustine—On Lying

Palm Sunday
Text: Philippians 2, 5-11. 5 Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; 8 and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; 10 that …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

It Remains Then that we Understand as Concerning those Women...
33. It remains then that we understand as concerning those women, whether in Egypt or in Jericho, that for their humanity and mercy they received a reward, in any wise temporal, which indeed itself, while they wist not of it, should by prophetical signification prefigure somewhat eternal. But whether it be ever right, even for the saving of a man's life, to tell a lie, as it is a question in resolving which even the most learned do weary themselves, it did vastly surpass the capacity of those poor …
St. Augustine—Against Lying

What are Evidences of Backsliding in Heart.
1. Manifest formality in religious exercises. A stereotyped, formal way of saying and doing things, that is clearly the result of habit, rather than the outgushing of the religious life. This formality will be emotionless and cold as an iceberg, and will evince a total want of earnestness in the performance of religious duty. In prayer and in religious exercises the backslider in heart will pray or praise, or confess, or give thanks with his lips, so that all can hear him, perhaps, but in such a …
Charles G. Finney—The Backslider in Heart

God's Glory the Chief End of Man's Being
Rom. xi. 36.--"Of him and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever." And 1 Cor. x. 31--"Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." All that men have to know, may be comprised under these two heads,--What their end is, and What is the right way to attain to that end? And all that we have to do, is by any means to seek to compass that end. These are the two cardinal points of a man's knowledge and exercise. Quo et qua eundum est,--Whither to go, and what way to go. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

How the Impatient and the Patient are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 10.) Differently to be admonished are the impatient and the patient. For the impatient are to be told that, while they neglect to bridle their spirit, they are hurried through many steep places of iniquity which they seek not after, inasmuch as fury drives the mind whither desire draws it not, and, when perturbed, it does, not knowing, what it afterwards grieves for when it knows. The impatient are also to be told that, when carried headlong by the impulse of emotion, they act in some …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Humility is the Root of Charity, and Meekness the Fruit of Both. ...
Humility is the root of charity, and meekness the fruit of both. There is no solid and pure ground of love to others, except the rubbish of self-love be first cast out of the soul; and when that superfluity of naughtiness is cast out, then charity hath a solid and deep foundation: "The end of the command is charity out of a pure heart," 1 Tim. i. 5. It is only such a purified heart, cleansed from that poison and contagion of pride and self-estimation, that can send out such a sweet and wholesome …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

How to Make Use of Christ as the Truth, when Error Prevaileth, and the Spirit of Error Carrieth Many Away.
There is a time when the spirit of error is going abroad, and truth is questioned, and many are led away with delusions. For Satan can change himself into an angel of light, and make many great and fairlike pretensions to holiness, and under that pretext usher in untruths, and gain the consent of many unto them; so that in such a time of temptation many are stolen off their feet, and made to depart from the right ways of God, and to embrace error and delusions instead of truth. Now the question is, …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

Characters and Names of Messiah
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. S uch was the triumphant exultation of the Old Testament Church! Their noblest hopes were founded upon the promise of MESSIAH; their most sublime songs were derived from the prospect of His Advent. By faith, which is the substance of things hoped for, they considered the gracious declarations …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

Proverbs
Many specimens of the so-called Wisdom Literature are preserved for us in the book of Proverbs, for its contents are by no means confined to what we call proverbs. The first nine chapters constitute a continuous discourse, almost in the manner of a sermon; and of the last two chapters, ch. xxx. is largely made up of enigmas, and xxxi. is in part a description of the good housewife. All, however, are rightly subsumed under the idea of wisdom, which to the Hebrew had always moral relations. The Hebrew …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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