to be heavy · verb, piel imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
LORD
יְ֭הוָהYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
substance
מֵהוֹנֶ֑ךָme.ho.Ne.kha
H1952
wealth · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
firstfruits
וּ֝מֵרֵאשִׁ֗יתu.me.re.Shit
H7225
the first · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
increase
תְּבוּאָתֶֽךָte.vu.'a.Te.kha
H8393
income · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 26:2-15 That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and s…
1 Corinthians 16:2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.
Exodus 23:19 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s mi…
Proverbs 14:31 He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.
Philippians 4:17-18 Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.
Malachi 3:8-10 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
Exodus 22:29 Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.
Haggai 1:4-9 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 3:7-12
We have here before us three exhortations, each of them enforced with a good reason: -
I. We must live in a humble and dutiful subjection to God and his government (Pro 3:7): "Fear the Lord, as your sovereign Lord and Master; be ruled in every thing by your religion and subject to the divine will." This must be, 1. A humble subjection: Be not wise in thy own eyes. Note, There is not a greater enemy to the power of religion, and the fear of God in the heart, than conceitedness of our own wisdom. Those that have an opinion of their own sufficiency think it below them, and a disparagement to them, to take their measures from, much more to hamper themselves with, religion's rules. 2. A dutiful…
(Compare Pro 11:25; Exo 23:19; Deu 18:4; Isa 32:8; Co2 9:13).
John Gill on Proverbs 3:9
Honour the Lord with thy substance,.... Or, "out of thy substance" (n); for as it should be a man's own that he gives, and not another's, and therefore called "thy substance"; or, as the Septuagint version, "out of thy just labours", what is righteously and lawfully gotten, and not by fraud and oppression; so it is only a part of it, and not all, that is required; what in proportion to his substance can be prudently spared, and is sufficient and suitable to the call in Providence. A man's "substance" are his wealth and riches; his "mammon", as the Targum; which, in comparison of heavenly things, indeed have no substance in them: yet these are worldly substance, and of account; and as with th…
9 Honour Jahve with thy wealth,
And with the first-fruits of all thine increase:
10 Then shall thy barns be filled with plenty,
And thy vats overflow with must.
It may surprise us that the Chokma, being separated from the ceremonial law, here commends the giving of tithes. But in the first place, the consciousness of the duty of giving tithes is older than the Mosaic law, Gen 28:22; in this case, the giving of tithes is here a general ethical expression. עשּׂר and מעשׂר do not occur in the Book of Proverbs; in the post-biblical phraseology the tithes are called חלק הגּבהּ, the portion of the Most High. כּבּד, as the Arab. waḳḳra, to make heavy, then to regard and deal with as weighty and s…
The Church Fathers
"Honor the Lord from your righteous labors, and offer to him the fruits of your righteousness; that your barns may be full of an abundance of wheat, and your vats may overflow with wine." Know that as you are faithfully carrying out this service, you have fulfilled the righteousness of the old law, under which those who then lived if they transgressed it inevitably incurred guilt, while if they fulfilled it they could not attain to the height of perfection.
Our Lord wants nothing done for his honor and glory without it being tempered by judgment, for "the honor of a king loves judgment." Therefore Solomon, the wisest of men, urges us not to let our judgment tilt to either side, saying: "Honor God with your righteous labors and offer to him of the fruits of your righteousness." For we have in our conscience an uncorrupt and true judge who, when all others are wrong, is the only person not deceived as to the state of our purity.
God approves of that alms which is furnished by just labors, as is written: "Honor the Lord with your labors and sacrifice to him with the fruits of your justice." For God abominates and refuses that alms which is furnished to him at the cost of another's tears. What profit accrues to you if one person blesses you while many curse you; what good does an alms bring to you when it is furnished from the possessions of another? In truth, need we fear that God does not have the goods with which you may feed his poor without plundering your neighbor?
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Agriculture · LAWS CONCERNING — LAWS CONCERNING
Devotedness To God · Should be: With our substance — Should be: With our substance
First Fruits · required as an offering — required as an offering
First Fruits, The · God honoured by the offering of — God honoured by the offering of
Liberality · 1:2-4; — 1:2-4;
Young Men · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
God receives honor and blesses his people when they recognize him as the source of all they have and when they give him the best part of everything they produce (Gen 4:3-5; 18:6; Num 18:12, 29).
Rashi on Proverbs 3:9
from your substance From whatever He favored you [with], even from a pleasant voice. (Do not read: from your substance [מהונך] but: from your throat [מגרונך].)
and from the first (These are the terumoth and the tithes.)
