Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The first hemistich expresses the highest principle of the Israelitish Chokma, as it is found also in ix. 10 (cf. xv. 33), Job xxviii. 28, and in Ps. exi. 10 (whence the LX X. has interpolated here two lines). NWI combines in itself, as ἀρχή, the ideas of initium (accordingly J. H. Michaelis: inittum cognitionis, a quo quisquis recte philosophart cupit auspicium facere debet) and principium, t.e. the basis, thus the root (cf. Mic. i. 18 with Job xix. 28). Wisdom comes from God, and whoever fears Him receives it (cf. Jas. i. 5 f.). mn OX is reverential subordination to the All-directing, and since designedly 17° is used, and not ΠΝ (Π), to the One God, the Creator and Governor of the world, who gave His law unto Israel, and also beyond Israel left not His holy will unattested; the reverse side of the fear of Jahve as the Most Holy One is 37 NNIY, viii. 13 (post-biblical SON NNW). The inverted placing of the words 7) imports that the wisdom and discipline which one obtains in the way of the fear of God is only despised by the DON, ie. the hard, thick, stupid; see regarding the root-word Six, coalescere, coherere, incrassart, der Prophet Jesaia, p. 424, and at Ps. Ixxiii. 4. Schultens rightly compares παχεῖς, crassi pro stupidis.. %2 has the tone on the penulé., and thus comes from na; the 3d pr. of M3 would be 3 or 373, The perf. (cf. ver. 29) is to be interpreted after the Lat. oderunt (Ges. § 126).

Vers. 8, 9. After the author has indicated the object which his Book of Proverbs is designed to subserve, and the fundamental principle on which it is based, he shows for whom he has intended it; he has particularly the rising generation in his eye:

8 Hear, my son, thy father’s instruction, And refuse not the teaching of thy mother; 9 For these are a fair crown to thy head, And jewels to thy neck. ‘“‘ My son,” says the teacher of wisdom to the scholar whom he has, or imagines that he has, before him, addressing him as a fatherly friend. The N. T. representation of birth into a new spiritual life, 1 Cor. iv. 15, Philem. 10, Gal. iv. 19, lies outside the circle of the O. T. representation; the teacher feels himself as a father by virtue of his benevolent, guardian, tender love. Father and mother are the beloved parents of those who are addressed. When the Talmud understands V38 of God, 738 of the people (7s), that is not the grammatico-historic meaning, but the practical interpretation and exposition, after the manner of the Midrash. The same admonition (with 782, keep, instead of YOv, hear, and nis, command, instead of Di, instruction) is repeated im vi. 20, and what is said of the parents in one passage is in x, 1] divided into two synonymeus parallel passages. The stricter musar, Which expresses the idea of sensible means of instruction (discipline), (xiii. 24, xxii. 15, xxiii. 13 f.), is suitably attributed to the father, and the torah to the mother, only administered by the word; Wisdom also always says ΠΤ (my torah), and only once, vill. 10, 09 (my musar).

Ver. 9. D9, which is also used in the neut. illa, eg. Job xxii. 24, refers here to the paternal discipline and the maternal teaching. These, obediently received and followed, are the fairest ornament of the child. mM, from 2, to wind, to roll, Arab. lawy (from δ, whence also bab = 112, as ‘17, to boil up, =171), means winding, twisted ornament, and especially wreath; a crown of gracefulness is equivalent to a graceful crown, a corolla gratiosa, as Schultens translates it; cf.iv. 9, according to which, Wisdom bestows such a crown.’ ΔῚΣ (or Nipay, Judg. viii. 26) are necklaces, jewels for the neck; denom. of the Arab. ‘unek, and Aram. P2Y, the neck (perhaps from P2Y = pry, to oppress, of heavy burdens; cf. αὐχήν, the neck). ΤΥ} is, like fauces, the throat by which one swallows (Arab. g'arg‘ara, tag'aryara), a plur. extensive (Bottcher, ὃ 695), and is better fitted than 11} to indicate the external throat; Ezekiel, however, uses (xvi. 11) garon, as our poet (iii. 3, 22, vi. 21) uses garg’roth, to represent the front neck.’

Ver. 10. The general counsel of ver. 9 is here followed by a more special warning:

My son, if sinners entice thee

Consent thou not. The ‘23° (my son) is emphatically repeated. The intensive form DSO signifies men to whom sin has become a habit, thus vicious, wicked. FB (Pi. of M5, to open) is not denom., to make or wish to make a ‘2; the meaning, to entice (harmonizing with πείθειν), ΠΗ͂Β obtains from the root-meaning of the Kal, for it is related to it as pandere (januam) to patere: to open, to make accessible, susceptible, namely to persuasion. The warning 100 is as brief as possible a call of alarm back from the abyss. In the form 812A (from 38, to agree to, to be willing, see Wetstein on Job, p. 349)

1 Tn jh nd the jn has the conjunctive accent shalsheleth, on account of which the Pesig accent (') is omitted. This small shalsheleth occurs only eight times. See Torath Emeth, Ὁ. 36.

* The writing varies greatly. Here and at vi. 21 we have anand; at iii. 3, ΠΑ ΡΒ ΙΝ * lil. 22, pnt. Thus according to the Masora and correct texts.

3 The accent Pazer over the 23. has the force of Athnach,

Vers. 11-14. Of the number of ΠΝ men who gain associates to their palliation and strengthening, they are adduced as an example whom covetousness leads to murder.

11 If they say, ‘‘ Go with us, we will lurk for blood, Lie in wait for the innocent without cause; 12 Like the pit we will swallow them alive And in perfect soundness like them that go down to the grave. 13 We find all manner of precious treasure, Fill our houses with spoil. 14 Thou shalt cast thy lot amongst us, We all have only one purse.”

Ver. 11. The verb 28 signifies nectere, to bind fast (from 21, close, compact), (see under Isa. xxv. 11), and particularly (but so that it bears in itself its object without ellipse) insidias nectere = insidiart. Regarding Di Fleischer remarks: “ Either elliptically for Ὀπ πε» (Jewish interp.), or, as the parallelism and the usage of the language of this book rather recommend, per synecd. for: fora man, with particular reference to his blood to be poured out (cf. our saying ‘ein junges Blut, a young blood=a youth, with the underlying conception of the blood giving colour to the body as shining through it, or giving to it life and strength), as Ps. xciv. 21.” As in post-biblical Heb. 07) 1¥3 (or inverted, aipa καὶ σάρξ, Heb. ii. 14), used of men as such, is not so used in the O. T., yet 04, like Wb), is sometimes used spnaedbohieally for the person, but never oi reference to the blood as an essentially constituent part of corporealness, but always with reference to violent putting to death, which separates the blood from the body (cf. my System der bib. Psychologie, Ρ. 242). Here D1? j is explained by pn,: with which it is interchanged, Mic. vii. 2: let us lurk for blood (to be poured out). The verb }5¥ is never, like 5 (to conceal), connected with pPan, Dwi, NB, nvI—thus none of these words is here to be supplied; the idea of gaining over one expressed in the organic root ἢν (whence ΠΞΝ, diducendo obducere) has passed over into that of restraining oneself, watching, lurking, hence jp¥ (cog. Aram. 23) in the sense of speculari, insidiari, interchanges with mp¥ (to spy), (cf. Ps. x. 8, lvi. 7 with xxxvii. 32). The adv. 037 (an old accus. from i) properly means in a gracious manner, as a free gift (δωρεάν, gratis = gratis), and accordingly, without reward, also without cause, which frequently = without guilt; but it never signifies sine effectu qui noceat, 1.6. with impunity (Lowenst.). We have thus either to connect together O37 ‘pj, “innocent in vain” (as 037 ΔΝ, my enemies without a cause, Lam. 111. 52): his innocence helps him nothing whom God protects not against us notwithstanding lis innocence (Schultens, Bertheau, Elster, and others); or connect pn with the verb (lie in wait for), for which Hitzig, after the LXX., Syr., Rashi,’ Ralbag, Immanuel, rightly decides in view of 1 Sam. xix. 5, xxv. 81; cf. also Job ix. 17, where the succession of the accents is the same (Zarcha transmuted from Mugrash). Frequently there are combined together in this on (cf. Isa. xxviii. 14 f.), that which the author thinks, and that which those whom he introduces as speaking think.

Ver. 12. The first clause of this verse Hitzig translates: ‘as the pit (swallows) that which lives.” This is untenable, because 2 with the force of a substantive (as instar, likeness) is regarded us a preposition, but not a conjunction (see at Ps. xxxviil. 14 f.). Dn (the living) is connected with Dyn, and is the accus. of the state (||, according to the terminology of the Arab. grammarians) in which they will, with impunity, swallow them up like the pit (the insatiable, xxvii. 20, xxx. 16), namely, while these their sacrifices are in the state of life’s freshness,” “ the living,” —without doubt, like Ps. lv. 16, Ixiii. 10, exxiv. 3, in fact and in expression an allusion to the fate of the company of Korah, Num. xvi. 50, 383. If this is the meaning of on, then O'R as the parallel word means inteagros not in an ethical sense, in which it would be asynonym of Ὁ) of ver. 110 (cf. xxix. 10 with Ps. xix. 14), but in a physical sense (Grec. Venet. καὶ τελείους; Parchon as Rashi, Down OWI, vid. Bottcher, De Inferis, ὃ 293). This physical sense is claimed for DA, Job xxi. 23, for DA probably, Ps. xxiii. 4, and why should not nn, used in the law regarding sacrifices (e.g. Iix. xii. 5, “ without blemish”) of the faultlessness of the victim,

* Only in this sense is the existing accentuation of this verse (cf. the Targ.) to be justified.

also signify such an one OM'D ja-ps W's (Isa. i. 6)? In the midst of complete external health they mal devour to like those that go down to the grave (cf. Ps. xxviii. 1, Ixxxviil. 5, with Isa. xiv. 19), i.e. like those under whose feet the earth is suddenly opened, so that, without leaving any trace behind, they sink into the grave and into Hades. The connection of the finite with the accus. of place, Ps. lv. 16, lies at the foundation of the genitive connection Δ "I (with the tone thrown back): those that go down to the grave.

Vers. 13, 14. To their invitation, bearing in itself its own condemnation, they add as a lure the splendid self-enriching treasures which in equal and just fellowship with them they may have the prospect of sharing. i (from pin, levem, then facilem esse, étre aixé, ἃ son aise) means aisance, convenience, opulence, and concretely that by which life is made agreeable, thus money and possessions (Fleischer in Levy’s Chald. Worterbuch, i. 423 f.). With this im with remarkable frequency in the Mishle 1 (from >, Arab. wakar, grave esse) is connected in direct contrast, according to its primary signification; cf. xil. 27, xxiv. 4: heavy treasures which make life light. Yet it must not be maintained that, as Schultens has remarked, this oxymoron is intended, nor also that it is only consciously present in the Janguage. ΝΣ. has here its primitive appropriate signification of attaining, as ‘Isa. x. 14 of reaching. oo (from “bby to draw from, draw out, from 5y, Ci now, AY, Arab. salab, ante on Isa. p. 447) j is that which is drawn away from the enemy, eruvie, and then the booty and spoil taken in war generally. N33, to fill with anything, make full, governs a double accusative, as the Kal (to become full of anything) governs only one. In ver. 14, the invitation shows how the prospect is to be realized. Interpreters have difficulty in conceiving what is here meant. Do not a share by lot and a common purse exclude one another? Will they truly, in the distribution of the booty by lot, have equal portions at length, equally much in their money-bags? Or is it meant that, apart from the portion of the booty which falls to every one by lot, they have a common purse which, when their business is ebbing, must supply the wants of the company, and on which the new companion can maintain himself beforehand ἢ Or does it mean only that they will be as mutually helpful to one another, according to the principle Ta τῶν φίλων κοινά (amicorum omnia communia), as if they had only one purse? The meaning is perfectly simple. The oneness of the purse consists in this, that the booty which each of them gets, belongs not wholly or chiefly to him, but to the whole together, and is disposed of by lot; so that, as far as possible, he who participated not at all in the affair in obtaining it, may yet draw the greatest prize. This view harmonizes the relation between 146 and 14a. The common Semitic 0°3 is even used at the present day in Syria and elsewhere as the name of the Exchange (“ Borse”) | (plur. akjds); here it is the purse (“ Kasse”) (χρημάτων δοχεῖον, Procop.), which is made up of the profits of the business. This profit consists not merely in gold, but is here thought of in regard to its worth in gold. The apparent contradiction between distributing by lot and having a common purse disappears when the distribution by lot of the common property is so made, that the retaining of a stock-capital, or reserve fund, is not excluded.

Ver. 15. After the men are described against whose enticements a warning is given forth, the warning is emphatically repeated, and is confirmed by a threefold reason:

My son! go not in the way with them. Keep back thy foot from their path.

If 7773 (in the way), taken alone, cannot be equivalent to 798 73 (in one way), so is OMX (with them) to be regarded as its determination." Foot (not feet), as eye, hand, etc., is used where the members come less under consideration than what they unitedly bring about (iv. 26f.). ΠΕ), from 33, signifies properly that which is raised, especially the (raised) footstep.

For their feet run to the evil, And hasten to shed blood.

That this is their object they make no secret (ver. 11 ff.); but why is it that such an object as this should furnish no ground of warning against them, especially as on this beginning the stamp of that which is morally blamable is here impressed with yr>?

1 The Arab. grammarians regard this as half determination, and call it takhsys; that DAN has with them the force of a virtually co-ordinated attributive; while, according to the Arab. gram., it is also possible that 77793, ‘in one way,” is equivalent to on the common way, for in the indetermination sometimes there lies the conception not merely of dhad, but of weahad.

Besides, this circular movement of the thoughts is quite after the manner of this poet; and that ver. 16 is in his style, vi. 18 shows. The want of this distich (165 = Rom. iii. 15) in LXX. B. x. weighs heavier certainly than the presence of it in LXX. A. (Procop., Syro-Hexap.), since the translation is not independent, but is transferred from Isa. lix. 7; but if for the first time, at a later period, it is supplied in the LXX., yet it has the appearance of an addition made to the Hebr. text from Isa. lix. 7 (Hitzig, Lagarde); cf. Comm. on Isaiah, Χ].-Ἰχν]. TEU is always pointed thus; for, as a regular rule, after 5 as well as Ὁ the aspiration disappears; but in Ezek. xvii. 17 35a is also found, and in this case (cf. at Ps. xl. 15) the punctuation is thus jtadiecqleey Ver. 17. The second argument in support of the warning. For in vain is the net spread out In the eyes of all (the winged) birds.

The interpretation conspersum est rete, namely, with corn as a bait, which was put into circulation by Rashi, is inadmissible; for as little as 733 (Hiph. of 7) can mean to strew, can 7? mean to spread. The object is always that which is scattered (gestreut), not that which is spread (bestreut). Thus, expansum est rete, but not from 9, extendere, from which 7119" in this form cannot be derived (it βἰαμθά in that case be m0), but from 7}, pass. of TM, to scatter, spread out. The alluring net, when it is shaken out atid ᾿ spread, is, as it were, scattered, wedittlatur. But if this is done incautiously before the eyes of the birds to be caught, they forthwith fly away. The principal stress lies on the *2'Y3 (before the eyes) as the reason of the 030 (in vain), according to the saying of Ovid, Que nimis apparent retia, vitat avis. The applicatio similttudinis lying near, according to J. H. Michaelis, is missed even by himself and by most others. If the poet wished to say that they earried on their work of blood with such open boldness, that he must be more than a simpleton who would allow himself to be caught by them, that would be an unsuitable ground of warning; for would there not be equally great need for warning against fellowship with them, if they had begun their enticement with more cunning, and reckoned on greater success? Hitzig, Ewald, Zockler, and others, therefore interpret D3n, not in the sense of

1 The ms. Masora remarks pn} m, and hence mio is written defectively in the Erfurt, 1, 2, 8, Frankf. 1294, in the edition of Norzi and elsewhere.

in vain, inasmuch as they do not let themselves be caught; but: in vain, for they see not the net, but only the scattered corn. But according to the preceding, NW15 (the net) leads us to think only either of the net of the malicious designs, or the net of the alluring deceptions. Thus, as Ziegler has noticed, the warned ought to make application of the similitude to himself: Go not with them, for their intention is bad; go not with them, for if the bird flees away from the net which is spread out before it, thou wilt not surely be so blind as suffer thyself to be ensnared by their gross enticements. 3 ya: the furnished with the wing (wings in Eccles. x. 20); °¥2 forms the idea of property (lord).

And they lie in wait for their own blood, They lay snares for their own lives. The warning of ver. 16 is founded on the immorality of the conduct of the enticer; that of 17 on the audaciousness of the seduction as such, and now on the self-destruction which the robber and murderer bring upon themselves: they wish to murder others, but, as the result shows, they only murder themselves. ‘The expression is shaped after ver. 11, as if it were: They lay snares, as they themselves say, for the blood of others; but it is in reality for their own blood: they certainly lie in wait, as they say; but not, as they add, for the innocent, but for their own lives (F'l.). Instead of DDD, there might be used O51, after Mic. vii. 2; but nyina would signify zpsis (post-biblical, Doyo), while pip? leaves unobliterated the idea of the life: animis ipsorum; for if the O. T. language seeks to express ipse in any other way than by the personal pronoun spoken emphatically, this is done by the addition of wp) (Isa. liii, 11). 07) was on this account necessary, because ver. 17 has another subject (cf. Ps. Ixiii. 10). Ver. 19. An epiphonema: Such is the lot of all who indulge in covetousness; It takes away the life of its owner.

This language is formed after Job viii. 13. Here, as there, in the word Nims, the ideas of action and issue, manner of life and its result, are all combined. Y¥2 signifies properly that which is cut off, a piece, fragment broken off, then that which one breaks off and takes to himself—booty, gain, particularly unjust gain

(xxviii. 16). Y¥3 Y¥3 is he who is greedy or covetous. The subject to Mp. is Y¥2, covetousness, πλεονεξία (see Isa. lvii. 17). As Hosea, iv. 11, says of three other things that they take away 2, the understanding (νοῦς), so here we are taught regarding unjust gain or covetousness, that it takes away W53, the life (ψυχή) (WD npd, to take away the life, 1 Kings xix. 10, Ps. xxxi. 14). yoya denotes not the possessor of unjust gain, but as an inward conception, like ὮΝ Ὅν, xxii. 24, cf. xxi 2, xxiv. 8, Eccles. x. 11, him of whom covetousness is the property. The sing. Y5) does not show that yoya is thought of as sing.; cf. xxii. 23, Ps. xxxiv. 23; but according to 11], 27, xvi. 22, Eccles. viii. 8, this is nevertheless probable, although the usage without the suffix is always Y¥3 >Y3, and not “yD (of plur. intens. Dy),

After the teacher of wisdom has warned his disciples against the allurements of self-destroying sin, whose beastly demoniacal nature culminates in murder and robbery, he introduces Wisdom herself saying how by enticing promises and deterring threatenings she calls the simple and the perverse to repentance. Wisdom is here personified, i.e. represented as a person. But this personification presupposes, that to the poet wisdom is more than a property and quality of human subjectivity: she is to him as a divine power, existing independently, to submit to which is the happiness of men, and to reject which is their destruction. And also to the public appearance of wisdom, as it is here represented, there must be present objective reality, without which the power of conviction departs from the figure. The author must think on historical and biographical facts, on human organs (as 2 Chron. xvii. 7-9, cf. Wisd. vii. 27), through which, without words and in words, Wisdom delivers such addresses. But the figure cannot be so historical that it sustains only the relation to a definite time, and not to all time; it is a call to repentance, going forth to all time and to all places, which, divested of all the accidents of its externality, he here refers to its invisible divine background, when he begins in these words:

20 Wisdom cries, sounding loudly in the streets, She causes her voice to be heard in. the chief streets. 21 Over the places of greatest tumult she calleth; In the porches of the gates, in the city, she speaketh forth hor words.

Ver. 20. Looking to its form and vocalization, Ni030 may be an Aramaizing abstract formation (Gesen.; Ew. 165, ¢; Olsh. 219, δ); for although the forms Nin& and nina are of a different origin, yet in Mi37 and NiePin such abstract formations lie before us. The termination ath is here, by the passing over of the u into the less obscure but more intensive o (cf. 7. in the beginning and middle | of the word, and 17) 37° at the end of the word), raised to 6th, and thereby is brought near to the fem. plur. (cf. NiO3N, xiv. 1, sapientia, as our plur. of the neut. sapiens, 7229), approaching to the abstract. On the other hand, that NiD3N is sing. of abstract signification, is not decisively denoted by its being joined to the plur. of the predicate (for 7357 here, as at viii. 3, is scarcely plur.; and if MiDN, xxiv. 7, is plur., N03 as the numerical plur. may refer to the different sciences or departments of knowledge); but perhaps by this, that it interchanges with Minn, Ps. xlix. 4, cf. Prov. xi. 12, xxviii. 16, and that an abstract formation from 122 (fem. of D2h, D3n), which besides is not concrete, was unnecessary. Still less is nian =NP2N a singular, which has it in view to change ΠΞΠ into a proper name, for proof of which Hitzig refers to niminn, Ps. xxviii. 15; the singular ending 6th without an abstract signification does not exist. After that Dietrich, in his Abhandl. 1846, has shown that the origin of the plur. proceeds not from separate calculation, but from comprehension," and that particularly also names denoting intellectual strength are frequently plur., which multiply the conception not externally but internally, there is no longer any justifiable doubt that nin3n signifies the all-comprehending, absolute, or, as Bottcher, ὃ 689, expresses it, the full personal wisdom. Since such intensive plurals are sometimes united with the plur. of the predicate, as e.g. the monotheistically interpreted Elohim, Gen. xxxv. 7 (see J. 6.), so 139M may be plur. On the other hand, the idea that it is a forma miata of fA (from 2) and ANA (Job xxxix. 23) or 137A, the final sound in ah opposes. It may, however, be the emphatic form of the 3d fem. sing. of }29; for, that the

1 In the Indo-Germanic languages the 8 of the plur. also probably proceeds from the prep. sa (sam) = συν. See Schleicher, Compend. der vergl. Gram. § 247.

Hebr. has such an emphatic form, corresponding to the Arab. taktubanna, is shown by these three examples (keeping out of view the suspicion of a corruption of the text, Olsh. p. 452), Judg. v. 26, Job xvil. 16, Isa. xxviii. 3; cf. mnown, Obad. 13 (see Caspari, l.c.), an example of the 2d masc. sing. of this formation. {27 (with 727) is a word imitative of sound (Schallwort), used to denote “a clearsounding, shrill voice (thence the Arab. rannan, of a speaker who has a clear, piercing voice); then the clear shrill sound of a string or chord of a bow, or the clear tinkle of the arrow in the quiver, and of the metal that has been struck” (FI.). The meaning of nian is covered by platee (Luke xiv. 21), wide places; and win, which elsewhere may mean that which is without, lbsfore the gates of the city and courts, here means the “ open air,” in contradistinction to the inside of the houses.

Ver. 21. nian (plur. of ‘217, the ground-form of 1217, from ὉΠ =i), “they who are making noise;” for the epithet is poetically used (Isa. xxil. 2) as a substantive, crowded noisy streets or places. ws is the place from which on several sides streets go forth: cf. ras el-ain, the place where the well breaks forth; ras en-nahr, the place from which the stream divides itself; the sing. is meant distributively as little as at viii. 2. 8, if disioohisted from WY (which also signifies cleft, breach), is ce opening of the gate, the entrance by the gate. Bae times the poet says that Wisdom goes forth preaching, and four times that she preaches publicly; the VY used in five places implies that Wisdom preaches not in the field, before the few who there are met with, but in the city, which is full of people.

Ver. 22. The poet has now reached that part of his introduction where he makes use of the very words uttered by Wisdom:

How long, ye simple, will ye love simplicity,

And scorners delight in scorning,

And fools hate knowledge? Three classes of men are here addressed: the 0°, the simple, who, being accessible to seduction, are only too paiie ptilile of evil; the ΟΡ, mockers, 1.6. free-thinkers ἡἰδδο vid, Arab. lus, flectere, torquere, properly qui verbis obliquis utitur); and the mds3, fools, 1.6. the mentally imbecile and stupid (from bps, Arab. bihal: to be thick, coarse, indolent). The address to these passes ἘΣ ΊᾺ over ἫΝ ἃ declaration regarding them; cf. the same enallage, 1, 27f. ‘N27 has the accent Mahpach, on account of the Pasek following; vid. Torath

“ How long?” there follows the entreaty:

Behold! I would pour out my Spirit upon you,

I would make you to know my words. 93a is not a clause expressive of a wish, which with the particle expressive of a wish, which is wanting, would be SI°333WF, or according to xxiii. 1 and xxvii. 23 would be WA av, The 737, introducing the principal clause, stamps 23a as the. conditional clause; the relation of the expressions is as Isa. xxvi. 10, Job xx. 24, savin! is not equivalent to si convertamini, which would require WEA, but to st revertamine; but ‘Ansin? does not therefore mean at my reproof, i.e. in consequence of it (Hitzig, after Num. xvi. 34), but it is a constructio pregnans: turning and placing yourselves under my reproof. With nnzn there is supposed an ἔλεγχος (LXX., Symm.): bringing proof, conviction, punishment. Τῇ

1 Τὴ the Hagiographa everywhere written plene, with exception of Job xvii. 10.

2The Metheg belongs to the ἢ, under which it should be placed (and not to the 5), as the commencing sound of the second syllable before the tonesyllable; cf. ver. 25.

they, leaving their hitherto accustomed way, permit themselves to be warned against their wickedness, then would Wisdom cause her words to flow forth to them, 7.e. would without reserve disclose and communicate to them her spirit, cause them to know (namely by experience) her words. 27 (from ¥2), R. 3); vid. Genesis, p. 635) is a common figurative word, expressive of the free pouring forth of thoughts and words, for the mouth is conceived of as a fountain (cf. xvill. 4 with Matt. xii. 34), and the ῥῆσις (vid. LXX.) as ῥεῦσις; only here it has the Spirit as object, but parallel with ‘125, thus the Spirit as the active power of the words, which, if tc Spirit expresses Himself in them, are πνεῦμα καὶ ζωή, John vi. 63. The addresses of Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs touch closely upon the discourses of the Lord in the Logos-Gospel. Wisdom appears here as the fountain of the words of salvation for men; and these words of salvation are related to her, just as the λόγοι to the divine λόγος expressing Himself therein.

Vers. 24-27. The address of Wisdom now takes another course. Between vers. 23 and 24 there is a pause, as between Isa. i. 20 and 21. In vain Wisdom expects that her complaints and enticements will be heard. Therefore she turns her call to repentance into a discourse announcing judyment.

24 Because I have called, and ye refused; Stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 25 And ye have rejected all my counsel, And to my reproof have not yielded: 26 Therefore will I also laugh at your calamity, Will mock when your terror cometh; 27 When like a storm your terror cometh, And your destruction sweeps on like a whirlwin’; When distress and anguish cometh upon you. Commencing with {8° (which, like }¥2, from 2, to oppose, denotes the intention, but more the fundamental reason or the cause than, as wn, the motive or object), the clause, connected with ‘28703, ego vicissim, turns to the conclusion. As here ‘M87? 10) (as the w ord of J ahve) are connected by ‘)8"D3 to the expression of the talio in Isa. Ixvi. 4, so also ἰδ, with its contrast 128, Isa.i.19f. The construction quoniam vocavi et renuistis for quoniam quum vocarem renuistis (cf. Isa. xii. 1) is the common diffuse (cers/reute) Semitic, the paratactic instead of the periodizing style. The stretching out of the hand is, like the “spreading out” in Isa. Ixv. 2, significant of striving to beckon to the wandering, and to bring them near. Regarding

Ver. 25. Y76 is synonymous with 3, i. 8; cf. iv. 15 3727, turn from it. Gesenius has inaccurately interpreted the phrase wx ynp of the shaving off of the hair, instead of the letting it fly loose. snp means to loosen (=to lift up, syn. bn), to release, to set free; it combines the meanings of loosening and making empty, or at liberty, which is conveyed in Arab. by a i and a ΡΣ The latter means, intrans., to be set free, therefore to be or to become free from occupation or business; with κὸ of an object, to be free from it, t.e. to have accomplished it, to have done with it (FI.). Thus: since ye have dismissed (missum fecistis) all my counsel (73Y as m9, from /¥%, ec.), i.e. what I always would advise to set you right. ma8 combines in itself the meanings of consent, i. 10, and compliance, 1. 80 (with δὰ, and, as here, of acceptance. The principal clause begins like an echo of Ps. 11. 4 (cf. Jer. xx. 7).

Vers. 26, 27. pn’, as xxxi. 25 shows, is not to be understood with 2; 31s that of the state or time, not of the object. Regarding TR, calamitas opprimens, obruens (from 38 = ot, to burden, to oppress), see at Ps. xxxi. 12. 2 is related to TDN" as arriving to approaching; 02792 is not that for which they are in terror,—for those who are addressed are in the condition of carnal security,—but that which, in the midst of this, will frighten and alarm them. The Chethib Ww is pointed thus, MSY (from INY = ANY, as MINI, MY after the form 7308, 7287); the Ker? substitutes for this infinitive name the usual particip. Π (where then the Vav is wn, “ superfluous”), crashing (fem. of NW), then a crash and an overthrow with a crash; regarding its root-meaning (to be waste, and then to sound hollow), see under Ps. xxxv. 8. ΠΕ (from 4}>=5D), sweeping forth as a (see x. 25) whirlwind. The infinitive construction of 27a is continued in 270 in the finite. ‘This syntactical and logical attraction, by virtue of which a modus or tempus passes by 1 or by the mere parallel arrangement (as ii. 2) from one to another, attracted into the signification and nature of the latter, is peculiar to the Hebr. If there follows a new clause or section of a clause where the discourse takes, as it were, a new departure, that attraction ceases, and the original form of expression is resumed; cf. i. 22, where after the accent Athnach the future is returned to, as here in 276 the infinitive construction is restored” (ΕἸ.). The alliterating words ΠΡῚΝ ΠΝ, cf. Isa. xxx. 6, Zeph. i. 15, are, related to each other as narrowness and distress (Hitzig); the Mashal is fond of the stave-rhyme.’ Vers. 28-31. Then—this sublime preacher in the streets continues—distress shall teach them to pray: 28 Then shall they call on me, and I will not answer; They shall early seek after me, and not find me; 29 Because that they hated knowledge, And did not choose the fear of Jahve. 30 They have not yielded to my counsel, Despised all my reproof: 31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their way, And satiate themselves with their own counsels. In the full emphatic forms, *228)?!, they shall call on me, ὩΣ ΠΝ, they shall seek me, and ‘2283 sp sey shall find me, the suffix Ὁ may be joined to the old plur. sitdined ain (Gesenius, Olshausen, Bottcher); but open forms like 13222, He will we him, *22733', He will that 3 is sposilictis (iw. § 250, δ). 2" The address here takes tlie form of declaration: Stultos mune indignos censet ulteriori alloguio (Mich.). It is that laughter and scorn, ver. 26, which here sounds forth from the address of the Judge regarding the incorrigible. NY is denom. of 7M’, to go out and to seek with the morning twilight, as also 192, Ps. xxvii. 5, perhaps to appear early, and usually (Arab.) bakar (1.11. 1V.), to rise early, to be zealous (Lane: ‘ He hastened to do or accomplish, or attain the thing needed”). Zockler, with Hitzig, erroneously regards vers. 29, 30 as the antecedent to ver. 31. With S38, “and they shall eat,” the futt. announcing judgment are continued from ver. 28; cf. Deut. xxvill. 46-48. The conclusion after ‘D nnn, “ therefore because,” or as usually expressed (except

1 Jul. Ley, in his work on the Metrical Forms of Hebrew Poetry, 1866, has taken too little notice of these frequently occurring alliteration staves; Lagarde communicated to me (8th Sept. 1846) his view of the stave-rhyme in the Book of Proverbs, with the remark, ‘‘ Only the Hebr. technical poetry is preserved to us in the O. T. records; but in such traces as are found of the stave-rhyme, there are seen the echoes of the poetry of the people, or notes passing over from it.”

2 In the Codd. 87?) is written; in this case the A/etheg indicates the tone appears “undoubtedly that the form is to be spoken as J/ilel, ie. with tone on the penult, here and Deut. iv. 37, cf. Gen. iv. 25), WW NOAM (ἀνθ᾽ dv), is otherwise characterized, Deut. xxii. 29, 2 Chron. xxi. 12; and besides, ww nnn stands after (e.g. 1 Sam. xxvi. 21; 2 Kings xxii. 17; Jer. xxix. 19) oftener than before the principal clause. 793 combines in itself the meanings of eligere and diligere (F1.). The construction of ° NaN (to be inclining towards) follows that of the analogous δ yw (to hear). Each one eats of the fruit of his way—good fruit of good ways (Isa. 111. 10), and evil fruit of evil ways. “The [, 316, introduces the object from which, as a whole, that which one eats, and with which he 15 satisfied, is taken as a part, or the object from which, as from a fountain, satisfaction flows forth” (Fl.). In correct texts, ἼΣΩΝ has the accent Dechi, and at the same time Munach as its servant. Regarding the laws of punctuation, according to which ODNsyiNr (with Munach on the tone-syllable, Tarcha on the antepenult, and Metheg before the Chateph-Pathach) is to be written, see Baer’s Torath Emeth, p. 11, Accentssystem, iv. ὃ 4. Norzi accents the word incorrectly with Rebia Mugrash. With the exception of Prov. xxii. 22, the pluralet’ nixyi has always the meaning of ungodly counsels.

82 For the perverseness of the simple slays them, And the security of fools destroys them.

33 But whoever hearkeneth to me dwells secure, And is at rest from fear of evil.

Of the two interpretations of 2, a turning towards (with by and the like, conversion) or a turning away (with “JON or by, desertion), in 72:¥ the latter (as in the post-Bib. NWN, repentance, the former) is expressed; apostasy from wisdom and from God are conjoined. mow is here carnalis securitas; but the word may also denote the external and the internal peace of the righteous, as JNY, whence pxovi, Job xxi. 23, as a superlative is formed by the insertion of the 5 οὗ bv, is taken in bonam et malam partem. PSg is, according to the Masora (also in Jer. xxx. 10, xlvi. 27, xlviii. 11), 3d perf. Pilel (Ewald, ὃ 120, a), from the unused 8’, to be quiet: he has attained to full quietness, and enjoys such. The construction with {2 follows the analogy of "Ὁ 2M (to give rest from), 5 OPY (to rest from), and the like. The negative interpretation of {, sine ullo pavore mali

(Schultens, Ewald), is unnecessary; also Job xxl. 9 may be explained by “ peace from terror,” especially since Dio’ is derived from the root Sw, extrahere. AY? ἽΠΒ, “fear of evil,” one may perhaps distinguish from 39 NB as the genitive of combination.

EARNEST STRIVING AFTER WISDOM AS THE WAY TO THE FEAR OF GOD AND TO VIRTUE.

The admonition so far has almost wholly consisted of warning and threatening. The teacher, directing back to the discipline of the paternal home, warns against fellowship in the bloody deeds of the covetous, which issue in self-murder; and Wisdom holds up before her despisers the mirror of the punishment which awaits them. Now the admonition becomes positive. The teacher describes separately the blessings of the endeavour after wisdom; the endeavour after wisdom, which God rewards with the gift of wisdom, leads to religious and moral knowledge, and this guards men on the way of life from all evil. The teacher accordingly interweaves conditions and promises:

1 My son, if thou receivest my words, And keepest my commandments by thee; 2 So that thou inclinest thine ear unto wisdom, Turnest thine heart to understanding;— 3 Yea, if thou callest after knowledge, To understanding directest thy voice; 4 If thou seekest her as silver, And searchest for her as for treasures: 5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of Jahve, And find the knowledge of God. 6 For Jahve giveth wisdom: From His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. 7 He preserves for the upright promotion; A shield for such as walk in innocence. 8 For He protects the paths of justice, And guards the way of His saints.

The first D8, with that which it introduces, vers. 1, 2, is to be inthe inserted connecting clauses, would then be confirmatory, “ for then.” But since this poet loves to unfold one and the same thought in ever new forms, one has perhaps to begin the conditional premisses with ver. 1, and to regard ON 3 as a new commencement, Hitzig takes this D8 5 in the sense of imo: “much more if thou goest to meet her, e.g. by curious inquiry, not merely permittest her quietly to come to thee.” ON would then preserve its conditional meaning; and ‘3, as in Job xxxi. 18, Ps. cxxx. 4, since it implies an intentional negative, would receive the meaning of imo. But the sentences ranged together with BX are too closely related in meaning to admit such a negative between them. ‘3 will thus be confirmatory, not mediately, but immediately; it is the “for = yes” of confirmation of the preceding conditions, and takes them up again (Ewald, ὃ 356 ὃ, cf. 880 δ) after the form of the conditional clause was given up. The {58, which in 1. 11, 18 is the synonym of M5¥, speculari, presents itself here, 10, Τα, as the synonym of fib, she 1) Db, synon. of DTD, recondita; the group of sounds, ἢν, ὮΝ, Ob (cf. ane pt, in Arab. dafan, whence dafynat, treasure), express shades of the root representation of pressing together. The inf. of the conclusion apn, to incline (Gr. Venet. ὡς ἀκροῷτο), is followed by the accus. of the object 728, thine ear, for vpn properly means to stiffen (not to purge, as Schultens, nor to sharpen, as Gesenius thinks); cf. under Ps.

. 17. With 927 are interchanged 72°2, which properly means that which is distinguished or separated, fe NIA, which means the distinguishing, separating, appellations of the capacity of distinguishing in definite cases and in general; but it does not represent this as a faculty of the soul, but as a divine power which communicates itself as the gift of God (charisma).

Vers. 3-8. Instead of D8 "2 there is an old “pn 5x! (read not so, but thus), O8 5 (if thou callest understanding mother), which supposes the phrase O8 °3 (L. XX.) as traditional. If O8 were intended (accarding to which the Targ. in the Bibl. rabbinica, but not in Norzi’s text, translates), then 3b would correspond; vid. vii. 4, cf. Job xvii. 14. Thus: Yea, if thou callest for understanding, 1.6. callest her to thee (xviii. 6), invitest her to thee (ix. 15). The? of ΡΞ is, with the exception of the imper. (e.g. #3), always without the Dagesh. Ver. 4b belongs to the ideas in the Book of Job found in these introductory discourses, cf. Job 111. 21, as at ver.

14, Job iii, 22 (Ewald, Spriiche, p. 49). WBN (WBN), serutari, proceeds, as DDN shows, from the primary meaning of a ditch, and is thus in its root-idea related to 15M (to dig, search out). In the principal clause of ver. 5 the 7 ΠΝ, as Ps. xix. 10, is the fear of Jahve as it ought to be, thus the reverence which is due to Him, the worshipping of Him as revealed. ‘nm and DTN are interchanged as 0°? and 'n at ix. 10. nya is knowledge proceeding from practice and experience, and thus not merely cognition (Kenntnis), but knowledge (Erkenntnis). The thoughts revolve in a circle only apparently. He who strives after wisdom earnestly and really, reaches in this way fellowship with God; for just as He gives wisdom, it is nowhere else than with Him, and it never comes from any other source than from Him. It comes (ver. 6) 159 (LX X. erroneously 125), i.e. it is communicated through the medium of His word, Job xxii. 22, or also (for λόγος and πνεῦμα lie here undistinguished from one another) it is His breath (Book of Wisdom vii. 25: ἀτμὶς τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ δυνάμεως καὶ ἀπόῤῥοια τῆς τοῦ παντοκράτορος δόξης εἰλικρινής); the inspiration (Π2}}}) of the Almighty (according to Job xxxii. 8) gives men understanding. In ver. 7a, whether ᾿Ξ (Chethib) or {BY (Kert) is read, the meaning is the same. The former is the expression of the completed fact, as ἡτοίμασεν, 1 Cor. ii. 9, and is rightly preferred by LXX. and Syr., for one reluctantly misses the copula (since the thought is new in comparison with ver. 6). © who should be written with the accent Dechi. The Chokma-word (besides in Proverbs and Job, found only in Mic. vi. 9 and Isa. xxviii. 29) MAR is a Hiphil formation (with the passing over of 6 into @, as in 13") from Win (whence the pr. names ΠΥ" and Mv) = (Arab.) wasy and dsy, to re-establish, to advance, Hiph. of 1% = 7, to stand, and thus means furtherance, 7.e. the power or the gift to further, and concretely that which furthers and profits, particularly true wisdom and true fortune.’ The derivation from & (viii. 21) is to be rejected, because “the formation would be wholly without analogy, so much the more because the * of this word does not represent the place of the }, as

1 [ was formerly in error in regarding the word as a Hophal formation, and in assigning to it the primary signification of being in a state of realized existence, of reality, in contradistinction to appearance only. The objection of J. D. Michaelis, supplem. p. 1167, Non placent in linguis ejusmodi etyma metaphysica, etc., does not apply here, since the word is a new one coined by the Chokma, but all the shades of meaning are naturally derived from the funda- is seen from the Arab. (jw and the Syr. ΔΝ ἢ (FI.);? and the derivation of ΠΡ = mW, to be smooth (Hitzig), passes over without any difficulty into another system of roots.” In the passage under consideration (ver. 7), 7AM signifies advancement in the sense of true prosperity. The parallel passage 7a clothes itself in the form of an apposition: (He) a shield (Δ), n. instr. of 123, to cover) for On Doh, pilgrims of innocence (F'l.), 1.6. such as walk in the way (the object-accus., as vi. 12, for which in x. 9 3) of innocence. Of is whole, full submission, moral faultlessness, which chooses God with the whole heart, seeks good without exception: a similar thought is found in Ps, Ixxxiv. 12. 789), 8a, is such an inf. of consequence as ΠΡ (ver. 2), and here, as there, is continued in the finite. The “ paths of justice” are understood with reference to those who enter them and keep in them; parallel, “the way of His saints” (DM, he who cherishes 70M, earnest inward love to God), for that is just ΠΡῚΝ ΠΝ (xii. 28): they are Τὴν ἜΣ (Isa. xxxiil. 15). Instead of the ALugrash, the conjunctive Tarcha is to be given to 7 1}.

Vers. 9-11. With the Τὸ repeated, the promises encouraging to the endeavour after wisdom take a new departure:

9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and justice, And uprightness; every way of good. 10 For wisdom will enter into thine heart, And knowledge will do good to thy soul; 11 Discretion will keep watch over thee, Understanding will keep thee.

mental signification ‘‘ furtherance” (cf. Seneca, Deus stator stabilitorque est). ‘syn, from Arab. dsy and wasy, to further by word and deed, to assist by counsel and act, to render help, whence the meanings auzilium, salus, and prudens consilium, sapientia, easily follow; cf. Ali’s Arab. proverb, uy hil, Jeli He furthers thee, who does not trouble himself about thee.’ ”

-US σωςσ 1The Arab. Um! (almost only in the negative Un =u ΩΣ of the same signification as a with which the Aram. Ns (ns) is associated, pre- ΄“- GE supposes an ων (= cvel)s to be founded, to found, and is rightly regarded by the Arabs as an old segolate noun in which the verbal force was comprehended.

2 The Arab. Les and oS are confounded in common usage (Wetstein, Deutsch. Morgeul. Zeitschr. xxii. 19), but the roots wy and yw are different; w) and wy, on the contrary, are modifications of one root.

Regarding the ethical triad 5% [righteousness, rightness], bavi [judgment], and P7¥ [rectitude], vid. i. 8. Seb. Schmid is wrong in his rendering, e¢ omnis via qua bonum aditur erit tibi plana, which in comparison with Isa, xxvi. 7 would be feebly expressed. J. H. Michaelis rightly interprets all these four conceptions as object-accusatives; the fourth is the summarizing asyndeton (cf. Ps. viii. 7) breaking off the enumeration: omnem denique orlitam boni; Jerome, bonam: in this case, however, iv would be genitive (vid. xvii. 2). 230 is the way in which the chariot rolls along; in ‘sy there are united the root-conceptions of that which is round (53) and rolling (83). Whether 3, ver. 10, is the argumentative “because” (according to the versions and most interpreters) or “ for” (“ denn,” J. H. Michaelis, Ewald, and others), is a question. That with ‘3=“ for” the subject would precede the verb, as at vers. 6, 21, and i. 32 (Hitzig), determines nothing, as ver. 18 shows. On the one hand, the opinion that 3 = “because” is opposed by the analogy of the 3, ver. 6, following IX, ver. 5; the inequality between vers. 5-8 and ver. 9 ff. if the new commencement, ver. 9, at once gives place to another, ver. 10; the relationship of the subject ideas in vers. 10, 11, which makes ver. 11 unsuitable to be aconclusion from ver.10. On the contrary, the promise not only of intellectual, but at the same time also of practical, insight into the right and the good, according to their whole compass and in their manifoldness, can be established or explained quite well as we thus read vers. 10, 11: For wisdom will enter (namely, to make it a dwelling-place, xiv. 33; cf. John xiv. 23) into thine heart, and knowledge will do good to thy soul (namely, by the enjoyment which arises from the possession of knowledge, and the rest which its certainty yields). ΠΡ, γνῶσις, is elsewhere fem. (Ps. cxxxix. 6), but here, as at vill. 10, xiv. 6, in the sense of τὸ γνῶναι, is masc. In ver. 11 the contents of the Pan ts (ver. 9) are further explained. bY 19Y, of watching (for Job xvi. 16 is to be interpreted differently), is used only by our poet (here and at vi. 22). Discretion, i.e. the capacity of well-considered action, will hold watch over thee, take thee under protection; understanding, 1.6. the capacity in the case of opposing rules to make the right choice, and in the matter of extremes to choose the right medium, will be bestowed upon thee. In navn, as in Ps. lxi. 8, exl. 2, 5, Deut. xxxiu. 9, etc., the first stem letter is not assimilated, in order that the word may have a fuller sound; the writing Π5- for τ᾿ is meant to affect the

12 To deliver thee from an evil way, From the man who speaks falsehood; 13 (From those) who forsake the ways of honesty To walk in ways of darkness, 14 Who rejoice to accomplish evil, Delight in malignant falsehood— 15 They are crooked in their paths, And perverse in their ways. That 23 77 is not genitival, via mali, but adjectival, via mala, is evident ‘from no7nd I, xvi. 29. From the evil way, ze. conduct, stands opposed to the false words represented in the person of the deceiver; from both kinds of contagium wisdom delivers. Ni25n (like the similarly formed nidann, occurring only as plur.) means misrepresentations, viz. of the ποσὰ and the true, and that for the purpose of deceiving (xvii. 20), fallacia, i.e. intrigues in conduct, and lies and deceit in words. ΕἾ. compares Arab. ifk, a lie, aa affak, a liar. ἼΡΣΠΡ has Munach, the constant servant of Dechi, instead of Metheg, according to rule (Accentssystem, vil. § 2). Daya (ver. 13) is connected with the collective MS (cf. Judg. ix. 55); we have in the translation separated it into a relative clause with the abstract present. The vocalization of the article fluctuates, yet the expression Daya, like ver. 17 NII, is the better established (Michlol 536); D°3!Y7 is one of the three words which retain their Metheg, and yet add to it a Munach in the tone-syllable (vid. the two others, Job xxii. 4, xxxix. 26). To the “ways of honesty” (Geradheit) (cf. the adj. expression, Jer. xxxi. 9), which does not shun to come to the light, stand opposed the “ ways of darkness,” the ἔργα tod σκότους, Rom. xiii. 12, which designedly conceal themselves from God (Isa. xxix. 15) and men (Job xxiv. 15, xxxviil. 13, 15).

Ver. 14. In this verse the regimen of the 19, 124, is to be regarded as lost; the description now goes on independently. Whoever does not shrink back from evil, but gives himself up to deceit, who finally is at home in it as in his own proper life-element, and rejoices, yea, delights in that which he ought to shun as something destructive and to be rejected. The neut. 39 is frequently an attributive genit., vi. 24, xv. 26, xxviii. 5; cf. aiv, xxiv. 25, which here, since nigh are thai asi in themselves are bad, dads not separate, but heightens: perversitates non simplices aut ils, sed pessime et ea omni parte vitiose (J. H. Michaelis). With “WN (οἵτινες), ver.-15, this part is brought to a conclusion. Fleischer, Bertheau, ona others interpret DINAN, as the accus. of the nearer definition, as σκολιὸς τὸν νοῦν, τὰς πράξεις; but should it be an accus., then would we expect, in this position of the words, ἸῸΝ (Isa. ial 8; Prov. x. 9, cf. ix. 15). OD'Wpy is the pred.; for mis, like 77, inhi of both genders. prion carries in it its subject D9; m9, like the Arab. ἴα, I’dh, is a weaker form of yr, flectere, inclinare, intrans. i Sp they are turned aside, inclined out of the way to the right and left in their walk (2 as xvii. 20).

Vers. 16-19. With the resumption of TEND, the watchful protection which wisdom affords to its possessors is further specified in these verses:

16 To save thee from the strange woman, From the stranger who useth smooth words;

17 Who forsakes the companion of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God;

18 For she sinks down to death together with her house,

And to the shadow of Hades her paths—

19 All they who go to her return not again, And reach not the paths of life

The subject here continued is the fourfold wisdom named in vers. 10,11. ‘signifies alienus, which may also be equivalent to alius populi, but of a much wider compass—him who does not belong to a certain class (e.g. the non-priestly or the laity), the person or thing not belonging to me, or also some other than I designate; on the other hand, "033, peregrinus, scarcely anywhere divests itself of the essential mark of a strange foreign origin. While thus 7} ΠῸΝ is the non-married wife, 7°02) designates her as_non-Israelitish. Prostitution was partly sanctioned in the cultus of the Midianites, Syrians, and other nations neighbouring to Israel, and thus was regarded as nothing less than customary. In Israel, on the contrary, the law (Deut. xxiii. 18 f.) forbade it under a penalty, and therefore it was chiefly practised by foreign women (xxiii. 27, and cf. the exception, Ruth ii. 10),"—an inveterate vice, which spread itself particularly from the latter days of Solomon, along with general ungodliness, and excusing itself under the polygamy sanctioned by the law, brought ruin on the state. The Chokma contends against this, and throughout presents monogamy as alone corresponding to the institution and the idea of the relation. Designating marriage as the “ covenant of God,” it condemns not only adulterous but generally promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, because unhallowed and thus unjustifiable, and likewise arbitrary divorce. Regarding the ancient ceremonies connected with the — celebration of marriage we are not specially informed; but from ver. 17, Mal. ii. 14 (Ewald, Bertheau, Hitzig, but not Kohler), it appears that the celebration of marriage was a religious act, and that they who were joined together in marriage called God to witness and ratify the vows they took upon themselves. The perf. in the attributive clause nponn m8 proceeds on the routine acquired in cajoling and dissembling: who has smoothed her words, 1.6. learned to entice by flattering words (F!.).

Vers. 17-19. PAD, as here used, has nothing to do with the phylarch-name, similar in sound, which is a denom. of FON; but it comes immediately from ON, to accustom oneself to a person or cause, to be familiar therewith (while the Aram. FON, FO", to jearn, Pa. to teach), and thus means, as the synon. of Y), the companion or familiar associate (vid. Schultens). Parallels such as Jer. iii. 4 suggested to the old interpreters the allegorical explanation of the adulteress as the personification of the apostasy or of heresy. Ver. 18a the LXX. translate: ἔθετο yap παρὰ τῷ θανάτῳ τὸν οἶκον αὐτῆς: she (the dissolute wife) has placed her house beside death (the abyss of death). This "nv [ἔθετο] is perhaps the original, for the text as it lies before us is doubtful, though, rightly understood, admissible. The accentuation marks “3 as the subject, but 3 is elsewhere always masc., and does not, like the rarer mk, ver. 15, admit in usage a double gender; also, if the fem. usage were here introduced (Bertheau, Hitzig), then the predicate, even though ΠΡ were regarded as fem., might be, in conformity with rule, MY, as eg. Isa. ii. 17. TN is, as in Ps. xliv. 26, 3d pr. of mW, Arab. sdékh, to go down, to sink; the emendation An¥

1 In. Talmudic Heb. ΠΥ (Aramean) has this meaning for the Biblical 93).

(Joseph Kimchi) does not recommend itself on this account, that nn’ and Nh mean, according to usage, to stoop or to bend down; and to interpret (Ralbag, nbpyin) nn’ transitively is inadmissible. For that reason Aben Ezra interprets nna as in apposition: to death, to its house; but then the poet in that case should say PINON, for death is not a house. On the other hand, we cannot perceive in M2 an accus, of the nearer definition (J. H. Michaelis, ΕἸ.); the expression would here, as 15a, be refined without purpose. Bottcher has recognised ΠῚ as permutative, the personal subject: for she sinks down to death, her house, i.e. she herself, together with all that belongs to her; cf. the permutative of the subject, Job xxix. 3, Isa, xxix. 23 (vid. comm. /.c.), and the more particular statement of the object, Ex. 11. 6, etc. Regarding 0°85), shadows of the under-world (from 757, synon. mon, weakened, or to become powerless), a word common to the Solomonic writings, vid. Comment. on Isaiah, p. 206. What ver. 18d says of the person of the adulteress, ver. 19 says of those who live with her ΠῚ, her housecompanions. 82, “those entering in to her,” is equivalent to MON D'N2; the participle of verbs eundi et veniendi takes the accusative object of the finite as gen. in st. constr., as e.g. 1. 12, ii. 7, Gen. xxiii. 18, ix. 10 (cf. Jer. x. 20). The p2%, with the tone on the ult., is a protestation: there is no return for those who practise fornication,’ and they do not reach the paths of life from which they have so widely strayed.’

Vers. 20-22. With n> there commences a new section, co-ordinating itself with the Wyn (“to deliver thee”) of vers. 12, 16, unfolding that which wisdom accomplishes as a preserver and guide:

20 So that thou walkest in the good way, And keepest the right paths.

21 For the upright shall inhabit the land, And the innocent shall remain in it.

22 But the godless are cut off out of the land, And the faithless are rooted out of it.

1 One is here reminded of the expression in the /neid, vi. 127-129: Revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras, Hoc opes, hoc labor est. Sce also an impure but dreadful Talmudic story about a dissolute Rabbi, b. Aboda zara, 17a. 2 In correct texts wenn) has the Makkeph. Vid. Torath Emeth, p. 41; Accentuationssystem, xx. § 2.

Wisdom—thus the connection—will keep thee, so that thou shalt not fall under the seductions of man or of woman; keep, in order that thou... ΡΝ (from }¥ = ΤΠ)», tendency, purpose) refers to the μεθ εἴσῃ and object of the protecting wisdom. To the two negative designations of design there follows, as the third and last, a positive one. O21 (contrast to OY, xiv. 19) is here used ina general ethical sense: the good (Guten, not Giitigen, the kind). 12Y, with the object of the way, may in another connection also mean to keep oneself from, cavere ab (Ps. xvii. 4); here it means: carefully to keep init. The promise of ver. 21 is the same as in | the Mashal Ps. xxxvii. 9, 11, 22; ef. Prov. x. 30. YS is Canaan, or the land which God promised to the patriarchs, and in which He planted Israel, whom He had brought out of Eeypt; not the earth, as Matt. v. 5, according to the extended, unlimited N. T. circle of vision. 1% (Milel) is erroneously explained by Schultens: funtculis bene firmis trroborabunt in terra. The verb 1M, Arab. watar, signifies to yoke (whence 1, a cord, rope), then intrans. to be stretched out in length, to be hanging over (vid. Fleischer on Job xxx. 11); whence 7M‘, residue, Zeph. ii. 9, and after which the LXX. here renders ὑπολειφθήσονται, and Jerome permanebunt. In 220 the old translators render 1D" as the fut. of the pass. ΠΡ), Deut. xxviii. 63; but in this case it would be wD, The for IND’, pointed 43ND‘, might be the Niph. of ΠΠΌ, but nnp can neither be thle as one saith D3, of the same meaning, nor with Hitzig is it to be vocalized 35° (Hoph. of nd); nor, with Bottcher (ὃ 1100, p. 453), 15 115° to be regarded as a veritable fut. Niph. ἽΠΙΒὴ is, as at xv. 25, Ps. lii. 7, active: evellant; and this, with the subj. remaining inidedaite tft which J. H. Michaelis neti to Hos. xii. 9), is equivalent to evellentur. This indefinite “ they” or “ one” (“man” Fleischer remarks, can even be used of God, as here and Job vii. 3,—a thing which is common in Persian, where e.g. the expression rendered hominem ex pulvere fecerunt is used instead of the fuller form, which would be rendered homo a Deo ex pulvere factus est. ova bears (as 713 proves) the primary meaning of concealed, i.e. malicious (treacherous and rapacious, Isa. xxxili. 1), and bien faithless men.!

1 Similar is the relation in Arab. of labbasa to libas (via); it means to make a thing unknown by covering it; whence telbis, deceit, mulebbis, a falsifier.

EXHORTATION TO LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS, AND SELF-SACRI- FICING DEVOTION TO GOD, AS THE TRUE WISDOM.

The foregoing Mashal discourse seeks to guard youth against ruinous companionship; this points out to them more particularly the relation toward God and man, which alone can make them truly happy, vers. 1-4.

1 My son, forget not my doctrine, And let thine heart keep my commandments; 2 For length of days, and years of life, And peace, will they add to thee. 8 Let not kindness and truth forsake thee: Bind them about thy neck, Write them on the tablet of thy heart, 4 And obtain favour and true prudence In the eyes of God and of men.

The admonition takes a new departure. ‘NA and ‘niy0 refer to the following new discourse and laws of conduct. Here, in the midst of the discourse, we have 78° and not 7¥2'; the non-assimilated form is found only in the conclusion, 6.4. 11. 11, v. 2. The plur. ΒΝ (ver. 2) for ΠΟ (they will bring, add) refers to the doctrine and the precepts; the synallage has its ground in this, that the fem. construction in Hebrew is not applicable in such a case; the vulgar Arab. also has set aside the forms jaktubna, taktubna. “Extension of days” is continuance of duration, stretching itself out according to the promise, Ex. xx. 12; and “ years of life” (ix. 11) are years—namely, many of them—of a life which is life in the full sense of the word. O04 has here the pregnant signification vita vitalis, Bios βιωτός (FI.). Οἷον (R. Sw) is pure well-being, free from all that disturbs peace or satisfaction, internal and external contentment.

Ver. 3. With this verse the doctrine begins; bs (not 5) shows that 83a does not continue the promise of ver. 2. 700 (R. bn, stringere, afficere) is, according to the prevailing usage of the language, well-affectedness, it may be of God toward men, or of men toward God, or of men toward one another—a loving disposition, of the same meaning as the N. T. ἀγάπη (vid. 6.9. Hos. vi. 6). MON (from M328), continuance, a standing to one’s promises, and not falsifying just expectations; thus fidelity, πίστις, in the interrelated sense of fides and fidelitas. These two states of mind and of conduct are here contemplated as moral powers (Ps. 1Ixi. 8, xliii. 3), which are of excellent service, and bring precious gain; and 45 shows that their ramification on the side of God and of men, the religious and the moral, remains radically inseparable. The suffix D— does not refer to the doctrine and the precepts, but to these two cardinal virtues. If the disciple is admonished to bind them about his neck (vid. 1. 9, cf. iil. 22), so here reference is made, not to ornament, nor yet to protection against evil influences by means | of them, as by an amulet’ (for which proofs are wanting), but to the signet which was wont to be constantly carried (Gen. xxxviil. 18, cf, Cant. viii. 6) on a string around the neck. The parallel member 3c confirms this; 3b and 36 together put us in mind of the Tephillim (phylacteries), Ex. xiii. 16, Deut. vi. 8, xi. 18, in which what is here a figure is presented in external form, but as the real figure of that which is required in the inward parts. mb (from mp, Arab. Cah, to begin to shine, e.g. of a shooting star, gleaming sword; vid. Wetzstein, Deutsch. morgenl. Zeitzschr. xxii. 151 f.) signifies the tablet prepared for writing by means of polish; to write love and fidelity on the tablet of the heart, is to impress deeply on the heart the duty of both virtues, so that one will be impelled to them from within outward (Jer. xxxi. 33).

Ver. 4. To the admonitory imper. there follows here a second, as iv. 4, xx. 18, Amos ν. 4, 2 Chron. xx. 20, instead of which also the perf. consec. might stand; the counsellor wishes, with the good to which he advises, at the same time to present its good results. 22 is (1 Sam. xxv. 3) the appearance, for the Arab. shakl means forma, as uniting or binding the lineaments or contours into one figure, σχῆμα, according to which a0 Ὁ5 may be interpreted of the pleasing and advantageous impression which the well-built external appearance of a man makes, as an image of that which his internal excellence produces; thus, favourable view, friendly judgment, good reputation (Ewald, Hitzig, Zockler). But everywhere else (xiii. 15; Ps. οχὶ. 10; 2 Chron, xxx. 22) this phrase means good, i.e. fine, well-becoming insight, or prudence; and boy

1 Fleischer is here reminded of the giraffe in the Jardin des Plantes, the head of which was adorned by its Arabic keeper with strings and jewels, the object of which was to turn aside the ‘ain (the bad, mischievous look) from the precious beast.

has in the language of the Mishle no other meaning than intellectus, which proceeds from the inwardly forming activity of the mind. He obtains favour in the eyes of God and man, to whom favour on both sides is shown; he obtains refined prudence, to whom it is on both sides adjudicated, It is unnecessary, with Ewald and Hitzig, to assign the two objects to God and men. In the eyes of both at the same time, he who carries love and faithfulness in his heart appears as one to whom ἵΠ and [Ὁ 22 must be adjudicated. | Vers. 5-8. Were “kindness and truth” (ver. 3) understood only in relation to men, then the following admonition would not be interposed, since it proceeds from that going before, if there the quality of kindness and truth, not only towards man, but also towards God, is commended: 5 Trust in Jahve with thy whole heart, And lean not on thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge Him, And He will make plain thy paths. 7 Be not wise in thine own eyes; Fear Jahve, and depart from evil. 8 Health will then come to thy navel, And refreshing to thy bones. From God alone comes true prosperity, true help. He knows the right way to the right ends. He knows what benefits us. He is able to free us from that which does us harm: therefore it is our duty and our safety to place our confidence wholly in Him, and to trust not to our own judgment. The verb Mba, Arab. bath, has the root-meaning expandere, whence perhaps, by a more direct way than that noted under Ps. iv. 6, it acquires the meaning con/idere, to lean with the whole body on something, in order to rest upon it, strengthened by by. if one lean wholly—Fr. se reposer sur quelqwun; Ital. riposarsi sopra alcuno,—like Ἰ Ὁ Π with ON, to lean on anything, so as to be supported by it; with by to support oneself on anything (Ε1.). ΠῚ (the same in form as 37xX¥, Num. xi. 12) is not fully represented by “acknowledge Him;” as in 1 Chron. xxvii. 9 it is not a mere theoretic acknowledgment that is meant, but earnest penetrating cognizance, engaging the whole man. ‘The practicomystical 7Y7, in and of itself full of significance, according to O. and N. T. usage, is yet strengthened by toto corde. The heart is the central seat of all spiritual soul-strength; to love God with the whole heart is to concentrate the whole inner life on the active contemplation of God, and the ready observance of His will. God requites such as show regard to Him, by making plain their path before them, ze. by leading them directly to the right end, removing all hindrances out of their way. TDM has Daten 3 in the = syllable (vid. Kimchi’s Lea.)." “ Be not wise in thine own eyes” is equivalent to ne ἐϊδὲ sapiens videare; for, as J. H. Michaelis remarks, confidere Deo est sapere, sibi vero ac sue sapientice, desipere. ‘Fear God and depart from evil” is the twofold representation of the εὐσέβεια, or practical piety, in the Chokma writings: Prov. xvi. 6, the Mashal psalm xxxiv. 10, 15, and Job xxviii. 28 cf. i. 2. For yD 1D, the post-biblical expression is SOM NS).

Ver. 8. "The subject to ‘JM (it shall be) is just this religiousmoral conduct. The conjectural reading 71¥2? (Clericus), Tw? = Aw? (Ewald, Hitzig), to thy flesh or body, is unnecessary 5 the LX X. and Syr. so translating, generalize the expression, which is not according to their taste. δ, from 1, Arab. sarr, to be fast, to bind fast, properly, the umbilical cord (which the Arabs call surr, whence the denom. sarra, to cut off the umbilical cord of the newborn); thus the navel, the origin of which coincides with the independent individual existence of the new-born, and is as the firm centre (cf. Arab. saryr, foundation, basis, Job, p. 487) of the existence of the body. The system of punctuation does not, as a rule, permit the doubling of 4, probably on account of the prevailing half guttural, i.e. the uvular utterance of this scund by the men of Tiberias.? ΤῊ here, and 72 at Ezek. xvi. 4, belong to the exceptions; cf. the expanded duplication in 771’, Cant. vii. 3, to which a chief form 11 is as little to be assumed as is a ὙΠ to ὙΠ. The ἅπ. yeyp. MAND, healing, has here, as NBD, iv. 22, XVi. 24, and nan, Ezek. xlvii. 12, not the meaning of restoration rte ΑἸ ΘΟ δὲ but τ raising up of enfeebled strength, or the confirm ing of that which exists; the navel comes into view as the middle point of the vis vitalis. “p¥ is a Piel formation, corresponding to the abstract Kal formation MN5); the Arab. du, used transit.

ἃ See my work, Physiologie u. Musik in ihrer Bedeutung fiir Grammatik besonders die hebrdische, pp. 11-13.

the obliterating of the proper signification, distribution, benefaction, showing friendship, but in the passage before us is to be explained after Job xxi. 24 (the marrow of his bones is well watered; Arnheim—full of sap) and xv. 30. Bertheau and Hitzig erroneously regard ver. 8 as the conclusion to ver. 7, for they interpret MND as the subject; but had the poet wished to be so understood, he should have written "173, Much rather the subject is devotion withdrawn from the evil one and turned to God, which externally proves itself by the dedication to Him of earthly possessions. Ver. 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. xxviii. 22; in this case, the giving of tithes is here a general ethical expression. "BY and Wy do not occur in the Book of Proverbs; in the post-biblical phraseolo:y the tithes are called #339 pon, the portion of the Most High. 723, as the Arab. wakkra, to ial heavy, then to regard and deal τ δι as weighty and solemn (opp. DP, to regard αὐτῶν treat as light, from Sop = Arab. han, to be light). jin, properly lightness in “the sense of aisance, opulency, forms with 723 an oxymoron (fac Jovam gravem de levitate tua), but one aimed at by the author neither at i. 13 nor here. [Ὁ (in 7257 and ‘2, ver. 9) is in both cases partitive, as in the law of the Levitical tenths, Lev. xxvii. 30, and of the Challa (heave-offering of dough), Num. xv. 21, where also nmvxa (in Heb. vii. 4, ἀκροθίνια) occurs in a similar sense, cf. Num. xviii. 12 (in the law of the Zheruma or wave-offering of the priests), as also 783A in the law of the second tenths, Dent. xiv. 22, cf. Num. xviii. 30 (in the law of the tenths of the priests). Ver. 10. With 1 apodosis imperativi the conclusion begins. ya, satisfaction, is equivalent to fulness, making satisfied, and that, too, richly satisfied; ¥i7°M also is such an accusative, as verbs of filling govern it, for 718, to break through, especially to overflow, signifies to be or become overflowingly full (Job i. 10). OD8 (from D8,

Chald. jD%, Syr. dsan, to lay up in granaries) is the granary, of the same meaning as the Arab. dékhzan (from khazan = JON, Isa. xxiii. 18, recondere), whence the Spanish magazen, the French and German magazin. 2?) (from 3?, Arab. wakab, to be hollow) is the vat or tub into which the must flows from the wine-press (73 or 7B), λάκκος or ὑπολήνιον. Cf. the same admonition and promise in the prophetic statement of Mal. 111. 10-12.

Vers. 11, 12. The contrast here follows. As God should not be forgotten in days of prosperity, so one should not suffer himself to be estranged from Him by days of adversity.

11 The school of Jahve, my son, despise thou not, Nor loathe thou His correction;

12 For Jahve correcteth him whom He loveth, And that as a father his son whom he loveth

Vid. the original passage Job v.17 f. There is not for the Book of Job a more suitable motto than this tetrastich, which expresses its fundamental thought, that there is a being chastened and tried by suffering which has as its motive the love of God, and which does not exclude sonship." One may say that ver. 11 expresses the problem of the Book of Job, and ver. 12 its solution. b%9, παιδεία, we have translated “school,” for 15°, παιδεύειν, means in reality to take one into school. AAndung [punishment] or Rige [reproof] is the German word which most corresponds to the Hebr. nnn or NAIA, = YP (whence here the prohibitive /PA with 28) means to experience loathing (disgust) at anything, or aversion

(vexation) toward anything. The LXX. (cited Heb. xii. 5f.), μηδὲ ἐκλύου, nor be faint-hearted, which joins in to the general thought, that we should not be frightened away from God, or let ourselves be estranged from Him by the attitude of anger in which He appears in His determination to inflict suffering. In 12a the accentuation leaves it undefined whether 717. as subject belongs to the relative or to the principal clause; the traditional succession of accents, certified also by Ben Bileam, is M7. 308) WS NN 12, for this passage belongs to the few in which more than three servants (viz. Mahpach, Mercha, and three Munachs) go before the Athnach.” The further peculiarity is here to be observed, that nx, although without the Makkeph, retains its Segol, besides here only in Ps. xlvii. 5, Ix. 2. 125 is to be interpreted thus (cf. ix. 5): “and (that) as a father the son, whom he loves.” The? is explanatory, as 1 Sam. xxviii. 3 peekentay ὃ 155, 1a), and ΠΥ (which one may supplement by {n& or 13) is a 6 ἢ clause having the force of a clause with vx. The translation, et ut pater qui filio bene cupit, is syntactically (cf. Isa. xl. 11) and seCaneRaN? (vid. 135) not less admissible, but translating “and as a father he holds his son dear,” or with Hitzig (after Jer. xxxi. 10, a passage not quite syntactically the same), “and holds him dear, as a father his son” (which Zockler without syntactical authority prefers on account of the 2d modus, cf. eg. Ps. li. 18), does not seem a right parallel clause, since the giving of correction is the chief point, and the love only the accompanying consideration (xiii. 24). According to our interpretation, 13° is to be carried forward in the mind from 12a. The LXX. find the parallel word in 38>, for they translate waotiyot δὲ πάντα υἱὸν, ὃν παραδέχεται, and thus have read 283° or 283"),

Vers. 13-15. Such submission to God, the All-wise, the Alldirecting, who loves us with fatherly affection, is wisdom, and such wisdom is above all treasures.

13 Blessed is the man who has found wisdom, And the man who has gained understanding;

14 For better is her acquisition than the acquisition of silver, And her gain than fine gold.

15 More precious is she than corals; And all thy jewels do not equal her value.

The imperfect PS’, which as the Hiph. of pas, exire, has the general meaning educere, interchanges with the perfect 88. This bringing forth is either a delivering up, i.e. giving out or presenting, Isa. lviii. 10, Ps. exl. 9, exliv. 13 (cf. P22, Arab. nafak, to give out, to pay out), or a fetching out, getting out, receiving, viii. 35, xii. 2, xviii. 22. Thus 13a reminds one of the parable of the treasure in the field, and 13d of that of the goodly pearl for which the ἔμπορος who sought the pearl parted with all that he had. Here also is declared the promise of him who trades with a merchant for the possession of wisdom; for 77ND and 70D (both, as Isa. xxiii. 3, 18, xlv. 15, from 79D, the latter after the forms νην, yoo, Lala our pout to assume a second primary form, "ND) go back to the root-word ὝΠΟ, to trade, go about as a trader, with the fundamental meaning ἐμπορεύεσθαι (LX X.); and also the mention οὗ the pearls is not wanting here, for at all events the meaning “pearls” has blended itself with 0°28, which is a favourite word in the Mashal poetry, though it be not the original meaning of the word. In 14 403 is surpassed by YN (besides in the Proverbs, found only in this meaning in Ps. Ixviii. 14), which properly means ore found in a mine, from 7M, to cut in, to dig up, and hence the poetic name of gold, perhaps of gold dug out as distinguished from molten gold. Hitzig regards χρυσός as identical with it; but this word (Sanskr. without the ending hir, Zend. zar) is feed from ghar, to glitter (vid. Curtius). ANNAN we have translated “ gain,” for it does not mean the profit which wisdom brings, the tribute which it yields, but the gain, the possession of wisdom herself.

Ver. 15. As regards 5°28, for which the Kethib has 028, the following things are in favour of the fundamental meaning “corals,” viz.: (1.) The name itself, which corresponds with the

Arab. “ΠῚ; this word, proceeding from the root-idea of shooting forth, particularly after the manner of plants, means the branch and all that raises or multiplies itself branch-like or twig-like (Fleischer). (2.) The redness attributed to the o9"25, Lam. iv. 7, in contradistinction to the pure whiteness attributed to snow and milk (vid. at Job xxviil. 18). The meaning of the word may, however, have become generalized in practice (LXX. in loc. λίθων πολυτελῶν, Grec. Venet. λιθιδίων); the meaning “ pearls,” given to it in the Job-Targum by Rashi, and particularly by Bochart, Jay so much the nearer as one may have wrought also corals and precious stones, such as the carbuncle, sardius, and sapphire, into the form of pearls. ΠῚ), in consequence of the retrogression of the tone, has Munach on the penult., and that as an exception, as has been remarked by the Masora, since in substantives and proper names terminating in 7— the Ww D3, 1.6. the receding of the tone, does not elsewhere appear, eg. 87 ΠΕΣ, Gen. xii. 14, 8 1a, Cant. vi. 9, 8 My, Jer. xxx. 7, “VSM is first abstr., a being inclined to something, lust, will, pleasure in anything, then also coner., anything in nis 4 one has pleasure, what is beautiful,

(Fleischer), ™ with 2 means to be an equivalent (purchase-price, exchange) for anything; the most natural construction in Arab. as well as in Hebr. is that with °, to be the equivalent of a thing (vid. at Job xxxiii. 27); the 2 is the Beth pretii, as if one said in Arab.: biabt anta thou art in the estimate of my father, I give it for thee. One distinctly perceives in vers. 14, 15, the echo of Job xxviii. This tetrastich occurs again with a slight variation at viii. 10, 11. The Talmud and the Midrash accent it so, that in the former the expression is Ὀ ΕΠ ΟῚ, and in the latter qyyan->>1, and they explain the latter of precious stones and pearls (ΠΡΟΣ ΟῚ maw D238).

16 Length of days is in her right hand; In her left, riches and honour.

17 Her ways are pleasant ways, And all her paths are peace.

18 A tree of life is she to those that lay hold upon her, And he who always holdeth her fast is blessed.

As in the right hand of Jalive, according to Ps. xvi. 11, are pleasures for evermore, so Wisdom holds in her right hand “ length of days,” viz. of the days of life, thus life, the blessing of blessings; in her left, riches and honour (viii. 18), the two good things which, it is true, do not condition life, but, received from Wisdom, and thus wisely, elevate the happiness of life—in the right hand is the chief good, in the left the προσθήκη, Matt. vi. 33. Didymus: Per sapientie dextram divinarum rerum cognitio, ex qua immortaltatis vita oritur, significatur; per sinistram autem rerum humanarum notitia, ex qua gloria opumque abundantia nascitur. The LXX., as between 15a and 158, so also here after ver. 16, interpolate two lines: “From her mouth proceedeth righteousness; justice and mercy she bears upon her tongue,”—perhaps translated from thie Hebr., but certainly added by a reader.

Ver. 17. ὈΜ5 "51 are ways on which one obtains what is agreeable to the inner and the outer man, and which it does good to enjoy. The parallel Dibyi is not a genitive to Ni2°N) to be supplied; the paths of Wisdom are themselves Οἷον, for she brings well-being on all sides and deep inward satisfaction (peace). In regard to 12"), via eminens, elata, Schultens is right (vid. under i. 15);* ΠῚ) has Munach, and instead of the Metheg, Tarcha, vid. under i. 310.

1 The root is not 3n, to grope, but m3; whence Arab. natt, to bubble up, nata, to raise oneself, to swell up, ete.

The figure of thie tree of life the fruit of which brings immortality, is, as xi. 80, xv. 4 (cf, xi. 12), Rev. 11. 7, taken from the history of paradise in the Book of Genesis. The old ecclesiastical saying, Lignum vite crux Christi, accommodates itself in a certain measure, through Matt. xi. 19, Luke xi. 49, with this passage of the Book of Proverbs. 3 PN means to ἩΛΟΝ upon anything, more fully expressed in Gen. xxi. 18, to bind the hand firm with anything, to seize it firmly. They ee give themselves to Wisdom, come to experience that she is a tree of life whose fruit contains and communicates strength of life, and whoever always keeps fast hold of - Wisdom is blessed, 1.6. to be pronounced happy (Ps. xli. 3, vid. under Ps. exxxvil. 8). The predicate WN, blessed, refers to oes one of the 72h, those who hold her, cf. xxvii. 16, Num. xxiv. 9. It is the so-called τὐλμοομμόνο sin lee of the aaa which is freely used particularly in those cases where the plur. of the subject is a participle (vid. under ver. 35). τ

O son, guard against seducers (i. 8 ff.); listen to the warning voice of Wisdom (i. 20 ff.); seek after Wisdom: she is the way to God, comes from God, and teaches thee to shun the wicked way and to walk in the way that is good (ii.); thou shalt obtain her if, renouncing self-confidence, thou givest thyself unreservedly to God (1. 1-18)—these are the four steps, so far, of this introductory παραίνεσις. Each discourse contributes its own to present vividly and impressively what Wisdom is and what she procures, her nature and her blessings. From her hand come all good gifts of God to men. She is the tree of life. Her place between God and men is thus that of a mediatrix.

Vers. 19, 20. This place of a mediatrix—the speaker here now continues—she had from the beginning. God’s world-creating work was mediated by her:

19 Jahve hath by wisdom founded the earth, Established the heavens by understanding.

20 By His knowledge the water-floods broke forth, And the sky dropped down dew.

That wisdom is meant by which God planned the world-idea, and now also wrought it out; the wisdom in which God conceived the world ere it was framed, and by which also He gave external realization to His thoughts; the wisdom which is indeed an attribute of God and a characteristic of His actions, since she is a property of His nature, and His nature attests itself in her, but not less, as appears, not from this group of tetrastichs, but from all that has hitherto been said, and from the personal testimony, vili. 22 ff., of which it is the praludium, she goes forth as a divine power to which God has given to have life in herself. Considered apart from the connection of these discourses, this group of verses, as little as Jer. x. 2, Ps. civ. 24, determines regarding the attributive interpretation; the Jerusalem Targum, J., when it trauslates, Gen. i. 1, MYNID by NOBN2 (&NDINA), combines vill. 22 with such passages as this before us. 10° (here with the tone thrown back) properly signifies, like the Arab. wasad, to lay fast, to found, for one gives to a fact the firm basis of its existence. The parallel Pil. of pid (Arab. kdn, cogn. 1713, see on Isaiah, p. 691) signifies to set up, to restore; here equivalent to, to give ex'stence.

Ver. 20. It is incorrect to understand 20a, with the Targ., of division, 1.6. separating the water under the firmament from the water above the firmament; ¥?2) is spoken of water, especially of its breaking forth, Gen. vii. 11, Ex. xiv. 21, cf. Ps. xxiv. 15, properly dividing itself out, ἐ.6. welling forth from the bowels of the earth; it means, without distinguishing the primordial waters and the later water-floods confined within their banks (cf. Job xxxviil. 8 f., Ps. civ. 6-8), the overflowing of the earth for the purpose of its processes of cultivation and the irrigation of the land. ni2inA (from pi =H, to groan, to roar) are chiefly the internal water stores of the earth, Gen. xlix. 25, Ps. xxxiii. 7. But while 20a is to be understood of the waters under the firmament, 200 is to be interpreted of those above. O'My (from Pn’, Arab. shak, comminuere, attenuare) properly designates the uppermost stratum of air thinly and finely stretching itself far and wide, and then poetically thie clouds of heaven (vid. under Ps. Ixxvii. 18). Another name, ΘΒ, comes from ἢ), which is transposed from ἢ} (here used in 200), Arab. γ᾽ αὐ, to drop, torun. The by added on the object accusative represents synecdochically all the waters coming down from heaven and fructifying the earth. This watering proceeds from above (‘ay7)); on the contrary, the endowing of the surface of the earth with great and small rivers is a fundamental fact in creation (ypa2).

Vers. 21-22. From this eminence, in which the work of creation presents wisdom, exhortations are now deduced, since the writer always expresses himself only with an ethical intention regarding the nature of wisdom:

21 My son, may they not depart from thine eyes— Preserve thoughtfulness and consideration,

22 And they will be life to thy soul And grace to thy neck.

If we make the synonyms of wisdom which are in 216 the subject per prolepsin to 2Y7ON (Hitzig and Zockler), then 19-20 and 21-22 clash. The subjects are wisdom, understanding, knowledge, which belong to God, and shall from Him become the possession of those who make them their aim. Regarding 1, obliquari, deflectere, see under ii. 15, cf. iv. 21; regarding ΠΡ (here defective after the Masora, as rightly in Vened. 1515, 1521, and Nissel, 1662), see at ii. 7; MO for MTOM, see at iii, 2b. The LXX. (cf. Heb. ii. 1) translate without distinctness of reference: υἱὲ μὴ mapappuns (παραρυῇς), let it not flow past, z.e. let it not be unobserved, hold it always before thee; the Targ. with the Syr. render D1) ND, ne vilescat, as if the words were span-ON, In 22a the synallage generis is continued: ¥" for 724M. Regarding 15373, see ati. 9. By wisdom the soul gains life, divinely true and blessed, and the external appearance of the man grace, which makes him pleasing and gains for him affection. Vers. 23-26. But more than this, wisdom makes its possessor in all situations of life confident in God: 23 Then shalt thou go thy way with confidence, And thy foot shall not stumble. 24 When thou liest down, thou art not afraid, But thou layest thyself down and hast sweet sleep. 25 Thou needest not be afraid of sudden alarm, Nor for the storm of the wicked when it breaketh forth. 26 For Jahve will be thy confidence And keep thy foot from the snare. The nv (cf. our “bei guter Laune” =in good cheer), with 5 of the condition, is of the same meaning as the conditional adverbial accusative Mba, x. 9, i. 33. Ver. 286 the LXX. translate ὁ δὲ

πούς σοῦ ov μὴ προσκόψῃ, while, on the contrary, at Ps. xci. 12 they make the person the subject (μήποτε προσκόψης τὸν κ.τ.λ.) 3 here also we retain more surely the subject from 23a, especially since for the intrans. of 422 (to smite, to push) a Hithpa. FLINT is used Jer. xiii. 16. In ver. 24 there is the echo of Job xi. 18, and in ver. 25 of Job v. 21. 24d is altogether the same as Job v. 24d: et decumbes et suavis erit somnus tuus=si decubueris, suavis erit. The hypothetic perf., according to the sense, is both there and at Job xi. 18 (cf. Jer. xx. 9) oxytoned as perf. consec. Similar examples are vi. 22, Gen. xxxiii. 13, 1 Sam. xxv. 31, cf. Ewald, §357a. ATW (of sleep as Jer. xxxi. 26) is from 29¥, which in Hebr. is used of pleasing impressions, as the Arab. ‘ariba of a lively, free disposition. mI, somnus (nom. actionis from 1, with the ground-form sina preserved in the Arab. lidat, vid. Job, p. 284, note), agrees in inflexion with 72%, annus. %, ver. 25a, denies, like Ps. cxxi. 8, with emphasis: be afraid only not = thou hast altogether nothing to fear. Schultens rightly says: Subest species prohibitionis et tanquam dbominationis, ne tale quicquam vel in suspicionem veniat in mentemve cogitando admittatur. NB here means terror, as i. 26f., the terrific object; O&M (with the accus. om) is the virtual genitive, as xxvi. 2 D3 (with accus. am). Regarding M8¥, see under i. 27. The genitive DY’ may be, after Ps. xxxvii. 17, the genit. subjecti, but still it lies nearer to say that he who chooses the wisdom of God as his guiding star has no ground to fear punishment as transgressors have reason to fear it; the M8 is meant which wisdom threatens avainst transgressors, i. 27. He needs have no fear of it, for wisdom is a gift of God, and binds him who receives it to the giver: Jahve becomes and is henceforth his confidence. Regarding 3 essenti@, which expresses the closest connection of the subject with the predicate which it introduces, see under Ps. xxxv. 2. As here, so also at Ex. xviii. 4, Ps. exviii. 7, cxlvi. 5, the predicate is a noun with a pronominal ἐαΐξα: bp3 is, as at Ps. Ixxviii. 7, Job xxxl. 24, cognate to ΠΣ and MP», 1 the object and ground τὶ confidence. That the word in other connections may mean also foolhardiness, Ps. xlix. 14, and folly, Eccles. vii. 25 (cf. regarding D3, which in Arab. as belid denotes the dull, in Hebr. fools, see mugen i. 22), it follows that it proceeds from the fundamental con-

1 According to Malbim,))n is the expectation of good, and bp, confidence in the presence of evil.:

ception of fulness of flesh and of fat, whence arise the conceptions of dulness and slothfulness, as well as of confidence, whether confidence in self or in God (see Schultens l.c., and Wiinsche’s Hosea, p- 207 f.). 729 is taking, catching, as in a net or trap or pit, from 122, to catch (cf. Arab. lakida, to fasten, III. IV. to hold fast); another root-meaning, in which Arab. lak connects itself with nak, 3), to strike, to assail (whence al-lakdat, the assault against the enemy, Deutsch. Morgenl. Zeitsch. xxii. 140), is foreign to the Hebr. Regarding the [5 of 4525p, Fleischer remarks: “The {2 after verbs of guarding, preserving, like ‘ov and 13, properly expresses that one by those means holds or seeks to hold a person or thing back from something, like the Lat. defendere, tuert aliquem ab hostibus, a periculo.” *

The promise in which it terminates, designates the close of the fifth discourse. The sixth differs from it in this, that, like none of the preceding, it adds proverb to proverb. The first series recommends love to one’s neighbour, and the second warns against fellowship with the uncharitable.

Vers. 27, 28. The first illustration of neighbourly love which is recommended, is readiness to serve:

1 Hitzig rejects iii. 22-26 as a later interpolation. And why? Because iii., which he regards as a complete discourse, consists of twice ten verses beginning with 53. In addition to this symmetry other reasons easily reveal themselves to his penetration. But the discourses contained in chap. i.-ix. do not all begin with 95 (vid. i. 20); and when it stands in the beginning of the discourse, it is not always the first word (vid. i. 8); and when it occurs as the first word or in the first line, it does not always commence a new discourse (vid. i. 15 in the middle of the first, iii. 11 in the middle of the fourth); and, moreover, the Hebr. poetry and oratory does not reckon according to verses terminated by Soph Pasuk, which are always accented distichs, but they in reality frequently consist of three or more lines. The rejected verses are in nothing unlike those that remain, and which are undisputed; they show the same structure of stichs, consisting for the most part of three, but sometimes also only of two words (cf. ili. 22b with i. 9b, 106), the same breadth in the course of the thoughts, and tho same accord with Job and Deuteronomy.

27 Refuse no manner of good to him to whom it is due When it is in thy power to do it.

28 Say not to thy neighbour, ‘‘ Go, and come again, To-morrow I will give it,” whilst yet thou hast it.

Regarding the intensive plur. yaya with a sing. meaning, see under i. 19. The form of expression without the suffix is not bya but 210 ya; and this denotes here, not him who does good (bya as Arab. dhw or sahab), but him to whom the good deed is done (cf. xvii. 8), 1.6. as here, him who is worthy of it (oy2 as Arab. dhl), him who is the man for it (Jewish interp.: > 1 sim Ὁ). We must refuse nothing good (nothing either legally or morally good) to him who has a right to it (Ὁ 922 as Job xxii. 7, xxxi. 16), if we are in a condition to do him this good. The phrase "? ON?w”, Gen. xxxi. 29, and frequently, signifies: it is belonging to (practicable) the power of my hand, z.e. I have the power and the means of doing it. As Tt signifies the haughty, insolent, but may be also used in the neuter of insolent conduct (vid. Ps. xix. 14), so ON signifies the strong, but also (although only in this phrase) strength. The Keri rejects the plur. 11, because elsewhere the hand always follows ON? in the singular. But it rejects the plur, Ty (ver. 28) because the address following is directed to one person. Neither of these emendations was necessary. The usage of the language permits exceptions, notwithstanding the usus tyrannus, and the plur. yy7> may be interpreted distributively: to thy fellows, it may be this one or that one. Hitzig also regards yn? as a singular; but the mas. of ™Y7, the ground-form of which is certainly ray, is TY, or shorter, 9. WA! ἢ, does not mean: forth! go home again! but: go, and come again. 2%, to come again, to return to something, to seek it once more.? The of JAX WM is, as 290, the conditional: quum sit penes te, sc. quod ei des. ‘To-morrow shall I give” is Jess a promise than a delay and putting off, because it is difficult for him to alienate himself from him who makes the request. This keph is purposeless, and, on the contrary, the separating of 2) from pbyap by the Dechi (the separating accent subordinate to Athnach) is proper. It is thus in the best Mss.

2 Thus also (Arab.) raj’ is used in Thaalebi’s Confidential Companion, p. 24, line 8, of Fhigel’s ed. Admission was prevented to one Haschmid, then angry he sought it once more; he was again rejected, then he sought it not again (Arab. film yraj’), but says, etc. Fliigel has misunderstood the passage. Fleischer explains raj’, with reference to Prov. iii. 28, by revenir ἃ la charge,

Devise not evil against thy neighbour, While he dwelleth securely by thee.

The verb YN, χαράσσειν, signifies to cut into, and is used of the faber ferrarius as well as of the tignarius (Isaiah, p. 463), who with a cutting instrument (#7, Gen. iv. 22) works with metal or wood, and from his profession is called ὉΠ, But the word means as commonly to plough, ¢ée. to cut with the plough, and WA is used also of a ploughman, and, without any addition to it, it always has this meaning. It is then a question whether the metaphorical phrase 737 WIN signifies to fabricate evil, cf. dolorum faber, mendacia procudere, ψευδῶν καὶ ἀπατῶν τέκτων, and the Homeric κακὰ φρεσὶ βυσσοδομεύειν (Fleischer and most others), or to plough evil (Rashi, Ewald, etc.) The Targ., Syriac, and Jerome translate awn, without deciding the point, by moliri; but the LXX. and Grecus Venet. by texraivew. The correctness of these renderings is not supported by Ezek. xxi. 36, where ΠΤ ‘WIN are not such as fabricate destruction, but smiths who cause destruction; also WIND, 1 Sam. xxiii. 9, proves nothing, and probably does not at all appertain to win incidere (Keil), but to wn silere, im the sense of dolose molirt. On the one hand, it is to be observed from Job iv. 8, Hos. x. 13, cf. Ps. exxix. 3, that the meaning arare malum might connect itself with ΠΡῚ YN; and the proverb of Sirach vii. 12, μὴ ἀροτρία ψεῦδος ἐπ᾽ ἀδελφῷ σου, places this beyond a doubt. Therefore in this phrase, if one keeps before him a clear perception of the figure, at one time the idea of fabricating, at another that of ploughing, is presented before us. The usage of the language in the case before us is more in favour of the latter than of the former. Whether M8 2% means to dwell together with, or as Bottcher, to sit together with, after Ps. i. 1, xxvi. 4f., need not be a matter of dispute. It means in general a continued being together, whether as sitting, Job ii. 13, or as dwelling, Judg. xvii. 11. To take advantage of the regardlessness of him who imparts

1 Accentuate nord awy-sim, It is thus in correct texts. The Rebia oe alle, » Alugrash is transformed, according to the Accentuationssystem, xviii. § 2.

to us his confidence is unamiable. Love is doubly owing to him who resigns himself to it because he believes in it.

Contend not with a man without a cause,

When he has inflicted no evil upon thee. Instead of 249, or as the Keri has amended it 2”, the abbreviated form 257 or 277 would be more correct after Ons 31) or 2 (from 3, to be compact) means to fall upon one another, to come to hand-blows, to contend. Contending and quarrelling with a man, whoever he may be, without sufficient reason, ought to be abandoned; but there exists no such reason if he has done me no harm which 1 have to reproach him with, 439 3 with the accus. or dat. of the person signifies to bring evil upon any one, malum inferre, or also referre (Schultens), for ae (cogn. 13) signifies to execute, to complete, accomplish,—both of the initiative and of the requital, both of the anticipative and of the recompensing action; here in the former of these senses.

Vers. 31, 32. These exhortations to neighbourly love in the form of warning against whatever is opposed to it, are followed by the warning against fellowship with the loveless:

31 Be not envious toward the man of violence, And have no pleasure in all his ways.

32 For an abhorrence to Jahve is the perverse, But with the upright is His secret.

The conceptions of jealousy and envy lie in 83? (derived by Schultens from ἐδ, Arab. hand, intensius rubere) inseparable from each other. The LXX., which for δ ΡΠ reads mpn (κτήσῃ); brings the envy into 310, as if the words here were IONN-ON), as in Ps, xxxvil. 1, 7 (there the LXX. has μὴ παραζήλου, here μηδὲ ζηλώσῃς). There is no reason for correcting our text in accordance with this (substituting 190M for 193M as Hitzig does), because yoTTDa would be too vague an expression for the object of the envy, while nan-by altogether agrees with it; and the contrary remark, that boa 13 is fundamentally no ἽΠ3, fails, since (1) ἽΠ3 frequently expresses pleasure in anything without the idea of choice, and (2) “have not pleasure in all his ways” is in the Hebrew style equivalent to “in any one of his ways;” Ewald, ὃ 323. He who does “ violence to the law” (Zeph. iii. 4) becomes thereby, according to the common course of the world, a person who is feared, whose authority, power, and resources are increased, but one must not therefore envy him, nor on any side take pleasure in his conduct, which in all respects is to be reprobated; for the ἼΩΝ inflexus, tortuosus (vid. ii. 15), who swerves from the right way and goes in a crooked false way, is an object of Jahve’s abhorrence, while, on the contrary, the just, who with a right mind walks in the right way, is Jahve’s sjo—an echo of Ps. xxv. 14. ‘tip (R. 1D, to be firm, compressed) means properly the being pressed together, or sitting together (cf. the Arab. wisdd, wisddt, a cushion, divan, corresponding in form to the Hebr. 15D") for the purpose of private communication and conversation (1D), and then partly the confidential intercourse, as here (cf. Job xxix. 4), partly the private communication, the secret (Amosiii. 7). LXX., ἐν δὲ δικαίοις [οὐ] συνεδριάζει. Those who are out of the way, who prefer to the simplicity of right-doing all manner of crooked ways, are contrary to God, and He may have nothing to do with them; but the right-minded He makes partakers of His most intimate intercourse, He deals with them as His friends.