The fear of the Lord [is] the beginning of
knowledge
Here properly the book begins, and this is the first of the
proverbs, and an excellent one; it is such an one as is not to be
found in all the writings of the Heathens. By "the fear of the
Lord" is not meant a servile fear, a fear of punishment, of hell,
wrath, and damnation, which is the effect of the first work of
the law upon the conscience; but a filial fear, and supposes
knowledge of God as a father, of his love and grace in Christ,
particularly of his forgiving love, from whence it arises, (
Psalms
130:4 ) ( Hosea 3:5 ) ; it is a
holy, humble, fiducial fear of God; a reverential affection for
him, and devotion to him; it includes the whole of religious
worship, both internal and external; all that is contained in the
first table of the law, and the manner of performing it, and
principle of acting: this is the first of all sciences to be
learned, and it is the principal one; it is the basis and
foundation of all the rest, on which they depend; and it is the
head, the fountain, the root an source, from whence they spring;
and unless a man knows God, knows God in Christ, and worships him
in his fear, in spirit and in truth, according to his revealed
will, he knows nothing as he ought to know; and all his knowledge
will be of no avail and profit to him; this is the first and
chief thing in spiritual and evangelical knowledge, and without
which all natural knowledge will signify nothing; see ( Job 28:28 ) ( Psalms
111:10 ) ;
[but] fools despise wisdom and instruction;
the same with "knowledge" before; they do not desire the
knowledge of God, and of his ways and worship, but despise it,
make no account of it, but treat it with contempt; especially the
knowledge of God in Christ, in which lies the highest wisdom, for
this is "life eternal", ( John 17:3 ) ; they
despise Christ "the Wisdom of God", and the Gospel, and the
truths of it, which are "the hidden wisdom" of God; and all
"instruction" into it, and the means of it; they despise the
Scriptures, which are able to make a man "wise unto salvation";
and the ministry of the word, and the ministers of it: such sort
of "discipline" F14 was this, as the word signifies,
they dislike and abhor; and especially "correction" or
"chastisement" {o}, which is also the sense of it; suffering
reproach and affliction for the sake of wisdom, a profession of
Christ and his Gospel; and they are fools with a witness that
despise all this; such fools are atheists, deists, and all
profane and wicked men. The Septuagint render it, "the ungodly";
and such sort of men are all along meant by "fools" in this book.