Proverbs 18:11

11 A rich man’s wealth is his fortified city; it is like a high wall in his imagination.

Proverbs 18:11 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 18:11

The rich man's wealth [is] his strong city
In which he dwells, over which he presides; in which he places his trust and confidence, and thinks himself safe from every enemy and from all trouble: as one ^F19 observes,

``the abundance of a rich man's wealth he conceives to be as it were the abundance of people in a "city"; the telling of his money he imagines to be the walking of people up and down the streets; his bags standing thick together to be so many houses standing close one to the other; his iron barred chests to be so mary bulwarks; his bonds and bills to be his cannons and demi-cannons, his great ordinance; and in the midst of these he thinketh himself environed with a "great wall", which no trouble is able to leap over, which no misery is able to break through.''

As it follows; and as a high wall in his own conceit:
which not only separates and distinguishes him from others; but, as he imagines, will secure him from all dangers, and will be abiding, lasting, and durable: but all this is only "in his own conceit", or "imagery" ^F20; in the chambers of his imagery, as Jarchi, referring to ( Ezekiel 8:12 ) ; where the same word is used; for this wall shall not stand; these riches cannot secure themselves, they take wing and fly away; and much less the owner of them, not from public calamities, nor from personal diseases of body, nor from death, nor from wrath to come.

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 Jermin its loc.
F20 (wtykvmb) "in imaginatione ejus", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator, Cocceius, Gejerus, Schultens; "in imagine sua", Mercerus.

Proverbs 18:11 In-Context

9 Whoever is slothful in his work is brother to him who destroys.

10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.

11 A rich man’s wealth is his fortified city; it is like a high wall in his imagination.

12 Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.

13 He who answers a matter before he hears it— this is folly and disgrace to him.