_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._ Verse 7. This, "the fear of the Lord," comes as the motto of the book. The beginning of wisdom is found in the temper of reverence and awe. The fear of the finite in the presence of the Infinite--of the sinful in the presence of the Holy; self-abhorring, adoring, as in Job's confession (xliii. 5, 6), this for the Israelite was the starting point of all true wisdom. What the precept "Know thyself" was to the sage of Greece, that this law was for _him_. In the book of Job (xxviii. 28) it appears as an oracle accompanied by the noblest poetry. In Psa. cxi. 10, it comes as the choral close of a temple hymn. Here it is the watch-word of a true ethical education. This, and not love, is the _beginning_ of "wisdom." Through successive stages, and by the discipline of life, love blends with it and makes it perfect.--_Plumptre._ Why is this the only way that God hath pointed out for the attaining to wisdom? 1. One reason may be the falseness of man's spirit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and so God will not entrust it with such estimable treasures of durable wisdom before a trial hath been upon it. "To him will I look, even to him that is of a pure and contrite spirit, and _trembleth_ at my words." 2. Here is another argument, viz., _impossibility_. "The natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God," &c. (1 Cor. ii. 14). "The eye sees not the sun, unless it bear the image of the sun in it;" nor could it receive that impression if it were covered with dirt and filth. So the necessary foundation of true wisdom is unfeigned righteousness and pureness. The purging of a man's soul takes away the main impediments to true knowledge,--such as self-admiration, anger, envy, impatience, desire of victory rather than of truth, blindness proceeding out of a love of riches and honour, the smothering of the active spark of reason by luxury and intemperance, &c.--_Henry Moore._ Where God is, there is fear of God; and where the fear of God is, there are all things which God requireth.--_Jermin._ The fear of the Lord consists, once for all, in a complete devotion to God--an unconditional subjection of one's own individuality to the beneficent will of God as revealed in the law (Deut. vi. 13; x. 20; xiii. 4; Psa. cxix. 63, &c.) How, then, could they be regarded as fearing God who should keep only a part of the Divine commands, or who should undertake to fulfil them only according to their moral principles, and did not seek also to make the embodying letter of their formal requirements the standard of life.--_Lange's Commentary._ Verse 8. The relation of the teacher to the taught is essentially fatherly.--_Plumptre._