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substance

English translation: wealth, treasure

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:substance
Selected answer:wealth, treasure
Entered by: Ana Juliá

17:03 Apr 22, 2004
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Art/Literary - Religion
English term or phrase: substance
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?
Ana Juliá
Spain
Local time: 13:21
wealth, treasure
Explanation:
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)
--------------------------------------------------

You asked: Does \"substance\" mean \"fortune\" here?
Yes.
Selected response from:

Peter Linton (X)
Local time: 12:21
Grading comment
Thanks!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
4 +3essence, soul
NancyLynn
3 +3sustenance for the soul
RHELLER
5 +1desire
Eng2Span
4whatever it is, that makes the wicked, wicked.
Craft.Content
3wealth, treasure
Peter Linton (X)


  

Answers


3 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +3
essence, soul


Explanation:
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

NancyLynn
Canada
Local time: 07:21
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Hacene
1 min
agree  Alfa Trans (X)
3 mins
agree  Vicky Papaprodromou
10 mins
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7 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +3
sustenance for the soul


Explanation:
food for the soul

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 8 mins (2004-04-22 17:11:56 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: will not allow the souls of good people to be deprived

RHELLER
United States
Local time: 05:21
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 44

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
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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13 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
desire


Explanation:
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.


Eng2Span
United States
Local time: 07:21
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in SpanishSpanish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
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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43 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
wealth, treasure


Explanation:
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.







--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 46 mins (2004-04-22 17:49:45 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

You asked: Does \"substance\" mean \"fortune\" here?
Yes.

Peter Linton (X)
Local time: 12:21
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 8
Grading comment
Thanks!
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

6 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
whatever it is, that makes the wicked, wicked.


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


Craft.Content
Local time: 16:51
Native speaker of: Native in HindiHindi
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