In the first address of Wisdom (ch. i. 22-33), her words were stern and terrible. The first step in the Divine education is to proclaim "the terrors of the Lord," but here she neither promises nor threatens, but, as if lost in contemplation, speaks of her own excellence. "Prudence." The subtilty of the serpent, in itself neutral, but capable of being turned to good as well as evil. Wisdom, high and lofty, occupied with things heavenly and eternal, does not exclude, yea, rather, "dwells with" the practical tact and insight needed for the common life of men.--_Plumptre._ Wisdom here beginneth to draw her own picture, and with her own pencil. . . . The force of the verse is, that Wisdom is there where there is a fitness of worth to entertain her.--_Jermin._ I draw all into practice, and teach man to prove by their own experience, what is "that good, and holy, and acceptable will of God" (Rom. xii. 2).--_Trapp._ All arts among men are the rays of Divine wisdom falling upon them. Whatsoever wisdom there is in the world, it is but a shadow of the wisdom of God.--_Charnock._ Prudence is defined, _wisdom applied to practice;_ so, wherever true wisdom is, it will lead to action. . . . The farther wisdom proceeds in man the more practical knowledge it gains, and, finding out the nature and properties of things, and the general course of Providence, it can contrive by new combinations to produce new results.--_Adam Clarke._ Verse 13. To fear retribution is not to hate sin. In most cases it is to love it with the whole heart. It is a solemn suggestion that even the _religion_ of dark, unrenewed men is in its essence a love of their own sins. Instead of hating sin themselves, their grand regret is, that God hates it. If they could be convinced that the Judge would regard it as lightly as the culprit, the fear would collapse like steam under cold water, and all the religious machinery which it drove would stand still.--_Arnot._ The godly avoid evil and do good--not merely from habit, education, the hope of reward, or the fear of punishment, but from hatred of evil and love of goodness.--_Cartwright._ The affection of hatred as having sin for its object is spoken of in Scripture as no inconsiderable part of true religion. It is spoken of as that by which true religion may be known and distinguished.--_Jon. Edwards._