Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

substance

English answer:

wealth, treasure

Added to glossary by Ana Juliá
Apr 22, 2004 17:03
20 yrs ago
English term

substance

English Art/Literary Religion
Proverbs 10:3 (King James Version)
The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.

What do you understand by "substance" in this sentence? In other versions of the Bible, the word is craving, appetites, or desire. Does "substance" mean "fortune" here?

Responses

43 mins
Selected

wealth, treasure

The answer, it seems to me, is to be found in the very useful commentary that Eng2Span quotes. The second sentence there says "That wealth which men get unjustly will do them no good, because God will blast it: Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, Proverbs 10:2."
That seems to me to make much more sense of the sentence - The Lord will not let righteous people famish, but he will let wicked people famish by taking away their substance - in other words taking away their wealth or treasure that they live and feed on. As the commentary also suggests, wealth/treasure/money will not buy comfort or happiness, and be no use on the Day of Judgement.
In contemporary terminology, God is doing what many governments do - redistributing, taking from the rich and giving to the poor, or in this context, taking from the wicked and giving to the righteous. That seems to me a more plausible interpretation.
The Oxford English Dictionary quotes one meaning of substance as "Possessions, goods, estate, means, wealth (chiefly as a reminiscence of biblical language). Shakespeare used the word substance in the Comedy of Errors to mean precisely wealth: "Thy substance, valued at the highest rate, Cannot amount unto a hundred Marks". There are several other references in the OED where substances used in exactly that way, meaning wealth. Of course, today substance no longer means that, but it did formerly. I rest my case.







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Note added at 46 mins (2004-04-22 17:49:45 GMT)
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You asked: Does \"substance\" mean \"fortune\" here?
Yes.
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks!"
+3
3 mins

essence, soul

Judging from the context, the Lors will keep the souls of the good and cast away the souls of the wicked
that's my take on it
Peer comment(s):

agree Hacene
1 min
agree Alfa Trans (X)
3 mins
agree Vicky Papaprodromou
10 mins
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+3
7 mins

sustenance for the soul

food for the soul

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Note added at 8 mins (2004-04-22 17:11:56 GMT)
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will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: will not allow the souls of good people to be deprived
Peer comment(s):

agree Margaret Schroeder : Since all the versions of the Bible in modern English have "craving" or its synonyms, it seems clear that "substance" must have had that as one of its meanings when KJV was written.
6 mins
thanks :-)
agree Vicky Papaprodromou
7 mins
merci :-)
agree Krisztina Lelik
1 hr
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+1
13 mins

desire

This is an excerpt from Matthew Henry's commentary on Proverbs 10:3

These two verses speak to the same purport, and the latter may be the reason of the former. 1. That wealth which men get unjustly will do them no good, because God will blast it: Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, Proverbs 10:2. The treasures of wicked people, much more the treasure which they have made themselves masters of by any wicked people, by oppression of fraud, though it be ever so much, as a treasure, and laid up ever so safely, though it be hidden treasure, yet it profits nothing; when profit and loss come to be balanced the profit gained by the treasures will by no means countervail the loss sustained by the wickedness, Matthew 16:26. They do not profit the soul; they will not purchase any true comfort or happiness. They will stand a man in no stead at death, or in the judgment of the great day; and the reason is because God casts away the substance of the wicked (Proverbs 10:3); he takes that from them which they have unjustly gotten; he rejects the consideration of it, not regarding the rich more than the poor. We often see that scattered by the justice of God which has been gathered together by the injustice of men. How can the treasures of wickedness profit, when, though it be counted substance, God casts it away and it vanishes as a shadow? 2. That which is honestly got will turn to a good account, for God will bless it. Righteousness delivers from death, that is, wealth gained, and kept, and used, in a right manner (righteousness signifies both honesty and charity); it answers the end of wealth, which is to keep us alive and be a defence to us. It will deliver from those judgments which men bring upon themselves by their wickedness. It will profit to such a degree as to deliver, though not from the stroke of death, yet from the sting of it, and consequently from the terror of it. For the Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish (Proverbs 10:3), and so their righteousness delivers from death, purely by the favour of God to them, which is their life and livelihood, and which will keep them alive in famine. The soul of the righteous shall be kept alive by the word of God, and faith in his promise, when young lions shall lack and suffer hunger.
Peer comment(s):

agree Vicky Papaprodromou
1 min
Thanks Vicky!
neutral RHELLER : where is the connection? in the text?
12 mins
Oh... my post is only to expand on the context. "Desire" is used by New King James Version. Sorry...
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6 hrs

whatever it is, that makes the wicked, wicked.

whatever it is, that gives the wicked, its identity.
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