"Substance" points to capital, "increase" to revenue. The Septuagint as if to guard against ill-gotten gains being offered as an atonement for the ill-getting, inserts the quaifying words, "honor the Lord from thy righteous labors."

Honor the Lord with thy substance - The מנחה Minchah or gratitude-offering to God, commanded under the law, is of endless obligation. It would be well to give a portion of the produce of every article by which we get our support to God, or to the poor, the representatives of Christ. This might be done either in kind, or by the worth in money. Whatever God sends us in the way of secular prosperity, there is a portion of it always for the poor, and for God's cause. When that portion is thus disposed of, the rest is sanctified; when it is withheld, God's curse is upon the whole. Give to the poor, and God will give to thee.

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 these God has honoured men, they should honour him with them again, by giving to the poor, especially his poor saints; for as an oppressing of them is a reproaching of him, so having mercy on them is honouring him, Proverbs 14:31; and especially by contributing to the support of his worship, the keeping up the interest and credit of religion, and for the spread of the Gospel; and chiefly by communicating to the ministers of it, giving them the "double honour" which is due to them, and which, when given them, the Lord takes as done to himself, as an honouring him, 1 Timothy 5:17;

and with the firstfruits of all thine increase; or, "out of the chief of all thine increase" (o); God must have the best, and in the first place. The allusion is either to the maintenance of the priests and Levites under the law, and the manner of doing it; which, among other things, was out of the annual produce of the earth, and the firstfruits of it; and may respect the comfortable support of Gospel ministers under the present dispensation; see 1 Corinthians 9:13; or to the firstfruits of every kind offered to the Lord, and to the feast kept sacred to him at the ingathering the fruits of the earth, Leviticus 23:10; and even among the Heathens formerly were something of the same kind. Aristotle says (p) the ancient sacrifices and assemblies were instituted as firstfruits, after the gathering of the fruits, at which time especially they ceased from working.

(n) "e substantia tua", Montanus; "de substantia tua", Baynus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "de divitiis tuis", Mercerus, Gejerus; "de opibus tuis", Tigurine version, Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens. (o) "de praecipuo totius proventus tui", Junius & Tremellius. (p) Ethic. l. 8. c. 11.

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, Genesis 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 solemn (opp. קלּל, to regard and treat as light, from קלל equals Arab. hân, to be light). הון, properly lightness in the sense of aisance, opulency, forms with כּבּד an oxymoron (fac Jovam gravem de levitate tua), but one aimed at by the author neither at Proverbs 1:13 nor here. מן (in מהונך and 'מר, Proverbs 3:9) is in both cases partitive, as in the law of the Levitical tenths, Leviticus 27:30, and of the Challa (heave-offering of dough), Numbers 15:21, where also ראשׁית (in Hebrews 7:4, ἀκροθίνια) occurs in a similar sense, cf. Numbers 18:12 (in the law of the Theruma or wave-offering of the priests), as also תּבוּאה in the law of the second tenths, Deuteronomy 14:22, cf. Numbers 18:30 (in the law of the tenths of the priests).

{f} Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:

(f) As was commanded in the law, Ex 23:19, De 26:2 and by this they acknowledged that God was the giver of all things, and that they were ready to bestow all at his commandment.

3:9 Substance - Lay out thy estate not to please thyself, but to glorify God. First - fruits - Or, with the chief or best; which answers to the first - fruits under the law.

9, 10. (Compare Pr 11:25; Ex 23:19; De 18:4; Isa 32:8; 2Co 9:13).

3:7-12 There is not a greater enemy to the fear of the Lord in the heart, than self-conceit of our own wisdom. The prudence and sobriety which religion teaches, tend not only to the health of the soul, but to the health of the body. Worldly wealth is but poor substance, yet, such as it is, we must honour God with it; and those that do good with what they have, shall have more to do more good with. Should the Lord visit us with trials and sickness, let us not forget that the exhortation speaks to us as to children, for our good. We must not faint under an affliction, be it ever so heavy and long, not be driven to despair, or use wrong means for relief. The father corrects the son whom he loves, because he loves him, and desires that he may be wise and good. Afflictions are so far from doing God's children any hurt, that, by the grace of God, they promote their holiness.