Proverbs 18:9 He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.
On the last day of the year 2024, Mark Ward worked tirelessly to build up his “false friend” count to 150. Perhaps he was also tired, rushed, and not as attentive as he should have been. Here is an example of how the Berean must be on the lookout concerning Ward’s teaching and technique. One of countdown words was the word “waster” used in Proverbs 18:9, meaning one who lays waste, or destroys, a destroyer. Not content to merely ravage “King James Onlyists,” he also threw the old commentators Matthew Henry and John Gill under the bus as well. Pulled forward, then backed over them for good measure. After building a large front porch about wasting food and such like, Mark says:
“But false friend 108 in Proverbs 18:9 tripped up people of the stature of Matthew Henry, John Gill, and a random KJV-Only pastor I found on SermonAudio. I just have to share this. Gill, John Gill the great commentator, he thought that the ‘great waster’ was ‘a prodigal man, who spends his substance in riotous living.’ Henry thought ‘great wasters’ were ‘wasters of their estates, who live above what they have, spend and give more than they can afford, and so, in effect, throw away what they have, and suffer it to run to waste.’ I believe that this interpretation really is just impossible.”
I’ll not try to account for the modern pastor in Ohio. He is alive and can fend for himself. However, I will stand up for the dead guys. What Mark failed to consider is that M. Henry and J. Gill knew as much as he knows (and possibly more) and yet applied the idea of “laying waste” to one who destroys what he has through riotous living. (Note that both Henry & Gill reference the prodigal.) There is overlapping sense of waste and destroy that Mark seems to miss. He shouldn’t have. If he had looked carefully at John Gill’s comments on Proverbs 18:9, he should have read that Gill very specifically mentions the destroyer, as well as mentioning something very close to the reference Mark gives from Martin Luther’s commentary on Galatians, of Paul as “a persecutor and waster of the church.”
v. 9. He also that is slothful in his work, &c.] Remiss in it; hangs down his hands, and does not care to make use of them, but neglects his business: Is brother to him that is a great waster: a prodigal man, who spends his substance in riotous living: the sluggard and the prodigal are brethren in iniquity; for, though they take different courses, they are both sinful, and issue in the same manner; both bring to poverty and want. Or, brother to a master that wastes p; a slothful servant and a wasteful master are near akin, and come into the same class and circumstances. Jarchi interprets it, “he that separateth from the law, though a disciple of a wise man, is a brother to Satan;” whose name is Apollyon, the waster and destroyer. A man that is slothful in spiritual things, though a professor of religion, and has a place in the house of God, is brother to him that is a waster and persecutor of it; see Matt. xii.30.
p לבעל משחית domino devaststionis, Gejerus; domino dissipanti, Mercerus.
Clearly John Gill was not “tripped up by a false friend.” He simply chose to interpret the manner of laying waste in a different way than Mark Ward. Regardless of what Mark believes about the word “waster” as a “false friend,” he did not apply honesty, clarity, and charity to what John Gill wrote. Bereans, always search to see whether Mark says is so. Many of his listeners gobble up what he says because he is the first one to come along and say it is so. (Cf. Proverbs 18:17.)
By the way, always search to see whether what any of us say is so!
Vers. 9. He also that is slothful in his work ] ...Is brother to him that is a great waster] Est frater domini disperditionis, will as certainly come to poverty, as the greatest wast-good. A man dyes no lesse surely (though not so suddenly) of consumption, then of an apoplexy.
𝖂𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗 ] Any person, or thing that doth destroy, Isa. 54.19. A Prodigall, Spendthrift, Prov. 18.19.𝖂𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗 ] One that spends all, Prov. 18.9.
Hiphil.—(2) [Prov. 28:24, and Prov. 18:9] a man of destruction, i.e. in chap. 28, act., a destroyer, a waster; but in chap. 18, pass., one who brings destruction on himself, one who wastes his own goods, a prodigal.
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