31  An exhortation to Lemuel, Pro 31:1-9.
A description of good wife, Pro 31:10-31.

31:10 A virtuous woman - Here he lays down several qualifications of an excellent wife, which are delivered in alphabetical order, each verse beginning with a several letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

31:11 No need - He shall have no need to use indirect courses to get wealth.

31:13 Flax - That she may find employment for her servants.Worketh - She encourages them to work by her example; which was a common practice among princesses in those first ages. Not that it is the duty of kings and queens to use manual operations, but it is the duty of all persons, the greatest not excepted, to improve all their talents, and particularly their time, which is one of the noblest of them, to the service of that God to whom they must give an account, and to the good of that community to which they are related.

5 

5:1 But of the precise times when this shall be.

5:2 For this in general ye do know; and ye can and need know no more.

5:3 When they - The men of the world say.

5:4 Ye are not in darkness - Sleeping secure in sin.

5:6 Awake, and keep awake - Being awakened, let us have all our spiritual senses about us.

25 This chapter contains the last public discourse which our Lord uttered before he was offered up. He had before frequently declared what would be the portion of all the workers of iniquity. But what will become of those who do no harm? Honest, inoffensive, good sort of people? We have here a clear and full answer to this important question.

25:14 Our Lord proceeds by a parable still plainer (if that can be) to declare the final reward of a harmless man. May God give all such in this their day, ears to hear and hearts to understand it! The kingdom of heaven - That is, the King of heaven, Christ. Mar 13:34; Luk 19:12.

25:15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one - And who knows whether (all circumstances considered) there be a greater disproportion than this, in the talents of those who have received the most, and those who have received the fewest? According to his own ability - The words may be translated more literally, according to his own mighty power.And immediately took his journey - To heaven.

25:18 He that had received one - Made his having fewer talents than others a pretence for not improving any. Went and hid his master's money - Reader, art thou doing the same? Art thou hiding the talent God hath lent thee?

25:24 I knew thou art a hard man - No. Thou knowest him not. He never knew God, who thinks him a hard master. Reaping where thou hast not sown - That is, requiring more of us than thou hast given us power to perform. So does every obstinate sinner, in one kind or other, lay the blame of his own sins on God.

25:25 And I was afraid - Lest if I had improved my talent, I should have had the more to answer for. So from this fear, one will not learn to read, another will not hear sermons!

25:26 Thou knewest - That I require impossibilities! This is not an allowing, but a strong denial of the charge.

25:27 Thou oughtest therefore - On that very account, on thy own supposition, to have improved my talent, as far as was possible.

25:29 To every one that hath shall he given - So close does God keep to this stated rule, from the beginning to the end of the world. Mat 13:12.

25:30 Cast ye the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness - For what? what had he done? It is true he had not done good. But neither is he charged with doing any harm. Why, for this reason, for barely doing no harm, he is consigned to outer darkness.He is pronounced a wicked, because he was a slothful, an unprofitable servant. So mere harmlessness, on which many build their hope of salvation, was the cause of his damnation!There shall be the weeping - Of the careless thoughtless sinner; and the gnashing of teeth - Of the proud and stubborn. The same great truth, that there is no such thing as negativegoodness, is in this chapter shown three times:

1. In the parable of the virgins;
2. In the still plainer parable of the servants, who had received the talents; and
3. In a direct unparabolical declaration of the manner wherein our Lord will proceed at the last day. The several parts of each of these exactly answers each other, only each rises above the preceding.