Proverbs 28:25 - Exposition

He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife ( Proverbs 15:18 ; Proverbs 29:22 ); literally, he that is of a wide soul . This may certainly denote pride ( qui se jactat et dilatat , Vulgate), in which case the gnome says that one who thinks much of himself and despises others is the cause of quarrels and dissensions, occasioned by his struggles for pre-eminence and the ill feeling arising from his overbearing and supercilious conduct. Others, and rightly, take the wide soul to denote covetousness (comp. Proverbs 23:2 ; Isaiah 14:1-32 ; Habakkuk 2:5 ). It is the man of insatiable desire, the grasping avaricious man, who excites quarrels and mars all peace, and in the end destroys himself. "Whence come wars," asks St. James ( James 4:1 ), "and whence come fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your pleasures that war in your members? Ye lust, and have act; ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war." Septuagint, "An unbelieving [ ἄπιστος , Alexand. ἄπληστος , insatiate] man judgeth rashly." But he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat ( Proverbs 11:25 ; Proverbs 16:20 ; Proverbs 29:25 ). The character here opposed to the covetous is that of the patient. God-fearing man, who is contented to do his duty, and leave the result in the Lord's hands. This man shall be made fat, shall be comforted and largely blessed, while he who puts his hope in material things shall fall into calamity. Septuagint, "He who trusts in the Lord will be in his care ( ἐν ἐπιμελείᾳ ἔσται )."