(23) Honour shall uphold the lowly in spirit.--Rather, the lowly in spirit shall lay hold upon honour. (Comp. Proverbs 18:12.)

Verse 23. - A man's pride shall bring him low. The same thought is found in Proverbs 15:33; Proverbs 16:18; Proverbs 25:6, etc.; Luke 14:11. Honour shall uphold the humble in spirit; better, as the Revised Version, he that is of a lowly spirit shall obtain honour (comp. Proverbs 11:16; Isaiah 57:15). The humble man does not seek honour, but by his life and action unconsciously attains it (comp. Job 22:29). Septuagint, "Haughtiness brings a man low, but the lowly-minded the Lord upholdeth with glory."

29:19. Here is an unprofitable, slothful, wicked servant; one that serves not from conscience, or love, but from fear. 20. When a man is self-conceited, rash, and given to wrangling, there is more hope of the ignorant and profligate. 21. Good usage to a servant does not mean indulgence, which would ruin even a child. The body is a servant to the soul; those that humour it, and are over-tender of it, will find it forget its place. 22. An angry, passionate disposition makes men provoking to one another, and provoking to God. 23. Only those who humble themselves shall be exalted and established. 24. The receiver is as bad as the thief. 25. Many are ashamed to own Christ now; and he will not own them in the day of judgment. But he that trusts in the Lord will be saved from this snare.A man's pride shall bring him low,.... As the pride of Adam, in affecting to be as gods, knowing good and evil; he lost the image of God; was brought into a state of darkness and ignorance, into debt and to a dunghill, to beggary and rags; filled with loathsome diseases, and left in thraldom and bondage to sin and Satan; and so all his posterity were brought into the same low estate. This might be exemplified in particular persons, in Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Herod, and others; and, as will be in that monster of pride, the man of sin and antichrist; who will be humbled and brought low in the midst of his pride and boasting, Revelation 18:7;

but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit; not who are humble in appearance only, or merely in words, having a show of humility, a voluntary and affected one; but really in their hearts; whose spirits are humble and contrite; who are so in spiritual things, and are made so by the Spirit of God: they are such who are truly sensible of sin; of their folly, and want of spiritual knowledge; of their impotence, and weakness to do anything that is spiritually good; of their spiritual poverty, and want of righteousness; who see that salvation is all of grace; and that whatever they have is owing to the grace of God; that they are deficient in all their duties, and these insufficient to justify them before God; who submit to the righteousness of Christ, and give all the glory of salvation to the grace of God. These, as they are honourable, being clothed with humility, which is itself an ornament of great price; so they are honoured with more grace from the Lord; they are beautified with the garments of salvation; they have the honour to have the spiritual and gracious presence of God, and fellowship with him, who dwells with such as are of an humble spirit: these are the meek and lowly, that shall inherit the new earth, and reign as kings with Christ in it; and the poor in spirit, to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs: and this honour is durable, they shall always abide in it; the grace they have, which makes them glorious, springs up unto eternal life; and the glory they shall have is an eternal weight of glory, a crown of glory that fadeth not away: for so the words may be rendered, "the humble in spirit shall lay hold on glory" (z) or "honour"; possess it and enjoy it: or rather "shall retain" (a) it; shall hold it fast, as the word is translated in Proverbs 3:18; The sum of the proverb, in both parts, is the same with the words of Christ, often used by him, Matthew 23:12.

(z) "assequetur gloriam", Montanus; "potietur gloria", Vatablus. (a) "Tenebit honorem", Piscator; "tenebit gloriam", Mercerus, Cocceius, Michaelis; "apprehendit gloriam", Shultens.