The lips of the righteous feed many
Not their bodies; words are but wind, and will not feed; it is
not enough to say to the distressed, "be ye warmed and filled",
and give nothing; unless this can be understood of obtaining food
for others by their prayers, as Jarchi interprets it: but the
souls of many; these the righteous feed, by communicating the
spiritual knowledge and understanding of divine things they are
partakers of; by setting before them the bread of life, the honey
and milk of the Gospel, they have under their tongue; and by the
good counsel and advice, comforts and admonitions, they give
them; see ( Jeremiah
3:15 ) ( Song of Solomon
4:11 ) ; but fools die for want of wisdom:
not a corporeal death, which is common to men of every rank and
quality; wise men die even as fools; but they continue under the
power of a spiritual death, for want of enlightening and
quickening grace, and so die an eternal death: not for want of
natural wisdom, which they may have a greater share of than those
who live spiritually and eternally; but for want of spiritual
wisdom and knowledge; the knowledge of Christ, and the way of
life and salvation by him, and the knowledge of God in Christ;
and not always for the want of the means of such wisdom and
knowledge; as the Scriptures, which are able to make a man wise
unto salvation; and the Gospel, which is the wisdom of God in a
mystery; but through the neglect and contempt of them: though
sometimes men perish through want of the means of knowledge, and
the neglect of those who should instruct them, ( Hosea 4:6 ) .