Matthew Henry on Proverbs 27:21
This gives us a touchstone by which we may try ourselves. Silver and gold are tried by putting them into the furnace and fining-pot; so is man tried by praising him. Let him be extolled and preferred, and then he will show himself what he is. 1. If a man be made, by the applause that is given him, proud, conceited, and scornful, - if he take the glory to himself which he should transmit to God, as Herod did, - if, the more he is praised, the more careless he is of what he says and does, - if he lie in bed till noon because his name is up, thereby it will appear that he is a vain foolish man, and a man who, though he be praised, has nothing in him truly praise-worthy. 2. If, on the contrary,…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 27:21
Praise tests character.
a man to his praise--according to his praise, as he bears it. Thus vain men seek it, weak men are inflated by it, wise men disregard it, &c.
John Gill on Proverbs 27:21
As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold,.... For the trying, proving, and purifying these metals; see Proverbs 17:3;
so is a man to his praise; or "according to the mouth of his praise" (p); if his own mouth praises him, as in Proverbs 27:2;, he is known to be what he is, a foolish and vainglorious person: or "so a man is proved by the mouth of him that praises him", as the Vulgate Latin version; or "of them that praise him", as the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions; and so the Targum: the meaning is, either a man is known by the persons that praise him, according to what their characters are; if he is praised by good and virtuous men, he may be thought to be so himself…
Read the whole note in the consoleKeil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 27:21
There follow here two proverbs which have in common with each other the figures of the crucible and the mortar:
21 The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
And a man according to the measure of his praise;
i.e., silver and gold one values according to the result of the smelting crucible and the smelting furnace; but a man, according to the measure of public opinion, which presupposes that which is said in Pro 12:8, "according to the measure of his wisdom is a man praised." מהלל is not a ῥῆμα μέσον like our Leumund [renown], but it is a graduated idea which denotes fame down to evil Lob [fame], which is only Lob [praise] per antiphrasin. Ewald otherwise: "according to the measure…
